#sam taggart | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

woods2006gal · 6 months

Text

Chapter 10 - LARP and the Real Girl

Addison yawns as she stares out at the passing scenery from where she was sitting in the backseat of the Impala. Things were still tense between the three of them. She wanted to know why Benny had called Dean in the first place, but he refused to tell her the truth. Sam was still weary of Dean and vice versa. She just wanted things to go back to normal. She still couldn’t believe that she and Dean were married. Had been married since that trip to Vegas they took nearly ten years earlier. She was still trying to wrap her head around it and the fact that Dean had kept it from her for so long. “You okay, man,” Dean asks, glancing at Sam who was intently studying a map.

“We have the most powerful weapon we’ve ever had against demons and we can’t find a way to use it,” Sam reminds.

“Yeah, well, Kevin’s on it. And when he finds something, he’ll call. So we wait. Look, we have had a rough go over the past couple of weeks. And, uh…I know what you gave up wasn’t easy. Maybe we ought to take the night off. Go see a flick, hit a bar or two, have some fun. You remember fun, don’t you, Sammy?”

A phone starts to ring. It takes Addison a moment to realize it’s her phone that’s ringing. She digs through her bag and pulls it out. Garth’s name was displayed on the screen. “Hi, Garth,” she greets.

“Hey. Why don’t you grab a piece of paper,” Garth tells her.

Addison grabs a small notebook out of her bag and writes down the details of a case. She frowns, seeing that it was near where they currently were. “Um, okay. I got everything down, but um, how exactly do you know where we are?”

“Through the GPS on your phones. I track you and a bunch of hunters to assign cases. Yeah, you’ve been Garthed,” Garth explains.

Addison hangs up and drops her phone on the seat beside her. “We need to get new phones,” she tells the boys. “Garth is tracking us and other hunters to assign cases.”

“Smart,” Dean says, glancing at her in the rearview mirror. “A total Bobby move. What’s the deal?”

“Farmington Hills, Michigan. Some guy got ripped limb from limb inside his locked apartment,” Addison replies.

“That’s not good,” Dean comments.

“Yeah. Definitely not.”

Sam reaches over the seat and grabs the small notebook out Addison’s hands. “Working a case,” he says. “As long as we’re waiting on Kevin, that’ll be our fun.” Addison sighs and turns her gaze back out of the window. She wanted things to go back to normal for them.

~*~

The trio flash the FBI badges at the officer standing outside of the apartment. “Sheriff,” Sam greets as they enter. Addison looks around the living room of the apartment. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. “Special Agent Taggart. These are my partners, Special Agents Rosewood and Todd.”

“FBI,” the Sheriff replies, looking at them. He was a middle aged man with a handle bar mustache that was more grey than anything. “You guys are quick. Haven’t even got the body out yet.”

“Well, the FBI is all work, no play,” Dean replies, shooting a look at Sam.

“You know, why don’t you give me the tour while my partners look around,” Sam asks the Sheriff, clearing ignoring Dean.

“I work better on my own,” Dean states.

The Sheriff shrugs. “Your world, Agent. Follow me.”

Sam follows the agent into the bedroom while Dean moves into the kitchen. Addison stands there for a moment then follows Sam and the Sheriff into the victim’s bedroom. Blood covered the walls. A body covered by a white sheet was on the bed. Sheets covered body parts of the floor. Addison lifts up a sheet and discovers one of the victim’s arms with a tattoo of a tree on it. She doesn’t miss the dark red marks around the wrist.

“Vic's name was Ed Nelson, thirty one years old, an insurance claim adjuster. He lived alone, which was a real shocker, considering his place is full of toys,” the Sheriff states.

“So, what happened,” Sam questions.

“No sign of forced entry. Near as we can tell, he was tired up and pulled apart. Died of the shock or massive blood loss. Dealer’s choice on that one.”

Sam motions to where bag contain chains was sitting. “So what about these chains?”

“That’s actually chain mail.”

Addison raises an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

The Sheriff chuckles. “Yeah. We did find clear rope burn marks on his wrists and ankles.”

“Was anything missing from the body,” Addison questions.

“You mean aside from the arms and legs? Uh, nope. All there. Twig and berries too.”

“What about the neighbors,” Sam asks. “Did they hear anything weird?”

“Uh, neighbor downstairs said she got woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of horses stomping their feet galloping. We didn’t find any hoof prints. She probably heard a TV was having a bad dream or she was high as balls. Fortunately, we got a real lead off of his cell phone. According to the phone records, Ed’s last call was from a guy called Lance Jacobsen. An accountant, also thirties, also lives alone.”

Sam frowns. “How is he lead?”

“The two of them talked together for fifteen minutes and then Lance sent Ed here all kinds of angry texts. Some of them were you typical threat stuff, but some where a little weird,” the Sheriff explains as he leads Sam and Addison back into the living room. Dean walks over both the and subtle shakes his head, letting them know he hadn’t found anything.

“Weird how,” Dean questions.

“Like uh…‘you shall bleed for your crimes against us’ followed by the emoticon of a skull. And, uh, this beauty. ‘I am a mange. I will destroy you.’ These kids today with their texting and murder. My men just brought Lance into the station for questioning.”

“Well, we’re gonna need to take first crack the suspect,” Sam tells him.

The sheriff shrugs. “Like I said Agent, it’s your world.”

~*~

The trio walks into the interrogation room of the local police station. Lance Jacobsen was sitting at the table. Sam and Addison sit down across from him while Dean stands behind Addison, with a protective hand on the back of her chair. “Lance Jacobsen? We’re with the FBI,” Sam introduces.

“The FBI,” Lance asks, looking between the three of them. “I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe Ed's dead.”

Lance starts to cry. Addison reaches across and places a comforting hand on his arm. “Lance, just breath. Okay? You’re fine,” she softly tells him. "We just want to ask you a few questions, okay.” Lance wipes his face and takes a deep breath. He nods.

“We want to know about the, uh, texts you sent Ed last night,” Dean says.

“I told them when they brought me in those weren’t from me,” Lance replies.

“Well, your phone and Ed's phone say otherwise,” Sam counters.

“No, I mean, they were from me but they weren't me me.”

Addison stares at him. “Can you clarify what you mean?”

Lance sighs. “I’m sorry. This is all a big misunderstanding. Those text message were from Greyfox the Mystic to Thargrim the Difficult. Our characters in Moondoor. Moondoor is a game that Ed and I play. We’re LARPers.”

“Live action role playing,” Addison questions.

Lance nods. “We play Moondoor every other weekend at Heritage Park. All the info about it is on our website.”

“You guys have a website,” Dean disbelievingly asks.

“Yeah, one of the players designed it. In fact, if you log onto the site, they should have posted pictures from last night’s feast. I was there all night.”

“What does any of this have to do with the texts,” Sam questions.

“I play a character named Greyfox the Mystic. I’m a very, very powerful mage in the game.”

“Okay, uh, very powerful. Go on.”

“Ed is…Ed was Thargrim the Difficult of the Elder Forest, son of Hargrim and Bouphoin, brother to…He was the Lancelot to my Merlin.”

“What happened to cause the argument you two were clearly having,” Addison asks.

“We were named to the queen’s honor guard, in anticipation of the coming Battle of Kingdoms this weekend. I thought he broke protocol, so I called Ed after game hours and accused him cheating and then I challenged him a duel.”

