#oh this guy is evil by nature and we should put him down like a sick animal. WHAT?!??!???!?????? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

drawnfamiliarfaces · 5 months

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Do you know how to fix the "Shloomp. There It Is" episode? This can be done MIS style by putting Chase Young in Nomicon's place. After all, Chase Young was able to obtain the evil essence Omi of the Yin-Yang World. Why doesn't he do the same to Randy for a chance to get to the First Ninja? This idea addresses many important issues. Firstly, a dubious lesson from Nomicon (he put the guys in danger in the original plot development), and secondly, the very existence of NomiRandy. Where did he come from? Thirdly, this will limit Randy’s activities, which means he will not be able to get out of the Yin-Yang world on his own and get into someone else’s body. Poof! I forbid rc9gn characters from moving into other people’s bodies so easily!Randy's fall to the side of darkness will infuriate the First Ninja, which fits perfectly with the concept of his relationship with Chase Young. In addition, it will be a kind of bitter reminder: “Look, I took from you the one who at one time took from me the best chance to win you over to my side.” The First Ninja was at his most vulnerable mentally when he was going through a crisis, and only the appearance of Randy made him perk up. The First Ninja will not be able to come to terms with the fact that Randy has become evil (and even more arrogant).NomiRandy may be more than just arrogant. He may represent the vengeful part of Randy. He will probably say something that will plunge the First Ninja into long thoughts, because he will not be able to deny what he said, since it is a part of Randy, and not just his opposite. NomiRandy is everything that the First Ninja never wanted to accept in Randy himself, so this will be some kind of test for him? Very high quality test. Another plus in the karma of this idea.NomiRandy is not stupid, but he is a brutal teenager who doesn't need anyone. Because of this value system, he will not be able to become a part of society, because when he grows up with his peers, his brutality will lose its meaning. Deep down, Randy wants to show others his rebellious nature, what he can really be, but he will have to understand that being NomiRandy all the time is depriving himself of a future. Then this thirst will stop snowballing. A good lesson for any teenager, including Ninjas.So this idea is great, it has conflict, meaning and a "little" Chase Young/First Ninja feud of course. Chase Young is going to give morals for once (especially for the First Ninja), even if that wasn't his intention in the first place, because damn it, Chase Young was never JUST evil. He is many hundreds of years old, he is wise enough so that he does not have to prove it to others. That's why in this scenario I put him in the place of Nomicon, who was supposed to teach the Ninja. He could have locked Randy's moral self in the Yin-Yang world, not just to annoy the First Ninja and force him to accept his terms, but because "I may take YOUR place in the eyes of YOUR students, but the outcome will be the same as the outcome of the one that NomiRandy has taken Randy's place" (that is, a crossed out future for the whole world), or "we can feud not only physically" (Chase Young is a manipulator; he can not only give dubious advice to Randy, but also really important lessons for both him, same for the First Ninja; a kind of care, similar to medicine: whether you like it or not, sooner or later you will need it, but by taking it, you are slowly destroying yourself, because it contains a small dose of poison, and Chase Young will give for his own purposes you just enough to destroy you). What happened will also hit the value system of the First Ninja, which he chose in the afterlife. Chase Young has never been susceptible to petty mischief. In a ship with someone like the First Ninja, this should be emphasized more often.

What other episodes would you like to fix in this way?

Oh, wow, this is a very intriguing and very detailed idea that is certainly worth exploring!

There is a lot to process, and I've been thinking about it for...like a week, and I'm not sure if I got everything, so if I misunderstood anything I apologize (my brain no work so good sometimes lol sorry), but I wanted to offer you my opinion if you want it!

In general I prefer to leave canon alone and just loosely refer to events that happen in cartoon, especially RC9GN, so I never thought of rewriting/fixing an episode (I mean they are sort of 'rewritten' in my head with better lore and just cooler but like nothing definite). With MIS I tend to concentrate primarly on Finja and Chase first, and the kids are sort of in the background for me. I only had like two? three? ideas that are episode & Randy/Monks related and those are mostly in Xiaolin Showdown, and one of them is in Favorite Warrior AU, lol. And even those are not rewrites/fixers but crossover fusion - the events happen almost exactly the same but just with more characters involved. So I can't say I have many idea for rewrites/fixers in RC9GN that would involve MIS.

But what I do like, is using canon to suppliment idea for 'after' cartoon canon, so after reading your idea, I wanted to offer you a slightly different take: let the canon episode happen, but then use it to build an even more serious situation with Chase, like you described and it would hit everyone involved even harder.

Let me explain my reasoning more (this might get a bit long, be warned!):

Let's start with canon first - In my opinion 'Shloomp There it is' episode is fine by itself, however dumb it might seem at first.

I kind of agree with you on the first point, about it being a dubious way to teach a lesson, but to be absolutely fair - it was a very dubious and silly problem originally, that Randy created by being a little bit of an idiot himself. So as in theme with the show, the problem and solution kind of fit each other.

Secondly, NomiRandy. I also agree about your point of Where did he come from and where the heck did he go? Well I have (most likely unpopular) opinions about that.

Personally I believe that NomiRandy is not an actual evil representation Ninjanomicon somehow created from Randy himself, but rather it is a caricature of him that Nomicon created by itself. It's an absolutely fake doppleganger that only looks like Randy on the surface - with many of his negative and opposite traits amplified to a comical degree, but not really an evil entity made of Randy's deepest dark desires. It's nothing more but a papermache puppet Ninjanomicon used to teach a lesson and later discarded, and thats why we never see him again, because he wasn't real in any shape or form so after returning to Nomicon he doesn't exist anymore.

(I am very much aware that my headcanons about NomiRandy are probably in minority, because this fandom absolutely adores NomiRandy, lol)

So, NomiRandy was a relatively mild threat used as a mild solution to fix a problem created by Randy being a bit of an idiot.

Your third point, about Randy being limited in his activities, is where I have to disagree with you a bit more. Because what's the point of teaching the lesson if a big part of Randy is not there to learn it? I mean, in canon version Randy actually witnessed NomiRandy act as an asshole which helped him realize that he himself was acting foolishly. And him having to fight himself but in Howard's body was actually pretty interesting concept of Randy having to actually physically confront his failings and bad traits head on.

There is also something to say about the fact that the only ones involved into body swap were people who were in the Nomicon at first , so one could argue that the body/mind swap was controlled by Ninjanomicon, that it used to make a point for Randy. (But that would be a thought for another time, lol.)

So, as you can see, in my opinion the episode is relatively fine by itself, and if we replace Ninjanomicon with Chase - the total tone shift will change all of it drastically. Not to mention the lesson itself will change, becoming more serious and with actual consequences - all of it would be something completely different.

And while it absolutely could work and the idea of this rewrite by itself is incredibly intriguing, I think it would work better as a continuation, as more dire development for after the end of the series.

You might ask why the end of the series? Well primarily because of my own headcanon that Chase in general tends to stay out of Norrisville Ninja business out of respect to First and also because they change so fast, (I mean what are 4 years to immortal??) he rarely gets to pay attention to them, let alone get interested in them and their usefullness to his agenda with First. But if something big happens, like I dunno, Randy defeating Ghoulian and unmaking the Sorcerer himself it would make Chase pay attention to Randy and realize how useful he can be.

The other important reason, is because of episode 'Winner Takes Ball' where we catch the tiniest glimpse of the actual evil side of Randy that appeared thanks to influence of Chaos Ball. He is power hungry, he is so sure of himself, he is cocky, he is merciless and ruthless and most importantly he still loves being THE Ninja. There is no annoyed apathy and uncaringness that NomiRandy displayed, this Evil Randy would have been just as hyper as normal Randy, enjoying his newfound powers just as much, but also would be unburdened with morals of using those powers.

Because, you see, I think Actual Evil version of Randy is in many ways would be a lot like an Evil version of Omi. Evil Omi was hyper pumped, thriving on newfound power, in this new freedom from morals, ruthless and doing what he wanted, rather than what is right. And what he wanted is to fight, to show everyone how talented he was, that he was the best warrior there ever was.

And what does Randy want? Constantly throughout the show Randy expresses his delight at being the Ninja (unlike some protagonists that find themselves suddenly thrust into a hero role, Randy takes to it instantly, there is literally ZERO hesitation from this boy), he loves it and most importantly he wants to be this strong, powerful, capable and amazing.

But that is also one of the most important Ninjanomicon continues to impart on the Ninjas - not to be this prideful and arrogant, and chase after power with such disregard to everything else.

So, now picture it like this:

Chase learns about Randy and what he has done, and how talented and powerful this new ninja is. At some point he discovers about NomiRandy and what happened, and it gives him an idea.

Chase Reverse Chi-s Randy, and this Evil Randy is still Randy in many ways, and it would absolutely devastate First to see him like this - power-hungry and ruthless, disregarding everything that Ninjanomicon taught him to prevent exactly this fall to Darkness and Evil, and the worst part is he has been taken under Chase's wing not only to nurture and encourage this new evil seedling - but to taunt First and Ninjanomicon, because - isn't it what you once wanted to teach him by creating NomiRandy? About his dark self that should be kept in check and balanced in a good warrior, good ninja? But your lesson was deeply flawed and now look at me, I will do a so much better job than you ever attempted, and I will show this young Ninja, that it's not only the bad side that needs to be balanced but the good side as well.

Which would play into what you said earlier - NomiRandy, or in this case just Evil Randy - will be so power-hungry and thirsty for fighting, he will disregard many things, like the fact that existing like that is impossible - even such urges must be tampered in order to actually live a fullfilling (if evil) life. And who is better to show and teach it to him than Chase Young, who (most likely) spent centuries in the beginning of his immortal life so hungry for battle, he served as an attack dog for Hannibal Roy Bean. But with time Chase has found balance in his new evil existence, and that helped him to overcome Roy Bean and rise to new heights.

That comparison about how Roy Bean controlled Chase, can also can influence how Randy views Ninjanomicon (and by extension First), and how tightly it tries to hold reigns of Ninjas it teaches. I mean, Randy sometimes resented the lessons and rules Ninjanomicon gives, we've seen it a few times, but Evil Randy will feel all of that frustration and annoyance even more, like a rebelious teenager that saw how controlling the authoriive figure in their life is and it will poison his relationship with Ninjanomicon.

And First? Well, Evil Randy could also bring up how Randy, a supposedly not-good enough for your high-and-mighty Ninja Rules and Forbidden Powers managed to do what the original oh-so-powerful Ninja could not - finally defeat the Sorcerer. About how a teenager that you dumped your mask on, your responsibility, and kept holding back with all your stupid rules and limitations - did what you couldn't in 800 years. And what can First even answer to that? Because its all true, no matter how poisoned Evil Randy's view may be, the bare facts are all true.

So, First can only watch, helpless and angry and so so sad, how Chase takes under his wing the one who saved the world from Sorcerer (not even once, but twice) and twists that raw power and energy that served for good into something that will serve evil. ( And the worst part, is that it all happened because of First - because of Chase's initial interest in First. All in an attempt to get to him.)

And well, like you said, there could be two endings - where Evil Randy is here to stay (aka Very Bad Ending lol), or where Good Randy makes it out of Ying-Yang world and reunites with his Evil self again.

But even then, the damage will be done. Because Chase's lessons could still continue. I mentioned earlier about lessons in balance, and how in good warrior, not only his dark side should be kept in check, but his good side also. In a way, I think Good Randy will lack a very important part to being a Ninja - and its the ruthlessness that Evil Randy brandishes like a blunt weapon, but with Chase it could be sharpened into a precise tool, and if Good and Evil reunite, the lesson will be still carried over.

And not only that will be carried over, but all the words and feelings that Evil Randy experienced -Randy will remember, and that can forever change and/or damage his relationship with Ninjanomicon and First. And Chase? Well, Randy will also remember that Chase was not just an Evil Jerk that split him in half - he actually tried to help and teach his Evil self to control himself better, so the seedling of mentor&mentee relationship will still be there.

After all of this, I have to admit, unlike you, I have a harder time imagining how exactly the situtation will help Chase sway/manipulate First to his side. I mean, this way Chase might probably sway Randy to his side, especially if he somehow orchestrates the return of Good Randy and says that all of this was just a lesson to help Randy be a better warrior, because he just couldn't watch all this talent wither away under Ninjanomicon's dubious tutelage.

But when it comes to First, If anything, I think it will actually backfire horribly. First is already constantly unstable in his regards to Chase, but something like this will only solidify his belief in Chase being a manipulator that could never be trusted, because its one thing to try and manipulate First to his side, but its another to involve his kid successor. First might even lose whatever respect he had for the immortal, because he would view manipulation of children as beneath him (of course I think Chase will argue, that those young warriors are hardly children).

I think I mentioned it before in some ask, but I personally believe that if Chase will try to get to Randy it will just send First into apocleptic levels of anger, and destroy any slim chances Chase had, and will literally set him back to zero in his progress with First, lol.

But that's just my personal view, you probably have some really good ideas about that! ;D

On another note, a tiny thing I got to disagree with a little - is about Chase being above 'petty mischief'. I can agree about Chase not being particularly petty, but mischief? In my opinion, this immortal lizard is very much into mischief, albeit a more strategic type of mischief. xD This is the man who continuously taunted pre-teens while trying to manipulate one of them to his side, and also continuously made poor Jack's life hell.

Though admittiedly, I like to think that being around First Ninja brings out more of Chase's mischevious side (opposite to his cruel and uncaring sides) - partially because First Ninja doesn't always reacts the way Chase expects him to. And sometimes Ninja catches Chase before he gets into a scheme and that sometimes leaves Chase himself wrong-footed. And partially because, Chase grew to enjoy testing Ninja's patience a little too much, after the got to know each other better.

But you are right about the fact that in this ship it should empathized more how much of a threat and manipulator Chase could be, the problem is i can't write this type of characters like at all, lol, to my great dissapointment i just don't know how to do it well. xD So that version of Chase just kind of exists half-baked in my mind, and meanwhile in my art and fics he just turns into a mischevious asshole with all his schemes in background, haha.

Anyway, I tried really hard to adress everything you mentioned and offer some insights and ideas, but i still feel like i might have missed something, so - sorry about that! I know its probably not the answer you quite expected, but I do hope it was sufficient, and if not - that at least it was entertainin to read! ;3

#que?#ninja showdown #long post #sorry it took so long but i like to make sure my answers are coherent before i just hit send xD you have no idea how incomprehensible #my first draft of this was lol i promise ill get to your other asks soon! it might take some time tho lol sorry #also thank you for the asks! ;3 i do love to read your insights. they are very interesting ;)#gosh after reading this ask for like a week to compose my answer i am now cravin a fic where Chase does Reverse Chi Randy to mess with Firs

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checkingoutforheroes · 1 year

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B.A.B.Y PROTOCOL

Part 5.

