#decent time if I had just out the paragraph break in

[prettieinpink]

NEW YEAR, NEW ME

( A collab with thee lovely lele @bloombabydoll )

If you want to reinvent and rebrand yourself, or just continue to make positive improvements in 2024, the first thing is to evaluate your current year. 

EVALUATION

Reflect on how things went for you. Was there continuous growth? Were there many difficult times? Did you discover anything major about yourself and so on. Try to summarise your year in (a) paragraph(s) at least. 

Oversee your goals. Which ones you didn’t, did achieve, difficult ones, easy ones and the impacts it had on your life. 

Compare your dream girl then and now. Is your visualisation of your life currently different to the one you have now and why? 

List any major losses or successes you’ve had in your life, and how they have helped you or why it matters to you. 

This evaluation can be as detailed or simple as you like, but as long as you have a decent outline of your year. 

PREPARING & PLANNING

To prepare for 2024, you want to know what you want life to be like in 2024. Something realistic to a point, but still is a growth journey. 

Think of something that you can associate with 2024. This can be a word, a symbol, art, a song, a book, a movie, a place, or even just all of these things. When you think about your goals and your journey, this is your theme. This is something that should relate to your goals or your dream girl somehow. 

For me, I chose a word and a song. My word is growth because, for me, 2023 was a year for just being able to shed my old self which I did achieve however I just felt there wasn’t much growth as an actual person and not just in my environment. 

For my song, it is Mayflowers by Proleters and Taskrok. This song is the epitome of what I would imagine, is the most polished mindset. I would say perfect, but having a perfect mindset is near impossible. I want to have a mindset glow up because I’ve just been hard on myself lately which has caused my confidence to plummet. 

Before we get into the fun part of the preparation stage, we have to do some organisation in our life. I want you to take a look at your daily lifestyle and your habits, and be completely unashamed about this. 

Then categorise these habits into two sections; Leave and Leap. Leave habits are habits that you are leaving behind in 2023, leap habits are habits that are leaping into 2024 with you. 

Any habits that are self-destructive, addictive or generally harmful are leave habits. Beneficial habits and self-building are leaping with you into the new year.

I want you to do the same for people in your life, all environments (school, work, online etc) and anything else you believe needs to be sorted out. 

This works better if you can reason with yourself why it is a leaping or leaving habit, but don’t try to convince yourself a bad habit is good or vice versa. 

Now, I want you to document an honest paragraph about who you are right now. List your bad and good habits, your strengths and weaknesses and your behaviours. This one requires a bit more detail. 

Then, write a paragraph about who you will be in 2024, your dream girl. List her habits, lifestyle, behaviours, mindset, strengths and anything else extra. I’ll explain later but do not include materialistic desires in this your dream girl. Once again, this one also requires details. 

Stemming from those paragraphs, I want you to create specific and achievable goals. SMART goals are best, but I want to introduce you to how I set goals. 

I divide my year into quarters. For each 3 months, I have 3-5 goals for those months. Usually, it’s one from each area of my life. Then, I break down these goals. 

Questions and How They Help 

Why do I want to do this goal - For motivation and commitment. 

How it’ll benefit me - For the sake of improvement. 

How can I involve myself in this goal - To achieve your goal.  

I prefer this method because it is a lot simpler for me, as I am just a young girl and my bigger goals are more in the future in which I’ll utilise SMART goals. 

To create good goals; Make sure they align with your current values and life principles first. Try to avoid creating goals that you have just taken from the internet. Those goals just aren’t it and you most likely won’t follow through with it. 

Be specific. Don’t say you want to eat more healthily, instead say you want to include (a certain group of veggies/fruits) in your diet and reduce the intake of ( food/drink). 

E.g using eating healthy example

I want to eat healthy -> I want to start including foods that boost my immunity system and support my skin while reducing those that have the opposite effect. 

Then break down those quarterly goals into monthly, weekly and daily goals. Make these habits that you can establish in your lifestyle and have a way in which you can refer back to your progress. 

EXAMPLE GOAL BREAKDOWN

Quarterly Goal - Read 6 books.  

Monthly Goal - Finish 2 books.

Weekly Goal - Be or near half way of one book.

Daily Goal - 20 minutes of reading per day. 

AREAS TO SET GOALS IN YOUR LIFE

Academics

Spiritual

Fitness/sport

Health and wellbeing

Mental health

Personal life

Relationships

Hobbies and recreation

Now for the best part- vision boards! Collect all of your favourite images that embody your quarters or the whole year, then put them in one place where you can see them regularly!

Some ideas are a scrapbook, Pinterest boards, mood boards, playlists etc. 

Choose your theme; It can be your healthy girl era, your academic come back or whatever you want. You can have more than two btw.

Use quotes! Then actually say them in your daily life as a way to shift your mindset to reflect said quote.

Include inspirational people. It doesn't even have to be a millionaire or a very well established person, it could be your friends or someone on the internet.

Be imaginative. Your vision board doesn't have to realistic in my opinion, as the whole point of it to me is that viewing it daily and considering it to be part of your life one day allows for you to open up to those opportunities.

Materialistic Wants

I feel obligated to make this a separate section. This section is practically tangible objects that you want.

However, when choosing this said object that you want, mindfully think about why you want that thing specifically.

It doesn’t have to be meaningful, but as long as each thing on that list has got a purpose to you, and will serve you, I think it’s all good!

Conclusion

If you want, you can definitely start implementing habits before January. However, I believe that as long as you go into 2024 at least knowing who you want to be and shedding away any limiting beliefs, you’ll be fine.

Make sure to incorporate some self care rituals into your daily life as well✨

To end this, I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas! And that 2024 they will achieve to close that gap with their current selves and their dream girl selves! 💖🙏

[flos-obsessivus]

Severin and Ivory Intro!

You are the king’s loyal retainer, you were once a human turned magical being when you were trapped inside the mirror. And yes, you are that mirror, the very same mirror who is known all across the lands as all encompassing and all knowing. Luckily, when Severin, the current king, your majesty, was about 14, he was able to break the curse that befell upon you, and you were fortunate enough to retain all of the powers that you had when you were still trapped inside the mirror.

Now you follow him like a guard dog, or a lost puppy, just someone who helps Severin in his day to day life. You are actually decent in being a servant funnily enough, and Severin seems to have that same sentiment as he refuses to have other servants serve him, even in waking up, dressing up, and even during bath time. You’re the only one who does everything for him, but it didn’t bother you as much as you are basically inhuman now.

Currently, the kingdom is facing the same pain in the ass from like, a hundred years ago. Ivory, your ex-king, ex-friend, and ex-human being. He’s become a vampire after some kind of breakdown after you admitted that you liked Severins grandfather compared to him. You also did say something about liking him when he was younger because he wasn’t as crazy back then, so now he assumes the form of a child, probably to make you like him again. Weird thought process because he's still as possessive and crazy as when he was an adult, even if he shapeshifts into his younger form.

Well, anyways he’s been annoying not only you, but also Severin. He keeps sneaking in the castle to kidnap you but you always manage to avoid him before he does, and if he manages to actually kidnap you, you would just teleport away mainly due to the fact that you still had unfinished work of making Severin that cake that he wanted, which prompts a temper tantrum which causes Ivory to send out a whole monster army in anger. 

In response, there would be an all out war between Ivory and Severin which is NOT ideal when your ideal outcome is where the whole kingdom survives. You had to basically mediate between both parties where you had to essentially beg Severin to let you go with Ivory for the rest of the day so nobody would die. Also, this happens every week to the point that both the human army and the monster army would just stand in attendance and ‘fight’ for like five minutes until Ivory can get in the castle to fight Severin, by then their work is done and they go back to whatever they were doing. Severin and Ivory are also strong enough to not die but still get injured, so you had to patch both of them up while verbally abusing each other. 

You should probably propose a schedule where they can have you within a certain day or something, like how divorced parents agree on a schedule when they take their kids during specific days of the week. That would be ideal.

A/N I don't know why the fic is taking me so long when this took me like less than an hour. To be fair that one was basically Ivory's background story so... Anyways, here you go! They are officially out of jail yippieeee!!!

Also I might redesign Severin's outfit because it's not cunty enough for me.

P.s Edited the last part of the 3rd paragraph, hopefully its more understadable?

[willalove75]

Alcina's New Maid Pt. 17 Lady Dimitrescu x Reader

Summary: You have your final few days of training and the morning of the meeting finally arrives.

Warnings: 18+ minors DNI. Very brief mention of suicide (while talking about Donna's past and her parents). No details mentioned, just mentioning the act itself. If you want to skip that part, skip to the dialogue after the paragraph starting with **.

Tags: fluff, light angst

Notes: Part 17! Sorry for the teeny tiny cliffhanger but we were reaching 5k words so I had to cut it off. Next chapter will dive straight into the meeting! Also, I re-read most of this the other day but I'm sick and don't have the mental capacity to go over it again so apologies for any errors!

Click here for the rest of the series

Gif source

The following morning Cassandra woke you up before sunrise again for your last full day of training. Once you were warmed up she started sparring with you again and showing you different ways to get out of different kinds of grapples.

After breakfast she brought out one of her old daggers and handed it to you and taught you how to use it properly now that Karl was making you one of your own. Cassandra showed you how to wield it, and the different ways you can use it for defense and the occasional attack. Once she was satisfied with your movements she ran inside and grabbed a wooden dagger and used that to spar with you.

The first hour of the sparring session ended with her poking you with her wooden dagger in at least eight different places that would kill you. She grabbed Dani and used her as a model to point out where the main arteries in the body were and how to hit them to either kill your opponent or cause massive damage.

She continued sparring with you and teaching you how to block the most important parts of your body to avoid death or severe injury. After a few hours you were finally getting the hang of it and you decided to take a quick break for lunch. Zina brought out your lunches again and Bela and Daniela joined the two of you, all of you eating in the courtyard.

When you finished eating Cassandra quizzed you on the locations of the major arteries again and had you practice sheathing and unsheathing your dagger while you digested. After about an hour it was back to sparring. Once more you sparred with Bela and Daniela but this time they had the wooden dagger. Bela was hard to hit due to her defensive nature and you were able to get a few hits on Daniela because her moves were so erratic and chaotic. None of the hits you landed would have done much damage - no less kill someone - but the fact that you were able to hit her at all meant you were progressing well.

"Okay, now you'll have mother, Aunt Donna and Uncle Karl there to help you if shit goes sideways so you won't have to fight Miranda alone." Cassandra says.

"Which is a good thing because if you fought her alone you would definitely die." Daniela adds in.

"Oh yeah, without a doubt. You'd be super fucked. But even with the three of them Miranda is still stupid strong so it'll still be a really hard fight. Lets team up, you and Dani and me and Bela and we'll do a team match. This will encompass everything, grapples, defense, the daggers, you gotta be on your toes."

The match started and Daniela immediately went after Bela and Cassandra headed directly for you. You were able to fight her off for a decent amount of time before she grappled you. When you realized her grip on you was too strong you were able to grab your dagger and stab her in the leg and get out of it. Even though you missed the artery it was still enough damage to knock her off her game for a moment and get out of her grip.

It felt wrong attacking the girls. Even though you knew a stab like that was the equivalent of a papercut to them. Attacking them wasn't something you enjoyed. Although if you were being honest, attacking anyone wasn't something you enjoyed so at least when you go to stab someone else when they attack you you won't feel as bad as you do when you stab one of the girls.

Bela was able to knock Daniela down and headed over to you to assist Cassandra. Two on one was tough and you didn't last long at all. Although you lasted longer than you thought you would - meaning you were able to fight them off for about a minute instead of immediately being subdued. Bela managed to pin you down and when Daniela finally got over to you, Cassandra was quick to pin her, winning them the match.

The sound of applause rang through the air as Alcina walked over.

"Well done girls. Cassandra, your swordsmanship with the dagger was fantastic, Bela, wonderful defense, Daniela, I don't know how you always manage to keep your sisters on their toes, even after all of these years. And draga, you did a fantastic job, you held your own well. I'm very proud of all of you." She says with a smile. "Now girls, go get washed up, dinner will be soon."

The girls swarm up to give their mother kisses on her cheek and head inside. Alcina walks over to one of the benches and sits down. She pulls you into her lap and holds you close.

"I am very impressed draga mea, truly."

"You are?"

"Yes, I saw you stab Cassandra in the leg to get out of her grasp. Your quick thinking was impressive my love."

"Thanks. I really hope a fight doesn't break out at the meeting. It's one thing sparring with the girls, but with Miranda? I don't know, it makes me nervous."

"It makes me nervous too draga mea. But I'll be there with you and I won't let anything happen to you. Donna and Karl also swore to help protect you so you will be okay." She says.

"I'd hate to be the reason anyone got hurt."

Alcina kisses you on the head and you look up into her golden eyes. She smiles down at you and places a knuckle under your chin and leans down, capturing you lips with hers.

