#Like not actually that bothered by this dog blowing up my vehicle

[serpentface]

Extremely quick and dirty speedpaint of a dream I had last night

[wefoundloveunderthelight]

Waterfall Memories by GleefullyCaptainSwan

Chapter 2/9

Read on AO3: | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2

Or on FF

Stacy's Tortured Crew: @teamhook @kmomof4 @stahlop @lfh1226-linda @ilovemesomekillianjones @itsfabianadocarmo @mariakov81 @qualitycoffeethings @zaharadessert @jrob64 @jonesfandomfanatic @natascha-ronin @tiganasummertree @xarandomdreamx @therooksshiningknight @batana54 @superchocovian @onceratheart18 @ultraluckycatnd @snowbellewells @karlyfr13s @the-darkdragonfly

Chapters titles are based on the lyrics from “Stubborn Love” by The Lumineers

Chapter 2: Than Nothing at All

Killian reached for the loaf of bread on the shelf in front of him. Gathering each of the items on his list without much fanfare. He kept to himself mostly, not bringing any unwanted attention his direction. He smiled at the cashier, handing over the cash for the groceries and tipping his hat before heading to the exit.

“See you in a few months, Rogers.” The woman smiled as he opened the door.

He nodded silently and shut the door behind him. Trekking through the town streets, he kept his eyes to the ground, avoiding eye contact with anyone who passed by him. Killian had no intention of befriending anyone in the town he visited every few months to pick up supplies before heading back to his home, hidden away in the lush forest.

He had his own garden, a well for water, and he had gotten used to living without electricity in his time spent at his cabin he built with his own hands. Only the items he couldn’t grow on his own required him to drive into the small town, purchase his necessities, and get back to his haven of solidarity before sundown.

He hadn’t always lived this way, yet he welcomed it now more than anything. His interactions were limited to the people he was forced to speak to in town during these visits. Killian was sure he wouldn’t have a single idea how to hold a conversation anymore.

There were days when he didn’t even hear his own voice, let alone use it to form a real sentence. Except for the times that he sought advice from himself or his dog, Jolly. In those cases, he found himself mumbling, sometimes he would answer for himself or the mutt and other times he would simply laugh for bothering to ask questions out loud in the first place.

He tossed the bags into the back of his truck, slamming the tailgate shut behind him. Climbing into the seat he pushed the key into the ignition but was stopped by a hand slipping into view of his open window.

“Afternoon, Rogers.”

Killian nodded to the man, “Sheriff.”

The man looked into the back of the truck, before turning back to face him. “Supply run?”

“Yes, sir.” He answered quietly.

“Bad weather headed this way.” The man pointed to the sky. “Looks like we might get some heavy rains, saying winter might be coming early.”

“Good thing I grabbed my supplies today then.” He said with a nod, turning the key in the ignition. The man kept his hand firmly attached to the vehicle.

“Yes, yes, good thing. Wouldn’t want you finding any trouble, Jones.”

Killian swallowed hard. “It’s my intention to stay out of trouble, sir.”

“See to it that you do.” The man patted his truck and walked back toward the sidewalk, turning to offer a simple wave as he pulled out of his parking spot. Killian was aware that the Sheriff knew of his past and who he actually was. The man kept a close eye on him when he visited town. Always making sure that Killian stuck to his routine and left as soon as he was done. He tried not to take offense, he supposed if the roles were reversed he would feel the same.

And Killian wasn’t looking for trouble. He’d had enough trouble for one lifetime, and he was determined to live out the rest of his life in peace.

Alone.

Killian drove down the dirt road leading into the forest. The breeze was picking up, blowing leaves across the windshield of his truck. A storm was brewing, and he would need to prepare the cabin and board up the windows. He parked the truck next to the small cabin, gathering handfuls of supplies from the back of the truck to carry into the house.

The door blew open, slamming into the side of the wall with the force of the wind. Jolly skipped toward him, panting, and howling at his feet. He set a few of the bags down, pushing the door shut with a slam, causing the frame sitting on the wooden table to fall to the floor with a crash. He sighed, scooping up the frame, slicing his finger on a shard of glass connected to it. He flinched at the pain, sucking his thumb into his mouth. Walking into the kitchen he sat the photo on the table, running water from the sink onto the wound. He grabbed one of the towels next to the sink, wrapping it around his hand.

When the bleeding stopped, he tossed the towel into the bin and sat down at the table, his eyes drifting over the photo lying on its side. His fingers absentmindedly grazed the faces that lay within the frame.

Being alone with his thoughts, his memories, were both a blessing and a curse. There were nights where he punished himself going through his past. Dredging up pieces of his life, remembering things that many nights he wished to forget, to burn from his brain. In the beginning, he spent his nights drinking, crying into his bottle of rum, wishing for things that he could never possibly have. But that was years ago, and he had long given up childish hopes and dreams.

He stood from his seat, taking the frame, and setting it into a drawer in the cabinet. Walking to the back door of the cabin, he grabbed the pole next to the door. With the storm approaching he only had a few more hours to get anything done before he would be holed up inside for a few days. He was in the mood for fish tonight, and if he wanted that, he needed to get a move on before the dark skies began spitting in his direction.

He trudged through the knee-high grass toward the small stream that produced the best catch. Tossing his line out into the water, he sat on the bank and raked a hand through his hair while he watched the line float out to the middle of the water, large circles rippling across the top of the pool as the rain began to fall.

Large drops began falling on his face, dripping down his cheek as the line sat still in the water in front of him. He sighed, watching the line dip into the dark waters. He reeled the line back in, casting it back into the center of the stream. Jolly stirred beside him, his nose sniffing the air.

Seems the fish weren’t biting tonight. He reeled the line back in slowly, watching the water ripple through the waves. When the line returned to him empty, he secured the line and stood up from his spot on the bank. As he prepared to leave, something caught his attention from the corner of his peripheral vision. Something bright caught on the edge of the bank near the rocks. He walked further down the embankment, trying to make out the shape of the object. Suddenly Jolly’s senses set him off as he ran down the side of the shore barking loudly.

As he neared the bright mass bobbing in the water, he noticed blonde locks swishing against the rocks. It was a person. Bloody hell. He waded into the water, feeling the frigid liquid stinging his thighs. He reached out, grabbing ahold of the black material wrapped around the woman’s mostly naked body. Blonde hair was wrapped tightly around her face, dirt and twigs mangled in her golden locks. He reached for her wrist, there was a slight pulse. The woman was alive.

Bloody hell.

He looked around. “Hello?” He yelled up stream. He had no idea where this woman could have come from, there was nothing around him for miles.

He put his hands on his hips, staring at the woman, contemplating his options. This was a complication he didn’t need in his life. If he brought a naked woman to town, half dead, wrapped in lacey garbage, they would throw him in jail and toss away the key. But if he left her here, she would most assuredly die. Looking down at Jolly, he groaned. “What do we do with her, boy?” The dog responded with a loud bark.

Shit.

He couldn’t exactly leave the woman out here to die, could he?

The rain was coming down in sheets, bouncing off her milky white skin as the pieces of black lace that were still attached to her body swirled around her.

Dammit.

Bending over he hoisted her over his shoulder, wading through the water until he reached the grass on his side of the stream. He lay her body on the ground, averting his eyes from her naked form. Regardless of the state of the lass, it was inappropriate for him to stare. Discarding his jacket from his body, he draped it over the blondes near naked form. Scooping her into his arms, he headed off in the direction of his cabin.

The woman’s skin was freezing to the touch, he was sure she had been in the water for hours. He had no idea how a woman would be in the woods, wearing what she was wearing, unless something was afoul. Thoughts of a killer or rapist lurking in his neck of the woods was frightening and problematic for him. With his history, he would be the first to blame if something evil happened near the small town he visited for supplies. The Sheriff was aware of his previous incarceration, he was a felon after all, and he knew that the Sheriff would always see him that way. He had seen the look of shame and disgust in the man’s eyes the first time he was summoned to his office after arriving in his town.

Six years ago

“Have a seat.” The Sheriff glared from his side of the desk.

“Is there a problem, sir? I was just stopping in for some bread and milk.” Killian tentatively took the seat across from the brooding man.

“Well, the problem isn’t why you’re here, it’s you being here at all.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I understand.”

“We don’t get a lot of strangers in this town. I ran your plates the moment you crossed into our little haven.” He picked up a sheet of paper in front of him. “Killian Jones, 5 years’ incarceration for larceny, trafficking, and murder.” He let the paper fall to the desk in front of him. “We’re a quiet town, full of good people who just want to go about their business. We don’t get men like you in our parts.”

“I did my time, paid my dues. I’m not here to cause any trouble. I just need some supplies and I’ll be on my way.”

“Just where are you staying, son?”

“I have some land, about 30 miles from here. Off grid. Mostly self-sustaining. Just need to purchase a few things now and then. I won’t be no trouble, sir.”

“See to it that you aren’t. Might not want to mention your name around here. Don’t want my town in a panic.”

“Yes, sir. I’m not here to make friends.”

“Good. See to it that you don’t stay long. I’ll be watching you.” The man rose from his desk, gesturing for Killian to leave which he was happy to do. He had expected to be treated as such, but it still stung feeling the man glare in his direction as he headed to his car.

Killian pushed the handle of the door and kicked his boot against the wood to shuffle into the cabin with the woman in his arms. Carrying her to the couch, he dropped her onto the sofa, rustling through the items in the room until he had an armful of blankets that he draped over her body to try and add some warmth to the woman.

Tossing a few logs into his fire, the room heated with a blaze as the flames broke the silence in the room with a crackle.

Looking back at the couch, he ran his hands through his hair in frustration. He had nothing to dress the woman in that would fit her. He couldn’t exactly leave her naked on his sofa. Walking back over to her, he slid his hand under the covers, her skin still felt like ice. He was pacing over the same planks of his living room, over and over. Stopping in place, he tore at the buttons of his flannel shirt, pulling it off his shoulders and tossing it to the ground.

This is ridiculous, he thought. He’d watched too many movies in the past. But she needed to get warm, and quickly. He undid the button on his pants, letting them drop to the floor beneath him and cautiously approaching the woman lying still in his home. Lifting the covers, he slid in beside the woman. “I’m not gonna hurt you, Lass.” He said out loud, feeling utterly ridiculous talking to a woman who was clearly not awake to hear a word he said.

He pulled the woman on top of him, sliding her icy skin to rest against his warm body. Staring at the ceiling he laughed at himself. “First time you get a naked woman in your arms in years, and she’s passed out cold. Figures.” The woman’s head rested on his chest and he pinched the covers around their body, wrapping his legs around her lower half, hoping to transfer as much warmth as he could. He slid his arms around the woman’s upper half, resting his hands against her back and rubbing them in slow circles. It was an oddly sensual gesture, if not for the clinical nature of the entire reason he had this woman in his arms in the first place.

He could feel her heartbeat slowly against his chest, a good sign he assumed. Once she was warmer, he would need to dress her and examine her for injury. The sooner he got her up and out of his home the better. Hopefully when she woke up she could tell him where to drop her and he could be done with this mess.

He pushed the woman’s hair out of her face, she would need a bath and a brush through her tangled mess of hair, but looking at her face, he could see that she was quite beautiful. Whoever she was, someone must be missing her. He closed his eyes, feeling the weight of her body pressed against his chest, his hands languidly roaming her back and he cursed himself for letting his thoughts drift.

Killian, my love.

He woke with a start, the fire dwindling in the stone hearth. Grumbling to himself he moved quickly to remove himself from the woman still lying motionless on top of him. Pressing his hand to his boxers to try and control his hardened erection.

“Dammit.” He cursed, looking down at the woman and reaching for his clothes to redress himself. He tucked the blankets around her and searched his bedroom for clothing he could dress the woman in. He didn’t exactly want her waking up in barely a stitch of clothing and thinking he took advantage of her. He found a pair of sweats and sniffed one of his flannels to ensure it was clean and took to task at dressing the woman. He took his time, examining her for cuts, bruises, breaks, or anything that seemed out of the ordinary that he would need to attend to. He bandaged the scrapes at her knees, wrapped her right hand, and secured her left arm in a strap to keep her from moving it. He couldn’t tell but it was possible her leg was broken or dislocated. He would need to deal with that once she was awake.

Honestly, getting a woman out of her clothes had come easy to him in the past, but dressing a woman who was practically comatose, and limp was proving to be a challenge. When he finally finished the task at hand, he lifted the woman up and carried her to his bedroom. He had a small wood stove in the corner of the bedroom, and it would be easier to keep her warm in the tiny space.

Once she was settled into his bed, he fished a brush from his tiny bathroom and sat down next to her on the bed. He tugged the few twigs from her hair, lightly running the bristles through her locks to get out the knots. When she could care for herself she would want a full bath to wash away the dirt, but the least he could do was make her presentable.

Presentable for what, you fool?

Killian shook the thoughts from his head and laughed. “Well, boy, I guess we’re on the couch tonight.” The dog jumped up on the bed and circled his spot, snuggling his snout into the woman’s side and relaxing against her. “Traitor.” He snorted. “I guess that will keep her warm.” He walked out of the room, pulling the door shut until there was just a crack left and headed to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

He sat at his table, staring down at the plate in front of him. He had really wanted fish tonight and instead he was eating peanut butter and jelly. The disappointment was greatly impounded by the fact that instead of fish, he found a bloody woman. He tried to ignore the anxiety bubbling inside of him, the worry about where the woman came from, how she ended up in the stream wearing hardly any clothing, who might be looking for her, and how quickly he could get her the hell out of his life.

He wasn’t used to dealing with people, much less the opposite sex. The last woman he had interacted with was that bitch of a prosecuting attorney, Regina Mills. The woman who stared at him like he was trash under her feet. She was almost gleeful when asking him questions on the stand, not even flinching when she held up poster size photos of Milah and Alice, their mangled bodies littered on the glossy paper for all to see. He had gulped down the tears that she accused him of faking, yelling in his face when he wouldn’t answer her questions about Neal fast enough. She was going to put him away for life. She bragged about it on the news every night.

He remembered her anger when the deal had been made, Killian would only serve five years for turning over states evidence and cooperating in the upcoming trial of Mr. Gold, the crime boss who reeked terror through Boston for the past 8 years. He swore he saw smoke coming from her ears when he walked out of the room after putting signature to paper.

He finished his sandwich, cleaning his plate in the sink and putting it away before leaning against the counter and crossing his arms. He looked down at the drawer beside him, sliding it open with his finger and reaching in to pull out the frame. Smiles on the faces glared up at him. The memory of the happy day floating in his brain.

13 years ago

“Push me higher daddy.” The young girl squealed.

“If you go any higher Alice, you will fly away from here.” He pushed the small of the girls back, sending her upwards on the swing.

“I’d never fly away from you.”

He smiled and grabbed the swing and the small girl in his arms, pulling her toward him and snuggling into her neck. “I should hope not, my love.” The girl giggled and squirmed in his arms.

“Hey, can I get in on any of this?”

Killian smiled at his wife as she approached them. “What do you say Alice, does mommy need a hug?”

“Alice sandwich.” The girl screamed.

Killian scooped her out of the swing and the girl wrapped her arms around his neck. “Milah love, I believe our girl wants an Alice Sandwich.” The woman pressed against him, her arms attaching to his waist and a soft kiss set upon his cheek.

Killian placed the frame back into the drawer and slammed it closed. He hadn’t had these thoughts in years. He didn’t want them. Blowing out the candles in the kitchen he wandered through the house, peeking into the bedroom. Jolly lifted his head and then whimpered before lying back down. He stepped quietly into the room, feeling the woman’s hand, she was warmer now. Her pulse was stronger.

“Come now Lass, it’s time to wake up and go home.” He said softly, but there was no movement, no recognition, she simply exhaled slowly, as if she were lost in a peaceful dream. Sighing he let loose of the woman’s hand, patted his dog on the head and wandered from the room. Dropping down onto the couch, he slipped his shoes off and hunkered under the blanket. Tomorrow he hoped the woman would wake and leave him to his solace again. Having a woman in his home was dangerous, not only for his freedom, but for his mental health. He didn’t need to be having thoughts of a life that was no longer his, he didn’t deserve memories of hope or love.

Killian Jones was a villain and villains didn’t get a happy ending.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TTD for 10x21: Splintered

First of all, they talked about Leah A LOT in TTD. One of the Property Brothers, Drew, was on as a guest, and even he kept mentioning her. Which tells me he was coached because other than one question Chris asked, why else would he? They didn’t confirm she was a hallucination or anything, but they did confirm it was Leah’s knife and that Daryl giving it to Carol was meant to be him letting go of Leah.

So even if we turn out to be wrong about the hallucination (doubtful) people don’t have to worry about a continuing romance between them. From a hallucination standpoint, you could say he’s letting go of the hallucination, and in this episode, I truly do think we see sequences that foreshadow him find Beth, so…

Okay, so they didn’t say how long it would be, but apparently ep 22 is “extended” so it will be a longer than usual episode. I noticed a black and white chess set behind Cooper. And of course, he’s at his home, but I couldn’t help but wonder if that was intentional. They also said that of the 6 bonus episodes, they filmed this one first. I’m not sure why or if we should be reading into that, but it’s kind of interesting.

About the pirate book? They say in the Behind the Dead stuff that it’s important because when Daryl and Carol first talked about leaving in 10x01, she wanted him to come on the boat with him and they could be pirates. So talk about leaving on the bike, which we know they’ll do in the spinoff, and pirates, are all synonymous. Not that I needed it, but that’s just proof to me that this foreshadows those future storylines, especially for how/when they’ll find Beth.

So, the things they talked about and emphasized are all things I’m reading into as TD clues.

They talked a lot about why Dog went with Carol rather than Daryl. At first, I think Chris asked Melissa this. I didn’t take away tons from what MMB said. She talked about how, in 10x18, Carol was spoiling Dog and giving him food, so that may have been why. But also that maybe Carol just needed the company, and Daryl needed some alone time. And dogs are very intuitive about that sort of thing. Then Drew (Property Brother—I had to go look up is name so I wasn’t objectifying him ;D) said he felt like it was the last straw of betrayal for Daryl. Like, everyone in your life had either abandoned or betrayed you, and to add insult to injury, even your dog leaves you.

Now, that’s a weird thing to say about THIS episode. Because here, they make light of it. Daryl says “nice” and then at the end, he goes back and Dog is happy to see him, and everything is okay. So it’s weird for sometime to suggest that based on this episode, Daryl felt like Dog betrayed him, except in a salty, roll-his-eyes sort of way. So that tells me this foreshadows a time when Daryl truly will feel betrayed by everyone and totally alone.

But then, later in the episode, Cooper randomly chimed in about this again. He just went, “oh, you know that thing we were talking about earlier? I have some thoughts.” So it wasn’t something he was asked, but rather something he really wanted people to know.

He basically said that, as far as why Dog went with Carol, we could also ask why Dog went with Daryl when Daryl first met him as a pup. Why did he go with Daryl over Leah so often? And the answer (which is clearly symbolic/thematic) is that Daryl needed him Dog at the time. Here, Carol needs him.

Then Cooper even goes so far as to say the same thing is true of the knife. Daryl kept the knife and had the knife for a long time, because, emotionally, he needed to hang onto it. He doesn’t anymore. But Carol is in a dark place now and she needs it.

It made me think also of Beth and Daryl’s interactions in S4. You could argue that, not from a literal, plot standpoint, but from an emotional/thematic standpoint, Daryl needed her. So the writers put her with Daryl. Of course that’s not the only reason, but Daryl was in such an emotionally distraught place, that he needed Beth to pull him out of it.

So, how do we interpret that? Here’s what I’m thinking. I’ve said before that once Daryl and Carol split up (in the future when they leave together on the bike) Carol will get a reunion with Beth first, right? So I’m wondering if we’ll hit a point where Beth will want to go find Daryl, but she’ll choose to stay with Carol for a short time, because she can see Carol is in such a dark place and needs her. More on this later and some minor things in my timeline that I’m rethinking. Because I think symbolism in the episode supports it.

When they did the “in memoriam,” Chris all of sudden said, “but not the rat! He made it out of there!” *coughs Beth*

They randomly started talking about demolition because of Drew Property Brother. He joked that he wanted to put Carol on his demolition crew because of what she did to the wall. But then (again very random mention) he says that she really ought to go to Leah’s cabin and do work there, because it clearly needed more work than the kitchen did. So, I’m taking that to be their way of showing that both the wall and Leah’s cabin represent the same thing. And we’ve called both of them tombs.

About the stone soup story? Cooper said it represents all the little things Carol has done to keep people alive, when she thought she was doing the right thing. So the person getting all the ingredients eventually results in soup, which is food, which people need to live. And they’ve been talking about not having enough food right now in the show. But then Jerry says, “it doesn’t sound very tasty.” And that’s because all the little things she’s done—like blowing up the cave, letting Negan out, etc—were necessary to defeat the Whisperers and keep everyone alive, but of course it seemed really destructive at the time. So, that’s why Jerry says it doesn’t taste good. Whether the soup tastes good or not, it’s necessary to keep everyone alive.

They also talk about how Daryl isn’t seeing it this way yet. He’s not seeing that some of these things may have been necessary in the long run, even if they sucked at the time.

This is kind of minor, but several of them brought up the idea of Carol using the rat to make soup. I didn’t think of that, but given that she’s wanting for ingredients, it only make sense that she would try to use the rat, but they didn’t do that at all. And the director didn’t really say anything about it. He just kind of laughed and went, “haha, um, no, she didn’t.” And I had to chuckle at that because it really would have been the logical thing for her to. If they didn’t do that, it’s purely for the symbolism of it. We can’t have Carol putting Beth in a pot of soup, now can we? ;D

Back to Leah. When they confirmed it wasn’t her knife, they said it was significant how it passed along the chain (from Leah to Daryl to Carol) and that at the end, Daryl is willing to give it up and let Leah have it. They didn’t say how or why it was significant, just that it was. So yeah. Side-eying that.

Again, the director said Carol probably took the knife as Daryl giving her a peace offering after their fight, but symbolically it represents him letting go of Leah. Melissa also said Daryl and Carol are mirroring each other a lot here.

Another interesting thing they talked about is that Daryl realizes he needs the thing he gave Carol. While obviously this symbolically represents Beth, I’m very curious to see what it is in a more literal sense in the plot when this plays out later. But the point is, he gave Carol the knife, and then he needed it and didn’t have it. And that’s kind of what drove him to the cars and the traintracks and to find the military walkers (CRM). So it’s very interesting from a symbolic/foreshadowing standpoint.

One thing we haven’t discussed is that Daryl falls into a dry riverbed. There’s even a small bridge and a round, water tunnel (like we used to see in the opening credits) behind him. And the director said one thing about it that I thought was weird. Chris was asking him if he ever gets squeamish after being on TWD so long and if walker kills ever bother him. And he said he thought Daryl killing the walker in the ditch was one of the most brutal kills they’d ever done on the show.

Umm? I have to say I disagree. I guess I need to rewatch it. I think he stabs it in the head, but other than the obvious, it didn’t seem particularly gnarly to me. I could name 10 other kills off the top of my head that were way grosser. (Terminus, anyone? Daryl with pipe?) But I wonder if he’s hinting at something symbolic here.

Here’s an interesting thing we’ll probably analyze for a while. They said Carol taking the red bucket out to get ingredients for the soup (and bringing ingredients back in it) is a callback to season 1 when Amy brought fish back to the camp in the same red bucket. Yikes, we could go down a rabbit hole with that!

Both represent bringing food back/feeding everyone/keeping them alive. And as we already discussed, Carol does things to keep the group alive, even if they don’t “taste good.” But I wonder if we could apply that to every instance of the red we’ve seen. I mean, I know we’ve discussed the idea that what happened with Beth in Coda “had to happen” in some way. (It went the way it had to, etc.) I don’t know. But that’s definitely an interesting callback they gave us. Plus the fish symbolism, etc.

Okay, then Drew talked about the army walkers again. He said there were two of them and they were all decked out in their fatigues and Daryl actually finds a lot of supplies on them, but we didn’t see any army vehicles. So Drew said he wondered fi there was some place in the vicinity that we don’t know about yet.

And when he said that, the director, David Boyd, gave him a thumbs up. So they’re definitely confirming and hinting at future storylines here. They also confirmed (inside the dead) that Leah has a military past. So, to be fair, we don’t know if this “unknown place in the vicinity” is still standing. These guys could have come from the same place Leah did, and based on her story and the fact that they’re walkers, it might not be a thing anymore. But then again, it might.

They did talk about the Daryl under the car scene, but they didn’t say much about it. It was like they wanted to draw our attention to it, but couldn’t actually say much. They mostly talked about how the car was on pulleys and it was very safe, with no real chance of Norman getting hurt. But that was pretty much it. I mean, Glenn crawled under the dumpster to live, so maybe Beth crawled under the car? I don’t know. I’m sure that scene is super important, but I haven’t decided what I think about it yet.

They had a SUPER random callback to Lizzie, of all things, and I have no idea why, other than that this was a Carol-heavy episode. They asked Cooper what a Jerry, Nabila, and Kids spinoff would look like. Cooper said it would be a “3-wall comedy” and then started talking about how the kids would want to keep the walkers as pets. And then everyone started going, “don’t name them! Whatever you do, don’t name them!” So, they didn’t actually mention Lizzie by name, but clearly…

Um, and then we got the sneak peek of Here’s Negan. We see him digging in a field outside the walls and he finds Lucille. Then the flashback to 12 years ago starts, and he’s clearly run afoul of some kind of biker gang, but that’s all we get in the peek.

Notice the viper/snake reference on his jacket.

 That’s it for TTD.

Thoughts?

[meganshinsou-tm]

Crimson|Ink. (m)

↳ chapter thirteen: wounded

❧ genre:  tattoo-shop/hitmen au | tattoo artist/hitman kirishima

❧ fic warning: major character(s) death; happy ending

❧ chapter warnings: minor panic/anxiety attack

❧ chapter song: Wounded by Good Charlotte

♬crimson|ink playlist | ♧ character profiles

[multi-chap masterlist] [previous chapter - next chapter]

Hot and suffocating. 

That’s all Kirishima felt at the moment, his blood peaked boiling temperatures and the air around him became thick. Unwanted images wouldn’t stop playing on a endless loop in his head as he chugged down another glass of whiskey and hummed upon feeling it burn down his gullet. 

Kirishima was starting to sweat and he let out a breath, bringing the back of his hand up to wipe his brow and look around. You weren’t there anymore, just a minute ago you were hauled out of the club over Bakugou’s shoulder and now Kirishima had no reason to stay. His fun and happiness was gone – you were gone.

Groaning, Kirishima kicked his bar-stool out from under him and he stood up to stomp from the bar, grabbing his jacket and heading for the door. Sero who was at the other end turned his head at the commotion and frowned. He gave Shouto a look and squeezed his shoulder before ending their small talk and following his friend outside.

The club door slammed open and Kirishima stalked out of it, mumbling to himself about how idiotic he was and how he was going to beat Bakugou within an inch of his life the next day. His hands reached into the back pocket of his jeans to fish out his truck keys when he suddenly heard that sound. 

The blood pumping organ in his chest started to flip and he looked up, red eyes scanning the area until he found the source of that sweet and beautiful laugh that he’d recognize anywhere. When Kirishima had found you, he sighed and narrowed his eyes, clutching the keys tighter in his fist and feeling his heart plunging straight into his stomach.

Bakugou had you seated in the passenger side of his SUV, turned and facing him as he attacked your neck and jaw with playful kisses and bites, his fingers squeezing and fluttering on your sides and making laughter fall from your lips. That stupid smile formed on your face before the blonde surfaced and claimed it with his own vile mouth in a rough kiss.

‘That’s mine’, Kirishima thought while he watched and bared his teeth.

That smile. That laugh. That mouth. You. It was all his … or it was supposed to be his. 

Kirishima took a deep breath and went to walk towards you and Bakugou until he was being pulled back by the elbow. He grunted and turned his head to look and find that Sero had his elbow wrapped in tape, a grin on his face as he tugged at Kirishima and started to drag him away in the opposite direction.

“The fuck, Sero?”

“We’re going for a walk Red, chill out.”

Kirishima rolled his eyes and pulled his arm back. “Can you at least let go of me so I can actually walk then?”

