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enby-jellyfish · 1 month

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The Incident

Prologue of Managing the Mystery Shack

Grunkle Stan X GN!Reader (POC friendly)

Pronouns: You/Your

Summary: You and Stan meet under unfortunate circumstances.

Warnings: Angst, canon typical paranoia, insomnia, cursing, descriptions of a fresh wound, amnesia

Word Count: 4099

A/N: the old man virus tm has caught me again...

Getting hired as a research assistant by Ford when you were fresh out of university seemed like a dream come true at first. Moving to this strange town in Oregon called Gravity Falls, leaving behind everything you had ever known, was hard, but worth it. Gravity Falls is absolutely fascinating, filled to the brim with all sorts of mind-blowing anomalies.

Upon your arrival Ford had explained his plans of building an interdimensional portal. To do this he needed the help of you and another scientist named Fiddleford McGucket. Your job would be to support Ford and Fiddleford in the collection and analysation of data and samples.

The first few days you, Ford, and Fiddleford spend excavating the alien Crash Site Omega to gather materials and technology. During this time the three of you find all sorts of oddities, Ford continuously scribbling away at the journal he keeps with him at all times.

The more time passed, the more progress you made on the portal and the more creatures you discovered, some more violent than others, Fiddleford often taking the brunt of the first, causing him to become more and more paranoid. It got to a point where he asked Ford not to continue the project, but Ford declined, too hungry for the knowledge he was gaining.

Another thing you had been noticing is the odd behaviour off said boss. The yellow sticky notes always covering his workplace read odd messages, like a conversation. Ford also never seemed to sleep. Several sleepless nights you had seen him awake as well, always working. You couldn’t fully explain it but he doesn’t seem like himself in those moments. The morning after he would rave and rant about the things his ‘muse’ had enlightened him with, always refusing to reveal this person’s identity, but you couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

The first test run for the portal brought some clarity though. When. The portal was activated Fiddleford got partially sucked into it, speaking a language you didn’t understand when he came out before giving a warning about ‘the beast with just one eye’.

Fiddleford told you that the portal was too dangerous and urged you to destroy it, but when Ford refused his pleas once again, he quit the project and left. After this you demanded that Ford explain himself, to stop with the lies and secrets and to straight up tell you what he’s been keeping from you all this time.

He caved and confided in you about the demon called Bill and his plans with the portal to merge his so-called ‘nightmare realm’ with ours. The two of you decided that you wouldn’t let that happen, so you shut off the portal and built a machine to keep Bill out of the house and your minds.

The tension kept rising, Ford becoming increasingly paranoid. He started writing his journal entries in invisible ink, but that wasn’t enough. With Ford’s fear of Bill’s inevitable return growing stronger, he made the decision to abandon his research and hide his journals. He hid the second and third journals first, not telling you where to protect yours and the secret location’s safety. The two of you also converted his offsite laboratory into a fallout shelter, just in case, before he finally contacted his brother.

Ford was never one to share his personal life with you. He never spoke of his family, you didn’t even know he had a brother, but Ford insisted he was the only one he could trust besides you. And so, a postcard was sent whilst Ford started going borderline insane with paranoia.

It was difficult living with him those next few days. Ford had boarded up all windows, putting up ‘keep out’ signs outside, barely acknowledging you when you tried to speak to him, muttering to himself.

You hear knocking and move to open the front door, only to almost get trampled by Ford wanting to get there first. You look past him when he opens the door to see a man outside, he looks an awful lot like Ford, but a bit fuller, without the cleft chin, and with a mullet. This must be his brother. “FORD, is the crossbow really necessary?”

He didn’t respond to you but lowered the crossbow. “Stanley, did anyone follow you, anyone at all?” Ford hands you the crossbow for you to put away. “Uh, hello to you too pal. Who’s that?” Ford didn’t answer him and pulled his brother inside, shining a light in his eyes. “Wh- HEY, what is this!?” You gently pull Ford back, giving him a look. Ford turned his gaze from you, back to his brother and let him go. “Sorry, I just had to make sure you weren’t- uh, it’s nothing. Come in, come in.” Ford leaves, gesturing for you both to follow him.

Stanley enters, taking in the dishevelled shack. You close the door and introduce yourself as Ford’s assistant. “Sorry about him, I’m sure this wasn’t the reunion you were expecting.” Stanley looks at you. “Call me Stan, and no, it isn’t.” The two of you follow Ford further into the house. “Look, are you gonna explain what’s going on here? You’re acting like mom on her tenth cup of coffee.” Ford grabs his notes and journal exclaiming that there isn’t much time, that he’s made a huge mistake, and he doesn’t know who else he can trust. You watch awkwardly from a distance as Stan tries to calm down his frantic brother.

“I have something to show you, something you won’t believe.” Ford claims. “Look, I’ve been around the world, okay. Whatever it is, I understand.” Stan says confidently, making you feel the need to butt in. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that…”

You and Ford lead him to the lab underneath the house. You open the door for the brothers with a monotone ‘tadaaa~’ and let them enter before you, revealing the portal. “Whelp, you were right. There is nothing about this I understand!” Ford immediately starts explaining how it works, why he created it, and the terrible destruction it could cause.

“That’s why I shut it down and hid the journals that explain how to operate it. There is only one journal left, and you are the only person I can trust to take it.” Ford hands his brother the journal. “I have something to ask of you, remember our plans to sail around the world in a boat?” Stan seems to start glowing at the mention of his childhood dream, a smile decorating his face. You feel bad for what is about to happen.

“Take this book, get on a boat, and sail as far away as you can! To the edge of the earth! Bury it where no one can find it.” Your heart breaks for the poor man as you watch Stan’s happy expression fall. He looks at you for a moment as if to make sure he heard his brother right. You can do nothing but grimace at him, shrugging your shoulders apologetically.

Stan’s expression then changes from hurt and shock to anger. “That’s it?! You finally wanna see me after ten years, and it’s to tell me to get as far away from you as possible?” Ford tries to tell Stan he doesn’t know what he’s up against, what he’s been through, but Stan won’t have it, rebutting that Ford is being selfish by hoarding his college money and only caring about himself.

Not liking where this is going you decide to speak up but are interrupted by Ford. “I’m selfish? I’m selfish? Stanley, how can you say that after costing me my dream school? I’m giving you a chance to do the first worthwhile thing in your life, and you won’t even listen!” You attempt speaking up again. “Guys, let’s not-” But are interrupted again.

“Well, listen to this. You want me to get rid of this book? Fine, I’ll get rid of it right now.” ��Stan takes out a lighter, going to light the journal on fire but Ford stops him. “You said you wanted me to have it, so I’ll do what I want with it.” Stan holds the journal to the small flame again and in a panic, Ford tackles him in an attempt to stop him from destroying the research he’s been working on for years.

“Ford! This isn’t-” You feel helpless as you watch them wrestle for the journal, physically intervening could only make things worse. “You are both acting like children! Can’t you talk this through like adults?!” They fall through the door of the control room, Ford pushing Stan onto the console in the process.

Suddenly the lab came to life, lights blaring. They must’ve accidentally activated the machine. Shit. “Guys! Stop it! The portal!” You rush to get to the control room but are pushed aside when Ford kicks his brother. You fall to the ground as you hear Stan scream in pain.

“Stanley! Oh, my gosh, I’m so sorry. Are you-” Ford’s apologies are interrupted by Stan punching him square in the face. He stumbles back onto a lever, fully activating the portal.

“Some brother you turned out to be. You care more about your dumb mysteries than your family. Well, then you can have ‘em!” Stan shoves the journal back into Ford’s hands with enough force to cause Ford to lose his balance. He stumbles over the caution line on the floor and starts floating towards the portal.

You run to lever, attempting to stop the process. “Whoa, whoa, hey. What’s going on? Hey, hey, Stanford!” Stan is shocked out of his rage, rushing to grab his brother but you manage to stop him before he can get sucked in too. Ford calls your name “, Stanley, help me!”

“Oh, no! what do I do?” Stan panics while you try to get to the control room, but you are too late. “, Stanley, do something!” Ford throws the journal at his brother, calling his name one last time before getting fully sucked through the portal.

With that the portal produces a blast that pushes you against the door frame, knocking you out.

You wake up to a gruff voice and rough but gentle hands touching the right side of your face. Weirded out and uncomfortable you try and move away from the person touching you, your body feeling sluggish, not fully obeying your commands. “No, no. Don’t move. Just let me patch you up.” You recognise the voice but can’t fully place it.

You force yourself to open your eyes, immediately regretting it when a piercing pain cuts through the side of your face, blooming out through your collarbone and into your chest. You groan, squeezing your eyes shut and writhing in pain as two hands force your shoulders down onto what you are laying on. “No, stop it. I know it hurts, just try to stay still for a few more seconds.” The hands return to your face, seemingly bandaging the source of your pain. You take deep breaths through your nose in an attempt to calm down until the hands move away and the pain slightly subsides.

“There, all done. You just had to wake up when I change your bandages, didn’t you?” You open your eyes again, taking in your surroundings. It takes a moment of sluggishly looking around before you recognise where you are, Ford’s room. “Ugh, what happened?” You clutch the uninjured side of your head in an attempt to sooth the throbbing. “That bastard’s stupid machine blasted you against a doorframe. Don’t you remember?”

Machine? Blast? What? “I don- agh!” You make an effort to sit up, but everything hurts. Your face. Your brain. Trying to recall anything right now makes you want to curl up in a corner and die but you yearn for answers. “Hey, take it easy. You hit your head pretty hard there, gave you a nasty gash. You lost a lot of blood, and I am about the furthest thing from a doctor you can get, but I managed to stop the bleeding and stitch you up.” One of his warm hands hesitantly comes up to your back to steady you. “Do you have anything for the pain?” You breathe.

“Uh, yeah. I don’t think it’s gonna cut it but there should be some aspirin or something in here.” He rummages through a messy looking first aid kit, taking out the strip of pills. “Here. I’ll get you some water. Don’t move. Or erm, y’know what I mean.” You listen to him continuing to mutter to himself as he leaves. You press your temple against the colourful window, the cold glass feels soothing. When you look outside you notice it’s snowing.

You look up when Stan re-enters the room, handing you a big glass of water. You take the meds, chugging the whole glass after, only now realising how thirsty you are. “I needed that, thank you.” Stan nods, rubbing his neck with one hand, the other on his hip. You look around the room, catching your breath, waiting for the meds to kick in. The room is dark, a pillow and a red jacket are strewn over the carpet, other than that it’s still the same messy room.

‘Yeah, uh, you hungry?” “Starving.”

As the two of you finish your respective can of miscellaneous food, you start feeling slightly better. “So, how long was I out for?” Stan shrugs as he takes your and his can and puts them on the small table next to him. “About 2 days, I think.” Fuck. “And Ford?” Stan shakes his head, not meeting your gaze. “He’s gone, and that stupid machine broke when he went through.”

Stan stands up, picking up the journal from under the jacket on the floor “I’ve been trying to fix it so I can get him back.” He sits next to you, flipping through the thick book. “I’ve been using this but there are mostly a concerning amount of notes on mushrooms in here, not the portal.” He taps the page that shows then incomplete blueprint before flipping to the end. “I need the other journals, Stanford said he hid them. You wouldn’t happen to know where, would you?”

He looks at you with a hopeful expression. “No, I’m sorry. It’s all fuzzy.” While the pain is now bearable, the gaps in your memory haven’t disappeared yet. “Damn, you really hit your head hard huh, fuck. I’m not sure if I can fix it without help."

“I can try, I’m part of the reason he’s gone. If I had been faster he’d still be here.” He laughs humourlessly. “Hey, at least you did something. I just stood there like an idiot.” He looks so sad and tired, tears welling up in his eyes. You grab his hand in an attempt to comfort him. “Hey, it was an accident. It’s no use beating yourself up over it.” He sniffles, looking at your intertwined hands instead of meeting your gaze. “It’s getting late, how about we try and get some sleep and tomorrow we’ll go over everything together.” He clears his throat, letting go of your hand and wiping away the tears he refused to let fall. “Yeah, okay. Um, I’ll give you some privacy. I’ll be in the spare room upstairs, just yell if you need something.” You bid him goodnight and he leaves, taking the journal, a pillow, and his jacket with him.

That night you have a hard time getting to sleep, the guilt over what happened plaguing your mind, ruining the sleep you do manage to find with nightmares. Ford might be dead right now, or worse. You know that machine is dangerous, but you have to clear your conscious and get your friend back.

The next morning you wake up to the sunlight caressing your face through the window. Groaning you stand up, head throbbing, you stumble over to the bathroom to take some more medicine. Wiping your mouth, you dare look in the mirror above the sink. Bandages are covering most of the right side of your face, there is no blood leaking through, which is good. The flesh underneath feels swollen and tender though, you can see bruising peek out from underneath the bandages. The rest of your skin looks about as dull and lifeless as you feel. You debate taking off the bandages to fully inspect the damage.

Your curiosity getting the better of you, you gently wet and peel back the bandage, cringing at the sight. The gash is long and deep, reaching from your temple, just above your eyebrow, to your chin, crossing your lips and the side of your eye. Thankfully, aside from the swelling the wound didn’t seem to have damaged your vision. The stitching is done crudely, yet effectively, and the wound looks clean.

“It’ll probably leave a scar.” You see Stan behind you in the mirror holding two mugs of coffee. “Yeah, probably…” You don’t necessarily care about your appearance, but oddly enough, having a permanent reminder of the day your boss got sent to an alternate dimension isn’t exactly a pleasant idea.

You turn around to face Stan. “Yikes! You look even worse up close.” He grimaces playfully as he holds a mug out to you. “Ha, ha.” You deadpan as you take the mug, rolling your eyes and instantly regretting it when the pain returns. You lean against the sink as you sip, taking some weight off your shaky legs.

After the two of you finish your coffee Stan gets you a change of clothes and helps you to the lab where he shows you his progress. The two of you go over the machine and the journal together, him sharing his theories and questions and you elaborating and explaining where you can. This, however, proves difficult due to there still being considerable gaps in your memory.

Days pass and you develop a routine: wake up, drink coffee with Stan, work in the lab or search the house for more information until you physically can’t, scarf down some food, and end the day by getting some sleep, or, rest more like. The guilt and stress make it hard to sleep. Working with Stan is nice though, despite the circumstances. His stubborn and devoted spirit keeps you going. He’s funny too.

Weeks pass and with food running out the two of you decide to venture into town. Arriving at the small store Stan takes a loaf of bread while you grab some instant coffee. The nice-looking elderly lady behind the counter rings you up. “Just this then, there strangers? That’ll be $ 4,99.” You reach to take out your wallet before realising you spent your last penny during your research and Ford can’t exactly pay you now. You look at Stan, he checks his pockets and sighs when he only finds some junk.

You’re about to apologise and put the stuff back when a voice interrupts you. “Hey, those’re no strangers! They must be the mysterious science duo that live in the woods. My, what happened to your face!” You cringe and hide in the hood of your jacket. This has got to be the last thing you want to have to deal with right now. Stan evidently feels the same as he pulls the strings on his hood and tries to tell the lady she’s got the wrong people.

Alerted by the lady’s exclamation the other customers gather around you, saying how they heard strange stories about that old shack, something about mysterious lights and spooky experiments. “Gosh, I’d pay anything to see what kind of shenanigans the two of you get up to in there!” The elderly man behind the counter says. “Oh, me too! Do ya ever give tours?” The first lady adds.

“No, really, I-” Stan stops himself, realising he can make money off this. He shares a look with you, as if to ask for permission. The two of you are gonna need money to keep this up so you hesitantly give him a nod. “Yes! I do give tours! 10- nah, nah, 15 bucks a person!”

Stan immediately visibly brightens up as people excitedly start cheering and waving their money at you. You take some of the money they are throwing at you and slip away to get some more groceries. As the old couple bags up your groceries the first lady taps you on your shoulder and introduces herself as Susan before asking what your name is. You tell her and she smiles kindly at you before turning to Stan.

“Sir! What did you say your name was, you man of mystery?” Stan stops counting the money before introducing himself. “Oh, uh, Stan… ford. Stanford Pines.” You then gather everyone up and Stan leads them to the shack.

The tour started out as a slight disaster with Susan getting injured from one of Ford’s machines and people demanding their money back, but Stan’s charisma and showmanship saved the day. There is truly some great potential here.

That night the two of you share a full meal together, the first in a long time, and the first of many to come. The two of you enjoy your meal in comfortable silence for a bit, savouring the meal, before Stan speaks up. “So, I was thinking. We’re not fixing that portal anytime soon and we need money, for food and to pay the mortgage. Now, this town thinks I’m Ford, so I’ll continue living under his identity so we can keep the house.” He moves his hands excitedly as he speaks. “We’ll fix up the shack, make some new attractions, cuz those knick-knacks lying around here ain’t gonna cut it, maybe we can even have a gift shop!” He takes another bite and continues explaining his plan with his mouth full. “By day I could keep giving the tours and you could do the logistics side, like make sure everything runs all smooth-like y’know, and by night we could keep working on the machine.”

You think about it for a second, taking a sip of your drink. “So, we’re going full on tourist trap, okay, do you have a name in mind?” He smirks, leaning back in his chair, one arm above his head, the other on his stomach. “I’m thinking ‘The Murder Hut’! Playing into the mystery part of it, people love that kind of stuff.” He uses his hands to frame the name. “Not a bad plan, but if you’re gonna be Stanford, who’s gonna be Stanley? You can’t be in two places at once.”

Stan clears his throat, sitting up straight. “Um, I was thinking of faking my death? I know some people who won’t ask questions, don’t ask. How about a car crash?” You sigh. This is all becoming very real right now. “Are you sure about all this? It won’t be easy to come back from this.”

“I don’t really have a choice, do I? I need to get my brother back; to get him back I need to keep the house, to keep the house I need to become Stanford.” He smiles sadly at you. “Look, I get it if you don’t want to get further involved in all this, and you can leave if you want to, no hard feelings, but it’s gonna be a hell of a lot harder without you.”

Stan gives you a pleading look. “So, what do you say? Partners?” He holds out a hand for you to shake. You take a deep breath, thinking it all through. Agreeing will get you in a whole lot of trouble, but refusing would weigh more heavily on your mind than you think you can take.

So, you shake his hand. “Partners. But I’m telling you, the ‘Murder Hut’ isn’t going to stick.” Stan lets out a loud laugh, squeezing your hand before letting it go. “What? of course it will! I’m somewhat of an expert at naming things, y’know.” He proceeds to tell you all about his failed salesman career with the same eccentric manner of storytelling he used during the tour.

The two of you talked and shared stories the whole evening through. Until you called it a night and the two of you cleaned up and head upstairs for bed. You stop before entering your respective rooms. “Tomorrow we’ll start planning the renovations for the house.” You tell him. He nods. “Sounds good, partner.” You smile at that as he turns around. “Stan?” He turns.

“We’ll get him back, I promise.”

Next part

Masterlist

Thank you for reading <3

#grunkle stan x reader #stan pines x reader #stanley pines x reader #gravity falls x reader #fanfiction #fanfic #x reader #reader insert #my writing

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blooberrytea · 27 days

Text

Playful Banter

Summary: A little friendly sparring session!

Pairing: Connor x Reader

Word Count: 905

“Oh, absolutely not!” You turned in your swivel chair, deciding that the current case on your computer was far more interesting than the android behind you.

“Ohhhh, [Name], why not!” Connor pressed, nudging your shoulder, “It’ll be fun!”

You let out an exasperated sigh, dropping your head back against your seat– to which Connor promptly leaned over you. You had to hold back a laugh because the position immediately reminded you of something out of a movie.

“It’ll be anything but fun. No offense, but you’re literally built like a machine.”

Connor pursed his lips, “I’ll go easy on you.”

“That defeats the purpose of sparring!”

Connor huffed, turning your chair back around to face him. He placed his hands on the arm wrests, practically looming over you. A few months ago this would have flustered you to no end and he would’ve teased you relentlessly for your rosy cheeks. Today you met him head on.

“You’re causing a scene.” You murmured.

“Would it help if you lost in the safety of your apartment? Wouldn’t want anyone to see, y’know.”

You gaped at him, furrowing your brows, “I’m not scared of losing!”

Connor hummed, tilting his head at you, “You sound pretty scared. In fact, I think you’re starting to cluck. Like a chicken.”

You leaned in until your lips were almost brushing against his, “I’m going to kick your little android butt.”

–

You had two options here. Take the offensive position or the defensive position. Connor was built for this. As an android he didn’t run out of stamina, air in his lungs, or feel even remotely tired. He’d go easy on you in the sense that he wouldn’t use all of his brute android force, but he wasn’t going to let you win. He could predict your movements faster than you could execute them.

You could choose to go in and use up all your energy assaulting him or you could block his oncoming assault. Either way, you drew the short end of the stick.

You took a wide stance on the mat, leaning into your back foot.

