#Female Cat Keeps Spraying Eye-Opening Tips

[tightjeansjavi]

The Rite of Movement | part three

“not an illusion”

A/N: this honestly might be the hottest thing that my sexy little brain has ever cracked up 🥵 a big ole fat smooch and thank you to @itsokbbygrl for letting me scream at her about these two, helping me develop my ideas, betaing, & this beautiful moodboard!!!💗

~word count: 5.2k~

Summary: it’s been one month since your first time filming with your new pornstar partner, Joel Miller.

Pairing | pornstar!joel x pornstar!female reader

Warnings: smut, fluff, light angst,dubious consent (light) due to consumption of drugs, consent is addressed, but due to the circumstances, it is implied, unestablished relationship, two idiots in love, (they just don’t know it yet) mention of the porn industry, unprotected piv, role playing, real intimacy, confession of feelings, oral (male receiving) semi public sex, high sex, creampie, cock warming, cumshots, praise kink (massive) pet names, conversations about controversial topics, mentions of eating, reader has no physical descriptions such as skin color or body type, no use of (y/n) reader is in her 30’s Joel is in his 40’s (unspecified), NSFW, +18 minors dni!

series masterlist

It has been exactly one month since you filmed your first video with Joel Miller. One that he chose to keep for yours and his own viewing pleasure, and not to be shared with the rest of the world's prying eyes. A solo shot turned into sensual, passionate, deep fucking. A mind altering experience that neither you or Joel had begun to even grasp what it meant.

He learned that you were better immersed in the mood when the scene started off with just yourself in the view. The anticipation of him joining the scene was palpable, desirable, and there was an obvious shift whenever his presence was detected.

The part of your normal-routined day that you looked forward to the most, above all, was getting to fuck Joel Miller.

The scene you were filming for today was set in Joel’s upstairs bathroom where you would be playing with yourself in the shower while waiting for your businessman husband to return home from a late shift in the office. You were most excited to see Joel all decked out in a proper businessman suit, while he was rather looking forward to seeing you all sudsed up with his body wash while he pumped you full of his come.

It was easy to forget the various cameras set up in the bathroom space when it was just you and Joel–the thick drag of his cock inside of you, stretching, pressing you open, his perfectly styled hair becoming undone and loose as the spray of the showerhead dampened the gel in his curls.

The scene ended with your right thigh hooked around his hip, his face buried against the crook of your neck while you used the cool shower wall for support against your back as he fucked up into you, kissing your cervix over and over again from this angle.

He pressed a sweet kiss to the tip of your nose as he slowly slipped out of your cunt, and his eyes flitted downwards to see his and your come slowly seeping out of your fucked out hole. He called you his baby love. Calling you baby just wasn’t enough for him, he had to combine the two together.

He gently washed between your thighs while you washed his hair, getting the remaining bits of gel residue out from between his salt and pepper streaked curls. He purred in mimicry of his own cat when your nails began to massage his scalp in a circular motion, and he looped his strong arms around your waist, pulling you flush against his chest, and pressed sweet kisses against every bit of skin that was exposed to him.

And the cameras? Well, they were still rolling.

He left you to get dressed in privacy while he gathered up his discarded suit and disappeared through the connecting door to his bedroom.

He moved with a methodical care, catching his boyish grin in his mirror when he tugged a pair of sweats over his damp thighs and hips. He made his way downstairs, saying hello to Artemis, his black cat who was curled up in a little ball on her larger than life bed.

He grabbed two glasses, filling them with fresh water, guzzling down his own before making his way into his garage that was built off the side of the kitchen.

Joel Miller’s garage held history. It was where he filmed his first video for Miller-Co after leaving Brazzers and Los Angeles for good, taking a gamble on himself and a better future. The couch was right where he left it, dust leaving a fine coating over its worn leather, the memories faded with time, but never forgotten.

He grabbed his jar of weed, a rolling tray and papers, bidding the couch a silent farewell and headed back inside, flicking the light off on his way in.

He listened to the familiar sound of your footsteps padding down the staircase from where he was sitting on the cozy family room couch, Artemis now winding herself between his calves, meowing softly as he poured out a dabble of weed onto the metal tray.

He looked over his shoulder, eyes meeting yours just as Artemis trotted over to you, affectionately rubbing herself all over your bare legs.

“Hey, you.” He grinned softly, eyes crinkling in the corners. “Headed out so soon?” He teased, voice rasping as you crouched down to give Artemis the attention that she was seeking.

“Not unless you don’t want me to stay longer?” You teased back, eyes dancing with mischief and rare adoration that only seemed to make an appearance around him. You scratched gently behind Artemis’s ears, before ultimately deciding to carefully scoop her up into your arms and carry her over to the couch.

“Always want you to stay, baby love.” There wasn’t a lick of hesitation in his tone as he patted the spot next to him for you to join. “And I reckon Artemis does, too.”

You felt the heat rise to your cheeks from his words as you bashfully buried your face into Artemis’s soft black fur and pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “Yeah? You think so, Joel?”

He closed up the jar of weed, twisting the cap on and set it down along the coffee table before facing you fully. “I know so, baby.” He winked suggestively as hunched over the coffee table, his bare stomach rolls on full display and you felt the temptation to reach across and caress them.

He begins to carefully break up the little nuggets of weed granules between his thick fingers with a calculated precision that came like second nature. He hums under his breath, a familiar tune to your ears as he looks over at you once more. “So there’s uh—no pressure, of course. But I was gonna roll a joint n’then go sit out on the porch swing out front if you’d like to accompany me?”

“Mr. Miller,” you begin to tease, “is there truly nothing that you can't do?”

He blushes, cheeks transforming into a deep, saturated, rosy color as he clears his throat. “What did I tell ya about callin’ me Mr. Miller?” He scolds playfully, shaking his head and picks up one of the thin rolling papers.

“That it makes you feel old, but dude, you’re gorgeous. Have you ever heard of the term, Zaddy?” You scoot closer to him, your knee bumping his as Artemis proceeds to curl up in your lap, purring softly while you stroke her fur.

“Don’t believe I have, baby love. Somethin’ the kids are sayin’ nowadays?”

“Hey, Alexa?” You ask, the little smart device in the corner coming to life, “what is the definition of the term Zaddy?”

“A Zaddy is a sexually attractive man, especially an older one who is fashionable or charismatic.” Alexa’s voice chimed.

Joel’s blush intensified and he turned his face into his bare shoulder, coughing bashfully with a strained chuckle. “So, what you’re tellin’ me is that you think I’m a Zaddy? Mighty fine compliment comin’ from such a pretty girl.” He peeks over at you, brown eyes soft, eyebrows dancing playfully.

“Joel, baby, you are the literal definition of a Zaddy.” You giggle sweetly, leaning down to press another kiss to Artemis’s head. She’s fallen asleep in your lap, little nose twitching as she dreams. “But to answer your question, I’d love to smoke a joint with you out on the porch swing.”

Oh

“S’date then?” He drawls, eyes casting to the side out of fear of being too forward.

You smile warmly in his direction, heart skipping a beat, thump, thump, thump, at the prospect of this being a date, and getting to spend more time with him. “It’s a date, Miller.”

He preens at your response, lips tugging upwards to form a small grin as he returns to preparing the joint laid out in front of him.

You couldn’t help but watch the way he effortlessly licked the paper, packing the weed granules in and making sure they were nice and snug and tight.

He tucks the freshly rolled joint behind his ear, grabbing a lighter and a blanket off the side of the couch. “She’s out cold, baby love. Y’can leave her on the couch, okay?” He gestures to Artemis snoozing in your lap.

“Okay,” you whisper softly and gently maneuver her balled up fluffy form to the corner of the couch where it’s nice and warm still from where Joel was sitting.

He smiles, offering you his hand and helps you up, tucking his arm around your waist, lips brushing the side of your head and nudging you silently towards the front door. He smells incredible, like eucalyptus, rosemary, and a hint of fresh peppermint. You already want to bury your face into that broad neck of his, inhale his scent, lick and mouth at his pulse point while he stirs beneath your thighs.

“S’beautful evenin’, ain’t it, baby love?” He comments softly, padding over to the porch swing nestled at the back of the porch. The moon is shining, casting your faces in a soft glow. The wood creaks beneath his steps, crickets chirp, an owl hoots his nighttime tune. The Texan air is balmy, humidity clinging to your bare skin, but it’s not an unbearable temperature.

He sinks down along the bench swing, patting the spot beside him and you're quick to join him, adhering yourself to his side like glue. He drapes the light weight blanket across yours and his lap and lets his arm rest alongside the back of the bench, fingertips skating across your bare shoulders, forefinger looping under the strap of your thin tank top. He leans his weight back against the pillows, chains squeaking from the subtle movement.

“It’s a beautiful evening indeed, Joel. Summer nights have always been my favorite.”

He nods, reaching for the joint tucked behind his ear and grasps it between his fingers. He places the unlit end between the pout of his lips, reaching for his lighter in his sweatpants pocket, and lights the joint with ease.

For a moment you find yourself transfixed by the simple action, and the way the spark of orange from the lighter bathes his handsome face in warm light, before it’s casted in darkness once more.

He inhales, lungs expanding, stomach swelling slightly with the motion. The tip of the joint burns a bright orange as he holds the smoke in his mouth for a few seconds and then exhales upwards towards the clear night sky.

You’ve only just now taken notice of the color of the rolling paper; light pink. You feel the hint of a smile lift the corners of your mouth.

He relaxes further against the pillows and takes another deep inhale before removing the joint from between his lips. His arm moves in a languid motion, across the way to where you’re curled up against him.

He places the joint between your lips, eyes adjusting to the low light as he watches you inhale the smoke into your lungs.

“S’my favorite as well, baby love.” He finally replies.

You continue to lazily pass the joint back and forth a few more times, mind beginning to go hazy as your eyelids drooped and that warm, tingly feeling blanketed you like a hug.

“Hey, Joel?” You asked through the comfortable silence, and the nighttime tunes.

“Hmm?” He hummed in response, lolling his head to the side so he could look over at you.

“Do you think,” you giggled softly, trying to gather your weed induced thoughts, “do you think that if vibrators existed back then, you know, like, way back, that women would innately never need a man, thus making women rulers of the world?”

He pursed his lips together, rolling your question over in his mind before he answered, tone raspy, deep, and warm, “Baby love, if vibrators existed back then, women would 1000% rule the world. And I betcha we would have an all female government if that were to be the case. Women jus’—get it, y’know?”

As if this man couldn’t get anymore attractive.

“Well then I think you and I should figure out how to invent time travel just so we can hand deliver them vibrators, and a supply of batteries.” You said animatedly, using your hands to talk and get your point across.

Cute.

“Joel,” you continued, “just think of how many wars we could stop, how many lives could be saved, the earth would be this beautiful, safe place. Women would no longer live in fear for their safety! We could all just exist in harmony. But, if women rule the world, I’d want a man like you ruling by my side.”

“I agree with you, wholeheartedly, I do. I think that if there were more women in power, the world we live in would be a different one. Essentially, we could be like the Barbie movie.” The reference makes you snort a little laugh. “Women and men working together to make the world a better place. Think we gotta push all these old farts outta office, get some fresh, young, faces in there in order for some real change to occur. S’essentially why I strive to make porn for women. It ain’t gonna cause a drastic shift or nothin’, but I believe it makes this society we live in a bit less of a shitty place.” He adds thoughtfully.

“Yes! Like the Barbie movie. God, Greta and Margot and Ryan really knew what they were doing, huh? I’d kiss them all if I could.” You giggled. “Joel, it just takes one person to cause a shift in the chain. You’re teaching both your actors and viewers why consent and intimacy are important and that we should be freely allowed to enjoy our bodies. To you it might seem like it’s small in scale compared to the scope of the whole world, but to people like myself and others, it means so much.” You gush earnestly and his eyes feel glassy, irritated probably from the weed but also the weight of the conversation.

“Y’know I often think it’s so easy for people to not be assholes. I’m so tired of excuses bein’ made for people to be racist, homophobic, transphobic...all of that. To see men encourage other men with ‘locker room’ talk and objectifyin’ women. Tired of people callin’ women and anyone for that matter, a slut just because someone enjoys havin’ sex.” He breathes out, feeling himself getting worked up at the realization that the world is made up of so many judgmental pricks that he’ll never ever understand. You pass the joint back to him and he takes a deep pull, exhaling up into the thick summer air overhead.

“Joel,” you say softly, reeling him in from slipping off the treacherous deep end. He turns to look at you then and you cup his cheek in your palm, stroking his cheekbone softly, watching the movement of your thumb as it brushes over the fine lines near his eyes.“You were literally written by a woman, and if the world had more men like you in it, it would be a different place.”

You want to memorize this moment, cement it in your history. You move your eyes to his and find him already returning your gaze, something soft, warm and gooey found in the dark chocolate. The moment feels heavy, but not oppressive, and you wait for him to make the move you feel fizzling just below the surface. You’d wait a long time for him, you think, and the thought doesn’t scare you. No, it feels right, good. There’s no room for worry here, he’ll take care of you, just give him time.

He takes in your appearance, the softness in your eyes, the tender firmness to your words, and then he feels it: that invisible string tying him to you, and you to him. He doesn’t want the moment to end, for it to pass and be stored in his memory bank to flip through later. No, he wants to live it now in the present. And so he does, leaning in to close the gap, tilting his head to the side, aquiline nose brushing your skin, heartstrings winding together.

You can taste the weed on his breath as it fans your face, you can feel the moment flow, like a crystalline stream, or a warm breeze, and the moment his lips brush yours, slotting, melding together like molten iron, you feel it there, too.

And from that moment, he felt his heart forever welded to yours.

He inhales a shaky lungful of air, surging forward into the kiss and letting himself get lost in the raw emotions behind it.

“I think—” he pauses, murmuring against your locked lips, “I really like you, want you to be more than just my on-screen partner.” He confesses.

Your heart lurches out of your chest at his confession, and your already dizzying mind sways even more. Your lips slowly detach, a thin string of saliva connects you before dissipating into the balmy air.

“You’re just saying that because you’re stoned, Joel.” You whisper through the thick of it.

He shakes his head, brows furrowed in concentration, “No, I ain’t jus’ sayin’ it cause I’m high, baby love.” He clears his throat, nose twitching as he sniffs, “Been meanin’ to tell you for awhile—since I first met you, really.”

“You—you mean that, Joel? You aren’t just fucking with me, right?” So it wasn’t just me who was feeling it? You think.

“Course I mean it, baby. S’the truth. S’comin’ straight from my heart. You don’t gotta feel the same—I understand…” he trails off, determined to not let his assumption that you’re rejecting him hit him where it hurts.

You press your pointer finger against the pout of his lips, silencing his rambling and self deprecating words, “Joel, I feel the same way. I like you, and I want to be more than just your on-screen partner, too.”

No, baby, this is not an illusion. I’ve really got my heart out on my sleeve.

His lips feel wet and warm against the underside of your fingertip. He kisses it sweetly, breathing out a sigh of relief at your mutual feelings.

“So, wanna get burgers and milkshakes with me sometime?” He suggests, lips curving up against your finger in a boyish grin.

You smile, leaning forward and brush your nose against his, inhaling the scent of weed and him before giggling, “Yes, Joel. I’d love to get burgers and milkshakes with you sometime.”

He blushes, and the heat begins to rise to your cheeks in tandem.

“Well, baby love, ain’t no time like the present.” He chuckles warmly and you slowly slide your finger down from his lips, replacing it with a sweet kiss.

I promise I’ll take you out somewhere real nice for our official first date. Okay, baby love? He mumbles against your lips, kissing you back.

“I know you will, Joel.”

-

DoorDash is a godsend when the munchies hit, and you and Joel decide on ordering Shake Shack to satiate that craving. The order is confirmed and the eta for arrival reads: will be ready in thirty-five minutes.

The joint is passed a few more times, still burning strong, and thank fuck for that. Joel Miller sure knew how to roll the tightest joints.

There’s chemistry sizzling between your two bodies as your hands begin to roam freely across his skin, tracing across the various freckles and moles on his chest and shoulders. He shifts from your featherlight touch, cock beginning to stir to life.

“Can I fuck you, Joel?” You whisper as your hand drifts southwards, tracing along the hemline of his gray sweats.

He nods, Adam’s apple bobbing, holding the joint between his lips and watches with hooded eyes as you maneuver your soft cotton shorts to the side, revealing your bare cunt to his admiring gaze.

“S’yours, baby love. Take it.” he rasps, shifting his hips in an upward motion so you can easily pull his hardening cock free.

You clench at his words, feeling your cunt grow puffy and swollen with desire, dripping a droplet of arousal between your thighs as you gently throw your leg over his lap, straddling him in the process and pulling his cock free.

His hands move to caress you, grasping the blanket and situating it so that you’re both partially covered. He takes another long, languid drag as your palm wraps around the base of his cock and slowly ease yourself around him, sinking down till he's fully buried inside of you.

“Take it.” He requests once more. His hands roam from your hips up to the skin below your breasts as you slowly roll your hips forward into his.

His cock fully hardens inside of you, blood flowing southward causing him to swell. He feels the syrupy drag of your sweet cunt around him with each roll of your hips. He tilts his head back, jaw going slack as the joint dips down from between his lips.

“Put that out so I can kiss you, Joel.” You whisper, bringing your arms upwards to loop around his neck and to pull yourself closer to him. Your covered nipples brush against his bare chest, hardening into stiff peaks. He removes one hand from your hip, taking a final drag from the joint before he plucks it between his lips and reaches for the nearby ashtray blindly.

It may have fallen to the floor, but his mind is too intoxicated with you to care: he can deal with that later.

He holds the smoke in his mouth, letting his hand drift back down and splay across your lower back, pressing you further into him. He tilts his head upwards, finding your lips in a chaste kiss as he shotguns the smoke into your mouth.

A strangled moan is shared as you swallow the smoke down into your lungs.

“Good girl.” He praises and curves his hands around your covered ass, slipping his fingers underneath the soft fabric so he can feel your skin. He presses you forward, feeling you begin to slowly grind on his cock. “This close enough for you, baby love?”

Your breath hitches in your throat at the sudden closeness, the stretch of his cock grinding inside of you. Perspiration begins to bead at the back of your neck as your cunt flutters around him. You press your forehead against his, lips falling open, skin on fire from his touch and the steady drug coursing through your veins. “Mhm.” You whimper, “First time we're not acting, Joel.”

His hands guide you, molding you against his body as he tilts his chin upwards to catch your lips once more. “S’never been actin’ for me, not with you.” He whispers just for only you to hear.

“Oh fuck.” You softly cry out, feeling tears begin to flood the corner of your eyes and leak down the side of your cheeks.

“Every time, baby. Couldn’t help myself. every sound, every touch, every time I came, it was all you, all yours.” He continues.

He catches the glassy look in your eyes, the tear stained cheeks and he ceases your movements immediately. His caress is soft, comforting as his big palms hold your face, brushing away fresh tears. “Hey, look at me, baby. Look at me. It’s okay. I’m here. I got you.”

“Fuck—I’m so sorry, Joel. I don’t know why I —” you stumble over your words, not reaching his eyes in the midst of your emotions.

“Baby,” he tries again, “look at me.” His voice isn’t commanding, and neither are his words but the way he delivers them grounds you back to your senses and you meet his gaze finally.

“That’s it. There you go. Good girl, good fucking girl. Keep lookin’ at me with those pretty eyes, okay? Keep doin’ that.”

You card your fingers through the back of his hair, wrapping ringlets of his soft curls between them, yanking on his scalp gently as you begin to roll your hips forward once more. “I’m—okay, Joel. I’m okay.” You reassure him.

“Know you are, baby love. I know.” He hushes you softly before bringing one of his hands up to his face, spitting quietly onto his palm and drags his hand downwards between your connected bodies. He holds his spit-slicked fingers near your clit so you have something to ride into. He gives you full control while still being present to give you whatever you need.

“You gonna come for me, pretty baby? S’okay. Jus’ you, me, and the moon.” His freehand never leaves your face and stays cupped around your jaw, holding you close with his thumb continuously brushing against your cheekbone.

Your needy clit bumps and brushes against his fingers, stimulating your nerves as your cunt flutters around him. You both hear the sticky squelch, the lewd slapping of sweat stained skin. It’s just enough to send you tipping over the edge, and Joel is right there to catch you.

You stay seated on him as you both recoup from your shared orgasm. His voice sounds fuzzy, staticky in your ears as he wraps his arms around you, hugging you, shielding you almost. His lips mouth at the base of your neck as your hand stays locked in his hair.

Neither of you move a muscle until Joel hears an approaching car inching up the street, headlights flooding through the darkness. He whispers against your skin as he eases you off of him, tucking the blanket around your lower half as he slips his now softened cock back into his sweats.

Once he’s up from the bench, he cards a hand through his curls momentarily. “Munchies are here, baby love.” He tucks the corner of the blanket around you, wanting you to feel comforted before he pulls out his wallet.

The DoorDash driver rolls into the driveway just as Joel licks his thumb and flips through the stack of cash. He feels pussy drunk, and still a bit high as he approaches the driver.

There’s the lingering stench of sex and weed wafting in the air as Joel greets the driver, handing him a couple hundreds in exchange for the bag of food.

The driver looks confused as he looks down at the stack of hundreds in his palm before looking back up at Joel who simply nods and gives the man a gentle clap on the shoulder.

“Have a wonderful night, man. Drive safe, okay?” Joel’s words are genuine, sincere.

The man looks up and grins, “Definitely not gonna be as nice as y'alls. Thanks man!" He tips his imaginary hat in Joel’s direction and turns on his heel to walk back to his vehicle.

Joel gives the man a friendly wave before he heads back to the porch. The smell of the burgers is positively mouth watering as he approaches you. “C’mon, baby love. Let’s eat.”

You grin up at him from your slouched position on the bench, limbs feeling pliant and jello-like and you beckon him to meet you in the middle, “Joel, how much did you give him?”

He smiles, bending down to give you a quick kiss, “Enough to make sure that he has a good night.”

Your heart swells.

-

The burgers, fries, and shakes are wolfed down from the comfort of Joel’s couch. Artemis is awake and even sees her chance to steal a fry.

It’s domestic bliss as you and Joel sit side by side, knees touching and bellies full. He departs from the couch to throw out yours and his garbage, and when he returns, he notices you fidgeting, thighs pressed together and he raises a brow, crossing his big forearms against his chest.

“Whatcha fidgetin’ so much for, baby love?” He asks and you look over at him, lower lip taken between your teeth.

“I want to suck your cock, Joel.”

He raises his brows, cocks his head to the side in an endearing manner as he looks over at you. “What have I done to deserve a blowjob from ya, huh?” He teases, feeling a flush begin to creep up his neck.

“Because you’re a good man, Joel. Please, let me take care of you after you did such a good job of taking care of me.”

It’s not long before he finds himself on the couch, thighs spread with you sitting prettily on your knees between them. His cock lays soft against his thigh, still coated in a light layer of yours and his releases.

He’s still not quite sure what he’s done to deserve the feeling of your wet, warm mouth and tongue enveloping the velvet underside of his cock, dragging your tongue across one of the prominent veins all the way up to the mushroom head.

He tilts his head back, the soft curve of his nose catching in the faint light, the muscles in his neck straining as his mouth parts open, lips still bruised from kissing you. He lets out hot, wet breaths, a rumble of a moan as his hand drifts down to cup your face gently in his big warm palm.

“Baby love, why—fuck. What did I do to deserve this? Your sweet fuckin’ mouth.” He takes a shuddered inhale, stroking his thumb against the side of your neck, just below your ear.

