#and the truth is yeah probably. but there are other reasonable questions that would freak luz and/or hunter the fuck out

[crimeronan]

Camila starts moving away from the alien theory and towards the lab expirment theory, but then Hunter slips up and refers to Spanish as Luz's and Camila's 'human' language.

FJSJDB. i'm imagining luz never even, like, trying to sell camila on hunter being human. at first it doesn't even occur to her that she'd need to explain his appearance, because she's grown up in a society where it's her own ears that need constant explanation. and then she's like well. mami hasn't asked and i kind of really don't want to talk about it

so hunter makes the human language comment & it isn't even really a slip-up. and camila pauses and then is like "okay, i'm just going to come right out and ask. hunter. ARE you human??"

and hunter is like "n... no....?"

and then is like "wait, hang on. my bad. luz. am i supposed to pretend to be human."

#hunter's like if i knew i was playing a human here i'd have made more of an effort #luz: HOW. #hunter: i dunno. purred less. worn contacts. DIY bathroom cosmetic surgery on the ears #luz: NO!!!!!!!!! #replies #toh #princess luz au #princess luz au worst timeline #camila being like god. could i have just asked and gotten a straight answer the whole time #and the truth is yeah probably. but there are other reasonable questions that would freak luz and/or hunter the fuck out #her caution isn't unwarranted here.

[mageofseven]

The Boys' Opinions on MC's Cat

I'm doing it!!! And the cat in question is specifically my little kitty man Beanie 🥰

Imma write how all of the Boys react to MC bringing him as her emotional support animal (and honest, after the first school year alone, they totally need one)

Who likes him, or loves him, or really really wishes they could kick this cute little asshole out of the house hehe~

So please enjoy reading and leaning about my sweet baby boy through the Boys' eyes~

But first! His history with me:

Beanie was a stray in my neighborhood who always seemed interested in me and my dog. Whenever I'd take Elsa on a walk, Beanie would sometimes follow us and occasionally lay right in front of us on the side walk just to drive my dog crazy (my dog isn't a fan of cats, something we believe is from her own time on the streets, but more on that in her own post!)

Eventually, he started coming up to our house to ask for food so we'd feed him. I even made a small house for him on my front porch to shelter him from the rain.

Eventually, it started to get cold as winter started to come and Beanie would try to sneak into our home.

My grandma, who is allergic to cats, was unsure about letting him inside at first, but as it got colder she couldn't help being okay with the sweet boy coming in "for the winter season only".

Flash forward about 4 years later and this cat is still chilling in the house with us 🥰

Beanie's other names: Beans, Baby Boy, Beanie-baby, Cat!!!! (Whenever he scratches the couch lol), The Vicious Scoundrel Unfit For Society (whenever he brings a poor dead mouse or baby bunny to the front door)

And lastly

Lord Beanards the First hehe 🥰

•▪︎▪︎◇°●♡●°◇▪︎▪︎•

Lucifer:

Oh devil, this man tried for so long to keep cats out of his house.

Cats could not truly be trained the way dogs can so he didn't want the unpredictable creatures in his house.

His brothers are chaotic enough; he didn't need this furry animal adding to it.

However, Diavolo has said this cat must be respected for legal reasons

And in truth...if any person truly needs an 'emotional support' animal (a human realm term he only now discovered), it would be the human that literally died to help his family once.

And so...he reluctantly accepts the arrogant creature into his home.

It's not always so bad; the cat sleeps more than Belphie does after all and that says a lot.

Once awake though, he is such menace.

Scratches at every couch and chair in the house

And whenever Lucifer tries lifting him up to unhook Beanie's claws from the couch, the cat makes a screeching sound more like a child opera star than an actual animal and jumps from his hands.

Despite his frustration with the cat, Beanie never seemed scared of the pride demon...

But made it his mission to see just how much he could get away with this new man.

Lucifer hides in his office more than ever

And even when his door is locked, some how the feline still finds a way inside.

How does he even do that??

(He slipped passed Luce when he stepped out to get coffee. Beanie is a little freaking ninja hehe)

Over all, does not like Beanie and prefers the cat to be outside.

Mammon:

Mammon is desperate for Beanie to like him.

But this dude is too loud for the cat's liking.

Plus, the greed demon has a little difficulty reading the cat's body language

And in result, has gotten bit and scratched many times.

Says he doesn't care about that 'stupid furball'

But in truth, this man's feelings are just hurt

And he keeps trying to get Beanie's approval regardless.

Despite all of this, Mammon is probably the brother most worried about Beanie going outside.

I mean yeah, the Devildom has their own stray cats, but they grew up here; those furballs were more aware of the dangers here and knew where not to wander to for the most part.

But the cat grew up a stray in the Human realm and refused to be confined so even if he tried to keep Beanie in, the sneaky boy still manages to slip out

And he's still okay so that's good at least.

Overall, likes the cat but struggles to bond with him.

Leviathan:

Nononononononono!!!!

Out of the room!! Go!! Shoo!

Beanie is always sneaking into his room and he hates it.

This cat jumps onto the shelves, will look Levi straight in his eyes as he gently paws at the figurines till they slid off the shelf.

And that wasn't even the worst offense!!!!

Beanie would paw at the glass tank, wanting to get to Henry the fish so badly!

Has literally tossed the cat out of his room

Just to sulk directly after, worried that he was too rough with Beanie.

You weren't! It's okay, Levi~

Overall, finds Beanie to be a nuisance, even if he is cute.

Satan:

Worships this cat harder than the Ancient Egyptians did.

Loves Beanie to death and enjoys the chaos he causes.

Probably the brother Beanie bonds with the most.

This man will literally put his book down or get out of bed in the middle of the night just to give this cat the attention he screams for at night.

Practically dies from happiness every time Beanie headbutts him.

Is very hurt that Beanie won't let him carry him, but respects the cat's boundaries.

Will even help MC makes sure the cat gets the meds for his breathing issues every day.

Poor Beanie sounds like he's choking without them and it scares the blonde 😥

Overall, loves Beanie to death, even outside of the cat annoying Lucifer~

Asmodeus:

Oh my devil!! He's too precious!!!

Takes daily pictures of Beanie to post online

And doesn't miss a single day without kissing the cat's head.

Finds the shedding Beanie does to be a bit annoying and dislikes when he uses his capped lipstick as a rolly toy

But overall, thinks Beanie is an adorable little addition to the family!

However, this man is scared of cat claws so he prefers Beanie not to sit on his lap or anything like that.

Along with Satan and MC, he is one of the brothers that spends time brushing the cat to limit the shedding

And luckily, Beanie finds being brushed more or less pleasant so this becomes the two's bonding time.

Overall, loves the cat but hates his claws.

Beelzebub:

Is neither a cat or dog person, but thinks both animals can be very sweet.

Doesn't have a lot to do with Beanie unless the cat jumps to sit next to him and then he'll scratch under his chin, just as the good boy likes.

Beel knows how to pet Beanie so good that the cat starts drooling and gives him love nips, which the gluttony demon doesn't mind.

This has Satan so jealous lol

Other than that, will try to help with Beanie's meals

And discovered that cat food isn't half bad 😅🤭

He also is usually the first person to let Beanie out when he's screaming at the front door in his demanding baby voice 💕

Overall, likes the cat pretty well, but never tries crowding the little guy like Satan, Asmo, and Mammon.

Belphegor:

Eh he's cute, I guess.

What? What else were you expecting?

Belphie does enjoy the cat's company though.

Loves when he wakes up to find Beanie in his arms or on his chest.

Honestly, this man has been looking for a new napping buddy.

Still, he prefers to let the cat come to him.

Knows that if Beanie wants his attention, the cat will not hesitate to make it very obvious.

Easily makes Mammon and Satan jealous with how much Beanie likes him and how effortless his relationship with the cat is.

Thinks those two make things more complicated than they need to be.

Just chill out and be good to the cat and the furry dude will handle the rest; it's really not that deep guys.

Overall, likes the little guy and likes having him as a nap buddy. Also loves seeing the cat drive Lucifer and Levi crazy.

Diavolo:

Loves when little Beanie visits!

In truth, Dia is more of a dog person just like Lucifer, but is far from immune to a cat's charm.

Doesn't fully understand how to properly interact with a cat, but enjoys the process of learning

No matter how many scratches or bites he gets 😅

Beanie shows him the ropes in no time though and the two become good friends!

Diavolo is very respectful to the feline and even keeps a jar of treats in his office for the cat's visits.

Eventually buys a little cat bed and sits it on his desk in hope it will entice the furbaby into sleeping next to him as he works.

And he does!!!

The prince couldn't stop smiling the entire day~

Unfortunately (for Barb), this man finds out about catnip and covers his entire office floor with the herb

Beanie was incredibly happy; Barb however, was not 😅

MC jokes that the prince is their cat's favorite drug dealer which honestly makes Dia really happy and proud.

Barb and Luce beg this man not to repeat this joke around others, but he fails to do so.

Overall, loves Beanie incredibly so and starts a new project to help the stray cats of the Devildom.

All because of the new furry friend that constantly breaks into his office 🥰

Barbatos:

Enjoys the cat's visits very much.

Beanie makes the butler's job much more enjoyable when he follows Barb around and keeps him company.

Only tried one time to scratch the furniture and the look in Barbatos's eyes was enough for the cat to carefully unhook himself from the thousand year old fabric of the chair and slowly back away from it.

Lucifer is almost tempted to beg the butler to show him his ways hehe.

Honestly, this cat listens to Barb to a degree that even shocks MC

'Cause like I thought you loved me, you little shit hehe

The cat is often right at the butler's heels and even when Beanie walks through the butler's legs as he walks, the man never trips.

The two are weirdly in sync and it's quite impressive to see.

He is also very, very happy when he discovers that the cat took down any mice or rats.

Beanie is a true kindred spirit indeed 🤭

Though he's not a fan of using his future vision, he occasionally does so he can look out for the cat and make sure he doesn't stray anywhere dangerous.

Overall, likes Beanie and does his part to make sure Baby Boy stays safe 🥰

Solomon:

Appreciates the little man and often finds him out on his nightly strolls

Sometimes he finds the poor cat in a fight with one of the Devildom's strays and gently separates them with his magick.

Has healed little bite marks on Beanie's ears so MC won't worry.

Soli is also the one who quietly cleans up the 'gifts' Beanie leaves in front of House of Lamentation so poor Asmo won't be upset in the morning.

Over all is good with the cat, but doesn't really interact or intervene unless Beanie or one of the HoL members needs him too.

Simeon & Luke:

Simeon finds the cat very sweet and enjoys watching Beanie sleep or wander around.

Luke's eyes went wide the moment he saw the black cat in HoL, but he made no move to touch or interact with him at first.

It takes a while for the child ease himself towards the rather aloof cat.

Eventually when Beanie is asleep on the couch, Luke quietly reached out and petted his fur.

He's so soft!

The little boy was so happy

Till Beanie woke up and swatted his hand away, causing a scratch on the little angel's hand.

It wasn't bleeding though and the act wasn't out of aggression; it was Beanie's way of giving a polite warning.

Simeon comforts the little boy (who is trying so hard to pretend his feelings weren't hurt, but his guardian knew better) and teaches Luke little things about a cat's body language.

Honestly, Luke learns a lot quicker than Mammon.

The child is still a bit hesitant with the cat, but thinks Beanie is still so cute.

The latter his guardian agrees with.

Simeon will sometimes buy treats for Luke to give to Beanie just to see the boy's eyes light up when the cat eats it from his hand.

Beanie is not just cute, but provides a bonding experience for the two angels.

#obey me #obey me otome #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphie #obey me brothers #obey me diavolo #obey me barbatos #obey me solomon #obey me simeon #obey me luke #obey me undateables

[midnightblues444]

Tokyo rev as tropes #2

Cast list: Baji keisuke, Rindou Haitiani,and shuji Hanma

Content warning: smutty themes, harrassment, mentioning of gun fights

Hanma shuji:

Brothers best friend ( note: suggestive af)

"This cant keep happening" you sigh while pulling a bra on. "Mhm" is all Hanma offers in response. He's not paying attention to you, he has an unlit cig resting in his mouth looking for his lighter.

"shuji Im serious." He laughs at you, loud and booming, he comes up behind you wrapping his arms around you. "Everytime you say this cant happen again, it happens again, so can you please stop pretending it won't ♡?" He says in a matter of fact tone. You turn to face him,a tall smug man who is fiddling with the flimsy strap of your bra, leaning down to kiss your shoulder.

Your phone chimes, probably a text from your brother .Who would freak out on both of you if he knew the reason you were late to his birthday dinner. You and your brother had  agreed that  friends are off limits and  here you are debating on fucking his best one for the nth time.

The strap slips down your forearm, it's not long before its gone and you hop into Hanmas arms as he carries you to the nearest surface to fuck you. Your phone chimes again with another text from your brother:

"where tf are you y/n?!?!"

Rindou Haitiani:

Rivals to lovers (Bonten timeline, smutty, cursing)

The car ride is tense, the question bouncing through your head;

what the fuck just happened last night?

When you two were first assigned this job together you were equally pissed. I mean it was a known fact that you hated eachother, so why would Mikey do this? Mikey said that you two were Bontens best muscle while Kakucho wasn't around. Which to you was a lame excuse but you took it anyway not wanting to whine like Rindou.

Everything was going well at a point , you got to the warehouse and collected your money from a very *difficult* client. Until the shooting started. A gun fight, 4 people against the 2 of you, how fun right? You obviously dont work well together being all over the place barely surviving it.

When you got back to the hotel the bickering was nonstop the blame being tossed back and forth. He was suffocatingly annoying, and when you asked if he had a permanent stick up his ass. He told you to watch your fucking mouth.

Next thing your legs are thrown over his shoulders, his pace doesn't relent. All that hate all that frustration was fueling his thrusts as he whispered about how crazy you make him while all your able to do is moan in response scraping at his back.

Now the next day, driving back to headquarters you can barely look at the other all you can think is

dont forget to take a morning after pill.

Baji keisuke:

Fake dating (tw, pushy boy ew)

Bajis mom was worried.

"Your surrounded by so many negative influences Keisuke" she says when looking sadly at his report card. Baji never wants his mom to cry anymore because of him. So he has the bright idea to get help. From the top of his class, y/n l/n.

Although it took some convincing you eventually came over to his house for a study session. You sat close to him checking his work both of you surprisingly focused. When his mom came home, her heart swelled at the sight offering you snacks and dinner.

Once you left, she mentioned that you were cute slyly asking if anything was going on with you two, wiggling her eyebrows at her son. The smile on her face was contagious and Baji wanted her to keep that smile. Before his brain could catch up he said "hell yeah there is".

She squealed and went on and on about how good you were for him, and how happy she was for him

Who was he to tell her the truth?

The next day he was casually riding his bike trying to figure how to break the news. Then he saw a guy standing by someone, he realized it was you. Poor thing you looked uncomfortable and once he approached, the guy urgently left, baji wasn't wearing his disguise so he figured he was recognized or something.

You explained that the guy has a crush on you and is being very forceful about it,basically he wont leave you alone . That's when Baji had another great idea.

If you pretended to date each other, the guy will leave you alone and his mom will continue to think you are the good influence in his life.

Win win right?

#hanma smut #hanma x reader #baji x reader #baji keisuke #rindou smut #rindou x reader #tr rindou #tokyorev headcanons #tokyorev x reader #tokyorev fluff

[textfromthelookout]

Did you hear of the news?

I have. :(

Everyone else has their tributes so, here, a summary of my experience with Dragon Ball.

I was in fourth grade art class. A kid had the February 2005 issue of Shonen Jump, back when Shonen Jump was still physically printed here. I recognized Atem on the front cover because the Blockbuster around the corner from our house had DVDs (I think they were DVDs and not VHSs then since I distinctly remember it having a menu and special features) of some of the later episodes of Duelist Kingdom and my brother and I watched them on repeat. So I was like oh, hey, what's this? They make books of that stuff? I don't remember the conversation but the kid ended up giving me that issue, and I took it home with me.

There were a LOT of significant, groundwork things happening in that issue, now that I think about it. We were just beginning to see Sanji truly in action against Pearl. The Dark Tournament was in it's early stages still with Roto fucking around and finding out against Kurama. Sakura shears off her hair in a move that rearranged sexualities the world over. The reason Atem was on the cover was because Yu-Gi-Oh Millennium World was just debuting its first and second chapter. Bleach wasn't even serialized yet. And Dragon Ball, of course, was also there, about a hundred and fifty chapters ahead of everybody else.

Keep in mind that this was my first experience with manga, period. So my very first experience with Dragon Ball opened on this:

and ended on this:

Yeah. Truth be told, at the time Yu Yu Hakusho piqued my interest more than Dragon Ball (a guy fighting with plants? how creative!) but I never did forget these chapters. I thought the art style was so different from the others.

At some point after this, probably between several months and a year and a half, the TV happened to be on one evening when Toonami was airing Dragon Ball Z. Oh hey, I said, I recognize that art, I know those characters. So I hung around and watched some of episode 281. Two things about watching that episode stick with absolute crystal clarity in my mind to this day. Firstly: Buu choking Vegeta out with his arm freaked me the FUCK out as a child. I could not tell you why I had a fear reaction to it but hey, there you go. The second is this:

Specifically I remember 'You died once. If anything happens to you now, you won't exist anymore. There'll be nothing I can do to bring you back.' Not precisely word for word over the years, but Schemmel's tone of voice on this particular lineread. If I had to guess I'd say it was because at that point in my life, uh, death was kinda permanent? So wait, what do you mean died ONCE. Doesn't that apply to everyone?

This still wasn't enough to get me super invested in it though, it just didn't seem like something that would appeal to me that much. So a couple years go by, I don't think about it all that much, and then of course, TFS hits the scene and drops DBZ Abridged. So you know. As a shithead middle schooler with a shithead sense of humor I thought it was the best damn thing since sliced bread. (My biggest character flaw is that I still think a lot of Season 1 is genuinely funny)

And that was really the extent of my interaction with the franchise for the next several years. Say what you will about DBZA but they did manage to put it all together such that someone who had a nonexistent concept of what the original context was could grok it with not a lot of effort. Some time in high school, I think I was around 15, I decided to bite the bullet and read all the manga, as much to increase the funny factor of DBZA as sheerly for the sake of being able to say I had. Stick it to the other weebs, y'know. Now they can't say I didn't know anything about good anime. This was unfortunately at a time when all that was available online were dirty poor-quality scans and questionable translations, but read it I did. I went 'yep, that sure is about what I expected', and proceeded to get on with my life. GT came and went, I looked up and saw Battle of Gods coming out and went 'oh hey that's still a thing huh', kinda was peripherally aware of all the divisiveness of Super as it was happening, didn't really pay it much attention, just stuck to DBZA and quite a lot of wiki-ing.

And then, this time of year about three years ago now, in the middle of conversation with @prophecydungeon, Dragon Ball somehow came up. Something to do with 'Even though I'm not hugely into DBZ's story or whatever Toriyama does have some great character designs' (yes I was referring to Vegeta and Future Trunks at the time, no i will not stop being predictable, yes i am a parody of myself). They eventually brought up the DBS Broly movie and said, and i quote: 'that was a solid 1.5h of unbelievably fun and wacky animation'. Having seen the Gogeta vs Broly part of it on twitter and been like 'damn that animation's kinda off the hook actually, good for them good for them', my response was to be like. Oh word? I've got a spare hour and a half to kill, sure, fuck it, why not, time to watch DBS Broly.

I think that movie was precision crafted to hit me in the hyperfixation, if we're being honest. Opening on a solid 20 minutes of Lore and Worldbuilding and then having most of the rest of the runtime being mindless slobberknocker fun by way of some of the hardest animation flexes ever? I was done for.

In summation. I have been aware of Dragon Ball for a lot of my life, in that its presence was pervasive and enduring as I grew up. I may have been late to the game of actually wholeheartedly enjoying it, but enjoy it I do. Dragon Ball is the roots of a vast tree of anime, and in reading it I began to understand why that is. I respect it for that, and I love it for that. My current fixation may have shifted, but as far as time devoted to one individual thing goes... it took me a year and a half to watch my way through all of the anime and read all of the manga. ALL of it. So there's something good in there, I'd say.

#rip to a legend #text from the mod #tangentially related: i am not actually dead #it's just that between school and my job and the pirate brainrot #(the previous four months of which was feverishly consumed with a 16k word project) #i have had neither time nor impetus to make dragon ball funnies #there is also the fact that my stupid autism brain is still fuming over the website changes #that have fucked up the Aesthetique of the text posts and made them much more annoying to get in a usable form #thus adding steps to what was a simple and comfortable process #and aforementioned idiot dumb brain has not stopped pitching a bitch fit over the inconvenience. #i know it's a stupid hangup. believe me i am fully aware. but there is so little i can do about it #so i am sorry about my long absence. i really truly am. #especially to the asks that have been chillin in my inbox for all this time now #it's just that they're interesting questions that deserve me giving 100% of my brainpower to them ya feel #i want to devote appropriate attention to these little funnies and not phone it in or half ass it LOL

[fandom-pantheon]

Oh, this will be a rant. Bear with me, or ignore me. You can either argue or agree… However, if you want to read, it will be a freaking essay. Just a warning.

1. MATES! Or better yet, the whole thing about mates being rare and the SJM being like: “You get a mate, and you get a mate, and you get aaaaaaa MATE, etc”, makes perfect sense. Like in ACOTAR you have a world divided in half. Literally half the population is separated by a freaking wall. If Feyre didn’t cross the wall, and eventually became Fae, Rhysand would never found his mate. Nor would Cassian or Lucien. Rhysand father was over 900, when he found his mother. Do you have any idea how many times he could have died??? In ToG, you don’t have winnowing, or teleportation. Traveling the world for weeks on end? Months? Years? Which human will do that? How many of them? And if Aelin and Rowan didn’t find each other, neither would Lorcan and Elide. For example. And in CC? Their powers were corrupted, and with that their senses as well. So yeah. MATES ARE RARE!!!!

2. The whole critique of HOFAS. I get it if you don’t like it. That’s perfectly fine. However, there is no reason attacking some of the well established characters like Nesta and Azriel. First thing first. Nesta, and the whole story how SJM just ruined the ending of ACOSF, cause Nesta was all healed and whatnot. Depression is a serious illness, that is far from easy to beat. And even if you “beat it”, it does not end overnight. Yes, she had an amazing story of overcoming all that was there, but still, it did not disappear. And it probably never will. There can be days, weeks and months that it can take hold of you. That is perfectly normal, and fine, and Nesta falling again, does not mean she is back there. She has her family, her friends and her mate to help pick her up, and having a bad day or two, or a week is NORMAL. Even for people who do not suffer from depression, let alone the one who does. So don’t attack with the whole “ruined the journey of Nesta”, cause it ain’t true. We do not know what is happening in Pyrithian yeat, so chill.

3. I’ll make it a new point. AZRIEL!!! My baby. If SJM stays true to her words, my little kinky baby! 😜 Why the freaking f*ck, is it weird to have Az there instead of Cass? Like yeah, Nesta and Cass are mates, but that does not mean they are joined by umbilical cord for f*ck sake! Az is a spymaster, and it makes perfect sense for him to be trailing them. Being found out however, by accident or on purpose is questionable, but it makes so much more sense for him to be there and get as much info about this new person from different world. If there was a battle, full on war, yeah, I would expect Cass, freaking GENERAL of Night Court ARMIES, there, but for this mission?? People, have you heard of common sense?? Just cause you want to see more of Cass and Nesta, does not make it a good idea for running a court as High Lord. Deal!

4. Az and Nesta friendship? Amazing. The way he calmed her down, with mentions of Cass and Nyx. Amazing! And it is established in ACOSF that there was friendship between the two, so why the fuck are ppl freaking out? Is it because of the fantasy of threesome?? Excuse you!!! Get your mind out of the fucking gutter prudes! Just because Cass was the main love interest and turned out to be her mate, does not mean she cannot enjoy her own imagination. For fuck sake, woman keeps reading smutty books, of course she has a dirty mind. And at least 1/4 of those books have 3somes in it, if not the whole reverse harem!!!! What women (in her sexual prime, like she’s 25 or something) would not enjoy 2 hunks worshipping her??? If you wouldn’t, well… keep lying to yourself. The rest of us know the truth.

