#oh and they did that whole fake out with Wally dieing!

[desperatecheesecubes]

It’s so funny how in the 90s a bunch of massive things were happening in comics all at the same time-the Bane saga in Gotham, Superman dying and coming back to life, Hal Jordan going crazy and Kyle becoming green lantern, Ollie finding out he has a son and then choosing to die-meanwhile Wonder Woman was kinda just happening as normal

[pluckyredhead]

Let’s talk about Roy’s abandonment issues!

So this is a thing I come back to over and over again when I’m writing Roy, and for me it’s a super crucial aspect of his character, and one of his biggest stumbling blocks in relationships.

Roy is a Good Little Extrovert, right? He’s charming and flirty and very very good at faking being okay, so it’s easy to miss the ways in which he falls into his own unhealthy patterns. (Especially because he tends to fall into them with people who have a vested interest in believing him when he lies and says he’s okay.)

You can trace Roy’s abandonment issues pretty clearly and consistently through his canon from “Snowbirds Don’t Fly” on, but there are three moments in particular that for me, really inform how he reacts to feeling abandoned, and why: the detox flashback in the Arsenal miniseries, his breakup with Donna in Titans ‘99, and his breakup with Jason in RH/A.

So! Arsenal #1!

This is the only time Roy ever says the inside thoughts out loud, and naturally it’s when he’s at his lowest possible point. (We do not speak of Cry for Justice or Rise of Arsenal in this space.) And yes, he’s a teenager, and yes, he’s detoxing, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true, and that doesn’t mean the feelings will ever fully go away. There’s a part of Roy that will always believe that he is fundamentally unlovable and deserves to be left. That no one will ever stay, because no one ever has. (It probably doesn’t help that not only did both of his fathers die, they did so by charging in to meet death head-first - Ollie specifically after Roy asked him not to.)

“No one’s ever gonna stay when I need them. I’m just so scared if I try again I’ll...” Oh baby boy. Sweetheart. It’s gonna be okay.

Even in the present day, his feelings of being abandoned by Ollie - not just during “Snowbirds,” but by Ollie’s death - are palpable, and yet they’re still only speakable under his breath, half-joking:

So we’ve got a boy who is charismatic and needy, who loves love and sex and intimacy, and who is fundamentally convinced that no one will ever stay with him and incapable of expressing that out loud. I wonder if that will have a deleterious effect on his romantic relationships?

...Let’s talk about Donna.

I think we can pretty safely say that Roy and Donna were each other’s first loves - or at least, neither of them had canon love interests prior to their relationship in the 60s and 70s. They were extremely chaste and fairly casual in the 60s; by the late 70s, you can definitely read them as sexually involved, even if it’s played coy for the benefit of the Comics Code. Somewhere between the end of Teen Titans Volume 1 and The New Teen Titans they broke up, presumably amicably based on their later interactions, and Donna almost immediately married the horrifying Terry Long while Roy went about making babies with supervillains.

By the time Titans ‘99 rolls around, Donna has gotten divorced, dated and dumped Kyle Rayner, lost her ex and her son to a car crash, and mostly processed her grieving. She was also just coming off of a plotline where a villain erased her from reality and she was reconstituted from Wally’s memories for Reasons. Which is why Roy making a dumb sex joke sends her into a tailspin:

They start dating again, but Donna is upfront fairly early on about her reasons for doing so:

In other words, because Roy is a Bad Boy (you know, one tattoo and an earring, two whole love interests over the course of 58 years of canon, an absolute rapscallion), Donna is basically using him to feel less like a Good Girl. Which, hey, at least she’s honest about it! But maybe this isn’t a good reason to date someone??? Maybe???

And Roy takes a brief, inscrutable pause (is that “...” because he’s hurt? angry? processing? WE JUST DON’T KNOW), says “Understood,” and CONTINUES THE RELATIONSHIP ON THOSE TERMS. A good and healthy choice that absolutely will not backfire, ever!

Some time later, the Fab Five are stranded on an island in a storm, and tensions are running high (partially, but not entirely, because a villain is playing with their minds and bringing out their resentments and insecurities). Once again, Donna is brutally honest:

She doesn’t want Lian getting too attached to her, because obviously she and Roy are going to break up - anything else is just laughable. Roy’s amazing, she loves him, the chemistry is great, but of course they don’t have a future. That’s not what Roy’s for.

And Roy just...walks away. Roy has a quick temper and will cheerfully fight about anything - except this. He can’t bring himself to pretend it’s okay or that he’s not angry or hurt, but he is also incapable of arguing that he deserves to be considered as a long-term possibility, so he just...leaves.

They never talk about it. The subsequent issue has all of the Titans hashing out their arguments, but this one? They don’t touch it. They pretend it didn’t happen.

Another ten issues go by (with abundant Cheshire-related drama). Donna is nearly erased from existence again, and in the aftermath, she decides that the Roy experiment is over:

That second to last panel just kills me. It’s like the ellipsis in the scene with Kyle, the walking away in the jungle, the muttered confession Dinah isn’t supposed to hear. All the hurt and the anger and the sadness go into one tiny, inscrutable beat, and the casual, devil-may-care mask is back on. Roy isn’t sad!!! He loves dating around!!! LOOK AT HOW AGGRESSIVELY NOT-SAD HE IS!!!

EVERYTHING IS FINE AND ROY HARPER HAS NEVER HAD A FEELING IN HIS LIFE!!! WHO WANTS CAKE?

I don’t mean for this to be a dunking-on-Donna party, because I love her, and again: she has been explicit with Roy, over and over and over again, about her goal here. The only thing that really pisses me off is her continued reference to Lian getting hurt, as if only Lian is capable of it - as if Roy genuinely doesn’t possess feelings to hurt.

And yet that’s not entirely on Donna, because Roy performs “I don’t have feelings to hurt” so consistently and so well. I think it’s partially that the Titans tend to fall back into their teenage roles when they’re around each other, but Roy was a carefree horndog when he first joined the team, and dangit, that’s the role he’s going to continue to play. (And Donna is far from the only member of the Fab Five to occasionally treat Roy like he has no feelings and is incapable of love, only boners.)

So yeah, it’s very easy to be angry with Donna here, but remember: Donna was honest with Roy throughout, but Roy wasn’t honest with Donna or himself, not for a minute. And why? It’s right up there in Arsenal #1. He’s scared to try. He’s scared to let himself believe that someone might stay. Easier to pretend to everyone, himself included, that he doesn’t care than to leave himself vulnerable like that.

In conclusion: this relationship is a MESS and I cannot look away, it is delicious to me.

After this, Roy actually does get other love interests, and it’s worth noting that with the exception of Cheshire - who he walked away from because she was, you know, a supervillain - he has never once been the one to end things. Donna breaks up with him. Grace and Helena are strictly casual. Kendra...well, that’s a mutual split, but sparked by her saying another man’s name in bed. Kori breaks up with him. And every single time, not a word of protest from Roy. Never a single argument in his defense.

And then there’s Jason. Or more specifically, there’s the way Jason walks away at the end of Red Hood/Arsenal. You know the page I’m talking about:

Now, this is a different continuity with some very different characterization for Roy, and Scott Lobdell is a fucking hack, but holy shit is this the Roy I used to know. Being dumped, again. Just taking it, again. Turning away to keep from showing how he feels, but this time he can’t bring himself to put on the big happy “Hey, it’s okay, I deserve this!” smile. Not yet. (But does he come charging back in to fight Batman the second Jason needs him? Of course he does.)

Anyway. I feel like we’re all very familiar with Jason’s fears and traumas and intimacy issues, but I made this post in part as a reminder that just because Roy is charismatic and extroverted and very, very good at pretending doesn’t mean he doesn’t have his own insecurities, and doesn’t mean that he doesn’t repeatedly play out unhealthy scripts. So if you’re wondering why I’m obsessed with writing Roy willfully insisting that thing are casual when they’re obviously not, or being incapable of believing that someone (Jason) is in love with him when they patently are...this is why. I’d tell him to go to therapy, but we all know how that turned out.

(Seriously, though, Roy. Go to therapy.)

[tibby]

If you have the time can you please please please recap season 4 of riverdale. I was going to binge it on Netflix but things happen and then I saw your post about the graduation episode and HAD to watch that happen and now I’m recommitted to the cause and need to know what happened while I was gone

sure. okay so the season sadly starts with the death of fred andrews in a very sentimental and moving episode that’s kind of seperate from the rest of the show so it’s not really until episode two that things kick off. the riverteens are kind of thriving in a parentless world because milf alice was kidnapped by a cult, dilf hiram and milf hermione are in prison, milf penelope is in hiding after killing a bunch of people, milf mary is kind of just There, milf gladys went back to toledo after her drug empire failed, god knows what milf sierra and gay kevin’s straight former cop dad are off doing, and dilf fp is the sheriff but because it’s fp he’s kind of bad at it. so the riverteens are horrified when their new principal mr honey expects them to be at school on time and disapproves of them throwing school dances because students keep getting murdered at them. cheryl, who an episode prior never wanted anyone in riverdale to celebrate the 4th of july ever again because of her brother’s death, considers this an act of oppression and throws a party at her house. however, as she is keeping her brother’s mummified corpse in the basement, she gets angry when reggie tries to sneak down there. meanwhile gay kevin is trying to make amends with betty for the time he tried to have her lobotomised because of the cult led by chad michael murray. betty uses this to her advantage to find out where the cult is, teaming up with her half brother, charles (not to be confused with chic, who was only PRETENDING to be charles back in season two). archie gets munroe, his prison buddy, to attend riverdale high, and reggie is weirdly jealous about it. archie discovers that this is because reggie is being abused by his father, so they smash in his car and apparently this solves everything. jughead starts attending stonewall prep, where he meets bret weston wallis, donna sweett, joan berkeley, and jonathan. he also reunites with moose, who disappeared in mid s3 after cheryl outed him to the whole school including his homophobic dad, and then his homophobic dad dressed up as the gargoyle to try and stop moose and gay kevin hooking up in the sex bunker they stole from dilton doiley after he killed himself, but it turns out that his homophobic dad was just angry HE never got to fuck gay kevin’s straight cop dad back in the day. it was this whole thing. anyway, moose is like “i’m going by my real name, marmaduke now, so people don’t find out about my dad” but everyone does anyway and so moose mysteriously disappears again. betty finds out where the cult is (after disarming a bomb attached to her sister polly using a bobby pin) and goes to rescue her mother. milf alice reveals that chad michael murray is using the cult money to build a rocket, and his wife/fake daughter evelyn is going to drive a bus full of cultists off a cliff. the day is saved! veronica finds out that her father’s real surname is luna and decides to start going by that as an act of rebellion because he keeps leaving the prison that he owns to fuck with her after she had him arrested. archie decides to turn his gym into a community centre with munroe’s help. cheryl, who, for unknown reasons, obtained custody of polly’s twins, immediately fires the nanny that toni hired because he said there were probably rats in the walls and went into the basement. cheryl goes to make sure that the nanny didn’t interfere with her brother’s mummified corpse, and toni walks in on her stitching him up. videotapes start arriving at the homes of the riverdale residents of said homes being filmed for hours. onto halloween! toni tells cheryl they can’t have a dead body in the horse and makes her rebury jason, at which point cheryl claims she is being haunted by a doll named julian, who is supposedly possessed by the spirit of her other brother that she ate in utero, but the haunting will stop if they unbury jason. toni agrees, but the doll continues to appear in weird places, and cheryl is forced to confess that while she WAS gaslighting her before, she isn’t right now. betty bonds with charles while receiving prank phone calls from polly, who is now in a mental institution. archie and munroe try to throw a halloween party at their community centre for the troubled youths but it’s interrupted by a drug dealing gang trying to start shit in the parking lot, thus giving archie a new enemy. reggie destroys mr honey’s office for the joke but mr honey catches him and is like “you do this because your dad hits you.” jughead uncovers mysteries surrounding strange disappearances of prep students known as “the stonewall four,” and donna drugs him so she and bretjoanjonathan can lock him in a coffin overnight as a bit. meanwhile, veronica burns a man alive in her basement. archie becomes a teen vigilante for the millionth time in the series, jughead and the other stonewall stags go into the running to be the ghostwriter for the baxter brothers franchise, veronica gets her mother out of prison but then finds out that her half sister, hermosa the PI, got their father out of prison, and he is now mayor again. betty and gay kevin start an fbi training course in which betty realises the serial killer gene is a real thing and she does have it, and remembers when she killed her childhood cat. jughead finds out that his grandfather who drunk himself to death but also abandoned fp but is also just some guy ACTUALLY wrote the baxter brothers franchise and is like “i have to reveal this!” so he takes it to his english teacher mr chipping but then mr chipping jumps out of a window before anything can come of it, and jughead is horrified when the stonewall stags have no reaction. cheryl is still convinced she is being haunted by a doll and things are further complicated when her extended family shows up. her uncle discovers jason’s body in the basement, threatens to send cheryl away, and is killed by toni. speaking of death, archie is still on his vigilante shit and asks hiram for help, at which point the near dead body of the gang leader, dodger shows up wrapped in carpet outside of the community centre. betty visits chic in prison to find out more about charles, and when chic threatens to reveal where milf alice buried the man she killed back in season two, charles and fp go to dig it up again and move it somewhere else. to get her family away from her and also in the spirit of thanksgiving, cheryl makes them think that they ate her uncle. dodger’s family show up at the community centre thanksgiving for revenge and there’s almost a shoot out, but thankfully the deep fryer explodes and chaos is avoided! milf mary later suggests the deep fryer exploding was archie’s dead dad’s ghost. betty and jughead spend the weekend at stonewall prep, where they play a homoerotic game of never have i ever with bret and donna. donna says that she and mr chipping were having an affair. now it’s time for the gang to go to therapy: archie gets diagnosed with gay but is also just suffering from an insane guilt complex, betty has mommy issues, veronica has daddy issues, cheryl is being gaslit but did NOT eat her brother in utero, jughead is just some guy. jughead finds out where his abusive alcoholic grandfather has been hiding out, and meanwhile his dad gets shot. veronica decides to fight back against her father by starting a rival rum business. polly rips off a nurse’s face and betty finds out that everyone in her family has a trigger word instilled in them by the cult, so she imagines herself going back in time to STOP her child self killing her cat to learn how to control it. cheryl uncovers her gaslighter by literally gassing her house, and it’s revealed that milf penelope was living in the walls and mad that cheryl had jason’s body. cheryl reburies jason and imprisons her mother in the sex bunker. archie’s uncle shows up, just in time for football season! the riverteens are playing stonewall prep, and reggie reveals that the preppies fight dirty, just in time for them to tonya harding munroe’s knees as he is their star player. archie’s uncle gives munroe steroids so he can play anyway, and riverdale loses but munroe gets a scholarship. cheryl feuds with her new cheerleading coach and locks her in her office so she has a panic attack. hiram threatens to sue veronica for stealing his rum recipe, so she teams up with cheryl (maple syrup queen) to create a new type. jughead joins the stonewall prep secret society, the quill and skull, and reveals that he watched a homeless man die. also, the cheerleading team performs cherry bomb. betty starts feuding with bret and decides to stand off against him in a quiz show, and although she wins, she is accused of cheating and is forced to give it up. she also wanted to use this to try and get into yale because apparently “cooper” is an uncommon name and people associate it with her serial killer father. veronica and cheryl enlist milf penelope and her former brothel in a hotel to run their underground rum dealership after hiram kept fucking shit up at veronica’s speakeasy. jughead is forced to come up with new stories for his baxter brother books, and so he writes about betty’s serial killer father (uh oh!) archie tries to restart his father’s construction company but his uncle’s shenanigans make it hard and gay kevin’s straight former cop dad has HAD IT. fangs is back from cult recovery, but gay kevin has gotten into non sexual tickle porn. toni and fangs get in on this they use this to blackmail nick st clair after he returns and understandably upsets cheryl, his would be rape victim. archie is attacked in the bathrooms at school because his uncle can’t mind his own business, but this plot was fucking boring so i don’t remember most of it. jughead and bret decided to duel, because of course, and betty uses this as a chance to investigate the preppies further. she finds out that bret films sex tapes and blackmailed moose with one, and also has one of her and jughead. she also finds a video suggesting donna lied about her affair with mr chipping. veronica goes to new york to visit katy keene, played by lucy hale of fantasy island fame, who tells her that her mother is dying. veronica returns home just in time to hear that hiram has a mysterious disease and decides to make amends. jughead is accused of plagiarism, meanwhile veronica realises her father thrives off war, and continues their rum battle. archie is now drinking at school and veronica accuses mr honey of being a fascist for having a problem with it. BUT. MOST IMPORTANTLY. ALL SEASON WE HAVE BEEN TEASED WITH DEADHEAD. AND IT IS FINALLY HAPPENING. IDES OF MARCH PARTY AT STONEWALL PREP. AND BETTY BASHES JUGHEAD’S HEAD IN WITH A ROCK. betty tries to prove that the stonewall stags did it instead but donna is an insane lesbian and thrives off gaslighting and fucking with her. because jughead died, betty gets his spot at yale. the core four are accused of murder but cleared of everything. jughead has a funeral, and bret’s attempt of proving jughead isn’t in the casket are thwarted by the sweet pea, the sweetest pea in the room. hiram shows up just to fire fp as sheriff. betty kisses archie to help with her grief, and veronica ends things with them both. but donna is not convinced, and goes around stalking betty, saying she watched her sex tape and knows that betty couldn’t last so long without sex with jughead. and she is right! because lo and behold, jughead is alive and hiding in the sex bunker, despite donna’s best attempts to catch them out. donna knows they’re up to something and implies she killed jonathan when bret doubts her. betty and archie are like “yeah we only dated for the bit :/” but their texting implies it was...more. betty and jughead return to stonewall and expose the preppies, but they decide not to interview jonathan because he “has food poisoning.” or he’s dead. their other teacher kills himself, and fp reunites with his abusive father. betty discovers that donna’s grandmother was one of the people killed for the rights to the baxter brothers/tracy true franchise, and the entire scheme was a complicated revenge plot by donna to get back at their teacher for killing her grandmother. betty blackmails her with this information so donna can’t have the tracy true contract, and everything is “wrapped up” just in time for gay kevin to announce he’s doing a variety show. gay kevin’s intentions of performing hedwig are destroyed when mr honey is like “no, this is inappropriate for high schoolers,” and so the riverteens decide to band together and have everyone perform hedwig songs as an act of protest. meanwhile, betty and jughead fight because jughead didn’t do his homework because he was too busy watching the stalker vhs tapes, and veronica and archie fight because he lied about her father working out at his gym, given that hiram has tried to kill him multiple times and doesn’t really care about his health. betty and archie use this as an opportunity to kiss during origin of love. the variety show is cancelled, but the core four and gay kevin perform midnight radio on the roof, and jughead watches a stalker vhs tape of someone in a betty mask killing someone in a jughead mask. tickle porn shenanigans continue, and gay kevin is threatened over cheating his original tickle porn handler out of money. mr honey then forces them to shut the website down. cheryl leaves the rum business after her mother is threatened because of goons that were mad at hiram. hiram decides to deal with this by going after said goons. archie writes a song for betty, they explore their relationship further, but she picks jughead over him even when he says he’ll dump veronica for her. jughead discovers that ethel watched his and betty’s sex tape, and he and charles uncover blue velvet video, which houses sexy films and snuff films, and jughead is like “oh this is connected to the whole vhs stalker thing.” cheryl is sent a video of someone dressed up as her father killing someone dressed up as her brother. the riverteens turn their focus to the fact that all of them except archie and jughead have been banned from prom for various reasons, and betty suggests they kill mr honey as punishment. jughead writes an elaborate murder fantasy about them doing so, and also kills off reggie and drives cheryl insane for the bit i guess. the riverteens conclude that mr honey was behind the vhs stalker tapes and have him fired, and he tells them they’re all deranged before going to teach at stonewall prep. the school secretary tells them all the wonderful things mr honey did for the school and hands jughead a recommendation letter he wrote him for college. jughead realises they fucked up and rewrites his story so mr honey lives, but uh oh! he and betty uncover a vhs tape of their fictional murder of mr honey, much like the others.

and that’s what you missed on riverdale!

[eternallyyoungjustice]

Wherever the Winds Take You: Chapter 13

A/N: Okay, not gonna lie, didn’t really edit this one much. It’s super duper short, sticks pretty close to the episode, and it’s just been a week. So I apologize for any spelling errors or awkward phrasing. But otherwise, I hope you all like it! Thank you so much for your continued support of my shameless guilty pleasure.

Santa Prisca July 22 21:10

The tunnel remained dark and cold for a few minutes, the only sounds being the ragged breaths of six young heroes and the shuffle of feet against stone. All members collectively could hear their own heartbeat in their ears, and felt the adrenaline pumping through their veins.

Finally, a loud crack broke the silence and an eerie red glow emitted from the glowstick that Aqualad held and promptly tossed to the ground. Every member of the team stood there; Kid Flash and Zephyr showing the most wear, as the non-humans held good composure and Robin stood silently, staring at the barricade of rock and debris that separated the team from the way they came.

After a moment, however, Robin finally broke the silence.

“How could my first mission as leader go so wrong?”

“You do have the most experience, but perhaps that is exactly what has left you unprepared.” Aqualad spoke. “Fighting alongside Batman, your roles are defined. You two do not need to talk. But this team is new, and a leader must be clear, explicit. He cannot vanish and expect others to play parts in an unknown plan.”

Robin whirled around, snarled and poison-tongued. “Oh, so I’m supposed to hold everyone’s hands?!” The boy let out a growl of frustration and glared down at the ground. But then, after a moment, the tension in his shoulders released and his form slumped slightly. “Oh, who am I kidding? You should lead us, Kaldur. You’re the only one who can.”

“Please! I can run circles-” Kid Flash’s outburst was cut off by Robin’s now much calmer tone. “Wally, come on. You know he’s the one.” The young boy’s eyes lifted to meet his elder’s. “We all do.”

“Hello, Megan! It’s so obvious!” M’gann chirped.

“Could’a told you.” Superboy shrugged.

Kaldur’s eyes met Lina’s knowing gaze. “You know you have my vote.”

Everyone turned to Wally, who stood awkwardly for a moment before sighing in resignation. “Okay!”

“Then I accept the burden,” Kaldur nodded, stepping towards Robin and placing a hand on the younger boy’s shoulder, “until you are ready to lift it from my shoulders. You were born to lead this team, maybe not now, but soon.” Robin nodded, his normal smile returning to his face.

Kaldur turned back to speak to the team as a whole. “Alright, our first priority is preventing that shipment from leaving this island.”

“Funny,” Robin smirked, “I had the same thought.”

As the group began to dash down the tunnel’s length, they began to compare notes.

“Robin and I discovered data about the new shipments on a computer in the warehouse.” Kid Flash spoke up. “It looks like Kobra has combined Venom and the Blockbuster formula from Cadmus, making Venom three times as strong and permanent.”  

“So obviously Kobra attacked Bane’s Satna Prisca to have an unlimited supply of the Venom formula, making it able to create the new superformula.” Robin explained. “Which explains how normal supply chains have been cut off if--it’s for a whole new product. But it doesn’t explain how Kobra got his hands on Dr. Desmond’s formula.”

“We discovered that the supplier arriving today was the villain, Sportsmaster.” Aqualad nodded.

Robin pulled up his holo-computer. “Okay, so that must mean Sportsmaster is the supplier and buyer...but it still doesn’t track. He’s a gun for hire, he doesn’t have the power to acquire the blockbuster formula or to get Kobra to do his dirty work.”

“And neither of them have the chops to bond blockbuster with venom. That took some major nerdage.” Kid Flash chimed in.

“I believe the expression is…” As the team arrived at the mouth of the entrance, they were met with the sight of Bane standing there, finishing pumping himself with his normal venom serum which connected from a tube from his arm to the base of his skull, and seemed to enhance his muscle to an inhuman amount. With a sigh of relief, the masked villain dropped the vial formerly containing venom and gazed down at the team of young heroes with a crazed look in his eyes. “‘tip of the iceberg’.”

“Halt, ninos.” Bane growled and revealed a handheld trigger in his grasp. “I’m feeling...explosive.” Simultaneous beeping alerted the team to gaze up, revealing a large number of charged explosives around the mouth of the tunnel.

“You betrayed us, why?” Aqualad spoke, in a tone that-to anyone that knew him-sounded very fake. Bane, however, didn’t seem to notice the falseness. While Bane was distracted, the Atlantean reached out via the telepathic link. “Kid, you’ll need a running start.”

“I want my factory back!” Bane began to monologue. “So I forced you into a situation where you would either take down my enemies for me, or die trying. If the latter, the Justice League would certainly have come to avenge their sidekicks. And when the smoke cleared, Santa Prisca would be mine once more...blowing the tunnel with you inside, should have the same effects.”

Caught in his own monologue, Bane didn’t see the dark blue that flew by him.

“With what?” Kid Flash suddenly asked, now suddenly behind the hulking man and holding the hand-held trigger that had just been in Bane’s grasp. “This trigger thingy?”

Bane let out a loud growl and pulled back to land a strong punch to the speedster, but promptly found himself being lifted off his feet by an invisible force. Being slowly turned around, Bane saw a smiling Miss Martain standing under him, lifting him telekinetically with a raised hand.

“Finally,” Superboy smirked as he stepped forward, and cracked his knuckles. “Drop him.”

Santa Prisca July 22 21:31

Back outside the warehouse, at its helipad, we watched patiently until Sportsmaster and Kobra bid goodbye to one another. Sportsmaster was a tall, hulking man that was essentially all muscle, who wore a signature goalie mask over his face, but otherwise had no notable physical traits. Kobra, on the other hand, has an almost just as tall figure with an equally as strong build, although his muscles were not nearly as hulking as his compatriots’ and hid his figure under a dark crimson cloak. His pale skin was almost anemic and seemed to glow under the light of the moon, but somehow didn’t make him look sickly. Overall, the aura around him made Zephyr’s spine tingle uncomfortably.

“This Kobra man…” Zephyr whispered from her spot in the shadows next to Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad. “I do not like his vibe.”

Robin snickered quietly. “Have you liked any villains’ ‘vibe’ before?”

The young girl thought for a moment. “Poison Ivy.” She whispered, thinking deeply. “She is, uh, qu'est-ce que...fine as hell, tres tres bonne. Robin, why are most of your famous villains so good-looking, hm? Seems very unfair.”

This made both Robin and Kid Flash snort with laughter to the point where they had to muffle themselves.

“Do you want to trade cities Zeph’?” Robin asked, eyebrows cocked in amusement.

The young women paled, recalling the patrol she and Aqualad had done the other night. “Fair enough! No thank you!”

This made Robin chuckle a little more.

Sportsmaster began to make his way towards the helicopter, causing Aqualad to give Kid Flash his signal, and the young ginger ran off at lightning speed, knocking down cultists and pulling gunfire in his wake.

“Protect the shipment!” A cult member exclaimed. Just in time for Superboy to jump and land in front of Mammoth, who stood next to Kobra.

“Go again?” The clone yelled at the hulking beast, causing it to roar and attack. However, it was promptly forced off-course by a sudden continuous force of water, controlled by Aqualad, sending him right into nearby trees. “Sorry, not the plan.”

