#if a fight breaks out she and jack r gonna go to her room and paint each other’s nails

[quietwingsinthesky]

I think Jack Kline & Abigail Hobbs should be besties

[lucassinclaer]

i only need super minimal encouragement to talk about this soooooo ty @freetobeeyouandme lmao. been thinking about stranger things heist au again. and it got long into brainstorming territory so just... (waves hand vaguely) thoughts continue under the cut.

legacy families like the byers who never pulled high-end jobs, content in their little pond being small-time crooks incapable of understanding why jonathan, with all his flawless lifts and situational awareness, would try to reach above and start in on the big jobs.

joyce who met lonnie on a job and joyce and jonathan who protect will from lonnie's frustration when will turns out to be an awful thief who doesn't enjoy crime the littlest bit. (he does turn out to be quite the forger when the time comes, though.)

contrast with that the wheelers who are an all-american halfway happy law-abiding family whose eldest, nancy, walks eyes front into a life of crime to protect her friend and finds that it becomes inevitable, a sort of ceaseless need to keep going. who never wanted her little brother involved.

but apparently the wheeler siblings have some sort of crime beacon on them because of course nancy quite literally crashes into her brother trying to take down the same scumbag two towns over she is, although he looks at her like she's crazy when she lays out her plan and man, what her little brother has planned is actually pretty clever and much more subtle than the approach she was gonna take. they have ground rules, but she doesn't try to keep him from pulling jobs. she knows it'd be useless.

dustin is an incredibly bright kid with what may be a slight tendency to go overboard in the name of Science. he loves blowing stuff up every now and again, okay?! and also it's just criminal (heh) what some pharma companies do so he might be breaking into their headquarters and screwing with their formulas and contaminating their experiments until he figures out how to take them down permanently. sue him! (but please don't actually sue him, he hasn't found a great lawyer yet.)

lucas on the other hand was dragged into crime kicking and screaming. not something he ever wanted to do. (will will understand but then lucas kind of loses him when he did it anyway.) mike and dustin sort of kidnapped him into it, basically, when they were all still strangers, dustin and mike barely partners on this one con, and they'd needed a patsy who worked for the corporation they're stealing from. unfortunately they were still young and dumb enough to pick someone actually smart who trapped them in an office until they copped to their scheme at which point lucas demanded proof of their accusations which coincidentally was exactly what mike anf dustin were after. after that they can’t really seem to separate. he's turned into a jack of all trades, lucas sinclair - grifter, thief, hitter... even the occasional hacker. not the greatest at any, but good at all.

(we don't talk about erica who will one day give him a heart attack blowing up his whole carefully crafted alibi.)

steve, the getaway driver who hates his fucking job and is in it only bc there was p much nothing else to do until he finds people who show him there's a way to do it that brings him joy, when he knows what he's fighting for.

robin's a strange sort of grifter, not someone who immediately charms everyone in a room, but who knows how to make herself either invaluable or severely underestimated. she speaks like every language under the sun. like steve she has a certain aimlessness at first but unlike steve it's not due to having no ideas but more of a thing of having no options. until they're offered to her. then she's unstoppable.

max is out there somewhere being a thief different from jonathan, self-made and scared and on the west coast. but if they were to meet jonathan would recognize those gritted teeth and the hard work. it's not natural talent that made her so good at what she does but pure stubbornness.

el, on the other hand, is all raw talent and exploited for it for a long time when she's a kid. it's will who meets her first, who gives her an out, but when it lands him in trouble it's the other criminals who help her get him out. joyce, mike and jonathan develop an instantaneous protective streak for her. lucas isn't sold and dustin is mostly in love with her demolitions capabilities and nancy is hungry for the dirt she has on various government agencies.

[shirtlesssammy]

3x14: Long-Distance Call

Guys! We have a special surprise next week!! (Hint: We finally get to recap the gay angel episodes again!) Until then, enjoy our last episode for season 3...

Then:

Sam’s saving his brother no matter what

Now:

On a stormy night, a man drinks alone, contemplating life. His phone rings. It’s Linda. Ben tells her he can’t. “My wife.” He hangs up the phone. It rings again. Linda pleads with him. She loves him. He hangs up again. The phone rings AGAIN. He slams it down repeatedly and tears it from the wall. IT RINGS AGAIN! Damn, Linda, you are persistent. To stop the ringing, Ben pulls out a gun and shoots himself. 

Dean tells Sam they have a case. Sam tells Dean that they’re on a case --his. Dean balks at that because they’ve got nothing. Bela’s gone, the Colt’s gone, and Dean would rather work a case they can solve than wallow in his imminent death. 

They head to Milan, Ohio. They head right to the dead guy’s house and interview his widow. She’s a little belligerent but tells them that there was blood everywhere (Oh, that’s why she’s belligerent), favorite scotch was out, and the phone was ripped from the wall. 

Sam asks to look at the crime scene. He goes through the caller ID. Dean asks about strange phone calls. She admits that a couple weeks prior she picked up on a call that Ben was on. It was static. No one was there. 

Research time!

Dean finds out that “Linda” was Ben’s high school sweetheart --and she died in a car accident. On top of that, she was cremated. On top on top of that, Sam discovered that the caller ID on the phone traces back to a phone number used a century ago! (I presume Sam did all that research while he stared out the window.) 

They head to the bowels of the phone company to find fly infested, porn addicted Stewie. I’m going to skip over all this but will laugh at the ad that said “Order now & receive a bone-us gift!” Sam asks Stewie to trace the old-time number. (Natasha: flames on the side of my face at this damn offensive porn franchise.)

Dean pulls out the threat level 5 on the guy and the guy finds some results. There’s different houses that all received a call from that number. 

Sam heads to investigate one house. He poses as a phone company employee. He asks about strange phone activity. The man that answers the phone says that they haven’t had any issues. Sam notices the daughter looking concerned in the background. 

She pops outside to call his bluff. She wants to know why he was asking about the phones. He gives her a little give and she admits that she’s been talking on the phone with her mom --who’s dead. 

Dean checks in with similar stories. Then he gets a call. It’s the static-y voice of John Winchester. 

Later at the motel, Sam wants to know more about Dean’s call. Dean gets all nervous boy about it possibly really being their dad, and what they should do about it. What should Dean say? Sam, ever the pragmatist, suggests, “hello.” It’s funny, but I guess not really because Dean walks out on his brother. 

Dean comes back with a reason why things are happening here. It’s the birthplace of Thomas Edison, and there’s a museum with Edison’s spirit phone. 

They take a tour but the phone doesn’t have any EMF. They’re stumped as to what’s happening. 

Later that night, while Sam slumbers, Dean stays awake to answer his phone. John calls again. He asks Dean how he could sell his soul. “I was looking after Sammy like you told me to.” (Boris screams into the void) John tells Dean that the demon that holds Dean’s contract is in Ohio. 

Meanwhile, the daughter from earlier is IMing a friend when she gets a message from her dead mom. The mom says she wants to see her. The girl is scared but her mom reassures her that she’s with her. Then the girl’s computer flickers out and in the reflection of the monitor, we see the girl and her mom. 

The next morning, Sam returns from interviewing Lanie, the haunted daughter, to find Dean obsessing over demon omens. He shares his intel with Sam. 

Dean’s pretty sure the demon who owns his contract is following him. I pull a Dean voice to say, “Why are you so obsessed with me?” only Dean’s actual line in the show is “My ass is too sweet to let out of sight.” God. This show. Sam tries to tell him that the demon-killing exorcism that John gave Dean over the phone might not be as advertised. Dean’s a believer, though. He’s got faith in John! (Just gonna take a li’l writing break to tear at my hair.) 

Sam heads back to watch over Lanie, but before he goes the Winchesters hold an emotional shouting match. Dean’s ready to stop the demon from coming after him once and for all and thinks that Sam’s reticence is just more head-butting with their (now dead) dad. Sam accuses Dean of having “blind faith” towards his father and I weep. Sam leaves with one request: that Dean stay put until he returns from seeing Lanie. So. That’s going to go well. 

Lanie explains to Sam what’s been going on - that her mom’s requests have extended beyond the normal grieving cemetery visit. We cut to a young kid playing in his room. His toy phone rings. “Hi, mommy!” he chirps. 

Cut to Dean “Single Man Tear” Winchester sitting dramatically by his phone. It rings. 

Lanie reveals to Sam that her mother’s ghost told her to kill herself. When Sam hears the ghost’s catchphrase, “come to me,” he realizes that they’re dealing with something else entirely. 

While Sam experiences revelation, Dean heads off alone following his dad’s orders. f r o w n y f a c e. He ends up in a quiet, suburban home.

Meanwhile, Lanie’s brother Simon (of the toy phone fame) has gone missing. Sam saves him just in time from getting pancaked by a truck. As soon as the kids are buttoned up back home, Sam calls Dean. He tells him that a crocatta is after the people of the town. It’s a scavenger that lures grieving people and eats their souls. It tends to dwell in filth. Dean recalls the flies at the phone company, so Sam heads out on a hunt. (Meanwhile, YES, Dean’s off having his own questionable adventures, setting demon traps in a nearby house.)

Sam calls Dean for backup before assaulting Stewie, the phone guy. “I know what you are and I know how to kill you,” Sam says to the terrified guy. Someone looms behind Sam with a baseball bat. It’s Clark, the manager! He takes out poor soft-headed Sammy. Unfortunately, Clark takes out Stewie too. 

They both wake up tied to chairs inside the building. Clark kills Stewie and then fangs out. He unhinges his jaw and sucks out Stewie’s soul. Yummy? Clark then lays his hands on the phone console...because it’s time to kill Dean!

Elsewhere, in a police locker room, a man’s phone rings. It’s his daughter. “I know who killed me, daddy,” she says. The girl’s voice tells him that her killer is at their house right now. 

Clark explains to Sam that spoofing John Winchester was incredibly easy. All he had to do was find their phone numbers, then John’s old numbers. That let him listen to voicemails, read emails, and easily find the weak links that led him to target Dean. Oof. (Side note: a crocatta would make a seriously amazing private detective in an alternate Supernatural where monsters have better meal restraint.) 

Dean stands ready at the suburban house - ready to kill a demon. The grieving officer heads home, ready to kill his daughter’s murderer. 

Dean’s jug of holy water is met with an angry father with a shotgun, so things start out really well. They quickly devolve into a dirty fist fight. 

Meanwhile, the crocatta continues to villain-monologue at Sam.

Technology, Clark says, makes it so much easier to target people. They’re connected - yet isolated and easier to pick off. (I scoff at this overdone oversimplification of the role of “technology” in society. I hate when people try to pretend the past was trouble-free.) Sam finds his argument weak as well, and punctuates that by breaking free of his bonds and attacking Clark. 

At the house, Dean disarms the grieving cop and reveals the demon trap below the carpet. He starts reading out the exorcism. To his horror, the guy walks right out of the demon trap. When the guy accuses him of killing his daughter, the pieces click for Dean.

Sam kills Clark by jabbing his head into a retail hook suspended off the wall. OH I SEE, this show has always been obsessed with death by hook. >:| 

Dean and the officer avoid killing each other. Instead, they despair in beaten silence together, before we cut to Dean holding a compress to his forehead back at the motel.

Sam and Dean go over the case back in the motel, but talk quickly switches to EMOTIONS. Sam apologizes to Dean. Dean admits he was wrong. “I wanted to believe so badly,” he says. STORY OF HIS LIFE DAMN IT. He admits that he’s terrified of dying. Terrified of Hell. 

Sam gives him sad puppy eyes. “There’s nothing wrong with having hope.”

“Hope doesn’t get you jack squat,” Dean tells him.

For Sad Boys with Poor Coping Mechanisms Science:

Call Me By Your Quote:

I just talked to an 84 year old grandmother who's having phone sex with her husband, who died in Korea! It redefined my understanding of the word 'Necrophilia'

That’s what happens when you mess with the phone company, dillweed

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[emerald-echeveria-plant]

Me to myself: Holy moly, when are you gonna stop creating treasure planet ocs?

Also me:

WARNING: mentions of murder, r*pe, miscarriage, racism, fighting, and torture.

Name:

Hatred

Actual Name:

Ailani Keahi Amore

Name pronunciation:

Ai-lan-i Kea-hi A-more

Personality:

hateful, spiteful, ambitious, unforgiving, stern, delusional, & hot-headed

Age:

Five hundred years old

Species:

Amoretian

Ethnicity:

Half Polynesian Half European

Gender:

Female

Pronouns:

She/her

Sexuality:

Asexual - Aromantic

Height:

6'9

Weight:

150

Looks:

Backstory:

(it's very long so prepare yourself for a looong read)

Many years ago, a girl by the name of Ailani was born on the planet Amoretia. Her father the prince of Amoretia and her mother a witch. Ailani was the product of an affair between the two. You see, her father was supposed to marry the neighboring princess that would end a war between both planets. Not wanting his affair to be discovered, he ordered an executioner to kill Ailani and her mother. With one chop of the axe came off her mother's head. As for Ailani. She was thrown in a river to drown. Fortunately, a local priest noticed the child being thrown. In an act of mercy, they pulled the poor thing out. Thinking that whoever throw them away must of not wanted the baby. So, the priest took in the small thing and had her raised by the nuns. They decided to give her the name Ailani. For the next fifteen years, Ailani was raised in a church by the nuns. They taught her how to read and write. Act like a proper lady. And had all the bible verses engraved into her mind. Ailani wasn't exactly raised in the most nurturing and loving place. The nuns didn't really raise Ailani as their own. They treated her fairly but it was obviously they didn't really like her. Reason why? They were massive racists. They didn't like her for her skin color so she was often met with abuse and bullying. They'd harshly critique her, push her down a flight of stairs, or straight up bully her. Regardless, Ailani kept her head up high. Being taught that revenge and wrath were sins. That she should love her enemy, no matter how hard they hurted her feelings.. or physically hurted her. Ailani would try to hide her anger but it was obvious that there cruelty was bothering her. Not wanting to commit the sin of wrath against the others, she decided to take her anger out on the forest. She'd spend hours during the night, punching trees. Often muttering to herself about her mistreatment. Sometimes, she'd end up breaking a few of the trees. It escalated from trees, to boulders, and a few times, beast's that would roam the forest. Of course, Ailani could never bring herself to killing the beast. So she'd up letting them go. Ailani ended up becoming physical stronger because of what she wad doing. Some of the civilians noticed this as whenever she wanted to do a simple task, like opening a door, she would accidentally break it off its hinges. Ailani would apologize right afterwards and try to fix it.

One day while attending church, a couple of theives came in, trying to rob the people attending. Ailani was not going to stand by and watch the people get their goods taken away from them. In an act of heroism, Ailani decided fight against the thieves. They laughed in her face and mocked her on how "a tiny little nun was gonna take down four men twice her size." They underestimated the fact that underneath that nun outfit was JACKED woman getting ready to knock their lights out. It took less than a few minutes for the four theives to beg for her to stop. Ailani told them to repent their ways before they were taken away to jail. Unfortunately, what happened right afterwards was Ailani getting kicked out of the church for "acting like a deranged hooligan." It was an obvious excuse for them just to kick her out but Ailani didn't seem to notice that. She was broken by this but instead of lashing out at them, she thanked them for having her there and wished them all well. Ailani moved away from her small village to seek work elsewhere.

As she was looking for work in the city, Quartzville, she stumbled across another problem. A pirates were invading the city as an act of revenge towards the king. Just as Ailani was going to leave to avoid further escalation, two wannabe "heros" came out to protect the citizens. One being a red haired young man by the name of "Sevi" and the other a valiante woman by the name of "Maribelle". They looked to be around Ailani age but clearly weren't as mature. The two tried to fight them off but embarrassingly failed. Ailani, not wanting to view their failure any longer, tried to leave once more. What stopped her was seeing the captain of the crew, stealing a toy away from a little girl then mocking her sadness. Angered by this, Ailani told the captain to knock it off. He mocked her as well which resulted in Ailani fighting him. She almost lost but by some sheer luck, managed to get in the final punch in, knocking him out. The royal guards arrived just on time in order to arrest the entire pirate crew. Some escaped but the majority weren't so lucky. Meanwhile, Ailani was cleaning the blood dropping down her nose when one of the wannabe heros walked up to her. It was Sevi. He seemed rather impressed by her strength. He introduced himself to her and asked if she would like to be apart of their hero group. Which only consisted of Sevi and Maribelle. Ailani wasn't sure if she should. She didn't know if in the eyes of God if this was the right thing to do. She has already been kicked out of her previous church for fighting and already felt guilty for committing another "sin". Sevi, realizing she was a religious person, decided to manipulate her by using her religion. Saying that "of course god would appreciate you for doing this" and that "you'll be just like all those heroes in the fairytal- I mean stories."

After being "convinced" it would be a virtuous act in the eyes of god, Ailani agreed to being apart of their group.

