#COMET MAMA!
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Another whispering Hall of Fame post from me, haha!
Pibo is so fun to say, man...
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A little November feeling, I guess ^^
Rough charcoal and graphite sketch, as well as the digitally colored version.
Graphite, charcoal, and digital enhancements.
#moomin and snufkin#snufkin fanart#moomin x snufkin#snufkin moomin#snusmumrik and mumin#snusmumrik fanart#snusmumriken fanart#snusmumrik#snusmumriken#mumrik#muminmamma#muminpappan#mumintroll#mumintrollet#muumipeikko#moomin#moominvalley#moomin mama#moominpappa#mumin fanart#moomin fanfiction#moomin fanart#moomin fandom#comet#night theme#night#shooting star#november
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So I finally got around to watching the final season of moomin valley 2019 and I have to say it was real hard to get through this season for several reasons I think one of the main reasons at least for me is because I wasn't ready for it to end there are so many more stories they could tell with this show especially if they're basing it off of the book
or especially the '90s cartoon which I can tell they took a major inspiration from when doing a lot of this show but another thing is is that it kind of felt like luster a lot of the plots that happened felt like something that should have happened in season 1 the way moomin troll acted in a few of the episodes seems like how he would act in the first season when he wasn't is yours confidence himself but he did show his character development and other moments that did seem like they were in character for him or at least raise here should be,
I also noticed that with other characters they seemed more in character where they should be with their character development especially characters like snufkin especially in the comet in moomin valley episode moomin troll wanted to go on the adventure alone by himself and usually snufkin would have just let moment have his own space and do his own thing and let him go on the venture by himself but this time we see snufkin trying to tag along with moomin it's kind of like their roles have reversed and I think it's kind of nice that way where we're seeing one character who used to be real extroverted and wanted his space be more open and we're seeing another character who although he was extroverted and really open try to break out more and do things on his own and appreciate his own form of solitude similar to his friend
It really is kind of like they're parallel in each other and I really did enjoy the final moments we did get to see what these two characters I was kind of really disappointed when we got the episode where was The mid Winter bonfire originally in this episode you could tell that snufkin was just looking for a place to lay low with his thoughts by himself during the cold cold winter but then he accidentally woke up moomin troll
I think if they hadn't been interrupted they actually probably would have just enjoyed each other's company we saw in the last season when they were both on the lonely mountain that moomin did learn to respect snufkin want for peace and quiet at certain times so I'm sure there would have been quiet and peaceful moments between them yet still may have fun moments as well I honestly was hoping that it would just be an episode of them
at least part of the episode where it was just them both having fun together since we haven't really gotten to see that and what feels like a while or at least that's how it feels to me since there was such a long wait between seasons
And even though this is the final season it just doesn't feel like it like I said maybe it's due to the fact that some of these episodes just felt like episodes that would have been better suited for the first season maybe the second
There are a lot more episodes with sniff who I'm going to be honest is not one of my favorite characters I'm sorry if you like him I just can only tolerate him so much on screen without him whining or trying to scheme to get some prize
surprisingly I did like the episodes with stinky in it they were actually kind of fun and enjoyable stinky is actually always been an enjoyable character and the '90s and this adaptation I'm glad we got to see him some of the episodes I could have really did without like the one about the vampire bat that could have just been like a side b plot for another episode and I'm going to be honest even comet in moomin valley felt real lackluster to me
not because it was the end it's just how it was done just felt like it could have been a bit more original or I don't know some of the adventures even if they're blatant copies of what we got in the '90s show at least a bit more fun this just felt like they were making this episode just to make it because it's always been an important part of the show and the series itself
I don't know maybe I should give it a rewatch and maybe my opinion will change but right now this is just my opinion for that episode there are a few other things I like but like many others I'm really salty that we finally got to joxter and like in the 90s he and snufkin never get to meet which sucks they were right near each other
Maybe we'll get a special episode one day and they'll meet but
What was the point, I think another thing I also kind of felt like wasted time with the season besides the episode with the bat and Moomin papas former caretaker from the orphanage like that bad episode in the caretaker thing could have all been want episode and again it's not like I'm not excited Joxter
In person actually interacting with the characters in current time instead of in flashbacks like the 90s version but it felt like he was just there as fan service for for us and that's it
I wish they had maybe had him do a bit more even though he comes off his relaxed days are cool and tired and honestly like a stoner I wish they had like showed him doing like a bit more like the episode with the seahorses when they were looking for the boat and stuff could have just been combined with his episode it all could have came together and all of the characters could have just met all together while dealing with the seahorse thing and the boat and the kraken squid or whatever it was and met joxter there
Sorry this just seems all over the place this isn't really meant to be a review I'm just posting my thoughts and seeing what others felt about the season as well I did really like little my and snork maiden this season , like I said earlier in the post they really felt like they were in character with how they developed so far except for the episode with the seahorses and snork maiden was falling for their BS usually she seems more a bit level-headed but this also did kind of seeming character if I think about it with how she's active before and some episodes like I said I'm going to have to give these a rewatch at some point and then maybe give another opinion
I really do that hope that at some point we do get more moomin valley I'm really going to miss this show I really looked forward to seeing the new seasons that will come out I got into this show I believe in 2022 and by the end of the show was already up to season 2 and I had the 90s version and other material to look at but I really am going to miss this version it was a fun reboot that they did for the show maybe if I'm lucky in 10 years we'll get another one or maybe if I'm lucky they'll put out some more video games and we can all just combine the cutscenes and those can be like a new season or a show or episode cuz I've seen people do that on YouTube and considering the animation in the show it would do good to have it it's like a video game where it had different levels and stuff and maybe different interactions with the characters could level up what character you're playing and how they develop I don't know that's just an idea
#comet in moominland#moomin valley#moomin#moomins#moomin troll#snufkin#little my#joxter#snork#snork maiden#stinky#moomin papa#moomin mama#moomin valley 2019#blog
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So..... regarding those news about Nicholas Kole's crash 5.....
I'm going to explode.
#WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.#WHAT THE FUCK#WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK#I HATE IT HERE WHYYYYYYY#SO YOURE TELLING ME WE WERE GONNA HAVE MORE OF CORTEX'S FAMILY MEMBERS. PINSTRIPE AND TINY RETURNING.#THE ACADEMY OF EVIL???#AND ALSO THE 2ND PITCH WAS A SPYRO CROSSOVER THAT HAD UKA UKA AS THE MAIN ANTAGONIST?????????#Im gonna do it chat. im so fucking mad.#i still hope mama cortex (sharon) hugh G. Cortex Cera Cortex and ID Cortex are still canon because OH MY GOD.......#ik i have a follower who isnt a fan of this direction. and i respect them deeply.#but seriously WHAT THE FUCK ACTIVISION WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM YOU ONLY CARE ABOUT MONEY AND NOT PEOPLE'S PASSIONS#fuck the n sane trilogy.#fuck nitro fueled.#AND MOST IMPORTANTLY. FUCK. ACTIVISION.#sorry guys im still so fucking pissed...#if the pandemic didnt happen crash 4 could've sold more copies than 5 million!! just saying.#also crash team rumble.................. i miss you....... </3#crash bandicoot#comet's blasted bandicoot buffoonery#comet rambles#i hate this planet im gonna do it#i really hope the people who worked on this found better work elsewhere and are getting treated better.#i know nicholas is having a blast at studio mhdr by now..#i wish everyone nothing but the best of luck!!#once again. FUCK YOU ACTIVISION.
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Happy mother's day!
#mrs boonchuy#Felicia sundew#mama hasselback#Sylvia sundew#that's... actually it#amphibia#also#angie diaz#comet butterfly#crescenta butterfly#dirhhenia butterfly#eclipsia butterfly#estrella butterfly#festivia butterfly#grandma Diaz#moon butterfly#rhina butterfly#skywynne butterfly#Solaria butterfly#star vs the forces of evil
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"I'm back! I missed you, Mama!"
