#I particularly like all of them looking out from behind the crate XD

[victorluvsalice]

Parachute - Alec/Eliot/Parker Fanvid by twwings

Sorry, Leverage OT3 Shippers, I'm stealing your song. XD A little more seriously, I saw that post about "Leverage OT3 propaganda" reblogged over on @polyshipweek, decided to check out the video, and ended up really liking it and the song. And because it was an OT3 video, I naturally started associating the song with my OWN Valicer OT3. :) The actual lyrics might be a little more plain Valice (referencing things like keeping a relationship hidden from the haters, telling someone they're the only one you trust, going "you and me against the world," etc), but I don't think that it's too hard to adapt them to a Valicer situation. After all, twwings did it with the Leverage OT3. XD

And, of course, the specific Valicer situation I'm thinking of is the Valicer In The Dark one -- the attempts at a Valicer music video that keeps popping up inside of my brain involve those three the most. (In particular, one of the "down, down, down" bits sparks an image of Victor falling off a building mid-heist, forcing the other two to help catch him and pull him back up -- which is a scene I'd had in my head before, but it's enhanced by putting it to music.) But yeah, I'm enjoying the vibes here, and I'm happy to add this to my own OT3 playlist. :)

[livvywrites]

[ ID: the image depicts a knights helm with a pointed face looking to the right. it’s been edited to look like an oil painting, and overlaid with a pale grey-green color. over the image is written ‘a conspicuous lack of dragons’ in a script front, and beneath that, ‘livvy moore’ in a serif font. /end ID. ]

i posted an excerpt of this with the placeholder title “the perils of taking quests from little old ladies who live in the woods.” i’m still rather fond of that title, but it’s a little too long xD

this was written mostly as an exercise to kind of... shake the mental cobwebs off, after seeing a post about accessibility + princesses in towers. i really liked how it came out, so i decided to polish it up and post it :D i meant to have it up sooner, but... life :p

you can also read this on my website :)

a conspicuous lack of dragons

The tower is exactly as the old woman described. White brick, with a deep purple roof, standing on a mountain at the edge of a prosperous kingdom. Only a few windows adorn the top of the tower. The rest is bare, and unadorned. You are… a little relieved. The old woman had said that this tower belonged to a dragon. You weren’t particularly looking forward to fighting it—and though you’re sure you still might have to, at least you have time for a little more reconnaissance.

Save for the base, where there is a plain wooden door.

You… cannot say you were expecting that. You swing off of your mare, and stow your more important belongings with her, keeping with you only your sword, shield, and medicine kit. You examine the door carefully, and find that—at least from this side—it is as plain as it appears.

You open the door, and step inside.

The base of the tower is rather bare. There are a few crates and boxes, covered in a layer of dust and cobwebs. There is a conspicuous lack of traps. You frown, step further in, and wait for the door to slam behind you.

It does not.

Suspicions piqued, you start up the twisting and winding ramp (not stairs!) that lead to the top. You draw your sword as you do, ready to strike if anything—or anyone—pops out at you.

Nothing does.

There are still no traps; no guards; and no hints of magic. The most arduous thing about it is the trip to the top. Another plain, wooden door is there; though it has been painted a pale lilac. There is a small peephole near the top.

You see no strange mechanisms. No glowing runes. No door knockers with faces, ready to entice you into a battle of riddles.

Your frown only deepens. You push the door open, fully expecting to be greeted by the most heinous monster you’ve ever faced.

Instead, you find a young woman. You can only presume that this is the princess. She is seated on a plush couch, reading a rather thick book. She looks up at the creak of the door, and gives you a brief once over.

One brow raised, she asks, “Well? What are you doing here?”

“I’m… here to rescue you?” you say, but it comes out as more of a question. You feel dumb. Also numb. Off-balance. You aren’t sure what’s going on at all. Nothing here is what you expected it to be, and you’re not sure how to take that at all.

“Oh,” the princess says. She looks disinterested again. “Mm. Thank you, but no thank you. I am perfectly content where I am.”

“I… but…” You stop. You’re not really sure where you were going with that.

The princess sighs. She marks her place, and lays the book on a side table. She gestures to one of the chairs. “Let me guess,” she says. “A lovely little old lady hired you. Very sweet, greets everyone with a plate of cookies. She shuffles more than walks and leans on a cane. Very harmless. Very unassuming. She told you a sob story about a poor princess, shut in a tower for… Oh, I can’t imagine what she used this time. Someone was jealous? They were afraid I would be stolen away? I’ve been cursed?”

“Um.” You’ve taken a seat now. “A dragon had taken you and hid you here, to hold you for ransom.”

The princess rolls her eyes. “Ah. We’re stereotyping dragons, now. Lovely.” She rearranges the blanket on her legs. “The truth, then. I am a princess, she did not lie to you about that. However, I am not in this tower because of dragons, curses, jealousy, beauty, or whatever reasons she can dream up. This tower was, in fact, my idea.”

“Why?” you blurt.

The princess smiles. There’s something a little secretive about it, like she’s letting you in on something. “You see,” she says, “I was born a little different from the rest of the world. Not much, mind, but enough to make it hard for me to function in your world. I’ve got a touch of power in me. I can, of course, cast spells. But that is not why I am here. I am here because I also have a touch of the Sight. And that… well. It makes me a little… sensitive.” She drums her fingers on the arm of the sofa. “It is hard to explain, because I can do so many different little tricks, but I will try. Since you came all this way.

“The main one, I think, is being able to sense emotions. This one is not something I can turn off. Being in a crowded room is… overwhelming. I can feel what everyone else is feeling, and they are hardly ever feeling the same things. It is enough to drown my own emotions out, and it is—I am sure you can imagine—unpleasant.

“I can also sense surface thoughts, sometimes. When they are very loud, or when I care to turn an ear to them. When I was younger, I could not control this, and… thus, crowds of people were, once again, very uncomfortable.

“And, of course, I can predict things. With an object—clear or mirrored, preferably—I can see things going on in other places. It takes focus, and practice, and it helps if I’ve been there or have a clear idea of what I am looking for, but it is possible. I can catch glimpses of things that will happen, or could happen.

“I can also see the future of an object, if I touch it. Or look into its past, see where it’s been. This was another thing I could not control as a young one, and made things very, very unpleasant.

“There are other things, too, but these are the three that made me seek solace here. I get visitors. I leave sometimes. But, yes. My being here is very much a choice. I thank you, again, for your concern. But it is not warranted.”

“I…” You bite your lip, and shake your head. “I do not understand why I was sent here, then. If you are not in danger.”

“Ah. Well.” The princess smiles wryly. “The old woman who sent you here is not an old woman at all. That is the disguise she dons, when she sends people to me. I believe because it makes her seem more trustworthy… or perhaps because she thinks its funny. I don’t know.” She shrugs. “It doesn’t matter. She sent you here, the same way she did the others, because she wants to use you to get past my wards.” She turns her gaze from you, and looks at the door you came in. “Isn’t that right, Muriel?”

In the doorway stands a woman who is nothing like the little old lady who plied you with cookies and a sob story about a kidnapped princess. She has long golden hair that shines in the window light. She walks with a finely carved staff; a glowing orb at the top. When she gets close, however, you can see her eyes. And those—those are the eyes of the old lady. Warm brown with a touch of humor. She sits in the empty seat.

“You turned the last three away at the door,” Muriel says. “I was beginning to think that you were angry with me.”

The princess hums. “I don’t know why you bother with the pretext,” she says. “You could just have them deliver a letter.”

“I could. But then however would I test their virtue?”

“Virtue?” you ask, before you can stop yourself. You are still so terribly confused. You lost the plot somewhere around when you opened that first door—and you don’t think you’d ever quite caught back up.

Muriel looks at you, as if she was surprised that you were still there. “Well, yes, darling,” she says. “First to see if you were willing to face a dragon to rescue a princess you’d never even met. And then to see if you could get through the doors. They don’t let you in unless you’re pure of intention.”

That doesn’t really clear anything up.

“But why?”

“I presume to keep the princess safe.”

“That’s not what our good knight is asking, and you know it,” the princess chides.

Muriel grins. “Because I’ve need of you, good knight. We’ll get to that. For now…” She looks back the princess. “What do you think, dear? You know I trust your judgment more than anyone else’s.”

“Speak more plainly, Muriel,” the princess says. “I’ve no idea which scheme you’re speaking about now. I can’t possibly keep track of them all.”

Muriel huffs. “The knight, dear.”

The princess gives you another once over. “Depends,” she says. “What is it you’re needing?”

“The gryphon, I think.”

The princess seems to consider that, then sniffs. “No. You’d be better off asking one of the other three.”

You feel indignant.

“I would send this one for the unicorn.”

Less indignant. But only just.

“Oh, truly?” Muriel looks at you again, and there is a new appreciation in her eyes. “Well. You know best, on the subject of unicorns, I suppose.”

“It isn’t that I don’t appreciate the flattery, because I do. However, I really must ask you to drop the pretense. You didn’t come all of this way to ask me that. Speak true, Muriel.”

“Perhaps I just wanted to see you.” Muriel’s tone and expression goes coy, almost coquettish.

A ghost of a smile appears on the princess’s mouth. “If you wish to engage me in courtship, Muriel, there are far less roundabout ways to go about it. Which, mind, I would appreciate far more than the games.”

Muriel flushes, almost imperceptibly. “Ah. Yes, I suppose that’s true.”

The princess inclines her head, and in a gentler tone says, “Your affections would be welcome.”

“Truly?”

“I would not lie to you, dear,” the princess says. “However, once again, I must ask you to speak the truth. Why have you come?”

Muriel sighs. “Your perceptiveness grates, you know?”

“So you have said.”

“Fine. I have come to steal you away again.”

“Ah. Where to?” The princess looks remarkably calm at that comment, though your hackles have raised. Wherever Muriel wishes to go, you do not think the princess should have any part of it. You have a feeling, though, that if you said anything, the princess would—kindly—tell you to mind your own business.

“The Wilds,” Muriel says.

This means nothing to you, but the princess nods.

“Of course,” she murmurs to herself. “Right, well. When do you wish to leave?”

“Once I’ve gotten this one packed off,” Muriel says. She gestures to you.

“Do I get a say?” you ask. Demand.

“Well of course, dear,” Muriel says. “You’ll either take the mission I give you or… go off to do whatever you do when you’re not taking quests from strange women. Either way.”

You huff, but nod.

“Very well,” the princess says. “I am agreeable.”

“Excellent.” Muriel sends her a quick flash of a smile. The glimpse you catch is soft and subtle. The princess’s own lips quirk in response… and then suddenly, both their eyes are on you again.

Muriel is looking at you like she’s a cat and you’re… something small and skittering. You don’t know if she’s going to pounce, or if she just wishes to watch, but either way—you’re more than a little unnerved.

The princess, on the other hand, looks kind and a little amused. “Any questions?” she prompts.

“Why did she—you—need my help to get in the tower? If you two are friends, I mean.”

“Because Muriel practices dark magic,” the princess says plainly.

You start; sitting up right as if a rod has just been plunged through your spine.

The princess laughs. “That does not mean that she is evil. Your knightly virtue is still intact. Dark magic is simply a tool, like any other, and Muriel wields it well.”

“But…”

The princess reaches out, and lays a hand on yours. You can feel the weight of it through your gauntlet, though not much else. “Muriel is something of a trickster, it is true. She lies. Sometimes for a good reason, and sometimes simply for her own amusement. She does not mean any harm when she does it… and so, she will never quite be sorry for it. It is her way. But let this be a lesson to you. If you work with her—or, truly, anyone else—do your research before blindly following what they tell you.” She pats your hand, and withdraws. “Now. Muriel will explain what she wants you to do, if you let her, while I get ready.”

She stands, folds the blanket she had been using, and takes her book off to another room. You are left alone with Muriel, and you eye her warily.

Muriel does not seem to mind your distrust. If anything, it seems to amuse her more. “So,” she says. “Unicorns.”

“I won’t kill one,” you say, immediately.

Muriel laughs. “Nor would I ask that of you,” she says. “I do not wish for you to kill one. Nor maim one, capture one, or any other nasty thing your mind has conjured up.” She reaches into a satchel, and pulls out a small vial. Inside is a beautiful, shimmering liquid. “You are familiar with Eaton’s River, yes?”

You nod. You’d been, once.

“Mm. If you follow the river north, to its source, you’ll come to the mountains. More specifically, to the forest at the base of those mountains. Keep going, and you’ll reach a waterfall—and, of course, a lake. The lake has a dock… and likely, a rowboat. Do not take the rowboat, though you may be tempted. Instead, pour the contents of this vial into the lake.

“When that is done, make camp by the lake. You may drink from it, but do not bathe in it. Go further down the river for that—past the ring of trees surrounding the area. You shouldn’t have to stay for long. No more than three days. Eventually, you will see a unicorn. Do not worry about missing it. Its presence will wake you up.

“Do nothing to it, unless it does something to you, first. If it speaks to you, those words are yours alone. If it lays its head in your lap, that moment is yours to keep. When it leaves, you are free to go as well.