As Mammoth roared fiercely and began to fight back against being sprayed, Zephyr flew over him, moving her arms and collecting as many of the coldest Winds she could find. The girl reached high up into the atmosphere to find the ones to complete her task and sent them crashing down onto the blast of water and onto Mammoth, freezing the water around him until slowly but eventually, he was encased in thick, frigid, ice.

At being controlled so forcefully, the Winds carrying Zephyr faltered and the girl landed on the ground in a crouching stance. “I am going to be honest with you,” She called to her new team leader as she dodged a cultist’s fire. “I did not know if that would work!” She managed to grab hold of the cultist’s gun and bashed him in the head with it, before chucking it at another cultist’s head, successfully rendering both unconscious.

“Be thankful it did then!” Aqualad yelled back as he fought his own share of cultists.

Not a moment later, the helicopter filled with products began to take off with Sportsmaster inside. Zephyr turned and prepared her Winds to go after it, just in case, but was relieved when it exploded into flames mid-air, causing it to plummet down towards the factory. Off in the distance, the figure of Sportsmaster leaping out and deploying a parachute could be seen.

As the burning helicopter dropped into the factory, it only took a moment before a deep, rumbling ‘boom’ seemed to shake the island as a whole, and flames erected from the giant metal structures. As the fire began to swallow up the entirety of the warehouses, the cultists-those who remained conscious enough to stand-began to flee from the helipad and into the forest, causing the team to turn its attention to Kobra, who stood (no longer wearing his cloak) over Robin, with a single foot pinning the boy to the ground. The cult leader seemed to scan the six teenagers carefully as if weighing his chances of success, but ultimately began to move away, removing his foot from Robin’s chest and slinking away into the shadows of the trees with a low, grumbling “another time then…”

Robin stood, and immediately darted into where Kobra had disappeared, but alas, he was gone without a trace. Slowly walking back to his team, Robin gazed up at the sizzling remains of the factory and watched the flames like at the metal for a moment, before looking back down at his comrades.

“We picked the right guy to lead.” Robin nodded with a smile at Aqualad. “...automatically making you the right guy to explain this mess to Batman!” Robin walked away, laughing, and Kaldur’s face seemed to immediately drain of any blood as fear entered his eyes.

“Don’t worry Aqualad.” M’gann piped up, floating close to her leader. “We won’t let Batman chew you out too much! Besides, I was technically the one who made the helicopter explode.”

“Yeah, don’t sweat it too much.” Wally smiled. “We’re a team now, which means we’re all gonna be killed by Bats equally!” This earned him looks from all the remaining members.

“Your bedside manner definitely could use some improvements, my friend.” Lina shook her head, but she quickly offered a supportive smile to her best friend-now leader.

Mount Justice July 23 10:01

“A simple recon mission! Observe and report!” Batman growled loudly, his tone so uniquely terrifying that it could possibly strike fear into every living creature on the planet. Or at least that’s what it felt like. “You will each receive a written evaluation detailing your many mistakes. But until then…”

The main open room of the cave seemed to ring with anticipated breath as the co-leader of the Justice League paused.

“Good job.”

This shocked every member of the team with surprise, causing them to all whirl their heads to look at Batman with bewildered looks.

“No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. How you adjust to the unforeseen is what determines success. And how you choose who leads determines character.” Batman turned and began walking away. “You’re all dismissed.”

“Did…” Wally spoke, a small smile itching at his lips. “Did we just get verbally patted on the back by the Batman? For blowing up a factory?”

“I...I think we did!” Robin chuckled, running a stunned hand through his spiky black hair.

“We just finished our first actual mission together, right?” M’gann perked up. “I believe that’s cause for celebration! What do you guys think?” All the members of the team looked to one another, and then looked to Kaldur.

“Well...leader gives the orders.” Robin smirked.

Kaldur smiled and nodded. “Celebration is well-deserved, I think.”

The team all cheered, or in Superboy’s case silently smiled, and began making their way towards the exit to the cave.

“I’m thinking...pizza, Chinese food, snacks and a movie marathon...with possibly dessert provided by the lovely M’gann?” Wally asked, shooting finger guns at the martian herself.

“You...want me to make dessert? After my batch of cookies went so wrong?” M’gann asked, seemingly delighted and flattered.

“I will give you some help in the kitchen M’gann, don’t worry,” Lina said, locking her arm with the younger girl’s. “We’re going to need two sets of hands in the kitchen if we need to feed Kid Mouth and everyone else anyway.”

“Oh, this is going to be sweet!!” Wally exclaimed.

As the gang began to loudly plan their big party, Lina leaned away from the conversation slightly, pulling her phone out of the pocket of her jean jacket. Unlocking the device, she quickly found her and Roy’s texting conversation. Smiling to herself, she quickly types out her message.

Call me when you get home from patrol tonight! You’re going to want to hear about our first mission! Guess who our new leader is…. :D -L

[fandom-writer642]

Easter Egg Hunt (YJ Team x Reader)

Summary: This is a spin off of Cursed Dead? which takes place in after part 1, season one. The team finds that the Mountain has been turned into an Easter egg hunt.

Note: I won’t be doing a part two to Cursed Dead?

Request: No but it's Easter

Pairing?: YJ Team x Fem!Reader. Robin x Fem!Reader

———

As the team entered the Mountain after a fake mission that Batman set up. They couldn’t understand why the man would play them but they only slightly understood when they got back to base. They couldn’t help but blink as a table was set out in the middle of the room. Baskets of different colors with one Easter egg inside each basket. (Y/n) sat on the table with a basket in her lap, as large smile spread along her face. Her image seemed to flicker from her translucent one to a solid one. “Happy Easter!”

The team smiled at the girl who looked at them excitedly. All their tiredness washed away as they grew curious and slightly excited. The third basket on her left was accented with orange ribbons while on the front was Aqualad’s symbol. Next to it was one wrapped in blue with a large red X on the front. The one right next to her left side was black with red Superman symbol on the front. The one farthest from her on the left was green with a lime green arrow head that was similar to the one on Artemis’s chest. Next to her on her right was a yellow one with a red flash symbol on the front. Finally, the one in her lap was red with a bat symbol on the front.

“What is this?” Aqualad asked.

“Well, it’s an Easter egg hunt! You have to follow the riddles and clues to find all of thirty of your eggs. Each person has thirty eggs with their corisponding color!”

“Where did you get the time for all of this?” Robin asked; his eyes narrowing at the girl who just smiled and approached him with his basket still in her hands.

“The League helped, mostly Batman though. I needed you guess out of the Mountain so he made a fake mission for you.” At their shocked expressions (Y/n) looked down at the basket her hair fell in front of her face. She had thought their shock was anger rather than actual shock. “Sorry! I knew it was a stupid idea but Batman said you wouldn’t be mad and that you’d enjoy it! I’m sorry.”

Robin put a hand on her shoulder, well more like above it since it would go through her. “We’re not mad just shocked. Really it’s a wonderful gesture.”

She looked up at him and he gave a kind smile to the ghost.

“Indeed, I think it would be fun.” Aqualad agreed.

Artemis and M’gnn nodded with wide smiles while Connor looked curious and slightly confused but nodded as well. Wally however looked thoughtful, the way she had put it made the hunt seem more like a challenge and a lot of challenges come with a prize.

“Is there a prize?”

“Yup! Agent A’s specially made cookies!”

“How much did B help you?” Robin said in shock.

“A lot! I went over to the Batcave and explained though I scared one kid-”

“Jay?” Robin cut in.

“Jay,” (Y/n) agreed. “And B told him off for throwing a bowl at me. But I told them my plan a few weeks ago and they all agreed to help me. Jay and B helped me paint the eggs and make the riddles and clues while Agent A made cookies.”

“So, when do we start?” Artemis asked. From the looks on Wally’s and Robin’s faces the cookies had to be something to die for.

“Well rules, no powers and,” she handed Robin his basket with a single egg and a riddle or clue inside. “Now.”

The team ran toward their baskets and looked at their hints while (Y/n) chased after Robin. The whole afternoon was spent Easter egg hunting and they had to admit it was fun.

•••

“Why would you plan this for us?” Robin asked her as he looked around his room.

“Why not?” (Y/n) shrugged. She sat on his bed and looked around the bare room. “Honestly Dick, you’re all my friends and I couldn’t have anyone better to hang out with.”

Dick turned to the girl who was now in front of him, “You’re amazing (Y/n).”

“Thank you. You’re fantastic, Dick, and don’t you ever forget it.”

Dick smiled at her, he wanted to hug her but he couldn’t, he would just go through her.

•••

Two hours later Robin found himself in the living area eating Alfred’s cookies while (Y/n) smiled and talked next to him. She took one and as a test to see if she could eat food from the land of the living she bit into it. To both hers and Robin’s surprise the cookie was actually bit into. They looked at each other in confusion before smiling at each other, having a small mental conversation with their eyes. They didn’t notice how close they were but they were just smiling and talking without saying a word.

Wally rushed in with Artemis not so far away but out of sight to the pair. They watched the two with sad eyes, not because of their defeat —though it was disappointing— but because Robin could never be with someone who was dead. Artemis saw how close the two were and saw (Y/n) whole body go from her translucent one to a solid one. Wally and Artemis shared a sad look as the rest of the team came behind them and joined in on watching. M’gnn gave a quiet gasp that barely reached the ears of the rest of the team.

Aqualad sighed and shared a look with Connor who looked a mix between sad and uncomfortable. Kaldur had similar thoughts to Wally and Artemis, that Robin could never be with (Y/n) because she was dead and Robin was not. That he would age and she would forever be the age she appeared. The relationship could never work. Yet, as he looked at the pair as they grew closer, making their gap close quicker he couldn’t help but hope it was some sort of trick and the they could be together.

“Happy Easter Robin.”

“Happy Easter (Y/n).”

Once again (Y/n)’s image turned solid and Robin took his chance. He pressed his lips to hers gaining a soft squeak for her before she returned it. She willed herself to stay solid knowing it was draining her energy but knowing it was worth it. Her lips were cold against his own from her ghostly state but he couldn’t care less, they were soft and molded well with his own. (Y/n) smiled against his lips as she felt more alive than she had when she was alive. Robin was well aware that she was willing herself to stay solid for as long as possible and couldn’t be happier about it because it proved something. If she didn’t like him she would have gone back to her ghost state and left but instead she was trying to stay solid and was kissing him back.

M’gnn cooed through the mindlink that was set up between the team, minus Robin.

They’re adorable, she spoke.

Artemis sighed as she looked at M’gnn, They could never be together though.

Artemis is right, Wally said through the link. Even if those two are making out right now it wouldn’t work, (Y/n) is dead and there is nothing we can do about it.

How come no one ever found her body then? Connor asked.

What do you mean Connor? Aqualad inquired. What do you mean (Y/n)’s body was never found?

It was never found, I asked Batman if I could visit her grave sight because we know her spirit but could never meet her person. He told me that she didn’t have one because no one found the body.

The team shared a look of confusion before turning back to the couple as Robin parted away from (Y/n) and her appearance flickered back to her ghost state. She was panting but smiling at him with happiness in her eyes. “Thank you Robin. Thank you.”

“Anytime,” he smiled. "I don't mind doing that again.”

“Oh, I know. But thank you, while I’m slightly drained I haven’t felt more alive.”

“Glad to hear.”

•••

The mentors watched the monitors with sad expressions also annoyed ones too. Batman wins every bet.

“They could never be together,” Barry spoke up sadly. “She’s a ghost and Dick’s still alive.”

“I’m aware,” Bruce said as he replayed the footage of the living area where the team was hiding and where Dick and (Y/n) were. “For now I think the two will manage.”

“Let’s hope so,” Oliver said. They all had watched (Y/n) and the team grow close and honestly it wasn’t far that her life had been taken away at such an age. “They both need each other.”

———

Note: This is bad but I liked it well enough.

[youllallriseintheink]

Thieves’ Gambit

Hey. So, I wrote a chapter for the body-swap to the death AU. I don’t know if I’ll make a whole thing of this, but what the heck. This is going to be the “day five” chapter. It’s an uplifting chapter, sort of the calm before the storm (assuming I make a whole thing of this), so to speak. If I do decide to write the whole thing, well, it’s not all going to be this fluffy. It’s gonna involve self-mutilation as a form of revenge, and lots and lots of demonic magic. Alright, now let’s get to it.

---

Henry Stein slid the tape recorder onto the top shelf of the break room and pressed record, as he’d done with another five tape recorders he’d hidden around the room. While he was glad that he’d soon be back in his own body, he was thanking his lucky stars for the power that came with the one he currently inhabited. As Joey Drew, he could make the employees do whatever he needed them to do in order to get more information out of them. Like now.

The twelve body-swapped employees filed in a few minutes later and sat down in the chairs that Henry had set up.

“You’re probably wondering what I brought you all here for,” Henry announced in his best dramatic, upbeat voice.  “Well, I’m here to give you the whole afternoon off! The only thing that I need you to do first is fill out a little survey for me. You’ll all have to stay in this room for thirty minutes. I don’t want any of you give incomplete answers just so you can leave early! Understood?” Henry’s speech was replied with a chorus of nods, and so Henry passed out the surveys and headed for the door. Before leaving he paused to wonder if Joey would have stayed longer to watch them. Henry supposed it didn’t matter. This whole scenario was already pretty weird, and between the surveys and the tape, and everything else that he’d done to secure information that week, Henry felt entirely confident that he was going to live even if he did a mediocre job at selling his role.

Everyone in the room was done their survey within less than fifteen minutes. Most just sat, still and expressionless, after they were done. It was easier than acting. Some, however, were on the hunt for answers.

Norman Polk, in the body of Shawn Flynn, ran up to Wally Franks (or rather, whoever was piloting him) and exclaimed, “Hey, Wally, my boy! Let’s do something crazy after we get out of here!” He didn’t bother to try and fake an Irish accent. No one but Shawn had one, so not having one wouldn’t have narrowed down anyone’s quarry at all. He was, however, ratcheting up the speed, pitch and volume of his normally deep, heavy voice.

Grant, who was currently piloting Wally’s body, just wanted to go home and collapse. He’d already taken a sick day this week because, as a person who barely had the energy to make it through the day as was, doing so while analyzing every action he and others around him made, and while pretending to be a bundle of zany energy and incompetence, was all but impossible.Soon, he promised himself, summoning the all the vigor he could to act like the boundless ball of energy he was inhabiting. “Oh, boy! I love me something crazy! What exactly are we gonna do?”

“Gee, I don’t know Wally. You’re my idea man, why don’t you come up with somethin'?”

Grant had no time to think. “Let’s roll down the biggest set of stairs we can find in a garbage can!” Of all things to come out of my mouth, it just had to be that, he snapped at himself. But, surely whoever was piloting Shawn would have the sense to shut it down.

“Now we’re talking! I know just the place!”

“Yeah! And, uh, so do I!”

“Let’s ride down every damn staircase in New York! We’ve got nothing but time!”

From the corner, Lacie was resisting the urge to fall over laughing. These two men were looking at each other with these big, pained, ridiculous smiles, curled fists and nervous looks in their eyes, and had devolved into chattering about absolutely nothing, probably because they figured that Wally and Shawn wouldn’t have just let the conversation die down. “Someone’s overselling your role,” she whispered teasingly to Shawn. Shawn was in her body, so he was allowed to laugh, a luxury she, in Norman’s body, did not possess.

Shawn began scribbling on a piece of paper. To anyone else, Shawn would have had to actually speak, producing a painful-sounding attempt at an American accent. Not to Lacie, though. The day before, Lacie had heard Shawn speaking in that strained voice, taken him into the ink machine room where no one else could hear, and stomped hard on his foot. The Irish cursing that had earned her was proof enough that she’d found Shawn. The two had agreed to a thieves’ gambit- neither would guess the other when the time arrived. They’d decided that Bertrum and Wally would be a part of the thieves’ gambit as well, if they ever found them.

Shawn handed Lacie the scrap of paper. Looks like he’s not the only one overselling it, it read. Shawn, a goofy smile on his face, pointed at a despondent-looking Grant Cohen who was sitting huddled in the corner. Lacie watched as the little man brushed tears from his eyes. That doesn’t look like acting, Lacie wrote. I’m going to go see if that’s one of the thieves’ gambit.

All in all, Lacie was fairly indifferent to Norman Polk. Barely knew a thing about him, which made playing him pretty difficult. But Grant had spoken at length about their friendship while the two of them (plus Shawn) had gone out drinking, so it was clear to her that being friendly to him was perfectly in character.

“Hey. Everything alright?” she asked.

“Grant,” who was really Wally Franks, stopped crying momentarily and looked over to “Norman” and “Lacie.” Wally generally found those two intimidating, but right now even their company was more than welcome. “Oh, yes,” Wally answered, trying to put the appropriate pretentious air into his tearful voice. “Joey is overspending again, what else is new? Don’t worry about me, I just want to be alone awhile.”

“Fair enough,” “Norman” replied. She didn’t see any way to force the truth out of him. They turned to go back to their own corner of the room.

Wally felt like a starving man who had just shoved a plate of food into a trash compactor. And for what? He was dead no matter how well he sold his role, and he knew it. “Wait,” he called after them as he met them in the center of the room. He wasn’t even trying to hide his real voice anymore. “Can I tell you what’s really botherin’ me?”

“Yes, go ahead!” “Norman” said.

“I don’t know how well I’m playin’ this role, and I still don’t know who anyone is, and I’m sure the opposite isn’t true, and I’m just tryin’ to accept that I’m gonna die and I really needed to talk to someone but I know he wouldn’ta done that, and I-“ Wally started sobbing. He felt like everyone could see who he was now. He might as well give every clue of it away. “I’m worried about my dogs. I don’t know if Norman’s eatin’ em or Joey’s sacrificin’ em to the Gods or what. I just wanna see my dogs, make sure they’re okay!”

Shawn looked awkwardly over to Lacie. It was pretty obvious that this was Wally, but he wasn’t about to let anyone into the thieves’ gambit without her consent. Lacie gave Shawn a little nod of permission, and Shawn put an arm around his crying friend. “Hey. Stick with us after they let us out of here, alright? We’re here for you.”

“Okay,” Wally choked out.

A few minutes later, everyone was allowed out. Shawn led the way, and the trio followed “Shawn” and “Wally.” Shawn tapped “Shawn” on the shoulder to get his attention, then put on his best annoyed-but-playful Lacie voice. “Hey, dumbass. You forgot to lock up the storage closet.” The strain to hide his accent aside, he was doing one hell of an impression.

“Oh no. I don’t know about any storage closet. Can you help me?”

“Of course. I’ll cover for ya, buddy. Just hand me the key.”

“Thank you,” “Shawn” said. He dug in his pocket and pulled out a key ring. Shawn grabbed it and quickly removed a small, round key before handing it back.

“I’ll get it back to you at Henry’s party on Sunday, alright?”

“Yeah, perfect! Thanks Lacie!” “Shawn” beamed before turning to go.

The second the three were a safe distance from the studio, Shawn spoke up in full Irish accent. “Wally my boy, do you know what just happened?”

Wally’s eyes lit up as he realized the identity of his cohort. “Shawn!”

“That’s right, my laddie! And your favourite dogsitter just nabbed the spare key to your apartment from his own body! I can’t solve all yer problems, but hey, at least we can see your dogs while “you” are busy rolling down stairs with “me”.”

Speechless, Wally squeezed the life out of Shawn. On the walk over, Lacie explained the thieves’ gambit to him. It didn’t encourage him any about his chances of living, but it still felt nice to have two people he didn’t have to act for.

—

Norman was good at this game, owing mostly to his ability to read people like a book. He’d already guessed the identity of seven players of the game, and he would have guessed “Wally’s” identity as well, if he hadn’t been trying to handle some harder cases first, and if “Wally” hadn’t been absent from work the day before. Even then, there were only so many people he could be, and Norman had narrowed it down to four potential candidates: Susie, Grant, Thomas, and Lacie. This trial they were marching towards (lord knows what staircase “Wally” was leading him to) would make a perfect test. Susie and Grant, Norman knew, were both fairly nervous people, and they both had their nervous ticks. Susie tended to play with her hair, and Grant preferred torturing his hands. Put “Wally” in between physical danger and acting out of character, and all it would take is a little observation.

Finally, they arrived at a steep set of stairs on the edge of a hill. The steps looked to descend at least a good fifteen feet, and Norman could see “Wally” wringing his hands at the sight of it. He’d already suspected it was Grant- had the same shifty eyes and the same manner of walking- but now he was fairly sure of it. For the sake of the act, though, the two fetched an empty trash can from an alleyway. At very least, Norman had convinced “Wally” to go first.

“Can I do the hill first?” “Wally” asked, looking back at Norman with a big, obviously fake smile.

“Sure, if you wanna be a coward!” He yelled without thinking. Another talent of Norman’s was entering another person when he was acting. In this moment, he was Shawn Flynn, and his unthinking instinct was to act like Shawn Flynn.

“Wally” mumbled an okay, climbed into the filthy trash can while trying to hide his hesitation, and tried to wrack up the courage to roll himself down the stairs. This is ridiculous,was all he had time to think before he felt a push against the side of the can and he was tumbling down, watching the world spin and praying for his physical safety.

Thankfully, Grant emerged from the can unhurt except for a few cuts and bruises and started making his way up the stairs to hand the can over to “Shawn” for his turn.

“Woo! That was amazin’! Sorry, but I’ll have to head home and walk the dogs after this. But first, I wanna see you go!”

“Wally’s” eyes trained on Norman as he handed him the trash can. Was he actually going to do this? Hurt someone else’s body to perform for one person? Heck, was he really going to increase his best friend’s chances of dying at the end of the week? He already had so many identities figured out, so how much extra protection would that even give him?

Norman tossed the garbage can aside. “Grant, this is stupid. We got through the workweek, let’s just stop acting already. This is Norman talking.”

Within about five seconds, Grant’s face phased through shock and anger before landing on relief. “Well, I admire your courage,” he replied, a snarky tone in his voice. “Next time though, maybe find it before making me crawl into a musty trash can and pushing me down the stairs?”

Norman chuckled. “Well, it was your idea.”

“Here’s a better idea. Let’s go back to my place, have some coffee, and play some cards. It’s been a week.”

“Good plan. It has been a week,” Norman replied.

—

Lacie, Norman and Wally had made their way to Wally’s apartment. Lacie went ahead to knock first, just in case “Wally” had changed his mind and come home. The coast was clear.

The second Wally was through the door, he was kneeling on the floor as a golden retriever bounded towards him. “Goldie!” he shouted in delight. After Goldie came a Jack Russell Terrier. “Clover! Oh, who’s a good girl?” two little white and black chihuahuas followed. “Oh, and it’s the twins!” Wally scratched each of their sides, both as sign of affection and because it was the easiest way to make sure they were being adequately fed. They all seemed as healthy as they seemed happy to see them. “I think they recognize me!” Wally chirped. Then Goldie tried jumping into Wally’s arms and ended up bowling him onto the floor, where he was helpless to the licking of his four dogs. Wally was laughing. “Guess she doesn’t see how much smaller I am now!”

Just then, the door creaked open again, and “Wally” and “Shawn” stepped in.

“What is going on here?” “Wally” asked calmly.

“Uh...” Wally sat up, realizing that he had absolutely no idea what to say. “Well, you’ve probably already guessed who I am, so I guess I’ll tell the truth. I wanted to see my dogs, and Shawn is my number one dogsitter, so I had Shawn-“

“Lacie” face-palmed. So much for staying hidden.

“Uh, sorry. I had Shawn get the spare key to my apartment. That’s what happened. So, uh, thanks for looking after my dogs. We’ll just be going, I guess.”

“Hold it,” Shawn said. “Have you all ever heard of a thieves’ gambit?” Shawn knew it was a long-shot, but this could be his only chance to save Wally’s life.

“I’ve heard of it, but I’m not familiar with it,” Norman replied.

“Care to explain it, Lacie?”

Lacie did explain it. “Imagine that two thieves are brought in for questioning. The police separate em’ and tell em’, ‘we’ll give you half the usual sentence, but only if you admit to being a thief, and tell us who your partner is.’ Now, obviously, the thieves shouldn’t tell. But that��s only true if they can be sure the other person is trustworthy.”

“Interesting,” “Wally” said, “But what does that have to do with us?”

Shawn spoke up. “The three of us are in a thieves’ gambit. We know each other’s identity and we aren’t selling each other out. It’s in all of our best interest if you join us.”

Lacie made a face. “Shawn, a thieves’ gambit needs trust. We don’t even know their identities. One of them could be Joey for all we know.”

“Well, if I can suggest something,” Grant said, “The goal of this game is to guess more people than we are guessed by. So, if we can’t trust each other not to guess each other, well, it’ll lead to the exact same result if we all collectively agree to share our identities and rat each other out when the time comes.”

“Now that I can trust,” Lacie said.

“Also, I have a list of nine identities I’ve figured out,” Norman added. “Let us into your thieves’ gambit, and I’ll share them.”

“Wait, nine?” Shawn exclaimed, looking to Wally with excitement in his eyes. “Wally, you’re going to live!” He turned back to face the others with a sharp, serious face. “We’ll all agree to rat each other out, sure. But nobody is ratting out Wally! There are eight people not in this room, and there’s nine names on that list. If Wally dies, I’ll know one of you ratted him out, and I’ll kick all three of your asses into next Tuesday, ya hear?”

“We hear,” Grant replied. Honestly, though, with Norman’s list, no one would have any reason not to listen to Shawn. They’d won. And with the workweek over, the bulk of their acting was done. That night, Grant and Wally even slept in their own homes. All they had to do was to get through “Henry’s” party on Sunday and they were going to live.

[climaxstriker]

Notes on Wally

Yeah, I’m just making this post as a sort of guide for a mysterious warframe villain that I’m pretty sure is going to make a move soon-ish in an upcoming update.

Dude has a “I’m helping you to help me” Vibe. I made a similar post before but I figured, hey anyone who plays warframe might find this one wanting some idea of what he is. Plus shits and giggles. So Notes are underneath the cut. It’s more or less a recap.

First thing you need to know. The man in the wall is not an illusion. He’s an intelligent being. That much is certain.

I’ll just go over everything as I know from chronological order. From The war within to now.

The War Within: He wanted us to consume the Kuva. A corrupting Oil that brings madness and evil. So right there is an indicator that he wants you to do things that would not be beneficial to your well-being. One important detail to note is mainly how the Queen’s tried to take over your body. She wanted to corrupt your mind with despair.There’s also the detail that the Zariman 10-0 Massacre, where you were forced to kill your parents when Wally controlled all of the adults on the ship. Rell figured it out that his mother wasn’t his mother anymore....that someone was controlling her. That was the beginning of his carefully calculated plan.

The Sacrifice: This whole hunt for Umbra started because the Lotus gave us the vision of Umbra fighting Ballas. This was done telepathically rather than through transmissions. Why would someone use telepathy rather than their usual transmissions and why would she keep telepathy a secret until now? That makes no sense....Assuming of course, that was the Lotus at all. 