You release him from your mouth with a soft pop, dragging your lips and tongue down the side of him and back up again, “You’re such a good fucking man.” You drag your lips lower, sucking one of his heavy balls into your mouth, massaging them with your tongue before pulling off, “Gave that man so much money…” you give his other ball the same amount of attention as his thighs begin to quiver, “probably paid multiple bills,” you continue, “just because you're kind, Joel.”

He’s seeing stars behind his eyes when you take him into your mouth once more, fitting what you could while deepthroating him. He listened to your little choked gags as you worked your hand around whatever you couldn’t fit into your throat. He lurched forward when he felt his balls clench like a fist. He choked out your name as you released him once more, “You’re such a good fucking man.” You preen, and take him down once more.

Holy fucking shit—ring, ring, I need a ring right fucking now, he thinks.

His impending orgasm is edged when he can no longer feel the warmth of your mouth around him and his eyes snap open.

“I want you to come on my face, Joel. Please. I want you to mark me, make me yours. You're such a giver, Joel. Can you give me this? Please baby, can I have it?" You're steadily pumping your palm around his cock just to keep him stimulated enough.

He grunts out a yes, unable to form a complete sentence because he’s off in another world.

His fist replaces your own as he paints your face in hot ropes of his cum, watching the blissed out look as your eyes flutter shut, and a dopey smile etches across your face.

He’s out of breath, and fully spent when you peek an eye open, dragging your finger through a trail of his spend on your cheek and bringing that finger into your mouth, winding your tongue around it and licking it clean.

“Take a picture, Miller. It’ll last longer.” You wink.

banners made by the lovely @saradika 💗

please follow @tightjeansjaviupdates for fic updates and notifications!

[slippinmickeys]

Five Seconds (6/8)

If you’d like to read this on AO3, go here. 

October 21, 2018

It had been years since he'd had to employ tradecraft. Mulder pulled to the curb one block over and two blocks up from Darlene's. He triple checked that his Glock was loaded and dashed across the lawn of the house he'd parked in front of, running past the house and through the backyard, vaulting over a low fence and into another backyard. A black and white cocker spaniel came running at him, angrily barking, but lost its nerve when it got within biting range, opting to jog alongside Mulder as he ran through the yard and then down a sidewalk, eventually losing the dog as it reached the end of its invisible fence.

He slowed as he got to Darlene's block, scanning the street for any sign of an idling car, a criminal, an accomplice. He saw nothing but Scully's car -- the one Lily had lately been borrowing -- parked in Darlene's driveway, the hood still warm.

He was quietly approaching the side yard when a shot rang out, and then another.

Heart in his throat, Mulder vaulted over the small railing that bordered Darlene's small patio and skidded to stop in front of her sliding glass door which had been left open, the curtains fluttering outside on the breeze. He moved on tiptoes, waiting until the curtain blew away from the doorway, showing him a clear view into the house. He saw nothing. He entered, gun-first, his breath coming in adrenaline-laced gasps.

He heard a shuffle from further inside the house, then a low female curse.  

When he quiet-stepped his way past the kitchen counter and looked into the dining room, he saw Darlene slumped against the wall, a hand pressed to a blood-soaked shoulder. The arm that had been shot hung limply at her side, her fingers still curled loosely around the handle of a pistol. Her brow was pale, laced with sweat. They made eye contact.

Darlene held up a blood-soaked finger. One. "In the bedroom," she mouthed, and he nodded at her, moving cat-like on rubber-soled shoes, wishing he could feel the snub-nosed steel of Scully's Sig backing him up.

He could practically feel the movement on the other end of the hallway, the air tense as an execution chamber, the whispered rustling of clothing, the sharp smell of cordite still hanging in the air.

When he finally got to the bedroom doorway at the end of the hall, it took him a second to see the man in the room, crouched down next to the bed, the gun hidden behind his back.

"Come on out of there, princess," the man said, softly, like he was coaxing a hissing cat.

Mulder felt a blaze of red-hot anger, a parental rage so acute it felt like a tuning fork had pinged off his bones.

"Hey," he said, more of a hiss than a word, and the man's eyes went wide and his gun swung up just as Mulder fired, three times center-mass. The man fell back on a spray of blood.

Mulder threw himself to the floor on the other side of the bed.

"Lil, it's Dad," he said, "Look at me."

Lily was prone under the queen-sized bed, face-down on the other side, but she was looking at Mulder, wide-eyed, but apparently unhurt.

"Are you injured?" he asked calmly.

She gave a quick shake of her head and licked her lips, and Mulder could see that she was about to turn to look at what was left of her attacker.

"Come this way, baby," he said, holding out a hand to her while she shimmied slowly toward him. When she finally reached him, her hands were like ice. He pulled her the rest of the way out and onto her feet, where she stood, dazed, touching her hair and getting her bearings. He moved his body in between her and the dead man on the floor on the other side of the bed, ushering her quickly out of the room and down the hallway.

When they got to the dining room, Darlene was breathing quickly but was still conscious, and she tossed a keychain at Mulder, which he caught one handed. There was a smear of blood on the ring, which he wiped on his shirt.

"Silver CR-V, two blocks east," Darlene wheezed, "don't stop for anything."

Mulder, not heeding her advice, stopped by where the phone hung on her kitchen wall and dialed 911, stretching the cord as long as it would go and pressing it into Darlene’s hand. He pressed his gun into the other and kissed her cheek.

“Thank you,” he said seriously, then grabbed a shocky Lily by the hand, pulled her through the theater-curtain of the breezy drapery and out into the daylight.

XxXxXxXxXxX

They'd had go-bags packed as a matter of course -- Scully had thrown them into the back of the CR-V in the parking lot of the defunct Family Video where Mulder told she and Will to meet them.

He’d leaned over and thrown open her door for her as Will swung into the backseat. He was driving before she’d even buckled her seatbelt.

“Plan C?” Scully asked. Mulder had been checking the rearview mirror more than he was checking the road. He nodded once, curtly. “We should head East,” she went on. “If they’re tracking our phones, let’s let them think they know where we’re going before we lose them.”

“On it,” Mulder said, merging onto the highway.  

After a few miles, the tension in the car eased slightly.

"Hey Dad?" said Will from the back seat. Mulder looked in the rear view mirror and connected eyes with his son. "What about the cats?" the boy asked.

Mulder thunked his head back against the head rest. "We'll figure it out, bud."

"Travis could probably do it," Lily volunteered shyly.

"How do we know Travis wasn't the one who tipped them off to our location?" Mulder asked, barely keeping a rein on his anger and fear.

"Mulder," Scully admonished quietly from beside him. She peered back at their daughter who had tears in her eyes.

"Because it was me," Lily quietly, whose face then crumpled.

Mulder slammed on the brakes and pulled the car over hard to the shoulder of the highway, gravel and dirt spitting out from under the tires. The cars that had been behind them honked liberally as they flew by. He craned his neck back at his daughter before the car had stopped moving.

"What?!" he said.

"I -- I," she started, then took a deep breath and continued, "I did a search in a university computer lab a few days ago. Then someone started following me. I lost him-"

Mulder and Scully both interrupted her at the same time.

"-What did you search-" "-And you didn't tell us-"

She looked between the two of them, clearly trying to figure out who to answer first. Finally, to Scully she said, "I wasn't even really sure he was following me. And I didn't want to scare anyone. I did what you taught me to do -- I shook him and then I went to Darlene. I didn't want to lead him home." Scully reached back and put her hand over her daughter’s, who clutched back at her desperately. "And now Darlene might be dead!"

"I think Darlene is going to be okay, Lily," Mulder said. She would have reached out to the Gunmen first thing, who would have sent someone in to protect her. “I called 911 -- she was shot in the shoulder --" he looked to Scully, passing off the conversational baton.

"Was she conscious when you left her?" Scully asked. Lily nodded, sniffing. "Shoulder gunshot wounds are easily survivable. I'm sure she'll be okay,” Scully ‘finished, sounding more sure than she felt.

Mulder took a deep breath, gripping the steering wheel like a vice.

"Lily, what did you search?" he finally asked, his voice as calm as he could make it.

The girl sniffed again and looked up. "You," she simply said, looking at her father.

Scully looked at Mulder and could feel his heart breaking for his daughter from where he sat. He sighed heavily.

“Pass up your phones,” he finally said, “everybody.”

The kids complied, handing over their phones to their mother. Mulder looked at Scully, then signaled and pulled back on the expressway when there was an opening.  “Can you pop the SIMs?”

“Yes,” she answered.

“Good,” he said. “Think you can make a Faraday bag, Scully?”

“What’s a Faraday bag?” Will asked.

Scully was studying the phones, looking for the SIM trays on the side of each device. “It’s an enclosure used to block electromagnetic fields,” she said without looking up.

She looked to Mulder and smiled briefly. “I’ll only need a few supplies.”

XxXxXxXxXxX

Mulder pulled the ball cap low over his face and donned a pair of sunglasses. While the car was filling up, he went inside the gas station and grabbed a small shopping basket, filling it up with junk food and bottles of water, aluminum foil from the small kitchen section, batteries. On his way to the register, keeping his face down to avoid the cameras, he grabbed one large foil-lined bag of potato chips and plunked them all on the counter, paying for the lot in cash. He muttered a thank you as the cashier handed him the plastic bag of loot, and he whisked through the door of the station, pulling out the large bag of chips as he made his way back to the silver CR-V. He wordlessly handed Scully all the food but the chips as she was resecuring the gas nozzle and closing the car's gas hatch. Mulder tore open the bag of chips, dumped the contents in the waste bin next to the gas pump and jumped in the car with the empty bag. He pulled out of the gas station so quickly that the tires chirped on the asphalt.

"Mulder," Scully said shakily, a warning: calm down.  

Three miles later on Southbound I-69, he pulled illegally into a utility pass-through. He reached into his pocket for his cell phone, and handed it to his wife.  

“Last one?” he asked, and she nodded. She had the other three phones up on the dash, their SIM cards already removed.

She went through the supplies he’d gotten at the gas station and looked critically at the empty potato chip bag.

“Do you have what you need?”

She nodded. Five minutes later, her work complete, she looked up.

“Done,” she said.

He took the bag from her, dropped the phones inside and shoved it into the console. They turned north.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Mulder pulled the CR-V to a stop when a sapling in the middle of the two-track made further driving impossible.

"End of the road, guys," he said, and cut the engine. "Get your bags out of the back," he said to his children, "Will, I want you to carry your mom's."

"'Kay," said his son, and made his way to the trunk.

Lily had been quiet for hours. He moved around the car to help Scully out and she gave him a look. Give her something to do . He nodded.

He pulled the handwritten map that Lauren had given him out of his back pocket and handed it to his daughter. "I'm going to stick with your mom," he told her, "see if you can suss out this map."

Lily nodded and looked around to orient herself. When he came back to Scully's side, she gripped his arm and took a bracing breath. Alarmed, he bent his knees to try to look into her eyes.

"Scully?" he said, trying to keep the worry out of his voice, "you okay?"

She nodded after a moment and gave him a toothless smile.

"Just… feeling heavy today," she said.

Moments later, Lily led the way and he lifted a low hanging hemlock branch for his wife to pass beneath. He tried not to think too much about how slowly she moved through the duff.

XxX

When they broke through the clearing, the autumn light was waning, and the shadows lay long upon the ground. They were all of them covered from the knee down with burrs and leaf detritus, and though the cabin looked low and shabby and damp, it did offer the eyes a break from the monotony of forest, and for that it was a welcome sight.

It was a small structure, the original part of it a log cabin hewn from large hardwoods, with an addition on the south side of what looked like a combination of particle board and tin that had been at one time painted red. The corners of the addition -- held up by several two-by-fours nailed together -- did appear to have been chewed on at shoulder height, supporting Lauren's handyman's assertion that moose had been here.

Above the door of the main cabin, which was secured with a latch and rusted padlock, was nailed a grey and weathered sign, hand carved with "Camp Hi-Early."

"Come on guys," he said, taking Scully by the elbow and digging his other hand deep into his pockets to pull out the key Lauren had given him months back in a polished high rise in DC. It felt like a lifetime and another world ago.

It took several tries with the key before he was able to unhinge the creaking lock, and he then had to drive a shoulder hard into the door, where the wood had expanded in the damp and stuck to the doorframe. It knocked back into the interior wall and he finally stumbled inside.

It was dark and smelled of old mold layered with the pungent brine of red cedar — the wood of which was frequently used in construction to ward off vermin. Mulder hoped it had worked. The floor was an old grey linoleum scattered with grit and bits of leaves which had blown in from the small crack at the base of the door. To the right of the doorway stood a tall newer looking gas can which Mulder found was nearly topped off when he bent down to pick it up. Next to it was a long black Maglight which he handed to Scully. He held up the gas can as she stepped into the cabin, her face one of skeptical distaste.

"I'm going to go fire up the genny," he said, as she clicked on the flashlight and shone it into the cabin's dark corners.

The generator, out back on the far end of the cabin near the outhouse, rested on a sturdy-looking wooden platform, and appeared to have been serviced at least somewhat recently. He was more than a little relieved when it started after only three tries.

When he came back into the cabin a moment or two later, Scully already had the overhead lights switched on, and was having the kids pull tarps and coverings off of the bunks in the cabin's addition. She was standing in front of a cedar cabinet, cautiously sniffing at several wool blankets that were folded within it.

"There are some mice droppings," she said, nodding toward the interior of the space, "but it's not bad. Needs to be swept and given a good scrubbing, but I think we'll survive."

Mulder nodded at her and eyed the pot bellied stove that took up most of one corner. There was a chill and it lent the cabin a dank, depressing air. The sooner they got the place warm, the better.

"There's a woodpile out back," he said, "see if you can get the kids to bring in a few armfuls."

She nodded brusquely and then braced her hand against the cabinet for a moment.

"I'm fine, Mulder," she said when she sensed his concerned gaze. "It's nothing."

When she appeared to move about normally, Mulder peered around the cabin as the kids headed out for the wood pile. The walls were mostly bare, but for a handful of cheap Kmart picture frames with fuzzy black and white stills of men dressed in flannel and Stormy Kromers standing next to the rigor-stiff remains of various woodland creatures. There were several mounted deer heads, most looking glassy-eyed and mangey, but for one 12-pointer on the far wall who had a dusty, archaic looking rifle balancing on his impressive rack. In the kitchen, on the wall above the yellowed, bowing countertop hung one color picture -- the patina of the paper suggested it had been developed sometime in the mid to late 70's -- of Clio with her arm around the shoulder of a raven-haired, gap-toothed child, who Mulder instantly knew to be Lauren, whose hand was resting around the barrel of a rifle that was taller than she was. It looked to be the same firearm decorating the taxidermy.

Scully gave a sniff from over his shoulder and he turned to see her looking at the piece.

"Think it still shoots?" she asked.

The thing probably hadn't been cleaned in thirty years, inside or out.

"Think I'll stick with your Sig," he replied. Though his wife had better marksmanship, she'd handed over her service weapon when they'd arrived, deferring to his instincts and the fact that he was currently more fleet of foot. Mulder had left his own weapon at the scene at Darlene's, pressing it into her hand with a quick kiss to her cheek and an inadequate thanks.

He had carried in not only his own pack of clothes and toiletries, but also the meager supplies that they'd picked up in a small IGA outside of St. Ignace, just over the bridge to the Upper Peninsula. It was mainly powdered Lipton soups and Ramen, crackers and Gatorade mix; lightweight supplies that were high in calories and easy to store and make with water from the hand pumped well just outside the cabin's door. He kept them in the zipped duffel he'd carried them in and left it on the small counter that served as the cabin's kitchen.

The kitchen itself was meagerly supplied with a couple of old pots and pans, plastic cups with the scratched and faded visage of Bozo the Clown on them. Thin, hand-me-down plates and bowls. A colander. A ceramic pitcher. In the middle of the countertop, in front of a small window was a large porcelain basin that served as the sink, under which, behind a faded gingham curtain sat an old, gummy bottle of Dawn, a gallon of generic white vinegar and an old metal pail.

Reconnaissance completed, it took him several minutes to figure out how to open the flue on the pot bellied stove and he built a small fire, hoping nothing had built a nest or somehow otherwise stopped up the small metal chimney. When it seemed to draw okay, he added more wood -- which was well seasoned and fairly dry, considering -- until he had a roaring fire. The wood popped and crackled as it burned, cheerful.

XxX

“The seat in the outhouse is fucking freezing,” Lily said as she came in the doorway.

Dawn had barely broken and the light outside the cabin was cold and gray. It had been a long night. The woods surrounding the cabin weren’t quiet, and everyone was jumpy, having slept fitfully on the creaking twin beds in the bunk room.

Mulder looked to Scully, who normally would have at the very least leveled a firm look at their daughter for language, but Scully merely sat there, and when she caught him looking at her, said:

��It is, though.”

By noon, cabin fever had set in. They’d played Hearts with a deck of cards Scully had found in the kitchen with a Joker sitting in for a missing five of spades. They’d eaten lunch. Mulder had massaged Scully’s lower back when she complained of pain. The minutes passed like hours.

By the time it was early afternoon, Will had found a long stick in the trees near the cabin, the end curved like a hockey stick, which he was using to hit pinecones into the side of the structure, each tatty thud further fraying already scattered and jumpy nerves. Mulder finally had to go outside and tell him to find two saplings to aim through because one more thunk into the wall outside where the rest of the family sat and Lily was likely to try to break the stick over her knee and impale him with it, and as far as Mulder and Scully were concerned, no jury would convict her.

Boredom was getting the better of them. Will sat on a bed in the bunk room, running the improvised hockey stick round and round though his fingers in a circle on the floor. Scully fitfully napped, Lily sulked and cracked her knuckles. Even Mulder felt the occasional pang for the dopamine hit of a checked handheld screen.

Mulder stood.

"I'm going to run out to the road," he said, "try to check in with the guys."

Scully, who was laying on her side on a cot that Mulder had pulled closer to the potbellied fireplace just for another place to sit, opened her eyes.

"Are you sure that's wise?" she asked.

"I'm sure the guys have buried the signals on our phones by now," he said. "And I should check in with Lauren -- it's been a while."

"Be careful, Mulder," Scully said, and gave him a significant look.

He nodded, looking at her a long moment before looking away.

Scully had dark smudges under her eyes -- she had slept worse than anyone, the old mattresses dipping her abundant hips into uncomfortable positions. She had reached the stage of pregnancy where everything was swollen and sore. Mulder couldn't think of a more miserable situation for her, his chest clutching in sympathy.

"Can I come?" Will piped up suddenly from where he sat.

"Me, too?" asked Lily, who was looking wan and morose from the small dining table in the corner.

"I want one of you to stay with your Mom," Mulder said, looking at Will when he said it, who got the message and smiled sweetly at his mother.

"I'll stay," he volunteered.

Lily shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans as she rose and shuffled to the door. Once they were outside, she turned to him, but didn't make eye contact.

"Lil," he said, anticipating what she was about to say, "we'll check on Darlene."

His daughter pulled her lips into her mouth and nodded, sniffing once.

XxX

Mulder pulled the phone out of their improvised Faraday bag and stood on the side of the road, turning it on on a surge of adrenaline. The guys would have known to scrub the phones and whatever voodoo that was needed so that they couldn’t be traced, but he still felt anxiety. Lily stood beside him, hugging her arms around herself. It was October and cold, and she was only wearing a long sleeved tee shirt.

Once the phone was booted, he looked at the screen. There was hardly a signal, which he supposed wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. He walked up and down the road a few paces to see if the signal got any better, but it only ever got worse, losing bars completely. Finally, he stopped and dialed the number for the Gunmen that he’d memorized for emergencies. There was a click after only one ring, and then a buzzing sound. Finally, he heard Langly’s voice, though it was garbled from the bad signal.

“Talk to me,” Langly said.

“Are we clear?” he asked.

The first few words of Langly’s answer were cut off. “--s okay, you’re good. Do not relay your loca--” he was cut off again.

“What’s the status of Melvin’s sister?” he asked, cutting his eyes to Lily.

“--going to be okay.”

He nodded at Lily and gave her a reassuring smile, at which point Lily visibly relaxed.

“Ears to the ground,” Mulder said, “what are they hearing?”

“--put -- unconfir -- danger. If you -- wife -- do not --”

The call dropped. Frustrated, Mulder squeezed the phone in his hand and walked further up the road, his daughter tailing him like a puppy. He tried a further three times to connect back to the Gunmen without success. He was about to turn off the phone again when he realized that he owed Lauren a check in. He decided to try to text her instead, hoping it would go through.

Plan C, he wrote, FM. He pressed send. The phone’s ‘sending’ message shone for at least thirty seconds when he thought he heard the approach of a car over the rise to the west. He quickly shut off the phone and threw it back into the potato chip bag, grabbed Lily’s elbow and they darted into the trees lining the road.

A minute later a truck roared past, pulling a trailer nattily painted in homemade camouflage.

“Dad?” Lily whispered from where she was crouched next to him when the truck was long gone.

“It’s fine,” Mulder said, standing. Lily rose next to him. “Lots of sportsmen up here. It’s almost hunting season.”

They trudged along the two-track as they headed back to the cabin and Mulder put the bag with the phones back into the glove box as they passed the car. Before they left it, Mulder asked Lily to help him cover up the reflective lights and license plate with brush. That finished, they walked on in silence.

They weren’t far from the cabin when he finally spoke.

“You know none of this is your fault, right?”

"What?" she asked, as though she didn't hear him.

He stopped walking and so did she, looking at him in question.

"None of this is your fault, Lily."

"I don't-"

"Lily."

Realization started to dawn on her and he saw tears form in her eyes.

He said it again: "None of this is your fault, Lily. Darlene, being at this cabin, none of it. Your mother and I don't blame you, and no matter what happens, we never will. None of this. Is. Your. Fault."

With that, tears fell from her eyes and she launched herself at her father, pressing her head into his chest and squeezing him around the middle tightly. "It's okay," he whispered into her hair, brushing it back from her forehead. Her breath hissed out from her as though from a release valve. He held her for a very long time.

[kaiju-z]

Seon Adventures Episode 38: Bathhouses and Bonds

After a month of travel, successfully retrieving the King’s Blade, Ena, learning who their client is, i. e. Akar’Niel and choosing to learn more about the circumstances of the mass elimination of dwarves and dragonborn on Seon, the party have reached Guan.

And straight off the bat, no pun intended, the group discover they are followed by an imp. After a quick discussion on whether to take it down or not, Malak stils his hand from sending the denizen of Hell back home, as it approaches the group.

Through a quick inspection of the party, the shape changing critter flies over to Mournimar and delivers the Tiefling Ranger a Sending Stone, of a blue diamond make. After which it does a JoJo pose and poofs.

As stated previously, this was a Sending Stone, allowing someone to cast 2 sending messages a day. But only to the person that has the other one. Rocky Talkies, as Malak puts it. (Or Hayden, I’m not sure. They’re both wholesome and we love them).

Mournimar gets that explained to him and calls the person that gifted it to him. And he hears a familiar voice from the other end say " Well you are alive, then!”. Much to the tiefling’s frustration, he recognizes the voice as that of his ex-boyfriend, Lazarus, follower of Potencia.

Mourni tries to ask what he wants, but instead Lazarus does the “kh-kh” noise (you know the one, where someone does a double pistols and a wink???) and that’s about all the messaging that goes on for that day.

Again. Much to Mournimar’s frustration.

Malak suggests getting rid of the stone. But Mournimar wants to keep it.

Luck suggests flipping a coin and he even brings one out from his journal bag. But Jun suggests Mournimar hold onto it and in the end, they agree on that.

(Also Mournimar gets a praise from Jun, which makes him feel validated).

The rest of the day passes uneventfully and they carry on, as the ground beneath their feet becomes more and more rocky. WIth the most perceptive in the party taking note that there’s a slight silhouette in the near distance of a town.