“A duel,” Sam repeats.

“Wands and swords at dawn.”

Dean shifts. “Now when you say wands do you mean magic wands?”

“No. Un-magic wands, Agent. Because what I really want in a duel is an un-magic wand,” Lance sarcastically replies. “Yes! Fake wands! It’s a game! I can’t believe it. Oh, ye Gods! Thargrim the Difficult has fallen.”

Lance buries his face in his hands and lets out a sob. Sam and Addison stand up. Addison shoots him a soft smile then walks out of the with Sam. Dean awkwardly pats Lance on the shoulder. “Lance. Hang in there, champ,” Dean tells him before following Sam and Addison.

“So, either of you believe Dungeons & Dragons,” Sam questions.

“He’s not our guy,” Addison confidently says.

“He didn’t put a whammy on us,” Dean agrees. “Those weren't crocodile tears, man.”

“So, what are we looking at,” Sam asks.

“You saw the chain mail. This could be Fifty Shades of Greyfox for all we know.”

“All right, well, let’s check out the Moondoor website, see if Lance’s story checks out,” Sam replies. They walk over to a vacant desk with a computer on it and Sam sets down. It only takes him a couple of minutes to bring up the Moondoor website. “‘Welcome to Moondoor, Michigan's largest LARPing game.’”

“And I thought we needed get out more,” Dean mutters. Addison shoots him an unamused look. He smiles at her. She shakes her head and turns back to the computer as he places a hand on her lower back.

“There,” Addison says, pointing to a picture of Lance with two women. “There’s his alibi.”

“Huh. It actually looks kind of awesome,” Dean comments. Sam looks at him and Dean shifts.

“All right. There’s a video,” Sam says. He clicks on the link and brings up a video. They’re silent as they watch the video.

Dean frowns, recognizing a face. “Wait is that—”

“Charlie,” Addison interrupts. “Yeah, looks like it.”

~*~

Addison stares in disbelief as she looks around the park. Everyone was dressed in costumes. A few hours after they had talked to Lance, he had been murdered while still in the police interrogation room. He had the same tattoo on his arm that Ed had and the only other connection between the two victims was LARPing. Which is how the trio found themselves that morning at the park, surrounded by people who were all wearing renaissance costumes. Some of the people had ogre teeth or elf ears. The trio come to a stop in front of a man locked in a set of stocks with another man standing in front of him.

Addison raises an eyebrow as the man’s teeth fall out and the other man, wearing a red and white tunic, picks them up before placing them back in the man’s mouth. They finish their scene before the man wearing the tunic starts to walk away. “Excuse me,” Dean says, walking up to the man. “Hi. Uh, you are a LARPer, yeah?”

The man stares at him. “I perfect the term ‘interactive literaturist.’”

“Right. Uh, I am Special Agent Rosewood. These are Special Agents Taggart and Todd.”

“Hold,” the man shouts, pushing his hood down. “Um, guys, we’re not doing the whole genre mash up thing this weekend. We only do that every third month.”

“Come again,” Sam questions.

“Your fake badges, the cheap suits. It’s very cool. I get it. Your characters are FBI agents that somehow traveled to Moondoor, but I’m telling you it’s just — it’s straight up Moondoor this weekend.”

Sam frowns. “These aren’t fake badges.”

“Uh, yeah, they are and they’re…” the man trails off as he grabs Sam’s badge. “Very good, but, um, well, the ID number shifted to ten digits with, uh, two letters mixed in at the end of the year and the seal’s from last month. Really good work.” He hands the badge. “It’s just…it’s a tournament weekend, okay guys, so you got to follow the rules. If there’s no rule - chaos.” He pulls his hood back up. “Resume. If you would like to join the army of Moons, the queen is aways on the lookout for new squires.”

“Yes. Right,” Dean replies. “We would like to see your queen now, please.”

“Well, the queen’s calendar is booked up months in advance. But if you wish to witness what’s in store for you in her army, her highness is overseeing new squires on the pitch as we speak.”

It doesn’t take the trio long to find where Charlie was. She was in the middle of a large group wearing dark red clothing that resembled armor. “Greyfox and Thargrim are missing. We pray to the goddess they have not fallen victim of foul play. In there absence, the honor guard’s ranks are weakened. To join…” Charlie trails off when she recognizes them. “Oh, berg. Uh…The queen needs some royal ‘we’ time. Talk amongst themselves.”

Charlie walks into a large maroon tent at the back of the field. The trio follow her. Dean stops and picks up a fake sword. He examines. “Nice balance,” he says.

Sam shoots him a disbelieving look. “Dude.”

Addison shakes her head and walks with Sam into the tent with Dean following them. He was still carrying the sword. Addison raises an eyebrow seeing the elegantly decorated tent with ornate chairs.

“Charlie,” Sam begins.

“Charlie Bradbury is dead,” Charlie tells them. She unbuckles the leather arm guards she had on and shoves them into a duffle bag. “She died a year ago. You killed her. My name is Carrie Heinlein. Oh and guess what. Now you killed her too.”

Dean sighs. “Okay, listen, uh…”

“No, I buried myself. Then Dick Roman went down, his company belly up and I figure, ‘hey, it’s all good,’ and I was fine. I got my life back. Now you’re here and if you guys are here, monsters are here. Why do I have such bad luck? What am I? Some kind of monster magnet? Is there such a thing as a monster magnet? You know what? Don’t answer that. I don’t care. What I care about is not getting my other arm broken or dying So…I’m dropping my sword and walking off the stage bitches.” Charlie grabs her bag and crown off the table. She drops the crown on Dean’s head as she starts to walk out of the tent. “Have fun storming the castle.”

“Charlie,” Dean exclaims. “Greyfox and Thargrim, uh, Ed and Lance, they’re not missing. They’re dead.”

Charlie stops and stares at them. “Ed was drawn and quartered by Lance bleed out,” Addison softly explains.

Charlie doesn’t move for a moment, then sits down at the table. She motions for them to each take a seat. “Drawn and quartered and bleeding out,” she repeats. “Please stop talking again. So what do you think did this?”

“Well, aside from the, uh, mark and them both being LARPers, there’s really not much else to go on,” Dean says, pulling a photo of the tree that both Ed and Lance had on their arms.

Charlie picks up the photo. “Wait, I’ve seen this before. It’s a Celtic magic symbol. At least it was in my favorite video game. Does that help? Can I go now?”

“It’s a start, but no. Um, listen. What can you tell us about Ed and Lance,” Sam questions.

Charlie shrugs. “Good guys. Two of the best members of the queen’s ever shrinking army.”

“Ever shrinking,” Dean asks.

“My kingdom has had a lot of bad luck lately, probably cause of me, but maybe it’s tied to this,” Charlie says, motioning to the photo. “A month ago, one of my guys had both her ankles broken before battle. Before that, I had three people have hospital worthy accidents while at home. You think there’s any connection there?”

“Any common enemies,” Addison questions.

“In real life? No. Everyone gets along famously. In the game, though…” Charlie stands up and walks over to a table with a map on it. The trio follow her. There were different colored figures on the table. “They had tons on enemies. Red reps the followers of the Moon - my peeps. Green’s for the Elves, blue’s for the Warriors of Yesteryear, and black’s for Shadow Orcs. Total d-bags. This weekend is the Battle of the Kingdoms to see who wear the Forever Crown. This weekend, each faction is definitely an enemy of me and mine.”

