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chalkrevelations · 3 years

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SO. Back to the beginning, Episode 1 of Word of Honor. This is likely to be a little bit different experience than the prior posts, when I was watching the eps as they aired, compared to now approaching the show as whole and complete. May be rummaging around for things I missed the first time through, stuff that takes on new meaning set in additional context – we’ll see how it goes.

With that in mind, spoilers for not just this ep but possibly for the entire series. Get out of the car now and come back later, if you haven’t seen all 36.5 eps and want to watch it unspoiled.

First thing to strike me, right up front: You know, I think we tend to lose sight in later parts of the show – when we’re getting Laopo!Zhou Zishu pouting so he doesn’t have to cook dinner - how terrifying ZZS is in his own right (and by “we,” I actually mean the show, too). One of the things the first few episodes gets right, I think, is the sense of eerie inevitability and dread created by both the falling lanterns of Tian Chuang and the blowing paper figures of the Ghost Valley, and how similar they are. I think it’s easy to lose that - when the lanterns and the paper figures are gone and our charming and adorable couple are busy being charming and adorable at each other, in between varying rounds of being wracked by guilt and PTSD – easy to lose that this is there too, part of them – both of them - under the skin. I think it’s particularly easy to lose that for ZZS, when he’s already done a lot of work, off-screen, pre-Episode 1, during the 18 months he was putting in those first six Nails, to come to some kind of equilibrium, and meanwhile we watch Wen Kexing’s entire torturous process play out on-screen. Wen Kexing’s story is one of reaching an equilibrium, but Zhou Zishu’s story is one of maintaining it, which I think may be less showy, but is equally valuable, just as I value the Four Seasons Manor arc, especially, for giving us a vibe of two adults comfortable in an already intimate relationship, as opposed to the veritable sea of will-they-won’t-they tug-of-war coming-together-for-the-first-time-as-emotional-AND-plot climax relationships that we’re usually awash in.

Anyway, straight up we’re introduced to an assassin who, we discover, doesn’t like to get blood on himself. It looks like metaphorical blood is fine, just not actual blood, but then we discover, well, maybe he’s not as OK with metaphorical blood as he schools himself to look. Also that conversation with Li Jingan about her dad having to die because he’s a traitor to the country – I now wonder how much of that particular conversation Zhou Zishu mentally brings to the table in later conversations about his own father being executed for the same reason. Also, wait wait wait. Zhou Zishu tells Jingan that he took Jiuxiao’s body back to Four Seasons Manor and buried him next to their shifu, but I don’t remember seeing another grave there, other than Qin Huaizhang’s and his wife’s. Script inconsistency, or are you supposed to be lying, ZZS? I mean, would you be so downcast at the state of Four Seasons Manor when you arrive with your husband and son for your honeymoon, if you’d actually been there only a couple of years before? It didn’t fall to pieces overnight. Also, HAIRPIN FORESHADOWING ALERT. Our first sign of how important the hairpin is, the way ZZS’s impassive face cracks wide open when he sees the hairpin that Jiuxiao made and realizes he must have given it to Jingan. Clearly important!

Mmm. Here’s a point for the “Prince Jin is a f’kn asshole” list – Prince Jin wants ZZS to deal with Bi Changfeng personally when Bi Changfeng requests to leave Tian Chuang. And OK, ZZS is the leader of Tian Chuang. But you’re never going to convince me Prince Jin wants ZZS to deal with it personally because Prince Jin is actually so very furious that Bi Changfeng made a mistake. You will never convince me this isn’t a … it’s not even a test of loyalty, at this point, because Prince Jin has no reason to think yet that ZZS is anything other than the faithful hunting dog on a leash that he’s been, lo, these many years. Putting ZZS in a position where not only is he losing the last of the direct disciples of Four Seasons Manor, but he’s being asked to (as good as) kill him with his own hands - it’s just cruelty for the proof of your power and influence over someone. Also, given Prince Jin’s later diatribe about how everyone leaves him OMG (have you considered it’s your personality?) (But also Beiyuan! I know who you are now, and yeah, I would have let Wu Xi bride-kidnap me away from this jerk, too), I have to wonder if Prince Jin isn’t trying to make ZZS feel exactly as isolated as he, himself, feels, as part of his overall desire to make sure that ZZS has no one other than Prince Jin so that their positions are parallel – only having each other in the whole world. I also have to wonder if he’s not hoping for precisely the reaction ZZS has to Bi Changfeng – you’d rather be dead than be with me? Because that hurts, you can see it on ZZS’s face (thanks already, Zhang Zhehan), and I rather suspect Prince Jin wants it to hurt. I notice we get an echo of this later in the ep, with Prince Jin saying pretty much the same thing when ZZS asks for the final Nail. GOOD. I hope it hurts you just as much. I wonder if ZZS realizes this while he’s kneeling there in the throne room. It’s probably too late for him to get any satisfaction out of it.

OH, HEY. That’s HAN YING already, one of the two people accompanying ZZS to put down Bi Changfeng, looking super-pained like he knows what this is all costing his beloved. Han Ying, I really hope you got to tap that at least a few times before ZZS made his break for it. Is that one of the reasons Prince Jin seems to have such antipathy for you, or is it really just that he can’t stand the idea of someone whose loyalty to ZZS is greater than their loyalty to Prince Jin, himself? (Seriously, y’all, why is there not much much more Han Ying/ZZS fic?) Meanwhile Duan Pengju, omg, this asshole, is already looking smug and punchable. Really, he’s kind of enjoying the Seven Nails placement a little too much. Showing your hand pretty fast on the petty evil thing, show.

So, one thing I didn’t catch the first time around, is that ZZS isn’t just self-injuring to punish himself when he takes the knife to his chest – he re-opens wounds on all the places where the first six Nails have already been placed, so it will look like the placement is fresh. If you can’t tell he hasn’t just put them in, there’s no reason for anyone else (read: Prince Jin) to suspect he’s bought himself some time before he loses his senses. As far as anyone knows, he’s going to fall over with locked-in syndrome any day now. Which just makes the implications of Prince Jin vowing that he’s only letting him go for now EVEN ICKIER. For all Prince Jin knows, what he’s going to get back is a flesh doll that will just lie there, although I guess on the plus side, ZZS would never leave him again. Thanks, show, I need a shower, now.

ZZS says all the right things to argue his case to Prince Jin – he’s only good as a weapon, he has no skills nor utility for building and governing the country – and I think partly this is because he just knows the right things to say. I mean, you don’t become the Number Two guy in the country, with thousands under you and only one above you, if you can’t play imperial politics. But I also wonder if deep down he doesn’t actually believe it – he was successful at building Tian Chuang, but he couldn’t maintain Four Seasons Manor and even drove it to ruin. So, I’ll just be over here, clutching my chest, over my heart. Fortunately, Zhang Zhehan provides quick distraction from this pain, and I … Y’all. I can’t. I just. I CANNOT. When ZZS drops to his knees and starts stripping in the throne room. Just. Mmmmmrgh. THIS VISUAL. Although, you want to know what one of the hottest parts actually is? That pair of leather bracers hitting the floor on top of his belt, and ZZS isn’t even in the shot at that point. OK, fine, I am willing to read some dirtybadwrong fic with this whole scene premise at its heart, even if it does include Prince Jin. Zhang Zhehan, you are KILLING ME. I might have rewound this part. More than once. You can’t prove anything.

Aaaand then we get that gorgeous, painful shot of ZZS riding out into the snow that I know I’ve talked about before (including the way I get an odd echo of Lan Xichen off of it). There are several places in this ep where the cinematography is to die for, and this is one of them, the bleakness of the landscape and Zhang Zhehan (and his FACE) deep in that shadowing cloak against the stark snow as he rides out into freedom and the unknown. Then cut to somewhere green and forested. Interesting that the show starts with snow and ends with snow. That parallel with the imperial cage says some things about immortality that could stand to be unpacked – but later. Because ZZS is putting his face on – literally – and I am once again in pain, only it’s not the good kind of pain. It’s caused by that dreadful fake facial hair. There are some things that could be unpacked here, as well, about the fact that making ZZS supposedly unattractive involves a clearly fake goatee, a single aesthetically placed scar, and darkening his skin. I’m going to try to step carefully here, because this is kind of out of my lane, but it is … a noticeable thing. That probably ought to be noted.

So, ZZS takes just a moment to turn his (fake) face up to the sun and feel the warmth on it … and then with 10 minutes left, we’re on our way to Ghost Valley, where there’s some chaos and then Hanging Ghost gets got by a Mysterious Stranger To Be Revealed Later, who chokes him out (remember this). The Mysterious Master of Ghost Valley appears dramatically on his High Ledge to Make Some Pronouncements while playing with some walnuts omg (rolling two of them in one hand – remember this), and we see his eyes, which are partially obscured by chunky sidebangs, which are farther forward on his forehead than we’re going to see later, not only hiding some of his face but making it look more angular. The troops get berated, shit rolls downhill, and another dude gets choked (remember this) as Ghost Valley Master’s hair continues to artfully hide most of his face and he worries about his manicure post-kill (remember this). War is declared on Hanging Ghost for stealing the Glazed Armor, and more chaos is set into motion.

All of that takes literally two minutes, and then we cut to three months later, and no one realizes it yet, but the fam is getting together. ZZS is tits out in the gutter - only beginning his career of being a minx who flashes his collarbones an awful lot for someone who has Very Secret Scars He’s Hiding On His Chest - happily drinking himself to death in the sun (we really need to talk about this correlation of snow and immortality vs. sun and happiness …). Meanwhile, slo-mo shot of Wen Kexing looking precious and perfect, with delicate pink lips and dove-grey robes, as he checks out the rough trade in the gutter. Oh, the expectations this show is getting ready to smash. We cut from a shot of pristine precious WKX to ZZS holding up his hand, and we get a shot of the sun through ZZS’s fingers looking an awful lot like some shots of characters halo’d in light that we’ll get back to much much later in the show. Chengling appears out of nowhere to be Best Boy. A-Xiang is purple and smol and ready to brawl, and I already love her. I already love them all! So much! Here are my delicate and precious feelings, show, go ahead and stomp all over them!

#zhou zishu #prince jin #han ying #wen kexing #gu xiang #zhang chengling #word of honor #word of honor episode reax

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thran-duils · 3 years

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Thran-duils’ heavily encouraged dark!character writing challenge

I’ve wanted to host a writing/prompt challenge for a long time but I’ve always been too nervous (it’s a perpetual thing lmao). Well, I am taking the dive! Rules and all the information below the cut!

Credit to @santacarlahorrorshow for the lovely header! <3

RULES

1. This challenge is 18+. Seriously, don’t be a dick and ignore this rule.

2. Following that, all characters and reader insert are to be 18+

3. I really, really, really encourage dark!characters or dark!reader or both (soft!dark, dark, heavy!dark) for this but they do not have to be if that makes you uncomfortable. A lot of these prompts are going to be leaning towards dark but there are ways to not utilize them that way I’m sure!

4. These fics are to be reader insert.

5. Fandoms accepted are: Supernatural, Marvel, The Walking Dead, and Lord of the Rings verse (I’m begging for some Thranduil here lmao no shame).

6. All characters welcome! But please do not use real life actors for this!

7. Please do not write beastiality. That’s really the only thing I’m gonna be like “plz don’t” kink about.

8. The fics for this must be new, not adding to an already existing story. They can be drabbles, one shots, or a starting chapter for a new series.

9. I went back and forth about this but I think I am not going to put a limit on how many people can choose a prompt. This may come back to backfire on me but one prompt just might be popular and it would be fun to see what variations can come from it!

10. Send me an ask with your prompt you would like and character/s. I will tag you next to the prompt.

11. If you need to back out of the challenge, send me a DM and I will remove you. Things happen!

12. Make sure to tag your fics appropriately if they are dark! Not only does this help people avoid triggers but also you’ve done your due diligence to tell people to gtfo and if they don’t, well, then that’s on them.

13. You do not need to be following me to participate!

14. Please tag the fics as #thranduilswritingchallenge and also tag me to make sure I see it!

15. For lyrics and quotes, please use them in the fic! If there’s breaks in the lyric, feel free to break it up in the fic though. Situations are for encouragement. I did edit one lyric, Olivia O’Brien. I put the songs next to the lyrics in case you want to listen to the song.

16. The deadline for this challenge is September 4, 2021. I will make a masterpost and I will post it either 9/5 or 9/6!

Lyric Prompts

01. “You right, I got my guy. But I, I can’t help it, I want you” (You Right by Doja Cat)

02. “Good girls don’t cry and good girls don’t lie” (Good Girls by CHVRCHES)

03. “But you keep breaking me apart” (Fabric by Half Waif)

04. “Dance like you’re not a liar” (Last Night of an Empire by Imogen Heap) 05. “Two nights in a row, now I know that it’s broken” (Two Nights by Lykke Li) 06. “I want my ring back, baby, that’s a diamond” (Violent by carolesdaughter) 07. “I’ll show you how revenge can taste so sweet” (King by Lilith Czar) 08. “It’s certified, I’m not the nice one” (The Devil by Banks) 09. “Learn to take a hint. I thought I fucking told [you]” (No More Friends by Olivia O’Brien) 10. “What have you been doing? Don’t forget I am your home” (Purge the Poison by MARINA) --> @phantomwarrior12 (Dark!Gabriel) 11. “If I ever gave you a good reason to say goodbye I would regret it” (Getaway by VINCINT) 12. “Find your way back to my bed again” (Tulsa Jesus Freak by Lana Del Rey)

13. “Stop defending me, we’ll go down together” (Night Sway by Dance Gavin Dance)

14. “Don’t apologize for things you really felt” (Love Somebody Else by lovelytheband)

15. “Feeling stuck is fucking up my sanity” (All Your Love by Sir Sly)

16. “You’re so perfect from the outside. I stalked and studied away” (Who I Am by Code Orange)

17. “I used to know you. I never got you back” (Sideways by The Anix)

18. “You show up when I’m all alone” (Numb by Kiiara)

19. “Look out the window, see what you could’ve had” (Weird Leisure by Biffy Clyro)

20. “I hope that I mean it. Doubt it, right? Yeah, so do I” (AWOL by Every Time I Die)

Quote Prompts

01. “Hold out your tongue.”

