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khtrinityftw · 4 years

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The Good, The Bad, and the Cards - A Brief Look Back at KH: Chain of Memories

It’s been 15 years since Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories was released, and while I adore this game, I want to look back and highlight 7 specific elements worthy of praise that still hold up to this day and 7 specific elements that aren’t so good and helped derail the KH franchise going forward, the “Franchise Original Sins” as it were. So without further ado, here they are:

Positive: The Card Map System - I really love the usage of cards when it comes to exploring each world. Through the different cards, you get to create your own customized dungeon to crawl through, and the incentive to battle in order to collect cards you need to progress further in the level is a good one.

Negative: The Card Battle System - Unfortunately, using cards in combat isn’t done nearly as smoothly, and they complicate battles way more than they should. This is especially bad in the original GBA version of the game, where the cards are hard to make out on the small screen and the tiny, cramped arenas that you fight in make it all too easy to get backed into a corner while trying to shuffle through or reload your deck. This game could’ve done better.

Positive: Sora’s Story - The main scenario of the game is superbly written by Daisuke Watanabe. Like I said in my video review, he took what he was given, which was virtually nothing, and turned it into something. Sora’s character has never been explored in as much depth as it is here, with all of his raw strengths and weaknesses on full display. His bond of friendship with Donald and Goofy, his strong romantic interest in Kairi, his tortured clashing with “Riku”, his animosity toward Organization XIII, and the interactions he has with Namine toward the end are all handled perfectly. It really reminds you of just why you love this guy.

Negative: Riku’s Story - Reverse/Rebirth, otoh, doesn’t hold up so well. It tries its best to give Riku good character development, but too much of it is focused on practically everyone but Riku, the lack of anything occurring in the Disney worlds means that the story feels too light on content, and the conclusion Riku’s character is ultimately brought to contradicts what was established in the original KH and only creates further problems down the line. What’s more, this was the start of forcing Riku down our throats as the deuteragonist of the series, which is a role he was never suited for and that he only gets worse in overtime. So yeah, not a fan.

Positive: Organization XIII - Primarily the members introduced in Sora’s story; Lexaeus and Zexion are more useful as plot devices than as characters. Not only are Axel, Larxene, Vexen and Marluxia all excellent villains in their own ways, but the villainous arc they are part of is the best-written one in any KH game. Watching them work off each other and against each other in this dark but easy to follow political intrigue plot is one of the game’s highest points.

Negative: The Riku Replica - Don’t get me wrong, this was a decent character with a decent arc, but the execution was way too over-the-top and overstayed its welcome. Between Sora and Riku’s story, you have to fight this asshole six times! That’s just ridiculous for any boss in any game! And then there’s what the whole “replica” concept he introduced was used for in subsequent games, since Nomura just loves taking the simple and making it convoluted.

Positive: The GBA Graphics - This is one of the best-looking GBA games ever, hands-down. The fact that full cutscenes with PS2-style graphics were actually able to fit on the cartridge is simply incredible, and Square should really be commended for pushing the system to its absolute limits.

Negative: Console Spread - COM marked the first time that a KH game was put on an entirely different console than before, being a GBA game released and set in between two PS2 games. This wasn’t too much of a problem back then, since COM was only needed to fully understand the purposefully confusing prologue of KH2 and it ended up getting a PS2 remake anyway. But after a while, the sheer amount of consoles that KH spin-off games that are necessary to understand KH3′s story with became ridiculous. At this point, the only way you can actually get the full KH series is to own a PS4. If you don’t, then you’re out of luck.

Positive: Disney Expansion - Because this game re-uses Disney characters and worlds from the original KH, Daisuke Watanabe got to expand on things that weren’t really delved into in that game. We get more on Aladdin’s character, more on Alice’s character, more on Peter Pan and Wendy’s characters, more on Belle and the Beast’s characters and relationship…and perhaps most notable of all, more on Jiminy Cricket’s character. The Disney worlds and characters that we saw in KH are all enriched by their memory-based appearances.

Negative: An Influx of OCs - The original KH only had four original characters: Sora, Riku, Kairi and Ansem (five if you are counting Xemnas from Final Mix). COM introduced nine new ones: Namine, Axel, Larxene, Marluxia, Vexen, Lexaeus, Zexion, Riku Replica, and DiZ. Again, this wasn’t a problem with the game back then, especially seeing as two-thirds of those characters get axed before the game is through. But it started the trend of Nomura introducing way too much OCs that come to overshadow all the Disney and FF characters. Worse still, he refuses to truly let any of them go, as all six of those dead characters end up coming back to life later on, as do the two who went on to perish in KH2. This results in an overly cluttered canvas by KH3, to the point where no FF characters can appear.

Positive: Set-up for KH2 - This game’s existence did for KH2 what the later Dream Drop Distance should have done for KH3 but didn’t: it effectively set the stage for the following game. It gave all of the necessary foreshadowing for things like Nobodies, the Organization’s true goal, Xemnas, Roxas, Twilight Town, Namine being Kairi’s Nobody, and DiZ being the true Ansem while the Ansem we knew being an impostor. It also removed five members of the Organization from the board, with the sixth slated for removal in KH2′s prologue, which left the villain roster at a much more manageable number for the game’s main scenario. COM truly feels like the middle installment of a trilogy: the shit that happens in it actually matters.

Negative: Too Much Rehash from KH1 - There is so much from the original KH that is on repeat in COM. Beyond the same Disney worlds and characters being re-used, the stories in those worlds and with those characters match the original KH’s beat for beat, except with themes of memory inserted in and all context to the larger narrative removed so that they feel like filler. Both recycling from the first KH and Disney world visits being filler were not so bad in this game, but when it kept happening throughout the rest of the series, players grew sick of it. Furthermore, beats from the first KH still transpire in the main storyline of the game: Namine is in a role like Kairi’s, the Riku Replica is in a role like Riku’s, Marlxuia is in a role like both Maleficent and Ansem while Ansem himself comes back for more fun darkness times in Riku’s story, and we get sequences of Sora being separated from Donald and Goofy (this time it’s flipped and he’s the one who turns on them), the trio making an “All for One, One for All” promise as they put their hands on one another, and Sora making a promise with Namine that has Kairi’s good luck charm at the center of it. It’s all a little too much familiarity.

Positive: Atmosphere - As much as this game rehashes the previous one, it has a markedly different tone. It’s darker, more foreboding, more eerie, more psychological and uncertain. The white walls of Castle Oblivion and the creepy music playing as you go through them floor by floor really helps to sell this, as does a lot of the dialogue, memory-based insights into the characters’ hearts, and twisted machinations of the villains. It makes COM, well, memorable.

