#this is just what happened to Amity with her hair I finally figured out how to draw it but then she let's her hair down I can't 💀😭

[dp-marvel94]

Becoming

Summary: Throwing up ghosts is just the beginning. First, a ghost that looks exactly like Danny comes through the portal. The memory sharing and body switching are weird. Now the portal inside him is growing and Danny is terrified of what happened once it become too big for his body to contain.

Word Count: 3,312

Also on AO3

Sequel to "An Unconventional Way to Get a Cat", Written in response to this ask I received.

“I just finished your cat acquisition portal au fix and I loved it! Missy my beloved. I can't help but imagine Danny instinctively going invisible and intangible out of sheer 'oh shit' at the end, which would NOT make either of them more calm. Ahdjfkf I also read the end note and I think I speak for everyone in that we would LOVE to hear your deranged ideas <3”

Thanks to @sun-spice for asking. 

This is set staring directly after the last chapter of “An unconventional way to get a Cat.” It is part story outline, part rough scenes. But between the length and the fact that I’m really freaking proud of the ending, I figured I should post it here on AO3. It’s pretty tonally different from the story I wrote for phic phight so I decided it should be it’s own thing as well. So y’all get ready. This is going to be a ride. 😅

It begins with something big, bigger than anything else Danny has felt before pushing its way through the portal. There is a big flash of light as the ghost portal opens through him. As the light dies, Danny finds himself floating and glowing. Suddenly, he is a ghost. 

His sister stands in the bathroom doorway, eyes wide with shock. Danny mirrors her expression, then after a too long pause….

“Am I dead?!”

Jazz says something, just as panicked as him. But… Danny can’t process through the screaming in his own head. His body feels… strange. Too warm and too cool. His chest is too full, despite the lightness in his limbs. And yet…. He feels better, more right than he’s felt since the Accident a week ago.

That is until Danny turns human with another flash of light. With a stumble, he lands on his feet. He stares at his ungloved hands. Completely back to normal…

“Ugh…” Something on the floor behind him groans.

 The boy’s head whips to… a ghost on the floor. It looks like a boy about his age, white haired, in a… strangely familiar jumpsuit.

“What… but that’s-” Jazz, normally so sure sounding, stutters.

At the noise, the ghost's head jerks up. It… his eyes are blown wide, confused and disoriented.

The ghost has Danny’s face. 

Both the siblings shout, fingers pointing, questions drilling. The ghost flinches, popping invisible and fleeing. The look on his face….just as freaked out as Danny and Jazz. 

For a long while, Danny and Jazz throw out ideas about what just happened. Maybe the ghost is some kind of shape shifter? The two have no idea and no way to find out. They definitely are not telling their parents. And how are they supposed to go after the ghost? 

“I can’t… Can we just… forget about this?” Danny finally says, running fingers though his hair. “I just want to finish my cereal, cuddle my cat, and go to bed.” 

Begrudgingly, Jazz agrees.

But there is no forgetting for Danny. Having a ghost that looks just like him flying around the town is weird. Danny has weird dreams, as if he is seeing Amity Park from above. Weird, out-of-nowhere feelings invade at random moments. Thoughts that echo, that feel not quite like his own but somehow unquestionably are. And… memories of green swirling clouds and purple doors. Danny feels… strange. He’s felt weird since the accident but this is something else. An invisible line connects him to… something. A feeling that something vital is missing.

Despite his desperate attempts at control, Jazz’s lessons in breathing techniques, meditation, mindfulness… Danny still throws up ghosts. More animals, even… things that appear almost human. He finds himself in weird dreams of fighting ghosts… even when he’s awake. School starts and he inevitably has to tell Sam and Tucker. The trio encounter the Lunch Lady, and… Danny’s weird ghostly double. This is his first time seeing the ghost since that night Jazz found out about his condition. Looking at the ghost boy is strange. It makes his head hurt, vision oddly doubly like he is staring in a funhouse mirror. An uneasy feeling churns through his insides. Those dreams were never really dreams.

One day Danny blinks and finds himself floating above Amity Park. 

“What, no.” The boy mutters to himself. “I’m not actually here.” He closes his eyes, trying to focus. “I’m in my bedroom, sitting on my bed. The blanket is soft. There’s a clock ticking on my wall.” 

But… he can’t feel the bed under him, can’t hear the clock. The sound of the wind remains stubborn in his ears. 

Danny’s eyes pop open. He… can’t snap himself back to reality. Danny looks down, and the nausea he feels has nothing to do with the portal in his guts. He’s actually here, floating a hundred feet above the park. 

It’s..like just before his look-alike showed up. Danny shivers at the thought. His spectral double…. Did the ghost possess him (semi-possess?) him again? That’s what he and Jazz decided must have happened back then. The ghost came through the portal and was so confused and disoriented, he immediately overshadowed Danny. There hadn’t been a fight for control, no other voice in his head. The ghost must have been too weak and confused to wrestle for control, hence getting thrown out almost immediately.

This almost felt like that. Except… No, something was wrong. He felt light, no human warmth, no pounding in his chest. Before there’d been… an odd calmest. It almost made him sick, remembering how right that moment had felt.

Shaking the feeling away, Danny wobbly flew back to his house. He phased through his window to find…himself freaking out in his room.

His own blue eyes stare at him, wide with confusion. And yet… they flicker green… something behind them is eerily familiar. 

“It’s…you.” “Danny!”

Apparently the ghost switched bodies with him. And his double, Phantom, is no help. 

“I have no idea what’s happening.” Phantom in Danny’s body (and isn’t that a crazy thought) raises his arms. “I don’t even know who I am. All I remember is floating on the other side of the portal, guarding it. Like… the first thing I remember in a pain, a green flash and I was in the Zone in front of the ghost portal!” He shrugged, looking sheepish. “I just knew it was my job to guard it. I wasn’t very good at it though.”

Obviously not with all the ghost animals coming through. 

Danny’s brow furrowed. “Why did you leave?”

Phantom shivered. “The portal… it was… calling me. Or maybe it was something on the other side. I just knew I had to come through.” 

So Phantom had touched the rift. He found himself in the human world. And… suddenly he was with Danny. For just a moment there… it felt like he didn’t exist. There was no Phantom, just… 

“Then we turned human and warm and I was just me again.”

Danny doesn’t know what to make of the story, his stomach twisting with a dozen feelings.

Eventually the two switch back. But now the memory, thought, and emotion sharing is even more intense. The two keep switching places. Danny fights the ghost in Phantom’s place. The ghost gets an… oddly familiar taste of Danny Fenton’s life. Inevitably, the two bond, forming an odd friendship through their efforts to hide their weirdness from the Fenton parents and the town as a whole. They find they have a lot in common too. Phantom loves puns as much as Danny does. The human boy’s love of the stars is as great as his ghostly friend’s. Music, books, movies, games. They squeeze so many shared interests into the quieter moments. Sometimes they butt heads because of how similar they are but… overall Danny is happy. Phantom feels like the brother he never had. Maybe the ghost is his twin that he absorbed in the womb. Maybe he’s just a random ghost that he was lucky enough to meet. Either way, it’s nice to have him in his life.

But, things are not all good. The portal is getting worse. More ghosts are coming through. More fights, worse injuries. Phantom’s powers are growing, including new, hard to control ice powers. 

And the portal feels colder too. Danny can feel it swirling. The tenderals spread, wrapping around his bones and organs. It… shines through his skin. He can see it, a ball of neon green below his ribs. It flashes brighter, blinding him every time it opens. And… each time, the spot of light is a little bigger.

One morning, Danny wakes up to a tingling feeling on his skin. Like the occasional invisibility and intangibility he experiences when he’s Phantom but… it's pervasive, spreading from his stomach to the surface. He lifts his shirt and… the portal is there. On his skin? In his skin? Above his skin? It does not make any sense but it is there, bound to him and visible. The size of his fist, it swirls below his rib cage. He brushes it with a finger and… it is like touching his own skin. At the same time, it is like brushing cold mist. His hand sinks in, not intangible but like sticking his hand in a bucket. And he shivers. He can feel it, the cold atmosphere of the Realms on his hand… and the portal swirling around his wrist. He feels his hand brushing the mist and his mist brushing the hand. He is both hand and mist.

Danny rips his hand out, as if he has been burned. Horror sinks into him. What is happening to him?

The switching keeps happening and the portal keeps growing. And Danny is scared. He hides it from his friends and sister. At first, it’s not that hard. A shirt is enough to cover the swirling gate below his ribs. But it spreads onto his shoulder, below his belly button. He switches to long shirts and hoodies. He is nervous and on edge, avoiding his friends, changing the subject whenever Jazz asks what’s wrong.

But there is no hiding from Phantom. Not when half the time Danny’s body is his. The ghost is oddly quiet about the problem. Sometimes Danny catches the ghost looking at him, brow furrowed with thought. Phantom is closing off, acting more distant. In his eyes, something like realization, more than just the dread of death, flashes. And whatever it is, the revelation scares him.

But Danny can barely notice as the dread turns to terror. His heart races, he can’t sleep, can’t eat. Every minute, he can feel the portal getting bigger. He can feel it eating at his insides, invading them, turning them to ice and mist as they evaporate. He feels it grow and tear, burrowing deeper to replace and pull apart. And it does not even hurt. It should hurt. Being unmade, being changed should hurt. A part of Danny wants it to hurt. The portal is killing him. In the end, it will destroy him. And he doesn’t want to die. Or… 

A much worse possibility screams at the back of his mind, in the way he feels the portal entrance below his shirt, can feel the small ghosts flitting through. Mutation trickles through his veins. Transformation, terrible violating change….

Down in the empty portal one night, Danny cries alone. All this struggling, all this hiding and for what? He really is going to die down here, where he should have all those months ago. The portal has spread to just above his knees, to his elbows. He can barely stand, can barely walk now. He can’t fill his fingers. But he can feel it, every inch. The portal is killing him, tearing him apart. It pulses, ready for release. And part of him wants to give in but… his friends and sister. Phantom, once simply his double, now his closest friend…. Letting the portal take him would be giving up, leaving them. But… he can’t do this, can’t keep fighting forever.

“Danny!” Suddenly Phantom is there, kneeling in front of him.

The human (Is ever human anymore, with this.. thing parasitizing his body?) blinks, surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“You can’t give up.”

Danny hears the words, processes them, the same ones he’d been telling himself just second ago But… it’s too much. 

“I’m… I’m scared.” He cries. Just moments ago, he wanted to let the portal rip him apart. Dying was terrifying. But… “I can’t… I can’t keep fighting it. I…” A flash of cold. Danny feels the green claw up his neck. “It’s going to rip me apart. It’s going to kill me, really kill me this time. But…” He hiccups, the sound part cry, part laugh. “What if I don’t die? What if…” A tendril curls passed his knee, half way down his calf. “I can feel it, the portal. I can feel it like… like it’s my own skin. What if it… it destroys me but I… I’m still…”

He can’t force out the words, not with the cold tickling his throat, with the tears drowning his voice. But the thought…. What if the portal destroys his body but he still exists? What if it breaks out of his fragile human sheel and becomes him? What if he becomes it? The un-living gate between worlds, trapped in his cage of metal. Without sight or sound, just… his thoughts and the ghosts swimming through him forever.

“You won’t be trapped.” 

That… is not what Danny expected Phantom to say. He opens his eyes, tears cutting off in his shock. “What?”

The ghost shakes his head. “I figured it out. Why the accident made me, why you called me through.”

“I don’t understand.”

“We really should have figured it out months ago. The shared memories were a big hint. And the switching bodies.” He rolls his eyes. 

“I’m.. I’m dying.” Danny’s mind is screaming, confusion growing into distress. “What are-”

Phantom takes his hands. “You are the portal. There’s no denying it now. It’s part of you. It is you.”

“No.” Pure despair crashes over him. The word echoes, more thought and emotion that sound, Danny’s throat replaced by the green. 

It’s true then. A few more minutes and he’ll be nothing more than a cloud of mist, hanging in the frame. At least he’ll get to say goodbye-

“Stop that.” Phantom reprimands. “This isn’t the end. You’ll survive this.” 

Danny narrows his eyes. He appreciates the attempt at comfort but it was too late for reassuring lies. Even if he wouldn’t die, this is still the end.

The ghost points up the stairs. “You will walk up their stairs in a few minutes and go to bed. You’ll go to school on Monday and the Nasty Burger with Sam and Tuck. You’ll bug Jazz and…” Phantom is crying now too. “We’ll… we’ll do it together.”

Danny feels it, Phantom means every word. He is so sure but-

“I’m your ghost, Danny. Your ghost.” So much emphasis in the words. “I always have been. Your accident made me. You made me.” Phantom’s eyes glistening with tears. “You called me through the gate. You made me, an echo, your friend. And now…” He sniffled and a soft smile bloomed. “I’m… I’m becoming something more.”

Hands still clasps, Phantom brings one of Danny’s to his hazmat suited chest. The still-flesh fingers feel and… 

“That’s… that’s impossible.” Danny’s eyes widened awed. 

There under his hand, in Phantom’s chest… something thumps and pulses. A steady drum beat. In Phantom’s chest, his heart beats.

“Is it really?” The ghost raises one eyebrow.

“Yes! You’re a ghost. This is-” Danny cuts off. No, of course, it’s not impossible. He’s becoming a ghost portal and Phantom is being raised back to life. His ghost is becoming human.

