#skeptic!drift

drift and shelby both think pearl’s competence is So Fucking Cool. they think cleo is awesome too, but cleo is blunter than pearl. pearl will not tell them to leave her alone

drift has a huge obvious puppy crush on pearl (previously mentioned) and cleo thinks it’s sweet and funny. shelby is upset for a very normal and platonic reason (“because drift used to think i was the cool one! that’s it!”)

shelby starts talking about bigfoot while they’re laying out equipment with cleo or whatever and cleo kinda rolls her eyes/groans but doesn’t? walk away? or cut them off? she actually listens and offers counters to their theories? shelby is So Excited

(meanwhile pearl and drift are doing something else in another room and drift is watching pearl with Huge Amazed Eyes)

they kill the ghost or demon or whatever (of course) and shelby and drift are So So Excited

they go out to denny’s or something after and cleo starts talking about how dumb and out of character it is for abolish to see a pretty girl and lose all braincells (shelby: does that mean you think apo’s pretty? <- said with such genuine curiosity cleo cannot be mad) (pearl: you’re pretending the same thing didn’t happen to you when you saw me) (cleo, somehow bright red even though they technically don’t have blood flow anymore: That’s Different)

(apo came home from the hospital, saw drift and shelby’s messages in the group chat, and got so annoyed they had to call cherri for six hours to calm down)

ohhh you're so correct. they're both starstruck over Pearl and she's just laughing and letting them ogle her while she works (Cleo would roll her eyes but at least they're demonstrating better taste than Abolish)

Shelby being upset for a normal and platonic reason... god she would try and do something dangerous to pull it off and prove she could be cool like Pearl and need to be rescued.

see I love that but Cleo is mean, actually (lighthearted). They would poke holes in her theories, but Cleo has +1 cha instead of -3 so Shelby takes it as joint theorising instead of an attempt to leave the conversation.

Does that mean you think Apo's pretty... oh my god... Apo is pretty and Cleo does think so but that has nothing to do with why Cleo doesn't like her! Apo is dangerous for Abolish to be around! (Shelby and Drift shouldn't be around her either, whatever she is will get tired of keeping them alive eventually. Cleo doesn't know what game it's playing but she will ensure it loses.) (Shelby and Drift do not actually react well to being told they should cut Apo off)

Okay, so. Walk with me.

Abolish has been asking for a lot of equipment for someone on mandatory leave. Like, he is not on a mission, but he’s acting like he’s prepping for war. And at first the Org was willing go along with it, because at least he’s resting, right? But the plausible deniability only lasts so long.

He’s clearly doing some kind of work, but he doesn’t seem to be reporting it. And that’s worse than him just doing work, because at least they can monitor him while he’s on the clock. They have some control instead of letting him run unchecked.

So what’s the Organization to do? Well, if there’s work to be done there, how about they send some actual agents actually on the clock? Enter: Pearl and Cleo, a werewolf/revenant duo. Similar to canon, the Org isn’t above employing supernatural entities as long as they behave.

Now, they’re not after any one target, more just there to make sure Abolish is actually making friends taking time off. Step in when he’s about to go hunting for something Spooky, clean up the mess after the gang leaves, that kind of thing.

So they’re Abolish’s “friends from work” who only come around sometimes (read: the gang is about to do something really stupid) but are friendly enough so it’s whatever. They playfully bully Abolish for not taking a break when he’s supposed to.

Actually, Drift and Pearl get along really well, and Pearl’s showing her some martial arts/self-defense stuff to help build confidence. So Cleo and Pearl are kind of friends—or, at least friends-of-friends—with most of the ghost hunting group.

And then there’s Apo. Apo, who sees them as trying to maintain the Org’s control over Abolish (which, they kind of are, even if the intentions are more benevolent than Apo gives them credit for).

Apo, who they can both sense has something very deeply wrong with her (they have to do the whole detective work bc Abolish won’t share his notes).

Apo, who is just the right kind of sarcastic and harsh that it just sets Cleo off (because they both see in the other the things they hate most about themselves, especially the tendency to retreat into insincerity and derision instead of being vulnerable).

So now you have Apo wanting to show Abolish that Cleo & Pearl are Bad Influences™️ while Cleo’s trying to prove to him that Apo is Obviously Evil™️

Oh my god. This is beautiful.

