#I am violently afraid of theft

[chocolatesauce-blog-blog]

Uzi would be the kind of person to ask you to close your eyes and hold out your hand only to put a live spider in your palm :3

[thxnews]

Defending Britain in a More Dangerous World

Grant Shapps' Vision for National Security

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps recently delivered a compelling speech at Lancaster House in London, addressing the evolving threats facing Britain and the measures needed to ensure national security. Reflecting on the past, Shapps drew parallels with the optimism of the post-Cold War era, noting how contemporary threats differ significantly from those of the past.   The Following is the Exact Speech as Delivered Thirty-five years ago, Margaret Thatcher gave a short speech here in Lancaster House. She spoke of her optimism about the changes taking place between East and West. Barely two weeks later the Berlin Wall fell. It was the dawn of a new era. Existential threats were banished. And a new global feel good factor spread to Defence. This was the age of the peace dividend. The notion that while our defences should be maximised at times of tension they could be minimised in times of peace. Conflict didn’t disappear of course. But with no great power menacing the continent, peace gave the impression of being just around the corner. Yet, not everyone got the memo. In fact our adversaries were mobilising. The belligerent autocratic state was making a comeback - havin got away with the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, Putin launched his brutal invasion of Ukraine eight years later. And as Russia continues its illegal campaign in Ukraine, China is assessing whether the West loses its patience. Today, Russia and China have been joined by new nuclear, and soon to be nuclear, powers. North Korea promising to expand its own nuclear arsenal. And then there is Iran, whose enriched uranium is up to 83.7%, a level at which there is no civilian application. Back in the days of the Cold War there remained a sense that we were dealing with rational actors. But these new powers are far more unstable, and irrational. Can we really assume the strategy of Mutually Assured Destruction that stopped wars in the past will stop them in future, when applied to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard or North Korea? I am afraid we cannot. Particularly since there is now another new worrying consideration: Our adversaries are now more connected with each other. For example, we have seen how Iranian proxies are causing havoc from Israel to the Red Sea. That Russia has what the two countries describe as a “no limits partnership” with China - with whom they conduct regular joint exercises. Meanwhile, Putin is relying on Iranian drones and North Korean ballistic missiles to fuel his illegal bombardment in Ukraine. With friends like these, the world is becoming more dangerous and has done in recent years. But the other threats that plagued the start of the 21st century haven’t gone away. The spectre of terrorism and threats from non-state actors, as October 7 showed, still haunts the civilised world. Put it all together, and these combined threats risk tearing apart the rules-based international order – established to keep the peace after the Second World War. Today’s world then, is sadly far more dangerous. With the UN reporting that we are facing the highest number of violent conflicts since the Second World War. Now some argue these threats are not existential to the UK. And yet, what happens elsewhere, quickly happens here. In the past few years we’ve seen terror attacks on the streets of London, attempted assassinations in Salisbury, theft of Intellectual Property, attempted interference in our political processes, a cost-of-living crisis, brought to you by Putin, that’s hurting families here at home. And now, our trade. 90 per cent of which comes by sea, is the target of terrorists. Proving that not only do our adversaries have the intent to target us but they have a widening array of weapons with which to wreak havoc. In our online world our adversaries don’t need to jump in a tank board a sub or strap into a fighter jet to hurt us. Cyber warfare simply means hacking into our networks and watching the economic carnage unfold. Last year, almost a third of businesses in the UK suffered a cyber breach or attack. And the total cost to the UK economy runs into billions. We know significant numbers of these attacks come from Russia and China where they are also developing satellite killing technology, capable of degrading us from space. Even mass migration can be cynically used against us as a weapon of war, as Poland, Norway, and Finland have been experiencing. In other words, nation states plus non-state actors with greater connections between them plus more creative weapons all adds up to more trouble for the world. Over the last decade this government has made great strides to turn the Defence tanker around. The refreshes of the Integrated Review and Defence Command Paper have been instrumental in ensuring Britain is defended in this more dangerous world. We’ve uplifted our defence spending – investing billions into modernising our Armed Forces and bringing in a raft of next generation capabilities, from new aircraft carriers to F35s; from new drones to Dreadnought submarines; from better trained troops; to the creation of a national cyber force. And when the world needed us, we have risen to the moment. Giving Ukraine our unwavering support and galvanising others to their cause, including with our biggest ever funding package, announced last week. Taking action, we work to stamp out the global ambitions of Daesh. We’ve acted at the forefront of global responses to maintain regional stability after October 7th by sending a Royal Navy Task Group, a company of Royal Marines, surveillance planes and lifesaving aid to Gaza. And taking a lead role within global forces to protect freedom of navigation in the Red Sea. Not only that but we’ve strengthened Britain’s place in the world with expanded partnerships from the Gulf to the Indo-Pacific. We’re playing a major part in stirring the West into a renewed commitment to defence, using our 2014 NATO summit in Newport to bring Alliance nations together to stop the rot, by committing to spending 2 per cent of GDP on Defence. Today, for the very first time this government is spending more than £50bn a year on Defence in cash terms, more than ever before. And we have made the critical decision to set out our aspiration to reach 2.5% of GDP spent on defence. And as we stabilise and grow the economy, we will continue to strive to reach it as soon as possible. But now is the time for all allied and democratic nations across the world to do the same. And ensure their defence spending is growing. Because, as discussed, the era of the peace dividend is over. In five years’ time we could be looking at multiple theatres involving Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. Ask yourselves – looking at today’s conflicts across the world - is it more likely that the number grows, or reduces? I suspect we all know the answer – it’s likely to grow. So, 2024 must mark an inflexion point. For Ukraine, this will be a year when the fate of their nation may be decided. For the world, this will be the greatest democratic year in history with nearly half of the world’s population going to the polls. And for the UK it must also be a moment to decide the future of our national defences. The choice is stark. Some people, especially on the left, have a tendency to talk Britain down. They believe Britain can no longer have the power to influence world events. That we should somehow shrink into ourselves and ignore what’s happening beyond our shores. I passionately believe these unpatriotic, Britain belittling doom-mongers are simply wrong. Their way would lead us sailing blindly into an age of autocracy. So we must make a different choice. And the history of our great island nation shows us the way. Britain has often accomplished the seemingly impossible before. Our history is littered with moments when we faced down the threat and triumphed. But looking ahead, we are in a new era and we must be prepared to deter our enemies, lead our allies, and defend our nation. In terms of deterrence, it’s about the UK gaining a strategic advantage over our enemies. The foundation of that advantage is, of course, our nuclear enterprise. At a time of mounting nuclear danger, our continuous at sea deterrent provides the ultimate protection. And that’s why we are spending around £31bn to bring in next generation Dreadnought submarines and upgrade our deterrent. In a more contested world, we need to bring that same goal of deterrence to our conventional forces – so we have made modernisation a critical priority. Taking the long-term capability decisions we need to transform our Armed Forces into a formidable deterrent. Enabling them to maintain the UK’s strategic advantage and empowering them to be able to deliver the outcomes we need in multiple theatres at once. The growing success of that work was powerfully shown last week when, in less than 24 hours, the UK was able to both take action to defend ourselves against the Houthis and uplift our support to Ukraine to new record levels. If Putin thought we’d be distracted by the events in the Middle East then last week, because of the long-term decisions this government has taken, his hopes were surely dashed. In a complex world, no nation can afford to go it alone, so we must continue strengthening our alliances so the world knows they cannot be broken. Defence is in many ways the cornerstone of our relations across the world. Our world leading Armed Forces, cutting-edge industrial base and willingness to support our allies is the reason why Britain is the partner of choice for so many. And among our partnerships, NATO remains pre-eminent. 75 years after its foundation, today NATO is bigger than ever. But the challenges are bigger too. That’s why the UK has committed nearly the totality of our air, land and maritime assets to NATO. But, in 2024, I am determined to do even more. Which is why I can announce today that UK will be sending some 20,000 personnel to lead one of NATO’s largest deployments since the end of the Cold War, Exercise Steadfast Defender. It will see our military joining forces with counterparts from 30 NATO countries plus Sweden, providing vital reassurance against the Putin menace. Our carrier strike group will be out in full force, with our magnificent flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth leading the way. And flying from her decks will be the fifth generation F35 lightning jets, accompanied by a fearsome phalanx of frigates, destroyers and helicopters. We’ll also have a submarine patrolling the depths and one of our Poseidon P8 aircraft conducting surveillance from the skies above, and more than 400 of our brilliant Royal Marines will be training in the Artic Circle, contending with some of the toughest environments anywhere on the planet. On land, we’ll be deploying over 16,000 soldiers, led by our 7th Light Mechanised Brigade Combat Team which superbly led our recent response in Kosovo. All of which, makes this our largest deployment of land forces to NATO for 40 years. But NATO is only part of our rich tapestry of partnerships. And this government has taken bold decisions to embark on the partnerships we need to defend ourselves from a more dangerous world. We are rapidly building our AUKUS partnership. And last month I signed our Global Combat Air Partnership (or GCAP) with Japan and Italy. These projects are not just about building nuclear powered subs, sixth generation fighter planes, and innovating in all forms of Defence. They are about sharpening our strategic edge so we can maintain our advantage over our adversaries. They are precisely the deep relationships needed to preserve national and regional security. And they’re emblematic of the way we will work in the future. But it’s not enough to deter. We must lead. Standing up for our values around the world. And Ukraine is a test case. This year, its future may well be decided. Valiant Ukrainian warriors have had incredible success pushing back invading Russian forces, retaking 50 per cent of the territory stolen by Russia, opening up a maritime passage in the Black Sea. But the West must not let them down. British leadership has already had a galvanising effect. We’ve convened some 10 countries to help Ukrainians train here in the UK. And today I can announce that our programmes have now trained over 60,000 Ukrainian troops since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Last month, I launched a new maritime coalition with Norway to defend Ukraine’s maritime flank. Since then, over 20 partner nations have joined that coalition. But the international community cannot let this support slip. Putin believes the West lacks staying power. And since the future of the world order is at stake, we must prove him wrong. Rewarding his war with victory would only increase the risk of escalation. Not only because he’s hell bent on rebuilding the Russian empire. But because it would signal weakness to other would-be aggressors. That is why on Friday the Prime Minister signed the historic UK-Ukraine Agreement on Security Cooperation. The start of a 100-year alliance that we are building with our Ukrainian friends. It sees us increasing our military support to £2.5bn – taking the total of UK military aid to more than £7bn. With even more gifted directly from the UK’s equipment inventory. £200m will be pressed into producing and procuring thousands of drones, including surveillance and long-range strike drones. This continues the UK’s proud record as a leading donor - always being the first to get Ukraine exactly what they need. The UK was the first to provide Ukraine with weapons training, the first to provide NLAW anti-tank missiles, the first to give modern tanks, the first to send long range missiles. Now we will become the largest provider of drones too. These will be manufactured here in the UK in tandem with international partners, helping to enhance our unmanned vehicle capabilities at home too. But our new agreement with Ukraine is about so much more than money. It formalises our support in everything from intelligence sharing and cyber security to medical and military training. And it sees us taking the first giant step towards a century long partnership. Britain understands that the battle in Ukraine is existential, it proves there is no such thing as an isolated conflict. And that to shore up the international order, we must be able to act globally. So, just as we were there to help evacuate British citizens from Sudan last year, just as we are working with partners to ensure the territorial integrity of our Commonwealth ally Guyana, we have also been a critical part of the US-led international operation to protect freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Some 15 per cent of the world’s shipping passes through these narrow shipping lanes. But the Houthis have persistently violated the law by menacing commercial vessels in the region. In the Red Sea we have seen how our brilliant Royal Navy had to act to defend itself against the intolerable and growing number of Houthi attacks. And earlier this month the world sent a very clear message to the Iranian-backed Houthis. End your illegal and unjustified actions. Stop risking innocent lives. Cease threatening the global economy. We could not have been clearer with our warnings, which they chose to ignore. And enough was enough. So last Thursday, the Prime Minister and I authorised RAF precision strikes using four RAF Typhoon FGR4s and supported by two Voyager air refuelling tankers. The result is the Houthis have been dealt a blow. Our decisive response in the Red Sea and our uplift in support for Ukraine offer a direct blueprint for how the UK must continue to lead in the future. Offering our unwavering support to our allies, and in times of struggle galvanising global responses to any malign actor seeking to break the rules based international order, and acting decisively when the moment calls for us to defend ourselves. So, deter and lead, which brings me to the final essential element of being prepared. Defending our nation. If we are to defend our homeland, we must ensure our entire defence eco-system is ready. Firstly, we must make our industry more resilient to empower us to re-arm, re-supply and innovate far faster than our opponents. There’s a huge opportunity here for British industry. The UK has long been a by-word for pioneering technologies. We gave the world radar, the jet-engine and the world wide web. We’ve not lost that spark of creativity. On the contrary, today the UK is one of only three $1 trillion tech economies. But just imagine what we could do if we managed to better harness that latent inspiration, ingenuity and invention for the Defence of our nation? Just think about the game-changing tech we could supply to our brave men and women. From the pilots ready to scramble at a moment’s notice to the soldiers protecting NATO’s flanks from Putin’s fury. To the sailors deployed across the seven seas to secure our prosperity. To our absolutely essential Royal Marine Commandos, without whom we could not properly defend our nation. To those you will never see and never know but who are out there, giving their all, on your behalf. They are the cornerstone of our defence and we owe them an unimaginable debt of gratitude. Which is why my commitment to getting them what they deserve is iron cast. After all, our greatest resource has always been the men and women who work tirelessly to protect our great nation. But to defend our nation from the increasing dangers of tomorrow, they must have what they need to do the job. That’s why this Conservative government has always and has already taken vital steps to increase defence spending, approving the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War – injecting a further £5 billion last year to replenish our stocks and modernise our nuclear enterprise. Delivering the largest cash terms defence budget ever. Spending over £50 billion on the defence of our nation. And just last week, not only maintaining our support to Ukraine but increasing it to its highest level ever. To some the costs may seem steep – but Britain cannot afford to reverse the spending gains we have made. And under this Conservative government we never will. And we will use our influence to ensure other allies and friends, faced with this new reality, and match our commitment. So, we find ourselves at the dawn of a new era. The Berlin Wall a distant memory. And we have come full circle. Moving from a post-war to a pre-war world. An age of idealism has been replaced by a period of hard-headed realism. Today our adversaries are busily rebuilding their barriers. Old enemies are reanimated. New foes are taking shape. Battle lines are being redrawn. The tanks are literally on Europe’s Ukrainian lawn. Read the full article

[hobicomeholla29]

Cuff me if you can - Part 1 - KTH

Pairing: Dad! Street Racer! Taehyung x Judge! Reader

Genre: Fluff/ Slight angst/ Crack

Word Count:5k

Warnings: Mentions of domestic violence/ Cursing/ Mentions of bribing/ Probably incorrect use of legal terminology/ Incorrect legal procedure/ That’s all for this chapter. Oh! unedited!

Rating: PG13

A/N: Well hello again beautiful people! Thank you for taking the time to read this! This sieres are part of BTSghostie writer event for the month of september. Dynamite Dads!

Summary: Kim Taehyung and yourself, live your lives on the opposite side of each other. Yet that doesn’t mean that you can’t meet in the middle.

Masterlist

Getting out of your car, the cool morning breeze caressed what it could of your exposed skin. The walk from the parking lot to the courthouse wasn’t long, but the chills that ran through your body made it feel like it took a little over the usual 5 minutes.

The sun shined like every morning, yet today it felt different somehow.

Maybe it was wishful thinking, but it felt as if today would be the beginning of something new or different, and that was a lot to say for someone like you.

“Morning judge y/n!”

“Morning”

Your job placed you in a position where you were always in the eyes of criminals and felons that were either angry, moody, violent, sad or careless  ­—and any other word you can come up with, when thinking about wrongdoers who are finally facing the law­­— forcing you to try seeking for positivity in other aspects of your life.

 Since you were a child, you always had an itch that annoyed you every time you had to be in the presence of an unfair or unethical situation and couldn’t do anything about it.

 It is positive to say that you got it from your mother's strong moral views on righteousness, honesty, and integrity.

 And so a dream came up to you, a dream you had expressed to your parents at the tender age of 5 while watching cartoons one cold morning, your parents discussing the latest incident on that morning's newspaper on the other side of the room.

 "I want to put all those kwiminals in jail"

 There was something fulfilling about being able to help people get justice for the wrongs that were done to them, something about making the corrupt, nefarious, and unlawful pay. Your dream never wavered, the sole thought of what the future would hold made you buzz with excitement during your teenage years and still did now in your adulthood.

 It was present during your entire life, you weren't afraid of speaking up when a witness was needed in an unfair situation in school, whether you were putting yourself in a position against a classmate or a teacher, all that mattered was that the problem was solved in a fair manner.

 Yet, even though you kept steadfast loyalty towards your beliefs, it sometimes got you in trouble, as not everyone sees good in someone openly voicing their wrongdoings. Leading you to sometimes being labeled as a snitch —and no one wants to befriend a snitch—.

 Nevertheless, you pushed through, finally meeting people that shared your views in college.

 It was nice to be able to have a conversation with people with the same mentality and strong feelings towards justice as yourself —not saying that you didn't encounter people who were walking this path just for the money.

 And finally, after graduating from law school with two of your closest friends by your side, you decided it had been way too long of a peaceful ride for the evildoers and it was time to get with it.

 "Good morning Y/n!" A voice spoke loudly from behind you.

 "Morning Guk! How was your weekend?" It was always nice to see Jungkook 1st thing in the morning. For some reason, his cute bunny teeth always gave you life.

 Jungkook was one of your friends from college AKA best friend #1. He had the face of a baby with the wisdom of a 70-year-old man –who would have thought.

 His words towards you were always of encouragement or offerings of helping you with anything you needed –just like in college.

 He was methodical with his work, always studying his cases with a careful eye and with discipline. Some hated it, stating he took way too long to make final judgments, however, there wasn't a ruling that Jungkook had ever issued where the victim had been left to suffer the mischief without the guilty paying the price.

 "Pretty calm actually, taking into consideration that I had the Kang case on Sunday" The younger of your friends exhaled "That man has got to get a grip on his life, this is his 3rd showing" He made a pause as if bringing up some memories from the case, however, he quickly returned to the present "How was yours?"

 "It was quiet; abnormally so, thus my wild guess is that this week I'm going to be assigned as many cases as possible."

 "I know that feeling. The impending doom crawling towards you in the shape of Jimin dropping them on your desk."

 “Yep…” You sighed bracing yourself for the upcoming day.

 Briefly talking about other uninteresting subjects and your mundane lives –like, when was Seokjin going to invite both of you out for lunch— you both eventually parted ways to your own chambers.

 "Good morning Judge Y/n"

"Morning Jimin, you look refreshed!"

 Jimin —your perky judicial secretary— was the earthly version of an angel mixed with a dutiful fairy, you sometimes wondered how he even managed to hold up that 1,000-watt smile all day while dealing with you.

 You had been working together for 3 years now and every year they decided to rotate the secretaries, you prayed they wouldn't change him for someone else.

 "I am! Thanks for the days off, they really helped!"

"Don't mention it bubs. What do you have for me today?" You asked as your heels clicked on the tile making your way behind your large rectangular Victorian style oak desk, Jimin quickly trailing behind you with a stack of folders in his arms.

 "These four are for today and these four are for tomorrow" he said as he divided them into two groups in front of you. "I'll have the ones for Wednesday and Thursday ready by tomorrow" he concluded with a small nod and a smile of accomplishment on his plump lips.

 "Thanks, Jimin. What would I do without you?" you smiled up at the younger man, who smiled wider and turned to leave to his own desk a couple of feet away from yours.

 Finally, mentally prepared to start your day —after mindlessly scrolling through your phone for 20 minutes— you unlocked your computer and began reading through the files that Jimin had left on your desk labeled ‘Monday’.

 "Another asshole, who thought he could get away with a hit and run..." you muttered to yourself, as you reviewed the first case.

 The following trials were for a domestic violence case and 2 robberies.

After reviewing the files, you began transcribing some of the information on your computer, adding personal notes based on the evidence that had been collected for each case and saved it all for its intended use in the next 2 hours.

"Since no one likes a slacker, I might as well go through the ones for tomorrow as well."

As expected, there was another case of robbery, one for theft, a case for assault and last but not least a misdemeanor for street racing. 

After an hour of transcribing that called for a well-deserved break, you stretched your arms above your head, sighing softly as the tension was released.

 "Judge... would you like some tea? I'm on my way to the Cafe"

"Ugh Jimin, I love you, why are you so sweet, I'll come with." As you both picked up your belongings and were about to head out to the small cafe across the street, an unforeseen visitor arrived abruptly, startling both you and your secretary.

"Oh, so you're both slacking off now. I thought that was a Y/n thing?"

"I- No judge- we-" Poor Jimin couldn’t even complete a sentence, his mind still in a jumble as a result of the sudden barge into your chamber.

"Seokjin, shut up.” You cut your eyes at his comment. “We are going to the café. You either come with or move out of the way." You laughed a bit while pushing past your best friend #2, making your way out.

Oh, how lucky were you to be able to have them working near you.

 Back from the cafe and ready to face all cases for the day, you walk to your chamber accompanied by Jimin who helped you wear your black robe, both quickly headed to the courtroom for your first trial right after.

Monday had gone by smoothly; all cases being addressed as they should and all sentences set in place.

Tuesday was a better day, the morning had been less chilly than the day prior and you could read a bit before your hearings of the day, since you had proactively  reviewed the cases of today, yesterday.

After the third time hearing it today, a fourth was just unnecessary, however entering the courtroom for the fourth time on that day, you heard the bailiff announcing your arrival.

 “All rise. This court is now in session.” Shuffling could be heard, a sign of everyone in the room getting on their feet. “Honorable judge Y/n L/n Presiding.”

You took your seat and announced to everyone that they could do so too. You took the files that the bailiff handed you and began reading the case.

 “Good morning everyone. Today's hearing is for case 3476, the city vs Lee Simon, Kim Taehyung and Jean Reynolds” you announced.

 “Lee Simon, Kim Taehyung and Jean Reynolds, all three of them, age 26, accused of trespassing private property, injury of a third party and driving over the speed limit, while being timed against each other. All of it initiating from 25th avenue to Map of the Soul street.” You concluded.

“How do you plead?”

“Innocent” “Guilty” “Innocent”

 Internally, you wanted to laugh, but you knew your position required for you to remain serious and focused. It wasn’t the first time a group of friends split due to being involved in a situation they weren’t expected to be in, and it wouldn’t be the last.

 “Seeing that you have different views, let us review the information presented.”

Videos and pictures from street cameras were shown, as well as footed from a dash camera in a hidden police vehicle.

 “Evidence shown so far, seems to portray all three of you as guilty, and the witnesses are yet to come in, excluding the owner of the vehicle you crashed into while running against each other as well as the owner of the private property you drove through.”

 You watched all three of them carefully as you gave them a run through of how this case was going on for them. Two off them looked indifferent, like someone who has done it before, did it this time and will probably do so again.

A chance was soon to be given to all three of them to express why they believed they were innocent, however another piece of evidence was brought in.

“According to this report sent in about your record, you are all repeat offenders, meaning that your options are limited; paying for the legal fees and community service, paying for the legal fees and 1 year jail time or paying for the legal fees, suspension of your driver’s license, a fee of $10,000 and a possibility of impoundment of the motor vehicle used in the crime.”

 "I am going to admit I was there, but I did it for a specific reason, your honor."

"And what reason could that be?"

“Can I approach the bench?”

“Permission granted." The man in question slowly approached you, eyes never wavering from yours.

"I needed the money your honor. I have a daughter..."

"Says here, that you have been detained before and gave out the same reason, so why should we let you off easy Mr. Kim?"

 “So… there is no way we aren’t paying the legal fees -I take it?” the one with the tiger-like eyes spoke up, a small smile playing on his lips as he did so.

“No” the frown on your face was so pronounced, that no area was left for more of his attempt to banter.

“Do I get the easier outcomes if I plead guilty.”

“That’s a possibility...” Now you know why he pleaded guilty. He’s not new to this.

“I have a daughter your honor… I can’t go to jail” He said before you were able to add to your previous sentence.

“That’s for me to decide, however, can’t she stay with a family member?”

“She only has me…” his eyes turned gloomy as he directed his gaze to the floor Infront of you. Should you even trust that action. It could be staged for all you know.

It annoyed you the way how the immediate mention of a child felt like a tool he was using to soften the blow of your possible verdict. However, it still got under your skin and you felt your hard-exterior crumble, allowing your feelings to take over and think about the poor child that would have to deal with an uncomfortable situation.

“How old is your daughter Mr. Kim?”

“four” His demeanor changed entirely the moment he found more time to speak about the hypothetical child he had.

“Who is she with at the moment?”

“A friend”

“Everyone back to their seats…”

You were so predictable. Jungkook would have never softened for something like that.

He would have given him 2 years in jail, taken his car, taken his driver’s license and custody of the child as well, for not being a suitable parent. But no, you had to be like Seokjin, soft hearted and taking people’s feelings into consideration. Bleh.

 “Based on the evidence collected. I am ready to provide a verdict for this case. Lee Simon and Jean Reynolds you are sentenced to serve 6 months of county jail time, pay a fine of $5,000 plus all legal fees and your license will be suspended for 6 months. Kim Taehyung, you are sentenced to a fine of $3,000, suspension of your driver’s license for 6 months, paying the legal fees and community service for 6 months.” You stated re arranging the documentation on your desk and setting them aside.

“Please take them. Mr. Kim shall be escorted to the officer’s department in order to have his rules set in place.”

“Thank you.” A voice said to you right after. You didn’t have to turn to know it was Kim Taehyung, however you did so. He was flashing you a large square smile. It wasn't 1,000 watts like Jimin’s but it was still warm and different, even a bit playful if you looked at it for long.

“That daughter of yours better be real.” You muttered before collecting the final documentation and exiting the room.

But not before hearing.

“Didn’t know they had such pretty judges in here, I should get arrested more often.”

You should have put him in jail. Or maybe not.

It’s funny how you haven’t been able to get your mind to stop remembering his cheeky squared smile and that aura of a playful child in a large man. It's been 2 weeks now.

Yet you can’t forget him walking up into your courtroom with all that confidence, as if he owned the place.

“Ugh”

“Everything ok?”

You gasped loudly, not having heard Jimin enter the chamber as you mindlessly rolled your mouse around and thought about the man who you sentenced to community service a couple of weeks ago.

“You nearly killed me Jimin!” you voiced a little louder than you should have, the fright still showing in your tone.

“I'm sorry" poor kid, all he did was be nice all day.

“You're fine, I just didn’t hear you come in” you answered, returning to aimlessly move your mouse and stare at the open word document on your computer screen.

“Oh! I see. Well in your favor, I was trying to be quiet. Anyways, what are you doing here so early judge y/n?” leave it to Jimin to always worry about others.

“I thought I could… focus on something else by working a little, but the chambers triggered my distractions even more…” You tried internally to not bring it up, but you knew you had to tell someone about it.

About the fact that maybe you might have an itty-bitty tiny crush on a man you barely saw for a span of 40 minutes and convicted for a crime. You are so lame.

Jimin moved around his desk -you assumed- arranging all of his documents for the day and bring his computer to life.

“and what is it?” he asked you after a couple of minutes of comfortable silence.

“What is what?”

“The distraction that's caught your attention, what is it?” his eyes stared at you widely, they looked so earnest and kind. Just wanting to help you with whatever inconvenience you were having.

“Um… well… you’ll probably think it's dumb"

“I promise I won't” he answered so fast, it felt like he was expecting you to decline opening up to him.