“You know, if you, uh…” Dean begins, motioning to the red figures. “Move your arches back and your broadswords men to the west…”

“Huh.” Charlie nods. “Fight the warriors.” Dean smiles. “Hey, good call.”

“Thanks.”

“What about the southern wall?”

“Guys,” Sam says, clearly annoyed.

“Yeah,” Dean asks, looking at his younger brother. He clears his throat upon seeing Sam’s annoyed look. “Right. Sorry.”

“Maybe someone from one of the other kingdoms got ahold of something and now their using real magic to weaken your army,” Addison says.

“But why not just come after me,” Charlie argues. “And why the escalation?”

“All right, we will canvass the kingdoms. You should get out of here. We don’t want you to get hurt,” Dean says, finishing with Charlie.

“Whoa, wait,” Sam says. “Charlie knows Moondoor a lot better than we do. We need her.”

“Sam, I think we can take care of a bunch of accountants with foam swords.”

“We need all the help we can get, Dean. People are dying.”

“My point, which is usually yours, is that she should get somewhere safe and get back to a normal life.”

“Hey, I am right here and I want to leave,” Charlie interjects.

Dean smiles, triumphal. “Thank you.”

“But the queen…she has to stay. I mean, Sam is right. People are dying. That can’t happen on my watch. And you know what? I am tired of running. I like my life here. I’m gonna stay and fight for it.”

Sam’s phone rings. He pulls it out and answers. “Yeah.” Addison lightly smiles at Charlie and Dean. “Okay. Thanks. So, the toxicology report came back on Lance. Nothing. But the medical examiner said his body showed clears signs that he was killed by belladonna.”

“The porn star,” Charlie and Dean ask at the same time.

Addison raises an eyebrow. “Poison?”

“Oh,” Charlie and Dean simultaneously let out.

“However, they couldn’t find a trace of it in his system,” Sam finishes.

“Just like they couldn’t find ropes in Ed’s apartment,” Dean reasons.

“Charlie, I’m gonna need to borrow your laptop,” Sam says.

Charlie frowns. “There are no laptops in Moondoor,” she tells them and is met with three incredulous looks. “What? There are rules. But there is a tech tent four tents down.”

“Okay. How about you two go canvas and Ads and I’ll dig into these accidents and this mark,” Sam tells them before walking out of the tent.

Addison forces a smile and quickly follows Sam. She finds Sam a few feet away of her head. “Sam,” she calls out.

Sam stops and looks at her. “I’ll look into the accidents and the mark. Since you’re good at marking friends with vamps, go talk to to the other groups,” he tells her, then walks off.

Addison lets out an annoyed breath. She had hoped they were fine. But it was clear that Sam had zero desire to work alone with after everything that had occurred with Benny and Martin. She shakes her head and walks in the opposite of direction.

~*~

“Addison? Addison?”

Addison groans and opens her eyes. She was in a very nice tent laying on a very comfortable bed. And kneeing in front of her was Charlie. The last thing she remembered was walking through the woods, searching for the Shadow Orcs. It hadn’t taken her long to learn that the Shadow Orcs were using the same symbol that was found on Ed and Lance.

“Where am I,” Addison lets out, sitting up. She winces and places a hand to her forehead. “What the hell happened?”

“I was hoping you’d be able to answer that,” Charlie replies. Addison reaches into her skirt pocket and pulls out her phone. She lets out an annoyed breath upon seeing that she had no signal. “Did you see the skull figure too?”

“What skull figure,” Addison questions. Charlie motions to the figure standing by the fireplace, watching them. Addison slowly stands up. She holds up her hands. “Look, we’re unarmed. You let Charlie go. And you can keep me. We don’t want any trouble. I don’t want Sam pissed at me anymore and I want Dean and Sam to just be fine with each other again. And I’m sure that Charlie just wants to go back to being a run of the mill I.T. girl. I…I just want things to go back to normal.”

The figure pulls off the skull to reveal a beautiful woman standing in front of them. “That is all I want as well,” she tells them. She pulls off her cloak and she’s wearing a long white dress. “My name is Gilda. I’m from the Hollow Forest of Arkhmoor. I’m a fairy.”

“Swoon,” Charlie mutters.

Addison raises an eyebrow. “How did you get here,” she questions Gilda.

“I was summoned here by a spell,” Gilda answers, shooting a smile at Charlie.

“Who summoned you?”

“I don’t know his name, but I was brought here to do his bidding.”

“His bidding,” Charlie disbelievingly repeats. “That’s never good.”

“No. It’s not,” Addison agrees.

“My…master, he-he has me hurt people. He’s forcing me to. I’d never hurt anyone,” Gilda tells them. “I’m a fairy. The good kind.”

“So, why is the dick head who is controlling you forcing you to hurt people?”

“I don’t know. He started off with smaller commands, but he’s become more violent. He had me kill two men this week.”

“Man, someone is taking this game way too seriously,” Charlie says.

Gilda frowns. “Game?”

“This…my outfit, all of this…it’s just a game here.”

“Why would you play such a game?”

“This world…not so much with the awesome. The game is a way to get away.”

“It’s a lovely forest, but it’s nothing like my home.”

“And how do we get you back home?”

Gilda sighs. “I can’t break free from the spell, myself. A hero must take my master’s book of magic and destroy it, breaking the spell.”

Charlie stands up. “Gilda, my name is Charlie Bradbury and I am here to rescue you.”

Gilda smiles at Charlie and Charlie smiles back. Addison clears her throat. “Well, I’ll leave you two to it,” she says. “I’ll go find Dean and Sam. See if we can find this magic book or whatever.”

Addison turns to walk out of the tent. She stops upon seeing Dean, Sam, and one of the LARPers. “It’s him,” Gilda exclaims, staring up. “My master! Run!”

The LARPer pushes his hood down. Sam and Dean raise their guns. “No guns in Moondoor, gentlemen,” he says. “Gilda, if you please?”

A sad look crosses Gilda’s face as she waves her hand. The boys’ guns turn into feathers. “Well, now what, Gerry,” Dean asks.

“My name is Boltar the Furious,” Gerry snaps. “My plan was, after getting rid of all of my competition, to win the battle tomorrow, convincing the queen that I should be her king. But then you three idiots showed up and I was forced to improvise. Rescue the damsel in distress from the Orcs, become king, kill the three of you. That’ll work too.”

“So, why did you got from hobbling to murder,” Sam questions.

“Greyfox and Thargrim became part of the honor guard. They got close to the queen, but they did it by breaking the rules. Paying off other players with real money, rather than Moondoor currency. They were cheating.”

“And using magic isn’t,” Dean argues.

“Magic is part of Moondoor.”

“What is your problem,” Charlie questions. “Why would you hurt people? This is just a game.”

“There is no game,” Gerry shouts. Addison notices a small book hanging off his belt. “There is only Moondoor! I came here to be different, to get away from my crappy life, to be a hero, and guess what.”

“What,” Dean begins. “You were a loser in the real world and you’re a loser here? Shocker.”

“Would a loser track down a real book of spells and compel a fairy to do his bidding?”