Abolish is squirrelling away enough resources to fight a high-ranking demon all by himself, what the hell? Why is he not reporting in and asking for backup? They could let the first few packages go through to satisfy the paranoia, but after a certain point it becomes abundantly clear that he is Not "just sightseeing" but he's not sending them his medical details either.

Werewolf/revenant moonrot... your Mind. There to keep an eye on things, maybe also check out what's happening since it's been two hundred years since the bicentennial Oakhurst Massacre and Abolish appears to be trying to handle the whole thing by himself. (Hey, maybe that's why there's so many haunted houses for the gang to explore! The scheduled apocalypse was a mass haunting, but they're crashing around like the Scooby Doo gang defusing supernatural bombs left right and centre)

Pearl teaching them martial arts and self-defense... I love this actually. Drift has the world's most obvious puppycrush and Pearl is politely ignoring it.

Cleo locks eyes with Apo and IMMEDIATELY gets the aura of "if you fuck with me I will tear you into shreds before I bother realising I have other options" and Bristles. Cleo is not powerful enough to resist pulling her head in and faking being human ("playing dead") around Apo, and it genuinely doesn't occur to them that she isn't lying about being a skeptic. It has to be a power play. She can't possibly be that fucking stupid. She's goading these defenseless humans into increasingly more dangerous situations by demanding "proof" and ensuring the proof never materialises! What more evidence of malice does Abolish need?

Abolish: that is. not what's happening.

Cleo, to Pearl: what is up with Abolish? do we need to be testing him?

Pearl: well, he really likes her, so

Cleo: ...he lost his mind because he saw a pretty girl. Abolish? Abolish Veylocke?

(Do not mistake a lack of desire for a lack of ability. Apo is very, very dangerous, and just because she doesn't want to hurt people doesn't mean she won't if she has to. She came very, very close to killing both Pyro and Shelby in the finale, and only didn't kill Cleo because the town stopped her. Cleo is recognising a potential threat that won't be scared off by Cleo's bluster, and reacting accordingly.)

And at the same time- they are pulling Abolish back into the organisation! They're reminding him of his duties! They're poking at him about actually showing up to help the new people for orienteering, and asking if he's been checking this group for potential! All of this is cult shit!

Cleo will say something about the Abolish Possession Incident being "entirely predictable and she has no rights to get mad" and Apo will (very reasonably!) interpret it as "it was your fault for leading him on" and they will have a 45 minute argument where nothing gets clarified and they both leave furious.

Apo hits the brakes and goes "get out of the car."

Cleo: oh, real mature. you get called out on your own hypocrisy and you throw a tantrum?

Apo: Get. Out. Of. The. Car. I'm not driving you. Walk.

Shelby: um- can't we maybe compromi-

Apo: this IS a compromise.

Cleo: it's not. It's an ultimatum. Not that people like you understand compromise, you want everything to go your way all the time.

Apo, radiating barely suppressed violence: it's a compromise between you staying in the car and me throwing you out of it. an ultimatum is "keep talking and I break your face."

Anyways I was thinking. And I remembered that I headcanon all of vsmp as autistic because. Well. I'm writing them like that if I want to or not.

And I had this vision. Of like. 5+1 type thing. That's like 5 times Apo helped her friends when they were overwhelmed one time they returned the favor idk.

I think it would go like.

Pyro

Drift

Shelby

Avid

Abolish

+Apo

Drift and Shelby could swap but I put Avid last out of cryptid hunters because he seems like he would try to hide his issues.

And I have vague concepts for the whole plot.

Pyro: They get overwhelmed after going out to dinner with Apo because dude restaurants are so overwhelming and Apo notices while they're walking home and pulls out headphones from her bag and puts them on Pyro and turns on the music that helps them (I personally always use video game soundtracks so I imagine it would be something like that) and they go home and Apo turn off as many electronic things as she can and lays on top of Pyro.

Drift: She strikes me as being the type to struggle with speaking when overwhelmed. And Apo.. Apo is struggling to understand, but she's so obviously trying so hard for him (SHE HE INTERSEX TRANSFEMMASC DRIFT IS REAL TO ME SO THATS WHAT IM USING HERE LOL) and maybe it ends with Apo brushing Drifts hair bc I feel like she would be the type to be calmed down by hair brushing.

