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phoenixfire-thewizardgoddess · 1 month

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Very bizarre headcanon / idea

Television Demon starts shit but accidentally crashes the movie night for the Hotel. He'd been in full overlord form angling for the radiotower side of the new hotel, screaming in a garbled static because he was incoherent with rage after Alastor taunted him mid-show.

Alastor being a cheeky little fucker, pops open a window to ask Vox if he'd care to comment on the rumours the last callers had raised? That Vox was built like a kendoll with detachable attachments.

Vox is pissed primarily because he knows Alastor knows that's only half true... but he's having trouble getting actual words to form outside of a thousand soundbytes screaming like a t-rex all at once, in response.

The Overlord form's main screen has to lower to stare at the radio demon, glaring in fury, to which Alastor laughs and narrates the situation to his listeners. Resting an elbow on the windowframe as he cups his face, grinning in genuine devilish joy to see the other so undone.

"Not helping the rumours, my good technological nightmare, by reacting like this... Now, since I have you here for an interview, would you care to comment on having something four foot long that glows AND vibrates? Really, Vox, I've heard of experimentation but this sounds like overcompensation to a morbid degree, is your little moth encouraging such insanity?"

"Ksshzzt -o0u wi-wi-WISHhhhh, Fuc-Fuc-FUcccKKKK3333r..."

"...not particularly, no. Shall I take that as confirmation? Excellent. Dear listeners, it appears that our unexpected guest is trying to work out how best to goad me outside without destroying the foundation of the hotel that his majesty, Lucifer, remade with his own power for dear Princess Charlotte. I doubt his little highness would be too magnanimous towards anyone who destroyed it again..."

He laughs wildly, the sound distorting into a warbling noise of threat as a sharp bolt of electricity made contact.

"Dear listeners, it appears that the little picture box is seeking to play rough and tumble... so do forgive my ending this little show early in order to entertain his foolishness. Enjoy the preprogrammed selection of music, and have a blood-soaked night of your choosing."

A record clicked over automatically as the microphone switch flicked off. Alastor launches himself out the window, growing in size, as the door to his tower snaps open, with a worried Charlie and scowling Husk yelling at him to stop.

The tech overlord makes an earsplitting metallic screech as he fell back, slamming harshly into ground outside with the full demonic form of the radio demon on his chest, the jaw unhinging to laugh... and then to bite.

Vox ejects electricity into the other's chest, right where he knew adam had hit the guy, his cables parrying the tendrils, to elicit an agonised howl of grinding static and an animalistic screech.

Sharp claws descend to tear off one of his secondary screens, blood and fluid begins to cover them both. Red and blue, Vox enjoys that he managed to reopen that poorly concealed wound, and taunts Alastor over the airways.

"GUYS, STOP!" Charlie shouts, throwing down a blast of her musical fireworks to try and distract. They burn the respective skins of two overlords, long enough for the front doors to burst open and admit the furious tiny monarch...

"Just WHAT do you think you're doing on the grounds of MY DAUGHTER'S HOTEL?" he yells, a menacing ball of hellfire in one hand. Or, it had been... because suddenly both OVerlords are being engulfed in the licking nightmare, as Lucifer flew himself closer, grinning.

"Not so powerful now, are we? Don't try to put it out, only I can... hellfire, you know? Hah. You two stop this and I'll even let you regenerate a bit before I toss you both out of here for ruining movie night."

"Dad, stop! Remember the mercy thing we talked about?" Charlie yells, Husk helping her down via his seldom-used wings, because the alternative was Charlie jumping out the window without thought to her safety. Lucifer snaps the flames away as she approaches, leaving charred OVerlords growling at him. "Alastor, I need you to stop fighting Mr Vox... it looks bad for the hotel... and Mr Vox, please make an appointment before coming here."

A tendril pats her on the head and pointedly moves her out of reach as Vox blasts another round of electricity directly into his chest. Alastor responds by gouging at his arm until it dangled loosely.

"I. Said. STOP!" Lucifer Commands, blasting the pair with his aura. IT feels like a sledgehammer coming from every angle.

Vox and Alastor emit something warped and primal, forced out of OVerlord form by the King. Vox noted, with dizzy satisfaction, that Alastor had gone pale as he clutched his chest... near insensate from the resonance.

Seizing the opportunity, he flips them, pinning Alastor and catching both wrists to send bursts of controlled charge at the other in a rapidfire assault that finally overwhelms the smug fucker. Vox finds himself hurled off the radio demon by a large angelic wing, blinking rapidly to locate the King looking down at him with distinct distaste.

"Sinner, you test my patience... at least the bellhop had the sense to stop when I forced you both apart." His features were equally blank when he stared at the bloody mess of both Overlords, before grinning as he raised a hand. "I think you need some time out, hmm? Let's get you back to that little tower of yours and out of my hair."

"FfffuCCcKKk" Vox feels himself on the fritz, mind computing a dozen plans in microseconds, trying to locate a loophole. The little princess was kneeling by Alastor, her hands already bunching up her red blazer and applying it with force to the bleeding gash that lay beneath the clothes.

Husk, the drunken sot, positioned himself between them to ensure Vox didn't have line of sight access.

In a panic, he hurls himself into the nearest phone on the King's hip, and then back down so he was behind the Princess. The King hurtled towards the Overlord, who shoved Charlie and Husk backwards with a burst of electricity as he snatched at the Radio Demon.

Lucky the fucker was part tech, because it made it easier to fold their physical forms down into electricity and hurl them towards the nearby line. In his panic, Vox goes downstream instead of up, and this little fuck up meant they ended up in the hotel itself... ironically, in a way that even Alastor may have laughed at, in the television itself.

Lucifer, outside, tries to summon the pair back to him, but something... goes wrong.The TV sparks, screen static and coloured lines, as the Overlords and their angelic injury hindered smooth translation back to physical form.

Angel yelps, falling over the back of the couch with Niffty in one arm, Kiki in another, Fat Nuggs in a third and a distinctly startled Vaggie tucked under a fourth. It was quite the spectacle.

The tech begins to scream, as does the DVD player, until the room began to light up in a way that seemed to suggest an explosion was at hand.

And then... it stopped.

Whatever the fuck that was, it settled right back into the DVD menu screen with the occasional blip and flicker.

"What?"

"Charlie, hun? Something's fucked with the tv?"

Charlie, skidding inside, takes note of the sudden change to the screen. "Oh no..."

----------

Waking up in an unfamiliar militaristic location were two confused humans who felt like something was trying very hard to add memories and information to their brain.

They're on a ship, a massive one, and it seems full of fanciful sci-fi nonsense that the unexplained information they now just Know calls 'Jaegers'.

"Well picture box, we're in quite the odd situation..." says a filter-less but polished voice. "I have no idea what is happening, would you?"

Vox, or the human he once was, is staring up at the nearest robot. "No fuckin' way..." He knew that thing. He'd seen it in a recent movie Vel had demanded they watch... he'd loved it of course. Soemthing about tech fighting giant eldritch monsters was both sexy and satisfying...

"Al I-... fuck." He'd turned to face the other, and jerked back in surprise at the unexpectedly hot dude standing behind him. Shit, they were human here? He immediatley touched his own face, and shuddered, feeling flesh not components. "I have a proper face again? And you're hot in life too? What the fuck..."

"Yes, you do indeed seem human again and it's not the worst face I've seen so congratulations. Now would you-... EXCUSE ME?" If he could have emitted radio screech, he would have. "What did you call me?"

"Hot, you stupid fucking idiot. Oh I am committing this to memory..." Vox replies, looking at his face in the nearest glass he can find, noting that other people didn't seem to interact with them right now. Could they not see them, or were they deviating from the plot too much? Who fucking cared.

He was also not about to cry over getting his face back. He wasn't.

"...that aside, would you know where we are?"

"No idea how or why but I think between my abilities, your corrupted injury and magic, and Lucifer trying to grab us out of the stream... we might have ended up in a movie? Pacific Rim?"

"That was scheduled for movie night, yes... but how is that..."

"Wait, are you still injured in here?"

"...it appears not. That is at least on our side. Now, can you explain to me more about this place?"

And that's when the first Kaiju alert came in.

---------

"I knew you were a stalker, Vox, but literally connecting to my brain via this neural handshake? Didn't you already try that with your cables when we fought years before?"

"Different scenarios. This one is reciprocal, you see some of my shit... just don't linger on any of it or you'll get stuck in it."

"Alright, same to you... nothing you may see is of any importance anymore."

The neural handshake finds enough commonality from their lives in Hell as friends and business partners, to make it snap together.

"Excellent, now... how do we move this thing?"

They pilot a clearly hastily renamed main plot device, uh, Jaeger called RadioStatic. Vox keeps laughing, but Alastor is confused about the whole injoke even with their brains connected.

After some experimentation and the realm's insistence on shoving false memories in their heads, the pair manage to attend to the oncoming Kaiju with only mild issues. They overcome it, which causes the world to shudder and change... Vox later explains that in the original story, the kaiju won, killing one of the pilots and traumatising the other.

The whole story diverges, with the exception of the persistent incoming kaiju...and Alastor beating the tar out of the fellow with the terrible australian accent. He's not sure why, but it irks him.

-----

Watching the whole situation with horror from the couch, the Hazbin Hotel staff are both amused and anxious. Knowing that the overlords were trapped in there until the credits (they hoped) ejected them back to Hell again... and Charlie wsa feeling guilty for watching the few moments of easy camaraderie arose between the two.

Cherri, and when did she get here? Was cheering for human alastor as he beat the fake aussie accent guy and his equally annoying son...

As the kaiju became more elaborate and dozens of jaegers went down, tension began to rise. The main plot had been abandoned, no one knew how this would end...

Something unexpected occurred, as the penultimate moment arose with RadioStatic and one of the older jaegers move towards the portal in the ocean, battling kaiju of increasing complexity.

Vox finds he now has access to his electricity, which he funnels through the jaeger. Alastor can use his green fire again, also changing the tide of battle.

Something was different though, more kaiju than in the original were flooding through. It didn't make sense.

RadioStatic was rent in two, neither pilot able to eject safely as they fumbled to break their mechanical seals to the Jaeger and one another. The large cat 5 in front of them, nicknamed on the fly as Val's Fury because Alastor thought he was hilarious, used several of their titanic legs to slam the jaeger under the waves.

In a moment of absolute horror, the Hazbin Hotel and King have to watch both men drown onscreen... and suddenyl an intriguing but potentially easily resolved situation becomes Too Real.

"Why aren't they snapped back here? I thought..."

"Shit, how do we even help?"

Lucifer isn't sure how to even start extracting the others... when the porblem solves itself. Red eyes snap open, and then an underwater explosion of blue, of green, subsumes the bodies.

With a wide grin crossing two changed faces, the pair expand and rise. No longer human, back to their Sinner bodies... and rapidly enlarging to kaiju-esque proportions in their overlord forms.

"No fuckin' way..." Angel breathes, eyes wide.

"I do believe you were being rude, little lizard..." Alastor intones, and begins to tear the thing apart, as Vox's cables deliver targeted shocks to weak points. They never strike the other, or get in the way, some part of the neural handshake was likely still in progress...

Vox claws the eyes out of the creature, as Alastor gouges out whatever it has for a throat with his gaping maw. Blue glowing goo coats both overlords, as the creature collapses.

They turn to take on some of the lower categories, lifting ejection pods out of the way when they saw them. The sea began to glow blue with the carnage about the pair.

It was as epic as it was hilarious, with a few of the downed jaeger pilots tucked amongst Vox's many screens and cables, and holding onto the wide branches of Alastor's antlers as the last of the original rangers, Pentecoste, blows the portal shut.

The pair of OVerlords waded back towards a nearby incoming Jaeger retrieval ship, returning each of the rescued humans to the vessel. Some part of them might be feleing altruistic, but it could also be the realm they were in influencing their sense of caring about each of the tertiary characters and their wellbeing...

Charlie was hoping for the former, because she was vibrating with joy at the idea that perhaps not even overlords were beyond saving.

Predictably, the moment some high ranking whatever the movie's system was had said something about their thanks for the assistance... weapons were aimed at the Overlords. Helicopters, air aircraft guns, another Jaeger and several smaller guns held by people on deck. No matter how the rescued yelled at their comrades to stop, why would they do this?

Eventually, the constant bombardment caused enough damage that the OVerlords went down, as planned.

An order goes out to gather them and harvest what they could to learn how the pair did this, how to replicate it.

The sea was turning a very particular mixture of red and blue, mingling with the blinding glowing blue...

The screen zooms in on the tertiary characters as someone makes a poignant statement about how humanity was the true monster all along... and the credits slam onto screen with a sharp music sting.

At that point, the television stuttered and began to glow violently as two thankfully normal-sized 7ft sinners appeared in a sodden mass before the couch. Sending the others into a flurry of frantic activity.

Lucifer eventually calmed everyone with only minimal raised voices.

He snaps his fingers to dry the pair and floor, erasing some of the blood. "Alright, just because that was entertaining and I need to work out how they did it, I'll give them a once-over..."

His Majesty makes a show of distaste as he heals the pair, including the worst-kept secret in the hotel... Adam's little lovetap. He washed his hands twice after absorbing that essence.

Angel eventually ends up picking up Alastor and putting him on one of the extra couches the king manifests, and hesitates over Vox. Given the guy watches Val hurt him, it's not hard to say the spider was less inclined to help him... but kindness in his battered heart wins out, and he puts the other on a soft surface.

-----

The real question is whether the outcome will be positive, negative, awkward, affectionate or just a mess.

Do they snap awake and demand a rematch with those fuckers in that fake movie military?

Do they refuse to acknowledge anything happened?

Does Vox decide to out Alastor's secret collar, because he saw how it happened in the neural link and Vox isn't held to a vow of silence like Alastor?

Do Alastor and Vox have to confront that perhaps their friendship is over / has the chance to start over? Or if there are deeper feeling there?

How do you react when someone has literally seen the deepest moments of your life?

Etc.

#radiostatic #also general hazbin chaos #pacific rim #no i am not over that shitty fake accent

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bizarre-blorbo-bracket · 1 year

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Round 1 poll 13: Rev. Green from Cluedo vs the Nachtraven from Nachtraven

Propaganda under the cut:

Rev. Green:

1) Literally just a random board game character 😪 2) Ok so basically here’s the deal. One day, about a year and a half or two years ago, I saw some random thing related to Clue online. I (dual U.S. American and Russian citizen, because I was born in America to an immigrant parent, I PROMISE this is important) was confused because among the cast of characters was “Mr. Green”. Now, I hadn’t played Clue in a very long time. It wasn’t my favorite game as a kid, my only memories of it were wanting to play as Ms. Peacock and then my brother taking her and making me pick someone else, but I was pretty confident the character was Reverend Green. What happened? Was he excommunicated?? I kind of figured the name was just changed to reflect a more secular culture and that I had unknowingly played an old copy of the game as a kid.

But it fascinated me. So I spent months on and off researching the topic. (poorly, might I add, it wasn’t a complicated issue. But still.) I found out about many changes from version to version. Clue Junior, Clue VCR Mystery, Clue Master Detectives, all of it. And the whole time, Green was there to greet me in each new version. It was the first thing I always checked. Was he Mister or Reverend? I found out in one version he was a defrocked priest turned businessman, and in another a scam artist who pretended to be a member of the clergy to pull of a scheme. Closer. I ran polls, I went to irl Clue events, and eventually I found what I was looking for the whole time. Green was a Reverend in the 1944 patent of the game, and the subsequent 1949 U.K. release of Cluedo. But, because of fear that U.S. Citizens would take issue with a member of the church being suspected of murder, Parker Brothers changed the name to Mister Green for the U.S. release.