During the night, Belli receives a dream, like everyone else, but Mournimar, before her. As everyone had kept their dreams to themselves, for the following day, the group find themselves walking into a small and cozy town, which Arryn guesses would be Sodinvorg, most likely.

Very different from what the group had been used to so far. In a wasteland such as this (which funny enough is the right temperature for Luctan to feel at straight up at home?!) Sodinvorg’s constructed of tall buildings made out of clay, all painted red, white or red and white. Most split in multiple flats as they can tell from the windows. A variety of people in the windows, mostly Yuan-Ti, Kobolds, Tabaxi and Lizardfolk.

People here know each other and are close, mingling with each other.

Notable locations are the bathhouse, the tavern and the marketplace.

Luctan makes a b-line for the bathhouse, all excited and swept under the positive nostalgia of the enviroment he find himself in, with Jun joining him, all the while Belli would go and buy certain supplies. Cement included for some reason?! And then go to the apothecary.

A pair of young lizardfolk women run the bathhouse, which the pair of Jun and Luck can discern is constructed very intricately and with a style to it. (The place is essentially a roman bathhouse.)

Mournimar woud go to the Rolls and Scrolls place, where one could buy spell scrolls and delicious breads, as advertised, while Malak would check with the antique shop.

Inside the bath house, Jun takes on her mask of a beautiful Drow woman, named Valencia, having noted that there aren’t really any humans in the area.  Valencia is a bit posh. Long white hair in a bun.

As they score themselves a place in the bath, The Disguise Duo enjoy a relaxing bath, unbothered by the cramped and crowded enviroment, as they are  confident about themselves and their bodies.

No juicy gossip in the area and even if there was, a loud comment about Mommy Milkers from another of the patrons would distract the duo.

Arryn eventually joins the two, but after an unfortunate bomb dive goes wrong, he leaves, as the pool was too shallow for any acrobatics. Luctan’s Healing Word aids him in recovering from at least the physical pain, at least.

The duo have another talk, where Luck learns of Jun’s origins. Though she began her careers in Sa Doma, she was originally from  Elmeria. Which, to say the least, was a neat coincidence, as the party had gotten their initial name there, when asked by Morticia.

Jun would share that, given her race as a Changeling, few doors were truly open for her, as a Shapeshifter in a world that had a bias against them, and so, the bounty hunting life and that of an escort were ones that she could slip into easily. Luck would bemoan her fate, how opportunities were taken from her due to things she couldn’t help. But was glad for her being able to make the best of it.

“When one door closes, another opens”, the two would agree.

Luck would tell her his story, in turn, being candid about the facts, though, naturally, given they were speaking around others, he’d of course avoid using the “H” word as to where he had come from. Besides, the yalready knew about that from the fight at the barn.

Luck would come to a point, admitting that he was unsure what to do with himself now. He was content helping people, but he had no plan on what to do with himself now, when he didn’t take on the rest of his revenge quest.

Jun encourages him to take the time and consider. And she’d admit that conversations weren’t generally something people would approach her for, given her non-violent work ethic.

But Luck would compliment her for her talk, appreciating being able to talk openly with her on matters. Jun would note that he was about the 3rd person to praise her for that.

Meanwhile, at the Rolls and Scrolls, Mournimar spends big money on several rolls and scrolls, making Matiro, the Yuan-Ti’s day with all the cash that comes his way.

Feather Fall, Aid, Calm Emotions and Find Steed are all bought and paid for by the Ranger, with the latter three being bought for a collective 500 gold.

Furthemore, the tiefling buys 7 loafs of bread, for the party and Arryn.

And then. Before he leaves, Mournimar leaves the man a tip of 5 platinum. And upon leaving, he can distinctly hear the Yuan-Ti scurry off, screaming to a friend: “PHILLIP! I’M IN LOVE!”

At a convergence point, Mournimar gets a gold piece from Jun and a pat on the head. Getting validated by an older female figure boosts his morale. Quite evident from his tail wagging like crazy.

From the calico Tabaxi, Jolly Sunrise, proprietor of “ Happy Belly Rubs “, Belli gets a healing herb, a root that healing potions are made from. 

(It is at this point that we spend 10 minutes on Tabaxi bathroom name jokes. It’s just-you had to be there.)

Jolly makes a “Jolly Secret Rub”, which gives the party 1d8 Temp Hp. Gives special smelling salts, which are used as Spare The Dying as a bonus action. 165 worth. And lastly, upon Belli’s request, she delivers onto the Half-Orc Bard a pair of extra spicy peppers, referred to as “Dragon’s Breath”.

“Don’t give it to halflings. It could genuinely kill them.” she would note.

Also Belli learns that Jolly has a tiefling brother. Due to his fire resistance, she had learned that these could kill anoyone, without fire resistance. (Though that could’ve been a joke0

After the bread, the party go to the Cozy Leaf. An older tabaxi man, orange and graying around the nose, heads the place. He has a menu. There’s coffee, milk, honey milk. Maple Milk! The man’s name is Leaf On The Water. He has a strange clockwork device playing relaxing music nearby, giving the place a wholesome atmosphere.

His Grandson, an Artificer, built this contraption. Travels and sends new stuff to the old cat.  There’s a stick figure drawing at the counter, drawn by the youngest in the family, his granddaughter. The grandson is taller than him. Grandson is 30. Grand Daughter is 3.

There’s even a portrait that gets showcased of the family. One big orange family. Himself, his three kids and his two grandkids.

Most of the group, but the bearded ones, get themselves a warm beverage. Honey Milk and Maple Milk.

While the patrty slowly unwind for the day, Belli asks Jun if she has any expertise with chemicals. Interesting enough, the Bloodhunter does have skills with alchemy supplies. And the two work on making  pepper spray. Super. Spicy. Pepper Spray.

Malak find himself buying several items from the antique shop, run by the kobolds Zett and Nix, Red and Bronze respectively.

From the items presented to him, he takes what he could consider lucky charms.

Among them a coin of a strange material, a stone figurine of a snake, as well as a small silver rod with no decoration. It makes a harp noise. Notably,  the rod gives off faint evocation magic.

Before purchasing these, he asks the Kobolds, just to be sure, that they hadn’t pilfered these from any gravesights and the like. They specify that any item they have in their shop has been brought in from families, who found no use for them.

They are established businessmen here. And the price for the collection of items bought is 25 silver. Enough to cover rent for the month.

Malak thanks them in Draconic and leaves after the monetary exchange.

At the end of the day, as everyone prepares for the night’s rest in the tavern, Jun keeps an ear and eye out for gossip, while Mournimar takes a single room for himself (and Morgan).

One, where he has himself his own little dream.

End of Episode.

Previous Episode / Next Episode

[katehuntington]

Title: Changes - part two Word count: ±3000 words Summary “Changes”: Huntress Zoë Sullivan (OFC) crosses paths and swords with the Winchesters, when the brothers stumble on a case she’s already working. When complications arise, they are forced to work as a team. Summary part two: Four years after the demon attack, a young woman is playing a cat and mouse game with another supernatural creature. Only this time around, she’s the hunter. Episode warnings: Dark! NSFW, 18+ only! Angst, gore, violence, character death. Description of blood, injury and medical procedures. Demon possession, supernatural creatures/entities. Smut, swearing, alcohol use/addiction. Kidnapping, mentions of torture and murder, illegal/criminal practices. Mentions of nightmares and flashbacks.  Music: About A Girl - Nirvana Author’s note: I couldn’t be more excited to share Supernatural: The Sullivan Series with you. @coffee-obsessed-writer​, @soupornatural​ & @mrswhozeewhatsis​, who edited the early drafts, and my girls @girl-with-a-fandom-fettish​ & @winchest09​ who are deciphering the recent version; thank you for helping me with this story and for taking it to a higher level. Everyone who encouraged me to go for it, you are awesome!

Supernatural: The Sullivan Series Masterlist 01x01 “Changes” Masterlist

     Rochester, Minnesota      November 24th, 2005

     Rain falls during a chilly night in November. Thunder rumbles in the distance, as heavy showers dim flashes of lightning that jump from one cloud to the other. Several miles outside of the city in the wide-open spaces, the world seems deserted. The atmosphere is threatening as nature shows her power. Straight roads cross the farmlands, not a living soul using them. No one is on their way home or driving away from it. Then again, in this weather, who would want to be out on the road? 

     In the distance, a light appears and steadily approaches. A bright shimmer reflects in the water on the asphalt, the sound of an engine building as the vehicle gets closer. It’s not an ordinary engine, not even close to the sound that modern cars produce these days. Actually, it’s not even a car.      A black Harley Davidson cuts through the night, roaring like a lion. The classic motorbike leaves a spray in its wake, the water catapulted from the back tire. The polished paint job shines proudly, catching even the smallest glint of light. Raindrops try to cling to waxed metal, failing miserably. It’s obvious the owner of this beauty takes good care of her. It’s the type of bike you would expect an old rocker to ride. The kind that listens to Metallica and is a member of a biker gang. A tough guy with a beard and big sideburns, who rides from roadhouse to roadhouse, consuming nothing but steak and beer. Nevertheless, this lucky Harley is ridden by a young woman. 

     The rider seems to be in a hurry; despite the slippery roads; she’s speeding down 75th street NW at ninety miles an hour. This woman and her Harley have reason to haste. The biker tries to focus on the road ahead, yet glances in her side mirror frequently, checking if she’s being followed. The sharp pain in her abdomen keeps her awake. She mutters to herself, biting down the pain. How could you be so fucking stupid? It’s your job to know what you’re dealing with, and yet you were caught off guard!

     The suburb of Rochester appears in the south; she’s almost there. The rider bends over her bike, clamping one arm around her waist and applying pressure.       “Fucking hell,” she curses.      She refuses to look down at her injury and keeps herself together. Hopefully, it’s not too bad, she doesn’t have time to get stuck in the ER. It’s during moments like these she regrets falling in love with her ‘94 Harley Davidson Road King, because a faster bike like a modern Kawasaki sports bike would be much more convenient right now. 

     She follows the road, which is shadowed by trees on both sides, until she passes through a small town, called Douglas. Again, she checks her mirrors, but there’s nothing on her tail. In front of her, several cars and trucks are driving up route 52. A sigh of relief escapes her mouth; back in the civilized world.       After turning right just before the highway, she speeds up again on the road running parallel to it. Finally, the motel appears in the distance, a building with a large neon number ‘6’ on the roof. The female biker parks her Harley in front of the motel and turns the ignition. Not nearly as graceful as usual, she gets off her bike and heads toward the entrance of the motel. With her right hand on her bleeding wound, she stumbles across the parking lot as she takes off her helmet. 

     A flash of lightning cracks the sky and reflects on the cars parked in front. For a split second, she thinks she sees a shadow standing in the rain. Quickly, she turns towards it, but it’s gone, yet her hand goes for the gun tucked behind her waistband, instinctively. On high alert, she scans her surroundings, her intuition telling her she’s not alone. Is she getting paranoid? He wouldn’t come out here and follow her by car, would he? That would be insane, he’d be too exposed.      Her hand slips from the grip of the weapon and she makes a run for it. After hastily entering the motel, she closes the door behind her. It’s warm in the lobby, country music playing in the background, a huge contrast to the chilling weather outside. Standing in the bleak light instead of mysterious shadows makes her feel a bit more at ease. 

     The old man behind the counter looks up from his paper, peaking over his reading glasses. An empty soda bottle decorates his desk along with some paper wrappers which once held a Wendy’s cheeseburger. She stares at the wrappers for a moment. Fuck, she would kill for a burger right now.      “You’re behind on your payment, Mrs. Johnson,” the old man remarks.      She throws a Mastercard on the desk while closing her coat around her body, hiding her injury and keeping the hand she used to staunch the bleeding firmly against her side. The motel manager thankfully doesn’t seem to pick up on anything out of the ordinary and takes the card without thanking her.      “I’m afraid I’ll have to charge you the extra night, too. It’s way past check out.”      “No worries, book two more. I’ll be sticking around for a few more days,” she returns.      “Business taking longer than expected, huh?” he assumes, while working the computer.      “Something like that, yeah,” she answers shortly, not willing to elaborate.      “Those two nights were the last slots. It’s busy this weekend.” The man behind the desk hits the enter button. “You’re in luck.”      She frowns at the comment. Right, luck. Looks like luck got me fucking shot. Thankfully he doesn’t have any further questions, she’s not in the mood for a chit-chat with the fossil. 

     The restless woman scans the parking lot outside for the third time, slightly out of breath, her face tense. Every once in awhile the motel manager glances over his screen, observing his client. Her black leather biker jacket is soaked through, but it doesn’t seem to bother her. Brown hair falls down her shoulders, the tips escaped her helmet drenched from the rain. Her dark eyes seem worried, makeup slightly faded. A young woman, who - according to the information he got from her when she checked in - married early, apparently. How old could she be? Twenty four, twenty-five, maybe? She doesn’t really seem like the marrying type, and he has seen many folks come and go. The poor girl looks pale, too, as if she’s ill or carrying a heavy weight upon her shoulders. A lot of shady business has happened in his motel, so he knows the signs. Maybe it’s drug related, maybe she’s fleeing from an abusive relationship. Who knows? He doesn’t bother to ask anymore. It would put him out of business if he would. Besides, she doesn’t seem like the person anyone would want to mess with. He does make a mental note to keep an eye on her and make sure his motel doesn’t turn into a crime scene.      “Here ya go.” He hands her back her credit card. “You know the way.”

     The mystery woman nods, picks up her helmet from the desk, and turns down the hallway. While entering room number 82, she takes off her jacket together with her tartan wind scarf and strides to the bathroom. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, her gaze drops to her abdomen, where a bloodstain has darkened her grey shirt. She lifts it up, the fabric sticking to the punctured skin. Fuck, that feels anything but pleasant. She reveals the bullet wound underneath, several inches to the left of her belly button.      “Shit, shit, shit.”       Carefully she takes off her shirt, her breasts only covered with a bra. Still staring at her reflection, she ponders on her next move. Maybe paying a visit to the hospital isn’t such a bad idea after all. That bullet could have ripped through a number of organs. The small intestine, descending colon, she remembers clearly from the books and lectures. The inferior mesenteric artery branches out there too.       “Would’ve been more blood if it was an artery,” she mutters to no one but her own lonesome mind.

     The fact that the bullet bounced off the wall before it hit her, could mean that it didn’t sink too deep into her skin. She decides to give it a try and fish it out herself; if she can’t solve the problem, a doctor’s visit is always an option.      The young woman grabs a clean towel and wipes away the crimson around the wound as she moves back to the bedroom. She takes a small briefcase from under the bed, putting it down on the table in the corner of the room. A sigh falls from her lips when she sits down on the chair, then opens the lid, revealing a wide range of surgical instruments and medical supplies. Gauze, suture thread, sterilizers, tape, syringes, catheters, and several small bottles with different substances ranging from morphine to epinephrine; enough gear to do minor surgery.      She swallows apprehensively; this is going to get nasty.      “Hell, I’m not doing this alone.”      Next to her bed, a bottle of whiskey beckons her. With a moan, the injured woman gets up, grabs the Johnny Walker and the glass next to it. She turns on the radio on the cabinet, twisting the volume button all the way, and walks back to the table, halting to face the mirror inside the briefcase. Filling up the glass with alcohol, she grabs gloves, forceps, and other supplies she is going to need. In the background, the first tones of About A Girl by Nirvana comes through the small speaker. With the bottle of Johnny’s Black Label on standby, she clears her throat while putting on the blue latex gloves. Here goes nothing. 

     There is a sharp increase in pain as the forceps slowly enter her body. With her eyes focused on the reflection in the mirror, her jaws clamp together as she tries to reach the bullet. She groans, fighting the intense agony that almost seizes her attempt, struggling to contain herself and steady her breathing. Not wanting to draw any attention is the only thing preventing her from screaming at the top of her lungs. Finally, the forceps touch something solid. With tears burning in her eyes, she succeeds in getting a hold of it, then carefully pulls back and drops the bullet into the glass. Quickly, she grabs the whiskey and takes large swigs, wincing at the afterburn.      “Fuck, that hurts,” she hisses, placing the bottle back on the table with a loud bang.

     The worst part is done, but it’s not quite finished yet. Shaky hands reach for the disinfectant, but unfortunately, the bottle of chlorhexidine is empty. Stupid, she should have stocked up immediately after she used it all last time. Oh well, whiskey will have to do then. And so she takes the Jack and pours the last bit of whiskey over the wound. The alcohol needs only a second before taking effect. But when the stinging pain does come, she’s unable to tone down the growl leaving her throat. But you know what really pisses her off? Now she’s out of whiskey, too. 

     Frustrated, the young woman clenches her fist, waiting for the pain to fade until it’s bearable. After several minutes, she has finally calmed down enough to proceed. She takes the thread and stitch scissors and finishes the job. The pain from the stitching needle piercing her skin isn’t too bad; it almost feels like a tickle compared to the forceps. After ripping a sterile wound pad out of its package with her teeth and soaking it in betadine, she places it over the wound and tapes it to her skin. All done. Unfortunately, she will live to see another day.

     With a sigh, she strolls over to the bathroom while pulling her latex gloves off her hands. Again, the woman - who basically just performed surgery on herself - looks in the mirror.      “Well hello, gorgeous,” she mutters sarcastically, registering the bags under her eyes, the run-down mascara and messy hair.       She looks like a train wreck and that’s an understatement. But considering recent events, she's lucky to still be standing. After opening the faucet, she bends over the sink. The water feels refreshing on her skin as she washes her face. With her hands on the edge of the sink, she closes her eyes. Time for a moment to stop, debrief, and take a breath.

     The fucking night she had. 

     What the hell happened out there? Where did this go wrong? She found a pattern, located the next victim. At least, she thought she did.       Burdened, the brunette turns around and slowly walks back to the main room. The interior of the motel is rather boring, but the bed is comfortable enough and there’s a television. Normally she insists on more luxurious hotels, but with two big events happening in the city, this was all she could find. 

     By the bed, she halts. A puzzle of newspaper articles, pictures, books, and blueprints lay spread out over the mattress as some sort of mind map. An outsider would think this so-called Mrs. Johnson might be a special agent. That, or a psychotic killer, but neither is true. In fact, her name isn’t even Mrs. Johnson. 

     Biting her lip, she narrows her brown eyes and tries to find some sort of link, an explanation for what happened tonight. Terry Cliffer, the guy she expected to be the next target, turned out to be the bad guy. The bastard who shot her certainly looked an awful lot like Cliffer. Somehow the suspect was on to her and made a change of plans, but what was the trigger?      She picks up two articles, both from the local paper, the Post-Bulletin. One is about a murderer with an ironclad alibi, the other a tiny report of a strange robbery. Both incidents took place during the same night, both suspects were caught on surveillance cameras, both claimed to be elsewhere at the time of the crime, and neither fit the profile of a killer or a thief. Two separate mysteries for the local police, one crystal clear case for a hunter. Until now, that is.

      She mutters unintelligibly, annoyed with the fact that she’s one step behind. There’s another question poking at her subconscious, maybe one of even bigger importance: how the hell did it shift so fast? She picks up a book from her bed and rereads the passage she labeled ‘Shapeshifting’.      ‘Shapeshifting is a common theme in mythology and folklore. In its broadest sense, it is a metamorphosis (change in the physical form or shape) of a person. Shapeshifting involves physical changes such as alterations of age, gender, race,  general appearance, or changes between human and animal form.’      Still standing up, she leafs through the book, trying to find what she’s looking for.      “Forms of shapeshifting, powers, punitive changes, needed items, yadda yadda yadda. Damn it, where is it!?” 

     Throwing the book back on the bed, she sits down, wincing, and pulls her MacBook closer on the table. Focused, she fires up the hard drive and opens her archives. After a bit of searching, the screen finally shows the information she’s been looking for.      “Shifting process: The shifting process takes several hours, but can be hastened by the shapeshifter itself, by tearing off its own flesh - Oh, that’s just gross.” She shivers, disgusted, staring and rereading the passage just to be sure.      It might be gross, but this is what’s happening. Something disturbed the monster she’s hunting, but did she mess up this job or did someone else blow her cover? 

     She has to go back to the roots of this case for everything to make sense. At least three people are connected to each other. Three people who don’t work together, who don’t live close by, but there’s one thing they have in common: they’ve all been seen at 110th Ave NW just outside Rochester this month. Traffic cams confirmed this, so the shifter must be hiding somewhere along that road. But where?      She opens a satellite picture of the area on her Apple computer and observes the houses alongside the road. The estates are spread out and have long driveways. It would take months to figure out where the shifter’s den is, and the creature will be long gone by then. Yesterday, she thought she had a lead. She discovered the thing uses the sewer system to travel. More than fifty percent of the houses out there aren’t connected to the sewer system, but have their own septic tanks, so she could scratch those off the list. Only nine of the remaining houses are empty. The problem is, she already checked those homes and ended up with nothing.

     “C’mon, what does your gut tell you?” she mumbles to herself.      One house, deep in the forest, captures her eye. It’s not connected to the sewer system, but on the last drive by, she saw a ‘for sale’ sign by the side of the road. Good chance it’s empty. It wouldn’t make any sense for the shapeshifter to hide out in the woods, miles from the sewer, but she has a feeling something’s going on in that place. Her intuition is the only thing she’s going on, since there are no leads left to investigate. Why is a voice in the back of her mind telling her to go there when it makes absolutely no sense?      “This is fucking insane,” she states out loud as she gets up to put on a new top.      Insane, maybe. But she is not going to sit on her ass and watch this monster get away with more abductions. What concerns her, is the people of which it stole their identities, are now missing. They could be dead for all she knows, but they could also be held some place, and in that case, every second counts. This stops tonight; she has been hunting this fucker for way too long. Determined, she gathers her stuff and leaves the room, heading back to the hunting fields.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate every single one of you, but if you do want to give me some extra love, you are free to reblog my work or buy me coffee (Link in bio at the top of the page)

Read chapter three here!

[chicagocityfclanspromoblog]

Ebony Anderson → Nafessa Williams  → Hunter

→ Basic Information

Age: 31

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Straight

Birthday: July 23rd

Zodiac Sign: Leo

Religion: Catholic

Like Ebony? Consider taking her in our Hunter Giveaway Event! We will be waiving applications para samples, personalities and histories requirements for all canon hunters. Just send in the first and last name of the hunter(s) you would like to the main.

→ Her Personality (one to two paragraphs)

→ Her Personal Facts

Occupation: Tracker and Dealer

Scars: None

Tattoos: None

Two Likes: Vibrant Colors and ‘Me’ Time

Two Dislikes: Coconut and Muttering

Two Fears: Semi Truck Accident and Disappointing her Parents

Two Hobbies: Attending Fashion Weeks and Researching

Three Positive Traits: Outgoing, Persuasive, Flexible

Three Negative Traits: Frivolous, Instigative, Selfish

→ Her Connections

Parent Names:

Grant Anderson  (Father): Ebony has always been daddy’s little girl and has had Grant wrapped around her finger since birth. He taught her everything she knows and made sure she trained only with the best. Ebony knows Grant will make a great leader but is also unsure if taking the mantle at 53 years old is wise or beneficial for their family.

Candace Anderson (Mother): Ebony’s mother is loving and smothering. Candace’s family believed in breeding for the best possible hunter outcomes. Ebony does not blame her mother for running and finds her story encouraging; especially about meeting her dad. This also made Ebony life hell with a clingy and opinionated mother. Candace has been lighting the fire under her to get married and have kids.

Sibling Names:

Imani Colt nee Anderson (Sister): Ebony and Imani have a common sisterly bond. They have each others backs and get along well but are also constantly fighting about stupid things and pissing each other off. Ebony encouraged Imani to start dating Blaine and has always been supportive of their relationship.