“Well…. I… kinda-have-a-small-crush-on-a-man-I-barely-know-and-could-be-a-scofflaw.”

Your sentence had come out abruptly and in such a rapid fire, that you could see the cogs turning in Jimin’s head as he connected all the things you had said and laced them together.

“Did you just say scofflaw?”

“Is that all you caught from my sentence?” flabbergasted, that's what you were with his reaction.

“No, but… really? scofflaw? Not even judge Harry who's 78 uses that term anymore.”

“Not the point Jimin…" frustrated at the weird turn the conversation had taken, you pinched your nose bridge, trying to figure out the young man's train of thought .

“Ok, ok. But is it one of the guys from a couple of weeks ago. The street racer ones?”

“How do you-"

“Eva from the reception said that, Joyce from finance told her that, Hyerin from chamber 5, saw them being called in on their hearing day and that they were all —her words, not mine— as hot as a super-sized bag of flamin hot Cheetos.”

 Now that’s stuck in your mind. Jimin was definitely not helping.

 “Curse you, procrastination!”

 Grocery shopping should have been done weeks ago. But you were tired, and sleepy and distracted and everything in between that could keep you from doing the boring task that  buying your own food was.

 Walking through the aisles in the grocery store, you could hear a little girl talking her —probably parent's— ear off.

 Not paying too much attention to her, you were barely able to catch a couple of words here and there as you walked around picking up what you needed.

 "Fishies would be a good pet because I can't hu't it if I hug it awound his house"

"Why can't I see my own eyes?"

"Can we get vanilla this time, stwabewies we'e yuck!"

"How do clouds float? Why don't they fall?"

"Look! Look! A toy!"

 She sounded so excited and the little lisp with her R's was the cutest, you thought.

 You were almost done with your list, only missing some meat or poultry and a pound of potatoes, —'cause you've been craving gratin potatoes for a while and you were done living a life without them.

 Making your way to the missing items, you could once again hear a conversation going on between the little girl and the other person, but this time the adult with her spoke. It was a grave voice, very deep and somewhat familiar, yet not enough to put a face to it.

 "You are not having a pet, until you understand the responsibilities that come with taking care of an animal" The voice answered the little girl sternly. You could imagine the man's face voided of any emotion and trying to maintain a serious visage. Probably trying to teach his daughter a lesson.

Again, the voice sounded familiar, giving you a tingling sensation in the back of your mind. However, in your distraction, the links that attempted to connect in your mind remained ignored.

 You continued rolling your cart, hastily turning around each corner; ready to pick up what you were missing and bolt home to make the delicious meal you have been craving for.

 However, you were suddenly stopped by another cart that crashed right into yours as they rushed towards you from around the corner.

 "Oof, My bad" - "Oh no! I'm so sorry!"

 You both said in unison.

 “Oh...” Came the immediate reaction from both of you, as you noticed who the person you had bumped into was.

 "So, the whole you having a daughter wasn’t a lie after all"

 "You offend me your honor." Was his reply as he chuckled a bit to himself "But I guess I am not a good example of what a decent human or father should be like..."

 "Oh Hush! We all make mistakes. Even some that land us in Jury or court" You giggled a little trying to soften whatever thought had him thinking he was the worst human ever to walk on this earth.

 Of course, he had made a mistake —a couple of them at that—   but it wasn’t murder, and he was attempting to make an income for his family.

 "What's her name?" You asked him as you both watched her eyeing the fish tank you assumed she saw the fish at before.

 "Yoonah. But she prefers to be called Nah-Nah" His voice mellowed. You looked at him with a smirk on your face, but all you got was the sight of a man watching his daughter with the fondest of gazes. So much love could be found in his eyes, he was proud and filled with warmth. The small smiled that decorated his features said it all.

 “Is she your only daughter?”

 Your question brought him back to the present.

 “Oh, yeah – she is” Was his curt answer. The tone he used made you feel a bit guilty, as if you were way too into his business, so you decided to cut it short.

 “Well it was nice meeting you outside of court Mr. Kim –and little miss Yoonah as well.” Were your final words as you waved your hand swiftly and left to finish your shopping, missing entirely the smile that graced his lips when he heard you address his little girl.

 For some reason, you hoped to see them one more time before you left the store, just to make sure they were ok —even though there was nothing dangerous at a grocery store.

 --

After so much fussing and so many tantrums, Kim Taehyung was finally tired out.

It could be seen from a mile away, just by watching his shoulders slightly slump and Yoonah grinning up at him with a content expression.

 Naturally, the best view of your day was Kim Taehyung walking out of the grocery store with four bags on one shoulder and a small plastic bag in his right hand, filled with water and two gold fish swimming peacefully.

So much for the sterned voice he had back there.

 You lingered a little more on your way to your own car, head turning slightly to your left, just to watch him interact with his daughter. You are sure you look like a creep, but it was so endearing, you couldn’t help yourself.

He kept her close by while he loaded the trunk with groceries and tickled her sides while placing her in her car seat. N sight of a father that didn’t care for his daughter or an irresponsible parent. Yeah, that was going to be your excuse for staring longer than needed.

 Yet what was a little more time for you, was enough to give him a full view of you watching them both with something in your expression that he couldn’t read, but whatever it was, had his heart racing a little more than it should for somewhat of a stranger that could put him in jail.

You’re not sure if it’s one of those times where once you meet someone one time, you end up seeing them everywhere.

How is it possible that on a chill evening in the park, while you were enjoying a slow-paced stroll and a hot chocolate in your hands, you see him again. You are about to start thinking that maybe he is following you and in addition to committing his past crime, he is also a stalker.

But he couldn’t be. He’s not even looking at you. From your short distance from him, you can see his eyes trained on something else. A fond smile decorated his lips as if whatever held his attention was above everything in this world.

From this angle you could appreciate his profile. A very handsome man you should say.

His eyes slowly crinkle into smaller half-moons in favor of his now growing smile taking more space. His teeth now baring and the apple of his cheeks flexing.

Oh! what a sight.

What would it feel like to poke them? you thought to yourself.

Yet, your legs had other plans and were already in action. Your brain had already sent signals to your arms and fingers to poke all soft parts that it came into contact with.

You are a judge, for goodness’s sake, touching someone without their authorization is battery. What are you doing?

 Yet right before you were able to do so you heard her.

“Daddy!” The soft giggles that followed filled the air that surrounded you. You turned your head to the direction of the sound and just in time you caught the sight of a little girl running from the playground into Taehyung’s arms.

Before you even turned to him, he was already catching her, squeezing her tightly in his embrace.

“Did you see that daddy? I did it!”

“Yes, you did princess! And you were amazing! Best cartwheel I have ever seen!”

The little girl giggled and squealed as Taehyung blew raspberries everywhere around her.

 When she finally calmed down, her eyes met yours and her head tilted in questions.

“It’s the groceries lady daddy!”

Turning to look at who his daughter was pointing at, he met you, only 3 steps away from him.

“Jud- Judge Y/n?”

“Hi again Mr. Kim, seems like we keep bumping into each other.”

“So it seems.” Today his smile was a careless one or was it a content one. Either way they were still that remarkable boxy smile.

“Nice to see you again miss Nah-Nah.” You greeted the little girl that had noticed you first and a hearty giggle left her body in return.

“What brings you here?” Asked the man that you had somehow forgotten was by your side or maybe you were just trying to ignore the strong tiger eyes that bore into you by entertaining a conversation with his cute daughter.

“Daddy, can I go to the big slide?”

“Not, without supervision Nah-Nah.” He answered so seriously, it reminded you of the voice in the grocery store.

“But daddy, I am a big gu’l now”

“Nah-Nah…”

“Daddy…” he sighed so loudly; you couldn’t help but laugh at his odyssey.

It was Deja vu from the grocery store and fish all over again. All that big father talk for nothing. He was so whipped for his daughter.

“Ok, let’s make a deal…”

“Yes!”

“You can go to the big slide, but if you get an ‘owie’, I want you to get up and dust off just like big girls do. Ok?”

“Yes, daddy.”

“Ok, princess. Go on”

Not a second went by after his sentence and little Yoonah was already off to an adventure with the rest of the kids in the park.

“She is so precious”

“Thank you”

You both stayed in a comfortable silence, staring into the distance in the direction Yoonah had left of. However, that peace was cut by the man standing near you.

“So, are you following us now your honor?” That playful smirk of his was back, alerting you quickly that he was just attempting at a friendly banter with you.

“Hmm, maybe I am, but I’ll never let you know.” You said winking at him.

He laughed so loud at the action, that you could not hold back a laughter of your own.

“So you do have a sense of humor” He stated after calming down.

“I do, when I am outside of my line of work.”

“Understandable…”

Once again, a comfortable silence fell between you both as you watched his daughter running around filled with glee, playing with other children.

“So, who were the ugly judges you encountered before me?” Now it was your turn to start the conversation and again he laughed. Who would have thought you were this funny.

“So, you did hear that.”

You definitely did and deep within you hoped he meant it. Even though it wasn’t the time or place for his flirting.

“Maybe…”

“I meant it… just in case you were wondering.”

Yes, you were!!!

“Oh! I- umm… Thank you.” You could feel your face heating up, however you refused to end the eye contact you were keeping up since your conversation began.

“Anytime… Like honestly. Any. Time. And every time. I’ll repeat it every time I find it necessary.” He said his smile growing with each word that he sent your way. And you, well you weren’t one to back down on a flirting challenge.

“And how is that possible, if we don’t see each other all the time?” you asked, acting coyly.

“I might have a solution for that, your honor.” Welp. Now you got yourself into something.

Two weeks had gone by since that day.

Two weeks after Mr. Kim had asked for your number and invited you for ice cream with Yoonah, under the excuse of a thank you for not sending him to jail. Needless to say, you quickly corrected his statement to not have him think this was a favor you had done for him, but a decision you had made based on evidence and circumstances surrounding the case.

It had also been a week since Mr. Kim changed from that name to Taehyung.

The mocking that came with you saying his given name for the first time was endless.

“Awww, so no more Mr. Kim?”

“Shut it Taehyung!”

[frodos-bizarre-adventure]

@gingerreggg oh yeah we're back baby

Heads Up- Part 19 (Joseph x Bust! Caesar)

▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪

"Shall we pack these up too?" Mark asked, as the maintenance man began unloading the artworks into the van. The winning masterpieces would be auctioned off to other museums, with the blessing of their creators, to find fame and bring fortune elsewhere.

"Take them all," said Professor Straizo nonchalantly, indifferent as he usually was.

It was late evening as Mark and Professor Straizo began dismantling the exhibit. The exhibition was over, and soon one by one the entries began to disappear.

Save for one.

One familiar-looking bust that was in secret unlike all the others.

"And this one too?" Mark asked, gently but uneasily picking up the sculpture and straining under its weight.

Professor Straizo glanced at the bust. Its brilliant green eyes gazed at him, seemingly piercing into his very soul, and it made him very uncomfortable looking at it for long.

"Put...put it away with the rest," he said, waving his hand away. "That Joestar boy can probably just make a new one with his skill if he wants it, just get it out of my sight."

"Huh, I guess he won't miss it all too much," Mark shrugged, as he lowered the bust into the van. "I'll just tell him where we took it in case he does want to see it again."

-------

All the while Caesar stood unmoving, on his pedestal, frozen in place like the lifeless art piece he was intended to be. He was waiting for Joseph to come back.

He was waiting for Joseph to take him home.

But now he felt himself being carried, handled, and transported by the maintenance man from the previous night. The strange, gloved hands felt uncomfortable and unwelcome upon his base.

This was not part of the plan.

He wanted to scream and cry and struggle, call out for Joseph's name. But he knew he couldn't. He knew he couldn't risk exposing his true nature to others, as Joseph had warned him about. The consequences would be dire. And he didn't even know what they would be. Besides, even if he did try to fight back, what else could he do? He was a bust.

He was helpless.

Joseph..., he thought silently, as strange hands lowered him into a crate in the backseat.

And if his handler had been looking more closely, he would have seen a look of sorrow on the inert figure's painted face.

------

It wasn't long before Joseph strode into the hall, eager as ever.

"Caesar! We've come to take you home! We've--"

And then his joy melted into horror as his greeting ground to a halt.

Caesar was nowhere to be seen.

"Caesar! Where are you?" he cried, searching all around the gallery. Everything else had gone too. The paintings, models and statues, all had been moved away to make room for the next exhibit.

"Jojo! What's the matter?" Suzi huffed as she caught up with him.

"It's Caesar..." Joseph said, his voice cracking slightly in despair. "He's gone."

"Looking for something, Mr. Joestar?" asked a deep voice, from behind. Both Joseph and Suzi turned around, to see the raven-haired professor of earlier, leaning against a wall.

"Oh, Professor Straizo," Joseph said, managing to maintain his composure as well as he could, "I was looking for my sculpture. You know, the bust? The one you graded earlier this day? I'm sure you remember him--it," Joseph pleaded.

Straizo turned away indifferently. "I'm afraid Mark has already taken the artworks to another gallery, perhaps to be auctioned or put up on display."

Joseph's heart sank. This was what he'd feared the most.

Losing Caesar.

"But...but I said Professor Lisa that I could take it home! That project was mine alone and belongs with me!" He fought back a tear and his swelling rage. He felt betrayed.

Straizo snapped. "Listen here, Mr. Joestar! What in the world is with your inordinate attachment to that disturbing figure? You could create another one if you want! It's just a piece of clay!"

"Not to me, it isn't," Joseph growled through clenched teeth. "That sculpture is not just clay for me. He means everything. I loved him more than anything else in the world. If only you knew..."

Straizo raised an eyebrow in utter bewilerment. What did he mean 'he'? And by 'loved'?

"This boy is delusional," he said to himself.

"Well, if you want it so badly then go plead to Mark, he's got your...whatever it is, at the auction gallery," he groaned in address to the increasingly distraught Joseph. "Do whatever you want with it as long as I never have to see that thing again."

Without another word Joseph stormed off, Suzi following behind.

He couldn't let them take Caesar.

Not on his watch.

--------

Caesar had no clue where they were taking him. The back of the van was dark, and he wasn't tall enough to peek out the window to assess his location.

But he felt uneasy. He knew Joseph was worried.

He knew Joseph would be wondering where he was. And he couldn't even call for help.

He hoped, with all his being, that Joseph would come for him.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted, however, when the van suddenly jostled, shaking violently and screeching to a stop. He was shaken in his box by the sudden movement, and before he knew it the vehicle had stopped in his tracks, and he could hear Mark's loud complaints from the front seat.

"Dammit! I think I busted a tyre..." he grumbled, stepping out the vehicle. Caesar heard a click, and saw a faint light shine into the back, freezing in place as the flashlight passed over him.

"Well, good thing nothing's broken," Mark mumbled as he inspected the contents of the van, relieved that none of the art was damaged in the little fiasco. He headed over to the front wheel, to check the damage, and his haste, left the back of the van open.

It was a big mistake.

Peeking through a slit in the box, Caesar could see a small figure approaching from the distance, and without warning, peeking into the box that contained him and grabbing it tightly. For a moment Caesar hoped it was Joseph come to take him back-- but he realized too late it wasn't his beloved Jojo at all, but someone much smaller.

And had Mark paid more attention, he would have noticed the small figure of a child dashing away from the van and into an alley-- clutching in both arms a crate that harbored the most unusual artwork of all.

---------

Twelve-year old Smokey Brown was a bit of a victim of circumstance.

He'd lived in the streets for years, surviving off his wits, after having fled from a neglectful household. It was a tough life for a young boy, but he had little choice in the matter.

It was the only life he had known for a long time.

He'd made a living off petty theft and pickpocketing, a livelihood he wasn't all too proud of, but one that filled his aching stomach when there was nothing else within reach. He'd lived off the kindness of strangers for so long, but over the years, they had become less generous-- and he had to play rough to make it out in the harsh and cruel world.

And today he'd hit a jackpot.

He recognized the van of the art department. Perhaps they had something of value? He'd seen an opportunity when the hapless vehicle had struck a flat tire, and the driver had carelessly left the back open.

Perfect.

He saw his chance, and seized it. Grabbing a small crate that was well within reach, he hurried off with his prize. It was heavy and made him use both hands, and inwardly he grinned, as he felt this was something of worth.

He retreated to a small, abandoned warehouse several streets away, where he'd been sheltering for the last few days. Exhausted from the strain of his thievery, he sat down against a wall and dropped the box heavily onto the ground.

And to his surprise, he heard a groan from inside.

------

At once Caesar regretted reacting to the rough handling.

He hoped his captor wouldn't notice, but as the box opened, he knew right away that he'd been exposed. He tried freezing in place, but it was too late.

The boy screamed in shock, prompting a startled cry from Caesar, who in his panic tipped the box over. He at long last got a good look at his unwitting kidnapper-- a small, dark-skinned boy with short, curly hair and a small braid at the back of his head.

He definitely wasn't Joseph.

And he most certainly didn't react the way Joseph would.

-------

Smokey stumbled back in shock at the sight of the contents of the box.

It was a head.

A sculpted head, but one that looked so real that for a moment he feared it was a real severed human head, until he touched it and was relieved to feel it was clay.

But his moment of relief was short-lived: for the head, despite being clay, had moved.

It was alive.

Somehow.

"Y-you're alive!" Smokey stammered as he tried to collect himself. "You're...real?"

Caesar sighed. He knew there was no point in pretending.

"You're like, the fourth person to ever see me and they've all reacted the same."

"You're talking..." Smokey gasped in shock, still not over the surprise. "You're a talking clay head." For a moment Smokey felt he was going mad. Was this some divine punishment tugging on his conscience for his crime?

Caesar laughed dryly as he struggled himself upright. "I get that a lot," he muttered, as he began to hop closer to the startled boy, who stumbled backwards and fell to the floor with a crash.

"Stay away from me!" Smokey pleaded, shuffling backwards at the sight of a talking, bouncing head. "What are you? Where did you come from?"

"Quit freaking out, kid," Caesar complained. "I can't hurt you even if I wanted to, and I don't", he scolded.

"What are you?" Smokey repeated.

"I am a clay bust courtesy of a certain Joseph Joestar," he answered. "I'm his grand masterpiece."

As surprised as he was, Smokey could see a hint of sadness in the strange being's face. And now he couldn't help but feel pity for the figure he had stolen.

He was a thief, not a kidnapper. There was a difference.

"Joseph Joestar?" Smokey asked. He'd heard of the name before. "Like...the artist?"

"Huh, so you have heard of him," Caesar mused. "Never knew Jojo was so famous." Smokey heard how fondly the bust spoke of his creator, and felt remorseful.

He scratched his head. "Listen there, clay head...man?" he mumbled. "Whatever you are, I'm real sorry I stole you. I didn't mean to, alright? I was after some stuff but...you're not stuff, I guess. You can talk, for one."

Even at the indignity of being stolen, Caesar couldn't help but feel warmly touched at being seen as a person, by someone else.

"Well then, kid, you can make it up for me by helping me find Joseph. I'm sure he wants me back."

-------

(Previous Chapter)

(Next Chapter)

[mariekiki50]

Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney

– Turnabout Starters –

 December 29, 2001 – 08:41 AM

Wedio General Hospital – Patient Room

 December 28, 2001 was the date Miles’ life changed drastically.

For the worse, that is.

He just did not know it yet.

The sun creeping in what was awoke him, and his eyes slowly fluttered open; he sat up in his bed. The first thing that struck him was that everything was white around him. So white that it could not be natural, and this was when Miles thought something was off.

He did not what, though. His memories were still fuzzy and confused, and he could not remember for the life of him what had happened for him to be here. Because, he was quite sure now he was in a hospital.

Before he could reflect further on this, however, somebody knocked at the door and came in before Miles even allowed him too. It was a nurse, who had probably been working in this hospital for years, given her age. She was dressed in white, her grey hair tied back into a strict bun; she eyed Miles sternly before she told another person to come in. So, I have some visit, Miles thought, puzzled. He was even more surprised when he recognized who the person was.

She was in her thirties and had short curly black hair with piercing blue eyes. Her clothes were nothing extravagant, she had kept things simple by wearing a thick pullover with trousers and boots and had an anorak in her arms.  It was winter, after all, so her outfit fitted the season. Except a wedding ring, she did not have any jewels or accessories on her, neither had she a scarf or gloves, but she removed her wooly hat when she stepped into the room. Her complexion was olive, but her smile was as bright as Miles remembered.

Mrs. Wright.

Miles had met her quite recently, actually, but his father had known her for much longer. It had all started when one of Edgeworth’s classmates had been accused of stealing his lunch money. If Miles had not known better, the poor boy would have been punished while he had not done anything. Funny how it had turned out that said boy’s parents were friends of Miles’ father. So it was only natural Miles had befriended Phoenix Wright, the child falsely accused of theft, and a certain Larry Butz, who, for a strange and unknown reason, had believed in Phoenix’s innocence too when the whole class had accused the latter.

Miles did not live with the Wrights, but he was quite sure Mrs. Wright was a very good mother. She was a widow, having lost her husband from cancer one year ago or so, just like Miles had lost his own mother in a car accident some years ago too. The mirroring of their situations was quite tragic. Despite that, Mrs. Wright had welcomed the Edgeworths with open arms, especially when she had known Miles had helped her son during a class trial. It had not surprised her that much, in truth: Gregory had been their lawyer during a tough case, and it was no surprise the son would grow up to be just like his father, one day.

Seeing a familiar face calmed down Miles a little, but even with Phoenix’s mother, he could tell something was definitely wrong. Was it in the way she behaved or in the joyful expression which was a bit too forced, the nine-year-old did not know. Maybe it was all that at once.

Mrs. Wright put her belongings on the chair in the corner of the room, and came to Miles’ side with the concerned look mothers have when they are worrying about their children. She put a hand on the boy’s forehead, while the nurse was silently staring at them.

“How are you feeling, Miles, dear?” Mrs. Wright asked, removing her hand. “Are you okay?”

“I… I think I’m fine,” the child replied, making the woman sigh in relief. “I can’t remember why I’m here though.”

“Oh, darling, there’s no need to hurry. We can take things one at a time. You should rest for now.”

Although Miles appreciated her concern, he did not feel like sleeping. He was fully awake, now, and was feeling quite well. What he wanted now was some answers about how he had ended up here.

“Phoenix isn’t here?”

“The hospital didn’t allow me to bring him here. My neighbor’s watching over him. We’ll both come to see you as soon as we can, okay?”

The boy nodded his head. He was glad to have Phoenix as his friend, and he could not wait for him to come and see him. They would talk about the brand new episodes of the Signal Samurai that were currently broadcasted on TV. Miles could not believe he had come to love this series that much. It was all because of Phoenix. And Larry too. Anyway, he was glad his friend was fine, but he still had some questions in his mind.

“What happened? Why am I at the hospital?”

Mrs. Wright bit her lips and looked at the nurse, who just shrugged. Miles was not sure what all that meant.

“So, you don’t remember anything…?”

He shook his head, and the mother sighed deeply before she answered. “You and your father were at the courthouse. Your father had a client to defend, and he took you with him because you wanted to see the trial.”

Miles’ memories slowly came back. That was right; his father had recently promised him he would let him attend one of his trials. The young boy still remembered how excited he was when he had woken up, yesterday morning. This was the first time his father had accepted him to come and watch one of his trials. As usual, Gregory’s performance had been quite impressive, and his son could not have been prouder of his father. Still, in the end…

“My father… I recall he lost the case… He told me he planned to appeal.”

“That’s right. After that, you both took the elevator.”

Ah, that was something Miles remembered too. He could even say there had been a third man in this elevator, with them, a black-haired man in his forties. He had introduced himself as Yanni Yogi, a bailiff. Apparently, he had a fiancée by the name of Polly, and they were apparently planning to get married soon; that was what Mr. Yogi had said anyway. He had pressed the button to go down, and indeed the elevator had gone down, until…

Miles’ eyes went wide with fear and he shivered.

… Until a violent earthquake struck.

Everything became clear from here for the young boy. He recalled the lights had flickered and gone out because of that earthquake, and if not for the emergency light, Mr. Yogi and the Edgeworths would have completely been in the dark.

Once the fear had passed, the only choice left had been to wait for the emergency services. Miles had sat with his back against the wall and had wrapped his arms around his knees. Gregory and the bailiff had sat in front of him, with their backs against the wall too. And then… the three of them had had to wait for what had been an eternity. One hour… Two hours… Three hours… Four hours… Five hours… And finally… There had been that moment. That moment when Mr. Yogi had started getting crazy because of the lack of oxygen.

“S–Stop breathing my air!”

He had grabbed Gregory by the collar, right in front of Miles, who had started to panic. He had felt something under his hand, something that was probably dangerous… but he had not realized what it was exactly. He had been so frightened to see the bailiff lash out at his father that he had thrown the object without even really thinking about it. He just wanted the fight between the two men to stop.

“Get away from my father!”

Only when he had heard the gunshot had he realized the thing he had thrown at the bailiff was a weapon. Probably some sort of pistol, even maybe Yogi’s. It did not matter in the end: the result was the same. There had been a gunshot. After that, Miles had heard a long, terrible and awful scream of pain and…

… it was a blackout after that. He did not remember anything else.

His heart started pounding faster inside his chest and his hands gripped the blanket tighter. Where is Father, now? What happened to him? And what happened to the bailiff? He looked up at Mrs. Wright with worry in his eyes.

“I… I’d like to see my father, please…”

The woman gasped and turned her head, unable to meet his eyes. Miles was surprised, because for the time he had known her, she had never looked away like that. She had never looked away at all.

“I’m afraid it won’t be possible, Miles.”

“Why? What happened? Where’s Father?!”

“He’s dead.”

It was not Phoenix’s mother who had spoken, but the nurse. Miles had nearly forgotten about her existence. She who had been so cold at first was now looking at him with some sort of pity in her eyes Miles had a hard time accepting. He could not just believe what he had heard. There was no way Gregory could be dead! He had said… He had said to his son and to Mr. Yogi everything would be fine! He had to be okay, he had to, because, without him…

… Miles had nothing left.

He was all alone.

He looked at Mrs. Wright with eyes full of hope, a foolish hope that she would deny the lie that nurse had just told him. He needed to be told all this was just a joke – and a pretty bad joke, at that – but when he heard her sadly muttering the world ‘sorry’, this was when he knew for sure all that had been said to him was the truth, nothing else.

To say his world crumbled was an understatement. Tears came to his eyes and rolled down his cheeks as he hiccupped violently, unable to speak because of the lump on his throat. Instead, he just sobbed in Phoenix’s mother’s arms, without stopping, and he even lost track of time. The only thing he could feel was the woman gently stroking his hair and whispering soft words to him.

He just cried, again and again.

 ***

 Manfred von Karma was no man to wait.

When he wanted something, he did everything in his power to get it as soon as possible, just in the same way he did everything in his power to get a guilty verdict in court. He had been prosecuting for decades, and not a single defense attorney had been able to stand up against him. Well, not a single defense attorney still alive, that is. Of course, there had been that Gregory Edgeworth… but he had still lost in the end. And above all, he had been… dealt with, to say the least.

And now that he was dead, von Karma had one only obsession: to take Gregory Edgeworth’s son with him and to turn him against everything his foolish father had once believed in. He would make this boy become a perfect prosecutor under his control, and then… he would find a way to get rid of him. This child would be a puppet who would obey his orders, and he would get guilty verdicts just like Manfred. Von Karma would make him and his damn father pay for what they had done to him. The boy was so fragile and innocent… That was the perfect moment to mold him just like the prosecutor wanted. He wanted Miles, and he would have him.