Addison slides a under the suit jacket she was wearing. Her Colt Compact was sitting in the waist band of her skirt. “It depends,” Sam replies. He had noticed what Addison was doing. Her hand wraps around the handle of her gun. “How’d you get it?”

“eBay.”

“Look. It doesn’t have to be like this, Boltar. Just hand over the book of spells. We can work this out.”

Gerry picks up a fake sword. “This will all work out after I remove you from the playing field and wipe her memory. Gilda?”

Gilda sighs. Addison pulls out her gun and shoots the book hanging on Gerry’s belt. He lets out a shout and falls to the floor. He covers the wound on his thigh. She walks over and yanks the book off of his belt. She tosses the book to Charlie. “Save the damsel in distress,” she amusedly says.

Charlie stabs her dagger into the book. A bright light emits from it. “Are you okay,” she asks Gilda.

“I’m free of the spell,” Gilda replies. “You both saved me. The Hollow Forest is forever in your debt. I must return to those green hills now. I will take my former master with me. He must face a fairy tribunal for his sins.”

“Wait,” Charlie says. She walks over to the fairy and kisses her. Gilda smiles, then disappears with Gerry. “Call me…maybe?”

~*~

Addison sighs as she stares at the ceiling of the motel room. She had elected to stay behind while Dean and Sam went to visit Charlie. Her cell phone buzzes and she grabs it off the nightstand. “Yeah,” she answers, not taking her gaze off the ceiling.

“I need your help,” Sarah immediately greets. “Also, I’m outside of your motel room.”

Addison stands up and walks over to the door. She opens it to find Sarah, brightly grinning up at her. “What do you need help with?”

“A lead on our Rosetta Stone angel.”

#supernatural #fanfiction #dean winchester #addison sloan #sam wincester #ofc #oc

2 notes · View notes

ally-holmes · 2 years

Text

Unseen | ER Dr. John Carter x Reader (ch.1)

Series Masterlist

Chapter Two

Pairings: John Carter x Fem!Reader

Summary of the chapter: John Carter is back from his second escape to Africa, and he's not alone. When he gets to the County General he becomes aware of how much he had missed this, his people, but someone is missing; where is Y/N?

Word Count: 1677

Unseen ER | Chapter One

It was 2004. Ten years ago John Carter walked for the first time through the County General's doors, and here he was, once again, after his time in Africa with the excellent Kim (Makemba Likasu) holding his arm, in America. He'd always been quite the ladies' man. No, really, he could barely remember a year in which he was single. It wasn't a game for him, not like it had been for Doctor Ross until he finally settled with Nurse Hathaway. Carter had put his heart on full display any time; he even thought that he had found his one in Abby. He was going to give her his grandmother's ring, for God's sake! Now, though, he was quite content with Kim. She was extraordinary, fun, brilliant, gorgeous, and pregnant with his child. Of course, he loved her.

He couldn't stop the little pain in his guts when thinking about Y/N and the last time he had seen her.

The hospital was different since he had left for Africa, and there were new people too. Well, at least the new security system seemed sturdy enough to actually protect the patients and professionals inside. He shakes his head, remembering that time he led a strike until Weaver bought metal detectors. Totally unintentional, really! He wasn't a leader that way, no matter how Y/N said otherwise.

Making a beeline, Carter introduced himself to Nurse Taggart, also known as Sam, at the admissions desk and she let them in. Chuny, Haleh, Malik, Frank… God, he had missed them. When Pratt showed up to greet him, he felt suddenly anxious. It was stupid really. He had been well aware that both Abby and Y/N were going to be there — they worked here! —, but he still felt uneasy with the idea of showing up with his pregnant wife, without notice, to where his ex-girlfriend and his– his Y/N worked. Luckily for him, a trauma entered the hospital before he could even walk Kim to the OB floor.

The distraction was welcomed.

He had missed this, too. The thrill. The light. The technology that couldn't be found in the hospitals he had been helping in back in Africa. Oh, yes, baby; Doctor John Carter is back!!

The sight of his baby on the ultrasound was shocking to him. He had seen so many babies and yet his cheeks got heated up; his eyes filled with tears of joy. His baby. His. He was going to be a father. Oh, how he missed his grandparents at the time. They would have loved the little one.

Meeting Abby when he had an arm wrapped around Kim's shoulders and a picture of the ultrasound in the other hand was, in fact, pretty awkward. He awkwardly hugged her, and she responded accordingly. Luka came along to save them from the uncomfortable attempt at a conversation that was taking place.

"If it wasn't for you John and I might have never met," said Kim. Whether it was good or bad, Carter couldn't tell, honestly.

Luka nodded, quite proud of the claim missing the way Abby turned her head, displeased; he saw the picture in Carter's hand, and turned the conversation towards the baby; not a better topic for Abby, that's for sure. John pretended not to notice any of it.

"Well, I should probably… get back to work," Carter stated.

"It was nice to meet you all," Kim smiled at them. "Although it's a shame that I haven't met Y/N yet. John talked a lot about her."

Abby and Luka shared a knowing look; he gave Kim a fake smile. "She's not working here at the moment, I'm afraid."

"She's not?" Carter asked, confused.

"I'll tell you later if you want. Now we all have work."

The day was long and demanding of him until he finished his shift and was able to corner Luka for answers.

"Well? Where's Y/N?"

Luka hesitated, "She's in a mental institute."

The world shattered and collapsed in front of Carter. The questions piled up in his mind, but he was unable to voice any of them. He opened his mouth and closed it again a couple of times. His silence gave Luka enough time to figure out the best way to tell him what he could.

"Do you remember the last time you saw her? The day you left for good? You took some equipment from the hospital and left and she–"

"She followed me. Yes. Um… It wasn't to stop me; she wished me good luck, and– Then I left."

"Y/N never came back to the hospital. She was abducted before she could," before Carter could cut his explanation with questions, Luka held his hand up, pleading for patience and silence. "Apparently her boyfriend at the time was out there. He saw how you two said your goodbyes," he said with a pointed look, and Carter had to swallow a lump stuck in his throat, "and he took her. He kept her for five days. It wasn't a nice experience, he– Fuck, Carter, he tortured her and the moment he saw the police in his building, he stabbed her."

John flinched at that, his lower back suddenly hurting, a ghostly reminder of his own stabbing experience. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Frank called you when we noticed that she hadn't returned and you told him that you hadn't seen her."

"Why the fuck didn't he tell me that she was missing!! I thought that– Shit…"

"Anyway, what's done it's done, my friend. We took care of her in the hospital; no permanent damage on the physical level, but after a psychological exam it became clear that she was strongly traumatized. The psych floor didn't have any rooms at the time, so she was sent home–"

"What? That's not right! I–"

Luka placed his strong hands on Carter's shoulders, giving them a reassuring squeeze. "Y/N came to my place and I took a few days off to look after her," that seemed to calm the outraged man, although an ugly tug of jealousy twisted his insides. "There was no need in the end. Apparently, your grandmother liked her very much and Y/N was named in her will. With that money, we sent her to a private mental institute. She's been taken care of. I visit her from time to time, but I usually call and she had made a few good friends. She just can't come to work just yet, it's all too fresh to come back to Chicago."

"She's not in Chicago, then?"

"I'm afraid not. I cannot tell you where she is."