Negative: Convoluted Writing - That’s right, it all starts here. The writing for the original KH was smart enough to not actively dwell on the more ponderous elements of its story, keeping the narrative to a simple presentation while leaving the deeper lore as stuff for the player to think and speculate about it on their own. But in this game, it starts getting pushed to the forefront. Memory and darkness are the central themes of Sora and Riku’s story respectively, and yet neither of them quite make sense the way they’re explored. Memory is repeatedly said to be an aspect of the heart, to the point where removing it altogether would shatter a person’s heart completely. Except that this is not only confusing to basic logic that says memory is an aspect of the mind, but it gets contradicted by the following game, KH2, where it states that Nobodies that have no hearts act upon the memories of when they had hearts. Then we have Namine’s powers and how it relates to memories, which is nebulously defined here and ends up ballooning to ludicrous godlike degrees in order to make certain plot turns happen in later games, and you end up retroactively questioning why she didn’t just fuck with the Organization’s memories and shatter them in order to escape captivity all by herself.

Meanwhile, darkness is completely rewritten so that it can be a good thing if Riku isn’t afraid of it and uses it for a good cause...except that this is literally what he did in the first KH and it corrupted him. Darkness was unambiguously bad and something that should not be used in that game, but now it’s being revamped just to make Riku into a special snowflake with uber-awesome darkness powers. Future games continue going back and forth on darkness on whether it’s good, bad or neutral, whether it’s a natural force that needs to co-exist with light or whether it’s the source of all evil in the universe. And I again must remind you that this is only the start of how convoluted the series gets with its stories! By KH3, the series has become an absolute clusterfuck where nothing really makes sense or amounts to anything. There’s no real depth anymore, just pretentious nonsense that Nomura confuses for depth.

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dcarevu · 5 years

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DCAU #17: The Cat and the Claw (Part 2)

“Oh, I've been going to the Paris Grand Prix for years... You know, one of these days I think I'll enter it.”

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. So how much did Part 2 of our first Catwoman story satisfy? Does it get a bowl of cream, or a spritz of water?

Episode: 16 Robin: No Writers: Sean Catherine Derek (story), Laren Bright (story), Jules Dennis (teleplay), Richard Mueller (teleplay) Director: Dick Sebast Animator: Akom Airdate: September 12, 1992 Grade: C

The first part of The Cat and the Claw had me interested, but certainly not blown away. It was a hit-and-miss episode with enough good ideas in it to allow me to enjoy it and wonder where the story was going to lead. I liked that it did give out a sense of substance, but honestly, I don’t think that the substance held steady between the credits of part 1 and the first scene of part 2. Part 2 does continue the story, but sucks out a lot of what made part 1 worth watching, and if I had never even watched part 2, I would not have been missing a damn thing aside from the realization that Catwoman ends up okay and the day is saved. But I think it was safe to assume that anyway, you know what I mean? Part 2 left very little impact on me, positive or negative, and for that reason I’m labeling it a C. Ironically, this is probably the episode with the highest stakes so far, right? With a conclusion that has a pretty epic scale. But it’s just not handled in an epic way. The concept is there, but the execution is lacking. Even if a studio like TMS or Spectrum were the ones to take care of the visuals, it still would have given the same feelings. The team knew what they were doing, giving it to Akom. Yeah, Akom’s work here is pretty bad, and Part 1 is more visually appealing in addition to being simply more entertaining. Even though it didn’t look the best, I could appreciate Sunrise’s unique style. When Sunrise failed, it still made for something that you don’t see everyday. Akom’s work was just plain old underwhelming. This is especially noticeable during the climax with their work on the fire (yeah, fire count, by the way).

That fire looks like something from a Hanna-Barbera cartoon, guys. I’d expect to see similar on Scooby Doo. You don’t get a sense of the danger or the heat coming off that thing, and so you don’t get a sense of worry as Batman tries to get the hell out of there. Another very Akom scene is the car chase that happens when Bruce and Selena are together, out of costume. It looked laughably lame. That scene could have been so exciting and dynamic! But, at the same time, like I said, I understand why Atom was chosen. Even if the animation got me a little bit more invested, it still would have felt empty because of a lack of why I should be invested. It’s like watching a Transformers movie. Just brainless action. And why waste money on sending this episode to a better studio when a much better episode could be? The only real Akom-caused highlight was the train stuff. That looked pretty cool, likely because even though the train was moving, it still provided a static, stable platform for our characters, so it required less technical stuff to animate. All of the other cool stuff to look at was definitely in the storyboards. I liked the bit where the Bat Plane flew across the moon, kinda emulating that iconic moment in the 1989 film. And my favorite visual moment was when Selena’s secretary put on her glasses, and we see it via a POV shot. But then once things are crystal clear, a second later she walks into the shot, seamlessly transitioning it from POV to third person.

More things like that could have probably almost created a B-level of enjoyment, admittedly. This part is also campier than part 1, with a lot more cheesiness thrown in, and that is to the episode’s detriment. The idea of Red Claw’s group of terrorists stealing a vial of disease from a military-guarded train is a really cool one, and I’ll take that over another standard police chase any day (until those chases start getting more god damn interesting). But something about watching them ride their little vehicle, leap on top of the train like ninjas, walking around on the train effortlessly, and dismantling it was pretty hard to take seriously.

(This thug was in the last episode too, and he’s got this constant, static grimace. Makes me chuckle.)

Seeing Batman glide in with the bat-glider for the first time was neat, but then again, we get flown into a corn field. This is some of the cheesiest dialogue/line delivery on the show so far, even dwarfing the stuff from I’ve Got Batman In My Basement. No easy task! It’s like the writers here were aware of the serious tone, and trying, but still could only make a guy dressed like a bat so rational. I especially cringed at Batman’s shock that Red Claw was a woman. Having Catwoman be an admirable, strong character is doing feminism in a cartoon right. But this episode was too on-the-nose about it. Another instance is when Catwoman and Batman are tied up. Catwoman says something about their savior being a “woman’s touch”, and then she claws them out. Outside of the show trying to push a feminist message, why, in universe, would she say that exactly? Batman was not being sexist toward her. Red Claw certainly wasn’t. Red Claw is a woman for crying out loud! And how are her claws particularly feminine, anyway? Are they supposed to represent those stereotypical secretary nails? C’moooooon. Lame, lame, lame. I’m a feminist, and I’m all about cartoons showing that women are every bit as capable as men are. But if this is how they do it, then just don’t even try. And to add insult to injury, after we get Catwoman saving both of them, we end with her getting the shit beaten out of by Red Claw in a fight, merely because she does absolutely nothing to defend herself. Catwoman is an athletic cat-burglar who, in the previous episode, managed to give Batman a challenge. And now she’s just letting Red Claw kick her over and over in a way she easily should’ve seen coming. What a…confusing approach.