This was why he was a bit upset to find there was already somebody in Miles’ room. He had hoped to be alone with that boy – the fewer people there was, the better – but he did not say anything and just glared at the woman. Edgeworth was stupidly crying in her arms. Manfred did not like how that woman was interfering, but it did not matter in the end; he was already taking care of the papers for the adoption, and soon, Miles would be his adoptive son.

“I would like the boy to be ready to go as soon as possible,” he informed the nurse.

“Very well. Given his good condition, he had no need to stay here any longer. I’m going to check when he’ll be allowed to leave.”

She never met the old prosecutor’s eyes and exited the room at the very moment when Mrs. Wright exclaimed: “Miles? Leave? But he’s mourning his father! He still need time to recover! And who are you anyway? You’re not a relative! You’re not even part of his family!”

Manfred glared at the woman with deep contempt and folded his arms. “I don’t care. I’m currently about to adopt him, and when the paperwork is done, he’ll come with me.”

Miles stopped crying and looked at the man with big fearful eyes. Mrs. Wright saw all the terror and the shock the poor little boy was going through right now, and she took him in her arms once again, embracing him protectively while he was shaking. Her eyes then met von Karma’s, and she gritted her teeth. This man did not mean any good for the now orphaned child, and she did not know what his plans were, but… by any means, she would not let the child go with a man who probably still held a grudge against said child’s father. Von Karma had a reputation, and Bonnie Wright had been told about the penalty he had been given due to Gregory exposing his unorthodox methods during the trial. To say he falsified evidence just to secure a guilty verdict… That was disgusting. How could anyone let Miles go with such a jerk just like that?!

On top of that, Gregory Edgeworth’s death was highly suspicious, to say the least. Miles and that bailiff, Yanni Yogi, were both unconscious when they had been found, after five hours, by the emergency services. There was no doubt Gregory had been shot right in the heart, and although the police was investigating, they apparently considered Yogi to be the culprit. Unlike Miles, he was not awake yet, but the both of them would be heard by the police anyway.

Still… Until then, Miles needed comfort. And Mrs. Wright did not intend to let that prosecutor take him away without doing anything to stop it. She took a deep breath and looked fiercely at the man. If he thought he could have anything just by demanding, then he was for a surprise.

“You have no right to do so! Gregory entrusted me with the custody of his son should anything happen to him!”

If Manfred was puzzled by the woman’s words, he did not show it. He had not expected that damn Edgeworth to leave the upbringing of his child to someone, but that was barely a hindrance. He would deal with this soon enough. All he wanted was the child, to turn him into somebody who would fight against everything his brat of a father had always believed in. He was determined.

“You have no say in that, woman. I will take the child, no matter what.”

“Over my dead body,” Mrs. Wright spitted out, glaring daggers at the old man, embracing the child even more tightly. “As for now, Miles is under my care, as Gregory wished. I will prove it at the courthouse, and when everything will be in order, Miles will come to live with us and you will never see nor touch the child again!”

Von Karma was now full of fury and rage, and he started rushing to that woman and the child threateningly, but he finally thought better. He could not lose his temper like this. The woman had probably her doubts on Edgeworth’s death, and if she started investigating and discovered the truth behind that case… his perfect career would be over, and that was something he could not afford. No, there was only one way to have the custody of the kid, it was to go to the courthouse and fight Mrs. Wright. With that, he was sure there would not be any problems.

He smugly wagged his finger in front of him and smirked viciously. “You’re right, Mrs. Wright. Let’s take care of this kind of things like the grown-ups we are, shall we? Everything will be settle in court soon enough.”

Miles was still looking at the old prosecutor in awe, and the latter glared back at him with huge contempt. To say he was doing all this for revenge… But he wanted this revenge. He despised the Edgeworths above all, and dealing with the child of the man he had killed was such a sweet revenge! He would have given everything just to see the face of the man as his son would be raised to be everything his dear father had been fighting against…

And on that thought, von Karma left the room.

Bonnie Wright sighed, and stroke Miles’ hair gently.

“Will I have to live with that man?” he asked, looking at her with eyes full of terror, sadness and uncertainty.

“No you won’t. I’m the one who will be in charge of you. I have paperwork to do, but once it’s done, you’ll move in with me and Phoenix. No harm will be done to you. I swear. Everything will be alright.”

Miles nodded, reassured. He was so glad he did not have to go with that prosecutor. He had never wanted to. He clearly preferred to grow up with his best friend Phoenix. And Bonnie had told him that everything would be fine, so he could finally rest, now.

They could not have been more wrong.

On January 4, 2002, the judge officially entrusted Miles Edgeworth’s custody to Bonnie Wright, much to von Karma’s furor. On that same day, while the day was coming to an end, Mrs. Wright was murdered in strange conditions. The identity of the killer remained unknown.

Phoenix became an orphan too, and Miles never got the chance to live with the Wrights.

[writingcuredmyfrown]

The Benevolent Gods

It was the day of the executions. Three men, convicted of theft from the royal palace were about to be publically beheaded. The man who was about to carry out the task was General Seledin, chief of the royal guard. The town square was slowly filling up with people. Public executions were a treasure among the citizens of the kingdom. There was an ancient custom, according to which every prisoner must tell the executioner what he wishes for. Of course, most people, in the last minutes before their death, wished for an afterlife. Sometimes, however, someone would ask for something silly, ordinary or impossible. Those were the moments the crowd cherished, they loved a good laugh. 

The three men were in a line. Their blistered skin visible through the torn clothes. They were walking slowly, the soldiers escorting them didn’t want to hurt them. Nothing can go wrong, the performance must satisfy the audience. Here they come, closer and closer to the chopping block. Somewhere in the distance a flock of ravens could be heard. 

General Seledin called the first man in line. After giving the crown an account of what the man had done, along with his name and family, he asked him for his wish. 

“I hope that when I die I become God myself, so I can send fire from the sky and make you pay for everything.”, he said with all his strength. He was weak, exhausted to a point where his speech sounded unbelievable. Perhaps it was a heat stroke, perhaps he was just insane. Everyone burst into laughter, they didn’t care what it was. He was absurd.

After his head rolled off several meters, the General called for the second prisoner. A bulky, strong man. He was the one who was weeping all throughout the walk. He begged for help. He didn’t want to die, he had a family. But so did everyone else. Panic had taken a hold of him. He was shivering when Seledin asked him about his wish.

“Please, let me go! You have to understand, I’m innocent! I’ve done nothing. This isn’t right! I am not a - ...”, the mass of people had started shouting violently. They didn’t want sobbing, he violated the customs of the land. That was enough to cause an outrage. As soon as he realized how trapped he is, all alone in a sea of sharks, he simply closed his eyes and laid his head on the block.

The third man was named Arion. He was handsome and young, and he’d married a farmer several months ago. Out of the three men, he was the only one who looked up during the walk to the executioner. He seemed happy, or at least content. He smiled at the onlookers as if he’d done nothing. But it was true, he had done nothing. It was all a big mistake. All of them were innocent. It’s just that the royal guard didn’t pay much attention to those things. They wanted a public spectacle, and they were going to have it one way or another.

He looked at the General and calmly said:

“I wish you a long life, my lord. May life smile upon you and preserve you.” The laughter was even greater. Pathetic wishes like these were a favorite. Everyone felt superior, everyone felt like justice was being served - the pathetic ones are being beheaded, and they - the lawful ones, are being spared. With a clean sweep, his head joined the other two. 

...

Many years later, the General had lost his wife, his children, his friends and fellow soldiers. He was frail, incapacitated and weak. Arion’s wish had come true. He had also realized that on that day, he had killed three innocent people, and ruined God knows how many more’s lives. The mighty, righteous General had fallen. He had lost everything and everyone. He lived a long and miserable life. He kept thinking of Arion. The Gods had listened to him, they had fulfilled his wish. But those same Gods were, very soon, going to take the General in their abode. He was afraid. He had never believed they even existed. He was not ready. 

Hello, hello. Flash Fiction Friday! Awesome, awesome topic. It was challenging for me to come up with a story, but it was fun. I might have used the good old mythological trinity of X, but I think it worked. Let me know what you think! 

As always, thanks to @flashfictionfridayofficial - #FFF43 - Gift of the Gods. 

[vfdbaudelairefile13]

Authors notes: There are brief descriptions of violence against a minor and brief discussion of Olaf's sick intentions with Violet. Read with caution. It isn't the main focus of the chapter but it is mentioned here and there. So read with caution.

Also, sorry if this chapter is super long I just kept adding a lot of shit and I honestly like how it turned out.

Notes:

First off I just want to apologize for how long this chapter took. Time has gotten away from me but I can promise that part three will be a day to day posting schedule like part one. Carnivorous Carnival might still have a couple days in between each chapter cause I am in the process of finding a new second job, still dealing with two jobs, and even moving. So updates won't take this long but they won't be day to day. I am hoping for the first chapter of CC to be posted in three days. Maybe even Thursday. I do appreciate the support this fic has gotten and I can't wait to wow y'all with part three.

That being said, we are at the last chapter of Hostile Hospital and I am feeling very emotional about that mere prospect. This just means we are close to the end of part two and near the start of part three. during the time in between parts two and three I will be posting a number of random one shots cause I don't plan to post until I have finished writing Grim Grotto to it's completion because Slippery Slope might be as long as Hostile Hospital has been.

So thank you all again for the support. Hope you enjoy the ending of HH.

-Sue

__________________________________________________

                                   Chapter Fifty-Seven:

The One With An Unhinged Madman and a Very Flawed, Daring Escape

Olaf smiled happily down at the film that was now in his hands. The Snicket File? He thought as his smile grew bigger. All he could think about was who he expected to be in this film. He had believed it would’ve been the love of his life, Kit Snicket. He glanced from the film towards Esme. Esme was looking at the young orphan boy with a cold, murderous expression. He stole a glance towards the unconscious girl that laid limp and lifeless on the cutting table. Then he slowly turned his gaze to the young boy and hidden toddler who stood before him. He smiled viciously at them as he secured the film into his pocket.

The villain’s smile widened when Esme had helped him reveal the orphans’ true identity to the crowd. He watched a terrified Klaus slowly begin to panic. The villain reveled in his young adversary’s fear. He glanced around. Bored with his plot. He was curious to know what was on the Snicket file and to tell the truth, he was eager to see Kit’s face again. Olaf glanced at Esme while Klaus and Sunny were too distracted by the audience to notice. Olaf was signaling for Esme to take care of the orphans while he dipped out momentarily to investigate the file. Esme gave a slow nod as she focused on causing the orphans more turmoil. Olaf looked around the stage for a way to escape undetected. But he didn’t have to think for too long because the blind old man who was in charge of the Library of Records had entered the room accusing the children of theft.

Olaf took this golden opportunity to leave the operating theater of Heimlich Hospital as he walked excitedly down the halls towards the Library of Records. All the while, he had taken the film out of his pocket and was staring at it with heavy eyes the entire duration of his walk. As he walked further and further away from the operating theater, he could faintly hear the desperate voice of Klaus Baudelaire asking where he had gone, he smirked with triumph as he rounded a corner finding the door to the library. He stepped inside the Library of Records smiling at the damage that his girlfriend had done when she was in pursuit of those awful orphans. He quickly found the area of the room where the projectors had been placed.

As he began to play the film, his face turned from happy to one of pure confusion. As he stared speechless at a ghost. Olaf was visibly upset. When he was told about the Snicket file, he hadn’t expected to see a Snicket brother on film. He grabbed the film’s case scanning it for a date. Of course, in good VFD fashion, there was no date of production, just the broad name. He slammed the case down in pure annoyance.

His eyes widened as he stared emotionless at Jacques Snicket. “But, before I do, I have an important update,” Jacques explained but Olaf couldn’t help but be merely distracted on who he could see. Olaf knew for a fact that he had murdered Jacques Snicket. He cocked his head to the side as he stared at Jacques, a volatile mix of emotions causing him to groan in annoyance as the volunteer spoke. Olaf had expected to see Kit Snicket, not her pesky, meddlesome twin brother who he had recently slain. He leaned his chin in his hand, feigning a yawn. Trying his best to mask his complete and utter discomfort for this situation. He scoffed aloud as he rolled his eyes, confused as to what he was feeling exactly.

It couldn’t be guilt. I’ve sunk too low to ever feel guilt and have empathy for another soul. He had thought with another quick eye roll. He had half a mind to turn off the film.

What information could Jacques Snicket possibly have that could be useful to me?

But as Olaf reached for the switch to turn it off. Jacques Snicket said it. Jacques said the haunting secret that the three orphans had learned moments before Esme Squalor burst into the library and successfully kidnapped Violet.

The vile man’s demeanor was calm, like the air that filled the Library of Records. But his cold demeanor was also very chilling. Anyone who knew Olaf well would take one look at him and accuse the man who sat in the Library of Records to be an imposter. He chuckled nervously, but in a low whisper as if he were afraid of others hearing him. For a brief moment, Olaf simply stared blankly towards the film. Jacques Snicket spoke on but Olaf paid him no attention. As if Jacques’ initial statement had frozen him in time. Jacques’ secret replayed in Olaf’s head in a continuous loop not allowing him a brief moment of peace. Olaf shook his head violently, but other than that his motions were bare, his demeanor was still calm.

After another few moments like that, Olaf stopped the film, rewound it to the very beginning, and turned it back on. Again, he listened to Jacques’ revelation about the recent fires. This time when he heard Jacques' theory, his heart stopped. A chill was sent over him.

It can’t be. He thought to himself desperately. Quickly succumbing to anxiety and paranoia that was now creeping in on him, he glanced around the empty library. He stood up from his seat to get a better look around. He wasn’t sure why but he could feel his heart beating in his chest as he surveyed the area for his older enemies.

Olaf wouldn’t admit to anyone that he was afraid, even though he was. He knew that if the kids knew that there was a survivor; and he had a strong feeling that the children did, in fact, know what was on the film seeing that Klaus was hesitant to hand it over to Esme, only handing it over because he thought it would be a good bargaining chip for Violet’s life. But if the kids knew there was a survivor and they somehow got to the survivor first, before Olaf could, he knew that that would only mean terrible things for him. Who knows what Beatrice, Bertrand, and Lemony would do to him if they ever found out just what he had done to their children and even some of the vile things he had planned especially when it came to the eldest orphan. His breathing was slowly going back to normal as he shook his head again.

He scoffed as he turned off the film again. He waited for it to rewind as he kept shaking his head defiantly. “What does Jacques Snicket know? Nothing. That’s what.” he tried to convince himself. “He was always a know-it-all with no way to back anything up.” But no matter what he said aloud to himself, nothing was convincing him that he was safe from the parents’ wrath.

He ran one of his hands nervously through his disgusting, grey hair. “No. No. Lemony is dead.” he said shakily. But then he remembered how a struggling violet was desperately crying out for her father when he was using the anesthetic to subdue her. “Remember...you...you killed him. You set his apartment building ablaze!” the vile man began to nervously laugh at this statement. He was hoping for his laugh to come out shrill and villainous, as it usually does, but it came out nervous and unenthusiastic. “Killing him...and whoever else was unfortunate enough to die,”

His eyes widened when he remembered the young teen girl that was strapped to a gurney in the middle of the operating theater. How did she survive? How did she escape the fire? That question now haunted him more than it had when he had first laid eyes on her at Prufrock. When he immediately recognized her as a miniature Beatrice with Lemony’s blue eyes. Olaf remembers when he had set the fire it was in the early hours of the morning or late hours of the evening (depending on how you look at), surely Violet would have been sleeping or inside her home when he started the fire.  

So if an untrained fourteen-year-old girl could escape the fire I set….who’s to say, Lemony Snicket, a man who has had a lifetime of training in a cult, couldn’t escape as well? He thought to himself. He rubbed the side of his face anxiously.

“Get a grip, Olaf.” He told himself as he stopped the film. “She only escaped because that brat is lucky,” he smirked as he remembers her lifeless, limp body laying on a gurney in the operating theater. “And her luck is soon going to run out.”

He took a small breath. “Besides, there’s no way he survived...he would’ve shown his face by now.” The vile man reasoned, but to be honest, he wasn’t too sure. Olaf did not think it made sense for Lemony to risk his life for two children that weren't biologically his but not even try to rescue his own child. He also highly doubted Bertrand and Beatrice wouldn’t have shown their faces in an effort to save their kids. He began to nervously laugh as he shook his head. “Maybe...I misheard Jacques. He always played that stupid hearing game with Lemony…” Olaf stated, still trying to find some logical way to debunk what he heard Jacques Snicket say.

As he rewound the film once more, Olaf took a deep breath and played it again. Olaf’s eyes fixated on Jacques as he listened attentively as Jacques explained that Lemony was either dead or on the lam. Olaf’s eyes widened as he shook his head defiantly. “No. Lemony Snicket is dead,” he told himself. He hoped that if he said it out loud enough times then it would stay true. He desperately wanted that statement to stay true. He wanted Lemony Snicket to be dead.

Olaf glared slightly at the vision of Jacques Snicket. Grimacing, groaning, and growling as the ‘noble’ man spoke. It was like Jacques Snicket had come back from the dead to deliver Olaf some bad news. Jacques was always the bearer of bad news when Olaf was still working alongside the Snickets. He grabbed the file’s case once more and threw it to the ground when he couldn’t find a date. Even with the film’s metallic case cling ing on the ground as it bounced from being thrown, Olaf could still hear every word Jacques was saying loud and clear.

 “It seems there may have been a survivor of a recent fire,” Jacques said again. Olaf grumbled as he kicked the air in front of his feet. Even while sitting he managed to stomp both feet as if he were a child throwing a temper tantrum and not simply a very highly unstable grown man going through his seventh midlife crisis in the last several months. As his hand ran through his hair again, he took a firm grip, slightly pulling in anger and desperation.

“Of course…” he cried, mockingly. “Of fucking course!”

His breathing became sharp and quick but not from fear as it had only a few minutes ago. Now his breathing was irregular because of his anger. He felt a tear or two form in his eyes as he thought about how the people who have wronged him could still be alive.

“No,” he cried out. His voice was somewhat desperate but mainly defeated. “No! This isn’t fair!” He screeched as he rewound the film again, not caring to turn it off. The film rewound although this rewind had slightly distorted the video. But Olaf didn’t pay it any attention. “ Nothing ever goes my way!” He barked, his voice still dripped desperation even if he was trying his best to mask it. He thought of each and every scheme that had failed since his pursuit of Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire, this revelation caused him to growl. It was bad enough that the kids were surviving him but now their hypocritical parents?

“I can’t believe it,” Olaf whined. “ This changes everything!” The vicious man grabbed at his hair again, pulling at it aggressively as he growled inhumanely. His mind flashed to the unconscious girl on the cutting table, the bespectacled boy who was desperately trying to rescue her, and the simpering infant with the sharp teeth.

“ They’re supposed to be orphans!”  He growled, shaking with each word.

As he yelled that last sentence, he shut his mouth abruptly. His expressionless face slowly growing into a Grinch-like grin as his eyes shone with an idea. He began to laugh lightly as if he had just remembered a joke that Esme or one of his troupe members had told him.

Olaf’s world was currently spiraling as his happiness about getting his revenge against Lemony Snicket may not have actually happened or that his second-hand revenge against Bertrand Markson and Beatrice Baudelaire didn’t occur either and this revelation sent him in a frenzy. The mere idea of a survivor had his entire soul heated up.

His face grew dark as he thought, once more, about their three plucky children. A cruel, vicious smile appeared on the man’s face. “ It would be fun to deal with the survivor and their precious children.” He said aloud, his light laughter turned into full-grown villainous howling as his dark mind began to imagine cruel scenarios for the survivor and their children. A cruel smile appeared on his face as he began to fantasize about how he would ‘take care’ of these orphans in front of their parents.

He thought first about little Sunny, and how he would rip the infant limb from limb, listening to her screams and cries of agony and her parents and siblings horrified pleads. He then thought about Klaus and how he would cut the bookworm in such a way where the young boy slowly bled out agonizingly slow, somehow surviving through to the very end of Olaf’s madness, only to be killed the last second when Olaf finally decides to put him out of his misery with a quick slit of his throat. The sick man reveled in the screams that the survivor and Klaus would be making. He already knew how fun it was to carve up the middle orphan as if he were a pumpkin in October and he was very eager to do it some more. But then finally, he thought about Violet, the girl who laid unconscious and restrained on the cutting table. A sick smile laced with the cruelest of intentions appeared on his face as he began to imagine all of the dark and twisted things he had planned for little Miss Snicket. The mere prospect of even having an audience to be forced to watch as he breaks their little girl in the cruelest way imaginable made Olaf smile wickedly.

 He could finally cause the survivor more pain than they had caused him and he would use their own children to do so.  Maybe he can twist the cruel reality of a survivor of a recent fire in his favor. It would only take postponing murdering the brats until he found out who was the survivor and then brutally torturing their children to death in front of them. Olaf shrugged his shoulders. It wasn’t what he had initially planned but this gave him more time to torment the children and that always made him feel a little happier.

Finally, Olaf stood turning to leave. He felt as though he had been away from the operating theater for too long and he was beginning to worry that the others couldn’t handle the Baudelaires and an unconscious Snicket girl. He would be so fucking pissed if Esme and the others lost his little pet. But as he turned his back to Jacques Snicket for the last time, film Jacques said it once more. “There may be a survivor of a recent fire.”

Olaf took one deep breath as he stood motionless for a second. Jacques’ words hitting Olaf slowly as if Jacques were standing right in front of him, stabbing him cruelly.  “I know!” Olaf hissed, his hands slowly tightening to white-knuckled fists. He let out a vicious growl that caused his whole body to shake aggressively.

Olaf turned towards the projector rapidly as he shoved the projector that played the film down onto the table. In a fit of blind rage, Olaf gripped the projector and began to beat it repeatedly against the table. “ Baudelaire!” he hissed as he continued to beat the projector against the table. “ Markson!” He growled again as he turned towards the chair that he had sat in and kicked it with all his might. As the psychotic man hissed, “ Snicket!” the chair flew across the room only stopping when it collided with one of the filing cabinets that had survived Esme’s rampage. He turned back towards the projector continuing to slam it against the table, eventually shoving it down and then pounding on the table with his fists. “ NOOOOOOO!” He bellowed in the empty library. His voice echoing and bouncing off the walls

He gripped onto the projector one last time and rapidly smacked it against the table once more and carefully watched with curiosity when a small flame had illuminated. Olaf instinctively tried to swat it out but then as his eyes shone bright with an idea, his face went dark with no emotion besides cold ruthlessness.

He slowly bent down towards the flame, his face darkening as his sick thoughts danced around his head laced with cruel intentions. He softly blew at the flame, nurturing it, allowing it to grow into a full-fledged fire. As he gazed at the intoxicating orange flames, reveling in the intense high he was feeling, he merely shrugged his shoulders.

What’s one more fire?

________________________________________________________________

Klaus gazed up at the crowd nervously as he and Sunny jumped when they heard a familiar laugh, far above them. The two younger orphans glanced at one another nervously and then focused their gazes towards the intercom speaker that was above them. The siblings had heard this laughter when Olaf had first captured the Quagmire triplets and Sunny, and when Esme had successfully pushed Klaus and Violet down the elevator shaft at 667 Dark Avenue, and when he had trapped the two older siblings in a locked Deluxe Cell or trapped Sunny and the Quagmires in a small cage at the bottom of an elevator shaft, a statue of a red herring, and a fountain. It was the triumphant laughter of someone who has cooked up a fiendish plot and succeeded, although it always sounded like the laughter of someone who has just told an excellent joke. Because he was laughing over the scratchy intercom, Olaf sounded as if he had a piece of aluminum foil over his mouth, but the laughter was still loud enough to help wear off the anesthesia only slightly, and Violet murmured something and tried to move her restrained arms.

“Oops,” Olaf said, interrupting his laughter when he noticed the intercom was on. “Attention!” Olaf cried as Klaus cried out a desperate ‘no’ in response. “This is Doctor Mattathias Medical-School with some very important news. A terrible fire has broken out in Heimlich Hospital.”

The crowd around the children gasped as they all stood up from their seats. Even the troupe and Esme glanced at one another nervously. “The fire was set in the Library of Records by that Baudelaire murderer and his baby accomplice!”

“ Toddler!” Sunny corrected as the crowd began to glare at her and her brother.

“Sunny, not the time,” Klaus whispered as he continued to gaze up at the intercom, silently pleading for Olaf to stop his treachery. He shook his head as Olaf spoke and continued to mouth the word ‘no’.

“The fire has spread through a number of wards. The orphans are still at large, so do everything you can to find them, arrest them, and bring them to me. ” he hissed into the intercom.

“No,” Sunny whimpered as the crowd around the children glared intensely.

“Oh, and you might want to evacuate the building...or move the patients...or something,” Olaf said nonchalantly. “Thank you. That is all.”

Their enemy’s voice disappeared in a matter of seconds. Klaus looked around desperately. “We...we...we couldn’t have started the fire! We’ve been in this operating theater the whole time!” he reasoned.

“Get them!” One nurse cried. “Somebody tell Mattathias we’ve captured the children!” she turned to Klaus and Sunny. “You three brats are in big trouble. You’re murderers, arsonists, kidnappers, and now spurious doctors.”

“Don’t forget thieves!” Hal cried, holding up the fake key ring.

“They get that from their mother!” Esme cried angrily, glaring daggers at Klaus.

“That’s…” Klaus began but then he looked towards his sisters. “Not...not all of that is true...I only disguised myself...to save…” But as he looked around, he feared that no one was believing him. He looked at the spurious keyring in Hals’ hands that he and his sisters had used to sneak into the Library of Records. He looked at his ripped medical coat, which he had used to disguise himself as a doctor and he looked at the rusty blade in his own hands, which he had just been holding over his unconscious older sister. Klaus remembered when he and Sunny lived with Uncle Monty, and the two siblings, with some help from a disguised Lemony Snicket, brought several objects to Mr. Poe as evidence to Olaf’s treacherous plot. Because of the small objects, Olaf was placed under arrest, and now Klaus was afraid that the same would happen to him and his sisters.

“Surround them!” The Hook-Handed Man cried, pointing at the children with a curved glove. “But be careful. The bookworm still has the knife!”

Olaf’s associates spread out in a circle and slowly began walking towards the youngsters at all angles. Sunny whimpered in fright and ran behind Klaus’ legs as Klaus was trying to guard both his sisters. Klaus quickly picked Sunny up and put her on the gurney.

“Capture those orphans!” a doctor cried.

The two white-faced women smiled wickedly at Klaus and Sunny. “We’ll perform surgery on all three of you!” one of the women shouted causing Esme to facepalm.

Hal looked to them in disbelief. “What?” he asked. “No, the children will go to prison, of course.”

“Well, technically they’ll be in juvenile detention until they come of age,” the henchperson of indeterminate gender explained.

“Ridiculous!” the bald man cried. “They should be tried as adults.”

“Murderers should get the chair,” one white-faced woman argued.

“We’re talking about children,” Hal complained.

“Very small chairs, then,” the other white-faced woman commented as the troupe took another step towards the children.

“We can discuss the details after we arrest them,” a volunteer fighting disease cried.

“Yeah! Stop arguing and arrest them!” another cried.

“That’s what we’re doing, you fool!” Esme cried impatiently, but when she turned her head towards the two Baudelaire orphans and the drowsy Snicket girl they saw her wink. “We’re going to capture only one of you,” she said, in a quiet voice so the audience couldn’t hear her. She had her eyes focused on Klaus, who backed into Violet’s gurney causing the Snicket girl to shriek slightly.