Avengers x fem!reader

Words: 1029

Synopsis: This takes place in Avengers: Age of Ultron. When The Avengers were at the rock bottom, Nick Fury and advised by Maria Hill, to initiate the B.A.B.Y Protocol. Will a young, damaged and broke girl agree to this initiative and help a team to save this planet earth?

Part 4.

Main Materlist.

When you and Clint arrive at the lab, you see Steve and Wanda has come back. Thor is too and they were fighting among themselves. “Hey guy’s we found- Who the hell is that?!” Clint step in front of you. “Stay behind me.”

Steve voice out to Tony and Bruce. “You need to shut it down. You don’t know what you are doing?

Bruce voice is deeper than before. “And you do?” he’s pointing at Wanda. “She’s not in your head?” Wanda step next to Steve. “I know you’re angry.” Bruce is getting angry. Maybe someone should do something. “Oh, we’re past that. I could choke the life out of you and don’t change a shade.” You step in. “Okay, you don’t want that. Let’s talk this out, alright?”

And they talk. Loudly, shouting among them. Steve starts to point his perspective. “After everything that happen …” His words beat by Tony “There’s nothing compare to what happen!”

“You don’t know what’s in there!”

“This isn’t a game!”

“The creature in that…” That red thing moves to attack Thor and he push him away. He signs us to stop and not doing anything and its mean no harm. All of us gather behind Thor and Wanda stands next to you. That thing growing a cape by itself looking like Thor’s. “That’s odd.” You whisper.

“Thor, you helped create this?” Steve ask him.

“I have had a vision. That is the mind stone.” Thor pointing at his head.

Bruce ask. “The gem?”

“It’s one of the six infinity stones, the greatest power in the universe.”

“And then why did you bring it back to life?” Steve recalled. “Because Stark is right.” Bruce now seems a little bit calm then before. “That’s definitely the end of time.”

“The Avengers can’t defeat Ultron.”

“Not alone.” That thing said. “Why did your thing sounds like Jarvis?” You ask. “We figured Jarvis’s nature and create something new.” Tony reasoned and he speaks again. “You think I’m a child of Ultron? I am not. I am not Ultron. I am not Jarvis, I am… I am…” he lost his words.

Wanda walking forward. “I looked in your head, saw an annihilation.” “Look again.” Put forth. “Are you on our side?” Steve exclaimed. “I’m on the side of life. Ultron isn’t. He will end it all.” He pondered and Tony ask “What is he waiting for?” “You.” That thing said. “Where?” Bruce turns to ask.

“Sokovia. He Got Nat there too.” Clint stated. “We have to act now. Captain?” You look at Steve.

“Three minutes. Get what you need.” Everybody moves to get ready. You contact Maria to inform the plan. Clint’s prepare his arrow, Tony is in his lab, doing his thing with his A.I. Thor, Banner, Rogers and Vision have a discussion.

While you’re on the way to Natasha’s room to get ready, you see Wanda standing pondering alone and you go talk to her. “Hey, you okay Wanda?”

“Yes. Where are you going?” Her thick accent asking you a question. “I’m going to get ready.”

“You are not going right? You’re not well enough.”

“My sister is alone in a country with tons of evil machine and I’m planning not to leave her.”

“We’re going to get her.”

“The more the merrier. Enough talking. Captain America will be on our ass if we’re late. Come on.” You pulling Wanda’s hand and she follows you. “Where are we going?” “Natasha’s room. We’re not combat ready.”

You wear one of her bomber jacket that is big enough for you. Damn this assassin is smaller than you think. “Hey, take of your cardigan. Put this on.” You throw a red jacket at her. “It match your power and size. Don’t worry, she won’t be mad. She got tons of those. She’ll not even notice is one missing.”

Steve give us last mission brief in the Quinn jet. “Ultron knows we’re coming. Odds are we’ll be riding heavy fire. That’s what we sign up for. But people in Sokovia, they didn’t so, it’s our priority to bring them out. Wanda, you on it. We do our best to protect them, we get our job done. We’ll find out what Ultron has been building. Y/n find Romanoff; we clear the field. Keep the fight between us.”

As soon the jet touch the ground, everyone rushes to do their part. “Wanda, you’ll be fine. This is your hometown. I see you after I found Nat, okay. Good luck.” She’s trying to smile at you. “You take care of yourself, Baby.”

You watch the map on the tablet that Tony gave you to find the exact location of Nat and you’re close enough. “Nat… Nat, where are you? Natasha?” She hears your whispering voice calling her name in the cell. “Baby? In here!” You turn to your right and see her behind the bar. You laugh at that scene. “Well, well. Look who’s behind the bar.”

“Not now Baby. What are you doing here?! You’re supposed to be in bed!”

“While you’ve been kidnapped by terminator? I don’t think I can sit at all. You alright? I bring this for you. You need to recharge.” You hand her a candy bar.

“Thanks. I suppose you find some keys lying down the somewhere.”

“Nah, I don’t need keys.” You motion her to move and shot the gate open.

“So, what’s your play?” She asking you about the plan.

“I’m here to get you to safety.”

“And miss all the fun? I don’t think so.” She wears the new headset piece that you gave her because you can’t wear one. Its messing with your device. “Put this on. I can’t wear that.”

“Where’s the jet?” You show her the map on the tablet. “Alright. Let’s get you there.”

“Which part of ‘getting you to safety’ that you didn’t understand? I have to get you to safety. Cap’s order.

“You stubborn!”

Clint hear the banter and stop you guys. “Knock it off sisters. We could use some help out here before they attack us.” You and Natasha looking at each other “Fuck Captain’s order.” Both of you running out of that place.

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mulders-too-large-shirt · 3 months

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s2 episode 12 thoughts

oh, from the very beginning of this episode, from reading the little plot summary when you click on it, i was seated. and then i was even more seated through all of its twists and turns. a thoroughly enjoyable episode, if outlandish, but that's what we come here for!

so here we are. in a town called aubrey. there's a dog at a police station and the officers are talking about a murder.

we see this guy that looks like j jonah jameson- introduced as brian tillman- and a woman who works there is sad he didn't come home for dinner last night. BUT we also had a very conspicuous pan over his desk to see that there is a photo of his wife, who is NOT the woman he is talking to. affair....???

oh shoot, she's writing something. "i'm pregnant" the note says while he's on the phone with a coroner. AFFAIR BABY!

she's going to meet him at a motel but she can't see straight and is like. moaning in pain. now chat, i don't know much about pregnancy, but to me this is seeming... unusual. so i was confused until she started having a vision, and then she goes to that place where the vision was set, and starts digging up bones. notably, they are bones, so the murder is an old one.

title sequence. back to our agents, who are staring at xrays of teeth. very thoughtfully, mulder announces "i brush after every meal" thank you king of dental hygiene

so this woman- her name is B.J.- is a detective and found remains that match those of an FBI agent that went missing over 50 years ago. that's juicy. but mulder's like, why the hell was she in a field at night? she's lying and we need to go down there.

and also, "i've always been intrigued by women named B.J." <- mulder have you ever tried shutting the fuck up? it could be good for you.

ugh. a man. disgusting. you should be groveling.

so they're at the scene of the exhumation, which i had honestly forgotten the word for, and i almost typed "the bone unboxing", but it came to me in the nick of time. and it's clear she's lying about how she came across this whole thing.

the affair parner to B.J.- brian- is getting really protective while mulder asks if she's a psychic. he should have been a bit more protective a while ago but that's a different story.

autopsy date!!! what if i looked at some bones while you read me the poetic writings on the nature of evil from a long dead FBI agent... well that is what we see scully and mulder doing at this very moment!

scully puts on her glasses as she tries to figure out if the marks on the rib bones have any meaning, and shares this wisdom:

"it's obvious B.J. and tillman are having an affair"

mulder is GAGGED by this revelation. she read the situation for filth. good for her. "a woman knows these things" okaaayyy please use your intuition at parties and figure out everyone's complicated love situations scully it'll be soooo fun!!!

B.J. walks in and starts experiencing visions. typical! she leaves and says she doesn't feel good and scully sighs and follows her. she knows her duty.

allow me to copy verbatim from my notes here, because i was losing my mind:

"OH NO, SCULLY STARTS TALKING ABOUT HAVING FEELINGS FOR PEOPLE SHE'S WORKED WITH.... i'm not unpacking that right now but this B.J. CHARACTER MUST BE MORTIFIED. SCULLY'S DOING HER BEST STOOOOOOP. "you're pregnant aren't you" OH SCULLY PSYCHIC REVEAL?"

now. i was experiencing about a million emotions in a second at this scene, one for scully reading the situation and immediately jumping in to try and comfort B.J., two on the confession that she's had feelings for someone she worked with before, but i skipped all over that to focus on three, B.J. must be sooooo embarrassed she was so easy to read.

but now that i know what happens in the rest of the episode... scully, tell us more about having feelings for someone you are working with. how recently would you say this affliction has plagued you? please feel free to elaborate. i'm imagining like a silly summer job where she's 16 and navigating a crush and at the same time i'm imagining straight up pining over mulder. don't be shy. please share more. no? you just wanted to try and make a stranger in an uncomfortable situation feel better by relating to your personal experience, because you are a deeply empathetic individual? okay that's Fine.

by this point i was cackling, because damn. again. she just got straight to the point about the whole thing. B.J. is like "he'd kill me if anyone knew" and scully proceeds to IMMEDIATELY walk back into the room with mulder and spill the tea. and my laughter increased tenfold at this point. he looked shocked!!!!! she does not give a fuck she is going to tell him the drama!!! and i get it!!!!

anyway poor B.J. seems to know that the markings on the bones spell out "brother" and somehow that's true

this brian tillman fellow seems awful. he's picking up the evidence our agents brought with them from the 1940's crime scene and yelling at B.J. asking why she has sealed evidence from 3 days ago with her. this is because he cannot read that the files are literally from 1942 and that this seems to be some sort of copycat killing.

so our agents meet B.J. at a nice little secret picnic table rendezvous, where mulder drops the line "i've often felt that dreams are answers to questions we haven't figured out how to ask" okayyyy poet!!!

she draws a picture of what she sees in her dreams, and mulder immediately identifies it from a postcard in NYC, and announces it is the symbol of the 1939 world's fair... "NERD", i proclaimed to the screen, because it was so strong i needed to verbalize that feeling

brian tillman is back to being the worst, pressuring B.J. to "go through with the appointment", saying that it's not HER choice, it's OUR choice, which it famously isn't. reproductive coercion is NOT gonna slide you hillbilly spiderman hater looking freak.

she's looking at a bunch of criminals from 1940 to try and see if the murderer from her dreams is in there... and she identifies him... it's a man who looks kinda like elvis... elvis from SHEIN... his name is cokely, and he carved "sister" into somebody's chest in 1942... why was he not serving in the war at this time...

so mulder thinks the dude is their number one suspect for the new sister carving murders even though he's 77 now, and his reasoning is that "george foreman won the heavyweight crown at 45". which is so funny. mulder is such a walking encyclopedia but also the writers need to make him seem sort of cool so he just spits out sports facts and it doesn't make him any cooler.

scully's like, well her dad was a cop, maybe he knew about the case and she heard about it as a kid, and the copycat cases are bringing repressed memories back. which gives us this lovely exchange:

"i seem to recall you having some pretty extreme hunches" "i have NEVER!" (mutual smiling)

awwwww.

anyway. to the old man murderer's house.

he has an oxygen tank and he is smoking which i thought wasn't allowed but he probably doesn't care tbh. and he kinda talks like SHEIN elvis as well. he keeps calling scully "little sister" which is sus as hell because the victim carved brother or sister into all the people... but he denies and denies

at this point in my notes i imagined myself in the shoes of B.J.: "imagine if having an affair baby made you the conduit for solving 50 year old murders... girl i'd lose my damn mind"

she wakes up COVERED IN BLOOD with "sister" CARVED INTO HER CHEST and at first it was so horrific- and also, how could someone sleep through such a thing- that i thought it was another hallucination. but no, it is in fact real, and she doesn't worry about the blood, instead running to someone's house and lifting up the floorboards that she saw in another vision. and when brian comes to escort her to the hospital, our intrepid duo lifts up the boards to reveal some bones.

it would really suck to live in a house for a long time and then find some bones, wouldn't it?

scully further solidifies her stance as a real one by bringing what i think is some clothes in a paper bag to B.J., who insists that it was cokely the old murder man/elvis dupe who attacked her... but she insists she saw him as a young man, and he is now, of course, 77, so that's weird

but the blood found at the scene matches some of the genetic markers of cokely's blood, so they go visit his other victim who survived. and oooHHHH mulder sees that symbol from the world's fair on the wall!

mulder knows the victim, now an elderly woman, left the hospital the night of the attack, and returned 9 months later... she says it was complications but he goes for the jugular and asks "what happened to the child?"

now the roles are reversed, and it is scully who is gagged by a pregnancy reveal! the woman says that the child was evil, and he was sent to an adoption agency

new theory time: mulder says what if it was cokely's GRANDSON that did all this? it could explain the resemblance in her report AND that it was a younger suspect AND the blood types

! MULDER LORE REVEAL ! he used to wake up in the middle of the night from terrible nightmares where he was the only person left in the world, until he heard his father cracking sunflowers seeds in his study and realized he wasn't alone

we can and will analyze that. the boy who lost his sister being terrified everyone else in the world will leave too, and it'll be just him left behind, trying to find answers. the man who almost lost scully feeling even more alone than he knew was possible, pulling at any sort of thread to bring her back.

and this is deeply touching, but they frame it as a genetic debate on if he was predisposed to liking sunflower seeds, and then it turns into a nature vs nurture argument with scully, and they're interrupted from discussing the finer points of the theory of genetic memory when they have to call the adoption agency

ULTIMATE GAG REVEAL: the son of cokely is... B.J.'S FATHER!!! SO is SHE DOING THE MURDERS? mulder seems certain, and that she even carved her own chest. scully is like wtf. and i'm like, i don't know if grandpa being a murderer makes you one too, but i don't know anything about genetics

NOOOO. we see the old lady we have previously visited- cokely's victim, now revealed to be B.J.'S grandmother- with an unwelcome visitor in the house!!! AND IT IS A DERANGED B.J.! i was shocked at this point because i did not think she was going to be the killer. but we see her closing in on her, and poor old lady says "you're my grandchild", and then a knife, and then yelling....

she's looking for someone to blame, just like her grandfather did all those years ago....

so she's in cokely's house, doing some slashing, when mulder rolls up, and the score is going sicko mode. the composers were popping off.

she SMACKS mulder in the head (yowch!) and has him pinned down, with the razor to his throat, and he's begging for his life. and scully BURSTS in, her finger about to pull the trigger on B.J., when....

