#my wack ass process...revealed

[paradimeart]

feel really eh abt this pic but it was just to see if the timelapse would work (slight flashing at the end)

[claire-starsword]

Shining Force 2 Pre-release Coverage

Post on the first game here

Let’s continue our deep dive on old magazines. Again most of my info here are from the Beep! Megadrive magazine, but I did manage to find some footage from old Sega videos as well.

For context again, the game released in Japan on October 1993.

June 1993

Unlike the first game, which showed very few regions during pre release, this one is eager to show a bunch of new places, probably because it can’t generate hype about a unique battle system anymore. Bowie and a parade of peculiar placeholders take a good tour around the continent.

Save for the wall decoration and possibly the colors, it’s hard to judge on print, New Granseal’s castle is pretty much the final version. Same for Arc Valley's escher-like dungeon, as the magazine puts it.

Volcanon’s shrine is also here, and the magazine claims to have seen “a huge monster” on the top of the shrine, so Volcanon is likely already there as well. They wonder if it could be a boss but I think it’s just baseless speculation since it’s clearly not a battle scene, and little story was revealed at this point.

The monument looks wack, the shop signs are huge, and doors are different, but otherwise Hassan looks very close to the final version.

Bedoe is dark, that particular torch is also not in the final version, although there are torches in the town. Would be a pain in the ass to navigate, but might be just a test of the dark effect.

HQ already has the same vibe, but lots of different details, like different tables, cups and flowers vases on them, no stone walls, etc.

But enough of that, let’s stop pretending the Placeholder Force isn’t the wackiest and most amusing thing in these screenshots. What do we have there.

Bowie seems mostly complete, which makes sense as I’ll show in a second that his design was already announced. There are still a couple differences though, his clothes are blue instead of white and his cape has a golden line. His design might have been quickly revised at some point?

There’s a bunny girl NPC. Because of course the first thing these devs hopped to make was a bunny girl NPC. I’m actually more shocked that they did not keep her. Also I’m saying NPC with some certainty because as you can see comparing with Bowie, playable characters tend to have one less pixel between the eyes. So I don’t think she’s a scrapped character or anything.

Mae is here! Because of course it makes sense to use a character from the previous game as placeholder. As opposed to, you know, drawing a whole bunny girl. Her lower body was recolored to orange/yellow for some reason though.

There’s a wyvern sprite that does make it to the final game as an enemy. Curiously that shot of New Granseal shows more wyverns flying around as well. It makes no sense to use flying placeholders for the soldiers that should be there, so I wonder if there were supposed to be birds flying in the scenario or something, it would be neat.

There’s a cute little girl NPC with twintails who sadly didn’t make it. I don’t have anything to say about this.

Finally, true nerds like me fans of this blog will have certainly recognized the warrior sprite as an unused sprite from the first game:

From the side however, it was clearly edited, the helmet losing detail, getting shorter horns, and the whole guy getting shorter as well. My theory is that this guy was on the process of becoming this:

and maybe later Jaha, as this NPC is already very similar to him, and his design was already announced as well. In fact, that’s what we’ll talk about next. Besides these screenshots, there are four characters introduced in this article.

This kid is the protagonist!?

He is the protagonist who will represent you and travel through the world of Shining Force II. It seems he lives in the castle town of Granseal, but has no adventuring experience yet. From here on the both of you will have an exciting journey together!

The princess of Granseal!?

The princess of the country of Granseal, where the protagonist lives. She seems to be the main female character for Shining Force II. Her long hair and beautiful dress are nice. How will she get involved with the protagonist? We look forward to see it.

Jaha

“We’re the side characters!?“

Wielding a huge axe, he’s a bad influence for the protagonist, and a hobbit warrior. Just like the protagonist, he’s still in training and has no adventuring experience. Really bad at studying in school.

Slade

The greatest thief in Granseal. He shares the stolen treasures with poor people. Clearly a kind of Nezumi Kozo.

As the link above says, Nezumi Kozo (rat brat) is the nickname of a japanese thief who later became a kind of Robin Hood-esque folk hero as it was assumed he helped the poor as well with his crimes, and also apparently never hurt a victim. There’s an obvious inspiration here.

Producer Hiroyuki Takakashi doesn’t reveal much of the story at this point, only that it will be a different continent than the first game, and also have more events happening one after another unlike SF. He also says that there would be battles different than the army vs. army setting of SF. There are also talks of how certain details of the system and graphics were being reworked, and already talks of being able to choose between promotions, but it’s all very vague.

Later in this month, a demonstration of the game was presented at the Tokyo Toy Show. I couldn’t confirm it as there doesn’t seem to be a recording of it anywhere, but it’s likely a lot of the footage from here on is from that.

July 1993

Article opens up with an interview with the Takahashi brothers, but there’s not much to note. They mention being in the point of writing the game’s ending, and when asked about the presence of robots and such in the previous game, mention that while the Ancients are always a part of the Shining Series since SitD, this game would lean more into the fantasy vibes.

Also, up to this point, they had been working on both SF2 and Gaiden 2 at the same time. Gaiden 3 released in early July so from here on they’re free to focus on SF2. Or maybe not, because there’s already talks of a Gaiden 3 being planned. For better and for worse, these people could not stand still a second.

(To digress a bit, it’s also peculiar because the Final Conflict strategy guide mentions the game was originally planned for the Mega Drive. The Gaiden series was a Game Gear thing, so perhaps there was a whole different game being considered at this point which got shelved to make way for Final Conflict.)

Back to the topic, we get a few more screenshots with the Placeholder Force.

Most places seen like the final version, but this house/village in front of the ancient shrine was removed.

We then get pictures of what is likely a later build with more familiar characters being worked on.

The Caravan debuts, and we also finally get the first battle scenes.

Taros is already here as the most eye-catching part for the 90′s kids. I on the other hand am loving a lot more how the platform neatly informs you it is a test only. The UI also does not show the character’s class, even though it will in the final version.

And Luke is here! Except maybe not. His name onscreen says Nick. Obviously this could be an issue of them using the rename cheat, but that doesn’t happen for any other character in these pre release footages, and would be a bizarre move. It’s possibly a placeholder name derived from Sonic Co., (like Max is likely derived from Climax Entertainment, now you know). The interesting thing is that this sprite and its palettes in the final game don’t quite match Luke nor Skreech’s design, and Luke is also the only character to not get a sprite change upon promotion, so it’s easy to believe that was some delay or complication in finalizing these guys.

We also get a look at the Grans-Parmecia Shrine map, which is very much done as well. The monsters on the top however is frustrating me to no end because they look very familiar but I can’t remember where from. Anyway, definitely didn’t make it to this game at least.

We also get our first look at Sarah and Kazin, except Kazin is so cut off on this screen it’s not worth mentioning him now, there will be plenty of time to talk about Kazin later. Sarah on the other hand is easy to see, and she’s clearly not herself yet. Her outfit is what will become hers and Karna’s vicar outfit in the final version, but she also has a hat, which only the vicar battle sprite will have in the end.

It’s okay, she’s an important character so i’m sure they will sort this out in a timely manner. Anyway! We do see someone else there who is also from the starting gang and with a complete design. Chester’s design is indeed announced at this point, though with little character info. There’s also a small synopsis of the story by now, which is basically “Slade steals a treasure in the shrine and bad stuff begins to happen”. We then get a map of Parmecia.

I don’t think I’ve posted an official map of Parmecia before, so here it is for comparison. They do look pretty much the same already. Volcanon’s shrine is weirdly not marked in the map, but is mentioned in the text. Lemon and Creed’s names are mentioned as well.

August 1993

The article of this month explicitly mentions the Tokyo Toy Show so that’s nice for reference. While I couldn’t confirm it, by comparing the footage I also think this Sega video (the Shining Force part starts at the 6 minute mark) is from the same month, so I’ll be using footage from there as well.

The demo showed an early version of the jail cutscene with Slade. While the dialogue seems to be same as the final version, Sarah does not have her portrait nor her final sprite yet, and the other characters seem to be just following Bowie in line as opposed to having their own places in the cutscene. The old man NPC also has different colors, and there seems to be someone else in the room.

If you watch further in the footage you’ll see everyone keeps following Bowie, even hilariously clipping through walls at points. I’ve joked about it before but turns out I was right, they did put some good effort into coding the followers’ movement, because they might have intended to use it more, if not through the whole game.

Lemon’s sprite was not done at the time, and the event of the Galam army’s departure was likely simplified since the final version involves not only Lemon, but the king as well, who seems to have no placeholder here.

The Caravan scene is also shown, although using the dwarf village theme, and having Jaha instead of Peter. Given that it’s just one character as opposed to the big team you would have at this point, it’s possible he’s just standing in for Peter and not actually intended to be in the scene. The next one raises further questions though.

The Kraken scene is also shown, and the whole starting team is here. Slade’s text is very much in same vein as Oddler’s in the final version, warning everyone of the Kraken’s appearance, but it’s still different text, as Oddler speaks more politely, so this version was written for Slade himself, no placeholding.

It deeply hurts my heart to consider Slade was supposed to have a bigger role and got scrapped, though I feel I know why this happened. This series really likes to take its gameplay deaths seriously for some reason, and it would probably be too costly to constantly check which characters are alive and have alternate versions of a cutscene to adjust for that. That’s why the first game mostly has just Nova talking (though characters still show up for the ending at least). The Gaiden games go around this a bit more by reviving everyone at the start of every chapter and on endings, and also using characters who just joined the force in the cutscenes as they can’t have died already.

This game made Peter and Lemon, two immortal characters who carry most of the conversations from the moment they join alongside Astral. It also seems to delay some characters joining as playable characters for this reason. For example, Kazin is not playable through the path to Hawel’s house even though he’s following you, because he has to be alive for the cutscene there. Pretty much every instance of a character following you instead of joining the force seems to be because of this.

There are a few instances that show they might have considered other approaches though. There are numerous instances at the start of the game where characters revive automatically, since there’s a lot of dialogue with them. After the first battle, before the jail scene, upon leaving Grans Island, and during the one year timeskip. Of course, they all resurrect during the time Princess Elis is asleep in the ending as well. There’s also as far as I remember a single instance where you must have a particular character alive to progress, if Elric is dead he won’t open the passage to Creed’s mansion.

Of course, they might have felt that characters would have to be constantly revived for do more scenes with that, and it would ruin their game design, and it’s not intuitive to know that you must revive a particular someone to proceed, so they might just have scrapped this kind of plot. Still sucks given that it’s kind of a self imposed limitation, plenty of games just treat defeat in battle as different to death and let the characters take part in the story as needed. But alas, back on topic.

Plenty of other battle maps are shown, albeit with different enemies and different stats. A very minor detail is that the golem sprite has red eyes. In the final version they have green eyes except for Claude.

Sorcerer spells are in, although they don’t seem to be fully implemented yet, in the footage Kazin uses them through the attack command as opposed to an actual spell. Perhaps because of that it is also single target.

Speaking of Kazin, I did say we have to talk about him, now’s the time.

His sprite seems to be much like the final one, but blue. It is possible there are small differences though, because his staff, not in the final version, seems to use at least three colors besides black and white, when all final weapons in the game use only two. This is because the game loads the character and weapon colors into a single 16 color palette, so to have more colors in one you sacrifice colors of the other. Weapons in the first game did have three colors so this might be a leftover.

Small details for big nerds though, as I said the design is pretty much complete, including details like the bag and the feathers he carries around, which are less generic than I’d expect for a placeholder. Perhaps he already had a tentative design floating around.

More than that, the map sprite seen in all these pictures did make it to the final game. As his sorcerer sprite.

It looks nothing like the sorcerer design, so it’s easy to accept it was designed for something else. Let’s compare with the final mage sprite.

Hair changed to be spiky, but everything else is basically the same, including the green staff which matches his final artwork. It’s likely he had some concept art already around, though it wasn’t officially revealed so perhaps there was some intention of changing it. But it’s noticeable that he shows up in plenty of footage while nothing is seen of Sarah, who is not finalized either. He was at least further in the development.

The color thing is also interesting. Kazin does get to be blue as sorcerer, and also as wizard... in the map, and the game’s cover, a rare case of official illustration of a promotion. In battle however his sprite is brown. That palette, though? Is the last one set for the wizard sprite, even though he should be the first wizard. And the first palette for it? That’s right, blue. In the final version it is used for Chaz, who does have the exact same clothes but is the last wizard in the game. It would not surprise me if there was a swap at some point. And of course it makes sense to not use two blue palettes for the same sprite. The question is, why design the characters with the same colors then? I would love to get an answer.

September 1993

Signs of progress, every picture is this article is from a different build, since character classes now show up in the UI.

Sarah still does not have her map sprite.

Her battle sprite and finished design do finally show up in the next pages though, so they might have just not got to it at the time, even if it feels silly to me as map sprites are simpler, perhaps exactly because of that they weren’t top priority. Either way, it just feels wild to me when compared to how Chester and Jaha and even Kazin seem to have been done.

As for the actual point of the picture, that’s Bowie casting Freeze level 4. Normally I’d chalk this up to debugging shenanigans, as the first game and Gaiden I as well give the heroes extra spells in debug mode, but, that generally also comes with jacked stats including 99 MP. Bowie here is at max unpromoted level but his stats look normal.

For further consideration here’s another screenshot of him at level 4 knowing Egress and Blaze level 1. Everyone’s stats look normal so this looks like his actual intended progression. Also while drafting this post and having it blasted to oblivion because tumblr can’t save properly apparently, I realized this explains a bit of the wackiness when it comes to magic progression in this game. Did you know that the Kraken is weak to ice? Have fun trying to exploit that weakness. In the final game, you go a big stretch of the game without access to Freeze. If you promote Kazin to wizard and don’t pick Tyrin at Creed’s, you’re basically locked out of ice spells for most of the game, until you finally find Chaz. That always struck me as very weird, and I’m realizing now it might be because they might have stuck with magical Bowie here for a good time, and didn’t rebalance things when changing it.