Sero chuckled and released his friend. Kirishima looked back once more to see Bakugou walk over to his side of the vehicle and get in before he turned back forward and walked alongside the raven haired man. Kiri shoved his hands into his jacket pockets with a sigh and looked at the concrete below him.

“So what the hell did you say to make her go home with Blasty and not you?” Sero questioned and pulled his beanie down over the tips of his ears.

Kirishima shrugged, shaking his head.

“Nothing at all.”

Sero quirked a brow and looked at the red-head from the side. “Obviously not.”

“Look, I made this dumb joke about how it was odd that fuckhead back there wasn’t trying to cock block me when he acts like she’s already his territory or something. She got pissed about it, saying she doesn’t belong to anyone and why the fuck did it matter to me that she got attention from others. She asked if I had something to tell her - like she knew something but I just froze and I didn’t say anything. I think that’s what did it more than anything.”

There was a small pause before Sero began to laugh. Kirishima watched his friend shake his head, the action only seemed to make him angrier.

“The fuck is so funny?”

“Do you not think before you talk, dude? Of course that made her angry. You act as if you want her one second and then completely blow her off or bring up Bakugou the next. You not saying anything was probably just icing on the ‘pissed-off’ cake. She really did give you an open invitation to tell her all that shit you’ve been feeling, that she knows you’re feeling, and you fucking blew it. Think about it, man. How would you feel if the roles were reversed? If she had been tugging you along the entire time while you knew she had feelings but didn’t wanna fess up, but you also had someone who is treating you well right there? You’d be pissed off and going after Katsuki too. You can’t be pissed at her for that, Ei.”

Kirishima blinked and stopped walking. Quirking a brow and looking at Sero with his red eyes narrowed and a growl forming in his throat. 

“What do you mean she knows?”

Sero raised his own brows and chuckled nervously before looking away and whistling into the cold air. Trying to pick up his pace a little more. The red-head started walking again, faster, to catch up with Sero. He was fuming from the ears and roughly grabbed him.

“What the fuck did you tell her huh?” Kirishima barked, putting his friend in a choke-hold.

Laughing and trying to fight the massive man off, Sero struggled to get his reply out.

“Dude, it’s painfully obvious, to not only everyone else but also her, what your true feelings are! She’s not dumb you idiot! (Y/N) figured it out on her own by asking the right questions alright?”

Sero finally found an opening and roughly elbowed Kirishima, making him release and let go of him. After straightening his clothes, Sero playfully pushed his friend and shook his head.

“Hitoshi explained it perfectly! He said you’re both like these two elementary school kids and instead of being nice and showing your feelings in a normal way, you’re mean to her and when she goes home crying to her parents and asking why you’re so mean they explain that it’s because you like her. We’ve all been trying to tell you Ei to just fucking tell her and make a move, because she knows! Why do you think she forgave you after that shit you pulled the first time huh? (Y/N) had a feeling there was something different about you man, that’s why that night hurt her so fucking bad because she knew you were lying, then when we all pretty much confirmed it, she decided to give you another chance, to right your idiotic wrong - because she’s crazy for your dumb ass too!”

Kirishima sighed and rubbed his face with both hands. Just the mention of Hitoshi had him getting pissier but not only because he didn’t like the dude, but - because he was right. They were all right. 

Kiri knew he was acting childish. The more time he spent with you and getting closer, the more he realized just how immature his actions were and how uncalled for they were. 

He hated to admit that Hitoshi was right but he would admit that Sero was right as well. Kirishima briefly put himself in your shoes and thought of how angry and hurt he’d be had you dragged him around, denied him after getting his hopes up, after kissing him the way you do. Sure he may have witnessed you and Bakugou locking lips but there was no way you were kissing his friend with even a shred of the passion and desire you had for him.

“What the fuck have I been doing?” Kiri quietly breathed out after a long moment, gnawing at the inside of his cheek as he looked up at the sky.

Sero smirked and stood next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder and lightly squeezing it, his own eyes looking up at the sky too. 

“Red - we’ve all been wondering that same exact question. Of all the people in the world, in that shop, she wants you and to be honest ... Ei, she really needs you. You don’t know half the shit that girl has been through, you think you’re protecting her by not getting involved but in reality, getting involved is the way to protect her.”

Kirishima looked down to Sero, tilting his head and going to question but Sero was already answering.

“I can’t tell you, man, I’m sorry, I promised her.”

“No, it’s fine. I get it. She trusts you,” Kiri sighed and shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and gave his friend a half smile, “That’s just something I’ve got to earn as well.”

Sero smiled and watched Kirishima start to walk back in the direction they came from, wrapping his coat around him tighter and walking to catch up. 

“So what does that mean?” 

Sero couldn’t help how his smile widened, his friend gave his signature sharp-toothed grin and stood up a little straighter.

“It means I’m gonna go get my girl.”

“You never told me you had a dog!”

Bakugou chuckled as the two of you entered his unusually lavish home and were greeted by a black and brown doberman - well more like tackled to the ground. 

The blonde didn’t bother helping you up, letting the animal drown you in excited licks and woofs, in fact you seemed to be enjoying it and actually smiling for the first time since you entered his vehicle. His hand ruffled your hair and pet the dogs head when he passed and scratched at his chin.

“You didn’t ask princess. Want anything to drink?”

Giggling and hugging the massive dog close and let it continue to love on you, your head nodded.

“Uh yes please, anything you got is fine. What’s his name?”

Walking into the kitchen, Bakugou smiled and talked over his shoulder, “King Explosion Murder, or just King for short.”

A hearty laugh escaped from your chest at the ridiculous name and you cupped the dogs face, pressing your nose to its wet snout and shook your head.

“You poor baby, I’m sorry your daddy gave you such a terrible name!”

“Hey, he’s a killing machine with an unquenchable thirst for fucking blood! I wasn’t going to name him something like Max!”

At the same time, you and the dog both looked at Bakugou with an expression that was asking if he were serious. He couldn’t help but chuckle at the scene and shook his head. You went back to loving on the animal, cooing and talking to it like a child, rubbing his belly as he rolled over onto his back and drooled, tongue hanging out and tail wagging. Bakugou smiled and let you be, it was a pleasant change in mood from how you acted on the drive to his home.

All throughout the drive, you had grown quieter and quieter. It was fucking weird. Usually you never shut up, especially around Bakugou, always full of jokes and taunts, trying to get any kind of reaction or attention from him. It was odd for you to be so - shy, or better yet, nervous. 

The tattooed blonde could feel the anxiety slowly growing more and more and just dripping from your body inside of the SUV. He even asked at one point if you were alright, to which you answered with, “I’m fine, never been better.” 

It was short, empty. Bullshit.

The silence allowed Bakugou’s lust to die down and his head to clear, not that it wasn’t clear to begin with but most of his rational thinking was hazy when he had you melting so quickly beneath him against the wall of the club. 

Bakugou realized why his friend was so damn crazy about you the second he kissed your lips and heard those needy whimpers. It took everything he had to not take you then and there or even in the vehicle. Aside from that though, Bakugou also knew that it wasn’t just the physical stuff that Kirishima was so crazy about, it was also just in the looks your eyes would give, the way you’d speak out names like they were some sort of enchantment, and just you being - you. 

Any man would be out of his goddamn mind to not be crazy over you and any man would take this chance, this vulnerability you had right now, to swoop in and steal you for them-self. As much as he wanted to be one of those men, Katsuki Bakugou just couldn’t.

It was your silence and itty bitty “I’m fine,” on the drive home that told him everything he needed to know. It was all he needed, to know exactly how to take care of you.

“That red-headed idiot fucking owes me,” Bakugou mumbled to himself quietly as he started to boil some water for coffee. 

While waiting, he got out his drip-brewer and filters, set them up and looked in a cabinet for some coffee beans. In the background he could hear the sound of a dog toy squeaking, probably from King going and finding it to bring to you. Soon the toy was heard being flung across the room, followed by the sound of claws against the hardwood as King tried to catch traction to run off after it. You laughed and Bakugou chortled, he’d be damned if he admitted it to anyone’s face but that laugh did something to him. 

Pleased with himself, he rubbed his hands together then walked back over to you, holding a hand out.

“Come on princess.”

You looked up at him after tossing the dog toy again, King taking off. 

“No drinks?” You asked while taking Bakugou’s hand and letting him help you to your feet.

“I’m drip-brewing some coffee and it’s gonna take a few minutes until it’s done. Now if you don’t have anymore questions, lets go.” 

He replied, still holding your hand and leading you out of the room and down the hall until reaching a bedroom.

You quirked a brow and felt nervous all of a sudden. Bakugou looked at you from the corner of his eye after you took a deep breath and squeezed his hand, it was clammy in his and you hoped he wouldn’t notice. 

The blonde walked you over to a massive king sized bed, a dark-red bedspread laid out with plush matching pillows.

“Sit down for a second,” Bakugou instructed and you obeyed.

He stood before you, taking your chin between his finger and thumb and making you look up at him. You swallowed thickly, your own fingers fiddling as his red eyes stared down at you. 

Bakugou leaned down enough to kiss your lips, the kiss being much softer than the ones shared at the club. You quietly whimpered and kissed back, bringing a hand up to cup his cheek. Bakugou groaned softly, his hands cupping your face tightly but with a gentle care to them. 

It was so new to you, the way Bakugou was kissing and touching you, it was so … sweet. Almost sad; like it was the last time he’d kiss you. 

Your fingers started to tremble and you tried not to cry, for some reason there was something taking over you, emotions starting to surface but you didn’t want them to boil over. 

Not tonight. Not here. Forget him.

Hesitantly, Bakugou finally pulled away from your lips, his crimson red eyes staring back into yours once again and searching. His thumbs brushed your cheeks and he huffed a breath of air, smiling the faintest of smiles.

“Tell me the truth, are you okay?”

Your heart started to slowly descend down into your stomach, suddenly feeling nauseous as you looked back into his eyes. 

Red eyes. His eyes. 

No, they’re not his eyes. 

You blinked rapidly, chest heaving from suddenly panting. Bakugou quirked a brow and repeated the question. You nodded, clearing your throat and looked away.

“I-I’m fine Katsuki.”

Bakugou grunted lightly before standing straight. His knuckles brushed against your cheek before he turned away and walked over to a dresser. While he started to dig around in one of the drawers, you sighed and rubbed the side of your neck suddenly feeling awkward. It was strange, you never felt awkward around Bakugou. Only what felt like a few minutes ago, you were all over the guy, begging him to bring you here, all for one thing. 

Your cheeks started to heat up and blush at the thought now, you did come here for one thing. To forget.

Your eyes closed and you nodded. 

Your hands came up and gathered your hair to one side before going to the cropped jacket you wore and nervously sliding it off. Next, your fingers slipped under the shoulder straps of the dress and pulled it down your chest until it rested around your hips. Suddenly you felt cold and shivered, feeling the air against your skin as you sat there halfway exposed, only a black lace bra gracing your chest. 

Bakugou turned around, his eyes widening when they fell upon you sitting there, waiting. He held a garment in his hand, his fingers clutching around it tightly while he took a deep breath and walked back over to you and dropped it on the mattress.

“You really are a work of art, you know that?” He breathed out and let a finger lightly run down your sternum and over the black ink of the octopus that marked your skin.

Your teeth chewed at your lip and you softly smiled, your hands finding the belt of his jeans and going to undo the buckle. 

That was, until strong hands were stopping you. 

You grunted and looked up, Bakugou looking down with soft eyes and an expression you couldn’t, or didn’t want to, decipher. Your eyes narrowed and you tried to go for the buckle again but Bakugou quickly grabbed your wrists and stopped you once again.

“What do you think you’re doing, princess?” He asked in a tone that dared to hold pity.

Teeth bared, you glared at the man before you.

“Uh - what I came here for. Now are we going to do this or not?”

Bakugou sighed and shook his head, lowering your wrists and letting go before placing a hand to the back of your head as he leaned down and pressed a kiss to your forehead. You scoffed, the gesture making the blood in your veins boil and a fire rage behind your eyes, something was up and you knew it wasn’t going to be good.

“No, we’re not doing this.” Bakugou replied.

You sniffled, fighting back the tears that pricked at the corners of your eyes and stung like a thousand bees. Out of rage, your palms made contact with Bakugou’s abdomen and pushed him back, making him grunt and slightly stumble backwards. He went to talk but you quickly cut him off with a whimper that shattered his own heart into a million pieces.

“You f-fucking asshole,” you spoke with a shaky breath, hand coming up to wipe at your eyes before going to pull the dress back up your body, “W-what, I’m not good enough for you e-either, huh? Fuck you b-both and whatever sick g-game you’re playing.”

Your vision started to blur, the tears were now free-flowing and you started to break down. Clumsily you tried to slip one arm into the dress straps and struggled which only made you sob harder.

“God fucking damn it!” You yelled out and slipped from the edge of the bed and onto the floor, bringing your knees up and curling in on yourself against the bed.

Bakugou cursed and quickly fell to his knees and crawled to your side, grabbing your body and pulling it into his arms and lap. You struggled against him and beat at his chest, trying to get away. 

“Make up your f-fucking mind K-Katsu ... god I can take the rejection from h-him but not you.”

Bakugou hushed you as he pulled your head back and against his chest, his hand petting your hair lightly, letting you sob into his shirt.

“Princess, it’s not that I don’t want you. Fuck, I’d be goddamn mental if I didn’t want you! You have no idea how much I’m restraining myself from just claiming you as my own and telling everyone else to fuck off.”

“Then what’s wrong with me?” You cried out.

Bakugou smirked and cupped your cheek, looking down at you and making you look back at him through the tears as his thumb wiped some of them away. He shook his head and sighed, resting his forehead down against yours.

“There isn’t a damn thing wrong with you.” Bakugou kissed your forehead before speaking again. “Baby, you don’t want me. You want him.”

Your head shook frantically, teeth gritting and the blonde only smiled and kissed your cheek.

“Don’t shake your pretty little head at me, you do want him and I know it’s hard to believe right now but - he wants you too. I can swallow my own pride enough to see that, to make sure that you don’t do something so fucking stupid with me that you’d regret the moment you saw his stupid face again tomorrow, no matter how pissed off you are at him right now. I know you’re hurting right now and only want to forget about him but you and I both know you don’t really mean to erase him entirely, just long enough for the hurt to go away right?”

You shrugged, sniffling and nodded.

“Right. Look I told you I was going to take care of you tonight, and I don’t fucking back down on my word. You did agree to doing things my way so -” Bakugou paused and grabbed the clothing off the bed and held it between you, “Just take that shit off, put this shirt on and let me take care of you. Let me feed you, we can talk however much or little you want to, I’ll try and answer whatever questions you may or may not have and I’ll just be here for you, alright? I’m not letting you be alone this time, not like the last time.”

Bakugou cupped your cheek and made you look up at him, a look on his face that asked if you understood him. By now your crying had somewhat calmed and you were breathing fine. After a long sigh, your eyes blinked and you nodded yet again, cupping his hand on your cheek and kissing his palm.

“Okay Katsu, we’ll do things your way.”

He smiled and placed a quick peck to your lips before brushing your hair back. 

“That’s my girl. Now take your time, my bathroom is through there if you wanna wash up or anything. Meet me back in the kitchen when you’re ready, I’ll start making you something special.”

The two of you stood from the floor, before Bakugou could turn to leave you quickly wrapped your arms around his waist and hugged him tight. He grunted from the force and chuckled as he hugged back and kissed the top of your head, ruffling your hair before you released him and allowed him to walk out of the bedroom. 

You took a deep breath and started to remove the dress from your body, leaving it on the floor and replacing it with what was one of Bakugou’s t-shirts. It was a few sizes too big which worked perfectly to cover the lower half of your body. After going to his bathroom and washing your face, you opened the bedroom door to leave and yelped when King quickly sat up from his spot on the floor.

Smiling, you pet the dogs head and he followed you back into the kitchen where Bakugou was already prepping food. You cleared your throat, rubbing the side of your neck and stood next to him. 

“Can I help you with anything?”

The male smiled and shook his head before wiping his hands off and turning to pick you up by the hips and sit you on the counter-top.

“No princess, you just watch and talk,” he replied and reached for a coffee mug that was full and handed it to you. “Here’s your creamer and sugar with coffee.”

You giggled and took the mug, thanking him before drinking it eagerly and humming at its warmth and taste. Looking down there were ingredients laid out and being prepped for what looked like one of your favorite dishes.

“Katsudon?” You chimed.

Bakugou nodded, “I told you I was making something special for you.”

“Wow Katsu, I didn’t know you were so domesticated!”

The blonde glared at you and nudged your knee with his elbow. “Shut up before I spit in it! Now you wanna tell me what Shitty Hair did?”

Pressing the mug to your lips, you took a massive gulp of the coffee and rose your brows. Feet swinging from the counter, you sighed before replying.

“I don’t even really know - we were doing so well and then tonight we just clicked, you know? We got a little carried away and he suddenly just brought you up, saying you acted like I was ‘your territory’ and that just set me off. Maybe I shouldn’t have let it get to me like it did, but it did. I gave him a chance Katsuki, a massive fucking chance to tell me what he was feeling, what he wants, and you know what he did? Absolutely fucking nothing!”

Bakugou hummed and nodded, looking at you briefly with a smirk.

“So you do know, that he likes you, that is.”

You laughed and nodded, rubbing the side of your neck.

“Of course, no matter how hard he tries to hide it, I’ve always sort of known. Sero and Denki actually confirmed it for me that day you and Kiri left for whatever reason. I have to say though, your friend has an ass-backwards way of showing that he likes someone. I swear he drives me up a wall with his back and forth shit but since we have been doing so good lately I thought that just maybe he finally was done with his bullshit but I guess not?”

Bakugou started to cook the meat he prepped and looked your way, quirking a brow.

“What, you asking me?” He chuckled.

“Well - yeah. Katsu, you’re the closest one to him and you’ve known him longer than I have.” You sighed and slightly frowned, looking down at the coffee in the mug and tracing the rim of it with a fingertip. “I feel so fucking dumb ... he makes me feel so dumb but even after tonight well, you were right, I don’t want to write him off entirely just yet but the question is, shouldn’t I? I mean I’ve given him chances, chances to keep rejecting and hurting me. I’m stupid right, to hope that he’ll change?”

Getting emotional again, your nose scrunched as you sniffled and caught a whiff of the food cooking. Looking over you were surprised to see how far the blonde had got while you had ranted. Bakugou got to a point to where he could let the food just simmer and he moved sideways to stand between your knees. He took the mug from your hands and sat it on the counter, replacing the loss of warmth from it with the warmth of his own hands as they took yours. His red eyes looked up and he smirked.

“Are you sure you want my opinion and advice? I mean not like it’s bad, I only give the best!”

Your eyes rolled with a laugh, you leaned forward pressing your forehead to his.

“Yes, I need the great Katsuki Bakugou’s advice or else I’m going to lose my ever loving mind!”

The blonde chuckled and cupped your cheek and placed a quick kiss to it.

“Alright princess, but only because you said the magic words.”

Bakugou took a deep breath and ran a hand through his spiky hair as he went back to cooking.

“First off, you’re not dumb or stupid because he does like you. If he wasn’t as crazy as he is over you, then I’d agree that you are and that you should drop him fucking fast and move on but that’s not the case here. That idiot has been absolutely and disgustingly smitten with you since you walked into his fucking studio and got that damn tattoo. Believe or not, your guy is a hopeless romantic and believes in that dumb shit like love at first sight and ‘just knowing’. I know it may be hard to tell but Kiri truly is a good guy, he’s the charmer out of us all but he has changed since you showed up and he does have his reasons.”

Your eyes narrowed and you thought back to the night in Kiri’s truck and his excuse about having reasons for treating you like dirt. It only made you want to call bullshit. 

“You know this isn’t the first time I heard that he has ‘reasons’ for acting the way he does, so what the hell are they?”

The male only chuckled and shook his head, stirring the food around.

“(Y/N) I really wish I could tell you but that is for him to say, just know that whether you want to believe it or not they are very valid reasons, at least in the beginning they were. Me and the others have told that guy countless times to just put his reasons aside and man the fuck up but he’s still hesitant, he only wants to make sure that it’s - what’s best for you.”

“Well last time I checked I was an adult and can make my own damn decisions,” you snapped, jaw and fists clenching.

Bakugou snickered and nodded. 

“Oh I fucking agree and I told him that myself. Look - sometimes I think Kirishima’s quirk goes a little further than just his body and even into his own brain, causing him to be really fucking dumb! So I have a suggestion, if you truly want to know what you should do next.”

You nodded eagerly and leaned over, getting closer to Bakugou and he quickly caught your hand before it could make contact with one of the hot burners of the stove-top. You gasped and heard a growl coming from him.

“Be careful! God knows what would happen if we showed up tomorrow and you have a fucking burn of all things on your pretty little hand. I’d be dead!” 

Bakugou sat you back up where you were and shook his head.

“Knowing Kirishima, he’s gonna think a lot tonight about what he did wrong because trust me one of those other idiots will point it out for him. You can bet your ass that tomorrow he’ll try to apologize again, grovel and everything in between to make get you back on good terms with him. One of two things will happen, either he’s done being an idiot and tells you how he feels and things will get better or he doesn’t. If the latter happens then, well - call him a coward.”

You blinked rapidly and scoffed. “Pardon?”

“You heard me princess. Call him out on his bullshit and tell him how you feel! Tell him he either needs to shit or get off the pot before someone else comes and steals you away, guarantee, he’ll change real fucking fast. You see, you have yet to tell him your own feelings little one, so if he knows how you truly feel, that you’re stubborn about those feelings and want him to act on his own then I promise you that will solve the majority of your problems.”

“Hmm.”

It was all you could do while really letting what Bakugou said sit and saturate. He was right, Kiri wasn’t the only one who hadn’t made their feelings known and maybe you doing just that would show him that you are serious and you’re tired of the back and forth. Sure it may a little bit of tough love to get it through his skull but it would work. 

Kirishima was the type to take a challenge, same as you were, that’s why you both were so attracted to each other. Your relationship even from the first day was nothing but one huge challenge and the truth was, it always would be but that didn’t mean it had to be a bad thing. You smirked and looked at Bakugou, now finishing the katsudon and platting it for the both of you.

“You know if this backfires I’m fucking you up Katsu!”

With a wicked grin, Bakugou laughed and stood before you again, his hands on your thighs and gently squeezing them as his head tilted. 

“If this backfires princess, then that just means I can take a shot at being your man instead.”

You smiled and playfully poked at Bakugou’s nose before sighing and wrapping your arms around his neck, hugging and holding yourself close to him. He shook his head, arms wrapping around you as well and pressing a kiss to the side of your head. 

You finally felt relief for the first time in ages about the whole situation and felt so appreciative of Bakugou in general. He could’ve been low and taken advantage of you, something you thought you wanted but what he knew deep down inside was something that would only end up being a regret. There was a newfound appreciation you had for him now and for his loyalty to his friend. With a hum you nuzzled your face into the crook of Bakugou’s neck, hugging him tighter.

“Thank you Katsu, thank you for taking care of me. I love you.”

Bakugou smirked and dared to feel his heart skip a beat, his hand rubbing your back softly.

“Tch, you gotta fucking remember, we’re a family and we take care of each other. No matter what, me, Sero, Denki, all of us will always take care of you princess. You just say the word and we’ll be there, no matter what.” He replied and turned to kiss your temple. “I love you too brat. Now, let's eat and get your ass in bed!”

Giving Bakugou a smile, you nodded and let him remove you from the counter-top and back down onto the floor. He instructed you go and sit at the dining table while he brought over the food and different drinks. In no time the two of you were eating, you mostly scarfed the food down not realizing just how hungry you were until the food hit your stomach. Bakugou would chuckle and smile proudly as he’d watch you eat and enjoy the meal he made. 

He was happy to see you finally at ease, he could tell that just from the talk, a massive weight had rolled from your shoulders just by the way your body seemed more relaxed. Bakugou felt more than accomplished and felt that all in all, despite your little tiff with Kiri, the night was good.

After eating, you both cleaned up the food and dishes, you yawning here and there, body slowly shutting down as you’d move slower. Once done, Bakugou picked you up like a child, to which you instantly melted into him and held on while he carried you back to the bedroom after shutting off all the lights in the kitchen. Eyes feeling heavy, you were in and out of sleep and faintly heard the sound of King’s claws against the hardwood as he followed along. 

Soon you were being laid down on the bed, body feeling heavy and sinking into the mattress, making you sigh at how comfortable it was. Bakugou pulled back the covers and positioned you underneath them before tucking them around you. He patted the spot next to you and King jumped onto the bed, quickly making himself comfortable right next to you and snuggling. Your hand pet him lazily and eyes tried to open and focus on Bakugou.

“You’re sleeping with me right?” You asked with a groggy voice.

A kiss was placed on your forehead and Bakugou brushed back your hair.

“Of course princess, you gotta let me change first though.”

After earning a nod, Bakugou smiled and went to change out of the clothes he wore, stripping down to just his briefs and going to the bathroom to wash his face before he returned, turned off the lights and crawled into the bed. 

Upon feeling his body sinking onto the mattress, you turned and wrapped around the male, cuddling him close and burying your face into his chest. Bakugou didn’t complain, only wrapped around you in return and started to pet your hair as the other hand pet King who was on the other side. You were perfectly sandwiched between him and the dog, feeling safer than you had in months. A few moments of silence had gone by and Bakugou was sure you had fallen asleep before you sighed and pet at his chest, mumbling something with a sleep laced voice.

“Katsu, I - I need to tell you something.”

Bakugou grunted, falling asleep himself and held you tighter, giving a light squeeze.

“Hah - what is it?”

“... I’m in danger Katsuki ... running, I’m running from him.”

At this Bakugou was quickly more awake and aware, he craned his head to look down at you in his arms. He felt his stomach lurch but he wasn’t shocked, he himself had thought this before.

“From who princess?”

Your face nuzzled more into his chest, warm breath fanning his skin and your lips fluttering against it as you spoke. 

“My ... my ex, he hurt me you know, my legs.”

The blonde nodded and continued to run his fingers through your hair, listening closely.

You started to quietly cry somehow in your half asleep state, choking on your words.

“H-he - I almo-most d-died Katsu, he j-just left me to d-die and - “

Bakugou cut you off quickly, his hand cupped your face, tilting your head up and using his mouth to silence your own in a kiss. Your eyes screwed shut and tears flowed yet again as he caressed your cheek and let the kiss linger, his warm lips enveloping yours in a comforting hug. When he pulled away, Bakugou let your face fall back into his chest and he shushed your cries, hand rubbing your back as King crawled even closer and laid his head in the curve of your hip.

“You’re safe now princess, I told you, we’ll take care of you, Red will take care of you. J-Just go to sleep, you need some rest. If you really want to tell me more then tell me in the morning over breakfast. Sound good?”

Your arms and legs wrapped around Bakugou like a vice and you hummed.

“Okay Katsu,” you kissed his chest, “Goodnight.”

Bakugou nodded and stayed silent as he held you, listening and waiting to feel your body grow heavier in his hold, for your breathing to slow and for you to finally slip into a deep slumber. 

King let out a quiet whimper and Bakugou smirked, his free hand petting the animals head and he kissed the top of your head before quietly speaking.

“Don’t worry King, we’ll protect her. I promise. That idiot better straighten up and do right by her, or else I will.”