"I won't let anything happen to you, draga mea. I promise." She whispers against your lips.

"I know." You reply before kissing her again.

Alcina nuzzles you and the dinner bell rings.

The two of you walk into the dining room and the girls swarm in. Hunger hits you the moment you smell the delicious food and as soon as your plate it piled you dig in.

Alcina lets you sleep in a little the next morning and just as you're getting dressed the breakfast bell rings. After breakfast Cassandra reviews some of the things she's taught you over the last few days and the two of you finish up right before lunch.

The rest of the day goes by pretty quickly. Cassandra does another quick review with you after dinner and once the two of you are finished you head into your room and find Alcina drawing herself a bath.

"Ah, draga, there you are. How was it?"

"It was good, I was able to retain almost everything she taught me."

"Good, I'm glad to hear it. Would you like to join me?" She asks as she finishes taking off the rest of her clothes and steps into the tub.

You nod and pull off your clothes and toss them in the hamper. Alcina lifts you into the tub and sits you down in her lap with your back against her chest. Once you're comfortable you let out a sigh and lean into her. Alcina wraps her arms around you and kisses your neck.

You're completely enveloped by her, by her scent, by the feeling of her skin against yours, her warm breath skating across your neck. As stressed as you are over tomorrow's meeting you can't help but feel relaxed in her arms. When you're with her like this you feel more safe than you ever have in your life. Even after everything - all of the pain, the hurt, the heartbreak, she's still the one that brings you more comfort than anyone else ever has. If you tried making sense of it you'd surely get a migraine. But right here, in her arms, you're safe. And that's all that matters.

"How are you feeling about tomorrow?" You ask her.

"It's difficult to know how to feel when I don't know what her intentions are, draga. If it were solely about the hunters I would say I am prepared and looking forward to coming up with a plan to deal with them. Although yes, the hunters will certainly be discussed because they are a topic of concern, I know Miranda and I know she's not asking you to be there to solely take notes."

"Are you afraid of her?"

Alcina pauses for a moment to contemplate your question as her fingers mindlessly trace patterns across your skin.

"Yes and no."

"How so?"

"I am not afraid of her for myself. She is incredibly powerful and even though it would not be easy, she could certainly kill me. But I know she won't. She needs myself and the rest of the lords to keep the village under her thumb as she searches for her perfect vessel. And since I do most of the work she knows that killing me would be a mistake. But I fear for the day that she deems us unnecessary because when that day comes, she won't hesitate killing all of us. Her power is nearly limitless and I have no doubt that she will do anything and everything to succeed in finding a suitable vessel for Eva. Even if it means destroying everything around her to do so. Until then she will do whatever she feels is necessary to keep us, the lords, in line. I'm also worried that she is going to try and hurt you to hurt me. I wouldn't put it past her to do something like that again and that scares me, draga mea."

She sighs and holds you tight, nuzzling her nose into your hair. As you take in her words, the word "again" sticks out.

"What do you mean 'again?'"

"Lets finish up in here and I'll tell you in bed."

You nod and you both finish bathing. After drying off and putting on pajamas you crawl into bed and curl under Alcina's chin. Alcina holds you close and continues.

"Many years ago, decades ago at this point, Karl had a paramour. It wasn't someone he truly loved but he did care for them. They were a worker at his factory and the two of them began spending time together. Karl began slacking off to spend more time with them; Mother Miranda got wind of it and she was less than pleased. One day they went missing. Mother Miranda called a meeting and none of us knew why until we arrived and saw Karl's paramour chained down at her feet. She said they were nothing but a nuisance and they were only causing trouble, distracting Karl from her goal of finding a perfect vessel. She ordered Karl to kill them and he refused. Mother Miranda was going to kill them but instead I offered. Karl was furious but I knew that whatever Miranda was going to do, she was going to make them suffer horrifically because Karl refused her. She relented and I was the one who killed them. It was the only time I ever apologized to someone before I killed them. They knew that this was a mercy kill and that Miranda would have done much worse so it was also the only time someone had thanked me for doing it. Miranda was pleased and allowed me to take their body back to the castle to do what I pleased with it. Karl came over the next day and he was so angry, he thought I drained their blood and turned them into one of the vineyards scarecrows. But I didn't, instead I cleared a small spot on the edge of the woods and had them buried. Karl was grateful and after we had a conversation he understood why I did what I did. Karl was still relatively new and hadn't seen Miranda's wrath like I had. He knew refusing her would anger her but he didn't realize she would have taken it out on their paramour instead of himself."

"Is that why he hates Miranda?"

"One of the reasons. He hated her well before that incident. She had kidnapped him and infected him with the cadou when she found out that he was one of the descendants of the four founders of the village. He never got a say in the matter like I did. She just took him and forced it upon him."

"That's so horrible. Why didn't he just leave after he got the cadou?"

"It's difficult to explain but in the end he wasn't able to. Miranda would have hunted him down. Once we were given the cadou, whether or not we had a choice in the matter, we were forced to stay. She was also able to influence him to stay."

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone takes to the cadou differently. I have a theory that those with a higher affinity to the cadou are less affected by Miranda's control. To a certain extent, Miranda controls the mold because her powers were given to her by the Black God, which is where the mold comes from. Since the cadou contains the mold, by extension Miranda has a certain amount of control over it."

"So can she control you?"

"Not necessarily. I believe she has a certain amount of influence over me, but no, she cannot control me because I have a higher affinity to it. For example, the moroaicǎ and lycans have almost no affinity to the cadou so Miranda can control them if she wanted to. In the past she has, but she generally she views them as a waste of time so she gave Karl the job of overseeing the lycans and myself the moroaicǎ."

"So how can you tell who does and doesn't have a higher affinity to it?"

"My theory is that the more mutated the subject, the less affinity they have towards it. The moroaicǎ and lycans are at the bottom, they are the most mutated and most easily controllable therefore have the lowest affinity. Next comes Salvatore, whom you haven't met yet. He is severely mutated and will do anything to please Miranda. Next I believe is Donna. Although her only mutation is on her face, she is very mentally unstable which leads me to believe that Miranda can more easily influence her."

"How is she mentally unstable?"

Alcina lets out a sigh as her fingers dance across your skin.

**"It is quite a tragic story. Many years ago, before she received the cadou, her sister, Claudia, died. Donna was very young when it happened and her parents were unable to deal with the death of their child so they committed suicide together leaving Donna all alone."

"Oh my god, that's horrible."

"It was horrific. After they died she isolated herself and developed severe depression and anxiety. When she received the cadou, she took part of hers and put it into Angie and now primarily uses Angie to speak when she's around mixed company."

"Wait, so Donna is that chaotic?"

Alcina laughs and shakes her head.

"Gods no, Donna uses Angie to speak but the cadou granted Angie her own personality. Part of me believes some of the things Angie says are the thoughts Donna would never say out loud but that is just mere speculation."

"So how do you know when it's Donna talking or Angie?"

"Donna's voice comes through Angie."

"Oh, got it."

"Yes. So because of Donna's mental illness, she is more easily influenced by Miranda but since her and I have formed and alliance that influence has been fading."

"How about you and Karl?"

"Based on my mutation theory, I would be next given," Alcina gestures to her body. "and Miranda does have some influence over me, but not much. I have retained enough of my own cognitive abilities to not fall completely under her influence. There are times where I can feel her influence and if I so chose to I can ignore it. But the pull is there."

"Is it hard to ignore?"

"In the beginning it was, but now not so much."

"Can she tell when you ignore it?"

"Yes, but only because when I do, I am not doing what she wants so she knows her influence on me has failed. Whether she knows I consciously ignore her or not is still a mystery."

"So Karl has the highest affinity to the cadou?"

"As much as I loathe to admit it, yes. Which is also why I refuse to relay this theory to him because I would never hear the end of it. But he has no visible physical mutations, at least that I am aware of. And he hates Miranda more than any of us. He refuses to do anything she asks unless it directly benefits him and he has no desire for her acceptance or approval."

"Do you have any desire for her acceptance or approval?"

Alcina pauses for a moment and you look up at her. She has a faraway look in her eyes before she looks down at you and sighs.

"Truthfully? Yes." You feel the hairs on your arms raise at her answer. Not that you're completely surprised, but hearing her say it out loud makes it real, too real. "It's complicated. There is a part of me that yearns for her acceptance. There's a part of me that's willing to do nearly anything for her. I understand how ridiculous that may sound but after so many years of being under her rule, it's difficult to not want acceptance from the person who essentially created you. And since she rarely shows her approval of anyone the thought of being one of the few becomes almost addicting. She has done a lot for me. She saved my life, although it was under false pretenses. Still, I am still alive because of her. She gifted me the girls, gave me the castle, the vineyard, and the business so I had a way of supporting myself. She has done a lot for me, for my family. In a way in feel indebted to her for those things. But at the same time I hate her. I can't stand what she's done to me, how she's manipulated me and used me over the years." She tightens her grip around you as she thinks back on her past history with Miranda. "I despise how she treats my daughters poorly. I hate that after everything I do for her, after everything I've done, she still views me the same as the rest of them. It aggravates me to no end."

"So you hate her, but at the same time you want to be her favorite? You know that sounds crazy, right?"

Alcina chuckles and rolls her eyes at you.

"I said is was complex, draga."

"Complex is an understatement." You say with a laugh.

Alcina shakes her head and runs her fingers through your hair. An unsettling energy fills the room as the two of you think about tomorrow's meeting.

"Even though I feel that pull of her influence, even though I crave her acceptance, I will never let her hurt you. I don't want you to think for a moment that I won't do everything I possibly can to protect you, draga."

"I know." You say, cuddling into her more.

"Good. Now try and get some sleep draga mea. Tomorrow is going to be a long day."

Her fingers comb through your hair and you feel her nails scratching at your scalp. She holds you a little closer after pulling the duvet over the both of you.

Even though you're tired you can't seem to fall asleep. Anxiety begins to creep its was into your chest and you cling to Alcina a little tighter.

"Rest, draga. I can hear your heartbeat from a mile away."

"I'm sorry, I'm just nervous."

"So am I, but you need to sleep."

"I can't."

Alcina lays you on top of her, resting your head on her chest. One of her large hands scratches at your scalp as the other traces patterns across your back.

"Close your eyes, draga mea. I have you. I will protect you, I promise."

"I know you will. And I love you so much for that."

"I love you too."

Alcina starts singing, her fingers moving perfectly in time with the song and your eyes start to flutter shut. Even though you don't know what song it is since it's in Romanian, whatever she's singing is soothing and begins to lull you to sleep.

Alcina hears your breathing and heartrate settle and knows you finally drifted off. She finds herself having a hard time falling asleep - she's too anxious about tomorrow's meeting. But the soft sounds of your snores help her to relax and a little while later she dozes off into a restful sleep.

The following morning you wake up in the same exact position you fell asleep in; laying on top of Alcina with her arms wrapped tightly around you. Alcina feels you stir in her arms and brushes the hair away from your eyes.

"Good morning, draga mea." She says with a kiss to your head.

"Good morning." You say with a yawn as you stretch out on top of her and curl back up in her arms. "Did you stay here all night or did you get up to work and pull me back on top of you when you came back to bed?"

"No, draga." She says with a chuckle. "I stayed here all night with you."

You didn't say anything in response, just a light chuckle and then you nuzzled your face into her neck. Here in bed, in her arms, it was safe. You were safe. There wasn't a single part of either of you that wanted to get out of bed this morning. Neither of you wanting to leave the comfort and safety of each others embrace. The thought of starting the day made you a little anxious but after taking a deep breath and filling you nose with the scent of Alcina's skin and shampoo, your anxiety melted away and you relaxed into her.

"Can we stay here forever?" You asked as your lips brushed against her skin while your face was buried into her neck.

"I wish, draga mea. I wish." She sighed.

Reluctantly, the two of you finally got out of bed. The meeting was taking place in the chapel at the castle shortly after breakfast so both you and Alcina started getting yourselves ready for the day.

Alcina put on her usual floor-length cream dress, leather gloves, pearls, and her hat. The two of you decided that it was best that you wore the uniform that her handmaidens normally wear. She was sure that Miranda knew the relationship between the two of you was past the point of you just being her handmaid but in order to keep appearances up you both decided wearing the uniform was the way to go.

Once Alcina was finished fixing her hair and makeup the two of you headed down to the dining room for breakfast. Just as you were walking in the girls swarmed in and appeared in their seats.

"Good morning mother!" The girls said in unison.

"Good morning daughters." She said.

You could tell the girls wanted to ask how you and Alcina were feeling about the meeting but none of them dared to. They could tell Alcina was already on edge and they didn't want to make her worse. The nerves in your belly slowly but surely began to build as the time to leave creeped closer. Even though you weren't hungry you forced yourself to eat a decent meal because you knew you were going to need the energy.