The momentary awe crests and Danny plunges back into desperation. “Why are you telling me this?” 

His mind whirls. He imagines, Phantom as a human. Like so many times before, laying in his bed, doing his homework, going to school, hanging out with his friends. Danny can’t help but smile. The thought of his fading away and Phantom taking his life, the tastes he’d loved so much becoming real…

“No. I said… I said we’d go up those stairs together.” Desperation rings in Phantom’s voice, stronger than even Danny’s own despair.

Danny blinks. There is meaning there, significance. Phantom is begging him for something and… he does not understand. 

“When I first came through the portal, we shared a body and mind.” The ghost pleads, eyes wide. “Don’t you remember? I came through and… I wasn’t me anymore. I thought… it was like I didn’t exist but… but I realized…. That wasn’t it.”

“What are you saying?” Danny begs. The portal pulses, his arms and legs consumed. 

“We shared the same space and… I didn’t disappear. I folded back, back to where I came from in first place. I was you again.” Phantom says, the words airy with realization “I’ve always been you.” He squeezes the flesh hands, the desperate touch the only thing holding the green back.“You… you’ve felt it too, the link between us. We’re intertwined.”

The ghost is… right. Of course he is. Danny feels it in his….Phantom’s bones. The shared thoughts and memories. The body swapping. The shared interests and appearance. Dread, excitement, anticipation bubble in what once was Danny’s stomach. A thousand emotions but… paramount is hope.

Danny almost wants to laugh. He became best friends with himself. But…In Phantom’s chest, he can feel his, their heart pounding. If Phantom is wrong and he had just disappeared in that first overshadowing…

“But…. Phantom, what happens to you if that… if… if we…”

The ghost shakes his head. His knowing eyes say he knows Danny’s fear. “Danny, I came from you. From your death. Even with becoming… this…” He motions to his body. “A ghost that’s technically separate from you…. We’ve always been a step from being the same person. I think…. We’d finally fall back into step.”

They would fall into step… The strange sense of fullness, of rightness he’d felt when Phantom appeared… He’d felt different, not quite himself since the accident. Like something was missing. And now, the missing part is in front of him…

And yet… a last trickle of doubt, of fear. The portal quivers, wanting to overtake him. The tip of his nose disappears…

Fear darkens Phantom’s face. “No matter what happens to me, I won’t let you be trapped in the frame. I…” The ghost steels his face. “Whether we sync back into step, or I disappear, or we end up sharing a body permanently… Go back up those stairs with me.”

Danny stares for a long moment. He is just a pair of eyes now, two hands, and two feet. A part of him whispers, it would be easier to let the portal take him. At least he knows what will happen; he feels it in his mist, in the way his ectoplasm wants to expand, to grow to fit the frame. But this uncertainty… 

Will he lose Phantom or become him? Was Phantom even real in the first place? Does any of it matter? But the pleading, the desperation in Phantom…. His other self’s eyes. 

 “O… okay.” Danny stutters, mind made up.

The boy-who-is-a-portal pulls his ghost into a hug. His portal self pulses, straining to fill its proper shape. The last of his mortality in ghostly hands… the two fragmented minds intertwine. Strings twisting tighter and tighter together. Gaps that he hadn’t even felt filling. Threads knitted into a greater and greater pattern. Ghost and human and something altogether other fall into the weave.

It… never was a choice between Phantom and the portal, the creature that was and is Danny, and is so much more realizes. It was, it is, it will be so much more. Form straining to finally become, the being that is Danny releases.

The portal explodes out, a supernova of force, yet contained by his mind. The green mist coalesses, filling the metal machine made by its parent’s hands. The gateway becomes and the new born halfa, its guardian self, floats inside.

Slowly, the halfa floats out of the bridge. He blinks for a long moment, staring at the portal, his other body. A gloved hand over his chest, heart and core intertwined. Ghostly chill in his veins and human warmth.

He breathes out and… laughs with relief. His portal self pulses with mirth, mist curling. 

“I’m… I’m alive. That worked. Danny… Phantom… we did it.”

He is a ghost and he is alive. He is a gateway and he is a boy. He is Danny and he is Phantom. And he is whole.

Note: So yeah, yall know how much I love split Danny so this idea was born out of that love. If you’ve read my other words, you’ll probably notice some thematic similarities to Face to Face, hence why I never wrote this despite coming up with this idea first. Seriously, I was daydreaming about this fic while I was in grad school and supposed to be paying attention in the lecture I was TAing. 😅

The portal consuming Danny’s physical body was an interesting idea which came from free story I read on Kindle years ago. It was either a one off short story or in an anthology but I had not luck finding it. It was about a man who got a case of cancerous pocket dimension. Basically, this pocket of space appeared on his stomach and grew like a cancer, eventually destroying him. It was sad, about his wrestling with his impending death and leaving his daughter behind. About how his new part of space was being created with his life and yet he would not live to see it. He was not becoming the space, no part of his consciousness would stay. And yet, the planet that was visible through the spot, a new planet in a whole new universe, which he told his daughter about and showed her to her amazement, was named after her. A part of him did survive. 

I swear the story was a lot more poignant that my explanation and I really wish I could find it but I’m having no luck. 😭

Anyway, thanks for pushing me into writing this. Feel free to tell me what you think!

[laxyaklovesloz]

DannyMay 2024 #27 Zombie AU

[Instead of receiving life-saving medicine, Chelsea becomes patient zero: a zombie. Eventually, the zombie apocalypse hits Amity Park.]

“Dad, a ghost shield won’t work against zombies,” Danny yelled across the room. “Zombies are like… the opposite of ghosts.”

“You’re right, Danno,” Jack yelled back while tinkering with the controls. “But with a few modifications, it should work.”

Danny threw up his hands in defeat and stalked out of the ops center. “I’m going to get the blasters ready.”

“You do that, son!”

At the bottom of the stairs, Danny met his mom.

“How are preparations going, sweetie?” Maddie asked.

“You’ll have to ask Dad,” Danny replied hotly. “He seems to think the ghost shield will work with some ‘modifications,’ whatever that means.”

“I’m sure the two of us can figure something out,” Maddie said. She was too calm for the situation at hand.”

“Mom,” Danny huffed, “do you realize what’s going on? Zombies are coming. A ghost shield isn’t going to help! We need blasters, and lots of them!”

“You and Jazz can handle the blasters for now,” Maddie said, just as calm. “Your dad and I will help after we figure out this shield.”

Danny suppressed a growl.

Seeing his expression, Maddie finally changed her tone. “We’ll be okay, Danny,” she said softly. “You know I love you, right?”

Danny sighed, “Yeah, I do.”

Maddie kissed his forehead. “Now, get to work. We don’t have a lot of time.”

≈∞≈

The town was preparing for the oncoming zombies by building a barricade. The ghost shield was modified and expanded to cover the whole city despite Danny's hesitations. He hoped the barricade would help. At the very least, it would slow the zombies down. They weren’t very good at climbing.

There were only a handful of blasters to go around, so residents with guns volunteered to help. Some of them were a little too eager to shoot down zombies. It was like they were training for this very thing to happen. That group called themselves “Preppers.” There still weren’t enough to cover the whole barricade, though, so Danny knew he would have to help out.

He wondered if any ghosts would aid him. Skulker would be able to handle the zombies, but would he be willing to set aside his hatred for Danny? The same went for Ember and a lot of other ghosts. He didn’t have many allies in the Ghost Zone. Then he remembered Frostbite and the Far Frozeners. But they couldn’t fly, so how would he transport all of them through the portal?

Danny clutched his head in frustration, messing up his hair. It felt like all of the pressure was on him to figure out a solution. His mom and dad were in the ops center, still fiddling with the controls. Jazz entered the room and saw him sitting in frustration on the couch.

“What is it, Danny?” she asked.

“Mom and Dad are trying, but will it be enough?” Danny said, not looking up at her. “I just feel like I should go to the Ghost Zone and get some allies, but I don’t know who to ask.”

Jazz sat on the couch next to him and he leaned into her. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders in a comforting way.

“You don’t have to figure it all out on your own,” she said. “You have allies here. We’ll help you figure it out.”

“Alright, so who do you suggest?” Danny challenged.

Jazz took the question seriously. “What about Princess Dorathea?”

Danny brightened slightly. “I hadn’t thought of her. I’ll go talk to her now.”

Jazz smiled as she watched her brother leave the room.

≈∞≈

“I’d be happy to help,” Princess Dorathea said to Danny’s question. “But you’ll need more than just me.”

“What about your subjects?” Danny asked desperately. “Can any of them help?”

Princess Dorathea shook her head. “I’m afraid they’re not the combat sort. May I suggest Lady Pandora?”

Danny perked up. “You think she’ll be willing to help?”

“It won’t hurt to try.”

≈∞≈

Danny spent the afternoon gathering allies. Pandora agreed to help and offered her minotaurs as well. Danny found more ghosts than he thought possible willing to help him and his town. Eventually, he had an army to fight against the oncoming zombie hoards.

Then he came across Skulker. Or rather, Skulker came to him.

“I heard you’re battling zombies, whelp,” Skulker said. He appeared behind Danny, so Danny whipped around to face him, raising his arms to defend himself.

“What do you want,” Danny spat.

Surprisingly, Skulker held up his hands. “I want to hunt zombies,” he said… gleefully. Danny couldn’t believe his ears. “This is a prime opportunity for me!”

Danny put down his hands. “You’re… you’re serious?”

“Absolutely! And I’ll get others to join you as well.”

“What others?” Danny asked suspiciously.

“The ones you won’t ask yourself,” Skulker replied. “You know, Johnny 13, the Box Ghost, Ember, those kinds of people.”

“You’d do that for me?” Danny wondered.

“Not for you,” Skulker said. “For the hunt. I assume you’re outnumbered out there, else you wouldn’t be looking for help. I can grow your numbers.”

That was the strangest encounter Danny had ever… well… encountered.

≈∞≈

The day came when the zombies appeared at the border of Amity Park. To Danny’s surprise, the ghost shield actually kept them out. He guessed he should call it the zombie shield now. He wondered what that would mean for ghosts. In his ghost form, he went up to the shield and tentatively held out his hand.

Nothing happened.

What a relief! Danny sighed and went to tell his troops the good news.

Then the battle began.

[jacksdinonuggets]

R!Amity Cg!Darius

Sorry, I got bored during the end and just finished it quick.

It may be that Amity is very stressed about dealing with her mother and the whole issue of her parents' divorce to which she finds Darius and offers her a break in regression and takes care of her until Alador arrives 

Darius had been living in the blight manor for a while now. The divorce between Alador and Odalia had just happened a little over a week ago but wasn’t fully finalized. They had separated for the time being since Odalia would not stop nagging Amity and Alador during the time period of getting her to move out. Alador wanted a new face around after his ex-wife moved in with her sister. Ed and Em were always doing their own thing outside the house and Amity was always in her room, isolating. Alador was starting to get lonely and invited Darius to move in since they were work partners and could work together more efficiently too. 

After a day or too, Darius hadn’t seen or heard from Amity. It was getting quite concerning. He knew that handling your parents divorce might be difficult but it was still enough to worry him. Alador seemed worried too but he still needed to get the divorce finalized and would be spending a lot of the time in court or doing paperwork. So he sent Darius to go check on her one day.

“Hey, Amity?” Darius knocked on her door. 

“What?” she replied back, in a bit of an annoyed tone. However, he could hear her voice slightly crack at the end.

“I just want to check to see how you’re doing. It's been a while since you’ve come out and you haven’t been to dinner in a while,” He explained.

After a moment of silence, he knocked again.

“Fine…come in” she answered.

He opened the door and saw her laying in bed, her back facing the door and the cover drawn all the way up to her neck. The room was a bit messy and clothes were on the floor.

“You…doing okay?” he peered over the bed to at least see her face a little.

“I guess…” she replied. He could tell she wasn’t telling the full truth. She was obviously shaking and was previously crying.

“Look, I know we aren’t that close but I still want to help,” Darius sat at the foot of the bed.

“If I tell you, will you leave me alone?” She snapped.

“I can’t promise anything,” he heard her sigh but then she began to speak.

“The whole…divorce thing has been really stressing me out. Mom… she didn’t even care about me and twins when Dad told her he wanted to separate. She only cared about the business and money. She… she even called me the other day… to tell me how disappointed she was in me when I told her I wanted to stay with dad. She yelled and called me disrespectful. I hung up but i still think, ‘why doesn’t she love me the way everyone else’s parents do?’. I don’t know, I’m just hurting, i guess.” She had silent tears running down her cheeks but Darius couldn’t see.

A bit of silence filled the air.

“How about… to take your mind off of these…icky thoughts, you regress with me?” he proposed. She seemed a bit shocked and then uncomfortable.

“Hunter does it and he says I’m pretty good at caring. Your dad told me about yours when we were on the topic of him,” He quickly explained.

Amity relaxed after his words and turned over to face him.

“O-okay, just don’t judge me, please?” she said, getting out of bed.

Amity went over to her closet and dug around a bit before pulling out a bag and a stuffed animal. She put it on the ground and began trying to slip. Darius ruffled her hair when she had this tense thinking face on. She did a small giggle and that's when she finally slipped. Happiness came quickly to her as she began playing with some action figures on the floor. Darius joined in for her played the antagonist figure.