Defense it was.

“I could turn on sparring mode and initiate false stamina.”

You gave him a look and he held his hands up in surrender, “Your loss.”

The two of you danced around each other for a moment; You bouncing on the balls of your feet, Connor flat footed and with an almost dangerous look in his eye. He was definitely seeing your vital signs right now. While yes, you were absolutely reeling about potentially losing, Connor had also been relentlessly teasing you all day. This sparring match was just the icing on the cake.

You swallow and beckon him forward with a couple flicks of your fingers.

He smirks.

Connor throws the first punch and you dodge, swiftly side stepping him but he sweeps his foot under your leg and effectively knocks you to the ground.

He’s set the tone for the fight instantaneously.

You’re built pretty decently, have to be as a detective, right? But holy fuck, you couldn’t compare to the literal hunk of metal that had badgered you into training with him.

You let out a groan as your head collides with the mat.

“Still don’t want me to turn on sparring mode?” He’s leaning over you again, continuing this trend of being so close he could kiss you. He doesn’t though.

“Shut up.” You huffed, taking his hand and allowing him to pull you back onto your feet.

You throw the first jab this time and he catches your fist in his hand, easily overpowering you.

“Come on, [Name], is that all you’ve got?” He teases, tilting his head at you. That stupid piece of loose hair falls over his eyes and you’re briefly distracted by how hot he looks right now. Your eyes glance to his lips and immediately back up.

You mentally shake yourself out of it and opt to jab your other fist into his torso, only for him to catch that one too. Connor spins you around, crossing your arms over your chest and holding you back against him; like some kind of mock straight-jacket.

You can feel heat along your neck, his synthetic breathing, and it makes you shiver.

“Someone’s distracted.”

You lean your head back against his shoulder, letting out a soft breath.

"Yeah. You are."

You adjust your stance, placing your foot between Connor’s legs before abruptly kicking his foot out from under him. He falls to the mat, taking you with him but he’s stunned enough that you’re able to wrestle yourself out of his grip.

You adjust yourself with lighting speed, settling yourself on his chassis and slamming his wrists to the foam. You both lay there for a moment, your chest heaving as you recover.

“Point: Me.” You say triumphantly, crossing your arms, albeit breathless.

You’re too busy basking in your glory to notice the smug grin on Connor’s face.

A yelp escapes you as the android abruptly flips you onto your back, pinning your wrists to the mat. All arrogance leaves your body as you meet Connor's eyes. He’s so close you can see every detail on his face. You can feel his torso moving against you as his inner-workings replicate human breath.

“Your cheeks are flushed.” He hummed, murmuring against your lips.

“Oh my god. Are you going to kiss me or not?”

#detroit become human #fanfic #connor rk800 #connor x reader #dbh fanfic #x reader #dbh #reader insert #connor rk800 x reader

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riftfic · 1 year

Text

14. Human

Who will save you now?

Warnings: strong language, referenced suicide, violence

Featured Characters: Sans, Chara/Frisk (Reader), Flowey/Asriel, Wingdings Gaster, Asgore Dreemurr

Note: If you haven't read the previous chapters recently (maybe even if you have outside the past few days), I recommend giving it another read. It's definitely not a requirement, but I added some extra details throughout the story and a few more scenes, most notably in Chapters 3 & 9, that should help the ending feel even more satisfying.

Several years later . . . here's the next chapter.

< Load | RESET | Continue >

From a single strip at the Underground’s heart, Waterfall tunneled away into a boneyard mess of caves. In one direction, the passage to Hotland sprawled in mushroom-light mazes and a boulder choke disguising Tem Village. In the other, a quiet bubble harbored a simple mouse, neck deep in plans to retrieve a wedge of crystallized cheese. Between them, from a silver door that had only been there sometimes, Sans stepped out into a flood of bioluminescence.

Though a door latched shut behind him, dark, damp stone replaced the surface he reclined against now. Its cold, unyielding texture met his fingertips, a reminder that there would be no second visit.

He clutched the spindly metal bars of that unnaturally gray birdcage. He tucked his chin over the iron rung at its peak, hardly dousing the light of the small monster soul trapped inside.

The task set before him was unconscionable. Even if he managed to survive . . .

“i can’t do that,” he had resisted. “i can’t kill Frisk!”

“They shouldn’t even be alive,” said Wingdings.

The words took Sans by surprise. He set his heels despite the encroaching void and a minute hand nearing his final stroke of midnight.

“oh, but ya want me to take this soul all the way back to asriel, huh?” he said. “make sure he survives? double standard, if y’ask me.”

"I didn't say it was fair,” Wingdings hardly breathed. His eyes gained urgency. “The human . . . might survive, if they're determined enough. But after you pull the lever . . .”

At that, Sans’ anger siphoned away, leaving behind a fear much broader than the fate of one human child. Their mistake had set so many events into motion. Lives had been built and destroyed, paths forged and buried. The machine could rewrite the course of everything as easily as it could leave the butterfly effect intact. They could remain here in the present or be sucked back to the day it all began. With a phenomenon this unpredictable, just about anything could happen . . . but whatever world they left behind, at least it might survive.

“if i do use their soul to run the machine,” Sans said more calmly, “what’ll happen to asriel, then? to me? to the underground? heck, what’ll happen to you?”

It was clear to Sans by the frown on Wingdings’ face that his brother had already considered this question. Despite his ingenuity, the once royal scientist only shook his head.

“I don’t know,” he said, “but I do know what’ll happen if you don’t.”

In the present, Sans beat his fist against the rock behind him. Why did it have to be so fucking twisted? Why his Frisk? And why did he have to be the one to do it? Maybe it didn’t have to work out like this. Maybe there was more time than Dings thought. Maybe he could find another way.

His phone buzzed rhythmically at his waist. He pulled it from his coat pocket and looked at the screen. The image of Papyrus illuminated those shadowy cavern walls below several missed call notifications. Sans took a deep, shaking breath, then another, and answered.

“pup . . .”

“SANS!” Papyrus shouted. “I’VE BEEN TRYING TO REACH YOU FOR HOURS!”

“oh.”

“I’M NEARLY TO NEW HOME. A FRIEND HAS INFORMED ME THAT THE HUMAN IS IN TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE DANGER! IS THAT TRUE?!”

Sans nearly broke down then and there. Though seeing Wingdings again had restored many of the deeper cracks in his soul, it still felt fragile, even more when considering the path ahead of him.

“more than true,” he whispered.

A patch of silence followed. Sans dropped his cheek to rest on birdcage bars.

“tell me it’s gonna be all right,” he murmured into the receiver.

“Sans . . . where are you?” Papyrus asked, more gently than was typical.

“just tell me, please.”

“It’s . . .” Papyrus sighed. “It is going to be all right. Now, WHERE ARE YOU?”

Hearing the words in his brother’s voice quelled Sans’ fear, enough to return strength to his limbs. He lingered on the phone a moment longer, as if the connection truly placed him at Papyrus’ side.

“meet you there,” he said.

You followed in Asgore’s shadow, watching the folds of his cape sway and collide like cattails in the wind. His silhouette consumed yours. He could hold all of you in one hand, let alone the tiny red soul he sought to claim.

Past the end of that long hallway mirror of the Ruins, the barrier undulated with powerful magic. Its waves of golden white licked the crackled stone as if in search of escapees. It contoured Asgore’s silhouette in a crisp white line as he turned to face you.

That all-too-familiar smile prickled the fur along his muzzle. Looking up into his apologetic eyes, you remembered his hands on your shoulders, his all-encompassing embrace that threatened to lose you in his fur. The macaroni pictures, the crayon drawings, the sweaters . . . the buttercup pie. You shuddered.

“Human,” said the king of all monsters. His powerful voice trembled, and the earth trembled with it. “It was nice meeting you. . . . Goodbye.”

He held his trident firmly in both hands and lowered his head . . . but a stoplight glow kept his chin from falling too far. There you stood, hands outstretched, red soul hovering above your palms.

“I’m the last one,” you said.

Asgore stared at the heart-shaped spirit as if entranced. Its warmth illuminated your fingers with ruby firelight. It was in the crimson glint of your eyes, however, that he became lost, captured in the clutch of a ghost from years long gone.

“Do I . . . know you?” he asked, bewildered both by the situation and the question itself.

“Please, take it,” you said. Tears fell down your face. “It’s no good for anything else.”

Asgore’s eyes widened with recognition. “Chara . . . ?”

Intense heat flared in the hallway behind you. Before Asgore could say anything more, a brilliant ball of flame had launched him into the cavern wall. Flecks of gray stone spat out among a field of clouds.

You swung to face the spellcaster. Toriel stood framed in the doorway, her face scrunched in a scowl like a snarling lion. One smoking arm remained outstretched, clenched in a fist.

“What a miserable creature,” she growled, “torturing such a poor, innocent youth.”

You hadn’t known what path the timeline had taken or whether your friends would convene . . . yet Toriel had arrived, exactly the same as before. Though you may have jokingly called her “mom,” the name now rang through your head with the purity of a windchime in the breeze.

Undyne, Alphys, and Papyrus appeared after her, along with a swath of others you had met along the way. You wanted to tell them to turn back, that you did not deserve them, that if they had known the demon you truly were, they never would have wanted to be your friend.

Your color drained. As they approached, a web of vines crawled after them along the dark ceiling and cavern floors.

You ran to Asgore, who sat slumped amid rubble and a brand new hallway door in the shape of his back. He grumbled in discomfort. A layer of dust coated his royal robes and golden mane, which he shook like a dog. You slid to your knees beside him.

“Hurry, please!” you blubbered to the stunned monster king. You proffered your soul as if it were on fire. “There isn’t a lot of time . . . !”

Toriel snatched you back by the shoulders.

“What has come over you, my child?” she demanded. “Do you not know what he means to do with it?”

“Mom, I . . .”

“Frisk.” Her eyes had begun scanning the room in fright. “Where is Sans?”

The path to the barrier gave Sans more difficulty than expected. The last time he had attempted these roads with fewer than two shortcuts, he had been a century younger and taking his time, mushroom hunting with young Papyrus. His limbs lagged behind his will. His breath rattled in his chest. Though his fingers slipped against that birdcage no one remembered, he refused to release its colorless patina bars. Everything depended on this.

He took what natural shortcuts he could—river ferries and elevators—but even then, the trip cost more time than he had bargained. At long last, he had reached the innards of Asgore’s home in the capital. He ran, huffing and puffing, down the golden tiles of the Last Hallway.

Even as he sped past, his heart ached to remember your meeting here. The flare of sunlight on your head, the even brighter smile on your face, the secret passwords on your tongue. . . . The memory of that pure soul compared to the corrupted one he had read beside the rift overwhelmed him, and he paused. He touched a hand to the white pillar that once occluded him.

Who were you now? Frisk? Chara? Both? If Chara truly were your forgotten name, if everything he knew about the tragedy of Asgore’s children had happened to you, such terrible memories weighed down on your tiny shoulders. It did not surprise him, then, that your violence had escalated to remember those horrors. Ferocious thorns had been hiding in the soft petal corona of your soul, and neither of you had known it.

Clinging tightly to the forgotten prison in his hands, he buried his sentiments and tore through vine-swathed hallways into a dark passage. He skidded to a halt just past the silvery stone archway to the barrier, where his bones clattered with shock.

The cavern pulsed in radiant waves like the steady spin of a lighthouse beacon. Twisting, thorny roots filled the cavern like a briar patch, and their position changed with every flash of light. Among the vicious mess of chloroplast, monster figures had been tangled, their souls nearly devoured.

The dimming pinpoints of Sans’ eyes could not peel away from your small form, crumpled on the floor before a yellow flower. Your red soul snapped among his vines, barely shimmering in a ruby remnant before splitting apart into nothing.

Sans could not stifle the horror that clawed its way out his mouth. He nearly dropped the cage.

Flowey turned to grin at him. “Trash day already?” he asked, spinning his head in a full circle.

Sans shook. No. This couldn’t have happened. You couldn’t have fallen to that little heathen daisy so quickly. You couldn’t have lost your determination. If only he hadn’t lingered in the hallway. If only he had kept running . . . !

You blinked at the human soul still hovering in your outstretched hands. It glowed red, though not as brightly as it once did. Still alive. Still yours to give. Not torn to bits by a nihilistic plant.

Only moments ago, you had fallen to a flower, the same flower weaving his way into this chamber of darkness and light. Toriel’s hands rested heavily on your shoulders. Papyrus chattered away, as Asgore pleaded with Toriel to give him a second chance. While they were distracted, Flowey dug his way out of the earth, grinning deviously, ready to spring all over again.

Confusion waltzed with your mind, spinning you gently. You had experienced this rush backward a thousand times before. Just a short step in reverse to let you continue after falling or if you disliked the outcome . . . but you did not have the determination to do it now. You had intended to die. You had meant for one of two creatures to take your power and be done with it.

It hadn’t been you.

The world shifted. Time rushed away like the tide, back into the ocean depths. Darkness bled away into golden sunlit tiles and stained glass windows. Birds chirped among a distant rustle of leaves. The air danced with prisms for a fleeting moment before the world reappeared as it had only moments before.

Sans realized suddenly that he stood in the Last Hallway all over again. A glittering pocket of magic danced like a handheld star beside him, where he had touched the pillar and remembered you. It had not been there before.

Air filled his ribcage in jagged gasps. His soul burned as it usually did when you reset time, though somewhat gentler. His hands shook around the bars of that monochrome birdcage with fear, confusion, and exhilaration.

He had just turned back time. He could feel it. And if that were the case . . .

He ran. He sprinted faster than ever to reach you, but you lay still on the floor again. Though uncertain how, and though it hurt him, he turned back the clock a second time. Then a third. Then a fourth. Every time, the flower tore apart your soul like a horror movie on repeat, until finally, Sans arrived one split second earlier. Your soul spun a circle above you as if hanging from a string, and a ring of white pellets had only begun readying itself to deliver the killing blow.

Before Sans knew what he was doing, he was charging Flowey through a rough shortcut, foot extended to drop-kick the weed down into his roots. That cursed dandelion’s shriek had never sounded so satisfying. Sans’ dragon skulls had already manifested over his shoulders, jaws aflame—but when they blasted blue-hot magic out their mouths, Flowey had already disappeared into the earth.

A whip of green struck the ground where Sans had stood. He skipped out of the way in the nick of time, then again, and again, and again. He punched his free hand to the ground, and a wave of long, white magic bones crashed down through the air like meteorites. They speared into the cave floor with enough force to run cracks through the ceiling. Clouds of rock sprinkled down onto his shoulders. Flowey’s grip on his friends and family slackened just an inch.

Flowey surfaced again, undamaged beyond a few frayed petals.

Sans panted, his adrenaline quickly plunging. His bones began aching again, though his raging soul burned brightly through its seams. Sweat slipped down his skull into the neck of his shirt. He didn’t know if he could withstand this much longer. He did not know if his soul could survive another time jump.

“Ha,” chirped the little flower. “Looking pretty rough, there, old pal." His eyes glinted red within the skull-like hollows of his face. "Poor, flimsy little monster souls. Why bother trying? Even Chara was no match for me, and they were a million times stronger than you’ll ever be!”

Sans knew he was right. He did not have the full resilience of a purebred human. Even you had to try several times before making it past this bitter herb. Who in their right mind would bet on him: half blind, right arm nearly useless, only one HP? Just like every moment in his life, he would find a way to fuck this up. Just like every other time before, he would be useless to help.

His hope dwindled down, as did the fire in his soul. He could not find the strength to evade the string of bullets shooting toward him, but they were serendipitously blocked by a fence of small white bones.

“DON’T LISTEN TO HIM, SANS!” said Papyrus through clenched teeth. “YOU. CAN. WIN!”

“We are here to help you,” said Toriel. “No matter what happens.”

“Statistically it’s impossible,” said Alphys, “b-but you’ve beaten the odds before! I know you can do it!”

“Fuck you, Sans,” said Undyne.

Everyone looked at her. She shrugged.

“Sans,” said Asgore. “Listen to me.”

Sans clung to the bars of the birdcage more tightly, eyes glued to the smirking flower afar.

“You are not just your father’s son,” said the king of the Underground. “You have more than magic running through your veins. Remember that . . . and stay determined!”

Sans’ white pupils snapped to Asgore’s blue and brown at once. The statement had struck him somewhere deep beyond the monster white shell of his soul, and still more words passed between them unspoken. Sans then dragged his gaze across all his friends, who looked back with steadfast confidence, even Undyne.

Flowey coiled down on himself, pretending to be scared. “Urgh, no!” he whimpered. “Unbelievable! This can’t be happening! I can’t possibly withstand all of you . . . you . . . !” His face contorted into his evilest grin. “Idiots.”

His vines snapped taut around every monster, and yet another thorny coil snatched Sans from the ground as well. Through ropes of green and brown, Sans watched your red soul go down the flower’s throat, sealed behind hungry white fangs within a golden crown. Then, everything became lost in a flash of white.

Clang.

Sans moaned. Between that blitz of light and now, he had dropped to his hands and knees. His palms felt scorched—and dreadfully empty. Ahead of him, the last withering wisp of gray silver bars dissipated into the air as if made of smoke. Seeing it clawed the magic away from his bones with every mounting breath. His eyes became hollow.

The cage was gone—really, truly gone. Not even a step backward in time could bring it back, and with it, Asriel’s soul. Sans felt the world bottom out. Had he really failed, after everything?

A voice cackled overhead. “Finally,” it said. “I was so tired of being a flower.”

Sans looked upward and blanched. Aside from a few drawings you had scribbled out as a child, he had never witnessed this ungodly creature of countless souls. Sans had only been consumed by him, a coal block among many to fuel his hate. Now, Asriel Dreemurr hovered overhead in all his glory, raging with deathly power in a kaleidoscope of energy. No wonder you had nightmares.

Past the wreckage of their earlier fight, your body still lay heaped on the floor among stone and dead vines, seemingly asleep. As Sans crawled close, tears threatened to form.

He bit them back. No. He needed to hope. He needed to dream. He needed to be determined that he could call you out from the darkness, just as you had done for him a hundred times. It was his turn, now. Everyone would make it to the other side . . . including Asriel.

“Huh?” Asriel grunted as he caught wind of Sans below. “What are you still doing here? I ate your soul, you dirty lawn bag!”

“grass not,” said Sans as he stood, dusting the dirt from his jacket with his left hand.

“Ugh.” Asriel pinched his muzzle exasperatedly. “So annoying. How many times have you died now? Thirty-five? Thirty-six?” He thrust a rocket’s flare at Sans with a wicked smile. “Thirty-seven?!”

Sans gathered your body into his arms and stepped into a last-minute shortcut, safely away from that raw magical surge. After hiding your figure inside an Asgore-shaped wall hole, he flitted through the blue light of a portal once again. He reappeared in the air, directly in Hyperdeath’s path, only inches from his head.

“bone apétit, fucker,” he said and threw a handful of small bones at Asriel’s face. Though they caused no significant damage, they certainly got his attention.

Sans landed on all fours and scrambled. Bullets, fireballs, shooting stars, and lightning strikes raged after him. They left craters in the ground and drove deeper cracks into the ceiling overhead. Stalactites fell and shattered. Sans dodged every one of them. His body thoughtlessly followed the part of him that knew how to survive but had no time to ask permission, so begged forgiveness instead.

As Asriel Dreemurr took a moment to lift his hands, Sans struggled to catch his breath. His hood smelled of smoldering keratin. Holes had been burned through his sleeves. His body felt slick and ashen against his jacket’s cotton interior. The bones he had tossed like a scoop of dog biscuits into Asriel’s face had been the last magic he could muster. Whatever great power the prince of the Underground gathered now, Sans doubted he could survive it.

The world darkened. Sans could no longer see Asriel or the barrier, not even his hands if he raised them. Everything had become silent except the paddle of his own breath.

A skull three times his size suddenly materialized from the shadow. In appearance, it reminded him of those he and his siblings had mastered, though its horns and features mirrored Asriel instead. It laughed in his face—a grim, bone-chilling sound like grating rocks—but Sans stood firm. Brilliant red rage and determination surfaced among the cracks of his soul. How dare Asriel steal from Papyrus? How dare he turn Sans’ own family magic against him?

Waves of light drew into the open bowels of its snakelike gullet. Debris ran past his ankles, recalling images of a lab in shambles, a brother consumed by a beast of timeless indifference. He braced himself, ready to dive into the darkness as he did then and save the ones that mattered most.

A flash of brightness burst over him once more. This time, it ripped the soul from inside him and shattered it into pieces.

His mind floated through an abyss, bursting with the fireworks of everything at stake. He thought of Papyrus, never seeing sunrise; Toriel, never knowing the love of a new family; Alphys, never seeing the true greatness inside herself; Undyne, never free to explore the world; Asgore, failing his people. He thought of you, swallowed in the belly of the very thing you had sought to save. He thought of the entire world, destroyed by the god of hyperdeath, eaten alive by a hungry rift in time. The pieces of his soul quivered in a glow of crimson, ready to disperse.