While the superhero stuff was seriously below par, it’s slightly made up for because of how it explores Bruce and Selena’s relationship a little bit more. I liked seeing them on another attempted date, and so did Char! They’re really charming together, and it was incredibly satisfying to see Selena begin to enjoy his company. But as things start to go right for him, things also start to somehow go more wrong, and he discovers that Selena is Catwoman. To me, it’s believable that he wouldn’t have made that assumption right away. First of all, what are the odds. Second of all, a much different environment, mindset, and appearance. Plus, it’s not as though he was seeing Catwoman every single night, right? Most of his interactions of her was as normal human beings dressed in normal human clothes. Bruce mentions that he hasn’t felt a fondness of a woman like this in a very long time (Mask of the Phantasm entered my head for a second), and it feels so genuine. Somehow over these 16 episode and pilot, with a pretty small amount of spoken words for a main character, we’ve gotten to know Bruce…or…Batman…quite well. We can tell when he’s being phony, we can tell when he’s being sincere. This was sincere. And because his Bruce persona is such an exaggeration of his decency, spotting cracks in that just makes you feel something, man, especially when it shows us that hint of affection. This can be compared to Bruce Wayne talking to Harvey Dent about how proud he was that Harvey was seeking psychological help (Two-Face Part 1). These moments show us that Batman still has this warmth to him. It may be like a candle in the wind, fighting to stay alive, but every now and then there is a spritz of gasoline. For a second, Bruce Wayne and Batman are one. But y’know what? This is all well and good, however it makes me wish that the Red Claw stuff was absent. In part 1, it was different. I wanted to know where it was going. But without decent payoff, there is no reason for the terrorist story element at all. This would have been so much stronger if it were a half hour dedicated to building up the relationship of two troubled adults, fighting for what they believe in, succumbing to a certain level of darkness, all while not being able to find common ground. Paul Dini could have done it. Alan Burnett could have done it. Y’know what, Tom Ruegger probably could have done it. But no. We got writers who felt the need to add in that unnecessary, goofy superhero stuff that was not meant to be the focus of Batman the Animated Series when it didn’t need to be. But if there is one major strength of the superhero stuff, it’s the very ending. Because despite what Batman and Catwoman just went through together, saving countless people, Batman still needed to put her in handcuffs (and not in the way he probably wishes he could).

(Blurry screenshot, apologies...by the way, are bat-handcuffs really necessary, Batman?)

That was paaaaaainful, but the right kind of painful (again, not in the way Batman probably wishes it was). Having Batman state that he didn't want her taken away like a common criminal was a great addition, and I really want to know which writer came up with that line. Whoever did got what makes Batman and Catwoman so interesting. If only they could have gotten a crack at this episode on their own. As some final words, despite me giving this episode a C, I went back and forth between a C or a D many times. I’m still not entirely sure which is my true grade. It depended on what I was writing about. When I was complaining, I was sure that I should make it a D. But as I was talking about some of the more positive elements, I thought maybe a C was more appropriate. Bottom line, I’m not sure. I think a C is the most fair, though, because aside from just being a middle of the road grade, it could also represent me being completely confused on my opinion. Is that understandable?

(Here we clearly see that the section of the train that was bombed is still very much intact)

(Batman was very much on model throughout the episode, particularly in the face)

Fire count: 8 Char’s grade: B

Next time: See No Evil Full episode list here!

#batman tas #dcau #dc animated universe #batman the animated series #the cat and the claw #the cat and the claw part 2 #part 2 #catwoman #red claw #batman

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meditatemoremedicateless · 6 years

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Maxine Caulfield: Old Friends (1/2)

Fandom: Life is Strange Ship: Max Caulfield / Max Caulfield Tags: selfcest, involuntary drug use, inspired by Undertale, post-Life in Snippets Words: 5,464

Summary: In a new timeline without Sean Prescott, Max Caulfield remains in Seattle, doing her best to become acquainted with friends she's never met and handling Victoria's insufferable family. On the night following an art show at the Chase Space, Mark Jefferson takes two bullets to the chest in his hotel room. On the elevator ride down from his room, Max meets the girl from the mirror, another Max from an abandoned timeline. They chat like old friends and share a smoke.

Unfortunately, the Other Max isn't here for a friendly chat.

Dedicated to the “Super Maxine” fan art by @zai-fanart

Playlist: Transistor Original Soundtrack, “Vanishing Point” Transistor Original Soundtrack, “We All Become” Transistor Original Soundtrack, “Old Friends” Transistor Original Soundtrack, “Paper Boats”

Jefferson was still unconscious and Max was getting impatient. She'd never tried speeding time up before, but she was seriously starting to consider it. Whatever Jefferson had tried to dose her with took forever to wear off - which was probably the point, she supposed. Still, she'd spent the better part of the night sitting on his hotel bed watching cartoons and anime, wishing she'd brought snacks. It was only her third murder and she still hadn't quite gotten used to the prep work.

Once he started to make small movements, trying to open his eyes or shifting in his restraints, Max gagged him with his tie.

Eventually, he was conscious enough to struggle and groan, making it hard to concentrate on the TV. Once he managed to maintain this for a few minutes, Max figured it was time they had a talk. She retrieved her gun from the night stand, cocked it, and leveled it at Jefferson's face.

His eyes focused as well as they could on the barrel so close, a little cross-eyed. He stopped his groaning, instead just breathing heavily into his gag, small amounts of drool accumulating on his chin. There was something about this image that left him so distant from the monster Max remembered that, for a few seconds, she convinced herself this wasn't even the same man.

Then again, he had dosed her drink. Maybe it didn't matter. The world could use one less rapist.

"If you try to scream, call for help - anything - you'll choke on your own blood. Do you understand?"

For a second there was only the sound of his breathing, but then the message made it through, and he nodded vigorously.

"Good."

Max pulled the tie from around his face and tossed it on the bed. She'd expected him to try something stupid - it's not like the chair was a perfect place to tape him up, after all - but he remained as cool as could be expected, only working his jaw up and down a little to adjust.

