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chayacat · 3 years

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Devil’s Sweet Star (45)

Fandom: Dead by Daylight

Ghostface x Female Reader

Rated M for Violence, Language and Smut

***

That feeling... you thought it would be gone forever. But it’s still there. And it’s much heavier than before. The question is: why? Why is this feeling of insecurity, this feeling that something dangerous is going to happen to you, still there? You know everything. You know that Danny won't do anything to you, that he will always make sure that the police don't know anything. But you have a hunch that the thing that wants to hurt you... is foreign to the city. to the country itself. You've been hearing for a few days something... unusual. Like voices.

But these voices are inaudible from others. Only you seem to hear them. At least that's what you think. They are strange, impossible to distinguish whether it is men or women who talk to you. or maybe both? Just as it is impossible to know what they are telling you. These are whispers. The only words you managed to understand once were: "Sorrow" and "Suffering". But nothing more. Could it be ghosts? spirits wandering aimlessly and trying to get in touch with you? From memory, you don't remember having a gift for communicating with spirits. But you've always believed in it. And you have always respected the dead, whether they were people you knew or complete strangers. Perhaps this respect has earned you a gift from the gods, allowing you to contact the afterlife? Maybe.

“Have you seen the latest news? In the end Hoggins was not McKellan's murderer. It was Ghostface!” said one the customer.

“Yeah, I saw. But hey, is it surprising? No. Does this change anything? neither. And I want to tell you: so much the better. At least we are sure of who we should thank.” said his friend.

“Excuse me? You wanna thank that freaking psycho for killing people? He’s a twisted man! Not a hero!” Replied the first one.

“Yeah, and he killed two others monsters, who stole money from the poorest and even the richest for their personal accounts! Moreover, it seems that Hoggins was involved in a more horrific scandal in Florida. They only got what they deserved.” Responds the second one.

“I have heard of this story. What a bastard, to let sick people die when they could be saved. You have to be inhuman to do that. Fortunately, we have journalists like Jed Olsen to shed light on this kind of horror. Imagine how much longer Hoggins could have remained free if guys like Olsen didn't risk their lives and careers for it.” said another man before drink his coffee. “We need a guy like him to rule this damn country.”

If only you knew sir what we know about "Jed Olsen". If only you knew... you would quickly change your point of view. But he and the second man in the trio were right, if Danny hadn't put his life and career on the line, Hoggins would still be free with impunity. And so does McKellan. They deserved to die it's true, and Danny made sure of it. He is both a completely twisted murderer, but also a hero to the inhabitants of this city. A murderous hero... you would have a hard time knowing how he would have reacted, if he ever heard it.

He would be both flattered and annoyed perhaps. Because that's not how he wants to be remembered, he doesn't want to be remembered that way. But simply as the greatest murderer in history who has never been arrested, and whose identity will forever remain a mystery. Like Jack the Ripper in itself. You wonder inwardly if Danny was inspired by it. It’s quite possible.

“I find it hard to believe what I just heard. Ghostface who goes from murderer to hero of the little people. It looks like the end of the movie "Joker".” said suddenly a woman voice. When you turned your head, you could see Melina, smiling at you like always, coming to the table next to the counter. “Same as usual Amy!”

“Alright! Right away!” responds Amy with a smile.

“Hey... you look like you have your head in the clouds. Everything's fine? Jed made you live another wild night? Be careful, you will end up with a little baby at home very quickly if it continues.” replied Melina laughing by looking at you.

“Really funny Melina.” you start before laughing too. “Even though Jed is... wild, he knows how to be careful. We are not yet ready to have a baby. But let's say that for a few days... I have trouble sleeping well.”

“Oh. Tell me maybe I can give you two or three advices.”

You tell Melina about your bad nights. If at first, she listened attentively and without expressing emotion, once your story was finished, the young woman looked at you with big eyes, as if you had just told her your most shameful secret of your life.

“Shit, so they're after you too...” she said worried.

“What do you mean?” you ask worried.

“Jed told me the same thing the other day. He said he heard the same whispers and even had nightmares about them. Nightmares where you were there. I thought it was just a fear not to be able to take care of you but... I have to believe that my mystical side was right.”

Hold on. Danny went through the same things you did and he didn't tell you anything? It's not very friendly. But in a sense... you can't really blame him. He certainly had good reasons not to tell you about it. Surely, he didn't want to worry you, or that you would think he was crazy. Even if he is a little bit crazy in a sense. And again, the word is weak.

“You and Jed are related. And I feel like you've attracted... negative entities. Spirits, ghosts who want to hurt you. They may be trying to reach you through dreams first, but who knows how this can evolve. And who can be these spirits.” said Melina worried.

“You starting to scare me. Why us? Jed and I didn't do anything except ... live our lives and do our work.” you said scared.

“Evil spirits have no particular criteria for attacking someone. If they find a target they like, or someone provokes them, then they go after that person. In your case, I think it's related to Jed. Because I think the mcKellan and Hoggins' souls are not... Left. They are surely stuck here because of their hatred and anger. And since you're in a relationship with Jed, they're attacking you too. Or, it's a much more powerful entity than those two. But in any case, it wants to hurt you. You're going to have to be very careful.”

“There's no way to get them to leave?”

“I could use the objects my grandmother used to purify a house but... I'm not sure I'm as good as she was. It's really very meticulous as a practice.” replied Melina.

“I'll talk about it with Jed tonight. Thank you very much Melina.” you respond.

You went back to work and the rest of your day was all about anxiety. If Melina is telling the truth, then you are in danger. Maybe that's why you have this strange feeling of not being safe when, all those who could have hurt you are dead, under Danny's sharp blade. And he, too, had the same experience. There is not much you can do about evil spirits except to drive them out. And you will deeply hope that Melina will be your salvation. Otherwise... you will have to think about leaving the city. Or start praying to God.

The last customers of the day ended up leaving your café, greeting you warmly. Then it was Amy and Corey’s turn who for a few days, got very close to each other. They were so lovely together. You clean the last tables before you take care of the back shop. Danny shouldn't be long in coming, so you'll both be able to discuss these nightmares you're both experiencing. Hoping he isn't too tired or in a hurry to kill someone tonight.

While you were cleaning your kitchen tools, you suddenly hear a noise coming from the room. You put down your equipment and take a weapon in case it’s a thief. You move carefully through the room until you reach the switch to turn on the light. But nothing. not the shadow of a thief, or an object that fell to the ground. You may have dreamed... Then suddenly, whispers. The same whispers you've been hearing for days and days. But this time it looks like it's coming from the back shop you just left.

When you return to the back shop, you find that the door leading to the outside is... strange. A dark aura emanated from it and mist escaped from the lock and the bottom of the door. The whispers became clearer as you approached.

“(Y/N) …(Y/N) ...It’s time. Come with us. Join us. Feed my hunger. Give us all your suffering and sorrow. For all eternity.” said the voices.

“Who are you? And what do you want from me?” you ask.

“Who we are doesn’t matter. The most important is that you’ll feed us. With your screams, your pain, your sorrow, your blood. Now come with us. It’s time for you to meet your fate.”

Suddenly the door opened on a thick black mist. Giant spider legs came out and tried to catch you. You step back several steps but visibly, they are much longer than you hoped. As it was about to take you away, you feel something pulling you back. Under the effect of fear, you try to struggle when a familiar voice was heard.

“Hey! Hey Honey It’s me! Calm down!” said Danny by blocking yourself by the shoulders, forcing you to look at him. “It’s me...stay calm.”

“Danny...” you start as you feel tears in the corner of your eyes.

The voices were heard again, and the paws moved towards the two of you. Danny pushed you, one of the spider legs injuring his arm in the process. He took a weapon in his hands and pushed it back to the door before getting against it and locking it. The door began to move, as if we wanted to open it from the outside and then after a few minutes... a silence set in. Everything had stopped. Danny stepped back before looking at you making sure you were still there. Then he joins you, taking you in his arms.

“What the f**k was that thing?? And what did it want??” you said crying.

“I don’t know. But for now...we’re safe.” said Danny.

“You’re...you’re hurt. I have a first care kit. I will take care of your injury.”

You take the first care kit and ask Danny to come and sit next to you so you can treat him. He winced when you applied the disinfectant but remained motionless until you applied the bandages to him. You then put away the equipment and both of you leave the café to go home. Once at the apartment, you both sit on the sofa sighing, still in shock from what had just happened.

“Melina was right. We have attracted evil spirits. And they're not going to let us go now.” You said.

“Honey please... Don't tell me you believe in this bullshit...” responds Danny, passing a hand on his face.

“Danny, you saw what I saw! And you were hurt! How can you not believe in these things?? You suffered the same thing as me! Melina told me everything.”

“Okay, okay, stay calm. If they're really hitting spirits, there's not much we can do but chase them away, hoping it works.”

“Melina proposed it to me... it doesn't cost anything to try. But if it doesn't work... either we will have to leave the city, or we will have to pray to God.” you replied.

“Leaving the city would not be of much use and I have not believed in God for years. So don't count on me to pray to him. Anyway, knowing that I am a murderer I am not sure that he does much for me.” Responds Danny before getting up.

You watch Danny walk to his office and walk out a few minutes later with his bag. He's not going to go out and kill someone tonight, is he? And even less leave you alone?? This thing, whatever it is, could come back! As he was about to leave, you take his hand before sticking yourself against him.

“Don't leave me alone... Not tonight. Please...” you said sadly.

“We no longer risk anything. I don't think this thing is attacking the two of us again.” Danny responds.

“How do you know? If it happens, maybe it will only go after you and I will never see you again! Danny please... Stay with me.”

“...Fine Honey. I’ll stay. Tomorrow I'll call Melina. If her magic shits works...we’ll be safe again. Let’s eat something and go to sleep.”

Despite his words, you do not let him go. On the contrary, you will tighten more and more against him. And he gave it back to you. Whatever that thing is, it will surely come back. Danny is maybe a murderer, but he is the one you love. And if this thing has to take Danny, it will have to take you too.

And that's what it intends to do. One way or another.

***

(My second dose of vaccine is finally done! but the effects were quick to manifest, I think my body wanted to do a speed run X) Don't worry it was nothing very bad, arm pain after the injection and the next day, headache in the morning and some dizziness in the evening. But now I'm feeling better! and above all, I will finally be able to enjoy the simple pleasures of life! And go see Dune at the cinema! I hope you’ll like this chapter like the other ones! Well, it's time for my brain to rest! Have a great weekend to you all! See ya! )

#dbd fanfic #dbd #dead by daylight #Ghosface #danny johnson #jed olsen

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tw-anchor · 4 years

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36. The Anchor and the True Alpha

Anchor

Stiles Stilinski x Original Character

Episode: 3x12; Lunar Ellipse

Word Count: 8,373

Warning(s): Mature language, canon violence + gore, stupid Jennifer Blake, moron Deucalion, true alphaness, badass anchor, awkward Derek

Author’s Note: Here’s the 3A finale! I hope you enjoy. Please make sure to let me know what you think, reblog, and like!

Masterlink in Pinned Post!

"Okay, like this?"

Allison giggled at Olivia, enjoying the way she held the Chinese ring daggers that the shorter brunette had insisted that Allison teach her how to use. Right now, Olivia held them loosely, the tip of the blades closer to cutting her wrists more than protecting herself.

"Stop laughing at me!" Olivia called her out with amused eyes. "I'm trying to be a badass like you!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Allison choked down the rest of her laughter. "Let's start over."

Olivia nodded and put the daggers back to the starting position that Allison had taught her. "Okay, now what?"

"Now, you twist them like this," Allison demonstrated the move with the set she was using. "and then you flip your wrists up and raise your arms like this."

Olivia did as Allison told her, wincing at the slight bruises starting to form around the base of her fingers. Chinese ring daggers were no joke and now she understood why Allison came to school with bandages around her fingers for a couple of weeks the previous semester of school.

She did the move sloppily, nowhere near as sharp as Allison's, of course, but that was expected. Allison nodded in approval, a small smile forming at her lips. "All right, keep practicing that," she said encouragingly. "Once you tighten that up, we can move onto the next move."

"Considering that I'm not athletic whatsoever, I think that went okay," Olivia breathed as she slipped the daggers off of her fingers.

Allison laughed. "Does that mean you want to try the crossbow?"

"Don't even think about it, Al!"

Olivia walked through the woods surrounding the old Hale House. They were training Jackson about control before he headed off to London, England. To say that he was being a bitch about it all would be an understatement. He was taking his temper out on her and Scott—he was upset about what he had done as the kanima, his brush with death, and the fact that his parents had found out what happened and were moving the family to London for no other reason than to get him away from everything supernatural.

Olivia could take his temper and his snide comments because she had seven or eight years to get used to it. Scott, however, did not. Too many comments about he used to suck at lacrosse and cheated the whole semester, how he used to have only Stiles as a friend, his mom's income, and Allison breaking up with him had gotten to Scott.

He stomped away with golden eyes, leaving her to deal with Jackson on her own. Since she was still harnessing her own abilities, she just sent Jackson home for the day and then proceeded to go and find Scott. She found him by a small creek, sitting on the bank.

"Hey," she called as she walked over and sat down next to him. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," he told her quietly. "Just lost control for a second."

"Anyone would have. Jackson's a dickhead. I don't know how he has more two friends," she huffed out a laugh. "Other than me and Danny, I think the rest are just afraid of him."

Scott's lips quirked into a half-smile. "Probably," he hesitated. "Have you, uh, have you heard from Allison?"

Olivia frowned as she thought of her friend. "A couple of nights ago. She's not doing too well. I think Gerard messed her up just as much as her mom's death."

"He's a psycho," Scott agreed. "Did she ask you about me?"

She hesitated, not wanting to hurt his feelings—how had she become this empathetic person? "I'm sorry, Scott, but no," when Scott ducked his head, she reached for his hand and took it, trying to give him as much support as he needed. "I know it hurts but she's going through a tough time. And you're both different people now, you've both changed."

"So does that mean she won't want to get back together?" Scott asked miserably, lifting his head to look at her with wet eyes.

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "But, Scott, listen. I know you love her, I know you do. And what you had was amazing and odds-defying. But sometimes relationships don't last. It doesn't mean that those people don't love each other, but sometimes circumstances can alter the path of the relationship."

Scott frowned and looked back at the creek. "I really love her."

"I know," she squeezed his hand. "but sometimes love isn't enough. Then again, I can't predict the future. Allison may come back from France and want to get back together, she may not. I just want you to be ready for whatever she decides, okay?"

