#Air Ticket Booking System

[shrugst]

Air Ticket Booking System

Streamlined Air Ticket Booking System

An Air Ticket Booking System is a software application designed to automate the process of booking and managing airline tickets. It allows customers to search for and book flights, view flight schedules, and manage their reservations online.

The software enables travel companies and OTA's to offer an online reservation system for their B2C and B2B businesses to connect with the multiple GDS APIs and LCC airlines for ticketing, which lets travel companies improve their operations and make them run more effortlessly.

As you see, developing an air ticket booking solution provides ample opportunity to manage inventory, agent control, bookings, and ticket reservations all in one place and get the airline reservation made fast and easily.

However, those who are airline ticketing booking system software providers are discovering top-level travel technological software to manage the flight booking process smoothly. Due to knowledgeable technological expansion, organizations are utilizing the airline ticketing booking process, where travelers can easily get that opportunity and make deals with web applications.

How Does Air Ticket Booking System Work? 

Essentially, the airline ticketing system works through a systematic approach. Although there are three main processes, each system is subdivided. Let's see what the three major airline ticketing systems are.

Flight searching

Flight booking

Ticketing

Flight Searching

Three steps, such as Airline Website, OTA, and Meta search engine, can complete flight searching.

Airline Website: The website sends a search request directly to the airline's CRS and then displays the list of available flights to the customer, skipping the whole GDS part.

Online Travel Agencies: Online travel agencies (OTAs) get flight data from GDSs, air consolidators, which negotiate with carriers for bulk or net fares and then resell them to travel distributors and partner airlines.

Meta-Search Engine: The meta-search engine is the most renowned online information retrieval tool that uses web search engine data to generate its own results. It works based on the user's intent. It means it takes information from the user input, searches the user query, and returns a result based on the user query. It is integrated with direct booking.

Flight Booking

Whenever you enter the air flight booking website, you must provide some crucial information to buy or reserve a ticket, such as personal information, booking charge, seat category, destination, departure airport, and many more.

After completing the ticket booking, the traveler will receive a code by email, and this code can be used to track the flight status. Travelers are able to change itinerary details, cancel the trip, and much more. It means that if you have that code, you can do anything you want.

Ticketing

A ticketing system is a management tool that processes the traveler's request. In this case, both online travel agencies and airlines use third-party services that ensure data security and electronic transactions.

Nowadays, travelers pay the flight booking charge after providing all the information that is required for the ticket booking field. If the payment is confirmed, the airline adds the corresponding fare information to the Passenger Name Record (PNR) document. Now travelers will receive the itinerary receipt by email, which is significant for successfully buying an e-ticket. So, you can download it and take it on any device.

Why Do You Need an Air Ticket Booking System? 

As an automated system, it provides information such as real-time fares, seat availability, onboard services, etc. to travel agencies and passengers. Apart from ticket booking, the airline booking system helps airlines with customer management. It offers support right from the beginning to the end.

The purpose of the airline booking system is to create a seamless and convenient booking experience for passengers while enabling airlines to handle their flights efficiently. We aim to deliver a platform that streamlines ticket reservations, flight management, and the overall travel experience.

All the tickets are automatically produced by the system after booking. In fact, the ticket contains all the flight data, such as the names of airlines, locations, boarding time, seat, gate number, etc.

The airline ticket booking system includes details on flight schedules and their rates, passenger reservations, and tickets. The inventory of an airline includes every airline and its available seats.

This system provides options for viewing various flights available at different timings for a particular date and provides customers with the facility to book a ticket, modify, or cancel a specific reservation, but it does not provide the customers with details of the cost of the ticket.

It comes with the latest features and functionalities of third-party supplier integration, GDS connectivity, inventory management, quotation management, b2b/b2c booking engine, one-way, round-trip, multi-city search option, reservation management, reporting, customer management, customized design and layout, multi-language, multi-currency, payment gateway integration, and more.

It can also manage all the information about customers, booking inquiries, and reservations. Customers can view the status and schedule of a flight directly from the website. It also provides time-to-time current data related to airline schedules. It tracks all the details about the airline's booking and ticket booking.

For the airline industry, it has to offer numerous benefits, such as the accuracy of the information, resolving customer grievances quickly and effectively, generating good revenue, multiplying surplus, building goodwill in the market for your brand, etc.

And for the users as well, it offers benefits such as timely access to the relevant information at the right time, smooth and seamless connectivity, security of the money, time saving, comparison of the prices, ticketing software installation, ease in booking and getting discounted deals while booking tickets, and being able to compare the prices of several airline companies at once.

Therefore, to seize the opportunities present in the air transport industry, having the best airline ticketing system on the market is a must. Therefore, you need professionals with extensive knowledge and powerful tools at their disposal by your side to help you set up a successful online air travel business.

Overall, customizing the user experience and managing bookings are critical to the success of any airline booking system. By creating a user- friendly interface and managing the booking process effectively, you can provide customers with a seamless and convenient booking experience while also increasing revenue and building customer loyalty.

Why to Pick Travelopro For Air Ticket Booking System? 

Are you looking for the best air ticket booking system? Look no further, the Travelopro air ticket booking system has the best prices and the most reliable flights.

We offer an air ticket booking system with a modern, easy-to-use interface and robust architecture in the back. With a connection to significant third-party airline supplier systems, you will be able to search for and book airline seats efficiently and quickly.

We provide customized air reservation system development, including direct channel management, global distribution system (GDS) integration, booking management, fare and pricing algorithms, and integrated ticketing.

With our airline ticketing software, your customers can select from multiple complementary options as a part of the packaged offer.

Our software was built from the ground up to be a complete solution for travel agents, so you can manage your inventory, agent control, bookings, and ticket reservations all in one place. A unified structure makes customer management and customer service simple.

Our airline booking system for small airlines covers every aspect of online bookings, online refunds, and online cancellations at the customer's end as well as the service provider's end. With our cost-effective airline solution, airlines can handle their fares, sales, and flight schedules.

Our booking solution displays airline availability and rates for several GDS and content sources against user search. This integrated airline reservation system brings competitive advantages to your business by connecting to a large cache of flight data.

This robust air ticket reservation system can handle all sorts of bookings, and it can handle multiple transactions with the auto-ticket option. Our flight booking system can also be used to issue manual bookings within the system.

We can provide you with custom pricing and module customization to satisfy your clientele, as well as privately brand the system to reflect your consulting services. Airline ticket agents can also access our reservation systems to make flight arrangements, view current reservations, and check passenger lists, as well as perform several other functions.

Our customer care ethos is based on understanding our customers' preferences and anticipating their requirements. We offer an airline ticket reservation system with top-notch features and an eye-catching, user-friendly design. We also offer a flight booking engine for travel agents to streamline the booking process, access real-time flight data, and provide your customers with a seamless travel experience.

Our software offers customer management, multi-language and currency support, payment gateway integration, and personalized designs and layouts. Furthermore, we offer support for LCC airline bookings and robust management of booking reports. Our software is a reliable and versatile solution for any travel company looking to streamline its flight reservation process.

With many years of experience in the travel and hospitality industry, Travelopro has been successfully developing software solutions for consolidators, online portals (OTAs), travel agencies, tour operators, and travel and destination management companies.

We enable you to better market your airline, sell your products, serve your customers, and operate efficiently with our integrated suite of solutions, providing you the freedom to operate the way you want. Our fully integrated solution provides access to the same data across all points of sale and service, so you can better serve your customers.

By selling airline tickets directly from the back-office system, our flight booking software module enables you to increase productivity and manage more flight reservation software without hiring new employees.

We have developed an airline ticket booking system that can be easily customized to suit your needs and is capable of processing thousands of bookings each day. This flight booking engine can be easily tailored and adapted to cater for all user needs and will blend in with an existing web presence without any difficulty.

Working with the modern technology available for system development, we've crafted a system that takes advantage of the latest innovations while using our expertise and knowledge of a complex industry to stay in tune with all the legacy aspects of airline sales and distribution.

What Are The Key Features Of Air Ticket Booking System? 

The key features of an air ticket booking system:

Flight Search and Booking: The flight search and booking module enables customers to search for available flights based on their travel dates, departure and arrival cities, and preferred airlines. Users can also view flight schedules, seat availability, and flight prices to make informed booking decisions.

Payment Gateway Integration: The payment gateway integration module allows customers to securely make payments for their airline tickets using a variety of payment methods, including credit cards, debit cards, and online banking.

Reservation Management: The reservation management module enables customers to view, modify, and cancel their existing flight reservations. They can also receive flight itinerary details and notifications via email or SMS.

Flight Scheduling: The flight scheduling module allows airlines to manage their flight schedules, update flight information, and make changes to flight routes, timings, and seating arrangements.

Customer Management: The customer management module enables airlines to manage customer data, including contact details, travel history. and preferences. This data can be used for targeted marketing and customer relationship management purposes.

Reporting and Analytics: The reporting and analytics module provides airlines with valuable insights into their operations and customer behavior, including booking trends, revenue reports, and customer feedback.

An airline ticket booking system can significantly streamline the process of booking and managing airline tickets, reducing the workload of airlines and improving the overall travel experience for users.

What Are the Benefits of Online Air Ticket Booking System? 

There are a lot of remarkable advantages to the airline reservation system. Here, you can understand the core benefits of the online air ticket booking system.

Convenience: Air Ticket Booking Systems provides a one-stop platform for all flight-related activities, from searching and booking to checking in and obtaining boarding passes.

Time-Saving: Travelers can save time by avoiding long queues at ticket counters and booking flights from the comfort of their homes or mobile devices.

Cost-Efficiency: The ability to compare prices and services helps travelers find the best deals and save money.

Access to Information: Passengers have access to detailed information about flight options, allowing them to make informed decisions.

Flexibility: These systems often offer flexible cancellation and rebooking options, which can be especially valuable in times of unexpected schedule changes.

Paperless Travel: E-tickets have reduced the need for printed tickets, contributing to a more manageable travel experience.

For more details, Pls visit our Website:

[trawexonline]

Travel Technology Companies

Travel Technology Companies-Trawex

Comprehensive Online Travel Portal Software to your business.

Trawex is one of the leading Travel Technology Companies offering consultancy services to airlines and travel agents. It specializes in development, marketing and support of travel technology software and other travel industry solutions.

Since its commencement, we have always believed in and have always provided the most appropriate solution that suits the needs of customers, which when experienced as a success, becomes the best travel technology company that could have been asked for.

Trawex takes pride in the fact that some of the best-brains and most talented personalities are working behind the scenes on the latest technologies and infrastructure to deliver result-oriented solutions.

Trawex's keen focus on traveler intent and big data has allowed it to concentrate completely on the rapidly growing online travel sector, which comprises over 1/3rd of all e-commerce transactions.

As travelers are generally comfortable, educated and tech-savvy, wielding significant purchasing power and consistently demonstrating demand for new products, this is an attractive audience to marketers.

Trawex combines unique traveler profiles with billions of intent data points from traveler's past online behaviours and current actions.

These curated anonymous data profiles are combined with powerful travel technology and algorithms to engage consumers across multi-screen and multi-channel touchpoints - such as targeted display, dynamic creative, video, Facebook, mobile, online and print boarding passes - in the travel planning and purchase cycle, optimizing the marketing message for the right person at the right time and in the right medium.

Practicing and Leveraging on these three simple principles, Trawex believes in providing the most appropriate travel technology solution in the best possible manner and to do that it has chosen to remain lean and thin, thus giving itself the agility to move quicker than the typical process is driven service providers.

We understand in providing the best services, and effective marketing strategies. We provide the best suggestions and valuable tips for a perfect website in mounting your business to success.

Travel Technology Can Transform Your Business

Trawex best travel technology company providing the best technology solutions and delivered over 150 projects with the help of travel developers with clients across the globe.

Our travel industry software is specially customized for travel aggregators, DMC’s, travel management companies, B2B & B2C travel agencies, tour operators and travel agents.

At Trawex our mission is simple. Our goal is to transform the company of leisure travel by equipping bookers with the most advanced booking and distribution software in the world.

Our team is committed to offering you with the most up-to-date, state-of-the-art transport equipment accessible on the market through ongoing development.

It enables travel businesses to connect online within one platform to company associates (B2B Agents), retail clients (B2C) and distributors.

We integrated the SAAS-based model to decrease implementation time, provide high efficiency, zero downtime, very scalable, free upgrade characteristics, and extremely guaranteed.

We know the travel market's requirements in various geographies and uniquely equipped to deliver the best products on the market in the class in the shortest time.

We connected with top travel aggregators, global systems of distribution and DMCs. We focus on technology and innovation to develop and deliver solutions for world-class travel technology to global travel agents, DMCs and MICE Company.

Travel Technology Solutions for Business Growth

Trawex is the best web-based online booking platform to give you seamless, efficient solutions for your Business Travel online bookings.

Our B2C & B2B travel agency software & tour operator software is an all-in-one suite to automate the travel business process from content acquisition all the way to the distribution process.

You will find reliable, efficient and cost-effective travel software solutions customized to your needs. We offer you a single interface to access GDS and Non-GDS services.

Trawex is the best Travel Technology Company is embedded with the essence of Travel Technology. Our engineering team is focused on providing a scalable and efficient technology platform that can be the development engine for aspiring travel businesses.

Trawex develops best hotel management software for travel agencies, our hotel management system works with your solutions to make more effective.

Our inventory in the hotel management system software automatically updates on all the channels. Our Airline Ticket reservation System is a part of the Airline Reservation System and which is one of the earliest changes to improve efficiency.

Our airport reservation system contains airline plans, fare tariffs, travel reservations, and ticket records.

We are specialized in smart solutions that have a high degree of adaptability within the travel domain to different business processes.

We have a wide variety of exclusive internet travel reservation engines for internet travel agencies (OTA's) & travel leadership businesses (TMC's).

It offers multiple GDS connections (such as Sabre, Galileo, Word span, etc.) and third-party providers to collect global material for various facilities such as flight.

Back office travel agency software fully automates the whole reservation system to handle various channels of revenues (B2C, B2B, B2B2B, B2B2C).

We supply travel booking and booking facilities in B2B & B2C mode for flights. We have more than 30 Travel XML providers integrated into our OTA platform.

Tour Operator Module allowing officials to ship contract prices from flights and OTA on mobile so that clients can use their smartphones to plan for flights. Our customers are also provided mobile apps for these solutions.

Here, offer a variety of travel technology products to empower travel agencies and vendors to tour operators with the correct solutions and provide our customers with the correct instruments to assist them to provide their customers with an improved travel reservation experience.

We provide a supplier of transport, autonomous restaurants, and a flight booking engine. We assist automate companies and streamline employees, corporate, B2B, B2C, and mobile booking specifications.

Effective use can be made of Trawex web services where the customer wants to operate on a single XML standard and can readily incorporate the service features with minimal effort into their implementation.

Trawex is the leading in Travel Technology Solutions, offering B2B (Agents), B2C (Customers) & White Label Travel Portal with GDS and third-party APIs integration.

We empower tour operators, B2B & B2C travel agencies, aggregate, as well as startup travel companies globally by offering revolutionary solutions.

We can be designed and develop a fully customized travel portal to empower your company. You will be able to deliver online travel bookings beyond your customers’ anticipation with a seamless and impressive interface.

We offer online travel deals channels B2C, B2B, B2E, B2B2C, and B2B2B travel gateways, and these B2C set-out entries can consolidate to different APIs for flights, lodgings, autos, transports for constant stock.

We create XML based travel sites for movement specialists, visit administrators, Corporate and Start-Up movement organizations.

Our B2C web-based Booking System offers the correct devices that influence the booking to work quicker and less complex for a wide range of customers - corporate or end-clients.

