#I find Emmy’s quite interesting all things considered | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

nyssandracousland · 3 months ago

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Chapter 7

Nyss and Cullen found some nourishment on their way to find an empty place to play chess. Nyss snacked happily on some fine cheese as he set up the board.

Cullen had taken her to a balcony with a table that looked out over the Frost Backs. They glistened with fresh snow and looks magnificent in the slowly setting sun.

As they played, Nyss started to noticed things he would do when making a move. He would tuck his hair behind his ear, or he would get a twinkle in his eye just before he made a successful overtake. She found this interesting. Her own tells were not quite as clear. Nyss never took herself as a very good player, but she always gave it her all. Her father loved to play games with her, so she at least had a bit of knowledge.

“Have you always lived in Highever?” He asked her.

“Yes, I was born there. My brother Fergus was born in Denerim. He’s quite a bit older than me, but he is a good brother.”

“Earlier you mentioned you want to have adventure in your life. What kind of adventure?”

“I want to save people from wicked foes, be a great warrior like my father, and use my social power to right wrongs. It sounds idealistic, but I have no desire to marry someone who only cares about how his outer appearance looks and how much land he has-I want to be with the people, in the thick of it, trying to give them better lives.”

“Have you trained to fight?”

“Why? Do you want to duel me?” She raised an eyebrow as she made a move on the chess board.

“Perhaps, if you would be willing I think that could be fun.”

Nyss smiled, “I trained my entire life, Emmy and I would train with Ser Gilmore, a knight in my fathers house, and Fergus taught me all he knew as well. I would spend hours practicing my skills. Emmy was able to practice far more, as she wasn’t a lady who needed to have the utmost training for her future. I always have been jealous of her for that freedom she possessed.”

“I can understand that.” Cullen smiled, and took Nyss’ rook. “You see, I’m from a farming family. ‘The Rutherford Family Farm’, I wanted to help the ones who needed it. They fear a Blight may be on its way, and I want to be ready to take care of things when that time comes.”

“A Blight? I have heard whispers, but one has not happened in a long time, what proof is there?”

“You ask good questions, but the Grey Wardens have senses about these things, they know Blights can happen far before we do. I am not sure how, but they do.”

“I would love to be a Grey Warden. They work good towards those they serve and protect. They are of the highest honor in my fathers house. He fought with them all those years ago.” Nyss said proudly.

“They are an esteemed group of people, I find it fascinating you would give up your status and title to be one.” Cullen gazed out the towards the mountains, “A woman of your age and charisma could do wonders in the Royal Court you know, have you ever considered that?”

“I have not, no one has ever called me charismatic before. I mostly get told to keep my mouth shut” She frowned.

“Well, it’s apparent.” He says back, “Your move My Lady.”

Nyss looked at the board and made her move. Cullen smiled, reached over. “Checkmate.” He said proudly.

“Ah, well played Ser Templar.” She stood and gave him a Nobel curtesy, using her tunic as a makeshift dress.

He laughed at her attempt.

The moon had come out during their game and it shon off her ashen hair. She saw Cullen look away quickly.

“Was it something I said?” She asked quietly.

“Oh, no, no My Lady. I just, I realized..” he trailed off.

“Yes?”

“It is late, let’s get you back to your room so you can relax. Tomorrow I have another place I would like to show you.

They walked back to her room, and instead of following behind, Cullen slowed his gait so they walked side by side. Nyss let her mind wander as they walked back and said out loud “In such a big cold place, does he ever miss his family?”

“I do actually, I get letters from them regularly.”

“I have to stop staying things in my head out loud. I tend to do that quite a lot these days. I’m sorry.”

“No harm, it’s been nice having some company today, it’s not every day a Templar gets to have a fascinating woman around.” He said shyly. He turned the corner and opened her door to her room.

This was her chance to ask a small favor. “Cullen, I - I know we do not know each other well, but could you at least get a message to Emmy for me? Just a quick one?” She asked eagerly.

“I will see what I can do for you my lady.”

Nyss walked into the room, and found a small piece of parchment. She quickly scrawled across it a brief message and handed it to Cullen.

“I appreciate this, I do not need a response.” She said, her eyes shining with a glimmer of hope.

With that Cullen bid her goodnight, bowed and took his leave. She could hear his boots in the hallway as he walked away. She was happy she was able to calm her heart for a day to be able to focus on something other than her friend.

Nyss felt as if she was betraying Emmy for having a lovely day with him, but she needed it in order to keep her from going mad and imagining what horrors her friend would face alone.

Finally she laid down on her bed, and tried to savor every moment. Replaying each second as if it just happened.

She smiled as she remembered when Cullen checked her king.

Cullen walked down the hallway away from Nyss’s room. He palmed the small piece of parchment in his hand. ‘If I only had had a friend like her in my life.’ He thought.

He admired her ability to love a mage, and her sense of justice. He liked that she had a good sense of humor, and he was captivated by the fact that she wanted more out of life than to marry and live in court as a staunchly Noble.

Cullen looked down at his hand. He fought with the urge to open the parchment or not. He took a breath, and unrolled it.

“Emmy, I keep you in my prayers to the Maker. I love you.”

A simple note, a simple thought, a simple love sent. Friendship in the Templar order was not entirely uncommon. Everyone looked out for one another but forming close bonds were usually unheard of.

Cullen normally felt isolated because of this. Although he was doing what his heart always wanted him to do, he missed companionship. Having someone spend time with him the last day and a half was very much appreciated, especially it being with this young woman. He really admired Nyss and Emmy’s bond of friendship.

He walked into the dank corridor that housed the mages. All that could be heard as he walked down the hallway was the anguished cries of those inside.

Chapter 8

Day three in the Circle tower was a new experience.

Nyss spent each moment with Cullen, and they continued to bond over chess and Thedas history. She realized that having someone to actually talk to about it was far more interesting than being taught in her classes or reading it alone.

However, the more she learned about the Circle and what the Tower signified the more uneasy she became.

Cullen also took Nyss to the gardens on this day, he showed her each flower and explained what their medicinal properties were.

“When I was around eight, Mia found me in a bush covered in lesions. It would not have been so bad except it was Rashvine. She took me home, made up a salve, and applied it to my irritated skin. It gave me so much relief. Ever since then, I have been interested in herbalism.” He said.

“That is impressive. I wish I had more knowledge on the subject. Your skills would prove useful in a battle.” She smiled, “I like traps. Especially the exploding kind.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. I dare say you have probably set them out for Emmy at one time or another as practice.” He joked.

“Well, we liked to play jokes on each other and I knew she had been trying to figure one out for me. So I set up a trap at the entrance of my bedroom, and I heard it go off. She was standing there covered in saw dust.” Nyss laughed, “we called a truce after that ordeal.”

Cullen grinned. “I would have liked to have seen that.”

“My mother was so upset. ‘You’re suppose to be a lady, not a alchemist’ she seethed at me!” She smiled fondly at the situation, “The mess it caused was horrendous, but my father was proud and Fergus was even more proud because I didn’t blow the whole castle up!”

Cullen smirked and walked over to a bench. As he sat down, he motioned for Nyss to join him. He was wearing his robes again, not the full Templar Armor.

He turned and leaned his head in to her. His lips moved close to her ear.

“I got your message to Emmy.” He said quietly.

Nyss froze. “Did you- did you see her?” She asked anxiously.

“I did not My Lady. I slid the paper under her door.” He bowed his head, “Maker be with her.”

“Do I sense a glimmer of compassion?” She asked raising an eyebrow.

“For you both. This cannot be easy. I have never seen friendship truly. This touches my heart.”

Nyss leaned back and looked up to the blue skies above. “If I could take her place, I would.”

“I know.” Cullen too leaned back and tilted his head skyward. “Do you, believe in the Maker my lady?”

“I am not sure. My mother is the devout Andrastian, how do you think I got my name?”

“Nyss?”

She nodded. “Nyssandra. My mother insisted on honoring Andraste. While my father was going to name me Fergus II or something.”

“He has a sense of humor I see.”

“The best. I have been blessed if you will with parents who love me.” She paused. “Too much sometimes.”

Cullen smiled, “I do not think we can be loved too much. We crave it. Especially children.”

Nyss smiled and got to her feet. The day had moved along quickly, so Cullen took her back to the Great Hall for their evening meal.

As they walked in, she looked around eagerly to see if any new Templars had joined them that night. Greagoir was there, but he sat apart from the men. The scowl he had on his face never seemed to go away.

“Does he ever smile?” Nyss quietly asked herself.

“Only when he’s telling people about his true love, the Tower.” Cullen teased.

“I really need to stop thinking out loud.”

Cullen cocked his head to the right, “It is quite endearing.” His cheeks turned a faint shade of red.

There were no new men joining that night, and the meal was delicious. Nyss hoped Emmy was eating as well as she was. She also hoped that someone on the other side of that over bearing door was showing her some form of empathy.

After their supper, and a few glasses of wine, Cullen and Nyss headed back to her room. “You stand here every night?” She said as she stopped outside her door.

“Yes. Well, I do not stand the whole time.” He smiled.

“That makes me feel slightly better for pushing you out of your room.” She paused and looked at Cullen “Goodnight good Ser. Till morning.”

“Maker be with you.” He bowed.

Nyss walked in the room and slowly shut the door. She washed her face, and neck, then took the book out she had borrowed from the Circle Library. She started to leaf through the pages and got to a chapter that discussed “The Harrowing.” It had been ripped out. She found this extremely odd, but made a note that tomorrow she would ask Cullen to address it.

She laid down and her mind imagined what Emmys wedding dress would look like. Emmy was large busted and short in stature. She imagined her wearing a beautifully styled white wig and a ball gown that would put most Nobel women to shame. Nyss smiled at the ridiculousness of her imagination, and fell asleep.

The dawning of day four made Nyss’s heart glad. She was over the halfway point when she could see her friend again.

Cullen knocked on her door and brought in her breakfast. She was disappointed he had no news to report on Emmy, but she understood that he was with her, which meant he was probably removed entirely from the situation.

“It really isn’t necessary to bring me my breakfast, I can get up earlier.” She said.

“It is my pleasure My Lady, I enjoy the discussions we have while you eat. I figure we can speak more freely when they eyes of the entire Ferelden Order are not upon us.” He smirked, his normally smooth face dusted with a slight shadow from being unshaven.

“That is true, I have never done well in crowds.” She took a bite of her fresh bread.

“Nor have I. I was ten when my mother and father asked me to sing I front of the town as part of the Chantry. I was terrified. I have never enjoyed that attention.” He said.

“Now that is something I would have loved to see. A young Cullen Rutherford, in his best Chantry robes, singing at nearly the age when the voice can crack unexpectedly. I would have paid to see it.” She grinned.

“Don’t forget the crowds that throw rotten vegetables at you when you miss a note - I fed my family for a month with the tomatoes they threw.” He laughed.

Nyss liked that he laughed. He was loosening up, and she was slowly letting her guard down around him. She continued with her next thought.

“As a Nobel, I would go to Court with my parents. So many people fussing over you, so many people to impress with your looks and appearance. I hated it. One year my parents were asked to host - I was sixteen and expected to be part of the greeting party.” She smiled, “you can imagine what happened.”

“Did you run out mid way through and go to the stables to be with the horses?” He laughed.

Nyss stared at him, “That is exactly what I did.”

Cullen smiled at her, his amber eyes danced. “I really would expect nothing less.”

She continued to eat her breakfast and he told her what he had planned for the day.

“I was thinking, would you like to see the Templar Armory?”

“I would love to!” She said excitedly.

“Excellent, once you are done, we can go. I had already gotten permission from Greagoir to show you the area. He seems to appreciate your interest in such things. He definitely said ‘Not like most Nobels is she?’”

“Should I be flattered or offended?”

“Flattered, the ones we usually have to deal with can be so ornery.”

Nyss finished her breakfast and tied her boots. As they walked down a new hallway she studied the paintings in the wall.

“Is everything about Andraste here?” She asked.

“Well we are a Order founded on the Chantry, so I would have to say yes.” Cullen teased.

Nyss sighed, “I wish I believed more than I did. It must be comforting to have that faith.”

Cullen winced, “Sometimes, other times it can make a person angry. Why does he allow what he so hates? Like Mages. It gets confusing.”

Nyss could see he was not comfortable with the subject so she switched topics. “You know Emmy would love the armory. You should see her chain mail, it is absolutely beautiful.”

Cullen grinned and opened the giant door in front of them, they stepped in and he lit a torch.

The light from the torch beamed off of every piece of metal it could. Walls lined with armor, swords. Shields, bows, arrows. All gilded with gold and silver. Nyss took a deep breath, she had never seen so much weaponry in her life.

“This is amazing” she said picking up a Templar Sword.

“I agree. When you become a Templar they bring you here and you pick out your weapon of choice as well as get fitted for your armor.” Cullen by reached down and picked up a Templar Helm that was sitting on a low shelf. He walked over to Nyss and placed it in her head.

“So I am a Templar now?” She giggled under the heavy steel helm.

“It would be fun having you around more. It would give me someone to talk to.” He blushed.

“Templar Nyssandra Visus Cousland!” She joked, “It sounds great, but I could never be part of something I do not fully agree with.”

Cullen took the helm off of her head and her hair softly tumbled out. “That is why I respect you My Lady.” He said pushing a lock out of her face.

She froze. It was a simple gesture, but one that made her cheeks turn pink.

They continued to poke around a bit more, and then Nyss remembered to ask him about the chapter missing from her book.

“Cullen, the book I borrowed from the Library, why is the a chapter on “The Harrowing” ripped out?”

“The Harrowing? Do you know what it is?”

“No that is why I’m confused.”

“Basically it’s the final test of an apprentice Mage. If they pass it, they become a full Circle Mage.”

“And if they don’t?” She asked, cocking her head to the side.

“My Lady, they are…” his voice trailed off. She could tell he didn’t want to say the words she knew he had too.

“They are murdered?” Her eyes became large and fearful.

“Well, yes and no. If they fail, they end up possessed and we have to end their life. So call it murder if you will but we call it controlling the outcome.” He looked to his feet and shifted uneasily.

Nyss blood got hot, but she knew it was not he who made the rules. She took a deep breath.

“Thank you for telling me.” She placed her hand on his arm. “I appreciate your truthfulness.”

Cullen looked at her and nodded. Nyss knew that he was becoming her friend all too easily and delivering these words hurt him. He didn’t want to see his new friend feel sad.

Nyss looked at his soft eyes, they reminded her of honey that had been left out in the air too long. Soft and sweet. Emmy would have agreed. She took her hand off his arm and walked to the other end of the Armory.

She studied the pictures on the walls, and picked up a cloak that was made from fine linen.

“Who uses this?” She asked, trying to break any tension.

“I am not sure, it is the first time I’ve seen it. It’s not Templar or Mage garb.” He felt the material. “It feels more like a traveling cloak.” He took it and wrapped it around Nyss shoulders.

It was warm and soft. It was made of fine light linen but it felt heavy at the same time. Nyss rubbed her neck on the side touching her. “It is lovely.”

Cullen looked at the woman in front of him. She was smart, jovial, she loved people. His heart beat faster. He wrapped her tighter in the cloak, and pulled up its hood around her alabaster face. He wanted to pull her in, feel her lips on his. Just once, to experience this new feeling he had in his heart.

He broke away from the thought quickly.

“If you’d like it, I think you should take it.”

“I can’t do that without permission.” She said.

“I give it to you. You need something to remember the Circle by, and if you plan on adventuring in this world, I think you need to start with the right cape.” He smiled.

Nyss looked down at herself. She was wearing brown trousers that were worn and weathered from her journey. Her tunic was greyed from the trip to the Circle, and her shoes were brown and mud covered. She loved having the cloak wrapped around her, it made her feel invisible.

“This is perfect. Thank you so much.” She wanted to hug him, but resisted.

Cullen could see her face beaming. He smiled at her. “We have been here for quite some time, let’s go get something to eat. It’s been a busy day.”

Nyss and Cullen made their way up through the Armory to the Great Hall and sat at their usual table.

Today, they had a few Templars join them. Nyss was happy to converse but she remembered what her father said about them. She had confidence in her Templar Guard, but not the others. However, she answered all the questions they asked of her.

“What is it like to go to Court?” A young man asked.

“How old are you?” Another questioned.

“Why do you protect Mages?” A grumpy Templar quizzed.

“How often do you study battle tactics as a Nobel Woman?”

The questions seemed to last a long time, but Nyss did her best to answer diplomatically and eloquently as she could. She may have hated crowds but she was decent at pretending she was good at it.

Once they ate and had their fill, Cullen asked Nyss “So, when do you want to duel?”

“Let’s go now!” She said excitedly

Cullen laughed. “I never though you’d be that excited.”

Nyss shrugged “I have to prove to you I’m not just another annoying privileged Nobel.”

“You really see yourself as such?”

“I do.”

Cullen smirked, “Trust me My Lady, if you truly were that, I would have not been so keen on conversation with you.”

Nyss smiled. Maybe she was being too hard on herself, she thought but it kept her humble.

The pair made their way out to the training yard by the Armory. It was a large covered area with training dummies and the ground had lots of straw. It had weapon racks as well as benches to sit on. There was shields, bows, arrows, swords. There was also scrawled across the wall “To Serve Man.” Nyss rolled her eyes then turned around and saw Cullen on the opposite side of the room.

“Since we are both not wearing heavy armor, we have to use these.” He passed her a wooden sword with a pad on the end. “That way you’ll only bruise instead of bleed.” He laughed.

“Nothing new to me!” She responded and took her place in front of him.

“Alrighty My Lady, there is only one rule, touch and it’s over.”

“Sounds good to me Ser.” Nyss took her battle stance as did Cullen.

Nyss crossed her feet over each other and continued to lead him in a circle around her in almost a dance like manner. Every time he would step forward she would step back. Every time she would parry he would block.

It was almost as if they were waltzing, perfectly in tune with one another. The sound of wood on wood echoed in the large room. Cullens brow started to glisten and Nyss started to wonder if we was trying to let her win.

Back and forth across the room they dueled. Finally she thought she had him. She turned quickly and slid under his arm turned to him and took a jab. The sound of wood on his metal shield. He was too fast.

“Ser you are a worthy opponent!” She smiled.

“As are you My Lady.” He grinned.

Finally Nyss tried a maneuver Fergus had taught her, she let Cullen parry at her and instead of blocking she swiftly moved out of the way, and rolled her back long his, turned and stabbed him in the arm.

Cullen laughed. “You did it! I was wondering when you’d get me.”

“You were waiting?” She asked.

“I see how well you have been trained, and you deserved the win.” He said happily.

“I was half expecting you to use your Templar talents on me.”

“My Lady, you’re not a Mage, so I really have nothing to use against you.” Cullen walked over to Nyss. “You really are good, I’m impressed.”

“Thank you, Emmy and I worked hard to learn. I can dodge fire balls usually as well.” She cracked a smile.

They had dueled a few more times before deciding it was time to go to bed. Nyss enjoyed the challenge and Cullen finally learned her weakness. Once he realized she moved slower to the right than the left, he took full advantage and was able to beat her multiple times.

They left the training area and made their way back up to her room. The lights had gone out in the hallway, so she knew it was getting late into the night.

Nyss said goodnight to Cullen and walked to her bed. She put on her sleeping trousers, shirt and laid down in the soft pillowy escape of slumber. “Maker, help Emmy.” Was all she said.

As pondered her day, Nyss was overjoyed she got to demonstrate her skills. She felt like no one really cared if she could fight after all, so this made her proud.

Time had passed and she still couldn’t force herself to sleep. She tried her usual tricks of imagining stories, and counting Griffons, but Emmy seemed to be on her mind more than she could bear.

Finally, she decided if she could not sleep, she was going to go and watch the stars like she loved to do in Highever. She grabbed a blanket, a pillow and wrapped herself in the cloak Cullen had gifted to her. She slowly walked to the door and gently opened it.

She looked down the hall to the right, dark, but all clear. She turned her head to the left, dark, and - what was that? She squinted her eyes in the dim hallway. She moved closer and realized it was Cullen sleeping on a cot outside her door. His boots were sitting at the end of his bed, and he was wrapped up in a wool blanket.

Nyss smiled, ‘He really takes guarding me seriously.’ She thought as she silently moved past him. Once she was about 20 feet away she oriented herself in the hallway. She remembered where the balcony was that she and Cullen had played a chess on a few days prior.

The moonlight beamed through the Towers windows and lit her path. She made it to the balcony area and realized just how clear the night sky was.

She laid out her blanket, and her pillow. She wrapped the cloak tight around her and pulled up the hood. She then laid down on her back and faced the stars. They danced and sang to her. They twinkled and they swayed. Nyss figured out which stars were which and could figure out the direction of home from that balcony.

She smiled, ‘I’ve only been gone a short time and I miss them all.’ She thought. ‘I cannot imagine how Emmy or Ser Gilmore is feeling.’

Nyss laid there and reflected on the times she and her friend would do the same. It was a night like this, spring, warm with a slight breeze when she had first told Nyss about her love for Ser Gilmore. ‘She will never get to see him again.’ Nyss thought sadly. A tear rolled from her eye to her ear.

Nyss had become so absorbed in the sky that she didn’t notice the hurried footsteps approach her.

“My Lady? Nyssandra? Is that you?” A quiet voice called.

Nyss sat up and rested on her elbows. “Yes, it is me.”

“My Lady, you cannot roam about alone.” Cullen said relieved as he walked out of the shadow into the moonlight.

“I am sorry, you looked so peaceful, I didn’t want to wake you.”

Cullen ran his hand through his blonde hair. The moon light made it look like wheat touched by frost. “I was just worried.” He said sitting down beside her on the blanket. “I want no one to think you are planning anything. Give them no cause for doubt.”

“You mean trying to break her out?” She smiled, then laid back down. “No Ser Templar I have no intention of that. I understand what is happening.”

Cullen looked down at her, and laid back as well. She pulled the pillow from behind her so he could share it too.

Their heads touching, they looked up to the black sky.

“So what are we looking at?” He asked.

“The stars. We always did this together.”

“Do you know much about them?”

“I’m named after that constellation.” She pointed.

“You have to forgive me, but I see nothing.”

Nyss found his hand and wrapped her fingers around his, then used her index finger to point up and map the constellation.

“See there, the stars shaped like the eye and sword? That’s Visus. That’s my middle name.” She smiled.

“Why Visus?”

“My mother tells me that Andraste thought it was the eye of the Maker himself and used it to navigate.” She sighed and let go his grasp.

“Your mother really loves Andraste.” He smiled.

“Yea, she is a big admirer.” Nyss laid her arm down by her side and so did Cullen. The back of his hand touched hers and she felt a shock of nerves crawl up her arm and into her stomach. She took a short breath. ‘No. It cannot be.’ She shushed to her mind.

The breeze was lovely this night and it pushed the hood from Nyss face. Her hair moved to and fro. Cullen looked at her, and for the first time realized her scar.

“My Lady what happened to your neck?” He asked.

“Oh, my brother Fergus a few months back caught me with his sword. I’ve been able to hide it well, but I fear it will be with me forever.”

“But what happened?”

“We were practicing and I lost focus - it was a good lesson for me.” She shifted and raised her hand to her ear. “I got distracted and he clipped me.” She touched her scar. “It bled so badly, I was hoping no one would notice.”

“I think it makes you look enough more fierce.” He laughed.

Nyss smiled at him. She laid there a moment then asked, “If you didn’t become a Templar, what did you want to become?”

Cullen took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I probably would have continued to be a farmer. To enlist in the military, and to have a family and a Mabari. I try not to think of it. I have given myself to the Maker and I feel as if I would be betraying him if I thought in any other way.”

Nyss understood. He was tied to the order, but she found it interesting that he did have ideas of how things could have gone.

