#like they're Informed by his childhood in some ways for sure but. the key thing i want to stress

[beatricebidelaire]

She thought she was holding it together.

After all, she sort of expected this. She hoped she was wrong, hoped that things won't come to this stage, hoped that he wouldn't make choices that led to this, but deep down, she always suspected that this was - not exactly inevitable, but definitely not unexpected.

Sure, he has always been volatile in some way. Dangerous. But people say that about her, too. The chaotic twins, sometimes they call them, even though they aren't actually siblings and they actually look nothing alike. Still, he's the closest thing to a brother that she's ever had. Even now, after all that he's done.

The vileness of some of the crimes stuns even her, even if she thinks his betrayal is not that surprising.

Then again, she did kill his parents first. For a mission. She understands the reasoning behind the assignment, knows where it's coming from. The Count was becoming too dangerous. Sometimes she wonders if she's still allowed to judge O for what she's been hearing about him after what she's done, and yet -

She does, at least for some of those. Hypocritical as it might be, but she does. The unnecessary cruelness - was it always there?

It had been, brimming underneath, and she thinks she's always known that. She also thinks he would say that she's equally cruel - but she isn't, she's ruthless in some regards, maybe, but that's different. That's just steeliness. Efficiency. Capable of getting things done. But she knows he would just laugh at her. His eyes mocking and knowing. "We're cut from the same cloth, B," he would say.

She loved him like a brother.

Not anymore, but the bond is still there. Always there.

She hates him and misses him and still remembers their childhoods, the lawn of his backyard, their apprenticeships, the forest, their theater years, their everything. Ever so clearly. Her partner in crime, except now he's committing worse and worse crimes that she didn't realize he was capable of.

Beatrice is holding it together, at least on the surface. She has to. They're all worried about her, the one who'd known him the longest, the one closest to him. The one who fired the dart.

Beneath the well-kept together surface, she feels like she's falling apart.

She doesn't miss him, she just misses who he was, who she was, their childhoods, the more innocent years. But she can't let anyone see this. She has to be brave, to be strong, to be a volunteer.

She is absolutely keeping it together, which is why she's lying on the sofa of a locked room alone, hiding away, because that's what keeping it together means - that no one sees this side of her. If the light is not switched on, that's simply because it's cooler this way. Makes her feel like she's in some movie. This, she thinks, is cinema. (She is very clever.)

Then the sound of keys turning in the lock interrupts her misery, and the door swings open because some hotel managers are absolutely rude and will take it upon himself to check the supposedly locked and unused rooms that Beatrice has decided to hide in without informing anyone.

"Beatrice," Frank says.

"This is - method acting." She says, immediately, sitting up.

He turns on the lights. She hopes she doesn't look absolutely wrecked, or if she does, she hopes she looks like she's acting, that it's all just a performance.

He sighs. "It will ..... hurt less, eventually." He pauses. "At least, if you keep yourself busy."

Frank, in contrast with Beatrice, actually does have a brother who switched sides, Beatrice knows. Suddenly, the pretenses don't seem so important. At least, temporarily, she can allow the mask to fall.

"Explains why you're a workaholic," she mutters.

He rolls his eyes, just a little. Then he sits down beside her, and after a moment, she lets herself fall onto his lap unceremoniously, burying her face against the sofa. "Frank," she says, quietly. "How do you deal with this?"

"As I said, work."

"That's so you."

"I know," he sighs.

They're quiet for a few moments, and he adds. "J keeps a few bottles of brandy at my office. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if we opened one."

[cantfixyou]

@bitterborne, continued from HERE

this has never been easy. easy is far away, now, with normal, with stable, with kind. her life used to be kind. SHE used to be kind. and that kindness opened her up to pain. too much for her to bare. and it affected her so. now charlie moves in some of the same way the ghosts do - quiet, chilly, morose. scars pressed into her skin, one visibly tucked under her chin at the jugular. ( or, at least, she tries. she really, really does. she wants to be strong and mean and opposing. but she is her father's daughter. she has a heart. she's too soft to like loneliness. so, instead, she bleeds for it. ) the black-and-white linoleum floor squeaks between two pairs of shoes. she stops in the place where she saw the phantom, her co-worker's quick comeback another good cover. it makes her smile again, once more warm, the hauntings not quite so heavy on her features. a small chill is spiked in the air, but is fading fast. they were here, but now they're gone. " mostly dayshift, yeah, " she reminds him, thinking little of of his question, her answer, only clocking those three steps, his voice just behind her again. she knows how she looks, how she sounds. like someone who doesn't quite fit into their uniform, a little lost, too small for the big idea. " i only switched to nights recently. " not for the pay, not for the hours, not even recently. semantics. she's here for bigger reasons. " it doesn't scare me. " she gives him that same cocked smile over her shoulder, then half-turns to him. " well, i mean, yeah, fair - the cupcake is a little weird, especially with the teeth ? and management's whole vibe is pretty ominous - " using his own word, but she's chuckling when she says it, she means no harm " - but i've never been afraid of the dark. " and her arms cross. she has an air of confidence about her, built from the ground up, instilled into her by a very real, very nice, very fulfilling childhood.