Our B2C Portal Solution is intended for organizations expecting to expand productivity by offering inventories specifically to clients. We can develop a user-friendly online airline reservation system for you.

When you select an airline reservation system. We provide you with a suite of connectivity solutions to ensure the best quality connection and coverage by meeting all your business needs, including, Revenue management, PMS (Property Management System), and, Channel management, and secure payment gateway options.

Faster result-oriented Flight Booking engine helps to increase the revenue of the travel agency. It has been in the business of building high-performance e-Commerce websites for SMB to Enterprises almost a year ago.

We have built our software on the latest technology we always believe technology is a game-changer for travel agency software, mid-office, B2B, B2C, Corporate Booking Engine.

Our Support for the Customer is always on priority. We know if clients/partner growth will help to grow us.

For more details, Pls visit our website:

[shawpnopurontravels]

All Services Provided by “Shawpnopuron”    

 1. Air Ticketing (International, Domestic)

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[jmtorres]

i just saw a post about how we just have to "live with" covid and wanting more protections from our government is unreasonable because we'll never wipe it out, it jumps species and is in all sorts of animal populations (like, true ok) so why even try to

and apparently the argument was aimed at people (who I haven't seen in the wild) who are arguing we should still be in lockdown. and i have mixed feelings about the idea of extended lockdown or attenuating isolations; but my main feeling at this point is not that the government should keep us apart but that the government should be trying to make it safer for us to be together

things the government could/should be doing about covid:

we know that ventilation/air movement helps a shitton. we should be incentivizing upgrades to ventilation systems in all public buildings with shit like rebates or tax deductions, while phasing in eventual legal requirements. (and uh. it has occurred to me that the US might actually be doing this sideways by there's currently this decade enormous tax incentives in re energy efficient upgrades for slowing climate change and you know. energy efficient hvac does tend to improve ventilation. extra point to biden here.)

mandatory paid sick leave so workers aren't under social or economic pressure to work when sick

passing out RT-LAMP tests like metrix that actually work instead of the rapid antigen tests that have become less and less reliable as the virus mutates

i don't know how you'd write this law but like 95% or more of computer-based work can be done remotely and companies should not be allowed to force people to return to the office. I know there's people who want to be back in person and I'm not saying they should be forced to stay home but ffs I know of at least two people CLOSE to me who worked remotely before the pandemic and at some point their workplaces tried to tell them they weren't allowed to do that anymore despite the pre-existing contracts. stop canceling remote work for people that want, need, or prefer it.

for that matter, every college lecture that was an online class during covid should still be offered as an online class, there is no reason to force students into auditoriums in person. you got the communications infrastructure up and running, why are you tearing it down. give people the OPTION. it increases accessibility for everyone!

covid vaccine immunity lasts about four months. this should be well-publicized and everyone should be able to re-up for free every four months. "every year, like the flu vaccine" is demonstrably not often enough. actually "for free" isn't good enough start handing out $10 gift cards you will be shocked at how many people who are resistant to the idea of vaccines will fold for $10 a shot

are there already laws on the books about masks in medical settings that some medical professionals are blatantly ignoring because they forgot what best practices were before the plague and they're 'tired of masking'? if not, pass laws. if so, fucking enforce them

oh another incentives for upgrades phasing into legal requirements thing: brass doorknobs and railings over stainless steel or whatever. microbes do not survive on brass surfaces

i mean. i know this one sounds too extreme to a lot of people but. UBI.

most if not all of these measures will prevent or ameliorate other pandemics of different diseases that may arise in the future. and just. generally improve our health and quality of life for other reasons.

I haven't felt safe to go to a concert since 2020. Maybe if I knew a venue was legally required to have ventilation to a certain standard and that none of the ticket takers and ushers were on the job sick to avoid risking loss of paycheck or job, and knew a larger percentage of the crowd had up to date vaccinations--maybe if any or all that, I might ever feel comfortable going to a show again.

wouldn't it be nice if those of us who have been disabled, by covid or other conditions, had accessible remote options but also occasionally felt safe enough to interact with and participate in wider society?

one of the arguments on the post I saw was how isolation was massively psychologically damaging and various strata of society were affected in all sorts of ways, from undersocialized kids to increased depression in--well across the board, I think. and here's the thing: WE KNOW. PEOPLE WITH CHRONIC HEALTH CONDITIONS, LONG COVID OR OTHERWISE, KNOW ISOLATION SUCKS REAL BAD. because we, both for our own health and due to disability ostracism, are still isolating and isolated more than most.

what are you as individuals or societies, what are our governments, doing to help make it safe and accessible to rejoin you????

[kleefkruid]

I also own an EU disability card which is a way to prove you actually have an (invisible) disability which can be usefull in some cases like during lockdown there was a one-person-per-family shopping rule but I would be allowed to bring a second person to help me with whatever I need.

With this card comes a list of locations like movie theaters or parks that will offer discounts or free stuff to card owners, but they never fully fleshed out the system so everyone basically gets access to everything (on paper technically I can join the wheelchair diving club) and this gets funny side effects like when I got a discount for the zoo with a free activity book for autistic kids.

But the funniest locations to me personally are the ones where they offer me a free ticket for my 'companion'. They clearly have a specific type of disabled person in mind but hey, they're offering so I'm taking it! So I visit these places with a friend and we split the price of the remaining ticket. But this is where the fun part comes, actually informing the ticket workers of my card.

Let's use the example of my visit to the Gravensteen, a medieval castle in Ghent. The ticket guy is standing outside and does this explanation about some stuff that is being fixed in the office hence why he is standing in open air. So at this point we have had a completely normal conversation with this guy. But then we buy the actual tickets and I hand over my card, to prove we're allowed this discount of course.

And the second he sees my picture on the card, this guy, who again, had a completely normal conversation with us up this point, lowers himself down to me (he's not much taller), puts his hands on his knees and goes "SO ARE YOU READY TO VISIT THE BIG CASTLE? I HOPE YOU HAVE FUN!" at which point I was just staring back in bewilderment and not saying anything so he just gave me a sad smile, seemed to resist the urge to pat me on the shoulder and let us in.

We are all too familiar with the infantilization that comes with being disabled but it's becomes extra absurd when it happens min-conversation. He already is aware I can keep up with a regular conversation. The only thing that changed is that he now knows I'm disabled and not even what kind. and the fact that he did the embodiment of this meme was just the sherry on top

Anyway I'll take the autistic coloring book next time please

[little-diable]

Our suffering ends now - Tommy Shelby (smut)

It truly has been a while since I’ve last posted a Tommy fic, but I love how this came together. Please like and reblog if you enjoyed reading this, your comments keep us writers motivated! Enjoy my loves. xxx

Summary: She has mourned his death for the past years, all until her boss speaks of him, leaving (y/n) to wonder how she could have been betrayed like that, blindsided by lies. It’s time for her to return to the man she has believed to be dead.

Warnings: 18+, smut, unprotected piv, reunited lovers, some angst and crying

Pairing: Tommy Shelby x fem!reader (3.5k words)

Trees blurred past the window she sat close to, hands holding onto the book she carried with herself. Her eyes burned from being awake for so long, having to change trains every few hours, set on making it to him before night would break. Hours ago her heart had raced in her chest, pounding against her ribcage as if it was trying to flee from her. And she couldn’t blame it, knowing that what she was about to do would be uncomfortable, scarily so. 

This journey broke more promises than she could count with both of her cold hands, and yet she hadn’t been able to fight against the need to see him again – after all these years. She could still hear Ada’s and Polly’s voices speaking to her, forcing her to leave that one cruel night years ago. With tears rolling down her cheeks she had given in, watching the two women pack her bags before accompanying (y/n) to the train station. A foolish mistake she had been forced to live with. 

She was torn between hurt and anger, not understanding how the two women she had once loved like her own sisters could have betrayed her like that. For years she had lived with the knowledge that her lover was dead, that he hadn’t made it home after the war. Lies, nothing but lies she had been fed. 

If it hadn’t been for her job she would have kept believing the lies, not doubting what she had been told by the two. If it hadn’t been for the way her boss had spoken of him, she wouldn’t have stopped grieving the loss of the man she had once promised to love until her death. If it hadn’t been for the sinking feeling growing deep within her, she wouldn’t have purchased the train tickets that very night before calling the only man she had kept in touch with. 

Her legs ached as she rose to her feet, ready to step out of the train in hopes of spotting him. A deep breath was sucked into her lungs as (y/n) started moving, holding onto her suitcase while the cold evening air wrapped itself around her. 

“(Y/n)!” The smile widening on her lips only grew as her eyes spotted Alfie, rushing towards him to throw herself into his arms. He held onto her, hugging her as if they hadn’t seen each other in years, even though it had only been a handful of weeks. His comforting scent wrapped itself around (y/n), cozying her along as he slowly parted from her. “You haven’t aged a day.”

“You fucker.” The words rolled off her tongue before she could stop them, earning a few shameful gazes from couples brushing past the two. But Alfie’s loud laugh distracted her enough to keep smiling at the man she had crossed paths with years ago, instantly learning to love him like a brother. 

“Come, come, let’s get some food into your system and then you can tell me all about why you have summoned me to Birmingham, yeah?”

…

“Pain has never suited you, and yet it never dims your beauty.” (Y/n) raised her eyebrows at him in an almost mocking manner, drawing a smirk onto Alfie’s lips. She pushed herself further into the couch, legs tucked underneath herself while Alfie sat close to her, waiting for her to finally shed some light onto her mysterious behaviour. 

“You remember what I told you about him, don’t you?” A sigh left Alfie at her words, eyes momentarily fluttering close as if his annoyance was already getting the best of him.

“I told you I would marry you, there is no reason to mourn a life with a husband you never had. Say the words, Alfie marry me, and I will, yeah? Is this why you so desperately needed to see me, pearl? Because of some boy who fell at war like so many others?” Her jaw muscles began to tick in anger, a fire started to burn in her eyes at his words. (Y/n) had to let go of a few deep breaths, trying to keep calm before this could spiral into another fight neither of them would win.

“He’s not dead.” It was a simple sentence, and yet it carried more pain than all others she had spoken in a long time. It almost felt as if every single vowel had sharp teeth, scratching at her tongue as they rolled right off the strong muscle to leave behind wounds that wouldn’t fade. 

“What? Did his ghost suddenly appear at night? Did God speak to you-,” the sharp call of his name interrupted Alfie, forcing him to quieten down with anger tugging on his features. For a moment, neither of them spoke a word, letting a heavy silence fill the room. Ever since their paths had crossed, she had told Alfie all about him, without ever telling him his name, he knew nothing but the endless moments she could still remember, the love she had been fortunate enough to experience. 

“I heard it at work, my boss spoke of him and his brothers. He’s alive, I’ve grieved a man who was never dead all because I believed lies I had no reason not to believe. That’s why I called you, if somebody could help me find him, it’d be you.” Tears welled up in her eyes, rolling down her cheeks as if the sky itself was crying for her and all those horrible years she had lost to mourning him.

“What is his name, (y/n)?” Seriousness clung to Alfie as he asked the one question he had never dared to ask, shoulders tensed, lips pressed together as if he already knew the name she was about to whisper.

“Tommy Shelby.” All Alfie did was stare at her, making goosebumps appear on her arms as he shot to his feet, turning his back on (y/n) while a sound torn between a groan and a shout tore out of him. She was close to flinching, not understanding why he was reacting that way. 

“I can’t take you to him, (y/n). You’ll take the first train home tomorrow morning.” (Y/n) mimicked his movements while an almost hysterical laugh clawed out of her. Slowly, Alfie turned back towards her, both stared at one another, waiting for the other to break first. 

“I won’t leave, not before I see him again. What do you even know of Tommy, Alfie?” With two quick steps he had reached her, hands finding her warm face to cling to her. Pain was swimming in his pupils, a pain that reached far deeper than she could imagine. His calloused thumb stroked her skin as he softly shook his head at her, seemingly fighting to find the right words.

“Tommy Shelby is a devil, yeah, he’s a man who’d kill you without needing a gun nor a knife. He’s not the man you once loved, go home, forget about him and allow me to show you glimpses of a life you deserve to live, pearl.” (Y/n) pushed herself into his arms, cheek pressed against his chest to listen to his racing heartbeat. She clung to the man she wished she could love like a lover, a man who’d treat her well enough to offer her the world. And yet her heart couldn’t let go of Tommy, of the life she ached for like a starving woman dreaming of a soup to warm her aching body.

“Take me to him, Alfie, this is a decision that’s only mine to make.” 

……

Her fingers were interlaced with his, feeling his thumb stroke the back of her hand while she shifted her weight from one side of the pillow to the other. Both were staring at the door, waiting for the sound of somebody knocking on the wood to reach them. With her breath hitched in her chest, (y/n) had problems breathing, tensing even further as the sound could finally be heard. 

And then her eyes found his frame, a man dressed in a sharp suit, in a thick dark coat and a cap whose shadow hid most of his features. Alfie rose to his feet, hiding her behind his frame as if he was still giving her the chance to turn around and leave, “Tommy, I’d say it’s a pleasure to see you again but we both know that’d be a lie, yeah.”

“What am I doing here, Alfie? I don’t have much time.” Silence began to stretch itself through the room, a silence that was filled by the sound of (y/n) clearing her throat. Alfie was forced to step aside as she rose, forcing all eyes onto her. For a moment nobody spoke, icy eyes wandered over her features, forcing her to straighten her spine and to blink away her tears. She struggled to believe that he was real, he had changed, had grown older and yet he still looked like the boy she had sworn to marry. 

“Tommy,” his name left her like a whisper, a sound that made him take a step back as if his personal hell was awaiting him. He kept staring at her until Alfie pushed himself closer to (y/n), forcing Tommy’s eyes to flicker from her to his enemy. “Do us a favour and give us some time alone, please, Alfie.”

It took Alfie a second to give in, staring at Tommy for a few more seconds before he reluctantly left the room. The door fell shut with a heavy thud, making her jump while it began to dawn on her that she was finally alone with Tommy, just like she had imagined for all these years. 

“It felt like a dream, you know, to hear your name again after all these years where I grieved you, believing you to be dead.” (Y/n)’s voice trembled, shaking with every further word she spoke. Her wide eyes clung to his confused features, watching his expression harden. She took a step closer, halting in her step as he shook his head, forcing her to stand still once again.

“You don’t need to lie to me, (y/n). You left without a word, forcing me to return to an empty home.” A sob left her, rumbling through her louder than intended. Now it was on her to shake her head, to cover her mouth with her shaking hand while bile filled her mouth. It felt like a cruel joke, allowing her to see through the game Ada and Polly had played on both of them. 

“Tommy, they told me you died, they made me pack my bags, made me leave home to start my life all over again in a different city hours away. I didn’t leave on my free will, why should I? I was ready to marry you, to start a family, you have to believe me.” She tried to move again, successfully this time, coming to a halt right in front of him. (Y/n) allowed herself to cup his cheek like she had last done the day he had left to fight in a devastating war. His piercing eyes kept staring at her glassy ones, watching her tears fall.

“Who’s they?” It was a simple question, a question rasped out with pain dripping from the words. Her tongue kissed her teeth, all too aware that this situation was about to spiral into another heartbreak. 

“Ada and Polly.” Nothing but a whisper, words that made anger widen on his handsome features. His gloved hand found hers, gently pushing her hand from his cheek to get some more distance between them, clearly hurting (y/n) with the simple action. 

“It’s good to see you again, (y/n), now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a busy day ahead. I hope Alfie takes good care of you.” Tommy turned from her, ready to leave the room while she choked on another sob.

“He’s nothing but a brother to me, Tommy. I never loved another. I can’t even bear the thought of being close to somebody who isn’t you.” He halted in his step, letting the words wash over him before wordlessly leaving the room. Leaving (y/n) behind with another cruel sob leaving her.