For the next few months, the trio would fight crimes and put criminals in jail. They were praised for their acts of heroism by the people of Amoretia. They'd often be gifted things like money, clothes, and alcohol. Mostly it'd be Maribelle and Sevi partaking in the gifts. Ailani on the other hand not so much. She didn't want compensation for her help, believing that it was wrong of her to get something in return. Strangely, Ailani would oftenly be the one doing most of the work. Sevi would often to get distracted trying to show off and Maribelle would let her anger get the best of her. Ailani would just get straight to the point. Shed be the one favored the most out of the three of them. Ailani didn't care that she was more liked, she's doing her job. Meanwhile, Sevi was growing jealous of the favoritism she was facing. Maribelle, could care less. She only wanted alcohol after all.

Sevi would make it obvious he was jealous towards Ailani. Ailani being kind-hearted would try to make him feel better. This would work sometimes but most of the time he'd brush her off. Ailani still persisted in making him happy. Secretly, Ailani had feelings for Sevi. She thought he was attractive, smart, and charismatic. This was the first person she was ever in love with. Someone she felt that understood her as a person. Ailani often felt that it was her fault for his unhappiness, so she tried to make him happy in any way she could. Realizing that Ailani would do anything for him, Sevi had some rather interesting thoughts he could do with her... Such as making her risk her life to get him things, convince the public that he deserves all the credit for their victories, and had her do some inappropriate favors for him. Ailani didn't care how stressful his tasks were. If it made him happy, she was happy. They ended up getting into a relationship when Sevi thought she was "good enough" for him. Ailani was enthralled with their relationship, finally getting to be with her one true love. She believed that they were meant to be.

Although their relationship came crashing down, when the trio went to a party at the king's castle. Their they met the king, the queen, and the princess, Angelina Amore. Angelina was a beautiful pink haired maiden with a bubbly attitude. Albeit she was incredibly spoiled, many men still wanted to marry her. One of those men being Sevi. It wasn't purely out of love but more out of wanting to be king. He immediately asked for the king for his daughters hand in marriage. The king turned him down, not wanting his daughter to marry a peasant. Although, he quickly reiterated his answer when seeing Ailani at the party. He couldn't believe it with his own eyes. Was that his daughter?? The same child he requested to be killed many years ago?? Alive? No. It couldn't be. After processing what he saw. He thought to himself that she shouldn't be kept alive. His reasoning being what if she revealed that he cheated on his wife? The resembles of her looking like him was far too much. He could be kicked from his throne if the people of Amoretia found out. Amoretians don't take cheating on your spouse very lightly... Deciding she shouldn't be kept alive. Yet the people loved her so much. Her disappearnce would obviously go under investigation... The king decided to make a deal with Sevi. If he got rid of Ailani, he could marry Angelina as a reward. Sevi agreed to the deal.

After the party, the king let the three heros stay in his castle for the night. As they all went to sleep, Sevi snuck out from his room and went to the servants room. He proceeded to slit their throats, killing them in their sleep. Sevi then went to Ailani room where he placed the knife he used in her bed. He proceeded to covered her hands in blood as well as the sheets. In the morning, the queen screamed at the sight of her servant staff lifeless bodies. Immediately, people started questioning who committed such a horrible crime. Then Ailani came out of her room, covered in blood. Seeing the blood, the queen blamed her for what happened. She wanted Ailani to be executed for her crimes. Ailani tried to reason with the queen, pleading that she was innocent. She even tried to have Sevi to convince her that it wasn't true. Sevi, turned his back on her and said she must have done it. The king stepped in between the two women, trying to calm both down. Albeit, the evidence was too far stacked against Ailani. The king sentenced her to life in prison on the planet Xevari. She was then dragged away by the guards and put on a ship where she'd be shipped off to Xevari. Xevari was one of the worst planets to be on. The entire planet was dedicated to being a prison for the worst possible inmates, who've committed the worst crimes. The guards would often treat the inmate like dirt. Some inmates were violently killed and there bodies were never found again. Fights would happen everyday over the smallest issues. It was quite literally a hell on Earth... As soon as Ailani arrived, she was treated no different than the other inmates. Even though she was on the worst planet in the eitherium, Ailani tried to be kind and thoughtful towards everyone. This only made the inmates and guards despise her. Ailani would be picked on by everyone in the jail. Didn't matter if they were a low ranking officer or a the biggest guy in courtyard. Ailani would be treated awful. Yet, she still persisted in being kind. One day a new inmate arrived. A special type of inmate was put in the prison. The inmate was a large hell beast of dragon with a skeletal appearance. It killed anything in it's path for killing was all that it knew. Ailani took interest in the creature. One night, she visited it. What she saw was the dragon with several scars and a spear piercing one of its wings. Ailani felt pity for it and immediately tried to help it. The dragon tried to attack her but after realizing she was helping him, stopped to let her pull it out. After that incident, Ailani formed a bond with the creature because they shared similar experiences. They were both tormented by the inmates and guards. There was unfortunately nothing that they could do about it. Ailani wasn't as strong and the dragon was chained down. But they had each other. Ailani decided to call the beast "Carrion". A play ok words as he seemed to always "carry on living". The dragon didn't understand puns buy none the less took the name regardless. The guards noticed her befriending the hell beast and decided that they weren't going to let her have a simple slice of happiness within this jail.

The guards decided to punish her by throwing her into a room with all the deranged lunatics. Saying, "try being kind to these crazies" before chuckling and walking off. What happened next was Ailani getting forced on by all the men in the room. It was a horrible experience and one that would finally be the breaking point for her. Once they were done with her, she was left in an emotional state. Hyperventilating and crying. Ailani questioned how she got herself into this situation. Why would god curse her to suffer through this fate? What did she do wrong? After questioning herself, Ailani was dragged back into her cell. Where another guard proceeded to rape her. The following days, Ailani would be in a state of shock over what happened. She had thoughts running through her mind still questioning her own religion and actions. Ailani hadn't realized this but she was pregnant at the time from being raped. She unfortunately went through an incredibly painful miscarriage in her cell. No one came to help her or take her to a doctor. While having a psychotic breakdown, Ailani finally came to the conclusion to all the roots of her problems. Love. Love was the reason why she was here... She has her love to the wrong people, she loved the wrong person, she loved... In that very moment, Ailani became a hateful person. She wanted revenge and she was going to get it. Ailani silently made plans on how she could escape from the prison. She went with the best possible outcome. When the guards weren't watching, Ailani took the pair of keys they had in their pocket. She unlocked herself from cell and immediately headed towards Carrion's cell. Ailani freed him from his chains. What followed next was mayhem. Carrion destroyed and killed multiple people as him and Ailani made their escape. No one could seem to stop the beast so they best thing to do was run... Eventually, they got off of Xevari with Carrion flying away while Ailani was on his back. Ailani told Carrion to go to the planet Amoretia. She promised him that there was plenty of victims to eat if he listened to her. That same day they were arriving to the planet was the day Sevi was marrying Angelina. The spoiled princess finally agreed to marry him after some persuasion from her parents. Just as Angelina was walking down the aisle to her new husband, Carrion flew down and devoured the princess. Carrion blew his acidic fire breath towards all the guests as Ailani went for the king and queen. She blamed them for her issues and wanted to kill them both. With one chop from an axe came off the queens head. The king desperately pleaded with Ailani to not kill him. He even said that he was her father in a last attempt to save himself. That only fueled Ailani's anger even more. She chopped off all his limbs and went for his head last. As for Sevi, he met the same fate as Angelina. Albeit more gruesome. Carrion tore the tiny man apart before eating him as well. Amoretia became disarray. All the royals were now dead. Who would take charge next..? Unfortunately it would be whoever was the last blood relative... Ailani.

No one wanted her to rule seeing as how she was responsible for their deaths in the first place. But they had to bow to her... You see only blood relatives could be in charge of Amoretia for they could yield the magical staff that protects Amoretia. Passed from the older generations, the staff was entrusted to the future generations to protect Amoretia. To use it's magic to help others in need. Ailani now knowing of this power, took it for herself. The staff dramatically changed from it's colors of white, red, and pink to black and red. Instead of using its power for good... She used it to torture others and make them suffer. Ailani changed her name once she got a hold of the staff... She changed it to Hatred. For that was the only feeling she could feel now. Hatred made it clear that she was the eitherium's savior and it needed a deep cleansing to get rid of love. She blamed love for all the problems that exist. Saying love was an unnatural feeling, a disease of sorts that plagued ones mind. Hatred was going to get rid of all love. In any way she could, no matter how hard it took.

Her tyranny started with her forcing her new ideology on the people of Amoretia. The people tried revolting against her but with the help of her new staff and her pet, Carrion, they were silenced into submission. She managed to "cleanse" Amoretia by getting rid of all love. Hatred went from Amoretia to neighboring planets in order to "cleanse" them as well. Multiple planets faced the same fate as Amoretia. Becoming incredibly miserable to live in. A war started between Hatred against the entire eitherium. No one wanted to believe this insane woman's ideology and they certainly weren't going to submit to her either without a fight. So the war went on, with both sides facing multiple casualties. Hatred went on with an ironfist, refusing to give up. She'd often take kidnapped soldiers and torture them back on Amoretia. Pictures of the soldier's mutaliated bodies surfaced with the intent of driving fear into her enemies hearts. Albeit as the war went on, she became very paranoid. She felt like someone was plotting to kill her. To stop her from cleansing the eitherium. She'd have frequent nightmares about it. Hatred refused to sleep or even eat anything in case it was poisoned. In order to ease her paranoia, she tried conducting a spell that would make her immortal... Hatred couldn't risk dying because she believed it was in her virtuous purpose to make all love disappear. After multiple months, she managed to make an elixir of immortality. She drank it which killed her minute but immediately brought her back to life. It caused her hair color to change to black and her eyes to a red hue. Now that she was immortality, there was absolutely nothing standing in her way. She conducted more spells so that her army could become stronger, faster, and easier to control. The armies against her, couldn't take it anymore. They were on the verge of giving up. It seemed like Hatred was going to win. The eitherium was going to become an utter hellhole from now on... Luckily, as Hatred planned her next attack, she was ambushed by enemy soldiers. Somehow they were able to kill Carrion and managed to get to her. Hatred didn't have her army with her and tried using her magic. Fortunately with there being more enemies against her, she was promptly knocked out and had her staff taken away from her. A couple of hours had passed and Hatred woke up with chains all around her. She was at the bottom of a well and above her were the leaders, looking down at her. They declared that this was her punishment for the crimes that she's committed. Hatred tried to argue that what she was doing was an act of good and that love was a true plague on the world. Not wanting to listen to her rambling anymore, the sealed up the well and left her there to rot..

The leaders of the other planets announced that Hatred was dead. They were lying but it was too keep the people safe and to not cause panic. Albeit, some rumors floated around saying that she wasn't actually dead.. perhaps she was still alive.. being kept somewhere.. and maybe... Just maybe.. she was planning on returning one day.

Likes:

Torture, heavy metal, red wine, writing, and "enlightening" others

Dislikes:

Love, children, making fun of her ideology, and essentially everything/everyone else in the universe

Weaknesses:

Anger; her own anger is her weakness. While she's on a rampage, she'll be too angry to realize what's happening around her.

Easy to manipulate; hatred makes it obvious what her goals are which can be taken advantage of by others.

Harm; she may be immortal but she can still have harm inflicted on her.

Ambition; Hatred will do anything it takes to get to her goal of destroying all love

Strengths:

Physical strength; she's so strong she can break your arm like a bar of twix.

Strategy; is skilled in battle strategy to know how to attack her enemy

Immortal; unfortunately she can't really die.

Pets:

Has a large hell beast of a dragon by the name of Carrion. It's a skeletal dragon that can firebreath acidic fire. He likes to tear the bones from his victims and add it to his own body in order to make himself look more fearsome and bigger.

Weapons:

Magical staff; a staff that which can perform any type of magic. Currently being occupied by the Terran royal family.

Duel swords; two swords used for the purpose of harming others

Other:

As an initiation to join her army, soldiers have masks sewn onto their faces. In her ideology they were giving themselves a new purpose so they needed a new identity.

[enbymagnuss]

if you could re do mcga... what would happen instead (you gotta say gallory/j)

omfg a lot of things. this is gonna be long lolz

FIRST. magnus’ relationship w jack

their relationship annoys me bc i feel like magnus should have a really special bond with jack. not only is he mags literal weapon, he protects him and helps him, but he also allows magnus to wield him. like magnus is the only one that can do that? like imo they’re platonic soulmates,,, magnus is constantly annoyed by jack bc he’s loud and obnoxious and idk if o wrote mcga i’d have their energies match and have them have a really special bond

second! alex

a lot of things ab alex feel like kinda transphobic lol. for one i wouldn’t have her dress so androgynous. that may be her style (which would be fine) but it’s really not bc when floor 19 looked through her room there were skirts and dresses and alex did not wear one skirt or dress because she wanted to (wedding doesnt count) and i feel like u cant use the excuse of her being in a quest because her outfits r so extra that i don’t think she’d care that what she wore was inappropriate for the quest. why didn’t rick let her be feminine💀 maybe i’m reaching w that one but idrc. i also don’t like how convenient alex’s gender changes were. she was female for the wedding and male when sam needed a chaperone. that isn’t how genderfluidity works it’s random not coincidental. i would have had alex be a boy for the wedding and man would he ROCK that dress and makeup 🙄 i also would have made alex do more to show the reader like hey! she has a crush on magnus! and i want magnus to talk about his feelings for her more in a like oh he likes her way. like u have no idea she likes him and he likes her. i feel like it’s obvious he likes her after you’ve read it once but he doesn’t explicitly like alex u know? like to the extent percy liked annabeth??

iwould have included more annabeth. like on the quest. like they needed to go to midgard and they ended up in new york so magnus called annabeth and she had to help them get out of some situation before going on their way. idk i think it’d be interesting for them and their dynamic to fight together

i would have had gunderkeen b a little different. like they were not in a healthy relationship in my opinion rick made them a bickery and mean couple which works but he took it too far for it to be good? i guess.?? how he said they break up a lot like that’s not good even if you live for eternity. they were like dating for a few months and they broke up and got back together wtf is that bro maybe i’m overthinking that one idk

i would have more flashbacks of natalie!!! what is that woman’s personality we will never know bc rick didnt give her a good one

also more flashbacks of hearth blitz and magnus on the streets. and i want alex to open up more to magnus ab her time on the streets because they have that experience in common

i also feel like magnus should have been more bitter towards his dad. magnus isn’t one to trust and forgive easily and he was probably so desperate for a parent’s love that’s how he acted but frey kinda sucks ngl i would’ve kept the scene where they met how it was but why wasn’t mags more mad at his dad..... his mother was killed and he lived on the STREETS and what did frey do🤨 even if he wasn’t rude and bitter to his face and he just like. complained to sam or alex or someone

that’s all i could think of rn tbh

[do-you-have-a-flag]

Destiel shippers come get ya’ll juice!

SO @deadwright​ and I were inspired by Some Tumblr Posts and the twitter Roadhouse  Wedding stuff and keep writing headcanons about Thee Destiel 2021 Married Ever After S16 SPN Romantic Event Of The Season, so here’s that. 