5. AZ DESERVES A MATE! Now repeat after me! AZ DESERVES A MATE! No, not Elain. Gods not that bitch. And she will turn out to be a bitch I’m 99.99% sure of it. As Rhysand mentioned, even roses have thorns. And we still have to see what she has to show. I’m sure it’s foreshadowing. Nobody is that nice. Or better said, nobody is that nice for a long time. I’m not even sold on the idea of Lucien and Elain, let alone Az and her. Be it Gwyn, Eris, Helion or Mother herself, Az deserves a mate! A mate who will love him! All of him, good and bad, and icy. And no, not the one that will “melt his ice” but the one who will embrace it. Cause it won’t be Az anymore. I didn’t see Nesta taming Cassians wild side, but going along with it, enjoying it. So why would Az mate “melt his ice”??? The mate his shadows will feel comfortable with. Where he can go through his day and find shadows missing, finding them with him/her/them. Doesn’t matter. He needs his own journey, full of trials and errors, and full on f*ck ups, for his happy ending. I believe it will be Gwyn. But it can be anyone but Elain. She will never love him fully. She will always, even when she refuses Lucien, feel the mating bond, and I cannot explain how badly I don’t want that to happen to Az. Cause HE will wake up every morning thinking: “ Is this the day she leaves me for her mate?”. And seeing his brothers happiness with their mates, he will ask this. And he deserves so much better!

6. RHYSAND! Just that! FREAKING RHYSAND! Why the f*ck are ppl freaking out about his behavior in ACOSF and HOFAS??? Let’s start from the beginning. RHYSAND is a well established character. And he is the same from start to now. He is a manipulative, scheming bastard, secretly trying to do good things, by whichever means necessary! Good or bad. For f*ck sake, he was Amarathas 2nd in command and her whore for 50 years… Like, yeah, he is good, and he is a feminist, and he is all of this and that, but he is still just… him! That won’t change, and I don’t want it to change, cause I really like his character as it is. (You have every right to hate him, but not on the account of him “changing”) Him threatening Nesta when she revealed the risk of pregnancy! YES, YES, and YES! He had every right to do so, and him telling Cass to get her out of there, was more than I would have done. (And no, I am not talking about the moral dilemma of him not telling Feyre in the first place, cause that was bad, however, what would you do? We can discuss morality all day long, and everybody would take the high road until it’s time, sooooo… Don’t!) Oh, and him reprimanding Nesta in the extra in HOFAS. Again spot on. Because, if Az or Cass have done something sooooooo stupid, he would have beaten them in the training ring to the inch of their life. Mor would probably take the full burn of his power. And Amren… Well let’s not go there. Most of the ppl started talking shit about Rhys and his behavior in HOFAS, however I was pissed, and I’m still pissed at Feyre.

7. Feyre!!! Oh my Gods!!! I’m starting to hate her. I liked her so much. Strong FMC, overcoming her obstacles, trying to do good for her family and friends and mate. But HOFAS! So mad!!!!! YOU ARE A F*CKING HIGH LADY! Your damn sister just gave one of the deadliest weapons to basically complete stranger, who btw, came to your house and wrecked PRISON of all places… In Midgard Avallen island changed completely. What the f*ck happened to the prison when she took part of the star??? She f*cking freed the Asteri/Dalgan in you house, and you sister was like: “Yeah, sure, take the mask, please don’t die or fall prey to the Asteri”. And you give shit to your MATE and a f*cking HIGH LORD of the court for reprimanding you damn sister??? Like f*ck off bi*ch. I’m all for feminism and females supporting each other, but this is politics! This is a leader talking to his subject, not a f*cking family show on air. Honestly, it’s starting to look like Feyre is abusing Rhys, and using his feelings for her and their mate bond to do things the way she wants them to be done. And I hate that it looks that way.

8. This is the last one for now. Az and Rhys interaction in extra in ACOSF. AGAIN, ppl say it with me… RHYSAND IS A HIGH LORD OF THE NIGHT COURT!!! So yes, they are friends and all of that, but at the end of the day, Rhys is the leader, and he knows his shit. And he has every right to say that shit to Az. However, I do think it is misleading. We will see if I’m right, but. If Gwyn is Az mate, I believe she knows. And I believe Rhys knows as well. I really think they are friends. (Especially over the things that happened to them, and knowing who their mates are, but not telling them, since they weren’t/aren’t ready. The whole scene of Rhysand telling Nesta to be respectful to Gwyn kinda gives me that vibe). So him telling Az “he will make him regret it”, kinda comes from that. However, I get a feeling (again might be wrong, time and SJM will tell), that making Az regret his action will involve his mother. We had mentions of her, sooooo. (I have this reoccurring thought, about a random attack, that Az takes care of, on one of his spying missions, and the enemy mentions that they will take his mate or something like that. Az coming back to Velaris, and freaking out about Elain being in danger, and everybody freaking out as well. Until Rhys asks to look at what happened, and realizes that the enemy was not saying Elain, but his mate, and runs of in search of Gwyn, who’s been attacked or kidnapped… Yeah, just there sitting in my head. Does not want to leave.)

Anyway, that’s it for now. There are much more points I would like to make, but I’ll leave it for some other time.

It took way longer than anticipated to write this. And I’m sorry for any grammatical error or misspelling. English is my second language.

If you stuck till the end, thank you, and let me know what your thoughts are??? I would appreciate discussion over open war, but go ahead and do what you like….

Love,

Lady Tina

#acotar #acowar #acosf #a court of thorns and roses #acomaf #a court of silver flames #a court of mist and fury #acofas #a court of wings and ruin #feyre archeron #feyre cursebreaker #rhysand #night court #azriel #cassian #morrigan #cresent city #hofas #house of flame and shadow #maasverse #sarah j maas #sjmaas #sjm books #sjm universe #aelin galathynius #rowan whitethorn #bryce quinlan #eriel #gwynriel #feysand

[bottomtim]

[steddie, rated T, 1k, pre-relationship, hospital bedside bonding, smitten losers in their pre-crush era]

Steve is trying to relax further into the uncomfortable chair at Eddie’s bedside, sipping orange juice from a plastic cup, when Eddie croaks, “So… what are we?”

Steve chokes on his drink. It’s not the first time he’s heard that line, but coming from Eddie Munson, after Steve hauled his ass out of the Upside Down, threatened the hospital staff (verbally, financially, not physically, of course) to treat him, and then sat by his bed for the last 2 plus weeks watching crappy daytime TV reruns and feeling his brain rot (better to let his brain rot from the TV than to let it work itself into a panic focusing too much on the… everything else going on, he supposes)—it makes Steve sputter on his drink. 

What are they? What are they? It's a ridiculous question—preposterous even. Well, they’re—Of course, they’re…  

What are they? Well, it turns out Steve doesn’t really know, either.

At Steve’s silence, Eddie continues, “Not to get all Breakfast Club on you, but. Is the Prep going to be hanging out with the Bad Boy come Monday?” 

“Well, we’ve already surpassed two Mondays," Steve quips. He can't help it. "We’re coming up on a third.”  

Eddie gives him a deadpan look. “Semantics.” 

Steve runs a hand through his hair. “The Prep gives the guy her earring in the end, doesn’t she?” Steve knows that’s… That’s really a non-answer. He’s deflecting. Maybe Eddie will just run with it. 

(No such luck). 

“Yeah, but I mean,” Eddie starts after taking a moment to think, shifting in his bed, grunting when he moves a little bit wrong. “Do you really think the Prep and the Bad Boy went to school on Monday and hung out like everything was normal? Or that they ended up hooking up? Or even that the Jock and the Basket Case kept seeing each other? And she actually changed her looks for him.” Eddie scrunches his face in an over-dramatic grimace that Steve tries not to laugh at. 

Steve shrugs. Because, well, here’s the thing. If you had asked Steve 3 years ago, when he was at his peak, when he was the Emilio Estevez of Hawkins High, when he was King Steve, if he’d be hanging out with anyone in the Party other than Nancy, he would have thought you were insane. He probably would have laughed in your face. But here he is, 2 weeks into a vigil at Eddie the Freak Munson’s bedside after saving his life from interdimensional monsters. Here he is 3 years into fighting said interdimensional monsters with the weirdest cast of misfits he’s proud to call his friends and happy to call his family. But there are no monsters in the Breakfast Club, so they're a special case, aren't they? Eddie just doesn’t see that, yet. Eddie has no reason to believe Steve, or anyone besides Dustin, Mike, and Lucas are going to bother to stick by his side once this is all said and done (if it’s ever said and done. Steve has a harder and harder time believing it ever will be). 

“Look, this…” Steve trails off, trying to gather his thoughts and gesturing vaguely with his hands. “We’re not going to leave you alone to deal with all this, if that’s what you’re wondering. You’re stuck with us.”

The corner of Eddie’s lip quirks up just a smidge. “Good to know,” he murmurs. His eyelids look visibly heavy, and Steve thinks he’s seconds away from dozing off when Eddie perks up a bit to once again ask, “but what are we, Harrington?”

Steve sighs and thinks for a moment. He doesn’t really know how to say he would probably die for Eddie despite them barely knowing each other. It feels too all consuming, and even a little misplaced. It's not a lie, it's just too big of a truth. So he settles on what he does know. “We’re friends, Munson.”

Eddie smiles, a sly grin stretching across his face (and considering Steve’s seen Eddie nearly lifeless and spent several days not even knowing if the guy will wake up, seeing him smile makes something warm settle in Steve’s gut—something like happiness, something like relief, something like something else Steve doesn't know the name of). 

“Friends? Really? The King of Hawkins High friends with little ol’ me?” His voice cracks a bit, maybe a mix of strain from disuse and sleepiness. Eddie seems to have relaxed further into the bed and his eyes look heavy again. 

He could tell Eddie he’s not a king anymore, hasn’t been in years, but it doesn’t feel condescending coming from Eddie. It feels like a joke between old friends. “A good king spends time with his subjects, doesn’t he?”

Eddie snorts out a soft laugh. “Subject? Nah, I demand to be part of your royal court. Your Jester.” 

Steve laughs softly, too. “Cool. Does that mean I get to kill you for not being funny?”

“Oh, ha ha, Harrington. Just you wait. I’ll make you laugh so hard. Besides. Can’t undo all this hard work, bringing me back, and all.” 

Steve rolls his eyes. “Go to sleep, Munson.” 

“Been sleepin’,” Eddie slurs, eyes closed. “You sleep.” 

“I will,” Steve says, and Eddie hums in acknowledgement.  

He probably won’t. Vecna’s body floating in the Creel attic, Max’s broken bones and white eyes, Eddie’s body nearly drained of blood… It’s all too fresh in his mind, still. But Eddie doesn’t need to know that. 

Next thing he knows, Eddie’s out like a light, sleeping heavy and breathing deeply in the bed next to him. No, Steve probably won’t sleep, but he’ll stay at Eddie's bedside, watching shitty reruns until Wayne comes in with a cup of stale, hot coffee and they switch out their vigils. He’ll look out for his—his friend? Even now, it doesn’t feel right. It feels like a lie. Like trying to save the world with someone and bringing them back from the brink of death makes them more… But it works for now. Eddie’s his friend. And he’ll stay by his side come Monday and every Monday thereafter.

#steddie #steddie fanfic #steddie drabble #stranger things fic #steve harrington #eddie munson #i just really wanted to write eddie asking steve 'what are we' #brain worms took it from there #katpost #my writing

[meraki-yao]

That question was super serious im trying to figure out what's going on, love that taylor got all that exposure but it was a bit surprising, Im from a super homophobic country (illegal/death penalty type homophobic) and china is probably more progressive from where i stand but by western standards its still a lot conservative. So it was odd that an actor who's only popular in certain groups for playing a queer character is getting hyped up there.

Heads up, I went on a rant lmao

I agree. And I was really freaking anxious the whole time he was there because of it.

Okay, for those who don't know, here's the thing about LGBT+ in China. And I'm only gonna talk about the sexuality aspect because the gender aspect is a whole other topic and a lot less progressive than the sexuality side (that being said trans lives matter)

The official stance promoted by the government, ergo the public, is condemning it. Thankfully not in an illegal/death penalty type, but more in a "if we ignore it and don't talk about it, it will go away" type.

There were a couple of years I think in the mid-2010s where significant progress was being made in terms of both representation (see shows like Guardian, the Untamed, Word of Honor) and pride organizations and support (see Shanghai Pride)

But starting in mid-2021 the government suddenly cracked down on queer representation. "Effeminate" men were publicly condemned and called "sissy" BY THE OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT NOTICE (I was fucking fuming when I read it). Dangai (BL, or simply, adapted from gay novels) shows were banned. Multiple LGBT+ organizations were shut down without explanation. And just this year, when a singer with a famous song about being an LGBT ally supporting the community held a concert in Beijing, anyone with anything remotely resembling a rainbow was banned from entry and had to hand in the rainbow object, even if it was their clothing. And those stuff were never returned. The older generation, such as my parents' generation, condemn it. It's not an optimistic sight.

But here's the fucking truth: queer people, have always existed, and always will. So actually, younger people, I'd say 30 years old and younger, the vast majority accept queerness. Gay couples are sharing their lives on Bilibili. Danmei (explicitly gay) radio dramas, novels, and comics are still being produced and consumed. There are so many people watching Western gay shows and movies such as RWRB as well as producing gay fan content. And honestly, part of it is due to the shipping culture here (which is a whole other topic I can write a dissertation on).

Either way, what I'm trying to say is regardless of whatever the "official stance" is, the demographic that's active on social media is accepting of it. Which is why RWRB could gain such popularity in China.

As per my last ask, I think the main reason for inviting Taylor is his willingness to try things the local way. A lot of times Chinese capitalists/executives don't really care where the star got their fame from, they just care that they are famous.

The difference with Taylor is that actors in China of a similar level of status locally to Taylor and who have been in queer productions don't talk about it after the promo period is over. If anything, gaining fame from being in a Dangai is kind of considered shameful. In fact, they actively avoid it. Taylor is of course, more than willing to talk about RWRB. In fact, during the videos, live streams and stuff, I was actively observing if RWRB would be brought up by the Chinese side/host. It wasn't. During the Little Red Book livestream, despite basically everyone in the live chat spamming RWRB comments, Taylor was the one who said "Oh I see talk about RWRB, what do you want to know?" And I understand that there are several potential reasons why RWRB wasn't brought up by the host, including time constraints, pre-set questions, pre-set agendas etc, but latent homophobia is also a potential reason.

Either way, yeah. I don't really know what the conclusion of this ramble is but here you go 😅

#rwrb #red white and royal blue #rwrb movie #taylor zakhar perez #alex claremont diaz #anon ask #answered #PLEASE NOTE THAT I PERSONALLY DO NOT AGREE WITH THE “OFFICIAL STANCE” #I AM AN AVID ALLY AND ALWAYS WILL BE LOVE IS LOVE BABY #also please note that everything I said hear about is about mainland China #we here in Hong Kong have a slightly more progressive and optismic situation #more so in Taiwan where Gay marriage is legal #meraki essay

[devilfic]

❝it will come back❞

plot: eddie “the freak” munson is a freak, but not for the reasons everyone thinks. you couldn’t care less if he liked his music loud or his dungeons with dragons. no, you were onto something bigger. if only you had any proof. pairing: eddie munson x gn!reader. cw: werewolf!au, one-sided enemies to lovers (if you squint), romance, flirting, smut, you have horror movie brainrot, eddie is pining for you and you’re just trying to catch a wolfboy, sexual content, non-penetrative sex, non-graphic smut (reader’s genitals aren’t mentioned), dry humping, mentions of mates and mating effects on the body, typical werewolf things. words: 9.7k.

a/n: I have no excuse for this being 21 pages long. just take it, please. also, here’s a playlist I made to go with it.

January 22nd, 1986.

“Anyone home?”

Eddie Munson wasn’t standing in front of you the last time you checked. He was standing there now, of course, if his annoyance and the movie he was waving in your face was any indication. You try to smile through your blunder as if you hadn’t just been writing about him in the journal now tucked between your thighs, “Yeah. Sorry, didn’t mean to space out.”

His annoyance softens into sympathy, “Long shift?”

“You could say that.” You lie, easily, because customers ask you that all the time and not because the truth is easy to lie about. When the truth is “Oh, no. I was just writing about how you might be a freakishly terrifying werewolf in disguise, normal stuff to accuse your classmates of”, sharing is not caring.

Eddie shrugs and hands you the money for the movie. At least you didn’t have to worry about mind-reading.

As outlandish as it was, this conclusion didn’t come to you out of the blue.

Eddie had already made a reputation for himself at Hawkins High by the time you’d transferred during what should have been your senior year. Had it been, you wouldn’t have been forced to redo your junior year, and had you been able to graduate when you were supposed to, you probably wouldn’t have been driving home late from band practice last November.

Had you been comfortable at home that stormy Tuesday night, you probably wouldn’t be checking for fangs every time Eddie opens his mouth.

Because it just so happened that on that stormy Tuesday night, you caught... something climbing out of Eddie’s van on the side of the road and running into the woods, on all fours, nearly putting a dent into someone’s dad’s sedan. You knew this only because that someone’s dad’s sedan was your dad’s sedan, and you had been the one driving it.

It was pure luck what you’d seen. With every day that passed, you became more and more obsessed having seen it. “Didn’t know you were a horror fan.”

Eddie gives you a long side-glance, as if horror movies would be a stretch for the metalhead who played fantasy tabletop games for fun, “Really? I know some people who think I eat, breathe, and shit this kind of stuff.”

“As long as you’re not picking fights with those people anymore.” You exchange a look with Eddie that he sheepishly returns. “How’ve you been, by the way? I see you’ve taken some baby freshmen under your wing.”

“You have?”

You quickly reevaluate whether that would be common knowledge to someone normal. Just because you were obsessed with him didn’t mean other people were. “I’ve just... seen you guys around school with those Hellfire shirts. Was curious.” Eddie continues to watch you, unbelieving, forcing you to recover, “Anyway, Elm Street’s all yours. Bring it back in a week.” 

You slide the copy of A Nightmare on Elm Street to Eddie, taking note of his signature silver rings. They looked silver, at least. Could they have been fake? White gold, maybe?

You fully expect him to take his movie and go, but when he stalls, you worry he’s got a damning question on his mind. Was he aware of your constant, prying eyes after all? Maybe you were too quick to cross mind-reading off your list- “You should come over and watch it with me.”

Frantically replaying what you thought you’d heard over and over in your mind didn’t make anything clearer for you, “What?”

Eddie glances up with those round eyes of his, and if your first impression of him had been his eyes alone, you might’ve believed he could do no wrong. It was a shame that the softest thing about him was hidden behind a thorny exterior, “The uh... have you- have you seen A Nightmare on Elm Street?”

You nod. You get the feeling Eddie hadn’t thought this far.

“Right. ‘Course, you like the horror stuff. I just thought it might be more fun to watch with someone who... likes that stuff.”

“Are you asking me out, Eddie?”

Eddie reacts as if he had no idea what you were talking about. “No! Uh... no. Thanks.” Your heart thumps unsteadily as he snags the videotape and bolts before you can stop him. 

You watch, dumbfounded, as he climbs into the driver’s side of his old van (the same van you’d seen that night, the same van you’d climbed out of your dad’s car to investigate, the same van that had claw marks on the door handle) and escapes out of the parking lot.

You don’t even realize you’ve spaced out again until Robin returns from her break, taking a seat on the counter, “Geez. What’d you do to Munson?”

You bristle, “Nothing!”

“You sure you didn’t scare him off with your werewolf delusions? I could write you up for that, you know.”

“I didn’t-” You stutter, then shut your mouth. She wouldn’t believe you even if you did have a solid argument. “I’m not having this argument again if you’re just going to make fun of me.”

“Whatever you say,” you feel her foot nudge your shin, and then she smiles over her shoulder to where Eddie’s van had once been, “just be sure he doesn’t come back and eat you before your next shift. I’m not covering for your ass again.”

~

Journal entry: January 22nd, 1986.

Eddie came to Family Video for the first time in... well, ever. He checked out a horror movie, too. The weirdest thing was that he asked me to come and watch it with him, but he chickened out at the last second. It was like something possessed him to ask. He was acting weirder than usual. Is it because of the full moon this weekend? Robin joked about him eating me. Could that be how he captures his prey? Invites them over under the guise of “watching a movie”? I don’t know. Gonna sleep on it.

Actually, I don’t think I ever told him how much I like horror movies.

September 3rd, 1985.

When you’d told Robin of your theory, she’d laughed and blamed it on too many horror movies. For someone who hadn’t been there, Robin was certain she knew more about what happened that night than you, but you held onto the memory with an ironclad grip. You didn’t need to prove it to Robin. All you had to do was prove it to yourself. Without a shadow of a doubt, you would find out if Eddie Munson was a werewolf.

But like I said before, you hadn’t come to this conclusion out of the blue. Two months before that night, you’d taken a punch for Eddie Munson.

It wasn’t on purpose, and had Eddie not pissed off Jason Carver, he probably wouldn’t have been curled up on the ground getting the shit kicked out of him by half the basketball team. Even his band mates barely stood a chance against the monster athletes, and out of stupid adrenaline (or concern; incendiary as he may be, the beating was overkill), you’d thrown yourself into the fray to put a stop to it. That had resulted in a strong right hook to the nose and a trip to the nurse’s office.

Eddie had it way worse than you. You were still annoyed.

“You’re lucky it isn’t broken,” the nurse had scolded, her vitriol directed more toward the boy sharing the examination table, “take this ice pack and wait out in the hall in case you’ve got a concussion. You can go home if you feel alright.”

Within the fifteen minutes it took to be certain you weren’t concussed, Eddie had joined you in the hallway. You examined the cuts and bruises that had been cleaned up on his face, expecting him to explain himself. Instead, he pointed to where his nose had been bandaged like yours and smiled, wincing, “Well, one of us is gonna have to change.”

You start to head for the parking lot.

Eddie catches up with you easily, “Don’t tell me you’re mad at me for this. You’ll break my heart, sweetheart.”

The punk is all smiles when you look over at him, hands tucked innocently behind his back. You’d only ever seen him from afar, a senior that should have been long gone by the time you reached your last year, but then he ended up in your classes and with him came the whispers. 

Weirdo. Satan worshipper. Freak.

You didn’t quite see all of that.

Your hand brushes the tip of your nose, just as painful as it had been when you’d felt for blood lying in the school parking lot, “Of course not. Jason’s the one who punched me.”

“You sure I didn’t make him do that? Use some weird black magic to sew discord and strife into the heart of Hawkins High? Sully the name of our airhead darling jock?” Eddie sings in a silly voice, leaning in close for effect. You catch the scent that wafts off of him and find yourself surprised that a nerdy stoner could smell so pleasant. Good, even. You lean away before you can’t filter a comment about it. “Thanks for stepping in, by the way. Any longer and I might have lost the title of the only decent guitarist in Hawkins.” Eddie wiggles his long, ring-clad fingers in front of your face.

“Then you shouldn’t be starting fights.”

“Me? Start a fight with our precious little basketball star? You must believe everything you hear about me.”

“Unlike what I saw you do before Jason jumped you, all those rumors are fake.” You’d have laughed at Eddie’s surprise making him break stride with you if you weren’t so... annoyed probably wasn’t the right word, “So, again, the fight was your fault.”

He didn’t have any comeback to that. Instead, he followed you in relative silence through the abandoned hallways, bumping shoulders with you every few feet. He’d stopped apologizing for it after the third time.

You wondered what people would think seeing you sharing bruised noses with Eddie then. Not everyone had been there for the fight, but word had to have spread. Jason had clung to your side all the way to the nurse’s office, webbing together apologies, and if class hadn’t been in session, you were sure you’d be swamped with questions from everyone else. Hell, the nurse initially thought Eddie had thrown the punch. 

