#Five policemen

[rightnewshindi]

सैन्य अधिकारी को पूरी रात जेल में रखा बंद, महिला रिश्तेदार के अर्धनग्न कर पीटा; इंस्पेक्टर समेत पांच पुलिसकर्मी निलंबित

Odisha News: भुवनेश्वर कमिश्नरेट पुलिस के तहत आने वाले भरतपुर थाना में सेना के मेजर गुरुवंत सिंह और उनकी रिश्तेदार अंकिता प्रधान को प्रताड़ित करने के मामले में पुलिस डीजी वाई.बी.खुरानिया ने थाना के तत्कालीन इंस्पेक्टर दीनकृष्ण मिश्र के साथ 5 पुलिस कर्मियों को निलंबित कर दिया है। जानकारी के मुताबिक, इंस्पेक्टर मिश्र के अलावा एसआई वैशालिनी पंडा, एएसआई सलीलमयी साहू, सागरिका रथ और सिपाही बलराम…

[somegirlblr]

I once again have three series lined up on Netflix (Gotham, Wednesday and Naruto) so I can watch series for several hours without the episodes blurring together. Usually watch about four episodes of Naruto in one go, but I think that approximately lines up with one Manga issue

If they ever pump sediment out of the harbour in Gotham its going to be half skeletons

[kittyit]

"The suffragettes are instructive. Their tactic of choice was property destruction. Decades of patient pressure on the Parliament to give women the vote had yielded nothing, and so in 1903, under the slogan 'Deeds not words, the Women's Social and Political Union was founded. Five years later, two WSPU members undertook the first militant action: breaking windowpanes in the prime minister's residence. One of them told the police she would bring a bomb the next time. Fed up with their own fruitless deputations to Parliament, the suffragettes soon specialised in 'the argument of the broken pane', sending hundreds of well-dressed women down streets to smash every window they passed. In the most concentrated volley, in March 1912, Emmeline Pankhurst and her crews brought much of central London to a standstill by shattering the fronts of jewellers, silversmiths, Hamleys toy shop and dozens of other businesses. They also torched letterboxes around the capital. Shocked Londoners saw pillars filled with paperthrowing up flames, the work of some activist having thrown in a parcel soaked in kerosene and a lit match.

Militancy was at the core of suffragette identity: 'To be militant in some form, or other, is a moral obligation, Pankhurst lectured. 'It is a duty which every woman will owe her own conscience and self-respect, to women who are less fortunate than she is herself, and to all who are to come after her.' The latest full-body portrait of the movement, Diane Atkinson's Rise Up, Women!, gives an encyclopedic listing of militant actions: suffragettes forcing the prime minister out of his car and dousing him with pepper, hurling a stone at the fanlight above Winston Churchill's door, setting upon statues and paintings with hammers and axes, planting bombs on sites along the routes of royal visits, fighting policemen with staves, charging against hostile politicians with dogwhips, breaking the windows in prison cells. Such deeds went hand in hand with mass mobilisation. The suffragettes put up mammoth rallies, ran their own presses, went on hunger strikes: deploying the gamut of non-violent and militant action.

After the hope of attaining the vote by constitutional means was dashed once more in early 1913, the movement switched gears. In a systematic campaign of arson, the suffragettes set fire to or blew up villas, tea pavilions, boathouses, hotels, haystacks, churches, post offices, aque-ducts, theatres and a liberal range of other targets aroundthe country. Over the course of a year and a half, the WSPU claimed responsibility for 337 such attacks. Few culprits were apprehended. Not a single life was lost; only empty buildings were set ablaze. The suffragettes took great pains to avoid injuring people. But they considered the situation urgent enough to justify incendiarism - votes for women, Pankhurst explained, were of such pressing importance that we had to discredit the Government and Parliament in the eyes of the world; we had to spoil English sports, hurt businesses, destroy valuable property, demor-alise the world of society, shame the churches, upset the whole orderly conduct of life. Some attacks probably went unclaimed. One historian suspects that the suffragettes were behind one of the most spectacular blazes of the period: a fire in a Tyneside coal wharf, in which the facilities for loading coal were completely gutted. They did, however, claim responsibility for the burning of motor cars and a steam yacht."

- How to Blow Up a Pipeline, pg 40-42

[infiniteglitterfall]

I guess this might be why the UK seemed to go so antisemitic so quickly

I'm researching the 1947 pogroms in the UK. (Actually, I'm researching all the pogroms and massacres of Jews in the past 200 years. Which today led me to discover that there were pogroms in the UK in 1947.)

From an article on "The Postwar Revival of British Fascism," all emphasis mine:

Given the rising antisemitism and widespread ignorance about Zionism [in the UK in 1947], fascists were easily able to conflate Zionist paramilitary attacks with Judaism in their speeches, meaning British Jews came to be seen as complicit in violence in Palestine.

Bertrand Duke Pile, a key member of Hamm’s League, informed a cheering crowd that “the Jews have no right to Palestine and the Jews have no right to the power which they hold in this country of ours.” Denouncing Zionism as a way to introduce a wider domestic antisemitic stance was common to many speakers at fascist events and rallies. Fascists hid their ideology and ideological antisemitism behind the rhetorical facade of preaching against paramilitary violence in Palestine.

One of the league’s speakers called for retribution against “the Jews” for the death of British soldiers in Palestine. This was, he told his audience, hardly an antisemitic expression. “Is it antisemitism to denounce the murderers of your own flesh and blood in Palestine?” he asked his audience. Many audience members, fascist or not, may well have felt the speaker had a point. ...[The photo of two British sergeants hanged by the Irgun in retaliation for the Brits hanging three of their members] promptly made numerous appearances at fascist meetings, often attached to the speaker’s platform. In at least one meeting, several British soldiers on leave from serving in Palestine attended Hamm’s speech, giving further legitimacy to his remarks. And with soldiers and policemen in Palestine showing increasing signs of overt antisemitism as a result of their experiences, the director of public prosecutions warned that the fascists might receive a steady stream of new recruits.

MI5, the U.K. domestic security service, noted with some alarm that “as a general rule, the crowd is now sympathetic and even spontaneously enthusiastic.” Opposition, it was noted in the same Home Office Bulletin of 1947, “is only met when there is an organized group of Jews or Communists in the audience.”

The major opposition came from the 43 Group, formed by the British-Jewish ex-paratrooper Gerry Flamberg and his friends in September 1946 to fight the fascists using the only language they felt fascists understood — violence. The group disrupted fascist meetings for two purposes: to get them shut down by the police for disorder, and to discourage attendance in the future by doling out beatings with fists and blunt instruments. By the summer of 1947, the group had around 500 active members who took part in such activities. Among these was a young hairdresser by the name of Vidal Sassoon, who would often turn up armed with his hairdressing scissors.

The 43 Group had considerable success with these actions, but public anger was spreading faster than they could counter the hate that accompanied it. The deaths of Martin and Paice had touched a nerve with the populace. On Aug. 1, 1947, the beginning of the bank holiday weekend and two days after the deaths of the sergeants, anti-Jewish rioting began in Liverpool. The violence lasted for five days. Across the country, the scene was repeated: London, Manchester, Hull, Brighton and Glasgow all saw widespread violence. Isolated instances were also recorded in Plymouth, Birmingham, Cardiff, Swansea, Newcastle and Davenport. Elsewhere, antisemitic graffiti and threatening phone calls to Jewish places of worship stood in for physical violence. Jewish-owned shops had their windows smashed, Jewish homes were targeted, an attempt was made to burn down Liverpool Crown Street Synagogue while a wooden synagogue in Glasgow was set alight. In a handful of cases, individuals were personally intimidated or assaulted. A Jewish man was threatened with a pistol in Northampton and an empty mine was placed in a Jewish-owned tailor shop in Davenport.

And an important addendum:

I've read a whole bunch of articles about the pogroms in Liverpool, Manchester, Salford, Eccles, Glasgow, etc.

Not one of them has mentioned that the Irgun, though clearly a terrorist group, was formed in response to 18 years of openly antisemitic terrorism, including multiple incredibly violent massacres. Or that it consistently acted in response to the murders of Jewish civilians, not on the offensive. Or that at this point, militant Arab Nationalist groups with volunteers and arms from the Arab League countries had been attacking Jewish and mixed Arab-Jewish neighborhoods for months.

I just think the "Jewish militants had been attacking the British occupiers" angle is incredibly Anglocentric.

Yeah, they were attacking the British occupiers. But also, that's barely the tip of the iceberg.

Everyone involved hated the Brits at this point. If only al-Husseini and his ilk had hated the Brits more than they hated the Jews, Britain could at least have united them by giving them a common enemy.

[nikidontsurf]

GEORGE HARRISON and PATTIE BOYD leave Kinfauns to go to the Walton and Esher Magistrates Court, March 18, 1969.

  She was at Kinfauns, their bungalow home in Esher, Surrey, playing genial hostess to a group of visitors from Scotland Yard’s drug squad. She recalled the events in her memoir Wonderful Tonight: ‘Suddenly I heard a lot of cars on the gravel in the drive – far too many for it to be just George. My first thought was that maybe Paul and Linda wanted to party after the wedding. Then the bell rang. I opened the door to find a policewoman and a dog standing outside. At that moment the back-doorbell rang and I thought, Oh, my God, this is so scary! I’m surrounded by police.

The man in charge introduced himself as Detective Sergeant Pilcher, from Scotland Yard, and handed me a piece of paper. I knew why he was there: he thought we had drugs, and he said he was going to search the house. In they came, about eight policemen through the front, another five or six through the back and there were more in the greenhouse. The policewoman said she would follow me while the others searched and didn’t let me out of her sight. I said, ‘Why are you doing this? We don’t have any drugs. I’m going to phone my husband.’ I rang George at Apple. ‘George, it’s your worst nightmare. Come home.’

The officers clearly thought the Harrisons would be at Paul’s wedding. The timing was not a coincidence. (...) Pilcher had already busted Mick Jagger, Brian Jones and Donovan, as well as Lennon and Yoko the previous year. National treasures or not, The Beatles were no longer protected from the law. - ‘And in the End: The Last Days of The Beatles’ Ken McNab

  I was with George in the office when that call came through. It was the end of a long day at Apple. Pattie rang and said, ‘They’re here – the law is here,’ and we knew what to do by then. We phoned Release’s lawyer, Martin Polden. We had a routine: he came round to Apple, and we all went down by limousine to Esher, where the police were well ensconced by then – and I stood bail for George and Pattie. They went off to the police station. We were all extremely indignant because it was the day of Paul’s wedding, a poor way to celebrate it. The police can be so nice.

George was calm about it. George is always calm – he sometimes gets a grump, but he’s always calm – and he was extremely calm that night, and very, very indignant. He went into the house and looked around at all these men and one woman, and said something like. ‘Birds have nests and animals have holes, but man has nowhere to lay his head.’ – ‘Oh, really, sir? Sorry to tell you we have to…’ and then into the police routine.

That’s how calm and how cross he was, because, as he said, he kept his dope in the box where dope went, and his joss sticks went in the joss stick box. He was a man who ran an orderly late-Sixties household, with beautiful things and some nice stuff to smoke.

 In my opinion he didn’t have to be busted because he was doing nobody any harm. I still believe what they did was an intrusion into personal life. - Derek Taylor in ‘The Beatles Anthology’

[evermoredeluxe]

How Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Took Over the Entire World

By Chris Willman

By Alissa Gao for Variety

On the morning that Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” is about to begin a three-night stand in Dublin, the older gentleman taking charge of my passport at airport customs has clearly had his fill of Swifties, probably processing them by the hundreds already today. When I reveal myself to be one too — despite being arguably the wrong gender, inarguably old and lacking a telltale “Lover” mascara star over my right eye — his disdain is palpable. Suddenly, I’m getting way more screening questions than anyone not on a watch list should. “What do you like about her?” he sneers, peering up over specs.

This is probably the wrong time for me to point out Swift’s Irish heritage, or to assert that she is this generation’s James Joyce. (The original king of the Easter eggs, right?) I wouldn’t really go that far — I’m only on record as doing my best to certify her as this century’s Beatles. Trying to figure out how to answer him, the past 18 years of extolling Swift in print flash before my eyes. I end up murmuring the bare minimum: “Um, her songwriting.” This seems to disturb him further. He snaps back: “Aren’t they all the same song” — a slight pause, and I know what’s coming next — “about her breakups?” Then, abruptly, he stamps me through, sparing me a detour to Interpol for more grilling.

In the cab into town, the driver is blasting a local talk-radio personality sharing his dismay about the fans of an awful superstar taking over his country. The host reads an email sent in from a hater who says, “A year ago, when tickets went on sale, my partner and I made a reservation to take our kids out of the country this Friday morning. … Thank you for creating a safe space with your show.” I start to wonder if Swift might have met her match at the Cliffs of Moher.

But from my drop-off forward, the next three days are like living in a Swift-topia. The mile and a half to Aviva Stadium each night is like Disneyland when it shuts its doors early for an affinity group. Whether stopping in the pubs or walking through the charming neighborhood of Victorian brick homes adjoining the fancy new stadium, there’s that warm feeling of people who are united by one quality: They are all super in touch with their feelings — or else they wouldn’t be Swift fans. And they all are happy to stop on the street or over pints to talk about poetical expression. (Well, except for the occasional taciturn, invariably straight young male who has signified his supportive-plus-one status by wearing a jersey bearing the name of Swift’s Super Bowl beau, Travis Kelce.)

So it is that I end up chatting with a middle-aged gay man in a sequin-covered shirt whose female companion whispers to me, while he steps away to trade friendship bracelets with a 10-year-old girl and her mum, that Swift’s music just helped him through a difficult breakup. The girl then runs off to trade her homemade bracelets with a pair of high-helmeted Dublin policemen loaded up to their own elbows with friendship swag — unexpected accessories for long arms of the law.

All the stories about American Swifties swarming overseas to catch “The Eras Tour” turn out to be true: You couldn’t swing a neon golf club around here without hitting a Yank. Approximately one out of every five fans I approach is visiting from the States — and the jubilation they’re feeling about the night’s impending concert is compounded by the fact that nearly all of them financed a European vacation and a concert ticket for roughly the same amount they would have paid on a secondary ticketing site for a typical four-figure ticket to one of last year’s predatorily repriced U.S. shows.

Remember the venerable stereotype of the Ugly Americans, brusquely trampling over refined Europeans in their travels? Thanks to Taylor Swift, who has a gift for laying out global welcome mats, this is the summer of the Spangly American.

At the stadium on night one, just down the row from me are a group of millennials from New Jersey, several in glam unitards inspired by the “Lover” or “1989” portions of the career-spanning show and looking like they were costumed by Swift’s own designer, with fake jewel-encrusted microphones to match. I ask how many hours went into perfecting these nearly pro-grade outfits.

“About 80 hours for mine,” says Megan McLaughlin. “Hers probably longer,” she adds, nodding toward one of her sisters, Margo Steinberg. “She knows all the glues and the best gems.” Indeed, confirms Steinberg, “I was working on mine since January. And, yes, I did quit my job to finish it!” She adds, when I ask if she cares to share any secrets to a particularly good look, “You have to use the B-7000 glue.” (A third sister, Amelia McLaughlin, admits she resorted to buying her spangly dress off Etsy — “I was doing a PhD, but I had to match these girls’ enthusiasm” — while a fourth, Carolyn McLaughlin, skipped the glitter and went for a red dress that matches Swift’s from the “I Bet You Think About Me” video.)

Certainly, there is an element of cosplay to many of the fans’ outfits. Some have seen footage of the new segment Swift added to the tour beginning in April 2024 — devoted to her most recent album, the 31-song “Tortured Poets Department” — and have managed to manufacture gowns that look like they’re made of paper and feature lyric excerpts printed on them in script, à la Swift’s custom-made Vivienne Westwood dress. I meet a group of American women who became friends as literature majors in college who have “Tortured Poets”-themed outfits, one duplicating the Westwood dress and the other with handmade printouts of the latest album’s lyrics pinned all over her black dress, as if she were literally pulling pages out of Swift’s playbook.

It’s the devotion to lyrics, even more than glitter, that is most impressive about the bespoke outfits fans have concocted for the occasion. There are scores and scores of Swifties wearing homemade T-shirts — sometimes singular, sometimes matching with a friend, like walking Burma-Shave signs. Some of the messages are obvious, like the dozens of laddies wearing “It’s me, hi, I’m the husband/boyfriend/father, it’s me” shirts. (Bet that seemed really original at one time.) But a lot of them refer to more obscure songs or stanzas, as if every nearby street or stadium loge section is full of human Easter eggs, begging to be unpacked. It’s hard to think of any other superstar in the history of stadium tours who could have inspired as much fan-crafted clothing rooted in the power of words.