“However, there are things I wish you to keep an eye out for. First, a white deer. Stag or doe, it matters not. Only that is pure white. Do not kill it, but if you see it, I wish to know about it when both you and I have returned.

“Second, the unicorn itself. I wish to know the color of its horn; whether or not it has any markings; and if it is alone or not.

“Lastly, the water. Tell me if there is anything built on the mound in the middle; if there is anything strange about the boat beyond the urge to get in it; whether anything happens when you pour the water in; and most importantly… whether or not you see anyone or anything inside the water during your time there. Even if you believe it is a hallucination.

“Am I clear?”

You blink, but nod.

“Excellent.” She pulls out a piece of paper, and she hands that to you as well. “These are the instructions I have just stated. Now. Tell me, knight. Will you do this?”

“Why?” you ask.

“A vested interest in magical ecology,” Muriel says primly.

The princess emerges, a bag slung over her shoulder. She approaches you both. Whatever she sees on your face has her smiling. “You’ve gone and confused the poor thing, Muriel. Are you allergic to explaining yourself?”

“Yes,” Muriel says. “You can’t see it, but my arms have broken out into terrible hives.”

The princess snorts, and looks at you. “The unicorn needs to be checked on. They’re quite rare, you know, and it’s good to make sure they’re still healthy. I imagine Muriel also wishes to know if it has made any friends, or reproduced.”

Muriel inclined her head.

“The lake has its own creatures within. They’re not friendly, so do not engage with them. They’ll drown you. The potion she’s given you is… highly magical. In this case, it does many things. It will… the closest I can think of is ‘get them drunk.’ They will still overpower you if you get in the water, but they won’t actively pursue you.

“It is also power enough to attract the unicorn, to ensure that you get a look at it. And, it has the added bonus of cleaning the water out a bit.” The princess shrugged. “An ingenious little vial.”

“And the deer?” you ask.

“Attracted to the presence of the unicorn,” the princess says. “Or perhaps caused by the unicorn’s own magic—I’ve never been quite sure. Either way, it means that the land there is responding to the presence of the unicorn. It’s a good thing. A very good thing.”

Muriel said you had a choice in this, but… the way they spoke, it sounded like you already decided to go. Which… you will, of course, because while this is not the quest you had envisioned for yourself, it still sounds important, and befitting of your training. They way they assume is a bit grating, but… Whatever. Your instructor had once told you that, of those who give you quests, magical folk rank just behind nobility in how grating they could be.

“Right then,” Muriel says, at your nod. “Time for the lot of us to be off. We’ve got things to do.”

You stand. “I still don’t quite understand who the two of you are,” you admit. There is more going on here than you understand—context that you’re lacking.

“We’re a Seer and a Witch,” Muriel says, as if this makes things plain. “A trickster and a truth-seer. A commoner and a princess.”

“We are what we are,” the princess says, laying a hand on Muriel’s arm. “And what we are works very well together. That is all that matters.”

“But… I mean… what do you do?”

“What needs doing,” the princess says. “Whether that is relocating unicorns, closing portals to the abyss, or removing curses.” She shrugs. “Don’t worry about it too much. Either it will become clearer to you one day… or it will not.”

“Then you mean to see me again?”

“Well, that depends on you, doesn’t it?” Muriel asks. “Whether you decide to work with me again.”

You suppose that’s true. You give a nod, and this time it is Muriel who smiles at you.

“Off we go, then,” she says.

The three of you exit the tower, and part ways at the door. You retrieve your things where you left them, and look on towards the horizon. It’s a long way from here to the river.

You shoulder your pack, and start walking.

[ohnomybreadsticks]

It’s Sunday, time for another prompt fill! This time I wanted to write a little something for the end of mermay, and also more for the tiny ship that @jaskiersvalley and I are sailing XD Please enjoy!

Rating: T, ~1K, Cahir & Lambert, Lambert/Eskel, hinted at Cahir/Lambert/Eskel

Prompt: "Why do you go to the beach so often?"

Cahir hadn’t really expected much when he moved to this shitty little coastal town. The locals wouldn’t call it shitty, but, well, when you compared it to the metropolis of Cintra it really didn’t stand a chance. Fuck, he missed the big city. Getting fired from his job had been a big enough blow, but when he had been run out of the city itself through a further series of misfortunes Cahir had finally realized that whatever was up there in the sky must hate him. Determined not to end up homeless, he had gotten on a bus with the last of his savings and ended up here. In middle-of-nowhere-ville, working at the docks.

It wasn’t bad work, per se. Just monotonous and exhausting. Cahir hadn’t been a total office vegetable in his old job, but nothing compared to the daily exertion of lifting and moving pallets, crates, and nets. He’d dropped a particularly large crate on one of his first days, and his left hand still hadn’t recovered, three of the fingers bent awkwardly to this day. Every day he went home sore and exhausted, too tired to do much more than make himself dinner and fall asleep in front of the TV. Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, since any free time would probably let him realize just how alone he was here.

Cahir had never been possessed with a particularly personable temperament. Back at his old job people had mainly stayed out of his way, and that had carried over here. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to make friends. It was mostly that he didn’t know how to do it. People were hard to trust, and he didn’t have a very friendly looking face. No one was lining up to try and break through his cold outer exterior to get to the warm and friendly person underneath. Not that even Cahir himself was sure what was underneath the cold outer exterior. He’d never really had to think about it before. 

The only person who really regularly talked to him was another dock worker by the name of Lambert. Maybe they gravitated together because Lambert didn’t have many friends either. He was loud and opinionated, and had a habit of saying the worst possible thing at the least opportune time. More than once, Cahir had seen him smacked by one of their coworkers for making a comment that came across as far too suggestive. Luckily for Lambert, Cahir was pretty much completely oblivious to innuendo, so he only really ‘got it’ when Lambert would laugh at his own jokes about himself. That was just the kind of man Lambert was: simple.

Cahir had him pretty much figured out, or at least he thought he did. There was still one thing that didn’t add up when it came to Lambert. He didn’t have any friends here, that much was obvious. But he didn’t just sit and eat his lunch at the dock’s cantina like all the rest of the workers. Cahir didn’t think he had been driven out, since the rest of the workers didn’t seem to hold a very hard grudge against him. But every day at lunch, Lambert would scurry off in the direction of the beach, clutching at his unusually large lunch box. Was he shy about how much he ate? Was it a particularly small lunch hidden inside of that big box and he was embarrassed about that instead? 

For some reason, Cahir just couldn’t get the mystery out of his head. Maybe it was because sometimes, when he glanced over at Lambert, the man would flash him a smile that was strangely fond for all the teeth it contained. The contrasting warmth and aggression made him wonder just what else Lambert was hiding. Finally, after weeks of turning the problem over in his head with no success, Cahir couldn’t handle it any more.

"Why do you go to the beach so often?" he blurted out as Lambert grabbed his lunch box from the shelf. 

The man paused, turned to Cahir, and fixed him with a serious stare. The silence made Cahir squirm, and it took all of his courage to speak up again.

“You always run off to the beach for lunch. Every day. And I just wondered why.” He said, keeping his tone even and hopefully non-threatening. Cahir had never been good at judging that.

The stare Lambert was giving him made Cahir feel like his whole life was being weighed in this instance. Like he was being judged against some scale he had no knowledge of, only to be found…

“Come with me, I’ll show you why.”

...worthy. Somehow, the trust in that sentence was overwhelming, and Cahir felt his heart stutter in his chest. He nodded, and grabbed his own lunch to follow Lambert to the beach. They walked together - Cahir silent, Lambert whistling a cheerful tune - the sound of the docks fading behind them. Eventually they crested a small dune and looked down onto a hidden bay of sorts, the waves crashing softly against a small protected stretch of sand. 

Lambert bounded down towards the ocean, calling out “Sweetheart, I brought company today! Want you to meet my new friend!” 

And nothing Cahir could have imagined or predicted could have prepared him to see a man wash up on shore, his torso strong and tan and his legs gone - replaced with a strong silver tail. A fucking merman. A merman that Lambert was maybe fucking, given the way they greeted each other with a rather steamy kiss. Cahir had never felt more out of place in his life than he did right now, watching as the merman turned his attention from Lambert back to him.

“Eskel, this is Cahir. He works at the docks. Cahir, this is Eskel, the most beautiful man in the world.” Lambert said, grinning proudly at his own introduction skills. Cahir watched as Eskel, whose face was marred with so many scars he’d probably never had anyone call him beautiful before Lambert, flushed and ducked his head in embarrassment. 

“Pleased to meet you.” Eskel said once he could raise his head again, “You must be pretty special for Lambert to bring you here.”

Cahir had a feeling that everything was about to get a lot more special, as he considered that maybe, just maybe, living in a shitty coastal town could have its perks. 

[stuffandnosense]

Even - Plance

This is entirely @rueitae ‘s fault, just saying. (And the fault of many other enabling friends on a particular server. XD)

Description: Plance vs bounty hunters. Oops. 

***

There are boots in front of Pidge’s face.

She isn’t entirely sure how they got there, or...where here is. Where is she and why does her body feel heavy like it does? Like…

Stunned, she realizes, through fuzzy thoughts. She’s been stunned. It isn’t the first time, and different stun technologies cause different side effects, but it’s never pleasant. This one seems to be making her nauseous. Oh joy.

Her limbs are being slow to respond, but she’s awake. Barely. She doesn’t know if their captors have noticed yet; particularly the one standing so close. She grabs onto his voice to pull herself back into the world. To focus. But she closes her eyes again; no need to let them know she’s listening.

“You put the inhibitors on them, right?”

Them? Who else…?

Lance. She was with Lance. They were...getting supplies? Red is so far...outside the city. Assuming they’re still IN the same city…Pidge swallows back a sudden lump of fear in her throat. Where is Lance?

Another voice, several feet away. Deeper. Far off the ground...tall. Taller than the one standing by her head. “We only have one!”

“We had two! What happened to the other one?”

Pidge cracks an eye open again, just to see if she can catch a glimpse of Lance. Beyond the orange cuffs of her sweatshirt and the legs of whoever is standing over her, she can make out dark green material. Jeans. Lance. Prone on the floor and unmoving, but she can see the subtle movement of his breaths, and some of the tension in her chest eases.

“It shorted on that last job! I told you your supplier was junk—”

“Those things are expensive enough without paying full price.”

A snort from the deeper voice. “Maybe if you paid full price you’d get units that didn't break so easily.”

The feet beside her shift, as if whoever it is is agitated. He certainly sounds like it. “Look, we can get as many as we want with the bounty for these two. At least tell me you put the one we have on the taller one. I doubt the small one could carry him.”

“Of course I did. I’M not an idiot.”

The one beside her answers with a growl, and the feet move quickly away toward the second voice. “Be glad you’re good muscle.”

With the legs out of the way Pidge can see more of Lance, on his side with his back to her and...there’s something on the back of his neck. Attached to it. His bunched hood is hiding half of it from this angle, but she’s almost sure it’s made of some kind of metal and circuitry.

She doesn’t realize her eyes have gone wide until a rough hand closes around her arm and yanks her upright.

“Looks who’s awake!”

Pidge instinctively tries to call her bayard from the pocket of her sweatshirt, where she knows she put it before they came planetside—not in armor, so as to keep a low profile—but nothing happens. They’ve taken it and she’s left staring at her empty hand.

“Looking for that fancy weapon of yours, or whatever it is?” A purple grin from the alien who has her. He’s at least part Galra then, even if he doesn’t look like he’s full-blooded. “We don’t know what they are, exactly, but we know who they mean you are.”

“Oh yeah?” Pidge scoffs. Trying to buy time to look around. To make a plan.

She has no idea what species the larger guy smirking from the open garage-like doorway is. He’s maroon and furry and probably as wide as their entire team put together, but he’s not Galra. And is this some kind of storage unit? The plain metal walls and roll-up door would suggest that. There are empty crates behind them in the back of the space.

But unlike a storage facility being used by a good number of people renting spaces, where she might be able to shout for help, all she can make out beyond their captors is an empty building and darkness. No signs of life. No help. Her stomach sinks, cramping with anxiety.

Even if they can get away from these two once Lance is awake, how far will they have to go? The farther away they are from other people, from somewhere they can disappear and make it back to Red, the higher the probability of being recaptured.

But she catches sight of a table out in the emptiness, and their bayards thrown carelessly on top of it with other goods these two must have collected from unsuspecting victims. That’s some hope, at least. Their weapons are still here, if they can get to them.

The alien who has her arm doesn’t answer, looking over her shoulder at the groans coming from the floor.

Lance.

“Ow my head..what?” The larger of the two aliens stalks over to pull the groggy human to his feet, but he isn't thrilled with that. “Hey! Who...what...let me go!”

Pidge almost smiles; Lance confused and trying to kick at the guy hauling him up shouldn’t be funny, even if the alien is several times larger than he is, but it’s just...Lance. Maybe it’s her brain trying to keep her from panicking; it doesn’t really make any sense.