You pass by one classroom and falter when you catch the eye of one of Jason’s friends glaring you down through the window. Eddie must notice because he instantly steps in between you two.

“Why did you jump in?” Eddie wonders, strolling side by side with you again. “There’s no honor in defending ‘the freak’,” Eddie leans in, whispering though his voice still carries through the empty hall, “and those guys won’t leave you alone if you hang around the likes of me.”

Even you weren’t keen on why. At the time, it was a desire to minimize the damage done, but as you thought about it more, yelling would’ve had the same effect. And your nose wouldn’t be almost-broken either. 

You didn’t know yourself to be a self-sacrificing hero. It boggled your mind as much as you were sure it boggled his, “You may have started it but... Jason is kind of a dick.” You hadn’t heard what he’d said to Eddie, of course, but whatever warranted getting a blunt put out on your varsity jacket had to be pretty bad.

Eddie straightens his back at that, looking pleased with your answer. He walks a few feet in front of you and does a grand bow, one hand tucked behind his back and the other across his stomach. He throws his hair back to look up at you through his eyelashes, “Well, I am forever in your debt, my liege. Maybe I’ve got something to help take the edge off that bruise. A little...” He places his pointer and middle finger to his lips and whistles. “I know a place behind school where Jason and his goons won’t find us.”

“Given what got us in this situation, I’ll pass. But thanks, though.”

Eddie sighs, standing to his full height again. “Good call. If any of those boy scouts caught you buying off me, you’d be branded with the scarlet letter. But I meant what I said. You know where to find me if you need me.” Eddie flashes you a dashing smile and places one hand over his heart like a pledge, “On behalf of Corroded Coffin’s set tonight, I thank ye.”

The next day at lunch, Eddie’s face was without blemish. Your nose throbbed even on painkillers.

January 24th, 1986.

You knew where the Hellfire club sat. Everyone knew where the Hellfire club sat. Eddie’s voice carried far and wide, a siren call for the outcasted, beckoning forth all to be judged and the lucky to be taken under his wing. You’d passed by their table time and time again, spying from afar, never once giving into the urge to walk over and take a seat. Today should’ve been like all the others.

But you’d had nearly two days to think this over, and today would not be like all the others.

Eddie had been in the middle of telling a joke, but his eyes go wide when the table takes note of you hovering by the head. He’s momentarily seized with a panic that only one of his friends can slap out of him. Literally. “Hey stranger,” Eddie clears his throat, “to what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?”

The boys mutter incoherently about you, “Hey, Eddie. Are you free tonight?”

You’re sure you come off more than a little odd. Once your nose had healed, it was as if the fight had never happened, and as if Eddie had never sworn his eternal debt to you in the hallway that unfortunate Tuesday. Standing here, asking about his plans for the night, was already several steps to the left of what you would ever normally do. Really, you were only returning the favor, “Uh... why?”

One of the boys—a freshman snickering beneath the bill of his baseball cap— smacks Eddie on the shoulder as soon as the word leaves his mouth.

“I... just thought I might take you up on your offer. To watch Elm Street together. At your place.”

Some of the boys are speaking too low for you to discern what’s being said, but you swear you hear someone say “finally” with mocking cadence.

Eddie looks more embarrassed than you expected. You try not to react when he takes you by the upper arm, far away from the Hellfire club to ensure they couldn’t hear his next words. When you’re secluded by the windows, Eddie folds his arms over his chest and turns his back to the cafeteria, “I get that you’re trying to get back at me for freaking you out the other day, but at least I waited until your friend went on break before embarrassing you.”

“Embarrassing me?”

“Yeah,” he huffs, the context obvious only to him, “it was all over your face.”

"I’m pretty sure you were the one embarrassed.”

Eddie flushes baby pink, “Okay, what is this? Like is it a joke? Cause if it is: ha, ha, ha. You got me! Congratulations or whatever.”

The nervous twitch in Eddie’s posture intrigues you. Ever since you’d started... observing him, you’d never found a crack in his armor. Even when any other sane person might have backed down or given into the pressure, Eddie found a way to spit in its face. And you had him nervous, “It’s not a joke. I’m... cashing in your debt.”

Eddie just looks more confused, “Pardon?”

“Last year, when I stopped that fight between you and Jason. You said if I ever needed a favor, I should come to you. Well, this is the favor.”

You can see the gears grinding behind his eyes, desperately trying to connect just two of the many dots that you’d presented to him, and he looked uncertain of any connections he did make. You felt sort of bad for him, really. “Sorry, just so we’re on the same page: you want to hang out with me as a favor to you? You can see why I’m struggling with the concept, right?”

“You asked me to hang out first. How hard can it be?” You throw back at him.

“That... that wasn’t-”

“Look, if you don’t believe me, that’s your deal. I want to hang out with you,” to expose you for what you are, “so do you want to go on a date with me or not, Munson?”

Date might have been a loaded word, but it did the trick. You watch Eddie’s mouth open and close, whatever words he wants to say dissolving every time he finds the voice to vocalize them. You would’ve paid Jonathan Byers a million dollars to take a photo of him if he wasn’t 2,000 miles away right now. Eddie gives the most coherent response he can muster, “Well... it’s just that tonight isn’t great.”

You school your face into a neutral expression, vindicated, “Then Saturday.”

Eddie cringes again, “Can’t Saturday either. Or Sunday. Busy the whole weekend.” At your accusatory expression, Eddie scrambles to paint a better picture for you, “My uncle needs my help fixing up his boat and I already promised I’d help. But I’m free next Friday. We could rent a better movie than Elm Street.”

Next Friday. It’d be the last quarter before the new moon. He’d be perfectly unaffected because this weekend was the full moon, and there was no way he’d risk exposing himself when he was most vulnerable. The fact he’d even come to school today must’ve been a feat of its own. 

It took you a while, but you’d eventually gotten the exact answer you were looking for. You’d get no satisfaction from going to see Eddie next Friday. None... unless...

You lean in and Eddie seems to battle with himself over leaning away, looking down his nose at you to figure out your next move, “Sounds perfect, Munson.”

Eddie tightly smiles, still twitching. 

While the thought of giving him a whole week’s worth of time to hide any damning evidence wasn’t ideal, the meetup at his place could still be fruitful. If you were able to keep him this wired, he was sure to slip up eventually.

Eddie, still suspicious, takes a wide step away from you, “Pick you up Friday?”

This really wasn’t a chance for you to pass up. “It’s a date.”

January 27th, 1986.

Steve Harrington looks on from beside Robin in both fascination and horror, “You’ve gotta have better options than Mick Jagger.”

Robin rolls her eyes, “I told you. It’s the werewolf thing again.”

Steve shoots you a look of pity, “Is your little fairytale really worth a date with Munson?”

“It’s not a date, Steve. It’s reconnaissance.” Even you’re aware of how pathetic you sound.

“Okay, but he doesn’t know that. You really wanna be alone with a werewolf virgin?”

At that exact moment, the bell above Family Video’s entrance rings out, shrill and loud, catching your attention.

You glance over your shoulder and nearly break your neck turning away when you meet Eddie’s eyes, his one hand raised to wave at you. Could he hear you? Was his supernatural hearing giving away your entire plan as you spoke? You lean in further and drop your voice to a useless whisper, “I’m telling you, this is the best opportunity I have. I’m just gathering evidence. Besides, I have witnesses. If I go missing, it won’t be quietly.”

“And you want to be alone in his house if you’re right?” Steve gives you a flat, unimpressed look. “What if you find what you’re looking for?”

I won’t tell Eddie, that’s what you think. You’d pretend you saw nothing and end the night as unsatisfactory as possible so that he’d never talk to you again, and then you’d call up Robin and present your case in full, hard evidence included. “Then you two had better hope I make it home in one piece.”

Steve rolls his eyes and takes his position at the register when the bell dings again. Robin passes off a box of tapes to you for stocking and you reluctantly take the hint to get back on the floor, eyes following Eddie’s mop of hair over the shelves. Every time you glance up, he’s zig-zagged further away from you.

It’s really your fault that you lose track of him so quickly.

When you can no longer make out his curls amongst the meager customers perusing the store, you wonder if maybe he’d slipped past you and checked out with Steve before you could catch him. Oddly, it makes your chest twist in disappointment.

Maybe Steve and Robin were right. If you couldn’t even keep an eye on Eddie on your own turf, you’d be even more disadvantaged Friday.

“Anyone home?”

Eddie hovers beside you as you stock the new arrivals, pointedly out of talking distance with Steve. Even though Eddie’s hands are tucked behind his back, you make out that he’s still holding his copy of Elm Street, proving that he’d yet to approach the front counter at all. “You know, Steve’s working the counter today. Not me.”

Eddie glances over at the counter to see Steve glaring at him with disapproval. He moves that much closer to you. “Yeah, but Steve’s scary.”

You can’t help but snort at the thought. The skin around Eddie’s mouth wrinkles when he smiles, lips pulling back to reveal his teeth. Fangless teeth. You try not to look for too long, “Oh yeah, cause Steve is scarier than Freddy Krueger.”

“He is! You see the crowd he used to run with? And they call me a degenerate.”

“He’s reformed. Steve’s a good boy.”

“Is that your type?” Eddie avoids eye contact with you to turn over a copy of Rocky IV, unenthusiastically reading the back while you gape at him.

Sure, Steve had been... an idea, once upon a time. As the most popular guy at Hawkins (at least up until Billy Hargrove had arrived), he’d been nearly everyone’s idea of a heartthrob. He’d never been an option, just an idea. A concept, really. And then you’d gotten to know him and the idea was firmly locked up in a shoebox and shoved under your bed for the foreseeable future.

But why did Eddie want to know? “Is that why you’re here, Munson?”

“No. I was just coming to... you know. Pick out a movie. For Friday.”

You don’t miss the way Eddie tacks on the reminder, and you wonder if he thought you’d forget. There’s a hopeful little look in his eyes that catches you completely off guard, rendering you unable to be conniving or sneaky in the slightest. In fact, it was kind of hard to be conniving or sneaky at all when Eddie had been smiling at you all day. It was especially frustrating given that you kept smiling back.

It felt different being seen by Eddie for once. You’d spent so much time watching him that being watched back left you feeling exposed, shy even. It was like you asking him out had given him permission to notice you.

And when you really thought about Eddie—outside of his brawls with Jason (and that November night)—you weren’t certain he was capable of the things you accused him of. Even if you were concerned he’d meant to lure you back to his trailer and tear into you like a Sunday dinner, he’d been hesitant, hadn’t he? He’d changed his mind. Until you’d put your arm between his teeth and dared him to feast. “Speaking of which: your parents won’t mind me coming over, will they?”

A small look—imperceptible if you weren’t always paying him so much close attention—crosses his face just then, but it’s gone as soon as it comes. “No parents to mind. It’s just me and my uncle, and he works most nights.”

You keep your pointless apology to yourself, something you were sure he’d heard enough of in his lifetime, “So it’ll just be the two of us.”

Eddie’s eyes flicker to the stack of DVDs, hands behind his back again, “’s not weird, is it? We can do something else if... if you’re not ready.”

As if he needed to baffle you more, the sight of a bashful Eddie Munson makes you knock your hand into one of the videotapes, sending it flying to the ground.

Except it never does hit the ground.

It happens in a flash. One minute, Eddie’s hands were clasped behind his back, and the next he was holding the tape you’d flung between his fingers... crushed.

Eddie seems to notice the mistake at the same time you do because he drops the remains to the ground, shocked at his own strength. His mouth gapes, but all you can do is stare at his still outstretched hand. It all had happened so fast, far too quickly for your human mind to catch up to let alone comprehend, but you swore you’d seen something you weren’t supposed to.

He’d crushed that tape with his strength, but it was his claws that left holes in the plastic cover. Said claws had disappeared almost immediately, leaving you blinking, dumb with shock, until Steve made his way over.

“Jesus, dude. You gotta pay for that.” Steve reprimands, bending down to sweep up the broken pieces into his palm.

Eddie looks between Steve and you, and the look on your face must be unsettling because when Steve stands back up to his full height, Eddie is about to run, “I didn’t mean to-”

“It was an accident, Steve.” Your voice comes out even, strangely so after what you’d just seen, and all eyes turn to you. What possesses you to defend Eddie is beyond you (maybe it was those eyes again, it must’ve been another power of his), but you step in fully confident, “An honest accident. Right, Eddie?”

All Eddie can do is nod.

Steve doesn’t look nearly as convinced. Still, you plead silently that he’ll reconsider.

A small, annoyed sigh leaves Steve right before he gives in, “Fine. But you’re telling the boss, not me. And dude,” Steve turns to look at Eddie sternly, “break something else in here and you’re banned for life.” Steve, of course, had no say in that, but it was said with enough authority that Eddie accepted it unquestionably. “And give your hand less of a workout at home, would ya? Could crush someone’s skull with that grip.”

Once Steve has slipped away, you’re left with a guilty-looking Eddie. You were almost worried he’d melt into the carpet beneath your feet if you looked at him wrong. “I think I’ll just come back later. Some other day.”

You frown. To your own surprise, you almost want him to... stay. “Are you sure? I could... I could help you look for a movie. Our movie.”

“No, I should’ve known better,” Eddie says, and then winces as if he hadn’t meant to say it, “sorry. I’m sorry.”

You watch, helpless, as Eddie runs away from you once more. Only this time, you feel much worse.

~

Journal entry: January 27th, 1986.

I think I saw claws this time. Steve had already tossed out the broken tape before I could examine it again, but I’m certain of what I saw. What’s even more conclusive is that Eddie seemed scared when it happened. As if it was out of his control. He said something strange before he left, too. Something about how he should have known better. If he really is a werewolf, he doesn’t have as much control as he thinks he does. Should I call off Friday? I want more evidence, but not if it puts me in danger.

I don’t know. Something tells me to hold out.

January 30th, 1986.

Steve filled in Robin after Eddie left, but even as the two of them poked and prodded, you couldn’t help feeling off about the whole thing. The look on Eddie’s face haunted your every thought; was Eddie as much of a threat as you thought he was? Were you just feeding into the same paranoia that guys like Jason used to justify their hatred? It didn’t sit right with you. 

Eddie’s warmth froze over after the incident, and you were left wondering if he’d finally call off your date. You’d noticed that his table was even quieter than usual, and while you didn’t catch him looking at you anymore, you felt it took more effort than he let on. So you could imagine your shock when Eddie returned during your shift that Thursday, quietly perusing the shelves before bringing you three horror movies.

“Quite the variety,” you comment, testing the waters, ”which one’s ours?”

Eddie looks up from underneath his unruly bangs and then back down at the selection on the counter, “Thought I’d leave that part to you.” You point out your favorite amongst the rest. Eddie pushes it toward you with a thoughtful expression. “Really?”

“It’s a classic.”

“You know every line?”

“Every line. I’d apologize in advance because it’s gonna annoy the shit out of you, but I won’t be sorry.”

“You could never,” Eddie’s eyes waver on you, still shy, but a bit of his usual disposition bleeding through, “I’d sooner annoy you. I know I already have.”

You shrug, checking out your choice, “No, you just... confuse me.”

Eddie blinks, “Can I ask why?”

It could be that you’ve missed him. You were fascinated and cautious of him just a week ago, but all that was left now was fascination. It wasn’t until you’d seen him vulnerable, not putting up a front like usual, that you noticed how much your feelings had shifted. 

After your encounter in September, he never approached you again, but he was always there, always on the edge of your mind, never quite gone but never close enough. It made it easy to make a monster out of him back then. Now, with him so close, the truth was clearer.

A lot of things were clearer, actually.

Eddie was a “freak” by all social standards. His only friends consisted of his DND club and his band. He was oftentimes needlessly aggressive, and anyone who came in contact with him either loved him or hated him. You were the anomaly. Why he kept you at such a controlled distance never made much sense to you, but he’d slipped up. He’d cracked open a door, and you were eager to get inside. “I’ve never seen you apologetic until Monday. It was a new side to you.”

Eddie avoids your gaze, “I’m still sorry about that.”

“We agreed it was an accident, didn’t we? So don’t worry about it.”

His eyes flicker to your hands then, “I don’t know. Harrington seems eager to rain down the hammer of justice on me.”

You snort, “He’s just power hungry. I wouldn’t let that happen.”

“You and him are close, huh?”

“Mhm.”

“He won’t be... jealous about tomorrow. Will he?”

Your eyebrows nearly shoot up into your hairline. First, he’d asked if Steve was your type, and now... Eddie’s unashamedly curious, waiting for your answer. “Wha- No! He wouldn’t have anything to be jealous about, we’re not even... no, no.”

Eddie looks relieved, “He looked like he wanted to hang me in the town square for talking to you the other day.”

“That’s just Steve. He’s protective. A good friend. That’s all we are.”

“Good to know.”

“I wouldn’t have... asked you out if I had someone else, anyway.”

Eddie leans both his elbows on the counter now, fingers reaching your side and nearly brushing against your waist. You’re not as concerned about it as you once would have been. “I just wanna be sure that this is what I think it is.”

You swallow hard, “And what do you think it is?”

Eddie doesn’t answer as quickly this time. You’re thankful it’s a slow night and that no one is forcing this moment to end too soon, but you fear the moment all the same. You were hurtling toward the edge of a cliff, and you didn’t know if you had a way of stopping.

“A movie. At my place.” A neutral answer. You’re almost disappointed. “One of your favorites,” he whispers as if speaking over a candle flame, careful not to disturb the sudden tension. You surprise yourself with how much the timbre of his voice moves you. You press yourself closer to the counter, forgetting that his fingers are just a hair away until they brush over your stomach. Eddie is slow to pull them back, “Alone.”

“Alone.” To expose your werewolfy underbelly. 

You’re reminded that it’s only the two of you in here tonight when Eddie leans forward, catching you off guard with the boldness and suddenness of the action. He’s so close. You swear that when you peek at his mouth, past the plush of his lips, you’re just looking for fangs.

Eddie’s still not looking you in the eyes, though. His own are fixated somewhere below your chin, and when you follow his line of sight, you’re just able to make out that he’s staring at your throat. Your hand instinctively shoots up to the skin there, covering it only because you felt your head beginning to tilt... exposing it, in a trance. That snaps Eddie out of his reverie. “Something wrong?” Your voice pulses around your strong heartbeat, warbling and nervous.

Eddie finally meets your gaze and swallows, his hands turning into fists against the surface between you. Like he was holding himself back. A week ago, you might’ve jumped away from him in horror. Now, you wait... docile. Expecting. Curious.

“Where do you live?” Eddie asks instead. Oh, right. You never told him.

You grab the nearest thing to write on, scribbling down your address on a spare piece of paper. The ripping of the page does nothing to disturb the moment, and you hold it out between you, eyes never leaving each other. Eddie takes it from your hand, careful not to touch your skin. He looks down to read what you’ve written, “What time should I-”

“Eight. I’ll be outside.” You couldn’t have Eddie coming to your front door asking for you. It wasn’t because you’d be too excited to wait inside, of course not.

That seems to be all Eddie needs from you. Your skin cools when he finally steps away and starts out to his van. You stand there, paralyzed, until his van’s brake lights are no longer visible through the glass. 

It takes you a few moments to realize the paper you’d given him came straight from your journal.

~

Journal entry: January 30th, 1986.

He smells really good.

January 31st, 1986.

You can hear Eddie Munson’s van puttering down the street before it even pulls up your driveway, can smell the gasoline burning before you even see it. Eddie is a gentleman when he helps you into the passenger seat, asking you to mind the mess. It looks just like how you imagined a metalhead guitarist’s van to look. It smelled like it too, that weirdly appealing scent that Eddie had, but he rolls down the window on your side before pulling off.

You can’t focus much on all of that anyway. Your attention is elsewhere.

When Eddie realizes this, he drops his arm down to block your sight until you’re forced to look at him instead. He can’t come up with an excuse before you can ask about it, “Are those claw marks?”

There are four distinct marks on his door handle, the plastic broken and jagged. Blocking it did nothing. They were too big to ignore.

Eddie tries his damndest, though, “Uh, yeah. Angry cat.”

“You have a cat?”

“No, rescued one,” he starts, and while you’re certain this story isn’t a lie, you’re even more certain it’s not the reason for those marks, “there was this little thing on the highway. Couldn’t believe she hadn’t been hit yet. Tried to get her in my van and she clawed the shit outta me.”

You narrow your eyes. “Big claws for a little thing, don’t you think?”

Eddie laughs, clearly nervous, “Yeah, well, you try getting kidnapped by a weirdo in a van and see how feisty you get.”

You force yourself to laugh, and want to argue that on that stormy night in November, you’d run up to Eddie’s van thinking you’d find his body bloody and torn asunder by the creature that had run off into the brush, only to find the van completely empty. There were only the claw marks, clear as day, fresh tears in the material that the creature had no doubt left behind. You also remembered hearing the most earth-shattering growl come from where the creature had run off to, and the ferocity with which you’d scrambled back into your car and drove off.

And then the next day at school, as perplexing as September 4th, Eddie was there. In that same, stupid van. Unharmed. You’d overheard him talking to the Hellfire club about how piss-poor Corroded Coffin’s set was the night before, but nothing about the van. 

You’re recounting the memory for so long that you only snap back to reality when Eddie opens your door, welcoming you onto the Munson property with open arms, “I’m flattered you like my baby so much, but I promise you’ll like it in the house too.”

You cast one last glance at the claw marks and jump out.

Eddie is an excellent host: he opens the door for you, guides you to the couch, and insists you can help yourself to anything. “Mi casa es su casa,” he expresses with a bow, “in English that means: how much butter do you want on the popcorn?”

His couch is one of those ones that immediately sinks to the floor when you sit down, and while you should be concerned about what that meant in terms of escaping, something about the atmosphere calms you. It was the same sensation you’d felt back at Family Video, only now you were swimming through it. It felt like a warm heat, the buzz from stolen beer, or walking into morning summer air. No matter which way you turned, you were surrounded in Eddie.

The most prevalent thing was his scent.

You’d only gotten whiffs of it up until this point, pleasing in small doses, but it was in everything here. It was in the couch cushions, it was in the air as Eddie passed you by, it was in every atom that made up this godforsaken trailer. You wonder if maybe Eddie had left something burning in the other room. Could it have been residuals from a smoke session he’d had earlier in the day? You didn’t smell anything in the air other than him.

Eddie is more than comfortable sitting beside you though. He laughs at your favorite parts and yells at the TV when the killer gains the upper hand, mouth full of popcorn at every turn until the two of you have devoured everything but the bowl itself. Even as you grow short of breath, Eddie rambles on as if you were rambling on along with him.

“You might just turn me into a horror buff yet, sweetheart,” Eddie comments during the end credits, arms folded across his chest, “you were awfully quiet, though. You okay?”

You’re not sure what you must look like. You’d tried your hardest to focus on the movie, tried to enjoy it as much as you always did, but as fifteen minutes in the trailer turned into an hour, and an hour turned into two hours, you’d found yourself struggling to think straight. 

“Yeah, just full from the popcorn,” you lie, “can I use your bathroom real quick?”

Eddie looks you over, the very picture of unconvinced. There was a strange look in his eyes. You’d seen it before, back at work, when he’d broken that tape and ran away. If your heart wasn’t already beating out of your control, it was now. Eventually, he relents.

The trailer isn’t big enough to escape from the cloudy feeling in your mind, but when Eddie shows you to the bathroom, you all but throw yourself onto the sink once the door shuts behind you. One look in the mirror and you’re stunned. 

You look... drunk. You’d been nothing but alert the entire drive here.

Your skin has a sheen of sweat, hot to the touch. Splashing your face with cold water doesn’t help you much either. Almost every part of your body is tingling and alive, the faintest touch of your own skin leaving you shivering. You’re positive you’ve caught a sudden cold with the way your body reacts, though you don’t feel... unwell. Not even in the slightest. You feel electrified.

It isn’t long before Eddie’s knocking on the door, concerned, “Hey, you doing alright in there?”