02. “Can you keep a secret?”

03. “Temper, temper…”

04. “I don’t really feel like fighting.”

05. “Loving you was the most exquisite form of self destruction.” – David Jones

06. “Why are there weapons in my bathroom?”

07. “Go to hell!” “And leave you here all alone?”

08. “I love you.” “Don’t do that to yourself.”

09. “Here. Hold my morals.” --> @shadowshamrock (Dark!Sam Winchester)

10. “Hungry dogs are never loyal.” --> @mdemontespan1667 (Dark!Jake Jensen)

11. “The girl I’ve heard so much about.”

12. “I was protecting you!”

13. “Just because you’re speaking in a different language doesn’t mean I don’t know you’re cursing me out.”

14. “Oh, don’t blame them. They did their best to try to kill me.”

15. “I don’t know how I would survive without you.”

16. “The whole world thinks you’re dead.”

17. “I wanted to see how you are doing.”

18. “How do we keep getting into these situations?”

19. “You stay awake, do you hear me?”

20. “I’ll hunt you down if I have to.”

21. “Do we have to do this game all over again?”

22. “I said I would be here when you need it.” ( @dollslayer -- Dark!Steve Rogers)

23. “You’re quite possibly the worst liar on Earth.”

25. “What is so urgent that you had to wake me up at 2:30am?”

26. “You know if you had just listened to me, we wouldn’t be in this situation!”

27. “Could you stop being an asshole for just a moment?”

Situation prompts

01. Reader accidentally stumbles upon character burying body and is kidnapped to keep them from talking.

02. Dom!Reader denies character multiple orgasms

03. Reader is a hired assassin and does not expect their target to thwart them with their own skills.

04. Reader and character stranded on the side of the road, night is coming.

05. Reader is ignoring character’s advances and character decides to break into their home to set up a romantic dinner.

06. Winter vacation with reader and character.

07. Mutual masturbation

08. Stormy night and the power goes out. Reader and character find a way to entertain themselves.

09. Reader keeps finding things missing from their apartment and eventually finds out who is taking them.

10. Reader and/or character are in an established relationship with someone else. Unfortunately for them, sex pollen gets in the mix. And oops, one of them let it out on purpose!

11. Reader is a in a dom/sub relationship with character. Ignores dom’s orders to not go out for the night and faces the punishment when they come home.

12. Uniform change turns into something naughty.

13. Reader runs into character, who happens to be their ex that they ghosted.

14. College AU where Reader is an RA and one of their residents is hell bent on getting them to break the rules.

15. Reader goes to the cops with evidence that character is stalking them.

16. Reader being hunted by character (or even more fun, characters!).

17. Pregnant sex

Remember to have fun!!!

Tagging some people who may be interested in participating (please do not feel obligated!!): @sherrybaby14 @shadowshamrock @greenappleeyes @mcudarklibrary @mcnegan @afanofmanystuffs

#writing challenge #dark marvel #dark twd #dark spn #dark supernatural #dark fics #prompt challenge #thranduilswritingchallenge #dark marvel fic

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cornholio4 · 4 years

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A Different Sort of Field Trip Fic

@cap-is-bi

This was based on a prompt on Tumblr by a user called Cap-Is-Bi and I hope they appreciate this.

It had been about a year since he had all silently cut ties with Tony Stark, he had been excited about getting the new suit and telling his classmates that he had an internship with Tony Stark. Most especially Flash Thompson didn't believe him.

However it all changed within a few weeks when he decided to look into more about the Sokovia Accords, he heard them mentioned on the news and how they were affecting the Avengers somehow. He read more into it and was stunned by what he had read. The Avengers would only be allowed to be deployed and allowed to help in a situation if an UN Accords panel deems it necessary, he could understand the principle of the idea but what if the Panel were too busy debating when the Avengers were urgently needed?

The articles said it was in response to not only Ultron but also the Battle of New York and Washington, were the governments really blaming the Avengers for stopping aliens and fascist terrorists? They talked about Iron Man was leading the support of the Avengers but Captain America went renegade on the Accords after a battle where Iron Man helped lead a squad to apprehend Cap's supporters in a german airport but the failure led to the capture of the culprit behind the bombing at the Accords signing.

Tony jsut said that Cap was going crazy; did he lie to him to take him to another country to apprehend people for just being Heroes?

The article talked about how the Accords affected Superhumans and how they would have to be tracked and registered, any Superhuman causing crimes would be sent to the prison known as the Raft indefinitely. Was Tony going to make him sign and follow orders like a good soldier?

This caused a huge broken pedestal towards Tony and he was still going over it when he felt into a portal. He was shocked to encounter many different Spider people from different Earths so it seemed that the Multiverse was real! Apparently these multi dimension vampires were hunting people with Spider powers so they were banding together to stop them. Most of them were Peter Parkers as well!

He met up with versions of him who looked like his Uncle Ben and the guy from Seabiscuit and a guy looking like his late dad as well as the guy from the Social Network. They were a trio and they could see he was down about something. He explained about the Accords and Tony and others patched in saying the Tony Starks of their world done the same thing; support any Superhuman laws while turning into a near villain himself. They promoted arrests without trials and laws as well as harsh conditions while also hiring super villains to catch them. More often than not the Registration Acts were defeated and Tony suffered. Some worlds reached a compromise but a lot of them had Tony manipulating Peter to support him at first.

Peter was in shock and horror and his rage towards Tony grew, it intensified when a glitch in his suit caused from a fight activated the Instant Kill Mode of the suit. Did Tony really put that into his suit.

He was in fury as when it got too damaged, he began tearing into it but the Peter Parker who looked like his dad said he could have a spare suit of his. After the Inheritors were defeated, they went back to their Earths with Peter wanting to have another adventure like that again.

But for now he would stay close to the ground.

In his new suit he began helping people as he usually did and was happy to address people with cameras. he told his class and Aunt May that he quit the internship due to his fury about something Tony did. They didn't pry too much, Flash still thought it was an excuse but he didn't care and Aunt May was disappointed but knew Peter had to have his reasons.

Peter was more than happy to find, share and like Anti Accords posts and articles. He had began ghosting both Happy Hogan and Tony (mostly Happy though) before blocking their numbers entirely. He focused on his schoolwork, hanging with his friends and being a true friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. He found the alien weapons dealing gang and their leader the guy in the Vulture suit. He managed to stop them but it turned out that he was Liz Allan's dad. She had to move with her mum and he was sad and a bit guilty about her having to go.

They had an amicable last conversation with Liz telling him that she hopes to see him again sometime and she was hoping that he would be her date for the homecoming dance. Poor Liz and her family...

He had to keep moving forward and deal with more stuff he finds. Whenever he saw criminals part of the anti Superhuman terrorist group the Watchdogs, he was more than happy to go at them and destroy their masks. There were footage of him trashing anti Superhuman bigots like the Watchdogs and when there were people with cameras, he was more than happy to give anti Accords words when asked.

He actually met up with Steve Rogers who was in hiding and he was more than happy to share his stories with Peter when he could contact him with the secret number he gave. 'Queens' and 'Brooklyn' as they gave their nicknamed themselves.

At this time support for the Accords were going down thanks to reports of the heroics of Captain America and his team underground, it was theorised they cease to be soon. Especially since Thaddeus Ross the biggest supporter of the Accords in the US Government, got himself suspended from the Accords Panel (which he acted like he ran) and from his position as Secretary of the State. He was expecting to face charges for the dozen squad he sent into countries without asking to try and apprehend Cap and he gotten into big fights with the Secretary of Defense. Ross kept going to his old military allies for help and was acting like he was in charge, the Secretary of Defense kept overruling him and telling that he is supposed to be their representative to the UN and other countries and not running military operations.

Inside anonymous sources he found said that Ross was trying to save face and stop the fall of the Accords but it seemed he burned many bridges with his arrogance.

However at Midtown he was dreading for a while, his class' field trip to Stark Industries. He didn't want to go but Aunt May convinced him to go by saying he could still appreciate the science there and what were the odds that Tony Stark would want to go out of his way to meet a former intern of his.

Peter stayed silent about it but figured that Tony may have forgotten about him, he hopes so and if not then he would probably be too busy as well.

There came the day and his class were on the tour and given their access cards, they got in and Peter was starting to enjoy himself seeing the work of the Stark Industries scientists. There were comments from Flash about Peter used to be an intern here and asking he got fired but he ignored them. When they were allowed to look around a display room Peter then saw through a door Happy Hogan who recognised him and did not look happy.

Peter groaned as Happy walked up to him and whispered "there you are, Tony found out that you would be with your class coming here and asked me to escort you to see him. Do you have any idea of how much trouble you caused? I spent so much time trying to contact you when Tony had been asking me about the reports you sent in and I had to tell him that you hadn't sent anything in a while. You kept ignoring our class and blocked us, Tony was beside himself when he saw that he could no longer track the suit he gave you and to see you in the new suit..." Happy was sternly telling him.

Peter was growing mad when learning that Tony was tracking him using the suit, "If Mr Stark wants to see me then he can come and see me himself. I thought you would have been glad to not have me bother you anymore." Peter whispered to him more harshly than he was intending.

He walked off to continue looking at the displays to Happy's shock as he made a call.

Later the class were stunned and excited to see Tony Stark there but Peter just groaned. "Long time no see Mr Parker, you had been ignoring my class ever since you just quit one day without warning. You think we could have a little talk to renegotiate whatever made you quit?" Tony said to Peter coming up with a big smile and Peter just groaned, the class being stunned by this but Peter just glared.

"Can we make it quick please." Peter said flippantly leaving them stunned as they went out the door. Peter looked up to Tony with a glare as he tried to smile at him.

"Can I first start by saying how are you doing as you caused quite a scare with you ignoring our calls. Plus what happened to the multimillion dollar suit that I gave you? Or where did you get your new digs?" Tony asked trying to look friendly.

"The suit got trashed fighting vampires from another world and another version of me gave me the new suit." Peter replied blandly and Tony gave a face showing that he did not buy the story one bit.

"Okay Mr Smartass can I say about learning how socially active you have been online, apparently you were more than happy to join the Anti Accords groups on social media as well as go after groups such as the Watchdogs. Apparently my advice on staying close to the ground didn't stick." Tony said disapprovingly and Peter scoffed.

"I am sorry that I don't support regulations that blames the Avengers for aliens invading or if there are terrorists about to commit mass murder. Sorry that I don't support regulations that thinks Superhumans should be tracked and thrown away without a key or any hope of seeing a lawyer if they seem like they step out of line. Sorry that I want to stop bad guys who claim they are protecting the country from Superhumans while causing damage and more than happy to invite criminals and former HYDRA thugs." Peter told him bluntly and Tony sighed.

"Peter these issues are more complicated than that and you are too young and immature to be involved in it. I had to work hard to protect you from the Accords people wanting to go after you and wanting you registered and tracked as well..." Tony told him and Peter snapped.

"So I am an exception, I get to be an exception so I can continue being your loyal soldier? Apparently you wanted a soldier and not someone standing up for the little guy. I am glad the Accords are going the way of the dinosaurs and that you can't have me tracked with a suit that you built an instant kill mode into." Peter snapped at him and Tony paused.

"We will have to talk about restarting the 'internship'." Tony said with air quotes but Peter shook his head and scoffed at it. "I am serious, you will have to start playing ball again or else I will tell your Aunt May..." Tony said only to be interrupted.

"I have been meaning to tell her myself but you tell her then I will tell her that the trip you brought me on was jsut so that you could use my as a soldier in a fight I should not have been involved in. That you lied to her and kidnapped me so I could be your weapon to capture Captain America for you, that you had me fighting on the wrong side of a war." Peter replied as he went back through the door.

"Son, come back here right now! You don't get to walk away from this!" Tony shouted shocking the class and Tony blinked, obviously forgotten about the class there in his anger.

"Sorry I don't want to hear anymore of you reprimanding me for speaking out against the Accords online. Telling me off for thinking that people shouldn't be locked up human rights forgotten just for having powers! That you were bullying me for sticking to my morals." Peter shouted faking tears in his eyes, he didn't want Tony to try and spin doctor this on the spot.

Tony sputtered and notices the looks that his class was giving him, Peter was being comforted by Roger Harrington who glared at Tony while saying "Mr Stark, I don't want you to be harassing my student for the rest of the trip. Be rest assured I will be calling his Aunt May about this."

Tony left wondering about what to do about this and Peter knew he would be getting questions from his classmates but he had a victory against Tony and if he tried to go after him as Iron Man, then well he has some special friends...

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roonil-wazlib-at-221b · 4 years

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A Nice Day Off

Request: Could you write a spn/tua crossover fic? I need this in my life!

Pairing: slight Destiel. That’s it. It’s also pretty long because I felt like this needed backstory and the concept was fun to write. Enjoy!

Dean groans with frustration at the sight of a red hem turning the corner of the labyrinth he’s currently trapped in with his brother and Cas, with no way to call their backup, Jack, for help, because there’s no service in this goddamn maze.

First a trail of bodies with different organs cut out starting in, what a coincidence, the same town Sam and Dean were hunting a ghost in. But the mutilated people hadn’t stopped showing up in the hospital, even though they’d definitely taken care of the ghost. Then there was a girl who’d had one of her eyes scooped out, claiming to only remember seeing the color red before she’d passed out again from the pain. The color red, and a weird shed in the woods behind the high school with strange markings on the door.

The shed hadn’t been hard to find. It’d been even easier to find with the obvious bloody trail leading up to the door where, of course, Cas had identified the markings as Satanic.

Then, because they’re all dumbasses, Sam, Dean, and Cas stepped into the shed, and Dean hasn’t seen his brother since.

The shed, which had appeared to be smaller than a regular motel room from the outside, turns out to have a humongous inside. There had been a trapdoor that led to a chute or something once they all stepped inside and Dean and Sam had gone down different sides.

(And yes, the only reason Cas stayed with Dean is because he was holding onto Dean’s jacket. Shut up.)

Then Dean had seen a figure in red running down whatever hallway they’d landed in and he’d taken off. No matter how fast he runs, the figure in red always seems to be one step ahead of him.

“Son of a bitch!” he finally yells, hitting the wall with the side of his fist with frustration. “Sammy!”