Today is Mother's Day where I live, so I thought it would be nice to make something that featured one of my maternal F/Os for today! I couldn't render anything last year because I didn't have a reference model for any of my self-inserts who interact with my maternal F/Os, but I have Mimi's model constructed now, so I was able to put together this quick little thing of her coming back to visit Rosalina at the Comet Observatory ^-^
Tag list: @sol-rbs | @dragonsmooch | @bugsband | @sunlight-ships | @winds-beloved | @friezaforce | @hallowed-nebulae | @stargazer-sims | @pvssinboots | @detective-with-one-arm | @deepsea-loves | @sunshimm | @artificervaldi | @thatslikesometaldude (To be tagged in my work in the future, please see this post!)
(Anyone is welcome to comment on and reblog my work if desired, as long as my DNI is respected!)
#a call from the void#creations from the void#made using MMD#this post is okay for anyone to reblog as long as my DNI is respected!#selfshipping#heart of the void#mother: cosmic space mum (rosalina)#familial F/Os#self‑insert: comet child (mimi)#I feel like i'm forgetting a tag#but those all *seem* right#mother's day#mimi calls rosalina ''mama'' because a) so do the lumas and b) that's what I call my mum#this one wasn't playing entirely nicely with the lighting but hopefully I salvaged it??#you can kind of see the luma shape in mimi's hair for once which is always fun#just because I can't go home to see my own mum today doesn't mean my self-inserts can't be there with theirs ^-^
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Moon: Okay, so I’m trusting you. You have almost no memory data so I’m going to give you a body of your own. Stay in the daycare, just for the first week. So I know I can keep trusting you.
Backup: Okay! Please! I’ll be good, I promise! No more shocks! No more, I can’t!
Moon, entering protective mama bear mode: I’m getting you out of there, kid.
#five nights at freddy's#fnaf#sun and moon show#sams#fnaf moon#fnaf comet#incorrect sun and moon show quotes#incorrect sams quotes#incorrect fnaf quotes#incorrect quotes#source: my brain#aka my missing 8pm post#from september 30#tw abuse mention#mama bear moon is nothing to mess with
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agustín tbh
#my leetel guye... :]#Tav is what he goes by for his mercenary work‚ and what he introduces himself as to Everyone#but then he meets wyll + is like omg blade of the frontiers 🤩 bc he is ofc familiar w the folk tales and greatly respects wyll#so. when will is like 🤷🏿♂️ u can also call me wyll 🍻 agustín is like oh! word! you can call me agustín 😇#and everyone else immediately goes *VINE BOOM SOUND FX* *WHIP NOISE* 🤏🏻🕶️🤨 are WE not good enough for ur first name?! 😒 interesting 🤥#anyhow i have figured some more things out.. not sure what his original surname is‚ BUT. agustín's mama's last name is tavriil#so. the tav comes from that! but the timeline goes augusta [REDACTED] -> augusta rustrian -> agustín rustrian -> tav#once he tells wyll his name he's like ahh i guess y'all can call me that too 🍻 but mindwormies ONLY.. everyone else has to call him Tav bc#that's what his reputation is tied to+ also because he's technically wanted by the law under the name Agustín 🤓😰#but eventually the statute of limitations for murder passes or what have you. in the end he gets to stop playing hot potato w his names#and he finally settles down as agustín dekarios hehehe 🦖 but we're a long ways off from that right now 🧍🏻♀️#hmm what else abt mr. dino.. AH YES#i decided he has a much older brother who inherited their father's land when dino killed their dad before he got married 🚶🏻♀️#and he is like. The Only One who Knows abt The First Murder 🧍🏻♀️ but both of them hated their dad more than they hated each other so he's#like. well cheers mate better u than me lol! 💫 but anyhow i think they are able to reconcile once agustín goes into exile#but.. whoo. rotating them in my mind.. we love a frigid family relationship :] anyways i love agustín that guy can fit so many great comet#characters in him lol! i would say war and peace characters but.. I don't know them like that 💔#sriracha.txt#🦖
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My best friends I miss them
#s.txt#only one not pictured is the only lady who we just call Mama (she is not the mother of the littles shes just the boss)#adult is Marshmallow!#tricolour with red collar is Jupiter; brown with blue collar is Pluto! all white is Cosmos and black and white is Comet :]#i named Pluto and Jup! jupiter bc of his colour and Pluto bc he was OH so shy (hes so brave now)#work tag
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Miracle II
Aitana Bonmatí x Baby!Reader
Summary: Aitana babyproofs
The first night you are with her...
Well, the first night you are with her as a Bonmatí, is a stressful one.
You cry.
And then you stop.
Then you cry again when she sets you down for bed.
It's still early by Atiana's standards but it's gone seven and all the baby books say it's perfect bedtime for little babies.
But you just don't seem to want to settle and Aitana can't think of what she's done wrong. She's moved you into your own room now with little glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling to occupy you. You're newly washed and warm in your fluffy onesie and you're holding the little pegasus plushie Aitana bought you when you were born.
She's followed the books to a tee and yet you still cried.
You cried and cried and whined for your Ta-Ta until Aitana picked you up and you settled again.
She has no choice but to drag your crib straight back into her room because you refuse to settle anywhere else.
But, apart from that small hiccup, you are a golden baby.
You are soft and sweet and make little happy gurgling sounds whenever you see your Mama Ta-Ta.
It all goes so well and Aitana doesn't know what she was worrying about until you learn how to walk. She was impressed at first, you were on the younger end when you learnt and she's very impressed when you just got up one day from where you're playing on your mat to walk over to the kitchen where Aitana is making dinner.
You raise your arms for her and she instantly picks you up.
All you wanted was your Mama Ta-Ta.
The issue comes when Aitana realises just how many sharp corners are in her house and just how quickly you have transitioned from wobbly steps to proper walking.
"Sorry, Tana," Marta says when Aitana asks about babyproofing during a break in practice. She's talking to her Aitana but her eyes are focused on where her Conejita and Caro are making flower crowns together. "I never had to do that for Conejita. She didn't walk until quite late and she never really strayed far."
Aitana can believe that. Even now Conejita is a careful child. She doesn't run and doesn't play rough. She just chooses a space and sits and weaves flowers together.
So, Aitana turns to Mapi and Ingrid.
They're sitting a bit further away as little Skatt is letting a beetle climb all over her fingers.
Ingrid has a similar response.
"Skatt never moved very fast," Ingrid says," It was easy to occupy her."
"I think you can order these foam things that clip onto corners," Mapi offers, hooking her hand around the inside of Skatt's collar to pull her closer when she tries to wander after where the beetle has flown off to," You could try those."
And Aitana does. She orders them as soon as she gets home while occupying you with a sensory programme about space.
You like that kind of thing, Aitana has learnt and your room (which you now more frequently sleep in) is full of stars and planets and the mobile that hangs above your crib is a replica of the solar system and sings a silly song about how to name each planet.
Her corner guards come within the hour after Aitana pays an extortionate price for sameday delivery. The ring of the doorbell makes you turn your head but your interest is captured once again by the spinning stars and comets so Aitana feels safe babyproofing the apartment while you watch your video.
She's just clipping on the last of the guards when there's a tug on her shorts. She's not surprised to see you standing there. Your video finished a few minutes ago and the soft pad of your socked feet were ones Aitana was used to now.
"Hola, estrella," She coos at you.
You babble nonsense for a while before lifting up your arms. "Ta-Ta."
"Alright," Aitana says," Uppies, it is." She lifts you up onto her hip and you take the time to poke at the new corner guards.
Your little brows furrow and Aitana can't help but think about how much you look like her when you do that.
"It's to protect your head," She explains to you," So you can go running around and not hurt yourself."
You poke it again in confusion, legs kicking out before you huff and rest your head against Aitana's chest.
"Tar," You whine and Aitana knows that word in your language too.
She laughs. "Alright, we can watch the dancing stars again."
You must know she's agreed because you burst into ecstatic giggles as she walks you back to the sofa.
Both Marta and Ingrid had warned her about the mindless, boring videos she would now have to watch as your mother but Aitana finds that she doesn't quite mind.
She'll sit through mindless kid's shows forever if it means keeping you in her arms.
But, it seems that you don't want to be in her arms right now as you spot your stuffed pegasus lying by the corner from earlier.
Aitana lets you go, watching as you pad very carefully over to your toy. She sucks in a breath as you approach the corner. You stop just in front of it, staring.
You wrap your little hand around the corner and duck down with your other to grab your plushie. You pull yourself back up, patting the corner happily before wandering back to Aitana.
You show her your toy.
"Ta-Ta, peg-sus."