Arranged in order of marital chronology and cutting out us keysmashing too much:

oh man imagine all the burgers they get catered for the reception dean got it done himself he would’ve been so particular about the catering bridezilla cas would probably be THEE bitchiest bridezilla

it's also definitely that trope where all the other hunters ect KNOW that that many of them and the wedding party are essentially a target for trouble so everyone spends the 24 hours leading up to the vows taking out every beastie who shows up on a revenge kick out of sight because they'll be damned if they let ANYTHING stop this wedding and Dean and cas are both having their marital jitters oh god im not good enough what if something goes wrong about mundane things while monsters are getting their ass kicked outside AWWWWWWWW for sure for sure, they’re hunter royalty this wedding is a big deal like half the attendees are nursing injuries but grinning widely

they don't do the can't see eachother before the wedding thing because you KNOW dean would be fixing cas' tie last minute

dean wears a blue pocket square to match cas' tie cas wears a FLANNEL SQUARE

I’m obsessed w the idea of cas giving dean a little bit of his grace in a small bottle on a chain for him to wear or like a wing feather or some part of him god the grace in a bottle breaks me every time in fic dean probably builds cas something but every time i try to think of something specific i choke up

i was thinking like what if trading grace is as close to a romantic gesture as angels have and he's like..... technically i left some grace behind in your mark when i dragged you from the pit and dean is like ARE YOU SAYING WE'VE BEEN MARRIED THIS WHOLE TIME? 

they are so sweet i’m on the verge of tears the ability to do anything by halves in their relationship was burnt out by like the second return from the dead moment they are too insane to be anything less than All In And Then Some

at one point someone was like hey cas do you want to run your vows by someone as practice? and he started reading what he'd prepared and it devolved into Biblically Grand Statements Of The Power Of Love And The Redemption Of - ect ect ect and it's because unlike the confession scene he's had TOO much preparation and overshot into uncanny angelic vibes he makes some edits because he know the expressions he gets when he reads it aren't what he intended

dean writes page after page after page of unused drafts, none of them are particularly floral

he does the cliche of ripping up his vows and improvising at the altar, something he gets mercilessly teased for because he swore he wouldn't but it classifies as a chick flick moment

THAT’S SO PEAK HIM OH MY GOD and you knoooooow you just KNOW it’s beautiful and emotional and everyone is crying

god the NOVELTY of dean being emotionally honest in front of people......im gonna faint YEA yeah... ONE TIME ONLY DEAL he thinks loudly at Sam's smug expression

anyway, at the wedding dean is the one who spends the whole ceremony with like crying cat meme eyes after the confession scene i’m pretty sure the minute the vows start cas is in the same boat USELESS HUSBANDS dean gets passed a handkerchief for his tears and immediately goes to use it on cas' face and they both laugh sob love the idea that everyone individually thought they were too tough to cry but they all broke at various stages yeah sam definitely starts to choke up just standing up there with his brother sam chokes up before the ceremony even started, like probably when he was pinning on dean’s corsage

anyway, Jack dancing with his two dads at the reception CAS’ BEST MAN / FLOWER BOY FLOWER MAN let him heelie down the aisle with the flowers LITTLE MAN GO NYOOM who makes him a little flower crown he wears with a proud lil smile? claire ofc, with those hair braiding skills? she makes it BEAUTIFUL flower crown: on nails: painted dads: MARRIED!!!!

when they say i do and kiss and everyone is cheering you can't convince me that someone doesn't let off what is either a gun or a dubiously legal firework in celebration jack pops a few lightbulbs in his uncontrollable joy

Dean and Cas can't let go of each other, it's at LEAST one point of physical contact for the rest of the reception PERIODT

CAN YOU IMAGINE THEM DANCING TO AIR SUPPLY

they definitely didn't do the wedding gifts thing but a few mysteriously show up anyway; discuss waffle iron from sam bc he remembers the becky incident meanwhile claire gets them flavoured lube because she’s an insane little mean girl she gets them a sampler package with like novelty flavours, gotta spring extra for a wedding PIE FLAVOURED LUBE

it’s gonna be the party of the century omfg you KNOW it! that dancefloor going OFF the BAR is FLOWING

dean gets dragged up onto the bar to make a speech and there's a moment at the end where he drags cas up there too and they're being playfully yelled at not to scuff it and there's hooting and catcalls as dean and cas kiss and dean gestures rudely before almost falling backwards off the bar before cas grabs him and climbing down is less romantic or dignified but he couldn't care if he wanted to

meanwhile sam and claire are outside defacing the impala with silly string and lewd graffiti and tin cans tied to the bumper for the going-away oh it is one hundo percent a just married atrocity there's enough condoms hidden in the car that they're still finding them months later

anyway wanna hear my disgustingly soppy honeymoon roadtrip concept? YOU KNOW I DO OKAY SO

you know at some point dean must have said some sad thing like for the longest time he never thought he'd live long enough to get married and the only circumstances he could imagine was hooking up drunkenly with a stranger at some vegas wedding scenario like that's the best he would ever get and he thinks it's mostly forgotten but then during their cross country honeymoon roadtrip castiel does in fact navigate them to las vegas and quietly mutters that the legal veracity of the little chapel on the city limits is dubious at best and they're already married so it couldn't do any harm and they get officiated by an elvis impersonator and a woman wearing more sequins than fabric throws cheap confetti over them

and after that they stop into every venue they can find that would be friendly to them to pretend they're eloping and at one point dean even pulls out the fbi id badges and the officiant is under the impression he's facilitating some sort of covert workplace romance 

one place is a kitchy little house that's clearly just the couple who run it opening their strange home to anyone who needs it and have been since the 70s and Castiel thinks for a moment when they're asked to pin something to the collection of stuff on the walls and ceiling before pulling the receipt for the pie they'd shared earlier in a dinner out and scrawling his and dean's name on it to be added to the clutter 

and at one point they stand ankle deep in a pond while some old hippie lady wraps their clasped hands together with soft fabric and chants something that dean knows isn't real magic but hey he's not going to tell her that and after the ceremony they sit on the grass and feed each other sweet bread to complete the binding or whatever and it's nice but it doesn't compare to the ranch where they both tossed their cowboy hats in the air and were given a horse to ride to their camp site

i thought about riverboat gambling for point one seconds and now i know in my bones that one of their many weddings was on a riverboat, they made the captain officiate after cornering him on deck in like five minutes, the crew sent them complimentary champagne and they threw fries at the birds following the boat while sharing it straight out of the bottle

if destiel can go canon multiple times they can get married multiple times CHANGE MY MIND THEY GET MARRIED SO MUCH the MOST married i just want them to get gay cowboy married

eventually i want them to end up at the beach bc dean has canonically never been to the coast their road trip is to get to the other coast

they send just married postcards back to sam from every stop sam stops feeling hurt he was left out of their vegas elopement wedding by the third wedding postcard he recieves sam saves them ofc bc GOD can you imagine them looking at the postcards on their 30th anniversary or s/t 🥺 showing their grandkids and recounting the story of each wedding there's a seashell taped to the last one

cas gets a terrible sunglasses tan and dean gets burnt on the tips of his ears and there's sand on sand on sand in all their clothes and at one point dean is blinking away salt water and cas is gripping his arm and saying something about the coral by them in the water and dean thinks that he likes floating beside cas a lot better than flying

dean has cas pick ice cream for them from a truck and hustles at carnival games enough to win them both big novelty foam hats and they both go back to their room and pass out immediately post shower sprawled across the bed and still smelling like sunscreen and salt water

dean tucks a little cocktail umbrella behind cas’ ear

cas spends most of the next day in dean's zepplin shirt and a pair of shorts they only picked up once they got there because neither of them thought to bring beach clothes, they sit on the balcony and dean sips his beer and idly plays with the ring on cas' finger and they play a game of what fictional monsters could they beat in a fight

cas’ true form is the size of the chrysler building he can fight king kong easy that's what he says and dean's like okay but what about mothra and castiel is like how would YOU defeat mothra and dean just goes "bugspray." GDJSGSHSGSHDSJ DEAN WOULD

in honour of misha putting his whole pussy into the role, cas wears a dress in at least one of their weddings

it's at one of those theme parks that's just historical re-enactments and people get their vows renewed there and there's costumes for the photobooth and the staff are like how long have you been married? castiel says two weeks, three days, eighteen hours, and twenty five minutes................ approximately.  and the photo is cas in a classical wedding gown and dean is wearing the veil with his old timey suit and there's a moose head on the wall behind them wearing the top hat he was given and they send that print with an arrow pointing at the moose with sam written next to it

i keep thinking bitch!!!! you KNOW WHAT!! you KNOW that dean is the type a guy who's heart races every time he feels his wedding ring/is always fiddling with it in the weeks after the wedding, like an anchor to remind him they really got married this is real he would NEED that physical reminder that he can have good things

he’s never ever going to take it off, the tan line will be permanent

how funny it would be if dean gets injured on a hunt and the monster guy is about to kill him and then the lights blow out and the monsters are like what was that and dean is just like "[spits blood] that's my husband." and nek minnit cas has just ripped through them thanks to teleporting in angel style and is just like Cas: [heals dean] "you're late for movie night" Dean: "Well if you'd gotten here earlier i would have been on time." Cas: >:| [kisses him]

cas is like i didn’t burn the popcorn this time you BETTER be alive to see it

[cassthecringe]

loving you may mean losing you but i dont mind (jotakak playlist)

dont talk to me about the title of this thing im embarrassed enough

anyway but okay so!!!! very excited to share this!!!! this has been in the works since september but my picky ass finally found an adequate amount of songs so here it is!!!!!! my jotakak playlist (:

special thanks to my lovely and wonderful friend jade for helping me finish this this thing <3

track list nd why i picked the songs that i did under the break!

1. the predatory wasp of the palisades is out to get us! by sufjan stevens i chose this song because it’s all about internalized homophobia and being in love with your best friend as a kid which RLLY resonates w jotakak imo. esp cause in the song, stevens’ friend ends up leaving abruptly, leaving stevens to wonder about what couldve blossomed if they had stuck together and worked through the difficulties together, which JOTARO....THAT IS JOTARO-CORE esp cause kak also “leaves” (dies). so this song was a v obvious choice for me and in fact this song is what inspired me to create this playlist in the first place

2. we are beautiful, we are doomed by los campesinos! this song is abt being in love with someone but you both have ur issues so it’s kind of a mess. considering jotaro and kakyoin’s (to point it quite frankly) trauma and the fact that both of them do jack shit to try and cope with it healthily, this song DEFINITELY fits them. esp cause this song mentions physical fighting and the imagery that goes with it (”he got his teeth fixed/im gonna break them”, “i’ve got a fist on fire”, etc) and the entirety of the bridge/last verse rlly gives me these two’s vibes so! ya (:

3. love love love by of monsters and men this song is the singer feeling like shes completely unworthy of being loved by this important person in her life, particularly because she has NO idea how to show affection and love the (for lack of better word) “acceptable” way, or any way at all really. this REALLY has jotaro vibes cause he is one repressed motherfucker and as we see the entirety of his story, jotaro is full of love he loves so much it’s just he has no idea how to properly express it cause he’s scared essentially. but that didn’t stop people from loving him, in this case, that being kakyoin. hhhhHHh

4. ribs by lorde this song is about being scared of growing up but due to the lyrics being written the way they are, i kinda spin the interpretation of it to be the fear jotaro and kakyoin had on the crusade to egypt, as they were the youngest and didnt know if they’d make it back and everything is just incredibly overwhelming there is so much going on all the time those 50 days. i can do a full analysis on why but that would be kinda long LMAO. for now let’s leave it at they have a very Unique fear of growing up but it still fits with the lyrics. particularly the last bit of the song with the “youre the only friend i need” verses,,,makes me think of these two...

5. can i call you tonight? by dayglow i interpret this song to be about trying to figure out what, exactly, your feelings are for this very specific and important person in your life. since jotaro and kakyoin r both repressed and also suckers of internalized homophobia, i think they fit that theme very well. particularly with the whole “i feel like we’re close, but maybe we’re not actually? what are we?” theme going on in the lyrics, this whole song makes me think of jotaro and kakyoin figuring out their intense and sudden (cause again only 50 days but also, those 50 days had So Much going on) feelings for each other. also the “now i’m no longer alone” line in the chorus HHHHHHH that’s them

6. la la la love song by toshinobu kubota ft naomi campbell SO I KNOW THIS SONG IS KINDA JUST FLUFF but we need some light-hearted moments in this thing hjgg;. ALSO toshinobu kubota is canonically jotaro’s favorite musician so i wanted to reference that and this was my fav love song of his that i’ve found so far so (: also the “you are my shining star” line,,,heh

7. truce by twenty one pilots so this song is very soft. it’s about tending to wounds and taking a moment before continuing to push on. it makes me think abt jotaro and kakyoin taking care of each other on the journey (for example the lovers arc/n’doul fight). also the whole “stay alive, stay alive for me/you will die, but now your life is free/take pride in what is sure to die” makes me go fucking nuts that is. that fits these two to a T fuck

8. this side of paradise by coyote theory this song has big “two lonely people are in love with each other for the first time” vibes and OHHHHHHHHHH THAT’S JOTAKAK.... there are a lot of little lines that make me specifically think abt these two, such as “love so strong it makes me feel weak” (jotaro-core...), “if you’re lonely come be lonely with me”, “i’ll be yours if you’ll be mine” (wanting some security while ur in love for the first time is common but especially for these two i think it works spectacularly) but yea this song as a whole is just...ohhh them. theyre in lvoe HK;FNJFL

9. i saw you in a dream by the japanese house EVERY. SINGLE. LINE. OF THIS SONG IS POST-EGYPT JOTARO. EVERY SINGLE LINE. and the ghost the singer talks about seeing? they hadnt changed at all? they were such a pretty vision, a perfect hallucination? BRUH... just listen i could do a whole analysis on this song it all just fits jotaro mourning kakyoin throughout the years so so so so well it makes me feel nuts holy shit i just. literally every line. every line fits i am not joking. i cried when i first heard this song LMAO

10. video games by the young professionals SO LMAO obviously kakyoin’s epic gamer moves are being referenced but beyond that i interpret this song to just be the fun parts of being in love esp when ur young (backed up with the “kissing in the blue dark” and the “watching all our friends fall” lines). also the chorus just makes me want to cry cause just, happy jotakak moments PLEASE. “the world was built for two only worth living if somebody is loving you, and baby now you do” THEYRE NOT ALONE ANYMORE THEY FOUDN EACH OTHER IM GONAN WAILLLLLLL oh my god. im nuts theynkjNJKNJF also “i heard that you like the bad girls” please. these two shitty teenagers

11. ikanaide by sohta ft. yuki kaai this song is abt not wanting someone u love to leave u cause youll miss them obviously but also ur scared of how the time will change you and if it’ll make you unrecognizable eventually. big post-egypt jotaro vibes 😔 especially cause one part of the chorus translates to “i shouldnt cry, i shouldnt cry, but the truth is i want to say dont go” and im jus like OHHHHH NO IT’S JOTARO FINDING OUT KAKYOIN DIED jkfnNKJFNJDhkld

12. therefore you and me by eve ALRIGHT. god this song is one hell of a doozy. i interpret this song to mean being sincerely in love but youre in the wrong place/wrong time. considering the uh Whole Situation in part 3 there were definitely better times to fall in love for these two. jotaro and kakyoin try to be happy w the moments they do have (i think the second verse in particular adds to this sentiment what with the selfish ghosts part) but they want a better environment understandably so theyre also just kinda ignoring things until they can properly care for a relationship. but well...who knows if theyll live to make it to that better environment ):

13. mayonaka no door/stay with me by miki matsubara this song is a v sweet sentiment abt like “it’s not just heat of the moment!! i do care about u a lot!!” and asking the person u have feelings for to stick around. big kakyoin and jotaro vibes as it would be easy to call what they have a fling considering how relatively short of a timeframe they had but i genuinely think their relationship was deeper than just that and this song nicely reflects such. “jotaro and i will share a room cause we’re both students” fuckin head ass

14. a thousand years by sting oh sting.... so since sting is kakyoin’s favorite musician canonically i had to add one of his songs here as well but beyond just that i do think this song fits them!! it kinda gives me big “if not in this life, then the next” vibes which is a big uhhh thing for jotakak. they may be doomed to tragedy but the moments they have together make the tragedy worth enduring ironically i feel like this song is mostly from jotaro’s pov considering i dont think he ever completely got over kakyoin and this song def has that kinda sentiment but hey it fits them...

15. mr loverman by ricky montgomery SO FUNNY STORY i actually REALLY. REALLY didnt wanna add this song at first cause i felt it wouldve been...idk too cliche? i guess? and i was ALL kinds of picky when choosing songs for this playlist HOWEVER. eventually i relistened to it and read the lyrics while thinking specifically abt jotakak and it actually rlly does fit quite well KJDFN; another jotaro mourning song ): it’s not just the chorus tho the whole song fits jotaro immediately post-egypt but also i feel like some time around part 4 this sentiment would come back to him cause Yknow. Gays In Morioh and the mess of his family life back in america. it just aches for him cause while he’s happy josuke is happy he wishes he couldve had that for him and kakyoin too but yea jus ... them

16. you by petit biscuit an instrumental?? in a ship playlist?? yes that’s right much like mr loverman i was hesitant to put this song in cause it’s harder to justify since i dont rlly know much abt music (and not to b controversial but interpreting lyrics and interpreting music r two different things) however i really think the vibes of this song fit jotakak. it’s got a somber melody but the keys of the piano are high which im taking to mean “light in the dark” which. jotaro and kakyoin (along w the rest of the crusaders) were each other’s lights in the dark. also the ending samples a conference/lecture talking about space flight and like. star platinum. space symbolism. jotaro. yeah

17. saturn by sleeping at last MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. this song is all about losing someone very close and important to you, but reflecting on the good they brought into your life rather than the pain of losing them. this song also has HEAVY space imagery which stardust crusaders is absolutely chalk fucking full of so also it’s a very philosophical song and considering that jotaro and kakyoin are both Nerds and both got a nice view of the stars/space in the desert with each other, im sure they had conversations similar to the one highlighted in the song. i think it’s a good note to end the playlist on cause kakyoin is dead and jotaro is the survivor but it’s not a mourning song so much as jotaro taking the love he had for kakyoin and pushing forward with it allll th way into part 6

but yeah that’s the tracklist! i might add or take away a song or two but this is mostly it (: hope yall enjoy!

[destielreboot]

Something Worth Celebrating

Summary: Dean’s tired of Cas not understanding his not-so-subtle hints that he’s in love with him, so panics his way through using a movie to make his point clear, as if that makes any more sense.

Words: ~3.8k

Read on AO3

Dean never really celebrated his birthday, not in any way that mattered. It was a date that marked him maybe surviving another year, and he figured it couldn’t be all that accurate a marker anymore given that he’d died so many times. Was he supposed to subtract the four months in Hell? Was his birthday now after Sam’s? None of it mattered much, and he was not about to accidentally jinx himself or something by celebrating an arbitrary day. Instead, he grumbled all the way home about the snow and salted roads being bad for Baby, then immediately went to his room and started flipping through his movie collection with the hope a new case wouldn’t come in for at least a few hours.