Sam doesn’t respond.

Dean swears some more, his hands on his knees as he tries to catch his breath. Cas, as usual, is unaffected by everything that Dean is affected by, which is, as usual, infuriating.

Dean looks up, ready to snap at Cas for being useless when it comes to finding his brother or catching the figure in red, but he sees the figure in red peering back around the corner.

Oh.

This is a game of cat and mouse, and Dean’s not entirely confident he’s not the mouse.

“What do you want, you bitch?” he wheezes, standing up and groaning. He’s getting too old for this.

The figure in red flicks its head and for the first time Dean hears his brother’s voice.

“Dean!” It sounds to be coming from behind the red figure.

“Sammy!” Dean bellows, cursing internally again before starting to jog again. He’s not entirely sure he wants to reach where the figure in red is leading him, but there’s also the chance that his brother is in trouble.

A giggle floats down the corridor and the figure in red whips away.

Dean is lost. Definitely. He’s lost count of the rights and the lefts he’s taken. It’s at least four more turns before he gets a better glimpse of the figure in red as the hallway opens up into a massive chamber with at least five other hallway entrances.

Basically, this was a maze. A massive underground maze. And now Sam, Dean, and Cas are in the middle of it.

“Sammy!” Dean barks when he sees his brother on the opposite side of the room. He doesn’t look injured, but still—“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Dean,” Sam replies. “You’re fine, right? And you, Cas?”

Both men nod their heads.

The figure in red lowers its hood and Dean recognizes who it is.

Because of course it’s Rowena.

“What are you doing here?” he spits. Witches. “Why’d you lead us in a wild goose chase in a maze? Wait—you’re the reason for all the mutilations, aren’t you?”

“Of course,” the witch laughs. “But don’t worry. They’re all alive, correct? I left them at the hospital after retrieving what I wanted from them.” She winks over her shoulder at Sam. “You boys must be rubbing off on me.”

“So this was all for a spell?” Dean asks, moving to step forward but stopping as if he’s been tethered to a brick wall. He looks back and sees that Cas has a hold of the back of his jacket. He shrugs. It’s a valid point; Rowena is a wild card if they’ve ever met one. It’s better to be cautious and not get within reach of her to hex them or spew bodily fluids.

“Yes,” Rowena answers briskly. “I need to pop into another dimension quickly and get another ingredient for a spell I’m working on that will help you with whatever apocalypse the three of you have started.”

Dean scowls. Well, yes, there is (but only sort of) a looming apocalypse on the horizon, but she wasn’t supposed to know about that. “Why? What’s in it for you?”

“Your enemies have a price on my head,” she replies. “While you three seem to have a knack for escaping the clutches of death, I’d prefer not to have to create another charm to prevent me from the unpleasant sensation. It can be quite painful to die, even if I survive.”

Dean looks at Sam as the witch starts to chant, and he shrugs. He’s always had a soft spot for the witch, but Dean doesn’t know why. He takes small solace in the fact that Sam’s here, and if worst comes to worst he’ll be the one to end the witch once and for all. Somehow.

“Then why did you lure us down this labyrinth?” Cas asks.

Rowena says a final word and a crack splits the silence, followed by a white light that splits the air. “I have no idea what’s in this new dimension. I quite wanted protection, seeing as how our best interests align in this endeavor.”

Dean can’t argue with that sound logic. He examines what must be the portal suspiciously.

“That’s not any spell we’ve seen before,” Sam points out.

Rowena waves her hand airily. “I made a new one that’s much more convenient. No more pesky one-in-a-million ingredients. Just a few human body parts and some common herbs. Simple, if you’ve got enough talent. It’ll last for eight hours.” She winks at Sam. “Are you boys ready?”

“Hold on a sec,” Sam mutters. He fishes his phone out of his pocket. “Should probably give Jack a heads-up.” He scowls. “No service.”

“Great,” Dean gripes. Poor kid’s gonna be confused and worried for a full day before they get back. “Let’s make this trip as quick as possible, then.”

Cas grips Dean’s hand (shut up, Sam) and Sam grabs the hem of Dean’s jacket as Dean uses his free hand to grip the shoulder of Sam’s jacket. No more taking any chances of going down different chutes. In a line, they follow Rowena into the blinding light...

And into an empty room.

Sam spins on his heel, taking in the area, and Dean looks up. A massive steel chandelier hangs from the ceiling of what must be a mansion, judging by the size of the foyer and the many rooms that look to branch off of it.

“Ah, civilization,” Rowena says, pleased. She straightens her already-straight dress and pats her hair. “Perfect.”

“Where are we?” Cas asks, frowning. “I can’t sense any of my brothers and sisters.”

“We must have landed in a universe without heaven,” Sam exhales. “Remember Jared Padalecki? And Supernatural?”

“And Jensen Ackles,” Dean acknowledges, nodding. “Sorry, Cas, but looks like you’re outta grace for the moment.”

Cas looks at his hands, frowning.

Something hurtles through the air and buries itself into Cas’s chest. A knife. Fuck. Will that hurt him, even though he’s an angel, but he doesn’t have any powers here, but does that just apply to grace and wings or—

“Sam, is he okay?” Dean asks tersely, holding up his gun in the direction the knife had come from. He sees a pair of eyes glint and adjusts accordingly.

Something flashes behind him and the clicking of a safety near his ear makes Dean’s blood run cold.

“Don’t even try it,” Sam growls. Dean knows that he’s got his gun pointed at whoever’s pointing one at him.

“Or what?” the person hisses through gritted teeth. “You’ll shoot me?”

“Yes,” Sam replies resolutely. It must surprise him.

“I’m fine,” Cas groans, on the ground and not sounding very fine. “I suppose our questions were answered. I am still unable to be killed except by my—”

“Shh,” Dean hisses, not wanting to give their attackers any ideas.

“We must have gotten off on the wrong foot,” Rowena calls, her voice lilting in the dusty air. “We didn’t mean to end up in your house.”

“Really?” an unfamiliar voice snarls behind Dean. “What’s that light?”

“What are they talking about, Five?” a deep, grating voice asks.

“Does it look like I know?” the voice snaps back. It’s the voice of a kid. “They came through a light in the middle of our foyer. Do I have any experience with that sort of stuff?”

“Uh... yes,” another person points out.

“Fair enough,” the kid admits.

“Sam, is there a preteen holding a gun to my head right now?” Dean asks, rolling his eyes.

Sam can’t keep the snicker out of his voice, even though he knows this is a serious situation. “Yep.”

“Look,” Dean starts, “I’m sure if we all put down our weapons, we can sort something out.”

The preteen snorts. “I’m not about to compromise to some robbers breaking into our house.”

“Buddy, you’re not gonna be involved in the conversation,” Sam retorts. “The adults are gonna handle this one.”

Cas sighs. There’s movement at Dean’s feet—undoubtedly he’s standing up—and two gunshots.

Dean winces.

“Fine, fine,” Cas grumbles. Dean whirls just in time to see Sam knock the gun out of the stunned preteen boy’s hands.

“What the hell are you?” the boy whispers.

“Five?” a new voice asks. “What the hell is going on?”

Something flashes and Dean chances a look behind himself. Fuck. It’s Jack, stumbling out of the portal. How he’d known to go inside the shed, find the middle of the maze, and jump through the portal, Dean doesn’t know.

“Hello!” Jack beams at his three dads and then at the six people trickling into the room. “It’s nice to meet you!”

“He’s got powers too!” a man holding a throwing knife marvels. Undoubtedly he’s the one that threw it at Cas’s chest. “But he’s not our age.”

“Like I said,” Dean repeats. “I’m sure we can work something out.”

~~~~

Rowena left the boys to deal with the five adults and one bloodthirsty preteen, citing the need to find whatever ingredient that exists in this universe and not in their own.

There’s a monstrous man called Luther (who is very white), and the man dressed in black leather that had thrown a knife at Cas is called Diego (who is definitely not white, probably Mexican). He marvels at how Cas survived the knife to the chest as well as two bullet wounds, even going so far as insisting that he take off his shirt to prove he doesn’t have a bulletproof vest on.

Dean hadn’t liked them all marveling over the angel’s surprisingly toned chest.

Then there’s a lady named Allison (who is African-American) and another lady called Vanya (who is white). The preteen boy is called Five, and he’s definitely at least part not-Caucasian.

And they all claim to be siblings.

Dean puzzles over that for five seconds before remembering that adoption is a thing. The jump to another reality must have scrambled his brains again.

“This is my older brother, Dean,” Sam introduces. “This is Cas, Dean’s boyfr—”

Cas clears his throat. He knows that Dean still isn’t comfortable with people knowing about their... relationship.

“Well, he’s an angel. And this is our son, Jack, who is half-archangel,” Sam finishes.

“He’s... all three of you’s son?” Vanya asks, and, despite the bad grammar, Sam nods.

“Adopted,” Dean adds. “Technically, he’s Lucifer’s son. But Lucifer’s a major dick that tortured my brother for about a thousand years, and the kid isn’t stupid, so he stays with us.”

Jack preens at being called not stupid, which is kind of a low bar. Maybe Dean should compliment the kid more. No, scratch that, he should definitely compliment the kid more. God knows Dean would’ve liked a little more appreciation for taking care of Sammy when he was younger from John. “I killed Lucifer for hurting Sam,” he adds angelically. “He wasn’t very nice.”

Sam reaches out and pats Jack’s knee. “We’re all very proud of you, Jack.”

“Lucifer?” Luther repeats. “Uh...”

“Oh, yeah,” Dean adds. “You guys don’t have God in this universe.”

“We have Christianity,” Allison says, a little defensively.

“Wait,” Sam yelps. “He’s—” He points at Five, who is definitely at the most fifteen years old, and currently drinking a margarita. Judging by the ingredients on the counter, it is most definitely not non-alcoholic.

“That’s a long story,” Diego sighs.

“We could take turns?” Jack suggests.

~~~~

At the end of it, everyone but Jack, who opts for a glass of chocolate milk, is drinking alcohol. Apparently his powers are still intact in this universe, maybe because he’s as powerful or more so than an archangel. That’s useful to know.

“So you’re all the same age,” Sam says for the third time. “Except for the kid, who is not actually a kid.”

Five nods. “58.”

“But for most of those years he was completely isolated and therefore not any more mature than a regular fifteen-year-old kid, only more murderous,” someone says singsong behind them. Dean jumps.

Five scowls. “That is so not true, asshole—”

“Ah, yes,” Allison sighs. “This is Klaus.”

“It is definitely true,” Klaus argues back, taking the margarita out of Five’s hands and drinking the rest of it in one gulp. “He’s feral. All teenage boys are feral.”

“He’s also your sibling?” Cas checks.

“Don’t ask about his power,” Diego mutters. “It’s a sensitive topic.”

“I am not feral!” Five sputters. With a flash of blue light, he disappears and reappears in front of Klaus, hands on his hips.

“Uh-huh,” Klaus nods, sidestepping him. “How could you have grown up without other people?”

“I had Dolores!” Five snarls, pulling a handgun out of his pocket and pointing it at his brother. Klaus seems unbothered. He pulls two bottles of whiskey from the shelf of alcohol and tosses the other behind his back. Five disappears and reappears, catching the bottle with a huff and stowing the gun. Apparently all is forgiven.

“Ah...” Allison starts, looking pained. “I suppose it’s no use to remind you that we don’t point guns at our siblings.”

“This is a regular occurrence, yes?” Castiel asks.

“Unfortunately,” Vanya answers, wearing an identical expression of consternation.

Cas points at Dean. “You shouldn’t be too worried. Sam and Dean have died multiple times. One time Sam even killed him. They turned out fine.”

Sam winces at that comment.

“It’s fine, Sam,” Dean says automatically. He doesn’t even remember Sam killing him during that one time Gabriel decided to be an even bigger dick than normal. “Don’t even remember it.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Five blurts out, staring at the grown men with new respect.

“They never even agree to not bring weapons into the kitchen,” Cas continues.

“I know, right?” Allison exclaims. “Like, we’re all eating breakfast! Don’t clean your knives, Diego!” She gives her brother the stink eye.

“What if something happens?” Diego and Dean retort back in unison. They exchange startled looks.

“One time,” Jack adds, “Dean shot me in the back in a grocery store.” He then goes back to drinking his chocolate milk, content to listen to the conversation.

Luther opens his mouth to further ask about that statement but his younger/older sibling interrupts him. “No, no, I want to hear more about coming back to life,” Five insists, draping himself over a chair.

“Yeah,” Luther agrees, sending an uneasy look in Jack’s direction when the boy snaps his fingers and his glass of chocolate milk fills itself. “So Sam dies, and Dean sells his soul to bring him back. Then Dean dies and goes to hell, Cas saves him, and you’ve been saving the world ever since?”

Sam shrugs. “More or less.”

“And there’s another apocalypse,” Vanya says slowly. “And you’re stopping it by coming to our universe.”

Dean shrugs. “Rowena more or less made it so we had no choice.” He glances into the foyer, where the white light of the portal doesn’t waver.

Vanya nods and then nudges Diego with her elbow. Her brother groans and rolls his eyes but leans forward and holds a hand out to Cas. “Sorry for stabbing you, man. No hard feelings?”

Cas takes his hand, a mysterious half-smile playing on his lips. “Of course.”

Vanya clears her throat. “Five, apologize for shooting Castiel or I’m taking your gun.”

Five snorts. “So? I’ve got more.”

“How many more?” Luther asks.

“Not telling.”

“I heard a rumor,” Allison says teasingly, “that you told us how many guns you have.”

“Fifteen,” Five says promptly, then he scowls. “Bitch. I’m still not giving you them. Get your own.”

Klaus says out of the blue, “No, I will not!” He flushes when everyone turns to look at him. “Ben told me to tell Diego to throw a knife at Jack since it won’t hurt him either.”

Diego brightens at the idea and Sam leaps off of the couch, positioning himself between the murderous superpowered human and the half-archangel. “We still don’t know why the angel’s powers are working while there’s no heaven,” he says firmly. “We’re not risking any more injuries.”

“I could just cut him,” Diego wheedles. “Just to see if it makes a cut and then it heals or if nothing happens. Come on. We don’t know how angels work.”