Carter frowned, "Why not? I want to talk to her. I need to see that she's doing fine."

"You need. Of course. But what of what she needs?"

"What are you–"

"She's in love with you and you know it, Carter. Since the beginning, you've known, and you did not correspond her. I'm not saying that you should have. I don't want to get stuck between you two; she just told me how she had always been there for you, longing for your love but quite content with just being your friend."

"Y/N's my best friend," he mumbled.

"I know that. She knows that too. However, she still waited for you year after year until she admitted defeat, then she found herself a boyfriend and you didn't like him."

"Can you blame me for that? I knew that he wasn't good, and look what he did!"

"You still kissed her goodbye."

Silence.

He had done that.

"I'm not saying this situation is your fault, but you must understand that for her to be able to come back to her old life, she needs to give up any remaining feeling she has for you. I'm not going to tell you where she is staying so you can call her just because you need it, Carter. The last time you were here you broke up with Abby without even talking about it, you two simply went in different directions and that was all. Coming back with Kim can be upsetting to Abby, of course, but she was the one who pushed you away that time, did she not? How do you think Y/N is going to take the news? Don't get me wrong, she would be happy for you because she's always happy as long as you're happy. That's not healthy, do you understand?"

He did. He didn't like it, though. Carter nodded all the same and the conversation was over. The Carter manor welcomed him darker and emptier than ever. Kim ran down the stairs to hug him and he responded unable to feel anything.

Suddenly it hit him; it was the first time he was in Chicago without Y/N. It was like the floor had disappeared under his feet in the blink of an eye. He had met her at the County General in his third year of med school, his first time under Benton's leadership. He thought about all the important events in his life since then, and she had been in every one of them to laugh with him, to cry with him, to give him support, to let him vent about something, to– She had always been there for him, and when she had needed him he was flying away from her. Away from her truths and his heart.

Carter didn't notice he was crying until Kim caressed his cheeks with a concerned look in her beautiful eyes. He loved her. He truly loved Kim, and–

"You fall in love way too easily, Carter. Tell me, and be honest with me, did you or did you not start to fall in love with that french nurse that was already with Luka even when you were determined to propose to Abby? Ah, there it is, the hit puppy look I'm immune to. You can't hide things from me, remember? I can see your soul." Y/N's playful but stern tone echoed in his mind.

To be continued… ch.2

#er #er tv show #er tv series #john carter #john carter x reader #dr. john carter #mark greene #doug ross #carol hathaway #luka kovac #abby lockhart #fanfiction #fanfic #fem reader #noah wyle #angst #comfort #kerry weaver

28 notes · View notes

picturethisshow · 1 month

Text

#LA & #Livestream fam: We have another hot lineup of your favorite LA comedians being ANIMATED LIVE!!

SATURDAY 8/31 7:30 doors 8pmPT show/livestream

Comedy by: Sherry Cola (Joy Ride) Cara Connors (Amazon Prime) Jamel Johnson (Aspecialthing Records) Rachel Pegram (HBO Max) Sam Taggart (@fter Midnight) Animation by: Mike Mayfield (Comedy Central) Mike Hollingsworth (BoJack Horseman) Julie Griner (Everything Now Show) Hank Hamner Portlynn Tagavi Isaiah Ferguson Hosted by: Brandie Posey (Lady to Lady)

LIVE SHOW TICKETS: $10 pre-sale, $15 day-of https://www.thevirgil.com/#/events/113811ac 21+ / Lineup subject to change without notice

LIVESTREAM ONLY: $10 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/831-livestream-only-picture-this-live-animated-comedy-tickets-983135744477?aff=oddtdtcreator *Not all performers guaranteed to be on the livestream *This will be a one time only livestream, there will be no archived version available *Any inappropriate behavior will result in immediate removal from the livestream *Please check emails for instructions to viewing link

Presented by Naked Comedy Productions

Flier by Isaiah Ferguson

0 notes

robotstrategy · 9 months

Text

Recalled • Part 2 • 17 - Roland

Previous • Series Masterlist • Part 2 Masterlist • Next

Roland looks out his bedroom window to Rewind on the other side, at least what he thinks is a Rewind.

“You’re not gonna open that window are you?” Kate asks. They both watch in horror as the Rewind grips their hands to the window and with enough force opens it from the outside.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that!” They panic, they bend themselves over and climb into the bedroom. “I didn’t mean to do that either! I’m so sorry Roland!”

Roland grabs a pencil from his desk and goes over the Rewind.

“How do you know my name?”

“We met at the support group, remember? I helped you stop freaking out when you were screaming in that box?”

Roland furrows his eyebrows.

“Nina?”

“Nero.”

“Right, Nero, okay, that still doesn’t explain WHAT YOU’RE DOING IN MY HOUSE!” He yells.

Nero looks back out the window and climbs back out into the backyard.

“Sam was wondering if you wanted to go to the arcade with us.” She starts “We didn’t know where you lived so I had to go on a little adventure.”

“And you somehow found him?” Kate asks from the computer.

“Yes.”

“How?” Roland asks.

“...”

“HOW DID YOU FIND ME NERO?”

“Muscle memory.”

Roland looks back to Kate as they exchange terrified looks.

“So do you want to go to the arcade? I gotta go back before Sam calls a search party for me.” Nero questions.

“I’ve only met you once, I’m not going to an arcade all the way over in Centerville with you.” He responds.

Nero huffs and looks around, she looks at her arms and legs then looks at his. They’re weaker. “Roland, be honest with me, when’s the last time you got out of the house?”

“I just got to go home a day ago.”

“Uh-huh, and what did you do yesterday?”

“... Layed in bed, ate snacks, slept, what’s your point?”

“Well, you’re not going to get your big, nice, muscles back if you keep doing that.”

Roland looks at himself, loathing it, should he keep up his physique and look like the monster he knows he is, or should he just waste away for a bit? There’s a part of him that just wants to crawl back into bed and sleep the rest of the day away. Nero steps back into the bedroom and pats him on the back.

“C’mon bud, you need some fresh air.”

Roland grumbles, removing her hand from his back.

“Fine, but I’m bringing my switchblade in case you try anything.”

“Fine by me, but just know, whatever you do, I’ll probably mirror it.”

Roland shivers a bit, he says goodbye to Kate before he grabs his switchblade and heads to the front door. In the entryway, there’s a picture of the Taggarts in a photo frame on a shelf. Roland flips it down before grabbing his shoes and heading back to his room. Nero waits for him on the other side of the window, He sets his shoes in the grass and quickly texts his mom that he’s going out, putting his shoes on he looks at Nero who climbs back over the gate.

“You could’ve just used the gate normally, y’know since you’re on the inside.” He shouts. He hears her laughing on the outside. He sighs, closing the window and opening the gate, walking through, and closing it back up.

He meets Nero at the mailbox; her arm rests on the family’s name.

“So, you were Roland Taggart at one point.”

Roland rolls his eyes. “What are you doing? Trying to be my therapist?”

“No, it’s just, that I found out a few things about you while trying to use your muscle memory to get here, I just want answers.”

Roland looks down at the ground. “My mom got a divorce while I was unwound.”

“Figured.”

Nero starts walking back in the direction she came.

“It's faster getting to Centreville the other way!” Roland shouts at her, Nero does a 180 and keeps walking down the street. Roland follows behind her, keeping his distance, Nero eventually stops.