Max pulled out the desk chair and sat it across from him, sitting down and relaxing, the gun never deviating from his torso. She hated sitting with her ankles neatly crossed, but she wasn't left with a lot of options thanks to the black cocktail dress Victoria had picked out for her last night.

When she said nothing, he figured it was his turn. "Max," he said after a moment of struggling to remember, "what - are you doing? What did-"

"You dosed my scotch and I returned the favor. The duct tape was in your bag," Max said, contempt written all over her face. "You don't really change, do you?"

Jefferson blinked a few times, slowly, concentration clearly a struggle. "How did you-? Why do you have a gun?"

She tilted her head, as if the question were curious to her. "Because I want to talk to you, Mr. Jefferson. Or should I call you Mark?"

"I-"

"But I don't actually want you to talk back." She liked the way he shut up when she tilted the gun up towards his face, even if it wasn't any more dangerous than what she was already doing. Self preservation was so predictable when you were just a person. "Sorry, should have clarified that."

Jefferson wet his lips and took a deep breath, but said nothing.

"Perfect," Max smiled in response. "You're learning."

She said, "I just thought, before things go any further, you should know why this is happening to you."

After a pause, he replied, "Okay," just above a whisper.

Max nodded, taking a moment to collect her thoughts. "Where to begin . . . where to begin."

"Hm. Okay, I know. I'll tell you a story. Once there was a famous fashion photographer named Mark Jefferson who liked taking pictures in black and white. His style was known all over the art world for capturing the dynamics of power - between state and citizen, between military and civilian, between men and women, between light and dark. But there was another element to his style that, for some reason, nobody talked about. Mark Jefferson loved to make himself a part of his photos. Not including himself in the frame, no, no," Max laughed, bitterness creeping into her voice. She shook her head. "No, of course not, then he'd be just like some millenial tween taking a selfie, and he'd despise that."

"Mark Jefferson liked to watch innocence die. And there was nothing he found so innocent or so beautiful as young girls at the edge of adulthood, blossoming despite the cynicism of the world. He was so proud of that, too, of his eye to find these girls, these special girls . . ." Max sighed, a far-off look in her eye.

Mark took the break in the monologue to start, "Now, Max, I don't know where you're getting any of this absurd fantasy, but I can promise you I'm no . . . pedophile," he grimaced with genuine disgust at the word, "if that's what you think I am. I'm just a photographer. And you're eighteen and-"

Max held a finger up to her lips and gave a 'Shh.' He quickly trailed off, and Max laughed in delight.

"You're right! I forgot that that was so important to you. 'I'm not a pedophile . I'm not a rapist. I'm an artist.'" This was clearly hilarious to her, but his face only grew more anxious.

When she recovered, Max continued, "You're right, I'm so sorry. You like to drug them, watch them wake up slowly so you can see the light, that beautiful innocence, die in their eyes, suck it away like some sort of vampire and then spit them back out. You'd destroy a girl, but you wouldn't like, fuck them." Max pondered that for a second. "Well, except when you do. You're kind of all-around nasty."

There was a long break while Mark looked her over carefully, as if he couldn't believe this was the same giggling, moronic girl he'd brought back to his room the night before. The stuttering admiration and heavy makeup had all been washed away and he couldn't seem to believe his eyes. Was it because she knew? Or was it because he'd never thought her, in particular, capable of this?

His voice lost its gentleness, becoming flat and rough. "You know the website, I take it?"

Max had never had the edge to actually take a look at it until last night, when she was trying to fill the hours until he woke up. It was horrifying, somehow worse than the morning she'd found the bunker underneath the Prescott barn despite the fact that she didn't recognize any of the girls from the photographs. There were just so many. So many beautiful, innocent young girls who'd probably had careers, bright futures, trusting relationships snatched away in the blink of a camera. It's not that she knew the psychological weight of it, really - she hadn't stuck around long enough to ask Kate what it had been like - but she still remembered the poison that filled her body and her heart when she was dosed the first time, and she couldn't imagine the hours underneath his lens that these girls had had to endure.

Max pushed out a small smile to keep her confidence. "I've taken a look, yeah."

His eyes narrowed, then relaxed - his whole face relaxed and his tone softened again. "Then what do you want? Is this all some game for millions in blackmail that I don't have?"

Max's smile was real this time. "Oh, nah." She stood up from the chair, just so she could look down at him. "I just wanted to watch the light die from your eyes."

He registered her meaning as she raised the gun at his chest. "Now, Max-"

He was never able to finish his sentence thanks to two bullets embedding themselves somewhere inside his rib cage. Blood welled up in his mouth as his lungs filled, drowning the already-dead man.

"Hold the elevator, please."

A hand shot out of the elevator to keep it open, and Max slipped inside quickly, hitting Lobby and then darting to the opposite corner. She pulled herself up on the hand railing, doing her best not to look at the other passenger in the elevator.

"It wouldn't kill you to say 'hello.'"

A shiver ran up Max's spine as she heard the voice, and she looked up. At first, the face she saw looked just like any other stranger - a medium-height brunette with shoulder-length hair, a plaid shirt that immediately pinged Max's gaydar tied around their waist. But she had an eye for images, and it only took her a second to recognize them as familiar, if flipped from how she normally saw them.

It was her. Herself. Max. Except not behind the mirror anymore .

"Max?" The word had no volume behind it, but they seemed to get it anyway, and their face split into a grin.

"Surprised to see me?" the other Max asked, but Max had already flung herself across the elevator, and they pulled her into a tight hug. The other Max was taller, and, she realized, older than she remembered. Time had not passed for them equally. Apparently, Max still had some growing to do.

"God, Max. I haven't seen you since the Lighthouse." Max held on a bit longer, then took a step back, looking them over again. Now that she had a chance to look, everything about this Max seemed a little aged up, clearly on the other side of twenty. "That was . . . months ago. But it looks like it's been longer for you."

"Hah, yeah," they said, lifting their hand up and rotating it slowly, as if they could see the age on it. "A little bit. Plus, I go by Maxine now."

Max swiped her eyebrow to show her relief. "Whew. I go exclusively by 'Max' now so that works out. You would not believe how confusing it is trying to explain running into you."

Maxine quirked their eyebrows. "No kidding, sheesh."

The elevator reached the lobby and the doors slid open. Max hadn't realized that Maxine hadn't chosen a floor, they'd just arrived on the floor Max was on. Which was . . . pretty weird.

As they left the elevator, Max asked, "So what are you doing here?"