Shelby: Shelby has always struck me as the sort of person that has a lot of emotions just come out via crying. Apo trying to help her with something they're struggling with and she gets really frustrated and starts crying and Apo looks really awkward but then she walks out and Shelby thinks it's to think about what to do and then they come back and basically shoves Truffle into Shelbys hands. She's bad at reacting to people crying but they want Shelby to feel better so she goes and gets something that helps them.

Avid: Avid hides and I think he would definitely also have harmful stims. Apo finds him curled up in a corner, sees that he's probably like. Hitting himself. He strikes me as that type. And flops over him. Literally lays on top of his hands and starts purring. In my heart appleish is service dog x guard dog and it shows. My working dog ship fr. Anyways Avid laughs really shakily and asks Apo what she's doing and Apo vaguely grumbles and keeps laying on Avids hands until his breathing is normal and then tells him to go to the van and wait while she gets Shelby & Drift

Abolish: Abolish doesn't know what's happening to him. Apo ends up basically herding him out of whatever situation overwhelmed him and he's like "??? Apo??? What??" And Apo keeps herding him until they're somewhere quiet and I imagine its also somewhere outside with dirt. And she picks up a stick and starts scratching runes in the sand. Theyre completely fucked up and most of them are just mashes of 20 different badly remembered runes but Apo shows him them and they do make him feel better, if only because how badly they're done makes him laugh.

And then unfortunately for Apo idk </3

Dude it's so amazing I love this so much you're incredible

Apo asks why Pyro is so checked out and they go "oh I'm dissociating so I don't scream because everyone was talking at once" and she gives him their headphones to cope (Apo is ALSO doing the SAME THING but adding music will overstimulate her more. the patient needs ambient night sounds to live) and when they get home she unplugs the fridge. Luckily there was only one bottle of milk left

Drift struggles explaining and Apo always struggles with words so of course she's going to listen to him (hc Accepted) and if anything not notice that she's saying things weirdly. Drift asks if Apo can comb her hair and they do it Very thoroughly and he's knocked tf out with the steady pull.

Apo just fucking leaving when Shelby starts crying... god she Would. she Would. Shelby assumes it's an awkward attempt at giving her privacy but then Apo comes back and puts Truffle in her hands and starts explaining how to safely hold her. If Shelby would like... a hug... Apo can also do that.

God yeah Avid definitely has harmful stims. He needs to grab something as hard as he can! He needs to knock his head into the wall! He needs an outlet please something give him an outlet he doesn't want to scratch his arms open again! Apo would catch his hands and put her own between them so he's compulsively twisting Her hand not his own. That lasts for until Avid realises he's hurting her and frantically redirects into something else and at That point she pins him. Like a weighted blanket except it's a weighted Apo. We're both staying here until I've successfully crushed you into feeling better. Is it working. If it's working it's not silly, you're silly. Of course I'm helping I'm your friend.

Abolish not noticing he's getting overwhelmed... He really would not. He's just failing to lock in. Apo gets him all the way outside before he questions why she's decided he has to be outside now and the "Apo? Why are we in the garden?" does not actually tell her she was wrong to Remove Him (because she wasn't.) She scribbles a vague doodle in the dirt that looks like Pembrose's Noncorporeal Entity Banishment Circle or alternatively like a very bad spiderweb and he doesn't realise until she adds the spider. (Abolish does a lot of art. She's showing interest in his interests.)

Presumably they’ve started dating by now, but Shelby just realized that Drift is familiar with the hospital. Drift seems to have been accepting her girlfriend’s naiveness. I feel like she just doesn’t want to burst Shelby’s bubble, even if that bubble is making her blind to her friends struggles.

Shelby hasn’t really faced any of her problems yet, but Drift has. Drift was right beside her in the werewolf den where they were investigating her missing father, despite pointing out that it was a full moon and more dangerous earlier. Drift was the one mauled by a demon in their search for the supernatural. Shelby’s compartmentalizing her troubles, but Drift is the one who had to look Scott in the eye and tell him that she was taking Shelby home, and to leave them be.

I feel like Shelby’s going to have to confront the fact that she has been willfully naive despite it harming her partner, and Drift needs to learn to get over her fear of disappointing others when it causes harm to herself.

Yep! Cryptidclues (Technically it's Avid/Drift/Shelby I love me a polycule. what on earth is their ship name) have some issues to work out with communication and respect.

Threat recognition, fear, is an important skill to have.