But then she remembers the strange metal thing—probably the inhibitor they were talking about—clinging to the back of his neck, and that she has no idea what it is, and her stomach is right back to cramping again.

It doesn't really help the nausea, either.

“What’s...Pidge? Are you okay?”

Lance’s wide eyes settle on her, and she swallows. “I’m fine.” She glares at their captors. “What do you want?”

“Money,” the shorter alien smirks. Not that he’s actually short; he’s still probably taller still than Shiro. Not that those details really matter right now, but it’s something to keep her mind occupied.

“Good luck; we don’t have any,” Lance retorts.

“No, but we know who you are—paladins of Voltron. Do you have any idea how much some people would pay to get their hands on any of you after how long you’ve been gone? The bounties have gone up every deca-phoeb since you disappeared.”

Bounty hunters...they’re bounty hunters. Pidge should have put that together by now, but she didn’t really...want to, maybe.

The fact that anything is looking for them that way, that there are people besides the Galra angry enough, is just another reminder of how much they’ve lost. It’s not just the time. It’s so much more than that.

“I don’t suppose you’re going to tell us where the others are,” the bounty hunter continues.

Lance snorts. “Of course not.”

The alien is only holding Pidge by one arm, still, as he reaches into his pocket, and part of her wonders if they could make a break for it. But there’s no way Lance could break away from the other one, he’s too big, and they need to find out what that thing on Lance is and how to get it off of him before they try to get out of here.

He’s noticed it now. He’s trying to reach for it, but the bounty hunter holding both of his forearms won’t let him get his arm high enough.

Another smirk from the shorter one, as he pulls out something that looks like a small remote. “Are you sure you don’t want to reconsider?”

Lance catches her eyes. His are wide, his eyebrows high on his forehead as he licks his lips nervously.

Pidge swallows, trying to apologize with a wince. She can do nothing. She could reach for the remote, but the taller alien could easily snap Lance in half, really. If he wanted to.

And they can’t lead these bounty hunters to the others. They can’t.

Lance seems to understand. “We’re not helping you,” he growls.

A low chuckle from the monolith holding Lance, and his half Galra partner is still sporting that nasty grin. “Fine. We’ll need to be sure you two don’t get any ideas about going anywhere while we look for ourselves, then.”

Lance is tugging pointlessly against the hands around his arms when the other bounty hunter presses a button on the remote. His legs go out from under him almost immediately as he shrieks.

“Lance!”

The bounty hunter only lets the human dangle from his grip for a moment before just dropping him. Lance collapses, screaming, and it only seems to hurt him more when he curls in on himself. He flinches when the bounty hunter nudges at him with a foot, and that seems to make it worse too.

“What are you doing! What is it doing?” Pidge demands.

Lance is writhing on the ground, trying to get away from the pain, but every movement only seems to create more, sending him twitching the other way, gasping and never free of it.

Caught in it. She doesn’t think he realizes he’s making it worse. She doesn’t know quite how, but that’s what’s happening.

“Lance, stop moving!”

He isn't listening. Of course not; not right now. When Pidge finally manages to yank her arm free she stumbles, and strangely enough, the bounty hunters don’t stop her from throwing herself down on top of him and scrabbling for his arms to pin them still.

“Lance, stop! Be still and it’ll stop!” She thinks. She hopes.  “Lance, listen to me! You’ve got to be still!” Oh god, are they just going to leave this thing on?

He’s taller than her. His arms are so long. He’s stronger than he looks, but so is she. It’s a struggle to keep his arms from moving as he gasps under her, flinching and shouting in her ears, but somehow she manages. She has to flatten herself out on him to weigh down his legs and torso, too, but it tires him out more quickly than he would have tired out on his own.

A loud banging tells Pidge the door has been rolled down—that the bounty hunters used activating the device as a distraction—but there’s nothing she can do about that now. She doesn't even look up.

She has enough to deal with with Lance trembling under her.

“P...Pidge…” he gasps.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, just stay still, just breathe, okay?” Her voice catches as she lets her head rest on his chest; she isn’t sure she wants to look up. She doesn’t really want to know what his face looks like right now...how much he was hurting and still might be. She just wants to stop it.

“...the heck is...this thing?”

“I-I don’t know exactly. From where they placed it, it could easily be tied into your brain or spinal cord...I think somehow it’s turning any movement into something painful, right?”

As she watches, Lance tries to flex his fingers; even resting on the ground and barely moving them, he whimpers when he tries.

“Yeah,” he answers tightly.

Pidge winces. “Breathing doesn’t hurt, does it?” She almost holds her own waiting for an answer. If even that…

“I...uh…” His chest moves up and down beneath her. “No, it...that’s okay. It’s just…” He huffs in something that sounds like mild amusement. “It’s just a little...hard right now.”

Pidge blinks for a moment before that registers. “Sorry!”

She climbs off him, carefully, trying not to prompt any unnecessary movement from him. He still groans, but she doesn't know if that could have been avoided completely.

“Better?”

“Yeah,” Lance sighs. He swallows thickly, his eyes following her as he tries to keep the rest of his body still. “Thanks…”

She pushes a clump of hair back from his face that is already starting to stick together with sweat. “Are you okay? Besides the obvious…”

“I guess? Just—” He cuts off in a small cry. “Have you ever...tried not moving a muscle? H-harder than it looks.”

Her hand moves as if to reach for one of his, splayed out at his side, but Pidge has to stop herself, remind herself not to, not to make him want to move. She has to ball her hand into a fist and let it fall to her side.

“Especially for you,” she teases. She tries to smile, and for a moment it works. Lance smirks back, seeming to take it for the fondness it was meant to convey, and for a moment the situation doesn’t seem so dire.

“Can you...get that door open?” Lance asks.

“Maybe...I hope so. If I can get to our bayards, we’ll have a better chance when they come back. Or I will. We can’t leave without that remote; we have to get that thing off of you.” He doesn’t look happy about that. “You know I’m right. I can’t carry you, and we don’t know what damage it could cause if we try to remove it incorrectly; where it is, it’s way too risky. It could kill you.”

Lance looks at her for a long moment. She can tell he wants to say something, maybe a lot of things, but all he says is, “Just...be careful.”

She nods and squeezes his shoulder gently. “I’m gonna see what I can do with this door.”

Before she goes, she slips a hand under his head and carefully lifts it to pull his hood up between it and the cold metal floor.

“Oh,” he says. “That’s better.”

“You’re welcome. Now be still.”

Pidge is sure he tries, but as she finds a panel to pry open and wires to tinker with, she can still here Lance breathing heavily behind her, and the soft grunts and cries when something moves anyway.

The sooner she can get this door open, the better. If she has to go looking for that bounty hunter herself to get to that remote sooner...maybe she will.

“You doing okay back there?” she calls.

“Yeah,” Lance answers. His voice is higher than usual, strained. “Never better.”

“You suck at lying.” Why she has to tease to keep herself from worrying to too much, she doesn’t know. She wishes she knew.

“Guess we’ll...be even after this, huh?”

Pidge pauses. “What?”

“The whole...shooting Sendak thing. When you get us out of here.”

It isn’t a lot of words—unusual for Lance, though she can understand why he isn’t talkative—but she understands what he’s saying. “I don’t think it matters, Lance. We’ve all gotten each other out of a lot of stuff since we left Earth.”

“Yeah…good point.”

Pidge shivers at the flash of memory. “Still...that was a nice shot, though.” It seems so long ago now, but she’s never forgotten it. How could she? “Do you even really remember it?”

“Not really; it kinda...kinda sucks. Apparently it was awesome.”

***

Pidge makes short work of the door and hurries to the table across the empty floor of the warehouse, near the entrance to what looks like several mostly-empty offices at the end of the building. A lamp shines from somewhere inside through the glass windows, reflecting off the few pieces of furniture and unmade mattress on the floor.

The bounty hunters must be squatting here. Or someone is. They certainly made use of the storage unit they left her and Lance in, and this table where they’ve piled their acquisitions.

Pidge swipes their bayards from the table and is nearly back to the open storage unit, turning a plan over in her head for the best way to lie in wait for the bounty hunters—the best way to take them by surprise—when a slight noise gives her just enough warning to duck and roll. Just enough warning to miss being hit with the stun beam that flies over her head and is absorbed harmlessly into the wall.

“Pidge!” Lance's voice, from the storage unit, followed by a shout because undoubtedly tried to move.

“I’m fine! Hang on!”

The half-Galra bounty hunter launches out of the shadows at her, raising his gun to fire again, but Pidge lashes out with her grappling to pull the gun from his grip. He makes a sound of protest, but doesn’t hesitate to attack her hand to hand.

Too close. Too close to get the grappling around him and shock him. Pidge dances back, avoiding his blows and ducking around him, looking for an opening.

She doesn’t find it. He finds one. In a moment she’s on her back, cursing herslf, an arm pressed into her neck and both her bayard and Lance’s several feet away, scattered over the floor.

She thinks he’s going to let her up. Knock her out. Restrain her. Something. But the bounty hunter just keeps pressing down on her neck, cutting off her air. Maybe he only wants to knock her out that way, but fear makes her struggle, desperately trying to pull in air and afraid he’s not going to stop until she’s dead.

“Pidge! Pidge!”

Lance is shouting, but she can’t answer him. Everything is going dim and Lance is screaming, but the bounty hunter laughing down at her doesn’t care.

I’m sorry, she thinks faintly. Her arms fall away from pushing at him, her legs go still.

A flash she barely sees in her dimming vision, and the pressure is gone. Through her wracking coughs, as she pulls in air, she can hear Lance’s screams dying away into sobs and her adled brain finally sorts that they aren’t cries of alarm, or relief now. Well...maybe some of that.

But most of it is pain. She doesn’t know how she can tell, but she can.

“P-Pidge,” he cries. “Pidge! Are you—?”

“Lance?” she croaks. “—’m okay. Don’t...don’t move.”

But when she finally manages to roll up onto her knees, she finds that Lance has definitely moved. He’s several feet closer, now, collapsed on his side, his bayard on the ground beside him rather than where she could have sworn it landed when the bounty hunter knocked it away from her.

Lance shot the bounty hunter.

The pieces click into place in her mind and Pidge can only stare for a moment, her pounding heart in her throat.

Lance called his bayard and shot the bounty hunter. He was screaming because it hurt him so much to move.

“Quiznak,” she swears. “Hang on, Lance!”

She digs in the bounty hunter’s pockets for the remote, nearly crying in relief when she finds it. Her hands are shaking as she scoops it and her own bayard up and hurries to Lance’s side. As she looks for the right setting. She doesn’t want to hurt him more.

“Hang on, hang on…”

Lance is trembling on the ground, his face streaked with tears, but she can almost see him relaxing when she finds the right button to turn off the device. He sobs, and she wants to. The lump in her throat aches as she reaches to the back of his neck to gently pull off the deactivated device. Thankfully, it comes away easy enough. She only catches a glimpse of the tiny filaments retracting into the base as it comes off, but it’s enough to make her shiver.

She drops the device on the ground beside them, her bayard’s blades glowing as she brings it down on the tiny, awful thing. The smashed pieces smoke as they’re singed beyond recognition, Lance looking on in tired satisfaction.

Pidge kicks the pieces away and gathers Lance up in her arms. He doesn’t protest. On the contrary, he seems content to cling to her sweatshirt and bury his face in her neck.

“You’re okay...?” he asks again.

“I’m fine. I’m okay. You…?”

“‘M okay...I’ll be okay…”

He doesn’t sound okay. Not yet. He’s still trembling even as she holds onto him, his body still trying to shake off the effects of the device.

“Pidge, the...the other one could come back…”

“If you’re trying to make me leave you, think again. We’ll wait until you can walk.”

He huffs against her neck, but doesn’t argue. Instead he calls his bayard from where it’s lying nearby, transforming it back into its blaster form again and clinging to the gun with shaking fingers as he eyes the door.

Pidge can’t help smiling. “You saved me again,” she murmurs. “Guess we’re still not even.”

Lance laughs. “At least I’ll remember it this time.”

[sassheliosazuras]

(and the last one) drop a kitten on my muse: 😾 - Giant jackass cat, no love unless treat, don’t pet (lmao, so basically like Inibri in cat form xD)

Thanks for the ask @chivalin!  Needless to say Zoist was horrifically heart-breaking for Sass, so putting all his attention to helping furry mini-inibri was good for him. And for this little jackass cat also. ;D

   When Sass first heard the yowling of an injured creature, it was just after fighting off a group of possessed militia in an abandoned New Adasta warehouse. 

As he knocked the last imperial unconscious the pained yowling only grew more desperate. Sass made his way over to some knocked over crates. Using the force the Jedi lifted them all off the ground carefully. Which uncovered a hissing and growling bluish Tooka cat. 

Who as the chiss came closer growled and attempted to swipe at Sass’s outreached hand with his own broken paw. 

“You poor creature! Come on little one lets get you to Doc and get you patched up.” Despite the young Jedi’s calming words, the Tooka merely backed up fur on end still hissing and spiting. 

“Okay! Okay!”