“I have a Mabari, his name is Orli.” Nyss started to tell Cullen about her magnificent hound and all his quirks.

“He sounds fantastic, I would love to meet him.”

“When you take me to Highever I will introduce you.” She smiled. “He loves belly rubs.”

The night progressed during their discussion, as the sky started to bleed into the sunrise.

“I am so sorry, we have been talking all night. I did not realize just how late it was.” Nyss apologized.

“No harm, come get some rest, and we will make a plan for whenever you wake.” Cullen stood and offered her his hand. She got up and her body shivered. “You are cold, why didn’t you mention it?” He asked.

“Sorry I was just happy to have someone to talk to I completely forgot.”

Cullen stood there looking at her. She hadn’t worn shoes and was shivering, but the smile she gave him could light The Wilds on fire. He took her hands in his and proceeded to warm them up.

Nyss heart jumped. She was being touched by a man she barely knew but she thoroughly enjoyed it. Cullen was something different. He was all work, but had a soft underside of him. He smiled at her when he felt her flinch as he grabbed her hands.

“Sorry I never had…” and she trailed off.

“Hmm?” He sounded.

“I have never had a man touch my hands like this before. It makes me feel like I have lightening bolds running down my arms.” She said quietly.

Cullen looked at her hands and grinned. “I feel them too.”

He walked her back to her room and she laid on the bed. Nyss rolled over and could not stop her mind from thinking about him. ‘This is stupid, stop it.’ She kept telling herself.

Guilt overwhelmed her.

She should be thinking of Emmy, not her own strange feelings. She scrunched her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

0 notes

emelinecormier · 2 years ago

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karuna nadar:

"That...is a fantastic question, and I'm so glad you asked it." For a moment, Karuna paused to run her fingers over an old china doll. It was a little worn, mostly in the hair and some spots where the paint had rubbed off, but still lovely and obviously hand crafted. "Take this doll for example. It's no less a doll, but it doesn't quite keep with the demand of modern dolls meant to be played with, ya know. That's how it is with the cameras. Most of the ones we might find here are usable if you got film for them or made sure their insides worked okay. But no one is really using film cameras anymore, it's all digital. That's the content and the supplies that are current and available and expected. Which means the other cameras, even if in working condition...they're just nostalgia and eye candy for people who are passionate about antiques or cameras." This particular shop was a bit of a hodge podge mess of disorganization and they'd somehow gone from dolls and shelf items to several racks of clothing items. "I had a friend once who loved to make stuff out of antiques. She took a lens from an old camera and literally fashioned it into a coffee mug. It was cute as hell. People...we just cling to nostalgia ya know. How things were done in the past, what we grew up with."

Emmy looked toward the doll her friend pointed out and she wanted to immediately interrupt her to tell her that ‘no less a doll’ was generous considering the roughly painted antique looked less like a doll and more like the nightmare of every single child to have ever existed. But she was a good friend and she didn’t stop the other to comment that, instead listening to something she knew Karuna was passionate about without question. “Nostalgia is such an odd concept, it’s never really the same for anyone,” She pointed out, thinking of her own childhood which definitely didn’t involve a camera (or a doll that looked like the one they were standing near). “I am interested in the camera coffee mug though, it sounds kind of badass. And my girlfriend happens to be a photographer, so you definitely have to hook me up.”

#interaction.karuna #interaction.all

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phantasmeels · 3 years ago

Photo

Alright, so I watched a recent video by ThatMetroidGuy on YouTube that contained a bit of a Metroid Dread theory on the Federation and the real purpose of the EMMI. I have a bit of a further hypothesis on that. It is based on previous series lore and the image shown above, which has some information that was pointed out in his video.

To start, consider the relationship between the Chozo people and the Federation as depicted in the Metroid Manga. It is quite apparent that the Chozo, being actively invested in the well-being of galactic civilzation, would have given their support in helping the Federation come together, grow and thrive, before their inevitable decline and disappearance from galactic civilization. Implicitly, the two groups would have been close and in consistent contact.

Now, what are some things the Chozo civilization and the Federation have in common that are important? In pre-localized Japanese in-game text, it's implied that there's a splinter group of the Federation that's interested in making bioweapons for its own ends. If you don't buy that specifically, then it can be seen in the localized games that at least a significant part of the Federation has that interest. Specifically in developing powerful creatures like X-parasites and Metroids for their own purposes. The Chozo, meanwhile, have a warrior tribe in their society, the Mawkin tribe. Raven Beak, the tribe's leader, is shown in Dread to be actively interested in having Metroids under his power, for the sake of galactic power and control. Since he can't have the Metroids, as Samus made them all extinct, he goes after Samus's newer Metroid DNA instead to make his own, at least at first. Leading me to ask, how does he know about Samus’s new Metroid genetics? It's one thing that he could have learned about how she's the one who wiped out the Metroids on galactic news or something (unless, of course, that's classified information), but how did he know of her genetic changes, where they saved her life from an X infection using Metroid DNA?

My hypothesis is that there is some real secret conspiracy stuff going on here. I posit that Raven Beak, as part of the Chozo people who long had relations with the Federation before they dwindled to obscurity, has conspirators in the Federation halls who feed him classified information, and those conspirators are the ones actively interested in having Metroid and X bioweapons. This is why, conveniently, the EMMI are sent as 'research robots' for finding the X parasites, but conveniently have the specific ability to extract a creature's genetic information, and has data on Samus specifically in their databanks, as seen in the image above. I think that the entire situation presented in Metroid Dread was engineered between Raven Beak and (at least part of) the Federation in order to: 1) Eliminate Samus from the picture, as she has actively interfered in both factions' designs, 2) Give Raven Beak metroid DNA from Samus by way of the EMMI for his own ends, and 3) Provide the Federation with an X parasite sample that I'm willing to bet they never gave up on obtaining.

In the long term, either Raven Beak planned on continuing to work with this part of the Federation for their own shared goals of harsh galactic control, or maybe planned to even subjugate them in the end. Between the two of them, the populations of both X and Metroid could be carefully controlled and unleashed against their enemies (such as, say, any remaining Space Pirates, or the Kriken Empire mentioned in Prime Hunters). As for the Federation, they would know that all it would take to get Samus to go somewhere, such as right into a trap, would be to use an X-parasite as bait. Thus my conspiracy hypothesis here. Either way, the whole convenience of certain details in Dread's premise seems a little too much for me. Given that the writers haven't touched on the Federation's intentions any further after Fusion as of yet, instead leaving it unresolved, I feel like there's more to dig into what we were given in Dread.

#metroid #metroid dread #metroid fusion #samus #x parasite #raven beak #chozo #galactic federation #theory

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bewitching-elizabeth-olsen · 3 years ago

Text

Press: Streaming, With Only a Little Trepidation

“I’ve never had more fun on a job before,” says the WandaVision lead who spoke with the Ted Lasso star about their shows, the Scarlett Johansson lawsuit, and what happens to the theatrical moviegoing experience now.

In Reunited, Awards Insider hosts a conversation between two Emmy nominees who have collaborated on a previous project. Here, we speak with WandaVision star Elizabeth Olsen and Ted Lasso co-creator and star Jason Sudeikis, who previously starred in the 2017 film Kodachrome.

VANITY FAIR: Elizabeth Olsen and Jason Sudeikis met for the first time just before filming their 2017 indie Kodachrome, but they already had at least one thing in common: a “big old crush” on Ed Harris, as Olsen describes it. “He did not disappoint at all,” adds Sudeikis. “He stuck up for us. He cared about us. He cared about the movie.”

A guide to Hollywood’s biggest races

Now, the two have much more in common, as first-time Emmy nominees. Olsen is nominated for lead actress for her work as Wanda Maximoff in WandaVision, a Disney+ limited series that explores grief and loss, through a superhero story wrapped in a parody of TV sitcoms. Sudeikis earned four Emmy nominations for Apple TV+’s darling Ted Lasso, which he cocreated, cowrote, and stars in as Ted, a cheery American football coach who attempts to coach an English Premier League soccer team.

In early August, Olsen and Sudeikis reunited over Zoom to chat with Vanity Fair about transitioning these characters to TV, their views on the new streaming empires, and what they think of the lawsuit Scarlett Johansson recently brought against Disney regarding the strategy to stream Black Widow simultaneously with its theatrical release.

Vanity Fair: It’s been quite a few years since you shot Kodachrome. What do you remember about where you were on your trajectories at that time?

Elizabeth Olsen: Of life? It was when I was at a down trajectory.

Jason Sudeikis: Personally or professionally? I feel like from the outside, it only seems like you operate in one direction [motions upward].

Olsen: From a personal standpoint. So, I was excited to get to do a small movie, an intimate job that had some levity. And that was really nice. And I have a big old crush on Ed Harris and I still do.

Sudeikis: Yeah. To know that the director was like, “hey, we’re thinking about Jason Sudeikis for this role” and then Ed Harris stayed on, It was like, “all right, pleasant surprise. Pleasant surprise.”

Your current projects, WandaVision and Ted Lasso, may seem very different but do have one thing in common: they both feature characters that originated elsewhere. Wanda is obviously from the Marvel films and Jason you played Ted Lasso in commercials. Why did you feel these characters would work on a TV series?

Olsen: I got really comfortable in the Marvel movies, taking up my piece of the story and my piece of, how does my little arc work in this much larger arc with 30 other characters? And so the idea of all the focus being on me and Paul [Bettany] totally freaked me out. And that it was on television felt weird because these characters are superheroes and maybe they should be seen on big screens and not televisions. But the entire DNA of the show was meant for television. It was written for television. The arc has to be told through television. And from an actor’s point of view, it was something I’d never done. I’ve never done sitcom acting, let alone go through the decades with it.

And I’ve never had more fun on a job before. We got to go to work and just feel like an idiot all the time. And all of us, we’d be like hamming, hamming, hamming, and use each other as these barometers of “are we doing this too much? Is this now just a parody? Is this a joke? At what point are we supposed to dial it back?” And at one point I did, I think, a quadruple take, and that was the first time the director asked me to pull it back and just do a double take. So it was pretty incredible to get to expand on the character and this world, but do it from a totally different perspective. I’m so grateful for that job.

Sudeikis: Have you hosted SNL yet?

Olsen: God no!

Sudeikis: No? Well, I’m not going to agent you and be like, “if they ask, would you ever want to?” But, look, I know you’re funny. It was really fun to watch you do multi-cam sitcom acting. And then the genre thing, it made me be like, “oh, she would crush on SNL”. You’re always going to internalize stuff because you’re, in my opinion, very, very talented and very, very smart. So then even when you externalize things, like a quadruple take, it would be joyful to watch even in the attempt. Watching the show, it didn’t seem at all like an aberration or like you were putting it on. It felt well conceived and well thought out. And it almost made me wonder if the creator was aware of that or was it all just an act of faith on their part.

Olsen: It was a total act of faith. What they did is they took comedy actors who are really funny and gave them the more dramatic stuff. Because they thought that would balance out when we failed. And we’re like, “You guys are very smart for doing this.”

Sudeikis: Now, are you putting that on them or was that articulated to you day one?

Olsen: We talked about it. We were so open about it. We’re like, “this is very clever that you guys put some of the funniest actors in MCU in these dramatic parts.” But SNL, I watch it every Saturday when it’s live. I’m obsessed with SNL and that’s why I would never! It’s like the ocean. I respect the ocean so much and that’s why I don’t need to go in it.

Sudeikis: I don’t know. I think we’ll see. This is going to be like Charles Foster Kane’s declaration of principles. “I would never host SNL.” And then, “And your host, Elizabeth Olsen.”

Olsen: So tell me about Lasso: small to big.

Sudeikis: Me and my buddies, Joe [Kelly] and Brendan [Hunt], did those commercials in 2013, 2014, and we then sat down to talk about it in 2015. And it was kind of like, “okay, is it another set of commercials? Is it a movie?” I knew what the character was and we all grew up with great sports films, by Ron Shelton and Rudy and Hoosiers and things like that. But then also liked Nora Ephron, you know? We wanted to make something that had a little bit of romance. And romance may not be sexual, it’s also a platonic version of romance. And the story just sort of spooled out of us in a way that garnered a pilot episode and then a well-beat-out outline for a season. Because we were kind of modeling it after the British Office where it’d be like six episodes, six episodes, and then maybe an hour and a half special, like a movie type thing. Not wanting to take up too much space and not knowing how long it would go. And so it only could be a TV show, was the way it felt.

And so then it went away for a while because that was in 2015. And then lo and behold, it comes back around when I met Bill Lawrence for this other project. That one didn’t work out, but he was like, “Do you have anything?” I said, “Well, we have this.” And I remember having a whole bunch of stuff in this office, more work than I think he realized. He’s like, “Oh yeah, this is definitely, this is a whole thing. Okay. Wow. You guys have really thought this through.”

Olsen: Did you have a [writers] room or did you already write most of it?

Sudeikis: No, we definitely had a room. It was like I knew the chords, I knew the structure of things. We had a great room of 11 people for the first season. With hiring people, we just had good fortune. I didn’t know it was interesting at the time, but asking people during the interview process who their mentors were, who were the people that encouraged them, who made you think you could do this for a living—you can learn a lot about a person by listening to them talk about their mentors, their heroes.

Olsen: With the jokes, I feel like they’re so quick, but they’re so specific to people who watch sports and who knows sports. Well, not all of them, but a lot of the jokes are. Do you have a list of ones that you want to get in there or are these coming up in the room? Because it gets me as a big sports person.

Sudeikis: It really depends on it. There’s some ideas that I’d had for years and years that are just from old notebooks that I used to carry around when I worked on SNL before you would type things into a phone. And storylines and themes and characters that have just been ruminating in my head based on other ideas for either movies or sketches that didn’t make it. And then a big part of the room is that we have this collective consciousness that isn’t all sports.

And then with specific soccer jokes, we do try to include jokes that we call “two percenters” that only football fans would like. Just as our little tip of the cap because we wouldn’t be here without that group of people digging our shit back in the commercial days.

Your shows were on Disney+ and Apple TV+. Did you have any concerns about them being on streaming services, which were relatively new at the time, and finding an audience?

Sudeikis: It’d probably be more so if it was like Goodyear TV+, if it was some brand that didn’t already rule the world of entertainment and technology.

Olsen: I did a version of that with Facebook. And I didn’t like that experience. I loved my show [Sorry for Your Loss] and I loved everyone that I worked with. But the Facebook relationship was frustrating because of the lack of television experience and how the platform is organized. When we went to season two, we had a meeting that our show called for Facebook to have with us, so that we can give them our notes about their platform and why we think it’s really hard to find our show on their platform and how it’s congested. So I was anxious going into Disney+. But I knew it was Disney. And I think I was more anxious with the Marvel characters being on television than I was about the Disney+ element.

Sudeikis: Golly, I didn’t even consider that. And you’re absolutely right, because Facebook would be closer to Apple. Truth is we didn’t have a choice. We pitched it to a bunch of different places. They were the only ones that would open the door and say, “yeah, come in out of the rain, you can hang out in here. You can do your little show in here.” And so, the trepidation was alleviated by the fact that there was nowhere else open to us.

Olsen: Facebook and Apple I feel like aren’t that similar.

Sudeikis: No, but they hadn’t created content before.

Olsen: Well, Facebook now is [scaling back] scripted content.

Speaking of streaming, both of you have starred in big theatrical movies. Are either of you worried about the theatrical experience, in the way that COVID has changed how movies are being released at this point? We saw how that’s playing out with Scarlett Johansson’s recent lawsuit.

Olsen: I’m worried about a bunch of things. Not worried on Scarlett’s behalf. But I’m worried about small movies getting the opportunity to be seen in theaters. That was already a thing pre-COVID. I like going to the movies and I don’t necessarily want to see only an Oscar contender or a blockbuster. I would like to see art films and art house theaters. And so I do worry about that, and people having to keep these theaters alive. And I don’t know how financially that works for these theaters. I do hope that there’s some sort of solution that the larger companies are coming together to keep, at least in L.A. this is going to happen. But I do think it’s going to be how it kind of used to be when studios owned theaters. And I have a feeling that we might go back to that being the only way to keep them alive with such expensive real estate. But when it comes to actors and their earnings, I mean, that’s just, that’s just all contracts. So it’s either in the contract or it’s not. What about you? Are you worried about Scarlett?

Sudeikis: Of course. How could I not? She’s married to my comedy brother [SNL’s Colin Jost].

Olsen: I think she’s so tough and literally when I read that I was like, “good for you Scarlett.”

Sudeikis: Well, I mean, it is appropriately bad-ass and on brand. I think it’s also married to yes, the COVID of it all and success of the streaming sites. But also just technology. I mean this thing [points at his TV] is as good as any movie theater, and all that stuff is getting cheaper and cheaper. If you’re a family of five and you’re going out there and it’s a whole thing. And yet the communal experience, towards Lizzie’s point is, is one that you can’t replicate in home. You can’t replicate through social media. I think both of our shows have succeeded greatly on their own merit, but it’s certainly written further through people’s love of them socially. Which would have happened back in the day around a water cooler. And while that’s nice, it’s still not the same as sitting next to everybody and getting scared at the same time or cheering at the same time and laughing at the same time.

I do think though, if we just use anecdotally, Kodachrome as an example, more people probably have seen it because it got on Netflix than they would have in the theater. And the more that happens, the better. So it’s like there is that reach that as long as those streaming sites are still paying to make those little movies, they have the opportunity to be seen. And so it is this balance. I just hope that with that still comes creative autonomy, and we don’t lose sight of that.

What about the experience of making these shows will you take on to your next project and the one after that?

Olsen: Well, I definitely had a shake-up to use my full body as an actor. I had to create a character and voices. And just all the technical stuff that I have loved doing my whole life was just shook up a bit. And so I’m now really excited to do more of that and to feel a bit freer in building characters. And so that has really informed the next thing I’m working on now and preparing for. It’s just kind of put me back in my actory body in a really good way.

And hosting SNL.

Olsen: Of course, now I’ll host SNL because stage fright has nothing to do with that. I can do a monologue in front of people and make them laugh.

Sudeikis: Not a prerequisite. Having worked there for 10 years, not a prerequisite. Well, the tacky answer is it’d be tough not being the boss again. And I’m fucking flabbergasted that people have picked up so much what we set down for them. You know what I mean? From colleagues on the writing and acting side to just regular folks back home, people I’ve never even met. It’s thrilling. I have to try to make sense of that for myself. And I think a lot of it has to do with it being something so personal. And so that might be the thing to lean into.

Olsen: It’s interesting you say that because immediately three days after wrapping, I had to go into a film where we’re not in WandaVision land, obviously. I mean, they kind of are a muscle, these Marvel movies. Instead of going back to that routine of it, I tried to do what you’re saying. I was like, “okay, so what can I play with that I haven’t gotten to that’ll at least satisfy something inside me that I want to play with right now?”

Sudeikis: I don’t know when I’ll get to do that again, when I’ll do that next. Because yeah, it’s Lasso—

Olsen: Lasso forever.

Sudeikis: At least for a little bit longer.

Olsen: Is it what you said, three seasons and then a special?

Sudeikis: I mean, the special would have been the third season with the initial thing. Now you sound like you’re my agent or manager.

Olsen: Oh good, that’s what I came here for. That’s what I wanted to do.

Sudeikis: Who sent you? I know the end of this story. I mean, the fact that we have a third season could fucking blow it all and ruin what would people like so much of the first season. We might be in the middle of doing it now in the second season. I don’t know. We’re just doing it the same way we did it last time. So we’ll see. But yeah, that’s a big old, long winded question mark.

Olsen: Or an ellipsis.

Press: Streaming, With Only a Little Trepidation was originally published on Elizabeth Olsen Source • Your source for everything Elizabeth Olsen

#Elizabeth Olsen #WandaVision #Avengers #Scarlet Witch #Wanda Maximoff #Sorry For Your Loss #Avengers Infinity War #Avengers Age of Ultron #Captain America Civil War #Ingrid Goes West #Godzilla #Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness #Marvel #MCU #Candy Montgomery #Love and Death #Avengers Endgame

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kaen-ace-of-diamonds · 4 years ago

Text

Walking Space Heater

Word Count: 2700+ (oneshot)

[AO3]

Genre: Fluff/Hurt/Comfort

Characters: Cinder Fall, Neopolitan, Emerald Sustrai, Mercury Black

Pairing: Cinder Fall/Neopolitan

Summary: Written (late) for Day 4 of @spice-cream-week 2021, “There Was Only One Bed.”

With the heat of both her Semblance and the Maiden powers, Cinder's body is much warmer than the average person's. So long as she's still by her side, Neo intends to take full advantage of that.

~0~

This is definitely a step down from the Haven dorms. Neo’s thumbs moved lightning-fast over the keyboard of her Scroll. Don’t they have ANY concept of personal space here?

She could say something about Roman’s excessive use of emojis. But looking at his messages, she could hear his laughter clearly in her head, and she had no problem with that.

wtm? you got stuck with a shitty roommate? I’ll come and get her for you idgaf

That elicited the breathy noises that were the closest Neo got to laughter. Truthfully, she probably wouldn’t have minded sharing a room much in and of itself. It might even have been fun to mess with Emerald and Mercury in their own space.

But no, she’d ended up with the only one that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

Cinder Fall was calm, collected, and incredibly competent. Neo didn’t necessarily dislike her. She thought that they got along fairly well, in fact. But that didn’t mean that she trusted her.

Roman was content to stay in the dark about what exactly her ultimate design was beyond Beacon’s destruction, having already accepted the fact that they would be overwhelmed by it. It still gnawed at Neo, though. Thus far her only clues had been the couple private calls that Cinder had taken, and the way Haven’s headmaster cringed like a kicked puppy whenever he caught sight of her.

Sure, the man was jumpy enough in general, but Cinder — or, more accurately, whatever force had moved Cinder to the Academies — made him cower. Even Neo’s most devilish smile couldn’t do that.

She’s...not bad. She definitely likes me more than she likes you.

Now, did that really require five laughing emojis after I can live with that lol?

And

Neo’s thumb hovered over the screen. For the first time in several minutes, she glanced up from where she was curled up tightly on the covers of her bed.

Cinder was perfectly at ease on her own bed, leaning back against a stack of pillows with her Scroll open in front of her face. Still rifling through the records of all the Academy students, no doubt. Casting her great and bloody show, for which every little thing had to be perfect. It wasn’t enough that she was sending Emerald and Mercury out to run recon and collect as many relevant details about their players as possible. No, she had to study up herself for hours on end.

Neo was willing to play her own part, but it all seemed very boring to her. Certainly her interim leader could use a break. She returned her attention for one moment more to her Scroll:

I think she would be fun to play with.

Ignoring the several question marks sent in reply, Neo pocketed her Scroll and slipped off her bed. Moving soundlessly was one of the first skills she had ever had to master, and she still considered it her most important.

Cinder was still too engrossed in her research to notice as she crept across the carpet and climbed onto the other bed. Or maybe she just didn’t care enough to acknowledge her. She certainly didn’t look surprised when Neo’s head poked through the hole between her arms and her Scroll.

“Oh,” she said, smirking, in a tone that she might use with a stray cat that had come up to her in the street. “Hello there. Looking for some entertainment?”

Neo gave her her best strawberry-ice-cream smile, and scooted closer. From the meager rations of physical contact she meted out to Emerald, she wasn’t sure how much Cinder liked being touched, so she proceeded with care, little by little. It seemed to be acceptable: she stayed very still, but allowed Neo to settle down on her chest, resting her head against her shoulder.

“Or are you just lonely?”