She laughs. "That's right. Your pegasus. There's a constellation called pegasus. Is that why you like it so much?"
You giggle and gnaw on a wing.
She hefts you up onto her lap again and you rest your ear against her chest.
"Tar," You point at the tv.
"Alright, let me put on your stars."
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౨ৎ i feel more and more like i was made for you
— word count : 1.3k
★ sum: billie flies across the country just to see you.
☆ pair: billie eilish × fem!reader
★ cws: some language, mentions of a long-distance relationship(?), fluff, a little suggestiveness but no smut.
☆ a/n: horrible at writing fluff, so js bear with me🙏🙏 this is more so a blurb than anything else 🙁
— tags: @livialifesblog @her-favorite @mseilishmwah @mxqdii @sophloveswomen @devynscomet @wiidfi0wer33 @muchloveforhacker @slutforsturniolos @br4ttyeilish @xoluvx
my navigation...
"Hey, mama," Billie speaks through the phone, her voice raspy from the late hour of night. She stayed up just for this call, the call that you and her had every other day. Her blue eyes stayed focused on your own e/c ones, smiling sweetly as her lips parted again, "How was your day?"
You gave her a shrug of your shoulders before you replied, a sigh falling past your lips, "Ts' fine. Would be better if you were with me, though." You frown, earning a quiet chuckle from her end of the line as she catches onto your mood.
The sound of rustling comes from her end as she switches her position on her bed, the bed that she's told you she would cuddle you in every night if you lived with her. The distance between you two hurt, but it's not like either of you could really move. Billie lived in Los Angeles her whole life, and you lived all the way in New York, so it wasn't particularly the easiest thing to do emotionally or physically.
"I'm always with you, 'member?" She holds her wrist up, a small chain with your initial on the front on display for you to see. You had a matching one, but with her own initial, on the opposite wrist. You remember the day she sent it because that week was probably the worst one you've had, and your girlfriends small gesture had lightened it and made it so much better, "Always, m'kay?"
"I want you in my bed, baby. Need you in my arms." You whine, tossing your head back against the pillows. Billie sighs at your saddened expression, running a hand through her hair as thoughts begin to flood into her mind one by one. Your lips curve into a smile as you watch her eyes drift away from the phone, chuckling as you catch sight of the face that she always made whenever she was deep in thought.
"What're you thinkin' about?" She just hums in response, ocean blue eyes moving back to her phone as she smiles at you. She laughs as you continue to stare, eyes never moving for a second as they stay focused on her beautiful face. Her lips were so pink, so full, and you just wanted to kiss them at all times, "What I'm thinking about is why you're staring at me like you wanna devour me,"
You did. You wanted to devour her every night. If you had the chance, you don't think you'd be able to stop, "Well, maybe I do." Your lip was tugged in between your teeth, your face flushing a light pink as you eyed your girlfriend through the phone. Before her lips could part to speak, Finneas' voice came from her line.
Her head turned to the side, and you almost moaned at just the sight of her neck. It was so clear and empty, and you just wanted to mark it up and let everyone know she was— "Fuck, I have to go. I'm sorry, baby girl, I promise I'll call you later, okay?" A quiet sigh passes through your lips as you nod, giving her a small smile as you both mutter your, "I love you's."
"Fuck," Is the first thing you hear your girlfriend say when you pick up the phone, eyes meeting the view of her hair thrown up into a messy ponytail and her face covered with a disposable mask. When you chuckle, she finally looks at you through the phone, "Baby! Hi, I missed you so fuckin' much,"
Your cheeks flush a pink hue at her confession, a cheesy smile finding its way onto your face as your lips part, "It's only been a night, Bils," You speak, taking your eyes off of her for the first time to look around at her surroundings, she wasn't in any place that you recognized, and—was that a backpack she was wearing? "Where are you?"
Billie tenses at the question, unnoticeable from the bad connection on her part. It was never this bad, so that was another thing that had you wondering, "Nowhere." She says quickly, a mischievous smile on her face as she brings the phone closer to her face, "Stop peeking, you creep." The sound of your laugh makes her own lips part in laughter as she rolls her eyes playfully.
"Just wanted to know why my beautiful girlfriend is all covered up, that's all. Also wondering why I can't see you that well," You whine in faux sadness, and Billie just shakes her head as she giggles. The question still lingers between you two as she makes her way through the unknown place, her eyes only paying attention to you every time she hears you speak, "I still have your location, y'know."
"Nuh-uh," She mutters, fixing her mask as she finally takes a seat at her destination, "You're a little pain, y'know that?" Billie smiles, throwing her hood over head before moving her mask to rest below her chin, "Impatient little thing, you are." She points through the phone, and you just scoff as your eyebrows furrow.
Her line goes quiet before you can protest, and your suspicions about her location only rise. Her line glitches, and then the call disconnects, leaving you with nothing but confusion and worry. Before anything else, you go to your messages and click on her contact, shooting her a quick text, "be safe, u got me on my toes over here"
The doorbell rings, and you tense up in surprise as your head turns to the front door. Your limbs are sprawled out all over the couch as you bite on your fingernail in nervousness, the unsettling feeling from the call with Billie a few hours prior still lingering in the cold air of your house. Your phone hasn't rung since then, and she didn't answer any your texts.
Maybe you were a little paranoid, but this was the first time she'd ever gone ghost on you. As you stand up from the couch and pass by the window, you catch a glimpse of a black backpack strap. When you turn the doorknob and open the door, you swear you almost scream.
Billie stood right on your doorstep, a big smile on her face as she stares over at you, "Is this the right house?" She mutters playfully, and before she can even laugh, you grab her hand and pull her into your embrace. Quiet sobs pass by your lips as you bury your head into her shoulder, holding her tightly as she slowly rocks you side to side.
"Yeah—fuck—It's definitely the right house." You whisper, sniffling before you pull away just enough to be face to face with her. You don't waste another second before your own lips meet hers in a passionate, loving kiss. Neither of you feel the need to pull away, even for air as you feel her hand in your hair pull you impossibly closer, "God, I can't believe you're here, baby."
Billie smiles, pecking your lips once again before moving her backpack off her shoulders and tossing it to the side carefully, "You better believe it," She whispers, eyes moving all around your face as she stares at you in awe, "So pretty. My pretty girl." Her lips don't seem to miss a spot on your face as she showers you in kisses, giggles escaping as you bathe in the affection you craved all the moments before this.
"Now, I remember you saying you wanted me in your bed?" She smiles, eyes darkening as she pulls away to take in the sight of you fully. She practically devours you with her eyes, and you can't even express what you feel before your lips come crashing onto hers again. The door is pushed closed as you push her against it. Tonight was only one of the very few nights that you would finally get to taste her, so why not take every chance you get?
#Spotify#billie eilish#billie ellish lyrics#billie eilish imagine#billie eilish songs#billie eilish icons#billie eilish x you#billie eilish fanfiction#billie eilish smut#billie eilish x fem!reader#billie eilish x reader#billie eilish x reader smut#billie eilish x y/n#billie eilish oneshot#౨ billie post ৎ#hmhas#hit me hard and soft#hte#happier than ever#wwafawdwg#when we all fall asleep where do we go#dsam#dont smile at me
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Pokemon Y WonderWedlocke: Wulfric to Diantha
It took a bit, but I finished the 'second post' of the Pokemon Y WonderWedlocke!
And, like usual when I return to a 'locke after being away from it for a long time, things don't always turn out well...
Just click on any text in this post to go directly to the second post header of the google docs I'm posting it on, since tumblr hates long posts now...
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I'm watching you....
Pft, it is me, Spead. I'm just on anon because my blog is a sideblog, thats all.
Just be nice. Stop biting each other! 🗞
-Cosmos
Ah, noted!!
…….
