#yeah that's just his. that's his actual costume mask. i promise i have cooler ones but he's old and stupid and yeah <3

[catmansquad]

Special (2)

An irritating Spider-woman leaves you on edge, fortunately, the man you love can make you feel all better...

(Miguel O'Hara x M!Reader) (Pokes M!Reader tag. "C'mon... Do something...")

‘What’s up Spider-fans! It’s Spider-Selene here once again! There’s a whole lot of you who’ve been sliding into my DMs about seeing Across the Spider-Verse. Well, guess who’s gotten her own special invite? That’s right; I’m in Spider Society!’

She held up her phone, still recording as her other hand held up the silver-white bracelet that swirled with a soft neon blue light. ‘For those who don’t know me-? Seriously, how can you not? Well, let’s take it from the top; I was bitten by some radioactive guy in a spider costume- some sort of Halloween party at a power plant gone wrong-, and since then I’ve been the one and only Spider-Selene; half-spider, half-witch, and full on badass! Fighting crime and saving the world with kickass acrobatics, pure love, and white light magic! Well, I’m already in good; got some tight-knit friends… Uh… Like Ben! Hey, Ben! How’re you doing big guy? Just telling all my fans about how I’m-!’ ‘… Friends…?’ Ben hung his head, face vanishing beneath his messy dyed locks, voice low. ‘… My life truly can spiral into darker depths.’ Spider-Selene blinked, a little nervous laugh escaped her before she swiftly turned on her heels, panning her phone away from him. ‘Yeah, he’s just being himself- we’re really actually good friends, like… Uh… Like me, Jess and Peter! Heyy!’ She waved them down, watching the two in particular pause in their conversation and look to her. ‘Hey! I’m just telling all my fans about us, want to tell them about-‘ ‘Actually, Peter, I really need to get back home… We’ll catch up later, yeah?’ Jessica gave him a soft, fond smile, that Peter matched and quickly strode off. As soon as Spider-Selene’s masked face snapped to Peter, he shrugged with an apologetic smile. ‘Yeah… Sorry, I’d love to stick about and chat, but I promised I’d look after Mayday tonight; MJ’s having a girl’s night out. See you later!’ With a “thwip” of webbing he was off, leaving Spider-Selene staring at the empty space they had once been.

‘So, you know the difference between the movie and the actual Spider-Society? Well, the bracelets are different, for one… But the really bad thing is… Well…’ She panned the camera, over to where two figures lurked by a futuristic water cooler; tall and powerfully built, a man clad in the venom green suit of a scorpion with his tail lazily curled on the floor, and a man in green and purple carrying a fishbowl helmet under one arm. ‘… Last world I explored? Literally built in the skies; farmlands, windmills, quaint little towns. Local population had wings.’ Mysterio gestured calmly the glint of a fond smile on his face. ‘Why do you get lucky? Mine was a swamp where the trees would try to strangle you with their roots.’ She returned the camera back to herself. ‘See? Literal. Villains. Just walking about with travel bracelets on. In Spider. Society. I… I mean, Mysterio’s kinda hot though, but the point still stands! It’s for Spider-People!’ ‘What did she say?’ She froze up, slowly looking back to where the pair stared at her. Scorpion’s expression narrowed further, his tail lifting from the floor. ‘M-Mac, don’t get carried away now.’ ‘Listen, you entitled little s-‘ ‘Mac.’ Mysterio’s hand on his shoulder seemed to calm whatever rage was building. ‘Look.. Spider-whatever… This place is for all of us to explore and chart the dazzling expanse of the multiverse. Perhaps no-one explained it to you- perhaps you just didn’t want to listen- but me and Mac? In our worlds, we’re the heroes. Don’t take Mac too harshly, he’s had it rough; his local Spider-woman is a terrible villain.’ A look of concern crossed his charming features as he glanced over her shoulder. ‘Perhaps it’s not any particular heroes or villains you should be worried about….’

She turned on her heels, and hurriedly tried to shove her phone back into its pocket. In a sleek black suit, you approached, peering from behind neon blue glasses, the scroll of data running across the lenses. ‘You.’ You paused before her, hands behind your back. ‘Spider-Selene.’ She corrected you, and you shook your head. ‘Lyla, pull her profile, please.’ The scroll of data stopped as you surveyed what had been brought up. ‘Hanna, please come to my office at your earliest convenience; you and I are going to have a little talk.’ She cringed softly at the mention of her name, like a scolded child who knew she had been caught out by a teacher. Finally, she hung her head, all confidence fled. ‘Yes, sir…’

You relaxed back into the chair of your office; its soft cream walls, shelves lined with tokens from other worlds, and the sleek desk with its hardlight screen scrolling the data that passed through the building. Sighing you, pulled the glasses from your eyes and set them aside, blinking at the world as it truly was.  It was fascinating, just how easily you had slipped into this life, this job, in another world and time altogether. Your eyes glanced at the bracelet on your left wrist, the silver-white sparkling in the light, the engraving of a many-branching tree visible upon its surface. Gabriel had a wonderful sense of style for designing their aesthetics. How different your life had become solely because of one extraordinary, wonderful man… The soft knock on the door, the door with that bore your nameplate and title beside it; “Head of HR”. Lyla’s hologram flitted into being on your desk. ‘Got Spider-Selene, here for your chewing out.’ You sighed and sat up straight, feet flat on the floor and pulled the chair closer to the desk, trying to look professional. ‘Let her in, please.’

She slinked across the threshold as the door slid open, hands clasped nervously as she waited for your judgement. ‘Sit down.’ The chair opposite creaked as she did as ordered. You waited for a time before clearing your throat softly. ‘Since it’s nearly lunchtime, I’ll make this brief as I’m sure we’re both hungry…’ You closed down the screen and leaned on your elbows across the desk, no barriers between your eyes. ‘Hanna, I’ve been receiving some...  complaints about you, recently. I know you’ve only been here a month and you might need time to settle in, but the frequency has quickly become… worrying. I deal with Spider-People relatively frequently, some are worse joke tellers than others…’ Realising you were beginning to drift off-topic you cleared your throat softly. ‘These complaints state that you have been… Irritating, unprofessional, and intrusive. Invading private conversations, recording and photographing without permission, and conducting yourself inappropriately in a manner that could be construed as sexual harassment.’ You watched the eyes of her mask grow wide, and you resisted the urge to grit your teeth at the last one. Needless to say, that Miguel certainly didn’t appreciate having his ass groped by yet another Spider-woman who thought he was the hottest thing since fire. ‘N-no! I’m not intrusive! I’m a superhero! I’m a good person!’ ‘We’ve also had complaints about… junk being left around the premises by you.’ ‘No! No, those are crystals and blessing bags! They’re to promote good energy and fill the space with white light… Y’know… cause I’m half-witch.’ ‘Riiight…’ You rolled the word, tone dry, you wished you had a drink beside you, something to stretch out the awkward silence.

‘I don’t know why we have villains just roaming the premises, I mean, surely for Spider-Society they should be sent back to their own worlds, it might damage the Ca-‘ You slammed a hand onto your desk stopping her babbling before she could utter that last, cursed word. ‘No.’ You closed your eyes, exhaling as fingers curled tight into your palm. You blinked your eyes back open, looking up. ‘We are not The Society. We do not wish to be their exclusive club, and we do not respect their views on the theoretical nature of the multiverse. Anyone can be an explorer of the Tree of Infinity. Now, Hanna, I want you to consider this a warning; we expect your behaviour to improve. You are still on probation, and if it does not improve, we may have to say goodbye to you. I will be discussing this matter with Miguel.’ She seemed to sink deeper into her seat at the mention of his name. ‘P-please, can you put in a good word for him with me? Let him know that I think he’s handsome? I-I mean, I don’t mean to brag, but I feel like we’ve got a real connection- we were bitten by the same spider after al-‘ ‘Really? What spider?’ You feigned interest with a gentle smile, knowing she had blabbed herself straight into a corner. ‘U-uh…’ ‘What spider, Hanna?’ ‘Uhh…. Black widow?’ You closed your eyes, chuckling softly as you nodded, and when you opened your eyes again, you could almost make out her relieved smile from beneath her mask. It was time to drop the hammer twice over. ‘Hanna? Miguel wasn’t bitten by a spider. Also, please stop flirting with him. He doesn’t like it, and his boyfriend doesn’t appreciate it. Mm?’ You watched her eyes slowly widen in realisation and drank it in before waving softly, triumphant. ‘You can go now, get some lunch.’

The gloomy room was Miguel’s office in the highest reaches of the tower, illuminated faintly by the sprawling, rotating image of a white tree with many branches. You knew its layout well enough to move through it without falling over anything, as long as Miguel hadn’t moved things around too much. As luck would have it, he had indeed. Your feet became tangled in a mass of cabling that had not been present on your last visit and you felt yourself stumble and begin to fall. You never hit the ground before familiar strong arms caught you and bore you close against his warm chest wrapped in soft clothing. ‘Heh… You’re getting clumsy.’ His deep voice was rich with amusement, right by your ear as he lifted you off your feet with effortless ease. You wrapped your arms around him, squeezing him in a hug with all your might, and his body didn’t yield in the slightest, only a faintly amused huff escaped him for your efforts. ‘You’re the one booby trapping your office to trip me up, Miggy.’ He laughed again and placed a fond kiss to your cheek. ‘Damn, you’ve figured me out… Lyla tells me you’ve been busy. Want to tell me what it’s about?’ ‘Well-‘ ‘Actually, hold that thought. Let’s get comfortable.’

He supported your entire weight with one arm as his other reached out, the “thwip” of the white, organic webbing from his wrist as he launched both you and him up into the upper reaches of his office, to where a hammock of webbing had been constructed. He laid you down on the soft, silken threads and relaxed beside you, the glint of his crimson eyes visible in the faint light. He began to rock the hammock gently with one foot against the wall and you felt utterly safe with one of his arms over your waist. ‘Well… Uh, the crazy witch has been told off. She won’t be groping you anymore. So your ass is safe… Until the next Spider-woman tries….’ ‘Ay dios mio… You think it’s pheromones? You think I produce pheromones that drive them crazy?’ You snuggled closer into him, nuzzling into his neck and sniffing to inhale his wonderful earthen scent. ‘You always smell great to me, Miggy…’ Another little chuckle escaped him, and he kissed the top of your head with a pleased rumble. ‘Uh-huh…? Well, Lyla’s made sure we won’t be disturbed… So, maybe your ass won’t be so safe from me, my love. If you want to do more than just snuggle…’ You snuggled even closer against him, feeling his arm around you tighten with strength that was just shy of hurting- you knew he still held back the lion’s share of his might, he could snap you like a twig if he wanted. ‘I… Think I just want to be with my Spider-Man, right now…’ ‘Heh… Te amo, mi vida…’ He purred as he placed another kiss to your head, still rocking you quietly. ‘I am yours…’

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

I designed Spider-Selene to be an incredibly shallow, irritating version of some of the Spidersonas I used to see around Tumblr. Also I love the fact that she just got chomped by a drunk guy in a costume and the world went "Ehh, techncially that counts". Probably doesn't even have any powers (which would explain why ATSV Miguel had no interest in recruiting her)

[partyinthemysterymachine]

there are moments when i think know i'm going crazy (know i'm going crazy) but it's gonna be alright (you'll soon be changing everything) everything will be so different when i'm on you take me off the stage tonight

tonight the super trouper lights are gonna find me shining like the sun (sup-p-per troup-p-per) smiling, having fun (sup-p-per troup-p-per) feeling like a

[nelllraiser]

cat burglar | sasha & nell

LOCATION: a warehouse in the bend. PARTIES: @sasha-r-blog​ & @nelllraiser.  SUMMARY: sasha takes it upon herself to stop a break in, and nell is on the wrong end of the matters.  CONTAINS: gun use, gun violence

Another day another dollar was all the witch could think of as Nell lurked outside of an oversized warehouse in The Bend. The human bounties were especially boring to go after seeing as they lacked any upper hand in comparison to magic. At least when she was on the tail of someone supernatural she knew there was an element of surprise- or at least something to keep her on her toes. But money was money, and she still enjoyed bringing in the assholes who skipped out on their bail. Tonight was no different as she peered into one of the windows that paneled the outside of the building, just barely clearing the edge of it so that she might duck down if her quarry glanced her way. Thankfully, he seemed far too busy with counting the pallets that littered the place, scratching his head every now and then while he jotted numbers down in a notebook. All it would take was a simple sleeping spell and he’d be out like a light. But first she needed to get closer, perhaps get a better idea of what exactly it was he was doing in this shitty warehouse. If he were up to no good once again and repeating his criminal past, she wanted to know it about it. Carefully, she pushed her palm against the glass of the window before uttering a quiet spell, and in a moment it had melted away like water, pooling in a puddle on the ground beneath her. While the liquid glass settled, she hooked a leg over the frame of the window as gently as she could, being careful not to make a sound as she made her entrance.

The Bend seemed like the perfect place to look for crime, or at least Sasha assumed it was. In all the movies she’d watched it was usually run down places like where all the criminal stuff happened. So with her makeshift costume on and her change of clothes tucked neatly into her backpack, she made her way there. It didn’t take long to find a good place to perch and keep a lookout. There was a tall, flat roofed brick building at the corner of the block that seemed abandoned. And with a few well placed jumps and some careful footwork she found herself alone at the top, with a good amount of the Bend visible to her. So that was a good start to the night. Unfortunately, it seemed like the promising vantage point wasn’t leading to much. The neighborhood was surprisingly quiet. Sasha did spot a few people, some teenagers meeting up before heading into an alley. But upon closer inspection they were just making out, and Sasha decided to keep her lunch rather than continuing to watch to make sure some murderer didn’t jump out at them. They were probably fine.

It wasn’t until an hour or two later that another bit of movement caught Sasha’s eye. Across the street, next to a large warehouse, was a woman. Sasha moved to the edge of the roof, watching as the woman peaked through the window. Okay, that was suspicious. There were plenty of buildings here that from a quick glance seemed abandoned. But this one, despite seeming run down, at least had intact windows. So probably still in use? Maybe Sasha should have done some research before coming here. But either way, the way the woman was glancing in was clearly suspicious. If it was just some abandoned building to sneak into, why all the weird snooping? Sasha was about to lower herself onto the fire escape for a better view, when she felt a buzzing against her back. Shit. Fumbling with her backpack, Sasha quickly grabbed her phone and turned it to silent. 

Stupid rookie mistake, she should have just left her phone at home. When she turned back toward the woman, the glass in the window was gone, and the suspicious woman was lifting herself into the frame. Cool, good to know that the phone had distracted Sasha so much she completely missed the woman breaking the glass and almost getting inside. That could have been useful info. What if the woman had a crowbar on her to break the glass? Or a gun? Okay, Sasha was pretty sure she would have heard a gun go off even while distracted, but still. She took a deep breath and steadied herself before heading down the fire escape. When she was half way down she took another deep breath, and vaulted over the edge onto the street below, trying her best to land just as she practiced. Classic superhero landing pose, though more Spider Man than Iron Man, she wasn’t about to fist bump the pavement and break her only weapon. 

Despite Sasha’s strangely quiet landing, her clearing throat as she held the pose was likely audible. 

Nell couldn’t help but be paranoid as the hairs of her neck prickled directly before the clearing of a throat sounded behind her. The sound made her jump, though it wasn’t out of fear so much as a gut reaction of defense, head whipping around to look at whatever it was that had disturbed her. In the same movement, she drew a knife from it’s concealed hiding place on her body, brandishing it in front of her and placing it between herself and...what the fuck? Was there some sort of convention in town that she didn’t know about? That was the first thought in the witch’s mind as she took in the rag-tag ensemble before her, eyes not even sure where to land first on the strange mixture of clothing choice. Raking her gaze over the overflow of tiger printed spandex and fake leather, somehow the most confusing thing about the get-up were the razor-sharp teeth that were printed where the person’s mouth should be, stretched over the features that they hid. Where even to begin? “You know if you need some more quality cosplay my dad has an Etsy and worked the professional costume circuit in Vegas for years,” was the only thing she could think to whisper in the direction of this newly appeared enigma. Nevermind that she wasn’t exactly speaking to her father at the moment. 