Breakfast was quiet and the tension in the air steadily built as the time passed. Every so often you would look over at Alcina and every time you did you noticed she was further and further away mentally. You could tell that her mind was heavily focused on the meeting and that the newspaper in her hand was just a front. The only reason you knew that was because she stayed on the same page throughout the entire meal yet burned through at least four cigarettes. She looked as if she was rereading the same sentence over and over again as her mind wandered. By the time breakfast was over her eyebrows were so closely knit together they nearly became one.

When the girls finished eating they all kissed their mother on the cheek and wished her luck at the meeting. Daniela and Bela gave you a hug before they left and Cassandra punched you on the shoulder and mumbled "don't die." before swarming away.

As the girls left Zina entered the dining room.

"Pardon me, my Lady." She said to Alcina, whose eyes were back on the newspaper. "Lady Beneviento and Lord Moreau have arrived."

Alcina looked up and nodded before taking a sharp inhale and putting the paper down. She took one final drag of her cigarette before putting it out in the ashtray and downed the rest of her wine in one large gulp. Removing the napkin sitting on her lap, she carefully dabbed the corners of her lips and looked towards you and back to Zina.

"I made sure the chapel was stocked with extra wine. One bottle of sanguis virginis and the rest of your finest vintage, my Lady."

"Thank you Zina, your fine attention to detail never goes unnoticed."

"My pleasure, my Lady."

"Ready, draga?" Alcina asks you. You nod in response and she stands up. "We shall be off then."

As Alcina walks past Zina, Zina hands her her cigarette holder with a lit cigarette already sitting at the end. Alcina nods at Zina with a small smile and leaves. As you walk past Zina she stops you by putting her hand on your shoulder.

"Be careful." She whispers with a small squeeze before removing her hand and heading back towards the kitchen.

Alcina expertly guides you through the castle halls. Once you leave the main part of the castle you notice that the halls are less ornate. The smooth stone walls slowly turn more jagged and unkept and the cracks in the floor grow until the stones beneath your feet are uneven. You've never seen any part of the castle in such a state of despair before. Alcina doesn't say a word the entire time. The juxtaposition of her and your current surroundings is a fascinating one. Her steps are purposeful and she's as elegant as ever as she strides through her domain. Alcina is a woman of elegance, of nobility, she's a queen roaming the halls of her castle. Yet the current surroundings show evidence of disarray. The further down the hall you walk the worse it gets. Alcina would never let the main areas of the castle look like this. If a spec of dust is left behind she throws a fit. You wonder why she's allowed this area to fall apart so much, seemingly without care.

She leads you to a large door and turns towards you. As you finish taking in your surroundings you look up at her. There must have been a look of confusion on your face as you took in the crumbling walls around you because you hear Alcina sigh.

"As you know, I take pride in keeping my castle in top shape so I am sure the passageway has been rather out of the ordinary." You nod your head in response. "This side of the castle sustained extensive damage during the war and I was never able to properly conduct the repairs. The dilapidated state ended up keeping wandering maids away and it warded off unwanted visitors. It was far too much trouble to repair it and since it provided almost guaranteed privacy for these meetings I allowed it to remain in such a despicable state."

"Got it. That makes sense." You say with a small smile. Alcina returns the gesture but her smile doesn't reach her eyes.

She takes a deep breath and exhales. Her eyes stay on the floor and she looks like she is having trouble saying something.

"Are you okay?" You ask.

"Yes. I have something to ask of you, and I hate that I have to ask this of you."

"What is it?"

"In order to attempt to keep appearances up, I don't think it would be wise for you to," she pauses for a moment. "for you to call me Alcina during the meeting." She says quietly. Her eyes flick up to yours and they're filled with concern. "I know we are well past formalities but I'm worried about Miranda as it is and if she hears you call me by my given name, I fear it will make things worse."

Alcina starts to ramble a little and you take a step forward and reach out to grab her hand.

"Hey," you say, looking into her eyes. "I get it, it's okay. I promise."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course, my Lady." You say with a smirk.

Alcina releases a breath that sounds like a sigh of relief and she cups your face with her hand.

"I truly don't know what I ever did in my life to deserve you, draga mea." She whispers.

The two of you share a moment as you gaze into each others eyes. Angie's cackle rings out on the other side of the door, effectively ruining the moment the two of you were having. Alcina closes her eyes and takes a grounding breath before adjusting her posture and putting her "countess" mask back on.

"Stay by my side and do not do anything unless I give you the okay. Understand?"

"Yes, my Lady."

She nods in approval and looks at the door and back to you.

"Shall we?" She asks.

You nod in response and she pulls a key out of the band around her hat. The door unlocks with a soft "click" and swings open. Alcina returns the key and she ducks under the doorframe, making her way into the chapel.

"Here goes nothing." You think to yourself before following behind her.

[sircantus]

LIFE IS STRANGE AU??

Can we get to know more about it, sir Cantus🙏

I can offer a snippet!! Its a crimeboys au, mostly from phils Pov according to my plot points, the basic summary is that Tommy has telekinesis powers, he causes Problems when running away from his foster home with Wilbur, him and Wil go on the run, and then they get picked up by Techno, who is not Exactly a man of the law but takes decent care of them. things at some point go sideways and Wilbur gets separated and put into a hospital for Injuries, and Phil is the person who has to try and gain his trust to figure out what the fuck has been going on (until bedrock bros to come and break him out haha)

Its mostly based off the second game of Life is Strange, bc i rly love the brothers story and i also really like that aspect of an outsider pov trying to understand whats going on (and trying to believe it)

—

Summary:

Phil leans forward, pen now discarded beside Wilbur’s lap. He’s been looking at Wil this entire time, really, but now it feels a little heavier. A bit too much to bear.

“I would like you to be honest with me.” The man says, voice soft. “If you want to be.”

Wilbur presses his lips tightly shut, thinking of Tommy’s smiling face, the leaves floating up around his hair, the sun in their eyes.

“I’d be willing to listen.”

(Or, Phil has heard plenty of stories from mistreated kids. It’s his job to open them up and help. This story is… maybe out of his skill set.)

(Or, or, life is strange AU. Wilbur is just trying to protect his little brother from everything he can, in any way he can. Phil just wants to try and protect him.)

—

And here is a snippet of the first few paragraphs!

—

Wilbur Soot. Sixteen. Brother of Tommy Soot, ten years old, whose whereabouts are currently unknown.

Both brothers are suspected to have had involvement in multiple instances of property damage across four different towns. Wilbur Soot is suspected to have had involvement in the mysterious, fiery death of their previous foster parent, Dream Taken, who was found dead at the scene at their previous residence.

For the past four months, legal enforcement has had trouble catching them as they run up and down the state. There have recently been scattered reports of an adult man now traveling with them; caucasian, pink dyed hair, tattoos on his right arm. No one has been able to pinpoint who that particular stranger is, though.

No one has been able to figure out where he took Tommy after the peculiar explosion that occurred in the quiet, forest town of l’manburg.

Wilbur is apparently outright refusing to talk. Phil doesn’t blame him.

The hospital setting isn’t something that provides comfort, to be honest, and with all the doctors and nurses prodding at Wil with a wariness like he’ll bite if they step too close. It's a wonder the kid hasn’t done much other than scowl for the past three days. Phil does his best to never set up expectations in his head before he sees his patients-- kids can always be so much different than you’d assume, after all-- but Wilbur’s file in his hands tells a story.

Suspected murder. Involvement in multiple explosions, multiple fires, multiple buildings crashing down into dust. Wherever this kid went with his little brother, destruction followed on his heels. On the day they were finally able to bring him in, pulling him from the rubble, he came kicking and screaming, even with his broken ribs and internal bleeding. Rumor around the halls says he gave one of the doctors a black eye when he woke up from the first surgery. The handcuff on his wrist to keep him confined to his hospital bed has stayed there ever since.

By all accounts, Wil is a dangerous, violent criminal, one who isn’t partial to conversation. Phil should probably expect an instant failure the second he walks into this room.

A failure isn’t what he sees when he comes through the door, though.

He sees a scared kid.

—

Aaand thats all im gonna give bc im self conscious about the rest of that story haha!! But yeah its meant to be long bonding arc with Phil and Wilbur in the hospital environment, with Phil kinda having this pressure behind him to get an Answer and Wilbur refusing to Speak bc how could he believe him? Would he even? Tommy has superpowers, thats not even something that would be safe for others to know.

Eventually Wilbur does tell him the whole story, hoping Phil will believe it and Phil…doesnt, but he doesn’t show that. He thinks Wil is a bit traumatized actually but then Tommy and Techno come back to yoink Wilbur and Phil sees he was telling the truth and ends up going with them bc he wants to help, he really does

Also the title is pretty plain, life is strange au haha yup

[accio-sriracha]

"Will you read to me?"

A Wolfstar oneshot using 5 randomly generated words as prompts: Vehicle, Adoption, Ideology, Light, and Harp.

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆

Remus sat on the sofa in the common room, content with the book in his hands and his tea sitting in front of him.

The boys were at quidditch practice, so he knew he would have a while to unwind and relax before-

"Honey! I'm home!" James' voice called as the portrait door swung open.

Remus sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose,

"You ended practice early?" He asked, his attempt at lightheartedness failing miserably.

"Yup! More time to spend with you, Moony dearest." Sirius climbed through after him, plopping down on the sofa beside Remus.

"Hello, Moony." Peter smiled as the portrait closed behind them, "Whatcha reading?"

Remus placed his bookmark back within the pages, "I was reading Veronica Goth."

"Isn't that the Difference series?" James asked, sitting cross-legged on the ground in front of him and peering over his lap at the book.

"That would be the one, yes." Remus tried not to let his irritation show.

Sirius noticed, always overly perceptive,

"Hey guys? Can I talk to Moons alone for a second?" He asked.

James shrugged, standing up and slinging his arm around Peter's shoulders,

"Sure thing, Pete and I have an exploding snaps rematch due any minute now." He smirked, dragging Peter up the stairs.

The silence that followed made Remus let out a quiet breath of relief.

"Was it the noise or just our presence?" Sirius asked after a long moment, he didn't look offended, only concerned.

Remus leaned his head back against the sofa, "Am I a terrible person if I say both?"

Sirius shook his head, "You have way too much to stress about in your life, you deserve a break to relax every now and then. You know we won't hold it against you."

"I do love you guys, I swear-" He started, the familiar guilt already weighing him down. Sirius placed a hand on his arm, stopping him,

"Remus, don't. We love you too, and we know how much you care about us. This isn't about that, it's about you getting rest."

His voice was stern, his gaze could have rivaled even McGonagall's.

"I'm sorry, I know." Remus whispered, "Thank you."

Sirius nodded and pulled his hand away, "Anytime, Moony. Really, I mean it."

Remus took a sip of his tea, which was starting to get cold. Sirius didn't have to ask, casting a warmth charm over it as Remus set it back down on the table.

"How do you always know what I'm thinking?" Remus asked, "It's like you can read my mind."

"You have very expressive eyes." Sirius answered, shrugging, "So I guess, in a way, I kind of can."

Remus smiled at him, nudging their shoulders together, "Thank you." He said again.

Sirius gestured towards the book,

"What part are you on?" He asked. Remus looked down,

"They're taking the vehicles back to Chicago." He replied, opening the book and turning it for him to see.

"Is a broomstick technically a vehicle?" Sirius asked, frowning in thought.

Remus gave a surprised laugh, "Um... well, yes. Any method of transportation is. But that only applies to our kind of broomsticks."

"So... with magic, isn't everything a vehicle?" Sirius asked, cocking his head to the side.

Remus always found it amusing when he looked like this, he truly was his animagious in every form.

"It would only be considered such after it as been given the ability to transport something, but yeah." Remus nodded, "I suppose you could say the same for adding wheels to things."

Sirius nodded, satisfied, "Will you read to me?" He asked quietly.

This surprised Remus, Sirius had never asked him that before. He nodded anyways, relaxing into the couch again and watching Sirius curl up into a ball, staring at him expectantly.

He read the first few paragraphs, glancing every other sentence at Sirius to see if he was still listening. He was.

After he'd gotten through two pages, he had to admit he was decently impressed.

"You never sit through lessons like this." Remus commented. Sirius shrugged,

"I like the way you talk." He yawned, stretching his arms over his head, "It's very relaxing."

Sirius' slow blinks and unguarded expression seemed out of place on him, he was usually so tense and ready for action.

Remus found he liked him like this, it was... sweet.

"Did you want me to continue reading?" Remus asked. Sirius nodded, adjusting himself so he leaned against Remus' shoulder, reading the page along with him,

"Yes, please." He mumbled sleepily.

Remus continued, no longer pausing to check if Sirius was paying attention.

After he'd gotten through the next few pages he was positive Sirius had fallen asleep. But then he spoke,

"Do you ever think about adoption?" He whispered. Remus looked down at him,

"Adoption?" He repeated.

Sirius nodded, "Yeah, I think it would be nice to adopt a kid."

"Why don't you want to have one yourself?" Remus asked, keeping his voice gentle so he wouldn't disturb this peace.