BRIAN bursts in??? affair baby father has entered the chat. he's like "B.J. what is going ON" and he gets her to stop attacking

and then mulder is still laying on the floor, so scully comes over, and CRADLES HIS HEAD. yes you heard me she GENTLY holds his head, looks for any marks, and we fade to the case report

scully's theory is that pregnancy activated the dormant serial killer urges/genetic memories in B.J. and all i'm saying it it's a wild place out there.... if y'all are gonna have affairs, please be safe, perhaps this was a cautionary tale....

this episode was WILDDDD. twist and turn and twist and turn and i was seated! they definitely turned the concept of "someone receiving information on unsolved crimes from beyond the grave" on its head, and i certainly did not see poor B.J. as the killer. was it realistic? NO! but did i enjoy it! YES!

various highlights: scully being kind enough to confess to having feelings for a coworker to make someone she just met feel better, scully clocking the affair and pregnancy, scully immediately spilling the tea to mulder, who looked shocked, mulder nightmare reveal, scully also bringing B.J. clothes in the hospital because she is too good for this world even if she is a little gossipy with the bestie, and mulder nerd evidence- why do you know about the world's fair anyway?

#a thoroughly enjoyable watch! we are soooo back baby last episode was an outlier!!!!#i love a little mystery i love a solving of a cold case i love drama and affairs and i love scully and mulder!#they were arguing about nature vs nurture in children and i was like “have one together and figure it out that way”#then i was like GASP who said that... no decorum!!!#anyway. i love them. even in mulder's jokes make me want to throw hands. stupid man.#juni's x files liveblog #the x files #txf

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teenandbeyond · 1 year

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hi could a request a demon fem reader x gojo where reader is just bewitchingly beautiful ( and low-key evil n v powerful ) and she joins the uni where gojo is a student of and he tries impressing her n shit n idk more things could be added but ya it has smut n it's very smexy n romantic sort of but sub!gojo :O

Gojo x Dom Fem. Demon Reader

Interesting, let's see how it goes.

Want the Dom Gojo version? Here.

Want more from meh? Masterlist!

☆*: .｡. .｡.:*☆☆*: .｡. .｡.:*☆

🕶 Please Her 🕶 (Jujutsu Kaisen)

Warning(s): College AU, flirty reader, smut, dirty talk, didn't really know where to go with it

It's your second semester at a new college and you've already got a guy trying to impress you, not doing too good so far when he's wearing shades indoors...

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

He could feel you before you entered the room.

As you entered, he lowered his shades, like he couldn't see you clearly past them.

You were beautiful.

You immediately met his eyes, you could feel his power, too.

And when your lips lifted into a smirk, he decided.

He wanted you.

The next day, he made sure to make a point of falling into the chair next to you.

"Mm, are you here to dispose of me, curse user?"

"Not necessarily," he drew out his syllables, leaning on a palm, "I just wanted to get a better view."

"You're not going to get that from the very back of the class."

He met your gaze over his shades after turning his head your way, "I didn't mean the lesson. I'd much prefer to study you, instead. Better view than that geezer any day."

"Sacrificing your grades for me? I'm flattered," you offered a shark-like grin full of sarcasm.

"No need to worry about me. I have the best grades in this school," he smiled.

You rolled your eyes, kicking up your feet, "Of course you do."

"Miss [Name]! Put your feet down, right-"

Your professor cut himself off with a glare from you, your head tilted back, challenging him to say the rest.

All he did was clear his throat, "I'll let you off this time since this is your first day, but don't expect such leniency next time."

"Well, aren't you the rebellious one? Someone should tame that disobedience of yours," he purred out.

"I don't get tamed. It's not in my nature."

And every day after that, he finds something to brag to you about.

Trying to impress you, you supposed.

But he wasn't your type.

He was pretty, sure, but you weren't into men who weren't worth what they bragged about.

He just seemed like another egotistical pretty boy who was used to having his way in life.

And why hasn't he reported you yet? You were a demon, his type doesn't let you cruise around innocent people so easily. It's why you had to transfer quite a few times.

His answer?

"I mean, other than a few little pranks, you don't mean much harm. Just another student trying to get their degree. As long as it stays that way, you'll be fine."

He seemed to care more about getting in your pants than much else.

He even brought you your favorite drink from some cafe a few minutes away.

"How the hell do you know I like this?" you ask after an experimental sip.

"I watch."

"Creepy. And I'm a demon."

All he does is smile.

You have a strange dynamic of banter, Gojo not really getting past your wall.

"We can't go on one date, beautiful?"

"My dates include an exclusion of clothes."

"I certainly wouldn't mind that," he smiles, flashing his pearly whites.

"You haven't earned the privilege, human."

"I will..."

Things change one day when a sleazy student decides to grope you on your way out of your last class. Even after you tell him to stop.

You both end up in a hidden corner with you tugging hard on his ear, threatening him.

"Listen here, human. You have two options...You can either use this pencil and stab yourself in your poorly endowed genitals. Or I can tear off your ear for your poor listening abilities."

"You crazy bitch, you think you scare me? I've had crazier girlfriends."

"Oh, have you, now? Well, I don't like being second best to anybody. May I show you why I'm the one to fear?"

You mute him with your power, he's unable to be heard by powerless humans. And you slowly tug further and further away from his head.

He tries to struggle away, but your power holds him in place.

"You don't deserve these ears anyway, much too pretty for that attitude of yours," you grin as he begins to scream.

"Stop! Stop! It's going to tear off!" he shrieked.

"That's the point."

You silently glance at the ear in your hand, then back at the screaming young man.

And you laugh. Tossing your head back, hard.

"Fascinating! Humans are very expressive."

"What's going on here?"

You blandly glance over to see Gojo moving closer, "You're not blind. I think it's blatantly obvious."

"Gojo! Gojo, help me, man! This bitch is crazy!"

"Silly human, he can't-"

"Help you? Lovely [Name] here doesn't seem like the type to do something without reason."

He could hear him? Right...his power.

"So what did you do, Kimura?"

"Nothing! All I did was flirt a little and she went nuts!"

You stab a pencil into your desired area, getting another satisfying scream out of him, "You touched me without my permission. And even after my merciful warning, you kept doing it...You were confident, too. I can only imagine how many human women it took to gain it. What do you have to say about that?"

All he could do was groan in pain.

"Well, at least now you can live alone like you deserve. Only desperate little humans would get with a man lacking an ear and a hard-on. Now, get out of my sight," your power releases him as you dismiss him with a hand.

You don't turn to look at him as he rushes to hobble away.

But before he can turn around the corner, his body freezes in place and shatters like glass.

"Foolish human. I don't let scum like you live."

"Well, well. Interesting to finally see your power in action."

You jump at the voice next to you, when did Gojo get that close?

"You didn't try to help him."

"He was weak anyway. But I told you not to harm anyone, or we'd have a problem."

"I have selective hearing," you smirked, leaning against a brick wall.

"Selective hearing, huh? Of course, you do," he hummed.

Before you could blink, he was pressed into you, arm against your throat.

"I should kill you."

"Will you?"

"Hmm," his gaze bore through you, "It'd be a shame...I like you."

"I am quite the charmer," you don't break his stare even as his thumb brushes against your cheek, red staining it when it leaves you.

"Red suits you," he muttered, looking down at the blood.

"It suits anyone."

"But I like it on you, I'm not talking about everyone else," he drags his thumb over your lips. Teasing it between them.

You tease back by accepting it inside when he meets your gaze again.

He sucks in a breath.

"Your bravado doesn't fool me, human," you kiss the pad of his finger.

"What do you mean?"

"You aren't the type to lead in a game like this. But that's okay..."

Gojo can't say he expected to be under you in his bed... But he can't say he minded either.

"Fuck..." his lip quivered as he watched your head bob up and down.

This view of you should've been deadly.

You moved to kiss along his thigh, "You don't deserve me pleasuring you, human."

He knows. He doesn't deserve to see something so pretty.

"I want you to prove you're worthy to be inside me."

He eagerly exchanged positions with you, whimpering like it was the best meal he's ever had.

You grip his hair tight, and you briefly think about it being painful, but he doesn't say anything to indicate it is.

All he does is sigh out, "A delicacy."

After he eagerly cleans the mess he made, you decide he's done enough to earn your warm tightness.

He whimpers as you engulf him, his fingers digging into your behind.

"Please..."

"Is Gojo Satoru begging? Who would've thought you'd something so beneath you?"

But you give him the privilege and move.

His head tosses back in a choked moan.

"You're such a pretty little human," you smile, hand cupping his face, "I might have to keep you around, you desperate little thing."

You gasp as his hips jut into you particularly rough.

"I'm the boss, here. I didn't tell you to move, yet," you lean down, teeth gently tugging at his bottom lip.

"So tight..." he shivers as you squeeze him.

"Poor little human, you can't handle it, hm?" you cooed, brushing your lips against his.

Gojo should've flipped you over and rammed into you for thinking he was weak...but he couldn't...because your warmth, your tightness, really did have him weak.

And when you let out a little whimper after it hit the right spot.

He had to bite his lip to stop himself from coming undone already.

"I-I can, don't underestimate me."

"Oh, I'm sure," you kiss his jaw, "You can move now. Impress me."

He flipped you over, he needed to get some of his pride back.

And he stared at you, your face, your heaving breasts, your belly...

"Are you going to move or what-?"

With a groan, he slid into you.

And you simply purred in delight.

His hips snapped quickly in and out of you, the moans passing his lips desperate.

It was just too cute to you.

Having an arrogant egoist reduced to a whimpering, whining mess.

"If you do well enough, I might have to date for this cock of yours. It isn't half bad," you sigh in delight, "You're doing well for a human...Oh, does that arouse you? You like being my little pleasure device?"

He twitched inside you again, you could tell he was close.

"Y-yes..." he groaned.

"I suppose I can reward you, now. Go ahead."

He sped up, on the brink until finally...

"Oh, shit...Fuck! Mmm," he groaned under his breath as his pace stuttered.

You run a hand through his hair, "Have you been sated, human?"

He took a few breaths, "Mm...But you haven't. You've never been."

"I'm quite used to that," you chuckle.

"But I want you to be," he kissed along your collarbone.

"Well, that was quick...Sure you can last for another?"

"I can go as many times as you need me to."

"Challenge accepted, human. Beware..."

#gojo saturo #gojo x you #jjk gojo #anime #smut #jjk requests #jjk smut #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu geto #anime x reader #sub gojo

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acaplaya-musings · 2 months

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Voiceplay Visuals - Time Warp

When I was considering the concept of doing a few "bonus posts" during my 12 Days Of Christmas In July miniseries, I was like "oh I am absolutely doing a post for Time Warp!" and so here we are!

Time Warp was released on the 14th of October, 2023 (last year), and is what the group has referred to as a "Biggie" video. What this means it's that it's mostly like a VoicePlay Mini, but it's longer than a minute, and uploaded as a proper video on the channel (other "Biggies" include Wellerman and Peaches). So yeah, it's not a full-length cover of Time Warp (one can only dream!), but it's still more than we would've gotten from just a standard Mini! The arrangement was a collaboration between Rob Dietz, Geoff, and Eli, and the video and creative direction were both just left to Eli. And this cover/video features the awesome Ashley Diane! Anyway, idk how long or short this post might be, but there's definitely fun things to show and talk about, so let's get into this!

Alright we're starting off the video strong, with Geoff wearing glasses and practically smouldering down the camera, SIR-!

(Seriously he already looks so lovely and handsome most of the time anyway - the fact that glasses make him look even better is frankly just unfair)

Oh and you might notice a sign in the far background (the blue-green thing) that says "Oviedo Mall". That's where VoicePlay films most of their Minis (and "Biggies"), and it's also where Pattycake Studios is located!

Sir you stop that right now! 😂😅

(Never ask me for screenshots from the Peaches video - I love it a lot but I am too damng weak to those eyes looking right at me!)

("Hey that's not a YouTube screenshot!" Nope, it's from the Patreon Early Access video. Don't @ me, it's the exact same video, but it just gives me a better/"cleaner-looking" screenshot in this case)

Alright, outfit talk time!

Geoff I suppose could low-key be dressing up as Brad Majors with the glasses? (Yes I have seen Rocky Horror Picture Show - only once a few years back, but I of course know the songs, and really know Time Warp).

Layne is definitely repping Columbia with that shiny gold jacket, and also hey it's a rare case of seeing (what I'm assuming is) his natural hairstyle! (Layne had curly hair in Jingle Bell Rock as well but I completely forgot to mention it).

Cesar is wearing a Rocky Horror Picture Show shirt, nice (I am fully unsurprised that he's a fan of it, lol), and Eli's wearing the same jacket that he did in the video for Good 4 U a couple years ago!

"It's just a jump to the left..."

Love the old-timey effect they put on the visuals for this bit, and the monocle!

(I can't do frame-by-frame scrubbing on Patreon videos, but there's a lot less User Interface stuff getting in the way when I wanna take full-length screenshots, so if the source of the images keeps changing during this post, that's why)

The main reason I wanted to do a VoicePlay Visuals post for this one: the dancing! (And I was totally dancing along with the first chorus here, couldn't help myself!)

Oh and speaking of the dancing, I gotta show my appreciation for the fact that Cesar and Ashley are doing the choreography properly (well, mostly - the "step to the right" bit should include matching hand motions!). E.g. having the right timing on "bring your knees in tight" (you don't do it immediately!)

I wanted to get a clear shot of Ashley before I gave proper appreciation for her sparkly sequined top! Very cute!

"...when a snake of a guy gave me an evil wink!"

(Both Eli and Cesar are winking!)

Zoom in on Geoff, Layne, and Eli down in the mini "cutaway box" at the bottom! First of all, Geoff has the biggest happy grin on his face and I love it, and second of all, Layne jumped into shot and almost immediately lost composure and almost cracked up laughing 😂

Layne kept going though, good for him! (And honestly leaving that part in instead of reshooting just makes it more entertaining for us imo 😁)

Cesar is iconic, that is all

I love how Layne appears to be trying The Least with the dance moves. 🤣 (Meanwhile Geoff and Eli appear to be having an absolute blast!)

Not gonna bother trying to get a decent screenshot of the "pelvic thrusts" bit, but it's still very amusing. Layne again going for Bare Minimum, Geoff is trying but his expression indicates he's close to pulling something or throwing his back out (rip), while Eli is absolutely going for it, and even does a little spin! 😁

Just Random Chaos Time. VoicePlay Brand Of Dumb! 😂😂

And of course there is only one proper way to end a performance of Time Warp, and this is basically how you do it!

Say VoicePlay, any of you know how to Madison? 🤔😜🤣

So that's Time Warp! I don't watch this one a great deal, so it was fun to have a reason to revisit it. This was an additional little "Halloween season upload" from VoicePlay last year, and I am so hyped for whatever they might come up with this year, but for now, I've got one more bonus post coming your way, and then we'll finish off with more Christmas stuff! See you soon!