she likes to think she can read people well for the same reason. she used to have to, when she played sports, and it's come in handy over the years. she catches something on michael - he can't quite get a grip on it fast enough. he's uncomfortable, has a chill run through him. the question that follows is almost a prompt, a hope, an attempt. at what ? what does he want her to know ? that they're all just stories. they're not real. good thing her arms are already crossed - her knee-jerk response is to get defensive when things like this come up. " sure. " a hardened one-syllable word. " just stories. " is he making conversation ? is he gleaning for more information ? what does HE know that's suddenly made this so uncomfortable for him ? " a lot of stories. from a lot of people. over a lot of time. forty years, or something like that, " she continues. takes a pause. " and a lot of missing kids to go with it. " know the exact numbers to go with both. but she also knows she's toeing a line. remembers how she thought the nightguards sounded when they came to her about the ghosts five years ago. ezra, and mark. one dead, one left behind. and she doesn't want to put herself, or him, through that. distance is key simply to avoid any more pain under the fazbear name.

[waterfall-ambience]

information on damien vexx's non-existent childhood and infancy ('what if they realised he was 'alive' much earlier? how would that have gone?'). some of this will never be relevant, it's equivalent to headcanons, but i had fun thinking about it regardless:

older than avery, though not by much. im not sure how it works out specifically considering both of them were grown in vats, but damien has the vibes of someone who was born a few weeks premature. little guy.

captain luna quickly takes responsibility, and the gods are a bit obsessed with watching him be a father at 200+ years old. he has some experience dealing with infants but he himself never had children.

the perpetua key is kept FAR AWAY from the kids. luna is NOT risking anything.

there is a photo of damien and avery as newborns that everyone talks about, mostly because they find the size difference between them to be amusing.

luna and minerva both turn up to meetings swaddling their children, especially after they were just born. they end up trading parenting tips.

damien is a bit of a fussy baby. he cries often and sounds like a small cat. he doesn't like the bottle but they really don't have any other options because hey, clones.

avery, on the other hand, is much calmer and more quiet. he doesn't cry or babble as much.

damien learns to talk slightly early (+ with a lisp), though his more 'diplomatic' behaviours are from mimicking captain luna rather than anything else. uses 'tetu' for 'thank you'. one time luna sang along to a lullaby they had on CD damien told him 'dada, lets just listen' ('dad, shut up').

damien is not a difficult toddler, per se, but he can come across as a bit of a brat/priss/what have you (though it's hardly intentional). years later, avery notes that as a child damien always seemed to be in some state of discomfort.

(^^ was it the ambiguous neurodivergency? possibly. there's a story about him saying the same phrase over and over again for over an hour, though otherwise his 'developmental milestones' and forms of pretend play read as exceedingly normal, so luna never got him checked for anything back then.)

damien's presence in a lot of their home videos are marked by his coughing (diagnosed with asthma at age 3, has hygiene practices burned into his brain from then on but he still sounds like an ipad kid)

avery is more of an adventurous child. after the first couple of years he gets louder and starts talking a lot and he finds joy in tackling people (damien doesn't like it as much, and they both learn a valuable lesson about expressing boundaries and not playing too rough).

avery gets his hair cut into an asian bowl cut for the first time, and goes "i'm a boy!! :D " upon seeing himself in the mirror (damien reacts in a similar manner once he sees him). avery keeps his hair like this forever.

minerva learns that avery struggles with reading aloud so she makes him read to damien anyway (similar to how things are in canon)

in this turn of events, the kids are much more like siblings or cousins than anything else (and no future romantic interest here! definitely not!). they bicker a lot when they're small but once they hit 8-9~ years old, they're best friends.

they do A LOT of pretend play. in their adventure stories, avery likes being the hero and damien sometimes dabbles in being the person who has to be saved.