Avid has too much of it; he overreacts to perceived threats, and often does not react appropriately to the situation at hand. (v!Pyro was minding his business, and v!Avid dumped holy water all over him and attacked - undeniably the right move if that was v!Scott, but it wasn't.) He catastrophises and needs to be talked down, and when he doesn't feel listened to he just gets louder. He's calmer in this au - they aren't being actively hunted by vampires, mostly, which does wonders for his blood pressure - and having Apo around as a supernatural-suppressing security blanket really helps.

Shelby has the opposite problem, wandering off into the night with people she doesn't actually know that well into isolated spaces! She doesn't have the regular sense of fear that most people use, it just worked out better for her in this au because the people she wandered off with were Avid and Drift and later Apo, instead of Pyro and Owen and Scott all of whom were hungry vampires. Scott's her roommate, he's funny, he makes her feel special, she doesn't like thinking about him... doing wrong things. She doesn't like thinking about any of her friends being in the wrong, but Scott especially is so convincing that she just... doesn't think about issues involving him!

Drift is used to being the middle path. The compromise. The reasonable voice trying to calm them both down, apologising for them, tagging along swept up in the enthusiasm uncomfortable telling either of them they're wrong to their faces. (Which means she doesn't know how to escalate.) Sometimes a disagreement doesn't actually have a compromise, one side is right and one side is wrong. Avid is correct about Scott being a vampire and Shelby being unsafe staying with him (it only takes him losing his temper once. She's come very, very close to death or turning, and has no idea) and Shelby is correct about the ghost being agitated by Avid's anti-ghost precautions, instead of repelled! These aren't things you can compromise on, there's an objective truth, but Drift won't pick a side unless she sees that objective truth herself, because she thinks of herself as dead weight. There to hold them back, because she can't keep up.

Shelby needs to really look at the consequences her actions are having on the people around her, and she doesn't want to do that, because it's uncomfortable. That's normal. Most people are like that! Drift got hurt, yes, Shelby knew that and was worried, but the idea that Shelby might have any responsibility for it literally did not occur to her. Opposite of whatever guilt complex Apo's got going on. Shelby's just a lil girl, things aren't her fault! Why would whose idea it was have anything to do with it? So Shelby doesn't actually sit down and do that until she's trapped in a hospital bed with nothing to do but think about how they all nearly died, and even then, she... skitters around the edges of it.

Apo: Architecture (obviously).

Avid: Either chemistry or biochemistry.

Shelby: Creative Writing (Their mother insists this is not a practical degree. They do not care.)

Drift: Journalism (possibly a little out of left field, but I feel like it meshes with her character well)

Pyro: Something in the sociology/anthropology ballpark, but heck if I know what exactly.

Martyn: Business (because look me dead in the eye and tell me Martyn Woodhurst doesn’t have business major vibes)

Sausage: Creative Writing (in my head he’s like 30+ and is using a recent inheritance to go back to school and get this degree. He shares classes with Shelby and they think he’s really cool. Apo strongly disagrees.)

Scott: Doesn’t actually attend college, but does claim he does to explain why he’s always lurking around campus. If he needed to make up a major on the spot to get Avid off his back, he’d probably say he’s a business major. This sounds plausible to the Crytpid Crew, but Martyn thinks it’s kind of shady he’s literally never seen this guy once, considering the university really isn’t THAT big. Plus Apo ranting about their friends going crazy over this guy… is Scott another fae??? (He is not, but Martyn spends like at least half of season 2 convinced he is or at least might be. This cast is full of idiots.)

Cherri: Probably doing Visual Arts or something similar.

Abolish: In my heart he starts attending college in the later seasons. Probably an undeclared major for a while while he tries to figure out what the hell he wants to do.

!!!

I agree! Apo architecture student as we all know. fully canon.

Pyro's a sociology student - looking at how the everyday lives of everyday people have affected how cultural norms and power have shifted throughout history seems VERY up their alley, and also totally explains why they would do something like visit the site of a historical massacre on the bicentennial anniversary of said massacre. (This works out for them a lot better than in vsmp canon in the (populated) Oakhurst University version)

Shelby's a creative writing girlie and is either her tutor's darling or despised (Sausage is her self-appointed tutor I feel and is gleefully encouraging her in every situation. He's giving her "oh this actual thing happening to my friends would make a cool short story!" tendencies and she's making his own SO MUCH WORSE)

Avid is DEFINITELY a programmer. Coding student. He's also taken Monsters Throughout Medieval Times "as an interest paper" a minimum of four times though (after the first time he tried to retake it they told him he couldn't so he just. uh. shows up and takes notes as if he's taking the class.) He gets all his actual assignments done as soon as they're assigned, the better to stay up all night putting together the red string board on the differences between vampires and jiangshi and shtriga and what they can possibly do to be prepared for ALL of them.