#voiceplay #voiceplay time warp #voiceplay visuals #geoff castellucci #eli jacobson #layne stein #cesar de la rosa #ashley diane #acaplaya analysis

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theinsanecrayonbox · 4 months

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Sabretooth War part 10

alrighty kids, we are FINALLY at the end of this mess. we all agree it won't be satisfactory, but let's see just how much of a let down it really is

It was 28* pages. the whole book was 55 pages. an average issue is 22 pages. i get it, it's the 50th milestone, and we're also doing the Wolverine anniversary, but sill... (*there are several splash pages/2-page spreads so my reader read those as singular pages, so it might more more??)

also, this is kinda one of the most lack luster out of the covers for this saga. it's not that engaging, it's kinda stock posed (especially for them) and it's just...not cool? we're at issue #50, we're doing anniversary stuff, this should be more appealing

we pick up where we left off; Logan vs Graydon on the beach while the Pit Gang and X-Force have ringside seats. Graydon saying his only goal in life is to be a wiener; yes, that's fine. Logan admitting he's a terrible parent after it's pointed out; that is good. Logan trying to talk Graydon into being a good guy; no. when Logan has done nothing but tear down Victor into being something pure evil that has no chance of redemption, as an immutable taint on existence itself, why would he assume anything connected to him could be anything good? do i think that; pft no, but i think Graydon's a wiener. but we're not talking about my perception, we're talking about Logan's and everyone in-universe. they all believe that the Creeds are vile and should be erased, that every bad action they have ever committed, no matter the reasoning behind it, is punishable. Graydon should NOT be exempt from that idea (not to mention he IS that terrible, deserves that treatment, and has NEVER tried to be anything other than that)

oh shutup, it would indeed

oh...never mind, the wiener boy is taken out IMMEDIATELY WITH NO FANFARE OR ANYTHING. WHY DID WE DEVOTE PLOT TO HIM IF HE'S USELESS AND WORTHLESS??? you built him up to be a big bad, but nope, he died like a wiener like he always does. i'd be less mad about this if we hadn't devoted such a big deal to his return and betrayal and yaddayadda. because you know what; those pages could've been used to develop the SabreSquad, or to delve into Vic's psyche better, or heck even give the Pit Gang or X-Force more to do (yes i'd've been hap[pier to have given more time to make the OTHER superfluous parts more important). but no, we have Victor's biggest regret in life show up to highlight his own shortfalls and vulnerabilities...to just get unceremoniously stabbed and dead yet again. he made no impact on anything, aside from a board wipe that could've been completed with those idiotic Stark Sentinels.

there is indeed no justice in this world

Logan's line could be impactful of we'd ACTUALLY took the time to point out the times he HAD CARED about people, and contrasted that against how his acre for them were their ultimate doom. we BRIEFLY touched that with Birdy, Holo, Bonnie, and heck even Graydon; he cared for each of them, and as a result they each died...and in the case of Graydon he sacrificed his own humanity to save him from hell only to see wiener boy not make something better of himself; with that second chance but just perpetuate the Creed curse of self hate taken out on the world enmass. seeing THAT should've been heart breaking. instead we get a dick measuring contest

but see that's the thing, this isn't about Victor's tortured psyche and his fall from grace, this is about "those with the powers make the rules" and "might makes right" and "unhinged animal vs the calm of man" or something, because of those lines up there, "You got no powers little man" "I don't need powers to put you down"

their powers are being animals; Victor has always embraced and not denied his nature, while Logan has always had to "fight the animalistic urges" and thus has made himself the pariah that all love. now he doesn't have that crutch; he has no powers, he is just man, while Victor has looked inward and rejected his own humanity to embrace nothing but the animalistic rage and power that brings. it is savagery vs civilized. but it's not done well, not at all...

good ra that was all before the opening text crawl X.x

last cast lineup, and Arkady is still absent despite being on screen, while Aurora and Northstar are still present despite not being in the book since part 2 or 3

no, nothing on the island works, where have you been

who are you to talk Mr OC, we still don't know you, none of us know you and none of you actually know Victor

i can't...i can't keep commentating on every little thing...

oh that's nice, a panel of Laura and Arkady fighting together to distract and calm me down (does he not have a ponytail?? is that one of my hair styles???)

we leave the B Teams to deal with the remainder of the Sentinels, so Victor and lure Logan away from them to go fight alone in the jungle. ok, fine, movement, logical progression for the stupid in progress. ok. we're in the Blob's tiki bar i think? fight scene, mysterious tunnel, mk......to the Council of Dumb's chambers. wtf. actually you know what, no, idc; the island is fallen into ruins, screw logical architecture. fine, Council chamber

he's mind melded with the Pit. i...fine. makes enough sense, eat Logan now please

he's not gonna stay down there though is he?

oh look another panel composed to distract and calm me down strategically placed (who's watching me????)

so yeah, Logan's gets eaten by the Pit and internal monologs about how Vic isn't playing fair by doing this now (baby >< )

the skewed panel borders are a very nice subtle unnerving detail; kuddos layout team

that aside, interesting that that's Zora/Silver Fox II

i am actually into this sequence...to bad it's cut far too short

i'll assume it's because of Tom they got pulled out, but where'd Laura's backup mask come from?

oh no it was the Cuckoo. that's dumb. you're dumb

X-Force all gangs up on Victor while eth Pit Gang sits back and smirks, and Cuckoo is going all holier and mightier than thou until Logan says "leave him to me"...

oh and he has his powers back because the Forge Armor had a Deus ex Machina in it to fix him. so once again, another highly built up plot point of super duper importance is just swept away pointlessly

splash page of pointlessness!

and another

sadly that's how the writers think about YOU Victor

so Logan cuts off Vic's hands, then move sin for the killing blow with the internal monolog being all "this is for my friends and family and all the people you ever hurt blahblahblah"

why is Graydon on the symbolic revenge reflection? he was a BAD GUY WHO WANTED TO MURDER YOU. i just...i can't, this is dumb

and he's dismembered. i'm not going to show that because i have used far too many images already and it's not even that intriguing. Logan is standing over a dismembered pile of Victor with a satisfied smirk while the B Teams stand behind him also smirking, and there's an angelic triumphant glow as if this is all super good and was super hard. all hail our infallible savior Wolverine >>

epilogue time; Cuckoo and sitting on a cliff with Quinthead (don't worry he gets better), the Pit Gang fly off into the sunset (don't worry Pya comes back), Logan stares into said sunset internal monologuing about how Krakoa was the best ever and he's learned to love again or something (i can't be bothered to care at this point) before looking to X-Force and taking up leadership of them for the umpteenth time.

SO as a FINALE to this whole 10 part saga...it's about on par with the rest. overly graphic for the sake of unpleasantness, and sacrificing actual character depth to make Logan look like the best eva and Vic is the ultimate evil that needs to be put down foreva and eva. as a Finale to the Lavalle trilogy...it's terrible. it was completely mishandled, so many threads started and left loosely hanging. what little character depth it had was probably from Lavalle, but he should've touched it more. this was a story that we've done before; we didn't tread on any new ground. the biggest new thing was the over the top gratuitous gore fest and that is not appealing. being unpleasant for the sake of being unpleasant is not appealing.

and honestly, i'm sticking to my conspiracy theory that Arkady was supposed to not appear in this at all. the panels in this issue were less drawn in afterwards to me, BUT his contributions were very nil and his inclusion did not add anything.

uhg i have half this issue left for just bonus Logan celebration stuff...do i care enough to do it? ok, sure, summaries though

Mutants on the edge of town: well it looks 97ish. some soda shop jerk kid has a Sentinel in hid barn...i find it very sus that doesn't know/recognize it as a Sentinel, but whatever. Logan and Jubes check it out and it wakes up so fight. interesting that it could detect heterochromia and defines THAT as a mutation worth capturing, thought it went after X-genes. but it blows up, the end. it's a fine enough bonus story i guess.

Endless: ah Percy, still at it with the overlt dramatic internal monolpg that sounds super deep and important but is just not. however i give you, he's Logan your life is one giant circle because we must repeat reapeat repeat.

oh...ok i know i said no pics for these, but this...this i liek and approve. you actually acknowledge that Arkady has become a good boy and that Beast is terrible. i...ok i give you a point for this sequence, thank you.

other than that, it's kind of an even more abridged Life of, but also the goodbye letter i guess since this is Percy's last run with Logan (except it's not)

then there's his actual good bye letter. and then solicits for other wolverine to read until the new titles launches in Sept with some previews that look very similar to Origin...repeatrepeatrepeat

so once again, the easiest summery: Victor is dead-dead yet again (he was decapitated, so there's a chance it'll stick (but Savage wasn't decapitated...) ), Arkady isn't dead and still with X-Force, Daken is dead-dead, Laura 2 is not dead, Graydon is dead yet again, and Logan sucks. the end

now to wait for August with the anniversary special *dead*

#kp reads comics #kp rants about comics #sabretooth war #sabretooth #victor creed #arkady rossovich

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sivellevossen · 1 year

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Just An Act

~part two~

Prompt: You and Sebastian broke up following the events of 5th year. Now it is 7th year, you and Ominis are together and all seems well… until you and Sebastian are casted as lovers in a play.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10 *completed*

*7th year*

It was the the beginning of your 7th year, the halls buzzing with excitement from all students. You and Ominis had been dating since the middle of your 6th year. Since the Sebastian incident in the Undercroft, Ominis did everything he could to keep you away from him, even going about threatening the poor kid behind your back. You had no idea of the events happening behind the scenes, so you opted to just believe your drift from Sebastian had been merely coincidental and natural. Although it was odd that you literally never saw him..

As you walked hand in hand with Ominis, you scanned the halls of both new and familiar faces catching up and settling in. Poppy and Natty sat at one of the benches, waving you two over. You tugged on Ominis’s hand, leading him to your two best friends.

“Hello my favorite couple in all of Hogwarts!” Poppy beamed. If Ominis had any doubt of who you were headed to, it instantly vanished. His lips crept into a small smile, a pink blush forming.

“Good afternoon Poppy, I hope your summer was well” He greeted. You and Ominis had been inseparable since the incident, instantly melting into one another. Ominis was the reason you had Poppy and Natty now. His influence on you made a huge difference in your social life. He made sure to walk you to class, turned studying into dates, and it had an overall positive effect on how you treated others. When you were with Sebastian, it was you two against the world and although you loved it at the time, it truly did bring you down..

“Did you see the posting? Hogwarts is hosting a play to welcome back students and promote unity between the houses” Natty smiled, gesturing over to the poster next to the library. You chucked at the mention of unity, remembering the days where Sebastian convinced you Gryffindors were “practically born evil” as he would put it.. however under further review, he may have been biased against a certain ginger boy.

Sebastian.. your thoughts occasionally wandered to him. You couldn’t help but question what could’ve been if you two hadn’t begun succumbing to the dark arts. You often wondered if he had stopped after that day as you (mostly) did. You had just learned how to properly utilize them in dire situations in battles outside of the castle. Ominis couldn’t completely get rid of your spark after all..

You peered at the posting, students swarming that spot, signing up for auditions and volunteering helping hands.

“Oh! That sounds like fun! It wouldn’t hurt to try right? I mean it is our last year, we should all sign up!” Poppy chimed. You looked over at your boyfriend, his smile never fading. He was so happy for you, having these friends and being able to call you his girlfriend. He was so proud.

“You know Poppy, that could be fun, Ominis and I taking the stage..what do you think Ominis?” You asked, squeezing his hand.

“I’m not sure they’d fancy the blind guy acting in front of a crowd…perhaps something offscreen.. regardless of my role you have the promise of flowers.” He smiled. To be honest, Ominis knew there was no way a blind guy was getting a lead role in the play. However, he didn’t want his absence to influence your decision, so he opted with something behind the scenes

You laughed, Ominis was truly the most supportive and best lover you had ever had. It was like he was taken out of a novel and placed into your hands. His efforts to make you happy had no limits.

You placed a light kiss on his cheek, happy with his agreement, “Yes! Come on guys lets sign up”. Your group headed over to the poster as the crowd dissipated. In bold letters it stated that all 7th years received priority due to the limited time they had left in the castle. Perfect!

Poppy signed up for just about every role: understudy, sound tech, prop decorator etc.. she just wanted to be as involved as possible.

Natty opted for assistant director

Ominis signed up for main director, him and Natty would work great together if it worked out that way

And you had the confidence to take the female lead, you knew you wanted it. And Ominis nurtured your confidence over the past year. Hell, if things hadn’t changed since 5th year, you probably wouldn’t have even considered the possibility of performing.

“Mmm..” you heard Poppy mumble as she looked at the sign up sheet concerned. You raised an eyebrow. She turned to whisper something in Ominis’s ear that you couldn’t quite make out. Ominis’s face twisted for just a second, taking the pen from you and writing his name next to the male lead role.

“Ominis?” You questioned, utterly confused because he had just told you he didn’t have much of an interest.

“It could be fun.” He stated bluntly, putting his arm around your shoulder and holding you close. You noticed his sudden change in demeanor, but decided against questioning him in front of your friends.

“This is so exciting!” Poppy exclaimed. The four of you headed to the library, discussing the possibilities of what 7th year could bring to everyone.

You were so busy signing up for the play with your friends that you didn’t pay any attention to who else was on that list…

FEMALE LEAD: Octavia <3

MALE LEAD: Sebastian <3

A/N Thank you for the attention Part 1 got! This is mostly a filler but I promiseee it’ll get angsty and juicy! It’s been so long since I dabbled in writing rather than reading :)

#hogwarts legacy #hogwarts fanfiction #hogwarts oc #fanfic #sebastian sallow x you #sebastian sallow x slytherin!reader #sebastian sallow x mc #sebastian sallow #ominis x mc #ominis x you #ominis x reader #ominis gaunt #video games

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princesable · 1 year

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hi this is "That Thing". he probably has a name but everyone just refers to him with various vague and slightly rude terms. he thinks this is funny so he doesn't correct them. if youve ever seen me make a post/tag a post vaguely mentioning someone and its "Formatted Like This" its most likely about him. the average charlie princesable follower doesnt know about this guy which is funny because if youre in a server with me you are Painfully Aware He Exists because i love making people look at him.

his entire bit is that i thought it would be really funny if there was a guy who had no positive traits. no redeeming qualities. what if there was a guy who was so sucks and he made it literally everyone around hims problem. you'd get this guy. he's supposed to be extremely one note and lack basically any character depth because it's really funny to me to have a cast of characters i have put so much thought and effort into to make sure act like Actual People and then just dump in this dude who kills people for fun and thats it thats his entire character.

as previously stated yeah he just kills people. thats his gimmick. he shows up and kills people crazy style. no one takes him seriously because he's like. Cartoonishly Evil. so theyre all like. oh this guy cant be serious. there is no way a real human person would act like this. unfortunately there is. he sucks so bad and unfortunately he is having a great time being here.

everyone also hates him because hes an asshole and well he loves this. he loves that everyone hates him. he thinks its hilarious. any attention is positive attention or whatever.

he shows up during chapter 2/part 2/watever the fuck because twitch (pretend you know who that is) is like hm. you know its been weirdly difficult trying to kill sherwin. because that is the plot of charlie game. i wonder if that guy down the street still kills people. and theyre like hey do you still kill people? can you help me a kill a guy. and hes like. yeah thats what i do. extremely riveting i know.

he had a completely normal childhood he literally just did a complete 180 over the course of a single night and only one person is actually concerned about this.