Sarah debuts with a proper sprite for once.

Blue Kazin however remains undeterred. You might also notice his staff is switching colors weirdly during animation. I’ve had this problem on my first hacking attempts of the game due to not setting up proper Mega Drive colors, and it’s amusing me to no end that it happened to the actual devs as well. Though I don’t know that much on how animations are done so the problem might have a different origin as well. Anyway, fun.

We also get to see Kazin’s full spell list, and while mostly the same, he has the Attack spell instead of Desoul, much like Tao was the only wizard to have it in the first game. In the final version, only Frayja learns this spell, making this the only classic Shining Force game where it is a priest spell instead of a mage one, so it doesn’t surprise me at all that Kazin was meant to have it.

It’s also worth noting that in the final game, Kazin is the only character who learns Desoul. Either the spell wasn’t in (the article mentions every other wizard and priest spell except for it), or someone else was meant to learn it, or they hadn’t even planned that far ahead.

We get our first character bios in a long time.

Protagonist - Bowie

A boy who lives in the castle town of Granseal. He used to be a mischievous boy, but nowadays is well behaved (?) and studying hard as Astral’s pupil. He’s friends with Jaha and Chester, and they play together almost every day.

The thief Slade

The self proclaimed great thief of justice. But he’s not much of a bad guy, and shares his stolen treasures with poor people. He seems to main culprit behind the story’s beginning!?

Warrior Jaha

Bowie’s friend, and a hobbit who hates studying the most out of all of Astral’s pupils. Really strong in battle.

The knight Chester

Bowie’s friend, and another pupil of Astral’s, but while he’s a gallant centaur, his one flaw is that he’s not very assertive. He often comes up as just a yes-man to Bowie. Don’t you have friends like that too? Treat him well.

Priest Sarah

An elf girl and also Astral’s pupil. She’s helpful and likes taking care of others, being kind of a big sister to Bowie and the others. Pulling out that sisterly authority at times, she might be kind of annoying?

Sometimes I wonder if Sarah went through some kind of rewrite during development since none of her official descriptions bring up her being the actual mischievous kid who plans to sneak into the castle and is not even apologetic about it, but then I remember that this series is uhhhh, ah, erm, oof, hmmmm, about women, so yeah, I don’t think that’s what’s going on here.

Sage Astral

Currently retired, he has now taken Bowie and the other kids as pupils. He’s also a notable person who knows the king personally. At the story’s beginning, he berates these troublesome kids while also giving them a chance to go on the adventure.

Sheela

A mysterious and beautiful human girl. She used to train under Astral, but left for some reason. While she doesn’t have much relation with the story, we look forward to see just how will she and Bowie meet. She’s quite sexy!!

King Granseal

King of the country of Granseal at the south of Grans Island. Bowie and the others live in its castle town. Because the queen passed away too soon, he dotes a lot on Princess Elis. Ooh.

Princess Granseal

The princess of Granseal, she’s a happy girl loved by the king and her people. We’re quite curious to know how she’ll be connected to the heroes. Maybe in the end she’ll be a party member!?

OOF

Kiwi

A new character appears!

The green turtle Kiwi is the mascot-like character this time. Of course he can take part in battles, but he’s not very strong. But he seems to hide some special talent!? What exactly is still a secret for now. He’s kind of cute, maybe.

-The previous game had Yogurt, of famous sayings (?) like “do you like my helmet” and “I don’t get it”.

After the magazine, we get more Sega footage (starts around the 4:45 mark).

The intro seems pretty much done, except for a Gizmo attacking the king instead of Geshp. And it’s easy to think “oh it’s a placeholder”, but in the final version the king is really possessed by a Gizmo and Geshp doesn’t show up until much later, so I’m not sure? It’s not a very important change at least.

Sarah finally has her final sprite and portrait, so this is a different build. This does mean I can finally go bully the final graphics of this game a bit more.

Sarah’s final priest sprite is not based on her artwork, and is instead just a recolor of the vicar spritesheet, which as I mentioned, is from the placeholder sprite we’ve seen all this time. You can even notice some leftover grey shading that doesn’t quite fit with the blue. Compare it with Blue Kazin’s robes that I’ve posted earlier, which use only the two shades of blue in the palette.

This sprite was a massive rush job, is what I’m saying. A lot of map sprites in this game feel the same, learning how to edit graphics is both a blessing and a curse because you can’t unsee these things.

This footage shows up a lot of final battle sprites not seen until now, especially promotions, like Wolf Baron Gerhalt, Hero Bowie, and so on. I find it hilarious that it also brings up Kiwi when everywhere else they were trying to be coy about Kiwi’s promotion.

The weird thing though, is that the footage ends with the sorcerer spell display from the old builds. Did they not have footage of the final sorcerer graphics? Likely. Let’s bully the final graphics some more.

No fingers! Misplaced weapon! His ass was not designed in a sane and timely fashion!

So yes it is fully possible that the sorcerer sprite was not done even as the game was already like halfway through the door.

The funniest part? In this later build footage we only get a vague glimpse of Kazin.

I’m sorry the screenshot is horrible since it goes by fast, but that’s Blue Kazin.

Of course, most characters in the scene seem to be promoted, even special promotions like Brass Gunner Elric. At the same time May and Slade remain unpromoted. So is this Blue Kazin already repurposed as the sorcerer sprite? Or is the mage sprite still not done?

We might never know the truth, but the fact is that the pre release coverage ends here, and we didn’t get a single glimpse of his final artwork. In a sense he might have been a bigger mess than Sarah.

I have more to write but tumblr has already messed up this draft four to five times and I’m tired, so I’m splitting this into two posts even though i didn’t want it just to see if the problem is post size.

[the-mist-striders]

Episode 3: One Must Die

So we last left off with the party realizing they’re fucked.

I would also like to mention that this is the top floor of the manor. As far as we can tell at a glance this is it. 

Kai does her echo-location thing and finds a secret door in the master bedroom- a spiral staircase down

Congratulations to the party! We found the basement that's supposed to have monsters in it

And it's very... basementy

Spooks part ????/????

Anyway, they find a locked room. Fauna presents a key she found in the study. Unlocks it and there's 2 child sized skeletons on the floor

The clothes matching the kids that led us in here

:)))

So the actual ghosts of the kids materialize and they talk to the party.

They say their mom locked them into the room to keep them safe

They starved to death

#Mother of the year award

Cinderell, being a paladin of the Raven Queen asks where they'd like to be buried. They say they want to be with their mom and dad. The paladin with the help of Lucerian scoop up all the bones and have them in some kind of sack. When this happens the kids possess Cinderell and Lucerian. Lucerian suddenly becomes meek and Cinderell becomes a bit more bossy.

We go into another room and it's full of corpses too

Fauna triggers a trap

A trap in the form of the angry maid’s spirit

Kai runs the fuck away because she not equipped for this shit

Lucerian runs the fuck away too and nearly yeets Kai’s blind ass down the staircase (but I succeeded in a dex save)

So me and Cinderell’s player do hatch a plan while Amahlia and Fauna fight the ghost

I have herbs, Cinderell is a paladin, and a match to burn the herbs. Cinderell does some chanting, takes by herbs, hauls ass to the box filled with the maids bones, and yeets the herbs inside. Setting the box on fire

While this happens the maid is balls deep into Amahlia

By this I mean the maid is fondling her guts

And is on her death saves

Amahlia is dying

Kai steps up and fucking book's it across the room towards the distracted wraith and wacks it so hard from behind that it finishes it off

Kai uses a healing spell and saves Amahlia's ass

Please no one notice how I keep changing how certain names are spelled, I can only edit this so much.

They rest, they level up and heal, tiem for the next floor below

They find absolute darkness. No longer do their surroundings resemble a home, it's a dungeon. A crypt

Kai hears distant chanting

Can't pinpoint what they're saying

When she mentions this the rest of the party hears it

#this is fine

The kids nudge the paladins towards the mothers burial crypt. They leave the bones there, releasing their spirits. They also fetch the fathers corpse from the noose and place him in his grave.

They press on, Amahlia is the only human and thus can't see

Must be rough

Lucerian is holding Amahlia's torch, he nearly lights up a room with it before Kai stops him

In the process revealing her telepathic nature by speaking directly into his mind

You see, she can hear something in that room

Its big and has many legs

And it was the quietest way to stop him

She reveals that this whole time she could read their minds

Fauna is embarrassed because she sings the theme song of my little pony internally every time she's spooked

Please no one question where she could have heard the my little pony theme song we are in a dungeon ffs.

Fauna also discovers she can talk to animals (because she leveled up as a druid)

Turns out the dog has an Aussie accent.

Who knew

Btw this is what the dog looks like

3B, The bat in her hair is also constantly panicking because he has no idea what's going on at any given moment. Also 3B has a jersey accent. 

Kai, using herself as a radio of sorts we navigate deeper, passing messages around telepathically and listening for enemies

I knew a blind telepath would make a useful party member

However, they do get jumped by 3 ghouls

Because I failed my rolls for Kai to see it coming

They manage to avoid most traps/encounters using Kai's senses, but sometimes my dice will be like "fuck you. have a low #"

Amalia dashes ahead to smash some ghouls

Now mind you the halls are narrow

Amalia only gets past Kai because she flattened against a wall to make room

Should I mention Kai uses a crossbow and how nobody questioned ever why a blind woman is using a crossbow

(She uses other people's eyes ( and her own senses at times) to aim)

So uh

Lucerian can't hit any of the ghouls because Amalia is in the way

So he has a bright idea

To fucking try jumping over her

Amahlia is an average height adult woman and he's slightly taller and covered in heavy armor

As decided by a series of rolls between Amahlia and Lucerian - here's how that went

They fucked it up

Lucerian knocks Amahlia down, sending them both to a dog pile on the ground

Cinderell has an idea too! Basically he wants to go up and around in attempt to flank the ghouls

Says "I got this!" Takes off into the dark hall

Next the party hears is a loud bang as Cinderell steps on a floor trap with spikes below

Cinderell passes the dex save, grabs the ledge and pulls themselves up

#ideal party moment

Oh but what's this?

The party is making a lot of noise

A giant caterpillar/worm like thing emerges from the hallway that Kai heard it crawling around in

It has fangs and tentacles

And craves our meat

And its Kai whose first on the menu

Oh, and fauna turned into a cat, got past everyone and joined the fight. She left 3B and the dog behind to keep the animals out of danger.

They did pass a check to detect the worms arrival and to be smart enough to run away

#the dog is ok

So I won't sugar coat. Kai gets her ass beat

It's fukin rough. It uses poison damage that paralyzes

So Kai wasn't able to do much even when I could pass a constitution save

Cinderell makes his way to the back finally

The woerm is chewing on Kai’s head

Kai accepts this as her cue, turns into a rat and makes a dash

Cinderell smashes it with their battleaxe

Its dead bitches

Kai heals her own ass

The ghouls are dead

They managed to survive

...for now

They find a statue of a dude and a colorful glowing orb

Fauna needs to be held back so that she doesn't grab it

There are strange shadows in this room and we can feel eyes on us ... watching

Oh and there's skeletons chained to the wall... they sure do know how to decorate

They find a door

Cinderell and Kai don't trust nothing

Kai detects magic on the door. Cinderell shoots it activating a trap that would eat you if you tried to open it

Totally normal stuff

Everyone in the party is just like "fuck this house"

Amahlia looks down and the tarot card is back

She rips it and moves on

They find a room with a chest of magical shit that Kai can see with borrowed eyeballs + detect magic

But bro

We didn't even touch anything

Cinderell just

Looked at a painting

And out comes a ghoul like thing

I don't think it was a ghoul, something stronger smarter and maybe harder to kill

Not sure

Because that thing was fucking ganged up on on sight

The party was #done and out for blood

Little bitch died

Oh and the reason we didn't know it was there was because I failed 3 perception checks in a fucking row

Which btw Kai is now toph'ing it up and going barefoot because I'll be damned we get jumped by another ghoul popping out of the ground

No one can smell her boot feet because the air is already putrid from all the ghouls and that woerms insides 

In true spirit of #fuck this house we didn't bother with the rest of the floor. They went down the stairs that Cinderell found when he tried to flank the ghouls

When they reached the lower floor they could now understand the chanting they heard on the floor above

"Strahd is ancient, he is the land"

to which the squad starts roasting the chanting. Kai personally did it by saying "I fucking get it! Strahd is old and strahd is dirt! Who cares!"

"strahd is older than dirt'- Amahlia I think, idk

We find a room full of alters with different things on a pedestal

Random shit like clotted blood in a glass, a dried patch of skin, dragon tooth wrapped in wire, a lock of hair, shit like that

What's funny is this setup is for a ritual that isn't a thing. It does nothing

Cringe blood cult with their fail ritual

2 different doors ahead. Kai checks both, one is a flooded room, the other another series of hallways. They start with the later and find yet more skeletons chained to the wall

#im kink shaming at this point

Kai finds a secret passageway that leads to the flooded room but this entrance opened up to where there were platforms

I have Kai put her finger tips in the murky sewage water so she can feel for movement- something brushes against her fingers, causing her to jolt back, Last minute she sees red eyes in the water.