"you hit me!! (sobs)" "shh it's okay! you can hit me back!" "(sobbing continues)"

they cheat off each other's homework at one point and both get scolded.

avery's major point of insecurity is more focused on him being 'talentless' than because early on damien proves to be an adept magic user. the kid waits on a miracle like crazy.

damien's full name in this version of events is something along the lines of 'fabian augusto luna' (captain luna names him after augustin as a way of circumventing the possibility of him being 'brought back wrong')

[2hoothoots]

Have you ever heard of the concept of "reparenting the inner child"? I'd like to imagine that Raz's archetypes can be physical manifestations of that in the literal sense, like seeing his older archetypes comforting his inner child whenever some unpleasant childhood stuff comes up

oh, i hadn't but that's an interesting concept!

i think with the Inner Child, though, it's almost the other way around? like, one thing I do want to clarify is that I'm not trying to make out that Raz had a particularly terrible childhood, because I don't love the implications of that tbh. instead, the Inner Child is more a safe way for Raz to express his feelings without a filter, and almost kind of like a proxy for self-care? one that was inspired by his meeting with his younger self in my fic. hold on i think i can draw it better than i can explain it in words

[yomiurinikei]

oh my god i was scrolling through my acc and like. let's talk about tsurugi and kouhei again for a second.

do you think tsurugis classmates... know????

like. they've gotta know about kouhei.

(under the cut, talks about kouhei + his death, soooo t3rr0r1sm + b0mb1ng, brief mentions of m1tsuh1r0 in point 4)

1) before kouhei died, he was supposedly on track to become shsl police officer instead of tsurugi/maybe it was a toss up, but i think it was the former (i'm pretty sure this is said by tsurugi, so it could just be his perception of things, but it doesn't make sense for him to lie about this: either way, we can use this to put him and tsurugi at about the same caliber)

2) we know kouhei died. recently, at least by in game memory standards, since i'm not starting that argument up again.

3) it's implied that before kouheis death, while tsurugi still had his same moral code (see: the incident with his father figure getting shot, in tsurugis ftes) he was more open and friendly, more trusting

4) we know maeda, who couldn't recognize beloved star soccer player higa (maeda says higa is famous and that he's got a lot of people in the general population who'd recognize him) recognized tsurugi and had seen him on tv, meaning that tsurugis decently famous

so. kouhei was killed within the past year at the longest, if not more recently, and was as skilled as tsurugi, who's been interviewed on tv and is likely otherwise the focus of news articles, even if he doesn't do much on tv

meaning... wouldn't someone? have said something?? about kouhei??????? some news outlet have keyed into an explosion that tsurugi was seen at, and that suddenly, kouhei has vanished, and tsurugis acting fucking traumatized and has closed off???

like even if the stuff with kouhei is kept under wraps. someone's gonna ask questions, and imo, the better option is to make an announcement saying kouhei died defusing a bomb, and not elaborating, for his families privacy, the fact kouhei was a minor, the stations reputation, to keep people from panicking that a potential shsl cop was killed by 'terrorists' and yk. the fact that they're fucking lying and it was staged

and you're telling me this wouldn't come up in interviews with tsurugi? you're telling me this information isn't going somewhat viral, even if just for a moment? people aren't side eyeing? or curious? not a single member of class 79 remembered this happened and that tsurugi and kouhei were close???

im just saying. y'all are missing out if you're not thinking about everyone in that god damn classroom subtly staring at tsurugi whenever anything vaguely related to his past comes up? maeda wasn't sitting there learning about how kouhei died and thinking about all the true crime theory videos he watched about this. it's so fucking hilarious.

tsurugis wistfully talking about his childhood friend, thinking he's soooo slick and kizuna, sitting right next to him is fucking. trying to find pics of leel kouhei because she swears there was an obituary with a picture of him as a kid. kiyokas phone goes off as tsurugis talking about how much he loved (totally platonically why is everyone looking at him) his friend and it's a text from kizuna with a picture of 7 year old kouhei grinning up at the camera as tsurugi, in the background, is about to face plant into the dirt.

tsurugi doesn't know why kiyoka looks like she's about to fucking cry but he feels... oddly disrespected

[fumiko-matsubara]

Writing Exercise // AssClass x Tower of God AU - Catching Up

Assassination Classroom - Tower of God AU

Summary: There was a sudden change in team line up and so Nakamura decided to make a call with someone who is floors away.

Word Count: 1,791 words

• ▪ • ▪ •

"Huh? Asano-kun joined your team?"

Nakamura hummed in reply, her eyes focused on the screen before her, going through the video recordings she had captured earlier during the previous floor test using one of her lighthouses in hopes of finding anything she could use in the near future. "He and that Sakakibara guy apparently got separated from the rest of their teammates during the previous test."