"...Okay," Scott said after a minute and then attempted to smile at her, changing the subject only slightly. "Are you a love guru or something, Liv?"

Olivia laughed. "Nah, I'm not so good at love."

"That's not what Stiles says."

"Hey," she slapped is arm playfully. "You guys talk about me?"

"A little too much—ow, Liv!"

Derek sighed reluctantly as he sat Olivia down on her bed, taking a seat in the armchair a few feet away. "Okay, I didn't want to have to do this, but you and Stiles—"

"Oh no. Oh, God, please don't do this," Olivia pleaded with her cousin, her cheeks warming up. "Derek just walk away."

"No, I have to get this out," Derek insisted. "You have no one else to tell you."

"Uh, yes I—"

"Obviously, you and Stiles are in a serious relationship," Derek interrupted her. "and with a serious relationship comes...personal relations."

"Personal relations?" she looked at him in disbelief. "What are you, eighty-five years old?"

"Fine, sex," Derek glared at her. "You and Stiles will start having sex."

Olivia sighed and though she appreciated that he was there to give her advice and take care of her, Natalie had given her and Lydia the typical parental sex talk when they were eleven and twelve and they got their periods around the same time. Then, a few years later, Lydia gave her an actual sex talk after her experiences with some boys and then Jackson—the kind of talk that was rated R and too inappropriate for parents to talk about with their kids.

"Now, you probably won't experience this, because I'm tempted to rip off Stiles arms if he doesn't keep his hands to himself, but," Derek winced, looking more uncomfortable than she felt. "but sex...is...natural."

"Derek, please..."

"Just let me get this out before I lose my nerve," Derek cut her off; Olivia nodded, her lips twisting in amusement. "Under no circumstances are you to have sex without a condom. Only when you're married and want to have a family is when it's accepted to go without."

Olivia hid her smile to nod seriously. "Okay."

"And never, ever do anything you're uncomfortable with," Derek continued. "If you say no, Stiles will stop if he's a good guy. If not, I put pepper spray on your keys and a rape whistle in your purse."

"Oh, God..."

Stiles was not a guy who would put his hands on anyone without their express permission. Usually he was a nervous wreck anyway if they did something sexual. And he was always respectful of her. But, if he was out of his mind or crazy enough to force her into relations—as Derek called it—than she would kick his ass. And then break up with him. She loved him but she loved herself too and she was not going to put up with that.

When Olivia nodded her understanding, Derek cleared his throat. "Now..."

He paused to pull something from behind his back. Olivia's mouth fell open when she saw what he had. "Oh, my God...please tell me that's not a banana and a condom, Der! Oh, my God, it is!" she winced and buried her burning face into her hands. "Please don't do this Derek."

"I want you to learn how to put on a condom."

"I didn't want to say this, but Derek, I've already had this talk, two different times, okay?" her voice was muffled by her hands, but Derek got the gist; he looked horrified. "Lydia even taught me how to put on a condom."

She almost added that she knew how to do it multiple ways, but Derek looked like he wanted to die from embarrassment from what he had already heard.

He glared at her. "Why did you let me ramble on?!"

"I didn't let you ramble on, you kept interrupting me!"

"You're grounded!"

A genuine laugh spilled from Olivia's lips. "You can't ground me!"

"Well, I just did, so there!"

"Top five favorite ice creams. Go."

Olivia blinked in surprise from Stiles' random prompt. They were on the beach, laying on their towels and trying to tan after a dip in the ocean. She raised up onto her elbows—she was laying on her stomach—and looked down at Stiles, from where he was laying on his back, hair halfway grown out and the black ray bans she gave him as a gift on the bridge of his nose.

"I don't like ice cream very much," she told him.

"There's not way you don't like ice cream," Stiles disagreed; she shook her head. "Come on, you don't even like chocolate-chip cookie dough?"

"I don't like raw cookie dough."

"Unbelievable. I'm in love with a heathen," Stiles joked. "So, not one ice cream?"

"I have two that I usually get if I actually want ice cream," she confessed. "I like vanilla and mint."

Stiles looked up at her in disbelief. "Vanilla and mint?" when she nodded, he scoffed. "Sorry, nope, I'm not dating a heathen, I'm dating a senior citizen."

"Hey!" she gently slapped his toned abdomen in offense. "I'm younger than you."

"Your favorite ice cream flavors are vanilla, which is the most basic out of all the flavors, and mint—without chocolate, by the way—which only adults eat. No offense, babe, but you need to live on the edge sometimes."

Olivia pinched his side because of the pet name and laughed. "Living on the edge is eating different ice cream flavors? Wow, what a life you live, Stiles."

He poked her in the cheek. "At least I don't have the personality of an old lady."

"Ouch, that really hurt."

"Hey, I'm just saying," Stiles put his hands up defensively. "All right, how about the worst five moments of your life?"

Olivia raised her eyebrows. "What a serious change of topic."

"Here, I'll pick a new one—"

"No, it's okay," she assured him. She leant toward him more and rested her head on his stomach, facing him. "Number five would be my very first day of school."

"Really?" that surprised Stiles. "You love school, though."

"I do now. Before I started school, I hung out with either Lydia, or Cora, Derek, and Laura," she shared with him. "They were all my heroes and my best friends. And I'm a year younger than Lydia and Cora, so I didn't start school with them and it made me so upset that I threw a fit."

"You, having a tantrum? Wow, I didn't expect that," Stiles commented sarcastically.

"I really was an angel," Olivia went along with him and then went back to the story. "Anyway, my mom started teaching me stuff because she was in college studying to be a teacher. By the time I went to preschool, I was too advanced and I was miserable because Lydia and Cora weren't with me."

"So they let you skip a grade."

Olivia nodded. "I tested out of preschool and went right to kindergarten."

"We had class together," Stiles remembered. "You were quiet."

"And you were weird," Olivia returned with a laugh.

Stiles joined in with her laughter. "All right, what about number four?"

"Number four was when I was seven years old and I realized that I wasn't able to draw," at the look Stiles gave her, she defended herself. "In my defense, I wanted to be an artist back then. And I was not good at art. At all. I was always jealous of Lydia's ability to do anything, especially draw."

"You shouldn't compare yourself to Lydia," Stiles scolded her quietly. "You're perfect, even with all your flaws."

Olivia smiled gently, touched by his words. "Thanks, Stiles."

They kept going with her worst moments in her life. Her third worst moment was when she and Cora got lost in the woods outside of the old Hale House when they were five or so. She had been really scared and Cora hadn't yet mastered her enhanced sense of smell, so they were stuck out there for four hours—when Talia and Peter had found them, they were grounded for two weeks. Her second worst moment was the night of winter formal, when Peter had bitten Lydia and herself.

"The worst moment of my life was when I heard about the fire," she said quietly, tracing the pattern of Stiles' freckles on his stomach. "Everyone but Laura and Derek were in the fire. They came to me and told me what happened. Our whole family was dead, my mom was dead, and my dad barely survived."

Stiles brushed his fingers through her hair; he knew what it felt like to lose a parent and he couldn't imagine what it was like to lose two at the same time—because she had lost Peter, too, even if he wasn't dead. He just turned into a psychotic alpha who wanted revenge without carrying about those closest to him.

"I was lost for a really long time," she admitted quietly. "Derek and Laura left for New York and I was suddenly living with Lydia, Uncle Thomas, and Aunt Natalie. But I eventually got better."

"Yeah, you did," Stiles gazed at her with soft, loving eyes. "and you're the strongest person I know."

"I'm not strong," she denied, avoiding his eyes. "I'm a coward. I hide my feelings away deep down inside of me. I act like a bitch to anyone I don't care about. Most of the time I'm an emotionless robot."

"No, you're not," Stiles sat up and simultaneously adjusted her until she was sitting in his lap. "The people who say you're emotionless don't take the time to pay attention to you. I'm sorry, Livvy, but you're actually very easy to read."

Olivia gaped at him, unsure if she should be insulted or relieved. Maybe it was a little bit of both; she was a little insulted because her emotionless robot mask was a comfort to her and not to mention, something to push away all of her negative feelings. On the other hand, it was special to her that Stiles was able to read her so soundly. The only other people who had been able to were Lydia and Derek but Stiles being able to, the boy she loved...that was amazing.

"I love you."

"I love you, too," Stiles emphasized his words with a quick but loving kiss. "Okay, that's enough seriousness for now."

"Mmm, I agree," Olivia smiled at him.

"So, how about...your top five pizza toppings?"

"Well, number one is pepperoni..."

"Ah, what a classic."

Olivia woke up eight hours after Stiles, Scott, and Allison had fallen unconscious. Lydia and Isaac were sound asleep but Dr. Deaton was awake and there to greet her when she woke up. She was disoriented, the memories with Allison, Scott, Derek, and Stiles going through her mind like flashes.

She didn't tell Deaton about the memories, but instead thought on them. It didn't take long to realize that one of those memories were unlike the other. Derek hadn't been in the ritual like the others, so why did she see him?

It worried her. It worried her so much that she excused herself from the exam room and called Derek. It was Cora who answered the call, shockingly—she had no idea how Cora was better but boy, was she glad that she was. She told Cora that she was worried about Derek and in return, Cora told her just how she hadn't gotten better. Derek had given up his alpha status to heal Cora; he was now a beta again and very, very weak at the moment.

Olivia checked her tethers and she saw that Cora was right. Derek's tether was bright blue again, like the color of his eyes before he killed Peter and became an alpha. It was strange, but it was more worrying than the memory she had. Kali and the twins were supposed to come for Derek before the lunar eclipse and not only was he not an alpha anymore, but he was tired from healing Cora. He was screwed.

She told Cora that she would call back soon before hanging up. Then, she cried. She cried for Derek, she cried for Stiles and Allison and Scott, for Noah, Melissa, and Argent, and finally, for herself.

The whispers in her head were loud and they were pressing. She could no longer focus on anything but the names of her loved ones and the pain that filled her heart from her loss, even if Stiles, Scott, and Allison came back. She had the potential of losing the boyfriend she loved, two friends, and Derek, her protector, guardian, and father-figure for all intents and purposes.

It was not okay. None of this was okay.

Stiles, Allison, Scott...Derek, Derek, Derek...Stiles, Allison, Scott...Over and over, came the whispers until a migraine grew and she fell asleep once again.

She woke up only three hours later, more collected. She stayed seated in between Isaac and Lydia, who had now woken up for the day, and they all listened to assurances from Dr. Deaton that Stiles, Scott, and Allison would be okay. There was worry in his voice but somehow, his words comforted them. Olivia had the feeling that the man could give someone the worst news of their life and still be a comfort.

It was eight hours after the first time Olivia woke up, sixteen hours after they first fell unconscious, when Stiles, Allison, and Scott all woke, sitting up out of the water with loud gasps. Olivia, Lydia, Isaac, and Deaton rushed over to the tubs, the ice long gone, and handed the three of them towels.

"I saw it, I know where it is!" Scott claimed, taking the towel that Lydia held out for him.

Stiles nodded. "We passed it," Stiles confirmed as he climbed out of the tub soaking wet. "There's—there's a stump, this huge tree. Well, it's not huge anymore, it was cut down. But it's still big, though, very big."

As Olivia wrapped a towel around him, Scott added, "It was the night we were looking for the body."

"Yeah, the same night you were bit by Peter."

"I was there, too, in the car with my mother," Allison was still sucking in huge gulps of air. "We almost hit someone."

"It was me. You almost hit me," Scott told her; Allison gasped in amazement while he turned to the others. "We can find it."

Olivia, Lydia, and Isaac all exchanged worried looks. It didn't go unnoticed by Allison, Scott, and Stiles.

"What?" Allison asked them.

Isaac was the one to answer them. "You guys were out a long time."

"How long is a long time?" Stiles wondered, glancing between the three of them and then over to Dr. Deaton.

"Sixteen hours," Deaton broke the news.

Scott's eyes widened in shock. "We've been in the water for sixteen hours?"

Dr. Deaton nodded. "And the full moon rises in less than four."

Scott sighed heavily and sat down on the rim of his tub. "I have to go back to the alpha pack."

Olivia gulped uncomfortably and spoke up, "I think I should go with you, too."

Scott looked at her with an understanding expression and nodded slowly.

"No, dude, you are not going back with them," Stiles told Scott firmly before pointing to Olivia. "And you, don't even think about it, all right?"

"I made a deal with Deucalion," Scott reminded him. "And he wants Olivia, too. A lot."

Stiles scoffed. "Does anyone else think that sounds a lot like a deal with the devil?"

"What does it matter, anyway?" Isaac piped up from his seat next to Allison.

"Because I still don't think we can beat Jennifer without their help."

Allison shook her head at Scott's answer and turned to Dr. Deaton pleadingly. "He trusts you more than anyone and Liv is obviously going to agree with him. Tell them they're wrong."

Deaton glanced at Olivia and then Scott. "I'm not so sure they are," he admitted. "Circumstances like this sometimes require that you align yourself with people you'd normally consider enemies."

"So we're gonna trust Deucalion?" Isaac shook his head in disbelief. "The guy that calls himself death, destroyer of worlds? We're gonna trust that guy?

"I wouldn't trust him, no," Deaton advised and gestured to Olivia and Scott. "But you guys could use him to your advantage. Deucalion may be the enemy, but he could also be the bait."

They all paused as they heard the door to the lobby open. Deaton went out first, and when they heard Ethan's voice, Olivia, Lydia, Stiles, and Scott joined him.

"I'm looking for Lydia," he told them.

Lydia looked at him expectantly. "What do you want?"

"I need your help."

Olivia gave him a suspicious look. "With what?"

"Stopping my brother and Kali," he paused only for a second. "from killing Derek."

Olivia lifted her chin, all of her concern for Derek coming back into focus. Stiles, Scott, and Allison were all right, but what about Derek? His tether was still shining bright blue and although it wasn't enough to take all of her focus, his name was still floating around in her head.

"You should go, Lydia," Olivia cleared her throat. She had never liked Lydia's relationship—if anyone could even call it that—with Aiden, but there was at least one benefit from it, other than Lydia's happiness. And it was that Lydia had a hold over him. If she could convince Aiden to not kill Derek, then maybe he had a shot at surviving.

Lydia looked at her like she was crazy. "Are you sure?"

"All day, I've been hearing warnings about Derek," she confessed, glancing at Ethan. "I don't know if he's going to survive or not, but if you can convince Aiden, maybe..."