Drift taking journalism... she would like photography too I think, Amateur detective work... she's in lots of fun clubs!

Martyn Woodhurst is 110% a business major. most annoying man ever. I love him. he shares some papers with Apo because that was the excuse for how she finds his face vaguely familiar and now he has to follow through on it.

Abolish is a "hired contractor" (technically he is. He's just not at all being paid to babyproof campus from supernatural threats.) and I don't know if he starts taking classes, actually. What would he choose to study? He's never thought of himself as the kind of person who's allowed to do things like that. I like him more as The Employed Friend; maybe he picks up another job. Or takes some historical papers, maybe - or decides to learn about art history, because Apo keeps insulting his "art style" and he's sick of it.

Scott claims to be a business student on the spot without any knowledge of what that is because Drift goes "oh, are you a student? what do you study?" entirely genuinely and Apo looked Scott up and down and went "business (derogatory)" and Scott rolled with it to make her sound unreasonable (which she was)

Pyro comes home with a very much bleeding bite mark and is "cold from blood loss" (somewhat true... But also Not.) and Apo is like okay dude im not letting you keep a human bite mark untreated!!!! That's going to get infected!! He's not a vampire and you're not turning into one you need to stop hanging out with Avid alone so often.

She drops him off at the ER and decides ykw. Avid and Shelby are off somewhere (in my heart it's a date. Poly Cryptid Crew ❤️) so Scotts home alone ... Im gonna make a statement. He now properly thrown the first punch. Pyro won't end this fight so she will, even if he's angry at her for it.

Shows up to deck Scott and he lunges, gets his fangs in Apo for a second before it becomes a normal bite. Apo's like okay. Okay. This is DEFINITELY happening now. And starts punching.

Eventually Avid & Shelby show up, and manage to wrestle them apart (somehow)

Scott starts trying to pull his manipulation bullshit and Apo brute forces stopping that. Aka yells over him.

Apo's almost to a panic attack so Scott backs off thinking he can get an upper hand but Avid glances to Shelby who gives a (very hesitant) nod. He goes and speedruns packing Scotts room, tosses his stuff out of the apartment (mirroring him burning Shelby&Scotts house) while Apo is actually having a panic attack.

Avid and Shelby try to help with.. varying degrees of success. Shelby is generally doing better but Avid is trying (not super well) to ward the house against Scott and him completely fucking up some of it makes Apo laugh some so he's still doing something. Shelby is distraught but temporarily holding it together because Apo is doing worse at the moment.

Eventually she calms down enough to drive herself to the ER, Avid and Shelby freak out together (mostly Shelby. Avids freakout was dealt with via badly done wards)

Apo is like yeah I went to yell at Pyro's bf and he fucking bit me too yeah here's his name and shit and she also somehow manages to convince people to let her be with Pyro for the time being (she is not risking him doing something stupid for Scott. She's angry but she got bitten for him! She's not gonna let that go to waste she will protect him)

Her ending up laying at the end of the bed curled up like some sorta guard dog (generally overnight monitoring is routine for bites. Just to be sure nothing gets infected.) and sure she refuses to have a conversation with Pyro for the moment but she's still staying there, somehow managing to glare the staff down when they suggest that she should maybe move. Pyro tries to ignore that she's not purring like she normally would have. Tries to convince himself it's just that she got hurt.

Avid buys Shelby new silver locks. Apo rolls her eyes but is like yeah changing the locks is a good idea so doesn't say anything about the material.

It MIGHT show that I miss my soft roommates guys. It might show. This ended up as 95% bittersweet soft applespice. Happy ending for Jack von pyroscythe guys. He'll have a happy ending here. Guys we said he would do better than in canon here and i seem to be having to do all the heavy lifting (ignore that I've ALSO been writing fucked up toxic majorscythe. Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh.)

(nooooooo eaten ask!)