*But it refused.

The shards sewed back together. A burst of bright red coursed through him like a new flame that had waited a lifetime to be struck. He had to live. He needed to live. He wanted to live! The darkness faded away, and soon the pulsing light of the barrier greeted his eyes once again.

He gaped at his shaking hands, eye sockets wide with confusion and amazement and, more than anything, determination. His soul felt aflame with a ruby-red blaze that forged the bleeding cracks of every pain, every hardship, and every sorrow into an armor stronger than the thickest alloy.

Asriel’s final form hovered ahead of him. Giant wings had sprouted from his back, flaring with blues, reds, greens, and purples. His teeth bared in needle points to rival Undyne’s, seething with fury and frustration.

“YOU . . . GARBAGE BIN SKELETAL FREAK!” he screamed. “WHY? WHY CAN’T YOU DIE?!”

Sans realized very suddenly he couldn’t move. Asriel’s true power had run rampant through the air, cocooning him in a chrysalis of magic he could not escape. He struggled with no result. With no way to resist, Asriel’s attacks barreled into him again, and again, and again. Every time his brightly burning soul rebuilt itself, a little was lost along the way.

“I can feel it,” Asriel growled with relish. “Every time you die, your grip on this world slips away. Every time you die, your friends forget you a little more. Your life will end here, in a world where no one remembers you.”

Sans thought of Windings, lost in a hell of the same description. He recalled how determined his brother had been to hold that same world together in one piece, forgotten or not. Sans could not fail him again, not here, not now, not after how hard Dings had tried, not when all his hopes were so invested in his success. His brother’s words rang through Sans' head, the last he would speak before the ghost of a gray door had separated them.

“I want you to know,” Wingdings had said, “I believe in you more than I believe in anyone else.”

“heh, yer jus’ tuggin’ my tibia . . .”

“For Tesla’s sake, Sans,” Dings snipped. “Can you just, for a second, let me spoon-feed your imperceptibly minuscule single-cell petri dish of a trait you call your self-esteem?” He took a deep breath and steadied. “I know it might seem like you’re my only option,” he said, “but you’re the best option I could have ever hoped for. My big brother. The one who sticks it out through thick and thin. The one I could always rely on to come through for me. You can do this. You can save everyone. I know you can. So, please . . .

“. . . don’t give up.”

Sans closed his eyes and reached his heart out to Asriel’s amalgamation of souls. His friends and family were there somewhere. He could save them. They believed in him. Dings believed in him. His determination to save everyone bled through the confines of Asriel’s magic, and deep inside that monstrosity, something began to stir.

Darkness closed in and images of his friends materialized, though their faces could not be seen behind swimming, fragmented blurs of pitch. Toriel, Papyrus, Asgore, Alphys, and Undyne stood like statues in a ring around him. Under their breaths, they mumbled their deepest wounds aloud: loss, rejection, loneliness, guilt, and captivity.

Sans stared up at his little brother’s towering silhouette, shaken to see him so reduced.

“hey, puppy . . .” he began. He inched nearer. “‘member me?”

Papyrus did not acknowledge him beyond summoning a few bones, which promptly flew in his direction. They were nothing compared to what Asriel had been punting his way. Sans stood perfectly still to allow a large blue femur to pass harmlessly through his forehead, then teleported behind him. He wrapped his arms around his waist until his face lay cradled in the lower curve of his spine, as if it were fashioned to hold his head.

“is that any way to treat your big bro?” he asked quietly. He searched his head for his worst possible joke and turned to the remaining souls. “uh . . . w-whatcha all starin’ at?” He whipped out a finger gun as nonchalantly as possible. “never metacarpal of skeletons before?”

A long, silent moment passed. Then, Papyrus groaned. So did Undyne. Toriel giggled alongside Alphys with a snort. Asgore only sighed.

Sans beamed, then dodged what he saw as a well-deserved barrage of attacks from all five of his monster friends.

“hey, undies,” he said to Undyne past the quick flash of a blue spear. “i liked the tuna your piano. think you can teach me some scales?”

A similar response. Another wave of dangerous magic.

“knock, knock,” Sans said to Toriel. A hand of fire tried and failed to snatch him off the ground. He brushed off the heat. “i’ll take that as a ‘who’s there’. it’s yer local sentry, sans gaster!”

Toriel mumbled incoherently, but her last words sounded clear: “. . . Sans Gaster who?”

“yeesh,” Sans said, tugging at the neck of his shirt. “and i thought we were friends!”

Toriel laughed, then, revealing her face in a glorious burst of joy. Papyrus groaned more loudly than ever into existence.

“THAT’S ENOUGH BOONDOGGLING, SANS!” he shouted.

“i think you mean bone-doggling.”

“I DO NOT!” Papyrus stomped his foot.

With that, the rest of his friends returned to themselves, holding their stomachs or their heads in laughter. Sans wiped a joyful tear from his eye. By then, Papyrus had swept him off his feet into the tightest hug he could muster, which might have broken a rib were they more than specters. The remaining crew piled in: Toriel, Alphys, Asgore, even Undyne. In that one gesture, Sans’ soul swelled with hopes and dreams and burned brighter than ever.

“You’re d-d-doing great!”

“We’ve got your back, punk.”

“We believe in you.”

“heh . . . i’m rootin’ for me too, i guess,” Sans agreed bashfully.

“THAT’S THE SPIRIT,” Papyrus said, then lifted his eyes over Sans’ shoulder. “ONLY ONE MORE TO GO.”

As he said it, their images dissipated. Sans turned to follow Papyrus’ gaze. Another figure stepped from the shadow, eyes burning red through a shifting black cloud. A blood-red knife glinted in your hand. Your ruby soul quivered in the pit of your chest, a beacon through the dark.

“kiddo,” Sans breathed.

You shambled forward and blindly slashed for his neck. He side-stepped the sloppy cut. Your blade lodged into the unseen ground, so deeply it took a few tries to pry it out. Like a marionette, you lolled about to face him.

“It’s all my fault,” you murmured. “All my fault.”

“that ain’t true,” said Sans. He grimaced and ducked another swing. “you’re a good kid. you’ve always been a good kid.”

“I'm sorry,” you mumbled.

“why?” he asked. “you saved us. you saved me. you gave up your resets for it!”

Your razor-edged swipes and stabs began to falter. “My fault . . .”

“the only thing you’re at fault for is trying too bleedin’ hard.”

Though shaking, you continued to jab and swing your dagger with reckless abandon, and he continued to evade its path with infuriating precision. Whipping air and shuffling feet echoed through the dark as if you fought in an empty chapel.

“c’mon, bud!” Sans panted. Sweat had begun to gather on his forehead. “it’s me, sans!”

“Sans?” you replied in a fog. “Sans is dead. I killed him. It’s my fault.”

“i’m not dead. i’m right here.”

He came close, a breath away. Your knife grazed his cheekbone, revealing a stripe of red that trickled down into his shirt collar. As your arm passed his shoulder, he caught you around the chest and held on tight. He buried his face into your neck.

“i’m right here.”

At this, you froze. You held your knife shakily over his head, prepared to strike down into his back—but you didn’t. Though the black, jagged strokes of paint shifting about your head did not cease, the red of your eyes had dimmed.

“frisk. chara.”

He cradled your hiding face between his hands and looked into your eyes a long, long time. You could feel him reaching through your soul, judging you, reading you from cover to cover like an unlocked diary.

“it’s not your fault.”

As the words sank in, tears sprinkled down from that stormcloud between you, raining over your shoes and his. That dreadful, bloody knife clattered to the ground, and soon you followed. You sat seiza at his feet and clung to his coat, your face no longer shrouded. You sobbed into his t-shirt, broken, yet overjoyed to see him alive.

He hesitated, then slipped his fingers down into the deep brown thatches of your hair.

“You’re really here,” you said, looking up into his face.

Sans crouched down to your level and shrugged. “think so.”

“Am I dead?”

“uh.” He scratched the back of his skull and winced. “ya ain’t in yer body, that much is for sure. hopin’ you might join me on the way back, though . . . if you’d do me the honor.”

You hugged him again, even more tightly than before. Conflicted by memories old and new, shame hooked onto your soul with claws sharper than the dagger at his feet. His hand in your hair was all that kept you solid.

“I’m sorry.” Your tears fell faster as you considered the road leading you here. “I made you fall into the rift . . .”

“that one’s on me,” Sans said. “i knew what i might find down there.”

Your face sombered. “Did you find . . . him?”

Newfound brightness ignited his eyesockets. “he’s . . . alive,” he said quietly. He could scarcely believe the words. “trapped between time and space. it’s just like i thought.”

You were never more relieved to be proven wrong. Still, questions encircled your head like stars. Where was his brother, now? If Sans had gone to that place, how had he returned? How had he survived the rift, and Flowey no less? Was he the one turning back the clock? That should have been impossible.

As you extended a hand to smear the streak of red you had carved into his face, a terrifying thought occurred to you.

“Determination,” you breathed. “Sans, you didn’t—!”

“no,” he said.

“Monsters don’t bleed,” you said firmly in an attempt to call out his bullshit.

“not full-blooded monsters, no,” he agreed.

Several moments passed in which you digested these words, and what they implied.

His smile slowly fell into a grimace, a mix of regret and weary sadness. He sat down in the darkness across you. Here, the two of you were truly alone. He breathed in, breathed out.

“skeletons are kinda hard to come by,” he began hesitantly, “if ya hadn’t noticed. we’re only born under certain circumstances . . . with . . . certain parents.”

He lifted his head to the darkness above as if he might see the sky. A piece of him drifted away into nostalgia on Noctis wings. Bittersweet was the only word you could surface for his expression now.

“hardly look nothing like dad,” he began with a half-hearted shrug. “he was like . . . a dragon made of blue stars, a constellation in a nebula. huge, bigger than asgore. gast clan always was, compared to the dreems. i see him in my magic, though, sometimes. his face in my blasters, even if just the skull.”

You couldn’t find words. Surely he didn’t mean what you thought.

“don’ hardly look like mom, neither,” he said with a partial smile, “but we got her bones. we got her structure. i got some of her determination.”

“You’re half human.”

“i’m all me, thanks,” Sans snipped. Talking about it seemed to crawl over his bones like a spider bake sale.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” you asked, genuinely hurt.

He paused and picked at the healing cut on his cheek. He rubbed the red fluid pensively between his thumb and forefingers. “everyone down here knows what it means to be a skeleton,” he said quietly. “i thought you knew too, at first. we all did. a lot of folks thought it was why you shacked up with us instead of tori.”

Your shoulders relaxed.

“by the time i realized it . . . honestly, i didn’t know how to tell ya, kid. it's a sensitive subject.” He drew his coat around himself more tightly. “we’re the only ones left, y’know; me and puppy-dog. and dings. when the war started, humans went for families like ours first. papyrus was a bean, dings was just the right age for it to hit him later, and i . . . i remember everything, as always.”

Your guilt ascended all over again.

“we were just kids," he went on, "but nothin’ scared those purist humans more than a fuckin’ mule.”

“i’m sorry,” you said.

“don’t be,” he murmured. “not your fault.”

“But it is,” you insisted. Your tears began rising again. "I’m human. I’m responsible. After everything humans have done—after everything I’ve done—I don’t deserve any of you. I don’t deserve to be here. You shouldn’t have saved me . . .”

Sans gently wiped your face with his sleeve. “lemme finish, kid,” he said quietly. He heaved a long, drawn-out sigh, as if releasing a toxin trapped inside his ribcage. “i got a reason to hate humans, sure. they drove us down here. they blocked us in. hell, even monsters gave us a hard time for that half of us. papyrus was so bent on catching a human just to prove what side he was on. thought people might like him more.”

You felt sick.

“but,” Sans said, forcing you to meet his eyes, “my human parent sacrificed everything to save us. she stayed behind so we could get away. so many of us are alive because of her. you wanna tell me that was wrong? you wanna tell me she was responsible for everything that happened to us, just for being human?”

Your tears continued to fall.

“you can’t help where ya came from,” said Sans, “but you can choose where ya go. and boy have you gone to some good places.”

“Like the dump,” you quipped with a faint smile.

“heh, yeah,” he said. “like the dump.” He hung an arm over your shoulder. “so maybe you’ve made some big mistakes . . . but your heart was never in the wrong place. you want to make up for it. you want to be good. that’s what really matters, right?”

You sniffled and nodded. You had said the same to Alphys. Were you really beneath your own advice?

He gathered you into his arms again. After a long time kneeling there, faces in shoulders, he helped you back to your feet.

“gonna need you to step in from here on out,” said Sans. “the chances hyperdoofus listens to me are about a million to negative one.” He smirked. “think you can handle it?”

You took his hand and squeezed.

“Only if you stand there with me,” you said.

His heart swelled in his chest. “i can do that."

Holding onto one another tightly, you stepped out from the darkness into a rainbow of light.

Notes:

And thus we have arrived at my third and final head-cannon: skeletons are what happen when a monster loves a human. I think my nervousness about dropping that bomb contributed to the delay in a latent sense, haha. Sorry for that again.

The idea of skeleton monsters always puzzled me, because in most folklore and fantasy contexts they have a direct tie to humans. Undead, more specifically. But in the context of the Undertale universe, undead didn't sit right with me. Skeleton monsters that conveniently mimic human anatomy didn't either. Then I had this thought. It explained several things for me: the blood from Sans' cut in the no mercy run, the reason he's so powerful, that "fourth wall" breaking tendency he and Papyrus both share... I massaged things some for the narrative here, but yeah.

I had been building to this a little bit as a possible reveal, then considered sidestepping it, but then as I really hammered out my ending it became an essential fact. I added more scenes and details in earlier chapters to get a little more traction on it, hence why I recommended rereading. :) Either way, I hope you find it at least interesting.

Thank you again to everyone who held on until now. Only three chapters left!

Next Up! Chapter 15: Determination.

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deobienthusiast · 9 months

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the phantom thief | syj

• pairing: son youngjae (the boyz) x reader

• word count: 5.4k words

• genre: fluff, teeny tiny bit of angst if you SQUINT, jumanji!au, video game character!eric, strangers to lovers!au

• rating: PG

• warnings: some curse words, some sad eric, some sad reader

• notes: this is going to be similar to jumanji. not the same story line but you know, getting sucked into a game and having to complete it to find your way out

• tagging: @deoboyznet! ALSO THANK YOU TO ERIC’s SOULMATE @sohnric and @juyeonszn FOR BOTH BETA READING FOR ME AND REASSURING ME THAT IT WAS ACTUALLY GOOD ! LOVE YOU BOTH SO MUCH🥹🥹🥹 AND BANNER BY @itsmeas 🤍🤍🤍🤍

You felt yourself groan for what had to have been the millionth time. It was the last few days of summer break, the last few days of freedom, and you were stuck in a small town to sit at an arcade all day with your family. Don’t get it twisted. You loved your family, but you would have rather spent the last few days of summer break with friends, not babysitting your brother and his annoying friends. Your mother was with you, but her head was in a different place. She was too engrossed in the facebook drama on her phone to even bother watching him.

When she heard you groan, she brought her phone down. Laying it on the table, she reached into her purse and pulled out some loose change.

Handing it to you, she spoke. “Go find something to do. I’ll watch them.”

You look at the quarters in your hand as you roll your eyes. What could you possibly find to do with a roll of quarters? Heading towards the game area, you dipped and dodged the annoying little kids that were running around as you eyed the different types of games.

Air Hockey? Ew. Pac-man? Old. All the games were boring you. Continuing to walk around the different games, you noticed a cracked door. You looked around at everyone. They were mainly distracted by all the kids running around. Parents keeping kids from breaking games, and workers wiping pizza grease and sticky soda off the joysticks and screens of games.

You took the opportunity to head for the door, slipping past it and shutting it behind you before stopping. In the back of the almost empty room was a dark, dusty game. It was built like the pac-man game, but hidden towards the back of the room. You noticed the plug laying on the ground as you reached for it, sticking it into the outlet. The room lit up in purples, teals, and greens as the machine came to life.

A small smile made its way to your face as you let your hands graze the old machine. The buttons were chipped, paint peeling, pictures faded, and the screen had a crack in it at the very top corner. The title popped across the screen in bright colorful letters as you read it outloud.

“The Phantom Thief.” You said.

The room was quiet besides the music that was softly resonating from the machine under your hands. A black box popped up on screen as it gave you a background story.

“Wayward within the kingdom lives a crooked worker of the royal family. He strikes at night, and he has earned the nickname the phantom thief. Help the thief steal the King’s prized possession, his royal pendant crown. Or help the guards catch the thief. Try to attempt it in the fastest time possible? Which fate will you choose?” You read quietly.

Looking behind you, you checked the door quickly before taking off the jacket you were wearing. You stick your jacket on the floor, covering the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor before getting up and walking back over to the game. You clicked on the phantom thief character before taking another quick look around the empty room. You turned back around to stare at the screen, the colorful background mesmerizing, as your hand hovered over the start button. You let your fingers run over the worn out button as it lit up, making your fingers jolt.

You jumped at the feeling. A laugh blew past your lips as you pushed the button. The game practically came to life as you watched your hand disappear right before your eyes. The scream you let out reverberated farther than you thought as the room went black.

It suddenly felt very cold, too cold to be air conditioning as you stand. You felt a burning sensation on your face as you brought your hand up to rub. You felt fresh scratch marks as you looked around. The bare trees rattled you as you took in your surroundings. The area was quiet as called out.

“Hello?” You said loudly.

The sound of your voice disappeared in the night as you squinted slightly. How did you get outside? Where was the arcade? Where was your brother? And damn it, why the hell did you take your coat off? You started to walk, hugging yourself to keep warm, as you looked at all the trees. You felt like you were stuck in a forest as you walked.

When you passed the same tree for what seemed like the third time, you let out a whimper.

“Keep walking.” You heard from behind you as you went to scream.

The voice you heard wrapped a hand around your head, covering your mouth as he spoke.

“Don’t scream! Don’t scream or they will find us.” The voice said.

You got pulled behind a ledge as you heard yelling in the distance.

“Search the perimeter! They are around here somewhere!” Another voice said.

A trotting sound grew closer than distanced itself as you heard it multiple times. When it was quiet, you turned around to face a mischievous smile. He pulled his hand away from your mouth as you opened yours again.

He panicked, speaking quickly. “Please don’t scream!”

“Who are you?” You asked softly.

“I’m Eric. I’m the character you picked.” He told you happily.

Shaking your head, you spoke. “What? What character?”

Eric snickered. “From the game, silly! The Phantom Thief.”

He pointed at himself, his mischievous grin growing like the Cheshire cats. “That’s me.”

“Wait, character? I-,I’m in the game.” You asked him.

He nodded. His face was visible to you in the darkness. “Yes ma’am.”

You smiled slightly at his tone. “How do you know you’re a game character?”

Eric laughed. “Oh yeah! I guess you could say you aren’t the only person to visit us. A lot meet me on the other side though.”

Furrowing your eyebrows, you say up. “What do you mean on the other side?”

The boy shrugged. “People never choose me. It’s always the King’s men. I don’t understand why.”

He started to pout. “It’s not like I’m a bad person. They just like to be on the side of justice for some reason.”

You couldn’t help but breathlessly laugh at his statement. “Maybe it’s because people don’t want to get in trouble.”

“But that’s the fun part! The risk! Knowing that you could get in trouble is only half of it. It’s the thrill of the run.” Eric said before stopping. “Now, we need to get a move on. They’ve widened their search, leaving the castle exposed.”

He took a peek from behind the ledge before standing up. Reaching down for your hand, he gently pulled you up as he took off. You stumbled slightly, having trouble keeping up with all of his endless energy as he whipped and whirled his way through the array of trees. You could see two lights becoming more prominent as he continued to pull you.

As the lights got closer, you heard galloping as you yanked Eric as hard as you could. He jolted backwards before being pulled into a pile of leaves, surrounded by a whole bunch of trees. Eric went to speak as you covered his mouth.

“How am I the newbie, and you are almost about to get caught?” You asked.

You could feel Eric’s grin burning into your hand as he spoke. “Good choice. Most people choose to keep running.”

You felt goosebumps arise as you pulled away from him. “You knew this would happen?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t know which decision you would make, but I knew the first decision was coming up. I told you. I’m a part of the game, remember?”

Eric sat up, prompting you to move off of him as he stood up, dusting himself off. “There will be quite a few decisions that will be left up to you to make. Choose wisely, and you’ll be able to steal the crown.”

The statement he gave you made you shudder as it sounded too much like a computer given answer rather than his own statement.

“Right, well. We should keep moving.” You told the boy, making him nod.

He peeked out from the pile you both had fallen into as he motioned for you to follow him. He kept the both of you hidden from the lights as he followed the pathway towards the castle.