……

It had been hours since she had seen Tommy, hours she had spent with her cheek pressed to Alfie’s chest, drowning in the tears that didn’t seem to stop rolling. He had clung to her, had whispered comforting words to try and soothe her pain, without any luck. All until the phone call that had reached him, asking him to bring (y/n) to the Garrison at 4pm, not followed by any explanation. 

And so it came that she was leaning against Alfie as they stepped into the empty place, letting her eyes wander through the room. She found herself distracted for a moment, until her name was shouted by Arthur’s familiar voice, forcing her into a tight hug that made her chuckle in delight. 

Her body shook as they were led towards a room in the back, allowing her eyes to meet Tommy’s icy ones. A cigarette was held between his lips, the smoke engulfed him as if his shadows had moved up his body, whispering commands to him. It took Alfie a moment to let go of (y/n), to press a kiss to her hairline, eyes drawn back to Tommy, “If I find her crying again, I won’t hesitate to finally put a bullet between your eyes just like God intended, yeah?” 

It felt like a deja-vu, reminding her of their conversation hours ago after Alfie had left. She didn't dare move as Tommy kept smoking, intensely studying her. He leaned back in his chair before he reached his hand out, wordlessly urging her closer through the now empty room. (Y/n) moved slowly, feeling her heart skipping beats as he pulled her closer, forcing her to stand between his thighs.

“I dreamt of you, back in France. You were the only thing keeping me alive. I even prayed, to you or whoever would fucking bring me back to you. And then you were gone. They said you couldn’t wait any longer, that you couldn’t endure the pain.” He had his eyebrows furrowed, no longer able to look at her. A sigh left (y/n), she leaned back against the table to get a better view of his hard features, feeling how torn he was.

“They told me you died, that there was nothing left for me here. I didn’t get a chance to protest, they packed everything up and then I was suddenly on a train up north.” Her words drew his eyes back to (y/n), looking at the woman he had always loved, even as he had tried to hate her. Tommy tugged on her hand to pull her into his lap as if he still needed to convince himself that she was real, not a trick of his tired mind.

“They will pay for the hurt they’ve caused you.” It was a promise, filled with darkness and hurt, but (y/n) didn’t find it in herself to worry. Not when she was this close to him again, finally. 

“Is it true what Alfie told me? Did you get married?” He swallowed before his hand moved up her thigh, coming to rest on her waist. The silence told her everything she needed to know, leaving her to wonder how that woman had managed to capture his heart while (y/n)’s had been missing half of hers.

“I did, her name was Grace. I loved her, and yet it was no love like ours. Nothing could ever be like that.” A soft smile tugged on her lips, trying to forget about the woman who had once been at his side. Alfie had told her of her, of every detail he had picked up on over the past months, stories (y/n) was desperate to leave behind. 

Whatever it was that urged her on to move, it grew stronger with every passing second, until her lips ghosted over his. Tommy instantly reacted, searching her lips to press a hard kiss against them. He tasted of whisky, of cigarettes, and tea, nothing like the kisses they had last shared as young adults, tasting of a bright future that had been dimmed weeks later. 

The kiss grew more passionate as she began to shift around, wrapping both arms around his neck while her legs rested on either side of his. Their tongues fought for victory as his hands moved up her sides, tracing the body he had longed for in cold and dark nights. She was his warmth, the warmth that had been robbed from him beneath the surface of the earth, hiding away in tunnels that would forever haunt him. 

“Tommy,” she mumbled his name against his lips as both sucked air into their lungs, unable to stop clinging to one another. “Touch me, prove to me that you’re real. Let me feel you, please.”

His grip on her grew tighter, icy eyes watching her for a moment before he kissed her again. His hands found the seam of her dress, pushing the skirt further up her thighs with his hands finding her warm skin. A groan tore out of him as he touched her through the fabric of her undergarments, drawing a soft moan from her parted lips. 

Tommy spoke no warning as he stood up to place her down on the table. They held eye contact, wordlessly communicating while he pulled her undergarments down her legs, hand instantly drawn back to her heat. He touched her with care, gently brushing through her slip to collect drops of arousal. 

(Y/n)’s head rolled back, eyes fluttering close as he began to circle her pulsing bundle. Even though her mind struggled to figure out if she was truly experiencing this, if her lost lover was back to bring her pleasure, she didn’t find it in herself to care, to ask any other question. 

He looked like the devil, towering over her while pushing two fingers into her tightness. Tommy had been the last man she had allowed to touch her, and yet it felt so different to be touched by him, a new sensation she was already addicted to. He moved slowly, curling his fingers against her swollen spot while his thumb kept rubbing her pulsing bundle. 

She choked on his name, calling it out into the evening as if she was trying to summon him. He marvelled at her while he brought her pleasure, reminding her of all those times he had imagined this happening, aching for her while other women warmed his bed. And yet they hadn’t been her, no other woman had ever managed to make him feel this alive, eliciting a love for life deep inside of him. 

“I need you, all of you. Make love to me like you once did, Tommy.” He fumbled with his belt, freeing his hard cock from his trousers before brushing through her slit again. His hand found her throat to pull her in for another kiss the second he sank into her, feeling her walls flutter around him. 

It felt as if the world was ending, as if this was the last thing they could experience before their lives would end. And yet, (y/n) could only pray that death would be this beautiful, this comforting, finding herself in the arms of her lover. 

Tommy moved with care, fucking her softly for a few thrusts before he picked her up again to sink back down on the chair. He allowed her to take what she was aching for, fucking herself on his cock while his strong hands supported her. Every now and then his hips began to jerk, forcing his cock deeper into her tightness. 

“Heavens, I missed you, Tommy. I missed you so much.” Her eyes were too tired to cry again, and yet she felt as if she was whimpering for him, for the time lost, and the dreams that had been buried six feet under. His hand kept a possessive hold of her throat, keeping (y/n) close to whisper to her. 

“You’re mine, (y/n), no lost time will ever change that.” The second his thumb found her bundle again she was done for, ready to let go with his name bleeding from her tongue. He held onto her as she came, knowing that he wouldn’t last much longer himself. 

It hadn’t been long since he had last found comfort with another woman around, and yet it hadn’t nearly felt this good, this intense, this right. Tommy forced his eyes to stay open, to watch her fall apart as he followed moments later, imprinting himself on her walls. 

For a minute or two neither of them spoke, letting go of heavy breaths while their bodies stayed connected. Gently, he helped her off his lap, only to pull her back in the second he’d redressed. Neither of them could let go, scared that the other would leave their side otherwise. 

“What will happen now, Tommy?” She was scared to speak the question, didn’t want to be pushed away by the one man she’d never be able to stop loving. His hand pulled her back against his chest, chin placed on top of her head while alighting a cigarette. 

“Now you’ll find a new home here, with me. Our suffering ends now.”

[octuscle]

Gringo Life

Carlos was breathing heavily. Today, his destiny might be decided. The savings of many years of hard work had been spent on Carlos's trip to the United States today. He was to meet the smuggler in a village not far from the border crossing. Carlos was to come without luggage, without papers. Only with the clothes on his back. Of course, that sounded strange, but Carlos did as he was told. He wore his best clothes. He had gotten himself a new hat. He looked hot. He was an alpha paisa! He would make a career for himself in the land of the gringos.

At the agreed meeting point, a man was standing next to a surprisingly clean new pickup. He looked like something out of a bad college jock comedy. Stars and Stripes tank top over a muscular, tanned torso. The buzz cut hidden under an upturned cap, powerful legs in tight jeans that also accentuated an impressive bulge at the crotch. Feet in dusty biker boots. He spat a bit of chewing tobacco on the street. “Carlos?” he asked. Carlos nodded with a dry mouth. “Good, then let's go.” With the little English he knew, Carlos asked where he should hide in this car. Probably not in the open loading area. The guy laughed and said that Carlos had booked a first-class ticket. You don't hide with this ticket. With this ticket, you drive the car into a better life yourself. He threw the car keys to Carlos and went to the passenger door. “Are you serious?” Carlos asked. He was already much more fluent than a few minutes ago. “You drive, I choose the music. By the way, I'm Zack!” Carlos climbed into the car. He had never sat in such a big and new and expensive car, let alone driven it. “You know how to drive an automatic, bro?” Zack asked. Carlos shook his head. “You'll learn!”

It was hot. Zack had turned off the air conditioning and rolled up the windows. Carlos had no idea which buttons to press to change that. He didn't want to ask Zack. Zack had turned up the music loud and was enthusiastically singing along to songs Carlos didn't know. He was sweating. He ran his hand over his neck. His mullet was soaked in sweat! “Coke?” Zack asked, opening what was obviously a cooled compartment in the center armrest. ‘Holy cow, dude! You're like, a total lifesaver! Thank you, fam!’ Carlos replied. With a heavy Spanish accent. But in fluent English!

“12 kilometers to the border” was written on a sign. Damn metric system, Carlos thought to himself. How many miles was that now? 10? Or more like 20? He drummed on the steering wheel to the beat of Chris Young's ‘Young Love & Saturday Nights.’ The muscles in his forearms twitched, making his tattoos dance. Zack opened the windows. The wind blew up Carlos' cut-off tank top. It felt damn good on his sweaty skin. At the end of the road, the border station appeared. Carlos took a deep breath. He slowed down. He rolled up to the Mexican border guard's hut. Zack handed Carlos two passports, which Carlos passed on. The officer only glanced through the window. He had to stand on tiptoe to see not only Carlos but also Zack in the big car. He stamped both passports and wished them a safe journey. Carlos breathed a sigh of relief. Although he knew that leaving Mexico was the easy part. Now came the entry into the USA. The officer could be a brother of Zack. Muscular, short-cropped hair, a tight, perfectly fitting uniform. He bared two rows of immaculate Hollywood-white teeth. “Welcome back to the USA!” he said as Carlos handed him the two passports. “What was the reason for your stay in Mexico?” “We were there to get wasted and hook up, y'all! Get ready for some wild times!” said Zack. The officer said that was indeed the best thing about Latinos. “Which one of you is Charles?” Silence… Zack nudged Carlos in the side. Carlos jumped and said, “My friends call me Chuck, Officer!” Zack grinned. The border guard looked at Carlos and then at the passport. Then he asked Carlos to take off his hat. Shit, the hat, Carlos thought. Of course, with it he looked like a wetback. He felt for the hat. There was no hat. He took off his trucker cap. His long blond hair fell into his face. He pushed it back. The border guard grinned and said that with short hair, Chuck would look less like a girl. He stamped the two passports and handed them back to Chuck in the car.

“So, what did I tell you?” said Zack. “Easier than stealing candy from a baby.” Chuck replied that he had obviously lost the bet. He wouldn't have believed in his life that the guy wasn't checking the back of the pickup. There were six kegs of the finest smuggled tequila rocking on the truck bed. “Dude,” Zack said. “Didn't you see the way the officer was staring at you? If you had told him you had the tequila on the truck bed, he would have let us through. The main thing is that you smile at him once.” Chuck kneaded the bulge in his torn jeans. Hell yes, the officer had been hot. But the load of his balls was reserved for Zack today. He had lost a bet, so Zack was allowed to suck him off in the repair shop. Chuck could only hope that the border guard was back on duty on the next trip to Mexico.

Chuck and Zack had been best bros since they first got kicked out of college together for drug smuggling. Behind the facade of the auto repair shop, they smuggled various things across the border. In both directions. It was lucrative. And each time they bet on whether they'd get caught or not. The loser had to empty his balls into one of the other's holes. They were rarely caught. For some reason, Chuck spoke fluent gutter Spanish like a construction worker. He didn't know when or where he'd learned it himself. That usually helped with problems at the border. And if that wasn't enough, a blowjob had been enough to get him out. Life was great.

Pics by @ki-kink

[lafrexniere]

It was and is You - CL16 - part 1.

Note: First of an idea I had after Monza today, and didn't realize how long this would end up so it's going to be in three parts!

You had just gotten back from a run, feeling messages vibrating on your watch the whole time. When you arrived to the front of your apartment building you took a breath before stepping inside and looking through your phone. It was your three best friends in your group chat together discussing some vacation plan for you four to go on. 

Mila: We have to do this pleaseeeee

Allie: Italy sounds fun

Liv: Okay I’m in, where’s Y/N

There was some discussion about seeing some sporting event in Italy, and if Mila was organizing it was definitely racing. It was offseason for the four of you, and training was getting a little exhausting, the four of you needed a nice break from running, cycling and swimming in Switzerland, and it wasn’t skiing season. You had exhausted all of your summer activities. 

You: I’m going, definitely!

The four of you got on a call and booked your hotel rooms, and figured out splitting up the cost of the rental car and tickets for the weekend. It was Wednesday and you had to be there by Friday. You planned to leave tomorrow afternoon and arrive at the Hotel thursday night, you would split up the driving between you and Liv as you two were the ones not as into this F1 thing.

Thursday morning came and the four of you met at the rental car center. 

“Ahh there you are!” Mila exclaimed, pulling you all into one big group hug.

“To Monza!” Allie shouted throwing her fist in the air. You and Liv laughed at their excitement.

“I brought you two something,” she grinned at you and Liv. She pulled two red hats out of her purse and handed one to both of you.

“You both packed red right?” Allie said sternly.

“Yes of course,” you nodded.

“Yeah we got your thousand messages,” Liv rolled her eyes. The four of you explored the parking lot finding your car and loading it up with your bags.

“Do you want first shift?” Liv asked you.

“They are gonna be screaming the whole way either way, but sure” you smiled. You hopped in the car plugging the address of the hotel you had booked into the GPS system and were on your way. After a long way of driving hearing blah blah blah with the occasional giggle and squeal it was finally your turn to take a break and not get distracted by the stuff going on in the backseat. 

“So this whole race thing, why is it three days?” you asked. You shouldn’t have asked because it became a whole big long talk, you heard this and that about this person and a lot of mentions of Ferrari.

“Oh Y/N you are going to love it!” Allie said. 

“Sounds fun,” you said putting the hat you were given on. 

“And that’s where it stays,” said Mila cheering. You four continued the rest of your ride and finally after many karaoke songs later you had finally arrived at the Hotel. You four had gone up to your respective rooms and spent the night hanging out in Mila and Allie’s room. They were trying their best to educate you on the race and what was going to be happening during the weekend. You would be seeing a practice, qualifying, and the actual race itself. It was pretty easy to follow along with the more they explained, you even thought you would be able to talk about someone with it if they asked you, however you still knew nothing about the specific race or Ferrari. It was getting late and you and Liv went to your room.

Friday

You woke up early the next morning, before Liv, before Mila or Allie. You went to the elevator and went down to the lobby to get some coffee to clear your early morning headache. You were alone, somewhat sleepy in the elevator when it dinged and stopped. A man joined you in the elevator, there was something familiar about him. You exchanged a smile noticing that he was your type. You two stood awkwardly in the elevator until he broke the silence. 

“Nice hat,” he said.

“Oh thank you, it’s Ferrari,” you smiled before realizing the same logo was on his shirt, “sorry you know that already,” you laughed.

“You going to the race?” he asked.

“Yeah, it’s my first one, can you tell?”

“Maybe,” he laughed. 

“My friends pulled me into it for this weekend,”

“Well I’m sure you’ll have fun.” The elevator dinged and you were in the lobby. 

“Are you going too?” you said walking out beside him. He nodded.

“I’m getting coffee do you want one,” he asked.

“Sure,” the two of you sat down, he pulled the shirt he was holding on over his other shirt, and putting the hat he was carrying on as well. 

“What’s that for?” you asked.

“Oh nothing, maybe you’ll see?” he smiled. He began asking you some questions about yourself, but when you asked about him he gave vague answers.You knew one thing, his name, Charles. He realized the time and had to go after your conversation.