Combos of middle-aged mothers and their teen or 20-something daughters abound; some of them have seized on Swift’s mentions of her own mother, Andrea, to come up with their T-shirt ideas. On Lansdowne Road, I talk to a mum whose red-on-black shirt says, “Had to listen to all this drama,” accompanied by a daughter bearing the legend, “And here’s to my mama.” (This is a reference to Swift’s song “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.”)

Later, in a stadium Guinness line, I chat up a pair of thirsty locals, the daughter’s shirt reading “I call my mom, she said …,” with the mom’s shirt completing the thought: “It was for the best.” (Damn it, I had to Google to recall that’s from a “1989” Vault track that came out last year.) I ask the daughter if she had to explain to her mom what she was wearing. “She’s 52,” she replies. “I don’t think she knows.”

Age is really no guarantor of not getting it — the popular #SwiftieOver50 hashtag on X proves that. Although outnumbered, plenty of older people are unaccompanied by a minor, or by anyone who has been a minor in the past 20 years. I approach a middle-aged couple, Jean Sebastian Conley and Natasha Gagne, again bidden by their matching shirts — “Who’s Taylor Swift?” and “Who’s Travis Kelce?” They turn out to be French Canadians who found their 206-euro SRO tickets to be a steal compared with the extravagant resale prices they briefly considered back home after being shut out of the initial on-sale. I ask what attracted them to Swift since, unlike so many others here, they didn’t grow up with her.

“I really fell in love with her with the ‘Folklore’ album,” Conley says, referring to her low-key Grammy-winning album recorded during the early months of the pandemic. “I think different audiences and older audiences found her through that and ‘Evermore’ because they were more singer-songwriter, a little bit rougher indie music, and that’s what we like most. So that’s how I got hooked.” For her part, Gagne says, “I like everything she represents. And when she redid all her masters, that’s where I thought she was a lady boss.”

It’s a reminder that, for however many mini-narratives Swift packs into the three hours and 20 minutes of an “Eras” show, there are really four or five years of backstory that feed into the audience’s shared awareness. When she sings the ominous ballad “My Tears Ricochet,” accompanied by a coven of stone-faced dancers, at least some fans will understand it as a distant reflection of her very public feelings about the men she considers her business bêtes noires, Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta, who bought and sold (respectively) the rights to her first six albums, spawning much vitriol as well as four “Taylor’s Version” rerecorded albums to date.

When the dancers put their grins back on, Swift plays an ebullient excerpt of a very recent “Poets” bonus track, “So High School,” which every person in the crowd will know is inspired by Kelce. There are some breakup songs of recent vintage too — yes, Mr. Customs Man! — like “The Smallest Man in the World,” which may or may not have cost Matty Healy, the 1975 frontman and former Swift paramour, a night of sleep.

The whole tour is themed around not just the newer records but the rerecordings that have made every older album in her catalog feel improbably fresh. It was, quite possibly, the single most baller move in the history of the record industry … and led to the career-retrospective concept for what is already unquestionably the biggest tour in the history of popular music.

Any discussion of the charms of fandom isn’t meant to forestall discussion of “The Eras Tour” as big business. The numbers are fuzzy because Swift’s camp does not release grosses from her shows, unlike nearly every other artist at the stadium or arena level. Even when the tour wraps after 20 months on Dec. 8 in Vancouver, it seems likely those numbers will continue to be guarded with a zeal on par with the government of North Korea’s. Many industry experts believe the gross will approach or even surpass $2 billion.

What is known for certain — even without a confirmation from Swift World — is that she broke the all-time tour-gross figure when she hit the $1 billion mark, whenever exactly that might have been. The two trade publications that specialize in the touring industry have slightly differing estimates: Billboard calculated a cumulative gross of approximately $900 million when she took a break at the end of 2023, figuring that she would crack $1 billion shortly into the tour’s resumption in April, while Pollstar estimated that she had passed $1 billion by the conclusion of last year. Any way you guesstimate it, Swift took less than a year to break the previous record of $939.1 million, which Elton John grossed with his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour across nearly three years of shows.

One source close to the production said early in the “Eras Tour” era that her average gross each night is $14 million. Others believe that is a highly conservative estimate, with a possible total that on at least some nights edges closer to $17 million. One remarkable aspect is that this does not include the revenue from any inflated resale tickets — which, as anyone who has tried to get tickets through Vivid Seats or StubHub knows, mostly have gone for several times their face value. It was little publicized, but Swift had “dynamic pricing” turned off for her ticket sales, possibly to avoid the controversies Bruce Springsteen encountered when the face value on some of his tickets leaped to the four-figure range upon their first sale. Swift left money on the table by not participating in the scalping of her own tickets, which had an average price of around $230 and topped out at $499, excepting VIP packages, which zenithed at $899 — all well short of what some other superstars ask nowadays. Of course, neither Argentina nor anyone at Wembley Stadium ahead of Swift’s opening night performance in June will be crying for her when she’s in reach of $2 billion without the resale inflation … not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars in merch.

(This is extraordinary also because Swift hasn’t done any press to promote the tour, except for when she was selected as Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in December. But she doesn’t need to — the tour is constantly being celebrated on social media with every outfit change. And it’s also become so huge, it’s featured more A-list sightings than the Oscars, from Julia Roberts to Tom Cruise to Stevie Nicks, who had the surprise song “You’re on Your Own, Kid” dedicated to her in Dublin.)

Benson Boone, whose “Beautiful Things” is the most-streamed song of 2024 in the U.S. and the world, says he felt dwarfed when performing as the opening act at one of Swift’s seven shows at London’s Wembley Stadium. He has forever committed to memory the exact attendance figure he was given for the night: “89,497,” he says. “Just her stage alone is bigger than anything I’ve ever seen — 300 feet of it!” he says. “I took in every moment. It was cool for me to experience another artist’s world and learn from it. I want to work that hard and be the captain of my ship.”

Although it’s maddening to a media that likes official box office reports and can’t get them, it’s easy to see the wisdom in not flaunting those figures if you’re a superstar artist who counts on being seen as relatable. Swift certainly is proud of breaking records — she posted a tweet when “The Tortured Poets Department” spent its first 12 weeks at No. 1 on the album chart, one of only three albums in history to do so. But she’d rather count fan impressions than dollars. By the same token, she doesn’t publicize or confirm acts of generosity that leak out, like the sizable food-bank donations she makes in every city she tours, or the $100,000 bonuses that the tour’s 50 truck drivers reportedly got for Christmas.

An addendum to all this is how the “Eras Tour” film — released last fall, less than halfway through the actual tour — grossed just over $180 million domestically and $261 million globally, beating the records set by Justin Bieber’s concert film in the U.S. and Michael Jackson’s globally. Massive big-screen spoilers only heightened, rather than diminished, resale demand for the shows yet to come on the 152-date tour and helped precipitate the movement among Americans to head overseas, to make up for the supply found sorely lacking at home.

“She is the torchbearer for the live industry,” says Andy Gensler, editor of Pollstar. “It’s nothing we’ve ever seen before, and it’ll be a long time before we see it again. Her timing was exquisite: The pandemic created this yearning and hunger for live entertainment like nothing else in our history, so she couldn’t have picked a better time to go out.” Pollstar called last year a “historic golden age” for touring, as the top 100 global tours collectively surpassed $9 billion — up 46% from 2022 — with Swift obviously contributing a significant chunk of that total. (This year, the trade reports that overall tour attendance is down, with flat grosses, representing a slight reckoning for the live industry that, obviously, isn’t impacting “Eras.”)

“What my partners and I talk a lot about is how it’s one thing to have a big tour in North America. It’s another thing to have an equally big tour wherever you are in the world and to do doubles and triples in these markets,” says Bernie Cahill, an Activist founding partner and manager of acts including the Grateful Dead and the Lumineers. “It’s an anomaly. It’s not normal. And don’t forget, you’re going into what I call asymmetric venues, which are venues that are not really built for music; these are venues that are built for football games or soccer games and can be very challenging to do music. And they get it right every time — Louis Messina [Swift’s tour promoter since her earliest days] and his team are world-class.” But for all that globe-trotting, he notes, “there are some artists that you see do a show and you know they don’t even know what city they’re in. I always feel like Taylor knows exactly where she is. She has a relationship with that city or that market and those fans and she’s connected to them in ways that are very authentic, that you can’t fake.”

The one big snafu in the rollout of “The Eras Tour” occurred in November 2022 when the Ticketmaster system melted down after too many North American dates went on sale at once, causing thousands of fans to experience long delays. The on-sale broke the all-time record for tickets sold in a single day at 2 million, but it also nearly broke the world’s largest ticketing platform. Swift herself was Teflon in this situation, as the blame fell on a ticketing system not capable of handling so much of the Swift-loving world at once. And although most of the problems people have with Ticketmaster are different from what fans faced in the “Eras Tour” debacle — mainly, hidden fees and monopolistic practices — it could have big legislative consequences anyway. Dean Budnick, co-author of “Ticket Masters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped,” believes that the Swift hullabaloo was the main catalyst for Congress enacting reform. “There’s no question that perhaps there’s gonna be some meaningful change in ticketing as a result of what people experienced with that on-sale.”

That sense Cahill spoke about of the singer making it clear to an audience she knows exactly where she’s at is in full force in Dublin. Swift introduces the “Folklore”/”Evermore” segment by suggesting that she had a spiritual locale in mind when she started writing that more intimate material, locked in during the first part of the pandemic. “It keeps me up at night all year long: Which era is the most Irish?” she half-jokes to the crowd. “I’m gonna make a case for it being ‘Folklore’ … This album’s imaginary world had a whole aesthetic — like I lived in this cabin in a really green, nature-y, moss-covered landscape. You see where I’m going?… Another thing that I think makes it more Irish than the other eras is, ‘Folklore’ was all about storytelling. And I know you hear this a lot, but you guys are naturally gifted storytellers, right?”

Later on, Swift will cement the local connection by playing, as a “secret” surprise acoustic song, “Sweet Nothing.” She doesn’t have to give the crowd any explanation for that: From the first notes, Irish Swifties will immediately recall that the lyrics reference to the coastal town of Wicklow. The real cherry on top of the show for locals at any international Eras Tour stop, though, comes with a customized moment each night during “We Are Never Getting Back Together” when the spotlight is put on backing dancer Kameron Saunders for a couple of seconds, as he blurts out something locally appropriate, and cheeky. One night in Dublin, it’s the Irish catchphrase “the neck of ye!”; on another, he yells out “pog mo thoin,” meaning “kiss my ass!”; the massive, knowing laugh that inside joke gets makes it clear this isn’t entirely an audience of American tourists after all.

But the basic theatrics and emotional currents remain consistent from show to show. If Swift is surprisingly reticent to make her “Eras Tour” numbers public, that may be, in part, her desire to keep the focus primarily on a personal fan connection. Music industry veterans are taken aback by Swift’s ability to be giant and intimate onstage. “She’s a master marketer of herself — and she is not afraid to be vulnerable to her fans,” says Michele Bernstein, who runs a consultancy that works with stars like Drake. Bernstein could almost be quoting the lyrics of “Mastermind,” where Swift describes herself in almost comically omniscient terms, then dives into a bridge about how no one would play with her as a little girl.

People like my guardian of the customs gate may complain about Swift’s songs centering on her romantic splits, but that subject matter magnifies her own insecurities and weaknesses, expressed in genuinely eccentric wordplay, in ways that keep the audience in thrall to someone they perceive as a humble underdog as well as a veritable cage fighter. She could do a $10 billion tour someday and still keep the crowd enraptured by how she measures up to, or rallies to exceed, the smallest man — or men, or Kardashians — in the world.

This plays out in the “Eras” show in all sorts of symbolic ways, like the new segment in the “Tortured Poets” section where she seems to have fainted from the vapors of failed romance. Dancers in tuxedos try to revive her while a swing version of “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” plays over the PA. A pair of women dressed as nurses fit her with what looks like a majorette’s uniform — or, with all its off-white stripes, is it really meant to resemble a straitjacket? The resemblance is probably not coincidental. Swift fans know there’s nothing like a mad woman.

The most exhilarating moment that has been added to the show this year has her gliding down the ramp on a platform, appearing to anyone at floor level like she is levitating like the witch she makes herself out to be in “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” Taylor Swift: She was Agatha all along!

Yes, there is much to unpack. But in Dublin and in every other city where “Eras” has alighted, there is also pure inspiration for those who maybe haven’t always felt like they’ve had a voice, whether it’s her LGBTQ+ fan base or, well, women. It’s a modern transmutation of Beatlemania in which Swift manages to be all four Fabs, and a mirror, as well as object, of that gaze. You don’t have to be a woman to experience the explosion of pure female joy that takes place on a mass scale at an “Eras” gig, but for men, it doesn’t hurt to have a healthy sense of where you might sit on the female spectrum.

Outside Aviva Stadium, two young Londoners have formed their own two-woman straight-gay alliance: One is wearing a shirt with the hand- drawn words “You’re obsessive and crazy,” and the other’s shirt has the phrase “You’re gay,” each with an arrow pointing to the other. This echoes the original lyrics to Swift’s 2006 oldie “Picture to Burn,” which was rerecorded after some were offended by “gay” as a possible teen epithet. “I am obsessive and crazy, and she is gay,” laughs Zoe Gibson, pointing to her friend, India Day. “We want to bring back the original lyrics. We never found them homophobic — we want to reclaim it.” Day adds, “We’ve listened to her since we were 4 years old, so obviously there’s the nostalgia factor. But for me, she speaks on quite a lot of issues like gay rights and feminism, and all of her songs perfectly sum up the experience of being a woman.”

Some of the shirts are apropos for Pride Month. Seeing a boy of no older than 15 or 16 wearing a homemade “But Daddy I Love Him” shirt (the title of a “Tortured Poets” fan favorite), it’s easy to imagine some courage was required to don that apparel. Along the same lines, I spot any number of women making their own statement in shirts with the modified exclamation “But Daddy I Love Her.”

Gay or straight, 6 years old or 60-something, female or just female-allied, the crowd inside gets its sway on early in the show, with the arrival of the gentle, waltz-time “Lover.” It’s not one of the big set-pieces of this nonstop Broadway-style production — the spotlight is just on Swift and her acoustic guitar — but it might be the one where the entire audience feels like it’s at a four-minute campfire. No wicked witchiness here, just winsomeness.

Down on the floor, I’m seeing what amounts to a Taylor Swift mosh pit: gangs of two or three or five young women, ignoring the fact that Swift herself is just yards away from them on the ramp. They’re singing and acting out every last line to each other, as if the superstar isn’t even towering right over them. A waste of their euros? Hardly. Swift will capture their full attention again as the show proceeds, but in the moment, she isn’t just a superstar — she might be the world’s greatest community organizer.

[lawlietscaramels]

Yandere ╾ L Lawliet

Because apparently I fell into a yandere stage and this is my tunnel out.

CW typical yandere stuff (stalking, obsession, overprotection, manipulative, worship, dependence, monopoly, killer)

　★━━─・‥…━━━☆

Yandere L is interesting because I think yes, he could absolutely be a yandere

canonically too

BUT only if you defined a yandere by "do they have the traits?" as opposed to "what do they do?"

so first: what KIND of yandere is the detective? top five traits incoming.

STALKER

Let's just get this one out of the way

He obviously to some degree "stalks" people just for his work, through cameras and policemen if not in person

he's a stalker guys. that's it.

so he wouldn't have a problem just turning up wherever someone who interested him was

again

and again

and again...

He's pretty hard not to notice because of his peculiar mannerisms, but he's also literally black and white enough to blend into the background.

So if he was careful (he is) it would take a while before you noticed you were seeing him everywhere you went. And by then you wouldn't be able to think of a time where he wasn't sitting quietly somewhere in the background.

L knows this.

he knows you're going to assume he just happens to live in the same area as you, or something like that.

I don't think he'd actually follow you into your home but he would go when you were out someday to set up cameras

and I think L would genuinely believe himself to be a good person

what if he goes away and you get in trouble? you don't always have a roommate, who would notice? well, now L will, and he is quite able to get you back to safety. but back to the stalkery.

oh man he's gone through your stuff. your closets your phone whatever. he wants to know about you

one day he might just arrange for a little... near accident somewhere you both frequent

and oh my oh gosh oh diddly darn

guess who just happens to be there to save the day

(L. it's L. notice him please?)