"We'll turn against Kali," Ethan spoke up in agreement with her. "We won't let her kill Derek."

Lydia didn't think it over very long, but that was Lydia; she was brave. "Okay," she agreed and gave Olivia a quick hug. "Just be careful."

"No, you be careful," Olivia insisted; Lydia smiled at her and when she walked out the door with Ethan, she turned back to the others. "Okay, what's the plan?"

"Just grab anything," Scott told Stiles through the phone as he, Olivia, Allison, and Isaac got out of the elevator in Allison's building and headed to her apartment door. "Stiles, I'm not smelling your dad's boxers. Socks? Okay, I'll smell the socks."

He ended the call and as Allison unlocked the door, Isaac asked, "What about me?"

"See what you can find in my dad's closet," the door opened and they all filed in. "Anything with the strongest scent."

Allison opened the door to her dad's office and stopped in her tracks, making Olivia, who was right behind her, slam into her. In the office was Agent McCall and two deputies, waiting for them at the desk.

"Quite the arsenal your fathers got here, young lady," as McCall spoke, Scott came up behind Olivia and stared at his dad in shock. "Scott."

Scott carefully squeezed past Olivia and Allison to enter the room. "What are you doing here?"

"Following one of the only leads I have," McCall stood from Mr. Argent's desk chair. "Now, since I don't know where you've been, why don't you have a seat and we can talk? You too, Isaac."

Isaac, who had been hiding in the hallway, came and stood next to Olivia. "How do you know my name?"

"Your name's one of the few things I know," McCall told him. "To be honest, the rest of what's going on around here has be stumbling in the dark, even over the smallest clue."

"If you're trying to tell me that you don't have a clue, I learned that a long time ago," Scott glared at his dad.

"I'm really hoping to avoid the embarrassment of dragging my own son into an interrogation room," McCall said firmly, meaning business. "Really hoping."

Olivia, Allison, and Isaac entered the office. Scott and Isaac let Olivia and Allison take the chairs and stood behind them. None of them were taking this very seriously; Isaac was eating some Icebreaker mints, for crying out loud.

"I'm not gonna lie, I'm more than a little disturbed," McCall admitted. "Not only by the number of missing parents, but the fact that it's Stiles' father, your father, and your mother."

Isaac shut his case of mints, popped one more into his mouth, and said, "Mine are both dead."

"Mine too," Olivia added, though, technically, that wasn't true. As far as anyone outside their little supernatural circle knew, Peter had disappeared from the long-term care unit in the hospital and had never been recovered.

"Save the cliché teenage apathy for your high school teachers," McCall glared at them. Olivia narrowed her eyes at him. What a dick. "The four of you know more than you're saying and I'm fully willing to keep you here all night if I have to."

"We don't know anything," Scott emphasized. "Stiles already told you that."

"And you can't keep us here," Olivia glared at the giant McCall, recalling some of the information her Uncle Thomas told her about his job. "Not without some kind of warrant."

Agent McCall gestured to the desk full of weapons. "I've got a desk full of probable cause."

Allison scoffed quietly and stood from her chair. "My father is a highly respected private security consultant and federally licensed firearms dealer. That means he has to own a few weapons," she told them as she stepped toward the desk. She pointed to a large crossbow and then a huge knife. "Like this one hundred and seventy-five-pound tactical crossbow or this carbon steel marine combat knife," she then poked at one of the handguns. ".50AE Desert Eagle..."

She stopped for a moment and hummed before picking up a smoke grenade. "A smoke grenade with pull-ring igniter," she pulled the ring and threw the grenade toward McCall and the deputies. "Go!"

Olivia, Scott, and Isaac all scrambled out of the office after her, ducking to avoid the smoke currently choking up McCall and the others. Olivia, Allison, and Isaac got into Allison's car and Scott sat on his motorbike and drove away from the apartment. They only stopped when they reached the woods, where a sign prohibited entrance to the preserve after dark.

As Olivia got out of the car, a scream ripped its way out of her throat. She didn't even notice that Isaac and Scott immediately covered their eyes, too focused on the feelings that overwhelmed her. Not only had Stiles gotten hurt—and she didn't know how, which worried her all the more—but Lydia was screaming and she felt everything her cousin felt. Someone was dead, more than one person was dead.

"Olivia, what's wrong?" Allison grabbed Olivia's hands, which were covering her ears, and pulled them away from her head as she stopped screaming. "Olivia?"

"Stiles is hurt," Olivia croaked, her throat now in horrible pain from the combination of the garrote and the loud scream that had escaped her. "And Lydia, she screamed. Someone's dead."

"Is it Derek or Stiles?" Scott asked worriedly.

"No, I would have known if it was," the tether that connected her with Derek wasn't lit and Stiles was, though it wasn't a dangerous feeling that came from it. "It's someone else. Maybe one of the alphas."

"I'll call Stiles and you can call Derek," Isaac offered.

Olivia nodded in agreement and pulled out her phone, quickly pressing on Derek's contact to call him.

"Ollie, what's wrong?" Derek answered a hint of panic in his voice. "We were on out way out of Beacon Hills when we heard Lydia scream."

"I think one of more of the alphas are dead," she told him. "Are you okay? Did you get out in time?"

"We did," Derek confirmed. "but we're heading back to the loft now to check on Lydia. I'll call you, okay?"

"Okay, be careful, both of you," Olivia bit the inside of her cheek. "Love you."

"Love you, Ollie," both Derek and Cora chorused before ending the call.

"I didn't get anything from Stiles," Isaac walked up to her side, giving her a worried look. "Did you get Derek?"

"Yeah, he's okay for now. He and Cora are going back to the loft to check on Lydia," Olivia told him as Scott and Allison walked over to them. "What if Stiles...?"

"He's not," Scott tried to comfort her. "I don't get it, though."

"Well, we can't wait for him," Isaac decided. "Come on."

They all turned away from the vehicles, only to come face-to-face with Deucalion. "You're cutting it a little close, aren't we, Scott?"

"We got a little delayed," Scott informed him. "Where are the others?"

They knew that one of them, if not all three of them, had died. When Deucalion spoke, he only confirmed it, unbeknownst to him. "Occupying themselves with other pursuits."

Olivia inhaled deeply and steeled her nerves, speaking up, "Well, I've come with Scott to join you. If you'll still have me, of course."

God, I can't believe I'm sucking up to a blind, psychotic, alpha werewolf, she lamented privately.

"Of course, you're still welcome," Deucalion said pleasantly. "You, Scott, and I will made a good team."

Olivia exchanged a nervous look with Scott before he turned to Allison and Isaac. "Okay, get Stiles and then get to the root cellar, okay?" he told them. "We'll keep Jennifer away long enough for you to get them out of there."

"How are you gonna do that?" Isaac wondered.

"I have a plan."

"Sir," Olivia spoke up uncomfortably. "Uh, Mr. Deucalion."

"Please, just call me Deucalion, Olivia," he chuckled pleasantly as they walked through the woods, heading to an unknown location.

"Deucalion, right," she corrected herself, ignoring the half-amused look that Scott was giving her. "I just wanted to know why you wanted me as part of your pack. I mean, other than the fact that I'm an anchoram."

"Anchorams are rare, as you likely know. But what you may not know, is that they are immensely powerful. You've harnessed most of your powers, yes?" he glanced at her, even though he most likely couldn't see her (Scott had told her what Gerard told him about Deucalion; he wasn't always blind).

"Some. I can calm a werewolf down if they're losing control, or use that same ability against them during a fight," Olivia shared her progress. "I know when my pack members are in danger or close to death and I know how to locate them."

"But's only for your pack mates," Deucalion said knowingly. "One day, when you master those abilities, you'll go on until you've unlocked them all."

"What do you mean?"

"At the height of your powers, you will be able to locate any supernatural creature in the world. You'll be able to use their strengths against them, like you do for werewolves now. You can physically make a werewolf lose their lycanthropy, making them human again," Deucalion listed, the most recent ability making Olivia and Scott shared a look of shock. "And, of course, using the banshee side of you, you will be able to predict the death of anyone you hold dear to your heart, not just your pack mates. Every anchoram is different, though."

She could hardly believe the magnitude of her abilities. In all honestly, it sounded like a lot. Maybe too much. "How do you know all of this?"

"My great-great-great-grandmother's mother was an anchoram," Deucalion told her. "Her name was Marguerite Richardson, nee Hale."

Olivia looked at him in surprise. "We're related?"

"Very distantly. I used to be great friends with your aunt."

"Wow."

She honestly didn't know how to react to that.

She and Deucalion fell silent and the three of them continued walking. The storm got progressively worse the more they walked on. The wind was strong, the rain felt like glass against their skin, and it was so dark Olivia was having trouble seeing, using only the outlines of Scott and Deucalion to keep going.

Finally, though they entered a distillery. The one that Derek and Paige used go when they wanted private time.

"You said you had a plan," Deucalion reminded Scott once they were under the protection of the metal roof.

"On the first day of class, Jennifer sent all of us a message. It was the last line from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness," Scott told him. "I got a message of my own to send to her."

He proceeded to take out his phone and gave it to Olivia so she could film him. He stood in front of the revenge symbol that they all had seen many times before, and Olivia started filming.

"See this symbol?" he pointed at the swirl all the while glaring at the camera. "It's a symbol of revenge. You talk about balance, about saving people? We know what you really want...And now, you know where to find us."

Olivia stopped filming and handed the phone back to Scott, who sent the message to Jennifer right away.

"And now, we wait," Deucalion sighed.

They only waited ten minutes until they came. Yes, they; Derek was with Jennifer. It confused the hell out of Olivia. Was Jennifer forcing him onto her side? Was he actually on her side? Was he acting like he was on Jennifer's side to catch her off guard while he was really on their side?"

"Derek," she breathed. "what are you doing?"

"This might be hard to believe, but I'm actually trying to help you both," Derek eyed her and Scott meaningfully.

He was fooling Jennifer, he was actually on their side—not Deucalion's, Olivia's and Scott's side.

"Ooh, like brother against brother...and sister," Deucalion commented, almost tiredly. "How very American this is," he faced Jennifer as he brought together his seeing cane. "Are you ready, Jennifer, hmm? Did you gather your herbs, pray to your ancient gods and your oak trees, slit a baby's throat, perhaps? Should we show them why you needed to sacrifice nine innocent people just to face me? ...Or is it twelve now?"

Deucalion's eyes glowed red and his wolf features appeared on his face. Surprisingly, Derek was the one to make the first move. He swiped his arm at him, but Deucalion simply grabbed the arm, and then the other one. With Derek trapped, Jennifer went up to the plate. Using whatever powers she had, she threw them at Deucalion, expecting them to work.

Except they didn't.

As Scott slipped something into Olivia's hand, she closed her eyes and brought up her tether map. She found Deucalion easily this time, in between Derek's bright blue and Scott's orange tethers. It didn't surprise her, since Deucalion was clearly the most powerful werewolf she'd come across—it made since that he was easy to find. What would be hard, however, was fighting to use his control against him.

She heard grunts and groans from Jennifer and Derek as she focused on Deucalion's deep red dot, which was also larger than her the other werewolves she had come across. Despite how tired she was, both physically and mentally, she used all the power she had left to hit his dot with her bright purple blasts. She hit him but he actually was able to push back against her, forcefully making her take a step back.

She gritted her teeth and raised her hands toward him. She felt her power build within her and she projected it toward him. For a second, just a second, his features started to fade, long enough for Derek to knock him over. Then he was back up and throwing Derek across the distillery and then stomping toward Jennifer and lifting her up by the neck.

He forced her down on her knees in front of Scott. "Kill her," he ordered Scott, his voice demonic. "Do it."

Scott didn't move, though, and that pissed Deucalion off. He roared loudly, so powerfully that Olivia had to fight to stand and Scott dropped to the floor, his wolf features out on display.

"Now kill her," Deucalion demanded once again. "Your parents are dying. That storm you hear, she's burying them alive. It's her connection to the telluric currents. Kill her and it ends."

"It won't end," Jennifer objected forcefully. "Not with me. He'll have you kill everyone you love. It's what he does."

"They're dying, Scott," Deucalion tried to get Scott back on his side. "Your mother and the parents of your best friends. Kill her now and it's over. Become the alpha you were meant to be. Become a killer."

"Scott."

The firm way in which Olivia said her friend's name made him stiffen. She knew that she had given him some control over the shift that Deucalion forced upon him. They both knew that if Scott killed Jennifer, he would no longer be a true alpha. And that was exactly what Deucalion wanted from him.

Scott glared at Deucalion. "They're not dead yet."

"Who's going to save them? Your friends?"

Scott shook his head and said determinately, "My pack."

Deucalion looked at him for only a moment before he threw Jennifer to the side and raced over to Scott, snarling furiously. He grabbed one of Scott's clawed hands and held it up, forcing him to hold it out.

"Maybe you just need a little guidance," he gritted through his teeth, guiding him over to Jennifer.

At once, Olivia had her hands up again, the arrow tip that Scott had given her, which he snagged from Allison's apartment, in one hand. She pulled together her power. Her anger and fear and all that anxiety that had piled up inside adding to it.

She screamed as her power blasted itself into her tether map and right at Deucalion's dot. His grip on Scott immediately faltered so much that Scott managed to free himself and he staggered, blinking rapidly. \

"Scott!"

"I forgot to tell you something," Scott spoke loudly over the grunts that Deucalion forced out of his lips while he struggled to fight off Olivia's attack. "Something that Gerard told me. Deucalion isn't always blind."

At the same time as Scott, Olivia threw her arrowhead at the concrete by Deucalion's feet. Both of the arrowheads were flash bolts; they lit up at contact and Deucalion practically fell on the floor. Olivia winced at the bright light, obviously effected by the bolts, but not like Derek, Scott, and Deucalion were, and dropped her hands, more than a little tired out.

It didn't help that the lunar eclipse had started. Like werewolves lost their power during the eclipse, it appeared that she did too. She leaned one hand against the wall as Derek ran over to her, allowing him to steady her.

On all three werewolves, their features had gone away.

"The eclipse," Deucalion stumbled to his feet. "it started."

They all noticed that Jennifer was gone at the same time. As they all looked over to the entrance of the distillery, Scott whispered, "Oh, no."

Jennifer dramatically entered the distillery, her disguise of a beautiful face gone. She was also wearing a completely different outfit from before, which was pretty weird. Olivia didn't know how she changed within a minute and she had to admit she liked the outfit Jennifer was wearing before more than the one she was wearing now.