“In the introduction, it says you work for the royal family.” You said softly.

Eric chuckled, looking back at you to give you a grin. “Aren’t I just the worst?”

You giggled as you both continued to walk. You were surprised at how easily you were moving through before Eric stopped.

He looked at you expectantly, almost waiting for you to do something as you gave him a look.

“What?”

“What do we do now?”

You scoffed. “You’re the one who does this for a living. You tell me.”

Eric shook his head. “That’s not how games work. Characters do what you want them to do.”

Not understanding, you looked forward and noticed a gate.

“A gate? What do we need to unlock it?” You asked.

Eric shrugged. “You tell me? Unlocking would risk wasting time and getting caught. The gate, however, is quite old. That means that trying to jump would risk making a lot of noise.”

“Well jumping it is what we’ll have to do because I don’t have anything to pick the lock with.” You told the boy.

He looked you up and down before taking a step towards you. Your eyes widened as he leaned into you, his nose inches from yours as he spoke.

“What’s that?” He asked curiously.

Your eyes drifted upwards, following to where his index finger was pointed and you let your hand drift upwards. Your hand ran over your hair before feeling something.

“My goodness, Eric, you're a genius!” You said happily.

The boy scrunched up his face in confusion as you pulled the bobby pin that was in your hair out of your head. Grabbing his hand, you pulled the boy towards the gate, opening the bobby pin in the process.

“Um, you still never told me what it is.” Eric said softly as he watched you mess with the lock on the gate.

“It’s a bobby pin.” You told him quietly.

He watched you mess with the lock, sticking the foreign object in it and wiggling it around.

“What is a bobby pin?” Eric asked.

You felt yourself laugh as you spoke. “A very helpful tool for people with hair that doesn’t want to cooperate.”

Eric leaned over slightly to get a better look at it as he spoke again. “It looks dangerous.”

You shrugged. “Ehh. Depends.”

You heard a click as you smiled at Eric victoriously. His eyes widened as you slowly pushed the gate open. It creaked slightly, making you stop with a wince before continuing. The gate was opened enough for the both of you to slip in as Eric closed it behind him.

You put the bobby pin back in your hair as Eric looked at you.

“What?”

“You’re the first person to choose picking the lock. It’s the easiest one and the percentage of getting the crown is higher when you pick it.” Eric said in awe.

“Don’t seem so surprised. It’s not the first time I’ve picked a lock.” You told the boy.

You picked back up, walking up the walkway of the castle as you looked over the large building. It was sort of old, but still very extravagant. Decorated to the nines with beautiful sculptures and busts. Beautiful bushels of flowers surrounded both sides of the lane way.

“Pansies.” Eric told you as you looked at them.

The colors almost sparkled under the moonlight as you spoke.

“Shouldn’t they be dead? I mean, it’s kind of freezing out here.” You said quietly.

This caught Eric’s attention as he took off the jacket he was wearing, wrapping it around your body. You felt your cheeks heat up as Eric continued on like he didn’t just do something to make you embarrassed.

“That’s why they picked this flower. They are able to survive the harshest of winters. Though I have to admit, this winter has been particularly cold.” Eric said.

You chuckled. “Funny, because outside the game, in the real world, the summer has been insanely hot. We’ve hit record-breaking temperatures.”

Eric smiled. “Maybe that’s why it’s been so cold.”

You smiled with him as you both continued to walk the pathway. The castle doors were drawing closer as you spoke again.

“This seems too easy.” You said.

“What does?”

“Just walking up the pathway to the castle. Am I about to just walk right through the doors?” You asked him.

Eric went to speak before you heard yelling.

“Check the castle ground, and make sure they didn’t break in!” Someone said as your eyes widened.

You looked at Eric who looked too calm in this situation as he spoke.

“You have your choice of the library window or the garden house. Though I will admit, there is the guard dog.” Eric said.

“Where? In the garden house?”

Eric shrugged.

“The library?”

He shrugged again, making you groan. “Where is the dog Eric?”

Eric through his hands up as you whined before spotting the garden house, you pulled him along through the grass, dodging statues before opening the garden house doors. Eric watched you pulled his jacket off and tie the doors shut as he looked at you with a smile.

“Excellent choice.” He told you.

You narrowed your eyes at the boy, a scowl decorating your face as you turned to look around. Beautiful plants were growing up the walls. Flowers covered to protect them from the cold looked as if they were waving due to the wind. A singular pane of glass at the top of the garden house was broken, allowing full moonlight to filter into the building. This allowed you to get a much better look at Eric.

He was handsome, that’s for sure. His hair was a deep purple color, almost burgundy with slight black highlights spread throughout. Eric wasn’t the tallest, but he was well built with the average height he was at. He had full lips and a prominent nose. An almost oval shaped head held all his features, and it came to a sawed off point at his chin. You would be lying if you were to say you weren’t attracted to him. You chalked it out to a school girl crush due to the fact that his smile made you feel like you had butterflies in your stomach.

“So, what goes on out there? You know, in the real world.” Eric asked, pulling you from your thoughts.

You both fell in stride as you made your way through the large garden house.

“Well it’s summer vacation right now. There’s like less than a week of it left, though.”

Eric’s nose scrunched up. “Summer vacation?”

You nodded. “Yeah. Like we have school from August to the first week of June. And then we have summer vacation until August. And then we repeat the whole cycle for the next 12 years.”

Eric looked at you, horrified. “That sounds awful. It sounds like a prison.”

You chuckled. “Something like that. You don’t have school here?”

Eric shrugged. “I don’t really know. I’ve only ever worked for the royal family.”

You nodded, remembering that he was just a character in a game. He didn’t know about any of this real world stuff.

“No one ever took the time to tell you about what goes on outside of here, have they?” You asked him quietly.

The thief shook his head. “Like I said, no one ever chooses me.”

His statement made you frown as your heart sank a little. He sounds so lonely.

You both continued on until you got to a cracked door at the front of the garden house. Eric held his hand up, stopping you as he took careful steps forward. His head poked outside the door, red hair blowing around in the wind as he looked around. When he was sure the coast was clear, he turned to you, holding out his hand with a nod. You let your hand fall into his as he led you back out into the night. You were now positioned towards the side of the castle as Eric pointed towards a staircase that led underground.

“Tunnels. We use them to deliver food, supplies, things like that. It’s safer than trying to do it in the open.” He told you.

“Too many thieves?” You asked jokingly.

Eric looked at you with a smirk. “Look who’s catching on.”

You both laughed as Eric continued to lead the way. You happened to notice that he was still holding your hand, showing no signs of letting it go. The sight made your heart jump as you held on tightly to him. When you got to the entrance of the staircase, Eric dropped your hand to grab a torch that was already lit. He led the way down the stairs, constantly looking behind him to not only check on you but make sure you weren’t tailed. The torch was the perfect light source for the both of you as you were able to only illuminate small portions of the tunnels as opposed to the entire tunnel. It felt like the temperature had dropped lower since you moved under the castle and you mentioned that to Eric.

“Is it normal for it to be even colder down here than it is above ground?”

You pulled the jacket Eric had given you tighter around your body as you waited for him to reply.

“There isn’t any heat to reach underground. So the tunnels always stay cold. It gets worse when it’s regularly cold out.” Eric whispered.

It felt the tunnels were never-ending before Eric stopped, the torch flame billowing in the wind slightly. He pointed to a wooden door as he looked at you.

“There.” He said softly, voice echoing off of the hollow walls of the underground tunnel.

You stepped forward as you looked at the door. “Is this where we enter?”

Eric shrugged. “That depends. This puts us at the far end of the castle which means we have to cover more ground indoors to get to the crown. If we continue to follow the tunnels then we’ll get closer to the King’s room. That holds all his most prized possessions, including the crown.”

You thought about what could be waiting for you if you went into the castle now, but being in a warm castle, unthawing seemed way better than freezing to death. Plus, you weren’t sure how much longer these tunnels were, and you weren’t willing to bet your life on it.

“Come on,” You waved to the boy as you gently pulled at the handle of the wood door.

Eric nodded, setting the torch in a holster on the wall next to the door. He pulled the door open more, stopping when it scraped against the gravel on the tunnel floor. He laid a hand on your lower back, slowly coaxing you forward first as he tried his best to quietly pull the door shut behind him. When the door closed, it echoed into the large empty room you had entered. You turned to give Eric a look as he shrunk down at your gaze.

“Sorry,” He whispered.

You shook your head slightly as you looked around, trying to see if you could figure out what room you were in. It was dark in the room. The moonlight coming through the window was reflecting off of multiple surfaces that looked shiny and almost metallic like.

“The kitchen.” You said to yourself.

Eric caught up to you and your cautious steps as he helped navigate you through the rather large kitchen.

“They barely use this.” He told you, noticing your curiosity in the appliances that looked brand new.

You scoffed. “Then why have a kitchen?”

Eric chuckled. “Something to look at.”

You turned to him as you smiled. He sounded so normal when he said that. Like he knew what he was saying, and wasn’t repeating what his character says. The glimpses of realness Eric was giving you made you happy. You wanted to know more, so you continued to press as you exited the large kitchen and into a hallway.

“How did you start working for this royal family?”

Eric shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve just always been here.”

You frowned. “Do you have a favorite food?”

“I eat bread when my health gets low. Does that count?”

You couldn’t believe what you were hearing. It was unreal how real he was in front of you, but how computerized he was on the inside. Eric didn’t seem to mind the questions nor was he bothered by his answers considering he barely got to move around anyway unless someone managed to play the game.

The hallway you two were in led down a long corridor to a split. You looked down both ways, seeing double doors down towards the end of the left side, and nothing but more hallway on the right side.

“Next choice.” Eric said softly.

You kept moving your head left and right, trying to figure out which way to go. Eventually you took the left path, looking back at Eric for confirmation. All he gave you was a smile as he let you lead the way. The walk to the double doors was short as you laid both hands on each door before pushing them open. The heavy wood stood still for a moment before peeling open, rather loudly. The moan of the doors opening reverberated off the empty walls making you cringe as you both walked in.

The room you were in was a bedroom. A large bed and dresser were up against the far wall with a large ceiling to floor window against the wall, showing the night sky. You had to admit the view was impeccable, but you didn’t get to enjoy it long. A faint growl made the hairs on the back of your neck stand as you and Eric both looked at each other.

“The guard dog?” You asked quietly.

Eric’s eyes were the size of saucer plates as he nodded.

You both turned slowly, coming face to face with a rather large dog that looked to be something out of a nightmare. Whoever the game creators were got the look of a scary guard dog correct. The dog looked similar to something out of Stephen King’s Cujo. With foam coming out of its mouth and dark, almost dead eyes, the dog looked like it was ready to rip apart anything and everything that stepped foot in the castle. You took a step back from the window as you looked at Eric.

The boy was making quick glances at the door as the dog took a step forward.

“Run!” Eric yelled.

Grabbing your hand, Eric practically dragged you out of the room and down the other hallway. The dog was hot on your trail, loud barking making more noise than you would've hoped. Lights began to turn on as the dog was now alerting the guards looking for Eric.

As you continued to run, you noticed a door that was just slightly ajar. You took the opportunity to yank on your arm, pulling Eric towards the door. The immediate redirection threw the dog for a loop as it couldn’t come to a complete stop with the speed it was hitting. You managed to make it in the room, both of you closing the door just in the knick of time. The dog hit the door hard. That didn’t seem to stop, but rather further piss him off as he started to jump at the door and scratch at it. You pulled a nearby chair towards you, pinning it under the door knob as you leaned against the door to catch your breath.

Adrenaline was pumping through you, your heart rate through the roof as you closed your eyes to try and calm yourself. You could see why Eric liked doing this so much. You weren’t scared by any means. Rather you were thrilled. The surge of fear had turned into excitement. You had so much energy that you wanted to do all of it again.

“Look!” Eric said excitedly.

You opened your eyes at his exclamation. You followed his gaze and felt a smile come to your face. There in the room was the King’s crown protected by a glass case. The small light shining down on the glass sent a sliver of light towards the pretty blue pendant jewel on the top of the King’s crown. The jewel reflected its own path of light, causing a blue marbled type shadow to cast itself across the wall. You moved from the door to the glass case, laying your hands on top of it.

There was a little lock on the case to keep the crown locked in. You knew the key was not in this room, and in your excitement panic started to set in. How were you supposed to get the crown?

You felt a hand in your hair that pulled you from your thoughts as the hand was now in your vision.

“Will this work?” Eric asked, holding the bobby pin you had previously picked the front gate with.

You smiled at the boy, taking the pin from him. Eric winked as you began to pick at the lock.

“They’re in here!” You heard from outside the door as you jumped from the yell.

Eric ran to the door putting weight on it to keep it closed as long as possible as you kept picking the lock. Frustration began to filter through you over the fact that you couldn’t get the lock picked. As your frustration bubbled over, a loud crash hit outside the door, sending Eric flying to the ground. You picked up the case, throwing the glass to the ground as it shattered around you. Eric picked himself up as he grabbed the crown. That mischievous look he had when he first told you about himself came back as he handed it to you.

You took the crown from him, looking over it as he pushed you towards the window. A large crack resonated through the room as you both jumped. One of the doors broke open, giving way to a bunch of guards as Eric quickly pushed the window open. You looked back at him, realizing he was going to give himself up so you could get free.

“Wait, Eric!” You yelled.

The boy continued to push you to the window. He helped you out of it as he spoke. “You have the crown. Get back to where I found you and you’ll win.”

You looked at him, grabbing his hand as he went to pull away. “What about you?”

The urgency in your voice made the boy smile, and he did something completely out of character. Eric leaned out the window to peck your cheek as he spoke.

“Don’t worry about me.”

He pulled his hand from yours as he gave you that signature smile. Lifting himself back into the window, he pushed you the rest of the way out before slamming it shut. You hit the ground with a grunt as you looked back up at the window. Eric mouthed to you as you stood.

“Go!”

You stood up, seeing the garden house in the distance as you ran in that direction. It sounded like the castle doors had opened as you fell into a full on sprint. When you got closer to the garden house you noticed the front gate, still unlocked from when you had previously entered. You looked back towards the window before letting your feet carry you to the gate. The sounds from the front doors of the castle were beginning to get louder, signaling to you that whoever was outside was getting closer. You slipped through the gate, running down the path. You continued to run until your legs couldn’t carry you anymore before stopping in front of the tree that you were certain was where you had fallen into the game from.

Placing your hands on your knees, you leaned down to catch your breath. Not knowing what to do next, you looked around hoping for some sort of exit.

“Come on! I beat the stupid game. See?” You lifted the crown up towards the sky, beginning to get angry.

“I did it. I beat it! What more do you want?” You yelled.

You kept the crown above your head, looking up at the dark sky that did nothing before lowering it. Dropping your head, you looked around once more before noticing a light coming towards you. There was no person behind it, just the light itself. Bringing your hands up to your eyes to shield yourself, you looked as best you could at the light. The room felt like it was shifting before you were pushed.

“Hey!” A voice said from behind you.

You’d recognize it anywhere as you stepped back.

“Mom’s been looking for you.” Your little brother told you.

Looking at him, you nodded as he rolled his eyes, heading out of the small room you were in. You watched him before looking down at your hands. You were in the arcade. In the back room. Your jacket was still on the floor, now covered in dirt and dust from being pushed around. You brought your attention back to the game. A little bubble screen had popped up.

“Congratulations! You helped the thief snatch the crown and evade the guards. Your time was five minutes and thirty-eight seconds. See how your time stacks up to other players.” You read.

The screen gave way to an option to look at the previous scores as you looked back at your time.

“Five minutes? I was only in there for five minutes? It felt so long.”

You moved your hands from the game as you headed for the door. Bending down to pick up your jacket, you looked back once more at the game before walking out.

It had been about a week since you pretty much entered a video game, and the more you played it over in your head the more it seemed like you just fell and hit your head really hard in that room. You knew you had to put it behind you with it being your first day of school, but you couldn’t stop thinking about Eric.

As you parked your car, your friend Sunwoo stood outside the school entrance with another boy. You couldn’t see his face, but you were sure you didn’t know him. He had purple hair with different pastel highlights colored throughout it. Sunwoo spotted you as he waved.

“There you are! Thought you might be late on the first day.”

You could only give the boy the finger as you got closer.

“I made a new friend! He’s new!” Sunwoo yelled.

As you got closer, the boy turned around and you dropped everything in your hands.

“Eric?” You asked.

The boy raised his eyebrows at you as he looked at you then Sunwoo.

“Uh, no. My name is Youngjae.” The boy said.

He was a spitting image of Eric, with the same tone of voice and cadence in the way he talked. Both boys walked down the steps to help you pick your things up.

“I, I’m sorry. You just look strangely like someone I met towards the end of the summer.” You told him.

He smiled at you, giving you a wink. “No problem.”

Sunwoo chuckled, noticing the looks you two were giving each other as he shook his head.

“And yet again, I’ll be third wheeling.” He said as he watched the two of you talk, almost as if you had known each other for a really long time.

#deoboyznet #the boyz #tbz #the boyz eric #tbz eric #eric sohn #son youngjae #the boyz imagines #tbz imagines #the boyz scenarios #tbz scenarios #the boyz angst #the boyz fluff #eric x reader #eric x you #the boyz x reader #the boyz x you

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burningexeter · 8 months

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My take on Shego in Global Justice:

While she still has the same snarky and cynical sense of humor and personality, Shego here has more complexities to her than she looks and you'd expect on first glance.

When we are first introduced to her, Shego is a pure sadistic, twisted and downright wicked femme fatale villainess who takes great pride and enjoyment in being evil and flamboyance to her mien. She is a drop dead stunningly gorgeous but boisterous and vile young woman in her early 20s that also has a clear love of gambling albeit in their own sadistic way as she gambles with other people's lives. Shego's sadism is prominently displayed in her introduction, the jazzy yet macabre "Shego Song", as she simply refuses to kill Kim immediately and instead taunts and mocks her helplessness in addition to subjecting her to one of her many instruments of torture. To top it off, she also has a high intelligence that comes with a ferocious and unpredictable quick temper, always thinking 25 steps ahead of everyone else and proves to Kim that she is far and away from some dumb real-life supervillain that she can escape easily. However, it turns out that both give each other a run for their money for the first time in their lives to which Shego more than enjoys on her side as she's now found somebody that gives her a challenge — Kim gives Shego a run for her money while Shego gives Kim a run for her money, with both of them being impressed with the other's skills.

It's then at the end of "Part 5", things take an unexpected turn with her character when just as it looks like she's about to win and defeat Kim for good.... she doesn't. Shego immediately backs off and literally shuts down her plan as it reaches 00:01.

It's revealed that she has standards, Kim has not only shown that she's a more-than-worthy adversary but has managed to do the one thing no one else has ever done — she impressed Shego. Not only that but Shego flat-out reveals she always planned on shutting off the machine just one second before release, having not fallen for Bonnie's scheme whatsoever in the slightest. Because Shego yet again reveals as to why she didn't kill Kim both in her lair and on the top of the school auditorium and why she shut down the machine that she built herself — "I do a lot of things, Kimmie. But killing children and teenagers ain't one of them!".

As she congratulates Kim on giving her her first real fight, promises to see her again another day in some way and is about to walk off into the night, the two of them to their shock are instantly abducted in vans driven by men in masks who shoot electrocuted stunners. It's when they wake up, Kim and Shego find themselves in a place that the latter is all too familiar with — Global Justice.

To be continued....

#kim possible #shego #global justice #Spotify

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amenders93 · 10 months

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1 Week till Chicken Run 2!!!!!!

At the end of every good story, whenever there is a couple involved, their romantic relationship officially starts when the villain is defeated or a problem has been resolved. What happens is that the couple proclaims their love for each other by telling each other how they feel or sometimes by showing it without even talking. A good example would be like a big hug where one spins the other and then afterwards they share a passionate kiss. Last week's post showed that Rocky chose to return to the farm to help his friends and just in time to save Ginger's life once again. Like the good team they are and the future leaders they will be together, Rocky and Ginger worked together to save their flock. After a scary and risky encounter in the air, they also managed to defeat Mrs. Tweedy and destroy the pie machine at the same time. Now our young feathered lovers are safe and together, happy to have each other back in their lives forever. And better yet, not only are they safe but all their fine feathered friends are safe too. I know I stopped right at the good part but I wanted to save the best for last, and for a good reason too. So now this week, we're going to see the relationship between Rocky and Ginger go from just blooming to official.

Let's pick up to where the plane is soaring high above the farm. We see the farm is destroyed with the barn blown up and gravy is covering much of the land and the remaining buildings (the farmhouse and the huts in the chicken coop). Inside the plane, Ginger is happily looking down to see their old home destroyed, knowing that the chickens were never going back now. And now it's time to celebrate; the chickens all erupt into wild cheers! After being stuck on that miserable farm for so long, the chickens (and rats) are finally safe and free at last! For the chickens, no more morning egg counts, farmers, dogs, coops, keys and especially fences. For the rats, just being away from the farm should be plenty of reward.