I apologize mama, I’ll be nicer 🙇♂️
(Pssst, FYI Shilk, im comin for you 🫵)
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once, when they're still courting you, you find satoru and suguru tucked together in a little nook in a deserted hallway. suguru is murmuring quietly, his voice dripping honey, and when he shifts just enough, you can see that he has two long fingers in satoru's mouth.
you gasp out a breath, and satoru's eyes snap to yours, the comet-tail blue of them a thin rim around his blown pupils. the corners of his lips—pinkened, spit-slick, and swollen—turn up. he sucks on suguru's fingers, his tongue peeking out between them, and you turn on your heel and flee back to your mama, chest heaving.
you barely speak to your next caller, your mind whirling even as the young gentleman waxes poetic to you.
the door to the drawing room opens again. you glance over and freeze as suguru enters, looking every inch the gentleman. at your mama's sharp look, you stand to greet him, murmuring your courtesies.
suguru bows and takes your hand, raising it to his lips. he stares up at you with those vulpine eyes, dark and heady, his mouth a sweet, smug curl.
you draw in another sharp breath, your cheeks hot.
his fingers are still wet.
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Smear Frame (1992)
The night I got home from the hospital, we had peas and squash and good chicken. Nobody spoke. The radio spoke for us; vitamin deficiencies, lights spotted across Vegas, another building demolition. The first couple of days, I stayed in my room throwing a ball against the wall, doing long division in my head. The television playing a documentary about squid brains. On the third night, mama asked what I was planning to do.
You can be a thing in the world, she told me.
We were in the kitchen, the evening light staining the windows above the sink.
You do have a choice, she continued. But you choose to suffer like an idiot. Even the rabbit knows better than to follow the wolf.
Learn something, Jane.
And she left the room. I held her words in the belly of my chest, going over them again and again. That night, I got dressed in my trench coat and went out to the middle of town. The lights were buoyant and fresh, amazing slashes, amazing range. The moon was pinned against the skies like a cop’s badge. I stepped into Lousy’s which was a bar I had been to before. I liked it because it was dark and cold. I often pretended I was in a cave or in some sort of comet, minutes away from approaching the quiet tendrils of earth.
I ordered a Shirley temple and sat at the bar watching the bartender spin and shake and serve drinks.
What’s the drink with the longest name? I asked.
A terrible, unearthed bitter and lame dirt tonic, he said.
I mused on this for a while and eventually someone spoke to me. An older woman wearing red and large earrings asked me what time it was. I shrugged.
Maybe sometime around midnight, I said.
Don’t you have a watch? She asked. What kinda man doesn’t have a watch?
The question of my masculinity continues to come under fire, I laughed.
So, what’s your problem? She asked. Why are you here at maybe sometime around midnight?
I got out of the loony bin last weekend, I said. I’m trying to map out the world again.
How long were you in there for?
Six weeks, I said.
Do they zap your brain? She asked. I had a cousin like that, always in and out of those places.
How is he doing? I asked.
On the side of the road, she said. Begging for cash, not hiding the bad time he’s having.
That’s admirable. But no, they didn’t zap my brain.
Did they strangle you with Valium?
I was never sedated, I said.
Who put you there?
My parents, I said, I was seeing the holes in the plot, could see the failing strings in the fabric of the universe, the whole picture. I stoped eating, stopped sleeping. All I did was play chess with spirits and paint my nails over and over again. I showed the woman my hands. See? They’re clean.
The woman was quiet, sipped on her drink. I continued.
It was sorta nice, I admitted, not speaking to anyone but sounding out the idea.
Being taken care of like an infant who can’t speak. You get medication in the morning and you moan about the news. Someone starts screaming. Someone stops screaming. You go into a dreamless, milky sleep. And your roommate mumbles in his sleep, sweet robotic poems. And you don’t have a pencil so you commit them to memory; a fog roars, abstain, chapel, chapel, chapel. And you disappear from the world. Headlines float around every day and you wander around the unit making funny faces to entertain yourself and someone calls you and they ask how you are and you tell them you can’t wait to go home. And then you get home and the world is indifferent.
Cheers, the woman said.
And we clinked our glasses. Around three, the woman stood up and gave me her number and shook my hand and left. I kept the slip of paper in my coat pocket. I went out to walk by the river-end, watching the rising of the waters, the night reflected on the surface, dark rivulets. A sort of vile peace.
A couple of months afterward, I found work at a fish market. Slicing trout in half and packaging swordfish into white papers. The work was mindless, bleeding work. Nobody spoke to me. I smoked cigarettes. When I got home, the house smelled of blood.
A while later on, I called the woman. I was on my way home from work. I had not spoken to another human being in ten hours. I had forgotten what my voice sounded like. I could see myself getting slower by the minute. Words died in my head like vermin. The woman answered within four rings. I explained who I was. The boy in the trench coat. It was nighttime and we spoke for a while. You were drinking a tall martini and every so often would dive into your purse to fix your lipstick.
You sound different, she said.
I feel different, I said. I feel like an aspirin. I feel like a headache that won’t resolve.
Where are you? She asked.
By the river, I said. I like seeing the water enunciate. Where are you?
She told me she was making tea for her husband.
He’s not feeling well, she said. I’m doing what people say to do; ginger and saltines and warm baths. But he’s persistent with his pain.
Some people are, I said.
The clouds are fragrant tonight, I continued.
It’s getting late. I can see my mother checking the time, fidgeting in the kitchen then checking again. It’s something I relish. Getting home late. The worry she must feel. The worst things happen in your brain. Perhaps I fell down a flight of stairs. Perhaps I cut my hand open on a knife and I’m in the hospital bleeding out beneath the fluorescent lights. She has a feeling but doesn’t want to endorse the feeling in case it becomes a truth. And when I arrive at last, the feeling subsides and instead is replaced with a mute disappointment. I am the one she loves but not the one she missed.
I began to call the woman—whose name I never bothered to ask for, I wanted to name her myself—often. When I was on my lunch break barely eating a tuna sandwich. When I was smoking cigarettes. When I was in my room reading the newspaper and playing with myself. When I was half asleep.
Once, I was naked in bed with the radio on, and there was a sullen exasperation in my stomach. I felt as though I knew when I was going to die and if I focused long enough the date would come to me, would emerge from the foggy brain matter and I would be freed. I had been thinking of death for weeks. Death was my babe, my habit. I had visions of my own death. Dying struck by a moving car and being stuck in the tire. An aneurysm so I’m alive one moment and exploding the next. Being stunned by a bullet and feeling my cells gasp in unison.
Death is an orgasm, I told the woman one night. Death is a great, wondrous love. You go into the light. You feel peace for the first time in your pathetic silly little life.
You sound twisted, the woman said. Death is what you avoid, everything you do, you do to put death out. Your bravado is not going to protect you from what will happen or what has happened.
That winter I was sleepless. I slept for thirty minutes at a time, watched the sunrise slur into my windows, made tea for my parents and gutted samurai fish and wrapped tuna and walked around town, dreaming of poisonous gas. Sometimes, I choked on my visions.
One afternoon, I felt a pop in the back of my head and walked out of work during my lunch break. And walked straight home. When my mother saw me, she placed me on the couch and pointed a flashlight in my eyes and placed a cold towel on my forehead. I mumbled for the angels.
I had been in the hospital for two weeks when I called the woman, I had been blotted out and cast into a week of sleep. I was feeling alright.
What kind of dreams have you been having? The woman asked,
I don’t dream, I told her. I stumble in and out of sleep like a newly born calf. I feel like I’m full of milk, a white calmness in my arteries, a saline stillness.
Come see me, I said. Come see my blue scrubs and bandaged fingers and dirty acne and limp, sedated gait.
I will, she said.
It was New Year’s Eve when she came. The nurses had hung up garlands and the television played the ball drop in New York City; that mirage a thousand light years away.
We were given virgin champagne and the nurses counted down with us and the woman was there, her hand on my back.
Focus on living one breath at a time, she said. Count the breaths until you forget you’re even counting.
The year turned over onto her stomach. That night, I laid down and recounted the poem again.
Chapel. Chapel. Chapel.
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Comet Donati [Chapter 10: Through The Dark] [Series Finale]
Series Summary: Sex, drugs, boy bands. You are a kinda-therapist recruited (via nepotism) to help Comet Donati through a recent crisis. Things are casual with Aegon, very not-casual with Aemond. Loosely inspired by One Direction.
Chapter Warnings: Language, references to sexual content (+18), drugs, alcohol, smoking, mental health struggles, pregnancy, bodily injury, death, miscarriage, AND NO OTHER CLUES, HAPPY READING!!! 🥰
Selected Chapter Quote: “What made you want to be a therapist?”
Word count: 6.4k.
Link to chapter list (and all my writing): HERE.