Neo hummed thoughtfully, letting herself relax: not all the way, but just enough. This was nicer than she had expected, she had to admit. Cinder was dressed like she had been in the first round of the Vytal Festival: sleeveless jacket, long pants, and sarashi. Neo’s cheek rested mostly on bare skin, and though of course she had seen Cinder’s Semblance before (as well as the flames that didn’t quite seem to fit with it), it was much warmer than she had thought it would feel. Softer, too, with the scents of wood smoke and spicy perfume clinging to it.

“Well?”

Neo rolled lazily over onto her back, looking up at Cinder’s Scroll to see what she had been so busy scrutinizing. Hm. Several pictures of that Mistrali girl from the cereal commercials, accompanied by a passage about her Semblance which had been highlighted in a few places. There was one more tab open with an acronym on it, but that was it.

Nothing that could tell Neo anything about their situation that she hadn’t already guessed at. And what was more, absolutely nothing that could be more interesting to her temporary partner than her.

Clearly, Cinder could use a lesson on how to properly spend an evening. Dastardly planning, which seemed to be her only form of recreation, just wasn’t going to cut it.

So Neo helpfully reached up, laid her hands over Cinder’s, and pushed the Scroll shut for her. She put her pointer finger to the outside of her nose; her new teammates might not be picking up Valerian Sign Language particularly well, but she hoped the long, exaggerated twist away from her face coupled with a dramatic sigh got the message across equally well: Cinder, I am bored to tears.

Cinder tilted her head, puzzled but smiling. She slipped her Scroll into her pocket and wrapped an arm around Neo’s waist.

“Well, in that case, I’d be happy to give you some attention.”

Neo made as pleased a sound as she could muster up, and snuggled up to Cinder, as close as she could get. It might have been dark and cool outside, but she felt as if she were napping on a sunbeam. Rolling over to lay her head on Cinder’s chest, she could imagine that there was a powerfully burning fire inside it in place of a beating heart, whose heat was palpable, just beneath the skin.

She tried to look more sweetly smug than actually impressed, but gods, she had never felt anything like this.

Cinder held her tightly in both arms now, fingertips scratching lightly between her shoulder blades, and Neo nearly purred. Years of pulling back bowstrings had turned those arms wiry and oh so strong. All at once, she completely understood why Emerald was always trying to earn one of these rare hugs.

And speaking of which...

Neo wasn’t sure how long she spent in the lap of luxury, only that she felt like she might actually fall asleep in it, as toasty warm as it was. Cinder had switched from rubbing her back to stroking and playing with her hair, which, in her experience with other people, was a welcome first. But she was jolted back to full awareness when their dorm room door slammed angrily open.

Blinking, Neo lifted her head. She caught the lingering scents of jungle juice and sweat incoming, before she saw Emerald stalking inside, barely hanging onto her last scrap of patience. Mercury stumbled in after her, wearing a huge grin and mirrored shades that Neo was fairly certain did not belong to him.

Cinder smirked. “I was wondering when you two would be back. How did it go?”

Emerald forced a halfway convincing smile for her leader. “It was...interesting. Though not quite as informative as I was h—”

The smile froze on her face when she turned to look directly at Cinder, and saw Neo lounging in her lap like a spoiled cat.

Neo smirked, and signed, Party fun? With the reputation Vytal Festival house parties had, hopefully Emerald had gotten some attention as well.

“Oh, it was great!” Mercury shrugged off his jacket and pitched it into his and Emerald’s room, littering their carpet with brownie crumbs. “We saw a lot of everybody, didn’t we, Emmy?”

While Emerald tried to take a cue from Cinder and set him on fire with her eyes, Cinder herself just closed her Scroll with a soft laugh.

“Well, you can tell us all about it in the morning. We should all get some rest now.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“You got it, boss...”

Neo watched them slink into their room, where muffled bickering started up as soon as the door closed, but did not move until she felt a gentle pat on her thigh.

“You too, dear. Go on.”

Though she made a show of huffing about it, Neo got up off Cinder’s bed and went back across the room.

Her own bed felt cold and uninviting now. Catching up on the several missed texts from Roman (including but not limited to what do you mean by that lmao, hey Neo dont leave me out of the loop :), Neo tf are you doing to her O_o, NEO) did make her smile, but as she drifted off to sleep, she couldn’t help but wish that she didn’t have to return to being alone just yet.

~0~

This was not at all the solution to that problem that she had envisioned, but Neo knew very well how to deal with whatever life threw at her.

She had never been to Atlas, and while she had to roll her eyes at its decadence, she couldn’t say she hated the place. Cinder, on the other hand, never answered outright when Neo tried to ask if she had ever been here before, but every bitter hiss from her about Atlas elites that had not been asked for gave her a general idea. It had taken them a while to find a vacant apartment to squat in, especially considering that there was an entire chunk of the city that Cinder refused to even go near.

But now here they were, and it was empty around them and quiet outside. The blackout curtains shielded them from the city lights. In pitch darkness the two of them were curled up together in the place’s one bed.

Cinder had initially balked at the idea of sharing it, insisting that Neo take an extra blanket and find somewhere else to curl up. So barky with her orders these days, and so on edge, too. Neo was beginning to wonder how she had ever thought of this woman as calm and collected.

In any case, she didn’t see what her once-again partner’s problem was. She had invited Neo into her bed with her before, hadn’t she? Maybe not to sleep, but still. And she was far from squeamish; she wouldn’t make a fuss about the scarring and empty eye socket on full display. As such, she ignored the demand, and simply undressed, got under the covers, and gestured for Cinder to join her.

After some indignant spluttering, Cinder threw up her hands and stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. She didn’t come out until Neo had turned the lights off and laid there long enough that she might reasonably have fallen asleep. Even then, she slipped in quietly, gingerly, and stuck close to the edge of the bed.

Now, that just would not do. Atlas was much too cold for that kind of nonsense.

Neo rolled over under the blankets, feeling just as bold as last time, but exercising even more care, Cinder being so volatile lately. She went out of her way to be heard, so it wouldn’t startle Cinder to be touched. She knew her bedmate was awake: though she lay very still, her breathing was nowhere near relaxed enough for her to be asleep.

Cinder didn’t jump when she felt Neo wrap her arms around her waist, but she did go still as a statue.

“Neo,” she growled, low in her throat, “what are you doing? I’m not in the mood for—”

Neo nuzzled her bare shoulder in a way she hoped was reassuring, as she pressed up against her back. Fortunately for her, Cinder’s new arm was tightly bandaged up for the night, so she didn’t have to risk touching the awful thing. Only human skin, just as fiery warm as before. Even the wood smoke smell remained.

As had happened so often since the Fall of Beacon, Neo caught herself writing a text to Roman in her head, wryly telling him that he was right, she shouldn’t have thought so hard about where Cinder’s flames came from, because she would never in a million years have hit on the right answer.

She gave her head a shake, and resisted the urge to glance back at the bowler hat perched neatly on a bedpost. If she started thinking too hard about that, she would never get to sleep either. There would be time, when the sun came up, to consider some more whether the woman in her arms was the key to her revenge, or its target all along.

Right now, the darkness was peaceful and the blankets thick and soft around them, and the heat of their bodies grew more soporific every moment. Comfort was a rarity in both of their lives. They ought to savor it whenever it came their way.

Cinder let out a long, exasperated huff, clearly not sharing the opinion.

“Couldn’t you just hug a pillow?” she grumbled. But there was no bite in her voice.

Neo smiled against her skin, entwining her legs with Cinder’s. Now, she would have said, were her hands not occupied, where would be the fun in that?

“...Fine. Just don’t think you’re going to make this a regular thing.”

Oh, she absolutely was, so long as they were staying in the coldest part of the world and she was in the company of a walking space heater.

As such, Neo ignored the question and snuggled closer. She was trying her best to communicate “calm down and go to sleep” through body language alone, so to feel Cinder slowly but surely relaxing in her arms, eventually going limp, was deeply gratifying. Almost fascinating.

From nights spent in the Beacon dorm room and Mistrali inns, Neo already knew that Cinder talked in her sleep. Most of what she said was sluggish and toneless as well as nonsensical, but sometimes it was a series of fierce snaps or pained moans. It came as no surprise to Neo that when, just as she was starting to doze off herself, she was woken back up by her partner’s twitching and yelping.

“No...don’t take...I’m...!”

Neo sighed drowsily, and tightened her embrace, humming as soothingly as she could. Her inability to speak never really bothered her, but there were times like this when it didn’t exactly help her, either. At least she could keep Cinder from thrashing around and hurting one of them: if that arm decided to act up while its host was in distress, she had zero faith in the bandages to hold those claws back.

It’s okay, she thought, hoping that somehow it would get across, just relax, you’re all right...

Nightmares never lasted forever. Neo had woken with her stomach still in free fall from enough dreams of plummeting wildly through a Grimm-infested sky to know that. Still, she hoped that her attempts at calming had helped this one pass quickly. Cinder’s mumbling devolved into moans, then to frantic whimpers, then finally to something close to the restful breathing that Neo had almost fallen asleep to before.

Neo took a deep breath of her own. She was too tired to smile, but leaned in to press a kiss to the back of Cinder’s neck, the ends of her short hair tickling her nose. To her surprise, she felt a burn scar here, too: thin and faded, but winding around her neck like garrote wire. Somehow she didn't think that Ruby had done this. But she certainly wasn't going to ask who had. They weren't going to discuss any part of this in the morning.

So she kissed her neck once more, soft and just a bit more sincere, before closing her eyes again.

Good night.

#spicecreamweek2021 #cinder fall #neo politan #rwby neo #spice cream #RWBY #rwby8 #kaen's fics

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winryofresembool · 4 years ago

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Caleo fic: It’s all about the name

Chapters 3-4(/5)

Summary: Calypso is a barista at a coffee shop and one day she gets a customer who refuses to give her his real name. At first he seems really annoying but eventually Calypso finds out not all is what it looks like on the surface. (Coffee shop AU!)

a/n: More updates! Only one more to go after these two chapters that I'm posting today. I would have loved to make this au even longer but time is a b*tch and I'm really itching to continue working on twlitf already.

Hope you enjoy and please do leave me comments because even if I have almost finished this fic, I definitely want to know what you guys think!

Words: 3,6k+

Genre: fluff, humor

Warnings: none

previous chapters / AO3

...

The next day, the ‘Bad Boy Supreme’ showed up at the coffee shop just like he had promised. He didn’t have to ask for Calypso because she spotted him from afar, being rather easy to recognize. They didn’t have a lot of customers wearing an army jacket over an orange shirt, tools hanging from the pockets, and the bottom half being the work coveralls. At least he had left his backpack home this time, Calypso sighed with relief. She couldn’t deny, though, that in a weird way that outfit suited him. As she saw him more closely, she noticed he seemed pretty cheerful, which was probably a good sign. Or then he was just preparing to annoy her some more and was already looking forward to that. Calypso supposed she’d find out soon enough.

Either way, she stepped closer to the counter so the ‘Bad Boy Supreme’ could see her better.

“So you did come,” she greeted him and he gave her that annoying grin of his that seemed to come so naturally.

“Why, of course,” he responded. “Couldn’t possibly have missed the opportunity to see the Sunshine again.”

“Are you flirting with me? Because I swear, if you are, it’s not going to work,” Calypso told him bluntly, still having her latest relationship too fresh in her mind.

“That’s crazy talk,” the guy responded, putting his hand over his chest. “How would I even dare to flirt with you? You’re way out of my league.”

“Out of your league? Uh, I don’t know about that,” Calypso mumbled, more to herself than to him. The broken relationships had left a mark on her self esteem and she didn’t consider herself as someone to be looked up to.

“Sorry, I didn’t hear you,” the guy said, looking confused.

“Um, nothing,” Calypso tried to brush it off. “It was not relevant. But enough with that; what are you going to order? Remember, it’s on the house. Do you want the double espresso you ordered yesterday or something else?”

“I’d rather have something else,” the guy said, his gaze going back and forth between Calypso and the menu. “Truth to be told, I’m not big on coffee. I’ve noticed it makes me even more hyper than I already am. ADHD and all that good stuff, you know. Yesterday was a special occasion because I had to work overtime.”

“Alright, what will that something else be then?” Calypso asked, feeling that a lot of things about this guy already made more sense.

“Anything with no caffeine would be good. What would you rec? You’re the expert on your menu, after all,” he noted.

“Do you like sweet things?” Calypso asked.

“Sweet is fine, yeah,” the guy agreed.

“Then how about hot chocolate? We’re pretty generous with the whipped cream we add on it,” Calypso promised. “And we can even add marshmallows if you like those.”

“I think just the cream will be fine, don’t wanna be in a complete sugar coma when I need to go back to work,” the guy noted. “To go, by the way. I can’t stay long.”

“Fine, one hot chocolate without marshmallows coming then. Will you finally tell me your name?” Calypso asked.

“Super-sized McShizzle,” the guy replied without missing a beat.

“Just when I thought that you might be an OK guy after all…” Calypso said but the tone of her voice told she wasn’t being serious.

“What’s life without some mystery, Sunshine?” He smiled at her and Calypso wondered briefly what the hell this conversation was about really.

“Yeah, what indeed?” she responded. Then she realized that the silly conversation had been going on long enough for a small queue form behind the guy. “Well, Johnny.” His mouth twitched when she said the new made up name. “Your hot chocolate will be waiting for you at the other counter in a minute. And I hope you won’t scare me so much this time that I’ll drop the drink.”

“Will try to not do that.”

The Super-sized McShizzle or Bad Boy Supreme moved to the other counter, and as Calypso was shaking the canned whipped cream, she was still playing the conversation in her head. For an outsider it probably seemed like they were being rude to each other. But Calypso thought she had learned to read this stranger a bit better already and guessed he actually enjoyed their bickering - and she had to admit that some part of her enjoyed them as well. Drawing a small heart after the made up name Johnny, she finally approached him at the counter and managed to deliver the hot chocolate without messing anything up. ‘Johnny’ took it gratefully but he gave her a funny look when he read his name on the cup.

“Aw, you even drew a heart there!” He noted. “I am starting to think you have started warming up to me.”

“No way. You? Why would I do that?” Calypso raised her eyebrow questioningly, but it probably wasn’t very effective thanks to her red cheeks.

“Because all the ladies love…” he checked his name from the cup again. “Johnny?”

“You should learn to know when to stop,” Calypso warned, rolling her eyes, but her mouth betrayed her.

“Oh c’mon, your mouth just twitched. I saw it,” the guy said. Then he took a swig from his cup and hummed approvingly. “Yup. This is the stuff. Not bad, Sunshine, I would definitely drink this again.”

“I’m glad you like it, especially since it’s supposed to be my apology to you.”

“In that case, apology accepted.” ‘Johnny’ wiped his mouth and checked the clock on the wall. “Well, I won’t bother you more this time because Jo is expecting me to be back at the garage any minute now. I was surprised she allowed me to come here in the first place but she seemed to think it’s good for me to meet new people. Apparently I spend too much time at work. But oh well, if I want to buy a car I need to save a lot of money…”

“That’s why you’re working overtime?” Calypso asked curiously.

“Yeah… I’ve been moving from place to place almost my whole life so at least owning a car would make it easier… Unless I find some reason to stay somewhere.” He shrugged, looking more serious than he had the whole time he’d been there. “I don’t know. But yeah, I should get going now. Maybe I’ll see around some time, though.” His smile returned. “This place is definitely better than I first thought.”

“Yeah, maybe I will see you around,” Calypso said, feeling a bit flustered again. It seemed that there was a lot more to this stranger’s story than she had first imagined. The small glimpses of the reality behind his jokes gave her a picture of a restless, unsure young man who was still looking for his place in the world. That piqued her interest and made her wish she really would see him again.

…

The mystery guy started visiting the coffee shop regularly during his breaks. After a couple of weeks Calypso already knew that his boss was called Jo and she was married to a woman called Emmie who handled the flower shop side of the business and they had an adoptive daughter Georgina. Even though the mystery guy hadn’t stayed in town for more than a couple of months so far, he seemed to have formed a strong bond with these people and especially adored the little Georgie whom he treated almost like a sister. Calypso also knew that the guy’s best friends were called Jason and Piper but unfortunately they were currently studying in another town so he couldn’t see them that often. He also had a pet lizard called Festus who apparently liked to nibble pretty much everyone except his fingers. Despite knowing all of that, there was still something Calypso didn’t know about him.

“Let’s play the game: guess my name,” the ‘Bad Boy Supreme’ suggested one time when he was ordering a soda. “What do you think?”

Calypso thought about it for a moment. “Alright. Mike? Chris? Alex? Peter? Luke?”

“No, no, no, no and no,” he answered without hesitating, his mouth curled up with amusement.

“Ed? Sebastian? Jake? Thomas? Leon?” Calypso kept throwing in random names that came to her mind.

“Still no to all,” the mystery guy shook his head. “Although those were not half bad guesses. I wouldn’t mind being called Ed. A character in one of my favorite animes is called that and he’s quite a badass.”

“You watch anime?” Calypso asked curiously. “I wouldn’t have guessed that about you.”

“Well, I’m full of surprises.” He smirked before turning more serious. “Um, truth to be told, Georgina keeps ranting about her favorite animes when she’s hanging out at the garage with me and one time I just decided to binge watch some of them to be able to keep up with her. Turns out some of them are actually quite solid. Like this Fullmetal Alchemist. Ahem, but that probably isn’t interesting to you so I’ll stop now.”

“No, don’t worry about it!” Calypso reassured him. “I like hearing about your interests. I am not that familiar with anime but maybe some time you can recommend something to me to watch when I have more free time.”

“Yeah, maybe.” The guy smiled before turning a bit hesitant. “Um, I know you’re probably busy and stuff but I have a free chair at my table if you happen to be in need of a break. Just sayin’, but it’s OK if you can’t.”

Calypso was surprised that he asked so bluntly. The truth was that a bit before his appearance she had already considered taking a break so the timing was good enough and she decided to accept his offer. It was a quiet moment at the coffee shop so her coworkers were fine with it as well.

“You know now that I watch anime but what about your interests?” the ‘Bad Boy Supreme’ asked once they had settled down at an empty table. “What do you do outside this coffee shop?”

“You really want to know?” Calypso questioned.

“Of course I do!” he said immediately. “I’ve revealed quite a bit about myself so it’s your turn now.”

Calypso felt a bit hesitant about talking about personal stuff, possibly afraid her mystery customer would judge her. “I, um… I have a mini garden on my balcony… I grow some edible plants there. I also enjoy reading because it's a good distraction from some unwanted thoughts.”

“I can relate to that,” the guy confessed but didn’t elaborate. Calypso wondered briefly what he may have wanted distraction from.

“Yeah…” she said instead of asking more because she doubted he would have liked that. “When I was a kid, I used to do a lot of music related things, like sing, play the piano and stuff like that but I stopped at some point because my father seemed to think it’s a waste of time. So, yeah. I was pretty upset about that. Who knows, maybe when I have more money I’ll be able to take more classes again… Lately I’ve been trying to express myself by painting, though, because watercolors are luckily cheap and I really needed something to do after…” She stopped when she realized she was about to reveal too much.

“After what?” the guy wanted to know.

“I don’t even know your name so I have no idea why I’m telling you this… but I guess it can’t hurt. I can trust you, right?”

“Of course!” her chat mate assured.

Calypso sighed before continuing. “I recently broke up with someone with whom I had been in quite a long relationship. Yeah, looking back to it, maybe it was for the best because clearly he wasn’t as invested as I was, but it still hurt to hear that he wanted to break up with me because there was someone else in his life. So, that’s why I’ve needed more distractions lately.” When she saw his serious expression, she rushed to add: “Don’t worry about me, though, I’m fine. I’ve already accepted that this is how it is. Trust me, it’s better that way. But it explains why I was so grumpy on that day we met.”

“Oh, OK. Sorry about that guy. I think he made a big ass mistake there but unfortunately some of us can be kinda blind… Hey, what are you staring at?” he asked when he noticed her watching him weirdly. In reality, Calypso had felt a small, unexpected tug at her heart because of his niceness but she tried to cover it by shaking her head.

“Nothing. Sorry. I was just thinking about something. But I should get back to work, the coffee isn’t going to serve itself.”

“I guess it isn’t. Well, talk to you later,” the guy said but from the corner of her eye Calypso could see that he was probably wondering what had just happened there.

Chapter 4

Time passed, but some things didn’t change:

“So… when will you finally reveal your name to me? We’ve known each other for several weeks now and you’re still being so mysterious,” Calypso noted one day when the ‘Bad Boy Supreme’ showed up at the coffee shop again. Like earlier, she had asked her coworkers if she could have her break so she could talk with him and they had accepted her request but given each other funny glances behind Calypso’s back, as if saying ‘we know what you are doing here’.

“I will do that when you finally call me Bad Boy Supreme instead of Johnny or Ben or David or whatever fake name you come up with each time.” He just smirked at her and Calypso 100% expected him to keep his word.

“No. That’s the one thing I cannot do, you weirdo,” she said stubbornly.

“Alright, then no can do,” he teased.

Calypso did continue asking him about other things, though, and got some answers.

“Why did you want to become a mechanic? Is it just because cars are cool or did you have some deeper reason for that?”

“Actually, my dream is to become a mechanical engineer so I get better tools to invent - and fix - all sorts of things, not just cars, but at the moment I don’t have enough money to go to college. So, I’m working to save up for that too, not just for the car. I know, sounds like a mission impossible. I will have to work about ten thousand years to save that much. I’ve just… always enjoyed building and fixing things, ever since I watched my mum do that when I was a kid… It’s in my blood.”

“Oh… then your mum must be proud that you want to follow her footsteps!” Calypso said gently, but the guy’s expression darkened.

“Yeah… maybe she would be… if she was still alive.”

“Oh no!” Calypso covered her mouth with her hands when she realized her mistake. “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed…”

“It’s OK,” he sighed. “I’m starting to get used to it.”

There was a moment of silence before Calypso asked: “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but… when did it happen?”

The guy looked at her darkly. “I was 8 then… So over 10 years ago. Not exactly breaking news anymore. Been going from home to home since then until I got old enough to live on my own; my dear dad didn’t care about me enough to keep me.”

“Wow… I’m sorry… You just give me such a happy and outgoing picture of yourself that I couldn’t imagine… ugh, just ignore me, please. I need to stop rambling now,” Calypso said with embarrassment, blushing slightly.

The guy surprised both Calypso and himself by what he did next: he reached for her hand to reassure her.

“Hey, relax. I only told that to you because you seem like someone I can trust. Not a lot of those people in my life. But yeah, there’s no need to be embarrassed; you couldn’t have known.”

“Oh… I guess I should be honored then. Since you were honest with me, I’m gonna be too: I didn’t exactly have the best of childhoods either. My parents fought a lot before breaking up and my dad… he could be scary when he wanted to. He had to get things done his way and if he didn’t like something… he’d let us know, loudly. I guess some of my temper issues may stem from there.”

“Still thinking about that time when you yelled at me?” the guy asked. “Don’t worry about it. I’m not afraid of you.”

“That’s good to hear,” Calypso laughed nervously, tugging a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Anyway, when my parents got divorced, my father insisted I live with him instead of mum and that did not end up going well. His idea of good parenting was buying me expensive things I didn’t care about, while I could tell that in reality he couldn’t care less if I was there or not. He just wanted to humiliate my mother. I ended up moving out as early as possible, but that’s a whole other story…”

“And that’s why you’re working here now?” The Bad Boy Supreme wanted to know. “Because you desperately needed money? I mean, no offense, but I get a vibe from you that you don’t actually enjoy working here.”

Calypso glanced at her surroundings, making sure none of her coworkers and especially not the manager could hear her answer. Then she sighed. “Yeah. You’re not wrong. I did have some dreams when I was younger but… it’s like you said, it would take me about ten thousand years to be able to afford studying. The rent here isn’t free and I don’t even want to think about the college tuitions. Obviously my dad could afford them easily but I’m not going to stoop so low that I would ask him. I am not going to owe anyone, especially not him.”