 It was fun for a while until Amity’s stomach rumbled, reminding he that she hasn’t eaten in a day. Tears began to fill her eyes as the hunger pains got worse. She clenched her tummy in pain. Darius was quick to pick her up and carry her downstairs. He got her a sippy cup with chocolate milk and made her a sandwich with the crusts cut off. She seemed pretty content afterwards which was good. 

He put her down for a nap afterwards and was happy to know how he bonded with his soon-to-be daughter.

[justkending]

Finding Memories. Chapter 2.

Series Summary: Waking up with little to no memory of her past, and being saved by a group of individuals who call themselves heroes, sends a long time captive for a whirlwind trying to find some form of grounding in this world she quickly learns runs on chaos. But she’s not the only one trying to figure out her forgotten backstory. Bucky Barnes, along with the other Avengers, can’t help but sense that there is a lot more to the whole situation than a diagnosis of amnesia. Her background slowly starts to come forward in pieces of her past and hidden information discovered. Who is she? And why was she in the room they were meant to destroy?

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader 

Word Count: 4000+

TW: Torture, cussing, and blood. 

A/N: First off, thank you for the love already given to this series. It’s been a fun one to write and I’m impatiently waiting for you guys to get to the juicer chapters. This one is a great start to understanding the relationships ot come and how our main character is going to behave to her new surroundings. I hope you enjoy and can’t wait to hear what all you think and got from it! xoxoxo

Chapter 2:

The next morning, Bucky was hesitant to knock on her door. He didn't want to overstep the one space that she had to herself.

Though it wasn't like he was barging in, yet again, he knew what it meant to have a place of peace and how easily it can lose its sense of amity the more traffic it received.

So he waited. He waited in the lounge area, then he waited in the kitchen, then he waited in the den/ library. Then he waited back in the kitchen again.

He checked his watch and saw it was 7 in the morning. He had already been up for two hours and had done nothing useful besides reading up on the reports Nat gave him over and over again with no change in information.

They would just have to wait until someone was able to decode more of the encrypted drive they had taken.

"I'll be ok. I've had worse."

Bucky turned at the voice he was becoming more familiar with.

"Are you sure? We can go back to the med bay and have them take a look. It looks like it's bruised up pretty nice," another voice came from the hallway he was eavesdropping on.

"It's fresh," she replied shyly, not caring for the attention. It's a lot different from the attention she was used to and a change of intention can be hard to adjust to. "In a few hours, you won't even be able to see it."

They finally came from around the corner and Bucky stood up from his chair, closing the book he had zoned out of multiple times.

"Hey, Barnes," Nat smiled with Y/N by her side. "How long have you been up?"

"A couple of hours. Was doing some research," he replied absentmindedly. His eyes immediately searched for the bruising he heard them talking about. It was hard to miss even when she was actively trying to keep him from seeing it as she looked anywhere in the room but at him. "What happened?" he asked anyway as he was shocked by the black eye she now had.

She looked at Nat and then at him.

"I had a nightmare. Fell off and hit my head on the nightstand," she replied sheepishly.

In truth, she was used to being tied down to a table when she had nightmares, so silk sheets and a bed with no restraints made it easy for her to find herself on the floor the next morning and a black eye for proof of her night terrors.

He looked at the damage as best he could as she tried to cover it with her hair and not bring attention to it.

Before he could make any other comment on it, she excused herself to the kitchen.

"She doesn't like attention, I can tell you that much," Nat whispered as they watched her carefully move around the modern kitchen. Not sure where to start as she had only been there one other time and Bucky was the chef. "Maybe just don't mention it or try to make her feel better about it. She's pretty adamant on not discussing how she got it."

"She doesn't need to say anything. I can imagine what she saw last night," Bucky replied with a deep sigh. "Now let's see what she thinks of on-the-go food."

"What are you doing with her, Barnes? She's barely accustomed to this palace, you better not be taking her to an overpopulated place. She's already on edge about the fact she knows nothing about herself," Nat gave him a raised eyebrow.

"What kind of person do you take me for?" he rolled his eyes. "Obviously I'm not going to put her in a high-stress situation, one day after waking up from a two-day sleep and everything else she went through before."

"I know," Nat chuckled, patting his back. "I'm just making sure." They paused to watch her as she went about the kitchen inspecting appliances and items. "She seems like she'll make it out the other side of the tunnel though," Nat whispered. "She's got some spunk in her, I can tell. We just got to fish it out."

"That's the goal," Bucky took a deep breath crossing his arms.

She was fidgeting with the coffee machine and trying to decipher if the hot brown liquid inside was something she liked before. She had liked the smell, but there were no memories attached to the sense.

"I'm going to take her on a walk of the compound so she can get familiar with it. The more you know about your environment and escape routes with a backstory like hers, it'll hopefully help her tear back some of those walls she's put up."

"Good plan. You may want to help her find a mug though if you want her awake on that walk. I have a feeling she didn't get much rest last night," Nat sighed before moving on to her mission of the day. "I'm going to help Tony maneuver through some of those files we got."

"How's that going?" he asked before she could walk off.

"About as well as your reading this morning did." Her smirk showed that she caught onto his mindless wandering and tricks to look busy as he waited for the new guest to come out this morning. "However, I think it's best to look up some names as well. We can't keep calling her Jane Doe/ that girl we rescued from a terrorist infiltration. Not very fitting for her either way."

"Yeah, I'll make that a goal for today," he nodded. "Keep me updated?"

She was walking away when he shouted his last comment to her.

"Always do," she waved, never looking back.

Bucky took another breath before moving on to his next riddle of the day.

"Need any help?" he asked as she poured some of the coffee into a mug that she had found.

"I'm not sure if I like this stuff," she said back, very focused on making sure she didn't spill any of the coffee. "But it smells really nice," she tilted her head down as she took another sniff.

"You don't think you've had coffee before?" he questioned, grabbing his own mug and refilling it.

"Not that I can remember. I know it's called coffee and I know it helps you stay awake, but that's all I know about it," she shrugged, about to take a swig of it.

Bucky watched as she hesitantly brought the warm drink to her lips. She took a small sip and her face scrunched up at the potency.

"Yeah, you may be better off with some cream and sugar. I make it a little stronger," he noted, looking at the nearly empty pot. "I can make another batch if you want," he offered.

But she waved him off, placing the mug down and going to the fridge for the creamer he had mentioned. She was at least knowledgeable about where the creamer would be. So perhaps she had done normal things in her past.

A human lab experiment wasn't one to know where household items are generally kept. At least the ones that have never seen a light outside fluorescent bulbs hovering over them. It was a small new detail about her, but a detail either way.

"Do you want sugar?" he asked, grabbing a few packets.

She nodded, taking the packets and thanking him before stirring them all together. With a quick look at him, she silently communicated with him a "here it goes," look before taking a new sip.

Her face didn't scrunch this time and instead, she had a look of realization.

"Do you guys have any..." She was trying to find the word. One she was sure she hadn't used in a long time if it was taking this long to come to her. "It's a spice," she said, hoping he would pick up on it.

"Spice? Sweet or savory?" he asked, going to the cupboard to search for something that would blend well with coffee.

"That one," she pointed out.

He turned and followed her finger seeing she was talking about the cinnamon.

"Oh, cinnamon?" he asked, pulling down the small jar and handing it to her.

She took it and examined the label. She turned it around in her hand a few times and carefully opened the lid.

"Is this sweet?" she asked, looking up at him.

"I guess you can call it that. It does go well with coffee though. The Parker kid has talked about it before," he said more to himself.

"Parker kid?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah. He's a member of the team," he answered. "He's pretty young and has school most of the time, but when he isn't there, he's here annoying us."

It was true. Peter Parker was the second little brother Bucky didn't plan on gaining in his life. Though he made himself useful when Bucky needed a pop culture explanation. Especially when Tony would drop them casually in conversation just to annoy Bucky.

"School? You have a kid on your team that's still in school?" She was slightly concerned.

"Don't worry, he's a smart kid," Bucky leaned against the counter. "He'll be studying for his college classes and hunting down a criminal during his snack time."

"They have snack time in college?" she tilted her head genuinely curious.

"He may be a teenager, but compared to me, he's a toddler. Plus, he gets hangry when he doesn't get his 1:30 snack."

"For someone who seems annoyed by the kid, you're awfully in tune with his schedule," she smiled up at him.

Bucky couldn't help but return it. This was the longest they had talked and he was learning she was quite observant.

"He's the little brother I didn't want, but I can't help but look out for the kid," Bucky shrugged, adding a sugar packet to his black drink before indulging in it.

"Sounds like a recurring action of yours," she said slyly as she took a sip with the cinnamon now in the drink.

Bucky took note of that spark of spunk Nat had mentioned and couldn't help but grin that it was coming out so soon.

He watched her reaction after she took a few more sips and her eyebrows lifted.

"I think I like cinnamon," she realized with a small sense of pride in her comment.

"Add it to the list," he grinned. "How do you feel about walks?" he asked next.

"Walks?" she asked, confused at the action. "Like just walking around?"

"Uh-huh," he answered, taking the last bit of the coffee in the pot and transferring it to a travel mug. "We can take that to go, or we can wait until you're finished."

"I'll take it to go," she nodded, holding it delicately in her hand.

"Ok, let's get you set up and we'll head out."

_________________

They grabbed a jacket from the closet in her room, even though it was bigger on her, she rolled up the sleeves and was comfortable in the brisk fall air.

Bucky started her off in the immediate meeting area. Showing her where the den and library were, where the living room and movie room were, and anywhere else she would have access to in the living space.

She was quiet for most of the tour and was taking in the mass amount of resources and activities they had at their fingertips. All she knew when it came to free time was being put to sleep and thrown into another room before more procedures were done to her... At least that's all she remembered so far.

On their way outside, he motioned to where the training room and gym were. A place she could go to if she needed to find anyone for help. There was a decent chance that there was at least one person who could help her there at any time.

Once outside, they took the scenic route around the compound. Keeping their distance from the hustle and bustle of agents and aircrafts taking off and leaving for missions.

"So there are more people that work here than just your avenging group?" she asked, hands in her jacket pockets as she tugged it closer to her body.

The way she worded the group's name made him laugh.

"We're a whole organization. Tony Stark, who's the one who pays for all this and the one who had your room all set up, is also one of the Avengers," he explained. "Steve, who you know as the man with the shield, is also known as Captain America. Well at least that's his superhero name and rank, but he's just as much of a dork as the Peter kid sometimes."

"And the Peter kid is the spider boy, right?" she asked

"Yes, Spiderboy. Hmm mm," he hummed, not correcting her as he had described him as that, to begin with.

"Nat seems really nice too. She also has superpowers?"

"Nat is enhanced, but she doesn't go as far as to classify herself as a superhero personally. She was a very well-known spy for a long time before joining this life."

"What about you?" she turned to him.

"Me?" he repeated.

"Yeah, do you have any powers?" She looked at the trees around her as she asked. Taking in as much of the greenery as possible.

"Steve and I's enhancements are pretty similar. Why and how we got them couldn't be more opposite, but I guess you could say I have powers..." he shrugged, looking over at her before following her eye line.

A few seconds of silence went on before she turned to him with a look of confusion on her face.

Though she had noticed the metal arm all the way back to when they first met, she had never stared or mentioned it like others were quick to. Never questioned or hinted at wanting to know what the backstory to it was, but something in her gut told her his answer to her last question has some sort of association with the arm.

Again, she didn't push. She just continued to walk as she processed everything in her own time. Bucky was really just there to answer questions and guide her around. He was intrigued by her story just as much as everyone else that was on that mission, but like them, he was waiting for answers to arise.

"Hey," he spoke up after a few minutes of silence passed. "I know I told you I'd let you sleep on it some more, but any chance a name has come to you."

She took his question and processed it for a second.

"Not really," she replied. "I heard some things that-," she paused, not sure what to call her captors. The memory of them was not one she was interested in looking back on, no matter how helpful it would be in the long run. "They called me..." she finished. "But never a real name."

He knew what she meant. Being used as a lab rat meant that a name that holds emotional ties and connections to an individual was not common in this situation. She was likely given a code name, or a number, or called slurs the majority of the time.

"Well, consider it another thing you get to choose," he continued in a way to make the conversation less upsetting. "Is there anything you would want to be called?"

She thought about it as they rounded the nature trail they were on. But eventually, she shook her head.

"I guess that's a pretty big decision." He placed his hands in his front pocket as they made their way slowly back to the living space. "I have an idea," he reached into his back pocket and fished out his phone. "I'll pull up a list of names and you can see if any of them sound fitting for you. And if not today, maybe you can do some research of your own and find something you like."

"Ok," she nodded, taking his phone that he had quickly searched up girl names on. She scrolled for a bit but didn't seem intrigued by any of the names she had found. After a few mumbles, as she read to herself the options, she stopped. "Wait, this one," she pointed, lifting the phone for him to see.

"Y/N?" he asked, testing the name himself. "You like that one?"

"I think so, but..." she paused and closed her eyes. "Something seems familiar about it."

"You have a connection to it?"

She again tried to think back on it. Her nose scrunched up as she closed her eyes trying really hard to remember why it was clicking somewhere. Something he had noticed she did anytime she thought hard about something.

"I'm not sure," she eventually sighed. "But I like it. Do I seem like a Y/N?"