 Sass exclaimed backing up to calm the terrified animal down a bite. Though the Tooka-cat still glared at him in suspicion. Which was justified when with a wave of his hands had the animal topple over into a heavy slumber. Quickly he scooped him up against his sleek armored chest. 

“Doc can you read me? I’ve got someone I want you to take a look at.” Sass asked into his mouth piece and he hurriedly made his way back to the landing zone. It was time to leave as evident by all the ships and transporters currently blasting off into the sky around him. 

“Master! Time to get the hell outta here!” Kira shouted at him leaning in the doorway with a few huddled figures pressed close behind her. Making his way quickly into the ship Sass gave a reassuring smile to the rescued slaves as Rusk and Tee-seven were busy removing their shock collars. Kira only gave him a curious glance at seeing what he held in his arms before both of them made their way to the cockpit.

 “Lets get out of here before the imps take too much notice.” At this Kira gave him a nod before hurriedly getting into the co-pilots seat as Sass put in the launch sequence and as they spend off into space. 

Both Jedi felt a terrible force chasing them as they left the frozen planet. As they hovered in orbit readying the hyper-drive, Sass chanced a glance down at the planet below them. 

He truly wish he hadn’t as he saw a blast wave of death was encompassing the entirety of Zoist in that moment. 

“Oh Gods.” The chiss whispered horrified.

 “We can’t help them now! We have to GO!” At this Kira punched in the hyper-drive, and with tears rolling down both their cheeks, the ship spend off into republic space. Fleeing the death and darkness behind them. All the while Sass clutched at the still living creature to his chest, desperate to feel the life force of anything against the wave of death that was echoing across the force.

~Several Days Later~

   In a small Coruscanti apartment in the upper levels, statues of past famous Jedi and bookshelves lined the interior-walls. However the floor was a different matter as a very much awake and healed Tooka-cat was doing it’s best to escape the clutches of the Jedi behind it.

 Particularly if that meant knocking over every single decorations and lamp…..Every single lamp. 

“Ini!!! Sweetling it’s time for your medicine!.” At this the furious yowling only grew more so as the cat was cornered in the kitchen. 

Still those large ears did perk up in interest as Sass held out with one blue hand covered in large scratches, a particularly temping piece of juicy banta meat. 

“Hey, ini, ini, ini! Come sweety, its spicy banta heartstring! Your favorite.” At this Sass clad only in trousers stayed perfectly still on his knees, with his hand out stretched as the newly dubbed. ‘Ini.’  Cautiously strode forward inching closer and closer to the treat with narrowed yellow eyes firmly on young chiss for any movement. To which Sass dared not even breath, till Ini was licking at the stripes savoring the taste. 

Then quickly the tooka-cat made a grab for the meat, still even as he grasped his prize with his serrated teeth and made a run for it, Sass was even quicker still. Pressing a kolto-shot into a furred rump earned him another swipe and a hasty retreat onto the kitchen rafters. 

“It’s was for your own good!” Sass yelled out. This was meet with a decorative plant being pushed off the top of the fridge. He caught it with a chuckle and the force. Adding a mental note to nail everything down later. Sass stretched his tone body out with a yawn having been tired out from the hour long chase around the apartment. 

Making his way into the back bedroom the Jedi landed with a loud. 

‘Ploop.’ Onto the king sized bed. 

With the wave of the hand, the lights were dimmed and shades pulled down, downing out the bright sunlight. Sass closed his eyes willing himself to sleep. Which may have worked if not for the sound of the door creaking and a dip in the bed. Opening one ruby eye in a squint he could make out his cat licking it’s paws near his feet. 

It paused noticing his attention. To which Sass closed his eye and feigned sleep again. This caused Ini to go back to cleaning his sapphire colored-tainted fur quite thoroughly. He only stopped when loud snores could be heard coming from Sass's mouth. Pausing he checked the chiss over making sure Sass was truly asleep. 

Nipping a bare toe bore no reaction. 

So finally satisfied Ini began to rub his cheek and body against the sleeping Jedi’s and to give all the cuts and scratches dealt earlier a couple of licks. 

Happy only when the chiss was thoroughly marked with his scent just like everything else in the apartment, only then did Ini hop off the bed to find that one lamp that was somehow was still standing despite the Tooka-cat’s best efforts.

[comicteaparty]

June 14th, 2018 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on June 14th, 2018, from 5PM - 7PM PDT.  The chat focused on Obelisk by Ashley McCammon.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

COMIC TEA PARTY START!

Good day everyone~! This week’s Comic Tea Party is now officially beginning~! Today we are discussing Obelisk by Ashley McCammon~! (http://www.obeliskcomic.com/) For those new or in need of a reminder, discussions about the comic are freeform, so please feel free to bring up whatever you wish. However, every 30 minutes I will be dropping in a discussion question to help those who would like a prompt. These questions are totally OPTIONAL to answer, and you can pay them no mind if you wish. If you miss out on any though, they’ll be pinned for the duration of the chat once they’re posted~! Remember, constructive criticism is allowed, but the primary focus here is to have fun and appreciate the amazing comics that the community makes~! As a bonus, each chat a top comment will be picked and featured in the archives and on an ad for CTP! All that being said, let’s get started and have a great discussion!

QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?

🌟Draco Plato🌟

The story has flowed so smoothly so far that it'd be hard for me to pick a certain scene as a favorite. I've really enjoyed the fluidity of the art, with it's beautiful backgrounds and very human seeming characters. Evie has been quite interesting to get to know so far and I'm looking forward to learning more about her as the story goes on.

Her hair has been particularly fascinating to me, I adore how it's drawn.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i appreciate how shes been drawn with a variety of hair styles and clothing. its one of those unnecessary details that can add a lot of life and make everything feel less like a video game.

but man the backgrounds. those are some heavily detailed backgrounds with a lot of love and care put into them and they really express the world so well

if i had to pick a favorite scene id pick when we meet margot. i really like the slight additions of red because something about the wispy way its drawn expressives a hint of...something sinister

🌟Draco Plato🌟

I really enjoyed that too, it also I think was the point where the real feel of the story came into play

and I think we really got a much better grasp on evie(edited)

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

yes though for eve's character i enjoyed the current page aftermath a bit more. if only cause i like that she kind of had a really human reaction to being told to butt out of things that weren't her business XD

🌟Draco Plato🌟

oh yeah, for sure!

I'm really looking forward to seeing where the current story arc is heading(edited)

zestwitch

I love the whole comic so far but I gotta say the way the party scene was drawn is so memorable for me, the panel variation is so creatively done and makes each page feel so energetic

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

I liked the scene where Eve was partly hung over and came into the kitchen and her brother regaled her with all the info off a casual remark. I think part of what made that stick too was realizing in the post-script how it was based on REAL history.

🌟Draco Plato🌟

the party scene was especially well done I thought too! Really captured the feeling of what being there would be like

zestwitch

The comic also has so many small details in the sidelines that make the world feel incredibly well rounded and rich like I can tell a ton of research was put into this and that makes me so much more excited about where it's going

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Speaking of how things are drawn, fascinating plan to really only have red be the outsider colour. Definitely makes certain things pop.

Yeah, I have no idea how much research was put into fashions and trends of the time period, but I have to imagine a ton.

🌟Draco Plato🌟

yeah i've researched that time quite a bit and you can really tell that the creator put a lot of work into accuracy

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Speaking as someone who has almost zero knowledge of the time period, I find I can still appreciate it.

In modern day, they'd be all over that concussion issue from falling off a stool.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i liked eve being hung over too just because how it was draw i think had subtle details other comics dont really capture when its depicted. like just the way her face is like "what is life i hate this damn sun why am i awake."

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Interesting how it led into the flashback memories too.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Oh hey there

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

hey super~!

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Glad to be here!

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

yeah i thought it was interesting how the flashback memories were juxtaposed with that scene.

and how it transitioned to it

i also enjoy the hangover scene just cause i can relate to eve being partly aware of a thing but having no interest while the other person just rambles on passionately

and youre just like yeah okay

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

That may also be part of why I liked it. ^.-

I wonder if we'll meet this Alice.

🌟Draco Plato🌟

I really liked her hair and nightgown in the hang over scene

saetje

I agree the story flows so well it’s hard to pick a favorite scene- it’s also so early! But, if I’m honest? Margot’s introduction b/c dayyuuum

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

She did have a commanding presence.

saetje

my gay heart can’t handle her

I so appreciate all the research into costume and setting design as well! I simply adore period pieces so I appreciate the effort on that front

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Daww~

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

QUESTION 2. Throughout the comic we meet an interesting cast of side characters, from Eve’s friends to the seemingly criminal Peter Murphy to Agostino. Was there any side character that caught your eye, and if so why? When it comes to Peter and Agostino, do you think we will be seeing more of them? If so, in what way? Will Agostino’s interaction with Margot affect him in some dire way? What do you think will happen if Eve meets Peter? Why do you think Eve isn’t fond of her brother’s new fiancée? Are there any other character details you think the comic might explore?

saetje

I really liked Agostino’s reaction to Margot, it’s so foreboding. I most definitely feel we’ll be seeing all the characters that have introduced so far, again. I must say the story so far has so seamlessly and entertainingly set up many relationships, varied characters, and intrigue to delve into that it’s exciting waiting for what comes next!

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

I admit, I'm curious about seeing Eve and Alice... wondering what it is she's not fond of, whether it's something about personality or just the way she dresses and talks to her brother...

saetje

I just feel like they’ve set up a lot of questions we want answered all wrapped up in a varied and entertaining cast

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Agostino may be all hypnotized now.

saetje

yeah it’s possible- going a sort of Renfield on us?

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

yeah i do think weve got an interesting plate of characters going on here who are gonna have some future interesting and interactions with eve thatll take the story to unexpected places.

i really loved the way whatever happened to agostino was depicted

i can see why he freaked

though im really curious why only he was effected

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

I do want to add in this story looks like it could be fun as a live action flick, seems like it could work

especially for it's early 1900's setting

saetje

I could see it adapted fairly well!

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

I'm pretty sure he was affected because it was his blood left behind when he moved the crate into the place initially. They've already got a sample of him.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Glad you agree, Saetje.

saetje

But the comic as the media for the story itself here is still done really well. I like how the author plays with visual narrative and panel flow

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Yea, it's done extremely well

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Interesting that the owners (possible vampires?) are into antiques. I'd figure it'd be something that they could collect more blood samples from.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

especially all the markerwork

saetje

Oh yeah. That was my take too, they already have some blood from him. But time will tell

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Though I guess if you've got all those children's toys left over from 300 years ago... ^.^

...Then again, they came overseas with only the one box. So idk.

Do you think all the sites being investigated are owned by the same group?

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

lol

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

To tie it back in, maybe that Peter guy is their broker.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

http://www.obeliskcomic.com/comic/chapter-1/p43/ OMG CUTE KID

Some quality family time. I hope everyone celebrating has a lovely holiday, and if not, I hope you have a lovely day anyway. I’ll see you all next week!

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

maybe it wasnt so much that it was a blood connection thing but in that the blood told margot hed been to the shop before and therefore wanted him to gtfo. since he helped with delivery.

on a different note i do want to say im in math's corner and super want to know why eve doesnt care for alice O_O

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

I'm pretty sure she was gtfo-ing him, but I still feel like it was through the blood somehow.

Related to what SJ posted, maybe it's because Eve helped to raise her brother, and doesn't like that the status quo is being messed with? Though Alice could also be real shallow, who knows.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Perhaps

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Maybe Alice is also a vampire!

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

that could be. and again could just be personality. maybe alice just tried to get eve to do lots of thing eve wasnt comfortable with in an attempt to bond. or maybe alice aggressively tries to set eve up with ppl

the mystery increases!

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

The town is going to be completely taken over by vampires. Eve will be the only real woman left.

It's like that old tv show about the pod people.

draculing

(I will confirm or deny nothing but I love seeing everyone's thoughts and theories so far )

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Hey there!

Pleased to see ya!

saetje

Welcome! Thanks for the lovely comic

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

And thank you as well~

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Hihi draculing! I like tossing out crazy theories, don't worry about me.

draculing

Hi~ I'm in and out a bit but it's good to be here

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

also omg Marghot looks so handsome~

draculing

The comic is still so early on its cool to see that people are already guessing at stuff

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

thanks for being here draculing~!

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Eve will win Margot's heart by teaching her to ride a bicycle.

draculing

And yes Margot is the Most handsome

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

She is and I love her (edited)

Everything about her looks and personality(edited)

she's so(edited)

dandy

draculing

She's a lady ;D

saetje

Yeah Margot is actually I was under the impression Margot is female? Or they-them?