“Uh, so where now?”

“You don’t know where you’re going?!”

“Hey! I got here using your legs, I have no idea where I’m going now.”

Roland grumbles again, nudging Nero ever so slightly as he passes her.

“So, have you been to the arcade before?” Nero asks.

“A few times.”

“Cool, cool.”

They walk down the same main street Nero did before. Roland catches Nero staring at all the things in the windows, it reminds him of Lilian, but Lilian would stop and stare, Nero just keeps walking. Roland turns his head back towards where he’s going, he’s met with Hibiscus flowers. The brushes outside the harvest camp, the shirts with flower prints, and the people looked like flower petals as they took him apart. There’s a siren of an ambulance blaring in his ears and it just makes everything worse. Someone walks in front of him and grabs his hands, and he can’t stop them, his body has frozen up on him and can’t do anything anymore. The person keeps walking forward through the flowers, tears are streaming down his face, and he can’t see properly anymore. Eventually the sirens quiet down, Roland wipes his eyes and looks up to see that he’s now across the street from the flower shop. He looks back ahead at Nero who still holds one of his hands.

“Are you alright?” She asks.

“I- I don’t know.” He replies.

“Would you still want to go to the arcade with us?”

“I don’t know.”

“I won’t stop you from going back.”

Roland looks back across the street at the flower shop, the flower bush still looms over him from such a far distance.

“I don’t want to go back, not right now.”

“I know the way to the arcade from here, I’m gonna keep going forward, you’re welcome to keep walking with me.”

Roland follows Nero down the street, there’s a textured part of the wall that Roland used to run his fingers across, he watches as Nero’s left arm goes up to touch the wall, she looks at it before looking back ahead.

“How much do you know about me, without actually knowing me?” He asks her.

She keeps running her fingers down the wall. “Well, you certainly don’t like being a part of me sometimes, I also know you were friends with some pretty inked-up people.”

“Oh, yeah, them.” He mumbles.

“I’m guessing you won’t want to be friends with them anymore, by the way, they called your new last name yin-ass.”

“You met them?”

“Going to your house wasn’t the only thing in your muscle memory, I met them in the alleyway. Their red eyes are kinda funny.”

“... I was going to get pigment injections to dye my eyes red to match my friends once, I went to the first session and… I realized that it would get rid of my blue eyes. My mom had brown eyes and… Mr Taggart also had brown eyes, my eyes were the only visual memory I had of my actual dad left, and now I’ve tainted them with red dots.” Roland confessed.

“Is your dad dead?”

“No, he’s in prison. I don’t know what for though.”

Nero looks at Roland, she gets closer to him and squints her eyes. “I don’t think you’ve tainted them, they actually look pretty cool.”

“You, you think so?”

“Yeah! Didn’t your friends tell you they looked cool?”

“They never gave me their opinions of me, because I was…”

“Violent?”

“Yeah.”

“Is it just you, Sam and I?” Roland asks.

“Huh? Oh, no, Sam also brought Tonya and Ian along, I don’t think you’ve met Ian before, but Tonya was at the support group session you went to.”

“Oh alright, I don’t think I’ve met Tonya either.”

“Well, you about to!” Roland looks over to a Rewind girl with cream-coloured puffy hair, beside her is a Rewind boy with two-toned bubble gum pink and electric blue hair, Sam stands in front of both of them.

“You found Roland, that’s amazing Nero.” Sam smiles.

Roland looks him directly in the eyes. “She broke into my house.” Sam, Tonya, and Ian look at Nero in disbelief.

“Well what did you expect, we had no normal way of contacting him.” Nero grabs the door to the arcade, “Now move it!”

Entering the arcade a wave of nostalgia washes over Roland, it was simpler back then. Back when he and his friends were just young and innocent, back when 10$ seemed like so much, back when his stepdad didn’t lash out daily. Roland balls his fists and crinkles his nose, his stepdad is gone, he shouldn’t get to have a spot in Roland’s memory.

“Thinking too hard over there?” Roland catches Nero in the corner of his eye, and he sighs.

“Do you always have to read everything on my mind?”

“Kinda, I think there was an incarcerated therapist up in here.” Nero pokes at her head.

“Wait, what?” He questions.

“You heard me, Proposition 73, unwinding criminals in order to get rid of prison overpopulation and, well, more parts.”

Roland thinks for a moment, he tenses up. “My dad is dead isn’t he?”

Nero leans over onto one of the arcade cabinets, deep in thought, preening the criminals who have become one with her for any more information. “Depends on his behaviour, from what I can recall they unwound criminals in the gray area, a limbo between heaven and hell of some sort. Some were too hostile to be unwound, some did smaller, no victims crimes and some were on their best behaviour, and therefore didn’t get unwound.”

Roland steps to the side, looking into an arcade machine with the preview of a robber running away from the cops. “If he’s like the way I was, he’s definitely gone by now.”

Sam steps in front of them unaware of the situation. “Ok, so I just got 25$ worth of tokens, would you like to share them with me?” Nero shrugs, “I don’t feel like playing anything, go have fun dude.” Sam looks at Roland, it puts him on edge a bit. “I’m just going to observe for right now.”

“Huh, well, your loss I guess.” Sam walks off.

Roland watches Nero's left arm try to throw itself at Sam before she clutches her belt, and it falls to her side. She whips her head around in a panic, “I’m sorry, I’m not sure who hurt you, but I’m sorry.”

Roland looks down at Nero’s hand that still clutches the belt, she looks down at it too and lets go of it, she stares back at him as she walks farther into the arcade. Roland leans his back against the arcade cabinet, and he winces, his back is like a game of Russian roulette, some parts are normal, some parts have nerve damage, and some parts can’t even feel at all anymore, and it’s all because of that damned belt.

Getting out of the way of other customers, he heads to the middle of the arcade where all four of the Rewinds sit around a cyclone machine.

“Could you please at least try?” Sam asks Nero.

“Sam, Ian literally just explained that this game is rigged and that the owner can set how many times you can win.”

Sam ignores her. “Pretty please!” he pouts his lips and tries to give her puppy dog eyes. Nero rolls her eyes and sighs.

“Your dead eyeball is not helping your case, I’m only doing this once, got it?”

Sam happily inserts a token, Nero puts her hand over her left eye, and she leans the right side of her face closer to the machine.

“What is she doing?” Roland asks.

“Her left eye is dead, which makes her lose her depth perception, so she closes her left eye in order to trick her brain into giving her it back,” Tonya explains.

“Oh, I just thought those were botched pigment injections.”

There’s a squeal of delight beside them, Nero sits there mouth agape as the machine spits out 100 tickets at her, Sam runs over to the tickets, but first Nero grabs his arm.

“I’m getting half of that!” She yells.

“Fair.” Sam sits on the floor and starts counting the tickets.

“I am gonna buy so much Fun Dip…” Nero says under her breath as she watches Sam rip apart two tickets in the middle of the string of them, handing half of it to Nero.

As Nero walks over to the prize counter Tonya comes up to Roland.

“Hey, I’m really sorry for what happened at the support group, it must have been awful to hear people talk like that about you.”

Roland shrugs. “It’s fine, I kinda deserve it.”

“But you don’t, you don’t deserve others laughing at your pain.”

Roland pauses for a moment. “I don’t remember that.”