God, you don’t know what you’re feeling right now, but it’s overwhelming when you sense Eddie mere feet away. You press your forehead to the cool countertop and try to draw in even breaths before answering, “I’m just... a little dizzy.”

You can hear Eddie’s weighty pause on the other side of the door, “Ah. Shit. Do you need me to take you home?”

Your mind is slogging through everything, but your answer is immediate, “No.”

A few moments pass in silence as Eddie says nothing, no doubt trying to work out what to do with your rapidly worsening condition. Meanwhile, you pant and groan and cling to the countertop for stability, growing warmer by the second.

You’d never felt a sensation like this before. If you had to imagine dying or euphoria, it would be this.

Your condition doesn’t get any better by the time Eddie comes up with a verdict, your struggling to breathe hard to ignore, “Okay, come on. Open up. I’m taking you home.”

“I just told you. I don’t... need to go home.”

“I’m not joking, sweetheart. Open up.”

You’re stricken by the sharp turn in Eddie’s voice, feeling yourself lose inhibition the longer you stall. You press your ear to the door, “You know what’s happening to me. Don’t you?”

Eddie’s hesitance to answer should be enough of a red flag. If you were sober-minded, you might have been digging through your knowledge of lycanthropy to figure out what was wrong with you. Instead, you wait for his voice to reach you again, “Please. Just- just let me take you outside, at least. Get some fresh air.”

The idea of leaving upset you, but you didn’t want to stay locked in here forever. The fog in your mind leaves you with only the most crucial desire: to stay. “Okay.”

“Okay? Okay,” Eddie sounds relieved, stepping away from the door, and you whine when you realize he’s moving further away, “good. Great. Come on out.”

The door is thrown open and with it comes a gust of Eddie’s scent again; you’re able to put a name to it now that you’re here—the trees that surrounded the trailer park layered under his cologne. The concoction on its own would be nothing special to anyone else, but every single time it hits you, it just feels good. Like it was meant to. Like you were the only one who’d like it this much. Like you were the only one who’d ever want to.

As soon as Eddie sees the state you’re in, his back presses against the wall as if you were the monster he needed to be cautious of. The thought of him rejecting you upsets you even further. “Hey... hey, there you are. Let’s go outside, hm?” His hand reluctantly reaches for you.

Taking his hand is worse. The feeling of finally touching his skin thrills you. It’s clear it has an effect on Eddie too because when you bring it up to your face, leaning into it, Eddie’s fingers twitch to cup your cheek, “I feel so warm.”

“I know, I know. We should get outta here.”

Eddie means well, you can tell. He’s pulling away from your face to take your hand again, intending to lead you away. You think, through the haze, that he’s reluctant even still. That if this was his plan, he could’ve done away with you by now. You should be happy. Some other feeling is controlling you.

Eddie is easy to get on top of. He fights you half-heartedly, letting you capture his wrists when he tries to keep you at a distance, and all the while he starts to struggle for air like you. You, on the other hand, were suffocated with it. “I need to take you home,” his voice is strained when he insists, more to himself than to you with the haze over your mind so thick, “please, just lemme take you home.” 

You press his wrists beside his head and he submits so easily, even with his expression twisted and grim, “What did you do to me, Eddie?” It shocks you both when he shudders at the sultry lilt of your voice, “I only feel like this with you.”

“I wish I could stop it, I- I really do. I don’t know what... I don’t know how to stop it.” Eddie stutters with the way you brush the tip of your nose against his, choking on each other’s air now. 

“Is this what you do? Drive me crazy, lure me here, get me alone and then... Is that it?” 

Eddie shakes his head, honest, “I wouldn’t hurt you. I stayed away so I wouldn’t.”

That catches your attention, “What do you mean?”

“I need to take you home.”

“Eddie, what do you mean you stayed away?”

Just like last night, Eddie clenches his fists, but that’s not what draws your attention. Where his nails—human nails—had been were now a set of dark claws digging bloody half-moons into his palms. Your eyes then travel to his hand and the expanse of his arm, the parts that aren’t hidden by his sleeves, and make out how much... hairier they’ve gotten. Still, you feel the strain in his body. Your silly, human hands aren’t holding him back. He is.

And sure enough, when you look back at Eddie’s face, he’s panting around a set of sharp canines that weren’t there before.

It should scare you. That night on the side of the road should’ve scared you. But, like every time before, you can’t seem to look away.

He turns his head away from you with eyes forced closed. “Please,” he pleads, and you have a hard time figuring out if he’s asking you to leave or stay with that plea, “make this easy.”

“Do you want me to go?” You ask.

“You need to go.”

“Do you want me to go?” You repeat, harder. “I’ll go if that’s what you want.” Even if it’s agonizing to think about.

To prove your point, you release his wrists.

Before you can back away, Eddie grabs at your hips and pulls you flush against him again, a low rumble sounding in his throat. The warm chocolate of his eyes are now rimmed the most unnatural yellow, holding you transfixed. This is what should scare you. You’re still fascinated. 

“Wait, wait, wait, wait.” Eddie’s hands wrap around your wrists now, lucid enough that his claws come nowhere near your delicate skin. Your stomach flips when he pulls you in by them, “Let me just... let me just have a taste. Just one. Please. And then I’ll leave you alone.”

When you go to kiss him, he meets you halfway.

There’s a feverish desperation to his kissing, something you’d never quite had before, and with the dizziness of his scent clouding your brain, you were putty in Eddie’s hands.

And his hands were everywhere.

Once they’d released your wrists, they found your waist, tugging you against him again and again as if every minute movement was too far away from him. Eventually he’d gotten fed up enough to shift you around until he was crowding you against the wall, and his hands only wandered more from there.

He was careful not to nick you with his claws as his fingers rubbed up and down your thigh, his other hand splayed by your head as he continued his attack on your mouth. “Can’t,” he whispers in between kisses, “can’t go...”

If you thought he smelled divine, he tasted even better.

You’re rutting against Eddie before you even realize it. Hips slotted against each other, the two of you rock back and forth until Eddie hikes up one of your legs to get closer. Eddie is far too consumed in you, his mouth working at the skin of your neck, sucking and biting with the blunt of his teeth, all the while his fangs threaten to break skin. As you’d almost done the night before, you crane your neck instinctively to the side, wondering what magic could make you this reckless.

But it feels so fucking good.

Eddie must pick up on your desire because even while he ruts against you, his mouth draws back from your neck with a low whine. It doesn’t hit you until you see the fangs again that what you were desiring was his teeth in your neck. You imagine his teeth sinking in and want to get closer.

Dribbles of spit cling to Eddie’s bottom lip, mouth hovering over the spot on your neck that he’d been devouring, but he doesn’t dare lean in again. Instead, he drops his forehead to meet yours, whining, “Can’t…”

“Can’t what? What is it?”

“I should’ve left you alone.” Still, Eddie holds you firmly in place, unflinchingly. “I can’t… can’t see you with someone else.”

Your stomach flips again, burning low at his words. You think back to his questions about Steve and it all clicks together. Your next words are certain, “You won’t.”

Eddie whines again. “You’re it for me, you know? You leave and it’ll always be you. That’s... that’s how it works. You could find someone else but it’ll always be you. I wanted you to find someone else—at first. But now I can’t let you go.”

You couldn’t imagine finding someone else. The very thought of feeling this way for another person felt impossible. Was this what he was trying to avoid?

Your hand finds purchase in his hair, grasping lightly, but it’s enough to make Eddie jerk eagerly against you. The hardness straining in his jeans gives you delicious, mind-numbing friction over and over, building in your gut something blissful. You use the leg around his waist to pull him in deeper. 

You think—and it’s incredibly difficult to do so with Eddie making such lewd noises into your mouth—about what you might say if you were sober. You think about last night, in your bedroom, miles away from Eddie Munson but the memory of his closeness tingling all over. You think about the months gone by where he was always a thought away, even though you hadn’t spoken for more than a few moments in time. You think about your journal, full of every thought you’d had of him since that November night, and how you’d watched this boy for so long that you’d come to know him better than you even realized.

You think, now, that maybe Robin was right. Maybe you were obsessed. And maybe it was for reasons you were finally ready to comprehend. “I don’t want anyone else.” You think if you were sober, you’d say the same.

Eddie’s mouth falls to your neck again, mouthing at the same spot he’d been staring at last night. The pressure of his kisses there makes your toes curl. “Say it again.” He grunts.

“I don’t want anyone else.”

“Again.”

Eddie’s hot tongue laves up and down your neck, his hips thrusting harder against yours until he’s grinding against you in heat, chasing a high you feel within reach. “I’m yours, Eddie,” and your words feel right, they feel true, “and you’re mine.”

Your heart hitches in your throat when Eddie’s fangs brush your skin, aching to tear into you, and you face the first moment of clarity you’ve had since you’d come here. Everything, from September till now, is clear. There’s an undeniable calm that washes over you.

“Please. Let me.” Eddie begs. He doesn’t have to spell it out for you to know. 

Your hand in his hair tightens, pressing him closer, and you tilt your head to the side until you’re fully vulnerable. “I’m yours.” Is all it takes for him to bite down.

It hurts just as you expected, prolonging your lucidity, but the sting of his fangs breaking your skin dulls as your heart throbs loudly in your ears. Your other hand grips his hip that continues to grind into you and you focus your attention on that frantic pace, the promise of release so close.

You know he feels it too when he moans around your skin, rocking you through your high as you climax. The feeling is so elevated that you feel tears flooding over in your eyes throughout it all. All you want is Eddie. All you can think about is how good it feels.

The moments after leave you delirious. 

Eddie releases your throat, peeling back slowly to look you over. His eyes are blown wider than the moon, “Hey, sweetheart. You with me still?”

Your eyes lazily find his in the afterglow. It takes a little more effort than you expected to answer him, mumbling an affirmative. 

Eddie is careful when he scoops you up into his arms and carries you further into the trailer where his scent is the strongest. You let your head loll to the side and see the mess of clothes on the floor, posters pinched into the wall, and a guitar across the room with one of the strings snipped in half. You can’t help but giggle, “What’d you do to your guitar?”

Eddie follows your line of sight as he lets you down onto his mattress, making room for you in the unmade bed. You instantly curl into his pillow. He laughs, nervously, “Shouldn’t play before the full moon, I guess.”

“So you are a werewolf.”

“Mm,” Eddie hums, climbing into bed behind you, and you immediately flip over to look at him, “only for the last few years. Got more growing pains than puberty, baby.” You giggle sleepily, Eddie mirroring you, “Thought I had a handle on it by now, but... being around you changed all that.”

Eddie raises one of his hands between the two of you and you examine where his claws had once been, now returned back to normal. You reach for it and he shivers, “You said... I’m it for you.”

“I did, didn’t I?”

“What does it mean?”

“Well, it’s like... you know how in fairytales, they’re just meant to be together? Prince Charming sees Cinderella and knows she’s the one? It’s like that with you. When a werewolf finds their mate, they just... know.”

“Is that why I reacted the way I did with you?”

Eddie blushes. You’d thought before that only his eyes could make him look innocent, but you were pleasantly wrong, “Yeah. Mates, they uh... they’ve got a thing for smell. I must’ve smelled really good to you.” Eddie brings your hand to his mouth and kisses the inside of your wrist, never breaking eye contact with you. “I know your scent anywhere.”

You shudder, “And my neck. When you bit me... does that make me a werewolf too?”

Eddie shakes his head, “No, no. It’s different, when you bite someone here,” Eddie releases your hand to press two fingers to the sore spot on your neck, making goosebumps arise under his fingertips, “it’s special. When your mate bites you there, it seals the deal. Like vows.”

“It’s permanent?”

You watch Eddie swallow, suddenly nervous again, “Yeah, mated for life.” When your eyes go wide, Eddie shrinks in on himself, “But it’s not so bad for humans. You could always walk away.”

He still believed you wanted that? You scoot closer into his space, following his face that hardens at your assumed rejection. “You said it’s like the fairytales. Cinderella chose Prince Charming too.”

Eddie softens again, “...you got me there. You know, you’re kinda freaking me out.”

You frown, glancing up at him, “What? How?”

“I told you I’m a werewolf. And I bit you. And now we’re mates for life. And you’re taking it really well.”

“Oh, yeah. About that. I’ve kind of suspected you were a werewolf since last year.”

“What?”

“You sort of almost hit my car one night in your... wolfy form. And I saw your van on the side of the road when it happened. I’ve been gathering evidence about you ever since.”

“And you never said anything?”

“I didn’t want you to eat me before I had evidence!”

“Eat you?”

“This was before I realized how nice you were!”

“You thought I was going to eat you. Oh my God.”

“Why else would you ask me out out of nowhere? During the week of the full moon, no less.”

“I didn’t- it was a moment of weakness-”

“Because you wanted to eat me.”

“-during the full moon, it’s hard to control your urges.”

Now you’re just teasing him, “Urges to eat me.”

“I wanted to mate with you- fuck, this is embarrassing.” Eddie rolls over until his face is shoved into the pillow, his low groaning vibrating against the bed.

Apologetically, you rub between his shoulder blades and snuggle close behind his warm body, noticing how his breathing slows under your touch. “If it makes you feel better, I’m gonna have to tell Steve and Robin that I was wrong about you during my next shift. Since you didn’t eat me.”

Eddie shifts on his side, peeking over his shoulder at you, “What if they ask about us?”

You shrug, drawing circles into his muscles, “Guess I’ll just... have to say you’re only a beast in bed.”

Eddie drops his face back into the pillow, grumbling while you laugh, but before you can enjoy yourself too much, his arm reaches back and drags you down underneath him. “C’mere. You’ll need proof.”

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson scenarios #eddie munson imagines #eddie munson one shot #eddie munson smut #eddie munson #stranger things x reader #stranger things scenarios #stranger things imagines #stranger things smut #stranger things 4 #stranger things #mjwrites

[queenscholar]

nothing without you

tw cw // smut , nsfw , eating out (fem! receiving) , canon x oc content

For someone with the special skill of falling asleep in 3 seconds, Leona Kingscholar found himself couldn’t sleep at all tonight. Something was missing and he knew what it was exactly. This empty feeling on his arm belonged to the warmth of Patricia’s Venenum body. Even his ego couldn’t deny it any longer, he belonged to her which was made all too clear since the start but even his deniability couldn’t keep up anymore. Pretending he didn’t need anybody, or her, was exhausting. Because in the end indeed, he needed her, or else his world would turn dark, collapsing in an instant.

He didn’t want, he didn’t need this unnecessary feeling of losing Patricia Venenum to someone else that kept bugging his consciousness even to the realm of the unconscious. Like his life wasn’t chaotic enough, yet now they chose to bug him even in dreams? The only place he could escape to? Although surely, his reality would be sweeter if she was his officially, so no one could ever touch her, again besides him.

At this point he would take back his pride in a heartbeat, he was desperate enough to admit she was what he bleed. He couldn’t let her in someone else's arms, he couldn’t have her walking out on him like anybody else. If they gave up on him, fine! But Patricia? No, never, not in his wildest dream.

He’d bend his principal, he’d learn to love her the way she needed, the way she wanted him to, as long as he became her only one. Yet, reality still remained bitter. Because the suckiest thing was, the reason why Patricia Venenum didn’t want to fully accept him was the one thing he couldn’t change, the circumstances of his status at birth, a freaking royal.

This wasn't pain, this was loss and Leona Kingscholar knew it better than anyone the pain of rejection. Being the unfavored second prince. But after experiencing both, he loathed it more, the feeling of losing Patricia Venenum to somebody else. Which reminds him where was she anyway tonight?

He had a feeling of her exact location tonight, though he didn’t want to accept it. There was a part of him that hoped she was safely tucked behind the blanket of her dorm room. A scowl appeared on his face, bracing for reality to hit him when he reached for his smartphone. He gritted his teeth, his guts were right. Patricia was at Cater's party right now as he saw on his Magicam, he got invited but declined. She probably accepted in exchange for a body double at Vargas’ flight lesson.

Leona clicked his tongue, he was pissed there wasn’t a question in that. As he searched for her contact, he realized the one thing he tried so hard to conceal. The reason for these past recurring nights like this to happen, him searching desperately for her location, if she was with someone else, was because he couldn’t stand this empty feeling. He couldn’t stand to be with himself any longer, without her as a constant reminder yeah he got one more purpose to live. The bitter realization was setting in and the truth was, Leona Kingscholar had become nothing without Patricia Venenum.

As he dialed her number, he grumbled for her to pick up her phone fast. Mere seconds later, his wish came true, she picked it up but not without a protest from the other side.

“What is it now, Leona? You have been calling me every night now!” Patricia grumbled, Leona could hear Cater’s voice in the background, irritating him further.

“If I die tonight, would you regret it?” The air was immediately frozen in an instant. Leona heard her breath hitch, and his mission at grabbing her attention succeed.

“What the fuck Leona? Don’t you dare do anything until I go there!” Patricia screamed before hanging up the call. Leona was satisfied with the answer, that meant she cared for him more than anybody else, right? To drop everything for him, meant he was somewhat her priority. Leona smirked, she was coming. Now, all we left to do was wait.

“1, 2, 3…”

Leona counted, and right on cue, a door was slammed open in front of his eyes. Revealing a very messy-haired Patricia in her heels, it seemed like she was rushing down to get here. This sight was enough to satiate him, for now.

“You just lay in bed like usual, what the fuck I run here for nothing?!” Patricia shouted, obviously enraged by Leona’s action and furthermore to him, who casually just laid on his bed like he didn’t say something so gratifying mere minutes ago.

“Hey, you are the one who told me to do nothing.” Leona retorted back with a smirk. He wasn’t wrong, but that didn’t stop Patricia from beating him up to a pulp with his other pillow.

“Ow, what was that for?!” Leona protested while Patricia was still continuously hitting him with his pillow.

“That is for wasting my time! I don’t care anymore, if you want to die then just die!” That obviously was a tantrum and she didn’t mean it, but it felt like a jab to Leona’s heart. As she was done, she turned her heel to walk out on him and he stopped her. His tail wrapped around one of her legs while his hand grabbed one of her arms.

“Don’t go, please…” For Leona Kingscholar to be begging, was humiliating. But he couldn’t have her walking out on him, not after she said those words she clearly didn’t mean. He needed the reassurance that she didn’t mean it.

She stopped for a moment, unmoving. And Leona did the only thing he knew to do to make her stay until the morning at least. He stood up, his lips nipped her neck, biting and leaving a trail of hickies on her shoulders while his fingers fumbled with the strap of her dress.

“Fine, do what you want. But I’m not in the mood tonight and my feet are killing me running in these heels, so you gotta do all of the work.” Patricia said, sighing in defeat. She did want to inquire about him more, but knowing the lion she knew it wouldn’t bode well. So, she opted to ask for it the next day, letting him have his way tonight. Leona did feel a pang of guilt, knowing he made her feel hurt. Though he knew how to make up for it precisely.

In one move, he swiftly swooped her up in his arms before gently placing her in his bed contrasted with what he did in those rough days in the past. He slowly took off her shoes, so that she didn’t feel any pain. He kissed her feet, where the red marks were visible. That was an apology, for making her run all the way here. His kisses slowly made their way up as he removed one by one piece of her clothing, from her thigh to her breast until she was bare naked in front of him. It made her squirm, but she couldn’t say her body didn’t enjoy it.

For the final touch, he gently cupped her face, before giving her a slow but burning passionate kiss that left her breathless for minutes. His tongue engaged her in a devil dance, swirling inside her cave before leaving her lips until she was red in need of air. He would make sure she was too entranced by him to leave. No, actually it was him who couldn’t function if she left, Leona was doing himself a favor. Without her love, without her touch, he would be driven mad because that was all he had in this bleak world.

While Patricia was left panting from the kiss, Leona went down on her body until he arrived at her opening down there. His lips gave open-mouthed kisses to her clit, licking away all her precums. Patricia tried so hard to hide her moans by biting her lips until it was bleeding, not wanting to be found out by his other dorm members. Leona knew it by the squirming of her body, he pinched her hips making her yelp out an “Ah!” A loud moan escaped past her lips.

“Don’t hold back, they knew better than to mention something. I will kill them if I hear even just a thing.” Patricia was still hesitant to comply but Leona was relentless in his pursuit. Focusing on her pleasure, she was the center of his attention tonight. His tongue delved in, giving a lick to every spot of her walls, pressing deeper as far as his tongue could reach, making the coil in her stomach flare until she couldn’t resist it anymore. Giving in to his wanton, letting out shameful moans she couldn’t hold back anymore.

He was determined to make her cum at least three times with his own tongue. And boy, did he do it. His tongue hit her g-spot numerous times, repeatedly until she couldn’t take it anymore and let herself be undone on his mouth as her legs wrapped themselves around his neck. While his tongue was hugged tightly by her walls as she cum, he still didn’t stop, he swallowed some of it while licking every inch of her walls clean for her to be ready for the next one. He did it all so he could hear Patricia panting the name “Leona, Leona!” At top of her lungs, crying because he made her a mess on his bed like right now, that was the only thing that matters to him at the moment.

Patricia was on the brink of passing out, she thought this was the end after the brutal oral session he gave her. After three times coming undone, all she wanted to do was rest in peace for a moment, her legs on Leona’s neck already gave out, turning into a numb jelly that she couldn’t feel anymore. But she was wrong, that was indeed Leona’s purpose for it. So that her numb legs wouldn’t feel any pain when he thrust inside of her roughly.

Leona could feel the pulsating of his penis getting dangerously close to cum and his own heartbeat yelling for him to get to the main course when seeing Patricia be a freaking mess on his bed.

“We aren’t done yet?!” Patricia gasped when he saw Leona wrap her numb legs gently to his waist. Then she saw his big boner standing up and knew this was going to be a long night and she couldn’t get out not even if she wanted to.

“Are you ready?” Leona asked, she only nod, giving him the okay. He then slammed inside, fully going in just in one go. And in that thrust, he came inside all over her by the feeling of tightness around her walls he had been yearning for all night long, but he didn’t stop there, in the middle of his high he still kept going, not taking any break until she came again, creaming all over his dick. He was insane, he was like a madman chasing a sole goal and he wouldn’t stop until he got it. Leona Kingscholar couldn’t get enough of this, Patricia’s Venenum cries and touches. He was going insane, for her and her only.

As he continued his never stopping thrust in and out of her tight but welcoming walls, hitting her to the deep far places he had reached before. Leona knew what his mistakes were, he hesitated the first time he felt it, he let her wander, roaming too long in the arms of other guys. That is what he was guilty of, he shouldn't have let her. So he was going to make up for it tonight by showing her his endless love for her until she passed out from overstimulation and he collapsed on top of her while burying himself deep in her hilt until the morning came.

#leopat🦁🖋 #leona kingscholar #twisted wonderland #twst #twisted wonderland oc #twst oc #leopat writing #leona kingscholar smut #leopat smut #twst.tag

[maythearo]

You know what? Spiderman!Jamil is an amazing idea

Can you imagine the reaction he makes the moment he gets bitten? Where was he? When did he get bit? There's so many questions that would be fun to think of!

You know how in the first Spiderverse movie, there is the scene where Miles could physically hear his own thoughts in the form of comic word boxes/bubbles? It'd be really fun to imagine something like that with him since a lot of the time he's thinking to himself

How long does he keep it away from Kalim? Does he manage to hide it from him very long? What kind of Super Embarrassing Spiderman Moment does he end up having with somebody when he first got bitten?

How would his spidersuit look like? Maybe something similar to Gwen is what I think, maybe with accents of a snake? Yknow kinda like how Miguel has his whole "vampire spider" stuff.

Okay this ask feels like more that I'm interviewing you but I would love to hear more thoughts you have on this because I'm on a post-watching-atsv surge

These are great questions!!! I'm in the same hype about atsv as you, and my thoughts on it are also running wild AKSJAKDNWKSBAK I'M HAVING SO MUCH FUN

The toughest point to think of is how in the world he would get bit. I was rewatching the first movie that had Tobey Maguire, and there's just no way Jamil would willingly go to a school trip to a laboratory full of genetically modified spiders and insects or things of the sort 😭 I'll gladly listen to any ideas of how you think the bite would happen. I got no clue.