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Well that's not the first time I'vewgotten my genders confused

draculing

Margot is a butch woman, dw i definitely get that a lot

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

lmao

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Heh. Probably the pants, I don't think ladies wore them much, but I know little to nothing of the time period.

saetje

Ok well I love Margot as I’ve said throughout this chat UM I can’t wait for vampire intrigue romance adventures

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

heehee~

And I made it to the end of the story so far

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

I get the vibe that Eve is into the ladies. The way she blushes sometimes, and is upset about not being married herself yet.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

It sure has come a long way since it first started~

saetje

I... completely read Eve as queer? She also hangs out with a cast of LGBT folks yes?

draculing

They wore pants (or bloomers like eve's bike pants) if they were doing sports or being tomboyish but it was still pretty rare and not looked on fondly

Actual men's clothing was not a thing for women yet except for in theater/music halls

saetje

Er- that being what her friend circle is/the party scene as about

draculing

Or yknow... gay circles

Yeah pretty much!

saetje

I appreciate all the research you’ve done into period clothing and setting!

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Oh really?

saetje

I really love horror/romance time periods and I love seeing all the different props and outfits

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Cool about the info. I'd ship Eve and Alice, just to be contrary, except we know they don't get along. Unless... that's just what they want others to think. (edited)

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

I was actually about to ask how much you researched 1900's/1910's society and such

draculing

I wanted to establish that Eve has a social circle of other queer people and they aren't miserable or self hating

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

ooohhhh

saetje

I really appreciated the party scene tbh

draculing

Cuz thats all we ever get from historical settings usually

With lgbt characters

saetje

Yes!

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

LGBT characters are always welcome

saetje

As a queer person it meant a lot to me

draculing

Yeah its really personal to me and I'm glad it resonates!

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

I'm pro-LGBT to the end.

saetje

Because I love time period pieces but so many gay romances or lgbt characters are so depressing in that setting. I enjoyed that Eve has a friend group that celebrated themselves and seemed happy

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

^

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

QUESTION 3. As Eve hunts down a lost property, she runs into the mysterious shop owner Margot who somehow bought one of her father’s properties. Who exactly is Margot do you think? Why do you think Margot has moved into the property now of all times, and why do you think Margot chose to run an antiques store? Why do you think Margot was so defensive about Eve’s questions (despite there being simpler, more polite answers as Eve points out)? Do you think Eve will continue to interrogate Margot for information, and do you think she will succeed? Do you think it’s even safe for Eve to interact with Margot given what happened to Agostino? Do you have any other theories about Margot?

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Margot is secretly a werewolf.

saetje

And I think it (the party scene) was a nice way to set up Eve as queer, it was, to me, obvious her preferences after the party scene without being voyeuristic or over the top of that makes sense? Just enough.

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Seriously though, she must be part of some syndicate or something. To get that shop set up in so little time.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

I have a feeling it may have something to do with that ring.

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Or the djinn/genie inside it.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

If it's not her well-sculpted legs

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Or those of the djinn/genie.

So, actually, it's probably a bloodstone or something. I wonder if Eve will research.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Maybe.

I never thought "bloodstone"

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Actually.... is it possible that Margot or her syndicate killed Eve's father in the first place?

saetje

I get the feeling there’s going to be some romantic Margot/Eve back and forth and I look forward to that, but I think ultimately Margot will be dangerous- or at least as it’s set up now, every storytelling sign points foreboding when it comes to Margot(edited)

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

"Sign over this property. Good, excellent. Oh no, you fell down a flight of stairs."

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i feel like if they were responsible theyd know he was dead and not have the reaction that was had over it.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Yea

Thankfully he lived

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Well, we only know Margot's reaction.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i definitely forsee eve pestering margot more. cause im willing to bet shes either 1) going to run into a dead end making margot her only option for answers or 2) shes gonna find peter and peter is going to make her super duper suspicious by saying things like "you dont want to know nun ya business."

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

"I'm not a nun!"

Eve strikes me as the type who might lurk outside the place to see if other leads show up. That could make Margot decide to just tell her stuff to get rid of her, since "just go away" failed.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

oh i hope eve comes back and is like "im here to buy something you cant kick me out."

but yeah. margot is....isnt doing a good job of making her go away. there were so many better answers then the shifty eye nun ya business XD

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

That would be a clever way of doing things too. "The customer is always right." To be fair, Margot was pretty nice up front too, remarking on how she should have heard someone come in... it's only the details of how they got the place that seems to have vexed her.

saetje

Maybe she WANTS Eve to come back I feel like Margot knows how to throw a line and reel em in with intrigue and mystery

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Also, did Margot arrive in the box? Or was she simply hired to deal with some other dude who now lives upstairs who is a vampire? Maybe SHE'S under control, thanks to the ring. And Eve frees her from the evil spell.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Maybe

The personality seems to hit at it

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

"Only a kiss can save me from this vampire ring."

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i assume margot was in the box. i think margot is too commanding of a presence to be someone elses mindslave.

and thats true

it could be margot wants eve to come back

alternatively maybe margot hires peter and peter tells eve its in her best interest to stay away or something might happen to her brothers fiancee O_O

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

There is that, or at least not be taken in quite as quickly as seems to have been the case.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

and eve will be like "great good thing i dont like alice"

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

"You don't want to kiss me? Oh, I guess I'll simply have to get Alice to do it..." "You wouldn't dare."

Eve's brother walks in and is all, uhhhhhh....

saetje

I get the feeling it’s going to be Hattie/Eve

I felt like that was hinted at too in the party scene?

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

That's possible. I admit I'm bad for the names, as usual.

Also, I like going for the improbable ships.

saetje

Hattie is the blond friend who took her to the party and there was a panel where it was like their hands almost touched/had been holding and left etc. just feels like it’s possible we might have a romance starting with Eve and Hattie with Margot in there messing it up. But again- so early rn hard to make predictions!

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Yea.

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Makes sense... was she the one who opened the old wine?

saetje

Yes I think so!

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

'kk.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i would like to see more of hattie before i put my eggs in that basket. i feel of all the friends she was the one i feel most distant from sadly :"D even though i thought her design was snazzy

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Yeah, it could be a one way relationship there.

Maybe that's why Eve hasn't been hanging with them as much...? I think that was implied.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

maybe although i assumed its cause shes still not quite over her father's death

grief does take time

QUESTION 4. As we learn from Eve, some documents on her father’s properties seem to be missing. Further, he seemed to know possible criminal Peter Murphy and mysterious Margot. Why and how do you think Eve’s father got involved with such people? Was it blackmail, some sort of under the table charity, or something else? Do you think his co-worker Alex knew about the dealings, or was it something private to Eve’s father? If it’s the latter, why do you believe he’d keep it a secret? Do you think Margot’s shop is the only missing property, or do you suspect Eve might find even more? Even if Eve finds the answers to all these questions, do you think she can or would do anything about the situation? Lastly, do these missing properties have anything to do with her father being dead?

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Right, that's a good point too. Though you'd think that you'd want others to help console you.

Her father was apparently really good with records and bookkeeping. Maybe he was doing some work on the side that turned out to be shadier than he thought... the flashback seemed to imply that they might have had money troubles. What with Dad not being able to pay the nanny enough wages to keep her on.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

could be. it was implied in that scene that he was also a single father too at that point right?

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

It was, yes. Maybe the mother died in childbirth?

So Dad took on shady business deals to help make ends meet. Probably why he sold off properties and kept it all locked in that box.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

that seems very plausible for how he got involved. albeit alternatively, maybe thats why they have money troubles

is that he was secret selling properties for a low cost and had to cover it up so it wouldnt be discovered

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

True, hard to say which came first. Oh, that's a good theory.

Maybe Peter knows him... just went into business for himself after the death...

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Maybe so.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

peter and the dad were clearly best friends from primary O_O

im curious about his death cause i feel like it must have been unexpected? cause he certainly didnt clean up his affairs. in the sense that ya know he never said "eve by the way i sold some properties to vampires. surprise."

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Yeah, that's a good point. Things were left in something of a disarray at the business too.

Interesting how his daughter has been able to take over.

"She has a ... STAKE, in the business."

draculing

(Re: research question way earlier, I have a lot of 1900s fashion catalogue reprints and PDFs of 1890s-1900s sears catalogues!! I love.. clothing as personality.. so details are important to me)

Lmao niceee

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Oh wow, nifty. Is that part of why it's been set in the States, like that's where the catalogues are from?

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Oh nice!

That sounds like a good way to get research, all those old catalogues~

Make sure you keep em safe! I bet they'd be considered collectables in this day and age.

draculing

Nah I'm just from New Jersey ;; i grew up going into NYC and went to school there so I have a big attachment to the history and feel of it

Aw i dont have anything original sadly, it would be real cool if i did

saetje

I own a few Edwardian sears catalogues too and it’s such a treasure trove tbh. As I’ve said, I appreciate all the detail you’ve put into your costume and setting design. Every character’s clothing choices really does say something strong about them

draculing

Its also a good setting for like.. the immigration/othering themes often attached to vampire stories

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Aah

and yea that's understandable

saetje

Ohh that’s a cool take

draculing

It's not at the forefront of the narrative but each character's sort of.. class and life situation is involved in their design and that plays into it

Hopefully I'm not derailing the convo too much by jumping back to that!

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

That makes sense. Nope, just thinking theories over here.

Alice is secretly behind everything.

saetje

yeah we’re mostly just speculating based off what we have so far, it’s nice to get insight into the creation a bit!

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

nah your fine.

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Seconding saetje

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

I was also trying to think about when the New York World's Fair was, but it was like, 1939, so never mind. I don't know historical details.

draculing

I've had a lot of stuff where I've realized "wait this hasn't happened yet how weird"

Like... the titanic sinking

If my comic hits 1910 will it address that? We just don't know

*1912

saetje

is there anything like prop wise you’ve wanted to put in and then had to go “oh wait. Not invented yet”

draculing

Ohhh yeah for sure

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

XD

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Sliced bread?

saetje

Because I imagine there’s so many little things we take for granted now that they didn’t have back then

draculing

Or like.. finding references for very specific things??

saetje

Haha the bread point was too powerful

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Napples likes the historical bread.

draculing

Like "what does a cereal box in 1908 look like"

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

I'm curious now too lol

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

Gotta watch out for cereal killers.

draculing

Its little stuff that gets you

A lot of finding the closest approximation and then winging it like "hopefully some big history expert won't swoop in and yell at me"

The historical fiction police

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Heehee

Gotta keep all your facts 100% authentic

(and accurate)

draculing

It's a worry even though probably no one minds at all

saetje

Because vampires sure are real ha but I get it! You really want that authentic feel

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Yea All that matters is your readers have a good time and enjoy the story(edited)

saetje

But yeah unless someone is just being pedantic I don’t think you’re going to get mobbed for a small historical mistake

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Anyways seems like we're heading into the final minute of the CTP

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

tbf tho does happen. historical fiction police do tear things apart but theyre in the minority. i think you do a really great job and pay more attention to detail than a lot of other historical fiction ive seen.

MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑

I don't notice such things at least. I enjoyed it.

Including the hairstyle, just to circle us all the way back. Nice crazy hair.

draculing

it's very cool and encouraging to see all your ideas about what's going on

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Anyways, thanks for the comic, Drac~! It was a fun read and I hope it grows nice and strong.

saetje

Fair fair. I just think people who call out details like that on indie creators are lame

draculing

Thank you for reading it!

saetje

And yeah! It’s a gorgeous comic!

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

^

saetje

I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Me neither~(edited)

draculing

Can't believe we already spoiled that Margot is definitely a werewolf, the whole time

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

COMIC TEA PARTY END!

Unfortunately, the scheduled Comic Tea Party time is now up~! Thank you everyone so much for reading and joining this week’s chat~! We want to give a special thank you to Ashley McCammon, as well, for making Obelisk and volunteering it for our reading queue. If you liked the comic, please be sure to support Ashley McCammon’s efforts however you’re able to. All that being said, if you would like to continue discussing this week’s comic, we highly encourage you to do so~!

For next week, Comic Tea Party will focus on Fate by Anthea West. As always, please use the next several days to read as much of the comic as you would like. We hope to see you next Thursday on June 21st from 5PM to 7PM PDT for the chat~! Until then, happy reading~! Comic: http://www.fatecomic.com/

[finn-nelson-for-the-win]

Changing Priority- Chapter 13

Hello again, everyone! I wanted to post this when I finished it a few days ago, but the internet at my apartment has been shit, so I’ve been writing and not posting lately. 😬

I swear this was the longest week ever for Rae but a lot happened, thus warranting multiple chapters! I’m not sure that this chapter will be what you’re all hoping for (and I too find myself wanting to give Rae a friendly slap across the face and tell her to pull it together from time to time during this chapter, but I digress) but it was a significant series of events in the grand scheme of things, so try not to hate me too much…😅

Wanna check out all the previous chapters?

Thanks for reading and I’m excited to hear what you all think (also be on the lookout for Chapters 14 and 15 to be posted in the next couple days!)

Just Roll With It

When Rae’s shift was over, she slung her backpack containing the snacks she had purchased earlier that day as well as anything else she thought she may need for her movie night with Izzie and began the walk to Izzie’s apartment from memory, despite having only ever been there once before.

Rae’s mind was still preoccupied with the odd turn of events thus far today—as Rae rarely caught the attention of one boy, let alone three within the span of eight hours—so she was thankful for the crisp January air and the thirty minute walk that gave her a chance to process everything a bit more.