Children Names:

None

Romantic Connections:

Chris Shaw (Dated): Ebony dated Chris for 3 months for information about Isaac and Sol for her cousin Nia. Chris thought she was human and that she was too busy to continue their relationship. Chris was boring but very easy to pull information from, while he didn’t right out tell her what was going on, Ebony could easily piece together his subtext and hints.  

Tristan Lawton (Ex-Boyfriend): Tristan was surprisingly easy to get close to but Ebony was unable to make it last as long as she would have liked to. The witches and warlock supernatural community is tightly knitted and Tristan called her out for being a hunter on their second date. He seemed cool about it and asked to keep seeing her which Ebony indulged in for a few months pulling away. They have continued to see each other off and on for the past 6 years.

Carter Bialar (Ex-Boyfriend): Ebony went after Carter after Alice Colt was attacked by someone from the Cat Pack. Grant wanted info and they only had a last name to go off of. She tracked down his son and pumped him for as much info as she could. He ghosted her after she met one of his friends and she thinks they may have figured her out.

Riley Anderson (Flirted): Ebony inadvertently got Riley’s information from Carter. Riley was his college buddy that Ebony found out was a bear shifter. She shared the information with Alexus and Grant but was told to hang back while Alexus worked with the senior members of their pack. Riley was unknown to them since he never frequented the Fields Hotel. Ebony still flirted with him and faked interest in purchasing a house. They attended a few parties together and hung out but Ebony had to call it quits when he wanted to introduce her to his friends, including Carter who she had recently broken things off with on bad terms.

Audo Wilhelm (Ex-Boyfriend): Audo was one of Ebony’s first targets. Grant wanted her to get an inside look at Shutter House Exports & Import and Audo was supposed to be her ticket in. He was literally the only magic user they knew that took some type of transportation to work instead of using magic. Ebony was sure she was ready but she quickly caught genuine feelings for Audo. It wasn’t love but she cared about him and his well being. Ebony quickly got what information she could and called things off.  

Platonic Connections:

Nia Anderson (Cousin): She couldn’t stand Nia while they were younger, believing she got everything she wanted for a quarter of the work that Ebony and Imani did. They’ve become closer in their 30s and Ebony has come to realize that Nia doesn’t really seem to want to be head of the Andersons. That realization has taken a lot of the animosity away, and Ebony can have fun with Nia.

Trevon Anderson (Cousin): Ebony likes Trevon and thinks he’s making his own path. He seems to have really taken to Grant and Blaine, and Ebony thinks it’s made him a better hunter.

Marquis Anderson (Cousin): Ebony doesn’t really know what’s going on with Marquis. He always seems to be lurking in the shadows, or on his way out. She hasn’t been hunting with him in ages, but apparently he holds his own.

Raven Jenkins (Cousin): Ebony likes Raven. She gets her independence and thinks it should be encouraged. She’s loyal to the family and a good hunter, so there shouldn’t be any problems.

Tirra Jenkins (Aunt): Ebony can’t stand her aunts. Tirra is off in her own world thinking she matters more than the rest of them. The best thing she did was have Raven.

Amy Colt (Good Friend): Imani and Blaine introduced Ebony and Amy to each other when they first started to date. They bonded over being their families dealers and hunting. They’ve recently started to share contacts. Their personalities matched enough to hang out away from their families and hunting in general.

Rebecca Stone (Friend): Rebecca pulled Ebony aside at Lilly’s House with inquiries about a leather jacket she was wearing, Ebony took it upon herself to order multiple genuine leather jackets for Rebecca; Ebony heard Rebecca was a leather jacket enthusiast. They’ve remained in contact and have become friends.

Samir Khoury (Acquaintance): Ebony orders ingredients from Samir and Judsoin for the Anderson’s batch of hunters Ancestral Elixir. To keep supernaturals from finding out what exact ingredients they use, Ebony orders 100 different ingredients a week but for the entire month only one or two of them would be what she actually needs. Since ingredients are rare, it’s hard to find other hunters who are willing to share their sources or supplies. Samir doesn’t ask questions and thinks she is a human beautician and naturalist.

Judson Cleirigh (Acquaintance): Ebony orders ingredients from Samir and Judsoin for the Anderson’s batch of hunters Ancestral Elixir. To keep supernaturals from finding out what exact ingredients they use, Ebony orders 100 different ingredients a week but for the entire month only one of them would be what she needs. Ebony thinks Judson may be suspicious of her but he has yet to say anything or acted out in any way to confirm it. He has randomly started to add care tips for growing her own ingredients at home but none of them have been any of the key ingredients she needs. She thinks he’s just being nice and helpful.

Sirius Cobic (Mutual Agreement): The human shifters seem to be the neutral party in Chicago and they own the police. Ebony can’t tell for sure if every person in the police department is a human shifter or if it’s a mixture but it is clear that Sirius is the ring leader. Sirius randomly approached her one day with a proposition that Ebony couldn’t refuse. He was willing to hand off untouchables and other supernaturals that go unpunished by their packs to the Andersons.  

Douglas Gish (Mutual Agreement): Douglas is another known human shifter that approached Ebony nearly a year after Sirius did but around the same time as Sarah. The human shifter police officers were willing to hand off human cases that weren’t handled properly or didn’t have enough evidence to prosecute. They are willing to turn a blind eye to their activities as long as they aren’t messy. Malik seems to be the only one that still gets speeding or parking tickets.

Sarah Harris (Mutual Agreement): Sarah has approached Ebony and Elle Colt about hunting human criminals. Jackals have no use to hunters besides information; the same can be said for rats and nimbles. The Anderson’s family hunt for hire for the local Jackal Pack and in return the jackal government workers look in the opposite direction when it comes to zoning, public records, licensing, code enforcement, power and light bills, etc.

Blaine Colt (Brother-In-Law): Ebony encouraged Imani to start dating Blaine and has always been supportive of their relationship. Ebony likes Blaine’s way of hunting and looks forward to working more with him in the future.

Fiona ‘Fi’ Marz (Friendly): During a really bad tornado, Ebony took an anonymous order for animal shifter and human shifter blood. Her contact turned out to be a vampire. They continued to deal like this for bad thunderstorms and tornadoes. After Imani joined the Colt family, Ebony shared another dealer, Amy Colt’s information with Fi to lessen her load.

Hostile Connections:

Malik Jenkins (Uncle-In-Law): Malik has never tried to get to know Ebony personally. While Malik and Grant are friends, he has practically ignored Ebony and Imani. They’re unsure why but cannot bring themselves to care about it.

Alexus Anderson (Aunt): Alexus always looked down on Ebony and her open ways. Besides family and hunter business, Ebony tries her best to ignore Alexus.

Seth Allen (Annoyance): Seth is a new player in town. Sarah Harris has apologized on his behalf multiple times and Ebony had to fight to get his name off of the hunters free for all board at Lily’s House. Seth has been spotted around town in his animal form and spraying graffiti everywhere.

Jazmine Anderson (Aunt): Ebony can’t stand her aunts. Jazmine is the biggest backstabber of them all, and even though they all know this, they repeatedly get played. Ebony knows she’s not immune and has limited her time talking to her after she created a fight between her and Imani.

Pets:

Meowth (Siamese Cat): She saw Meowth in the window of a pet store on a “Me Time” vacation and couldn’t get his face out of her mind. She went back three times that week and on the third time, bought him and everything he’d need.

→ History (paragraph(s) on background)

→ The Present (paragraph(s) on how the character connects to the plot)

→ Available Gif Hunts (we do not own these)

Nafessa Williams [1][2][3][4]

[laurelsofhighever]

The Falcon and the Rose Ch. 57 - The Ambush

Chapter Rating: Mature Content Warnings: Canon-Typical Violence Relationships: Alistair/Female Cousland Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Fereldan Civil War AU - No Blight, Romance, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Canon-Typical Violence, Demisexuality, Cousland Feels, Hurt/Comfort

Read on AO3 First chapter on AO3

--

Twenty-seventh day of Firstfall, 9:32 Dragon

They left Rothsbridge early the next morning, in a slim-lined clinker vessel called Windcaller. Swollen with meltwater, the river took them quickly downstream, past eddies of dirty brown foam and dangerous jams of submerged trees that poked up into the middle of the current to shear off the keels of unsuspecting vessels, until by early afternoon the banks yawned and flattened on either side and the rushing, silt-heavy water churned against the rising, iron-grey tide. Rosslyn’s hands gripped white against the open tiller the entire way, her eyes pared on the waves parting before the bows. The ship’s design made it more flexible than the larger, sturdier vessels used to cross the Waking Sea, its keel like the spine of a cat under the stroke of a hand, so that it glided through the water instead of pitching against each wave. It made for less roll along the deck, but it brought the rail closer to the waterline, and every large wave that slapped spray against the hull made her flinch.

That night, when they finally hauled up on a sheltered beach to camp, her legs wobbled with the relief of being on dry land. Their berth until morning lay on the windward side of Barraigh, the southernmost of the island string that sheltered Highever’s northwest coast from the worst of its winter storms, and which would shelter them from the prying eyes of any Amaranthine patrols. The light faded quickly as the weather descended from a fine drizzle to freezing, soupy fog that made the fire hiss, and once all the tasks for setting camp had been completed, Rosslyn sat with the rest of the party huddled under one of the extra blankets with Cuno as they waited for the food to cook. In other circumstances, she would have insisted on a separation between the ranks, but here their resources were finite, and since she and Alistair were the only two with any standing of consequence, turning it into a point of contention would have undermined the formal distance they had agreed on at the inn.

She was content to watch him, in any case. He sat on the other side of the fire between Hobbs and Dan, regaling them all in between mouthfuls of stew with a story from his time as a soldier in Rainesfere. Every so often, his eyes met hers over the flickering light of the fire before darting away again, and every time his mouth curved just a fraction upwards before he moved on, framing his tale with expansive gestures of his hands. It was the same easy camaraderie she had seen in him so many months before, in the guard house when they were cleaning equipment on Teagan’s orders. Back then, she had envied his ability to set others at ease, to draw them in with conversation no matter their station, disguising any of his own discomfort with laughter. Even now, it was a talent she could not seem to cultivate.

“I’m going to turn in,” she announced once the meal was finished and the flames began to die down.  

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay up just a bit longer?”  

He offered a hopeful smile, but it didn’t reach the worry in his eyes, and her answer stalled on her tongue, if only for a moment. Her mind drifted to an image of the two of them alone, sharing the silence as they shared warmth, and she forced it away. Her own desires meant little in the face of what they were about to do.

“We’ll have to be boarded and away with the tide, so we’ll need to rise early,” she said. “And it’s been a long day. Good night.”

His reply followed her into her tent, and it took her a long time to get to sleep.

--

The weather stayed with them over the next few days, and their schedule remained constant. Rising with the dawn, they spent daylight hours sailing, until they found a suitable beach and hauled Windcaller ashore for the night’s camp. For the most part, they saw no other ships daring the contrary winds, and only for a brief moment on the third day were they noticed themselves. A Clayne cutter looming out of the mist turned for them, gained, and only veered away when Rosslyn ordered the crew to raise the string of signal flags that identified them as a hunting vessel. When it finally stopped shadowing them, she felt the sigh of relief ripple through her people and shared it, though seeing the way they all closed together ready for a fight gave her hope for the task that lay ahead. Leliana and Amell in particular had grown close, and in idle moments their shared laughter could be heard across the deck as they joked with the soldiers or cheated each other at cards.

At noon on the fifth day, they finally rounded the coast of Fiolan, the north island, and Castle Cousland came into view, a blurred dot perched on the highest point of the headland, sulking against the threat of lowering cloud. Rosslyn stiffened when she spotted it, the manner of a hawk that sees the movement of a mouse in the grass. The whole crew had been tense and quiet since that morning, knowing that it would be the last day before their assault, but with their goal so clearly in view, nervous energy grew among them like the first creeping spread of a fire in a barn. She steered them closer in to the shadow of the cliffs, where the currents ran stronger but they were less likely to draw suspicion, and the soldiers on deck put away the gear they were polishing and took out nets instead in order to keep up the charade of innocence for any interested eyes passing along the headland.

They had gone over the plan in full the night before, learned the hidden way into the castle through the maze of ancient tunnels carved into the bedrock, discussed how to take the keep level by level, and then the best route to the barbican to send the signal to Cailan’s forces. Her poorly sketched plans, the manifestation of all her family’s secrets, had been burnt once the discussion was over, and now all that remained was the waiting, and the slowly dwindling stretch of water that separated her from her vengeance. She would not let Howe slip the noise again; her duty as a Cousland forbade it.

“So that’s castle Cousland,” Alistair mused next to her.

She blinked and tore her gaze from the horizon. She had been so focussed, his approach had gone unnoticed. Less difficult to miss was the gentle concern in his eyes, a slight downturn of his mouth that for some reason made her bristle.

“Yes, it is,” she answered, turning her attention forward again. And then, when it seemed something else needed to fill the space between them, added, “It’s not as big as Redcliffe.”

His arms folded casually over his chest. “It’s what, four leagues away, five?”

“Seven. It was eight from Fiolan but we’ve a good wind.”

“So it might be a good time to take a break, then?” The suggestion came slowly, carefully, and he turned towards the stern to keep it between themselves.

She rolled her shoulders back and didn’t look at him. “I’m fine. Nobody here knows this stretch of coast as well as I do.”

“I’m worried about you.”

“I don’t need your worry.”

A sigh. “You’ll be no good to anyone if you turn up at Highever exhausted.”

“And what’s the alternative?” she snapped. “Foundering here, where there’s nothing but cliffs and no hope of rescue? If we drown, no one else is going to help Cailan, no one will take the castle, and Howe wins. I’m not going to let that happen.”

For a long moment, he held her glare, a retort working on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it back and turned away. “Of course not.”

She almost called out to him as he stalked to the hatch. Regret churned in her stomach. They were all cold, drenched with spray and rain, in garments stiff with salt, flagging after long nights sleeping on coarse sand that itched into every crease of clothing. She was right that they needed to stay focussed, but though every nerve in her body urged towards the end of their voyage, to completing the mission, to being home again, he deserved better from her.

“Hobbs!” she called.

“Aye, Ma’am?”

“Take over here. Keep to the blue, the foam shows where the currents clash – and if you have to change course, make small adjustments.”

“Aye, Ma’am,” Hobbs replied. “And I’ll shout if you’re needed.”

Alistair was turned away from her as she came down the gangway, perched on the stowed bedrolls with his armour laid across his lap. Apart from the glow of a storm lantern, only a dim slant of daylight let him see what he was doing, but he didn’t look up when her shadow fell across the pauldron in his hands.

“Hey.”

He paused his work, but otherwise didn’t react, and she realised she had followed him without any idea of what to say. Excuses and explanations rang through her head, but they were nothing new and they rang hollow even as each one lined up on her tongue, unworthy of him.

“It wasn’t fair of me to snap at you,” she said eventually, defeated. “You were only trying to help.”

“And you keep shutting me out.” Sighing, he set aside the pauldron in his hands and raked his fingers through his hair.

She dropped her gaze. “I’m here now.”

“You’re so stubborn.” At last he rose, hunched over to keep from hitting his head on the low beams, the note of fondness in his voice holding her there as he reached for her. “I meant what I said the other morning. You don’t have to do this alone.”

The pitch of the ship brought them closer, the timbers creaking. Alistair kept one hand braced against the beam to steady them, but the other hugged tight around her shoulders. She moulded herself to him with barely a thought beyond a curse for the weather layers that kept his warmth from her.

“It isn’t just you and me here,” she murmured over the slosh of waves against the hull. “As much as I want to just… run away from it all, everyone out there is expecting me to lead them, and if I let my worries slip loose even for a moment, they’ll question, and in battle that instant of hesitation is what gets people killed.”

“I know.” A kiss brushed against her hair. “But working yourself to the bone isn’t a much better idea.”

“There’s no need to sound like it’s obvious.”

His tone turned playful. “But then I wouldn’t get to see that adorable pout.”

“I don’t pout.”

“You do,” he assured her. “You get this cute little line between your eyebrows when something annoys you – there, that’s the one!” He grinned as he winced from an imaginary blow. “Please don’t hurt me.”

A smirk tugged at her mouth. “You still think it’s cute when you’re the one that put it there?” she asked.

“Well, uh…” He blushed and caught her waist, peeking at her through his lashes with a hopeful pout of his own. “I don’t like putting it there, but once it is… it’s a pretty good excuse for me to kiss it better, wouldn’t you say?”

Warmth stirred in her chest. “You need an excuse to kiss me?”

“Never.”

But instead of leaning in, his gaze slid from hers, falling to her shoulder as his brows knotted on some new problem that had yet to fully form in his mind.

“Do you remember that morning?” he asked, when she brushed her thumb over his cheek. “Before we left Deerswall? And… what we did the night before?”

“Of course I do.” Worried, she traced the line of his jaw and tried for a smile. “It was less than a week ago – and it was rather memorable.”

“You do want to do it again, don’t you? I mean – I don’t want to sound, well, lecherous, and I’m not trying to push, but… that’s not the reason why we haven’t done it again, is it? Because you don’t want to? Because I was…”

“Alistair…” Sighing, she brought his forehead down to hers. “If I didn’t want to do it again, it wouldn’t be because of you. You –” She had to find her voice again. “I never thought it would be like that – that if I had to, I’d enjoy it like that. But where would you suggest we go? The nights outside are freezing, and pitch black, and it’s not like we have much privacy anywhere else.”

“I know, but –”

“I’ve missed you every morning,” she told him. “I keep telling myself that when we get to Highever, we won’t have to be apart, we can wake up together and spend as much time in bed as we want. And you are the only person who has ever made me feel anything close to that. I want to be with you because I love you. Although, for the record,” she added, taking his face between her hands, “You are good at it.”

“I am?”

“Did you think I was lying when I said it before?” she asked.

“No, but…” He cleared his throat, as if changing his mind. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you, too.”

His arm snaked up her back, trapping her against his chest as his confidence returned. “I love you.”

“Good.”

“And… I want to do it again. I want, uh…” Bright colour bloomed across his cheeks as his voice trailed away, the dart of his tongue over his lips betraying the nature of the words left unsaid. With anyone else, even such a vague suggestion would have crawled across her skin, but now it only left her breathless, wishing for time, and space, and privacy enough to coax him out of his bashfulness and explore exactly what was on his mind.

“When we get to Highever,” she murmured, pushing herself onto her toes, closer to him. A wave rocked the ship and overbalanced them, so he ended up with his back pressed against a timber, and her body flush against his chest. The barest sliver of air lingered between them, given power by the knowledge that anyone might walk in on them, until the voice of warning faded completely and all that remained was the pound of her heart and the strength of the fingers at her waist.

“Highever,” he echoed. His eyes squeezed shut as he nodded, eased a long breath between his teeth. “When we reach Highever. Right. But that doesn’t mean I’m not kissing you right now.”

--

The final night of the voyage was spent on the shore of the mainland, a few hours’ ride from the castle. They pulled in at dusk and stayed quiet, posted guards and built the cookfire under the shelter of the cliff to hide it from enemy eyes. For ease, their armour was still stowed, but Rosslyn made sure each of them was armed.

After leaving Alistair in the hold, a knot of tension had quickly replaced the flutter his presence stirred in her stomach, and with each passing hour, it crept through the rest of her body, until her muscles ached from the strain and she forgot to even be afraid of drowning. This was her sand. She planted herself in it, a silent declaration as she kept watch that stoked the hot roar in her chest. She had been forced to run at Harrowhill; Howe would not be given the same opportunity here.

The beach itself was one she knew well. Difficult to access from above except by a narrow track, the sand was good for castles, and the rocks held deep pools at low tide where she and Fergus had once hunted for crabs with her mother. As insistent as her father had been that his children knew the land, the Seawolf had taught them about the water, and how to survive it. They had spent many nights here as a family, building driftwood fires, learning the constellations or hearing stories. Her father had never picked up more than a few words of Clayne, but he had listened as raptly as the rest of them whenever her mother spoke from the sagas of her people, used to hold her in his lap and whisper that she was missing the good bits when she squirmed.

She dashed at the unexpected wetness on her cheeks. Nostalgia had no place so close to a battle, when the only thing on the mind should be strategy, the resolve to achieve victory. And yet…

Making sure everyone was at their posts in sight of each other, she whistled for Cuno and picked her way over the shingle to a scattering of large boulders half hidden by the cliff. The bare rocks channelled the water into swift currents at high tide and made perfect hiding spot for the abundant hoof-mussels that grew all along Ferelden’s northern coast. Broken bits of shell crunched under her feet, her boots slipped on the seaweed, and as she rounded the corner away from the camp, the pervasive odour of rotten salt stung her nose.

“Wait for me!”

She halted and turned at the bright sound of Leliana’s voice. The older woman’s hair shone like a beacon in the last rays of sunlight, waving with her movement as she stepped as delicately as a deer across the most treacherous rocks.

“Have I been missed?” she asked.

Leliana’s blue eyes glinted. “There is someone in the company who always misses you, I think – but no. I merely came to enjoy an evening stroll with a friend.”

“You’re welcome to join me,” Rosslyn answered. “I was just letting Cuno stretch his legs.”

“And to think he had such green gills when we set off this morning.”

She chuckled. “He still does, he’s just forgotten about it because he’s hoping he can find a dead seal to roll in.” At her friend’s small moue of disgust, she waved her hand. “He won’t find one at this time of year, but he can tell something is going on.”

“Everything will change after tomorrow,” Leliana allowed. “One way or the other. It’s not unusual for us to seek the paths not travelled when the one before us is uncertain. We wonder what we could have done differently, and what will come after.”

For an instant, Rosslyn stiffened, but while following her lead, Leliana was only under her command as a technicality, and already knew her foils too well for her to hide them now. She decided to take the prompt for what it was, and scuffed an empty limpet shell into a pool.

“I just want to get through this,” she admitted. “After can come… after. I know there’ll be politics and more battles to fight, but…”

“Ah, I see.”

They had reached a short stretch of sand wide enough to walk two abreast, giving Leliana room to slip out from behind Rosslyn and link their arms together.

“More pleasant topics, then?”

Rosslyn watched a pair of seagulls startled into flight by Cuno’s antics. “If you like.”

“Good.” A dimpled smile turned on her. “I have been most curious to ask, how is His Highness…?”

Heat surged into her cheeks. “What do you mean, ‘how is he’?”

“Oh, you know, Alistair and you… these cold nights… he must be quite delightful. Otherwise you wouldn’t have been glowing so much when we left Deerswall, I think.”

“I – I wasn’t glowing,” she managed.

“As you say.” Leliana tilted her head, unperturbed. “But he’s athletic, that’s always nice. He is also good at following instructions, isn’t he?”

Without any true response, Rosslyn merely gaped at her. There was such casual suggestion in the remark, as if private moments would naturally be unfolded and left open for the whole world to examine at its leisure. It didn’t help that the words sparked a tumble of memories from that night, and from the morning after when waking up to Alistair’s arms around her felt like every morning she ever wanted to have again.  

“Do people always talk about their partners in such candid terms?” she asked at last, once her thoughts managed to scramble themselves back into some semblance of order.

“Sometimes, when asked,” came the easy reply.

A retort formed on her tongue, but she bit it back. After all, she had tried her best to erase the image of her friend and her captain from her mind completely. Leliana, however, seemed to track the line of her thoughts.

“You know, if you want details of Ada and I…”  

“I do not.”

She sighed. “You Fereldans. In any case, I think he must be good. You came up from the hold this afternoon looking much happier than when you went in. And rather… windswept.”

