#This came about because I spontaneously remembered a sentence that I cut from my Big Bang fic

[hephaestuscrew]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Wolf 359 (Radio) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Doug Eiffel & Hera & Isabel Lovelace & Renée Minkowski Characters: Doug Eiffel Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Introspection, Character Study, Eiffel has lost his memories but he's still a man of many fears Summary:

A short while after the Hephaestus crew return to Earth, Doug Eiffel tries to work out which of his fears are new and which aren’t.

[forcefulkitten]

a ride to remember

[hisoka morow x fem! reader] 

summary: you and Hisoka go on a date to an amusement park and he makes it an experience you’ll never forget.

warnings: 18+, nsfw, public sex, overstimulation, exhibitionism

word count: 2,229

You can’t remember the last time you were able to go out and have fun. Work and adulting consumes a large portion of your life these days. The minimal free time that you do have is spent catching up on much needed rest or lounging around with your boyfriend. So when he came home with tickets for the amusement park, you were thrilled. Being with Hisoka is always a fun time. No matter what you do, he makes it spontaneous. While he’ll never grow sick of doing face masks with you and taking a bath with your head rested on his chest, he can’t deny that you both deserve an actual date outside of the house.

Checking yourself out in the mirror, you’re happy with how you look tonight. You decided to wear a black plaid pleated skirt, white long sleeve turtleneck and sneakers. Hisoka snuck up from behind you and wrapped his arms around your waist, looking at you in the mirror. “Mmmm, what fine taste you have my dear.” He’s dressed in his usual outfit and makeup, not that you’d prefer it any otherwise. You turn around and press a kiss to his lips. “Should we head out?” You questioned. “Yes pumpkin.”

Upon arrival, you’re overwhelmed by the amount of rides, games and food there is at your leisure. Energetic music, laughter and smiling faces fill the atmosphere around you. Hisoka pulls you towards the first ride he sees, a drop tower that goes up too high for your comfort. The excitement on his face and strong grip on your wrist gives you the motivation to put any fear aside. It’s rare that you two have the opportunity to go out lately and you’ll be damned if you don’t have the most fun this day has to offer.

Hours of heart pumping, adrenaline rushing entertainment pass by at the speed of light. After surviving what felt like your death sentence, you stomp away from Hisoka with tears in your eyes and make your way to buy a funnel cake with strawberries and whipped cream. He follows behind you, wondering why you’re so upset. Sitting down at a table, you push the dessert over to him on the opposite side. “Why would you do that? I was so scared Hisoka.” You question with sadness in your eyes. “What's the big deal? It was only some harmless fun.” His tone is taunting and you want to punch him in the throat for mocking you. “You call that... harmless fun? You broke our safety buckle right before the rollercoaster dropped from the top. The tallest fucking ride here.” Warm tears streamed down your face, you feel so small right now while he stares at you with pity. “I just couldn’t resist the chance to look at your adorable frightened face.” Hisoka’s arm reaches across the table and lifts your chin to look at him. “I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to you. Besides, bungee gum has the properties-“ You cut him off mid sentence, slapping your hand over his mouth. You can't help but laugh whenever he says that line. He places a soft kiss on the back of your hand before pushing the funnel cake back to you and swiping some of the whipped cream on your nose. It’s times like this that remind you how you’ve grown to trust him with your life. He’s scared the hell out of you plenty times and even put you in dangerous positions but you’ve never been unwillingly hurt by or because of him. Hisoka scans over your face, taking mental note of your tear stained cheeks and bloodshot eyes. Even in this state you’re perfect to him. Normally, he thinks weak people are pathetic. But when it comes to you, he’s captivated by how you allow yourself to be so forgiving and kind with him even when he doesn’t deserve it.

After sharing your funnel cake and grabbing some overpriced, underwhelming grub to eat, you two continue to chit chat about your day together while your food settles. Gesturing to the games so Hisoka can win you a bear, he shakes his head no at your silent begs. “Why not? We’ve went on every ride that we wanted to go on! We're not leaving until you win me a bear. I deserve it since you nearly killed us.” He tuts, “You can have whatever you desire, my pretty fruit. But only after we get on the Ferris wheel.”

Handing two tickets to the operator, you and Hisoka make your way onto a cart. The seat beneath you is cold and it’s uncomfortable against your legs, so you move to sit on Hisoka’s lap with your back facing him. He brings his arms around your waist, pulling you flush against his body. The added warmth is appreciated. After such a long day, you could easily fall asleep here if you tried. Instead, the two of you overlook the amusement park while the Ferris wheel slowly makes its way up. Everything around you is perfect. Hisoka holding you tight. The night sky covered in stars. The moon that looks so close but in fact is so far. Happiness radiating in the air around you. The light atmosphere is exquisite, you’d stop time right now if you could.