“Dean?” Cas knocked once and swung the door halfway open. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to find something to watch. I figure I deserve a bit of R&R after the week we’ve had.”

“Of course. Ghouls are never particularly pleasant, although the hunt went well, all things considered.”

“Hell of a lot better than the last one. You stickin’ around for a while?”

“I have no plans to leave.”

Dean looked back down at the drawer full of DVDs and smiled softly. “Good. It’s nice to have you here.”

“Dean? Can I… watch the movie with you?”

“Uh, yeah, as you wish.”

Dean’s hands shook slightly as he picked up a DVD case. It was dumb—so recklessly stupid—and if it didn’t work out, he’d have to live with that, but Cas hadn’t said a word about the mixtape. Not a damn thing about something he’d spent hours anxiously perfecting. Odds were good this would go over his head as well, but hey, at least they were spending time together. And not even Cas would leave during a movie unless there was an emergency, right?

“What are we watching?” Cas timidly sat on the edge of Dean’s bed, the usual comfort level gone as this was Dean’s space, and Cas had become nothing if not respectful of that boundary.

“A classic from my childhood.”

“It’s designed for children?” Cas narrowed his eyes and frowned.

“No, it’s—it’s about… pirates and thieves, sacrifice, rewriting destiny—” The words slipped out of their own volition, as they weren’t quite true, but then again, Dean wasn’t solely focused on the plot of the film. “Um, it’s about overcoming evil forces, fighting for those you care about, and outsmarting the enemy.”

“No cowboys?”

“No cowboys,” Dean chuckled as he put The Princess Bride into the DVD player. He plopped down onto the bed and kicked his feet up, instinctively patting the place next to him so Cas wouldn’t stay perched on the edge. “Settle in, I think you’re gonna like this one.”

Cas inched closer, far too conscious of Dean’s repeated complaints about lack of personal space to get close, but he let himself relax slightly as the movie started.

“This time period is inconsistent with most pirate-centric media. Dean, what does this ill child have to do with the plot you described?”

“Shh, just watch.”

Cas begrudgingly obliged, although biting his tongue was never his strong suit. He’d joined Dean for enough movie nights to know his questions would not be answered, and silence was the preferred initial viewing state—aside from laughter, that is; the uproarious joy that bellowed from his best friend never failed to elicit a smile from the angel.

The first few times he heard Westley say “As you wish” seemed inconsequential, as Dean had been incessantly quoting movies at him for years, and it wasn’t difficult to see why he would relate to this roguish character. He was vaguely aware of Dean glancing back and forth between him and the screen, no doubt to make sure he was paying attention, a task that would be much easier if he didn’t feel Dean’s eyes on him quite so often.

For the most part, Cas did well at keeping quiet, though certain absurdities in the movie had him itching to ask questions.

“What is the point of her throwing herself down this hill? I understand that it’s too steep for comfortable walking, but there has to be a more convenient way to reach the bottom.”

“I guess it’s supposed to be sort of romantic?” Dean shrugged. “She’s just been reunited with Westley after believing he’d died; she doesn’t want to waste time getting to him.”

“Hmm.” Cas looked pensively at Dean for a moment, then turned back to the tv with a hint of a smile.

“Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while,” Westley declared.

“Do you believe in the existence of true love, Dean?” Cas asked innocently.

“I—uh—um—I’m gonna go grab a drink,” Dean stammered. He did his best to nonchalantly leave the room, an action made far more difficult by his pounding heart. Once safely in the hallway, his pace quickened dramatically. If he was going to have a panic attack, it’d be away from prying eyes. Jack may have been at Jody and Donna’s, but Sam was home—he couldn’t see him like this. Diverting his path, he headed for the Dean Cave instead and sunk into one of the recliners.

He knew it was stupid to be panicking over something so small, but this was the closest he’d ever come to outright stating how he felt, and it was scary, goddammit. Growing up, he would’ve been beaten for even entertaining the idea—John didn’t raise no goddamn fruit—and that intense unease had settled itself into his very being, become a core tenet of his identity. Undoing several decades of damage was more difficult than he’d ever imagined, but fucking hell, he wanted to try.

It took longer than he’d hoped for his breathing to return to normal, which amped up the fear that Cas would come looking for him, and he realized on his way to the kitchen that he’d probably need an excuse. He grabbed a couple beers out of the fridge—maybe Cas would drink one, maybe Dean would end up chugging both—and turned to go back before thinking better of it. He pulled some popcorn out of the pantry and tossed it in the microwave, hoping Cas wouldn’t know how quickly it cooked. Once it was done, Dean took a few deep breaths to steady himself, dumped the popcorn into a bowl, and walked as calmly as possible back to his room.

Coming back with a snack seemed to somewhat assuage Cas’s concern for Dean having been gone so long, but Dean could tell he would be asked about it later.

“You missed the Fire Swamp and something called the Pit of Despair? I can’t find much validity in the mechanics of the machine, although the concept is interesting. Taking time off the end of life, which is by its very nature uncertain, rather than reducing to a set number of years.”

“Try not to think about it too hard.” Dean smirked, holding out the second beer as he settled in. Cas habitually accepted the offer, even though everything tasted like molecules. He didn’t mind too much; partaking always seemed to make Dean happy, a sight Cas didn’t see nearly enough.

“I agree with the pestering child on this one, killing off the hero of the story this early makes no sense. Unless, of course, they live in a world like ours? Is there someone who can return his soul to his physical form, as I did with you?”

Dean choked on the handful of popcorn he’d just stuffed in his mouth. Cas looked on, worried, as Dean coughed and took a swig of his beer.

“Uh, no, nothing like that… They’ll, uh, they’ll explain it.”

“Hmm. Are you alright, Dean? You seem… preoccupied.”

“What? I’m fine.” He picked up the bowl and held it out. “Popcorn?”

“Dean.” Cas took it from him and set it further down the bed as he pivoted to face Dean, sliding a bent leg across the blanket between them.

Dean made a show of rolling his eyes. “I said I’m fine, Cas. You’re missing Billy Crystal.”

“We could pause the movie, if you’d like. Ordinarily I wouldn’t push—”

Dean snorted. “Yeah, sure. Can we just… not do this right now?” He raised his hands in resignation and let them drop without looking, one landing on the outside of his left thigh, the other on Cas’s knee.

Dean immediately felt heat rush to his cheeks as they stared at each other, unmoving, for an undetermined amount of time. He was vaguely aware of the Miracle Max scene happening in the background, containing yet another discussion of true love, and he prayed Cas wasn’t paying attention. This had to happen now?

“Dean?” Cas asked softly, finally breaking the silence enveloping them despite the continuing movie, which was obviously oblivious to the quiet scene of bi panic unfolding in front of the screen. “You seem uncomfortable and in distress. Can I—”

“I’m fine!” Dean responded a little too loudly, too quickly. He jerked his hand back, unconsciously clenching and unclenching his fist, his thumb rubbing over his fingertips, as if trying to force the feeling of touching Cas’s knee into his memory.

Cas continued to fix him with that concerned gaze he was all too familiar with, so he downed the rest of his beer as a distraction. Out of the corner of his eye, he swore he saw Cas run his own fingers over his leg exactly where Dean’s hand had been, but surely it was out of discomfort, right? Friendly pats on the back and occasionally the knee were common enough, but accidental lingering touches? Not so much.

“I need a refill. You?” Dean asked, although he didn’t wait for an answer, once again quickly making his way down the hall.

“Dude, are you okay?”

Dean just about dropped his empty bottle, having not noticed Sam seated at the kitchen table with some sort of preposterously healthy grain bowl in front of him.

“Will everyone stop asking me that?” he huffed, his free hand on his chest. “I’m fine.” He set the bottle on the island and pulled the fridge open. They were down to their last few beers, and, simultaneously thinking too much and not enough, Dean turned around to search for something stronger instead.

“Don’t bullshit me.” Sam gave Dean his best bitch face—probably the best he’d seen in years—and stood, crossing his arms. “Is this about what happened with the ghoul? Because there’s no way we could’ve—”

“Yep, that’s it. Congrats, Dr. Phil, you’ve done whatever psych crap and managed to cure me. How on earth do you do it?”

“Dean.” Sam followed him out of the kitchen and back toward the library, where they’d most recently stashed their rolling booze cart—yet another feature of the bunker Dean still couldn’t quite wrap his head around, although he had to admit it was rather nice.

“Don’t ‘Dean’ me, I’m fine. It’s been a long week, cut me some slack.” He unscrewed the top of the whiskey bottle and poured a generous amount into a glass. Sam shot him another exasperated look. Dean sarcastically saluted as he backed out of the library.

He stopped just outside his door and took a quiet breath, releasing slowly, urging the tension in his chest out with it. He glanced in and couldn’t help but soften at the view in front of him: Cas was engrossed in the wedding scene, albeit a bit confused by the clergyman. Dean watched him take a drink of his beer and wince, an instinct he almost always suppressed around others.

Once Inigo, Fezzik, and Westley were back on screen, Dean sauntered back in. Cas immediately turned and smiled at him, but his brow furrowed at the sight of the whiskey glass. Dean shrugged and took a sip, savoring the slight burn and the slow spreading warmth. He flashed Cas a reassuring grin as he sat down on his side of the bed.

Everything was fine, it had to be. Besides, Cas had definitely missed some important dialogue, so all Dean had to do was get through the end of the movie and shrug all his anxious behavior off as lingering effects of the hunt; there was a good chance Cas wouldn’t believe him, but if he got adamant enough, he’d be left alone. Not that alone was what he really wanted, but it was better than rejected or ridiculed, and he was far too accustomed to being by himself—yet another thing to thank his father for.

They got through the rest of the movie without another incident, even if the silence was a tad tense. As the credits rolled, Dean glanced over and noticed Cas was frowning.

“So… uh, did you… did you like the movie?”

“I still have many questions that have gone unanswered. Or, rather, we were otherwise occupied while they were explained, I suppose.”

“We did, uh, miss a few things.”

“Also, I’m no expert on the matter, but I’m old enough to know with relative certainty that there have been kisses more ‘passionate and pure’ than that one. I assume this particular kiss isn’t leading to the consummation of their relationship, as carnal desire would prevent it from being pure, I suppose, but I’m afraid I cannot agree with the story’s assessment.”

“The slow-burn romance wasn’t drawn out enough for you, huh?” Dean laughed.

“She only believed him dead twice, Dean. I think our own experiences have reduced the impact of that. Besides, their relationship required more exposition. With what we were given, you can’t expect me to be truly invested.”

“Maybe she should’ve died at least once, just to shake it up a bit.”

“My sentiments exactly. Westley cannot understand the same levels of grief without experiencing it firsthand, and it’s always more interesting to allow characters beyond just the hero the chance to die. Imagine how monotonous our lives would be if we only consistently lost one of us.”

Dean closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, a goofy smile plastered on his face. His shoulders shook as he laughed, the bed eventually shuddering along with the movement.

“I don’t understand what’s so funny, Dean.”

“It’s just… Our lives are so ridiculous. No one else watches this and thinks it’s not realistic enough because only Westley dies and gets resurrected.”

“I’m aware it’s outside of the usual human experience, of course, but I also can’t help but—” He paused, eyes widening slightly. “Never mind.”

“C’mon, Cas, you know you can’t do that! Say it.”

“I’d really prefer keeping it to myself, thank you.”

“Cas, dude, just say it.”

“You won’t let this go, will you?”

“You know I won’t.” Dean smirked.

“Fine,” Cas sighed. “I can’t help but see similarities between the characters and, well, our family.”

“Oh, of course, I project us onto characters all the time! I’m Westley, right?”

“Buttercup, actually.”

“I—” The smile slipped from Dean’s face. “You see me as the princess? Why?”

“You’re both stubborn and remarkably willing to sacrifice yourself for those you love.”

“You know, I did not show you this movie just so you could turn around and attack me,” Dean grumbled, but he flashed Cas a small smile so he wouldn’t take the complaint too seriously.

“I feel it’s a proper evaluation of your character.” Cas shrugged and grinned back.

“Does that make you Westley, then?”

It took Dean approximately two seconds after the words left his mouth to process what he’d said, fear twisting his stomach into knots as he realized the implications of it. Cas, on the other hand, chuckled quietly and looked down at his beer bottle.

“I suppose Westley saving Buttercup from the quicksand does mirror me pulling you out of Hell, at least a bit.”

“Lightning sand. Way cooler than quicksand,” Dean corrected, latching on to anything that would distract from his question.

“Ah, yes. Lightning sand. It’s no match for Hell, but I don’t need to tell you that.”

“Yeah… Hey, I don’t think I’m ready to turn in for the night yet, would you want to watch something else? You can pick, if you’d like.”

“As you wish.”

Dean froze, his hand halfway to his whiskey glass, the gears in his head screaming into motion. It wasn’t every day that Cas made a movie reference, especially one with such a blatantly romantic connotation. He was well aware of his own intention in saying it before the movie, but was Cas just emulating him? Picking up on yet another of his habits? Or— No, no. Dean had to remind himself that Cas wasn’t human, that he couldn’t experience affection the same way, that everything else had completely escaped his understanding.

He figured he’d put his foot in his mouth enough times that evening, he should just change his mind about stretching this out any longer, just go to bed. But the thought gnawed at him, the silence had continued to the point of becoming awkward, he needed to say something.

Dean turned to face Cas and swallowed down his pride and insecurities, hope and fear clashing across his features. Cas was waiting patiently with a soft smile, his bright eyes crinkling beautifully.

“Did you just—” Dean whispered, his voice getting caught in his throat.

“I believe so. Did I use the line incorrectly?”

“No—I… I just never thought—”

“That’s fine, too,” Cas quickly cut him off, his shoulders sagging slightly.

“Cas.” Dean reached out and tentatively brushed his fingers lightly across the angel’s stubbled cheek before settling on his shoulder, thumb resting softy on the side of his neck. “Why do you think I said it?”

It was as if someone had just powered Cas back up, he so nearly glowed with joy, and Dean thought to himself that this was the most angelic he’d ever looked. Messy hair, glassy-eyed, and all, he was stunning.

Dean felt the knots in his stomach unravel, the weight he’d been carrying for so long lessened. The hesitation of entering unknown territory faded as it started to sink in that Cas wanted this, too, and he stopped thinking, painfully aware that if he thought about it too much, he’d never do it. And he so desperately needed to do this.

He leaned forward, making his intent clear while also looking for consent, and Cas eagerly met him in the middle. It wasn’t the most graceful kiss, as they were both a little out of practice and had yet to learn each other’s rhythms, but Dean was looking forward to learning.

Cas rested his forehead against Dean’s and sighed contentedly.

“With a little more practice, I think we could top Buttercup and Westley’s kiss.”

“I’d like that,” Cas laughed, his warm breath tickling Dean’s nose.

“Their slow-burn seems almost boring next to ours.”

“Oh, speaking of…” Cas straightened up suddenly, causing Dean to have to catch himself before he fell face-first into the angel’s shoulder.

“Speaking of?”

“I missed how they brought Westley back,” Cas said sheepishly. “Would you mind explaining?”

“A little distracted, were you?” Dean smiled cheekily and leaned in for another kiss, something he could never imagine getting tired of doing.

“More than a little.”

Dean launched into a detailed explanation of the Miracle Max scene, the chocolate-coated miracle pill, and the plan to break into the castle before the wedding, going so far as to include all the dialogue he could remember off the top of his head. Cas tilted his head to rest on Dean’s shoulder and laughed at the exaggerated voices, each distinct and absurd in their own way. When the story was over, they slipped into a comfortable silence, Dean’s arm snaked around Cas’s waist, personal space no longer a concern.

After some time, Cas glanced at the clock on the nightstand and was startled to find it was nearly midnight.

“Oh, before it gets too late…” He lifted his head and placed a hand gently on Dean’s cheek. “Happy birthday, Dean. I would’ve gotten you a gift—”

“There’s nothing I want more than this.”

…

The following morning, Dean woke up early and decided to make breakfast, tossing some slabs of bacon on a baking sheet to crisp up in the oven. Sam stumbled in a few minutes later, drawn in by the aroma. He gave Dean a questioning look and was met with a broad grin.

“Rise and shine, Sammy! Are you going to eat like a normal person, or do I have to separate your eggs for you?”

“I… uh, just the whites would be great, thanks.”

“Normal person breakfast, it is!”

Sam rolled his eyes as he turned on the coffeemaker, but he smiled quietly to himself, glad to see Dean had gotten over whatever had been bothering him the night before.

Cas wandered in as Dean pulled the bacon out of the oven, and Sam just about choked on his coffee; instead of his usual trench coat and suit, Cas was wearing a soft purple and blue flannel he’d most definitely pulled from Dean’s closet, and he’d neglected to button nearly the entire top half.

“Mornin’, sunshine!” Dean slapped his hand away from the hot tray and passed him a mug of coffee instead. “You lookin’ to burn yourself?”