They both seemed to be making their way towards the lobby doors, which further confused Max, even if it was convenient.

Maxine shrugged, gesturing at the revolving door. "Why don't we take a walk and we can catch up some? Do you smoke?"

Max sighed in relief. "Oh thank god. This dress didn't have anywhere to put them and I've been in it all night. Please tell me you have-"

Maxine held up a white lighter before Max could even finish the question, and smirked. Then they fished in their jeans pockets until they found their cigarettes, offering one to Max first before sticking one in their mouth as they left the hotel.

"Good choice on the dress, by the way," Maxine said as they gave Max a once-over. "You look hot."

Max gave them a playful shove, but it only made them laugh. They paused just outside the hotel to light their cigarettes, then turned left and just started walking.

Max was a little pink and didn't want to think about how weird that was. "Thanks," she finally replied. "Victoria picked it out for me."

Maxine quirked their eyebrows in surprise again, but said nothing for the time.

After the awkwardness was given a little time to fade, Maxine suddenly said, "So, you got Mark. Nice."

Max found a way to choke on her smoke despite the fact that this body had apparently been smoking for years. Maxine shot her a look of amusement but didn't add anything more until she was done.

Then Max half-yelled, "What the fuck?!"

Maxine laughed, then replied, "What? I was on my way to do it myself - I didn't expect to find you needing an escape elevator."

Max considered shock or confusion. But, honestly, somewhere amidst the whole ascending to godhood or whatever she had kind of gotten over the peculiarities of time travel and interdimensional overlap. This stuff happens. You just kind of have to roll with it.

So she just rolled her eyes and groaned. "God. You should have shown up hours ago so I'd have something to do."

"Wow, in front of Mark?" Maxine took a drag from her cigarette, exhaling into the air above them. "That's a bold move."

Now Max was just flustered. Why in the world were they hitting on themself? Why was she into it? And on a scale of one to ten how badly did she need to kink shame her alter ego?

"So," Max said, "What brings you here?"

"Oh, you know. I had some time to kill."

They both snickered.

A little further down the sidewalk, Maxine spotted a Starbucks. "Come on," they said, tapping Max on the small of her back and nodding towards it. "I'll buy you a coffee and we can catch up."

They both had similar taste in coffee, except somehow Maxine had an even greater love of sugar and Max was left in awe of their power. Max had been anticipating creeping into her room in these early hours, unable to sleep from the images of Mark's body. But she wasn't slinking about, and even the thought of Mark's death didn't induce any guilt. Killing Sean had been so much harder, and she wasn't even the person who pulled the trigger that time.

"I like your necklace," Max said, tilting her coffee at Maxine. "Three bullets? What's up with that?"

"Oh, this?" Maxine lifted it up between them. The bullet casings were smooth and bright, pretty even - but the style just seemed so not her .

Maxine laughed and said, "Yeah, Chloe gave this to me after I saved her ass a few times. She thought it was three and it was all symbolic and shit, but it was more like . . ." they paused, looking up at the ceiling to count.

They mouthed the numbers as they counted, which Max had never realized was so adorable until just now. She had always been afraid that mean kids from middle school were right and all her little quirks were just spazzy. But, no, Victoria was right. Max(ine) was cute as a button.

Just as Max was beginning to lose herself to focusing on Maxine's tiniest movements, Maxine finished and said, "Nine, I guess. I mean she only actually died four times, but after a while I found it best to stop telling her. I think it made her a little depressed."

That sobered up the mood real quick. Max's coffee was still a little bit bitter, and she wondered if she should have added more sugar.

Something finally clicked. "So," Max said as she put her coffee back down on the table, "you're not the Max I met before. She gave up her powers - and Chloe. You didn't." The realization that Max had encountered the third duplicate of herself left her uneasy. Every time she met another one, she became increasingly nervous that the scene Sean had shown her was true - that hopping across timelines left a Max behind to clean up her mess. She had turned time back as little as she possibly could just in case, but she still wanted to believe that she had nothing to do with the fact that there were so many other Maxes running around.

Maxine shrugged and gave a sad smile. "Yeah, sorry. You just seemed excited and I wasn't sure how to . . . tell you."

"It's okay."

It didn't really feel okay, to be honest, but that wasn't Maxine's fault. The Max behind the mirror was gone for good. It was just depressing to hold onto hope that they'd see each other again.

Maxine cleared their throat. "So, tell me about your world! How'd you end up knowing Jefferson and staying in Seattle?"

"Hmm." How to tell the story?

Occasionally people would glance over at them, as suspicious as the barista who had taken their order had been. The two of them were clearly identical except for the age gap, even if their clothes and hair were completely different. Maybe if Max was still wearing her makeup they would just pass as strangely similar sisters, but without it they even had the same freckles, and people noticed. Still, no one comes to the conclusion hat time travel is involved. How could they?

"So. Short version? I transfered to Blackwell, joined the Vortex Club, dated Victoria, met Chloe again, Victoria got super powers, Frank got super powers, we found a secret bunker underneath the Prescott's barn, Victoria figured out it was Jefferson's, Kate took a call from Sean, Rachel possessed me for a bit, then Nathan killed his dad."

Maxine was having a total face journey as Max rattled off the year's past events - but that was just September and October, after all.

"Then I realized I could control time, re-did the week, learned everything I could about Sean and Jefferson, sent Frank way back in time, ended up in this timeline. Victoria and I are still dating, but we're here. Nathan isn't kidnapping or murdering everyone and is like, a prodigy I guess. Plus Rachel visits us sometimes and I think she has a thing for Nathan. Or me. Or both. I can't really tell - she's got powers and it makes everything complicated." Max sipped her coffee again, trying to remember any other good details. "Oh, and Kate and Chloe have like, a thing. Like they fight crime or something. I don't really get it but apparently Arcadia Bay really sucks now."

"Hm." Maxine drummed their fingers on the table for a second as they mulled that all over. Finally, they said, "So, Victoria's your girlfriend? And she picks out your clothes?"

Max stuck out her tongue at Maxine's mocking tone. "Only the nice ones," she replied.

Maxine's face told her that didn't make things better. Max huffed. They both took sips of their coffee.

"But, yeah. Victoria's my girlfriend. But things are kind of . . . weird now."

Maxine was leaning against their hand lazily now. "How so?"

Max shrugged. "I dunno," she lied. Then, realizing there was basically nothing to lose in explaining, she said, "Well, okay, so. There was an intermediate timeline between this one and when Victoria and I started dating. And in that timeline, I was a really bad partner, basically, and she kind of fell for somebody else. It kind of . . . well, it sucked. She should have just broken up with me. I still don't get why she didn't."