Umbra is a warframe with only one memory, being forced to murder his own son, Isaah, made to replay it again and again and again. At the end of the quest, Wally asks if we remember Umbra’s memory the way we do. Confirming it will have him say “Good.” Sounds strange right? Lotus’ sudden telepathy, Wally’s satisfaction at knowing you’ve internalized Umbra’s memory, Plus why would the Lotus show you a warframe to obtain after betraying us? They don’t make sense by themselves but Assume that wasn’t the Lotus but Wally that called you, then it suddenly makes a LOT more sense. Lotus’ whereabouts were merely bait for you to synchronize with Umbra and internalize his memory. The reason? The memory was Umbra being forced to murder his own son. Huh, being forced to murder family was what happened on the Zariman 10-0, right? Huh, that’s weeeeird. Total coincidence, right? Yeah, that has to be a coincidence. Especially if Wally’s involved.

The Chimera Prologue: Wally appears before us wearing Lotus’ helmet. He wants you to follow him. At the end, you find Ballas lamenting his death being stolen from him. He laments how he’s been fooled by Natah. He says to truly end this war, love must die. Meaning we’ll have to kill the Lotus, now reborn as Natah, our former surrogate mother. He gives us the mental blueprint on the Paracesis. It was clear Wally lead us there on purpose. He wanted us to have that sword. Just so we’d be well equipped and aware of what part we’ll have to play in the upcoming quest: the new war.

The bastard’s plan: You’ll noticed I bolded certain phrases throughout this entire post, that’s because I wanted you guys to see the same pattern I saw. Being forced to kill family is something I doubt most people would ever want happen. And Wally was around for a good bit of it. He wants you to be good and traumatized for when he body snatches you. Teshin said the Queen wanted to corrupt your mind with despair until only she remains, nothing says despair like being forced to kill your parents......again. Plus I would think the emotions Umbra felt upon being forced to kill his son was nothing short of despair. He wants to body snatch you and nearly all the pieces are falling into place. He’s trying to push that button again and again until you finally break.

Things I noticed about him though: In the Railjack, there’s a part called a reliquary drive. Inside the reliquary drive, is a giant finger. Yes, your railjack is powered by a giant finger, I wish I was making this up. Wally is very much connected to it since we hear “his” voice when we approach it. Plus when you plug the key into the reliquary drive after completing the war within, you see him waving to you with one finger bent down. Safe to say, that giant finger belongs to him.

Bad news from that revelation: BOI’S FUCKING BIG.

Good news: He has a physical body. If he has a body, he can be killed, assuming his body isn’t already dead. However, even that’s not as simple as that. Otherwise Rell would’ve passed on a LONG time ago. I DID find something interesting though.

This mother fucker is connected to The Duviri Paradox (Well, duh. you see him when you search up the pains of duviri and he’s shown at the end of the trailer). That’s important as fuck because in the Duviri trailer....lies the Zariman 10-0 colony ship.

See how this guy’s arm is clearly robotic in nature? I know, we found a FINGER, not an ARM BUT consider this possibility: in Erra, there was more than one railjack being flown to fight Hunhow. those railjacks’ engines would need to be powered via the reliquary drive. Which would mean more than one finger. I believe, after this guy’s arm was chopped off through unknown circumstances, the Orokin chopped up this guy’s arm to use as a battery for the Railjacks. Dude’s a mysterious character in the void, Check. He’s got a body part that would contain a finger missing, check. Aaaand the Zariman 10-0 is involved. Fucking Check. This guy has got to be the man in the wall.

Possible Weaknesses(?): Rell finally passed on when we terminated his warframe, his then current vessel, AFTER his main body died. This was in the void too. Replicating the circumstances in which Rell finally passed on may help kill Wally for good. Rell died because he no longer had a body to possess. Wally on the other hand, does have a body to possess, albeit, a body he can live without. At first I thought it was dying, but his spirit got stuck in Rell’s warframe for centuries so there must be nothing wrong with it unless there’s some voidy timey wimey stuff going on. I mean, the Operator does age to an adult during the duviri paradox, so anything’s possible. He wants to possess our own body as his own way of escaping. Terminating any vessels he may have in the real world, and in the Duviri area should be the only way to permanently end this piece of shit.

His Vessel in the real world should be either his finger, or the Lotus’ helmet. If I’ve got Wally’s mindset pegged, and I’m pretty damn sure I do, he’d most likely possessed the Lotus’ helmet thinking “If I possess the helmet, it’ll be that much easier to show them the visions I want them to see. Plus, if by chance they figure out I’m possessing this thing, their first instinct will be to destroy this item. But it’s of very high sentimental value to them, so destroying it will be like erasing one of the last traces of mommy dearest and sink them even deeper in despair. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA” (Yes, I did have to add in the evil laugh. It was fucking essential, shut up.) But we’re going to have to have our operators grow up. Grow stronger and become better people from the despair that they face. THat’s the way we fight off Wally.

Oh, and if given the choice......

DO. NOT. PUT. ON. THAT. HELMET.

If Wally IS possessing it, then wearing it would be the worst thing you can do. I am positive he’ll possess you for sure.

Fighting him off does not mean his plans end: Wally carefully calculated this plot in such a way that even if we fight him off, he’ll try again with another Tenno. So, for the sake of ending this piece of shit once and for all, we’ll want his eyes remaining on us.He had everyone kill their parents, he’ll try again with other Tenno even if we foil his plan of possessing us. Going on the offensive seems to be the only option to permanently destroy him. 

Like any person ever, Wally is not perfect: He doesn’t appear to have the ability to read minds. I base this off him asking us if remembering us killing Issah was the way we remember it. If he could read minds, he would’ve known that already. Sure, he could’ve done that act just to get closer to us, but if he had such an ability, he could’ve avoided Rell’s seal on him for sure. This brings up a hopeful possibility that is a bit of a stretch.....

The Operator already knows what Wally is doing: I say it’s a stretch because it took me a while to figure it out his plan, but if it’s an act, it’s a pretty damn good one but if I could see what he’s doing, there’s no reason the Operator shouldn’t either. Using their knowledge on the process of how the continuity works from the war within, and the fact that Wally was sealed away with Rell means that he’d want a body in the real world. Plus, you know, he’s an evil malevolent spirit that is sketchy as fuck. The fact he’s after the Operator means that they plan on taking them over next. Just like he did with the adults on the Zariman 10-0. I needed more evidence but with the right way of thinking, it is possible to see his plan coming. Especially if the “Lotus” didn’t use transmissions but telepathy. I could see the Operator faking the internalization of Umbra’s memory just to string him along. Because the Operator knows if Wally is scared off, he’ll just try taking over another Tenno. They know that if they want to stop him for good, they’ll just have to play dumb and wait for the right moment.

Again, this is a bit of a stretch so I’m not entirely convinced on this possibility.

Tl;dr: Read the damn essay you coward. >=3

[redhoodieone]

It’s Cold in Here Part 7

A/N: And hereeeee is Part 7! Wow, and there is more to come because there are more scary and dangerous things ahead.  So, enjoy this part, and wait for the next one. 

Warnings: Language.

  I woke up around six in the morning because I knew I couldn’t stick around to see and talk to Jason. I quietly got up from his cuddling embrace and got dressed and left without looking back at him. I even snuck around Alfred, who was in the kitchen making coffee, and I got into my car and drove off.

The second I get back to my home, I wash up, shower, and I find myself searching through the kitchen for something to eat. But after not going grocery shopping for a while, I end up eating the last slice of bread with the little spoonful of peanut butter at the bottom of the empty jar.

I then contemplate what to do today. I know I have work tomorrow, and today’s my last day off, and there’s got to be something I could do to stop me from obsessing about tonight’s encounter with the mysterious text messenger.

The fact that I must go alone makes me anxious, but I know I don’t have any other choice. My thoughts are interrupted from a knock on my front door.

Oh my God. Could it be Jason?

Fuck.

I shove the rest of my piece of bread into my mouth, and race to the door. I hesitate to open the door, but once I gain some sort of little confidence, I open the door.

It’s Dick.

My heart starts to pound in my chest. Why is he here? What’s going on?

Dick’s dressed casually; black pants with a white shirt and blue sweater on. His dark hair is gelled and messy like always, and his ocean blue eyes are focused on me.

I move aside and let him inside. The tension between us is awkward and I do feel like there’s a chill between us. It’s as if I just allowed a stranger into my home.

“Y/N, can we talk?” Dick finally asks. The way he says it sounds practiced, and a little heavy. “Please?”

I want to laugh, just to make him feel uncomfortable since he has no problem making me feel uneasy right now. “I guess we have to, right? Since our relationship is pretty much over except for who’s going to end it first,” I say.

“I...I don’t want us to be over. I still love you, and I want you to be with me,” Dick confesses, as he sits down beside me.

“W-what? Dick, you can’t be serious! You’re...into guys too, and you cheated on me. How could I be in a relationship with you after that?” I ask, suddenly feeling ambushed by him.

“You don’t understand, Y/N. I know what I did was wrong. I shouldn’t have slept with him and lie to you, but I can’t just break up with you right now. Look, I had a moment of weakness. I fucked up. But it’s not going to happen again. I’m not gay or anything,” Dick continues, as he begins sounding more desperate and nervous.

“I know you’re not gay, Dick. You’re...bisexual. But that’s...that’s not what bothers me. I mean, it did in the beginning but it’s something I can’t change or ignore. What bothers me is that you cheated on me; it’s still cheating when it’s with a woman or a man,” I say, no longer frightened to keep silent. Dick needs to know the truth. “And the fact that you keep wanting us to be together just makes this relationship fake. Why would you want to put me through that?”

“BECAUSE I DON’T WANT BRUCE TO FIND OUT!” Dick yells. He’s clearly afraid, and angry about the whole thing.

Dick begins to cry. He pulls his hair, and cries looking down at the carpet.

“All my life, I had to be perfect. I was supposed to be the best. My earliest days in the circus as the star acrobat along my family, when Bruce molded me into being the perfect sidekick Robin and to be a man a woman deserves. True, I haven’t exactly treated women right from time to time but being with you is something I feel like I was meant to have,” Dick says, wiping his tears away. “But as any perfect creation comes, it comes with flaws. My...sexuality is my fault.”

I feel guilty beyond words. “Dick, don’t say that...”

“It’s true! Imagine what the tabloids would say: ‘Bruce Wayne’s Son Dates Another Man! What Has Happened to Gotham’s Straight Ladies Man?!’ It could destroy our family. It could destroy me. I would be named the ‘queer’ of the family! Or those worse names homosexuals hear.”

“I-I understand your fear and all, but don’t you think you’re overreacting? The world is slowly changing now, because of the LGBTQ communities. Most advocates and activists are speaking out, and most of the time the publicity is positive. Maybe your real fear is coming from you. Maybe you have yet to accept yourself. Not everyone around you is going to think differently of you, especially the ones who love you,” I say, hoping to break through Dick’s strong, stubborn walls. “You can’t keep pretending to be someone you’re not. And you can’t have me pretend to be in love with you.”

Dick’s clear blue eyes look up to me in confusion. “You-you don’t love me anymore?” he asks softly.

“I love you Dick, but...I’m not in love with you anymore. Our relationship...is different now. I know you can’t choose which gender you want for fun or for a serious relationship, but I think you’re torn between what you want to discover and pursue now. This is clearly new to you, and while you figure it all out, maybe you need to be single to do that,” I admit.

Dick breathes heavily. He rubs his eyes, and after a while, he takes my hand and looks at me.

“You’re right, Y/N. You’re right about everything. I...I should have handled this better, but even though I still fucked up, I’m still in love with you and I still want to be with you. My feelings for you haven’t changed at all,” Dick confesses.

“What about Wally?” I finally ask.

“What about him? This isn’t about him. What happened between us doesn’t mean anything. He knows that, and I know that. This is about us. I want a future with you, a family. Did you honestly think I would have all that with him?”

The pain in my stomach hurts more than ever. I know Dick is wrong, and he’s being more ignorant than usual. But arguing right now isn’t going to help us. I suddenly feel tired and very exhausted from this talk. I lean back until I completely lie down on the couch, as my legs are on Dick.

“I’m sorry, I just...don’t have a lot of experience with this kind of thing. I’m tired, and I think I need to nap,” I say. I sound sleepy and he should know I’m not faking it.

“I’m tired, too,” Dick says, as he kicks off his shoes and lies down behind me.

I don’t want Dick holding me, but when his arms wrap around me and he pulls me closer to him in a hug, that it brings me back to a happy place like in the beginning. His smell, his touch, and his affection makes me fall all over again.

“You-you slept with Jason, right?”

His question startles me at first. “Yes.”

“Was he...better than me?” Dick asks quietly.

It would be easy to tell him the truth; that yes, sex with Jason made me feel more pleasure and love, but I can’t deal with the truth anymore right now.

“It was okay. It was just sex,” I finally say. “You’re better, because you know how to make me feel important.”

Dick’s breathing is calm again, and he holds me tighter. “Good, I-I didn’t want you to have a bad time but just knowing our sex life makes you feel important is more than enough for me.”

I close my eyes. I want to wake up and see that this was all a dream.

“Y/N?”

“Yes, Dick?”

“I-I want to spend the night with you. Would that be okay?”

Dick’s practically begging me now. But since I can’t exactly be honest anymore since he refuses to be honest, I realize I have to go to Ace Chemicals alone tonight.

To face the unknown text messenger.

“I actually have to go to Zatanna’s tonight,” I lie, hoping he would buy it. But I mentally slap myself for not talking to Zatanna or Artemis today to make it more believable. With my luck, Artemis might still be hungover with Connor, while Zatanna did in fact sleep with Tim. “Artemis wants a girl’s night to dish on her hookup with Connor. I already accepted the invitation. I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t be sorry. I should have known you would already have plans since you’re an amazing girl. I’ll probably hang out with Jay, Tim, and Dami anyways. I’ll just see you in the morning then.”

“Yeah, that’ll be fine,” I agree.

“Let’s just take a nap first. Let’s us forget everything,” Dick says sleepy.

It would be good to forget everything. It would be like all this never happened. No heartbreak. No cheating. No lies. No one-night stand Jason.

Jason?

My feelings for Jason resurface again, because no matter how many times I try to drown them, they just float back up to the surface because they’re un-drownable.

Before I know it, Dick’s already sound asleep.

I guess it’s easy for him to block everything out, while I’m here suffering in silence because my heart and head want to burst.

I know I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to sit and worry about Dick’s denial, or how I have secret feelings for Jason.

Because all I know is that I’m going to finally find out who has been harassing me about Dick, and once I find out who it is...I’m going to end them.

Take them down.

Kick their fucking ass.

And make them regret fucking with me by using threats and fear.

Because when anyone threatens to hurt and destroy those closest to me, they’re just asking for a ticket to die.

And I’ll gladly give them a ticket for death. 

Comments, questions, and notes are greatly appreciated! 

[dreamydream]

Fallout Characters as Vines

Butch: *sitting at a booth eating* I mean, I get complimented all the time- Lone: *bursts out laughing from across the booth* Butch: I do! Lone: *continues laughing*

Six: *puts a pen to their mouth and inhales* *exhales smoke* Blaze it. *points camera to stove* Just kidding it's from my macaroni and cheese~!

Sole: *hands empty water bottle* Here. Mama Murphy: *stares at it for a second* This bitch is empty. Yeet! *lamely throws water bottle to ground*

Rex: *running towards a puddle* Six: You gonna get wet, I ain't gonna take you home, AH he got his damn feet wet now, shit dog...

Deacon: Welcome back to me screaming. AGHHHHHHHH- *takes breath* AGHHHHHHHHHH

Lone: WHAT ARE THOOOOOOOSE?! *motions to shoes* Old Lady Palmer: They are my crocs.

Lone: Sleep?! I don't know nothing about sleep! It's summertime-! James: You better go to bed! Lone: Oh, he caught me...

Sole: Two shots... of vodka. *open vodka bottle and dumps it into glass*

Hancock: Bro, how much money do you have? Sole: 69 caps. Hancock: Oh, you know what that means! Sole: *eyes start to water* I don't have enough money for Nuka Quantum...

Sole: Let me see what you have! Shaun: *runs by and holds up knife* A knife! Sole: NO! *runs after him*

Six: I wanna be a cowboy, baby! Veronica: Hell yeah! Six: *spinning around on old playground equipment with Veronica* I wanna be a cowboy, baby!

Six: Man, you sure do know your bible. Joshua: That's why they call me- ~~BibleMan~~

Six: Wanna hear a chemistry joke? Arcade: ... Six: Is that a no? Arcade: Oh sorry did you want a *looks at camera* reaction? -camera cuts to Six huddled in the bathroom crying-

Lone: Would you rather fight a bunch of kindergartners- Butch: I wanna fight kindergartners. Lone: That's not even the whole- Butch: Those kids are getting slapped-!

Travis: I have a banana peel on the ground and I'm gonna see if it's really slippery like it is in the cartoons. I- *grabs cup of water and instantly slips, slinging water everywhere* UAGHHHHH

Preston: *filming group of radstags eating outside the house* Sole: *sneezes and radstags run off* Preston: Nice, Sole. Sole: I sneezed! Oh, I'm not allowed to sneeze?

Mr. Brotch: Butch has 19 bottles of dish soap, and he gives Paul- Amata: Wait, why does Butch have so many soaps?! Butch: *sitting at a desk surrounded by soap, pouring soap out into hand* MIND YO BUSINESS, AMATA!

Lone: *tries and fails to do a skateboard trick* James: Hey I used to ride skateboard. Lone: Pfft, my dad is such-what?! James: *rides by on skateboard doing a handstand*

Shaun: *holding basketball* Hey, you wanna play? Hancock: Nah, I don't really. Shaun: C'mon... Hancock: Okay, you talked me into it. Shaun: *shoots basketball* Hancock: *viciously slaps it away* Get outta here kid! *slam dunks basketball with Shaun backing away* GAME OVER!!!

Travis: How to pick up girls. *runs at Scarlett and picks her up* Scarlett: AGH GET OFF OF ME! Travis: *trips and falls* OH, FU-

Lone: Daddy can you teach me how to twerk? James: *raises eyebrows* No more tv *unplugs tv* no more computer *shoves computer in trash* We're reading books from now on, little girl. *hands Lone a book*

Arcade: Rex, I'm home. *walks into kitchen to see bloodstain and 'your next' written in blood on fridge* *gasps* This is so wrong... *dips finger in blood and corrects 'your' to 'you're'* There.

Shaun: *standing on ladder* I'm scared, Mom. Sole: Do ya trust me son? *holds out arms* Shaun: Yeah. Sole: C'mon son! Shaun: *falls backwards* Sole: *turns away* Rule number one, never trust anybody!

-Amata and Lone sitting at a table drinking coffee and Butch and Wally pretend to take pictures- Butch: Today we observe two basic white girls in their natural habitat! Whatever you do, don't touch the- Wally: *grabs a coffee and runs off* Butch: *gasps* Are you crazy?!

James: Someone called me a dilf at work today. Lone: Oh, that was so cool- James: No, it wasn't. Lone: YEAH

Shaun: Yeet! Sole: *walks into room* Eat, eat? You wanna eat something? Shaun: No mom I was just saying a random word... Sole: *holds out mutfruit* Okay, eat something. Shaun: No I'm fine- Sole: EaT thE FuckIn MuTrUit-

Lone: *wearing a graduation cap* Hey change of plans, I'm actually not going to college anymore, I'm going to hell. Um, not that excited.

Lone: So you just gonna bring me a birthday gift on my birthday to my birthday party on my birthday with a birthday gift? Amata: *raises eyebrows and slowly looks away* Butch: Happy birthday-? Lone: *smashes glass into his face*

Deacon: Be honest, do these shorts make my butt look big? MacCready: It makes that ass look fat. Deacon: What the fuck?... thank you.

Six: I want to see my little boy~ Arcade: Here he comes. Six: I want to see my little boy~ ED-E: *beep*

MacCready: Hey can I get a sip of that water? Sole: It's not water. MacCready: Vodka! I like your style. Sole: It's vinegar. MacCready: What. Sole: It's vinegar, pussy.

Sole: I'm done with this dumbass Institute with all these fake ass people. Allie: *walks by* Hey. Sole: Hey! *walks by* ...fucking bitch.

Butch: You ready to die?! Lone: You can't kill me, I'm a bad bitch!

Joshua: This is my message to Jesus... Hey, GiGi. Sup man... how are ya?

Raider: That moment when you enter a room and forget why you went in there- Pickman: *stabs him in the back* Raider: *thinks* Oh that's right I was getting chased by a serial killer!

Deacon: Hey babe you wanna spoon? *holds up spoon* And then we can fork? And then-you can slit my throat with a knife...

Hancock: Bro, do you ever smoke lean? Preston: Smoke lean? Hancock: Wo-ow... Preston: N-no, yeah, I have. Hancock: Dude, I thought you were tight. Preston: I have, Mom-!

Mr. Brotch: Okay, is Butch here? Butch: Present. *dabs* Mr. Brotch: ...Lone. Lone: *throws up peace sign* Suh, dude.

Arcade: You ever wanna talk about your emotions, Boone? Boone: No. Six: I do! Arcade: I know, Six. Six: I'm sad. Arcade: I know, Six.

Veronica: Hey, I'm lesbian. Six: ...I thought you were American.

Shaun: I can't swim. Cait: How old are you? Shaun: Ten. Cait: *picks him up and throws him into a pond*

Butch: So basically what I was thinking of was um... Lone: *punches him* Butch: Ah, fuck... I can't believe you've done this.

Six: Do you remember one time I liked you? Benny: No? Six: Good cause it never happened. Benny: Oh... Six: Aha *flips him off* Oho

DC Guard: Detective, this is a crime scene. Nick: *holding 3 tubs of ice cream* What, is this the murder weapon?! *closes freezer with shoulder* Get off my dick!

Sole: I still don't have a New Year's resolution. Piper: You could lose a few. Danse: You could be less lazy. Cait: Don't be such a bitch- Sole: Okay DAMN!... SHIT.

Butch: *whispers* What do beavers build? Lone: A dam. James: *from other room* What'd you say? Butch: Ooh... Lone: Dad, he set me up!

-Amata, Butch, and Christine sitting at a booth- Lone: Today we observe a teenage male appeared to be caught in the friend zone! Research shows there's no escape... I've been spotted!

Six: *looking out over New Vegas* Some day I'm gonna own this goddamn town... *raises whiskey glass to mouth but quickly moves it away* Eughhh I don't like whiskey it burns my mouth!...

Lone: I'm different cause I don't like drama! Y'know?... But Christine... Christine has an STD-

Jack: What are these curious circles? *picks up bottlecap* They have little words on them, how quaint. Do poor people eat these? *bites into it* Disgusting, Edward, take it away!

Lone: This just in, folks, I'm getting reports that Butch is gay; more at 11. Butch: I'm not gay... ... Lone: This just in, folks, I'm now getting reports that Butch is still gay. Let's go to Butch who's on the scene. Butch: I'm not fucking gay!

Six: Any sauces? Raul: Hot and verde. Six: What did you just say to me? Raul: Oh, sorry. *removes accent* Verde. Six: I thought you were trying to seduce me or somethin'

Butch: What's goin' on, my name is Butch, I'm 19 years old, and I'm-... a little nervous *clears throat* He WaS a BOy, shE wAs a GirL ... Lone: I'm Lone and I think I can be the next American Idol *clears throat* I CHimE iN, hAVen'T-

Sole: *holds up harmonica* You play it and you get 100 million caps; but 100 million people will die. MacCready: *furiously plays harmonica* Sole: MacCready no-

[violetwolfraven]

Bluepulse Week Day 1: Soulmates/Firsts

((First meeting and first time connecting. :) ))

.............................................................................

Being led into the cave by Wally West for his first day officially on the ‘hero’ job was pretty cool. Bart could admit that much.

“Can’t wait to see everything!” He exclaimed.

Wally chuckled, “Didn’t you see all of it yesterday, kid?”

Hearing Wally call him ‘kid’ like that almost made him choke up. His Wally, the future Wally, had called him that. Until the day he died. Of course, that Wally had been an old man, but it still hurt.

“Well, most of it,” Bart admitted, “But think I missed a few things.”

“Nightwing’s filling the team in on who you are right now,” Wally explained, “Go ahead and look around.”

Bart zoomed around, heading for the places he’d missed. Unfortunately, not paying that much attention to where he was going.

Bart smacked head-first into a teenage guy a little older than himself, knocking both of them down.

“Whoop! Sorry! Are you okay?!” Bart asked, concerned. Most people would be hurt pretty bad if they were hit by a speedster, and this guy didn’t have any obvious super powers besides the fact that he was kind of hot.

Groaning, the guy sat up, “Nah, it’s cool. I’m okay.”

“You sure?” Bart asked anxiously.

“Yeah,” The guy said, “Sorry, who are you?”

“Bart Allen,” Bart said, “Aka The Flash’s grandson from the future, aka Impulse! And you are?”

“Jaime Reyes,” The guy said, looking extremely confused. Bart didn’t blame him. Even where he came from, time travel was weird.

“Aka Blue Beetle.”

Bart’s eyes widened. Shit. This was the guy who was going to enslave all humanity? He didn’t look that dangerous. But Bart guessed he was young now. A lot could change in the few years that Bart had left to save the world.

“What?” Beetle asked. Now, he was the one who looked concerned.

Bart guessed his face must be pretty good.

“Eyyyyy!” Bart exclaimed, pasting on an excited expression, “History books don’t say a lot about you, but you were aways one of my favorites of the lesser-known heroes!”

Inside, Bart wanted to die a little at the fact that he’d just said Blue Beetle was one of his favorites, but he guessed he had to cover up the fact that he’d probably be sneaking a lot of glances Beetle’s way somehow. This was as good a cover as any.

“Oh,” Beetle seemed a little embarrassed, “Uh, cool.”

It was pretty much awkward silence until Wally came and found them.

“Hey,” He said, “There’s a mission. Nightwing needs you two.”

“Great!” Bart exclaimed, “My first real mission!” Inside, he was amazed that no one saw how he wasn’t actually excited.

...

Nightwing assigned Bart to the same team as Blue Beetle, which was good and bad for several reasons.

Good because Bart could use this to see what he was dealing with, here. He wasn’t sure yet if this Beetle could intercept an attack at super speed, or if that was a skill he’d get later.

Bad because the idea of working with the guy who had killed so many of Bart’s friends made him sick.

Of course, he’d gone deep undercover before. Posed as a servant when really, his inhibitor collar had been off the whole time. But Bart had to admit, this might be his worst assignment yet. Partly because this kid scared him more than he’d care to admit, partly because this kid was just that: a kid. Bart had killed before. But never someone this close to his own age, and definitely never someone who, as far as he knew, hadn’t even done anything yet.

“Are we going to get going?” Beetle asked, directing the question at Batgirl.

“In a second,” She said, “I need to grab some things. But yeah. Suit up.”

Blue and black plates of armor materialized around Beetle’s body.

Shit.

Bart ran to the bathroom as fast as he could, but still was barely fast enough to make the toilet as he threw up. He was shaking. Not quite crying yet, but shaking. That armor... well, it made all of it too real.

Bart knew he was moving so fast that he could be gone as long as he needed to. While in ‘Flashtime’ as it had been dubbed, no one would notice his absence.