"I don't see why not," he smiled. "I like it."

She smiled back, though he could tell it was slightly forced in an attempt to cover the frustration on why the name sparked something in her mind, yet she couldn't place why.

"Y/N it is," she said.

_________________

"I'm telling you, it's the only answer to what you're asking me," a voice echoed through the hall as Y/N and Bucky made their way back for lunch after a long and eventful walk around the compound.

"I'm not saying it's the wrong answer... I'm just saying it's-"

"It's an answer," a third voice was heard, with a hint of uncertainty.

"Wanda! Don't side with her."

"What's happening in here?" Bucky asked, turning the corner and putting a face to all the voices he had heard.

Sam was on one side of the counter, sitting on a bar stool. Natasha was in the fridge grabbing a cooled bottle of wine, and Wanda was in the middle of cooking what smelled like a nice roast or soup.

"Oh, hey!" Nat smiled, seeing that their new guest was somewhat hiding behind Bucky at the new people. "You guys are just in time for our lunch date," she smiled kindly to the woman before turning her attention to Bucky. "How was your walk?"

Bucky smiled, walking into the room slowly, checking behind him to see how close Y/N was following him. Not to his surprise, she was at least a foot away to give him some form of space, but close enough to feel like she had an anchor around the new crowd.

"It went well. We stayed on the hiking trail most of the time, but she should have an idea of the place a little better now," he answered. "What do you have going, Wanda?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Sam stood up from his chair. "You're just going to act like there isn't a guest here? Where are your 1940's era manners?"

No one noticed, but her eyebrows knitted together in curiosity at the specifics of his question.

"Cool your jets," Bucky was quick to block her from him as he knew she was already skittish with everything going on, let alone new people. "She's who I mentioned was going to be staying with us for a little bit until we get some things figured out."

"Right," Sam remembered. "Sorry, I just got back from a long mission. I forgot all that happened while I was gone. And I've only been informed about pieces of what happened." He walked over to where Y/N was next to Bucky, but still behind him in shelter. "Sorry for my manners," he emphasized. "And his too, but I can only take credit for my own actions."

That got a small snicker out of her. Sam was good like that.

"Shut up," Bucky rolled his eyes.

"You first," Sam responded instinctively, before ignoring him and looking at her with a kind smile. "I'm Sam. Sam Wilson. I don't believe I've caught your name yet, sweetheart."

She could feel a sense of trust toward this person. The same she was slowly realizing she could easily give with this group of people she was gradually being introduced to.

"My name's Y/N," she replied softly. "It's nice to meet you, Sam."

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well," he grinned, before turning to the side and motioning to the empty bar stools in front of the chef herself. "Want to watch Wanda work her magic on the stove? She's got a gift for comfort meals on cold and dreary days like today."

She looked to Bucky once again, looking for something to tell her the coast was clear. He nodded his head once showing he'd be right behind her.

After the three sat in front of where the auburn-haired woman was adding the last bits of spices to the pot, Natasha walked up next to Wanda handing her a glass of wine.

"So, Y/N," she stretched out the name, sending a smirk showing she was happy to have a name to connect to her. "Bucky's not giving you any trouble, is he? Cause I can set him straight if need be."

Bucky once again rolled his eyes at the teasing from his teammates.

"Nat, aren't you supposed to be in a meeting with Stark right now?" He attempted to divert the conversation.

"Nothing that can't be sent in an email. He'll be fine," she waved him off. "Find anything interesting out there?" she asked, only looking at Y/N.

"Um," she started but wasn't sure what to follow with it. "It's a nice place."

"We have a billionaire to thank for that," Wanda winked, sipping her wine before introducing herself. "I'm Wanda. It's nice to finally meet you, Y/N."

"Wanda?" she echoed. "Wanda Maximoff, right?"

Eyes widened at her comment in surprise, except for Buckys. It didn't take a lot to realize she was very good at picking up and remembering things given the space and motivation to do so.

"That's me," she smiled. "Bucky's been helpful enough to fill you in on the team's roster I assume?"

"I have a lot of questions that need to be answered, but I'm learning I don't necessarily know the type of questions to ask," she replied, hands in her lap and body language showing she was still shy and reserved. "But Bucky has helped make me feel like I have some kind of grasp on this place and the people in it."

The group looked at him, in what you could say was a surprised way, but as much hell as they gave him for being the quieter one of the group, he always had a heart for those who needed it.

"We're glad you're here with us," Wanda spoke up with a comforting smile. "You're with the right group and person," she looked at Bucky, "to figure out who you are. Now, I'm guessing you're hungry after that walk. How do you feel about a pot roast?"

____________

By the time lunch was over, Bucky noticed that Y/N's black eye had slight discoloration, but for the most part, was healed.

She did well with the small group of friends, though it was likely the most interaction she had had in a while on a friendly basis. With each passing hour, he could see her relax little by little as her new environment was proving itself consistently safe.

Nat laughed at how Sam was quickly already trying to spread his music taste to the new member and took a bite of the scrapes of bread left in the basket in the center of them all.

Her phone vibrated on the table and her smile dissipated just enough for a trained eye to see. Bucky happened to have that trained eye and noticed once she looked at him after receiving the message.

She excused herself and gave him a look that showed where his thoughts had gone were correct.

 They had an update.

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[m0osical]

ok I need to expand upon this 'everyone except huntlow themselves knows their dating' thing because that's literally my fav trope EVER

I can just imagine that after everything is safe and they've defeated Belos and the Collector is put away that the two become even more close than they already are. And listen. I'm all for stuttering, blushy Hunter (let the poor boy have an awkward teenage crush) but I'm also so for the idea that while that never fully goes away he also has tons of moments with Willow where the two are as comfortable and banter like they are each other's bestest friends. Like they text when they don't see each other ALL THE TIME now, and Hunter has been put into enough situations with Willow alone both out choice and because he's best friends with a group of romantic shippers, that he's not as much of a mess around her, and gets confident in flirting back.

Here's the catch.

After one particular flirting session between the two, ending with them bumping each other with their elbows and then holding hands like it's just a thing they've always done, their other friends are like "yup that's it. they got together, finally. THANK TITAN."

And of course Luz brings it up casually while everyone's hanging out one day.

Hunter mentions going somewhere with Willow the next day, and he asks if the others want to come along, Willow nodding in agreement.

Luz shakes her head, "Noooo I won't interupt your date with each other. I'm starting to learn what you guys felt like with Amity and I."

Gus snorts, "Yeah how do you think I feel? I have to experience it twice."

Luz pats his shoulder in sympathy and by this point Hunter and Willow have both gone bright red.

"A date?! I mean like, yeah, between friends cuz that's what we are, uh, yeah, like good friends you know-" Hunter sputters.

The poor boy just gets more red, and Luz is just. so confused.

"You've been dating for...Oh My Titan. You guys have to be pulling my leg right now."

"I'm not even touching your leg Luz!"

"It's a figure of- Oh nevermind" Luz runs her hands down her face. "I just, I have a question then."

Gus and Amity at this point are seconds away from falling over laughing because seriously HOW could this be happening.

"Are you guys like, together?"

Hunter sputters and Willow finally speaks to save the poor dude from suffering, "No? I mean- Not that I wouldn't- nevermind- just, where did you get that impression?"

Okay so she might've saved Hunter from embarrassment but definitely not herself. Luz just gives her a look like 'be fucking fr' and gestures to the both of them like, "Look at you guys" because of course the two of them are sitting as close as possible, legs tangled with each other and literally 30 minutes ago Hunter's head was in her lap and she was braiding flowers into his hair.

And of course the two of them are like *shrug* "We're just really close friends haha" and Luz has to contain her screams of frustration because CMON. SHE THOUGHT THE PINING WAS OVER. (slowburns are no fun in real life apparently).

Anyway after all that it takes another two weeks for the two of them to go "Wait fuck. We are basically dating aren't we." and both of them go to ask each other out and then just for fun they fuck with the others and pretend like they're still in denial. Because huntlow are girlbosses. (They tell the rest of the gang after about 30 mins. Luz almost got up and left at the continued denial and they both felt a little bad.)

[underforeversgrace]

healing the wounds we hid - 4

title: healing the wounds we hid

words: 3,067

Finally, the sequel to broken trust and the wounds hidden behind! (Refresh here on AO3 or here on Tumblr)

Story Summary: Now that his father knows, Danny's life is changing for the better. Jack encourages him to let his friends and the rest of the family into his small word. Unbeknownst to Danny, Jack is secretly worried about how Maddie will react to the news upon her return to Amity - and how to confront Vlad once Jack learns his true identity. Amidst it all, an enemy lurks and plots their revenge.

Chapter 4 of 11: Knowing You

AO3

Tumblr Chapter One

(Tumblr Chapter Four will be here)

Beta by: @probably-dead and @scarletsaphire!

Featuring art from this fic's second artist, @saxonroa!

Note: This one was already published to AO3, but apparently I never published it here! My bad!

~~~~~~

Jack stared at the mansion as the GAV idled, hesitating with his hand on the key in the ignition. It was the day after he’d learned the truth about Vlad, and now it was time to confront him. Some part of him wondered if he should let Danny know what he was doing, but he was at school. It was time for the adults to talk anyway.

With a sense of finality, Jack turned the key and pulled it out, turning the vehicle off and jumping out of it. He double checked his suit, making sure he had multiple weapons, along with two personal ghost shields. Vlad Masters would be able to get through them, yes, but it would still keep his ecto attacks from hitting or his Plasmius form from getting too close.

Confident he had enough weapons to at least escape to the GAV, Jack held his head high as he marched towards Vlad’s front door. He knocked before he had the chance to second guess himself again.

He didn’t have to wait long before he heard the sound of the lock disengaging and Vlad opened the door, clad in a red robe, his white hair hanging loosely around his face.

“Jack. What a…pleasant…surprise.” Vlad said, schooling his expression into one of mild interest.

“Wish I could say the same,” Jack said as he body checked Vlad out of his way, crossing the threshold and closing the door behind him.

“What the butter puffs, Jack?” Vlad huffed in annoyance.

“You and I are going to have a talk,” Jack said, glaring at Vlad, pulling himself up to his full height.

Vlad at least had the common courtesy to look concerned. “Whatever about, my old friend?”

“Cut the bullshit, Vlad. I know.”

“You know what?” He asked, rolling his eyes.

“I figured it out. You blame me, don’t you?”

“Jack, I’m afraid I don’t -“

“Stop messing with me, Plasmius!” Jack shouted. “I know what you are, I know who you are! But what I don’t understand is why? You reviewed the math, Maddie reviewed the chemical compositions. We all messed up! Yet you blame me? And decide to beat my son bloody because of something that happened before he was even born?”

The faux friendliness fell from Vlad’s face, settling into a scowl. “Jack, stop talking nonsense.”

Jack grunted in frustration and walked past Vlad, to the living room just beyond the foyer.

The other man groaned and began to speak but Jack cut him off.

“Why didn’t you tell me? I get Danny, he was afraid. But you? Why hide it?”

Vlad narrowed his eyes accusingly at Jack. “You never visited. Five years in that hospital and neither of you ever came to see me.”

“We tried!” Jack said, stunned. “We tried for weeks to see you but you were under quarantine. And then you were better but accepting no visitors and then you were discharged and never talked to us. We thought you hated us. We thought you’d forgiven us when you invited us to the reunion."

Vlad’s face twisted in anger. “Forgiven you? You’re even dumber than I thought you were, Jack. You killed me! Your negligence cost me my life! But I made it better, didn’t I? Turned your fuck up into a gift. Created Plasmius, created an empire of wealth for myself. I may have given the ghost a name, but you’re the one who created this!” He shouted and then black rings were around his waist, so similar and yet so strikingly different than Danny’s, and Jack could only watch while his chest ached in shame. “How does it feel to have created not just one monster, but two? Remember when we contemplated the idea of hybridism in college? All the things we could do and learn from a thing like that, before we laughed it off as a joke because how could such a freak of nature ever exist? I’ve been trying to kill you for twenty years, Jack! And now your ridiculous child can’t even keep a secret?”

Jack listened to Vlad’s rant, the heavy blanket of guilt pressing further into him the longer he talked. Plasmius breathed angrily, his red eyes burning into Jack with rage Jack had never known Vlad able to possess.

A canyon of silence stretched between them. Jack fidgeted, running his hand through his hair as he tried to gather his thoughts and break it.

“Danny didn’t tell me. I figured it out - figured out both of you. He doesn’t know I know.”

“Wow, a rare moment of Jack Fenton brilliance,” Plasmius said, mockery and anger dripping from his tone like venom. 

“Why am I here?” Jack asked.

“You practically break into my house and you’re asking me why you’re here?” Vlad asked, the shift from fury to bewilderment so instantaneous it was nearly amusing.

“Not here as in your house. Here, in general. Alive. Breathing.” He asked cautiously, wondering how much of the Vlad he had known was left in his friend.

“Daniel is quite protective,” he growled. “Constantly interferes with my plans and saves everyone. Even for people who’d kill him.”

“He’s also only fifteen. He hasn’t even been de-“ Jack choked on the word “-dead for two years. And I’m only human.” Vlad was silent as he processed Jack’s question, so Jack continued, his voice tired. “You’re one of the richest men in the world. I’m oblivious, but not that oblivious. You could’ve hired someone to murder me and make it look like an accident. But I’m still here.”

Jack felt like the weight of the world was on his shoulders, crushing him into dust even as Plasmius came for him, hands outstretched. He vaguely remembered the weapons he’d brought with him as Vlad grabbed him by the neck and slammed him against the wall, but he suddenly found he didn’t care to use them, even as he grabbed at Vlad’s wrists and struggled for air.

At least Vlad wasn’t as cold as Danny.

“Maybe I wanted to do it with my own hands,” Vlad hissed, lifting Jack off his feet. Jack clawed at Vlad’s hands, desperate to be let down. “Maybe I needed to make sure you hurt as much as I did, suffer as much as I did! And now you offer yourself up to me on a platter!”

Jack couldn’t speak, becoming lightheaded as Vlad continued to strangle him. Looking into Vlad’s red, pupil-less eyes full of rage and pain, Jack began to wonder if he’d made a mistake, if the friend he’d known really had become someone capable of murder, when doubt and regret crossed Vlad’s face.

“Fuck!” Vlad shouted, releasing Jack from his grip. Jack fell to the floor two feet beneath him, collapsed onto his hands and knees as he breathed in the beautiful, cool air around him. “Fuck!” He repeated, blasting some of the furniture around them into pieces with his pink ecto rays. Plasmius floated down to the floor, and Jack wasn't sure if the tears forming in the ghost’s eyes were from anger or grief.

“Damn you, Jack Fenton,” Vlad hissed. “You and your perfect life, with the woman I love and the kids I always wanted! Why do you get everything? Why do you get to be happier than me? Why can’t I kill you?”

“‘Perfect life?’” Jack asked, his voice still a little breathless as he pushed himself to his feet. “You think my life is perfect? You can have it! Along with every mistake I’ve ever made! I killed you, my best friend! I killed my son. I’ve hunted him, hurt him! I only know now because I found a goodbye video he filmed in case I killed him again! I’ve pushed my daughter away. I’m terrified my wife is going to try to kill our son!” 

Tears fell as all the pain he’d masked since the video tumbled out, finally able to let out everything he’d kept within. “Do you want your son’s blood on your hands? Do you want to remember all the dreams you had of torturing him? Do you want to know he spent almost two years afraid you wouldn’t love him enough to not dissect him?”

The room began to blur as tears clouded his vision, as he cried so hard his chest burned. “Do you want to learn that someone else did do that to him? And he still feared you too much to come for help, that he stitched up his own vivisection wound? Because if you want all of that, you can have it! All the guilt, all the pain, all the things I’ve broken. Do you still want my perfect life? Because I don’t!”

The two men looked at each other as Jack finished his breakdown, before a bitter laugh escaped Vlad. “Ironic. Of the two of us, I’m the one who wants to kill, yet you’re the one with blood on your hands.”

All the energy Jack had previously had vanished, and he sagged against the same wall he’d been pinned to. “I have to live with my mistakes. So believe me when I say living is worse, when I have to face my mistakes every day. Maybe that’ll make you feel better, Vlad.”

“Hmph,” Vlad said, black rings sweeping across him again, turning him back to Masters. “That does bring me some happiness.”

“Wonderful,” Jack said dryly, looking around at the mess - and lack of intact furniture. He sighed, sliding to the floor, exhausted after letting out all the shame he’d buried so deep.

Awkward silence settled between the two.

“I’m sorry, Vlad.”