Sunny turned towards Violet. “Shhhh, it’s okay,” she whimpered to the drowsy Violet as she pets her hair softly.

Esme smiled as she glanced down at her stiletto shoes. “This in footwear isn’t just useful for making me look glamorous and feminine,” she explained as she took one of her heels off and pointed it right at the children. “These stilettos are perfect for slitting children’s throats.” she hissed under her breath, taking a small step closer to Klaus, who adjusted the large, rusty knife in his hands. “The two bratty girl orphans will be killed while trying to escape from justice, leaving the one bratty, little Baudelaire boy to give us the fortune.”

“You’ll never get your hands on our inheritance,” Klaus cried. “Or your shoes at my sisters’ throats.”

Esme merely shrugged. “We’ll see,” she cried, as she swung her shoe at Klaus as if it were a sword. Klaus ducked quickly and felt the whoosh! Of the air as the blade swept over him. He glanced at Esme confused. She had just explained her intention to kill his sisters not him, so why was she swinging her shoes at him. It didn’t take Klaus long to realize what Esme was doing as he jumped back up onto his feet in hopes of protecting Violet and Sunny.

“ She’s trying to kill us!” Klaus cried desperately. “Can’t you see? These are the real murderers!”

“No one will ever believe you,” Esme said in a sinister whisper and swung her shoe at Sunny, who moved away just in time.

“I don’t believe you!” Hal cried. “My eyesight may not be what it used to be, but I could see that phony medical coat on the ground.”

“I don’t believe you either!” a nurse cried. “I can see that rusty knife!”

Esme swung her shoe towards the drowsy Violet this time, Klaus maneuvering Violet’s gurney out of the way in the nick of time. “Why don’t you surrender?” Esme hissed. “We’ve finally trapped you, just as you trapped Olaf all those other times.”

“When did we ever…” Klaus cried as he jumped back away from Esme’s attack.

“Now you know what it feels like to be a villain!” the bald man yelled. “Move closer, everyone! Mattathias told me whoever grabs them first gets to choose where to go for dinner tonight!”

Klaus looked at the group of villains in disbelief. He scanned towards the crowd looking for any friendly or helpful face. He frowned when he realized that no one was going to help them or stick up for the children. Esme could literally slit one of their throats and no one in this half-emptied crowd would bat an eyelash.

“Is that so?” the Hook-Handed Man asked. “Well I’m in the mood for pizza.” he swung a rubber-gloved hook at Klaus, who fell back against the gurney, rolling himself and his sister out of the evil man’s reach even if it was only a few inches.

“I feel more like Chinese food,” one of the white-faced women said. “Let’s go to that place where we celebrated the Quagmire and Baudelaire kidnapping.”

“I want to go to Cafe Salmonella,” Esme snarled.

Klaus pushed against the gurney again, wheeling it in the other direction as the circle of associates closed in on him and his sisters. He held the rusty knife up for protection as he listened to the whimpering of his younger sister and watched the restrained struggles of his elder sister. Klaus did not think he could use a weapon, even on people as wicked as these. Even if that dark thought had crossed his mind more than ten times in the last five minutes. He frowned when he realized that he was thinking just like Count Olaf. He shook his head slightly, he refused to be anything like Olaf. He knew if Count Olaf would have been trapped, he would not have hesitated to swing the rusty blade at the people who were surrounding him, but despite what the bald man had said, Klaus did not feel like a villain or rather, he didn’t want to feel like a villain. He didn’t want to feel a thing like Olaf. He refused to be the thing he hated the most. What Klaus did feel like though, was someone who needed to escape.

“Klaus...what do we do?” Sunny asked in a terrified whisper as the troupe and Esme took another step towards the kids.

“I...I don’t know, Sunny…” he admitted as he backed into his sister’s gurney again, he glanced down at Violet and then at Sunny, giving his younger sister a small smile, because he knew just how the three siblings were going to escape. “But a great mind once told me... there’s always something, ” he said as he smiled down at the drowsy Violet, who merely looked up at him with a face full of fear, disorientation, and confusion.

“Get back!” Klaus cried as he focused on the villains. “This knife is very sharp!”

“You can’t kill all of us,” the Hook-Handed Man replied. “In fact, I doubt you have the courage to kill anyone.”

“It doesn’t take courage to kill someone,” Klaus replied. “It takes a severe lack of moral stamina.”

“That is a wonderful way to describe your parents,” Esme commented, smirking.

“Wait...what…?”

“But I’m afraid, your fancy words won’t save you now, you twerp.” Esme snarled mockingly.

“That’s true,” Klaus admitted. “What will save me now is a bed on  wheels used to transport hospital patients,”

Without another word, Klaus tossed the rusty knife to the floor, startling Olaf’s associates into stepping back. Esme even dropped her stiletto shoe in shock. The circle of people with a severe lack of moral stamina was spread out a little more, just for a moment, but a moment was all the Baudelaires needed. Klaus gripped Violet’s gurney tightly and began to roll his sisters off the stage. Before he had a chance to jump on the gurney himself, he felt something sharp prying at his skin.

“Oh no, you don’t,” Esme hissed as she gripped Klaus’ arm tightly. Digging her stiletto nails into his skin as roughly as he could. The young boy cried out as the vile woman smirked. Klaus desperately tried to push the gurney that held his sisters away but Esme kept him in place.

“Please…” Klaus pleaded, forgetting that Esme was like Olaf and she had absolutely no humanity left within her.

“ Please…” Esme mocked, beginning to chuckle. “ You three aren’t going anywhere!” she hissed into Klaus’ ear as he continued to struggle to get the vile woman to let him go. Olaf’s troupe just stood stupidly around unsure of what to do. While more of the crowd had decided that exiting a burning hospital was a better idea then capturing three falsely-accused orphans. Although some of the crowd did stay to help capture the kids. “Olaf and I have plans for each of you…” Esme snarled as she glanced towards a terrified Sunny who sat at the foot of Violet’s gurney. “Ain’t that right, babylaire?”

Sunny looked to the confused and struggling Violet to the terrified and struggling Klaus and then at the smirking bitch who held them in place. Sunny grimaced and shook her head, a faint attempt to get Olaf’s and Esme’s voices out of her head as she began to remember the cruel, vicious details of the villain’s plot to murder her and her siblings. Sunny began to shake where she sat as Esme gripped Klaus’ arm tighter. Klaus grimaced and groaned in pain as he glanced towards Sunny with pleading eyes. Sunny felt a knot in her stomach, knowing the last time that she had used her teeth to help someone it had ended badly for her. She remembered the muzzle, the beating, the drugging. Even the time she bit Olaf to get him to release Klaus which resulted in her own kidnapping. Fear was paralyzing her to her core. But then Sunny remembered what Olaf told her about what he had done to Klaus and she took another look at Violet, who was bruised and tied, and those factors alone shattered Sunny’s fear and replaced it with pure hatred.

“ Let’s go, brats. Maybe if you’re lucky, we’ll wait until the girl wakes up to dispose of the brats we don’t need,” Esme hissed in Klaus’ ear, loud enough for Sunny to hear. Sunny glared at the woman before shakily standing up on the gurney and running towards the vile woman with each wobbly step, she caused the gurney that held her and her older sister to shake.

Violet shook her head from side to side, faster than before but still, her movements were halted by the anesthetic. “The...earth’s...ending!” Violet shouted.

Sunny reached her destination as she bit Esme’s wrist as hard as she could causing the woman to let go of her brother and scream in pain.

“ You vile beast!” Esme hissed. “ The baby bit me!”

Sunny quickly sat down as Esme gripped her own arm. Klaus took this opportunity to turn towards the villainess, giving her a rough shove which caused her to plummet to the ground, effectively breaking the stiletto shoes that she was still wearing. Esme crashed into the ground with a growl as she reached for Klaus’ pant leg. But it was too late, she gripped onto the air because the children were already running out of the operating theater.

A cry rose from the remaining audience as the Baudelaires sped past Olaf’s associates. Esme screamed a high pitched shriek causing several people to cringe and cover their ears. “ AFTER THEM YOU IMBECILES!” she screeched to the troupe who then realized what had just happened and began running after the children in hot pursuit.

“They won't get away from me!” Hal cried as he gripped the side of Violet’s gurney.

“Hal... please.” Klaus whimpered as the gurney slowed to a halt.

“You destroyed my library!” Hal cried defensively.

Both Klaus and Sunny glanced behind them and then Sunny glanced back at the old man. Butterflies fluttered in the youngest Baudelaire’s stomach as Hal glared at her from behind his tiny glasses. Unlike Olaf’s associates, Hal was not an evil person, well as far as they know. My research says otherwise. He merely was someone who loved the Library of Records and was trying to capture the people he believed had set it on fire, and it pained Sunny to see that he thought she was an evil criminal, instead of an unlucky toddler. But she knew she did not have time to explain to Hal what had really happened. She scarcely had time to say a single word, and yet that is precisely what the youngest Baudelaire orphan did.

“Sorry,” Sunny said to Hal and gave him a big smile. Then she opened her mouth a little wider and bit Hal’s hand as gently as she could so that he would let go of the gurney without getting hurt. Which is the exact opposite thing she did to Esme.

“Ow!” Hal whined. “The baby bit me!”

“ Join the club!” Esme screamed as she began to stand up. Klaus rolled his sisters out of the door, he stopped pushing as Violet shook her head left and right trying to move the hair out of her eyes. Sunny looked at her brother with confusion but then understood what he was doing when he grabbed a mop and successfully barricaded the door to the operating theater. Klaus gripped onto his sister’s gurney once more as Olaf’s troupe reached the door and were trying to use their combined weight and strength to break Klaus’ barricade. Klaus didn’t stick around long enough to find out just how handy this idea was because he began racing down the hallway.

“Oh no no no,” Klaus cried as he took a quick glance behind him. He tried to run faster than before, he glanced down at Violet who was shaking her head still. She squinted up at him, her face was unreadable. Klaus could see that his sister’s eyes weren’t focusing. Sunny leaned closer to Violet to brush her sister’s hair from her face gently.

Klaus was running fast enough to when he reached the first corner, he skids around it rapidly, nearly losing his footing. He glanced towards the direction that he had just come from and he could see Olaf’s troupe running and chasing him.

“Don’t let them get away!” The hook-handed man yelled. “Tackle them!”

“This is like PE class all over again!” The Henchperson of Indeterminate Gender whined.

“Tell me about it!” Klaus called back to them, remembering Olaf’s cruel scheme back at Prufrock.

“Stop! Murderers!” a doctor behind the troupe called out.

“Weeeeeeeeeee,” Violet cried as she jerked her wrists up trying to clap in excitement. Violet’s wrists made a harsh, loud impact as her restraints caught her limp arms. Her eyes rounder her sockets as she looked at Klaus confused. “Where….what….am I….?” she asked, her voice ringing of utter confusion.

Klaus and Sunny glanced at one another worriedly. “Sunny, start biting through her restraints,”

Sunny merely nodded as she began to chew through the leather belt that was around her sister’s wrists and ankles.

“Attention!” announced Olaf’s voice.

“ Oh, would you just shut the fuck up! ” Klaus yelled towards the intercom as loudly as he could, utterly frustrated with Olaf’s bullshit.

“This is Mattathias, the Head of Human Resources! The murderous arsonist orphans are escaping on a gurney! Capture them at once! Also, the fire is spreading throughout the hospital! You might want to evacuate!”

“Hurry!” Sunny cried. As Sunny broke through one of Violet’s restraints, the two Baudelaires watched happily as Violet slowly lifted up her wrist, but their happiness soon turned into horror when they realized she was unable to hold it up for too long and the two younger siblings watched as their older sister’s wrist fell limp on the side of the gurney, dangling lifelessly.

“I’m going as fast as I can!” Klaus cried, trying to increase his speed. Klaus steered the gurney and ran as fast as his legs could carry him while Sunny held on for dear life as she worked on freeing her older sister. “ Violet, wake up, please! ” he cried, his voice thick with tears of desperation. “ I can’t do this…”

“I’m...try...ing….” Violet muttered, squinting around her. The anesthesia made everything seem faint and foggy, and it was almost impossible for her to speak, let alone move.

“ Try harder, please.” Klaus pleased. “You can help push.”

Sunny just glanced at him with bewilderment. “She can’t push,” Sunny told her brother, Klaus merely rolled his eyes and ignored Sunny.

“Violet…” Klaus called out as he continued to push the gurney. Violet’s eyes flickered open and closed. “The hospital’s on fire…and I don’t know what to do!” he cried in a panicky voice.

Violet only smiled a goofy smile up at him. “Y-you...came...back...for...for me?” her own voice was drowsy from the anesthetic but she was choking on her own tears.

Klaus and Sunny looked at one another and then at her. “Why wouldn’t we?” Klaus asked.

“Sister!” Sunny yelled.

Violet, still a bit woozy from the anesthetic, slowly glanced around as Sunny freed her other wrist, she put her gentle, limp hand on Sunny’s head, smiling at her. Tears falling from her eyes. “...you...you both...came back,” she said happily, her demeanor immediately changing to sadness. “B-b-but...but...O-Olaf...s-s-said you...left…” she cried, trying to use her limp hand to wipe away her tears, but every attempt was slow and never truly wiped away the entire tear. Sunny smiled at her big sister and leaned closer to wipe Violet’s tears from her eyes.

“Fuck what Olaf said!” Klaus shouted. “We would never leave you!” Klaus felt a little insulted that Violet would believe Olaf when he had told this blatant lie but he also could fault Violet, who knew what she had been through and for how long she had been drugged. Maybe she is only believing what Olaf had said because she was high on the knockout drugs. Klaus was cautiously running through the burning hospital, still panicked beyond belief. He understood why Violet was a bit distracted but he would much rather have this discussion when he and both of his sisters were out of danger.  

Sunny smiled down at her sister. “Ohana.” the toddler stated and Klaus knew that this needed no translation even to a very disoriented Violet. Violet smiled at her baby sister as Sunny pulled Violet’s locket from around her neck. “We love you, too,” Sunny said, as she put the locket around Violet’s neck gently.

The troupe was hot on their tails as the children passed another group of confused nurses and doctors. “Those must be those murderers Mattathias was talking about!” one cried. “Let’s help those other doctors capture them!”

Klaus steered the gurney around a corner, as several more hospital staff joined the chase. “Violet...we’re in trouble…”

“I...get...that…”

“Wake up,” Klaus begged Violet, who was looking around her in a confused way. “ Please, Violet!”

“Door!” Sunny shrieked as Violet limply grabbed Sunny in hopes of shielding her of any danger as Klaus pushed the gurney through the doors. Once the children were through the doors, Klaus was about to go down a specific hallway until the children caught a glimpse of bright orange flames.

“...what’s...that…?” Violet asked confused, gazing towards the bright orange flames until she couldn’t see them anymore. Sunny took this time to carefully crawl down to Violet’s ankles where she could see her sister had also been restrained. Sunny quickly began chewing through a third of Violet’s restraints until she heard a snap! Of the leather fabric. Sunny smiled as she crawled to the other side and began working on the final restraint.

“I told you there’s a fire and I need your help to escape,” Klaus pleaded.

“F...fire?” Violet repeated. “...where?”

“Here. In the hospital,”

“W-why...are...are we...in...a hos...pital?”

“That’s a rather long and depressing story,” Klaus said. “It’s also not important…” Klaus smiled at Sunny when he saw her sit up and give him two thumbs up, her way of indicating that Violet was no longer restrained.

“Get back here you brats!” the bald man yelled.

Klaus continued to push the gurney that carried his sisters as he watched frantic hospital staff run right past him, more concerned about finding safety than capturing the children. Klaus pushed every empty gurney he passed behind him in hopes of slowing down the angry mob.

“Stairs!” Sunny yelled, pointing to a staircase. Klaus turned the gurney in the direction his sister indicated. Sunny’s eyes widened with fear once she realized what her brother might be doing. She quickly crawled back closer to Violet and him, preferring to be on that side of the gurney if she was right about what Klaus was planning.

“Sunny, hold on,” Klaus cried as he jumped on to the back of the gurney holding on for dear life as Sunny took the opportunity of grabbing onto both Klaus and Violet, her way of attempting to keep them from falling off. The children began to roll down the stairs, bouncing up and down with each step. It was a fast, slippery ride that reminded Klaus of playgrounds that he would visit with his parents when he was younger. At a curve in the staircase, Klaus scraped his shoes against the floor to stop the gurney, and then leaned over to look at one of the hospitals’ confusing maps.

“I’m trying to figure out if we should go through that door,” he said, pointing at a door marked ‘Ward for People with Nasty Rashes’. “Or continue down the staircase.”

“We can’t go down,” Sunny cried as she pointed a finger downward. Klaus looked and even Violet managed to focus enough to look down where Sunny was pointing. Down the staircase, just past the next landing, was a flickering, orange glow, as if the sun was rising out of the hospital basement, and a few wisps of dark black smoke were curling up the staircase like the tentacles of some ghostly animal. It was an eerie sight that had haunted the two younger Baudelaires in their dreams, ever since that fateful day at the beach when all their trouble began and had only haunted Violet since she had been sent to Prufrock. For a moment, the three children were unable to do anything but stare down at the orange glow and the tentacles of smoke, and think about all they had lost because of what they were looking at.

“Fire,” Violet cried faintly.

“Yes,” Klaus sighed. “It’s spreading up this staircase. We’ve got to turn and go back upstairs.”

From upstairs, the orphans listened to Olaf’s troupe members arguing.

“No up,” Sunny said.

“I can see that,” Klaus replied. He gave a low growl as he turned his sisters’ gurney towards the door marked ‘Ward for People with Nasty Rashes’, having made this rash decision, Klaus turned the gurney and wheeled it through the door, just as his favorite person began speaking over the intercom.

“Fuck you!” Sunny screamed at the intercom.

“This is Mattathias!” he said hurriedly. “All associates of mine, continue to search for those children! Everyone else, gather in front of the hospital! Either we will catch those murderous orphans as they escape, or like their pesky parents ... they’ll be burned to a crisp! ” The children shuddered as they all listened to the unhinged madman laugh into the intercom microphone once more. Laughing as though he was a Disney villain who had just momentarily won against the protagonist.

Klaus and Sunny looked at each other worriedly when they watched Violet shudder. She slowly wrapped her arms around herself. “I-I...I don’t….l-like...fires,” she admitted softly, not looking either sibling in the eye. “...I...lost...m-my....dad...in a….f-f-fire,”

Klaus frowned as Sunny merely nodded. “We know. We did, too, sis.” Klaus cried.

“Have each other,” Sunny explained.

The children’s eyes got wide when they heard Olaf’s troupe members once again approaching. Klaus rolled his sisters’ gurney into the Ward for People with Nasty Rashes and saw that Mattathias was right. The gurney was racing down a hallway, and the children could see another orange glow at the far end of it.

“...no…” Violet whimpered. The children heard another brief argument behind them as Olaf’s associates lumbered down the stairs. The three siblings were trapped in the middle of a hallway that led only to a fiery death or Olaf’s clutches.

Klaus started breathing heavily as he was trying to weigh his options in his head. While Violet wrapped her limp arms around Sunny. Klaus leaned down and stopped the gurney. “We’d better hide,” he said, jumping to the floor. “It’s too dangerous to be rolling around like this.”

“Where?” Sunny asked desperately, as Klaus helped Violet sit up on the gurney. Klaus quickly took Sunny from Violet’s arm and set her on the ground.

“Someplace close by,” Klaus said, grabbing Violet’s arm. “The anesthesia is still wearing off, so Violet can’t walk too far.”

“I’ll...try…” Violet murmured, stepping unsteadily off the gurney and leaning onto Klaus. Sunny glanced around nervously for a hiding place. Her eyes quickly caught a door that read ‘Supply Closet’ and even if Sunny Baudelaire wasn’t the best reader, she still pointed her small finger towards the door.

“Over there!” Sunny cried as she raced towards the supply closet and opening it up.

“I guess so,” Klaus said doubtfully as he leaned Violet up against the wall. Violet began sliding down the moment that she was left to stand on her own. Klaus quickly turned towards the now empty gurney that Olaf had used to restrain his older sister. He gripped the gurney and waited until he saw the angry mob running towards him. He pushed the gurney with all his might towards the crowd that was trying to help Olaf capture the children. The gurney hit Brandon with enough force that it caused him to fall to the ground, wincing at the pain that had been afflicted on him.

Klaus hurried back to his older sister, who was practically napping on the floor. “Come on, Vi. This way. This way.”  He dragged the limp Violet towards the supply closet as he gripped the doorknob with one hand while balancing his sister with the other. “I don’t know what we can do in a supply closet, but at least it’ll hide us for a few moments.”

Klaus helped his older sister through the door, immediately slamming the door behind him and locking it. Except for a small window in the corner, the closet looked identical to the one where Klaus and Sunny had hidden to decipher the anagram in the patient list. It was a small room, with only one flickering lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, and there were rows of white medical coats hanging from hooks, a rusty sink, huge cans of alphabet soup, cases of surgical tubing, and small boxes of rubber bands, and a small chair. But as the two younger Baudelaires looked at these supplies, they did not look like devices for translating anagrams or impersonating medical professionals. Klaus and Sunny looked at all these objects, and then at their older sister. To their relief, Violet’s face was a bit less pale, and her eyes were a bit less confused, which was a very good sign. The eldest of the three orphans needed to be as awake as she could be, because the items in the closet were looking less and less like supplies and more and more like materials for an invention.

You see, when Violet Snicket was five years old, she won her first invention contest with an automatic rolling pin she’d fashioned out of a broken window shade and six pairs of roller skates. As the judges placed the gold medal around her neck, she could remember her father saying, “I bet you could invent something with both hands tied behind your back.” and the judges agreed while Violet smiled proudly. She knew, of course, that her father and the judges did not mean that they were going to tie her hands behind her back and watch as she tried to invent something, but merely that she was so skilled at inventing that she could probably build something even with substantial interference, a phrase which here means ‘something getting in her way’.

The young Snicket girl had proved the judges and her father right dozens of times, of course, inventing everything from a lockpick to inventing a way to get herself and her younger brother out of jail back in the Village of Fowl Devotees with the substantial interference of being in a hurry and not having the right tools. But violet thought she had never had as much substantial interference as the lingering effects of anesthesia as she squinted at the objects in the supply closet and tried to focus on what her siblings were saying.

“Violet,” Klaus cried worriedly, watching Violet shakily push her hair behind her ear. Klaus couldn’t tell if she was shaking from anxiety and fear or if she was cold seeing that she was now barefoot and all she wore was a hospital gown. “I know that the anesthesia hasn’t completely worn off, but we need you to try to invent something...I can’t...last time I...I invented...something...he…he...” Klaus said as he closed his eyes slowly beginning to shake, placing his arms across his chest.

“Shhhh…” Violet cooed for longer than she wanted because her brain felt like mush and she forgot what she was focusing on. “...I...know,” she said faintly, rubbing her eyes with her hands slowly in a desperate attempt to focus her eyes.

“We’ll...we will...help you all we can,” Klaus said as he slowly began to calm down.

“My teeth are at…” Sunny chimed in, showing off her sharp teeth. “At your service.”

“Just tell us what we need to do,” Klaus cried.

“T-tell me….again...wha...what’s hap...pen...ning?” Violet asked, her head spinning as she slowly slid down the wall she was leaning on. Klaus ran to Violet’s aide hurriedly standing her up and sitting her down in the chair that Sunny had pushed towards her older siblings.

“The fire is consuming this entire hospital, and we have to get out of here quickly!,” he cried desperately as the henchperson of Indeterminate Gender, Brandon, and a few others from the angry mob began to knock on the door. “Oh and not only is Olaf after us, but another angry mob who thinks we’re criminals are right outside this door.”

Klaus ran towards the door to push his back against it, hoping to keep the mob out of the supply closet. He was well aware that he had already locked the door but he felt more secure pressing his weight against the door.

“Open up in there!” the Henchperson cried as the knocking ceased.

“What? No!” Klaus cried, giving an incredulous face towards the mere thought of surrendering now.

“Please,” the henchperson cried as they began to knock on the door once.

“ Violet! ” Klaus cried. “Right now would be a really good time for one of your plans!”

“Brain blast!” Sunny cried desperately.

“Wait, I thought I was Jimmy Neutron,” Klaus asked confused.

“Eh, you both are,” Sunny replied, with a shrug of her shoulders.

Violet slowly leaned back in the chair, pointing a limp finger at the window. “Open...the window,” she directed as Klaus gazed from the locked door to the window. He sighed as he ran towards the window opening it.

“Now what?” he asked.

“H-how...high...are we?” Violet asked, giggling slightly.

The middle orphan glanced outside. “It looks like we’re on the third floor, maybe the fourth. That’s probably around thirty or forty feet, I think,” he responded. “There’s so much smoke in the air, so it’s hard to tell. We’re not so high up, but we’re too high to jump.”

“Climb?” Sunny asked.

“There’s an intercom speaker right below us,” Klaus explained. “I suppose we could hang on to that and climb down to the bushes below, but we’d be climbing in front of a huge crowd…”

He turned to Violet, whose eyes were slowly closing, he could tell by how she strained her face that she was desperately trying to keep her eyes open. Klaus looked to Sunny worriedly. “ Vi, please,” he cried. “I hate to pressure you...but...I can’t do this without you,” he felt tears forming in his eyes.

“Can you invent something that can make us fly?” Sunny asked slowly.

Violet frowned and closed her eyes, slowly shaking her head. “S-sorry...no...fairy...dust here…” she cried.

“Violet?” Klaus called out, after a moment of watching his sister keep her eyes closed. “You’re not falling asleep, are you?” he asked gently but frantically.

“No,” she replied. “I’m...thinking.” she sighed. “We...need...to distract...the crowd...before...we...climb down,”

The two younger orphans nodded as Violet pointed a finger towards her brother. “Open...those...boxes...of rubber...bands. String them...together...to make...a cord,”

Klaus looked down and watched the volunteers giving evacuated hospital patients balloons. “But how will that distract the crowd?”

“I...don’t...know…” Violet admitted and looked to the floor. “I...I can’t...do this,”

Klaus and Sunny’s eyes widened when Violet said that. “Yes you can,” Sunny cried.

“I’m having...trouble...focusing...my...inventing...skills,” she admitted as her eyes filled to the brim with tears. “I’m...sorry,” Violet shakily tried to reach into her pocket until she realized she didn’t have any pockets. She began to shudder as she sat. Remembering her time as Olaf’s captive and how he had forced her to change from her overalls to the hospital gown. “He...he...he...he took my...last...ribbon…”

“Help,” Sunny said, as she walked over to her big sister.

“Don’t cry for help, Sunny,” Klaus said miserably. “No one will help us,”

“Help,” Sunny insisted as the youngest orphan grabbed a hold of one of the medical coats that hung on the coat rack. She opened her mouth wide and she bit down on the fabric, ripping a small strip off the coat with her teeth. Then she held up the strip of white cloth and handed it to Violet. “Ribbon,” Sunny explained as Violet gave her baby sister a weary smile. With unsteady fingers, the eldest orphan tied her hair up to keep it out of her eyes, using the thin strip of fabric instead of her hair ribbon. She closed her eyes again, and then slowly nodded.

“I know...it’s silly…” she admitted. “But...it helps,” she placed a shaky, pale hand on Sunny’s head. “Thank...you...Sunny,”

The eldest orphan sighed as she strained her face still trying to overcome the effects of the anesthetic. “Klaus...get to work...on the...rubber...bands. S-Sunny...can you open….one of these...soup cans?”

“Yes, I opened some,” Sunny began. “Earlier to help Klaus.”