The rustling of the man moving inside the warehouse was what pulled Nell’s attention away from the knock-off cat-man that had spawned from seemingly nowhere, and she was quickly reminded of why she was here. “Look- can you go play somewhere else?” she hissed under her breath towards the newcomer, not particularly keen on having her bounty disturbed. The words weren’t meant to be demeaning, as Nell truly and simply had no idea what to do with the train wreck that had stuck their nose into her business. What a cosplayer was doing in the middle of the Bend, she hadn’t the faintest idea— but she wasn’t going to let them get in her way. “I’m kinda busy.”

As the woman turned around to look at her Sasha began to rise to her feet and- oh shit, she had a knife! Sasha froze up at the sight of the suddenly brandished weapon. But it was fine, it was cool. Sasha had her own set of knives too. Or rather, The Claw did. 

The woman’s whispering sounded loud and clear in Sasha’s sensitive ears and made her stop right before making her heroic declarations to put down the knife. “I-I’m not a cosplayer and this isn’t some sort of game...”

That sounded cooler in her head, but Sasha continued to stare down the woman. If she was randomly pointing a knife at her that had to mean she was a criminal. Sasha put one of her hands out to the side, fingers curled, ready to summon her claws at any moment. Come on, you can do this.

“I’m The Claw, and I’m here to put a stop to your break in! What’s in there? Money, valuebles, a stockpile of illegal weapons? Whatever it is, you better make your peace with never getting your hands on them.”

Yeah... yeah! I’ve got this! She’s gotta be scared now. 

The somewhat puzzled yet exasperated expression on Nell’s features only grew more scrunched as the mysterious figure spoke. It was a girl. That much she could initially tell from the voice. She’d already parted her lips to ask what exactly the masked interloper was doing here when the knock-off Catwoman spoke again, and the witch’s eyebrows shot skyward in disbelief. “The Claw?” she echoed, a hint of unshared delight entering Nell’s tone. Who the hell ran around in spandex calling them themselves the Claw? She couldn’t stop the quiet chuckle that pressed past her lips as the rest of the girl’s words sank in. “I’m not breaking in. Well- I am breaking in, but I’m not the shitty person here. Make my- make my peace?” Nell sputtered in her continued amusement. “Babe- I hate to be the one to tell you this- actually I don’t really hate it, but-” Her sentence wouldn’t find it’s end as another voice rang out, Nell’s target apparently having overheard enough of their shared noises to finally take notice of the two young woman loitering in his warehouse window.

“Hey!” He called out, already taking angry strides in their direction. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing here?” he demanded, reaching for some unseen weapon that resided in the inner pocket of his jacket.

The woman was...laughing... at The Claw. Sasha's heart sank, but she tried to replace the feeling with annoyance. The Claw wouldn’t get upset, so Sasha wouldn’t either. She would prove this woman wrong. This woman who apparently didn’t know what a superhero was. This woman who also just admitted to breaking in, as matter of fact! So yeah, even if she laughed at her that wasn’t going to stop Sasha from stopping this criminal. 

Sasha opened her mouth to speak, to cut off whatever excuse or taunt the stranger planned to throw at her, only for another voice to cut both of them off. In the window frame appeared a man, mid 30ss, not exactly friendly looking. Okay so that guy didn’t seem super happy but he also probably just didn’t get that Sasha was trying to help.

“Don’t worry!” She said, putting out a hand, her words faltering slightly when she saw him reaching for something in his jacket. “I’m here to stop this robber from breaking in. I’ve got it under control.”

Truly, Nell hadn’t intended to laugh in a malicious manner, but it was simply too bizarre to witness a self-proclaimed ‘hero’ running around White Crest, fighting crime and toting names such as ‘The Claw.’ She supposed in concept it wasn’t too bizarre. After all White Crest was in desperate need of as much help as it could get. But a masked do-gooder was a far cry from those she usually cleaned up the messes around this town. After all it wasn't as if hunters were running around in capes and hoods. Or...herself for that matter. Of course she’d never consider herself a hero in any sense of the word. She was fairly certain the people that Sasha was trying to emulate didn’t go around torturing sacrifices to bring their loved ones back from the dead. 

Nell’s head whipped around as Sasha and the man’s eyes met, and a frown was quick to turn her lips southwards as she saw him reaching for whatever he was concealing beneath his jacket. While Sasha spoke, Nell did her best to stay between the bounty and The Claw, a threatening and far more serious tone coming from her lips. “Don’t,” she commanded, the words meant both for the criminal and the attempted hero. 

“Or you’ll what?” The grungy man replied with a rough tone as he pulled a gun from its hiding place, training it on both the girls- dipping back and forth between them. “What are two little girls gonna do about it?” 

Nell kept her eyes trained on the man before saying, “Or I’ll start with breaking every finger in your hand, and then see if I wanna start on your other one.” As for The Claw… “You’ve got it wrong- he’s the piece of shit. I’m here to collect his bounty.”

Sasha froze at the sight of the gun, and just as quickly as it was pointed at them the woman moved between her and the man. It took too long for her to process, she should be quick on her feet, she knew that. What hero let someone come between them and a bullet?

“Bounty?” Sasha hated the way her voice squeaked up an octave, but to be fair, this was the first time she had seen a gun in real life and they were about two seconds from getting a much closer look if things kept up. “But you-”

Sasha may have misinterpreted things here. Were bounty hunters even legal? She guessed they weren’t any more illegal than a vigilante. She didn’t really have a good concept of them outside of action movies, and things were getting pretty actiony right now. 

She had barely heard the man speak, barely processed what the woman said either. But suddenly the man moved his hand again, a glint of metal catching in Sasha’s eyes. In hindsight, maybe it was just another threatening motion to get them to back off. But in a panic Sasha felt herself rushing past the woman. She wasn’t thinking. Maybe she should have. The next thing she knew one of her clawed hands was digging into the forearm of the man, the jacket sleeve torn and likely the skin under it as well. She didn’t hear the man's reaction, just an ear shattering bang as the gun hit the ground and misfired into the sidewalk. Sasha could only hear high pitched ringing after that, but she could see the man shout in pain and her grip on his arm tightened reflexively, as if he might pick up the gun somehow or draw another. 

“No!” Nell yelled as The Claw darted towards the man, eyes wide as she watched the girl make her attack, certain she was going to hear a gunshot pop off at any moment. And then a matching red would bloom on The Claw’s costume, staining the stripes as they seeped the girl’s life away. But no such thing happened. There was a bang, and Nell flinched as the bullet ricocheted to god knew where, and then it seemed The Claw was firmly latched onto the man’s gunarm. Had the girl brought hidden knives as well? But Nell hadn’t seen her draw them. The speed and high stakes of the situation didn’t allow for a closer look before she too was moving in on the man, fast and controlled in her approach as she kicked the man’s legs out from under him while he was distracted by The Claw. He landed hard on the warehouse floor, a grunt of pain falling from his as Nell planted a firm kick in his side once he was down. “I said, don’t!”

In the next moment, Nell tugged at her magic, using it to bend the man’s fingers into unnatural angles and making good on her promise of breaking them. While his yell filled the concrete walls, she grabbed at his wrists, taking special care to press down on the digits she’d just snapped, drawing a pair of handcuffs from a pocket and clicking them soundly around him. “Alright- okay,” she began, turning towards The Claw with a frown now that the man was no longer a threat. “Do you believe me now?” Gone was any of Nell’s previous amusement. 

Sasha only had her claws dug into the dude’s arm for a moment before the woman kicked his feet out from under him. Sasha didn’t try to keep her grip. She watched him fall and felt the sticky blood coating her hands. Oh god, gross. Her first instinct was to try to wipe the stuff off on her pants, but she really only had one of these costumes. So instead she held her clawed hand away from herself awkwardly as the woman kicked and cuffed the man.

Wait, how had she broken his fingers? Sasha blink, wondering if her eyes were playing tricks on her. Maybe like the bang had messed with her ears, the flash of the fallen gun had messed with her vision. It looked like they had just snapped by themselves. But she didn’t have much time to think about it. When the woman turned and spoke it sounded as if her voice was coming through water, but Sasha could still make out the words. 

“I-I didn’t realize there were bounty hunters here. I just saw you trying to break in and I thought...” Sasha's heart was beating hard in her chest, but as the adrenaline faded she started to feel anxiety creeping in, past the normal confidence that she tried to show as The Claw. “I didn’t realize.” 

For a moment Nell simply watched Sasha in vaguely concerned confusion, taking in the way she was holding her hand away from herself, apparently not all that accustomed to the blood she’d drawn. Another look towards the girl, and the witch could see something like shock beginning to grip The Claw’s body. It had been a couple of months since Nell had been reminded that not everyone was as accustomed to spilling blood and facing guns down, but as she looked at the costumed crusader— it was hard to miss the way her voice had changed, and Nell’s frustrated demeanour switched into something more sincere. “Hey- are you...alright? You can sit down or something if you need to. I have some water,” she said before turning to rummage in the bag she’d been carrying on her back, offering a water bottle soon after she located it. “You’re not hurt, right?” She hadn’t seen the man land a mark on the young woman, but what if that stray bullet hadn’t been all that stray, and Nell had missed it? WIth a quick and cursory glance over The Claw, Nell did her best to try and identify if she was bleeding anywhere. 

“Aren’t there bounty hunters everywhere?” Nell wasn’t entirely looking for an actual answer as she glanced once again toward the man they’d downed together. When he tried to open his mouth to speak, she granted him a warning growl before kicking one of his broken hands. Earning another howl of pain from the criminal. “Sorry- hold on,” she sighed at the girl before bending down to tug off the man’s beanie and stick it into his mouth as a makeshift gag. “There- now he won’t bother us, at least.” Taking some pity on the girl, she offered her name, hoping that might help set The Claw a little more at ease. “I’m Nell.” 

“I’m alright. I’m fine.” Sasha was fine. Mostly fine. She wasn’t hurt at least and the real bad guy had been taken down. But staring down a gun was a lot. Sasha took the water bottle, but realized she couldn’t risk taking off her mask to drink. Instead she poured a bit of it over her hand to clean it of blood, retracting her claws once they were no longer covered. 

“I’m not hurt I-” She stopped mid sentence as Nell roughly silenced the man. That was fine, all of this was fine. He was a bad guy after all. “I’m The Claw.” Wait, she had already told her that. “I um, thanks for the help. I’m sorry I thought you were trying the break in. I mean, you were, but you weren’t robbing anyone.”

She glanced down at the dude again. She didn’t exactly feel bad for him, not after threatening her and Nell. But at the same time she worried about how much she may have hurt him. “Do you do this a lot? Bounty hunting? I should probably know so I don’t mistake you for doing something bad when I’m out patrolling.” 

Nell didn’t intend to purse her lips at The Claw’s answer, but couldn’t help it as the other girl maintained that she was fine. The witch had heard that particular phrase more than once when it came to people reacting to the concerning outcomes of questionable experiences. If she were being entirely honest, she herself had used it on numerous occasions when she didn’t want to admit that something may not have been fine. But she wasn’t going to push the girl. “Alright.” At least she wasn’t hurt. Nell couldn’t help the way her eyes lingered on The Claw’s...well...claws as the girl poured water over them and her hand. So that had been how the damage was done? “That’s pretty neat,” she offered in a tone that she hoped was casual, nodding towards the girl’s hand. Was she a werewolf or something? What else had claws, but appeared to be human?

“Yeah, I remember,” Nell said with a tease in her voice, hoping to bring back at least a little levity to the situation. “The Claw. Pretty fitting I guess, isn’t it? Though...if you have more than one claw- shouldn’t you be The Claws?” A shrug later, and Nell was speaking again. “You helped, too. I mean you got the first hit on him.” Even though The Claw had successfully drawn blood and proven herself capable, Nell couldn't help the worry that was pooling in her stomach as she continued to watch the girl and listen to her mention attempted robbery. “You know...it’s pretty dangerous out here in White Crest. Also just in general. So what are you doing out here trying to stop supposed attempted robberies and shit?” Saving people in White Crest was an endless job, and more often than not you got hurt in the process. It was no surprise that Nell wasn’t keen on the thought of a spandexed and starry-eyed crusader making their way through the town’s problems. “But yeah- it’s my main source of income, so I’m generally sneaking around.” The word ‘patrolling’ only made Nell’s frown dip lower, concern continuing to grow in magnitude.

“It’s part of my powers,” Sasha said as she followed Nell’s gaze back towards her hand. “The Claws doesn’t roll off the tongue as much, I think my title is just fine.” Sasha couldn’t tell if Nell was making another jab at her, or just trying to lighten the mood, but at least the woman didn’t seem annoyed anymore. And that fact let Sasha relax slightly. 

“It’s my job. I’m here to protect White Crest.” Had Nell never heard of a superhero before? Even her reaction to seeing Sasha’s claws was weirdly nonchalant. “Not for money, not that there's anything wrong with helping for money. It is just my responsibility. I want to make sure the town is safe and those doing wrong are punished.” 

She tried to stand a bit taller, get back into the headspace of a hero. Like Nell said, she had just helped to take down a criminal. Maybe all the blood and guns was a bit unexpected but she had done it all the same. “I know White Crest is dangerous but I can handle it.” 

“Your powers…” Nell echoed as her gaze lingered on The Claw’s hands once more. It wasn’t exactly the word she would have used as she generally referred to the gifts of the supernatural community as ‘abilities’. Though she supposed it made sense for the girl to think of them as ‘powers’ if she was determined to run around playing superhero. “Are you...a werewolf?” Nell asked point-blank, seeing no other way around the question. She didn’t particularly feel like dancing around the subject, and they were the only humanoid creature she could think of in that moment that might employ their claws in such a way. 

“Your job?” Nell continued to question, not entirely sold on that description. “What do you mean by that? Why’s it your responsibility?” She could sympathize with wanting to make sure people were as safe as possible in White Crest, but she certainly didn’t consider it to be her job. It was just...something she was good at, and something she felt obligated to do. So where was this sense of duty coming from where it concerned The Claw? “Do you know?” Nell challenged, not entirely convinced. She couldn’t help but feel like she was somehow responsible for making sure this girl knew what she was truly getting into— the pain and heartbreak that lay down the line if she decided to take the weight of the world on her shoulders. “I know you wanna help- but it’s not always happy endings or whatever. Things go to shit. A lot.” And then years have passed and you don’t even know how you got here, but it’s too late to stop now. You can’t turn your back on people that need help. If Nell could spare someone the disillusionment she’d experienced over the last few years, and the bone-deep tiredness she felt half the time these days...she’d take that chance.

“I’m...no I’m not a werewolf.” Okay, Nell was clearly making fun of her now. “This isn’t some joke or silly halloween costume. It is my job. My responsibility. I have powers and I have to help people with them.” Sasha felt her face heat up. She wasn’t used to getting angry enough to raise her voice, and already she felt self conscious at it, clearing her throat and glancing back down at the cuffed man to avoid Nell’s questioning gaze.

“I know this town is dangerous. I can handle it. You don’t need to-” Treat me like a child. Act like I don’t know what I’m doing. Sasha clenched her jaw. She wasn’t going to argue. Nell had helped, but Sasha wasn’t going to try to explain this to her. 