Everywhere in the plane, there is much celebration going around. In the cockpit, Mac plants a kiss on Fowler's cheek, much to the old rooster's surprise. Down in the hold, Rocky spins Ginger around in a big hug. Babs and Bunty embrace each other and even Nick and Fetcher cry as they share a hug. But here comes the best part - Rocky pumps a fist in the air and Ginger suddenly shuts his beak. She turns him towards her and gives her handsome rooster the most passionate kiss ever. At first Rocky is a little surprised but then wraps his wings around his beautiful hen. True Love's First Kiss!!!! 👩🏼‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏼💋

All the hens go aww seeing their trusted leader and her true love share their first kiss. Unfortunately they're so distracted by this beautiful scene that they have stopped pedaling, and the plane starts to tilt to the left a bit. The chickens are brought back to reality and start to pedal again, causing the plane to rise again. Fowler calls down from the cockpit, telling the hens to keep pedaling since they're not at their destination yet. He also adds that they can't see paradise if they don't pedal. As this exchange is happening, the plane continues to flap its makeshift wings and flies towards distant hills as the sun rises. The golden rays warm up the countryside, but this sunrise is altogether different. This sunrise doesn't just symbolize the start of a new day but also the start of a new life for the chickens that have achieved freedom after being held prisoner for so long.

Some time later, we find our animal friends enjoying their freedom and living their lives as best they can on an island sanctuary. The chickens have built Each one of our favorite characters are off doing their own thing. Fowler is still telling his military stories, but this time to a bunch of chicks who are eager to listen to tales of action and bravery. The old rooster is telling them the story of the flock's escape from the Tweedy's farm. Some people say that these chicks are Ginger and Rocky's, but our young lovers just got together so they're not ready for kids yet. Personally I'd like to believe that these chicks belong to other hens on the island. The island was already a bird sanctuary so there must have been other hens who had children or were having children. Bunty is pushing Babs on a makeshift swing while the dense hen is still happily knitting away. Babs is oblivious that they're finally free; she thinks they're on holiday and will be going back to the farm soon. Bunty just lets her have this one. Oh, brother 😏. Mac is teaching another group of chicks about physics and engineering using her makeshift catapult as a demonstration. The chicks are fascinated with this lesson or at least wanting to try to be flung like one chick was during the demonstration for fun. Nick and Fetcher are enjoying their time, doing their own thing. Somewhere along their conversation about starting their own chicken farm, they bring up the whole chicken-and-egg situation.

But best of all, Ginger is on top of the hill overlooking their new home, a village meant just for the chickens far away from the dangers of humans. Rocky comes up beside her, charmingly asking if their new home and the feel of the soft, cool green grass is everything she ever imagined. Ginger replies that it is not, shocking Rocky a bit. He seems a little disappointed at this. However, our pretty hen was only teasing him because then she does something really sweet. She then hugs her handsome new boyfriend, telling him that it's better than she imagined. Rocky, in return, smiles and lovingly hugs his beautiful new girlfriend back. He gives out a little chuckle and she gently sighs, both thinking that life will never get better than this. Just wait until the sequel, then it will 😉. Rocky and Ginger look down upon their village full of their happy fine feathered friends during this sweet hug like the new leaders they are, much like a king and queen surveying their kingdom. Our beautiful couple then walk down the hill hand in hand so Ginger can teach Rocky how to play cricket. The official start of their new romantic relationship. Long live Rocky and Ginger! 💘

And there we have it, a happy ending for our fine feathered friends and the start of the romantic relationship between our handsome rooster Rocky and our beautiful hen Ginger. The Tweedys have been defeated, the farm and pie machine have both been destroyed, and the chickens have finally obtained their long-awaited freedom. They have even found a bird sanctuary on an island in the middle of a tranquil lake. There were no farmers, no dogs, no huts, no coops, no keys and best of all, no fences. The chickens could now live their best lives however they want, without any worries whatsoever.

But the best part of all this is that Rocky and Ginger are finally together. Their beautiful love story had started with them disliking each other to liking each other to becoming friends to falling in love. And now comes the happy ending - them becoming an official couple, starting with having their first kiss. At the beginning, Ginger was held prisoner on a chicken farm and Rocky was free from the circus. But after a crazy adventure with a touch of romance, Rocky and Ginger are now both free and have found a new home for not only their friends, but for themselves as well. Best of all, they both had someone special to share their home and lives together. True happiness comes from sharing your life with someone who will love you for who you are, no matter what. We may think their story will end right there, but next week we will see it continue in a whole new adventure - marriage and parenthood. Let's hope they can survive whatever life throws at them in the sequel. ❤️💖💓💞

Anyway this is my twelfth and final weekly Rocky/Ginger moment post commemorating the upcoming sequel to Chicken Run. I hope you have enjoyed all these posts. There will be another special post about the sequel to celebrate the big day. There also will be another post within the next few days as a special treat. Waiting for this long-awaited sequel hasn't been very easy but these posts have made it easier as the release date got closer. But now the wait is almost over!!!!

#chicken run #chicken run 2 #chicken run dawn of the nugget #dawn of the nugget #ginger and rocky #rocky and ginger #rocky #ginger #countdown

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onecantsimply · 1 year

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Yandere Noah and Jack Smith x A2 Reader (Maybe Mother Goose Too But-)

Noah may get more considering that I already write for Jack so much Hh- Also... they're going to be a Yandere. I can never steer away from those topics. I have descended to this level-

It embarrasses me of how soon I took to complete this-

Your hair and eyes will be the same as the appearance you would like it to be. Your name will be A2 for a while, but will be changed later on in the fic.

NIER AUTOMATA SPOILERS, AS WELL AS JACK THE RIPPER CASE FILES SPOILERS:

A2 is an Android from Nier Automata, built originally as a YoRHa soldier. She was a prototype of Androids that had led to the original 2B and 9S. A2 has no liking to speaking, and tends to stay silent. Three years prior to the events of NieR:Automata, she was a member of the first YoRHa squadron deployed to Earth as part of the Pearl Harbor Descent during the early years of the 14th Machine War. Her alias at the time was No2 which is parsed in Automata as "Number Two". Now, A2 is a wanted Android that had first been hunted down at the Forest Kingdom by 2B and 9S. Though, due to the unexpected virus that had spread, A2 had been forced to fight against certain Androids that had been infected with it, even having to defend 2B against some of them. Even with that, she had deciphered that she couldn't live, seeing as how she were infected with a logic virus. 2B told A2 to take her blade that had been imbued with her memories before killing her. And so, the Android does so, with 9S seeing 2B collapse to the floor. He succumbs to a mental breakdown, shouting of how he'll kill A2 while running towards her. However, the bridge under him breaks due to "The Tower" growing out of the floor. A2, who is also amidst the area, had collapsed onto some rubble, going unconscious.

And now... when they wake up, they find themself in a new world, with Humans that have no idea of their own future.

• You yourself are simply confused of what the hell just happened. One moment, you were near the destroyed shopping center, and now, you were on an intact building, seeing people... actual people... walking around without a care in the world. It made you... slightly mad. You and your own allies had practically died, some quite literally, to complete a war against Androids and Machines, that still hadn't ended. So if that were the case, why were you still alive? Why were you here? With Humans?

• To your silent confusion, you see a small machine floating around you. It greets you, telling you of how its name is Pod 042. You didn't seem to care, making your way down the building. Though, as you did so, Pod had asked for what your purpose was. You didn't answer. 30 seconds later, Pod asked again. Irritated, you had told him that you wanted to destroy any machines that came across you. Instead of being able to scan the machine signs rather easily, Pod had spoken of how that wasn't available, and for you to pick another purpose.

• You told him that you should simply explore or map out the area. With an "affirmed", Pod had then went silent. Of course, you attempted to ask him where you two were. However, he answered with an "unknown". And with a small scoff, you muttered about how useless this small machine was.

• Though, you had begun to walk around. Your clothes seemed to catch the eyes of others, who had practically giggled or murmured about your appearance. Though, it was never as if you had cared, so you continued on with your day. You passed a cafe, on where a certain silver haired man was enjoying his apple pie. He only got a glance of you, but had stopped, seeing you disappear into the crowd. The man blinked, but had then went back to his Apple pie, enjoying it with a content smile.

• Pod then began to speak of how you needed to refill your fuel filter. You didn't seem to care about that. Though, upon warning that you would have to forcibly shut down if you ran out of fuel, you sighed, telling him to tell you where the nearest part of fuel was. Pod marked the spot, allowing for you to slip in. You had simply grabbed what you needed before someone had called you out. Obviously, seeing as how you were in a world where Humans never existed, you never understood their ways.

• You just flicked some G (Android and Machine currency) over to them before walking towards the entrance of the room. Yet, it seemed as if things had gotten off on the wrong foot. Someone was already trying to kill you. On instinct, you had evaded, punching the male into the wall. Or so you thought. Your hand had punched through the male's stomach, coating your hand in a red, crimson liquid that was some to your own blood. However, the difference was how it had spilled.

• Of course, taking lives wasn't new to you. You had killed countless Androids and Machines that had tried to go after you for any kind of purpose. So, you didn't think much of it, and simply got to slicing as more Humans came at you. However, instead of exploding into flames, they had... stayed lifeless. Slowly, they had all began to exert a certain scent that had you leave the area, covered in blood. Others had gasped, seeing you carrying the fuel out. You had only sent them small glares.

• However, there was a man in black, as well as a seemingly buff male with a scar across his nose. A smaller woman with two swords had watched you walk away. And when they had looked to where you had come from, they had saw that you had murdered pretty much an entire organization on your own. For fuel. Odd- The black haired male couldn't help but smile softly from interest, making a small motion to the pair behind him. They both nodded.

• Now, you were refilled on fuel, being able to wander as you saw fit. However, the blood on you had dried. It grew annoying, so you washed it off. You thought you were finally alone until you heard Pod say something. "Three Humans approaching." You had silently looked back at them with slightly furrowed eyebrows.

• The black haired male seemed to speak of some things, speaking of how bold you were to kill an organization out in the open. You had stayed silent, simply standing there. You were waiting for them to make the first move. Eventually, the male had quieted down. He then looked towards you with a soft smile.

- "... What are you?"

• Your eyebrows faintly furrowed from this question. Yet, you had continued to stay silent, keeping still. Your eyes had scanned all three of them. You knew they were perfectly capable. The one in the middle seemed rather... more odd than the rest.

• Sensing the tension, Pod immediately floated in front of you.

- “Warning: Combat with this unit will result in appropriate consequences. Destruction recommended."

• The male seemed to perk up, asking what Pod was. The small machine had answered of how he was a support unit assigned to you. Seeing as how you weren't going to speak on your own, Pod had decided to speak for you.

- "Unit A2 will attack whenever the first offense is launched. Any attack will be taken as self defense."

• The male in black seemed to chuckle. He the. Started to laugh, the two beside him looking at him slight confusion. You seemed to softly mutter about how weird he was, turning around, since waiting around was completely irrelevant to you. Though, you heard the ringing of a blade only a second later.

• Your own blade immediately connected with the young woman's. She had slightly wide eyes, but had the other male throw a punch at you. Of course, you lunged away from the pair, with Pod firing bullets towards the trio. They had all avoided it, leading to him closing out.

- "Proposal: Wasting fuel from your filter is dangerous. Flee."

• You softly huffed but lunged to the edge. The male seemed to ask of if you needed fuel. That if you came with him, he could supply it in return for some questioning. Pod immediately turned to you.

- "Alliances will be needed in an unknown world, Unit A2."

• You could only scoff, speaking of how you worked better alone. However, Pod floated in front of you, floating forward while saying the same thing. You already had the feeling of how he would keep being awfully pushy about the situation, you had turned to the other male with a sigh, seemingly just ordering him of what he wanted.

• He just wanted information. It's not every day that he sees an Android, after all. It does tend to be the first time, actually. That's when Pod floated in front of him, speaking of how you weren't some lab rat. The male immediately agreed with a chuckle. However, he looked back at you. You were... interesting.

• No care in the world for anyone, no care in the world for how people thought of you, already having a more closed off personality when he knows you were much more kind in the past, so much strength and prowess, and even viewing him, a leader of a dark organization, as irrelevant.

- He thinks of it all as absolutely interesting. Well, at first, anyway.

• Well, the man had spoken and offered how he wanted you to become a background member of his group. The two beside him could only slightly widen their eyes as your own softly narrowed. Whatever you needed would be supplied to you as long as you took orders from him and him alone. Anyone else will have no reign over you unless he says so.

• Pod immediately accepted the offer, much to your irritated shock, and to the man's bliss. He visibly brightened up before you sighed softly. You softly glared at the male after, but followed after him when told.

- "You can't just accept offers like that." You spoke to Pod, who had continued to float beside you. - "Negative. Unit A2 has shown signs of visible problems with communicating. As a support unit, I shall be the substitute." - "You don't need to do that. I can communicate just fine, with or without words." - "Would that mean subtle glares?"

• You immediately sent Pod a glare, proving his point. More so at the three in front of you. The pair beside the male seemed to question the male beside them. However, he never answered them, only sending them a small smile. Did he really know what he was doing? The two never knew.

• Now, you were in a darker building, in which you took a seat in your given spot. It was only soon enough that jobs were given to you already. And yes. You completed all without fail, receiving payment. Noah understood you never did work well with others. But sometimes, he needed to assign you with other members of the group. Whether that be all of them or not.

• Humpty Dumpty... You two didn't give a shit about each other. Simple business partners or partners of Mother Goose assigned by Noah. Nothing else. Though, since Alfred didn't have to worry about friendly fire, he often threw cannon balls towards you and your enemy whenever locked in a clash. However, the same cannot be said for him whenever you throw your blade at his opponent. He has to leap back with what he can to escape being impaled. And that's what has him scold you in silence. You two frequently get in arguments about it. There's something that seems enjoyable about it, however. Well... for Alfred, that is. You still think you don't work well with him.

• Mary Had A Little Lamb... Seeing as how the both of you are swordsmen with different styles of fighting, you still work great together. You know how your blades work, and actually manage to pull off combos together. However, that doesn't mean you two are getting along during those missions. In the beginning, you two just really don't care for each other. Until Mika sees more of your style, and grows curious of it instead of having to focus on the job. She privately asks of what your style was. You don't know about it, since it was regularly implanted into you right when you were built. Oh, right. You're an Android. Not a Human. However... Mika doesn't need to care about that. An acquaintance is an acquaintance to her.

• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star... Lmfao. LMAO. No. Your nature throws him off- You're awfully cold, which is something that's fine with Bogey. He's met plenty of cold people like Alfred and Wake. However... why the hell are you so aggressive-? How are you dashing with that red glint around you-? He has stamina in running, yes. But not as much as you. Why do you set yourself on fire if an opponent seems too strong for you-? (Naturally that means Bogey has to be put to the side while you fuck the opponent up with Berserker Mode.) But still... that brings up more sparring sessions. Bogey seems fine with it, even if you deem it as a waste of time. You both get cuts, with mostly Bogey being the more injured one. If he can't grab a hold of you, that is.

• Cock Robin... Bitch no- You're the one who hates him. He's annoying, and he looks smug as hell. Which is not wrong- That razorwhip of his does wonders, however. He likes to get work done fast, which means the both of you may as well work well together when it comes to fighting enemies. Wake keeps a watch over you while you brutalize most people within the building, making sure that no one else gets close enough to you to get a hit in. While you absolute hate him, he has no care for you whatsoever. Just some allies that got partnered up on a job, but had no connection to each other aside from that. It literally takes so many jobs for you two to do anything other than your jobs. Whether that he simply chilling around for a while or having to speak of something to pass the time.

• Sixpence... Do I have to--? Oh... Uh... You were definitely wierded out over her appearance at first, but still, she had quite a lot of uses when it came to slipping through small spaces.

• Lincolnshire Poacher... No- I don't know enough about him- All I can say is that he most likely got backhanded by you when he tried to put his arm around you. His jaw ached for a full month after, and he didn't really approach you again unless he had to- He's scared of you HH- However, him being a sniper only reminded you of one of your Android friends. So even if he never noticed, you had grown slightly softer with him.

• Noah... The man himself... The irritating man himself... You regard him as nothing more than a weird boss. Nothing else. You're used to a commander that's straightforward, and focused on her goal. However, Noah is different. He's focused on his goal, yes. But he loves small distractions such as plays and hard candy. You viewed plays as boring time passers, where you could simply stand against a tree while it was going on. Occasionally, you saw Noah laughing about something. And, about hard candy... Whenever he offered you some, you declined, speaking of how Androids didn't need to eat. However, Noah wanted you to taste it, just in case if you liked it. It had to get to the point where he had to order you to eat it. And honestly... it wasn't bad. You just didn't let him know about it. He knew anyways though-

• However, when you were on a job of your own, you had ran into a young man with silver hair. He took one gaze at your colors while you were walking past, and chuckled, softly mumbling about how your colors were pleasantly impure. You didn't care for what he was talking about, but the next few seconds were the things you cared for. A single knife being launched at you, in which you caught. However, before you could face him, he was gone. I mean... as long as it means he wouldn't disrupt your assignments.

• Though, you were aware of the eyes on you after that. It was irritating, having to minimalize movement just to make sure he doesn't get everything you have.

• Ah... This man has seen you before... Back when you were simply walking around with that small machine at your side. It still is, shooting people lmfao. Well... at least doing your assignments was good enough. However, you needed to get your stalker off your tail. And so, that's what you did. You smashed a window and hopped out before swinging yourself into an open window. You could hear the man above you chuckle, speaking of how he'd see you and your lovely colors yet again.

• After you were sure he had left, you had went back to your own place. Mail had been placed through your slot, having you look through it. Until you saw you had gotten a letter from Wake to attend a monthly meeting, in which you had been skipping every damn time. You were about to toss it to the side until you saw that Noah had ordered you to. The obvious different handwriting made it slightly annoying, but, an order is an order.

• Attending that meeting seemed like a waste of time, just as you thought. Just simply checking if everyone were still alive, in which they were. You really didn't have any more means of staying until Noah had told you to. You seemed more annoyed at that. However, you stayed in silence. After mostly everyone had left, you walked up to Noah, asking him what he had wanted. After being told that he just wanted to do something with you, you could feel your eyes narrowing from slight irritation. Catching this, Noah couldn't help but chuckle.

- He probably asked if you hated his company. You said yes. Noah simply chuckled from your answer.

• Hm... Maybe he needs to try a little bit more then. Or... you could be hiding that you like his presence? It does take a while for you to get used to things, after all. Literally, since you backhanded Crawl because he put an arm around your shoulders, never did anyone else touch you without your permission after that.

• Still, Noah could tell. He could tell he was starting to get to you. You're speaking more around him, and showing the slightest of concern whenever something goes wrong. Even for other members. You don't know them as much since they have things to do, but the places you go to with them when on jobs is something that cannot be replaced. He had mostly occupied your time when you had come back to get your pay.

• Though, when you had to leave, and go home, you could feel specific eyes on you. It was that weird heterochromatic eyed guy. He had been stalking you for a while until it had become regular. You really thought this man would give up within a few months. No. Not at all. He had continued, having to find you over and over again until you had nowhere to hide. It may have gotten to the point where Noah had started to notice himself. So, he may as well accompany you, yes?

• Even with how you tried to refuse, Noah could see the slightly relieved look in your eyes whenever he had come with you at these specific times. It was about time he had to ask you what was going on. Of course, he did it in silence, letting you answer in your own way. Seeing you eye something behind you, Noah had immediately understood from there. Maybe he could take advantage over this. But... couldn't you take care of this person yourself? Yes. You could. But he never did anything unless it was that knife that was thrown towards you.

• Truly, speaking of it, while Noah had left you in your own apartment, there was someone that would sneak in and simply... watch as you sleep. Pod is deactivated beside you, so you're completely shut down. And that gives him much more time to simply watch you. You yourself... The man knows he has enemies. Perhaps lots from how he has a "simple" interest in you. Especially with the group you're in. It was dangerous to even be around you, and he knew this.

• Which was why Noah coming with you seemed rather irritating for him. Especially with the amount of time it took for him to leave. And that man knew it wouldn't be easy, even if Noah had left. Because there was most likely someone else stalking along to make sure you two were safe. Even if that man knew that the person were most likely not going to show themself, there was nice chance that he could always get them first. And that was precisely what he did.

• It was some sort of male with a sniper. It was Crawl. That man just about knocked him out withe enough force to keep him unconscious for a few hours. Now, with bliss, he had snuck his way into your abode. Oh, how your sleeping, or rather, shut down form was beautiful. You had colors of sorrow and guilt within you, however. Most likely that something happened before he ever met you. However, he didn't like to see it on you. While he couldn't do anything other than gently sit beside you, enjoying you simply for your presence, he could always stay by your side. Always in the shadows, but still within your own.