From the other line, Chiba let out a noise of mild disbelief, which Nakamura couldn't blame him for. For an E-rank Regular, Asano Gakushuu had proved himself to be quite the gifted Light Bearer countless of times that just the mere idea of him being separated from his teammates because of a floor test, with how organized and strong the Asano kid had made his nearly perfect team to be as their leader and strategist, is almost laughable.

But considering that the 28th Floor had nearly caused their own team to lose members for good, only having members to be separated seemed more like a blessing than a misfortune.

Nakamura shuddered at the memory.

"Surprisingly, it was them who first approached us when we arrived at the 29th floor," she mused. "Well... the Asano kid to be exact."

"Seems smart on his part, I suppose," Nakamura suddenly heard doors opening on the other line. She assumed that Chiba must have been taking a night walk when he had received her call, as it was currently evening to where she is right now. "I've heard that you guys were the only team to pass the 28th floor for this wave of Regulars... so I guess it's a no-brainer for that guy."

Nakamura swore she could almost see Chiba shrugging his shoulders just as he said those words.

"It's been days since they've joined, you said? No troubles with them so far?"

"Not at all. They've been surprisingly civil with all of us the past few days." Though there was a voice at the back of Nakamura's mind telling her that it was likely because a certain redheaded Light Bearer wasn't around to provoke the Asano. "They even sometimes help nurse some of the others who are still on bed rest."

Chiba chuckled at the other line. "Well isn't that a sight to see?"

Nakamura had discretely installed lighthouses as if they were security cameras at each room of the rather large apartment they had been sharing since their arrival on the 21st floor. It would only take few clicks on her main lighthouse to retrieve the saved recordings of Asano fussing over their injured teamates as he nurses them.

Snickering, she made a mental note to send some of them to Chiba after she's done with her current work.

"Also we definitely appreciate having a rear-type Light Bearer and a Wave Controller since, you know?" Nakamura fought the urge to roll her eyes. "The only ones we had are now floors behind us after stopping their climb to compete at the Workshop Battle?"

Chiba somewhat hissed at that. "I guess that explains why Karma seems to be in a bad mood when we called last month..."

"Yeah, we weren't in agreement that time," Nakamura sighed deeply, closing the tabs and turning off her lighthouse. She supposed it can wait tomorrow.

"I get why."

If Nakamura was being honest, it wasn't the fact that Group 4 joined the Workshop Battle that got the whole team in disagreement. It was the fact that Group 4 have already been planning to compete since they had become E-ranked and yet had never once told the rest of the team until the day they had to claim tickets to join.

Karma may be Team END's key strategist, but the redheaded Light Bearer still had the infuriating habit of strategizing and implementing plans without consulting with the rest of the team, sometimes even executing said plans on his own without anyone's help nor even knowledge.

Nakamura supposed that it was because Karma had initially been trained as a Fisherman before switching to a Light Bearer, but that can't be an excuse anymore since he had over 8 years to break out of that frontliner habit.

It's annoying, really.

Even when Group 4 had won the Workshop Battle with a powerful weapon as their winning prize, it still left a bitter taste on her mouth.

Nakamura hoped that this will be the last time Karma involves their other teammates into his lone wolf shenanigans. They can't afford to be separated much longer the higher they climb the tower.

Not when they still have yet to close the gap to catch up with Chiba and his team like they have promised.

"How are things at your end?" Nakamura asked, wanting to change the topic.

Chiba let out an exhausted sigh. "A bit too fast, I guess. Especially since Kaho's been antsy the past few months."

"Oh?" Nakamura picked up the nearly forgotten tea on the table next to her, prepared by Hara. "What gives?"

Nakamura barely had any recollection of what Tsuchiya is like in personality, as the last time they had personally met was when they were still fairly new to the tower, during the Floor of Tests, which was already about a decade ago. But from the few times that Chiba had mentioned the Light Bearer in their talks, Tsuchiya seems to be a quick thinker who strategizes and improvises well under pressure, especially during battles.

Perhaps that's why Team DREAM had been ridiculously quick with their climb, Nakamura mused.

Well, aside from the fact that they have an insanely solid team line up.

"I'm not entirely sure as we weren't around when it happened but..." There was a slight hesitation in Chiba's tone as he trailed off. "Ever since we saw her with a girl that I believe was from the Harukawa Family, based from her hair and eye colour, she's been like that for some reason."

A Harukawa huh...

Nakamura wasn't exactly the most interested in the Ten Great Families, let alone their relations with each other. But she was at least aware of the common knowledge about the tension between the Tsuchiya and the Harukawa, seemingly started by the Head of the two families themselves.