Violet smiled at the toddler. With her hair up in a ribbon, even if the ribbon was spurious, her voice sounded a bit stronger and more confident than it had before, although both siblings could tell she was still disoriented. “We need...an...empty...can...asap,”

The three siblings worked quickly. Klaus opened a box of rubber bands and began tying them together using the Devil’s Tongue Knot. Sunny began to gnaw at the top of a can of soup and Violet slowly scooted her chair towards the small sink and splashed water in her face to try to make herself as alert as possible. Finally, Klaus had a long cord of rubber bands curled at his feet like a snake, Sunny had taken the top off a can of soup and was quickly pouring the contents of the can down the sink, and Violet was staring anxiously at the bottom of the closet door, from which a very thin wisp of smoke was crawling through.

“The fire...is...getting...closer,” she alerted her siblings. Even with the fire closing in on the orphans, the crowd outside the door hadn’t left and continued to bang on the door. Klaus imagined if it were any other henchperson who had found the children, that door would be torn off the hinges by now so Klaus was happy that it was the Henchperson of Indeterminate Gender who was leading the angry mob.

“The cord is all ready,” Klaus cried. Violet merely frowned.

“Not...long...enough,” she cried, looking around.

“Tube?” Sunny asked as she pulled a long piece of surgical tubing out of a bin that was placed on a few of the shelves in the supply closet.

Violet merely nodded. “It’ll...have...to...do. Klaus...tie...our cord...and the...tube...together,”

Klaus looked at his sister confused but followed her orders. “Are you sure you tied your hair tight enough? How can we distract a crowd with an empty soup can?”

“Incompetent,” Sunny chimed in which meant, “I mean I know they are all incompetent and unhelpful as Mr. Poe but I don’t think they are all stupid enough to be distracted by an empty soup can.”

Klaus quickly translated for Violet. Violet gave a light giggle. “It’s not...an...empty...soup can. Well...not...anymore,” she explained slowly. “Now...it’s...a spurious...intercom. Sunny...poke one...hole in….the bottom...of the can,”

“Wha?” Sunny replied in complete and utter confusion, but she did as her elder sister asked because Sunny trusted Violet wholeheartedly even if she didn’t understand the point. Sunny knew that Violet’s inventive skills had helped save her, herself, and their brother before. So she quickly poked a hole in the bottom of the can using her sharpest tooth.

“Now...Sunny and I...are going...to hold...this near...the window…” she explained. “But we...must...make sure...the crowd...doesn’t see it…”

“I don’t follow,”

“The crowd...has to...think your...voice...is coming...from the...intercom.”

“My voice?”

“I...can’t...I’m too...drowsy...and I...sound...nothing...like...Olaf,”

“I don’t either!” Klaus cried defensively.

Violet put a limp hand on Klaus’ shoulder. “I know...but...the crowd...will know...something’s...up...if I do...it,”

Klaus sighed but nodded his head. Violet and Sunny held the empty can near the window, and Klaus leaned in and stuck his head inside it as if it were a mask. The middle orphan took a deep breath to gather his courage, and then he began to speak. From inside the can his voice sounded scratchy and faint as if he was talking with a piece of aluminum foil over his mouth, which was precisely how Violet wanted him to sound.

“Attention!” Klaus announced. “This is Mattathias Medical-School, head of Human Resources.” he rolled his eyes as he continued. “The murderous orphans have been spotted in the unfinished wing of the hospital.” Violet smiled as she and Sunny gave him a thumbs up. “We require everyone’s assistance in making sure they do not escape. Please rush over there right away. That is all!”

Klaus pulled his head out of the can and looked at his sisters. “Do you think it worked?”

Sunny opened her mouth to answer but she was interrupted by the voice of Brandon Spats. “Did you hear that?” the children heard him say. “The criminals are over in the unfinished wing of the hospital! Come on, everyone.”

“Maybe some of us should stay here at the front entrance, just in case,” the children heard Hal suggest.

Klaus sighed as he stuck his head back into the can that his sisters were holding. “Attention! This is Mattathias! No one should stay at the front entrance of the hospital! It’s too dangerous! Proceed at once to the unfinished wing. That is all.”

The three children snuck glances outside the window as the crowd slowly began to walk away from the front of Heimlich Hospital.

“It...worked,” Violet cried in disbelief. “We...fooled them…”

“We’re as good at tricking people as Olaf is,” Klaus commented, a frown forming on his face. “And at disguises...we fooled everyone but him,”

“Anagrams,” Sunny added.

“And lying...to...people,” Violet cried, thinking of Hal, the shopkeeper at Last Chance General Store and all the Volunteers Fighting Disease.

Klaus sighed. “Maybe we’re becoming villains after all,”

“No!” Sunny shrieked. “Don’t say that.”

“We’re...not...villains…” Violet countered, even if her gut feeling was saying something completely different. “We had...to do...tricky...things...in order...to save...our lives.”

“Olaf has to do tricky things,” Klaus countered. “To save his life,”

“Different,” Sunny argued.

Violet merely frowned. “Maybe...Klaus...is right. Maybe...it’s...not...different.” Violet said sadly. “Maybe…”

Violet was interrupted by the Henchperson of Indeterminate Gender sighing angrily and now using a fire extinguisher to break down the door that separated them from the three terrified and morally grey orphans.

“We can discuss this later,” Klaus said. “We have to get the fuck out of here!”

“Climb?” Sunny asked, looking at the rubber bands and surgical tubing.

“We’re not...climbing...we’re...bouncing,” Violet explained.

“What!?” Klaus cried.

“Bounce?” Sunny asked doubtfully.

Violet merely nodded. “Klaus, tie...our rope...to this pipe,” she said, pointing to a pipe that was located right next to the door. “This way...it breaks...our fall,”

“Is this safe? ” Klaus asked, taking another look out the window and feeling anxious about his sister’s plan and how high they are.

“Plenty...of...people...bounce from...high...places on long...rubbery...cords...for fun,” violet said. “So...we can...do it...to escape,”

Klaus sighed. “I don’t know...this sounds risky,” he cried. “For one...I doubt the cord is long enough.”

“Look...it is... risky,” Violet admitted. “But...not...as risky...as a fire,”

“Or Olaf,” Sunny added nervously.

The Henchperson of Indeterminate Gender continued to pound on the door of the supply closet with the fire extinguisher. Black smoke was beginning to pour through the crack as if the henchperson was pouring ink into the closet. Even the air outside was unsettling and filled with smoke. Klaus sighed and hurriedly tied the cord to the pipe and then tugged on it to make sure it was secure.

“Okay...who’s...going...first?” Violet asked drowsily. She was leaning against the wall again since she didn’t have all the feeling in her legs back yet.

“First?” Sunny asked, confused.

Klaus merely gave her a look of utter disbelief.

“Fine...you two...are nervous.” Violet cried, shrugging her shoulders. Assuming that her siblings’ issue was the invention’s safety and not her insisting they take turns. “I...invented...it, so I’d...better...test it.”

“No,” Klaus said simply.

“Then...go first,” Violet said.

“We’re not taking turns, Vi!”

“Together,” Sunny explained.

“If we...all...go down...together,” Violet said. “I’m...not sure...the cord will...hold,”

“Tough shit,” Klaus replied.

“Fine,” Violet cried. “ Sunny, will...go first...then,”

Klaus growled and rushed over to Violet, seemingly irritated with his older sister. He grabbed her harshly by the shoulders, she fell slightly in his grasp which made him instantly regret rushing up to her. But he knew he had to drive a point across. He gripped her shoulders and shook her a bit. The way she was limp from the anesthetic made it look like Klaus was harshly shaking his sister but Sunny knew that wasn’t the case. “ Listen to me very carefully, Vi!” he hissed. “ There is no first! We are not separating ever again!” Violet stared back at him, he could still tell that she couldn’t entirely focus on anything. “ This family sticks together!” he yelled causing her to start to tear up. “ We are not splitting up!”

“But...but...b-but…” she sniffled. “Snickers...Snick...S-Snickets...take care...of...their own.” she reasoned as she put a shaky hand on her locket.

Sunny merely looked up at Violet. “So do Baudelaires.”

Violet only shook her head. “B-but...Olaf...Olaf said…”

Klaus jumped when it sounded like the Henchperson was finally creating damage against the door. “Goddammit, Vi! Fuck Olaf! I hope he fucking burns to death in this fire!” Klaus cried as he released his grip on sister but kept a gentle hand on her shoulder. “ Especially if he hurt you.” Klaus frowned as he said it, purposely emphasizing the word ‘hurt’ to try to hint at Olaf’s disgusting, vile behavior towards Violet that was different from his behavior towards Klaus and Sunny. Violet looked towards Klaus and then to Sunny, eventually frowning and softly shaking her head and giving a small shrug in response.

There was an uncomfortable silence between the three siblings until Violet turned towards both Klaus and Sunny. “It won’t...support all...of us,” she explained.

“We’re not leaving anyone behind,” he said firmly. “Not this time. Either we all escape, or none of us do.”

“But if...none of...us do,” Violet said tearfully. “Then there...won’t be...anyone left...Olaf will...have won.”

Klaus shook his head as he reached into his pockets and pulled out one of the old photographs that he and Sunny had retrieved back when they lived at their Aunt Josephine’s. Klaus unfolded it and his sisters could see it was a photograph taken some years before Violet was even born. In the middle of the photograph, just like the one hidden in the depths of Lemony Snicket’s wallet, stood three people. All smiling and holding each other's hands. Klaus pointed first towards the tall, skinny man with glasses, then he pointed to a brown-haired woman who wore a fierce smile as she held the hands of the men she loved, and then finally he pointed to a man who wore a frown on his face, and a fedora and trenchcoat in hopes of masking his identity. “Jacques Snicket...your uncle...said there was a survivor of a recent fire ,” Klaus explained, his voice thick with tears.

Violet’s eyes widened. “The film...do you...still...have it?”

“No...we had to give it to Esme to save you,” he explained. “But that’s not important.” he looked from his little sister to his big sister. “We have to survive and find them. All of us . We all deserve to see who the survivor is. We all deserve that happy ending we’ve been wanting for a while now.” the middle orphan began to tear up. As his guilt began to surface. “and I’d rather die than lose either one of my sisters... again.” The bookworm quickly wiped away a few of his tears. “I can’t...I won’t let him take either of you, again.”

Klaus looked down at Sunny and then to Violet. She stood shakily before him in a mere hospital gown and she was bruised. Her cheeks were still red, her wrists and ankles had severe chafing from her struggling against her restraints, that they were either raw or simply pink. “I’m so sorry, Violet.” Klaus cried.

“Not your fault,” Sunny said as she watched Violet struggle to speak.

He looked down at Sunny. “I’m so sorry to you, too, Sunny. He only got you because you were protecting me. You both...were protecting me when he took you . ” he cried.

“Not your fault,” Sunny reassured. “I’d do it again...in a heartbeat,”

Violet nodded slowly in agreement.

The three siblings were tearing up as the Henchperson created the beginnings of a hole in the wall.

“Go time,” Sunny cried. “Escape now. Feelings later.”

“Agreed,” the two older siblings cried, although Violet sounded dizzier than Klaus.

Klaus picked up Sunny as Violet held the surgical tubing up so Klaus could spin himself and Sunny, effectively wrapping the tubing around the two siblings. He glanced towards Violet. “ We are going to survive...and find out what happened. We’ll find the survivor and either bring Olaf to jail...or kill him.”

“Down for murder,” Sunny cried.

“I...still...think if...we take...turns,” Violet protested frantically. “There’s a...better chance...that one of us...will survive.”

“All or nothing,” Sunny cried.

“We’re not leaving anyone behind,” Klaus said firmly. “ That’s what makes us different from Olaf and Esme.”

“ Ohana,” Sunny cried as she reached out and pulled the front of Violet’s hospital gown. The eldest orphan was still so limp that her minuscule effort succeeded and Violet now leaned on her and their brother. “ Just us,” she told Violet as Klaus wrapped a tight arm around both of his sisters as he slowly spun Violet around with them as he inched towards the window.

Violet didn’t fight. She didn’t struggle. She leaned in closer to her siblings feeling their warmth against her cold arms. “You’re right,” she said finally.

The hole in the door got even bigger as Violet shrieked.

“Don’t worry, Vi. We’re not leaving you behind again,” Klaus told her. Violet nodded as she did her best to wrap her arms tightly around her two younger siblings.

“I’ll...hold...on...to...you,” she explained.

“Same here,” Sunny cried as she wrapped her tiny arm around the arm that carried her and forced her tiny hand into her sister’s.

As Klaus carried his sisters to the window, he looked down once more, immediately regretting his decision. He glanced at the rubber band cord that Violet had him make and then at the surgical tubing he had tied it, too, and had now wrapped a good chunk of it around the three siblings.

“If it’s forty feet, we won’t make it.” He predicted.

“If it’s...say...maybe...thirty…,’ Violet began as she followed Klaus’ gaze down.

“We might,” Sunny shrugged.

The three children carefully made their way out of the window onto the small platform that lay alongside the window.

The huddled siblings barely fit on the ledge as the siblings looked down. This was at the same time as Olaf’s henchperson had successfully broken a hole in the door.

“Here I am, Nurse Lucafont.” the Henchperson called inside the empty supply closet. Utterly confused as to how the supply closet was empty. The children could hear the henchperson’s voice and look at one another nervously and then looked back down.

“I’m scared,” Violet admitted drowsily.

“I’m frightened,” Klaus cried.

“Sheer terror,” Sunny chimed.

As if they were thinking the exact same thing, each of the siblings gripped onto their two siblings as tight as they could. Violet managed to shout, “Hold on tight!” as the three siblings leaped out of the window of Heimlich Hospital.

STOP!

I am alone this evening, and I am alone because of several cruel twists of fate, a phrase which here means that nothing has happened the way I thought it should. Once I was a content individual, with a comfortable home, loving family that I loved very much, and a plethora of bedtime stories that were too strange to have been true...but...all of those things have been taken away from me, and now the only trace I have of those happy days are the photos I store in my pockets. As I sit in this very tiny room, printing these words with this very large pen, I feel as if our lives have been nothing but some dismal play, and that the playwright who invented these cruel twists of fate is somewhere far above me, laughing and laughing at their creation. This is not a pleasant way to feel, but this is how my story goes.

Now, despite my extensive research and my associate’s knowledge of abandoned VFD libraries, there are many things in this world that I do not know. I do not know how butterflies get out of their cocoons without damaging their wings. I do not know why anyone would boil vegetables when roasting them is tastier. I do not know how to make olive oil, and I do not know why dogs bark before an earthquake, and I do not know why some people voluntarily choose to climb mountains where it is freezing and difficult to breathe or live in the suburbs, where the coffee is watery and all of the houses look alike. I do not know why people start or join cults and I do not know how some people let revenge consume them to a highly unhealthy degree. I do not know how some people are brave enough to follow their passion in a world set out to destroy them. And I sadly, do not know how to stop the disastrous domino effect or fucked up twists of fates that seem to be plaguing several lives.

As such, I do not know where Violet Snicket or the Baudelaires are now, or if they are safe or if they are even still alive. But there are some things that I do know, thanks to the extensive research I’ve done investigating these cases, and one of them is that the window of the supply closet in the Ward for People with Nasty Rashes of Heimlich Hospital was not thirty or forty feet off the ground, as Klaus had guessed.

It’s twenty, which is exactly one foot higher than the length of the cord, so when the children leaped into the smoky air, clinging to each other for dear life, Violet’s invention worked perfectly. Like a yo-yo, the children bounced gently up and down, brushing their feet against one of the bushes planted in front of the hospital, and after a few bounces, Sunny released her grip on her siblings, although they kept theirs, and chewed through the elastic surgical tubing, biting through it just in time to smack Olaf’s henchperson in the face as they looked out the window. When the surgical tubing broke, Violet and Klaus fell the rest of the way to solid ground, Violet nearly toppling over. Klaus quickly put Sunny down and focused more of his attention and strength on Violet.

“We...made...it,” Violet cried.

“It was a close call,” Klaus agreed.

“But we survived,” Sunny argued.

The three siblings looked behind them at the hospital and saw just how close of a call it had been. The building looked like a fiery ghost, especially more so in a few places, with great bursts of flame coming from the windows, and oceans of smoke pouring from great gaping holes in the walls. The children could hear glass shattering as the windows burned away, and the crackle of wood as the floors began to fall through in some areas of the hospital. It occurred to the three children that their own homes must have looked like this on the day it burned down, and the three siblings stepped back from the burning building and huddled together as the air grew thick with ashes and smoke, obscuring the hospital from view.

“Where can we go?” Sunny asked.

“I don’t know. But any minute now someone’s bound to recognize us or realize that we’re not in the unfinished half of the hospital.” Klaus cried.

Klaus, with one hand holding Sunny’s and the other dragging Violet, began to walk away from the forming crowd. As more and more people pushed passed the children, rushing out of the hospital.

“Act casual,” Klaus told his sisters, noticing that Violet was adding more and more of her weight on to him.

“I’m...trying.;.”

Klaus glanced towards an empty ambulance. He tried to drag his sisters towards it in hopes of hot wiring it and driving far away from Olaf. But EMTs had beat him to it and began loading patients aboard.

“Keep your eyes open for those murderous brats!” one nurse yelled.

“I’ll find them. I know I will.” a volunteer fighting disease assured.

Klaus heard this and redirected himself and his sisters as he hurried behind a small half wall behind a few bushes in the front of the hospital. He was thankful for all the smoke in the air, it made this pitiful hiding place better.

“Stay down,” Klaus explained. “In The Encyclopedia of Escaping Arson, the author wrote that there’s more oxygen closer to the ground, so we can breathe more easily down here. But we need to get to some kind of shelter right away.”

Violet and Sunny scooted as close to Klaus as they could. Hoping to shrink themselves. Klaus and Violet both edged their heads up, Violet slowly beginning to focus better, as they gazed around for any way to escape. Klaus looked towards the left and Violet glanced towards the right, the smoky air was making it a bit difficult to see everything clearly.

“Where is there shelter?” Sunny asked. “Hospital is only building for miles.”

“...and it’s burning to the ground…” Klaus cried sadly.

“You!” a voice called out in the smoke. The three orphans froze. They did not freeze because a random passerby had recognized them and was pointing them out. They froze because the voice that had called out from the smoke was a voice all three siblings heard in their nightmares. Klaus gripped tightly to both of his sisters as Sunny let out a whimper and Violet let out a soft squeal as she and Klaus ducked their heads back down.

“He...didn’t...see...us, right?”

“I hope not,” Klaus cried.

The three children stayed as low as they could as they listened in on the madman’s rage.

“You!” Olaf called again, this time slamming his hand on the hood of his car. “Hooks for hands!” Olaf barked. “This way!”

The siblings breathed a quick sigh of relief, realizing that Olaf had not been referring to them but instead one of his henchpeople. With this newfound knowledge, Sunny slowly crawled over Klaus and Violet to etch her head around the edge of the half wall. Where only one eye could see Olaf while the other’s vision was obstructed.

Sunny watched a long, black shape emerge from the smoky air, and she could see it was an automobile, pulling up in front of the hospital. Not too far from the children. An automobile is somewhat like a shelter, but the siblings froze on the ground and dared not crawl an inch farther toward that car.

“Hurry up Esme!” Olaf yelled. “Hurry up! Or I’ll leave you behind!”

“We’re coming, darling!” Esme cried out as she hurried towards the car.

“Can you see the car in the smoke?” he asked.

“Yes, darling,” she replied. “Open the trunk I’ll throw the costumes in.” The three children held their breath as they listened to her odd footsteps as she walked right passed them, towards and around Olaf’s car.

“Oh, alright,” Olaf sighed, and Sunny watched in silence as the tall figure of her enemy stepped out of his vehicle.

“Wait up, Olaf!” the bald man yelled.

“You fool! I told you to call me Mattathias until we leave the hospital grounds!” Olaf growled as he opened the trunk. He watched as Esme threw the costumes in. He merely glared at her.

“What?”

He sighed angrily. “You lost my pet and the Baudelaires!” She opened her mouth to argue but he merely shook his head. “ But... it’s not only that! ” he yelled as he punched the roof of his car angrily. Esme rolled her eyes dismissively as she rounded the car and took her seat next to Olaf.

“You know this is horrific!” Esme whined. “We never found the sugar bowl after that stupid librarian told me it would be here!”

Olaf rolled his eyes at the mention of the sugar bowl.

“It’s worse than that,” he hissed.

“I know, and the bratty orphans escaped again,” Esme said rolling her eyes.

“Oh, it’s very, very worse than that,” he hissed in annoyance.

Esme looked to Olaf confused. Olaf slowly turned towards Esme as he took a deep breath, grasping the steering wheel tightly. “ There may be a survivor of a recent fire,” he hissed as her eyes widened, and then her expression shifted to match her fiery glare as she thought of the woman who had stolen everything from her.

“ Beatrice…!” Esme cried through gritted teeth.

Violet gasped as she heard sirens approaching. “The...police...and fire...fight...ers are here,”

“If they already thought we were murderous kidnappers, now they’ll think we’re all arsonists.” Klaus reasoned. “We need an escape,”

“Do...you...do you trust...me?” Violet asked after a moment of staring hard at Olaf’s trunk. The trunk was opened to where Violet could see that the lid of the trunk was peppered with tiny holes, bullet holes, it looked like, undoubtedly from being pursued by the police.

“...yeah?” Klaus answered back hesitantly. It was no lie that he trusted Violet with his life but her asking worried him for a number of reasons.

Violet leaned as close as she could to her siblings so she could whisper to them without being heard. “We’ve...got...to go in...there,” she said.

“Where?” Klaus whispered in reply.

“We... need to get...in O-Olaf’s...tr-trunk,” Violet reasoned.

“ Wha?!” Sunny shrieked in a horrified whisper.

“Are you still that high off the knock out drugs?” Klaus asked as he and Sunny glanced at one another in disbelief as if there was no way Violet had suggested for the three siblings to voluntarily stuff themselves into Olaf’s trunk.

“Oh yeah,” Violet said giggling. She placed her hand in Klaus’ hair. “You’ve got...rainbow... hair.” She gently slapped Klaus’ face. “Like...a clown,”

“I can’t tell if you’re joking or serious,” Klaus replied in an annoyed tone.

“Doesn’t....matter. But that’s not...the point. We...have to avoid...getting cap...tured,” she said, her eyes rolling back slightly in her head. “and...find out...who the...survivor...is.”

“Getting in that trunk is getting captured!” Klaus argued.

Olaf took a deep breath and then glanced at one of his henchmen who stood outside of the car, looking around aimlessly. “Get in this car this instant! I’m leaving on the count of three! It’s been splendid setting this fire, but we’ve got to hunt down a certain...survivor...before those brats do!”

“Or VFD,” Esme added. “You know, the real VFD full of hypocrites, not those idiotic singers!”

“Just one second, boss. We’re waiting for Ainsley,” the Hook-Handed Man explained.

“I’m not going to wait around to find out if that fool lived or died!” Olaf yelled. “One!”

The Hook-Handed man tapped his hook worriedly on the roof of his boss’ car as he gazed around. Violet unknowingly lifted her head a bit until she felt as though the henchman had seen her and she ducked down worriedly.

“Y-you said you...trusted me,” Violet whined.

“I’d rather die than get into that fucker’s trunk!” Klaus hissed.

“Don’t you want to...bring him to justice?” Violet asked. “Don’t you...wanna find the...survivor? And clear...our names?”

Klaus looked to his sister, frowning. “Of course, I do. But I don’t want to die before we can!”

“No, no,” Sunny cried as she shook her head. “Been there...done that.”

Violet frowned as she placed her hands in her siblings and she held their hands as firmly as she could, to the point where it hurt to hang on to them. “Think of... everything... we survived together, ” she whispered, looking from her burdened brother to her scared sister. “We’ve lived through countless...unfortunate events...only to find ourselves... alone. ”

“Just us,” Sunny reminded her.

“I know…” Violet replied, smiling at Sunny. “But if one of...our parents...survived. It’ll all be worthwhile!” She released her grip on her siblings. “We have to find them...if it’s the last thing we do.”

Sunny sighed as she gazed at the gaping trunk, which looked like the mouth of some dark and smoky beast, eager to devour her and her siblings. As it had once devoured her and her friends, Duncan and Isadora Quagmire, not too long ago. But she knew her big sister was right and she trusted Violet to get her and her siblings out of danger, not in it. “You’re right,” Sunny murmured finally. “Getting in that trunk is our only hope.”

Violet smiled as she looked towards Klaus, who merely shook her head defiantly. “You’re right. You’re right about all of that. But I’m sorry, I’m not getting into that trunk.”

“Klaus...come on,” Sunny pleaded.

“What choice do we have?” Violet asked. “Trust me...I wish we had another escape...but we don’t, Klaus.”

“Violet, I am not getting in that trunk and there’s nothing you can do to convince me otherwise,” Klaus folded his arms across his chest. “You aren’t thinking straight, obviously. So I guess I’ll think of something.”

“ Two!” They heard Olaf shout to his henchpeople as the Hook-Handed Man smiled and rushed Ainsley into their boss’ car.

Klaus continued to shake his head at the sound of Olaf’s voice.

Violet rolled her eyes, tapped her finger on her chin deep in thought. She glanced at Sunny and a wicked smile grew on her face. “I...know..how to get...you in that trunk,”

“What did I just say?” Klaus asked. “I’m not getting in…” he began before Violet stood up shakily, picking up Sunny in the process and running stealthily towards Olaf’s trunk.

“No, you did not just…” Klaus cried angrily. “Dammit, Violet!” he hissed following her quickly, continuing to look behind the siblings to make sure that no one was following them.

Violet stumbled as she reached the trunk. She fell to the ground, shielding Sunny from the pavement. “Whoopsie,” she whispered.

Klaus catches up to his sisters and merely glares at Violet as the three crawl a few more inches to the trunk. “Of all the dirty handed tricks you could pull…” he started, in a hushed whisper.

“It got you over here...didn’t it?” Violet asked as she opened Olaf’s trunk slowly. The children ducked down low as the trunk lid stayed opening welcoming them inside with a damp, terrible odor that had Violet having second thoughts.

Violet stumbled awkwardly as she tried to maneuver herself into Olaf’s trunk while still kneeling down. “Give me a hand, please,” Violet begged her brother. Klaus sighed as he reluctantly helped Violet into the trunk.

“We’ll be able to breathe, right?” Sunny asked, worriedly as Violet rolled as far as she could allowing her brother and sister room. Violet felt her knee slam against something but she didn’t pay it any attention as she felt the shuffling of Olaf’s troupe member trying to get situated in the back seat.

“Yes,” Klaus whispered as he picked up Sunny. “Air will come through the bullet holes,” he explained to his baby sister as he laid her atop of their big sister. The second Sunny was laying down on Violet, she began to squirm and shake as if she were having a panic attack. Klaus frowned as he glanced down at Violet, who merely frowned back. Violet hastily unclasped her locket and handed it to Sunny.

“Sometimes when I’m scared…” Violet admitted. “The only thing that calms...me down. Is our Mama.” Violet shakily moved her hands to open the locket but she was having slight difficulties. Sunny reached up and opened the locket for her. Both sisters gazed up at the picture of their mother, smiling down on them.

Klaus sighed as he grabbed hold of the trunk. “This is not the sort of shelter I had in mind,” he said begrudgingly. “But...I guess it might do.”

“It’ll have to do,” Violet whispered to him. And with that, the middle orphan maneuvered himself inside his enemy’s trunk, beside his older sister.