~~~~~~

Danny yawned as his friends bickered, poking at the food in front of him. It was nice, to be back here with them. It’d been a few days since they’d found out - he’d told them on Monday afternoon and it was now Friday - and his fear had largely faded away. He’d been so worried they’d be okay with it and then realize that he was a freak, a monster, and grow afraid of him, that they’d out him to the town and the government. But they’d accepted him back with open arms, even insisting on joining him on patrol (once he showed them how to use a blaster and told them in no uncertain terms that if it got too dangerous, they needed to run). 

He felt Tucker elbow him gently. “Yo, you good? You’re playing with your food instead of eating again.” Tucker asked.

“You’ve been doing that a lot. Do you just… not eat as much anymore?” Sam added, dropping her voice at the end.

The urge to lie bubbled up against his lips, but he forced it down. He kept having to remind himself that he didn’t need to lie anymore, not to these two. “Not recently,” he admitted. “I’ve been losing my appetite the past three or four weeks. It had actually increased for a long time after the accident, but now I’m just not hungry.”

Sam pursed her lips thoughtfully. “So around the time your dad started helping you?”

Danny paused as he thought back, though he also felt an odd stirring in his core. Sam and Tucker had listened to every story he told with rapt attention and it made him feel… loved?… that Sam had remembered a detail that small. “Uh, yeah, actually you’re right. Weird. I wonder if it’s related, but how would it be?”

“Okay, don’t freak out,” Sam said and Danny was struck by how unhelpful that sentence was as his initial reaction was to freak out. “I have an idea.”

Danny glanced at Tucker to see if he had any clue what Sam was talking about, but he just shrugged. He didn’t miss the way Tucker’s eyes lingered on him a little longer than necessary before Tucker returned his attention to Sam. This wasn't the first time he had noticed those glances and everytime he did, he had to bury the fear it was Tucker doubting him. He couldn’t explain how he knew that wasn’t it, but somehow he just… knew. Besides, he didn’t… entirely mind them.

“So, you know how some ghosts can sense and feed off emotions?” Sam asked, leaning forward to whisper.

“Uh, yeah?” Danny said with a frown, Spectra coming to mind. He’d told them about his encounters with her, but that was the only feeder ghost he knew of.

“Well, I’ve been doing some reading,” Sam said, patting at her backpack, “and it looks like that’s a common trait. Let me ask - has your appetite dropped even more since telling Tucker and me about you?”

Tucker took a deep breath at Danny’s side, while Danny forgot how to breathe, both realizing what she was saying at the same time. Danny’s eyes widened as he realized Sam was right. He did have another dip in appetite after Sam and Tucker had re-entered his life.

“I’m gonna take that as a yes,” she said, pulling a book - A Goth’s Guide to Ghosts: The Symbiotic Relationship of the Dying and the Dead - out and flipping through it, looking for a specific page. She set the book down, turning it so he and Tucker could read it, pointing at the title of the chapter.

“Emotions and their Nutritional Value?” Tucker read aloud.

Sam nodded, then pointed to a passage further down. “Look here.”

Danny pulled the book closer to him. “‘While most ghosts feed on the negative emotions of people - one of the reasons why ghosts like to hang around the standard goth - some have been theorized to find more sustenance on the emotions of the happy. Therefore, when first attempting to contact your ghostly suitor, it is imperative to ensure the ghost can get appropriate energy from you and your emotions.’”

“Is this a book about keeping ghosts as pets?” Tucker asked, eyes continuing to scan the page.

Danny felt like cement had been poured down his throat. He couldn’t eat human emotions. He couldn’t.

“Honestly, I don’t know, some parts read like the ghost is the pet and others like the human is,” Sam shrugged. “But it has some good information, and that wasn’t the point I was making.”

“You think Danny can eat our emotions?” Tucker said, brows furrowed in confusion.

Danny could barely hear the conversation over his heart thudding against his rib cage, the sound of whooshing blood loud in his ears. He was human. Human. Sure, he’d come to terms with being half ghost (and therefore half dead), but he still felt more human than ghost. If he could eat emotions and not need real food, was he becoming more ghostly?

Was his ghost half overpowering his human half?

“I think so,” Sam confirmed, her voice sounding so far away. "His dad and the two of us? I think he’s sensing, I don’t know… companionship? Safety?”

“Love?” Tucker questioned. Sam nodded, opening her mouth to say something else, but Tucker had realized Danny’s silence wasn’t thoughtfulness - it was panic. “Danny?” he said, shaking Danny’s shoulder gently.

“I can’t,” Danny said hoarsely, shaking his head, refusing to accept it even if he knew it was true.

“Danny, it’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with it.” Tucker said gently.

“You aren’t hurting us. The book talks about how it isn’t harmful to humans. We didn't even notice it was happening until now. Spectra sought pain and depression, that’s why she was dangerous.” Sam agreed, reaching across the table and patting the back of one of Danny’s hands.

“How can you be okay with this?” Danny choked out. “You guys, my dad. I’m a freak of nature and you all act like it’s fine. I don’t understand.”

“We’re your friends and your dad’s, well, your dad. It’s fine because it’s you,” Sam said.

“So no more moping about being weird, ‘cuz everyone at this table is a freak,” Tucker added with a laugh and pulled a reluctant smile from Danny. “You’re our friend and we’re not going anywhere. Besides!” Tucker continued, pulling Danny’s plate of spaghetti from in front of him. “Now I get more free food!”

The smile felt weird on his face as he glanced between his two friends. “You’re sure? You still… want to be around me?” He asked. Even though they’d said so many times, he still struggled to believe it.

“You’re the one who can eat our emotions,” Tucker said as if it was the most normal thing in the world. “Are we lying?”

“Or are we just happy to be around you?” Sam added.

Danny hesitated, then closed his eyes and focused on… something. Something within him - like his core but not. There, he could feel it, feel them. Joy, respect, loyalty floated within him, though they were definitely not his own emotions. Shockingly, though, love - romantic love - was one of the brightest and strongest he sensed. He couldn’t tell how he knew, but when he opened his eyes and stared at Tucker in shock, he knew it was Tucker the love was coming from, even before Tucker gave him a shy smile.

Well. That explained the lingering glances recently.

“You’re telling the truth.” Danny said, smiling at Tucker before he turned to look at Sam. That was a conversation for just the two of them, for when they were alone.

“Told you so,” Tucker and Sam said at the same time, pulling a genuine laugh from him.

Two months ago, Danny had been convinced he’d spend the rest of his life suffering alone, especially after his time with the Guys in White (a story he hadn’t told Sam and Tucker and never planned to). 

For so long, Danny had accepted his existence was to suffer, to be bled and broken and bruised over and over, to serve his penance for opening the portal, alone and in agony until he died again. He’d accepted his friends’ hatred, his family’s disdain for one half of him and their disappointment in the other. He’d decided that while his life wasn’t worth fighting for, everyone else’s was, no one else deserved to die for his mistake.

But as he nonchalantly placed his hand on the bench near Tucker’s and their fingers entwined, as Sam changed topics as though this entire conversation hadn’t been impossible, as he remembered everything his father had done for him… he decided that, maybe, just maybe, he was worth fighting for, too.

[lollytea]

Lolly I recently watched Labyrinth Runners and like. The scene where Willow pulls in Gus and Hunter for a hug. Hunter being uncertain as to what is happening (literally).

And my mind just jumped to the s3 teasers. Where Hunter is becoming more and more comfortable. And I'm just plagued by scenarios where, a Hunter who is overjoyed about something, pulls Willow into a hug out of nowhere. And I'm not sure what is better; an embarrassed Hunter who slowly pulls away, or a Hunter who lets her go and goes on with his day, completely unfazed (and let's not forget about WILLOW- idk where to start with her. but just. yeah.)

The latter would be SO cute like. Imagine they inevitable Horrors that the gang stumble into in season 3.

Due to circumstances the kids end up separated as they're forced to fight their respective battles. By the time the danger has passed and the dust has settled, Willow finds Hunter standing alone and she feels the tears prick her eyes because thank Titan....he's alive. He's battered and bruised but he's alive.

And before Willow knows what's happening she's rushing to him, she's calling out his name. But by the time she finally reaches him, the reality of the situation sinks in. Hunter has turned to meet her eyes and she's just...in awe. He's alive, he's alive, he's alive. She worries if she touches him, she might cry and cry and never stop. So once she's in his orbit, she hesitates. She can barely believe he's standing in front of her. And he's alive.

That's when it happens. Hunter's eyes, gazing at her like she's a fragment of the stars, glint with realization. A glowing grin splits his bloody face, the steel in his shoulders melts and a hoarse exhausted sound, which may have been shredded laughter, is torn from his throat.

And before Willow can process the dilapidated loveliness of him, she has the wind knocked out of her as he bundles her up. She would have nearly toppled backwards if there weren't a pair of arms holding her upright and squeezing her tight.

Hunter is hugging her.

Hunter is hugging her.

And now Willow is hugging him. Now her hands are bunching trembling fists into the fabric of his sweater. Now she's close to sweeping him off his feet. Now everything is going blurry through the glassy sheet of salt water in her eyes.

She's just wiped her vision clean with the heel of her hand when Hunter pulls back. He's still beaming. Though one arm refuses to let her go, he does raise a hand to her face, his breath rattling. Soft feather brushes of fingertips against her cheek, her temple, tucking her sloppy hair behind her ears. Like he's marveling the existence of her standing here all in one piece. Just the way he left her.

I'm alive, She realizes. And she knows they're equally relieved to see each other still breathing.

She's submerged in the comforting cradle of his smile, in the fire of his eyes. So much so that when Hunter inevitably breaks away, still overjoyed, ("Luz! Amity!" He calls as he spots their friends emerging from the distance. They're alive too, Thank Titan.) and hurries over to extend his hugs elsewhere, Willow is still standing in a dazzle where he left her.

He's never hugged her before....

The hours pass. The kids reunite and every single one of them have hugs to go around. Life goes on. They tend to the business that needs to be tended to.