OBSESSIVE

There are two things that L is canonically obsessed with: work and desserts

but if he found a romantic interest that list suddenly has a third item: YOU.

especially if you bake him cakes or help him in cases. because then he ties those things he loves to you.

and I'll just quickly mention these traits are always a little bit in his personality but the order I'm writing in is the order they come out more strongly around you.

Obsession is also tied with stalking.

Some days he watches you and dreams about you smiling at him the way you smile at the rain and the sun and the world.

he imagines how everything will work out. you're a distraction to his work: he would have to find a way to integrate you into his life in a way that allows him to be close to you and not distracted. he imagines he imagines

you'd find a way to fit into him while he was sitting, your body pressed up against his torso, legs pulled up, head on his shoulder.

he could play with your hair with one hand. you could feed him sweets.

L is for the first time not in control of his own thoughts. it's new and unpredictable so it's completely terrifying to him, and for a while he'll slink away into the darkest recesses of society and draw away from you.

but it doesn't stop. it gets worse.

he can't look outside without wondering if you're looking at the same skies. can't eat strawberries without wondering if you like them.

so then he does a full 180 and will devote all of his available attention (some must be spared for work) to you. if you don't already work together or if he hasn't made contact during the stalking at all, this is when he does it.

he reaches out to see if you'll take him.

and when you do (it's not a question of if, see manipulative) he will calm down a fair bit.

but he is still, quietly, obsessed

OVERPROTECTIVE

what can I say?

gosh he just wants to keep you safe.

He's seen every bad thing about the world through his work, he knows bad things constantly happen to good people.

but. not. to. you.

L just won't let it happen. he can and will secret you away in a hotel room. never enough for you to become suspicious, to rattle at doors and windows. And you move with him, every couple of weeks, so it's just an adventure, dear.

also I think he'd use darling in a sweeter sense. dear or maybe doll is his yandere pet name for you.

He probably has several trackers somewhere on you. probably not IN you... probably...

also you know that nail polish they developed that changes colour when it comes into contact with common poisons in drinks? he makes you use stuff like that. for your safety.

hate hate hates that he can't be with you all the time. you tend to find yourself with reasons to stay at home when L's not around. once again see manipulative.

he does trust you, he really does. but he doesn't trust the world. men in particular are often disgusting. it's just true. he's seen it time and time again as a detective. who knows what scary things could be out in the world? and if they knew you were dating, that you had ANY relationship with the world's greatest detective? L's afraid he's putting you in danger. please just humour him and stay home for a week, dear. you can work on your baking.

if you started getting really rebellious, thought you were being chained up, whatever, L would let you go and do whatever you wish. He doesn't want you to feel like that! He loves you! he may or may not have organised for a brush with death for you so that you realise how right he is about the horrors of the world and want to stay home like he asks you so nicely to.

you're just so pure. so innocent.

there, there. he won't let them hurt you.

he'll even close all the blinds so the darkness of the world can't reach in to taint your beauty. isn't he the best?

MANIPULATIVE

IT'S CANON.

I can't think of any particularly specific examples but he lies about everything. Whenever he throws out a number (5%) it means he suspects someone over 90%

so he has no issues bending the truth

sigh if L's manipulative side is triggered it's triggered ALL the way. one one hand he hates doing this to you

but on the other it's for your own good and you're being stupid.

He will do ANYTHING to make you believe him. he will manipulate you into thinking he's being manipulative so he can get upset at your lack of trust in him so he's able to manipulate you

did that make sense...

can cry on demand.

but it's not all about making himself the victim, he will also just.. isolate you if you're starting to drift away from him. Suddenly your friends find other interests, your family are renovating the house or your parents won a radio prize for a vacation.

and L is the only one left. and he himself is distant until you cry and plead and apologise

the isolation thing is actually a yan trait itself and the scenarios above are also kind of training. but they're only a part of the bigger trait.

he will also manipulate situations and other people, not just you.

L just wants what's best for everyone

(coincidentally this always aligns with what is best for L.)

he's so smart though. it's really really difficult to realise he's manipulating you unless he wants you to.

WORSHIP

you're so pretty, the most perfect thing he's ever seen

you're an angel, really.

and people who don't respect you as such are going to get a subtle but clear message from L to STEP AWAY.

cold glares.

he will literally turn his head 180° like an owl to stare at them while he walks you away

they might end up fired. I mean someone who can't see what's right in front of their eyes doesn't deserve whatever job they have...

he just wants to spoil you sometimes and he has the resources to do it and more.

sometimes this gets a little suffocating but it's sweet. mostly.

it's nice to have time with your boyfriend instead of big, grand, empty rooms. L just doesn't have a lot of time. He does his job to protect you, protect you from everything in this world because it is all inferior to you.

I do not like to think about how he would react if you happened to meet Light...

I wasn't sure about whether or not to put this in the top five because I don't think he'd see himself as inferior. his IQ is big. but you could still jump from his ego down to his IQ and fall for hours. he thinks you're more good than he is but he's under no delusions about your relative intelligence or anything.

but yeah, I think he's a worshipper.

Just... a quiet worshipper. all his yan traits are kinda quiet tho haha

L wants to give you the world. he would sacrifice anything for you.

he would take a bullet for you

his work makes this a good possibility. he'd prefer not to get shot but he'd still do it for you.

probably the most harmless of his yandere traits. this one comes out when he decides this is it, you are it, forever.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

really quickly a couple of the other traits L might have and express are:

dependence (mostly for manipulative purposes. he will cry if you ever fight. L is honestly quite dependent on you, he might die without you-- or more likely just force you back into his arms-- but he puts on a lot of an act, a puppet master pulling strings behind the stage. he wants to be seen as vulnerable, not just a stoic and brilliant detective. because which one is it easier to lose your heart to? and you must lose your heart. you stole his first.)

monopoly (when he has time, he needs you to have time for him and only him. he doesn't have a lot of time. will manipulate you into spending time with him but it's more of an occasional pest thing than anything. quite harmless. especially because he works a lot. you have plenty of time without him, which makes him sad, but he can't help it. and you wouldn't love him if he stopped you from seeing your family and friends...)

killer (yeah... not in the top five by any means but if someone tries to hurt you? god forbid, if they SUCCEED? you'll be stuck at home for a couple of weeks while L frets over you. and sometime in that couple of weeks.. well.. maybe that someone who hurt you finds themself in trouble with a gang. L's not doing the dirty work himself but he's behind it and you will never find out. if they only TRIED to hurt you L won't be able to justify killing them to himself, but they'll quickly find themselves in jail.)

YANDERE?

so back to what I mentioned in the first part: L is a yandere, IF you're only basing the classification on the fact that he has these traits and the ability to act on them

but as anyone who's watched police or court drama knows, you need more than means and opportunity:

you need MOTIVE.

this is where I can't base my thoughts on canon so much anymore. the only people who we really see L caring about the death of (spoilers‼️) are: the FBI agents (though not on a personal level); Ukita (pretty sure that's his name); and Watari (though L himself dies too soon after for this last one to be useful)

so. Ukita.

L probably wouldn't care enough for the guy to go yandere for him LMFAO but we do see him refusing to rush in and take action without thinking, something which a yandere might be more inclined to do if they cared about someone.

HOWEVER we also see he's trembling. like he's a little in shock about the death and what it means, but also he wants to do something about it.

a yandere urge, brought out by something bad happening to someone he cares about.

My point being?

L has the traits of a yandere, and has the ability to act on any of them any time. he's smart, he's rich, and he has the trust of the entire world (or respect at least)

but he doesn't act unless triggered.

and ofc because he doesn't have a canonical love interest, we can't prove either way what he would do for/to them.

but I think he is more deredere (love) than yanderu (sick).

anyway, L is smart enough to realise that the yandere doesn't usually win the game of love, and that the things are not things you should be doing for/to someone who trusts you. not things you should be doing to someone you love.

but sometimes, when his emotions are high and so is the danger to you or your relationship,

his control just slips

and you might just find yourself locked in a hotel room while he works on the Kira case.

SO IS HE A YANDERE?

no. I'd say that he's a kuudere.

cold, cynical, sarcastic sense of humour, views feelings as a weakness but DOES have them and will open up over time.

but oh...

wait...

according to the dere wiki...,

"Due to the way a kuudere acts, a yandere can easily pretend to be a kuudere when not acting insane."

...

so, what do we think?

　★━━─・‥…━━━☆

but hey that's just a theory... a DERE theory! aaand cut.

𝖎𝖋 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖑𝖎𝖐𝖊𝖉 𝖎𝖙 ˏˋ⋆˖⁺˖⁀➷ 𝖕𝖑𝖊𝖆𝖘𝖊 𝖗𝖊𝖇𝖑𝖔𝖌 + 𝖋𝖔𝖑𝖑𝖔𝖜

©lawlietscaramels. Do not repost on other sites, claim as your own work, edit, rewrite or “fix,” feed to AI or otherwise use unethically.

[jackiequick]

Meet The Crew | Fast Five Fanfic 🇧🇷

Pairing: Brian O’Conner x Mia Toretto, Han x Soffi

Pre-relationship: Valentina Toretto x Deckard Shaw

Setting: Fast Five (2011)

Summary: Being the run for more than 2 years going from country to country, city to city, just to run away and survive. But what happens when Dom comes up with a plan to get their lives on track? Steal from the biggest man in Brazil. Then your gonna need a crew.

Characters: Dom, Brian, Mia, Tej, Roman, Val and etc.

Click here to see information for the rest of her story.

——

The last few days have ran cold. After arriving in Brazil, everything took a turn and keeping bigger lives at stack.

First with Val finding out what Mia is pregnant, having not told Brian yet. Then the heist they went on that Vince planned going haywire with Val, Dom and Brian getting caught then running to the safe house. To the argument between everyone on Vince not playing fair, where he left to go do his own thing.

And now!

They were being chased by policemen and Reye’s men across the streets and on top of the building finding themselves hiding out. Dom wanted to spilt up until Mia announced that it wasn’t the best idea.

Brian agreed with Dom, until Val said, “Tell ‘em sis..”

“I’m pregnant.” She said with a smile, out of breath from running across the bay.

Dom and Brian were shocked but happy. Hell, Brian was overwhelmed with joy fulling his best girl into a kiss. Val told them that they needed to stick together cause they’re family just got bigger.

It was settled that night by the boys while the girls slept that they had to stop running now. Make a life for themselves. So it was made to get their earning attention and some cash. Buy they’re freedom.

But they needed a team.

The next day, they planned as well as they could looking above the city.

“Okay let’s run through the basics.” Brian said leaning against his girl with a smile.

“First we need a chameleon. Someone who can blend in.” Dom said winking at Val and added, “Anywhere and can handle themselves.”

Soffi and Han were on they’re mind from the last heist.

“What else?” Mia asked.

“Hmm. A fast talker.” Dom said, “Someone who can bullshit they’re way out of anything.”

“I got that!” Brian announced with a smile.

His mind went to Roman.

“This guy has a lot of surveillance, so we need someone who’s good with circuits.” Mia added, meaning Tej could do the job.

“And with those circuits, Reyes is gonna have walls. We’re gonna need guys to punch through those walls.” Val told them with a nod.

Leo and Santos could do it.

“Hmm. Weapons and utilities.” Val added smiling.

Giselle was skilled for that.

“And last but not least. Two precision drivers. Two guys who won’t crack under pressure.” Dom said with such pride in his voice and a grin at only grew by the second.

“Oh you know we got that!” Brain repiled with a teasing grin that match his friends.

That left Val and Mia with research and experienced planning.

———

24 hours later. The team came together.

Roman and Tej walked in jokingly insulting each other.

“When you gonna give Martin Luther King his car back?” Roman asked, putting his bag down.

Tej scoffed, “As soon as you give Rick James his jacket back.”

They both cracked a smile, giving one another a bro hug. That was when a motorcycle rolled in, parking right in front of them. It was a women who was riding. The said women got off, removing her helmet as she shake her hair with hearing the guys.

“Sexy legs babygirl, what time they open?” Roman asked with a half smirk.

That was when a handheld gun landed right in between they’re faces, resulting in both men to back up a second.

“They open the same time i pull this trigger. Want me to open them?” Said Giselle with a small grin.

As if on cue, Leo and Santos walked in joking around in Spanish. Roman felt offended as him and Santos started bickering. Tej and Leo brought themselves into the conversation too as Giselle rolled her eyes.

“I thought cock fight were illegal in Brazil.” Han said walking with his girlfriend who smiled at his comment.

“I guess not.” Add Soffi with a smile, glancing up at Giselle.

That was when Dom announced himself with a smile, “I see you all met!” Mia, Val and Brian walked in behind him greeting they’re friends.

Val and Mia ran into Leo and Santos arms for a tight hug, having not seen each other in a while. Brian noticed Soffi standing off to the side, grinning to introduce himself.

“Hey.” He said with a toothy grin, welcoming her to the group.

“Hi..” She replies with a soft smile, noticing a warmth to the blonde that eased her.

“I heard about you.”

“R-really? F-from who?”

“Dom. He talks a lot about his time in the D.R. He said you and Han help him pull a heist there.”

“Oh yeah! It was burning there but we got the job done. I just don’t know why we were called here. I mean, what can i do to help?”

“Dom and his sister said you were like a chameleon. Trying to handle the situation and blend into the crowd?”

That was when Dom spoke over them saying they got a job to do, leading them to a group to debrief. Brian and Dom explained their target along the issues as everyone cut into the conversation.

“Sounds crazy. You brings us to a whole other country so we can rob the dude who runs it? I thought this was business, sounds personal to me. Is this was it is? I got love for y’all but personal ain’t good business. I can’t do this homie.” Roman said turning to walk out.

Val shared a smirk with her brother as she said, “So what we’re talking about is 100 million dollars.”

That’s when Roman stopped in his tracks, spinning around flabbergasted as he exclaimed, “Y-you say wha-? A-a-huna—you see sometimes i be overthinking man. And i know we just met girl, but you just kinda gotta..”

“Roman stop talking.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Soffi couldn’t help but snort at his reaction, being a little surprised herself by the announcement of that much money. Brian shared a smile with Mia as Dom kept explaining saying whatever they can take, they split it evenly. It surprised everyone.

Then Soffi stopped to think and spoke up, “As soon as you hit the first one. They’re gonna do everything they can to protect them.”

Giselle and Han added something else, as everyone nodded to their reason.

“Exactly.” Dom simply said with a smile, planning on what to do.

With that being said, the guys went to Reyes underground place to make themselves known, that they mean business. Burning his money and coming up with the next part of the plan. As well as keeping eyes on the police department scanners. Then the plans were set into motion.

The guys did the heavy duty part like breaking into police station to see the safe they would steal, placing extra cameras around town, and searching for extra ways to get around the city. Han and Val even ordered in a replica of the safe to replace with during the heist.

Because he’s hella rich.

Roman was eating while watching them work. Tej looked over his shoulder to see Val sitting by the stairs holding a pin and needle. She was pulling some fabric together, having a placement made for their safe.

“Girl what are you doing?” Tej asked, holding up his stack of paperwork.

“Isn’t it obvious? Tini is going to the beach later haha!” Roman exclaimed with a laugh, which earned him a glare.

“Who told you that nickname?” Val said glaring at him playfully.

“Brian. I think he told the others too.”

“Remind me to whoop his ass later.”

“What? Its cute!”

“What’s cute?” Said a voice that belong to Soffi, who was snacking on a bag of chips.

“Tini!” Roman yelled.

“Who’s Tini?”

“Vally over here!”

Val groaned shared a look with Tej who snorted at her annoyance.

It clicked for Soffi as she gasped with a smile, “That’s you nickname? I didn’t know that!”

“I’mma kill Brian..” She muttered, “Only he ever used that nickname before. Now y’all know.”

Tej chuckled, “Welcome to my world! Roman will never shut up about it now.”

“It’s cute! I-I like it.” Soffi said, noticing the fabric in her hand, “Uh, w-what’s with the bikini? A-are you going to beach?”

“That’s what i said!” Roman yelled once again chuckling, “If so babygirl, can i come?”

“No, I ain’t going to be beach. Someone else will. Since Tej said the safe needs Reyes fingerprints, and we can’t exactly get them..” Val said, looking at the tech genius.

“…you’re gonna swipe his handprints to use it against the piggy bank’s system. Smart girl!” Tej said, finishing her sentence.

“Exactly! Han and Soffi are up.”

“Wait seriously? R-right now?” Soffi said, looking over her shoulder to see Han.