^ yeah what this guy said. ignore how he's my discord icon. thats not an exaggeration btw it was literally A Single Night.

other fun facts i want to mention that dont need their own paragraph: his hair is naturally black but he dyes it orange exclusively to piss his younger sister off because she has orange hair. he has two swords because thats the most extra shit i could think of. he genuinely never stops smiling it’s infuriating. his associated animal is a rabbit. all of my friends hate him. i hate him. he's existed for 2 years and has unfortunately had a massive impact on the plot. he's the only charlie game character with a fancam. i like to think his the culmination of me growing up watching 2010s animation memes. i would say we should kill him with hammers but unfortunately that is exactly what he wants.

tldr: everyone thinks sherwin is the worst person alive and its just because i never talk about This Guy. i am accepting questions and concerns at anytime.

i am concerned.

#charlie moment #charlie game #80% chance this post will self destruct in a couple days because im weird in the head #“give me 10-30 minutes” um. ignore that. i forgot how much i enjoy talking about this guy.#i think this is. the longest post ever made about charlie game? which is extremely unfortunate.

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tobiasdrake · 10 months

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Time to meet my character. And also the other one, I guess.

My colors are cooler than his. Nyeh!

In seriousness, Valere and Zale both have killer portraits. Though the jagged upper edge of Zale's scarf makes it look like it's preparing to eat him.

That's a terrible idea, Zale. You want us to explore an unknown wilderness in separate directions and then when we find something... what? Yell really loud and hope the other one's aimless nature meandering hasn't taken them out of earshot?

I don't know, maybe we have mystical methods of communication but then we'll still be left trying to offer navigational advice like "I think I took a left at a rock?"

Sometimes games let you pick a character to play and then quickly sideline the other for the duration of the plot. Resident Evil comes immediately to mind. I'm sure Sea of Stars has no intention of doing that but it would kill me if the non-selected character just ended up lost in the wilderness for the duration of the game. XD

OH SURE, you take the easy flatland and leave me with the path that requires climbing up a ledge.

Well. Whatever else he may be, we know that a gentleman, Zale is not.

WHOA put the staff down, Valere. Look at his backpack. He might just be a traveling merch--

There are skulls decorating the backpack.

You know what, never mind. You're right. I'm wrong. Activate self-defense stick and wait to see if he makes the first move.

Not even "Goblin" or "Orc" or anything. Just. Wanderer. I'm having second thoughts about beating the shit out of this guy again.

I mean, I'll do it. I just don't feel good about it. I'm going to just focus on the skulls and try to assume we were being accosted by a bandit, and not a traveling vagrant who decorates his gear to try and ward off would-be assailants because life's tough when you're on the streets.

Have to climb a ledge and cross a rickety bridge. I hope Zale enjoys his pleasant stroll in the woods that seemed to be off in that direction.

Yes, I am petty.

On the plus side, that's definitely a previously-used campsite up there on that ledge. So we should be able to cross the bridge and then take a nice, relaxing walk up the hill to that bridge up there, which may connect us to--

I'm gonna put a thumbtack in his sleeping bag.

I got attacked by a rock bull, thank you for asking. It's like a regular bull. But made of rocks.

Oh, but the pleasant jaunt through the woods takes you to the well-used campsite. Great. I got mauled by a rock bull for nothing.

We weren't looking for the way to the top. We were looking for that campsite next to you. But sure, Zale's easy route not only takes him to the campsite I was trying to get to, but also to those delicious looking berries over there and also the way to our ultimate destination for good measure! Because life isn't fucking fair..

.... *deep breath* You're too nice to be mad at.

You know what, I take it back. This route isn't nearly as easy as it looked from a distance. Alright, Zale, I won't put a thumbtack in your sleeping bag.

The moral of the story is that assumptions make an ass out of u and mptions.

But I had to climb both sets of rocks so you're cooking tonight.

Credit where it's due, the writing for these two characters is strong. I don't know if they're supposed to be siblings or lovers or platonic besties or what. What I do know is, you can feel the history in their relationship. These two characters have been supporting each other with love and friendship for a long time.

The dialogue in Sea of Stars is already doing a great job of sounding organic. Valere and Zale don't stop to explain things because. Like. Why would they? They both already know what they're talking about. Instead, they convey hints of information through casual chatter and trust the audience to be smart enough to understand what they mean.

And painting in intrigue. Valere has regrets about a third person who should be here and isn't. Oooo, mysterious. I wonder what happened to--

Oh, I guess we're going to find out right now. Kinda thought they'd drag that out longer.

#sea of stars #drake plays sea of stars

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alanshee-keeper-of-realms · 10 months

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Drabbles of how I would handle Evil Mickey in a universe like the Chip and Dale Universe

Authors Notes: Cameos of OC kiddos are also here, but they add a bit of a kick needed to spice things up, Goofy may be OOC due to how he's treating Max. But I figure if he can be the nice guy, he'd also be the ass kisser who does everything Mickey says, even when it comes to his own kid,

Again these are drabbles of me messing around with the idea,

He eyed Donald, taking a drag of his cigarette, this was a challenge, fine if the duck wanted to play he'd do the same,

“I mean, I was the one to first show you love.” He said slowly, the duck looking down, bingo the achilles heel”You're just not my type. That's the unfortunate nature of Love, besides you have Jose and Panchito now, and I have Minerva. So we both don't want this to end up....messy. Behave or else I will make this very messy,

Donald nodded straightening, as Mickey sighed taking another drag before letting smoke roll out as he questioned,

“You said you had something important to tell me?”

“ Goofy's son-”

An eyebrow raised as the toon tapped the cigarette on the ashtray,

"Oh that one? The one that has been snooping around Yakko Warner, getting cozy with him and his siblings,” he tossed down a folder full of photographs and notes,”They aren't subtle, my private mice investigators sniffed them out almost immediately... you know how we feel about crossing”

The duck toon swallowed, as the mouse shrugged,

“He can keep his little tryst if he wants, but he is no longer a Disney if he wants anything further if he wants to be a Warner he'll be a Warner. Isn't that right Goofy?”

The mouse looked over his shoulder to the said Dog toon who was working the accounting books. He nodded, averting his eyes as he answered,

“I only apologize that I did not teach him better. You know I've taught him that Crossing is forbidden,”

Donald rolled his eyes muttering,

"But you may want to hurry. He's already crossed a line that you would infuriate you.”

The mouse's eyes gleamed, a simmering malice hidden behind a false smile, Goofy also rumbled out in a dangerously low voice,

“What did he do?”

The duck produced a sheet of paper, setting it down and sliding it over,

“I snagged this off of his phone sir,”

The mouse scooped it up, reading the messenges,his hand slowly fisting crumpling the paper before he shoved it at Goofy,

“Get Iger now. Max is no longer welcome at our company. Stupid brat," he side eyed the dog toon," I told you and Marcy that you should have kept trying. There's always been something wrong about that boy, unfortunately,”

Goof looked disappointed at the paper, as Donald left the room to grab the human CEO, as Mickey growled,

“Disney must stay pure, Disney Toons with Disney toons. I don't care if your LGBTQ or not, it must be Disney though. I am happy for Donald and his family. He may have not chose Daisy but at least he chose Panchito and Jose who are Disney's, Max has stepped out of line.”

Goofy again nodded as Bob and Donald walked in,

“Donald says we have a Mainstay out of line?”

The father handed the human the paper as Mickey slid the photos across his desk, Iger sighing as he looked through it in annoyance, saying

“I'll get a hold of the Warner CEOs,”

Mickey only eyed him as the human left his office,

“I do believe, though, your son has a question for me, however. Maybe he will have good news,” he pressed a button as he lit another cigarette, putting it in his mouth as he pulled the folder towards himself. He stood up, going to a filing cabinet tucking it away. As Camilo walked in, he smiled,

“Ah Camilo my boy, please do tell me you bring this Mouse good news,”

The rooster hybrid bowed his head as the Mouse walked to his desk and sat down,

“Depending on how you react to my question. I knew I must ask your permission Tio Mickey,” he pulled out a box it was a beautiful blue velvet, Mickey eyed it”I would love to ask your Daughter for her hand sir,”

Donald swallowed, but a bright smile crossed the mouses face

“Of course I give my blessing Camilo! You are the jewel of my Princesses eye, thank you Donald for raising him properly. May I see the ring?”

Camilo nodded returning the smile and opened it,

“Only the best for Marian, a Fire Opal from a Mexican Mine surrounded by 2 5 carat blue diamonds,”

Mickey eyed it with a smile, oh it would do very nicely for his princess,

“Stunning, it must have cost you.”

“Money's nothing when it comes to your baby girl,”

Mickey grinned, tossing him a cigar,

“And that's why I welcome you to our Family, those were imported from Cuba.”

Donald's eyes reflected relief, that was practically a your my son now from the mouse, Camilo smoothly caught the cigar and tucked it into his coat pocket,

“May I request sir, I need the assistance of the Parks for the idea of the proposal.”

“Tell me son, what is your plan.”

Marian grinned as she waved to her adoring crowd as she slipped between them heading for the backstage area where Camilo met her, they shared a kiss joining hands as they headed for the break room,

“ are you doing okay sweetheart, is your leg bothering you?” He questioned seeing her limp a bit as they walked,

“Yeah, it's bugging me. But I'm not the only one that deals with it,” She answered as they entered she chose a seat against the back wall” especially our wonderful cast members,”They all gave her smiles which she returned,

The mouse reached down and popped off her leg carefully rolling off the liner and rubbing the stump, Camilo handing her a towel, reaching into her bag grabbing a salve she used and then the powder,

“So you ready for the kick off of the Holidays tonight?”

Marian had a smile and nodded,

“Absolutely! Are my coworkers also excited?”

They cheered. Some had smiles she knew were forced, but she really didn't care. They signed up for this job, and they could deal with it, she thought as she powdered her leg and put the liner on

“Let me my princess” Camilo purred as he guided the prosthetic back on and into place,

“Thank you my dear Prince,” She smiled as he stood up and stole a kiss from her,

“Of course, now back to your adoring crowd.”

Walter Mouse leaned over the control console,

“2,4,2” he said"Lights!”

The stage illuminated as his Dad walked on with Minnie beside with Marian and Eleanor following,

“ Donald and Daisy is go,”

The duo followed putting on smiles as they stood behind the Family

“Goofy,”

Then the dog toon appeared also with a bright smile as they did the choreography, his Parents meeting at the front Minnie holding up mistletoe and they shared a kiss to the cheers of the family's especially as his Dad played it up putting on a surprised expression. Now, for Marian and Camilo, as the two skipped up, he spun her before he got on one knee, producing the box

The cheering escalated, as she turned and gasped hands flying to her mouth,

Mike and Cameras , Marian, Camilo

He called, the speakers picking up,

“Our Princess of Wonder Marian Mouse, will you do me the honor of being my fairytale, will you marry me?”

“Yes! Of course my Prince!” She cried out for everyone to hear,

The cheers were outlandish as he stood up and slid the ring onto her finger and they shared a kiss, Mickey could be spotted wrapping an arm around Donald, the pair held up their intertwined hands

Camera on hand then on them,

He watched the team do so before Marian and Camilo stepped back, Mickey stepped forwards

Camera on Boss, track track Mike now

“What a wonderful year at our parks! And now my baby girl is getting married, I've already seen Camilo as my son but now it's official he will be my Son in Law and I look forward to seeing the beautiful life they build!” He crowed

-------------------------------------

A little Yax for those fans

Max froze as he felt arms grip him and he was practically drug to Mickey's office and tossed in,

“Maximilian,” the low voice greeted him,

“Oh joy, I was wondering how long it'd take your rats to find out,” he rumbled, dusting himself off glaring at his father in the corner. His father met the look in equal

“How dare you Maximilian” he finally snarled dangerously ”Crossbreeding with a Warner? Have I not taught you the Rules?”

Mickey merely held up a hand, instantly Goofy tucked himself back into his work,

“Sometimes kids disobey, but you know the consequences.” He pressed a button,”Bring them in,”

Max turned, he hoped Yakko understood if he disappeared it wasn't him. He prayed to Tex that he wouldn't meet the same fate as his mother by the Dip, but as 2 Human CEOs stepped in he realized as they said,

“ You say you have a Toon for sale.”

And saw the mouse motion towards him, sweetly saying,

“This one has started a family with one of yours a Yakko Warner, he said he'd prefer being a Warner then a Disney,”

What they were here for as the pair circled him, like vultures. Max side eyed them, as the more slender of the 2 purred

“Son of one of the Disney Mainstay, oh yes we will take this opportunity. We can throw you to your partner and his siblings, maybe you can help keep them under control.” before giving a feral grin that made Maxes fur bristle,

Goofy stood up, meeting his child's eyes,

“If I may speak sir” Mickey motioned that he could, as the other spoke clearly,

“You understand that he can't go under the Goof name, that's a trademark. You can keep Max but Goof that can no longer be your last name,”

He carefully stepped forwards with paperwork stamped with Denied over it, Maxes last name crossed out the humans shrugged,

“That's perfectly understandable, we will just have it be Warner. So he can blend in better,” They looked him up and down,”He better expect a redesign as well,”

“Oh he knows” Mickey said with that sickly smile as Goofy stood by his side,”Now if that's all,”

The pair nodded taking the offered packet and handing it to a guard who tucked it in a briefcase,

“Pleasure doing business,”

“And Max” Goofy tossed a key at him,”This is to the storage place, you know the one. Your stuffs there,”

He scoffed,

“The only good thing you've ever done. I will never be ashamed of loving who I do,” he flipped them off before walking out the humans scrambling to follow him,

As they got out of the building into the car parked out front one of the humans sighed and removed a mask revealing they weren't, the toon shook her hair carefully removing the eyes, blinking as she put the glasses back on,

“My name is Nora Rita, I work with Warner as the CEO of Animation, forgive us for that show,” She held a hand out stunning Max who looked around as the car drove off, ”No tricks, this is what we have to do when extracting Toons out of the Mouses Burrow,”

He finally accepted the handshake, as she looked to the other supposed human, a puff of smoke and the toon rabbit put his glasses on,

“I'm Rodney and yes I'm the Nesquik rabbit but I work for Warner on behalf of Bugs, my best friend. I work under Nora as Co-Ceo of Warner Animation. Bugs called me as soon as they contacted Nora,”

Maxes eyes widened, this was fully thought out and planned,

“As toons we can't show ourselves around him. We know he has power over us, we aren't stupid we know he keeps a barrel hidden,”

Max shrugged,

“But money talks, I honestly thought I was a goner like my mother,”

They looked sympathetic,

“Everyone knows that story. Nobody buys that it was an accident, but now you've completed her mission….you escaped,” Nora murmured as they pulled up to a familiar house,

Bugs and Daffy stood on the porch as Max and them stepped out, Yakko instantly running out of the house, checking him over with concern, he instantly responded

“I'm alright Yakko, I'm okay,”

“Thank Tex for that,” Yakko embraced him, Max bringing his arms around to hold him

“Let's go inside,” Bugs said smiling “Heya Rodney thanks for makin sure the kid was safe,”

Rodney side hugged him as they walked in

“Of course my brother! It's what us Warners do,”

Warner, that's what Max realized he was known as now as he sat in front of his new bosses now in the living room as Yakko cringed onto him, as he explained the inside secrets of Disney,

“He's a master Manipulator with a penchant for emotional abuse, he will never be caught doing anything illegal. And if he does” he tossed his old dismantled phone onto the table,”He's good at hiding the paw prints,”

Daffy whistled, as Bugs blanched

“Well kid we don't run things like that over here. Any reason you're going by Warner and not Goof?”