That all could have taken me five minutes of googling, but honestly the chase made the result so much more worth it. And yet, there was something more there in the back of my mind. This all was well and good, but why was I so sure of the U.K. version of the name? My father’s family is Irish so we have a pretty healthy hatred of all things British, there’s no way my dad would’ve had us play that version of the game. Right? But thanks to a response from a poll I ran, I found out that the German version also went with Reverend. Because Green is an Anglican, I kind of assumed that the U.S. change might have been carried over into other international releases. But no! That made me realize that Mister Green is an outlier and that almost all languages of the game use Reverend. So then last night the pieces finally clicked together. I asked my mom to confirm a hunch I had, not expecting her to at all remember something this trivial. Like I said, I didn’t play it much as a kid. Maybe we didn’t even own a copy, and I had just played it at a library or a hurricane shelter or a relative’s house or something. But she remembered. We did, in fact, own the game. Not just any version, but a RUSSIAN COPY. I unknowingly grew up with Cluedo! So I had every reason to believe it was Reverend Green and be confused when I heard otherwise.

Tl;dr, minor version difference between Russian and American copies of a board game gave me a hyperfixation and a blorbo.

Nachtraven:

SO! The Nachtraven is the titular character of a Dutch children’s gameshow.

They’re a cyberpunk-synthwave-medieval fantasy knight (which is honestly an awesome aesthetic) who breaks into children’s bedrooms at night, lures from their sleepovers and makes them compete against each other in challenges… and the winners get to have a lovely sleepover at whatever place they were lured to.

Seriously, they’re so ominous, so sinister, so villain-coded, but all they want to do is to make children’s sleepovers even better. They’re just a nice guy/entity.

They don’t speak, and instead communicate using electronic beeps, gestures, tape recordings of a woman’s voice and the visor of their knight’s helmet as an LED display they put words on.

Seriously, if this was an American show, all the cryptidcore kids would be citing them as one of their biggest childhood influences. I hope that one day they will be recognised as the true cryptid they are.

#nachtraven #rev. green #mr green #cluedo #clue

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lampmanliveblogs · 1 year

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Ah, that’s not a terrifying image or anything.

After Gus is on edge and Hunter is sad for a bit, Hunter notices plant tendrils beginning to grab him. In the distance, he hears Gus yelping, and he runs over to find… this.

Willow stands here, surrounded by and tangled in her own plants, having snared Gus when he startled her.

Between this and the previous batch of posts, I got an ask that mentioned how Willow beginning to lose control over her magic is similar to how we saw Belos in season two lose control over his body and lash out violently. And you know what? With this image here, I can totally see the similarities. The glowing eyes and the vines acting similar to the tentacles Philip’s arms would morph into… perhaps not the greatest imagery for Hunter to encounter.

Even though she keeps telling herself ”I can do this! I can do this!” Willow quickly gives up on using her magic to gain control over her plants, instead ripping them apart with her bare hands. A subtle indication that she doesn’t believe her own words.

Before she knows it, she finds herself alone in the caverns, her friends consumed by the very same plants she would use to protect them. In some ways, that would be the ultimate failure for someone like Willow, who has very much been a protector of the group.

(maybe Willow’s magic is trying to protect Gus & Hunter by enclosing them in these cocoons? just a thought)

Meanwhile, back at Tiara Halls, The Collector is not taking ”Raine’s” warnings very seriously. An expected reaction, the baddest dude around before The Collector showed up got smeared on a wall by The Collector. Good thing too, that guy was a jerk, I’m glad he’s gone. Isn’t that right, Raine?

(i swear, getting a screenshot where the collector didn’t look awkward never needed to be this difficult. as you can see, i gave up)

(i watched a few seconds further than this screenshot implies, I just wanted one where everyone was in frame)

Lore!

As it turns out, Titan magic can cancel out Collector magic, which is probably why our own Lord of the Fireflies was never able to get out of the divine time-out on his own. Secondly, it’s confirmed that The Collector’s ”predecessors” wiped out the Titans, just like I theorized earlier.

The Collectors have a very prominent space motif, with stars and moons and planets and whatnot. They’re from space (and remember, anything can happen in space!). They have this sort of… what’s the word I’m looking for… detached vibe, I guess. I mean, The Collector floats around because gravity doesn’t bother them, they seem unaware how their actions affect others, they don’t even understand the concept of food and what mortals can and cannot eat.

Titans on the other hand, appear as these massive, primordial life forms, whose corpses become islands. While The Collectors become upset when the mortals interfere with their work and will go as far as to wipe them out for it, King’s Dad’s body provides a home and magic power for countless mortal creatures. The Titans appear to be part of the bizarre ecology of the Boiling Seas planet. They put the ”mega” in ”megafauna.”

Even looking at their designs, the Collectors are humanoid (kinda) with these smooth, sleek designs. Meanwhile, the Titans are big, monstrous beasts, covered in fur and bone, with sharp teeth and horns. Collectors wander space, while the Titans are bound to this one planet (even if their blood does pierce dimensions).

I’m not sure how well I’m communicating my thoughts here, but the thing I’m trying to say is that if you look at the imagery and motifs surrounding the Titans vs. The Collectors, it makes sense they would cancel each other out. They’re basically each other’s opposites.

You know, when I first heard the expression "talk through one's hat" I didn't think it'd be quite so literal.

Oh well, I'm glad we cleared up that misunderstanding. King’s not gonna seal The Collector away again, they’re best buds!

…cue things going horribly wrong in three, two, one…

#the owl house #liveblog #the owl house liveblog #toh s3e2 #for the future

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weekend-whip · 1 year

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My brain has been starved of aftershock, finalfrontier, another ship content as of late. Give me your brain rot.

Welp, since it's the last day of May (here), and tomorrow begins Pride, I'll tell you that I've been filter feeding on an Aftershock mermaid au :V

Jesse is one-fourth mermaid—his mom is a half-mermaid, and his father is full human. He's still trying to figure out what scenario led them to get together, but he's not ever gonna ask.

Non-full mermaids can switch between having a tail or not by the "get wet get fins/get dry get legs" rule. Touching water will initiate a transformation; the speed of the transformation differs by individual/situation.

Jesse prefers to be on land, but mainly stays in the ocean due to his sister—an attack by fishermen caused her great injury, to the point that it's easier for her to remain as a mermaid than a human, so Jesse sticks around to keep her safe and protected and all that jazz.

He's also something of a siren, and loves to sing—not to lure anyone to their doom, just that he likes the sound of his own voice. However, he always makes sure he's absolutely alone when he does sing, because...well, he can't have some unsuspecting human catch wind of his irresistible notes. Bad times all around.

...this doesn't stop local ocean artist/musician Cole from overhearing Jesse one day, leading to him to constantly coming back to the beach to sketch Jesse singing on his little rock in the sun. Cole wants to talk to the mermaid, but like, you can't just talk to a mermaid.

Time passes and on a foggy morning, Jesse sings while a ship he can't see is passing by, with Miranda swimming not too far away. The ship turns out to be a fishing boat, and after hearing Jesse sing, manages to snare Miranda and Jesse in their net. Cole, just chilling on the beach when he suddenly can't hear Jesse anymore, realizes something's wrong and heads out to investigate.

He manages to free both mermaids without incident (haven't decided if there's a confrontation or it's a stealth mission) but either way Jesse goes feral over protecting Mira until Cole demonstrates he means no harm by freeing her from the net, followed by freeing Jesse too. Miranda reveals that they can at least understand one another and Jesse drags her away.

Couple days later, Jesse brings up some treasures and flowers from the ocean to thank Cole for the rescue with, and they finally start to talk and whatnot. Jesse reveals that he can turn human, and Cole...does not react as surprised as Jesse expected, but he's also okay with it (guess he's just that chill), so it's all good.

After that they have a bunch of "dates", with Cole showing Jesse some of the stuff he's missing on land, and Jesse telling Cole about oceanlife + making him some awesome seafood meals...however, Cole refuses to swim with Jesse. Jesse can't figure out why.

So yeah they get closer and Cole reveals that he first became aware of Jesse when he heard him sing, which freaks Jesse out because he think he's "hypnotized" Cole into loving him and proceeds to try and get away from him.

They meet again later, with Jesse explaining what he thinks must have happened...and Cole insisting that it can't be true. Jesse protests this until Cole grabs Jesse and jumps off the pier with him in his arms, plunging them both into the water.

...turns out Cole's been half-mermaid the whole time too, which is why he found none of this bizarre + how he handled the fishermen so easily + why he was always at the ocean to begin with yet never wanted to swim + he was immune to Jesse's song in the first place, confirming that he really did fall in love with Jesse for Jesse

Cole then dumps his whole lore about his mermaid mom being killed by poachers and how his dad tried to use his mermaid-ness to get into show business, driving Cole away from both his dad and the ocean. There's a whole thing here but I'm keeping it to myself in case I do write this one day ahahaaaa

But anyway, they're all happy that they can be together with no issue and they swim around and kiss and then maybe there's a sequel hook with Cole readjusting back to the ocean or something.

......haven't really thought about anyone else for obvious reasons lmao but I have very strongly decided that Jay is a blue octopus with yellow rings, and Jamie is a yellow octopus with blue rings. People get them mixed up and proceed to regret it.

Olivia, of course, is a shark. Haven't decided which Shark. Bridget is her annoyed narwhal sidekick.

Kai and Nya are also half-mer; Kai has a shark tail, Nya a dolphin tail. Have not decided what their situation would be; I just don't want go with the obvious routes :P

Zane, in a twist of irony, is a full human. He's Cole's confidant for Cole's life on land, and believes in Cole's "mermaid tales" because he's met one himself (Pixal).

idk what Lloyd's doing but he's probably some wildly poisonous form of half-fish. Even if he can transform there's always something creature-y about him snksnksnk

#legacyverse #the ninja legacy whip #cole brookstone #oc: jesse marvell #aftershockshipping #oc x canon #cole x oc #mermay #k1ng boo #asks from nice people #i've actually written a few smatterings of scenes and doodled a sketch #which is a lot for something i had on a whim #so yes i blame the brainrot

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winemom-culture · 10 months

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My grandparents on my dad’s side are pushing 80 and my grandma (well- both of them) have been a little bit out of sorts the last few times we’ve seen her. Nothing confirmed wrong, but just sorta…. Mopey, sleeping all day, on absolute arsenal of meds including newly added Wellbutrin- which is an objectively GOOD thing, but weird for them as they are bootstraps types.

She tells us that she’s just depressed about my grandpa starting projects he can’t finish in their house, living in sawdust and mess and whatnot. No one’s gotten anything more than that though.

Well the tea now is that my grandpa, who’s also showing arguably even more signs of mental decline, just in a more manic way, and has needed his Facebook privileges revoked for a LONG time prior to this- has started to leave weird cryptic comments suggesting something more is wrong with my grandmother. Like (to her brother) “I feel like you better see your sister sooner than later” and to some more extended family, in-person “say what you want to say to her now, because.. (hand gesture)”

So naturally, this has the extended family and my aunt who is both physically and emotionally closer to them in a panic. She sent my mom this LONG text asking to look out for signs of anything next week when they visit our house for Thanksgiving. My mom and I are just sorta like… yeah we been knew, because we’ve debriefed this exact thing every recent time we’ve seen them.

Apparently my aunt has been talking to my grandma about this, and she tells her there’s nothing wrong. For reasons beyond me, no one has just outright asked grandpa what the heck he’s talking about. I hope nothing is wrong of course, but I do think it’s funny the way the whole family is on the case and it’s still wholly possible everything is fine, and he’s just being dramatic and bizarre.

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celestial-sapphicss · 3 years

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I'd like to chime in with my opinion on the Pat/Pa sibling dynamics.

I'm an older sibling (we're both girls, though) and I can confirm that "bossing the younger sibling around" is a thing that happens. In my case, I definitely did it when we were kids and when I was in high school, for example. I mean, it wasn't to the extent where I'd tell her to do my chores all the time, but still. So I didn't see Pat's behaviour as strange or entitled at all.

On the other hand, Pat did make me roll my eyes a few times because we can't ignore the fact that he's a guy that wants to delegate what should be his housework onto a girl, which is not uncommon when it comes to men (anywhere, not just in Thailand/Asia). Also, with the way Pat's family is quite patriarchal (his dad really has a lot of those "toxic masculinity" traits, lbr), it stands to reason that Pat would pick some of that behaviour up (because that's just what kids do and as they grow into adults, it stays with them and they have to unlearn it). However, to say he's treating Pa "like a slave" and imply that their relationship is somehow unhealthy is way too harsh/not true.

Sure, he tells Pa to do his laundry but when she's upset with him (for not keeping his promise about Pran) and tells him "do your own laundry" he doesn't object and go pester her to do it. He just sighs and lets it go. He's not forcing her to do anything she doesn't want to. When she moves in with him, he lets her take the bed and a bigger share of the bedroom. But what really showed me that he respects her as a woman (and didn't pick up his dad's mysogyny) was when Wai asked him for permission to date her and his response was "I'll let her decide." I'm bringing this up because SO many times in media we have this portrayal of guys asking the girl's father or older brother for permission to date/marry them and having to get their blessing first. Again, this isn't just an Asian thing, it happens in American/European shows and movies to this day (actually, just today my parents were watching an American movie and I happened to catch a scene where a guy was having dinner with the "in-laws" and asked the father's permission to marry his daughter and it was treated as totally normal, which infuriated me). So the fact that Pat went against that notion and was instead like "it's HER decision" (as it should be, because no man should speak on behalf of a woman's decision on who to date) made me love him even more than I already did by that point.

Anyways, I've rambled on for too long already. 😅 Like you said, Pat has flaws (as does every character) but to say he was horrible to Pa is just untrue.

hi anon! thank you for sharing this!!!!

first of all, never apologise for rambling i appreciate it! all that you said 💯

"On the other hand, Pat did make me roll my eyes a few times because we can't ignore the fact that he's a guy that wants to delegate what should be his housework onto a girl, which is not uncommon when it comes to men (anywhere, not just in Thailand/Asia)." - this, yeahh. not only is it very common, but this behaviour is often encouraged. like some of the reasons I've heard in defence of men avoiding their part of the work and putting it on the women in their families are bizarre. and women are expected to pick up that slack.

and while that discussion is very important, like you said, it's not completely applicable to pat & pa because they do share a relationship where both of them have equal footing, as you already mentioned!

also talking about "I'll leave it to her decision" honestly just blew my mind away because the "approval of older brother trope" is SO PREVALENCE and SO TOXIC i literally have never seen a piece of media where the older brother actually leaves it up to their sister's decision, let alone say it 🤦

i can't really comment on it everywhere else, but in India, this trope is glorified to an extent that it gets violent. not to ignore the fact that it's very real. elder brothers feel entitled to make decisions for their younger sister's lives.

instead of being approachable and a confidant for their younger sister, they try and act like a parent, and yet another person young girls have to hide their lives from.

but pat & pa are definitely not that. not only pa trusts pat to no extent (he was literally the first person in the family she came out to) but also they have that trust and affection for each other that goes beyond just "older brother protecting younger sister"

pat & pa share the burden that their toxic family puts on them and do try to protect each other from it and i think that's beautiful

#it really would have been easy for pat to ask wai to just back off #especially since wai is an asshole #but he literally trusted pa's judgement enough to decide what's good for her #and didn't try to coddle pa or invalidate her feelings #or say stuff like #you're just a child you don't know #or #you're a girl you don't know how boys are #and other bs #truly best boy #bare minimum? idk but #so refreshing to see a boy raised in such a toxic patriarchal environment #and not turn into one #instead be a golden retriever sunshine boy #really goes on to say that yes you can unlearn toxicity if you make an effort #vi's inbox #bad buddy

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makeste · 4 years

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BnHA Chapter 300: Days of Our Todorokis

Previously on BnHA: Hawks was all “hey Jeanist, wanna go on a road trip with me to my mom’s house?” Jeanist was all “you know it,” and so they hopped into Jeanist’s jercedes and took off. Hawks took a nap and had a flashback to his Dickensian childhood living in a abject poverty with his jerk mom and jerk dad, thinking heroes were make-believe until one day Endeavor arrested his dad and Baby Hawks was all “OH SHIT.” And then he saved a bunch of people, and the HPSC was all “what do we have here,” and blah blah blah, you know the rest. Back in the present, Hawks was all “well my life is currently in shambles, but on the plus side there’s no one bossing me around anymore so that’s pretty cool,” and then decided he was going to talk to Endeavor. Fandom was all “I can’t believe Hawks would side with his childhood hero over the man who burned his wings off and posted a video calling him a violent murderer who took after his abusive dad,” so that was fun and stuff. I can’t wait to see what piping fresh takes this new chapter will bring.