Amalhia has a galaxy brain moment and throws her javelin into the water

To ""kill the water""

She goes in the water to get it back. All the splashing keeps Kai from figuring out what the fuck is in the water

At the center of the flooded part of the room is a platform with an alter, to the right in the water is a stack of bones

Fauna just goes for the altar by wading in the water

Kai is paranoid, won't go in

Cinderell offers to carry her

Kai almost accepts

But for reasons unbeknownst to Cinderell she pauses, then turns and just leaps into the water while screaming “It’s not personal!!”

They all get to the platform

The whole squad smells like sewage now

#squadgoals

With all of them on the center platform a bunch of hooded figures with no face except for red eyes manifest everywhere in the room

There's a knife on the altar

Now the chanting changes to something else

As hooded entities manifest in the room

"One must die"

#ohno

So I, as Kai’s player was launching into "how can I twist the wording here" mode

Or "is there like... a bug somewhere we can kill?" Or "can we sacrifice a ghoul?"

Dm is evil and won't tell

Lucerian thinks out loud "they need one of us to die... and we have a dog"

At the same time Amahlia has a galaxy brained idea to write a '1' on a piece of paper. The dms are shocked that Amahlia is actually literate

They let her make the attempt

Kai lends her some paper, she writes "1" on a piece of paper, takes the knife and stabs it

The paper erupts into black inky smoke

"Yes! I did it!"

The smoke clears

Revealing the fucking tarot card

Cinderell goes looking into the stack of bones

Hoping to find rats or something

No luck even with a nat20

Kai is having an existential crisis on what it means to die as she contemplates sacrificial alternatives

Cinderell has their galaxy brain moment

The chanting is speeding up

They’re being timed

He gathers bones from the stack and assembles a skeleton

Rolls for deception to see if maybe he can trick the spectators

As he pretends to sacrifice himself and use the skeleton for a body

Lucerian stops him because he knows it won't work (via a nat20 on insight) 

That's when Lucerian gets out a dagger and attempts to commit suicide

Chaos happens

Cinderell is attempting to grapple the knife away

Fauna the ray of sunshine is having a crisis as she watches her brother attempt to sacrifice himself

I enjoy how literally no one even entertained sacrificing the dog

Lucerian stabs himself on the neck

#ohshit.jpg

The chanting is loud and so much faster than before

Time is running out

Do we save Lucerian?

And if we do ... what then? Who will die instead? 

Fauna sets 3B and the dog down on the floor. Says "take care of each other" before attempting her own suicide because she can't live without her brother

This sets Amalia into action. Since she seems to have a crush on fauna

Amalia dashes over and force feeds him a healing potion

In all the chaos we don't see Cinderell step aside, take his chest armor off, grab the sacrificial dagger, and stab himself in the heart right over the alter

He uses one of his weapons to command we stay back and let him die

With a nat 20 intimidation

The party is probably pissing themselves

He dies so that the rest can leave

Something inside the stack of bones emerges, vaguely human in shape... but not quite right It goes to Cinderell’s corpse and devours him

#traumatic.jpg

But hey at least they can leave this house right?

They go back where they came

And find the staircase to the basement blocked off

Fuck-this-house.com/fuck 

Fauna is somewhere murdering a door

Lucerian trying to calm her

Amalia too

tfw the barbarian is telling you to chill

Kai finds an exit in the hallway the woerm was in

It's a ladder to the very first floor you enter on

They did it. They escaped.

The party then in an act of friendly bonding set the house on fire.

The smoke trail marking the end of the Death house arc.

There's a basket of fine whine and cheese on the road where the children once stood. Inside the basket is a note that says

“Welcome to Barovia :)”

[<< Previous]

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[Episode Directory]

[angelicamerlinbarnes]

Seven times someone spoke to a Marauder alone in a portrait and one person who spoke to them all together

In a world where all the Marauders died in the first war, their souls are preserved in portraits in Hogwarts. Their stories are legend if a bit tweaked, and their names are famous if a bit forgettable. But they were painted individually, and housed all over the castle, separated for all eternity from each other.

(Also, there are seven Marauders because Lily, Severus, and Regulus. Fight me.)

(FOR CONTEXT: Regulus married a Muggle named Amir and had a daughter with him named Hailee. Regulus and Sirius never fell out and Regulus calls Remus “Mum” because reasons. Sirius and Remus married and died without children and James and Lily had Harry with their partner, Severus. Peter had a nonbinary partner named Max, but they died in the war.)

ONE: Regulus Black (Room of Requirement) & Draco Malfoy [Second Year - Youth (Daughter)]

Draco is coming back from Quidditch practice after calling Hermione a Mudblood. He’s walking alone down a hallway empty of doors when one suddenly materializes in front of him. He walks inside, too curious not to, and finds a room with two chairs in front of a crackling fire.

Over the fire hangs a portrait of a young man with pale skin, ebony hair, and striking grey eyes. Draco sits down in one of the chairs and picks up the cup of hot cocoa from the coffee table, looking up at the portrait, which has now started moving.

“Who are you?” He asks, and the portrait shoots him a grim look.

“My name is Regulus Black. Do you know who I am?”

Draco shakes his head. Regulus hums, tugging at something around his wrist.

“I’m a Death Eater who defied Voldemort,” he says, pulling his sleeves up to reveal a blank wrist. “They didn’t paint me with that wretched Mark, thank Merlin.”

Draco puts his cocoa down, nervous, and finds his eyes darting around the room for a door.

“How do I get out of here?” He asks with all the politeness he can muster, and Regulus offers him a wry smile.

“Right through that door,” he says gently, pointing to the door now etching itself out of the wall. “But please remember, Draco - you make your own choices in life. You decide who you are. Not a House, not a name, not a Mark. You. Do not forget that like I did.”

Draco nods, backing towards the door.

“But you defected,” he says, feeling small. Regulus smiles sadly, his eyes cutting.

“Yes, I did. And I paid for it with my life. And the life of my partner, and my daughter, and my brother and my mum and my best friends. I paid, Draco. I’m still paying.”

Draco has his hand on the door knob. “Huh,” he says, and opens the door when Regulus adds, “Oh, and Draco, dear? Don’t call people Mudbloods. There’s no such thing. And it’s rude.”

Draco nods frantically and closes the door so hard he lands flat on his ass in the hallway, watching the door seal itself and fade back into stone.

TWO: James Potter (Gryffindor Quidditch “Hall” of Fame, Gryffindor Common Room) & Seamus Finnigan [Fourth Year - Never Not (Lauv)]

Seamus finds himself alone in the Gryffindor common room one Wednesday morning, pretending to be sick with a cold. He’s wrapped in a blanket and staring into the empty fireplace when he hears, “YO! KID!”

Startled, he falls off the couch, and stumbles up and over to the Quidditch trophy case in the corner. There, in a small frame, is the smiling face of a boy who looks just like Harry, except without the mark, with dark eyes, and happier. Seamus reads the plaque, James Potter, and smiles sadly, wondering if Harry has ever talked to this portrait before.

James, meanwhile, barrels forward, “You’re the one in love with that lanky black kid, right?” Seamus’ eyes snap up as he sputters, but James just grins. “Cool. I thought so. Can I give you some advice…?”

“Seamus.”

“Can I give you some advice, Seamus?”

Seamus, now bright red, says, “Um, sure?”

James’ eyes twinkle and he says, “Tell him.”

Seamus starts coughing, beating his chest as James laughs and he protests, “No! No, I can’t just tell my best friend I’m in love with him!”

James shrugs. “You can,” he says. “You wanna know a secret?” He leans in just a bit. “My best friends fell in love.”

Seamus startles. “What?” He breathes, and James grins.

“Yeah. Sirius Potter and Remus Lupin. Wasted six bloody years apart before finally giving in and admitting it. They’re the most in love people I’ve ever met.” His brow wrinkles. “Well, except Sev and Lily and me.” It wrinkles further. “Nah, I gotta give ‘em this one.”

Seamus gapes in shock for a moment before blurting, “That werewolf and the Black runaway were in love?! And you - fuck, you were with Severus Snape???” James stares at him for a moment before blinking and then bursting into laughter.

When he finally calms down, he looks back up at Seamus’ flushed face and says, “Sirius is a Potter and a Lupin, not a Black. And he and Remy loved each other more than anything. And yeah, Sev and Lily and I had some real fun times.” He tilts his head in consideration and says, “Actually, now that I think about it, some of those happened right on that couch over there. It’s weird they haven’t gotten a new one, huh?”

Seamus sputters for a third and final time and skitters away with a tomato-red face as James shouts after him, “TELL HIM, KID! SHOVE HIM AGAINST A WALL AND SNOG HIM SENSELESS!”

(Seamus, later, to Harry: “Your dad is fucking wack, bro.”)

THREE: Lily Evans (Library, Restricted Section) & Cedric Diggory [Fourth Year - Someone To You (BANNERS), Good Old Days (Kesha, Macklemore)]

Cedric sneaks into the Restricted Section to hide from all the pressure of the tournament. One night he’s thumbing through the books in his boredom when he finds an unframed portrait of a smiling redhead. As soon as he lifts her out of the book, titled The Marauders: A Complete History of Unfiltered Pranks (by Minerva Mcgonogall for Minerva Mcgonogall, signed by Regulus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Severus Snape, James Potter, Remus Lupin, Sirius Lupin (Love you Minnie!), and Lily Evans), the portrait pipes up, “Hi! I’m Lily!”

Cedric nearly drops the book in shock, but manages to catch it at the last second, mustering up a smile for the grinning portrait and introducing himself. She beams and glances at the book in his hand, her smile turning mischievous. “That’s a good one. We did get up to a lot, didn’t we?”

Speechless, he nods, not really processing that she’s just admitted to being Lily Evans, and her eyes dull with sadness at the sight of one of the injuries on his collarbone from the most recent challenge.

“Where’d you get that?” She asks, and he explains the tournament. She hums, and finally murmurs, “I heard them say my son is in that. Is that true?”

Mouth dry, Cedric nods, and Lily looks up at him again with glassy eyes and rasps, “Can you tell him I love him? That I’m proud of him and so are his fathers? Can you tell him that for me?”

Cedric nods again, hearing a creak and turning his head towards the noise when Lily whispers, “Go. Go, Cedric, before you get caught. Be brave, honey.” Cedric shoves the portrait back into the book and the book back onto the shelf with a muttered goodbye before sprinting away, Lily’s words echoing in his ears like a dying child’s scream.

FOUR: Sirius Black (Mcgonogall’s Office) & Ginny Weasley [Fifth Year - Alone (Bazzi)]

Ginny is sitting in Mcgonogall’s office, waiting for her professor to come and scold her for punching Zabini (he touched Luna’s ass, what was she supposed to do? Ask him to kindly stick his nose up where the sun don’t shine? She’d still be here, and he’d still be snickering like the slimy motherfucker he is in that dungeon cell he calls his bedroom). She hears a cough from somewhere on Mcgonogall’s desk and straightens up, ducking her head to peek around when she hears, “Pssst. Over here.”

She looks over and sees a framed picture of Sirius Black, grinning as if he’d never died. She swallows down her tears and nods her head in a polite hello. Sirius’ smile saddens as he says, “I hear you’re dating my godson.”

Ginny blushes, but nods, and for a moment, Sirius looks like he’s about to cry. “Why are you here, Ginny?” He asks softly, and she shrugs.

“Punched a Slytherin who touched my friend’s ass.”

Sirius grins at that, nodding his head in respect. “Good girl. You ever think about why that is?”

Ginny’s brow furrows and she opens her mouth to ask what he means when she sees his eyes wandering to a sketch of a wolf howling at the moon on Mcgonogall’s far wall, with the note For you, Minnie. Moony didn’t want it. Love, Sirius.

“I fell in love with a boy once,” Sirius murmurs. “My best friend. Remus Lupin. And he loved me back.”

I know, Ginny wants to say. You two were married and gave baby Harry joint Christmas presents and danced in the kitchen when you thought no one else was still awake. I’ve heard the stories, I’ve seen the pictures. I know. But instead she stays quiet, listening as Sirius tells his story.

“But instead of admitting that, I dated Marlene McKinnon for three years. Sold my gay ass out to a lesbian whore because I was too afraid to tell him how I felt about him.” Ginny has a lot of questions about the “lesbian whore” part - “I mean, she was a friend of mine, but I never wanted to kiss her, or sleep with her, but I did anyway. And he looked so fucking sad all the time. But he didn’t say anything. He didn’t wanna ruin my happiness. I didn’t know how to tell him that he was my happiness. By the time I figured it out, it was too late.”

Ginny swallows, finally speaking up, “Why are you telling me this?” Sirius finally tears his eyes away from the picture of the wolf and the moon and gives her a bitter smile.

“Because I’m dead and my husband and I spent a mere three years together in all of the ten we knew each other. What kind of bullshit is that?”

Ginny shrugs. “Some bullshit,” she answers, and laughs uncomfortably.

Sirius laughs too, then sighs. He looks deep into her eyes and says, “I love my godson. You make sure he knows that. But I also love my husband. And I spent too damn long running from that. So let me save you a bit of trouble, Ginny - the greatest love is often the scariest.”

Ginny purses her lips. “What are you saying?” She says slowly, and Sirius smiles sadly as Mcgonogall’s heels come clicking down the hall.

“I’m saying maybe you shouldn’t waste your time on Harry when both your and his hearts lie elsewhere.”

Ginny blushes, looking down at the homemade bracelet Luna made her three summers ago, and at the sound of the door opening, she looks back up at a frozen Sirius, whose eyes are caught on Mcgonogall, somehow still twinkling.

FIVE: Peter Pettigrew (Outside Gryffindor Dorms) & Ron Weasley [Fifth Year - lovely (Billie Eilish, Khalid)]

Ron is sulking on the stairs outside the Gryffindor common room after a particularly bad Quidditch loss. He wishes he were with Hermione and Harry, but they were already tangled together when he came upstairs and he didn’t want to intrude, even though they invited him to.