“They won't allow it”Nora sighed

Max pulled out the packet, stamped with denied on the front

“Crossing the tracks is the biggest no over there, so they even took the Goof last name in kicking me out,”

The duo stared,

“They found out about Yakko and thus here I am,"

#mickey mouse #minnie mouse #disney next gen #donald duck #goofy goof #chip n dale #chip and dale movie #drabbles #yax #yakko warner #bugs bunny #daffy duck #looney tunes #the animaniacs

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oveliagirlhaditright · 1 year

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Here be Monsters - A Bangel and Buffy & Faith and Angel & Faith Fanfic

Summary: When Faith tells Buffy she's been assaulted by a supernatural being--someone that Faith at first believes is an Incubus--and Giles then sends Buffy and Angel on a quest to destroy the Rugarus in town, it puts them on the path of a mystery that no one could have expected. Slight mystery. Canon compliant. Post-Helpless. Bangel. Buffy and Faith. Angel and Faith. Slight Fuffy.

For @bisexualblckcanary

Here be Monsters

Angel’s PoV

Angel didn't know what he was doing helping the Scoobies carve stakes, exactly. He wasn't a people person: that was a fact. And ever since he had lost his soul and terrorized the Scooby Gang, he knew they hated him: something he couldn't blame them for that at all. He hated himself.

So why hadn't he made one of his usual quick exits, like always, when he found that Buffy wasn't in the library yet, to save everyone the awkwardness here?

"…and anyway, I'm really starting to wonder if maybe we should start looking into buying stakes on Ebay, so we don't have to do this," Willow was rambling, in trying to fill the otherwise strange silence, Angel thought. Bless her. "Surely it would be more cost effective, like if we need to make stakes and research at the same time or something. But hey: this is just a crazy idea this wacky girl has had. Don't listen to m-"

"I think it's a good idea," Angel cut off her self-loathing thoughts, though he may have partially been lying here. He wasn't entirely sure he felt this way. Though maybe Willow had a point. And Lord knew the sweet girl could use some confidence. "I mean, you can find about anything on the Internet these days… or so I've heard. And if anyone thinks it's weird you guys are buying a lot of stakes, they'll probably just think you're vampire movie fanatics."

Angel threw the last bit in, figuring that Harris would be longing to say something about the FBI--or someone--thinking their actions were strange (as if they'd ever even look into them. Actually, they'd surely think the Watcher's Council, who Giles would get to flip the bill for this if they did do it, were gardeners), so he'd thrown that in there before Xander could say anything. He didn’t want to give the boy any more reason to speak, after all.

"Thanks, Angel!" Willow beamed.

"No, problem," Angel allowed, giving her a small smile.

"Yeah," Xander moaned, sarcasm clearly in every inch of his words. "Thanks, angel eyes." Well, it seemed Xander had talked, and—as always—was annoyed with him. Oh, well. It couldn't have been helped, Angel supposed. The boy just loved to run his mouth, didn’t he?

Out of the corner of his eye, Angel saw that Giles was also irritated, maybe in thinking that Angel would warm Willow up to him again, only to turn evil again and then try to murder her once more.

Resisting the urge to sigh—since his soul wasn't going anywhere any time soon, if he could help it—Angel reminded himself that these reactions were only natural.

It was just when he was thinking of leaving after all, when his pile of fifteen stakes were complete, that Buffy arrived on the scene.

And just like that, Angel had to remind himself he was a fool to doubt that his soul might not be going anywhere: Buffy was far too tempting: she wore a sparkly, yellow tank top, black dance pants, and orange flip-flops.

And while lately Buffy seemed to be wearing her hair up all the time—almost to contrast with Faith, who always seemed to have her locks loose—at the moment she seemed to have found a compromise: at the top of her head she had part of her tresses in a bun, while the rest of it hung down in curls.

As always, she was Angel’s stolen sun. And also, temptation incarnate. As she walked over to him, Angel spied chandelier earrings in his girl's ears that were somewhere between her shirt and shoe color. Tangerine?

"Angel," Buffy whispered breathlessly the moment she saw him.

And he, keeping up their game, smirked at her and said, "Buffy."

Giles cleared his throat then, tearing the former lovers apart from each other—to Angel's relief and chagrin—and Buffy seemed to remember where she was and what she was doing, as she jumped atop their favored library table and began working on a stake herself. "Sorry I'm late for patrol, guys. There was this whole thing with Faith. Would you believe that there was actually a guy she didn't want to sleep with, but somehow, he still manipulated her in to doing so? Anyway, she thought he was an Incubus, so I was being Research Girl for her. But an Incubus hasn’t shown up in Sunnydale in more than a thousand years, so… Now Faith is even more upset. I tried to convince her to come patrol with us tonight, that we'd be there for her, but she said no…"

A pen could have dropped in that moment and everyone would have heard it. That whole thing was rough. At lest the way that Buffy had described it, It didn't exactly sound like rape to Angel—and if it was, he would find down this man who had done this to the second Slayer and kill him. He and the demon, of course, were tempted to do so, anyway—but who could say for sure? And Angel winced, knowing that Liam and Angelus had used similar tactics with girls in the past, and he once again despised himself.

He also knew that part of the reason Faith wasn't here was because of him… the new Slayer had lost some of her trust in Buffy when she'd learned his girlfriend had lied to protect him, or so Buffy had told him.

"That's- that's horrible. Poor Faith!" Willow exclaimed. "Is there anything we can do?" And even though Angel knew that Willow had her problems with Faith, he knew that right now she would give the girl the shirt off her back to make her feel better if she could.

"You know how Faith is with emotions, Will. I imagine anything we say might make it worse. But if I think of anything, I'll let you know. Thanks.

"But right now, I definitely want to kill something. Giles, please give me something to kill!"

"I second that," Xander said, with a certain fury on his face, looking as though he were mere seconds away from punching the table or all the stakes they'd just worked on.

"Oh, umm, yes," Giles said, fixing his glasses—though Angel also noted the concern (as well as calculating) look in the Watcher's eyes. "Buffy, how do you feel about fighting Rugurus?"

"As long as I can hit them, I'm there."

And as the answer to that seemed to be a resounding “yes” for the most part, it looked like they had their itinerary for the night.

…

"Do you have any ideas on how I can help Faith, Angel?" his Slayer asked him, as the two of them went out patrolling looking for said Rugurus.

In the end, not everyone had ended up going with the duo, since there was a chance Rugurus might not be a group that Buffy "could kill" as much as she might have liked—for the most part, one turned into a Ruguru when they were bitten by one, similar to how a vampire or werewolf were created. But where they differed, was while the bite would give the newly bitten an unbelievable craving for raw meat—to tempt them to sink their teeth into human flesh: their real desire—if they could resist that urge, they wouldn't fully turn. So there was a chance that some (or all) they would meet tonight could might only be in the process of transformation, and could return to normal if they refrained from their craving.

A.K.A. some they faced tonight might be innocent... And with tempers flaring after what they'd learned about Faith, Giles had decided not to send everyone on the warpath, just his Slayer and reluctantly Angel, since theoretically he should be able to sniff out a Ruguru and a half-turned.

"I wish I could give you better advice than giving her presents to distract her right now," Angel said, wincing, thinking of how often since he'd regained the soul, he'd sometimes used distraction as his own means of coping. Often with alcohol. "But… Oz had band practice tonight, right? And Faith likes music. What are the chances that Oz would be kind enough to write Faith her own song now?"

"I think that that's mainly a romantic thing he does for Willow—when he's not just trying to come up with songs for the band to hopefully make moola with someday--but I don't know, Angel, maybe," Buffy replied hopefully.

Really, Angel had known that. He'd been grasping at straws with his statement, and he knew it well… but what could he say? He wanted to help the other Slayer in some way. Whether it was because he still felt guilt over what happened with Kendra, or because he hated that Buffy had somewhat lost her friend because of him, he wasn't sure.

But before he could think it over much more, they were upon the nest. "Buffy," the vampire whispered in his Slayer's ear, not wanting to give their prey a head's up by his voice carrying. "Ruguru at twelve o'clock."

And they were, indeed, Ruguru they needed to be hunting, because they were currently tearing two girls apart. The one girl, unfortunately, was already dead. And while the other wasn't far behind her, Angel could still detect a faint heartbeat within her.

"Buffy… the blonde is still alive. If we can get her out of their clutches, one of us can run her to the hospital."

It was seeming like the best option here would be to split up, of course, even though Angel was loath to leave Buffy fighting Rugurus by herself for the first time, he thought he could make it to the hospital faster than she could…

There was a cave behind these three where un-turned could have been located, and Angel knew it wouldn't be fair if Buffy came across them and fought them, if they truly were un-turned and she thought they fully were. But what was the best choice here?

"Take her to the hospital then, Angel! I can handle a few monsters, who are just a bit hungrier than vampires!"

And if to demonstrate her point, Buffy had already charged into battle and had driven her stake along one of the Ruguru's arms, almost separating the lower part of said arm from the upper with her movement (the Ruguru howled out in pain with her action). Angel knew if she made said motion again, she probably would manage to do just that, and then that one wouldn't be much of a fighter at that point, at least…

He still hated to leave her like this, for a few reasons—one of them of course being that his demon was tempted to drink this already bleeding girl instead of seeing her to safety, but he knew he could fight that urge—but he wasn't really seeing any other options here.

Without any more preamble, Angel lifted this other blonde into his arms and wished his own golden goddess good luck—a scene that was somehow better and worse than the first time he'd said that to her. Then, he disappeared into the night.

…

Truth be told, Angel hated hospitals almost as much as Buffy did. He despised the illnesses that he could smell in the patients, and the hopelessness that he could detect in their family and friends.

He, perhaps, even moreso despised some of the games he'd played at hospitals before he'd gained his soul: letting some of his victims think they'd escaped him as they ended up at one, only for him to drag them away from their only hope…

He also recalled how just last year, he'd been responsible for Buffy, Willow, and Gile coming here. So, yes: if he never saw another hospital, it would be too soon. So he was glad that his business with the girl—Saya Baker, it turned out—didn't take long, and it seemed she would be okay.

Angel was just about to leave the building and see how Buffy had fared with the Rugurus, when he noticed Faith of all people in his peripheral vision.

Angel quite honestly couldn't believe that Faith was at the hospital. She didn't look injured enough to need any medical assistance that her Slayer healing wouldn't take care of (and Angel thought that if that insipid Watcher Wesley [who was sick right now] got word that Faith had come here for the doctors to look at some of her scrapes—if that was why she was here—he wouldn't be too happy about it… which was just ridiculous). He also didn't smell anything deeper in her, like cancer, thankfully. Hmm… could she be here because she had friends or family who were ill?

Truthfully, Angel really didn't know what to do with the other Slayer. And while his heart went out to her for what she was going through, according to Buffy, Angel knew that anything he said or did would just prove to set her off: he was her enemy. And furthermore, the one who was responsible for her decision to leave the Scoobies. Yes, it might have been best if he still decided to risk it all and talk to her, even with all of that. But despite everything Buffy had said and thought she had realized on Christmas, Angel of course knew he was a far cry from a good person.

So he'd decided to try and sneak past her, and hope that her Slayer senses hadn’t developed enough for her to sense him, when he noticed that his first assessment of her has been wrong as he sped past the girl: it looked like a rather strong creature had clawed her arm. And knowing that Faith wasn't the type to take that laying down—or at all—Angel had to stop and ask, "Faith, what happened to you?"

The new Slayer seemed to wake up from a trance, and with a vengeance, at Angel's line of questioning. And he felt that if they hadn't been in a hospital with people all around them, Faith would have thrown herself at him to stake him then and there. "I don't need your nose in my business, Angelus!"

Angel may have been crazy—actually, he knew that he was—but he was starting to put some things together here that he really didn't like. And he truly didn’t want to bring it up: he knew it would go over about as well as his telling Buffy that their dating could get out of hand had… But knowing that all that it took for evil to prosper was for good men to do nothing, he couldn't just leave it alone. He wouldn't.

Speaking softly and gently, the way he might have to a wounded animal—and maybe, just maybe, unintentionally the way he had when he'd attempted to thrall people in the past (which wouldn't work on a Slayer, since he’d never been great at thralling, so it was just so great that that was his voice for this)—Angel found himself pointing at Faith's arm. "I know you're not that reckless, Faith. I'm also aware that no one, in bed, can force a Slayer to do something they don't want to do…"

Faith was looking at him with eyes that said she positively wanted to dust him, and Angel thought she just might, but like a fool he swallowed and pressed on, anyway. "Has some abuser sweet-talked you into thinking he's not an abuser, and that… well, the things he's doing to you aren't abuse? Are you here hoping to talk to someone, because you know deep down that you’ve gotten in too deep?"

Angel was willing to bet the farm that whoever it was who had hurt Faith wasn't human, to be able to injure a Slayer the way they clearly had Faith here--maybe the demon had some type of compulsion, which could have explained a lot; if it was a vampire with thrall, it would be only too ironic. Though it was the slightest bit possible that they were human. However, that would make it all the worse. Because the amount of force they would have had to purposely put into their touch to be able to harm a Slayer… Angel didn't want to think about it.