Today on BnHA: Our old friend Carbonation Carl tries to loot a Starbucks and gets his ass kicked by a senior citizen. Society is all “YEAH, WE’RE REALLY STARTING TO GET SICK OF THIS SHIT.” Old Man Samurai is all “this room won’t stop me because I can’t read it” and abruptly decides to retire, which, fun fact, is literally THE LEAST HELPFUL THING ANYONE HAS EVER DONE. Anyway so then a bunch of other punkasses follow suit, and while I won’t say that I’m actually starting to root for Stain to kill some peeps, just for the record I’m not not saying that either. Back in the hospital, Endeavor cries some tears because his life sucks, and then is confronted by his entire family, LED BY QUEEN REI, FIRST OF HER NAME, BACK IN BUSINESS AND LARGE AND IN CHARGE. Rei is all “fuck feeling sorry for yourself, we have a rogue Murder Son on the loose” and I swear to god I have never felt so alive.

so here we go! and just for the record, even though the last two chapters have been phenomenal, I don’t necessarily have any sky-high expectations for chapter 300, mostly because chapters 100 and 200 consisted of Mei Boobs, and Toadette and her horrific quirk lmao. so go ahead Horikoshi, what are you gonna pull out of your hat for this one

oh, back to this stuff again. sob

I guess there was only so much time we could spend having hospital antics and exploring Hawks’s past before we got back to dealing with the whole “the world has gone to absolute shit” issue huh, lol

omg

what’s with these bizarrely cute Noumus. why do I want to pet them

so the narrative text is going on about how people have been super paranoid about the Noumu ever since the USJ incident a year ago. so yeah, I guess the fact that there are now a bunch of them confirmed to be running around is really freaking people out even on top of everything else

wtf is happening here

what did this poor lil glass ever do to anyone. r.i.p.

OH MY FUCKING GOD

SODA SAM IS BACK ON THE LAM

tsk tsk tsk. my man has graduated from snatching purses to raiding cafes. going after that big money. this man has no business sense whatsoever lmao

OH BUT WATCH IT NOW!!

OH SNAP THE PEOPLE ARE FIGHTING BACK. WHATCHA GONNA DO NOW SAM

THIS MAN IS 172 YEARS OLD AND HE’S NOT HERE TO PLAY GAMES!!

WTF IS HE LIGHTING THIS THING ON FIRE OR SOME SHIT. GETTEM GRANDPA YEAHHHH HE’S CHARGING AT EM YEAHHHHHH

lmao so that was fun. and now we’re cutting to Wash!! omg. look at him

he’s so dedicated. too bad you don’t have a car like Best Jeanist. probably takes a while when you’re just running everywhere

you see?? you were too slow!!

NOOOO, GRANDPA. he defeated Pepsi Pete, but lost his life in the process. this is too tragic

anyway so the good news is that the cafe has been saved! but the bad news is, there really isn’t much of a cafe left. huh. I guess that’s one of the reasons why people are supposed to get a license to use their quirks like this

oh snap and now everyone is coming outside, and they’re none too happy to see poor old Wash over here

seriously Wash, get a bicycle or something. also the way this guy is gesturing so dramatically with his hand in this sort of “YOU SEE!! YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS!!” manner is sending me

OH MY GOD

HE SPEAKS. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS. IT MEANS JEANS PUNS ARE YESTERDAY’S NEWS, FOLKS!! MAKE WAY FOR THE LAUNDRY PUNS. CAN’T WAIT TO WATCH THIS ALL... UNFOLD

“the heroes had dwindled away” okay real talk you guys, it is literally only a matter of time before they press-gang the children into picking up their slack. I still don’t know how to feel about that, but it is happening one way or the other regardless. Child Soldiers 2 Electric Boogaloo. wonder if we’ll see a rise in vigilante action as well

OHO WHAT’S THIS? THIS IS A CHAPTER OF GRANDPAS HUH

-- no fucking way

WOW. WOW. WOWWWWWW

wow. so he didn’t do a fucking thing while the rest of the top ten were being turned into red mist in the previous arc, and now that it’s all over and they need his help more than ever, he decides... THAT IT’S TIME TO RETIRE. holy shit. “fuck you” doesn’t even begin to cover it my guy. you stand there and soak up those boos you coward

ohhhhhhh shiiiiit you guys. oh shit

the “I am not here” breaks my fucking heart for real though y’all. oh man. everything he worked for is gone just like that

(ETA: okay so a couple of the takes I’ve seen on this make it seem like All Might is somehow the bad guy here?? “this is what happens when society puts a bunch of glorified cops on a pedestal”, “finally the cracks in hero society are showing”, etc. etc. so, just a friendly reminder that this isn’t happening because of too much trust and a lack of critical thinking; this is happening because the villains killed all the heroes and broke a bunch of murderers out of jail. it’s happening because an organized league of terrorists succeeded in terrorizing, and so society is now understandably awash in fear and panic. like, it’s just wild to me that AFO is RIGHT FUCKING THERE, and yet week after week fandom still has their “IT’S ALL THE HEROES’ FAULT” signs still up on their lawns. BUT WHATEVER, MOVING ON.)

also though, so exactly how much time is passing here now? I wanted to go straight back to the hospital and see what happens with Deku and the Todorokis. please don’t tell me we’re jumping ahead sob. my aaaaangst

OH SHIT

STAIN. LISTEN UP BUDDY. I KNOW WE’VE HAD OUR DIFFERENCES, AND I STILL DESPISE YOU FOR CRIPPLING TENSEI AND TRYING TO KILL MY BEST BOY TENYA. BUT AS IT HAPPENS, THERE ARE ONE OR TWO OTHER HEROES OUT THERE NOW WHO I WOULDN’T MIND YOU PAYING A VISIT I’M JUST SAYING

LOL BUT IT ACTUALLY ISN’T THIS MAN, FFFFFF

sob. yeah I was talking about Old Man Samurai actually but YEAH. HEY THERE ENJI

also is this entire hospital actually run by characters from Super Mario Bros though. first Yoshi and now this guy, come the fuck on that is not a coincidence

lmao they stuck him in another one of these cavernous creepy hospital rooms

wtf is it with Horikoshi and these giant fucking rooms lately. Kacchan’s in chapter 298, then Tomie’s colossal house furnished with like one table and a TV, and now this. and the weirdest thing about it though is that “huge space with nothing to fill it up” is like the exact opposite of what you’ll usually find in Japanese homes lol

so now Enji is just sitting there thinking things like “my head is fuzzy” and “I’m alive” lmao okay. not quite all there yet, huh. I’ll give you a minute

I’m so fucking curious as to who his first visitor is going to be omg. either way it’s going to be interesting af, and either way fandom is probably going to feel some way about it but OH WELL

okay now his thoughts are getting more coherent! and he’s remembering Touya, and feeling regret for freezing up and forcing Shouto to deal with everything instead

!!! OH HERE GOES BRACE YOURSELVES Y’ALL IT’S ABOUT TO GET SPICY

NO TOUYA PLEASE DON’T CRY HONEY NO PLEASE

ohhhhhhh man

okay, I mean I didn’t expect you to, but so instead then you’re just going to do... what? lie there and wallow in regret and self-pity for the rest of your life? son you know that’s not how we deal with our problems here in Shounen

though also, I totally do get it though. honestly, thinking on it, I probably would have been disappointed with any other response. but so this is where the rest of his family (including his adopted son) come into play now though, because like it or not they’re all in this thing together. and so friends, I am once again asking you WHO IS GOING TO BE THE ONE TO VISIT ENJI FIRST

AHHHHHHH

KRANCH!!!! OMG AND THE OTHERS ARE SO TINY NEXT TO HIM THAT I ALMOST DIDN’T SEE THEM AT FIRST. IT’S BECAUSE THEY’RE TWENTY MILES AWAY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS REGULATION HOCKEY RINK OF A ROOM

holy shit I’m so excited lkjlklhlglkasdsjldfk

SDKFJLSKHLKJL

the way she has him by his collar lmaoooo. “lol nah you’re not going anywhere pal.” damn straight, siblings have to be ride or die in situations like this. banding together for survival. strength in numbers

OH MY STARS I’M JUST WARNING YOU NOW THAT I’M ABOUT TO DISSECT EVERY LAST REMAINING PANEL OF THIS CHAPTER PROBABLY YOU GUYS. WE COULD BE HERE A WHILE

love how Fuyu has absolutely no idea how to segue into THE SINGLE MOST AWKWARD CONVERSATION SHE’S EVER HAD, so she just GOES FOR IT in pure small talk mode like they’re meeting up for brunch somewhere

I KNOW IT’S A SMALL THING, BUT I APPRECIATE THAT THE FIRST THING ENJI ASKS IS WHETHER THEY’RE OKAY

lastly while I can’t wait for more of this delicious Natsu angst, I also just have to say that Enji has as much reason to cry right now as anyone on the planet. you can’t deny that being confronted by your not-dead-but-you-thought-he-was-dead son who’s all “SURPRISE DAD I GREW UP TO BE A MASS MURDERER AND I HATE YOU AND EVERYTHING IS ALL YOUR FAULT AND NOW I’M GONNA MAIM YOUR OTHER KID” with a side order of “EVERYONE HATES YOU AND SOCIETY IS CRUMBLING AND NOTHING WILL EVER BE GOOD EVER AGAIN” is enough to bum pretty much anyone out. there’s a Pagliacci the Clown joke here somewhere. BUT DOCTOR, I AM THE NUMBER ONE HERO

oh man lol he is seriously falling apart

damn. like you guys, I’m sorry, go ahead and cancel me, but I do feel compassion for the man. it’s therapeutic for me to see an abuser actually feel remorse and be truly sorry and want to change and want to make it up to his family. and it’s also compelling as fuck to read a narrative about a family that’s trying to grapple with that, because let me tell you straight up, as someone who’s done a version of that song and dance -- it is exhausting. it is a piping hot mess. it’s a gigantic mishmosh of extremely volatile emotions that all somehow all contradict one another. love, hurt, hope, anger, betrayal, resentment, attachment, longing. it’s something you can both be desperate for and also want nothing at all to do with. and attempting to portray all of that and write about it is a monumental task, and one which Horikoshi has done so, so delicately thus far, and damn but I appreciate it. anyway, so I’m here and I’m ready for my latest helping of Todoroki Fam Feels you guys

GASP

oh man. OHMANOHMANOHMAN. CAN IT REALLY BE. IS THIS THE REDEMPTION ARC OF CHAPTERS 100 AND 200???

LMAO SHE’S ALL “WE ALL FEEL BAD YOU JACKASS STOP CRYING ABOUT IT”

LAY INTO HIM REI!! SORRY ENJI YOUR PITY PARTY HAS BEEN CANCELLED IN FAVOR OF A “SO WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT” PARTY COURTESY OF QUEEN ELSA OVER HERE. THE PEOPLE TOOK A VOTE AND WE WANT LESS WHINING AND MORE ACTION

oh my god look at this lady folks

NOTE THE HAIR BLOWING IN THE NONEXISTENT WIND. NOW WE KNOW WHERE SHOUTO GOT THIS POWER FROM

(ETA: btw guys, seeing Rei handle this crisis like an absolute champ despite everything she’s been through is everything, though. I’m reminded of Hawks’s line last week about people sometimes unexpectedly finding liberation when they’re backed into a corner. like things may be shit but goddammit her kiddos need her.)

THE CHAPTER IS ALREADY ENDING SOB, IT’S ONLY A 17-PAGER THIS WEEK, BUT GODDAMN WHAT A WAY TO CLOSE

oh my god. oh my god oh my god. AND FUCK YOU HORIKOSHI FOR CUTTING IT OFF THERE sob. it’s like each week the wait for the next chapter becomes more painful. the Todofam is about to get real, and on top of that Hawks is gonna crash the party at some point down the line, and on top of that we’re still waiting for Kacchan to have his own heartfelt discussion about What The Fuck Are We Supposed To Do Next with his best friend who’s currently in a coma. all I want to do with my life is read about these three things, and all I can do is simply wait as they are portioned out in agonizing, addicting little installments every week

anyway! tune in next time as we answer the question of whether or not fandom will finally run its train of logic all the way through to its natural conclusion and somehow manage to cancel Noted Abuse Apologist Todoroki Fucking Rei. don’t act like it can’t happen. you all know nothing is sacred lol. anyways but I’m ready for anything lol, bring it

#bnha 300 #endeavor #todoroki enji #todoroki shouto #todoroki rei #all them todorokis #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha #I can't believe I've done 300 of these now lol #think I'm gonna finally have to update the post index again

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initiumseries · 2 years

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Haha fun ask. Yes! Ngl this will mostly be Asian dramas lol. Ok so in no particular order:

2521 So...I had a feeling based on the present day dialogue that they weren't going to end up together, but having that confirmed was FRUSTRATING because they were the only part of the show worth watching. Even the lead actress begged them to change the ending. It was definitely WTF because of ALL the hills to die on.

Red Sleeve

The drama was FRUSTRATING because there was SO much tension, SO much chemistry, but the political stuff was sloppy, so I watched for them, and then the SECOND LAST episode, she dies. WTF.

Lovers of the Red Sky I watched Red Sleeve after abandoning this one only to be frustrated AGAIN lol. So this drama was advertised as this fantasy romantic drama, but what we GOT, was some weird fantasy political shit and very little in the way of romance. The shift was SO wtf because again, the chemistry was there and I was WAITING to see them get together, but instead it becomes about succession. Who cares?

The Story of Yanxi Palace Can't find gifs of it right now, but basically the Empress Fuca (below) was envied but everyone, specifically Noble Consort Gao (red dress), so when they were all at the banquet and the Empress was being fawned over because she was pregnant again. Noble Consort arranged this elaborate ass plan where a maid dropped a dish of I think deer liver and the stench attracted a SHIT LOAD of BATS and then everyone started screaming and she used that opportunity to throw the Empress off a ledge that wasn't very high, where she hit her head went into a coma and lost her baby. First of all, bats aren't even carnivores. Second of all, there's NO WAY you could ensure this plan would succeed. What if only like 2 or 3 bats showed up? Flimsy. WTF

The Rebel Princess She gets kidnapped like 50 times, and the guy who kidnaps her and tries to sexually assault and/or rape her "falls in love" with her so when he kidnaps her a second time and tries to force her into marriage and that goes left, he sacrifices himself for her in a declaration of...love I guess. Dude you tried to assault her and also kidnapped her from her lawful husband TWICE. WTF

LOK I have my overall issues with the storytelling on LOK but the most WTF was Korra and Mako. I just...hated it. They barely spent any time together, they barely talked, and Korra was SO pressed to be with him and I was like...but why? and their break up was just as wtf as their so called relationship. It was a no for me.