[lovemesomesurveys]

is there anyone that you care more about than yourself? My family. how many times have you been to the er? Once. what is something that you really want to do? I’d love to go to the beach, but that won’t be happening. :( what’ s something that always gives you the chills? Having a fever, or the air conditioning inside of a vehicle. <<< Yeah, those things definitely do, but also creepy stuff or anything bug related. how has this past week been for you? Eh, it was alright.

who are you disappointed in right now? I mean, I’ve been disappointed in myself for a very long time. when a friend walks out of your life, do you go after them or let them go? I’ve been in both situations. I wish I hadn’t let some of the ones I let go, go.  what do people think about you that isn’t true? I don’t know what people think about me anymore. I really don’t want to know. I’m sure I’d agree, though. what do you think about internet best friends? I think they’re great. I had online friends that were some of my closest friends, closer than friends I had “in real life.” how many months until your birthday? It’s exactly a month away. what are you listening to? A YouTube video. been caught doing something you weren’t supposed to do? Yes. does it bother you when your friends bring up your past mistakes? Yeah, I don’t need anyone to do that for me because trust me, I dwell on them all the damn myself. what are you thinking about? Stuff that’s being talked about in the video I’m watching. what do you miss the most? Loved ones who have passed away, my childhood, the way some things in my life used to be, how things were before this pandemic... when was the last time you talked to your number 1? My number 1 in my life is my mom, who I talked to about an hour ago before she went to bed. if the year consisted of only one season, which would you choose? Fall. if somebody liked you right now, what do you think is a cool way to tell you? I wouldn’t want them to tell me.  when was the last time you cried really hard? About a week ago. could you go out in public looking like you do now? Ew, no.  what was on your mind mostly today? My mind is always a jumbled mess. last person you gave something to? My mom. do you like the winter time? I love it. what was the last movie you watched? It’s Complicated last week. do you believe that if you want something bad enough you’ll get it? No, it’s not always enough to just want it. honestly, has anyone ever seen you in your underwear? Yeah. would you ever shave your head to save someone you love? I would give money or do something that could really help them. can you play guitar hero? I rocked out hard on easy mode, ha. Guitar Hero has been brought up a lot in surveys recently and I’ve really been wanting to play.  when’s the next time you will kiss somebody? I have no idea. No time soon. how’s your heart lately? It’s beating. are you a jealous person? This question is in like every survey. do you wear the hood on your hoodie? Not usually. can you successfully blow up and tie a balloon? I can blow it up but my stupid fingers won’t let me tie it. <<< I can’t blow it up, but I can tie it. We’ll help each other out lol. do you want any tattoos? I’ve wanted one for several years, but I seriously doubt I’ll ever get it done. where’s the weirdest place you’ve changed clothes? Just in a car. what are you doing next week? Same things I do every single day. when’ s your birthday? July 28th, exactly a month away. Mark your calendars. ;) haha. what was the first thing you thought this morning? It’s only 2:41AM. what color are your eyes? Brown. do you get the recommended eight hours of sleep a night? Not at night, but during the day. :X For the past few months for whatever reason 7 or 8AM has become my normal bedtime and I sleep until 3PM. would you rather have your nose or tongue pierced? I reallyyy don’t want either one. The tongue sounds a lot worse, though. ���� what does your last text say? My dad asked me something. ever stayed up all night on the phone? No, but I’ve stayed up all night talking online many times.  has the last person you kissed ever been mad at you? Not that I know of. I don’t know what reason he’d have to be mad at me. I, on the other hand, had many reasons to be mad at him. does someone call and talk to you every night before you go to sleep? No. I wouldn’t want that lmao. has the last person you kissed seen you cry? No. did anyone see your last kiss? Probably. have you ever kissed someone who was high? Yes. what would you do if that person called you? Not answer, ha. do you want to please everyone? Ha, apparently not. Take a look at my life these past few years. I’ve let everyone down, including myself. I feel like a major failure and disappointment. I also don’t want or need to be liked by everyone, I don’t seek everyone’s approval. I really just care about what my loved ones think. That doesn’t mean I want to be hated by everyone or something, but I don’t try to please everyone either.  how many drugs are in your system? Just my pain medication.  anything interesting happen this week? Nope. what are your plans for tonight? My usual nighttime routine that I’ve shared many times in surveys, especially recently. have you held hands with anyone in the past week? My doggo. (: what are you doing this weekend? Sigh. I’m getting really tired of answering this question or some variation of it. Ya’ll, I have no life. I do the same things everyday. That’s it. what are you listening to? A YouTube video. who was the last person you talked to before you went to bed last night? My brother. do you like to cuddle? Sure. who is the last person that texted you? My dad. who’s the last person you talked to on the phone? My mom.

do you still talk to the person you last kissed? Nope. Haven’t seen or talked to him in almost 5 years. has anyone told you they don’t ever wanna lose you? Something like that. Guess they got over it. can you commit to one person? Yes. would you kiss the last person you kissed again? No. what does that person look like? He has hair, eyes, a nose, mouth, body...  have you ever told someone you loved them and didn’t mean it? I made that mistake with my first (and technically only) boyfriend. He said it to me very early on and I felt like I had to say it back. I didn’t feel that way and felt uncomfortable, but I said it. have you ever had your heart broken? Yes, in the romantic sense and in other ways. have you dated someone who wasn’t good to you? Yes. do you believe everyone deserves a second chance? Yes, with some exceptions (like actual evil people). would you ever cut your hair 6 inches shorter than it is now? I had really short hair (a “bob”) for years. I probably should cut it that short again, but ahhh. It took me so long to grow it out this length and I would really hate to start all over. Shorter hair would definitely be a lot easier to manage, though. :/ when was the last time it rained? It randomly rained one day for like a few minutes earlier this month. last person you cuddled with dies, are you sad? Yes! I will be heartbroken when my dog passes away. I’ve been through that already twice and it hurts. They are my love, my heart, my family. Ugh, I don’t even want to think about that. have you held hands with anyone in the past 24 hours? No.

[popsicle-writing]

Doki Doki Pretty Cure: Robots in Disguise Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Fixit and Sebastian's teamwork! Chaos in the jungle!

-Location: Yotsuba mansion, Autobots base-

Another day, another new stuff going to happen. Rikka and Raquel were chilling with Sideswipe while Grimlock just keep admiring his new Autobot symbol on his shoulder plates that Fixit just replaced it. He always continue to ask if the symbol fitted him.

"Do you think my new Autobot symbol look so awesome?" he grinned.

Sideswipe knew it that would happen. He couldn't help but groaned. "For the hundreth times, Grim. It really looks good on you." and he thought Strongarm was already annoyed him enough.

"I know!" Grimlock exclaimed. "It's pretty awesome!"

"It really is." a voice spoke up. It was Alice. At least Grimlock knew she always patience. "Glad for you to be back, Grim."

Her guardian grinned down at her while Sideswipe just rolled his optics. "Come on, Sideswipe. At least be kind and patience to Grim." Rikka told him.

"I know that but-" he was cut off.

"There shall be no excuses-quel." that made Sideswipe groaned in annoyance and pouted.

"Speaking of which, where's Mana and Makoto?" Alice asked.

Rikka looked up at her. "I think they went on a patrol or something with Bumblebee and Strongarm."

"But I thought Strongarm said she wanted to go on a solo patrol-quel?"

Sideswipe sighed once more before getting up and walks off. "Where are you going, Sideswipe?"

"I'm just gonna go and help Fixit with something so that Grim doesn't bother me or something."

"Hey!" Grimlock protested.

"Now, now, calm down, Grim." her human partner reassured her.

Lance looked at the blue dog fairy. "They went on the patrol without us-de lance?"

"They said they will be back soon-quel."

"Well, I'm glad everyone is getting together-de lance." well, actually...

They heard a crash or an explosion noise. "Well, almost-quel..."

"What's going on over there?"

"Let's go and check it out."

They all walked over to see what is happening.

-Location: At the road-

Strongarm was driving along the road at the other side of the forest. Raquel was right. She was on the solo patrol...well with Makoto and Dabyi, of course.

"Personal journal." Strongarm spoke up. "I have driven 2000 miles from the mansion, and my pistons are postively tingling."

"Uh, are you sure you want to do this alone, Strongarm?" Makoto told her.

"We should have tell Bumblebee and the others first before we left-davi." Dabyi sighed.

"Come on, you two." her guardian replied. "We can do this together. Successfully completing this mission might mean a promotion. Sergeant Strongarm and her friends, Makoto and Dabyi. Or Lieutenant Strongarm. Or President Strongarm!"

Both Makoto and Dabyi sweatdrops. They were about to speak up again until Fixit com-link them.

"Cadet Strongarm, come in."

the Mini-Con spoke up.

"Status report."

Strongarm groaned. "Hasn't change since you asked me 12 minutes ago, Fixit. Is it really necessary to-"

"Yes."

Fixit bluntly replied.

"When Bumblebee agreed, after weeks of begging and pleading on your part, to let you go on your first solo outing with Makoto and Dabyi, you promise to check in every 10 minutes. Anyway, how're you holding up, Miss Makoto and Dabyi?"

"We're doing alright, Fixit." Makoto answered.

"Except that we need to informed to others first before we left-davi..."

Although you can't see but Strongarm clearly rolling her optics. "It's a simple recon mission."

"What you are doing now is investigating a Decepticon signal."

Fixit pointed out.

The girl just sighed and crossed her arms while listening to their conversation. "Possible signal, Fixit. If it is real, I'll call for backup, like I promised 37 times before I--" she didn't even finished her sentence when they all heard an explosion in the com-link. "Fixit..?"

"Oh dear...I'll, uh, be right back...!"

Fixit ended in com-link, leaving them so confused.

"Hey, Makoto, Strongarm, you might wanna might look behind you-davi..."

The cadet adjust her left wing mirror car and spotted something coming towards them.

"Could it be Bumblebee?" Makoto wondered.

Strongarm groaned as she took a sharp turn to the left while going to the mountain. The smoky trail was the one who following them. She drove all the way on top of the mountain and stay hidden from it. And when the vehicle stops, she leaped up and recognized the vehicle. It was Bumblebee. "You!" and beside him were Mana and Sharuru.

"Mana?"

"Sharuru-davi?"

Bumblebee transformed into his robot mode as he chuckles nervously. "This isn't how it looks, Strongarm. I just forgot to give you something before you left." he look around and picked up the rock. "It's my good luck rock. Took it on my very first mission. Must've dropped it. Right?"

Everyone went silent and Strongarm does not buy it.

"Try again-sharu." Sharuru sighed, looking at Bumblebee.

Strongarm crossed her arms and frowned. "Lieutenant, this is supposed to be my first solo mission with Makoto and Dabyi. Isn't that correct?"

"Well...technically, yes." he nodded. "But you're on a strange planet, in unfamiliar terrain. I just wanted to make sure nothing bad happened."

"But, sir. I have Makoto and Dabyi with me!"

"They aren't from this planet either!"

"Bee, Makoto has been here ever since I first become a Pretty Cure." Mana told him. "So, you don't have to worry too much."

"She has a point-davi." Dabyi nods.

"And the only bad thing happening is you are clearly demonstrating that you do not trust my abilities. Or my training." Strongarm said.

Makoto looked at her guardian and sweatdrops. "Strongarm..."

However, Bumblebee just sighed. "Okay, look, this is your mission. I'll leave you yo it."

"Thank you, sir!" she smiled, transforming into her vehicle mode and letting Makoto and Dabyi in and drove off.

Bumblebee couldn't help but sighed again. "I'm still not sure about this..."

"You worry too much-sharu."

"I'm sure they'll be fine."

"Let's...continue following them. Quietly." both Mana and Sharuru just stared in shocked as they looked at each other before sighing.

"This can't be helped-sharu..."

Bumblebee transformed into his vehicle mode and letting Mana and Sharuru in before droving off.

-Location: Yotsuba's mansion, Autobots base-

When Rikka and Alice went to check out what the explosion was, they saw that a machine blew up. Fixit was fixing Sideswipe up.

"It was Sebastian's idea to turbo-charge our spark plugs!" Sideswipe complained.

"You shouldn't be helping Sebastian with technology." Fixit told him. "He doesn't-"

"What's going on here?" Alice walked forward.

Rikka looked around. Some tools are scattered around the tools. "Everything's a mess here."

Before anyone could answer, they heard some clattering noise and turned around and saw several stasis pods falling on top of each other. They also saw Sebastian was stuck under there.

"Sebastian!" Alice and Rikka went to help him by pulling him out of the fallen stasis pods.

"And what have we here?" Fixit let out a smirk. Dang it, Fixit.

"You're not helping the case here-de lance." Lance gave him a unamused look.

"Seriously-quel..."

"Coming through." Grimlock, in his dinosaur mode, walked over and began to picked up the pods that Sebastian was under.

"Sebastian, I sincerely appreciate your efforts to improve upon our limited resources." Fixit told him. "But Cybertronian technology is simply too advanced for the human brain."

"Yeah, only big brains like ours understand complicated stuff." Grimlock added, holding a kazoo. "Like this." before handed to Rikka.

"Grim, that's a kazoo." the girl grabbed it and started to blow it, making it a sound. That startled the Dinobot a bit as Alice giggled.

Sebastian let out a 'ahem'. "Agreed, I'm no expert in Cybertronian science, but I'm a pretty handy guy and I can be a lot more help to you than just providing room, board, and a cover story."

"Well, if you really want to help, Sebastian, please fix the freaky dip--sneaky clip--*thunks*--leaky drip in your lavatory." Fixit told him with a frown. "It is frying my delicate auditory circuits!"

There was a moment of silence. However, Sebastian didn't get angry or annoyed, he only let out a soft smile and bowed. "I'll do my best."

Fixit 'hphm'ed a bit before left with Grimlock follows him. Sideswipe just looked down and shrugging before following too. Rikka looked at Sebastian.

"You didn't yell at Fixit."

"It is my duty to remain calm no matter what the situation is." he let out a smile.

"Well, some butlers are like that." Alice smiled before she and her friends followed. Sebastian just watched them walked off and frowns a bit.

-Location: At the road-

Strongarm was still driving and passed by the lake with Makoto and Dabyi still constantly hearing the cadet speaking to herself.

"Personal journal: Standing up to a superior officer was difficult, but I give myself high marks for respect and professional-"

"We don't even know what we're doing anymore-davi..." Dabyi sighed.

Makoto also sighed before she heard a signal beeping from the screen. "Is that...?"

"I am, I mean, we are, closing in on the signal. Any moment now we should-" before she could finish her sentence... "Ugh! Not again!" she drove behind the bushes.

"Let me guess, Bumblebee is still following you-davi?"

Makoto shushed her before a familiar yellow vehicle drive pass by them. Yep, it's him. Strongarm followed him behind. Later, she, in her robot mode, angrily walked towards the vehicle while peeking at the door with a frown.

"Is there a problem, officer?" he asked nervously.

"You know, it's kinda creepy when you stare us like-sharu..."

Bumblebee let Mana and Sharuru out before transforming into his robot mode.

"Sir, I thought we agreed that you had no business being on my tailpipe." Strongarm reminded him.

"He's probably cares about you-davi." Dabyi added.

"Dabyi is right." Bumblebee agreed. "Watching out for you is my business, actually."

As the two bots keep on talking, Makoto walked towards Mana. "Bee is being overprotective, isn't he?"

"Pretty much." Mana nods. "After all, it's his job as a leader, just like me watching out for you." she let out a smile. Makoto just stared at her for a while.

"I guess you're right." she smiled back.

Bumblebee continued to talk to her. "If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be on Earth for the first time. I-" he sighed. "I feel responsible for you."

"Lieutenant."

"I know you don't like it, but I'm coming along. Strictly as an observer."

Just then, Sharuru's ears twitched a bit as she perked up a bit.

"Sharuru, what's wrong?" Mana asked, looking at her fairy partner.

"I think I heard something-sharu..."

"Decepticon, maybe-davi?" Dabyi wondered.

"It could be it." Makoto agreed.

However, Bumblebee and Strongarm were too busy talking to each other. "You won't even know I'm there. Deal?" he said.

Strongarm just sighed. "Do I have a choice?"

"Hey, Bee." Mana called out for her guardian, catching his attention. Bumblebee looked and bend down at her.

"What is it, Mana?"

"Sharuru said she heard something."

"It could be a Decepticon."

Bumblebee stared at them for a while. "Where is it coming from?"

Sharuru's ears twitched again before looking behind her. "It's coming from over there-sharu."

"Then, let's roll." he transformed into his vehicle mode, letting Mana in before drove off.

Makoto look at her guardian. "Let's go, Strongarm. Sharuru said she sense something and we suspect a Decepticon."

Strongarm looked down at her. "But this was supposed our first solo mission and finding the Decepticon signal!"

"Sharuru can sense anything with her rabbit ears-davi." Dabyi pointed out. "I can't even do that-davi."

"It's better if we just follow them. After all, I don't mind if Mana look after me even if she's the leader of our own team. She's still my friend." the girl smiled. "Don't you consider Bee as your friend too?"

Her guardian was taken back by her words. She didn't even thought of it. She couldn't help but sighed. "Alright." she transformed into her vehicle mode and let Makoto in before following Bumblebee and Mana.

-Location: Yotsuba mansion, Autobots base-

Raquel and Lance were with Grimlock and Sideswipe, watching some television in the living room. Rikka and Alice were helping Fixit stacking some stuff until they heard a drilling sound. They turned to look Sebastian was the one doing the drilling. Unsatisfied, Fixit went over and unplugged the device, glaring at him.

"I believe we had a discussion about you and Cybertronian technology." the Mini-Con told him. Rikka and Alice went over to them, to stop them from arguing.

"Now, now, let's not started another fight." Rikka sweatdrops.

"That's right." Alice nods. "We are supposed to be a team."

However, like usual, Sebastian didn't get angry or frustrated. He just bowed. "My sincerely apologies."

The fairies, Sideswipe and Grimlock looked over at them.

"There they go again-de lance..." Lance sighed. "They are just like another version of Strongarm and Sideswipe-de lance."

"Except that Sebastian is more polite and patience, unlike Sideswipe-quel." Raquel pointed out.

Sideswipe shot them with a glare. "Hey!" he feel offended by that. Grimlock just giggled, before looking back at Fixit and Sebastian.

"I am well-versed in human emotion, based upon my viewing of a certain doctor on your television." Fixit spoke up. "He would say you have an unhealthy need to prove yourself. He would also say that you should tune in every afternoon at 3."

The fairies and the two Autobots shrugged as they all looked back at the television.

"Calm down, Fixit." Rikka reassured him. "He's trying to help."

"Isn't that right, Sebastian?" Alice asked her butler.

He nods. "That is true. After all, this is my place too."

"Well, Cybertronian technologies are very complex and complicated, so I suggest-" Fixit tried to protest.

"I understand but at least let me assist you with these."

As both Fixit and Sebastian continued to argue, Lance just yawned. "When are they gonna end the fight-de lance?"

"Probably, forever-quel..."

Sideswipe groaned. "All those fighting and quarrel really interrupting our tv shows..."

Grimlock grinned. "Can I-?" he didn't finished his sentence as they said 'No.' at the same time. He pouted. As they trying to continued to watch their show, a loud explosion can be heard from the same spot. They turned to look that Sebastian and Fixit were already covered in ashes. Rikka and Alice managed to get out of safety before the explosion happens.

"Seriously-quel...?" Raquel sweatdrops.

"Why can't we just watch our show in peace-de lance...?" Lance sighed.

-Location: In the woods-

Mana, Makoto and their Autobot guardians were walking around. They were told that Sharuru heard something because of her ears twitching.

"Hear anything yet, Sharuru?" Mana asked.

"Not yet-sharu..." her ears twitched again. "Wait, I sense something-sharu!"

"You see? The ancients have judged me worthy and bestowed upon me their roll." she heard a voice.

"Right there-sharu!" she pointed to her right. They went towards the voice is and quietly following the voice.

"Now, please tell me, is Doradus near?" they heard that voice again.

They went to have a peek from the bushes and saw a huge statue. "It's a statue." Bumblebee gasped.

"A statue talked?" Makoto blinked her eyes. But Dabyi spotted something from her right. "Look-davi!"

They turned to look and saw a frog like-Cybertronian talking to the statue. "What do these markings mean?"

"A Decepticon?" Mana wondered.

"Please share your secrets." the frog Cybertronian asked again but received no answers. "Can't speak? Or won't? Maybe this will loosen your tongue?" he used all his strength to destroy the statue, as the team cringed. "Deceiver." He then jumped to another statue. "You saw what I just did to your friends? Now tell me. Where lies the Lost City of Doradus?"

Sharuru thought this frog is out of his mind. "He's literally talk to the statue-sharu...!"

Mana just stared at the frog for a moment. Lost City of Doradus? She thought to herself. Strongarm quietly walked forward until she accidentally stepped on the twig, causing it to make a noise.

The frog quickly turned around in alarm. "Thieves! You think you can follow me to the treasure? And then what? Wrest it away? Never!" he croacked. Mana look and saw an insignia. Yep. He is a Decepticon alright.

"We're not thieves-davi!" Dabyi shouted as she floats up.

"And we aren't going to get treasure by ourselves-sharu!" Sharuru followed. "That's quite selfish-sharu!"

The Decepticon looked up and gasped. "You...! You must be the protectors of the treasure!"

The two fairies blinked their eyes in confusion, looking at each other. "Is he talking to us-sharu...?"

"You must take me to Doradus and we will share the treasure together!" the frog exclaimed before he grabbed the two fairies with his tongue and leaped off.

"Hey! Let us go-davi!" Dabyi struggled.

"Sharuru!"

"Dabyi!"

The team run to chase after the frog as he leaped from branch to branch while the two fairies screaming for help.

"Who is that?" Strongarm asked.

"A relic hunter, apparently." Bumblebee replied. "We aren't letting him getting away!" he and Strongarm transformed into their vehicle while Mana and Makoto both get inside of them and drove to chase him again. However, the Decepticon managed to jumped over a huge cliff as the two bots has to stopped immediately, before they almost fall in.

"Hurry up and save us-sharu!" Sharuru's voice called out to them from the distance.

Both Bumblebee and Strongarm transformed into their robot mode, before looking at the other. "Scrap. Looks like we're taking the long way around."

"But Sharuru and Dabyi are-!" Mana and Makoto looked worried.

"Don't worry. We'll get them back." Bumblebee reassured them. "We just need to ask Fixit about this Decepticon."

They look and saw the frog transformed into his vehicle mode and drove off.

Strongarm com-link Fixit. "Fixit, our Con looks like an Earth frog. Anything in the Alchemor's prisoner manifest fit that bill?"

At the mansion, Fixit was looking at the Alchemor's database until the image of the frog that they faced appears on the screen. "The description matches that of an escaped amphiboid, Springload." he said. "Human word for his mental state would be 'bonker'." Raquel and Lance secretly overheard everything.

"Sounds about right. He was babbling to a statue, wanting directions to-"

"The Lost City of Doradus." Fixit knew it. "Springload is obsessed. A fabled Cybertronian land and home to the Fountain of Energon, granting eternal power and energy to whomever finds it."

"Sounds a bit selfish-de lance." Lance whispers to Raquel.

Raquel agreed. "You're right-quel." The two fairies decided to ignore everything else until...

"Myth or not. Springload believes Doradus exists. And no doubt think he's on Cybertron."

Bumblebee spoke up before he went silent for a second.

"And oh, he has Sharuru and Dabyi."

...that made Raquel and Lance in shocked as they frantically floats towards the com-link. "What happened-de lance?!"

"Why did they got taken away-quel?!"

"...because Springload thought they were some kind of protectors of the treasure and wanting them to guide him to it."

"Protectors of treasure-quel?!" Raquel couldn't believe his ears. "We can hardly protect Trump Kingdom when the Jikocchu Army took over-quel!"

"You just had to say that out loud, did you, Raquel..?" Lance sighed and sweatdrops.

Back with Bumblebee and Strongarm, they were kinda shocked when the two fairies shouted into the com-link all of the sudden, even Mana and Makoto began to sweatdrops awkwardly. However, it's very unclear to them but Fixit managed to shove the fairies away from the com-link.

"Anyway, do not take Springload lightly."

Fixit continued.

"Many museum personnel, historians and law enforcement have paid the mice--lice---*thunks*--price! I'm dispatching the rest of the team to assist you."

"Copy that." Bumblebee nods. "We'll keep tabs on Springload until the others arrive." he ended the com-link.

"That was my call to make." Strongarm seems a bit frustrated about it.

He just sighed. "You're right. Force of habit. But you would've said the same thing."

"No." the cadet protested. "I would not have!"

"Strongarm-" her human partner got cut off by her.

"Our team is 2000 miles away." Strongarm continued. "I have an opportunity to make the capture right now."

Mana stepped in, trying to settle this. "Now, now, we're all in this together. There are no need to argue right now. We have to get that Decepticon and get Sharuru and Dabyi back."

"Mana's right." her guardian nods. "Now that we know we're facing an unstable Decepticon, we need to go back to standard procedure. The solo part of your mission is over." he walked off with Mana following him.

Strongarm frowned at frustration while Makoto stared up at her. However, her guardian had another idea. She decided to com-link Fixit.

"Fixit, good news." she spoke up. "Springload fell into my lap. I've made an arrest. No need to send backup."

Makoto gasped in shocked when her own guardian did that. She began lied to Fixit so she can do this mission alone! She just couldn't believe it!

"All this happened since we spoke 60 seconds ago?"

Fixit was confused.

"Yes. Remember, we're in a different time zone."

The girl began to frowned and looked down on the ground. Why did Strongarm has to do that?

"Oh. Well, good. Congrats and see all of you when you get back."

with that, Fixit ended the com-link.

Strongarm smiled. Her plan worked. "Alright!" she looked at the girl. "Makoto, let's go-" before she could finish her sentence, Makoto just walked off, ignoring her. That caused her to get confused. "Makoto...?"

The girl didn't even bother to look back at her or even replied back. She just keep on walking. Her guardian was completely in shocked. She never seen her like this before. "Did...I do something wrong...?" yes. Yes you did. But she reluctantly followed anyway.

-Location: Yotsuba mansion, Autobot Base-

Rikka, Alice and their Autobot guardians just stared at the garage and the backyard as the tools and machine were all scattered all over the place.

"My, what a terrible mess." Alice commented.

Rikka sighed. "This could take forever to clean up."

"Do not worry." Sebastian walked in, holding a Decepticon Hunter as he wiped it with a cloth. "I will clean all of these up after."

Everyone had a surprised reaction when he was holding that weapon. "Uh, Sebastian, that's..."

"The Decepticon Hunter!" Fixit shouted as he quickly trying to grab from Sebastian. "That's very dangerous. Let go!"

"Oh, please, I just wanted to clean it." the butler politely said. "It was kinda dusty so I figured I should wiped it up."

Fixit ignored him as he keep tugging it from him. "Give it here!"

The others just watched as the two fairies floats by. "Are they still fighting again-quel...?"

"Sebastian is still kinda polite-de lance."

"Uh, should we go and break it up?" Grimlock asked.

"Uh, should we sit and watch?" Sideswipe answered. The two bots just grinned at each other and sat down to watch.

Rikka just facepalmed. "You two are not helping..."

Fixit and Sebastian still tugging on the Decepticon Hunter until both of them loose a grip and the weapon landed in front of the girls. Alice picked up and stared at the weapon. She looked at the two of them, with Fixit scolding the butler but Sebastian just bowed apologetically.

"Alice...?"

Alice thought for a while before she had an idea. "I think I have a solution for this."

-Location: At the old temple-

Mana, Makoto and their Autobot guardians arrived at some abandoned temple. Strongarm kneel down and saw some footprints that lead inside.

"Track and freshly disturbed vegetation to the door." she said.

"Our best plan is to wait for Springload to come out." Bumblebee suggests. "Then tail him."

"I disagree." Strongarm told him, before pulling out her holographic book. "And so does the manual. Regulation R65 states: 'When performing a surveillance operation, every effort should be made to keep the perpretrator in sight.'

Makoto just listen to her words but stay quiet and didn't even bothered to look up at her. Mana noticed her as she was feeling concerned.

"There could be another way out of there, for all we know. If we simply watching the Decepticon, there's no reason this can't still be my mission, sir."

Bumblebee went silent for a while before nodding. "Lead on, Strongarm." that made Strongarm smile but not for Makoto. "After all, who knows what could happen to Sharuru and Dabyi."

The two Autobots then walked forward the entrance as Mana look back at her friend. "MakoPi, are you alright?"

Makoto didn't answer for a while before she snapped out of it. "Huh? Oh, I'm fine." Mana was sure she's not alright.

"If you have any problem. Just say it. After all, I'm your friend." she smiled at her before walking in. Makoto was surprised by her words before let out a small smile and followed.

When they have went inside, they quietly hide behind the wall as they took a peek and saw Springload was checking something on his holographic screen while the fairies just stand there, afraid to move.

"These markings do not match my scroll!" he then turning to look at the fairies. "Or do they?"

Both Sharuru and Dabyi gulped in fear, afraid to speak up too.

"Is Doradus near? Speak!" he croaked angrily. "You can tell me! I have deemed worthy!"