At once, Faith exploded on Angel--pulling on his ear the way a mother might their misbehaving child. And with her strength—and his lack of it, since returning from Hell—he knew she was likely to pull it off. He thought she probably wanted to.

In the back of his mind—while Angel fought the urge to scream, as he already saw a few flecks of blood falling to the linoleum floor--he was somehow reminded of Buffy's one motion she’d done earlier tonight with the Rugaru…

"Nothing happened to me, Deputy Do-Right! Now how about you do me a favor and keep your inane observations about me to yourself, before I have to remind B that she was crazy to think that she couldn't make it through life without you? Capisce?"

"Hey, you two! Take it outside!"

"I'm leaving," Angel assured the nurse, pulling away from Faith with all of his strength. But not before the Slayer older than Buffy gave him a loo that clearly said, "you've picked the wrong battle," but what exactly she was trying to tell him with that, he wasn’t sure.

…

Visiting Buffy's house in the evenings was pure Hell now. In a sense, Angel supposed it always had been like that… being in close quarters with Buffy—especially in her bedroom, with her scent closing in all around him—made the man in him rise up and want to take her (it also made the demon go crazy for her blood, but he was thankfully good at forcing that back… even if it would be delicious Slayer blood).

Before her seventeenth birthday, her stuffed animals had seemed to look at him accusingly when he felt this way (her mother's thundering heartbeat just a floor below also reminded him that he was wrong to feel what he did for someone so young and full of life like Buffy). But that was nothing compared with now: when he knew he could never once lose control and act on his desires, or it would mean the cruelest vampire the world had ever seen back in action once more.

So, yes: being with Buffy in her room now was Hell—and Angel knew a thing or two about Hell—but sometimes he just couldn't avoid it.

Like right now: when he wanted to make certain that she was alright after her fight with the Rugurus—and apologize that he had had to leave her—and tell her some of his suspicions about Faith.

Thus he climbed up her tree and quietly slept into her window, perhaps expecting to find her sleeping, relaxing, doing her homework, or maybe even exercising… he hadn't expected to find a tired looking Buffy lying in bed—wearing a lovely pair of navy-blue pajamas, he might add—reading one of his favorite books: The Phantom of the Opera.

Her name was out of his mouth in question before he could stop it (wondering if he should go, because he didn't want to disturb her). "Buffy?"

"Oh, Angel!" she started, clapping a hand over her heart.

"Way to go, Buffy," the blonde Slayer admonished herself in a whisper then, with a shake of her head. "Wake up Mom, why don't you?" But then, with her attention back on Angel—a place he always wanted to be, even though he knew it shouldn't be there these days—Buffy got out of her bed and crept over to where Angel was still standing beside her window. "What are you doing here, Angel?" And the moment she was beside him, her left hand was instantly seeking out his own hand to hold. Angel couldn't help marveling at how natural it all felt.

"I just wanted to make sure that you were alright after I left you tonight," Angel wanted to add that leaving her was the last thing he’d wanted to do when she was still hurt by Giles' betrayal of her during her recent Cruciamentum—even if she was over it—and of course there was his becoming her enemy a year ago to think about… but knowing that saying either thing would just hurt Buffy more, Angel left his thought where it was and pulled Buffy into the safety of his arms, kissing the top of her head.

"Yep. Buffy is of the good and still the Little Engine that could. It was Buffy two, Rugurus zero. I kind of don't get why you and Giles were wigging about them earlier. They were no big. But knowing that my Watcher and my Angel care about me is certainly a treat I'll take any day. Mmm," Buffy voiced the last thing right as she stood up on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his exposed collarbone. And Angel would be lying if he said he wasn't affected. But he tried to keep his mind on business.

"It was more because we know you don't want to accidentally hurt an innocent, Buffy… And speaking of innocents… I ran across Faith while I was at the hospital… And, well, I think you were definitely right in saying more of her innocence has been stolen from her recently."

Buffy looked at Angel with concern in her eyes then. And as she disentangled herself from him, he saw her gently put her book back down on her bedside table before she sat down on her bed, in order to better regard him. "Tell me everything," Buffy said tiredly.

And Angel did, hating that he had to make Buffy's impossible load even more thus. But was there anything else for it? Especially since Buffy might be one of the few who might be able to help the dark Slayer. And Angel knew how his girl longed to aid anyone that she could.

"Buffy… I saw Faith at the hospital, and she was really hurt. And you know how hard it is to harm a Slayer. And sure, she could have gotten the injury during patrol, but she hasn't been patrolling lately, has she?

"I think this ties in with what you were telling me earlier. And I think that Faith has fallen into an abusive relationship. But even then, it would be hard to bring physical harm to a Slayer. But abusers can be manipulative." And how Angel loathed his own manipulative past as Angelus. If he could go back and stop himself from being sired, so it would never happen—or keep himself from even being born—he would. "This manipulator also is not human, I’d guess."

Buffy nodded. And though it was simple action, the storm going on in her eyes was anything but. Angel was starting to see this from her more and more lately since her Cruciamentum, and he wondered if the tasks she had already had to face were too much for her to bear. It was unfair what the fates expected any one Slayer face, which was why he would lighten her load as much as he possibly could.

"Right…" Buffy muttered, running a hand under her chin, "because no Joe Schmoe could hope to leave marks on a Slayer…"

"Buffy-”

"Angel, did you happen to catch the scent of the culprit when you were around Faith?" Buffy questioned, completely catching Angel off-guard and interrupting the train of thought he’d had. He honestly hadn't thought that she would think to ask him that. Not because she forgot the abilities of the vampire, of course, but because he knew that thinking about what he could and couldn't smell from her had to make her uncomfortable.

"No, Buffy," Angel said, sitting beside her on her bed now—a risk, to be sure, but he hoped that the subject matter would keep both of their heads in the game. "Either I was too wrapped up in rescuing Saya,” ‘and not killing her,’ he thought but didn’t say. “Or the culprit could be a warlock who is masking their scent."

"Okay. Then we'll see if Will or Giles can do a locator spell on this person tomorrow. Either that, or I guess I'll be Research Girl again." Buffy sounded satisfied with her plan, and Angel found he couldn't blame her for that. It was, after all, a rather sound one.

He also knew that this should have been the end of their conversation here, and one of them really ought to have been finding an excuse for him to go, while they were still treading water… but that wasn't happening.

Instead, Angel crossed over and picked up Buffy's "Phantom of the Opera" book and gave it a once-over. He was relieved to see that she had the David Coward translation, even though he wasn't a fan of this cover for the novel.

"Interesting choice for a light read," Angel couldn't help remarking, a slight smile lighting up his face. "Where are you at in it?"

"'Poor, unhappy Erik,'" Buffy answered, her eyes having taken on a tragic look. And Angel knew why, of course. That was certainly one of the saddest parts of the story.

"You've gotten really far into the novel, then! That's great, Buffy! In a college interview, you might get asked about recent books that you've read, and this would be a good one to list. So, do you think Erik is redeemable?"

Only after the words had left Angel's mouth did he regret them. He'd honestly meant what he'd said: that this could be a great stepping stone for Buffy's future, and a part of him had wanted to help with that.

And, maybe, just maybe he'd been excited at the possibility of talking great literature with the love of his life.

But now he saw his mistake, of course. Because Buffy would say that Erik was irredeemable in the story: there was no way she couldn't. And he had done so much worse than the Opera Ghost. So what did that say about them? Why, something that Angel had known all along.

"I think, Angel, he wasn't irredeemable. He did regret his actions and let Christine go in the end. Though I do think that she should have ended up with Raoul. If things had been somewhat different with Erik, then maybe… but Erik frightened Christine and he started their relationship out with a lie." And Buffy looked Angel deeply in the eyes then, letting him know that that's what the difference was—Angel thought –since she, after all, had never been afraid of him and he'd never outright lied to her.

"I also agree with the author,” Buffy continued on, “that if people had just been nice to Erik, he wouldn't have become what he did. Instead, they could have benefited from his genius. But they weren't nice… I may have accidentally skipped ahead and read the part where Leroux said all of that," Buffy laughed.

Now it was Angel's turn to chortle. "More like: you jumped to the last pages early on, because you wanted to know the ending, right?"

Buffy rolled her eyes, no doubt for the fact that he thought that she would still do something so childish. But Angel noted that she didn't, however, deny the claim.

The vampire was about to say more: maybe something about how he loved Buffy’s heart and that she should never change, but then she yawned.

"I'm keeping you awake. You should get some sleep."

"No!" Buffy protested, grabbing onto Angel's arm the moment he got up from the bed that he’d only recently rejoined her on. "I'm awake. I'm Wakey-McFlakey. I could get up and do jumping jacks right now. I could-"

"Buffy." Angel gave his girl a look, before setting her favored book at the moment back on the table where she'd had it.

"…I guess I could probably appreciate this one night where I'm in bed early, yeah."

"That's what I thought. I'll see you tomorrow night." And Angel dropped a kiss to the crown of her head again, trying not to breathe in her sweet vanilla scent before he headed back towards her window.

“Angel?” Buffy asked, just as Angel’s knees were on the window frame.

“Yes?” he asked, curious about what Buffy could possibly have to say to him now when he could already tell that she was half-asleep. He wondered if she would be coherent. He was somewhat amused to find out.

“Don’t forget that you’re also the Raoul of the story.”

Angel did a double-take at that. He might have said more to Buffy’s kind words, but she was already asleep.

Raoul, huh? He wanted to believe he was Christine’s hero—though she herself was the hero of the story—and her great love, but he wasn’t sure he could. Though it was still a nice thought.

Smiling once more, Angel jumped first into his favorite tree and then leapt down from it. Then, it was back to the mansion for the rest of the night and day.

…

Angel had a feeling of déjà vu walking into the library to greet the Scoobies the next evening, and most importantly Buffy.

He supposed he shouldn't have, since tonight was starting off somewhat differently than the previous night—after all, he was here after Buffy, like he usually was—so perhaps what he was feeling was a sense of things returning to normal. Their normal, anyway.

And yet… Angel found he almost preferred making it to the library before Buffy did. Not because he much valued the time with any of her friends (except for perhaps Willow. And maybe Oz a little bit, even though they were both too laconic to speak to each other), but because he knew he was spending every second with Buffy that he could when he beat her here (for instance, if she was caught up with that Principal Snyder who seemed to abuse her, keeping her from the library so that she got here after him). But if he arrived late, he might have missed some precious moment of her time that he could have been a part of, if he'd been but a moment sooner, but would now never get back.

Angel was just about to try and explain some of these thoughts to Buffy, who was looking at him with a raised eyebrow, but he was interrupted from doing so by Cordelia's loud complaint of, "Giles, I'm not putting were-pumas into the file! The odds of Miss Slays-a-Lot facing them again has to be googolplex-in-one, compared to the trillion-in -one chance she had when she faced them the first time!"

Angel blinked. "You faced were-pumas, Buffy?" He wondered where he'd been during this scenario. Had it been the time Giles had sent him away to deal with one of his favorite cousins (read: one of the last followers of the Master) in Florida?

"It was at the same time that I had to deal with the Muses here in Sunnydale," Buffy explained, waving away his concern. "No big."

Except at the time, it had been a big deal. Angel hadn't been there for it—as that had been his trip to Florida, he knew now—but he remembered well how Buffy had fallen into his arms with relief the moment he returned to Sunnydale, and the tales she had told him. The fact she could laugh about it all now said so much about his Buffy's strength. How he loved her.

"So, about those were-pumas," Oz continued the inane comment Cordelia had made as she worked to recreate the Slayer database that Willow and Giles had once made, but had since been destroyed. "Do we think one of them could be what hurt Faith?"

"I just said-" Cordelia started, appalled, continuing to tap on the computer keyboard one key at a time, as she sat behind everyone else who was at the library table now. "Oh, whatever. You losers never listen to me, anyway. Fine. Think it's were-pumas, even when the chances of that are-"

"I doubt it," Angel cut in, breaking up this fight before it could really start, since he knew that both camps were probably completely off base. "I would have smelt it on her. I think-"

"Yeah, because we all know how reliable your nose is, Dead Boy—and how gross it not is to talk about that—and that we can trust you."

"Xander!" Giles admonished the boy, honestly surprising Angel. He knew what it must have cost the Watcher, of all people, to defend him. "Angel has come to our aid numerous- numerous times now, every time that he has his soul. So I will advise you not to take such a harsh tone with him. And as it is, his abilities are very much of aid to us when it comes to finding out what's going on with Faith."

"Thank you, Giles," Angel said earnestly, looking the older man directly in the eye for a moment, so he would hopefully know how much stock he was putting into the words "Xander does have one point, however. If it's a warlock, he could be messing with my sense of smell."

"Are we thinkin' it's a human who hurt Faith, then?" Willow ventured nervously, a crestfallen look on her face. And it didn't take a genius to figure out why. She'd figured out just as he and Buffy had how near impossible it would be for a human to hurt a Slayer, and that they'd really have to try to do it.

"I doubt it, Will," Buffy promised her friend, reaching across the table to where she sat beside Oz and patting her hand once. "They'd really have to be cooking with oil to manage that. And there's no law saying only we mere mortals get to play with magic, right? …Even though there should. Because a demon doing so, even when they're already overpowered, is just not fair."

What Buffy didn't say, of course, was a Slayer could also be a witch. Not that anyone suspected that Buffy had harmed Faith or that she was a witch, of course (nor should they), Angel knew. Or that Faith was a witch who had done this to herself. But Angel did know for a fact that there had been at least one Slayer witch… or one who had been suspected of being a witch, at least. He supposed the question was whether or not the Watcher's Journals did…

"So what you're all really saying here, is you have no clue what's going on with Faith and you're wasting time distracting me with your pointless theories. Gee! Why am I not surprised?" Cordelia piped up, while looking at one of the Watcher's Journals herself now.

"I hate to admit it… but Cordy may have a point here, Buff. I know we all ruled out talking to Faith. But you’re her Sister Slayer. That has to get you some street cred, right, and maybe get you in the door. Do you think you could try it?" Xander asked sympathetically, laying a gentle hand on Buffy's shoulder now.

And though Angel knew this was done in friendship—it was—and surely was what was needed to get them all where they needed to be now, he couldn't help a moment of jealousy, as he once again remembered that Xander could see Buffy in sunlight and he couldn't… and that Xander could go all the places he couldn't with Buffy. Thankfully, the jealousy passed quickly.

Buffy buried her face in her hands for just a moment, seeming helpless—and how it pained Angel to see it—but she was at once herself again. "Yeah. I can try shooting the breeze with Faith. I mean, what's the worst that can happen?"

Angel hated that the smile she painted on her face now for everyone to see, and how it broke at the last moment.

And he promised himself that no matter what, that somehow, he would be there for Buffy when she confronted her fellow Slayer… whether she knew it or not.