“Are you taking him to the police?” Sasha motioned to the man. “Or wherever bounties go. I need to get back to my patrol.” It was a lie. Sasha was pretty sure she was going to head directly back to her dorm the moment she left Nell and sleep until she forgot about her annoyance and the gun going off and the feeling of blood between her fingers.

“I didn’t say it was any of that stuff,” Nell defended with a gut reaction, realizing she’d made a wrong step somewhere along the way. Certainly Nell had thought it to be a game at the beginning of their meeting, mistaking the girl for cosplay, but now she knew better. But if The Claw wasn’t a werewolf...what was she? Unless she simply didn’t know she was a werewolf. Maybe that was also a possibility. If that were the case, it would only fan the flames of Nell’s concern. How could the girl hope to save a world she didn’t have all the pieces of, and not get hurt in the process? “But you don’t,” Nell replied simply. “You don’t have to. Not if it gets to be too much or anything like that.” 

Nell recognized a stubbornness in the girl that was most likely mirrored in herself while The Claw defended her choices, and that only worried Nell more. But she also knew there was no sense fighting it if they were, indeed, alike in that trait. Any opposition would only be met with a stronger fight back. So if Nell couldn’t prevent the girl from taking a path that was rife with hardship, maybe she could at least help. “Fine,” was her short answer. “But if you have any questions— how can people contact you, anyway? Is there like a ‘The Claw’ twitter or something that you work off of?” If The Claw wouldn’t listen to her, then she’d simply have to settle for trying to keep an eye on the girl. 

The dismissal was obvious in the girl’s words, and Nell had no interest in overstaying her welcome at the moment. Besides, she did need to get this man back to the bail bonds agency. “I’m taking him,” Nell answered with her arms folded over her chest, not yet moving an inch. She usually utilized magic to get her bounties back to her employers, and though she’d already technically used magic in front of The Claw, she wasn’t about to do so again so openly when it seemed the other girl hadn’t noticed. “Good luck on your patrol.” She’d have to wait for The Claw to leave in order to finish her business here. 

But you were thinking it. You were thinking that I’m a joke. And you think that I can’t handle things either. But Sasha didn’t voice it. She didn’t want to get angrier at Nell, or vice versa, but it was already getting to that point. So she ignored the bounty hunter’s statement about what she knew she had to do or whatever, biting back a retort. Even the question about contacting her made Sasha irritated in the moment. She knew it was dumb, but it hadn’t been something she figured out yet since saving Connor and him asking her the same thing. Being reminded again that she had no easy way to contact someone without revealing who she was only made her worried that it would now come off as unprofessional to the bounty hunter. 

“I’m setting something up. Why don’t you give me your contact info and I’ll reach out to you if I need it.” A burner phone or some side account on something wouldn’t be hard, she just had to make sure it didn’t trace back to her. And behind the current annoyance and Nell, Sasha knew it would be smart to know how to contact her. Not that Sasha would need the help, but she didn’t want some weird bounty mix up to happen again. 

“Thanks.” Sasha said, unsure if Nell meant what she said about her patrol. At least she hadn’t detected any sarcasm in that, even if she seemed to want Sasha to get out of her hair soon.

Nell didn’t offer any more words as The Claw gave her a short answer, knowing that the peace between them was hanging by a thread. Instead she tucked a hand into her jacket pocket, magically summoning a piece of paper and pen from back home into her hand before bringing them back into sight. On the paper she wrote both her phone number, and the name ‘Penelope Vural’ before handing it over to the girl. “You can text me or find me on the town forum. Whatever works for you.” Friendship wasn’t on Nell’s mind as she offered the contact information, and instead she was hoping that she might be able to keep some sort of eye on the strange crusader. “Let me know if you ever need anything or whatever. Or have questions about who I’m after. Sometimes jobs take more than two hands...or claws, and I’m always down for action.” That was the best she felt she could do in making sure The Claw didn’t get herself killed, and without adding flame to the fire the witch had inadvertently built between them. 

Nell turned away from the self-made heroine, unable to bite her tongue any longer when the rock of dread was solidifying in her gut. She didn’t want to watch another person get hurt by White Crest, but she wasn’t about to stand by and let it happen either. When she turned to look over her shoulder, the other girl was already gone, and Nell hadn’t even gotten to give a well wishing of safety before the night air swallowed up The Claw. All she could think was that hopefully the town wouldn’t swallow the girl whole as well. 

[tripleaxeldiaz]

all was golden when the day met the night

chapter 3/5

read on ao3

start from the beginning

“...and then we saw the lions, but they were sleeping so they weren’t very scary. And the otters were so cute, and they came right up to the glass when they were swimming underwater!”

Eddie smiles as Chris recounts their day at the zoo to his parents over FaceTime. The monthly calls had been their idea, a way for them to stay up to date on Chris’s life in between holidays and summer visits. It was also their way of having a scheduled time to nitpick Eddie’s life from 800 miles away.

He loves his parents, he does. He just loves them more when they aren’t speaking.

“Your face looks a little red, sweetheart, were you wearing sunscreen today?” his mother asks, face getting too close to the camera as she inspects her grandson.

“Yeah, Dad put some on me when we got there.”

“Did he put on any more during the day?” Her eyes shifted to Eddie, perched next to Chris on the couch. “You know you need to reapply every two—”

“Yes, Mom, I did. And it’s getting late so we should really get going, say goodbye buddy—”

“Wait! I didn’t show them my snakes!” Chris rifles through his backpack underneath the coffee table, yanking out a folder and flipping through it until he finds the drawings he and Buck worked on. He holds them up triumphantly, angling them so his grandparents could see. “Buck helped me with them!”

“And Buck is…”

“Dad, you know who Buck is. My friend that owns the tattoo shop?” He tries not to ignore how calling Buck his “friend” feels like a disservice to all that he really is, how it tastes like sand in his mouth.

“He’s an awesome artist,” Chris pipes in. “He has huge books in the shop of all the stuff he can do, and sometimes he lets me watch when he’s working!”

His parents blanche at that, and Eddie is really not prepared to have this argument right now. He and Chris had a great day together, a rare day when he wasn’t in the shop for any reason, leaving it in Hen’s more than capable hands. They had a lot of fun at the zoo, were getting ready for a Marvel double feature in their living room, and Eddie was in an honest-to-god good mood, for once not plagued by lingering stress or ambiguous sadness. He’s not about to let any outside judgements ruin that.

“I think it’s time to go. Chris, can you say goodnight and go get your pajamas on?” Chris waves as he grabs his crutches and heads to his room. Eddie turns back to say a quick goodbye, but his dad clears his throat before he can speak.

“You leave your son alone in a tattoo parlor?”

“He’s not alone, Dad, he’s with Buck and all the other adults that work there. Plus it’s only in a pinch.”

“Eddie, do you really think those are the kind of people you should be leaving Christopher with?” his mother asks, a look of contempt masked by concern on her face.

Eddie takes a slow breath in and out through his nose. No use in giving them more ammo by getting angry. “Just because you don’t like their business doesn’t mean they’re bad people.”

“We just want to make sure Christopher is—”

“He’s fine. He’s happy when he’s learning to draw with Buck. I’m not going to take that away from him just because you don’t like it. Now we have to go, we’ll talk to you later.” He hits the red end button before they can protest any further. He tips his head back to rest on the couch and scrubs a hand over his face, his good mood now tinged with prickly frustration.

He thinks his parents mean well, but they’ve always been forceful when it comes to Chris, especially after Shannon left. It’s like they knew, somehow, how lost Eddie was on his own, how scared he was that every little thing he did was setting Chris up for failure, and took every opportunity to fix something he was doing or tell him he was wrong. That he didn’t actually know what Chris needed since he had been gone for so long. 

Eventually, Eddie started believing them.

But when Mrs. Negrelli gave him the money to start his own shop, he didn’t just see it as a fresh start for himself, but for Chris too. Eddie would be able to take them anywhere, away from the looming disappointment of his parents, and give himself the opportunity to figure out how to best be the dad that Chris needed. And if the past year is any indication, he knows he made the right choice, a credit he isn’t usually able to give himself. He’s not perfect, still second guesses himself constantly, but Chris gets invited to birthday parties and sleepovers and gets As on his report card, so something must be working.

Chris comes back from his room, Spider-Man pajamas on, handing Eddie the remote to queue up the first movie. He’s happily chattering about all the cool things Spider-Man’s costume does in the movie, and as he settles into Eddies’s side, head resting on his chest, Eddie feels the prickliness subside, replaced by the contentment he only ever feels around his son.

They’re good here. Chris is happy here. That’s all that matters to Eddie.

~~~~~~~~~~

Sundays are Eddie’s favorite days in the shop — traffic is usually slow, so he has time to plan out orders for the rest of the week and make sure their inventory is in check. It’s a little monotonous, but it eats up about four hours of time and gives him a break from any real thinking, so he feels almost relaxed by the time he’s done stocking cases. He has the added bonus of Chris and Buck’s conversation in the back room as background noise, interspersed with the occasional yell and slap of the table and Buck teaches him a new card game. The melody of Chris’s laugh and the harmony of their voices soothes him even more than usual, quiets some of the lingering annoyance from his call with his parents.

As he heads into the back room to grab the last boxes of peonies, Chris beckons him over to the table where he and Buck have been stationed since breakfast. It’s become a bit of a tradition: Buck brings muffins or bagels from Bobby and Athena’s bakery on Sundays and hangs out until the afternoons when his earliest appointments are scheduled (I refuse to tattoo anyone while they’re hungover from Saturday, Eddie. It’s not good for them and the extra complaining is certainly not good for me.). 

Maybe that’s another reason Sundays are his favorite days. Add that to the list of secret feelings involving Buck that are following him to the grave.

“Dad! Look, I colored Buck’s skull purple!” Chris says as Eddie comes behind his chair, bracketing him in with his arms on the table. Chris giggles as Eddie kisses the top of his head, leaning over him for a closer look. Buck’s latest tattoo is indeed a bright shade of purple, the roses surrounding it colored in blue.

“I told him I like cooler colors and he ran with it,” Buck says. Eddie’s eyes shift to Buck’s face, and he feels his heart stutter when he sees the soft, fond smile directed at Chris. It stutters again when Buck’s eyes meet his, that familiar warmth settling over him as Buck’s smile gets bigger, and he feels good enough, relaxed enough, that it actually soaks into his skin. Buck’s gaze flits down to Eddie’s arm where it’s still bracketing Chris, a crease appearing right between his eyebrows. The urge to lean over and kiss it away is unbelievably sudden and strong, and Eddie silently congratulates himself for keeping it together.

“Your ink looks a little faded there, Eds. I can fix it up for you, if you want.”

Eddie looks at the script on his arm, twisting it back and forth to see the whole thing. Buck’s right, the ink does look duller. Makes sense for a tattoo he got on his 18th birthday that he definitely didn’t take care of properly. 

Fortalecer la mente y superar el cuerpo. Strengthen the mind and overcome the body. When he was young and invincible, that seemed like all he needed. A clear head, clear purpose, clear desires, and he’d be able to do anything he wanted. If he followed the rules and did everything right, he’d get a happy ending.

But, once again, it hadn’t been enough. And now, looking at that tattoo just reminds him of the ways he’s failed. How he hasn’t been able to make his mind into anything resembling strong, how there are days when he’s so weak even basic functions take too much effort. How a happy ending is feels so far away he can’t remember what one even looks like.

He shrugs, hand rubbing the tattoo unconsciously. “Maybe, I kinda just want to let this one fade out though. Maybe get a different one somewhere else.”

“Well, my offer of a free tattoo still stands, just name the day.” Buck says. 

Chris gasps and twists around in his seat, eyes bright with excitement. “Can I help you pick it out? Can I draw it? I’m good at lots of stuff now, and Buck can help!”

And he’s not sure what it is — the smile on Chris’s face at the idea, Buck’s matching one, the lingering frustration with his parents transforming into rebellion (something he hasn’t felt since he last got a tattoo), or a combination of the three. But before he can think too hard about it, he hears himself saying:

“You know what? Why not. I’ll get another tattoo, and you guys can design it.”

They cheer and high five each other, Chris hugging Eddie tight around the middle.

“But,” Eddie says, “I do want final approval. And no cartoon characters.”

“I promise, Dad, it’ll be the best tattoo ever!” Chris grabs his nearby notebook and starts doodling, chattering happily about what he thinks will look good. Buck catches his eye again and winks, and Eddie’s returning smile is the easiest it’s ever been.

He grabs the boxes he came back for and goes to the front, still smiling as he hears Buck and Chris very seriously discuss the details of what Eddie should get. He’s not nervous, really, but he does say a silent prayer to whoever is listening that they don’t pick something too big or too bold. He loves them both, but not that much.

~~~~~~~~~~

They take about a week to design it and are so secretive they might as well be planning a jewel heist. It seems like every time Eddie walks into a room, they’re there with their heads pressed together, whispering over sheets of paper and pens. When Eddie tries to sneak a peek, they quickly hide everything away so he can’t see. Buck throws his whole body on the table at one point just to cover up the sketches.

Again, he’s not nervous. But the anticipation does start to get to him.

Finally, after a busy Saturday full of wedding deliveries, they announce that the design is complete, and Eddie is scheduled at Armageddon the following Friday evening. Chris already has a sleepover with Denny that night and won’t be able to come, but he makes Eddie double pinky promise to send pictures to Hen as soon as it’s done. 

It’s Friday now, and Eddie is all set up at Buck’s station in the back of the shop, waiting to see the final product of Buck and Chris’s hard work. He is a little nervous now, but he mostly blames that on Buck, who keeps looking over the sketchpad, pen in hand like he wants to make last minute changes, or like something isn’t quite right.

“Just show me, Buck,” Eddie says after a few minutes of watching Buck bite his lip in worry. Whatever the design is, he’s sure he’ll love it, if for no other reason than because of the two people who made it.

“Okay, okay. You can be honest if you don’t like it, but I think you’re gonna like it.”

He flips the paper over, turning it towards Eddie. It’s a crescent of flowers, an unfinished wreath, featuring moonflowers, Eddie’s favorite, with their starburst centers spiraling open, and ox-eye daisies, which he knows Chris loves. Sprigs of lavender and thyme fill in the gaps, and there’s a small bee floating around the center. It’s beautiful and a little chaotic, but it’s perfect. Reminders of his son and peace and courage that he’ll be able to carry with him always, that he’ll be able to look at when he forgets that he is capable of bravery or deserving of peace. He stares at the sketch, taking in every detail, for who knows how long. Buck clears his throat to get his attention.

“Chris thought the daisies and moonflowers would look good together, and they’re both white so no need for color. I thought the herbs would be nicer than just plain leaves. And he wanted it in a ‘C’ shape, you know, for Christopher.”

Eddie laughs and shakes his head. “And the bee?”

“Chris thought that would be cute, too, but you can nix that if you want.” There’s a faint blush dusting Buck’s cheeks as his eyes track down to the bee in question. “So, what do you think? Any major changes? You can tell me if you hate it, I won’t tell Chris.”

He looks up and Buck’s eyes are excited and worried all at once. Eddie would do anything to take the worry away, but at least this time it’s an easy fix.

“I don’t hate it, it’s perfect,” he says, handing the sketch back to Buck and settling back in the chair. “Let’s do this.”

Buck smiles brightly as he grabs an antiseptic wipe, holding Eddie’s right arm steady as he wipes down the area just below his elbow crease where the tattoo will go. Eddie knew he wanted it there as soon as he’d agreed to get one — he’d be able to see it easily when he needed to, and he liked that it matched the placement of his current one, would almost be replacing it if the words ever fully faded away. Once it’s cleaned, Buck puts a temporary transfer of the design there to trace over, starts up the tattoo machine, and loads the ink. The low buzzing of the machine mixes with the music playing and soft conversation coming from other clients in the shop, washing over Eddie like white noise.