He leaning against the wall with a smirk hearing his name as he chatted with Giselle.

“Nice. I like the easy stuff.” Han added with a smirk and kissing his girlfriend’s cheek, “See you outside babe.”

“I-i-wait! Han! Ugh!”

“Time to work our magic baby!”

He walked out with a grin that made her blush. Roman and Tej teased the girl for blushing. Soffi was a little confused about the actions she would take until Val pulled her aside into a room to change. Soffi was gonna wear the purple bikini and Giselle was gonna be there in the background as back up, just in case.

But it was her case to do.

She was a little worried it won’t go well however she saw the look in Val’s eye. A look of bravery and courage that would result in confidence for the task.

Val even joked, “Honey i seen you in action. It’s easy.”

“Alright, alright. Give me the towel.” Soffi replies joking, snatching the towel out of her hands and run out.

All Val can do was laugh as she went back to hanging out with Tej and Roman. She knew Soffi, Han and Giselle would get the job done they’re own way, but it was time for that to wait.

However that didn’t mean Val wasn’t gonna have some fun herself, heading out to buy extra drinks and catching a ride to the exact spot where Giselle told there they would be.

She stayed nearby the palm tree with Giselle watching them, reading the room then quickly walked away.

Han was snacking on some chips and chatting with Soffi who sipped her drink. They were eyeing Reye and the group on the high deck of the guesthouse across of the low end the beach. The pair were flirting and chuckling, wondering what was the man’s plan.

“I make six bodyguards.” Han said, glancing over his the guest shoulder.

“Seven.” Soffi added watching them, “The guy with the fanny pack is a tourist.”

“You think we should stay here after this is over?”

“Sure! I like the beaches here but you should watch your habits first.”

“Huh? What did i do?”

“You quit smoking, babe. I’m happy you did! But the snacks you were eating today, a lot more than usual.”

“I know. I’m handling it. I’m getting better.”

“I know and I’m glad you are.”

Han noticed the men on the stairs and sighed, “Well this is a real bust. We can’t get his fingerprints out here. Call Val, do some more reconstruction on the plan.”

“No..I don’t want to do that.” Soffi said, looking at the house and her outfit for a moment.

“She will understand. Giselle is here, we can try to do something else as we figure something out.”

“Or..um..uh-l-let me t-try something here. P-please?”

“Y-you sure?”

“Y-yeah. Watch out for me.”

Soffi took a breath, not wasting a second as she let the towel fall off her body and onto the floor. She smiled to herself feeling good swaying her hips walking away from the table in her purple bikini.

At that same time, Giselle followed beside her with a wink wearing her own valued bikini.

Han was left with his jaw dropped onto the ground, his fingertips stopped before ever reaching his mouth with the bag of nuts. He smiled softly to himself, biting his lower lip chuckling.

“Damn.” He muttered to himself.

The man speechless in place as both women walked over to the open house party, past the guardsmen smiling.

Soffi sat on the armrest of the chair where Reyes sat with a smile, as Giselle rested her hands on the shoulder of Reyes friends. She laughed at his jokes. Meanwhile Soffi smiled chatting with Reyes as he placed his hand on her bottom against the fabric of the bikini.

Han raised an eyebrow at his movements, rolled his eyes at the action with a grin.

She got the handprint.

“Nice.” Han muttered with a nod, waiting for them to finish to head over to the beach.

———

Later on the trio returned back to the bunker to find Roman and Tej working on the vault. They were confused once they returned with nothing but two bikinis in hand. One purple and one red.

Both men looked confused. Until Soffi lit a flashlight over the bikinis Giselle and Han were holding. Two handprints for extra measurements. In result the guys smirked and joked.

Tej smirked, “So did he just smack the ass or did he grab and hold on to it?”

Roman laughed as Soffi smirked waving the flashlight at both men jokingly.

————

Some stuff happened afterwards. Almost getting caught by the cops resulting in them putting a tracking on their trucks and testing how fast they were in the cars for the heist drifting away as quick as possible. But no one was fast enough, but it’s because they need certain cars to get past the city with ease.

Police cars.

So the boys went off, expect for Santos and Leo, to search for them. Meanwhile the girls stayed by relaxing, chatting about what they would do with their money.

Giselle wanted to go sightseeing without watching her back. Valentina wished for the ability to travel the word and have her own small adventure. Soffi wanted to open up a small shop to bake and sell her favorite treats, using the money left over for something special. Mia just wanted to relax at a small beach house and have her own little thing going on before she left to go to the store.

If only they could clear they’re names just as quickly.

By the same time she returned from the store as the boys did. They were racing in cop cars, with Brian winning against Dom. But Mia returned with a certain someone. Vince.

Everyone stood up in defense and confusion about his return. Some didn’t even know who Vince was but stood up to protest against against the man. Mia was trying to explain what exactly happened as they thankfully listened.

But Val was ready to pounce at Vince, it took Soffi and Tej to hold her back as she yelled at her oldest friend. Brian was about to get in Vince’s face wanting some more answers until Dom shut both of them up. Calling his oldest friends over to help him fix the car to talk, letting everyone cool down and allow Vince to eventually join in their plans.

Eventually everyone did. Cooking dinner for one another, bringing out more chairs and couches to sit on, extra tables and a radio. Some sat around tinkering with items, Dom was fixing one of the cars with Vince and Brian meanwhile Roman, Tej and Han talked. Everyone was speaking with the idea what would they do with their millions of dollars.

—————

Everyone had plenty of ideas. Some traveling, going to Las Vegas, getting cooking classes, buying houses and so much more. Tej wanted to start his own business to fix cars and not let people get ripped off.

“You peoples dreams are to start day jobs?!” Roman exclaimed, looking at them like they crazy.

Mostly looking Tej like he was just talking crazy for suggesting that idea in the first place.

Soffi crossed her arms, “What’s so wrong about that, Roman?”

“Everything! Y’all got money, use to the buy luxury gifts and items like you couldn’t afford before.” Roman said, sipping his drink.

“So what will you do then, Roman?” Valentina added, standing next to her friends with Giselle behind her grinning.

So in result the man explained how he do plenty of things, from buying himself suits to his very own plane. All the girls smirked and laughed, teasing Roman that they will try to steal the planes and jets for they’re own plans. Tej and a few of the others rolled their eyes chuckling.

Val grinned saying she will use Roman’s jets to travel the world and such. From Italy to Cuba to Hawaii and a sweet return to the Dominican Republic. Soffi and Giselle saying they will join her, suggesting France as well. A mini girls trip, including Mia and the others.

Roman jokingly got offended and rolled his eyes teasing them back, going to get everyone refills as they waited for dinner to be served. However once he stopped at Brian and Mia, he got hella confused. Mia kept saying she can’t drink and Brian insisted, leaving Roman with odd look on his face.

Until Brian rubbing his girlfriend’s nonexistent bump as Roman’s eyes lit up. It clicked.

“Ohh! Are you serious right now?” Roman exclaimed with bug eyes and a cheeky grin turning to Dom, “Is that the reason you let him beat you in the quarter mile? Hahaha that was a baby gift!”

Mia was giggling brightly.

Brain looked at his best friend, trying to defend himself and said, “No, that’s messed up.”

“That was a baby gift.” Roman repeated with a growing grin

“No, your not taking that from me.”

Tej walked up with a smirk acting all chill and asked, “Wait wait wait, hold on a second. So, did he just smack that ass or did he grab it?”

Val smirked bursting into laughter as she rubbed Brian’s shoulder jokingly and walked over to Dom. She grinned seeing they’re friends all congratulate Brian and Mia on the pregnancy.

Mia stayed hugging Soffi and Giselle the longest.

“Baby gift, huh?” She asked teasing him smiling, “Wanna explained?”

Brian followed behind her giving Dom a look, wondering the same thing as they both shared a matching smile.

“Baby gift?” Brian repeated.

“I have no idea what they’re talking about.” Dom replies with a smile, shrugging.

“Yeah sure.” Val added.

Once everything died down still celebrating the new, Dom called everyone to circle back for he can give a small toast.

Everyone chuckled, giving small smile to each other and leaned against the other person enjoying the moment.

Each member had a drink in their hands as they looked up to listen to the man who put all of this together.

Dom took a breath took as he look around the room and then spoke, “Money all come and go, you know that. But the most important thing in life will always be the people in this room. Right here. Right now. Salute mi familia.”

“Salute.” Said everyone raising their beer bottles, as you heard the light cling once they were brought together in a circle.

Everyone smiles, some sipping their drinks and others lean against the person next to them for a tight squeeze.

It was real.

They’re all here in Brazil.

Together.

And they’re finish off the week pulling off an heist.

It’s gonna be nuts.

Thank you so much for reading this fic! It’s one of my favorite films and it was a great treat to toss theses characters into it.

What did you think about it? Let me know in the comments below.

Please reblog, like and share for more stuff like this

Tags; @hanlueluver @gaminggirlsstuff @gcthvile @whitewiccan @msrochelleromanofffelton @starkleila @thisgirlisonfayeeer @meiramel @gcthvile @yetanotherwells @rooster-84 @rickb-chaos @mandylove1000 @sherloquestea and etc

[imsobadatnicknames2]

wrt your post about US elections influencing the whole world and the "European privilege" we exhibit: yes and? The dogshit american empire rules us. Before them it was the soviets. Before that it was the nazis and before them it the austrians and hungarians and turks. What is your fucking point? we KNOW your ratfucker private-sector-imported political class is salivating to make us work 7 days a week for 14 hours, and cook us in our cities by burning 30 trillion times more petrol. We have to see your fucking politicians' faces on every social media site and be swamped with gofundmes for black folks shot dead by your SS policemen. Are you trying to say politics is a distraction from labour disputes? WHAT? It's the same. Politics IS labour dispute. None of us are free until we all are, we KNOW. FUCK. Like no bitch, we KNOW the IMF is fucking us in the ass because a bunch of US economists normalized the Ayn Rand ideas of market capitalism 50 years ago. Yeah we would machinegun them for christmas if we could but we CAN'T. We can't even vote for the slightly less gaza genociding party but you can. SO SHUT UP! Don't you fucking understand we're governed by your economic power with no recourse or representation? That everything comes from you because you're at the top? Even fucking LEFTISM is INFESTED by tankie shitheads from america whose only idea of communism is that it must be good because they've reversed american exceptionalism in their heads and think anything opposing the US must be better? I can't even go online without some redfash LA shithead telling me about the virtues of Ho Chi Minh and Ceaușescu. GOD. If Trump pulls NATO out of europe Putin will be at my doorstep TOMORROW. Shut the FUCK up about europeans complaining that you english ratfucker colonists are governing us. Vote blue no matter who, strike, kill your bosses, guillotine your politicians and maybe our children - which we wont have - can live in peace one day. And for the love of gun-toting truck-driving hillbilly american Jesus shut the FUCK up and let europeans complain. CHRIST.

I love when I get five paragraphs long asks that can be completely invalidated with the following words:

I live in the global south.

[powerupcomicstonight]

More Woosterposting

“You!” growled the diminutive aggressor, eyeing me as a graphic designer might regard a client who’s taken his work and swapped Comic Sans in for all the fonts. “So this is the degenerate manchild with designs on corrupting my innocent daughter!”

This took me squarely aback. I had not expected to cherish Sir Watkyn Bassett’s company, strictly speaking, but it had not occurred to me that the old patriarch might go aggro at the very sight of me.

“What-ho, Sir Watkyn!” I replied with a bright situation-diffusing smile. “So this is the kindly old bean who Madeline’s always praising to the high heavens!”

“Don’t what-ho me, Wooster!” Sir Watkyn snapped. “I’ve seen your videos, you know! You are a violent and lawless young man! I shudder to contemplate the irreparable fissures in the moral foundation of an individual who would award a score of 9.5 to a video game which allows the player to simulate, of all unsavory acts, stealing a policeman’s uniform!”

It would be a stretch to say that the pieces were falling into place, but there were pieces, and they were working their way clumsily down the y-axis. Madeline’s old ancestor had evidently vetted my Youtube channel, and found something that disagreed with his aged sensibilities.

“I’m sorry, Sir Watykn. Are you referring to my Grand Theft Auto review?”

“So, he admits it!” Cried Sir Watkyn of the Bassets in triumph.

“And that bit about stealing policemen’s uniforms, was that really the worst thing you saw me do in that game?”

“I had no appetite for further demonstrations of anarchy and mayhem,” he declared firmly. “I can readily imagine that this so-called game allowed you to escalate the situation to still higher levels of hooliganism, perhaps by vandalizing a police vehicle, or even shooting out the windows of a police station. What I saw made me feel sick, and I was forced to stop the video.”

...

I located Jeeves in a quiet corner of Sir Waykyn’s library, serenely editing Wikipedia on his laptop.

“It’s worse than I thought, Jeeves," I announced. "Sinister, in fact. I’ve broken bread with Sir Watkyn Bassett, and it’s come to light that he’s the boomer who reported my Youtube channel.”

“Would this be the excitable party whose censure resulted in the five-day suspension, sir?”

“The very same. I have taken damage, Jeeves. Bring me a whiskey-soda, and my new camouflage Crocs.”

[octuscle]

I just got arrested for possession of weed and I’m using my one phone call on you. Please help me out man, I’m begging you, can you please get these cops off my back?

Hell, the three police officers don't look like they can take even a little bit of fun. They don't say a single word for the first five minutes. And then they pepper you with questions. Honestly, you're still a bit stoned, you can't take the cops seriously. But they still scare you. You ask which of them is the good cop and which is the bad cop. "There are three of us, you little pissant. And we're all bad!" is the answer.

You are asked how much weed you have at home or whether they should carry out a house search. You giggle and ask how much they need. And surprisingly, one of the officers says that they definitely need it. He exchanges a fist bump with his neighbor. And the first one undoes another button on his shirt.

The next question is, what kind of drugs do you use? You say a beer now and then, cigarettes rarely but sometimes, weed three or four times a week. One of the policemen goes out and comes back with four bottles of beer. Another one takes a fag and offers you one too.

Things are slowly becoming relaxed. You start talking about music. You don't think Nirvana is that cool. Shit, is the boombox supposed to be brainwashing now? You can really only bear it with a joint. You can bet the cops' hair is getting longer. And that they're getting younger overall. One of them goes out and comes back with weed from the evidence room and four more beers.

The guys are really nice. They're all enthusiastic skaters. And they can really take a lot of weed. One of them asks if you've ever fucked a cop in a prison cell. You unbutton your pants. "Dude, not here where everyone can watch. In the prison cell." You walk through the police station giggling. You get to unlock the cell and even put on a police cap. The three cops go into the cell. "Shit, dudes, I forgot about the weed. I'll be right back." You close the cell and look for the interrogation room. But you're so stupidly stoned that you forget what you wanted to do after just three steps. So you leave the station. Fresh air helps. You're in the mood for a big burger right now. And a bit of weed at the skate park. One of your stoner buddies is sure to have something to smoke.

In the cell, the three cops laugh their asses off. One of them pulls the packet of weed out of his trouser pocket. "The Dude can look for it for a long time," he says. "Let's start fucking," says the second. And the third drops his pants.

[maryannecrimsworth]

You do need a friend

Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / Part 9 / Part 10

Guide for tormented hearts

Pairing: Wednesday Addams x Selectively mute reader

Warnings: I'm going for the slow burn and reader it's really traumatized, prepare for some angst scenes and a whole bullying session. The part two will be softer if anyone likes this.

Summary: You did it, you stayed with your brother — you were finally free from your parents. Everything goes wrong one last time but after all the police investigation and doctor visits, you were back to Nevermore, not to your parents' Lycanthropy camp. You were at school for the very first time in your life and no one would actually speak with you. At least you thought no one would until your brother makes you meet his goth friend.

Some reader's characteristics: R has anxiety disorder, selective mutism, and is a really unique type of outcast. Reader's background it's derived from my Wednesday fic, The Hunt.

You couldn't remember a thing.

No, you remember one thing: laying down and blacking out for once, after spending three nights staring at the bedroom ceiling non-stop. Then you finally closed your eyes and when you opened them again, you saw your own brother painting above you, despair in his eyes and blood covering his red skin.

He shouted questions at you as an animal crawled behind him. You blinked a few times and did not reply, your attention was on the animal, on the beast now standing in front of you.

“Y/N!” Your brother made you sit up, completely unaware of the monster in his back, and asked again: “Who made you sleep? Who guided you?”