God. Now it was all just rushing out. It was nice to be honest with someone, but it just felt like garbage. "I'm . . . still not a very good partner. I miss the old her too much, I think."

Taking a breath and swallowing after saying that felt like taking a golf ball-sized pill. It had been her choice to let the old Victoria go for Chloe's sake. And she'd been only too eager to erase the Victoria who fell out of love with her. Max had chosen Victoria's interests second to her own in the most total way there was. And, given the choice, she would do it all again.

She wanted to love Victoria, but it was going to take time. And maybe she wasn't owed that.

Maxine nodded somberly. "Yeah I . . . get that, dude. I'm sorry."

There was a brief pause, and then Maxine asked, "Out of curiosity, who did Vic fall for? I wouldn't have expected that."

"Kate Marsh."

Maxine just blinked, dumbfounded. Their lips curled down in disgust. "Well that's . . . repulsive. Yikes."

Max frowned. "Your Victoria was just a bitch, I take it?"

"You could say that," Maxine sneered. Once Max gave them an expectant glance, then continued, "In my first timeline, Vic and her friends basically baited Kate into suicide. And then she died, and Victoria . . ." Maxine's eyes started to stare past her, somewhere in the past. "Well, she told me to get over it. And I broke my hand on her face." Maxine shrugged, then added casually, "I mean, I would have undid it, except it was my rewind hand so . . . she got stuck with a bruise and I got stuck with two broken fingers."

Max nodded slowly once the story was concluded. "Yeah I . . . I heard about that. Kate's suicide, I mean. I'm sorry." Beat. "Were the two of you friends?"

The way Maxine chuckled only left Max feeling more ill at ease. "Yeah," they said, "we were close."

Max could sense there was more to the story, but though it must have been years ago for them, it didn't seem right to press Maxine for details. And, honestly, Max could do without further confirmation that Victoria might, at heart, just be a horrible person - or so literally everyone from different timelines told her.

Max reached over the table and placed her hand over Maxine's. "I'm sorry," she said. "It seems like you've been through a lot."

Maxine only nodded, the same distant look in their eye.

Max said, "My Kate was invulnerable, actually. That was her power. She took down Jefferson and saved me and Victoria all by herself."

That actually brought shock, then a smile to Maxine's face. "No shit?" The smile turned into a grin. "She's a tough fucking kid. I've seen plenty of timelines where things are better, but my first . . . well, it sticks with me." Maxine turned their hand around slowly, taking Max's hand and stroking the back side of it with her thumb. It was extremely affectionate - but, for some reason, that didn't bother Max much. She found herself easy to trust.

Maxine added, "It seems like it's the same for you, too, huh? The first is always more . . ." they pinched their face as they thought.

"Real?" Max offered.

Maxine nodded. "Yeah."

They were both about done with their coffee and the hand-holding was going on long enough that it was getting a little weird, especially over the table, but Max didn't feel much like pulling away. It wasn't exactly often that she got to experience intimacy with someone who could understand her. Maybe it was better to just wait in the moment, pretend that time was standing still (even if she wasn't making it right now).

And then the moment was over, Max's fingers dragging along the table after slipping from Maxine's touch.

Maxine brushed some of their hair behind her ear before folding their hands in their lap. Their expression was bashful, not making eye contact - much more like the Max behind the mirror had been.

"I'm going to the bathroom real quick," they said, and got up.

Max had finished her coffee by the time Maxine got back out, and the two of them decided it was best to get far away from Jefferson’s body. Fortunately, buses are frequent in Seattle, and there was a bus stop next to the hotel they’d come from. They’d prefer not to go back there at all, but sometimes you have to go back to get where you want to go.

At the bus stop, Max had an idea. “Oh hey,” she said, “do you have your phone on you? I could show you what Kate and Chloe are up to.”

Maxine tilted their head curiously, but reached into their pocket without further questions. Once they handed Max their phone, she made her way to Youtube and tried to recall what the video had been called.

After a minute, she found it, and tilted the screen so they could both take a look. Maxine leaned over, using their body to shade the screen.

The video was very dark and low-quality, and at first it was difficult to make anything out, but once the picture sharpened, they could see a park at night, two girls in the distance, and a large silhouette only visible because of how it disrupted the trees in the background.

“I don’t know what the fuck is going on,” the person holding the camera said. “There’s these girls, and this big . . . I don’t know what the - OH SHIT.” The narrator cried out as the monstrous silhouette swiped. It didn’t look like it had a body that could possibly make contact with flesh, but one of the girls was lifted from her feet and landed much closer to the camera. She did not move as the narrator said, “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” over and over.

“KATE!” the other girl yelled.

Unfortunately, the camera suddenly fell back as the narrator retreated and tripped, the ‘oh fuck’s continuing all the while.

“Is that . . . Chloe?” Maxine asked, turning towards Max.

Max just held a finger to her mouth to ‘sh’, and indicated back at the video.

The video just shook as the narrator tried to get back to their feet, but suddenly froze as a horrible shrieking overwhelmed the audio. After a second, they gave up and sat still on the grass, holding the shaky phone camera up to catch what was happening.

A circle of flame had emerged around the shadow, and now its form was much clearer. It looked like the upper body of a wolf-like creature, with long hands and a muzzle. Its mouth was open as screamed, and inside its mouth was a bright fire. It was wrong, unnatural, impossible, belonging to the world of bad Hollywood films and an increasing number of derivative HBO shows. And it was sinking into the Earth like cartoon quicksand, the flames revealing the tall girl standing just out of reach of the monster’s flailing claws.

“Does Chloe have a sword?” Maxine asked.

Max grinned but said nothing. The best part was coming up.

The narrator was sputtering nonsense mostly in the form of ‘fuck’ attached to a few other choice phrases, but was staying still enough to get both girls in the frame. Just as the monster’s hands were disappearing inside the ring of fire, the girl on the ground shuttered, prompting another startled yelp from behind the camera. A second later, the girl slowly picked herself up and dusted herself off, just in time to watch the creature disappear entirely from view, and the ring of fire to vanish after it.

Once the girl was on her feet, she turned, looking back at the camera, and then the person behind it.

“Justin?” she asked, then groaned. It was definitely Kate Marsh - most other people wouldn’t wear clean-pressed clothes to a fight in the park, after all - and there were spots in her clothes that made it look like she was bleeding. She didn’t seem to notice, or at the very least, care.