He knows they’re all best friends, he just feels so much like the third wheel sometimes. So he’s sulking when he hears a soft, “Hey.”

He looks up in surprise and sees a portrait of Peter Pettigrew, and he immediately steels his eyes, backing away. Seeing this, Peter shouts, “Wait, no! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I know! I just - I didn’t actually betray them, you know? Okay, well, I did, but - but I fixed it! They forgave me! I promise I’m not evil, I’m not, Ron -”

“How do you know my name?” Ron blurts, and Peter jumps back in his frame, startled, then smiles softly.

“They say it,” he answers. “Harry, and that girl you’re always with. They say your name all the time.”

Ron blushes. “Oh,” he says, ducking his head with a smile. When he looks back up into Peter’s sad eyes, he says, “We lost today. Quidditch.”

Peter cocks his head. “To who?”

Ron shrugs, looking down at his lap and fidgeting with his fingers over his knees. “Slytherin. Never lost against Slytherin before.”

Peter shrugs. “James and Sirius did. All the time.”

Ron looks up. “Really?” Peter smiles softly.

“Yeah. Mostly because they wanted Severus and Regulus to feel good, but. Yeah, they lost to Slytherin all the damn time.”

Ron’s smile fades. “Severus? Like, Snape? The Death Eater?”

Peter winces, then shrugs. “The Order spy. But, yeah.”

Ron blinks in shock. “They were friends? Even after Lily?”

Peter’s brow furrows in confusion, but he answers anyway, “Yes? They were dating. Them and Lily. Sent the whole school up in flames.”

Ron’s jaw drops open. “You can do that?”

Peter shrugs. “Yeah, ‘course you can. You can date Harry and that girl if you want. No one’s stopping you.”

Ron flushes, looking down in shame.

“They don’t want me,” he mumbles. “Not the way they want each other.”

Peter hums. “Severus said that too. So did James. They were both idiots.” Looking up at Ron’s glistening eyes and pouting lips, he smiles.

“Just because you’re not the smartest or the strongest or the funniest or the best at anything in particular doesn’t mean you’re not important, or that people don’t care about you.”

Ron nods, slowly. He stands and heads back inside without another word, pretending he doesn’t hear Peter sigh and say, “You’re welcome,” bitterly as he mumbles the password to the Fat Lady and slips back through the crack in the door.

SIX: Severus Snape (Headmaster’s Office) & Hermione Granger [Sixth Year - Ophelia (The Lumineers), O Children (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds)]

Hermione is visiting Dumbledore’s office for her Prefect badge and an overview of the position while Ron and Harry are brooding in their room. The three of them have become far closer than normal lately, and she’s almost glad to be away for a moment, as they’ve always been more honest with each other when she isn’t around. She can’t decide if that bothers her or not.

She’s waiting for Dumbledore to get there when she hears, “Miss Granger, correct?” in a slow, molasses drawl.

She looks up at the portrait labelled Severus Snape and answers the boy in the Slytherin tie, “Yes. Hello, Mr. Snape.”

Severus grins slowly, a cat-like expression of amusement and carefully calculated arrogance. “Smart one, aren’t you?” He asks, and she nods. He clicks his tongue. “Should’ve been in Ravenclaw.”

She flushes and opens her mouth to retort when the Sorting Hat starts shouting about insecure fuckwads who don’t know their place and Severus starts screaming back about it not doing its fucking job right until finally Hermione screams, “STOP!”

The hat grumbles off to sleep again while she stares a shocked Severus down, her shaking hands curled in fists as she says, “Please don’t shout at it. It’s tired.”

Severus raises an eyebrow, but huffs and turns away. She sees his blank arm as he turns his back to her and feels her heart break open with pity.

“You’re Harry’s father, right?” She asks softly, and his head whips towards her in shock. She offers a sad smile and explains, “Lily and James. There are no records, of course, but…”

“You’re Mcgonogall’s favorite,” Severus finishes, smiling wryly. “Yes. I am one of Harry’s fathers.”

Hermione nods, looking down at her books, and swallows before looking back up again to say, “He really loves you.”

Severus rears back in shock, his eyes searching her for lies as she tears up. “He really does. You may not know it, and he doesn’t speak of it, but - but I can tell. He misses you.”

Severus’ eyes turn dull and glassy and he turns away, hiding his face with his long shaggy hair. Hermione swallows down her tears, smiling again. “Yes, well -”

“I love him too,” Severus interrupts, voice soft. “I miss him too. We all do. Tell… tell him that, would you?”

Hermione blinks, then nods.

“Of course,” she says, ducking her head as the staircase starts to rumble. “I’ll take good care of him, sir.”

Severus smiles that sad wry smile again and stills just as Dumbledore steps through the door, but Hermione hears his silence echo in her ears.

Thank you.

SEVEN: Remus Lupin (Defense Against the Dark Arts Classroom) & Luna Lovegood [Seventh Year - Dynasty (MIIA), Towards The Sun (Rihanna)]

As the war comes closer and closer to Hogwarts, the students there grow more and more anxious. Luna herself takes refuge in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, where only Harry and Ginny know to find her. But with Harry on the run with Ron and Hermione and Ginny trying to hold down the fort with Seamus and Dean, Luna often finds herself alone.

One day she decides to make her way up onto the balcony over the classroom that leads to the office, and she reaches for the knob on the office door when she hears, “Don’t go in there, Miss Lovegood.”

She looks over at the portrait who’s spoken, dubbed Remus Lupin, and smiles. He smiles kindly back and asks, “What are you even looking for?”

Luna shrugs. “Some way to help, I guess.”

Remus smiles wryly and nods, glancing down at the wedding ring adorning his finger. His smile softens for a moment before he says, “Sometimes, Miss Lovegood, the best way to win a war is by treating others with kindness.”

Luna tilts her head to the side. “Like, with hugs and smiles?” She asks, and Remus smiles, biting his lip and nodding. His eyes are glassy, but she pretends not to notice.

“Yes, my dear, with hugs and smiles. Support each other. Take no conversation for granted. Merlin knows the only thing that comforted me in the first war was the constant reminders that I still had my family. That they were fighting with me, and that I was fighting for them.”

Luna nods sagely and looks down at the bracelets littering her wrists, each one made for a different person in her life: Ginny, her girlfriend; Harry, her partner; Neville, her best friend; Draco and Ron and Hermione, her friends. She asks, “What comforted you when you died? I know… I know it wasn’t fast. Or painless.”

Remus smiles, his eyes shining with kindness and hope despite the exhausted bruises beneath them and the scars across his face.

“I wasn’t alone,” he answers, his voice soft. “I died by Sirius’ side. I was holding his hand when I saw the light. And in the light there were silhouettes - James, Peter, Lily, Severus, Regulus. They were waiting for us. And I knew we would be okay.”

Luna nods. She twists a ring on her finger and says, “Thank you, Mr. Lupin. I’d best be going now.”

Remus nods as she begins to descend the steps, his voice ringing out one last time, “Good luck, Luna. I hope to Merlin your victory will be more permanent than ours.”

Luna twirls around, cocking her head as she asks, “You think we’ll win?” Remus smiles.

He nods, his eyes twinkling, and says, “Someone has to. Why not you?”

ONE: All Together Again (Grimmauld Place, Harry & Ron & Hermione’s Bedroom)  & Harry Potter [After Graduation of Eighth Year - Daylight (Taylor Swift)]

Following the end of the war, Harry moves into Grimmauld Place, left to him by the godfather he never knew. He takes Hermione and Ron with him, the three of them having been in a committed relationship since sometime when they were on the run and following an unspoken agreement that they will follow each other anywhere.

Luna lives nearby with Ginny, in an apartment by Draco’s little cottage and Neville’s tiny hovel. The three of them live quietly, though their friends visit often. Harry feels better, happier, though the hole left by his missing family is still there.

One day, as he’s putting up pictures of him and his partners around their shared bedroom, he hears, “Harry?”

He looks up, and there, on the opposite wall, is a picture of the seven Marauders, all young and staring at him in shock. Harry tears up and rushes over, taking the picture delicately in his hands and smiling as he rakes his eyes over his lost family. They all grin back, and Harry reads the inscription on the frame: My dear Marauders, You have been my pride and joy for seven long short years. I know you will all do great things; I cannot wait to see what you accomplish. You are, and have always been, my favorite students. All my love, Minnie.

Harry covers his mouth, emotional, until finally James asks, “Are you happy?”

Harry looks at Remus and Sirius, their fingers intertwined and their eyes sparkling. He looks at Regulus and Peter, their arms around each other’s shoulders as they grin. He looks at Severus and Lily and James, his three wonderful parents. And he looks down at the two wedding rings on the chain around his own neck, bearing the initials R.W. and H.G.. And he nods.

“Yeah,” he answers, grinning. “Yeah, I’m really fucking happy.”

[rickriordanfandam]

opinions on riordanverse ; my edition

a lot of people have been doing this so i decided why not right. probably gna lose some followers or smth but anyways. pls respect my opinions! if u disagree, thats fine, but please be polite. unless any of my opinions strikes u as morally wrong then pls point it out to me respectfully. thanks!

- i actually liked drew. im so sorry to everyone who hates her but full offence, why. think about it this way ok, first of all drew became hc because silena died. silena was the traitor, the one who betrayed chb, yet after she died campers celebrated her as a hero? and then drew suddenly has to replace her and live up to idk that legacy she left behind,, when all of a sudden this girl named piper swoops in and takes her place. idk abt u but i wld be salty abt that too. not only that, but as an asian, the chances of drew having faced racism/bullying as a child is pretty high (she studies at brooklyn academy). which means that when she finds out shes a demigod, and arrives at chb where most of the campers are white (this is an assumption btw), she’d obviously be scared of being bullied for her skin color right?? so the first thing she wld do before the campers get to bully her is to bully them before they can do so. (sentence structure here is wack i apologize) ofc this might not even have happened, drew could have had a perfect childhood && was a b1tch for no reason, BUT EVEN THEN HER ROLE AS A BULLY WAS PRETTY VITAL BECAUSE THAT FURTHER SHOWED THE CONTRAST BETWEEN HER AND PIPER,, HIGHLIGHTING PIPER AS A HERO//GOOD CHARACTER,, AND THEREFORE MAKING READERS LIKE PIPER MORE. anyway stop hating on drew please. ALSO WHY IS THIS SO LONGA SDFJHG

- jason isnt bland, the fandom just kinda erased his backstory (thanks to @pjohoo-memes for the phrasing lol)

- reynabeth wouldnt have lasted/would have broken up several times. idk i just see them as two extremely powerful characters who have firm opinions and will definitely clash at some point. in a platonic relationship,, i can see them as really good friends but as lovers? idk i just think theyll break up

- PIPABETH

- i dont really like jercy,, i see them as better friends than lovers. also idt jason and percy were that close..?

- the dam and not my type jokes are srsly cringey and were never funny. ik that seems hypocritical since my username literally makes use of the dam joke but honestly i dont actually like the joke. its not funny to me and has never been funny

- the seven were not best friends. they definitely argued,, and honestly probably werent as close as the fandom makes them seem. like ure dumped with 6 other people, out of which u only know a few. my introverted ass would have jumped off the argo 2 quicker than leo valdez could bomb camp jupiter up. also leo was a dick to frank. so what if frank is bigger sized?? thats not a valid reason to tease him

- the fandom needs to stop hating on octavian while worshipping luke. if u hate luke and u say u hate octavian too, then okay. but if u tell me ure a luke stan but u despise octavian?? imma disagree w u. luke was worse than octavian im sorry. first of all, octavian being a dick was kinda justified. hes been after the praetor position for so long, and everyone keeps saying to “wait for jason” when suddenly this dude, whos a son of NEPTUNE (neptune wasnt liked much by romans), and the camp decides to make him praetor?? dude i would be pissed off big time. and then afterwards, he finds out that greek demigods are real and the dude they made praetor is greek. AND THEN GREEK DEMIGODS COME TO CJ AND ONE OF THEM BOMB IT UP?? octavian has been told all his life that greeks are scum and this dude called leo valdez attacks cj. sure it was an accident, but did octavian know that? no. so it was honestly justified that he was such a salty prick im just saying. also some of yall be hating on octavian for cutting a teddy bear open and thats the funniest shit ive ever heard i swear 

- luke didnt go to elysium

- travis and connor stoll r way too underrated. the two have been head counselors of the hermes cabin since luke was revealed as a traitor, can u imagine the stress? luke, the person they probably looked up to as a brother, betrayed them. and they didnt even have time to process this when they were  thrown the roles of being hcs. that would have been so stressful and i would probably have broken down if i were them. the stoll brothers taking turns to wake up at ungodly hours because a new camper is crying and homesick and terrified, the stoll brothers having to comfort and take care of new campers, having to deal with the amount of people in that cramped space because not enough campers are being claimed fast enough. having to resolve issues between campers in the hermes cabin all the time. the stolls arent just comedic relief, and we need to stop treating them as such

- tratie shldve been canon idc idc

- demigods of the demeter cabin arent talked about enough and i love the fact that meg was demeters kid. like she isnt the child of one of the big three yet shes so powerful.