Could it be rivalry? Mortal Enemies? Nobody knows. But one thing's for sure was that a Tsuchiya and a Harukawa, whether they are direct descendants of the family Heads or not, do NOT get along.

Which is ironic considering that what the two Great families are known for made it seem like they would be a perfect team - The Tsuchiya Family known for their Defenders and the Harukawa Family for their immense talent in Spear Bearing.

But Nakamura supposed that the Tsuchiya daughter already had Chiba for that, who is a talented Spear Bearer himself.

"I mean both families don't get along anyways," Chiba remarked, echoing Nakamura's thoughts. "But it seemed like they personally knew each other beforehand from the way Kaho talked about that Harukawa girl. They probably met during the Floor of Tests... or even before they got called into the tower. Who knows."

Nakamura had never looked so amused. "Childhood rivals?" She snickered.

Chiba chuckled at the other line. "Perhaps."

"So what happens now?"

"Uh well..." Nakamura could hear some rustling from Chiba's side of the call and she swore she just heard faint screeching right after. The sudden noises concerned her a little, so she asked, "Chiba?"

"Nothing. That was Eiji, probably ate something spicy again," Chiba sounded very unamused and deadpan as he said that. Nakamura could faintly hear arguing at a distance if she listened more carefully. "Anyways, Kaho had a burn out. That's one thing."

"It took that to stop her huh," Nakamura replied with a huff. "How many floors have you guys cleared then?"

"Five in 3 months."

What the fuck.

Nakamura's jaw hung wide open when the words had registered in her mind. A normal team would take at least a year to complete 3-4 floors, nevermind five. This is ridiculous. This team is ridiculous. "Geez... and you guys still managed to keep up with her plans and all..."

"To be fair though, the previous floors have been relatively easy," Chiba waved her off nonchalantly. "I would even say that the 20th Floor was much difficult than these five."

Nakamura sighed, leaning back to her chair. Considering it took Team END a whole year to complete the 20th Floor after numerous fails, she supposed she could believe the Spear Bearer's words this time. "Say, how many of you all are from the Ten Families?"

There was a short pause at the other side. "Well there's Kaho of course, then Miki, Daisuke, Miho, Jungyoon, and then me..." he counted.

If Nakamura was smiling right now, she was sure it would have tightened uncomfortably.

It had always slipped from her mind that Chiba himself is a Ten Great Family member despite not being a direct descendant of the family Head, the family tree he's in known for their Water Users, which Chiba had utilized to form his own spears.

But nevermind that. Team DREAM had 6 members from the Great Families? No wonder they're climbing at an incredibly fast pace.

Chiba really found himself a formidable team after he had gotten separated from Team END.

"But even then, only Miki is a direct descendant. The rest of us are too unimportant to be actually feared of as a whole..." Chiba laughed sheepishly. "Well except for our family names of course."

Nakamura would beg to differ.

"Anyways, we're at the 46th floor right now," He continued the previous topic before Nakamura had made that short intermission. "But we'll be taking an indefinite break until all of us had recovered enough to continue our climb again." He informed.

Knowing where he was getting at, Nakamura sighed for the umpteenth time. Unamused, she replied, "So you want us to catch up quickly while you all are basically dormant then, is that right?"

Shit. There is no way they could clear 17 floors before the monster team springs back into action.

Nakamura could feel the cheeky grin that Chiba must be wearing right now.

"Well you have a direct descendant from the Asano family with you now, right?" His tone sounded almost challenging when he said that. "Should be easy enough."

"You can be really annoying sometimes, Ryuunosuke." Nakamura glared at the visible Pocket floating in front of her, as if she can somehow magically transfer a sort of attack towards the other line. It didn't help that there were chuckles coming out of the mechanical sphere.

"Well, what can I say? I learned from the best."

Maybe she shouldn't have teamed up with him and Maehara at the 2nd Floor.

[ziracona]

Hi! I just realised I havn't popped in in awhile. Do you have any headcanons u feel like sharing about the newer survivors?? (I love them all, they're so cool but I think imma have to say cheryl is my bby gurl. she's tired. let her rest.) also. i am. going insane. from a toothache :) - Sleepy

Hey! Hope your tooth pain clears up! I’m so sorry—that’s one of the worst. : /

Hmmm, I do, but I’m trying to think of ones I haven’t said in asks before. 😬 Unfortunately my memory of fictional characters is great, and my memory of what I said in asks is shitty. :’-]

I don’t know the newer survivors—except Nancy and Steve—as well as I do the older ones, because I’ve never written them, and I haven’t played Silent Hill. I like Zarina, Yui, and Cheryl a lot though. Poor fkn Cheryl can join Quentin in the “Please God, just one good day?” Existence. Rip to them both. 😭

Poor kid gets out of hell once, and ya throw her back in. :’-]

Let’s see—headcanon I am fairly sure I haven’t already shared. I think Yui and Min would get along really well, and Jane and Zarina would too.