And Beetle would never notice his death.

Bart zoomed back into the hangar, zooming past all the frozen heroes who wouldn’t notice him. He zoomed right up to Beetle, letting his hand vibrate.

But he hestitated, looking up at the boy who was barely older than he was.

This Beetle was a lot smaller than Bart’s Beetle. He was younger, too. He probably hadn’t even stopped growing yet. His eyes weren’t merciless and unfeeling; they were full of warmth and hope. Even the armor seemed... softer. Less threatening.

Not guilty. The words flashed through Bart’s head. Not yet.

Bart let his hand stop vibrating. It would be so easy to just shove it through Beetle’s chest, stop his heart, now, before the bug had a chance to do anything... but it was the fact that he hadn’t done anything yet that made Bart not do it.

Not guilty. Not yet.

Bart moved back over to where he had been standing and slowed down, out of Flashtime. Judging by the lack of response, no one had noticed his absence.

Actually, Beetle did look a little confused, like he’d noticed something. But he didn’t say anything.

I can always do it tomorrow, Bart told himself.

...

Why did Bart try to do this again?

Hanging out with Blue Beetle in superhero form after the mission was stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Going out to an arcade suited-up looked dumb, anyway.

Still, Bart pasted on a fake smile and tried to act like he knew what he was doing in air hockey. It wasn’t like it didn’t exist in Bart’s future or anything.

“What makes you think you can beat a speedster?” Bart asked.

“The fact that I have a murder-bug embedded in my back that enhances my reflexes!” Beetle actually managed to score a goal against Bart.

“Murder bot?” Bart asked, “That’s how your powers work?”

Good to know. Take out the ‘murder bot’, take out Blue Beetle.

Beetle shrugged, “He’s called Scarab, but yeah.” He scored another goal against Bart, “Better step up your game, hermano.”

“Very funny,” Bart said, “So, the bug. Can I see it?”

“Why?” Beetle asked, “I mean, kinda weird request. He’s feeling kind of threatened.”

“He?” Bart asked, “That thing is sentient?”

“He doesn’t really like you calling him ‘that thing,’ but yeah. He’s sentient. Why do you ask? And shut up.” He directed that last bit at his back.

“What did he say?” Bart asked.

“Uh... he wanted me to vaporize you. Don’t worry, though. I’m not going to do it.”

Bart chuckled nervously, “That’s really weird.”

Beetle scored another goal, winning the game.

“Ha!” Beetle moved around the table, “That is how you win a game!” He raised his hand.

Bart flinched, unable to stop himself, but Beetle just clapped him on the shoulder. It didn’t hurt.

“Bart?” Beetle asked gently, looking concerned, “Was your family abusive?”

“What? Why would you think that?” Bart attempted to look confused, hoping it was enough.

“I have friends in abusive homes,” Beetle said, “I saw the way you flinched before I touched you. You don’t have to hide it.”

Bart didn’t know what to say. Jaime seemed genuinely concerned. That, and what was he even supposed to say? That whenever he talked back, or complained, or wasn’t working fast enough with the inhibitor collar on, he got the shit beaten out of him? That he had been heavily abused, hurt whenever he did something even remotely wrong, his whole life?

That he had come here to kill the person who’d abused him, and so many other kids, but that he now found himself connecting with that person?

“Yeah,” Bart admitted finally, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Jaime slowly put his arm around Bart’s shoulder. No sudden movements. No pain. Just warm, comforting contact. Bart instinctively leaned into it. He couldn’t remember a time when he’d last felt this... safe. Warm? Bart didn’t even have a word for what he was feeling right now.

“I won’t ask if you don’t want to talk,” Jaime said, “But I want you to know that I will never hurt you, Bart.”

Bart nodded. For some strange reason, he believed Jaime. The Blue Beetle in the future had to be someone else. There was no way Jaime would do this, Bart could tell. Something must happen to him in the future.

And Bart had to save him.

[catfishofoldin99colours]

With young justice now on Australian Netflix (and with as many jokes I crack about it not being on American Netflix, I sincerely hope it goes back up really soon), it got me thinking about the list of what I love so much about young justice.

Said list is literally 8 miles long, but I’ll talk about one thing I haven’t seen anyone else mention so far, and one thing I love:

Young Justice never assumes it’s audience needs things dumbed down for them. Despite its PG rating, YJ deals with some pretty heavy stuff - abusive families, political mess-ups, public images and how they can be manipulated, origins of a person versus their intents to do good, morally grey characters who have the right idea and are understandable but ultimately go about it the wrong way, children playing the part of soldiers, heavy crime, orphans and what that experience is like, psychological and physical trauma and the effects of that, to name a few. The issues in it are complex and multi-layered, with sometimes no clear answer, and often having multiple characters take multiple viewpoints.

And I remember when watching it for the first time in early 2016 (sue me I’m late to the party XD), never once did I feel like this was a show created to dumb-down the issues it explored for a younger audience. Granted I was 16 at the time, but my point stands. 

Young Justice explores its issues, its stories, its characters in an amazing amount of depth and respect towards the complicated situations it deals with. Not to say any of the characters are actively pitted to have ‘sad backstories’ for the sake of drama, but what does come up is dealt with in an honest and respectful way that doesn’t sugar-coat the complexities of it.  Things like a dictatorship, public appearances of heroes and villains, political coups and child abuse are looked at, in a respectful way that not only shows the issue but works through it so the story and characters all learn and recover from them. Nothing is left out or glossed over because it’s ‘too mature’ for the audience, rather, its explained in a way that makes the situation understandable, so that the audience will have an idea of what’s going on in the context of the story without necessarily needing to know everything about the real-world context it’s drawn from.

This is something I find incredibly important and beautiful to see, because these days a lot of children-directed shows and films are increasingly simple and ‘dumbed-down’. Not all of them are, there are masterpieces out there that manage to do what YJ does in terms of their own stories. But to me, personally, it seems a certain attitude has happened in terms of what kids ‘are’ and ‘aren’t allowed to understand in their own media - there seems to be this idea that kids are simply too young and innocent to understand things like ‘death’ and ‘politics’ and ‘sexuality’ and what being manipulated is or looks like. ((keep in mind this is in my own personal experience, this isn’t to speak for everyone)). And yes, those are rather weighted issues, with a lot of history and different points to them that require a certain degree of patience and critical analysis to understand properly. But that’s not to say kids can’t understand certain aspects of them.

This idea is bad because it not only underestimates the intelligence of children (and kids are ridiculously smart ok, I’m convinced they’re getting smarter every generation) but also disadvantages them in having a voice about anything intellectual or observational. If you tell a child they can’t possibly know something they’re trying to tell you they know because they’re ‘too young’, you set them up to think they’re faking it the whole time, and encouraging them to stay quiet and silent about matters which might be important to them. This could have really damaging effects if a child experiences something like abuse or manipulation, and they know it’s wrong and feels wrong - but because a trusted adult thinks they’re too young to really know what it is, they can be discouraged from talking about it, which helps silence their voice and can make them an easier target for potential predators.

This is why I adore YJ so much - it NEVER glosses over the effects of something, and perhaps those effects are made even more powerful by the fact that the entire main cast is, predominantly, children themselves. There’s something very powerful about seeing kids, super-powered as they may be, deal with issues that ultimately affect everyone, and written to do so in a way that’s respectful of their situations and experiences, in a way that gives children a voice to their thoughts if they feel they have been affected by these things too. 

Take the episodes ‘Failsafe’ and ‘Disordered’ (episodes 16-17 in s1). The entire team is placed into an ‘all-or-nothing’ scenario, where the choices are a retreat and let the world get taken over, or die trying to save it. The situation is ripped out of control by M’gann, plunging them all into a seemingly endless spiral of destruction and death - and they’re all ranging in age from 13-17 at this point. Things go wrong, and nearly everyone dies, till J’onn stops M’gann from her fear-induced nightmare spiral, and understandably, she’s heartbroken that she’s done this. This episode, while terrifyingly sad and depressing, is good because it looks at the issue of the ‘child soldiers’ that the team essentially is, and the lengths they are expected to go to to protect the earth should the Justice League fail. While not explicitly done so, it raises questions about the ethics of the team’s situation and also questions about how they see themselves within the context of their roles - as well as the question of ‘what happens if they’re just not enough?’

The entire next episode is devoted to them dealing with the trauma of that experience. We see different sides come out in all of them - Artemis’s stoic refusal to admit she may need help, even if she acknowledges that that simple fact isn’t weakness, revealing a fierce desperation to prove herself; Wally’s attempt to just brush it all off and ignore what pain may be happening, which reveals a certain level of insecurity about his pain; M’gann’s absolute terror at herself and foreshadowing of her self-hatred and desperation to hide her true self from everyone (’canary: you’ve... gone white! / m’gann: what?! ...oh, you meant caucasian...’); kaldur’s deep concern about his own actions in the heat of battle, which brings up questons of whether he’s the right choice to lead the team simply because he’s the oldest, which in turn brings up major concerns about anyone else being the leader, especially dick being so young; conner’s realisation about his purpose as a clone and the threats to everything this brings, not to mention the fact he comes to terms with his emotions about this and seeks professional help; dick’s stark horror at realising just how ruthless batman, his father-figure, saviour and mentor, can be, and the fact that he’ll be expected to follow those footsteps.

This is all in TWO EPISODES. Granted, these episodes are heavier than most, but that’s not to say any episode is ever pointless fluff. Every single episode of YJ is like this to some extent, and deals with similar issues in exactly the same respectful and fully-articulated way.

If nothing else, Young Justice proved to me that kid’s shows can be complex and deal with the same issues that adults face, with the same amount of respect and attention - all while still ultimately being hopeful, and focused on the beauty of teamwork and friendship and working together, and more than anything, being honest and trusting each other.

TLRD; Young Justice is an amazingly complex show that never ever feels the need to make its content ‘dumber’ so its audience can understand it because it knows they can, and works to help them understand more.

[genevievebaxter-blog]

Describe your character; How do you see your character in your own eyes and not based off the bio. How have you developed this character into your own?

Genevieve Baxter is the person I aspire to be in life. When I was reading her bio, I immediately felt this connection to her because I am going through the same things that she is going through. What makes her different is that she is way better at handling things and herself than I am. To me, Eve is a strong human being who has insecurities but chooses not to let those insecurities get the better of her. She is someone who has depression but has learned to fight it. She is somebody who, because of everything she has been through, is afraid of letting people in but actually wants someone to prove to her that putting her walls down will be worth it. Deep down, she is still the girl that she was 10 years ago, the girl that believes in happily ever after, the girl that is a hopeless romantic, the girl that dreams of going on adventures and the girl that has so many dreams for herself. She just chooses not to let that girl come out because she is afraid that if she does, people will hurt her again.

What’s your favorite thing about your character? what’s your least favorite?

My favorite thing about Eve is that she loves herself. After everything that she has been through, all the problems life threw at her, the tears that fell from her eyes and the times that made her believe she would not make it, she learned to love herself and that love made her aware of what she deserves and what she does not deserve. Because of that, she does not settle for anything less and she knows when to say no. I cannot do that but one day, I hope I can.

My least favorite thing about her is her fear of letting people in. Do not get me wrong. I do not blame her for being scared because after everything that she has been through, it is understandable why she is. I just dislike the fact that she is scared because it is that fear that hinders her from the happiness that she deserves to have. It is that fear that keeps her from expressing any of her feelings and I know that is not a good thing. Keeping everything to one’s self won’t help because it will all just pile up and once it does, the feeling will not be good. I wish that she lets people in already so she can let everything out and feel light again.

What are some of your favorite relationships your character has formed?

To be honest, when I applied for Eve, I thought that I would playing her in a way that would leave no room for relationships in her life like I thought that she would be cold and push everyone away. But, as my stay here progressed and as she got to talk to people more, that changed. Eve’s relationships are what makes her keep going despite everything that she is going through and that makes me so happy.

I will start with the obvious one, which is her relationship with Wally. To be honest, before I got accepted, I was reading the threads of Wally with the old Eve and I saw that he still had this effect on her. I did not want the same to be said for my Eve. My original plan was for her to push him away completely. I was going to let her be cold to him because I did not want her to forever be in his spell. But, from the minute her first conversation with Wally started, I knew I could not make her push him away. I could not imagine her life without Wally in it because no matter what she says and no matter what she does, he will always be important to her. The thing about Wally is that he was the only person who was there for her when she was still so fragile and insecure. Wally was the one who believed in Eve when nobody else did and in my eyes, he is the only one who loved her even when she did not love herself. Although he hurt her like big time, the amount of good things he has done for her outweighs the pain that he made her feel. I know it is impossible for things to go back to the way they were but that is okay. Wally Spade is the person who caused the creation of the better and stronger Eve and that is why I am grateful for him.

The next one I will talk about is her relationship with Daphne! I know Eve can be pretty cold and stubborn but I still wanted her to have a best friend who would love her despite that. I wanted her to have someone who she would run to when things get too much for her to handle, someone who she would go shopping with, someone she would binge watch TV shows and movies with and someone she could trust with anything and everything. In short, I want someone to be the Monica to her Rachel. And, although she will not admit this, Daphne is that person in her eyes. Both Daphne and Eve have been through so much but they dealt with those things differently.  Eve really admires how Daphne is able to be such a nice person and still trust people despite what that happened to her. That is something that she obviously cannot do. She also admires how big Daphne’s heart is. She appreciates the fact that although she is not the best at being a good friend, Daphne still shows her care and love. She hopes that one day, she will be able to reciprocate the effort that she is being given For now, she will just make the most of Daphne’s presence in her life and appreciate it.

Next, Vidia!! Oh my goodness. This friendship is another favorite of mine. If Daphne is her Monica, Vidia might as well be her Phoebe. It is obvious that  both of them are alike in a way that they are not expressive of their feelings and that they are both such strong females. Yes, they butt heads at times because of their stubbornness and maybe their ego as well but what I love about them is that they really do care about each other. They may argue, they may bicker and they might even fight. That is something that I know cannot be avoided. But I realized something because of their thread, the one in which Eve was complaining about not finding a way out of Walt. I realized that when the time comes that Eve needs a friend to rant to about something that is bothering her, Vidia will be there. And when the time comes that Vidia will need a friend, Eve will be there as well.

Tink- Okay, I know Eve and Tink have not interacted yet but their (future) friendship is something that I like. I honestly have ideas for them already and I am so excited to put those ideas into action. These two have gone through similar things and I cannot wait to have a thread in which they are watching romantic movies and shouting things like “Love does not exist” or “Psh, you will break her heart eventually.” I also cannot wait for the two of them to find true love and just be happy. I hope they are in each other’s lives still on the day because I really want Eve to tell Tink something like “It is about time that you got your happily ever after.” I am going to cry when that happens.

Next one is Francesco Bernoulli. Okay, I will start with two fun facts. First one is I put his complete name here because I just love his name. If you ask my friends if I randomly say this name, they will say that I do like a lot. Another fun fact!!! I played a Danielle Campbell charrie before and she had an Ian Somerhalder older brother figure. That is why I have a soft spot for Francesco. Anyway, Eve is an only child and although she may seem strong, that does not make her not need an older brother figure. It is not obvious yet because they only had two interactions so far but that is what Francesco is to her. He is also like a mentor in her eyes so he will be one of those people who she will ask for advice and whose advice she will actually listen to. 

Last but not the least, Austin Axiom!!! Auto, my love. <3 There is so much I have to say about this charrie and his relationship with Eve. I will start with sharing my original idea for Eve’s relationship with Auto. It is pretty obvious how important Wally is to Eve. It is also obvious how Auto and Wally are not the best of friends. So those two things made me think that Eve will only start a relationship with Auto to make him pay for what he did to Wally. Like there were two possibilities at the start: she would either be a fake friend or she would treat him like an enemy but, after what went down at homecoming, that changed. She felt so alone at the time and to her surprise, it was Auto who was there for her. I love how even when she left Walt and when she was travelling the world, it was still Auto who remained constant in her life. She won’t tell him this (or maybe she will in the future) but after she tried taking her own life, it was so difficult for her to not waste her second chance because she really did not want it. It was Auto who helped her be okay again. All he did was talk to her and make her feel like she was not the bad person that some people made her out to be, but that was more than enough to make her feel good about herself again. By talking to her and being her friend, he was able to save her from her insecurities and also her suicidal tendencies. One more thing I appreciate about Auto is the fact that he will make Eve put the walls around her heart down and believe in love again. Right now, she does not believe in love and happily ever after like she thinks that she will die alone. But, there will come a time when she will truly fall in love with Auto and I cannot wait for that time because that is when she will finally be genuinely happy. There is this quote from One Day that reminds me of her relationship with Auto. It is this: “She made you decent and in return, you made her so happy.” Auto, if you are reading this (yes, I am talking to him as if he is a real person), I want to say thank you. Thank you for saving Eve from herself. Thank you for being there when she felt like the whole world was against her and for loving her (in the future). I hope that one day, Eve will make you just as happy as you make her, if not happier.

Has your character changed you in any way? Or do you yourself in yourself in your character?

Well, my friends have told me that I have grown as a person now like I did not realize it until they pointed it out. I think Eve has something to do with that. Because of Eve and her ability to hold her own, I wanted to do the same. By playing her, I learned how to say no to people and how to make decisions for myself. She made me a stronger person by inspiring me that I can get back on my two feet the same way she did. It is because of Eve that I learned to put myself first for once and love myself. So the answer to the first question is yes, Eve changed me for the better.

As for the second question, I think that I did change Eve in some way because parts of her are actually parts of me as well. Her insecurities, her fear of letting people in, her suicidal tendencies- those came from me. I think that I added a new side to Eve that was not there before and that side of hers makes her more human. Also, I feel like the things that Eve has said and done are influenced by me as well because when I am having a thread, I ask myself “what will I say or do if I were in Eve’s shoes?” and my answer to that questions becomes Eve’s actions or words.

Do you think your character has had a big impact on Walt? Is it a good impact or bad?

I honestly do not think that Eve has done anything that created a big impact on Walt. Maybe she has had a big impact on certain people in both a good and bad way but I doubt that she did the same for Walt in general.

Favorite thing your character has done and worst

The thing Eve has done that is my favorite is her standing up to her parents for the first time. She has been under their control for so long and I admire the fact that she stayed obedient to them even if she did not want to do what they told her to do. So, when she finally drew the line and stood up to her parents, I felt so proud of her. It did not free of her parents’ control but it did loosen their hold on her. That is a very good start.

The thing she has done that is my least favorite is her trying to take her own life. when things got too much for her to handle. I know that she became stronger because of it but still, Eve is like my baby and I hate it whenever she even considers taking her own life. I really do not want her to try to take her own life again because she has so much of life ahead of her and I really believe that she can go far. I hope that she makes it.

What is some progress you hope to have with your character in the future?

Eve has grown to become a better person and as days pass, I hope that she will keep going down that track. I hope that eventually, she will finally put down her walls and completely let people in because there really are some people who I believe are worth the risk. I also hope that one day, she will finally win the battle against her depression. I know it is impossible for her not to have suicidal thoughts again but I really do hope that she will be stronger than those thoughts and that she will not let it get the better of her. I hope that she will never forget that things will always get better so she should keep going. I believe that she can go through whatever life throws at her and I hope that one day, she will too.

What is one thing you would tell your character?

There is so much I want to tell Eve, to be honest. But because you are only asking one thing, I am going to go with this: Eve, I am so proud of you. After everything that you have been through and after wanting to give up once before, you managed to get back on your feet and stay strong. I really hope that one day, I will be as strong as you. I love you.

What has been YOUR favorite thing about Walt?

It is definitely the chance to add depth to a character! Yes, the bios of the characters have been created but we, the players, have the freedom to add on to the stories of the characters and I am so happy that we do. I grew up as a Disney kid, and seeing all these characters on the dash gives me a better understanding of them. It also gives me this feeling that they are just like me in some way and that makes me appreciate them more.

Has your experience been a positive one? (BE HONEST YO.)

Definitely! I have been roleplaying for almost seven years (I just realized how long that was but anyway,) and this group is one of the few that I enjoy being in the most! To be honest, when I joined, I was afraid that I would find it difficult to catch up with everyone (both the players and the characters) because the group has been open for quite some time. But, as my stay here prolonged and as I got to talk to the players more, I realized that yes, it will be difficult to catch up but it is okay. A lot of people have been so welcoming and friendly that messaging and plotting with them was something that I was not hesitant about doing anymore. I reached the point that I talk to some people about the most random and sometimes even the personal things. I love this group so much and I want to thank every player for making my experience a positive and very fun one.

Got a favorite memory? Share it!

There are so many memories of Eve that I treasure but my favorite one is when she finally stood up to her parents. It was on that day that new Eve was born and I will forever love that day. If it weren’t for that day she would most likely still be following everything her parents tell her to do and not be happy. Now that she is free, I am so happy that she can finally do what she wants to and get what she deserves.

What are you looking forward too in the future?

I am looking forward to more plots with people and also more events here in Walt! The two events that I participated in were so fun and unique that I am so excited to what else is in store for the future! I am also looking forward to seeing Eve be truly happy because she deserves to be.

Have you had a favorite event? Favorite plot? Share it right here

I only experienced two events here so that does not give me much options for picking a favorite yet! Still, I love both events. Next gen is something I always enjoy participating in because it gives me a chance to see how my original character has developed and also a chance to play a different of charrie. As for the scream au, I have not completely participated in yet but I have been reading on what has happened and it has made me so curious and excited to see what else will happen!

Favorite character that’s not your own and why

Oh my goodness, I love so many charries here that I never got around to having a favorite. If this changes, I will update this!

Ideas, shoutouts, request, dedications, questions? Put ‘em here!

ZULEY ( @wallyspade ) - HI!!! First of all, I want to say thank you for accepting me. Thank you for giving me the chance to play such a strong character and for plotting with me. Thank you for putting up with me when I suddenly get plot ideas for Wally & Eve (I know it happens a lot) and for giving me the angst that I crave for. I also want to say thank you for Wally. Thank you for giving him to Eve at one point in time and for letting him love her enough to make life less difficult for her. He is such a kind human being and I am so sorry if Eve acts cold around him at times. Just know that she loves him (not in the same way but still) and she will always care for him. She just is not the best at showing it. Lastly, I want to say that I am so grateful that I met you!! Omg it is not everyday that I get to meet someone in the roleplaying world who loves angst and pain as much as I do and who will put angsty ideas into action as soon as possible. Here’s to more angsty (and hopefully fluffy at one point) Walleve threads. You already know this but I will say it again anyway. I love you heheh <3

JESS ( @austinaxiom ) - IT IS A MUST THAT I INCLUDE YOU HERE BECAUSE YOU ARE YOU. I met you way before Walt and I remember talking to you every now and then but it is only when I joined this roleplay that I got to talk to you more. I am so happy that I got the chance to do so because talking to you always puts a smile on my face. Whether what we are talking about is a plot for Auto & Eve or something else, I enjoy our conversation. I will take the time now to thank you, Jess, for accepting my plot ideas because it is those ideas that give me so much hope for Eve in the future. Thank you for giving Eve Auto because if it weren’t for him, I do not know if she would be as okay and as happy as she is now. I also want to say thank you for being one of the people who welcomed me with open arms when I joined and for making it easier for me to feel at home here. If it weren’t for you, I feel like talking to other people and plotting with them. Thank you for the sweet messages you send when I am sick (those always make me feel better) and  for making graphics for me (let’s be real, I am not as good at it as you are). I love you, Jess!! <3

EVE ( @d-blake ) - Hello, person who always manages to put a smile on my face!!! I would like to start off by saying that I am so grateful that you gave Eve someone she can call her best friend. I know we did not really plot that which makes me love their friendship more. It just happened on its own the same way that our conversations just happened on its own. Thank you for being so nice and for being so sweet! Like you said, Daphne and Eve have similar issues and I love how Eve has a positive influence on Daphne because (she won’t admit this but) Daphne has a positive influence on Eve as well. That is a good sign of a friendship, and that is why I know their friendship is one that will last a lifetime. I’m so excited to see what they will do together in the future. Much love for you and Daphne!!!

ALICIA ( @zoinkshaggy ) - You are last but definitely not the least. There is so much I have to tell you because I have known you for three years now. The thing is I honestly don’t know how but I am going to make the most out of this opportunity and try my best to put into words what I want to let you know. I will start by saying thank you for giving me Walt. I pretty much owe me being here to you because you were the one who told me about this roleplay. You gave me another place where I can write to my heart’s content and let out everything that I have to. Next thing I want to tell you is thank you for accepting my ideas. I know my ideas can cause so much pain at times (okay, maybe most of the time) but you accept them anyway. I am grateful that you do. I am sorry if it gets to much at times!!! We have written so much together in the span of 3 years and I am honestly so grateful that I have you in my life. You are one of the very few who I met in the roleplaying world and who I stayed in contact with even when I was not in a roleplay with you. Thank you for always being there for me whenever I feel down and for always  telling me things that make me feel better. You are one of the people who I think about talking to whenever something (good or bad) happens to me and I am so happy that despite the difference in our timezones, we still get to talk a lot. To be honest, I trust you more than some of the people I get to see everyday and that says a lot. You are one of my best friends as well and I cannot wait to finally meet you in person. On that day, I will return the great big hug that you will give me and we will spend so much time together that it will feel like we were never in different countries. I know you will argue with me on this but you are way more talented at writing than I am and I dream of being just as good as you one day. You are my person in the roleplaying world and no words will ever be enough to express grateful I am that I have you in my life. I love you so much!!!

[honestchick]

3x03 Surprise

A WEEK LATER

Barry runs to the crime scene. Joe spots Barry and shakes his head not surprised at Barry’s tardiness.

“I’m here, I’m here,” Barry announces.

“Nice to see, Mr. Allen,” Captain Singh comments while giving him a sympathetic look. Barry fakes a smile.

“So, what do we have?” Barry asks as he walks to the scene. His heart drops when he sees a dead guy. He’s wearing dark jeans and a white t-shirt. His whole body looks pale and drained. His eyes are wide open and have the color of white.

“This person has been missing for a week, was last seen at a baseball game,” Joe tells him.

Barry analyzes any clues. He looks at the surroundings. There are no car marks.

“There are no car marks anywhere, however...” Barry kneels down, noticing the footsteps.

“The footprints are size nine. It looks like the person arrived here,” Barry says, while walking to the spot. “Then, they carried the body here. Then, the footsteps don’t go anywhere else. They disappear.”

“So, the suspect just vanished into thin air?” Captain Singh asks. Just that question shouts meta human. Joe and Barry look at each other.

“Looks like it, yes,” Barry replies.

“Well, continue looking for any more evidence and have it on my desk by the end of the day,” Captain Singh orders and then leaves.

Barry looks under his nails and notices some material under it. He puts it in the evidence bag.

“This person is just…literally drained,” Barry comments to Joe as he grabs any evidence he can find. Then, the body is taken away.

CCPD

“This is the fifteenth body that has been found,” Joe mumbles, upsettingly. Barry is in shock.

“Whoa, whoa! Fifteenth?” Barry asks. Joe looks at him confused.

“Yes, why? Barry you have been to every crime scene that each body has been found,” Joe replies. Barry sighs, noticing why.