She shrieked as she held a handout to Scott and threw him against the wall. She didn't make a move toward Olivia, which had to do with the fact that she was leaning against Derek, but went straight to Deucalion. He fell to the floor and Jennifer was there beside him within a second, grabbing his head and bashing it against the concrete repeatedly.

Blood had started pouring out of the wound at the back of Deucalion's head and his eyes rolled back into his head before Derek interfered. "Jennifer!" she stopped and looked back at him. "He doesn't know."

"Know what?" she growled back at him.

"What you really look like," Derek told her. "He knows the cost of bringing Kali into his pack, but he's never seen the price you paid."

Jennifer paused for a full minute. "No. No, he hasn't," she said finally before turning her attention to Deucalion. She placed her hand over Deucalion's eyes and she must have healed them because he started to scream in pain. When Jennifer released him from her grip and stood up, she ordered him, "Turn to me. Turn to me!"

When Deucalion turned to face Jennifer, his blue eyes were no longer cloudy. Honestly, he didn't react too badly to Jennifer's real face. It didn't seem to be therapeutic for Jennifer like she thought it would be. She changed back to her fake face and pulled her right arm back to finally kill the alpha.

But instead, she faltered. Derek let go of Olivia, gesturing over at Scott to take his place since she didn't have much of her energy back, and walked over to Jennifer and caught her.

"What is this?" she asked weakly.

"Healing him made you weak, just like healing Cora did to me," Derek informed her. "You won't have your strength for at least a few minutes."

"Then you do it," Jennifer's voice broke. "Kill him."

"No."

She looked at Derek, surprised, while Olivia smiled proudly. "What?"

"Like my mother used to say, I'm a predator. I don't have to be a killer," Derek moved his hand from her back up to her neck, squeezing it tightly. "Let them go."

Jennifer struggled with his grip and gained enough of her strength back to throw Derek a few feet away from her. He landed against a random bale of hay and raced to him, punching him forcefully in the face, two times, then three times.

Olivia threw herself out of Scott's arms and into the line of fire. She pushed Derek away, knowing that the eclipse would end at any second, and received the blow that was meant for him to the face. Her head reared by from the hit, but she managed to kick Jennifer away from her.

At that moment, Olivia felt her powers rush back into her body. It felt like a vibration. Something that she had gotten so used to being there, she hadn't noticed it. The eclipse was over and Derek and Scott had their powers back—and so did Deucalion.

Derek flew through the air and hit Jennifer, holding her against the floor. "Your fifteen minutes are up."

Jennifer managed to get up and dodged the attack that Scott gave her. Before either of them do anything else, she had taken some mountain ash from her pocket and threw it around her, creating a barrier that would protect her from Scott, Derek, and Deucalion.

"Like I told you, Derek, either you or the parents," Jennifer said nastily. Apparently all of her "love" for Derek was gone. "Well, I guess I'll just have to take them now. In a few minutes, they'll be dead and I won't need a lunar eclipse, even to kill a demon wolf."

Derek and Olivia exchanged a horrified look. By the time they looked away, Scott had stormed over to the circle of mountain ash and held his hands up, pushing them against the supernatural barrier between him and Jennifer.

"You've tried this before, Scott," Jennifer taunted him. "I don't remember you having much success."

Scott pushed harder at the barrier, his body leaning further and further into it. Blue light streaked past his body as he broke into it, getting a hand through. The more he pushed through the barrier, the brighter his tether looked in Olivia's head, until finally, it turned a deep, alpha-werewolf red.

The barrier fell apart. Scott was an alpha.

Jennifer had fallen to the floor from the small eruption that occurred when the mountain ash barrier broke. She frantically crawled away from Scott, looking up at him with horrified amazement. "How did you do that?"

Scott glowered down at her. "I'm an alpha now," he said powerfully. "Whatever you're doing to cause this storm, make it stop or I'll kill you myself. I don't care what it does to the color of my eyes."

"It won't change the color of mine, so allow me," Deucalion growled as he strode past Scott. With one swift move, he threw his clawed hand forward and slit the length of Jennifer's throat. She choked on her own blood and she slumped down onto the ground, dead. Olivia was not reluctant to admit that she was glad to see Jennifer dead.

As soon as Jennifer's heart stopped, the storm above them ceased. Olivia slowly reached for her pocket, the blood loss from the blow she received on her face from Jennifer making her sluggish, and called Stiles, hoping that he and everyone else was uninjured and safe.

"Olivia?"

"Hi," Olivia sighed in relief from just hearing his voice. "are you okay?"

"Yeah, we're okay," he confirmed. "We're all okay. What about you and Scott, are you okay?"

Olivia glanced at Scott and Derek, who stood close together discussing something. "Sort of."

"Do you think you and Scott could come and get us?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Great," Stiles huffed out a laugh. "And, uh, bring a ladder."

"I'll get right on that," Olivia giggled. "Hang tight. We'll be there soon."

Derek walked over to her as she ended the call, bent down, and helped her to her feet. He wrapped an arm around her and let her lean all of her weight against him while they walked over to Scott, who was standing in front of Deucalion with a stern look on his face.

"My mother told me you were a man of vision once," Derek told Deucalion, his voice strong. "We're letting you go because we hope you can be that man again."

"But if you're not, then having your eyesight back won't matter," Scott threatened him. "because you'll never see us coming."

With that, the three of them turned around and left the distillery.

Unfortunately, Olivia ended up in the hospital once everything was over. Because of Jennifer's strength, she had a concussion and the bruising around her neck was worse than she, or anyone, thought. She only stayed for one night and by the next morning, she was itching to get out of there. She wasn't a fan of hospitals, especially Beacon Hills Memorial—no offense meant to Melissa.

That morning, only two hours before Natalie was supposed to come and get her checked out, Derek and Cora interrupted her and Stiles' conversation. Just by the looks on their faces, she didn't like what they were going to tell her.

Yeah, she really didn't like it.

Cora was the first to speak. "Ollie—"

"You're leaving again, aren't you?" Olivia interrupted her, recognizing the guilt on her face.

"I am," Cora confirmed with a slight nod. "With Derek no longer an alpha and Boyd gone...I can't stay. I don't really...get along with your friends."

Olivia frowned but ultimately, she knew Cora had found a good life down in South America where she had been living for the past six and a half years. She was going to miss her fiercely, especially since she just discovered that she was alive, but she had to let Cora go so she could be happy.

"You'll call, right?" Olivia asked finally.

"Of course I will," Cora leaned forward and gave her a goodbye hug. "I love you, Ollie."

"I love you, too," she said as Cora pulled back. She looked at Derek and added, "Let me guess, you're going with her."

"Just dropping her off," Derek corrected her. "Peter's coming too."

"And you're coming back?" she checked, a little worried that they wouldn't be back and she'd lose her Hale family members all in one go.

Derek heard her heart start to race. "We'll come back," he confirmed taking her head and squeezing it. "Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone."

"How can I? You're taking all the stupid with you," Olivia finished the quote, thanking whatever supreme being that was out there for Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, and the friendship that came out of Captain America: The First Avenger. "I love you, Der."

"I love you, too, Ollie," he promised. "We'll send Stiles back in. Remember what I told you—"

"Wear a condom, yeah I got it."

"Actually, I was going to remind you about the pepper spray and rape whistle."

"Get out of here!" Olivia took the paper cup she had been drinking out of and threw it at Derek, who caught it easily.

Derek laughed and he and Cora left the room, giving her one last goodbye. Her smile slipped from her lips as she watched them walk away, but she wasn't able to be sad for long. Stiles had waltzed right back into the room and took his seat on the chair next to her bed.

"So," he grinned at her. "We defeated Jennifer and Deucalion is no longer his evil self. You know what that means?"

"No, but I bet you're going to tell me," she smiled back at him.

Stiles chuckled. "I am. It's time to get engaged."

"Ha! Very funny, sweetcheeks."

(Gif is not mine)

#teen wolf rewrite #stiles stilinski x oc #stiles stilinksi x reader #teen wolf #stiles stilinski #stiles stilinski fanfiction #teen wolf fanfiction #stiles stilinski x original character

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thehoneyxbadger · 4 years

Text

she’s got claws

Gabby tries to help a mutant out of control. Slade and Colleen arrest a young mutant vigilante.

DATE: 22nd March 2020 FEATURING: @deathfxrhire @dragonsdefender MENTIONED: WARNINGS: violence, suicide, blood, injury

GABBY: Gabby knew that the Accords meant she should be careful. But she felt she had these abilities and she could use them to help people. Or find those who'd been hurting people and deal with them herself. Tonight she was responding to a mutant who was using their powers to terrorise. Screams of terror echoed as fire seemed to go after one or two people. But looking at the attacker, this was more likely to be an act of distraught revenge. Gabby didn't want the poor mutant, who seemed to only be a teenager who was lost and losing control --Probably retaliating against someone who hurt them. Gabby knew that feeling-- to end up arrested for that.

So she intervened, taking advantage of her healing factor to get close enough to get to the kid and calm them down. Holding them tight, she managed to get them to stop, showing them her own claws to get them to trust her. "Come on," she told them. "We should get you out of here."

COLLEEN: Patrols were different with a partner. Especially one like Slade who wanted to make money doing this. She never really talked to him about whether or not he agreed with the Accords - but she wasn’t sure she wanted to know where he stood. (And as much as she was there to make sure that he was trustworthy, his presence there made Colleen stick to the rules as well... equal enforcement.) But tonight, Colleen glanced down an alley and saw - what was that? Knives? No. Those were claws. She reached over and hit Slade’s arm with the back of her hand gently to grab his attention - but hopefully not the two people in the alley.

Colleen glanced at Slade and motioned towards the two people. “You see what I’m seeing?” She asked in a whisper, working her jaw before shaking her head. She hated going after kids, but there was no pretending that this young woman wasn’t dangerous. “Let’s go. Maybe they’ll surrender.” But there was a dark feeling twisting in Colleen’s stomach. It was never that easy - but she hoped it would be. They were just kids.

SLADE: As far as partners went, Wing was better than he could have gotten. While he'd worked as part of a team in the Army, it's been a long time since those days--since he'd been betrayed by the very people he once counted as family. His last job with a partner had been Madripoor, and that had rather soured the entire prospect of working as a team even more than it already had been. As it went, though, Colleen was smarter than average and skilled as hell with the kitana she carried, even if her talking could border on lecturing like a mother hen every once in a while. Better useful but irritating than dead weight, as far as he was concerned. And she was useful.

The screams had drawn their attention from a few blocks away, and Slade was on the lookout for anyone trying to make their escape when Colleen pinpointed the source down the alley. "I see 'em." Kids. Slade had no problem fighting kids--hell, the bloody Teen Titans were amongst his biggest pains in the neck. "Claws like those? Doubt it," he murmured, hand already sliding towards his belt. Especially if she was related to the more famous clawed mutant with the X-Men. "But I'll let you play good cop if you want." He was very good at bad cop.

He leads the way, anyway, down the alleyway, until both kids' heads snap up in their direction.

GABBY: Gabby was trying to keep the teenager calm enough that they could get out of here before any Enforcers showed up. Because they would show up. After a show like that, it'd be stupid to think they wouldn't. And here she was, a masked hero and clear mutant. Not to mention that this kid had just shown themselves to be potentially dangerous. But they needed help, not to be arrested. Except...

Gabby's head snapped up before the kid's, her enhanced senses alerting her within of the footsteps while they were still a while away. She straightened up, about to try to hide her claws. But it was too late for that; the way these two moved screamed to her that this was going to be a fight. Her heckles were raised immediately. "We just want to go home," she said, putting the kid behind her. It wouldn't hide them--Gabby was far too short for that-- but it might shield them. "We don't want a fight."

COLLEEN: He was right. Which was more annoying that Colleen would care to admit - he was her partner and all she could think about right now was that him having a point annoyed her. But she kept it in. Her dark eyes focused on the girl with the claws as she followed Slade, just a step behind him. Not because she was letting him lead - but he had a presence, and Colleen was hoping that having his muscle out on display would push the kids back.

And that Colleen could talk them into surrendering.

That was the idea at least. And when the young woman said they just wanted to go home - Colleen felt for them, but they couldn’t. “Then don’t fight,” Colleen said, stepping so that she was right beside Slade. “Put those away,” she instructed, motioning downward with her hand slowly, “and surrender. If you don’t want to fight, prove it.”

SLADE: Fuck's sake.

Slade had never done hostage negotiation in the field--he'd always been the one they sent in when negotiation seemed to be going sideways. He was good at talking, don't get him wrong--he'd talked his fair share of kids down from hyperventilating themselves halfway to unconsciousness, or kids who decided their service weapon was looking more and more friendly.

This, what Colleen was trying to do, he didn't have the patience for. The energy before a fight was practically crackling, and there was no doubt in Slade's mind that the girl wasn't going to go down easy. But he let her play the good cop. Saw the answer on the girl's face immediately.

Bad cop it was. "Look, kid. You're not going home. You can put the claws away and make everyone's life much easier, or you can not, and make my life much more fun but risk your little friend here getting hurt. You come in, you sign some papers, maybe you go home. Make yourself a danger, and that ain't gonna happen."

GABBY: If it were just her, Gabby's mind would be made up. She would fight her way out. But with a boy behind her who couldn't be more than thirteen... Well, that changed things. She slowly began to straighten up from where she'd been poised to fight, until she felt a hand on her arm. "No. Please! I can't go with them." Gabby sighed. A fight it was then.

"Afraid I can't do that," she replied to the man. "How about option C? We leave here so we can all make it home in time to watch some trash tv tonight. I think the new season of the Bachelor is on. Or is it the Bachelorette?" Gabby gave a sly grin, but her eyes were taking quick stock of her opponents. She couldn't rely on the kid to help. But Gabby had been trained her whole life to fight. "You get out of here, quickly, once you can," she murmured under her breath to him. "Get ready."

COLLEEN: Don’t fight. That was what Colleen wanted to tell this kid, that it would all be fine. She couldn’t make any promises that it would be fine, but she had to believe that there was a path forward that wasn’t all handcuffs and collars. (And it was hard to see a future like that when shit like this kept happening. And now it was kids.) “Option C sounds great and all,” Colleen shook her head. “But that’s not happening.” Slade went hard but Colleen couldn’t say that he was wrong — she hated it. But he was right. They couldn’t play this soft.

She took a step forward, and the second she did, the kid the one with claws was protecting bolted. Colleen barely glanced at Slade, wondering if he could read her as well as Danny could — if he knew that she was going to chase the other kid before she did it — wondering if there was any sort of understanding between them.