The ‘Bad Boy Supreme’ gave her an approving half smile. “I see we have something in common, after all. We both have dreams that seem to be hard to achieve. And I definitely wouldn’t want to owe to my no good old man either. And families… Those can be bitches. But not something bad if not something good; thanks to my round around the country I feel like I may have finally found a place where I could maybe picture myself staying more than just a few months. The coffee here isn’t half bad and the people are decent too.” He winked at her, and she knew his words were actually quite a big compliment from him. Despite that, she pretended to be annoyed by his comment, putting her hands on her waist.

“Not half bad? I don’t even remember you ordering coffee since that little incident – and you didn’t get your coffee back then - so how can you have an opinion on it?”

“That’s the thing, I didn’t get my coffee so that’s why it’s only ‘not half bad’ and not the ‘best coffee I’ve ever had’” he smiled at her smugly. “However, the hot chocolate was definitely worth getting yelled at.”

Calypso hated how contagious his smile was but she couldn’t help but smile back at him. “I’m glad to hear that.”

They were silent for a moment before the guy started: “Hey, listen… would you like to…”

His question was interrupted, though, because a customer nearby started causing ruckus, claiming the tea water was too cold (even though Calypso knew her coworkers always made sure it was hot enough) and the piece of cake was dry (even though someone had cut fresh pieces like half an hour ago) and she wanted her money back. Reyna was serving her and trying to politely say that she was sorry the customer felt that way and that they’d make sure to do better the next time, but the customer wouldn’t listen. Calypso could tell Reyna’s patience was running thin so she decided to finish her break then and there and go to help, but she had only managed to stand up from her chair when she noticed that she wasn’t the only one wanting to defend the honor of their coffee shop.

“Hey, you,” ‘Bad Boy Supreme’ said loudly, addressing the woman who had complained. “Don’t like, don’t buy. It’s as simple as that. There are other places where you can get your low fat cake with extra cream on the top that will surely match your interests better.”

The woman just glared at him, going slightly red from her face, before dramatically turning away and leaving the coffee house. Calypso sighed of relief, thankful that nothing worse happened.

“That wasn’t really necessary, you know,” she tried to scold her companion but the attempt was half hearted. “I’m sure Reyna would have been able to handle it.”

“Oh, yeah, I don’t have a doubt about that,” he said. “But sometimes it’s fun to let those privileged douches hear it. You guys are just too polite. Well, most of the time. I guess some customers do have a way to crawl under your skin but that requires special talent.” He grinned at her in a way that may have tried to be flirty but failing.

“Oh, yeah, a special talent indeed,” Calypso confirmed, throwing her long braid over her shoulder. “I’m the epitome of patience, as we know. Well, I should get back to work now; my coworkers are probably waiting for me already.” She looked at Reyna apologetically but she didn’t seem to mind one bit. “It was nice talking to you, though, Raymond.”

“That’s the best you can come up with? C’mon, you can do better than that,” ‘Raymond’ protested but waved her a goodbye with a big smile on his face. Calypso gave him a shy smile back.

#caleo #leo valdez #calypso #heroes of olympus #percy jackson and the olympians #trials of apollo #my fics

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canarygirl1017 · 4 years ago

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Ghosted Chapter 2

Pairing: Reader / Jungkook, Reader / Taehyung (past relationship, friends to lovers to friends)

Genre: College!au, fluff, angst, supernatural drama, smut, friends to lovers, emotional trauma, hurt/comfort

Length: 9, 806k words

Warnings: language, episodes of anxiety, panic attacks, sexual themes in later chapters.

Summary: Living in a world full of things only you have the ability to see, growing up with Jungkook has been your island amidst the chaos. But when your best friend makes an impossible request, your friendship is fractured, and your sudden decision to cut ties and move abroad changes everything. Three years later, Jungkook is thriving at university as he begins his junior year. He’s a star athlete, member of a popular fraternity, and every girl’s ideal boyfriend. He tells himself that he’s long forgotten you and the friendship he never had a chance to mend – that is, until you show up on campus as a transfer student with new friends in tow. It’s been three years, and everything has changed, but the biggest change is you. Your new found determination to use your abilities to help the ghosts you used to live in fear of, no matter how dangerous it might be, makes Jungkook fear he’ll lose you before he has a chance to fix what he broke. College AU.

Disclaimer: Just for funsies, I don’t believe in real-life shipping. But I like to write, and I like fandom, so here we are. Please do not duplicate this work or repost anywhere else without permission.

Read Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Gettis University, and the surrounding town, were as full of creepy feelings and shadows as you’d expected. The strong presence of the otherworld could be felt as soon as you got within a couple of miles of the city limits, and the hot spots you’d passed as you drove through town would likely test your abilities in ways they’d not been tested before.

You paused in the great room of the old house where you’d be living for the next two years. It was a Victorian style home and though light, bright and newly renovated, you’d already felt the presence of something that you’d need to run out before you all slept that night.

You turned when you heard Yeontan’s little nails tapping on the floor behind you. You scooped him up and buried your face in his soft, black and tan fur. “Hi baby. Did you have a good walk?”

“He did,” Taehyung said as he walked in. “It’s good that we have an enclosed garden out back, but he loves the park down the street, too.”

“This house is way too big for two people, Tae,” you said, your tone admonishing. “What are we even going to do with all this space?”

“Well, we need space to set up an office for Namjoon and Chloe, plus the paranormal group they’ve been in contact with here will probably be over. We need extra bedrooms for when my parents visit because now that we’re back in the country, they probably will. And it was the only house near campus that also has a guest house for Joon and Chloe to have their own space.”

“Well, I’ll leave it to you to figure out what you want to do with all these rooms,” you said, knowing he probably did have some kind of plan for them. He’d need an office for himself since he often worked late on photography and art projects, and he liked having a home gym. “I’m glad your mom arranged to have it furnished before we got here. We just need to move in our personal things.”

“Yeah, Joon is sorting boxes outside.” Taehyung closed his eyes and rolled his shoulders. “I’m kind of sensing something here. Dark spirit?”

“A weaker one, but yes,” you answered. “We’ll deal with it after we get Joon and Chloe set up, and then we’ll hang talismans.”

While Taehyung couldn’t see the things you saw, with the rare exception that a spirit was strong enough to break through the barrier of the otherworld, he was sensitive to their energy. It was something that had wreaked havoc in his life before he met you because he didn’t understand why he had such dark and negative feelings all the time. When he’d started getting into trouble and drinking too much, his parents had sent him to England to attend boarding school with his cousin.

You’d known as soon as you saw him that he could feel the spirits that hung around him even if he didn’t know what they were. And so, one day after classes, you gave him one of your talismans and told him that he’d sleep better if he put it next to his pillow. You could tell by his raised brows that he thought you were kind of crazy, but he’d fallen asleep looking at it that night and finally slept better than he had in years.

At first, it had been weird to talk to someone other than Jungkook and Mrs. Kim about your abilities. You kept expecting him to think you were nuts and exit stage left because even your own mother had never believed you. But Taehyung never thought you were crazy. Even when you started exploring your abilities, looking into the resources you’d gotten from Mrs. Kim, and making contact with others whose work lay in the paranormal realm, he’d never acted like you were a burden, and he’d never abandoned you. His support had given you the strength to keep going on an increasingly scary and dangerous path.

While your academic focus was English literature and linguistics, Taehyung was most interested in art, photography and art history. Taehyung’s parents had expected him to return to California and perhaps study art at Berkeley or apply to NYU’s fine arts program. Instead, he’d followed you to Oxford when you were both accepted.

You had the support of a team now as well. During your Oxford years, you’d met Namjoon, a grad student who had been doing research on paranormal abilities as an unsanctioned side project while also studying experimental psychology. His girlfriend, Chloe, had a background in engineering and computer science and a similar interest in recording paranormal activity.

With their help and that of Mrs. Kim, with whom you’d remained in touch, you’d gradually built a network of contacts – people who were able to see the otherworld as you did, sensitives like Taehyung, and those who sought to understand the paranormal world. One of Mrs. Kim’s contacts, an elderly Chinese man named Mr. Lu, also had the ability to use Taoist amulets to banish spirits.

And not just spirits – you’d been stunned to learn that demons also inhabited the otherworld. You finally had an explanation as to how the ghostly man in the library had hurt you that night. While the strongest of the ghosts in the otherworld could also harm you if they gathered enough energy, burning someone with a touch was the specialty of low-level demons.

You had worked hard for the past couple of years to hone your abilities. It was a surprise to find that many of the spirits who inhabited the otherworld were harmless. They neither sought out human contact nor attempted to cause harm; they merely drifted in the remnants of a world that felt familiar to them, or they sought comfort by occasionally observing loved ones who remained among the living.

Some were nuisance ghosts who enjoyed playing pranks, but they were quite easily dealt with and did little to cause lasting damage. A small percentage fell into the realm of dark spirits – vengeance ghosts who were still angry at their manner of passing were some of the strongest ghosts and could pose real danger to people. Similarly, places that had seen evil acts committed, or mass deaths, were often portals of darkness which attracted demons and dark spirits alike.

Aided by Mr. Lu, you discovered that you had untapped potential to help spirits cross over to the light, as well as the power to harness dark spirits and banish them from the otherworld. Demons were trickier, but you were getting better at dealing with them. It had taken you time to recognize the power you held, but as you got older and it grew stronger, and as you became less afraid, you could feel it inside yourself – a little ball of light that you could coax forward and wield at will.

Learning to wield that power had not come easily. The burn mark on your arm wasn’t the only scar you carried on your body now either; you glanced down and traced the long, jagged mark that ran the length of your left arm from your inner elbow to your wrist. Strong fingers suddenly clasped yours and you looked up to see Taehyung looking at you with worried eyes.

“You can still change your mind about this,” Taehyung said softly. “We both know that being here is dangerous for you. If your friend still cares about you, he wouldn’t want you doing this for him.”

“I’m not just doing this for him, Tae,” you said truthfully. “I’m doing this for me. Because I have regrets about how and why I left, and I can’t keep running away from my past. There’s Jungkook, yes, but also Jin, and Jimin, and Emmie and Robbie. My mom. I ran away from everyone, thinking I was better off alone, and they were better off without me. Now I have to consider how I can merge my old life with my new one, at least enough to repair those relationships.”

“And if you can’t?”

“Then at least I’ll know I tried,” you said with a smile. “I know I can’t go back to how things were, but maybe there’s a way forward.”

Taehyung suddenly pulled you close, wrapping his arms around both you and Yeontan. “You know I’ll help you any way I can.”

Leaning your head against his chest, you nodded. “I know. I just hope your parents don’t hate me for dragging you to yet another university where you never intended to enroll.” It was one of the best universities in the country, and it did have an excellent fine arts program, but it wasn’t even on Taehyung’s radar before you applied for transfer.

“Hey, my parents love you. They credit you for getting me on the straight and narrow path, and even though I told them we’re not dating anymore, I’m certain my mom is still planning our wedding.”

Taehyung’s parents were Hollywood A-listers. His mom had a long film career that had eventually transitioned to television, and she was the popular star of a long running cable drama. His father was an English filmmaker who’d won two Oscars and now spent most of his time on documentaries. Taehyung had no interest in acting or film, but with his fine boned features, dark wavy hair and almond shaped, deep brown eyes, he did a handful of modeling assignments every year that fueled his interest in photography and fashion.

You pulled back and kissed his cheek before lifting Yeontan to give him a lick, making him laugh. “Come on, we should go help Joon and Chloe sort boxes and get things set up. Then I need to have a chat with this little spirit lurking about the place.”

___________________

You woke the next morning feeling refreshed after a deep, dreamless sleep. You and Tae had helped Joon and Chloe set up their equipment in the room designated for their office. Then you’d made up the beds and begun the arduous task of unpacking and organizing personal items. By the time the sun set, you’d been ready to tackle the dark spirit haunting the house.

Like most weak spirits, its energy grew as night fell, and you’d caught it at just the right time before it gathered enough energy to put up a real fight. Still, using your Taoist amulet drained your energy too, and you were exhausted by the time your dinner order arrived. The last task had been to hang talismans at centrally located windows and main entrances, both in the main house and in the guest house, concealing some among the curtains and hiding others behind the artwork that Taehyung’s mother had selected for the house.

Though you still thought the house was too large for you and Taehyung, you couldn’t deny you were happy to have a tranquil bedroom overlooking the garden, and you owed Tae’s mom a phone call to thank her for having it decorated in your favorite colors. The walls were the palest of lavender with cream trim, and the cream, padded headboard of the queen-sized bed dominated the far wall. The light purple of the silk duvet was accented with splashes of cream and sage, and the bed held an array of pillows in similar colors.

Dramatic, arching windows were draped in swathes of delicate cream fabric tied back to let in the light. Comfortable sage armchairs created a cozy reading nook in the corner, and a large area rug in an irregular but complementing color pattern covered the hardwood floor. She’d thoughtfully selected artwork for the walls – an abstract floral design here, a water landscape there. Considering the negative energy that you felt so strongly in town, you knew this space would go a long way towards helping you feel calm, focused and centered.

You’d been too tired the night before to take note of the spa-like retreat that was the adjoining bathroom. Its marble floors and tiles had been warmed up with sage accent colors and a teak wood double vanity, while a claw foot tub sat in front of the large window that faced the far mountains. You eyed the tub longingly before opting for a quick shower, enjoying the rainfall effect.

After drying your hair and applying light makeup, you put on a lemon-yellow sundress, a gossamer thin white cardigan, and clasped your gold locket around your neck. Then you selected the gold watch and earrings Tae had given you for your birthday the week before.

You had one suitcase left to unpack and set it on the bed to sort through its contents – mostly fall and winter clothes that it was still too hot to wear. You paused when you got to the bottom and saw the black hoodie. You’d found two of Jungkook’s hoodies in your room before you left for England. You left one of them in the box that you’d told Emmie to take to him when he returned from camp. The other, you’d thrown into your suitcase a few minutes before you left.

You remembered the night he gave it to you. A few weeks before Christmas during your sophomore year, Jimin’s parents had gone away for the weekend and as he always did when they were away, he threw a party. You were sixteen, and Jungkook had decided it was time to try beer.

Hauling his drunk ass home later that night was quite the experience.

You snorted with laughter as Jungkook stopped beneath a streetlight and did part of a girl group dance that Jimin had dared him to do earlier. But he’d forgotten part of it and had been stopping every few minutes on the way home, trying to remember.

“Damn it,” he said, frustrated as he shook his hips, arms up, and then paused. “Are you sure you don’t remember it?”

“Even if I did, I wouldn’t do it in front of Jimin’s drunk friends or here on the street,” you replied. You tugged his arm. “Come on, if we miss curfew your mom is going to kill us.”

“Nah, as long as we’re together, she doesn’t really worry. She knows we’ll take care of each other.”

“It seems like I’m the one doing the work tonight,” you said with a grunt as he leaned into you. “Geez, you are heavy.” Once he hit his growth spurt, making him nearly a head taller than you, he’d also started putting on muscle.

“But you love meeee,” he sang, spinning you in a circle.

You couldn’t help laughing even as you stumbled sideways again. “I think we need to sit and let you sober up a little. We still have about thirty minutes.” Since you were staying at Jungkook’s tonight, and you were only going to Jimin’s house, his mom had extended the curfew until midnight.

You’d reached the halfway point, a large park that connected your neighborhood to Jimin’s, so it wouldn’t take more than ten minutes to get home. The park was well lit and safe as well, rarely home to any spirits. You guided Jungkook over to the swings and helped him sit before sitting in the one next to him.

“Remember when I fell out of this swing?” Jungkook asked as he started swinging.

“Of course. You just had to get as high as possible and then jump.” He still had the mark on his cheek where he’d hit the ground. “Even when we were kids, you were never afraid of anything.”

“I am scared, sometimes,” he said after a moment.

“Really? Of what?”

“Of things that can hurt you. It’s the only thing I’m really scared of.”

You looked over at him to see him staring up at the sky, a lot more sober than he’d been a few minutes ago. “You never told me you were scared before.”

He scuffed his boots against the ground and then pushed off again. “I have this dream sometimes, or a nightmare, I guess. You’re in the water and something comes for you, and I can’t get to you in time.”

You had that nightmare too, which is why you never went near the water after your encounter with the water ghost. “I’m sorry.” It was the first time you’d realized that he was carrying the weight of your personal horrors, and you felt the guilt creeping in.

“It’s not your fault. I just wish I could take it away, you know? Like, I wish I could be the one to see them and you could be safe.”

“I wouldn’t wish that on you, though.” You twisted your swing sideways, back and forth, and then leaned back to look at the sky. The moon was almost full and very bright, and it reminded you of the moon in the storybook you’d read to Emmie earlier that evening.

“I love you to the moon and back,” you murmured, leaning back further.

“I knew you loved me,” Jungkook said, laughing.

“Funny. The moon made me think of that book I read to Emmie earlier.”

“Well, I love you. To the moon and back, and to Saturn and Jupiter, and back to the moon…”

You rolled your eyes. “Okay, okay. I love you too, to the moon and back.” You shivered as you stood up, holding out your hand. “We should get going.”

Jungkook stood and unzipped his black hoodie. “Here, put this on. I’m getting kind of hot anyway.”

You pulled it on and zipped it up. He laughed at you when you had to roll up the sleeves, his nose crinkling in amusement.

As you started walking again, Jungkook said, “I love you to…. infinity and beyond!”

“Shhh, God you’re loud. Please please be quiet when we get to your house.”

You ran your fingers over the soft material as you thought about that night. You’d worn the hoodie home the next morning and you’d just never given it back. It had become a type of security blanket over the years.

You carefully tucked it in a drawer, slipped on your sandals, and went to look for Taehyung. He wasn’t in the great room or the kitchen. Next you checked the downstairs master suite he’d claimed, but he was already up. Grabbing a cup of coffee, you walked past the guest house and out into the back garden where you spotted him sitting, legs crossed in a meditation pose, on a bench near the far wall.

He opened his eyes and smiled at you as you approached him. “Good morning. Feeling better?”

“Much.” You sat next to him and watched Yeontan nosing around the bushes. “I think I’m going to drive to campus and look around, get a feel for any hot spots. Do you want to come with me?”

“I can’t. The guy is coming to finish the water features.” Since water often served to deter spirits, Taehyung had enlisted a gardening company to install a water feature that ran along the walls of the back garden. The work had begun before you arrived; natural rocks had been carefully placed in a design that would create waterfalls flowing into small pools on either side of the garden. “Once they finish up today and get the water going, I think those pools will be deep enough for koi fish.”

“That will be pretty.” It was a lovely garden. Several trees provided shade, the lawn was expertly manicured, and lush flowerbeds and carefully pruned flowering bushes presented a pop of color among the greenery. “The water will make it cooler back here too. We could add a table and some lanterns and hang out here in the evening.”

“Are you okay going by yourself?” he asked, pushing his wavy hair out of his eyes as he whistled for Yeontan. “You could take Tannie with you.”

“Probably a good idea since they’re coming to finish up back here.”

“Hey.” Taehyung reached for a lock of your hair and tugged it gently. “Don’t confront anything by yourself. If you want to wander around, get your bearings, then fine. Just please don’t follow anything or let anything follow you until the rest of us are with you. This place is… dangerous. We need to be really careful here.”

“I know, don’t worry.” You reached for his hand and threaded your fingers together. “Thank you for coming with me, even though I was afraid to ask you. This would be so much harder without you here.”

You collected Yeontan’s leash and other essentials and drove to the main university parking lot, which was central to the sprawling campus. Yeontan trotted happily next to you as you took note of buildings. The Gothic architecture was a sharp contrast to the bright, late summer sun beating down, and you imagined the campus took on an entirely different aesthetic at night.

There were also plenty of hot spots. Dropping pins as you walked, you wondered exactly what type of spirits you would encounter here. You expected the usual vengeance ghosts, but you occasionally got impressions of something much, much darker as you walked. You dropped yet another pin as you passed the building that housed the pool and athletic departments. Mindful of your promise to Taehyung, you didn’t explore further.

When Yeontan got tired, you picked him up and followed a group of students chattering away with each other about classes beginning soon, upcoming mixers and welcome back activities. Soon you found yourself at a park that abutted a large, sparkling lake. You didn’t need to get too close to sense something in those waters, and so you kept a healthy distance as you turned your attention to the group playing baseball in the field.

And then you saw him. Jungkook wore loose black shorts, a white t-shirt, and a backwards black baseball cap as he stood with a group waiting for their turn at bat. From the people talking around you, you learned that it was just a friendly game between rival fraternities, which explained the number of girls hanging around.

This was your chance to talk to him – to let him know you were here. To explain why you had left. Seeing him again brought a wave of longing, and with it the familiar anxiety you felt when you thought of him.

“Oh, such a cute dog!”

You turned to see a very pretty girl about your age wiggling her fingers at Yeontan. Her dimples flashed when she smiled, and her eyes were such a clear shade of blue that you wondered if they were contact lenses. Her auburn hair was tied up in a ponytail, and she held a sign supporting Pi Kappa Alpha.

“I’m Sera,” she introduced herself. “And who’s this?”

“Yeontan,” you replied. “And I’m y/n. You can pet him if you want. He’s very friendly.”

“Are you new here?” Sera asked, scratching Yeontan’s head. At your surprised look, she nodded at the brochures sticking out of your open bag. “I recognize the welcome package.”

“I’m a transfer student from Oxford,” you confirmed, shifting the wiggling Yeontan in your arms. “We just got here yesterday.”

“Are you off campus? I’m in the Alpha Omicron Pi house.”

“We have a house – the old Victorian on Elmhurst Street.”

“Oh, I noticed they were renovating that house this summer. I grew up here,” she explained. “My parents live three streets over from you. That’s a big house – did you move here with friends?”

“My… friend, Taehyung, came with me,” you said. You weren’t dating anymore, but your relationship with Tae had fallen into something between friend and boyfriend, a kind of ambiguous realm you both were still feeling your way through. “And two other friends, Namjoon and Chloe, are living in the guest house.”

“That’s cool that you all came here together. I guess this will be a big change from Oxford. Hey, so tomorrow there’s a big welcome back picnic happening here around noon. My sorority is co-hosting. Why don’t you and your friends come? I can introduce you around.”

Your eyes drifted back to the field to see Jungkook up at bat. As expected, he hit the ball with a loud crack and took off running around the bases, making it to home before the outfielder had even retrieved the ball. He high fived a guy on his team who you recognized as Jimin when you saw his profile. Someone shouted Jungkook’s name and he suddenly looked in your direction.

Slipping your sunglasses back on, you let your hair fall to cover your profile. “I have to get going, but I’ll ask my friends about it when I get home.” With a wave at Sera, you turned and began walking back to your car as quickly as you could without drawing too much attention to yourself.

“Hope to see you tomorrow!” Sera called after you.

______________________________

Jungkook ran the bases with ease and did a shimmy on home base before high fiving Jimin.

“Such a showoff,” Jimin said with a laugh.

Jungkook grinned and glanced over at the crowd watching when he heard his name called, waving at Jimin’s girlfriend, Ayeong, and her friend Erin, who was waving her Pi Kappa sign enthusiastically. Then a girl in yellow caught his attention. He froze as the girl turned her face away before he could see her clearly. She was holding a small dog as she talked to Sera from the A O Pi sorority. Then she was hurrying away.

Jungkook didn’t realize he’d started walking in her direction until Jimin caught his arm. “Where are you going? You’re pitching.” Jimin followed his gaze, a troubled expression on his face. “I know that girl kind of looks like…”

Jungkook cut him off. “Let’s get back to the game.”