“Have I been that distracted by Zoom that I didn’t even notice the crime scenes?” Barry asks himself.

“Yes and that’s understandable. We had so much crap going on, you couldn’t really focus on work,” Joe assures and Barry sighs, nodding.

“Well, now that I know this is the fifteenth body, I want to know what’s killing these people. The person who laid the body couldn’t have just vanished which means…” Joe cuts him off already knowing the answer.

“The suspect is a meta,” Joe finishes and Barry nods.

“Great, you have a group of metas trying to destroy you and then you have another meta killing people. You sure you can work on both of them?” Joe asks, curious. Barry thinks about it.

“Of course plus I know for sure Caitlin and Cisco found a clue or something,” Barry replies.

STAR Labs

Cisco is trying to get Needy Smasher to talk.

“Are you going to talk?! Are you going to talk?!” Cisco shouts at Needy Smasher. They end up going back and forth. Caitlin is in the back, just watching shaking her head.

“You are going to get anything information, little sidekick,” Needy Smasher comments with mocking tone. Cisco tilts his head.

“Oh no, you didn’t!” Cisco comments, about to charge at the meta.

“Ok, ok! Enough!” Caitlin states, pulling him back.

TRY WITH ANOTHER META

“Alright, Mastermind! Ready to talk?” Caitlin asks.

“Why don’t you and your little friend just screw off?” Mastermind replies, rolling his eyes.

“Little friend? Oh, you know what? You aren’t going to eat today, you are going to starve!” Cisco replies.

“Cisco, we aren’t going to starve him. That’s just wrong,” Caitlin replies.

“Did you not just…why are you and your friends so rude? We just want answers,” Cisco states. Mastermind just looks at him, not caring.

Hours of trying to get metas to talk or trying to find a meta in the city, all of them lead nowhere. Cisco bangs his head in the table gently, getting frustrated.

“Still has been a week!” Cisco groans annoyed looking at the surveillance. Caitlin is watching as well.

“Come on, like they attack one day and the next they disappear. If they want Barry to fall, why don’t they attack already?” Caitlin asks, confused.

“I don’t know but ElectroMan keeps getting away,” Cisco comments. Caitlin lights up right away.

“I made something to put down ElectroMan,” Caitlin announces, rushing to go get it. She comes back with a real like gun. Cisco stands up right away.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! No one needs to die, Caitlin!” Cisco states. Caitlin rolls her eyes.

“Cisco, it’s not a gun. Inside of it is can prevent ElectroMan from using his powers to escape like he usually does,” Caitlin explains. Cisco sighs in relief. They both sit down, looking for any clues of ElectroMan or other metas.

“Have you heard from Barry? I know it’s his first day back with his job, how is he taking it?” Caitlin asks.

“I don’t know, I haven’t heard from him since yesterday but I’m pretty sure he’s doing fine,” Cisco advices and Caitlin nods in agreement.

Barry walks right in.

“Hey, guys,” Barry says. They turn seeing Barry and Joe.

“Hey, Barry. How was your day back?” Caitlin asks. Barry shrugs his shoulders.

“Ok, but the sympathetic looks really didn’t help,” Barry replies.

“Well, the day is over now,” Joe tells him.

“Any luck?” Barry asks. Cisco and Caitlin nod no.

“They are plain rude,” Cisco then adds. Barry is confused and then looks at Caitlin.

“You don’t want to know,” Caitlin says, wanting to laugh. Barry shrugs his shoulders.

“But I did make something for ElectroMan won’t be able to escape again,” Caitlin tells them, taking the real like gun out.

“Caitlin, no one needs to die,” Barry tells her. Caitlin rolls her eyes and gives a disbelief look.

“What in the…this isn’t an actual gun,” Caitlin tells them. “This prevents ElectroMan from escaping like he usually does. One shot with this, he won’t be going anywhere. However, it only lasts for a couple of hours.” Barry nods.

“Barry, I think it’s time for the metas to transfer to Iron Heights. I mean we aren’t getting any answers from them, so there’s no use for them to be just stuck here,” Caitlin tells them.

“Caitlin, they will talk eventually. If they have a leader, they’d be pissed that their leader is letting them be stuck in a box for weeks,” Barry replies. Caitlin is unsure. Barry puts his hand on her arm.

“One more week and if still nothing, we will,” Barry advices. Caitlin sighs, giving in. Barry smiles at her. Wally walks in with Big Belly Burger bags.

“I brought everyone some Big Belly Burger,” Wally announces, showing the bags.

“Yes, bring it on over!” Cisco says, rubbing his hands together. Barry and Caitlin shake their heads at him.

“Where’s Iris?” Joe asks Wally.

“Oh, she’s working on an important article right now at work,” Wally tells Joe. Joe nods. Cisco is about to take a bite out of his burger, but the meta human app goes off. Barry flashes to his suit and is all geared up.

“Alright, ready to go Cisco?” Barry asks. Cisco smiles wide, happy that Barry isn’t trying to stop him anymore, but then goes back to sad.

“But the…the food,” Cisco pouts. Barry looks at him with a serious look. Cisco quickly gets his materials, and then puts on his Vibe glasses. Caitlin passes Barry the gun to stop ElectroMan.

“Ready,” Cisco replies. Cisco breaches them to the location. ElectroMan is by himself.

“You are by yourself, ElectroMan? That wasn’t a very good decision,” Cisco comments.

“Wrong,” ElectroMan replies. Barry and Cisco are confused. Barry sees a shadow moving and then he sees a sword headed their way. “Cisco, move!” Barry shouts. Cisco moves out of the way, before the sword could have killed him. A figure of a man appears and not only that, another person bops up.

“Ok, we dealt with three people before,” Cisco says, looking at the bright side. Right after he says that, two more people appear.

“I shouldn’t have…I jinxed it,” Cisco comments, looking at Barry. Cisco and Barry are about to charge, but one guy smirks. He lifts one hand, stopping Cisco and Barry in their positions.

“What were we going to do?” Cisco asks.

Caitlin looks at Joe and Wally confused.

“You two were going to go after the metas!” Caitlin shouts into the ear pieces. They charge again, but the guy simply lifts his hand. Barry and Cisco freeze once again.

“What are we doing?” Barry asks.

“Cisco and Barry, listen closely. The guy in the front makes you forget what you are doing. So, you need to surprise them,” Caitlin advices. They stand there for a while and Barry speeds to the man in front, making him fall. One of metas waves his hand, flying Barry and Cisco to the wall. They groan in pain.

“Did not see that coming,” Cisco mumbles. Barry speeds to them, but then ElectroMan throws a shock to him. Barry gets thrown to the wall again. Before Cisco can throw a vibrational blast to any of the metas, they disappear.

Cisco breaches Barry and himself back.

“You ok, Bar?” Joe asks. Barry nods yes.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Barry says. Caitlin hugs Barry and Cisco.

“I’m glad you two are ok,” Caitlin comments.

“Yeah, I just...these metas are very bipolar. They want to defeat me, but disappear right when we start fighting,” Barry states.

“We need to get Brain Freeze next time. He stopped us from attacking,” Cisco adds. Everyone looks at Cisco.

“What?! Brain Freeze is a perfect name, we literally brain freeze when he hit us with his power,” Cisco argues. They just roll their eyes playfully.

“Oh, food!” Cisco says spotting his food he had to leave behind.

“So, I guess we can use this another time,” Barry says, passing the gun to Caitlin. Caitlin puts it aside.

“I did a satellite scanner this time. In this area is where you two were fighting the metas, but around that time, over here,” Caitlin says, showing them specifically. “The scanner was showing some signs type of meta signal over here. And here’s the catch, you know how the meta disappeared right away, it vanishes right away at the same time.”

“Do you think it was coincidence or it’s connected?” Wally asks.

Caitlin shrugs her shoulders.

“Maybe,” Cisco says with his mouth full of food.

“We are going have to see if that meta appears again around the same time we go against ElectroMan and his friends,” Barry says.

“Barry, I need some help with classwork. Mind helping me out?” Wally asks.

“No, of course not. What is it?” Barry says.

Cisco gets a text and then stands up with a smile.

“Alright, I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” Cisco says.

“Off to see your girlfriend,” Joe comments.

“What, huh?” Cisco asks, acting like he doesn’t know what they are talking about.

“Really, Cisco? You honestly think we don’t know you have a secret girlfriend,” Caitlin adds.

“Don’t know what you guys are talking about,” Cisco lies.

“Ok, we are going to find out sooner or later about the mystery girl,” Barry tells Cisco. Cisco just shakes his head and heads to his apartment.

Lisa is coming through the window and smiles Cisco.

“Hey, Cisco,” Lisa says, giving him a kiss and pulls away.

“Why do you always come through the window?” Cisco asks.

“I don’t think your neighbors would like a criminal in their apartment building and walking up to your door,” Lisa comments. They both sit down on the couch, Cisco’s arms wrapped around her.

“True, today has been hectic. The metas once again got away. They come one week and then they disappear. We know they are trying to take down Ba…The Flash, but we don’t know why they keep getting away. We know there’s a group of them because different metas keep showing up. The team and I are thinking they are trying to figure out how The Flash’s powers work plus the metas we captured aren’t helping,” Cisco rants. Lisa listens.

“Well, to me…it seems they are trying to distract you ,” Lisa comments. “That’s what Len, Mick, and I used to do when pulling heists. We’d love to distract the cops so they won’t know what we are up to.”

“Lisa, you are a genius!” Cisco says, kissing her deeply and Lisa happily kisses back.

He pulls away, taking out his phone. Lisa pouts at him.

“You are going to call them now?” Lisa asks. Cisco looks at Lisa’s pout and gives in.

“I’ll call them tomorrow, we have a week until they attack again,” Cisco says and puts his phone down. “How about you?” Lisa is confused.

“About?” Lisa asks, curious.

“Your day. How was your day?” Cisco rephrases. Lisa shrugs her shoulders.

“It was alright,” Lisa simply replies. Cisco looks at her.

“Really, nothing happened today? You just did nothing?” Cisco questions. Lisa rolls her eyes and sighs.

“Fine, fine, Cis. I’ll tell you. It’s not really similar as yours though,” Lisa warns.

“I don’t care if it’s not similar, I want to know how my girlfriend’s day was,” Cisco replies and Lisa gives him a smile.

“Well, I was doing a heist today…” Cisco raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t say anything. Lisa notices. “Nevermind.” Cisco shakes his head.

“No, no. Its ok, Lisa. If you were doing heist, go for it. I’m not judging you, it’s your life. Now go on,” Cisco assures. Lisa nods ok.

“Well, the rouges and I were pulling a heist today.  I had everything planned out. As I’m about grab the jewelry, want to know what happens? The two idiots, Mark and Roy start arguing. I guess they start pushing each other, because they made me activate the alarm. So, we had to rush out with the jewelry. I was pissed at them. Other than that, it was alright,” Lisa states. Cisco nods his head up and down, wondering what to respond to that.

“Mark and Roy, why do those names sound familiar? Wait, Mark Mardon and Roy Bivolo?” Cisco asks and Lisa nods.

“Oh, ok. Those two must be a pain; do they always fight during heists?” Cisco asks. Lisa makes a face.

“Not always thankfully,” Lisa responds.

“Well, that’s good. See, I want to know more about your days. I don’t care if your day isn’t similar than mine. Honestly, everyone doesn’t have similar days. Heist or no heist, I want to know about your day. Ok?” Cisco says and Lisa smiles at him. She gives him a huge kiss.

STAR LABS

Caitlin is typing away in the computer. “You’re still here?” she hears and jumps in surprise. She turns and sees Barry.

She smiles at him and replies, “Yeah, why are you still here?” Barry sits by her side and puts some folders down.

“Working on some cases that I know for a fact metas is connected to. Just don’t know how and who are they,” Barry responds. “How about you?”

“Same, but it’s not about the cases. Just trying to figure out how what meta was at a different location. The satellite caught that meta was there but someone was interfering to block the location. Maybe another meta was helping. Meta-humans are a pain in the ass,” Caitlin replies and looks at Barry. “No offense.” Barry and Caitlin laugh.

“Maybe we can help each other?” Caitlin suggests. Barry nods. Barry opens the file. He makes a face and Caitlin notices.

“What’s wrong?” Caitlin asks and puts her hand on his arm. Barry takes a deep breath.

“I feel…guilty,” Barry confesses. Caitlin is confused and is about to ask why but he continues. “This is the fifteenth body that they found. Fifteenth. There shouldn’t have been more than one body or a body found in the first place. I was so focused on Zoom that I didn’t even pay attention to cases in CCPD. This is my entire fault that these families lost their loved ones. The Flash should’ve saved all of them.”

“Barry, this isn’t your fault. You forget that you aren’t just the Flash, you are Barry Allen. You have been through so much in your life that no one should go through. You work at CCPD and you stop metas. You are saving civilians left and right. I know you want to save everyone, I know you do. I…like that about you. You always want to do as much as you can for anyone. Barry, don’t forget all the things you accomplished,” Caitlin tells him. Barry looks at Caitlin and nods his head. They hug and Barry lays his head on Caitlin’s shoulder, feeling at ease right away. They slowly pull away.

“Ready to see what these metas are up to, Mr. Allen?” Caitlin asks.

“Indeed, Dr. Snow,” Barry replies.

THE NEXT DAY (Around Night Time)

Cisco is chasing Lisa around the apartment, both of them laughing. Lisa put marinara sauce on Cisco’s face as they were having dinner. “You are going to pay, Lis!” Cisco says.

“Catch me if you can,” Lisa teases. They are at it for a couple of minutes until Lisa trips. Cisco catches her, both of them in a laughing state. They slowly calm down.

“I got you,” he whispers and Lisa smiles at him. They lean in and kiss each other gently, but then the ground starts to shake. They pull away. Cisco rushes to the window and sees ElectroMan terrorizing civilians.

“Oh, shit!” Cisco says about to rush out. His phone is blowing up, already knowing that’s Barry, Caitlin, or maybe even Joe. Also, meta-human alert notifications. He notices Lisa following.

“Where are you going?” Cisco asks curiously.

“To help you, obviously,” Lisa replies.

“No, no, no. You are staying here,” Cisco tells her and Lisa looks at him in disbelief.

“No, Cisco. I’m coming!” Lisa states, sternly. Cisco knows he’s not going to win this argument and sighs.

“Lisa, please. I don’t want you to get hurt. These metas are way dangerous than those criminals you are used to hanging out with,” Cisco comments. Lisa takes a step back, offended.

“I’m one of those criminals, Cisco!” Lisa hisses and is about to walk away from him but Cisco stops her.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. Fine, you can come with me, but how about you and your rogues go after a meta? While Flash and I go after others?” Cisco suggests. Lisa nods in agreement. Cisco looks at his phone and sees a meta location from his meta-human alert app.

“Here, there’s one at 21st street. Now you go kick some meta’s ass and show them whose boss. Be careful, ok Lis?” Cisco says and Lisa smile, giving him a huge kiss.

“I will, you be careful out there too Cis,” Lisa tells him and rushes out. Cisco smiles and the ground shakes bringing him back to reality. He breaches himself to STAR LABS. Cisco spots Barry in his suit already. He spots Hartley.

“Nice to see you, Hartley,” Cisco states.

“Figured you guys needed my help,” Hartley replies.

“We do, thank you,” Caitlin replies and Hartley nods. Cisco puts on his Vibe gear and breaches Barry and himself to a location. There’s no one.

“Caitlin and Hartley, is the meta still here?” Barry asks. Caitlin and Hartley look up at the screen.

“Yes, the meta is still there,” Caitlin replies. Barry turns to Cisco.

“Cisco, take care of this meta. I’ll go deal with ElectroMan. Whatever these metas are doing, they are planning something and it isn’t good,” Barry suggests. Barry is running to go fight with ElectroMan but something in the corner of his eye stops him. He stops in his tracks. Barry sees Golden Glider, Weather Wizard, Rainbow Raider, and Trickster Jr fighting a meta.

“What in the…” Barry says, trailing off in shock.  Lisa turns around.

“Hello, Flash. We got this,” Lisa claims and turns back.

“Uh, ok. Can you guys head to STAR Labs after so we can turn the meta in?” Barry asks. He feels dumb, since they are criminals.

“We’ll think about it,” Lisa replies. Barry sighs and remembers about ElectroMan and runs to the location.

BACK TO CISCO

Cisco is slowly walking around.

“I don’t think the meta is here, Caitlin and Hartley,” Cisco says, noticing no one has bopped up. As he says that, he hears a noise.

“Oh, hell no. I think the meta is invisible,” Cisco comments.

“Well, you are going to have to find the meta or the meta will show themselves,” Hartley advices.

“Thanks, Hartley. Like I didn’t know that,” Cisco sarcastically replies. He hears Caitlin talking to Barry while he’s going against ElectroMan. Cisco takes steps.

“This is like a damn scary movie. This meta can bop up anytime and I won’t know it. It doesn’t help when it’s dark,” Cisco comments. He hears a noise again. Cisco turns right away and it’s a bottle rolling. Cisco sighs in relief and turns. A meta is in front of him. Cisco lets out a girly screech. The meta tilts his head in confusion.

“For real?” Hartley asks at the same time.

“Don’t judge,” Cisco comments to the both of them. The meta swings at Cisco, but Cisco blocks it. Cisco swings back, but the meta is gone. There’s a pain in his stomach. Cisco hunches over in pain and gets punched in the face. Cisco falls on the ground.

“Not fair,” Cisco groans in pain. He turns. He feels himself getting kicked. “You are invisible, I can’t fucking see you.” In the corner of his eye, he sees gas station nearby. Cisco gets up, trying to make the meta to follow him.

“Smart thinking, Cisco. I know what you are doing. I’m going to hack into the gas bump since the cashier has no damn idea there is a fight going on,” Hartley states. Cisco sees the cashier reading a magazine, not noticing his surroundings.  He hears footsteps behind him. Cisco gets tackled to the floor.  He feels hands on his neck. Cisco head bumps the guy, both of them groaning in pain. He pushes the guy off him.

“Go for it!” Hartley tells him. Cisco grabs the gas bump and sprays it on the guy so he can get a better clue on where he’s at. He puts it down.

“Gotcha!” Cisco says and shoots a vibrational blast to him. The meta goes flying to the wall and gets knocked out.

STAR LABS

Caitlin is takes a glimpse at the satellite screen and then back to the screen where it shows Barry and Cisco. Caitlin turns her head back right away at the satellite screen, noticing something isn’t right. There is two metas moving towards the STAR Labs.

“Hart,” Caitlin whispers. Hartley turns his head, confused. She points at the screen. They rush inside the room near the cortex.

“Here,” Caitlin says, passing Hartley a weapon. Hartley has other ideas, putting on his gears on.

“I’m good,” Hartley replies, showing off his gear. Caitlin playfully shakes her head. Caitlin grabs her weapon. They slowly stick their heads out to see two metas. One woman who is pale, white hair and clear that she’s ice cold. Then there’s a guy who is looking around, they stick their heads back. Caitlin slowly looks again to see them heading to the pipeline room.

“I think they are trying to release the metas,” Caitlin whispers. “We have to stop them.” Hartley nods in agreement. They slowly walk to towards the pipeline room. Caitlin sees ice woman about to unlock the doors.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Caitlin snaps. They both turn and smirk.

“Or what sweetheart?” the woman asks. Caitlin is about to shoot at her, but the guy waves his hand and makes the gun go flying out of her hands. Hartley uses his sonic blast and the guy goes flying. He tries to get back up, but Hartley just drags him around, blasting him to wall to wall. While Hartley does that, Caitlin is about to grab the gun, but ice is thrown at her, knocking her down. The guy knocks out finally, Hartley rushes to help Caitlin up.

The woman unlocks the door to Mastermind.

Caitlin shouts, “No!” Hartley is about to throw another blast but Mastermind controls over his body. Hartley stays still. Caitlin nods no. Caitlin grabs the gun and points it to Mastermind. Hartley attacks her, not in his right state of mind. Caitlin punches him and kicks his leg, making him trip. Caitlin shoots the gun, preventing Mastermind to use his powers. Hartley shakes his head, snapping out of it.  Caitlin notices Firedagger has been released. Caitlin tries to shoot Firedagger with the gun, but it’s not loaded anymore. Firedagger throws a dagger through Caitlin’s shoulder. Caitlin shouts out in pain. Hartley is in shock. Ice woman sees him off guard and grabs him by the neck. Hartley gasps, feeling his neck ice burn. She then grabs Caitlin by the neck as well. Both of them are in pain as she grips their neck; the ice slowly creeping to their brain.

“Kill them!” Firedagger hisses. She just throws both of them to the floor, and then freezes the entrance of the hall so they can’t escape.

“No!” Caitlin shouts, pounding against the ice.

Hartley and Caitlin then look at Hartley’s gear. “The gauntlets,” they both say. Hartley takes off his gear and tries to increase the frequency that can shatter the ice. The frequency blares loudly, Caitlin has to cover her ears. The ice shatters. They see all the metas out, rushing out including Mastermind who was previously detained. Hartley points the gauntlets towards them, all the metas kneel down in pain. Firedagger has fire surrounding her body and vanishes just like that. Caitlin nods no, knowing she escaped. Caitlin grabs the gun and knocks out Needy Smasher. As she’s about to knock out the ice woman, but the woman pushes the gun out of her hands. She grips Caitlin’s hand, Caitlin winces in pain. Hartley tries to push him off, but without his gauntlets, his hands start to freeze. Hartley winces, pulling his hands back. The woman flies him to the wall with ice. Mastermind forces himself to get up and rushes out, not wanting to get in this. The woman grips her neck, Caitlin feels herself, fading. The sound of Hartley’s gauntlets is all she can hear.

BARRY’S FIGHT WITH ELECTROMAN

Barry is blocking ElectroMan’s shocks.

“Are you done now?” Barry asks, getting annoyed.

“Nope, just going to keep distracting you,” ElectroMan replies.

“Distracting? What do you mean?” Barry asks. ElectroMan throws another shock since he stopped and causing Barry to scream out in pain.

“Caitlin?” Barry calls. No response. There’s trouble at STAR labs. His eyes widen in fear.

“No,” he whispers. Barry flashes to STAR Labs. He sees a woman gripping Caitlin’s neck, Hartley and Needy Smasher knocked out. The sound of a piercing scream is surrounding the room. Barry ignores the pain of the sound, and speeds to Caitlin. He pushes the woman off. Caitlin gasps for air as her freezing skin, goes back to her original skin color. Right when he does that, Cisco breaches in with a knocked out guy in his arms. With the sound of Hartley’s gauntlets hurts Cisco’s ears, Cisco drops the guy on the ground, covering his ears.

“Shit, my bad!” Cisco hisses. One by one, Barry and Cisco locks the metas up. Hartley shuts his gauntlets off once he wakes up. After Barry changes, he goes to check on Caitlin. Barry sees Caitlin patching up Hartley.

“You ok, Hartley?” Caitlin asks. Cisco and Barry walk in the room.

“Caitlin, you have a dagger still on your shoulder. Frozen handprint on your neck and you are asking me if I’m alright?!” Hartley asks, in confusion.

“Relax, you have a frozen handprint on your neck as well,” Caitlin argues.

“Caitlin, let me patch you up,” Barry offers.

“No, it’s ok. I got it,” Caitlin says, sitting herself down. She goes to grab a tool to get the dagger out, but Barry takes it from her hand.

“No, Caitlin. This isn’t a question, I’m patching you up,” Barry says, sternly. It’s silent in the room, Caitlin nods ok. Barry slowly takes the dagger out from her shoulder; Caitlin closes her eyes in pain. Joe, Wally, and Iris walk in.

“What happened?” Wally asks.

“They distracted us is what happened, just to get their friends,” Barry replies as he puts the dagger down. Barry puts ointment on the cut.

Caitlin sighs. “Firedagger and Mastermind escaped,” Caitlin says, disappointed in herself that she let them go.

“What?! Caitlin, how could you have let that happen?!” Iris asks. Barry turns to Iris, pissed.

“Well because of Caitlin and Hartley, three metas didn’t escape. They fought back, almost losing their lives. At least they tried and fought back!” Barry shouts. Iris takes a step back, not expecting that. Barry turns back; focusing on Caitlin’s wounded shoulder.

“It’s all good though. Needy Smasher, the ice woman, and telekinesis guy are all locked up,” Hartley says.

“Don’t forget the guy I brought in. And Ice woman? Telekenis guy? No, no, no. They need names,” Cisco states. Everyone shakes their head at Cisco.

“When I walked in, it looked like a snow storm…there it goes! Snow Storm is her name. See Caitlin, now you know you won’t turn into Killer Frost,” Cisco states and Caitlin gives him a really look.

“Why not just name her Killer Frost?” Wally asks.

“That’s wrong, giving someone else a name that doesn’t belong to them. Sounds wrong to do that,” Cisco argues. Wally just shrugs his shoulders.

“The meta I caught should be called…Mr. Invincible and the telekinesis guy should be called, let me think,” Cisco says, thinking for a while. He dazes out for a minute, everyone waiting for him to say something. “Mindgrip.”

“You really are serious about naming them?” Hartley asks. Cisco nods yes like that was an obvious answer.

“Well, I know that Lisa Snart and her rouges turned in one meta today. It was like a hurricane.Cops said he laughed whenever destroying something. Guess he didn’t get the last laugh since the rouges kicked his ass,” Joe comments. Cisco smiles, proud of his girl. Luckily, no one notices his smile.

“You just said it. Hurricane. Doctor…Doctor Hurricane. Wait, no. Doctor doesn’t sound raid. You said he was laughing?” Cisco states. He snaps his fingers, finding a name. “Laughing Vulture.” Caitlin rolls her eyes at his nickname for the metas but focuses on the situation.

“Lisa Snart?” Caitlin asks in shock. Joe nods yes.

“Apparently, he can control metal. Cars and building were being destroyed, they just dropped him off at CCPD,” Joe explains.

“That’s new,” Caitlin comments.

Caitlin feels a sharp pain, still feeling where the dagger once was. “I guess you were right, fire and daggers is not a good match,” Caitlin jokes.

“Don’t,” Barry mumbles and Caitlin is confused.

“I should’ve listened to you!” Barry hisses, throwing down the medical tool as he finishes patching up Caitlin. Everyone’s attention is on him.

“I should’ve taken them to Iron Heights right away right when you told me. I should have listened to you! If I did, none of this wouldn’t have happened at all. You and Hartley wouldn’t be hurt right now! God, I can’t do anything right!” Barry snaps, walking out.

“Barry,” Iris calls but Barry ignores her.

“Barry!” Caitlin says. Barry slowly stops for a second, but keeps on going.

“BARRY ALLEN!” Caitlin shouts as he feels something hit him in the back of his head. Barry rubs the back of his head, turning around. He sees Caitlin’s heel on the ground.

“Did you throw your high-heel at me?” Barry asks.

“Barry Allen, you need to understand that we are a team. We ALL choose to go up against the meta-humans who are a danger to the city. We chose to do this. Barry, you are not on your own and you are not the only one making the choices around here. And I swear to god Barry, if I hear you blame yourself one damn time, I’ll make sure to throw something harder than my high-heel! Do you understand me?!” Caitlin shouts at him. Barry is in shock but refuses to argue with her.