…

Buffy's PoV

Buffy wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea of trying to meet with Faith. She knew she should have been: she should have been chomping at the bit to be there for her sister-in-arms, the way that Buffy often times wished that her friends could constantly be there for her. And she did feel that way. Truly.

…But it was just so hard with Faith. There had been a strange tension between them ever since Faith had found out that Buffy had lied to her about Angel—something that had never gone away.

But even before that, things hadn't always been easy between them. Buffy could never get over the sense that Faith was trying to steal what was hers—ridiculous, she knew—and she had to wonder if there would ever be a feeling of ease between them.

But Faith deserved someone in her corner. Especially now. So Buffy was putting on her big girl panties and doing what needed to be done… but the moment she walked into Faith's apartment—seeing her deal a killing blow to a Ruguru herself, with tears streaming down her face—Buffy wondered if she'd made the right choice.

"…Faith?" Buffy choked out her companion's name.

Faith whirled on Buffy then. And if Buffy had actually caught it (and she wasn't entirely sure she had), she thought that Faith might have looked some sort of mix of embarrassed and traumatized before settling on angry.

Scrubbing at her eyes, seemingly to stop her tears, Faith snapped, "Well, I guess you figured it out now, huh? Figures."

"Figured… what out?" Buffy echoed back, feeling at a complete loss. She thought she was getting pretty good at figuring out mysteries, but what Faith was talking about was completely beyond her. They slayed Rugurus, as they did all kinds of Hell beasties. And it was traumatizing that they were once human, yes, like a lot of their job was, but Buffy couldn't fathom why Faith was getting so bent out of shape over this.

…Wait a second. Wasn't that the girl that Buffy had had Angel take to the hospital? Had she been bitten without either of them knowing it, after all… and had then fed and fully turned? Was it possible that Angel couldn't smell half-turned Rugurus to have known she'd been bitten?

"That I lied to you, of course, Pollyanna. And was never assaulted. And man, do I just love that I had to get to a place where I would lie about something like that when I hate liars," Faith snarled, with a faraway look in her eyes. Was she remembering what had happened before and what had caused her to lie?

"Faith… I don't understand," Buffy admitted, feeling very small and vulnerable, as she crossed her arms over her chest now. But she already didn't like where this was going. It, after all, could only end in heartache for Faith.

Faith sighed. And that, at least, made Buffy feel somewhat better, because it was closer to the sadness she should have been feeling here, in having lost someone she cared about, if Buffy was guessing things correctly. Faith trying to hide it in being livid couldn't possibly be a good thing.

"I don't know why I'm going to tell you this now, B. Me not wanting to tell you before is the whole reason I probably fell into this mess. But I didn't want to be compared to you and Angel—and your shipwreck of a story—and I knew that's what everyone would say-"

Faith was clearly getting going off the deep end again. And she backed away from Buffy—to try and get a handle on her temper, the blonde Slayer guessed—before she continued with, "It all started when I stole a car. A real great choice, I know. But I was capable of doing that, but somehow not smart enough to know how to put gas into the clunker. That's how I met Saya. She saw me struggling and helped me out.

"We talked a little bit then—and she liked me right away and wanted to hang sometime—but I wasn't that trusting. Knowing she used that gas station to get groceries, I decided to go out of my way to another one to get my goods. But one day, wouldn't you know it? She happened to be there. Shopping for a nice card for her sister's birthday, or some shit.

“At that point—even though I'm really no romantic, B, I'm thinkin' maybe there's something to this. So, we go out. And then we go out a few times. We watch the ‘Clue’ movie at my crappy apartment, ‘Fight Club’… and the whole time, Saya doesn't even pressure me for sex. It's kind of nice. I should have known it was too good to last, because she-"

"She got bitten by a Ruguru," Buffy figured out. Of course. And she had come to Faith, probably freaking out (maybe Faith had even told Saya she was the Slayer so she knew she could confide in her). The two of them would have been convinced they could make it work, as long as Saya didn't feed. But even a semi-Ruguru must have had some strength, which explained the marks Buffy had seen on Faith's shoulders.

And when Buffy had asked her about them, Faith had said she'd been assaulted because, in so many ways, she didn't want to be told her and Saya's story was like Buffy and Angel's. Would Faith have been afraid she'd have to face the fact they were doomed if she told the Scoobies the truth, the way everyone seemed to think she and Angel were? Did Faith think she might have told Giles on her if she knew the truth, and then he might have pressured her to slay Saya even if she hadn't gone full Ruguru?

The night Angel had seen Faith in the hospital… had Faith been seeing about getting a psychologist for Saya, in hoping that would help her fight her urges and the change?

In the end, despite their best efforts, it seemed Saya had given in and fed and now Faith had been forced to slay someone she'd started to love.

"Faith, I'm so so-"

"Save it and get out, Buffy. I don't want your pity!"

Of course Faith would see it as pity, Buffy thought—tears starting to sting her eyes now—when she still had Angel.

"At least let me help you bury he-"

"I said leave! This is something I have to do, and me alone. And I swear to God, Buffy, if you get in my way. I will kill you."

"Faith," Buffy started, walking towards Faith because she knew her sister Slayer couldn't mean that. She just couldn't.

But suddenly Angel was there, standing behind the threshold of Faith’s room, and imploring of Buffy the same thing that Faith was.

“Buffy, let Faith have her wish. We can check on her later, when she’s feeling better.” That was the last thing Buffy wanted to do now. She knew that Faith needed her; Faith was raising up her castle walls even higher to protect herself. Pretty soon, no one would be able to reach her within them. Not even Faith herself.

But there was a certain urgency in Angel’s tone that Buffy didn’t understand, but trusted all the same. So, despite herself, Buffy joined Angel outside the small apartment and let him begin leading her away.

“Faith, if you need anything-” Buffy begged, but Faith was already cutting her off with, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. You’ll ever be the perfect little girl scout and help me out. I can handle this, like I handle everything. Including your Boy Toy, if you don’t get out of here, Buffy!”

Buffy hated to admit it, but Faith threatening Angel was the last straw. Threatening her was one thing, but alluding to making an attempt on Angel—when he was still weak from Hell—terrified her. Buffy didn’t know if Angel would at all survive a fight with the other Slayer, if Faith really put her mind to it. And in her grief, Buffy thought that Faith might actually attack him, if she thought that it was unfair that Buffy got to keep the one that she loved and she didn’t.

“Okay, we’re leaving.” And with that, Buffy led Angel out into the night, almost wishing that she’d never come to Faith’s to be confronted with this tragedy in the first place. For so many reasons did she wish this.

She felt numb now—not unlike how Faith herself was now, which Buffy hated—and she didn’t know how long she’d been walking, or even where she was going, until Angel grabbed her hand to halt her. “Want to go to the park?” he asked with a shrug, far too innocently for someone who had surely witnessed everything that she just had. She should have known that he’d been spying with her.

And really, Buffy was glad Angel had been watching out for her in this situation, because she didn’t need to get into a fight with Faith (something he had saved her from)—and she knew she’d been getting close to that with Faith’s temper—but part of Buffy couldn’t help feeling that it made everything worse, because now instead of there being even more bad blood between her and Faith (something she wanted to believe she could have handled), it was now between all three of them. And so someone else had even moreseo joined the “Let’s Hate Angel” club.

“I want to kill something, Angel!” Buffy argued, finally noticing that her popping hot anger had subconsciously led her to Restfield Cemetery where she could get some action.

Buffy pulled out Mr. Pointy from her pocket, and was about to run towards the vampire that she thought she could feel pinging on her radar aways away, but Angel had wrapped his arms around her waist to stop her before she could move an inch.

“No, Buffy,” he whispered into her ear. And if she shivered at all, it was because of the chilly night air, not because she felt any of the things for Angel that she wasn’t supposed to. Not at all. “Your anger is making you see red, so you going after vamps tonight would just be asking for trouble.”

Buffy wanted to argue that she’d used this to aid her in slaying vampires and other nasties many a time, thank you very much, but deep down she knew that Angel was right. She was too distracted to do any serious damage.

Slumping in his arms irritably, because she felt a bit like a kid being told they couldn’t have dessert until they ate their veggies (and whoa. Since when had she enjoyed slaying so much?), Buffy relented with, “Fine. The park, you said?”

Angel nodded without a word, but he did take Buffy’s hand into his own. She’d appreciate that little wonder, at least. Then, as if they’d been walking hand-in-hand together their whole lives—if only they could, Buffy thought with a broken heart—he began leading her towards their intended destination.

Idly, Buffy wondered why he didn’t suggest going back to the mansion for this discussion they were inevitably going to have, but Buffy supposed he must have had something up his sleeve.

Before much time had seemed to pass it all (Sunnydale really was too small. Didn’t it know she needed any excuse she could get to be with Angel? Especially right now?), the two had reached Hammersmith Park.

Angel untangled his hand from Buffy’s, which was definitely a disappointment, but only to hop on the first swing that he saw before him and begin swinging: something that was so bizarre and hilarious to Buffy, that she could almost forgive not being in his arms any longer. Almost.

He indicated with a head motion that Buffy should take the swing next to him; and who was Buffy to deny this strange whim of Angel’s?

Once the two of them had swung together for a few minutes, and Buffy had amused herself by trying to catch Angel’s hand a few times while they did so, they both came to a stop and finally began discussing the Heavy.

“It was my fault, Buffy. I should have known that—Saya, was it?—had been bitten. Twice, it sounds like. I’d never faced Rugurus before, but I’d read about them a lot and I assumed I knew everything there was to know. But I should have guessed that those half-turned would be different… that maybe they wouldn’t have a smell to them. If I had, I could have pieced this all together. Maybe I could have stopped her from changing and Faith could have avoided this whole awful story. You sent me to take care of Saya that night, and I should have done a better job at it.”

Right in front of them, a mother was tying a balloon onto one child’s hand while handing another one of her children a snow cone. It was a cute sight. Buffy figured that this had to be the reason that Angel had wanted to go somewhere, rather than just going to the mansion: so that they would hopefully see people out and about and remember there was still good in the world, even if right now it didn’t seem like it.

“It’s not fair to blame yourself like that, Angel. I mean, who would have ever guessed that. Everything else has a scent, like full-fledged Rugurus. So who would have thought those first bitten wouldn’t? Life just sucks.”

Angel had nothing to say to that, as he seemed to suddenly find his shoes very interesting, and Buffy hoped that he had taken her words to heart and believed her. But knowing him, he had found a new thing to forever beat himself up about.

“What are we going to do about Faith?” Buffy finally asked the dreaded question, tightly grabbing the chains of her swing and—for whatever reason—refusing not to look at Angel right now. Was it because she thought that Faith’s story ending so badly was further proof that she and Angel were destined to forever be Romeo and Juliet themselves? “Should we tell the others that we found out what was going on with he-”

“I wouldn’t,” Angel answered right away, with what almost sounded like a scoff to Buffy. “At least not right now. She won’t thank you if you do. Maybe later… If you tell anyone, I’d tell Giles and try to get him to talk to her. Though I don’t have much love for the Watchers’ Council—and you certainly wouldn’t know it from anyone else but Giles—they’re somewhat trained in psychology. Maybe, once she’s healed a little, he could talk to Faith. But for now, I think the best thing to do is to try and let this whole thing blow over…”

There was something in Angel’s tone at the end there that hinted to Buffy that there was more than what he was telling her—she wondered if it had to do with his past—but she had the feeling he wouldn’t tell her if she asked. And she really didn’t feel like digging up more skeletons tonight, so she let it go. For the moment.

“You think everyone will be satisfied that I couldn’t crack Faith, and to just leave the ‘mystery’ unsolved?”

“On the Hellmouth? Yes, unfortunately.” Again, it seemed like there was more Angel wanted to say here, but whatever it was, it seemed his lips were sealed for the night.

Later, when Buffy was feeling more on her game and like her punning self, she’d really have to do something about that.

Buffy had suffered a few losses since becoming the Slayer, but until tonight, she’d never found one where she’d have to be quiet about something. She wasn’t a fan of it. At all. And if Faith wasn’t so unreasonable, she knew she wouldn’t be taking to such a thing, and rather be charging in like a bull in a china cabinet.

“Well, I hate this,” Buffy tried to laugh, attempting to get closer to her usual self. But it might have sounded more like a cry. She wasn’t sure.

“Ditto,” Angel agreed, seeming to try for a strained smile himself, as it appeared that he was in complete accordance with her.

“Angel… do you have anything to make this night better?” Buffy wailed, swinging closer to him so that their legs brushed. She knew that she was begging and probably sounded like a child—even after Angel had gone to the trouble of bringing her to the park here, in order to improve things a little bit—but right now, she just didn’t care.

Buffy’s favorite vampire didn’t seem to have an answer for a long time. Buffy was even about to mention that maybe he should give up on trying to think of anything to improve this night and just walk her home, but finally he seemed to have come up with something and he offered her a small smile. “Well, in the musical adaptation of Phantom of the Opera, Christine comes back while the Phantom is alive to give him back his ring. It sort of serves as an extended goodbye for them. And in some versions, depending on the actress, she might kiss his hand.”

Huh. In the novel, there was something similar to that: Erik had asked Christine to come back and bury him when he eventually died, and she did. And she buried him with said ring. Truthfully, Buffy liked Christine being kind enough to return in both endings, but maybe she did prefer this musical one. Perhaps she’d have to check this musical out sometime.

“That is a nice little epilogue. Thanks, Angel,” And Buffy blushed, despite herself, before she kissed her boyfriend on the cheek, for she knew too well what he’d been trying to get at with his explanation, after all.

Maybe there was a bit of hope for those who loved monsters, after all.

Author's Note: Rugarus were a monster from the TV show “Supernatural” that I used here.

I tried not to use any references to the Buffy novels for this fic, and I succeeded for the most part except for in two places: The first is that Buffy does fight the muses in the book “Power of Persuasion” and Angel is gone until the end of the book, for he was a mission Giles gave him (and Buffy is very much relieved to see him at the end, resting her head on his shoulder). Though we don’t know what that mission was. I made one up here.

The other is that in the novels, Willow and Giles do create a Slayer database to try and better figure out stuff that Buffy might face on the Hellmouth: A.K.A. they give it all of the stuff Buffy’s faced, and they hope it’ll spit out data for them, like, “It is likely that Buffy will face X on this date.” At one point, Cordelia ends up working on it, after her dad gets caught cheating on his taxes (because Willow is too busy to at the moment) and Giles offers to pay her to, which is why she does it (though I forget if this is before or after the database is destroyed—yes, it gets destroyed—like if she’s adding to a working one or trying to rebuild it). I have Cordelia working on it in this story, as it’s a good reason for her to be there after she and Xander have broken up and she’s left the Scoobies. Yep.

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