Eric the Barista has been taking my order when I grab coffee from there for months and he always seemed friendly—but not necessarily “flirting friendly”…

I had assumed that to just be part of his customer service persona, but maybe it was flirting all along…

And if I’m being honest, he is quite attractive…long, spikey dark brown hair, olive skin that makes the green in his hazel eyes look much more prominent…tall, lean, and athletic-looking…and a wide and toothy smile that exposes the most perfectly white set of teeth I have ever seen.

Not to mention the tattoos that cover his arms almost entirely from what I can tell and piercings on his nose, lip, and ears that had been one of the first things I noticed about him…

What can I say? I have a type…

But still, I don’t even know him all that well and while I’m flattered by the sudden attention he paid me today, I don’t know what to make of it…

“Ugh, what a prick…” Rae muttered with an eye roll as she quickly side-stepped to avoid a person on a bicycle going the opposite direction on the sidewalk that clearly had no intention of slowing down or swerving to avoid colliding with Rae.

…And what was all that about with Andrew today!? That seemed to come from out of nowhere a bit…

Rae pulled herself from her musings to determine how much further she had to walk before grabbing her cell phone out of her purse and typing a text message while she waited to cross the street.

Rae: So…you’ll never guess who I was talking to today…

Rae: And I’m pretty sure he asked me out (although I did have to politely decline since I already had plans today)

Rae felt her phone vibrate within her hand, but she waited until she was out of the road to read the text she had just received.

Rebecca: OMG WAS IT WHAT’S-HIS-FACE!?! Rebecca: YAAASS GET IT GIRL!! ;)

Rae: Good guess, but nope

Rebecca: Who then!?!?

Rae: Andrew…

Rebecca: Look at you! Stealing the hearts of every male coworker you come into contact with. \(^-^)/

Rae: Hah, very funny. It was just so odd though…like we were chatting a bit and then he asked me to “hang out” and it seemed like a date, but I don’t want to assume that he was asking me out though, you know?

Rebecca: Yeah, I get you. Is that all he said? He’s kind of flirty in nature, so maybe he just meant in a friendly way without the expectation of it being a date, you know?

Rae: Maybe, yeah… Rae: He did compliment my hair, say he misses seeing me at work, and tell me I looked pretty today though…does that change anything?

Rebecca: (-_-)

Rebecca: “Does that change anything?” YES THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING! Rebecca: I suppose that it is possible, although not probable, that he meant hanging out as friends…but I wouldn’t bet on it. I can do a little recon for you if you’d like…

Rae: You don’t have to do that…I guess I’ll just keep an open mind and see if he starts talking to me more or tries to ask me out again.

Rebecca: Ok! Sounds like a plan!

Rae was fairly certain that she was standing outside the door to Izzie’s apartment, but she texted her just to be certain.

Rae: Hiya Izz! I think I’m here…please come outside so I know I’m not awkwardly standing outside some random person’s door xD

Izzie opened the door that lead to a small patio in front of Izzie’s actual apartment and Rae breathed a sigh of relief at finding her mate’s apartment without getting lost at all.

“Rae! How are you?” Izzie exclaimed as she pulled Rae into a tight hug.

“I’m pretty good. How are you?” Rae replied as she followed Izzie through the front door to her apartment.

“Good…excited for tonight, definitely!” Izzie said as she knelt down to open the puppy crates once Rae had shut the door behind her and began to remove her shoes.

“Jupiter…Panther…your favorite person came to visit you two!” Izzie called as her dogs hurried to free themselves.

Rae had her back turned as she took the snacks she had purchased out of her backpack and placed them on the table at one side of the room when she heard the distinct sound of yapping and felt Izzie’s two Chihuahuas leaping against her ankles to get Rae’s attention.

“Hello, my loves! Did you two miss me?” Rae cooed as she leaned forward to give each puppy the attention they were demanding from her.

When the dogs became distracted with fighting over a toy Izzie had thrown on the ground on the other side of the room, Rae walked further into Izzie’s apartment, placing her backpack into Izzie’s bedroom.

“So, Rae-Rae…I know there was talk of watching our favorite childhood movies and playing video games today, but we don’t have to only do that. We can watch other movies or anime or play board games or something, if you’d prefer.“

“It doesn’t matter to me, Izz, I’m up for doing whatever!”

“Okay, cool!”

“Hey, Rae!” Izzie’s older sister, Megan, who Izzie shared this apartment with said as she walked into the living room where Izzie and Rae sat on the couch as they were talking.

“Hi!” Rae replied as she beckoned the dogs that were licking at her now bare feet to leap up onto her lap, which they did without hesitation.

“I’m kind of hungry…are you hungry, Rae?”

“Maybe a little bit…” Rae said to Izzie who was now standing from the couch and making her way into the kitchen.

“Okay, cool. Do you like frozen pizza rolls? We have a huge bag and I can just throw some in the oven for us all to eat…”

“Uh, sure…that’s fine…”

Have I ever had frozen pizza rolls? No…I have not…well, there’s a first for everything, I guess.

“Great! I’ll get them started!”

Rae continued playing with the two dogs who seemed to be enjoying the attention they were getting from Rae, until Izzie let Rae know that the Pizza Rolls were done.

“Izz, can I be honest with you?” Izzie nodded and Rae continued, “I can honestly say that I have never had frozen pizza rolls before this…”

“Really? I feel like that’s almost all we eat anymore if we’re too lazy to cook or get food from anywhere…So, what do you think?”

“Uh, they’re okay…I don’t know that I would buy them to make for myself, but not too bad…”

The three girls stood in front of the counter in Izzie’s kitchen, eating the pizza rolls directly from the tray they had been baked on rather than dirtying plates for this small snack.

They moved their conversation back to the living room when they were done eating and continued chatting about how they had spent their Christmas and New Year’s Eves when after a while, Izzie’s sister stood from the couch where she had been sitting next to Rae and stretched her arms high into the air.

“Izzie, I want to take a shower before it gets too late…can you and Rae walk the puppies while I shower and get ready and then we can watch movies and hang out more afterwards?”

Izzie looked to Rae who shrugged and nodded, and Izzie agreed happily as she went to get the leashes to take the dogs on a walk.

Once the dogs were ready to go outside and Rae and Izzie had both put their shoes back on, they walked outside and Rae was surprised to see that it was already incredibly dark outside.

“There’s a park we take the dogs to right down the street,” Izzie said as she handed the leash for one of the dogs to Rae.

“Great, lead the way!”

When they arrived at the park Izzie had been referring to, she leaned down to unhook the leashes from each dog and they immediately took the chance to run a short distance away to a particularly grassy and well-lit area of the park.

“So…I have a bunch of stuff to update you on with the situation with Finn…”

“Ah, yes you do! I’ve been waiting eagerly to have this conversation for over a week now!”

Rae and Izzie continued walking idly around the park as they watched the dogs run around and play in the grass as Rae informed Izzie of everything related to the situation with Finn, including elaborating more on some of the things that had happened months ago but Rae was never able to tell Izzie about in-detail when Finn would sit by them on a daily basis at work.

“Damn Rae!” Izzie exclaimed once Rae had finished catching her up on everything that had happened in the last couple weeks in terms of the latest shift in dynamic between her and Finn.

“I know…it all seems so crazy, but I guess this is really happening so I think my only choice is to just roll with it and see what happens” Rae replied, still chuckling at Izzie’s response to what she had been told.

“And all of this was happening at work—sometimes when I was only a few feet away from you two—and I hardly picked up on any of this. How clueless am I?” Izzie asked with a shocked laugh.

“It’s hardly your fault…prior to the last week or two, Finn was generally pretty subtle about his flirting, except for the sniffing incident and a few other things that you were already aware of. But now? I don’t know…I feel almost like he’s just said ‘fuck it’ and decided that there was no use being coy with his flirting. Don’t get me wrong, I dig it, but I still don’t know if I should make a move or wait for him to make the first move, you know?”

Izzie had reattached the leashes to each of her dogs’ collars and she and Rae began walking side-by-side back to Izzie’s apartment.

“We’re back!” Izzie called to her sister as she and Rae walked through the front door of her apartment after letting the dogs off their leashes for them to run inside on their own.

“Okay, I’m just finishing up now,” called Megan from behind the closed door of her bedroom.

“So Rae, do you wanna watch a movie now? Or play video games? Or we could play a board game, if you’d like…” Izzie asked

“It’s up to you guys, I’m fine with doing whatever…”

“Oh, Izzie! I know what we can do! We can play LCR! It’s perfect because we finally have 3 people to play the game with…” Megan said as she came into the living room from her bedroom whilst towel drying her hair.

“What’s ‘LCR’?” Rae asked, but it did not seem like anyone heard her.

“Oh my god, yes! That’s perfect! We should totally play LCR!” Izzie replied, leaping from the couch and walking across the living room toward her bedroom.

“Hey…guys…what is ‘LCR’ and how do you play it?” Rae asked again, this time a bit louder to ensure that she would be heard.

“It’s a game of chance where you roll dice and bet money or something like that. Do you have any money to bet with?” Megan replied as she moved a small coffee table into the center of the room to serve as the table for them to play the game on.

“I don’t think I do…I think I only have my card with me today, sorry.”

“No problem! Hmm…what can we use instead…” Izzie replied as she returned to the living room with three labeled dice, setting them down on the small table.

“Alcohol!” Megan suddenly exclaimed.

“Really? You want to bet with alcohol?” Rae asked, slightly surprised to hear Izzie’s sister suggest that as Rae had never known Izzie to be a very frequent drinker.

“Yeah! We could make it into a drinking game and do shots of vodka instead of betting with money or whatever…” Megan said as she grabbed a nearly full bottle of vodka from the kitchen and set it down on the table alongside the labeled dice.

“Are you alright with possibly getting a little drunk tonight, Rae?”

“Izzie! Do you really even have to ask? I’m always fine with drinking and getting drunk, let’s just be honest here…” Rae replied with a casual chuckle as she continued scrolling through social media on her cell phone.

“Great!” Izzie and Megan replied with a laugh.

“So how is the game going to be played?” Rae asked as she set her phone to the side and grabbed the dice off the coffee table to examine them further.

“So basically, we each start off with three shots of vodka in front of us. We then take turns rolling these three dice and each of them have L, C, R written on each side which stands for Left, Right, and Center. And then we just do whatever the dice tell you to when you roll all three…it sounds a little confusing, but I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it, Rae!”

Rae was still utterly confused, but the idea of unwinding with Izzie and her sister and getting drunk was enough incentive for her to follow along to the best of her abilities until she figured out how the game was played.

“What kind of vodka do you have?” Rae asked as she returned the dice to their prior position on the table in front of her.

“Uh, regular? I guess…It’s not flavored or anything…do you want to try some before we get started to see if we want to use some other type of alcohol?” Megan replied as she held up the blue bottle of vodka for Rae to get a closer look at.

“Yeah, I’ll try some, I suppose. Thanks Megan!”

Izzie’s sister grabbed one of the shot glasses she had placed on the rectangular coffee table centered in front of the couch and poured it full of vodka before handing it to Rae with extreme caution not to let the vodka splash over the top of the decorative shot glass.

Megan proceeded to pour Izzie and herself a shot as well and Rae sniffed the vodka, trying to remind herself what to expect from drinking straight alcohol opposed to the wine and mixed drinks Rae had grown accustomed to more recently.

“Salud!” Rae declared as she lifted the shot into the air ceremonially—clinking glasses gently with Izzie and Megan—before bringing the glass to her lips and swallowing the entire shot in one go.

Rae winced slightly as the shot went down her throat, burning more than anticipated but not unbearably so. Looking around, Rae was amused to see that the other two girls were having much more difficulty with their own shots and they opted to sip their shots rather than drink it all at once.

“So…? Is vodka alright with you?” Megan asked while trying to gauge Rae’s response after having finally finished her own shot.

“Yeah…that’ll do just fine.” Rae said with a chuckle.

“Ugh, why is alcohol so nasty? Megan, do we have anything to drink with it? I forgot what it’s called…” Izzie asked as she struggled to remember the term she was looking for.

“A chaser,” Rae replied, immediately knowing what her mate was referring to.

“Yeah! Do we have any chasers?” Izzie added, giving Rae smile for helping to remind her of the word she was drawing a blank on.

Megan walked into the kitchen and perused their pantry and refrigerator, taking stock of what they had that could serve as potential chasers.

“Uhh…water…soda…pink lemonade?”

“I say pink lemonade, but you two can do something different if you’d like…” Izzie replied after considering her options.

Rae opted to use the lemonade as a chaser as well, although she was completely aware that she could drink the vodka without needing a chaser.

Megan brought the pink lemonade and three cups from the kitchen and poured half a glass for each of them before setting the container of pink lemonade on the ground beside her.

“I don’t have nine shot glasses for us each to have three, so I’m just gonna use a shot glass to measure shots into other cups, okay?“

Izzie and Megan began pouring and distributing the shots until there were three in front of each girl.