Your mouth dried and your stomach crunched as the monster kept getting closer. You knew that monster. The Hyde. Your parents talked about it in the last few months, it was why you came to Jericho in the first place. And it was about to hit you when your brother stood up.

Hank turned his back to you and pushed the monster away, his hands now turned into claws.

You hated when he transformed, and your hatred only grew as you realized what you have done.

While your brother was fighting the beast, you stood up from the ground and looked around the place. You have never been here before but you knew it from pictures. The Pilgrim World, The Outcast Convention. There were bleachers all over the grass and spotlights illuminating the stages your parents were sitting on a few minutes ago. Maybe hours. How long have you been asleep? And why was this place so empty? Where did the crowds go? And there are—Oh. You looked at the person on your feet. A werewolf, you guessed, as she was growling and sleeping peacefully in the grass. There were about five more teenagers in the same state as hers, blacked out on the floor. Then you understood. You understood what you have done.

You have ruined the Outcast Convention.

X

He covered you with a blanket as the policemen ran through the place. They were after Tyler, your brother told you, not you. You were sitting in the paramedics' triage line when your brother broke out from the mess and noise and sat beside you.

“I need you to answer me this time, okay?” He whispered in your ear before you could see more policemen emerging from somewhere behind you. You heard the alert on their radio. The Hyde was arrested. “Who made you sleep?” You finally looked at him. "Was it mother? You can shake your head.”

You nodded slightly. Yes, you remembered your mother ordering you to go to the bed and then singing a creepy lullaby for you. It was horrible — she was horrible, but it worked. Or maybe the stinky towel in her hand that worked very well.

Your brother’s whole expression stiffened as you replied. He already knew what your mother did to you. He used to help her with it.

“You can’t go back.” Hank mumbled and instantly regretted it. He shook his head before looking at you again. “I freed myself from them, Y/N.” He whispered. “I’m not going back to their camp, and you don’t have to go either. We..we can stay here. You can study and I can work here in Nevermore. I have friends now, they can’t make us leave. Not again.” You saw a tear running down his cheek. “Do you want to? Would you stay with me?”

You felt his strong grip softing around your shoulder, all the intensity in his behavior was clear but he would never risk hurting you. Not anymore. That’s why he needed you to say ‘yes’, he needed you to run away with him.

So you accepted it, you nodded your head convincingly, and you never saw your brother so happy. You never thought he would cry for joy — but he was crying and hugging you even with so many hurt people around him. Hank then stood up and asked you to follow him as he healed the wounded people. The people you hurted, you thought, even though he made no mention of it. Your brother's curse was the perfect risk control for yours: you wounded, he absorbed the wound. No one could ever prove your guilt — your parents' guilt, and the show kept on going. But not anymore.

Now you were a student at Nevermore.

X

You liked it at first. The school, not the people. Outcast or normie, teenagers were mean in any form. But no one really tried to talk to you after the Convention, and it made things way easier. Everyone knew your name — well, your L/N, but it worked nonetheless — and your brother talked with all the teachers about you. Which meant you didn’t have to sit in pairs nor speak to anyone in class. Even some of your exams were different so you didn’t have to present anything in front of a classmate.

“The teachers and the principal are very comprehensive” Hank told you after you came back smiling from your first day. “But you’ll have to speak to some students at some point. I can help you with it.”

“Why?” You replied immediately. “There’s no need.”

“You are in high school.” You rolled your eyes in response. “You do need a friend.” You walked straight to your room and did not utter another word to your brother for the rest of the day.

Then his schemes began. Well, he was the school advisor after all. And you were now his messenger.

Hank sent you a quest everyday: to deliver a letter, a note, a corrected exam, a chocolate box.

“Chocolate?” You asked as soon as he handed you the box.

“Well, she’s having a really bad time, she needs it.” You rolled your eyes again and walked after the poor girl.

You understood your brother’s strategy: he wanted you to knock on the door, greet the person and then deliver the package. Naive man. You actually only put the package in the hallway, knocked on the door and walked away. No speaking needed at all.

By far, you have barely spoken to anyone.

Some people tried: Xavier Thorpe and Enid Sinclair, your brother’s friends, tried to small talk with you a few times, but you only smiled awkwardly and shook your head until they gave up. There was also this goth girl with them, she was your brother’s friend too, but you could not make yourself look at her. It was hard enough to look at Xavier, who you knew for years, so imagine looking at someone who seems to be a wrong word away from murdering you. Nope. Not a chance.

But Hank — oh, how you hated him sometimes — has this “getting out of your comfort zone” obsession and would never leave you alone.

“No.” It was the first package you refused to deliver. You would not walk to Ophelia Hall to deliver a blank paper note to her. “No, Hank. Please, can’t we just go home? I’m exhausted.”

Your brother looked up from the papers on his desk and watched you with concern. He had noticed how the bags under your eyes had grown, but he had refused to put you to sleep.

“I won't lock you up.” Hank reminded you. “You have to learn to control it.”

“Whatever, Hank.” You sighed, your shoulders and eyes weighing a little more than usual. “Can we go home?”

“Wednesday is with the key to my bike. You have to meet her, wanting or not.”

“Why would she—?” Hank helped her with her creepy stuff, of course, they had a deal after all. You gave up questioning and grabbed the blank note from your brother’s desk. He wished you good luck before you slammed the door.

Yeah, sure, an elf definitely needs luck.

You stomped your way to Ophelia Hall. Ophelia, the girl who was driven mad by her family. How ironic.

The Housemaster didn't even bother with your presence at that point, he just let you pass. You silently strode through the halls, as you were getting used to doing, and no students really noticed you. At least that's what you thought until a shrill voice hurt your ears.

“Pretty L/N!” Was it even a human voice? “Come here, beautiful.” You obviously ignored her. “Oh, wait.” You heard laughter. “That’s the weird L/N.” Oh, fuck, like it's even possible to mistake you for your brother. “Will you reply if we growl?” The voice grew louder on your back. “I think we need to bring a fur to crawl and sniff your ass! This way you will be a good pet, won’t you?” Do not react. Do not react. Do not—you felt the paper scratching the palm of your hand. Your firsts were so strongly closed that your arms were trembling. Your whole body was trembling and they noticed.

The voice finally gained a face and a group of teenagers appeared in front of you. You didn't even notice that you had stopped walking.

“How ugly. You are even worse up close.”

As if you are a beauty.

“It is a pity that you have absolutely nothing to do with your brother.”

Of course I have not, we’re adopted, you stupid bitch.

“Piss off, Gwen, he’s trying to help Hanky. You know, he’s his messenger.”

“That’s why he keeps ghosting our dorm? No, I do not believe that.”

“Come on, you think he’s a perv or something?”

You watched the two girls talking. Did they always have to be this tall? Your neck was already hurt because of your exemplary posture, and looking up certainly didn't help.

“Look at him. He sure is.”

You felt a drop falling into your eyes and winched in reflex. Fuck. Your forehead was totally soaked, as was your clothes. You took a glimpse of the crushed paper in your hand: it was completely wet. You ruined the blank paper note. Pathetic.

“You suck at this.” The voice laughed again. “That’s your message?” The girl grabbed the paper from your hand before you could move away. “You can not speak, you can not deliver a single note, you can not look even me in the eye.” The girl leaned over you. “Is there anything you can do?” You could feel her scoff on your face. “You worthless piece of shit.”

You did not respond. You did not look up. You were barely breathing. Sweat kept running down your face as the girl gave up. She got tired of waiting for a slight response from your and turned back. She was about to finally step away when you moved your foot.

The girl was unexpectedly face down on the ground and her friends gasped at the ugly fall. Everyone looked at you. Oh, how satisfactorily angry they seemed.

“You did it on purpose, you asshole!”

“I can’t believe you’re laughing!” You were not laughing, only smirking a little bit.

“You’ll pay for this!”

A foot kicked your shin, which prevented you from running away. Then a fist hit your face and an elbow struck your back. You stopped recognizing what was hitting you once your knees touched the ground. Your vision turned into a blur and your ears heard nothing but a whirring as they slapped your head. It didn’t actually hurt: you were too numb to describe it as something uncomfortable, and you were used to beatings. But then a boot, somehow, managed to get between your crossed arms and sunk into your stomach. You could feel the weight getting deep in your gut, and the acid taste of your lunch emerged into your mouth. You did not hold it back.

You puked on the girl's shoes and got her socks to be soiled as well. Your throat was burning and dry coughs were already escaping from your dirty lips when you heard the screams distancing themselves.

They had run off.

You crawled on the floor, moving away from the vomit that slipped down the girl’s legs. You do not even know if you have thrown up in the right one.

You growled in anger as you grabbed the dirty paper note from the ground and stood up. Wednesday’s door was only a few feet down the hallway and you needed to go home. You quickly saw her room’s door and stormed in without even knocking.

You were met by a circular window, half colored, half blank. A girl shouted to your left, and a subtle movement came from the right.

You didn’t look at anyone, you didn’t speak to anyone: you simply targeted the key on Wednesday’s desk and rushed to it. You tripped on something on the way — on Thing — but that didn't stop you from taking the key and turning back to the door. You were about to slam the door shut when a cold voice reached you.

“My message.” You were still holding the paper. Fuck. You threw the squashed paper at her feet and left without saying anything.

You felt Wednesday's eyes following your movements — analyzing your soaked uniform, your bruised face and dirty lips, but none of that mattered.

The only thing that mattered was the cold metal between your fingers, the key to your escape, to your brother's motorcycle. Your blood flowed through your veins as the wind cut through your ears, and you ran through the school until you reached the parking lot and the motorcycle.

You started the engine and ran out of Nevermore without looking back.

The cold wind didn't cool your mind, but shivers ran down your skin as you jumped off the bike and left it in the driveway. You barely closed the door and ran into your bedroom. To the glass cell that opened only from the outside. You locked yourself in and threw yourself to the floor as the salty taste of tears mixed with the acidity of everything you had eaten during the day. You were still crying.

And you kept crying until your body got exhausted.

You fell asleep.

@tnnadia @stupendousbananajudgeshark @colezb @aroaceanxietylemon @elduster @iwkaaaaa @mikooooks @chaoticteenagetrash

[zvaigzdelasas]

A court in Argentina on Tuesday sentenced three police officers to life imprisonment for the racially motivated killing of Lucas González, a teenager, in November 2021. Of the eleven officers who were accused of tampering with evidence, the court found six of them guilty of covering up the crime and sentenced them to prison for four to eight years. The court acquitted the other five officers, in a case which became emblematic of institutional violence in Argentina.

11 Jul 23

[wandabear]

WISH YOU WERE HERE - WANDA MAXIMOFF X FEMALE READER

ㅤㅤ

Summary: 17 years ago, a New Jersey high school girls’ soccer team travels to Seattle for a national tournament. While flying over Canada, their plane crashes deep in the wilderness, and the surviving team members are left stranded for nineteen months. Based on Yellowjackets

Jules is portrayed by Adelaide Kane. Here.

Author's Notes: A little advice? Please, listen to 'Lighting crashes' when you start 'NOW'.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Warnings: death, angst, fluff. This is the finale.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN FINALE

ㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤCHAPTER EIGHT

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

BEFORE

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

The following months were as hard as they expected. Surviving became harder and painful, especially for their spirits. The girls could barely move in that cabin that was surrounded by snow.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Despite the care of his sister and friends, Pietro's pneumonia ended his life after fighting for weeks.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Desolation was all Wanda knew for a long time, but thanks to the support of Y/N and the girls, she was able to move on as the months went by. Guilt choked her for a long time until she realized it was beyond what she could do. The death of her twin brother hurt Wanda in the depths of her heart. Soon they will die too.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

But the one who didn't seem to find peace was Y/N; inside her, the guilt grew more and more. Pietro died to save her, and now she was there. Leading a group of hopeless girls trying to survive another day, and in the only way they could.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Finally the snow disappears, allowing them to bloom with spring, revitalizing their spirits. Of course, that didn't mean they were going to be saved, they had all lost that hope a long time ago. They were just a bunch of girls when before they were a huge team.

But when they least expected it, one day, a small plane flew over that lake, noticing the signals they sent. They all screamed and made as much noise as possible to be seen until Y/N fired the flare with a look full of hope.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

They will return home.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“The investigation into the cause of the accident remains preliminary.” One of the journalists commented live along with many more outside the New Jersey airport room. “The crash site was over 600 miles north.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

But before the journalist could continue, the doors opened and some hooded girls left there to go to the truck parked outside. The policemen tried to shield them from the journalists who charged at them like wild beasts thirsty for blood. 

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Here they come!” One of the reporters yelled. “Let's go!”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

The reporters were clamoring for answers, the camera's shutters clicking every second; the despair on the faces of those girls. Wanda's green eyes widened, completely terrified. Taking care of her, Y/N and Natasha took and tried to get their friends out of that place.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Can you tell us anything?” One of them was trying to get the mic closer to Jules, but Natasha just pushed him. “Natasha, what happened?!”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Y/N, Who survived?!”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ “How did you survive the cold?” ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ “Wanda! Where’s your brother?!”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“How'd you survive for so long?”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“What happened to the rest?”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Tell us something... anything!”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

All those questions haunted them all the way to the police station. Some cried with happiness while others were simply anxious to see their families again.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

The first to arrive were Wanda's parents, who hugged the brunette with so much love and support. Between tears and various affectionate words, they celebrated her return but also mourned the loss of Pietro. Oleg said that they could talk about it later, that the important thing now was to go home.

Everyone's parents came for them, including Natasha and Alexei, the big man ran up and hugged Nat and Yelena like a huge protective bear.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Everyone was again surrounded by their loved ones, except Y/N and Jules who called home several times but no one came. Auntie Claire never left the house alone unless she was working.

The black-haired girl hung up the public phone and walked towards Y/N in that police station.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“I tried it like six times.” Jules sighed and sat down next to Y/N, who was looking worriedly towards the door. Why was her aunt taking so long?

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Me too, I called Claire and mom's house but got nothing.” Y/N sighed and slumped back in the seat. She looked around, noticing how Nat and her parents were approaching them.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Hello, girls. We were thinking… Do you want us to take you home?” Alexei offered with a warm look. Melina nodded quickly, delighted with the idea. They always adored those two, they were an odd couple but really good people.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Umh… we're actually hoping that-” Jules tried to say but then swallowed hard. “Actually, I would like to know… my mother is not answering the phone. Did mom say that she would come later or something?”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

At that moment, the Maximoffs, who were also nearby, approached standing on one side of the Romanoff’s.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Everything's okay?” Oleg asked curiously, noticing how the girls were getting more and more nervous.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Mr. Maximoff… My aunt isn't answering the phone. Do you know if she will come?” Y/N stood up, looking at the man with concern.  “I was thinking maybe you knew because you’re neighbors.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Oh, sweetie.” Mrs. Maximoff said with sadness, as did Natasha's parents. “Has no one told you?”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“You don't know yet?” Melina murmured worriedly.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Tell us what?” Jules asked, raising an eyebrow, fearing the worst. “Please, tell us what?”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Oh, girls.” Melina placed a hand on both of their shoulders and sighed.  “I think you'd better come with us, okay?”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“I would like to stay, I don't want my mom to come and not see us here. She will freak out.” Jules said quickly, taking a step back. Of course, she could tell that they had some bad news to give them and she was completely refusing to receive it.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Mama... What's wrong?” Natasha frowned, standing next to them.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Sweetie…” Melina started and then looked around the other parents, getting their approval. They deserved to understand why Claire hadn't arrived.  They deserved the truth, maybe not in that way, but the girls didn't seem to accept leaving without an answer.  “Claire had a heart attack some time ago.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“She died.” Iryna took courage when saying those words, feeling a deep sadness when she saw how tears formed in the eyes of those girls. “She had a heart attack when the plane crash happened. I’m so sorry.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Shaking her head, tears running down her cheeks, Y/N was not willing to hear that. Of course she wasn't going to accept it.

She wasn’t going to accept the death of the person who cared for her all her fucking life, after having seen suffering and death in the Canadian taiga.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“That's not true, she wouldn't leave us.” Y/N narrowed her eyes, taking a more defensive position due to the pain. Like a wounded animal.

Y/N just hugged Jules, who just started crying uncontrollably.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

 Feeling enormously sorry for them, their friends tried to comfort them and the adults just decided to give them the necessary space for it.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“You can come with us if you want.” Alexei offered them, hugging Y/N and Jules for some time. Claire and Melina had always been good friends, that's how she met Nat.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“I- I don’t know.” Jules stammered through tears, she couldn't even speak. “I just want to know what happened. I just want my mom, I wanna go home-”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Please, at least for tonight. Come with us, okay?” Melina asked both of them, taking their hands.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“You know that you count on us for whatever you need.” Iryna, Wanda's mother, offered with immense tenderness. Wanda nodded quickly.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

After a moment, Jules nodded and took a step forward, realizing that her mother wasn't coming. Her mom passed away a long time ago and she just wanted to know why.