Buck takes his arm again, machine in hand, and locks his eyes on Eddie. “Ready?”

“Ready.”

“You can yell if it hurts too bad, just try not to pass out.”

Eddie rolls his eyes, says “It’ll be—” before cutting off with an involuntary hiss as the needle touches his skin. Buck snorts, and Eddie does his best to glare but feels it fall short.

He hadn’t worried about the pain — he vaguely remembered the sensation of being stabbed over and over again and didn’t remember it hurting that bad. He had also been shot before, so he figured he’d be able to handle it.

What he hadn’t taken into account was that for the next two hours or so, he and Buck would be very close together, close enough that Eddie can feel Buck’s breath on his arm as he traces over the outline, feels his strong hand on his wrist as he keeps Eddie from twitching. He had never been this close to Buck, had never allowed himself to be, and now that he is, he’s not sure how to act. He tries to look anywhere else, takes in the art on the wall, watches the other clients with Maddie and Chimney. He tries to make a to-do list for the weekend in his head, go over the things Chris will need for school next week, mentally figure out the designs for next week’s orders.

It’s all in vain, though, because no matter what, his eyes always drift back to Buck. From here, he can take in everything, and for once, he lets himself, because who knows when he’ll have this opportunity again. 

Buck’s brow is furrowed in concentration, blue eyes dark as they focus. He can almost count every eyelash, and his birthmark stands out even more than usual, almost glowing under the fluorescent lights. Eddie itches to reach out and touch it, feel how soft he imagines Buck’s skin to be under his fingertips. His cheekbones and jawline are sharp and beautiful, and Eddie wonders again how anyone could resist them. How someone could look at this man, have even one conversation with him, and decide they didn’t want more. He’s biting his lip as he finishes the first moonflower, and it turns and even darker pink as he releases it. Eddie gets a little lost imagining how those lips would feel on his, how gentle and warm and good. He imagines feeling them on his shoulder as they wake up on a Saturday morning, sees them laughing as they both make breakfast, trading kisses as they go. He wants to taste them, feel them moving down his neck, down his chest, wrapping around his—

He inhales quickly and shakes his head, because this is not the time nor the place to go down that particular road. Thankfully, Buck’s still in his own little world, eyes never leaving Eddie’s arm. He must mistake Eddie’s movement for discomfort, because he moves his free hand down from his wrist until they’re holding hands, Buck’s thumb moving slowly back and forth in comfort.

“You can squeeze if it hurts too bad,” he mutters, still not looking up. Thank god too, because Eddie can feel his face go bright red and his heart start working overtime.

The first pass takes about an hour, and they take a break so Eddie can stretch his legs and Buck can get more ink. There’s still some detailing left to do, but Eddie already can’t stop staring at the tattoo. It looks even better than the sketch, and having a tribute to his son literally branded on his skin fills a fiercely paternal part of him like nothing else ever has. There’s also a smug part that’s still 17 years old and can’t wait to see the looks on his parents’ faces when they have their next video call.

Buck finishes getting set up again and Eddie settles back in the chair. It’s quieter now — they’re the only two on the floor, Maddie and Chimney having finished up and moved to the back room, and the music playing over the speakers is something slower, stripped down, seems to filter into the room and soften all the hard edges of the world. Buck catches his eye from where he’s sitting, asking silent permission to start. Eddie nods, and he feels his heart swell when Buck automatically grabs his hand again. 

He’s got maybe 45 more minutes in this proximity to Buck, and he takes full advantage: notes the way his curls are starting to fall loose after a long day, tries to catalogue each shift of his face, every twitch of concentration, the shadow of his stubble growing in. Getting to study him like this — memorize the details of the beautiful face that houses an even more beautiful soul — makes all the feelings Eddie’s been trying to fight for months now bubble to the surface, fizzing inside of him like pop bubbles. 

But there’s a chill that settles in as well, because despite his heart desperately pulling him towards this man, he reminds himself once again that he can’t have this. He can’t let himself have this, can’t do that to Buck. He’s supposed to be forgetting about his feelings, releasing them so they can both be happy — Buck with someone who deserves him and Eddie...alone. With Chris, but still. Alone. And now he has to wrestle with that while a slide show of Buck’s every facial feature plays through his head on a likely infinite loop.

He can’t forget as easily as he thought. If he’s honest, there’s a small, hopeful part of himself that doesn’t want to forget, that never wanted to forget, and it’s getting louder and harder to ignore with each passing minute.

“Done!” Buck says as he turns off the machine and wipes away the last of the excess ink. Eddie looks at the finished product, a soft smile settling on his lips. He looks up and sees Buck watching him, looking hopeful. “What do you think?”

Eddie’s finger hovers over a daisy reverently. “It’s beautiful,” he whispers, smile spreading as he meets Buck’s eye again. “Thank you, Buck.”

Buck returns the smile, squeezing Eddie’s hand where they’re still clasped together, neither of them moving to let go. They’re still in each other’s bubble, close enough that Eddie can still count Buck’s eyelashes, and he watches Buck watch him for a moment. His eyes roam his face like he too is cataloging Eddie from here, and that hopeful voice is convincing him that from where they’re sitting, it’d be so easy to lean in and confirm exactly what Buck tastes like, how his lips would feel under his own. Just six inches away from allowing himself to be happy, because he can’t imagine being anything else with Buck.

His phone goes off from his pocket, immediately bursting the bubble, both of them flinching as the loud trill fills the shop. They both know it’s Chris, but he still looks at Buck apologetically, like it’s his fault for shattering whatever atmosphere they’d just been living in. Buck just waves toward the phone, squeezing his hand one more time before letting go to clean up his station. He talks to Chris for a bit, showing him the tattoo from every angle, and Chris talks to Buck as well, gushing about what a great job Buck did. Buck blushes at the praise, and that tug of want pulls at Eddie again.

They hang up and Eddie gathers his things while listening to Buck’s strict aftercare instructions, both heading to the front door so Buck can lock up. 

“Are you sure I can’t pay you?” Eddie asks.

“I told you it was on the house and I meant that. Plus it’s nice to work on someone I actually care about.”

Eddie feels his face get warm, hopes the neon lights in the window are bright enough to cover it up. It gets warmer as they continue looking at each other, neither willing to break their little bubble again. He thinks he sees Buck move more toward him, like he wants to get closer, but he stops himself before following through, leaning back on his heels instead, looking sheepish.

“Goodnight, Eddie. I’ll see you guys tomorrow, yeah?”

“Yeah, we’ll see you tomorrow.”

Eddie waves as he leaves, stepping into the cool night to walk back to the apartment. He keeps glancing down at his arm on the walk and while he’s getting ready for bed, thinking of the care Chris and Buck both put into creating it. That small voice in his head keeps nagging him, saying Buck wouldn’t do something like this, something this personal, for just anyone. He complains about his clients enough for Eddie to know that’s true.

Maybe the voice is on to something. As he falls asleep, Eddie lets himself think that maybe, maybe, on top of everything, on top of two years of friendship and flowers and looks that make Eddie’s insides flutter, maybe these feelings he’s been trying to ignore aren’t as one sided as he thought.

Maybe he has a chance.

[harrys-osborn]

AU where Peter gives Harry just a little more time to defuse the bomb in episode 23

He could do this. No matter what Pete- no, no matter what Spider-Man thought, Harry could do this. Not that the masked vigilante kneeling next to him was a vote of confidence. “I’m just about there!” Harry said, hating himself for how he pleaded the words.

“We have to go, Harry,” Spider-Man replied. His voice was too soft, already a condolence for what wasn’t lost.

“I can’t. I can’t lose everything my father worked so hard to build,” Harry protested. Spider-Man just didn’t understand. Walking away wasn’t an option, not when Harry could do something about it. And he could. He could stop this. He could preserve Oz Academy, his home, his father’s legacy. All he needed was just a little more time.

Ten. The bomb said in response.

Another layer of security gone.

Nine.

Of course there was more. Harry resisted the urge to rub his eyes. He couldn’t waste precious seconds on something so trivial.

Eight.

A toxic mixture of adrenaline and fatigue sloshed around his brain, making his fingers slow and shaky. If only he could have looked at this with a fresh mind; Harry was sure he would have bypassed all security already.

Seven.

No matter. He was almost there.

Six.

Spider-Man shuffled uneasily from where he kneeled.

Five.

Focus! Harry couldn’t waste any time thinking about what Spider-Man was doing.

Four.

There went another layer of security. One more to go.

Three.

Spider-Man was moving forward now, arms wrapping around Harry’s chest, pulling him up and away from the bomb before he could really process what was going on.

Two.

“No! I-” Harry shoved against Spider-Man’s arm. He was so close, and there the bomb was getting farther away!

One.

“No!” Harry shouted even as his head was pushed to Spider-Man’s chest. Then Spider-Man jumped and the two of them were thrown forward with a force so strong it stole the breath from Harry’s lungs. Scorching heat had Spider-Man curling tighter around Harry, and Harry couldn’t have been more grateful to be wearing his high-tech thermals.

Wind was whipping around them now. A second explosion sounded, sending them tumbling through the air like leaves in a hurricane, and had Harry gripping Spider-Man tighter than he would have admitted.

They were falling fast, Harry realized. Even the soft schwip of Spider-Man’s webshooter didn’t do much to alleviate his nerves. It didn’t help that moments later Harry was hitting some random building’s roof, concrete scraping his arms and legs as he skidded a few feet while Spider-Man continued rolling.

Harry pulled himself to his feet. His knees were throbbing from the impact against the roof, but he barely paid any mind, too fixated on the Oscorp tower. No windows were left and thick black smoke billowed high into the sky. Even from where he stood, Harry could see the top floors had been reduced to molten slag, flames consuming anything that could have survived the initial explosion. The school, all of Harry’s work, his room, they were all gone.

There was a tight, hot burning in Harry’s chest that he didn’t understand as he stared at the top of the tower.

“Why did you stop me!” Harry screamed, whirling around. “Why-” The rest of his words got caught in his throat as he took in a sight worse than Osborn Tower. “Pete?”

Worry like gasoline flooded Harry’s viens, setting his nerves ablaze as he rushed over to his best friend. Pete hadn’t budged from where he landed. Imbedded just under his right shoulder blade was a large shard of yellow shrapnel. Blood oozed from the wound, the stain in Pete’s costume suddenly glaring, and oh god Harry didn’t know what to do. Was Pete breathing? Please, oh please let him be breathing.

“Pete? Pete c’mon,” Harry said, kneeling beside him. He could hear a soft wheezing, and Harry let out a shaky breath of his own. His hands hovered over Pete’s body. What was he supposed to do? What if he startled Pete and somehow sent the shrapnel deeper into his body. What if simply touching him hurt?

“Harry? I’m-” Pete began to take a breath in and Harry didn’t miss the tremor that skated across his body when it was too deep, “I’m fine. I’m alright.” Harry narrowed his eyes at Pete. That was a lie if he ever heard one. And then- and then the idiot sat up!

“Don’t push yourself!” Harry said. His hands twitched from where they were in front of him, unsure whether they should be placed on Pete’s shoulders or his back or just do nothing. More blood dripped from the wound, and Harry racked his brain for anything that could help. Removing the shrapnel was a definite no-go. Who knew how deep it went in and if removing it would cause bigger problems. If he could just staunch the bleeding at hand…

“How do you make those- those flatter webs? The ones you use to make nets at catch people with,” Harry asked.

“Oh the webshooters have different settings that affect the way the webs come out. Sort of like when you turn the nozzle on a garden hose, the water comes out different ways,” Pete explained. That was such a Pete thing to do. Of course he would take inspiration from something so mundane. But despite his tone being light, there was a tiredness behind it that pricked at Harry’s nerves. Seeming to pick up on this, Pete fiddled with one of his webshooters, his movements small and careful. “Here, look.”

He spritzed a small piece of web into the air with a schwip and Harry snatched it before a breeze had the chance to. 

“Could you make a few more of those?” Harry asked. Soft, successive schwips were his answer and he plucked the webs from the air almost as soon as they emerged. “Thanks.

“I’m going to apply these to your back now.”

Harry positioned himself behind Pete. Now that he was actually doing this his hands shook. Oh he wished he had something to wash the wound with. Instead, Harry picked at the fabric of Pete’s costume, his fingers slipping from blood and nerves before they were able to find purchase and peel it back. Harry never considered himself a squeamish person, but seeing the ripped skin, the protruding metal, the sheer amount of blood, made Harry dizzier than he could have anticipated.

“How bad is it?” Pete asked, sounding small for the first time.

“It’s-” not that bad, Harry wanted to say, but both of them knew it wasn’t true. He began to apply the first web, but it wadded up and wouldn’t stick to the bloodied skin. “It’s not good.”

There was no use in wasting the webbing he had. Gently, Harry wiped around the wound, feeling Pete shudder as he hissed in pain. “Sorry, sorry!”

This wasn’t working. Blood was coming out faster than he could wipe it up, “Sorry Pete,” Harry said, and then he none-too-gently pressed a new swatch of webbing against the gash. Pete flinched under his touch, ducking his head, and Harry didn’t miss the way he clenched his fists. But Harry knew he had to do it again. And again. And again.

With every placement there was another flinch, another sharp intake of breath, and as Pete became shakier, Harry felt his himself steadying. Even as a the cure- no Pete’s blood- settled around them, thick enough to obscure Harry’s sight slightly, he kept working. Stopping wasn’t an option, not when Pete had already given so much.

Fingers slick, Harry finally sat back and said, “I’m done.”

It wasn’t the best job; Harry knew this as he surveyed his work. The webs were already staining red, but the bleeding had stopped and that would have to do for now. It was like trying to patch a dam with duct tape: no one expected it to hold up forever.

“How are you holding up?” He asked.

“I’m fine. Doing good. Doing reeeal god,” Pete assured quickly.

Another blatant lie, but it didn’t help that Harry had no idea what Pete could be thinking behind that mask. Harry’s hands twitched again. It was that dumb fucking mask coming between them again. Harry began pulling his gloves off; it wasn’t going to stay that way for much longer.

Harry shifted so that he knelt in front of Pete. The costume came together more seamlessly than he had anticipated, even with the elaborate web pattern. Placing one hand on Pete’s shoulder, with the other Harry gingerly touched the base his neck.

“Uh, Harry? What are you doing?”

Harry’s eyes snapped back up to Pete’s face where he was still met with those barely expressive eye shapes. “I- uh.... nothing,” Harry said. The burning in his ears paralyzed his hands and sent words tumbling from his mouth. “I mean not nothing. It wasn’t that I was doing nothing, because clearly it wasn’t nothing.” He took a breath, reorienting his thoughts. “I was going to take your mask off. Sorry, I really should have asked, or at least said something first. I won’t. I realize-” 

“It’s fine,” Pete said quickly, ducking his head and nearly mumbling the next words, “You can take it off.”

Well that was… unexpected. But Harry wasn’t going to look this gift horse in the mouth. Slowly, he ran his thumb up Pete’s neck, feeling for a bump that would indicate the overlap of fabric. It had a smooth, almost slippery texture, cooler than Harry had anticipated. Finding the bump was harder than he had thought as well.

Trying again, Harry circled his thumb as he felt for the seam, the rest of his fingers resting on the back of Pete’s neck. He felt Pete shudder under his touch, and immediately Harry pulled both hands back. “Was I pressing too hard on your shoulder? You’ve got to tell me if I’m hurting you-”

“Harry,” Pete began, smile evident in his voice, and Harry longed to see it on his face, “I’m fine... Ok, ok, maybe not fine overall, but you weren’t hurting me. I can promise you that.”

“Alright, but if I do-”

“I will tell you, Harry. Trust me.”