He tried to concentrate on the rest of the game, but he was agitated now, and pissed off. He’d promised himself two years ago that he’d stop looking for you in crowds and chasing the shadows of girls who looked even vaguely like you. That girl might have the same hair, and she might’ve been wearing one of those dumb, useless little sweaters you always liked, but she wasn’t you.

The problem was that now his head was full of you, and he did his best to push you back out like he always did when something reminded him of you. His team won, but he didn’t enjoy the victory, and he was silent in the car as Jimin drove back to the house they’d just moved into with Jin, who was enrolled in the theater program as a grad student.

“I’m glad you finally got permission from your coach to move off campus,” Jimin said. “I guess it helps that you’ll be living with family, so he trusts you not to get too wild or slack off on training.”

Jungkook leaned forward and turned up the radio, a signal that he didn’t want to talk.

Jimin sighed but fell silent. When they pulled up to the house, he jumped out and headed inside to find Jin had started painting the living room. He went straight through to the kitchen, ignoring his brother’s greeting.

“Hey, the least you could do is pick up a brush and help!” he heard Jin yell after him.

Jungkook got a bottle of water from the fridge and took a long drink. He could hear Jimin talking to Jin now.

“There was a girl at the game who looked kind of like y/n,” Jimin said in a low voice. “Plus it’s that time of year – you know how he gets.”

“Her birthday was last week, and his is coming up soon,” Jin said. “Not that he’s ever in the mood to celebrate it anymore anyway.”

Jungkook ignored them as he walked back into the living room and picked up a brush. “Let’s get this finished. Remember we have to go early to pick up the coolers and ice for the picnic.” He and Jimin belonged to the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, and they were co-hosting the welcome back picnic with the A O Pi sorority.

He let Jimin and Jin talk and concentrated on painting. He wasn’t going to think of you anymore and that was that. You hadn’t been back to the U.S. in three years – the last he’d heard from his mom, you opted to attend Oxford University. You’d cut everyone out of your life, and he wasn’t going to waste any more of his time thinking about the past.

That night he dreamed of you.

He stood at the edge of the lake, wading in when he saw you drifting further out in front of him. It always happened the same way; you would smile and stretch out a hand to him, and then you disappeared beneath the surface. And no matter how many times he dove under the water looking for you, you were just gone.

Jungkook woke in a cold sweat, gasping, heart pounding. He switched on his bedside lamp and sat up, glancing at the clock to see it was nearly four in the morning. Running his hands through his hair, he breathed deeply and willed his heart rate to slow.

He hated that fucking nightmare. He could tell himself all day long he wasn’t going to think of you, but then this would happen. He told himself that you were fine, wherever you were. If something terrible had happened to you, he would have heard about it from your mom or his mom. Your life wasn’t his business anymore.

Jungkook was sleep deprived and cranky the next day as he helped set up for the picnic. Students were arriving on campus now, and there were a lot of mixers and activities planned for the next week, many of which he was expected to help with because Jimin was a social butterfly who kept volunteering you both.

Ayeong and Erin were there as well, and he did his best to avoid Erin, whose crush on him was starting to make him uncomfortable. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but he didn’t want a girlfriend and she definitely wanted a boyfriend. The last person he had seriously liked was Grace, and they’d broken up before senior year started. Since then, he’d kept his relationships casual – maintaining his grades and baseball took up most of his time anyway.

An hour into the picnic, he was sitting in a shaded area with Jimin and Ayeong when a little dog ran up and panted at his feet. He smiled as he leaned over to pet the little ball of black and tan fluff. “Hey, little guy, who do you belong to?”

“That would be me – sorry.” A tall man with dark wavy hair approached holding a leash. He leaned down to clip it on the dog’s collar. “He doesn’t usually run away like that, but I think he’s excited about all the new people.”

“Cute,” Jungkook said with a grin as he scratched the little dog behind the ears. “What’s his name?”

“Yeontan,” the man replied with a smile. He held out his hand. “And I’m Taehyung.”

Jungkook shook his hand. “I’m Jungkook. This is Jimin, and that’s Ayeong.”

Taehyung’s smile faded. “I should get back to my friends.”

He was leaning down to pick up the little dog when Sera joined them. “Hey, it’s Yeontan!” She stroked the dog’s head and looked over at the man holding him. “Let me guess – you must be Taehyung?”

“Have we met?”

“No, but I met Yeontan at the game yesterday when I met your girlfriend.”

“Ah, you must be Sera.”

“So where is y/n? I haven’t seen her yet.”

Jungkook’s head shot up at the name. “Y/n?”

“Oh, there she is!” Sera waved at a girl who walked over to join Taehyung.

Since your eyes were on the dog, you didn’t notice him at first. “Oh, thank God. Bad Tannie!” You reached for the small dog and dropped a kiss on his nose. Behind you were two more people – a tall man with silver blond hair, and a woman with long, brown hair threaded with blue streaks.

It was a surreal moment seeing you again. You were wearing a dark blue, silky sundress and what looked like the same thin white sweater he’d seen you wearing the day before. Your wavy hair was held back from your face with little clips, and your gold locket hung around your neck just as it always had. The little dog yapped and licked your cheek, making you giggle, and you smiled up at Taehyung, who placed an arm around your waist.

“Oh, shit,” he heard Jimin mutter next to him.

That got your attention and when you glanced over to see him, you froze. Your eyes held his for several moments. Then you took a deep breath and said, “Hi, Jungkook.”

Sera was looking between you, her expression curious. “Do you know each other?”

When Jungkook didn’t answer, Jimin said, “We all went to school together until y/n left for boarding school senior year.” He stood up and walked over to give you a hug. “It’s nice to see you again.”

You smiled at him gratefully. “I’m happy to see you, too. I was going to call or something, but we’ve only been here for two days.”

Jungkook felt his jaw clench. He said nothing as Jimin introduced Ayeong, who seemed uncharacteristically shy as she greeted you and Taehyung.

“This is Namjoon,” you said, gesturing to the blond man. “And his girlfriend, Chloe.”

“I heard you guys moved into that big old Victorian house,” Sera said to Taehyung. “I was telling my mom about it when I talked to her last night. She’s an interior designer, so she was interested in how it had been updated.”

“You should come by some time,” Taehyung told her.

The way Taehyung kept looking between you and him told Jungkook that he knew who he was. That meant that you’d known he was here before you came. You’d probably seen him at the game yesterday and you’d still scurried off rather than talk to him.

He watched Sera lead you and Taehyung away, introducing you to other friends. You looked over your shoulder at him, but he averted his eyes rather than meet your gaze.

Jimin cleared his throat and looked at Namjoon and Chloe. “Are you students here too?”

Namjoon shook his head. “I met Tae and y/n at Oxford – I was in a psych grad program there. Chloe and I are researching paranormal activity, so we tagged along when we heard they were coming here.”

Jungkook felt Jimin looking at him again.

“Huh. Well, that’s interesting. It’s supposedly the most haunted campus in the country, so good luck with that,” Jimin said.

Namjoon and Chloe wandered over to join the group of people you were talking to.

“Are you alright?” Jimin asked quietly.

Jungkook tried to swallow down the hot anger he could feel building. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Do you guys know who that is?” Ayeong asked incredulously. “That’s Taehyung Kim. As in, son of actress Jinah Park and Oscar winning director John Kim. He models for big designers a few times a year – he has a verified Instagram account, too.” She tapped on her phone for a minute and held it out to Jimin.

Jimin scrolled silently for a few seconds. “He’s also a photographer?”

“Yeah. I think he’s had at least one showing in New York under the name Vante. It was a photo of your friend that got me interested in photography – about two years ago?” She took the phone back and scrolled for a minute before handing it back to Jimin. “That one. He called it The Sighting, and it still gives me the chills when I look at it.”

Jimin looked at it and then handed the phone to Jungkook. He took it and looked at the photo, a landscape shot of you next to a river. You were in profile, but the angle showed a haunting, pensive expression on your face as you stared across the water, arms folded across your midsection, your hair lifted by a breeze.

The Sighting was a good name for the photo, and he wondered what you had seen that day. After a moment of hesitation, Jungkook went to the thumbnail view of Taehyung’s Instagram page. It was full of you.

Some of the photos were more artistic and some were just little snapshots of happy moments. It was obvious that you had spent most of your time with Taehyung over the past three years, and that anger he’d felt earlier came rushing back. You couldn’t be bothered to let him know you were alive, but you could take cooking classes and adopt a puppy with the perfect Taehyung.

He carefully passed the phone back to Ayeong before he did something crazy like hurl it into the lake.

When Ayeong was distracted by a friend she was talking to, Jimin scooted his chair closer. “Seriously, the level of anger you’re repressing right now can’t be healthy. Can you please just talk to her? Maybe she had a good reason for not coming back until now.”

“I’m not interested,” Jungkook replied.

“You are so full of shit right now,” Jimin said evenly. “You told me that it was your fault she left to begin with. You were going to fix it, you said. Well, here’s your chance.”

“She’s not my fucking problem anymore, and I don’t care,” Jungkook snapped back. “So drop it.”

A quiet gasp made them both look up to see you and Taehyung standing a few feet away. You stared at him, a flush creeping up your neck betraying your emotions. There was something in your eyes that made him feel small in that moment because he knew he’d hurt you.

Without a word, you turned and walked away towards the lake. Taehyung shot a furious look in his direction before following you.

Jungkook spent the remainder of the afternoon battling conflicting emotions. He was mad at you, but he was also mad at himself for still getting angry about something he’d spent two years telling himself was over and done with. He was hurt that you’d just shown up like this with no warning and with new friends, evidence of how you’d replaced him.

He was also confused about why you’d come to this university when you had to know how dangerous it was for you. Jungkook couldn’t see or feel what you saw and felt, but here at Gettis, he occasionally got an uneasy feeling. It was enough that he’d hung a talisman at the window of his dorm, and he’d put up more at the house he shared with Jimin and Jin.

And now you were down by the lake like one of his nightmares come to life. As mad as he was, he was also fighting the urge to physically drag you away from the water. You’d been down there for an hour with Taehyung, Namjoon and Chloe. Thinking about what Namjoon had said – that he and Chloe were interested in paranormal activity – he had to wonder if you’d deliberately chosen to come here because you were looking, too.

He reminded himself again and again that it wasn’t his business, and what you did shouldn’t concern him now. He dredged up his anger to dispel the fear that curled in his stomach when he watched you walk to the end of the pier and lean down to touch the water before looking back at Chloe, who was looking at something on a tablet.

Jungkook guessed he had an answer – you were definitely here looking for something, and you displayed none of the fear that he’d expect, either. And somehow that scared him.

He was still sitting and watching you when Jin arrived.

“I guess Jimin called you,” Jungkook said.

“Where is she?” Jin asked.

He nodded down to the lake.

_____________________________________

“The readings here are insane,” Chloe said. “Look at this, Joon.”

“I see it.”

You closed your eyes and pushed out with your mind, searching. You heard the water ripple a few feet away – it could be mistaken for a fish, but you knew it wasn’t. Taehyung knew it too and crouched behind you to wrap one arm around your waist.

“Even after everything I’ve seen you do, these water ghosts are still the scariest,” he admitted as he anchored you.

They used to be the most terrifying to you as well, but you didn’t feel the same fear you used to feel when standing near the water. You were still scared, at least a little, and very alert to the danger. However, if it hadn’t broken you the night you went down to the lake alone three years ago, you supposed it wouldn’t now.

You could feel that Jungkook was still watching you, too. You didn’t need to look at him to know he must be wondering what you were doing down here. After all, the same fears that haunted you used to haunt him as well.

You’d been so nervous to see him, but once you were standing in front of him, you couldn’t deny the burst of happiness you felt. He looked the same in some ways, but there were little changes you committed to memory; he’d grown a bit taller, and he’d filled out even more. He’d lost the remaining roundness in his face, replaced by defined cheekbones and a sharp jawline. His hair no longer swept across his forehead, hiding his eyes, now replaced by an off-center part that exposed his strong brow.

You’d both grown up during these three years, though it was clear that he’d nursed a deep anger toward you. Maybe you deserved it, but it still hurt to hear him refer to you as a problem – one that he didn’t want to be a part of anymore.

“Y/n?”

You looked over to see Jin standing on the pier next to the lake edge. Taehyung released you as you stood and took a few tentative steps in Jin’s direction, wondering if he was angry, too.

Then he held his arms open, and you felt tears rush into your eyes. You closed the distance and wrapped your arms tightly around him. He just held you for a couple of minutes, petting the back of your head like he used to when he knew you’d had a bad day. His tall, solid presence instantly calmed you.

“I’m sorry,” you whispered.

“I’m maybe a little mad, but I missed you too much to show it right now,” he said. “I’m glad you’re back.”

You finally pulled back and wiped your fingers under your eyes before looking up at him. “I thought you were still in L.A.”

“I was there for a couple of years. I did a couple of commercials, had a few walk-on roles. Mostly I just saved money so I could apply to the theater program here. I finally got in.”

“I’m so glad you’re here,” you said, squeezing his hand.

“What are you doing down here?” Jin asked. He looked concerned as he glanced at the people behind you. “This lake can be dangerous from what I’ve heard.”

You quickly introduced him to Taehyung, Namjoon and Chloe. Jin raised his brows when you mentioned that you were living with Tae, but he didn’t comment.

“Tae and I both transferred from Oxford,” you explained. You debated how much to say, but then added, “Namjoon and Chloe are working on a research project related to paranormal activity. There’s no better place for that than here, so they decided to come with us.”

“I see.” He looked out at the water for a moment and then held out his hand. “Come walk with me.”

As you walked around the perimeter of the lake, you noted that Jin put himself between you and the water.

“Can you really see ghosts?” he finally asked.

You stopped and stared up at him. “Did Jungkook tell you?”

“No,” he said. “You forget how many times over the years you slept over. I can’t even count how many blanket forts I built for you two on the living room floor once you were too old to share a bedroom, and if you remember, I usually slept on the couch. I heard you two talking more than once.”

“And you believed it?” you asked doubtfully.

“No, not at first. I thought you two had overactive imaginations because of what happened to you at the lake that time which, I admit, was hard to explain. But then I saw how you were after the library fire, and after that night we found you at the lake, I guess I wondered.”

You sighed and looked out over the water. “Even my mother doesn’t believe me, Jin. The only people I could talk to were Jungkook and Mrs. Kim.”

“So, it’s true.”

You nodded and met his gaze. “The otherworld is real, though not many people are aware of it. Some people are sensitive to that negative energy – Taehyung, for example. He can’t see them, but he can often feel their presence. And then there are people like me, who can see and interact with them.”

“Then why would you come here?” he asked. “This place even gives me the creeps sometimes. You used to jump at every shadow that crossed your path, and now you’re strolling near the lake looking for what? Water ghosts?”

“More than one,” you replied. “I was trying to feel them out and see how many are out there.”

He looked at you incredulously. “For what purpose? I remember hearing you and Jungkook talk once about how they sometimes followed you. Isn’t this dangerous for you?”

“They recognize me as part of the otherworld, so yes, they often follow me,” you replied. “But I haven’t wasted these last three years, Jin. I’m still learning, but I’m able to use my power in ways now that I couldn’t even comprehend before. And with all the hot spots here, I think this will be a good place for me to test my abilities.”

“So what you’re telling me is that you and your team of ghostbusters over there are here to look for dangerous ghosts,” he said. His laugh turned into a groan, and he wiped a hand down his face. “You and Jungkook are going to give me gray hair before I’m thirty.”

“Please don’t say anything to your mom,” you told him. “I don’t need her or my mom thinking I need a psych admittance.”

“That’s debatable,” Jin muttered. “Jungkook is too mad and stubborn to admit it right now, but he missed you too.”

You looked back over at the water. “He made it clear I’m not his problem anymore, and he’s right. He was kind of trapped in that world with me for ten years. I don’t blame him for opting out.”

“Is that why you left?”

You shrugged but didn’t answer.

“Stubborn, the both of you,” he said with a sigh. “He waited for you to come home that first year and then he tried to forget you. Do you know he hasn’t celebrated his birthday since you left? Like clockwork, August rolls around and Jungkook is a walking wound for a few weeks, snapping at everybody. He can push you out of his head, but he’s never been able to push you out of his heart, y/n, even if he thinks he did.”

Tears blurred your eyes as you stared at the water, and you forced them back. “I can’t force him to listen to what I have to say, Jin. Maybe he’s right and it doesn’t matter anymore.”

________________________________

Jin spent the afternoon trying to reason through everything you’d told him before abandoning reason. That evening he called his mom and asked if she had Mrs. Kim’s contact information. If his mother was curious as to why he needed it, she didn’t say anything. She simply told him that she’d look for it and send it to him later.

When he got off the phone, he saw that Jimin and Jungkook had walked in with the pizzas they’d picked up.

Jimin looked at him curiously. “Why do you want to talk to Mrs. Kim? I don’t think I’ve seen her since before your grandmother’s funeral.”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because y/n is here hunting ghosts. From talking to her this afternoon, I think she probably still talks to Mrs. Kim, and I’d like to know exactly how worried I should be.”

Jimin gaped at him. “Wait, what? She really sees ghosts? I thought Hanna and Lily were full of it when they started that rumor back in elementary school.”

Jin looked at Jungkook and then back at Jimin. “You didn’t know?”

“No.” He shot an accusing look at Jungkook. “Did you know?”

Jungkook was staring at Jin. “What do you mean she’s here hunting ghosts?”

“I mean exactly that. There are multiple water ghosts in that lake, by the way, so I’d advise you both to stay out of it.”

Jimin still looked stunned. “Water ghosts.” He visibly started. “Wait, is that what happened to her at the birthday party? And why she wouldn’t go near the lake again?”

“Apparently.” Jin grabbed a plate and loaded three slices of pizza on it.

“But then why would she be down at this lake if she thinks it’s full of water ghosts?”

“See, she seems to think that she can fight them now or something. She said she’s still learning, but it sounds like she’s here to test her learning curve by hunting ghosts in one of the most haunted places in America. And I can’t believe I just said that out loud.”

Jin watched his brother while eating. Jungkook stared at the pizza on his plate, brow creased. He might try to hide it, but Jin could see he was worried.

Jimin was still trying to put all the pieces in place. “That fire at the library was always weird. Was that a ghost? Because it would explain why she stayed locked up in her bedroom if it was. And those lucky talismans? I noticed you hung a few up here, Jungkook. I thought they were just things you got from your grandmother.”

“They’re not lucky talismans,” Jungkook muttered. “They keep away spirits. Things feel weird here sometimes, so I hung them up just in case.”

“I can’t believe you guys didn’t tell me about this,” Jimin said with a reproachful look. “I wouldn’t have told anyone, you know.”

“Can we please talk about something else?” Jungkook pushed his plate away and stood up.

“Hey.” When Jungkook looked at him, Jin said, “I don’t know what happened between you and y/n three years ago, and I get that you’re still mad, but I’m going to need you to pull your head out of your ass and help me out here. Because she’s still family even if you’re mad at her, Jungkook. I need you to help me make sure she doesn’t get hurt or worse doing whatever it is she’s planning on doing here.”

_________________________

Jungkook tried not to think about you, but after Jin’s revelations, your new ghost hunting hobby was damn near all he could think about. Telling himself it wasn’t his problem anymore was one thing when he thought you had the sense to steer clear of the otherworld, but it was harder to convince himself when he was worried you were actively seeking out trouble.

Jin had mentioned that your boyfriend was a sensitive – someone who could feel but not see the spirits. He supposed that explained how you ended up together, and he obviously supported your newfound insanity. He still couldn’t believe you’d gone down to that lake and touched the water, knowing that it was full of water ghosts. As long as he lived, he’d never forget the force with which that ghost had yanked you into the water all those years ago, and that was only one ghost. Even though Taehyung had been anchoring you, he knew that would be useless if multiple ghosts came after you at once.

Jin had called Mrs. Kim and left her a long voicemail, but he hadn’t heard back from her yet. It had been two days since he’d seen you at the picnic; Jin had gone to visit you at your new house, but Jungkook had refused to go. He still felt confused, his emotions too raw to deal with you.

Jungkook wasn’t in the mood to go out, but Jimin dragged him down to the pool in the athletic building that afternoon.

“You need to work off some aggression,” Jimin said. “I’m tired of you snapping at everyone, and so is Jin.”

They hit the locker room first to change and then walked to the pool room. Once classes started, it would be in use more, but it was peaceful at the moment. Jungkook set his bag down on a chair, noting one other bag there, though no one was around. Then he saw your gold locket.

“Is that someone in the water?” Jimin suddenly asked.

Adrenaline rushed through him as he scanned the water and finally saw the dark shape at the bottom of the pool. “No.”

Jungkook hit the water and dove deep, fear giving him the extra push he needed to reach you within seconds. He jerked you into his arms and swam up. When he surfaced and started pulling you to the side, he was relieved to hear you coughing.

You clung to the side and coughed again before wiping your face.

Jungkook was livid as he climbed out and then lifted you out of the pool. “Are you out of your mind?”

You pushed your hair back and looked at him. “I wasn’t drowning – at least, not until you surprised me, and I inhaled water coming up.”

Jungkook barely controlled the urge to shake you. “You were at the bottom of the fucking pool, y/n! Are you fucking crazy?”

“Don’t curse at me,” you suddenly shouted back at him. “I can swim just fine now. I didn’t need you to jump in and play hero.”

“Whoa, okay you two need to calm down,” Jimin suddenly cut in. “If you weren’t drowning then what the hell were you doing at the bottom of the pool? Because the last time we saw you, you were scared to death of water.”

You walked over to your bag and pulled out a towel, wrapping it around yourself as you faced them. “I learned to swim more than two years ago. Sitting at the bottom of the pool is something I do to practice holding my breath. I like to see how long I can stay down there.”

“What if something was down there?” Jungkook asked, jaw clenched.

“I’m not stupid,” you shot back. “There was a water ghost here, but I got rid of it yesterday. It’s perfectly safe to swim here now.”

His attention was suddenly caught by the long, jagged scar on your left arm. He didn’t even have to ask to know you had gotten hurt doing something dangerous. Something like you were trying to do here. Jungkook thought his head was going to explode. “Are you listening to yourself? Are you trying to die on this campus?”

“What’s going on?”

He turned to see Taehyung coming from the direction of the bathrooms. He didn’t look happy to see Jungkook there, and in his current mood, the feeling was mutual.

“Nothing,” you said. “I want to go home.” You slid your shorts on and pulled a t-shirt over your head before fastening your locket around your neck.

Jungkook held out an arm to stop you from walking by him. “I thought Jin had to be wrong when he told me you were here hunting ghosts. Because that’s just crazy any way you want to look at it, and there’s no way you’d be stupid enough to go looking for that kind of trouble. Right?”

You stared up at him, and the stubborn tilt of your chin made his heart sink. “I think I’m not your fucking problem anymore, Jungkook. So whatever I am or am not doing, you don’t need to worry about it.”

Watching you walk out with Taehyung, he wanted to hit something. He settled for kicking his bag off the chair and then sat, raking his hands through his wet hair. “Fuck.”

Jimin sighed and sat next to him. “Maybe yelling at her isn’t the way to go, Jungkook. She’s not a child, and we have no idea what she’s experienced the last few years. It’s obvious that she’s not the same girl we knew who was afraid of everything, and maybe she has reasons for that.”

Elbows propped on his knees, he clasped his hands behind his head and tried to calm down. “You have no idea what kind of danger she’s putting herself in, Jimin, because you found out about this a couple of days ago. I lived with it for ten years. What she’s doing? She could die.”

Jimin stayed quiet for a minute. “I can’t pretend like I understand because I know I don’t. You two have ten years of secrets – that’s a lot. But it doesn’t change the fact that she has her own secrets now. Three years of secrets, to be exact, and the only way you’ll be able to understand who she is now is if she’ll talk to you about them. I’m just saying yelling won’t accomplish anything.”