“I’m an angel, you ass,” Cas chuckled, stepping around him to reach the bacon. “I can do what I want.”

“You can’t even taste it properly.”

“Dean, too much grease is bad for your health,” Cas deadpanned as he took a bite of the still steaming rasher. It was hotter than he’d anticipated, but nothing a little grace couldn’t fix.

Sam cleared his throat loudly and gestured at the stovetop, where the eggs were burning.

“Fuck!”

“Good morning, Sam.” Cas took a sip of his coffee as he walked toward the table. “How was your night?”

“Evidently not as good as yours.” Sam looked up at him in stunned disbelief. “You two finally figure your shit out?”

“Hell of a way to phrase it, but yeah.” Dean beamed as he set the plate of bacon on the table, his other arm slung around Cas’s shoulder. “This idiot’s in love with me. Who knew?”

“Practically everyone else,” Sam laughed. “But I’m really happy for you guys, I don’t know anyone more deserving of this. One request, though, seeing as Jack and I live here, too.”

“Shoot.”

“Minimal PDA in communal spaces?”

“No deal.” Dean grinned and promptly pulled Cas in for a kiss.

[synchlora]

Tell me more about eret and Fundy in your au! Also! I would love to hear more about tubbo, ranboo, and Tommy before they meet Wilbur

YOOO let's go eret and fundy development time :]]

eret & fundy

SO. eret is (or rather was) a social science major along with niki (law student), fundy (computer science major), and wilbur (med student) at the same college, so the four of them knew one another well. fundy, eret, and their friend (elaina :]]) all roomed together freshman year onwards until the apocalypse. niki and wilbur lived together for a bit too but wil dropped out and also moved out on his own soon afterwards (leaving niki to move in w jack)

and with that backstory we get tooooo: eret, fundy, and elaina in the apocalypse Trying Their Best. long story short for that, elaina gets sick with what they hope is just pneumonia, turns out to be more sinister (as in yknow. zombie disease). and obviously the whole trio r panicked, not sure what to do here. and so they call on the only person they know who has Any medical knowledge: wilbur. and what does he do?? completely fucking ghosts them

and so here they are: no access to any medicine or professionals, too afraid to take their friend anywhere because they will probably just fucking kill her. and it progresses. Fast. its the lung infection version, so it spreads fucking fast, like within the godamn Week fast. and she is completely fucking out of it within a few days

so fundy and eret are terrified. fundy has always been very openly nervous, and while eret has tried to keep a brave face, even she starts to break as the situation just gets worse. and then, it's too far gone. and elaina is awake, but not in the way that they hoped. she's completely turned, and this realization came only after she lunged at fundy. in desperation to keep him safe, eret ended up killing her (i will figure out the logistics of this later rip). and they're both in fucking shock

they run off, leaving the apartment behind and taking only what they need. the car ride is silent and erets not really sure where they're going. just. anywhere but there

he ends up pulling off the side of the road, the sun is rising on the horizon, they've been driving all night. the two of them only break the silence to cry

bench trio before wilbur

gonna be honest, before wilbur they were just fuckin scrambling around trying to figure out what to do with very little medical knowledge. they are about as clueless (if not more so) than eret and fundy. so yeah, tommy and tubbo are Stressed

that first week or so, tommy and tubbo are scouting the area for some sign of a place that would feasibly have supplies. this is an unfamiliar city to them, so it takes them a while to find a hospital while also conserving gas and only traveling in daylight. its also made extra difficult considering they don't want to leave ranboo on his own. hes struggling enough with the disease, he shouldn't have to fight off zombies on top of that. but they also can't exactly bring him along either

they compromise by bringing the RV to stay parked in the hospital parking lot for a while, staking out a camp there. its risky, especially considering the density of zombies at night around the hospital (many were brought there when it first broke out as you'd imagine) but its one theyre willing to take

from ranboos perspective, this sucks. everything is painful, their arm feels like its gonna fucking fall off, their sight is failing them half the time, its a horrible combination of nothing to do and everything being overwhelming. however, because his infection isn't in his lungs, it is far more difficult for it to take root (which gives him a lot more time). but this does mean that it makes his bones hurt inside of his arm, which was a pain he did not know was even possible. most days are bad days, with days where he's completely nonverbal being the hardest to cope with considering he can't talk and signing with one arm is difficult, just about as hard as writing with his left hand. makes it difficult to communicate and those are days where everything feels all the more hopeless

basically: before wilbur, its hell. after wilbur, its also hell, but at least it passes eventually

[somedayonbroadway]

Wow alright I found out how to do the whole ask thing, sorry about that! I was wondering if you could expand on the Outsiders, Tangled, and Aladdin AU? Again, if that’s too much you don’t have to do them all. Love your writing by the way you’re fantastic!

So, the only AU I currently do not have another ask for is Tangled. So...

Tangled AU

Katherine Plumber is a curious young woman. She’s almost eighteen. An adult. And she believes she can take care of herself.

Her father believes otherwise.

Her whole life, her overprotective father has raised her alone in an old cottage, just outside a small kingdom. A kingdom she can hear music from and see just across the river. Every year, exactly on her birthday, there is a trail of floating lights that’s passes just over her.

She wants nothing more than to follow the floating lights back to wherever they’re coming from. But her father refuses, even after she begs him to take her on her eighteenth birthday.

So she lets it go.

Jack Kelly is a wanted thief in five different kingdoms. He’s an escaped convict of three of those five kingdoms and works with many different crews. The most frequent of all would be two brothers. The Delancey brothers.

In an attempt to steal the lost princesses crown, Jack leaves behind his friends in order to get the crown, tricking them into helping him escape before running off and letting them take the fall for him.

But one palace guard is still hot on his trail while he tries to make a run for it. It’s a rookie. Someone who got lucky.

Jack leads the guard down to a part of the forest that hasn’t been explored in decades and tries to lose him, stumbling across an old abandoned cottage himself and sneaking inside, hiding away while the guard gets lost and eventually loses track of him.

Just when Jack believes he can breathe again, he turns around to see what he can find in this old, worn looking cottage, only to find a girl looking back at him, just staring, as if she’d never seen another human being before.

Jack freezes and clutches onto his bag (the one with the crown) and is about to explain before another door opens up and a man is stepping into the room. The girl motions for him to stay hidden and quiet. He does, not having much of a choice.

Eventually, the girl gets rid of her father, Joseph Plumber, by sending him off for her own birthday present. She wants books. Books by a specific author (female author) that it will take her father a couple days to get.

Jack would thank her. And he’d go to leave. But Katherine grabs a knife and block his exit. She’d take his bag from him. Now Jack, being the tough, intimidating guy he is, would be a little impressed. I mean, c’mon... but Katherine would make him leave the house without it and hide it, making him a deal. If he took her to the kingdom to see the floating lights (which Jack describes as “the lantern thing they do for the princess”) he can have his bag back and be on his merry way.

Without much of a choice, Jack agrees. (Katherine is much more serious about things than Rapunzel, if that makes. Jack is a little intimidated).

With that, Katherine steps out of her cottage for the first time and is terrified as she does so, even though Jack is staring at her the whole time. Before she steps out he says something like “what? Ya waitin’ f’r lightin’ ta come down n’ strike me r’ somethin’? Let’s go, Red!”

In which she promptly reminds him that her name is “*Katherine*”. Jack gives her a million little nicknames throughout the story just to avoid calling her by her full name.

As they begin their journey, Jack tells Katherine that he has some business to take care of and asks her if she’d like to stop for a bite to eat while he dealt with it. She agrees and he takes her to small tavern, still outside the kingdom.

She’s kind and nice about the stop, believing they would just be set back a few minutes and be on their way. But the moment they step inside, the noise that had been heard about a half mile away stops in its tracks and everyone is staring at Jack who suddenly looks nervous for the first time since they’d met. Katherine goes to ask him what’s wrong but he shakes his head.

Meanwhile, Joseph is making his trek through the woods and stumbles upon a young palace guard who has gotten himself lost. The young man does not see Joseph and continues on his hunt for the escaped criminal that he lost.

Joseph knows that palace guards typically travel in groups and immediately panics, rushing back to his cottage to find that Katherine is not there. However, he does find a bag with a crown in it. So he takes it with him and sets off to find his daughter.

Back at the tavern, Jack tells Katherine to stay near the door as he walked through the crowd of big, strong boys who were staring at Jack like they hated him. He’d go over and find the boy that seemed to be the leader of the gang and tell him something about almost having it. But Katherine does not know what he’s talking about. Jack tells the leader, “Spot” he calls him, that he’ll have “it” within the next two days.

Spot tells him that that’s not good enough. That Jack owes him now and that he was going to get the money one way or another. Jack tries time argue, but one of the other boys holds up a “wanted” picture. It’s of Jack. And Spot nods to his boys.

They grab Jack, telling him that they’re gonna claim the offer and turn him in. Someone runs out to get the guards while Katherine tries to figure out what’s going on. She grabs a hot pan from the kitchen and threatens Spot with it. He laughs, but asks her why it’s so important that Jack don’t go to jail.

She explains to him the situation and Spot goes a little soft. He tells her that it’s admirable that she got Jack to show her around. That he had a dream of studying music, but his criminal record prevented that. Eventually, she wins the boys over and they tell her they’ll help her too.

That’s about when the boy comes back with the palace guards. Spot hells Jack and Katherine hide immediately, despite Jack’s attempts to run towards the cellar. Spot grabs him by the collar and drags him down behind a counter, revealing a trap door to them. He tells Katherine he’s got her back and he tells Jack something that Kath doesn’t understand. Something like “he’s okay, Jackie... playin’ cards with Hot Shot in the basement... now git!”

Reluctantly, Jack goes, only quietly apologizing to Spot about taking off with his life savings before he leads Katherine down a hidden tunnel.

In the tavern, David Jacobs is determined to prove himself by snuffing out the escaped convict who’d gotten away from him. Spot gives them no useful information whatsoever, but eventually David stumbles upon the trap door and follows Jack down.

The guards that are left, the ones that have the Delancey brothers as their prisoners, turn away for a second only to get overpowered by the two who immediately make a run for the tunnel as well.

Hearing them coming, Jack and Katherine run down the tunnel only to be let out at the end of a dam, hardly holding up. The guards would catch up to them. Jack would steal on of their swords, somehow getting the upper hand as Katherine did as much damage as she could with a frying pan.

Eventually, the fight escalates and the dam begins to break as things hit it. The guards retreat back into the tunnel but Jack and Katherine are forced to run forward where they get stuck in a cave where they believe they’ll probably die, after Jack fights to break through rocks and ends up cutting his hand. Jack admits his real name isn’t Jack Kelly and that he got the name from a story he used to tell his little brother when they were growing up in the orphanage. His real name is Francis Sullivan. A name he truly despises.

Katherine then admits that she has magic powers that can make her hands glow. He thinks she’s crazy. But then she sings her song, realizing she might find a way out, which she does.

Then barely survive the cave through a small river and end up closer to the kingdom where Jack believes he’s dreaming and Katherine is just happy to be alive. Eventually, Katherine heals his hand tells him that she is scared one day someone will come after her for her power and that’s why she’d never been outside before. But Jack promises, without hardly thinking, that he’d protect her. That’s when he tells her about his life. He’s an orphan who has a little brother. He grew up a thief, stealing to provide for the only family he had, eventually stealing from an associate of his to get enough money for his brother to be able to eat. That’s what the crown was for. They’d come back for him and taken his brother, demanding payment in exchange for him.

Shocked at himself, Jack excuses himself to go get some wood for the fire. That’s when her father finds her.

See, Joseph had just come from a neck of the woods where two other escaped convicts had popped up, catching sight of him with a very familiar looking crown. They pull a knife on him and demand it, cursing the name Jack Kelly as they did. And Joseph’s brilliant mind works fast. He offers them a deal. Their help in exchange for the crown and Jack Kelly and something that would make them rich beyond belief. His own stolen daughter.

And now he finds himself here, with a chance to just bring her home. And she refuses. But Joe tries to convince her that Jack couldn’t care less what happened to her as long as he got his pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Joe leaves after Katherine takes the crown, telling him she’d give Jack the crown early to prove he’d still help her, after all they’d been through.

When Jack comes back, he’s followed back by a lone guard. Persistent as hell, David Jacobs, who puts a knife to his back tells him he’s under arrest. Jack almost surrenders but turns to fight the other man instead, tackling him to the ground and causing Katherine to have to break up their fight. She tells David that he can chase Jack all he wanted to after Jack took her to see the floating lights because they’d had a deal.

After a lot of arguing and insults, David (now called “Davey” by Jack) finally agrees, on the condition that they let him come along to keep an eye on Jack.

The set off for the kingdom, stopping to rest for a few hours before heading into the kingdom where Jack and Katherine explored a bit, hiding from guards and letting David into their odd sort of friendship. Katherine accidentally starts a dance party in the middle of the street and everyone immediately falls in love with her. She gets Jack to dance with her which is when Jack begins to realize he falling for her and that scares him.

Katherine discovers the story of the lost princess by a few locals, mainly a young boy with a crutch and a bum leg who recognizes Jack as the boy who steals for the kids in The Refuge, an orphanage in the old town. Jack gets embarrassed, but buys the kid a cupcake and send him on his way.

That night, after Jack and David talk for a second to each other, revealing the fact that they both have little brothers and their top priorities are to provide and look out for them, Jack takes Katherine out on the water to watch the lanterns take flight. Katherine takes a chance and returns the crown to him.

Jack turns it down and places the crown on the floor of the small canoe he got. He tells Katherine he hasn’t completed his end of the deal yet and he intended to. To keep her safe. That’s when Katherine tells him she doesn’t wanna go home. That’s when she tells him this is the most alive and free and content she’d ever felt and she would kiss him on impulse and get really nervous about it but he’d kiss her back immediately.

They’d finish watching all of the lanterns fade from view. And Jack would row them back to shore when he’d move to kiss Katherine again, only to catch a glimpse of the Delancey brothers lurking around the bend. He’d immediately get nervous and tell Katherine that there was something he had to do. He’d take the crown, remembering his promise to protect her, and tell her he’d be right back.

Jack tries to offer a truce. He tries to give the Delanceys the crown and go on his way. But they don’t accept. They tell Jack they heard he found something much more valuable. And before Jack can run back to warn Katherine, they knock him out with the back end of a sword. They take him and put it in a boat headed straight towards the castle with the crown and head towards Kath to take her instead of the crown.

Katherine runs but is ultimately “saved” by her father who takes out the Delanceys and tricks Kath into coming home with him.

Davey is waiting on another side of he river when he hears a bit of the commotion and catches sight of a boat headed towards the castle and Katherine going back into the woods with a stranger. After seeing Jack get hauled out of a boat by palace guards and immediately get arrested, David backtracks to the tavern where Jack seemed to have some friends to enlist some help.

Once back at the cottage, Katherine is sad and reserved as her father tries to cheer her up with her favorite desert. It wouldn’t work. And Katherine would come to the realization that she was the lost princess and try to confront her father and insist that she was leaving. But Joseph wouldn’t let her go. And Katherine would ask what her father did with Jack and he’d tell her that Jack was scheduled for a hanging for his crimes.

Jack would wake up to guards pulling him out of a cell. He’d ask where they were taking him and they wouldn’t speak. Jack would understand. He’d almost give up and just let them. But when he saw the Delanceys locked up in another cell, he’d get angry and he’d shove away from the guards and grab at Morris who would immediately get scared. Jack would demand that Morris tell him how they knew about Katherine’s powers and they’d tell him that some old man told them.

And Jack would figure it all out. The guards would grab him again and he’d struggle hard.

He’d beg them to just listen to him, but they wouldn’t. Eventually another guard would come in to take Jack to the noose. And they’d lead him outside only to pause right by the door, removing their helmet. And Jack would cry out in relief and hug the person who was none other than his baby brother, Ty Sullivan, known as Racetrack to most.

Race would hug him back so tight. He’d tell Jack he didn’t have time to explain but he was gonna get him out of there. And Jack would laugh and say he was supposed to be the one doing the protecting. But Race would just tell him to shut up and call for someone. Spot would rush around the corner, dressed as a guard, along with some others from the Tavern. They’d break him out and lead him to David who would get him a horse and tell him to get to Katherine. Jack would be shocked that David was the one who’d planned the rescue, but he’d take off, telling him he’d thank him later.

Once he makes it to he cottage he runs inside, crying out fo Katherine and telling her that she had to come back with him and that there was something she needed to know. That’s when he’d feel a knife pierce through his side.

When he falls he sees Katherine screaming for him, tied down to a chair and gagged. He knows he dying and he can’t move to get to her.

Joe tells them his story. That he was a founder of the kingdom they adored and was never made king. In fact, he was banished from the kingdom entirely after getting too “power hungry” as they called it. He reveals that his name is actually Joseph Pulitzer and that he’d kept himself alive for centuries with the power of a magic flower grown by the sun.

Jack has to watch as Joseph tries to drag her from the cottage, but she gets loose, telling him that if he lets her heal Jack that she’ll just go with him without a fight.