But when it does happen, obviously he would freak out upon seeing the spider/realizing he got bitten. Frantically wiping off wherever he felt the spider had crawled on him like "EW EW EW EW EW EW" he's devastated. That's the worst thing that could ever happen to him.

Whenever he starts feeling weird after the bite he immediately connects the dots and thinks he's going to die, nobody has ever seen him so nervous.

I'm making up a whole movie plot here, but hear me out. The only reason he doesn't immediately call a doctor is because he has an important basketball game to attend to, and his team needs him. That's where the super embarrassing spiderman moment comes in. He takes the ball and it doesn't want to let go. Struggle in front of the entire stadium, and he kinda had to quit the match since he cannot use his hands and the team ended up losing

The speech bubbles.. so many speech bubbles. Jamil tends to keep all his thoughts to himself so his inner monologue is filled with those. Visually very cool! He got more comic speech bubbles than any other spiderman out there fr

He's probably someone who would hide his powers and secret identity pretty well. Kalim wouldn't really suspect of anything, but he's not THAT oblivious as to not notice something weird is going on with his friend. He just doesn't push to get the truth out of him because Jamil's business is his own. Kalim's sure that if there's something he doesn't want to talk about it, he's doing it for a good reason (this was proven to not be true before, and he should absolutely worry about any secrets Jamil keeps away from most, but I digress). But if the truth's ever revealed, he wouldn't be so surprised, just react with an "oh yeah that makes sense 👍 I've never seen you and spiderman in the same room"

I got to add something you didn't ask anon, but the canon events ran through my mind and I'm making up on the spot what they would be for the friendly(-ish) neighborhood Spider Viper 🤔 it's mostly so tragic though, because the major canon events that have to happen to every spider person are: losing their best friend, losing a father figure (to teach that with great power comes great responsibility 💪), and also get a love interest (I volunteer btw)

I'm looking through the cast of twst and contemplating who's going to be the unfortunate soul for Jamil's uncle Ben, but I'm not 100% sure! What do you think?

Lastly, those are awesome ideas for a spider suit! I'm making something up as we speak, but for some reason I momentarily forgor how to draw and everything I'm coming up with don't look right 😭 I'll get over it soon enough though

#shut up may #across the spiderverse changed my life forever and it's all i'm going to talk about for the next few days #.twst into the spider verse

[chidoroki]

182 Days of TPN - Day 178

Chapter 178: "To the Human World"

As sweet as it is to have Mujika & Sonju rush all the way from the capital to the GF plantation to wish the children one last goodbye, I can't help but think of the surprised Pikachu meme whenever I see this panel of Ray. He matches it perfectly.

Kinda glad we don't linger on the tragic events of the previous chapter long, like yeah, I don't need to shed any more tears about it, but also having Mujika completely switch topics as if the loss wasn't highly depressing is lowkey hilarious. Also, that one shot of the plantation shows the outer bridge again somehow even though it was clearly destroyed back in ch167.

I'm assuming Oliver, Violet & all the other GP kids already know about the golden water because Lucas might have told them about it when he ventured underground with Emma? It's not like any of them saw the literal Goldy Pond themselves since it was locked behind the door that required the WM pen to open and none of the residents had one until Emma showed up, but whatever. The only one of them I could imagine getting a peak of the golden water themselves is Nigel since he went below the windmill to set off the self destruct button in the control room that was right next to said pond. Anyways, if this is the place the Ratri clan used to transport stuff between worlds, can't y'all just use the stairs too? I dunno why but I can't imagine them using the Seven Wall method every time, or that they would even know how to complete the ritual in the first place. Emma only activated that to advise the demon god they're all ready to implement the promise and cross over.

Phil asking the very important questions that we're all dreading the answers to! Though I'm wondering again how he knew of the deal in the first place. I figure he and all the other children at GF were told about the promise off panel by the escapees sometime after they were all reunited or perhaps that little tidbit of information was something Phil heard about from Andrew. Who knows. I certainly don't. I can love this series with all my heart but by no means do I have an abundance of knowledge of every tiny detail.

I can't and won't say Emma's lying here because she isn't. She answers Phil's questions with full confidence and very truthfully, it's just.. not the full truth, which is clever on her part to just give the answers they're wondering about instead of all the extra fine details because her family definitely wouldn't allow her to carry such a burden, as they outwardly express to her a bit later.

I can imagine Emma revealing the price of the reward so casually, like "oh, the demon god actually wants you guys," or something similar which makes everyone's freak out even funnier in my head.

Thankfully, her family is off limits due to how Emma phrased the new promise to include all the cattle children to cross over to the human world, so the reward is.. "nothing." It's so anti-climatic that no one believes it. I praise Emma's master actor skills very highly and will probably do so again in a couple pages, but this undoubtedly one of her weaker performances. C'mon honey, I know the past couple days have been real hectic but surely you had some downtime between all the traveling to and from the capital to think up a better story. (and Violet totally swears there. don't even question it. perfectly in character.)

I love how everyone continues to be skeptical as the lie continues to grow. If the reward was really that simple, then Emma wouldn't have had a reason to hide the reward from Ray when he first asked about it during ch144. If it was all good news and truly free from any sort of sacrifices, then I'm sure she would've been delighted to tell him everything she and the demon god discussed.

She's certainly not wrong. Just because the cursed blood will be shared amongst all the demons so they won't degenerate, doesn't mean that'll cure their cravings for human meat. Sonju is a perfect example of that. I also love how enthusiastically everyone is nodding their heads to Norman's words. The fact everyone would give up their freedom in the human world just to stay behind in the demon world with Emma is so precious. It would've been interesting to see all the humans live normal lives (as "normal" as they could possibly get anyway) in the demon world and whether or not they could actually coexist with the demons. I guess the second season sorta did that during that final episode slideshow where it had the fullscore trio and Lambda crew stay behind for a couple years before crossing over, but that was poorly done and covered the later story arcs instead of everyone living freely so that attempt doesn't count.

It's so wholesome to see everyone celebrate like this because Emma is still telling the truth here. They really really deserve to be excited and hopeful for their new lives in the human world.

It's so reassuring to know that the boys are still feeling just as suspicious about this reward as the entire fandom did.

The doubts don't last for much longer though since Emma starts speaking from her heart and we all know how motivating and optimistic she is when that happens. Emma has lied and put on great performances in the past in order to hide her real intentions, so the fact she's being completely true to herself and her feelings here is impressive since no one, not even Norman or Ray, could detect any other uncertainties about the reward with how efficiently she puts their wondering minds at ease.

Well I'm sure as hell not. (I do love this panel of her though.)

Relativity by M. C. Escher, but make it pretty and magical.

Sorry to say but she's definitely gonna forget you, Mujika. Not by choice of course, but consequently. I'll never get over that bittersweet smile of Emma's either.

Totally gonna be bias but I'm absolutely thrilled everyone ended up in what is essentially this world's version of New York. Aside from that, I was beyond worried about Emma obviously missing as she was previously holding onto Phil's hand for several pages before everyone crossed over, but I tried hard to push away all the anxious feelings by thinking of how exciting it would be to see the kids explore one of the world's largest cities. You know, after they find our very special sunshine child first of course. That's top priority.

Favorite panel/moment:

I love how these two panels blend into one another. Makes me wanna believe that Emma was in two places at once, as silly as that idea is, but she either used the ritual to just signal the demon god that everyone's ready or took a quick trip there and back to tell Him personally. It's probably the former (since I doubt there's still an active full moon), but the latter would've been a bit funny to see her disappear for an instant then have her return just as quickly.

#the promised neverland #tpn manga #182daysoftpn #chidoroki used chatter

[razorblade180]

Twin Snowflakes Finale: A New Tune

TSF 52<- Here!

They say a lot can happen in a day, but the truth is everything can change in a matter of a second. Years ago, it only took seconds to reshape the life of one girl and her family. Now, after all this time, it was changed yet again thanks many long and split second choices of those who cherished her.

With the snowstorm surrounding Atlas gone, it took no time at all for General Ironwood and many other supporters to rush back to their kingdom to aid those who were trapped inside and do damage assessment. Dozens of roads were ruined, a few buildings with obvious bullet holes and of course, a combat school that has seen better days. All things considered, most of the problems in the kingdom would melt away; and while many soldiers had faced adversity inside, all lived to tell the tale. That is if they hadn’t taken an oath to sworn secrecy, courtesy of both James and Winter. This was a freak incident as far as the outside world and citizens were concerned. Just one of the many new, dangerous, and unexpected phenomena that Remnant was now capable of thanks to magic existing once again. Would everyone believe it? Of course not, but Atlas military wasn’t responsible for this and the explanation was far more reasonable than explaining how a teen idol was technically responsible. Not that anyone was ever gonna pin Summer to this. If people pointed fingers at the military, so be it. This unusual blizzard that lasted a season could remain a puzzle to the world.

As for Summer herself, she and her brother had passed out after reuniting. The battle had come to a close and neither woke for a full day. Once they woke up, they found themselves together in their home away from home. Summer was pretty calm about it. As for Nick…

“I hate hospitals with every fiber of my existence.” He groaned in his bed.

Summer looked at him, cozy in the bed next to his. “We know Nick. We know. Look at the bright side. We share a room again.”

“Are you saying that’s what you want at home?”

“Pfft, let’s not get crazy.” She giggled. “Although…sharing a hallway would be nice again. Maybe I will move over to the other side of the manor. We can be neighbors.”

“You play guitar way too loudly for me to sign off on that.” He said bluntly.

“Oh, so we’re pretending you actually go to sleep at a reasonable time?”

Nick casually grabbed one of his hospital pillows and flung it at Summer. She caught it one handed and tossed it back. The start of a hospital room brawl was about to begin when the click of the door put them on their best behavior. Jaune and Weiss came in as the twins expected, but their parents weren’t alone. Behind them came in Max, and right behind him was none other than his father. Cardin Winchester. Nick and Summer were both stunned. Max was a little tense instead of his usual stoic demeanor. Meanwhile his behemoth of a dad stroked his burly beard as he stood like a sentry in his armor.

“H..Hey?” Nick finally said. “It’s been awhile Max, Mr. Winchester. Can we help you?”

“Yes, in fact you would be the only person that could.” Cardin huffed. “First of all, glad to see you’re still kickin. You too Summer.”

“Th-Thank you sir.” She squeaked.

“So about some time ago, I’m minding my own business. Just wrapping up a mission when suddenly not only can’t I go home, but this knuckle head of mine comes stammering towards me with that idiot on his back. You know the one.”

Nick nodded, “Darren? Yeah I know him.”

“I can’t make heads or tails of what’s been going on and I don’t really intend to; all things considered. However, not only does my boy not spook easily, but it’s rare for guilt to be all over his face. So I’m asking you a simple question. How much trouble is he and Darren in?”

Cardin wasn’t the most skilled fighter Nick had met but man was this guy imposing! Even the gruff in his voice probably had a gym routine. Nick waa the only person who could truly recall the important majority of that day. It was good to learn Max had in fact made it out and didn’t die somewhere with Darren. Not only was a big part of this not really in their control, but Summer would never forgive herself.

Nick rubbed his chin as he looked at Max. “Actually…I should be thanking your son.” Everyone, including Max, went bug eyed. “It’s true. An accident happened in the boiler room and if it wasn’t for your son and Valerie, neither Darren or myself would be here today.”

“Is that so eh?” Cardin said, a little skeptical. “So they weren’t the problem?”

“As much as I would love to pin something on Darren specifically, I can’t. How is he by the way?”

“Your redhead doctor snatched him up and said she wanted to make sure he was fit.” Max said.

Sweet Penny. She probably wanted to make sure that Diamond Dust situations were over! If anyone was more tired and invested than Summer when it came to Shiva, it was definitely Penny.

“Hmm” Cardin furrowed his brow. “That’s really as far as you want to go?”

Nick nodded. “They got caught up in a mess, but it wasn’t their doing. Your son is a good kid. Darren, not so much.”

“Shit, I ain’t his parent.”

Max took a breath of relief. “Don’t worry about him. Honestly I’m positive the last thing he wants to do is cross paths with you both ever again.”

“Works for me!” The twins said, a little too happy.

Cardin took the answer he was given and looked at Jaune. The knight gave a shrug as he chuckled. They bumped fists lightly as a goodbye, then Cardin left with his very thankful son. They barely made it out the door as Penny walked in; she gave Max a slip, most likely Darren’s room number, and politely went about her business.

“Sal-u-tations!” She chanted with more excitement than usual. “How are we feeling?”

Nick and Summer looked at one another then spoke in unison at her. “Incredibly sore.”

“Perfect! Pain means you are alive. Living was the goal so mission accomplished! I brought gifts. Well… I guess it’s actually data, but good data!” Penny projected both of their bloodwork.

“Ya know…the amount of times you’ve taken blood samples while I was unconscious is getting alarming.” Nick trailed off.

“It’s only been twice.” Penny smiled. She made his data bigger, focusing on the cells themself. “Anyways, good news! The Diamond Dust in your blood is completely gone. No blue or purplish discoloration anywhere. All red again. It looks like your body burned through what you had.”

“Really? Just when I thought I had a new ace in my pocket.” He said, half joking. Nick had a feeling after speaking to Gilgamesh for the final time.

“It’s actually not all that surprising. It never lingered long in other patients who used it as treatment. The duration it was in your system most likely was influenced by the amount we had to use to save you. Also, your ‘ace’ was only viable because you were constantly breathing in air saturated with the substance. If we faced Shiva anywhere else in the city, odds are you would’ve burned out much quicker or unable to utilize the Dust in the first place.”

Again, something he had thought of whenever he first felt the cold after surgery. “So what you're saying is my plan was really good? Man, I think I’ve peaked. How am I ever gonna be that cool again?” He flopped back onto the bed. “Guess I have to think of another way of besting Valerie in a fight.”

“Y-You’re thinking about that now?” Weiss said in disbelief.

“It’s always in the back of my mind. Oh!” He sat up. “You have to teach me some of those Dust combos you did! That’ll work!”

Weiss didn’t know why she was surprised. Not only was this normal Nick behavior, but she literally is no better when it came to rivalries. She gave a smirk and said, “We will talk later.”

Summer spoke up. “Ummm, so does that mean I burned it out of my system?”

“Weeeeeell…” Penny enlarged Summer’s data and brought up an older test.

The older version was riddled with cells saturated with Diamond Dust to the point of looking abnormal in shape to a degree. Her new results displayed normal looking cells in shape and color. However, there were still cells that had strands of faded blue. Not nearly as aggressive as before, but noticeable nonetheless.

“Unlike Nick, which was a controlled dose, yours was an accident. Even before recent events, your blood was always more saturated than his ever was. However, now it’s vastly depleted by comparison; all the effort Shiva used internally and externally is what got you to this point. I’m sure if I were able to get a sample during the last seventy months I would’ve only blue and deformed cells beyond what I could comprehend. Summer, how exactly are you feeling right now?”

“If I’m being honest, weird.” She rubbed the back of her head. “The room is cold, and it’s fine. My head feels so clear, quiet, and yet…is it odd it makes me feel a little lonely? There’s no mistaking it. Shiva is gone.” Summer always thought she would say that with more bravado, but it felt a little numbing. Bittersweet even. Summer snapped out of the funk when she noticed their concern. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely glad this happened. It’s hard putting it into words.”

Nick sorta understood what she was saying. “I definitely didn’t have to deal with this as long as you, but it did feel strange seeing myself fade away.”

Penny rubbed her chin. “Oscar discussed with me in great lengths what it felt like when Ozpin locked himself away. It’s not the same situation but I think what you’re feeling is perfectly normal. What’s important to remember is that you are still all of you.”

“Thanks Penny.” Summer smiled gently. “Any words about Oscar?”

“It’s pretty clear he wasn’t outside trying to get in, or else I would’ve seen him by now. I haven’t been told anything, but I intend to go searching myself by the end of the day. Call it blind optimism, but I really doubt he’s harmed.”

“He took Qrow with him. I bet they are stuck somewhere or somehow all their scrolls ended up getting grabbed by seagulls.” Jaune said, irritated at the thought.

Penny sighed, “It’s scary how normal that would be. Getting back on topic, Summer, I wouldn’t worry about this new bloodwork. I’ll have to run a few more tests in the future but based on what you said and all I’ve gathered, this data is your new normal; as in your blood would look like this after such an incident. What that fully means is something we’ll only see as time passes but it’s safe to say large snowstorms and constant heat are a thing of the past.”

Summer looked down at her hands. A grin reached ear to ear as she opened and shut her hands repeatedly. “I can live with that.”

“I was hoping you’d say that. That ends all the data we have so far. Now I have one final gift for both of you that I know Nick will adore. I’ve already discharged you from the hospital.”

Nick looked towards the sky in absolute gratitude. “This day could not get any better. Let’s go! We should get celebration cocoa.”

Summer loved the sound of that. However…“Actually, I could go for a milkshake.” Just being able to suggest that made her heart sing. “Or maybe even a smoothie, or both!”

Nick let out a laugh. “Haha, I don’t see why not. I’ll make you one myself!”

For the first time in what felt like forever, Jaune and Weiss watched their children get excited about the simplest things and spur each other on the way kids their age should. Weiss gently leaned against the knight and relaxed as she took in the sight. It was a long time coming but at least, life felt on track. Life felt normal. Well, as normal as their lives could get that is.

xxxxxx

The new lease on life enthusiasm made its way out of the hospital and into the car for about a mile before tuckering itself out in the back seat as Weiss drove. She couldn’t help but occasionally look in the rear view mirror to see Nick and Summer knocked out beside one another.

“Out like lights.” She giggled.

“I envy them.” Jaune said through a yawn. “We still have a few more things to do.”

“Let it wait for tomorrow. I know I’m going to. Maybe my age is showing but I’m still sore.”

“Want a massage when we get home?”

“Depends, what kind are you offering?” Weiss teased. She looked over at him for a second to see him staring at her mischievously. Weiss focused on the road the best she could. “Behave.”

“I didn’t say anything.” He hummed quietly. “I guess our next job then is hauling these kids off to bed.”

“I was actually thinking about that. I don’t want to wake them, and I have a feeling given recent events, they wouldn’t mind a little more time together.”

Jaune looked at Summer’s snoring face against Nick’s shoulder and smiled. “Living room it is then.”

They finally made it home after an hour-long drive. It couldn’t be helped with all the snow, even with the heaters operating normally now. Jaune and Weiss both took a child into their arms and carried them inside. Weiss couldn’t remember the last time she did this. It was surprisingly still easy. Though she was carrying the lighter of the two without a doubt. Jaune didn’t appear to have any trouble carrying Nick however. He probably would have carried both if she asked, but it felt wonderful holding Summer close. Weiss wasn’t sure for a while if she was ever going to be able to again. Thankfully that wasn’t the case.

They each put a child on separate ends of the L-shaped couch they owned so they could both stretch out as they slept. Jaune draped blankets over each of them before finally picking up his wife by surprise as he walked out.

Weiss put her arms around him and rested her head on his chest. “Someone is being extra romantic today.”

“You said you were sore. Let me handle the stairs for you.”

“Hehe, my hero. Let’s rest a bit like them before doing anything more… strenuous.”

He kissed the top of her head. “You read my mind.”

After the sound of footsteps made their way up to the second floor, Nick opened his eyes. “You awake?”

“Mmhmm.” Summer sank deeper into the couch cushions. “That might change again though.”

“It’s nice that mom and dad are finally getting back to their usual selves.”

“Yeah…I could’ve lived without hearing the massage comment though.”

“I’m choosing to forget it.” Nick groaned.

Both of them cringed and laughed over the moment. Summer opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling. “Hey Nick? Thanks for believing in me. I know it couldn’t have been easy to let me handle Shiva on my own.”

“I always believe in you Summer. When I rush in to help you it isn’t because I don’t think you can handle things by yourself. I guess…I get scared is all. I don’t want to lose you and feel as if I could’ve been doing more, but I can see how that might be…annoying.”

“Please don’t dwell on what you read.” Summer said somberly. “I don’t want any of you to. Words on a page don’t always convey everything, and I’m a pro at not confronting my feelings to the fullest.”

“You’re getting better at it though. Speaking of which, what was your final move on Shiva? Was it something dramatic like taking your newfound strength and making a fully formed Gigas?”

“If only. I would’ve loved to finally pull that off. No, it was something more my pace. I did Solitaire. It was basically the equivalent of rolling a slot machine.”

“I thought you hated that move?”

“That's why I did it. It’s so random in how it would turn out that there’s no way to foolproof a counter to it. That is…unless you can cheat like Veronica can by going through it.”

“Have you heard from her at all by the way?”

Summer pulled out her scroll to see no messages at all. They were both sent flowers during their hospitalization but they assumed those were from everyone. “Nope. Not like I mind it. Don’t really feel like having an argument.” Summer put her scroll down.

“I…don’t think there would be one.” Nick rolled over on his side to see her. “Hey, not right now, but I have to tell you a little bit about what went on these past few months. To be honest, I wasn’t even around for all of it myself but I have a good handle on it I think.”

“Playing mediator again?” Summer said tiredly. “Don’t think it’ll change much about my feelings.”

“I’m not trying to sway you or anything like that, and what I want to tell you isn’t to excuse anything over the years. Just…cut Veronica the smallest bit of slack okay? She could fill her own life with journals too…”

His voice trailed off and his eyes looked at the floor. Summer could tell he wasn’t trying to advocate or take sides. He had clearly learned more about the girl that he felt was important to share regardless of if Veronica asked him to or not. Those words he chose, they weren’t to be taken lightly.

“…Kay. We’ll discuss it later and then I’ll see what I feel later. It’s not like my own actions have been anything praiseworthy. Man, I've been so dumb.”

“Summer.”

“Sorry. Force of habit. I think we all have gotten a little too good at kicking ourselves while we’re down. Since we’re on the topic of hearing people out, I take it you and Valerie are okay?”

“I’m a little livid if I think about it long enough.”

“Wow, I’m genuinely surprised you outright said it. That speaks volumes though. Soooo we aren’t furious at her anymore?”

“We?” Nick chuckled, “Even if I was, you wouldn’t have to be ya know?”

“Listen, I know you’ve read pages upon pages of me complaining about our dynamic, but I stand by you got it? In fact I don’t hate your problems being mine at times.”

“Heh, thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Sooooo…”

“We are not mad at her.”

“Cool. Still gonna pick on her a little though.” Summer huffed. “Hate to admit it but seeing you cry is the worst.”

“Why do you hate admitting that!?”

“It feels weird okay!? It’s complicated.” She turns away from him. Shiva’s final words still played in her thoughts. They were so… different. The young girl sighed. “Oscar needs to come back. I miss my therapist.”

“Not to be rude but I’m starting to think he isn’t doing the best job, all things considered, and written.”

“Bite your tongue. He’s wonderful. I just may not have been showing him those journals.” She mumbled that last part.

Nick sat up. “Did you just tell me you’ve been withholding information from your own therapist?”

“I’m not proud of it, and I’m sure he’ll yap my ear off. Oh well…I’ll deal with that later. Let’s catch some more sleep.”

Nick mentally apologized to every bad thing he might have thought of Oscar over the last several months. Nick laid back down. “You owe that man an actual paycheck next visit.”

“If he shows up in the next day I’ll pay him for all the visits I had.”

Nick would’ve challenged that claim, but he didn’t get the chance. Out of nowhere, both twins felt a sense of weightlessness before hitting the ground suddenly. Their comfy living room was gone, and they found themselves in this sparkling, beautiful golden space. They weren’t alone either. Everyone involved in recent events except Eliza was here, the majority of them just as confused.

Summer shook off their sudden landing and got up with Nick. First thing that caught her eye was Winter and Penny on the ground; but it was what, or rather who they were on top of that made Summer gasp. Wrapped in Winter’s arms were Qrow and Sparrow hugging her as she cried. Penny cried louder as she hugged a very dirty Oscar who was trying to calm her down. Summer looked at her brother.

“We didn’t shake or anything.” She said defensively.