"We don't know-sharu!" Sharuru protested.

"We are not the protectors of the treasure-davi!" Dabyi does the same. "We're the legendary warriors' fairies-davi!"

"Legendary warriors? Doradus has legendary warriors?!"

"That's not what we meant-sharu/-davi!"

Strongarm act quickly as she pulled out a handcuff and went straight towards the Decepticon. "Strongarm, don't!" Bumblebee tried to warn her.

"Decepticon, you are under arrest for-!" she tried to grab him but her servo got burned his skin. His acid skin! "Argh!"

Springload grinned. "Try to keep me from my treasure and you'll get burned. And worse!" he then gave her a kick to the statue while wrapping the fairies with his tongue and sprint off.

They all walked up to the cadet. "You okay?" Bumblebee asked.

Strongarm looked at her burned servo. "Acid. Coating his armor. Built-in defense mechanism."

"Acid?" Mana blinked her eyes. "Wait, if he's all coated in acid, why doesn't it burned Sharuru and Dabyi...?"

"Maybe because they are not Cybertronians." her guardian answered. "I think his acid skin only harm Cybertronians."

Makoto look at where the frog went and leap into action. "MakoPi!" her friend called out to her.

"Where are you going?!" Strongarm also called out for her. "Come back! It's dangerous!"

She stopped for a while before replying. "I'm not leaving without Sharuru and Dabyi! Even I'm not a Pretty Cure, it is my duty not only to be a hero but to protect what is important to me: my friends!" she look at Strongarm. "Don't make the same mistake I did once when I first met Mana and the others."

Her guardian was taken back by her words before the girl keep on running forward. 'Don't make the same mistake as her...' They look up and saw the temple is about to fall down. "Looks like the temple has some defenses of its own."

Strongarm didn't say anything as she keeps looking back where Makoto went. As the girl kept on running and dodging all of those rubbles, Daybi saw her coming towards them. "Makoto!"

Springload turned around and saw her. "I won't let you near Doradus! Ever!"

"I'm not here for the treasure! The treasure that I want are my friends that you stole from me!"

The frog glared as he looked and saw a giant hole and make a leap of it, and without noticing the two fairies slipped out from his tongue. ...not that way, you dirty-mind readers. The girl followed them before the wall fall down completely. With Bumblebee, Strongarm and Mana, they managed to get out to safety.

"What about MakoPi?" Mana asked.

"We'll figure that out later." Bumblebee then turned to look at Strongarm. "Because of you attempted an unauthorized capture, we've lost the element of surprise. Now we have to plan an immediate confrontation. We can't wait for the rest of the team." Bumblebee sounded angry.

Strongarm looked down in shame. She remember what Makoto said back then.

"Don't make the same mistake I did once when I first met Mana and the others..."

She did made a mistake. That's the reason why she is so distance from her. The cadet have to tell the truth about it. "Actually, they're not coming." that caused them to look at her in shocked. "After you spoke to Fixit, I commed back and told him not to send the others. I...didn't want time to give Springload time to get away."

The girl looked up and said, "No wonder Makoto was so distance from you."

Bumblebee was not impressed and crossed his arms. "Your reckless behavior was bad enough. Then you lied to a superior officer. To me." Ouch, that stings. No puns intended.

"I know I did wrong and...I made the same mistake as Makoto told me..."

Mana stayed silent for speaking up. "It's okay to made mistakes." that caught her attention. "Everyone made mistakes sometimes, no matter how big or small they are. Making mistakes is part of learning. In my term, I called it a 'happy accident'." she winked.

(Sorry if this part is kinda cheesy-)

Strongarm looked down at her in shocked before smiling. "Thanks, Mana." she looked at Bumblebee. "Please, sir. One more chance to complete the mission solo. Let me take the lead, you observe. I'll do everything by the book."

He went silent for a bit before nodding. "You're on a very short leash."

"Thank you, sir!"

"But...you have to make amend with Makoto after this mission is over."

She nods. "I will!"

-Location: Yotsuba mansion, Autobot base-

Alice has instructed the two Autobots to follows her plan: to messed up the Decepticon Hunter for a bit so that Fixit and Sebastian can work together to fix it. Once again, no puns intended. Rikka and Raquel were looking out for the Mini-Con and the butler to make sure they are on the same place, before facing at Alice, giving a thumb up.

"Let's test it out."

"Are you sure this will works?" Sideswipe asked.

"Just follow Alice's plan-de lance."

"Yeah, she knows what to do." Grimlock really know what Alice capable of. They walked towards Fixit and Sebastian with a Decepticon Hunter as Alice placed down to the ground, making some noise.

Both Fixit and Sebastian looked at them and then to the Decepticon Hunter.

"We were just messing around with it and it started to make noise." Alice told them.

The Mini-Con looked at the Decepticon Hunter carefully. "Might be a frequency or a systems overload. Or it could be resulting in a catastrophic explosion! It needs to be disarmed." he picked up the weapon.

Sebastian knew Fixit doesn't want him to help so he just turned around.

"To access the Decepticon Hunter's motherboard, the outer casing needs to be removed." Fixit said. "The Decepticon Hunter must be kept completely immobile. I cannot do it myself."

"Well..." Rikka began. "We need 'someone' who is much older than us to do this kind of stuff."

Sebastian heard what she said and turned around. Fixit looked up at him and nods. The butler smiled and bowed. "I'll be gladly to help you." he and Fixit went to find some tools to fix the weapon.

The others looked at each other and grinned. "It worked-quel...!"

"Now, all we have to do is to see if they can work together."

-Location: With Makoto-

After the wall has collapsed, Makoto groggily opened her eyes and woke up. She looked around her surroundings. "This is..."

"Makoto-davi!" her fairy partner went up to her as the girl hugged her closer.

"Dabyi, thank goodness you're okay! Where's Sharuru?"

"Right here-sharu!" they saw the fairy coming out from the rubble and went to them. "I'm fine-sharu."

"You!" they turned around and saw Springload was in front of them, croaking angrily. "You are not worthy to have all the treasure from Doradus! The spirits chose me!"

"We don't want any treasures-sharu!" Sharuru shouts. "You're being quite selfish-sharu!"

Dabyi has another idea. "Remember when we said that we're the legendary warriors' fairies...of Doradus-davi?" she explained. "Then, here it comes-davi!" she turned into the Lovely Commune as Makoto nods and began to transforms.

"Pretty Cure, Love Link!"

"The blade of courage, Cure Sword!"

Springload backed away in shocked and fear. "I-impossible! The spirits never told me about the legendary warriors of Doradus!"

"Sorry, Doradus isn't here right now." a voice spoke up and it is revealed to be Strongarm. "Can we take a message?"

Sword looked at her and let out a smile a bit. While Sharuru went to Mana. "Mana-sharu!"

"Sharuru!" she hugged her fairy partner.

"It's not possible!" Springload croaked. "You were buried alive! Unless...you're ghosts. Yes!"

"He's still out of his mind-sharu..." Sharuru sighed as she transformed into the Lovely Commune. "Let's go, Mana." Mana nods and began to transforms.

"Pretty Cure, Love Link!"

"Overflowing love, Cure Heart!"

The frog let out 'hmph'ed. "Unworthy spirits and legendary warriors, still seeking to foil me! Never!" he transformed and drove off with the two Autobots does the same as they went inside and chased after him.

Sword just sit there quietly, didn't say anything. "Look, I know what I did was wrong and you were right. I did made the same mistake as you. I only care about this being our first solo mission and never cared about others' and your feelings too. I was...being so selfish. I'm sorry. You are still my friend, Makoto." the girl turned to look at her. "I promise, I'll be a good friend to you. To everyone."

Her human partner stay silent before let out a smile. "Alright. I forgive you." she nods. Dabyi heard their conversation and smiles. "Now, let's get him-davi!"

Everyone drove further to chase him. Strongarm followed his trail while Bumblebee drove to the left. He managed to catch up to him but Springload transform and uses his tongue to whack him with his acid. Bumblebee screamed in pain and drove backward.

"Bee, look out behind us-sharu!"

"Lieutenant!" Strongarm managed to stop him from falling from the cliff. She transformed and started to shoot at the Decepticon thought he managed to dodge it.

"Pathetic spirits!" he mocked but Sword leaped up and prepare to attack.

"Holy Sword!!"

She launched her attack at him as Springload yelped and tries to dodge them before sprinting off, escaped from their sight.

"We lost him-davi..."

Bumblebee let Heart out before he transformed. He noticed that she was feeling all woozy and dizzy. "You alright?"

"C-carsick...!" all that spinning from him makes her feel dizzy. Sword went to her.

Strongarm walked towards Bumblebee. "Sir, would you relinquish your role as observer and officially assist?"

He went silent before looking at Sword as she nod and let out a smile. "I'd be honored, cadet." he replied back.

-Location: Yotsuba mansion, Autobot base-

Back at the mansion, Fixit was unscrewing the top as Sebastian hold the weapon still so it doesn't move. The others just watched them from afar. As the Mini-Con has successfully unscrew, he take a look inside and there are no bomb inside. "There's no bomb here."

But Sebastian noticed something. "Look. There's something lodged in there." Fixit also noticed. He reached out his hand in there after his hand changed into a picker and picked it up. They tried to brace themselves when Fixit pulled it out but nothing happened. When they look inside, they saw a kazoo.

"What's this?" Fixit was confused.

Both Grimlock and Sideswipe burst out laughing as the girls just giggled. Both Sebastian and Fixit were even more confused. The butler knew it was a stun all along but he decided not burst his bubble.

"I can't believe that worked!" Sideswipe spoke up.

"You started to working together!" Grimlock added.

"Thank goodness you two stopped fighting." Alice said.

Rikka nods. "It was all Alice's idea."

Fixit blinked his optics in confusion and Sebastian just smiled before looking at the weapon. "Fixit, shouldn't that cable be...?" that caught the Mini-Con's attention.

He looked at the weapon. "Attached to that terminal?" Sebastian nods. "Yes. Hold it very still." Fixit place the wire back where it belongs before secure it tightly. "Now, that's that."

"Great work." Sebastian smiled again.

"Say, Sebastian." Fixit called out to him. "You are very calm whenever I tried to bold--cold--*thunks*--scold you."

The butler just chuckles. "Being calm is my priority. Even you scolded me, I never wanted to shout back or get angry at you because that is not what my job as a butler is." he went silent a bit. "I see you as a part of the team or a friend of mine, Fixit."

Fixit was surprised by his words while Alice just smiled. "I'm sorry for you know...being kinda selfish to you." he rubbed the back of his helm.

Sebastian chuckled and smiled. "Apologies accepted."

Everything was quiet for a bit before Fixit spoke up. "Perhaps we should work together more."

"I will glad too." the butler bowed, before having another idea. "Perhaps we can duplicate this Decepticon Hunter so everyone on the team may have one."

"Sounds like a plan!" Fixit grinned before he and Sebastian walked off. The others watched them go as the girls smiled at each other while the two Autobots fist bumped also at each other. However, the fairies wondered about Mana, Makoto, Bumblebee, Strongarm, Sharuru and Dabyi.

"I wonder if they're okay-quel..."

"We can only hope-de lance."

-Location: Back with Bumblebee and the others-

They were hiding behind the stone pillar, watching Springload from afar.

"Please! Guardian of Doradus! My whole life, it must be near! Where is it?!" he cried. "I will destroy you all! Where is it?!"

"So dramatic-sharu..." Sharuru thought to herself.

Bumblebee looked over and saw some coffins behind the frog. "Those stone containers look just about Springload's size. Now, we need a plan to get him in there."

Sword looked around a bit and saw a statue not far from them. She had an idea. "I got an idea." she beamed.

"What must I do? What? What?!" Springload croaked in agony.

Both Heart and Sword was right behind him. "We're sorry but you're not the right Decepticon for this stuff."

The frog turned around and gasped. "You! Impossible! The spirits chose me!"

"The spirits didn't said so."

"Unworthy..." came a ghostly voice. Springload croacked in shocked.

"Who said that?!"

He then saw a statue moving beside him. "The spirits of Doradus have decreed. You do not deserve the treasure. You are unworthy." that voice sounds like Strongarm.

"We, as the legendary warriors of Doradus, told the spirits that the treasure doesn't deserve to anybot who is selfish." Sword spoke up.

Springload backed away and hide behind the coffin with a scared expression. "But...I've worked hard! Tirelessly!"

Heart looked at Bumblebee who was hiding. "Bee, now...!" she whispered at him as he nods.

"And you're long overdue for a rest." when Springload turned around, he sees Bumblebee charged towards him while holding a the coffin lid and pushed him into the coffin before putting on the lid.

"No! Let me out! Let me out!" the frog cried, trying to break free. "I am worthy!" Bumblebee tried his best to push down the lid while Heart and Sword helped him, so as Strongarm. After a while, everything started to quiet down.

"Nice collar, cadet." Bumblebee complimented her.

"Some solo mission." she sighed.

"You led the pursuit, dealt with every obstacle, and used the perp's own fear against him." he continued. "But most importantly, you made two decisions that really showed me everything."

"The ghost's voice, right?"

"Putting aside pride to ask for help. That's no rookie move. And you made an amend with Makoto." he looked down at Sword before they both let out a smile while Heart wrapped her arm around her and smiled as well.

Strongarm went silent a bit before smiling. "You're right, sir." she looked at her human partner who was smiling along with Heart. "She taught me a lot. After all, she's my friend. And...you're my friends too." she went quiet once more before speaking up. "Maybe I won't stay a cadet for long, huh?"

Bumblebee let out a playful smirk. "Not if you continue to prove yourself worthy!" he said that with a spooky voice. But after that, the coffin lid still trying to budge open, that means that Springload is still not knock out yet.

"Let's go back." Heart told them as they all nods.

Strongarm turned to look over at Sword. "Thanks, Makoto, for sticking with me. And you too, Dabyi."

Sword smiled. "It's what friends are for." while Dabyi just nodded.

END OF CHAPTER 9

[jtsodergren]

The Best of 2019

2019, what an exceptional year for movies! A great way to close out the shittiest decade! Here are the 50 best films I saw this year... click on the title to go to the IMDB page, and I’ll try to post a link to where you can see many of them. Also for the first time this year, I’m including MOM WARNINGS! My mom reads this list and sometimes actually watches these movies... so to save her some grief, sadness, or general concern for my psyche, there will be a NOT FOR MOMS!! warning where applicable... here we go!

50. STAR WARS - EPISODE IX: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER (Amazon)

People really hated this movie... I actually really liked it! Aside from the horses running around on the outside of spaceships (which makes no fucking sense... didn’t Leia get all space frozen exactly one movie ago??), it was a satisfying conclusion to a franchise I guess I don’t really care about as much as other people, so I was into it!

49. JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM (Amazon)

Quickly becoming one of the more well produced action franchises of all time. Probably two too many machine gun shootouts in this one for me (I get a little exhausted with gun violence), but the hand-to-hand stuff is brilliant and bloody and badass! Not to mention the deepening of the mythology and Halle Berry and her dogs. It’s a fun time, a welcome addition to the series, and I can’t wait for number 4.

48. QUEEN & SLIM (Amazon)

Billed as the black BONNIE AND CLYDE and from first time feature director Melina Matsoukas, this atmospheric tragedy is gorgeous to look at, delivers a pair of standout lead performances, and proves to have one of the more stressful final 30min of any of the films I saw this year, even if you know the inevitable conclusion is just around the corner.

47. UNDER THE SILVER LAKE (Amazon PRIME)

A wild Los Angeles noir story from the director of IT FOLLOWS. Plays like if David Lynch directed THE BIG LEBOWSKI, a weird, screwball whodunit. It’s a little long, and there are so many loose ends that seem to be thrown in just to fuck with the protagonist (and the audience), but it’s a really fun time and you’ll want to stay to the end to see it all play out. LA looks gorgeous too.

46. KNOCK DOWN THE HOUSE (Netflix)

Truly inspiring. Really shows how if you put your mind to something, believe in yourself and that you can make a difference, you can accomplish anything. Regardless of your political leanings, or how you feel about AOC personally, this is well worth your time and it has a great message for young people, especially those young women of color who might not think they can achieve great levels of success. It made me cry the happy tears.

45. LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (Amazon)

Best known for it’s remarkable 59min-3D final take, this hallucinatory journey through memory and dreams is mind-blowing and breathtaking. Hard not to leave this one feeling like you’ve been put though some kind of experiment that you don’t fully understand, but you’ll want to experience again. Highly recommended if you have access to 3D, or simply have some killer edibles and want to be thrown for a loop.

44. CLIMAX (Amazon PRIME)

NOT FOR MOMS!!

Speaking of being under the influence, holy shit is this film nuts! From Gaspar Noe, who if you’re aware of his work, you kind of already know what you’re in store for here. It’s been described as “FAME directed by the Marquis de Sade”... incredible dance sequences and audacious camerawork that slowly but surely devolves into hell. It’s a blast!

43. HAIL SATAN? (Hulu)

A fresh and funny documentary about a group of smartass Satanists exposing the hypocrisy amongst bible-thumping Christians who’d rather stomp their feet and be the loudest in the room than listen to anyone else’s perspective. Frustrating and entertaining in equal parts, this compulsively watchable film makes you want to scream at these Jesus freaks as much as you want to laugh along with the antics of these harmless, intelligent and organized troublemakers. An excellent time well spent.

42. FIRST LOVE (Amazon)

(Probably) NOT FOR MOMS!!

Director Takashi Miike’s yakuza action-comedy is the most accessible of his films I’ve seen (he’s now made more than 100 movies, which is insane), but that doesn’t mean it’s not a gonzo wild time at the movies. The violence is here in full force, but unlike AUDITION or ICHI THE KILLER, you don’t need a barf bag close by to enjoy it. It’s often hilarious and moves at a breakneck speed. Super fun!

41. THE DEAD DON’T DIE (Amazon PRIME)

Jim Jarmusch’s star-studded, droll zombie-comedy came and went from theaters without much fanfare, but provided me with plenty of laughs. It’s also the second of 3 Adam Driver vehicles to be on this year’s list. Bill Murray and Driver lead the way along with plenty familiar faces in cameos throughout (including the RZA in one of my favorite scene’s of the year). Classic Jarmusch... a meditation on death and mortality in his vintage style.

40. EL CAMINO: A BREAKING BAD MOVIE (Netflix)

Dude, Aaron Paul is a legit GREAT actor. Picks up right where the show left off, and I was on the edge of my seat and filled with anxiety just like I was during the best moments of the now classic series. It was good to hang out with my old friends again.

39. DOCTOR SLEEP (Amazon)

A box office flop due to poor promotion and a title people weren’t familiar with, this sequel to THE SHINING is based on the Stephen King book of the same name, which I read, and I can’t recommend it more. Great suspense, and fantastic performances from both Ewan McGregor and (especially) Rebecca Ferguson. It’s a dark and scary film that is a fun trip back to the Overlook Hotel... provided you wish to return there...

38. THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO (Amazon PRIME)

About 90min into this beautifully shot film I was ready to lock it in as a possible Top 5 contender. Then the bottom fell out for me the last quarter of the movie and lost my confidence. No bother, it’s still wonderful enough to find a spot on the list and carry my recommendation. Young men and women watching their city change before their eyes, and wondering what the concept of “home” really means is a real challenge facing many people here in the Bay Area. This film does a fantastic job conveying that, for most of the film anyway. 

37. THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON (Amazon)

A bonafide crown-pleaser of a movie, and another example of the true talent Shia LeBeouf has and is capable of (more on him later). A young man with Down Syndrome escapes his assisted-living facility to track down his wrestling idol the Saltwater Redneck with the help of an outlaw and a social worker. Sweet, funny, and heartfelt... a feel good surprise.

36. A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD (Amazon)

I didn’t cry nearly as much as I did during the excellent documentary WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR from last year, but if you’re a Mr. Rogers fan, you’ll still shed a few during this heartwarming film. Tom Hanks does his thing, and even though this movie is guilty of borrowing a little too much from the previous doc, it’s still a great showcase for the truly selfless and beautiful force of nature that Fred Rogers was. Bring tissues anyway.

35. CARMINE STREET GUITARS (In Theaters Now)

A love letter to both New York City and the art, joy, and love that goes into honing and maintaining one’s craft. Meanwhile the looming doom of gentrification hovers over the proceedings, never letting you get fully enrapt in the sweetness that these artists (and their many famous customers) exude when talking about and playing their one-of-a-kind works of art. A stunning and lovely piece for musicians and talentless fans of music alike.

34. HOLIDAY (Amazon)

NOT FOR MOMS!!

A tough, cold film with nary a character to actively root for... until after about an hour of icy behavior comes (no pun intended) a scene so shocking in its graphic and disturbing nature, people left the theater without staying for the final resolution. First time director Isabella Eklof pulls off the bold and audacious maneuver, all while making it seem like she doesn’t care whether you like her characters (or her film) at all. It’s a very fine balancing act, executed to perfection. But be warned... it’s rough.

33. AVENGERS: ENDGAME (Disney+)

What can I say? You saw it. It’s good. A bunch of Supermans fly around and blow shit up. A satisfying end (until the next 20 films).

32. MIDSOMMAR (Amazon Prime)

NOT FOR MOMS!!

A disturbing slow burn of a gothic horror film. Characters do hallucinogens while ritualistic religious murders and tribal mating practices threaten to ruin everyones existence. Florence Pugh is phenomenal (more from her in a minute) in a very trying roll. Doesn’t pack quite the punch of the director’s last film, HEREDITARY, but it’s still well worth the watch. But yeah, it’s disturbing.

31. APOLLO 11 (Hulu)

A fascinating look at the first moon landing from rarely seen archival footage and audio. Seeing it on the IMAX screen was intense and exhilarating, unlike narrative pictures like the severely overrated FIRST MAN. This isn’t my favorite documentary of the year, but it is an absolute lock to win the Academy Award for Best Doc of 2019. It’s a must see, a must experience.

30. HIGH LIFE (Amazon PRIME)

NOT FOR MOMS!!

French auteur Claire Denis’ bizarre, erotic sci-fi mindfuck about isolation and humanity is not for everyone, but is a brilliant take on the genre, and is yet another showcase for Robert Pattinson, who is quietly becoming one of my favorite working actors. Juliette Binoche also is on fire here and has what one critic calls “the single greatest one-person sex scene in the history of cinema.” So it has that going for it.

29. TRIPLE FRONTIER (Netflix)

A fully loaded heist film with no real bad guy, but instead a group of recognizable badasses in a Netflix-released action thrill ride. There’s absolutely no reason this should’ve worked, or even been half as good as it is, but boy is it good! Compulsively watchable, and rewatchable. If this were on Showtime as much as DEN OF THIEVES is I’d have seen it 30 times by now. It’s one of the most pleasant surprises of the year.

28. 1917 (Amazon)

An unbelievable visual achievement from cinematographer Roger Deakins and director Sam Mendes. The story isn’t the greatest war story ever told (are there great war stories?), but it’s shot to look like one continuous long take, sustained for 2hrs. It’s really an unbelievable feat, but doesn’t come off as gimmicky or distracting. It’s intense, beautifully staged, and sad. A big screen spectacle. 

27. TOY STORY 4 (Amazon)

Woody and the gang are back, and the films continue to keep the dust from collecting. It’s still so much fun to hang out with this group of misfit toys. There was talk that after the incredible TOY STORY 3 this was just a money grab and was labeled unnecessary, but I found it to be a sweet, charming, and nostalgic trip I was glad I took.

26. HONEYLAND (Hulu)

My pick for documentary of the year comes from the mountains of Macedonia, where a woman named Hatidze lives with her dying mother making a living cultivating honey. When a family of shitheads moves into a shanty next door, what seems like a fix for her lonely existence becomes catastrophic as they disregard her teachings and threaten her livelihood. I was an emotional wreck throughout the experience and it goes without saying it’s a must-see. Gorgeous and heartbreaking.

25. LITTLE WOMEN (Amazon)

I have never read the book, nor seen any of the film adaptations, so I went in blind to this lovely film. Director Greta Gerwig follows up the phenomenal LADYBIRD with this Altman-esque rendition of the widely beloved literary classic. I found it exceptional in its execution and performances, including the previously mentioned Florence Pugh, who is a knockout. A wonderful addition to the ever-growing stable of Christmas films I look to enjoy during future Decembers.

24. GREENER GRASS (Hulu)

It’s as if Tim & Eric made BLUE VELVET. Bizarre, outrageous, gross, and a guaranteed future midnight movie favorite. My sides hurt. A satire skewering upper-middle class suburban soccer moms and dads alike. Babies are given away. A boy turns into a dog. Everyone has braces. There’s a creep on the loose. It’s wild and flat-out hilarious literally from start to finish. Almost too many jokes to keep up with. Watch it! Bring weed. 

23. RELAXER (Amazon)

NOT FOR MOMS!!

Speaking of gross, this film is disgusting, but in a good way. A satire about lazy consumerism and self-destruction. It’s a short hang, thankfully, but if you can stomach it to the end (remember, it’s nasty) you’ll be rewarded with not only a hilarious dark comedy, but also an unexpected haymaker of sadness you didn’t see coming. It’s a pretty impressive feat, and an overall success. But, yeah, it’s fucking gross. 

22. AD ASTRA (Amazon)

APOCALYPSE NOW in space starring Brad Pitt. If you need more information than that, I don’t really know what else to do for you. 

21. SLUT IN A GOOD WAY (Amazon PRIME)

(Probably) NOT FOR MOMS!!

A black-and-white raunchy French arthouse teen comedy that gives a middle finger to the double standard set by the equally raunchy teen-boys-will-be-boys genre. It’s so much fun, and honest, and the actors are such natural talents you forget the subject matter is at times shocking (only because of said double standard) and just go with it. I think it’s just wonderful. Seek it out!

20. US (HBO)

Jordan Peele’s excellent follow-up to GET OUT. Doppelganger home invasion terror with a killer twist. To describe more would be to risk giving something away. I’ll just say that Lupita Nyong’o is my pick to win her second Oscar, this time as Best Actress, here in a dual role. She’s incredible. If you haven’t seen it, try to go in blind, you’ll be rewarded.

19. THE FAREWELL (Amazon PRIME)

A heartfelt homecoming film about family, culture, and how the things we don’t say can be just as strong of a show of love as the things we do say. It’s sweet, tender, and bursting with personal flare and emotions from director Lulu Wang. Awkwafina also curbs her more manic and loud tendencies as a performer for more quiet, thoughtful, and somber choices. She’s phenomenal. 

18. KNIVES OUT (Amazon)

A clever ensemble whodunit that’s just as funny and smart as it is mysterious. Everyone across the board delivers as the assorted motley crew. The film rewards repeat viewings and Daniel Craig knocks it out of the park, stealing every scene he’s in, reminding us all what a fantastic actor he can be when he’s not sipping the Vespers. 

17. BOOKSMART (Hulu)

The female SUPERBAD is the elevator pitch, but this coming-of-age gem is really unlike any other example in the genre. They’re privileged, uber-smart, and have never partied. Yet they have the same neuroses as any other teen scared to death of what to do next or how to be normal. It’s also fucking hilarious. You wanna hang out with these girls and at the same time bury your head under the covers because you feel their pure terror/embarrassment. It’s a blast.

16. THE MUSTANG (Amazon)

Starring Matthias Schoenaerts, one of the finest actor’s working today, this understated and emotional drama about rehabilitation and redemption floored me upon first viewing. It is a gorgeous film. You’ve probably seen stories similar to this before, but rarely is one told with such compelling conviction. A borderline masterpiece. 

15. HONEY BOY (Amazon PRIME)

Remember a few years back we had the McConaissance, where everything Matthew McConaughey did was solid gold after years of middling bullshit? I’m calling it right now: Shia LaBeouf is about to have the same thing. He wrote the script and plays a version of his own father in a brutal version of his own fucked up childhood as an up-and-coming child actor. It’s heartbreaking and absolutely riveting. I’m hoping he gets an Oscar nod, but regardless I implore you to seek this film out, he’s incredible. 

14. MONOS (Hulu)

(Probably) NOT FOR MOMS!!

A bizarre, bewildering, chaotic, and unsettling film. Some of the most beautiful photography I saw on the big screen this year, yet some of the most surreal and disturbing imagery as well. It’s a militarized, Latin American LORD OF THE FLIES with commentary on tribal behavior and violence. It can be a tough sit, but boy is it beautiful. 