Peaky Blinders This ENTIRE season just had me like...??? But ESPECIALLY because of her. Any time a show incorporates Russians it goes off the rails.

Lovecraft Country I...did not particularly enjoy Lovecraft Country, but this ENTIRE SL...there’s a LOT, probably TOO much to unpack there so we’ll keep it as it just had me like...seriously...WHAT the ENTIRE fuck.

The Originals Can’t find the gif right now, but I remember when me and @zalrb were drunk reviewing this episode and I was SO OFFENDED because Cami was dying and Klaus was DRAWING her and I was like...LOL WTF?!? That’s such an incredibly shitty thing to do. Drawing a subject is such an impersonal thing, and this is supposed to be an intimate moment. It was clearly a scene created by not artists who thought it was romantic instead of...bizarre.

Attack On Titan Honestly, the show was recommended to me by an ex and I had 0 context for what the show was, so when I saw this shit. I absolutely lost it. Then later coming full circle and finding out that it was Eren’s dad’s first wife who killed his second wife? It’s just...

Kakegurui Literally everything about season 1 was just...WHAT?

But especially her

I’m CONFIDENT there are other shows but this is what immediately comes to mind lol. Fun ask!

#kakegurui #attack on titan #lovecraft country #story of yanxi palace #peaky blinders #the legend of korra #lovers of the red sky #the red sleeve

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ddarker-dreams · 3 years

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SR reader would make friends quickly with chrollos team cuz they would want to know what else bizarre stuff they've been thru. Like, French man into turtle? Real life mickey mouse? The Don of the mafia once somehow drank piss but didn't actually drink it cuz he had created a life form in his teeth to absorb that thing(I know SR may not know about that but still), this would make sitting around in the hide out actually better. Besides, I think hwr reader would understand how to use their stand faster than SR reader lol. And oooo vephar in hxh? Chrollo would not stop asking questions about their origin and history and may get annoying quickly.

"Alright, so, let's see, where was I... ah! So we were chasing after the boss. He had pink hair with leopard spots, real gaudy fashion sense too. That's when I looked down and saw a talking turtle. My first thought was huh, that's not right, turtles don't normally talk. Turns out this one can! He said that he and his friends went to Egypt to kill a guy who could stop time— did I mention that this guy was my friend's sorta half dad? Everything below the neck was a British dude from the 18th century."

meanwhile the troupe is just

?????????????????????????????????????? what in the fuck? pakunoda checks SR reader's memories to confirm whether or not any of this bullshit is true, and is shocked to find out it's true. wha

it's funny you mention that HWR reader could immediately pick up on how to use a Stand, because i was thinking the same. it took SR reader about two months to fully figure out how to use Scarlet Ribbons. it'd probably take a day for HWR reader. combat comes to her like breathing. at the cost of her social capabilities, unfortunately...

god darling might amuse chrollo's inquiry into their past for a solid thirty minutes. reminiscing too long about liyue's history reminds them of a certain someone, so they'd prefer not to do that.

#scarlet ribbons #hell within reach #first contract #isekai au #answered #procrastinationpro11

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spellbook-gayboy · 2 years

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Cape-Watch Monthly News Bulletin- July 2022

Hey, yall! I’m your host, Christina Cabello, brining you the latest roundup of this month’s supe-related news with the Cape-Watch Monthly Bulletin! July may just be the best time of the year for our caped crusaders, and we can’t wait to show you what we have in store!:

America’s Grandpa Becomes A Father

Kicking off the bulletin is actually quite a postive story. In the past few weeks, the Guardians Of The Globe member Rex Splode announced that he had been legally adopted by the former Guardian known as Frontline. In an exchange with his partner Invincible, the hero stated that the decision came about from a ‘social acclimation exercise’, in which apparent concerns over a family discount led the golden-age super to offer to adopt him. Despite the bizarre reasoning, Rex Splode accepted, even going so far as to refer to Frontline as ‘Dad’ in the reply chain. Cape-Watch reached out to Frontline for comment and received this written response:

“I suppose the only real reason I did it was because I wanted to. I never really had the time to have kids, and then I see this kid who can’t really relate to his friends because he never really had good parental figures. And I know I’m good with kids- hell, I led the Teen Team for seven years!- so I went into his room, told him to budget better in future, and then handed him the papers. Course, ‘cause he’s an adult, he had to sign them himself, which I was glad he did. So yeah, uh, I’m planning to bond with my kid soon, probably by playing catch or soccer with him. Y’know, dad things!”

And as if this story wasn’t wholesome enough, the heroes were later sighted actually engaging each other in a game of catch, with the additions of Monster Girl and Shapesmith seen as well. I, for one, look forward to seeing more of this father-son dynamic in future!

Demon Detective Delivered from the Depths

In more mystical news, the famed satanic sleuth Damien Darkblood was recently sighted up to his usual tricks, solving a grisly double-murder and, as is usual with him, doing the police’s job for them once again. When asked as to how he disappeared and subsequently returned, he mentioned the ‘grey Scotsman’ that rescued him from the darkest reaches of Hell. This description was of course a reference to the San Diego-based magician Magic Man. The West Coast Warlock confirmed as much in an interview with Cape-Watch, fresh off his victory against a villain simply known as Miss Direction, where he detailed the exact details of his incursion into the inferno:

“First of all, it was both me and Invulner- sorry, I meant Invincible. We went down and down until we got to this city called Dis. Long story short, I had to cut off Medusa’s head and break into this weird demon jail thing, which led to me freeing Dami. By now, I bet you’re wondering ‘Oh well that’s easy! Now all they have to do is go up and out, right?’

Well, not exactly! You see, the worst thing about the Nine Circles is that once you’re in, the only way out is straight down. So down and down we go, passing hellscape after hellscape until we come to the absolute bottom of it: The Pit Of Syrocc. The last few minutes of the whole ordeal was those two trying desperately to draw a portal while I attempted to talk the devil to death. All in all, would not recommend it!”

The timing of Darkblood’s disappearance was certainly suspicious, especially given rumours at the time suggesting he was investigating the massacre of the Guardians Of The Globe. Some at the time alleged that he fell victim to the murderer, while others speculated he had been silenced as part of a cover-up of the murders by the government, supposedly due to their involvement in it. Whatever the reason truly was, the world’s greatest detective certainly wouldn’t tell, instead choosing to resume his regular detective work. Perhaps that may be for the better.

West Coast Hero Sparks Surge Of Supernatural Sightings

Carrying on from the subject of Magic Man, the wizard’s presence in San Diego has been anything but quiet. In fact, in the short two-month period since he and the former teen hero Multi-Paul began, the government liaison to the superhero community, Peter Schlottman, reported a staggering 33% increase in reports of superpowered beings across the Southwestern US. According to the report published last week, the reports are clustered around major cities, going as far north as Sacramento, California and as far east as Denver, Colorado. Another detail worth mentioning is that the vast majority of these reports are of a decidedly mystical or magical nature, many citizens claiming to have encountered demons or witches on the streets at night.

Historically, the southwestern states (California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado) have not enjoyed much attention from either superheroes or supervillains. The last real hero to be active in that region was the bank-sponsored super Moneybags, who was tragically killed in a bank robbery gone wrong in the late 1950s. What seems noticeable, at least to myself, is that while the majority of the country’s heroes and villains have typically science-based powers or immense skills and gadgets, the southwest now seems to have to taken on a more occult leaning, mainly protected by those skilled in the mystic arts, and routinely threatened by beings from dimensions outside of our own. But, whatever foul creature or malevolent entity may come next, the citizens of San Diego can rest assured that Magic Man is on the case!

Worrying Activity From Mars Sparks Concerns From Experts

And to round off this bulletin comes a rather worrying report from NASA. According to photographs taken by the recently established Kappa 3 satellite, several large, amorphous pink organisms were seen moving across the surface of the Red Planet. While the nature of these organisms currently remains a mystery, some have speculated that they are somehow linked to the highly secretive Martian colony located beneath the planet’s surface. The lead engineer of the Kappa 3 mission, Mabel Scrofano, had this to say about the discovery:

“What this discovery truly means for the ecosystem on Mars is currently unknown. We’ve been working with our Astrobiology team to determine the nature of these organisms and how they are capable of surviving the harsh surface conditions of Mars. One working theory is that these may be the result of biological experimentation by Martian scientists, but the colony has yet to answer our hails. I would encourage anyone concerned with how this discovery may pose a threat to the safety of Earth to remain calm, as there doesn’t seem to be a way that these organisms could feasibly reach the planet without the assistance of rocket propulsion.”

The theory that the Martians are responsible for the creatures certainly holds some weight. Even with 30 years of public acknowledgement by humanity, very little is still known about their society, mostly due to their extreme, almost warlike reaction to any outsiders making contact. Over the decades, only two members of this reclusive and underground culture have left for Earth: the first was Martian Man, esteemed member of the Guardians Of The Globe and victim of the massacre by Omni-Man, and the second being the elastic (and quite slapstick, in my opinion) hero known as the Shapesmith, who is also the newest addition to the current roster of the Guardians led by The Immortal. Whatever the result of this discovery turns out to be, I doubt it will pose much of a threat so long as we have heroes like them to protect us.

And that’s all for this month! We’d once again like to thank those who support Cape-Watch with their donations, as it’s thanks to you guys that we’re able to bring you the super reporting we’re known for! And remember to stay safe, stay hydrated, and to tune in next month for more of the biggest superhero stories around!

#and we're back!#invincible #invincible show #invincible amazon #invincible oc #christina cabello #cape-watch

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corvus--rex · 3 years

Text

Next in this bizarre collection of abandoned, semi-abandoned, and deeply sleeping wips is one that has more direct time travel. It's more in the deeply sleeping category as I'm still picking at it. It's also another Omegaverse, so if that's not your thing, feel free to skip it. Also, both Lance and Keith practice polytheistic religions that have been altered to fit an ABO setting

~*~*~*~*~

A few years after the war, the Paladins made the newly rebuilt Castle of Lions their home. Shiro and Adam retired from the Garrison and into diplomatic careers for the Coalition. Pidge’s parents were still with the organization, but she and Matt preferred to be more hands-on, maintaining the places on the castle and with the now-former rebellion. The still close-knit team were still recovering from the recent bonding ceremony for Hunk and Shay, who were also staying aboard the castle, although it was still uncertain as to whether or not human and Balmeran genetics were compatible; they were just waiting on genetic compatibility testing. Lance and Keith, however, were ahead of the game. They had gotten engaged while on the way back to Earth, announcing it to Lance’s family on their return. Not wanting to wait, and with no way of knowing what would happen in their war with Honerva, they’d held a small bonding ceremony the night before leaving Earth for the second time.

Keith had it the worst when it came to post-Hunk/Shay bonding recovery. He wasn’t going to miss Hunk and Shay’s bonding for anything, even if it meant dealing with Lance’s fussing. It had gotten bad enough during the reception that both Krolia and Lance’s mother Mariana told him to sit down and let his pregnant mate be. Keith could understand where Lance’s caution came from. While their little one was only one quarter Galra, and developing as a human child would, Keith’s half-Galra physiology had other ideas, his body and hormones changing like a shorter Galra pregnancy. It meant that he needed to be monitored more closely than he would if the pup’s development and his body’s lined up. It also meant that they didn’t have a concrete due date, and that it was entirely possible he could deliver a premature pup. But at sixteen weeks Earth time, there were still another two months until they needed to watch for their little one’s arrival. They had stayed behind on Earth an extra couple days after Hunk and Shay’s bonding ceremony for some of Lance’s extended family who wanted to see them both before the pup was born. Keith was exhausted from the three days of parties surrounding the ceremony and the event itself, but they were headed back to the castle after that and wouldn’t be back for another eight months, and by then the pup would be at least two months old.

Nadia and Sylvio were excited about their cousin, and had to be reminded that Keith was tired from everything going on. Right then, they wanted to see the inside of the Altean pod the matepair were taking back to the castle. Keith and Mariana burst out laughing when Lance appeared with his niece and nephew each tucked under an arm.

He “dropped” the giggling, squirming pups in front of his oldest brother. “I think you lost something.”

“Who, me? I haven’t lost anything,” Luis said, feigning ignorance.

Still laughing, Nadia and Sylvio began scaling their mountain of a father. Once they got to hip height, he grabbed them both the same way Lance had been carrying them and took off running while mock screaming, making his pups shriek with laughter. Lance just laughed to himself and shook his head at his brother and niblings.

“Like you can talk. You know damn well you're going to be just the same with ours,” Keith called.

“Yeah, probably,” Lance admitted, walking over.

“‘Probably’ nothing, mijo. I know you will,” Mariana said, “Just don’t forget to call when that little one arrives. We’ll be praying for a safe delivery.”

Lance’s parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles all practiced Santeria, and while Lance and his siblings had been raised in it and still believed, none of them actively practiced. His lack of participation didn’t lessen his appreciation of his mother’s intentions. He would have been worried when it came to telling Keith about his family’s practices if he didn’t already know about his Omega’s neo-paganism. Keith, likewise, had been relieved when Lance didn’t immediately declare him insane and instead explained about his own family.

“Thanks, Mami. So will we,” he said, hugging his mother.

“Doesn’t matter where you are in the universe, the Orisha will hear you,” she told him, then pulled Keith in, “And so will your gods, mijo.”

“I know. Thanks, Mami,” Keith answered.

The pod’s comms chirped, and Lance disentangled himself from his mate and his mother, disappearing into the small craft. Mariana wrapped an arm around Keith’s waist and he leaned into it, fully appreciating her maternal warmth. She was one of a very small number of people who had open permission to touch him. She understood that, especially after Lance had explained about Keith’s childhood in the foster care system and that he was largely touch-averse unless you were one of a select few who had earned his complete trust. She’d earned it through being the woman she was and treating Keith like one of her own children.

She reached over, resting a hand on his growing belly. “I pray for this pup every day. You two are going to be wonderful parents. And I know that you both will be safe up there – you and this little one.”

Keith breathed a laugh. “Altean technology makes humans look like we’re still playing with sticks and rocks. I mean, on an interstellar level, we kinda are. I’ve been thinking about that lately,” he admitted, “The ‘we’ part. I’m still half-Galra. Most of the time I feel like the only places on Earth I feel like I belong are out at my Dad’s place, and here.”

“Oh, mijo. It doesn’t at all matter that your wonderful mother isn’t human, or that you share her blood. What matters is what you do with it. And both of you used your heritage to do the right thing. And now she’s leading her – your – people to a new way of thinking. You both have done so much good. Never forget that. Or that you’re family. You’ll always belong here. And not just because you're carrying my grandpup.”

“We weren’t exactly planning on this.”

Mariana laughed. “Neither was I. For any of them. None of my five children were planned. We always wanted pups, but we decided to let it happen however it was going to happen. And we were blessed with five beautiful pups.” She nudged him gently. “Tell me, do you have any thoughts on what your pup might be? I knew for all of them, even when my mother was trying to tell me that I was wrong. Especially with Lance. She was convinced he was an Omega. And then he was born all Alpha.”

Keith nodded, understanding. “Yeah, that’s apparently not just a human thing. Mom said she knew I was an Omega before I was born. I think this one is too. I’m pretty sure it’s an Omega boy. Little brat keeps moving and won’t let us see, so we don’t know for certain yet, but I feel like it’s an Omega boy.”

“Oh, Veronica was the same. We didn’t know until she was an Alpha girl until she was born. And she’s still stubborn and independent.”