Yui hates the serial killers especially, from her own personal experience, and goes to bat hard against them every time.

Ash flirts with everyone to a point it’s even more than Ace does, and for a while it becomes a competition between them to see who can flirt more and better than the other (not in a shitty way—everybody knows they have the competition going on and it’s more a ‘I can act better than you’ than a ‘I can win more hearts’ one.) Ace is declared the winner in class, Ash the winner in sheer quantity he’s able to churn out, and they agree to call it a semi-draw. It’s actually a really fun week for everyone, because they’re all constantly being complemented and flirted with in a way they know is performative and seeks 0 real actions from them in return, so essentially they are just showererd with ‘drunk girl in a bar bathroom’ levels of praise for seven days.

Felix and Nancy are the only two with significant others waiting back home, and they bond over talking about their wife/boyfriend and sharing stories and having someone around who understands that specific brand of pain and can encourage them that they’ll make it back home.

Tapp is a dad, so he gives Felix a lot of advice on stuff since he was an expecting father. Not so much “do this” advice, since his relationship with his family didn’t go so well, and he feels like he’s in absolutely no position to teach—more like “It’s okay. Women have been giving birth for thousands of years. She’s gonna make it just fine even if you’re not home yet, and you’ll get back to them. And I’m gonna teach you some of the tricks so you’ll be ready when you do. You can even surprise her by already knowing how to change a diaper and warm a formula bottle. I’ll show you how to do it,” and talking him through some of the stuff he would have been able to learn from infant care books. It’s sweet, but Tapp almost dies when Jane says its “Very heartwarming” and teases him, so they cut him some slack. Felix is really appreciative. Laurie has taken care of a ton of kids, and gives him some advice too, and so does Nancy, who had two younger siblings.

Steve is a disaster who suffers from “I like you and you are a girl, so *pigeon meme* Is this falling in love?” syndrome. Gets shot down hard by Laurie, who is ridiculously pissed at him for bringing it up during a trial when their lives are on the line, but after he gets over being super awkward around her, and she reaches out to be like, ‘Look, dumbass, why did you even like me?’ And he’s like ‘...because you’re, uh, really cool? A-and pretty? And...’ and eventually she’s like ‘Buddy, you don’t even really know me. You’re just lonely. You’re not in love with me, you just want to be, because you want to be in love with somebody, and that’s not gonna cut it, for me, or anyone. Be in love with a person—not with the concept of being in love. And for that to happen, you have to know them first.” And since Steve is good af self-improvement, he realizes she’s got a real point, and tries to find his worth outside of needing a girlfriend, and becomes both a lot happier, and one of Laurie’s closer friends. (Side note—this extends probably only to my initial Steve ideas. I had the idea batted around that in that universe, Stranger Things /is/ an existing show, but it’s based on a mix of urban legend and history from the 80s, and Nancy and Steve are the version from the actual 80s, and I think in that pitch Steve is dating Barb, who is still alive, and already worked through this specific issue, because many things happened differently for wild comedic ‘But in the show’ effect, becuase both them repeatedly going “WELL REALITY WAS A LITTLE DIFFERENT” when like, monster hunting shit from the show won’t work on the Demogorgan, and *Spit take* “THEY HAD ME HIT ON ROBIN?” “Ewwww” “YEAH ewww! She’s basically my lesbian little sister! We’ve been best friends since grade school! What the fuck :’-]” make for amazing joke potential. )

Cheryl starts having nightmares where she sees things from the Entity’s eyes she was never meant to see, and finding out dangerous amounts of information this way. The Entity decides at some point this is too big a threat, but because it’s proud, it doesn’t want to just kill her, as that would be admitting a human is a threat, so it starts having killers gun for her mercilessly to try to get her to give up, and the poor girl is in agony.

Zarina documents stuff form the realm constantly, and has a careful scrapbook collection of all notes and paraphernalia from past survivors. She also keeps conspiracy pages tacked together trying to figure out who they were becuase they deserve at least the justice of people somehow knowing how they died and what they went through. Laurie is a big help with this, and so is Claudette, who has been keeping stuff for a long time.