Sirius hummed and nuzzled closer to him, pressing his face to Remus' chest.

Remus didn't dare to breath, he waited without moving as Sirius' muffled reply came,

"I want to give someone another chance. I want to give them a better life."

Remus nodded. Carefully, slowly, he placed a hand on Sirius' back.

Sirius didn't shake him off, he only turned and wiggled closer until his head was resting in Remus' lap, curled up on his side.

Hesitantly, Remus ran a hand through Sirius' hair. He knew he shouldn't have, Sirius never let anyone touch his hair, but something in his mind told him it was the right thing to do.

And it was, Sirius let out a content sigh and closed his eyes again.

"It might be something to consider." Remus whispered, referring to their conversation. He gently combed through Sirius' hair with his fingers, amazed by how soft it was, even after they'd just gotten back from practice.

"Yeah, I mean-" He paused to yawn again, "What's the harm in it, right?"

Remus chuckled, "Well I think that phrase may have been spoiled for us now. There's usually some damage that follows it."

Sirius sighed, "Maybe. But a little more risk won't kill anyone."

Remus smiled, watching the way his expression softened and how his shoulders relaxed entirely,

"It's that kind of ideology that got us stuck in those problems in the first place." He reminded him, "But in this scenerio..."

He thought about a young child who'd been brought into the world and abandoned one way or another. He thought about giving that child a home, a new life as Sirius had put it.

"I think it's worth a little risk." He agreed.

And something about this, something about the way Sirius trusted him completely, let him touch where no would else was allowed, let him watch over him and dropped his guard when he never had before.

It made Remus feel something strange.

Sirius was... well, he was beautiful. There was never any question to that.

The way the light draped across him from the fireplace was an art of itself. Remus was- and he never thought he would describe himself as such- totally enamored.

"I think its worth it." Sirius mumbled, "I want to play songs for them and read them stories."

"You'll sing for them?" Remus asked, smiling fondly down at Sirius. He nodded,

"Yeah. When I was young my mother made me take piano lessons, and sometimes I would be taught to play the harp. So I think it would be nice if I could play for my kid someday."

"That's really nice, Sirius." Remus continued petting his hair. Eventually, Sirius turned again so he stared up at him, long black strands laid in a halo around his head,

"Can you keep reading to me?" Sirius asked quietly. Remus nodded,

"Yeah, of course." He picked up the book again, keeping his voice as soft as he could manage and starting where he left off.

Sirius fell asleep to the sound of Remus' voice and the feeling of his fingers in his hair.

Remus kept reading even after he'd fallen asleep. He was just so happy and content he didn't want it all to end.

When James and Peter came down to check on them some time later they walked out to this scene, to Remus' eyes filled with newfound love and adoration. To Sirius' smile in his sleep as he curled up in Remus' lap. The fireplace had long since died out, leaving the gentle cadence of Remus' voice to be the only sound in the room.

James and Peter took the hint, sneaking quietly back up the stairs to give them privacy, happy their friends had finally found each other.

Because they deserved it. They deserved the peace and lifetime of love they knew this relationship would bring.

On their way up the stairs, quick enough that you would miss it in a blink, James and Peter's hands exchanged a few sickles.

And never again did Sirius fall asleep to anything but the sound of Remus' voice, or the feeling of his hands combing through his hair. And that was perfectly fine by him.

[smytherines]

What we have as canon for Spies Are Forever is sparse. It's a spy comedy parody musical, it's ambiguous because that's all they have room for, leading to a lot of different readings that all have their arguments for or against. None of those are "correct" they're just interpretations.

So, keeping that in mind, we know Owen Carvour for around 10 minutes before the banana incident. A few minutes of that is him pretending to be another person, so I'll set that aside for now. Here are things Owen does in A1P1 in order of how I remember them:

Saves captured boyfriend from goon

Shoots goon in knees

Beats up a lot of goons

Reassures Curt's boss that the mission will be completed successfully, gets mildly insulted by a jealous Curt

Pushes Curt out of the way to shoot an armed guard that was aiming at him

Mildly chastises Curt for drinking on the job

Takes one swig after being teased and makes a face

Mildly chastises Curt for leaving a banana peel on the staircase

Agrees to four minutes on the timer

Attempts to re-lock the safety barricades to limit the explosion (I think?)

Gets cornered by goons

Building starts to explode, he finds out Curt set the timers for 3 minutes, they run

Slips, "dies"

Building explodes on him

The first part is the most ambiguous- when he's pretending to be a goon and Curt is being tortured. My personal read on it is that either Owen was already there for his own spy-related reasons and rescued Curt, or he somehow found out that Curt had been captured and went on a rescue mission. He does tell the goon to crush Curt's testicles, but I dunno immediately before that the goon tries to break Curt's fingers and gets his own fingers broken instead, so it feels like Owen is reasonably confident in Curt's ability to take care of himself? The worst thing that happens to Curt is that he gets tickled.

I do love the thought of Owen finding out Curt has been captured and packing a feather just in case he gets a chance to fuck with him. They don't establish who brought the explosives I don't think, but given that Barb doesn't say "use the explosives you already have" and that Owen spends so much time setting them, it was probably Owen?

Here's a list of things Agent Curt Mega does in A1P1:

Admittedly cool spy guy shit (breaking fingers, whatever was supposed to have happened with the pipe- its unclear to me)

Gets spotted by guard who hits the alarm

Talks to boss

gets annoyed that his boss likes Owen better, drinks, makes fun of Owen

Beats up goons

Eats a banana, leaves peel on stairs

Didn't wear rocket shoes because they didn't match his outfit

Ignores Barb explaining how the camera works to take the pictures they need

Suggests blowing the whole facility instead

Convinces Owen to try to beat their record of 6 minutes (Owen says to set for 4, I think)

Sets the timer for 3 minutes

Tells Owen they don't have time to do the safety barricade thing

Building starts to explode, tells Owen he lied, he set the timer for 3 minutes and they need to run

Tries to reach Owen when he falls, fails

Runs away before building explodes

What I'm saying here is that my read on A1P1 is that Curt sucks. Owen comes across as a decent enough guy, he comes off as a guy who cares about his partner and is looking out for him, and Curt is kinda the bad influence on him. Curt comes across as jealous and petty and egotistical, which is interesting because in so many pre-canon fanfics Curt is the pure precious babygirl and Owen is already a monster. I'm not saying it's wrong, I've read and enjoyed a lot of those stories and theories. It's just very interesting to me to see how the post-banana and pre-banana versions of Owen and Curt are sort of meshed together in a lot of fan imagination? I don't see it that way, but that's totally fine.

I wrote everything but this paragraph before the Mega bastards lore dropped. I already made a big big post about that, and it does sort of change my perception of Curt in some ways, but just on a basic level this is where I'm at

[corvus-ace]

Okumura Haru, aka Noir: an analysis

so, my friend Keeper wanted me to help them get a sense of Haru's character because they missed her introduction and a fair amount of her confidant, and the result was this analysis. fast forward like a month and I realized "hey, this would be fun to post online actually" and here I am lol. fair warning, it's long and also in bullet point paragraphs cause I was trying to write quickly at the time and have since fleshed a few of them out a bit more (I have a lot of feelings about Haru lmao)

without further ado, here we go!

Haru's past

-first and foremost, Haru is the heir to a fuck off huge corporation. her father basically owns the equivalent of mcdonalds. though she doesn't always act like it, she is fundamentally a rich kid

-now in my original analysis, it had been a while since I'd actually gone through Haru's confidant, and I had mistakenly believed that Haru had at least to some extent been raised to take over the business. pretty sure I thought that cause I can't tell the difference between actual canon and stuff I've read in fics lol. but after playing through her confidant again and realizing she actually had zero business experience whatsoever actually makes her even more impressive in my eyes, because she more or less had to teach herself how to run an entire corporation, and by the end of her confidant she has a pretty solid handle on things already (doubly impressive because her confidant starts so late game, so depending on how fast you play through it... she's learning all this in like, two months max if you're getting through it before 3rd sem)

-in addition to that: rather than her father retiring and placing her in charge, she is literally thrust into it by her father's death. so she's learning all this business management, getting used to phantom thievery, and grieving her father all at the same time???? I could never

-presumably Haru inherited everything after her father's death, putting her in full control of his wealth? (I don't really know how businesses and shareholders work.) Haru's mother doesn't appear to have been in the picture, although to be fair that could mean she's either dead, has left, or is just never shown on-screen. I don't remember any distinct mentions of her

-her father's view of her: the conspiracy has obviously been in action for at least around two years (based on the timeline of the mental shutdowns and psychotic breaks inflicted by Akechi after he joined the conspiracy). Okumura Kunikazu's view of his daughter would presumably have become distorted during this time; obviously we don't necessarily know the timeline of any Palace formations except Futaba's and Sae's, since one was shown on-screen and the other discussed more than once. by the time we begin Okumura's Palace, he views Haru as nothing more than a tool for him to use in his financial and political ambitions ("subservient puppet" and her cognitive form's appearance as an obedient and extremely weak robot). he also is ignorant of her wants and needs, evident by him arranging to marry her off to Sugimura for his own political gain

-now, because Okumura becomes so distant from Haru as his Palace develops, whether intentionally or not, Haru is kept fairly far away from her father's unethical business practices. obviously she has her own suspicions as indicated in game, but seeing as her father doesn't really tell her anything, she presumably still had at least a decent opinion of him up until his Palace

Haru's character/personality

-Haru is very kind by nature. her childhood initially encouraged this (the cafe her grandfather used to run) but because of her father's distortion and changed parenting style she has mostly retreated into becoming a "seen but not heard" people pleaser. this results in a very reserved persona, but she isn't exactly shy - she is willing to reach out to help people, is generally friendly when approached (if you go up to her in the Shujin hallways before you even start the Palace, she's very polite, even if not explicitly cheerful), and as proved not long after we formally meet her:

-if a core belief of hers is challenged, she will stand up for it. one of our first interactions with her in game, she isn't afraid to tell us that after listening to our flimsy explanation of our motives as the Thieves, she cannot work with us. she calls us out immediately on not helping our own teammate, and tells us she cannot work with people who aren't certain of their motives/goals (I don't remember her exact wording but I remember it was definitely something along those lines). in short, she cannot trust us to truly want to help her father

-first proper meeting: other than the seconds immediately after her entrance alongside Morgana in her father's palace, she is very flustered and constantly getting things confused. based on my understanding of her as a person, I believe this is because although she already considers Morgana a friend, he's clearly established a role for her to play as well (replacing the Phantom Thieves with her, taking the spotlight for future changes of heart, etc) and she knows, deep down, that she is still being used, even if Morgana does have good intentions and wants to teach her to help people. deep down she knows this isn't the real her either. her full Persona awakening showcases this pretty clearly with all the fucking guns and rocket launchers hidden in Milady's skirt that are finally revealed (aka Haru's full, true strength simmering for a long time, hidden beneath the surface, because who in her life would have ever wanted her to be anything but obedient and weak?)