“Yes, ma’am,” Barry replies. Caitlin nods, glad he agrees.

There’s an alert sound, Caitlin rushes to go look at it. She almost falls without her other heel, so she takes off her other heel, then throws it.

“Unauthorized breach,” Caitlin tells the others.

“Come on, like we haven’t had enough trouble already!” Cisco comments. They all head down to where the breach is located, ready to fight whatever is coming through. Wells comes through. Everyone relaxes.

“Wells, why are you here?” Barry asks.

“I need some help,” Wells replies. There’s a blur of red and then Jesse appears. Everyone is in shock.

“Wasn’t expecting that,” Cisco says.

CISCO’S APARTMENT

After all Jesse’s explaining of how she became a speedster, Barry offered to train along with Harry’s complains. Caitlin and Barry convinced Harry to let Jesse get trained.

Cisco opens the door to see Lisa watching TV. Lisa sees Cisco and smiles wide. She runs over to him. They embrace in a tight hug.

“I did it! I caught a meta!” Lisa tells him. Cisco smiles and pulls away.

“I know I heard. I’m so proud. I’m glad you had luck today,” Cisco tells him. Lisa is confused.

“Why, what happened?” Lisa asks. Cisco sighs.

“They attacked everywhere to distract us. They wanted their friends to escape. My two friends got attacked trying to prevent them to escape. Unfortunately, two escaped,” Cisco tells her. Lisa pouts, not liking that Cisco is upset. Lisa pecks him on the lips, then pulls back.

“Maybe if me and my rogues worked for you. No one will be able to get past,” Lisa advices. Cisco raises an eyebrow.

“That would honestly be interesting to see the rogues be the security,” Cisco comments and Lisa smiles. “Anyhow, I’d been meaning to ask. Where’s your brother and Mick?” Lisa frowns.

“I don’t know, I’m a bit worried. I never heard from them in a long time. I know Lenny is safe if I know Mick is with him,” Lisa replies.

“Well, let’s forget about all this and finish our dinner,” Cisco suggests. “I didn’t get you back you yet.” Lisa eyes widen and starts running, Cisco right behind her; both of them laughing.

So, I wanted to write how I think Season 3 of The Flash should have been like. I wrote this so please do not try to take my work.

Posted: 11/13/17 AND 11/14/17 (Since it turned midnight when I posted, haha)

[herstarburststories]

You found her, now go and get her ✘ Barry Allen and Grant Gustin Imagine ✘

✘ A/N: I’M FINALLY POSTING MY FIRST REQUEST, YAY! I’m sorry it took so long, anon. School kills. I hope you like it! As well you, guys!

I’ll tag WestAllen bc this one got Westallen, but it’s not a Westallen imagine.

Thanks @lyss-91 for beta ♡

✘ (Y/F/N) = Your fake name. (Y/L/F/N) = Your last fake name.

✘ Request: This might get complicated but can you do a Barry/grant imagine where Barry is trying to move on from iris (maybe they broke up or something) and he is either shown through Gideon or travels to our world where he sees the reader (singer actress) and grant have been together for awhile and are very happy so he tries to find the reader on his earth with the teams help

Things had been strained between Barry and Iris since the end of their engagement. They didn’t talk, they couldn’t stay in a room alone, and when their eyes met, before so demonstrative of love and admiration for each other, would just look away, making both people uncomfortable and any other human or metahuman around being able to feel the heavy breeze from the pressure in the air.

They loved each other, of course, they had loved each other since forever. And when they finally got together, Barry thought that maybe this time he had really won, maybe he'd gotten his happy ending, his peace.

Holy shit, how wrong he was.

Iris missed him more than anything, and so did he.

But it was clear that the Scarlet Speedster couldn’t say or show it more when Cisco entered excited on the cortex, saying that the future had changed. Iris would live. Savitar wouldn’t kill her.

''Actually, I saw her in the headlines. 'Iris West, the youngest Central City’s journalist to win a pultizer award, public an article about metahuman medicine, with help from her old  friend, Caitlin Snow.'’ Cisco spoke in a forced tone of journalist's newspaper's 7, smile never leaving the his face. "Guys, Iris is alive and Caitlin won’t turn into Killer Frost!"

‘’But what changed?’’ Julian asked, but no one could care about what event made the tragedy go away, the focus was clear: the worst thing won’t happen anymore.

‘’We won Savitar, I knew it! I knew it!’’ H.R said exltedly.

Joe hugged his daughter with tears in his eyes as Cisco hugged Caitlin and HR ran out screaming something about coffee and cake to celebrate the occasion.

As much as Barry's heart was relieved - Iris, the woman he loved, would live and have the success in journalism that she deserved! -  A persistent doubt struck the back of his head. Asking Iris to marry had not changed the future. Had breaking up with her done it?

Barry smiled at Iris as their gazes met, the first real smile from the end, she took a step toward him, and he could not help but try to reach her as well, but Caitlin hugged her just in time, happiness and relief filling the room.

Looking at the people that Barry Allen most loved in the world in such happiness, he couldn’t help but leave when no one was noticing and go to Gideon. Barry had to see if a certain event had reappeared.

His heart pounded, hoping he would continue with Iris, the girl he always wanted...

But he was not.

Flash missing vanishes in crise.

By Iris West.

No hyphen, no Allen.

Iris was alive, but she would only be like this if he didn’t have her.

A solitary tear fell down the cheek of Central City’s hero.

It was surprising how he could save everyone but himself.

But it was okay, if his happy ending was Iris at least alive, Barry accepted that.

He loved her too much to be selfish.

(…)

It was 1 year and 6 months since Barry discovered he could not stay with Iris anymore. He was doing okay as much as possible. The thought that she would be alive made him try to move on, for Barry knew that if he didn’t, the West girl would die.

So the speedster was trying. The best he could, at least.

''This time, I'm 100% sure that the particle accelerator will not get you to another earth.'' Cisco said while putting the device in Barry's suit.

"100%?" Barry raised an eyebrow, doubting his friend's statement.

"Okay, maybe more to 89%," Cisco said as he moved to the computer. ''Or 67%...''

''Oh, great! ''

"Earth two?" Julian asked Caitlin, trying to find himself in the conversation.

"No, it's down to earth 4. It's where Supergirl came from." Caitlin explained.

"Who?" Julian asked confused as Caitlin began to gesture and explain about Team Flash's interdimensional travels and friends.

''Okay, get ready.'' Barry prepared to run, happy to do something that would always distract him from the world around him. ''1... 2... 3... Go! '' The Flash ran, leaving papers flying through the cortex, Caitlin rolled sighed and went to pick them up while Julian approached Cisco to see Barry's speed on the computer, until it simply disappeared.

''What was it?''

(…)

The Scarlet Speedster could feel in his breath that that oxygen was not that of his earth. He sighed and looked around, looking for some information on where he was or how to get help to get home.

As much as ''home'' was now all his relative happy, uncomfortable moments between him and Iris, the sure certainty that he would not have a happy ending and...

Barry shook his head from side to side, trying to hide his thoughts like someone throwing dirt under the rug. Time to gather information, find help, and go back to his earth.

The hero looked around again, he was on a street, one that seemed to belong only to the richest of any place. Hearing a loud noise as loud as hysterical screams, Barry glanced back, managing to see himself waving to a group of screaming people. Was that version of him famous?

He sped in the big place, looking twice, was a recording studio. The Flash sped through the room, studying everything until it found a trailer that contained clothes in his size.

Barry changed his clothes and grabbed a backpack, putting his uniform inside, starting to look around the trailer at human speed.

''Cool.'' A smile appeared on his face to see a photo of him with two more dogs, he always wanted dogs. Barry finally found a computer and searched for the name on the door of the trailer.

Grant Gustin.

Thomas Grant Gustin, better known as Grant Gustin, is an American actor, singer and dancer. Best known for playing the role of ''Barry Allen'' in The Flash series from CW show.

Okay, what should he be most shocked about? The fact that he is representing himself  or that he can dance?

Anyway, Barry continued his research. Grant Gustin seemed like a completely normal guy, in fact, all of the team seemed to be normal. No metahuman activity here.

Indicated for the best chemistry award on TV: Grant Gustin and (Y/F/N) (Y/L/F/N)

This was a new one, he didn’t know anyone by that name. Barry clicked on the link of the story, basically they and 4 other couples competed for this award. The Forensic Scientist kept looking at the photo of himself smiling and hugging a girl, whom he couldn’t see, although he could not help but feel curious and even neediss to meet her.

Barry coughed, moving away from the computer. He had not felt anything like this since Iris.

Search: (Y/F/N) (Y/L/F/N)

Allen sighed and clicked on the first link to youtube that appeared, ''(Y/F/N)'' was talking and suddenly began to sing. He giggled, her voice was wonderful.

The next video was one of an interview with her, Barry clicked on the link and folded his arms, waiting for what could come.

Fully open mouth in ‘’O’’ was a euphemism for Barry's expression. His chest was full of excitement, confusion... Hope?

His version of this earth was with this girl for years, and he seemed quite happy with her.

This was not Barry's life, he knew that. But something inside his veins was begging for him, go get this girl.

For the first time after Iris, Barry Allen could feel something.

Just then, Cisco appeared, smiling relieved to see his friend well.

'’How about a vibe home, bro?'

(…)

"They were together for like three years and they looked really happy. I have to find this girl. I just have to. ''

''You're like one of those in love Disney guys, are you going to start singing for no reason like them?'' Cisco joked.

''And she was a singer actress!'' Barry remembered.

"As lovely as it is, you know this was not your earth, right?" Caitlin said, wanting to make sure his friend’s head was in order.

As Barry opened his mouth to speak, the rest of the team entered the room. His heart ached a little to see Iris, she's still Iris after all. The difference is that, this time, he accepted his new idea of destiny, Barry Allen was happy. He would have Iris at his side as his best friend, fully alive and amazing at job and someone to love, that was more than enough. It took some months to accept that he wasn’t going to be with Iris and a couple weeks before he came back from the other earth to accept that he could be happy with another person. But he did it.

Barry Allen accepted it and would hold onto this future.

"What were you talking about?" Wally asked with Big Belly Burger's mouthful, Iris rolled her eyes at his brother's attitude.

''About the girl that B.A is looking for! She and his look-alike, can you believe it? Look-alikes! - were together and kaboom! He wants to meet her here!'' H.R said excitedly, not noticing what he was really talking about and in front of who.

"Dude, seriously?" Cisco chided him, H.R looked around, his mouth popping open and his expression showing surprise at what he had done.

Before H.R could stutter some apoloze, the reaction in the cortex was completely the opposite of what was expected. Iris smiled at Barry, a genuine smile.

''Well, I'm happy for you, Bear.''

(…)

"What do we have?!" Barry asked as he stepped into the cortex, already in his The Flash outfit. Cisco and Caitlin had called him to STAR Labs saying they had found something that needed to be resolved urgently, but the whole Team was there, which was weird for a wednesday morning.

"What do you have to get, bro." Cisco said smiling, eating another of his candys.

''What?''

"We found her." Caitlin smiled sweetly. Barry looked around the room, his eyes wide and his crescent-shaped mouth resting like a smile. ''Her name on this earth is (Y/N) and... ''

"And we'd say more information about how much work to find her we got, but I guess all you want now is to run for her." Cisco interrupted and laughed at his friend's expression, noting how excited he was but happy for him as well as his entire team was.

"Go get your girl, Flash." Iris said, smiling in encouragement, he stared at her and nodded, running out as he received the information from her location by the microphone in his suit.

And then, the world seemed finally to stop when Barry laid his eyes on (Y/N). Nothing was fast or slow, everything was in harmony for the first time in centuries. Barry could swear on his knees that there were no wars or problems in the world, because... How could something bad happen in the world when her smile existed?

[angelfireeast]

Caitlin Snow-Killer Frost-Multiple Personality Disorder - If only!

fyi I wrote a long time ago before Caitilin “died” and was reborn killer frost. it’s just a if idea for what the writers could’ve done. Everytime I read quote from writers or DP saying this the evil powers making Killer Frost and not the real Caitlin feel so let down because this could’ve been a really good story for Caitlin exploring her dark side. It feels like spacegoat to use the evil meta powers card. They took the cheap easy way out by making it ‘evil powers’. 

They did leave open option of Caitlin good and this ‘her’ this ‘Killer Frost’ taking over her as mental disorder. But once again the writers choose not to take it and went to cheap easy way out. Setting it Caitlin and Killer Frost as two separate personality could have been a really good mental illness story for Caitlin which would last the rest of series which would be interesting in it’s own ways. But the writers don’t seem to even have guts or care or respect to follow through on that either. They kinda half assed it.

When I look over the story so far. There is a lot here that sounds exactly like Multiple Personality Disorder (which now called Dissociative identity disorder.) Killer Frost isn’t some wicked dark other being that has taken over Caitlin’s body.  It’s all Caitlin and trying to pretend Killer Frost is something you cut out like cancer or invading alien that go is not helping with the situation. The Killer Frost personality is scared of ‘dying’ basically but being forced to go away and she wants the Caitlin Snow personality to go away for good. Caitlin wants the same thing for Killer Frost. For this whole storyline Caitlin has refused to look at the psychological side of her problems. She’s looked at this as physical problem that needed to be cured. It’s really short sighted of doctor to refuse to look at mental health side of things but Caitlin decided meta powers were to blame and thus meta powers were the answer to the problem. She also refused to try to learn to control her power.

I don’t believe Killer Frost is just the “evil” meta human powers. Killer Frost is dissociate personality who has better a control of meta powers they both share. Caitlin has used the powers many times without becoming Killer Frost. When Caitlin becomes emotionally upset she becomes unstable and Killer Frost personality emerges. When the  Killer Frost personality comes out she uses her powers because that’s what this dissociative personality thinks she is - aka Earth 2 Killer Frost. This personality is protecting both of them from whatever threat is making them feel bad. It’s said Dissociative identity disorder second or third personalities can be more aggressive and hostile as means to deal with trauma that created disorder. This certainly fits with Killer Frost. When Killer Frost is aggressive or hostile and she uses the tools has to act out on her negative feelings which means she uses their powers in ways Caitlin normally doesn’t. Caitlin fears her powers so she doesn’t use them. Her fear when she uses them causes so much stress it brings on her other personality taking over. From what I’ve been reading it’s often the case that one personality is the “apparently normal part” of the personality responsible for day-to-day functioning and another alternate personality often is personality emerging in survival situations (involving fight-or-flight responses, vivid traumatic memories and strong, painful emotions. Which fits perfectly with Caitlin and Killer Frost who emerges whenever Caitlin gets really emotionally upset or stressed.

Post-traumatic stress disorder in adults may become Dissociative identity disorder as it is caused by traumatic stresses forcing the mind to split into multiple identities. What Zoom did to Caitlin in season two IMO is traumatic enough to bring something like this on. The old timeline she was in pieces riddled by PTSD brought on by what he did to her. Oh top all the loss and trauma of watching her lovers die before her eyes again and again (Ronnie not once but twice. Zoom murdered Fake Jay before her eyes. Her father died, her mother withdrew from her emotionally. Dr. Wells turned out to be Eobard. Jay was Hunter. On and on and on it goes). The writers used Flashpoint/timeline change to do a big old skip it with Caitlin when it came to her extreme PTSD from season two. Even using Flashpoint’s changes you still use Dissociative identity disorder to say she seemed to get her PTSD much faster in changed timeline but what really happened what she had mental break down which was her mind splitting into multiple identities to cope with that happened. Again the writers are just to lazy for that.Dissociative Identity Disorder works a lot better than a half baked ‘evil powers’ nothing really explained. 

Caitlin was in a very fragile state post Zoom and she discovers her powers and it’s the straw that broke the camel back. Zoom laid into her about having darkness within her and letting it out. She scared of becoming Killer Frost after having met E2 KF and suddenly she has these powers? It’s too much and breaks her mentally and emotionally. The fact that she kept everything secret did not help her. The more isolated is she with this fear the she it run right over top of herself. She decided the powers equaled evil and that was that exactly how things ended up.

There is no magic cure for Dissociative Identity Disorder. It’s an ongoing thing that needs to be treated with long term therapy for years. There has to be deep trust with therapists which is often hard because alternate personality, especially those who particularly those associated with illegal or violent activities, distrust therapists as they think goal of therapy is to eliminate them. There two healthy treatment goals for Dissociative Identity Disorder. One is goal of unified identity. The other finding a way to have each aspect of each personality coexist, and work together. The goal of achieving a more peaceful coexistence of the person’s multiple personalities is quite different than the reintegration of all those aspects into just one identity state. Medications can be helpful in managing emotional symptoms. Remember that Caitlin gave Ronnie and Martin these sorts of drugs to help them recover after spending a year trapped in one mind. So that’s hand waving Flash medicine for you.

Given how Caitlin, Killer Frost, Team Flash and Savitar are handling the situation eliminate the alternate personality is goal of each side. Killer Frost’s fears are based reality because everyone does any to eliminate her. Since no is treating this as mental illness thus there is professional help guiding their hands they all just ‘we’ll get the real Caitlin back’. No one is thinking of middle ground - YET. Caitlin sure as heck won’t agree to it because she fears Killer Frost too dangerous. I guess the question is Killer Frost cartoon evil? What could she look like if she was offered the right to live and given psychological and emotional help along with Caitlin? I think medication to help both their mood would be in order. She’d still likely be someone ready to kill at snap of fingers but would she be out raising hell? Or would be able to function in the world?

I always wondered why and how she made that absolute belief about her powers being evil. Perhaps it was because she had already started Dissociative Identity Disorder with the second personality emerging as this aggressive and hostile person before her powers started she decided her powers had to be related to slipt dark personality. The powers have to be evil because this emerging personality is so dark and Caitlin refused to consider psychological answer. Perhaps the stigma against mental illness was driving factor in all this. Again that make for interesting subject for show to discuss. Caitlin refused to look at psychological l side because of stigma involved. You would think ‘but she a doctor should be more enlightened on subject and not caught up in the stigma’? But that’s the thing no one wants to admit it’s happening to them personally. There is a ego factor of ‘I’m a doctor! I am not mentally ill. I have this under control. It is physical issue which I can cure myself. I have control of this situation’. Caitlin didn’t use her resources wisely as she tried to cure her “problem”. At every single turn she cut out everyone and tried do this alone on her terms. She only included the team when she was forced to. She only went to her mother when there was no other place to turn to, she manipulated Julian and the team to let Julian join team Flash without ever outright stating she needed help with a cure, she took a piece of the stone and kept it hidden for MONTHS risking Iris’s life and not caring about Iris dying in search for her cure, again all she needed to do what talk to the team. When Wally was crystallized in pod she went behind everyone’s backs to seek out Alchemy for cure. She went out of her way over and over and over to keep secrets and not get help from people who only want to help her and not judge her. Fuck they didn’t even blink at her betraying them they care that much. So why does she do it over and over again? Her go it alone secret path to cure keeps failing her so why keep doing it? Maybe because part of her is scared someone will look at the situation and go “this is your evil meta human powers fault. They aren’t evil at all. Their is part of your that is Killer Frost. This is mental and emotional issue”. She can’t deal with that. She scared of the word ‘crazy’. Look at her reaction when Julian pretty much told to take responsibly for her actions as KF. She got so upset over it and on top of being so worked fearing becoming Killer Frost she reacted by the Killer Frost personality coming out in a rage going ‘Fine I’ll take responsibly for myself. I’m evil. Haha! Iris dies’. Caitlin was talked back into taking control of the body by Julian when he said ‘that’s not the real you blah blah blah’. My point is Caitlin cannot handle the idea of being evil or Killer Frost without it ending her off the deep ending. Which is what brings out the alternate protective personality even if she’s scared of alternate protective personality..

Something that could scare Caitlin and Killer Frost, since they know the same thing, is that Doctors treating people with this illness sometimes find the more prominent personality states as the “host” personality may not be the “true” identity of the patient. Just think if they have secret fear they aren’t real owner of body.

We’ve had three version of Caitlin this season. Caitlin Snow, Killer Frost and CS/KF hybrid in 3.07  who shared the same goal of getting rid of meta human power & not caring about hurting people. You could say there are 3 alternate personalities. To find people deal with alternate personalities doctors often have them face that trauma that created it. The trauma that created the CS/KF hybrid was caused by Barry’s betrayal and was “cured” when Barry hashed things out with her. The alternate personality let go and the stronger personality of Caitlin took hold again. There was no need for the CS/KF hybrid defensive personality anymore. The two larger personalities remain.

[madness-of-void]

Because

Also on AO3

Theme: Horror

WARNING: This fic is full of psychological horror/torture

Inspired by things like Saw (though I’ve only seen a few clips), Silent Hill, and Resident Evil VII. Read at own risk.

And one more thing: Don’t believe everything they say

Go tell Aunt Rhody, Go tell Aunt Rhody, Go tell Aunt Rhody, That everybody's dead...

He awoke with jolt, gasping for air like it was going out of style. He clambered about, struggling to gather his bearings. His feet kept slipping from under him and his entire body was aching. Right...some asshole had nabbed him and dragged him into the back of a van. Beat the shit out of him, too. Probably had some serious bruising across his ribs. At least no bones were broken...

When he finally could stand and even out his ragged breaths, he began to survey his current surroundings. The room, or wherever he was, was pitch black – nothing to be seen. Nothing to be heard. Nothing to feel but the cold ground beneath and the stale stench of mold floating in the air. All of this rang of a horror movie setting, and that did not bode well. Because as much as he enjoyed horror movies, horror video games, American Horror Story...he did not actually want to be a part of a real life horror anything. Vicarious living suited him much better.

“H-h-hello?” he called out, voice shaking. “Anybody there?”

He paused, rolling his eyes when he realized what he just did. “Oh...great idea, dude. Do one of the big no-no's in the horror genre. Fantastic. You're gonna die.”

As if an answer to his call, there was a whirring sound above him. Gears and machinery moving about. He cried out, ducking just in case. Didn't want to get nicked by something. He was sore and terrified enough, thank you.

Suddenly, lights flooded the room, nearly blinding him. He shielded his eyes, cursing under his breath. Whoever the asshole who kidnapped him was...totally getting it later. Kidnapping a PI was a bad idea!

“State your name.”

The voice rumbled throughout the area, sounding oddly like a cheap voice changer anyone could buy at Wally World. It was probably supposed to sound intimidating. If it wasn't for the fact that he had no idea what was going on and no idea where he was...it would have sounded funny.

“H-huh?”

“STATE! YOUR! NAME!”

The voice sounded furious, causing him to almost drop right back to the ground. He squinted up at the ceiling, hoping to pinpoint where the intercom system was. Maybe find a few wiring to follow. But there was nothing. Just unfinished, cement ceiling, and wooden floors – all caked with dried blood and decaying mold.

“STATE! YOUR! NAME!”

He flinched, now glaring with agitation. “Okay, okay! I get it! Sheesh...” He heaved a sigh, hands on his hips and eyes back to squinting (but still glaring, because he needed to look scary for whatever hidden cameras there were watching him). “It's Stiles. Stiles Stilinski. There. Happy now, oh omnipotent voice?”

A chuckle. Did not sound too friendly. “Do you like to taunt those that mean to do you harm?”

“Um...is that a trick question?”

Another chuckle. “Your humor might save you, Mr. Stilinski. Or...it might kill you, instead.”

Stiles sucked on his lip, wondering what the hell was in store. “Can we just assume I'm gonna live and not die? Because I enjoy living. Maybe not a whole lot, but the idea sounds much  better than option two.”

“There is a door at the end of the hall. Once inside, there will be a table with items you will need in order to make your way to where you will meet up with your partner.”

Partner? Was there someone else trapped in this place with him? But why? What was going on here? Was this a game? Was this a test? Just what was this sicko doing?

“There will also be instructions. Follow them carefully. You wouldn't want to die now, would you?”

An intense feedback shook the walls. Probably would've sent them collapsing if they were any weaker. Didn't leave much comfort. None of this did. In fact, judging by how empty his pockets felt, it looked like Stiles was all alone in this one. Until he found his partner, that is.

“When I get out of here...this guy is getting his ass tossed in a cell...” he muttered to himself.

He didn't dare think 'if I get out of here'. The idea of not making it out of whatever the hell he was about to endure with a possible stranger would only cripple him. Make him too afraid to move forward. And that would not do. Likely would lead to death instead.

So, with a shaky sigh, Stiles marched towards a dimly lit archway he didn't notice till now.

The hallway he entered, like the room before, appeared poorly finished, if finished at all, and was littered with mold. But, unlike the room he woke in, the lights above weren't blinding. They were flickering, playing off the horror cliché fairly well. If there was ominous music, it would complete the sense of dread Stiles felt.

With each step there was a creak and a groan to follow. The air was stiff – as if to say that something was lurking nearby. The door at the end of this seemingly never-ending hall had its own set of lights, which flickered heavier than the rest.

Stiles was in a literal horror cliché.

It would be so fascinating if he wasn't the guinea pig trapped in it...

Upon reaching the door, he heard a static sound on the other side. Like a radio. Maybe is was a police scanner with a radio? He could call for help! Ha! In your face, creepo!

But when he swung open the door, ecstatic about the potential find...his heart immediately sunk into the acidy pits of his gut.

It wasn't a police scanner with a radio. Instead, it was a claustrophobic type room made of metal, caked in rust. The lights were still flickering, with the exception of the very middle of the room. There, under the dim lighting, was a decrepit hospital gurney, carrying four items: a small clip-on radio, a clip-on flashlight, an old looking crowbar, and a folded piece of parchment paper.

“What kind of Silent Hill bs is this?” Stiles muttered, wary to enter.

He would've stayed right there in the doorway, staring at the gurney with fear...if it wasn't for the fact that the lights behind him had gone out. And that he heard someone, or something, breathing somewhere down that hall. He bolted inside, hurriedly slamming and locking the door. Seconds after, there was banging on the now closed door...insistent with coming in. Stiles quickly backed away, eventually bumping against the gurney. Nearly knocked it and himself to the floor.

The banging ceased after the sounds of clattering. Only heavy breathing, breathing louder than the frightened man's, remained. Then, as sudden as it all began...it just...stopped. It was likely the sicko that kidnapped the PI had been the breather and banger. This enraged Stiles. To the air, because he was positive that there were hidden cameras somewhere, he held up his middle finger and spewed the few Polish curses he learned from his late babcia.

“I'm gonna find you, and fuck you up! You hear me!? You won't get away with this!”

As a response, the room was plunged into deep darkness. Save it for the surprisingly strong light from the clip-on flashlight, and a weak light on a door sloppily painted black. Stiles yelped, startled and annoyed all at once. Whoever this guy was...they certainly had a flair for this haunted house shit.

Still annoyed, Stiles grabbed the clip-on flashlight, knowing that light was the key item he needed right now. It was a struggle to get it on in the dark, hands blocking the light as he fought with the cheap little clip. Finally, he got it on at the perfect level where he could see ahead as if he was holding it in his hand. He let out a victory whoop and gave himself a high-five.

(He'd give himself a proper reward after he got out of this alive.)