Jack begs her not to. He tells her to run but she won’t. She tries to heal him but he stops her, telling her he can’t let her do it. He’s lived his life. He dies in her arms, his last word being “Katherine” as he says her name for the first time. Joseph still tries to drag Katherine away even though she refuses to let go of Jack. Eventually, she gets so angry and she blasts him with her magic. Unsure of what she’d done, she backs up and watches her father turn to dust before her.

She realizes that she has taken the magic from him, back from all the years she’d given it to him. With a sudden strength she turns back to Jack and heals him, waking him up and rejoicing in the fact that she’s free.

Jack takes her back to the kingdom and tries to leave her at the castle, not wanting to show his face around the guards. But Katherine defends him and meets her parents with him for the first time.

The celebration lasts for an entire week. Jack is reunited with his brother, who Spot has warmed up to, and the orphanage that they grew up in his put in his own care and funded heavily by the king and Queen themselves.

And they all live happily ever after...

Wow. That was a lot. Any questions?

For more AU’s, click here

[deniigi]

i was reading "it's fine, we're fine" again because i am a big softy and i love jack with my whole damn heart and i was wondering if rudy ever surfaces in matt's life again?

he does!!!

All of the boxers stay in Matt’s life for as long as they can! In another fic which I never published, Rudy explains that he tried to adopt Matt after Jack died, since they were best friends and Matt was already really close to Rudy’s girls, but social services wasn’t down to let that happen.

That said!!

I also wrote a piece a while back that didn’t quite make it into the Sprawl but which shows Matt’s relationships with Jack’s old friends from the gym. I’m putting it here under the cut (sorry mobile users, it’s pretty long)

Written from Jack’s pov

—-

Prelim title: put em up

He hadn’t seen the guys since he died, and honestly he’d avoided heading in the direction of Fogwell’s out of both fear and a strong self-preservation instinct. He only had a year. And Matt was hellbent on getting himself murdered during it, so Jack had to keep himself together to arrange their double funeral.

He finally sucked it up watching Matt mope in multiple different shapes and forms all over the furniture in his living room. The last straw was him cuddling up to Tuesday to inform her of how unfair Jack was being.

Not letting him out face-smashing with two fractured ribs.

Oh, the humanity.

What a shit father he was.

Tuesday sneezed on Matt and then stood up to leave him to suffer and to sniff at Jack’s ankles. Abandoned, Matt moved on to making loud, drawn-out noises about how everyone in his life betrayed him.

“Alright, fine. Get your gloves,” Jack sighed.

Matt was gone from the living room before he’d even finished the sentence.

It was one thing to like, know that your kid was a superhuman. But it was a whole other thing to live with it. He would never get used to the silent sneaking. Or the ‘I can heart your heart beat’ thing. Or the determination to be gutted. That one, even the afterlife wouldn’t help him with.

He’d just barely stood up from giving Tuesday the requisite pets when Matt was back in his face with gloves, rattling. Just a teeny bit little excited.

“Hurry up.”

Wo-ho. Not with that attitude.

“Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up.”

Wow, look. Another dish to clean.

“DAD.”

Alright, alright. Take a chill pill, kid.

 Fridays were usually slow days at the gym since most guys had dates to be on and family nights to have and so Jack thought that he might escape this interaction mostly unscathed and unnoticed. He was just there to help the blind guy, he’d say if anyone asked. He looked far too young to be Matt’s father at this point, they looked more like brothers. With the exception of Matt looking painfully like his mama to Jack. He’d never not see Grace in this boy. It was all in that slim jaw. He grabbed it and shook it every now and then to piss Matt off and it did the trick on a dime.

Matt was a regular at Fogwell’s. Jack wasn’t surprised. It had always been his second home. He was known by most of the guys there as the blind guy who apparently crammed in his headphones and punched a bag ‘til he couldn’t anymore. Fogwell let him use the place when he wasn’t there. Under the ruse of Matt feeling self-conscious about boxing in front of sighted-people.

Really, he just wanted to throw ridiculous moves at the bag.

This time, there would be no ridiculous moves. There were ribs to consider. Matt practically hung off his elbow in disappointment.

This fuckin’ kid. Ain’t got the sense god gave a goat.

They walked in the door and Jack never stood a chance.

  Folks had heard about the incident, it had been on the news, it turned out. Load of highly suspicious graves dug up in cemeteries all over the damn city. Fischer hadn’t exactly been subtle. What wasn’t quite clear to people was who these zombies were until anyone who happened to recognize those particular graves saw them.

Obviously half the gym had remembered Jack’s fucked up, now cracked headstone.

(It was nice. Grace had taken him to see it so that he could have a say in the next one. She waved at it in many different kinds of ways and called him a basic bitch without using either of those words.)

Jack couldn’t help but wonder now if Matt had texted someone to let them know they were coming.

Because he couldn’t breathe.

Rudy smelled like ass.

“Twenty fuckin’ years, man, and you still ain’t seen a shower?” he creaked out against his pal’s sweaty shoulder.

Rudy yanked him back by the shoulders to get a good look at him, blinking tears out of his eyes. He was so bald. He’d never had much hair to begin with, Rudy. But now, he was like one of them fortune-tellers’ glass balls.

“Jackie, we missed you so much,” the guy said like he was garbling glass.

“Good to—”

Well, that was him done. He didn’t need shoulders.

“Bert, you maniac, lay off,” Rudy snarled, as hot-tempered as ever.

Bert? This motherfucker was Bert?

Jack ducked out of the arms and recoiled back to get a good look at the moron and sure enough. Man.

“You finally shaved that thing off your face,” he said.

Bert was huge. Moustache was gone, though. That was literally all the mattered. Bert would never be pretty, but the pornstache had been a lot, even for them.

Bert cackled in delight.

“Look at you, Jack, ain’t a day over—uh. How old’re you again?”

God, who were these old guys? And where the hell did—wait a second.

“Matthew, nice try, you get back here,” he barked. Matt froze from where he was trying to sneak away to go finish the job on his ribs. He squinted and scowled in Jack’s direction and then made a break for it before Jack could get past Bert’s huge mass.

He didn’t get too far. They were on Jack’s turf now.

“Nooooo.”

Rudy covered the bottom of his face, but Jack could see his huge grin under it.

“Sorry fellas,” he said, “We’re having a father-son night out.”

“Get off, old man. Get off.”

The second he let go, Matt would throw himself out a window and vanish into the night. Jack had no fancy degrees but he was not stupid. He’d learned after the first two times.

“I can’t believe it’s you,” Rudy said through the deep laugh lines in his cheeks. “Can’t fuckin’ believe it, Jackie. God, you look so good.”

Did he? That scar on his temple wasn’t doing him no favors, that was for sure.

“Matty, you look just like your dad. God, the two of you together. Hold on, just one sec. I want a picture.”

Jack had plenty of pictures of the two of them together. Foggy and Karen were ace at taking secret, sneaky pictures that no one asked them to. He hiked Matt up from his ragdoll and shoved his bag in his arms.

“Pick one and then sit,” he ordered.

Matt glared at him and then made a show of storming away and feeling for an adequate bag.

Jack huffed and then redirected his stare to Bert’s creepy gaze.

“What?” he asked.

“Just amazed you’re here is all, man,” Bert said. Man, had everyone gone bald or what? “Fogwell’s gonna be so happy to see you.”

Ah, right. The person he was most determined to avoid.

“He don’t gotta come out,” Jack said, “Guy’s probably ancient at this point. Don’t want him to—”

“JOHNATHAN MURDOCK.”

No voice would strike fear into his heart like that one.

“Nice of you to finally show up, boy.”

How was this man not dead? How had he not aged? He’d only gotten marginally whiter and slightly more forehead wrinkles since Jack had last seen him.

“He doesn’t let me out of the house,” Matt popped back up to inform the old man. Fogwell saw him and gentle as sin, put a hand on his shoulder and snapped a look Jack’s way that Jack felt in his gut.

“Boy’s not glass, Jackie. You keeping him locked up now?”

Oooooh, kiddo. You’re gonna get it now.

Matt hid behind Fogwell before Jack could take a step forward. Smart fucking boy. Jack would have his own when they got back home. Tattle-telling was worth a whole afternoon of enforced R&R.

“Just ‘cause he’s a bigshot lawyer now, don’t make him smart,” Jack shot at the shoulder Matt was hiding behind.

Fogwell laughed, loud. Like a cracking whip. The sound was always heart-attack inducing and always comforting once you got past it.

“Matty’s doing just fine. He ain’t need brains to punch a bag, and all things considered, he’s still got twice as much fluff in that melon of his than the rest of us combined, don’t you, kiddo?” Matt said nothing because he was already aware of the impending consequences of his actions. Fogwell grinned down at him anyways. “We gotta call Kenny and Raph to come get a load of you two,” he decided. “They’ve been asking all over if you’d come back yet.”

Ugh.

Where exactly was his opinion in this whole thing, huh?

“Ain’t got one, short-stack. Lost all your seniority when you hit the dirt, son,” Fogwell said cheerfully, or what passed as cheerfully for him.

Ugh.

Well, it didn’t matter much anyways. He’d always been the second-youngest in the group.

“Right, well. You call the idiots, I gotta deal with my pride and joy,” Jack said, reaching around the old man to grab Matt by the scruff of the neck and to forcibly guide him towards the back center left bag. The other guys laughed and Rudy slapped his shoulder and said when he was done with that, they should have a go in the ring.

Mm. They’d see. Jack wasn’t trying to do anything to fuck with his head right then. It was kind of fragile.

Matt said that he’d fight in his place and the other guys started laughing and slapping up a storm.

Oh, honey.

No, but it was a sweet thought.

  “Why’re they laughin’ at me?” Matt asked him once gloves were on. Jack patted at his side as a reminder to keep them ribs steady.

“’Cause you’re two and half to them, baby. Always will be.”

“I could probably fight the Hulk.”

“I don’t doubt it. Let’s not.”

“Definitely Winter in hand to hand.”

Yes, and that would never not be terrifying. Let’s just be normal for an hour, what do you say, huh?

  Matt favored his right, and not just because of the ribs. He was a lefty, always had been. Had come home complaining about how the school scissors hurt his hands. He explained to Jack that his sensei (who Jack was going to maim very quietly and then suffocate when Matt wasn’t paying attention) had taught him to lead with his right so that folks thought he was a righty. From there, he could knock ‘em off guard.

It worked, he said. He did it a lot.

Still, Jack found that his right hits were just a little harder than the lefts and pointed out that scare tactics were fine, but Lefty needed to be at the same firing capacity as Righty as much as possible.

Matt told him to stop fucking moving the bag then.

Adorable. Really.

Until Kenny got there. Man screamed like a girl seeing her long-lost bestie after 20 years. Announced to the whole damn gym that ‘Jackie Murdock was back, looking like the coroner’s worst nightmare.’

Fuck Kenny. He’d always been a dick. And he was an oversized dick now, with stupid big, stupid useless muscles.

“You body-building, man? What’s up with this?” he gasped out under Kenny’s grip next.

“Hell yeah I am, here, get a load of this.”

No, no, he really didn’t—alright, he was doing it anyways, great. Yes. Very impressive. Anyone worth their salt could knock him out in one punch.

“Oh, yeah? You wanna give it a go, then Battlin’ Jack?”

People were fucking looking at him now, thanks pal. You’re doing great.

“I got a head injury,” he said flatly, which made Matty laugh at least.

“No shit. Look at that bad boy,” Kenny said. “We were fuckin’ devastated when we heard man, everyone was. You should have said something, we could have helped you out. Like—”

“How about we don’t go there?” Jack interrupted. He hadn’t come here for pity. He just wanted to wear his kid out so he didn’t go wear himself out on someone less gentle’s fists.

Kenny feel back and dropped his eyes.

“Sure. Sorry.”

“It’s fine. I ain’t here for too long anyways. You got plenty of time to go back to missing me and calling me a dumbass.”

“Not really funny, Jack.”

It wasn’t meant to be.

  Raph stumbled in about half an hour later for a repeat of this conversation with greater enthusiasm. He’d stopped boxing, actually. To Jack’s surprise. Then to his enormous guilt.

“After what happened to you, big guy, I said to myself, this shit ain’t worth it. My baby girl was on the way, you remember? So I says, nah. We’re gonna do this right. We’re gonna go to college.”

“No shit, you went to college?” Jack asked him.

“Damn skippy—got me a degree and everything. Graphic Design.”

“The hell does that even mean?”

“Means, I’m an artist, dipshit. Here, lookit these things. I been doing websites for ages now.”

Aw, Raph. You did so good! Jack was so proud.

“Me too, man. Didn’t mean to uh, use you like that but.”

“No, no. I’m glad something good came out of it, don’t even trip.”

“Aw, whatchu talkin’ about, Jackie? Look at your baby. Heya, Matty. Haven’t seen you in years, baby boy, how’s it hanging?”

Matt blinked in Raph’s direction a few times and then deferred to Rudy in a whisper.

Raph laughed.

“It’s alright, honey, you don’t remember me, it’s alright,” he laughed.

Raph had been what, twenty-two when Jack had died? He’d joined up right before Matt had gone blind. It only made sense that Matty couldn’t remember him.

“Man, you jumping into the ring?” Raph asked him, with a few gentle pops in the shoulder.

“Nah. Trying not to re-crack this melon,” Jack said, tapping the bullet scar.

“Holy shit, lookit that thing. Hey, be honest. Did it hurt?”

What kind of dumbass question was that?

Yeah, it hurt.

Worse than anything had ever hurt in his life.

That’s kind of why they call it a death blow.

He stopped talking about it though because it was making Matt uncomfortable. Instead, he made a crack about Matt being able to take Raph one-handed and everyone on their side of the gym oh’ed at the challenge.

“Do it, Matty,” Rudy said, “Show ‘im what you got.”

It wouldn’t be a fair fight by a long shot.

And it wasn’t. Matt just tripped the guy right there on the mat and the whole gym went into uproar. Raph gave it a few swings, but they were just plain bad so all Matt had to do was step back out of range.

“You even trying?” he goaded Raph, and then when that worked, he got a good one in the guy’s solar plexus.

Jack winced and hoped it was only at half-strength. Given that Raph recovered and called it a wrap, it probably was.

  Matt was much, much happier on the way home, trying to goad Jack into swinging at him.

Nah.

Never.

He didn’t care how strong or big or tall Matt got. He’d never lay his knuckles on him. No, not in a million years. Not even if it was for his own good.

His knuckles were tainted with the blood of the devil. Matt’s devil was younger and more spry and its heat burned bright at the surface of his skin.

Jack’s devil had always been a deep roil, way down in the center of his chest. That bastard was horrible and didn’t know when to stay down. That bastard was the guy who’d left Matty in foster care to begin with. Jack was keeping him well out of the picture. He didn’t want to do anything which might transfer any of his dark, bubbling fury to Matt’s skin.

“C’mere,” he said, catching Matt in a headlock instead.

You, son, get kisses. That’s all you get.

Matt made disgusted noises and ducked out.

“The old guys miss you,” he said, finally evening out and walking next to Jack like a normal person. He didn’t pretend like he needed a guide since it was so late and not many folks were bopping around outdoors. It was kind of.

Kind of wild.

To be walking next to him just like he had before the accident. No hand-holding, shoulder-holding, elbow-holding necessary. No canes or dogs.

If Jack hadn’t known better, he wouldn’t have thought there was a damn thing wrong with him, except his apparent need to wear sunglasses in the dark.

“I miss ‘em, too. Glad they’ve been there for you,” he said thickly.

Matt said nothing, then took his elbow in a loose grip.

“I don’t blame you,” he repeated. He said it a lot. He always seemed to know when Jack was thinking about that shit.

“I know, honey. I just wish—I dunno. Raph got out of it. Maybe I shoulda—”

Matt clutched at him and stopped walking. He was stronger than he let on, Matty. In so many ways.

“I don’t blame you,” he said firmly. “And we can’t move forward if all we do is run in circles on the coulda, shoulda, wouldas. Stop thinking about it, Dad.”

Right.

Right, no, that was true.

He just.

He just wished he’d been better. They wouldn’t be stuck on this timeline if he’d just been better.

“You don’t need to be better, you’ve always been enough.”

This kid. This fucking kid. Knew exactly what to say.

“Come here, gimme a kiss.”

“UGH. No.”

“Matty, lemme have one, yeah?”

“UGH.”

He relented and let Jack lay one on the side of his forehead. He snuck another in his hair before he jerked away.

It made him smile.

“I love you, Matt, you know that?”

“Course I know. I always known. I love you, too. Now stop being weird. I want Chinese.”

Jack laughed.

Sure, whatever he wanted. Anything.

 —

Hope this gives you some hope, anon!!

[snake-eyes-11]

The Christmas Fiasco || Part 4 || Train

While searching through their father’s things in the Lair, the twins find something which leads them further into the mystery...

“So, what exactly are we looking for?” Thorn’s voice called out over the sound of clattering objects against the serrated metal floor of the Lair. The multicoloured spotlights from the main room cast dim light through to the far corner of the underground chasm where the twins were rifling through a pile of discarded items.