“I- I trust you,” Harry said. “Would you mind if I…” He made a loose gesture with his hands. Pete would understand what he meant; he always did.

“Go for it.”

Harry cupped Pete’s face with both hands. “If you would just,” Harry gently tilted Pete’s head, “yeah.” The weight of Pete’s head in his hand was an odd sort of comfort; a reality to the person in front of him. Warm breaths pushed through the mask, softly skimming Harry’s wrist like the beat of a butterfly wing before dissipating into the night.

That time when Harry started trailing his finger’s down Pete’s neck, he felt the weight of Pete’s head increase as he went boneless under Harry’s touch. It was like Harry’s hand was molded for him with how perfectly they fit together when Pete nuzzled further into his palm. For a moment Harry just ran his fingers along Pete’s neck, tracing indistinct patterns and relishing the minute shudders they elicited. Only when one of his nails caught did Harry remember what he was doing in the first place.

A flush--vehemently ignored--spread across his face. Why did he think this was a good idea? He should be calling for help, not… not whatever this was. Harry pulled his hand away and unlocked his phone. Who would he even call? Surely the hospitals weren’t in working order yet. Nowhere was.

“Harry?”

“I need to call someone. I- I need to get you help. I just,” Harry took a deep breath, dampening the warble that started to creep into his voice, “I don’t know who.”

There was a moment where neither of them said anything. Life in the city was just resuming. Chatter drifted up from the streets below, and Harry knew he should be happy, but instead any joy that tried to manifest curdled into worry.

“I’ll be ok,” Pete said sounding infinitely more tired than he did before. Harry scooted forward at the telltale droop of his friend’s head, allowing it to rest on his shoulder without too much strain. “I just need a little time to rest and then I will be fine.”

Against any form of logic, Harry found himself hoping that was true. Suddenly gaining the abilities of a spider was already unexpected, and who knew what else it did to him. But in the meantime, Harry thumbed through his contacts, landing on an Elias Wirtham.

Pete could take a break now; Harry would take care of the rest.

[hopesbarnes]

Unconventional Life

Summary: Y/N Stark lives a strange life. Her dad’s Iron Man, her mom runs a multibillion-dollar company, and her boyfriend is Spider-Man. She loves it though. The only problem is her dad would kill her if he knew she was dating his protege.

Pairing: Stark! Reader x Peter Parker

Warnings: Few curse words and a slightly heated makeout scene 

Being Tony Stark's one and only child was a feat, to say the least. Paparazzi followed you from an early age, trying to get pictures and when you could talk, an interview. Dad wasn't the most attentive father, and you couldn't fault him for it it's just the way he was. Pepper did most of the actual raising part of raising a child since your mother didn't bother to stay long enough to do it. But you'd be lying if you said you didn't love your unconventional life. Not many people can say they've traveled the world, had an absurd amount of money to spend, and have built technology far behind a normal person's ability. Also, the fact that you're only 17 makes it all the cooler.

Dad has always been super protective of you, you'd scrape a knee and it was like you were dying. Every person you've liked or tried to date never lasted too long. So this time you decided just not to tell him, hard to scare someone away when he doesn't know there's a reason to. Pepper knew you told her, but even she agreed keeping him out of the loop would be for the best. It's not that you thought dad would hate your boyfriend, quite the opposite actually, you just knew he would hate that you were dating someone.

Peter was the sweetest guy you've ever met. You went to school with him for years but never really talked to him until this past year. You tried to talk to him before, you did always have a crush on him, but every time he'd stumble over his words and awkwardly walk away. But that kind of changed when you ran into him inside the tower, in the spiderman costume minus the mask.

"Hey, Y/N what's up?" he asked nonchalantly.

 "I- uhm nothing, you're spiderman?" 

"OH CRAP, yeah I, I'm not so good with this whole secret identity thing yet. Guess it's a good thing you're the one who saw me not someone else right?" he shrugged and went to the other room to change. 

While doing this your dad walked out, "Hey dad, were you gonna tell me that Peter Parker is Spiderman?" 

"No why?" 

"Maybe because I go to school with him, and he's my age," you say sarcastically. 

"Huh, guess he is." Peter walked back out now, this time in jeans with the suit in hand. 

"The suit keeps malfunctioning and Karen keeps speaking German. Can you fix it Mr. Stark?" he asks but your dad's head is in another world. 

"Here I can fix it, come on to my lab." you grab the suit and walk down the hall.

 "You have your own lab?!"

After that day the two of you spent most of your free time working on the suit, or other technology in your wing of the tower. You guys became friends fast, and Peter seemed beyond stoked to share the superhero life with someone besides Ned, your father, and Happy. Your crush went from just a small one where you thought he was cute, to a full-blown one where all you thought of was Peter. Was he hurt? How did his Spanish test go? Did he like how you looked in this dress? etc. One day after he left a study session in your kitchen, Pepper found you daydreaming. 

"You should tell him" she advised. 

"Tell who what?" you inquired. 

"Tell Peter you like him, I think he feels the same way." 

"He doesn't, I don't- we don't like each other. We're just friends." you stutter. Pepper just hummed in disbelief.

Things stayed this way for a few months until one night when he came to your window hurt. 

"Peter, what happened? Are you alright?" 

"Not so much, think you can help me?" he grunted in pain. You tried not to show how worried you were, but seeing him in any kind of pain was hard to do. 

"You should be in the medical bay, let me go get my dad." 

"No, no, NO. You can not get Mr. Stark. He can't know I went out. I promised I'd leave this one alone and if he found out I got hurt, I'd be in so much trouble." If anyone knew what it was like to disobey Tony Stark and have him figure out, it was you. So you went and got a first aid kit. Luckily when you were 15 you took a couple first aid courses after a series of minor injuries in the lab that you didn't want to worry your dad over. It took an hour or two but you fixed him up, and it wasn't anything serious anyway. It was a nice night out so you guys moved out to your balcony with a blanket. He told you the entire story of what happened that night, and somewhere along the line both of you fell asleep in each other's arms.

After that night Peter pulled away. He stopped coming over to study, stopped showing up in your lab to work on projects and avoided you in school. You raked your head for what had happened but came up blank. Thinking he just maybe needed some time apart you gave him two weeks. But after zero contact for those two weeks, you had enough. You decided to corner him at his apartment after school. May answered the door and invited you in, saying you could go to his room where he was. 

You knocked, and heard "Yeah May, come in!" so decided it was okay to go in. 

"Hey." 

"Hey." Since when had things been this awkward between the two of you.

 "I haven't heard from you in a while and thought I'd check up on you. Is everything okay?" you said quietly. 

"Just been busy, sorry." You decided taking the sweet approach wasn't working. 

"You're always busy, but before you made time for me. Why are you avoiding me?!" 

"God Y/N I don't want to avoid you, but maybe it's better we stop hanging out." 

"Bullshit. I am calling bullshit. Tell me what's really going on." 

"I LIKE YOU, okay? I like you and hanging out with me is a bad idea. I get hurt, and you looked so worried a few weeks ago when I came in injured. And it sucks knowing you don't feel the same way." He liked you, Peter liked you. 

"You do know that my dad is Iron Man right? Everyone I know is always hurt, and I'm always worried. Also, who said I don't feel the same way. I have had a crush on you for years." his eyes widened at the last part. 

"You do? I uh- you like me?" He may be a superhero but man was he a dork. 

"Will you kiss me now?" you smiled and he pulled you close to him. He reached up and cupped your face and tentatively met your lips.  

Kissing Peter was by far the best thing you've ever done. At first, he held back, not wanting to hurt you in any way. But after you grabbed his hair something switched. When you pulled away both of you started giggling. 

"You dork." 

"Hey!"

Dating Peter was like a dream. He always made sure to text you good night, take you on dates after his spider duties. (Your favorite dates were the ones where you just sat on top of buildings talking.) It had been four months of you being the happiest you've ever been. But while in the beginning sneaking around was fun, you really hated lying to your dad now. Whenever Pete came by you would have to act like friends, no touching and definitely no kissing. As things became more serious the two of you decided you had to tell your dad. It was all planned out, on Saturday both of you would have dinner with dad and Pepper, and tell him calmly.

The Friday before telling him the tower was empty, which had to have been a first for the place. You and Peter walked in planning to study but instead took the emptiness as a blessing. 

"FRIDAY is anyone but us in the top floors." 

"No Y/N." 

"Where's my dad?" 

"Your father is at a SHIELD meeting across town and not set to be back until 8 pm." It was only 4 pm. 

"Pete, my room?" you said not even waiting for a response. The two of you ran to your room like the teenagers you are.  

While at the beginning of your relationship Peter was nervous about kissing you, now was a completely different story. The minute the two of you made it to your room he had you pressed up against the door with his mouth moving ferociously against yours. You could practically hear your heartbeat thumping out of your chest. One hand of his was pressed against the wall, the other holding your hip. The groan that came out of his mouth when you broke for air sent shivers down your spine. You pulled at his shirt, wanting it off but not having a clear enough mind to convey that to him with words. He got the hint though and threw it across the room before hoisting you up and carrying you to your bed.

You loved Pete for who he was, but the muscles in his chest were just the icing on top. As you kissed your hands mapped every inch of his body. He was all yours. In a moment of bravery, you rolled over so that you could be on top of him, straddling his hips, and removed your top. Not wanting to waste a moment you met his lips again and started to slowly grind on him, releasing little moans of pleasure. The door to your room then swung open suddenly. 

"Hey Y/N, I got out early and was thinking-AHHH" your dad screamed and you tried to cover both you and Peter but the damage was already done. 

"CLOTHES ON, LIVING ROOM NOW," he said walking away. Poor Peter looked as white as a ghost.

Walking into the living room you see your dad sitting on the couch with his head in his hands. Peter is right behind you and your dad calls Pepper on FRIDAY. You awkwardly wait for her to come, but secretly are glad to have an adult on your side. When Pepper enters she looks between you, Peter and your dad before saying 

"I thought we were waiting until tomorrow." You try and motion for her to not finish the sentence but she did. 

"YOU KNEW?" dad yells. "YOU KNEW THEY WERE AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME. SHE'S MY KID AND HE WAS CORRUPTING HER." 

"Uh Mr. Stark, I didn't do anything she didn't want to. In fact, she was liking it very much." Peter stutters. 

"PETE SHUT UP" you yell. Your face is the color of a tomato and you swear that this is the single most embarrassing moment of your life. Dad points at Peter, then you. 

"I- nope. This isn't going to happen." 

"Tony, this has been happening." Pepper chimes in. 

"How long?" when nobody goes to speak he asks again. "How long!?" 

"4 months" you mumble. 

Then dad looks at Pepper, "How long have you known?" 

"Since before she realized she even liked him," she says smugly. 

"Mr. Stark I-" 

"No, zip it not another word from you. I need a minute" he says. Everyone then goes quiet and all look at your dad. After a minute or so he finally speaks. "Okay, but if I see what I saw again, or I see any sort of prequel to it then I will kill him." You smile and hug Peter. "What did I JUST say?" 

"DAD it was a HUG"

After your dad found out things eventually went back to normal. As normal as they could be at least with having a dad as Iron Man, and a boyfriend as a part spider superhero. Dad and Peter seemed to get over the awkwardness after a few weeks. Although you did have to hear both of them complain about the other more frequently. Being a mediator when they fought over what movie was better was actually physically draining. Maybe this was an unconventional life, but you wouldn't trade it for the world.

[clownsgobeepbeep]

Enforcers

@grotesquegabby 

In which the rules of Halloween are demonstrated yet again

Of course, a warning for gore/blood/violence 

After a rather interesting meeting and more, Ula could honestly say that she was filled with surprised at the news she had received about her new friend, or at least that was what she thought of him.

She and her mother had been invited over to her uncle Pepper’s house, this new friend having been at the house to hang out with Ula’s cousins.

Pepper and this ‘Alexander’ character had been chatting, Pepper asking what Alexander planned to do for Halloween as the time finally approached. And then, he said such alarming news.

“Oh, I’ve never celebrated Halloween actually.”

Such shock ran through Ula’s mind, her little body could not believe such a thing! Especially from a guy like this. Now this, this was something Ula had to fix a.s.a.p.

_____________

“So cool cat, what’d you call me up for?”

“Halloween.”

Against her mother’s wishes, Ula had gone out of her home late into the night, wandering the lonesome town until finding herself in the public park. Not too long after, she was accompanied by Alexander who flashed his grin in the darkness.

“I must say that I am bewildered at the fact that you have never celebrated Halloween.” Ula stood before the taller clown who stared down at her. “So, I have decided to make it my personal duty to teach you the wonders of Halloween and its rules.”

“Rules?”

“Indeed! There are a total of eight rules that ust be followed, but five of those are a lot more important than the rest. So these I will teach you throughout this month.”

“Sounds dope! What’s the first one?” Alexander crouched down to be closer to Ula’s height as he kept his hands in his pockets, Ula giving him a sly smile before pulling her out from behind her, revealing a large, orange lollipop with a jack o-lantern face on it.

_____________

After an entire month of waiting, Halloween day had finally arrived.

All sorts of decorations adorned practically everything, wherever you looked there was a pumpkin or bat or spider in sight. This was something that was clearly spotted by the pair that walked along the sidewalk, one carrying an empty burlap sack that dragged on the ground. This one was dressed in an orange onesie with two yellow patches, also wearing a large burlap mask over her head. Next to her was a taller man, wearing an outfit resembling a greaser’s as his hair was slicked and combed back in a matching style.

“This neighborhood is clean.” the one in the burlap stated before the man looked down at her through his shades. “Everybody seems to be following the rules.”

“Yeah!” the greaser nodded before the shorter figure ceased her walking, prompting him to stop as well to not bump into her. They both looked up at a house as they heard a door be slammed, noticing that there was a group of kids standing before it, all with disappointed expressions.

“Looks like we finally found one, huh?” 

“Yeup!” the child nodded as they watched the scene unfold, early trick or treaters leaving the house after having been denied candy. “Rule number one?”

“Always hand out candy to trick or treaters.~” the man gave a big, sinister grin as X’s appeared on his shades, then being handed one of the orange lollipops he had seen so many times throughout the month. He took it, bringing it to his lips to give it a single lick, then taking a bite out of it which left it with sharp curves.

“I’ll see you in a bit.” the child waved to the man who had soon disappeared, so she approached the same door they had been looking at previously. Her sack dragged on the floor once again and remained there as she lifted one of her gloved hands, her finger pressing the button that rang the home’s doorbell.

“I said get out!”

“Trick or Treat!” the child shouted before stomps were heard, angry unlocking followed soon after right before the door was roughly swung open.

“I don’t have any fucking candy, so just fucking leave! Tell all your damn friends no candy here!” the home owner yelled at the child who lowered her sack, tilting her head as he glared down at her. However, she then raised her open sack once again.

“Trick or Treat!” she repeated in a cheery tone, making the man’s frown deepen as he even grit his teeth.

“I said no fucking candy!”

“Well, I’ve got some for ya mofo!” came a voice from inside the house and before the man was able to turn around, he choked out a sound that turned into a gurgle. Right on his throat was the orange lollipop from before, digging deep as it had been stabbed into his neck before being ripped out. With that, the child in front of him saw as blood squirted out of his new wound as he attempted to gasp for air but only dropped to the ground as blood kept pouring out.

“I found some candy inside.”

“Great! You go get it and I drag the body inside.”

“Pfft, you sure?” the greaser gave a chuckle before he was given a look by the child, or at least he very well knew that since she was hiding beneath her large mask.

“Alexander Calamity.”

“Come on, just call me Alex. You know I hate that formality shizz.”

“Okay. Alex, please move your butt so we can go spook more people.~” the child giggled before Alexander gave a grin, his shades showing thumbs up as he saw her pick up the man’s limp body and drag him into the house as a trail of blood was left behind.