Tonya crosses her arms and looks down at her feet. “There were two Rewinds from StaHo 2 that kept whispering about you the whole time, the girl wouldn’t stop laughing under her breath whenever you got sad, I’m glad you didn’t hear anything she said.”

“Thanks for caring I guess.”

“No problem, I’m a Rewind mostly made of tithes, so it’s in my nature to have empathy for everyone despite what they’ve done.”

Roland looks Tonya directly in the eyes, pointing a finger at her.

“Don’t you ever feel bad for me, I have done terrible things, and I do not deserve to be pitied for it.”

Tonya steps back, nodding her head, she goes deeper into the arcade, going after Ian.

“What was that about?” Roland turns to see Nero with a lik-a-stix already in her mouth, she’s got a medium plastic bag full of 24 Fun Dip packets. “Do you want one?”

“Do you have a blue raspberry one?” He asks.

“I sure do!” Nero reaches into the bag pulling out a packet for him. Roland opens up the powder side and pours it all into his mouth, next thing he knows Ian is running up to him and smacking him in the face.

“You don’t eat Fun Dip like that Roland! It’s not a Pixy Stix!” Roland coughs up the blue powder after being attacked while Nero rolls her eyes at Ian.

“Let him eat it how he wants, for all we know that little radio free guy you watch eats it like that too.” She argues.

“Ewah! No, Hayden would never!” He responds.

“Hayden likes eating Spam, I don't know anyone who likes eating Spam!”

Roland suddenly has an epiphany. “Wait, you know a guy named Hayden who likes Spam, what does he look like?!”

Ian’s eyes light up as he goes to the internet browser on his phone, and searches for ‘Radio Free Hayden’, the picture he shows Roland is almost a spitting image of the boy with braces from the basement.

“He talks a lot about unwinding stuff.” Ian starts, “I think you’d like to listen to him.”

“I think I’ve listened to him enough for a lifetime, when I was in an unwind safehouse with him, he wouldn’t shut up” Roland explains.

“You- you’ve met him in person?”

“Yeah.”

Ian runs back over to a claw machine where Sam and Tonya are trying to get little stuffed animals, he excitedly tells them the news, and they all look back over at him, smiling. Roland dodges their gaze and turns back to Nero who tears open another Fun Dip packet.

“Is there any way to get in contact with him?” He asks.

“Huh, who?”

“Hayden.”

“He has a contact page on his website, why do you want to talk to him so badly?” She questions.

“He’s the only person from my past who wouldn’t rip me to shreds if I tried talking to him.” He answers.

“Fair enough.”

Roland scratches the back of his head, the bright lights of the arcade machines are getting to his tired eyes. “I think I want to go back now.”

“Would you like me to walk you through the flower shop displays again?” Nero asks.

“Yeah, that would be nice.”

After arriving back home Roland logs onto his computer and searches for ‘Radio Free Hayden’, his page was the first result below a master class on how to make a professional podcast. Roland clicks on Hayden’s contact page, and he stalls for a moment, the contact page is for professional inquiries only, he should have known. He can’t give up now, so he writes him a letter before saving the page to his browser’s hotbar and logging off for the night.

#unwind dystology #unwind fanfic #unwind #unwind series #unwind oc #roland taggart #hayden upchurch

2 notes · View notes

queen-of-deans-booty · 2 years

Text

LARP and the Real Girl: Part Two

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.2k

Warnings: canon angst and violence

Author’s Note: I am so sorry I haven’t posted. I was sick with the flu and completely forgot about it. I will be posted both episodes now!

I do not own anything from Supernatural. All credit goes to their respective owners. Any and all comments on these are appreciated.

LARPing is nothing like you ever expected. You thought there would be a few people in costumes fighting it out with wooden swords, but this is a whole community of people. There are tents set up, props of all kinds scattered throughout the area, and everyone either in character or off to the side taking a break.

You've never felt so out of place than right here.

Joanna is holding onto your hand and walks next to you. You don't want her going anywhere that's not by your side because no matter how innocent this may seem, it's all very creepy to you. Still, Charlie is here somewhere, and you need to talk to her. Maybe she can help you or maybe she has no clue what's going on, but you won't know until you talk to her.

Renaissance music plays at this medieval-like camp. People in costumes pretend to fight with mock weapons, a woman plays a harp, and many others talk and stroll outside tents. Colorful banners bear various crests and signs point the way to the dungeon, privies and stockade. A large banner reads "Moondoor: The Battle of Kingdoms" right as you walk in.

You come across a scene where a man with large fake ears and comedic bad teeth that you'd find at the dollar store. This man's head is in a wooden pillory, but it's not locked since this is all pretend. There is another man standing off to the side, and they talk to each other as if they are the characters they play.

"I, Boltar the Furious," the man outside the pillory says, "bind you to this stock so that all of Moondoor may see you for what you are: a thief."

"My Shadow Orc brethren will descend from the Black Hills and the tents of Moo–" The man inside the pillory pauses when his teeth fall out of his mouth.

"Uh, hold!" Boltar says.

Everyone around them relax and begin talking to themselves since they are pausing their role-playing. Boltar picks up the fallen teeth and wipes them on his clothes before placing them back into the Orc's mouth.

"Thanks, Gerry. Sorry," he says to Boltar.

"Yeah, no problem, Monty," he nods.

Once Monty fels the teeth won't fall out again, he nods to Gerry who resumes the role-playing. Everyone stops talking and snaps back into character.

"Resume!"

"And the tents of Moondoor will be bathed in blood as we unseat the queen of the Moons from the throne she stole from the rightful heir--the Shadow King. And you--"

Gerry throws a red bean bag at Monty's forehead.

"Silentium! Serve your time with honor, heathen. If you need to use the chamber pot, stomp your feet thrice."

Gery walks away, and you stare at Monty with a weird look on your face. Gerry walks past Sam and Dean, but the older Winchester stops him.

"Excuse me. Hi. You are a LARPer, yeah?"

"I prefer the term 'interactive literaturist'."

"Right. I am Special Agent Rosewood. This is Special Agent Taggart and Fry."

You three hold up your badges, and he does something that shocks you, but it doesn't seem to phase him in the slightest.

"Hold!" He puts down the hood of his costume and speaks with his everyday voice instead of his character's voice. "Um, guys, we're not doing the whole genre-mash-up thing this weekend. We only do that every third month."

"Excuse me?" you ask.

"Your fake badges and the cheap suits? It's very cool. I get it. Your characters are FBI agents that somehow traveled to Moondoor, but I'm telling you it's straight-up Moondoor this weekend."

"These aren't fake badges," Sam says.

"Yeah, they are," Gerry chuckles and grabs Sam's badge to look at it. "They're very good, but the ID number shifted to ten digits with two letters mixed in at the end of the year. The seal's from last month. It's really good work." He hands Sam his badge, and the younger Winchester quickly puts it back in his pocket. "There's a tournament this weekend, so you have to follow the rules. If there's no rules, there's chaos." He puts his hood back up and resumes the roleplay. "Resume. If you would like to join the army of Moons, the queen is always on the lookout for new squires."

"Yes. Right. Uh, we would like to see your queen now, please," Dean says, going along with his game.

"Well, the queen's calendar is booked months in advance. If you wish to witness what's in store for you in her army, her highness is overseeing new squires on the pitch as we speak."