-she's also the one to push Morgana to be honest both with himself and the other Thieves, to admit he doesn't really want to leave and that he feels like this is the only place he belongs. she's struggled with being honest with herself in the past, accepting her true self and especially displaying it, and the Thieves helped her finally do that; given her kind nature I'm not surprised she wanted to be able to return the favor

-as we get to know her, we learn Haru is still very naturally kind and genuinely friendly. the thing is, she doesn't have a lot of friends. we don't see her interact with anyone (other than her father and fiance) beyond basic pleasantries until her formal introduction, including at Shujin. I'm fairly reasonably certain this is because almost everyone she's ever met has only seen her as "Okumura's daughter" rather than just Haru, her own person

Noir

-Haru is one of the strongest physical damage dealers, alongside Ryuji and Yusuke (both in terms of normal melee attacks and her powerful gun-type skills). she's also the only Thief other than Akechi who has gun-type skills on her Persona - and it's important to note that Akechi can only use gun-type skills in the third semester, with Loki and eventually Hereward, so Haru having gun-type skills significantly earlier in game than Akechi (especially with high crit chances) is quite useful. also her weapons are a grenade launcher and a large battle axe so that says a lot about her

-her Persona uses psy magic and ailment skills in addition to the gun-type skills. psy is particularly important since it triggers many kinds of technical hits, extra useful if you have a wide variety of ailments you can inflict via Joker's Personas. this also makes sense given the identity of her first tier Persona, Milady de Winter, the uncommonly beautiful and extraordinarily cunning female spy featured in The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Milady is also described as ruthless, which I feel is a good representation of how Haru acts as a Phantom Thief. now in addition to the other skills, she does have the ability to cure certain ailments and also recover more quickly from ailments, and can use heat riser to give significant buffs to a party member and makarakarn/tetrakarn to protect a party member from a magic or physical attack respectively. obviously the specific skills she has available to her depends on how you choose to build her in game (I personally tend to lean towards emphasizing her gun-type and support skills over her ailment usage/curing, since I have no shortage of ailments in Joker's Persona stock and prefer to use Haru as a damage dealer, but that's not really relevant lmao)

-also, Haru is a sadist who loves killing/destroying Shadows. probably all that repressed anger and unresolved trauma. as rich as her father is, I seriously doubt he paid for a therapist for her. rich and emotionally distant fathers are just like that

The Empress

-I have some issues with her confidant that I think are about to become very evident

-Haru is the Empress Arcana (number III) and it shows. she is a girl in a position of power (head of a corporation) and as mentioned before, she is very kind by nature, and quite nurturing as shown by her love and skill for taking care of plants. the people in charge of assigning cards did a particularly good job with her

-her confidant is less based on personal relationships like Ryuji's or Makoto's; instead it focuses on professional development and relationships with subordinates and corporate associates and shareholders. she spends a lot of time throughout her confidant events figuring out who to trust and how to shift Okumura Foods into something she can truly be proud of, with a strong focus on undoing all the unethical practices her father put in place. though she of course wasn't expecting to be put in charge so soon, she does a very good job managing the sudden responsibilities. we also have no reason to believe her grades were slipping during this time, so she appears to be able to manage her schoolwork (from a prestigious high school, no less) right alongside her new responsibilities

Miscellaneous

-Haru has no qualms about spending large amounts of money on her friends - we literally went to the equivalent of fucking disneyland after her father's Palace and she thought it was no big deal, although to be fair to her, that was technically a special situation as the park had already been rented out by her father for a company event that ended up being cancelled due to his change of heart, so she really just took over the reservation. it's worth noting that this point is heavily represented in fanfics (based on what I've seen across ao3), as fanon Haru is, for example, often willing to give Yusuke in particular plenty of money for food, train fares, etc. I have seen at least two fics (though I don't remember the authors or the titles) where she happily spends lots of money on the other Thieves

-out of the Thieves, Haru is one of the most vocal about her hatred and mistrust of the police. this is very, very evident in Strikers, and remains consistent throughout that story (and, side note, it's fucking hilarious seeing how offput Zenkichi is about it every single time)

-she also later embraces her brief stint as the "Beauty Thief" and it's something of an inside joke amongst the Thieves (not sure that's the right term but idk how else to describe it). there aren't any hard feelings; the Thieves are already pretty chill about it the moment she joins the group anyways. the other Thieves affectionately call her the Beauty Thief in Strikers, particularly Futaba and Morgana, and Haru is happy to really lean into it sometimes (Zenkichi does not understand this either and I think she enjoys that)

Final notes - based on my impressions of her; not really analysis

-Haru is one of the most willing to fight god, and one of the most likely to win

-mixture of cottagecore lesbian and warrior princess

-her association with purple is partially rooted in her psy abilities, of course, but it's also a color associated with royalty and elegance, particularly fitting for the Empress Arcana

-Haru is not allowed to drive and should never be allowed behind a steering wheel (Keeper, if you're reading this, you'll understand this much later)

-kinda already mentioned this but she's very good at gardening (can grow hp and sp restoratives for the Metaverse)

-she took ballet for years and was good at it, which makes sense since she's quite flexible, as well as having natural grace

Conclusion

well, if you made it this far, I hope you liked this self-indulgent analysis! I relate to Haru a lot, so I like to think I have a good sense of her, and hopefully I've done a good job of representing her in this post. there are a few other Thieves I have enough thoughts on to write analyses similar to this one, so I'll probably be making those pretty soon. and again, although this is very personally motivated, I do still hope someone out there will like reading them!

(and Keeper - I know you already read the first version of this and still wanted to read this version too, so a big thanks for enabling my brainrot lmao)

[thelostboys11]

David Fluff Alphabet

A/n: This Fluff Alphabet is honestly kind of long. I didn't mean to write so much but I did. I wrote responses like the size of paragraph or bigger. Lol.😂

Warnings: Kissing, smallest mention of touches, and small hint of possibly hurting someone.

Words: 1,449

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

When out in public, he won't show it too much unless he starts to get jealous. Then he would put his arm around your shoulder or waist. But whenever y'all are alone, David will want to hold you close to him.

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

Yours and David's friendship would start by David seeing you on the boardwalk and liking your style. Later in the night he would eventually come up to you and started to get to know you. David would honestly be a good person to have as a friend. He would have your back with things and help you out with certain things that you need. Especially if you need help getting rid of some one or just want someone gone.

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

David doesn't like cuddling most of the time. But when he does cuddle you, it's because you need to be comforted or he's jealous and needs to be reaffirmed.

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

David wants to be with you for the rest of his life but doesn't really want to get married. He would turn you into a vampire if you were ready and comfortable. That would most likely be his way of settling down with you.

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

He would most likely just tell you straight up in the cave. Then he might kill you. It will depend on how the relationship ended. If you two were on decent terms but just fell of love or it didn't work out, he would probably let you go. If there were lots of arguments and stuff like that near the end of the relationship the he would probably kill you.

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

The same as domestic.

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

David is pretty gentle physically and emotionally for the most part. If David is in a bad mood then he might be a bit more physically and emotionally rough with you. Definitely way more physically and emotionally rough with other people when he's in a bad mood. He's still rough with people either way. He's worse when in a bad mood.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

He doesn't mind hugs. If you're out in public with him, then he'll let you do it only once or twice when no one is looking. When the two of you are alone or in the cave, he'll let you hug him more often.

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

It'll take him awhile. David would most likely wait for you to say it to him first. Even once you say it, he still might take a few minutes to say it back.

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

David can get really jealous at times. Especially if it's with strangers on the boardwalk and stuff. If it's one of the other boys or one of your family members, then he most likely won't get jealous. Depending on what the person does, the more he will do to them. If they try to kiss you repeatedly and try to touch you, then he'll probably hurt them severely or kill them and make them into food.

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

I honestly don't know how to describe his kisses so I'll leave that part up to your imagination. David likes kissing you on the lips. Sometimes he likes kissing you on the neck or shoulder. David likes to be kissed on the lips and face. Sometimes on the hands.

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

David is honestly so bad at taking care of children. He'll try his best to watch his language and try his best at taking care of the children. But he'll literally suck at it. He'll definitely need to have someone else with him while taking care of children.

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

The mornings for most people would be David's night since he's a vampire. So he'll be asleep during the day and you'll sometimes sleep with him at night.

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

Nights for most people would be David's mornings kinda like I said before. During this time you'll be spending most of your time with David.

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

Depending on what it is, he will take a certain amount of time before he will tell you but when he does tell you, it'll be all at once. Like when it comes to the subject of him being a vampire, it'll take awhile. Depending on your personality, he might take more or less time before telling you.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

David isn't usually angered easily, but when it comes to you and your well being, he will become angered if it's being put in danger.

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

David would remember most things about you. If it's a very small thing you mention and you don't mention it that often then he will probably forget. But he remembers most of the important things.

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

David's favorite moments with you are any of the times he gets to spend quality time with you.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

David is very protective of you. If someone is even the slightest bit mean to you, you will probably not see them around again. David tells you that he doesn't need to be protected and to not worry about him.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

David would put a decent amount of effort into dates, anniversaries, and gifts. He will put enough effort into these things that you are able to appreciate it but it's not over the top kind of stuff. When it comes to everyday tasks, he puts a regular amount of effort into it. He puts about the same amount of effort into everyday tasks as anyone else would.

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

David doesn't ever get concerned about his looks. He thinks he's a good looking guy so he isn't too worried about it.

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

If David truly loves you then, he would definitely feel incomplete without you. He would do almost anything to stop you from leaving his side. If it's a case where you are sick and are most likely going to die, then he'll do anything he can to help get you treated and cured. If you can't get treated or cured then he'll probably convince you to turn into a vampire.

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

I headcanon David as a cat person. He would definitely love cats so much. If he starts dating you and he finds out that you have a cat, he will give it all the love in the world and will probably want to keep it in the cave with him and the boys if you and your cat don't already live with them.

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

David seems like the guy who probably wouldn't want to date someone who does drugs. If it's just like weed or something similar then he probably wouldn't mind. But if it was some kind of hardcore drug then it would most likely be a no.

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habits of theirs?)

Since David is a vampire, he sleeps during the day and spends his time awake during the night.

[mrs-nate-humphrey]

Okay wait… dan & milo & ‘i made out with two chicks once in college.’

this got... long. i was like "oh it'll be just 2 paragraphs 300 words" but i forgot that milo is my achilles heel sdkslhgfkh. it's under a read more :3

"Dad, they're not..." Milo frowned. Shifted his hands around. "I'm not cheating on Gabrielle with Jonathan."

Dan thinks back to their own high school and college and young adult years, thinks of all the mistakes they've made. Cheating was something their friend group had become desensitized to doing to each other, despite how much it hurt to be on the receiving end. They'd sworn to be a better person with Milo, which is why they were here. Staging an intervention after they caught their kid kissing some random boy despite being in a long term relationship with that girl from his art elective, Gabrielle.

Dan liked Gabrielle. She was creative and rebellious and intelligent, perpetually reading scientific articles on her iPad, smoking up with Milo when she thought Dan wasn't looking. She reminded them a lot of Vanessa, but she had Nate's easygoing attitude - sometimes Dan thought if the two of them ever had a kid, their kid would've been just like Gabrielle.

"Okay, explain what I saw then," Dan says to Milo. Firm, but not angry. They'll be damned if they treat Milo how Rufus treated Jenny.

"Dad, I'm... we're..." Milo took a deep sigh. As if he was afraid. "Gabi and I are both dating Jonathan, too. We're polyamorous."

There were a million ways Dan could've imagined the situation playing out, but not like this. Never like this. They look at Milo, and they think about Blair and Nate's sage advice about threesomes. Then they think about Blair's messy break-up with Chuck and Nate's equally messy break-up with Chuck. They think about Vanessa and Olivia and how they're engaged to each other, and how Dan doesn't mind anymore, doesn't feel hurt or left out, but when they were younger, it'd felt like there was something about Dan that made them unlovable. It'd hurt.

"I'm sorry if you have a problem with it," Milo says, obstinate, jutting his chin out and scowling. He is so much like Jenny sometimes that it stuns Dan that there's no blood relation. Milo is a Humphrey through and through, in all the ways that matter.

Milo at seventeen is also a lot more emotionally mature and responsible than Dan or any of their friends had been at seventeen.

"I don't have a problem with it," Dan says. And then, because they don't know what else to say, "‘I made out with two chicks once in college."

"That is not even remotely the same thing, oh my god!" Milo exclaims, but he looks less tense-angry-scared, so Dan considers it a win.

"I had two girlfriends for maybe a week? Then they both broke up with me to be with each other," Dan says. Saying more wouldn't be right, given that the kid has a decent relationship with his Aunt Vanessa and her fiancee Olivia. "All my friends at the time told me polyamory was bound to fail. That it was a stupid choice."

Milo looks upset now, relief crumbling into the face of someone who is likely going to cry but trying to suppress it.

"That's not what I"m going to tell you, however," Dan says. "More people involved means more feelings can get hurt. But it also means that you can experience more - and not necessarily negatives. To love and be loved by two people is a wonderful thing, but to break two people's hearts or have your heart broken twice is sad and painful. All I can say is... treat each other with care, all three of you. And that I'm sorry I assumed you were cheating, when I've only seen you treat Gabi with respect. Thank you for telling me despite that."

Milo leans forward, and Dan's arms open, letting their kid fall into the embrace. They ignore Milo's small sniffles, the way he's shaking. He must've been really scared.

Dan wonders at themself. At what they should've done differently, to make it easier for Milo.

"I'm proud of you, kid," they say, and Milo clutches tighter, holds onto Dan like he never wants to let them go.

[astromechs]

🕯️ , 🔪 and 🧩

🕯️ ⇢ on a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy editing? why is that?

hm... maybe like 5? middle of the road, i'm neutral. i do a lot of editing as i go so i don't really do a lot at the end, and the reason i started approaching things like this is because i'm a massive perfectionist who's prone to bouts of "i'm a fraud" lmfao, so if i edit a piece of writing TOO much after it's done, i run the risk of thinking it's irredeemable garbage and never letting it see the light of day. since i'm actively trying to do less of that... yeah.

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

i did once, a long time ago, look up whether penguins are edible for something. (turns out penguin meat is apparently decent when you put it in a stew? at least from what i've read?) i'm sure i've had weirder, buuut that's what's coming to mind right now.

🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

a lack of paragraph breaks 😭 please use paragraph breaks, they're your best friend! do not give me big walls of text, that's just unreadable!

sometimes when a character interpretation fundamentally doesn't line up with how i see the character at all, i gotta go, too, but honestly big walls of text without being broken up are much more offensive to me than anything.

writer asks!