Taglist: @doingfondue @catalina-howard @randomdragonfires @myspotofcraziness @arcielee @fan-goddess @talesofoldandnew @marvelescvpe @tinykryptonitewerewolf @mariahossain @chainsawsangel @darkenchantress @not-a-glad-gladiator @gemini-mama @trifoliumviridi @herfantasyworldd @babyblue711 @namelesslosers @thelittleswanao3 @daenysx @moonlightfoxx @libroparaiso @burningcoffeetimetravel-fics @mizfortuna @florent1s @heimtathurs @bhanclegane @poohxlove @narwhal-swimmingintheocean @heavenly1927 @echos-muses @padfooteyes @minttea07 @queenofshinigamis @juliavilu1 @amiraisgoingthruit @lauraneedstochill @wintrr13 @r0segard3n @seabasscevans @tsujifreya @helaenaluvr @hiraethrhapsody
Thank you for loving the insane and incomparable Comet fam. I hope you enjoy the series finale. 💜
Night sky, string lights, reverberating bass, warm wet verdant air like the earth the dinosaurs knew, swampy and thick with beasts. With his lazy, dreamlike smile—a kind contagious glow, pink sunburned cheeks that match the clinking Salty Dog in his hand—Aegon says: “What made you want to be a therapist?”
You won’t tell him the whole truth. But you’ll tell him part of it. “Sigmund Freud.”
Aegon is intrigued, raised eyebrows and a crooked grin. “The guy who thinks everyone wants to fuck their mom?”
“You would have liked him. He did a lot of coke.” You take a swig of your Salty Dog: rosemary, grapefruit, the singeing bite of gin. “He was the founder of talk therapy. And, yeah, some of the things he wanted to talk about were…unorthodox. Misguided. But still…”
“He just wanted to talk,” Aegon says softly, understanding now.
“This was the turn of the century, okay? This was back in the days when they were pulling people’s teeth out, locking them up in asylums, injecting them with diseases, cutting off parts of women that made them unruly, ungovernable, immoral.” You shudder. “And Freud said no, just talk to them. Just figure out what demons they have chained up in their skulls, dark dusty corners buried way down deep, and help them figure out how to move forward. It’s not about having a cure, a pill or a scalpel. I mean, how ludicrous would that be, thinking I was walking around with some failproof silver bullet to make all the pain of existence vanish? That’s insane. It’s about listening to people, and caring about people, and shining a light on what part of them already knew was there. I don’t have a cure for anybody. Not a single goddamn person on this planet. But I can help them find their own.”
Aegon watches you, contemplates you, studies you like something rare and fleeting. “You are going to be one hell of a therapist.”
“I don’t know about that. But I hope so.”
“I’ll find you. Maybe when you’re done with school you can work on me. I’d keep you busy, I guarantee it. I’m like Disney’s Haunted Mansion. Ghosts everywhere you look.”
You laugh, shaking your head. “You are never going to remember me.” He is never going to remember this place, this time, the way he shared his light with me like a long-lost comet clipping by Earth.
“I might,” Aegon says. He sips his Salty Dog with his elbows propped on the table, his blond hair whipping in the indigo wind, grains of salt on his lips, reflections of string lights like stars in his eyes. “I really think I might.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Your arms thrown around his neck, your face buried in his black t-shirt, inhaling smoke and dust and the coppery sharpness of his spilled blood. You are sobbing uncontrollably, gasping, shivering, wild prideless tears and clawing fingers. Jace’s words circle in your skull like a moon around its planet: Nobody escapes the indignity of becoming a regret. Aemond is trying to calm you, to quiet you. His hands—large and dangerous and bloodstained and careful—are on your back, in your hair. You have to explain, to repent. You have to make him understand.
“I didn’t get pregnant on purpose,” you moan into him, a jagged rush like a hemorrhage. “I swear to God I didn’t. I wouldn’t do that to you. I wasn’t trying to trap you or fix you or use you. I’m in love with you, Aemond, I wanted you, and I still want you, and I thought you would hate me and I was terrified and I didn’t know how to tell you—”
“I don’t hate you, I could never hate you,” he’s saying, and more that you can’t catch; his words are a tide, flowing in and fading out. Now there is pain, deep and sharp and collapsing. Aegon is standing a few yards away, tears flooding down his sunburned face; they clear tracks in the dust that coats him, that coats everyone, that sticks to the blood on your legs. Cregan has pushed the others back, but still, you can hear their incorporeal voices: Jace asking what’s going on, Rhaena explaining, Baela shrieking, Criston shouting orders. Now Aegon has a rough hand on Aemond’s shoulder and is telling him something—insisting upon something—but you don’t know what. Language escapes you; language abandons you.
There are sirens and flashing lights the color of rubies, roses, tangled arteries. Aemond scoops you up and carries you towards them. There is only enough room for one person to ride in the ambulance with you; there is no discussion of who it will be. The rest of Comet has to wait for the Escalades to arrive at your parents’ farm. You do not try to steal a glimpse of the damage, felled trees and scattered fence posts, dead cattle and pillaged earth. You are filled with enough wreckage already; you are built of it, bones made out of bent nails, nerves of barbed wire.
Needles into your arms, chemicals into your bloodstream: something that deadens the pain and muddies your thoughts, makes them slow and heavy and unpanicked, like you are watching this happen to somebody else. In an exam room, nurses strip your clothes away and wipe the red from your skin, routinely, absentmindedly, as if it is of no consequence, as if the future you had taken for granted has not just been drowned, immolated, eradicated from existence like a dying star. They give you underwear fitted with a bulky postpartum pad—the same used by mothers of living children—and a hospital gown that Aemond marks with bloody fingerprints when he touches you. Then the nurses leave you to wait for the doctor with your IVs and your fogbank mind and your glazed eyes that stare blankly at the sterile white walls.
Aemond is smoothing back your hair from your face, and you are reminded of how he held Aegon when he was dying on your bedroom floor in the MGM Grand. You remember once thinking that Aemond is like storms and rogue waves, and that’s true; he turns lethal and then goes kind again, strikes and then soothes. He says once you are alone, each word painstakingly chosen: “I’m sorry that because of how I’ve acted, you felt you couldn’t tell me.”
“I’m sorry I lost the baby.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do. I must have. I’m bleeding too much.” You can feel it, blood and clots that ooze, gush, drain away leaving you cold and hollow.
The exam room door opens, not a nurse or a doctor but a man in khaki cargo shorts and a filthy neon green tank top and matching Crocs, clop clop clop. “Hey, Stargirl,” Aegon says, sad and gentle. He holds up a venti-sized plastic cup. “I brought you a Double Chocolatey Chip Frappuccino.”
You blink groggily, not knowing what to do with it. Aegon puts the clear cup in your hands, the green straw between your lips. It’s sugary, cold, rich, topped with a swirl of whipped cream and chocolate syrup. It brings you back a little bit, a few unsteady steps towards the real world.
“Where the fuck is the doctor?” Aemond asks him.
“The nurse said she’s on her way. They’re understaffed.” Aegon shrugs apologetically: Missouri bullshit.
“You get somebody in here, right now.”
“What do you want me to do, threaten to stab medical professionals?! How about you punch some of their teeth out, I bet that would help.” Then Aegon sighs shakily and covers his own face with his hands. “It wasn’t…it wasn’t mine, you know?” Wasn’t, isn’t, will never be. “We haven’t…not since…it’s not…” He looks at Aemond with large, shining, ocean-blue eyes. “It’s not possible. You have to know that. You can’t be the way that you are sometimes. You don’t get a few weeks to come around to doing the decent thing. You have to believe her.”
And Aemond says softly: “I do.”
The door opens again and a doctor steps through it, mid-forties, thick black-rimmed glasses, dark hair secured in a businesslike low bun. Aegon ducks out of the room; the doctor gives him a brief quizzical glance before introducing herself to you. You can’t seem to latch onto her name. You answer the questions she asks you as she readies the ultrasound machine: ten weeks along, blunt force trauma to your back, where and how it hurt before the pain was drugged out of you. She unfastens a tie on the side of your hospital gown and opens it just enough to spread the cool gel across your belly and then glide the transducer through it. She peers at the grainy screen. She’s checking for a heartbeat; she’s checking to see if you’ll need a D&C to help expel a partial miscarriage so you don’t go septic.