He leads you three further into the park where there is a fight going on with fake swords. You really want to get the hell out of here, but you have a job to do, so you can't leave just yet. Your lower back is killing you the more you're on your feet, but you ignore it as much as you can.

In the middle of a gathering, there are two sword fighters wearing helmets and shiny armor. The sword of the first looks somewhat realistic while the sword of the second is wrapped in yellow foam. They fight for ten more seconds before the first one overpowers the second. The second sword fighter falls to their knees and surrenders.

"Yield! I yield!"

The sword fighter with the realistic sword takes off the helmet, and your eyes widen when you see that it's Charlie. The crowd applauses her win, but she doesn't bask in the glory for long.

"I love you," the man on his knees says.

"I know. Take your leave to my medical tent and attend to your... severed limbs."

The man gets up and leaves, and Charlie addresses the crowd, not having seen you or the brothers yet.

"Greyfox and Thargrim are missing. We pray to the Goddess that they have not fallen victim to foul play. In their absence, the honor guard's ranks are weakened. To join--" She falls quiet when she locks eyes with you, then Sam and then Dean. She knows trouble is here if you three are here, and she gulps visibly. "The queen needs some royal 'me' time. Talk amongst thyselves."

She walks briskly into her tent, and you three follow her. Dean passes by the fallen yellow foam sword and picks it up, admiring the quality of it.

"Nice balance," he chuckles.

"Dean."

"Yeah," he nods and jogs to catch up with you.

Charlie is packing her things into a bag knowing that she doesn't want to be here anymore. You're happy to see her, but she clearly isn't happy to see you three. You let go of Joanna's hand, and she runs over to the large bed and climbs on top of it where she is content playing with her toys. The tent is decorated with a rug, some small statues, lanterns, and a table with fancy chairs. A map with figurines positioned on it is on a second table. It must be her map of the land she is role-playing in.

"Charlie," you begin, but she cuts you off.

"Charlie Bradbury is dead. She died a year ago. You three killed her. My name is Carrie Heinlein. Oh, and guess what? Now you killed her, too."

"Okay, listen--"

"No, I buried myself. Then Dick Roman went down, his company belly-up, and I figured everything was okay. I got my life back. Now you're here, and if you guys are here, monsters are here. Why do I have such bad luck? What am I, some kind of monster magnet? Is there such a thing as a monster magnet?" She looks at you three with wide eyes, but as soon as Dean goes to say something, she quickly shakes her head. "You know what? Don't answer that. I don't care. What I care about is not getting my other arm broken or dying. So, I'm dropping my sword and walking off the stage, bitches." She walks to the front of the tent and places a crown on Dean's head to signal that she is done. "Have fun storming the castle."

"Charlie!" you say urgently, causing her to halt. "Greyfox and Thargrim or Ed and Lance, they're not missing. They're dead."

"What? H-How?"

"Ed was dismembered in his own home, and Lance coughed up a lung inside a locked interrogation room."

"Drawn and quartered and bleeding out? Please stop talking again," she sighs. She walks back into the tent and sets her things down to process this. "So, what do you think did this?"

"Well, aside from this mark on their bodies," you slide her a picture of the black tree symbol, "and that they're both LARPers, there's not much to go on."

"Wait, I've seen this before. It's a Celtic magic symbol. At least it was in my favorite video game. Does that help? Can I go now?" she says hopefully.

"It's a start, but no. What can you tell us about Ed and Lance?"

"They're good guys. Two of the best members of the queen's ever-shrinking army."

"Ever-shrinking?"

"My kingdom has had a lot of bad luck lately, probably because of me, but maybe it's tied to this mark. A month ago, one of my guys had both her ankles broken before battle. Before that, I had three people who had hospital-worthy accidents while at home. You think there's any connection there?"

"Did they have any enemies in common?"

"In real life? No. Everyone gets along famously. In the game, though, that's a different story."

She gets up and walks over to the table with the map. It's of Moondoor, and upon it are different-colored figurines representing different armies.

"They had tons of enemies. Red represents the followers of the Moon--my peeps. Green's for Elves, blue's for Warriors of Yesteryear, and black's for Shadow Orcs. They're total d-bags. This weekend is the Battle of the Kingdoms to see who wears the Forever Crown. This weekend, each faction is definitely an enemy of me and mine."

"You know, if you move your archers back and you're broadswords men to the west--"

"They can fight the warriors," Charlie finishes for Dean. It's weird to see Dean like this, especially when he hasn't shown any interest in this kind of thing before. "Hey, good call. What about the southern wall?"

"Okay, can we focus?" you ask and Dean snaps back into reality.

"Yeah? Right. Sorry."

"So, maybe someone from one of the other kingdoms got a hold of real magic and started using it to weaken your army," Sam theorizes.

As he is talking, Dean picks up a trebuchet figurine and moves it to a different position on the map. He and Charlie make eye contact, and they both nod when they agree that it's the best position for this kind of thing.

"Why not just come after me? Why the escalation?" Charlie sighs.

"We should canvas the kingdoms," you state. "You should get out of here. You don't want to get hurt again."

"Whoa, wait. Charlie knows Moondoor a lot better than we do. We need her," Sam says.

"Sam, I think we can take care of a bunch of accountants with foam swords," Dean scoffs.

"We need all the help we can get, Dean. People are dying."

"Our point, which is usually yours, is that she should get somewhere safe and get back to a normal life."

"Hey, I am right here, and I want to leave," Charlie says, but the queen has to stay. I mean, Sam is right. People are dying. That can't happen on my watch. You know what? I am tired of running. I like my life here. I'm gonna stay and fight for it."

"How can I say no to that?" you chuckle.

Sam's phone rings and he answers it, quickly hanging up once he got what he needed.

"So, the toxicology report came back on Lance. Nothing, but the medical examiner said his body showed clear signs that he was killed by Belladonna."

"The porn star?" Charlie and Dean speak at the same time.

You roll your eyes and take a seat since your back is killing you again.

"The poison. However, they couldn't find a trace of it in his system."

"Just like they couldn't find ropes in Ed's apartment."

"Charlie, I'm gonna need to borrow your laptop," Sam says.

"There are no laptops in Moondoor. There are rules, but there is a tech tent four tents down."

"Okay. How about you three go canvas, and I'll dig into these accidents and this mark?"

"Take Joanna with you, please," you say.

Joanna raises her arms when Sam approaches her, and he scoops her into his arms. They both leave, leaving you and Dean alone with Charlie.

"Okay. I'm gonna need the full wiki on where you guys have been. But first, you're gonna have to ditch the suit if you're gonna walk and talk with the queen."

She digs into her closet and hands Dean some clothes to wear, and you spread your arms as if to say, "what about me?"

"What am I supposed to wear? You got anything for a pregnant woman who is six months along?"

Charlie produces a beautiful yet plain red dress that goes all the way down to your feet. You quickly change into it without any problem, but Dean takes longer since he has armor and other things attached to his costume. When you're done, you sit back down at the table and watch Dean with a certain kind of glint in your eyes.

"Damn, how can you make even this look hot?"

"It doesn't take much, sweetheart," he smirks.

"I got a little wet, to be honest," you chuckle, but the smirk doesn't lift from his face.

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

11 notes · View notes