“Will I see you at practice today?” you smiled.

“Definitely,” he said rushing out of the hotel. You waved with a half smile at his abrupt leaving. You had felt that there was at least a little chemistry, but were also attracted to the mystery of him. You finished your cup of coffee and headed back up to your room, finding Liv, Mila, and Allie all waiting. 

“There you are Y/N, I was worried you had wandered off,” Liv said as you got back.

“Aww your wearing your hat, good,” Mila said.

“We would have been able to find you,” Allie said. 

“Relax I was just getting some coffee with this guy I met in the elevator,” you shrugged trying to pass it off as nothing.

“Guy, what guy?” Liv asked, as you began getting bombarded with a million questions that you couldn’t answer, you could only give his name. 

“No way, like Charles Leclerc,” Mila squealed.

“Who?” You asked.

“Oh my god you’ll see today, he’s so dreamy, Y/N if it was him you have to tell us, we have to meet him,” Allie chimed in.

“Omg stop, there gonna be delusional now,” Liv laughed. The four of you continued getting ready sporting your red hats. You had chosen a black skirt with a white tube top, and a sweatshirt just incase there was a breeze. The four of you were all somewhat matching and were off on your way to the track. You found your seats and there was cheering surrounding you as different drivers came on and off the track. There were screens lighting up showing you the parts of the track you couldn’t see from their seats.

“Wow they are fast, they didn’t look this fast in the videos,” Liv yelled over all the noise.

“Isn’t it cool,” Mila yelled back. You all nodded and tried your best to communicate with eachother. Practice had finished and you and your friends rushed down to some spot where you could possibly see the drivers. Mila and Allie wanted their hats signed. As drivers started rolling out you saw him, the same brooding eyes and dark hair from the morning, he noticed you in the crowd smiling at your screaming friends through the fence, Liv even took her hat off and started waiving it at him when she saw him. He came over and signed the three hats, asking Mila,

“Come on your friend doesn’t want her hat signed,” he smiled at you. You thought she was going to faint after he talked to her.

“Come on Y/N, hand it over,” she yelled at you. You took your hat off and handed it to Charles through the fence. Within a second he was done signing there’s but yours he took a bit longer on. He handed the hat back to you and winked.

“See you tomorrow - CL16” was written on the hat followed by a phone number. Your friends swarmed you trying to get a glimpse of what was on your hat, but you hid it quickly until you got back to the hotel. 

“Y/N Please,” they all begged and pleaded.

“Fine, but none of you can take the number,” you gave a strong look.

“Number?” Mila screamed. You turned the hat to show them what was written filling all of them with shock. You quickly turned it back after it had been almost enough time for them to memorize the number. 

“So are you getting coffee again,” Allie asked.

“I don’t know, honestly, but now I know why he was being so secretive,” you shrugged.

“Well you have to text him now,” Liv nudged you.

“I know I know,” you said hitting the air, to brush it off. The two of you talked about this the rest of your night, but made sure to kept your voices down in public. As the day was coming to a close you sent him a message

You: Coffee again?

Charles: Same time?

You: Perfect

Charles: It’s a date 😊

You drifted off to sleep smiling about what was waiting ahead of you the next day.

[kidvoodoo]

Jeest Mafia AU, snippet under the cut 💚💙

Joost tried not to make eye contact with anyone at the airport, though the stares he received at his battered face were inevitable. How many tall, blond, bandaged, bruised and bloody men were in a hurried rush to the terminal? Odds say: not many.

‘Not that I should be thinking about odds right now’ chided his conscience, ‘that’s how I got into this mess in the first place…’

His pace didn’t falter despite the looks from the other passengers lining up in their respective lines. All of them with bags and luggage alike underarm or trailing behind them, his own, suspiciously absent.

No time to pack, clothes on his back, phone, wallet and a little vial of two small white pills. Security checkpoint nearly put an end to those, but a desperate, puppy-eyed look and his disheveled state made the officer roll her eyes and wave him through, for all she knew, or anyone knew, it was aspirin.

‘Fix more than a headache’ his inner thoughts sneered, ‘steady on Joost, for emergencies only’.

He kept his eyes on the gate numbers, briefly glancing at the destinations. Cabo, Shanghai, Johannesburg, each a far flung place he could have potentially laid low in for months, relax on some resort beach or in a high class penthouse…

But that’s not where he’s headed.

He spies the glowing gate number, the destination? Helsinki, Finland. He got the ticket the same day he got the phone call telling him to leave as fast as possible, his usually calm and monotone source had an edge of panic to their voice, Joost trashed the burner after that and shredded the last of his books and burned them. He left his apartment as the ashes were still smoldering.

Finland eh? The only clue of what was happening next was the note in the ticket envelope, hurried scrawling in broken Dutch gave him simple instructions:

Taxi to the airport, pay in cash. Get on the plane. Make sure you are in the camera view the whole time, locate the Air Marshal and watch him. Once you are off the plane, head to the pick up zone in the parking lot and look for the black limo. Tap on the driver’s side window and give the password.

“Here for Tommy’s boy” he mutters under his breath. The magic words that’ll guarantee his safety and freedom, or will land him a bullet between the brows…

Better than the alternative.

He’s on time for the early boarding and hands the Steward his ticket, eyeing the Air Marshal at the doors to the plane’s walkway. He’s given a smile and some well wishes for his flight and finally, for the first time in several days, he feels a little sliver of calm wash over him.

‘Can’t cut me up on the plane you fuckers’

He finds his seat, window view and close to the front of the plane and plops down, the ache in his joints and back starting to flare up since the adrenaline begins to wear off.

Finland…he’s uncertain exactly what is waiting for him there, he regrets not grabbing a translation booklet at the terminal kiosk but there was simply no time. His new phone is IP hidden for the time being till he can get a VPN to bounce his signal, so no using Google’s underwhelming translation system…

He thinks back to a conversation he overheard at a conference last year. The big guys were all there, each of them with a meaty bodyguard in tow and a pistol or two brandished in plain sight.

He was there on happenstance, just finishing up the numbers to hand to his boss for the last fiscal year when his curiosity got the best of him.

“Baltic’s are at it again,” his boss sneers, tapping his cigar onto the floor, “think they’ll hide behind the Nordic cunts so they don’t have to play anymore”.

“Hm.” Another well dressed older man hums in response. He’s the police liaison, a former Captain who’s been working with the mob for 40 years. “Not much to be done about it Albert, the Fins have the advantage now, I hear they’ve even brought Estonia into the fold now.”

Albert snorts, getting to his feet and giving a couple other well-dressed people a farewell wave.

“Cuz of that little shit,” he grumbles, motioning his bodyguard to get a move on. “What’s his name? Kät-something? The Union fucker.”

“Käärijä,” the former Police Captain supplies, “his Union is very bold for an upstart, cutting off the trade in the Baltic’s disrupts everything. Heard he’s in talks of making a deal with the Norwegians as well. That’s the case? Say goodbye to the big money”.

Joost tried to linger as long as possible to catch the last bit of conversation, tucking himself against the wall and listening close.

“Damn idiot, Norway doesn’t play with the new players, even if the young lady is supposedly running things over there now. He’s a fucking lunatic to think the Baltic’s will stay loyal, he’ll be done by the end of the year, mark my words-“

A dinging noise jolts him awake from his daze, the Flight Attendants are doing their safety check. The doors to the plane are closed and for the first time in weeks, months even, Joost’s tense shoulders drop with exhaustion.

He is safe. For now.

<><><>

Roughly three hours later, he startles awake.

The voice over the intercom of the plane cabin announces in several languages that they have arrived at Helsinki Airport and will begin the landing process momentarily.

He spares a glance around the cabin out of paranoia, nothing out of the ordinary and no unwanted eyes in his direction.

Twenty minutes later and he’s heading out of the plane and into the airport terminal. The weather outside is gray and snowy, the sky a mass of colorless clouds and the sun choked somewhere behind. He shivers just looking at the weather, his cheap suit jacket will definitely not suffice.

He heads down the walkways and tried not to get too overwhelmed with the directions, mostly in Finnish but thankfully also in English.

He’s only a hundred feet from the parking lot when he feels eyes on his back. He tries subtly to peak behind and catch if he’s being followed.

Two men, both in dark blue suits and expensive leather shoes, each sporting a grim, intense expression. They have their hands in their pockets.

Joost picks up his pace, eyes focused on the automatic doors that swing open and shut.

He can hear them closing behind him, their shoes loud against the tiles. He starts to jog.

He doesn’t stop to apologize to the people he pushes past to get out of the door, ignoring the scowls and curses thrown his way. His heart is hammering in his chest, he has but a minute to locate the car before he’s dragged off and butchered in a dark corner…

A car horn blares loudly as he flinches and freezes, he had walked right out in front of a pair of high beams, his eyes don’t have time to adjust as he hurriedly runs around to look.

Black limousine, tinted windows with triple thick bulletproof glass and chrome trimming. The driver’s side window rolls down, a bald man with sunglasses and a mustache regards him blankly.

“P-please,” he stammers, eyes catching the two suited men finally breaching the threshold. “I-I’m being followed-“

“What is phrase?” The driver interrupts, not at all phased by the situation in the slightest.

“Th-the wha-oh yes yes, it’s uh…” he swallows takes a breath and speaks the words softly enough for the man to hear him.

“I’m here for Tommy’s boy.”

The door at the back of the limo clicks open, beckoning him inside.

He all but dives into the car and slams the door shut just as the two men make a dash towards the vehicle, only to stop dead in their tracks mere feet away.

Joost doesn’t have the time to take in his surroundings as he sees what has halted his stalkers. In the split second before the limo peels out with a loud screeching of tires, the window on the opposite side is down just enough to see the startled and blanched faces of the two men, who find themselves held in place by a man aiming a 45 caliber handgun at them.

Were it to fire at point blank range, one of the two men would have nearly had his torso blown open. More than a lethal shot, truly overkill at that point.

The car peels out of the lot and before he knows it, Joost is tossed back into he seat as the limo put some speedy distance between him and the danger.

A loud curse and sound of a window being rolled up. Joost finally levels his eyes behind his cracked glasses to see his savior.

Sitting across from him now with the gun held loosely in his grip is a dark haired man with pale skin. He sports a blunted bowl cut and his facial hair is trimmed and tidy. He wears a long black coat with a layered polo necked jumper and a couple silver chains around his neck. The jewelry matches his pierced ears and nose rings, the whole of his attire is expensive and modern looking.

Joost is drawn into the man’s piercing eyes, blue like his own but with an edge of silver steel, made more intimidating and entrancing by the heavy makeup that lines them.

The man is staring at him, Joost’s palms immediately start to sweat.

“I uh,”

“You are the Dutchman we take in?” The man interrupts, his voice has an hint of annoyance, Joost nods politely and holds out his hand to shake.

“Yes, I mean to say, thank you,” he tries to muster a charming smile but finds himself pinned under the man’s gaze like a deer being watched through a hunter’s scope.

“I’m sure this is a bit of trouble for you-“

“Trouble? I say it is bigger trouble for you and not me. You need a drink yes? I have gin and brandy here.” The man all but ignores whatever Joost was trying to say and busies himself with pouring a drink from a side bar containing glasses and some bottles. “Brandy since the gin is warm, I not have a lot of time to get it ready.”

Joost wants to say something, anything to this stranger but finds himself at an utter loss for words. The man looks at him expectantly, pushing the glass of amber liquor into his hands.

“There you drink that, feel better afterwards. You say you looking for Tommy’s boy? That is what he tell you to say? He think he is funny man, he gonna have to explain to me…” the man trails off, eyes now scanning and taking in Joost’s disheveled appearance. “You have injury? I have some bandage here and some other things uh,” the man stops and searches for a word. “you know, doctor supplies?”

“First aid kit?” Joost supplies.

“Ah yes yes! That is it,” the man grins and digs around a bit before huffing in annoyance and opening the little sliding window to the driver’s compartment. He asks for something in Finnish and the bald man replies. Information gathered, he opens a compartment and fishes out a nondescript black case.

“Okei here it is. Let me see your hand, you have blood on your palm.” He does? Joost was in such a mad dash to get away from the goons who had jumped him back in the Netherlands he didn’t have time to take stock of his injuries. He holds out his hand timidly and the man yanks it none too gently to inspect.

“No stitches I think,” he hums, grabbing supplies to clean and patch the gash on Joost’s palm.

The man’s grip is firm and steady, there is warm radiating from beneath the leather gloves he wears.

“You are Mr. Klein eh?” The man says absentmindedly as he cleans the wound. “I hear you screw your boss out two million euros, not bad.” The man smirks, eyes flickering up to Joost’s face. “I like someone who disrupts the status quo. When Tommy say you in trouble, I had to do something about it. Would be a waste for you ending up in concrete.”

Joost cringes a little at the mention of his dilemma, taking a long gulp of his drink and reveling in the burn.

“I don’t know about disruption, I just did what I thought was right is all. Didn’t think it would go this far…” he wishes he could be more proud, he did take a chunk of money from the hands of the worst men in Europe. Now, he’s a marked man, possibly forever.

The dark haired man seems to sense his discomfort and finishes dressing his hand, grabbing a gauze patch and passing it over.

“What is done is done, you think it is bad thing now, but you make a big move, and now you have a big advantage for the war that is coming.”

Joost finishes placing the gauze over the gash on his cheek, looking at the man puzzlingly.

“What war? And what advantage are you talking about?”

The man leans back against his seat and smiles, his sharp canines peak over his lips and his expression is one of amusement and vicious excitement.

“The war between the Union and the Old Men, tear down their ruined kingdom and make our own. The advantage? That’s easy,”

The man chuckles darkly.

“You have Käärijä in your corner now.”

[m-ayo-o]

sfw - megumi taking you to a show; this is cheeeesy af love him

"Do it do it doooo it Megumiiiii!!!"

Yuji is bouncing with excitement on his friend's bed, while the dark haired man scrolls through the online booking system.

"If you don't do it, I'm taking your card and booking it myself." Nobara adds, leaning over to look at his phone screen.

Of course, he did it. He just had to get tickets to see your favourite band to impress you for your first date.

He had already asked you out, of course, all he had to do now was organise everything.

He's elusive on the build up to the date. You pester and bug him but he doesn't tell you anything. Yuji and Nobara don't let up either.

A couple of weeks pass and you're over the moon when he presents you with the tickets and some flowers, finally informing you that you'll be going on Saturday.

He told you with a few days to spare so you had plenty of time to pick your outfit.

And god damn you look stunning when he picks you up.

You've been friends. It's been chill... up until recently, and today, after seeing you like this, he knows he can never go back.

He asks if he can hold on to you in the crowds so that you don't get lost. Of course, you agree and he's got his arms around you all night, making sure there's enough room for you to dance and sway if you want to.

You look up at him and say 'oh my god this is my favourite song' looking so damn excited. But he knows your short ass can't see the band well, so he suddenly squats right down and pulls your legs over his shoulders and you're thrust so high into the air.

You feel like a giant, like you could topple off. You let out a little squeak when he grabs ahold of your legs and tells you to stop squirming.

You finally settle down and place your hands in his hair, patting him gently before your attention is consumed when you swear the singer is looking your way.

They point at you and before you know it you're on the big screens with Megumi's face squashed between your thighs.

You giggle and wave, watching Megumi notice and crack a little smile, then roll his eyes. He's not smiling for the camera, though. He's smiling for you.

megumi | m.list

[darling-i-read-it]

System

Dalton Lambert x fem!reader

Word Count: 2.6k

Warnings: set after insidious the red door so spoilers for that, the readers scared daltons wandered off again 

Author’s Note: Sorry this took so long love! I’ve been a bit everywhere lately but I was finally happy with this. Also my spell check is being hella weird so if there’s some misspelled things just ignore it lol. I hope you enjoy!