Jack shrugs and Dean barks, “We’re not cutting Jack for a science experiment!”

Klaus claps. “We should do science experiments!” as if he hadn’t heard Dean at all.

And that is how Dean finds himself in the courtyard of the Umbrella Academy mansion, torn between cheering for Cas and Luther as they compete to see who can lift the largest weight.

“It’s definitely going to be Cas,” Sam mutters. The Winchester brothers stand side-by-side in identical poses as they assess the experiments.

“Hey!” Allison yelps. “Luther, don’t you dare pick up my car! Dean, don’t encourage them!” The half-gorilla man sends her a sheepish look and shrugs at Cas.

Dean holds up his hands. “Like I can control them, lady.”

Allison rolls her eyes. “Castiel, come over here real quick.”

Well, that’s done for the day, Dean supposes. He turns around to see Jack with a blindfold over his eyes disappearing and reappearing, apparently playing tag with Five while both boys use their teleportation powers.

A bright smile on his face, Jack disappears before Five’s even left and appears on top of the boy, sending both ageless kids tumbling to the ground, giggling.

“Scary,” Luther mutters at Dean’s side. “Never seen Five laugh before.”

Dean looks at him out of the corner of his eye. “You ever been able to not pick something up?”

“I’ve never tried a house or something like that, obviously,” Luther admits, rubbing his chin. “But I’ve never really found something that I haven’t been able to lift.”

“That’s so cool,” Dean admits, shaking his head.

“Yo, Winchester!” Diego yells, waving as both Winchesters whip their heads around. “Target practice!”

“You say you can’t miss a target, huh?” Sam asks, smirking.

Diego nods.

“Well, we can do that without having a superpower,” Dean brags, all in good nature of course, and the competition is on.

When it’s discovered that Sam and Dean really are as good as Diego from years of practice, they call Jack over to move the targets midair. This is where Diego smirks, as Sam and Dean do miss a few and he misses none, even when his knives flip over themselves, zip back and forth, and defy the laws of gravity as they fly through the air.

“I’m going to use the restroom,” Dean announces at one point. “Where—”

“Walk straight, go up the stairs, take your first left,” Luther directs. He claps Dean on the shoulder and sends him stumbling away, hissing as he rubs his shoulder. “Uh, sorry.”

Dean really didn’t mean to eavesdrop. He’s two steps up when he hears Castiel’s voice and realizes he’d gone inside and not come back out. Curious now, he follows the voices down a staircase and flattens himself against the wall near the doorway of what must be the kitchen, judging by the smell of food inside the room.

“—determined to throw himself into the line of fire,” Cas gripes.

“I know, right?” Vanya exclaims. “Five seems to think he’s invincible or something.”

“One time he told me he was fine after getting stabbed because he’s gotten stabbed before!”

Allison giggles. “Like you can build up an immunity to stab wounds.”

“It’s quite hard to protect someone with the survival instincts of a squirrel on crack cocaine,” Cas remarks. Dean’s face colors when he realizes that he’s walked in on a gossip session consisting of his boyfriend and the two exasperated siblings of some weird-ass people.

“He loves you though, right?” Allison asks. “I could see it in the way he looked at you.”

Dean’s face gets even hotter. He’s not a big fan of the ‘L’ word.

“We have a profound bond,” Cas replies simply. That’s always been enough for their relationship.

Dean sneaks back up the stairs, hoping they don’t hear his footsteps. When he reaches the foyer, Rowena steps into the building, looking entirely too pleased with herself.

“Did you get it?” he asks gruffly.

Rowena smiles. “Of course I did. Are you ready to go?”

“Uh...” Dean knows he has to get back to his universe. He has a responsibility to save the world, of course. But it was enjoyable to hear about other people’s crazy lives and be able to relax. He settles for gesturing for her to follow and he leads her out to the courtyard.

He and Rowena watch as Sam tries frantically to stop Five from cutting Jack’s arm, even as Jack holds his arm out and holds him in place.

“I’m fine,” Jack insists. “See?” Five pokes his skin with the tip of the knife, marveling when the skin opens but no blood runs out and it knits itself back together in mere seconds.

“That’s so cool,” Diego breathes, shaking his head.

“Hey!” Dean barks, making all the spectators jump. “What did I say? Did I say no cutting Jack open or did I say yes cutting Jack open?”

Sheepishly, Jack lets Sam go and shrugs at Five. “Is it time for us to go already, Miss Rowena?”

“I’m sorry, Jack, but yes,” she answers.

Every person in the courtyard slumps a little bit.

“Did I hear Rowena?” Cas asks behind Dean, making him jump. “Oh. I supposed it was you. Our time is nearly running out.”

“You guys are leaving?” Vanya asks, visibly disappointed.

“We have an apocalypse to prevent,” Sam explains, gesturing for Jack to follow him. Jack misunderstands the signal and takes Sam’s outstretched hand, startling him—but in a good way.

Rowena winks at the disappointed Five. “Yes, but once we’ve finished saving the world for the umpteenth time I don’t think it’ll be too hard to come visit again.”

Diego brightens. “And we can stab the angels more!”