“ Three!!” Olaf shouted as Violet simultaneously closed the trunk just as the bald man slammed the passenger back side door shut. Once Violet had closed the trunk, the siblings were left in utter darkness, and their shelter rattled and shook as Olaf started the engine and began to drive across the landscape, which was as flat and desolate as ever. But the children could not see outside, of course. In the blackness of the trunk, they could not see anything at all. Sunny whimpered and handed Violet back her locket.

“We’re right here, Sunshine,” Klaus whispered, trying to hide the fact that he, too, was terrified. They could only hear their long, shivering breaths as the air rushed through the bullet holes, and feel their shoulders tremble as they shivered in fear.

Klaus pulled Sunny a bit towards him so that she was now laying on both him and Violet and not squishing Violet entirely. Violet’s head rolled around as Olaf drove.

“Here,” Klaus whispered, prompting for Violet to lift her head. He placed his arm underneath his sister’s head giving her some comfort as Sunny grabbed onto Violet’s hand. Violet snuggled closer to her siblings still high on the anesthetic.

“You...guys came back...for me,” she cried, tears flowing.

“That’s what siblings do,” Sunny explained.

“You’re our sister,” Klaus agreed.

“Where to next, boss?’ the children could hear the Hook-Handed man ask.

“How the fuck would I know!?” Olaf yelled as he reached outside his window to remove a flyer that was obstructing his vision. “I’m not…”

He stopped once he read the flyer. “...a fortune teller. But I know who is,” he said wickedly as he began to laugh maniacally.

The children shifted slightly when Olaf slammed his foot on the gas. The three siblings huddled together as tightly as they could. Both Violet and Klaus held one of Sunny’s tiny hands. Both older siblings could feel their sister tremble as she laid on them inside Olaf’s trunk. They knew that she was having flashbacks of her time in captivity with the Quagmires. They were trying to do all they could to relax her.

As the three gazed outside the bullet holes of Olaf’s car, it was as if they were stargazing, although the siblings were all falling victim to their thoughts. Klaus sighed, breaking the silence.

“I guess...we’re still on the lam,” he whispered.

“We’re alive and...we’re together,” Violet countered.

Sunny held on tightly to her siblings’ hands trying to stay calm and not freak out that she had once again found herself inside Olaf’s trunk. The bitter stench was bringing back memories that Sunny would rather stay buried away from her psyche. She knew circumstances were slightly different, this time. She wasn’t forced into the trunk against her will, she had been persuaded by her elder sister to voluntarily enter the trunk. She had her siblings and she knew they would never let anyone hurt her and the biggest difference is that Olaf and Esme had no idea that she and her siblings were hitching a ride in his trunk.

Klaus’ eyes slowly began to fall as he slightly shifted. He was exhausted in more ways than one. But as he felt Violet shift her head slightly on his arm and Sunny grip tighter to his hand, he knew it was what he had to do. He didn’t know exactly what had happened to his sister during her time in Olaf’s clutches and he was scared that she might not know the answer and it pained him to know that Olaf was the only person that could give his sister closure on that topic. He sighed as quietly as he could. He wasn’t the happiest about how Violet convinced him to get into Olaf’s trunk but he would have to deal with it. Klaus was fighting the urge to sleep because he refused to be asleep if the children were discovered and he wouldn’t be able to fight for his sisters. He felt like he’s failed them so many times already, that he needs to step up his game and be there more for them. That’s what he vowed to do for his sisters and whoever the survivor was.

Violet held onto Sunny’s arm as she began to silently sob. She was still scared that they were now in the trunk of the man who wants to do nothing but harm them. She was still contemplating everything that had happened to her or what she suspected happened. Violet was unsure of a lot of things right now and how close she was to her siblings was one of them. In her head, Olaf and Esme’s words ring endlessly on a tiresome loop that was continually driving Violet insane. Violet still had huge insecurities but she was starting to doubt a few of her insecurities.

If what they said was true...Klaus had every chance to take Sunny and run...but they stayed. They rescued me. He kept himself and his sister in danger to save me . Why didn’t he take Sunny and run? She pondered to herself. She desperately hoped, Maybe just maybe Olaf was wrong and Klaus did see her as a sister, not just a protector.

Violet sighed, still coming down from the amount of anesthetic Olaf had administered to her. “What’s...that stanza...again?” she asked hastily.

“What?” Klaus whispered back, confused. His eyes were closed as if he had lost his fight against sleep.

“The Snicket lad?” Sunny whispered in the softest of whispers, terrified to see what Olaf would do if he heard the name ‘Snicket’ and then opened his trunk to find one and two Baudelaires.

Violet nodded. “You know...you guys are gonna love him,” she replied in a whisper.

Klaus and Sunny looked at one another both knowing what their sister meant. Although both younger siblings had different predictions when it comes to the survivor, they allowed Violet the courtesy of being able to freely share hers.

“If you drive away in secret,” Klaus whispered. “You’ll be a volunteer,”

“So don’t scream,” sunny whispered.

“When we take you…” Violet whispered.

“ The world is quiet here…” the three siblings recited simultaneously as they held on tighter to each other.

It was not the sort of shelter the children had in mind, never in their entire lives, but as they huddled as close together as they could, they guessed it might do. For these three orphans, if indeed they were still orphans, the shelter of Count Olaf’s trunk would have to do, until something better came along.

[violetsystems]

#personal

I ended the week in a very different financial state than what I’ve been used to.  To talk about stocks anymore on this blog would further pivot my move from musician to late night financial pundit.  I’m more of an amateur economist myself.  I’ve used the auction house in World of Warcraft enough to be dangerous.   But really there’s much more to the story than investing or job hunting.  More so my ambivalence to feeling completely invisible in the process.  Of course there are tons of jobs out there.  I found a Department of Defense job in Information Security.  The fine print being that males had to be registered for selective service.  I often like to remind myself and the government that I’m a registered Conscientious Objector.  My parents were tired of military recruiters hounding me in high school as was I.  I wrote a statement and filed it with a local church at the time in the presence of pastor.  I’m not extremely a fan of organized religion at all.  But this specific instance was about peace above all else.  One of my only contacts on LinkedIn was someone I managed years ago as a student worker.  They just so happen to work for such a job.  It is ironic as it is disheartening.  And as I scan and participate on LinkedIn as more of a social media platform than a headhunting site it becomes painfully apparent.  There are a lot of jobs out there but not a lot that respect my value as a human being outside of human capital.  The most important thing about the platform has been knowing what I’m worth.  The salary estimates are on point for the times.  I was undervalued at my old place of employment.  As of last week, the years of debt accrued trying to network overseas was finally paid off.  I tried everything to get away from this situation.  I played shows in Tokyo.  I travelled alone to Korea and China.  I connected with my extended family in Hong Kong.   And nothing else in terms of opportunities materialized.  Years later as I send the final payments to zero out the balances, it seems like it never happened.  You would think a person like myself would have a place to go from here.  And largely I do right now.  Sitting at my new laptop writing these as always.  Wrapping my brain around the tax law unique to my particular situation.  Listening to the news and realizing nobody really cares about me or my predicament.  Awaiting the final puzzle piece to my old life come September.  Wondering what really happened to all the shit in my old office.  Wondering if I really care at all about any of it anymore as the voice over my headphones announces the horrible truth.  That we’re about to get pummeled violently by a well known streamer and the developer of the game we are playing.  For a company that was at my doorstep a day ago inquiring about an uptick in package theft.  If I really needed a job right now I’d just ask if they were hiring.

The grand spoiler alert of my life at the moment is that I do not need a job right now.  My life is a work in progress.  One that I haven’t really lived or been allowed to live without constant critique.  Truth be told I have never had the opportunity to be back at zero.  There are things that are stable in my life that don’t really have a numerical value on the time investment.  I’m not on any social media here to look for a job.  But stranger things have happened.  I am out there and searchable.  Just not on anything like Facebook.  My bandcamp lately has been generating sales out of nowhere.  Nothing substantial.  But if people really wanted to find me they could.  The internet is a special place if you stay accountable.  The real world is far from that.  And I’ve spent a considerable amount of time lately in the real world navigating the change in my life.  There is a lot of cognitive dissonance when I think about my own value.  The way everything blinked out and disappeared is still puzzling.  I had no warning.  Or I was so antisocial that people were afraid to drop hints.  People drop hints all the time that I’m expected to read into.  Those are far easier to read now that it’s just me.  Part of being employable is that you are a valuable addition to an organization.  When you spend twenty years of your life growing to be just that it is a little jarring to realize you weren’t.  These days I’m very fearful of just being looked at as another productive body to slide into place.  Much of what I understand of salaried employment now is horrifying especially when it comes to working for a non profit.  You do get stability.  And some of the grandfathered benefits I reaped upon exit are unheard of in modern times.  A pension being one of them.  How someone like me deals with these unique circumstances is unprecedented.  Nobody has any advice for me.  Nobody even acknowledges I have a situation.  I always feel like people are just assuming I’d be ok without even knowing what I’ve done.  That’s a lot of mental baggage to sort through even beyond the finances.  The good news is I don’t really get depressed about it.  I feel free.  Free enough to start planning things out comfortably.  Free enough to wait for the job opportunity that values me instead of freaking out and taking the first thing.  Free enough to evaluate how much money I need to make versus how much money the job hunting site tells me I should be making.  Free enough to just sit here and opt out.  Pay my health insurance premiums and keep the future open for awhile.  Play games and enjoy them.  Ride my bike and lower my blood pressure.  Spend less money without thinking.  Plan where and when money is available in the future.  Be an adult and enjoy it for once without having to defend myself.  At the same time being just as vigilant and unstoppable as I always am effortlessly.  Because I no longer really worry about what my job, the community, society, or the internet thinks.  And I see the value of myself and my money beyond the American dream of freedom it seems that I’ve been exiled from.

It is a mindfuck for sure.  Like maybe the last three years over the course of time were too.  But what I still have is worth more to me than any history or resolution.  I just cut loose.  Five weeks later I’m sitting in a very different state of mind on paper.  My credit score went up.  I can lucidly explain my financial liquidity and plans for the next six months to a year if worst comes to worse.  But really the thing I can’t answer is this.  Why after all of this time am I so invisible outside of these small pockets of hope on the internet?  Why am I even bothering taking a conventional approach to my future other than my own logic?  One week I’m down.  The next week I’m up.  The next a little higher.  I start to think to myself when I look in the mirror.  I feel better about myself.  I feel sexier without having to project it.  I can imagine things outside of the box I was trapped in.  And there’s no real judgement as to why I stayed so long.  The end result was that twenty years was time to move on.  And while no one had the answers for me it all worked out.  The time spent with a financial advisor worth much more than sitting down with a therapist.  But what does it really mean for me?  When will I have my revenge!  When will I have my justice?  I mean I thought I already had it.  I never lost the things I cared about.  They just got amplified.  Nobody needs to know how deep it goes.  But everyone knows what motivates me deep inside my heart without me even having to say it.  I feel comfortable around people.  I’m open to talk and be present.  I’m not locked in a defensive posture fearing the inevitable.  I lost my job.  It will never be replaced.  The position is gone completely.  Nobody really remembers me or the position it seems at all.  And this isn’t something we should revisit five weeks later after my suffering in complete isolation outside of video games, tumblr and my secret desires.  Honestly I’m far more happy to be where I am now.  I can actually see a clear path to where I need to be.  And all I ever wanted to be was connected to people like myself.  We all desire that to varying degrees.  And after years of typing it out here I believe people understand me.  And it has become far more than that.  It’s special enough that it follows me wherever I go in my heart and out in the streets.  And it’s still a delicate balance that requires me to think for myself and maintain my identity above all.  That’s the freedom I have for myself.  The freedom I want to share with another person I love someday.  And that’s the freedom I’ve built up around me that isn’t beholden to anyone but me now.  Until I get hired by either TikTok, Microsoft, or Amazon.  Self employed taxes are the only nightmare I’m subjecting myself to for the rest of this year.  That and being on the wrong team in Closed Beta.  I’m on the right team in terms of keeping a secret.  It’s not a secret I care very much about all of you.  You particularly as always.  And I’d be more worried if I somehow jeopardized that future.  Which is still bright ass pink as far as the eye can see.  So I’ll be ok.  <3 Tim

[thebiasrekkers]

Way To You - 2

Plot: Knocked from his routine, Taehyung finds himself discovering [or is it remembering?] the reality of his situation. It’s especially disturbing since his Wife has been acting rather strange.

Rating: M // NSFW

Genre: dystopian! au/dystopian themes | angst |  smut | fluff if you squint

Pairing: Kim Taehyung x Female OC (Tempest Estrellado)

Warnings: Strong language, interracial relationship, mentions of drugs, blood, main character injury, implied smut 

Word Count: 1,488

AN: This hot mess has 3 parts. Please enjoy and thank you for loving all that we do © thebiasrekkers (Admin T). All rights reserved. Reposting/modifying our work is prohibited. Translations are not allowed. Plagiarism/stealing is not tolerated by any means. Legal action will be taken in instances of theft.

Links: FAQ || BTS Masterlist || [ REQUESTS ARE OPEN ]

--

9 am

“Mr. Kim, you seem to be unwell.” Tempest frowned as she pressed the back of her hand against his forehead. “Have you eaten?” He felt himself leaning into the coolness of her palm. There was a brow arch as she watched him. “Mr. Kim? Did you eat?” 

Tae blinked sleepily as he straightened himself. The meeting happened earlier in order for him to retreat back to his office. “N-no. I wound up losing track of time. I had something small and coffee. I apologize for concerning you.” He let his chest expand on an inhale. “I’ll be alright, Ms. Estrellado.” 

She lowered her hands just as the door swung open.

“Taehyung!” The voice sounded upset, but April paused as Tempest and Taehyung turned toward her. What was that look just now? He tilted his head as April seemed to shift her demeanor. “I-I was concerned about you. It was apparent you hadn’t been home.” She moved over toward him as Tempest took a step back. 

There was a look that lingered too long for Tempest’s liking from the woman, who was obviously Taehyung’s wife. “I take it your Ms. Estrellado?” April spoke cooly as she let her fingers dance along his shoulder.

Tempest tilted her head politely. “I am. I was just asking Mr. Kim if he had eaten. I was going to suggest that he should go home to rest.” There was a darkness to April’s eyes as she watched the other woman. Tempest clasped her hands in front of her, nonplussed by the other woman’s focus. 

“I think that’s a good idea, Taehyung.” She turned to him placing a warm hand on his cheek. A wave of nausea hit that had him pulling away from April. 

“M’fine, I just need t-to..” He swayed. Tempest was under his arm before April realized he stumbled. 

“Mr. Kim, I’m afraid I’m going to have to order you to go home.” He tensed at the word order. The Medical personnel held more power than even the military. The Medical personnel was responsible for keeping balance. For keeping the maintenance of The System which allowed the Council power and prestige. 

If someone was called unwell by Medical staff? It was a dire situation. Life was too precious, too important to waste. April glared as Taehyung leaned too heavily on the other woman. She cleared her throat getting under Taehyung’s other arm. “I can take it from here.” She offered a tight smile as Taehyung’s weight transferred. 

“Of course, Mrs. Kim.” Tempest stepped aside. 

“Thank you, Tempest.” Taehyung murmured quietly as he gathered his things. April gave him a stern look that caused him to compose himself before stepping out of the office. Tempest gave a short nod before leaving before them.

11:17 am

“Do you know how embarrassing that was?” April’s voice cut the thick silence in the elevator. Taehyung said nothing as the bell rang to announce their floor. He was tired, his head hurt and all April could do? All she had been doing  - was bitching. 

He waved his keyfob in front of their door. 

“Taehyung, are you listening to me?” April followed him inside as he hung his jacket and bag. The shirt shrugged off his frame, causing her to tilt her head. Why hadn’t she noticed it before? It was as if he had somehow filled out? There was something enticing about him in this state. 

It was so close to that time before. When he was so lively and full of fight. April bit into her bottom lip as she admonished the train of thought. He ran his fingers through his hair as he opened the fridge. He guzzled a bottle of water turning to the hand outstretched next to him.

“You need to take your vitamins and rest, Taehyung. You know you get thrown off if you don’t keep up your regimen.” April held out a small pack of pills. And for the first time in years, he hesitated before taking them. 

“April, I’ll be fine. You have work to do.” He emptied the packet into his mouth followed by vigorous guzzling of water. “I assure you I can handle myself alone.” He arched a brow as April seemed pleased by his compliance. She sighed letting a hand settle against his cheek. 

“Rest. Eat. I’ll be home in the morning. Hopefully, before you leave.” A slight smile before she spun on her heel to leave. He waited for the door to click shut. He waited for the distant ring of the elevator bell. 

Then he turned to the kitchen sink and was violently sick. 

The pills, undigested, floating in bile and a swirl of water as he washed them down the drain.

1:30 pm

“Why is it so hot?” He’d been sweating profusely. His fingers dug into the hem of his t-shirt as he peeled it off. It landed on the floor with a wet plop as he made his way to the shower. The water squeaked on as he dropped the last of his work clothes to the floor. The cool water pelted his skin for much-needed relief. It was strange to think that he’d never really taken a long shower before this moment. He adjusted the heat to wash his hair. 

Taehyung squeezed his eyes shut as the lather slid down his face. 

“You should let me wash your back, querido.” 

A voice echoed in the bathroom - or was it in his head? His eyes popped open too quickly, blurring at the shampoo irritant filling his gaze. It was as if something flickered in front of him. He saw a body, a form  - a voice that sounded so familiar. But they were dreams, right? 

He felt fingers pushing the wet hair back from his face. A body pressed against his and those leonine eyes snagging his soul again. 

“What is it, mi amor?” She purred quietly, concern written across delicate features. He felt his hands on her body, so real. 

He suddenly felt a burn in the pit of his stomach at her proximity. His body knew hers, responded to hers, wanted her. But, that’s impossible? These urges were a thing of the past. It was against protocols. These emotions, these sensations had been done away with. Yet, here he was in the shower - with a woman, not his wife. And he was on fire. 

Taehyung spun in a circle shaking the soap from his eyes. He blinked rapidly as his fingers dug into pectoral space above his heart. He let the thundering of the shower pound against his head. Both hands were used to push wet strands of hair from his face. He reached behind his shoulder to make sure he was rinsed clean. 

“Huh..” He tilted his head as he felt a small scar in the middle of his back. 

He grabbed a towel as the handles squeaked into the off position. Taehyung frowned as he rubbed the condensation on his mirror. He turned to get a look at the scars. 

Scars? Scars?? How had he never remembered these?! How had he never looked at his body’s reflection? His eyes grew wide as he took in the scattered warzone of his back. His hands gripped the sink as he felt the weight of something pressing against the front of his skull.

I promise I’ll find you. Don’t die.  

He shook his head again, stumbling out of the bathroom. Taehyung didn’t understand the fatigue suddenly falling over him. He collapsed atop his bed, towel still wrapped around his waist, an arm across his forehead. 

Taehyung. 

He murmured something, half asleep. A voice that set his soul on fire. A voice that spread color through his world. A voice - that didn’t belong to April.

Taehyung sighed softly, nuzzling into the phantom fingers that caressed his face. 

“..I promised.” He murmured sleepily. “...kept my promise.” 

A body settled on the edge of his bed as he entered deep sleep. 

A pair of glossy leonine eyes watched him until he was finally resting comfortably.

“...And I kept my promise too, querido.” Tempest watched his chest rise and fall for a few minutes before she stood. “Just a little longer. You’re almost there.” She brushed her lips against his forehead. 

9:30 pm

It’s the first dreamless sleep he’s had in some months now. There was a scent in the room that had him reaching for his face. Did he get up and change clothes? He stared down at the sweats and t-shirt. 

He reached for the glass of water at his bedside, draining it quickly. The glass hung between his fingers as the heel of his palm pushed into his eye socket.

9:45 pm

“Taehyung, I’m home to check on you.” April’s voice echoed from the front of the house.

For some reason, for the first time that he can remember - the sound of her voice - causes him to frown.

[letstalksymphogear]

Symphogear, EP. 6

Last Time on Grand Theft Auto:

Tsubasa recovers from the world’s gayest coma as Hibiki trains her mind while putting aside such silly concepts as “the love of my life” and “literally being with my girlfriend.” After cooling Miku’s paranoia with her brand new washboard abs, Genjuro prepares the team for a pizza run across the city to deliver a dangerously hot pizza pie named Durandal. Chaos emerges as the delivery is intercepted by a rival pizza gang, lead by the nefarious Gremlin known as Yukine Chris. But, before the pizza could be claimed, dedicated pizza deliverywoman Hibiki not only steals it back, but eats it, harnessing the power of the pizza and unleashing cheesy pasta based chaos around the location.

Ryoko is so into it that she taps into her superpowers and protects Hibiki after she passes out. The delivery is considered a failure, and no tip is given.

And so, the journey continues...

Meanwhile, in this weird, tricked out mansion...

Chris meditates on some water metaphors of her own.

“that pacman colored freak took only touching it to activate a cheap ass french sword that gave her weird demon powers and its taken me YEARS to use this dumb stripper outfit and the funny cane that goes with it, what the FUCK man, what even is my life”

“maybe... maybe honeybaked hams ARE that powerful...”

“NO! turkey is the superior meat! it’s healthier, lower in fat, and way more tasty! fuck you! i’ll get my goddamned revenge!”

Chris begins musing about Fine’s motivations to capture Hibiki; during these, we’re treated to some brief image flashbacks of Chris’s life.

Suddenly, those jokes about food are a lot less funny.

It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together as to why this young woman is helping a strange nudist dominatrix spread alien terror across the city of mumblednoises, Japan. She doesn’t really have many an option on the table. It’s either help the weird kinkster with her plans, or die.

Despite everything, she has a high opinion of Fine, for the same reasons someone might have a high opinion of a television show if it were the only show they were ever exposed to. She is deeply afraid of being alone again, because she has lived through such misery that the very thought of existing out in the cold again terrifies the shit out of her.

The Sun rises casually amidst Chris’s thoughts.

“ah shit. it just hit me. i literally have spent the entire night standing here instead of actually going the fuck to sleep. goddamnit.”

On such a devious metaphorical twist, Fine stands behind her as the Sun rises.

“yeah, jokes on you. i couldnt sleep for shit either. turns out, all nude, no blankets? in japan? real bad idea.”

“thats why i decided to GO GOTH, babey! whattaya think? do i give those witchy vibes, huh? real ‘black magic woman’ santana hours? feeling cute, gonna head out with the girls and summon satan in the woods kinda aesthetic looking shit? come on, be real with me. does this not look baller?”

“you look like morticia decided to go to the grocery store to buy some wonder bread, but other than that, its a step up from your usual pussy out attitude, so sure”

“you know i decided to get some brain cells on loan from Brain Cells R Us, and ive been thinking this solomon cane stuff is solomon lame. i dont need this dumb oversized harry potter cosplay prop to get shit done. also, murder is... sorta bad? im still trying to get the brain cell stuff down.”

“i can punch just as good as goody two shoes if not better.”

“lol go do it then champ, im gonna go cut down a forest of trees now”

And so, they both just kinda... stand there.

“QUACK, NEXT SCENE, QUACK”

Meanwhile, Tsubasa is rapidly trying to rehabilitate herself from her wounds like walking like a madman, her IV drip presumably filled with Taco Bell brand Doritos Locos Tacos super spicy nacho cheese. Taco Bell: Live Mas.

“im gonna clear every fucking taco bell in your goddamned memory, kanade”

“think outside the bun! wait, what? that was a taco bell slogan? ah fuck it, im dead. what nerd’s gonna try and correct me?”

“i would, kanade. i am that nerd.”

Tsubasa is hell bent to try and understand Kanade’s simple philosophy of helping others selflessly. Unfortunately, when Kanade died, she took all the brain cells between them in the process, so coming to this epiphany is a work in progress.

“listen its a fucking miracle you are 1. alive and 2. able to have your blood run on the garbage melted plastic taco bell tries to dupe people into believing is cheese so why dont you just lie down and think of better franchises to eat from”

“no! you dont understand! taco bell is a franchise of the PEOPLE! their meals are cheap and filling and- and the chicken quesadillas are of good quality for their price! i promised kanade- my vow to the death. taco bell... ergh... now and forever... i-”

“wait. my gay senses are tingling.”

It’s Hibiki, probably running track with Miku.

“oh yeah... her... i should probably apologize to her. about trying to kill her. and then letting her almost be kidnapped. and just giving her a general hard time about something that wasn’t explained to her in the slightest for months. she’s a good bean.”

Tsubasa proceeds to never canonically apologize to Hibiki throughout the entirety of all 4 seasons of Symphogear.

Look at em run. See, it’s a metaphor, because they haven’t communicated yet and they’re running from their problems! But they’re running towards Tsubasa, who is part of the representative problem these two share! Clearly literary genius.

It’s like someone went halfway into writing an NTR plotline and went “maybe this isn’t a good idea to market our songs on.”

Hibiki is still thinking about her Hellshake Yano moment with Durandal. Mainly how she nearly killed someone with it. Hibiki is very starkly in the “killing is bad, and wrong” camp of morality, a trait currently unique to her that she’ll wind up teaching literally everyone else she meets one way or another.

Some could argue the L stands for Lydian, and they’re wrong. It stands for Lesbian.

“that was one hell of a run, hibiki! im pooped! why dont we go to the locker room and call it a day, have a nice shower and just get some dinn-”

“this is the last straw.

i clean your plates. i cook your food. we eat, shit, shower, and sleep in the same FUCKING area, and this is how you repay me? huh? you think being your wife is easy shit, hibiki? half the damn time you’re running off like clark kent having food poisoning and the other half ive gotta babysit you, the emotional equivalent of a preteen clown, to make sure your life doesn’t self destruct harder than Atlantis sinking into the ocean. im done! i am DONE. im reopening my tinder, im slamming my ass BACK into okcupid, and im gonna date some CUTE ACADEMY GIRLS that treat me BETTER than this ABSOLUTE BETRAYAL OF HEART AND IM NOT CRYING I SWEAR ITS JUST THE SWEAT IN MY EYES AND HIBIKI HOW COULD YOU-”

“oh yeah, sure! hey, lemme just do a few more laps, ive just been feeling judgmental about myself and my figure, you know? gotta push myself further...”

“o-oh yeah, sure. no worries, ill wait for you. love you too, hibiki...”

The girls bathe together, as good friends typically do.

“hey you ever notice the showers here have like, weird psuedo-luxurious minipools to bathe in? like, how rich is this school?”

“whoever made this place is either rich or a pervert. or both, probably!”

Miku remarks that Hibiki has changed since she’s entered Lydian, in a manner most unheterosexual.

“oh FUCK you really DO have washboard abs now! ohhh my god.”

“damn, those abs were heavenly. let’s get pancakes later.”

I won’t screenshot it but something to note is that they actually wear each other’s corresponding underwear colors (or even, if you want to examine more closely, each other’s underwear). Here’s an equivalent scene to give you the mental image.

This is the face of someone who knows what they want and already have it. Such is the power of Kohinata Miku.

Meanwhile, Genjuro comes back from the funeral of the guy the Americans filled violently and with impunity.

“yo that all black look looks baller. i should borrow that look... id look pretty gothy in it.”

“ryoko i sympathize with your sharp, fashionista eye but this was for a funeral, i was paying my respects to the dead. thats the usual dress code.”

“didnt know they updated that. i remember back in my day, we just went in white garments and chanted in latin!”

“shit was fire. literally. lots of funeral pyres.”

“lmao ryoko buddy your larping sessions arent actual history”

“hey dont shit on larping around me. i used to be a professional larper while i was majoring in acting. helped really sell my career when i had to pretend to slay the Dark Lord Jyarloen atop the mountain of skulls in Hargobor after my family was killed by the Dark Army. asshole.”