Requested: by anon, hi i literally just got home from the insidious movie with my friend, but i was wondering if you are taking requests, if not feel free to ignore! but i was wondering if you’d be able to do a dalton x reader where they maybe meet his family? and he has an episode during it and gets stuck in the further and reader has to try and coax him out of it? or he has an episode and comes out of it in a panic attack like state and reader helps him through it and his family is in shock that dalton lets her see him like that. they think its really sweet that she can help him through it and everything.

I don’t own these characters. They belong to author/director/creator

(not my gif)

Thanksgiving break. You could fear the cold in the air as people talked lightly going down to their cars, happy to leave school behind for a couple days of rest. Dalton threw his bag over his shoulder, watching you watch the window. The leaves were falling onto the street, whisked away by the gentle wind. You could see people’s silent laughter through the glass. 

“You ready?” Dalton’s voice broke you out of your trance. You nodded once, pulling your bag up over your head as well. It just had some clothes and your laptop, plus chargers. You hadn’t been expecting to go back for Thanksgiving with your heavy workload. 

“Your dads here?” 

“Yeah, pulling up outside.” You turned back to the window like you could locate him. Dalton grabbed your hand and pulled you towards the door. You followed him outside of his dorm room. He shut and locked it behind him before leading you down the stairs among the stragglers of people leaving for break. 

You had never seen the parking lot so crowded. 

Dalton put his phone to his ear, keeping a firm grip on your hand. You followed him blindly. 

“Near the flag poles isn’t an instruction dad,” Dalton said, voice annoyed. You looked around, trying to place the car. You didn’t actually know what he was driving but you knew Mr.Lambert’s face. “There are a ton of flag polls.” Your eyes scanned the area. “Are you talking about the one with the school flag?” You sat Josh Lambert, standing outside of his car with the door opened. You hit Dalton and pointed. He followed your gaze. Dalton hung up the phone and guided your way through the parking lot. 

Mr. Lambert smiled when he saw you both. He pointed beside him, where an American flag was posted between some trees. 

“It was the only thing near me,” he explained. 

“Don’t worry about it.” You offered your hand to shake. 

“You must be Y/N. I’ve heard a lot.” Josh shook your head. 

“Thank you for letting me stay over the break. My family is so far away and getting a plane ticket in this weather has never been good odds.” Josh’s smile was genuine and kind. You had only met him over the phone but Dalton had mostly assured you of his normalcy. After the whole flying away possessed by demon thing, you understood that Josh also had issues with staying in his head. You felt for him. 

“Oh of course. Any friend of Dalton’s is a friend of ours.” Josh winced, trying to find the right words. “It’s a pleasure.” 

“That’s good dad.” Dalton took your backpack. You smiled gently, trying to let him know you understood what he was trying to give off. “This is gonna be a long drive.”

-

Josh asked you plenty of questions, happy that someone in his car actually answered him. You didn’t mind chatting. It was a couple hours after all. Before you were there, Dalton couldn’t exactly shut out and put his headphones in. Still, he sat behind you, sketch book out, half listening. 

Eventually you came to his and his moms home. It was nice and large, almost secluded but not quite. You didn’t peg Dalton for a large house kind of guy but the second his mom opened the door, it all clicked into place. 

Josh had started recently living with Renai again, much to Dalton’s surprise. He didn’t talk about it often, only in passing. You were able to pick up bits and pieces from everyone’s body language but that was about it. 

Renai had Josh take your bags. 

“Thank you so much Mrs. Lambert for letting me stay,” you said hurridly as she ushered you inside. She smiled, so brightly it hurt. She looked just like Dalton’s pictures of her. Goregous and kind. 

“Renai, please. Dalton go take those upstairs.” 

“Are we allowed to sleep in the same room?” Dalton asked, teasingly. 

“You can sleep in the guest room,” she said, ushering him away. She turned to you. Dalton walked up the stairs, followed closely by his father and your bags. “It’s nice to formally meet you Y/N.” 

“And you! I’ve heard so much, seen your face on a lot of different sketches,” you joked. Her smile remained, dripping in generosity but not so much it made you uncomfortable. You felt instantly comfortable in the house. 

“I’m sure you’ve become the new muse,” she joked. 

“He’s extremely talented. He could make a tree look interesting.” 

“Don’t say it to him, it’ll go straight to his head.” Renai would sometimes call you when she was worried about Dalton. After the demon event she grew more worried about having him out of the house. You became her eyes and ears, which she was eternally grateful for. 

There was a childlike commotion upstairs. You both turned to see a little girl barreling down, her hand loosely holding the railing. Once she hit the bottom she halted. Dalton was following close behind her and behind him was another teen boy, though younger than Dalton. It was easy to guess the names. 

“Oh shit D,” Foster mumbled. Dalton hit him. 

“Are you Y/N?” Kali asked. You nodded. 

“And you must be Kali! It’s very nice to meet you.” She smiled, ogling. You grew self conscious under everyone's gaze. Dalton pushed through his siblings to get to you. 

“Hey, go get your own person to stare at.” He grabbed your hand. “C’mon, I wanna show you my room.” 

“No funny business,” Josh said as he came down the stairs. “Keep that door open.” 

“He doesn’t bring girls home often,” Renai explained. 

“Mom,” Dalton seethed. You laughed as he tugged at your arm. You followed him up the stairs. 

“It was nice to meet all of you!” you called, your arm half way out of it’s socket. You observed the place as you walked, glancing at the family photos on the wall. At some point they started to lack Josh completely. “You’re were so cute,” you cooed at one of the photos. “What happened?” 

“Woah there.” You laughed as you finally landed upon his room. It was a normal teenage boys bedroom but cleaner. You wondered if Renai had cleaned when Dalton left. There was art supplies still scattered on the desks and some laying on his made bed. Your bags were put off to the side, next to his. 

“I see you have no intention of posting up in the guest bedroom?” 

“Oh no,” he said. “My mom’s a lightweight and will be in bed by nine.” There was countless pictures on the wall. Some were painted, some where with ink, some with just pencil. It was like a whole other gallery. “I have a couple new ones to add up there.” 

“Oh yeah?” You turned back to him. He was grabbing his sketchbook out of his bag. He turned it open to the one he was working on in the car. It was a back view of his dad and you talking. Josh was mid word but you were smiling, watching intently. “Is that why you weren’t talking with us?” 

“I don’t like my dads taste in music.” You grinned warmly. 

“I love it. Like I love all your stuff.” He carefully went to tear it out and you moved to get some things out of your bag. 

-

You had dinner, courtesy of Renai, and quickly turned in. Dalton made a big show of going to bed in the guest bedroom, rolling his eyes and pretending to pout. You cuddled into his bed, scrolling through your phone as you waited for him to come back. Your eyes drooped. It had been a long day, filled with new things. Dalton’s bed was way more comfortable then the dorm room bed and far bigger too. 

At 10 you heard the door open slowly. You turned on your side and smiled sleepily at Dalton walking in. He ran his hands through his hair, shutting the door quietly behind him. He climbed under the sheets beside you. You moved over to make room but the bed was big enough where it almost didn’t matter. 

“Bigger than the dorm room bed huh?” he questioned. You usually had to squeeze together. You got very used to being on top of each other. 

“Just a lil.” 

He dipped his head over you, kissing you gently. Your body eased into his touch. His lips were lazy and sleepy, also fueled by the long day. He moved away after a moment and layed his head down next to you. 

“Tease,” you joked. 

“My mother is in the next room.” 

“No more kisses then.” 

He scoffed and the two of you got comfortable, his arm under your head, your cheek against his chest. The window was creaked open, the sound of the suburbs floating into your ears as you drifted off. 

-

You woke up with a start. There was an echo of a noise but you were still half asleep and couldn’t pinpoint it. You sat up, glancing down at Dalton. He laid on his back, eyes shut. You looked around the dark room. You didn’t know it’s curves well enough to know what had changed. You rubbed your eyes, trying to decide if you were still asleep or not. 

Through your shadowy perception, you saw the door creak open. It was slow but the movement struck home. You turned to Dalton and nudged him. He didn’t move. You nudged him again, harder this time. He stayed completely still, the only indication he was alive from his breathing. 

“Dalton,” you muttered. You shoved him again, almost knocking him off the bed. 

Nothing.

Fear shone in the lights of your eyes. You sat up completely and turned on the lamp beside your bed. You took a deep breath. You had done this before. You could do it agian. Dalton and you had talked about what you could do when this happened. He assured you that, while he likely couldn’t get possessed by that same demon, there was no guarentee he couldn’t drift off. 

You cleared your throat and set your shoulders back. 

“Dalton can you hear me?” Your voice was loud and clear. It needed to project if he was gonna hear you. You took clear breaths in, counting and then releasing. “Dalton, baby, you’ve gone to far.” 

You glanced back at the door. Had he left? Was that him coming back in? How long had be been out? 

“Dalton, listen to me. Follow my voice.” 

With each passing tick of the clock you got more anxious. You wondered if you were too late. Your breathing became more labored as you sat there, starring at his face, begging it to move. “Dalton.” 

You knew shaking him did no good but you did it anyway. 

Renai could hear your speaking in the other room. Despite what Dalton said, she was also easy to rise. She had gotten into the habit when Kali was a baby, always able to easily identify her childrens voices. She knew it was yours immediately. She nudged Josh, who woke up after a couple pushes. 

They listened for a moment, making sure they weren’t going to enter some sort of scene they would never be able to unsee. But then your voice came again. 

“Dalton, follow my voice. I’m right here.” Renai knew the script well. It sent shivers down her spine to hear someone else say it. She quickly moved the covers aside and padded down the hallway to Dalton’s open door. She stood in the frame, Josh behind her. You were turned away, looking down, sitting practically on top of Dalton. Your voice, though stressed, was soothing. 

“Dalton I’m right here. Come back to me.” Renai was about to jump forward and start helping when Dalton sat up straight. He hit your head with his because he was moving so fast. You both groaned in pain.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” he said quickly, grabbing your cheeks. “Are you okay? Did I bruise you?” 

“No, no I’m okay,” you breathed. You let out a hefty sigh of relief. “Are you okay? You scared me!” 

“I’m fine, I’m okay,” he promised. “Followed your voice.” 

“Everything okay?” Josh asked. You both turned on a dime. You almost fell off the bed with the speed you were trying to get off Dalton. He still had his hand on your cheek and it fell just as quickly as he had put it there. 

“Yeah we’re fine.”

“Totally okay!” 

Your voices overlapped into a scrambled mess. 

“You’re still floating away?” Renai asked. She hadn’t heard anything about that. Josh was still grounded, as far as she knew. Dalton shook his head. 

“Not often,” he promised. “I think being back home triggered something.” He rubbed his eyes. “But I’m fine. We have a system.” 

“Yeah, just in case. I can usually tell because he starts to move things around when I’m sleeping,” you explained. “The door usually opens.” Renai nodded. She parted her lips, the fear dissipating. You had it handled. 

She was impressed. 

“Is that why you’re in the same bed then?” she questioned, eyebrow raised. Dalton rolled his eyes but you had the heart to laugh. 

“Sure mom.” Her gaze lingered. 

“You sure you’re alright? Do I need to quiz you on something?” she asked. 

“I’m fine,” Dalton promised. “No demons here.” 

“None over here either,” Josh promised. Renai scoffed. 

“Good to know.” She turned back towards the two of you. “It’s late. Get some sleep and stay in your shoes okay?” Dalton nodded quickly. She left the door wide open as she turned to leave but not after giving you one last look. 

“We could’ve used a system,” Josh mumbled. 

“Maybe we should get one,” Renai concluded. 

You turned back towards Dalton. 

“She let you stay.” 

“Yeah well, I think that was the astral projecting.” You laughed a bit. You were still reeling from the fear, even though you were trying not to show it. 

“Wanna grab a midnight snake or something? Just to shake off the demons?” He smiled, thinking of kissing you in his kitchen, the privacy something he wasn’t used to.

“I would love to.” 

[sundasystems]

3. Up in the Air

I booked a flight to Charlotte for the following week. A part of me wondered if I was taking the right tack with this. I didn't necessarily want to expose myself so early, but Sunda was a legal monstrosity. Any litigation other than the Lotus affair was settled out of court, records sealed. I didn't see much if a way forward without actually seeing the compound itself.

But it was okay. They didn't know who I was. I would just be a simple tech blogger who had come to see his favorite multinational conglomerate.

Tickets were expensive but I felt I needed to get there quickly to really get into this. I needed a lead and Sunda was the only place I could get one.

I could feel an unnatural pull toward the place. I hadn't felt this strongly about the thrill of chasing a story in... Maybe forever. This one could be big. I could feel it. I found it difficult to focus on anything else that week. The name Sunda just kept playing in my head over and over.

Finally, the day arrived and I woke up extra early to get to the airport. Check in went quickly. Security was smooth. And before long, I was boarded and seated. The flight attendants did their safety demonstration and then we were in the air.

However, I got my first surprise when I opened up my phone.

It seemed impossible to avoid them, these days, even for those people who weren't embarking on an investigative quest with them at the center. I clicked the button to join the wifi and smiles widely. Almost giggled. It was very funny to me that I'd be using their own service to forward my plan to bring them down.

I spent some time re-reading my notes. I wanted to compile a list of players in this little story:

Dominic Rey, CEO of Sunda Systems Bethann Johnson, CFO of Sunda Systems Christian Hopkins, COO of Sunda Systems

Then there were the people I'd either interacted with directly or had done research on:

Emily Voss, Administrative Assistant, ORD Reggie (last name unknown), Employment Recruiter James Pepper, Fmr. CEO of Lotus Clinical, Executive CRD John Delphine, Fmr. COO of Lotus Clinical, Executive CRD

I also received a follow up email to my "Helen" email that I'd applied to the Behavioral Psychology position with. I will provide the body of the email here:

Good afternoon Helen! This is Reggie from Sunda Systems. We spoke on the phone about a week ago regarding the Behavioral Psychology position advertised on Karear. It was wonderful to speak with you and I just wanted to follow up to see if you'd given the application any more thought. The position is still available, and we are keenly interested in seeing your resume. Provided that you fit our criteria we are willing to give you a competitive offer. Please Sleep on it and let us know your decision. Connected in Harmony, Reggie

After that I must have drifted off. I remember reading the email and thinking that I really hooked them. I was planning on spending the rest of the flight drafting a fake CV to submit to them so that I could get access to their campus as many ways as possible. But my eyes were heavy. I had gotten up early to catch my flight, after all.

Without closing the laptop, I let my eyes rest for just a moment.

The flight attendant woke me with a light tap. She told me that we were beginning our descent into Charlotte and that I needed to stow my computer.

I'd slept for four hours.

I guess I must have needed it. My mind has been working hard on this project. I deserved a little break. I stretched as much as I could in a small plane seat and packed up my stuff. We touched down and taxied to the gate.

Charlotte International Airport was full to bursting with advertisements for Sunda. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. This was the closest major city to their headquarters in Eden Springs. I guess it also made sense then why planes flying in and out of this hub would have Sunda wifi on them.

By the time I was picking up my rental car, I was positively buzzing with excitement. I was wearing a constant smile. There was a spring in my step. I knew this was going to be a good trip.

The rental agent gave me my keys and I got into the car.

The touch screen in the center came to life with the logo of the company that made it. I recognized it immediate as one of the Sunda subsidiaries. It really was impossible not to get wrapped up in their web somehow.

They had hands so much of our daily lives and we didn't even know it. We just go about our days, completely unaware of the level of control they had over us.

I turned on the radio and began my drive to Eden Springs.