Nick didn’t even entertain the response as he saw Valerie and Veronica several feet away with the same confession he had. They all quickly noticed one another and grouped up. Summer and Veronica only shared a glance for a second before Vee turned away. That didn’t stop Summer from speaking to her when she noticed the girl’s cat ears were pinned down into her hair.

“Uhhh what’s with the new look?”

“Huh? Oh, there uhh plugged up for the time being to recover. That fight got really loud…”

“Oh…” Summer rubbed the back of her neck. “That’s rough.”

“I’ll recover.” Veronica took another look at Summer to see her in casual clothes. “Out of the hospital? Good for you.”

“Th-Thanks…?”

Nick and Valerie watched the awkwardness before them and chose to direct the group's attention to something a tad more interesting and terrifying; they pointed towards everyone’s parents and Ruby gathered in front of a mass of light and darkness that gradually formed into The Brothers Grimm. The group of teenagers slowly stepped forward when they saw Whitley walk by and waved them along like this was normal!

“Uncle…?” Nick said worryingly. “Did we all actually die without knowing?”

“I hope not. I was literally in the middle of signing adoption papers.”

Summer went wide eyed. “We’re getting a cousin? Damnit, this five month gap sucks!”

“Imagine how I felt waking up in the winter nightmare land.” Nick said.

Whitley let the kids stay behind him as he reached the group. “We’re not dead by the way. This has happened to me at least once before; the day the world brought the gods back. It was over the top then, and it’s over the top now.”

The kids honestly couldn’t fathom how nonchalant Whitley and everyone seemed to be! Their parents must’ve sensed their unease because they all reached a hand backwards, calling them even closer. The children listened and had their hands held as their parents remained in front of them and looked up at the huge entities.

“It’s been quite some time.” The God of Light said calmly.

Yang puffed at her chest and squinted. “Sup. So can you two like…stop being giant for no reason? You’re frightening children.”

The goods looked at the kids with their nonexistent faces to see them clearly disturbed. “Apologies.” They said as they shrunk to the size of a normal adult. “We thought not appearing as dragons would be enough.” Said the elder brother.

“Dragon-sized humans aren’t any less alarming.” Nora said bluntly.

Ruby stepped forward. “Is there a reason you called all of us?”

“Actually…” the younger brother looked towards Oscar. “He’s the one who demanded this get together.”

“And for good reason!” Oscar shouted, getting up with Penny and walking closer. Qrow and Sparrow did the same with Winter, receiving hugs from the rest of their family. “Hey everyone.” Oscar said tiredly.

“WHeRe HavE YoU bEeN!!!!” They all yelled at them.

Winter shook Qrow. “Do you understand the chaos we’ve been through!?”

“You? Look at us!” He gestured to the rugged trio he found himself a part of. “We look like pirates.”

“Hold the phone everyone.” Nick said, looking at Oscar. “You wanted us all here, right? I take it because you know we are involved in Shiva related business?”

“That would sum that up, yes.”

“Ah, so you wouldn’t know. Eliza Marigold needs to be here. Can you make that happen?”

Weiss looked at him. “Are you sure about-”

“Believe me, she will be pissed regardless if she joins or gets left out, and I don’t wanna explain anything twice.”

Oscar looked at the gods and shrugged. The brothers clapped once and Eliza came falling into the space, hitting the floor face down. Nick ran over to help the girl get her bearings.

“Rise and shine. You’re alright.”

“Nick?” She groaned. “The hell!? I just spent months with you. Can’t I enjoy our time away from school in peace for a single-” Eliza noticed the two ethereal beings behind him. As well as the terrifying void. “…”

“Yeah, let it sink in.” Nick helped her up and took her hand that she so gladly gripped for safety as he took her into the group. “Please continue.”

Sparrow looked at all his friends. “Okay so, just so we have a baseline, did we miss the tournament?”

Winter blinked. She looked at everyone then back at her son. “Yes, by five months!”

Oscar rigidly turned his head to the gods like a horror movie monster. “Five months? You had us gone…for five months!?”

“An honest mistake, rest assured.”

“That doesn’t make it better!” He yelled.

“Can someone explain please?” Ren piped up. “It sounds like you weren’t aware at all how long it’s been.”

“That’s because we weren’t.” Qrow grumbled. “After about a couple weeks or so of fighting every sea creature known to man, we finally made it to a mysterious island. It did cost us our ship.”

“My ship.” Sparrows emphasized greatly. “It sailed beautifully and got us to our destination. Little did we know however the magic island we hunted down doesn’t play by the rules thanks to divine intervention! We noticed things were off after what was apparently a long conversation with deities ended with them kindly sending us to the closest mainland.”

He pulled out his scroll to show them how his time and date was significantly off by theirs. “It was only after looking on a news station and talking to people did we start freaking out. That’s when Oscar over here lost his temper and cursed more than any sailor I ever heard, shouting at the gods and bringing us to where we are now.”

Oscar let out the longest sigh. Thankfully his irritation was evened out by Penny holding on to him, as he clung to her as well. “God of Darkness, care to explain this screw up?”

“Watching humanity day by day is dreadfully dull. Meaningful changes often take considerable time for you all. Also, my brother and I have found it unwise for humans to seek us out so recklessly like they once did. Choosing to remain in a space where time is fragile and hard to reach makes it so people think twice when looking for us.”

“And you neglected this information because…?”

“In truth, we had made this defense so long and you actually are our first visitor since our return. Embarrassing as it is, coupled with your intriguing questions, it did cross my mind to keep track of the world outside. We would’ve simply made time normal.”

“Question.” Eliza squeaked. “So umm, what is time doing right now if we’re here?”

“Don’t fret. You all will return to where you were as if no time passed. This we will make certain of.”

Penny grabbed Oscar’s face. “Where are you?”

“Menagerie.”

Blake perked up. She didn’t expect her home to be the closest to gods. It was kinda validating, yet concerning. “I can arrange an airship to pick you up, then we’ll go home on it. We’ve been away long enough.”

“Away?” Oscar raised a brow. “You’ve been in Atlas this whole time? I had you all called here not only to get my bearings, but I thought it would be the quickest way to tell you what I learned about Shiva.” Oscar waited for gasps and faces of awe, but all he got was sympathetic gazes. “What?”

Sheepish laughter came from Penny. “Honey, I highly suggest you sit down. We have a lot of catching up to do.”

xxxxxx

They told the trio everything, regaling them with a story of great fear and desperation that even the gods listened to carefully. The group took turns explaining, adding more knowledge while staying focused on facts and events. The intermingling squabbles that took place were left out of the narrative. Both Nick and Summer especially learned a great deal of what transpired in their absence. Every time the situation got worse, Oscar, Qrow, and Sparrow couldn’t stop themselves from glancing at the gods.

“And…that’s about it. Now we are here.” Penny wrapped up. “Any questions?”

Oscar once again looked at the gods. “What the heck would you have done if we came back to our lives ruined? Do you understand how fortunate it is that everyone made it through that alive?”

The God of Darkness folded his arms. “You of all people know better than to ask questions about problems that won’t come to pass. Who’s to say how we would’ve corrected this oversight?”

“Well that’s a bullshit answer” Veronica said bluntly. “Here you are acting aloof when we put everything on the line. You even made it difficult to find you. I bet half the problems in Summer’s life wouldn’t exist if you bothered to be more diligent. You’re less like gods and more like neglectful parents!”

The room went quiet as Veronica spoke her mind, clearly upset. On Summer’s behalf no less. Her outburst ended when Yang covered her mouth and Blake made the girl bow alongside herself.

“Pardon our daughter's language.” Blake said. “Although I can’t say I don’t disagree with several of her points.”

The youngest brother chuckled. “So this is your child? Quite amusing this one. It would take more than a person’s insults to shake us. No need to bow.”

Veronica was let go. As she looked up, it was almost as if The God of Darkness was smiling. She didn’t know if she should be grateful or alarmed that he thought she was amusing. Veronica took the words and sat back down to not cause any more potential problems.

“I feel terrible.” Summer said as she looked at the state Oscar and her family were in from their voyage. “You went so far on my behalf and in the end we solved things from home.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.” Oscar smiled. “Granted, you learned a lot we didn’t even consider. However, while you have an answer to Shiva, you don’t have an answer to Diamond Dust. We on the other hand…”

“We cracked that mystery wide open!” Sparrow said proudly.

Summer thought for a moment. “I’m not quite sure I understand. We’re missing more?”

Oscar nodded. “The biggest piece. Something none of us considered because we had to reason to do so.” He pulled out a crystal of regular fire dust. “Understanding Diamond Dust origin means knowing the origin of the normal dust we are used to. Anyone remember when it showed up?”

Ruby recalled the time Jinn told the origins of Remnant. “Dust has always been here after humanity returned if I remember correctly. Same with the Faunus.”

“You’re correct, but we never really thought much more about it. Dust didn’t simply show up because of evolution. It’s a mineral found in the ground found only after humanity became extinct; when magic became extinct.”

Right then, it clicked for the grown ups who had witnessed the story told long ago, and then it slowly dawned on everyone else one by one as they tuned to The God of Darkness.

“No, no, that's insane.” Weiss uttered. “It’s what’s left of the people you wiped out; the magic they possessed!”

“Dust is magic corpses!?” Yang said in disbelief.

The God of Light nodded. “Not exactly how I would describe it, but in short, yes. With humanity scattered across the land, over time it grew and shaped like all minerals do. Truly, the name Dust couldn’t be more perfect.”

While most were left stunned into silence, Penny found this life changing. “Fascinating. People rarely ever think about the origin differently from any other natural resource even after learning about the gods because Dust has always been a constant. That begs the question why is Atlas so rich in Dust. Is it a land where many magical people gather, or does the cold climate somehow preserve the remains better than other areas?” Penny rambled, her excitement clear as day.

Veronica watched Penny pace around. “Never took you for a history buff.”

“I wouldn’t go that far, but science and history go hand in hand. Understanding the past always leads to future progress. Umm, Mr. God of Light sir? How does this tie back into Diamond Dust? It’s relatively new and incredibly rare, only being discovered by Weiss Schnee about a decade ago near a lake.”

Summer stood up. “I get it now.” She said slowly, pulling up her sleeves and displaying a few scars. It was hard to describe, but her body felt a sort of rush as she stood before the gods. “If Dust is essentially dead magic, then the return of magic in Remnant would potentially reinvigorate it. What we call Diamond Dust is actually Ice Dust that has regained magic.”

“You must be Summer?” The elder brother asked. He walked closer to get a better look at the peculiar girl. “Oscar had told us a great deal about you.”

“Was my answer correct?”

“It’s what we’ve come to understand at the very least. Since our return, we’ve observed like many others of humanity that this world’s entire environment has become more aggressive ever since gradually magic returned. Nature always tries to find a balance with itself. Oscar now believes these various changes in weather locations may be signs of more rejuvenated Dust. It doesn’t appear to be all sources, but even feathers can tip a scale the more they pile on.” He continued to walk around her.

“Recently I’ve been having to start coming to terms with a lot of feelings; thoughts that were in my head. I’m positive many of them are my own, however…”

“Not everything fits into place?” He finished. “An understandable and perceptive feeling.”

“The origin of Dust is people from the old world, so by the logic, I didn’t merely get a foreign substance into me. I had the essence, residual, pieces, or whatever you want to call it, of someone inside of me. I had Shiva.”

Everyone paused for a moment again. Eliza broke apart that logic mentally before speaking. “That…can’t be entirely correct. Let’s say that turns out Dust is more organic than mineral like we always thought. There’s no way a consciousness could be dormant for ages. Magical or otherwise.”

“You.” Said That God of Darkness. “You’ve been touched by magic. What is your name?”

“E-Eliza Marigold.” She said rigidly

“It would appear humanity is slowly yet surely becoming whole once again. You would know better than your peers how magic is both a part of you yet so much more as well. It lingers and maintains, ever connected to the world. While I agree one’s mind wouldn’t persist in its entirety; do you truly believe a part of your very being isn’t intrinsically woven into your power?”

“I…hmm.” Eliza made several orbs of varying elements spin her hands for all to see. She could not deny that magic did feel more than her strength, yet very much a part of who she was. “You may have a point. Whatever remained may have filled in the gaps somehow?”

“Shiva never was aware of everything for various reasons.” Penny said. “More often than not she had just as many questions as we did.”

Summer nodded. “Even after I recognized she did things based on my internal thoughts and feelings, there were times she moved in ways I never thought or made me gravitate towards certain things I never had.”

Nora let out a groan. “Soooo if Oscar is a man with two souls, what does that make you? 1.1?”

“Let’s not try and put a number behind it.” Winter suggested. “Summer, how are you feeling about all of this?”

“Well… I really wish I can say the more violent experiences in my life weren’t on me, but then I’d be lying to myself.

“I don’t think you should be taking full accountability either.” Weiss vocalized. “What matters is how we go from here. This is a situation nobody could’ve prepared for or tackled easily.”

The God of Darkness looked at the puzzlement written on the young girl’s face. “You seem like a very gentle and earnest child. Whatever has transpired up until now, do not let it undo you.”

“Tell me, do you know who Shiva was by any chance. I know that would’ve been a long time ago and I kinda get the feeling you both are very…hands off when it comes to humanity.”

Oscar grumbled. “That’s putting it mildly.”

“It’s true I don’t claim to be as invested as my brother when it comes to the many lives of humans. However, I can’t help but remember all the individuals who seeked me out. For better or for worse.”

“Do you did know her?” Summer said with hope.

“I remember a person who somewhat fits the description. A person you all would call a pirate. Her true name escapes me, but ‘Shiva’ was the moniker bestowed upon this woman.”

“A pirate!?” That took Summer by surprise, yet given her choice in weaponry…it really shouldn’t have.

Nick was more upset about the following information. “Shiva isn’t even her real name!?”

“Assuming we’re talking about the same person, yes. I have no reason to believe I’m wrong. The woman I speak of was known for ice magic, traveling frigid waters with her crew to places no sane person would attempt. Glaciers themselves were said to move out of her way and come to her aid against many foes. I once met her when she stumbled into my abode. I found her amusing. Far more polite and timid than most, yet clearly capable.”

Summer said what everyone was thinking. “Timid? I wouldn’t call her that at all. She was the most intense person I ever met! I wouldn’t be surprised if people said her name in fear!”

“She never gave me problems. A keen individual she was. I met her a handful of times as she was crazy enough to use my land as a resting point when fleeing from whatever troubled her. At the very least, Shiva was wise enough to not steal from me. In the end, I suppose I was her ultimate demise. How she spent her life leading up to it and where she was as it happened, I wouldn’t know. If I were to guess it would be on the water like she always was. That is all I could tell you about the woman known as Shiva.”

It was more than Summer expected. All of this was more than what Summer had ever hoped to learn. It was far from perfect, and yet liberating all the same. There was only one more question that plagued her curiosity. She thought again of Shiva’s final words.

“You wouldn’t know by any chance if Shiva perhaps had a brother or anything of the sort, would you?”

“I do not.”

“Damn…” Summer was sure she was onto something! “Thank you for your knowledge.”

The God of Darkness could tell the subtle look of disappointment on the girl’s face. “I may not know her blood ties, but I knew her enough to see she valued her crew above all. All her tales never failed to include her first mate. Judging by her behavior, I’m sure they had to be quite the individual to keep a person like her alive long enough for a legend to spread. I get the feeling however, you would know more about them than I do at this point.” He tilted his head down.

Summer turned around to see Nick looking around as if he was sizing up the area. Their eyes met and he cocked his head to the side, waiting for her to speak. Summer smiled at him then faced the younger brother to bow. “I have a feeling you’re right about that. Once again, I appreciate your knowledge, God of Darkness.”

“Hmph, a curious child indeed.” He walked away. “Think nothing of it.”

Sparrow leaned over to Ruby and whispered, “It’s scary how calm he is, right?”

“Your cousin is very good at meeting dangerous people.” Ruby responded even quieter.

On the opposite end of that spectrum, there was Nora and Whitley. “If that’s everything then can you send us all back?” Those two were going to give everyone a heartache.

“One final thing.” The God of Light stepped in front of Summer, towering over her. “Summer?”

“Y-Yes?” She took half a step back as if it made a difference.

“Between the story, Oscar, and your friend’s earlier words…” he gestured at Veronica. “I would like to extend a form of apology for perhaps not being as vigilant. Last thing I would want is the very group of heroes that summoned us long ago to now think they were better off not doing so.”

Ruby shrugged. “To be fair, we mainly wanted you to remove Salem and were willing to do something crazy if you tried anything else. Not to be rude, but the two of you choosing not to meddle is probably for the best on a global scale.”

“Well said, Ruby Rose. Still, at this moment I am more than happy to restore your form, healing your body and cleansing it from the acci-”

“No thanks.” Summer said casually. Everyone turned to her with a mix of shock and befuddlement. Summer looked at her scars one more time before pulling down her sleeves. “I appreciate the offer. Truly, I do. It’s just that I’ve fought forever to be the master of my own body; to feel…like myself in it. It took awhile but I’m finally starting to feel that way. Even if it’s only a little bit right now. Erasing my scars wouldn’t change anything. It would just be finding a new way to lie to myself, so I’ll keep the reminders. They’re the story of my life.”

The God of Light nodded, pleased with her answer. “I see.”

Summer whipped herself around and pointed at Nick. “You however, should totally get your scar removed this instant!”

“What!? Why!? It’s just the one.”

“Because it’s depressing as hell to see it! I don’t need the physical reminder that I stabbed you!”

“So? Get over it.” Nick said. He didn’t even blink.

“Get over- do you even hear yourself!?”

“I’ve made a promise to show you more tough love, plus to do more things for myself.” He smiled at the god. “I’m fine. Thank you for your time.”

“Understood. I shall return you all to where you were then. It’s been a pleasure I must say. Ozma, don’t be a stranger.” He held his hands up with his brother.

Oscar clicked his tongue. “He said don’t be so difficult next time.”

“Let’s hope next time won’t be for a long time.”

The brothers clapped once and everyone vanished just as Summer was about to yell at Nick. Once again, there were two brothers and all the time in the world.

“Never a dull moment with that group.” The God of Light sighed.

“Was it wise to let the girl stay as she was? It isn’t exactly normal.”

“You didn’t speak up. I assumed you didn’t mind.”

“I never mind a little abnormality. That’s your flaw.”

“I also respect their wishes. It’s no more peculiar than magic returning to the people. We shall not meddle where we don’t have to. Now then, let’s be on our way.”

xxxxx

Nick and Summer jolted up from the couch as if they woke up from a violent dream. They both stared at each other quietly until Jaune and Weiss came running into the living room with the same frazzled look on their faces. They all pulled out their scrolls and breathed a sigh of relief as they were exactly where and when they wanted to be.

“Okay…” Weiss said desperately, “Today is over for us. Nothing else crazy planned?”

“We’re hoping!” Her family said in unison.

Their scrolls flooded with texts from everyone texting they too were fine. Also, Penny texted them all that she was already flying to Menagerie. Seconds later, they all heard the distant noise of the sound barrier being broken.

Jaune thought of poor, human Oscar. “I really hope she doesn’t hug-tackle him.”

Summer let her head hit the couch cushions again but was quickly assaulted by a pillow. She sat back up and stared at Nick. “Whaaaat!?” She said, armed with her own pillow.

“The God of Light called Veronica your friend. She’s also apparently leaving tomor-” he caught her pillow.

“I get it! Tomorrow, bright and early.” Summer tried acting pouty about the entire thing but she could tell her brother wasn’t buying it. He kept smiling at her as he handed back the tossed pillow. She snatched it back. “The hell happened in your headspace. So aggressive now.”

“I’m not the only one. You hate it?”

“No.” Summer stuck her tongue at him and then dramatically laid back down. “Hey…”

“Hmmm?”

“I love you, and stuff…” she grumbled.

He plopped down onto his pillow. “I love you too and also stuff.”

“I swear, how are you the oldest?”

“Hahaha.”

xxxxxxxx

In the city, Valerie and Veronica walked together down the street like they were doing before divine intervention stole them.

“You sure you don’t want to call them?” Valerie asked as she sipped on coffee. “They’re out of the hospital.”

“I’m positive. I have to go back eventually and clean out my belongings anyways.”

“So are we pretending you weren’t planning to pack up quietly and avoid awkward conversations?”

Veronica grabbed the coffee and took a sip as pay back. “You can’t call me out like that.” She handed the coffee back. “Let me take things at my own pace. I’ll see Summer when I see her.”

Veronica felt her Scroll vibrate and pulled it out. It was a text from Summer with a location attachment.

“Your flight is at noon. Meet me before you go.” Is what the message said.

Veronica tucked in her lips in disbelief while Valerie tried not to laugh. If her cat ears weren’t already folded, they would right now. “Don’t laugh too hard. You have to talk to Nick properly.”

“I live here. There’s no rush. We can take our sweet ass time.” Her scroll vibrated. Valerie’s body went stiff and she refused to reach for it. “Wanna chill at my place.”

“Sure, after you read that text.” Veronica smirked.

“I’m sure it’s not that important.”

“Bitch, if you don’t-”

“Fiiiiiiiiine!” Valerie pulled at her scroll and speed read it before putting it away. “….He wants to see me tomorrow at ten.”

“Faaaantastic.” Veronica took the coffee again and started walking. “Ya know I don’t think I’ve ever actually been to your house.”

“Ya know you could’ve bought your own coffee! Hey, don’t drink it all!”

xxxxxx

Tomorrow came faster than either of them would’ve liked. Valerie didn’t even know why she was nervous. The hard part was over! She was more surprised she didn’t get a text from both twins. Then again…Summer was the type to not make more work for herself whenever possible. Val knew if she was in Summer’s shoes, she’d get away with only one emotionally exhausting question too. The girl let out a sigh, stepping into Amity Arena. Leave it to Nick to make it dramatic.

Valerie made it through the passageway and expected to see Nick sitting in one of the seats or maybe even standing in the ring. However, Valerie saw nobody. Perhaps she arrived before him.

She cuffed her hands around her mouth. “Hellooo?” Nick?” No answer. A spotlight did however flash loudly on and off in the center of the ring, so she clearly wasn’t alone. Valerie took the light as a sign of where to be.

She ran over to the edge of the spectator railing. Platforms from the area floated up towards her make a bridge. “Nick, where do you find the energy to do this so early in the day?” Val said aloud to wherever he was. Had to be the press box. The first platform she stepped on immediately began to elevate, moving her back to the battlefield. However, instead of reconnecting, all the platforms went into King Of The Hill formation with hers being the highest.

“Pssst.” Called a voice over the speakers.

Valerie looked towards the press box and was surprised to find two people instead of one. Nick was outside of it right on the roof, but inside controlling everything was none other than Eliza.

Valerie wasn’t expecting her at all. “How the heck did he talk you into this?”

The young vice president yawned, still waking up. “He said he needed a single unbiased witness. Also I was always kinda roped into this.”

“A witness?” Valerie looked at Nick and cocked her head to the side. She noticed two duffel bags. “Nick?”

“Your mom told me you wanted to take a break from sports? That’s all fine and dandy but if you ask me… you’ve had an entire season of that. Not to mention school is out for the foreseeable future until repairs are done.” He grabbed one of the bags and flung at her.

Valerie caught the hefty thing, knowing instantly it was filled with her belongings. It felt a bit heavier than usual though. A quick look inside showed both her axes resting right on top. Valerie looked up and saw Nick pulling out his sword.

He gave it a twirl. “It’s come to my attention as of late that I can be a bit petty and hold a grudge.”

Eliza leaned into the microphone. “That’s only news to you.”

Valerie nodded. “She’s not wrong. Still, all this caught me off guard. So then, you weren’t looking for an answer or discussion today?”

“Do you have one?” He sat down. “I was gonna ask later if you needed more time, but I guess I’ll ask now. Valerie Valkyrie, after everything that’s happened, what are we? Or rather… what do you want us to be?”

Eliza had enough self restraint to not turn back on the spotlight but showed clear interest in the conversation by scooting her chair forward.