“Okay! Rae, since you’re the guest here, you can go first. Just roll all three dice and then we can help you figure out what you’ll have to do with your shots, if anything, alright?” Izzie said as she gave Rae a reassuring nod after noticing Rae looking at her with an eyebrow quirked up in uncertainty.

“Alright…here goes nothing…” Rae took all three dice into her hands and shook them around a bit before dropping them onto the coffee table and accepting the fate this game of chance bestowed upon her.

Wait…does this mean what I think it means…?

“Uhm, what do we do if you roll a dice and get the ‘C’?” Rae asked with hesitation evident in her voice.

“Normally you’d put your bet into the center of the table, but for our purposes, if you get a ‘C’ you have to take a shot,” Megan clarified.

“Why? What did you roll, Rae?” Izzie leaned over to get a better look at the dice on the coffee table in front of Rae and burst out laughing.

“Holy shit!” Megan add, having leaned over to see what Rae had rolled as well.

“No fucking way…” Rae said as she looked down at the three dice in front of her to see that each of them had landed on the C, which meant that Rae had to take all three of her shots before the next person could take their turn.

“Well, there’s not use prolonging the inevitable, ladies,” Rae shrugged and grabbed the first shot glass in front of her, lifting it in the air as she did the prior shot and announcing, “Salud!”

Izzie and Megan lifted their glasses of lemonade and called out “Salud” in response and Rae took her first of three shots.

“Blegh…okay, one down and two to go…Salud…and, salud!” Rae took her two shots almost back-to-back and followed with a generous sip of pink lemonade to ease the burning in her throat and rid her mouth of the unmistakable flavor of strong alcohol.

“And, I guess we’ll just go counterclockwise now, so Izzie, it’s your turn…” Megan said with a smirk, jumping at the opportunity to be the person rolling the dice last.

The three girls kept playing until Izzie won the game—having done the least shots by the time all the shot glasses had been emptied.

Rae had indubitably taken the most shots and she was not feeling the effects of the alcohol until she stood to grab the charger for her cell phone and very nearly lost her balance.

How many shots did I even have? 1…2, 3, 4…5…6…7…was there more? Oh…and then number 8, which was the final shot of the game that indicated that Izzie had won…

The vodka was catching up to Rae and despite having her contact lenses in still, her vision was blurred to the point that she would have guessed otherwise. Rae could not remember the last time she had drank that much alcohol in such a short period of time, but honestly, Rae felt…great.

As the other two girls gathered the collection of now empty shot glasses and cups, Rae settled into the couch where she was sitting and opened Snapchat on her phone.

Okay, Rae…you look really pretty today, so let’s take some selfies to document this rare occasion, yeah?

Hmmm…okay, that filter is cute, but what should I caption it..?

Rae added the simple caption of “Fun night with great people” to the selfie she had taken using the pink flower crown snapchat filter and posted it to her Snapchat story.

She was still taking selfies and trying to convince herself that she wasn’t that drunk—but she was—and that she didn’t look as drunk as she was feeling—but she did—when she heard Izzie rummaging around in the kitchen.

“Rae-Rae, if I make popcorn, will you eat it?”

Oh, I don’t like popcorn…

“I mean, yeah…maybe a little bit, but only if you’re already making it, Izz”

Izzie hummed in response and returned to the living room a few minutes later with a large glass bowl full of microwave popcorn. After handing the popcorn to Rae and taking a handful of the fresh popcorn from the bowl Rae had set down on her lap, Izzie grabbed the remote to put on something for them to watch.

“Do you want to watch a movie or anime?” Izzie asked as she turned on the TV that was mounted on the wall.

“Uh, yeah…that’s fine…” Rae replied distractedly while typing quickly on her cell phone, earning an eye roll from Izzie.

Rae stared straight ahead at the TV—not paying attention to what she was watching so much as just zoning out and being only vaguely aware that she was in fact watching something—while munching on popcorn in the bowl resting on her lap. She was not sure how long had passed, but Rae soon realized that she was alone in the living room and Izzie’s sister was calling Rae’s name from another room.

“Raaaeeee….Rae-Raaaeeee…yoo-hoo, where are youuu?” Megan drunkenly sing-songed.

“I’m in the living room…” Rae called in reply, her voice more slurred than she would have liked.

“Come and join meeee…I’m so lonely in here all by myself here in the kitchen,” Megan whined, her voice sounding even more slurred than Rae’s did as she dragged out most of the words she was saying.

Rae stood carefully from the couch and placed the bowl that had previously contained popcorn onto the coffee table before slowly walking into the kitchen to see Izzie’s sister laying on her side on the floor.

Megan used a hand to pat the kitchen floor behind her, inviting Rae to join her on the cold laminate floor. Rae shrugged and eased herself into a laying position on the floor behind Megan.

“Raeee…let’s take a snapchat videooooo!”

Megan opened up Snapchat on her phone and began recording.

“I’m soooooo drunk! Say hi, Raeeee!!”

“Hey girl, heeeyyy!”

“Yay for being drunk!”

“Woooo-hoooo!”

Rae and Megan remained laying on the floor in the kitchen until Megan quickly bolted forward, barely making it to the garbage bin near her before emptying the contents of her stomach along with the few shots of vodka she had drank.

“Ugh…I’m such a lightweight…” Megan said once she was confident that she would not get sick again as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and sat back down on the laminate floor of the kitchen.

“I’m just gonna get some water…” Rae stood up from the floor where she was sitting and grabbed a cup to fill with water.

Rae gulped down the entire glass of water and set it back down on the kitchen counter before her legs gave out from under her and Rae slid smoothly down to a seat position on the ground.

“He’s so handsome…” Rae said seemingly out of nowhere.

“Who is?” Megan asked, clearly confused by Rae’s sudden exclamation.

“And he’s so sweet and I love talking to him…and I just never know what to expect from this boy…but best of all, he likes me! Me…as in me, Rae, me!”

“Who’re you talking about, Raaaeee?”

“Oh! I know…I’ll show him to you!”

Rae crawled over to where she had left her phone when she was lying on the ground a short time ago and entered her password correctly on the third attempt as she crawled back to where she had been sitting on the kitchen floor with her back propped against the refrigerator.

Rae tapped the icon for the Instagram app and went to her recent search history and found the Instagram account she was looking for at the top.

“This is him! Isn’t he so nice to look at?” Rae turned her phone toward Megan so she could see what Finn looked like, but Megan was lying flat on her back on the kitchen floor with one arm blocking the light out of her eyes.

“Oh my! He posted this picture of him shirtless a couple days ago and you can see all his tattoos. I just wanna touch’em…like I have touched his tattoos before, but I wanna touch them even more…and here, he is on stage with his punk band when they were playing some shows back in December. Did you know he missed me while he was traveling with his band? ‘Cause he did and when he came back he told me so and it was so cute…holy fuck! Finn posted a picture of the cupcake I gave him and he used a bunch of heart-eye emojis in the caption where he also wrote ‘This girl certainly knows the way to my heart! Mondays aren’t so bad when there are sweet treats from a sweet girl to enjoy’…Why did I not look for him on Instagram sooner!?!”

Rae continued scrolling through Finn’s Instagram account and was surprised to see how many of the pictures were in some way linked to her or brought back memories of a conversation she had had with Finn at some point in the last three months.

When she had scrolled long enough that every post was over thirty weeks old, Rae’s stomach dropped at the sight of numerous pictures of Finn and his ex-girlfriend, Stacey.

Wait…THAT girl is his ex? She’s perfect! She’s thin and blonde and pretty and they look so cute together.

Why did they break up?

And who broke up with who?

She’s not THAT attractive…

…who the fuck am I kidding!?! She’s so adorable and tiny and cute and I fucking hate her even though I’ve never met her and they are fucking adorable together and…

She’s so cute! Why would Finn ever flirt with someone who looks like me when he had someone like her?!?!

Why did I think he could like me? And why did I let everyone trick me into thinking that he could like me when the truth is this obvious…he’s an 11 and I’m a 4 on a good day with the right lighting and angles…

He has to know how much his flirting has been stringing me along, right? These last three months have just been some sick joke that went too far and now I’m the punchline of the joke.

Why would Finn do this? Why would anyone do this? Why? Why? Why?

Rae had not realized this but as she continued to scroll through more pictures of Finn and Stacey going back to when they first began dating her breathing became uneven and she now found herself crying and hyperventilating as she kept scrolling.

Her breaking point was a picture of Finn and Stacey sitting beside a pool with her bikini-clad body nestled against the side of his body and she was kissing his cheek as he took the photo and Rae lunged forward as quickly as she could, throwing up in the trash as she still struggled to slow her tears and regulate her breathing.

The sudden wave of nausea having passed as quickly as it came over her, Rae rinsed her mouth with water from the sink and sunk back down to the floor with her head tilted back against the refrigerator and her phone out of arm’s reach.

“Are you two alright? I heard someone getting sick earlier and then just a bit ago…” Izzie said as she came into the kitchen from another room, and Rae realized for the first time in a while that she had no idea where Izzie had snuck off to while Megan and Rae sat in the kitchen.

“I threw up a while ago and Rae just got sick. I’m okay now, how are you Rae?”

“Good now as well…I don’t know what came over me…” Rae quickly realized that neither Izzie nor her sister were aware of the self-inflicted panic attack she had after getting too engrossed in stalking Finn’s Instagram, and she decided it best for them to assume that it was the alcohol that had made her sick and not her latest epiphany about Finn and how disgusted Rae knew he would be if he ever found out that she had thought that the two of them had potential as a couple.

Rae continued sitting on the floor of the kitchen in silence and the only thing that could be heard was the sound of Izzie’s conversation with a friend that she had called shortly after Izzie checked on her sister and Rae.

“I just love you so much! You’re so beautiful…no, I’m serious! You’re beautiful and perfect and I love you and I want you to always know that, okay?” Rae overheard Izzie saying too loudly into her cell phone.

“C’mon, Rae…let’s get to bed. I don’t know when Izzie will finish, but she can just join us when she is done on the phone…”

Megan helped pull Rae to her feet and Rae was initially surprised at how quickly Megan had seemed to sober up.

Well, I suppose it makes sense that you can sober up much faster after 3 shots and throwing up twice shortly afterwards…

Meanwhile I had almost triple the amount of alcohol she had, almost all the shots with very little time in-between, and the vodka had been rotting in my belly for much longer and that did not seem to change dramatically even after I got sick.

Rae followed Megan to her bedroom and slipped under the covers of the California King-size bed, falling asleep almost immediately.

***

Rae awoke a couple hours later with a massive headache, but her full bladder seemed to be a more pressing matter as she disentangled herself from the blankets and made her way into the bathroom attached to Megan’s bedroom.

When Rae walked out of the bathroom, she saw Megan sitting upright in her bed.

“Are you feeling okay, Rae?” Megan asked, her voice still thick with sleep as she rubbed her eyes slightly.

“Yeah, I just woke up and really had to pee…”

“Okay, come back to bed, then. It’s freezing cold outside of these blankets!” Megan said as she sunk back down under the pile of blankets on her spacious bed.

Rae walked back to the bed and climbed back under the covers as well before retrieving her cell phone from underneath one of the pillows she had slept on.

Wait a second…why can I see right now?

Ugh, fuck! I never took my contact lenses out last night!

Rae tried to ignore the discomfort she was feeling in her eyes long enough to check the time on her cellphone when she pressed the power button on the upper right side of her phone.

6:26 AM

Ugh, fucking hell…

“Hey, Megan are you awake and sober enough to drive me to my apartment?”

“Right now?” Megan said with a groan.

“Soon at least…my shift at work starts at 8 and I want to shower and try to sober up a bit more beforehand…”

“Yeah, I should be fine to give you a ride to your apartment now if you’d like, let me just put some shoes and warm clothes on…”

Megan pulled on a pair of sweatpants over her pajama bottoms and a thick coat and slipped on a pair of sneakers before grabbing her car keys and leading Rae in the direction of her car to give Rae a ride back to her own apartment.

“Thanks for the ride, Megan. Izzie works today, I think, so tell her that I’ll see her at work later, okay?” Rae said as she collected her backpack from the floor of Megan’s car.

“Will do! Good luck at work, Rae. I hope you had fun last night because I know that Izzie and I did!”

“Yeah, I had a lot of fun! We’re gonna have to do something like this again sometime. I’ll see you later, yeah?”

Rae waved goodbye to Megan after getting out of her car and hurried up the steps in front of her apartment as much as she could with the dizziness and headache that was beginning to set in as Rae realized exactly how hungover she was.

As soon as Rae was back in her bedroom, she removed her clothing that she had been wearing all day yesterday and that she had slept in—since when Izzie invited her over to hang out Rae had no way of knowing that she would end up getting drunk and spending the night at her apartment—and jumped into the shower with the water set to the coldest temperature that Rae could withstand.

When Rae was fairly certain that she had to get out of the shower if she intended to make it to work on time, she quickly turned off the water and dried her body and hair with a towel before padding barefoot into her bedroom and throwing on the nearest clean clothes that were in a pile on Rae’s bed.