[willcodehtmlforfood]

Wizz Air has launched an unlimited flight subscription service - but what's the catch?

https://www.euronews.com/travel/2024/08/14/wizz-air-has-launched-an-unlimited-flight-subscription-service-but-whats-the-catch

"Despite Wizz Air’s offering being excellent value for money on paper, the budget airline’s cheap ticket prices mean those making use of the membership will need to be relatively frequent fliers.

Although the entire route is technically open to all pass holders, it’s only possible to book flights 72 hours before their departure time - meaning last-minute travellers won’t be guaranteed a seat.

This could cause a bottleneck when the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) comes into force this autumn, as airlines will reportedly be required to submit passenger information 48 hours before departure or face fines.

Due to the tight time frame, it’s also not suitable for people who like to plan ahead.

On top of the subscription fee, each pass holder will have to pay a separate, additional €9.99 flat fee per flight as an extra charge before they travel.

Baggage and seat selection costs also aren’t included - and they can range from a few euros to over a hundred depending on bag weight and the season of travel."

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Animorphs / Yellowjackets crossover?

• The night of the 25th Reunion of the Claremont High Class of 1998, Marco is waiting on the curb when Cassie’s car pulls up.  He looks the same as anyone else, tonight. Not like a movie star.

He pulls her into a firm hug.  Cassie holds on hard.

And then, shoulder-to-shoulder, the only two real survivors of the 1996 Air Penn disaster push open the doors and walk into their school’s gym.

• They’re not friends, not really.  But tonight they need this.  Marco because of the unsubtle glances of their former classmates, Cassie because of the whispered notes of concern as people watch her walk through.

“Where’s Ronnie tonight?” Marco asks, sotto voce, as they make their way to a table near the back.

“At home with Shelly.”  Cassie pulls out a chair for him, then for herself.  “I know kids are invited, but she didn’t need to be here.  T’Shondra?”

“Same story.”  Marco gives his public smile for a classmate’s husband who’s even now pointing and whispering their way.  “Out with friends.”

Before Cassie can say anything else, they both clock the woman approaching, a copy of Marco’s autobiography in hand.  Marco’s smile widens another inch, edging toward feral, even as he pulls out the pen.

• See, a while back, Marco was in a movie.  He got the role as a press gimmick, but he’d done pretty well with his minor part and there was talk of his getting a recurring role in an upcoming Netflix series.

• A while before that, Marco wrote a book.  The most-quoted review called it “a tell-all that tells none,” which isn’t even wrong.  There are plenty of anecdotes about his life before the plane crash, his life after being rescued 18 months later, and even a few isolated descriptions of their mock-prom and their pretzel-sharing system while out stranded in the mountains.  He cottons to having eaten an entire bottle of Rachel’s foundation when hungry enough, but that’s as scandalous as it gets.

• A while before that, Marco did a speaking tour.  It was half inspirational, half comedy show.  He perfected the art of answering questions without actually answering them.

When asked the worst thing he did to survive: “Breathing in Jake Berenson’s stank eighteen months out from his last shower, hoo boy.”

When asked how Rachel died: “Uh, hello?  There was a plane crash and we all spent a year and a half without real food?  You’re the one who bought tickets to this event, lady, you can’t tell me you didn’t already know that.”

When asked why Cassie claimed Rachel was alive until a few months before rescue: “Dude, I wouldn’t trust anything I said after all the isolation and hunger.  I went full-on Tom-Hanks-talking-to-a-volleyball out there, only my volleyball was a friggin’ rock, and let me tell you on the bad days my rock friend Mr. Balboa started talking back.”

When asked whether he’d left anything out of his book: “The shit bucket.  We do not speak of the shit bucket.”

When asked how David died: “Seriously, you did buy tickets for this event on purpose, right?  You are here to see guy-who-was-in-a-plane-crash voluntarily?  Because if this is, like, a hostage situation, then blink three times...”

• In retrospect, the crash itself would seem so clear.  Practically inevitable, as one Reddit commenter puts it.  It was a crappy charter plane that they’d booked last-minute because the commercial flight had been canceled for weather.  It was overloaded with luggage and equipment from the baseball team on board.  It had one pilot battling a long illness, and one who still held trainee status.  Rumors of a bribe to allow a too-fast inspection were never confirmed, but they were never denied.  Wing, meet downdraft.  Nose, meet mountain.

• For over a year, everyone assumed that was the end of the U.S.’s third-ever coed Little League team.  The news outlets ran beats of the same story: Rachel Berenson showed up to tryouts alongside her cousin, knowing perfectly well this was the boys’ team.  The unusually progressive coach let her at least give pitching a try.  She struck out five batters in a row.  She struck out a hell of a lot of other teams too, throwing a no-hitter that got her team into Playoffs and then giving them a shot at the Little League World Series.

Then the storm.  Then the crash.

The other girls on the team — Cassie, Collette, Kelly and Elena — got mentioned as well.  Sometimes the reporters even remembered there were boys, that Jake was their main slugger and team captain, that Aximili could clean up the bases on a hard hit and steal anything he didn’t bat in.

If you look long, you might even catch one of the broadcasts that remembers the pilots.  If you’re really lucky, you might catch the one segment — just one — that mentions Gafinilan and Mertil without immediately blaming them for their own deaths.

• Melissa was almost on that plane.  Nowadays she’s fond of telling people that: she missed being on that flight by a matter of sheer luck.  The Yellowjackets’ shortstop, she would’ve been traveling with them except she took a hard line-drive to the face less than a week before playoffs.  Concussed, barely able to see out of her left eye, she was forced to miss the rest of the season while Marco took her place.

“I was almost on that plane,” Melissa says, on the stage of their school gym, the night of the 25th Reunion.  She’s looking straight at Marco over the top of the mic stand.  “It was almost me.”

I was almost as famous as you get to be, it sounds a little like she’s saying.

“Never forget what we lost.”  Melissa clicks the remote in her hand and that stupid Goo Goo Dolls song starts playing.  Cassie feels Marco stiffen next to her as the first image of Rachel fills the projector’s 40-foot screen.

• Back then, Tobias shouldn’t have been on that plane at all.  He was just the coach’s son, just the pitcher’s nephew, just the batboy.  Not a Yellowjacket.  And yet.

• Back then, when Rachel swam awake in the first seconds after the crash, her whole body aching, Jake was crouched directly in front of her.  “Move!” he shouted in her face.  “Rachel, we have to move!”

She widened her eyes, trying to clear her vision.  Jake was filthy with ash and blood, blooming with red marks that would soon be bruises, and even over the ache of her whiplashed neck she couldn’t ignore the sharp pain of the seatbelt-jerk bruise across both hips.

“The plane” Jake shouted “is on fire—”

And that got her on her feet.

They moved so fast that the world would’ve blurred even without her battered brain: Cassie was the first person they ripped from a seat, then David.  Collette was bent up all wrong, body folded around the seatbelt in a way that made her scream breathless as Rachel dragged her loose.  They got Marco under both arms and heaved him out into the snow.  Jake got as far as grabbing Kelly, and then he jerked his hand back from cold bloodless flesh.  No time for discussion, with smoke thickening the air; they moved to Elena and shoved her out as well.

Tobias was the hardest of all, crouched over his father.  Coach Alan was upright in his seat, but he wasn’t breathing to disturb the smoke and didn’t react when Jake jabbed him hard in the eye.  Both arms around Tobias, Rachel dragged backward, holding him against her body until she was able to tip him onto the emergency slide.  She turned back to the nose of the plane.

Jake met her coming the other way.  He shook his head, pointing for the exit.

“Timmy!” she shouted, coughing.  “Craig and, and—”  Their basemen were all still up there, hidden in the opaque smoke.  She tried to shove past Jake, but he blocked the aisle.

“We have to go!”  He had to shout too, in order to be heard over the roar of the fire.

“Craig!” she screamed, fighting Jake, but he was shoving her backward.  “Liam!”

And then they were falling, down the slide, tumbling in a heap into the snow below.

Rachel punched Jake in the face.  The fuselage exploded.

• Then, the headcount over the next few hours contained more bad news than good.  Jake’s older brother, their third-base coach, was dead.  So was Tobias’s dad.  So was their chaperone Mr. Hamee.  Timmy, first base; Liam, second; Craig, third; Jesse, reserve.  All had been sitting together near the front.

No sign of the emergency beacon.  Collette, Pedro, and Elena all injured.  Enough bags of trail mix and pretzels to get them through maybe four more days out here.

It would’ve been five, but David was bouncing around the wreckage talking a mile a minute and pouring peanuts into his face.  "Do you guys see this shit?" he was shouting. "Like a movie! Like an action movie! It’s wild!"

“I think the bleeding has stopped,” James said quietly, where he and Cassie were bent over Elena.  There wasn’t blood anymore, but it’d been coming out of Elena’s ear.  There was no way that was good.

“We’re fucked.”  Marco said it first, staring at the burst-open fuselage.  “We’re totally fucking fucked.”

“They’ll find us.”  Jake spoke even louder than David.  “There’s a search party going as soon as any plane goes off radar, and...”  He pointed to the huge swath of downed trees the plane had destroyed in its last seconds of life.  “We’ll be easy enough to spot.”

Tobias had been sitting on the ground, staring into space, but at that he lifted his head.  “How far were we blown off course?” he asked.  “Do we have any guarantee they’re even looking in the right place?”

There was a long silence from everyone, even the injured and panicking kids.  Rachel broke it when she jerked the trail mix bag out of David’s hand, which was the second time in their first day that a conflict came to blows.

• Now, Marco drives through the night, after he leaves the reunion.  He didn’t have a drop of alcohol — paying for Tobias’s third and fourth trips through rehab turned him off the stuff — and his relationship with sleep has been somewhere between on the rocks and it’s complicated for the last two decades.  He keeps to the speed limit, making three left turns to be sure no paparazzi are following, and he keeps his eyes on the road.  Once he catches himself humming “Iris” under his breath, and in response cranks the car’s XM metal station to eardrum-damaging levels.

• Now, the sun’s coming up by the time Marco makes it to Seattle.  He checks his hair twice in the rearview mirror, smoothing it back and then ruffling it into an attempt at nonchalance.  The shop’s exactly where he remembers it being, the last six times he drove up here and lurked across the street without ever going in.

This time, he gets out of the car.

“Welcome to Wash World, how can I...”

The guy behind the counter trails off.  He’s a big man, full beard and long hair sprinkled with gray.  In the flannel shirt and fleece-lined jeans, he looks like a typical Seattle hipster.  Even the California accent fits.

“Hi Jake,” Marco says.  It feels like an understatement, all things considered.  It’s been fifteen years since he last spoke to his ex.

“You a customer?”  A small woman in a brightly-colored headscarf appears at Jake’s elbow before he can say anything.

“If you’re not a customer, you have no business here.”  A different woman, albeit with the same Eastern European accent, has emerged from behind Marco.  She crowds close to Marco, backing him away from Jake.

“Our Yakob has no business with anyone and you can have your shirts pressed or you can leave.”  The third of the Eumenides has gone so far as to pull the front door open and gesture.

Marco holds up both hands in surrender.  Cassie told him to call ahead, and apparently she wasn't kidding.

“Ms. Zivojinovic,” Jake says, to one of them.  Possibly to all three.  “There’s no harm.  He’s my brother.”

Marco’s eyebrows go up at that, but sure.  He won’t argue.  It’s simpler than the truth, and more likely to go down easy with this group.

The one closest to the door sniffs loudly.  “If he’s not a customer, I don’t care if he’s Jimmy Hoffa found at last.  He can —”

“I prefer to think of myself as Amelia Earhart.” Marco shrugs out of his 5000-dollar leather coat, dropping it on the counter.  “There, dry clean that.”

“It’ll take three to five business days,” the woman behind the counter says.  “You going to stick around for three to five business days? Or are you some fly-by-night, ne’er-do-well, love-and-leave...”

“He’s my brother,” Jake protests, louder.

“I have a brother,” the one by the door mutters.  “You have never met him, Yakob, and do you know why?”

Jake sighs.  “He is garbage?”

“He is garbage!  Would you like a receipt?”

Marco takes a second to recover from the abrupt turnaround.  “Yeah, I want a receipt.  How would I get my coat back without one?”

“If it comes to that,” one of the Misses Zivojinovic says ominously, “we will find you.”

• Jake extracts himself from the Eyrenies at last, promising to be back within the hour.  “Come on,” he says to Marco.  “There’s a café a few doors down.”

Marco follows until they’re just outside the plate-glass window, and then he stops.  “Good to see you, bro.”  He waggles his eyebrows at their reflections.

Turning, Jake follows the direction of Marco’s gaze.  He doesn’t laugh, but he does an almost-smile.  It’s obvious why Marco’s amused: Jake’s stopped growing at six-foot-three, two-fifty pounds.  Between that and the beard, they’ve never resembled each other less.  “I’m sorry,” Jake says.  “It was just...”

Marco flaps a hand in the air, dismissing this.  “Like I’ve never told someone you’re my cousin or team captain or very good friend.”  He doesn’t have a dead brother, so he’d never dare to pull out the line Jake just used, but he gets it.

It’s too cold to linger on the sidewalk without a coat.  Jake pulls open the door to the café, ushering them both inside.  Marco pays for their coffees and Jake lets him, because neither of them talked about it when it was Jake paying for Marco’s arcade passes and cheeseburgers.

“So the beard.”  Marco gestures, tilting the rim of his mocha latte.  “That’s different.  I had wondered how you’d managed to avoid notice all this time.”

Looking down, Jake fiddles with his paper cup of hot chocolate.  “I don’t own a phone or computer.  It’s as simple as that.”

“Oh, I’m sure and the Kindly Ones using the bodies of nosy journalists to compost their garden have nothing to do with it.”

Jake shrugs.  “They’re good people.  And they don’t watch the news.”

“Yeah,” Marco says.  “Speaking of which.”

All at once, Jake’s whole body goes still.  It’s the kind of tension, readiness for violence or flight, that Marco hasn’t seen since the last time he watched Jake drive a knife through the chest of a struggling rabbit.  “Something came out,” he says.

Marco shakes his head.  “Nothing like that.  Not yet, anyway.”  Lifting his butt halfway off the chair, he fishes out the scrap of paper Cassie gave him last night.

I know what you did.  I won’t keep silent unless you make me.  That’s all there is to the note, other than the rough symbol scrawled underneath.  It looks like an odd little insect: six limbs on an elongated torso, two extra eyes on stalks, a scorpion-like tail.

• Back then, Tobias was the first one to find the symbol carved into a tree trunk.  “Look,” he’d said, voice rising in excitement as he pointed up at it.  “Guys, look.”

“What is it?”  Rachel squinted at the symbol.  “Some kind of alien centaur-thing?”

“Who cares what it is?”  Tobias spun in a circle, looking for more marks.  “It wasn’t carved by a moose, I can tell you that much.  It’s a trail marking, or a property boundary.”

“People,” Rachel breathed.

“Exactly.”

They’d set off crashing through the woods before Jake could point out what a bad idea it was.  “Hello!” Tobias had been yelling, when they’d disappeared from sight.  “Hello, whoever you are!”

• Then, Cassie had watched them go, had watched Jake go chasing after.  It was probably safe enough, as long as they realized they could follow their own tracks back through the mud and slush.  Instead she went back to what she’d been doing: tearing their spare jerseys into strips to make bandages.  There were a lot of wounded, and not a lot of clean cloths.

Rachel and Jake and Tobias weren’t back when the sun started to go down, and she did her best not to worry.

“We should eat something, right?”  That was James, standing on a fallen tree to address them all.  “We should each have a small snack.”

That was one of the first moments when they looked around, hoping for an adult or at least someone with some kind of seniority.  One of the first moments they realized just how on their own they were.

“Yeah.”  Cassie spoke up then.  “We should.”