Metal sheets, screws, bolts and discarded pieces of paper were gathered in a heap against the far metal wall; a conglomeration of their father’s past plans, ideas and dismantled machines. The twins had once had a glimpse of what the Lair had looked like before they had been born, pressing buttons until the swinging blades came flying down from the ceiling. It was safe to say that their parents had almost heart attacks and the blades were quickly removed.

“You heard Icelyn, right?” Storm added, picking up a piece of paper and scanning his eyes over it. “Anything to do with Christmas.” “You really think Dad would keep Christmas stuff here?” Thorn picked up part of a broken sword, gently pressing the tip against his index finger.

"Dad keeps all kinds of shit all over the place," noted Storm, rattling a box of nuts and bolts. "Who's to say there's not somethin' in one of these piles of shit? "Guess so…" Thorn mused thoughtfully, reaching down to pick up a blueprint. “Why’d you think Dad hates Christmas so much?”

Storm rifled through some piles of badly soldered and thin metal plates. “Dunno...I mean, it isn’t exactly a scary holiday, is it? Maybe he just hates it ‘cause it’s too jolly for him.” Thorn threw the blueprint back down on the pile with a grin. “Well, that’s our work done! Dad hates Christmas because it’s a happy holiday. Mystery solved! Let’s go skate!”

Just as Storm was about to agree that, perhaps, there was nothing of interest here, his eyes cast across the plan that Thorn had discarded. “Wait a sec…” Thorn threw his head back and gave a pantomime groan. “Oh, come on! I’m not gonna waste a whole day looking through Dad’s old piles of junk!” “Did you even look at what you picked up, Thorn?” Storm asked, offering the blueprint out for his brother to see.

Thorn looked over his brother’s shoulder, his brows raising when he saw what Storm had meant. The blueprint was of a train, much like the one that they had seen puffing through Christmas Town, but this one had a very grim difference. The front of the train was a snapping beak, with a jack-in-the-box cat and a smaller version of the iron maiden making up the back carriages.

“Whoa!” whispered Thorn, glancing across the page until he came upon some scrawled handwriting. “Wait...isn’t that Dad’s handwriting?” Storm squinted at the page. “I can barely read it, so...yeah, I think it is.” “Why would Dad make a replica of the Christmas Town train? And make it look all…” Thorn rolled his wrist as he searched for the word. “Halloween Towny.” “I don’t know...can you read what it says?” He passed the plans to his brother, who held the blueprint closer to the light.

“Looks like something about...calling a nope?” tried Thorn, his brow furrowed as deeply as it could be as he tried to decipher his father’s atrocious hand. “Or cutting a rope,” muttered Storm. “Look on the back.” Thorn turned the plans over, holding the flipped side to the light. “Okay...that’s either a massive candy cane or a really small guy at the bottom.” laughed Thorn. “Does that say: Pretend Witch?”

“I don’t know...but that really small guy looks familiar.” Storm pointed to some smudged words on the paper that looked as though they had been written in a clenched fist. “Sandy Claws.” they read in unison, looking at each other in horror.

“Thorn, S-Storm?” A voice echoed through the Lair. “Y-You back there?” “Quick, hide the blueprint!” hissed Thorn, rolling it up and shoving it under his arm. “W-What blueprint?” Shadow was suddenly at their left, standing in the darkness in his shadow form.

Storm turned to look at his brother, eyeing the rolled up paper under his arm. “Yeah, Thorn.” He folded his arms. “What blueprint?” Thorn glared at his twin. “So much for my partner in crime,” groaned Thorn, removing the blueprint from under his arm and holding it out to Shadow. “Icelyn needed our help. She said to look in the Lair for anything that Dad might have relating to Christmas.”

Shadow’s yellow orb-like eyes became upside down half circles. “Christmas? W-Why does she want to know about...C-Christmas?” “She wants to know why Dad hates it so much,” explained Storm. “She said there’s something about Halloween Town’s first Christmas which might hold the answer.”

Shadow hesitated, looking at the pile of items the twins had been searching through. “A-Are you sure it’s a g-good idea to just look through D-Dad’s stuff without him knowing?” he asked carefully. “It’s not like he ever looks at this stuff,” scoffed Thorn. “Besides, he wouldn’t tell us any other way, would he? He never talks about the past unless he has to.”

“M-Maybe there’s a good r-reason for it?” suggested Shadow, clearly trying to remain as neutral as he could, despite the obvious nerves in his voice. “He can’t keep us in the dark forever, Shad!” implored Thorn, putting his arms out at his sides. “We just wanna help him.” added Storm, heaving a sigh. “We were all kinda jerks to him after Halloween. All he wanted to do was get us all together, but...we all just ended up fighting.”

Shadow’s eyes slanted outwards remorsefully, his head lowering. Their father had organised a trip to a cabin in the woods after Halloween, just the five of them all together. After barely a day, the twins and Icelyn had started bickering, which led to a fight between all four siblings and when Oogie tried to stop them from arguing, it only made matters worse. Much, much worse.

Not long after that, they’d returned home, the family split up again. The twins went off to town alone, Shadow retreated to the graveyard, Icelyn locked herself in her room and their father buried himself in his work. It was only Icelyn’s birthday and the upcoming holiday which had brought them all back together, although the rifts from before couldn’t be ignored.

Thorn scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. “Yeah…” he sighed. “He might be a stubborn old man, but...he’s our stubborn old man.”

Shadow sighed, unravelling the blueprint. He hadn't looked at it more than a few seconds before his eyes bulged. "T-This isn't from the f-first Christmas…" "It isn't?" questioned Thorn. "Then, when is it from?" asked Storm.

"D-Dad's second Christmas…" muttered Shadow. “How’d you know that?” Storm frowned, eyeing how nervous his older brother looked. “I-I was...kinda there.” Shadow shrugged one shoulder, letting the plan fall to just one paw. “I mean...o-only kinda. I don’t remember a-a lot of it.”

Thorn tensed, looking off to a patch of rust on a floor panel. He remembered being told about Shadow’s past with their father, how he’d yelled at his father and had wanted to run away. He’d been younger then, but it still made him cringe. “So, why’d Dad make a whole train?” Thorn asked to break himself out of his thoughts.

Shadow looked at the ground. “Well, uhh…” He coughed nervously. “... Dad might have t-tried to take over Christmas T-Town once.” “What?” Thorn leaned forward, jaw dropping, while Storm unfolded his arms and stared at Shadow.

“I-It’s kind of a long s-story...but it does s-start with the first Christmas in Halloween T-Town. I-I think.” admitted Shadow, a look of bewilderment crossing his shadowy face. “We gotta go tell the Ice Queen about this!” Thorn punched Storm’s arm, leaning towards the elevator leading out of the Lair.

Storm blinked out of his stupefied state. “We’re gonna meet Icelyn in the Town Square. You wanna come?” he asked Shadow. Shadow’s smile became an upturned semicircle, disappearing in the next. “Count me i-in!” he called from the opposite end of the room, now standing in his human form.

“Hey!” shouted Thorn, running through the Lair. “You cheated!” “I-I’m a Boogie, a-aren’t I?” teased Shadow with a smirk, opening the elevator door and waiting for his brothers to join him.

[shesquiinnsane-ar]

TRICK OR TREAT. Hey everyone a little treat for you here to celebrate the spooky season. I am working on adding it to my verses page (and I know I need to edit all the edits on there) but you’ll be pleased to know that  I officially have my verse for Justice League: Gods and Monsters that I will probably colloquially rename my ‘Vampire AU’.

This is canon divergent and heavily based upon headcanons due to the fact that in the first episode the Harlequin gets killed. Due to her death this bio is relatively short, ending in speculation. Additions to the bio will be made upon plot developments that have occured in roleplays. Vampire lore where appropriate will be similar to that of Buffy the Vampire Slayer due to Bluebell’s familiarity with this.

After finding one of the Harlequin’s potential victims in a hollowed out jack in a box, Terry McGinnis tried to soothe the victim as she was shaking letting him know that she was behind him. A shadow loomed over Batman as a pig-tailed female and her mallet came swinging. Missing the two of them she hit one of possessions as a giant clown on a spring that came crashing to the floor with a squeak. Dragging the mallet along the ground, the pair huddled away from the Harlequin who’s red and black hair, mismatched socks and suspenders and pale white face came to meet them. Her smile, large and dastardly as she raised the mallet above her head ready to strike again. Missing the victim for the box she’d been hiding in, the mallet rebounded, shattering the box and knocking the Harlequin to the floor. Her victim ran away to safety by the time she was standing again but there was still Batman, and she thought he might still be fun to play with.

Running after Batman into an abandoned storage warehouse, she called out to Batman, telling him off for letting her plaything get away as it wasn’t nice. Her mallet was poised in her arms ready to strike again as she surveyed the room, taking it step by step to not be caught out by potential trap. Just because he was a gloomy guts about her plans didn’t everyone had to act so down in the dumps all the time. Walking down a hall of old mirrors she caught her reflection in the cracked glass, sorting out something she thought she saw in her teeth before proceeding. Talking aloud, although she hadn’t seen him yet. She told him the story of how the girl (“bitch”) she’d captured would go back to her drab little life when she could have been fun forever. Batman had been listening from above and dropped to pounce on the unsuspecting Harlequin. As the male dropped she took a spinning hit at him, sending him crashing into one of the many mirrors in the hall. She took another swing but this time he dodged, only for her to break a mirror. The kept chasing him, swinging and missing until her mallet got stuck on the floor. She stopped trying to lift it up Batman squarely punched her in the face sending her backwards through a mirror into what seemed to be a secret room.

As Batman glanced around he could note that the Harlequin,seemingly killed and kidnapped her own ‘makeshift’ family, having them all reside in the abandoned building. Figures for her mother, father, younger brother and grandma were found at the scene, covered in flies to shown they’d been a while and smiles pinned in place. Her delusions were made even clearer by a spot on the couch labelled ‘sis goes here’ implying Harley herself was the final piece to the puzzle. The room itself was set up like a casual family living room, with a few pretend images of bright blue skies and the wall even donned a family portrait of Harley with all the deceased.Harley interrupted his exploration with a revving chainsaw, making it clear that no super creeps were allowed in her room. Aiming the chainsaw right for Batman he ducks out of the way leaving the blade to cut of the head of the grandma corpse. An enraged Harlequin, made her erratic especially since in her mind, Grandma was gonna bake her cookies.

Trying to take her rage out on Batman the Harlequin destroyed the family portrait of them all, clearly not in control of the chainsaw. Chasing Batman around caused her to cut the corner off the chair her father had been sitting in and had been thrown through the television set, courtesy of Batman. She skidded to a halt before aiming for him again. This time Batman was stood in front of the main sofa where she was meant to sit next to her mother. Instead of hitting Batman, however, she found she’d cut the back of the sofa in half and had gotten the chainsaw stuck. Finally she’d managed to get the chainsaw free, even more maniacal than before. Batman had seemingly back himself into a wall but as she approached him he jumped, the chainsaw going straight into the wall sparking enough to cause the chainsaw to break, snapping the chain itself. The chain flew off and violently slash the stomach of the Harlequin leaving her injured and bloody, something Batman seemed to catch the scent of.

In world Batman wasn’t just Batman, but a vampire and the smell of her blood peaked his interest. She cried out in pain, trying to muster up the kick of adrenaline to keep fighting him back but by the time she turned around Batmain forced her arms away from her wound, keeping her still with her hands up, blood trickling down her gloves. Admitting defeat she sighed, telling him to take her back to jail, calling him a copper even if he didn’t have those credentials. Batman hesitated before smirking as if that was funny. He had plenty of other ideas. Showing her his fangs he dug into her neck as she screamed realising his little secret. A squirt of blood landed on her home sweet home sign and on screen that was where her story ended.

Instead of leaving her be, Batman opted to sire the Harlequin, finding the punishment of immortality to be far more amusing. No one with her madness could live to tell the tale for that long, at least in his mind. The half-head awoke in a daze, stunned and screamed at the mess the Batman had made of her room. It was obviously his fault. The wound had seemingly healed itself as she stood up and looked around licking the home sweet home sign clean of blood. It was an instinct, but she loved it. He’d given her a power he didn’t know how to use and someone as insane as her, with the resources she could possess. Now Gotham was in a whole new world of trouble. Laughing loudly the female headed out into the night, giggling all the way out, especially in the hall of mirrors. Now she had friends to find, the whole world to explore and she quite literally had all the time in the world.

[squidproquoclarice]

For the 20 RDR2 questions can I ask 1,4,7,11, and 16 please?

1. High honor or low honor? Why?High, always.  I admit some of this is that I have a hard time playing outright assholes.  And I do enjoy some of the Antagonize options on people like Dutch and Micah because let’s face it, even good people sometimes can say shitty things when frustrated. But for Arthur, playing generally High honor feels like the appropriate and in-character choice.  The storyline best supports him embracing the goodness in him, the kindness and concern and charity that he wants to express, but feels he can’t due to how it clashes with expectations of being a rough, tough, and sometimes brutally uncaring outlaw thug.  That conflict drives Arthur’s arc, and post-TB, his assertion of being his own man and making his own choices, rather than Dutch’s creation.  If he’s Low honor, that means that the mask of the violent, selfish thug really is all he is, and Dutch has effectively won by destroying anything else in him.  That’s a pretty shallow story with no character growth, and it makes Arthur no different from 5000 other white male protagonists we’ve already experienced who embrace their villainous behavior, ruthlessly hurt people, and make excuses for it. I think the fact that there are High honor only missions in RDR2, and no Low honor only ones, says pretty eloquently which game experience is the more fulfilling.

4. Who is the most misunderstood character?I’m going to say Mary Linton, because I see her take so much shit as a “selfish bitch” who just uses Arthur, etc.  I’ve addressed it before so I’m not gonna repeat the whole meta, but I don’t play that game, and I think it’s misogynistic to so viciously throw her under the bus as some kind of manipulative harpy because she hurt a man’s feelings.  Yeah, and he hurt hers too.  No, it’s not admirable she twists his arm to get him to help her, but I believe that she’s desperate, and she’s ashamed and awkward to ask Arthur, knowing how this makes her look.  It’s appropriate to the times when most women had fuck-all in terms of agency, and had to try to manipulate and influence the men around them with “soft power” to get anything done.  She can’t accept him as he is while he persists on following Dutch, because she knows that’s going to bring disaster into her life.  Eliza seemingly made the same choice.  They hurt and disappoint each other, over and over, because they’re two good people in an unworkable and toxic relationship.  And they both need to grow up enough to realize that.  Painful as her goodbye letter was for Arthur, I actually think that was mature of Mary to say she finally realized that they needed to let him go entirely, and apologizing for starting things up again.  That, and presumably seeing her father really does suck is her own self-assertion, much like Arthur is also growing up and asserting himself against Dutch.

7. Funniest moment?The entirety of “A Quiet Time”, let’s be real.   Multiple Lennies.  Lenny-on-Lenny action in that one room.  Drunk “I’m an Americaaaaaaaan!” fence-hop while running from the lawmen.  YNNEL?  LEMMY? Grate?  Great?  Can-can dancing with Arthur’s super enthusiastic high kicks.  Slap-fighting.  Arthur’s dorkish joy at just letting loose and not having to be Big Scaryboah.  Even that heartbreakingly vulnerable “No one would have me [and marry me]” and how Lenny seems to reassure him right out of it. The whole mission is a riot, starting with Arthur’s snark to Dutch about breaking Micah out of jail, and ending with waking up miles from Valentine and literally walking back to camp in hungover shame.  ;) 

11. Do you believe Jack is John’s son? If not then who do you think it is?The looks and the genetic implications fit.  Abigail says he is, and she would know best who was sharing her bed at the time.  I have no reason to disbelieve her, and John seems to accept that he is Jack’s father.  Honestly, I think he was young, stupid, say paternal responsibilities he wasn’t ready to assume, and he freaked out and pointed out she’d had other lovers not long before and tried to cast doubt on whether this was his child or not.Occam’s Razor.  The evidence points towards it, and aside from stirring up relationship drama, not sure I see much reason to make someone else Jack’s father.  If it absolutely had to be someone else, the eye color genetics prove 100% that it can’t be Arthur, and I’m firmly of the opinion Abigail and Arthur never slept together anyway.