Rae brushed her teeth as quickly and thoroughly as she could to remove the lingering taste of vodka in her mouth and took a moment to observe her appearance.

Rae had deep purple shadows beneath her eyes from lack of sleep over the past week. Rae had been so caught up with work, making plans with friends, and preparing for the new semester of Uni to begin the following week that she couldn’t recall the last time she had gotten a decent night’s sleep that wasn’t following an evening spent drinking—whether it be alone or with friends.

Her eyes were still irritated from sleeping with her contact lenses in, so Rae decided that it would be best to wear her glasses to work today to avoid causing her eyes any further discomfort.

Ugh, I hate wearing my glasses…it just reminds me of what it was like when I was younger and the time before Uni, which are a lot of memories that I do not wish to relive.

The thick, black frame of Rae’s glasses helped hide some of the shadows beneath her eyes, but she could still clearly see the exhaustion and pallid coloring that resulted from the night spent heavily drinking.

I am never going to drink again…

Rae sped out of her apartment and walked briskly to work, desperately hoping that she would not be late to work but having no way to check the time as she had left her cell phone charging in her apartment because she did not foresee needing it at work today.

To Rae’s relief, she walked through the doors to the office with a little more than five minutes before her shift began and she instantly perked up when she saw Rebecca sitting at a table in the break room, waiting until it was closer to the start of her own shift before entering the main part of the office.

“Rae! Good morning! You look incredibly tired…” Rebecca said as she waved Rae over to join her at the table where she was sitting.

“Hey, Rebecca! Tired, a little…but more than anything, I’m a bit hungover,” Rae replied sheepishly as she took a seat.

“Rachel Earl! How irresponsible…showing up to work hungover after a night of drinking and being a hooligan!”

“I know, I’m awful!” Rae replied with a chuckle.

“Did you see mine or Izzie’s snapchat stories?”

“Not yet…should I…?” Rebecca asked, already unlocking her phone to open up her snapchat app on her cell phone.

“Yes”

“I’m watching them now…oh my god…that’s amazing! Rae, you look so cute and drunk in all those pictures and videos!”

“Thank you, I think…I’m quickly realizing that I’m not so much a ‘drunk texter’ as I am a ‘drunk snapchatter’…there are like twenty different conversations from last night that I have no memory of initiating, so I’ll probably have to deal with that a little later, huh?”

“Yeah, probably. You didn’t do anything too crazy while drinking last night, did you?”

“That sort of depends on how you define ‘crazy’ I suppose,” Rae began but quickly became distracted by the concerned look on her friend’s face.

“Oh no! What did you do, Rae?” Rebecca asked seriously, although there was an edge to her voice that indicated she was more interested in hearing more than critical of Rae’s actions.

“Well, I ate an entire bowl of popcorn…and I hate popcorn,” Rae continued after laughing about this with Rebecca, “and I, uh…maybe…kind of, sort of…Instagram stalked what’s-his-face as you call him and ended up crying hysterically and having a panic attack on Izzie’s kitchen floor…”

“Aw, Rae! Why would you Instagram stalk him, especially when drunk? And was it something that you found while stalking that upset you?”

“I don’t really know, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but perhaps that was just the eight shots of vodka doing the thinking for me…”

“Wait, did you say eight shots of vodka? Like shot-shots or shot glasses full of vodka? Because you do realize that a shot glass filled to the top is more than one shot, so if you had eight shot glasses, it was probably closer to twelve or more actual shots!”

“Well fuck…”

“Rae!” Rebecca chastised halfheartedly before chuckling and motioning for Rae to proceed, “sorry about interrupting you like that, carry on with what you were saying before…”

“So yeah, drunk Sarah thought it’d be okay to stalk his Instagram and drunk Sarah stumbled across some pictures of what’s-his-face’s ex-girlfriend and the negative thoughts set in…”

“I’m sorry, Rae. Now that you’re less influenced by the alcohol, are you still really upset about it?”

“Not so much, especially not as bad as I was at the time last night…right now I’m just confused and so unsure about what to make of the situation.”

“Yeah, I can see how you’d feel that way. Just take your time thinking it all through and if you need anything from me along the way, just let me know, yeah?”

“I will and thanks, I appreciate that…Well we should probably head inside and get to work now…” Rae said as she slowly stood up from her chair with a slight groan.

“Yeah, you’re probably right…Good luck at work and I’ll be sure to come over and check on you when I can and you can come over and chat if you get the chance too, okay?”

“Sounds like a plan!” Rae replied as both girls scanned their badges at the machine on the wall and went their separate ways.

Rae took a seat between Archie and Hannah and began logging into her computer as a massive yawn took her by surprise and concluded in a groan when she was reminded of the headache that she had nearly forgotten about up until that point.

“Hiya Rae…from the sound of that yawn-turned-groan, your ‘fun night with great people’ may have been a bit too much fun knowing that you had work the first thing the next morning, huh?” Archie said with a cheeky smile when Rae continued logging into her computer.

“Good morning, Arch. So I take it that you saw my snapchat story last night…” Rae replied with a nervous chuckle.

“That’s a very astute observation. Yes, I did see your snapchat story…and Izzie’s snapchat story…and the various snapchat messages and selfies that you sent me from last night until early in the morning. What did you two girls do?”

“Wait…I sent you snapchats? I don’t even remember sending you anything! What did I send you?”

“A few selfies with different filters, a picture of a bowl of popcorn, a video of you eating said popcorn and watching something on TV…I think you were watching anime…Do you really not remember any of that?”

“Oi…I am so, so sorry about that Archie! I remember all of that, I just don’t remember sending any snapchats! To you or a number of other people, but my recent snapchat activity is telling a different story!”

“No need to worry, Rae, I took screenshots and saved everything you sent me so you can relive it all over again!”

“Ugh…” Rae groaned as she hung her head forward until she rested her face directly on the cold surface of her desk in front of her.

“Oh, don’t be like that, Rae! Do you want something for your head or some coffee or anything? Getting some food into your belly to soak up all the alcohol should help too…”

“I should be fine, I think…” Rae said without lifting her head from her desk, but Archie rolled his eyes and locked his computer before standing up from his desk and walking out to the break room.

When Archie returned a few minutes later, he placed a bottle of orange juice and a granola bar he had purchased from the vending machine on Rae’s desk and dropped a few tablets directly into one of her hands.

“For your head…I know this isn’t much of a breakfast, but you should still eat it…It’ll make your shift today a lot less miserable, I think.”

“Thank you, Archie. I really appreciate it!”

“It’s nothing really, Rae. But I must ask, what kind of shenanigans did you and Izzie get up to last night?”

“Well…she had invited me over for video games and movie night…which quickly turned into a dice game to be played with money, but we didn’t have money…we had alcohol. And I was either really good at the game or really bad at it, depending on what my end goal was!”

Archie and Hannah were laughing at Rae’s stories from the prior night and she joined in when she realized how quickly their innocent plans of children’s cartoons and video games had unfolded and led to her being at work at 8am with the third worst hangover of her life.

A couple hours later, Rae looked up to see Izzie scanning her badge at the machine on the wall and walking to take a seat at the desk behind Rae.

“Rae-Rae! I’m so glad to see you made it to work today. I woke up a bit before Megan came back from driving you to your apartment and I didn’t know where you two had disappeared off to at first.”

“Yup, I made it! And you sure do look well-rested and cleaned up well this morning…” Rae replied with a slight eye roll as she saw Izzie’s refreshed appearance in comparison to her own exhausted and tired self.

“Yeah, I had some time to take a shower and get ready after I cleaned up some of the mess behind from the popcorn and all the cups and shot glasses we used.”

Izzie got logged into her computer and they all continued working for a few hours as the radio in the background played an eclectic mix of music from the 80’s until today and Izzie and Rae recalled random details and memories of the previous evening that were slowly coming back to them and falling into place.

When is was Rae’s scheduled break time, she had barely locked her computer and turned away from computer screen in her desk chair when she noticed that Rebecca had the idea to come chat with Rae on her break as well.

“I was just about to go say ‘hi’!”

“It looks like I beat you to the punch then, I guess!” Rebecca quipped as she gave Rae’s shoulder a playful shove.

“Oh, you all will never believe what happened yesterday morning…” Rae said loudly enough for all of her coworkers that she had been chatting with thus far in her shift to hear her.

“What happened, girl?” Rae heard Finn ask and she immediately whipped around in her desk chair to see Finn walking toward the recently vacated desk beside Izzie and taking a seat in the chair without breaking eye contact with Rae.

“Oh, hiya Finn…”

“Well, don’t stop the conversation on my account, Rae…unless you don’t want me hearing it..? I didn’t mean to intrude on your conversation, honest!” Finn mumbled, suddenly trying to backtrack and apologize for interrupting the prior conversation.

“No, no worries, Finn. I just forgot what I was going to say and needed to remember it. So, uh, yesterday I went to the little café across the street…”

“Yeah, I saw you when you were standing outside the café, don’t you remember me telling you that?” Finn asked with a smirk.

Rae ignored the raised eyebrows she was receiving from a number of her friends and nodded before proceeding with what she was going to tell her coworkers.

“Well yeah, but when I was in the café…one of the baristas gave me coffee for free…and we were chatting a bit…”

“Oooh, look at you, Rae! Wooing the baristas and getting all kinds of freebies just by flirting a bit!” Peter exclaimed while giving Rae an exaggerated wink.

“Wow, Peter! That’s really mature…it probably wasn’t like that at all. The barista was just trying to be nice and earn some good karma by giving a repeat customer a free drink, right Rae?” Finn said as he turned towards her to confirm what he had said.

“Yeah, maybe…but then again, I’m pretty sure he was hitting on me…I’m not quite sure, because he’s always been a pretty nice guy…but he wrote a little note on my cup and he’s never done that before.”

“Aww! That’s so sweet of him to do, Rae!” one of Rae’s coworkers gushed, but Rae was too preoccupied with watching Finn sulk and turn around in his chair with a huff as he logged into his computer and got to work to determine who it was that was speaking.

“He also offered for me to skip the line whenever I go there if he is working, but I don’t know how to feel about all of that, you know? I just feel like if I let him be really friendly like this and he is flirting with me, it may be leading him on or taking advantage of him because I don’t see him like that, you know?”

Rae quickly glanced toward Finn and noticed that he had perked up slightly after overhearing what she had said and he was now turned slightly toward them in his chair, his interest in the conversation piqued again.

“Honestly, I’d just roll with it. Coffee is really expensive and lines for coffee can be so long, so it may not be the worst thing if this barista’s little crush on our Rae-Rae helps you get the occasional free coffee or a fast pass in the line. I’m not saying give him false hope, but just be nice and keep things platonic and see if he makes any attempts to change things while you are trying to determine what he is trying to get from the relationship…I don’t know though…That’s what I would do, but I don’t want to make any decisions for you, Rae” Rebecca said as she processed the entire situation and gave her input.

“No, I think that’s a good idea too and I appreciate getting another point of view on the topic,” Rae replied with a smile.

Rebecca’s break was nearly over so she waved goodbye to Rae and Izzie before returning to her side of the office building and taking her seat beside Andrew.

Rae turned around in her desk chair as well to get back to work when she noticed Finn clearing his throat behind her and she turned again to see why he was trying to get her attention.

“Oh, Rae! I just wanted to let you know that I think you look really pretty when you wear your glasses. I like how you look without glasses too, of course, but your glasses just kind of frame your eyes and make them look even more beautiful…so yeah…” Finn smiled nervously as he ran his left hand through the hair at the nape of his neck like he often did when he spoke to Rae.

It seemed to Rae like he had used every bit of confidence he possessed to tell her this, which Rae found incredibly endearing and she made no efforts to hide the blush and genuine smile that spread across her face upon hearing Finn’s compliment.

“Thanks, Finn. That really means a lot to me, especially coming from you.” Rae turned in her seat to face her computer and she could not contain the smirk that was spreading across her face when she saw Archie smiling and raising his eyebrows suggestively.

Ha! Stacey, who?

She’s his ex for a reason and she’s in the past…but am I his future?

@eveerez @tinakegg @hey1tskat1e @bitchesbecrazy89 @kneekeyta @milllott @protectfinnnelson @arathewallflower @jackiewalsh2013 @pink-royaute @i-dream-of-emus @lurkernolonger @bitchy-broken @nutinanutshell @mallyallyandra @borntosik​

A/N: Hellooooo! Only 2 more chapters to go before a critical point in this story line and a sorta small announcement I’m gonna make at the end of the week…Which is kind of exciting and kind of nerve wracking hahah...

I know that the dice-game-turned-drinking-game in this chapter could be a little confusing, so here is a link with some basic info and basically instead of the chips mentioned in the wiki page, my friend and I used shots of vodka…so basically: L (pass a shot to the left), R (pass a shot to the right), C (take a shot), and any other sides you don’t do anything and we just kept taking turns until all the vodka was gone. Much like Rae, I was either really good or really bad at this game, depending on what the end goal was hahaha 😅