“Oh boy…” Valerie blushed and scratched the back of her head. She took a breath. Despite the grand stage, there was nothing to be anxious about. This was the smallest audience she could ask for. “That’s a good and serious question, but I do have one. Nick, I mean it with all the sincerity in the world when I tell you I pray that we get to face our lives back to back together. You’re my closest friend and I…I do like you, a lot actually. However, what I did to you here and looking back on why I treated Summer the way I did, I’ve realized I’m not even my own biggest fan. I want to be a better person and that mainly has to do with being okay with myself; not getting hung up on things like how people might see me. Until I can manage that, a relationship with anyone feels disastrous and unfair. I hope you understand.”

Eliza now wished she had turned on the spotlight. Valerie was not kidding when she said she had an answer. Eliza turned on a camera to see Nick’s face. She couldn’t help but chuckle. As expected, Nick was looking at Valerie with kind eyes and a gentle expression.

He stood up and put his fists on his hips as he smiled. “At last, pure honesty. To be fair, maybe I didn’t always pick the right moment at times, but more than anything I never expected anything more from you than giving things to me straight. I can’t read minds, ya know?”

“Yeah, I…haven’t been doing great in that department. Might have fired my fair share of annoying signals.” Valerie sighed, “I’m sorry.”

“Whoever you want to be, take your time. I’m not saying I’m waiting, or even expecting you to look at me more than how you do now. I’m saying that person you strive to become is no more important than you are to me now. I want to stand back to back with you too.”

“Hehe~” she really didn’t know what to say other than, “thank you.”

“I wouldn’t thank me yet. Back to back is fine, but right now we need to meet face to face. No crowds, broadcast, or announcers. Just you, myself, and our wonderful spectator holding the only thing I didn’t put in your bag.”

Eliza reached in her pockets and pulled out two medals. Nick’s silver, and Valerie’s gold. “Be grateful this means way more to Nick than it does for me, or I’d be throwing my bronze into the mix.” Eliza stood up. “Attention nonexistent ladies and gentlemen! Today, two medals are going to definitively find their owners as question months in the making finds an answer! Who stands on top of the hill!? Nicholas Schnee, or Valerie Valkyrie!? Are our fighters combat ready!!!?”

Val took out her two axes, forming her battle ax and tossed the bag to the lower platform. “Born ready!”

Nick did a running jump off the roof and bounced off a glyph down to his longest rival. “Count us down Eliza!”

“THREE..TWO..ONE…HAVE AT IT!”

Feet moved in sync, closing distance and allowing steel to create sparks as two weapons met again in battle like they always did; may they continue to do so for many years ahead.

xxxxxxx

While some were busy battling, others trekked through snow. Veronica couldn’t believe this was her last day of layering up in Atlas’s weather. In some ways, she was going to miss it. Despite how terrible the entire situation had been, the girl found value in every stitch of her creations. She even saw a few citizens still wearing her work on the way down to Mantle with only her book bag in tow. It gave her a little bit of peace before she entered the forest. Summer had been clear on where to meet; not that it wasn’t a dead giveaway the moment Veronica learned it was in this place. Good thing packing didn’t take long.

As Veronica wandered deeper in, several plumes of smoke were discovered along the trail. The more the better. If negativity was the bait for grimm, then Veronica was the sweetest of honey. Her mood had been better lately, but it was far from what she would call pleasant. She might’ve forgotten about grimm entirely if Shiva hadn’t used summons throughout her reign. The forest trek continued to be relatively calm all the way into the clearing. The arrival of spring brought scattered patches of green glass sticking out from melting snow, and warm rays of sunlight that glimmered off the surface of the lake. For the first time ever, Veronica saw water instead of ice. Summer sat by the shore line with her blade stabbed into the ground on her left. Veronica came up to her slowly, standing on the girl’s right. Both of them looked out at the water and watched the subtle waves.

“I thought this place haunted you?” Veronica said calmly.

“Scarier things have happened. Here almost feels…normal. Is that weird?”

“Pfft, no weirder than anything else in our life.”

“True enough.” Summer finally looked at Veronica. “Aren’t you gonna sit?”

“I…sure.” There wasn’t a good excuse not to. Veronica sat down with right leg extended and her left one bent to rest her arm. “Why here of all places?”

“Well it’s quiet and out of the way. Felt appropriate too, given we’ve been here once before together. Back then you said some pretty encouraging words; just like you did a couple days ago.”

“Ah, so you did hear that after all?”

“Most of it. Someone was always yelling at one point or another. I also heard you say you wanted to tell me things in person? Well…here we are.”

“Here we are.” Veronica said tiredly. She wasn’t even drained of energy, but the mood felt so heavy. How could anyone relax? “So, did your brother tell you anything about me?”

Summer tucked her lips in. Anyone can say what they want about Veronica, but oblivious wasn’t one of them. Summer gave a slow nod.

“Heh…I figured as much. Him and Valerie are cut from the same cloth in that regard. Although I can’t really blame them in this instance. What exactly did he tell you?”

“That you…tried to kill yourself before, and that there’s probably a lot more about each other we don’t know.”

“Can’t argue with that. Full disclosure, I have also read-”

“I know.” Summer frowned. “Everyone has. The situation pretty much called for it, but I don’t know. Can’t figure out how I feel about it. Relieved? Compromised?”

“Maybe this might help?” Veronica reached inside her bag and watched Summer’s eyes grow wide as she pulled out the journal left behind in school. “I found your stuff when I went into the building. Don’t worry. This one is still unread.”

Summer took her missing book and gently put it on her lap. “Thank you. I really mean that.”

“Don’t mention it. It’s the very least I could do for you I guess.”

Summer wasn’t used to seeing this lower energy and passive Veronica. She was barely making eye contact. “Veronica, if you don’t mind, can you tell me a bit more about your life? Nick also mentioned bullying but what-”

“I got muzzled once…” her voice cracked.

Summer felt her heart stop hearing that. It was as if the waves themselves had stopped as Veronica tried to lightly chuckle that off before immediately shrugging, focusing on the lake again.

“Hehe..not even my parents know about that one. I was like eight I think? A bunch of kids had invited me to play and I was stupidly happy about it. I mean it was usually adults who said shitty things and it wasn’t like every student could like picking on me right? It was after school near the jungle district. They wanted to play hide and seek and I was it. I didn’t want to cheat so I did what they said; my eyes were shut and I used my hands to cover my ears as tightly as possible while I counted loudly.”

“They snuck up on you…”

Veronica nodded, bending her second leg and hugging her knees. “I don’t think I even made it halfway to twenty before I was dogpiled. Next thing I know, I’m in the dirt with a stupid muzzle on my face as everyone ran away laughing. ‘Hide from the beast!’ They kept screaming. I never gave chase though, because they all went back into town. Must’ve spent an entire hour crying and clawing at the damn thing before it finally broke. That’s the day it sunk in that I’m like most people. After that, kids only got more creative and less discreet as time went by. Friends…aren’t a thing I really had growing up.”

Veronica looked at Summer to see her attentively listening, her gaze soft yet firm. “I’m not telling you all of this as an excuse, or anything ridiculous like that. I just…I don’t know. I’m jealous.” Veronica hung her head down. “I’ve always been jealous of you. People love you, listen to your every word. Summer you give your talent to the world and thank you. Before I realized it, my jealousy grew into resentment the more we met.”

“Our parents always talk about how we used to get along. I don’t remember that at all but many things were hazy back then. My earliest memories have us fighting. Pretty sure I started it too.”

“Hell if I know. Not like I was keeping track. Watching you act like you couldn’t do something irritated me, and any time you challenged or stood up to me felt no different than everyone else, so I never backed down. Then…I kept fighting. I never stopped or waited for a different outcome.”

“Because you hated me?”

“Because I was scared, Summer.” Veronica confessed. “I was scared that the moment I let myself relax, the moment I decided to shut my eyes again and be led, I was gonna end up on the ground again. Fake tryouts, ruined outfits, excuses; somehow, I always ended up back on the ground and voiceless.” Her nails pressed against her skin. “How dumb of me to not realize I did shut my eyes. I’ve never looked at you. I only stared at the things I wish I had and threw you in the dirt instead. I bullied you. I never meant to put you in the same pit I found myself struggling to get out of, but that’s what happened. I know this erases nothing but…”

Veronica finally faced Summer properly. “ I am so sorry.”

Remorse. That was the only word that could describe what Summer saw in Veronica’s eyes. So this is what Nick saw that made him intervene. Never in Summer’s life did she think a moment like this was possible. It was as Veronica said, they didn’t really see each other. The outspoken and standoffish girl Summer had known wasn’t in front of her.

“How have we yelled at each other for so long and said absolutely nothing?” Summer fell backwards onto the snow. I wish those people would’ve been kinder to you, honest. I also have my fair share of moments where I wanted to be more like you. It’s annoying to admit but there were genuine times you pushed me to try harder when I wanted to and it made me upset yet relieved at the same time. I can’t short change you Veronica. Several achievements I owe to you. However, I can’t count how many times you’ve made me cry. Your apology means everything, but I don’t think I can forgive you.”

It made sense. Veronica had never hoped for another outcome and yet, it was as if her body was set ablaze hearing the words aloud. “O…Of course.” She kept herself together. “I understand.”

“At least…not yet.” Summer sat back up and looked at Veronica head on. “Two conditions.”

“W-What?”

“You made me follow two conditions when it came to designing my outfit. I think it’s only right you hear me out this time around. Will you?”

Time for a taste of her own medicine. Whatever, Veronica knew she deserved it for acting the way she did. “Name them.”

“Request number one, go to therapy.” Summer watched Veronica’s eyes grow big, caught off guard for sure. “You weren’t expecting me to haze you or anything like that, were you?”

“I…I don’t know what I was expecting to be honest. It wasn’t that.”

“Well it’s here. Veronica, seek real help. Believe me, we both need it and I truly think we both deserve it. If not for ourselves then for the people who care about us and think we’re worth it. Oscar does online appointments, or look for anyone that works for you.

Veronica deflated and gave a nod. “You’re right. I’ll go see one.”

“Good. I wasn’t gonna budge on that one. The second one is a little less important.”

“What is it?” Veronica watched Summer reach out slowly.

“May I pet your ears? I’ve never done it before.”

An odd and sudden request. One that Veronica didn’t find herself refusing. She lowered her head, waiting nervously before Summer’s small hands grazed the top of cat ears gently.

“Heh, as soft as I thought, Ya know…I always thought your tail and ears were beautiful.”

Veronica stared unblinkingly as Summer continued to be gentle. How could such simple words do so much? The composure and acceptance she clung to washed away with tears that ran down her face. She leaned forward, pressing her forehead against Summer’s chest. The young knight rubbed the top of Veronica’s head in its entirety. Forgiveness or not, Summer didn’t wish ill on Veronica. Maybe with enough time they could share a laugh together? Until then…

“Let’s do our best.” Summer said for both their sakes.

“Yeah.” Veronica said dryly.

Summer let the girl remain as she was for several more minutes before tapping her shoulder. “Heads up. Someone is coming.”

Veronica sat up quickly and began wiping her face feverishly. Summer reached for the water and flicked some in her face to help. Once Veronica opened her eyes, she noticed the person was Nick coming down the trail. He absentmindedly looked around with his bag around his body before noticing the two girls staring at him. They all held their positions for what felt like an eternity before Nick turned around.

“Don’t leave like nothing happened!” Summer yelled at him.

Nick turned back around. “I’m only here because you said so! Though admittedly I’m a bit early, but you should’ve told me you brought Vee here! I don’t want to interrupt.”

“It’s fine.” Veronica sniffled for the final time. “We actually just finished things up.”

“Yep.” Summer watched Veronica stand up. “You okay to walk back alone?”

“I’ve scraped with the strongest around. I actually feel a little better leaving than when I came in. Besides, I survived a pretty crazy explosion. A short walk is fine.” Vee smiled softly.

“See ya around, Veronica.”

As she began walking, Veronica said one last thing to Summer. “I drew something yesterday and put a copy in the back of the journal. Next time maybe I can bring the real deal.”

Summer grabbed her journal and flipped all the way to the final page. In it was a rough yet intriguing dress design where the sleeves and hem were shaded brilliant shades of various warm collars; while its body was colored in with whites and shades of light blue. It wasn’t finished but Summer could tell the colors bleed into each other’s respective territories with the smallest bit of warmth being right in the middle. Measurements were written beside the design that Summer recognized to be hers. At the very bottom of the page, a simple yet honest name was given to this idea. Fire and Ice.

Veronica walked up to Nick to say her final goodbye. She did her best to shake off the wellspring of emotions that came from her and gave the boy a playful grin. “So, still single I presume?”

Nick teasingly rolled his eyes. “As if you don’t know? You helped her practice her answer, didn’t you?”

“We talked about a lot of things yesterday. So many in fact, I can’t remember them all correctly.” Veronica giggled, “seriously though, you good?”

“Better than I used to be! Guess you’re leaving now, right? Call me when you get home safely.”

“Heh, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you’d miss me already.” She tried to tease him, but Nick smirked at her as if what she said wasn’t far off the mark. Now she was the one getting flustered. “Can I uhhh, get a goodbye hug?”

“Hehe, I wasn’t letting you go without one.”

He put his arms around her and hugged her as tightly as she hugged him. Veronica still wasn’t used to this new height difference, but she didn’t hate it at all. She allowed herself to fully embrace him, relaxing herself.

“I’m going to miss you a lot. Thanks for showing me around Atlas and being you.”

“I should be thanking you. Maybe next time I can show you Atlas and things won’t go crazy.”

“I’ll hold you to it.”

Veronica leaned back but kept Nick in her arms. She mentally kept flipping a coin to decide if she was going to commit to acting on her feelings. It was only when the boy cocked his head a little at her pensive expression did she toss the coin away in its entirety. Veronica leaned in and gave Nick a quick kiss on the lips. She didn’t even give him time to react before she phased through him and went on her way hastily.

Nick took a second to process that before turning around. He was going to yell goodbye a final time, then remembered her ears were healing. Instead he let the girl silently make her escape, turning back around to see his sister staring at him with her jaw dropped. Nick walked over to his sister as he chuckled. He took Veronica’s seat and reached for Summer’s chin, closing her mouth.

“Your face will get stuck like that if you’re careful.”

“Umm, excuse me!?” Summer finally blinked again. “Why am I the only person here making this face!? She kissed you!”

“Oh right, I forgot stuff. So that’s not the first time that’s happened. It’s actually number three.”

“…So you’ve been kissing people while I’ve been making eternal winter?”

“N- well…no. No!” He huffed, defending himself. “The first one wasn’t even during the crisis. Never got the chance to tell you this and I doubt it crossed your mind but I was actually already on my way to the school to find you, because I wanted to tell you Veronica kissed me.”

Summer squinted as she thought for a moment. He did show up rather quickly to the boiler room for him to be at home. “Wait, this was after the incident with Val! What, were you trying to scrub one experience with another?”

“Not a fan of your judgment right now. Anyways, I was really frazzled and wanted to tell you because it felt like a big deal. Until…ya know, more important things happen that day.” Nick let out a sigh thinking about it. “Man, that was a long day.”

“Way to put it mildly. Still can’t believe you kept the scar.”

He flicked snow at her. “Hush. You won’t even see it unless we’re at the beach or something. It’s fine.” Nick propped his arm up on his crossed legs and let his head rest in his right hand. “So, how the chat go?”

Summer mimicked his lazy posture. “That’s between me and Veronica.”

“Wow, I see how it is. If all my persistence leads to me not knowing then I guess that’s the price I pay to make it happen in the first place. Such is my great burden~” He pretended to be offended.

“Oh quit being dramatic. How do you even get this much energy, especially after today?” Summer glanced at the blue band around his neck that tucked into his shirt. “Who won?”

“That’s between me, Valerie, and Eliza.” He smiled watching Summer give him a “why are you like this” expression. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I’ll wrestle it off you later. We can make an entire match out of it and I’ll get it if I win.”

“I’d be scared if I wasn’t so good at fighting you specifically. Although, if I think about it, it could go either way. Wouldn’t be easy for me; that’s for sure. Mort Froide already needs repair.”

“Same.” Summer grabbed her blade to show off all the scratches and damage from the elements. “Mom really put Shiva through her paces.” She glanced at her brother through the corner of her eye to see him do a double take. “Yes, I finally named it and yes, it’s that of all things.”

Nick couldn’t believe this! “I won’t act like I don’t get it, but why!?”

“Easy, it feels wrong to never say the name again. I went into every battle with Shiva. Now I still do in a sense.”

“Well…better Myrtenaster 2.0. Not Penny’s finest moment.”

“It’s better than Mort Froide too.”

“Let’s not get crazy. Why’d you ask me to come out here anyway? We could be having this conversation at least over lunch!”

Summer pointed to a tree close by on her left. On a low hanging branch were two pairs of ice skates. One of them was from Nick’s room, and the other pair were brand new. Nick’s eyes widened before looking at Summer’s grinning face. She sprung up and ran over to grab them. When she got back, she casually took off her shoes to put on the skates.

“I got to thinking…” she trailed off as she struggled a bit. “Agh! We haven’t skated together in a very long time.”

“Summer, you haven’t ice skated at all in a very long time.”

“Mmhmm. I was hoping you can reteach me? Shouldn’t hard, Mr. Gold Medalist.” She finished putting them on and saw her brother look at her hands. They were trembling. “Hehe, I’ll be fine.”

Nick spoke softly and with concern. “Summer, you don’t have to push yourself so-”

“It’s okay.” She took his hand. “I mean yeah I’m a little antsy, but that’s why I want to do this with you.”

“There’s dozens of ice skating rinks.”

“Oh I’m aware, but it has to be here. I think it could be good for both of us.” Summer took a deep breath and tried to hype herself up. “Can we?”

Nick was a little hesitant, mainly because of the location. He took his hand back for a moment and grabbed his skates, putting them on much easier than Summer did. “You’re so lucky I’m in a good mood.”

“Kinda sounds like you’re wearing a gold medal then. Lucky me indeed.”

“Medals have nothing to do with anything! So, you got the dust to freeze this place? I’m fresh out.”

Pure excitement and joy spread all over her face like a child up to no good. Summer brought a single finger over her lips as if to tell him to keep quiet. She took his hand again then they both walked closer to the shore. Summer bent down slowly, letting her left hand graze the water’s surface. She took another deep breath and then flexed her hand, sending out a pulse of cold that flash freezed the lake.

Nick was left speechless as his sister stood back up all giddy. Once again, she put her finger over her lips then grabbed his other hand as she stepped onto the rink. Nick snapped back to reality the moment her knees buckled.

“Careful!”

“Wooah! Hehe, oops. Was it always this tricky?” She squeezed him tighter. “Don’t let go yet!”

“I’m not going to let you go! Can we discuss what you just did!?”

“Why so surprised? It’s nothing I haven’t been doing. It’s like what Penny said. Welcome to the new normal; now are you gonna ask me twenty questions or show me a pro at work?”

Will wonders never cease? Nick watched Summer try to keep a straight face while shaking like a baby deer finding its footing. He couldn’t do anything but concede, focusing on keeping her upright while she did a bad job suppressing giggles. No doubt from him stressing out to make sure she didn’t make them both fall. Nick pouted for a moment before flashing a smirk. He put a glyph below them that stabilized only himself.

“Ah! Cheater!”

“I think we share enough scars and bruises, thanks.”

“Heh, oh now you think so-woah!” Summer held on for dear life.

“Focus!”

“S-Sorry!”

They both went silent to concentrate. It didn’t take long before they started snickering, which turned to full on laughter between them as they skated on the ice. Before the twins knew it, neither of them could think of a reason why this was scary at all.

#rwby #rwby au #rwby twin snowflakes #ruby rose #jaune arc #weiss schnee #yang xiao long #blake belladonna #nicholas schnee #summer schnee #val valkyrie #veronica belladonna #lie ren #nora valkyrie #oscar pine #penny polendina #qrow branwen #winter schnee #sparrow branwen #whitley schnee #rwbabies

[man-down-in-hatchet-town]

Misery AND The World Has Turned And Left Me Here

Well, life is insane but I intentionally let my phone die and instead found the time to write up my thoughts on Episodes 12 and 13 of The Case of The Greater Gatsby! I know Episode 14 dropped today and I was gonna do all three at once but--there's sooo much to talk about! The notes I had for just these two episodes alone were...erm...generous in number. So, uh, spoilers under the cut and my apologies for the amount of stuff I'm about to say?

First off, WOW WHAT A PAIR OF EPISODES! New reveals! Even newer questions! Quips and lies and truths! A banger of a cliffhanger! Jon Cozart followed by my man Dylan Saunders in his Shipwrecked debut! THE RETURN OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY (the noise I made when I saw he was in this episode…)!! Well played, Shipwrecked, well-freaking-played.

So let’s start out with a bang. Here’s my Wacky And Unlikely Greater Gatsby Theory of the Day(TM): Sheilah was having an affair… with Mel. Think about it: We start the year with Sheilah and Mel hitting it off. It’s about this time that the unsolicited affections start. It’s later, when Sheilah starts doing things like going to lunch with Mel, that Fitzgerald begins to believe she’s acting strange and suspect an affair. Sheilah’s the one to make Greater Gatsby a movie script and then recruit Mel to take it on (proving that Mel was lying to/obfuscating the truth from Ford during “Hook”, by the way). And then Mel callously fires Fitzgerald from Grapes of Wrath for no real professional reason and with apparent joy, almost like she has something personal, such as jealousy, against him. During his final missive, Fitzgerald tells Zelda about some great secret he’s found to put in his screenplay and that she would “laugh as I’ve been dosed some of my own medicine.” While supposedly he could have found out any secret from any of the party guests, the implication is that this final, deadly secret is about someone doing to Scott what he’d done to Zelda. Did someone steal his work? Possible, but everyone knows about Darby rewriting Grapes of Wrath, so not altogether likely. So maybe, just maybe, one of the women he was seeing was having an affair behind his back. Perhaps Fitzgerald discovered once and for all that Sheilah was having an affair, with Mel of all people, and, with alongside his previously cultivated antipathy towards Mel decides to throw that fact into the screenplay, damn the consequences. Meanwhile, we know that TD would do anything for his beloved Mel, and he’s probably also a little resentful about being kept out of the social club. So he finds out that Fitzgerald knows about the affair and intends to reveal it to the world, and, to protect Mel from scandal, kills Fitzgerald and takes the manuscript. Knowing that they both knew about the affair would explain why Fitzgerald talked the way he did to the mysterious stranger at the end. And yeah I know, this whole theory is a little wild, but never let it be said that I’m afraid of a big swing.

(A potential argument against this theory is the pre-Thanksgiving recording, when Sheilah urgently calls for Fitzy and he goes to help her, saying “Blast, not again! I thought we’d put a stop to this!” A stop to what? If I’m right about Mel, the “unsolicited affections” likely would have stopped by this point. On the other hand, the “this” could be something completely different. Is Fitzy the first victim of the threatening hate mail? Or is a third thing happening? Because it’s hard to see what he meant by “put a stop to it” if talking about letters, whether written with love or hate. Unless of course he knew who was sending them?)

On the other hand, Sheilah is not the only woman in Fitzy’s LA life. Vivian starts the second episode by making it very clear that she gets what she wants. The Greater Gatsby script tells the story of a innocent young man arriving in LA to write movies before falling under the allure of a morally dubious red-headed woman. Was Vivian inspiration for this character? Or was Fitzgerald already writing a meaty role for his red-headed mistress, a role that someone like Willie couldn’t snatch away? (Meanwhile, I should note that while coming up with this Vivian-esque character is when Fitzgerald starts to accuse Sheilah of acting strangely. Maybe he’s deflecting his own behavior onto her, excusing his own affair by accusing her of having one as well?). Vivian also returns to Fitzy’s house on the night of his murder, leaving seconds before the supposed killer arrives. It doesn’t seem likely that secret Fitzy discovered is hers—that’s just not the tone of the conversation. But tones can be misleading. And Fitzgerald uncovering her big secret and putting it in his script would fit the role the Vivian-esque character seems to play. Regardless, Fig and Ford are right—Viv did lie to them and her angle in this whole case is hard to understand. What exactly is she up to? Did she see the killer? Was it Barnaby and that’s why she’s so sure? But why not tell the police?