- we need to hype clarisse up more her character arc was phucking amazing 

- rachel is overhated. sis found out greek gods exist and regularly come down to earth to fuck around and went “ok cool”. queen shit behavior methinks

- the floor 19 crew of mcga is srsly underrated. like do u even remember halfborn gunderson, mallory keen, tj, etc??? bc i feel like we only remember samirah, magnus, alex, and sometimes blitz and hearthstone

- sadie (tkc) was kinda annoying at first. i like her more now tho but i rmb not liking her for a phat while

- tkc and mcga need more love

- carter kane and jason grace arent boring. theyre just really sweet boys who are too good for this world and yes yes yes 

- hazel and frank (especially frank) need to be hyped up more. i hardly ever see anything about them. also yall seem to forget that frank was literally made praetor and that even hecate admired hazel and was willing to fight beside her because of how powerful she was

- frazels age gap is kinda sketch but i still think theyre really cute

- nico definitely had trauma from going to tartarus on his own

- GROVER IS PERCYS BEST FRIEND

- annabeth isnt smarter than leo but neither is leo smarter than annabeth. ive seen a lot of discussions about who is smarter and heres my hot take on it: neither. theyre equally smart, just in different ways. leos a genius mathematically speaking. he has no issues solving math problems meant for people much, much older than him. annabeth on the otherhand, is great at strategies etc. she can make an army of 1000 more powerful than the enemy, even if theyre outnumbered. so in my opinion, both are equally as smart//u cant compare their intelligence, because their talents lie in two different areas.

- while i do agree rick riordan isnt a god and that hes bound to make mistakes,, AND that hes given us a lot of representation,, if the representation offends the people its sposed to represent, then theres a problem. im talking about piper as a poc and wearing feathers in her hair. im not a poc, so i cant speak for them on whether or not its wrong, because i dont know either. HOWEVER, i have seen multiple posts BY pocs talking about how they didnt really like rick’s representation of piper, and thats an issue. pocs have been and are still oppressed and discriminated against by many. as a white cis man, we cant really blame him for not knowing (tho he could have done a research,, asked some pocs,, idk), but by representing pocs in that manner, hes influencing impressionable kids/teens into thinking “oh pocs wear feathers in their hair all the time” etc, which isnt true. the pjo/hoo series is extremely successful, and kids who read the books will probably start forming inaccurate opinions on pocs. the amount of fan art that depicts piper with feathers in her hair dont help either. “but rick said so in the books, so its canon” yeah well rick isnt a god and he can get some things wrong at times. im not saying we should cancel him, im saying we should start educating ourselves and not spread false info like pocs wearing feathers in their hair all the time. also that snake song shit where she sang Summertime was just- yeah. bc heres the thing you can be racist, and still include minorities, but portray them in a racist way. And even then, ignorance isn't a thing to admire. Getting those facts wrong still has a major impact. It continues to perpetuate racist stereotypes.

“ With the feather thing, I looked it up myself; it takes less than five minutes to figure out that Cherokees don't braid feathers into their hair. I didn't grow up in the country where my parents are from. I have many other first/second generation American friends who have also been through that, with a bit of a disconnect from their culture. But something that most of us have in common is that when we didn't know something, and when our parents weren't that big of a help, we looked it up. We sought out resources online and through other people from our culture to be able to connect more with where we came from. Some of that took a Google search. So I find it hard to believe that Piper, a girl who Rick's trying to portray as someone who is attempting to connect with her culture and is totally against racist stereotypes, wouldn't know that eagle feathers aren't supposed to be braided into your hair casually. She may be disconnected from her culture, but she's also shown to want to connect back to it. Piper wouldn't be casually braiding feathers into her hair while also telling off people for being racist. It makes no sense.” - reddit thread (down below) 

for those of yall who wanna know more please please read this, it has a lot of things i wanna add in here : https://www.reddit.com/r/camphalfblood/comments/gy3gl2/piper_mcleans_portrayal_is_innacurate/ 

as well as https://finding-my-culture.tumblr.com/post/189422373260/maxie-ratties-and-cattie-finding-my-culture 

i will be posting screenshots of these in future posts so if ure viewing this on ig and u dont have tumblr,, dont worry 

- the fact that most of the strong female characters in the series refuse to be “girly”, and ngl i dont really like that. just because ure girly doesnt mean u cant be strong. 

- piper would have been a great way for him to start making the strong characters act girlier, but instead he went with the “I’m not like other girls” trope which is quite obnoxious to hear constantly, and I don’t think it’s necessarily great for younger girls to read that idea growing up.  the closest we've ever had to a strong female character who was also into "girly" things was Silena. when I was younger I admired Piper's "I'm not like other girls" thing, but then I got older and realized that the whole mentality of "not like other girls" is super obnoxious, and a little bit toxic

i have a heck load more that i cant rmb rn but yeah feel free to add more 

[thenixkat]

Actually, yeah the Animorphs did start shit with David (even b4 Jake threatened David in private b4 he turned against them) like

I was looking at my notes for book 20 and 

-Marco kept ignoring his very blatant “I don’t want to interact with you, go away” signals (also came to the conclusion that David could likely outrun Marco’s short ass so using him as a diversion if the deal to sell the morphing cube went bad is a better plan the half of what the Animorphs come up with on the regular)

- Marco and Rachel broke his window, harassed and likely would have hurt or killed his pets (his pets that we know he cares deeply about), and Rachel attacked him wich is shit he could put 2 and 2 together after the morphing thing is revealed to him and he sees their morphs

- Also, David is a paranoid little fucker? Watches tv and hears shit from his parents about spy stuff. Probably put 2 and 2 together that the secret group of guerilla fighters decided that they were gonna recruit him without his consent and may have harbored some resentment. (you know what happens with secret dangerous organizations that ask you to join when you know too much, say no, and aren’t the overpowered protag? You get taken out back and shot)

- Literally, make zero effort to rescue his parents after getting them brutally enslaved and violated due to their incompetence. They go out of their way to hurt his father (and prove that they could have restrained and captured him in the process) while making a point that they are watching his very paranoid ass and willing to murder his parents if he gives them the reason to

In conclusion, David was right to say “Fuck the Animorphs” and try to wack them

[cockbiteproductions]

multiples of 8, except in the misc section. all even numbers for the misc section

200: My crush’s name is: well well well this question again. you’re not getting anything out of me!!! they fucking use this website!!!

192: I am allergic to: nothing. but i found out like yesterday not everyone gets dermatographia and im kinda annoyed. what do you mean your skin doesnt get red and puffy the moment you touch it......

184: Xbox or ps3: xbox solely because of ah

176: Last YouTube video watched: my watch history says this, which is a scene from a show called billions. this scene in particular is about my favorite character asking about their introduction scene with their former mentor figure that they quickly outranked and asking why they were picked for the internship that lead them down this [entire shitpath].

168: Luck: [long sigh]. [puts on clown makeup].

[obi wan voice] im my experience there’s no such thing as luck. 

[rian voice] luck? there’s probability plausibility and actuality. luck is superstition. luck is lazy math. [winston voice] that’s what i always say.

160: Soul mates: again souls arent real..... nor do i believe that people are “meant for each other” on any sort of cosmic/larger level. you are more compatible with people based on your upbringing and your interests and your values and those are adaptable over time though some people are so different that they will never get along and other people match/complement each other incredibly well.

152: Phone or Online: lmaoooo this questionnaire once again showing its age. throwback to when these things weren’t synonymous. online for sure. what am i gonna do with a phone? talk to someone with my fucking voice? i think not.

144: Oranges or Apples: to eat by themselves? probably apples since they are easier and less of a mess. and apples are more consistently better than oranges. oranges, it’s easy to get a batch that just sucks. juiced? probably orange. i love me some fuckin orange juice. but i like apple cider more than orange juice.

136: Hillary or Obama: lmaoooo again.. the age of this. 2008 or 2012. going to guess 2008. obama but not like. enthusiastically. while he was certainly better than [what we got going on now] he still bombed the hell outta some countries......

128: Manicure or Pedicure: ive never had either but i would probably be more comfortable with a manicure. people touching my feet would make me ticklish.

120: Gay Marriage: the only type that should be allowed. sorry straights youre no longer allowed to get married. /s obviously.

112: Facebook: oh BOY are you fucking ready. are you???? im starting the readmore NOW because this is going to be something. i doubt anyone except robots maybe will actually read my deranged pro-privacy anti-facebook/social media/surveillance rant but im angry every time i think about it and if i were a more important person than a rando on the internet with a keyboard im sure facebook would hire someone to kill me one day.

FUCK FACEBOOK. FUCK THAT SHITTY ASS WEBSITE THAT AT EVERY TURN HAS BEEN REVEALED TO HAVE HORRIFYING PRACTICES OF DATA COLLECTION.

but before that, they need to pay some goddamn fucking taxes. they are profiting off the data of billions of people and getting away with paying SO LITTLE back. 

you ever hear about deepface? no this is not the beginning of a prequel meme. deepface is facebook’s facial recognition technology and facial recognition is fucking terrifying. that shit is as good as humans at facial recognition at this point. does that not scare you? that a bunch of computers can figure out if this photo contains you or not? it’s one thing if humans recognize each other, but another thing when computers who can process data almost infinitely faster than humans can are able to do it. the scale and speed at which these fucking nightmares operates is hard for us to imagine and so we are all not scared enough of what they can do. this kind of technology is so deeply privacy violating it’s hard for me to stress it enough. every image of you ever uploaded on the internet could possibly be put through facial recognition tech. and with the fact that there are cameras literally everywhere at all times now at this point it’s so fucking possible that if desired, someone could find out where you are at all times. and that gets SO scary when used by governments. are you comfortable with your government knowing where YOU are at all times? yes? what about if tomorrow your government is overthrown by a group of radicals you completely disagree with? you still comfortable with that? facial recognition is kind of a fucking pandoras box that we are opening and now that we have the technology available to us, unless we actively take steps back from it, it WILL eventually/already is being used in malicious, intensely privacy invasive ways.

and everything in that above bullet point goes for ALL DATA COLLECTED ON YOU, EVER. everything you’ve ever said on facebook is probably put through some multi layered neural network fucking robot who is learning how to understand what humans say on your input and also cataloging things about you as a person. it is doing SO MUCH more than reading the exact text of what you are saying and then picking up on keywords. neural networks are an attempt to copy how humans think by making an artificial version of a brain basically. in simple terms it’s a map of points and connections and you feed it data for a while and tell it what the desired outcome should be. it will adjust those connections and the weight of those points based on your data and expected outcome. that change in connections and weights is how it learns. then after a while it has fed on enough data that it will begin to expect what your desired outcome is. now imagine millions and millions of connections and points. it’s fucking huge. you ever hear about how we don’t know how machine learning/deep learning/neural networks works? this is that. it’s because they are so large and they have changed their weights and points so much that we no longer understand how it makes its decisions. ml is on a deeper level starting to understand what you mean when you say words. like a human. and can pick up nuances humans cannot because of its perfect memory. do you understand how scary this is? do you? i really do not know how to express this better how absolutely buckshit wild and terrifying the idea that everything i say online can be scraped and put through a robot and a profile on me and who i am and my ideals can be gathered almost instantly. how hard would it be to write a scraper that goes to my blog and grabs the text of every post in my talk tag? and then there’s free and open source nlp software (or you can pay for it) and you can feed in everything ive said on this blog ever. you can go to my facebook. you can go to my twitter. you can find my profiles on every online platform ive ever used and take everything ive ever said and determine what kind of person i am based on that. and then you can then make further distinctions based on that data. (sidenote: facebook wouldnt have to scrape the data on my profile, it’s all in their databases already. they have everything ive ever posted on public or private, on my old profile i’ve deactivated, every photo ive posted or been tagged in, everything ive ever uploaded to their servers or have been associated with.) and someone or robot can make decisions about me based on that data. it could just be am i likely to buy [this product] or it could be something much more like am i a threat? am i dangerous to you, the person using this data about me? what are my politics? what are my views on [this topic]? are they too extreme? should i be denied [real life thing] based on what this machine has determined about me from my data online? not to sound fucking crazy, but you ever watch that episode of black mirror? nosedive? and its system where you can rate interactions with people? how this one girl was trying to increase her ranking so she would qualify for a cheaper price on housing? how we’re already starting to see things like this in real life with china’s social credit system?

call me a fucking wack job but i think it’s so deeply creepy that we have digitized so many aspects of our lives and leave machines we no longer understand how they make their decisions to analyze every bit of data about ourselves.

by the fucking way facebook tracks data on people WHO DO NOT USE FACEBOOK. FACEBOOK TRACKS DATA ON PEOPLE. WHO. DO. NOT. USE. FACEBOOK. are you scared? i am.

i’ve been thinking about this tweet from @/malwaretech on twitter from a few days ago. text: On a serious note, social media tracking is more extensive than you may think. For example: those Facebook 'like' buttons you see on every website? They call home. If you're logged into your FB account, it records that you visited that web page, even if you don't click 'like'. doesn’t that sound a lil fucked up to anyone else? that facebook knows that i visited that webpage even though i did not tell it? that it will use that data to build a better profile on what my interests are and that it will use that data to better sell ads to me? i’ll be honest i am unsure of if facebook sells that information to other vendors. i think that might be not allowed but i wouldn’t be surprised if that data somehow got into the hands of people who arent facebook.

the fact that for the longest time you could NOT get your data deleted from facebook? that even if you deactivated your account facebook would still keep all of that in their shit ass servers forever? as far as i know, that’s changed now, but i would not at all be surprised if the next day it was revealed that facebook was Actually Keeping all that info anyways

the fact that by default facebook’s privacy settings are set to allow anyone to see most info about you? just this whole opt out culture is so fucking wack. it should be opt in. your privacy settings should default on the MOST PRIVATE and it should be up to you to ACTIVELY SEARCH OUT how to change them to public. it is ON FACEBOOK to actively cultivate privacy but of fucking course they don’t.

lmao cambridge analytica politics russia brexit trump. i don’t have the energy to even open this fucking can of worms but i will say that again, another layer of deeply fucked up that political campaigns can use that data to try to coerce or influence elections.