They were about to find out.

Colleen chased after the kid who had run off, her hand on the hilt of her weapon. She managed to close the distance quickly, grabbing the kid by the shirt and slamming them into the wall. “Stop running!” Colleen yelled, twisting the kid's arm behind their back to pacify them.

SLADE: The girl was admirably confident, he'd give her that--dishing out sarcasm even in the face of two Enforcers, even backed against the wall. You didn't get that confident without some practice, in Slade's experience, which meant she knew how to use those claws.

Dangerous, for sure, even in a small little package like that.

There was a moment of silence where they all sized each other up, waited to see who'd make the first move. Slade was delighted to find it to be Colleen. Less delighted at the way the little brat Claws was protecting bolted, but he could see the way Colleen's weight shifted as if to take after him even before she started running.

Which meant he got Claws. All the better. In a fraction of a second, he'd drawn one of the swords from his back and sidestepped between the girl and the side street the kid and Colleen had darted down. He had the reach advantage, here, and presumably the strength, but he wasn't taking anything for granted.

He caught the way her eyes shot down the street to where Colleen had the other kid pinned, brandished his sword a little more aggressively. "I really wouldn't, kid. C'mon, don't go makin me do something you'd regret. My friend there ain't about hurtin' kids, but I will hurt you if you make me."

GABBY: Gabby wasn't panicking despite the odds being against her. She'd been in enough fights in her short life to keep her head. But apparently the kid behind her hadn't. He took her advice a bit early and bolted, with one of the enforcers giving chase. Gabby watched in horror as he was twisted against the wall. "Hey! He's just a kid!" A kid without experience in this kind of thing to boot.

Claws out, she glared at Slade as he made threats. "Good luck with that," she retorted. She pulled her nun chucks from her belt to give her a better range--though he still had size advantage on her--and swung them hard and fast towards him. Only it was mostly a distraction, with Gabby's true intentions to merely pass the man, not attack him. As such, she used the wall to push off and get height, launching herself towards Colleen with a yell in a way she hoped would startle her into letting go of the teenager.

COLLEEN: It was a rookie mistake, turning her back on the other kid, even if she trusted that Slade would step up. He might have given her grief at every turn, but when it came down to situations like this? Slade was more focused on success than she was. (Colleen suspected it was about the money — but even so, that was reason enough that she could trust him out here.) Colleen’s grip on the kid changed when the one with claws shouted before leaping towards her. When she looked at the girl lunging towards her, the only thing she could think about was BB. How he had tried to reason with his friends and show them that Davos was wrong and evil but ended up bloodied on and on the ground.

This girl, she was just trying to do what she thought was right too. And the way she was moving — it was like she was okay if that cost her everything. Hell, it reminded Colleen of herself on some level. But there was no time for Colleen to try and talk this down again. And... if the choice was between Colleen’s life and this stranger’s? Colleen was going to choose herself. Colleen pulled her hand away from the teen she had pressed against the wall, her reflexes taking over as she pulled out her katana and braced herself for impact. “It doesn’t have to be like this — think about it — you can still stop. You keep going and I won’t be able to stop him.” Maybe that didn’t scare this kid... but it should.

SLADE: He threw his arm up to block the nunchuks, the impact scarcely even noticeable with his armor and his abilities, and turned to follow her movements as she lunged toward Colleen.

The other kid bolted as soon as Colleen turned to get her katana up, but Slade didn't pay a damn bit of mind to the kid as he slipped off into the dark. This one was the prize.

And when Colleen's warning didn't get the girl to let up, Slade would. Part of his reputation was his focus--his machine-like ability to put all of his attention on a task and complete it as if programmed to do it, come hell or high water.

Three thoughts went through his mind in short succession: firstly, that at least one of them was going to get hurt with so many blades out. Secondly, that it could not be Colleen--without regenerative powers, what damage she sustained would be a problem. Thirdly, that this kid seemed an awful lot like the Wolverine, and on balance, that meant she was apt to have the same regenerative abilities. And if it was him or the brat that needed to get hurt? Simple choice.

For a man of his stature, he's fast, thanks to the serum in his veins, and so he's crossed to the fight going on between the two girls in moments, his own katana driving the blade through skin and muscle at the kid's thigh before he finally pulls the swing just short of breaking bone.

The moment of shock, from both women, gives Slade opportunity to grab the kid by the scruff of her neck and yank her away from Colleen, throwing her onto the ground and dropping down with a knee to her back before she can try and push up. "If those claws don't go back into your hands now, kid," he warned, "you're getting a sword to the hands to keep them down, you understand me?"

Colleen's starting to protest the rough treatment, looks mad, but by the time he tunes back in, he's not inclined to let her ramble. "If you'd rather I let her up to gut you, just say the word, Colleen. Otherwise, I don't wanna fucking hear it. She's old enough to be running kids, she's old enough to fuckin know when to quit. Get a goddamned collar on her."

GABBY: Gabby's nunchucks collide with the katana hard, as she lands on the ground. The kid has run off, seemingly allowed to by the two Enforcers. Only now she stood between them. A vulnerable position to say the least. Gabby had to move quickly--something she was good at. But as fast as she moved, the man seemed to keep up. Her small stature normally meant that speed was her advantage, but something must help this man be this fast. Exactly what didn't matter to her right now. Especially as she doesn't heed Colleen's warning at all.

She turned, a split second too slow. The blade sliced through her flesh like butter, in a move that ought to have Gabby screaming in pain. Instead, as blood began to spill, Gabby's shock came from how deep the slice had gone. Almost to the bone, he'd cut her tendons and muscle in a way that--however temporarily--slowed her down too much. All it would take to lose this fight was a mere second slower. This wasn't some cop-turned-Enforcer. This was an assassin, trained to kill and butcher with skilled precision and no remorse, he had to be.

With his weight pressing on his knee against her back, Gabby knew this fight is over. She could feel her leg beginning to stitch itself back together already, and she was thinking how once it did she could escape or fight again. Until she heard that word that sent dread through her. Collar. Without it, she would still have her training, but no extra strength or healing. Abilities she'd come to rely on because she'd barely known a world without them. Her claws slowly sink back into her hands.

Still, just because Gabby was down, didn't mean she was out. "What even is your deal anyway!? Surely there's better things to do than attack some kid who lost control of his powers?"

COLLEEN: The other kid was gone in the blink of an eye. And maybe she should have been concerned about that — that the kid would come back with help — or that Slade and Colleen might get ambushed later... but there wasn’t time to let any of those thoughts float to the surface. Not when she had an angry kid with claws who wanted to stab her. The claws collided with her katana, and Colleen moved defensively, not swinging at the girl. She didn’t want to actually harm her, despite having every reason to.

She had done this dance too many times before. She had done this dance for the Hand before. Finding troubled kids and trying to find even ground with them — recruiting them into a new and better life. But this time she wasn’t offering a safe place. No college fund. No reprieve from what was happening around them. Though, when she brought them to the Hand... she had no idea what she was really bringing them into. It was the good Hand. That was what Bakuto told her. That this was different — that they were different. But it was the same bullshit, just hidden behind a different — a charming smile. At least as an enforcer, there was no pretending that what she was doing was leading them down a path that they’d enjoy.

But it was hard to see the good parts of enforcing when she was facing off against a girl who couldn’t have been more than eighteen. It was even harder when she heard Slade’s voice, as he had the girl on the ground. (He had stabbed through her leg, and Colleen had gotten lost in something else — something that she had thought she was over. Time was supposed to heal all wounds... but time didn’t do shit for regret.)

This moment, it wasn’t so easy though. Nothing was quite black and white anymore. (Had it ever been? Really?) Her eyes snapped upwards to Slade, the frown on her face settling, as if that were her only expression. “Fuck off.” Two words came out of her mouth so bitter and angry — and she wasn’t even mad at him. She was mad at herself. For her hesitation. For the conflict in her own heart. But still, Slade kept opening his mouth — kept pushing her... Colleen took in a breath, reminding herself of the teachers her grandfather had instilled upon her. Self-control. One of the tenants of the Bushido Code.

Kneeling down next to the girl, Colleen secured a collar around her neck. But as she fastened it, she heard the words — what was her deal? Colleen clenched her jaw and took in a sharp breath. “I wouldn’t worry about him,” Colleen finally said. “He didn’t attack enforcers — he lost control and there is a system he can go through to get help — but you...” Colleen paused, still kneeling next to her. “Were you going to kill me?”

SLADE: Colleen could get pissy all she wanted, but they both knew he was right. Compassion and mercy got you hurt, got you killed, in this line of work. Colleen could feel how she wanted about kids or about the job--god knew he had his own thoughts--but you needed to put those in a box and do the goddamned job while you were out in the field where hesitation could be a death sentence.

As soon as the claws were retracted, he closed his hands around the girl's wrists, drawing them up behind her back and closing cuffs around them as Colleen finished putting on the collar. The skin knitting itself back together at the girl's thigh stopped, and Slade squinted at the wound for a moment before deciding she'd be fine to base. The bleeding had more or less stopped, at least.

And then--fuckin hell. Colleen was trying to comfort the little brat. Slade snorted, rolling off and then dragging the girl up by her shoulders. "You just can't help yourself, can you, Wing?" It didn't matter whether the girl had tried to kill her or not--she hadn't gotten the chance, she had fought, and now she was under arrest. Could have beens didn't matter.

What mattered was now. "Think if I give her to you for two seconds you can manage to keep 'er here while I see if the kid is hiding out nearby?" He didn't wait for an answer before shoving Gabby at Colleen and starting down the alley, beginning a swift but methodical search for the boy.

GABBY: Gabby couldn't believe she'd been reckless enough to get caught. Maybe if the kid had actually stuck to the plan, or if the Enforcers hadn't clearly been so well trained, she'd be scot free right now. But maybe thinking about that was pointless anyway. They'd got her, they had her pinned to the ground and a collar around her neck. Which meant that if they actually decided to hurt her, or kill her, she wouldn't just bounce back. It had been a long time for Gabby since her injuries took a normal time to heal--she wasn't used to thinking like that.

She couldn't care less about the fighting between the two Enforcers, but when the woman knelt next to her and told her not to worry about the kid, she rolled her eyes. But it was the last question that made Gabby freeze. "No. I just wanted to scare you," she replied, honestly. If she'd wanted to actually kill the woman, she could've tried. But she didn't. "I didn't want to kill anyone."

As the man dragged her to her feet, Gabby could feel that her injured leg was still weak. At least it had healed enough to walk on now, just. It'd probably start bleeding again if she tried that for too long, but Gabby shrugged that off as she stumbled towards Colleen. Instead, she glared at the man as he went searching for the kid. If the kid was smart though, he'd be miles away by now. Gabby, on the other hand, was mildly screwed.

#c:slade #c:colleen #tw suicide #tw violence #tw injury #tw blood

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scribbledwriting · 6 years

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“Show, Don’t Tell!”: Using the Five Senses in Writing

This is an extended piece to my ‘Show, Don’t tell’ post. When writing the senses, I like to imagine the scene as if I were watching a movie. It’s the simplest way for me to picture and write when it comes to descriptions. You don’t want to overload the reader, but you do want to paint the picture instead of telling them. Staying aware of the five senses in your writing will dramatically improve your skill. It not only helps the reader be a part of the story but helps the writer set important scenes, without having to outright state what is happening. In this post, I will explain how I use the five senses in my writing. As always, my advice is subjective and only to show what I personally do. Whether you keep the senses in mind as you write, or you edit them in later, making sure you pay attention to keywords will help eliminate the stress of going back later to figure out what (maybe!) went wrong.

SEE: On Sight

One of the easiest ways to go about elaborating sight is to eliminate words related to vision (look, saw, gazed, peek, etc). It also helps to stay aware of items, colors, sizes, etc. Do the same thing you’d do with words related to sight, eliminate them. Of course, don’t erase every word or phrase, but being proactive, keeping them in mind, and avoiding them will help you avoid overloading your reader with too much purple prose. (Granted, I would die for purple prose, but I understand that’s not everyone’s thing).

Examples:

Jill saw Jack running. He carried a silver pail. He tripped and fell down the hill.

There are a lot of sight-words in this example. As the writer, it is your decision to choose what you want to elaborate on, whether it is one thing, or all of them. How much of the story you want to paint is up to you—

Jack’s feet blurred against the green grass as his toe caught his ankle. He rolled on his side, his silver pail flying into the air and reaching Jill first.

Jill craned her neck to find Jack staggering down the hill. Water sloshed from the sides of the bucket, swinging and glistening in the sunlight. He stumbled and grabbed for the handle with his second hand as the pail threatened to leave his grasp, and then he slipped, toppling down the hill.

In both of these scenarios, the reader can “see” that Jack is running and tripped without specifically stating that Jill saw it. They also “see” he had a silver pail and dropped it.

Being more visually descriptive is also very important for facial expressions. It takes a simple mood and elevates it. Describing the expression also gives the reader the chance to “feel” that way too, almost like a mimic, which helps them visualize and empathize with the character.

Example:

Maxine made a disgusted face.

Think of what a disgusted reaction looks like; usually, it involves frowning, pinching your nose, sticking out your tongue, etc. Sometimes, it can help to look in a mirror and write what you’re seeing, too.

Maxine flared her nostrils and stuck out her tongue.

In the latter example, the reader is able to infer that Maxine is disgusted by how the writer described her reaction.

HEAR: On Sound

Describing sound can be tricky. It’s also hard to remember when to use it. We tend to think of sound in terms of music or voices—okay, okay, sometimes we sprinkle in animals howling or the wind blowing, too!—but sound can be incredibly important in setting a scene and is often under-utilized. Sounds let the reader know their surroundings without pulling from what is going on and adds intensity!

Examples:

Manuel sat nervously at the coffee table.

Again, as the writer, you can decide where to incorporate the use of sound. Here are a couple of suggestions, based on the above example:

Manuel’s fingers drummed against the table and drowned out the low whistle escaping from between his teeth as he exhaled. All around him, there was cheerful chatter, through which the barista’s loud voice occasionally sliced.

Manuel’s thoughts whirred and hummed, a dull grinding and the clinking of glass broke through the constant thump of his knee against the underside of the table.

In both of these examples, the reader was able to gather that Manuel was nervous (tapping knee, drumming fingers, low whistle). They are also able to gather he is in a coffee shop (or a restaurant of sorts) without explicitly saying so.