“Justin, get out of here.”

There was a second of scrambling, and then the video cut.

“Kate is so good,” Max said, a hand covering her mouth to hide her continuing smile. She looked up at Maxine, who was just smirking at her. “And maybe immortal, I guess?”

Maxine laughed but was also clearly uncomfortable. “I guess. And there are, like . . . demons in this timeline?”

“Ha. Yeah.” Max handed Maxine their phone back, as proud as they were disturbed. “I’ve actually kind of been trying not to think about that part. But Kate looks like she’s doing okay.”

Maxine’s expression softened. “You’re right. Even if she won’t stop getting herself into trouble.”

Maxine paused for a second, glancing around on the sidewalk. Then she started, “Max, I-”

“Oh, our bus is here.”

Max pointed behind Maxine, but Maxine didn’t bother to look. They only sighed, and then tried again; “Max, it’s actually just your bus. I’ve got to go.”

“What?” Max surprised herself with how crestfallen she sounded, and did her best to edit her voice calmer in follow-up. “Why is that?”

Maxine talked quickly as the bus rapidly approached. “Well, I mean, I’ve got something I’ve got to do, and Jefferson was really just kind of a point on the to-do list, and - and, shit.”

Maxine suddenly held her hands up in a way that made Max flinch. It took her a second to realize that the world had fallen quiet, and the bus had stopped moving towards them.

“Whoah,” Max whispered. The longer she looked, the more the world looked wrong, with unmoving birds in the sky and flags still in the process of flapping in the breeze. She had never tried to freeze time in such a public place, and even the sound of her breath now was audible on some busy street in Seattle. It was beautiful and terrifying, a world gone dead but perfectly preserved. It was a painting of the present that should have been her past.

Maxine was not so caught up in it, though. “Max?” they asked, pulling her into the present that really was her present.

“Hm?”

Maxine reached out and took Max’s hand, and Max finally stopped looking at the world around her.

“Look, Max. I’ve got to go. But I wanted to say thank you first. It’s been . . . it’s been hard, being alone for so long. It was nice to meet someone who could understand what it’s like being me. And I don’t want to say ‘bye’ just yet.”

“I don’t really see why you have to,” Max replied in frustration. She didn’t feel like losing another person so quickly. “But . . . yeah. I feel the same way.” Max squeezed Maxine’s hand, looking up into their eyes as if there she would find the reason they had to leave. “It was nice.”

Maxine clearly hesitated on something for a moment, but Max waited for them to figure it out. When they finally got the words out, though - “Can I kiss you?” it took Max a few seconds to process their meaning.

“Oh-oh. Um.” She hadn’t really thought of their flirting as having any underlying possibility to it. The connection she felt to her other selves was just natural, automatic. But this didn’t really feel like either.

Still, here they were out of time, and Maxine was beautiful, and whatever this connection was, it was transient. Soon, Maxine wouldn’t even exist - not here, at least.

Max nodded. “Mhm.”

Maxine continued to hesitate for a moment, but then took a step forward. They placed their hand tentatively on Max’s cheek, and Max reached out to grab their hips and pull them closer, to let them know it was okay.

And then they kissed. When it continued past the first kiss, Max ran her fingers up Maxine’s side, tracing lines over their shoulder blade, holding them close. When the kiss finally broke, her fingers trailed down Maxine’s arm, briefly catching their wrist, then their fingers. When her fingers caught on some metal on Maxine’s wrist, it brought her attention from their face down to their hand.

It took her a second to recognize it, but she did. “Hey, isn’t that Victoria’s bracelet?” she asked.

When she saw Maxine’s hand reaching up for her neck, she thought they were bringing her in for another kiss. At least, until the metal sting appeared in her neck, and she realized too late what had happened.

Max flinched back and held a hand up to her neck, but she knew it didn’t take long to push the plunger in a syringe like that. The syringe caught her eye quickly now that she knew what she was looking for, and it was familiar down to the size and brand, just sitting in Maxine’s other hand. When had it gotten there?

Max reached up to rewind, but it was like she was hit by a wave - reality flashed for a second and pain split her forehead, but time did not move.

“You can’t be . . . serious.” GHB worked so quickly in its injected form . She was already having trouble talking.

“I’m sorry Max. I really am.” Maxine took a step forward, offering out her hand in a way Max simply could not understand.

“Get - get away from me.”

“I just don’t want you to hit your head.”

Max was stumbling, and her vision was useless even if it was working. She reached out to pull time back again, but again the same blinding flash erupted in her eyes. When it faded, she found herself on her knees, breathing heavily but not enough.

Maxine dropped down into a crouch in front of Max, not trying to touch her, knowing they had to do nothing at this point.

“I really was nice to meet you, Max. I’m sorry about this.”

Max tried to work up the coherence to say ‘fuck you’ or something with the same level of venom, but before she could form the words, she lost consciousness.

#life is strange #fan fiction #life in snippets #post-life in snippets #max caulfield #maxine caulfield #max caulfield x max caulfield #selfcest #involuntary drug use #murdering jefferson #long post #ben writes stuff

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alarriefantasy · 6 years

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demon/vampire or terror rec, please?

Ohh this is good! I’m not gonna lie, I love dark fics. Hopefully, you like the list!! :)

*Also, this is my one and only warning for these fics. Please make sure to read the tags. Some of them may include triggering elements for you, so double check them before reading. If you’re not sure if you’ll be able to handle reading one them, you can ask me - I’d be happy to help!

Demon Fics

Trade Mistakes by ifancylou, Taayjaay

Words: 3k

Harry summons a crossroads demon without realizing that he’d be giving up his soul in exchange for the deal. He offers the demon something a little different instead.

Take Me To Church by jacinth

Words: 5k

What would happen if he gave in, if he let Harry have him? His morals rebelled against the thought. Harry was a demon, an inherently evil creature from Hell. How could he be sure he wouldn’t destroy him?

Sealed With A Kiss by ty_madison

Words: 6k

Harry has been having dreams about a boy, every night since he turned sixteen and everytime he has opened his eyes in the past the boy has disappeared.

But now he is awake, the boy is here and he has a deal to make with the innocent Harry.

here in the dark is where new worlds are born by delsicle

Words: 7k

Harry is a demon and Louis is his eternal mate.

Demon On My Tongue. by SS98

Words: 14k

Harry is a demon and wants what’s inside Louis. (He also wants Louis).