13. DOLEMITE IS MY NAME (Netflix)

What a wonderful, welcome surprise! Eddie Murphy in an awards caliber performance as Rudy Ray Moore, the multi-hyphenate performer who created the alter ego Dolemite, spawning a film franchise and many legendary comedy albums. It’s obviously hilarious, and a great behind-the-scenes biopic, but also shockingly sweet and heartfelt, even between all the cuss words. I even teared up a couple times. The 3rd best thing Netflix released this year (more on that in a minute).

12. JOKER (Amazon)

You already saw this.

11. THE IRISHMAN (Netflix)

It’s far too long. It could’ve done with being cut as a three part miniseries or special. There’s about 45min worth of scenes that are quintessential DVD bonus features (I’m looking at you Action Bronson), but goddamn if it’s not Scorsese doing his Scorsese thing. It’s a gangster film, but it’s also a meditation on aging and death. Pesci is incredible and Pacino steals the show. Sure, the de-aging thing is distracting, the curb stomping scene is embarrassing. But still, I mean... IT’S MARTIN SCORSESE!

10. PAIN AND GLORY (Amazon)

Pedro Almodovar’s most personal work to date, a tale about making art and the loneliness of love. If you are unfamiliar with his work, this is a great jumping off point. His movies can be challenging and dark, but this film has such joy and hope amongst the heartache. The final reveal, while not earth shattering on paper, is nonetheless so moving it left the screening I attended without a dry eye in the place. It is his best film yet. 

9. THE LIGHTHOUSE (Amazon)

From the director of THE WITCH comes another type of gothic horror, this time with the legendary Willem Dafoe and the (already mentioned) brilliant Robert Pattinson marooned on a lighthouse rock alone to drive each other completely insane. It’s hallucinatory, violent, disorienting, and flat-out brilliant. If it weren’t for another guy we’ll get to in a minute, Dafoe would be a lock for Best Supporting Actor here. It’s a slightly challenging film, with the period style mariner dialogue, but it’s just as funny as it is terrifying.

8. JOJO RABBIT (Amazon)

A beautiful, touching, funny, crowd-pleasing comedy about a little Nazi whose imaginary friend is Hitler. Yep, your read that correctly. There are about a million reasons this should absolutely not work. Yet, it’s one of the best theater going experiences I had this year. A must see... ESPECIALLY with Mom!

7. MARRIAGE STORY (Netflix)

The best written and acted film of the year, and the third Adam Driver vehicle to appear here. Sad but honest. Touching but brutal. It’s awkward and a bit of a bummer, but there’s such great work being done here, in front of and behind the camera. Noah Baumbach is a force of nature, and has yet to make a film I was even iffy about. He’s the real deal and this might be his masterpiece. 

6. WAVES (Amazon)

Speaking of auteurs, Trey Edward Shults is now 3/3 on features after the brilliant KRISHA and IT COMES AT NIGHT. Here he follows a middle-class black family, led by a domineering father, through a tragic moment in all of their lives. The first half deals with the son’s story, then abruptly switches to the daughter’s life post said event. It shouldn’t work, yet somehow manages to be one of the most emotionally affecting pieces of art I saw this year. The camera never stops moving, constantly swirling and whirling and you can’t help to be sucked up into it. It’s a beautiful tragedy.

5. LONG SHOT (HBO)

The biggest and most pleasant surprise of the year. An opposites-attract rom-com with more brains, bite, social commentary, and laughs than it has any right to have. Easily the most fun you’ll have with (almost) the whole family... there’s a lot of cum jokes. But don’t let the vulgarity dissuade you! It’s a total riot with just the right amount of sweetness to balance out the saltiness. I love love love this movie.

4. THE ART OF SELF-DEFENSE (Hulu)

What starts as a strange, dark comedy morphs into a FIGHT CLUB-esque thriller with allusions to disturbingly toxic masculinity and an offbeat take on what it takes to “be a man.” It is laugh-out-loud hilarious, and expertly made, while really having something to say, and it says it in a way I’ve never really seen before. It’s not surprising this didn’t get more attention, the characters are truly difficult to relate to, let alone root for, but as far as originality goes, you’d be hard pressed to find anything this year much better than this. 

3. UNCUT GEMS (Amazon)

(Probably) NOT FOR MOMS!!

The cinematic equivalent of being locked in the brain of a lunatic having a cocaine-fueled anxiety attack. If that sounds like fun (AND IT IS!!!) then this is the film for you! Oh, and Adam Sandler is going to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor. For real. It’s a chaotic, stress-filled masterpiece.

2. ONCE UPON A TIME... IN HOLLYWOOD (Amazon)

My favorite filmmaker’s 2nd best film. A personal story about the love of film during the late 60s, a time of dirty hippies and Charles Manson, as well as the passing of the torch from old Hollywood to the “golden age” of cinema. It’s a fairytale of sorts, with Tarantino’s trademark flare for spontaneous violence and mining multiple genres to make his most mature work since PULP FICTION. I’ve been rewarded with new takeaways upon each subsequent viewing, and my love and appreciation for it only grows and grows. Brad Pitt is a lock for Best Supporting Actor, he’s magnificent. It was always going to be my #1 with a bullet no matter what, because it’s just that great...

1. PARASITE (Amazon)

...but then Bong Joon-ho, the master of new Korean cinema unleashed PARASITE. Not only is it the best film of 2019, it’s one of the best films I have ever seen. Like EVER ever. He is in such astonishing control of his craft it’s hard not to sit back and marvel and the sheer skill on display. You can be laughing one moment and then recoiling in horror during the same breath. He’s using multiple genre tropes, incredible set design, pitch perfect acting/writing, and such exquisite planning you can’t possibly know what’s in store for you from one scene to the next. It is an absolute masterpiece and if it doesn’t sweep every category it’s nominated for at this year’s Oscars, it’ll be a travesty. If you have even a passing interest in film as an art form, the power it can wield, and the messages it can convey, you owe it to yourself to see this film. It’s perfect.

Well, there it is. Thanks for reading any part of this. Now go see PARASITE. I love you.

[morbid-n-macabre]

This one is local for me. The perpetrators are in my approximate age group, I was 16 when this occurred. Most of us locals who remember when this was going on hold a seething resentment towards this group of punks, and for good reason. Let me tell you why...

So, The Lords of Chaos were a teen militia group who did their very best to terrorize Fort Myers, Florida back in 1996. This crime spree ended with the murder of the very much loved and respected Riverdale Highschool band director, Mr. Mark Schwebes. The teacher was a truly good and decent human being who went out of his way to help the kids around him. Sadly, his killers knew this and used it to their advantage.

The Lords of Chaos lived in one of the more remote areas of Lee County, a place called Buckingham. The group consisted of teenagers with ridiculous nicknames: Kevin Foster was the leader who referred to himself as "God" (yep, the sociopath had a bit of a God complex), Pete Magnotti was "Fried", Derek Shields was called "Mob", and Chris Black was a bigger boy referred to as " Slim". Those 4 were the main members of the gang, but there were others who were less involved: Thomas "Dog" Torrone, Chris "Red" Burnett, and Craig Lesh. The only one in the group to have a criminal record was their leader, Kevin, albeit mostly driving offenses. His parents owned a local pawnshop so Kevin had access to an arsenal of weapons which he was apparently not taught to respect; the weapon which would be used to commit murder, a 12-gauge Mossberg 500 shotgun with an equipped suppressor, had been a Christmas gift when he was just 13. Kevin is described as charismatic, homophobic, racist, and bigoted; he was enamored with the cult leader David Koresh, serials he'd seen on television like Norman Bates, outlaws such as Billy the Kid, and the homegrown terrorist Timothy McVeigh. Kevin wanted to do something big to catch a name for himself, he wanted a reputation; the rest of the group had no problem with following his lead.

This group's crime spree appears to have begun at the end of March when they stole a couple of Jeep Cherokees. They drove the new vehicles out to Lehigh Acres and set them on fire, just sat and watched them burn. Next, Kevin filled a Coke can with something which resembled gun powder and attached wires to it with duct tape; said can was placed on a shelf in a Walmart pharmacy. Kevin then called the store and told the employee who answered that there was a bomb inside; panicked shoppers were evacuated, police flocked to the store, it was a mess. This group did their best to destroy everything they could; they spent their time searching for things to steal, random windows to break, or places to set fire to.

On the evening of April 13th the Lords of Chaos decided to vandalize and rob a restaurant called The Hut. This restaurant happened to have an outdoor patio where customers would sit and eat, and there were two beautiful macaw parrots kept in a large cage. When Kevin heard the two macaw parrots talking, he decided to light them on fire. Macaws are not stupid animals, they're very intelligent parrots with a lifespan which rivals ours. Thankfully one of the birds did somehow survive this, but it lost its mate.

At midnight on April 20th Kevin decided to do something big, it was the anniversary of the Waco siege. The group drove to a historical landmark, our Coca-Cola bottling plant, one of the only original bottling plants in Florida. While Kevin carefully filled a soda can with gunpowder and stuck a 25 foot fireworks fuse inside of it, his buddies strategically placed stolen propane tanks all around the building; they carefully ensured that once Kevin's bomb went off, the whole building would blow. Once it was all set up, the teens sat in a safe spot across the street and watched the explosion; firefighters did their best to put out the fire, but our beloved historical building was lost.

So, it's probably obvious that all of this really upset people, by this point the entire county was beyond angry! A local reporter wrote an article about the ongoing vandalism, and said article was very insulting towards the group of punks who were responsible for these terrible acts. The group read this article, and it only added fuel to the fire, so to speak. In turn, they wrote a manifesto which they had intended to mail off to our local newspaper, the News Press. For whatever reason the manifesto was never sent; nevertheless, it read in part:

"Lee County is dealing with a formidable foe, with high caliber intelligence, balls of titanium alloy, and a wicked destructive streak. Be prepared for destruction of biblical proportions, for this is the coming of a NEW GOD, whose fiery hand shall lay waste to the populous.

THE GAMES HAVE JUST BEGUN, AND TERROR SHALL ENSUE..."

The spree continued with the robbery of a woman named Emory Shields; Emory was not only the owner of a small restaurant called Alva Country Diner, but she had been one of the teen's landlord. After robbing Ms. Shields, they stole her vehicle. At one point the gang took a trip to the Edison mall in hopes of stealing some clothing. They attempted to let off a grenade inside Dillard's, but thankfully it was a dud. Next, Kevin and his buddies decided to attend Grad Nite, which is a big deal for highschool seniors because they get to run around Disney World throughout the night. Kevin had a plan to steal one of the character suits and shoot up Disney, to kill as many teenagers as possible, but thankfully he chickened out.

On April 30th the teenagers drove to their own school, Riverdale, with the intention of trashing it. They stole several things, set off multiple fire extinguishers, then filled up a bottle of bleach with gas and threw it though the highschool's auditorium window. Riverdale's beloved band director, 32 year old Mr. Mark Schwebes, caught the group outside. He confiscated all of the items which they had stolen from the school, and threatened to tell the resource officer. Kevin knew that once the vandalism inside the school was discovered, the teacher would put two and two together and the group would be busted; he decided that the band teacher had to die before that could happen.

The teens found Mr. Schwebes phone number and address by calling 411. They dialed the teacher first, to ensure that they'd obtained the correct information; after hearing Mr. Schwebes voice, Kevin, Pete, Derek, and Chris Black all jumped in their vehicle and drove over. Kevin knew that the teacher would answer his door for a student he recognized, and since Derek had been a member of the band, that's who was sent knocking. At approximately 11:30 pm the teacher opened the door for his student, and Kevin immediately shot him in the face with his aforementioned 12 gauge. It's said that Mr. Schwebes probably never knew what hit him. When the teacher hit the ground, Kevin shot him once more, this time in the buttocks because he wrongly assumed Mr. Schwebes to be homosexual. The group didn't even bother to pick up the spent shells, they just left them at the scene.

There's really no telling what else would have happened or who else would've been hurt or killed had this group not been caught when they did; it's said that they had been planning to rob a local Hardee's restaurant when they were finally caught. Thankfully they were braggarts, and one of the teen's girlfriends couldn't keep the secret, she went to the police.

Craig and Brad faced no charges, while Tom and Chris Burnett both took deals; they plead guilty to lesser crimes and received very little punishment in exchange for their testimony against the main members of the group.

Chris Black, Derek Shields, and Pete Magnotti all pled guilty to first degree murder. Pete received 32 years imprisonment while Chris and Derek are serving life. The only one of the group to go to trial was Kevin Foster. On June 17th of 1998 Kevin was sentenced to death; he has appealed his conviction, but recently it was undecided if the penalty would stick. From what I understand there was a new trial in which Kevin blamed his upbringing for his actions and asked that his own life be spared. It was decided that Kevin will ultimately be put to death by the state of Florida.

*I think it was Dateline which aired a two hour special on this case, I would link it if I could find it. This special kinda irked me because, idk, it almost seemed like the man who covered it fell in love with Kevin. It made the small-time gang leader out to be more than he was, like he was this highly manipulative cult leading criminal mastermind, which just wasn't the case. Kevin wasn't well known, there was no big following, he was not a force to be reckoned with. In all actuality Kevin Foster was a nobody until he and his buddies came up with a menacing name, vandalized our city, burnt parrots alive, and murdered an unsuspecting teacher who would've kicked his butt had he not been ambushed. If you're interested in knowing more, there's a really decent book about the case, "Someone Has to Die Tonight" which is worth the read.

Sorry for the opinions on this one. This whole case upsets me, and if you know me at all then you are already aware that I am a parrot person. Some obsess over cats, other dogs, for me it's parrots; I have 6 of them. My husband is still ticked off about the Coca-Cola plant.

This is a link to Mr. Schwebes sibling's blog. She's a Rabbi, and these are her feelings about the murder, and the new penalty trial which Mark's family has recently had to endure-

https://barefootpreachr.wordpress.com/category/thats-life/mark-schwebes/page/2/

[hellyeahomeland]

“Chalk One Up” | Directed by Seith Mann, Cinematography by David Klein

The episode opens with Carrie arriving from a long night out doing… God knows what with God knows who. We love the starkness of this close-up on the exterminated motorcycle light. According to Lesli Linka Glatter, this mode of transport is based on a real life story: 

“The scene where she gets out of the embassy was based on the real agent who Carrie is based on. She was based in Iraq at the time and that’s how she got out: by dressing as a man and traveling on a motorcycle. So, we used that for this. Also, you can’t leave in Kabul without an armored vehicle.”

...as the camera slowly pans up to reveal it’s Carrie underneath that (gigantor) motorcycle helmet, the question becomes clear: where the fuck was she? 

Sara loved these scenes between Samira and her friend. Homeland has depicted several cities in the Middle East over the years but has rarely given us glimpses into the world outside the walls of a hotel or CIA station, especially without our main characters. The market that Samira and her friend walk through is vibrant and filled with color, as are their outfits. It’s a stark contrast to the interiors of the CIA station. And Samira’s line that the Taliban didn’t go away but were no longer hiding proves remarkably predictive of the rest of the episode’s events.

The real highlight of the scene is the selfie, of course. We love the detail of the man on the far, far left being cut out. Samira’s friend is the master of the one-arm selfie! 

This shot of the various players at the Kabul station looking outward at Carrie is striking. It’s almost a reverse fish bowl. Carrie remains on the outside but everyone’s looks are in her direction. Jenna standing at the front of the room further suggests she was never “stuck in the starting gate.” She’s in the same position of power in that room as the Chief of Station and the commanding military officer at right. From afar, the dynamics are almost similar to early season one, Carrie running an ops meeting with Saul by her side. All of which is to say… is Jenna the Carrie to Mike’s Saul?

Dog.

This was such a specific detail that we thought it required pointing out, but 27 is not a significant number on this show (at least that we can remember), so we’re not sure why they bothered to show this. 

...unless it’s a reference to the general ominousness of the 27 Club and a hint that Carrie (who, to be fair, is far past the age of 27) is going to die. 

This week the show confirmed that Tasneem is the Director of the ISI. Which means that (after President Elizabeth Keane) she’s the second most powerful woman ever depicted on this show. And boy does she dress the part! 

Tasneem’s all-white ensemble is attention-grabbing and distinctive (the other women in this frame are dressed in dark clothes). It’s also visually similar--especially with her long, black hair peeking through the sheer fabric of her headscarf--to the dress worn by several other men at the reception.

Homeland has told lots of stories over the years--whether intentional or otherwise--about the challenges women face living in a patriarchal, misogynist society. Whether it’s Martha losing her career because her loser husband couldn’t stand having a wife who was more powerful and smarter than he…. Or Allison dying in the back of a car near the Russian border in an act of scorned lover revenge. Or Carrie, screaming and crying at the end of “The Vest”... but being right the whole time. 

Or, as Abigail Nussbaum said more elegantly than we ever could: 

“Carrie is, in many ways, a boogeyman; she is what professional women, and particularly ones in male-dominated professions, have been taught never to become - emotional, hysterical, crazy. Emotion is how women who want to be taken seriously are undermined and dismissed. Even if you’re perfectly sane, being emotional - and most especially, being angry - devalues you and your professional contribution. A woman can be called crazy simply for behaving like a normal human being rather than a robot (and of course, if she behaves robotically and unemotionally, she’s a cold bitch). But Carrie isn’t simply emotional (though she is that too, and worst of all, she allows her feelings for a man to cloud her judgment) - she actually is crazy and hysterical, in the proper clinical sense rather than the exaggerated one which attaches to any feminine display of emotion, and profoundly pathetic and unattractive in that state. And she’s completely right, the only person who figures out Brody and Abu Nazir’s plans and motivations, and the person who saves the day by being hysterical, infecting Brody’s daughter with enough of that hysteria that she calls her father and convinces him not to blow himself up.

It’s certainly possible to read this arc as purely tragic, Carrie’s self-destruction being the cost of saving the world (though this is a character arc that is applied to men as often as women, for example in Thomas Harris’s Red Dragon), but to my mind its effect is more complex. It makes a crazy, hysterical woman into a hero without in any way mitigating her craziness or hysteria, and thus defangs the argument that emotion in women is a weakness. It’s the rational, sane men around Carrie, who turn away from her unattractive mania with distaste and embarrassment, who are blind and incompetent, and it’s that same inability to look past surfaces that leads them to put their trust, wrongfully, in Brody - just as Carrie performs hysterical femininity, Brody performs stalwart masculinity. Both are misleading.”

All of which is to say, we’re really fucking pumped to see how Tasneem’s role expands for the rest of the season, and we think the array of women in Tasneem, Carrie, and Jenna and their varying degrees of power is going to be really interesting to see unfold. 

Sara is obsessed with this shot. She’s obsessed with the set design of Samira’s apartment. She’s obsessed with this moody lighting. She’s basically just obsessed. 

Last week we had a slow pan around Jalal to reveal Tasneem. This week we have a similar slow pan around Carrie to reveal Jenna. This definitely means that Sara’s theory that Jenna will “single white female” Carrie is right on track. 

Also, Gail hereby declares Carrie’s delicate silver jewelry her “FULL circle earrings,” because everything is coming full circle this episode, including accessories.

That said, we can’t deny the power of this shot. First, we have to note what’s going on in the background (which is actually in focus). President Beau has just arrived off Air Force One and immediately stops for a photo op with the Afghan president. From the beginning, the show is clear this is an optics-based trip. 

But we really love this image of Carrie and Jenna (out of focus, but in the foreground) side by side. Again, they mirror each other, but in opposite ways (“So they’re mirror opposites?” --Sara’s brain). Carrie’s light hair versus Jenna’s dark hair. Jenna’s light jacket versus Carrie’s dark one. It’s eerie.

On the podcast we talked at length about the scene between Beau and Carrie. It’s genuinely moving. The staging of it is unique as well. The camera shoots them both at the same height. They stand close together. Ironically, the power dynamic seems almost equal. He’s one of the few people who’s ever acknowledged the sacrifices she’s made in service of her country. 

Their twin smiles here are all the more tragic following the sequence of events that closes the episode. They all sincerely want peace. So many characters smile real, genuine smiles this week. That’s not a normal Homeland occurrence! 

And they all legitimately believe in what they’re doing. They believe they’re doing the right thing. Maybe they are. But partly out of necessity, and partly out of more selfish desires (Hayes later says it’s all about getting a second term), they get caught up in the theater of it all. They make poor decisions. They take the wrong risks.

Every so often in this series we have to abandon screenshots in favor of gifs in order to truly capture ~the moment~ and this is one of those times! The way Claire plays Carrie’s reaction here is so specific, so nuanced and strange and wonderful. These “lived in” moments are something we’ll really miss when the show is over.

IJLTP.

We’ve all been there, Carrie. 

This is another interesting shot choice. We’re not sure what its purpose is, other than to add interest to a fairly run-of-the-mill scene. But still, the set design! *heart eyes* 

Sara’s note for this shot was “Saul is so extra.” We talked about genuine and sincere smiles above and Saul’s here does qualify… sort of. This is halfway between genuine and self-aggrandizing. AKA “where Saul lives 100% of the time.” He looks like a director about to screen his short film at Sundance. The red curtains parting slowly behind him are Too Much.

Tasneem and G’ulom are the kids in the back of the classroom who are so fucking done with this shit but can’t leave because they’ll get detention. We will continue to stan. 

It’s a classic Homeland device to show a significant moment from a variety of perspectives, especially if those perspectives involve screens. The multitude of angles on Beau’s speech here reminded us a lot of Keane’s resignation speech in the Oval Office in “Paean to the People.” Coincidentally, that was her last hurrah as president too. 

(P.S. Another Saul over-the-shoulder shot!)

Two selfies in one episode! 

We loved the payoff to Max’s subplot. For once this season the weird LA filter actually looks nice! These are beautiful shots and the reflection in Max’s glasses is especially striking. 

The skull and crossbones on the barracks is an ominious detail. As is the rock labeled “Boredom Rock.” Death and boredom really have been the two extremes of Max’s stint at the combat outpost.

We’re still divided on the merits of the “Carrie has to save Samira” storyline, but the camerawork here, with Carrie’s armed hands appearing out of nowhere, was pretty cool. 

This RPG shot was one of the cooler special effects the show has done in a while. The entire sequence of Chalk One looking for Chalk Two was tense and thrilling and extremely well-executed.

Bringing us back to the ops room, the “LOSS OF SIGNAL” projected now for both helicopters is pretty chilling.

This is now Sara’s favorite shot of the entire series and we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that it’s another over-the-shoulder Saul shot. This time he observes one of the crowning achievements of his long career literally blowing up in his face. 

Visually, this shot anchors the viewer back to the Carrie/Saul relationship, the central one of the show. The black blankness--and the failure it represents--engulfs the frame. 

We love the choice to end the episode on Carrie alone. It refocuses the event back to her. The horror in her eyes, welling up with tears, is palpable. How does Carrie feel? Alex Gansa explained that the writers wanted to create a new 9/11 with this maybe-assassination of the president. And it’s a fitting bookend for the show in many ways. In Homeland’s pilot, Carrie says she “missed something that day,” misdirecting blame to herself for not preventing 9/11. Now, in the final season, the show seems poised to tell a story in which Carrie is blamed for the “new 9/11.” 

Strap in, folks. It’s gonna be a rough ride. 

[thirium-fiction]

Copycat Hostage (Connor x Reader)

Request: Connor x reader where Connor is held hostage, and it's up to reader, Hank, and others to save him plz?

Word Count: 2.8k+ (I got carried away towards the end oops)

A/N: I’m actually pretty proud of this one so I hope you guys enjoy it. It took me hOURS and it may have a couple typos but oh well

Warnings: Kidnapping, Swearing, (Blue) Blood

Something felt off about the DPD that day. It was oddly…normal. Which meant that it wasn’t normal. You moved your head around, searching to see if something was out of place. You landed on the empty desk besides Hank. He didn’t seem phased by it, continuing to work like nothing was wrong. You scooted your swivel chair across the floor, moving in the man’s direction. Eventually coming to a halt, you nudged Hank. He grunted in response, barely acknowledging you, but it was more than nothing.

“Hank,” You started, “…have you seen Connor at all today?”

The man looked at you, making sure to take the longest pause before replying, “Who?”

You rolled your eyes at his response, “Come on, Hank. You know who.”

He glanced over at the empty spot where the RK800 usually sat and asked all sorts of questions that he could think of. Mostly about dogs. Hank shrugged and turned back to you, “Hell if I know. Maybe he’s just running late.”

You don’t think Connor even knew the meaning of ‘late’. He made sure to walk through the doors of the DPD exactly at 6 o’clock sharp. No more. No less. People have even caught him standing outside the building, constantly checking the time to see when he could begin work. The cleaning androids usually had to let him in considering no one else even arrived yet.

So, no. He definitely wasn’t late.

You sighed, scooting away from Hank, looking for the next person to ask. You honestly wished you hadn’t as you saw the next person.

“You lost, (Y/N)? Your desk is that way.” Gavin smirked as he saw you scooting around the floor.

You warily pulled your seat up next to his desk, earning a raised eyebrow in response. He scoffed, folding his arms as he saw the look on your face. “What do you want now?”

You twiddled your thumbs, trying to figure out how to word your next sentence. You knew if you mentioned anything related to Connor, this guy was going to blow a gasket. You huffed, taking the risk.

“Have you seen any sign of Connor?”

Gavin busted out laughing, holding his sides as they started becoming sore. You didn’t really know what was funny about the question but again, you were talking to Gavin.

“That piece of shit? Why would I know where he is?”

You gave him a look, “Because you make fun of him wherever he goes. Naturally, I assumed you would know his whereabouts.”

He stopped laughing, a sly smile still on his features. “Nope. Sorry, darlin’.”

You ignored the nickname as you pushed off the desk, rolling away. When you were about to pass Connor’s absence off as an ‘android sick day’, Fowler came out from his office and called out to you.

“(Y/N)! I believe this is for you.”

Everyone’s eyes were on you as you awkwardly got out of your seat and walked up to him. It was weirdly quiet as you took the object from his hands.

A phone.

You gave Fowler a look as he nodded towards it, ushering you to respond to the person on the other line. With a hesitant feeling, you raised the device to your ear.

“Hello?” You said, perplexed as to why someone would reach out to you this way.

“(Y/N)! I’m glad this message got to you successfully.” An all too familiar voice of the RK800 came from the opposite end.

“What the hell? Where are you?”

A silence. You could faintly hear, hushed whispering on the other end.

“I am…somewhere.” He replied finally.

You wore a worried expression. Connor was never this vague.

“Are you alright?”

There was a pause again. A dreadful feeling filling your stomach. There was a deep breath before he added, “I like ice cream.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I tend to feel very abandoned and isolated.”

You shifted uncomfortably. Why was he saying all these things?

There was a loud crash, a pause, and then a voice spoke up, “We have the android. Bring $100,000 in cash and he’ll live. You have 2 hours. Don’t get the police involved.”

Click.

The line went dead as you stood there in awe. Connor was held captive for ransom and only you knew it. Fowler stared at you, waiting for an explanation. You shook your head, telling you it was an older neighbor of yours who must’ve used the wrong number. He shook his head in disapproval.

“Use your personal phone for personal reasons.”

Nodding, you turned around and quickly walked back to your desk. You looked at your watch.

1 hour and 55 minutes left.

Your eyes widened, seeing that you already lost 5 minutes. Every second counted now. You knew you couldn’t figure this out on your own. You had no idea where Connor was and the way he acted confused you even more. Walking over to Hank, you shook his shoulder.

“The fuck do you want now?” He asked, clearly irritated with constantly being bothered.

You gave him a forced smile, freaking the man out. “Connor was kidnapped and is being held for ransom and we have less than two hours to find him.” You said through gritted teeth.

His eyes widened as he quickly shot up from his chair, “Shit...I knew I should’ve stayed home today.”

You and Hank quickly moved through the desks. Both of you almost left the building, but you stopped. Hank paused next to you, “What are you doing?”

You sighed, knowing what you had to do. You didn’t know how many guys were holding Connor and you plus a drunkard weren’t a very strong team. You looked over at Hank before glancing over to where Gavin sat, drumming his pens on his desk. The man next to you watched where you were staring, and he scoffed.

“Hell no.”