“NO!”

~~~~

“Ugh, I’m bored,” Five gripes, throwing himself backwards on the couch. “There’s nothing to do. No one to kill.” Disappointingly, the Temps Commission has stopped sending more agents after Five, probably realizing he thinks of them merely as dummies to practice his murder skills on.

“You could do your schoolwork,” Klaus informs him. Both brothers make faces immediately. “That was Ben,” he says hastily. “Not me. Don’t do your schoolwork.”

“Wasn’t going to anyway, but thanks,” Five grunts. Maybe if all the blood flow goes to his head he’ll pass out. That’d be a fun way to pass the time.

A loud crack echoes through the mansion, almost like a gunshot, and Five topples off the couch.

“Hello!” someone calls out. “Is anybody home?”

A wide smile stretches across Five’s face. Finally. Someone to kill that can’t die.

“The Winchesters are back!”

Umbrella Academy Taglist:

@fentanvl @deathswretch @lightningidiot @five-hg @iamsnek666 @ameliatrh @ihatecheesyusernames @dora-the-grownup @emilyt0314 @idklol707

Forever Taglist:

@lemirabitur @annymcervantes @queenmissfit @quiet-because-it-is-a-secret @iksey

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denbroughbill · 5 years

Text

my fic for @stenbranlon for the @it2ficexchange

prompt: "like an old western au where someones a cowboy and someone else is like the mayors kid"

mike hanlon’s the proud owner of a saloon dead center of town. it’s only late in the afternoon when he makes it in, trusting beverly marsh, best worker and close confidant, to open for him. there’s someone playing the piano now and mike serves some people at the bar.

at some point, there are quick whispers and he hears someone running outside. they yell something that mike doesn’t quite catch, too distracted pouring drinks waiting customers, but it’s enough for everyone to shut their mouths. he looks up, knitting his eyebrows at how quiet it is, and there are hooves faintly coming from outside. someone swears, everyone trying to look through the bar windows without moving, and eddie, who cleans tables and swipes counters, purses his lips next to him.

the double doors swing open and mike rests his elbows against the counter. the mister has stopped playing the piano in the end of the bar and everyone turns their heads towards that front door. mike frowns, not understanding why everyone shut their mouths, and a man walks into the place.

he’s wearing all black, with a long sleeved shirt and hat. black high boots that matches his tight pants. a golden belt and dark vest. there’s a bandana covering half of his face and he’s slender, guns on each side of his waist. the floor creaks with his light move and there’s a gulp in the air.

beverly finally breaks the silence, as brave and daring as mike saw of her, telling the man to keep his weapons by the door just like they always do. there’s a brief pause and the air is tense, so different from before. everyone is either glaring or looking scared. mike watches the stranger finally move, taking his weapons out of his holsters.

once he places them at a counter, a worker organizes them with the rest with trembling hands, and mike’s blood runs cold when the man pulls his bandana down. he sees a light beard, copper hair and freckles. the more he walks into the bar, the more the boy takes in his details. blue eyes scanning the place, chin up, and a scar on his left eyebrow.

mike’s lips part and he remembers all the stories he’s ever heard about that figure. whispers shared around a bonfire, rumors that he cut his own tongue and never talks. that his gang ended so many lives, murdering people for no reason other than wanting to have fun and stealing from them. outlaws, with a heavy bounty on their heads. they bring chaos, wherever they go. he swallows and people slowly start murmuring, returning to their lives, and there’s music back in the place. the man sits down near a window, resting his legs up on the wooden table.

“it’s the red snake,” mike finally breathes, not being able to take his eyes off that man. “he’s the leader of the hellbreakers…they’re a fucking legend.”

“well, that ain’t sounding much like good news to me,” beverly says, playing with her red locks.

eddie sighs, pouring a glass of whiskey for himself. “they were seen nearby and i was hoping they wouldn’t show up, but i guess god didn’t listen.”

“what? how do you know that?”

“oh honey,” beverly sighed, grabbing eddie’s shot and tossing it back for herself. “people talk.”

they live in such a small town, nothing ever happens there. there’s no reason for such a man to be there, let alone a leader of a gang, and they can just hope he leaves soon without causing any trouble. when the boy’s eyes wander to see that stranger again, he’s already staring back at him. mike tenses up, but he doesn’t break their gaze, seeing light blue in the distance. the man narrows his eyes, taking the cigarette between two fingers, and smoke leaves his lips. mike's heart beats faster and he doesn’t know if it is for fear or curiosity. beverly hums and adjusts her red dress, as if calling his attention. some women try to approach him and mike just snorts when they all turn around with a huff, rolling their eyes.

he keeps glancing at that corner, though, and that stranger seems to be always looking at him first. it makes mike’s cheeks redden and he clears his throat, choosing to chat with some of laddies of the house. beverly pinches her cheeks and adjusts her boobs before walking towards that man, her turn to try, and eddie just smiles at her. the girls giggle next to him, opening their fans to hide their grins. however, mike's face falls when the cowboy just points at the boy with his chin. beverly turns to him for a second and she speaks, but they can’t hear her from there. mike’s heart skips a beat and he shakes his head at them, muttering a no. beverly shrugs and the guy glares at her, making a motion with his hand.

what could that cowboy want with mike hanlon?

when the last wagon of the night arrives, mike gives beverly and eddie the okay to leave for the night, and mike pays for their booze and brings the boxes inside between huffs. the cowboy against the window scared most of his customers out the door after noon. less customers just means there's less chance for brutes, drunks, and the lovely combination of the two to start fights on his property. those always cause more trouble than entertainment, having to deal with the repercussions of such things were never fun for anybody but the spectators who didn't have to replace damaged goods. and he wasn't interested in bringing out the shotgun tonight.

mike was quite alright with polishing the last of the glasses. “quite a charming, little cantina you have here, my good man."

mike glances at up at the stranger but doesn’t let himself linger too hard. he chuckles to himself, those are the first words that man’s spoke all day. mike was getting ready to kick him out as he was shutting down. as a businessman who saw much to do about everything in this small town, he took small pride in knowing each and every bastard who traipsed through his door. certainly helped in regards to remembering just who he needed to rough up to get the tap paid proper. and there are faces he’s not very fond of every night, but this one is different.

there's a reason he's stayed around this long. he curses to himself and sets his glass down, he hasn’t turned off the taps yet. "what does the gentleman want tonight? i will have to kick you out after first glass, so don't get too comfortable."

the cowboy smirks, now standing in front of the bar. "i've actually come seeking other necessities."

“if you come looking for a woman, then you are out of luck. they’re gone for the night.” mike takes this moment to make eye contact.

“no, no, i've not come looking for sexual pleasantries.” the red snake gave a husky laugh. “no, not right now. i've come to inquire about lodgings for a night or two. perhaps more if my luck has not quite dried up.” the man finally takes his hat off and places it on the counter and it’s the first time the mike can take a good look at him.

he has danger written all over him. beverly was right, not good news at all. mike knows that face and it doesn’t take long for him to realize just how these features are familiar to him. if he glances past the man, he can see a torn up, weathered parchment on the post of his door. an old wanted poster nailed up long ago.

william "red snake" denbrough: outlaw wanted for murder and many other things that just don’t fit on a meager piece of paper. there’s a reward on his head, dead or alive. nobody has gone to hunt the man and come back with any kind of story. or come back at all, to be brutally honest.

mike feels for the shotgun close by, beneath the counter. always there just for the instances where shooting a hole in his roof to spook a few drunks and alerting the authorities was the only solution. he’s never been happier to have it so at hand. if not for his life, but his financial safety, and to claim that reward money for his own pockets. getting this outlaw out of his hair for the night was just a bonus.

“and why should I be the one to point you in the right direction?” mike keeps his hand on the handle of his weapon as he watched the outlaw with a keen eye. “way i see it, i would just be leading you straight to the folk who would take your head for themselves.”

bill chuckles lowly and fiddles with the belt on his hip. mike noticed it when he came in, but he must have put it back but on his lip, and it’s never been of worry untill now. about everybody had a piece on hand, but not everybody was a hardened criminal.

"cause i’m not looking for any kind of bed. i've come searching just for yours.”

that has him curious. and flustered, mike hates to admit. propositioning him of all things? ghastly man indeed. and to fall for it as well? what did that make him? mike keeps his thoughts at bay, keeping a look of professional disinterest.

“and what reason would that be? one of my more idiotic regulars peg you down to clear away their debt with me? their debt will still be there come morning when my blood is dried.” it’s true. "so i would not waste your bullets on me.”

“i’ve come not on a job. i am quite sincere when i say i need a bed. and i would hope a man of your caliber would understand.” bill has his elbow on the counter now, leaning in much closer than need be now that they are alone. it’s threatening, plain as that. and while he won’t show it, the outlaw is doing quite a decent job at it, his tall and lean stature aiding him quite nicely.

“my caliber…” mike grits out. “as a humble saloon man?”

“no, no. i mean as a fellow man avoiding the law.”

a pregnant pause. a creak of floor boards as the building settles. mike feels his blood go as cold as the pipes in the winter. and his shock must show because the auburn man is smirking like he just won a game of cards.

“that poor, poor town fifty miles yonder. the one that seemed to turn into a ghost town overnight.” bill fiddles with a toothpick left out on the bar. mike watches him with unblinking eyes. “no survivors and no evidence that a single weapon was drawn. a real mystery that one.” mike transfixed on his words and the meager toothpick at the mercy of the outlaw’s fingers, watching it be toyed with gently.

“you were seen in that town not long before.” the toothpick snaps. “i wonder why.”

the saloon owner knows. it was true. the town of castine had use of his services long ago. a sickness that seemed to spread from home to home. their doctor had succumbed to it as well. and mike hanlon was a man of medicine, to go along with his upkeep of his liquor business. a man who was known to be called when no one else could.

for a fee of course. or a list of favors that they would be expected to give once he sent men for collection. sure, he could understand some tardiness. but that could happen only enough times before he grew sick of waiting. he was a businessman. and in business, one must face the consequences.

the saloon wasn't doing too well, and it had to be resorted to. his father- the town's mayor, knew nothing of it. he gave him enough crap choosing to own the saloon, how would he feel knowing his son was using the saloon as a front for a murder service?

but he was usually so careful! never by his own hand, by the gods never, but when it came to dealing the deadly duty, the saloon-doctor-gang boss would only trust his men to get the job done quickly and cleanly. well, as clean as teaching a lesson can get. he’s got to have a word with beverly and eddie soon.

“what--” mike straightens himself and eyes the door just in case. “what is it that you needed again, sir .”

bill snickers. he places his hat on his chest, giving a teasing bow. “why, only a safe place of lodging. for a night or two.” he shrugs. “here and there.” his gaze is deadly. “whenever i call.”

tension swelled during the staredown, and there was quick motion on the cowboy's part, pulling the pistol from his hip. he pressed it firmly under mike's chin and tilted his head up to lock eyes with bill. "you wouldn't want your daddy knowing what you do after hours, would ya?"

mike's sweating, he knows it’s a dangerous gamble. housing a highly sought out criminal like that? the effects of denying this man though could end in many ways. could easily end with a shootout that attracts attention, grabbing the sheriff. and losing that potential sweet reward of his head. but there is also the pickling situation of being outed, locked up, and worked to the bone on the railway.

or killed. any situation besides obliging him could easily end up with a hole in his head, still with a gun pressed under his head. not an option.

there’s not much a man can do in this situation. and it’s with that that mike hangs his head with his a release of held breath. he takes his hand off the shotgun and reaches for the good whiskey on the shelf behind him.

“you should know coming to me is the equivalent of a business partnership,” mike explains sternly as he pours not one but two crystal glasses. “my facilities, your services. we only stand to mutually benefit from an agreement.”

“i couldn’t think of a better way to come together, mr. hanlon.”

amber liquid sloshes as their glasses clink. as they down their burning pledges to one another.

the west becomes so much more dangerous in that moment.

#mike hanlon #bill denbrough #hanbrough #it 2017

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ladylynse · 6 years

Text

Anyone who knows me from FF.net remember, years ago, when I said I was debating writing a sequel to my Danny Phantom fic Confessions and possibly tying it into Complications so I could pretend those all happened in the same universe? The fact that I never decided whether I should officially tie it in is one of the reasons this sequel stalled, but here’s the start of it.

All Maddie did was look at the ghost files on the computer; she didn’t expect to learn so much--or be reminded of just how little she knew.

It wasn’t very often that Maddie was home alone. Usually, Jack was with her or Jazz was up in her room, studying or doing homework. But both her husband and daughter were out with her son, doing something she never would have dreamed they would be doing even a month earlier: they were out patrolling. Ghost hunting.

Target practice, Danny had called it. Jazz had improved since she’d started helping him, he’d said, but Jack still needed to work on his aim. “I shouldn’t be safer floating in one spot than flying around,” Danny had pointed out. “And let’s face it. I’m better off staying right where I am when Dad’s shooting at me.”

But it wasn’t just target practice. It wasn’t just patrolling. It wasn’t just hunting together, giving Danny and Jazz a chance to bond with their father. They’d needed to make a statement: that the Fentons had decided to support Danny Phantom. Working with him was their way of getting the public to accept it.

They hadn’t waited until a major ghost attack to start working with Danny. Jack had been too eager to hunt ghosts with his son, and Maddie hated the thought of aiming an ectogun at Danny, even if it was for practice. So, whenever they turned up at the scene of a ghost attack before Danny had taken care of the threat, they focused on fighting the hostile ghost. They left Phantom alone.

There was still a bit of a show each time. Danny always reminded them, loudly, that he was the good guy. But it was more for the benefit of bystanders than a reminder to them to resist the urge to shoot at a ghost. Because Phantom, at least in her eyes, was no longer just a ghost.

He was her son.

He always would be, and she’d never stop loving him.

They’d managed to get most of their weapons to ignore Danny’s ecto-signature. The Ghost Gabber was a strange exception, for instance, and Danny refused to test a ‘supposedly modified Fenton Peeler’, as he put it. Maddie couldn’t blame him, really. But she made sure she kept a non-modified Fenton Finder on hand and, at Danny’s request, a Fenton Thermos. Three, in fact, all to be stored in different places.

He’d never explained that request, though it wasn’t for lack of her asking.

She’d even opened her mouth to ask Jazz once and received only a significant look and a deliberate shake of the head in return. The intent had been clear: don’t ask. Don’t push it. If she knew, she wasn’t going to say. It was up to Danny and Danny alone. They weren’t to force him to say anything to them.

It was as much Jazz’s reaction as Danny’s actions that made Maddie suspect that the Fenton Thermoses were indeed being kept for a deliberate reason rather than merely for simple caution. That just made her worry more, of course. There was so much that Danny had told them, but so much more he hadn’t….

She found it hard. She wanted to protect Danny, but she couldn’t do that when she didn’t know what sort of danger he was in half the time. And as much as he had proven that he could protect himself, that he could protect her more than she could protect him, she couldn’t stop worrying.

Maddie smiled wryly. That must be how Jazz felt. How she and Jack hadn’t picked up on the increase in Jazz’s protectiveness of her little brother was beyond her. In retrospect, she knew that the signs had been there; she could recognize them now.

Of course, she could also now recognize the reason for Jazz’s fierce defense of Phantom.

It was quiet in the lab; she was so used to the soft hum of machinery in the background that she hardly heard it. Maddie took a sip of her coffee and grimaced. It had gone cold. A shame, since it was rare that she allowed herself the luxury of food or drink the lab, even though Jack had no such misgivings and it was he who usually encouraged her to fill her favourite mug.

“Perhaps I’m too sentimental for a scientist,” Maddie murmured, knowing her occasional inability to separate her emotions from her work was one of the reasons it had taken her so long to believe the truth about her son. She placed the ‘World’s Best Mom’ mug on the countertop. It was one Danny and Jazz had proudly presented her with on Mother’s Day the year Danny had been five. They’d pooled their allowances and picked it out, filling it with little trinkets they’d made. According to Jack, they’d also bought a few candies to put in it, but those had been gone before they’d made it back home.