“haha yeah, larping, thats cool yeah, i do that

i...

i larp.”

“oh yeah? you wanna join my larping session sometime then? we’re gonna do an ancient babylon plot thats inspired by some anime, itll be fun”

“.....................................im super into realism.”

“i know im dressed for a funeral but id like to not part ways with my dignity yet. besides, we’ve got serious shit to talk about. basically, we’re on the verge of getting shitcanned.”

As it turns out, the death of this politician removed the last obstacle of opposition to maintain the 2nd Division, as the average criticism against the 2nd Division is “why are we funding this mystery division when we don’t know what they do”. Of course, the sensible idea for an organization that defeats the Noise is to declassify it, given people of different jobs and positions have physically seen the Symphogear in action, but you know. “Oh no, the other governments will come after us” stick gets shaken.

“im in a union. i know my rights. you’re not taking my acting job here away from me.”

“im not going back to be a preschool teacher. its been ten year. the bites on my ankles still havent healed...”

“yeah man, shit sucks ass. i cant fund my adoption habits if im fired.”

Look at these cinematic parallels. Symphogear truly is a franchise made by someone living in 3030.

“worst part is the new minister is super into america. he’s a... westaboo.”

“a westaboo?”

“westaboo?”

“did he just unironically say westaboo”

“he said westaboo. oh my god. this is the hell timeline.”

“i mean people kept calling me that for worshipping all these fighting flicks so i guess it fit? i dont see the problem here”

Meanwhile, in Lydian Academy...

“so it hit me, right? we’re ALL girls. and we ALL sing. now, humor me a moment. what if... what if we’ve all been recruited to potentially be superheroes... through our singing? like, there’s no coincidence that all this shit happens around us, right? and a famous singer LIVES here? i saw the black cars outside! weird shit is happening here- im not even gonna eat the all you can eat bar anymore!”

“kathy there is literally no such thing as superheroes who sing. this place is more likely to be a organ harvesting op than whatever madness you’re saying”

“what? you need me, a singing superhero, to go stop a problem happening underneath the school, a location meant to recruit young women into potentially becoming fellow crime fighting singers?”

“yeah im too busy poppin’ caps in asses so go kick ass in my place”

“sure!”

“.....................................who ya talkin to, hibiki?”

“the boss! gotta go do a thing again...”

“hibiki, i dont like the fact that capitalism is tearing us apart.”

“you’ve gotta join me in the revolution, hibiki. you. me. luxury automated gay space communism. aint it the dream? share my vision, hibiki. its glorious.”

“n... no...? no gay space communism today? well, what about tomorrow? or the next day? or... maybe the next day? baby steps, you say? but, direction action, hibiki! we’ve gotta strike now!”

“it’s okay hibiki. when i take over the world and destroy all first world government leaders, and unite the globe in my encompassing reign and love... ill make sure to spare you, and be my bride to be.”

“thanks miku. im just not ready yet for the globe to burn in an unending ball of fire as the continents fuse into a new utopia composed of our combined wills. also, ive really gotta go, its genuinely an emergency.”

“for the cause!”

“yes hibiki... for the cause...”

Admittedly, you can see the stages of grief Miku goes through when she sees Hibiki say she can’t join her for pancakes. It’s sad. This side story sucks.

Meanwhile, as it turns out, the problem Hibiki needed to resolve was checking on Tsubasa to see if she hadn’t dissolved into Taco Bell brand hot n’ spicy Tabasco sauce.

“god, cant believe taco bell was closed. now i gotta deliver these lame ass flowers”

“cant wait to get threatened again. wonder what she’ll say. ‘hibiki, i should have killed you when i had the chance.’ or ‘you’re so goddamned weak. i could break your spine with my fingernail’, or some other stuff about metaphors. oh, my stops here”

“HEY BITCH WHATS GOOD-”

“HOLY SHIT”

“you are already”

“dead.”

[darknytemare]

Way To You - 2

Plot: Knocked from his routine, Taehyung finds himself discovering [or is it remembering?] the reality of his situation. It’s especially disturbing since his Wife has been acting rather strange.

Rating: M // NSFW

Genre: dystopian! au/dystopian themes | angst |  smut | fluff if you squint

Pairing: Kim Taehyung x Female OC (Tempest Estrellado)

Warnings: Strong language, interracial relationship, mentions of drugs, blood, main character injury, implied smut

Word Count: 1,488

AN: This hot mess has 3 parts. Please enjoy and thank you for loving all that we do © thebiasrekkers (Admin T). All rights reserved. Reposting/modifying our work is prohibited. Translations are not allowed. Plagiarism/stealing is not tolerated by any means. Legal action will be taken in instances of theft.

Links: FAQ || BTS Masterlist || [ REQUESTS ARE OPEN ]

--

9 am

“Mr. Kim, you seem to be unwell.” Tempest frowned as she pressed the back of her hand against his forehead. “Have you eaten?” He felt himself leaning into the coolness of her palm. There was a brow arch as she watched him. “Mr. Kim? Did you eat?”

Tae blinked sleepily as he straightened himself. The meeting happened earlier in order for him to retreat back to his office. “N-no. I wound up losing track of time. I had something small and coffee. I apologize for concerning you.” He let his chest expand on an inhale. “I’ll be alright, Ms. Estrellado.”

She lowered her hands just as the door swung open.

“Taehyung!” The voice sounded upset, but April paused as Tempest and Taehyung turned toward her. What was that look just now? He tilted his head as April seemed to shift her demeanor. “I-I was concerned about you. It was apparent you hadn’t been home.” She moved over toward him as Tempest took a step back.

There was a look that lingered too long for Tempest’s liking from the woman, who was obviously Taehyung’s wife. “I take it your Ms. Estrellado?” April spoke cooly as she let her fingers dance along his shoulder.

Tempest tilted her head politely. “I am. I was just asking Mr. Kim if he had eaten. I was going to suggest that he should go home to rest.” There was a darkness to April’s eyes as she watched the other woman. Tempest clasped her hands in front of her, nonplussed by the other woman’s focus.

“I think that’s a good idea, Taehyung.” She turned to him placing a warm hand on his cheek. A wave of nausea hit that had him pulling away from April.

“M’fine, I just need t-to..” He swayed. Tempest was under his arm before April realized he stumbled.

“Mr. Kim, I’m afraid I’m going to have to order you to go home.” He tensed at the word order. The Medical personnel held more power than even the military. The Medical personnel was responsible for keeping balance. For keeping the maintenance of The System which allowed the Council power and prestige.

If someone was called unwell by Medical staff? It was a dire situation. Life was too precious, too important to waste. April glared as Taehyung leaned too heavily on the other woman. She cleared her throat getting under Taehyung’s other arm. “I can take it from here.” She offered a tight smile as Taehyung’s weight transferred.

“Of course, Mrs. Kim.” Tempest stepped aside.

“Thank you, Tempest.” Taehyung murmured quietly as he gathered his things. April gave him a stern look that caused him to compose himself before stepping out of the office. Tempest gave a short nod before leaving before them.

11:17 am

“Do you know how embarrassing that was?” April’s voice cut the thick silence in the elevator. Taehyung said nothing as the bell rang to announce their floor. He was tired, his head hurt and all April could do? All she had been doing  - was bitching.

He waved his keyfob in front of their door.

“Taehyung, are you listening to me?” April followed him inside as he hung his jacket and bag. The shirt shrugged off his frame, causing her to tilt her head. Why hadn’t she noticed it before? It was as if he had somehow filled out? There was something enticing about him in this state.

It was so close to that time before. When he was so lively and full of fight. April bit into her bottom lip as she admonished the train of thought. He ran his fingers through his hair as he opened the fridge. He guzzled a bottle of water turning to the hand outstretched next to him.

“You need to take your vitamins and rest, Taehyung. You know you get thrown off if you don’t keep up your regimen.” April held out a small pack of pills. And for the first time in years, he hesitated before taking them.

“April, I’ll be fine. You have work to do.” He emptied the packet into his mouth followed by vigorous guzzling of water. “I assure you I can handle myself alone.” He arched a brow as April seemed pleased by his compliance. She sighed letting a hand settle against his cheek.

“Rest. Eat. I’ll be home in the morning. Hopefully, before you leave.” A slight smile before she spun on her heel to leave. He waited for the door to click shut. He waited for the distant ring of the elevator bell.

Then he turned to the kitchen sink and was violently sick.

The pills, undigested, floating in bile and a swirl of water as he washed them down the drain.

1:30 pm

“Why is it so hot?” He’d been sweating profusely. His fingers dug into the hem of his t-shirt as he peeled it off. It landed on the floor with a wet plop as he made his way to the shower. The water squeaked on as he dropped the last of his work clothes to the floor. The cool water pelted his skin for much-needed relief. It was strange to think that he’d never really taken a long shower before this moment. He adjusted the heat to wash his hair.

Taehyung squeezed his eyes shut as the lather slid down his face.

“You should let me wash your back, querido.”

A voice echoed in the bathroom - or was it in his head? His eyes popped open too quickly, blurring at the shampoo irritant filling his gaze. It was as if something flickered in front of him. He saw a body, a form  - a voice that sounded so familiar. But they were dreams, right?

He felt fingers pushing the wet hair back from his face. A body pressed against his and those leonine eyes snagging his soul again.

“What is it, mi amor?” She purred quietly, concern written across delicate features. He felt his hands on her body, so real.

He suddenly felt a burn in the pit of his stomach at her proximity. His body knew hers, responded to hers, wanted her. But, that’s impossible? These urges were a thing of the past. It was against protocols. These emotions, these sensations had been done away with. Yet, here he was in the shower - with a woman, not his wife. And he was on fire.

Taehyung spun in a circle shaking the soap from his eyes. He blinked rapidly as his fingers dug into pectoral space above his heart. He let the thundering of the shower pound against his head. Both hands were used to push wet strands of hair from his face. He reached behind his shoulder to make sure he was rinsed clean.

“Huh..” He tilted his head as he felt a small scar in the middle of his back.

He grabbed a towel as the handles squeaked into the off position. Taehyung frowned as he rubbed the condensation on his mirror. He turned to get a look at the scars.

Scars? Scars?? How had he never remembered these?! How had he never looked at his body’s reflection? His eyes grew wide as he took in the scattered warzone of his back. His hands gripped the sink as he felt the weight of something pressing against the front of his skull.

I promise I’ll find you. Don’t die.  

He shook his head again, stumbling out of the bathroom. Taehyung didn’t understand the fatigue suddenly falling over him. He collapsed atop his bed, towel still wrapped around his waist, an arm across his forehead.

Taehyung.

He murmured something, half asleep. A voice that set his soul on fire. A voice that spread color through his world. A voice - that didn’t belong to April.

Taehyung sighed softly, nuzzling into the phantom fingers that caressed his face.

“..I promised.” He murmured sleepily. “...kept my promise.”

A body settled on the edge of his bed as he entered deep sleep.

A pair of glossy leonine eyes watched him until he was finally resting comfortably.

“...And I kept my promise too, querido.” Tempest watched his chest rise and fall for a few minutes before she stood. “Just a little longer. You’re almost there.” She brushed her lips against his forehead.

9:30 pm

It’s the first dreamless sleep he’s had in some months now. There was a scent in the room that had him reaching for his face. Did he get up and change clothes? He stared down at the sweats and t-shirt.

He reached for the glass of water at his bedside, draining it quickly. The glass hung between his fingers as the heel of his palm pushed into his eye socket.

9:45 pm

“Taehyung, I’m home to check on you.” April’s voice echoed from the front of the house.

For some reason, for the first time that he can remember - the sound of her voice - causes him to frown.

[ask-the-cordium-crew]

the kahn and the colonel hidden love (A WKTC story)

Once again, happy second anniversary to who killed markiplier! I hope you enjoy the story, everyone! warning: grammar and punctuation aren’t the best 

William got of Fluffy as he reached the home of the White Fang leader Sienna Khan a ruthless dangerous Faunus who wanted more respect for Faunus even if it meant the humans would fear her just thinking about her drove him crazy oh what a woman! William thought to himself.

William told Fluffy to go back to the atlas base they were currently staying at. This caused Fluffy to snarl a bit.

“Oh, don’t give me that attitude, you big baby, you know it’s risky enough for me to be here can’t have anyone noticing you around here. It’s easy to tell you aren’t a normal beowolf alpha.”

Fluffy grunted and put his nose up against William’s hand he softly sighed and pet his beowolf alpha softly before Fluffy ran back off to base now William was alone he gulped a small bit and carefully wiped the sweat from his head these visits always got him nervous was he afraid of her? Heavens no! He was worried for another reason he soon pulled on the straps of his overalls and knocked on the door, smiling gently. 

Soon the door was kicked open and the woman came out kicking William he did a backflip and jumped in the air firing his gun at her using one of his diamond bullets he then quickly landed on the ground as she backflipped over him and whipped him he smirked and laughed like a madman spinning around violently this confused her but soon she started flying in circles as he spun around quite fast he soon made her lose her grip and go flying pulling the whip off himself and whipping her in return before throwing it back to her.

Sienna grabbed her whip and looked at him for a few seconds before laughing a bit and putting her weapon away he also put his gun away and laughed they both walked up to each other and carefully hugged each other.

“Oh William, you never cease to surprise me; it’s good to see you glad to see you were more prepared, unlike last time.” 

William wiped a tear from his face and smiled widely after he stepped back from her and then held the door open so she can go inside first.

“WELL IF YOUR GONNA FIGHT ME EVERY TIME I SHOW UP MIGHT AS WELL BE PREPARED! HA HA HA... It's good to see you, Sienna dear, how have you been? always nice to see your lovely face.”

She softly snorted and went inside soon he followed, and they closed the door soon they were both sat down at the kitchen table drinking tea. 

“Now now we can get to... Personal time after the meeting, you're lucky I was able to get everyone out of here for the day.”

William smiled and soon sighed, sipping his tea and soon bit a chunk out of a dust crystal. 

“Oh your *crunch* right hmm well the white fang activity currently is a little out of hand but despite that the kingdom of vale at least most of it the store's, bars and restaurants will let Faunus into their establishments but weapon searches are required of everyone now before entering any sort of store or place that sells dust not just the *crunch* Faunus humans are also inspected for weapons you can thank my friend Damien for that he was able to work out a deal with me to make that happen.” 

Before they continued, William burped up some fire into the air before continuing to crunch on his dust crystal, a red dust crystal. Of course, at this point, his mouth has gotten used to the pain of the fire, so it doesn’t affect him anymore.

Sienna listened carefully she was glad the white fang and the Faunus had an ally like William who has power and powerful friends though she wasn’t just using him to help Faunus get more rights she liked him for a lot more than that he was charming quite handsome very kind and sweet plus unlike most people she enjoyed how crazy he can get.

“Oh thank you so much William this helps us so much, and I promise I’ll try and help figure out a solution to all the dust theft problems, hmm there are still a few places that have problems with us Faunus and I know you're trying your best to allow us into atlas and deal with those places” 

Will soon finished his dust and drank some more of his tea, carefully wiping his mouth with a napkin before he continued to speak.

“Hmm most places outside of vale are harder to get to and well yes I am trying my best to allow Faunus into places like atlas now ironwood is more understanding, but the schnees are the more significant problem they pretty much run atlas, but I promise one day Faunus and humans will be at complete peace Faunus will be given the same exact rights as a human now I can’t completely stop the racism but I can make sure Faunus aren’t prevented from doing things humans can live just because of their differences.”

William sighed gently and looked away. 

“Faunus don’t deserve this they honestly don’t hell I am pretty sure most people don’t like Faunus is because they are better than us in some regards sometimes even smarter than any old human hmm... even if I think Faunus are better I do believe we all deserve equal rights.” 

“WELL! Anyway, I am finished with my tea and dust. I’ll go wash my dishes is there anything else we need to talk about Sienna dear?” 

Sienna smiled gently and finished her tea and gave him the dishes.

“No, we discussed all that we need to for this month, William. Thank you and oh, thanks for washing the dishes for me. I’ll go wait on the couch. It’s movie night my turn to pick.” 

William's eyes turned pink and sparkled as he quickly went to the kitchen and started to wash dishes everything in the sink glimmering with glee he loved movie night. 

He made him and her a martini in a very large glass for them to share with a pink umbrella and 2 olives he also made them a big bowl of popcorn to share he soon enough returned to her and lied down on the couch she cuddled up close to him and put on some cheesy romantic movie for them to watch she knew he loved cheesy movies and well she liked watching romance, so this movie was perfect for them both. 

He carefully rubbed her head, petting her ears as well playing with them as he fed her and himself some popcorn she smiled but then sighed.

“I wish we didn’t need to hide our relationship William; it just feels wrong to do so.”

He put down the drink and looked away, sighing as well.

“Yes, it does feel wrong to hide it. I’d love to take you out to dinner and bring you home, but neither of our people would understand our feelings one day we will be together properly, I promise.” 

She sniffled a bit but didn’t cry she rarely ever cried she just softly smiled and cuddled close to him

“Thank you, William.”

they then spent the rest of the night together too bad they wouldn’t be happy like this forever. 

[thattay]

My Favourite Albums and Games of the 2010s

ALBUMS 100. Revolution Radio - Green Day 99. Modern Vampires of the City - Vampire Weekend 98. Good Kid M.A.A.D City - Kendrick Lamar 97. Pure Heroine - Lorde 96. Black Messiah – D’Angelo and the Vanguard 95. Let’s Rock – The Black Keys 94. Harmonicraft – Torche 93. Treats – Sleigh Bells 92. Sempiternal – Bring Me The Horizon 91. Painted Shut – Hop Along 90. No One Ever Really Dies – N.E.R.D 89. Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino – Arctic Monkeys 88. Lonerism – Tame Impala 87. Malibu – Anderson Paak. 86. Boarding House Reach – Jack White 85. Greatest Hits – Remo Drive 84. Help Us Stranger – The Raconteurs 83. Infest the Rats Nest – King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard 82. Vessel – Twenty One Pilots 81. FM – Vince Staples 80. The Hurry and the Harm – City and Colour 79. Trouble Will Find Me – The National 78. I Am Easy to Find – The National 77. Afraid of Heights - Wavves 76. Jake Bugg – Jake Bugg 75. Arizona Baby – Kevin Abstract 74. I Think You Think Too Much Of Me - EDEN 73. Harry Styles – Harry Styles 72. Strange Desire – Bleachers 71. Here and Nowhere Else – Cloud Nothings 70. The Balcony – Catfish and the Bottlemen 69. Lemonade – Beyonce 68. Flower Boy – Tyler the Creator 67. Morbid Stuff - Pup 66. Meliora – Ghost 65. Cuz I Love You - Lizzo 64. Beauty Behind the Madness – The Weeknd 63. Some Nights – Fun. 62. The 1975 – The 1975 61. V - Wavves 60. Picture Show – Neon Trees 59. Little Dark Age – MGMT 58. When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go – Billie Eilish 57. + - Ed Sheeran 56. Hungry Ghost – Violent Soho 55. Lost in the Dream – The War on Drugs 54. Watch The Throne – Kanye West & Jay Z 53. Hurry Up We’re Dreaming – M83 52. Home, Like No Place Is There – The Hotelier 51. Run the Jewels 2 – Run the Jewels 50. Trench  – Twenty One Pilots 49. IGOR – Tyler the Creator 48. Gone Now - Bleachers 47. Every Open Eye - Chvrches 46. FIDLAR - FIDLAR 45. El Camino – The Black Keys 44. The Physical World – Death From Above 1979 43. Ye – Kanye West 42. Saturation 3 – Brockhampton 41. Blurry Face – Twenty One Pilots 40. Run the Jewels 3 – Run The Jewels 39. Death of a Bachelor – Panic! At The Disco 38. Megalithic Symphony – AWOLNATION 37. Attack on Memory – Cloud Nothings 36. Starboy – The Weeknd 35. Too – FIDLAR 34. 21 – Adele 33. Ginger – Brockhampton 32. Damn. – Kendrick Lamar 31. Splendour and Misery – clipping. 30. Emotion – Carly Rae Jepsen 29.  Channel Orange – Frank Ocean 28. Brothers – The Black Keys 27. Melodrama - Lorde 26. Plastic Beach – Gorillaz 25. Blowout  - The So So Glos 24. Prequelle - Ghost 23. Colouring Book – Chance the Rapper 22. Kids See Ghosts – Kids See Ghosts 21. …Like Clockwork – Queens of the Stone Age 20. Blunderbuss – Jack White 19. A Brief Enquiry Into Online Relationships – The 1975 18. Blonde – Frank Ocean 17. Habits – Neon Trees 16. Because the Internet – Childish Gambino 15. There Existed an Addiction to Blood – clipping. 14. Go Farther in Lightness – Gang of Youths 13. AM – Arctic Monkeys 12. Pony – Rex Orange County 11. To Pimp a Butterfly – Kendrick Lamar 10. Blackstar – David Bowie 9. Transgender Dysphoria Blues – Against Me! 8. Yeezus – Kanye West 7. Awaken My Love – Childish Gambino 6. Random Access Memories – Daft Punk 5. Suck It and See – Arctic Monkeys 4. Iridescence – Brockhampton 3. Danger Days – My Chemical Romance 2. Celebration Rock - Japandroids 1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – Kanye West GAMES  50. Rainbow Six Siege 49. Batman Arkham Knight 48. Dragon Age Inquisition 47. Bastion 46. Heavy Rain 45. Luigi’s Mansion 3 44. Assassin’s Creed 3 43. Inside 42. LA Noire 41. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 40. Battlefield 3 39. Until Dawn 38. Control 37. Doom  36. Modern Warfare 35. Valiant Hearts 34. Return of the Obra Dinn 33. Firewatch 32. Cities Skylines 31. Alien Isolation 30. Skyrim 29. Cuphead 28. Assassin’s Creed Origins 27. Outlast 2 26. Telltale’s The Walking Dead 25. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End 24. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 23. Assassin’s Creed Black Flag 22. Dishonored 21. Horizon Zero Dawn 20. Death Stranding 19. Rocket League 18. Overwatch 17. Super Smash Bros Ultimate 16. Spider-Man 15. God of War 14. PT 13. Grand Theft Auto V 12. Portal 2 11. Batman Arkham City 10. Papers Please 9. Hotline Miami 8. Red Dead Redemption 7. Minecraft 6. Super Mario Odyssey 5. The Last of Us 4. Outer Wilds 3. Red Dead Redemption 2 2. The Last Guardian 1. Bioshock Infinite

[insomniac-arrest]

What're you doing in korea? Is it fun? I wanna go there but I'm afraid

I am teaching english, teaching english is not fun (for me, some people love it), but living here and going on adventures and meeting new people is a whole lot of fun, I’ve had a really good year on a personal level! 

Nah, don’t be afraid it has literally one of the lowest rates of crime in the world- ie very low theft and violent crime, it’s so safe and the big cities are really English-friendly (all the signs have both English and Korean)

culture shock is a thing, but not a huge one, just do some research and dive in, it’s a great experience. 

[fandomgarbitch]

Insanity

in this story Ethan and Grayson are not related. point of view will switch if it isn’t in your point of view I will put the name and bold it so you know who is telling the story.

warning this series will contain: violence, swearing, drug dealing, murder, relationship abuse. 

Grayson held a gun to his head making a shiver run down my spine. I had never seen him act this violent before. I knew this was part of his business. He dealt drugs and this man double crossed him, something no one ever did and lived to tell about it.

“say it.” Grayson seethed. 

“I’m sorry G please.” the man begged as Grayson pressed the barrel of the gun harder against his head. 

I couldn’t watch what was about to go down. I went over grabbing Grayson’s hand, the one that was holding the gun.

“I think he gets it Grayson.” I said shyly. 

I could see Grayson’s jaw clench as he lowered the gun. He signaled for two of his henchmen to take the man away. I looked on as the man screamed while being dragged away. The screaming stopped when the sound of a gunshot went off. 

“I told you to never interfere with my business.” Grayson growled. 

“I’m sorry.” I said backing away from him. 

I had never really been afraid of Grayson before but the look in his eyes and the clench of his jaw made a shiver go down my spine. I couldn’t live this life anymore I knew I had to get out. 

“I’ll be right there.” I called as I put my paint brush down. 

I was currently repainting my apartment. It was run down and nothing worked but it was all I could afford with my waitressing job. I walked over to the door opening it but there was nobody there. I looked down seeing an envelope with my name on it. I rolled my eyes as I picked it up already knowing it's contents. I opened it to see how much he left this time. There were three one hundred dollar bills and a couple twenty dollar bills. I rolled my eyes before grabbing my coat and walking out of my apartment. I knew just where to find him, he didn’t keep his location a secret because no one dared to mess with him. I walked in but was immediately stopped by a large man, he was new I haven’t seen him before. 

“get your hands off of me.” I growled. 

“you want to get to boss you have to go through me.” He said. 

I was about to respond when Alec, another one of Grayson’s men came running over. He quickly pulled the man’s hand from my wrist. 

“are you crazy? that’s G’s girl, if he sees you being rough with her he'll shoot a bullet in your skull.” Alec warned. 

“I didn’t know.” the new guy quickly defended. 

“yeah well now you do, boss is in there.” Alec said pointing to a closed door. 

I rolled my eyes before walking in and throwing the envelope at him. 

“you dropped this.” I said resting my hands on my hips. 

Grayson grabbed the envelope, standing up from his desk and walking in front of me. 

“let me take care of you.” He said extending the money back out to me. 

“I can take care of myself.” I growled. 

It was the same thing every month. Grayson would leave money and I would return it. 

“yeah that’s why you live in a run down apartment in the town with the worst crime rate.” He scoffed.

“I don’t need your blood money Grayson.” I said growling at him.

“blood money? I make this money fair and square, I don’t kill anyone.” He said seething. 

“no, you just have everyone else do your dirty work for you.” I said. 

“please just take it.” He pleaded. 

“I’m doing fine on my own.” I said turning to walk away but Grayson grabbed my arm. 

“stay please.” He begged pulling me in to his strong arms. 

I took a deep breath. It was hard because a part of me was still completely in love with him, but the other part knew that this wasn’t the life I wanted to live. 

“you and I both know I can’t.” I said feeling a tear fall down my cheek.

“I love you.” Grayson said bringing my chin up so I was looking in his eyes. 

“I wish that we true.” I said as another tear fell.

Grayson took his thumb wiping it away.

“it is you know it is.” He said hurt.

“if it was we wouldn’t still be here. Grayson you’re only capable of caring about one person and that’s you.” I said getting out of his arms and walking away. 

He didn’t chase after me, he never does. 

ETHAN

I walked in the precinct sipping on my coffee.

“Captain wants to see you Ethan.” Hillary the receptionist said as soon as I walked in the door. 

I knew better than to keep the Captain waiting. I was a new cop in Brooklyn. It was never a dull day due to all the gangs that took residency here. I lost my brother in a gang shoot out when I was fifteen. I swore from that day forward I’d never let another family go through what mine did. 

“you wanted to see me?” I questioned walking in his office. 

“take a seat.” Captain said. 

I hesitantly pulled out a seat sitting down. I looked at his desk which was littered with arrest reports. He handed me a overfilled file. I looked at the name on top of it. 

Grayson Dolan

I had never heard of him before but by the size of his file he must be pretty popular. I opened it flipping through some of the pages. He had a lot of charges filed against him, including, murder, arson, theft, possession with the intent to sell, smuggling, and the list went on and on. 

“who is he?” I questioned. 

“A genius that’s who. Grayson is the leader of the most popular drug gang in Brooklyn.” Captain said looking at me. 