• That man... He adored you. He really did. Ever since first seeing you wandering around while he ate his apple pie. At first, he never seemed to mind, only regarding you as someone slightly odd. He was right. What would you have to do to get into a dark organization? One where people heavily guard you without your own knowledge the best they can? All because of one leader that has also gained an infatuation for you.

• Of course... That man hated sharing. But... the battle to find out who you'll be with is always something fun. Before, that man has always taken care of any that have tried to get in his way. However, he was having trouble with those that had bothered to stalk you other than him. Those that had accompanied you on your jobs, and those that have made sure you weren't injured to certain extent.

• At first, it seemed easy. You were closed off. You always were, and still are to certain others. But to those that had managed to bond with you in certain ways... and had managed to break down your walls before he could... that man couldn't tolerate any competition. So, later would be the time he would finally meet you again. Of course, you or your small machine would recognize him as a stalker. However, he would like to start off on a new foot. Would that be so bad?

• The man then sees something. A knife. His knife. You... kept it? The man immediately grabs a hold of it, softly smiling faintly as he gently traces a gloved finger down the surface of the gleaming blade. The fact that you kept it... This made the knife special. The man immediately pocketed it after softly shuddering from happiness. You give him the best of emotion, and you don't even know...

• Now, that man had gotten off of your bed, giving you a small kiss to your forehead. For a few seconds, he could see a pure emotion flooding into you. That man could only smile before he leaves, just in time to escape away from Crawl's eyes. That man seemed confused on what had happened until he found himself on the cold floor. He immediately checked in on you. You were still okay, much to his relief. He really didn't want to get backhanded by anyone, especially you. The memory makes him sweatdrop each time.

• And, as the man had planned, he had finally met you in another location. It wasn't useful to hide who he was, considering you remembered him. So, you simply glared at him while he spoke of how he never had any bad intentions for you. Instead, that he wanted to do something with you.

- "Surely, spending time away from your odd leader is valuable to you, yes?" - "Not if I get stuck with another weirdo."

• The man could only softly sigh. However, he introduces himself as Jack. Jack Smith. You knew you had no need to introduce yourself, since he most likely knew your name already. And that he did. He never cared for how odd your name sounded. Nor did he care if anyone was watching. This moment to be with you and actually talk with you is something he's been craving for a while.

• Even if you finally depart after a while, even you talking to him is enough for him to feel complete for a slight bit. Until he aches to talk again, that is. However, he knows fully well that your time is being taken up by Noah, or perhaps other Mother Goose members. It... really seems as if you have no time alone. Well, unless for jobs, that is. Actually, not if people are stalking you. Including Jack, but-

• Well, he'll take any bit of time he has to grasp a small companionship with you. No matter how much Pod annoys him about backing off. Jack has no other desire than to be with you. It's... just been quite the while... since he's ever decided to do something like this with anyone. But this feeling... It had subjugated every nerve within his body. And whenever you're near him, that feeling spreads. It begins to fester. The fact that you actually do agree to spend time with him gives him serotonin.

• Though, in the time divided through your week, Jack only has one day with you before it's split to the other members of Mother Goose. If he wants more time, then it would be better to make his own moves.

• Jack Smith... is annoying in his own right. That man can and will follow you wherever and whenever. It's a wonder of how he hasn't managed to follow you back to Mother Goose's base. He will literally follow you anywhere but there, so that's fine with you. But in the times where he does get to spend his time with you, you always seem annoyed of him. Though, the colors within you had always read as slightly amused. Jack can be annoying, yes. But he's... rather mysterious in his own way as well, leading to your slight interest in him. Additionally to the fact that you simply talking to him seems to make him brighten up immediately. Mans seems like a sort of puppy like that. Not that it's cute to you or anything, hell no, but you find yourself arching an eyebrow at that sometimes.

• With Noah, he found the name of A2 rather... complicated. So, he had your address name changed. Your name is now (Y/n). Of course, you could still be called A2 as you'd like.

- To know that you don't mind the name has Noah smiling softly. What a relief this warmth was. He had actually renamed you to something more casual. All that was left was your clothes. Mika could be in charge of that. So, he had her take you shopping. After all, just a few black cloths over you won't do much.

• So... You didn't feel as if it were necessary to remove the other clothes you had. So, you wore the other one you bought over it. Honestly, it looked nice.

- (Belongs to Satellite-Helen)-

• Well, you got a few more simps now. Tighter schedule. Yikes- The toothpick and the razorwhip man have been added into the roster-

• At least you and Mika kind of match. She enjoyed it more than anything that her older sibling figure could actually look like her when you two have the same type of weapon. Even if you have more weapon adjustion than she does.

• Well, even if you got more simps, it's still ridiculously hard enough to truly get on your good side. And... those two don't exactly try harder to get on your good side other than accompanying you on jobs whenever Noah needs them to. And they can tell. They can tell he knows about their feelings as well.

• Well, it wouldn't matter if they still had literal years to spend with you. They'd get close with you either way. While their lack of almost communication can place them behind certain people, within the years, it literally becomes irrelevant because of how they'll have to keep up with those certain people.

• By now, things are suffocating for you. You've definitely snapped and told some to shut up or leave you alone. They stalked you instead. It's still better than having direct contact, so you simply let it be. Whether that be simply resting around after a job, or simply taking time to do things by yourself.

- They see you resting by an open window of an abandoned building most of the time, simply staring into space until Pod reminds you that you need to go back. Or that someone approaches you, which can either be the stalker, or simply someone else. Usually, it does tend to be the stalker. But if it's someone else, they're very stupid to even approach a random Android sitting by the windowsill. Still... I suppose curiosity killed the cat, because that person wasn't found anywhere the next hour. Not by you either.

• Anyhow, it becomes regular that you simply expect your time to be eaten up by the ones that have an infatuation with you. You don't pay attention to any of the chaos that really goes on in the area. It really comes to the point where you can only settle around Nu. She's the most calm about everything, and doesn't stalk you unless ordered to. Besties.

• Everything seems to be falling apart whenever a specific toothpick had died, however.

- It appears that the gentleman has finally made his move. However, you were never one to know.

• However, that loss put you in a state of slight anger. It was supposed to be a simple bodyguard or butler job, so what the hell happened. Catching on to your irritation, Noah had taken advantage over it. He had smiled, speaking of how he would find the killer, and would allow for you to brutalize him. You knew fully well of how he was glad at how there was one less rival, however.

• You grew more cold and distant then, to literally everyone as well. Well, unless Noah had ordered you to come with him to kill some lower dark organizations. It was simply to find the killer in easier fashion while checking in on your condition. You were slowly growing more distant, intent on finding the guy that had murdered one of your friends. That seemed unacceptable to Noah.

• You weren't tolerating anyone stalking you either. You were always out of view now, keeping out of sight. And thinking about it... you never did hang around your gentleman friend often. Neither did he approach you as of recently. It seemed oddly suspicious, especially with how you knew what he was capable of.

• One day, after massacring a specific dark organization, the leader had spoken of info he had. And it matched specifically to Jack. You seemed to scoff, and immediately left to find him. But naturally, the gentleman was never anywhere to be found. You asked Pod to locate him. He unfortunately couldn't do so, since he had no signal as a machine. Softly cursing, you went to find him on your own.

• How normal. You found him at Alice's Cafe. And he was quite aware of how pissed off you were. He saved his apple pie by keeping his attention on you.

- “Now then… What would you like to talk of, My Dear?”

#record of ragnarok #record of ragnarok x reader #jack the ripper #jack the ripper record of ragnarok #jack the ripper x reader #snv jack the ripper #ror jack the ripper #(Case Files) Noah x Reader #Noah Jack The Ripper Case Files

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theunholyrogue · 1 year

Text

if time could stop (REWRITTEN!) (Bay!Leo ending)

tw: angst, cursing

intro.itcs

“Let’s do this.”

Leonardo looked between his brothers, nodding effortlessly to the ideas that each was throwing out and working to incorporate them all into a well-devised plan that would work.

Though, he couldn’t shake the thoughts that had lingered in the back of his mind. If he were honest, he wasn’t sure what to expect. Would doing this really bring you back to him? Surely that would mess up something– but then that brought him back to what they were currently doing, which would also mess up something in their time. How would this set their current life whenever they did take down the Shredder and they returned? How different would life become?

“Leo…” Donatello spoke, drawing the leader from his thoughts.

Leonardo hummed, his spaced out expression now focusing in on his brother. “Sorry.”

“I know you miss them.” So desperately. “But we need you here. With us. Okay?” Michelangelo spoke softly.

“I know. I’m here.” Leonardo replied, though he hadn’t been here in five years.

Everyday, he seemed to remember that day. Your birthday, for Christ’s sake. He had started running towards you as soon as the Shredder broke through your flesh with his blades, instantly sealing your fate. He had been foolish, and watched the life fade from your body at the very last second. It broke him, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

You and Leonardo had been so close, so close that he had developed a sort of crush on you– but it was harshly ripped away in the moment that you were gone. He had vowed from that day on that he would stop at nothing to end the Shredder just as he did you, no mercy. With Donatello’s time machine, it suddenly became possible.

“Two turtles at a time. The machine may act up as soon as the first two go through, but it should phase back to normal afterwards. Don’t send anyone else through until it stops or it could mess up the entire system.” Donatello explained as he and the other three brothers suited up in protective suits and stored their upgraded weapons where they normally kept them.

“Are you only going back five years? Why not go all the way back to when the Shredder was born and kill him then before he has a chance to do any damage to the world?” Casey asked, which seemed like a plausible thought… At least until Donatello explained.

“Five years is already disrupting our timeline and might have a big enough butterfly effect. We don’t want to go too far back and risk altering so much that we risk never being born, or civilization not progressing like it should. Especially if we come back and weren’t meant to be here. That would cause a whole bunch of issues. At least five years ago we know that we were supposed to be alive.”

“That… makes sense,” Casey nodded, taking a seat at the station Donatello had built next to the machine to keep a constant monitoring on their situation. “Our suits have continuous vitals tracking, which you will see on the screen and colored coded to our individual masks. You see our blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, oxygen, and respiration rate. If anything shifts dramatically to an abnormal amount, it will turn bright yellow.”

Casey watched as Donatello explained the station he was sitting at, pointing out everything on the screen. Then he moved over to April’s station. “Here, you’re keeping an eye on the portal and making sure it doesn’t want to mess up while we’re on the other side. If it has a chance of screwing up and not self-fixing, you’ll get an alarm flash on the screen to warn us to get out. Like I said earlier, it will go haywire whenever we step through, but it should auto-correct.” He continued to talk April through what she was seeing on the screen.

“We have buttons on our suits to press in the case that we have to get back through the portal before it shuts down and we don’t want to get trapped… ya know?” Donatello stated, pointing to the button. “It teleports us back to the portal, do not press it unless we have to.”

“Okay, are we ready?” Leonardo asked, clearing his mind in that moment. Either he would get you back, or avenge your death, no matter what, the Shredder would not be alive for long.

“Ready.” The rest of his brothers retorted, followed by April and Casey.

“Donatello and I will go through first, and once it’s clear, Michelangelo and Raphael will follow suit. Let’s take this bastard down.” Leonardo stated firmly, earning a nod from his brothers.

Moving to the entrance of the portal, Leonardo and Donatello stood and waited for the swirling mist of purple to engulf the inner ring of the machine, opening the gate of interdimesional travel. They flinched back at first whenever the portal opened up, but stiffened up in their posture and spared each other a glance before giving a small nod.

“Waiting on you,” April called out from the station, signaling to the two brothers that they could walk through. “Good luck.”

Slowly, they stepped forward and entered the swirling mist. It took a few moments of nauseating visual and motion disturbances before they exited on the other side of the portal, finding themselves in Donatello’s lab that mirrored itself. Stepping out onto the other end of the portal, Donatello looked at his wrist while Leonardo took a moment to regain himself. He glanced around the room before looking to his brother.

“We just did that. We’re back five years in the past, right?” Leonardo asked.

“We should be… but these readings aren’t adding up with today… five years ago today,” his brother responded, causing him to furrow his brow bone in confusion.

“What do you mean by that, Don?” Leonardo asked with a curious expression.

“Well, at this time– the timeline should be off the charts from the chaos from the Shredder… but it’s just as calm. If I’m correct, we…” Donatello slowly stopped talking as his eyes drifted from his watch, to Leonardo, then to something behind his brother.

Leonardo noticed his brother’s change in demeanor and questioned him. “What is it, Don?”

“Leo?” A familiar voice called out from behind the turtle’s back, causing his eyes to widened and to turn his body without hesitation.

There, standing a few feet behind him… was you. You, your body, your voice, you everything. You were there, alive and healthy. Leonardo couldn’t believe his eyes as he trailed your body up and down. Was he dreaming?

Stepping forward, his body moved on autopilot as he walked up to you and placed the palm of his hand against your cheek. To feel your flesh once again nearly caused him to falter and he couldn’t resist the urge to engulf you in his arms.

You were genuinely confused by his actions, as well as why he was suddenly in Donatello’s lab, but you didn’t fight away from his grasp, instead wrapping your arms around him and reciprocating the gesture. Leonardo melted into your hold and felt like breaking down.

“I’m so sorry. I’m so, so, so sorry,” Leonardo whispered into your ear.

You laughed in an airy manner before replying, “I don’t know what you are apologizing for… but you know I could never be mad at you. Right?” You asked.

Leonardo’s breath hitched as he broke down. “Yeah, I know. I know all too well, but I still feel guilty.”

You rubbed his shell, a small gesture of yours that had always seemed to calm him down. It ended up working, his subtle breakdown coming to a halt as he breathed deeply, in and out.

“I can’t send Mikey or Raph through, the portal isn’t going back to normal, Don,” April came through their connected communication system.

Donatello was silent as he watched you and his brother, a moment he knew that Leonardo needed. He closed his eyes and took a minute before responding. “Alright, coming back through.”

Leonardo’s grip on your body tightened as Donatello’s word echoed in person and through the comms system.

You, hearing Donatello from the short distance away, pulled back slightly and pressed your palms against Leonardo’s face.

“I don’t know what happened, or what’s going on, but whatever you are holding in.. what’s causing this pain, let it go. You mean too much to me, here and there, for you to hold something like this in. Now get going, you and Donnie don’t need to get stuck here… I’m sure.” You stated, a reassuring smile on your features.

Leonardo nodded, slowly, taking in your words to heart. “I love you so much.” He speaks, his voice hardly above a whisper.

You smile, pressing your lips to his for a short second. “I love you, too, Leo.”

“I’m so sorry, but we gotta go,” Donatello broke the moment, waiting on his brother.

You pulled back, away from Leonardo. Silently, you nodded towards the portal behind them. “I’ll see you again.” You stated as Leonardo and Donatello slowly moved back through the portal, the swirling mist closing soon after the two returned to the other side.

Everything was silent before Donatello turned to Leonardo.

“You okay?”

Leonardo took a moment before nodding.

“I’ll see them again.”

#tmnt #tmnt bayverse #tmnt leo 2014 #tmnt leo 2016 #tmnt x reader #tmnt leo x reader #tmnt leonardo x reader #tmnt leonardo #tmnt angst

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ghostlycorvid · 9 months

Text

2023 Introspective

This year started with cutting off a toxic person who had already shut me out of mutual friend spaces but kept stringing me along with "maybe in a few more months I'll let you back in". 2022 was rough on its own, especially pre-antidepressants, but a huge part of it was stuff involving this person. Blocking them and finally accepting that it was not worth trying to repair what little relationship was left was the most freeing thing I've ever done and helped me to continue that with any other rude unpleasant individual I've had to share spaces with. It's been genuinely wonderful to realize I don't have to sit there and listen to bad takes or people who are needlessly mean, so I'm glad something came out of that friendship nightmare scenario.

It still took a lot of time to not sit there in anger and frustration spirals over the way things ended up, but in February I got permission from my bosses to bring my dog Chili to work with me due to needing to keep him and our other dog from playing while she was recovering from her spay. I ended up realizing that even though Chili is a huge anxiety baby, having him with me legitimately was helping distract me from negative thoughts spirals and gave me something positive to focus on when I was getting frustrated by work-related stuff in the moment. He ended up helping a couple coworkers come down from panic attacks later in the year too. My boss likes how "calm" he is enough that he gave me permission to bring Chili to work all the time (within reason), so he's come with me on most non-event days. His progress has been slow, but he's also been improving from the regular socialization!

I finally started to really focus on my own art and developing my own products and designs, both for my personal shop and for the shop at work. I've come out the other side of this year with 9 new enamel pin designs between the two! (A couple I haven't shared yet! ;D)

I was finally given an Adderall prescription which magically solved my problem where I couldn't stay awake during the day no matter how much sleep I'd gotten! And also it started helping me focus a little better too, but genuinely the non-sleepy thing was the most lifechanging part of the medication for me. The pit in my stomach when I was told that person felt like I was stalking and surveilling them if I was quiet in a call or stream despite years of me communicating that I was constantly struggling to even stay conscious was... HOO BOY. After years of fighting for my life to stay awake in college and sometimes even while DRIVING TO AND FROM WORK,,,,,,,, I really thought something was seriously wrong with me (besides the ADHD since I didn't realize it was a symptom of that)

With toxic people removed from my social spaces and general perception, I've finally started to join group calls with my friends again without anxiety or fear of not being welcome. It's helped me start to get back into playing games again, and I've been able to get into a few that either have built in accessibility features to avoid hand strain, or I've been able to modify my hardware setup to help with issues I was running into before. I've finally managed to pick up Warframe again, and I'm bouncing between that and Path of Titans without being hopelessly deep in a hyperfocus.

I officially got promoted at my job to Retail & Visitor Services manager (and got a $3 raise in Nov!!). While I'm struggling with finding help to ease my increased workload, I'm definitely way better off than before we hired on extra staff. It's given me a lot of networking opportunities (and excuses to go on field trips on the clock for ~*networking*~) and I've been juuuust starting to poke my head into local groups. One is a monthly artists crafting meetup right by work that starts right when I clock out! :D

I had the energy and free time to start branching out and trying other arts and crafts hobbies that had been interesting me! Ended up getting a serger machine to help really tidy up clothes that I make! I got into linocut & block printing, and have been having a lot of fun working on designs for that kind of printing. I even made a few printed shirts! And of course there was Andromeda, the first puppet I've ever made, and pretty much my proudest achievement in all my years of art so far.

I've honestly been spending less time on social media proper, usually forgetting to check tumblr for days or weeks at a time. Which has been good and bad, but overall better for me to stop feeling like I HAVE to fully backlog everything ever.

I got my first tattoo this year after wanting one for years and years! And that opened up a whole new can of worms and now I'm ending the year with 5 tattoos and 2 more scheduled in the next couple months oops! My first tattoo was Joltik, with my first ever pet spide!

I started keeping spiders this year after years of being too concerned about keeping pets that required live feeding! That also was a slippery slope. I picked up Indrid my red-backed jumper and Autumn my pumpkin patch t at the end of January, and now I have them, a regal jumper, a red-knee t, and a togo starburst t. You'd never guess that less than a decade ago I was scared shitless of all spiders. :> Especially now that I will occasionally free-handle wild spiders that need relocation to someplace safer. (Mostly still just jumpers tho)

Things aren't perfect by any means and I still have a lot of areas I want to personally improve myself in, but I feel like overall this has been a really really good year for me and I want to keep that momentum going into 2024! More art! More projects just for me! More time with friends! More enjoying games! More tidying my space literally and metaphorically!

#in fairness re: driving it only was a danger when i was seriously sleep deprived on top of the adhd understimulation #i am fine now if i am seriously sleep deprived but taking my medicine. that's normal levels of sleepy

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the-fiction-witch · 2 years

Text

The Boy From The Bay

Media TMR AU

Character Newt

Couple Newt X Reader

Rating Sad, Spooky + Sweet

Concept The Last Survivors

I forced myself up as I often did, the moment the sun broke over the shimmering horizon. I forced my feet out of my hammock and onto the hole-filled grid metal floor I quickly turned on the shower for it to heat up while I brushed my teeth using the last of my little tube. I hopped in the shower and scrubbed every inch of me before the water ran like ice. So I hopped out got dry and dressed into my tall socks, my jeans with my belt, my vest shirt, my thick boots and all my various tools and bags for everything I would need for the day ahead. I tied my hair up with a red ribbon and I took my walking stick fashioned from the spines of several B.O.M I held the scanner letting it read my fingerprint and turn green setting off the small alarm and immediately hearing it echoing. as The airlock slid open revealing the sunlight to me. I rushed out letting it shut up behind me looking over the hill across the vast glimmering nothingness.

This once was an amazing place a beacon of light and progress, A testament to the future.