Shadow Holding Me Hostage by scribblewrite

Words: 26k

Harry’s a demon, basically the king of hell and the source of all evil, and he needs an heir.Louis’s a normal human, unsuspecting of what’s in store for him

Even Angels Have Their Demons by @afangirlfantasy

Words: 52k

Or… an Angel/Demon AU where Angel Louis hates Demon Harry, but somewhere along the way that stops being so true.

Angels and Demons by twerkinlarry

Words: 70k

It’s a time where both Angels and Demons walked on earth, doing their work unbeknownst to humans. They look like normal humans, act like normal humans, interact such as, but they have very specific jobs not at all human like. Angels are here to guard, protect, and guide people into the right path. Demons are here to do just the opposite; mislead, give into poor judgment, throw into harm’s way, wreak havoc in general. Angels and Demons are given few guidelines other than their general rules, however there is one rule never to be broken; do not interact with the other. Under no circumstance should an Angel ever interact with a Demon, nor a Demon with an Angel, and that’s all.

The Devil’s Angel by lilacsweaters_ivorylilies

Words: 86k

“You belong to nobody else but me, asphodel."Ezekiel 28:13 - For Lucifer has been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was his covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of his tabrets and of his pipes was prepared in him in the day that he was created.

Say Hallelujah, Say Goodnight by @alivingfire

Words: 110k

Louis is an angel who is just a little too bad to be good, Harry is a demon who is just a little too good to be bad, and they’re both a little too in love to be impartial when angels and demons go to war.

Run Like the Devil by benzos

Words: 138k

Supernatural AU. Louis hunts demons; Harry’s the strangest demon he’s ever met, and he keeps fucking meeting him.

Vampire Fics

I Picked My Poison, And It’s You by @afangirlfantasy

Words: 5k

Louis never backs down on dares. But maybe this was the one time he should have.

Eternal Love by @mysticbelievexx

Words: 8k

Louis had been dreaming of the green-eyed vampire for as long as he could remember; his mate from a lifetime past.The reality doesn’t go quite as expected…

The Devil You Know by Awriterwrites / @a-writerwrites

Words: 35k

Louis is a vampire. Harry is probably too curious for his own good.

As Cold as a Whisper by panda_bear21

Words: 48k

A fairy tale au where people in Louis’ village are disappearing and Louis is married off to uphold a centuries long agreement.

Waiting On You by emma1234 / @lads-laddylads

Words: 76k

“Vampires,” Louis says with disgust, glaring over at the vampire who is noisily slurping from the woman’s neck nearby.

Zayn gives the neat fang marks on Louis’ neck a meaningful look.

“Can’t live with them, can’t live without them,” Louis finishes, ignoring Zayn when he rolls his eyes.

Louis takes a long sip of his milkshake, presses his fingers against the marks on his neck, and definitely doesn’t think about the vampire who left them there.

Luscious blood by Deidei

Words: 116k

Louis Tomlinson, a human, has been living in poor living conditions together with his mother since he was born. Ever since he can remember he has loathed the stronger, faster, more developed kind that rule this world; Vampires. But will his opinion change after he meets his soul mate that is an arrogant, royal vampire named Harry Styles…

Among the Humans by thecheshirepussycat / @the-cheshire-pussy-cat

Words: 129k

A gothic, modern day vampire romance between a young human named Louis Tomlinson, and Harry Styles, ancient vampire and gentleman.

Creatures of the night come with more trouble than they wish to make it seem.

Love Endless by wubwubnparmaham / @wubwubnparmaham

Words: 171k

The year is groovy 1973, and eighteen-year-old Louis Tomlinson is perhaps the gayest teen to ever grace the gloomy, hateful town of Fortwright. Would be fine if he wasn’t so viciously bullied at both home and school for such a “harmful” sexual preference.

Yeah, yeah, we’ve all heard this story, haven’t we?Believe him, Louis didn’t think he was anything special either.

Until he found the mansion. The notoriously haunted mansion hidden deep within the forests of his tiny blip of a town in Bumfuck Nowhere, Idaho. No one with a brain ever goes near it, but Louis could use a little excitement in his life…and possibly a Band-Aid or two.

After discovering the mansion was less abandoned than he’d thought, he’s now left with the most riveting mystery of a lifetime; every new finding leaving him with more questions. Who is this elusive owner, and why won’t they show themselves? Why is there a set of journals in the same handwriting that span over centuries? Why in the world is there a padlock on the refrigerator…and who the hell is Alexander?

Horror/Suspense Fics

I’ll Be Your Someone by bringhomethegays

Words: 7k

Two gleaming eyes burned holes in Louis face, even in the darkness. Louis gulped dryly when a smile and pale skin began to show in the light only from the full moon outside. Then a low rumbling voice sounded, bring a slow shiver down Louis spine when he heard his name, “Hello Louis.”

nothing’s gonna hurt you, baby by kingsoftheimpossible

Words: 9k

The breath Louis drags in is shaky, tinged with the heat from Harry’s mouth. “If I dreamed you up to get myself off, I’d have made you more attractive.”

Harry pulls back just far enough to look more fully at Louis’ face, lips spreading into a wide cattish smile, all teeth. “You’ve really got to stop embarrassing yourself by trying to lie to me.”

or: Things were a lot easier before Louis’ hallucinations decided to give themselves a body and a name.

Living Among Stockholm by larry_aesthetic

Words: 10k

“No matter how much you want to leave, no matter how much you want to get out of this place, I’m not going to let you. I love you too much.”

“I… I don’t think I want to leave..”

Gone by hazelfae

Words: 34k

Harry, a criminal psychology student, interviews Louis as part of a project and knows all about him from the extensive media coverage of his capture. Louis takes a certain shine to the younger boy and even though he’s under surveillance 24/7… Harry’s in trouble.

Alaska by BeyondxLawliet

Words: 85k

“Let’s go out to my car, yeah?” he heard Harry say, Louis looking up at him. The ground was moving underneath his feet, or maybe it was just him. He raised his hand to push him away because no, this wasn’t happening, but he felt too weak. The hand was only falling down to his side again. Harry? No, he was too nice.Maybe he was taking him home?

“Are you taking me home?” he whispered with a slur, his eyes fluttering closed as he stumbled into Harry. He could hear his heartbeat. It was beating quickly.

“Yes,” Harry whispered back, taking his coat and put it over Louis’ shoulders through his blurred vision. He had no idea what was even going on. Where they even in the café still? It sounded like he was underwater, colors jumping around before him. “I’m taking you home, love.”

credit to the owner of the manip

updated 7.17.19

#ask

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