[anti-katsuki-lounge]

Honestly, they're a UA thing. Like sure they're caused by OfA, but it's UA's job to teach him to handle his powers and they just... don't. Like we are told that it's illegal to use your quirk in public without a license so UA should be way way better prepared to teach kids to use their quirks (Also that makes Aizawa wanting to kick someone out for not being able to control his quirk really messed up. Like teaching him that is literally your job, his quirk breaks his bones and is insanely destructive, where exactly was he supposed to learn how to control that as a little kid?) Yet basically every time Izuku has a breakthrough with getting a handle on his quirk, it's by someone outside of UA. Like his teacher is a guy who can shut off quirks! In any other situation I would have assumed he was placed with Aizawa specifically so he could get help getting his quirk under control. Like "Hey maybe you should use your quirk throughout your entire body not just one point" feels like a day one discovery if you're a decent teacher and bother to actually learn about your students, but maybe that's just me.

Honestly even if you got rid of Izuku getting OfA and turned it into the quirk he was born with it really wouldn't change much. Either he'd still have to worry about it killing him if he used it too much, which means he might be advised to wait until he's older to start getting a handle on it, maybe even with the implicit assumption that UA would be the best place to get that training, or he wants to train it, but can't because there's no where he can safely train such a destructive quirk without breaking the law.

Which actually brings up a point, all the UA kids have clearly gotten a lot of practice with their quirks. And you know what that's fine to a degree, even if it shows the laws around quirk use are incredibly flawed. Like Kirishima and Momo have quirks it's easy to work on at home, Todoroki and Iida are hero families so they have the necessary resources, but where the hell did Bakugou train? Like you don't get that good without a lot of practice, especially when he's so utterly unhesitating on using his quirk on people. Though we can guess where he got the practice on using his quirks on humans. Did no one look at the explosion kid and be like "hey, where exactly did he learn to do all that?" or the kid who can flick glacier into nothing and go "hey kid, go on you for following the law, but now let's get you some extra help getting that ridiculously powerful and dangerous to self and others quirk under control." Shouldn't one of the first questions UA had be "so which of you had to very clearly break the law in order to get this good with your quirk?

All of this. You also point out a reason I struggle with believing Katsuki's some sort of prodigy. We don't see him training and the only source of combat we see him engage in is fights against those who can't defend themselves. There's no way he should be even close to the level of someone like Shoto who has trained.

But yeah, this paragraph does a great job at highlighting what is wrong with Shota, and U.A as a whole and even some of Hori's worldbuilding.

[nialls-gorgeous-colors]

Niall Horan's "The Show" album liner notes are peculiar

The vinyl shows an EXTENSIVE Thank You section. He thanks everyone from management, lawyers, co-writers, music team, record label team, producers, promotion team, team at CAA (Creative Artist Agency), creative director, touring family and bandmates, fans…

But then there’s a paragraph thanking a nameless and genderless “someone special” (a phrase most often referencing a romantic partner). But, WHY SO CRYPTIC????

The paragraph reads:: “There’s also someone special that has been the strongest pillar for me during this record. Someone listening to all the shit songs I write between the decent ones, putting up with my complaining, being tired from jet lag non-stop , but is always there for me, all the time. Thank you.”

LET’S BREAK THIS DOWN

LINE BY LINE

“There’s also someone special that has been the strongest pillar for me during this record.”

‘Someone special’ is typically in reference to a romantic partner. There’s no gender pronouns nor a name used. Why not just say their name? Why a secret? The gf relationship is public knowledge so he would just say her name if it was her. It’s not a member of his team or the co-writers or people who are already named that work with him in that way. It’s not a family member because he would just say so.

“Someone listening to all the shit songs I write between the decent ones”

It’s someone he plays lots of his songs to get feedback. Someone he deeply trusts. Niall has said repeatedly that Lewis Capaldi and Shawn Mendes are his two actual friends in the industry, and not interested in adding to that. Niall has said that he does play Lewis his songs, but he has said repeatedly and enthusiastically that Shawn is his go to person to play each other their songs. Shawn played Niall his song “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back” before it was released, while sitting in the car together. Remember when Niall got offended when a couple of radio dj’s insinuated that Shawn’s person to play demos with was Camila, when it’s actually him???

“putting up with my complaining”

Shawn has a calm sweet demeanor of the stereotypical Canadian. When Niall listed off his favorite qualities of Shawn, “He’s also, the nicest fella you’ve ever met in your life. Really sweet guy. Always very interested in you when he talks to ya.”

“being tired from jet lag non-stop”

Someone who he had spent lots of time traveling to (which makes it unlikely to be Amelia as she is based in the UK. There’s very minimal travel involved since they “met” during height of pandemic in 2020). On the other hand, Shawn spends lots of time in LA/Canada/New York/Miami. Niall had even commented on a Shawn IG post of him out with mutual friends at a party "without me. 😢 ". Niall spoke in an interview that he had recently flown to LA, which means he was traveling. We know Niall has an apartment in West LA. The album was written in Joshua Tree.

“but is always there for me, all the time”

There’s really long history of Niall and Shawn's relationship of being so supportive publicly. Can only imagine how much it is behind the scenes, as well. Refer to my Shiall timelines I’ve posted for just a taste of it (and there's lots).

“Thank you.”

[agent-troi]

20 fanfic questions

thanks for the tag @randomfoggytiger!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

95.

2. What’s your total Ao3 words count?

368,619

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The X-Files, Star Trek: TNG, Star Trek: Picard, the Star Trek novel-verse, and I just posted a fic for The West Wing

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Platonic Procreation, Eden, The MSR Files, Mother Knows Best, and Though the Heavens Fall (also I need to mention my current WIP Security Questions bc it's only three kudos away from a tie with fifth place!)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Most of the time! I usually respond to friends/ people I know well, or if someone pointed out something specific in my fic they liked. And I responded to every comment made on my West Wing fic so far bc I want the fandom to notice me😅

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

lol I don’t write many fics with angsty endings (I do like writing angst sometimes but I need things to end happily😅) but I guess this would be Baby Blue, If I Could Only Break the Sky, or When We Were Whole (not sure which one would be the most angsty)

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

so many! lol but I wanna single out Coda bc it was my attempt at wrapping up the mytharc and giving Mulder and Scully a happy ending with William (and giving Samantha’s storyline some actual closure lmao) and I think I did a decent job of it🤗

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I did get a hateful comment on a fic not long ago (ironically, it was and still is my most popular fic by almost every metric so someone was clearly jelly lmao) and I’ve had a couple of comments in the past on different fics that weren’t quite hateful but more like critiquing/nitpicking character or writing choices.

9. Do you write smut?

no absolutely not never ugh

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I don’t think I’ve ever written one! But I have ideas for TXF/Star Trek and TXF/SVU crossovers that I might write someday if I ever find the time/energy/inspiration😅

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don’t think so but I hope not!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No idea!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! The gang and I have co-written quite a few fics, which can all be found in this collection🤗

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

MSR of course!! But I will always have a soft spot for Riker/Troi and joshdonna is beginning to take up more and more space in my brain lmao

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I have a Riker/Troi amnesia fic that has been sitting in my notes for three years, every chapter either written, partly written, or outlined, but I just can’t make myself sit down and sort it out😫 also I used to start publishing fics before I was certain where I was going with them, and For War Alone is a relic of that (and it has also been sitting there since 2020 lol)

16. What are your writing strengths?

I have been told I’m really good at dialogue, and I choose to take people at their word😅

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I’m addicted to adverbs, also I just love reusing the same words and phrases over and over- one time in a first draft I used the word ‘actually’ four times in a single paragraph!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I love reading that! I feel like it makes the setting and characters and everything seem more realistic, but for writing it I pretty much need to rely on google translate or multilingual moots lol

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I wrote a LotR fic a long time ago! But the first fic in my modern day stretch of fic writing was for the Star Trek novel-verse: Psi-Ops

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Oh gosh this is so hard but I’m gonna say Where A Million Stars Catch Fire bc I put in a lot of time and effort carefully constructing it as a tribute to Mulder’s birthday this year, and I’m really proud of how it ultimately turned out🥰

Tagging @tofuttim @katy-kt-katie @incidental-ao3 @cutemothman @mollybecameanengineer and whoever else who wants to do it!

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers #322: The Crossing Line Part 4: BOMBS AWAY!

September, 1990

ESCALATION!

One wonders what's left to escalate. Peace Corpse started shooting hostages. The Avenging People Flight stormed the sub and took them out. The last two terrorists are wired into some nukes. I guess the Atlanteans might escalate the situation.

Anyway, that was very nearly a recap so lets cover the rest.

Last times on Avengers: Russian terrorist group Peace Corpse hijacked British nuclear submarine, the Waterwind. The British government called the American government called Stingray and off they went to find a sub.

Russian superhero group the People's Protectorate were also trying to find the sub and wound up squabbling with the Avengers. Their fighting was too close to the ruins of Atlantis so the Atlanteans got involved too. So the Avengers and Protectorate combined forces to kick Atlantean ass.

In the ruckus, the Waterwind got damaged and the terrorists fled to Newfoundland for repairs. The heroes showed up, Captain America got hostage Stingray shot, and then Alpha Flight showed up.

They let Peace Corpse berth for repairs and then put together a plan to storm the sub and that brings us back to paragraph one.

Atlantis Attacks?

No

NO!

I can't go back! I won't go back!

Okay, we're at the seeming end of the terrorist sub hijacking plot, given that there's just two dudes left. But only on part 4 out of 6 so I guess the Atlanteans are here to muddle things up so the plot lasts longer.

The superheroes leap to the correct conclusion that the Atlanteans are here to mess with the sub and leap into action against them.

Quasar puts a light net around Tyrak, lightly boasting that he was able to handle Tyrak back when they were underwater so maybe back off.

Perun goes to fight Orka. He's our resident Thor-expy and Orka fought Thor once. It just makes sense.

Orka: "You wish to pit your puny surface might against that of Orka?" Perun: "Aye, blubber-laden one!" Orka: "So be it! Orka is tired of talk!" Perun: "And I am offended by your breath, you bulbous buffoon! Be silent and accept the punishment at hand!"

Some good smack talk here.

Crimson Dynamo and Guardian team up to zap the Atlanteans jetskis, to keep them from the Waterwind and the civilian evacuation.

Meanwhile, Sersi, Shaman, and Fantasma keep at the evacuation efforts. Moving people away from the Waterwind in case it explodes and moving them to the Port Au Port Bay on the other end of the island.

Shaman uses the teleportation spells from his mystic pouch. Fantasma uses her magic to hide the evacuation effort from the Atlanteans. And Sersi uses her abilities to telekinesis civilians out of harm's way.

Tyrak OH YEAHS out of Quasar's light net.

Quasar tells Tyrak that he was actually going easy on him so Tyrak grabs him by the cape and slams him into the jetski.

Geez, Quasar. Banter better.

Guardian goes to help Quasar, leaving Puck to fight the rank and file Atlanteans. And Crimson Dynamo tackles U-Man, generating heat from his armor to dehydrate and weaken the Atlantean.

Meanwhile, Orka breaks the ship he and Perun are fighting on to force the fight into the water for a home-field advantage. Where he promptly starts kicking the shit out of Perun.

Box is in the water in submersible mode and spots this. He grabs Orka from behind and hits him with enough electricity to knock him out. Although it also drains the Box armor of the rest of its power.

Box's pilot, Madison Jeffries, is forced to abandon armor underwater and rely on Perun to drag him to the surface.

Perun: "I thank you for your help... and I will hit you very hard later for interfering in the only decent fray I'd had in months!" Box: "Fair-nuff."

Hah, you're fun, Perun.

He just wants a good dust-up. A good scrap. A rousing round of fisticuffs.

Meanwhile, inside the Waterwind.

Captain America, Red Guardian, Vision, and Vostok. Illyich Prokvitch and Strokov. All sitting together in the missile room, having a casual chat.

Such light topics as "Why are you doing this, Illyich Prokvitch?"

And Red Guardian dramatically revealing his true identity to Prokvitch.

He's not just a "weak-willed glasnost lover." He's Josef Petkus, the son of Prokvitch's best pal. And Prokvitch was Josef's sponsor and military academy instructor.

Red Guardian: "Tell me now that I am not the product of what you have made me!" Prokvitch: "And I am the product of what the world has made me! I am a soldier, Josef, a warrior! And the only way left for Mother Russia is to unite the nations of this world in a mutual goal -- war!"

This fuckin' Metal Gear-esque villain gives a little monologue about how the world is in decline and how the world will be good for the economy. And while he's talking, Vision and Vostok start fussing with the wires connecting the two terrorists to the missile controls.

Strokov: "Get away from wires, robots! NOW!! See, Prokvitch -- see what they do while you prattle your ideology away -- we must act now!" Vision: "Sir, my companion and I are synthezoids, not robots, as you claim."

That doesn't seem like the primary thing in the exchange, Vision.

Red Guardian re-rails the conversation, asking Prokvitch if he really believes a global nuclear war is really the best idea.