“and these charges?” I said.

“could never pin it on him, he orchestrates but rarely carries out the dirty work himself. 

“he sounds like a coward.” I said. 

“a dangerous one.” Captain warned. 

I flipped through the file some more when I saw a picture of a girl. I couldn’t deny that she looked beautiful even though she looked scared out her mind in the picture. 

“who’s she?” I asked pulling out the picture. 

“she’s your key to getting him.” Captain said tossing me a bag. 

I looked in the bag to see an ID and a cell phone. 

“I’m Jackson?” I asked looking at the ID.

“Jackson Gray is your new identity. I want you to go undercover. I said that girl was the key and I meant it. I want you to get close to her, get her to trust you, to open up to you. Most importantly you need to protect her. Be careful though, that girl is deadly to be around. Grayson would kill a man who dared touch her. I need you on this Ethan.” Captain explained. 

I took a deep breath. It was all happening so fast but it was happening whether I wanted it to or not. Captain handed me a set of keys and an address.

“here are the keys and address to your new apartment. You are the new neighbor of a certain important female.” Captain said standing up from his desk.

I didn’t know if I could do it. 

“I wouldn’t have picked you if I didn’t believe you could do it.” Captain said offering me his hand. 

I got up shaking it still trying to wrap my head around everything that was happening. I traded my suit and tie for some jeans and a sweatshirt, I traded my new truck for a beat up car. I got in taking one last look at the life I knew, I was about to start a new one.

READER

“you’ve got to be kidding me.” I said grabbing a towel from the cabinet. 

I sighed as the sink was once again leaking, even after paying hundreds of dollars in order for a plumber to fix it. A ring on the door bell snapped me out of my thoughts. I sighed before dropping the towel and going over to the door. I opened it to see a young handsome guy smiling at me. 

“uh hello.” I said smiling back. 

He was about to respond when water shot from the faucet, putting a small hole in the ceiling. 

“I can fix that.”  He said walking in my apartment.

I quickly followed after him. 

“you really don’t have to.” I said.

“do you have a wrench?” He said ignoring me. 

I walked over getting the only wrench I knew of in this shit hole. I gave it to him and he quickly got to work under the sink.

“uh no offence or anything but who are you?” I asked the stranger. 

“I’m Jackson, I just moved in next door and thought I’d introduce myself, good thing I did too.” He said turning the wrench.

“I’m Y/N.” I introduced. 

“Y/N? I like that.” Jackson said. 

I took a second to get a good look at him. Dark eyes matched his dark hair. His jawline was sharp and his body was sculpted with muscle. 

“Jackson you don’t exactly look like someone who should be in this part of town.” I said chewing on my lip. 

“yeah well neither do you.” He said coming from under the sink. 

I couldn’t believe it the sink wasn’t leaking anymore. 

“that should do it.” He said handing me the wrench.

“wow how did you do that?” I asked amazed. 

“I’m pretty good with my hands.” Jackson said laughing. 

“let me pay you.” I said getting out my wallet.

“no need just a friendly gesture.” He said smiling at me. 

“well let me repay you somehow, how about I make you lunch?” I asked him. 

“I might take you up on that offer.” He said smiling. 

I went to the fridge and got the contents to make him and myself a sandwich. 

“so Jackson what brings you to this part of town.” I asked as I made our lunch.

“uh I’m here for work, how about yourself?” He asked. 

I took the sandwich placing it in front of him before taking the seat across from him. 

“I’ve uh made some bad decisions that led me to where I am now.” I said picking at the sandwich. 

“you don’t seem like the type of girl to make bad decisions.” He said staring me down. 

“Jackson you have a lot to learn about me.” I said looking up at him. 

there was a second of silence as we looked at each other. 

“well if you were a bad girl before, you don’t seem like a bad girl now.” Jackson said finishing his sandwich.

“I try not to be.” I giggled biting my lip. 

What the hell was I doing? I didn't even know this guy and here I was flirting with him. I looked out the window seeing something rustling in the bushes. I quickly got up running out the door. I could hear Jackson get up and follow me. I looked around outside but didn’t see anything. 

“everything okay?” Jackson asked looking at me with worried eyes. 

“uh yeah I just thought I saw something.” I said before walking back in my apartment followed by Jackson. 

GRAYSON

Daria held down Leon in a choke hold. 

“I think I’m a pretty giving guy. I mean I give you work, I put food on your table, I give you a place to sleep. Now tell me Lee, I give Daria work, I put food on her table, I give her a place to sleep, so tell me why am I not getting the same respect from you as I get from her?” I asked squatting down to look at him. 

“It won’t happen again boss.” Leon pleaded 

“it better not, or next time I’m going to paint the walls of my office with your blood.” I threatened pulling out my revolver and putting the barrel to his temple.

 I could see him squirm, which was my intention. 

“get out of my sight.” I spit.

Alec came in giving me a concerned look. 

“you better look at this G.” Alec pulled up a picture. 

I clenched my jaw. It was my girl, with another guy. she was laughing. 

“who is he?” I growled. 

“I will find out right away boss.” Alec said. 

I grabbed the phone throwing it against the wall shattering it in to pieces. 

“who the hell does she think she is moving on from me.” I growled. 

“G I can get you some bitches to help you forget her.” Alec said sitting in front of me. 

“I need to see her.” I growled grabbing my car keys.

“you sure that’s a good idea boss?” Alec asked. 

Normally I’d kill a dude for questioning me but Alec was my right hand man, he always had my back and my best interest in mind. 

“I’ll be fine.” I said walking out of the warehouse. 

It didn't take me long to get to her apartment. I could see the fear in the eyes of everyone who dared to look at me. I liked it that way. I banged on her door waiting for her to answer. It didn’t take long before she opened the door. She rolled her eyes looking at me. 

“what do you want?” she asked. 

“who is he?” I asked clenching my fists. 

“Grayson what are you talking about?” She asked looking at me with concern.

“who is he? the guy you were with today? are you fucking him?” I asked.

She rolled her eyes before slamming the door but I caught it pushing my way in to the apartment. 

“are you spying on me now?” she yelled. 

“I have my guys check on you to make sure you’re okay and he comes back with a picture of you with another dude.” I growled.

“Damnit Grayson he’s the new neighbor he was helping me fix the fucking sink is that what you want to hear, you’re a bastard you know that.” she said shoving me.

I clenched my jaw and let her shove me once again. No matter how angry she made me, I could never dream of putting a hand on her. She was to fucking precious. 

“I do it because I love you.” I said grabbing her hands. 

“this isn’t love Gray.” she said pulling away from me. 

I turned around quickly punching the wall leaving a decent sized hole in it.

“WHY CAN’T YOU SEE HOW I FEEL ABOUT YOU.” I yelled. 

I could see the tears run down her cheek. I was about to go comfort her when there was a knock at the door. I let her push past me and open the door. I bit my lip as the guy from the picture entered her apartment.

“everything okay? I heard some yelling and banging.” He said looking at her. 

“uh.” she started but I cut her off.

“everything is fine bro, just having a talk with my girl.” I said emphasizing the word my. 

“Y/N are you okay?” he asked taking her hand in his. 

I could feel my blood boil. I wanted to pull out my gun and shoot him right there, but she would never forgive me if I did. 

“yeah Jackson I’m fine.” She said giving his hand a squeeze. 

I gave him a cocky smirk. 

“you can go now.” I said. 

“actually Jackson stay, goodbye Grayson.” she said holding the door open for me. 

I could hear my heart breaking in to pieces. 

“you should go man.” Jackson said pulling her behind him. 

I scoffed as I walked towards the door. 

“you’re going to regret this.” I whispered at him. 

“obviously you don’t know who I am.” He snapped back. 

“I know exactly who you are, you’re a dead man.” I said before walking out the door. 

part two coming soon, give this a like and a reblog if you like it!

[monstersandmaw]

Male naga x reader (sfw [mostly])

Edit which I’m including in all my works after plagiarism and theft has taken place: I do not give my consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted anywhere. They are copyrighted and belong to me.

I was asked by this anon for a male naga x reader, where naga can be rough and standoffish, and it was a universe where monsters were everyday. So, I present Ascal, a big tsundere naga boy! I left the reader’s gender unspecified. 

SFW (except for a lil moment at the end). I might write a Part Two at some point for Ascal if anyone’s interested. 

“You’re not seriously going out there in this weather, are you?” the massive orc asked you as you drew your hood up over your head to keep the slanting rain out. He had paused in the doorway of the apothecary, holding it open for you as you stepped outside.

You sighed. “Unfortunately, Borruk, yes, I am,” you said. “Amalesse asked me to find some handspan mushrooms for Torrek’s fever. It’s worse. I have to go.”

“Be careful, ok?” he said. “That storm’s gonna get worse…”

You nodded, thanked the big orc, and turned to walk up the main street of the village, heading for the forest.

Handspan mushrooms – great white, floppy fungi that were larger than a man’s hand across and covered on the top with five dark veins like fingers – only grew along the river bank, usually on fallen logs that had been swept into the gulley and lodged there. They were one of the best things for treating fevers, along with willowbark of course, but Healer Amalesse had run out of them in treating the small boy’s fever.

The rain lashed at you as you stepped into the trees, the wet sputter of raindrops on leaves ringing loudly in your ears. The rush of the river in full flood rose above the noise of the rain, and you took a deep breath. This was beyond stupidly dangerous in this weather. The rocks were black and slippery, covered in moss, algae, and lichen, and what was worse, naga lived in this part of the forest.

Humans rarely had anything to do with naga. They hated humans for the intense exploitation they had faced centuries ago, hunted almost to extinction for their richly-scaled skins, or captured and forced to give up their venom for a roaring trade in aphrodisiacs and other potions and remedies. They were aggressive, and a lot of them were huge, and they would usually attack a human on sight. There was no defence against them really, unless you were stupidly good with a sword or bow, and if they came close enough for you to use it, there was a high chance you were already dead.

You took the cloak off so that it wouldn’t snag or get under your feet on the rocks, and began to climb down into the steep gulley to where a large tree had fallen years ago, and was slowly rotting in a crevice. Your shirt stuck to your body almost instantly as the rain soaked through it, but the thought of little Torrek’s face, pale and yet flushed with fever, spurred you on to new depths of stupidity.

You made it to the log, the river rushing past with the force of a six in hand coach at full gallop, and began to break the mushrooms carefully off in such a way that they would grow again. You laid them gently down in layers in the gleaner’s basket you had over one arm. The squalling rain came in gusts, splattering your face and making you shiver and your knuckles hurt with the cold. Water ran down your collar and down your back in rivulets.

As you turned to go back, however, you saw a shape on the far side of the river bank and your blood turned to ice in your veins.

A thick, dark blue-black tail, the colour of the deepest sky right after sunset, was slithering along the top of the bank, and as you turned your eyes up to look at the human torso, you saw bare, chiselled white skin that melted like snow into dark, clawed hands. His eyes were a midnight blue, and they were locked on you. His face was a thunderhead, and fear filled your lungs til you couldn’t breathe. He was huge.

“Oh god,” you whimpered, panic taking over, and you tried to scramble up the bank.

Over the boom of thunder and the whipping, roaring rain, you thought you heard a shout, but you didn’t have the presence of mind to process it. The rocks beneath your palms were sharp and slick and as you neared the top of the bank, you lost your grip and fell. As you went down, the last thing you thought was that at least the water was cold so the naga wouldn’t bother coming to fish you out to devour you. He’d just let you float down stream, and your battered body would come out probably in Ten Mile Lake in about a week.

Then you hit the water and the breath left your lungs.

Everything hurt when you stirred next, and, aside from being vaguely astonished to be alive at all, you wondered why you were lying on something soft and warm and fluffy. Your bed above the apothecary’s shop was soft, but you didn’t sleep on fur. And yet here you were, lying on something warm and fluffy. And you were very much alive.

“Wh-What?” you mumbled as you tried to sit up. Your head hurt and as you brought your hand up to nurse it, you saw bandages across your right palm. “What happened?”

“I think your survival instincts got soggy in the rain,” a deep, sarcastic voice sneered from behind you, and you leapt out of your skin with a small cry. “Pathetic, really,” he added.

You hadn’t been aware that there were hunters living in this part of the forest, but you sat up and turned, fully expecting to see a wild, hairy man, leaning on a staff with an animal trap hanging from one hand or something.

Instead, you turned around and squinted in the darkness. You were in a cave, with a fire crackling away in a pit in the middle, casting strong contrast against the oddly-smooth stone walls. You peered into the shadows at the back of the cave, but saw mostly darkness. Then that darkness moved, a thick coil writhing, and your stomach flipped over.

You shivered and whimpered and tried to stand. Your only thought was escape.

“Please, don’t,” he said flatly. “You’ll only hurt yourself and I’m not going to bother saving your scrawny hide a second time. Plus, it’s still pissing it down. I just got my hair dry.”

You stopped dead, halfway through getting out of the little litter you’d been placed on. Your muscles were weak and there was a prickling feverishness to your skin. You were also stark naked.

“Oh my god,” you yelped, dragging the furs back over yourself to cover your dignity. “Where are my clothes?”

He shifted a little closer, his gleaming scales hardly making a whisper on the cave floor, and pointed a pale hand at a well-made drying rack standing beside the fire. “You’d have caught your death if I’d left you in them. That, or you’d have made the furs smell like a wet werewolf. Either way, I had little choice.”

“You’re not… not going to…” you swallowed thickly, now shivering violently.

“Eat you?” he laughed sourly, leaning into the light of the fire. He had curly black hair that haloed his head and bounced softly whenever he moved, and his cheekbones were high and sharp, his mouth set in a hard line which lent a ferocity to his face that you could really have done without. “Please, you humans are all bone and sinew anyway.” He rolled his dark blue eyes and sighed.

“So why did you pull me out of the river?” you asked, sneezing violently. A heat was prickling up the inside of your skin and you felt hot and cold all over.

“Not sure, if I’m honest. It was a spur of the moment thing,” he said flippantly. “And if you’re going to be sick all over my floor, I might just toss you back in.”

“Please don’t,” you whimpered as you lay back down on the pile of soft furs, tiredness washing over you again. “I don’t want to die…”

And with that you slipped under again.

The fever dreams took you and swept you away with them. Mushrooms big as your hands fell like rain around you, but you couldn’t catch any of them, no matter how hard you tried. A thick tail, a yard across in diameter at the thickest point, coiled around you, scales rippling as it choked the life out of you, the last thing you saw before everything faded were a hundred thousand pinpricks of white in those scales, like distant stars in the sky. Liquid ran over your lips, bitter and awful, and you coughed, choking on it. A hand stroked your damp hair out of your face, only to rake talons over your scalp and leave you breathless and with a different kind of fire beneath your skin.

By the time you came through the other side of your fever, you were exhausted.

You woke with a clear head, and with no idea how much time had passed, to find yourself sitting cradled in a smooth, hard hammock of some sort that was blissfully comfortable, moulded to your body somehow. The cave was pitch black, save for the glowing embers of a dying fire, and you looked towards the entrance see nothing but darkness outside too.

You put your hand out and felt the soft pattern of scales beneath your palm. Recoiling with a gasp, you sat there with your heart pounding. You were lying in the naga’s coiled tail, and, as your eyes got used to the darkness, you realised he was sleeping, lying on top of his own tail, one arm beneath his head, the other dangling down into the centre of the circular coil, the back of his palm touching the back of your arm.

He didn’t look half as intimidating asleep. There was a set of three long scars across his back that looked suspiciously like they’d come from another naga, and you shuddered, thinking of all those stories of violent snake monsters and eviscerated humans…

He shifted, as though stirring from sleep, but you froze and he began to breathe more deeply again.

You were so afraid you thought you’d never get back to sleep, but you woke with a start to find him still coiled around you, daylight flooding into the cave, so you must have done.

He inhaled deeply and opened his endless blue eyes to find you already looking at him. He cocked his head to one side. “You look better,” he said in his slightly husky voice.

Still too frightened to move, you just nodded. His lip twitched and you saw a sharp fang for a moment before he pushed himself upright and uncoiled so that you plopped down onto the furs beneath his body with a very undignified squeak.

“You sound like a mouse, little one,” he laughed as he slithered away to the back of the cave. He glanced over his shoulder and added, “Careful, or I might decide to eat you after all.”

“You won’t eat me now,” you said shakily. You were dressed again, though your shirt was on backwards. You took your arms out of the sleeves and swivelled it around without taking it off, and he watched you, half curious.

“Oh, and why’s that?” he asked. “Why don’t you think I’ll eat you?”

“I’ve been out of it for a while I think,” you said. “You could have had me at any moment…”

“All sweaty and disgusting? I don’t think so,” he scoffed.

He was right. You did smell a bit, but after falling in the river and then descending into a feverish delerium for goodness knew how long, you weren’t exactly surprised.

“What’s your name?” you asked.

He stared at you, then closed his eyes and half turned away. As he did, he hissed, “Ascal.”

You told him yours, but he didn’t seem in the least bit interested.

“Think you can stomach some real food?” he said, but before you had the chance to reply, his whole body went stiff and he hissed, eyes going dangerous.

“What?” you breathed. And then you heard it. Another hissing from outside, calling his name, challenging him.

He was out of the cave in a flash, like a striking viper, and you gasped at how quickly something as big as he was could move.

A crash and another vitriolic hiss sounded from outside, and you tottered carefully to your feet and crossed to the cave mouth.

Ascal was fighting another naga. You knew they were territorial, but you’d never seen anything like this. The raw, unbridled power in each of them took your breath away. His dark, thick tail thrashed as he tried to wrap himself around the body of a thinner naga, which had bright red scales banded with orange and black. This naga was quite obviously a female and she was lighting fast. While she opened her mouth, unhinging her jaw sickeningly wide, she lunged for him. He caught her with his arm and fended her off, all the while trying to coil around her.

They were trading insults in their own language, until she darted at him and sank her teeth into his shoulder. He cried out, but winning that move, she had lost concentration, and he managed to wrap his thick, muscular tail around her. Then he started to squeeze. Just before she passed out, he released her and she flopped, exhausted to the forest floor.

Ascal closed his eyes and shook his head, slanting sideways as the poison in her fangs took effect. He shook his curly hair again and began to lurch towards the cave again.

“Are you alright?” you asked. “She bit you…” You tossed a nervous glance at the prone naga behind him.

“I won. Sssshhe hasssss to leave now,” was all he said as he slithered awkwardly inside, his words slurring. He fell forwards with a crash onto the stone, hardly breathing.

You stared at the other naga, but she just opened her mouth and hissed at you before slinking away through the trees.

“Ascal?” you asked, touching his slowly bleeding shoulder. “Ascal…”

His breath was starting to wheeze and pull in his chest. “Antidote,” he rasped, pointing at the back of the cave. “Salve… white ceramic…” he gasped, and you flew to the back of the cave where a row of different coloured jars sat on a polished stone shelf, chiselled from the rock.

Returning with it you smeared a load of it on the wound. It was thick and creamy as butter, and he grunted as it hit his skin. He lay there, the tip of his tail still sticking out into the daylight, and it was the first time you’d really had the chance to look properly at him.

Those hundred thousand stars you’d seen in a midnight sky during your fever dreams were the tiniest points of light in his scales. The transition from tail to human torso was beautiful, the scales fading into skin that was surprisingly soft. He was utterly flawless apart from those three gashes on his back.

His breathing evened out and, to your surprise, he seemed to recover almost completely within an hour. He pushed himself up off the floor with a throaty groan and hauled himself upright, using the cave wall to support himself. He turned his gaze down to where you stood staring up at him with mingled fear and awe on your face.

“Thank you,” he hissed. “Guess we’re even now.”

You couldn’t speak as you were confronted with the full sight of him for the first time. Before you’d only glimpsed flashes of him, but now, he stood before you, a towering mass of muscle and lithe body, and all the words in your brain fled from you. You kept recalling the way he’d fought, the way he’d shot from the cave before you’d even had time to start feeling frightened.

“Don’t tell me you’re afraid of me now?” he sneered.

“I…” you gulped, mouth working like a landed carp’s. “I… I’m not… I guess, I’m just…”

He cocked a dark eyebrow.

“You’re beautiful,” you breathed before you could stop yourself.

He snorted, shattering the spell he’d somehow cast on you. “I think that fall in the river tangled your wits, little mouse.”

“Don’t call me that,” you blushed.

He reached his hand down to your chin and tilted it upwards, those smoke-coloured fingers ending in vicious, onyx talons with cruel points. His touch was delicate, like you were the first flower of spring. “But you are little, and you are timid, little mouse,” he said, smiling, and for the first time, his smile held no disdain or sarcasm. It was breathtakingly soft.

Your eyes darted to the cave mouth again, and he said, “You could have left me, you know.”

“What? But you’d have died!”

He stared at you then and it was like being lanced through the chest and pinned to the wall.

“What?” you blurted, taking half a step backwards, not realising that the fire pit was directly behind you. Your heel caught on the ring of protective stones and you toppled backwards. Except, you didn’t fall.

His tail whipped around to catch you, and steadied you.

He shook his head and rolled those dark blue eyes. “Honestly. How do you survive even a single day on your own?”

“Normally I don’t have a dirty great naga frightening the living daylights out of me,” you snapped, turning around. “Now, am I free to go?”

He was silent and you turned as you picked up the gleaner’s bag. It was full of mushrooms – more than you remembered collecting. When he didn’t answer, you turned to look at him and he was staring at you with big, dolorous eyes. “Do I truly frighten you?” he asked in a small voice.

You looked at his thick tail, the one that had wrapped around the other naga with the clear intent to kill her. You looked at the hook-like talons at his hands. You glanced up at his lips, behind which he had his own fangs, probably dripping with a similar poison that would kill you in seconds. And then you looked at his eyes. There was nothing but sadness in them now. “A little, I suppose,” you said.

“You ran from me the moment you saw me,” he said, his rich, husky baritone filling the cave, though he wasn’t speaking particularly loudly. “You were terrified of me.”

You shuffled uncomfortably, remembering the way your heartbeat had spiked, how blind panic had seized you, mind and body… “I was,” you admitted. “I’ve only ever heard stories of naga. You hate us, you’ll kill us if you get the chance… I was… really afraid of you.”

He sighed and touched his fingertips to the bite-marks on his shoulder. They had gone down now with the effects of the balm, and he looked only a little weary. He must have had a high tolerance for the venom. As his torso twisted, you saw the three scars on his back again, and when you looked up at his face again, his gaze was on you. “Admiring my pretty marks?” he spat.

“How did you get them?” you asked tentatively.

His eyes went to the cave mouth and he said, “That bitch and I have had a long-running feud. She’s determined to mate with me, but I’m not interested.”

“Mate with you? That’s… That’s naga courtship? She nearly killed you!”

He laughed, a hollow, bitter sound. “Hardly the roses and love songs of you humans, right?” he leered.

You wondered vaguely how he knew of human courtship, but as you looked around the cave, you saw books lining the upper shelves. You crossed over to them and looked up. There were titles ranging from encyclopaedias and histories to cookery books and romance novels. “You like to read then,” you smiled. “Where do these all come from?” You’d certainly never seen any naga in the town when you’d travelled there.

“Tinkers and wandering tradesmen will often sell to us,” he said, slithering over on silent scales to pull one down. It fell open at a well-thumbed page, and he held it out to you. “My favourite,” he said.

It was a fairy tale, of all things.

The daughter of a caravan merchant gets separated from the train of wagons and finds herself in the naga king’s castle.

He smiled sadly and turned away while you ran your fingers delicately over the hand-painted illuminations. The naga king looked a bit like him. “Is this why you trade with men from their caravans?” you asked, aiming for teasingly playful and missing. It came out strangely choked. “Hoping to meet your own ‘dark eyed wanderer’?”

“Maybe I have?” he laughed sourly and you turned to see him leaning against the circle of rock that formed the opening to the cave. He wasn’t looking at you. You set the book down on a ledge and went over to him, your feet hardly making any noise on the solid rock floor. His scars looked ragged but old in this light, and you extended a hand and touched them with trembling fingertips.

He hissed and jerked his head around, but while you flinched, you quickly returned to trailing them down his back. He shivered as you passed over the transition from unbelievably soft skin to smooth, hard scales.

“I should take you back to your people,” he said, lurching away, out into the forest clearing beyond.

“Wait,” you said, snatching up your cloak from the drying-rack by the fire. It was warm and you snuggled into it as you scurried out after him. You suddenly remembered the basket of mushrooms and darted back for that. He was waiting for you on the far side of the clearing when you returned, his formerly-soft face now hard and his eyes cruel again.

“You don’t have to come with me,” you said. “I don’t want to put you out…”

“It’s no trouble,” he muttered. “Besides, she might try and take you from me, little mouse. Present your corpse to me like a cat at my doorstep…”

You shivered at that. “Does she live nearby then?”

“No,” he said, adding a heartbeat later, “Thank god. But every time she’s in season, she passes through and hopes to win a quick fuck out of me.”

“Talk about not getting the message,” you said, struggling to keep up with him at the pace he moved. “Well,” you said breathlessly, “Thanks all the same.”

He fell silent as he wove between the trees. You began to trail behind, tired after your fever and encumbered as you were by the basket on your arm, but you didn’t call out to him. Eventually after what felt like miles, he slowed, but he didn’t look at you.

Up ahead you could see the familiar tiled roofs of the village. “How… How did you know this is where I live?” you asked as it dawned on you that he’d led you here without you having to tell him.

He stared straight ahead, his forked tongue darting out momentarily, tasting the air. “I’ve seen you before,” he said eventually. “In the woods. Never so close to where I live, but… I knew you had to be from here.”

You sighed, knowing you’d have to part ways. Then again, maybe not. “Wait,” you said as he turned to go, and you grabbed his wrist.

He went rigid beneath you and then looked down at you. His eyes were all sad again, like an animal left tethered behind.

“Thank you for saving my life.”

He smiled and brought his free hand to your face. His skin was cool and smooth as he cupped your cheek. His thumb traced an arc over your cheekbone before he let go of you, eyes glittering strangely. “I’m glad I did,” he said. “Little mouse.”

You smiled at that. “Can… Can I come and see you again?” you asked, swallowing nervously. “Next time I’m out gathering ingredients?”

He inhaled deeply, seeming torn right down the middle. Finally he said, “I would like that.” He spoke slowly, cautiously. “But you have to be careful.”

“I won’t try to go swimming again without you,” you joked.

“I mean it,” he snarled, drawing himself up. “Not all of us are so… patient with humans.”

You raised your eyebrows.

“I know I was rude to you, but there are naga out here who will do worse than give you a sharp word.” He lowered himself so that he was at eye level with you and took your face in his hand again.

You closed your eyes and moaned softly at his smooth palm on your hot face, nuzzling slightly into it. You heard him take a shaky breath and the next thing you knew, his cool lips were on yours. Your eyes flashed open at that, but he didn’t stop kissing you.

His tongue darted out and you parted your lips to let him taste you. He groaned with pleasure, deepening the kiss, his other hand twisting free of your grasp to tangle in your hair. His breath came in fast pants and his dark blue eyes rolled shut with heady pleasure.

Then, as unexpectedly as it had begun, the kiss ended. He hissed and pulled away. Voices carried on the wind, a dog barking. “I must go,” he said.

“I’ll come and find you!” you called as he slithered away like a shadow from a flickering candle.

You stepped from the trees, lips tingling, and wondered if it was the remnants of his venom in his saliva. You were hot and flushed all over. Naga venom was used in aphrodisiacs after all. It caused racing hearts, raging hormones and pounding blood. Too much of it, and the heart beat itself to death in minutes.

Just a taste and… well…

Masterlist can be found here.