Next came the clip-on radio. That was an easy one – straight on the right pocket. Strangely, once clipped on, the static stopped. Maybe it was going to be more like Silent Hill than he imagined. An enemy came by – the radio would go off. He just hoped that one of the said enemies wouldn't be a Pyramid Head...

He grabbed the crowbar, examining it more closely. With one good hit, this sucker was going to snap. Why the hell his captor gave him such a poor quality weapon was beyond him. Fake sense of security, possibly. Or just wanted to see him panic once it broke. What an ass.

Lastly, he picked up the folded parchment, snorting. Too much detail went into all this. It was almost cheesy. Terrifying, but cheesy. He opened it, squinting to see the chicken scratch of writing scribbled down on it. The instructions he was promised.

As you make your way to your partner, you will face challenges and horrors beyond your comprehension. You must survive all of these in order to meet your partner. If you fail any of them, you and your partner will suffer. If you perish – your partner will perish. The same punishments will befall you if your partner fails. Your only choice is to stay alive until you meet up with your partner. Once you meet up with them, everything will change. You must work together to escape. If you don't – you both will die. Your goal is to stay alive. If you succeed, I will submit all evidence of my guilt to the police and go into custody quietly. If you fail...you will be a part of my collection forever.

With love,

Your host

Stiles gawked at the so-called instructions, stunned by all of it. Collection? Was Stiles and his mystery partner not the only victims? How many people had been through this fun house?

That didn't matter right now. What mattered was the fact that this was a life or death situation until proven otherwise. He tossed the instructions aside, gripping to the crowbar as if his life depended on it. Because as far as he knew, despite how shotty this weapon was, it did. He took a deep breath, determination burning in his eyes. He was going to live through this. He was going to live, find this partner, get out of here with this partner, and make sure this guy rotted in a cell.

Supposedly sensing his fire, the sloppy painted door squeaked open, revealing darkness more pure than anything he had seen thus far. Gulping, he took a step forward, his grip on the crowbar tightening.

This was it. No turning back now. Not like he had a choice to. His life, as well as a stranger's, were at stake. He couldn't cower in a corner now...

~+~

He awoke to sputtering out dirt that found its way into his mouth. Groaning, he rolled onto his back, his ribs searing with aches. His head, too. He laid there, eyes squeezed shut and grimacing in pain. Where was he? How did he get here? Why couldn't he remember anything?

“Hospital...why is this place designed like a fucking hospital?”

The voice echoed throughout wherever he was. Was someone here with him?

He creaked his eyes open, blinking a few times to dispel the blurriness of his vision. He found himself in what appeared to be a cellar of some sort. The floor was covered in dirt, the wooden beams above moaned with weight, and there was a dip in the floor feet away from him filled to the brim with water. It was an odd location, but it reminded him of somewhere.

If only he could remember...

“Shit! Hole!”

There it was again. That voice. It was coming from across the water passage.

He rolled onto his stomach, hissing. Whoever hit him, hit him good. Normally, he wouldn't feel this sore. Not even after an intense workout. He knew he needed to rest a little more, at least until he didn't feel like he had been mowed over by a truck. But as he heard the floating voice scream off the walls, he fought against the aches. He got to his feet, grunting and hissing some more. Whoever it was that owned this voice he was hearing, they better have answers. They needed to have answers. Needed to...

Staring at the water ahead, he cursed and thanked his lucky stars that he was tall. If he was shorter, he could easily drown. Then again, he still could. Water was always quite the deceiver.

Suddenly, there was a vibrating feedback drowning out the mystery voice. He winced, the sound not helping with his pounding headache. It ended as fast as it had come, leaving him confused. What was worse was that the mystery voice, the very thing that drove him to open his eyes and rise to his feet, was slowly fading away.

“You look very panicked.”

This new voice spooked him to his very core. The voice changer sound brought back horrid memories of the first time he was kidnapped. Back when he was younger. When he was so trusting. How could he have fallen back into this mess again?

“Definitely responded differently than your partner did.”

He furrowed his brows, staring up at the ceiling. The kidnapper had to be watching somewhere. Cameras were definitely lurking around. Made sense to talk at the air.

“Partner?”

“Yes. You already heard his voice. He is somewhere in the compound. Your goal is to find him while surviving challenges and obstacles. If you fail any of them, you will not only receive punishment, but your will partner as well. You die – he dies. The same rules apply to him as well.”

He paled, feeling ready to pass out. This all felt vaguely familiar. But why?

“Now, cross that water like a good boy, Derek Hale. Find your partner. Make sure you both survive.”

The feedback returned – louder this time. Derek covered his ears, falling to his knees. It lasted for several minutes before leaving with a cackle meshed into the wretched sound. Whoever this monster was, they certainly were trying too hard.

But it still had an effect.

Derek already had too many people die because of him. He was not going to add one more to that list. Even if it was a complete stranger. And if he died because of the stranger, that would be okay. He would deserve it. But the stranger didn't. Not because of him...

He crawled back to his feet, lips drawn out in a flat line. He glowered at the water path ahead only briefly before he took a step in. Instantly, he was overcome with a jolt of icy coldness, causing him to momentarily stop his decent. He breathed in and out heavily, rapidly, with his body shivering feverishly. How in the hell was water this cold in such a warm location?

“So...what's behind door number two?”

The voice was back. The other victim trapped in here with him. Sounded so young.

Derek exhaled deeply, full of conviction. He slid his other foot into the chilling water, muscles tensing and hissing in protest. In a moment of human weakness, he stood there, arms raised and hands balled into fists, unable to proceed.

“Empty. Damn, man. Not even a little lore note.”

How the hell was this stranger acting so calm? Possibly feigned? Keeping the sanity by playing it off as a joke? Was a good tactic. Well...only for so long.

“The scares are starting to lose their effect, dude! Though the atmosphere is sure on fucking point...”

That got a chuckle out of Derek. And gave him a burst of energy to move forward.

It didn't take long for the icy waters to reach all the way to his armpits. He raised his arms as high as he could, panting almost frantically as he sloshed through. It wasn't entirely terrifying to him, just uncomfortable. But that was probably the point. The real fear was just beyond this. Or, maybe, just maybe, there was no real terror at all. Just some prank being pulled on him by his publisher. Isaac did like to play sometimes on the fact that Derek was a horror/thriller novelist.

Out of nowhere, the lighting suddenly became dimmer. It was more difficult to see what lay ahead. Then there were the sudden, random beams above him. Derek had to lower his arms and carefully maneuver under each beam, irked by the different leveling of them. The structure above him was likely not sound with how uneven these beams were laid. That was the true horror – the idea that an entire building of some kind could just buckle and crush him down into murky, filthy water. He silently prayed that the building wouldn't come down upon him.

The beams started to level out. They started getting lower and lower. All the way to the point that he had to basically sputter out water with almost every step. It was growing increasingly claustrophobic, and he hoped that this watery walk was going to be over soon. At least the water was becoming warmer. Small comforts and all. Especially with the voice of his unknown partner gone all over again.

His next step was a doozie. A hidden dip in the path caused Derek to take a quick swim in the murky water. He suffered a small burst of panic before he shot right back up, gasping frantically for air and nearly smacking into the beam above.

Might've been much better than what he came face-to-face with...

Bobbing in front of him, swollen with decomposition, was a male body. Derek let out a horrified shriek, flailing and falling back into the water. When he popped up, he didn't even bother to check if the body was real or a prop. He swam as far as he could away from it, his chest swelling with terror. Real, actual terror.

This wasn't a game. It was never a game. And he knew that now.

~+~

“I'm getting really sick of these stupid empty rooms! There is no point to them!”

Stiles slammed the door of the sixth empty room shut, no longer spooked by the rusty appearance of this part of wherever he was. Even the fact that it was designed like a hospital no longer made him scared. He was just annoyed. Like things were being dragged out. He stopped anticipating the worse and began to anticipate the monotonous empty rooms down this stupid hallway. Didn't even know why he was bothering to look anymore. Wasn't worth it.

Except for the fact that this creep said there were challenges lurking about. One could easily be behind a door. Or it could all be a lie. Either way, he didn't want to risk being wrong and stop checking room after room after room. Better safe than sorry, right?

“M'kay...another door.” he huffed after barely five steps. “Let's see what's behind door number seven! Magic number. Whoooooo.”

He kicked the door open, thoroughly done with all this. But to his surprise...there was something in this room. He shot his hand forward, stopping the door from swinging shut. He slipped inside, intrigued and hoped that he found a clue.

If a small, 90's styled TV, channel set to screeching static, sitting on a too loved vanity was a clue...

Stiles approached it with caution, getting a Resident Evil VII vibe from it. Maybe it would give him a hint of how to solve some puzzle? Wouldn't that be hilarious!

As he got closer, it shut off, plunging the room into minor darkness. (Hard to be full darkness with a flashlight clipped onto Stiles' shirt.) Then, it snapped back to life, words now on the screen in an grainy, old film sort of way. He inched closer, leaning in and squinting as he read the words.

“Beware, beware, O' souls lost to the world. For you will linger behind and hunger. Hunger, hunger, hunger, until judgment comes, with those trumpets a'sounding. The hell does that mean?”

The screen flickered, the image shifting away from the words. On the screen was an old timey picture of a man hanging from a tree by his neck in what looked to be Asian garb. His eyes were bulging, seconds shy from popping right out of his skull. His jaw was wide open, elongated, with an inhumanly stretched out tongue lolling out. The skin was stretched back, as if the face was a mask, and was unhealthy in coloration. The fingers were long as well, with nails sharpened like claws. Same with the toes and their nails.

Stiles leaned away, confused by the image. The tongue part, and the hanging part, reminded him of the Chinese ghost called diào sǐ guǐ, which literally translated into hanged ghost. But everything else was...wrong. Either whoever made this didn't know the real description of a diào sǐ guǐ...or this was some type of hybrid for the uncomfortable factor. Which was working. Stiles was highly uncomfortable right now.

Again, the screen changed. More words this time. And they read:

You'll know when they'll come by the gurgles they make and the warning of your radio. You can survive them, but you'll have to follow specific rules. Fail to follow them...you and your partner will die.

“Such a ray of sunshine. Must be a real hoot at parties.”

He cleared his throat, covering the flashlight's bulb so he didn't get a glare while reading the rest of the message.

When they get close, you must bow your head, close your eyes, cover your mouth, and hold your breath. If you fail to do so, it will eat you. Eat you right up. Once they are far enough away, you may move, but you must shuffle slowly. Keep your head bowed and hand over your mouth. When your radio stops with its warning...RUN RUN RUN.

With love,

Your host.

“The fuck is going on here?”

Behind him, he heard the door groan open with no help at all. He whipped around, hand falling away from the warmth of the light to reveal what was there. There was nothing. But the hallway had changed. He cautiously stepped forward, eyes wide. The rusty hospital look was replaced with a hallway full of cages. Cages for animals. And there were remnants of blood and fur.

“Okay...okay...this shithead has skill. I'll give him that. This is reeeeeeaaaaally unsettling.”

He let out a nervous chuckle as he passed by the rows of cages, breathing unevenly. It was at that moment when he noticed that he could see his breath. That was strange. How could he see his breath? It was unbearably hot right now. He was sweating through his clothes! Whatever the answer...he sure as hell didn't want to know it.

He made his way onward, gripping the crowbar hard enough to turn his knuckles white, poised for an attack. Small little crunches echoed from under his feet with each step, making him hope to whatever entity that was out there that it was just bugs and not small animal bones. Please no small animal bones. The very idea made him want to vomit.

The hair on the back of his neck stood up the further he ventured down the forever hallway. He started hearing echos of animals long forgotten rattling the cages...but there were no animals in sight. Sound effects. Fantastic. Fucking cliché as hell. But...but goddammit, did it work.

Then, he heard a sound he had hoped he would never hear. Two sounds, actually. One was the static of his clip-on radio. The other...was a gurgling sound of someone fighting to breathe.

He froze in his tracks, trembling violently. The static on the radio rose in volume. So did the gurgling. He saw the feet with the long toes and long, claw-like nails. That was it for him. He didn't want to see anything else. He dipped his head in a bow, squeezed his eyes shut, covered his mouth, and retracted his breath right back into his lungs.

And then he waited.

He waited as the radio static became overwhelming. He waited as the gurgling roared over the static. He waited as he felt the figure loom over him, the stench of death floating there. He waited as he felt the tongue move around him like a snake sniffing out the world. He waited as hands ran through his hair, like a lover would do. He waited as his chest felt ready to burst from the lack of oxygen. He waited as the thing finally started to lose interest and limp on by him. He waited as the gurgles grew farther and farther away, giving him the chance to begin shuffling slowly. He waited until the radio fell silent again.

Then...he ran, ran, ran.

Ran all the way to the end of the hall. Ran past all towers of cages, now filled to the brim with the bones of unfortunate animals. Ran all the way to an iron clad door with what felt like a million deadbolts lining it.

Frantically, Stiles yanked at each bolt, his hands shaking heavily. He had to get out of here. He had to get out of here now.

“C'mon. C'mon! For the love of god, how many fucking deadbolts does one door need?!”

Gurgling. Static. Oh hell.

He let out a terrified whimper, ripping at the deadbolts with more vigor. He was not going to die. Not today. Not in some...horror fun house made by a sick bastard with no life!

Finally, the last deadbolt was undone. He threw open the door and immediately flew inside. He slammed it behind him, locking it with the four deadbolts it had. He wheezed and teared up, never being so scared in his entire life. Sliding down to the floor, he decided a break was warranted. Time to catch his breath, time to clear his mind. But also swim in the thousands of questions he was bombarded with.

The break was very short lived. A bit hard to relax and try to retrain in the proper breathing methods when a monster pile of twitching centipedes laid at his feet.

Also was hard when he was screaming himself hoarse. Especially when the door was torn off its hinges...and he was dragged back the way he came.

~+~

This place, this compound, was certainly elaborate.

Once minute, Derek was in a strange cellar full of dirt, water, and a body bobbing about in said water. Now, after gathering his bearings and happily crawling through the surprisingly roomy vent shaft given to him as an exit, he was in a 50's styled hotel room with an aquarium full of dead fish.

The fish reminded him of the body. The swollen, flesh peeling off the face, jaw opened, empty eye sockets, wrinkly body.

It all came rushing back to him in a flash. He couldn't bear it any longer. Staggering, he made his way to the bathroom, that had not been clean in a century, and emptied the contents of his stomach in the tub. The image, the smell, of that poor soul kept flooding his mind. Which in turn, sadly, caused him to keep puking until it was nothing more than a dry heave of soiled air.

Time passed slowly, feeling like only a minute or two of constant dry heaving turned into ten. When he finally was able to stop himself, he slumped against the wall, not giving two shits about the grime likely sticking to his back. He had no idea why a body, real or prop, bothered him so much. It wasn't his first body. He had seen many before this moment. Maybe it was because he couldn't tell who it was, couldn't put an actual face to it, that made it unsettling?

Or maybe it was the fact that it was in some serious decomposition and the stench was...

Derek hiccuped, covering his mouth and swallowing the empty bile threatening his dried throat. He needed to calm down. Needed to move forward so he could get himself, and the mysterious partner, out of here. Needed to stop being the character from his books that his readers scoffed at. (Though his reaction was more than perfectly normal, all things considered.)

Wobbling, Derek got to his feet. He swayed on his feet as he left the bathroom, trying to regain his normal breathing. When he looked up so he wouldn't bump into anything, he stopped dead in his tracks, brows furrowed in confusion. Last he remembered, he was in a poorly kept 50's hotel room...not in a massive room with an equally massive ball pit that brought back terrible memories of Chuck-E-Cheese's.

“I see you have arrived to your first challenge, Derek Hale.” the captor's distorted voice echoed from above.

Derek swallowed, chest rising and falling rapidly. The first challenge. What in the hell was the challenge if it included a ball pit filled with the same, clear colored balls?

“If you would...please climb into the pit.”

He would argue if he could. Argue loud and full of venom. But that bobbing body danced in his mind once again. He wanted to live. And, from his experience, you have to obey till you found an opening to flee. So, cautiously, he approached the ball pit, scanning it over to make sure there wasn't anything in there. The horror stories of discarded needles, dirty diapers, bodies sitting right in front of the image of the possible real corpse in the water. He hoisted himself inside, sinking into the pit with a cry of shock. How in the hell did he miss the fact that there was water keeping the balls afloat?! Was it the lighting?! Was he just blind!?

The captor chuckled mockingly, enjoying the reaction. “Sorry. I have a thing for creating illusions. It's a passion of mine.”

“You should've gone into show business...” Derek growled, lip curled upward.

A loud, booming laugh. “You are a perfect match for your partner! Can't wait till you two meet! But, until then...”

The lights suddenly went off, plunging the author into complete darkness.

Almost.

The balls in the pit lit up with neon colors under an unseen blacklight. There were various colors bobbing about in a tight knit group, seemingly taunting him. His attention was drawn away from them when he heard a whirling mechanic sound on his right. Not long after the sound came did a stand appear from out of the floor. On it was a scale reading zero, along with a cage with an open top. It too was lighting up under the invisible blacklight. A silver color. Pure silver.

“Now, Derek Hale, here is your challenge: There are five orange balls...”

A clicking sound startled him, causing him to face in the direction of it. On the wall in front of him did the words 5 Orange Balls emerge in, well, orange neon.

“Twelve blue balls...”

12 Blue Balls showed up under the orange lettering in blue.

“Nine red balls...”

9 Red Balls in red.

“Three gray balls...”

3 Gray Balls in a more silver color, but it was clear what color it was supposed to be.

“Ninety black balls...”

90 Black Balls looked more gray-blue.

“And seventy green balls.”

70 GREEN BALLS appeared more brightly than the others, and in all caps. Odd...

“Now...”

On the wall, a set of words appeared in glowing purple:

What is in a

S

H

A

D

O

W

What is in a shadow? What did that have to do with the balls?

“Show your work by using the balls and put them on the scale. You have five minutes to complete the challenge.”

Show work? What work?!

“But, in your haste, make sure you are gentle. Some of your companions here have a bit of a...nasty surprise awaiting you. Don't worry. They won't harm you seriously. Just cause...discomfort.”

Derek's heart roared in his ears now. What the hell was in these balls that might cause him discomfort? A slew of items raced inside his mind. Each worse than the last.

The voice chuckled and sighed, as if taking pleasure in seeing Derek's panic. “Good luck.”

Silence. Followed by the sudden appearance of a timer and screeching audio of a cheering crowd. In his confusion, he wasted ten seconds of his measly five minutes. Panic set in on hyper drive. He immediately started grabbing balls and tossed them into the scale, hoping that it would work.

A loud, obnoxious, and all too familiar alarm sounded off. Derek stumbled backwards, covering his ears and swearing rapidly. The balls were flung back at him. One exploded open on his left shoulder. And it wasn't long before he noticed a needle protruding from his shirt. He let out a scream almost as loud as the alarm, ripping it out and tossing it across the room. In his panic, he fell backwards into the balls and the water. He thrashed about, feeling more sharp objects jabbing into him. His chest tightened, as if he was having...

Shit.

No no no no!

He couldn't have a panic attack under the water! He'd drown!

Somehow, despite his clouded mind, he shot upward, gasping for air and yanking out an array of needles and...were those fangs?!...off his skin. His chest heaved and his gasping became wheezy, almost whimpering-like. Quickly, he plugged his nose and closed his mouth. He counted to ten in his head before allowing himself to once again gasp for air. His chest stung, his head pounded with aches, and he felt immensely exhausted. He clung to the edge of pit, groaning as he fought to regain focus.

Whoever this bastard was...he was going to punch them in the throat before curb stomping it once they met. If they met. For this sicko's sake, he hoped they didn't.

He cleared his throat, face scrunching into a furious scowl. Okay, so random balls didn't work out. There had to be a method to this challenge that made no sense. He glanced over again at the words on the wall, hoping to discover something new. There had to be some sort of clue there. Something to make sense of this whole 'here are the numbers of balls in this color' and, oh yeah, 'what is in a shadow' nonsense.

That's when he noticed something.

The way shadow was written out...it wasn't altogether. Each letter was under each other. Like...like maybe some sort of math equation. It would make sense with the whole 'show your work' aspect of the instructions. But was the equation?

“You have three minutes remaining, Derek Hale. Would you like a clue?”

Defiant, Derek glared at the ceiling and flipped it off. He knew he shouldn't have done that. Would likely screw him over. But he was done being calm and one hundred percent cooperative. Now he was just pissed.

“Ah. Turning into your partner, I see. Very well. I will give you a hint.”

There was a pause, possibly for dramatic effect. This bastard...

“Roses are red, violets are blue, your eyes are green, now isn't that quaint? Almost two minutes left, Derek Hale. Think fast.”

What the hell? What kind of hint was that!?

Then, suddenly, it clicked.

Derek knew this scenario. Knew it intimately well.

He swallowed, staring up at the word shadow again. The equation was the numbers each letter was in the alphabet, added together. That number was the number of balls needed for the scale. The number of balls with the same number as the equation was the color that the scale had to have. How did he not know that?!

He was the one that wrote it, after all...

“S is nineteen, H is eight, A is one, D is four, O is fifteen, W is twenty-three. Nineteen plus eight, plus one, plus four, plus fifteen, plus twenty-three is seventy.” the author muttered to himself, eyes drifting to the number of balls and their colors. “Seventy...seventy...green. Green has seventy.”

He hurried as fast as he could, grabbing as many green balls as his arms could hold. He tossed them into the scale before going back for the ones he couldn't get before. It was a set of frantic motions as well as attempting to be careful. He didn't want any more needles or fangs sticking him. For the god, no more of that.

“Time for the countdown, Derek Hale.”

His chest seized, another attack threatening him. He forgot about being careful and just threw himself into the search for the remaining green balls. He hissed and cursed with each pop of a ball, with each prick of a needle or fang.

“Twelve...eleven...ten...”

“Fuck you!” he cried out, tossing three more green balls into the cage.

“Nine...eight...”

He had two more balls. The scale said so. Two more. Two more. Where the fuck were the last two balls?!

“Seven...six...five...”

He found them, tossing them into the scale. Except one of them bounced off. He nearly sobbed with the amount of panic beating against his chest. He almost threw himself out of the pit, reaching down and scooped up the runaway ball. He slammed it into the cage, slumping over and heaving out breaths of pained relief. A roaring, recorded cheer filled the room, making his anger rise to the point of threatening to bubble over.

“Well done, Derek Hale! Well done! You finished the challenge! With mere seconds to spare! You deserve a reward for your accomplishments! How about...meeting your partner early?”

“How about letting me go, you fucking psycho?!” he barked hoarsely.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Now now, where would the fun be in that? No...we have only just begun the game.”

He clenched his teeth together, pushing himself upright and glaring furiously at anywhere he could above him. “Why are you doing this?!”

No reply. Utter silence. This only made Derek that much more infuriated. He reached for the scale, throwing it down onto the floor with an echoing crash.

“Why are you doing this?!”

Then, from behind him, in his ear, came a low whisper. “Because I can.”

He seized, eyes wide in terror at the recollection of the words. And when the hands wrapped around him, a cloth covering his nose and mouth, he began to fight as hard as he could. He clawed at any bit of skin that he could, screaming against the cloth. The world started to fade out – go blurry. That's when he realized the stench of the cloth against him. He screamed louder, trying to lift himself up to throw off the balance of the attacker.

It did little good.

In a matter of what felt like hours...he was surrounded by emptiness.

~+~

His hands stung. So did his ankles. And his throat felt tight. Something was on them. Had to be.

Stiles groaned, rolling onto his back. His sputtered out rigid coughs that racked his entire body with intense aches. As if he had been beaten down again. Like he needed any more bruises. He bruised like a peach! And nobody likes bruised peaches!

“Ugh...fuck me...”

He rolled onto his side, finally opening his eyes to survey his surroundings. He knew he should've expected horrible shit in this place. Honestly, it wouldn't be much of a horror cliché if there wasn't any expected horrible shit. But, honestly, he did not expect to be face-to-face with a grayish-blue skinned, frozen in a terrified scream, in heavy rigor mortis woman. Who was dead. So very dead.

He unleashed the most ear splitting scream he could muster, flinging himself away. He didn't get far, the pull of the chains from the cuffs on both his wrists and ankles jerking him right on top of her. He screamed again and again, rolling away and thrashing about. Several times, he kept meeting with her. Eventually, he was able to roll far enough away to have some distance. But it certainly wasn't enough.

Stiles sat up, wiping himself down frantically and sobbing uncontrollably. Well, the thought of somebody else having to suffer through this was no longer a thought. Someone else had suffered. And that someone was dead in this very room.

“Okay...okay...breathe, Stiles. You gotta breathe. You can't freak out. Freak out time is done. So done.”

It wasn't. He was hyperventilating and couldn't stop sobbing. He had no idea who the dead woman he was sharing the room with...but she probably didn't deserve to die in this place. And the very idea that he could die as well...

A groan stopped his pessimistic thoughts. He jumped, shrieking shrilly. The groan came again, this time directed towards his shriek. He looked around trying to find where the groans were coming from. It didn't take long, fortunately, for him to spot a cage used for animals some feet away from him.

Inside the four padlocked cage was a man. A massive man. Barely fit inside. He was curled up in a not so comfy looking ball, clothes looking wrinkled as if they were drying from being drenched in water. Around his neck there was a collar with little boxes on it. It made Stiles feel around his neck, discovering that he had a collar with little boxes as well. He swallowed, watching as the man stirred awake.

“H-hey. I-I guess you're my partner, huh?”

The man leaned his head back as far as he could, dazed hazels staring right at the PI. “Nng...”

“All right. Guess we can't use words yet. I understand. But...um...could you maybe speed up that process? We need to figure out how the hell to get out of this place before we join the dead lady over behind me.”

The man blinked, head raising and falling around like a bobble head. When it finally managed to hold still on his right shoulder, his lips parted enough to reveal bunny teeth. Cute. But oogling over the stranger was not important right now. Right now...they needed to get the hell out of here.

“I'm Stiles.”

The man nodded, eyes having trouble keeping open. “Derek.”

“Derek! Okay! Good! We're getting somewhere! Do you know what's going on here? Like...why this creep is doing this?”

“He said...because he could...”

“Fantastic. So he is a monster psycho. Lovely. Okay...so...anything else you know?”

“He...he modeled...some things...after my book...”

“Your book? You write?”

“Uh-huh...”

“Okay...so he is a fan. Great. Maybe he is trying to impress you?”

“Dunno...”

Derek's head drooped and he started to slump down again.

“No no no no no no no no! Stay with me, Derek! We have to get out of here! We can't die like blondie over here!”

Stiles tried to get up – tried to get to the other victim. He had forgotten about the chains attached to his hand and ankle cuffs. He was thrown back, almost meeting up with the deceased woman again. He groaned along with Derek, laying there in searing pain.

“Ah.” came the mystery voice of their tormentor. “I see that you two have met. How nice.”

“Fuck you, buddy.” Stiles rasped.

“Always so angry with me, Mr. Stilinski. You hurt my feelings.”

“You have feelings?” He laughed sharply, instantly regretting it seconds later. “That's rich.”