Jungkook stayed by the pool when Jimin left, thinking over his friend’s words. Talking to you without getting angry seemed an impossible task at the moment. It would require him to dig at the wounds you’d left him with, to forgive you and ask for forgiveness in return. You had years of hurt and issues to hash out, and frankly, he didn’t know if he was ready for that.

His other option was just to stay away from you, but now that you were back, he didn’t know if he could do that either. And beneath it all, there was his deepest concern – how to keep you safe while he was figuring it out.

A/N – Hope you liked the update! I also updated the Ghosted playlist if you want to check that out. I put a link in my Master Fic List. My asks are open if you have any questions about the story, and I’ll work on getting Chapter 3 up as soon as I can. Yoongi and Hobi will be introduced in the next part as the U.S. liaison to y/n’s ghostbusting team, Hobi rather reluctantly lol.

Tag List: @ggukkieland @jikooksgirl19 @waves-and-woods

#college au #jungkook x you #jungkook x reader #jungkook fanfic #bts imagines #jungkook smut #jungkook fluff #jungkook angst #ghosted

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thecrownnet · 4 years ago

Photo

Photo from left: Charles Dance, Erin Doherty, Helena Bonham Carter, Peter Morgan, Olivia Colman, Tobias Menzies and Josh O’Connor attend the premiere of The Crown and tribute to Peter Morgan at AFI Fest in Hollywood.BY ARAYA DIAZ/GETTY

'The Crown' Boss Reveals Why Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Are Off-Limits

The Hollywood Reporter Aug 18, 2020

Creator and showrunner Peter Morgan shares the unofficial feedback he gets from the royal family and why characters based on Prince Andrew and others won't be making an appearance in the Emmy-nominated series: "I'm much more comfortable writing about things that happened at least 20 years ago."

Peter Morgan was nearing the end of a lengthy shoot for the upcoming fourth season of Netflix's The Crown when the coronavirus took hold in the U.K., halting production. While he was ultimately able to wrap the season with what they had, he still lost a couple weeks of filming. "I can see where the gaps are, but I'm hoping that you won't," says the showrunner, who adds that he feels "lucky" that they were able to get as far as they did. In the wake of the show's nine Emmy nominations, including one for best drama series, the London-based Morgan shares what caused him to change his mind about the number of seasons the show will run, the unofficial feedback he gets from Buckingham Palace and why present-day royal scandals are off the table.

How did you celebrate your Emmy nominations?

I'm not sure I did celebrate, to be honest. I mean, I was relieved. I'm not sure that relief is a celebration. This just feels like such a strange time. Jumping around punching the air and lighting cigars feels like something I look forward to doing again, but at the moment, it just would feel weird to be doing that.

Having lost a couple weeks of filming on the upcoming season, is there any chance that you could reconvene everyone once it's considered safe to do so and get those final shots?

In order to hit the release schedule for season four, we needed to start editing and lock episodes, which we've been doing throughout this time. And everything takes much longer under these new social distancing regulations and rules, [even post-production.] So if we'd, for example, waited until next month, when a number of people are starting to film again in late August, beginning of September, to pick up these extra scenes, I think a) everyone would have been out of the rhythm of it and it would have felt very strange, and b) I think it would have compromised our post schedule. And we had to weigh up, "Is it worth it or not?" And, actually, that we're still able to hit our release schedule in November for seasonal four has been worth it.

It was announced recently that the fifth season, the one you're currently writing, won't be released until 2022. Was that a decision impacted by COVID or was that always the plan?

It's a normal schedule for us because what happens is, as you've noticed, we filmed The Crown in two season chunks, so we had Claire Foy for two seasons, we've now got Olivia Coleman for two seasons. And there was a gap year in there in which I frantically do a draft of all the scripts, and then I re-write the scripts and polish the scripts after that — but at least we have a roadmap of where we're going for the two seasons. And I said that there was no way that I could possibly do that and be showrunning the seasons if they were in production. You do need a gap year to get ahead with the writing.

This year, you said that the show was going to run five seasons instead of the expected six, but you recently reverted to the original plan. Why the change?

That's me being exhausted, and the truth is people have just been so supportive and so kind. They were so kind to go with me on the five-season version. That was an act of generosity because it was always pitched as being six seasons and always imagined to be that. And then I think they just looked at the state I was in, which is a classic showrunner look. You look slightly green and yellow and you have bags under your eyes, and you look at least 10 years older than you actually are. At that point, people say, "Just let the poor man out of his misery." But then in the course of meeting the actors, they were all furious they were only getting one season. (Laughs.) They were like, "Well, that's not fair. How come Claire Foy gets two and Olivia Colman gets two and I only get one?"

Are you writing that next season with COVID protocols in mind or are you hoping that the virus will be a thing of the past by the time you're in production again?

I think so. I'm writing it exactly as I wrote it before. I'm making no concessions whatsoever in terms of international locations, in terms of extras, in terms of size. If anything, the show's getting bigger. So I am absolutely banking on there being not just a vaccine but that the vaccine has had global dissemination by that point.

What was the most challenging scene for you to write last season?

If there isn't a challenging scene to get on paper in every episode, I'm not doing my job. If it doesn't feel to me like I'm climbing without a rope, then I don't see [the point]. I remember in season one when Claire Foy comes back to find her father dead, she cries when she sees his dead body. And I said to everybody then, "This is the first and the last time we're ever going to see the queen cry. She will never cry again. There'll be many times where we imagine she's crying, but no tears come." When you have the queen in scenes of extreme emotion, those scenes are very difficult to write because she's not a person of extreme emotionality. So you're constantly having to find ways to make the audience cry without, as it were, the queen crying. In other words, it's all about inability and restraint and being blocked, because she herself is blocked because it's wrapped up in this package of being the queen — and the queen is in itself an abstract concept rather than Elizabeth Windsor, who she is underneath. So any scenes that really push to that are always a real challenge.

You've meet with royal aides to brief them on what's to come in the show. How do they typically respond, and what do you hope to get out of those meetings?

I meet on an entirely informal and impersonal basis with a couple of people who used to work at the palace and who I imagine still have contacts with the palace. It ends up as one of those rather ridiculous conversations in which everybody is slightly tiptoeing and saying something other than what they mean, but you're still finding a way of getting some information out while at the same time everybody has the most important thing, which is deniability.

Do they ever come to you and say, "No, it didn't happen this way," or "That isn't accurate"?

Occasionally they might come back and say, "I enjoyed certain aspects of the season," and by that I know that he or she probably means other people enjoyed that. And then they'll say, "There were one or two things that I personally found disappointing," which probably means that somebody else found them disappointing.

Does that feedback influence how you write the show at all?

No, nor would they want it to. No one's trying to censor me. No one's ever tried to correct what I do or censor what I do. No one wants anything to do with each other. I don't want anything to do with the palace and the palace wants nothing to do with me — again, so that we all have the most important thing, which is that they can say, "I don't know what they think they're doing." And we can say, "We have no interest in making them happy." That's really important because different people have different attitudes. Some people could say, "Oh my god, it's outrageous what The Crown has got away with saying," and other people could say, "The Crown could have said it a lot worse." So depending on your perspective, if you are a rapid anti-monarchist then no matter how critical I am, it will never be critical enough. And if you are really staunch establishment monarchist, then just about everything I say is pure treason. You will never make those two extremes happy. And there's no point even trying to. I only write what I want to write.

You've said the show won't get into modern royal subjects like Meghan Markle or Prince Andrew. Why?

I just think you get so much more interesting [with time.] Meghan and Harry are in the middle of their journey and I don't know what their journey is or how it will end. One wishes some happiness, but I'm much more comfortable writing about things that happened at least 20 years ago. I sort of have in my head a 20 year rule. That is enough time and enough distance to really understand something, to understand its role, to understand its position, to understand its relevance. Often things that appear absolutely wildly important today are instantly forgotten, and other things have a habit of sticking around and proving to be historically very relevant and long lasting. I don't know where in the scheme of things Prince Andrew or indeed Meghan Markle or Harry will ever appear. We won't know, and you need time to stop something being journalistic. And so I don't want to write about them because to write about them would instantly make it journalistic. And there are plenty of journalists already writing about them. To be a dramatist, I think you need perspective and you need to also allow for the opportunity for metaphor. Once something has a metaphorical possibility, it can then become interesting. It's quite possible, for example, to tell the story of Harry and Meghan through analogy and metaphor, if that's what you want to do. Because there've been so many examples in the past, whether it's Wallis Simpson or Edward VII, or whether it's Diana and Prince Charles. There have been plenty of opportunities in the past where there have been marital complications. There've been wives that have been married into the Royal family that have felt unwelcome and that they don't fit in. So there are plenty of stories to tell without telling the story of Harry and Meghan.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

#olivia colman #helena bonham carter #gillian anderson #claire foy #the crown #peter morgan #tobias menzies #ben daniels #josh o'connor #emma corrin #erin doherty #imelda staunton #jonathan pryce #lesley manville #elizabeth debicki #the crown netflix

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ink-and-flame · 4 years ago

Text

Kinktober Day 5: Nukklebust Productions Presents

Kinktober Day 5 Prompts: Kneeling ~ Triple penetration ~ Video (being recorded) Fandom: Original (Auchendale Archives) Tags: exophilia, m/f, slight f/f, orgy, triple penetration, kneeling, video recording, pornography, group sex, anal plug, sex toys, Pairing:GoblinM/HumanF, GoblinM/ElfF, HumanF/ElfF

[Authors Note: This is purely self indulgent smut that I have written for my own personal enjoyment and it is loosely based on a dream I had a few weeks ago. I was torn between putting this in Warcraft or not and I decided to put it in the Auchendale universe so I can use Ember since I kind of fell in love with her, which was unintentional since I made her on a whim. Vyzzie was borrowed from a friend with permission.]

The owners of The Scarlet Eclipse had some very firm rules on photography and video being taken in the club. The top rule was that in general it wasnt allowed. This was to help enforce privacy rules and ensure that the people who came to the club felt safe. The exception to the rule was, of course, pornography. The owners had a relationship with a few directors in the industry and allowed some of their rooms to be used for photo shoots and film shoots as long as nothing got out of hand and it was kept quiet. The location was never allowed to be revealed.

There were limitations of course, no large productions, and only so many rooms could be rented out for this purpose. The club still needed to cater to its own clientele of course, and it opened up the opportunity for people to explore their own exhibitionist and voyeuristic fetishes. Once it became known, it was an open secret around the club. Privacy was still respected, but the owners invested in a remodel that turned a couple of the rooms into permanent filming areas. They could be accessed through a special door and from the outside and the area could be locked down if needed.

When not in use by professionals, the owners allowed club members to book the rooms for a fee and they would get a copy of the finished product for their own personal enjoyment. Some allowed their amateur films to be released online, most kept them private. VIP members of the club were allowed to use these areas for free with enough prior notice. As it was, there was a waiting list, and sometimes it could take a few months to gain access to one of the rooms, especially if you needed a specific one.

The club owners had made it easy to check the availability of the rooms online, and there was a link to the waiting list. Anyone already on it could also check their place in the queue. Vyzzie had been checking every day for the last few weeks to see if his request had been bumped up in the queue. He had paid extra and used his friends VIP access to cut in line as much as he could. He was eager to do the scene and had been making preparations for almost two months now. The preparations had to be changed multiple times already as people had backed out and Vyz knew the longer it took the harder it would be to do.

Thankfully his friend had promised not to back out and had even suggested bringing someone along so she wasn’t the only female in the scene. It meant they could do much more with what they had left and the plans for the scene had begun to change. It was shaping up to be one of his better ideas, he just had to make sure the people still on board stayed on board.

The idea had come about after a wild night with two chicks he didn’t really know well. He ended up getting kind of close to one of them and she had expressed a desire to have another threesome but with two guys instead. He knew someone that would be interested and it had been fun, but then they got to thinking, why not invite more people, and the idea developed into something that Vyz was quite eager for, as was his new friend Ember.

Vyzzie had promised that he would only invite people she trusted, and Ember offered to bring her elf friend from the first time. It was shaping up to be quite a scene and once it was settled the negotiations began and everything was put in place with an understanding of what was expected of everyone. Simple color codes would be used instead of safe words so that everyone could be on the same page and no one got lost or confused.

When the day finally came Vyz could barely contain his excitement. He had gone over the details with Ember so many times that they both decided to share control of the situation. It also lead to copious amounts of sex between the two of them as every time they discussed it the conversation would inevitably arouse one or both of them. They had pretty much fucked on every surface in Vyzzie’s apartment, including his roommate's bed. That one he wasn’t particularly proud of when it was discovered and he had to do a lot of apologizing to make up for it.

With Ember in tow and some luggage Vyz arrived at the club a few hours before the filming was going to start. This was pretty standard to give them time to set up, and get everyone ready. He was practically vibrating with excitement the goblin looking up at his human companion with mischievous violet eyes.

“Ok, so it’s gonna be an hour before the others show up. I thought we could get everything set up and go over the negotiations one last time. Make sure nothin essential god missed.” Vyz opened the door to the main room and dropped off his bags before peeking into the equipment room off to the side. It housed all the recording equipment, back up servers, everything they needed but it was empty. “Ok looks like the crew ain’t here yet. S’fine, gives us a bit more time.”

Ember moved around the room checking things out and setting her luggage near the back wall and out of the way. She could change later. For now the room needed some work. The bed would be plenty large enough for all of them, not much else in the room would make it into the shot, but it was still worth it to spruce up the room and make it look nice. Despite what they were going to be doing, Ember wanted it to have a soft feeling and she began digging through the chests full of props and accessories to see how they could alter the look and feel of the room.

“Whatcha got there dollface?” Vyz had slipped up behind Ember, placing a hand on her ass and peering into the chest she was digging through.

“I was hoping to find something to help the room look less plain and sterile. The bed is nice, its a good size. The furniture all matches and it looks ok. Has a bit of a hotel feel which might be on purpose, but I was kind of hoping for something a little different?” She looked at him and rolled her eyes when she felt him rubbing her ass. “You are getting awfully friendly there Vyzzie.”

“Yer my friend.” He quipped and pinched her. “Don’t worry. I remember. No attachments. Doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the benefits package.” Smirking he dug through the chest with a free hand, black claws catching on some fabric. “I trust your taste. I know we were only at your place once, but I liked it. Lots of lights, colors. Had that weird gothic rainbow vibe going. You got a unique style Em, that is for sure.”

“How about we change the lamps, throw up some lights on the wall, drape some fabric around and soften the whole room up a bit. Considering what we are going to be doing, it will be a really interesting contrast I think.” Ember pulled some sheer fabric from the chest and began draping it on the headboard.

“I like how you think. Let the room be soft, the actions hard.” Vyz helped change out the room decor to match her vision. It was getting close to when the others should start arriving. “Hey, uh.. Emmy? You know if you aren’t sure about this or need to change some stuff I will understand. You know that right?”

Ember laughed. “Emmy?” She stepped over to Vyz, running a hand through his dark blue hair. “Yeah Vyz. I know. I wouldn’t have agreed to this if I didn’t trust you.”

“I will make sure your boundaries ain’t crossed. I know ya got some hang ups and all that. Don’t want there to be any pressure in the moment to do anything you ain’t sure of. I know how it gets once a scene starts and ya get caught up in it. Don’t want that ta happen here.”

Ember nodded. “That is why I brought a precaution. I really don’t like anal, and I won’t be able to relax if I worry that it might happen, even accidentally. So I brought a plug with me to help. If something is already there that I am comfortable with, then nothing else can go in and I can relax. I know it sounds counter intuitive and it took me a long time to get to a point where I can even use it, but it actually helps and functions in a way that lets me maintain control over it.”

“Not weird, makes a lot of sense actually. You control its size, when you use it, and it prevents anyone you are with from just having an ‘oops’ moment or doin the whole ‘it's better to ask forgiveness than permission’ nonsense. I hear ya, I support it. Need any help or just some privacy?”

“I can go put it in myself, wont take me too long I prepared myself for it but didn’t want to have it in all day. Give me a few minutes to get ready if you want to finish the room?”

“Sure, no problem, I can get it done.” Vyz went back to putting the finishing touches on the room when the crew arrived.

They began setting up the cameras at the goblins' instruction and made sure all the equipment was well hidden so as to not ruin the scene. There would only be so many angles shot and the final product would time some time to edit and put together into something polished and finished, ready for release, but Vyz was fine with waiting.

He had initially thought to hire a scene director, someone to keep everyone on track, but instead chose to work through the scenario with everyone, set a basic structure, and then just let things happen naturally. He wanted it to be real, visceral, and that wouldn't happen if there was a script or strict direction to follow.

Ember came back into the room with nothing but a mask and some thigh high socks on. The masquerade mask was small, simple, and not too bulky. It would stay on easily, and leave her mouth and nose free. The thigh highs were a request from Vyz. The only other things she had on was special body make up that would hide her tattoos and dried down so it wouldn’t smear. She had practiced with it before, going through an intense sex scene to see how well it held up to sweat and other body fluids along with friction. It held up well enough that she was confident in being filmed. She knew her tattoos were recognizable enough that she just wasn’t willing to risk it since Vyz made it clear this wasn’t going to stay private.

The muscular goblin let out a low whistle when he saw Ember. The thigh high socks were perfect. A soft looking material, black, and they hugged her thighs in a way that made it clear they wouldn’t move. The mask was black with silver accents and it made her look elegant. “Damn, you sure do make a pretty picture there Em. So uh, when is Vela gonna arrive?”

“She should have already been here. I told her she needed to get here early to get ready. I hope everything is ok. Let me text her real fast.” Heading back to her bags to grab her phone Ember didn’t notice the door opening again.

The rest of the goblins arrived as a group. Vyz greeting his friends and acquaintances with a smile. “Glad ta see ya made it boys. Ember is in the back finishin up and we are just waitin on Velasara. I think you only met Ember though” Vyz commented to his friend.

Coming back out Ember paused to see a room full of goblins standing around. All eyes were suddenly on her and never before had she felt more like prey. The moment passed quickly but it was hard to shake as a few sets of eyes lingered.

“Here lemme introduce you. Ember you already know Krazz from the party. Those two are Riznik and Viznik, twins if it wasn’t obvious, and that is Zorblix.” Vyz finished the introductions.

“Just Blix.”

Ember nodded and waved. “I would appreciate it if my name wasn’t used during filming, if it is all the same.”

“Sure thing, not a problem. Anyone else?” Vyz knew that both women would be in masks, but he wasn’t sure about anyone else.”

“I’m good with not using names. We all wearing masks or just the girls?” Krazz rolled his shoulders and looked for a place to set down his bag. “I brought one with me just in case. No offence but I am not sure I want to be recognized.”

“We can just avoid names entirely if it helps. I can’t imagine there is gonna to be much talkin” Vyz chimed in, his accent sounding much thicker in comparison to his friend.

“I don’t really give a shit either way. Not my first rodeo, so it is all fine with me.” Blix moved off to the back of the room and began stripping.

There was a knock interrupting the conversation and the door slowly opened. “Hello? I am sorry I am late.” Vela stepped in looking a bit frazzled. “Sorry got caught up and it took me some time to get everything together. I hope I didn’t put us too far behind?”

“Nah, yer good, we ain’t even started.” Vyz waved the lithe elf over and gestured to the back. “Go get ready and we can do a final run through and just make sure everyone is on the same page before we begin.” Vyz moved back to the recording room and spoke to the staff there, making sure that they would be ready to go as soon as the group finished their preparations.

While Vyzzie was busy, the rest of the goblins stripped and got ready for the scene. The twins were engaged in a bout of rock paper scissors to decide who got which girl to start as they wanted some separation to start. Krazz slipped on his own mask, looking a bit like a corvid with the beak design. It was a little flashy for porn, but it went well with Ember's mask. He hoped that he would get a shot with the human at some point as he had been attracted to her since they met at a party Vyz had invited him to.

Blix was busy strapping on his harness and cock ring. Fully prepared for taking over should the others struggle with any part of the scene. Of all of them he had the most experience performing for the camera, he knew the best angles, how to position himself, and all the tricks needed to not blow his load too quickly. Considering how hot the girls were in this scene, those were some tricks he was going to have to utilize.

Velasara came back looking an almost striking opposite of Ember. Her thigh highs were white with ruffles, her mask had white feathers and delicate gold filigree. She was taller than Ember with a lithe and delicate frame and soft features. Comparatively her body was a bit more slender when compared to Ember's more generous curves. The contrast made the pair enticing to look upon and the goblins in the room struggled to remain professional.

Ember leaned up and tugged Vela down to whisper in a long ear. The tittering laugh from the elf filld the room as both women seemed quite amused about something. It made Vyz a little suspicious and he hoped that this wasn’t going to be something he needed to worry about later.

“Ok, so here is the scene. I figure it will be easier if we don’t all start at first. I was thinking the girls could have a solo scene together or with one other person involved, then we can introduce some others, or if we are worried about time, then maybe we all just start? Opinions?” Vyz was looking around at the people gathered and realized how this looked. He hadn’t meant to only invite goblins, that was how it worked out. With all the cancellations and rescheduling, this was the group he ended up with and looking at it objectively, this would probably end up in a fetish category when released, even if there wasn’t a ton of kink involved.

“Well are you looking to build a plot or not? Like do we want to have dialog, a wisp of a story, or just get to the fucking already?” Ember asked as she leaned into Vela

“Good question, uh, any thoughts, I know we ain’t got a ton of time. I booked us for the rest of the day, but gettin shots set up can eat into that, and we don’t really have a script. I kinda wanted this ta feel natural, a bit more amateur and spontaneous.” Vyz admitted.

“Eh, speaking as the one with experience here. Neither are going to work. It is too late to try and fudge a script and just jumpin in is going to get someone injured. I say let the girls warm each other up, that should also warm the rest of us up and get the mood set. I can tell first timers when I see em and there are some nervous faces in this group.” Blix walked up to Vyz and gestured to the setting. “Plus, with a setting like this, it just screams lesbian porno. So why not start that way? Then we transition into the spit roasting, the group sex, multiple penetration shots, all of that.” He shrugged and his eyes widened. “Oh, condoms? We doing condoms or creampies?”

“Creampies” Vyz interjected. “That is why this took so long. Everyone had to test clean and have alternative forms of birth control. We can switch to condoms if anyone is still uncomfortable with sloppy seconds or had some questionable interactions since getting tested.”

“Ok so it seems like we are ready. Vela, after you.” Ember gestured to the bed and smiled as her elvish friend climbed up on the bed. Ember followed staying on her hands and knees while Vela got situated.

“What the fuck is that?” Blix blurted out and both girls fell into hysterical laughter.

It took several moments for them to calm down enough for Ember to speak. “I have some hangups where anal sex is involved. I felt the only way I would be able to relax is to ensure that it couldn’t happen, even accidentally. Thus, an anal plug.”

“Ok, yeah, I get it, makes perfect sense. What I meant, was why is it flashing like a rave?”

Ember fell over laughing again and just shook her head, it took her a bit to compose herself. “Look, it is a thing with me. I never do anything even halfway normal. You see my hair. My house look like a goth and a unicorn got into a fight. I like bright shiny things and honestly with the lights on it shouldn’t even be that noticeable or a distraction. I set it to slow strobe and match the lights hanging on the wall above the bed.”

“Ok, alright. One more question. Where did you get it and how much?” Blix was laughing and shrugging at the stares he was getting. “What? I wanna add one to my collection ok?”

“Let's talk after. I can give you all the details.” Ember slid up next to Vela and gave her friend a gentle kiss.