His words went through one ear and out the other as you walked towards Gavin, ignoring Hank’s hushed whispers for you to come back. You approached Gavin’s desk for the second time today. He stopped his drumming and stared up at you, a smirk returning to his face. “You miss m- Agh! Hey! What the fuck, (Y/N)?!”

You pulled Gavin by his ear, so he couldn’t help but follow you. Barely anyone paid much attention to the both of you, thinking Gavin did something stupid yet again. You let him go once you met up with a very disgruntled looking Hank.

Gavin rubbed his now red ear, glancing between the both of you. “The hell is this? Some kind of dumbass club?”

You crossed your arms, “Yes, and that’s why we invited you to join.”

He leered at you, Hank chuckling slightly in the background despite loathing being there. “But, really. Why am I here exactly?”

You glanced at your watch briefly.

1 hour and 26 minutes left.

Your stomach dropped as you looked back at a waiting Gavin. “Connor is being held ransom somewhere and we’re the only ones who know. They want $100,000 in cash and we have less than an hour and a half to find him.”

He stared at you in shock. Not from the news but from why he was wasting his time here.

“Not my damn problem. Figure it out yourselves. That piece of plastic means nothing to me.” He was about to walk away before you grabbed his arm, abruptly stopping him.

“If you leave now, I will tell the whole division about you-know-what during you-know-when with you-know-who.”

Gavin froze, staring at you in horror before shaking his head. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, really? Let me jog your memory. Hey, Hank!”

Hank turned to you with an evil grin on his face.

“This one time, Gavin got really drunk at a celebration and- “

“OKAY! OKAY!” Gavin cut in. “I’m suddenly in a helping mood. Let’s get outta here and find the tin can.”

He walked towards the exit first before you and Hank shared a look, following behind.

All three of you were packed into Gavin’s car with Hank in the passenger seat and you in the back. The younger male insisted you use his car because he wasn’t about to get into “some drunkard’s shithole of a ride”. The inside of Gavin’s car smelled heavily of cologne, causing you to have to roll down a window to get a breath of fresh air.

As you all drove off, Hank twisted his body around slightly to talk to you. “You have no idea where he was? Not a clue?”

You shook your head. “He just said he was somewhere.” You paused thinking about what he said after. “He then said he liked ice cream and felt very abandoned and isolated.”

“The hell? What a dumbass.” Gavin piped up from the driver’s seat.

You glared at him before bringing your attention back to Hank. The look on his face showed one of deep thought. “Maybe he was drugged?” He suggested.

You shook your head. “I’m not sure you can drug an android. But, he did seem to make sure to emphasize the words ‘ice cream’, ‘abandoned’, and ‘isolated’.”

“The abandoned warehouse by that old ice cream shop on 5th Avenue. It’s pretty isolated from the rest of the buildings. Hard to miss.” Gavin said, not taking his eyes off the road. Both you and Hank stared at him with open mouths. When he was met with the stunned silence, he did a double-take at your faces. “The fuck are you lookin’ at? I’m not as dumb as you think I am.”

You closed your mouth as you nodded, “I guess I doubted you. You’re still a dick though.” He huffed in reply while you looked up the directions to the warehouse.

1 hour away. Traffic: Heavy.

You cursed, grabbing the attention of Hank and Gavin. “What is it?” Hank asked.

You checked your watch. You wouldn’t have enough time.

“We won’t make it. The traffic is too heavy.”

Gavin just laughed dryly. “Not if we floor it.”

“Gavin!”

You all made it in surprisingly good time with half an hour to spare. Gavin really did know his shortcuts. The three of you exited the vehicle and walked towards the wide doors of the warehouse. It was cold and damp inside causing a shiver to go up your spine. Right in the middle of the room, you saw a figure sitting in a chair, a pillow case over their head to shield their vision. You nodded over to the person making Gavin and Hank immediately grab ahold of their guns. You signaled for them to split up and search the rest of the area. You cautiously approached the figure, seeing the suit Connor usually wore on its body.

“Connor?” You whispered, suspicious of everything at the moment.

“(Y/N)?” He replied his voice so quiet you almost couldn’t hear it.

You exhaled in relief as you reached over to grab the pillow case off his head. You yanked it off, revealing his current state. His head hung low, but you could see the thirium dripping from his noise. You could hear the soft sobs coming from his hunched over form.

“Oh my god, Connor. What did they do?” You knelt in front of him, trying to get a view of his face but he kept turning away. He must’ve been in such a daze that he couldn’t tell who was who anymore.

Gavin walked around with Hank around the warehouse, their guns ready in their hands. They checked for the person who held Connor hostage but there was no sign of them anywhere.

Groaning, Gavin complained. “This is dumb. We found the piece of shit so let’s book it before they notice.”

Hank hushed him as he heard something. He beckoned Gavin towards the muffled noise and they were led to a back room. The door was shut but the noise was clearly coming from behind it. They two stopped in front of it, turning to each other before nodding. Gavin stepped back and pointed the gun at the door while Hank positioned himself at the door knob. They looked at each other and counted,

1…

2…

3!

Hank opened the door to reveal what was behind it. The sight caused them both to freeze.

Connor.

He twisted and turned in his seat when he saw the two of them. They stood there in shock before Hank rushed over to remove the cloth around his mouth. Words immediately followed when he was able to speak,

“Where’s (Y/N)?”

The more he cried, the more your heart broke. As time went on, his cries started to turn. You furrowed your eyebrows at the sounds he made.

Laughter.

You moved back a bit as he slowly turned to you, revealing his face.

And his bright blue eyes.

You gasped as the other Connor quickly got up, holding you closely while pointing a gun at your abdomen.

He turned his head, so it was level with your ear, “Where are they?”

Before you could reply, Gavin and Connor ran out in front of the both of you. At the sight of the other Connor, Gavin made a sound of disgust. “There’s two of you?”

RK900 tilted his head at his words. “I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”

“Yeah, well, it’s been a long day.”

The android who had you in his grasp raised the gun his hands, pointing it at your head. Both Gavin and Connor raised their hands at the action.  “Your weapon. On the ground. Now.” RK900 demanded, pushing the gun harder to your head causing you to whimper. Gavin reluctantly nodded, putting it to the floor, kicking it out of reach. The other Connor smirked, your breathing very light from fear.

“It was you on the phone the whole time, wasn’t it?” You squeaked out causing the hostile android to stare at you before grinning evilly.

“What a clever girl. You chose well, Connor.” You closed your eyes, sensing his finger on the trigger. “It was the only way I knew you would come. I wasn’t about to put Connor on the phone. He’d ruin everything.”

“You son of a bitch.” You hissed making him laugh.

“Watch your mouth, girl. I’m the one with the gun here.”

A click came from behind you all.

“You and me both, motherfucker.”

Bang!

The RK900 slowly looked down as he saw the pool of blue stain his torso. He withered to the ground, letting the gun in his hand go. You quickly moved to quick it away. Hank approached the android on the ground, lifting his foot to rest on the wound. The other Connor hissed in pain as he stared up at the old detective.

“You should be dead, you asshole.” Hank growled, staring him down.

The man underneath him laughed before coughing up blue blood. He had a wild look on his face as he grinned, teeth stained with blue. “I’ll keep coming back. You will never be able to kill me.”

Hank scoffed before raising his gun, “We’ll see about that.”

Bang!

One last shot went straight through the head of the other Connor successfully shutting him down. All four of you sat in silence before it was ruined.

“Oh my god! Gavin screeched, “Did I lock the car?!” He ran off towards the entrance of the warehouse in a sprint.

Hank chuckled and walked after him but not before Connor called out to him. “Thank you, Lieutenant. You have saved me yet again.”

You nodded in agreement, “Yeah, thanks, Hank. I probably would be dead if it weren’t for you.”

Hank briefly smiled, “Whatever. You guys both owe me a drink.” He stopped, “Each.” You and Connor laughed in reply. “Anyways, I’ll meet you two in the car. Hopefully, we can air out all that fucking cologne.”

You watched as he walked towards the entrance before you turned to Connor. He was already staring at you for a while.

“I am sorry I put you through all this, (Y/N).” He said, nervously adjusting his tie.

You shrugged, grinning. “I’d do it again for you in a heartbeat, Connor.”

Something inside him made his thirium pump faster, rushing to his face. How could you have such an impact on him? He shyly smiled and for the first time in his short android life, he couldn’t think of a reply. You cleared your throat abruptly to stop yourself from staring.

“A-Anyways, we should catch up with them. Knowing those two, the car is probably on fire by now.”

Connor tilted his head, “I don’t sense a fire within the area.”

You took his hand with a smile. You really needed to teach him figures of speech. The two of you walked towards the doors of the warehouse, hand-in-hand.

“How did you convince Gavin to come with you?” Connor asked suddenly.

You smirked, “Remember that story I told you about him, but I made you swear not to tell anybody?”

“Ah, the one where you then told me to tell the whole division?”

“Yeah, that one.”

[masterlist]

[oddsandendsandthings]

“I’m Davenport!”

“Wait... wait...”

All his life he’s looked at the stars and seen an endless world of possibilities. His parents were part of an elite research team. They had found this thing called they called the Light of Creation and they told him in a few more years they may be able to achieve interplanar travel through the stars with it. He didn’t really understand how a tiny light could be able to help them travel through space but it sounded cool.

And if a little light could do so much, then maybe one day he could too. That ship is going to need a crew after all. And he was going to be the one to lead them.

“Where am I?”

The kids at school didn’t seem as partial to his ideas of space flights and missions to other planes of existence. He dodged another rock aimed at his head as the kid chased him around the play yard. To “knock he his head out of the clouds,” they said. He turned the corner and ducked behind a bush as he cast an illusion of himself still running to keep the bullies off his tail. He held his breath as the kids fell for it and kept chasing it. 

Good. That illusion should hold up another 10 minutes. Plenty of time to mislead them just deep enough into the woods that they wouldn’t get lost, but definitely far enough in that they’d be late to class even if they ran the entire way. If the teachers wouldn’t do anything about the bullies then he would. “Too much of a runt to lead a team” indeed.

“You’re... You’re Merle... Right?”

Was it a little young and reckless to be getting behind the wheel of his parents' wagon without a drivers license? Probably. But really the keys were right there and they were out of milk. After being up for 32 hours straight his parents weren’t anywhere in the state to be driving. So a quick trip to the market and back. He could manage that.

And behind the wheel of that wagon was an indescribable feeling. He had never felt so free before. Like every time those bullies jeered and threw rocks, every time a teacher that looked at him like he was some kind of halfwit when he said his dream career was to be a pilot, they were all proven wrong. At least until that stray dog decided to cross in front of the wagon. He really needed to learn to stop daydreaming.

“I know you...”

His parents sent him to a fantasy military school. To “curve his wild tendencies,” they said. He hated it at first. Sure he crashed his parents’ wagon. And he got into more than one fight at school. Okay, a lot of fights at school. It’s not like started most of them. But boot camp? that’s a little extreme. The sergeants and drill captains were even bigger hard asses than his old teachers. But he in between those moments of hating this school, he was learning a lot about survival training and how to work in a group alongside his normal lessons. And they were actually teaching him how to properly drive a motor vehicle and that was even better since they never thought to ridicule him for his size as an excuse to not let him behind the wheel.

After a year they were talking about promoting him from private. They were putting him in charge of a small group during their training exercises to see how he can handle being in a leadership position. And he’s excited to try it out. He can feel there’s a change in how he handles himself. He’s no longer that scared little kid that no one believed in. People actually trust his decisions. It’s a nice feeling.

“What’s going on?”

It’s been years since he’s graduated fantasy military school. He served for a few years after too and retired under the rank of Lance Corporal. Now that he’s served his duty he can finally dedicate himself to what he’s always dreamed of. The IPRE has been making headway on its construction of a ship that could run purely on the bonds people share with one another. It's in its final stages of construction and they’re hoping to have it make its maiden voyage in the next two years. And now they’re looking for a crew to man it. Davenport is a natural pick for captain. He agrees all too eagerly on the condition that he gets to pick his own crew. He knows better than anyone that you can’t just shove a group of people together 

The interview process makes him want to tear his mustache out. Not for lack of qualified applicants. There were plenty of those. But for how many that, beyond their qualifications, they were downright insufferable. Half of them acted as if he had no idea about how magic worked and the other half acted as if they were the ones leading this mission. He called the next candidate on his checklist as only to raise an eyebrow as two identical elves stood up. “I’m sorry these are individual interviews. Which one of you is Taako... Taaco?” 

“Oh don’t worry about that, my dude. We’re about to save you a whole bunch of time by killing two birds with one stone. Cause you see we, my sis Lup and I, are a package deal that will absolutely blow these other chumps out of the water.” The twin on the left said with a confident smirk. Davenport didn’t know if it was the exhaustion talking or the curiosity of what they thought could offer, but he decided one less interview he had to do the better. 

“I’m Davenport.”

A lot of people questioned his reasoning on how a ragtag group like theirs could work together so well. And honestly, he didn’t know himself what compelled him to choose the people he did. They weren’t exactly the most qualified people, with the exception of maybe Lucretia. But what they lacked in formal training, they made up for in sheer force of will. Even when they were still in training, they have a way of solving the puzzles and goals that were set out for them in ways he and the other test proctors could never have imagined. Incompetently competent is the way one of the proctors put it and he couldn’t think of a better way to put it. Despite them only knowing each other a short time, they just had a way of picking up the others slack at just the right moment, in just the right way, to turn the tides in their favor. It was pretty outstanding actually. 

And now they’re standing on the bridge of the Starblaster about to blast off into the unknown. He looks back from the control at the people he’s about to spend the next 2 months with. Magnus is grinning despite, more like because of,  his black eye he’d gotten in the night before. Lup and Taako are standing towards the back, they keep glancing at the countdown clock in obvious excitement before looking away in feign disinterest in attempt to look aloof. Barry and Lucretia don’t even bother to try and hide their apprehension as they never take their eyes away from the ticking clock. Merle is the only one that seems completely unaffected, looking more like he was waiting for the bus to come than like he was seconds away from blasting off into space. 

He turns back to the controls and grins as the bond engine revs to life. He had made it. They may not be the most professional looking team out there. But despite what anyone else thought, they had made it to where they were today. He had made it. And he honestly couldn’t think of a better group of people he’d rather be with to share this with. 

“I’m Davenport!”

[bowlerhatwearer]

Lost Guilt

One Shot by Bowlerhatwearer

Ghost Pupper/S,Snow by @stedilnik

Ervin Niedmüller by @bowlerhatwearer

Warning: Story involves: drug abuse, blood, semi strong language, death

Before this story starts I have, to avoid confusion say two things:

- Ervin speaks with a German Accent

- The paragraphs jump between first and third person narrative.    With the exception of the last who is also written in third person.