do you remember when in 2019. yes twenty. fucking. nineteen. 2019. two thousand and nineteen. 2019. i dont know how more to stress how recent but late this is. 2019. facebook admitted that it and instagram were still. STILL. STILL. S T I L L. storing passwords as plaintext? meaning your password that is “password123ilovedogs” is stored AS “password123ilovedogs” in their database. it is STANDARD AND EXPECTED PRACTICE that websites store SECURE hashes of passwords (not like fucking. md5 or something) meaning you do a bunch of fucking “irreversible” math on the password and store that instead of the actual password itself. so the db would be storing “298!79v@w8W#R;3,f9jf” instead of your actual password. anyways face. fucking. book. was storing passwords as plain text. which means if they ever have a data breach on their passwords db then all that data inside will just be your actual goddamn password. your actual goddamn password. what the fuck? what the fuck? and we still use this website? we? me? i use this website daily? i use this website on a daily fucking basis and allow it to continue to collect information on me? im so goddamn angry.

the fact that now in this day and age you are considered weird for not having any social media? super fucked up. the fact that employers will check your social media and if you don’t have one that is somehow a red flag? weird as hell. why must we participate in the world’s largest data collection scandal ever just to be a member of society? i cannot choose to opt out. facebook collects data on me even if i do not have an account. society expects me to have some form of social media and if i do not then that i am the weird one for it. if you choose to live a life of trying not to be tracked it is almost impossible. can you live your life in modern society without an email address? without a smartphone or laptop? there is an expectation that every person is available to communicate with digitally and if you find the practice of data collection abhorrent and don’t want to use websites that do so, then you’re the weird one who has a LOT of society’s services unavailable to you.

im not going to even touch on the psychological effects that facebook and social media have on people other than to ONCE AGAIN, say they are very real and deeply fucked up.

by the way check out haveibeenpwned. enter your email and it’ll check against databases to see if your email has been on recent dumps. i have been. lately there have been a few older accounts of mine that have been breached and it’s terrifying.

fuck jesse eisenberg man he fucked over spiderman crazy

fuck faang. fuck big tech. fuck data collection. btw edward snowden is a hero. fuck all of this.

104: The future: man we’re in for it. i am not optimistic about it at all. too much tech progression / not enough foresight / expansion/globalization of the world / global warming / political and economic issues are all coming to a head to make the world a fucking disaster.

96: Changed a diaper: never done it! i am not around children often.

88: Something I will really miss when I leave home is: having a vague idea of where things are locally. im very bad with directions.

86: The thing that I’m looking forward to the most: answered already.

84: People call me: yeesa, apparently. i have a fair amount of nicknames but i just call myself teresa.

82: I have gotten a speeding ticket: sure haven’t though i deserve one

80: The first person i talked to today was: soph​ because she wakes up at a normal goddamn time so i’ll sometimes have a text from her from a few hrs ago

76: Right now I am talking to: milo and a discord server im in for a group of friends i made when i was applying to college. though i havent responded in quite a while since i went on my angry facebook rant.

74: I have/will get a job: well i HAD a job for the beginning of the summer when i was a TA but i do not any more as that was first summer semester only. hopefully in the fall i’ll have a job as a TA again but who knows. and then after that when i graduate i hope hope hope hope hope i will have a job lined up.

72: Today: woke up. made a plum smoothie. played minecraft. took a nap. here i am. it’s all very riveting.

70: Next Weekend: it’ll happen for sure. odds are i will be waking up and eating food and coming on the internet and chatting with friends and doing a bit of writing and trying to learn a bit more html.

68: The worst sound in the world: answered already.

66: People that make you happy: will roland lmao. 

64: My friends are: well it’s basically the same people i tagged in my last post on people who make me happy.

62: My School: you tryin to doxx me? it’s alright. not the best for my major. and also stupidly trying to reopen for the fall because theyre greedy and idiots. it was like my 5th choice school but it is what it is.....

60: I lose all respect for people who: already answered

58: Your hair color is: black as fuck. im east asian.

56: Favorite web site: controversial but archive of our own dot org i guess. i believe in their mission and like how they have advocated for fans and have created a fan-owned space on the internet. they’re not perfect but i overall support them.

54: The worst pain I was ever in was: answered already

52: My room is: a time capsule of what i liked in late middle school/early high school.

50: Where would you like to be: im fine where i am. maybe visiting friends though. i would like to Hang With Them and Do Fun Activities.

48: Ever been in love: who’s to say....... what is love? (baby don’t hurt me). but for real the concept of love is weird to me, especially romantic love. i don’t know. i’ve certainly obsessed over people. i’ve noticed i kind of “pick people” to have crushes on. i can’t really say why. but then it creates a feedback loop of i pay more attention to them -> i think more about them -> i like them more. so i’ve made conscious decisions that have lead to me obsessing over people.

46: More guy friends or girl friends: girl but that’s just because people in fandom spaces tend to be women and most of my friends ive made through fandom.

44: One person that you wish you could see right now: kaity is coming to my town but we cant see each other because of a pandemic so im kinda fucking miffed about that. i didn’t get to see maria before she left my state so i’m also miffed about that.

42: Have you made a list of things to do before you die: lmaooooo no. i would just like to be satisfied with my life. would like to see friends. do fun things with them. 

40: Last person I got mad at: idk im not generally a mad person. mark zuckerberg probably.

38: I wish I was a professional: as in i suddenly have all the skills and talent needed to be a professional? i think a director &|| writer tbh. i would love to have the Creative Vision necessary to come up with dope ideas AND translate what i have in mind into real life. i would love the ability to be able to tell compelling stories that mean a lot to people.

32: Athlete: lmao if it was 2008 or 2012 i would ahve said ryan lochte but nevermind. idk. maybe katie ledecky.

24: Movie: am not much one for movies...... star trek 2009.

16: Book: i don’t know how to read.

8: Yankee candle scent: idk about yankee candle specifically but i love the smell of apple. 

[ororowrites]

“42 Reasons: Chadwick x OC: Chapter Two

Author’s note: I apologize for the long wait! Life catches up with us sometimes, I guess. I should be back on track now. Here are the previous chapters in case you need to re-read:

Synopsis - Introduction-Chapter One 

Warnings: Mentions of anxiety 

Two Weeks Later 

Atlanta would be Holly’s home for the next several months. Filming would begin in the next couple of weeks after their table reads and screen tests. She was still in shock and nothing had completely set in for her about her new endeavors. Fans did not know what they were about to receive and Holly was under lock and key when it came to her new job. She wasn’t even allowed to share the news with close friends or family until Marvel officially announced the cast for the Black Panther sequel. 

Holly was glad she at least knew Chadwick and had someone to lean on once they began the filming process. She had met some of the other cast members in passing but did not have a relationship with most of them. 

Her first day in Atlanta consisted of getting settled in her new apartment that Marvel was renting. Attempting to make it feel like home, Holly sent for some of her furniture and items that made her space feel warm and comfortable. While hanging some of her art, her elevator bell rang, signaling a guest. 

“Who is it,” Holly pressed the call button and spoke into the mic. 

“Take a guess,” a voice called back. 

“Hmmm, I don’t know. Denzel , Will...” Holly joked, beaming from ear to ear without even noticing. 

“Even better. Now open up unless you want me to keep all this chicken and waffles to myself,” the voice replied back. Holly could hear his grin through the door and ran to buzz him inside. 

“Chad, you know I don’t play with my food. Come in,” the actress buzzed, waiting for the doors to open before she snatched the greasy bags from Chad’s hands. 

“Knew that would get your greedy behind to the door,” Chadwick chuckled, placing a kiss on Holly’s cheek and helping her sort out their meals. The simple act seemed very natural, though Holly’s breath hitched in her throat when his lips touched her skin. 

“Thank you. You came right on time, I’m starving,” Holly said gracefully moving around the space to find plates and silverware. 

“Lucky you. This will probably be your last unhealthy meal until after the film,” he replied. 

“Says who,” the actress quizzed, cocking her head to the side. 

“Says me,” Chadwick winked. “I can even hook you up with my trainer. He kicks my ass but he’s good. That’s if you want to use him.” 

Holly grinned, “You calling me out of shape, Boseman? I’ve been boxing for the last few months. You need to watch what you say to me.” 

The two friends shared a laugh before Chadwick answered, “No, I’m not saying you’re out of shape. Just offering some fight training. Since we’ll probably by fighting side by side.” 

Holly took the clue right away. “Say you want to spend time with me. Geez,” the actress teased, honestly honored by the generous offer. This was one of the things she adored about Chadwick. He had a big heart and when he truly cared about you, he didn’t hesitate to show it. His warmth and gentle spirit made him even more attractive and made him a people magnet. Anyone that spent time around him commented on his humbleness. 

“That makes it a win-win situation. You get training and time with Chadwick. This offer is only on the table for 24 hours,” he beamed, impatiently waiting on an answer. 

“Yes, I’ll kick you ass, I mean, I’ll train with you. But if I die, you’re responsible. Got it,” Holly threatened, pointing her fork in Chadwick’s direction. 

Her co-star held his hands up in fake surrender, “Alright, deal.” 

“Let me get this last cheat meal in before you torture me,” Holly complained biting into a crispy chicken wing. “I’m going to miss you baby chicken wing. Mr. Boseman is a big meanie and will take away all my meat and put me on this wack diet. I’m sorry.” 

The Black Panther star’s boisterous laughter filled the semi-empty living room, echoing off the walls. “Leave me alone,” he said through cackles. 

Becoming tickled herself, Holly snickered until tears spilled over. 

A week later 

The process of becoming Ororo Munroe was not an easy task to take on for an actress. Ryan Coogler, the sequel’s director was very serious about presenting accurate representation of different African cultures, accents, traditions and even clothing. He traveled the continent soaking up as much knowledge as he could manage. Holly respected his drive and knew she would have to work extra hard to make his vision come to life. 

As soon as Holly got the word that she would be playing Storm, she began her own research journey in an attempt to become well versed on different cultures on the continent. She didn’t want to be ignorant about what she was getting herself into and that served as motivation to study and learn. Wanting to know her own background, Holly ordered a DNA kit to study her lineage. 

Today, the cast was meeting for their last chemistry tests. Ryan did not put up with complacency. He wanted his actors to always better themselves and strive to be more. Holly and Chadwick were up first since they were the leads in the next film. The acting pair began with Ororo and T’Challa’s third scene that took place in a Harlem apartment. 

“Aight, we’ll start on page 3 and go through page 4,” Ryan called out to his actors. They followed orders and turned their scripts to the 3rd page of the second act. “Annnd, action.” 

“Ororo, come back to Wakanda with me,” Chadwick began, getting into characters immediately. 

“I have a life here. I can’t pick up and go,” Holly read, trying a new voice for her character. Ryan didn’t seem to mind the change as he knew the perfect fit for Ororo Munroe would take practice.

“Your life hasn’t always been here,” he continued, moving in closer. “I don’t think you want it to remain here.” 

“What makes you think that,”Holly said, her eyes meeting Chadwick’s as she took on Ororo’s quiet sex appeal. 

Closing the space left between them, Chadwick placed a hand on her cheek. Moving his face closer like the script demanded, “You aren’t happy and you’re running.”

Even though it was just acting, Holly somehow felt the double meaning in Chadwick’s words. This was the exact situation  that got them in trouble while filming ‘42′. Things got too real and it made separating reel from real difficult. When Chadwick became a character his entire being changed. The only problem was, T’Challa and Ororo could be interchangeable with Chadwick and Hoilly, which complicated things. 

“I’m not running from anything,” the actress whispered, feeling the heat from Chadwick’s body engulf her space. Their lips touched as they both juggled their acting and attraction. When their lips connected, Holly tried to stay in character but her mind drifted. His lips felt soft and warm against hers and she couldn’t shake the butterflies forming in her stomach. When he pulled away her lips were still parted. 

“Cut! Nice job, the chemistry is exactly where I need it to be,” Ryan complimented. “But...you have to tone it down a lil.” 

Chadwick and Holly chuckled, “Sorry,” Holly blushed, taking the hint that their onscreen kiss was a little too hot for a Marvel film. “Gotta do it for the kids.” 

“Hey, that was all you,” Chadwick laughed, wrapping an arm around Holly’s shoulders. “Chill out, Raye.”

“Dude, hush.” Going back and forth with each other, the two leads caught the eyes of a few of their cast mates. Their old romance began the same way. Without either of them noticing until things became too heavy to ignore. Cast mates and crew saw the small interactions and felt the chemistry. Some even teasing them occasionally. Now they had come full circle, only to repeat what had began years ago. 

The Black Panther sequel was officially in production and Holly’s nerves couldn’t have bothered her enough. With this being her first gig in years after the scandal on her previous job. 

Holly had to wake up at 2 AM for hair and makeup that would take more than a couple of hours to perfect. Like many trailers, the space was full of makeup products neatly organized against one wall and hair products on the other side. In between there were different variations of wig glues, eyelash glue and a few random items like stress balls and a bag of licorice. It looked like any other makeup trailer on a set but the vibe was different. 

Tiffany and Nadine Landry were a sister duo who had been working in the business for years. They made anyone who sat in their chairs feel like family which was one of the main reasons Ryan and crew wanted to keep them around. Their positive energy and talent to match spread throughout the cast and crew, contributing to the mass success of the first film. 

Holly was greeted by the sisters with a warm embrace and jokes. “We are here to make you the best Ororo Munroe that Marvel has ever seen,” Nadine said, gently pushing Holly towards Tiffany’s chair. 

“Nay, that was shady. Be nice,” Tiffany answered, calling her big sister out on the obvious shade to the previous Storm before the Disney deal was completed. “Don’t mind her Holly, she’s a mess but your face will be beat after you leave her chair.” 