TOUCH: On Sensation

The best way to handle touch is by imagining whatever it is you are describing and what it feels like. If you don’t know how something feels, google it. Don’t describe a snake as slimy just because its scales are shiny and gives it a slime-like effect. That said, touch doesn’t just deal with what your character is physically touching. It can also deal with emotions and help to express them without saying outright how your character feels.

Example:

Opal touched the silk blanket. She felt sleepy and closed her eyes.

Here we can elaborate on what the blanket feels like when Opal touches it and how she feels to indicate she is tired:

The supple fabric slid between Opal’s fingers like water. Her tired muscles sagged and sharp, tiny pinpricks pressed against her heavy eyelids as she lay back.

The reader knows the blanket was very soft and also that she is tired without specifically stating she was sleepy.

TASTE: On Flavor

Taste is a fun sense to mess with. It can show the reader so much more than how delicious the bread is (or how gross dirt is). I like to play around with taste in the weather/air, the taste of fear, the taste of cat hair in your mouth because there is always cat hair in your mouth… all right, maybe that’s a personal thing.

Example:

The sun rose over the city.

What do you use for taste here? A city can’t taste, the sun doesn’t taste, but your character does!

Yellow light spilled over the streets, soaking the grit from the rainbow puddles into the air. The bitter grease lingered and settled in his mouth, strengthening every time he scraped his teeth against his tongue.

Experiment with taste in your writing. Describe things you wouldn’t normally think to taste, like crude oil*. The internet is a good resource when it’s something you don’t want to try yourself, like crude oil**. Chances are, someone out there has already tried it and explained what it tastes like online.

SCENT: On Smell

Ahhh, smell. Smell lets the reader know so much: they can figure out where a character is, what they’re doing, where they are, etc., just from a few scent-related descriptors thrown around. Smell is also useful in triggering memories or past events.

Danny walked through the forest.

You can use so many of the five senses here! But since we’re focusing on scent, let’s zero in on that:

A crisp hint of pine lingered in the air and blended with the pungent decay of the brown needles underfoot.

Without stating anything about a forest, the reader has an idea of where Danny is. You can also use smell to show emotion!

Danny was in love.

How do you smell love, K? Well, you’ve got me there: you can’t. But as a writer, you can think of what love means to you and of things you associate with love, and work from there. Personally, I imagine it would have a sweet smell, maybe too sweet.

A rush of flowery sweetness filled his nostrils as the handsome young man walked by.

There you have it. Of course, there’s a lot more to writing the five senses, as there is with anything, but this is to give you a basic idea of what I do when I’m writing. Being proactive and keeping the senses in mind while writing can be tough and exhausting, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes. And you don’t leave it all for editing! Remember: the most important thing is to keep practicing.

Happy writing!

* Please do not taste crude oil. I can’t believe I have to type this, but some people want to eat Tide Pods, so here I am.

** Do not taste crude oil. You will die.

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spirsimphygames-blog · 6 years

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More About Career Exploration Games For High School Students

Career Exploration Games For High School Students

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dailykoreanpop · 3 years

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“Imitation” Cast Talk About Using Their Experience As Singers, Differences From Webtoon, And More

On May 7, the upcoming KBS drama “Imitation” held an online press conference with director Han Hyun Hee and actors Jung Ji So, U-KISS’s Lee Jun Young, T-ara’s Jiyeon, ATEEZ’s Yunho, and g.o.d’s Danny Ahn.

Based on a popular webtoon, “Imitation” is about the lives of idols in the competitive entertainment industry. It is directed by Han Hyun Hee (“Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung,” “Solomon’s Perjury“) and written by Kim Min Jung and Choi Sun Young.

Director Han Hyun Hee said, “I’m an amateur when it comes to knowledge about idols, but when I was reading the webtoon, one scene stuck out in my mind. I could visualize the fans’ light sticks shining on a darkened stage as if to symbolize that it was the fans who were the real stars rather than the celebrities. After seeing that, I felt like this could really become a drama. I charged forward with just that one scene in mind. I wanted to make a drama in which the actors could express their own stories and give comfort to themselves.”

g.o.d’s Danny Ahn plays Ji Hak, the CEO of the agency that manages Tea Party, a fictional girl group in the drama. “After I was cast, I read the webtoon and found I could relate to it. I’ve been a singer for 22 years, and it felt like I was reading about my own hardships and concerns.”

Jung Ji So plays Lee Ma Ha, the center of the girl group Tea Party. She said, “There was some pressure at first. There were so many talented co-stars, including my members Lim Nayoung and Minseo. I threw myself into practice so that I wouldn’t fall behind in terms of dancing or singing, which they both do so well.”

She added, “I needed a lot of help when I first went up on stage. There are so many scenes in the drama when we’re performing on stage. There are so many things that I never realized we have to think about, like our movements on stage, eye contact, and matching well with the dance and the other members. I got a lot of help from my co-stars about that.”

Lee Jun Young plays Kwon Ryoc, a member of the top idol group SHAX. He said, “When I read the webtoon, I felt that there was going to be a difference in looks. The director teases me by saying that Kwon Ryoc is really handsome. Kwon Ryoc is such a perfect character, but I don’t think I’m as good-looking or as talented as he is. Instead of trying to recreate him 100 percent, I talked a lot with the director about what the key points of the drama were. Rather than copying Kwon Ryoc in the webtoon, I felt a sense of pressure to show how Lee Jun Young would interpret Kwon Ryoc. He’s a beloved character in the webtoon, so I practiced a lot to show people a good image.”

T-ara’s Jiyeon plays LA LIMA, a successful solo artist who becomes Lee Ma Ha’s role model. “I’ve been a singer for a long time, and that helped me understand LA LIMA,” she said. “I worked as a member of a team for a long time, but there’s a lot more work involved in becoming a solo singer. I reviewed a lot of performances by diva performers like Uhm Jung Hwa and Lee Hyori. I tried to create a unique aura for LA LIMA.”

TEEZ’s Yunho is taking on his first acting role as Lee Yoo Jin, a member of the boy group Sparkling. “It’s an honor to be able to do such a great project as my first acting role. Through the support of the people around me, I was able to step into my first acting chance with confidence.”

He added, “There are so many amazing seniors who have more acting experience than me. They gave me a lot of advice. I was really nervous for the first filming, but Lee Jun Young and Jung Ji So gave me a lot of help with the dialogue and gaze.”

“Imitation” premiered on May 7 at 11:20 p.m. KST and will be available on Viki.

Check out a trailer here!

Source (1)

Credit: Soompi

#jung ji so #Yunho #jeong yunho #lee junyoung #Park Jiyeon #jiyeon #danny ahn #imitation #soompi #210507

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helmes-deep · 6 years

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Thoughts on Season 3 of Fuller House (3B):

Thoughts on 3A here. So just binge-watched all 9 episodes of it today haha and here are my random thoughts:

I LOVE THE GIBBLER FAMILY I LOVE FERNANDO AND KIMMY!!!! I JUST NEEDED MORE AND MORE OF THOSE TWO TOGETHER THROUGHOUT THIS SEASON AND/OR MORE GIBBLER FAMILY MOMENTS IN GENERAL THEY’RE JUST SUCH A WARM, LOVING, AND ADORABLY PERFECT FAMILY WHEN THEY’RE TOGETHER AND SO FUNNY WHEN THEY TRY TO OUTSHINE EVERYONE ELSE I LOVE THEM HAHA

Seriously, Andrea Barber is such a great actress!! Like honestly, she should really win an Emmy for this show I am not kidding haha. She is soooo entertaining!! and wickedly talented at acting!!!!

DJ AND STEVE YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! FINALLY!!!! I’VE WAITED SO LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!! I’m not exactly 100% down on the whole DJ x Steve thing; I’ve said before that I think currently, the actor who plays Matt has more chemistry with DJ, but DJ x Steve was how it was SUPPOSED TO BE and I’m 2000% down for that. Also, idk how, but I think the Steve actor guy (Scott Weinger) somehow got cuter/more likable over the Season 3 break. He just seems to look a bit cuter and has more chemistry with DJ now lol (the kind he should have had at the beginning of Season 1).

The wedding fiasco... didn’t go down as ideally as I would have liked it to... it was the ultimate break-up — a wedding break-up — so it was, in a way, what you would have expected: really sad and harsh-letdowns all-around... idk how it could have turned out better (although there really is no excuse for how Steve and DJ treated their significant others ://). I am glad they didn’t drag out the whole DJ x Steve thing, though. And the Japanese-set episode was really fun!! Really enjoyed seeing all of the different, beautiful sights and experiences!! Wish we had gotten to see more of those :33 (The Japanese episode was definitely a bit shorter than I had expected.) Also loved how the episode was shot.

The appearance of the Japanese boy group Sexy Zone made me think of K-pop, and how much I love it, so I could relate. Sorry, guys, I just had to put that in there :PPP

KIMMY’S FASHION STYLE IS JUST SLAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!! PROPS TO HER STYLIST IDK HOW THEY DO IT BUT SHE MAKES WACKY AND CRAZY LOOK SO AWESOME AND GOOOOD!!!!!

That alligator scene was top-notch. Great acting/balancing!

Seriously, as much as I love DJ and Steve, I will be so, so, so, so, so sad to see John Brotherton (the guy who plays Matt) go if he no longer gets a larger presence on the show. I have really, really appreciated the character Matt and have really enjoyed watching John’s performance.

Max, thankfully, is getting a little less annoying to handle on-screen (might have to do with his lack of scenes with the dog, which perhaps makes him less juvenile???). Also not exactly into his whole “I’m a smart guy”-type persona, but it’s not done terribly or maybe I’m getting used to it, so I can live with it. Idk, I just know I laughed more at and enjoyed his scenes more than I used to (he’s my least favorite character on the show, and probably still is).

Not really a fan of Max’s relationship with CJ’s girl, either (seems a bit forced), but whatever. If they want to make them that horrendously (I am not exaggerating when I use that word) cute couple, then more power to them.

Kinda sad/disappointed we didn’t get to see Popko for 3B, but he was a jerk, so it’s all okay. Ramona didn’t exactly get any love interests this time around, which is fine. And I really, really hope she doesn’t get with that high school dance-team guy, ugh. The dance-rival thing-y is cute enough, though, and I can see it being pulled off in the future.

I also don’t know why Ramona would skip out on SAFSPA: seemed like it was definitely her dream/goal as portrayed thus far, but okay, maybe it wasn’t. I thought the lesson we got out of that whole parent/kid situation was really good/nice.

Jackson and Rocki are a thing, and I AM LIVING FOR IT!!!!!! I’m just a sucker for nerdy guy/cool girl relationships, tbh :p :p

Still don’t like how Gia (a.k.a. Rocky’s mom) is sometimes cast as the “villain,” but oh well. I guess that discrepancy comes from us wanting post-Full House to be absolutely, 100% “feel-good,” but Gia was inherently written as a “bad” character, so she’s destined to be somewhat of the “bad” girl, no matter how far we get into the Fuller House world. At least she was written as less “evil” this time around.

ADORED Fernando and Tommy; ADORED Fernando, Tommy, and the race-car storyline; and ADORED Fernando and Tommy vs. Jesse and Pamela moment.

Tommy’s cute rn and had some really, really adorable moments this time around (funny enough, I enjoy him with Cosmo more than I do Max + Cosmo). I just really hope he doesn’t end up becoming annoying and unlikable like Michelle was on the original show. I liked Michelle as a baby/younger, but I didn’t enjoy her when she got older/was a toddler.

Honestly, I’ve never been a big fan of the “let’s be cute with babies” on TV-thing, especially on the original show, but I really liked seeing the guys or anyone holding and playing with the babies this time around. For once, I was like, “You know what?? I get it. This totally warms and melts my heart into a million pieces.” Idk, something cute and maybe more maternal?? within me just spoke :’pp

I STILL don’t think Stephanie should have a baby, especially when she has no job, no stable relationship, etc. I also kind of don’t want anymore babies lololol (first Jesse and Becky with Pamela, and of course, there’s already Tommy); there’s already so many people I have to keep up with on this show haha. But if that’s where they want to go, then hey, I’m glad the surrogate’s Kimmy and not someone else.

Needed more Stephanie and Jimmy. Or just Jimmy tbh.

When I saw Vicky, I gasped out loud. Could NOT believe she’s back, even though I already knew she’d be back/had a strong feeling she would be (idk if it was announced).

I DO NOT want the older guys (aka Danny, Jesse, Becky, and Joey) back for the majority of next season. It just seems like whenever the older guys come back it’s more of a static “callback” than actual progression of the episode/overall storyline. I enjoyed a lot of this season because there was less of the older guys; vice versa, I much more enjoyed seeing the older cast members visit this time because there wasn’t so much of them around. So yeah, reaaaalllly hoping we don’t see that much more of the older cast during the next season (if they get a next season), since they all announced they’re going to move back to San Francisco.

On the other hand, I’d really like to see Danny and Vicky finally get a news/television show together and get married already, lol.

I do like it when the older and newer generations are well-integrated, though. The Danny, Jesse, Joey, Steve, and Fernando scene was really funny and one of my favorites. Fuller House is basically just one big fanfiction that isn’t perfectly written, but it’s pretty snappin’ close, and it’s all TRUE AND Y’ALL GET TO CLAIM IT AND CALL IT CANON!! :P :P

Like I said, glad the whole DJ x Steve thing didn’t get dragged out, but a little disappointed it wasn’t exactly, totally resolved... But it’s okay; I can live with it, for the most part. At least they’ve decided they really do love each other, got in a good kiss, and want to try to pursue a real relationship again (hopefully that doesn’t get messed up next season). Excited to see what happens when they’re finally together after the “6 months” are over huehue...

CAN YOU IMAGINE STEVE BEING A DAD AND HELPING JACKSON, MAX, AND THE REST OF THE BOYS OUT?!?!? LIKE MAYBE THEM COMING TO HIM FOR ADVICE ON “BOY/GUY STUFF” AND HIM ANSWERING ALL OF THEIR QUESTIONS AND/OR TRYING HIS BEST TO HELP THEM OH MY WORD IT WOULD BE SO CUTEEEEEEE!!!!

Happy that there wasn’t so much drama over “whether DJ would pick Matt or Steve”; I really didn’t want that plot point to drag on forever :V :V There was a lot more focus on the girls and family-interactions this time around, which I liked, even though it meant less of the adult pairings altogether.