{What do you think, sweetheart? You an Omega boy?} she asked the unborn pup.

Her question was answered with a sharp kick.

“Is he always like that?” Mariana asked in surprise.

“Yes. Yes he is. I’ve been feeling him moving for almost two months, but it got more intense about three weeks ago. That, apparently, is a Galra thing.”

“What’s a Galra thing?” Lance asked, walking down the loading ramp.

“How hard the pup kicks,” Keith said.

“Yeah,” he agreed, “It really is that bad. I’ve woken up in the middle of the night before because of it.”

“Now imagine how I feel! Anyway, what was the comm call?”

“Oh, right. Just Allura asking when we were planning on going back up. I told her we were finishing getting the pod packed up and we’d be leaving within the hour. Varga. Whatever.”

Mariana hugged them both again. “Don’t forget. I want to know.”

Keith’s lips twisted in an amused smile. “As soon as we do,” he said.

Lance didn’t ask about it until they were settled in the pod’s cockpit and on their way to the wormhole point. “What are we telling my mother when we know it?”

“Huh? Oh, the pup’s primary and secondary sexes. I said that I feel like it’s an Omega boy, but that we haven’t been able to confirm it,” Keith explained.

“Yeah, he’s being a little brat about it,” Lance agreed, “We will find out eventually,” he added, poking the unborn pup only to be rewarded with another kick. “See? Brat.” He stood up, stretching hard enough to pop his spine. He let his arms drop and extended a hand to his mate. “Come on. Allura’s not opening a wormhole until we’re way out of system, and I want snuggles.”

When they first packed the pod to leave for Earth, Lance had shifted a few things around in the passenger compartment, making room for Keith to set up a nest. He was worried about their pup and was trying to just be a good Alpha for his Omega. Keith was particularly hormonal that day and broke down in tears when he saw the cleared space, his favorite nesting materials neatly sitting in the middle of it. Lance had been afraid he’d accidentally done something wrong until he found himself with his arms full of sobbing, pregnant Omega telling him how amazing he was through hiccupped tears. The nest was built and stayed there until they landed on Earth, where it was taken down and rebuilt in Lance’s old bedroom, right on top of his queen bed. Now it held their scents mixed with Lance’s family’s. Lance also knew about the sweater Krolia had given Keith for the express purpose of fitting it into his nest.

Keith let Lance lead them through to the rear of the pod and got settled into the nest. Leaning back against his Alpha, Keith reached into his shirt and pulled out the crystal he always wore. A clear quartz point, with a triple moon carved from rainbow moonstone woven into the silver wire wrapping the top of the crystal. He ran his fingers over the moonstone, feeling its carved lines and points, the smooth gem comforting. He was safe and comfortable in his Alpha’s arms, tucked into their temporary nest, but he still worried. He knew better than anyone that their pup could come earlier than anyone was comfortable with, especially him. He sighed, letting the quartz drop.

“What’s up?” Lance murmured sleepily into Keith’s neck.

“I’m just thinking again,” he said, the pad of his thumb following the back of his fingers in a small line on his belly.

Lance knew what he was thinking, read worrying, about, and wove their fingers together. “I know. But even worst case, even if he is three months early, he’ll be ok, and so will you. There is literally no one else like you in the entire universe, and all of this is new to everyone. Best we can do is take it one day at a time.” He grabbed the tablet from outside the nest, checking the autopilot. “We still have about an hour before we get to the wormhole point. Get some sleep. I’ll wake you when we get there.”

Keith yawned, curling up in the nest, Lance wrapping his arms around his Omega. “Nap sounds great,” he mumbled, half-asleep already.

Lance didn’t last much longer, drifting off the second Keith’s breathing evened out in sleep.

They were woken by alarms blaring throughout the pod. Keith shot up, startled and growling. Lance went for the tablet, checking the readings from the pod’s sensors. They should still have been twenty minutes out from the meeting point, but the star map showed them being in an entirely different galaxy, the familiar Milky Way nowhere in sight. He leapt from the nest, running for the cockpit. When Keith had calmed a bit and hauled himself out of his spot and to the cockpit, Lance was at the controls.

“Get yourself strapped in,” the Alpha said without looking up, “We’re headed straight for an asteroid field and there’s no time to change course.”

Lance changed the controls to manual and the front shielding changed from opaque to transparent, showing the looming ancient debris in stunning real time. Keith sat himself in the co-pilot’s seat, fastening the 4-point harness over his chest just in time for the first asteroid to go whipping past. He wanted to take the controls, but he knew that his awkward current shape made it nearly impossible for him to fly with the deftness an asteroid field required. Lance had no such problem, weaving through the asteroid field with his usual liquid grace.

When they finally broke through and into empty space, they still had no real idea of where they were. Keith brought up the galactic map. He noted several familiar planets and systems, realizing that they were on the far side of the Andromeda galaxy. As he was relaying all of that to his mate, the pod’s comm chirped with an incoming hail. It was the castle, but something was different and they couldn’t quite put their finger on it. Lance answered the hail, Allura’s face filling the screen.

“Hey, Allura. Do you have any idea what the fuck just happened? We were on our way to the rendezvous point for the wormhole and now we’re here,” Lance asked.

Allura stared at them in complete shock. “I – I don’t understand. How are you two there? You can’t be there. You’re both here on the castle.”

Lance and Keith shared a confused look. “No. We’re not,” Keith said slowly, “We just left Earth a couple hours ago and were on our way to the spot you designated for the wormhole back to the castle.”

“Earth?! What the quiznak are you talking about?! Stay there. I’m going to tow your pod into the castle and we’ll talk about whatever prank this is.” The shock was in her voice at first, before it became almost angry. She looked back at them from her projected control screen, and then looked at them both more carefully. “Lance, how in the quiznak do you have Altean marks?”

“From you?” he answered, now totally confused. Had she forgotten reviving him after he took the full damage of an energy attack meant for her? Did she not remember that he’d ended up with sky blue Altean marks as a result of the sheer amount of quintessence she poured into him?

“That’s impossible. I can’t give you our markings. And Keith, have you gained weight?” She was still confused, but turned it to the Red Paladin.

“Not in the last three days,” he said, then glanced down and back to her, “Not that way, anyway.”

They felt the pod guided into the pod bay and land softly. “Stay there, inside the pod,” Allura said, “I’ll be right there.” The screen cut out, leaving them alone again.

“What in the absolute fuck is going on?” Keith asked.

“I wish I fucking knew,” Lance answered. “Does she really think this is some kind of over-elaborate prank? She can’t. She knows us. Knows we’re mated. Knows you’re pregnant.”

“Yeah, that was weird. Asking me if I've gained weight. I mean, I know I've put on about fifteen pounds, but that’s almost completely directly related to him. I haven’t really changed anywhere else.”

Lance sighed. “Yeah. I don’t know. We’ll figure it out. But at least we’re back. We can get your nest rebuilt in our suite and take a fucking nap.”

Something told Keith to leave his nest as it was, and he told Lance as much. They also decided not to get back into it while they waited for Allura. The matepair waited in the open seating, Keith nuzzling into Lance’s scent gland. It was something they’d come to realize was a side-effect of his pregnancy. He couldn’t get enough of his Alpha’s scent and would use any and every excuse to get close and scent himself, not that Lance minded it at all. It always stroked his Alpha’s ego that their Omega was so devoted to them.

They both looked up when there was a failed attempt to open the rear door of the pod, which was followed by a polite knock. “Hang on a tick,” Lance called. He extracted himself from his snuggly koala of a mate with a soft kiss to his temple and a gentle hand on their pup.

Allura stood in the doorway, possibly even more shocked than she was on the call. He was still in the faded blue t-shirt and grey sweats he’d been wearing all day, not having been bothered to change. He was expecting an off-hand comment about not being up to his usual standard at most, but she just stood there, staring like he was a new race they’d never met before.

“Allura?” he asked.

“Lance, what the quiznak is going on here? Where’s Keith?” she asked when she found the words.

“I was going to ask you the same thing. And Keith’s right here. The kids were all over him this morning and he’s still pretty tired.”

He didn’t think it was possible for Allura to be any more confused or her eyebrows to arch higher, but she was and they did.

“What kids? Why should he be tired?”

Keith listened to the questions being fired back and forth. Something wasn’t adding up. Allura knew they’d been with Lance’s family. She’d met Nadia and Sylvio before and knew what kind of energy they had. It shouldn’t be a surprise that he was worn out after dealing with them. Keyword shouldn’t. But she was. He decided to see her for himself, or more to the point, for her to see him. He slid out from the seating area, turning the corner to where she and Lance were asking questions without answering any. He stepped up beside Lance, sliding an arm around his Alpha’s waist, his free hand resting on his pregnant belly.

Allura’s jaw dropped. He knew she could tell that he wasn’t faking, and that she somehow either didn’t know or had forgotten that he was four months pregnant, even if he looked farther along because of his body’s reaction.

“I – how?! How did this happen?! When?! What is happening?!”

“Allura,” Lance said softly, “Has anything happened in the last two or three quintants?”

“What? No. Nothing. And you two are here onboard the castle. Keith, you said you would be in the training deck for at least a few vargas, and Lance, you were helping Hunk in the kitchen. How did you two end up out there and in a pod I didn’t know had gone missing? And don’t tell me you were on Earth. That’s utterly impossible. We can’t go back without leading the Galra directly there, you both know that. And how have you been hiding not only your apparent relationship but also – Keith, you're pregnant! How do you expect to be able to fly the Red Lion in your condition?”

The feeling of something being fundamentally off continued to tickle Keith’s brain. An impossible thought hit him. “Allura, I need you to answer this question honestly. How long have we been out here with you?”

“What do you mean? It’s only been about three phoebs, but we’ve made good progress in the war effort. I really believe we’ll win. But you already knew that.”

Lance cut her off before she could voice a suspicion about them being spies. He realized as soon as Keith said it. “I think we somehow managed to go back in time. We really are who we say we are, and so are you. But you obviously don’t know anything about us as we are now. I can promise that we’re not hiding anything from you.”

“Well…I don’t know that we can really say that…” Keith said, trailing off. If the them that Allura knew had only been in space for a few months, then he and Lance were already seeing each other secretly. But then they decided that keeping it from their friends made absolutely no sense, even if it meant that Pidge lost her bet with Hunk.

“Ok, fair,” he said, then turned to Allura, “What was the last major event that happened related to the war? It’ll help us narrow down when exactly we are.”

“You two seem awfully accepting of this,” she said, a note of accusation in her voice.

“We – we’ve been through a lot,” Keith said, intentionally not elaborating. They had been through a lot – alternate reality, quantum abyss, the quintessence field, Bob, finding themselves inside Honerva’s mind – but they couldn’t tell Allura any of it.

“And if we tell you anything, we don’t know if or how it could affect anything,” Lance added.

“Hm, I suppose that’s true. The last major event? Well, we’ve only just found out about your Galra heritage, but after meeting with Kolivan and Antok, I have come to realize that your blood does not define you. You both have only just returned from separate missions. Keith, you and Hunk went to retrieve the Scaultrite from the Weblum-” Keith shuddered involuntarily at the memory “-and Lance, you, Shiro, and Pidge went to rescue Slav from Beta Traz. He’s still here on the castle with us.”

“Wait wait wait – Slav’s still here?” Lance asked. He turned to Keith. “If Slav’s still on board, then he would be able to help figure out what happened. Maybe find a way to get us back to our own time. And hopefully before…” he trailed off, giving Keith a look that the Omega understood. Before the pup comes.

Allura also understood what Lance hadn’t said. “Um, how – how far along are you, exactly?” she asked awkwardly.

“That’s a little complicated,” Keith answered. “The pup’s developing like a normal human, but because I’m half Galra, my body is changing and reacting as if I were completely Galra. Pregnancies are shorter. Six Earth months, or about four and a quarter phoebs, to a normal human ten months or just over seven phoebs.”

“So, you're saying that with how your body is reacting, your pup could be premature?”

“It’s a distinct possibility. But to actually answer your question, sixteen Earth weeks. Almost eleven and a half movements. It gives us no more than five movements to figure this out and get us back to our time.”

Allura nodded, making her decision. “All right. We’ll meet in the lounge first. Paladins and Coran only. Shiro…doesn’t exactly do well with Slav.”

Lance and Keith laughed. “That’s something we will never forget,” Lance said as they followed her out of the pod. Keith turned, locking it with their biometrics. Given the alteration to Lance’s DNA thanks to Allura’s quintessence infusion, they knew that it would stay locked. Their younger selves didn’t have a chance.

They walked in silence for a while, following Allura down lesser used corridors to the lounge entrance that was never used. “Is there anything you can tell me?” she asked, “About your time. How far into our future are you?”

“I don’t know that that’s a good idea, Princess,” Lance said, “You already know that we make it to Earth safely, and I don’t know how that might already be affecting our time. I understand that you want to know if it’s all worth it in the end, but I can’t tell you.”

Allura thought for a few seconds. “I understand. My knowing about the future could affect the present. It could change our decisions about things that will change the outcome of the war. And I take it that however the war does end, it’s the best possible outcome.”

“We think so. There’s a lot more going on than just Zarkon, but if you knew what, I don’t know – there are just too many variables.”

She paused in the doorway to the lounge. “I really do understand. There are more factors and facets to this war than I am currently aware of. Knowing about them now could upset the balance. Well,” she said, gesturing to the room, “Make yourselves comfortable. You already know where everything is.” Her smile was one of genuine affection for the Paladins in front of her.

“Thanks, Allura,” Keith said, maneuvering past her.

Once they were seated comfortably (“Comfort is a bit relative for me at the moment,” Keith told her with a laugh) she called for the Paladins and Coran, and them only, to come to the lounge.

Lance was the first to arrive, ready to drop onto the sunken sofa from the floor above, but stopped himself when he realized he was looking at something that looked like the back of his own head. He only knew what that looked like after a prank involving his siblings and every single mirror in the house. He saw Allura sitting at one end of the semicircle and slowed, turning to her.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Ah. We should wait for the others to arrive before we explain,” Allura said.

“Actually,” one of the unknown people said and Lance nearly choked at hearing his own voice. A little rougher and maybe older, but it was definitely his own voice. He realized the other owner of his voice was still speaking. “I think we should start now. I know we’ll have to repeat ourselves, but I know that you’re kinda nauseous right now,” a long, tan finger pointed in his direction, “And I really think this is the better solution.”

“If that’s what you –” Allura was cut off by the next arrival.

“Allura? Why are we meeting here?”

Pregnant Keith snorted at how young he sounded. His mate patted his head. “I know. We sound like babies.”

The younger Keith froze.

“Yes we’re real. No you're not hallucinating,” pregnant Keith said without moving. He knew what his younger self was thinking.

“Well, as long as we’re both here,” Lance said, “We should explain as much as we can.”

The younger Red and Blue Paladins walked around to the steps and froze again when they were suddenly face to face with themselves. Their older selves were snuggled together in the middle of the sofa horseshoe, not caring who saw them. There was too much for them to take in all at once, but they did notice Lance’s Altean marks and the undeniable fact that the older Keith was significantly pregnant.

“Yeah,” pregnant Keith agreed, “It’s a lot to unpack. We’ll tell you what we can.”

The younger Paladins sat together opposite Allura, not knowing what to say.

“As far as we can tell, we’re from your future. We don’t know how we got here. We were on our way back to the castle and decided to let the autopilot handle the flying while I had a nap and woke up to all the alarms going off about a half hour later. We realized that we weren’t where we should be and found the castle after clearing the asteroid field nearby.”

“And, I’m – or, you – I don’t even know how to phrase that,” the younger Keith stumbled through.