Both women were clearly nervous to start and Vyz knew that the first several minutes of footage probably wouldn’t be used. Watching them slowly explore each other was a different kind of arousing entirely, and it was difficult not to get caught up in the moment and just be content with watching. The slide of their bodies together, the soft moans, the way the colors of their limited clothing contrasted, it was a truly beautiful sight. One that Vyz was loathe to interrupt, but knew he would have to if they were going to get to the point of the scene.

The others held back waiting for Vyz to give the signal, It was hard not to be entranced, watching the women together. Especially once it was clear that they forgot where they were and were simply focused on the pleasure. Vyz held off a bit longer, watching with a slow smile as the women rocked slowly together at first, then sped up. The sound of their shared orgasm rang through the room snapping the goblins out of the spell they had been under.

Ember lay next to Vela, her breathing slowing to normal as they nuzzled and kissed each other. Hands still exploring as they enjoyed the afterglow of their shared pleasure. Ember would have to remember this, maybe invite Vela over sometime to just see how things might work out between them. Up until this moment Ember was certain her elvish friend was straight, maybe that was not the case now and it was something worth exploring, only later.

The bed shifted slightly as Vyz hopped up on the bed, crawling over to Ember and nipping her shoulder and neck. Pulling her gently and slowly to another part of the bed. The only way this would work was with a bit more space between the woman. Krazz was next on the bed, slipping up next to Vela and stroking over her sides and hip, his hands slipping up to her breast, fingertips teasing over her nipple.

Riz and Blix joined Krazz by the elf, all of their touches light. Wanting to start slow, ease into it. Viz, was the last to join, slipping up next to Ember and Vyz, nuzzling at the human’s ample chest. Everything was slow to start, no one wanting to be the first to break the soft moment that had somehow been created. Vyz was the first to lose his battle with desire and pushed Ember onto her stomach, slipping a pillow under her hips and angling her face away from him.

It was simply impossible to resist her, the scent of her, the sight of her, Vyzzie buried his face against her nether lips and pushed his tongue in, tasting her depths. Lips crooked up in a half smile at the sound of her moans suddenly being muffled. He didn’t have to look to know what had just happened and he was excited at how much Ember seemed to be enjoying it. Cutting his oral exploration short, Vyzzie lifted up and angled himself behind her, pushing his hard cock against her slick opening. She was so wet, so much wetter than he had expected and found it was far easier to slide in that usual.

While the flashing light was a bit of a distraction, Vyz found it easier and easier to ignore the deeper he slid into Ember until he was balls deep and groaning. His claws dug into her skin as his control slipped for just a moment and he had to pause before thrusting. His ears twitched at the sounds coming from the other end of the bed and he risked a glance over at the elf. The sight was almost enough for him to lose it right there and he had to snap his gaze back down to Ember.

Vela was up on her knees, Riding Riz, with Blix behind her, and Krazz standing with a firm grip on her head as he thrust into her mouth. Blix was still gently preparing her with some lube and a finger while he encouraged Riz with a quiet voice to keep a slow pace and to gently stimulate her clit. Blix knew that increasing the elfs pleasure was going to keep her relaxed and make penetration much easier. The extra lube helped as well and he wanted to make sure that she was fully ready before even attempting penetration. His experience was why he was the one handling preparing her and subsequently the one to be granted the pleasure of having her that way.

Viz was careful, his hands resting on Ember’s head more than holding it as he thrust into her mouth. He was originally going to let her set the pace, and at first he did, but found that it just felt too good and he could not resist the urge to move his hips. He was focused, entirely on her and how it felt to be so far in her mouth and pushing into her throat. The feeling was unlike any other he had experienced, as this was his first time really trying anything with a human. He had a preference for orcish women, but now he wasn’t so sure that would be the case going forward. There was something softer, sweeter, more delicate about a human and he was eager to have his turn with the elf as well.

Ember’s eyes rolled back in her head as Vyz snapped his hips forward hitting that spot so deep that only he ever seemed to hit just right. The feel of someone both in her throat and fucking her was becoming overwhelming. It was everything she had wanted from this experience and a little more. She could tell Viz was going easy on her, and she tried to encourage him when he began thrusting into her mouth. Closing her eyes she swallowed around him, letting her throat constrict around the head of his cock making him moan. It clearly worked to erode at his control as his hips snapped forward suddenly. She opened her eyes and looked up at him, his expression was one of slight concern. She just nodded, hoping he understood.

It was pure heaven when Viz finally took the hint that she could handle it and threaded his fingers tighter in her hair, getting a good grip and tugging as he pushed his cock deeper into her throat. She was no longer giving him a blowjob, he was fucking her face, and her moans got louder and louder as she drew closer to release. The feel of her friend fucking her so hard and deep, his balls slapping against her clit as his sharp claws left little pinpricks of pain in her hips increased the sense of euphoria washing over her. Ember slipped into a more relaxed state, letting her body go slightly limp so that she could more easily be penetrated by both goblins. Soon her nose was pressed into the dark curls above Viz’s shaft as she felt his cock swell in her throat. A loud sharp moan from above her and the sudden heat in her throat let her know the goblin had reached climax.

Rope after rope of cum was pumped into her throat as Viz pulled out, some of his seed coating her mouth and lips, some hitting the mask as he fell back panting, clearly worried that he was choking her. With her airway free Ember could be better heard as she also reached climax almost the same time as Vyz did inside of her. The combined pleasure of dual penetration and stimulation was more than enough to send Ember over the edge hard. Vyz hunched over her back as he found his own release.

Vela was on edge as well with Krazz thrusting more firmly into her mouth while Blix had slowly pushed inside of her. The feeling over all her holes being filled was one she had never thought she would enjoy and was now worried she would become addicted to. Somehow Riz and Blix found a Rhythm that kept almost constant stimulation within her, an almost overwhelming sensation as she was filled beyond anything she had ever experienced before. Surprisingly Vela was the first to reach release, easily, as Riz had continued stimulating her clit while she rode him. Since they were not closed to finished, the goblins did not stop and continued to fuck the elf right through her first orgasm.

Blix helped Riz by taking over the clitoral stimulation so the other goblin could get a better grip on the elf to thrust deeper and faster up into her. Krazz kept his movements slow, despite wanting to just let go. He wanted to keep an eye on her to ensure that she remained ok, and he wanted to draw this out as much as possible. Vela was well on her way towards a second orgasm when Riz thrust up hard into her with a loud cry, his body shaking slightly as he emptied his seed inside of her. He could tell that Blix would probably be next and helped by reaching up and teasing Vela’s nipples to see if he could send the elf over the edge again.

Vela came almost at the same time as Blix who had snarled as he finally came, almost biting her and stopping himself at the last minute as he just pressed his forehead against her back and rode out his own pleasure while pumping his cum deep inside of her. The contractions of her body milking him for every drop he had as his grip on her remained tight. Krazz was the last to release, finally letting himself go and speeding up, pushing almost his full length into her throat with a loud cry. He almost fell over from the intense pleasure as he had unintentionally edged himself for the last bit of it.

Carefully the goblins pulled out of their partners and all that could be heard was the sound of light panting and breathing normalizing. Vyz was the first one to speak. “Ok swap? Who wants to swap.”

Krazz raised his hand. “I call your position.” The others laughed at how quickly he responded.

Blix shook his head. “I am good where I am if there are no complaints?”

“Nah, I’m good, I’ll swap.” Riz offered. “Unless you want to stay with Ember Vyz?”

“That would put you and your brother on the same girl, that ok?”

“I don’t care, as long as our balls don’t touch it ain’t gay right?” Viz offered as a joke, he new that gay wasn’t the problem in that scenario, but it wouldn’t be the first time they had shared.

Ember lost it a little bit at that and then so did Vela. The boys had to wait for the giggling to die down before new positions could be achieved. Krazz rolled Ember onto her side, moving the pillow.

“This ok?” He asked before positioning her leg up on his shoulder.

Ember nodded and tilted her head up at Vyzzie. She had expected him to take a turn with Vela, and maybe he would, the night was young and there was no reason that they wouldn’t swap positions a few more times, especially with some of the ideas Vyz had shared with her during planning. He was smiling at her, stroking her hair away from her mask and carefully wiping the cum from it. Ember realized, from the look in his eyes that they might need to have a conversation later. It was clear an attachment might be forming and she just wasn’t ready for another relationship. Something she hoped wouldn’t ruin the friendship they already had. Glancing down she could see the eager look in Krazz’s eyes as he gazed down at her, positioning himself against her cum soaked folds. Ok, strike that, maybe a conversation with Vyz could happen after she got him and Krazz alone sometime and had them fuck her absolutely senseless. She had a feeling this was going to be a bit of a wild ride and while she still could she glanced over to see Vela being re positioned, clear glee on her friends face, even with the mask there was no missing that expression.

The night was filled with the sounds of moans as the group quickly forgot the cameras and worked on trying as many different positions and combinations as they could before eventually collapsing in and exhausted heap and snuggling up together before the staff gently reminded them that closing time was less than an hour away.

Overall, the experience had been one that wouldn’t be easily forgotten and new friends had been made from the most unlikely of scenarios. They all agreed that this was something they would like to try again, maybe with a script and more elaborate costumes, but that was a conversation for a later date when everyone was clean and well rested.

#exophilia #goblin boyfriend #goblin x human #goblin x elf #human x elf #Auchendale Archives #Kinktober 2020

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marvelhero-fics · 5 years ago

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Silent Britain

Series - Chapter One

Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader

Summary: You and Tom are working as love interests in a new Scorsese film, essentially leading to be love interests in real life

A/N: This is technically chapter one! Thanks for all the support on the prologue I'm glad heaps of you enjoyed it! I also wasn’t really planning on doing a taglist for this fic but a lot of people requested to be on it so I ended up making one (it’s below the cut at the bottom). If you’d like to be on it just send me a message or leave a comment on pretty much any Silent Britain post. Thanks for the support again!!!!!!

This chapters a bit of a slow-burn but next chapter get much more interesting. Please go read the prologue first, this chapter will make much more sense if you do. It’s linked down below in the masterlist.

The italics in this story are the readers thoughts!

Word Count: 3,800

Silent Britain Masterlist || Full Masterlist

And there goes the explosion. “I need to pull over. I’m about to have a stroke.”

The next two weeks truly flew by. You were partly happy, because you couldn’t wait to fly out to California and meet everyone, but it did also heighten your nerves. You did as much research as you could about Britain in the 70’s, even taking time to go see your grandparents who were conveniently alive at the time. But, by their description of the decade you could tell they must’ve been on some crazy drug back then, I guess that’s a pretty big tell of what the 70’s were like anyway.

“I promise you’re gonna do such an amazing job, I’m always just a phone call or text away if you need me, (Y/N/N).” Evie sung, pulling you into the tightest embrace.

“I know, Eve. I’m gonna miss you so much.” You pouted. To make life a little easier for yourself, you’d decided to fly out to California and stay there until production started, which was set to be in about a month. That way you didn’t have to fly there, then home, then there again, considering it was a twelve hour flight, and God, you hated flying.

“You are going to be incredible, my darling girl.” Your mum stated, giving you a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She knew she wouldn’t be able to see you for a while so she’d come over to send you off.

“Thanks mum. I love you heaps and I’ll call you when I get there.” You were incredibly close with your mum. She had always been such a huge support system for you and your career, you always credited any success you had to her.

And with that, you were in the car being driven to the airport.

The twelve hour flight had taken your physical and mental battery down to about 0. Even up in First Class all you did was read your script over and over, and panic. As well as getting some time to watch The Departed, one of Scorsese’s incredibly well done films. Unfortunately, instead of enjoying it, you essentially studied it. Fortunately, you got to use your ‘Taxi Driver’ notebook. Is this slightly obsessive? You studied how DiCaprio and Nicholson delivered their lines, and how often the sets changed, and all the camera angles. God, you’re purposely trying to freak yourself out now.

Touching down in California was nice. The first thing you really noticed was the heat. It was July, so it was the middle of summer, and in California it got hot. Of course, you weren’t complaining, this meant nice air conditioning on set, as well as good weather to work with in production. Yea, that would be the only thing I think about.

An older looking gentleman stood at the arrival gate with a sign that read (Y/L/N) in bulk letters. You quickly went over to greet him. Lazily, you strolled out to the large SUV, trying to get as much time on your feet as possible after the long flight. You’d seen photos, and heard horror stories of actors being mobbed at airports, with fans even waiting at the arrival gates all day to catch a glimpse of their favourite celebrity. That never happened to you, but you tried to be much more thankful than jealous. Large crowds weren’t really your forte.

“How was your flight, Miss (Y/L/N)?” Your driver politely asked, turning on the engine of the car.

“It wasn’t too bad. It just felt super long,” you chuckled, sluggishly.

“Well, at least you’re back on solid ground now.” He smiled through the rear-vision mirror.

“Yea, very happy to be. Out of curiosity, are you picking up any other members of the cast?” You peered up, knowing this man likely worked for the studio.

“Indeed, I am. I picked up Jude Law yesterday morning, and Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz last night.” He responded,

“Huh, and what’re they like?”

“Well, Mr Law was very friendly, we ended up chatting most of the way to the hotel. And Mr Craig and Mrs Weisz seemed lovely, but I didn’t talk with them very much. They were a little more closed off.” He continued, you simply nodding to his words, “And I believe I’m picking up a Mr Holland much later tonight.”

“Oh, right. Busy day for you then.”

“Well, it’s just the usual.” And with that, you stopped talking. Your mind wandered off the small talk. God almighty, it’s gonna be a fucking long night tonight. You thought, simply just processing all the things you knew you had to organise before tomorrow. The ride to the hotel didn’t seem like a very long one, or maybe it was? Maybe you’d zoned out to an entire different reality and didn’t notice time passing, either way you made it to the Four Seasons and checked in with no trouble at all.

It was pretty much exactly what you’d expect from the Four Seasons. A small, spacious living area, with a large, grey L-shaped couch, and a big-screen TV. A small kitchen to the left, that you’re sure wouldn’t be able to make more than a bowl of pasta. A bedroom off in a separate room, with a bed that was far too big for one person. And an Asylum-white bathroom with a bathtub that was going to make your stay here much better. Looks like this is home for the next month. Being apart of the Hollywood scene, you got kind of used to hotel rooms becoming a second home. The amount of time you spent essentially having to tour around California for filming, staying in different hotels with similar-looking hotel rooms just became second nature.

First point of action; now that you’d touched down and gotten comfortable, was to call your mother. She’d slowly figured out how to worry less about you, now that you were older and had figured your life out a bit more, but she was still always going to be a mother.

The phone only rang twice before she picked up. “Hey, mum.” You greeted,

“Hi, love! I’m glad you’re safe and well, how was your flight?”

“Long. But the hotel’s really nice.” You responded, letting your body fall back onto the king-sized bed.

“Did you watch any movies?”

“Yea, I watched The Departed.”

“Oh, that’s a bit of a grim film, love.” Your mum stated, being as motherly as ever.

You chuckled a bit, “wait until you see the film I’m about to be in.”

“Did you get any sleep on the plane? And how was the food?”

“Yea, the food was really nice, it was like a salmon and couscous thing. And no, I didn’t really get any sleep, but I didn’t really try too, I kinda had a lot of other things to do.” You spoke.

“Well, you need to make sure you get some sleep tonight. And you let me know if you need anything at all!” Your mother conveyed

“Thanks, mum. And I promise everything is going fine, I’m fine. And I’ll let you know how the cast meet up and rehearsals go.” You returned. And with her best wishes, your mother hung up. That left you lying there, your body slightly sunken into the soft mattress of the Four Seasons bed. Almost every celebrity you’d met had told you to not search your own name on the internet. They always told you you’d find some very unfavourable things, but if you didn’t go looking for it you wouldn’t find it. So with that excellent mentality, you searched your name.

(Y/N) (Y/L/N). It took only seconds to type and click enter. The first article talked about the upcoming film. I guess the news already broke. It was probably leaked purposely for publicity, you didn’t care either way.

Upcoming Scorsese Film to have Star-Filled Line Up, Signing Hopkins, Hardy, Bale, and (Y/L/N). Being called a star was quite nice. It always shocked you just a little bit, knowing that people knew your name. Knowing that you’d actually become news. This is what you’d wanted for a long time though, to be a movie-star. You read further into the article.

‘Scorsese’s latest film to centre around 1970’s British Mob family, the Bakers. No news on the initial release date, however official members of the cast include Tom Hardy, Anthony Hopkins, Christian Bale, and (Y/N) (Y/L/N).’ The article showed photos of the four of you, including a photo of Scorsese. At least they picked a nice picture.

‘If this mobster film is anything like we’ve seen in the past from Scorsese, we can expect a stunning and vivid look at the ugliness and volatile nature of true Gangster films. Potentially even a few Academy Awards if Scorsese continues his war-path of masterly crafted cinema.’ You even chuckled at that last line, the Academy Awards. You’d attended the Emmys last year and that was the highlight of your life. If you were at the Oscars you’d probably spontaneously combust. You flicked your phone off and threw it to the other side of the bed, lying patiently in the quickly setting Californian sun. Am I supposed to feel this overwhelmed? You simply sat with your thoughts for a few moments, knowing that nothing was going to be the same after this film. Martin Scorsese essentially started Robert De Niro’s career in Taxi Driver, same with Jodie Foster. Not to mention Al Pacino’s career starting in a 70’s gangster film too. Each of these actors now being multi-award winning, millionaires. I don’t think I could function being that famous.

Once you’d finished basking in the glory and horror of it all, you sorted out your clothes from all of your luggage, and headed to bed. It was probably still too early to be in bed, but you’d had no sleep on the flight and just wanted to rest, especially for the chaos of tomorrow.

That all-too-familiar noise of your phone alarm ripped you back into consciousness. Surprisingly, you’d slept like the dead last night. You thought the panic and nerves would’ve kept you up, or disrupted your sleep, but thankfully it was actually very peaceful. Wonder how long that’s gonna last. Everything you did during the morning was mechanical. Having a shower, getting dressed, doing your hair and make-up. It was all just simply going through the motions while your mind ticked away. You tried to remember every part of the script, while also going over today’s encounters. Am I supposed to act like a fan of these actors? Or do I act super cool? Like I don’t care?

Your gaze rested upon your figure in the mirror. Wearing a casual pair of jeans, a regular t-shirt, with your favourite Nikes. Along with bits and pieces of jewellery that fitted. Do I look too plain? Like one of the million assistants on set? Was everyone else going to be dressed up? What sort of cast meet up is this? It was 9:00 am, so regardless of your racing thoughts, you didn’t have any time to change. You grabbed your hand-bag, script, and note-book and went downstairs to get into the car the studio had sent, and with that you were on the long drive to set. Neither you or the driver talked to each other, you partly blamed yourself for not initiating conversation. Your mum would’ve been upset with you. ‘No matter how famous you get, my darling, you’re not allowed to look down on others. You can never think of yourself as better than others. You’ll always be a regular person, who makes mistakes, and does great things. Always, always be kind.’ She’d always lecture you. God, you’d kill to have your family here with you.

The SUV pulled up to the lot, getting access to the private area where the meet-up was happening. You made sure to thank the driver before you met up with a shorter, plumper lady, who obviously seemed like she was expecting you by her greeting.

“Welcome to the studio, (Y/N). My name’s Angela, I’m the production manager for Silent Britain.” She spoke, the Californian accent very prominent in her voice.

“Nice to meet you.” You responded,

“It’s nice to meet you too, if you could just follow me, I'll take you to the room where everyone’s meeting.” She said with a smile.

“Sounds good.” Angela walked you to the huge garage-type room. Well, it wasn’t actually a room, it was just an empty stage on the lot. The 12 ft tall garage-like door was open to let natural light illuminate it. It was full of people, most of whom you’d never seen in your life. Everyone from the special effects men, to the boom mic operators, to the assistant director were packed in. Luckily it was a huge area. Angela told you to follow her further, taking you to a separated room down the other end of the stage. This was the room full of actors. God, we’re pretentious. Needing a whole other room to ourselves. Not only did it have the main actors, it had quite a few background actors. Which, admittedly, you were slightly thankful for. If it was just the main actors you’d be the least famous person in the room, and that’s never the best feeling.

Angela let you know that the meeting would be happening very soon. By meeting, she essentially meant the presentation about the film, and how production was going to work and such. And with that flow of information, she left. Leaving you to fend for yourself in a room full of actors.

Who the fuck am I supposed to talk too? Why does everyone seem to know someone already? “Hiya!” A loud, high pitched noise rang behind you. You turned on your heel to see a slightly shorter girl with long, wavy brunette hair.

“Hi?” You returned, not sure if she was mistaking you for someone she knew.

“I’m Allison.” She introduced, extending her hand out.

“Oh, right. I’m (Y/N).” You smiled back, shaking her hand.

“Yea, I’ve actually seen you in quite a few films before. It’s really nice to meet you.”

“Wow, I’m really not used to actually being recognised.” You somewhat laughed, feeling some of the tension leave your shoulders.

“You’re playing the lead role in this film though, aren’t you?” She queried.

“Yea, Elizabeth Baker. I’m still not entirely sure how I landed that. Do you mind if I ask who you’re playing?” You responded.

“Of course! I’m playing Donna, which is one of Lizzie’s school friends.” She explained. It was only a very minor role, with maybe one line of dialogue. But she seemed happy enough to be here.

“Oh, well, thanks for introducing yourself. Now I’ll finally know someone on set.” You joked.

“Do you not know the other actors already?”

“Honestly, no. I haven’t really had the chance to meet anyone yet.”

“You should go over and introduce yourself. You’re the lead role! And maybe you could introduce me to some of them.” She laughed, trying to slightly play off the words she just said. Ah, lovely. Someone trying to use me to their advantage.

“Hm.” You simply smiled. “I think I’ll just grab a coffee first, then maybe I’ll socialise.” You added, taking almost no time to venture away from her.

You moved towards the small tables set up with coffee, tea, water and small snacks. You couldn’t help but notice the divide in the room. There was the big-time actors to one side of the room, and the lesser-known, mainly extras to the other side. You also couldn’t help but notice that you stood on the extras side of the room. In the moment you didn’t particularly care. You spent time fiddling away with the sugar packets, not even making a coffee as you thought about your next move. You needed to go introduce yourself, to at least one person you were going to be acting beside. But who were you supposed to choose? I bet Daniel Craig wasn’t this nervous introducing himself. Fuck, I wouldn’t be if I was James Bond.

Without thinking past James Bond, you walked over to the ‘A-list’ actor area. Fuck it, I’m the greatest. It’s an absolute pleasure to meet me. You repeated, entirely trying to sike yourself up. Daniel Craig, Michael Fassbender, Christian Bale, and Rachel Weisz stood in a small group, chatting amongst themselves. Oh, this is definitely the most threatening group. You thought, diving straight in.

“Hi there,” You interrupted, “I just wanted to introduce myself, I’m (Y/N) (Y/L/N).” You spoke, confidently. Good thing I’m such a good actor.

“Nice to meet you,” Michael responded, his Irish accent thick as he spoke. Daniel, Rachel, and Christian all introduced themselves after, breaking into a conversation about Martin Scorsese.

“I actually haven’t had the chance to meet him. Not properly at least.” You stated, referring back to your audition were you simply spoke in front of him, without him engaging in much conversation.

“He’s great. He’s incredibly intelligent at what he does, but he is really fast paced. He seems to constantly be thinking about the next thing to do.” Daniel began speaking, “But try not to be nervous, he’s pretty good at sensing nerves.” He smirked. Awesome.

“As if the cast wasn’t intimidating enough.” You joked, earning a chuckle from the group. The five of you continued to discuss past acting experiences, and working together on other films and such, with yourself not having much to bring to the conversation. Simply being happy enough to stand with these four god-like actors.