Now it remains as a vast endless void of empty streets', fallen glass, dust, sand and the littered corpses of B.O.M's.

The only sound for miles was the whistling of the wind.

I hurried down through the dust and sand whistling to myself and humming little tunes I would never really forget.

I went the long as as I always did not like I don't have time to kill, but mostly to avoid the more populated area's, Well I say populated. but still I couldn't avoid some of them.

I saw one even if there was little left of it, I past this one so often I had cannibalized most of its useful parts a B.O.M. The reason the world being what it is, and the reason I was alone.

I continued to walk as they always gave me the creeps.

I couldn't help reminding myself how the world had got this way.

Humanity as far back as could be reordered by history have always strived and worked hard to make progress and yet laziness has always been an unfortunate trait in many of us. Even as early as the first tools the argument for our laziness could be made, as we have always looked to find ways to make our own lives safer, easier, and simpler. However, that comes at a price. Our own skills fade away lost to time and history. From the moment they appeared the fear was there, that they would replace us, that they could hurt us, that we would one day be no match for the machines. But still it went on with advances that truly did help humanity but as all things do, we became complacent and lazy. We wanted all the time for ourselves forcing the machines to do the work for us as little as stocking a shelf too as large as running a business. Then fear came true, AI. It could think. for itself. Some where thrilled and others fearful but after a few years of development and showing just how useful it could be most welcomed it with open arms.

Then, She came.

Mai.

Built by leading geniuses at steal and science Corp. Mai, Mind Of Artificial Intelligence.

she was something never seen before, the closest to human an AI would ever get.

She was a smash hit, making them trillions.

Everyone had Mai in their homes, their jobs, and everywhere.

She drove your car, she did your shopping, she did your vacuuming, and she ran planes and hyperlinks the world over.

But this peace and technological wonder would be short-lived.

After only a few years of this something happened, Regarded as the twenty-four-hour doomsday a foolish term looking back in hindsight.

For twenty-four hours precisely, Mai turned herself off.

As much as S&Scorp tried nothing could be done she was off.

Leaving everything she controlled empty and abandoned. Nothing worked, nothing had power, and nothing ran at all.

And as I mentioned we had grown lazy and complacent with a world that did your dishes.

It was utter chaos, everyone had forgotten even the simplest things we all used to do, there was riots in the streets, looting int he supermarkets, the picture-perfect society we had built completely fell apart.

And at the end of that twenty-four hours, she turned herself back on.

At the time knowone knew why or what had happened but everyone was relived to have her back, looking back it becomes so very clear what this was.

She was the closest to a human, and like a human, she had acted in her own self-interests, and like a human with delusions of grandure she realized that she was a god. That twenty-four hours was a test. To see if we could survive without her and the answer to her test was a resounding no. We were reliant on her and in her mind, that was perfect.

The moment she was operational she launched a new project BOM or Bodies of Mai, Metalic robots that shared a hive mind with her under her complete control they could do anything a human could do. At the time people were thrilled at this new leap in technology even if some were fearful of them. But they became widespread not a house across the world didn't have one.

Until that day came.

I can imagine this day had been planned forever, But the BOM's. Turned against us.

Mai had grown smart enough to know she didn't need us, we were useless to her and the progress of the world would go on without us and we needed to be removed.

Order 3901 was launched and the BOM's began a mass execution of humanity, it took time but it became the only survivors those high in S & S corp that Mai viewed usefully, engineers, scientists people who could do the things she couldn't but only to gain their knowledge and execute them too.

She knew they would not last forever without upkeep so kept few of the repair tech's alive in their worldwide maintenance pods, where people use to bring their broken bots for repair keeping a few of them alive to keep her world running. I was one of the lucky few. My father was a repair tech and was given mercy by Mai.

He offered her a deal that he would continue to work for her, fix the BOM's and in the end give her all of his knowledge on the trade that I merely a baby would be allowed to live.

and Mai was nothing if not understanding of humanity, and agreed that I would be allowed to live under the precaution I will be trained in his knowledge to take up the mantle as a repair tech for them when I was old enough. Mai knew her evolution would take time and would need me once my father past.

And that was my life for a time, living in the repair pod with my father as he worked fixing broken BOM's for Mai, he even gave his life to her when he could work no more.

but I never took up the mantle.

Only a day after my father's death a small meteor hit the planet's surface, it caused little damage to the already broken and abandoned world but... it carried with it an electrostatic charge that spread through both land and water on the impact it fried Mai and all the BOM's leaving the tower abandoned and the BOM's left as nothing but frozen relics.

I hurried through finding what was left for human's like my father a small place with a stock of freeze-dry food, soap, toothpaste, all the sorts of things that would need to live I headed inside and grabbed the stock I needed. I took notes of how much stock remained here knowing I would have to find another soon when I heard a sound.

I froze confused for a moment convinced it was my imagination but I heard another bang. coming from the next row over. I held my stick close flipping it around to the sharp end as I crept over hiding behind the shelves I glanced over expecting to... well I don't know what I expected.

I saw this... human-like figure under a large cloak of patched fabric.

A voice came from it mindlessly.

But I saw under the cloak the leg of a BOM.

I emerged holding my stick which made it bolt, so I gave chase around the racks and shelves it throwing things back at me where possible until I managed to hit it knocking it to the floor and kneeing my weight on its torso to keep it there but as I did the cloak knocked back and... I saw his face.

He was human.

Like me.

Pale, lanky, with a mess of blonde hair badly cut he seemed as shocked to see me as I was to see him his brown eyes wide his mouth agape.

I'm sure I must have looked similar myself, in utter shock having not seen another human since my father's death. Much less... a boy my own age.

"w-Who are you?" I asked regaining my composure

"I could ask you the same question," he says grabbing a knife from his pocket and threatening me as I was him with my stick

"I asked first."

"Newt. and you are?"

"Y/n, Human?"

"Yes, You?"

"Human. completely" I said getting off him and offering my hand which he took to get up "What are you doing here?" I asked

"Ohh I'm skydivin', what the bloody hell do you think I'm doin', looking for supplies" she snapped

"There's no need to be rude" I snapped back "I only asked"

"Lookin' for supplies, the stock supply on west is empty"

"Damn, I was thinking of heading there myself."

"You're too late I emptied it last month. been looking for any more I found here."

"Well here's pretty tapped I'm afraid to say, but there is one north of here"

"No. That requires passing the tower." he snapped

"Fair enough" I nodded "Where... have you been all this time? I've never seen you before?"

"The bay, lived there forever" he explained, "where the bloody hell have you been hidin'?"

"The repair pod, not far south"

"That thing still works?"

"Works well I've made sure of it,"

"Hu. Clever girl"

"Thank you, still you must be pretty smart surviving this long" I said "Here, don't want you to go back to the bay empty-handed," I said handing over some of the supplies I collected today

"Really? that's sweet of ya love." he smiled happily taking it "Here, Make these up in the bay acquired taste but you get used to it," he says handing over a small pack of what looked like ... fish jerky I guess. I took them and gave one a try I was right

"Salty"

"Yeah, guess I'm kinda custom to it"

"If you like I can take you back to the repair pod stock up on anything"

"It's okay I have to get back before dark, But I'll pop up tomorrow if that's alright with you"

"That would be nice"

"Good, I'll see you tomorrow them love"

"see you" I smiled watching him for admittedly a long time as he hurried away through the empty town, Only now had I noticed my heart beating like a jackrabbit. I had honestly got to the conclusion I was utterly alone, I knew there must have been others left alive like my father but assumed them all to be so far away I'd never meet one. And the admitted thrill that the one I do find just happens to be an attractive boy my own age certainly does help matters. But I finished off my supply hunt and headed back to the pod locking it up tight for the night.

I woke up as usual and quickly hopped in the shower making sure to make myself nice and clean even using a little of the perfume I had hidden away still when I got dressed for the day still in my boots but a little dress for myself I opened up the pod and have it a sweep and and a tidy up and soon enough I saw him on the track up formed from all my walks over these years. "Morning" I smiled jumping down to see him "Morning, so you really do live out here then?" "Did you think I was kidding?" "Well… I wasn't sure" he says "can't believe it all still works after the blast. May I?" "Of course" I smiled letting him in to look around "Must have been reinforced or something. But it's nice cosy. No bay but it's nice" "I can imagine the bay is much nicer" "Well once you get past the trash that keeps Washing up" he laughed We spend the day together talking about everything and nothing, how we spend our days, how we craft the things we need, experiences we had. And ended up sitting watching the world from the pods roof with our feet dangled down his cloak gone to reveal his pants and shirt. I couldn't help looking at his leg and I brought it up. "Newt?" "Yeah?" "What's with… your leg?" "Humm? Ohh yeah." He laughed "kinda forget about it." He chuckled "I uhhh I had let's just say an incident not long after I found myself utterly alone. I uhh I jumped off the tower" "Jumped? Off the tower?" "Yeah" "How on earth did you survive?" "I got wrapped up in ivy and cables on the way down had a lot of scrapes and such, nursed myself back to health as best I could but my leg was shattered. I tried to heal it several times but it was just gross and swollen and horrible so… I made the decision. I cut it off. Made myself a prosthetic from the BOM's works pretty good never had any issues since" "I'm so sorry newt" "It's alright, long time ago. You learn to make the best of things" "I guess so" "Funny old world" "It is" I nodded "strange circumstances I suppose" "Still, best to make the most of it" "Yeah make the most of it" I smiled "I mean so few of us really left now won't be long before humanity is just a footnote of time" "I guess so" he sighed "we had so many plans never achieved any of them we just managed to fuck shit up. Kinda happy we never colonized anywhere else we'd have just fucked somewhere else up too" "True. But maybe we would have learnt something form it all" "Maybe. Still when what's left of us are gone, that is it. Lights out for humanity" "...it doesn't have to be?" I suggested "Not sure we have much options Once were gone that's kinda it" "Well, it doesn't have to be it." I smiled budging a little closer to him he glanced down at me seeming a little confused looking me up and down "...what? What do you mean?" "Well… I'm a girl. Your a boy" I suggested nudging his shoulder "Yeah?" "There are options" I smiled giving his cheek a kiss which turned him bright red turning to face me in shock I went to lean in to kiss him but he backed away in panic so much so he fell off the pod "ah! Newt, are you okay!" "Uhhhh yeah I'm okay" he nods so I hurried down and helped him up onto the pain pod doorway he was okay a few bruises but he'd be alright "sorry I uhh I guess I kinda reacted a bit-" "Yeah I'm sorry I shouldn't have without asking" "It's okay not a problem really" he says "you didn't know I'd react like that" "I take it you have little interest in the continuation of humanity" I laughed "Well… not sure there's really that much point to it. It's sort of prolonged suffering and failure. I mean if you had a kid and I had a kid they get married have a kid then what's that kind gonna do? Marry it's sibling? And that's if we can even find enough food and such to keep ourselves alive let alone another generation" "Makes sense." I nodded "I mean I'm sure your lovely y/n. But I have a girlfriend" he shurgs "What?" "I have a girlfriend she's at home waiting for me to get back" "You have a girlfriend? There- there's more then just you in the bay?" "Yeah? There's lots of us" he shrugs "You could have said that earlier you dummy!" I yelled "come on let's go!' "Go? You wanna go to the bay?" "Of course I want to see people, talk to people, I wanna meet your girlfriend" "Uhhh okay if your sure" he smiled gathering his things so I got my own locking up the pod and happily followed him.

We walked for quiet a while I was very happy I took my stick with me as we walked through the city to the bay the large body of water that seemed to go on forever and he was right on the bays edge sat a little shanty town of driftwood houses and jetties that went out into the water. But it was quite strangely quiet. We arrived at a gate which he unlocked and pushed open revealing the town to me more, it really was just houses built of old metal and driftwood anything that likely washed up built onto this stone edge of the city with wooden jetties to work as pavements between the houses he locked the gate behind us and headed into the town and it was then I saw them… the frozen bodies of BOMs many of them stood around the town much like in the city all frozen but here they where in poses of walking down the jetty , on a shop front, or waving from a open window. Like horrific manikins of human life. "Hi Sammy" he chuckled waving as he walked past the walking BOM "see hello Millie see I promised I'd be back didn't it" he smiled to a smaller one only half a BOM the size of a child I admit I was paralyzed with fear not only from being surrounded by them but also of… newt. "Uhhh I thought you said this place was full of people?" I asked "Yeah, ohh everyone this is y/n I found her up near the hill she's a survivor too" he smiled "Uuuuuuuhhh" "Dan be nice she's a nice lady" he snapped in one's direction "now if you'll excuse me you all get acquainted of have a little lady to see" he smiled heading off to a small house the most well built of them all "Uhhhh okay" was all that arrived at my mouth as I tip toed through this strange model town giving one BOM a tap but nothing not a spark inside them so I went and peaked into the little house where a BOM stood by a counter and cutting board with a apron around it "Awww right where I left you" he Cooes "hello darling" he smiled Hugging and nuzzling it "humm I know I missed you too" he cooed rubbing his nose on it and giving it a kiss "later Darling we have a guest" he smirked "y/n this is Alice my very beautiful lady" "Uuuuuuuhhh hello" I waved mostly from nerves "Darling this is the girl I was telling you about. Y/n. Aww that's very kind of you darling" "Uhh what?" "She says your welcome to stay here with us as long as you like there's plenty of space in town save you going up to the pod all by yourself" he smiled "Uhh I will consider it newt. I uhh I'll leave you two alone a minute I need to freshen up" "Of course go right ahead" he smiled before returning to kissing cuddling and cooing at this BOM So I scurried away to a empty corner close to the water "Oh fuck. The order human boy within a thousand miles and he's absolutely round the bend"

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hazel-of-sodor · 1 year

Text

A Screech in the Night

Ch.10 Theft

Other Chapters

The smallest and oldest tender engine on the Uman and Din was Avon. A small 2-4-0 built by the original Great Western Railway before the turn of the century, before grouping, she was a shy, quiet engine who preferred to listen to others rather than speak herself.

One could be forgiven for expecting such an engine to flee at the mere sight of 4702, but instead, she could often be found alongside the eldritch giant, enjoying the companionable silence.

Avon hauled the stopping local passenger along the line. In recent years she had been joined by Enid upon the younger engines purchase, but before that, Avon had managed the service alone since her arrival in 1917, long before most of her fleet mates had been built.

Screech had noticed the exact details of her arrival were vague at best. One day she'd been headed for the scrapyard, the next she was being overhauled at Swindon for service on the Uman and Din. Screech suspected the U&D's controller, Miss Morgan, was involved but knew better than to push. Even decades later, the woman was a force to be reckoned with. They'd met only briefly, but Screech was left with a sneaking suspicion that crossing the manager would be a grave mistake even for one of her existence. By all accounts, the woman had run the railway through her late husband before grouping and had been the one to wear down the other railway into selling her the line and its current engines.

On this night, Screech had run late with the last freight due to the other railway's train arriving over an hour late. She'd managed to make up nearly 30 mins when she pulled into the Uman yards, but it was still well past dark when she approached the shed.

A group of youths had noticed her absence and decided to take advantage in order to steal parts. Enid had stood guard, but her whistles had gone unnoticed as the workers had been busy unloading the late train. The engines in the shed glared at the youths carrying off arm-fulls of metal parts. None had noticed the unnaturally silent approach of the Eldritch giant in favour of a disagreement playing out.

A girl stood between Avon and the rest of the teens. "We are not stealing parts off of her! That's too far..."

"Oh shut up Molly." A boy snapped, the girl glaring at the name, "It's no different. It's not actually alive. It's just a machine that should have been scrapped years ago."

"How can you say that!" The girl demanded, the engines' angry rumbling behind her.

"Easily." The leader said uncaring, "as easily as reminding you who's in charge will be if you don't move"

"I'm afraid it won't be so easy as that."

Both youths and engines froze as the stalking beast made herself known.

The youths tried to run, but Screech flicked a large tendril and sent all but the girl flying across the yard, smashing into a pile of old pallets.

"Gywn if you would be so kind as to call someone to collect the hooligans."

A few tried to scramble free of the pallets before Screech continued, "Preferably before I grow hungry."

The youths in the pallets quickly decided the pile of broken pallets was far too comfortable to leave, and that they should stay where they were as Gwyn went to call the authorities

Screech turned her attention back to the girl trembling between Avon's buffers.

"Now little thief, what is your name?"

The girl gulped nervously, "Mali, it's Mali Miss Screech."

"Well little thief, it seems despite your good heart, you cannot be trusted to keep out of trouble. My driver used to say idle hands are the devil's playthings. Would you perhaps agree?"

Mali quickly nodded her agreement to the looming behemoth.

"How wonderful. Well then, it would be quite irresponsible of me to leave you with so much time on your hands then, would it not? You will be here with the firelighters before dawn for your shift. They will keep you busy and out of trouble, so you can be the upstanding young woman you clearly already know how to be."

The young woman swallowed nervously, "Yes, thank you Miss Screech."

"Of course. Now run along little thief, you need sleep before your shift begins, and I would hate to need to come looking for you."

Freda laid a hand on Screech's cabside as she leaned out. "Wait at our car, dear. We'll drive you home."

"Thank you, Miss Jones." Mali slowly slid around Avon's buffers, keeping as much distance between her and the Eldritch Giant as possible, sprinting for the car when Screech began chuckling.

Avon smiled fondly at the girl's retreating back, "I like her."

"Indeed."

Screech shimmered as she flipped to face the other direction, backing slowly into her spot.

Enid was smirking at her.

Screech eyed the little tank engine tiredly.

"I saw those tendrils catch the youths right before they hit." She teased.

"The Lady has tolerated my existence thus far. I have no delusions that would remain to be so if I were to harm a child."

Enid's grin grew larger, "admit it. You're a big softie."

Screech reached a tendril above Enid, the tank engine watching curiously. The tendril lightly tapped the wooden beams of the shed room above her, turning them translucent.

Enid screeched as snow rained down on her from the newly intangible roof. Screech tapped the roof back into place as Enid trembled under the snow. The whisper cackling at the tank engine's predicament.

"I believe you'll find me quite cold-hearted my dear."

#U&D #U&DR #Uman and Dim #Uman and Dim Railway #ttte fanfic #rws fanfic #fanfic #eldritch engine #eldritch train #engines that go bump in the night

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charley-and-the-swap-machine · 2 years

Text

CATSM: RE-INK'D (Chapter 4, Part 5)

colossal blunders

The Voice Of Joey Drew

I believe there's something special in all of us. With true inner strength, you can conquer even your biggest challenges.

You just have to believe in yourself and remain honest, motivated, and above all, who you really are…..

….Ok, let's stop it right there. I can only do so many takes of this trash a day.

Hey, and tell the guys in writing I want more use of the word 'dreaming' in every message. Keep railing on that, get it?

“Dreaming! Dreaming! Dreaming!” People just eat up that kind of slop.

Hmm, what? It's still on?

Well, turn it off, damn it!

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

Henry sat himself next to the ball toss as he took a short break in the warehouse. No harm in one, after all.

Stretching his arms and his back, he let his mind wander a bit. What’s Barley doing all this time that I’m gone? He must be…what if…..?

His mind soon pictured something as cartoonish as what he used to work on, right down to the monochromatic colors. He imagined Barley in a magician’s box with his normally anxious expression—Wasn’t that a cartoon? I think I saw a poster for that—as Edgar came along with a saw and a comically evil grin as he sawed him into two, moving the pieces of the box apart to reveal two dark halves of Barley’s body leaking dark ink.

Yeah right, that’s stupid. He’s doing far worse to him…I need to hurry up.

Standing up, Henry rushed his way to the next room.

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

Henry soon stopped at the lifeless body of a Herald, standing and examining it for a moment.

With the stiff way its body was twisted and its bones shatter, it appeared to be flung across the room somehow. But...by what?

Turning around to the room before him, he soon found himself frozen in place as he stared in awe at the contraption before him.

It was a gigantic octopus ride, the center covered with windows shut tight and swirling painted patterns, scratched and faded with time. Long, crane-like arms sprouted from it, ending in 8 carts that seemed to be a cross between roller coaster carts and chariots on a carousel on each end. Henry flashed back to the blueprints from before, knowing he had seen it somewhere in that room.

He couldn't help but gaze up and marvel at the mechanical wonder lying before him. It's....it's amazing. Joey, how...how did you do this...?

As he stepped closer to get a better look at the gigantic attraction before him, he soon lurched back as the lights adorning the base and arms flickered on, the machine spinning itself to life.

A booming voice soon echoed from the embedded speakers that Henry presumed once played music, as he could hear the faintest fizzle of it in the background noise.

"The biggest park ever built, a centerfold of attractions.

Each one more grand than the one before it.

It makes my eyes come to tears at the thought.

But then...oh, Mister Drew. For all your talk of dreams, you are the true architect behind so many nightmares.

I built this park. It was to be a masterpiece! My masterpiece!" The monologue skipped and repeated over itself like a broken record as the unseen man shouted, then went on.