To this day, she wasn’t entirely convinced that her children were the reason for the disappearance of the sweets.

Maddie smiled. She might not have Jack’s confession, but she knew his sweet tooth wasn’t restricted to fudge. A double batch of cookies didn’t always make two days in her house, particularly if they were one of her kids’ favourite kinds. Especially now; she hadn’t had much time to bake of late, and her cookies had become a rare commodity.

No, that wasn’t quite true. She’d had time; she simply hadn’t spent it baking. Instead, she’d worked with Jack to ensure all of their inventions were safe for Danny. She’d watched the news channels and listened to the radio to monitor ghost attack reports more fervently than before. She’d turned her attention to ways to help Danny combat problems he might encounter in the future, brainstorming everything from smaller, more inconspicuous ghost containment devices to chemical formulas that could counteract potential pregnancy complications arising from Danny’s unique DNA—something that would be infinitely easier if Danny would simply let her take a few samples. Until he did that, she couldn’t so much as begin to genotype his DNA and identify ecto-markers that could be useful if he ever ran into any complications in his own life, like a ghost-related disease such as the ecto-acne that plagued Vlad.

And she’d debated, over and over, how to get more information out of her son.

She’d questioned Danny frequently now. Not about anything major; just small things. Who he had fought tonight. Whether he’d gotten injured. If he’d started his homework. Why he hadn’t called them in to stop the ghost so he could study for his upcoming math test.

She hoped to start getting more things out of him. Tactical information, perhaps, like the fighting styles of each of the ghosts he faced regularly. Something he would be comfortable with answering. It would be easier to move from those questions to the more difficult ones. How he had coped after the accident and how he had learned to control his powers, for instance.

Those still weren’t the questions she wanted to ask, of course. She’d gotten a few reasons for her son’s more questionable actions as Phantom from Jazz’s scrapbook, but a jotted note did nothing to really explain anything. Hypnotized? Framed? By whom? She couldn’t just accept that it had happened and leave it in the past. Someone had tried to use her son, had tried to turn everyone against him. She couldn’t just…. She needed answers.

There were so many things Danny kept from them. She’d given him ample opportunity to talk to her, but he ignored every opening. He’d change the subject. He’d suddenly remember he had homework to do or, more often, that he’d promised to meet up with Sam and Tucker somewhere. He’d come up with any excuse he could to avoid talking about it.

She didn’t want to push too hard too soon, for fear that he’d soon find reason to avoid talking to her at all.

Maddie breathed a soft sigh. She’d been sitting in front of the computer, just thinking, for far too long. When she’d first come down here, hands wrapped around a steaming cup of coffee, she’d thought she could turn her focus to the latest FentonWorks invention in development. The Fenton Spectre Binder had been pushed off to one side in favour of the Fenton Freeze Ray—“To look at once we get the kinks of this baby,” Jack had said, proudly patting the prototype for his latest brainchild. Despite the fact that Jack had insisted on taking the prototype for a trial run, she knew it could stand a good deal more refining.

Jack had originally intended to call it the Fenton Phantom Freeze, until Danny and Jazz had heard the name and immediately forbade him from ever saying that again. “It’s not a secret if you practically announce it to the entire town,” Jazz had argued. “Danny doesn’t need you to hand out any more clues than he already does!”

Danny, in the end, had been the one to suggest the Phantom Freeze be renamed the Freeze Ray. “It’s basically an ectogun that shoots out stuff that’ll temporarily turn ectoplasm to ice, right? I mean, it won’t stop time, but it should still be pretty cool if you can get it to work.”

They had never dreamed of suggesting that Danny act as a test subject for them, but his input had moved their research along considerably. He had offered to give them some spectral ice—something he hadn’t realized was any different from regular ice until she’d studied it and informed him of its differing properties. By using the product of his ice powers as a guide, she had been working on synthesizing a chemical that would freeze when it came in contact with a ghost’s ectoplasmic structure. Jack was refining the design for the gun and, she suspected, trying to discover how much pressure the liquid could withstand before the weapon would either explode in the user’s hand or simply freeze up and not fire.

It was thinking about Danny’s reaction to the Freeze Ray that had led her to thinking about Danny himself. Danny, and his secret, and everything she still didn’t know. Shortly after Jack had first announced his idea, Danny had told her, in passing, that he was good friends with the ghost who had taught him to keep his ice powers under control.

“Klemper?” she’d guessed, remembering that this was the ice ghost’s oft-repeated request, but he’d doubled over laughing.

“Frostbite,” he’d managed at last. “He’s the leader of the ghosts in the Far Frozen. I’ll introduce you guys sometime.”

She’d never even heard of the Far Frozen, but then again, she could count the places in the Ghost Zone that she had heard of on one hand. Even now, after a month of off-handed references from Danny, she felt she knew very little. She knew the reason, of course. Even after the Spectre Speeder had been finished, she and Jack had never ventured into the Ghost Zone. The only time she’d been there was the time the entire town had been transported there, essentially held hostage by a terrible ghost.

It was another time Danny had yet to tell them about.

There was no single reason that she hadn’t begun to explore the Ghost Zone. She and Jack had long ago agreed that it would be too dangerous to take the kids—ironic, really, since Danny and his friends had begun mapping the Ghost Zone because of the frequency of their travels there and that map had given her more knowledge of the Ghost Zone than she’d gained before. The danger, however vague, had felt real enough to them as ghost hunters to be wary. It was one thing to fight ghosts in the Real World, but quite another to fight the ghosts in their own territory, even if they intended to do no more than defend themselves from attack.

She’d been making…preparations…for when she and Jack made their first trip into the Ghost Zone.

Just in case.

But there was also the fact that there had never been a good time to venture off into the Ghost Zone when they were unsure of how long the journey would take, the fact that Jack always seemed to be thinking up new modifications for the Speeder, the fact that the ghosts might take advantage of their absence from Amity Park….

There was reason enough to put the trip off again and again, but Maddie now felt that she’d been trying to find one more excuse not to go, even if she couldn’t pinpoint the reason for the avoidance.

Maddie glanced at the computer again, at the three accounts on it—hers and Jack’s, Danny’s, and Jazz’s, though Jazz preferred to use her own computer—and wondered, just for a moment, if she’d always felt that they didn’t know enough about the ghosts themselves to venture into unknown enemy territory.

“Collaborating with Danny Phantom will give you an instant insight into almost every ghost that you’ve seen in Amity Park,” Jazz had told them. “Danny keeps his own files.”

Danny didn’t have his own computer. He’d never earned it, and he’d never saved enough to buy one.

If he had electronic files—which was likely, considering he was friends with Tucker—they would be here, on their shared lab computer.

Maddie hesitated for a moment, then clicked on Danny’s account. He’d never told them not to look, and Jazz wouldn’t have informed them of the existence of his files if Danny was keen on keeping them a secret. She’d forgotten about them at first, and she knew her son well enough to know that he had likely forgotten that they hadn’t seen them.

Maddie stared at the blinking cursor in the password box for a moment.

She knew her son.

She wasn’t sure if he had yet accepted some of the things she, along with almost everyone else, knew about him.

Slowly, Maddie typed a name into the password box and hit enter. INCORRECT PASSWORD glared back at her, so she tried again. Capitals and space, like last time, but this time, the full name. The name that would be used for the signatures, when the time came, for she was sure it would.

This time, the screen loaded, and Maddie smiled. “I’m proud of you, Danny,” she said quietly. “Perhaps you aren’t so clueless after all. Just nervous, like your father was.”

Maddie found Danny’s files in a folder on his desktop. She found the ghost files, as he called them, to be surprisingly organized, and she couldn’t help but wonder if Jazz had had a hand in their creation. Of course, Danny would be more likely to keep something like this organized than, unfortunately, his room or his schoolwork. To him, they were more important, and if something happened, if someone other than him needed to access the files, they needed to be navigable.

Maddie started reading the files, skimming them over rather than taking the time to absorb their full detail. She wanted to know who her son had faced down, who he had beaten, all without her knowing, and she wanted to know who his allies were. Who she could trust, if she really needed to.

The files were alphabetized, and it became all too clear that there were many ghosts she had never heard of. Amorpho? Aragon? The first one she recognized was the Box Ghost, and he wasn’t even the first of the ‘B’s.

Danny had more ghosts on file than she had ever seen in Amity Park.

He had more details in each file than she and Jack had managed to garner collectively.

And, for some inexplicable reason, he had some of them locked down.

Tightly.

She could understand perfectly well that Danny would have met more ghosts and discovered more about them. She wasn’t particularly happy with the idea, since she knew most of his encounters had probably been unpleasant ones, resulting in fights of which he undoubtedly would never want her to know the details. She could understand why he had his own file encrypted and password protected and otherwise locked to her. She was even sure he had only called it Phantom, D., in case she or Jack had stumbled upon it before he had confessed his secret to them, despite the fact that they were both well aware that he was calling himself ‘Danny Phantom’.

Still, judging by the number of subfiles she could ascertain it contained…. It had to be more than just a description of his powers.

But she respected Danny’s privacy, at least in this instance, and after a half-hearted attempt at guessing the password for the folder, she’d moved on.

It was when she came upon the second—and last, she suspected—file that was locked up so tightly that it was undeniably Tucker’s work that she knew she would be having a talk with Danny when he got back.

She’d seen enough of his fights to know that Plasmius, V., was not only the true name of the Wisconsin Ghost, but also that he was one of the strongest enemies Phantom—her own son—had ever faced. Their fights ended in draws or with one party or the other conceding, just for a time, than there was a clear victor. If Plasmius was Danny’s enemy, quite possibly his arch-enemy, then she wanted to know as much about him as possible. They could even design a weapon for Danny to use against him, if it would help.

But she couldn’t even think of personalizing the weaponry, specifically targeting Plasmius’s ecto-signature, when she didn’t know any more about him what he’d looked like, the places he’d haunted, and the fact that, for some inexplicable reason, he wanted her son.

Plasmius didn’t want to destroy Danny Phantom. He didn’t see her son like a trophy as the hunter ghost Skulker did. But it was as if her son was the ghost’s obsession, which did not make sense when accounts of the Wisconsin Ghost predated the day of Danny’s accident. The day of Phantom’s creation.

It had to be something else. There was some reason that she couldn’t find, a reason she suspected, by the unopenable file, that Danny already knew.

Jazz’s words from that day a month ago flitted through her mind once more, as they had so many times since she’d first heard them. The unfinished question that was proof enough that Jazz still knew so much more about Danny and his secret—his secrets—than she. “You’re not even going to tell them about…?”

Perhaps this was it. Perhaps this was the end of the question. You’re not even going to tell them about Plasmius?

Danny’s answer, at the time, had been simple: “Not yet.”

Not then, but perhaps now.

Because secrets…. Secrets had a way of coming between people, when important things were kept from those dearest to you. And she didn’t want to see Danny hurt at the hands of Plasmius, not when she might be able to do something to help him. He wasn’t alone anymore. She and Jack weren’t hunting him down, and even the Red Huntress—though if Danny knew her identity, he was being tight-lipped about it, too—seemed to have accepted that Phantom wasn’t about to destroy the town.

But Plasmius’s actions, true to form for the ghost that he was, hadn’t changed.

“I hope you’ll tell us what’s going on, Danny,” Maddie whispered. “This is too important to keep secret.”

2XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“Did you have fun, sweetie?”

Danny drained his glass of water, set it on the counter, and looked at his mother, who was sitting at the table. Jazz had already gone upstairs and Jack down to the lab, the former to study and the latter to tweak the Freeze Ray, which hadn’t done well in its first field test. Well, it hadn’t done well considering it was supposed to freeze ectoplasm instead of create so much friction when discharging that sparks flew. But he somehow got the feeling that wasn’t what Maddie was getting at.

“Uh, yeah?” Danny could hear the uncertainty in his own voice, brought on more from the clear unease in Maddie’s stance than anything else, and when he wasn’t called on it, he knew something was wrong.

Well, something was wrong or she’d found out something that unsettled her. She was on edge, at any rate. She didn’t look a whole lot better now than she had when she’d been on the trail of his secret. And if he could see that….

“Mom, is anything wrong?”

Maddie sighed softly and tucked a stray auburn lock behind her ear. “I think we need to talk,” she said.

Danny’s gut twisted unpleasantly in a way it hadn’t for a while around his parents. “What’d I do?” he asked, pulling out a chair and sitting down beside her. He should’ve known that she’d wanted to talk when he’d seen her sitting at the table, waiting for him, not so much as a notepad or file of blueprints in front of her.

“Oh, you didn’t do anything, honey,” came the immediate reassurance.

Despite the words, Danny felt his insides take another cruel twist. Then what? Ghosts were his first thought, but Maddie Fenton was used to dealing with ghosts. It was hard to find a ghost-related situation that would have his mother looking like she did, where she didn’t know what to do. She’d already faced the worst she could—finding out that her own flesh and blood could now technically be classified as an ectoplasmic entity—so there was no reason for her to look like—

Oh.

Oh, crud.

He didn’t want to go there yet.

Danny’s mouth went dry. “Mom, what were you doing while we were out?” He was pretty sure he had everything even remotely related to Danielle buried, but he’d been hoping to have a little more time to figure out how to best dig that skeleton up—and ideally track down where Dani had gone off to—before he said anything, but now….

Maddie stretched out her hand, found his, and squeezed. This did nothing to help Danny’s racing heart. “I didn’t think you’d object to my reading your ghost files.”

Danny shifted in his seat. “I don’t,” he said, “but….” Some of those files were locked for a reason. Who knew his mother could hack stuff better than Tucker? He hadn’t even thought the Guys in White would be able to get into all of his files if they confiscated the computer.

Maddie sighed. “I’m sorry, Danny. I should have waited.”

“No, it’s fine,” Danny said immediately. “It’s just….” How was he supposed to explain Dani? How could he explain Dani? He didn’t even know where she was, and that ate at him more than anything else.

He should have bitten the bullet a long time ago. Told his parents about her—about him—when she had first turned up. But he’d known how much she’d needed to get away from Vlad and everything he represented, get away from him and all his influence, and find her own self. He’d thought…. He’d made excuses, talked himself into thinking that letting her go was the best thing for her, when in reality, it had only been the best thing for him.

It was selfish. He was selfish. Danielle wasn’t old enough to live on her own, especially if he considered her actual age rather than her physiological and mental one; she shouldn’t have to fend for herself, and that’s what he’d let her do. She was…. She was his responsibility, and he hadn’t even opened his mouth to say she should stay with him.

All because he didn’t want to face his parents.

Vlad being in town definitely didn’t help matters.

“Mom,” Danny said slowly, “I think I know what this is about.”

Maddie was looking at him earnestly, the worry clear in her eyes. “I don’t want to push you into telling me,” she said quietly, “but I think it’s for the best if I know more about the situation. I might be able to help.”

Considering he was going to propose Danielle live with them once she’d had her fill of roaming and they figure out how to come up with her background story and the appropriate papers after the fact, he was definitely going to need her help. And probably Tucker’s. And Sam’s. And Jazz’s, if only for the transition.

“I didn’t know how to tell you,” Danny admitted.

“Just start at the beginning,” his mother said, tightening her grip on his hand for a few seconds. “Once I understand why he’s after you, I’ll be able to help you defend yourself.”

Wait.

What?

“Once you understand why who’s after me?” Danny asked, pulling his hand out of Maddie’s grasp and staring blankly at her.

He was both relieved and ashamed that this wasn’t about Danielle.

It was a few seconds before Maddie answered, and in that time, Danny saw what she was thinking displayed clearly on her face. There were still more secrets. Secrets she hadn’t uncovered yet. Things he was deliberately keeping from her. This wasn’t it, and he still didn’t trust her enough to tell her everything.

But Maddie Fenton was quick to hide her dismay—heartbreak, the little voice in Danny’s mind corrected—and, keeping her face carefully blank as she studied him, said, “Plasmius. The Wisconsin Ghost.”

She didn’t ask what he’d thought she’d been getting at.

She didn’t want to push him too hard.