It's not until Hunter's next chance to sleep that it hits him. He's laying peacefully, his breathing beginning to slow, when the memory of sweeping Willow Park up into his arms bobs to the surface of his memory. His eyes snap open. And Titan, he never did figure out how this galdorstone as an organ works but it sure does pound in his chest like the heart of anyone else.

He hugged her...

And she hugged him too....

[sepublic]

Post-Hoot for Edge of the World AND Labyrinth Runners!

-According to Bosook Coburn (face and namesake for Bo), they were sitting on the fact of King being a Titan “for so long” and noticed how people predicted it really early too, and they were just like “…Well COOL, sure… We’re just gonna let that lie… We’re gonna- We will confirm that eventually.” Not to brag, but I was one of those people who guessed it from the very beginning, one of the first...!

-As director of the episode, it was “interesting” because they were still figuring out a lot of the lore (I presume Bo means the animators, not the writers), so there was a lot of working with new material as they were given it. They got to design the Titan Trapper island, the general setting; Bo noted that with this episode and Hollow Mind before, they were getting into “darker territory” and thus needed to “handle it as delicately as possible”. Bo boarded the scene where King hugs Luz’s leg at the end; As she explains, “When moments like that happen, it’s such a rare thing in animation because we have so much that we’re trying to fit in, that it’s hard to get a quiet moment like that, so when you do you just want to milk it, take it for all its worth.”

-King Pecora worked on the parts where they met Tarak, entered the town and saw the different Titan Trappers, as well as the ritual with the Collector.

-Bo thinks they left this episode like over a YEAR ago (This Post-Hoot was released just before O Titan, Where Art Thou).

-Bo met Dana while working on Tangled.

-Rebecca did confirm here that they ARE on King’s dad, the Boiling Isles is his father, without a doubt.

 -Luz Batista (AKA Luz Noceda’s real-world namesake and inspiration) had her first writing credit for Labyrinth Runners. She came onto TOH as a storyboard revisionist, she was a story consultant from the very beginning because of “cultural stuff” and using “references”, just input and background. From there she got to sit in the writer’s room once or twice and was nervous because she was being perceived. She eventually became a story artist and was asked to help write an episode, hence LR.

-Luz (Batista) met Dana at school, they both used to work in “the animation cage”, they would talk about what real life was like, how to prepare themselves for it. Dana would talk to students from other schools, so they can figure out what they’re learning and how this prepares them, only to realize nobody has a goddamn clue.

-Luz Batista was “not gonna say” if the Sailor Moon pose between Amity and Willow was her idea; She legitimately couldn’t remember. According to her, their work on Labyrinth Runners was in November and December of 2020.

-Cissy admits that her superpower is forgetting sessions, because she didn’t remember doing the scene where Lilith kicks the door in and says she came as soon as she heard (in Edge of the World). Similarly, Sarah has issues remembering quotes, and Bo recalls how Dana early on would sometimes ask her if she remembered a thing that would happen; Bo would give a confused no to Dana’s surprise, given it was from Bo’s episode.

-Bo explained that the glowing eyes of Willow and Gus are an “emotional response”, heightened by their emotions. As Luz Batista puts it, “You see how he deals with his anxiety, how in that moment fear, all these projections come out and he’s still not grounded yet, until later when Hunter finally grounds him down.” As someone mercilessly picked on in high school, Cissy identified with Gus’ moments so bigly.

-Bo thinks Alex Hirsch came up with “WEH” for King, “it became something that was so deeply ingrained in King’s character, like we would just add it in wherever we could, in boards, and in the script, and all that stuff,” and that just led to them deciding it was a Titan trait. 

-Cissy admitted she found Bump with his hair out “hot” and Sarah agreed “He was kind of a baddie”, Luz Batista concurred “You gotta love a good adult.” 

-Luz Batista confirmed Boscha wasn’t present because of animation budget, “Not everyone can be on-screen sometimes”. As she continues, “I feel like we’ve had a lot of time with Boscha before, where, it was time to kind of show where- how the other characters interplay with each other and, uh, how she also doesn’t have to dominate a moment.” Sarah adds, “No one needed her negative energy,” which Luz confirms. Cissy does reiterate that it’s really expensive to animate a face, with its blinking eyes and mouth. Bo does love Boscha, her VA Eden Riegel is so funny and sweet, which makes it so surreal to see such meanness come out of her, but that’s also part of the fun for Bo and Sarah too.

-Sarah liked that Willow “owned it,” “she knew she was a badass”. Gus “really sees her”. As Luz Batista explains, “That was something we kept in mind, when writing this episode, how Gus fits into everything, and how he feels, and what his world is like, and it was nice to kind of explore that with him, I really enjoyed Gus.” Sarah agreed, she wanted to know so much more about his illusions and needed that episode. Illusions and Oracle are Luz Batista’s favorite tracks.

-When discussing how it’s difficult to remember and keep track of so many different storylines, Luz ALMOST mentioned a spoiler, but Sarah stopped her in time.

-Luz said she can’t answer if Gus can see the memories of people he casts under his spell; But with Graye’s mirror… (Note: I feel this is relevant with S3 impending and Hunter’s anxiety over being a Grimwalker, when we saw the episode prior how Gus inflicted Belos’ memories on him and possibly got a glimpse of the creation process.)

-Rebecca confirmed, alas, that the Illusion Coven Teacher doesn’t have a name.

-If they had to pick a track; For King Pecora it was beast-keeping, because he likes spiders, and has a spider tattoo on his neck. He has pet tarantulas, Sarah has a sister-in-law who’s also fond of them; This fact has made Sarah rethink her “Everything but beastkeeping” stance. Bo would have a mix between the Plant and Healing covens. She comes from a family of doctors, which is why the character named after her is in the Healing Track. As Bo says “We got to pick our own incidentals’ tracks.” Cissy reiterates “most of the members of the crew have a character that is kind of loosely based on them in the show,” and Bo added “Especially like the people who worked on Season 1, just because that’s when we were in the very beginning of making all these incidental characters.” She said we’ll see more crew incidentals in the future!!!

-Rebecca would go for beastkeeping because animals and creatures are cool, as well as abominations because of what Amity and Darius have recently done. She also considered Oracle, “it’s like ghosts and stuff”.

-Sarah would be a wild witch, she doesn’t have the discipline to choose.

-Luz Batista reiterated her choice of Illusion and Oracle, and would totally go to school first and THEN break away.

-Bo said they’re not allowed to explain how long it takes for a Titan to grow. She also said that they had to fight to keep the scene revealing that King’s siblings had been murdered, as Disney found it too dark. Sarah retorted that she saw the new Doctor Strange that day and doesn’t want to hear anything from Disney, bewildered that “they came for US?!” Bo confirmed that yes, all those skulls belonged to Titan BABIES, the implications of a lot of these episodes are ‘kinda’ dark.

-When asked why the Collector is called the Grand Huntsman by the Titan Trappers, Bo replied “Yeah I think that’s mostly having to do with their lore and how the Collector presented themselves to them, but y’know- A lot of it has to do with Bill, and Bill, y’know…”

-Luz doesn’t want to know Eberwolf’s age and prefers to think of them as some ageless creature. Everyone at the Post-Hoot didn’t know Eberwolf’s pronouns (but we are told by Dana in another Post-Hoot).

-Bo boarded the scene where the EC surrounded the Owl House. She wouldn’t answer if King had a mother. She was on for the entire run of the show, from the first episode to the end of Season 3; Bo started working in 2017, the year before TOH was first announced. According to Bo, it took over four years to make the show. Cissy’s first audition was in 2018, and she only got called back the next year.

-King (Pecora)’s favorite thing that he personally boarded –that he could remember- was the baby King bits; It was one of his first episodes of the show, King boarded the flashback of when Eda found King. He looks really fondly back at the Raine and Eda fight too, as he doesn’t do action really often well; King really likes Raine and Eda. In general, his second-favorite moment of the show was the stuff in Hollow Mind; His favorite overall is in Season 3.

-Bo tends to board a lot of the emotions, one of her favorite scenes she boarded was the scene between Luz and Amity under the Grom tree, when they talk about Luz’s dad; It was a really personal thing they wanted to add in, so Bo was trying to do it justice. She also loved Ben’s boards for the Reaching Out fight montage (Bo explained they don’t know the titles of episodes, just production codes). She let Ben do his thing, and he did what he did best.

-Rebecca’s favorite moments are from Season 3; Bo mentioned their answers would likely be very different if they could mention S3, it was very fresh in their minds according to Sarah. That said, one of her favorite moments was when Luz, Eda, and King are looking at the Boiling Isles as a whole in Episode 2, and Eda explains to Luz how she needs to take her chance to be a chosen one by making it for herself. Bo noted the lesson was a core theme of the show. Rebecca also liked Luz and Amity’s moment in Covention where Luz reveals her light glyph; Bo boarded the cheek kiss from Through the Looking Glass Ruins, and in response to Rebecca’s confirmation of this, changed her answer to include that moment.

-Luz (Batista) confirmed that “Batata” (sweet potato) was not her idea; In fact, she didn’t know what batata was, because she’d never asked for sweet potatoes in Spanish before. Sarah also didn’t recognize the word. Luz Batista also has favorite moments from S3.

-Rebecca liked Hollow Mind, liked how the Grom tree went full circle in Reaching Out.

-Sarah liked the flashbacks and soft Eda moments of Eda’s Requiem, such as when King announced his Clawthorne adoption. She loved all of Vee’s stuff and her scenes of being out in the world and making friends. Sarah loved the “not-literal” reflection idea, Luz hyping up the human world as the worst, only for Vee to be so happy. She also liked when Camila asked if Luz’s life was so bad here, as it “exposed so many flaws”. Bo boarded that ending scene; Sarah “secretly, selfishly” loves it because it was so sad. She was very excited for Yesterday’s Lie when reading it.

-Bo said Yesterday’s Lie was the first episode they did in quarantine

-Bo said she feels Camila gets a bad rep, she loves Camila so much. “It is one of those things of like yeah we’re mostly following Eda and a few adults, but we really are in the perspective of these young adolescents, so then kind of getting the outside view of like, ‘Oh, how would an adult in our realm actually react to this’, and it was difficult. This prompted Cissy to mention the scene where Eda breaks down in Edge of the World over how Luz and King are just children; Dawn boarded that scene. As Cissy describes it, Eda looked at Lilith and looked so much like a child and she reacted “Oh, baby!”; Bo notes that Eda “IS the younger sister, she’s looking to her older sister for some comfort.”

-Luz Batista’s favorite moment of working on the show was Labyrinth Runners, it’s the happiest moment of her career so far; Boarding AND writing for an episode. She loved seeing the soft side of Hunter. Sarah praised the episode, “I liked seeing them all outside of Luz’s perspective right, because like there’s that sidekick vibe that you can be like ‘What are they really all like’, and I just feel like, we just get such round, like full characters out of all of them, and we just got so much more out of Gus especially, because he’s been Old Faithful, he’s always been there,” Cissy added “there with a joke and like, the Good Old Boi, and to have him really bare his soul was just gorgeous.”

-Bo: “I think genuinely Gus is the person who understands each of them the most”, Luz: “He’s emotionally very present, and keeping up with everyone and noticing, and aware”. Luz Batista wanted to see people talk about their feelings, she makes her friends do it all the time.

-Sarah: “That’s my mark of a true friend, if we can fight about it. Because if we can’t fight, we don’t care enough, if we can really fight –and not like a nasty way, right, I mean sometimes fights get ugly-  but like yeah, if you can say ‘What was THAT’ like y’know”

-Bo: “Like you care enough to communicate, because like if you didn’t care you would just like, let it go”

-Sarah: “You have to be able to fight and be like ‘Oh you know what, I’m sorry actually’, when [Hunter] said that ‘I was horrible and I shouldn’t have done that’ it was really beautiful.”

-Sarah said god bless Hunter for finding the wherewithal to be a good friend, because he’s had NO modeling for that, no good relationships for that. Luz Batista added how it was without Luz’s help at the moment as well, “Luz is such a catalyst for everyone to change, where, these people all existed before she got there, you know and, they got around, they made friends, so this is nice that he’s able to find a community to kind of feel safe in.” Sarah liked to see Hunter get his strength back for a moment when he called out Severine as a fake Willow.

-Luz Batista boarded the bit where Hunter and Gus just sit down and talk, the intro of Labyrinth Runners, “Aah my head”, and the counting scene (Batista has to do the counting herself at times).

-Batista discussed how it was an important skill to learn to open up about feelings, not everyone has a Gus around the corner; A lot of people are like Amity with repressed feelings, Bo adds. Sarah quoted Shrek’s onion quote when mentioning how she thinks that a lot of people don’t really know that they’re repressing; A friend can help people realize those feelings.

-Luz Batista is working on Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur!

-This fact is self-indulgent for me, but on the day of this Post-Hoot the Evil Dead game came out, which is a dream come true for Cissy; Army of Darkness is one of her favorite movies, so to be a part of that game and universe is heaven for her.

[starags]

I’m still mad at Disney for cancelling full version of 3rd season of TOH,  so here is the list of things I would love to see in it:

Confrontation between Luz and Camila, when they talk about the promise that Camila made Luz to swear on. I want to see how Camila has flashbacks where she compares Luz before and after Boiling Islands, and how she notices that Luz is happier now. I want some good mama Camila moment, when she apologizes to Luz.Some Camila and kids moments. How she is a mother that none of them had. Gus and Willow only have dads, no mother figures in sight, Amity’s mother is Odalia (no further explanation needed). And Hunter is parentless, but with huge amount of trauma. I need bonding moments.