Read to your own risk.

~~~~~~

“Shit” It’s the first thought that shoots in my brain, what a “great” way to start my morning. The sunlight blinds one of my eyes, something I tried under all circumstances to avoid but failed already in the moment when I didn’t close my with smoke and other substances ridden curtains. Not fully awake yet I get up, looking at myself it’s easy for me to notice and remember that I didn’t got out of my clothes that I wore since yesterday, no, since yesterdays yesterday. The mustard stain on my grey shirt reminds me of the date, I think.

Dry, like a plant that desires water since several months but is denied the liquid, that’s how I feel right now, or do I feel like this everyday? Since I went deeper down the never ending spiral my brain can’t make good connections any more, it is in a 24/7 hour mood.  Like searching a needle in a haystack. During my walk to the bathroom I inhale the flavour of cold smoke, mostly from tobacco but also weed. Evidence from this claim are the cigarette packets next to some beer, medication bottles and some ends of self rolled joints. My next thought is as scrambled as myself, but I can only smile about it.

Cold, I forgot to turn on the boiler again didn’t I? A rhetorical question at this point, whatever, I can shower later, with my senses a bit more clearer I know now that I need to get out of the student apartment, but where to go?  The park? The train station of this forsaken city? The woo- nearly automatically I clench my hands on the sink, breathing heavy, do I really want to go to this place? Really, especially today? It takes me a while, minutes probably, like my mind, my feeling for time is lost. I’m lost. The cold water helps my senses,  my face confronts in the shining glass, I can only grin about the guy who meets me in the mirror.

A Cat, medium size with grey-black stripes, the fur is felted and dirty. Some pieces of it is in some places lighter or non-existent. Mostly because of scars or injection sites. Sometimes the healed injuries and cuts happened due of meaningless fights. The ember eyes are dull, or rather became dull with time, ridden with tear sacks and folds that a feline my age should not have. A soft smile reveals on the first sight nothing, but inspecting it closer one of my eye-teeth broke off a bit, it’s what you get when you mess with the wrong dealer.

“Miss Beauty Queen first price” the words, coming from my mouth sound more like croaking rather than speaking, from all the smoking I must’ve been getting hoarse.

Before I decide to leave my messed up bathroom I take some medicine bottles with me, mostly painkillers and sleeping pills, never hurts to have those.

My next station would be the kitchen, but I don’t feel hungry, since days, weeks or months I don’t feel it. Despite eating only one burger a day it feels as if I’m not loosing weight, maybe it’s due of the liqueur, I don’t know. With a single click on a button I look at the landline phone, despite not old at all it’s already ridden with three and a half cracks on the earpiece something that just happens if hit it with all force on the table.

Looking at the answering machine I notice that I have four absent calls.

All of them from my parents.

They still think I’m in law school, actually university, they put a lot of money into it and me.

Put a lot of money in a failure, a junky, a criminal.

A Murderer

I’m one, no I’m not, or am I? I’m not sure how you call someone like me?

Pulling out the last crumbs from my eyes I head to the door of my flat. It’s dramatic, a tragedy and I’m the protagonist of it. My parents believe I’m still the son they raised, still going to law school to become a “highly respected truthfully member of society, a lawyer” I became a victim of myself and drug abuse. That’s what I’m now. A well aware mistake, a failure, a slacker who still gets send money from his parents, despite thrown out of the university months ago, they just don’t know.

All of this, could’ve been prevented on that day, that one year anniversary. My one way ticket to oblivion and destruction.

Forgetting my self pity for a while I go down the stairs, I don’t greet anyone, say no word, just stomping down and further down the stairs, destiny, bus station. Which is not too far ahead from the building. Everyone I see on my way, I don’t recognise them really, they all became blurry one day, unimportant, they are like shadows to me.

I’m just in time for the bus, like me it has seen better days, the city is nice, but like many it lacks the money to buy new public vehicles, they still run the ones from the 60s, when there was this financial uprising, that later ended in quite highly debts and unemployment. The rust attacks the green lack, the leather seats ripped open by accident and or on purpose.

It doesn't bother me being a fare dodger here and there, if they throw me out I just walk the rest of the way.

The seats are nice, not because of their appearance, despite their age they can be comfy and warm, it makes me notice that despite sleeping 10 hours, I’m still tired, so tired, since the final stop is my destination, It doesn't matte, there is always time to sleep time away.

<...>

Knocking, buzzing, knocking and buzzing. It takes the cat a while to notice that it’s his hard-line phone and the door, not the pleasant dream he had that creates this order of sounds. Responding at first with a grunt and the thought to throw the old thing on the wall he rethinks it and tiredly answers, whoever desperately tries to call him. Looking down at the line-phone it’s easily for the feline to answer who is the desperate, or rather annoying caller since no one other he knew would call around this time.

“Snow, zats you?”

“Rise and shine morning cat, it’s already twelve you know.”

“Sorry, I-, I think I napped in vhen studying the...law about trespassing I zink?”

“Learning again tomcat? I thought your test was already last week?”

“Listen S, if you’re in law school every veek is a test, at least for me.”

“Dawww, poor kitty, you sure you don’t want to change the subject?”

“Nah, you know my goal, I vant to help those poor cases, it’s not their fault if they go down zis spiral, it’s most of the time a hard househo-, vhy are you calling me?”

“Oh you know, I’m done with my shift, Alponso is still working, I’m bored-”

“-you vant to hang out?”

“...”

“Danged S, vhere are you even right now?”

“Well, what would you do if my answer is at your door, trying to wake you up with calling and knocking.”

“GOD DAMIT!” the law student didn’t even bother if his neighbours heard him.

It was always the same with S, or Snow, that’s what he called the white furred short-hair dog with long black hair and as black eyes, she would just appear in front of his door or call him, bothering until he would say yes, and the worst of all, he always said yes, one the other side S gave him a change in the grey-black striped cats right now monotone live.

Opening the door as fast as if he was hunted by a pack of racing cars Ervin was greeted by a smaller as him, white dog girl who grinned unsure while greeting him with a short wave before she placed her new so called “mobile phone” in an as white as her fur was backpack.

He wasn’t sure if he should just throw the door right into her face or scream but decided to gave her too a hand sign meaning she should just step in, Ervin didn’t really bother that S, saw him in his olive green flannel pyjamas right now.

“You look se-”

“Nicht ein Wort S, Nicht ein Wort.” despite the words spoken out in German the dog understood clearly that her opponent in the door frame was not amused.

“Aww come on now, and don’t call me S, I’ve a name you know tomboy.”

“Well lets see, you come here vhenever you like, you raid my fridge and call me sometimes during my lessons, so...nein.”

“Killjoy, speaking of-”

“There’s a hamburger in my fridge, you can varm it up in the microwafe while I take a shower and change clothes.”

“And here I thought you would go out in that flannel stile, I heard it’s the newest trend.”

“Haha, you’re killing me S, more than I vish for.”

Showing her dog tongue plus blowing raspberry's the dog girl began to salvage for the said nutrient, that was according to the law student in his fridge.

“Oh and just to be sure-” half trough the door of the bathroom Ervin grabbed as fast as he could his wallet that still laid on the kitchen table

“So vee von’t have zhe accident like last time.”

“I told you it wasn’t me who drew the moustache and monocle on the license photo.”

Grumbling the door got closed and locked.

“How comes that your fancy pants of a roommate doesn't hafe time for you, on a Thursday afternoon?”

“Overtime, he seriously needs the money for the new fridge, the old ones busted and we still try to get out the smell of spoiled milk and rotten eggs.” the dogs voice got mixed with chewing and eating noises, and Evin was surprised that she didn’t choke on it by accident.  

“Vell zat’s vat you get from a two day vacation, an unlucky surprise.”

Ervin began to shift his concentration on the sound of the first cold then warm water that soaked his fur, for a short time there was a relief, but that soon got overtaken by random thoughts of stuff he had to learn from law school, property law or what happens if a person goes missing and so one.

The grey striped cat was about to scream, school, aka university got so bad sometimes that he bought himself a package of sleeping pills and took already from time to time one.

On the one side S, her roommate and their friends bothered him, on the other hand the diversion probably saved his mind from succumbing to madness so he was kind of thankful for S, who was the first he met. Whilst she was on her shift, apparently S had the unlucky destiny to work late and Ervin had the unlucky destiny that most of his courses where late, meaning the time he bought himself some nutritions, may it be sometimes a whole menu or a simple lemonade where always when S was on the cash register. Apparently even an honour roll student like S had to pay bills, something Ervin was not aware of when he met the girl first.  

Turning off the water tab he stepped out the shower and immediately began to dry himself with a towel and then his old but trustworthy fur dryer.

Out of the bathroom with a towel slightly above the waistline he noticed how S was about to eat the last remainder that there even was a burger, the lettuce leave.  

“You know if you vould have moved to me instead of this ramshackle hut vee probably vould already have had a new fridge, premium efen.”

“Of kitty cat of course, and every time I can listen about how awful that last course was and the judge and the persecutor you read about didn’t knew anything about their job eh?”

“That really hurt you know” the voice playfully a bit down and spoken on purpose with his broken English.

Even if Ervin saw Snow sometimes annoying that would go on his nerves, and S saw the cat as a stuffed shirt that never knew when not to have the last word. They both had still one thing in common and that was not only being a Scorpio from their star sign, no, it was teasing and taunting the other until the very end.  But booth did that with knowing the others metes and bounds and when to stop.

“You know, Adolpho IS really nice, I don’t know why you two have such a fuzz over each other.”

Walking into his bedroom he decided to wear something comfy, casual jeans, and a hoodie would do today, better than a shirt the cat thought. Of course Ervin wore also his trusty blue white striped trainers

“Hmm I don’t know maybe it’s oh I mean, him alvays saying how much vork he has to do I mean visouth question he has vork to do, but like, he’s not the only one. And zen his constantly bragging about the stuff he IS doing.”

“That reminds me of someone I and you know.”

“Oh please I’m completely different.”

“Uhhuh.” The cat didn’t have to look at the white dog, he knew her eyes where rolling, probably staring also in his souls at the same time given the cold he felt suddenly in his spine.

“Case closet, where do you vant to go anyvay?”

<...>

It was the announcement of the bus driver that woke me up, end of the line, looking out of the window It gave me a shudder, this whole place whenever I was only near from it, it gave me the chills, but I’ve already decided to be here so. I step out as soon as I can, taking the backdoors of the bus naturally, I’m not really excited to explain myself if the driver asks for a ticket I don’t have.

Those woods, the starting point of a never ending spiral of tiredness, depression and being someone who knows nothing at all, it’s like a noisy TV only showing static in my head once I begin to stroll into the woods, the leaves are green, autumn still a bit away.

Whenever I’m here, out in the forest, I don’t wander off random, no, I only search for this one place, that one building that always haunts me, it was a factory. Did it produce cement, textiles or motor parts, don’t know, don’t care, at least not anymore. The closer I come the more tired I feel, I’ve slept quite much in my, apartment that became more a personal purgatory to me than a safe heaven and in the bus I must've slept around 45 minutes, given that it’s the time from my apartment to this end station.

It-

Hm-

And there she is.

Her presence, even if I’m not looking at her direction, I can feel, she is here.

I think it’s a she, or is she an it and it a she? I don’t know, all I see is white, and black and the eyes, of course the eyes that do not exist.

Whatever it is which I don’t know, it follows me, from all the maths I did, I think “she” is an hallucination, happening of all the stuff I took.

Ohoho and I took plenty, looking at my arms prove that, they are full, full of sometimes big, sometimes small injection sites, some deeper and some not so deep cuts, bruises, scratches, fur that's burnt or about to fall out and of course patches, Iconic, that for such a miserable being that I am, it’s those bandages for children that I have all over my arms and especially the fingers, the only colourful thing on this murderer that I am.

And she, she watches me, sometimes close, sometimes far, in the mirror, in the glass, behind a three in my TV. Do I still own that? Didn’t I gave that former birthday present to a pawn shop for some quick bucks for some quicker wasted heroin?

Gray, once again, static in my head. I don’t know what she’s trying to tell me with her constant watching, heck, I don’t even know what my own brain wants to tell me most of the time. Once it wants this than that but most of the time it wants pills, drugs and liquor oh and tobacco.

Most of the time I ignore this white being that follows me with its hull dark and empty sockets with a small hint of red in it, at least that’s what I see there from time to time in the hollow orbs.

My throat begins to scratch and I let out a heavy cough, lately with the increase of my daily consume of certain substances it has gotten worse, but it’s a curse I have to life with, of course I could go and seek help, but why should I? I was the one who already destroyed one innocent life on this world, so why not another? Why not myself so I can make sure ‘it’ won’t happen again, the murderer that murders himself, quite poetic isn’t it?

The more I come closer to the building, the more it aches me. On one side my body rejects what I give it, on the other it seeks, it demands the chemicals, the pills, tobacco and alcohol I put into myself, sometimes even so much, that I do not care for others, It’s not uncommon that I have to search for a new dealer after an “episode” of mine.

As good as I can, this old cat ignores this white, being, this ghost or illusion or hallucination or perhaps better this sickness of lost guilt that is haunting me for whatever reason, the pictures and memories are unclear about everything. I only know I did something, my mind rejects the clear pictures, only sometimes I see it but can’t make the dots, then I forget it was even there.

When I see her, well, sometimes I greet her, or I try to talk, but she’s mute, I can’t her a thing if she tries to communicate with me or something, and then her stare.

Yes those haunting black hollow sockets of infinite darkness that watch me with judgement of the sins I’m guilty as charged for, but I’m innocent, they made me innocent but I’m guilty, I’m for something guilty I don’t know I’m guilty for a crime I have forgotten, the murderer with drug forced amnesia, what a joke I am.

I reach the building, finally, it felt like aeons to be able to step into it, there is one thing about this old pile that we have in common, we are ruined and about to fall apart, we just don’t know the exact time nor date when it comes against us. When nature reclaims what we took from her.

Since when this building has been crafted, used and then abandoned, I cannot say, but its designed purpose it has long exceeded. I’m not the only lost one who apparently wanders here around from time to time, even if it’s not my most favourite spot.

Syringes, old tablet splitters, bottles and cans of alcoholic beverages are only a few of the messes that have been left around, someone even had the determination to bring a mattress here  into the second floor of this factory building.

Which is not the reason why I’m going up there, no by far not, more because whilst I actually am not a friend of this place I’ve hidden quite a stash here. Some drugs to swallow together with the sleeping pills and painkillers should do a good trip.

Letting out a hoarse chuckle I continue my walking, there are graffiti over graffiti everywhere in this building, black, blue, red, neon green it’s a play of colours drawn on a falling depressed canvas, a wall that once it breaks down takes the art with it. I don’t care for their meaning, I can’t even take care of myself, I don’t know anything about me anymore, sometimes I’m asking myself if the knowledge I have about myself are real or something I’ve dreamt, I do know who I was, but do I really? Since that day, that marks the anniversary today where everything was gone and broke down...who can I trust if not even myself?

When the medicine, my medicine by my orders not by a doctor are helping me, it lets me see the world like how I want to take it, not cold, grey, careless and depressed but artificial warm, a place of colours I haven’t seen for quite a time now, it lets me see the truth. The only colour I really care for is from those bandages for children, I don’t know why, but they are like one of the only things that are being in order in this broken, corrupted mind that’s engulfed in numbness.

After the last step on the crumbling concrete stairs being made I take my time to breath and look around on the second floor, there is a small balcony there, I can only guess it got probably used more for smoke breaks than to look at the view, looking down you would see a still semi intact inner yard with a concrete floor that got a bit torn open by mother nature.  The metallic handrails are trough and trough overtaken and or eaten away by the rust.

I’m tempted to go out there, looking at the sky and just, let my thoughts going around but, heh, I really need to find that stash of mine and secondly she’s out there too...at least that’s what I think, I do wonder, who she was that she is tormenting me like that.

Hiding stuff was never really something I was good at but, no one would really suspect a stash of my special tablet shaped drugs hidden under an old typewriter, to my luck they stayed dry and there is no mouldiness on them either. I shouldn’t, I really shouldn’t I became what I wanted to defend, but I need it, to get myself together, if only for a moment, to see the unseen that I want to see but at the same time not, my mind is scrambled like an egg and as fried as a potato. Normally you take those alone, but I don’t mind mixing them up with a bunch of painkillers and sleeping pills. It’s going to be a pretty strong cocktail I’m taking here, leaving me an extra sour and bitter taste in the mouth since I had the “grandiose” idea not to take a bottle of water with me, or at least a juice box.

I think, I think this is even the strongest yet I took, needless to say I’m excited but at the same time ignorant of what will come. My hands are shacking and I begin to scratch myself again like I did so often before on this place, I’m worried about this but the best is now, to remain calm and to rest a bit before my prime time begins. I see her now outside of the room she is watching me, watching me all the time with those dark hollow eyes. The eyes, it’s the last I see before my body puts itself to rest, for now.

<...>

“And the vorst of all of zhis is that- what is this place anyway S?”

“Uhm, I think it was an ammunition factory that closed down after WWII, but it also could also have been a soap manufacture, don’t know, don’t really care either.” looking at him with her tongue stretched out Ervin let out a sigh in the white furred dogs direction.

“Wunderbar, so vhen I step on a landmine I can-”

“Ervin, what did you say before, you wanted to tell me more about Germany.”

“Did I? Na wo war ich-… yes, I vanted to say that vee can’t even visit my relatives in the GDR any more because of my mothers paranoia.”

“Why, is she scared of the east? Scared that they will fire a nuke at her home?”

“Well given zat her uncle got shot near the vall and due of my fathers position she’s afraid that zee Stasi would let us in, pack us up and vee vould never see the daylight again.”

“Oh...and what does your father say about that?”

“Eh, he’s too busy to argue vith her, as a prosecutor he’s most of the time in his ehm...place where he works, you know vhere they are also holding trials, it’s called “Gericht” in German, damn I chould know this!”

“You mean a court?”

“That’s the vord! Most of zee time he has cases vith people that don’t pay their traffic tickets, how boring!”

But to all honestly, the striped cat felt the same right now, he wasn’t bored about being in the woods and near the old factory, no that was quite, interesting, but all the studying and learning was boring, perhaps he should’ve studied something different. But then there was that other thought about how he wanted to help the people with drug addictions when they faced judgement and trials. Since that day he saw those teenagers, sometimes a bit younger that himself there at the railway station in “Berlin Zoologischer Garten” But of course that meant he had to learn, what he did and tried as good as he can, he learned and learned and learned and-

“Say from where are you anyway, I mean yes West-Germany but where exactly from?”

“Huh, wa- uh from Saarland, the youngest state in West-Germany, then we, moved to Berlin. Honestly I’m glad vee didn’t got to be part of zee French-”

Reaching the old factory, Ervin made an abrupt stop of what he wanted to say, despite being in the woods and despite it already corroding and slowly taken over by wildlife and plants it was still a very impressive building.

“Many junkies or homeless are there but only at night, I never encountered anyone here, only saw the syringes and some stuff there together with a mattress on the second floor.”

Stepping inside the shadowy building with graffiti on the walls there was only one question for the law student.

“How come zat an honour student chooses this as her sanctuary instead of a library?”

Touching one of the said walls that was marked with the all to well known sentence “F*ck the police” and an Anarchy symbol together with a sign of peace the white dog turned around and the black but very much full of live looking eyes met the striped cat ember ones.

“Because it’s full of art!”

Spinning around with her arms spread the cat examined the room they stood in before letting out a sigh.  

“And drugs and dirt and rats probably...”

Like as if he was given her a wrong answer to a question to a teacher that was never asked in the first place, her eyes went from happy and hopeful, how she looked most of the time and how Ervin knew her, to a not angry or disappointed but rather annoyed with a hint of sadness.

“Did I-”

“Why are you so mopey?!”  

She did not scream at him at all, but the slight raise in her tone made Ervins mostly tired eyes went wide and he stared at her for a few seconds, processing the question she just asked him loud and clearly. Of course he knew the answer and he wanted to tell her, but he was tired, so god forsaken tired. As if he was having a headache, which slowly came to be he touched his forehead before exhaling a bit of air.

“You said on the second floor vas a mattress, lets go, I’ll tell you zere.”

S showed him the way by taking the stairs first, and whilst she did it with ease for him it felt like a trial as if every step was two metres high. Talking about here and there was easy, but talking about himself and his troubles beside the stress he gets trough learning, nearly impossible but here he was.

The mattress wasn’t, like he expected in best shape and full of unknown stains, but since it didn’t smell like piss or other extreme fluids he didn’t mind sitting on it.

“Why are you always so, so tired and grumpy and stuff Ervin? Is it me?”

“No, no,...So, you vant to know why I’m so mopey since like for veeks.”

She nodded

“And I don’t think any kind of deal makes you forget that question?”

She shook her head.

“Ok, ok that’s bad but fine, you know, zat super hard exam I had, that vas really important for zis semester?”

“Yes I remember, you locked yourself into your flat for nearly two weeks if not more and everyone thought you died so we called the landlord.”

“Heh-” the striped cat got more silent “-...I-I bombed it.”

“Oh”

“I mean the professor is giving me anozer chance, others failed too, but zat is the day after tomorrow, a-and I know I learned for it hard like the last time and I know I should know the answers, but If I don’t, o-or if he asks different questions. I-I don’t want to redo this semester, I’ve already planned everything for summer because of that part-time job zat I do f-for six veeks.”

Burying his face into his own hands the cat let out a painful sigh, he was done, done with everything and of course he had to open up about it.

“And I know you vant me to be on that party on the very same day, I know socializing vould be good for me and that you mean it well but, I can’t, I vant to but I can’t, even once I have done that retry, I’m a broken mess and probably...zum Aufstreichen and what if I have to re-do the semester and my parents have to pay more than intended? I don’t know vhat to do S, I’m sorry for being such a mess...of a friend.”

For a moment, it wasn’t probably long but for him it felt like eternity before he felt a slight pressure on the left shoulder.

“As if it’s the only party in this month, so what once you pass it you’ll be on the next.”

“I promised it to you, I promised to be there before you and start socializing.”

“So what, since when is it forbidden to postpone a promise? What counts is that you’re holding it the next time. Do that exam and write an A plus, plus and double plus.”

Once the cat swiped away with one of his sleeves what he refused to call tears he looked at Snow who looked at him with her friendly smile that even could burn a hole in the hearth of the coldest person living on earth.

“I promise, I’ll be zere, tell me date and time and I’ll be zere for you on that party, talking and laughing with at least ten people and one of those red cups in my hand.”

“There you are, I mean you don’t have to overdue it but don’t forget that a promise is a promise.” she playfully wagged with her index finger in union with her tail.

“I’ll be there waiting for you, a promise is a promise.” and spoke it out to his own surprise, without a hint of accent.

<...>

There was no other party, neither with her nor him and that day, it was the last time he saw her.

The fingers shook, the cat was trembling like as if on such a warm day in June it had minus fifteen Celsius. On the one side it was the strong mix of drugs and medicine that brought him into this state, on the other, it was his mind, he saw it all, once again what he tried so often to repress with drugs. He saw what he wanted to forget, he saw it all again and again. For a moment he still laid there in his fetal position sweating from all pores, his eyes fast going from left to right , right to left and bloodshot.

When he woke up, that next day, that one after the party, one year ago it must have been, she was gone, he called and called but she, no S, Snow, she did not answer and then, yes then It must have been only a day or earlier, there she was, found, stabbed as if she was Julius Caesar, and her eyes removed like some sort of ritual murder. The culprit never found and brought to justice of course. And whoever the being was that did it to her, it had to be a being made out of pure sadistic intention, so bad her body looked, found in hers and Alphs home.  

Weakly he gets up but not without holding on the wall where all of the paint was already faded away. He needed air, just a bit of fresh air, that was all that Ervin thought he needed right now.

Ervin himself was aware that due of his sometimes strange acting people might have assumed that he was the culprit of this perverse crime, so he wasn’t surprised when her former roommate had his suspicion against him. Alph, oh he didn’t took it easy either, he nor Ervin. But with time and countless interrogations it became clear that the striped cat was innocent and so was Alph.

It was a tragedy of invaluable measures and whilst everyone who knew her where mourning over their lost friend, there was also the relieve, that not Ervin or Alph was responsible that S was never seen alive again and what they all had to accept once the time passed, that she was gone, the beautiful smile the honour roll student had, forever erased from existence.

Everyone began, even slowly and painfully to move on, everyone except the cat, he wasn’t there, he should've gone with her, protected her to make sure this wouldn’t have happen, but he didn’t, he did his exam bravo then slept deep and tight trough the abduction of the person who the feline called good friend. He learned and learned and learned for a position that never was his to begin with and as a reward it took someone very close from him. And for that he screamed, cried and let his emotion take over the rational, until it was over and he a broken mess beyond repair.

Alph and the others talked with each other, got their help as a group they needed but Ervin, he began to become what he never wanted to be, once again he was a shut-in but with cigarettes, then alcohol followed by pills and weed and then the harder stuff, he isolated himself, he wasn’t guilty, in the eyes of the law or Snows friends there he was innocent, but in his own eyes, he might have had lost his guilt, but it was still there, eating him from the inside until nothing would’ve been left, but now here he was looking in shock and quite disgusted when he looked at the injection sides he did to himself and the barely and or poorly covered scratches that came with the stuff he took.

The messed up cat ran in his paranoia, his head and throat ached. Like a fountain of bad emotions his head was filled damping his other thoughts and senses making him feel as if he was about to suffocate.

Once again he saw this apparition of her, this illusion, dream, thought, drug inflicted piece of memory, ghost or demon, he wasn’t sure what it was but whatever it might have been that resembled like a death black holes instead of eyes having Snow he just ran past her to the old run-down concrete balcony with the rusty handrail that got enlightened by a slowly orange for this day vanishing sun announcing the night that was soon to come.

Anyone would’ve now expected tiredness or a silent standing man but the only witnesses, the birds around the facility, the bugs floating around in the mild summer warmth or the other animals that decided to step near the building got engulfed in a scream, mixed with sadness, pain, shock, anger, confusion, disillusion and regained memories followed by a violent, strong and careless shaking of the rusty iron where a guilt ridden Ervin cut his hands slightly due of the poorly aged metal that engulfed his as poor exposed skin.

It did barely anything to fight back against the former law student defenceless it took his shaking and later kicking before it came to a sudden end. His whole body felt unstable, he sweated, the drugs that got stretched by their creators with bleach and washing agent to use less of the actual stuff did their job together with a mind as fragile as crystal glass, the mind wanted to cry, but the rest of the body was too reluctant or too tired to fulfil this needed request. Still standing the cat turned its bag from the innocently bashed handrail and leaned on it, taking medium deep breaths of air in and out, in and out again and again.

When this thing, this creation of insanity and desperation that tried to resemble Snow, the dog he had known and seen alive one year ago approached him it happened slowly, and he, Ervin, he just watched. The long black hair, the white fur, once she looked normal. Then from one second to another a mangled, tortured, messed up, injured, probably raped and half skinned creature with sockets that lost their organs of visions who now where dark black infinite deep orbs with white dots approached him, naked of course with de furred breasts, exactly how the body was found in her own home, only a few knew it, only a few was told what was done to her in only a few hours of full torture.

But Ervin did by all logic not move and inch, he stayed there pressing his back with all his anger and sadness against the rusty metal and waited, if this apparition wanted his demise, he would not run away, or ignore it once again like he did so often, what good would if do to not face his own fears or the reality that was cruel but truthful he knew the facts and she did too, if he would’ve been there on this faithful day which was able to ruin his past, present and future, everything would be normal, and by all chances better. But it was not, and here he was, waiting for judgement, and it never came.

The being that resembled the canine he once knew just stood there in silence, and every time he blinked it felt as if her appearance would change, but always with a monotone expression that told him nothing of this being. To say that his eyelids and libs together with the fingers trembled and shook as if it was the coldest winter since 37 years was an understatement, but here he was the words he tried to form turning out to be pure gibberish. It took him a minute and around forty-five seconds until he was able to form the sentence he searched for.

“I-Im sorry S, I’m sorry, for m-” and in that second, before finishing the slowly, raspy and weakly spoken out sentence something gave up.

It was not the appearance that encountered him here on the old balcony

It was not his own brain cells who for god knows how long where finally able to make a clear sentence.

No, it was the atoms, the molecules of the metal that was exposed to water and air that with over forty years without any maintenance broke apart, and thus the handrail fell down together with the leaning cat.

In the short time frame between falling from the balcony that was set on the quite high second floor of the building and reaching the concrete floor that awaited patiently his blackhead to hit and crush on it. Time was nearly to not present, everything was slower than any slow motion effect in any film he had ever seen.

And just in this unfortunate moment and event in his live where he watched in pure shock above, where it, the dog ghost that resembled S looked down from the balcony to him falling, the cocktails of different pills and drugs kicked in.

The first thing he noticed that changed his view of reality in this bittersweet time was that the sky took another turn, it looked a bit like cotton, mixed with some new modern lemonade that looked as if a leprechaun barfed into it, the stars that during this time shouldn’t by all accounts not viewable flashed like small disco lights and turned around left and right making the whole sky appear like one gigantic kaleidoscope that once in a while got moved. It was fascinating but not the only part of his self inflicted trip that dulled and hulled the unpreventable truth of his demise.

When without any intention too look away from the sky his head moved a bit he was able to have a closer glimpse to the concrete ground that suddenly filled his ears with the sound of stones breaking apart. As if time was moving thousands of times faster, which only counted for the ground the concrete got big cracks and grass sprouted out of the ground that began to touch and hugged him like a soft cloud or down blanket, next to the grass flowers appeared and more and more of the building began to disappear and be replaced with flora. Like as if the accomplishments of his kind meant nothing to anyone and were taken over, no, rather reclaimed by mother nature itself.  

There was no sound when he fell into the grass no cracking bones or nerves that got cut or crushed, no organs pressed against his bones and no breath that left his body. Looking around he noticed how around his head formed a lake of a fluid that was as shiny and colourful as a rainbow and with a slight touch on his nose, he noticed how the same fluid ran out of his nose, ears and a bit out of his mouth too. He was, despite being caught in a trip, very well aware what actually was happening and what this liquid actually was, but he wouldn’t and most especially couldn’t care less what happened. He felt numb, none of his limps wanted to work any more, they where tired, so tired and only wanted to rest, a long deserved rest that they requested after one hard year of torture and pain created by their own nerves, mind and decisions.  

He wasn’t sure what it was, but it felt like some kind of “numb darkness” that whilst for now was only a weak presence felt as if it was going to grow stronger with time, but it was not the only presence near him.

S, the real one, at least if felt like the real honour student looked down to his face one he hasn’t seen what felt like centuries, it was not the emotionless face that sometimes he even interpreted as angry, it looked as if it had non ill meaning to him quite sad actually, perhaps feeling a bit of pity of his continuing demise. Stuttering a bit, but not like the last time he was able to form a whole sentence within seconds.

“H-hey do not cry Snow, it’s b-better like this, imagine me to die in a ditch in zee cold and dark heh.” as much as he did not want to but the smile he put up for some seconds was lost.

“There is only one regret I have S, zat I lost my guilt, no one blames me, I’m innocent by law but I’m guilty, I did zis, If I chould’ve been there, it’s zere zis lost guilt that consumed and fed on my, it chouldn’t be there, but here it still was and it still is. I-I understand if you can’t forgive me Snow, I vouldn’t either. I-”

His vocal chords suddenly stopped, but it was neither due of his blood loss nor the damaged brain or nerves, perhaps it was the drugs, perhaps the cracked mind he did not know nor could he care, but maybe it was really her who spoke to him, he did not know. Her voice, it felt like hers, but more soft and serious how it told him that there was no guilt to begin with, how she can not forgive him since there is nothing to be forgiven, that it is not his fault that it came to this, that it was not him who murdered her that it was her who felt sorry for him and that it was him, who should not be in such a position.

Ervin was speechless, and not only due of the increasing numb darkness that engulfed him more and more, it was rather more of the dam in his mind that finally breached and allowed him to cry, like the colourful liquid his tears ran down like a new formed river in a terrain.

“T-tha-ank you.”  

The numb darkness had nearly covered his whole vision by now, but Ervin was still able to see the white furred dogs face and how he slowly spoke those two words with his cold feeling lips

“S, Snow-”

Looking up to him, face to face to his friend, he wasn’t sure if this happened really or a trick in his decaying mind but it felt very real in those merely seconds he had.

“-wherever I land, wherever the road takes me, wherever I go, I’ll be there waiting for you , a promise is a p-promise...S.”

Those last words, as if they had a function of some higher realm coated him completely into this numb darkness, both his mind and body, but for once, since many months, since many days and nights and since the many hours, minutes and seconds of this one year he had been trough, he was able to feel a naturally warmth.

<...>

On this evening in June 1987 many things happened

On this evening in June 1987 fireflies flew around in the grass and woods to be caught  by young and old.

On this evening in June 1987 sundrops and primroses began to open to show their beautiful pedals  

On this evening in June 1987 crickets tuned their music together with croaking frogs in union

On this evening in June 1987, Ervin Niedmüller died with his guilt being lost.

~~~~~~

Tagging again: @stedilnik

With friendly greetings

The Bowlerhatwearer

[boshawsharky]

Hello, I am back on my bullshit. So before we get into this (weird yet great suggestion, btw), I just wanna clear a few bits up:

This took forever to write because until last Friday I hadn’t finished my A Levels, which are now complete thanky the fucky, and I now have a shit tonne of free time. However, I do have a life so I canny just spew them out- not that anyone of you have asked me to, I JUST STRESS MYSELF OUT PLEASE HELP.

Right, on with the fic!

“Uh… Rook, we’ve, uh, we’ve got a bit of a problem over here.”

The radio crackles to life with Sharky’s voice as it sits on the passenger seat of the deputy’s car as they drive down the road coming out of Fall’s End. The cool wind blows over their skin and through their hair, and, because they’re somewhere in the middle of Summer, it’s refreshing. Recently, it’s been quiet recently, probably because nobody can really be bothered to cause any problems since the Seeds died. The last big thing was when Hurk almost killed himself with his own rocket launcher- and just a side note, don’t shoot rockets at objects two metres away from you.

Dep reaches to their radio and smiles as they bring it to their lips, one hand holding the radio, the other holding the steering wheel. “Again, Sharky?” They tease, “Is anything on fire? Hurk is still alive, right?”

The deputy wears sunglasses on their face, although they would be a lot more useful if they were driving towards Falls End, not away, so they would be in the sun. Really, they should take them off, but they feel like a total badass with them on so they refuse to do so.

“Dep, I’m serious now,”

“Sharky, serious? Wow, something must be off,” a laugh escapes the deputy but Sharky doesn’t join in like he usually would.

“Deputy. You’re really going to want to see this.” The pyromaniac’s tone is not nearly as entertained or as entertaining as it is. He’s actually very serious, all things Sharky considered. “It’s really, really important.”

The rocks beneath the car crack and break as the vehicle passes over them, the driver in silence as they consider whether or not Sharky really is serious. They have no idea what to do.

“I don’t even know how to describe it, man. I ain’t ever seen anything like this before. You really, really need to come n see it, Dep.”

The deputy cocks an eyebrow and pulls the radio away from their mouth, glancing at the device before looking back at the road.

“Seriously serious?”

“Seriously serious.”

Rookie takes a deep breath. “Where are you?”

The first thing that catches the deputy off guard, despite their unease which is already present, is the mighty roar coming from the ditch where Sharky said he was. Following the roar are some quiet, almost puppy-like whines. To it’s right lies the half-eaten corpse of a Peggie.

“Shark-” Deputy cuts themselves off when they stand above the ditch, their eyes falling onto the raptor-like creature which nuzzles its head into Sharky’s hands. “What the fuck, Sharky?! Get away from it!” They shout, reaching quickly to ready to shoot it if it shows any signs of aggression. The raptor cocks it’s head at the deputy, and they raise their gun to point their pistol at the beast.

“No, don’t shoot it, Dep! I think it’s one of those river dino’s, or somethin’, like from the movies!” Sharky replies, scratching the rough, scaly skin behind the ear of the animal, which now stands on one leg whilst moving the other in pleasure from the scratches. “Don’t shoot it, it’s just like a puppy! Look! Who’s a good boy? You are, yes, you are!”

Sharky pauses, the movement of his hands stopping.

“Well, I think it’s a boy, anyway. I’m kinda scared to check.”

Dep keeps their gun drawn and pointed at the beast, “It’s not a puppy!” They hiss at the man, trying their hardest not to shout in case the animal gets disturbed and upset, therefore turning dangerous. “It’s a fucking dinosaur! What the fuck are you doing petting it like it’s your childhood retriever?”

“Aww, don’t say it like that,” Sharky coos, bending down and picking up a rock, throwing it a fair distance away. The dinosaur screeches- yes, screeches like a fucking monster- and chases after the rock. Yes, like a puppy. Rookie sighs. “He’s a good dino!”

“It’s a fuckin’ dinosaur and they shouldn’t even be here!” Rookie puts their gun away, putting a hand to their head in disbelief. “This is ridiculous! We need to do something about it, we can’t just leave it here like this.” They place the gun back into its holster as the dinosaur comes back into view, leaping into the ditch next to Sharky, releasing the rock from its mouth. Both people get a view of the beast’s razor-sharp teeth. They both share a look for a minute, despite Sharky’s growing comfort around the animal. “What do we do, Sharky?”

“I have no idea.” The other man admits, fussing the dinosaur’s cheek. There are several things that Sharky never thought would happen in his life- being a freedom fighter, an assistant to the saviour of Hope County, and, apparently, petting a dinosaur.

“Fuck. Somebody has got to know what to do.”

“You know who would be good right now?” Sharky says quietly, looking over to Dep. The deputy looks at him. “Eli. Eli would know exactly what to do.”

The deputy nods, “Yeah, he would.”

“What about Mary-May?” Sharky proposes, “She has a good head on her shoulders, she might help. And Hudson is with her! Them two together? Dream team.”

Deputy nods, “Yeah- good idea!” They say, nodding. “Yeah, but we can’t just lead it to Fall’s End.”

“Well, can’t we keep it in, like, the backyard or something? Tie a rope around its neck, lead it there.”

“Let me go and tell them to expect a fucking dinosaur, then.”

“Wait- Dep, we should name him,” there’s another pause because the deputy cannot believe Sharky wants to name a fucking river dino and a half because Sharky cannot think of any dino themed gender neutral names. “We don’t even know if it is a him.”

“Check, then,” Dep suggests, frowning at Sharky as if he just asked what colour grass is.

“Oh- no thank you, no I am not checkin’ to see if this thing has a wang or not!” He refuses, shaking his head rapidly. “He might try and-”

“He’s like a puppy, Sharky,” Deputy mocks, still staring at him. “Just. Like. A. Puppy.”

“Hell, I ain’t checkin’ to see if my puppies got a wang or not too! I can fuckin’ see that!”

“Well, bend down and fuckin’ see this one,”

Sharky point-blank refuses. He’s not checking this river dino thing’s bits- that’s not his bastard job!

“Fucks sake, Sharky.” The Deputy bends down and Sharky keeps it distracted by scratching its head. “It’s a girl.”

“Oh! Well, there’s a good girl, Roxy!”

“Roxy?!”

“Rexy?”

“Hey, this works great!”

To say the pyromaniac is proud of himself would be an understatement- and it wasn’t even that good of an idea. He sits in the passenger side of the car, holding the end of a rope in one hand whilst his other sits in his lap. The other end of the rope is tied around Rexy’s (Sharky insisted) neck so she follows behind the slow-moving vehicle.

“This was a great idea!” He continues, grinning to himself as if he’d just saved the world. “I’m so proud right now, Dep. Are you?”

“I kinda wish something was on fire and I wasn’t dealing with a fuckin’ river dino.” The deputy mumbles, just driving instead of trying to actively partake in the conversation. Part of them thinks that’s just because they can’t quite believe this is actually real.

Sharky shrugs and holds his hand out the window, which the dino nuzzles, doing a slight trot to keep up with the moving truck.”You’re a good dino, aren’t you Rexy? We’re goin’ to be at your new home real soon!”

“What the actual fuck is that?” Hudson yells, grabbing her gun when she sees the approaching dinosaur, of course being led by none other than Sharky Boshaw. “Sharky! That’s a fucking dinosaur, move! I thought you were joking!”

Mary May comes out of the Spread Eagle with a shotgun in hand when she hears Hudson shouting. “Woah, they were serious?” She asks as everybody begins to gather around to see what the commotion is about. They all draw their guns and point them at the beast.

“No! Stop threatening to shoot her!” Sharky yells.

“Yeah, she’s pretty friendly.” Dep has no idea how this situation has come about. They feel like they’ve snorted a tonne of coke and this is the result. “I thought they were myths, too.”

When they notice the way the animal is sniffing around in a similar way that Boomer would, people begin to put away their guns, the braver ones of the lot reaching to pet the beast. Dep, even though they have seen the gentle nature of the dino, takes a deep breath and hopes to anyone above that it doesn’t suddenly turn violent.

“Well, I’ll be,” Pastor Jerome parts the crowd, standing calmly in front of the animal and gently lifting a hand towards it. The animal sniffs his hand for a moment, then gently presses his nose against it. “I saw one of these, a few weeks ago during my trip to the Whitetail Mountains. Running away into the woods, well, I thought I’d lost the plot. Lying just a few feet away, Jacob Seed, a chunk missing from his leg. I didn’t want to make myself known, so I turned around and walked away- his men would have been there soon, anyway. I really thought God was messing with me, that day.”

“Are they friendly?” Somebody from the crowd asks.

“Well, this one is. Like a puppy.” Rook grabs a stone from the bottom of the fence and throws it just far enough so it shows that it will fetch but not so far that it will break the rope.