And speaking of Barnaby—his icy warning to Fitzgerald was chilling and completely belies his earlier statements to Fig and Ford. It seems like our girls aren’t the only ones lying through their teeth. I’m really loving how this character turned out—he’s so charmingly dorky and funny but with these moments of darkness that make you understand why Vivian’s accusing him of strangling another man to death. Also I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if his joke about the dead fellow soldier wasn’t a joke at all. Really, things aren’t looking good for either of the Nightingales.

Moving on from them for a bit, though, we learned a bit more about the Brigade and their thoughts on the Greater Gatsby. Fitzgerald gets the idea for Greater Gatsby, announcing his intention to fill in the gaps (which we know come to contain the secrets of various Hollywood insiders) right as he’s about to attend the first meeting of what will become the Brigade. We later learn that the Brigade unanimously despise the script (it’s not just Donald), so its interesting to wonder about the role they play in shaping its earlier development. Does someone spill secrets to Fitzgerald that they later regret enough to kill for?

On the subject of the murder, what about that license plate? “1ADLR1.” Something about it feels familiar but I can’t tell you what. I spent several minutes trying to remember who was called “Adler” before realizing I was thinking about the Planetarium Meredith Stepien works at in Chicago. Also, it’s funny that car expert and fussy neighbor Citizen Jasper Fox failed to mention such a loud vehicle when talking about Fitzy’s last night. Did he just respect the car too much? What is he hiding? Regardless, the murderer’s silence on the tapes indicates that they knew about their presence. By my count, the people who know for sure about them are: Sheilah, Vivian, TD, Mel, Dorothy, Darby, Ernest, and George.

Speaking of George Astrum of Astrum Appliances (Jon Cozart!), it seems pretty apparent that he and the Highwayman are one in the same. But is this a red-herring? Or is there even more to George than doorway robbery? Is it possible that he’s in fact the missing Eugene? Honestly, I could see Jon Cozart as the addition to the Brosenthal/Esther sibling double act. The Persauds also take a moment to let us know that Astrum knows about the tapes. Was Astrum actually an investigator doing recon? Could he be reporting back to the eventual murderer, letting them know to stay quiet incase Fitzgerald has his tape-deck going?

Which brings us to our final big plot thread: Rex's letter and Lex’s baffling subsequent disappearance. Why escalate with Lex Punchwhistle of all people? Were the Punchwhistle twins the original targets in all of this? Does that timeline even work out—people didn’t know they were coming until after Willie received her letter. And how does Eugene play into all of this? Is he behind the letters? Did Lex see the letter first and follow some hidden clue back to Eugene (we know she was following up on some leads), leaving Rex to assume the worst? Or did the leads she was following get her into trouble, and the threatening letter just happened to arrive at the same time?

The next episode is already out and I am SO EXCITED TO LISTEN TO IT!! Seems like it’s essentially the mid-season finale and I can’t tell if I should be excited, terrified, or both

Some stray thoughts because there was too much to pontificate about:

-Shout out to the LBD cast in these episodes! Obviously Mary Kate is amazing and Vivian is so much fun. DVG was a terrific centerpiece and guide through the last year of Fitzy’s life, and Julia Cho’s just been fucking killing it this whole time. Also DVG and Laura Spencer totally need to play love interests at some point so that he can have romanced all three Bennett sisters.

-Fitzgerald revealed that he and Zelda promised to visit each other in December. Is this just another reminder of how Fitzgerald’s life was tragically cut short too soon? Or were these plans for early December, and their failure to follow through on them, relevant to Fitzy’s demise?

-Fitzy was so real when reacting to the actual sound of his own voice. Every time I hear how I sound I die a little inside.

-That line about tape recorders being too fussy for Zelda’s “idiotic mind” is a major OOF moment. No wonder she has issues, if he talks to her like that.

-DYLAN! Didn’t talk much about his stuff cause it didn’t seem as plot relevant but it was such a joy to hear him and I really like Donald! One of Hollywood’s last good men!

-Fitzy was totally selling Greater Gatsby to Roger, right? The conversation with Ernest probably gave him the idea.

#the case of the greater gatsby #fig and ford #vivian nightingale #barnaby nightingale #mel hammermeister #td hammermeister #Greater Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald #Greater Gatsby Sheilah Graham #george astrum #citizen jasper fox #rex punchwhistle #lex punchwhistle #shipwrecked comedy #greater gatsby #ford phillips #fig wineshine

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko EP3. Replay Part 5

Well yeah Battler, you got it! How did the other Golden Witch get her powers then?

lmfao owned.

Man Virgilia and Ronove really spoil Battler with all the hints.

Rosa and Eva speaking in code is pretty good, neither wants to leave the room without the other....

The fact Rosa shakes a bottle in frustration in trying to find something that isn't there while being angry at Maria for being mad that something isn't where it should be is pretty ironic.

Obviously this scene didn't literally happen and something closer to what actually happens is something like Eva telling Hideyoshi about the gold and her plans and etc while being disgusted by her own greed, while at the same time going deeper into it....

Maria's random insistence at this to me seems like a sign that this is something Yasu and Maria had pre-planned. If there was a deadlock taking place, she would cry about her rose, similar to how she used the cards to break deadlocks in episode 1 and 2. Though I don't think it would work like they intended this time if Eva didn't like, fuck things up her own way.... I don't think Yasu would murder Rosa in front of Maria and I don't think she would like, shoot Maria either....

Well.... obviously the truth is something in between here. Eva may not be enjoying tutoring Rosa at this moment, but she is surely having a fight with her about keeping the secret with her, and pushing her into the fence in frustration.... and then murdering her daughter to leave no witness. Granted, I don't think Eva would just go on a murder spree normally.... I think of it as something kind of like Meakashi Shion. The murders wouldn't have happened if the first accident didn't.

I.... forgot Battler just tells her to kill herself omg.... this scene is kind of interesting. i am kind of interpreting it as what Yasu was scared Battler would think of her when she found out about her murder mystery plans... we know from episode 8 manga that he is all things considered pretty forgiving of it, in actuality. But I could see Yasu thinking this is how it would go down or even what went through his head at first before stopping himself and thinking of what led to it. Also Beato will get to get her wish of seeing what Battler cooks in episode 8!

Of course she is exaggerating for her trick strategy, but I don't think this is too far from what she thought about herself, either, and it's not like she wasn't cruel with her pranks and stuff so it isn't entirely unwarranted, but...

I imagine she probably did apologize to Maria something like here when she found her corpse and had to fix it up, too....

Obviously, though, you are supposed to be very sus of Beato here lol. I mean she turotred Kanon like, a couple hours ago lol.

It's really funny how it seems this specific act didn't really trick anyone lol - sorry Yasu I guess you kind of failed.

There is a clear difference in my view in how the family acts towards the murder in this episode and the last one. In this one they more or less figured out both this and the first murder - compared to how in the first 2 episodes everyone was clueless. I think in universe you can justify this with there being more servant deaths and therefore less culprits to worry about and also you can theorize that Yasu assumed her plan would go without a hitch - something Tohya knew wasn't true.

Eva's desperate to throw suspicion elsewhere lmfao.

tldr people don't believe in magic anymore so to make them believe it you have to make very obtuse murders.

It is kind of funny Hideyoshi doesn't realize what is going on even though it is decently obvious, lol. Also, Natsuhi is freaking out because their reasoning is stupid - and I mean it is if you take it at face value, maybe you should have thought about it Hideyoshi!

"Until that question could be dealt with, the only answer was[...] magic" Is an interesting line. The answer to this sequence of events is obvious, Kyrie and Rudolf are luring out Hideyoshi.... so if this is framed as magic, it tells you how magic is used in other situations, and to go back to other magical scenes and see what you can take from them.

I kind of wonder how Hideyoshi was able to kill both Rudolf and Kyrie, especially at such a disadvantage. I guess he didn't come unscathed, though, considering he died. So it could be as simple as a bullet missing. him or him attacking before Rudolf and Kyrie were ready.

Uh huh, Kyrie... you can tell both this was written by someone with love for Kyrie and Rudolf and that they are someone who knows Kyrie might uh, have some issues.

To be honest, I originally took this to mean Eva literally did show herself and caused the shootout where she was the one survivor when I first read it... I guess I was being too literal when I read this for the first time. It's more of a general representation on Eva's complicated feelings towards her family, the gold, etc coupled with her fucking up the board.

Kyrie is more or less wrong about everything she says here, Rudolf was not in any remote way cornered, in fact if anything he was cornered *towards* dating Kyrie and he still picked Asumu. Kyrie was never anything more than Rudolf's side and they only ever got together officially because Asumu happened to die. To be honest I can't exactly blame rudolf for thinking Kyrie would kill him for revealing the truth.... he would in fact kind of deserve it.

I kind of want to use this scene to springboard to talk about misogyny in Umineko in general - specifically the ones experienced by the mothers. This entire chapter is basically an essay on how Eva faces misogyny, Natsuhi was basically sold and used as a womb, Rosa was left by her husband and forced to deal with how society treats single mothers, Kyrie has shit with her family as well as Rudolf both depending on her while using her as a side piece and feeling emasculated by her, etc. really all the women in Umineko are greatly affected by misogyny. And since Umineko deals a lot with generational trauma and cycle of abuse that is also how misogyny is passed down in Umineko Eva yells at Natsuhi about how she is just a womb, tries to use the fact George is male and Jessica female to steal the headship from Jessica, and that's even before the awful way they treat Shannon. Natsuhi refuses to engage with her daughter as a full person with a variety of interesting and own personality and instead tries to mold her into a "proper" and "modest" woman. Rosa tells her own daughter she is the reason her father left and blames her for the people she is dating not wanting to deal with her. And finally, Kyrie throws endless shit to Asumu and basically has a headcanon about how Rudolf is blameless and Asumu was just a homewrecking whore who got in the way of her and Rudolf, when Rudolf is obviously the one at fault. I don't want to make it look like I am saying these are basically the same characters or anything like that, there is a lot of difference in motivations behind why they do this, in how they cope with it, etc, but I mostly discuss that in other posts so I don't want to go into that much details. I think Umineko overall deals with misogyny in a good way- it understands that misogyny isn't just a Big Bad Old Fashioned Man you have to defeat, and afterward misogyny is solved, it isn't something you can just defeat by just changing the way you think or whatever but a system built in favor of men that gets internalized by everyone, including women, and that those attitudes are internalized and passed to the next generation before they can so much as even talked. This is a little bit of a tangent but related to how all of the characters previously talked about are both victims and afterward abusers or otherwise people that harm others, I am happy that WTC works in general aren't shy of showing how abuse can be internalized in bad ways that cause harm to others while still holding sympathy and space for the victims. A lot of works are scared of this because if done wrong it can look like victim blaming or ignoring victims in favor of abusers, but I think works like this are really important for victims to understand that some imperfect behavior after being abused is normal and that they aren't irredeemable and can grow themselves if they ever fail and do bad things. holy shit I went on a huge tangent. I haven't played in like 2 days because I got the idea to write this 2 days ago and have been workshopping on my brain how to word it.

Anyways back on regularly scheduled Umineko, it is kind of funny how the first time humans really 'win' against magic it's not really presented in a positive light. They won because their vices were even worse than the vices of the stakes representing sloth and envy.

Beatrice struggles about dancing around the fact she just wants Battler to acknowledge her for her own sake, lol.

they have hinted like 10 times that the chiester sisters = gun in the last like 20 lines lmfao.

They are dropping a bunch of hints towards what Beatrice actually wants here. The awkward conversation with EVA meant the same thing more or less too.

This scene's interesting - I am sure Hideyoshi in actuality DID feel Eva was being changed by the gold into a crueler person but everything points towards him being pretty enabling overall. Also Hideyoshi hints towards magic and witchdom being about being unable to deal with the past. Also there is a line that says "The gun near rudolf killed Hideyoshi (paraphrasing) which is kind of interesting considering the manga says it was Kyrie instead.

The fact Eva is freaking out this much about Hideyoshi going outside - even before she knew that Rudolf and Kyrie followed him is a hint that she was recruited, I think. After all, when talking with Rosa she said she thought the original murders were a prank, and she was the one that killed Rosa and Maria so.... why is she freaking out now?

Ok yeah - she's using Yasu keywords like 'Golden witch" and witch in general on a nonfantasy scene. Definitely some hints towards that I think. i didn't catch that Eva was an accomplice in this episode until I read the manga, to be honest. Thought she'd just murdered people on her own. Definitely didn't trust Yasu at all though, didn't even tell her she found the gold.

#umiepisode3 #umineko

[bestbonnist]

Yes, ditto on Fushi's smile being endearing! I love seeing it... but also kinda hate it for being such a bitch to replicate on a doll (though that's because I'm an untalented unskilled dollmaker. Why? The reasons will be too long for this ask box). I saw you mentioning that you often dream of TYE and I'm jealous. If I get to dream of Fushi smiling at me, it'll be serotonin supply for a month!!!

Don't worry about freaking me out! Seeing four asks is very exciting. And you read my posts regularly even though you don't use Tumblr anymore?? That's really sweet of you, thanks so much!! It gives me a huge boost of energy when someone tells me they like my writing and art.

I think it says a lot about me that even in my dreams, I'm always reading about characters instead of I don't know, interacting with them. I know sometimes people have dreams where they interact with their favorite characters but I do not. Hopefully you do get to have a dream with Fushi in it!

I've seen the tundra theory around a lot, too. It's growing on me, I think at the very least Fushi and the others should go check it out. What would be cool is if they went around to all the places they used to live, searching for the sphere. But I have my reservations, because it looks like the only habitable spaces on earth right now are the trees, so I don't know if it's possible... from what Fushi said in Chapter 173.2, their old residency in Minamoto is underground. Even if they can visit the tundra, it probably won't be recognizable, especially after all this time.

Currently, my bet is that the doll is the sphere. I haven't found any actual evidence, but it kind of makes sense if you work backwards.

Let's say that the doll is the sphere. Then, her descent from Kaibara has an explanation. 32 found her, hid her from Kaibara, disguised her as a popular toy, and threw her down the trash chute to keep her away from them/to deliver her to Fushi, who checks all the trash once it reaches the no-star area. In this scenario—and even if the doll turns out to not be the sphere after all—32 has had some communication with Fushi. In order to be on the immortals' side (which she is regardless, because she sent the doll to give them a message), she would need to know the truth about them and sympathize with them. She would also need to know about Fushi's no-star village.

In addition, we know that Fushi's been keeping tabs on her and Mizuha's other clones without telling anyone, and it's been implied that they know something about the doll's origins that she doesn't (by "implied," I mean, like... they're always giving her these meaningful looks and not saying shit). So if this is true, it seems pretty likely that they know and are leading everyone on a wild goose chase/lying to their friends for a yet unknown reason. Maybe they even gave 32 the sphere themselves. Would also explain why we're following the plot from a new character's perspective instead of our protagonist, because if we were seeing Fushi's thoughts we would know what was going on right away.

This raises a lot of new questions, like: why doesn't Fushi want the doll to know that she's the sphere? Is there some sort of downside to her gaining the power to grant any wish? Yeah typing that out it suddenly seems self-evident. Fushi chose to not take the sphere's powers so that they could keep living as a human; to give the doll the means to grant her wish would simultaneously prevent her from ever fulfilling it.

The doll was asleep for about eight years, so if this theory is true, it's not really weird that Kaibara is searching underground for the sphere. If they couldn't find her on the surface, they would assume 32 buried her somewhere, or they might not know that 32 was hiding her at all (but they probably did and they probably killed her. Don't have any reasoning for that though it's just vibes).

It also makes sense from a storytelling perspective, to have the sphere end up being right beside the immortals all along. And the doll wants to find it so that it can make her human, but her being the sphere would mean she's had that capability this whole time. I hope this was helpful! There's a lot we don't know, and as we get more hints about what happened with 32, the doll, the sphere, and Fushi (which are definitely all connected somehow), I'll keep revising this.

#so glad you asked me about the doll = sphere possibility! i haven't really explained why i think that and how it would work logistically. #crazy if true. #fumetsu no anata e #to your eternity #to you the immortal #fnae #tye #fnae manga #fnae spoilers #fnae anime spoilers #fnae manga spoilers #wish era #chapter 173.2 #the doll #the sphere #fushi #immo #original post #meta #ALSO I FORGOT TO SAY THIS UNTIL JUST NOW FUCCCKKKK BUT YOU’RE A DOLMAKER???? that’s SO cool.

[kippykasey]

This post is a large reaction post that covers all 5 chapters of @darke15 's Battle Scarred : The Red Room.

So obviously if you haven't read it don't read below the cut to avoid spoilers.

Now lets begin..

just imagining young Nat and Yelana-

Imagining Alexei building a tree house- (David is so good at dad characters)

I love the starts. There is something so magical about them.

Boone shopping for Buck makes me giggle for some reason

Ahh there is some lovely Boone x Steve <3 warms my heart

Don't worry Buck it took me a long time to understand the whole 'Manchurian Candidate' reference too and I still sometimes forget.

The squeal I just made over freaking Boone and Rogers- I am so not looking forward to their like break up

I really like how the flashbacks are happening.

Mentally freaking out over how smooth Dimitri and Boone know each other.

The caring side of me wants to smack Boone upside her head for not resting

(break time brought to you by Mtn Dew Kickstart (jk not sponsered))

Oh look my dads are in Boston-

fhsdsfjldlgh; ENGAGEMENT DO IT DUKE GET ITTTT

We support Dimitri here <3

Ya know I would probably die fighting trying to keep Natasha and Yelana in my care..

“Gods fuckin’ dammit, you little motherfuckin’ shit biscuit…” It made me giggle. I like that line alot.

YES GHOST! TELL BOONE TO RELAX

Boone not listening to her own advise... yeah that's relatable :)

wait that was the opening scene?? That's crazy good!

We have reached Chapter 2. But first a word from our nonexistent sponsor to remind us that water is needed to be drank.

oooo taskmaster

Boone needs a big hug :(

I see the spider reference there as I now questioning the legitimacy of a fake spider carrying potent black widow venom to kill a man.

The moment in which I learned how to properly say Budapest lol

bum bum bum not a spider at all its a freaking bad ass controlled spy

-.- I want to handcuff Boone to a bed and make her relax.

Boone calling Buck 'sweet cheeks' so cute

withholding the truth is not lying-

*dramatically falls to the floor* New York called her Baby... lil Stevie is growin' up

Taskmaster out here with the matching sheilddddd~~~~ Oh and hey wraith metion

Gosh I am so jealous of your ability to write fighting scenes Darke

pencils in watching Black Widow again.

Chapter 3, but first Banana time! Gotta eat a lil snacky

Boone tossing keys to herself. *glances up at the gif of Nat doing the same thing that I chose* This wasn't planned I swear lol

Nat-ta-sha where are you? We got some ass to beat now. (Totally have the Blink 182 - Scooby-Doo opening stuck in my head too)

Such a hard crush on Yelana. Heart eyes.

Ignore the following code unless you want a little spoiler from me. I just got a lil excited and wanted to tease :P (0101001101101111 0110100101101110 011101000110100001100101 0101001101101110011011110111011101100100011100100110111101110000001011110100011101110010011000010110001101100101 0111010101101110011010010111011001100101011100100111001101100101 0100011101110010011000010110001101100101 0110110101101001011001110110100001110100 0110001001100101 011011110110111001100101 0110111101100110 011101000110100001100101 01100100011011110110001101110100011011110111001001110011 0111001001100101011100110111000001101111011011100111001101101001011000100110110001100101 011001100110111101110010 01001000011110010110010001110010011000010010011101110011 0110001101110010011001010110000101110100011010010110111101101110 0110111101100110 011101000110100001100101 01101101011010010110111001100100 01100011011011110110111001110100011100100110111101101100 0110000101100111011001010110111001110100 0110000101110011 01110111011001010110110001101100 0110000101110011 011101000110100001100101 0110011001101001011100100111001101110100 01110100011001010111001101110100 0111001101110101011000100110101001100101011000110111010000101110 01001001011101000010011101110011 011010000110111101110111 011100110110100001100101 011101110110000101110011 01100011011011110110111001110100011100100110111101101100011011000110010101100100 0110001001111001 011101000110100001100101 010101110110100101101110011101000110010101110010 01010011011011110110110001100100011010010110010101110010 011000010110111001100100 011101000110100001100101011100100110010101100110011011110111001001100101 0100100001111001011001000111001001100001 01110111011010010111010001101000011011110111010101110100 0110001001100101011010010110111001100111 011000100111001001100001011010010110111001110111011000010111001101101000011001010110010000101110)

Belov and I thinking the same thing when they ditched the motorcycle

a tank... Boone wanted to bring a tank??? yeah that's tooootally normal.

"You're such a mom" Excuse you Yelana but as the mom friend I take offense even if you are taking to Nat

The subway scene got my anxiety going !!!!!

taskmaster and their giant metal frisbee... at breakneck speed

The way Boone can be so casual about things, yeah I'm envious of that.

The whole not family thing between Nat and Yelana broke my heart ugh-

Part of me is having flashbacks to when I watched Black Widow for the first time and was messaging you my reaction xD

The Natasha Widow pose! Love when she was teased for that

Tony totally uses that kiss from the Task Force Centre as blackmail- Change my mind

The vest- :')

Ew Dr. Novak....

Chapter 4 already? I really enjoy David.

Yelena eating that dry, old protein bar.. yeah me when I ate that date based protein bar

Ghost is just looking out for Boone-

Damn it Boone you really shouldn't be doing this. If you get hurt again I'm gonna wish I could tie you down and force ya to rest!

I'm with Boone on this one Yelena, Nat's badass

Snorting at Yelena being called a ding-dong

Ey Boone, your country roots are showin

BELOV THAT JOKE IS NOT OKAYYY

That sad moment that you realize that Widows (and most likely Hydra Winter Soldiers) can't have children...

Boone being savage is *chefs kiss*

With how much Alexei is against Captain America and Boone kinda dating him I'm just here sipping and laughing

I relate to the whole your issues have issues

Boone and Yelena are such a duo-

Mentally hugging Yelena because the girl needs it.

Huh. I'm more of a whiskey girl myself but bourbon isn't bad either... unless its 8 in the morning. I don't recommend that.

cackling at Boone punching Alexei

Oh dear god. Imma fight. Boone got hit?! That's it she's getting tied to the bed till she's fully healed up.

Oh.. oh boy...

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Last chapter.

The identity of taskmaster still blows my mind honestly.

I love how Alexei kept thinking he had an ear piece, honestly I would have played into it. "You broke it didn't you?"

Okay but the whole thing of not caring about his daughter and using her as a weapon pisses me off and I too would want to kill Dreykov

I just had avengers flashbacks of Nat and Clint fighting but now it was Boone and Belov

Was not expecting a Boone-Yelena fight.. I feel like I need popcorn for this chapter

ope there it is- Belov going to help Yelena in a fight against Boone

I give Nat so much credit for bashing her face and freeing her self. I don't know if I could do it.

Boone is so fucking cool!

Imma fight. I'm not in this story but Imma fight because you can't do that to our girl boone! it's not allowed!

Oh thank Yelena! Boone girl, you are being handcuffed and tied to a bed for at least a week if I could make you.

Darke you're not supposed to make me cry- But Boone man... ahhhhhh

Me crying and laughing because Alexei is seeing Steve and then everyone and I... BOONE DARKE YOU BEAUTIFUL FANTASTIC PERSON THIS IS NOT HOW YOU MESS WITH A PERSON

this is so fucking coooooool

duke bragging cause he has taskmaster's shield made me snort

"she started it" How old are you again???

Ugh I am loving this so damn much!

Okay but same Duke. Boone can't scare us like that

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Dukie is engaaaaaged

so here for Aftermath's White Widow <3

fuck off ace of spades

Okay you know that kid from the Incredibles with the tricycle? Yeah that's me right now

THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED!!!

#battle scared red room #live reaction