Yui is very no-nonsense, and protective. She gives off strong big sister vibes. She especially also loves board games/puzzles/other games like Shogi or Go and such, and Dwight and Adam create game pieces for her to play Go with when she mentions how much she used to like that kind of thing, and Yui is incredibly touched, and makes several other ones for people to play with too, and it becomes a very enjoyed pastime between trials. It’s engaging and competitive, but much more relaxed and low energy than sports or training or going for a run, so it’s a great alternative. Meg gets super into making puzzles, and all the artists do too, and take turns painting pictures on boards, cutting them into puzzle pieces with extreme painstakingly slow care, and then doing puzzles together. Jake is invaluable in the actual cutting pieces out area, but actually enjoys to do it.

Felix knows a lot more than anyone else about the Entity when he’s taken, so he spends a bunch of time with the research team trying to recall whatever he can from his childhood and sharing any information he has, then just stays on it because he wants to. He’s desperate to meet Benedict Baker someday himself, becuase that man seems to get around, and he really wants to know what happend to his father.

Everyone becomes protective as fuck of Cheryl when the Entity starts targeting her, and someone—I think Kate and or Meg—probably both together—as a one-off joke call themselves her knights at some point, becuase they’re running such dedicated protection detail, but it becomes a whole thing, and several more start to do it. They’ll like ‘fist clasped arm across chest at attention, quick bow’ when they see her, and it’s goofy as fuck, but it helps a lot making Cheryl’s reality more bearable. Plus, it’s really sweet. Nea gets in on this and comes back one day with a little daisy chain she made cause she was bored, sees Cheryl, it clicks, runs over and offers it as a ‘favor’. Zarina sees and comes back later that day from a trial and kneels and presents Cheryl with a rescued toolbox with a brand new part. This becomes increasingly common and extravagant, and Cheryl /cannot/ deal, but it’s like, genius, becuase it takes exactly this level of surreal goofy friend bullshit to distract from the hell she is living. She ends up just regularly having someone come back from a trial or trip to the woods, salute with an arm across their chest, bow, and present her with anything from a pinecone or pretty rock, to flowers or a medkit, to a salt statue or key, to a painting or hand made bracelet, to a makeshift weapon or a pillow. Everyone always tries to outdo each other, so the gifts tend to be extravagant. Zarina considers herself Cheryl’s righthand woman/personal knight by chocie, because she wanted a cause to fight for and has found one she truly loves, and she makes Cheryl her favorite gift so far, coming up to her at the end of a long day, after a very bad trial where Cheryl was mercilessly and slowly killed by the Pig, kneeling, and offering a thick shard of stained glass from the chapel, made sturdy and held in place with a few chunks of soldered and wrapped iron along the blade and down the grip, forming a razor sharp and reinforced stained glass knife.

[decaffinatedvoid]

An excerpt from my RP character.

She stands there, unmoving as the heat of the sun beats down upon her back. Thick dark hair unusually tied up in a messy bun, strands falling down to delicately tickle the curve of her elegant neck. Solemn gray eyes tracing the words upon the stone, she had lost count how many times now, yet it remained unchanged " Hey Niknak..." Her voice quiet, soft, velvet in nature with a deep timbre that spoke of held back tears. Sneakered feet ground deeper within the broken stones of an often traveled pathway, yet today it seemed she was alone, space to say the things she couldn't the night previously. You see she had traveled to New Orleans in search of family, hopeful, wide eyed and naive to the big open world. However that hopefulness had withered when she had found the tomb. Her Uncles name emblazoned upon it.