That just made him feel even more terrible than he already did, really. Keeping his secret from them had been hard enough. Keeping everyone else’s secret from them when they already knew his was even harder. Only this time, they weren’t pushing. They were letting him keep it. Even though they knew that, if he was keeping it a secret, they probably wouldn’t like the truth—despite being convinced they should know it.

Of course, the subject of Vlad wasn’t a whole lot better than Danielle, even without considering they were connected. Danny swallowed. “Plasmius is, um, kinda a, uh….”

“Danny.” His mother’s voice was gentle. “I just want to help you. Please, let me.”

“It’s a long story,” Danny managed weakly.

Maddie’s face fell. “And you aren’t ready to tell it,” she concluded.

“It’s just….” He’d have to tell them sometime. He just wasn’t sure now was the right time.

How long could he use that excuse?

Latching onto something Valerie had once said to him, Danny offered one more point to make his case: “It’s complicated.”

He could see the unspoken response in his mother’s expression: But if you’d just let me, I’d help you make sense of it.

Danny took a breath and let it out slowly. “You’ve probably noticed,” he said carefully, “that the Wisconsin Ghost isn’t still in Wisconsin.”

Maddie didn’t say anything. She just sat quietly at the table, waiting. Waiting, and watching him, and listening to every word he was willing to tell her.

She wanted to help him, and she didn’t understand the half of it, and he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted her to understand.

Sure, it would cement her view that Vlad’s a creep. She’d see him for the fruitloop that he was. His dad would finally understand that his old college buddy wasn’t his friend and didn’t deserve to be treated as such. Vlad wouldn’t be able to pull any more stunts to try to work himself deeper into their lives.

Frankly, Danny would be happy if he never saw Vlad again.

But this…. He wasn’t sure he could say it like this. True, he found it hard to find any sympathy for Vlad, but his dad would be crushed. There had to be a better way to go about this.

He needed Jazz.

He hadn’t said anything for a while, and Maddie took this as an opportunity to prompt him. “He fixated on you when we brought you and Jazz along to our college reunion, didn’t he?”

Close enough. “That was the first time I met him….”

Maddie bit her lip. “I didn’t know, sweetie. Your…. After your accident, I’d attributed the increase in ecto-activity to the Fenton Ghost Portal.” She hesitated. “The other ghosts don’t usually seek you out, do they?”

Besides Vlad? Sure they did. Skulker. Walker. The list could go on, but Maddie didn’t need to know that. “Not all of them,” Danny said after a moment. “I mean, even in Wisconsin, the Dairy King only really showed himself to me because I needed help.”

Maddie didn’t so much as raise an eyebrow, meaning she remembered the name from his files. Instead, she asked, “How often do you need help?”

Right. He shouldn’t have admitted that. “Plasmius surprised me, that’s all. Besides, you should know now that the Dairy King isn’t the only friendly ghost out there.”

“Honey, I’m not sure you should—”

“It’s okay, Mom. Honest. It’s nothing I can’t handle.”

#danny phantom #phanfiction #fanfiction #dp fanfiction #dp fic #dp fanfic #my writing #ladylynse #lynse's random WIPs #dp snippet #snippets #dp wip

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titan-mom · 6 years

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The Pacifists

Destiny fic, Rise of Iron

1k, On Ao3 here

This is me returning to some OLD wips. Like REALLY OLD.

They said she lived among a band of Guardians who do not fight, who refuse to take up arms. Most are skeptical, some are offended. One is very envious.

Efrideet couldn’t tell if the waiting Warlock was shy or polite. He was too far away to discern an expression, but close enough for her to tell without a doubt his eyes were on her. She watched him back, surreptitiously, between bright smiles and respectful nods to the others that approached her stand.

He let a few pass him, gather in the crude line before her. He was waiting, then, to speak with her alone. Her thoughts went immediately to the weapons she traded for displays of valor in the Iron Banner. Some had thought they could steal from her, she was not Lord Saladin after all. They had found themselves at the bottoms of the rocky chutes behind her station. Afterwards, Shaxx had offered crates with locks that only her Ghost could open.

She asked him then: “But what if I am to fall, and the weapons are needed?” They were not only boons, but the contingency of the Iron Temple. Armories in plain sight.

“Then we would throw the boxes from the cliffs, and jump after. They will crack open and be at our feet when we revive.” Shaxx had boomed, and they had shared a laugh at the thought. Still, she left the weapons unsealed.

Warlock, Warlock. Long robes with the red of mahogany heartwood. She couldn’t remember meeting him. He waited, and she waited, lingering in her conversations, dallying in her trade. Prolonging the meeting that was putting uneasiness to her spine.

Finally, her last visitor trickled away, inspecting his new sidearm. The Warlock, as expected, approached. Efrideet kept her posture cool and relaxed. Always better to let your opponent believe you were unprepared.

She inspected him as he drew closer. He seemed uncertain of himself, almost. Ah, she could handle that.

“Here for the Banner, Warlock?” An invitation, jovial, cheerful. “A few days late but you’ve still got a chance.” The shy types always wanted to hear her compare them to one of the fabled Iron Lords. Titans and Hunters were easier, mention beloved Jolder, regal Perun, and you can almost see the stars in their eyes. But Warlocks? Felwinter had been crass, Timur an enigma, Skorri an anomaly. She always struggled to find something to say about them that would bolster a fighting spirit.

Luckily, this Guardian let out a hearty laugh before she could dwell too long. “I’m not a participant, no.” He chuckled. Efrideet offered him a sympathetic smile.

“Oh, come on now. You can’t be that bad. Let me see your Crucible record, your Ghost can patch it over.”

He shook his head. “Never been in.”

“Gutsy.” She nodded in genuine respect. “Vanguard recommendation is required in that case, though.” It was Saladin’s rule from before she had returned. He wanted his Banner to be a true challenge. “Don’t want to balance teams unfairly. That’s what happens when people lie about their skill, boast what they cannot achieve.”

Another chuckle. “I know. Haven’t got a recommendation either.”

She raised an eyebrow, began to wonder if her time was being wasted. “What can I do for you, then?”

He sighed, something ancient and forlorn. The smile he settled into had some kind of weary affection. “Perhaps satisfy some mere curiosity. I’m glad to know the white hairs I keep finding are my imagination. And our minds last some time, past the end of a normal lifespan, it seems.” She took her hands from her hips, folded them quite deliberately over her chest.

“I’m not really following.” Efrideet tried to curb her displeasure. “And I do have some work…”

“Right, sorry.” He raised his hands, a polite gesture of apologetic palms. “We met once, I just wondered if you remembered, did not expect you to.”

“I see a lot of Guardians every day, in the weeks I’ve been back at the temple. My deepest apology if I don’t recall every one of them.”

“Oh, no!” He huffed a laugh. “No, it was quite a while ago, I really did not expect you to remember. In all honesty I didn’t remember what you looked like, just knew the name.”

“Well, the legends have grown in my absence.” She rationalized, but faltered. “We met… long ago? More than a few months?”

The Warlock nodded once, slowly, sagely.

“You’re a very old man.” She murmured.

“I am.” He affirmed. “You told me something once. Survival is all one war, there are many fights on many fields at the same time. Not everyone fights the same. I took that to heart, very much so.”

“I’m flattered.” She rolled the words around in her head, yes it sounded like something she’d have said long ago. She knew now the world was much less cut-and-dry.

“It put me deeply at peace, but I am still looking for something, in all these years. Like minded people.”

She peered at him, tilted her head. “Of what do you mean?”

“You’re a legend of battle Efrideet, but they say you left for people who are surely not. I would very much like to meet my fellows.”

“I do not disclose their whereabouts for their safety.” She recited. The rumor had spread quickly, she could not deny it. So she carried on her defense on autopilot. The people she knew, she could not allow others to find them, manipulate them.

“I am no danger.” He assured her. “I wish not to change their ways, nor my own.” He was so certain, maintaining a steady stare. She let silence lapse, considering him.

“Tell you what. Find me again in three days time, when the banner has ended. Tell me stories of your centuries since last we met, and perhaps I will consider telling you some of mine.”

“A fair bargain.” He crowed. Seemed positively delighted at the mere prospect of knowledge. Perhaps he would not have been insulted being compared to Timur.

“What was your name? I’m sorry I did not remember it.”

“I didn’t have one yet when we last spoke, it’s no fault of yours. Now I am called Mack.”

“Alright Mack. Three days. Be punctual, I may head out on a hunt if you take too long.”

“Then I’ll wait.” He chuckled. “I have the patience of a zephyr in a valley, but I’ll wait. A little while longer will not hurt.”

Efrideet nodded, an end to the conversation, and he bowed and took his leave, sweeping away in that dignified way Warlocks with purpose did. There was a little bit of the ancients in him, yes she saw his age. She clasped her hands and receded to her dias, to wait and think. It would take some convincing, but she could see herself making an exception for this one.

#oh how ori-jen-al #destiny fic #story time with jen #mack #wow written words #amazing

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rokhal · 4 years

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fanfic authors tag game

Tagged by: @acerobbiereyes

Tagging: @hachi-mitsu-semi, @monicawoe, @heeeymackelena, @oh-my-hades

Ao3 name: rokhal

Fandom(s): Evil Dead, Pirates of the Caribbean, Supernatural, lurked on Stargate, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, All-New Ghost Rider, Agents of Shield

Number of fics: 62

1. Fic you spent the most time on: On AO3, probably Kimmy Gets A Subletter (Titus Gets An Historical Romance) which took about a year and a half to complete, despite being only 25k. (It was long for me at the time).

2. Fic you spent the least time on: again on AO3, that would be But Lose His Soul, which was completed as a “fifteen minute” fic (translation: twenty-five minutes).

3. Longest fic: Vengeance Drives For Uber, at 110k, aka Ghost Rider Novel

4. Shortest fic: Mission: Success, 585 words, a dark Supernatural/Dark Angel crossover written for a prompt meme on LiveJournal

5. Most hits: If Thy Face Offend Me, Cut It Off, a Supernatural/Evil Dead crossover that I happen to be unreasonably pleased with

6. Most kudos: The Tomato In The Mirror, a Supernatural/MCU crossover

7. Most comment threads: User’s Guide To Hydra’s Enhanced Manpower Asset

8. Fave fic you wrote: Man, it’s hard to pick. I think Incredible, Edible, which kind of came as a surprise, both in concept and in plot.

9. Fic you want to rewrite/expand on: I need to finish At This Point In History, where Robbie Reyes, Noble Kale, and the demonic reincarnation of Roxanne Simpson hunt down a gang of white supremacists.

10. Share a bit of your WIP or share a story idea that you’re planning:

All-New Ghost Rider/Danny Phantom crossover.

“It can hear him!” Night Rider hugged the Ghost Gabber to his chest. Dad grabbed for a weapon, came up with an unfinished gauntlet. Mom circled around the Fenton Speeder and levelled an ectorifle at Night Rider's head. “It can hear him. Oh fornication. Robbie, no, no, get the fornication away from these people, I know what you're thinking and it won't work! Fear me!” “Get out of our apprentice, ectoplasmic scum,” Mom snarled, as Dad bellowed, “Try me, spook,” and Danny didn't know whether to swoop in and haul Night Rider out of there, hand his dad a weapon that was actually finished, or make popcorn. He settled for standing at the top of the stairs, gaping at them. And keeping very quiet, because the Ghost Gabber was on. “You're real ghost hunters?” Night Rider demanded. “This stuff actually works?” “—actually works? Get out get out get out of here you ungrateful psychopath! I brought you back! You owe me! I am an undead scourge.” “We are the world's pre-eminent ectologists and paraphysical engineers,” said Mom primly. “And yes, ghost. It does work.” “We're one and the same! We have an eternal spiritual bond! You'll never be free of me, you'll destroy us both—” Night Rider shut the Ghost Gabber off, slowly set it on the floor, and knelt with his hands on top of his head. “Doctor Fenton, please.” His face twisted in desperation. “Get him. Out of me.”

Bonus: I have been watching. SO MANY car channels on Youtube to research for All-New Ghost Rider. I can pretend I know what I’m talking about for UP TO THIRTY SECONDS AT A TIME now.

#fandom #it me

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quiescentcastiel · 7 years

Text

*AC/DC screech* BACK IN CRACK!!! (ok that sounded better in my head. also it’s actually fairly canon-ish) (side note: suck it metatron)

Round 5 of @mittensmorgul‘s Great Fic Writer Scavenger Hunt pairs the tropes “Birds of a Feather“ and “Dean Winchester Blames Himself For Everything Ever“

Dean reached out to Cas who was standing, hunched shoulders shaking, in the middle of the bunker’s kitchen.

“We can get through this,” he said, “It’s not like you haven’t been human before, right?”

“But this is it now.” Cas’ voice was rough but barely above a whisper. “I’m human now, until I die.”

“Cas…” Dean gently turned Cas around to face him, but the angel couldn’t meet his eye. Sighing, Dean instead acted upon what he couldn’t put into words and enfolded Cas in his arms. Cas’ trembling became more pronounced, and his sobs echoed throughout the kitchen.

In the days following, both Sam and Dean did their best to acclimatize Cas to being human again and make him feel comfortable. Neither Cas nor Dean spoke about what’d happened that day.

A week had passed by since Cas turned human, and he still couldn’t seem to figure out how to work the bunker’s coffee maker. When he went to see if Dean would give him a hand, Cas found him in his bedroom, laying on his bed with his headphones on. He didn’t open his eyes, even when Cas called his name a couple times.

Cas walked over to Dean and gently laid his hand on Dean’s shoulder. In an instant, Dean’s eyes flashed open, and he had Cas’ wrist in a tight grip. But as he realized who it was, Dean relaxed and pushed his headphones down to rest on his neck.

“I’m sorry, Dean. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Naw, it was my bad,” said Dean, sitting up and shifting over to the edge of the bed. “I should know better than to listen to music loud enough that I can’t hear who’s sneaking up on me.”

“What were you listening to?” Cas asked, now unsure if coffee was a good enough excuse to bother Dean.

“Yes.”

“Yes what?”

“No, just Yes.”

“Who?”

“No, not the Who, Yes,” Dean insisted. He looked up at Cas who wore a mask of consternation, and his face split into a wide grin. “I’m sorry, buddy. It’s not fair of me to play Who’s On First with a man who doesn’t even know what’s going on.”

Cas realized that Dean had just been messing with him, and he sighed. “There’s so much I don’t know... so many human customs and such. I just-”

“It’s ok, Cas. Here, I’ll teach you.” He patted the bed next to him. “Your first lesson’ll be on good music.”

Cas sat next to Dean, not close enough that they were touching but enough that the air between them seemed to tingle. Dean placed the headphones over Cas’ ears.

“The band’s name is Yes. Here, lemme start the song from the beginning.”

They fell into a sort of routine of daily ‘lessons’, as Dean jokingly called them. He played Cas his music, made him read various books, and showed him all sorts of movies. Hell, Dean even took him shopping to get a new wardrobe filled with flannel and second-hand jeans.

Cas hung out with Sam too, but they found that they didn’t have quite as much in common. Cas groaned and complained the few times that Sam had tried to wake him up for a morning run, and Sam could only grimace at Cas’ unhealthy taste in food.

There was one thing neither Sam or Dean had quite touched though, and that was hunting. The brothers had hit a few small cases without him, always hurried along by Dean who didn’t like leaving Cas alone in the bunker too long, despite Sam arguing that some space would do him good. Cas had never asked to come along, though he’d been perfectly willing to let Dean teach him how to shoot and tell him all the ways to kill ghosts.

A couple months after Cas turned human, Sam found a case in a small town a couple of states over.

He explained to Dean; “Some guy took a nosedive into a port-a-potty, died, then a couple hours later was reported robbing a dispensary the next town over.”

Dean’s ‘disgusted’ face was growing stronger and stronger.

“Sounds like a shape-shifter,” said Cas who had just walked into the room.

“That’d...” Sam looked up, surprised, “that’d be my guess.”

Dean, still thinking about dying in a port-a-potty, gave a little shudder and turned to Cas.

“Hey... you wanna come along?” he asked. It was sudden and un-thought-through, and they all knew it.

“I... I don’t know if I’m ready.”

“Sure you are,” said Dean. “Anyways, hunting’s always a good way to get back on your feet.”

Sam’s voice was less confident. “Shifters are usually a pretty small case, I suppose.”

Cas gave them a tentative smile. “Alright.”

Much to Sam’s chagrin, Cas and Dean sang along to Dean’s rock tapes all the way to the case. After they’d arrived, they checked into a motel late at night and all immediately crashed.

Sam was the first one to wake up the next morning, but he was loud enough getting up that he woke everyone else up too. Once dressed and in their fed suits, they all stopped into a small diner for some breakfast. Both Cas and Dean ordered a cheeseburger, while Sam got a fruit smoothie.

“Guys,” Sam complained, “burgers aren’t a breakfast food!”

Dean rolled his eyes, and Cas said, “As far as I’ve learned, anything can be a breakfast food.”

“Yeah, if you want to die at 40.”

Cas frowned. “Anyways, if you’ll excuse me, you two were taking too long in the bathroom this morning, and I needed to use it.” He got up from the diner booth and walked off.

After watching Cas step into the bathroom, Sam immediately turned to Dean.

“Don’t you think it’s strange how much Cas is like you now that he’s human?”

Dean scoffed. “He’s not like me! I mean, maybe we have some same interests, but that’s because what I like is cool.”

Sam rolled his eyes.

“Hey,” said Dean, “just because you’re jealous that he’s not into your healthy green crap doesn’t mean this is about me.”

“He’s exactly like you!” Sam exclaimed.

“We’ve been hanging out; he’s probably just picking up on some of my habits.”

“He’s practically imitating you.”