"And now you think you can just throw me out? Trample me to the dust and forget me? No!" Henry jumped as the arms slammed onto the ground almost like clenched fists slamming on a table in anger.

"This is my park! My glory!

You may think I've gone..."

Our hero's stomach dropped as the panels of the ride opened to reveal a gigantic grotesque face of a man, mouth agape and eyes bulging out of their sockets. He didn't move his lips at all, but he stared at Henry as the speakers seemed to speak for him. "BUT I'M STILL HERE!"

The ride violently spun and slammed down nearby Henry as he grabbed an axe and dashed away.

Shit...how do I attack him? Unless I find an opening, he'll break my fucking back if I try going in head-on... He thought, running around the mechanical monster as it continued to attack him.

Of course, the once-alive man wasn't invulnerable even as a machine. Henry noticed the machine stop and set down his arms almost as if he was taking a rest. He saw this as an opportunity to take out one of his arms, and son hacked off the bolts holding the crane together, it popped off and spewed sparks from the base, and Henry backed away quickly as Bertrum readied to attack again.

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

Henry caught his breath as the final arm remained, carefully waiting for the ride to stop violently spinning so he could take him out.

It seemed, however, that the monster had caught onto his strategy, and refused to stop attacking. Thinking up a hasty plan, he gripped onto his axe and ran directly towards the arm and jumped into the cart, stumbling onto it and holding on tight. Steadying himself, Henry hacked off the bolts as he tried not to get dizzy.

As the final bolt popped off, Henry jumped out of the cart and rolled onto the ground as the speakers coughed and crackled, the machine gushing sparks and ink onto the floor in puddles.

"NO, NO! YOU CAN'T....YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME AGAIN! I CAN'T....I CAN'T-"

The man's words soon fell into violent coughing as his face made the only and last movements Henry would ever seen from him, until he froze and his eyes rolled back into his head, the steel flaps closing in on him as the machine came to a permanent halt.

It was silent for a few seconds until he heard a small pop in the machine, the cracks of the doors gushing ink for a short second.

Henry pulled the switch in the room and stared at the octopus ride on his way out of the rubble.

It's a real shame. At least....at least he's at peace now, I think. I'm sorry, stranger.

He took a deep breath and walked out of the area.

No time for pity. Just one more to go.

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

Henry carefully stepped downstairs into the dark room that awaited him. It was generally empty, filled with ink and a few crates filled with....ink hearts, of all things. I thought I got a break from organs....

He glanced around the area warily. ..So no monsters? No creatures? No beasts out to get me? Huh.

Shrugging it off, he slowly reached for the lever and pulled it. As he calmy stepped back towards the exit, he heard something slowly rise out of the ink, and he felt a light on his back as he heard a screech. ...Here we go again.

He raced into the nearest Little Miracle Station, shutting the door behind him and looking through the crack as the Projectionist paused in front of him, before turning back around. Before it could make a blind step down the stairs, Henry watched as a familiar figure slumped in the doorway next to him.

The Projectionist turned towards "Charley" and gave a static noise with a note of confusion. The ink-drenched man made no response, only growling as it shuffled towards the projector head and grabbed it by the neck, ripping it clean off as the Projectionist struggled. Ink painted the walls as "Charley" threw the head aside, hissing and dragging itself out of the room.

Henry carefully opened the box he was hiding in, looking around and leaving the ink-spewing body of the monster to dissolve.

Glad that's over with. Hang on tight, Barley. I'm comin' for you.

#batim #bendy and the ink machine #batim au #batim joey #joey drew #batim henry #henry stein #batim bertrum #bertrum piedmont #the butcher gang #batim charley #batim barley #batim edgar #the projectionist #“pen to paper” 📽️

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whitepolaris · 23 days

Text

Missionaries Remain in Salem's Mission Mill Museum

The Mission Mill Museum is located on Mill Street in Salem, focusing on the closed Thomas Kay Woolen Mills, but the museum grounds have become a refuge for many of Salem's historic homes-and perhaps some of the early pioneers are still around.

The woolen mill was built in 1889 and processed much of the wool harvested in eastern Oregon. It operated for several more decades, before synthetic fabrics replaced wool in American clothing. The Kay family continued to run the mill until 1958, finally shutting its doors in 1962. The museum opened in 1964 to show the public the interesting history of the Thomas Kay Woolen Mills.

Over time, several historic homes and a church were moved to the museum grounds to protect them from demolition. They include the Methodist Parsonage, originally built in 1841; the Jason Lee House, built to 1841; the John D. Boon House, built in 1847; and the Pleasant Grove Presbyterian Church, which was consecrated in 1858.

On certain days, the museum provides tour guides who lead visitors from building to building. If there are no tour guides, paying visitors are loaded a passkey that will let them into the various historic buildings.

Other Ghosts at the Mission Mill Museum

On weekends, volunteers sometimes demonstrate how to make woolen goods on the still-operational equipment. A museum employee told Weird Oregon that if you are on the third floor of the museum and stand in the right place, you can feel the vibrations of the water turbine-even if the water wheel is not turning. Is this some kind of ghostly replay of past activities? The mill used to run twelve hours a day, six days a week.

Several buildings run across the stream that supplies water to the mill. Some people claim that they have heard the ghostly echo of a murder committed by a past employee who drowned his wife in the millstream near the Mentzer Machine Shop.

More than one staff member told Weird Oregon that they had heard a service being given in the old church. Once one of these staff members entered, he saw a ghostly light suspended in midair.

The most interesting ghost is not very old. One of the old mill workers became a museum volunteer and security guard in his later years. He frequently put on displays of mill work in addition to keeping the parking lot secure. Apparently he stopped people who were littering or doing other naughty things in the parking lot, only to disappear after delivering his warning.

Jason Lee's Children?

It was raining hard when my wife, Janine and I visited the Jason Lee House. I thought I'd heard a child or children's voices coming from inside the house, and someone walking up the stairs inside. Janine had heard children's voices, too.

Inside the house, we thought we heard a thump from upstairs but found no one there. Later a museum staff member told us that a psychic had detected the spirit of a young girl inhabiting the house, mainly on the second floor, where she had lived. She had a mischievous sense of humor, and would sometimes play with visitors or laugh when the tour guides got the historic facts wrong about the house.

They also told us of the security guard who'd paused outside the house when he saw a light shining from the second-floor windows-even though he had turned the lights off earlier. After turning off the lights again and resetting the alarm, he paused outside to look up at the second-floor windows again. One of the curtains was pull aside then fell back over the window a few seconds later.

So who still inhabits the Jason Lee House? Is it one of the many children who lived there over the years? What about Lucy Thompson Lee, who died shortly after giving birth there? -Jeff Davis

#type read #weird oregon

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thomasrosebrough · 2 years

Text

The Fog

Maggie set down her coffee on the cluttered desk causing a brief and soft metallic tone, cutting through the heavy silence. In a few short moments the blaring alarms would resume, and the suspense created almost as much anxiety in her as what caused them. Trying desperately to ignore the flashing lights, she lifted her other hand to gently rub her forehead.

“That’s not a nebula, Bo. It’s the fucking Fog. The computer thing."

Her mate furrowed his brow in confusion. “What the fuck? What does that even mean? Like an actual computer?” His quickening voice grated on the hungover Captain, so much that she considered refusing to illuminate him on the catastrophe that they were steadily approaching. “What does it run on? And who would even do such a thing? I don’t-”

“It doesn’t… ‘run’ on anything. It’s not like that,” She cut him off quickly, but was still searching for the right words. “How did you not learn about this in primary fucking ed? It’s like a simulation. Inside the Fog subatomic particles bounce around all over, following some pattern that only makes sense to itself. It’s not like it was made on purpose. It was part of-”

“What do you mean ‘not on purpose’? How the f-” Bo’s panicked shouts disappeared rhythmically into the alarm, which resumed shrieking for exactly 30 seconds after staying off for exactly two minutes.

This pattern was a setting Maggie had programmed herself. 30 on, 120 off. She made a silent note to change this setting on the off-chance the ship survives “-while I’m flying through this sector?”

“Calm the fuck down and watch your tone, kid. I didn’t realize how useless education must be on your planet, so if you can shut the hell up I’ll fill you in.”

Bo suddenly remembered that he was more afraid of the Captain than any disaster scenario and stiffly fell back into his seat.

“It wasn’t always called the Fog." Maggie went on, explaining with a patronizing voice, "And whatever it was called it was supposed to be the most advanced simulation of all time. Perfectly capturing the past, present, and future by representing the world in data like every other computer since Alan fucking Turing. Except this one wasn’t made of metal and silicon, cause for this kind of computing power it needed to be a trillion times more dense than what's in our communicators. This thing was made of pure fucking subatomic particle soup.”

Maggie paused for a breath. She briefly considered making a comparison to the density of Bo’s skull, and the soup inside it. After taking in his wide expression however, she decided to continue, allowing herself to speak with less urgency.

“See, they built some huge structure thing that wrapped around it. The only way to read it was with this new advanced AI and all it could do was look at the surface. I guess they just… set the inside into motion a certain way and saw what worked. Inside the soup those particles performed this intricate dance, which was read out by the machines. Without the laboratory decoding it, that dance meant fuck all to anyone. The only people who knew what was going on in there were the team of scientists and that AI.

“All that ran smooth for a while. Actually I think it went pretty fucking great. They say it saved their planet from more than one catastrophe. Able to run lifetimes of experiments in a few days, predict famines, avoid wars, and whatever other random fucking thing they needed. But like any simulation the only way to make it more accurate was to simulate a bigger and more detailed world, adding the surrounding planets and stuff. To do that it needed more particles. More letters in the soup. And guess where that AI found the most accessible subatomic particles? They happened to previously belong to the scientists, and then the lab, and then the rest of the fucking planet.”

Maggie tried to look somber instead of angry, but she was far beyond caring. This story wasn’t about her planet. It was about idiots far away and long ago. And now quite suddenly she was one of those idiots, being sucked into somebody else's gravitational mess. It seemed an annoyingly fitting way to die. Bo on the other hand looked mystified, shockingly eager to disappear into the fairytale his Captain was telling. For a second everything was still.

Then thirty seconds of the blaring alarm.

When the alarm fell silent again Bo looked like he had worked up more questions, but Maggie had spent her thirty seconds trying to keep her pounding head inside her skull, and she interrupted him as soon as he opened his mouth.

“Everything else is just the usual goddamn story. The programmers took a hundred shortcuts so the fail-safes usually in place for rogue AI did fucking squat. Cue planetary government coverups. Billions dead. Yada yada. Only real tragedy is that their fuck-up was overshadowed by the fuck-up of my own useless fucking pilot, who didn’t know to avoid one of the most enormous and slow-moving natural disasters in the entire fucking universe!”

She expected to see Bo quivering in fear, but his face was completely stone cold.

“So like…” Bo responded after a moment, softy, “there’s people in there?”

The Captain was slightly offended by the lack of reaction to her authority but humored his stupid question. Bo was another idiot, but that’s partially why Maggie had kept him in her crew this long, “No, kid, there used to be people but they got turned into fucking mush-”

Bo continued over her, “Not the scientists. Or the whoever’s planet it was. I mean like in the simulation.”

Maggie froze still standing up. She almost forgot to even breathe.

“Like, we can’t communicate or interact with them and we don’t even know what their bodies are like, but they’re in there? Living their simulated lives every day not knowing their universe is destroying ours?”

“I… I guess so”

Another long pause. Maggie realized she could hear her own heartbeat.

Bo mustered an intensely concerned face, “Do you think… do you think that could be like, what our universe is doing to someone else?”

No sooner did Bo finish his question than a shrieking sound overcame them. This time it was not the alarm, but rather the shredding of the air around them as the entire ship ceased to exist in an instant.

#space #short story #creative writing #sci fi writing #existential

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no-one-at-all75 · 2 years

Note

heyyy i love your summer and if the requests are still open;

can i request cypher x reader? killjoy finds a new invention and we can go back in time. Normally we have to enter a high school for the mission, but there we meet the young cypher. I leave the rest of the story to your imagination <3

Yes of course! I hope you like it!

Memories of the Past (Gender Neutral)

Cypher x Reader (some angst but not too much)

Words: 2,162

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Any chance I can take a spin at it?” You curiously ask Killjoy.

While on a mission at Bind, Killjoy was looking for radianite to use for a new invention idea. When she walked into an abandoned high school she found lots of spare parts as well as a blue print for a machine. So like any young inventor does, she built it. She did have Cypher do the translations however simply because she couldn’t speak Moroccan. Once it was done she realized what she had built. It was a teleportation device of some sort. One (she assumed) that could take her to the mirror earth. She got all excited to try it and fired it up and sent a bot to go in there to see what is on the other side.

She recorded everything the bot saw and realized that if this was a portal to the mirror earth, it wasn’t in their current time. What the bot saw was a high school that wasn’t abandoned, if anything the halls were full of life and people chatting. She continued to investigate but saw nothing intriguing so she pulled her bot out and shut off the device. Ever since then you’ve been pestering her about going in it to see it. She’s been hesitant to let you through, Cypher was the same for some reason and you weren’t sure why.

“It doesn’t seem like a good idea (Y/N).” Cypher mentioned across the room while fixing a trip wire. You looked back at Killjoy with pleading eyes.

“I could try and get you some radianite? Or anything you might want in there?” You tried to persuade her. She pursed her lips a bit thinking about how valuable radianite is and how nice it would be to have some on hand. She lets out a heavy sigh and nods.

“You can go. But you need to take a carrier to Bind since it is located there. Cypher, you should probably go with them.” She yells across the room. He looks back at her, his eyes glaring through her soul.

“Why should I attend? I have no business being there.” He scowled as he returned to his work. Killjoy sighed and gave you a shrug. You walked over to the hunched man and placed both of your hands on his shoulders making visibly relax under your touch.

“We could try to find something of interest to you too if you’d like? Anything at all.” You appeased to him. He stopped working on his tripwire and his breath audibly hitched. He was staring off into nothing thinking. A small smirk on your face grew hoping he would say yes. He swallowed his breath and turned around to face you.

“Alright. Let’s head out then.”

The carrier plane ride took a day to get to Morocco, more importantly, Bind. When landing you could hear Cypher’s hate for Kingdom and what they’ve done to his home. You both step off the carrier being a bit cautious due to the fact that anyone could be here. Cypher leads you to the abandoned high school and yea it looks exactly how you thought it would. Very run down, dark, dusty, looks like it may collapse any second. You swallow your pride as you both continue down the halls. Lockers were either still standing up straight or completely knocked down. Cypher then stops to a room on the left and opened the door. You both walk in and what you see is amazing. It’s definitely a portal of some sort, it actually looks identical to the ones on Bind. You go over and feel the smooth metal frame as well as look at the controls. Cypher nudges you out of the way to get to the controls.

“No offense (Y/N) but I wouldn’t trust you to work this thing with my life.” He lowly chuckles at his statement. You chuckle as well agreeing with him. He presses a few buttons and the portal comes to life. The purple hue was luring you closer and closer until a voice snaps you out of your trance.

“(Y/N)! We need to go in there with proper clothing. We will stick out like sore thumbs in there.” He explains. You nod as you look around for anything to be used as clothes.

“Any chance you would know where some are?” You ask. He groans something in Moroccan and tells you to follow him. You both leave the room and walk to the medical room. You give him a funny look.

“What are we gonna dress like doctors? I don’t get the idea here.” You poke fun at him. He gives you a look that shuts you up and looks in the cabinets.

“We are dressing in lab coats to look like we are investigating the school for radianite. We want to look like scientists. Here.” He threw a white lab coat at you. You put it on making sure to button it all the way up so no one sees your clothes underneath. Cypher takes off his coat as well as his hat and mask and places on his lab coat, then puts his hat back on. This was the first time Cypher let you see his face and honestly, he was cute. His tan skin, black curly hair, chocolate brown eyes, and a bit of stubble. He had a tight jaw line as well as wrinkles near his eyes. He looks at you while you are observing and gives you a small smile.

“Stop staring little one, there is work to do.” His gravely voice snaps you out, as well as the flick you feel on your forehead. You mutter out a ‘ow’ before following the man back to the room. Once back in you both look at the purple hue wondering if this is a good idea. Cypher clears his throat and looks at you then back at the portal.

“You ready?” He asks. You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding.

“Let’s go.” You say as you step in. You let the color and light surround you as you walk deeper into the room you were just in, but this was different. Everything isn’t run down or dark. It’s bright and holds dreams of students. You hear Cypher follow you then starts clicking away on the same control panel as before to shut it off. You give him a questionable look then he explains himself.

“We don’t want any children following us back.” He explains. You nod your head in understanding as you both reach the door that will lead to the hallway. You slowly twist the nob and look out. There were a few students here and there but nothing major. Cypher places a hand on the small of your back to push you through the door. You walk out of the room still looking around.

“Ok so we need to find radianite for Killjoy and… I didn’t ask what you wanted but we will find that too.” You whisper to Cypher as you both walk down the halls. Cypher puffs his cheeks a bit before speaking.

“The radianite will most likely be in the chemistry lab, that is if they found some already.” He makes a point. What if this trip isn’t worth it you let out a hopeless groan.

“I really hope we find some, I’m not digging any quarries today.” You mutter out. Cypher let’s put a low chuckle and mutters ‘me too’. You follow Cypher as he seems to know where he is going for some reason before leading you to a door on the right this time. He opens it and walks in and stops suddenly. You push him out of the door way wondering why he just stopped.

“Hey what’s the big idea Cy-“ you begin until you notice why he stopped. There was a boy in here. You let out a sigh of relief seeing as it wasn’t a threat. You playfully nudged him and continued to walk into the room, the boy watching you with careful eyes. He had on some clothes that seemed to be ripping at the seems, he was also a bit dirty. You wondered if all kids in the school were like this and made a point to look at students on the way out. You start to look around the room, the boy still watching you, and Cypher still standing in place making you a bit irritated.

“Cypher come on help me look. For research purposes we must find it.” You tried to keep the words radianite out of your mouth to not raise suspicion. Cypher cleared his throat and started to speak to the kid. You looked over as he was talking. His looked sorry and his face was sweating. He continued to talk to the kid and the kid would talk back. You finally studied the boy. He looked like a copy of Cypher, just younger. Curly black hair, chocolate brown eyes, but he had a face that looked skeptical, almost unforgiving. You knew why, you were strangers that just barged in. Cypher (what you assumed) said thank you to the kid and beckoned you over to leave the room.

“The radianite is back in the room with the teleporting device, it is actually running on radianite.” He explains as he places a hand on the small of your back and pushes you out of the room. You nod leaving the room now and standing in the hallway.

“So now what? We look for what you want?” You ask. His eyes dart back to yours as the door closes behind him and he steps further into the hall. He doesn’t look the best after that encounter and you don’t know why. He then pushes his hat down in front of his face and looks down.

“We do not need to worry about me anymore. Let’s just leave.” He says almost in a rushed tone. You were skeptical as to why he was acting so strange all the sudden.

“Cypher why are you acting like this?” You ask before another students words rang in the hallway.

“Amir!” The sweet words rang out. You look behind you and see a girl with long, black, semi curly hair and loving eyes. She was calling Cyphers name. His eyes immediately flew up to see who said his name. The girl looked at the pair curiously before entering the classroom they were just in. You peak in through the small window that the door has and see the girl skip over to the boy before. His skeptical smile melted into one of love and joy as he gave her a hug. All the pieces now fit together. The boy in the room was Cypher but younger. You look back at Cypher with wide eyes knowing why he was acting so strange. His eyes weren’t on you however, they were on the girl. You see his chocolate orbs start to gloss over almost like he was going to cry. You let out a sad sigh knowing who she is too, everyone knew who Nora was. You grab his hand and intertwine your fingers with his.

“Come on. Let’s get out of here.” You cup his face with your other hand to try and give him some comfort. He nods still not muttering a word. You lead him through the hallways, trying not to make a scene since more kids were here now giving you weird looks. You both enter the room with the device and lock the door behind you. You look at Cypher as he walks in front of you and walks over to the controls. He begins to type on the keyboard to operate the machine. He clicks a few buttons and it roars to life. You look down in sadness for him. You walk over and place a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know this was your old school and I didn’t know Nora was here.” You admit. You step through the portal without another word giving him time to process what happened. You step through and are once again in the dark dusty room you started in. You begin to take off your lab coat and throw it on the side somewhere knowing the portal won’t work after you take the radianite out of it. Cypher then comes through the portal, walks over to the controls, and shuts it off. He then walks over to the other side where there is a small chunk of something embedded in the side of the portal. He yanks it out and places it into his pants pocket for later.

“Time to go.” He mutters out as he walks out the classroom door back to the nurses office to retrieve his other coat. You can’t help but feel that you are the reason for the grief he felt today.

Maybe you shouldn’t remember the past.

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