_____________

“These decorations are pretty fly, but I bet I can make some better ones.” Alexander commented as he ate a candy bar. “Bet I can make some cooler lookin’ ones though.”

“Well with this stuff,” Ula lifted her burlap sack that now contained a few contents inside, the sack tinted crimson on a few spots. “I’m pretty sure we can make such great ones!”

The pair walked down the sidewalk once again, nearing the town square that was a lot more crowded than the neighborhoods they had been previously visiting.

“You could hang them in your front yard!”

“Yeah! And nobody will ever know what they really are.” Ula giggled as she peeked inside the sack, the contents being severed parts from their latest victim. Alexander had been given the honors to chop the guy up and it was clear that he had fun doing that, even taking everything out of his head that was displayed on his coffee table.

“I said no! I’m not buying it for you!”

“But, but, y-you promised…”

“Hold up!” Ula held up her hands which made Alexander stop walking, his shades now presenting questions marks as he watched her turn to the side where they heard some voices. He also turned to the side, noticing a mother and her son who was crying as he held onto a plastic containing a costume as they stood in front of a table and display with last minute costumes.

“It’s stupid just as Halloween is stupid. I am not buying you the damn costume!” she yelled at the boy before ripping the costume out of his hands and throwing it to the side, then roughly grabbing his wrist in attempt to drag him away from the stand.

“Alex?” Ula turned to the man who furrowed his eyebrows, still maintaining a grin however as he continued to watch the sight in the distance. “That boy’s not gonna be safe from the evil spirits lurking around tonight if he doesn’t get that costume.”

“Word.”

“Do you remember rule number two?”

“Always wear a costume.” Alexander looked down at Ula who gave a nod, both whipping around as they heard a smack.

They looked at the child who now held his cheek that slowly became a reddish hue, tears threatening to pour out of his eyes.

“In this case, we also must enforce the rule of never hurting the innocent.” Ula stated with clenched fists at her sides. “So, I’ll take the boy and you the mom.”

“Aiight. D̴̹̉̍͒́͑̃̚͠͝o̸͈͕̞̹̼̮͙̿p̶̢̼̟̫͎̐̕ȅ̷̙̟̏̾͝.̷̧̟̖͉̹͖͗̔͗̎͜͝.” Alexander’s grin seemed to grow before he and Ula parted ways.

_______

“Now I want you to shut up and not mention this again. Besides, it’s too damn late to be buying costumes, especially such a ridiculous one.”

The mother from before continued to drag her son through town, a clear frown on her features as she heard the child behind her sob.

“Stop crying or I’ll give you a reason to.” she hissed back at him, turning to look at him before she stopped walking in complete surprise. Her hand was not clasped around her son’s wrist but rather…a chocolate bar. How did she not realize such a switch?

“Where did you run off to!?” she yelled out as she turned, barely realizing that she was in an alley that, despite the daylight, seemed to be rather dark. “Come out now! You very well know I’m not in the mood for these games!”

“I wanna play a game though.” she heard somebody speak behind her, so she turned around before her eyes landed on a man dressed as a greaser.

“Who the hell are you!?” she yelled at him as he could only grin at her with such a sinister demeanor. “Where is my son?”

“Not sure you can call someone your k̵̡͙̹̹̞͂̒̇͜ḭ̴̧̢̭̦̱̥̪̩̭͋̐̌̃̈̚͝͝d̶̞̙̜̎͊̀̚̚͝ if you treat them the way you do.”

“Shut the hell up and tell me what you did with him!”

“Don’t worry about it,c̴̢̡̻̝̘͐̚h̶̳̳͕̦̭̪͑̔̽̂͛i̷̧͙̹͒̾̽͆̀̇͠c̵̢̙̮̐̓̓͋͂͋̅ă̸̼̝̔͆̽̑̐͋̊͌͝. My little homie’s taking care of him.” the woman heard as the man pulled his arms from behind him, revealing the very same costume her son had oh so desired. “Meanwhile…

Ī̵̧̈'̸̢̘͒́l̴̛̹̫̳͇̹̥͓͛̐͛̋l̷̛͔̗͚̆̈̃̂́̐̾̕͝ ̶͎̫̠̳̣͔͂͊́̍͂͐̈́̿h̸̡̟͕͓̎ḛ̶͍̾̓͌̈̀̑͊͐͗l̸͙͉͙̞̹͐̅͆̋͆͋͐̄̈́ͅp̴̦͍͉̰̃͂̾̎̾̆̿̈́̀̈́͜͜ ̷̭͖͔͍̰͉͖̌̎̔̊͆͋̆̌͌͝ỵ̸̠͇͇̃̓̋̒̓̈́͛͒̚͝o̸̝͇̟̤̓̅̋͌ự̴̥̦̇̌̏̕ ̶̡͓̠̭̥̬̬̓̈́w̴̩̗̖̝͙̥̖̭͈͕̾̿̽̿i̷̮̭̯͔͋̈̿̈́̚̕t̴̨̢̘͉̺̮̜̮̫̮͛͒̂̒̏̈́̒͠h̶̡̬̎ ̶̧̡̛̤͎͆͑̐̈́͋͗̒y̷̢̺̹͎͙̣̗̖̝̱͊̇̚ò̵̧̰̲̮͈̩͙̹ủ̸̝̭͍̝͈̲̆̆̊͋͊̾̏͋͗r̶̆̍̏̒́̈́͋͆̋̏͜ ̸̨̢̰͙̲̱͖̻͎̇̉̋̉c̷̡̛̠̯̥̭̼̈́̑̂̃̎́̽̚ợ̴̡̦̗̖̠̹͎̔͝s̴̡̨͇͍̩̜̻̳͎͓̓̏̄̉̿̔͂͠t̷̮͉̺̣̦̘͓̥̀̐̎u̴̫̮͑̿̈́̀̓̕͝m̶̥͐̒́̿͒͝e̷̡̨̖̱͍͍͚̣͖͋̇͒͒͜.̸̡̹͇̟͇̝͍̻̂͑́͛̊̋́̊̚͜   ‘’

_____________

After a long night of trick or treating, everybody had soon parted ways and gone home.

Well, mostly everybody.

Just like on very many nights, the window to the bedroom belonging to Ula now slid open ever so carefully. Soon, a burlap sack was dropped down onto the ground outside, falling onto the cool grass below. Then, a foot and leg popped out before being followed by another and then the body they were connected to.

Ula now hopped down onto the grass beside her empty sack, then picking it up as her other hand went up to her mask, adjusting it to then scan the area around her.

“Yo, yo there cool cat.~”

Ula turned around and was slightly startled as she now saw Alexander, still in costume of course, standing behind her.

“Alex!”

“Wassup!” Alexander crouched down to be closer to Ula’s height as they smiled at each other. “What ya got planned now?”

“We must observe all those who are still awake.” Ula whispered before motioning to her bag. “Emptied it out so we can get some pumpkins and possibly candies. Or just some other kind of snacks.”

“Sweet!~” Alexander nodded before standing straight, walking away with Ula as the two giggled to themselves.

They walked around the neighborhood, Ula placing a hand on a plethora of pumpkins who’s lights had gone out. However, she was glad to say that it was but a mere wind that blew out the lights, so that was something that was easily fixed. However, she soon came across a pumpkin that made her stop in her tracks.

“Now that’s shady.” Alexander crouched to touch the pumpkin they found on the ground, completely smashed into several pieces with its seeds and inside spread all out. He reached a hand down to touch it, grabbing a seed before noticing that the rest of the seeds and inside made a trail. In fact, he could easily make out a trail of footsteps which made him grin, his eyes flashing with scary pumpkin faces.

“These pumps got a brutal beating.”

“I know…” Ula mumbled out before Alexander noticed that both her fists were tightly clenched as she shook with clear anger, but he could also sense a tint of sadness in her.

“Hey, let’s give those mofos a taste of their own medicine.” he nudged Ula who gave a nod, walking behind him as he already knew where the culprits were. Soon enough, Alexander found them, a group of young adults who walked down a sidewalk. Their shoes were dirtied with pumpkin remains just as the bats they carried were.

“You wanna sit this one out?” Alexander turned to Ula who gave a soft nod, so he gently pat her head before accepting the burlap sack she now handed over to him. He then cracked his knuckles and even other parts of his body, then heading towards the group as he adjusted his shades that flashes with X’s, his grin still on his features.

“Yo! What’s the dillio around here my dudes?” Alexander asked the group who now stopped walking, turning to him in confusion as he now stood in front of them with his hands on his hips.

“The fuck are you?”

“Just your local cool dude, watching the streets.” he shrugged before pointing to their bats. “What’cha using those for?”

“Smashing pumpkins.” another of the members replied. 

“You’re not one of those who gets sentimental about that, are you?” one asked Alexander before he gave a shrug.

“Maybe. But I do know that you f̷̺̎̍̈́͂̑̃̉̋̕ǫ̶͓̟͖̈́̿̏̈́̌͒͠ơ̵͍̫̅̍͐͂̈́̓̕͘l̵͖͔̞̖̔͐͘͜s̴̡̧̬͔͚̪̰̗͊͌̏ ain’t following certain rules.”

“Rules?”

“Yeah! Never heard of ‘em, huh? Well, let me teach you some.” Alexander gave a nod, right before from his back sprouted a few tentacles but that the group watch him with wide eyes. “Rule number three of Halloween:

ņ̸̟̝͖͙͕̝̫̓̽̄̕e̵̢̫͍̞̠͖̭̜͚̾͊͜v̶͚͛͐̑̅͂e̵̢͈̮͖̹̓͗͂ŗ̸̳͈̟̮͈̝́̃̚͠ ̷̫̺͇̖̮̌͐͘ͅͅb̸̢̬̩͍̟͕̄̌̔͂̀̈́̑̀̕͠ͅl̴̬͚̤̘̓̐̃̓ǫ̴͒̋́͝w̶̨̤͉̣̝̜̲̪̬̎͊̀̔̎̕ ̵̗͖͉̟̝͓̰̣͝o̶̧͚̼̫̤͖̪̬̜̊̌͘͝͠ͅu̷̧̗̩͖͍͂̓t̵̢̬̝̬͇̣̻̱̓̈́͒͐͋ ̷̨̜͇͓͇͇̘̈́͝a̴̼̱̼̭͚͙͛̒̾̚ ̵̢̪̗͓͓̖̇̾̓̀͌͜͝ͅj̵̨̧̥̼͓̭̪́̅̈́͊̎̌͝ȃ̵̝̣̹̃́̿̏c̵̨̨̲͙̪̺̬̺̮͑͒̑͌̕k̸̦̀̈́̔͜͝ ̴͙̎̕̚ơ̷̝͈̏͝’̴͎̔͆̿̐͌̊̌͝l̴̨̞̳͔̻͌͐̾̽̀͆̅͗̕͜ȃ̴̝̪̰̥͚͔̺̖̫̕n̷͙͈̠̣̩̈́̓͒t̶̲͎͎͎̲̞̣̅̎̉e̶̢͙͔̦̠̾̾͆̅̍͋́͘r̴̨̡͚͎̱̲̦̫̃̔͆̐ͅṅ̷̛̞̈́̈́͑͂̍́̚͝ ̷̧̛͖͉̼̜̤̺̈́̎̎̌̾̓ḃ̸̗̥̖̤̂ͅȩ̷̖̖̦̞͇̠̹̭̂̓͆͠f̵͔̊̆͆o̵̡̜͙̦͕͇̜͚̭̓̽́̈́͌̀̈́ͅr̵̨̈́̓̀̋̔̏̾̑͝͝e̶̜̜̟̠͕͗̽́̑̍̈̏̈̕͝ ̴̢̞̲̫͓̭͋m̸̠̦͔̭̜̀̌̐͋͋̿̇͆ḭ̵̝̰͎̺̖̹̟̲̌̒̒̈́̑͑͘͠ͅḍ̷̖̯̗̫̥͊̀̃͑̈́͒̾̒n̶̨͓̪͈̩̮̟̭͍̚͜i̴̧̧̧̤̳̼͇͂͐́̊͂̀͐̔g̵̥͍̠͛̅h̴͍̅̓̿͌͋̄̓̃̔̀ṭ̵̟̃̋̿̕.̵̛͉͎͔̥͇̭̇̑̂̄̂͒̆̉ .

Especially if you’re gonna smash it.”

Before any of them could react, a gasp was heard as a tentacle went right through one of the members, the others now gasping in terror as the tentacle was retrieved. Their eyes followed it and landed on Alexander again as he gave a laugh.

“I̸̡̱̟͐͛͂̈́́͑̀̈́͆ț̸̛͎̘̦̜̳̹̿͌̽̄̉̊͝͝'̷̛̬͖͎̀̍̍̈́͘͝͠͠ş̶̟͉̰̾́͋͘͝͝ ̴̧̘̻̻̈́͊̈́̓̂͛̍͐̐̕g̵̲̩̝͓̩̻̟̞̹͋̀͌̌̍o̸̼͍͂̂́ͅ ̸͖̎̀͋̚t̷̩͎̭̽̄̐̄̑͆i̷̳̓́m̴̛̞̳̭͙̓̀̆̾͑e̷̟͓̖̺̫̻͓̒̌͂͛̊̉̾!̷̨̙͕͚̙̩̺͓̪̔͂̒̿̍̃́̈̂”

“Fuck this!” one of the members shouted out, then running in the opposite direction as the others followed suit, yet they were all brought to the ground as they felt something wrap around their ankles. They realized that tentacles held onto each one of them, dragging them back towards Alexander which filled them all with panic.

“Not time to bounce just yet.~” Alexander then reached down as a bat was swung right at him. “Wrong move.”

In an instant, Alexander snapped the bat in half before discarding of it to the side, then grabbing onto the arm that originally held onto the bat to give it the same treatment. Bones cracked loudly as screams and sobs followed, Alexander only laughing to himself.

“But wait! This isn’t all I’m gonna do!~” he announced before breaking a few more arms and then legs, his tentacles releasing everybody who now had no chance of escaping. “I wanna s̸̢͍̥͉͕̙͓̊̐̈́́͋̇̾̓͘m̴͈̣̯͈͖͋̓̍͂̈́̀͘͜͝à̶̯̮̩͈͙̠͉̞s̷͂̾̊̾̿͊́̓̕̕͜ḩ̸̦̘̗͇̈́́̀͝ͅ some pumpkins too!”

One of the members watched as Alexander approached them, giving a blood curdling shriek as his foot came down to their face, smashing their entire head as Alexander sadistically smiled at all of them. Then another scream followed as he smashed another head, and then another, realizing that blood had splattered onto his shoes as well as the bottom of his jeans.

“My bad, did I make it seem like I forgot about you?” Alexander leaned down, dangerously close as he hovered over one of the remaining members. “Don’t worry, I can fix that b̷͔̺̤̮̙̯̱͗̇͂ͅͅṷ̸̡̘̘̠͙̮͈̖̅̋̓̆̀̕͜͝͠ḑ̵͙͈̭̻̯̰̎̿̐̉͌̄̕. “

He reached down to the person’s neck, squeezing tightly before ripping it all out. Alexander now held a spine and head as he looked down at the survivors who attempted to crawl away, though moving even the slightest bit proved to be a rather difficult task.

“P-please! Stop!”

“We’re s-s-sorry!”

“Talk to the hand dudes.” Alexander reached down yet again, his hand, or in fact claw, jabbing right into a face before he pulled out whatever he could, dropping it on the ground. To finish off, Alexander jumped into the air before smashing the remaining heads, laughing to himself before eventually landing on the sidewalk with a pleased sigh.

“Hey tiny!” Alexander called out before he saw his masked friend approach him. “How was that?”

“Perfect!” Ula gave him a thumbs up before Alexander presented her the spine and head. 