Older Keith just laughed. “We? Since we’re the same person, just at different ages. But yes, I’m pregnant. I'm due fairly soon, so we need to figure this out as quickly as possible.”

Both his mate and Allura noticed how he phrased himself, but said nothing, understanding why he had done it.

It was the younger Lance’s turn to stumble through a sentence. “So, you’re – and – is that –”

Older Lance snickered at his younger self. “Yes. Yes we are, and yes it is.”

“What?! But -”

“But nothing,” older Lance said, “Although that might have prevented this.”

“Yeah, sure. You try telling my heat brain that,” pregnant Keith said.

The younger Keith pointed at his older self. “That. But, how? I mean, I’ve always been so careful about taking it on time. Unless…”

Pregnant Keith shook his head. “No, that hasn’t changed. It failed. We weren’t planning on this. But it happened, and we wouldn’t change it for anything.”

“Ok, so I just need to know one thing. Not about the future, not that.” His hand went to his chest almost unconsciously. “Just so I know. That you’re really me.”

Without moving from his spot snuggled into Lance’s side, Keith reached into his t-shirt and pulled the quartz and moonstone pendant out, letting it fall to his chest. “It was the first thing I ever bought for myself after Dad died. He taught me the basics of the Craft and I've kept it up ever since. Helps me feel connected to him even though it represents Omegas.”

Younger Keith nodded, holding his own crystal. “Yeah. It does.”

Looking from his not-so-secret boyfriend, the younger Lance turned to his own older self. “And he knows about…”

Older Lance cracked an amused smile. “Yeah, he does. But wait, haven’t you already told him about us?”

“Oh, well, yeah. I guess that didn’t really make sense, did it?”

“No, not really. But the last thing Mami said to me when we left her last was that it doesn’t matter where in the universe we are, the Orisha will hear us.”

“That – that’s –”

“What Mami said when I left for the Garrison. Yeah, she still says it.”

Pidge was next to arrive, and stopped when she saw the two older versions of her friends.

“No, you haven’t been up long enough to hallucinate yet,” pregnant Keith said through laughing.

“Come sit down, Pigeon. We’ll explain once everyone’s here,” Lance said, waving her forward.

They were all surprised that it hadn’t been Shiro to appear first, but he and Hunk were next, walking in together. If they thought that Pidge had been surprised, it was nothing compared to the double take from the Black and Yellow Paladins. Allura had yet to say anything once her Paladins began filtering in, and she still didn’t, letting the two older Paladins take the lead.

“Hi, Shiro,” pregnant Keith said. He still hadn’t moved from his mate’s side, enjoying the warmth and safety of his Alpha’s touch.

“What in the almighty fuck is going on?” Shiro asked, stunned.

“We’re just waiting for Coran, and then we’ll explain.”

Shiro and Hunk sat down, among the other Paladins. Hunk seemed to look for some kind of comfort from the familiarity of Pidge, and Shiro sat himself between his Lance and the older Keith with an expression told them that he was trying very hard to wrap his head around the idea of Keith being pregnant. Coran came running in a few minutes later.

“Oh, my apologies, Princess. The scanners went all wiffeley for a few ticks. They’re perfectly fine now.” He noticed the two new additions for the first time. “Erm, Princess…” he started, scratching his cheek with one gloved finger.

“Yes. It’s why I’ve called you all here,” Allura said, “When I was alone on the bridge briefly, scans picked up a single Altean pod. When I hailed it, well…”

“It was us,” the older Lance finished, “We seem to be from your future.”

Everyone stopped, if only briefly, before exploding into questions and demands. Questions about what happened, how they got here from their own time, how did the war end, what’s it like now, did everyone survive…

Lance put a hand up, silencing the onslaught. “We can’t answer most of those questions. Anything we tell you could possibly alter the timeline, and I can’t risk that.”

Pidge pouted, her curiosity getting the better of her. “Well, we already know you two end up together. And if you're here, then you guys obviously made it out.”

Pregnant Keith shifted, sitting up but not leaving his Lance’s personal bubble. “Yes, we did make it out. And yes, we know what it’s like now. But is it worth it to know about our future when it could change your own?”

For maybe the first time in her life, Pidge didn’t have an immediate answer. Her natural curiosity demanded to be sated. The older versions of two of her best friends were sitting in front of her with the answers to so many questions. So much of her own personal stress could be relieved just by knowing if she ever found Matt and Sam. She could know the outcome of the war. But thinking about those things, she realized that Keith was right. If she did know, it would change what she did, how she could react to things. The butterfly effect wasn’t real, or, if it was, it didn’t quite work that way, but a change to a major event could lead to a cascade of differences. And there was no way to know if those would be good changes or bad. But she didn’t get to answer the semi-rhetorical question because Slav walked in at that exact moment.

“So we’re in this reality,” he said, seeing the future Lance and Keith. He narrowed his eyes at them. “You haven’t told anyone anything, have you?”

“Nothing that wasn’t immediately obvious,” Keith answered, settling back against his mate.

“Ah. Right. I need to confirm things about you two before I can recalculate probabilities, but we should discuss this –” His owlish eyes narrowed again as he looked around the room. “- privately.”

~*~*~*~

Links to the rest of the series:

1 | 2 | 3* | 4 | 5* | 6* | 7 | 8 | 9* | 10 | 11 | 12* | 13 | 14 | 15* | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19*

#my writing #abandoned wips #klance #omegaverse #abo #omega keith kogane #alpha lance mcclain #mpreg #vld #voltron #voltron legendary defender #keith x lance

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p-artsypants · 3 years

Text

The Ghost of Smokey Joe (7)

Till Then

Adrien Agreste was acting bizarre. Stilted body language, plastic smile, and he seemed to have forgotten how close they were. Before she can get the truth out of him, Marinette finds herself as the sole heir to the Gabriel brand and the mansion, following the murder-suicide of both Adrien and Gabriel Agreste. The mystery continues as Tikki explains that Adrien was Chat Noir...but if Adrien is six feet under, why is Chat Noir still running around?

Well, it’s spooky season! You know what that means? OH BOY SPOOKFEST!!!

FF.net | Ao3

This investigation was not going well.

First of all, she hadn’t attended the funeral. Perhaps she should have, to keep up appearances, but she couldn’t stomach sitting through the service while knowing there were no bodies in the caskets.

It was wrong.

She gave poor excuses to Alya and Nino, and skipped it. Maybe if she had gone, she could have learned more, but she couldn’t. She just couldn’t stand it.

Later that evening, Ladybug made a visit to the cemetery where the family crypt was. She allowed Tikki to do the actual investigating. She phased into the dirt of the freshly buried, unmarked grave, and concurred, it was the same coffin from before, with only sandbags inside.

Gabriel’s too, over at the crypt.

“Not much else to glean from this place,” Tikki said sadly. “Where to next?”

“Actually,” Marinette wondered. “I have a hunch. Could you check Emilie’s casket too? She’s been dead for a while, so I apologize if what you see is…awful.”

“I’ve seen worse. I’ll take a look!”

Marinette waited anxiously, biting into her thumb nail. She really hoped she was wrong. Really really hoped.

Tikki reappeared, her brow furrowed in concern. “You’re hunch was right. Emilie’s is just sandbags too.”

She groaned, dread bleeding into her bones. “Damn it.”

“Maybe they’re all together?”

“At this point, I don’t know if I should even hope for that. Emilie has been gone for years. Wherever she is…I doubt we’ll ever find her, let alone Adrien and Plagg.”

“We’re not giving up though, right?”

“Of course not!”

Marinette knew she had a chance of answers at the funeral home. The director knew more than he was letting on, but she had asked too many questions as Marinette, and going in to interrogate him as Ladybug would probably put her identity in jeopardy. She’d have to think on that one, and try to find a way around it.

Now for the ‘basement’.

Till then, my darling, please wait for me

Till then, no matter when it will be

Someday I know I'll be back again

Please wait till then

Since Felix had confirmed that the Mansion didn’t have a basement, she assumed the office building did. Nowhere else did Gabriel or Adrien spend a significant amount of time.

While the workers were still on their vacation, she went in. There was still a secretary, though she was dressed in casual clothes, and the doors were closed to the public.

“Hi Miss Dupain-Cheng. Working today?”

“Um, something like that. Organizing some stuff.”

“Alright, well, let me know if you need anything. I’m just here to tell clients that we’re off for a while.”

Marinette smiled. “Thank you. Um...perhaps, do you know if there’s a basement?”

“Basement? Uh...there might be one. I’m not sure. The main elevator doesn’t go there.”

“Alright. I’ll look around then,” she smiled patiently and bid the woman adieu.

The building was unsettling without anyone in it. Half the lights were turned down, and the only sounds were the hum of the air conditioning and her footsteps echoing in the dim hallways.

Several years ago, when she had first started, she was given a tour. A tour that seemed so unimportant then, she was scraping for now. There was a back staircase, in case of fire. That much she could remember.

The big iron door slammed shut behind her as she entered the stairs. There was a door with an Exit sign over it, the outside world on the other side. A set of stairs went up and around, to every floor above.

But there was one more door. Labelled with a big ‘SS’ for ‘Sous-sol’.

‘Basement’, in French.

“Tikki! I found it!” She said to her purse.

“Great job! Let’s get to the bottom of things!”

Marinette screwed up her lips. “Pun intended?”

“In memory of Chat Noir, yes.”

“That is what he would have said, isn’t it? God, I miss him so much.” But she decided not to mourn her best friend in the dank, spider-infested stairwell.

Of course, the door was locked.

“Nothing is ever simple, is it? I wonder who would have the key. Janitor? Maybe Gabriel has a set in his old office.”

“Aren’t you forgetting your ultimate skeleton key?” Tikki asked.

“...um, yes, apparently.”

Tikki flew from the purse, and phased through the door handle. It clicked a moment later, and the handle turned.

“Wow, you’re convenient. Remind me to ask for favors in breaking and entering more often.”

“Anything for you, Marinette!”

She felt along the wall, found a lightswitch, and turned it on. Deep below, a few scant lights flickered to life.

And in the columns of flickering light stood silhouetted figures. Still, waiting.

Marinette held her breath, afraid she had been caught.

“Tikki…” She readied herself to transform the moment they moved. She was still in the dark, they wouldn’t have seen her.

Seconds ticked on. They stood, never flinching, never so much as breathing.

“Oh my god, they’re mannequins,” she breathed. “I mean, duh but holy shit that was terrifying.”

She descended the stairs, one at a time, still being quiet, and keeping her eyes glued to the forms.

They didn’t move, because they were plastic, and as she drew closer to them, she realized how fake they were.

They weren’t even good mannequins. The paint was chipping and the proportions looked odd.

“These go in shop windows, right?” Asked Tikki. “I’ve seen a few from your purse.”

“That’s right. These look really old. I’m surprised they haven’t been recycled.”

“Is this what Adrien wanted you to see?”

“I doubt it. What would mannequins have to do with anything?”

Tikki shrugged too, and looked around.

It was the worst three hours of her life.

But because Adrien had used what was presumably his dying words to tell her to look here, she scoped that place out thoroughly. She named all the mannequins, to try to take the edge off. It didn’t really help, but it made ‘James’ the eerily realistic mannequin that stood in the shadows a little more friendly instead of a murderer in waiting.

There was nothing there except old clothes, rejected materials, and a whole lot of new friends that Marinette never wanted to see again.

As Marinette pushed aside the 9th box filled with 70’s paisley shirts, she sighed. “I think...I think I’m looking in the wrong place.”

“I agree,” Tikki said, her antenna drooping. “I think we should have found something by now, right?”

“I couldn’t even find any inspiration down here.”

In the corner of her eye, she saw something, and turned quickly.

“What?” Said Tikki wearily, already knowing what was wrong.

“Another freaking mannequin! I swear they’re moving when I’m not looking at them!”

“They can’t do that.”

“I know that, but my eyes are tired and my heart is on the edge, and coffee isn’t working on my brain anymore!”

“I think we should leave then. Maybe try looking at the mansion again. Maybe there’s a basement that Felix didn’t know about.”

At that moment, her phone chirped with a message from Nathalie.

Please don’t forget, tomorrow, despite it being Saturday, your presence is required at the Agreste Manor. Gabriel’s Last Will and Testament will be reviewed, and you have been named. Since Mr. Agreste is so famous, we have asked all beneficiaries to attend. Sunday, you have off.

“Well, looks like I have an excuse to go back to the mansion after all. Probably should get in there and explore quickly. I have no idea what’s going to happen to it in the wake of...well, you know.”

“Someone is probably going to inherit it. Probably Felix now. He seemed rather friendly at the funeral. He might let you snoop.”

“Friendly?”

“More than usual, at least. But who knows how long that will last.”

“If I have to show my cards to investigate, I will. If Ladybug has to break in, I will. I’m not going down in silence.”

Our dreams will live though we are apart

Our love I know we'll keep in our hearts

Till then, when all the world will be free

Please wait for me

True to form, she arrived the next day at the mansion.

As she came into the parlor, where many people were gathered, Felix caught her eye. He jerked his head, gesturing for her to come sit by him.

As she sat, she looked at the others gathered. She recognized Nathalie, of course, Amelie and Felix, and Mayor Bourgeois. There were a few other people she didn’t know. One she had seen at the company, but she couldn’t remember his name right now.

“So,” she asked softly. “Is the lawyer going to read the Will out?”

Felix scoffed. “They don’t do that anymore. We’re just all going to get a copy, and the lawyer will be here if we have questions. Normally, I’m pretty sure they mail it, but I heard that the Will is sealed so they wanted us to get it in person.”

“Sealed?”

“Meaning no one else can read it. Last Wills and Testaments are public records after death. Unless they are sealed.”

“Uh. I didn’t know any of that. This is my first time being in a Will. Well, I think my dad has one, but he’s still alive.”

“Good for you.”

“That is—I mean—I wasn’t trying to—“

“Just shut up, Dupain-Cheng.” He chuckled. “You are so sensitive.”

She just childishly stuck her tongue out at him.

A moment later, Nathalie and a white haired gentleman arrived.

“Hello everyone, thank you for coming. This is Dr. Nathaniel Grey, the Agreste family lawyer and executor of their estate. Now, everyone listed in the Will will receive a copy. Each copy has the same content, but for convenience, I have highlighted your name.” And she started to hand out the packets, calling out names as she did so.

Some of the strangers had the last name ‘Agreste’ so they had to have been related to Gabriel.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Marinette held out her hand to receive the thick white envelope.

“Oh Felix!” Amelie cooed. “Emilie left you her corvette! She loved that car, I know she’d be proud for you to have it.”

“I’ve seen it. Beautiful classic car. I’m honored.” As much of an ass as he was, Felix sounded genuine in that sentiment.

To not seem too eager, Marinette carefully opened the envelope. As she did, she tried to imagine what he would have left her. A share in the company maybe? Maybe a family sewing machine? Nothing much, surely.

She unfurled the sheet and wow that was a lot of pink.

“What the hell?” Felix gasped, looking over her shoulder. He glanced back at his page, and frowned in confusion. “No offense Marinette, but what the hell?”

“I…I don’t even know…” She glanced over the assets willed to her.

Gabriel left her the mansion.

Up until that moment, she had forgotten she was supposed to be looking for a new place after Nino and Alya got married. She had mentioned it to Gabriel once, off-handed, and he seemed to not really care.

But if he left the house to her, could he have cared more than she thought?

The mansion wasn’t the only thing he left to her, either. He left his share of the company stocks, as well as trusts and bonds. Marinette had become a multi-millionaire.

“What’s the meaning of this, Dr. Grey!?” A woman shouted.

The shout drew all attention to her. She was a rail thin, tall woman, with high cheek bones and blonde-white hair tied up in a bun.