16. If R* were to make a third RDR game, what would you want it to be about and who would you want the protagonist to be?As discussed, I’m not really interested in a RDR2 prequel with the early days of the Van Der Linde gang because there’s no story to tell there that adds much as a game, for Arthur or for the gang.  We know where that train is headed with the gang, and seeing Arthur at 21 when he’s rendered canon-incapable of changing and growing as a character because his Rubicon is still 15 years in the future is really not terribly interesting to me as a story.  It’d be a prequel for a prequel’s sake, not something like RDR2 that had a lot to say.  Also as discussed, I’m not too interested in Jack post-1914 because if he’s got an RDR game, that means he didn’t leave violence and crime and all of it behind after killing Ross.  That feels like a defeat, not something to celebrate as the tentpole of a new narrative.  Again, comes across as a sequel for a sequel’s sake, not because of a compelling story.I want an RDR3 only if there’s a strong story that adds something to the big RDR picture, hopefully broadens the RDR world, and features a character who has a journey ahead of them to match John and Arthur’s rich growth in their respective games.  So if anyone, I’d like to see Sadie post-1907 and her adventures in South America, and her character growth after settling accounts with Micah.  It feels like there’s a lot to be done with her yet.  (And hey, maybe we find Arthur’s alive and in South America too, just saying…)

[bearxclaws-blog]

Arc Headcanons // POST-SKIP PT.2

Now that I’ve absolutely made her a Straw Hat, I need to do more of these. Reminder; might be mentions of Sanji x Anita.

PUNK HAZARD

— Arc Outfit ( when she’s subjected to the cold )

— Because she’s never met Laboon but knows of him, she’s convinced by Brook’s frantic shouting that one of the whales they run into while being swept away by the White Storm is him. When she learns it’s not, she’s bummed.

— Reaching the surface was exciting for her, until she saw the sea of flames. Immediately shrinks back and starts to sweat for reasons other than the heat. Luffy wanting to go to the flaming island only makes her want to panic more. Despite roasting himself, Chopper gives pats and gentle words.

— She is relieved when the straws they draw reveal she doesn’t have to go with. Almost weeps with joy. No fire, please.

— Is abducted with the remaining Straw Hats when they’re knocked out with sleeping gas. I feel like Chopper and Anita would be able to smell it ahead of time but not realize what it is if it isn’t odorless.

— Being the heavy sleeper that she is, she doesn’t wake up until the rest of the captured Straw Hats start talking to the disembodied and mismatched head in the corner. Half-asleep, she doesn’t notice that they’ve been captured. it eventually sinks in while she’s attempting to piece together the head. Fails utterly. Puzzles aren’t her thing.

— She isn’t the least bit pleased she’s on the island with flames, even if they’re on the colder side.

— Finding the children is a shock to her, but she’s on Nami’s side when it comes to saving the children. She’s spent too long entertaining and trying to make children happy that it hurts her to hear them wanting to be saved. Doesn’t know why they want to be saved, but she’s behind Nami with her support.

— Stays behind with Sanji and Franky to fight the guards in her bear form, helping tear into gas tanks and swatting masks away when she sees Sanji doing the same.

— Nami’s scream forced Sanji to encourage Anita in their direction, since he and Franky are still taking care of the guards. Totally misses Sanji’s hissy fit over Kin’emon’s head.

— Along the way, she scoops up as many of the smaller children as she can and lets them ride on her back. Still does the SUPER pose, even in that form and with children clinging to her. Can’t stop her.

— She didn’t care so much about Law and his crew at Sabaody, so she doesn’t recognize Law. Doesn’t recognize Smoker or Tashigi either, since she wasn’t recruited until after Alabasta. Asks Sanji who they are and he explains. She feels an immediate dislike because they’re with the government, but take her crew’s opinions of those two in particular into consideration. She won’t trust them at first, especially when they turn to run back inside and they order their men to take chase.

— Heart switching;                                 Sanji         >>     Nami                                 Nami         >>     Franky                                 Franky      >>      Anita                                 Anita         >>      Chopper                                 Chopper   >>      Sanji

— Anita being inside Chopper’s body feels strange. She doesn’t like being that small and switches into his Horn Point so that she’s at least taller than his Brain Point. His horns are heavy as heck, though, so it’s still a struggle. Franky inside Anita’s body isn’t any better. At least she has muscles he can use. Super muscles, even!!

— Once they’re together and vaguely safe, Anita does find amusement in trying Chopper’s different forms. Since she only has the two she’s comfortable with, she enjoys seeing what it feels like to be in the large and fluffy Defense Point. It’s harder for her than it is Chopper, since it’s not a concept she is familiar with. Has a new appreciation for all of his training and his abilities.

— Franky probably tried to turn into a bear and failed a few times. Comments on how short Anita is, causing her to ram into her own body while in Chopper’s Horn point out of anger. She hates being the second shortest member of the crew. Regrets doing harm to her own body, but revels in Franky groaning.

— Loves her little face button that Usopp sticks to Chopper’s head. She’s keeping it.

— Franky’s face in Anita’s body is still gross. 

— Franky can’t throw a rampage in Anita’s bear form for obvious reasons, but I’d like to think that Anita’s bear form is still hulking enough to have helped do some damage.

— She’s happy to be back in her own body, but it’s sore as all heck. Thanks, Franky.

— Anita’s included in the list of people that can use haki, but it’s only armament. She is capable of using it in her human form to protect herself, but she mainly uses it in her bear form to harden her claws and teeth. I know I’ve said this already, but just in case——

— She loathes Caesar’s powers because she can’t do jack-shit against gas no matter how hard she tries. Swatting paws ( even with armament haki on them ) are easy to dodge, and I can’t imagine for a second that biting a man made of gas would be a good idea. I can also see her hating his powers because of the explosions he can cause. Explosions almost always mean fire, and — y’know.

— Despite that, she sort of wants to keep the dragon clinging to Brownbeard’s tail. She’s dumb and thinks it’s cute, doesn’t consider it could very well burn her to a crisp.

— Except that when it does try to burn them, she is a screaming lil’ ninny and has to hide behind someone. Nope. No fire. But after Kin'emon and Brook take care of it, she’ll gnaw on it. >( Yeah, take that you dumb dragon.

— God, Anita hates this place. She would hate it so, so much. She’s rude and uncouth and just all sorts of awful at times, but she can’t stand seeing children behave this way because of an addiction that was forced on them. Straight up child abuse and manipulation. She’s gonna be so sick the whole time.

— Anita can at withstand some of the cold Monet can cause, at least on a temperature level. She doesn’t get cold as easily because she has fur. She doesn’t suddenly get the urge to hibernate when the temperature drops because she wasn’t born with those instincts. And even if she did hibernate, beats maintain a normal level of heat when they do so that they can react quickly to danger or food, which makes them different than other hibernating mammals.

— She can’t claw through Monet’s snow walls, but she can put sizable dents in them. I can see her being a perfect distraction / tank, smashing into walls and forcing Monet to build them up again.

— Seeing Mocha swallow all the candy and react poorly to it is going to make Anita feel even worse. She’s entirely too soft for children thanks to where she’s from and what she used to do. Children aren’t supposed to suffer. They’re supposed to be happy and healthy. Not crumpled over from a debilitating overdose. She’s going to force herself to help Sanji and G-5 take care of the other kids to stop herself from getting upset over Mocha.

— All I want are some of the smaller kids ( and maybe even one of the bigger ones ) riding on Anita’s back while they’re heading to building R.

— Gomu Gomu no Grizzly Magnum. I totally forgot he had a move called that. Anita will either be super cocky and think it’s because of her, or she’ll be offended he’s using an attack with a bear in its name. Excuse, that’s her shtick, LOAFY. Nah, she’ll be giddy about it. Even if it has NOTHING to do with her. That’s if she ever witnesses it for herself or hears about it.

— Again, I just CAN’T not let Anita be impressed with the robot. I know it breaks the gag, but come on! Franky’s stuff is amazing!

— Party time means lots of snuggles from the kids and playing with them! She’s so different when she’s around children. She’s a literal ball of sunshine when she has someone to entertain. She does flips, bends over in odd ways, dances around as a bear. She almost seems to forget that she’s a pirate now and is 100% enthralled with the children and making sure they’re happy. Especially the ones in the infirmary, although I doubt Law would allow her in there if he’s taking care of them. Although although.  .  . he lets Bepo into the same room he’s in when he’s doing surgery. Hmm. No, I feel he’d still not allow her in, but I dunno! I’m not good at understanding Law ;;

— She’s gonna eat the hell out of Sanji’s food! It’s been too long since she had a real, cooked meal and she missed him his cooking.

— She will shed beary tears when the kids say goodbye to them. She can be a sensitive bean sometimes.

—  Anita’s going to give Caesar dirty looks and probably go out of her way to keep an eye on him. CONSTANT VIGILANCE.

[whydontwe-fanfics]

Hold On (C.B)

Description: Tragedy strikes. (don’t want to spoil it)

Song: Hold On by Chord Overstreet

Warning: alcohol poisoning, swearing, EMOTIONS

Word Count: 1.8k

---

You didn't remember why everything crashed and fell that day. One second you were dancing in Corbyn's arms in your living room and the next, you both are screaming and yelling at one another at the top of your lungs. All you can clearly remember is him walking out and slamming the door, not returning or calling back for an entire two weeks.

You sat on your living room floor with your back against your couch, a bottle of liquor in your lap and your phone on the carpet beside you. The screen is bright, Corbyn's number ready to be clicked.

It's been a crappy few days. Everything seemed to be crumbling beneath your feet and there wasn't anything to do about it. None of the guys would answer their phones and you knew it was because of Corbyn.

All of your friends had ditched you because they were Corbyn's originally and your parents had passed away years ago. You felt truly alone in the world, and it hurt tremendously.

Not only did you have nobody to consult to, but your life besides that matter was also going to shit. Your college classes were finally getting the best of you. With stress, so much stress, and heartbreak on your back, you felt too weak to carry on.

Oh, and one more thing. Today's the anniversary of your parents' death from two years ago.

So here you sat, drinking alone while crying to yourself on a Friday night.

"Idiot," you drunkenly chuckle.

This was your fourth bottle of liquor and not your last. The thought of alcohol poisoning didn't cross your mind. You really couldn't care less at this point. Would it even matter if something did happen to you? It's not like there was anybody out there who cared.

---

C O R B Y N

"It's been a few days since you've last spoken to her," Jack mentioned as he and Corbyn sat on the beach chairs in the backyard of the house.

"I know," Corbyn sighed, running a hand down his face.

"Has she tried calling?"

"Yeah... I haven't picked up, though," Corbyn murmured as Jack shook his head.

"What was the fight about, again?" Jack asked.

Corbyn took a second to answer. "I found out she's been drinking again."

---

"Y/N?" you heard Corbyn's wary voice as you walk into the living room, putting your hair into a ponytail.

"Hmm?" you hum, finally looking up at him. He watched as the color drained from your face when your eyes landed on the nearly empty bottle of bourbon that you've had under your couch for a bit.

"What the hell is this?" he asked, eyebrows furrowed and the left corner tilting downwards.

"It's bourbon," you fake a chuckle, going to take it from his hands, but he pulls it back.

"What the fuck, Y/N?" he scoffed. "You're kidding me, right?"

You don't respond, your arms crossing as you glanced towards the ground shamefully.

"Do you remember what happened the last time you were drinking?" he questioned, his voice growing high.

"This isn't like last time," you say. "I don't drink all of the time, anymore. I've just been having small shots every once in a while."

"You're supposed to be recovering," he scoffed. "You've got to be shitting me."

"It's not a big deal," you huff halfheartedly.

"Not a big deal?" he mocks you incredulously. "You almost died two years ago! You were only sixteen then and you're only eighteen now."

"A lot of people do it," you defend yourself.

"I'm not talking about other people," Corbyn argued.

"You aren't my father, don't talk to me like you are," you frown.

"You're being ridiculous right now," he scoffed.

"I'm not-"

"No, you really are," he angrily puts the bottle of liquor down on the coffee table. "Do you not remember the rehab, Y/N? Have you actually been sober for the past two years or has that been a lie?"

When you don't answer, he narrows his eyes.

"Answer me, dammit! Where did you get this from? How long has it been."

"Just a week ago," you lied, and he knew that.

Corbyn bit his bottom lip. "Is lying your thing now?"

"Corbyn, don't do this-"

"Don't do what? Care for my girlfriend that's been lying to me for God knows how long." He heaved a deep sigh. "It's like I don't even know you." Clear disappointment and anger was laced in his tone.

"I'm sorry," you frowned, keeping your eyes on the brown carpet you stood on. You could hear his huff before he turned and headed for the door. You quickly picked your head up. "Where are you going?"

"Out."

"You're being dramatic," you call just before he could reach the door.

"And you're being an idiot! This is one of the literal dumbest things you've ever done in the three years of knowing each other."

"So what, you're going to leave me because I like the feeling of that going down my throat?" you point to the bottle on the table.

"It might just come down to that," he clenched his teeth angrily.

"I'm sorry for finding joy in something that makes me feel happy, something that makes me forget about every wrong thing in my life."

"I was here! I've always been here! You needed someone? Should've come to me! Something that can kill you shouldn't be the thing to make you feel so exhilarating! I helped you the last time. I could've done something to prevent this," he walked over and knocked the bottle over. "What you're telling me right now is that I'm doing something wrong."

"Maybe you are," you couldn't help but say, the adrenaline of the fight getting the best of you.

Corbyn bites the inside of his cheek before nodding. "Bye, Y/N."

---

You stopped calling after the second day of him not responding, and neither of you had heard from each other since.

"I love her," Corbyn mumbled. "I really do. But why didn't she trust me enough to tell me when she felt the need to start drinking again?"

"Maybe she was just scared," Jack suggested.

"Scared of what?" Corbyn glanced at Jack.

"Your reaction, what you'd do. This.'

It didn't take long after that for Corbyn to come running to your door, driving quickly and rushing to your apartment panting because of how eager he was to apologize.

After a few knocks without a response, he attempted to twist the doorknob and was beyond surprised when he found out that the front door was open. You were one of the most paranoid people he knew.

"Y/N?"

" Loving and fighting  Accusing, denying  I can't imagine a world with you gone "

He rushed in and flicked on the lights, adding to the dark apartment. He froze when he stepped foot into your living room, his eyes landing on the various bottles of various kinds of alcohol lying around.

" The joy and the chaos, the demons we're made of   I'd be so lost if you left me alone "

"Shit," he hissed, running to your bedroom. Panic subsided in his body when he couldn't find you. "Y/N!" he shouted anxiously, running to your bathroom. He tried to open the door but it was locked. "Y/N! Baby, I'm here. Just open the door." When you didn't reply, he put his ear on the door, not able to hear a shuffle of movement or anything. "Y/N! Open the door!"

" You locked yourself in the bathroom "

He banged on the wooden barrier keeping the two of you apart. When you still didn't respond, he began running his shoulder into the door, grunting with each bang of contact. On the third run in, the door broke and Corbyn was suddenly in the bathroom.

The first thing he saw was you, your body on the ground with your eyes closed.

"Lying on the floor when I break through  I pull you in to feel your heartbeat "

"Shit, no," he cries, falling to his knees beside you and taking your body into his arms. He puts two fingers against your neck and feels the back of his eyes sting when your pulse is the weakest he's ever felt. "Dammit, Y/N." he teared up, quickly reaching for his phone in his back pocket and instantly dialing the police for help.

" Can you hear me screaming, please don't leave me "

After a rushed call for help, he sat there with you in his arms, tears falling down his face as he brushes your hair out of yours.

"You're okay, baby. You're gonna be okay," he hummed, placing his lips on your forehead.

" Hold on, I still want you "

He couldn't help the sob that left his throat as he rocked the two of you back and forth on your bathroom floor. His heartbeat was frantic at the thought of losing you.

" Come back, I still need you "

"Why'd you do this?" he bawled, shaking his head with his eyes clenched shut. "Why?"

" Let me take your hand, I'll make it right   I swear to love you all my life   Hold on, I still need you "

The time came where the ambulance arrived. Corbyn sat in the back right beside you, his hand holding onto yours. The nurse hovering above you tried asking Corbyn questions but he was out of it, staring at your peaceful looking body. If only that's what everything was - peaceful.

" A long endless highway, you're silent beside me  Drivin' a nightmare I can't escape from "

There comes a point where he closes his eyes and bows his head downwards, endless prayers wracking his mind and leaving his lips. "Please," he'd cry.

" Helplessly praying, the light isn't fadin'   Hiding the shock and the chill in my bones "

By the time you all arive to the hospital, the guys are already there waiting distraughtly. When the doctors rolled your body out of his sight, Corbyn stood in the middle of the hallway with a quivering bottom lip before being escorted to the waiting room witht the rest of the boys.

" They took you away on a table I pace back and fourth as you lay still "

Sitting in that waiting room felt endless. Corbyn didn't have a clue as to what was going on behind the closed doors of where you were being operated on.

" They pull you in to feel your heartbeat   Can you hear me screaming, please don't leave me "

Corbyn could feel his heart stop when the nurse walked into the room, her lips pulled into a flat line. He was the first to enter your room, the rest of the boys waiting behind.

"Hey, baby," he whispers with the smallest of smiles to your sleeping figure.

" I don't wanna let go   I know I'm not that strong   I just wanna hear you   Saying baby, let's go home   Let's go home   Yeah, I just wanna take you home "

That smile of his was washed away when a long beeping could be heard, the sound echoing around the room. His eyes immediately flashed to the monitor that kept the record of your heart beats.

" Hold on, I still want you "

It was then that it flatlined.

" Come back, I still need you "

---

I’M SO SORRY

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