Dean looked meaningfully over Sam’s shoulder to signal to him Cas’ return, but whispered fiercely at the last minute; “No he’s not!”

Cas slid into the booth next to Dean, and Sam smiled innocently at him. “So Cas, you’ve been human a little while now; you’ve experienced some human things.” Sam waited for Cas’ nod, flicked Dean a condescending look, then continues with, “so what’s your favorite song?”

Cas, appearing completely ignorant of what’s going on between the brothers, considered for a moment before replying. “It’s a tie between Zep’s Ramble On and Traveling Riverside Blues.”

The smile on Sam’s face widens. “Favorite food?” he asked.

“Pie!” Cas answered immediately.

Dean frowned. He could see he was loosing this argument, so he decided to ask his own questions. “Favorite kinda car?”

“The Impala, of course!”

“Well,” that was a dumb question, “obviously! How about you’re favorite color?”

Cas tilted his head a little. “I kinda like pink.”

“See!” Dean jumped on this. “He’s nothing like me.”

Sam raised an eyebrow and said nothing more than, “Uh-huh.”

“Dean?” asked Cas. Fortunately, the waitress interrupted Cas with their orders, and nothing more was said.

Sam was right; the case was a small one. Shapeshifters could sometimes be tricky, but this one was stupid enough that the boys were able to track it to an old warehouse pretty quickly. They all split up in hopes of being able to ferret out what was currently an 80 year old man.

But after looking around for a couple minutes, none of them could find any sign of the shifter. Sam, Dean, and Cas all met back up in the middle of the warehouse.

“Did you see him?”

“No.”

“You, Cas?”

“Not a sign.”

“Dean! Sam!” Cas yelled, limping around a stack of boxes.

Immediately, Sam and Dean drew their weapons and stepped back from the first Cas.

“Oh, Cas,” Dean groaned. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t’ve made everyone split up; I just figured that this shifter wasn’t quick enough to pull this. Hell, if I hadn’t made you come along with us you wouldn’t be in this mess. It’s all my fault.”

He looked up at the first Cas who said, “Dean... It’s all good.”

He looked over at the second Cas who said, “It’s not your fault, Dean. It’s mine.”

Dean whirled around and shot the first Cas.

“Dean?!” protested Sam.

Cas, the real one, said in a small voice, “How did you know?”

“Cas, you’re just like me; You blame yourself for everything.”

After they got back home, Dean went to talk to Cas. He found him sitting at the table in the kitchen, looking tired.

“Here we are again,” Dean said, the first reference to that night that either of them had made. Cas looked up, a small smile on his face. Dean sat down opposite him. “I should’ve been more careful with your life. You’re human now, and I could’ve been wrong.”

“You were right though; I am too much like you. I just thought that, being human now, if I was more like you, I wouldn’t be such a burden.”

“Cas...” Dean sighed. “You know I care about you no matter who you are.”

“It’s just the last time I ended up here in the kitchen I just felt so different, so out of place. I thought if I was more like you, you wouldn’t want me to be an angel again. I lost my grace because of how much I love you, and I’m not turning back.”

Dean spoke quietly, “Of course I love you too, Cas, no matter what. But I don’t understand, are you saying it’s my fault you lost your grace?”

Cas’ eyes widened. “It’s not your fault, Dean. I did it for you. I made my choice; I want to be human so that I can be with you, so I don’t have to watch you grow old without me.”

Dean smiled and took Cas’ hand in his. They were very much alike.

“You weren’t lying about pie being your favorite food though, right?” Dean asked. Cas just laughed and shook his head.

#destiel fanfic #destielfanficnet #fan fiction #i hope this makes up for the last round #i've had exams every week for like the last month ahhhhhgh #my writing #round five #spn #supernatural fanfic #surprise! this blog isn't run by a robot #the great fic writer scavenger hunt #otp: i do everything you ask

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asagimeta · 7 years

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Teen Wolf 6x08- “Blitzkrieg”- Observations And Predictions

Hello my little glory swords, guess who's dealing with a headache? ... Again... I'm so glad that we finally have Stiles' name concreted in canon proof, and to know that I've been writing it correctly in fics for so long... that does me good freinds, that does me very good

Man that sequence with the yarn and the tacks was INCREDIBLE, I think it's probably one of the best sequences on the entire show, it's just really amazing ok? I'm impressed, although I have to say... in the best Mufasa voice I can manage, "Everything the string touches, becomes reality again"

Ahhh Scott biting Stiles, this is one of those moments where it actually does show Scott's development, remember in 3B when he not-quite-offered to bite Stiles? Let me set up the parallels: 3B- Stiles is right in front of him, very, very likely dieing of the same illness that killed his mother, Scott somewhat hesitantly only says "We'll do something, I'll do something", but he never makes any outright crystal clear promises, and Stiles notices that, the look on his face always reads to me that he doesn't quite believe Scott, remember at this point Scott has never bitten anyone and is rather fresh into Alphahood, there's probably quite a bit of good reason for Stiles' skeptcicism, however, this scene is drastically different, here we have Scott blatantly saying he'll bite Stiles- no hesitation, no room for misinerpertation, no room for doubt, he says it strongly and with convinction that he'll turn Stiles, and this is with the fact that he doesn't even know if he NEEDS to turn Stiles, he doesn't know if there's another way out, but he isn't going to take a chance, he doesn't even completely remember Stiles (something we had confirmed tonight) but he knows enough to know that Stiles is worth it, I know that there's alot of talk about Scott's questionable actions as a freind but it's times like these where I really feel the Sciles

Ofcourse Scott isn't the only one who's jumping on the wolf!Stiles bandwagon, Peter seems especially enthusiastic about Stiles getting The Bite, wich goes to show that for whatever reason, Peter still wants him as a wolf, he wasn't just messing with Scott and his freinds the first time arund and he wasn't just trying to build up an army of teenage werewolves either, he wanted Sties- SPECIFICALLY Stiles and ESPECIALLY Stiles- and what makes me so impressed and curious is just WHY he wants Stiles even though he's no lnoger an Alpha, without Alpha status, how how much use could wolf1Stiles be to Peter? It's such a curious thing to add in... why does Peter still want Stiles to be a wolf?

And that brings me to the other thing, the possibility of wolf!Stiles it's self (because we have to talk about it) I highly doubt that Teen Wolf will do this, if for no other reason simply because it's too easy, it'd be way too easy to just turn Stiles into a wolf and pull him out and then go back for the others later (although I'm glad that Peter pointed out the "So your plan is to bring Stiles back so he can make a plan" thing) but if it DID happen by some weird force of nature it would be so bittersweet to me, on the one hand, Stiles being ANYTHING is better than Stiles staying human (in my personal taste) and it would certainly make things interesting, especially if they ended 6A like that and left it primarily as something to handled in 6B, there are just so many interesting turns this could take, especially with Scott being his Alpha, and even more especially with the anxiety Stiles is already going through surrounding everyon splitting up next year, add being Scott's beta to that... but honestly I do love werewolf!Stiles, I love werewolf!EVERYONE to be honest with you, so I wouldn't really be that dissappointed.... on the other hand though, man, the wasted potential of magic!Stiles.... that would crush my soul, let me tell you, it would just seem so cheap too as an entirety... I'd still rather it than human!Stiles though

So it is now confirmed in canon that as long as there's even one other non-banshee person left in Beacon Hills, the Hunt can't move on, I'm pretty sure we already knew that but it's now confirmed in canon so I just thought I should point it out

When did all of the other Beacon Hills natives get captured? I mean did I miss something or.. or were most of them there when the episode ended...?

Ok now THIS I legitimately found interesting, when Dug left after Melissa agreed to help him get Parrish, I originally thought he said "Heil Argent" and ofcourse me first thought about THAT is how much it sounded like "Hale Argent", wich I would have had alot to say on, but it turns out according to the meta chat that it was actually "Herr Argent", and according to Google, "Herr" means "Lord" in German- interesting, Lord Argent.... ofcourse I read also that it could just mean Mister wich makes alot more sense and makes this alot less fun so there's that

Poor baby Mason.... just one of the many heartaches from tonight, but I'm glad that they found Corey's phone, even though it begs the question of how, did they just stumble upon it randomly, pick it up, and go "Oh hey look my boyfreind's phone!" or..??

So the question about the rift... is it always there, permenanately, or does it just come and go with the riders? Because it sounds on the one hand like it's a one place sort of deal, what with Lydia saying that since the rift was closed there wouldn't be another chance, but on the other hand it seems very... odd... at the same time, shouldn't the rift open up in different places? Is it always there even when the Hunt isn't? I'm just... very confused about rift-related things in general

I'm really dissappointed that Liam broke the sword to be honest, I mean ... Theo is the kind of gamble that they've won too many times you know? Like how you keep playing the same cycle of scratch-off tickets, eventually your luck will run out, and although he provided *some* information, it really wasn't good enough to warrant the sword being broken in my opinion, especially since, with the way he was gripping the bars of the cell, it looks like he's about to bust out of there at any moment, I do wonder if we'll see the sword getting somehow repaired at any point, maybe that's how Kira will get reintroduced (though if that's the case it won't be until late next season, we know Arden isn't in 6A, we know she isn't in the beginning of 6B either) It just seemed like he gambled way too much for something that he probably could have done without

Everytime we get a new canon species, my heart warms just a little bit more... I love getting new species ok? And a wolf-lion? A freaking wolf-lion? That sounds AWESOME, that means that somewhere out there is just your regular ol' lion shapeshifting species right? I love that there doesn't seem to be a real limit to the mythology in terms of shapeshifters, like if it's an animal it can be a shapeshifter, that's really neat, I do wish though that they would expand a little more on other areas of mythology before the series ends- like the faery realm and such, because otherwise banshees and druids stick out a little more in my opinion (oh who am I kidding? I want an entire beastiary of canon beasties in this show before it ends)

I have to say, the fact that it was, atleast in part, Ghost Rider venom that brought back the chimera kids is really interesting and makes alot of sense, considering the Hunt is using the ghost mythology rather than the faery mythology* it could make sense that they'd have some minor control over the afterlife and states of death vs life, and if it's manipulated and ferminted and combined with other random juices it could easily be a "bring back" serum, I'd just like to know what those other juices *are* and I wonder if anyone will try to recreate them and bring back the dead, in fact, I wonder if that could be a plot point for 6B, someone dies and everyone else tries to recreate the bring back serum to bring them back, and obviously they succeed but with........... side effects ;) Or maybe they try to bring back someone who's been dead for a long time and we get zombies, trouble is I don't really know who that would be, I don't really think they'd put in the effort for anyone but Allison and I can't see Crystal returning to play her for the end of the show, plus she's been dead for quite a wile and that would be... I mean... that'd be more like Walking Dead level undead you know what I mean? It is interesting to think about though, regardless

So Dug really is part Ghost Rider and that ISN'T just because he ate the peneal gland, wich ofcourse brings into question the entire theory behind the gland munching to begin with, if he isn't chomping down glands to become some kind of super hybrid, then why IS he eating them? It seems now that he only killed that Rider to get his weapon and the gland was just a light snack for the road, rather than the gland being the point and the wip being the extra prize at the end, also, is .. is his goal really just a spin off on the "take over the world" concept? That's so inspiringly unoriginal dude.....

I have to admit, I didn't see Melissa going into the next dimension, I figured that Chris would but I wasn't expecting Melissa, I'm guessing this is going to be a prime reason why Scott's "bite and run" plan is going to fail, there's no way he would bite his mom, so that means they'll have to go to a plan B

How are Parrish's eyes green? I thought that was a Ghost Rider Exclusive LED? Or is it that anyone in the Hunt can have them? Wich, I guess that would make sense, but if it IS exclusive to riders then does that mean that Parrish is part rider...?

I'll be very glad to see Corey and Mason reunite honestly, I mean, I wish we could, sadly I feel like we won't, it looks like next week is still going to be in the Real World, we probably won't get to go back to the train station until episode ten, since that's what Dylan shot for last (and wile I'm on the subject, we still have no word on when Teen Wolf will continue filming 6B yet, considering it's well after the holidays now I would say it's safe to consider the possibility that they might not go back to filming until spring)

Now here's an interesting thing, I kept hoping that when one of the hunters dropped his gun we would see Lydia pick it up and shoot him- I mean that's what I would have done- so if hunters get hit with their own weapons... what happens to them? Do they die? Do they get released from the eternal hunt (wich I guess is the same as dieing?)? Do they just .. go back to the train station and have to get another one? Do they revert back to the people they used to be? THAT is an answer I actually would really really love to see play out, I feel like the dropped gun was good foreshadowing that we'll see someone attempt it at some point but I'm not sure when or how or... even if it'll do anything, sadly, I think it'd be neat if they reverted back to the people they used to be though, it'd be a good way to defeat them without "killing" them and disrupting the mythology

And Hayden joins the other side... really saw that one coming I have to say

Sheriff trying to convince Claudia hurts my heart, that entire scene was heart-breaking and I know everyone knows it, but I'm going to take this moment to readdress a question I got earlier about Claudia being a Tulpa and the sheriff's power to create her, because there's something I forgot to mention, not only is Claudia more well developed than Caleb because she isn't glitchy and is able to establish a pretty firm amount of free will, but she's also capable of making him forget the truth, atleast to some degree, she was able to erase the contents of Stiles' room just by stepping inside of it, and I don't think this is something all Tulpas can do, I don't think it's something Caleb could have done, wich just brings me back to this: Either the sheriff manifested one HELL of a Tulpa and is definately Something..... or Claudia isn't a Tulpa at all and we've been riding Lydia's incorrect skirt tails, I could honestly believe either

So a Hellhound can get through the rift, unsurprisingly, but there's something else I took away from this scene.... is it just me, or is Lydia calling Parrish "Jordan" like.... a new thing....? *wispers MARRISH into the wind*

I'm so proud of the sheriff for keeping a relic of Stiles', it does make me wonder though, if he hadn't kept that photo, would he have gone back under Claudia's spell and forgotten Stiles entirely? His story about Claudia's last good day though... man that is one of the most depressing things I've heard in a long, long time.... I'm so proud of him for accepting the truth though, good on you Sheriff, good on you

I noticed that Stiles' room is still behind a wall though, I wonder if his room will go back to normal when Stiles gets back or if they're going to have to nock the wall out and move the room back upstairs.... *cough*

I wonder why the Hunt wanted Scott and Malia dead instead of kidnapped, it can't be that they ran out of room or something considering they took Peter back (boy they must REALLY want Peter) and they DID take Mason, Melissa, Chris, Hayden.. so why did they just want to flat-out KILL Scott and Malia? It can't be anything against werewolves because again- Peter, so what gives?

I'm not at all surprised that the Hunt obeys banshees, I feel like Lydia is definately going to be needed in retreiving everyone from the other side, atleast... she SHOULD be, that might be too easy though I suppose...

I'm so happy that Mieczyslaw is his name! .. I'll.. have to get used to spelling it that way though because honestly I've been spellin it Mziscislaw all this time... *cough* BUT REGARDLESS IT'S STILL SWORD OF GLORY AND THAT IS ///MAJESTIC/// OK? It's really amazing, I'm so excited that this little bit of fanfiction truth has made it's way into the show, and you know that Mieczyslaw meaning Sword Of Glory HAS to mean something for Stiles as a charector, something... like... him being a savior and magical for example... *cough* Also, as a sidenote here, Mischeif is a REALLY REALLY adorable name for a kid ok? I have a baby name list that's just pages long and that sucker is going right on there... not that I'd really ever use it though because I'm one of those people who fully believe in kids living up to their names and let me promise you that on the list of things I do not need a child who's life goal is to create mischeif is right at the top

And finally, this portally ghost Stiles thingy that broke my soul, atleast it confirms that Scott, Malia, and Lydia don't really remember *STILES* as much as the *IDEA* of Stiles, finally settles that debate, or atleast what they do remember of Stiles as a person is considerablly less than a full memory, someone asked if they would be able to conjure up this new rift because Stiles is magic and remembering him activates that power, and wile I don't personally think this is going to happen I'm certianly not ruling it out, pretty much any Magic!Stiles theory is a freind of mine, I just hope atleast one of them becomes canon

#Teen Wolf #season six speculation

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