“What seems to be the problem, Madam Laurent?”

“I was left a small fraction of stock and my mother’s ashes, but this—this half breed harlot gets the entire estate!?”

Marinette flinched, feeling guilty and wholly undeserving of Mr. Agreste’s gift.

Thankfully, Nathalie of all people came to her aid. “Miss Dupain-Cheng has been working tirelessly and closely with Gabriel to continue his brand. She’s been named head designer for his company, and everything left to her is to help in that endeavor.”

As she and Felix looked over the list of gifts, she wondered how true that was.

“But I’m his sister!” Said Madam Laurent. “I take precedence over her!”

“Not with a will, you don’t.” Dr. Grey explained. “Children are the only protected heirs in French law. The rest of his estate is his to do with as he pleases.”

Marinette looked back at all the pink highlights. She began to wonder if they served a purpose in distracting everyone from the obvious.

Adrien wasn’t on there. Not once.

Although there are oceans we must cross

And mountains that we must climb

I know every gain must have a loss,

So pray that our loss is nothing but time

He couldn’t be disinherited from the Will, not under French law. And yet he was missing…like the Will had been drawn up with the knowledge that Adrien wouldn’t be alive once it was valid.

Pale and shaking, Marinette turned to look at Felix.

“Don’t let her get to you, Kid,” he nudged her, taking her appearance for still being put off by the woman. “Gabriel’s family has always been lower middle class, before he became famous. She probably just wanted a bunch of money…whereas most of it was my Aunt’s and it was returned to our family. Does that make sense?”

Marinette shook her head, and then whispered. “Adrien isn’t here.”

He gave her a soft smile. “Yeah, I know. He’s gone, Marinette.”

“No!” She shouted, then hushed herself as the others turned to look. “No, I mean…he’s not here.” She pointed at the Will.

Felix grew pale too, and poured over the Will himself. “No way…how…but—maybe it was an assumption. Maybe it was assumed that Adrien was going to inherit half anyway, so he made the Will in case something happened?”

“Dr. Grey,” Marinette stood and walked to him. “How old is this version of the Will?”

Nathalie gave her a sharp look, but didn’t comment.

“Well, a little over a week, actually. Gabriel called me and asked to make some changes.”

“And why isn’t his son in here?” She asked, darkly.

Dr. Grey screwed up his lips. “You know, I don’t know. I told Mr. Agreste what the law was, and he said, ‘just write it up as if Adrien didn’t exist.’ I wonder if he knew what their fate was going to be.”

Marinette tried not to cry. She really did, but she just clenched the document to her chest and sobbed.

“Now now, my dear. Don’t be so blue.”

“Adrien isn’t a murderer! He can’t be!”

“Does it really matter anymore?” The lawyer asked. “The truth of their demise will not be released publicly. Only a handful of people will know. I doubt anyone outside of this room, in fact.” He said it so casually, like nothing was wrong.

“Didn’t you find it suspicious?” She demanded.

“No,” said Dr. Grey. “You would be surprised at how many clients have second versions of Wills without a child in it. Whether it’s because they’re hoping something will happen, or they see their child going down a dangerous road. Or perhaps the child is terminally ill and the parent doubts they will survive longer than them. Regardless of the reason, I choose to not ask questions.”

Marinette wished he had.

Till then, let's dream of what there will be

Till then, we'll call on each memory

Till then, when I will hold you again

Please wait till then

“Now, did you see the conditions?”

“What?” She sniffed.

“Here,” Dr. Grey pointed to an asterisk at the end of the mansion item. “This states that there’s a condition applied, and the condition will be on the backside.”

Marinette wiped her face and turned the paper over.

“Miss Dupain-Cheng must reside within the mansion for ten years. Within that time, she may not redecorate or refurnish any room except for the ‘pink room’. Guests, spouses, and children are welcomed to join her, as long as she is the primary resident. If she is to go on vacation or an extended business trip, the house must be vacant, save for those who would keep it from disrepair. If Miss Dupain-Cheng fails to comply, the house, and all that is in it, must be demolished. It cannot be sold or gifted to anyone until the ten year mark passes.”

Marinette just continued to stare. “I…that’s…really specific.”

“More specific than I suggested, but it’s what Mr. Agreste wanted.”

With a calm expression, but a heart in turmoil, Marinette folded her copy up. “Thank you for your help, Dr. Grey. If you’ll excuse me, I need a minute alone.” She took her copy and quickly walked across the lobby to her office.

There, on her desk, was a vase with a bouquet of roses. She hadn’t been in here since before the funeral, but they looked fresh. No card though.

She set the roses to the side, and unfurled the Will once again, laying it flat on the desktop. She poured over every item, not just Willed to her, but to everyone.

Indeed, there was no sign of Adrien, but also no sign of his property. Did he have his own Will somewhere else?

There was the curious case of Nathalie, who was in the Will, but received only money and trusts. Not an inch of material property, despite her closeness to Gabriel after all these years.

What did she know? What had she seen? Truthfully, Marinette was too afraid to ask.

Tomorrow, she would visit City Hall and get the records of the mansion. Hopefully, there were some blueprints in there, and the hidden basement would be found.

Till then, let's dream of what there will be

Till then, we'll call on each memory

Till then, when I will hold you again

Please wait till then

#miraculous ladybug #ml #fanfiction #the ghost of Smokey Joe #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #adrienette #tikki #identity reveal #murder mystery #spooky

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overlyimmersed · 3 years

Text

Nightmares and Daydreams

A Gravity Falls AU.

Hi @verysorrytobother Stanticore anon, revealing my true identity to share this with you! I wasn’t sure how a post this long would go over as an ask, so I decided to do it this way. I hope this is ok.

I’ve been working on this for a while and I hope it goes over well enough. The artwork took me the most time.

As a car crash victim is slowly dying, her mental self panics in the mindscape. She's offered a deal to save her life. Let the game begin.

(Content warnings: Blood. Descriptions of serious injuries.)

"What..." she whispered to herself, staring at the other in disbelief.

"Yep!" he confirms, in a high-pitched, grating, inappropriately upbeat tone, "Dead as a doornail, kid!- Well technically you still have a few more seconds till you brain totally ceases to function. Better make up your mind while you still have one!"

She's still staring dumbly at him. How can he be this nonchalant about it?! A half second ago she was sitting in the front seat of the family truck, a totally routine trip to the store- she never liked trucks but her dad's a carpenter so they need the hauling space. At least it's a pretty shade of blue- and the next she's here, laying face down in a black void with this prick this- this...All Seeing Eye? He's like the Illuminati symbol, but with arms and legs and a top hat. Caution sign yellow and talking to her- or at her. Bill. Freaking. Cipher. Every time he 'speaks' he flashes with light- no mouth so does it really count as speaking? More like his voice is being projected right into her mind- ... And he's telling her that she freakin died! Can't he see how messed up this is?! Can't he sympathize at all!? Then again, it's Bill. She ought to know better.

She ought to know better. She's seen this show a hundred times, she knows nothing good comes from dealing with Cipher. But she doesn't have time to be careful, she doesn't have the luxury of weighing options.

"Tick-tock, Car Wreck!" The obnoxious voice insists again, forcing her out of her stupor, his outstretched hand now alight with blue fire.

Her face scrunches up in a loud cringe, eyes screwed shut and teeth bared, and she swings her hand till it lands solidly in his. Crazed cackling resounds as the deal is struck, but it falls to simple soundtrack as her senses try to sort out what's going on.

She'd expected the blue fire to burn, or at least feel like something, but it didn't. Instead her entire being is flung into a...whirl? Free fall? Something that makes her stomach jump into her throat, and gives her vertigo.

The sensation stops suddenly, only to be replaced by a cacophony of new perceptions. She isn't sure which strikes her first, the sounds or the smell. Shrieks of agony and terror make up the next track of this bizarre playlist, punctuated by the reek of burnt hair. When her eyes fly open to try and make sense of it all, they have no luck. The sight that meets her is a sky of surreal, swirling, bastardized ribbons of every hue, like being inside a filthy bubble. Floating strewn about the space are pockmarked asteroids, and little else.

"So what'd ya think?" The grating voice rejoins the discord, drawing her shell-shocked gaze. "Home-sweet-home, huh? Well don't worry, you won't be here for very long. A deal's a deal, Car Wreck." With that que, and a snap of his fingers, she's falling again. This time untethered and unaccompanied. It takes her a moment to realize the scream ripping though the void is coming from her own throat. Once it hits her, so does something else, and the world goes black.

She wakes some time later, maybe moments maybe days. She has no way of knowing. She pushes herself onto her hands and knees, groggy and disoriented. It takes her a moment to notice the texture under her hands and focus her vision on it. It's grass. She sits up and looks around. "oh..." she says to herself, taking in the scenery. It's lovely, a grassy, sun soaked field. The sky made of churning colors like the last place she'd been, but they're pastel and much prettier. A warm breeze brushes past her face and she takes a deep breath of it, it smells sweet and warm, heavy with the scent of growing things, and for the first time since this started she finds some peace. Peace which is quickly shattered by a familiar, grating voice.

She jumps and whirls around so quick she falls onto her butt. There, floating just inches from where her head had been, is Bill. Laughing at her of course.

"Whoops! Didn't mean to scare you there, Car Wreck!" he claims, moving through the air to look around, then turning back around to look at her. "So how do you like the new digs?"

There's a beat of silence where she just stares at him again, but quickly she shakes off the shock and tries to respond. "Uh...It's nice." She lets her eyes roam around for a second, before returning to Bill, "Where are we?"

"This is the Realm of Daydreams! Your new HQ!" he answers, floating around behind her and making a grand gesture with his arms.

She turns her head to follow him, "Daydreams? HQ?"

"Yep! This is where you'll hang out when you're not puppeting your little pawns." He turns around to look at the scenery more himself. "Kinda dull if you ask me. Maybe you can do something about that!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh you know, some pillars of anguish, an alter of unholy fire, maybe a blood fountain or a couple of-" he gestures with each suggestion, like a landscaper creating a vision, until she cuts him off.

"No I mean," she finally pushes herself to a stand, teetering a little till she finds her balance. "Pawns?"

He turns back to her, "Oh yeah, which ones do you want anyway?" he waits a beat for an answer, but she just stares back at him, clearly not following. "Ugh, our deal?"

He hadn't really told her what the deal was, just mentioned a game and a second chance. "Uhh, I don't think you-"

"Oh right, you flesh bags need everything explained to you." he groans, rolling his eye, "Alright, here's the deal. We're gonna play a little game," he holds out his hand and a little hologram like projection appears showing an aerial view of a town. "and the people of this hick town are gonna be the pieces." ten little blue stick figures appear in the center of town, each with a little symbol above it's head. "If you win, you rejoin the land of the living!" a little magenta stick figure pops into existence next to the others and they all do a little happy dance. "If I win..." suddenly the whole projection goes up in flames, and she jerks her head back instinctively, "You burn with rest of those worthless mortals!" He bursts into a fit of maniacal laughter, which actually gives her some times to recover.

After a second of shocked staring, she blinks a few times then puts on as neutral an expression as she can. "Ok. So what are the rules?"

"Simple!" he answers, cutting off his laughter "We can't directly manipulate each other's pawns, and we can't interfere with the other's powers."

"That's it?"

"Yep. Everything else is fair game"

"Ok...What are my powers?"

"Same as mine! Except you don't have to wait till someone falls asleep to get in their head."

"I see..." her eyes wander to the ground as she contemplates the information, and her hand reaches for the longest of her three necklaces to idly play with the spiked pendant. "So you can talk to them in dreams, and I can talk to them in daydreams."

"Bingo!"

She scrunches her nose a little, thinking of a few ways that could end up being annoying. "Alright, anything else I need to know?"

"Hmm, nope! That just about covers it. All that's left is to pick our pawns, I'll even let you go first!" And with that ten, glowing, blue symbols appear between them. She looks them over carefully, she knows who each symbol corresponds to- supposing the cartoon from her world is accurate. She considers the six-fingered hand, if she takes him out of Bill's control from the start that derails his whole plan as she knows it. But, then she'll have no clue what's up to at all, at least by letting Bill have the pawns she's familiar with she has a chance at guessing his moves. She reaches forward and touches the shooting star, it turns magenta and floats to hover closer to her.

"Interesting." Bill comments, though his tone doesn't sound very interested, as he makes a simple motion with his eye and the six-fingered hand settles beside him. She chooses the fish looking symbol next, and Bill's second choice in the pine tree. They go back and forth till they have five symbols each, Bill having the the six-fingered hand, the pine tree, the llama, the stitched heart, and the pentagram. While she has the shooting star, the fish, the bag of ice, the spectacles, and the question mark.

"Welp, that settles that. Nice picks you made there, lets hope they work out for ya, Car Wreck"

"Could you not call me that?" though it hardly sounds like a request.

"And what else should I call you?" Bill asks, collecting his symbols into one hand and placing the other on his...hip?

"How about my name? It's Maranwe."

"But Car Wreck fits you so much better! Just take a look!" he quips, snapping a full-length mirror into existence. Maranwe turns to look and gasps in horror. Bill breaks out into more cackling, "Well my work here is done! I'll let you get cleaned up, see ya around Car Wreck!" And with that he fades from existence.

Maranwe just stares, even as Bill disappears from 'her' realm, she can only stare at her destroyed refection. Her hair is messy- and she almost laughs that that's what her brain zeros in on first-, It's also dirty, some of the mess is actual dirt but several spots are matted with half-dry blood. Her face is in a similar condition, smeared with dirt and blood but she can see the wounds there. Scrapes and still oozing cuts, bruises forming on one cheek bone and under her eyes. Her nose isn't quite right...broken probably. Her vision skims over her whole body for a second, making note of similar injuries where tears in her clothes reveal them. It's not as bad as she would expect a car crash victim to look- "except for that" Her mind screams suddenly while all her mouth can do is gasp, as her attention lands dizzyingly on her neck. It's...purple, but also red? There's no spilled blood but it still looks ugly, and the worst part is the...bump. It's not hard to figure out that it's a misaligned bone. Without the pain to tell her she never would have noticed, her neck is broken. Very broken. How is she holding her head up right... Probably because this isn't actually a physical body. She wonders if this is what killed her, or if there's something inside, something she can't see, that did the trick.

Whatever it is, she can't be seen like this. And she really really doesn't want to look like this for her own sake. Bill said she could 'clean herself up'? How exactly... She thinks about how Bill's powers tend to work and tries to concentrate on a cleaner, less beat up mental image of herself. She lifts her hand to her cheek and grazes her finger tips across it, a trail of sparkles follow the touch and the skin underneath returns to normal. She relaxes a little, watching the disaster wipe off her face like cheap make-up. She keeps the image in her mind and closes her eyes, cupping her hands in front of herself and imagining the sparkles pooling in them. Then she splashes the sparkles over he face, like a girl in a face wash commercial, and imagines the glittering dust washing over her entire body, cleaning away the mess and injuries. And when she opens her eyes, that's exactly what's happened. Her reflection shows her whole and unwounded, even her clothes are fixed.

The next thing she does is smooth her hair down, mostly an instinct since it's still messy, and the sparkles trail after her hands, tidying the strands as if she'd just brushed them. She watches her reflection's mouth quirk up a little in a small smirk. So she can just change what she looks like by imagining it? That figures, this is a place of daydreams that's kind of how they work. She knows exactly what to do with this, she's known since she was a kid what she's change if she could. She places the backs of her hands next to her ears and flicks up, sparkles spray up with the motion and her normal human ears, turn to wolf ears the fur the same chocolate brown as her hair. Her smirk blooms into a full blown smile, and she tilts her head to get a better look at them, watching them move as she tests them. It's like they're real! Next is the tail of course, it's mostly brown, with some silver down the top and a black tip. Then she looks down, and taps the toe of each of her shoes against the ground in turn, as she does they become the compressed paws of her own design.