Beach episode. Where everyone is happy. Like seriously – no trauma, no plot, nothing at all. Just shenanigans. One light episode before catastrophe.

Episode where Hexsquad figures out that Camila may have problem with feeding so many people, so they find themselves a job. Then they attribute the weirdness of their boss to them being human. Finally, they find out that he is no good man and took him down.

Meanwhile Luz and Vee are bonding. (Could be shown as two episodes, first with bonding, when sisters meet rest of the gang and are like ‘what the fork happened to you?’ and the next episode is retelling from their perspective)

Luz meets Vee friends, but they didn’t know about… well anything. So Luz is trying to act as Vee acting as Luz. But with turn of events, possibly with Scooby-Doo monster hunting, they find out about Luz and Vee. At the end they stay friends with Vee and create detective agency specializing in catching monsters.

Gus and Hunter find Cosmic Frontier earlier. Camila tries to keep a straight face and show that she doesn't mind at all when they misspell the characters' names or when they talk about theories related to them. (She fails.)

Kids learn to play baseball. They want to win, so they end up using some small magic tricks. Jacob is constantly trying to out them, but ultimately fails and lose his job as museum curator.

Whole episode form Boing Islands perspective. Maybe some Eda talking to puppet Raine moments. Or why Eda and Lilith cut their hairs. Or about Lilith getting her beast form. Or some King and Collector moments. (But they are ominous as heck, because it’s too early to sympathize with Collector.)  

So many questions! So many potential answers! 

[gotmilk5101520]

The Owl House Season 3 Intro Analysis and Headcanons

We all know the intro. And we all can assume that they were episodes for season 3 but Dickney decided to be their usual homophobic selves and canceled it.

But honestly the more I watch the intro, the more I begin to get an idea on what they could've been about if they were episodes. And that's how this post came to be.

Note: These are just my headcanons don't take them as facts. If you like them and want to expand them, then by all means do it.

Let's start with the beginning. We see Luz and everyone return to the shack but they're still in their season 2 finale clothes and still injured from Belos.

Before the intro we got a continuation of the end of King's Tide with Luz reuniting with her mom, Luz and Hunter's talk, Camila giving them a place to rest and everyone settling down.

If this was a full season 3 then all of this would've been the first episode. We see later that they cleaned up the shack. Maybe the rest of the episode would be cleaning up the shack and begin to think on how to get back.

Note: There will be mentions of homophobia, fatphobia, racism, and sexism.

Here we see Luz revealing herself as bi to her mom and she's happy about it.

Here's what I think the episode could've been about. Luz realize she hasn't told her mom that Amity is her girlfriend or that she's bi. The bi part confuses everyone so Luz explains sexuality to them. After the explanation everyone begins to wonder why these titles don't exist in the Boiling Isles, and going as far as saying they sound cool.

Everyone goes out to help Luz figure out a way to tell Camila about her. They even find pins and other stuff about sexuality while helping Luz. But along the way they meet someone spouting bigotry at them. They're being homophobic to Amity, fatphobic to Willow, racist to Gus, and tries to tell Hunter sexist things like how he shouldn't be taking orders from a woman. This gets them angry and do they get back at them or not? I'll leave that to you.

Luz explains bigotry to them and its cruelty. This shocks them cause none of this exists in the Boiling Isles. This is why Luz is afraid to tell her mom about her and Amity thinking she won't accept it. But I can see Vee being the one to tell Luz that Camila will accept her and that if she didn't, then Vee wouldn't be here today.

The next day is when the scene happens. They make it a slideshow, Camila is very proud of her daughter, and Hunter thinks what Gus is doing is a bit much, but it's a happy ending.

I can see this be a serious episode that deals with bigotry and coming out.

Here I can see this episode being about them making a door to the Demon Realm.

I can also see this being in the episode as well. Is this before or after Hunter gets his hair cut is up to you. Honestly this is all I can think about for this section.

Here we have everyone getting new outfits and Vee changing her appearance.

I can see this being episode 2 in season 3 and the main focus is just exploring Gravesfield, shopping for new clothes, trying new food and all that.

Here is Hunter's haircut. Rip the worm.

Hunter wakes up and finds his hair getting longer. Everyone sees Hunter's long hair and ask him if he wants it cut. But Hunter turns them down saying it's fine. Luz, however asks Hunter if his long hair is a Grimwalker thing. I have an idea for a subplot for the episode. Luz and Amity go on that mundane, slice of life date.

Everyone are board so Vee convinces them to go out into town. During their walk Hunter sees the statue of Caleb and Philip and stays there for a while (Willow Gus and Vee go to get something to eat) Hunter meets someone who explains who the two are, and how they founded the town. Hunter learns who he is a clone of. And he even recognizes the name Caleb.

There's also this thing going on where every time Hunter's reflection is shown it changes to either Caleb or Belos. Hunter doesn't see them, but he always stops to look at his reflection. When they go to a store Hunter's reflection changes to his Golden Guard persona. Hunter stares at his reflection for while, when a hand reaches towards him. However the reflection makes it look like it's Belos hand. When the hand touches his shoulder, Hunter begins to panics. He looks and sees it was Willow. She asks if he's feeling ok, and Hunter lies to her saying he's fine and she startled him.

Hunter finds The Witch Hunters of Gravesfield and buys it. He buys another book to trick everyone. Later that night Hunter takes out the book, looks at the mirror, sees his reflection change from Caleb to Belos, panics and begins to cut his hair. Then Willow walks in and cuts it for him and they have a heartfelt, yet bittersweet moment.

But at the end of the episode we see Belos goo.

Here I can see this being a cooking episode.

Really grateful to Luz and Camila, Amity Willow Gus and Hunter decides to bake a cake for them. But neither of them know anything about human ingredients that it fails. Vee tries it, and pretends to like it.

Hence Vee warning them about it. They do be honest and tells them it's not good, but Camila is more then happy to teach them how to cook.

And the episode ends with everyone learning how to cook.

The rain scene is an interesting one.

What happens in this one is that I think this would've served as a recap episode. Just Luz and everyone looking back on everything that happened in all 3 seasons.

Then they noticed it's raining outside and they begin to play. But as it's raining, Belos is watching.

This can be the last episode before the hiatus begins and the events of Thanks to Them can serve as the first two episodes in the second half.

Going by this, it makes 7 episodes. The hiatus seems to start after the tenth episode, so what could the other three episodes have been about?

Beats me. But I can see an episode focused on the Boiling Isles, similar to what Amphibia did with showing Sasha and Marcy after True Colors, showing Eda and everyone after the Day of Unity and what they will do to survive and we can also see what King's up to and hint on what The Owl House is.

Okay now I'm done with the speculation let me know what you think. Do you think this is what could've happened if Dana and the crew were allowed a full third season? Do you have a different interpretation on the intro, and what could've happened? Let me know.

Reblog and leave a comment (Cause Likes are useless)

[lampmanliveblogs]

It’s not magical TV, but I guess this is better than nothing.

Also, Eda has social media. Do you think she'd like tumblr? I think she could be a decent enough shitposter.

Hey Amity, long time no see. Hey, you wouldn’t feel like being in another episode soon where you and Luz figure out your relationship… no? Alright, just checking.

Now wait just a dang minute.

This fella sure has a skull for a head, with yellow eyes, fangs and horns similar to King’s, but longer. A replay of the scene also reveals this figure has claw fingers similar to King’s. This person is also furry and has a tail like King, but with what looks like a beard… and wings on the back?

So… is this King’s dad?? I… I feel like that revelation would garner a little more fanfare. Maybe it’s a relative? Someone from the same species? Whoever it is, it seems like they recognize the symbol from the tower.

There is a wagon in the background, implying this person moves around. Potentially in hiding from some enemy that forced them to leave their home island like I’ve speculated in the past?

Gosh dang it to the heck. I had a feeling, a teeny creeping feeling before that the ”King is gonna leave to look for his father” might be a fake out. Not only was it a fake out, but it was a stinkin’ adorable fake out too!

But yeah, this is what I was talking about before. Eda raised King and she is his family as much his father is… if not more, depending on how exactly you define family.

Ok, never mind, D’Arius is not all about that emotional growth like I joked before. He’d much rather torture Raine.

Hey, look, Raine’s hanging upside down… like a BAtT!

Uh-oh.

That… can not be a good thing. Not at all.

So Belos needs Raine for the Day of Unity, It is implied that he could find a replacement, but that it’d be too much of a hassle, so he’ll just force them to cooperate.

It also looks like I was right to suspect the Coven Brands. We already knew they could seal away a witch’s ability to cast any magic outside their chose Coven, but they can apparently also do… whatever this is. So it’s really not a far stretch to imagine they can also be used to drain magic from witches when the day comes to unite the Human and Demon Realms.

And that was episode seven!

I did my usual rewatch and here are some things I didn’t notice the first time or forgot to talk about.

•Katya was, of course, one of the prisoners in the Conformitorium that Luz freed in the first episode of season one. But in the scene on the town square where the BAtTs make their first appearance, Tiny Nose and the guy who likes to swallow his own eyeballs, the two other prisoners that Luz freed also make cameos.

•Speaking of the scene in the town square, what happened to the purple-haired wild witch the empire goons were trying to arrest? She’s there in one shot and in the next she’s just… gone.

•I didn’t comment on it, and it was a good thing because it would’ve been half the liveblog, but there was a lot of blushing going on between Eda and Raine.

•Willow was hanging out with her new palisman friend.

I really liked this episode. The stand out moments to me were probably Eda & Raine duetting Eda’s Requiem. That was a great moment in animation, music and story. but the episode was great overall. I enjoyed exploring some of Eda’s maternal feelings towards King & Luz and I hope we get to see more of that in future episodes. Speaking of things I hope to see in future episodes, I sincerely hope Raine make their return soon, because I wanna see where the implied romance between them and Eda goes. King changing his name was also a great cute moment.

I also liked that we finally got to see some bard magic. It’s cool. Oh, and we got some proper introductions to Eberwolf and Darius and some showcasing of what they’re capable of. What was that thing I said about how the heroes were gonna have to fight them?

I feel like there is more to be said about family and parenthood but that I lack the ability to express. I hope I did a good enough job.

Next up we have episode eight. I’ll get to it when I get to it. Until then, take care of the planet Earth and remember that anything can happen in space!

<--Previous Episode: Hunting Palismen

Masterlist

Next Episode: Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door-->

[avese23]

//toh spoilers

CRYING

Literally grew up with Luz what the fuck

Everyone looks so gay

Darius dad figure confirmed!!

Omg Darius and the Blight dad 😳

How do they keep delivering

Blue bird <3

I need all the fanfiction please and thank you

OHMYGOD

and the morals!!!!

The collector was never a new big bad

And that sequence where the collector keeps trying to win at games and gets frustrated and you can tell the issue is that it’s a fight and they’re getting frustrated

And the conflict resolution

Cuz they’re just a kid

A really fucked up godly child

But just a kid

The pacing is so good on that end even with limitations

Kind of wanna cosplay them cuz the makeup look

Kings dad 😭😭😭

The journey of Luz’s magic omgg

Luz gets to keep both parts of her family 🫂

AMITYS HAIR WTF 😳

I want Gus’s hair highkey

I stole Sonja’s haircut and everytime I get braids I get closer to saying fuck it and starting dreads dear lord

They get to stomp on Belos hell to the yes

Skulls are so cool

Ooo I want to paint king

Bruh king as a teenager is giving Chameleon vibes

Awkward middle stage

But wholesome

FINALLY Raine gets to be happy

I was scared they were gonna die

They go through so much dear lord

Them and Hunter through the ringer dear lord

Dana why

They did a good main character revival plot

I know it’s a trope but it’s a good one

Cuz it’s about how they change!! Their arc!

It’s not about being a plot device it’s a character device

I have a friend who likes the trope a lot and we were talking about it before this episode came out so it felt special

Bruh the conversation about Belos between Luz and the titan

Reminded me of the conversation in TLOU where Ellie asks a question and Joel is like “no, {adult wisdom about trauma}” no spoilies, it’s near the end, you know the one 🦒.

Anywho I like those kinds of moments because it shows how young the protagonist is but doesn’t take agency away and it feels very genuine

Also bruh the symbolism of Luz and Belos as the two main humans in this story. But Luz came to the Isles as an immigrant and Belos as a colonizer. And Luz learning over the course of the show that that makes them very different things and not to feel shame in association to him. They are not the same. Stomp on that skull!

Bruh the Titan gave off Technodad vibes. Can’t proper explain it but he did 🫶🏽

So much exciting happened but again what got me was the ending. Like the end credits voice over with music shit. And right before that. Just. She’s going to wizard university. She’s grown up srygghjggh

We fucking came of age together what the fuck I’m not okay

@decentturtles help 😭

How can I do environmental science hw in this economy

Edit: and the way the show makes dance fighting delightful! Casting as a team is joyous even in danger

It’s like that here and it was like that for Grom 🫶🏽

[averygayperson]

Secrets (lumity x grimwalker!reader) *fluff/angst*

Requested: no

Warnings: belos (yes he needs a warning) very small mention of death

Summary: Luz and you have been hiding a secret from your loving girlfriend amity,just how long can you keep it hidden?