“Well, never thought I’d see it,” Hudson comments, shaking her head.

“Looks like Boomer’s got some dog competition.”

[stylinsonlibrary]

ALIEN FIC REC

Rocket Man (1k)

Louis finds himself abducted by an advanced alien race, but he was not expecting to fall in love with the one assigned to experiment on him.

I've Got You To Believe In (4k)

Harry is an alien, undercover as a human, with some help from Niall. Louis is high, which is apparently all it takes to blow an alien's cover.

Spilling Into Clouds (5k)

Louis gets picked for an exchange program among the four other planets orbiting the sun, and he might find his life partner but really, who knows?

just the sound of your voice (6k)

It’s just. Harry’s so fucking quiet during sex and now Louis’ obsession with it is...it’s incessant. Louis questions it day and night, the enigma of it buzzing around his head like an annoying mosquito — all of the reasons why he’s so quiet consuming every one of his waking thoughts. Like, maybe he turns into an alien during sex if he’s not really careful? So he has to concentrate so hard on not turning into another creature he’s effectively struck mute from it. Or maybe...maybe he’s like one of those people who’s into tantric sex, like Sting or a throwback from the 1960s? And when he’s about to orgasm he travels to another plane of existence or something.

There has to be a reason for it. There has to be.

Got This Feeling In Our Souls (8k)

Louis sat up, awoken by something he couldn’t quite put a finger on. He scrubbed at his eyes, unsure if he was actually still dreaming or if he was awake. He didn’t dream often, but when he did they were always vivid like this. Louis opened his eyes and squinted through the darkness before jumping back, his heart racing.

Dream or not, there was a person sitting in the chair in the corner of the room. The chair that usually was only used by Charlie while Louis slept.

“Who the fuck are you and how did you get in my apartment?” Louis asked, voice a bit more squeaky than he’d like to admit. Suddenly there were two flashes of green, and the world went black again.

Like Vines (We Intertwine) (8k)

The "Roswell" AU where Harry is an alien, Louis is not, and they've both been pining after each other for far too long.

Set your spirit free (its the only way to be) (13k)

Louis had traveled over a million miles of land and sea, through dry deserts and year long monsoons, but he had never seen anything as complex as Earth. There were things here, creatures with feelings and thoughts stronger than any of the others he had possessed. There were memories of a happier past, of a world without Souls. His past hosts had been easy to grab hold of, easy to throw away after they grew too old. With Harry, it was different. With Harry, everything was different.

An AU based on The Host by Stephenie Meyer.

beam you up to my heart (13k)

louis and zayn are just telepathic other worlders who break the law, harry (and by association niall) somehow get caught in their beam of light.

“Wait, so you guys are, like, aliens?” The initial shock and nervousness seem to have left his voice, now replaced with pure wonder.

“Well, I don’t think many humans own vehicles that can take them to the moon. So, yeah, I think it’s safe to say that we are. Right, Zayn?” Louis turns to look at Zayn, who cannot stop staring at Niall.

Alien Roadtrip! (16k)

For the first time in his life, Louis doesn’t know where he’s going. Harry doesn’t mind.

OR: roadtrip with desert feelings, too much snack food, and empty motels. Harry is definitely absolutely not an alien. That would be ridiculous.

Touch Me With Your Alien Dick (18k)

Harry is a sex alien sent to earth to fuck Louis Tomlinson.

or the one where having sex with an alien isn't weird at all.

Alone in a Sea of Stars (21k)

He shifted his helmet, where it was still in his hands, watching the fluorescent lights shine off of Harry’s hair and reflect off his skin.

Louis knew he would have to let Harry leave, but before doing so he licked over his dry lips, asking genuinely, “So are you going to follow me back to the ship again tomorrow or…?”

Harry smiled in reply, dimples going all soft and sweet. “Going to wait until right before you close the doors again so you have no choice but to keep me.”

Louis felt his skin warming and a small laugh bubbling up from his chest, as he bit down on his lower lip to stop his smile from growing. He cleared his throat, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I could probably kick you out right now if I wanted.” The thing was, Louis knew he wouldn’t. He could wait at least ten more minutes before he let Harry leave. Maybe even twenty.

A King Beside You (25k)

When the aliens invade, the last thing Louis expects is to fall in love.

Cosmic Love (27k)

Sudden chills rake over his body yet again, making him stay rooted to the ground. Static in the air makes every hair on his body stand up straight. That's when he notices something a couple feet in front of him lying on the ground. It’s what appears to be a person, weird white beams snaking around them like Christmas lights. Louis' heart rate picks up. Is the person alright? What are they doing here? What the fuck is happening? Or: Louis lives in a small, desert town in the middle of nowhere Texas, yet a strange visitor manages to find Louis among the stars.

alien harry (series; 2 works; 36k)

Beautiful & Strange (40k)

Over the top of Niall’s cackles, Louis heard Zayn say: “I think it’s…. A spaceship.”

Louis and Niall turned to him in bafflement. Zayn put his hands up in surrender. “What! It’s clearly floating, so it’s not a rock, and it’s not made of wood or plastic or metal.”

Louis didn’t even bother telling him that, no, of course it’s not a spaceship, this isn’t the x-files.

OR: A story in which Harry is an alien looking to be found, and Louis does the finding. (And vice versa.)

Glow (41k)

Alien AU, with a hint of Royal AU. A summer barbecue at the Tomlinson's is interrupted by a naked visitor from a peaceful planet far, far away. Can an alien and a human survive a summer together for the sake of the human race?

Curious Bob the Celestial Dog (43k)

Sci-Fi AU. Harry and Liam are humans, Louis and Zayn are from a different planet entirely and Niall's - something else.

A shadow blocks out the sun and Harry turns back as Louis crowds into his space, shuffling up to stand between his knees. “You know people don’t usually stand that close to each other?” He grins, pushing himself up a little higher on his elbows.

Louis shrugs. “You know there’s a lot of things I haven’t tried yet as a newly made human?”

Harry’s throat goes dry.

“There are all these chemicals, these feelings trying to make me do things,” Louis continues.

“Oh?” Harry croaks. Not sure how they’ve suddenly gotten onto this topic.

“I asked Niall about them, but I’m not sure he really understands these things.”

“No, probably not.”

"But I think maybe you do."

Won't sleep (48k)

Roswell!AU: After a situation at the pub escalates, Louis almost dies, but Harry is there to bring him back and nothing is ever the same again.

Fixated On One Star (52k)

Louis is just a boy with the world on his shoulders, and Harry's just a boy from the wrong side of the galaxy. A little thing like love doesn't stand a chance against a thousand years of war, at least until the right two come along to break the mold.

Or: space Romeo and Juliet, minus all the suicide.

through struggles, to the stars (80k)

Louis is a Starfleet captain trying to find his place in the universe. Harry is a prince just trying to do what's right.

A Star Trek-inspired AU.

[pedaleuse]

Bikepacking the Hebridean Way - Part 8 - Leaving the Islands

Read: Part 7

The next morning in the campsite near Stornoway it was still windy so I packed up pretty quickly and headed straight to the "Campers' Kitchen" which was a nice little hut with a kettle and hob etc. I sat there for a while having some breakfast and chatting to a really lovely Dutch couple about the same age as my parents would be now.

[map copyright Ordnance Survey - reproduced under fair use terms]

Soon enough we were headed off down the road to ride the 2.5km to the ferry terminal. That was all I wanted to ride today. Besides I didn't even put my cycling shorts on, opting instead for my "quick dry" sleeping/aprés-bike/restaurant-visiting/everything other than bike shorts shorts today. While the ride was short it was also windy! In fact so windy that we had to walk through the town pushing our laden bikes because the gusts were nearly blowing us over! Sheesh, this island can be fierce! What a place! I joked that the island had been metaphorically punching us all week, had finally punched us to the ground, and was still punching us as we tried to crawl away! But it reminds you that this island is like a ship out at sea and the weather can be fierce. The locals aren't fazed by it all.

We arrived at the ferry terminal to be reunited with quite a few of the other riders we'd seen over the last few days and who we'd got the ferry from Oban to Castlebay with on the first day. I really love island trips for this; bumping into the same people now and again and catching up. However this time they all had a thousand-yard stare and looked vaguely traumatised from riding over the moors that morning; the ride we'd done yesterday. The lovely Glaswegian couple who were also on our first ferry who were riding mountainbikes from BnB to BnB and following the Hebridean Way with plush bears on the head tube told me they had the option to get the bus with their bikes but at the last minute they decided to ride instead. "The tank is empty" he told me "I can't ride anymore". In fact they were being collected by a bike transfer service and transported straight to Inverness. It was expensive but I was more than a little envious. ;) We also bumped into a couple from the first ferry too who were riding Surley bikes with big panniers called Sylvie and Brett. The couple, not the panniers. It was nice to see them and this was actually their planned route back as they were headed towards Pitlochry.

My worries about the ferry were unwarranted because sure enough the modern craft arrived as if it wasn't bothered by the wind at all. Those bow and stern thrusters are amazing! The pilot probably brought the boat in via a joystick while playing I'm On a Boat! Maybe.

Because of the weather and the Tarbert ferry breaking down in port there were a lot of vehicles there. The way the loading works is that the cyclists and foot passengers board after the vehicles and this also included the stand-by vehicles so it took a long time for us to get onto the ferry and waiting in the cold as people drove past was a little tough. I think it's good that people with cycles disembark after the motor vehicles because otherwise you have the next 10 minutes with people squeezing past you on the narrow roads but I did wish we could board first to get out of the weather. As we waited we could hear a buzzing sound and after locating the source it was a section of paint being ripped off the building by the wind.

Eventually we stowed our bikes and headed up to the ferry lounge. It was already fairly packed and we found a small table to sit at. On the way through the lounge we passed the "Pets' Area" which was full of dogs with their travelling companion humans. It was really busy but I wished I could have sat right in the middle of there! I'd pay extra!

By the time we got on the ferry I was really hungry so went straight to the canteen and got some cooked food with a large chips component. Along with an Irn Bru, this would do me nicely. The captain warned of "movement" during the crossing and there was a reasonable swell but this meant the passengers were fairly quiet so it was a really pleasant crossing.

Eventually we arrived in Ullapool and in short order were clacking out of the car deck in our bike shoes, needing to ride the 100m or so to the campsite. We checked in and found a pitch in the lee of a low wall which was providing a good cover from the wind at the moment. The site was pretty much full of campervans and motorhomes but there were a few small tents there too. "You're brave!" said a passing man as we pitched our tents. "We don't have another option!" I smiled back at him. I didn't think it'd be that bad even though the wind was set to veer again in the night. This would align the wind to be an absolutely perfect headwind for the final few days of the trip...

I slept pretty well although was woken to my tent being blown almost flat and then popping up again and what sounded like somebody outside jet-washing me.

I packed my stuff as quickly as possible, unpegged my tent complete with poles, folded it, and then ran like a child with a kite towards the laundry room which also had a picnic table as some sort of rudimentary camp kitchen. There I also met a lovely German couple who were backpacking but making breakfast in that shelter to the sounds of people's pants rotating in the industrial washing machines. The breakfast they were making in their large tin mugs looked lovely but I had a cup of coffee and a plan to stop off at the garage on the way out of town.

At this point our small group had decided to head on two different routes; me the road to Garve station and then see if I could hop on a train to Inverness, camp overnight, then start making my way down Loch Ness and camping at a couple of nice spots there. The other two headed over the singletrack towards Inverness. "See you in Fort William!" we said as I sent my rough plan to them via our group chat...

[map copyright Ordnance Survey - reproduced under fair use terms]

My plan today; head over the hill towards Garve station and Inverness. It was only about 50km away although down another A-road so not such a challenge...

Come on....course it was...this is Scotland! ;)

Read: Part 9

[beepbeeprichiellc]

In-between Lovers

Summary: Richie Tozier and Eddie Kaspbrak are different sides to the same coin. They are in a rather sticky predicament, both are hopelessly in love with their best friend. One problem, their best friends are dating. Stan and Bill seem happy and in love, flaunting their relationship for everyone to see. It just isn’t fair, not one bit. So the two come to an agreement, deciding that there is no point in suffering alone. They aren’t dating, no never that, it’s only physical and it’s only to ease their broken hearts. Nevermind that they get along so well or that their lingering touches burn their skin. No. It’s just an agreement, an understanding if you will, this isn’t anything more than a means of forgetting. Right?

A/N: I said this was on my list of things to do, I don’t know exactly how I like it though…I’m on the fence, I guess I’ll have to see how you guys like it. Let me know if I should continue. If not, no harm, no foul. Something different for me. There would be smut, if that wasn’t blatantly obvious. Meh…

Word Count: 3350

Masterlist

Moodboard

The city passed by his window in a blur, the navigation system on his phone directing him to the place he really didn’t want to go. It was like he was just going through the motions, not really allowing his mind to linger on the sinking feeling in his gut. His hands gripped on to the steering wheel, turning his knuckles white. A sad song that slowly played though his speakers, its soft melody and strong vocals began to lull him, speaking all of the feelings that he seemed to wish away. Life was hard all around, Eddie knew this but it just seemed that for him, life was a fucking disaster.

This was the third blind double date that he had been on this month, his best friend more than eager to pawn him off on someone else. It wasn’t that Bill didn’t love him, because he did, it just wasn’t the same type of love that he himself felt. Eddie had loved his best friend since they had been little kids, had worshiped the ground he walked on but no matter what he did, or how hard he tried, he was never good enough. There had been a time when Eddie had believed it better to just cut ties with Bill, unable to handle the turmoil that wrecked his insides but when he had tried, Bill had fought it, claiming that someday Eddie would find Mr. Right, that they shouldn’t just throw away their friendship because of it.

So here he was, driving to some god awful bar to meet another idiotic suitor chosen for him. If that wasn’t bad enough, Bill was going to bring his boyfriend…again. His perfect, pristine boy toy, who refused to even give Eddie a second glance. Stan’s bitterness stemmed from Eddie and Bills dysfunctional relationship, and he was sure that constantly having to go on dates with someone who was in love with your boyfriend wasn’t something on curly haired prince’s to do list.

Eddie didn’t want to hate Stan, he really didn’t but with each encounter his own jealousy began to consume him. It was Stan this and Stan that, the topic of their relationship being the only thing Bill discussed these days. Which was normal, he supposed, but the fact that Bill continued to talk to him about it, without even considering his feelings really put him in a shitty place. So he began to despise his best friend’s new love.

He arrived at the bar early, parking in the back to avoid seeing his friend arrive. There was a buzz from his phone, indicating a new text. Looking down he frowned, Bill’s name filling the top of the screen. Eddie grumbled under his breath, opening the message.

Sadie’s Bar, downtown at 7. Don’t be late.

This made him snort, rolling his eyes. Late. Eddie Kasbprak was never late, he just didn’t show when the company was bad. And the company had been bad a lot more often than not. With a huff he replied.

Got it.

I’m serious Eddie, do not blow this off. Stan brought his friend just for you, you need to be there.

“Great, I’m sure he’s a catch.” Eddie hissed to his screen, knowing full well that his bitterness wasn’t perceived. Debating his response, he chose to just not reply, knowing full well that if he did he would just end up cussing his friend out. Instead he sunk lower in his seat, leaning his head against his head rest in attempts to calm his nerves. There was at least fifteen minutes until he needed to go in, twenty if he wanted to make Bill sweat.

There was some commotion across the lot, a loud obnoxious voice booming profanity. Eddie looked up in time to catch a glimpse of Stan, his pressed clothes hanging loosely off of his long elegant limbs. He was smiling at something that Eddie couldn’t see, his hands gesturing to the bar and back to the vehicle again. Eddie knew that Bill wasn’t with him, being that his friend was meeting them straight after his shift, so the person that Mr. Stickuphisass was talking with must be the blind date. With a curious stare he waited for the man to reveal himself, doing so after what felt like forever.

Eddie nearly choked. The man was handsome, in a certain way, but what made him stick out like a sore thumb was his leather jacket and black skinnies. With a cigarette hanging form his lips, a smile curved across his face, his bottle cap glasses taking up most of the room on his forehead. His hair was like a rats nest, curls hanging lower than his earlobe. This was not Eddie’s type, the exact opposite quite frankly but that wasn’t what bothered him.

What really got under Eddie’s skin was the way he was looking at Stan. It was an expression that Eddie himself knew too well, a look of admiration and desire. It was in the way his eyes fluttered, the way he looked down when Stan caught him staring, or the way he reacted to everything the other man did. This dude was in love with Bill’s boyfriend, this smug looking dick whose eyes raked over Stan like he was a piece of meat, posed a threat to their oh so perfect relationship.

“Wow, what an asshole.” Eddie muttered, immediately realizing he was describing himself. This date and he were the same, as much as he hated the idea, he and the grungy boy had one thing in common. They were so fucking screwed. His phone vibrated, again with a message from Bill.

I’m here, Stan is in the parking lot, where are you?

For a split second he debated leaving, of starting his car and driving back home where a pint of ice-cream awaited. Maybe he could still have a good night, one ending him with rubbing one out in the shower if he was lucky. His phone buzzed.

You better fucking be here Eddie.

With a heavy sigh he shoved his phone in his pocket, waiting until Stan and the douche were inside of the bar before getting out of his car. He was not looking forward to this date.

It was as bad as he had expected.

Richie, as the asshole so fondly called himself, seemed completely uninterested in him. He went to great lengths to ignore him, rolling his eyes every time Eddie spoke. God, what a waste of his time. This fucking man only stared at Stan, laughing at his stupid jokes as he leaned in as close as the table would allow. God, was he this obvious? He sure hoped not.

“So Eddie is a resident at Saint Joseph’s Hospital, isn’t that pretty cool?” Bill pressed, smiling at Eddie with pitiful effort. Even he could tell this date had already tanked.

Richie snorted, “A doctor huh? No wonder you are so stuck up.”

“Wow, and here I thought this evening would be oh so fun.” Eddie retorted sarcastically, “Man, you are such a fucking catch. How are you single?”

“Because no one can handle me.” Richie hissed, taking a swig of his whisky. “I’m a firecracker, I’d break your fragile ass.”

“Good thing I’m a doctor huh?” Eddie replied, rolling his eyes. “I’ve seen a lot of blow out anus in my time, maybe a few of your friends?” Bill choked on his drink, a rough cough beginning to rattle in his chest. Stan patted him on his back fondly, shooting Eddie a dirty look.

“You are fucking sick.” Richie bit, bearing his teeth at Eddie. “And quite frankly you are a dirty little asshole.”

“Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

“No but I’ve kissed yours, she’s a fucking whore and likes it when I kiss both of her lips. Just the other day I-“

“Okay!” Bill boomed, slamming his beer on the table, silencing their argument. “Okay, yeah I need a stronger drink. Do you want anything? No? Great.” He rose from his chair, swimming though the sea of people to get to the crowded bar. Stan looked over to the too, opened his mouth to spit fire but decided against it as he followed his boyfriend.

Fucking Christ Eddie wished he would have just stayed home. Family Feud reruns should be playing right about now. There was a burning sensation on his face and he knew that Richie was glaring at him with intent. “What?” He hissed, looking over to his date. “What could you possible want?”

“I want you to leave.”

Eddie laughed, actually laughed in the assholes face. “Wow, we do actually have something in common!”  

“Why are you even here if you don’t want to be, get off being Bill’s little lap dog?”

Eddie could feel his face fluster in anger, his eyes narrowing at the lanky man in disgust. “That’s funny, coming from someone who has spent the night drooling in Stan’s lap.”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh what, did you think I wouldn’t notice?” Eddie quipped, tilting his head as he took in the satisfaction of Richie’s taken aback look. “It’s as obvious as that fucking stud in your mouth. You love him. That must be why you agreed to come on this fucking date and turn around and treat me like something you found on the street. You’re trying to get into his pants.”

“How fucking dare you!” Richie snarled, his face twisting in true anger. “The only reason I came on the stupid date was because Stan is tired of you being up Bill’s ass. I’m being a good friend.”

“Oh yeah, and treating me like shit and insulting me is a good way to get on that dicks good side.”

“Don’t you dare talk about him that way.” Richie warned, pointing a finger in his face. “I’ve skinned people for saying less.”

“Yeah, you are totally not in love with him.” Eddie mocked, rolling his eyes and brushing away Richie’s dagger. “You are just like me, too fucked up to leave and too deep to not care.”

Richie’s hard exterior melted, his scowl giving way to a knowing frown. Leaning back in his chair he let out a long, exasperated breath, his fingers running themselves though his curls. He looked back at Eddie with what looked like sympathy, but what Eddie was sure was revelation. “We are both fucking screwed aren’t we?”

It was the first time Richie had spoken to him in a soft voice, the slushy comment taking him by surprise. Eddie shrugged, rubbing his face to rid himself of his riled up nerves. “Another thing we agree on.”

“I want to move on, I really do it’s just-“Richie paused, the words faltering for a second as the mummers from the people around began to grow louder as their tones grew laxer. “I’ve known him my entire life, and I don’t want to give up hope that it’ll work out some day, you know? That when push came to shove, he would pick me.”

Eddie sighed, looking back to where Bill and Stan stood, their own conversation moving between them. Stan’s hand lifted to graze Bill’s cheek, the love and admiration in the simple movement made Eddie sick to his stomach. “I get it. I really do.”

“I hate this.” Richie said, leaning his elbows on the table. “I hate suffering just because I can’t let go.” It was like he was speaking a language that only Eddie understood, a perfect reflection of himself. They were two sides to the same fucked up coin, one that was passed over for something shiner.

“Yeah well, at least we have each other.” Eddie joked, raising his neglected glass in Richie’s direction. The other man met his gesture, clinking their drinks together before taking a long, much need swig. That was when something clicked in Eddie’s head. “We have each other.” He whispered, the words lingering at the tip of his tongue, his mind drifting to very vulgar places.

“No offense dude, if it wasn’t pretty obvious by the first hour we interacted with each other, you are not my type.” Richie mocked, rolling his eyes.

“I don’t have to be.” He replied, placing his glass back on the table as he half turned to look at his date. “We can use each other.”

“You lost me.”

 “Look, I don’t like you and you don’t like me but whether we like it or not, we are in the same fucking position.” Licking his lips, he remembered how many nights he had spent alone, his thoughts lingering on a certain friend that seemed to haunt him. How he had wished he had a distraction, something he could use sexually to keep his sanity in check. If he had, then his life would have been extremely better, easier actually. “How many people do you sleep with?”

Richie sputtered, his eyes widening at the blunt question. “I’m not sure how that is any of your business.” He replied harshly, scoffing at Eddie’s earnest look. “But if you must know, my sex life is alive and well.”

“Is that so?”

“No.” He snorted, “I haven’t gotten laid in forever. I can’t get past-“

“The thought of Stan. Exactly my point.” Eddie said, gesturing to their friends, who had seemingly deserted them. “I am the same way. I tried sleeping around, but every time I was reminded that I only wanted to be with Bill.”

“So what? Sleeping with each other this supposed to fix our fucked up libido?”

“No, not fix.” Eddie explained, “Just numb. I’m not talking about fixing our problem, or even helping one another to move on. I’m talking about using sex as a numbing agent, something to keep everything at bay while those two love birds continue on with their perfect relationship.”

“So you would be picturing Bill, while I picture Stan?” Richie said, a mild tone of disgust lingering in his words. “That’s-uh-that’s fucking weird.”

Honestly, Eddie’s didn’t know what he had expected, it had been a long shot. It was a good thing he didn’t care about Richie’s opinion of him, or else he might have been embarrassed. He only shrugged, brushing off the awkward glance his date was giving him. “Suite yourself, I thought it was a good idea.”

Richie started to respond but was cut off by their friend’s return, their quiet conversation ending once they got to the table. Eddie pretended to look at his phone, and Richie was in the perfect positon to see that it was empty but said nothing as his date stood. “I’ve got to go. Hospital called, they need me to cover one of the other resident’s shifts tonight.”

“What are you serious?” Bill asked, frowning. “I thought you said you had the night off.”

“Yeah well, now I don’t.” He muttered, pulling on his coat and throwing some money on the table. “It was, well I don’t think I’d say nice, but it was interesting meeting you Richie and Stan, pleasure as always.”

“Sure.” Stan replied through gritted teeth.

“Are you sure you have to go?” Bill pleaded one last time, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder, branding Eddie’s skin though his clothes. “It looked like you two were finally past biting each other’s heads off.”

“Honestly, it wasn’t going to work out.” Eddie replied, rolling his eyes. “No offense Richie but you’re not my type.”

“Like wise.” Richie replied, shaking his head.

“I really have to go but I’ll uh-text you later.” Eddie said hastily, moving away from the group. “See ya.”

“Yeah.” Bill murmured, “See you later.” With one final glance over his shoulder Eddie rushed through the door, thankful to have ended that nightmare and contemplating picking up Chinese food on his way home. Maybe he could still rub one off in the shower after all.

“Yeah, it was fucking terrible.”

“Damn.” Mike said through the receiver of Eddie’s cellphone, his voice slightly shocked. “Bill said that this guy was perfect for you.”

“Yeah perfect as in in the same situation as me.” He replied harshly, flipping through random channels on his television, hoping to still catch the tail end of Family Feud. “God, he was in love with Stan! No wonder Bill though it would be a perfect match.”

“You’re kidding me.”

Eddie smiled, noticing Steve Harvey’s face as he landed on ongoing episode. “Nope. Totally head over heels, felt sorry for the guy.”

“Yeah because he’s basically you.”

“Hey now, you don’t need to be rude!” He corrected harshly, “Doesn’t matter anyway, I’ll probably never see his ugly mug again. Not that I’m complaining.”

“Probably a good thing, you two together sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.” Mike said, the sound of him chewing making Eddie’s skin crawl. “I mean, no offense but you are already a ticking time bomb.”

There was a knock on his apartment door, pulling his attention from the screen. Looking to the clock the noticed how late it was, wondering who in their right mind would have to balls to bother him past midnight. “Hey I’m gonna have to let you go, there’s someone at my door.”

“Alright man, have fun with that. I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”

“Yup, bye Mikey.” Hanging up the phone he walked towards the door, a deep annoying feeling bubbling up in his stomach. Standing on his tippy toes he looked though the peephole, his mouth dropping at the sight.

There, in front of his apartment was Richie, biting on his nails and looking down the hall. Eddie shook his head, unlocking the door to the vulgar trashmouth. A grin spread across his face as soon as they came face to face, making Eddie’s heart flutter with excitement. “Hey Eds, long time no see.”

“Okay first off,” Eddie hissed, cocking his hip to one side, “that is not my name. And second off, how in the hell did you find out where I live?”

“Fed Stan some bullshit about wanting to get your number and blah blah blah.” He made a crude gesture with his hand, one that would shame a holy woman. “Bill was there and ate it right up, gave me your address and everything.”

Eddie pursed his lips, slightly amused. “Yeah, I’m gonna have to talk to him about that.”

“I’m in.” Richie said quickly, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

“What?”

“I said I’m in. On the deal that you had at the bar? I thought about it and I’m in.”

“You’re kidding me.” Eddie asked, raising an eyebrow. “You acted disgusted when I brought it up.”

“Yeah, well that was before I had to sit through another hour of googley eyes between Stan and his boyfriend. All I wanted to do was bang my head on the table, which reminded me of you.”

“I feel insulted.”

“I don’t care.”

This made Eddie smile, a chuckle rumbling form his chest. “Alright.” He nodded, leaning back from the threshold and gesturing to his small apartment. “Come on in then.”

“Oh and there is one rule I want to set into place.” Richie said, peeling his jacket from his shoulders once Eddie had shut the door. Eddie watched him pull his shirt over his head, mildly impressed with what he saw.

“And what is that?” He asked, starting towards his bedroom with Richie on his heels. Stopping a few feet in he turned and faced what had been his blind date, gasping as Richie pushed him against the wall, pressing his hips into him. His hands were hot against Eddie’s skin, exploring under his shirt with no shame. Richie’s eyes grew dark and distant, his breath washing over Eddie’s like a title wave of lust and desire.

“Don’t fall in love with me.” Richie whispered, leaning down to bite down at the base of Eddie’s neck. This made the shorter boy whimper, his fingers moving though Richie’s hair as he pulled him close. With an eye roll and an exasperated sigh he replied,

“That is not going to be a problem.”

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