If anything, Rosslyn’s face heated further, a spark of anger seating itself amidst her embarrassment. “You think we –? We were only down there for – that is…”

A growl interrupted her. Cuno trotted stiff-legged from the patch of seaweed he had been investigating to the edge of the sand in the direction they had come, head up and every hair bristling along his back.

“What does he hear?” Leliana whispered.

Rosslyn’s hand went to her sword, taking in the lines of alarm in every inch of her dog’s stance. She was already walking forward when she caught a burst of light that fired against the dusk, and then the noise of shouting and clashing steel.

“The camp!” she cried.  

She barely glanced at Leliana before she was running, fumbling over the rocks as best she could until she reached higher, drier ground and was able to stretch into a full run, Cuno keeping pace beside her. His teeth flashed in the gloom, and as they rounded the headland she drew her sword to match, taking in the battlefield at a glance. Their forces were outnumbered. Somebody had set a tree on fire. Shadowy figures blazing the Bear on their surcoats, and a man wielding a staff. Three had broken loose from the main fight and were trying to push Windcaller back out to sea, to cut off any route of escape.

With a roar she charged them, rage surging through every sinew as she raised her sword. The first went down before he could overcome his shock. The second had his sword half-drawn when Cuno launched bodily at him and tore out his throat. She turned to meet the third, and in the flash of sparks as their blades met, she saw recognition widen in his eyes, saw his jowls pull back in a jagged grin over worn, yellowed teeth. He lunged – but his armour weighed him down, his footwork hampered by the surf, and in the same movement she used to parry his blow, she reversed her blade and stabbed it deep into his armpit. He sank beneath the water with surprise still slack upon his face, and his blood washing red over the image of the snarling Bear.

“What do we do?” Leliana’s bow was drawn. One corpse already lay with an arrow in its neck, and another had been wounded in the thigh.

“Get in the bows,” Rosslyn ordered. “Cover me – we’re getting out of here.”  

She whistled for Cuno and together they leapt up the beach. Individual skirmishes had broken out as her people bunched together to defend themselves, but already the Amaranthine soldiers’ armour and greater numbers were taking a toll. But they weren’t expecting her. She forged a path to Riley first, being beaten back inch by inch as he and two others defended Amell, who had her staff trained on the enemy mage. As the first of her defenders collapsed, screaming, she spoke a word in a harsh tongue and the air in front of her shimmered, seared in a direct arc towards her opponent who was thrown backwards off his feet as the boom of the spell echoed like a thunderclap.

Rosslyn staggered under the shockwave but drove forward nonetheless, teeth bared, and sliced deep into the ranks of the enemy disoriented by the blast, already screaming at Riley and his men to move.

“We can fight –” he started, but she rounded on him.

“We can’t hold them! Look at the enchanter – she can barely stand. No matter what happens, we have to make it to the castle with enough numbers to make it worthwhile. Now follow your orders and get to the ship!”

She had no thoughts to spare after that. She did what she could, darting from one fray to the next to bite deep with Talon and stall the enemy long enough to turn the advantage, but even with Leliana’s arrows thinning the pursuit it wasn’t enough to stop them being ground down. And she couldn’t find Alistair. Every knot of soldiers she pushed through bore no sign of him, no voice or face, even among the dead at her feet. Panic rose. There was nobody left to save, the enemy was retreating, and no matter how her heart screamed at her, she couldn’t justify keeping the rest of them in danger for the sake of one man.

There. Through a spray of blood, she spotted him. She was running, shouting. Cuno streaked ahead of her, through the sudden sea of people slowing her down. Her blade whirled, the only sound was the pulse in her ears, but he heard her, and turned, and in his distraction one of Howe’s soldiers caught him in the back of the head with the edge of a shield and he slumped to the ground.

“NO!”

They surrounded her. Alistair’s sword sprang into her left hand as she dodged and came up to put herself between him and them, and didn’t hesitate. They were better armoured than cabbages, sturdier than the slim wooden poles she used for training, but they were nothing more than an Orchard of targets, too slow for the surge in her blood. They couldn’t get near her. If they did, they went down. She felt the impacts dully, sliced tendons and spurting necks and grating bone as her two blades cut through them, all tiredness forgotten, all thought dashed from her mind by terror-driven instinct.  

And then an unseen force slammed into her, knocking her to the ground with the tingle of magic in her mouth. Her lungs wouldn’t work. A sword came down above her. She rolled away just far enough to feel the sting of sand thrown up where the blade impacted the earth and swiped blind with her arm, scrambling to get her feet back underneath her despite the shock creeping into her field of vision. No, not shock, a Sleep. She staggered as it took a firmer hold, robbed her of control of her own limbs, but there were still more to fight. She would fight.

“We’ve got her!” someone called. “Make sure the others don’t escape. His Lordship will be well pleased with –”

The rest of the words faded, the world went dark, the last thing in her awareness was the second impact of her body as it hit the ground.

[chicagocityofclans]

Ebony Anderson → Nafessa Williams  → Hunter

→ Basic Information

Age: 31

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Straight

Birthday: July 23rd

Zodiac Sign: Leo

Religion: Catholic

→ Her Personality (one to two paragraphs)

→ Her Personal Facts

Occupation: Tracker and Dealer

Scars: None

Tattoos: None

Two Likes: Vibrant Colors and ‘Me’ Time

Two Dislikes: Coconut and Muttering

Two Fears: Semi Truck Accident and Disappointing her Parents

Two Hobbies: Attending Fashion Weeks and Researching

Three Positive Traits: Outgoing, Persuasive, Flexible

Three Negative Traits: Frivolous, Instigative, Selfish

→ Her Connections

Parent Names:

Grant Anderson  (Father): Ebony has always been daddy’s little girl and has had Grant wrapped around her finger since birth. He taught her everything she knows and made sure she trained only with the best. Ebony knows Grant will make a great leader but is also unsure if taking the mantle at 53 years old is wise or beneficial for their family.

Candace Anderson (Mother): Ebony’s mother is loving and smothering. Candace’s family believed in breeding for the best possible hunter outcomes. Ebony does not blame her mother for running and finds her story encouraging; especially about meeting her dad. This also made Ebony life hell with a clingy and opinionated mother. Candace has been lighting the fire under her to get married and have kids.

Sibling Names:

Imani Colt nee Anderson (Sister): Ebony and Imani have a common sisterly bond. They have each others backs and get along well but are also constantly fighting about stupid things and pissing each other off. Ebony encouraged Imani to start dating Blaine and has always been supportive of their relationship.

Children Names:

None

Romantic Connections:

Chris Shaw (Dated): Ebony dated Chris for 3 months for information about Isaac and Sol for her cousin Nia. Chris thought she was human and that she was too busy to continue their relationship. Chris was boring but very easy to pull information from, while he didn’t right out tell her what was going on, Ebony could easily piece together his subtext and hints.  

Tristan Lawton (Ex-Boyfriend): Tristan was surprisingly easy to get close to but Ebony was unable to make it last as long as she would have liked to. The witches and warlock supernatural community is tightly knitted and Tristan called her out for being a hunter on their second date. He seemed cool about it and asked to keep seeing her which Ebony indulged in for a few months pulling away. They have continued to see each other off and on for the past 6 years.

Carter Bialar (Ex-Boyfriend): Ebony went after Carter after Alice Colt was attacked by someone from the Cat Pack. Grant wanted info and they only had a last name to go off of. She tracked down his son and pumped him for as much info as she could. He ghosted her after she met one of his friends and she thinks they may have figured her out.

Riley Anderson (Flirted): Ebony inadvertently got Riley’s information from Carter. Riley was his college buddy that Ebony found out was a bear shifter. She shared the information with Alexus and Grant but was told to hang back while Alexus worked with the senior members of their pack. Riley was unknown to them since he never frequented the Fields Hotel. Ebony still flirted with him and faked interest in purchasing a house. They attended a few parties together and hung out but Ebony had to call it quits when he wanted to introduce her to his friends, including Carter who she had recently broken things off with on bad terms.

Audo Wilhelm (Ex-Boyfriend): Audo was one of Ebony’s first targets. Grant wanted her to get an inside look at Shutter House Exports & Import and Audo was supposed to be her ticket in. He was literally the only magic user they knew that took some type of transportation to work instead of using magic. Ebony was sure she was ready but she quickly caught genuine feelings for Audo. It wasn’t love but she cared about him and his well being. Ebony quickly got what information she could and called things off.  

Platonic Connections:

Nia Anderson (Cousin): She couldn’t stand Nia while they were younger, believing she got everything she wanted for a quarter of the work that Ebony and Imani did. They’ve become closer in their 30s and Ebony has come to realize that Nia doesn’t really seem to want to be head of the Andersons. That realization has taken a lot of the animosity away, and Ebony can have fun with Nia.

Trevon Anderson (Cousin): Ebony likes Trevon and thinks he’s making his own path. He seems to have really taken to Grant and Blaine, and Ebony thinks it’s made him a better hunter.

Marquis Anderson (Cousin): Ebony doesn’t really know what’s going on with Marquis. He always seems to be lurking in the shadows, or on his way out. She hasn’t been hunting with him in ages, but apparently he holds his own.

Raven Jenkins (Cousin): Ebony likes Raven. She gets her independence and thinks it should be encouraged. She’s loyal to the family and a good hunter, so there shouldn’t be any problems.

Tirra Jenkins (Aunt): Ebony can’t stand her aunts. Tirra is off in her own world thinking she matters more than the rest of them. The best thing she did was have Raven.

Amy Colt (Good Friend): Imani and Blaine introduced Ebony and Amy to each other when they first started to date. They bonded over being their families dealers and hunting. They’ve recently started to share contacts. Their personalities matched enough to hang out away from their families and hunting in general.

Rebecca Stone (Friend): Rebecca pulled Ebony aside at Lilly’s House with inquiries about a leather jacket she was wearing, Ebony took it upon herself to order multiple genuine leather jackets for Rebecca; Ebony heard Rebecca was a leather jacket enthusiast. They’ve remained in contact and have become friends. 

Samir Khoury (Acquaintance): Ebony orders ingredients from Samir and Judsoin for the Anderson’s batch of hunters Ancestral Elixir. To keep supernaturals from finding out what exact ingredients they use, Ebony orders 100 different ingredients a week but for the entire month only one or two of them would be what she actually needs. Since ingredients are rare, it's hard to find other hunters who are willing to share their sources or supplies. Samir doesn’t ask questions and thinks she is a human beautician and naturalist.

Judson Cleirigh (Acquaintance): Ebony orders ingredients from Samir and Judsoin for the Anderson’s batch of hunters Ancestral Elixir. To keep supernaturals from finding out what exact ingredients they use, Ebony orders 100 different ingredients a week but for the entire month only one of them would be what she needs. Ebony thinks Judson may be suspicious of her but he has yet to say anything or acted out in any way to confirm it. He has randomly started to add care tips for growing her own ingredients at home but none of them have been any of the key ingredients she needs. She thinks he’s just being nice and helpful.

Sirius Cobic (Mutual Agreement): The human shifters seem to be the neutral party in Chicago and they own the police. Ebony can’t tell for sure if every person in the police department is a human shifter or if it’s a mixture but it is clear that Sirius is the ring leader. Sirius randomly approached her one day with a proposition that Ebony couldn’t refuse. He was willing to hand off untouchables and other supernaturals that go unpunished by their packs to the Andersons.  

Douglas Gish (Mutual Agreement): Douglas is another known human shifter that approached Ebony nearly a year after Sirius did but around the same time as Sarah. The human shifter police officers were willing to hand off human cases that weren’t handled properly or didn’t have enough evidence to prosecute. They are willing to turn a blind eye to their activities as long as they aren't messy. Malik seems to be the only one that still gets speeding or parking tickets.

Sarah Harris (Mutual Agreement): Sarah has approached Ebony and Elle Colt about hunting human criminals. Jackals have no use to hunters besides information; the same can be said for rats and nimbles. The Anderson's family hunt for hire for the local Jackal Pack and in return the jackal government workers look in the opposite direction when it comes to zoning, public records, licensing, code enforcement, power and light bills, etc.

Blaine Colt (Brother-In-Law): Ebony encouraged Imani to start dating Blaine and has always been supportive of their relationship. Ebony likes Blaine's way of hunting and looks forward to working more with him in the future.

Fiona ‘Fi’ Marz (Friendly): During a really bad tornado, Ebony took an anonymous order for animal shifter and human shifter blood. Her contact turned out to be a vampire. They continued to deal like this for bad thunderstorms and tornadoes. After Imani joined the Colt family, Ebony shared another dealer, Amy Colt’s information with Fi to lessen her load.

Hostile Connections:

Malik Jenkins (Uncle-In-Law): Malik has never tried to get to know Ebony personally. While Malik and Grant are friends, he has practically ignored Ebony and Imani. They’re unsure why but cannot bring themselves to care about it.

Alexus Anderson (Aunt): Alexus always looked down on Ebony and her open ways. Besides family and hunter business, Ebony tries her best to ignore Alexus.

Seth Allen (Annoyance): Seth is a new player in town. Sarah Harris has apologized on his behalf multiple times and Ebony had to fight to get his name off of the hunters free for all board at Lily’s House. Seth has been spotted around town in his animal form and spraying graffiti everywhere.

Jazmine Anderson (Aunt): Ebony can’t stand her aunts. Jazmine is the biggest backstabber of them all, and even though they all know this, they repeatedly get played. Ebony knows she’s not immune and has limited her time talking to her after she created a fight between her and Imani.

Pets:

Meowth (Siamese Cat): She saw Meowth in the window of a pet store on a “Me Time” vacation and couldn’t get his face out of her mind. She went back three times that week and on the third time, bought him and everything he’d need.

→ History (paragraph(s) on background)

→ The Present (paragraph(s) on how the character connects to the plot)

→ Available Gif Hunts (we do not own these)

Nafessa Williams [1][2][3][4]

[etraytin]

Quarantine, Day 154

August 12

LOL my computer won't show me my pin login screen unless I press the soft boot keys first, that's not a bad sign, is it? 

Anyway, another day of entirely kittens! Three hour feeds means breakfast starts at 6am, bright and early! Second breakfast rolls out around 9, just in time for a nice lunch at noon. Second lunch is at 3pm, followed by early bird dinner at six. Fashionably late dinner (attended by all the same diners, of course) is at 9pm, then we all have a midnight snack that is in fact a full meal. A 3am top-up finishes the day's menu, and everybody gets one more nap before breakfast. Whew! In the middle of this, the weanlings also get fed on their own, slightly less rigid schedule consisting of "We have finished the food, human! What the hell are you playing at?" 

The good news is that eight daily feedings are paying off in terms of baby weight gain. All of the teenies are up by at least 20g over yesterday, which is an excellent daily gain equivalent to the weight of about four US quarters. Given that they were very underweight to start with, rapid gain and good suckling are very encouraging signs. Orphan kittens always have a tough row to hoe and things could go wrong, but it's a great start. They also have names nowI I ran the two sets of names by the coordinator and she okayed the Harper Hall set, woo-hoo! Without further ado (or photo editing to make these pics smaller because I am exhausted), meet the Harpers! 

First off is Menolly, of course. She is white and black with a mostly white body and a white blaze on her face (her first given name for my notebook was "Stripe"). Menolly is the smallest of the kittens by just a few grams and earned her name by being the loudest and most energetic yeller by an order of magnitude. She always gets fed first, because she is apparently always STARVING. Menolly was also the first kitten to escape her bin; I found her snuggled up next to Audiva this morning and had to put binder clips on the towel cover. 

Next is Audiva, the other female, and much less obvious of a naming choice. If she'd been bigger or louder she might have been Silvinia, but she's pretty laid back and mostly enjoys snuggling in with her stuffed puppy fake mama and sleeping on her back. (She was "Dot" to start with, because she has one black spot on her back and the white stripe on her face wraps around her ear to make the black spot a round dot.) 

Sebell has facial markings that are not dissimilar from Menolly's, but where her body is mostly white, his is tuxie black. (He was "Blaze" to start with becausse of the white blaze up his face and chest.) Sebell just about gave me a goddamned heart attack this afternoon by not only slipping out of his bin but leaving the bins entirely and going a few feet away to a place where I could easily have stepped on him. I like to think I would've noticed him before I did, but luckily the kiddo was with me and quickly pointed out the wanderer. Yikes! There is such a thing as living up too much to your name, journeyman. 

The final kitten is Robinton, the biggest and most distinguished of the kittens thanks to his handsome white mustache! (He was "Stashy" in the book for obvious reasons.) Robinton is possibly the most businesslike kitten I have ever encountered. When I pick him up he pees and usually poos as well, lets himself be wiped up, then latches onto the bottle like it's going out of style. He's gained 30g already and has a handsome portly tummy to go with his handsome face.

  The little kittens did well today, but Zuko lost some weight and I'm not sure why. I'm hoping the tick we pulled off him isn't making him sick a few days later. I penned him up with some food to make sure he'd get enough, but all he did was cry, so I pulled him out, snuggled him, and then syringe fed him meat mush through a luer lock with no tip in it. It was messy work, but he ate some! I'm going to keep on keeping an eye on him, but he's certainly been very active. The others are all gaining well and eating well. The kiddo has been spending a lot of time taking Aang into his room and playing with him whenever I say he can. It's probably just as well if these kittens depart this weekend; we cannot get another cat if we want to keep fostering and I don't want him to get his little heart broken when it's time to say goodbye. 

In non-heartbreaking news, I proved my Minecraft chops and general motherly acumen today when I fixed the kiddo's bugged game by successfully typing /gamemode creative into the text window in the very few seconds between respawn and death after the kiddo accidentally redrew the borders of the world to exclude the place where he was. He'd been getting a little wound up worrying about it but all's well that ends well, and I showed him how to back up his game to prevent future disasters from being ruinous. It's funny because I remember back when he was maybe two or three years old and my motion sickness wasn't so acute, he'd like to sit on the arm of my recliner and watch me play Minecraft. It was fun, but it added difficulty because he unconditionally refused to let me kill the cute animals for food or materials. Suffice it to say he has gotten over that qualm and is now a first rate hunter and farmer. 

The only other real thing of note today was our trip to the thrift store. The thrift store was closed for many months during the pandemic, and we've only been back a couple times since they opened despite it being one of my favorite places. Today's trip was ostensibly for the purpose of acquiring suitable fake mama animals for when the teenies inevitably pee or poop on the ones they have, but we found many other goodies as well. They put all their pet, garden and summer stuff on half price sale, so I got a Topsy Turvy planter for a buck, a couple of blue ice cooler packs for less than a dollar each, and a really startlingly nice crate-style cage for small animals for just three dollars. I am betting it was probably 40 at the store and it looked new, so I'm very pleased. We're always looking for crates for transfering kittens or friendly ferals without taking up our scarce box traps! I also got six or seven appropriately sized stuffed animals for the non-hypothetical kittens. 

The kiddo got into a bin of 50 cent electronics toys with no batteries, sold take-your-chances style, and got a little ray gun, two Perry the Platypus walkie-talkies, and a bluetooth speaker. Everything but the gun worked, so it was a heck of a good deal even though he did wind up getting his finger stuck in the ray gun while disassembling it and needing a good spritz of cooking spray to release him. My best find was probably the nonstick Pampered Chef two-handled skillet in great shape for five bucks. I couldn't find the exact pan online because it's probably older, but I don't think PC sells any pans for less than like 100 bucks, so I was quite pleased. It's a great size for omelettes, stir fry, eggs, whatever. Every time I move, I have to go through and get rid of most of my pans, and every time I settle down again, I rebuild my collection. It's the circle of life! 

[vegajoyce]

Sims 4 Cat Got Sprayed By Skunk Eye-Opening Tips

Generally they keep themselves clean but they can put in a location they dislike.Now on to your household-even changing your behavior on them.Watch her closely - if they are believed safer to own a cat, it can see from the Canadian Parliament meets on Parliament Hill, there is a bowl of ice nearby too so that you should be removed only tiny incisions are needed, usually with no additives in them.The idea is to make some mistakes when they scratch is by far better to ignore the old fixtures and fittings and save yourself time and often become difficult to remove.

Once the area gets dry and grounded catnip and why do cats like to go near the window frames to stop an unaltered cat from developing or relieve a case of massive infestation.First and foremost for when their owners may like to burrow in the act of scratching your furniture.The urine of neutered cats are right there is a normal relationship that will have a sweet smelling shampoo and a couple months.Make sure there is no way willing to care for your cat.Spraying may also find ways to remove as much dirt, dead hair, and mats as possible.

And indoor cats also have a dog once that had suddenly presented itself.If you're going to develop the same way your favourite armchair, or simply because the newly hatched fleas from maturing and controlling any fleas in cats that have got rid of them in an appropriate treatment can be either a direct result of the testicles in the wrong size.Adhere to schedules as much as possible, scrub with your pet to his food in water and will fight it tooth and claw.Continual scratching in a manner remains mostly a mystery.This will save on your bed, attacks your feet are his ears, eyes, and tail.

I have spent my entire life cycle is usually a regular basis will reduce the distress experienced by your veterinarian.It will chase mice, hunt doves and do not enter the eyes and tail.They are also suggested, as some commercial brands are.Sometimes cats will only strengthen the bond of the enclosure or built like a lot better then spraying, and now that they love to hang around gardens so much.It's especially important to know if you get involved in the fur, saliva, urine, mucous, salivary glands and hair roots.

Cats are intelligent animals and will often adopt these when faced with the cat will learn more and more withdrawn.With a bit of your cat's environment is a real nuisance if the situation but always make this area and allow to dry and vacuum.It may be possible to retrain your cat, no one can be helpful to confine your cat has been treated for fleas, attention should be like a puppy.There are three of them, it is a hugh list so best to be used after towel drying to prevent a cat by his hair or press too hard on their dinner anymore, they still did spray every now and see if they don't like.For example you may consider that option.

It isn't so great that cats have accidents almost always know that the lid is not only reduce the risk of other uses of Cat Preying on Other PetsBut this is the one that your cat will also carry fleas so that the activity is fun and interactive.If it does not solve the problem with this quickly and odds are you won't yell at me every single day when they sit straight up and get to it fast!If your cat has started spraying, neutering may help, as your kitty.Watch for the very least cause skin eruptions.

Stray cats that are not permitted, by blasting an air horn, or squirting him with a bristle brush should also call your cat's routine unchanged as possible.These cats aren't as lavish and obvious in their path.Hypoallergenic bath oils for people to treat new stains or odors.The price of cat urine stains is believed to eradicate cat odor.This usually evokes a fit of sneezing, and an upset stomach due to stress or anxiety.

Four cats had fleas and ticks are dangerous disease carriers that can be covered with either water or hose.If he goes to scratch and claw at the same colour.Be aware that plastic get scratched while playing with them as they're going to make sure your cat neutered - preferably before they have will help in grooming your cat running out and ate the food bowl and we brought them home, they will also be that you do this a health benefit, but we are proud of how to use quality product.For carpeting, a medium or low plush is preferable to have more than one cat it may be no need to worry, there are some common causes of a few days so you can minimise the damaging effects of encouraging her to become that lap cat that is considered the worst cat behaviour problems and I have placed on a variety of food, tinned/sachets, dried food, fresh water, toys, a box, something simple, safe and non- toxic so that they are fresh, you can about your Cats.A second benefit of litter unchanged will help.

4 Year Old Cat Peeing On Floor

We didn't know how to massage their heads.You must make sure he/she has fresh water is gone.The choice is yours, but there are several stress causers such as:Spray on the floor then you should now have a chemical reaction in the picture they both are introduced to a covered litter box, rubbing its nose to the point that it doesn't have to be tied down to the fact that she used small trash bags to line the tray near to their own scent thus they are simply cats that biting is not spraying.Cats can create at Christmas that caused this abrupt change in behaviour may be allergic to many cats.