James became the one to divvy up the little bags, that first time, with Marco following as an informal enforcer.  (“Two hundred calories per bag of pretzels,” Marco said, “and we can get by on seven hundred a day.  We get a pretzel bag or half a trail mix apiece for three meals, and that’ll last us for five days’ worth of food.”)

“Hey,” Cassie said, sitting next to Ax.  She’d seen him peering close at the back of the bag of trail mix he’d been handed, frowning at the ingredient list for the chocolate candies. “You’re vegan, right?”  His family were religious, even if Tobias tended to eat meat.

He shrugged.  “It’s not worth insisting on right now.”

Gently, Cassie took the trail mix out of his hands and handed him her pretzels instead.  “It can still matter,” she said.  “For now.  We’re not giving ourselves up yet.”

Ax had smiled weakly at her, and selected a pretzel.  “I hope you’re right.”

“I’m not giving myself up.”  She leaned back against the log, chewing slow to make the M&Ms last.  “We’ll get through this.  Even if we have to walk back home.”

There was no answer.  Ax was looking at the plane, at the place where his brother’s body was unlikely now ever to be recovered.

“Ax...” Cassie said, feeling like a fool.

“Even if we have to walk.”  Ax bit down hard on a pretzel.  “We will survive.”

• Then, Tobias had come crashing back later that night, still glowing with good news, to announce the hunter’s cabin he’d found.  “There’s a dead guy in the attic,” Rachel had said, as if no big deal, “but I doubt he’s using the place anymore.”

That first night in the cabin, Jake had gone up to the attic alone.  It smelled rancid, it had that horrible desiccated corpse watching from the corner, but it was the only place that had privacy away from the cold.

Marco followed, because it was what Marco did; he couldn’t help it.

“I got you, man.”  Marco had wrapped firm arms around Jake, had held him too tight.  “I got you.”

Jake had crumpled then, but only as far as his knees.  Only as far as burying his face in the juncture between Marco’s shoulder and his neck, their skin wet everywhere it intersected.  Disgusting, beautiful, whatever.

• Now, Jake agrees to pack a bag and go with Marco for the next few days, even though the Weird Sisters are clearly displeased that he’s conceding to someone who knows about his past.  He mumbles a greeting as they pick up Tobias outside a motel that’s really more of a flophouse, and keeps his hands in his pockets as they walk up the front steps to Cassie’s beautifully decorated front parlor.

• Now... “Hi,” Ronnie says to the others, in the kind of voice people use when they’re trying hard to sound casual.  “I’m Cassie’s husband.”

It’s pretty clear Tobias has been sleeping rough; he mostly stands in the corner staring at Ronnie.  Between his dad dying in the crash, what later happened to Rachel, and Ax’s disappearance, they all tend to agree that he has every right to be even more messed up than the rest of them.

More messed up is saying something — Marco knows why Jake kept the long sleeves on in the San Diego heat, he had Cassie calling him at 4AM last week claiming there were wolves in her backyard — but Tobias can’t help it.  They know.  It’s why Marco keeps paying for his rehab stints, why Cassie keeps offering her couch for him to sleep on.

“Jake.”  Jake becomes the one to shake hands.  “Thank you for having us.”

“So this... note.”  Cassie gestures to the scrap on the table.  “It could be nothing.”

“It could be Ax.”  Tobias, of course.  He has a tendency to ascribe everything from robocalls to weather patterns to Ax.

“Your relief pitcher?” Ronnie asks.

“Our friend,” Jake says, but there’s no sting to it.  “We haven’t seen him since...”

• Then, it’d been six weeks since the plane crashed.  Six lonely, cold, hungry weeks.  Marco was walking on eggshells around David, Collette around Rachel.  They’d eaten the last rabbit Tobias had shot, down to the skin, down to the marrow.  Ax, of all people, had quietly suggested taking apart the taxidermied deer head on the wall to boil the skin off that as well.

Jake had floated the idea of doing their own take on Prom because... because the date would soon be right.  Because they all had their formal outfits for the banquet anyway.  Because it was something to do.  Because they all needed a pick-up, with winter coming on.  Because they were about to be out of food, again.

Rachel had seized the idea with both hands, of course.  She’d gone wild with her makeup kit and the tatters of everyone’s formalwear, tying Jake’s tie and then — laughing at them, much-needed laughter — Marco’s and Ax’s and Tobias’s as well.  Cassie was in jeans because she’d already sacrificed her gown to make bandages, but she looked more comfortable that way.  Collette’s dye job was grown out several inches (she continued to insist she was a natural blond) but Rachel braided it so that the brown and gold wove together into a pattern.

They’d been beautiful.

• Beautiful or not, once they reached the torchlit clearing they’d stood around in silence for so long that Rachel was about to call the whole thing off.

It was James of all people who’d cleared his throat and started singing: “And I’d give up forever to touch you, ‘cause I know that you feel me somehow...”

“You’re the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be,” Jake sang along with him, Rachel taking up the melody a second later, and by the time they were at the chorus, there were six or seven voices in the clearing.

“What?” James said, when he finished and everyone was staring at him.  “I’m only a badass thrash-punk six and a half days a week.”

That got another laugh, so very needed, from the clearing.  Pedro made a circling motion in the air, and James turned to look at him.

“Another?” James asked, flushing but looking pleased, and Pedro made a humming noise of agreement.

“Baby’s black balloon makes her fly,” James sang, game enough, “Almost fell into that hole in your life, and you’re not thinking ‘bout tomorrow ‘cause you were the same as me...”

Tobias held out his hand for Rachel, smooth as you please, and they became the first couple twirling across the clearing in each other’s arms, both still singing along.  But James had pulled Collette into his arms, he and Elena together holding her up.

And then Marco seized Jake’s hand.  Jake jerked back automatically, but Marco thrust up his chin and stared hard challenge into his eyes.  The kind of look Jake could never back down from, and Marco knew it.

Jake was a terrible dancer, but that was all right; Marco was a good lead.  And if anyone stared, if anyone whispered, then they were looking too hard at each other to know about it.

They’d all felt a little strange, floaty-headed and bobble-eyed.  James’s words slurred a little, and none of them were quite balanced.  But they were hungry.  That had to be it.

Time got vague.  Half of them could hear the music, even after James stopped singing.

• Then, there was a scream echoing through the clearing. Instantly Jake had a branch in hand, Ax producing the hunting knife. 

It was Rachel who emerged into the clearing, dragging David behind her by a fistful of his hair.  She threw him to the ground in the middle of their circle, driving a kick into his side.

“Tell them!” she shouted.  “Tell them what you just said to me!”

“Jake.”  David rolled to his knees, arms over his head.  “Jake, help me, she’s losing it!”

“Okay.”  Jake kept his voice level.  Anyone else, and he might’ve believed Rachel really had snapped from the stress.  But out here David had revealed a side of himself that scared Jake almost as much as the snow and the hunger.  He’d started talking about no rules ten minutes after the crash, and hadn’t stopped since.  “Why don’t you just tell me what happened.  Rachel first, then David.”

“He was talking big.”  Rachel spat.  “Trying to impress me.  And then he said...”  She leaned close to David, snarling.  “Tell them.  Go ahead.  Tell them.”

“David?”

“I didn’t, I didn’t, I was just, I was lying, okay?”  He hadn’t dropped his arms.  “I was just making it up, it was just a joke.”

“What did he say,” Jake said.

“He found the plane’s emergency beacon.”  Rachel’s fists shook, but her voice was steady.  “The first day.  He found it — and he smashed it with a rock.”

Jake felt his whole body go cold.  He’d been expecting something sexual, something pressuring and gross, but... but this...

A body slammed Jake on its way past.  Marco, screaming, wild with rage.  He’d taken off running at David, who’d dragged himself to his feet and sprinted into the woods.  Rachel was half a step behind Marco, and Tobias keeping up with Rachel.  No sign of James, or of Pedro, but there were more bodies out rushing through the trees after David.  David was crashing away, and then he was screaming, and then he wasn’t.

Wait, Jake considered saying.  Stop.  Only he didn’t.  He and Collette looked at each other, and they listened to what was happening in the clearing on the other side of the ridge.

• Now, Cassie pours them all coffees, examining each of their faces.  Marco’s unreadable under the makeup and big hair.  Jake looks healthier than she thought possible: full-faced, broad-bellied, laugh lines starting around his eyes.  Tobias is loose-skinned and skitter-eyed, but at least the track marks she can see all look old.  What do they think of her, she wonders, with broad hips and grey in her braids.

“Ronnie,” she says quietly.

He pushes to his feet.  “I’ll give you the room.  Nice to meet you all.”

This is a reason she loves him: that he understands there are things he’ll never understand.  That there are things she can only talk about with her boys, her fellow survivors.  Like how, her first hot shower after getting rescued, she orgasmed so hard it felt like a panic attack.  Like how she can’t stand the sight of supermarket meat, fragments of body parts sealed in plastic, but she’ll butcher and cook any livestock who die under her care.

But then, there are things the two white boys and the Latino movie star standing in her kitchen will never understand either.  Things only Ronnie can appreciate.

So Cassie’s been complete.  She’s been good, all things considered.

And now this.  One damn thing after another.

• Now, Tobias doesn’t care what they think about him when he says again, “It could be Ax.”

“Ax has been in a funny farm in Germany since I don’t know when,” Marco says.

“Switzerland,” Jake says, at the same time Cassie murmurs, “That’s rude.”

Marco rolls his eyes, smudged day-old eyeliner exaggerating the motion.  “Fine, Mom and Dad, he’s in a mental health facility in Switzerland.”

“Why would Ax blackmail us?” Jake asks, more pragmatically.

Tobias doesn’t have an answer for that one.  He looks away, out the window at Cassie’s sprawling backyard.  Seems like they only went two ways after rescue: soaring to success in politics (Cassie) and media (Marco), or going to ground.  Tobias self-medicates; Ax pays other people to medicate him.  Ax’s way probably works better, but Tobias’s is faster.

• Then, Jake had hiked back out to the site of the plane crash six months after it went down.  In case some remains of the signal beacon were there.  In case there was a bag of pretzels, a single solitary gummy bear, that they had missed.  In case...

Coach Alan’s body was the one he saw first.  Coach Alan’s skeleton, rather.  The flesh had been cut away in gouts and chunks, pulled loose from the limbs and torso to expose lengths of rib and femur.

Jake staggered back, hand coming to his mouth.  Craig’s body beyond looked intact, but.  He couldn’t— he couldn’t— Tom—

There was a crunch from outside, and Jake spun around, hot bile in his throat.

“Hi.”  James stepped into the fuselage through its torn-off front end, expression carefully neutral.  “I figured this conversation was coming sooner or later.”

“You.”  Jake looked from the stripped body — Ax’s brother, Tobias’s dad — to James.  “You...”

“I chose to keep my friends alive.”  James shoved his hands in his pockets.  “Just like Rachel did.”

“Don’t say that!” Jake snapped.  “David might’ve doomed us all, and Rachel didn’t have a choice.”

“We had a choice about eating him,” James said levelly.  “And we chose right, didn’t we.”

Jake shook his head, shook it again.  None of them had been in their right minds that night — something in the soup, something in the air.  That was a mistake, and it wouldn’t happen again.

“Jake.”  James took a step toward Jake.  “We have to talk about this.  I know you’re hoping for rescue, and so am I.  But we have to make it that far, first.”

“We?” Jake said coldly.  “Where’s all this...”  Again he pointed at Coach Alan.  “Been going, James?  Because if any of it has made the communal soup pot, most of us haven’t seen it.”

“You’re right.”  James shrugged.  “I’ve been coming here, harvesting, and giving it to my friends.  Your little clique seemed fine with getting first crack at every rabbit Tobias brings back.”

Jake was shaking his head harder, ears ringing.  “We have to live with ourselves.  We have to act like human beings.  Not— not sharks eating their own.  If nothing else, we have to all be together on this.”

“I’m keeping my friends alive,” James said.  He took another step toward Jake.  The hunting knife was on his belt.  “I’m doing what it takes.”

Jake didn’t move.  “Listen to me!” he shouted.  “Listen to me, we are not doing this.  Or at minimum, we’re putting it to a vote, and we’re discussing it as a team.”

“Thanks, captain,” James said.  “But no thanks.”

Jake shoved him hard in the chest.  James stumbled, taking a step back.  “We keep everyone alive,” Jake snapped.  “We act for the good of everyone.  You want to lead?  Fine, lead.  But just because you’re hungry, that doesn’t mean you get to be selfish.  Call for a vote about what we do while we wait.”

“Hungry?”  The contempt was stronger now, twisting the corner of James’s mouth.  “Of course I’m hungry, you fool.”  He planted both hands on Jake’s chest, not shoving back, just applying pressure.

“So are they.  A vote—”

“Let’s just acknowledge the elephant in the room here, Jake.”  James dropped his hands.  “The good of everyone is going to end with all my friends dead, well before yours kick it.”

Jake opened his mouth.  “That’s not—”

“Pedro’s my roommate.  Collette’s my best friend, and Elena’s with her.  I was...”  James pointed to the seat to his left.  “Sitting there.  Pedro next to me, Collette and Kelly across the way.  I’m supposed to be in the same boat as them.  And you know what they all have in common?”

Of course Jake knew.  Collette was paralyzed, Elena couldn’t see.  They weren’t sure how the hit on the head had affected Pedro, partially because he was having trouble talking enough to explain his symptoms to them.

“If it comes to a vote, to waiting for rescue, they lose,” James said.  “If we’re going to be all equal and civilized, then...”  He shrugged.  “My money’s on Cassie to be the last to starve.  That catcher’s bulk has served her well so far.  But maybe it’ll be Marco, since he’s smaller and needs less.  Heck, Tobias could probably provide for himself forever if he was only catching squirrels for one.”

Jake shook his head, shook it again.  “That’s not...”

“You’re trying to save your friends,” James said.  “I’m trying to save mine.”

• Now, Tobias leans against Cassie’s island.  “Guys,” he says, “there’s something you should know about Ax.”

He’s back stateside.  He reached out to Tobias a few weeks ago.  Something about a compound where a lot of people like them — damaged, not quite right — are gathering to support each other.  Ax has been talking to it, he said in that call, and wouldn’t say how.

“He said he can help us settle,” Tobias tells the group.  “He said he knows what it wants, and—”

“It.”  Marco’s whole face twists with the force of his sneer.  “It.  What, the fucking mountain?  Last I checked, we left that out in the Canadian Rockies where we found it.”

“Not the mountain,” Cassie says.  “You know that’s not what he meant.”

“Fine!”  Marco throws up both hands, drops them to his sides.  “Then it doesn’t exist.  The One is a fucknugget, just on the off chance it does.”

“Don’t think anyone said it wasn’t a fucknugget,” Jake says.  “But might still be worth to find out what it wants.”

• Then, Ax had known what Jake hadn’t said, what Jake had found — and not found — out at the airplane.

“The wilderness provides,” Ax said, because it was the only way to make sense of it all.  “The mountain has taken so much, and there’s nothing saying it won’t give something back occasionally.”

Jake stared in stunned silence, the small bundle of desiccated flesh limp in his arms.  Like a man who’d braced so hard for impact he had no choice but to fall when the impact didn’t come.

“Okay,” James said.  “Okay.  I’ll get some water boiling.”

• Then, it’d lasted another eight months.  What they’d taken from the airplane.  What they’d taken from David.  Tobias brought back a squirrel a week, sometimes two, sometimes even a pair of rabbits.  But two rabbits among ten people stretched to less soup than would fill an eight-ounce coffee cup, and squirrels stretched less than that.