SCOTT TRYING TO BITE HER... augh. God yeah yeah yeah this is so fucking good. Pyro doesn't try to clean himself up before getting home - god he might tell Apo "hey Scott bit me while making out and I feel blood could you tell me it's fine" and Apo goes "HEY WHAT THE FUCK YOU'RE BLEEDING" and they go STRAIGHT to the hospital waiting room and as soon as the doctors have him she's like. Alright. The problem I could not solve by punching (Pyro's annoying boyfriend) has suddenly turned into a problem I can absolutely solve by punching (Pyro's abusive boyfriend) and I'm much more comfortable with this.

Owen has been training her for this (they would both be so fucking mad to see me say that) by "also being a freak who bites" and Scott was- I think it's been time since Scott was actively resisted. I think it's been a long damn time since people didn't give up when he got his teeth in, hoping that he'd have mercy and leave them alive to limp back. But Apo has never ever found a fight she didn't leave kicking and screaming (her turning came after she won the fight, and Scott convinced her fighting was pointless) and she will stomp on his instep and shatter every bone in his foot before punching him in the throat.

Avid and Drift actually walked up onto Apo getting turned, I think we could play with that! Because it's a very different scene to walk in on if she's fighting back, instead of Apo and Scott standing there and talking - they immediately jump to Apo's defense, Scott starts trying to get them on side, Apo starts yelling that he bit Pyro and bit her and is visibly Not Fucking Coping - and Scott's... pretty likely to cut his losses and run, honestly. He'll try to convince them she's crazy, but the bite wound is Pretty Damning, and he can always get the fuck out and lay low. Survival comes first. He can always take this humiliation out on their descendants.

Drift tries to help Apo and Avid goes through all of the stuff in the apartment that he thinks is Scott's (not all of it is, again to mirror the house-burning thing) and throws it out and starts trying to ward the house against the evil of Scott's presence and at This point, Shelby comes home from work (she is paying for their apartment, Scott's freeloading.) To Avid scribbling all over the walls, Apo staring into space, and Drift trying to tape tissues to the actively bleeding bitemark on Apo's neck. Shelby really does not want to believe Scott did this but all three of them yell at her (Apo doesn't yell, which is worse. Apo just says "Scott bit me bad enough to bleed, and you can see it. Are you defending him." without a question mark, and it doesn't feel like she'll forgive a "yes") and she has to accept it.

(Apo, right before her turning, running into Shelby (who she doesn't know is a vampire) and asking what Shelby would do if she met a vampire who was going to hurt people. and Shelby, who would know Apo isn't asking hypothetically if she paid attention but wants to believe everything's okay, just keeps saying "not every vampire would though? I'd try talking to them." Apo says that they're going to hurt people. Shelby says they might not. And then Apo... agrees to get turned, so that means Shelby was right and they're all a happy family!)

Apo walking in with a bitemark less than an hour after checking Pyro in with a bitemark and going "it's from the same guy" will have made that nurse's Night. That's a story right there. They're going down in history among the receptionists. Apo gets herself into Pyro's room via simply walking in there and going "we match now" and sitting in the guest chair. Tells him that she went and punched Scott and he bit her too and Pyro says "oh that actually happened that way" and thanks her (v!Pyro is petrified of Scott because he knows Scott's a vampire. He's seen Scott die and come right back. This Pyro just thinks he has awful taste in men.)

Apokuna guard dog moments!! Yay!!! This is Her roommate. No she's not speaking to him at the moment. No you can't talk to him either. He's in time out for having terrible taste in men and sending them both to the hospital (Pyro goes "hey! you went to him! that's not my fault!" and Apo tells him to shut up) and could someone please go home and feed Truffle her evening meal?

Abolish swings past the applespice apartment (he's checking up on Apo to make sure she doesn't explode again. no other reason.) and finds the Cryptid Hunting Crew (- Apo) changing the locks and spilling salt everywhere and hanging up bulbs of garlic.

Could I request some Applespice healing after Scott leaves the picture? I love them dearly and I want them to be happyyy

Also I do need to know– is Apo like. the only person who is fully and absolutely a skeptic? I suppose Pyro also doesn't really believe in the supernatural, but their case is a bit murkier and they're a lot more open to the concept. Because it's kinda hilarious if Apo is the only actual skeptic (hence Skeptic Apo AU I suppose). Like damn, this place is so fucking weird that the only person who doesn't believe in the supernatural is the person who literally subconsciously dispels it with the insanely powerful demon magic they don't know they have. I adore it

Also also— the Avid demon is still running around being a problem, right? Is there a point when Abolish tracks it down and runs the demon killing sword through it? (or is the demon killing sword Specific? I can't quite remember) (point is– (how) do we get rid of it?)