Angela seemingly appeared out of nowhere in front of the crowd of actors, earning a hush amongst the group. She began by thanking everyone for being here, and introducing herself once again as the production manager. She explained the outline of what was going to happen, and when production was due to start, most information of which you’d received in emails earlier. All and all, it was a very quick meeting. I guess it was more about getting to meet everyone. Angela finished her statement and the crowd sparked conversation again, most of the background actors dispersing off. As you were about to say your goodbyes, a smaller, younger gentleman walked up to where you and your newly formed actor friends stood. He handed each of you a small envelope.

“These are from Martin, inviting you to dinner with him tonight. All the information is on the letters. Please RSVP as soon as possible.” He stated, scuttling off to the next group.

“The theatrics,” Christain stated, waving the envelope, “that’s very Scorsese.” He finished.

“Who was that kid?” You asked Michael,

“Would’ve been Martins PA, probably.” He replied, opening his letter. You shrugged and opened yours. The beautiful calligraphy hit you first, each letter individually addressed to each actor. By the looks of it, the main cast of about 12 of you were invited, along with the higher up crew members. It was being held at his property in Hollywood. Well, this should be fun.

“I guess we’ll see you all there.” Daniel stated, earning a cheer of goodbyes from the rest of you as him and Rachel walked off.

“I better head off too,” You smiled, leaving Michael and Christain behind you as you strolled towards the door, continuing to read over your letter. The handwritten note occupied so much of your thought, that you’d forgotten to look where you were walking. All of a sudden, you were stumbling straight into someone's torso. The first sense to hit you was the scent, the only way you could think to describe it was the smell of the wealthy. It was an incredible cologne that you could only imagine A-listers would wear.

“Sorry, love.” His voice sung, the thick British accent very apparent. His larger hands came up to grab your shoulders, steadying your body. His grip was firm against you arms. You could feel the heat of his hands through the thin material of your shirt. You couldn’t help but notice the veins slightly bulging from his tanned forearms. You face moved up so your gaze aligned with his. Brunette curls, light brown eyes, glowing smile, a jawline that looked like it was carved from stone.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was walking.” You awkwardly laughed as Toms taller frame stood right in front of you. Do not freak out.

“Don’t worry about it.” He responded, “I was meaning to come meet you earlier, but I got a little caught up. I’m Tom, by the way.” He added, his grin not leaving his face. Yea, I fucking know.

“It’s nice to meet you, I’m (Y/N).” You replied, politely.

“Yea, I’m actually a bit of a fan. I’ve seen some of your work in the past, I’m really glad you got this role.” He added.

“Oh, wow. I thought we we’re going to play it cool, but I’m a huge fan of yours too. I love all the Marvel stuff.” You broke out of your ‘big-time actor’ persona. He chuckled at your comment.

“I see you got an invite, too.” He pointed down at your letter, holding his in his hand too.

“Oh yea. Have you ever done this sort of thing before? Like this whole dinner with the cast thing?”

“Yea, a few times actually. Robert Downey Jr loved doing this stuff for the Marvel cast.” He returned, “with the directors, and the crew and everyone.”

“Right, well I’ve never done all this before. It’s pretty crazy.”

“Yea, I know. The cast of this movie is fucking insane. I’ve never seen so many stars in one room, honestly.” Tom acknowledged. “You seem like you’re holding it all together pretty well.”

“No, I’m just a really good actor, internally I’m absolutely freaking out.” You stated in a joking manner, earning a laugh from Tom. I mean, it’s true.

“That’s great practice for the film them.” He replied, his eyes looking deeper into yours. You could almost feel your knees turning to jelly.

“I’m so sorry to leave you stranded like this, but I really need to get back to my hotel and sort my shit out for this dinner tonight.” You spoke, truthfully.

“Oh, yea. I should probably go do the same. I guess I’ll see you there.”

“Yes, you will. It was really nice to meet you, Tom.” You expressed, your hand moving to rest against his bicep as you cocked your head with a smile. He returned the good-bye and you waltzed out of the stage. Your heart was pumping in your throat and you had to bite down on your lip to suppress your awfully huge grin. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad.

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prettywordsyouleft · 5 years ago

Text

Someone Special

Prompt: #3 for @tanithrea – “This was my mother/father’s”

tanithrea said:

3 - Mingyu svt (thinking from his mum) Whatever inspiration hits you 👍🏻😉💖

Pairing: Kim Mingyu x reader (ft. Jeon Wonwoo)

Genre: meet cute / fluff

Warnings: not Casper, but there is definitely a friendly ghost up in here. Also, mentioning of something that affected the normal way of living – but not said in detail.

A/N: So for this story, I’m aware it could have been a good series idea, and still my brain is in two minds of whether I need to write more in this world or not. I didn’t really go into detail of what led to their predicament, rather the present moment in time to keep this story from becoming too long. I hope it makes sense, and if I feel compelled to continue it sometime, I’ll make sure to add more then!

Word count: 2223

The headlights illuminated the house up ahead and you sighed in relief, unbuckling your seatbelt. You were exhausted and the only thing on your mind was finding a bed once inside and becoming acquainted with it for many hours.

“Are you sure it’s okay to stay here?” Emmy asked from the back seat and you turned to Wonwoo on the driver’s side, waiting for clarification. Of course, you were compelled to just go up into the house anyway by this point, uncaring if the house was even a home to ghosts. You would sleep among the dead if you had to. Still, you were curious as to why he had driven you here.

Nodding slightly, Wonwoo sighed. “It will keep us safe.”

“It looks abandoned,” Emmy whined, shuddering visibly.

“It belongs to a good friend of mine, he’ll be all too happy to let us stay here,” Wonwoo confirmed, opening the car door and getting out.

You followed suit, rolling your eyes when Emmy clung onto you. “Stop being a baby, we can’t just keep driving around mindlessly, Em. We’ve left the city for good, now it’s time to find a place to settle and call home.”

“Yes but… look at it Y/N. Surely you can see how spooky it is too?!”

Glancing at the home, you wouldn’t say it was the most welcoming. It was an older-style manor and in need of some TLC to the overgrown gardens. However, the roof looked as if it would hold off the drizzle that you knew would turn to rain soon, and that’s all that mattered.

That and finding a bed.

Turning to Emmy, you shrugged and started towards the veranda, Wonwoo carrying your bags in behind you both. He stepped forward when you waited in front of the door, fishing out a key from its hiding spot. Grinning at his discovery, he then unlocked the door, which creaked open, exposing the modest interior.

“Bedrooms are upstairs, and there’s a bathroom at the end of this hallway if you need it. Kitchen is to the left, just beyond the living room.”

“And the owner?” Emmy asked and then groaned. “I guess, with times as tough as they are now, everyone is displaced.”

“I just want a bed,” you announced, stepping inside boldly, looking around yourself briefly before taking the staircase to the second floor. There were several doors and you simply chose the one at the very end, hoping it would lead you to a bed. Twisting the handle, you smiled when a four-poster bed appeared, the moonlight illuminating over it from the open-curtained windows.

“This will be more than perfect,” you breathed, shrugging your coat off and climbing up onto the mattress. Crawling to the middle of it, you then slipped under the covers, laying down and closed your eyes.

It felt as if it had been a lifetime since you had experienced such comfort, and thus, it didn’t take you long to fall asleep.

You woke to the sound of giggling, a moan leaving you at the unwelcome interruption. Blearily opening your eyes, you looked around, snapping upright and tugging the blankets along with you when you saw a woman not much older than yourself sitting at the end of the bed. Blinking away your sleep, you peered at her. “I uh… are you the owner of this house?”

“Me? No, the owner is a young man now.”

“Is this your room, am I intruding-”

“I just thought you were awake since you were talking to me before this,” she admitted with another impish giggle and you nodded slowly.

“I’m known to sleep-talk, sorry.”

“It’s quite alright, peach.”

“Oh, uh, I’m Y/N.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Y/N. Did you sleep well?”

Scratching at the side of your head, you nodded again. “I don’t think I’ve slept that deeply in weeks.”

“Then I’m relieved. We don’t need our guests here suffering from any inability to sleep!” she crooned, moving closer to inspect you. She then recoiled, tutting you repeatedly.

“What is it?”

“When did you last bathe, my dear? Your clothes too…”

“It’s a bit difficult to do those things when you’re on the road,” you confessed awkwardly, feeling a little embarrassed by the state of yourself. All three of you had been travelling nonstop to get away from the reactive area which had reached your city that survival had been at the forefront. Now, you could afford to take better care of your personal hygiene and feel more human once again.

“We can’t have you go around like this,” the woman stated, getting up from her spot to travel over to the dresser in the corner. Sifting through it, she continued to shake her head at her choices, soon moving to the wardrobe. She withdrew a black and white polka dot dress proudly. “Here, you should wear this. And the laundry room is downstairs. There’s a shower downstairs as well.”

“You’re so kind, thank you. Are you sure it’s okay to be doing all this?” you asked, taking the dress from her and frowning at how cold her touch was.

The woman smiled warmly, as the sun started to shine behind her. You realised then she wasn’t as solid as she once appeared. Her lips curled up further. “You are most welcome here, Y/N. I’m sure he’ll enjoy your company as well. Perhaps this will become a home for you.”

“Who will enjoy my company?”

“The owner,” she answered and then got up, waving you off. Before she opened the door, you jolted upright which confused you completely. Until you found yourself in the dark room you had fallen asleep within.

“It was a dream,” you mumbled, rubbing a hasty hand over your face in attempts to become alert.

It was then when you noticed the dress hanging from the corner post waiting for you.

After showering and putting on the borrowed dress, you gathered your dirty clothes up into a pile, ready to go in search of your bag for the rest. With the morning light now infiltrating the home, you realised Emmy had nothing to be frightened of. The house was clean and clearly lived in.

You were alerted to the sound of someone chopping wood and followed the sound to the back of the yard, rounding the corner of the house and stopping when the young man looked up at you.

“Oh, you must be the owner! I’m Y/N, Wonwoo’s friend.”

Stepping closer to you after dropping his axe, he reached out for the collar of the dress fondly. He let out a shaky breath. “Where did you find this? I thought all of them were gone.”

“It was hanging on the end of the bed. I uh, was certain I met the woman it belonged to. Have I intruded?”

“No,” he answered with a smile, looking up into your eyes. “This was my mother’s.”

“Wait, was?” you echoed and he nodded. Replaying some of your conversation with the woman, you realised you had already come to know the answer to your question.

The tall man cleared his throat as he let go of the collar. “She does that from time to time. I hope she didn’t scare you.”

You shook your head. “She was kind, giggly even.”

“I’m glad she gave you the approval to wear the dress, Y/N. It suits you.”

Glancing down at it with a shy smile, you thanked him quietly and then cleared your throat. “Have you eaten?”

“Not yet. I try to get the morning chores out of the way first.”

“Shall I go start something?”

“Nonsense, you’re my guests. You’ve travelled long enough to get here.” Wiping off his hands before picking up his axe again, you marvelled at the way he wielded the tool. After several cuts, he glanced back at you and you realised you had not only gotten lost staring but perhaps drooled a little as well. Snapping your attention away from him, you looked this way and that, hearing a chuckle from behind, familiar despite its masculine tone to the one you heard in the night.

You stilled, turning to look at him again. “What is your name?”

“Mingyu. Kim Mingyu.”

“Well Mingyu, I’m going to do some washing, is that much allowed?”

Mingyu grinned, pointing to the sun now rising well into the sky. “It’ll be a perfect day to get everything washed and dried.”

“Excellent. I’ll see you at breakfast then.”

He was still grinning when he nodded. “Looking forward to it, Y/N.”

You nodded as well and then turned to head back into the house, picking up your abandoned washing and then finding the laundry room. Placing the basket you had taken from the bathroom down onto a stool, you noticed the window in here looked out into the back yard, and you could see Mingyu swinging his axe from here.

Humans were a fascinating species, you thought to yourself as you pried your eyes away from the attractive view and back to sorting through your clothes. You had been fighting to find safety for the past couple of weeks and now at the first true sign of it, you were too relaxed and even taking an interest in your host – one of whom knew that his mother’s spirit visited from time to time. Perhaps she stayed here all the time, watching over her son and the house. As you reached for the washing detergent, you smiled at the thought, not finding the idea of a haunted house unnerving in the slightest.

Nor did you think the prospect of getting to know Mingyu a bad thing. After all, Wonwoo had convinced you and Emmy both that this was the safest place he knew on Earth, considering it was in the middle of nowhere. You had no immediate plans to depart from here, and it would make sense to get to know Mingyu during your stay.

You smiled as you closed the lid to the machine and turned it on, leaning against the top of it and looked outside again. You fell short when you didn’t see Mingyu out there now, turning on your heel to head out into the kitchen.

Mingyu was already in there preparing breakfast. “Is there anything you can’t do?”

“Well,” he started with another laugh, looking in your direction. “I’m not very good at learning new languages.”

“It’s a good thing we speak the same one then.”

“I like doing things like this. Maintaining a home, showing pride in my efforts-”

“Except for your garden out front,” you mentioned airily and Mingyu openly blushed. Stepping forward to silently help him with the preparation, you then grinned. “Which one is it, you don’t like gardening or you’re too busy with other parts of the land that you don’t prioritise it?”

“Actually I used to tend to it. One night my mother told me to let it go in a dream. Which sounds rather ridiculous but-”

“She’s rather convincing to talk to,” you agreed and Mingyu nodded.

“The garden was her pride and joy, yet after a fifth warning, I did as she asked me to, not knowing why. Then I realised when everything over in the city started to turn the way it had, no one would think anyone lived here if they passed on by.”

You tilted your head in thought. “You didn’t want people to find you?”

“I would have helped anyone. However, I guess its better this way. I have room to house you and your friends for as long as you need. You’re not the only car to travel this road recently though. I hope they find refuge.”

“Everyone is escaping the city before it gets worse,” you mentioned and Mingyu nodded. “Thank you, for opening your home to us.”

“To be fair, Wonwoo did that last night, not me,” he replied with a smirk and you grinned.

“Well, it looked derelict at night.”

“I was away at the cottage down the hill helping the old couple who live there. Their firewood supply has gotten too barren and I knew they would freeze at night if I didn’t take them anything.”

You turned to Mingyu, still smiling. “I have to say it again, is there anything you can’t do? Maybe you’re a spirit too because you seem too good to be true.”

Holding out a hand for you to take, you slipped your hand into his, marvelling at the solid connection and immediate warmth that radiated up your arm. You bit at your lip momentarily. “Well, I suppose that answers that.”

“There’s plenty I can’t do, but maybe they’re things you can help me with.”

“I do know some Japanese, albeit I’m rusty in it,” you offered, in which Mingyu laughed.

“You know, it might sound weird but my mother told me to wait as someone special was coming. I think she was right.”

“If it helps you any, I was given the impression you would be an impeccable host and enjoy my company.”

“Am I living up to the hype?” Mingyu asked cheekily and you shifted closer to him. His cheeks flushed but he didn’t dismiss your proximity either, considering he still had a firm hold of your hand.

“I’d say I have a lot more to learn about you. However, I’m definitely keen to do so.”

_________________

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smkkbert · 4 years ago

Text

Time for a story - Irreconcilable Differences

Standing only an arm’s length away from him, Felicity held the barrel of her pistol directed at Oliver’s chest.

Her heart was racing, pounding against her ribcage with force. It caused her breath to be quickened and shortened just as it caused the blood to rush in her ears. Her hands should be shaking from the adrenaline that was filling every cell of her body, but her hands were completely calm.

“Felicity, you don’t have to do this.”

Oliver’s voice was soft and low, soothing really. He was trying to lure her into giving up, trying to make her believe that it wasn’t necessary. He wanted to make her believe that she didn’t have to pull the trigger.

No matter how convincing he was, Felicity just knew better than that.

“Yes, I do,” she whispered, “I have to do this.”

With that, she pulled the trigger, taking Oliver’s life.

→ → → → →

Two days earlier

“Daddy?”

At the determined sound in Emmy’s voice, Oliver lifted his gaze from the papers he was reading and looked at his oldest daughters. He found the same determination that she had heard in her voice already in her appearance too. She had a firm stand, her hands put to her hips and strict expression on her face.

Lying the papers down on the top of the table and folding his hands on them, Oliver looked at Emmy. With a short nod of his head, he let her know that he was ready and willing to hear.

“I want to come with you into the field.”

Oliver perked up his eyebrows for a second. With a slight chuckle and a shake of his head, he wanted to brush her idea off easily. He could see in Emmy’s facial expression that she didn’t want to be brushed off though.

At the young age of nine years, Emmy had already decided that she wanted to be an adult. Sometimes, like today, she was incredibly good at making people around her believe it. She had just inherited her mother’s ability to be taken seriously despite the sweet outer appearance.

Anyway, Oliver had always known that the day would come that the kids wanted to know more about the Arrow work. Since the moment they had found out about it, the night that Emmy had escaped her kidnapper and found her way home to him, he had known that they would become more and more interested in it the older they got.

So far, he and Felicity had come around any too dangerous questions or whatever. Emmy was definitely the one kid that was most interested in her parents’ work as vigilantes. Since she had found out about it years ago, she had asked like a thousand questions, and she had actually been interested in the Arrow and his team even before she had known that her parents were involved.

Answering questions was something completely different from this though.

“Why would you want that?”

“I want to know what it’s like.” Emmy shrugged her shoulders. “I am at an age when I have to decide if I want to be a vigilante. I want to know what it’s like before I start training.”

Oliver wasn’t sure what made him more speechless – the fact that Emmy considered being a vigilante at the young age of nine years or the fact that she delivered sentences like that at her age. He guessed that both of it did their parts in this.

“Emmeline,” he said softly, figuring that using her full name was appropriate here to make sure that he was taken her seriously because he did, “that would be quite dangerous.”

“What’s dangerous?” Felicity aske das she entered the dining room right then.

“Our daughter wants to go out in the field.”

At Oliver’s answer, Felicity perked up her eyebrows. She looked at Oliver for a long moment, and he nodded his head. It was barely visible for her, but she could see it no matter what. She also knew exactly what he was trying to say. Their daughter was utterly serious about it.

Watching Felicity, Oliver could almost see the clockworks in her head working. She was trying to find a way out of this.

When a smile spread on her lips, Oliver felt his heavy heart easing. He had known that, if someone would find a way out of this, it was Felicity. She was so heavenly smart and really creative. She was the best.

“Okay, we will take you into the field with us.”

Oliver faltered. “We what?”

“Well, Emmy wants to go into the field with us,” Felicity said, putting her hands to her daughter’s shoulder and pulling her in front of him, “so she should get a chance at it.”

Oliver looked at Felicity incredulously, not exactly sure what was going on right now. She couldn’t be serious. They had always done their best to keep their children safe, and, yes, they had taken them to work sometimes, but not that part of their work. They had taken them to Queen Incorporated and City Hall. If there hadn’t been any other way, they had even taken them to the bunker. They had never taken them to the field, and Oliver didn’t see that changing.

Emmy, on the other hand, seemed to be more than delighted to have their plan. She thanked her mother, squealing a little as she did so, and quickly ran into her room. She probably feared that her parents would change their mind.

Oliver didn’t know about Felicity, but he would definitely not change his mind.

“Okay, what is going on here?” he asked, getting up from his chair and approaching Felicity quickly. “What is your plan? You do have a plan, right?”

Felicity angled her head back to look at his face and leaned her chest against his. The tip of her forefinger moved up and down his chest slowly, drawing random patterns into the fabric of his shirt.

“Of course I have a plan,” Felicity told him, “and it’s a really good one.”

→ → → → →

If someone had told him earlier today that Felicity was this good with pistols, he wouldn’t have believed it. Of course he knew that the basic training she had received through John and Dominic had involved some general weapon training. Since John and Dominic both preferred guns over anything, that was what they had trained with. Oliver faintly remembered that John had told him about Felicity’s good aim once, but he had decided to forget about it since he didn’t like to think about any form of weapon in Felicity’s hands.

In the back of his mind, Oliver had always believed that it was a good thing that Felicity knew how to shoot a gun. As little as he wanted to think about any kind of situation where she had to pull a trigger, it had brought some relief to know that she could do it if she was forced to do so.

He had never believed that it was going to turn against him or the team eventually. He had never thought that she would use her skills to take them out, but she did. Oliver could barely explain it to himself, but he guessed that it had just been a bad choice to bring the kids into the field.

Once they had agreed to take Emmy with them, William, Tommy, Millie and Sara had asked to come with them. William had even invited Audrey. Being in the field with so many kids had just been a terrible idea from the start.

Keeping his own weapon aimed in front of him, Oliver turned the next corner, but Felicity wasn’t there. The two of them were the only ones that were left. Everyone else had already been taken out. It was his task now to make sure that he and Felicity got out of this safely.

“Freeze, jerkwad!”

Oliver almost flinched at the sound of Felicity’s voice when she came jumping forward form the corner she had apparently hidden behind. She was aiming her pistol at his chest, looking at him with a triumphant smile.

For the break of a second, Oliver hesitated. He knew he could just take her out and put an end to it. No matter the circumstances, this was still his Felicity though, and he couldn’t imagine any circumstances that would make him feel able to pull the trigger at her.

With a low sigh, Oliver put his pistol to the floor and pushed it in her direction with his foot. He lifted his hands then, showing her that he was unarmed and meaning no harm to her. He was surrendering to her, hoping it would spare them a blood end.

Standing only an arm’s length away from him, Felicity still held the barrel of her pistol directed at Oliver’s chest though.

He could see how determined she was. It was written all over her face, shining in her eyes really. A small drop of sweat was running over the side of her neck, and Oliver would have loved to lick it away and taste it. He loved the way her skin tasted when the adrenaline was rushing through her veins.

Watching her closely, Oliver could see how calm her hands were. They weren’t shaking which certainly wasn’t easy for her. His hands had shaken the entire time since he had taken the pistol into his hands. He had known that these hours wouldn’t be easy for him.

“Felicity, you don’t have to do this.”

Oliver’s voice was soft and low, soothing really. He was trying to lure her into giving up, trying to make her know that it wasn’t necessary. He wanted her to know that she didn’t have to pull the trigger.

No matter how convincing he was, Felicity just didn’t seem to believe him. Or maybe she didn’t want to do so.

“Yes, I do,” she whispered, “I have to do this.”

With that, she pulled the trigger, taking Oliver’s life.

Shocked, Oliver looked at his vest that was no longer showing the blue light that had connected him with the rest of his team. He had been the last one of them standing, the last one that hadn’t been taken out, until he had run into his wife.

From his team, Curtis has been the one to be taken out first. Sara had shot him barely some minutes into the game. She had been taken out by Emmy a couple of minutes later. Emmy and Millie had lost their lives to each other as they had fired their shots at the same time. Tommy, Oliver and Felicity’s Tommy, had been taken out by Dominic, who had apologized more than once for it. His guilt had distracted him enough for Tommy Merlyn to take him out. Tommy Merlyn had also taken out Thea and Laurel. Meanwhile, William had taken out Audrey, and Roy had taken out Lyla. Felicity had taken out William and Roy. Oliver had taken out Tommy Merlyn and John.

With only Oliver and Felicity left, Felicity’s last shot had sealed the end to this war. Laser tag really was a brutal game. Who would have thought?”

“I can’t believe you shot me,” he said, looking from his vest to Felicity, who was smiling happily at her triumph, “just like that.”

“Aw, don’t worry, Baby,” Felicity said, taken a step towards him and patting his cheek, “it’s just a game.”

“A game where you killed me,” he said, looking down at him once more, “I think I need a divorce.”

Felicity chuckled. “Never going to happen.”

“I want a revanche,” Oliver demanded instead, “like right now.”

“I guess taking the kids back into the field wasn’t that bad after all?”

Oliver smiled and kissed the tip of Felicity’s nose, knowing it would make her chuckle even before the soft sound met his ears.

“It really isn’t.”

* * *

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