Another shuffle of her feet, she hadn't expected her first words to him in so long, to be directed towards an imposing stone facade. But there she stood, she repeated her words, a childhood attempt to pronounce his full name had resulted in the mash up that soon stuck. He had called it adorable " Hey, Niknak.... I miss you." The gravity of those words hit harder, now that there would be no reconciliation. No strong arms to pull her within a hug, or bare knuckles rifling the hair atop of her head whenever he called her a dork. Turning her back to the stone, she lowered and crossed her legs as she settled within the dirt. Leaning back, the warmth the sun had left upon her making the cool stone bite at her as though it bore it's teeth. She sighed, tilting her head back so that she could watch the clouds " I'm glad I found you, just, wish it had been another way." She plucked grass with slim, ringed fingers, only to toss it aside making a small pile as she conversed with the dead. She smiled, one of the clouds taking shape and she rose her right hand towards it " do you see it? The rabbit?" a few beats, then a breath "... of course not, you'd have seen a dragon, or a giant monster bearing it's maw preparing to attack. Then tickled me till I pissed myself....asshole." She chuckled softly at the memory, not of pissing herself, that had been mortifying. But, laying within the long grass as a kid, her head nestled on his stomach as they watched the world go by. More often than not, having to dodge the projectiles that Robert threw their way. However a quick bark from Nicky, and Robert would run off to play in the mud, or poke the lions with sticks. Boys right?. Her hand lowered, her chipped painted nail tracing the step of the mausoleum " I wish you could tell me what happened to Mom, if she's okay, if she was.... with you when it happened." Tilting her head and drawing her eyes from the sky, to move over the other stones around them " at least I know she isn't here, I checked everywhere. Each stone, twice." She could feel the warmth on her cheeks and adjusted her form, pulling the sleeve over her hand and raising it to wipe away the tears that fell. Ah, there they were. Her arms surrounded her legs, pulling them up so that she could rest her chin upon her knees " did I do the right thing coming here? I've already met a couple of people, they're interesting. They would have fit in well at home, one guy, he has this incredible metal hand. Moves, when he moves his muscles and he even said he's able to feel?! Can you imagine that?. Cirion could use something like that, ever since Cuddles had his episode instead of that wooden thing. I'm going to see if I can find out the name of the surgeon, we might be able to get him here!." A brush of her sleeve beneath her nose, the inevitable tap leak that followed the tears " then another woman, I don't know what to make of her yet. She seemed so calculated, so together and precise when we first met. Then, last night she was crushing some guy to her chest. Another one kissing her, then the two guys kissed. Then she left, talking about marshmallows and conspiracies." She couldn't help the gentle snort of laughter, glancing back at the stone " you'd have found the whole thing hilarious, then, then I had to guide some other guy out of the place by throwing leaves and making him follow me. I have a suspicion the wine was spiked, given the guy with the hand, his name is Dr.Crane by the way. Warned me not to drink any."

She fell silent for a while, letting her spill of information sink in, to... well wherever it may go. Then finally she moved, leaning over she pulled close the backpack that she had been wearing. Undoing the zip, she began rustling through the contents till she found what she wanted "I brought something for you, can you remember Mr.Clappy?." From within the bag she brought forth a mechanical monkey sitting on a box, within its hands a pair of symbols and a key at the side to wind. Nicky had brought it as a gift for her on one of his last visits, though at the time she had turned it over within her hands with a frown. Gently pointing out the actual, live monkey that chittered from its perch in the corner of her tent. Nicky had laughed, and simply told her to turn the key. Which she had, large gray eyes and her tongue poking out as she did so. The mechanics within began to click and whir, and after a few moments the arms of the monkey twitched, then clashed the symbols together. She had giggled so loudly till Nicky had told her to hush and listen, and she did. After three clashes of the symbols, there was a crackle and hum from the small speaker at the side. Then clear as day Nicky's voice came from the small toy 'Love you, Luna Moon.' She had then dropped the toy at her side, turning to wrap her arms around him and bury her face into his neck. He always smelled of earth, like dirt and oil with a hint of something else she could never quite ascertain 'I love you too, Niknak.'

The toy was now worn, the key misshapen from the amount of times it had been turned. The fur on the monkey, patchy in parts where she had ran her fingers over it as she fell asleep at night. But everything still worked as it did, she had made sure of it keeping it oiled and somewhere safe. Setting it down upon the stone, she turned it so it was slightly off centre and more balanced in it's new home " I think it's time, he keeps you company for a while. He was getting a little tired of me anyway." One last stroke of her finger, brushing the fur flat that had been disturbed at his temple " isn't that right." Silence. Picking up the backpack, she slid her arms within the straps and settled it in place with a slight bounce of her body. Hooking her thumbs either side, she gazed down at the memorial and it's new decoration " do you mind if I come back again? Just, to tell you about everything here. I'll feel better, knowing I have someone I know to talk about it with." Silence. She nodded her head, a smile tugging softly at the corner of full lips " tough shit buddy, I'm coming whether you like it or not." Poking her tongue out for good measure, she would turn to leave as her sneakers crunched within gravel. A few steps away before she heard it, it causing her to stop dead in her tracks 'clang'. Then again 'clang'. She shook her head, the key most likely was slightly jostled on it's journey within her pack here. So she took another step, 'clang'. The key needed to be fully turned, three times for it to complete it's performance. She could feel her heart take an extra beat in her chest, she knew what would come next and it didn't disappoint " Love you, Luna moon." She tilted her head back, closing her eyes and letting the warmth of the sun capture and heat the fresh tears on her cheeks " I love you too." Then she was gone, wandering back out onto the streets of New Orleans. Perhaps today, she could text the womans friend. The one who seemed to have known Nicky well, she would like that.