“I lost it,” you sob, breaking down again. “Aemond, I’m so sorry—”
“Don’t. Please don’t.” He kisses your temple and then rests his forehead against yours, tears glittering in his river-clear right eye.
“Well,” the doctor says with practiced, vaguely sympathetic composure. “You lost one of them.”
You look to her, not understanding. “One of…?”
She angles the monitor so you and Aemond can see. “Fraternal twins often have separate amniotic sacs and placentas. So depending on the positioning of the fetuses, it is possible to miscarry one but not the other. This one on the left here…” She indicates it with her index finger. “It’s…it’s no longer viable, unfortunately. You’ve already passed most of it. But this one on the right…” She squints at the screen, repositioning the transducer. “From what I can tell, it seems to be holding on. Let me see if I can…” She moves the transducer around, pressing it into the yielding flesh of your belly. And then you hear it: a fierce defiant drumming, a whistling like wind through leaves. “I thought so,” the doctor pronounces, smiling. “There’s the heartbeat. The pulse is approximately 155 beats per minute, which is typical.”
One of them? I didn’t lose one of them? “Aemond…?”
When you turn back to him, he’s staring at the flickering black-and-white whirls of bones and blood flow on the ultrasound screen. And the expression on his face is one that you’ve never seen from him before, serene like when he’s with animals, awed like when he studies the galaxy, and something else too, a great shifting, a clicking into place, tectonic plates and ocean currents and storm clouds unraveling into clear skies. “It’s alright?” he says, not taking his eye from the screen.
“It is,” the doctor confirms. “Measuring a little bit small for ten weeks, but that’s to be expected for a twin. I don’t think you’ll be able to tell the sex for another month, but it’s alive and well.” She freezes the image on the screen, sets the transducer aside, and cleans the gel from your belly. “Based on my experience, in cases like this, I’d say there’s a better than 50/50 chance the surviving fetus can be carried to term.”
You say: “What can I do…? I mean…there must be something I can do to help it…to help it live…”
“We’ll give you medication to stop any residual uterine contractions and antibiotics to prevent infection. I’d like to admit you for observation, just for a day or two. And I would recommend bed rest for several weeks. Until you’ve reached your second trimester, at least.”
“Yes. Anything. I’ll do anything.”
“And sir, you’re…” The doctor peers at Aemond through her glasses, really scrutinizing him for the first time, his brutal scar and his blind left eye and his stillness and his wonder. “You’re the father?”
Aemond nods, still gazing at the screen like a constellation in the night sky, like a comet only glimpsed once in a lifetime. “I am.”
The doctor beams. “Congratulations,” she tells both of you. And then she leaves to arrange for you to be admitted to the hospital.
“I’ll stay,” Aemond says. “When the band flies to New Orleans tomorrow, I’ll stay here with you.”
“No, Aemond.”
“I’m staying. I’m not going to leave you. You need me, the baby needs me.”
“No,” you say again. “What we have now is wrong. It’s painful and volatile and doomed.” You lay your palm against his scarred face, and he doesn’t finch away. “You have to figure out who you are after Comet. And so do I.” Tears in your eyes, tears on your cheeks; but on your lips is a soft, patient smile. “Aemond, I don’t want me and the baby to be a distraction from the work that you still desperately need to do. I don’t want to be a temporary fix. I don’t want to be your life raft. I want to be…if I’m going to be anything to you…” Your thumbprint ghosts across his cheekbone, tender, reverent. “I want to be your home.”
He shakes his head, but he doesn’t speak; drops like rain spill down his right cheek, dyed pink by blood from the fresh lacerations that riddle him, new scars and ancient pain.
“What are you thinking?” you say.
“I’m thinking that you’re right. I fucking hate it, but you are.” He swipes away tears with one bloodstained hand, then he settles it on your not-yet-showing belly, a place of ruin, a place of hope. “When can I come back?”
“When you’re ready. And only you’ll know when that is.”
The exam room door opens again, and your parents rush in like water through a cracked dam. They are frantic and fretting, peering around bewilderedly.
“Lord almighty, what the hell happened?!” your dad booms; and your mom doesn’t even think to chastise him.
“I’m okay, Daddy.”
“You got hit by somethin’? Are they gonna do an x-ray? Your mother and I finally made it back home from church, trees and power lines down all over the place, and that boy was waitin’ on the front porch to tell us where you were. You know, the big one. The one with the godawful ponytail.”
“Cregan,” your mom offers.
“Cregan,” your dad says.
“It’s a man bun, Daddy. How’s the farm?”
“We ain’t too bad off. A couple cows dead, half the herd out wanderin’ since the pasture fence blew away. Me and the dogs gotta bring ‘em on back, but your mother and I had to see you first. Did they check you over good? Can you come home today?”
“Sweetheart, there’s…” Your mom’s voice is alarmed. “There’s blood on your gown, on your face, what happened?”
“Well, I, um, the thing is…” You try to tell them. You begin crying again instead. As you sniffle and avert your eyes—afraid, ashamed—Aemond stands and extends one large, scarlet-streaked hand. Your dad shakes it tentatively. And then Aemond explains for you: the child you’ve lost, the child you’ve kept, what has to happen next.
“I am responsible,” Aemond says as they gape at him, half-ecstatic and half-horrified. “And I know that this didn’t exactly happen in the traditional way, and I know that there is a lot of work left for me to do to prove myself worthy of your daughter. But I hope in time you’ll be able to forgive me. Because it seems that we’re going to be family.”
Your mom squeals and hugs Aemond. Your dad hugs you. They stay until you are settled in your own private room—small bed and clean sheets, drugs trickling into your veins—and only then do they listen to your insistence that you’ll be okay until morning, that they need to go home to take care of the farm. They leave with their arms around each other, exchanging murmurs like vows. Then Aemond asks if you feel well enough to see the band. They want to say goodbye.
“You’ll miss me,” Jace says confidently, then swoops in to smack a kiss on your forehead before anyone can stop him, bouncing dark curls and smirking mouth. Aegon jabs him in the ribs, Criston rolls his eyes, Aemond glowers like he’d enjoy putting Jace in need of another 28 dental implants. “If you ever get sick of mentally ill blonds, just let me know. The kid doesn’t change anything. I dig MILFs.”
“Thanks, Jace. I guess.”
“We’ll still see you around, right? You’ll visit us, we’ll visit you?”
“Yeah. I won’t disappear.”
“Good.” And then again, more somberly: “Good.”
Rhaena is dabbing at her gentle, doe-like eyes with a Kleenex, leaning into Luke for support. Criston is gallant. Daeron is optimistic. Baela is exasperated that you told Rhaena you were pregnant but not her.
“I didn’t tell Rhaena,” you counter. “She just happened to be the person who accompanied me on my ill-fated adventure to procure Plan B in Tokyo at like 2 a.m.”
“Which did not work,” Rhaena adds, sniffling into her Kleenex.
“A cautionary tale,” Jace says to everyone. “You hear that, fellas? When in doubt, wrap it before you tap it.”
Baela nods at you. “Luckily, she doesn’t seem too disappointed.” Her eyes flick reticently to Aemond where he sits in the chair closest to your bed, a presence in the room like skies that could turn in an instant, quiet, preoccupied, protective, dazed. “And neither does he.”
“I’m not,” Aemond confesses. He laces one hand through yours and brings his lips to your knuckles, willing the baby to live, willing himself to be better for you both.
“We’re going to talk later,” Cregan tells him sternly. Talk about what it means to be a father.
“Yes,” Aemond agrees.
And then Cregan says goodbye to you too, his cool greyish eyes growing peculiarly warm, his steely exterior chipping away like flecks of old paint.
Aegon is last, the only person left in the room with you and Aemond. Grinning beneath sad eyes, he presses a hand to his heart, and then to yours, and then to your belly. Starboy, Stargirl, Starbaby. Then he says: “Do you want me to hide under your bed so they can’t kick me out when visiting hours end?”
You smile tiredly, exhausted and in pain, pain of the body and pain of the soul. “You have to go, Aegon. Thousands of screaming fangirls will be waiting for you at Arrowhead Stadium.”
He is stunned. “I can’t perform tonight, obviously.”
“Yes you can.”
“No, I definitely can’t.”