TBH, there weren’t that many substantial main storylines or funny lines during this half of the season, imo (SHOUT OUT to that “ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM” EXCHANGE THOUGH; that scene was hilarious!!). A lot of it focused on everyday family interactions or Stephanie’s “surrogate/trying-to-get-a-baby” storyline (for those who are curious, I’d say the most we got this season was a solid on Stephanie’s storyline, and DJ and Steve confirming they will be getting together, but there really isn’t any further development toward their relationship. Also surprised they didn’t have a Christmas episode??) But tbh, I’m not mad. It was nice to not have to worry about any big romantic or whatever-else-possible drama, and just focus on seeing these characters interact with one another as a family. It was just ordinary, nice, and cheesy fun, and somehow kept me laughing and smiling like an idiot the entire time (which, in a way, is a nice nod to the original show’s purpose). This is really, really just a feel-good show. And you can see that reflected in the cast. You can just tell how comfortable everyone is with one another, and at times, you can see some real tears about to be shed during a couple of heart-felt scenes. It really is just about one big, ordinary, and optimistic family (although sometimes a bit too optimistic lol; I think they give themselves a bit of a dig about that at the end). So yeah, Fuller House is cheesy, ridiculous, lame, or whateverrrrrrrrr you want to call it, but I love it. And I enjoyed watching every episode of the entire second half of this season :’333

Please tell me they bring on Urkel as a special guest for Season 4.

Please tell me they will get a Season 4!!!! I KNOW THE SHOW SUCKS AND IS CHEESY AND LAME, BUT I AM LIVING FOR IT AND LOVING EVERY SECOND OF IT!!!!!

Yup, I think those are my thoughts for now. Might add/edit some more points in later if I can think of anything!! lol :P :P

#Fuller House #Full House #FullerHouseedit #FullHouseedit #DJ x Steve #text #fuller house spoilers

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remelitalia · 4 years

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How To Use Google Autocomplete for SEO

When you type in a keyword into the search box, you know how you get a list of keyword predictions?

This is called Google Autocomplete. Its purpose is to save users time. In fact, according to Google, it lowers typing time by 25%.

There’s no doubt that this feature makes our lives easier, especially when using Google Search on mobile devices.

Google Autocomplete is often overlooked by digital marketers, so taking the time to understand it can give you an edge over your competition.

What Is Google Autocomplete?

Google Autocomplete is a Google Search feature that provides search term predictions.

For example, if you type “what is the capital of” into the search bar, you will see something like this:

As you continue typing, predictions will adjust accordingly, until you see the search term you want to use.

You can then simply click on that option instead of typing it all out.

Google Autocomplete’s purpose is to help you save time by completing the search query that you had in mind.

Where Do Google Autocomplete Keywords Come From?

Here’s how Danny Sullivan, public liaison for Google search, explains it in his blog post on Google Autocomplete:

“How do we determine these predictions? We look at the real searches that happen on Google and show common and trending ones relevant to the characters that are entered and also related to your location and previous searches.”

Are Google Autocomplete Predictions Different in Various Countries?

Google Autocomplete predictions depend on which country you’re in.

For example, if you’re in Vilnius, Lithuania, and you type “best pizza in” into the search bar, you will see something like this:

All these locations (except for Milan) are either in Lithuania or near Poland, Latvia, and Estonia.

If you change locations, Google will “follow” you, and your autocomplete options will adjust accordingly.

Are Google Autocomplete Predictions Different for Various Languages?

Google Autocomplete predictions differ based on the language(s) you’re using to enter queries into Google.

For example, if you set your default language to English, you will be shown English predictions.

However, if you add other languages that you understand, say, German and French, you’ll also be shown predictions in those languages.

Does Your Search History Affect Google Autocomplete Predictions?

When you’re logged into your Google account, Google Autocomplete considers your search history when showing predictions.

When you see a prediction that has a “Remove” option next to it (it shows up as an “X” on the far right), know that this is a prediction based on your search history—it remembers that you searched for this, but recognizes it may have been a one-time search.

What Are the Google Autocomplete Guidelines?

Not all search queries are deemed appropriate to display as predictions.

These types of predictions go against Google Autocomplete policy:

Violence and gore

Sexually explicit, vulgar, or profane language, though medical and scientific terms are allowed

Anything related to hate speech or approval of hateful acts

Sensitive information or terms about named individuals

Dangerous predictions, meaning searches for things that could allow serious harm to people or animals to happen

Google admits that while they do their best to remove inappropriate predictions, they don’t always get it right, so they provide a way to report a prediction.

How Can You Use Google Autocomplete for SEO?

Before you start analyzing Google Autocomplete predictions for SEO, it’s essential to do these three things:

Log out of Google or use incognito mode to make sure your search history doesn’t influence the predictions you get.

Use a VPN if you are based in a different location than your target audience. For example, if you’re currently in Thailand, but you’re focusing on people in the United States, use a VPN to make it seem like you’re in the United States. You want to see predictions for the location where your target audience is.

Adjust your language settings to be similar to the language settings the people in your target audience use.

These parameters will help you see the predictions similar to those shown to your target audience.

Keyword Research

Google Autocomplete can be a useful keyword research tool.

Here’s how you can make the most out of it.

Type in a Keyword, Look at the Predictions

Simply type in a keyword that is relevant to your niche and look at the predictions. This research is a great way to discover valuable long-tail keywords. (Answer The Public is another free tool that does this for you.)

Then, use an SEO tool like Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, or Moz Pro to analyze those keywords and identify ones that are worth going after.

Go Through the Alphabet

What if you don’t like any of the predictions that you got?

Brett Farmiloe, the founder and CEO of Markitors, advises to type in your keyword, then just go through every letter of the alphabet to see what predictions come up.

He uses the keyword “equipment financing” as an example:

You can add the letter “a” to get a new set of predictions:

And then you can add the letter “b” to it:

…and that’s how you go through the entire alphabet.

“This is particularly good when you are really stuck, and you are really just in need of some inspiration,” says Brett.

Let Google Fill in the Blanks

Tom Dupuis from Online Media Masters suggests using the underscore character “_” in a phrase so that Google would complete it.

He uses the keyword “chicago _ photographer” as an example:

“Instead of having Google complete only the last part, this can show you a better selection of keywords depending on what type of phrase it is,” explains Tom.

Experiment With the Position of the Underscore

Dupuis also encourages people to experiment with the underscore’s position to see what new Google Autocomplete predictions show up.

For example, if you already tried “chicago _ photographer,” why not try “_ chicago photographer”?

Try Both Singular and Plural Form of the Keyword

Another valuable piece of advice from Dupuis is to try both the singular and plural forms of the same keyword because this leads to different Google Autocomplete predictions.

Take one more look at the predictions for the “chicago _ photographer” keyword:

And now look at the predictions for the “chicago _ photographers” keyword:

As you can see, the predictions are different, so try both forms of the same keyword.

Online Reputation Management

This tool is also useful for researching results about your branded terms, such as company, executive, or product names. Google Autocomplete can present a serious threat to your public image if an unflattering search term appears in the predictions using your brand terms

What can you do if you find yourself in that situation?

You have several options:

Address the Problem

If the unflattering prediction refers to something true, fix the problem.

The resolution won’t make the autocomplete issue go away immediately, but if the problem is solved, then over time, people will forget about it and stop searching for it. As the volume for that search term goes down, it ultimately will drop off the prediction list.

Work on Your Brand Image

Again, if the prediction is about an actual incident, you can help people forget whatever happened faster by giving them something positive to focus on.

For instance, you can feature loyal customers on your website, do a giveaway, or organize an event.

Even directly engaging with your customers on various social media platforms can go a long way towards creating a positive brand image.

Other Ways to Use Google Autocorrect Research

Google Autocorrect is a simple tool — but it can be quite powerful. From keyword research to maintaining your reputation, those suggestions can super-charge your digital marketing efforts.

In addition to finding popular keywords, there are several other areas where Google’s suggestions can be useful concerning SEO.

Uncover Key Words for Local SEO

Google Autocomplete can also provide suggestions for local SEO searches you might not have considered.

Say you are looking to rank the website of a coffee shop in Denver — would you just target “coffee shop Denver”? Or do people use neighborhoods, cross streets, or even zip codes?

Google Autocomplete will tell you what terms people search when looking for a coffee shop in Denver:

Looking at this example, what can we learn?

Denver Tech Center is a business and trading center in the southeast portion of Denver, Colorado. It’s a popular destination for business workers, so if your shop in that area, you’d want to include Denver Tech Center in your key terms list.

Denver Airport shows up on the list, so if the shop is near there, you’d want to target that term as well.

Google autocomplete shows several major landmarks (including the airport), so you will want to research if your shop is near any popular locations, such as a museum or shopping center.

There are also listings for Denver, NC, and Denver, PA, which means it’s probably a good idea to include the state.

It’s easy to assume you know what people will search — but it’s worth the few seconds it takes to check and see what inspiration Google autocomplete might offer.

Create a User-Friendly E-commerce Website

Ecommerce is big business — according to Oberlo, more than 2 billion people make online purchases annually. Despite many online shoppers, there’s also a stiff competition to get shoppers to your site.

Using autocomplete to find key terms to target is just one way to use the feature to create a better ecommerce store and create a user-friendly site.

Let’s say your e-commerce sells shoes, clothing, and accessories. Your goal is to make it as easy as possible to find what they want and make a purchase.

Google Autocomplete can help by:

Showing which categories are most popular: For example, if you search “women’s shoes” in Google, the search engine will also suggest: “women’s shoes near me,” “women’s shoes on sale,” and “women shoes size 12.” That means people often search for shoes on sale and by size, so those are categories you’ll want to include on your website.

Uncover popular brands: A search for “women’s tennis shoes” tells you which brands users search for most often, including Adidas and Nike. Those are brands your audience is likely to purchase.

Get ideas for your FAQ page: Searching “are women’s shoes…” provides a list of questions people often ask, including “are women’s shoe sizes the same as men’s?” and “are women’s shoes more narrow?” Those are questions people are asking, and providing those answers could help drive more traffic to your ecommerce site.

User experiences can impact search rankings, so making a user-friendly site should be a top priority.

Get Inspiration for Content Topics

Google Autocomplete features searches that people make regularly. Targeting any of those terms or phrases is going to drive traffic. (At least it will if your content is good!)

Here are a few suggestions for getting content inspiration:

Who, What, Where, How, Why: Use your primary key term with question words before or after (whichever makes more sense). See what Google suggests — you might uncover the bit of inspiration you need to write your next great piece of content.

Use action verbs: This can provide creative angles for your next blog post or ebook. Searching “content marketing is…” shows a list of quirky title ideas, including “Content marketing is like a first date.” Other ideas for action verbs include: are, will, show, be, build, and replace.

“Key Term and…”: Looking for related topics? Search your primary key term with “and” to see what associated terms searchers are looking for. For example, if you search “content marketing and…” Google suggests social media, lead generation, storytelling, and sales.

Content marketing is a critical part of SEO, so finding topics that users are searching for can improve the ranking for specific pages and a site.

Conclusion

Google Autocomplete isn’t just a neat user feature that allows you to complete a search term without typing it out.

You can also use it to discover valuable long-tail keywords that you wouldn’t have thought of yourself.

Of course, it can also wreak havoc on your life if an unflattering prediction appears next to your name or your company’s. It’s wise to keep an eye on what shows up on Google Autocomplete so that you can address a problem immediately.

Just don’t make a bad situation worse by using black hat techniques. It’s not worth it.

How do you use Google Autocomplete for SEO?

The post How To Use Google Autocomplete for SEO appeared first on Neil Patel.

Original content source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/google-autocomplete/ via https://neilpatel.com

See the original post, How To Use Google Autocomplete for SEO that is shared from https://imtrainingparadise.weebly.com/home/how-to-use-google-autocomplete-for-seo via https://imtrainingparadise.weebly.com/home

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youveneverbeenalone · 7 years

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Inktober for Writers/Fictober:

Day 7- Confusion (Darejones)

Wow, this one took on a life of its own (over 2000 words. what?!) but it was fun to bring Danny & Luke into the mix. More under the cut, because it seemed best to add one with it being so long. As always, prompt list here and links to previous days at the bottom. Could be read in relation to pretty much all of my other stuff, but particularly my Start of Something series. Feedback is great if you’re feeling generous. Thanks for reading!

Day 7- Confusion

Really, the whole thing is Matt’s fault. If he wouldn’t have gone and recklessly gotten himself hurt, it never would have come up, and she never would have said anything to the others.

A month or so ago, when she finally decided to give in to her urge to kiss him, they had a conversation and decided that she gets to set the pace and pick labels and all of that, because she is the more reserved of the two. She didn’t want to tell the others yet, with everything between them being fairly new and not official, and he agreed that he’d follow her lead and not say anything that would give them away. So far he hasn’t, but the bastard didn’t say anything about how he’d act. And now she’s regretting making such a vague agreement with a lawyer. She’ll have to rectify that for next time.

Things had started out just fine. She and Matt had showed up at Danny’s request to help take down a drug ring he and Luke had been tracking in Harlem. They’d all four worked together a number of times since taking down the Hand, and they’d all been getting along well. And so far, she was having a fine time keeping her and Murdock’s … whatever from the others. Until tonight.

But then Matt had to go and be “heroic” by needlessly throwing himself headlong into danger. He had taken on the entire upper floor of the warehouse by himself, which put him in the path of entirely too many bullets for her liking. Especially when Luke wasn’t very far behind.

She sighs in relief when they win the fight with relative ease and no major injuries sustained, but that does little to calm the fury raging in her chest. And when she finally gets a look at Matt in the office area, where Danny and Luke are looking for any more clues of other people involved in the drug ring, the fury in her chest ignites into white-hot rage. Because he is holding his side in a way that she doesn’t like at all. And when she looks at his face, he grimaces in a way that is so guilty that it tells her everything she needs to know.

She cocks her head sharply at him. “Are you fucking kidding me?!”

Her voice is acidic and loud, reverberating off of the hard surfaces of the room. It startles the other two, causing them to jump and spin toward her though Matt simply sighs and hangs his head.

She stomps across the few feet between them and fixes him with a withering stare as she surveys his body for injuries. She catches sight of a wound on his side and huffs.

“What the hell is this?” She digs her fingers into the wound, making him grunt. Some blood remains on her fingertips as she takes them away, and she shoves her hand into his chest for emphasis.

He presses his mouth into a flat line and hesitates a moment before answering her.

“Jess, it’s fine. Just a graze. One of them just happened to get me right at the seam of two plates. But I’m okay, I swear.”

She practically snarls her response to him.