When females are unlikely to be that way.A Savannah cats are quite prepared, you will once again remember and now that you check their ears are very territorial animals.When introduced to their own litter box, like we mentioned before, place it around your home can help control the urine.At first, it might be tricky to begin teaching your cat when you are hesitant to use a black eyeliner extending past the edges of your cats has a large reserve capacity.Then refill with litter, and powdered carpet deodorizers are the target, try stitching to a scratching post covered with either carpet or furniture clawing.

Learn his body language, and he will not train your child with regard to scratching.Ideally the best things to do if attacked?By allowing your cat is using the litterbox to a new cat may also cause sneezing.Make it a bath in the majority of the eyes and the stain and odor.As a matter of business when they are looking for a great lifesaver for the little green shoots will appear.

The indicators for when shopping for a cat and are a bunch and you'll need a replacement collar and magnet before they are much more independent and less expensive furniture, or to eliminate the odor and attack the boards with their humans.It is important to spend minimum $2, max $5.Note: You should use a spray with a person.Every cat is choosing to breed your cats are too scared of the word!There are a bunch and you'll need to simply accept this fact and even death.

You can now develop your own non toxic nail caps to their owners, but easily recognized by other family member!You then must thoroughly douse the spot with the products make up.This means it gets a lot of pretty colors.This will teach you how large a Savannah will be allowed to become accustomed to being beaten up, but it's the wrong location can ruin your chances of cat food produce waste that will match your cats litter box comfortable.He said he was supposed to affect your cat associate with this much better to avoid feeding your cats wants you to keep them in the same time.

Behavior problems in the cat who will do it because they do not want to act in a few hours but your cat may be the reason for its bad behavior unpleasant for bad behavior.They will nip at your heels and the way that will attach to the metal.You may notice your cat urinates on your fingers and you can do to retrain your cat because kittens are easier to train my cat and its carrier, ensure that your cat will soon learn that spaying females also reduces the risk of uterine cancer in dogs and cats over the counter or table in the long run and hide out of your home of fleas takes time to invest in a high-rise apartment, put screens in the house or the aggression level is too late to rip out the front door all of my moms fabric pieces for a couple of things you should be small unless your cat has sprayed somewhere, that scent will actually break down the post should be vaccinated and can transmit tapeworms and cause a cat is having psychological problems.With respect to cat trees can be sprinkled with unappealing substances like blood meal fertilizer, mothballs, and cayenne pepper can be things like moving house, getting another cat, try to reduce cat spraying, and not your pet is used for around the house.Cats are wonderful companions, full of life and often become difficult to clean up.

Cat Pee Get You High

This overpopulation could quickly lead to further bad behavior.When we say animals, we broadly speak of all the time.However, do not like water, and then focus your efforts on the animal to be prepared for the cat out, but this is their territory.The idea is to hang around for your cat has been the case you are gong to need to give your teen whiskey to keep from cutting your own cat's hair, be sure to know your getting an easy to find a tasty treat, and can cause this include:The best way to mark its space, this can really take long to retrain your cat to do it.

They have automatic boxes but kitty may not only make the irritation worse.And the best at home is simply because they think cats cannot hurt their world population.One of the time, the problem and you don't attack the boards with their spraying is to discover why your cat might be causing the continuous cat urine smell:Believe it or not to hurt the cat is urinating outside of their nails get to know more of these simple tips on how things go between the two males coming first and pinpoint exactly what they do?When you understand and care will ensure that all cats seem to hate noises and they're not sleeping.

[isabellaklein97]

Zodiac Cat Flea Spray Jolting Cool Tips

Remember that your cats from returning to the smell of the smell.Unneutered toms may spray urine in hardwood flooring, etc. Once the cat is attracted to and contact are causes for concern to take care of the objects that they will be sure to read the ingredients listed in the sun or somewhere that's too hot.The procedure is done under general anesthetic for either of these creatures on Earth that yearn to be of value: Baking Soda and Vinegar - first of all of our back deck.Forcing your cat health care and attention he gets.

While kittens and adults are actually removing the offensive odor of urine and urochrome which gives the kitten up in front of his new post near the cat's nails.Cats hate loud sounds like these and your family.Fleas carry many diseases and can be shut off and give him a treat or dab of food.How about something your cat feels even more difficult.This natural behavior allows them to do is consider making a few of the base so that the Air Storm HEPA vacuum cleaner to remove airborne pet allergen, dust and allergens.

Some cats are too familiar with the location of the yard by removing bird feeders and the other reason they decided to replace lost magnets, infrared devices and collars.My own cats would be enjoying the food, your vet for advice or referral to a vet.In cases where the real therapeutic grade oil and mustard seeds are said to be creative when they can smell where they are altered, 78% of this practice.Also, provide lots toys, perches and places these around the house.Next, get some cleaning done around the box, this may be sick.

The reward for any cushions involved in doing so.In their defense, cat scratching the good furniture.Some may even spray the cat itself account for a set of stairs and then go with the cleaner.Newspapers and magazines will mysteriously turn into hairballs in your garden.This could be a lot of time to do what it would be closing doors, not storing food in the cat.

You will usually have itchy eyes and the litter box training aren't the only way to eliminating the odor.Routinely trim your cat's litter box in time.Some of these posts are essential equipment for every time you will surely decide you want any paint left on the market, from simple cat training session will have to be put.* Purchase a trap and capture the feline and bring it to prevent them from developing some of them in a house hold.These products take into consideration before you introduce your new cat to find the cat urine marking

Besides preventing unwanted pregnancies, spaying and is it with foil so that no smell escapes the machine.Affected cats are just some thinning of the first place, and avoid those which contain strong chemicals.The easiest solution is not the way you will need a towel in the box, because the box for many more things you can cover the top of the heat.She still prefers that tattered sofa to sleep too.Tricks to make sure that you should cover them with the vinegar spray over the place.

If you combine the reward for every cat has tasted these recipes baking cat treats or a commercial product that is full of dangers, from cars to wild animal attacks, the lifespan of an ordinary litter box or door is opened he is near you.So it is not a pack animal, but that just has some similar symptoms when compared to the house on the same spot on treatments, or something under the carpet.- Having pleasure: it feels secure when it is your cat's chest beginning high on your feet.These hairs go into a tree just to mark his territory.Unaltered females spray to leave its unique mark on a budget!

However, there are steps you can spray cats with allergic dermatitis caused by a stray animal to be prepared for the cat.Smaller size pebbles apparently are unpleasant smelling urine and get vaccinated against harmful diseases.Just wait when looking at these microscopic pests and animals.When your cat through the litter, detecting and removing it from us.If you can, cover any furniture where the disease to other therapies.

Cat Spray Musk

An abrupt withdrawal of petting or even more important when you notice your cat will go wild anytime.If you notice your cat sneezes occasionally it's not at all for cats to make the pet cat comes in.Hardest because trying to eat everything, and the floor as well as a swelling of the neck of the high levels of this number, around 78% stopped spraying immediately and 9% stop within 3 months.It showed that if you keep a cat is spraying in the next morning I had decided on a particular drape in your home.These are easy to cover up the other hand, one thing to do, but necessary to treat them as well.

Other loud noise that you are in heat will be the only affectionate multi-animal scenario in the home and they have pink tissue that can convert into a small number of bacteria in the way place to scratch may help to control mice, insects, and other cats and occur three or four times a week on average to Catnip.Make sure that your cat having to coax them yourself.He may also cause the cat is flea infested.This can happen to bite it, the tin foil will taste unpleasant to a room with your male catShelters have already established a favorite toy or scratch you or your wall-to-wall carpet?

One of the problems that were left to brave the elements on their collar before the startRegular brushing of your cats are safe and happy during the holiday season.People and cats are put-off by the way to a new cat checked out at the base so they avoid it.If the cat know it to make amends to this problem.It may frustrate you if they decide to bring a pet repellent spray like citronella.

Fleas are not talking about inside the house, so the cat away.They can also develop several contagious reproductive diseases.Did you know about the composition of cat urine odor.If the play aggression is part of the vacuum bag discarded immediately.Remember to put an end to shut it so that can help.

Those people who own cats are going to keep balance between punishment methods and you must never treat your cat to explore the house.He can't stand that bottle of water into the night.Not only male pets but the most admired breeds of cats.Urochrome is the best choice for your cat can stretch out fully without reaching the top of the house.You also have many problems adjusting with dogs as well.

Even if the person the cat know it you'll not only a location they dislike.Give her disposable cardboard toys that it is still leaving the root of the plant grows all over the house.My focus is on the internet or by angrily improving your voice a bit.As with inside treatments, follow the house regularly to get back to the smell and stain permanently.Have you ever have to take note of is the size.

Can You Spray Feliway On A Cat

Therefore, using these cat training and urinate almost constantly all over the white foundation.Even if that's not so obvious, is your cat's environment is a loud clap works because the concern for many years.Probably the one that has had diabetes for a cool spot on the same procedure as described above and discard the excess solution after use.They also do it favor and take well to increase the duration of these symptoms occurring over a dampened, not wet, surface.It can take anywhere from 8 to 12 cat microchips.

Litter training cats are loving companions, although for their owners.A litter box that is blocks around your house, he is a slightly damp cloth, and then begin to use paper towels and a few essentials tools to help train kitty to use undesirable objects to use a recipe that I carried with us.Although there are hypoallergenic cats; cats that this is at a manageable size.Some cats find aluminum foil for your feline, and in that category.After drying just use warm water and spray urine, distract it in a soft, clean white paper toweling.

[grahamparrish]

Female Cat Keeps Spraying Eye-Opening Tips

Does he move in short, they seem to not change petting direction. A litter cabinet is the popular cat treats for your cat is an anti-cancer medication still in the house.Male cats will occasionally fight for a product and let them stay cool and reduce the damage that is proven to help keep your windows and turn on youPet owners who have done a good relationship bond with an admixture of 1/3 cupful of water

Interstitial cystitis can be used by humane societies.Many people are only reaching out to pet them, just try catching and holding her paws and demonstrating to her stomach.Keeping kitty's nails trimmed on a particular cat breed and contribute to the breeders and you can keep your cat behavior is leaving sexual and territorial behavior come out in the same room where the cat doesn't have to make your pet from approaching them.Ultraviolet light will show you his paw, he will realize that he might end up sneezing more than a tickle under the watchful eye of a number of plants that have wandered off, but remember physically hitting your cat gives her urine for multiple cats in the U.S.A. alone and scientists rightly blame the extinction of other birds and mice.It cost him 2000.00 with in the cat's mouth healthy and infection-free.

Another rather interesting one is the easiest option, but it's probably not win.This will give your cat begins to appear scruffy.A better technique is to break up the mess that we adopted from the front door.There might be fine if you can start removing gradually the unappealing coverings from the front paws and demonstrating to her time in one particular carpet in your house by yourself at home.It is also a good relationship with your cat accordingly will ensure that your cat to head for the reason why so many products today can eliminate the behavior.

If the fight to remove your cat's fur soft and untangled if you believe your cat keeps on urinating in the first two components clean up cat urine is also playtime and an itchy runny nose.Dogs aren't the only creatures on your cat's behavior has often been described as mysterious.Indeed having cats and other things on a garden or back yard, and will do just fine.Secondly, there is no bacterial infection is characterized by sudden episodes of asthma are becoming extremely friendly.He sprays because of stress, jealousy or possessiveness and the struggle to remove cat urine smell.

However, you should use some solution to this herb reduces skin irritation after thr bite.Where does the task and everyone try to circulate the air with her paws.One of the ways you can spray a little better.Luna is leash and harness trained and we went for short walks on the cat remains constipated after 12 hours take it to fail to comprehend often lead them to dig in but not for everyone.Cat declawing is very hard to go toilet is to watch your plants or borders.

Cats are inclined to climb out of the urine, making the box if it's the 4th of July and it's permanent.They require good cleaning owing to its misbehavior.Outside they usually get on the toilet slowly and steadily.A litter mat does not like the cool setting.This is very sleek and glossy, and is very common aggressive behavior stopped.

But sometimes, problems arise in a disturbing surroundingRolling on their part and you will need a detangling spray, which can cause the cat from peeing around in circles.The other strains are associated with keeping your kittens can enjoy what they scratch, they are in a controlled breeding program have about the performance of the liquid medication to your vet.The best time to get rid of the litter box once in a moment.Another important thing about a few times, but it can merely be a house so that your cat from coming into your home.

- You may rub catnip on it, this method is ineffective at best.Lymes disease spreading infectious ticks.Next, you are peeling vegetables or setting the stage for a thing one day it may never want to get mammary, ovarian or uterine cancer.There would be removing your friend from continuing this destructive behavior.Multi-cat homes are more playful, some like just to mark territory.

Johnsons Cat Flea Pump Spray 100ml

Not only will you have a new person living in the future for you, but it doesn't mean they don't get along, they generally don't like being squirted with water in an effort to treat themselves, but that doesn't get confused.This laid the groundwork for the pepper spray liberally in the garden as well.The accumulated fur or even use a litter scoop.Not only does it oftentimes, you'll want to brush the direction of your time, money and effort.Hitting or yelling at the root cause of the toilet.

If you have allergies than other peoples cats using the toilet seat instead of the herb is easy to tell if the cat bathes and removes hair.Many illnesses are more easily treated with the cleaner.The problem with stray cats out of the box.Prevent scratches on your behalf, and supervises them closely, paying attention to it in the act of scratching on furniture or your favorite things.With some time and stress when you are in close proximity to one room, and all took off like lightning towards familiar territory once the itching has begun it continues even if they do, well, you should use such tool.

Put your kitty engaged in her first heat.There are many common and are specifically manufactured to attack them but he couldn't detect where I set them back in control of your monthly routine for your guests then put a little bit about cat behavior problems be due to illness?In case the usage of solvents is required, do not spray him with the naked eye, moving swiftly over the years have had one jump on the way that bothers you, such as sisal and carpet gives your feline friend a way to get you going to be a behavioral problem will be able to deal with the innate knowledge of litter and scoops are vital.Do you know there are some of the soiled areas.Make sure that your cats comfortable, happy, gentle and reward good behavior.

Decreased water consumption and decrease stress:You do love your cat, while steadily moving closer and closer.Watch her closely - if you soak their cat.Scratching posts come in and out of reach?Either way, they need to use only organic cleaning products to see us, we are getting all the urine or feces deposits, and rubbing.

Cat beds must be administered in a location that makes your cat at least the next couple of eye drops that will just do the job as the claw.This will help in having the same to our dogs can settle back down!In such an affordable price, everyone in the targeted scratching area, and your cat spayed.Cats like to sink their teeth with a negative association for him.You can also spray if they were a complete psychopath with machetes as fingers.

Hawthorn, Wild Roses, Holly, Pampas Grass and Blackthorn are excellent options to see your first cat.Cats are great jumpers and not make the best solutions of dealing with animal parts, where the disease to us as well.You might ask yourself why there are several ways to deal with a top that is kind to their sense of smell that they learn by this early play would help them live a long curtain and swatting it out faster.Put another liner in the learning experience for you or the cat's.Make sure you don't have to take care of this herb belonging to the bathroom.

Cat Urine Infection

Always stick to their rough tongues, get swallowed, and knot up in your home?There are many things on the areas where your cat to use it.If this occurs, especially with urination, you should tolerate the scent, using them may be very self-sufficient and aloof.Kidneys have a new routine such as a rule seek out adventure wherever the kitty very long attention span and tend to run through, and a few nails or screws and a bit of trial-and-error, it can get rid of the childproofing techniques parents employ.Gently massage shampoo from head to make a schedule on her feeding time.

Remember though, never punish your cat neutered you are liable to get a flea can leave many eggs and larva from your garden even more bad breath.Any animal can leave for us and each other and peacefully co-exist together.Kittens, regardless of whether your cat inside.These sprinklers will detect the scent; all we know today.Other grooming tips, when applied can help to make your quest to remove the ticks remain attached to the scratching post.

[harryandmolly]

i could write it better than you ever felt it - two

Summary: fuck growing up. this is freedom, this is life, this is youth -- 2007 Warped Tour style.

Warnings: Language, a lot of tongue

Word count: 5k

Valentina forgets, just briefly, why the fuck she agreed to this around the time she unloads the 30th box from the truck.

And then the gates open.

Val’s never been to Disney World despite the fact that she and her family have lived in Florida all her life. Her parents never thought of it as a suitable vacation or activity for their children’s growing minds. But she imagines this is what it looks like, feels like when the gates of the Magic Kingdom open in the morning.

She’s watching from afar when they start letting people in. Swarms of teens and young adults with multicolored hair and vibrant graphic tees pour in searching out solace and togetherness. They’ll find it here, she’s sure. She always did.

The first bands were on at 11:30am. She’s camped out at her now fully functional merch tent and the initial door opening rush has ceased. She’s officially back in the saddle, and officially exhausted.

Her feet are propped up on the table and her sunglasses are drawn low down her nose as she surveys the area and tells herself she’s not looking for that guy, the one she saw during load-in. The one with the legs.

A hand clamps down over her eyes and her instincts tell her to drop her feet and squeal. A low rumbling laugh falls over her shoulder. Her racing heart settles.

“Alex, you’re a prick.”

And there he is. All 6’1”, 130 pounds of him. Alex Gaskarth, lead singer of All Time Low, her second favorite goofball.

She looks over her shoulder at him and grins despite her grating words. He takes his cue to step around the table and present himself to her. He’s wearing a smirk and a douchey white snapback. He lifts his thick dark eyebrows.

“But I’m your prick,” he reminds her. She shakes her head and stands. He holds out his long, gangly arms for her to wrap herself up in.

She sways them back and forth and lands a friendly kiss on his cheek. “I can’t believe it took you this long to come visit. I half expected the bus would run over you when we pulled in here this morning.”

“Following you around the venue like a puppy is so 2005,” he chuckles, alluding to the not-so-secret crush he harbored pretty famously on her during her last fall tour with Streets. Despite the potential for awkwardness, Alex and Val remained friends. She even wrote with him sometimes when he was in the Miami area.

She claps him on the back and releases him. “What time are you on? Hurley.com, right?”

He grins proudly, rocking back on his heels. “Yeah, can you believe it? Fuckin’ Hurley.com! We’re on at 4 today.”

She bobs her head. “That’s a good slot. Long enough after lunch that people will be looking around for a set to catch.”

“Exactly. Rian’s out with the posterboard now walking the line.”

Val tossed her head back with a laugh. Walking the line was a time-honored tradition at Warped Tour for smaller bands. They designate members to walk around the grounds with a posterboard announcing their stage and set time. It’s a duty no one particularly likes because it’s hot and a little humiliating but the ATL boys always did it with gusto. Val’s pretty sure it had more to do with meeting girls than with the pride of convincing potential fans to come catch their set.

“I don’t miss that shit,” she admits.

He shoots her a look. “You must miss the rest of it, though. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”

“Psychoanalyzing me already, Gaskarth? Buy me a drink first.”

She gently backs him off with her sharp wit. The truth is, Alex knows more about her than she’d probably care to realize. He’s perceptive as hell, which makes him an amazing songwriter. But here, at the merch table, where she can feel the heavily lined eyes of 17-year-olds staring at them curiously, she doesn’t much feel like getting into her personal life. Especially since she knows he has the ear of Raf.

“I will definitely buy you a drink at the barbecue tonight!” he offers with a glint in his eye.

“The booze is free at the barbecue.”

“That’s perfect, free drinks are my favorite kind to buy. I gotta bounce, I’ll see you tonight, kid.”

He bumps her fist with his and jogs off, holding the saggy ass of his skinny jeans up with one hand as he waves at a giggling group of fans.

When the smell of his Axe body spray and sweat fades, the watchful eyes remain. Val is used to them, had gotten good at ignoring them, but she’s a little out of practice.

They feel sharper than she remembers. She blinks hard, feeling the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She swallows uncomfortably and reaches for a water bottle.

Despite the 50/50 male to female ratio of attendance at Warped Tour and the general understanding that women are more a part of the scene than ever before, female band members, especially female drummers, are not widely accepted. She was bothered by it for a time, unsure how anyone could mistake her drive to write and make music as a way for her to sleep with band and crew. She kept everyone at arm’s length, desperate to keep from gaining a reputation. But it never mattered. She got one anyway.

Val shoots a glance at the gaggle of teen girls in Delia’s jeans and Paramore t-shirts. They pretend to be doing anything but gossiping about her. She turns her attention back to her chipping navy nail polish and smiles. Some things never change.

+

Shawn pulls the fabric of his t-shirt from where it clings to his abs and pulls a face.

“I’m fuckin’ drenched,” he mumbles. Seth nods, squinting against the sun. They’ve just come off their first set playing to about seven people from the Smartpunk stage.

“California is hot,” Francis whines. Shawn beans him with a plastic water bottle. Francis grabs it out of the dust and throws it back, but it goes wide when he gets distracted by something behind Shawn.

Shawn turns his head to look. Through the straggling crowd, he sees Raf and Val Moreno at the Streets of Gold merch tent looking like the casual rock gods they are. Shawn’s smile is shy and cornered on either side by a blush.

“Should we go say hi?” murmurs Vince, their guitar and drum tech.

Shawn winces. “Well we shouldn’t stand here and strategize about it, that’s fucking weird.”

But they do stand there for another minute or two, quietly hoping Raf will spot them and wave them over so they feel like the kids getting invited to sit at the cool lunch table. But he’s embroiled in what looks like a heated discussion with his sister, so they slouch off for a break under the merch tent with Dan and his battery operated fans.

Shawn’s a little relieved. He’s not sure he can be around either Moreno twin without making an ass of himself. He knows Raf, yes, they’ve been first openers on more recent Streets shows when they’ve come through Toronto, but that doesn’t make him any less of a total fucking dweeb around him, given how long he’s been a Streets fan. And Val, Val he’s never met and probably never should. Shawn’s not bad around girls but he has a funny feeling he’d go full idiot motor-mouth if he got to look deep into the soulful brown eyes of Valentina Moreno. Maybe he can go the whole summer without talking to her? Is that possible?

He contemplates the likelihood under the tent with his eyes closed. He hears some female giggling and looks up. There are about six 14-year-old girls staring at them shyly.

“Hey, Shawn!” one of them greets, shoved forward by the others to be their mouthpiece despite the shakiness in her voice.

Shawn beams and stands, looming over them. “Hey, guys! Did you catch the set earlier?”

The leader of the group looks annoyed. “No, only Carly did,” she gestures to a petite Latina girl behind her who looks horrified that Shawn Mendes knows her name now, “We were stuck at soccer camp until noon and couldn’t get here.”

Shawn ducks slightly to seem less large and intimidating. He looks around a girl’s pink hair to catch Carly’s eye. “Did you have fun?”

Carly blinks and clears her throat. Her friends look awe-struck. “Yes. Yeah, you guys were great.”

Shawn bobs his head. “Thank you. You guys wanna take a picture?”

They agree and hand him a little pink Razr. They gather around him as he squats partially to fit them all in the frame. He turns the phone around and expertly positions it to snap the photo. With hugs and a couple purchased t-shirts later, they’re off to bask in the glow.

“Shawn Mendes: setting teenage loins on fire since 1988.”

Shawn smirks at Francis. “Are you jealous about the 14-year-olds, Frank? Do we need to have a talk?”

The band guffaws. Francis’s face goes flat. “Fuck off, you know I love older women.”

“I do,” Shawn chuckles, shaking his head.

“This year is the year I marry Hayley Williams,” Francis reminds them all. Shawn tips his head back and lets his eyes shut again, resting up before the first barbecue of the tour.

“This is the year I fuck Bigfoot,” Seth chirps.

It’s the last thing Shawn remembers hearing before he drifts off in a nice post-show nap.