Prokvitch: "I believe no choice is left but to try, Josef!"

THERE SEEMS LIKE THERE COULD BE A LOT OF OTHER THINGS TO TRY

Red Guardian: "What about Anna and your children, Illyich? What about my mother and sister? What happens to them?" Prokvitch: "Do not seek to distract me further!"

Prokvitch is trying to talk the economy. Don't distract him with stuff like human lives!

Also, Strokov keeps yelling at Vision and Vostok, warning them that if either him or Prokvitch is injured or killed or if they fool around with the controls, the nuclear warheads will explode.

Vision and Vostok move back over to Captain America's side of the room and tell him that they could disconnect the cybernetic link between the two terrorists and the nuclear arsenal if given enough time.

Since the terrorists could detonate at the speed of thought if they give the proper codes, Captain America decides the best idea is to wait for the right moment and then sever the link before they can react.

Meanwhile, outside, apparently the fight against the Atlanteans has been going on for hours?? Two hours and change, specifically.

That's what Shaman is saying. He's been teleporting people the whole time and he's getting tired.

Guardian and Puck are still fighting mooks. And Quasar is still fighting Tyrak. Perun sees Quasar struggling and just goes 'my fight now'

Quasar leaves Puck to go check on Crimson Dynamo.

The red-armored iron foe has U-Man in a full nelson. He complains that he's had him in a full nelson for three hours and that the Atlantean is super stinky when he's sweaty (what? did we lose another hour? time is warped and space is bendable...)

Guardian asks how Crimson Dynamo's power reserves are. Whether he has enough in his tank to finish the fight.

Dynamo isn't sure so Guardian just yoinks U-Man out of his hands and... just... stops existing??

What a weird day.

Meanwhile, Quasar has gotten fed up with fighting Tyrak for however many hours we're up to.

Quasar: "I've been holding back, Tyrak -- both out of sympathy to your plight and respect for my principles! But you haven't appreciated one and ridiculed the other! So the kid gloves are OFF!!"

And then Quasar just instantly kicks Tyrak's ass.

Although, Tyrak isn't really ready to call it quits yet. He's kinda got his heart set on someone dying from this.

Meanwhile, inside the sub, Red Guardian continues to try to appeal to Prokvitch's emotions, reminding him that family members exist and would hate living through a nuclear war.

And Prokvitch is wavering! The appeals are working their way under his skin!

Exceptttttt also happening is that Vision and Vostok have disconnected the relays between the terrorists and the nukes and gave both shield heroes the signal to clonk the bad guys in the heads.

The day is saved, surely.

Exceptttt...

Prokvitch: "Ughhh... What have you idiots done?! By severing the ties you have automatically activated the fail-safe!!" Captain America: "fail-safe?"

Damn but is Captain America making bad judgement calls today. He lets himself get distracted fighting Russians and Atlanteans instead of addressing the hijacked submarine. He misreads the hostage situation so badly that he gets Stingray shot. And now he gets Canada blown up.

This never would have happened while Monica Rambeau led the team.

I guess the Avengers are all dead now. From now on this book will be reprints of Avengers West Coast.

We're sticking with this story arc until it's done, so next week more The Crossing Line. But right now, more backup stories about the Avengers Support Crew!

A feel good series where they're tormented by their greatest failings.

This time, poor Peggy Carter, the Avengers' communications officer and aunt of Captain America's love interest Sharon Carter.

Peggy is all excited to try out the new communications and monitoring equipment that's been set up in the Avengers Subbasement.

She's so excited, she decides to check in on the Avengers' mission in Newfoundland (the A-plot) so she can also tell him how rad her new set-up is.

But instead of opening hailing frequencies, Peggy accidentally plays archival footage of Sharon Carter burning to death.

Which, apparently happened.

She and Peggy were given an assignment by SHIELD to infiltrate the National Force but Sharon was caught and brainwashed to set herself on fire.

So when Burning Sharon actually shows up in the communications room, she poses the question is it fair that she set herself on fire and died while Peggy escaped unscathed and now has a rad job with the Avengers? Didn't Peggy promise she'd keep Sharon out of trouble when she followed in her footsteps and joined SHIELD? Because if you ask Sharon, dying is definitely trouble!

Because of survivor's guilt, Peggy agrees that it really is unfair and that it should have happened to her instead, since Sharon had so much more life to live.

So Sharon tells her to join her in death, they hug, and Peggy catches on fire.

As you do?

Also, geez, that swastika. It was probably what Sharon happened to be wearing when she died. National Force was a neo-Nazi group organized by Doctor Faustus. But previous panels had Sharon too distant to see it clearly or facing the other way. It's just jarring to have it suddenly show up while she's hugging her aunt to death.

All these back-up stories are really downsizing the Avengers staff. Plus, the whole team just got nuclear exploded.

Follow @essential-avengers because. Like, reblog, comment, discuss, noun, whatever. Engage! The Borg, perhaps.

[bellatrixnightshade]

"You're Gonna Go Far, Kid" Rafal Song Analysis (with some other mentions too)

My Rhian "Like a Villain" one here.

Song:

Also, this will involve Lord of the Flies references here and there, so a slight spoiler warning?

To the song:

Show me how to lie, you're getting better all the time And turning all against the one is an art that's hard to teach Another clever word sets off an unsuspecting herd And as you step back into line, a mob jumps to their feet

I imagine this as Rafal remembering when he was still alive, just watching everything unfold. I believe this may refer to Jack's influence over the boys of the island in the book. But in Rhian's case, he is a liar by stealing identity and teaming up with Marialena, the liar. And I think he lied in Fall to escape prison after Midas chose Rafal. Rhian turns people against the One, and I have always viewed him as the charismatic speaker who doesn't even need a script. When Rhian speaks to people, it's dangerous because somehow, they will follow. I don't see Rafal as having the same exact talent, and I have headcanonned him as someone who needs to practice speeches like everyone else in order for it to be decent. Rhian also turns people against Rafal, the herd being the trio and the other students in the main series, by pretending to be him. The mob could be his armies of trained soldiers or zombies or a mob against him. Against Rafal. But mostly I imagine the armies he got after the Kingdom Council meeting.

Now dance, fucker, dance, man, he never had a chance And no one even knew it was really only you And now you steal away Take him out today Nice work you did You're gonna go far, kid

This could be Rafal being killed, though he did have a chance, technically. It could be Peter Pan killing Timon, and Rafal assuming it was Rhian, with war breaking out because of his assumption. In Lord of the Flies, they kill Simon and start behaving like barbaric tribes. The Great War was led by three children/teenagers, in a way, because even with a life centuries long, the twins had teenage hormones and way of thinking. As the adults were weak, passive, and not leaders, this happened. I was also thinking of Rhian killing that soldier with his breath, and that guy didn't have a chance. Rhian shrugged it off and basically went all like "this is an example of what'll happen if you try that shit again. Got that?" But Rafal as a ghost tells Rhian bitterly that he'll go far with his violence, dishonesty, and manipulation. The "kid" part could be the way he has always viewed Rhian.

With a thousand lies and a good disguise Hit 'em right between the eyes Hit 'em right between the eyes When you walk away, nothing more to say See the lightning in your eyes See 'em running for their lives

Again, Rafal sees Rhian as the liar and using his face as the "good disguise." Now Rhian is a killer and he becomes someone people fear, starting from the army camp when Rafal was still living. When Rafal is dead, people fear Rhian through the false Rafal he acts as. Perhaps Rhian's callousness runs even deeper than Rafal's ever has. Because Rafal would never have lied the amount of times Rhian did or have worn his face. Rhian is more emotional and sensitive, which gives him an advantage. He now has a method to destroy someone to their core. He is the most dangerous because he never appeared to be. He should be feared most because of how his nature is. "Good disguise" can also be when Rhian started it by lying to Marialena by acting as Rafal to her when he spied on Midas and Rafal. This ties into my last paragraph. Also, I wanted to mention even Rhian's trap about the moth thing and how he pried and picked at Rafal to the point where even he was unsettled. Rafal is clever yes, but can we mention Rhian??? He is like the orca that is the true apex. He kills and scares off the sharks.

Slowly out of line, and drifting closer in your sight So play it out, I'm wide awake, it's a scene about me There's something in your way and now someone is gonna pay And if you can't get what you want, well, it's all because of me

This may be Rafal as a spirit looking upon his dead body and Rhian being so nonchalant about it. In fact, Rhian's attitude towards Rafal's death matches the previous lines of the song! Rhian is certainly out of line, and Rafal is that one thing in his way. After what Rafal said to him, Rhian makes him pay for sure. He thinks that he not being School Master is all due to Rafal being alive and taking that from him. Demoting him. Allowing him to die. Rafal will see himself as the victim here, which is what the lines sound like.

Now dance, fucker, dance, man, I never had a chance And no one even knew, it was really only you And now you'll lead the way Show the light of day Nice work you did You're gonna go far, kid

Nobody knew it was really Rhian-- main series included! And since these lines switched to first person, it could be Rafal saying he clearly had no chance to meet the students in the main series, or to show them who "Rafal" really was. He never had a chance to live a Good life because Rhian took that away. Rhian is now the one who will "lead the way/show the light of day." At least, he thinks he can, with the attitude that permeates the last chapter of Fall. The last two lines could be Rafal begrudgingly praising Rhian's work as a villain where even he himself as the sadist was outdone. Maybe Rafal also tells Rhian he'll go further than Rafal when it comes to villainy and evil.

With a thousand lies and a good disguise Hit 'em right between the eyes Hit 'em right between the eyes When you walk away, nothing more to say See the lightning in your eyes See 'em running for their lives Clever alibis, Lord of the Flies Hit 'em right between the eyes Hit 'em right between the eyes When you walk away, nothing more to say See the lightning in your eyes See 'em running for their lives

I suppose this part does confirm the Lord of the Flies references! But I imagine Rhian fooled the staff who existed immediately after the war into believing there was no murder. It was just that the Storian killed him! (I think it actually implies it in the book.)

[sleepy-achilles]

I’d love a fic of the FNAF au 👍🏻

So I deleted the whole fic I had. I've just watched the fnaf film and finally the whole fic idea came to me.

So obviously be careful if you want to watch the film. I'm taking the main storyline about Mike and abby and using that. The rest is winging it.

Notes- Not gonna lie it took me too long to finish this. To the point the quick ending ended up being awhole paragraph and cliff hanger. Sorry 😅 its been months and I forgot the original ending I had planned.

Family Of Destruction- Fnaf Au- Its Me.

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John adjusts himself on the bench. "Ketchup makes everything better, isn't that right Johnny?" His Papa asks. "Yes!" John smiles. "No it doesn't." His father teases. Shawn rolls his eyes at the bigger man. "Dont listen to dad." Shawn huffs placing the burger down infront of John. "You should always listen to me. Just ignore papa" Taker huffs. Shawn turns to face him, knocking the soda can over. "Ah...Great." Shawn sighs picking the can up as Taker chuckles and turns towards the barbecue.

Shawn turns back towards John. "Im going to grab some paper towels. Keep an eye on your brother." Shawn tells him. "Yes papa" John nods, his blue eyes land on the baby brother in question. The boy was running around the trees, the old motorbike toy in the air. John takes in his outfit, black tshirt, with a red fox on his tshirt, black jeans with a rip in them from his rough housing and dirty red trainers.

He was obsessed with the outfit. It had his favourite freddy character on it, Foxy the pirate, the only pair of jeans he'd wear, the boy lived in joggers or shorts, and the only decent pair of trainers he wore. Despite being colourblind, he seemed to favour the bright red trainers over his others. Keeping them as the only wearable ones.

John stands up from the bench and begins walking towards his brother when something catches his attention. He tilts his head and walks towards the shiny thing. As he reaches it, he kneels down and pick it up. A security badge. "Da-" he cuts himself off as he hears a car start.

John's eyes widen as adrenaline and fear take over his body. Leon is gone. He drops the badge and pushes himself up off the ground. He runs towards the car and feels his heart break with each step. "LEON!" He screams as he spots his baby brother staring at him through the back window. "LEON!"

John runs past a tree and is no longer a lanky tween. No, he's now a adult, and still running. "L-LEON!" He stops as the car speeds off. His eyes close and hands shake as the sound of children laughing and his Papa crying fills his ears.

The children was new.

John opens his eyes and is greeted by his bedroom ceiling. He sighs as he brings a heavy hand up to scrub his face. "JOHNNNN!" The small voice yells. "Im up!" John groans. The now 20 year old sits up, his legs thrown over the side of the bed. Tiredness wracks his brain, as it has done for the past 12 years.

John goes on with his morning routine before joining the girl in the kitchen. "Im hungry." The red head frowns. "Why are you up so early cassie?" John asks as he moves towards the fridge. "Because I'm hungry." Cassie pouts. "So you couldn't make yourself cereal?" John questions as he grabs the one thing he knows she wants. "You promised me-" "waffles?" John finishes holding the box up. The girl gleams at him, nodding Violently. "Alright. You do your homework?" John asks as he moves to the toaster. (Do Americans have toasters?)