“You can,” you say. “You have to. And more than that, you want to. You’ll regret it if you don’t. You live for being Comet’s disaster playboy. I’m not going to take that away from you.”
And then Aegon whimpers: “You can’t leave me.”
“You’re leaving me first.” You beam up at him, caressing his sunburned face, threading your fingers through his disheveled hair. Aemond observes this with curiosity but no suspicion. “This isn’t goodbye, Aegon. I’ll see you again. You can add me to the long list of girls you FaceTime.”
He laughs. “Okay, Stargirl. Okay. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“For more than a day, right?”
“For all of them. Forever.”
And then he’s gone, riding that elliptical orbit out into all the corners of the world that he will glow for: New Orleans, Miami, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Bogota, Buenos Ares, Lima, Santiago.
Aemond swears to you: “I’m coming back.”
“I hope so.”
And he tilts up your chin and kisses you, tasting like smoke and dust and blood and desire, and it takes every atom of you, every string of muscle and rusty speck of bone marrow, not to crumble and beg him to stay. You are still at war with the part of you that wants to surrender as he stands and walks out of the room. He does not look back; he can’t without losing his nerve.
In the night, he returns to you, long after visiting hours have ended. Perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars have a way of making formalities disappear. He is only a silhouette in shadows like dawn, dusk, midnight. Aemond climbs into the hospital bed and catches you as you fold into him, whispering to you that everything will be alright, telling you how sorry he is, lulling you into a fitful sleep against his chest, his warmth, his heartbeat. And in the morning when you wake up alone, you wonder if any of it was real.
Did I dream that he was here? Did I dream that I ever met him at all?
But no, he has left you proof, something tangible, permanent. On the nightstand is Aemond’s small square vintage lighter; Targaryen is etched into one side. And there is something else too, a single piece of black paper with two sentences of starlight-colored ink:
I’m coming back.
I love you.
~~~~~~~~~~
It’s October, and the leaves are turning from emerald to topaz, garnet, tiger’s eye. You carve pumpkins with your parents on their front porch. You bake apple crisps and sweet potato pies. You feed the pigs, brush the Australian cattle dogs, buy baby supplies with Aegon’s Amex Black Card. You decide to let the grad student and her Giant Flemish rabbit keep your apartment downtown until your lease is up in the spring. You’d rather be here on the farm, even when you’re not on bed rest anymore. You’d rather be home.
You listen to Comet Donati, The Script, Coldplay, One Direction. Rhaena and Baela mail you boxes of crochet comets and stars and planets for the baby’s room. Aegon mails you boxes of Comet’s new donut-themed merch. Now your dad sometimes tends to the beef cattle in boy band t-shirts. Aegon FaceTimes you two or three times a week, sends WhatsApp messages nearly every day. But you rarely talk about Aemond. It’s too painful, it’s too much of a temptation. You cannot imagine others seeing him, hearing him, speaking to him without needing to do it yourself in the same way that you need oxygen and gravity.
The week before Halloween, you begin spotting. You sob hysterically as your mom drives you to the hospital, convinced that you’re losing this baby too, that everything you touch is damaged and defenseless and doomed. You’re fine, as it turns out, and the baby’s fine too, but even after you’re back at the farm you can’t stop shaking, can’t stop imaging the wet heat of blood on your thighs.
You break down and call Aemond. And you talk for five hours until the sun rises, you in a rocking chair on your parents’ front porch, Aemond on a hotel balcony in Santiago, Chile in the shadow of the Andes Mountains. He says he’s working on something, but he’ll come back now if you ask him to, he’ll board the jet and land in Kansas City in time for supper at the farm, and you can hear the backsliding desperation in his voice: Please ask me to come back. Please just fucking ask me.
But it’s not time yet. He’s not ready, and you both know it. You agree not to call each other again until Aemond returns to you. If he returns to me. Neither of you can sleep for days afterwards. Neither of you can open the door a crack without the other rushing through.
One morning you shuffle downstairs in your Cookie Monster pajama pants and oversized NSYNC t-shirt to find your dad eating a heap of homemade pumpkin waffles in front of the television in the den. All five Australian cattle dogs are perched expectantly at his feet. “Them boys of yours are on Good Morning America.”
“What? Really?”
Yes, they are; they’re celebrating the conclusion of their record-breaking world tour and teasing a new album with an interview and two songs. You catch the end of the first one, their new single called Magic, during which the boys run haphazardly around the neon-lit studio, Jace tears off his donut-themed tank top in protest, and Aegon flubs no less than three lyrics.
Robin Roberts is saying: “Now stay tuned for a very special performance coming up next after a commercial break. We’ll be moving to our outdoor stage in Times Square where a sizeable crowd has formed, and we’ve been told that Comet has a surprise in store for us! What do you think it could be, George?”
“I don’t know, Robin,” George Stephanopoulos replies gamely. “But no matter what it is, I’m sure it will have all those young ladies out there screaming!”
Lara Spencer chuckles. “And not just the young ladies either. I’ve been known to attend Comet concerts on occasion.”
Robin says: “Oh no, Lara, are you a Cregan girlie?”
“Okay, yes, I confess, I am kind of a Cregan girlie…”
You get yourself a plate of pumpkin waffles and return just in time to see the camera panning over the crowd outside: shouting, cheering, waving posters and showcasing their homemade t-shirts.
Robin Roberts announces: “And now, with a cover of One Direction’s Through The Dark, here is the illustrious, incomparable, incredible Comet Donati!”
“No way,” you murmur, staring rapturously at the screen.
“You like that one?” your dad asks, tossing pieces of waffles to the dogs.
“It’s my favorite.” And Aemond knows that. I told him in Singapore.
The stage is empty as the first acoustic notes ring out. Then Daeron trots into view—radiant and cheerful in his donut merch—to sing the first lines:
“You tell me that you’re sad and lost your way
You tell me that your tears are here to stay,
But I know you’re only hiding
And I just wanna see you…”
Aegon appears next, clopping in his sparkly pink Crocs. He flips his hair around and winks mischieviously into the camera as he sings:
“You tell me that you’re hurt and you’re in pain
And I can see your head is held in shame,
But I just wanna see you smile again
See you smile again…”
And now the crowd is not just loud but deafening, and you’re so shocked the plate of pumpkin waffles tumbles out of your hands and onto the floor for the Australian cattle dogs to devour, because who bolts out onto the stage next is not Cregan or Luke or Jace but Aemond Targaryen, wearing Aegon’s beloved donut merch and his Adidas sneakers and his scar and blind eye bare for the world to witness. They don’t seem to take any notice of his maiming at all. They screech and hyperventilate and reach for him, awed, ecstatic, touching his outstretched fingertips and his sneakers like the relics of a saint. He is focused, perhaps nervous, but he is smiling. His voice is velvet-smooth and pitch-perfect.
“But don’t burn out
Even if you scream and shout,
It’ll come back to you
And I’ll be here for you…”
The others arrive, and now all six of them are singing the chorus in harmony as they traverse the stage, dodging each other’s chaotic spins and leaps, waving to the crowd, checking on Aemond with encouraging furtive grins and squeezes of his shoulders. Luke is beaming. Jace shoves Aemond playfully and almost gets flung off the stage in return.
“Oh I will carry you over
Fire and water for your love,
And I will hold you closer
Hope your heart is strong enough,
When the night is coming down on you
We will find a way through the dark.”
“Huh,” your dad says. “They ain’t no Johnny Cash, but they’re pretty good, I reckon. I thought Aemond wasn’t on stage much anymore.”
“He’s not.” And you smile wistfully as you watch him, right here with you and yet a world away, real and yet intangible, facts and myths and faith. “But now he knows he has a choice.”
On warm nights, you sit on the wraparound front porch and flick Aemond’s square metal lighter to life, shut it, ignite it again, a lonely golden spark in an ocean of darkness, a star in the night sky. And voices circle in your mind like satellites:
I think history is important.
Whoever you are when you’re in high school…that’s sort of who you are forever, you know?
I’ve never met anyone like you.
Aemond would want to be involved.
What the hell do I know about being a decent father?
Our father never cared about us.
It’s not just for me. It’s never been just for me.
“Please come back,” you whisper to the infinite emptiness of the universe, so softly you can barely hear yourself.