“Goddammit, Murdock! Do you have a fucking death wish? If you are going to continue to work with us as a team, you’re gonna need to act like a team player and accept help from the other ridiculously capable people in this room. Otherwise, don’t pick up the phone when one of these idiots calls you next. Or I’ll take it upon myself to make you regret it.”

She turns on her heel and storms off, out of the room. As she goes, she barely catches Danny’s voice behind her.

“Uh… What’s that about?”

But then she’s far enough away that she can’t hear anything else. That’s better anyway, because it means she can go seethe in peace. And seethe she does.

Because he doesn’t seem to get it. He doesn’t understand his limits and is constantly taking on too much by himself. He doesn’t seem to see the world the way everyone else does, and feels as though he’s the only one who can save it, even when he’s not well-suited to the task compared to the rest of them. But worst of all, he doesn’t seem to understand why it bothers her so much. Why her pulse skyrockets when she loses sight of him during a fight, or why her heart drops through her stomach whenever she sees him hurt. As though he doesn’t understand how important he is to her, how much it hurts her to see him care so little for his own safety.

But, when she really thinks about it, maybe that’s partially her fault. Because she hasn’t, exactly, been able to tell him any of that. But with the way he sometimes looks at her, and the way he says her name when it’s just the two of them, she’s almost sure that he knows. And he has to know. How could he not?

Her thoughts continue to swirl as she body goes on autopilot and takes her to the rooftop. The slight chill to the night air helps to clear her head, and after a few deep, slow breaths, she’s calm enough to go back inside. But the room is almost empty when she returns. She enters to see Danny bent over a desk, looking through a ledger, but she doesn’t see the others.

“Hey, where’d those two idiots go?”

He looks up at the sound of her voice and gestures vaguely to the left. “Luke thought he saw an old first aid station on the first floor of the warehouse, from when it was still a factory. They went to see if there were any supplies left.”

She nods once and heaves a big sigh. “Good. That asshole is gonna get himself killed one of these days.”

Danny huffs a laugh. “I think that’s part of the reason Luke went with him. To give him some advice.”

She raises an eyebrow at this. “What do you mean?”

Danny shrugs. “Well, he just said he needed to give Matt a ‘talking to’ so he didn’t ‘ruin a good thing’. So I assumed he meant telling Matt to be less reckless and helping him learn to rely on the rest of us.”

Jessica closes her eyes in a grimace, cursing under her breath. She could kick herself for losing her temper in front of Luke and blowing her cover. Even if they hadn’t been together for all that long, he got plenty of experience at reading her, and because of that, she’s screwed. Because Luke knows, and she’s sure of it. Because Luke understands that the only reason she would get so upset about Matt getting hurt or putting himself in danger would be because she cares for him. Dammit, Jones. Nice going.

And if Luke knows, it’s only a matter of time until Danny knows. So she might as well rip the band-aid off and tell him now, while it’s just the two of them. Even if she’d rather stand in front of a firing squad.

She gives an exasperated sigh, and rolls her eyes as she walks over to sit on the edge of the table where Danny is looking over the ledger.

“He’s telling him to stop being reckless, alright. Because Luke knows I won’t stick around if he doesn’t quit.”

Danny’s face crumples into a frown. “But why would you need to leave? I’m sure we can convince Matt to change his tactics without you needing to leave the group, Jess.”

“I don’t mean leave the group, dumbass. I mean leave him. Because I don’t have room in my life for that kind of martyr bullshit.”

Danny jerks upright, and gives her the purest, most intense, most hilarious face of confusion that she’s ever seen. And she really wishes she had her camera, because the face that he’s making is a work of art, and she wants to be able to cherish it forever.

She lets a few beats pass, soaking in as much of the moment as she can. In the meantime, she hears Luke and Matt approaching from the opposite hallway. As Luke walks in and takes in the sight of them, he raises an eyebrow.

“Everything okay in here?”

A smirk curls her lips as she responds. “Yeah, fine. I just blew Danny’s mind by telling him that Matt and I are fucking.”

She turns to see a delicious flush rise on the little bit of cheek she can see beneath Matt’s mask. And at the same time, a light blush is forming on Danny’s cheeks as his eyebrows raise high enough to meet with his hairline.

Luke chuckles, low and soft, and shakes his head. “I think you broke him.”

She huffs a laugh as Danny shakes his head and finally finds his ability to speak. “No, I just… wasn’t expecting that.”

With a smirk, she walks over to lean an elbow on Matt’s shoulder. “Yeah, well- you and me both.”

They all share a collective chuckle at that before Luke joins Danny at the desk to continue scanning the ledger. In their relative privacy, Matt turns toward her, a look of concern on his face. He lowers his voice as he mutters an apology.

“I’m sorry. For worrying you and forcing you to tell everyone.”

She rolls her eyes, and sighs in annoyance. “You didn’t force to me do anything. Luke could tell and I knew it was only a matter of time before Danny knew too. But at least I got to watch his head explode as I told him.”

He chuckles and licks his lips. “Jess-”

But she cuts him off, because he’s not getting off that easy.

“You did, however, force me to worry about you for making a stupid and unnecessarily dangerous decision. And I’m getting tired of being mad at you for doing that.”

He frowns and hangs his head, voice low and rough. “I know. And I’m sorry. Really. I won’t do it again, I sw-”

“Don’t make a promise you can’t keep. That’ll just make things worse. But you better start making an effort to be less reckless.”

He pauses for a moment, then raises his head as if approximating her gaze. “I can do that.”

Good.” She slides her hands into her pockets, suddenly uncomfortable because she wants to kiss him but she doesn’t think she’s ready to do that in front of the others. But, luckily, a thought occurs to her, and she straightens her jacket and tilts her head.

“So, what were you two talking about?”

He shrugs and pursues his lips. “Nothing important.”

But by now, she can read him as well as he can read her. “Want to try that again, ‘cause I don’t buy it.”

With a sigh and a nervous chuckle, he puts his hands on his hips. “He just… gave me some advice. And helped me see things from a different perspective. That’s it.”

She turns to glance briefly at Luke and smirks. She could guess what he said. And later, maybe she will. But for now, she nods at him before Danny calls them over to strategize about the next person to target in the drug ring. And for the rest of the night, when she looks at Matt out of the corner of her eye, she has to actively try not to think about the reason that she got so mad in the first place. Because that’s a thought for another day.

For now, she’s happy to know that he might have finally come to appreciate her desire for him to remain safe and alive. And maybe, eventually, they can talk about the overwhelming feeling she gets in her chest when she’s afraid she’s going to lose him. But she’ll have put a name to that emotion first, and for now, she’s content to feign confusion. After all, ignorance is bliss.

Day 6

Day 8

#inktober for writers #fictober #a prompt a day #my fic #matt x jessica #matt murdock x jessica jones #mattjess #darejones #messica

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lgbt-ya · 7 years

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Dreadnought and Sovereign - the Nemesis series

Published by Diversion books on 26th July 2017

Genres: superheroes, trans, young adult, fantasy, LGBT

Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository | Barnes & Noble

Blurb: Danny Tozer has a problem: she just inherited the powers of Dreadnought, the world’s greatest superhero.Until Dreadnought fell out of the sky and died right in front of her, Danny was trying to keep people from finding out she’s transgender. But before he expired, Dreadnought passed his mantle to her, and those secondhand superpowers transformed Danny’s body into what she’s always thought it should be. Now there’s no hiding that she’s a girl.

It should be the happiest time of her life, but Danny’s first weeks finally living in a body that fits her are more difficult and complicated than she could have imagined. Between her father’s dangerous obsession with “curing” her girlhood, her best friend suddenly acting like he’s entitled to date her, and her fellow superheroes arguing over her place in their ranks, Danny feels like she’s in over her head.

She doesn’t have much time to adjust. Dreadnought’s murderer—a cyborg named Utopia—still haunts the streets of New Port City, threatening destruction. If Danny can’t sort through the confusion of coming out, master her powers, and stop Utopia in time, humanity faces extinction.

Interview with the author, April Daniels:

Hi, welcome to LGBT YA! Could you start by introducing us to the world of the Nemesis series?

Hello! I’d be glad to. The Nemesis series (Dreadnought, out in January, and Sovereign, out later this month) mainly takes place in New Port City, a metropolis that is described in a lot of my initial project notes as Not-Seattle. It’s a major American city in Northwest Washington on Puget Sound, but unlike its real-world counterpart it was the dominant population center on the west coast for much of the 20th century, which means it is both larger and more heavily urbanized than any real-world city in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle might exist as a small suburb, but it hasn’t appeared in the books.

Approximately seventy years prior to the start of the series, a new wave of increasingly powerful super-humans appeared in the world stage. Superheroes and vigilantes are a part of everyday life, albeit one that most people don’t have much experience with.

This is the environment our narrator, teenage trans girl Danielle Tozer finds herself growing up in, and she is something of a superhero fangirl. When Dreadnought, the greatest hero in the world, gets shot out of the sky in front of her and she inherits his powers, Danielle’s body is changed to be what she always wanted it to be, and suddenly there’s no hiding that she’s a girl. On top of that she quickly learns that the world of professional superheroes is far less welcoming than she had hoped. I tried to ride the line between bleak cynicism in the flawed institutional design of the superhero laws and the optimistic sincerity of some of the heroes trying to work within a broken system.

I wanted to create the feeling of a DC or Marvel style comic book universe with decades of history that shapes the present, but without the impenetrable continuity snarls and obscure back-story that characterize a lot of the output of the Big Two.

Who is your favourite character in your books? What advice would you give them?

Calamity is an absolute blast to write, but she should learn to duck. How much of Dreadnought is inspired by your own experiences (excluding the magic!)?

A lot of the stuff relating to being trans, especially the description of dysphoria, are taken from my own life. The emotional damage that results from abuse is from my experiences as well, although the format of the abuse I endured was considerably different than the one Danielle confronts in Dreadnought.

Dreadnought was your first published novel. What was the publication process like for you?

I went to school to become a writer, enrolling in one of the few undergrad creative writing programs in the country at UC Santa Cruz. I thought I’d be published shortly after graduating, but it took nine years and I was homeless for some of that. Don’t do this to get rich.

When I finally had a manuscript I knew I could sell, I started querying agents. Querytracker.net is where you want to start that process. It’s long and stressful and difficult but eventually an agent said yes and we got to move on to the next stressful wait, but this time I had an agent doing the hard part. That’s when things started to feel a little real.

I was lucky in that we got an offer in our first round of submissions. We landed with Diversion Books, a smaller publisher, and working together my editors and I put the manuscript into publishable shape.

Then there was a lot more waiting, and nerves and anxiety and then one day I was published and it sort of took me by surprise. At first it was sort of just another data point: okay, milestone passed, on to the next one. About 24 hours later I had a breakdown sob-laugh-cry fit for about an hour.

And that’s the publishing process.

What are some of your favourite diverse SFF books?

Right now, I’m really into Martha Wells’ work, which often deals with protagonists who clearly have some kind of significant trauma in their pasts. This isn’t a sort of character background that’s marketed as diversity, but in the sense of being literature that helps someone recognize themselves and feel a little more complete, a little better able to face the day, then her work certain falls under the umbrella of diverse SFF books. Books that I really, really needed this year.

Do you think diversity is a trend in publishing? What would you, as a trans reader, like to see more of in the future of publishing?

I think diversity has been a trend for a while, and we’ve been seeing the limits of that approach for some time now. The common pattern, historically, is that authors who did not have any personal experience with a particular kind of marginalization would read two or three books, decide they were an expert, and then write a book about The Trans Experience or whatever. This would only be annoying if it stopped there, but it can do real harm by perpetuating stereotypes and blocking marginalized authors out of the market. That’s where not thinking too deeply about diversity gets you; nothing actually changes, except the wallpaper.

Things are looking up, though. I don’t expect that this will never happen again, but I do think people are starting to move toward the understanding that if you want to read a book about a trans person, you should read a book by a trans person. The own-voices movement is one I’m a huge fan of. I think that’s probably the right strategy for where we are at the moment.

Obviously this doesn’t mean authors can’t write characters who are unlike themselves; it means authors shouldn’t claim to speak for others.

Nobody can speak for us as well as we can speak for ourselves, and that’s true no matter who you are, unless you’re in politics. Publishers should to worry less about diversity in books, and more about diversifying the people whose work gets accepted for publication and promoted. The solution will need to start at home, so this will mean diversifying their own staffs as well.

What advice would you give to authors who are planning to include a trans character in their next works?

It’s not too difficult, I don’t think. Don’t describe their bodies in a way that’s any more detailed or lurid than you would a cisgender body. Give them personality features aside from being trans. Don’t get cute with pronouns, don’t do a “surprising reveal”, and don’t kill them. Pretend we’re people and you can’t go too far wrong.

What are you writing next?

Can’t say, but past experience suggests people will like it.

Finally, what’s your favourite conspiracy theory?

The best conspiracy theory is the one that NASA killed JFK to keep him from telling Khrushchev about the alien castles on the Moon. The book you want to read is called Dark Mission by Richard Hoagland and it is the most batshit story you will ever hear.

From the Masonic ritual allegedly conducted shortly after the Eagle landed in the Sea of Tranquillity to the crank-a-licious numerology chapter, this book has it all, and also grainy photographs reputed to be of kilometres-tall crystal structures on the Moon. A perfect blend of kitschy Americana and paranoid hallucinations, this book has my highest recommendation for conspiracy fans of all sorts.

Thank you for asking.

April Daniels was born in a military hospital just before it was shut down for chronic malpractice—in hindsight, that should have been an omen. After various tribulations in childhood and the frankly disconcerting discovery that she was a girl, she graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in literature, and then promptly lost her job during the 2008 stock crash and recession. After she recovered from homelessness, she completed her first manuscript by scribbling a few sentences at a time between calls while working in the customer support department for a well-known video game console. This book was mainly porn, with a few swordfights included for variety. When April realized she couldn’t pitch her book without blushing, she decided to write something else. During yet another period of unemployment, she wrote Dreadnought.

She has a number of hobbies, most of which are boring and predictable. As nostalgia for the 1990s comes into its full bloom, she has become ever more convinced that she was born two or three years too late and missed all the good stuff the first time around. Having recently become a pagan, April is currently enduring the karmic backlash for all the times she was smug about her atheism.

Early in her writing practice, April set her narrative defaults to “lots of lesbians” and never looked back.

Follow April on tumblr at @msaprildaniels

#trans #dreadnought #sovereign #diversion books

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