"Did you find a job?" She snaps back as he pushes the waffles down.

The siblings glance at each other. "No." They both speak at the same time.

"Well, there's a new opening in the papers, a security gig!" Cassie smiles as she slowly pulls her homework out of the paper. "Yeah where too?" John asks as he starts on coffee. "That old pizza place, Freddys!" John's heart sinks.

The image of the badge coming straight to his head.

"Hey, didn't dad use to own that place?" Cassie asks. John swallows and nods. "Yeah, him and Grandpa Paul." John whispers. "Whyd they close it?" Cassie asks. John keeps his gaze on the coffee machine. How do you explain a bunch of children went missing from the restaurant your father owned without making it seem like it was him?

"You know, no one left to run it after dad passed." John lies. "After he killed himself." John looks at her. "Who told you that?" He asks. "Papa died of a broken heart, dad couldn't handle the grief of losing both papa and Lee, so he killed himself." Cassie shrugs. John just stares at her.

She wasn't wrong. But she wasn't right.

No, there father was broken hearted. But he wasn't just grieving the loss of their family, but the loss of those children. The children who went missing in his business.

A business he built in hopes of bringing joy, happiness something his childhood lacked. And all it brought was pain and misery.

John looked up as the toaster pops.

Why are they suddenly looking for a guard? Who's looking for a guard?

And that's how John began his long, dark journey with his childhood.

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John taps his boots together. His legs stretched, feet on the old desk. He glances at the old monitors, eyes landing straight on the animiatrionics.

His favourite was always freddy. Bonnie was always close behind. He smiles as his eyes land on the fox. His baby brother was obsessed with it. He always found the pirate creepy.

He pauses his thought and drops his feet, leaning closer to the monitor. He could have sworn that curtain was closed. There wasn't a camera in pirates cove either.

He's about to stand when the front door buzzer goes off. His eyes snap towards the outside camera to see a police officer. "What the-" the buzzing doesn't stop. "Jesus, I'm coming" John groans grabbing his security jacket, putting it on as he rushes through the building.

He opens the door. "Yes?" The man examines him. "Officer Orton and you are?" Orton asks. John stares at him. Is he about to lie to a police officer? Yes. Yes he is. "John Cena. New security guard" John smiles. "May I come in, John?" Orton asks. "Um sure. Is something wrong?" John asks moving back. He watches as Orton moves in. "No. This place is on my usual route, so safe to say I was shocked the lights were still on." He explains as he stops infront of the cast. John pauses as he spots foxys curtain is now closed.

"What do you know about this place?" Orton asks, turning to look at John. John was definitely going to hell.

"Not much." John lies. "Place closed down a few years ago after six kids went missing. Owner killed himself a few months after. Some say it was guilt, others say it was the grief of losing his husband and youngest son" Orton explains, eyes lingering on the curtains. "And what do you believe?" John asks. "The whole world could see how tore up he was about the loss of his son. I don't believe he'd harm another child. But I do believe this place is connect. To his sons disappearance as well." Orton answers.

John's heart clenches. "Feel bad for his oldest. Lost three family members and now has to raise his baby sister all on his own. Kid wasn't given a chance." Orton mutters pressing the showtime button. John watches as the animatronics come to life. "Hes probably not behind this though." Orton states. "No?" John asks. "God no. If its anyone it's the co-owner Bearer. Always cared more about money than ethics." Orton huffs. "Hes in town?" John questions, feeling his skin crawl. "Fuck if I know" Orton shrugs, eyes lingering on bonnie. "If your asking me, he's the evil bastard behind the kidnappings." Orton mutters as his radio starts going off.

John watches the officer. "I gotta go. Try to not let this place get to ya, yeah John?" Orton asks. "It won't, orton-" "call me randy." Randy smirks shaking his hand. "Randy." John smiles nodding. "See you around." John watches as Randy walks out.

The door shuts and the music suddenly stops.

John turns and looks at the animals. "This is going to be a long week.." he sighs hitting the button, watching the curtains close.

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Cassie huns to herself as she draws. The colourful characters of the freddy crew. A voice joins in with her humming.

She looks up to see a boy, he must be younger than her. He has blonde hair, a black streak in his curtain. He has green and blue eyes, tan skin and beautiful freckles. She's seen him before. He was always nice and sweet to her. "Hello" cassie smiles. The boy just tilts his head before pointing down at the picture. Cassie looks down at it. "Oh those are the robots from my dad's restaurant" cassie smiles looking back up. She takes in the boys outfit, immediately spotting foxy. "But you must know that" cassie smiles.

"Cass? Who are you talking to?" Scott calls as he walks in. Cassie looks at her godfather. "What?" Cassie turns back to see the boy gone. "I..I saw a boy..I swear-" cassie looks back at Scott. "A boy? Can you describe him to me?" Scott asks moving closer. "Yeah" she nods as he sits down.

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

John stares at the car as it speeds away. He turns as the children start laughing. He freezes at the children stood behind him. One girl, five boys. One of the boys faces is hidden by a golden freddy mask. He stands in the front. One of the boys stands behind him and the others are stood behind them in a long line.

The furthest boy has pale skin and dark hair, he seems to be dressed as bonnie. The boy next to him has a ginger mowhawk and seems to he foxy. The next boy has a buzzcut and is dressed like freddy. The only girl has long blonde hair and is dressed like chica. The boy behind golden freddy has long black hair, tears staining his cheek, red rosy cheeks.

"D..did you see who took my brother?" John asks. The golden head tilts. And then the kids take off running. "Wait!" John gasps turning and chasing the slowest kid, the one dressed as foxy. John, not paying attention, tricks on a rock both of them do. John pushes up and grabs the kid.

The kid screams and drags his hook across John's arm. John pushes back and gasps as he hits the floor of the pizzeria.

He sits up and his arm immediately throbs. He looks down to see blood. "What the.." he glances at the monitor to see foxy gone from his stage. He pulls himself up and goes to change the cameras when his alarm goes off.

6am.

Time to go home.

Night 3, done.

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

Scott watches as Kevin paces. Kevin stops as John walks in.

"Kev? What's happened?" John immediately panicks.

"Nothing. Cassies asleep." Scott mutters. "Whats going on?" John asks. "Scott heard cassie talking to someone" Kevin states. "She does that, she has imaginary friend-" "it's Leon. She described Leon. We showed her a picture and she said yeah, that's my friend." Kevin cuts in. John's eyes widen. "What does she know about Leon?" Scott asks. "Nothing. Just that he existed and that he went away...we..we never talked about him much." John admits. Kevin looks at Scott.

"Hows the new job going?" Scott asks. John adjusts his hoodie. "Fine. Just a boring old security job" John shrugs. Kevin grabs his arm. John yelps and tries to pull back. "Why are you working at that hell hole?" Kevin snaps. "Why do you care?" John hisses. "Hes hurt Kevin." Scott mutters standing up. "Im fine." Kevin forces his sleeve up. "Ill grab the first aid kit." Scott sighs. "You should stay far away from that place." Kevin warns him. "You know the truth don't you?" John asks. "What truth?" "One of the officer, he thinks Leon's disappearance is linked to the missing kids from the restaurant" John states.

Kevin loosens his grip. "The only person who saw what happened that day, is you John." Kevin reminds him. John frowns. "I know that. You don't think I don't?" John grits his teeth. "If only I could remember..papa m..." John's eyes begin to water. "It ain't your fault kid. That sick bastard did this, he took them from you. And could he be the same guy that took those kids? Yeah, wouldn't surprise me." Kevin tells him. John looks down. "But if you've taken the job there just to feed the obsession you have about finding Leon's kidnapper, you need to quit. Its not healthy for you. Cassie doesn't need you ending up like your parents." Kevin warns him.

"Ill be careful." He whispers as Scott returns. "How'd this happen?" Scott asks. "I..I don't know." John sighs as he's forced to sit. "Cassie needs you John. Please, please be safe." Kevin pleads. "I will" John promises.

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The fourth night.

John searches for his jacket. "Im going to be late." He groans. He opens his bedroom door and is immediately greeted by cassie wearing his jacket. "I need that." John states. "I have to come with you. Scott had to cancel. He said he told you." Cassie states. John straightens. Oh fuck.

Scott did tell him.

And John forgot to hire a babysitter.

"Shit!" He curses.

"Shit!"

"No! Bad word!" John barks as he rushes to the phone.

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

John sits at his desk with a frown.

He shouldn't have brought her here. He sways in his office chair, glancing back at his sleeping sister. They built her a little tent at the back of the office. He turns back to the cameras to see bonnie and chica gone. "Fuckkk" he groans letting his head fall back.

"Im cassie."

John freezes. Did he just hear cassie?

"I had a brother named Leon."

John turns around quickly and his eyes widen in fear. Cassie is stood looking at a big golden Fred bear that's sat in the corner of the office. "Cassie?" John asks as the lights start flickering. "John...Leon here says there's a dangerous man coming and we need to leave." She states. John stands and moves to his sister. "What? What are you on about?" John asks. "Leon, he says we are not safe here." Cassie frowns. "Thats a old freddy suit, that shouldn't even be in here" John sighs. "You're not listening to me" cassie snaps. "Cassidy it's a suit. Enough." He snaps back. "No!" She yells running out. "Cassie!" He barks running after her.

He pauses as he sees her stood infront of the animatronics. "Cassie step away from them" he orders. "No." She snaps. "They are dangero-" "no! Thats Finn" she points at bonnie. "Thats sheamus" foxy. "Alexa" chica. "Cody" freddy. "And thats drew." John stares confused. "Drew?" She points behind him. John turns to see some puppet figure behind him. His eyes widen.

Wait.

"The missing children." He whispers as the puppets head tilts. He glances back at the office. "Oh god this has to be a bad dream." He whispers turning back to cassie. "Cassie" "They are friends. Friends of Leon's." Cassie states. "Friends of mine." Cassie adds. "Fuck" John groans. "Cmon! Let's clean this place up" she smiles taking John's hand.

What a long fucked up night.

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Night five.

John stares at the monitors. But that's when he spots it. The moving. All the robots are in their place, so who the fuck is this?

John grabs his flashlight and begins moving towards the main room. Nothing.

"What the fu-ow" he groans as something hits his back. He turns and feels himself pale as fear takes over. A ball sits at his feet. "Whos there!" He yells turning his flashlight on and aiming it at the hall he'd just come from. His eyes widen. "What the fuck!" He barks before taking off down the other hall.

"Get him."

------

Cassie glances up to her bedroom window at the tapping. She smiles as the golden fur shines in the light. "Leon!" She smiles opening the window. "Cmon. Johnny needs help" the voice creaks. Cassie nods and accepts the big bear paw.

----

John groans as he hits the wall and floor. "You know, it's a real shame to see another Michaels die. But...you couldn't let it be" the voice barks. John stares at the golden rabbit. The voice isn't coming from it. No. It's coming from behind it. John's eyes widen as the rabbit pulls the helmet off to reveal his uncle. "Kane" John gasps. "I enjoyed killing Lil Leon. He put up such a fight, it was a shame he had to have such a violent death compared to the rest." To confirm, kanes mouth doesn't move. "And well the rest fell into place. Your pa couldn't handle the death of Leon and fell into his own fate. And your father? He stood no chance." The voice continues. "All you had to do was stay away" the voice sighs as the other robots join kane.

"A real shame."

"John!" "What the-" the voice gets cut off with a groan. Kanes head snaps back. "Cassie?" John whispers seeing the girl stood with a boy slightly taller. "Kill them! Both of them!" The voice yells as the robots. Kane goes to move when freddy stops him. "Kill, them." A new voice speaks. As John sits up and clears his eyes, the boy turns into a golden bear.

"Cassie!" He yells finally getting his bearings. He pushes from the wall, ducking away from kanes grasp and towards the girl. He grabs her picking her up, not caring at the screams of pain coming from behind him. His eyes catch the puppet as he runs out of the building.

"What about Leon!" She cries. "We have to go!" He yells getting to his car.

Cassie stares at the building from the back seat as Leon stands in the doorway, smiling at his baby sister, waving. Cassie smiles softly and waves back.

Leon turns towards the others as they walk back in. "Their both locked away." Sheamus states. "Your brother. He's been looking for the truth for awhile now." Drew confesses as he walks over. Leon glances at the others and then the suits they hide in. "They'll end up like us. They'll suffer the same fate." Alexa states glancing towards the kitchen. "They'll be able to hurt us." Cody whispers. "No." Leon's gruff voice speaks up. "John, cassie. They'll be back. John won't stop until he knows the truth." Leon mutters looking outside to see randy walking towards the door.

He stands infront of the glass doors as randy chains and padlocks it.

"Randy will make sure of it" Leon mutters.

Randy glances at the boy and nods before walking back to his car.

"We will be free."

....

...

"Its me. Come find me."