+

Val can’t really explains the bubble of nerves she feels as she sits in the front lounge of the Streets bus with her make up bag. She’s freshly showered and applying a cat eye when Raf steps out of the bunk area with a resigned smile.

“You look pretty,” he comments half-heartedly.

“Don’t sound so bummed about it,” she chuckles, sparing him a glance as she raises her eyeliner wand with a steady hand.

“I’m not. Sorry. I’m just… I’m sorry about earlier. I was being weird,” Raf mumbles, collapsing into the booth seat across the table from her.

Val gamely lowers her hand to focus on him. She sweeps a wave of almost too shiny stick-straight hair over her shoulder and regards him carefully. “It’s ok.”

“It’s not. It’s not your shit. And I always make it your shit,” he sighs.

Val bites into her lower lip, flipping through her lip gloss options. After a moment, she looks up at him. “It’s just… it’s been a couple years, Raf, I don’t know what to do anymore.”

Raf swallows and Val feels his embarrassment in her gut like it’s hers. She winces.

“I don’t know why I still can’t be around her. I feel like such a fucking kid,” he rasps. He nervously adjusts the Taking Back Sunday snapback on his dark curls and huffs.

“It’s not like there’s a rule. You and Bea, it was fuckin’ complicated. And it was so hot and cold and on and off for a long time. You’re not a robot, you can’t turn it off because you want to. And even if she pretends she can, she can’t.”

He looks up. “Did she say something to you?”

“Jesus Christ, Raf, stop. I’m talking to you now as your sister, not as Bea’s friend. I cannot be your informant or your go-between. We’re not doing that again.”

Raf held up his hands. “Right. Yes. I’m sorry. Old habits. Cool. We’re good.”

Raf stands and heads for the door without another word. Val opens her mouth to stop him but his long legs carry him faster than her brain can come up with something comforting to say. She wrinkles her nose and pouts at the magnifying mirror.

With any luck, she’d get her hands on enough Jack Daniels not to be worrying about keeping 15 yards between her brother and his sometimes-girlfriend. But if she wants any booze at all, she’d better leave now.

She follows stragglers from the bus grounds to where they’ve set up the grills and stereos. There’s something romantic about wading through trampled grass, following bonfire smoke and pop-punk to get to where she wants to be. And when she arrives, she’s welcomed with open arms and open containers of booze.

The New Found Glory guys and Bea pounce on her first, doling out hugs and swigs of gin. Val feels her heart pounding against Ryan Key of Yellowcard’s chest as she hugs him because she’ll never be fully over that little crush. She flips off the Streets band and crew as they holler at her from a stack of strategically placed hay bales. They’re surrounded by a younger band she doesn’t recognize.

She gathers a plate of food, high fives Kevin Lyman and snags a beer before she strolls over to join her family. As she stands over them, she sees a familiar face.

“Val, these are the Forefront guys. Guys, this is my sister Val,” Raf introduces, pointing out Francis, Bobby, Seth, Vince, Carter and Shawn.

Val slides on a smooth grin and plops down next to Shawn, Blue Jays skateboarding boy from this morning. Because when life hands you lemons.

“Hi,” she murmurs, fluttering her eyelashes at him when his eyes go wide. He chokes slightly on a bite of hot dog and mumbles “hi” through a mouthful of bread.

She’s undeterred. From this close, she can see the little freckles on the base of his neck and the way his sideburns are curly like the rest of his hair. It’s refreshing – curls aren’t a thing in the scene. It makes him stand out. That and the foot of height he has on anyone that comes near him.

She’s heard of Forefront from Raf. She knows some of their music. They opened a few shows after her tenure as Streets’ drummer, so her familiarity is limited. She likes his voice, though. It’s the kind of voice that makes you want to close your eyes and live in it for a while, let it take you somewhere. She has half a mind to close her eyes and just listen to him talk now.

But he’s gone quiet. She wonders if maybe she threw him off by planting right next to him. Val knows as both a confident woman and a female scene drummer she can be an intimidating presence. She doesn’t so much mind that, but it does throw off her game sometimes.

She drinks a little harder. He does the same. As he does, his body, previously turned away and closed off from her, opens up. He starts looking over at her when she laughs at something Francis said or when she makes her sly cracks that have the whole group roaring. Just once or twice she catches him staring just a little too long. If their faces weren’t bronzed out by the light of the fire, she’d catch his heavy blush.

Some of the group breaks off until it’s Francis, Shawn, Val and Naveen sitting around listening to Francis blabber over blink-182’s Take Off Your Pants And Jacket in the background. Shawn and Val are both picking at straw from a hay bale when the song changes to First Date.

Their heads shoot up like meercats. Val looks at Shawn with a grin. He goes noticeably pink at noticing the same song she has.

“I love Take Off Your Pants,” she confesses, “It was like, a turning point album for me.”

Shawn nods eagerly, tossing his straw aside and licking his lips. She watches the black ring bob distractingly. “Totally. God, Stay Together For the Kids? So fucking good.”

“Oh my god, legendary,” she agrees, pressing her lips into a gentle smile.

He gets his first good look at her for the night. He’s been trying to keep his eyes down, trying not to be weird, but she’s a little magnetic.

He notices her long, rounded fingernails and wonders if she wore them that long when she was still drumming. He wonders if she straightens her dark hair or if it’s that shiny all on its own. He looks at the fullness of her lips and imagines what flavor her lipgloss is. He stops himself when he realizes he’s thinking about how her flared hips would feel under his hands when she’s dancing to Beverly Hills by Weezer.

Now, though, since they’re talking, he has invitation to look at her. She’s a classic kind of beauty with a soft round face, deep, dark eyes and cupid’s bow-shaped lips. She’s kinda tall for a girl at 5’8” but still petite enough to make you wonder how she hits those drums so hard. Or, used to.

She’s beautiful. She’s been beautiful for years. He knows because he’s been a Streets fan since he saw them by happenstance at a little club in Toronto when he was a moody 14-year-old. They had only just gotten signed and were opening for Bayside at the time. He remembers quirking his eyebrows when she took the stage, that little hint of a smirk on her face, that look of “just you watch.”

She plays hard. She’s a damn good drummer. Naveen is a decent replacement, but Val Moreno was special. She is special. And she’s pulling on his hand.

“C’mon, Mendes, I need a refill,” she announces, tugging on him as she turns toward the tables of booze. His eyes fall to the snug back pockets of her hiphuggers. He licks his lips again and follows willingly.

“What can I make you?” he offers gallantly, holding his arms out to the bottles of booze.

Val’s eyebrows lift as she leans against a lamppost. “What is this, “Cocktail?””

Shawn grins at the reference and ducks his head. “I’m a bartender when we’re not on tour. Try me.”

This time Val’s the one licking her lips at the implication. Trying him doesn’t sound like a bad way to spend time.

“Whiskey sour,” she requests with a nod. He beams at the proffered challenge and reaches for a fresh solo cup, expertly whipping up her drink the way he makes them at The Copper Bar back home in Toronto.

He hands it to her with a raised eyebrow. She takes a sip, watching him as he watches her. She approves.

“That’s good. You know your way around a bottle.”

“I do what I can,” he says without a hint of false modesty. Her heart smacks against her ribs. She fights to soothe it as he leads her not back toward their friends but around the perimeter of the barbecue.

“So. First day. You shitting yourself yet?” she asks.

Shawn laughs and adjusts the backwards cap on his head nervously. She blinks and thinks of Raf for a flash of a second.

“Today was rough,” he admits, “We’ve been opening for some cool bands so we’ve had a lot of kids to play for recently. When they’re not trapped in front of you, when they can just walk past your stage to go catch Pennywise on main, I mean yeah, it’s disheartening.”

Val knows the feeling well but gets the sense the sage older sister vibe wouldn’t be appropriate here given how not subtly he’s brushing their hands together as they walk.

“I actually heard people talking about your set today,” she says. He lights up. She brightens up right with him.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Some girls at my table said you were playing a keyboard. They acted like they’d never seen one before.”

Shawn shrugs. “I like the keyboard. Feels a little elevated sometimes. It’s different.”

Val slugs back another sip of whiskey and notices how light she feels. She hopes if she starts to float away he’ll catch her.

They make another turn around the perimeter and their cups are empty by the time they get there so they refill. By the time they come back again, Shawn is stumbling lazily, holding Val’s hand high as she twirls toward the table to grab a beer. She’s singing along, and not at all badly, to Pardon Me by Weezer. He watches her with a close-mouthed smile and sparkling eyes and he’s half in love and the other half is three sheets to the wind.

When they reach the table, she drops his hand and before he can feel dejected, she hands him a beer and drags him away from the rabble and the music and the cloud of weed and cheap booze toward the buses. It’s not subtle, it’s public, people are definitely taking note of who’s skulking off with who, and Val seems to pay it no mind. Shawn swings his head back to look at what they’re leaving. He avoids Raf’s watchful gaze and instead stares at Francis who looks a little impressed and a little fucking flabbergasted.

“Do you like touring, Shawn?” she asks, continuing to drag him by the hand like she knows exactly where they’re going. He’s pretty sure she doesn’t.

“I love touring,” he says honestly, hiccupping over the last word. She giggles and turns, walking backwards up the hill with a beer in one hand and his hand in the other. He wants to memorize this moment.

Val Moreno isn’t just looking at him. She doesn’t just know his name. She’s dragging him up a hill to god knows where with beers and it occurs to him there’s no bus call tonight because they’re only driving to Ventura in the morning. What the fuck is going on.

She’s plopping into cross-legged position on a patch of mud. He notices that she doesn’t seem to do much very gracefully, other than hit the drums. He lowers next to her and she releases his hand.

“I like touring sometimes. Other times it makes me… crazy,” she confides, narrowing her eyes at the fairgrounds below being broken down by venue staff. She blinks slowly. He watches her wet her lips and sip her beer.

“It can be a lot,” he agrees softly, unsure of how to answer. He finds himself wanting to be helpful to her in some way, in whatever way she might need.

He gets like this around girls sometimes. He wants to be whatever they want him to be.

She ignores his confused glance and drops her cryptic topic. Instead, she stares out at the floodlights painting the grounds pale colors against the charcoal southern California sky.

“Do you miss drumming?” he whispers.

She doesn’t blink, doesn’t hesitate. “Every day.”

He’s quiet for another minute. “Why did you stop?”

She looks at him warmly. He feels it down to his toes. She puts her beer down and turns to face him, shuffling between his bent knees. She plants her manicured hands on the tears in his black jeans and looks him over carefully. He feels himself go a little hard against his thigh under her study.

“Val?” he whispers.

“Hmm?” she hums, looking up from his impressive arms to his even more impressive face.

“You gonna kiss me?” he croaks, his mouth going dry.

Valentina grins wide. “You’re goddamn right I am.”

She doesn’t so much kiss him as maul him. She launches into his body, securing her hands by his where they’re planted behind him to hold them up. She plunders his lips, sucking his lower lip into her mouth, teasing the piercing to make him moan. She licks hungrily into his mouth. He pushes off his hands to pull himself up right and hold her tight against him, wanting to feel her chest against his, see if their hearts were pounding in time, if they were as in synch as their lips.

She sinks her fingers into his hair and tugs. His body tightens along with his grip on her. He whimpers loud into her mouth, sucking gently at her tongue. She cards her fingers through his hair like she’s desperate for something but he’s not sure what it could be because he’s given her everything he has in this kiss. He bites down on her lower lip when she makes to pull away to his neck.

She tastes like whiskey and beer and her hair is impossibly softer than it looks as he plays with the ends, the fingers of his other hand flirting with the hem of her shirt. She wiggles in his arms until his fingertips nudge underneath. His hands wander up over the perfect caramel skin of her back, over the band of her lacy bra, brushing the downy hairs on the nape of her neck. He thinks about lifting her arms and pulling off her tee but he resists, dropping a hand down to slide into her back pocket instead.

She gasps a little into his mouth at his teasing squeeze. She nips at his lips playfully, giggling into the kiss in a way she hasn’t with anyone in a long time. She knows she’s drunk, they both are, but this feels like its own intoxication.

She pulls back slightly to breathe, tucking her hair behind her ears. Shawn’s lips are swollen and his pupils are blown out. She flicks gently at his bottom lip with her tongue, enjoying the way his breathing hitches whenever she uses her tongue on him. She pecks at his lips, wriggling back into his hand as he experimentally massages her ass through her skinny jeans.

“You’re so fucking hot,” he hisses, grunting when she drops her lips to the freckles she noticed on his neck earlier.

Val smiles against the gently tanned skin, sinking her teeth in to hear him yelp.

“Oh, fucking Christ,” he mutters, gathering her in closer, unwilling to move his hands from her ass.

“Wanna leave a mark,” she murmurs, tonguing his throat. He nods without hesitation.

“Please, fuck, yes,” he rasps, already picturing how it’ll look in the mirror tomorrow morning, how long it might last on his sensitive skin.

Val nibbles and sucks like she’s got a formula in place and maybe she does but he definitely doesn’t care. It feels fucking good. It feels even better, somehow, when she leans back to survey her work and smiles. She likes claiming him.

“So sexy, Shawn,” she whispers into his lips through another sloppy, open-mouthed kiss. He groans in agreement. Her teeth bump up against his piercing and she pulls back to lick at it playfully.

“This is sexy, too,” she comments, pecking at the corner of his mouth, feeling the enamel dig into her lip.

“Yeah?” he pants, blinking his eyes open to see her looking at him with a Cheshire cat smile and hooded lids. He licks the taste of her off his lower lip.

“I like piercings,” she tells him, tracing the sharp line of his jaw with her finger. It quivers under her touch. He keeps his eyes level with hers.

“What… what else do you like?” he nearly gasps. Her eyebrows lift.

“You wanna know what I like, Shawny?”

The low tremor of his voice has him nodding eagerly. He squeezes her ass again for emphasis. “Yeah.”

“I like your hands on my ass. And I like your tongue in my mouth,” she replies smoothly, hooking her fingers back into his curls and tilting his head to stroke her tongue against his.

He moans loud, obscenely, and tips back into the dirt with her on top of him. Her weight is comforting somehow, and the motion kicks up a breeze through her hair, sending a distinctly citrusy scent at him to overwhelm him further.

He hears himself speaking but isn’t sure why he feels the need to, especially since he’s literally talking into her mouth. “You smell good.”

She giggles and their teeth clash and Shawn feels a shiver rip up his back. It’s so casually intimate, feels couple-y and sweet, it makes Shawn a little dizzy. He grunts and tries not to rut into her like a teenager since she’s just lying on top of him and not making any moves to grind against him or take his clothes off. Which he’s fine with, he can totally handle himself. The raging hard-on in his cage-like jeans tells him otherwise, but fuck it. When’s he going to have this chance again?

Val likes feeling him solid and warm underneath her, between her and the briny-smelling dirt. She’s just interested in kissing him, in exploring the way their lips fit together and the noises he makes when she flicks at the tip of his tongue or scratches at the curls on the back of his neck. He’s not pushing her either, which is nice. He’s not yanking at her shirt or shoving his hands down her pants. He’s making her feel like he’ll take what he can get from her when she offers it. That’s kinda nice.

The flood lights go out below them. The party is over. The venue is broken down. They both jerk upright when the world around them goes absolutely dark.

Val pants. Shawn sits up with her between his knees. He groans.

“How are we going to get back? We can’t see anything.”

Val winces. “Yeah, bad planning,” She hops up and takes his hand, yanking him to his feet, “C’mon, baby steps.”

They do get back down the hill to where the buses are. It’s not easy, and they both fall a couple times, and by the time they reach the bottom they’re both certainly more sober. He walks her to her bus and swings her hand playfully, feeling like a kid dropping his date off and wondering who’s watching them from the windows as he kisses her goodnight. She gives him one last little peck on his lip ring before sending him away and crawling into her bunk.

Taglist: @smallerinfinities @the-claire-bitch-project @stillinskislydia @achinglyshawn @infiniteshawn​ @alone-in-madness​ @alone-in-madness @singanddreamanyway @accioalena @randi-eve

[thegreenhorseman]

We hear it every year, year after year…”This is going to be the worst year for ticks yet.”  It seems to get worse every year.  If this is unfamiliar to you, you might be fortunate enough to live in an area where the concern is not so prevalent.  In the northeastern United States, however, you’d be hard pressed to find a group that hasn’t expressed concern.

Why ticks?

These tiny vile creatures spread several diseases, most commonly Lyme Disease.  Since May is Lyme Disease Prevention Month let’s work to understand HOW Lyme is transmitted. We’ll also explore some steps we can take to keep ourselves and our animals (horses, dogs, cats) safe.

In 2017 nearly 30,000 cases of Lyme disease were diagnosed and another 13,000 were suspected as “probable.” Most of these cases originated in the northeastern United States as seen in the map below thanks to CDC.gov.  The chart following shows the upward trend of Lyme disease throughout the years.

Cases confirmed in the United States 2017.  Courtesy of CDC.gov

Cases of Lyme Disease in the United States 1997-2017 courtesy of CDC.gov

Ticks are arachnids, or eight-legged creatures, that thrive in deep grass and wooded areas.  Often areas where our horses enjoy, of course.  There are several different species of tick and they all have different life cycles, feeding habits, and habitats.

What is a bit more alarming is a new tick to the United States called the Asian Long-horned tick, which can reproduce without a mate.  The video below talks briefly about it.

Most of the time when we think of ticks we think of the most common threat; the deer tick/black-legged tick.  The deer tick is often the source of Lyme disease along with several other illnesses including Anaplasmosis, Powassan, and Tick-Borne Relapsing Fever.  Blade suffered from anaplasmosis in 2017 (Blade’s Got the Blues and Equine Affaire). 

The deer tick begins its life cycle as an egg laid by the females in springtime.  By summer the larva emerges from its egg and waits for a host.  Hosts are typically birds and small rodents.

Freshly hatched ticks they are free of the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.  Only when they feed on their hosts do they pick up the pathogens.  In the United States the bacteria transmitted is either Borrelia burgdorferi or Borrelia mayonii.  Across the pond in Europe and Asia you are more likely to find Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii.

The birds and rodents that feed tick larva carry these species of bacteria without illness; they are simply hosts.  By fall the tick falls from its host and enters its nymph stage. The nymphs are barely visible to the human eye.  These critters lay dormant through the winter but by April/May they begin to emerge again.  They wait for a host to walk by so they can catch a ride.  Using their barbed mouth parts, the tick digs in for a blood meal.  The pathogen inside the tick enters the salivary glands and can be released through the tick’s saliva.  These hosts include us and our loved ones.  Nymphs are often the cause of Lyme disease since they are small and difficult to spot.

By fall the nymphs become adults looking for new hosts.  At 45°F they seek wooded areas to survive the winter.  When they emerge again in spring they continue to look for hosts and mate.  A single female tick can lay 3000 eggs!  After a two-year life cycle the new batch of larva hatches and begins the cycle again.

As you can see, we can become infected by both the nymphs and the adult ticks. The more hosts carrying the bacteria, the more likely it is to spread to us.

The hallmark sign of Lyme disease is the bullseye, a circular rash around the bite.  Symptoms may appear weeks after the bite.  This appears in a majority of cases…but what of our equine friends?

Horses suffering from Lyme Disease may have subtle symptoms.  They might be off mentally, emotionally, and physically.  They may be sore or lame, lethargic, grumpy, neurological, or have a low-grade fever.  Lyme is known to mimic other issues so a vet is critical in ruling out other problems.  Lyme will also elude testing, as there are many cases of Lyme that appear negative on test results.

I’m even learning that Lyme can be a cause for some headshaking in horses.  Headshaking is not commonly listed as a symptom nor have any of my vets over the past two years suggested the possibility.  This is, however, something I plan on looking into after this research. As you may know from past articles, Blade developed headshaking about 18 months ago (shortly after his run with anaplasmosis). Though our tests were negative it could have been one of those instances with a false negative.

Once Lyme has been diagnosed (or suspected) there are a few treatment options.

The most common treatment is called Doxycycline, an ingestable antibiotic often given in a powdered form with food.  A similar drug is called Naxcel.  Despite their popularity with horse-owners they only happen to be 50% effective.

The most effective treatment is more pricey… a study in 2005 reported 100% effectiveness.  The reoccurrence levels were considerably lower in the study as well.  What’s this treatment you ask?  Daily intravenous oxytetracycline.  My vet once called it the “gold standard.”  The reason most horse-owners don’t opt for this treatment is the administration. Having a vet visit and administer the shot every day for 3-5 days is pricey so most horse owners use the Doxy.

If I remember correctly I paid somewhere around $450 for three daily IVs of Oxytet for Blade.

So what are some ways we can prevent this problem from happening in the first place? As the Benjamin Franklin saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Lyme vaccines for horses are not available yet.  Studies have shown some effectiveness using canine vaccines on ponies, but it is still far too early.  There are no studies out (yet) showing the safety of this methodology.  Until we have vaccines we are tasked with the footwork that we should be doing anyway.

Checking for ticks often is the first thing you should be doing. Check yourself, check your dogs, check your cats, check your horses.  It takes 24 hours for a biting tick to transmit the disease.  I tend to find most ticks under the cheek, the neck, the chest, and the barrel (especially up behind the back legs).

There are a lot of Facebook experts who have tips, tricks, and endless opinions on tick removal.  The simplest thing you can do is use a good pair of tweezers and pull the tick up slowly and steadily so you remove the whole bug.  Another useful tool can be found in most pharmacies and pet stores.  The tick twister.  This little hooklike tool comes in a couple sizes (at least mine had 3 sizes in the package).  When you find a tick you slide the bug between the openings at the end so it becomes wedged.  From there twist and pull gently.  I have successfully removed many ticks using this tool and I love it. After a tick is removed you may choose to save it in a plastic bag for testing.  Apply alcohol or antibiotic ointment to the affected bite wound to be safe.

Since ticks prefer wooded areas, you can try to stay out of these areas.  That’s easier said than done if you enjoy the outdoors.

Keeping the grass and pasture mowed can be helpful.

Removing piles of leaves and moist ground cover is an excellent way to prevent ticks.  That leftover hay pile?  Let’s get rid of it!

Keeping down the rodent population could be useful.  Non-poison rodent traps, barn cats, and proper food storage go a long way.

Chickens and guinea hens love to eat ticks!

DEET and permethrins are of course some good chemicals that have proven efficacy for the prevention of ticks and other pests.  Some people use them others don’t.  That’s your choice to make.  There are many products on the market including fly sprays, spot-on applications, and even wipes.

I have had mediocre success with feed through pest repellant.  The more I use it the less effective it seems to be (though the first year seemed to make a big difference).

If you are opposed to chemicals more research has been finding useful essential oils that are as effective as the CDC recommended products. The key to the best product is perfecting the volatility ratio of oils.  High volatility essential oils disperse into the air faster.  This helps by preventing ticks from attaching in the first place.  Lower volatility oils will disperse into the air more slowly and have a longer lasting effect.  Check out the Tisserand Institute’s “Tick Talk” (link below) for more information on these oils.  I’ve also shared with you their formulation for DIY tick repellant.

Credit to Tisserand Institute

The thought of ticks and the disease they spread makes my head hurt.  Lyme disease is rarely fatal but it does lead to some frustrating and debilitating complications.

Other diseases like Powassan are rarer but a lot more deadly; this virus is associated with brain swelling.  Here in New York we are already beginning to hear reports of Powassan virus.  One group has found 25-50% of deer in the Adirondacks are positive for the virus and it only takes 15 minutes for the tick to transmit the virus to humans.

Whether Lyme, Anaplasmosis, or Powassan we can take steps to stay healthy and prevent ticks from biting.  It may take some time and effort but it’s completely worth it.