"That's insane..." she laughs to herself. She's actually turning herself into something else, her own made up alien species. And she just can! With the big changes out of the way she works out the details; pupil shape, fang length, and straightens out a few asymmetries and insecurities she's always had about her body- after all why not? When she's done, she can't help admiring herself a little, turning this way and that in front of the mirror, her perfect image of herself. Well- almost perfect. She snaps her fingers and in the same dusting of glitter, her shirt changes. What was before a loose grey t-shirt with the word "nope" written across it in cursive, as been replaced by a cropped sweater, banded in 3 colors; white at the top, then light blue, then dark blue. She lifts it to look at the crop top under neither, it's just plain white. She decides she doesn't like it that way, so it changes to a cropped version of the t-shirt she'd had before. With that taken care of she lifts her arm so the over-sized sleeve falls down and she can see her forearm, which is covered by a light blue arm warmer with white lace around the edges. Perfect. At least for now. She can change later if she decides she doesn't like the arm warmers.

She giggles to herself, invigorated by the makeover and the sense of control she has now. She turns from the mirror and skips a few feet across the grass, the symbols she'd chosen follow her, floating loosely like beads suspended in gel. She laughs a little as she watches them, and idly reaches for her necklace again, but this time her hand just meets the soft knit of her sweater. She'd forgotten to add them into this new look, so she just wills them into place; three different necklaces of three different lengths. Her hand finds the middle length first, the pendant is designed to spin so she plays with it while her mind starts to wander. She starts thinking of plans for winning this game, what she might say to each other 'pawns' and who to use where and how, even letter her thoughts wonder about the new life she'll have. Cipher's hologram suggested she'll stay in Gravity Falls, which would be cool but what about-

The sound of screeching tires and twisting metal cuts her thoughts off clean and she whips around to find the source of the noise, but her fear turns to confusion when she sees...nothing. She stands stock still, her mind running over only vague impressions of thoughts relating to what she just heard, until another loud sound whips her back around. This time she actually sees something, like a huge firework in the pastel oil-slick sky, accompanied by Bill's obnoxious voice echoing through the space.

"Let the game begin!"

#I was on anon at first because I have ungodly amounts of social anxiety #gravity falls #gravity falls au #NM&DD #Nightmares and Daydreams #creative writing #?#fanfiction #fanfic #gravity falls fanfiction #Bill Cypher #gravity falls OC #now I'm gonna go die of embarrassment #I don't really consider myself a writer #i'm more of the drawing sort of artist #so I hope at least the pictures are good #someone please let me know if the cryptograms are illegible in that font #I'll post a translation if they're too hard to read

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imaginesandinserts · 4 years

Text

Irreverent Pt. 10 - Father Dearest

Title: Irreverent Pt. 10 - Father Dearest Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x Reader Rating: R Words: 2841

Content Warnings: Mentions of suicide

Irreverent Series Masterlist

"That's your dad?"

You were still reeling in shock as you watched Strauss and your father climb up the stairs towards the offices. Spencer, Emily, and Derek were all watching you. You think the question had come from Spencer but with the ringing in your ears, you couldn't be positive.

What was he doing here? Why was he with Strauss? This was supposed to be your place. Away from them. Away from him. So how on earth was he there, chatting with Strauss as if they were old friends. You must not have schooled your face too well, because Emily was asking you if you were okay. Her voice was lost in the din as you watched Strauss knock on Hotch's door and then draw both him and Rossi into the room with your father.

"Hey, hey, Y/N, look at me!" It was Emily again, trying to get your attention. You blinked and tried to focus on her - her voice - hoping it would ground you. She was holding you by your shoulders and she looked really worried. Both Derek and Spencer were right beside her looking equally bewildered by your reaction.

You had to get in there. You had to know why he was here. If he was here it was for nothing good, of that you were absolutely certain. You tried to give Emily a reassuring smile but it might've just been a grimace at best, because she didn't look reassured in the least. It's okay. You'd explain later. Right now you had to get to Hotch's office before he…before he did or said something that was...something. You weren't sure what. But you knew you had to stop him.

Before you knew it, your legs had carried you up the stairs, leaving your team to look at you worriedly. They'd had no choice but to let you go or risk causing a scene.

You knocked quickly but didn't wait for an answer as you normally would, but simply entered Hotch's office. You were being rude. You'd apologize later for your behavior. But not now. Show no weakness. This was your home, your office, your team.

"Agent L/N, may we help you?" Strauss asked, looking annoyed by your sudden interruption. It was against protocol and in her eyes it was insubordination - the worst of the deadly sins as far as she was concerned. Hotch and Rossi both looked at you curiously. It seemed you'd interrupted them in the middle of introductions though of course Rossi recognized your father. Maybe Hotch did too, who knew.

"I'm sorry, Chief Strauss. Please excuse me, I know I've overstepped. Why are you here?" The last part was directed at your father whose schooled poker face revealed nothing. No surprise at your intrusion. He looked at you with the same look he used to give you when you'd asked a particularly stupid question at the dinner table. The look designed to make you feel small and guilty.

"Agent L/N." It was Strauss again. Your father had chosen to ignore your question it seemed. "This is highly irregular, for you to interrupt a closed door meeting that you were not invited to."

"it's alright Erin. My daughter and I haven't seen one another in some time. Curiosity was a skill I ingrained in all my children. She took to it a little too well it seems," he laughed a bit disingenuously, gesturing to the surroundings. He was trying to defuse the situation but you couldn't be sure why yet.

"Actually Erin," he continued, "since you've assured me that this team is the right team for the job, maybe it would be alright if Y/N joined us?" He was asking, but he wasn't really. He had a way of doing that. "Please everyone, sit. Let's not all be so stiff. Darling, come sit by Papa." He motioned you over to him as he made himself comfortable on Hotch's couch. For some reason unknown to you, you followed and sat down on the cushion next to his, leaning just slightly away from him. You tried to revert your face back to neutral but there was no way Hotch and Rossi couldn't sense your complete unease.

Hotch's guard had already been up when Strauss had strolled into his office with the man, whom he now knew to be your father. Now, watching how you held yourself around him and seemed so electrifyingly confrontational, had every single one of his senses on red alert. He met Rossi's eye and knew that the older agent had caught on to the same - not that it was too hard to do, as you had barged in and demanded to know what the man was doing, daring to step foot in Quantico.

"As we were about to say," Strauss continued, looking thoroughly perturbed by your interruption. "Mr. L/N was contacted recently in his capacity as liaison between us and the Eastern Europeans, with some very disturbing news which he felt it imperative to share with us. The Director has already spoken with me about this, but Mr. L/N was contacted by a concerned citizen who has identified the presence of a serial killer who seems to be hunting American citizens up and down the East Coast for the past several decades."

"What about his role makes him the best contact regarding a tip about serial killers." You could've kissed Hotch for seeing through the bullshit. That's what it was. Complete and utter bullshit. Bureaucratic bullshit that you had been trained to see your entire life. Your father leaned closer and put his arm nearest you at the back of the couch, and then moved it down to be around your shoulders. You just wanted to fling yourself across the room and stand next to Hotch. Behind Hotch. Anywhere but seated near this man.

"I am a trusted figure in these communities. Often these people do not trust law enforcement to be on their side." He was trying to explain his job, his duty as he called it. The entire thing was revolting.

"So what do you have for us, then?" It was Rossi who asked this time, fixing your father with a firm look.

"Oh David, it has been such a long time since we last saw one another. Your directness. Always something I've admired." Ugh. He was trying to be charming. Rossi had to see through it.

Strauss chose to be the one to take Rossi's question. "Mr. L/N has compiled a lot of information on this case. I have already passed it along to both Agents Garcia and Jareau and the BAU will be prioritizing this over any other case." Her tone left little room for argument and you knew you were already on thin ice due to your earlier interruption.

Hotch was fuming on the inside. Strauss was dictating which cases his team did for some political agenda. And your father was at the middle of it for some bizarre reason. You seemed frightened. That was a sobering thought for him. He made sure his face revealed nothing as he simply nodded, knowing he would rant to Rossi about this as soon as Strauss was out of earshot.

The wheels in your head were spinning trying to make sense of it. Strauss wanted the team to take a case to hunt down a serial killer that your father had identified. Why? Who was this man? Why was your father trying to get him caught?

"Darling, why don't we let Agents Hotchner and David here get started and you can join me for dinner?" He was asking you to share a meal with him. Un-fucking-believable.

"Oh Papa, you know I would love to. But as you and Chief Strauss have emphasized, this case is of the utmost importance. I'm sure the whole team will be brought in and we will probably have to fly out tonight." You looked to Hotch for confirmation and he nodded.

"Yes, sir. Agent L/N is correct. We'll be bringing in the whole team and starting right away." Oh that perfect, smart, beautiful man. He was about to get free babysitting for Jack for life.

"Well, in that case, I suppose I'll leave you to it. Chief Strauss, thank you. Agents. Y/N, escort your Papa back to the elevators at the very least and perhaps the two of us can plan something for when you've wrapped up this little nuisance." You wanted to refuse but of course you couldn't. You faked a smile, and as he shook everyone's hands and exited the room, he pulled you in closer, tucking your hand into the crook of his elbow as you walked out together, with Strauss at your heels.

"So, that was Y/N's dad," Hotch found himself feeling a mixture of revulsion and pity as he watched the man force you to walk him to the elevators. Your posture was stiff the entire way.

"Yes, however I've never seen him with Y/N before," Rossi confided as the two of them started to dig into the files that Strauss had left on Hotch's desk.

"Did she seem-"

"Scared?"

Hotch nodded grimly.

"Yes."

*------------*

As the elevator doors closed, hiding his face from view, you knew you had to face the team again. They were bound to have questions. You just weren't sure how honest you were prepared to be with them quite yet.

As you turned to walk back, you saw Rossi summoning everyone to the conference room. He was waiting for you outside, after having ushered everyone else in.

"You okay kiddo?" Rossi actually looked really worried, and you reminded yourself that this was a man who might actually have some idea of who your father truly was.

"Not even in the slightest." You let out a breath that you had likely been holding since you'd heard his voice again.

"Alright, come on in then. We might as well all talk it out," he said, urging you in to join the rest of the team. They all look so worried. Emily made eye contact and you could physically feel her suppressing a what-the-fuck-was-that-y/n? You couldn't look at her too long - any of them. You turned to look at Hotch standing at the head of the table. He still looked calm. A little worried, but he was maintaining the calm overlay and that helped. Hotch was here. Hotch could handle anything.

You knew they were all waiting for you to go first. It seemed Garcia and JJ had filled everyone else in while you'd been in Hotch's office, as they all had a copy of the case file in front of them. You took a deep breath, bracing yourself, not quite knowing what was about to come out of your mouth.

"So…that was my father." You looked around, trying in vain to maybe just laugh it off, but they all looked so concerned still. This was mortifying.

Steeling yourself, you decided to just go for it. "Look, Hotch, whatever he says, whatever he does, don't trust him. This case, there's no way he just came across someone who handed him a file on a serial killer we knew nothing about. Isn't that suspicious to anyone? How did he possibly convince Strauss and the Director!" You had blurted out more than you'd actually meant to. You must look crazy.

They were all suspiciously quiet. It appeared they were deferring to Hotch and Rossi.

"Y/N," Hotch's voice was soft and cajoling, your name always sounded so nice in his mouth. "Why are you afraid of your father?"

Of course he'd pick up on that. You released another deep breath. You could hear the wall clock ticking as they all looked at you still. "My father is not a good man," you began, stifling the part of you screaming at you to trust no one. "Rossi, you know him. You know his reputation. He's not like your mom, Em. He's not an ambassador like her. He makes shady backroom deals and he's a liaison which is really just code for government-approved mob bosses. If he wants something from us, it's part of a larger plan and we won't know what it is until we're in too deep."

You hadn't realized you were shaking as badly as you were, but JJ had come around the table to sit next to you and her warm hand was truly the only thing keeping you mentally in the room instead of in a dark room inside your mind, screaming your head off.

"Okay, but Y/N, that doesn't answer my question. Why are you afraid of him?"

You had to just get it out. They would believe you, even if no one else would.

"I don't know if you guys know this, but I have two older brothers," you started to disclose.

"Yes, older one is Dominic - he works under your father. Your younger brother, the middle child, Julian, is deceased - mugging victim." Reid's recall from your background file sure came in handy.

"Yeah," you gave Spencer a shaky smile for filling in some of the details. You weren't sure how you were going to get this out entirely. JJ's hand was still clasped in yours and Hotch's brow was furrowed in worry, his lips a thin line. "I can't prove this," you said, shaking your head a bit, "but I'm confident that my father had Julian killed."

Penelope gasped, barely audibly.

"Y/N, sweetheart," JJ's voice broke out into the silence. "Why would you think that?"

"Julian was - he was not who my father expected a son of his to be. My father is a traditional man, and he cannot stand anyone contradicting him. Going against what he's ordered them to do. In my last year at Harvard, Julian was seeing someone. He had told me around the holidays and was going to introduce us at graduation. He died the month before. At graduation, a close friend - someone who has been around for me and my family since before I was born - confided in me that he suspected that Julian's death was not a suicide. You see, my father had a business deal he wanted to seal and he was pressuring Julian to date this girl while Julian was in his other relationship."

"Your brother was gay," Rossi asked but it wasn't a question. They all knew by the way you'd described your father.

"Yes. But I didn't know. Like I said, old school, traditional family with a reputation to hold. I only found out afterwards because my friend had Julian's journal from his final days. In it he was going to go public with his relationship and wrote about an argument he had had with my father when he refused to date that girl to seal the deal. My father knew then that Julian was gay."

"But, you really think he would kill his own son?" Derek was standing now, the incredulity evident on his face.

"I know he did. In his final days Julian was scared. My father has a lot of contacts that are seedy at best. Hiring a hit to avoid the embarrassment to the family of having a gay son - that is something that he would do. I grew up with the man, and there isn't a doubt in my mind that he's capable of it."

"Y/N," Emily had finally spoken. She looked at you and you knew that she wanted to believe you but her inner investigator needed more. "Is it possible that Julian committed suicide?"

"Yeah, it is," you admitted. "In which case my father drove him to it and then made it seem like a mugging to avoid the embarrassment of a gay son who committed suicide."

JJ's touch was reminding you too much of how good of a person she was and the crap family that you were associated with. You withdrew your hand from hers and stood to go lean against the wall as they all processed everything you'd revealed. Penelope brought over a glass of water for you and made sure you drank it, petting your hair to help calm you down. You hadn't realized you were still trembling.

After a few minutes, it appeared Rossi and Hotch had come to some sort of nonverbal decision, because Hotch had walked over to stand in front of you. You looked up to meet his eyes - his warm brown eyes which seemed lit with fire - rage and anger on your behalf. "Okay, then we'll work the case. But there's two cases. One is the case we've been handed. The other is figuring out why."

His declaration was directed just at you but it was obviously meant for the whole team. As you looked around the room, you could tell there were people in here who believed you with no proof at all. They'd simply accepted that he was evil and there was a larger plot afoot, just because you'd said so. All they'd needed was your word.

#criminal minds #criminal minds imagine #criminal minds reader insert #aaron hotchner #hotch x you #hotch x reader #irreverentseries #aaron hotch x reader #aaron hotchner x reader #aaron hotchner x you #aaron hotchner x y/n #hotchner imagine #hotch x y/n

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