“Mr. Stilinsk, Derek Hale, now that you have met up...it is time for your first joint challenge.” the voice said, as if Stiles hadn't made a jab at all. “Mr. Stilinski, as you have noticed, you are currently chained by your ankles and wrists, as well sporting a lovely shock collar.”

Shock – shock collar?! That's what was around his neck!? Oh lord...

“And you, Derek Hale, well, you may have noticed that you too are sporting a shock collar, as well as taken shelter in a most form fitting cage with some padlocks.”

Derek groaned, head lifting up and his eyes squinted. He was far too out of it to notice much. Or maybe he was more there than it appeared. Either way, he was struggling, and that was bad news for Stiles.

“Each of you will have a chance to unlock yourselves. Ten minutes to do it, actually. However, get the wrong key into the slot...”

Out of nowhere, a sharp shock shot through Stiles' entire body, the brunt of it around his neck. He screamed, body arching upward and jerking against the current. He could hear another scream merged with his, which meant Derek was definitely waking up now. Then, as soon as it came, the electricity was gone, leaving both men lying there in numbed agony.

“You will receive a most unpleasant shock. Sounds fair, right?”

“Asshole...” hissed Derek. Yep. Definitely more alert now.

“Again, you have ten minutes.”

A rainfall of keys dropped from absolutely nowhere, clinking and clacking everywhere they touched. Stiles shielded his face, swearing profusely with each key that toppled on top of him. From the corner of his eye, he could see Derek doing the same thing, except he was better about the swearing bit.

“Now...begin.”

Not wasting a single second, Stiles grabbed the first key in sight, frantically trying to unlock the handcuffs. It didn't fit. A jolt of angry electricity went through him. He screamed in pain through clenched teeth, trying to fight through it as he attempted to see if the key worked for the cuffs on his ankles.

They didn't.

As he was shaking from the third shock, he could hear Derek trying to keep his pained shouts muffled. He glanced over at his partner, seeing him writhe but still working with the key on the next padlock. It worked. The lock plopped to the floor. Stiles shared a breath of relief with Derek, clapping his hands the best he could.

“Keep it up! We can do this!” cheered Stiles, hoping to boost the confidence despite the situation.

“Shouldn't you be focusing?” Derek huffed back, not bothering to celebrate and went for another key.

“I am!”

To prove it, he grabbed another key and went for his ankles first. Didn't fit. Electric shock. He took a second to heave breaths of frustration before going for the handcuffs. Didn't fit. Electric shock. Key number three. Didn't fit. Rinse, lather, repeat.

Derek let out a slew of curses, holding onto the key for dear life as he was punished for not finding the right one. His focus was intense. He almost wasn't bothered by the electricity hounding him with failure after failure. It was inspiring, honestly. Ignited a new fire within Stiles. He picked up his eighth key, spitting out random words in Polish that he didn't even know what they meant.

The key worked. The handcuffs popped off. Stiles whooped, tossing the cuffs as far as he could away from him in victory.

“Good job.”

“Thanks, buddy. Once I get out of these, I'll help you out.”

“Same to you if I get out first.”

“We both have one each – it's up in the air right now.”

“Five minutes.” crooned the distorted voice.

Stiles laughed with annoyance, flipping off the air. “Screw you, too, pal.”

“Focus!”

“I am! Jesus...”

He went for another key, praying it would fit. And, of course, it didn't. He clawed at the collar, both in an instinctual reaction and an attempt to get it off. Maybe he could get it off and focus a little easier on finding his final key.

A small triumphant cry came from Derek's corner. Stiles looked over and saw a second padlock fall from off the cage. He echoed the triumphant cry before dividing his attention between the collar and his ankle cuffs. The next key didn't fit. Or the next. Or the next. Electric shock. Electric shock. Electric shock. He spasmed and fell onto his side, groaning. Okay, split attention bad. Focus on one or the other.

He sacrificed the hope that he could get the collar off and focused on his cuffs.

Another cry of triumph came from Derek, which made Stiles a little jealous. How was he getting so lucky while Stiles was slowly becoming a human lightbulb?

“One minute left, gentlemen.”

There was a small pause between the men, before they both breathed out, “Oh shit.”

They became erratic, grabbing a mess of keys and going to town. If the echoing screams were anything to go by...they weren't doing so hot. It was down to the wire. There was just...no way. They were going to fail...

Then, by some sheer dumb luck, Stiles found the right key to his ankle cuffs. He gawked at it, unable to process that he had done it. He had actually done it!

“Thirty-five seconds, gentlemen.”

“Ohhhhh fuuuuuuck!” He tossed the cuffs away, scooping up keys and almost slipped on the others still around him. “I'm coming, Derek!”

He was certain that Derek hadn't heard him. Screaming in pain and all. He skid to his knees in front of the cage, frantically trying out keys. With each scream from Derek, panic rose and thundered in his chest. He was starting to heave out broken breaths, terrified that they may not make it.

“Twelve...eleven...”

“Fuck you, asshole! Derek...Derek, I'm gonna get you out! I promise!”

“Ten...nine...”

Stiles swore rapidly under his breath, trying key after key. Derek kept shaking under the shocks, but never once stared at Stiles like he was the enemy. Definitely reassuring.

“Five...four...”

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck...”

“Three...two...”

The padlock popped off. Right as he heard a muffled one from far off somewhere. Both men stared at it, eyes ready to pop out and overwhelmed with a slew of emotions. They had been holding their breaths as well if the shaky, shared exhales said anything.

“Down to the wire. I am impressed. I suppose I can relieve you from your collars.”

And just like that, they popped off, falling with deafening clanks. There was a buzzing sound nearby, stealing their attention from the collars to wherever it came from. Right behind the dead woman, a door slowly opened, revealing a very well lighted hallway. The most comforting thing Stiles had seen since waking up in this hellhole.

They wasted no time, both of them tearing open the cage door and scrambling to their feet. They rushed towards the door without looking back. Well...almost. It only took a second for Stiles to realize that Derek was not with him. That Derek was staring at the deceased with a mixture of anger, confusion, and fear. The PI studied the array of emotions, a little suspicious of them. Why would Derek have that kind of look for one person?

“Someone you know?”

Hesitation. A flicker of grief. A flicker of agony. Then, slumped shoulders and confliction. “Her name was Kate Argent. She murdered my entire family.”

That took Stiles by complete surprise. “That's...wow...uh...that's pretty...” He cleared his throat, sharing the slumped shoulders with his partner. “I'm sorry...”

Derek cleared his throat as well, smiling with a closed mouth and fury reflecting in his eyes. “It's fine. She deserved whatever this bastard put her through.”

“No. No no, I totally agree. Didn't when I first saw her, but now that I know that she – was there a motive to that? To kill your family, I mean.”

“She didn't like the fact that her sixteen year old boyfriend dumped her because his sister sat down with him, and explained that he was being...”

The word hung in the air. A word that needed no saying. Stiles got it. He swallowed, feeling disgusted that someone like Kate existed. He reached out for Derek, his hand hanging there to be grabbed if he wanted it.

“C'mon. Let's move on. We can't stay here.”

Derek stared at Kate a little longer before nodding. He took Stiles' hand, squeezing it tightly, almost inhumanly, as he stepped over Kate's corpse. Stiles kept leading him, tugging him so he would keep going forward. There was no stopping and no hesitation. Derek followed obediently into the hall. Too obediently. Stiles quickly released his hand when he thought it would be a good time, licking his lips anxiously.

“So...I know a little bit about you now. Guess I can say a little about me. Um...I'm a PI. And my dad's the sheriff. So, well, if we can catch this guy after all this, we can throw his ass in jail. Let him rot. Maybe find out why the hell he made this fun house of horror. You said this is like a copy of your book or something? Do you know what happens next? Or is it not in chronological order?”

A huffy sigh. “Only two rooms were from my book so far. From what I've seen. The room I was in before, and the key room.”

“Jesus, you like your horror? 'Cause that was some sadistic shit back there.”

“There are worse things than what we just went through. At least they let me dry out before the shock collar.”

“It wasn't like that in the book?”

“No.”

The PI dragged a hand down his face, a little unsettled with being in the same space as this guy. Then again, authors and what they wrote never had connections.

Usually.

“Okay, let's compare notes of our experiences so far, since this hallway looks forever long and we have a breather. Maybe you'll find something else from your book? And it might help us dive deeper into this dick's mind and find a better motive behind all this.”

Derek nodded, folding his arms and appearing thoughtful.

“Cool. Great. So, I'll start. When I woke up...”

~+~

Stiles was right about the forever long hall. Derek would find it strange...if it weren't for the fact that this was something from his novel as well. The brief moment where the characters could have a moment to breathe and feel safe. Which, if their captor was focusing on this one novel, this safe period was going to end the minute they reached the door at the very end...

The “notes” Stiles shared with Derek seemed off. Nowhere in any of his novels did he have a creature like the one described. Nor did he base anything off of a hospital. Not yet, at least. And it was odd that Stiles received a note, while Derek was spoken to. Perhaps Stiles was correct. That this creep was a fan of Derek's and was trying to impress him in some way. But, in a creative freedom sort of gesture, the captor was taking inspiration for other sources as well.

It was impressive, all things considered. Just not as much when it was actually life threatening.

“So you have seen two dead bodies now? Damn. Do you know who the first one was?”

Derek shook his head, brow furrowed. “Too decomposed. The water didn't help.”

“Do you think that this guy is...killing people that caused you problems? And I'm just here 'cause he needed a second person?”

He shrugged, not wanting to think about it further. Because Kate wasn't the only one that had done something that changed his life in a horrendously tragic manner. Because Derek was a goddamn tragedy magnet.

He heard Stiles sigh with agitation and felt guilty all the sudden. If it weren't for Derek's book...Stiles wouldn't be here. Then again, there would likely be a second person here with him regardless. Stiles was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or...the right place at the right time...

“What's this book that this asshat is taking inspiration from?”

At least the constant babbling helped to drag him away from his thoughts...

“It's called Because.”

“Because? Never heard of it.”

“It was...my very first one. When I was being self-published. Not many people know about it unless -”

“Unless they are a monster obsessed fan?”

He nodded, inhaling sharply. “The scenario was like this. Two strangers put in a horror fun house situation by a serial killer that enjoyed torture porn and seeing the horror in people when they were faced with these cliché situations. Ex psychiatrist. Ended up being an ex of one of the characters. Their response when asked why they did this was -”

“Because I can...” Stiles breathed, realization washing over him. “Holy shit...”

“Yeah...”

“Fuck. D-do you think it's an ex of yours doing this? Did you date a shrink?”

“No, I did not date a shrink. And unless my last ex was released from their life sentence conviction...no.”

“What about Kate?”

“She had broken out of prison a month back. Been living in fear for a long time.”

“How do you know your last ex didn't either?”

“I would've been called.”

“Christ...you have bad luck with the ladies, don't you?”

“My last ex was a man.”

“Shit. Bad luck with both genders. That's rough.”

The author didn't reply to that. Because replying to it would only make it sound all the more real how much of a tragedy he lived in.

“If it makes you feel any better...I don't have that great of luck, either.”

That didn't make him feel better. It did, however, make him glower at the closing gap between them and the door. The door that, if this maniac was following some rules of his book, would lead them into a pit full of broken glass and a challenge. One almost less pleasant than the last.

“You must really hate that door. That's okay. I don't like the color yellow, either.”

He rolled his eyes, exhaling with a grunt. “If whoever is doing this is following my novel...that door will lead us into a pit of broken glass. And a challenge of finding a needle in a glass stack.”

He could feel Stiles' gawk at him. Burnt into the side of his skull. Was uncomfortable but...that was generally people's reactions when they heard about the things he wrote.

“You a fan of the Saw movies?”

“Nope.”

“Really? Because that sounds very Saw-ish.”

“Thought it was overrated.”

“And yet you could seriously walk into their boardroom and give them fifty new ideas to use for a new movie.”

Derek rolled his eyes again, not amused but at the same time laughing on the inside. (Mostly because someone from the Saw team actually asked for his help on their newest movie one time.)

“So...that door, if the book is being followed correctly, has a nice dive into broken glass?”

“Yes.”

“I hope to whatever higher power there is out there that this sicko isn't following this book to the tee now. That the random pattern is still being followed...”

They fell silent after that – the dread of what was behind that door looming over them. It amped up the closer they got. Rattled their bones. Perhaps weighed down their souls. It sure weighed on Derek's. Because...if he hadn't wrote this book back in his early days...

Whereas before it felt like the door would never get any closer...now...here it was. Right in front of them. Mocking them. Tempting them to just sit there and never open it. But that wouldn't fly with their captor. Likely would make the situation so much more worse.

“M-m-maybe we could open it quick? Like ripping off a bandaid?” Stiles suggested, voice shaking.

Derek nodded, silently volunteering himself for the task. He reached out for the knob, swallowing over and over the lump that kept rising in his throat. He could feel Stiles grabbing at the hem of his shirt, as if he was the one opening the possible door to a glass pit. In a way, it was comforting. In another way...it was annoying and not making him feel any better.

As suggested, once he could breathe, Derek yanked the door open like he was ripping off a stubborn bandaid. Almost closed his eyes during the process. But if he had done that...he wouldn't have seen that no, there was not a pit of glass on the other side of the door. Which was a comforting thought. In fact...this room was particularly...comforting.

Too comforting.

“Well...this is...nice...” Stiles mused with skepticism.

The author agreed with a nod, stepping inside cautiously. If there was a trap, he deserved to be caught in it. After all...it was his book that his monster was taking inspiration from...

As he entered, nothing happened. Nothing at all. He glanced back at the PI, bewildered. His partner shared the same look as he followed closely behind. They continued further into the room, surveying their surroundings with paranoia. Still, nothing happened.

What was the catch...?

Suddenly, the lights went out. Even Stiles' clip-on flashlight went dark. There was the slam of the door shortly after, once again plunging them into nothingness. Stiles swore loudly, moving wildly behind Derek, likely making obscene gestures. Derek, on the other hand, held completely still. Terrified more than angry.

The darkness seemed to last for eternity before lights flickered back on half heartily. The room was still the same, just with different lighting. Amazing what a dimmer tone in a room could do to a mood. Then, out of seemingly nowhere, balloons began to fall all around them. Colorful, cheerful balloons.

And Derek knew what was going on now.

“Does this room look familiar, Derek Hale?” sneered their captor.

Having been sold out, Stiles moved closer to him, trying to get a read on him. His own expression morphed into wariness when he saw how Derek looked. He swallowed in sync with the author, leaning away and staring at the balloons as if they were poisonous. Which was about right, in a way. In his book, the balloons either had a key to get them out of the room...or full of gas that could cause some form of harm. Not as bad as the glass but...harmful gas...

“Now, as much as I loved this part in your novel...it is a little more difficult to get such gases outside of fiction. Unless you have special licenses. So...some changes were made. And they are much more enjoyable.”

“Your version of enjoyable is not what ours is!” barked out Stiles shakily.

There was a chuckle before a low rumble shook on other side of the men. Both jerked, looking around in terror.

“On the door in front of you, (A spotlight blinked on over the door. For dramatic effect, obviously.) you will notice a special kind of lock. On this lock, there are not numbers. On this lock...there are pictures. Three of them, to be exact. Of course, you could easily cheat and take hours finding the right combination for the lock by playing with the lock, instead of popping the balloons to look for the pictures you need like you're supposed to. That's why I have put an incentive in this room for you.”

The rumble came again. This time...with more of a purpose.

Taunting them, the walls were inching every so slowly towards them. That was the incentive. Find the codes in the balloons before being mushed into a bloody sandwich. There was no need for a further explanation. Both men dove to the floor and urgently began to pop balloons. Which was much harder than anticipated.

“Couldn't that dick have given use something to pop these with?!” hissed the PI.

Derek was about to agree, when he thought of something. “Your clip-ons! There should be something to hold them together!”

Immediately, Stiles tossed him the radio before breaking the clip on his no longer functioning flashlight. Derek followed suit, breaking it and taking the component holding it together. Before he could even pop his first balloon, this intense wailing noise filled the already rumbling room. They both screeched with the wailing, covering their ears and nearly toppling over. And as quickly as it had started – it ended.

“What the fuck?” Derek breathed, stealing his attention in his partner's direction.

On the floor, surrounded by balloon bits, was a tiny box with a flashing red light. Of course there was a punishment for popping the wrong balloon. Of course there was. Because the idea of dying by being crushed to death wasn't punishment enough!

Derek brushed aside his rage, breathing evenly as he went on a mad dash to pop as many balloons as he could. Every single one didn't give him the piece of the code he needed. Just obnoxious wails. And Stiles was not having much luck either, if the joined wails and vehement swearing said anything.

How convenient it was that the walls were moving slow enough for them to make so many errors.

After what felt like centuries piled upon centuries...Derek didn't get a balloon that wailed. He couldn't help himself at that point. He let out a grateful sob and held onto the wooden block that fell out of the ruined balloon for dear life. He didn't even look at the picture etched onto it. He was too relieved and eager to have another success that he moved onto the next balloon.

More wails filled his ears before he eventually heard Stiles cry out victoriously.

It was a nice sound. Would be better without the impending doom of the closing space.

Through the onslaught of seemingly never-ending wails, it became clear that they both had grown more frantic in their search. Because there was only one more picture left for them to find. One more before they could fight to create the right combination. More time to lose. More time to waste. More time for their captor to drink their terror.

The urgency went through the roof as balloons became less and less plentiful. As the walls inched closer and closer. Claustrophobia was growing. Derek felt his chest and throat tighten, making it harder to breathe. He gritted his teeth, spitting out profanities in his head and violently attacked any balloon he could get his hands on. He was not going to die. Not here. Not when someone else could die too because of him. Not again.

Everything became a blur. Everything became quiet. Nothing was real. A dream. A void.

“Derek! Derek! You got the final piece!”

Those words broke him out of his haze. They were muffled, yet loud and echoing. Everything came back to him in a whirlwind senses. Then, it all slowed back down once more as he stared at the block on the floor. The last piece. The last piece for the code.

In no time, he scooped it up, scrambling to the exit. He could hear Stiles' shoes squeak behind him, bringing his piece of the code. He handed them all to Stiles, hoping he understood that one of them was going to read off the pictures and the other was going to work at the lock.

Thank god Stiles did.

“Okay okay okay okay okay...we have...a fetus, a  tombstone, and a hanging man. What kind of Resident Evil bs is this?”

“Stiles!”

“What?! Oh! Uh-uh...try it in that order! Fetus, tombstone, hanging man!”

He did. Nothing happened when he tugged at the lock.

“That's not it!”

“Okay okay, uh...try it backwards! Hanging man, tombstone, fetus!”

Nothing.

“Shit! Uh-um...tombstone, hanging man, fetus?”

Nothing. Walls moving faster. Getting closer.

“Oh my god...”

“Stiles!”

“Yes! Okay! Ahhhhh....try tombstone, fetus, hanging man?”

Nothing. Walls closer.

“It didn't work!”

“Fuck! Try Hanging man, fetus, tombstone!”

“You're running out of time, gentlemen.” crooned their captor.

“Fuck you!” snapped the men.

“Try fetus, hanging man, tombstone!”

Nothing. Derek screamed in frustration, yanking manically at the lock. This was it. This was how he died. The walls were barely inches away from crushing them. It was all over. If anyone found them...they would be a pile of blood and bones...

The walls stopped. Just...stopped. Mere inches from rendering them to nothing...and they just...stopped. And the lock? It popped right off into Derek's hand, mocking him in a way. He stared at it, chest heaving and mind buzzing. What the hell? Why did it all stop? Was it no longer fun for this sicko? What...

The door swung open swiftly, revealing what looked like...

“Is that...a control room?”

Derek didn't respond. He just stared ahead, confused. Why was there a control room on the other side of the door? Was this where their captor sat, pulling all the strings? It was rather small – swallowed mostly by a long desk and several monstrous sized monitors. Nowhere to hide at all in such a tight space.

So where was the puppet master?

The monitors snapped to life, nearly blinding the author, who had unconsciously entered the room to investigate. Roaring static filled his ears. Perfectly accompanied by snow dancing across the screens. Images flickered across the screens – jumbled blurs, nothing concrete. Finally, the images settled.

On one monitor was a woman propped up like a scarecrow, jaw hung open and eyes pulled back by clips in a faux corn field that was obviously inside somewhere. On another was a man, maybe in his forties, sprawled out on the floor of a 60's diner, covered in blood and forks in the eyes. On the third was another man, younger than the first, sitting upright against what could only be described as a grandma couch, with what looked like claw marks all over his body. On the fourth was a second woman, slumped in a lifeguard chair by a decrepit, empty pool, a form of Garrote around her throat. On the final screen was a picture of identical twins, both in prison garb, and the picture was obviously taken from a prison security camera.

Derek felt ill. Incredibly ill. All these people...he knew them. Every. Single. Last. One of them.

“Do you like what you see, Derek Hale?” the captor's voice boomed. “I would have enjoyed showing you all these rooms, but that would've taken far too long. I have a tight schedule. No need to let anyone realize you're missing. And, unfortunately, your ex and his brother are much harder to break out of prison than Kate was. They must've learned their lesson. I'll get to them eventually.”

Derek glowered at the screens, feeling sicker by the second.

“Don't worry. Not everyone here is connected with you. That would just place suspicion on you...and we don't want that now, do we? People like Gerard Argent? I had a personal vendetta against him. He was the first body you saw, in case you were wondering.”

He exhaled shakily, nails digging into his palms. How many people had entered this fun house of horrors? How many people has this bastard killed?

“I have to thank you for your novels, Derek Hale. You are truly an inspiration. You should be proud.”

“Fuck. You.” gritted out the author, the sickness morphing into disgusted anger.

“I just have one final question for you, Derek Hale. Do you know why you should never trust a fox?”

He held his breath, waiting for the answer. The answer he knew. He just didn't see the point of it yet.

“Because they're tricksters. They'll fool you. They'll fool everyone.”

No longer was the ominous voice that loomed in the air covered up by a ridiculous voice changer box. It was out there now. It was real now. And it was familiar. Unexpectedly familiar.

Derek forgot how to breathe. All he could do was shakily turn around. Turn around to face his partner in captivity. There, barely a breath's width from him, was Stiles. Who was wearing a smirk. A wicked, sinister smirk.

“What's the matter, Derek Hale?” he crooned. “You look like you have seen a ghost.”

There were many things Derek wanted to say at that moment. So many questions. So many words of disgust, hatred, confusion. None of them came to him. Him, who worked with words to make them seam together flawlessly, was speechless. All that came out was:

“You...”

Stiles chuckled darkly, licking his lips. He said nothing. Just reached out swiftly...and delivered a sharp poke into Derek's neck. The author stiffened, heaving and shaking. He felt woozy, sleepy. And, in a matter of seconds, he collapsed to the floor, fighting to keep conscious.

“Don't worry. You won't die.” Stiles informed in a seductively calm manner. “You'll just sleep long enough for you to be found.”

Found? By whom?

Derek didn't get to ask before he was swallowed whole by a deep, deep sleep

~+~

“...ir?! Sir?! Are you all right?! Can you hear me?!”

Muffled. Distant. Barely there. Who was speaking to him? Where was he? It felt different than the cold, hard floor he had been laying on before. He cracked open his eyes, the world a blurred mess. He couldn't tell who was above him. But he could tell they were shaking and tapping him. Medic, maybe?

Derek let out a groan, rolling onto his side. He felt lethargic, dizzy. A little nauseous. Everything was jumbled up. He couldn't figure out where he was or why. Nothing made sense.

Until it did...

His eyes snapped wide open, and he jerked upward a little too fast. He swayed slightly, groaning more and almost fell back over. The person there with him, someone in uniform, caught him. The hands were gentle and wary, likely spooked by all the sudden movements. Derek had to tell him what happened. Tell him about Stiles.

“Sir? Can you tell me your name?”

He nodded, trying to regulate his breathing. “D-Derek...Derek Hale...”

“Derek? Okay. What happened to you? Do you know why you're out in the middle of the woods?”

“I..I was kidnapped...”

“Were you kidnapped by the same person that kidnapped Mr. Stilinski?”

What?

What?!

Derek gripped at the man's shoulder, craning his head over him to see. Sure enough, in the back of an ambulance, draped in a shock blanket, was Stiles. He was talking to a police officer, gripping tightly at the blanket and making himself as small as he could. It was surreal because...because Stiles was his captor. Stiles had toyed with him, made him believe they were both victims, did some elaborate scheme that Derek couldn't even fathom creating in one of his novels!

Where he sat now...it was just another piece to the scheme.

Derek swallowed, unable to take his eyes off of Stiles. Unable to unsee what Stiles had put him through. Unable to get out of his head what lengths Stiles went through to do...whatever he was plotting.

What was Stiles plotting?

Why didn't he actually hurt Derek more thoroughly?

Why did he kill all those people that have helped rain tragedy on Derek's life?

How did he know about all those people?

They connected eyes briefly as another man in a police uniform walked him towards a cruiser in a familial way. Likely a parent or uncle. Maybe a grandfather. Whoever this other officer was...he didn't see the devilish grin Stiles gave him. Or the wink.

“Sir? Sir, are you okay?”

Derek snapped to, blinking dully. He tore his eyes away from Stiles, looking at the man right in front of him.

“Sir, do you hurt anywhere?”

He shook his head, swallowing. “No.”

“No broken bones or pain in the head?”

“No.”

“Do you know what day it is?”

“May twelfth.”

“Do you know your name?”

“You already asked me that. And it's Derek Hale.”

“Do you know who kidnapped you?”

“....No.”

The man nodded, standing up. He then assisted Derek to his feet, keeping close and hands on him just in case the author took a spill on his unsteady feet. Derek was taken to a second ambulance, one not too far from the one Stiles had been in, and was sat down. A shock blanket was wrapped around him and his shoulder was patted. Another medic approached him, bombarding him with repetitive questions and a flashlight in the eyes. He answered everything with little to no emotion, something he was certain would be attributed to shock.

When an officer came to talk to him, he answered everything truthfully.

With the exception of one detail: who his kidnapper was.

He explained that he was certain that whoever did this wanted to appease him – show off that they knew of a book of his that only fanatics would know. That they knew about him enough to hunt down those that had harmed him in the past, and dispose of them as some sort of sick devotion. That he was certain more people were taken and killed to test out the fun house. That the PI was just an opportune victim, someone to make the book Because more life-like.

The officer nodded and kept asking questions here and there the entire time, jotting down the notes in his little pad. It felt like time was ticking by slowly with each question. Felt like ages before the officer excused himself with the promise of finding the person responsible. Derek nodded numbly, curling into himself. He just lied to an officer. He had just lied about who had whisked him away into a re-imagining of his old book.

And he had no idea why...

There was this strange sensation in his left pocket, startling him out of his minor stupor. He stuck his hand against the pocket, brows furrowed. To his surprise...it was a vibration. He shoved his hand inside, a sense of urgency overcoming him. What he pulled out was his cellphone. His cellphone. It was absent from him during his time at...wherever he was. And now...now it was right here. Like it had always been. What was even more shocking was that there was a message on there. Just one. He unlocked it with trembling fingers, going straight to the message.

It was from an unknown number...but he knew just who it was just by what was written...

I knew you were just as twisted as me.

With love,

Your Biggest Fan