---

"Hey,Y/n. You alright?" Luz's voice seemed to make you snap back into reality as you looked away from the dirty stained window and towards her. You brushed the loose strand of hair from your face and nodded slowly.

"Yeah..i'm okay." Luz furrowed her eyebrows for just a moment before shrugging,it was clear that she didn't believe you but she's respectful enough not to pry. "Well,i just wanted to check on you because you've been in this shed for a while." She muttered,with a slight chuckle in her voice.

You blinked,really? Just how long have you been thinking about the impossible? You really need to get that habit under control.

"Don't worry luz,i'm fine." You answered,trying to give her the best convincing smile you could. Luz nodded and turned around to leave,you bit your lip as you watched her. The door was close to shutting before you called out.

"A-Actually,luz?" Luz turned around and opened the door so she could see you clearly,"Yes Mi amor?" She answered, concerns written over her face. You swallowed the lump that's been in your throat this whole time.

"I-uh.." You hugged yourself as you looked at the ground almost shamefully. "I want to talk.."

Luz raised an eyebrow."About what?" Her voice was so quiet and serious,anybody would have that tone of voice if they were told from their partner that they need to talk.

"..." You looked around before beckoning for her to come inside. She followed and made her way over to you.

"..It's about..what happened in belos's mind." You looked at her with creased eyebrows,"You know..grimwalker?"

Luz spoke,"Yeah? What about it? Is it bothering you?"

"Well,no but yes at the same time." You said,trying to figure out how to put your thoughts into words. "I just want to talk about the secret...i don't think it's going to work out anymore." You finally said,shutting your eyes tight in case she had a terrible outburst.

"Ah,okay..may i ask why?" It shocked you,how could she be so calm? You just said you wanted to reveal the largest secret. You rubbed your cheek as you began to sweat,the sweat sliding down the ragged scar on your cheek.

"Well um..I don't think it's a good idea to hide it. I mean,it's about amity. I don't think she'll react lightly to it." Luz nodded in understanding,"i agree. She'd be crushed if we didn't tell her."

"Okay..well how should we tell her? Do you just straight up go to her?"

"No,that would be coming off too strongly. We need to think this through." Luz's voice echoed. You and luz stood there for a moment brainstorming ideas on how to tell amity the big news.

"...What do you guys need to tell me?" You and luz froze and stood rigid at the sound of amity's voice,the both of you turned around to see her at the front door,with a worried expression.

"Is everything alright?" She asked again,walking towards you two. Luz was quick to react since you were frozen stiff with shock.

"S-Sweet potato!" Luz wrapped an arm around amity's shoulder and redirected her towards the door,"There's nothing to worry about! we're just...talking about.." Luz looked back at you for help,you stared before snapping out of it.

"We were talking about...."You looked around the room before picking up a pen. "..This pen! man,this is a really cool pen!" You chuckled nervously as you pressed the bottom of the pen which caused the tip to come out.

Luz stared at you with a deadpan before whipping her around back towards amity. "S-See?! Everything is okay!"

Amity shoved luz's arm off of her shoulder and backed up as she looked at the both of you with a worried face,"No! Don't lie to me! You guys have been acting weird ever since the collector thing!" She hugged herself and you and luz looked at each other.

"You're more distant,you guys talk a lot more to each other. I just want to say it's me being clingy but..it's been happening more and more." She looked up from the ground and looked at you two as tears pricked her eyes.

"Are..you guys breaking up with me?"

Your and luz's eyes widened,"Break up with you!?" You shouted as luz stepped forward,holding amity close. "We would never mi amor! We love you so much to let you go!" You joined in on the hug.

"If anything we'd be afraid if you broke up with us." You added,placing your head onto amity's shoulder. She wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at both of you.

"You're right..i guess that was just my anxiety talking." You placed a hand onto her shoulder before giving her a small peck,"Hey..it happens to the best of us." Luz nodded at your words with a smile before going serious again.

"But we do need to talk about something.." She looked at you along with amity,You looked between them before sighing with a sad look. "Amity i..I'm a grimwalker."

Amity raised an eyebrow at your comment."Grimwalker? What is that?" You rubbed the back of your head with a crooked smile.

"Well...to put it simply,i'm a clone of a dead guy." You muttered,waiting for her reaction. She stared at you blankly before she started to laugh.

You and luz looked at each other for the second time today and waited until she stopped laughing.

"That's what you were so worried about to tell me?" She snickered. "Love,i don't care if you're a clone of a dead guy. It's not gonna make me see you as less."

You smiled,"Well that's comforting but it's deeper than that."

"Then explain."

"Well..i'm a clone of belo's brother..Caleb i believe his name was." You explained,"I found it out after..sort of..entering his mind?" You chuckled sheepishly as amity allowed it to sink in.

"You..went..WHERE!?" She shouted worriedly,"You went into THE mind of belos?"

Luz grabbed amity's shoulder,"Sweet potato we're fine! We didn't die!"

"But you could've!" She sighed before rubbing her temples,"I need to calm down. You're here now so i don't have to worry about it.." She glared at the both of you.

"But try anything like that again and i'll kill both of you!"

Both of you sweatdropped. "Yes Ma'am."

From that point on all of you made sure not to hide anymore things from each other.

----

[sora-has-no-vore-on-this-blog]

Story is under the cut so no normies will be scarred!

Amitie couldn't figure out exactly why Sig was behaving the way he was. Biting her hair gently, licking her newly dark orange-patched skin wherever it might be exposed, drooling sometimes when she was close... She was so confused.

She had ended up more nervous than she could've imagined after interrupting Risukuma's experiment. Her newfound powers reacted with the things he was using, causing everything to go horribly wrong and shrinking her to doll size. She was terrified of the possibilities, so she hid in an abandoned corner of the Magic School, hoping not to be found.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen, and she ended up being spotted by a curious explorer of the school. Fortunately, it was far from the last person she wanted to see. Those distinctly mismatched eyes told her exactly what she needed to know. It was her best friend Sig, and thank goodness it was someone so harmless. (Well, he could do a lot of harm if he wanted, but that was quite rare.)

He lifted her up to his face, taking care to be gentle, and tilted his head. "Amitie...?"

"...y-yeah, it's me," she muttered, not knowing what to say. Sig tilted his head, clearly confused and curious. He was also silent, simply holding the doll-sized girl against him. "Hey, don't tell a soul I'm like this, okay?" she finally said.

He nodded, opening his bag and placing Amitie inside. "You can hide here," he whispered. "But I gotta get to class quick, so hold on." And in a few seconds, Sig had closed his bag and begun dashing off to class.

"Sig, please try to get here on time next time." "M'sorry, Ms. Accord."

Sig took his seat, placing his bag in his lap. Amitie curled up, quite dizzy after being tossed around while Sig was running. Her head was still pounding. Perhaps it would be nice to take a nap. She began to drift, just barely hearing Sig's excuse for her absence before falling asleep to the sounds of his body at work...

She woke up in Sig's arms, cradled gently against his shoulder. He had a slightly worried look on his face. She could hear the sound of his loudly rumbling tummy, which was strange, because according to a clock she could barely read in the darkness, lunchtime was nearly over. Shouldn't he have eaten already?

He lifted her to his face and muttered, "Listen, don't tell anyone about what I'm gonna do here, okay?" She nodded, a little nervous, and he opened his mouth to reveal a set of fangs sharper than a knife. Then he did something that sent a jolt down her spine- he took her inside his mouth, headfirst. Tasting her body ever-so-delicately, and yet making her feel so uneasy...

She kicked her feet around, attempting to escape, but it was useless. Sig pushed her inside, her head now resting at the at the back of his throat, and she clutched her Puyo hat as he took the first swallow. No matter how hard she tried not to focus on her situation, it was everywhere around her, the tight passage of his esophagus threatening to crush the air from her lungs.

She squeezed her eyes shut as she approached the end, gasping for air as she was pushed out into a slightly more open space. A soft cyan glow from rippling walls filled her vision when she looked again, accompanied by the rather disgusting sight of chewed-up bits of rice and nori. She couldn't believe it. She was in Sig's stomach. He'd actually eaten her.

"I'm really sorry for that," he said quietly, his voice reverberating around her, "but you looked so delicious... I couldn't restrain myself any longer..." She started shaking, though unable to place why, and that's when she realized something. Although her hands were completely immersed in the juices, she didn't feel any pain aside from the lingering soreness from the passage. She saw a golden glow surrounding her. Were her powers protecting her from harm?

She wasn't entirely sure about it at first, but gently, Amitie reached towards the wall and ran her hand across it. Sig let out a small gasp, and soon began to purr as he rubbed back. "Forgive me for this, but I think I'll keep you in there for a bit," he whispered. "Don't want people discovering your state and all that."

Amitie could attest to that. With a small giggle, she closed her eyes to get some rest. The soft, satisfied growls the stomach around her gave off, a pounding heartbeat and steady breaths from above... She'd heard it before, but it was somehow even more relaxing from inside his body. Smiling, she let the harmony of life lull her to sleep.

[wdwashere]

Just two besties who bond over the same crush (they're also lowkey crushing on each other)

[melancholicmarionette]

Sam Manson pops outta the damn wilderness: part deux (titles are expensive I am poor)

TW: profanity, injury mentions, proofreading done on a Southwest Airlines flight (none)

Prev | Next

*

“What the hell happened to you?”

Paulina was the one who asked, but it was Star who actually got Manson to sit down, sideways on the back driver’s side seat, the ceiling light illuminating dark hair sticky with blood and her badly bruised left eye.

“They have the boys,” she finally muttered. “I need to—I need to think.”

“The boys?” Paulina asked.

“My boys, you know them,” she said, and it clicked. Fenton and Foley. “I have to go back but I need…help.”

“You need to go to the hospital,” Star said seriously.

“No!” Manson said, and Star flinched. “I don’t have time.”

Paulina took in Manson’s appearance in full when the latter was finally still—her face was scratched up, her left eye swelling as Star waved her index finger back and forth in front of Manson’s eyes asking her to follow it (her Red Cross first aid certificate was well-earned, honestly). She wasn’t as elaborately dressed in her weird goth getup, she had on torn black jeans and a Dumpty Humpty shirt covered by a dark blue flannel button-up Paulina was sure she had seen Fenton wear before. Her left hand seemed to be neatly wrapped in gauze, which struck Paulina as odd given…well, the state of the rest of her.

“Seriously, you lose a fight with a bear?” She asked. Manson sighed, like it wasn’t a totally valid question. One of the most valid questions on earth, really.

“No, I—“ she sat up straight suddenly, turning her head towards the woods that the side of the road trailed into after a few feet. She stood up when she realized her view was blocked by the car, so stiff it was like she didn’t breathe. “We need to leave.”

Paulina just looked at Star, confused. The “we” certainly wasn’t a question—high school politics, while important, weren’t a good enough reason to leave Manson on the side of the road. But her suddenly resembling a startled rabbit was definitely worrying. Paulina took a chance, following Manson’s gaze, and a flash flickered from between the trees, followed by another, bouncing unevenly in the air. Flashlights.

“Manson…” Paulina said, her voice hushed, “who’s that?”

“I’ll—I promise I’ll tell you, but we need to go, now.”

Normally, the mere idea of taking orders from Manson would make Paulina break out in hives. But the goth seemed tense and even afraid, neither of which normally applied to her. Her thoughts only lingered on it for a second.

“Get in the car,” she told Star, who obeyed, and with the spam of two doors and the press of a button they were off before the owners of the flashlights exited the woods. She’d never made the tires squeal before—it was kind of exhilarating.

“Manson, are we running from the government or something?” Paulina asked. It was the only situation she could think of, though it didn’t make sense. As far as she knew Manson only ever got caught for vandalism in sophomore year and got a slap on the wrist.

But Manson didn’t answer.

“That was a joke guess!” She smacked the steering wheel to illustrate the point.

“I don’t know what you want me to say!”

“That I’m not harboring a fucking fugitive!”

“I…hrm,” Manson groaned. Paulina imagined her face in her hands, though she couldn’t turn to look. The lights of Amity Park’s city limits were in view, and as far as she could tell they weren’t being followed. “I don’t…know how to explain.”

“Lina, I think she has a concussion,” Star told her when she could see Paulina’s grip on the steering wheel tighten. “We really need to take her to the—“

“If you take me to the hospital I will tuck and roll out of this car,” Manson said sharply. “I need to get to Jazz Fenton, she lives downtown—you know if you just get me into the general area I can like—I could figure it out…”

Paulina knew the tone, she’d taken it many times herself—it was that of a person trying to convince the people around them that they had a plan, but they themselves didn’t believe it.

“We’re not leaving you on the street at…” Paulina looked at the clock on the dashboard, “midnight. Do you know Jazz’s address?”

“Ah…in my phone.”

“…You don’t have your phone, do you?”

“I do not.”

“Does The Government have your phone?”

“I am not at liberty to say.”

“Manson…” Paulina griped, and she just let it hang in the air. Now she was just fucking with her.

“Let’s go to my house,” Star said, “my first aid kit’s there and my mom isn’t.”

Paulina, at this point, was resigned, and it seemed that Manson was as well. Shaking her head, she muttered “insane, absolutely insane” as she turned down Star’s street.

She was going to regret this, wasn’t she?

—

Got some Sam POV in the works dw