“I trust you two. Besides, you have Ryan and Kevin to answer to if I walk out of here looking like a BAPS reject.” All three women slapped hands in laughter. 

The actress relaxed into the chair as Tiffany massaged her scalp, loosening the thick curls towards the crown of Holly’s head. 

Five hours and many looks later, the team had finally completed the new Ororo Munroe. The original hair and makeup options got trashed once Tiffany and Nadine slightly altered their initial plan for Holly. 

They settled on a straight, mid-back length wig and a neutral makeup palette that didn’t overpower the blue contacts and white wig.  

The big reveal came when Chadwick was brought into the trailer to see his co-star who had completely been transformed into the future Queen of Wakanda. 

When he stepped into the trailer, the actor’s laughter filled the small space as his excitement grew. Clapping his hands, his smile spread from ear to ear. “Look at you,” he exclaimed, gazing in awe. She was beautiful on any day, but there was a certain glow and confidence she was giving off. 

“Do I look good enough to be your Queen, T’Challa,” Holly teased dramatically, flipping her white locs. 

“You may outdo me in my own movie. Ya’ll trying to make me look bad,” Chadwick accused. 

“She makes it easy,” Nadine added, squeezing Holly’s shoulders, “She slays naturally. Sorry Chad.” 

Chadwick’s toothy grin widened. “Clearly.” His eyes fell to Holly, their gazes holding each other longer than they should. Look away, look away, Holly’s mind screamed, but her hormones were already betraying her. Those eyes were captivating and she couldn’t look away until Tiffany and Nadine interrupted. 

“Alright, out you go, Boseman. We need to finish her up before set call,” Tiffany gently pushed the actor towards the trailer door. “You can admire her when we send her out for your first scene.” 

Holly chuckled when Chadwick complained about how he was being treated by the crew. “That man is something else,” the actress shook her head.

“That man is feeling you,” Tiffany sang lowly but loud enough for Holly to hear. Today, she decided to ignore the truth and waited for the subject to change. Here we go, she thought. 

Later that day, when Holly had a small break in her schedule, she was faced with a situation and person she thought she had escaped. One of the old executives from the network she worked under years ago, was making a set visit. Supposedly, he was working for Marvel Studios under the same position. Holly’s stomach immediately dropped to her feet. There was no where to running, forcing the actress to face her fears in panic. Feeling helpless, Holly took off towards her trailer, praying no one saw the tears streaking her cheeks. 

Slamming the trailer door shut, Holly tried to take a few deep breaths. Ben Wiseman was a person she wanted to avoid for the rest of her life. He was responsible for a very dark time in her life and career, driving her to almost end it all to escape the pain. Ben was a Devil in a fancy suit and charming smile. Power and money made him untouchable and people flocked to him because of his title and reputation in the industry. Holly knew the man behind the suit and it put great fear in her heart that he’d been working right under her nose. 

The air in the trailer thickened causing the actress to take shorter breaths, making her panic more due to the heaviness of her chest. Over the last several months, Holly was able to keep her panic attacks to a minimum. After enrolling in yoga/meditation classes, she was able to learn different techniques to manage her stress. Counting to ten in her head Holly attempted to control her breathing and put her mind and spirit in a more positive realm. 

It took Holly 20 minutes to get back into a good place and for her breathing to calm. Going back outside meant risking running into Ben, though there was no way to avoid him. She gave herself a pep talk, prayed and dried her eyes before leaving the trailer. 

“There you are,” Chadwick said, walking up to the trailer with two cups of coffee in his hands. “Figured you’d need a little pick me up before we head back. Hey, you alright?” 

Worry was written all over Holly’s face, though she nodded with a fake smile, “Yeah, I’m good. Fell asleep in my trailer and woke up a bit confused.” 

“You sure, looks like you’ve been crying,” Chadwick pressed, holding the foam cup in her direction. 

“I’m sure, geez,” Holly faked laughter, doing a terrible job of hiding the pain in her voice. 

Chadwick was not buying her act and wasn’t going to allow his friend to go on with her day without getting to the bottom of this. “Raye,” he replied, his tone serious. Holly hung her head in defeat. “You want to go somewhere and talk? We have a few minutes before call.” Holding out his hand, Chadwick waited for Holly to accept it before leading her back to the trailer. 

I will begin working on the next chapter tomorrow, so it won’t be another month until I post again. lol Let me know of you want to be added to the taglist. 

Taglist: @wakanda-shit-is-that @lavitabella87 @destinio1 @airis-paris14 @babygirlofwakanda @siriuslycollins

[noexit-ff]

51. Part 2

Staring at both images “you see with Fenty Beauty, I already did that text so I don’t want to go with the same, it needs to be different. So I think I want to go for the edgy look but bold, and also on the packaging I want the text to be set out as f dot Brown beauty. I don’t want it to be Fenty-Brown beauty, we can keep that when we promote it. I think I want to keep it to what I had last time, I still have those ideas. I didn’t release any of them, we just need to switch it up” Tim decided to facetime me, I thought I would start working again from home of course “I like that, I think f dot brown looks classy, we want it to be classy but affordable but. I have many of things for you, we have beauty to knock everyone out with. I also want to see you dip into clothing, I mean you being the designer. No Puma, River Island. Just you, your clothing. I think you could do Fenty clothing and incorporate Black Pyramid and make them as one, just imagine your clothing store, people visiting and both you and Chris making money. Why have Puma taking half shares, do it yourself. Seeing as you are cleaning house, you are becoming your own boss. Congratulations on the record label you both have started, I may be late but I personally think you need to step into it. You’re a respected woman in fashion, it’s time for Fenty clothing” Tim clapped as he sat back, looking over at Jen. She looks impressed “I won’t say no but I want to get the beauty side out of the way, then we can start. I am loving the idea of a clothing store. Never would I have thought, my name being on such things but thank you Tim. Got me thinking” so many business plans, I just need Christmas to go by and Chris to be ok and then we can get back to work.

Signing the paperwork “why didn’t Ant come?” I asked Jen confused, passing the paperwork for Black Pyramid “well he gave me the papers, he said that he feels Chris is upset with him but I did say he just needs time. He is hiding away from people, he just wants his family. He needs space but let them think it, he needs a break. Chris needs this break away from the world” Jen is right, placing the pen down “I think it’s cute how Chris has practically made you main boss bitch, signing off for his clothing line. It’s sweet, I can see the both of you happy too. Good vibes now?” nodding my head “getting there, today is dooms day. His mom and dad may or may not come, so I am nervous about that. It’s ok, I don’t need you to cover for me either I will have Junior with me” Jen let out an oh “he needs it don’t he? I guess since what has happened you have someone looking after Junior, Chris won’t let me hold him” I chuckled “I have more free time now, Chris wants to change his diaper, he wants to feed him. Just to see them both sitting there and giggle at each other for no reason, I just looked at them both like please give me a daughter. Boys are just something else but I get my cuddles from Junior still” Jen cooed out “do you still breastfeed?” she asked “no, I stopped. He’s growing up now and I just felt it was right to stop but that don’t stop him, when he was laying on my chest he kept wanting it my breast. But forget that, I want some sex from Chris but I don’t want to say it to him. There is so much going on with him, sex seems to be the last thing, I can tell with him because I purposely walked around in just a thong and he held a conversation with me, I felt bad after because I was just thinking of myself” Jen busted out laughing, slapping her arm “girl, fuck you. I just want his dick inside me, it’s hard for me. I think if we did Netflix and chill we would actually watch the full movie” I sighed out “Robz, you need to hold out. He still loves you but as you said, he has a lot on his mind” I am suffering now.

Walking up the steps, Jen has gone home now so I might as well see if Chris is up for some sex. I think I am just going to say it to him because I deserve some sex right now and I want some dick. I am actually craving for some dick right now, please let Junior be asleep so I can have my husband to myself, I deserve. I blew out air as I walked down the hallway upstairs, my ears perked up hearing Chris talking, I stopped in my tracks trying to hear who the hell he is talking too “you comfy little man?” I sighed out, Chris is with Junior and my son is awake, why god. I mean they are so cute together but I want my husband, I feel like crying because it’s been so long too “so we reading The Lost Baby Chick, I wonder where your momma got this from. One ugly chick but let’s do this” I smiled lightly, Chris reading to Junior. Tiptoeing towards Junior’ bedroom. Chris spends most of his time here now, he is really making up for lost time these past few days. Poking my head from around the corner and seeing Chris sat on top of Junior’ play mat, Junior is sat on Chris’ lap. Smiling wide, Chris with the book in hand “look at this, this is a baby chick” Junior slapped the book “Once upon a time there was a little baby chick named Polly who got lost in New York City and couldn’t find her mommy” Chris read out “I don’t think this baby chick finna last son, lost in New York city she ain’t got a chance. And how did this little bitch get lost in the first place? What is wrong with her” I snorted laughing, Chris looked up at me and his smile grew “talking about how did this little bitch get lost, is that what is wrote in that book?” I said, Chris is something else “well, I am confused” walking into the bed room “you don’t mind” I said, let me join these two for story time “feel free” Junior wants to eat the book.

Chris is awful at story time, he adds his own little words “awww no Maurice!” Chris spat, Junior looked up at Chris all wide eyed “Polly ain’t find her momma, she crying. Who told Polly to walk off” Junior looked back at the book “this is what Chris calls reading” Chris looked up at my phone and looked away grinning, he got all shy with me. Chris turned the page “look at that!!! Polly found her mom, but look” Chris held the book up “what kind of ghetto book is this? They done put an emoji over Polly’ face smiling” I busted out laughing stopping the recording “seriously, what you buying my son” my head fell back laughing “how the hell they do Polly dirty like that, rude asses. Let me find out who did that” looking back at Chris wiping my tear of laughter “I got that from Barbados, oh god” I need to calm down “wow, that makes so much sense” Chris put the book down “but anyways, I think Junior enjoyed the story. He liked the pictures and the emoji” I added, Chris shook his head “ghetto ass book!” he spat, looking back down at my phone “you don’t mind?” I lifted my phone up, I want to know if he is ok with it because it’s been a while since we have posted anything “I don’t mind” Chris smiled looking down at Junior, tapping on Instagram “your face looks so much better, see what my food does to you” I smiled saying, tapping on the video “well I ain’t ever leaving your side again” captioning the video ‘My Family! (Never buy my child a book again Rajad) Ghetto ass Polly story’ giggling to myself at the fact they put a smiley emoji on the chick’ face, like that was a thing to do.

Chris walked into the bedroom and I am in the mood to jump on him but I won’t, I am being good. Thinking about it, he revealed something deep that happened to him. Sex is the last thing on his mind, he probably feels weird about it. Just to think I know about it and then Ethan called it abuse which it is, I won’t push him on it “so are you ready to see Ethan baby? Come here” patting the bed, we haven’t spoke on what he said at all. He has never said it to me so I just didn’t bring it up, he has to open up and maybe he only wants to do it with him “not really” Chris pouted out and climbed onto the bed, laying his head on my thigh and laying his body out “do you want me there? If you don’t then I won’t” Chris closed his eyes “I want you there, if my mom coming then I want you there. Even though I don’t want to face my mom or dad, I need someone to make me feel ok, someone I know that will have my back. I hope they don’t come, I wish you didn’t go. Why does shit have to be so wack” he is not happy about the therapy now.

Junior has woke up early, his nap only lasted an hour but he is now awake and I guess he will be with us for the therapy, but the two main people are not here “I let him in” Chris said, seeing Ethan behind him “and I thought you would have left him outside, nice to see you again” I said shaking Ethan’ hand “same to you, I am happy to know Chris is allowing us to do more sessions. I was concerned he wouldn’t, this must be Chris Junior. Hello there” Junior turned his face away and into the crook my neck “he is grumpy, he has just woke up from a nap but come in. Let’s go to the room down the hall again” turning around to walk to the room “so did you manage to bring your mom?” Ethan asked Chris “well I did say it was up to her but if not then please, we continue. Forget them, they had today” I am done, I will help Chris myself without their help “that is fine, we can always help you without it. It’s just a quicker process that way” I can understand where he is coming from but his mom is not listening to me at all.

Junior is being very clingy, he just wants me to cuddle him and I don’t know why but I hope he is not getting ill “do you always wear a shirt when you see people? You look always smart” Chris asked Ethan “I do yes, I mean it wouldn’t be really nice for me to walk in some clothes that I wear at home, I want to be presentable” Chris nodded his head “do you have kids? You must do, you old” Ethan chuckled “I do Christopher, you ready for this?” Ethan said smiling at Chris “I have six kids” Chris gawked at Ethan “and you married? Same woman?” Ethan nodded his head “yes, I have four daughters and two sons. I married my wife when I was twenty” Chris looks so amazed by this “wow, that’s crazy. Four daughters? Is that why you’re grey” Ethan laughed “mostly yes it is, teenage dramas and so on. Is that something you would like Chris? More kids?” Chris nodded his head “yeah, why not. I think I want to have four maybe. I wanted a daughter, I feel like having a boy there is so much put on them. I felt scared but Junior and I be having laughs, he’s so goofy but yeah. I want more kids” Ethan crossed his right leg over his left and placed his glasses on “you know, like Robyn and I we would have had a child years ago. We was so young that we wasn’t ready, and then she went Barbados thinking she was but she wasn’t, I wasn’t there for her at that moment and I feel bad about it” Ethan looked up at Chris “does that play on your mind to know you wasn’t there Chris?” Chris sighed out “it does but I was so high, I didn’t know. I was numb to the world” I didn’t think Chris would be thinking about it, or he would have forgotten it.