But unlike Jules, Y/N couldn't just leave it like that. The pain inside began to consume her, the rage and the anger that she felt against this world so difficult and destructive. How is it possible? After suffering so much. This was messed up.

Y/N clenched her fists tightly.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Y/N?” Wanda noticed the tension in her girlfriend and approached her, taking Y/N’s fist in her hands. She didn't care that her parents saw it, Wanda loved that girl with all her heart. “Please, come with us.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Green eyes looked at Y/N's, and even though that connection was still there, something was broken in Y/N. And she knew something was off.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“I just-” Unable to speak of what she felt or accept it, Y/N swallowed and moved away from her, letting go of the brunette's hand. “I have to get out of here.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N took a few steps back, ready to escape.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“I’m coming with you.” Wanda followed her steps but Y/N got in the way, shaking her head.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“No.” She said quickly, noticing the disappointment in her girlfriend's eyes. And yet, despite that, Y/N decided to swallow hard and move on. “Stay with your family.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

She couldn't deal with all of this right now, she needed to find some way to escape. “Just… stay.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N walked away leaving the sokovian behind. Leaving the police station, not knowing where to go, she just started walking without a destination. Not knowing that that moment would be a terrible break in her life, and in the lives of those who loved her.

NOW

ㅤㅤ

Lightning Crashes

ㅤㅤㅤ

The hospital doors opened, letting in a desperate woman looking for answers. Her eyes showed the uncertainty and desolation she felt. The place was full of injured people, apparently there was a pretty serious accident nearby. Wanda came after her, trying to keep up.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Excuse me? Excuse me!” y/n approached the receptionist, who seemed to be quite busy with all the cases coming in.  “I’m looking for Julia Y/L/N. She works here, she's a doctor.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Excuse me, right now I can't-” The receptionist muttered trying to help many people at once, Y/N was about to lose her mind when a familiar voice made them turn around.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Y/N? Come with me.” When she turned around, Y/N sighed, finally seeing a familiar face. Christine, one of Jules's coworkers in the hospital, took her arm and led them to another room.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N quickened the step, noticing the woman's hurry. “Christine, what's going on? They called me saying I should come-”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“I know.” Christine stopped when they got out of the operating room.  Wanda frowned, this was not a delivery room. It was the damn operating room.  “We don’t have time so… Look, I shouldn't be telling you this, but I feel like I have to because she's my co-worker and a  good friend, and I owe her so much.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Christine swallowed hard, trying to be strong. In a job like this, she had often been the bearer of bad news but she had never had a case so close to her.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“As you can see, there was a chain reaction crash, we have many injured.” The redhead took a cap and disposable scrub and handed it to her. “Jules and Natasha were there, a van crashed into their car when they were coming here because her water broke two hours ago.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda covered her mouth, terrified. But full of innocence, Y/N nodded and looked around her. “Okay, where are they?”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Y/N…” Wanda reached out to take her hand.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Christine cleared her throat, trying to be professional and not shed a tear. “Natasha... she died instantly.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Her face paled. Wanda just tried to sit in the nearest chair, feeling horrible dizziness.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“What? No.” Shocked, it’s all Y/N could say. Tears filled her eyes. “No, that’s not possible. She's fine. She's going to be fine!”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“I know you're in shock right now and it hurts, but I need you to pay attention to what I'm going to tell you.” Christine put a hand on her shoulder. “Julia is injured, a piece of metal went through her shoulder, and she needs you to be present at the birth.” She sighed. “She doesn't want general anesthesia, so... please put this on and come with me.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

But Y/N just stood there, not knowing what to do. Her face pale, the ringing in the ears again.  “I- I don’t know how to do it.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“You're the only family she has right now. She needs you, she doesn't know that Natasha died.” Christine persisted, hoping Y/N would do it.  “She’s having the baby, you must give her strength to stay with us. Okay?”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda approached and hugged her for a moment, showing her that she was not alone.  “You can handle this, detka.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N just nodded quickly, like an innocent child without understanding anything that was happening around her. She put on those clothes and entered the room with Christine.

Swallowing, Y/N blinked as the lights from the operating room blinded her for a second. Several doctors were around Jules, who was already in labor.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“You're dilated enough now, this baby is coming right now.” One of the doctors said.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“I know, I can fucking feel it!” Jules grunted and narrowed her eyes, the pain was too much. Sweat and tears poured down her face, a bit bruised, but nothing serious for now.

Seeing Jules like that, Y/N left that state of shock to walk towards her and take her hand.  “Hey, sis… are you ready to bring the little bee into this world?” ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Jules smiled a bit exhausted, squeezing Y/N’s hand gently.  “Hey you… I'm ready to kill Strange when I get out of here.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Now, push!”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Push, Jules.” Y/N looked at her and nodded, giving her all the strength she needed. Jules took a deep breath, then pushed hard, squeezing her sister's hand. The pain is exponentially intolerable.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Oh my god!”  She screamed.  Her jaw tensed as did every muscle in her body.  ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“It's going great, it's almost ready... Now it’s going to be harder, but we need it, okay? Push!”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N stayed by her side every moment, smiling, crying, saying the most beautiful words of support.

Felt her hand about to break many times but she didn't care, feeling the pain as an ally to endure the moment.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“You’re so brave, you know? This is really beautiful, Jules.” Y/N smiled tenderly and whispered in her ear. “You're doing great, I'm so proud of you. You’re going to be such a good mom.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

The raven-haired girl nodded and took a deep breath, knowing she had to push again, but before reason came to her.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

You're going to be such a good mom.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Y/N?” Eyes brimming with tears, Jules turned to look her in the eye. “Where's Natasha?”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N didn't know what to say, just swallowed and cradled Jules's hand in hers, she didn't know anything. No one told her anything so that her condition wouldn't worsen, but how could Y/N hide something like that from her sister?

The heartbreaking silence caught them again like a wild beast. ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Y/N… Please tell me, where is Nat?” Jules pleaded with a shaky voice. This time, tears of sadness began to fall down her face.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N sniffled. “She… Natasha did not survive the crash. I'm sorry.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Jules brown eyes only expressed deep, heartbreaking sadness.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“No… God, no… She can't be dead, I still feel her here.” Jules begged and placed a hand on her chest; they both began to cry together before the loss. ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

The loss of a best friend and of a soulmate. ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“PUSH!” The doctor's requests became more and more insistent, they were the last pushes.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

In a scream of pure pain, physical and especially emotional, the woman screamed, pushing harder than ever. Screamed because of the helplessness she felt, she screamed because of the injustice, she screamed because of her broken heart.

A heart that was beating wildly.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ “I'm here with you, okay? You will never be alone. I love you.” Y/N reminded her over and over again, closing her eyes and giving Jules all the support in the world in that last push.

And after that, a hopeful cry made them both look at the doctor, who soon handed the little baby over to the nurse. After wrapping it in a blanket, Christine walked over to show the baby to them.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“It's a beautiful girl.” Christine said tenderly seeing how Jules smiled completely in love, excited, destroyed. That beautiful, reddish baby who moved her hands desperately seeking connection.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Look at her… You’re a mom now.” Y/N smiled and kissed her sister's forehead, watching her niece with enormous tenderness.  “Baby bumblebee is a girl, look at her.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“She’s beautiful… kinda looking like a red potato tho.”  Jules laughed and leaned down to kiss her little girl's forehead gently. Jules closed her brown eyes for a moment, holding the baby against her chest so she could say some last words to her. That was it, all she needed.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

In soft whispers, she said the most beautiful things and the most beautiful promises that Y/N could have heard. And Y/N knew at that moment that this baby would never suffer the same that she suffered with her own mother.

Looking at that tiny adorably newborn, who now had their hearts forever.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Y/N…” Jules barely whispered, feeling her muscles begin to lose strength. That was the sad cue to give the little one to Y/N to hold. “You have to take care of her…”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Sure I will. With you, with Wanda and Yelena... We will all do it together.” Y/N held the little girl in her arms and nodded. She didn't even know how to hold a baby, but she tried.  It was such a small thing in her hands, how was it possible?

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Jules swallowed and blinked rapidly, reaching out to take Y/N's arm. Her breathing seemed somewhat agitated, quite abnormal.  “Y/N, look at me, promise me you'll take care of her.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“I promise. I swear.” Y/N nodded, not quite understanding what it meant.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Smiling sadly but lovingly, Jules raised her hand to caress her sister's face.  “You know I love you with all my heart, right? There’s no better person than you to do this… I'll be forever grateful.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Do what? What are you talking about?” Y/N frowned.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

“Tell my little girl that we love her, okay? Always remind her of that. Her moms will always take care of her.” The woman sighed, her eyes closing but she fought with all her might to stay awake for a few more seconds. Please, God, just a few more seconds.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Shaking her head, Y/N approached her sister.  “You will tell her, okay? Just stay awake.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

A screeching beep made Y/N jump, the little girl in her arms began to cry.  ㅤㅤㅤ

“Jules, what's going on?” She tried to keep Jules awake, but the paleness on her face worried her even more. “CHRISTINE, WHAT’S WRONG?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“She's losing a lot of blood!” Christine hurried over so she could see what was happening. Sure enough, blood loss from childbirth was to blame.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I'm feeling a little tired.” Jules muttered tiredly.  “Remember you promised.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Please, don’t… don’t do this.” Y/N took her hand and began to cry, begging her to stay by her side. “Please, she needs you. I need you… You are all I have left. You're the only family I have left!” Y/N pleaded, sobbing.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I love you, Y/N/N. I'll always be with you.” She smiled at her one last time, finally allowing herself to rest.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Crying inconsolably, Y/N felt fear, anguish and desolation destroying her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“She’s coding!”

ㅤㅤㅤ

One of the nurses came over to take the baby away, telling Y/N  that they should take her out now.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Where are they taking the baby? No, tell me! where is she going?” Y/N screamed in despair.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N put their hands to their head, completely overwhelmed by everything that is happening around her. The sounds, the screams, the crying.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“No, no, no.” Y/N repeated over and over again, moving closer to Jules to try to wake her up, cup her face and talk to her.

One of the nurses reached out to pull Y/N away from her, but the woman struggled to hold on to her sister's body. It took three nurses to get her away from Jules, allowing them to start the defibrillator.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“One, two.” Christine ordered before placing the paddles on Julia's chest. “One, two.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N screamed inconsolably, seeing how they tried to save her sister's life but after several attempts, they only found that her heartbeat was no longer heard.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Come on, Julia! Stay with us!” Christine asked, trying many more times.

ㅤㅤㅤ But after a few minutes, they stopped. She was gone.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Fuck!” The doctor tossed the paddles aside, completely heartbroken.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Lightning crashes, a new mother dies.

ㅤㅤㅤ

But the one who was heartbroken was Y/N, watching her sister's body, taking slow steps towards her. But far from seeing that tender look, that adorable smile, she found just a pale and abandoned body.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Jules?”  Y/N whimpered like a little girl, reaching out to take her hand. “Jules, no, please. Don’t leave me, please.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

She allowed herself to stay by Jules' side for a while, venting all her pain.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Time of death?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“04:30 AM”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Feeling like it was all a huge sadistic joke on the fucking universe. Auntie Claire was gone, but she still had Jules. A beautiful part of her aunt had remained in her.

Now Jules was gone, and all that remained of her was this little girl.

Completely numb, she left that room with a lost look. What had to be done now? Where to go? Y/N walked slowly down the hall, until Wanda finally saw her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Detka? What is it?” The sokovian asked desperately. Those red eyes showed that she had been crying for a long time over the loss of Natasha. “Is Jules okay? Are they both okay?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Still looking blank, Y/N murmured: “She died.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“What? No!” Wanda shook her head, she couldn't believe all this.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“She died after giving birth.” Y/N swallowed. “I'm so sorry.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Oh my god.” Wanda burst into tears, holding on to the wall for a moment. “a-and the baby?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“It’s a girl. She’s at the baby nursery now.” Finally coming out of her shock at seeing Wanda suffer like that, she went over to hug her. So tightly, allowing both of them to cry together.  “What the hell is going on?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

The hours passed, Y/N looked down, seeing her black coffee that she was holding in her hands. Wanda was on the phone with Yelena and Natasha's parents to explain the situation to them. Of course it was one of the most difficult moments of her life.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“They’re going to fly from Ohio, going to the airport now.”  Wanda sighed, walking over and putting her phone in her pocket. “Yelena was really pissed off, but I heard that Alexei was devastated. Melina too.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Gently, she took her girlfriend's arm and rested her head on Y/N’s shoulder.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I'm sorry you have to go through all this.” Y/N murmured, drinking that coffee that didn't even seem to save her this time.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You don't have to be sorry, they were my friends too. Our friends, our sisters.” Wanda sighed. “I love you, and I will always be by your side. I'll support you in everything.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N tilted her head to see Wanda and confirmed once more that this woman was the love of her life. That she had always been by her side, and she always would be.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“It's all so unfair, you know? How is it possible?” Y/N swallowed hard so she wouldn't sob again. “How is it possible that we survived so much to end up like this?! Is this karma for what we did?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“No, detka. Of course not.” Wanda cooed, hugging her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

A few minutes later, one of the nurses came out of the door and invited them inside. After agreeing to sign some papers and follow some steps, they approached the nursery ward, looking through that huge window at the adorable babies in their cribs.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N looked for the little girl somewhat worried, what if she wasn't there? Fear washed over her until she was finally able to recognize her, not far from them.

Wanda smiled as soon as she saw her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“She’s a beautiful baby.” The nurse smiled, showing them the test results. Everything was okay, the baby girl was healthy. “What's the little girl's name?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

That question clearly affected Y/N deeply, she justtried not to get emotional again. Those eyes were tired from crying.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“They wanted to keep it as a surprise.” Wanda answered for her girlfriend, squeezing her arm in support.  “They didn't get to tell us.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

The nurse nodded sadly and was about to leave until Y/N spoke.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Natalia.” Y/N whispered. “Because… because their names were  Natasha and Julia… and… i-if you mix the names… I think Natalia sums it up pretty well.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

The nurse nodded, wrote down that name so she could put it on the bracelet that the baby would wear for the rest of the night. Natalia Romanoff Y/L/N.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Is it stupid?” Y/N whispered to Wanda, who just shook her head. “Do you think they would like it?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“It’s a beautiful name, detka.” The brunette kissed her cheek. “Do you know what it means?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N just shook her head, trying not to pout.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“It means ‘natale domini’, christmas day. A sweet name like Natalia will always remind her how loved she is, they'll love it.” Wanda hugged Y/N's, both watching that adorable baby. The nurse took Natalia in her arms and brought her closer so they could see her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Oh, she was adorable even yawning.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I don't know how to do this.” Y/N confessed quietly, completely terrified but ready to face that huge monster called fear.

ㅤㅤㅤ

And by her side, Y/N had the most important woman in the world. Wanda looked at her with those green eyes full of love, swearing her loyalty forever. “I will help you, detka, everything will be fine. You can do this.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Desperate and tired, Y/N moved from one side to the other holding that baby of barely eight weeks. She spent nights without being able to sleep well, completely in despair.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Please, Natalia. Stop crying.” Y/N begged, squeezing her eyes shut to keep from exploding. Little Natalia had been crying for a long time and nothing seemed to calm her down. Y/N was holding a bottle with the infant formula that the doctor recommended.

Y/N gently left the baby in the crib next to her favorite bear, but nothing happened. Natalia kept screaming even more, as if she was daring her lungs to explode.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You don't want to eat, your diaper is clean! What the hell do you want?!” Y/N yelled so tiredly, but after a few seconds she started crying next to the baby. “What do you want from me?! I miss and need them too!” Y/N sobbed.They both shared that moment of pain.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Auntie Claire was gone. Jules was gone. Natasha was gone.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Now there was only that little baby left, that adorable little thing next to her and it wasn’t her fault for coming into a desolate world.

She was all Y/N had left of the people she loved the most. How not to be patient with that little bee? It wasn't her fault, and it wasn't Y/N's either.