“How’s about we keep some of these as souveniers?”

“Yeah! And we make this head into a pumpkin.”

“Like the way you think homie.”

_____________

“Is this it?”

“Yeup!”

Ula and Alexander now stood before a house, one that seemed to be the slightest bit off. They stared at it for a while before Ula took the lead, walking down the path and up the doorsteps, peeking in through a window to see a man. He was sitting on a couch with a bowl of candies beside him, casually eating every single one as evert wrapper was dropped on the ground.

“What’cha see?” Alexander now stood behind Ula as he peeked into the window as well, shades flashing images of candies.

“A nasty old man.”

“Word.” he nodded before they looked at each other, Ula then presenting yet another orange lollipop before she and Alexander gave each other sinister grins.

_____________

Flipping through the channels of his old television, the man gave a yawn before reaching into his candy bowl once again. He set down his remote control to open one of the wrappers, never realizing as a tentacle reached in and carefully took his bowl. Before the man could reach into the bowl again, a hand placed another bowl, practically identical to the first.

The man popped the candy into his mouth before throwing the trash on the floor, once again reaching into his candy bowl. He repeated his actions from before, popping in the next candy into his mouth and biting into what was a chocolate. However, he then scrunched up his nose and spit the candy out, standing up in disgust as he glared down at the sweet.

“What the fuck!?” he yelled while wiping his mouth, then rushing into his kitchen to turn on the sink, washing his mouth with water as fast as possible. “Ugh, what the fuck….how the hell did I…”

He pondered to himself as spat out just a few more times, wiping his lips again as he had tasted what he had included in a few of the candies he meant to pass out but unfortunately had leftover. So, he approached his couch and grabbed the bowl, taking a sniff of the candies before turning his nose again.

He shook his head and walked towards his kitchen again, never realizing that something crawled on the ceiling above him, following him everywhere he went. The man opened his trash bin before throwing the candies inside, then turning around to see as his television switched channels by itself.

“What the…” he furrowed his eyebrows, then stepping towards it as he figured it was a mere malfunction for his television was old. On the screen were images of costumed children, all chanting trick or treat which made him give a snicker. However, his smirk faltered after having heard a giggle…and right above him.

Ever so slowly yet apprehensively, the man turned his head to look up before his mouth opened as he attempted to let out some sort of sound, but he was too shocked to do so. However, he then managed to give a scream as the figure above him dropped down and clasped onto his head from behind, claws digging right in.

“What the fuck what the fuck! Get off!” the man yelled as he felt the small figure scratching him all over, also holding on very tightly as their legs were wrapped around him. “Get off you bitch!”

The man then took hold of the small one, gripping on tightly to throw them off of him and onto the wall where a loud thump sounded. 

He panted to himself before rushing towards the orange figure, his intentions being to fight as it was now down and hurt, but his intentions were interrupted when he felt his robe be grabbed and tugged back harashly.

“That wasn’t very n̷̡̪̦̪̬̼͈͍͓̓̀͑̏̃̑̈į̸̢̨̨̮̳͇̟̣͇̈́̏̅̈́͒c̴̱̯̠͇̻͍̫̰̥̺̉̈́͋̀̑́̓̅̾̕ẹ̶̺͇̉͜  of you my dude.” he heard as he was thrown onto the ground, then looking up to see Alexander who gave him a devilish grin. “Can’t go around hurting kids like that, not cool.”

“What the fuck do you want from me!?”

“Not much, just wanted to give you a reminder is all.”

“R-reminder!?”

“Yeah, or more like a message to other asses like you.” Alexander gave the man a pat on the head. “And to all those who come by to cribs like this one, always check your candy.~”

The man gave out a gasp as he felt Alexander dig his claws right into his abdomen, digging around as he never looked away from the man.

“Let’s see, what do we have here?” Alexander tilted his head before pulling out intestines that made the man’s breathing worsen as well as quicken with pants. “I can tell there’s lots of candies in here. Hey, come check these out.”

Despite the shock and pain, the man saw as the figure from before stood up from the ground they had been slumped against. They approached him and Alexander, little legs bending to get a closer look of the gorey sight.

“There’s a lot of candy in there.” Ula’s voice was heard before her claw dug into the man as well, making him scream again before coughing out blood. “Some might have poison, good thing we’re checking them.”

“Yeah. I say we keep on checking.” Alexander nodded before reaching into his pocket, pulling out a chocolate bar that he unwrapped to reveal a piece of chocolate with a blade dug into it. Right then, Ula presented her bitten lollipop as well before she and Alexander turned to the man with fiendish smiles.

“Don’t worry.” Ula whispered. “We’ll go slow and make sure we see every piece.”

And for the rest of the night, as a plethora of people peacefully slumbered, screams were heard all around like the wonderful chanting of trick or treaters.

[luikapu]

VALENTINE’S DATE → LUBY

TAGGING → Baby Charming (@aybaby) & Lui Kapu

TIMELINE → Saturday, February 16th, 2019

SETTING → Valentine’s Ball

SUMMARY → So anyway here’s what we wrote before we got bored and/or distracted...

Lui was pretty stoked about this whole Valentine's Day thing, and he hoped that Baby was, too. After he'd gotten dumped for being a cheating douchebag in high school, he'd taken ages and ages to get back into the dating game, but after getting dumped last summer when he'd been nothing but an awesome boyfriend? He had a totally different attitude towards it, and he was glad that he'd found someone as cool as Baby at the exact right time in his life. He wasn't sure if she saw tonight as like a real date, but Lui did, and he hoped that by the end of the evening he was on the same page. "How do I look?" Lui asked her with a wink, showing off his hairy, barely-covered legs underneath the ridiculous black french maid dress, as promised. "Do you think Melody Triton's going to buy that these cleaning supplies are actually cleaning supplies or not?"

Baby didn't really know what her situation with Lui really was outside of like flirting, making plans to do things in France together and their hook up on New Year's, but she really liked him a lot and was super eager to impress him in the hopes that maybe he'd think of her in a way that was a little something more...romantic than the posse of girl best friends he was also probably hooking up with. "Super hot. If you were my maid, I'd tip you so good." Baby giggled, looking Lui up and down appreciatively. "What about me?" She asked, posing in her little pink Hugh Hefner inspired smoking jacket that only just slightly covered up a lacy black bralette and tight pencil skirt, her sexy interpretation of the kind of person that would hire someone in a sexy French maid uniform. "I think so! But I don't know, she might be suspicious because...she just is. So if I see her coming your way, I'll just run up to her and think of some story to send her somewhere else. You think Ren'll be pissed if I keep sending her her way or should I pick one of their cousins?"

Lui was having a hard time remembering to look at Baby's face instead of just her body. The outfit that she had on was pretty incredible, both because of how it made her look and because of how fun it was. Lui's last girlfriend had been nice, but she'd taken herself kind of seriously sometimes. Hanging out with Baby made him laugh; she was full of surprises, her costume tonight included. "You look so hot that it makes me look like Wallace Shawn or something in comparison," he told her with a grin, looping an arm around her waist to keep his date close to him. Sure, he had friends that he should go and say hi to at some point, but he knew that he didn't want to lose track of Baby at the dance. "And because I'm me. Playing pranks at dances and stuff kind of used to be my M.O." He snorted at the idea of setting Melody on Ren, but decided he'd let his housemate have a night of fun. "Nah, what about the slutty yoga cousin? I bet we could come up with all sorts of great lies about trouble she's causing."

Baby felt her face warm up at the compliment but scrunched her nose up in thought for a moment. "Wallace Shawn? Really? No one even slightly more bangable like Danny Devito?" She snickered, hoping that he understood that she was 100% joking about finding Danny Devito being bangable. "Oh, then that too I guess! Why'd you give up on pulling pranks at dances? Was it the neutering thing you said Gwen made fun of you for?" Baby asked, lowkey wondering if her encouragement of the maid uniform and boozy fake cleaning supplies meant she had the opposite impact on him as his last girlfriend and she'd be someone's his friends would approve of. "Oh my gosh! She'd be a great one! We could say we overheard her talking about releasing her goats into the dance or planning an orgy since there's so many pretty people around!"

Lui clutched a hand to his heart, like he was wounded by Baby's words. "No way, Wallace is way more bangable than Danny! Those tufts he's got growing on the side of his head are a no go for me," Lui teased, sure Baby realized that he'd most definitely never bang either one of the men in question, either. Or any man, probably, although Lui didn't like to rule things out; he'd try just about anything once. "Huh, I dunno," Lui admitted, trying not to get too pensive about it. He liked that things were so light and fun with Baby; he felt like she kind of got the stuff underneath, even without him having to say it. "I guess I just kind of grew up a little? I still like to have a good time, but like... passing the torch to the younger tricksters and stuff, you know? Give them their chance to shine." He snickered at Baby's agreement, reaching out his hand to lead her onto the dance floor, where everyone was sure to stare at how awesome they looked. "Although you know... it would be pretty cool if there were actual goats here, we could always try a prank for old time's sakes and blame Aubrey or Audrey or whatever her name is for it..."

Baby rolled her eyes and pulled Lui's hand away from his chest, oh so sneakily not letting it go for a minute longer than necessary. "You do know what Wallace Shawn looks like, right? He's got the exact same tufts on the side of his head as Danny! Besides, they're super old and a girl needs something to hold onto and a wrinkly scalp just ain't it." She wrinkled her nose at the visual but laughed again anyway. Baby listened to Lui talk as led the way. She couldn't exactly relate since she'd never pulled a prank bigger than a shock pen in her whole life, but she could still understand what he meant. "I think people are really taking advantage of the chance you're giving them then. Last year's prom got stink bombed pretty bad and then I think I heard this year's homecoming queen had a Janet Jackson moment? I'm sure your pranks are way cooler though." Baby reached up and looped her arms around Lui's neck once they made it to the dance floor and sort of frowned at his idea, more out doubt in herself than at Lui. "That would be so so so much fun but I dunno? I've never really pulled a prank before and wouldn't our outfits just attract attention? Well, even more attention anyway."

Lui scoffed, trying not to reveal just how much he wanted to laugh at Baby's accusation. He narrowly bit back his smile, saying, "How dare you doubt me! I'm going to wear a Wallace Shaun mask on our next date just to prove I know what I'm talking about. I know everything ." Like he knew that Baby hadn't let go of his hand, and he knew that a year and a half ago, he never would have dreamed of mentioning dates in seriousness, much less alluding to future ones. And he knew that he had said that on purpose, just to gauge if she was into the idea or not. He knew that this night had barely begun, but it was already the best time Lui had had in a while, and he hoped Baby was amenable to the very not subtle hint that he wanted to do it again. "And yeah, I'd like to think I'm more epic than that. I've had bubbles coming out of flushing toilets, lots of punch that's actually spiked with good shit and not like, Krat, an invasion of toy cars that have condom baskets attached for everyone... You know, harmless but hilarious. It's always ind of been my thing." Lui shrugged as best he could while still keeping his arms around Baby; he didn't even know where to find goats right now, but even if he didn, he wasn't in a hurry to leave, even if he did get to leave with her. "Oh well, guess we'll just have to goat-ify the next dance instead, then. Think of something more lowkey for tonight."

Baby bit her lip to hold back the world's  biggest grin when Lui threatened her with a weird mask on their next date. Baby absolutely could not believe her luck! They weren't even that far into this date and he already wanted to spend more time with her. "Alright, then I'll wear a Danny Devito mask on our next date and I'll prove that you know everything, but that." Even though Baby had known all about Lui's reputation and some of his pranks well before they'd ever started hanging out, hearing him recount some of his greatest hits was super super attractive and a little bit intimidating. Especially when he put the ball in her court and suggested that she think of a lowkey prank for the night. The closest Baby had ever come to pulling a prank, was switching around all of the little outfits on her family's little mouse friends once when she was twelve. And even that hadn't been much of a prank since before Cinderella had even gotten a chance to see it, Baby had been filled with guilt and cried while switching all the tiny shirts and hats right back. "Oh gosh..I don't know. Maybe we should do something with the fake cleaning supplies we brought?"

Lui snorted at the idea of Baby dressed as Danny Devito, and almost said something about how he'd never imagined Danny and Wallace hooking up before but now it was all he could think about. He didn't, though; Baby was cool, and he didn't want her to think he was only interested in sex or whatever. That was the old Lui; now, he was trying to find some balance between like, the Old Old Lui from freshman year, who had been a kind of decent guy, and the newer Luis who liked to have fun and stuff but still wanted people to know when they were actually special. Most of all, he wanted to be special back, and Lui hoped that if tonight went well maybe he'd be special back to Baby. Or maybe he already was and he just couldn't be sure yet... "Okay, that would be hilarious. We could go up and spray it in people's faces and then start pretending that we have to call the hospital because we don't know how fast they're gonna get poisoned, or we could stage a really dramatic fight between us where we spray each other with it and put on a show and pretend to hate each other, or hmm..." Lui arched his eyebrows, wiggling them thoughtfully. "Or we could go find actual cleaning supplies, peel the labels off, and start sticking them on random people who are just minding their own business dancing."

[noraarchontis]

Don’t Fall

Chapter 7: The Silent Effect

Link: AO3 | FF

A.N: I hope you enjoy this shot chapter! I promise that chapter 8 has more suspense. Also, do you think I should post Don’t Fall starting from chapter 1 on Tumblr? Let me know!

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It was a warm and humid night as Red Robin stood on the rooftop of the Wayne Tower. The air was still warm, especially in his tight suits, despite the day’s cooler temperature than other nights. He wasn’t looking forward to how hard it’d be to take them off later. He sighed and breathed in and out as if to calm himself from his racing thoughts.

His mind wandered to the piles of documents sitting on his desk. He wasn’t worried about the business documents at all since he had almost finished them all. What he worried about was his little brother’s blood test that was sitting still untouched. He wasn’t trying to avoid it. It was the total opposite, actually, because he was quite curious about the official blood test from the hospital.

Why was there such a need for an official blood test when they could have it done in the cave? The question kept repeating in his head, but he couldn’t be bothered by it now since he needed to know what was the result saying.

He sighed, loud enough for him to hear his own breath going out from his mouth. Along with a tap on his shoulder.

Tim jumped immediately to defense mode with his bo-staff ready by his hand.

“Wow, wow! Calm down, Red Robin,” Red Robin’s faced the person talking to him with his staff still ready to attack. “Why are you so jumpy lately?”

“Batgirl,” he called as if not expecting her to be there with him. “I thought you were running twenty minutes late?”

She laughed and left Red Robin in the dark. It was almost like she didn’t believe what he was saying to her at all.

“What are you talking about, Red Robin? It has been twenty minutes. Are you okay?”

It was a sigh of relief that came out of his mouth the moment he recognized her. Was he really into such deep thought that he lost his sense surrounding? He sighed again and reminded himself that he needed to get his thoughts organized.

“Yeah, I was thinking. Sorry, I didn’t notice you at all,” he said.

She hesitated in trusting her partner of the night. Stephanie rarely saw Red Robin being this distracted before, and it wouldn’t be good if he were to be like this in the middle of a fight. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust his ability but being distracted to the point of not aware of his surrounding was the first for her to see.

“Hey,” Steph said in a more concern tone. “Is everything okay? What’s going on?”

Tim sighed when he heard the changed in her voice. He wasn’t sure if he should share about their little brother’s situation. Not that he didn’t trust her because he did. He just hadn’t analyzed the result to find anything to say yet.

“Let’s talk after. We need to get to GCPD to help their case.”

With that, Batgirl nodded and they both left to handle their usual business.

It was three in the morning when they came back from working with the police department. The roar of their motorcycles welcomed them back to the cave as they finished the night off. Tim took off his helmet as soon as he parked before hitting the floor and walked towards the computer. Stephanie did the same, except she also took off her mask after the helmet.