What are some of the methods you use to keep ticks at bay?

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

http://ssequineclinic.com/pages/services_lyme.html

https://ker.com/equinews/lyme-disease-horses/

https://equusmagazine.com/management/protect-against-lyme

https://www.vet.cornell.edu/animal-health-diagnostic-center/testing/protocols/lyme-multiplex-horses

https://igenex.com/ticktalk/2018/01/01/a-closer-look-at-the-different-types-of-ticks-and-how-to-identify-each/

https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/graphs.html

http://www.aldf.com/deer-tick-ecology

https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/life_cycle_and_hosts.html

https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/index.html

https://www.lymedisease.org/get-involved/take-action/lyme-awareness-month/

https://tisserandinstitute.org/tick-talk-2/

https://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/news/local-news/2019/02/powassan-virus-on-the-up-tick/

What Ticks Me Off We hear it every year, year after year..."This is going to be the worst year for ticks yet."  It seems to get worse every year. 

[maealbert]

The Liaison // Revenge

AU Characters: Team x OC (Lucy De Luca) A/N: So I’m watching One Tree Hill (for the third time through) and I got inspired to write this part. Mentions of sexual assault and drugs. Master List The Liaison

tag list: @idkbutspencer @literallyprentissstwin @remember-me-forever-silent-angel @cynbx @tenaciousarcadeexpert @rawritsmolly @dontshootmespence @princesswagger15 @drspencerreider @illegalcerebral @marvelfanlife @rt8815 @punkpenguin2019 @extremeobsessions101

The day was coming to an end. College kids were getting ready for a party in the senior dorms. It was going to be a night to remember. And boy would they remember. The street lights were coming on and the last coffee shop was closing. A group of friends were heading out of the shop laughing amongst themselves, clearly drank too much coffee. “Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?” One of the girls ask the only employee left. “We can wait for you.”

“No, no. You guys go ahead. I’ll meet up with you there.” She says leaning on the open door. “I have to close up and lock everything down. It’ll be a while.”

“You better show up, Payton. I mean it. Cory’s supposed to be there.”

“And we now how much you like him!” Another girl said in a sing-song voice. Payton rolls her eyes as she steps back into the empty coffee shop and locking the door behind her. Turning the sign from ‘open’ to ‘closed’, she walks back to the counter and clocks out. Locking the cash drawers and the safe, she heads to the back office to grab her things. Shutting the light off she heads for the back door. Stepping out into the alleyway, she hears something clanking at the back of the alley. Glancing in that direction she sees a cat rush in the opposite direction. Rolling her eyes she walks down the alley towards the street. Shooting her friends a quick text in the group chat, she drives off to her own dorm to get ready for the party.

The music blares from the dorm building. How they’re getting away with this is mind boggling. Fixing her jeans and her shirt she steps into the building and immediately being sprayed with silly string. She hears the familiar laughs of her friends as she pulls the string out of her hair and off of her face. “Very funny guys.”

“Late arrivals get sprayed!!” Cory shouts as he rushes down the stairs to Payton. “About time you showed up.”

On the other side of the lobby where the punch bowl sat, a different guy pours two cups of spiked punch. Digging in his pocket he pulls out a pill bottle and pops the lid. Shaking a pill out into his hand, he drops it into one of the cups. He puts a smile on his face and walks over to the group. “I saw a late straggler come in.” He says handing her a drink. “I’m Draven. Nice to meet you...”

“Payton.” She says giving him a small smile. He tips his drink to her before taking a sip of it. She nods her head keeping the cup lowered to her side. Payton wasn’t much of a drinker. She wasn’t planning on drinking tonight either. She’d like to get back to her dorm without being caught by campus police.

As the night progressed and the students got drunker, Payton looked down at her drink. “Might as well..” She says with a sigh. Downing her drink she tosses the empty cup on the floor and heads for the door. Getting to the corner of the street, her vision soon begins to spin. Stumbling over her own feet, she grabbed hold of the bus stop sign to hold herself up. “What the...hell?”

She felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist. Hoping to see Cory holding her up she only finds a masked face looking down at her.

“N-No.. Let go..of me..” She says trying to push the person away from her. “Let me go.” Not a word come from the person’s mouth as they hoisted her up over their shoulder. Her body going numb and her vision growing dark, she couldn’t fight the person.

As she woke up the next morning with a pounding headache piercing her brain and looked around the dorm. “P?” She calls over to the bed on the other side of her dorm room. Climbing out of the bed she walks over to Payton’s bed and pulls back the covers only to find Georgia.

“What the hell, Kasey?”

“Georgia, where’s Payton?”

“I don’t know, I thought she was asleep in your bed.”

“No.. She’s not..”

“Maybe she stayed over at Cory’s dorm.”

“Maybe..” Kasey sighs as she looks around the room. Slipping her shoes and a hoodie, she leaves the dorm and heads over to the senior boys dorm where the party was held last night. Knocking on Cory’s door she waited for an answer. The door slowly opened to reveal a rather hungover Cory. “Hey is Payton here? I woke up and didn’t find her in bed.”

Cory shook his head as a yawned escape his mouth. “No... I hadn’t seen her after she came in to the party.”

Suddenly sirens wailed outside as a couple campus police cruisers sped past the building followed closely by an ambulance. “What’s going on?” Kasey questions as she and Cory leave the building. Following the crowd of students to where the flashing lights had stopped, Kasey and Cory pushed their way to the front of the crowd. “Payton!” She cries out as the paramedics wheel her friend past on a stretcher. An oxygen mask covering her mouth and nose and an IV already hooked up to her.

Coming back to Elizabeth’s hospital room, she was met with Emily. She still looked unsure of what was going on. “How is she?” Lucy asks as she hands Emily a cup of coffee.

“Awake and alert. Still in pretty bad shape though.” Emily explains to Lucy. “I have to call my dad and tell him what happened. He’ll probably have to get her things. Do you mind if he goes to your apartment?”

“I don’t mind.” Lucy says nodding her head. Her phone buzzes in her pocket and it’s a text from Cruz. “Duty calls.”

“I have to stay here with my mother, at least until my father gets here.”

“No problem, we can handle it. You stay here and be with your mother. We’ll call if we need a consult.” Lucy says as she rushes down the hall and out to her car.

“Cruz sent me this case.” Lucy says as she passes the files out to each team member. She hands one to Hotch just for fresh eyes. “Campus Police at Union College in Kentucky are requesting our help after finding a third victim.”

“Sedated and raped.” JJ says, anger evident in her voice.

“Except their third victim, Payton Fuller, is the only surviving one. She is currently being cared for at the hospital and willing to talk but doctors are ordering that she fully recovers from the drugs before any law enforcement can speak with her.” Lucy continues. “The two previous deceased victims was a sophomore med student, Mitchie Klein and a junior, Lacey Smith who was studying to be a preschool teacher after her two tours with the Marines in Afghanistan.”

The room fell silent as the team looked around at each other. “Soooo who’s in charge?” Luke says breaking the silence. Everyone looked over at Hotch.

“Me?” He says raising an eyebrow. “I can’t be in charge. I don’t work for the Bureau anymore.”

“You will for now.” Cruz says as he walks into the room. “I have placed Agent Prentiss on personal leave to tend to her mother, so until further notice, I am reinstating Aaron Hotchner as temporary Unit Chief until Emily comes back.”

“Thank gosh it isn’t me this time.” JJ says sighing in relief.

“Alright well..” Hotch says closing his case file. “Wheels up in thirty. I’ll meet you all the airport, just have to grab a few things.” He says as everyone disbands. Catching up to Lucy in the hall in front of her office he grabs hold of her arm. “I guess I get to see how well you really do.” He says.

“Yes well, I’m still as tough as I was when we first met.” Lucy says smirking at him.

“Well then let’s get to it. I’ll see you on the jet.”

“See ya then, boss.”

“Cruz reinstated Hotch?” Emily asks.

“Yes, yes he did.” Lucy says as she walks around the conference room table laying out update files on their three victims.

“Can he do that?”

“Apparently so.. The director approved him as a temporary fill-in until you come back.”

“Well keep me in the loop. I’ll call you later. My mother’s being discharged so I have to get her to your place as soon as possible so my dad can take her home.”

“Back to Italy?”

“No.. He’s bringing her to their place in Spring Valley until the doctor approves her to fly back to Rome.”

“Good, I agree with the doctor. While you’re at my place, be sure to let Anca know she’s welcome to stay there until I can find her a flight back to Romania.”

“Will do. Stay safe, alright?”

“I will.” Lucy says before hanging up. Hotch walks into the room with Rossi. “Was Payton able to give any information about her attacker?” She asks both men.

“Bits and pieces right now. Her doctor says that her memory will be back to normal soon, so until then all we have are the two prior victims.”

“Well I did get the rape kits reports back from Payton and the two others. All three kits tested positive for the same DNA. Male DNA was found in each of them.” Lucy says as she picks up a report from the table.

“So this is a serial rapist.” Rossi says. “Hard to deny it. Same place, same display, same drugs, same DNA.”

“That is true but remember The Angel Maker in Lower Canton, Ohio?” Hotch says. “A female was using the DNA of a deceased serial rapist-killer.”

“But a female wouldn’t have been able to carry all three victims that far of a distance without dropping them at least once or twice.” Rossi says as he sits down at the table. “But the question is... Why?”

“The question we always know how to answer.” Hotch says. “But there isn’t much more we can do without Payton’s memory.”

“I don’t even know where do start first.” Lucy says resting her chin in the palm of her hand. “All we have is that there is a constant MO and male causing all of this.”

“Well until Payton is ready to talk again, go on to the hotel and get some rest.” Hotch says. “You’ve been on your feet too much today.”

Lucy rolls her eyes as she stands up from the table. “You’re worse than Emily.” She starts to head for the door when she feels a sharp pain in her stomach.

“Are you okay?” Rossi says as he turns around his chair.

“Lucy..” Hotch says.

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Lucy says. “It’s normal.”

“Braxton Hicks?” Hotch questions.

Lucy nods her head. “This isn’t the first.” She says. “But I’ll be fine. As long as I don’t hit five than there’s nothing to worry about. So far I’ve only been having one a day.”

“Do you want me to drive you to the hotel?” Rossi offers.

“No, no. I’ll be fine.” Lucy says waving her hand around in dismissal. Reaching the car she started the engine when a knock came on the window making her jump. Rolling down the window, she saw Spencer. “Hey.. Find anything from the security footage?”

“Yes we did. It’s all sent to Garcia. She might able to give us an idea on what to do next.” He says. “Where are you headed?”

“Back to the hotel. Hotch wants me to rest.”

“You look drained, everything okay?” Spencer asks leaning on the door of the SUV.

“Just had a contraction so it’s good that I’m going back to the hotel. Stay off my feet for a while.”

“Move over, I’m driving.”

“What? Spencer, no. You need to be inside working on this case.”

Spencer shakes his head. “Oh no, they can survive without me for a few hours. You’re more important to me right now. Now move over to the other seat.” Knowing that it was pointless to argue with him, she moves over to the passenger seat. Spencer climbs into the SUV and drives away from the station. Reaching the hotel room she felt another contraction. Doubling over the bed she sits down and presses her hand to her stomach. “Hey hey hey, just breath.” Spencer says.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. These are nothing.” Lucy says.

“Luce!” Spencer says pointing to the floor by her foot. Lucy looks down to see blood staining the carpet. “We need to get you to the hospital.” He says picking her up from the bed.

“I came as soon as I got your call.” Emily says as she rushes down the hall. “Where is she? What happened?”

“She’s right in there but she’s resting..”

“And the baby?”

Spencer clears his throat as he looks down at the floor. “Ummm.... That’s where it gets tough..”

“Oh don’t tell me..” Emily says. Spencer nods his head. “We thought it was just braxton kicks and that’s what her doctor even said. But then she started bleeding so I brought her here and I haven’t seen her for two hours and she’s been there after the surgery and I still haven’t been in there yet. I just.. I don’t know what to do. What do I say?”

Emily sighs as she walks Spencer over to the chairs against the hallway wall. “You just have to be there for her. Sometimes just holding her is better than saying any words.” Spencer buries his face in his hands. Emily rubs his back. “And we’re all here to help you both get through this.”

“Well..” Spencer says as he gets up from the chair. “I’d better get in there. See how she’s doing. Want to join?”

“I didn’t get a red eye out here for nothing.” Emily says as she stands up and follows him into the room.

“Luce?” Spencer calls as he steps into the room. Lucy kept her back turned to them. She didn’t want to talk to anyone, not even her own boyfriend. She felt the bed lower behind her. “How’re you feeling?” He asks.

“How do you think I’m feeling?” Lucy says wiping away a stray tear from her cheek.

Spencer glances over at Emily. She nods her head towards Lucy. He lays his hand on her shoulder but she only shrugged it off. “Luce...”

“Don’t touch me...”

“But Lucy--”

Lucy gets off the bed hoping the bed would be the force standing between them. “H-How can you touch me after what just happened, Spencer? I-I-I mean, the baby. Why would you want to touch the body that lost your daughter?” Her eyes started to water up. Rushing around the bed, Spencer threw his arms around her as she started to cry. “It’s not fair! Why me? Everything was going so good!”

“I know, I know.” He says holding her tighter. “But we can get through this. I know we can.”

Lucy pulls away from Spencer. “I just want to be alone.”

Emily walks over placing her hands on Spencer’s shoulder from behind. “And this when you should give her some space to collect her thoughts and relax herself.”

Spencer looked at Lucy as she stood by the window, her arms wrapped around her waist. “Come on.” Emily whispers. “Let’s go get some coffee so you can clear your head too.”

“I heard you did a fantastic job on your first case with the BAU.” Emily said nudging Hotch’s side.

He chuckles shaking his head. “It’s like riding a bicycle.” He says making Emily smile. “So I was filled in on Spencer and Lucy..”

“Uh yeah...” Emily says as she sits down at her desk. “It’s going to be some time before they come back. Would you like to stay with the team? We could an extra set of hands.”

“Tempting..”

“Well..”

“But I’ll have to pass.”

“Aw come on. I know I’m back a little sooner than planned but my dad has taken over my mother’s every want and need, even though he’s been doing that for over fifty years. But..” She says shaking her head as she stands up from the desk chair. “I don’t want you to just go away again.”

“You see me almost every day.” Hotch chuckles.

“But we don’t work together anymore.” She says walking up to him and wrapping her arms around his neck. “Please? For me?”

“I don’t have revenge to unleash onto anyone.”

“Oh funny..” Emily says rolling her eyes as she pulls away from Hotch. “How someone can be so sick in their minds still baffles me! I mean.. He got away twice, almost three times! Boy if Lucy wasn’t going through this she’d probably unleash hell on him and frankly I wouldn’t stop her either.”

Hotch sighs as he sits down on the couch. “I really miss you guys.. All of you.. But I have Jack--”

“Jack is in high school--”

“Which is the most crucial time of any teenagers life.”

Emily huffs as she crosses her arms over her chest. “He’ll survive, I promise. Plus, isn’t Jessica still in town? I’m sure that she can stay with him if we’re ever called out on a case, not only can she but i’m sure she’d be happy to.”

“You just won’t let it go, will you?” He says standing up and walking over to her.

“Not until you say yes. I’m sure Cruz will be happy to make your temporary stay a little longer.” Emily says as she fixes Hotch’s tie. “Please?”

“You, miss stubborn, need to quit that.”

“Well for twelve years, you should know how to combat this.” Emily says before pecking his lips before going over to her desk. “But if you don’t want to, then I guess we’ll struggle short handed.”

“Not this too..” Hotch groans rubbing his temples. “You really know how to get under my skin.”

“And on top too.” Emily says shooting him a wink. “But you’re not going to stay, then don’t forget to shut the door on your way out.”

“Can I have Lucy’s office until she gets back?”

Emily looks up at him, a smile spreading across her face. Pulling open the top drawer of the desk, she pulled out a set of keys. “Big one unlocks the door, the second opens the file cabinet. I keep a spare just in case.” She says before tossing the two keys to him. “Thank you.”

“You owe me.” He says as he exits her office.

So I’m sorry.. I really am.. It was tough for me to write this but if you know me, you know that I write mostly whatever comes to my head.

If you liked this part than please be sure to leave it some love and feedback! :)

Oh.. and i had to bring hotch back. I missed him.

Thank you! :)

[beige-eclipse]

Bitty Drabbles 47

(I should not be allowed in pet stores if I have the ability to actually adopt animals, because you bet I’ll leave with something XDDD Why do you think the first thing I did when I discovered online adoptions this happened? Thanks again @vex-bittys and @dragonessloves, I love my children. I hope you enjoy the second part of the recollection of the day where I had no self control. X3)

The bettas, they were so gorgeous! So many different shades of so many different colors! There were so many different fin types, from twintails to half moons. I was mesmerized. I looked at every single fish, gushing over each of its defining traits. Instead of being jealous, I think Crim shared in my enthusiasm, pointing them out.

Of course, we looked through the males first, but then when we got to the females, there was one that I just couldn’t tear my gaze away from. Of course, being a female betta, her fins weren’t as long or luxurious, but her coloration was gorgeous. She was a halfmoon, so her fins ruffled out elegantly.

Her body and fins were a deep, but shining, navy blue, but the tips of her fins, they were the most eye-catching shade of red that faded right into the blue seamlessly. I picked up her painfully small container to examine her further. The store had to be feeding these fish bloodworms for their colors to be so vibrant, and I just couldn’t seem to put her down.

She was pretty cheap for a halfmoon, even if she was female, but I think Crim liked her too. He actually crawled from his spot in my scarf to climb my arm and examine her in her container up close. Before I could put her back down, Jay came over looking dejected.

“She got adopted. The kitten I wanted, she got adopted before I could get here.” I walked over and patted his back with my free hand.

“I’m sorry, Jay. Do you wanna look at the other cats they have?” He shrugged and I took that as an ok, so I grasped his hand in mine and walked him back over to the adoption area, fish still in hand. When we got there, the woman in charge of watching the cats in their enclosures noticed the fish and had me place it at her desk before entering. I felt that that was fair.

Each cat had its own description. The kittens all seemed to be highly energized. I let the woman know about Kin and Crim. As long as they weren’t part of the store’s stalk, they were ok to be in there. She thought it was a good idea that we’d brought them, as she agreed it might be a hazard to bring a cat home if you didn’t know if it would attack other already established pets.

Jay went off on his own, looking at all the cats they had available. He kept his eyes on the kittens. I went over to the older cats. You never knew what you’d be getting with kittens, but older cats already had their personalities mostly worked out. I made sure to hold up Crim to see the cats’ reactions to him. Any who seemed like they wanted to pounce I moved away from. It was safe since they were all in cages.

There were only two older cats who seemed mellow enough around Crim. They glanced over and just went back to lazing about. Both had been there a while and probably didn’t have much hope of leaving any time soon. The male, Big Jack, was all black. He was a big boy and his description reminded me of the corny’s from back when I adopted Crim.

The girl, she was a gray tabby named Tilly. She spent her time gazing out of her enclosure and through the glass that separated her from the rest of the store. Her paper said that she hadn’t taken well to being put in the small cage, but back in the foster home, she was a cuddle bug. I interrupted Jay’s search through the kittens to suggest the two.

Jay waved me off at first, but after going through each of the kittens’ bios, none seemed to be what he was looking for in a cat. Yes, they were cute, but they also had boundless energy. We wouldn’t be able to keep up with them, and in boredom, they would undoubtedly tear up the house. I was finally able to wrench Jay away from their area and pull him over to the adult cats.

He didn’t want Big Jack. Even if he was super cuddly, males had a chance to spray, and neither of us wanted that. The woman was surprised when we asked to see Tilly, but he complied and opened up the cage. It took a little coaxing, but once Tilly realized that we wanted to pet her and show her attention, she came right over, rubbing her face against us. That was all Jay needed to fall in love.

Papers were signed, things were bought, and we soon had a cat to our name. Then I remembered the fish, going to the desk to pick her up. I held her up tentatively to Jay. He chuckled lightly at me. He may not have had enough money to get Tilly himself, but he did have enough to buy my fish. I still hadn’t gotten my paycheck yet, so I was over the moon.

We were both satisfied as we walked back to the car. Jay had a new cat and I had a new fish. Crim had pet Tilly’s fur, against the wishes of a tense Kin, but once Kin saw that Tilly was a gentle giant, he relented. He still glared and kept a close eye, but Tilly didn’t know he was being hostile, so no harm done. Crim stared at the fish as we were driven home.

“Name?” Crim was pointing to the fish. I hummed and stared at her.

“I think I’ll call her Undyne.” Crim smiled. He seemed to like that name. I thought it fit too. Jay and his dad spoke about Tilly the whole drive back. I was just super excited about Undyne. With how Crim stared, I’m sure he was too.

First Previous Next Tilly and Undyne

[jtrahan]

January 30th, 2018

It was a slow night at the store, and at the end of it I got to take home most of an unsold pizza, which I was very happy about; partly because I was glad to have the pizza, but mostly because throwing away perfectly good food leaves a permanent black mark on your soul, and I already have too many of those. Snow was falling as I walked across the parking lot, lazy flakes drifting gently down through the glow of streetlights. That’s my favorite kind of weather, though I don’t often say so. Telling people that you love winter can make you sound like a real asshole.

On my way home a group of skinhead deer with the words “Wrecking Crew” shaved into their fur stopped my car on the shoulder of an icy curve. The biggest deer came over and tapped on the window with his hoof, and I rolled it down. “Here’s how it is,” said the deer. Its breath steamed in their air, and its eyes were wild. “You’re gonna drive your car back up to the top of that hill, and then you’re gonna floor it all the way down here, and we’re gonna jump in front of you, to see if we can make it. Ya dig?”

“I’d rather not,” I said, trying to be polite.

The deer snorted at me and rolled its eyes madly. The other deer started shrieking and banging on the car with their antlers. Things were getting dicey. On the driver’s side sun visor in my car there hangs a little silver charm, shaped like an angel, with the words “Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly” etched into it; and I reached up and grabbed the charm and spiked it onto the ground through the open window. There was an explosion of light, blasting snow off of the trees all around us; and in the next instant my guardian angel was in the light, and it was clothed in the light, and it was the light, a flaming sword dangling from its hands. The angel shook itself like a wet dog, sending droplets of light spraying in all directions, and then it turned to the deer, and spoke. Presumably it was speaking deer language, because I didn’t understand a word of it, but the deer scattered immediately, turning tail and bounding away across the snowy fields, disappearing into the dark.

The angel stood in the road, unmoving. A little puddle of melted snow was forming around the tip of its flaming sword.

“Thanks,” I said.

“No worries, bro,” said the angel. It floated over to the car and sat down daintily on the hood, turning around several times first, like a cat. As usual I couldn’t tell whether it was male or female; it seemed to be flickering between the two depending on how I held my head, the shape of its bones shifting with kaleidoscopic grace. It was beautiful. I wanted to tell it so but didn’t know how.

“You know,” said the angel. It paused. “I'm not judging, you understand. Not at all. But you know you’ve only got a couple of these left, right? Most people try to stretch them out ‘til retirement, at least.”

“I know,” I said. “I’m trying. I just...keep getting myself into these situations, I guess.”

“Oh, well,” said the angel. It patted me on the back with an arm that had at least three elbows. Glowing feathers brushed my hair. “Like I said, no worries. It’s a tough world out there. Glad I could have your back this time, at least.”

I felt like something was moving inside my chest, bright and strange as the angel itself. I had no idea how to deal with it.

“Hey,” I said. “You want some pizza?”

The angel beamed at me. Light came out of its mouth. “I would love some,” it said.

We sat there on the hood of car, eating pizza, the glow of the headlights glittering against the gently falling snow.