She allowed herself to cry for a moment and then wiped away her tears, taking Natalia in her arms again. “Now it's just the two of us, okay? They screwed us like that, we have to deal with it.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N sighed.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Okay, let’s try something new…” Y/N walked to the window, looking around with the baby in her arms. She got a nice apartment some months ago. “Your grandma Claire used to sing this… she was such a fan, and your mama loved it too.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I hear your voice. It's like an angel sighin'. I have no choice, I hear your voice… feels like flying. I close my eyes, Oh God, I think I'm fallin'...” She sang softly, like a lullaby. “Like a child, you whisper softly to me. You're in control, just like a child now I'm dancing.” 

ㅤㅤㅤ

Incredibly, the little girl began to calm down little by little. That heartbreaking cry now turned into A curious look, those little hands trying to catch Y/N's face.

Y/N smiled seeing this great progress, encouraging herself to move a little like a little dance. “It's like a dream… No end and no beginning. You're here with me, Natalia, it's like a dream… cause when you call my name, it's like a little prayer.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Life is a mystery, everyone must stand alone. I hear you call my name and it feels like home.” Natalia moved her hands excitedly, watching every movement of Y/N's lips, even gurgling.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“That’s it. You liked it, didn't you?” Finally achieving the first bond with the baby, Y/N let out a small laugh of happiness between tears. “I love you, Natalia… I will take care of you forever, even if I have to give my life for you.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

She kissed Nat’s forehead and continued rocking her for a while, noticing that now the girl was no longer trying to let go. She just relaxed in those soft arms, beginning to fall asleep until someone knocked on the door.

Y/N walked towards the door, meeting a worried Wanda on the other side.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I read your message, I came as soon as the twins left with Vision.” The brunette approached to kiss her then watched little Nat gurgling.  “Everything's okay? What is it?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“That’s from the past, now we are at peace.” Y/N smiled and took the bottle to see if Natalia wanted to try it. After a few seconds, the little girl accepted.  “She was crying and I didn't understand what she wanted.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I'm proud, Y/N.” Wanda smiled tenderly. She took off her jacket and walked Y/N to her bedroom.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Can you stay with me?” Y/N begged with cute eyes and an adorable pout. “With us?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Biting her lower lip, watching the love of her life rocking that baby slowly, Wanda just nodded, feeling a strange sensation of familiarity and peace inside her.  “Of course, my love.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Fifteen minutes later, they were both lying on the bed, watching as Natalia drank her bottle happily cuddling between them. ㅤㅤㅤ

"We've been waiting for you, now you are here. More perfect than I imagined, our house is now a nest. No matter where you go, sunlight shines on you.’

ㅤㅤㅤ

Surprising Y/N with her beautiful voice, Wanda smiled seeing that Natalia closed her cute eyes and relaxed with that lullaby, letting go of the bottle.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“That was beautiful.” Y/N whispered, lost in the beauty of her beloved.ㅤㅤ Wanda smiled tenderly. “You are.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda gently leaned in to give her a short kiss, trying not to disturb the little girl.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“So… How about we get a boat?” Y/N joked. Vision deposited the money into her bank account the day before, so everything was fine between them for now.  “Mmm… no… College fund, right?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda bit her lips, trying not to laugh.  “Yes, college fund… And pay our bills.”

ㅤㅤㅤ “And put a down payment on a boat.” Y/N teased again, settling between the huge pillows. Wanda did the same, taking Y/N’s hand.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“We’re not getting a boat.” The sokovian whispered, closing her eyes a bit tired.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“But they're fun.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“They're expensive.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You’re right.” Y/N grimaced and closed her eyes as well, feeling the exhaustion in her body overcome her little by little. 

ㅤㅤㅤ

“College fund, pay our bills and some nice vacation on a beach.” Wanda smiled tenderly when she saw how Natalia was completely sleepy.  “There's gotta be some fun in our lives.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I like that.” Y/N smiled sleepily. “I love you…”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Watching that adorable moment in front of her, Wanda knew that the answer to the question she was asking herself for a long time had already been answered.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I love you too, detka.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

But maybe it was time to go further. And although Y/N didn't know it, Wanda was ready to offer her to move in together. Why not?

“Okay, Natalia. Hold on tight.” Y/N said to the little girl as she adjusted the baby carrier on her chest. Little Natalia smiled tenderly and moved her little legs excited for her.  “We're going on our first adventure.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

When little Natalia turned five months old, Wanda and Y/N found a nice place to live together. Of course the twins were delighted with the idea, because having a little sister for them was something really important.

Wanda explained to them the importance of taking care of Natalia and making her their family. But the twins didn't need explanations, they loved the little redhead already.

ㅤㅤㅤ

And slowly, Y/N learned to be a responsible parent.

ㅤㅤㅤ

She learned that loss didn’t mean having to destroy everything around her, and making Wanda happy and giving Natalia a better life was all she wanted.

Y/N learned how to deal with diapers as well as crying at night, or also with paranoia and fear of losing the little girl.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Sometimes she stayed watching her for a long time, thinking about how much she resembled to them. Natalia hated being around too many people and cheeky like Natasha, but she also was so warm like Jules.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Do you think she will like it?” Y/N asked the twins with some concern, showing them a small velvet box. A beautiful ring was waiting to be delivered to Wanda that night.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Little Natalia observed the ring with curiosity wanting to grab it so badly, with just a year she didn’t understand anything they said, but she could say things like: ‘Mamma' and 'mommy’.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“She will love it!” Billy grinned and Tommy nodded. They were both quite excited, and that made Y/N's heart beat faster. The twins have always been a great support.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Nodding, Y/N knew she had to take the biggest and most important step of her life.

And she did it, because the wedding was the most beautiful moment of their lives.

Wanda's tears of happiness and Y/N's huge happy smile showed it in the pictures. ㅤㅤㅤ

And of course she missed Natasha and Jules a lot, but Y/N knew that wherever they were, they would be happy for them.

Y/N and Yelena formed a much stronger bond, completely unconditional in the absence of their sisters. Both were clear that the important thing was also to give Natalia a beautiful family.

EIGHT YEARS LATER

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Natalia, your aunt Yelena is here!” Y/N's voice made the adorable redhead startle and leave her room, but not before grabbing her backpack.

Y/N and the blonde walked to the kitchen, where Wanda was baking some cookies.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You better take care of her.” Y/N pointed at the blonde and sat down at the table to enjoy some cocoa and cookies. “If you're going to take her fishing in Alexei’s boat, don't let her fall. She's learning to swim.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“She will master it soon.” Yelena arched an amused brow and stole one of the cookies, taking a bite. Of course, Y/N's serious look made her add,  “I'm just kidding with you, Y/N Y/L/N. We'll just visit my parents and fish in the boat for a little while. Talk about stuff… that’s it.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“We know.” Y/N kissed Yelena’s cheek, just to annoy her even more. “I just like to annoy you.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Ugh.” The blonde teased, wiping her cheek.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Here's something to eat, in case you don’t wanna buy something.”  Wanda smiled when she saw them and took two lunch boxes and a box of fresh cookies.   “Chicken paprikash, mac and cheese, your favorite I know, and cookies.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Wanda Maximoff, you are a sweetheart.” Yelena sighed exaggeratedly and leaned in to kiss her cheek, this time trying to annoy Y/N.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N just giggled and tossed her a small chocolate chip.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Okay, it's time. I'll call you as soon as we get there, okay?” Yelena said goodbye to both and walked towards the door.  “Let’s go, Natalia!”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Coming!”  An adorable eight-year-old girl ran down the stairs. She was a redhead, like Natasha and her eyes were light brown like Jules. Natalia was fierce, kinda sarcastic and brave, but also adorable, smart and kind.

ㅤㅤㅤ

The little girl approached Y/N, hugging her mother tight. “I’ll miss you, mom.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Smiling tenderly -and fighting not to turn into an overprotective bear- Y/N hugged her daughter for a moment. “Take good care of your aunt, okay? She’s crazy. Send some hugs to mama Melina and Alexei. Tell them we miss them.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Yes, mom!” Natalia smiled toothly. “I'm going with Auntie Yelena, I love you both!”

ㅤㅤㅤ

The little girl kissed Y/N's cheek and then ran to hug Wanda's waist, who kissed the little girl's forehead.  “Be careful, okay? We love you, baby.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Yes, mama!”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Take care, kiddo!” Y/N got up to see how the girl ran towards the porch, meeting the blonde one. “Don't forget to call us, okay?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N remained watching the place, until Wanda hugged her from behind, snuggling up against her.

There was her little girl, ready to start a new adventure.

ㅤㅤㅤ

It didn't take long for them to decide to have another baby together. Wanda tried an IUI to become mothers and after one attempt, they miraculously managed to conceive a beautiful and healthy baby.

Y/N was quite nervous, fear and memories of her sister in the hospital haunted her, but little by little, Wanda made her understand that everything would be okay.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Nine months later, they both welcomed an adorable baby girl they named Luna Maximoff-Y/L/N.

The children were delighted, even though Natalia felt a bit insecure, when the tiny redhead saw her new sister she swore to take care of her forever. Forming an inseparable bond.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Smiling, seeing how Wanda held her little newborn daughter, singing a tender sokovian lullaby, Y/N knew that although life was sometimes hard, it also had happy and memorable moments.

This was more than a happy place. This was a family.

And she deserved it.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

And time passed, year after year, full of happiness.

Of course there were some complex moments, not everything in life is happy moments but always, there were always more beautiful than ugly moments in the lives of those women.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda and Y/N had a beautiful marriage for almost forty years. They saw their twins grow up and become good, kind and respectful men.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Natalia became an incredible, respectable, successful and loving woman. Of course she was a little rebellious at times like Natasha, but she also had responsible moments like Jules. She met an adorable girl on a trip and fell madly in love.

Wanda and Y/N always reminded her that Nat and Jules were her real mothers and they always came to the cemetery to leave some flowers.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Luna was an adorable girl, she was like Wanda. Even with her brown hair and beautiful green eyes, Y/N told Luna that she was her little 'firecracker' because she had her adventurous spirit.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N lived the most beautiful years to the fullest, even when Wanda passed away two years before her, Y/N knew that together they had lived a beautiful life. And death, like loss, no longer affected her the same way.

That night, Y/N passed away sleeping and letting herself fall asleep, leaving in absolute peace.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

Opening her eyes slowly, Y/N felt like someone was poking her over and over again inviting her to wake up. “Hey, you.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

A male voice made her eyes widen.  “Wake up, lazy ass!”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N got up quickly from the ground, looking moved at the boy in front of her. Pietro looked exactly as he was before the plane accident; his wild hair, those green eyes sparkled.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Finally!” He smiled. She looked around her, it was a nice quiet place, like a warm spring afternoon. Though she had no idea where she was.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Without waiting any longer, Y/N hugged him tightly, closing her eyes. Saying over and over again how sorry she was, and how much she owed him. How thankful she was.

Year after year, the guilt over Pietro's death washed over her and she was finally letting it go.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Everything is okay, captain, all that is behind us.”  Pietro hugged the girl and smiled tenderly.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Well, I'm getting a bit jealous over here, and you?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“A bit, yes.” This time it was Natasha, giving Jules a little nudge at her side. They looked exactly as she remembered them, so beautiful. 

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Nat?” With tears in her eyes, Y/N wasted no time in running to them and hugging them. “Jules!”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“What? Did you think you'd never see us again?” Jules teased, hugging her tightly. “Thank you for everything you did for our little girl.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“We are proud to see the woman she has become thanks to you and Wanda.” Natasha smiled and ruffled Y/N's hair.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“That little girl stole my heart from the first moment, I'm glad you are happy.” Y/N sniffled.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“We are really happy.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I'm sorry you couldn't have-” Y/N tried to say but her friends just shook their heads.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“We were always there with you.” Jules smiled and put her hand on Y/N’s shoulder.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Closing her eyes for a second, Y/N got lost in that touch that felt so real to her. Wasn't she dreaming?

Suddenly her eyes widened, looking around her with excitement. “Wanda… where is she?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Natasha smiled. “First you must be sure of what you will choose.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N frowned.  “What do you mean?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Do you want to stay or do you want to come with us?” This time Jules spoke, all of them began to walk down that path between the trees.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You must leave all longing behind, you must first accept it.” Pietro nodded.  Of course he was referring to her family, who were still alive.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N thought for a moment. Her children would be fine, they were old enough to move on their own. It was her time to move on too.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“They'll be fine.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

With a smile, the three looked at each other and then stepped aside.

Behind them, Wanda was looking at her with a huge smile and a hopeful look.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Detka!”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Without further ado, they hugged each other again, stronger than ever. Their souls finally found each other, entwining once more. “Wands… I missed you, so bad.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N kissed her lips over and over again, desperate for having missed her so much.

Wanda smiled between kisses.  “I missed you too.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

They held each other for a moment until Y/N felt how they were surrounded. Not only her friends, but also other people.

One of them made her let go of Wanda’s arms. Y/N felt that the time -if it existed there- stopped completely.

It had been a long time since she saw that girl.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Hey.” Sharon waved, smirking slightly. Sharon, Helen, Carol, Kate and all the girls who died in that place were around her. This time not like a horrible and haunting nightmare, no. This time it was a welcome.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N blinked and waking up from the reverie, she violently approached her to stop in front of Sharon. She did nothing but feel her tears fall.   “I'm sorry about everything. I didn't mean it to end like that, I'm so sorry. I spent all these years thinking about that, I didn't want you to die. I'm so sorry, Sharon.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

She finally cried, letting go of the guilt. Y/N carried Sharon's death for a long time.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Can you forgive me?” Y/N asked Sharon, taking her hand, but the blonde squeezed her hand as a clear answer.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Only if you can forgive us too.” Sharon nodded and just hugged her. “I never hated you, we were young and stupid. We made a lot of mistakes in a place that wasn't for us, but all that is behind us. This place is to rest... all those pains left behind.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

All of them hugged Y/N tightly, welcoming her to a whole new place. Where pain, revenge, violence was left behind.

One by one the whole team approached to join that hug. Like the first time, like that first time after winning the match. If only that plane accident hadn't happened, oh that team would have been unstoppable.

ㅤㅤㅤ

BUZZ! BUZZ! BUZZ!

ㅤㅤㅤ

They all cheered, happy, free.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Okay, move on from here.” Yelena growled. “We must move on, I'm sick of seeing you all even in the fucking heaven.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N turned to look at her, confused. “This is heaven?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Yeah, we don’t know? It's more like… a place made up of many heavens? Individual ones? Each of us can rest and lose ourselves in the moments we decide to remember.” Wanda explained, narrowing her eyes, some of the girls nodded. “We don’t need to understand, just… be here. Unless you are a very evil person, we don't know what happens there.” ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ

“But if you're not evil... everyone gets a piece of paradise.” Jules smiled widely.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“We can visit others, but only soulmates can share the same place.” Natasha kissed her wife's cheek, hugging her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

 “Ready to meet ours?” Wanda smiled and took the hand of the love of her life.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N inhaled deeply and then nodded. Finally smiling, ready to rest. “Yeah.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Yup, this is the end. 🐝 I hope I didn't disappoint you. And it was good for you. I know it has not much to do with the tv show -more than the plane crash and some stuff- and I'm happy with that. Maybe there are some one shots later, explaining some moments. Pietro's death and everything...   So, thank you very much for reading me, it is always a delight to know that you are here with me. 🐝

the cutest and lovely BEES tags ✨ @kaiidth-wandika @yourfavunsub @pawiie @fanboy7794 @sunsol-22 @scarlettbitchx @arcturusseer @imnotasuperhero @chtte @lesbians-in-outer-space @starry-night17 @cristin-rjd @kenlymar @chtte @marvelogic @druggedduck @aliherreraaa @widowwaddles @gingiesworld @canyonyodeler smromanoff @romanoffomixam✨

[justrainandcoffee]

The sound of silence (Alfie Solomons x fem!oc) + (Alfie Solomons x Tommy Shelby)

Summary: Why did she agree? To make Alfie happy. Why did Tommy accept? Because love is blind. For two years they've been living under the same roof. She and Tommy sharing the same man... And the same misery. Love makes you feel happy, people say. They know it's not always true.

Warnings: Angst. ANGST. || Alfie is bigamous.|| Everyone here is miserable. || Mentions of killing and political corruption. Period typical homophobia. || Did I mention ANGST?

Words: 3.6k || Alfie masterlist

"Put a number."

There she was in front of a man making business with him to save her husband and his lover from a catastrophe.

"The newspaper is not for sale."

"Everything is for sale if you know what is good for you and your family. Put a fucking number."

The man was around 45 years old and that money was synonymous with an earlier retirement. Silence had a price and his newspaper, too.

"Twenty-five grand."