The cave was deserted, and it was rare considering how much Bruce liked to hoard the computer by himself. The Batman was still doing something on the computer before he left for patrol.

“Where’s Bruce? It’s weird to not see him in the cave around this time,” Stephanie broke the silence.

Tim didn’t answer her. He was pretty quiet the whole time they were working on the case, which made Stephanie wondered if something had happened.

“Tim, are you okay? You’ve been quiet.”

Stephanie tried again, then a sigh escaped from Tim’s mouth. She didn’t know what to expect but if talking helped, she could be a good listener.

“...I don’t know, Steph. Something’s been bothering me lately.”

She didn’t reply, just waiting for Tim to continue.

His hesitation was loud in the air, yet Stephanie didn’t say a thing. It was as if Tim was gathering his thoughts and trying to put it all in one sentence.

“I found something, and I don’t think I’m supposed to find it.”

What he said was vague, and he tried his best not to mention any names. He wasn’t sure what Stephanie’s reaction would be if he were to say Damian’s name out loud. Damian’s name wasn’t a taboo; but when he returned the mantel and started distancing himself from the family, it was seen as a rejection by the family. Some also felt guilty for something that they didn’t know, and it was killing them, trying to find what their faults were.

Tim didn’t want to go back to that. He didn’t need to try finding what his faults were anymore because he had so many, yet didn’t know which one triggered his guilts.

“What did you find and where did you find it?”

The follow-up question was bound to ask this, and Tim hadn’t prepared any answers for it yet. Would it help if he were to tell her that it was Damian’s?

“I don’t know if I’m supposed to tell you this, Steph. I haven’t finished looking up into it myself, so I can’t give you any explanations if you want to,” Tim said.

“Well, what is it? Don’t tell me you found drugs and thinking of using them,” Stephanie paused, looking at Tim as if she believed that was what going on. “Because if you say that, I’ll say no and tell Bruce about it.”

Tim sighed. He didn’t know how his sister got that idea in her head but it totally took all the tension out of him.

“No, thank goodness,” he said and heard Stephanie breathed out in relief. “I found Damian’s blood test result in his room when I tried to wake him up a few days ago.”

She nodded, probably didn’t find anything amiss from it yet. It was normal for them to have a routine blood test anyway, so this wasn’t something too weird.

“Is there anything wrong with it? Stop making me worry, please.”

Tim shook his head.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with it yet, but it’s from Gotham City Hospital,” Tim finally sat down on the chair in front of the big computer. “I haven’t called the hospital yet, thinking that I’ll be able to figure things out myself. But, it’s rare to see such an official blood test for no reason.”

“Is that the reason why he’s been sneaking out lately?” Stephanie asked while leaning on the table.

Tim thought about it for a second but couldn’t jump to a conclusion. It was a possibility but he didn’t have any evidence to support himself. Besides, if he did have evidence, would Damian be willing to open himself and talk about his issues with them?

It was impossible either way. If he were to face their youngest brother with all the information, Damian would only distant himself further from everyone. Even now, they eventually had to address the elephant in the room because it was getting much to his nerve. It didn’t help that Bruce was trying to avoid this whole thing too.

“I can’t say for sure. I’m still trying to figure out how he can get all these treatments without parental consent. It’s also impossible to get in and out of the hospital without being noticed by paparazzi too.”

He didn’t want to remind himself of the time he went to an arcade and the next day’s headline was his face on the first page. The headline was so ridiculous that he couldn’t bear seeing Jason teasing him about it, or Dick making puns related to it.

Stephanie sighed as she looked around the empty cave. They both needed to get out of their own costume and shower pretty soon.

“Don’t you think it’s comforting that he, at least, believe in someone enough to do this?”

What Stephanie said caught him off guard. He turned his face towards her only her eyes looking at the floor and lips glued together. Now, he felt guilty for sharing this with her. It wasn’t his intention to drag her down with him, but it was getting too much for him to hide everything by himself.

It did cross his mind that Damian had someone with him to get the help he needed. But, he never thought of it like the way Stephanie put it. He didn’t think of his brother trusting someone else enough to do this for himself. All he thought was the distance Damian placed in the family as a form of rejection. The thought of comfort never crossed his mind.

Tim sighed and noticed that he had been doing it a lot lately. He realized how tired he had been ever since he found that papers scattered in his brother’s room. How  Damian didn’t notice his presence in his sleep was a new surprising fact that he didn’t know until that day. For all his life, he knew how sensitive the youngest was with his environment and sound. Yet, it was comforting to know that he was not greeted with a knife on his neck when he sneaked in.

“Do you think he’ll ever tell us what’s going on?”

He asked. Others had been telling him that Damian would tell them when the time came. But, did they even believe what they were saying?

“...I don’t know, Tim. I honestly don’t know,” that sounded like the real answer he was waiting for. “There are questions that are best left unanswered. I think as long as we don’t ask him, he won’t ever tell us anything. Unless it was getting too much on him…”

His shoulders dropped, no longer tensed like before after he heard the answer from her mouth. What she said was true since this was Damian they were talking about. But, he didn’t want to force his brother either.

Tim wanted everyone to know first before they could say anything to Damian. He didn’t want to scare his brother more than he was now. The feeling of isolation and fear that anyone would judge Damian for what he did, he knew those feelings despite their differences.

He smiled, looking at Stephanie who hadn’t budged from where she was leaning. He felt better after letting everything out in the open to her. It wasn’t that he couldn’t believe anyone else but Stephanie was easier to talk to about this than to Dick or Jason. He could imagine Dick’s reactions in his head while Jason’s silence would definitely kill him.

“Thank you for listening, Steph. I have been thinking about this, and I guess it really took a toll on me.”

Stephanie moved; her head jerked up as she looked at Tim openly. What he got was only a sad smile as she stood up from the table and sighed.

“Well, what time is it now? It’s good talking with you like this, but take me out during the day next time. I’m tired and sleepy now.”

Tim chuckled and nodded. Everything that Stephanie said had turned into a promise now for Tim, but he was okay with it. All those didn’t matter much to how much relieved he had in his chest.

“I promise. Are you staying in the manor?’ He asked as he made his way to the locker and shower.

Stephanie shook her head as she yawned. Since Cassandra’s apartment wasn’t too far from the manor, she had promised to spend time with her.

“Nope. Promised Cass to stay with her and hang out. I bet she’s still waiting for me.”

Tim stopped on his track and turned over to see her.

“I’ll drop of you off. You’re about to fall asleep and I’m not risking it.”

Stephanie smiled as she walked towards the locker too. God, she needed a shower so badly and a bed. Her yawns were really getting annoying.

“Great. I’m counting on you, Red Robin. I’m dead on tired,” she said as she grabbed her clothes to head for the shower.

“Gotcha, I’ll drop you after a sandwich enters my stomach.”

She giggled and watched Tim walked away. Those smile fell away when Tim disappeared into the shower as if she had remembered something. But, she bet it was nothing important.

Stephanie hoped that it was nothing important at all.

It was close to four in the morning when he finally settled back in his own apartment. The tiredness had now sunk into his bones, but he still managed to walk to his desk and sit on the office chair. The documents in front of him were waiting to be transferred to the office while some were to be reviewed. Yet, it didn’t matter to him because what he wanted to see was his brother’s result.

Tim picked up the papers again and tried his best to stay focus despite his messy emotions. The guilts were eating him alive but he couldn’t care less about it. He needed to take care of this and called the hospital for more details. There was a possibility that he might need to visit the hospital doctor if he needed to.

Jerrik P. Wang was the name written as the doctor.

He continued to read the test result but knew that it was impossible to understand. There were some that he understood but Damian’s results were very detailed. It even listed the different kinds of immune systems too.

A sigh was all that came out as he put the document down on the table again. This was impossible and he knew it. He had to call Gotham City Hospital the moment he woke up and maybe set up an appointment with Doctor Wang. He doubted that he could get anything out of the doctor, but it was better than nothing at all.

It was better than knowing nothing about his own brother.

[tumblunni]

OKAY I FOUND SOMEONE SCANNED THE JAPANESE VERSION OF THE PERSONA 5 ARTBOOK!!! I’m still preordering the english version though. And this seems to have a LOT more text info and interviews than other artbooks I’ve got, so the english version will still be enlightening even though i cant resist the temptation to read this preview here... So yeah, I’m gonna link this in case anyone else wants to see! And also cos i really wanna talk about the interesting stuff AAAA!

IT HERE

But seriously I would feel ALL OF THE GUILT if I just read this and DIDNT buy the real version when it comes out in my country. So I’d heavily advise that all of y’all buy it too, okay? Its just real hard to wait til september.

Bunni’s Thoughts About Things In This Thing:

* The one everyone already seemed to know was Yusuke’s beta design, I think it was shown in an english interview or something? But yeah, I already knew about this, but I still really think he looks even cooler with long hair! And I like that they ended up using this design for his mother instead. That just feels like a really sweet way to deal with beta designs! Apparantly Ann’s design was based on Rise’s beta design from the last game, so its nice to know that atlus always tries to find ways to keep promising ideas, even if they dont work with the current project. ANYWAY BETA YUSUKE OF CUTE

* Also unrelated but: did you know that Yusuke slapping people during the Harisen Recovery skill was actually a GLITCH and not a feature?? It strikes me as weird that they didn’t catch that in the super long time it took to finish the various dubs. Its a meme in japanese fandom too, so its definately in every version of the game! They only just patched it recently and I AM SAD NOW. It fit really well as an easter egg for this character in particular, lol.

* ALSO I am sorry that i commonly misspell his name as Yosuke. Its weird cos I never get Ryoji and Ryuji mixed up... ANYWAY BACK TO COOL BETA TALK AND NOT JUST YUSUKE LOVE TIME

* Beta Wakaba (futaba’s mom) used to have the hairstyle that was given to Haru instead! O_o She looks really cute with it, I guess they thought it was hard to make the shadow boss scary with such awesome hair. There’s also a beta doodle of what seems to be an alternate introduction scene, where the party would be walking down an alleyway and her giant face would appear behind them as a jumpscare. I THINK I WOULD HAVE FUCKIN DIED! that’s some fuan no tane shit!

* Man I didnt even recognise beta kawakami! O_O I would have thought that was beta takemi, or even yusuke’s mom again...

* Oh man, Sae is already one of the coolest and most beautiful looking characters but seriously beta Sae has EVEN MORE of that badass butch lady handsomeness holy shit. If I can appreciate her aesthetic so much as an asexual person, I can only imagine how other fans would feel about this!

* I have legit no idea who this character is, but she looks badass! Its a shame this imgurl dump of scans is completely out of order, lol! Another reason to buy the official version when its translated: actually knowing the context of things! XD

* Same design for papa okumura’s shadow, but it seems there was originally an idea for a chase minigame with his shadow. Instead of being weak with an army of reinforcements to fight thru, he’d be weak but keep fleeing in his motor chair thing. Considering how much I DESPISED the chase minigames in Nocturne and DDS2, i am really damn glad they didnt do that...

* BETA PERSONAS!! Wow they’re so different?? Its weird how they seem to be like.. different art styles/personalities for the same character idea? Maybe this was from before the personalities of everyone had been pinned down, or maybe the personas originally belonged to different party members? i’m really curious by the goemon in a modern punk style, did he belong to ryuji??? MORE BETA PERSONAS!! Oh holy SHIT, johanna is SUCH a good design! like... what?? BADASS!! typical lady pope face attatched to a buff as fuck body in a jojo-esque costume, with like an encapsulated hat thing with halves of a mask of a cliche male pope. This design has way more to do with the actual story of that mythological figure! Popecycle was cool too tho, I think maybe they should have made someone else be popecycle, and then johanna could be the second persona using this design and taking the place of Anat.

* Beta Ohya has a nice design! Its not even necessarily a cooler costume or anything, I just like how they try and show her personality more through it. She looks more dishevelled and overworked and has some bandages. Dunno why they couldnt have worked that into her final design!

* BETA MORGANA WHAT THE FUCK jesus christ thats almost as creepy as some of the beta Teddie designs I mean, I like using swirly eyes on a lot of my mascot ideas too, but that sort of face just looks a bit unnerving along with the body being like.. all leather and weirdly detailed. Its like ann’s costume but on a damn cat! As its skin! What!

* Some goofy expressions of final design morgana that ended up not being used.

* Beta Iwai looks like a younger AZ from pokemon??

* Beta design for protagonist’s thief costume and persona, which were WILDLY different! I like the all-concealing cloak, it looks like it would have animated really flashily. Tho i totally agree that showing more of protagonist’s actual design works better for the version of him you’ll be seeing 24/7 in battles.

* Not a beta design, but look at this concept art of Makoto beating up everyone. I love makoto so much.

* Aww I kinda prefer the beta costume for [spoily endgame character]. It makes her seem closer to [other two characters of relevance to her]. I mean, not like I dislike her costume, but I really liked [those two characetrs’s costume] so hers seemed a bit boring in comparison. Having it at least have more similar design elements to other [people in that place] would have gone a long way towards making her seem less like just... Alice, as a person isntead of a persona. (It would have been a cool plot if that was her backstory tho, lol!)

* I HAVE NO IDEA WHO ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS ARE BUT I LOVE THEM! Are they rejected Confidants? Or designs for characters mentioned in confidants who never appeared? i wish we got to see the sick lil girl in takemi’s subplot, it would be cute if she looked like that design there.

* Another beta of Milady! She used to have the same design but different weapons would come out in a different way. Knives instead of guns looks a lot scarier, but I dont like the weird garbage disposal mermaid thing, just from the fact people would inevitably make vagina jokes.

* Beta Futaba was very similar but just with different outfits. She looks really cute with a beanie hat and EVEN MORE becomes Literally Me As A Character. Seriouslyyyyyy

* Also we never get to see the mounting animation for futaba’s ultimate persona. I like it a lot better cos robot hands come out and carry her to the cockpit, instead of weird tentacles. Seriously, again, inevitable pile of stupid sex jokes about that. *sigh*

* A nice bigger reference of P5 Loki design, without all the SFX and stuff during that boss battle. I really like the way he sits on his sword sassily, and how it levitates around instead of swinging it normally. I also never noticed he has hoof-like heels! With that and the long ponytails it kinda looks like they were trying to give him an eight limbs sort of look, so maybe the design is meant to invoke Sleipnir?

* HEY. UMM. HOH. LEE. SHIT. I guess this kinda counts as beta cos we never get to see this, even if its part of the final design?? Seriously, I thought the shiny red bit was like the visor of his helmet, not a mouthpiece! LOKI’S HORNS COME OUT OF HIS FUCKING EYEBALLS! What the FUCK, they should have shown some sort of animation to make that clearer, that would be SO scary and fitting for that particular boss fight!

* A few beta outfits for our heroes! Ryuji originally had a clown mask instead of a skull, and Makoto wore a jacket with a biker gang logo, in addition to everything else biker gang. INCREASE BIKER GANG! Eeeeeven more beta outfit designs! Some more cyberpunky thing for ann, and a blue colourscheme protagonist, and a character with a sledgehammer who seems unused. There’s Iwai’s gecko tattoo there, so maybe originally his role was gonna be a school-aged ally instead of an adult shopkeeper? or maybe his son would join the party? The hero also originally wore Arsene’s top hat, and there’s this mysterious pic of two characters that I dunno who they are?? They look like twins, so it makes me wonder if that means there was originally a gender choice for the protag...

* A lot of storyboards for scenes that never happened! There’s a female character we’ve never seen before, so maybe that adds more to the theory of a rejected fem!protag option...

* Beta Ann had a bunch of different ways they tried to make her look like catwoman but not too much catwoman. She also used to use a crossbow as her ranged weapon!