This session seems to be flowing better “so since I last saw you, how have you been? Your mind, you look much happier. Your body language, talkative today” Ethan said, Chris is coming back to me “good, I spend my days with Maurice and my wife, I am happier. My sleep is always a mess, I do fall asleep but then I wake up” Chris’ sleep schedule is always a mess “are you having thoughts? Do you think about things?” Chris sat back on the couch “I think about a lot, you know. You don’t want to admit shit like that happened, you said the word abuse and it hurts to think that. Then I just be thinking all my life I gave myself away, I always made a mess of my life” hearing the buzzer go off, looking over at Chris “I’ll get it” shuffling off the couch, Junior fell asleep again on my shoulder “I’ll put him in the crib while I do” walking around the couch, I actually hope that it is not them because Chris is doing just fine without them putting their side to anything. Looking at the security cameras, seeing the car and Joyce’ face. The guard hasn’t opened the gate for them to even enter and I feel like doing the same, pressing the button to open the gate.

Rushing down the steps with the baby monitor in hand, I guess I am getting what I asked for. I need to just stay quiet and be middle ground, I sighed out dragging open the door. Looking up at Clinton’ face, he is alone for once “hi” opening the door wider for them “hi, I came as soon as Joyce called” Clinton looks so very ill “I had to come hearing the things” closing the door behind them “I am glad you have come, follow me” Joyce keeps just looking at me with a hint of hate “how is my grandson?” Clinton asked “fine, he fell back to sleep” walking ahead of them, Chris is not going to be impressed. It’s hard for him but they need to hear it, they need to hear what I had to hear. Pushing open the door “Chris, your parents are here” I said walking in first, Chris looked behind me. His eyes widened and his body tensed, sitting next to Chris before any of them did so they can sit somewhere else “Chris’ mom and dad?” Ethan got up saying “yes I am sir” Clinton said “I wish you didn’t invite them” Chris said to me in a whisper but it’s too late now.

Chris hasn’t spoken once, he has really closed himself off and this is what he doesn’t need to do “Chris, we came. You wanted us to come” well it was more me “I wanted to also see the parents, I am glad you both could come” Ethan said “what is wrong with him? My son is hard headed, I don’t understand why he needs this. You just need a break, don’t you? There is really nothing wrong with him, you had too much weed. I told Joyce that” Chris just stared at Clinton “I think it’s best if you let Christopher speak, jumping into conclusions is not good. Christopher, how are you feeling? We was just getting on fine” Chris is going to back out, I know him “he is ok, you just need some time” Clinton needs to shut the hell up, he is annoying my life “it’s not always the case Mr Brown, sometimes you need to just listen. Christopher, think of the things we spoke about” Chris caught my eyes, if he backs out then this will forever be an ongoing issue, I want to move on with him “I am here for you, I believe you. You open your heart, I got you” holding his hand, his hand is sweaty.

Chris is silent, I can only imagine what he is thinking “remember you told me how much your heart feels free and you loved the feeling, this is your time to open up” Chris nodded his head “childhood Chris, how was it?” Ethan asked, Clinton shook his head “past again” he said, rolling my eyes “this is not about you” I said to him “it was normal, kind of. Mom was always working, we had barely nothing. Go to my auntie’ house my mom would say, I didn’t go really. They had it all, I had to borrow their things. I would do my own thing” I hate to hear it myself “how did it occur Chris?” Chris put his head down “as long as I was out and not in my mom’ face I was good, I hung with dudes that was fourteen, fifteen, sixteen. They older than me” he looked up opening his eyes “I don’t know” Chris waved him off “I don’t know, I ain’t thinking to that” Ethan put his hand up “that is fine, no need to explain Chris. But you need to tell your parents how you feel, how much their actions have caused this” I hate to see him cry “while you was busy with your new man, I had sex with a girl. I was eight. I was eight looking for someone to love me and look after me because my mom was too busy, I got in that night and you told me to hurry up and clean myself. It was normal, throughout my childhood I was having sex” Joyce has not moved, it’s like she has frozen with tears in her eyes “then you threw me to Harlem, my dad didn’t once want me. I had to watch some guy beat my mom day in and day out, shoot his brains out and then you still didn’t say I want my son! Not once, even now. You assume I need time, I have mentally fucked myself over for years because that is all I know, who was going to love me, who was going to love an abused me when my own parents don’t” Chris broke down crying, wiping my own tears.

I am trying to control my own emotions crying and to also calm Chris down “I love you Chris, stop saying that, I loved you from the start” kissing the back of his head, Chris lifted his head up “and if you didn’t I would be dead right now” shaking my head “stop ok, I can stand to hear it” my heart can’t take it “I never knew Chris” Joyce said, her voice shaky “I agree with you, I was going through my own issues and I am sorry. Oh my god” Joyce said sobbing “oh my god” Joyce said again “I got thrown to Harlem, like that was the best thing to do. Strangers, left me with them. I got into the music industry and that was it, my life was done. I do believe I wasn’t suppose to be on this earth still, abuse. Me, Robyn, me. I got abused” wrapping my arms around Chris’ neck “and baby, you wasn’t to know. You was just a child yourself, stop it” rubbing his back, Chris accepting that he knew already hurts, I can feel his pain and it’s like someone is stabbing my heart “I blamed myself, I did it to myself. For years, it’s me. I was stupid. Just like I let my mom get beat, I let it happen” Chris said.

I have a headache from crying “it’s a lot to do, I am sorry but I am not pushing Christopher to do this all today. He has said a lot already, he needs to rest” Joyce shook her head “you think I am going to sit back and say fine, no! I didn’t know my son was getting raped” I cringed “I understand but we need to do this properly, he has spoke on a lot and mentally he needs a rest. You could mess up his healing, as a therapist I am done with the session” Ethan said, he is right. Chris is resting his head on my shoulder “I will be back here next week, to continue. You need to realise that the brain and heart can only take some much, these are powerful memories for Christopher. Please see it from his point of view and please give him that space, both of yourselves and him need to just have time to process this” Clinton hasn’t spoke once, he is so quiet now.

I want them to go, I don’t want them both here “can we agree to coming next week?” Clinton got up from the couch “let me speak to you” Chris moved his head away from my shoulder “father to son, you speak to me” placing my hand on Chris’ leg “I won’t have this nonsense Chris, get up now” who is Clinton speaking too “are you being real? Your son is opening up and you acting like you want to beat his ass” either Clinton is in denial or he is truly being an ass “Chris, get up now” shaking my head “get out of my house” glaring at Joyce “if you have any compassion you will take this man out of here” Chris shot up and ran off out of nowhere, I only looked away from him for a second and he ran off. Clinton was about to grab him but he was too late “no! Clinton, leave him alone. Please, I want to go” Joyce cried “please” I don’t even feel remorse for her at all.

I am glad They have gone, I am just walking Ethan out now “I understand why Christopher seems to be tense with his father, even if his father wasn’t around he has this authority over him. I feel as if Mr Brown is in denial, he sees Christopher as a man that doesn’t have issues. I am more concerned for Christopher, I don’t like the pushing. It’s best if we let the thing settle. I think Chris is just sinking in what happened to him was what he knew to begin with, if you need me then please call” opening the door for Ethan “thank you, Chris wouldn’t do anything stupid?” I am so sad about it “his love for you is strong, he will come out of it. That is because of love, but he’s thankful for you. They tend to feel like they can’t be loved, they don’t deserve it either and they also hurt themselves. Not to worry Rihanna” he’s saying that like it’s easy.

I knew he would be here, he would be in his garage painting something in the office he has now changed into an art room “found you” I said smiling “they gone?” he questioned, nodding my head “I held shit in for years, I never wanted to be looked at like a victim and to see the disappointment in my dad. He has never been there for me but when he is, he is. I feel like a teenager at that moment, he would beat my ass. Somehow it makes me feel like it’s my fault, I feel lost. I don’t feel real, like this is a dream” Chris stared down at his spray can “you do still love me?” he looked up at me, nodding my head swallowing back the lump in my throat “Chris I have always loved you, from when we was teenagers till now so please don’t question that, ever” Chris put his head down and sobbed out, walking over to him “I will love you always Chris, I am so proud of you. This is so hard for you, I know it is but you are doing this for us” he is suffering and I understand.

Junior is not well and now he doesn’t want the bottle. I think he has a cold and I don’t know how he got that, Chris walked into our bedroom “are you ok Chris?” I asked, Junior’ head resting on my shoulder. He keeps waking up after an hour, I think it’s because of his nose “I am ok, I have always wanted to tell the truth. I do feel better now but I feel drained” I am glad he feels somewhat ok “I don’t want you to blame yourself ever, this was never your fault” Chris nodded his head “I am aiming to get better for you, I will do it but I just need to have a few more sessions. Come to think of it, I don’t know how I stayed sane after I used to talk about what happened, I laughed at it but I was always hurt by it” smiling at Chris lightly “I am happy that you are here with me, that you are sane. That you always tried for me, oh god baby. How you stayed normal with how you felt, I am so proud of you and I am sorry for always being the pain I am” I feel bad but I didn’t know “I felt ashamed, how do you admit something like that but you have been amazing and I promise, I will make you proud” shaking my head “you make me proud now” Chris smiled at me wide “just you and I and Junior, that’s it” he is learning.

[nightwing-is-babe]

The Bet (prequel)

‘The Bet’ here

Relationship: Jason Todd x Reader

Summary: The events leading up to Jason and Your relationship being revealed to the rest of the Batfam.

Key: Y/N= your name, E/C= your eye color

You woke up to a dark room. You knew it was morning because your alarm was blaring. You groaned and scratched you head while getting out of bed. You slapped your alarm and began to get ready. You walked through your hall to your bathroom and glanced out your window.

“What the hell?” You stared out the window at the night sky. You then darted to your kitchenette and found the clock flashing 2:43am. “Oh come on!” You began to slink back to your bed.

On your way back, you spotted a darkened figure on your balcony. You froze in your tracks. “No,” you whispered to yourself, “No, no, no! I will not be a chick in a horror flick!”

You quickly snatched a pan from your kitchenette. You quietly opened the door to your balcony. You tip-toed to the figure as quietly as you could, pan raised ready to do some serious wacking.

You began to swing and the figure turned and caught the pan before you finished swinging. “Don’t,” the figure’s deep voice declared.

“P-please tell me you aren’t here to kill me,” you stuttered. The man turned around and you saw he was wearing a helmet and almost all black. “Oh my god, you’re going to kill me.”

Jason had gone out on patrol that night as a favor to Bruce, so no killing. He ended up in a fight and the Batman was little to no help causing Jason to get out of the situation as fast as he could, without killing. He honestly couldn’t care less about what happened after he left. He kicked a little ass, raised a little hell, and made his way to the safety of a roof top.

Except, he didn’t grapple to a roof top. He accidentally grappled to a apartment balcony. Cursing himself, he watched the street, waiting for the brawling to clear up before making his escape.

As he stood, he heard the faint click of a doorknob turning and an almost inaudible squeak of a door-hinge. He stood perfectly still, watching best he could from the corner of his eye. He watched as a petite figure inched closer to him. It began to swing something and he made his move.

“Don’t,” he stated, catching what seemed to be a frying pan. He stared intensely as a girl began to freak out. She was beautiful, stunning. She had dazzling E/C eyes and an alluring essence about her. Wow, he thought, She’s amazing. 

“I’ll take your intimidating silence as a yes and I think I’ll start screaming now.”

“No,” Jason began as he broke free of his trance, “No I’m not here to kill you, I just had to get out of the heat.” He nodded down to the street below. 

She peaked over the edge of the balcony. “So, you’re a vigilante. Like Batman?”

Jason scoffed, “Not like Batman. Nothing like Batman. I’m Red Hood, I’m completely different!”

“Yeah, okay,” she mocked. They stood for a few moments, letting the dead air fall between them. She finally broke the silence. “Would it be weird to offer the guy I thought was here to murder me my apartment as a temporary place to crash?”

Jason chuckled, “It’d only be weird if I didn’t know who you are.”

“I’m such an idiot,” she face-palmed, “I’m Y/N. And is there a name behind the mask, or is a ‘secret identity’ a thing?”

“Well, Y/N, I don’t now if I can trust you with that just yet.”

“Fair enough.” Y/N ushered the hero inside.

Over the next couple weeks, Red Hood seemed to be popping up at your ‘door’ more often than not. He would tell you what was happening and you’d listen and give your advice. Jason loved hearing what you had to say on what was going on, you were a pretty clever girl and almost always had something insightful to say. If it wasn’t insightful, it was usually funny.

There had been a couple of times where you had to calm down Red Hood after he had a fight with Batman. You knew nothing about their relationship, but you had come to know Red Hood, except his actual name, so you were able to get him to chill and talk it over before making some irrational decision. Jason was thankful for this, especially when the problem was something Alfred couldn’t begin to understand. You found a way to figure it all out.

Because the vigilante became such a frequent visitor, you began to leave your balcony door unlocked for him. One night, Jason had hoped to talk to you about a fight he had with Bruce, but when he stepped into your living room, he found you dead asleep on the couch. He chuckled to himself, admiring you.

Then he discovered a small noise coming from the couch. Light and sweet, it was you. You were snoring. That was the tipping point, he could just watch you be adorable anymore. Jason took off his helmet and domino mask, discarding them to the floor. He tapped your shoulder. You jostled awake, rubbing your eyes to focus on what was in front of you.

“Red Hood,” you question sleepily. “Sorry, I must have dozed.”

He grinned, “Jason.”

“What was that?”

“Call me Jason,” he repeated, only smiling bigger.

You stared blankly for a second, processing the information at a snails pace. Finally, the light bulb click and you beamed at him. “Jason.”

In that moment, Jason would never be able to hear his name again, without thinking of your angelic voice.