"I'll make 27 and I'll guarantee that your ass is safe, as long as you learn to keep your mouth shut. Do we have an agreement, Mr. Donovan?"

"Yes, Mrs. Solomons."

"If you open your mouth, a bullet will open your fucking brain. Do you understand, right?"

"I do, Mrs. Solomons. I do."

First she signed the papers that made her the legal owner of the most important newspaper in London and then, she gave him the cheque. If 27,000 pounds didn't make him be quiet and understood the kind of people were behind her, then violence will. But that was the last choice.

Two policemen started their days with a bullet in their hearts and an inspector appeared drown in the Thames. But they were just isolated accidents: thieves and a suicide. That's what the newspaper was going to say the following morning.

No mentions of the fucking party.

Solomons-Shelby was an alliance that could make the King shit on his throne. And the leaders of both bands were fucking in the same bed.

-Two years ago-

Alfie liked him. Rose knew it the moment her husband started to talked nonstop about the Birmingham man as soon as they met and for the first time ever she experienced jealousy. Until Thomas Shelby appeared, Alfie never put his eyes on anyone else but her.

"I love you, Rosie."

"…but you also love him."

Alfie didn't like him. Alfie loved him.

"Do you want the divorce?"

The words shattered her own heart. The idea of a life without her Alfie sounded like millions of knives in her soul. They were always him and her against the world, since they were kids. Always. Silent tears started to run down her cheeks, but she kept looking at him.

"Fuck! No! I can't live without you, Rosie. Don't ask me that again! I love you."

"Do you?"

"Like always."

"Did you cheat on me with him?"

"No. Not even once."

"Did you fantasize about fucking him?" she continued asking. But this time Alfie didn't answer. Rose bit her lower lip and nodded "You did."

Rose demanded to meet the man in question. She didn't expect to see what she saw. The man in front of him was the kind of person that God put on Earth to make other doubt about themselves. And Rose, was one of them. Took her little to nothing to understand why her husband for years, her forever love, suddenly appeared in their house with someone else in his mind.

She agreed because she didn't want to see Alfie lost in a world where he craved for a touch she couldn't give him. She agreed because the last thing Rose wanted was to see the person he loved the most being sad. She agreed because she didn't want to lose him.

The first night Alfie spent with Thomas Shelby, Rose did it crying in their bed praying for that was just a bad dream.

"I'm not going to leave you. I'm not going to leave you," he said over and over again when he returned the next morning. She was laying on him, both of them in his favourite couch, while his arms were around her. "I don't know how to say this anymore, but I love you, sweetheart. I swear I love you."

Rose nodded "I know."

She was a proud woman and even when it was Alfie, Rose didn't want to show weakness. She wasn't weak, even if she was broken.

Seeing her, Alfie promised himself that the previous night with Tommy it was going to be the first and last at the same time. Rose could put her mask of strong woman, but Alfie was the only one she couldn't fool. The woman next to him, was once the little girl that committed shenanigans with him. Alfie grew up knowing how she lied. He knew how to read her easily. And she was lying.

The man cupped her face and kissed her. Slowly with tenderness. He loved her and the last thing he wanted was to make her suffer.

"I love you. Tell me you believe me, Rosie."

"I do."

No, she didn't. She didn't believe him.

"Just give me time, Alfie," she said reading his mind.

"How could you doubt that I love you?"

"I don't know what I believe anymore... I'm still trying to understand why did you slept with someone else. And why I agreed."

Because Tommy Shelby is a demigod, her mind said. Of course Alfie chose him.

"It won't happen again."

"Don't make promises you can't keep."

.

Tommy couldn't deny his feelings anymore. The amount of prostitutes he slept with, because supposedly that was something men did, couldn't be compared with what happened with the other man in that house he bought in London. It was a small, cozy house that was bought with the sole purpose of fuck with Alfie there. And that was what happened the night before.

He was smoking still in bed, alone and thinking about him. Alfie was married to a woman and Tommy knew Alfie could kill for her. Tommy knew very well that his friend never was going to leave Rose, not for obligation due to the marriage vows, but because he was still in love with her.

To society, she was his wife. Rose was the woman he could walk through the city and no one was going to ask a thing. Alfie was free to hold hands with her and kiss in public. They even made a cute couple. The way his eyes shone when he talked about her and the special way he had to say "My Rosie."

But him, Tommy, he was a fuck in a house after midnight when no one was in the streets. And during day he was Solomons' business partner, the gangster leader of Peaky Blinders. The one who never was going to be anything but a pal.

Tommy started to dress to return to Birmingham. Suddenly he felt like a whore, too.

Nothing but a whore, his mind said.

But Rose was right. Alfie couldn't keep his hands off Tommy. Even if he resisted the temptation the first weeks after their first encounter, Alfie and Tommy found themselves in the same situation more than once. And the most time they spent together, the more in love they fell.

Alfie never hide it from her. Alfie was ready to stop if she didn't consent that anymore. In her whole life, Rose never wanted more to yell at him, to beg him to stop seeing the other man. To even shook him. But she lowered her head and agreed once again because his husband was happy. And also agreed to receive Tommy in her house, to live with them.

Agreed to share the meals with him. To see Alfie's eyes looking at him with love.

Agreed to divide the time she shared with Alfie, and that once was only hers, with another person.

In the next two years she lost her husband as such, her self-esteem, her voice and her smile.

Now

"I bought the newspaper," Rose said entering the house. Tommy and Alfie were in the same table, drinking tea. Or at least her husband was drinking tea. "Donovan won't be a problem. I'm sure."

"Thanks, sweetheart."

"Don't thank me, Alfie. I hope next time you two decide to go to a party, at least check that it's not a fucking trap," she left her coat on a chair and removed her shoes. "I'm sorry, I'm just tired I don't want to be mean… I'm tired. Just that. Don't mind me."

Both men saw her go upstairs to her and Alfie's bedroom.

"Maybe you should go too and check on her," Tommy said. "She's upset."

"I know that. She's my wife!"

"Well, then do something. Today is her turn, after all. And she started her day saving our asses. My ass, especially because she saved me just because of you."

Her turn.

Alfie followed his wife's steps upstairs hearing Tommy's voice. He was right, but doesn't meant it was pleasant to hear. It never was Rose's turn, same way it never was Tommy's turn like if his heart switched to one person to another. One could say that it was perfect to have two people to love living under the same roof. If one got mad, then the other could be willing to open the arms. The double of sex. But it wasn't the case, real life didn't work that way. And lovely as it sounded, it was also tiresome. And not just physically.

"I'm not in the mood," she said when he entered the bedroom.

"I know, sweetheart."

Two years passed and she learnt to be in silence when she wanted to scream. At him. At Tommy. At herself for being so stupid.

The daylight contributed to her bad mood so she closed the windows and let the darkness embrace her. Rose sat down in bed and let out a deep sigh, rubbing her face with her hands.

"I miss you, ya know?" Alfie said sitting at her side. "I miss you, Rosie."

"Mmh. I'm right here, Alfie."

"You're not."

It took them a while to make an agreement. Alfie could spend one week with each of them, doing whatever they want. Watching movies, having sex, killing people, whatever they wanted to do but away from the other part of the fucked triangle they now belonged. It was a great deal for Tommy because he was free to be with the man he loved in the big city that London was, and had time to return to Birmingham to take care of his business. But it wasn't so great for Rose who had to spend her week alone surrounded by her own thoughts in a house that was too big just for her and the dogs. And when it was the time to be with her husband, she felt exhausted.

Alfie touched her hair with his fingertips and caressed her jawline, too. It was hard to think that for him, but he couldn't ignore it anymore, although it was easier to think she was just tired. But Alfie had to come to terms with himself and admit that he didn't see her smile in a long time.

She was always a happy person, anyone who knew her for sure heard her laugh. How many times the two of them were reprimanded by teachers because they couldn't stop giggling? And not so many years ago, the quiet hours together usually were interrupted by Rose's laugh because he told her something that happened in the distillery or because they were commenting something they heard in the radio. Or Cyril's shenanigans. But now, even if he tried, Alfie couldn't remember seeing her smiling.

And they didn't make love in months.

"My women killed the policemen and the inspector. No one will suspect and no one will ask a thing. But I expect that next time you be more careful, Alfie."

"Tommy will repay you the money you waste on us."

"I don't want it. But if it makes him feel better he can make a donation for the school."

"A donation will be, then. Luv, I was thinking that we can go to a pretty restaurant tonight. There's a kosher one, it's new. Ollie told me that it's quite good."

"Okay."

Alfie kissed her cheek "no matter what you think, I still love you and I'll love you till my last day."

Rose gulped to make disappear the knot in her throat and nodded. Don't cry. Don't cry.

"I know, Alfie."

The man hesitated for a second before putting an arm around her. She was so tense that it felt like moving a piece of furniture to him. For a moment she didn't reciprocate the embrace, but when Alfie moved his body to let her go, her hands grasped to his shirt and hid her face on his shoulder.

"Don't leave me," her voice was broken and the tears she was holding were wetting his chest.

"You know I would never leave you."

"I don't know anything about us anymore, Alfie. But please, don't leave me."

Downstairs, Tommy was smoking. Last thing he wanted was to break the precarious situation the three of them were in. The invitation was on Ada's table when he visited her earlier that week, probably belonged to Ada's roommate. It seemed to be harmless and when he commented it to Alfie, he agreed. There were no places for them to go as couple and for once, it seemed to be a good opportunity, only it wasn't. Homosexual parties weren't uncommon but it was risky. Numerous times, men ended in the gallows thanks to the laws. But that was London and his partner wasn't someone else but Alfie Solomons and he could buy freedom because of money or because of fear.

Tommy didn't dare to see the faces of the other men who were still in the police station, when both of them left the building. How many of them were going to die just because they were experiencing happiness one night in their lives?

Tommy remembered Rose's face when Alfie woke her up at 4am when they arrived at the house. She didn't say a word and to be honest with himself, Tommy never heard her say a lot although it was well known by people around the Solomons, that she was talkative as much as Alfie was. The woman went to her office in the house and made some phonecalls. She had her own people, all women, behind her to protect the school she founded. And those women never hesitate to follow her orders.

Killing the cops was a way to say the rest of the police department that better they keep their tongues tied. Same with the former owner of the newspaper.

Tommy lighted up another cigarette. What was he next to her? Alfie's wife sent three men to hell and a fourth one was threatened, just to protect her husband's name. And his. He was part of the man she married now and Tommy didn't know if she was going to do something like that for him, again

Or how much time Alfie was going to be able to bear with that kind of life. In Tommy's mind, if Alfie was going to choose someone then it was going to be her. But he didn't want that.

.

Allowing Alfie to touch her again, it felt good. Especially because he was sweet with her. Maybe it was true he missed her.

He was on top if her, kissing her neck and stroking her sides. That was the life they deserved to have but after knowing Tommy, after tasting him, she wasn't sure if she was enough for Alfie.

How much self-esteem was a man capable destroy?

Outdoors she fought for women's rights, freedom, fuck the patriarchy, down with men.

Indoors, she was ready to share her husband if that meant to remain on his side. And the only thing she had to sell was her own happiness.

"You promised me a life full of love," she said, later, in his arms. "We were kids. We were in love and I believe you."

"I promised you a lot of things and I'm fulfilling none."

"Not true. You did but I'm not the only one in your heart anymore. It's not your fault that you fell in love with him, too."

Alfie kissed her once again. It wasn't fair for her, among the three of them she was the one who gave in the more.

"I'd give my life to see you smile again, Rosie. My Rosie."

.

"How's she?" Tommy asked when Alfie went downstairs, once his wife finally fall asleep.

"I don't know."

"I did tell you or I didn't that this was going to break her? It was a fucking bad idea from the very beginning."

"What do you want me to tell ya, Tom? Eh? I fucking love you! And it didn't seem that bad the first time to you, not even last night. Fuck off!"

"I love you too, Alfie. I do, but this is not working. Your wife is a ghost of the woman I know she was, you don't know how manage two partners and I-… I feel like a homewrecker."

Alfie sat on his couch and petted Cyril's head who seemed to be the only one happy in that house. "You're not."

"Are you sure?"

"There's a reason I gave you a ring, Tom."

Tommy looked at his hand. It happened around eight months ago. No one were going to notice that he was using another ring, considering he wore several ribgs all the time. They were in bed when Alfie pulled out a little velvet box from the nightstand table and gave it to him. That was the moment Alfie became bigamous. One marriage was legal and open to society, the other no and belonged to the shadows and the solitude of their room.

Only Rose noticed the extra ring, but she didn't say anything. Like it was usual. Tommy too remained silent in several occasions and even Alfie didn't let his mind speak as it was common to him.

In the Solomons-Shelby household, most of the time the only thing that could be heard was the silence.

.

It was midnight that same day when Rose heard noises downstairs, but neither Cyril or Beast were barking, so she asumed the one making noises was Tommy. Rose put her nightgown on and went to the living room, she found Tommy packing.

"To Birmingham?"

"Yes." Tommy looked at her, before closing his suitcase. "Forever."

"You can't."

"Tell me why can't I, Rose. It's my fucking life."

"He loves you."

"No more than he loves you. Let's be honest, Rose, you want me out of your lives." Tommy put his coat on and searched his cigarettes in one of his pockets.

The woman embraced herself and nodded. "I do. But Alfie could be miserable again because no matter what I do for him, I'm not you. I'm not God's best creation, I'm not smart as you are, I don't have your eyes, I can't be all you are even if I reborn a thousand times. He chose you and if roles were reversed, if you were the spouse and me "the other one" I don't think he'd do all the things he did for you."

"Then, you're belittling yourself. Your husband is capable to fight the Devil for you."

"Because I'm his best fr…"

"Because you're his fucking soulmate, Rose!! And that's something I'm never going to be. Don't underestimate yourself anymore, because I know very well the way he talks about you when he's with me and that's something he doesn't do when he's with you… FUCK!" Tommy threw the cigarette on the floor. "Rosie this, Rosie that… and I know he doesn't mention me when you two are together because he doesn't want to hurt you. But he hurts me."

She sat on a chair and looked at him. "I don't think he does that on purpose."

"No, he does not. But he still does it. So, I better leave before it's too late to leave."

"If you go, he'll go after you. He's also your husband, right? The ring. You don't need a legal paper to prove that. Not in front of me."

Tommy shook his head.

"Go to bed," she said. "Tomorrow it'll be a new day."

Rose turned around, not waiting for an answer. She entered the bathroom before returning to bed with Alfie. She stared herself in the mirror. The woman looking at her wasn't the one she knew once. That one was a pathetic version of the woman she used to be proud of.

But she wasn't there to feel even more pathetic. She was there to do something else. Rose looked at the mirror again and she practiced how to smile. For Alfie, she thought, trying once again. And her eyes were filled with sadness, but she kept trying until got a smile like the ones she used to have.

The next morning when Alfie went to the dinning room he found Tommy reading the newspaper, the one under new management, and Rose having her usual breakfast.

"Good morning, Alfie," Tommy said.

Alfie greeted him too and sat next to Rose who was looking at him.

"Like you practice…" the woman thought and gave Alfie her best smile she could. "Morning, Al."

Alfie kissed her forehead. No, she couldn't lie to him, and Alfie felt miserable because he knew she didn't want to smile but was trying to make things easier.

For a moment they shared a normal morning but despite their efforts, the silence return to the house. Except in their own heads.

Alfie overheard the conversation the night before between Tommy and Rose. That wasn't a good life for any of them.

He loved them, but he wasn't selfish, not when it was about love. Alfie made a decision, now he needed to say it, even if his own heart was going to end broken, probably forever.

[familyabolisher]

what makes you so sure that Humber killed Charlotte Haze?

Gee, Ed, that was bad luck—referring to G. Edward Grammar, a thirty-five-year-old New York office manager who had just been arrayed on a charge of murdering his thirty-three-year-old wife, Dorothy. Bidding for the perfect crime, Ed had bludgeoned his wife and put her into a car. The case came to light when two county policemen on patrol saw Mrs. Grammar’s new big blue Chrysler, an anniversary present from her husband, speeding crazily down a hill, just inside their jurisdiction (God bless our good cops!). The car sideswiped a pole, ran up an embankment covered with beard grass, wild strawberry and cinquefoil, and overturned. The wheels were still gently spinning in the mellow sunlight when the officers removed Mrs. G’s body. It appeared to be a routine highway accident at first. Alas, the woman’s battered body did not match up with only minor damage suffered by the car. I did better.

^ part 2, chapter 33 (we remember of course that he alleges charlotte to have been struck by a car and killed)