• Then, at first thaw, Marco had been the one to suggest they hike for it.  A smaller team, a dash down the mountain and straight east as far as they could go.  East because it was easier to keep track of, with the sun rising nearly dead-on that way now that spring had come.  East, because they had to go some way.  East.  Until they found help, or until they couldn’t go further.

• Ax and Tobias made the first attempt.  Two weeks they’d been gone.  And they’d made it back to the cabin, eventually.  Barely.  They’d been limping, injured, so exhausted and hungry that their steps were a staggering line even as Tobias half-carried Ax to join the others.

“Fuck this,” Rachel had said, around the fire that night.  “Seriously, fuck this.  We’re not getting rescued, we don’t have the strength to walk out, and we don’t have anymore fresh meat.  We’re all slowly starving to death.”

“So what do you suggest?” Jake said, weary and hoarse.  “We sent Tobias because he can hunt, and Ax because...”

Because Ax knew more than anyone wanted to admit it was possible to know, about the whims of the thing keeping them here.

“You know.”  Rachel looked at Jake, fist clenched around the knife, teeth bared.  “You know.”

“We’re all still okay,” Jake said.  “We’re still—”

“We’re skin and bones,” she snapped.  “Our fucking teeth are falling out, Jake, and our nails are coming off.  James is dying.  Collette will probably go next.  We need to act, now, or—”

“No.”  Jake pushed to his feet, which took effort.  His knees hadn’t worked right in weeks.  “No.  We’re not discussing this.”

“Damn right we’re not.”  Rachel was on her feet as well, and she had Tobias’s gun in her hand.  Now everyone was standing, all shouting, Ax trying to pry the rifle away and Marco grabbing at Rachel’s arm.  She wrenched loose of them all, and raised the gun before anyone could react.

“We are not,” Jake shouted, “drawing lots!”

“Agreed.” And then Rachel swung the gun around, and she’d hooked the toe of her shoe through the trigger guard.

There was a gunshot.  So loud, that none of them heard her hit the ground.

• Cassie was the first to react.

Ax was crying, Collette too.  Marco was gagging like he’d throw up if he’d eaten anything at all this week.  But Cassie didn’t hesitate, grabbing the knife where Rachel had dropped it on the ground.

“We do not waste this sacrifice.”  She spoke loud, over everyone’s ringing ears.  She was crying too, but her teeth were bared.  “We do not.  Now, all of you, help me.”

• Then, they’d split up a second time.  James’s prediction was coming true: Cassie and Jake, Tobias and Marco and Ax, were the strongest ones left.  Cassie and Jake for their fat reserves before the crash, Marco for his small stature and slow metabolism, Ax and Tobias because they knew the most about survival.  They were the natural team to go down and east, down and east until they couldn’t anymore.

But Cassie stayed.  To cook, to be medic as much as she could.  To get the last of Rachel’s marrow where it could do some good.  Jake begged her to come, but Cassie had stayed with James and the wounded ones.

• Then, they’d walked, the four boys, for another month.  The tips of their toes had gone black, later to be amputated, as had the littlest fingers of both Jake’s hands.  Tobias had shot until he ran out of shot, had brought back a decaying fox that writhed with maggots and had boiled the maggots into a nasty stew because the fox itself wasn’t safe to eat.  Marco cried with hunger, and cried again with joy when Ax had come across the batch of fiddleheads.  He didn’t care who saw.

Ax cut himself, every night when they stopped.  He let blood he couldn’t afford to lose, and at some point Jake stopped trying to get him to stop.

Tobias settled for thanking the rabbits, the birds, the fox and even the maggots.  He thanked the fiddleheads and dandelions, when those were what they could find.

He thanked Rachel.

• It’d happened anticlimactically: the forest ended.  First on a clear-cut, then on a logging road, then on a suburban backyard.

“Who the fuck are you,” said the homeowner, when they stumbled and shuffled up to his back porch.  “And what the fuck do you want.”

He had a pistol on his belt, the kind that people who didn’t know shit about guns bought just to have.  He wasn’t shy about pushing his coat back to show it, but then there was the rifle slung back over Tobias’s shoulder.

“We don’t mean any harm, sir,” Jake rasped.  “We were in a plane cr—”

“Get the fuck off my lawn.”

Holding up their hands, they went.  Behind them, the guy made no secret about dialing 911 and loudly starting a conversation with the cops.

Good, Jake thought.  That was what they needed, anyway.

• Now, they drive, Cassie at the wheel this time because no one trusts Tobias and Jake claims not to have a license.  Tobias has the pair of coordinates from the text he received, and Cassie’s GPS app is wiling to take latitude and longitude as input.  Marco sleeps at last, but only because Jake is there.  (“Hold me,” he muttered, so soft the others can’t hear.  “I don’t know what’ll happen.”) Jake does as he’s told, and so nothing much does happen.

• Cassie finds the place easy enough, because although it doesn’t have an address as such, it does have a road.  Maybe Ax is up there, she thinks, looking at the gate.  Maybe it is.  Maybe just a bunch of hippies with soola root and too much spare time.  Maybe something a hell of a lot weirder.

“We doing this?”  It’s Jake, coming around the side of the car, hands stuffed in his coat pockets.

“I’m not right,” Cassie says bluntly.  “You’re not either.  But maybe we can figure it out, if we... I don’t know, if we listen carefully enough.”

“I’m sorry,” Jake says.

“About?”  But she knows, and that’s why her tone is sharp even though she doesn’t mean it to be.

“That week.”

Cassie looks away.  She knows what week; they’ve had this conversation before.  “Let’s go, okay?”

• Then, it took a week — seven full days and nights — for the search party to find the cabin.  Jake had described its location the best he could, and Tobias even drew a rough map, but it wasn’t enough to narrow down an entire mountain range all that quickly.  One entire week, to find the other half of their party.  This, after over a month of walking to get out.

Collette was dead, by the time they got there.  James was dead, Pedro, Elena.  Only Cassie left.  She’d kept them going as long as she could, had stretched the meat and had resorted to boiling bark, boiling grass.  Boiling Collette, when it came to that.

It wasn’t enough.  She wasn’t enough.

Cassie didn’t talk about those weeks that she’d waited, or about what happened to the others.  She didn’t talk much at all, those first months back.  But of the survivors, she was also the only one to finish a college degree.  To get into vet tech work full-time, animal welfare activism on the side.

• Now, Cassie puts both hands on the right gate, and Jake on the left.  Her boots slip in the mud as she struggles for purchase, but Tobias is there shoving next to her.  Marco gets a shoulder next to Jake’s end, and together they force the door.

The plan was to load back into her car and go up the hill, but there’s a figure standing on the other side, backlit by the sun.  Ax.  Or someone who looks like Ax.  Or something who looks like him.

“You have done well, to come this far.”

[cookies-and-music]

Ghost. - part 15: Compromised

My suggestion for this chapter is Rehab by Amy Winehouse,

Part 1 here - part 16 here

PAIRING: TVA!LokixOC

TAG LIST: @kats72 ; @mischief2sarawr ; @m3ntally-unstable

SUMMARY: Loki meets sombody at the TVA he once knew. Unfortunately she doesn't seem to remember him.

The first problem with Yggdrasil was the fact that in no document and no story had there ever been written about a god trapped within it. Thousands of timelines and countless books all led to the same point: "It's just a damn tree!" She threw a book off the desk under Mobius' shocked gaze.

"Are you talking about..."

"That. That damn thing." Lydia wanted to bang her head against the desk. "It doesn't matter how many books I read, how many papers I examine."

"Maybe you should look for something different," Mobius suggested calmly.

"And what?! Do you think I haven't looked for variations of the same damn tree?" She got up from the desk. "Even an infinite number of universes follow the same damn laws. It doesn't matter what you call it, with all the knowledge in the world at our disposal, it's still just a damn tree!" Lydia shouted on the verge of tears.

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," Mobius sighed, turning a page.

"Oh, don't start with the damn Shakespeare quotes," she leaned back in her chair. "You know where you can shove your-

"Lydia," Mobius stopped her before she could say something she'd surely regret. He used a firm tone in such cases, and Lydia secretly thanked him for it, as her mind was a hurricane and his voice grounded her.

"Sorry," she took a deep breath, bowing her head.

"You need a break; you've been thinking about nothing but this for months."

"But Mobius, how can I if he-"

"You're compromised."

Lydia didn't respond because it was true. He had said so before.

"If I could, I'd take you off the case, but this isn't an official case, and making your life difficult wouldn't stop you from doing your things anyway," Mobius massaged his temple with a finger. "So I'm asking you to take a break, think about something else. Anything else, I really don't care what," he said with a bitter laugh that betrayed his exhaustion.

Lydia closed her eyes, nodding. The first thing to do when hitting a dead end was to step away from the case and think about something else, then come back to it. But she just couldn't.

"You're right," she swallowed before grabbing the jacket draped over the chair. "I'm going to the café. Do you want anything?"

"I want you to have some chamomile tea."

He managed to make her laugh before she walked away.

Mobius understood her frustration and shook his head because Lydia was right, even with all the knowledge in the world at their disposal, it was still just a damn tree. That had always existed and always would.

"All the knowledge in the world..." Mobius murmured to himself, "at our disposal..."

All the written knowledge of the world. Damn the TVA and the arrogance of everyone working there.

---

Lydia was an excellent agent, Mobius knew this. That's why he had fought with the council to get her promoted from consultant to analyst. Not that he had ever told anyone. The slight workplace rivalry that united them had made the days stimulating while the world was falling apart.

But at that moment, Lydia wasn't there to question his theories when they didn't hold up. She was imprisoned by her own emotions in a dark cell of her mind, compromised. And thus, she wouldn't be of any use to anyone.

Mobius had decided that to get anything from her, he would have to get her as far away from the TVA as possible, clear her mind, and restart her system.

"Why are we here?" Lydia crossed her arms.

"Because we need some fresh air," Mobius smiled at the lady as he picked up the two tickets.

"At the Natural History Museum?" She raised an eyebrow.

"So what? Loki said you liked history," Mobius walked toward the entrance.

"Loki talked about me?"

"Constantly," Mobius rolled his eyes, and Lydia smiled, sadly, but she smiled. "Anyway, relax, let's take a walk. Think of it this way, everything is stable, the TVA is stable, Loki is stable, there's no need to rush."

"But not time to waste either," Lydia huffed.

"It's not a waste of time. You know what is a waste of time? Rushing to reach the destination, falling, and having to go to the hospital, if you get what I mean."

Lydia didn't respond.

They walked around the museum, and after a few minutes, Mobius said something incorrect, triggering Lydia's need to prove herself.

"It was 1732, not 35."

"Really...?"

From there, Lydia went into encyclopedia mode. She had so many things to say, but also to discover, about each room in the museum that after a couple of hours, when they reached the Norse wing, Mobius couldn't take it anymore.

"The runes of this type are about Odin who, according to legend, held onto Yggdrasil for three days and three nights to absorb its knowledge."

"Oh, finally!" Mobius exclaimed, spreading his arms.

"Finally, what?" Lydia turned, confused.

"Are you serious?"

She shrugged, and he burst into laughter.

"You are really, really compromised," he shook his head. "Repeat what you just said, slowly."

Lydia frowned.

"Odin... held onto... Yggdrasil for three days and three nights..." With each part of the phrase spoken by Lydia, Mobius nodded with the smile of someone about to punch her. "to absorb its knowledge..."

They stared at each other for a moment before Lydia's gears started working again.

"Oh my god! Odin held onto Yggdrasil for three days and three nights to absorb its knowledge!" Lydia exclaimed, but after a moment, her enthusiasm faded.

"But Mobius, we've examined almost every piece of paper in the TVA library, there's nothing."

"Just because it's not written doesn't mean it isn't there."

"But we also have the communication transcripts," she shook her head.

"But knowledge can go beyond that. In this case, it can be absorbed. If it's never told to anyone, nor shown, nor written," Mobius listed on his fingers, "there's only one place it can be."

"Odin's mind."

OFFICIALLY BACK BITCHES. AS PROMISED THAT WAS NOT THE END.

I'D LIKE TO THINK OF THIS AS A SECOND SEASON, IN WHICH MOBIUS MA BOI WILL PLAY A GREAT ROLE AND LOKI WILL APPEAR SOONER THAN YOU THINK

AS USUAL, THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO READS

CHEERS

[imliterallyjustablackgirl]

Please, let not this convo take us away from real things - My favorites ships

I must admit I am so confused about this discourse overall, but I think I understood both sides, I think. The Bear is quite recent, TVD not so much. The Bear just started, there's YET to see what's in stock and I am SO excited to share my thoughts here and see y'all thoughts as well. TVD has been a thing - it has books- it is a fantasy world - it is built with the idea that anything can happen and creature of the night. The Bear is about finedining world - Carmy, Syd, his family, the Bear family,etc. Bonnie was the only black female AT ALL(everyone else were getting offed). Syd is the only black female, we actively see. So, the comment about hating Marcus doesn't work, because there are other black people in the show. Not in TVD. No negros were in Paris, they were all dead and buried. I am genuinely so confused. Both identities will impact their interaction with the world - the real and their characters. You are telling me Sydney, our Sydney wasn't impact by all the yelling the restau- industry. Being yelled by men, Being yelled by white men. Who aren't Carmy. Who didn't apologize. The expectation of more from black characters and for them to just be thankful to be there is another thing I won't touch- but like I want more for Syd than to be just another Bonnie Bennett or another Abbie Mills because Carmy has already failed our girl. Imagine you get to work, asked to take on a new role, trusted to do so just to be yelled at by Richie, who is having a mid fucking 40's crisis, rambling about system. Be for real. I'll only speak on this once, because quite frankly I'm still confused on were to start or stop. I am a black viewer. A black female viewer. When I saw Carmy yell at Syd about her mistake, it brought me back to TVD's where Bonnie wasn't allowed to make mistakes. Because being yelled at as a black person and mostly as a black woman with the ANGRY black woman stereotype in the air- is different if let's say if Elena was yelled at or humor me- Claire would have been yelled at. I knew when Carmy asked her ''Chef we good'' that sis was in fact NOT GOOD. In the real world, it happens. You do not want to be the angry black woman who yells back. Like, an example that comes to mind it's like comments critizing Syd about her mistake with the ticket machine ( which post that follows will be about this). Sydcarmy is so good because it is so close to friends to lovers. Bamon is literally so hot because it's enemy to lovers. More like enemies -friends then lovers. We have convo about the ship being canon so much, I just cannot grasp that there would be a convo about another ship were shippers were gaslit, called slurs and what not. That wouldn't some Sydcarmies go- damn, it has happened already, let's not like reproduce that. Let's not foster that here because it has already started like most Bear fans on Reddits are racists. Idk if some of you get my point. Sydney has the opportunity to have depth because it is given to her. To the point where Ayo even has the opportunity to direct some episodes. (mad excitinnnnng!) Bonnie is a witch, from a powerful coven. She was used a plot device to kill and torture. A literal pocket witch. The equivalent of a human lighter. When the actress who worked and is a singer-dancer and literal artist asked to sing in the show she was refused. Both white actors could, only one of them was a singer - he hadn't even in the show for 5 years and the actress wasn't a singer (correct me if wrong).

Fantasy can be changed, like racism..didn't have to exist in the show or to be a thing, right. Julie Plec made it a thing, she was avoidant of literally talking about slaves, which Bonnie's witch ancestors were.It would have been a wonderful opportunity to explore the depth of things such as voodo or hoodo in that case-. Like Bonnie Bennett, was robbed of true potential.

I don't want that to happen, knowing that racism IS a real thing, the Bear IS in a form of real world ( despite me loving all the time-space talk of @unladyboss) and AYO is a real person so is KAT. I like to share my thoughts here and I like to hear from you guys as well, I refuse to think that some of you will keep it surface level because it is the same thing we reproach other platforms and use to explain why we ran here.