And how about things with the Organisation are after the Kidnapping Incident? With Abolish but also Cherri, I mean. Is there a consensus on that? I suppose there doesn't need to be a consensus, but I'm curious, because the version that mainly exists in my brain right now is my 'Abolish leaves' scenario

(I have been super busy, so I might've just missed the last two)

Hey! Same to you, my friend :D

Of course applespice get to heal. (In vsmp, Pyro dropped the facade of "yay being a vampire is awesome" as soon as it became clear Apo wasn't going to play along, and as soon as he dropped it Apo dropped a whole bunch of her own hostility towards Pyro.) As soon as Pyro stops defending Scott, which they start doing pretty fast when Scott's not around, Apo accepts the apology and they can move on. The issue was never "Pyro is dating Scott" for Apo, it was "Pyro is taking Scott's side instead of mine, Pyro is flaking out on rent, Pyro is making excuses for why Scott is never wrong even when we both know he Is Wrong." Things are definitely awkward for awhile, but... they sit down and play mariokart and actually talk about it (they're both beginning to connect Rainbow Road with emotional vulnerability, and this is both good and bad. On the one hand, Apo's telling Pyro how they felt ignored and belittled every time Pyro was with Scott, and Pyro's apologising and explaining how Scott convinced him nobody wanted him around except Scott so he had to try and please him. On the other hand, the next time they try to play mariokart for fun with other people they're both going to remember every deep conversation they've ever had the whole time.)

But Apo does forgive people. Apo forgives... very easily, actually. As long as people actually apologise and back it up with their actions, if she understands why someone did something, then she gets it and moves on. And now Pyro knows that if his next partner starts saying similar things, he can tell Apo about it and she will call him an idiot and help him break up with them.

I feel like Drift was a skeptic but that ended very quickly the first time everything in the room started levitating herself included. yk. That seems like pretty definitive proof of the supernatural to me. In vsmp she went "ok but zombies and skeletons isn't proof of vampires" she definitely comes at the cryptid hunting with the most skeptical slant, it's just that she knows for a fact the supernatural exists, so she doesn't write everything off the way Apo does.

The next closest is Legundo, who is responding to Owen being a vampire with "okay, this man does have dietary restrictions, and can do things vampires can do. Turning into a bat is not a human thing. Reordering my mental map of how the world works. Okay. Terrifying implications about the nature of life and death aside, he still appears to be suffering from chronic pain, and I need to try and treat that."

Avid's demon is still being a problem! Teehee! I think Abolish's sword might not work on it - if we want to really lean into the demons=fish kind of thing - but it also might. But first, you need to find it. How many animal attacks happen a year? How many people act moody and irritable? (How many times has Avid looked over his shoulder for the gwyllgi?) (Avid's demon might be a pursuit predator. Like a komodo dragon. It attacks once, and then lets infection do the work until the prey no longer has the strength to resist.)

I think after the Apokuna Exorcism Event is when Cherri seeks out the Organisation. I don't think Abolish leaves, but he pulls back from being so constantly available for missions - which is a good thing, that's why he's involved in plot in the first place, he got put on mandatory vacation because they were worried about him - and considers why he's shrugged it off every other time. It definitely puts some pretty serious strain on his relationship with Cleo and (to a certain extent) Pearl, but like- the Organisation is all he has left of his parents. It's what his dad (Morcant) wants him to do. It's important, yes, but also if he leaves people will assume Apo made him.

Cherri hears about "Abolish having terrible weed" and manages to weasel Abolish's number out of Apo (Cherri has noticed Apo's flashbacks tend to involve her having Horns and wants to ensure Abolish isn't gonna snitch) and texts him asking for a job. Abolish sends her the official hiring page for one of the Organisation's various shell companies. She texts him back saying it's a scam. He leaves her on read and assumes that's the end of it.

When he does get back in contact with the Organisation again he gets the same "so, you're being given a partner, please tell this one what's going on with Minimal detail the last one ran screaming" speech as usual and he gets... Cherri.