~~~~~~~~~~
It’s November, and you are finally showing more than you can hide beneath hoodies and sweaters. The attendees of your parents’ Southern Baptist church—who glimpse you at Walmart or McDonald’s or Freddy’s Frozen Custard or 7-Eleven—gossip about you ceaselessly, venomously, with pity but no compassion. And your parents, who have been politely ignoring jibes about you for a decade, do more than just ignore it this time. They clear out their church mailbox and walk out the front door together and never go back. They’ve been shopping around for a new place of worship. Your mom says they might get really experimental and try out the Methodists.
Rhaena sends you pictures from her and Luke’s trip to the Mammoth Site in South Dakota. Baela has you on speakerphone when she tells Jace she wants to take a break. She’s completed two ballet school auditions already, and has scheduled two more; at least one acceptance seems imminent. You call Cregan to ask him how to prepare for parenthood. You call Criston to ask if he’d be willing to serve as a reference. He writes you a five-page recommendation letter and tells you prospective employers can contact him any time, day or night. You are hired as a therapist by the University of Missouri. For now, to accommodate your high-risk pregnancy and copious doctor’s appointments, it is a part-time remote position. Your parents are at last forced to get internet for the farmhouse. Your dad starts watching beef cattle raising tutorials on YouTube. And oddly, when you begin taking appointments with college students struggling with breakups or parental pressure or substance abuse, you don’t feel nervous at all. You feel like you’re doing exactly what you were made for.
One morning, you receive a WhatsApp message from Aegon: I wonder if bumblefuck Kansas has the Rolling Stone…
Missouri, you reply, and then you go to Walmart to check. Sure enough, there are numerous copies in the magazine aisle, and that’s a good thing, because a plethora of teenage girls are scrambling for them. Aemond is on the front cover, smiling faintly; his scar and cloudy blind eye are neither centered nor hidden. And he isn’t wearing black. His suit is a deep, lush green like jade, summer grass, ivy. The title reads: Aemond Targaryen is Out of Hiding.
You begin reading. He talks about exactly what happened at the Budokan. He talks about the label’s unilateral decision to excise him from the band. He talks about feeling lost, humiliated, pitied, ignored, unlovable. And then he shares what changed him. He says that he met with other survivors of facial trauma: soldiers, professional athletes, people involved in car and motorcycle accidents. He says that he sat down with half a dozen different therapists until he found one that he really liked. He chronicles the process of finding purpose again in a way that is truthful and inspirational and yet—to you, anyway—conspicuously vague. He is still somewhat involved with Comet’s songwriting and will likely perform with them once or twice per year, he wants to advocate for people living with disabilities like his…but what else? What else?
I think what I want people to know is that progress isn’t instant, and that nobody can do it alone, Aemond writes. I’m only where I am today because of the support of a lot of extraordinary people. I want to thank Comet Donati—Luke, Cregan, Aegon, Daeron, and Jace—as well as our tour manager Criston Cole, who is like a father us. I am immensely grateful to my mother Alicent and my sister Helaena. I am indebted to the fans for the unconditional love they have shown me.
But most of all, I owe my recovery to a therapist from the American Midwest. She can be a little pretentious sometimes, but we don’t fault her for that. She’s earned it. Thank you, Stargirl. I hope this planet is treating you well.
Smiling, glowing, you close the magazine, take it to the checkout counter, purchase it along with five KitKat bars. The baby can’t seem to get enough of them.
Two days later, you have another ultrasound done—your fourth—and at last you are able to give Aegon the answer he’s been zealously hounding you for. You message him on WhatsApp: You’re going to have a niece!
!!!!! he replies almost immediately. And then: Name her Aegonella.
Probably not!
As if you have any better ideas??
You share a few from your list: Celeste, Luna, Aurora, Halley…
Aemond literally just said Halley, Aegon types back. Like right before you did. And then: He’s very excited, omg, omggggggg it’s so cute. Thirty seconds later: Wish you were here :(
“Me too, Starboy,” you murmur as you sit on the couch in the den with Belmont sprawled across your lap. Then you send: I’m scared he’s not coming back.
He is, Aegon replies. He’s working on something. You’ll like it.
And you have to believe this, blindly, faithfully, trusting that something is real even when you can’t see it. You have no other choice.
You beg your dad not to slaughter any of the pigs for ham, and he reluctantly agrees. At Thanksgiving dinner, half the dishes on the table are vegan. You’re trying out new recipes. You jot down the ones you like best in a notebook Luke sent you: black pages, white ink.
~~~~~~~~~~
It’s December, and there are stockings hung by the fireplace and a blanket of snow on the ground. You and your parents pick out a Christmas tree at a local farm, and your dad chops it down and throws it in the back of the Ford F-150. Inside your mom’s CD player in the kitchen spins David Archuleta’s Christmas album. As your bump grows, you keep running out of clothes that fit; Aegon is always happy to mail you more donut-themed merch. Thanks to his persistence, they stock nearly every size known to humans. Baela gets her acceptance letters. Aegon gets to make out with Taylor Swift in the Colosseum. They are photographed together in Rome by paparazzi one day and then never again. A week later he’s with Selena Gomez in Ibiza. A week after that he’s spotted with Camila Cabello in New York City. The wheel keeps turning, his route through the solar system long and meandering.
Emergency! Aegon texts you one afternoon as you’re sipping hot apple cider at the dining room table and assembling a 500-piece puzzle depicting the sinking of the Titanic.
You know better than to take him too seriously. You reply, in no hurry: ?
Aemond says I can’t hang out with Starbaby unless I stop taking so many drugs?!!?! Fascist?!??!?!?!
Hang out. Like they’ll be going to clubs and Crocs stores together. You grin and reply: I mean yeah, that sounds accurate.
Well fuck, Aegon says. Guess I better start doing those substance abuse education modules again!
On Christmas Eve morning, your parents are at their slightly-less-judgmental replacement church. You are trying out a new recipe in the kitchen: vegan snickerdoodles. The whole house smells like cinnamon and vanilla. Beyond the window over the sink, snow falls in fluffy white bundles like rumpled bedsheets, like clouds. The Australian cattle dogs follow you around hoping for dropped cookies, their claws clicking on the hardwood floor. David Archuleta is singing O Come, All Ye Faithful. You keep bumping into things; you forget how big you are. Your belly seems to grow by the day.
Your iPhone buzzes. It’s a WhatsApp message from Aegon that puzzles you: Hey, I promised I wouldn’t bother you guys for the first few days but I really need the Netflix password and he’s not answering my texts, rude, so could you ask him for it please??? And then a few seconds later: Please. I just really want to watch Grey’s Anatomy.
You stare at his message, not understanding. You reply: Ask who…?
After a moment, Aegon sends back: …Never mind :)
“Really?” you gasp to yourself in the hushed peace of the kitchen, not wanting to believe, not wanting to be disappointed. You peek out the window. Nothing.
You open Google and search Aemond Targaryen. One of the first results is an article from the Kansas City Star published one hour ago. The headline reads: Comet Donati Heartthrob Opens Farm Animal Rescue Outside of Kansas City.
“Oh my God.” You scroll madly, skimming the text. “Oh my God, oh my God.”
One of Aemond’s quotes reads: I wanted to go where the need is. A sanctuary like this in San Francisco or Boston wouldn’t be anything special, wouldn’t be as necessary. But here in Missouri, at the epicenter of industrial animal agriculture in the United States? There’s a lot of important work to be done here. There are a lot of lives I hope to be able to save. We’ve been purchasing animals from auctions and taking in others that have been seized from situations where they were abused or neglected. In addition to our own efforts, I’d like to help launch similar rescues throughout the Midwest, and increase public access to vegan alternatives…
There are photos of him posing with animals: a towering, scarred, ancient mule named Vhagar, a three-legged goat called Sunfyre. In all the pictures, Aemond is smiling. And here in the kitchen of your parents’ farmhouse, so are you. Without thinking, you reach back to touch your fingertips to the black-ink words beneath your Comet Donati crewneck sweatshirt. You hear the lyrics— I’ll come back for you if it kills me, Comets clip by again after eons and so can I—and you know them to be true like space, time, gravity, love.
You look out the window again and he’s here, speeding down the winding path of the driveway, snow dust streaming out behind his Gold Star like the tail of a comet.
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