Hands that were wrapped around your waist untangle. Hisoka brings one underneath your shirt, pulling the cup of your bra down and groping your breast, making you yelp at his sudden movements. His lips find their way to your neck, sucking and nipping the skin. You melt into his touch, small moans feeding his hungry desire. Hisoka’s other hand trails between your thighs, resting against your heat. He doesn’t slip his fingers into your panties, instead finding refuge on your clit through the fabric. You squirm in his lap when deft fingers start to swirl against your bud. “Hisoka..” You whimper when he bites your neck particularly hard, peppering kisses around the area afterwards. “Hmm?” His voice is thick like honey and he pretends that he doesn’t know what you’re whining about.

Leaning against his body, grinding against his hand, head thrown back onto his shoulder while singing his name between breaths only serves to stir him on. Part of you thinks it’s crazy to do this in public, on a Ferris wheel at that. A bigger part of you is caught up in the thrill and pleasure coursing through your body. He’s making you feel so good that you wouldn’t dare stop him. Hisoka can feel how wet you’ve gotten, helping his digits slide up and down your slit through your panties. His fingers circle your clit with precise and calculated movements. Not knowing where to put your hands, you latch onto the material of his pants, tight fists making your knuckles turn white. You feel the coil in your stomach tighten with every swirl against your sex, every pinch of your nipple. You look around, realizing that you’re almost at the base of the Ferris wheel. Hisoka’s fingers speed up, hoping to get you to cum right as you’re passing the operator. He has a knack for both frightening you and seeing you flustered. Fighting your orgasm with every fiber of your being, you clench your eyes shut and try to still your body. He shuffles your body closer to his, and you feel his erection press against you. He ruts up against you, the feeling of him touching every sensitive part of your body is overwhelming. Legs trembling and mouth ajar from the overstimulation, you feel your orgasm approach. There’s no use in trying to fight it. Hisoka brings his lips to your ear, “Cum for me darling.” His voice is laced with lust and persuasion. He doesn’t even understand the amount of power he has over you when he uses that tone. Letting go of your nipple, his hand moves up to grip your neck, rested between your breast like a seatbelt. His fingers ravishing your clit, erection prodding against you and moans in your ear send a rush through your veins. Amusement park music, people screaming on rollercoasters, the gears of the Ferris wheel. These sounds that filled your ears before aren’t registering to you. All you can hear is your moans and his hitched breath each time you rub against him. The knot in your stomach snaps, and you let out a cry while your cunt clenches around nothing. Hisoka’s fingers work your swollen bud even faster once he feels your orgasm begin. He jerks your head to the side and when you force your eyes open, the operator’s looking at you in confusion. Trying to move your face from his view is futile, the grip on your jaw is iron clad. You shut your eyes, promising to pay Hisoka back for this. Thankfully the operator isn’t able to see what Hisoka’s hand is doing under your skirt, but you can guess he knows exactly what’s going on. Shocked and embarrassed, you lean forward towards your knees while Hisoka cups your sex, allowing you a moment to gather yourself. As the cart makes its way back up, he gives the operator a sly grin.

You slide onto the cold seat, only for Hisoka to pull you right back onto his lap facing him. Wrapping your arms around his shoulders, you bring your tongue to lick the shell of his ear. You begin to straddle his waist, grinding against his thick length. Hisoka’s breath hitches at the friction between the two of you. Bringing one hand to hold you up, Hisoka pulls his cock out of his pants and lines himself up with your clothed cunt. You reach between your bodies, tugging your panties to the side and giving him a way in. His hands glide up the curve of your ass and find their way to your waist, inching into you. Your slick cunt sucks him in quickly, making you hiss at the stretch that turns from pain to pleasure. Hisoka bucks into you while you meet his thrusts. The squelching noises of your sex drives him wild. “Oh my, you’re soaking wet darling. So gorgeous taking my cock like this.” You bring him into a kiss, slipping your tongue in his mouth and biting down harshly. The pain makes him speed up his pace, thrusting into you so roughly that you know you’ll be sore after this. His long member hits your cervix with every rut, you can’t control the obnoxious moans leaving your mouth. The way he slides in and out of your sopping pussy makes you feel delirious. Your grip on his muscular shoulders tighten at the feeling of your orgasm building up again. Hisoka is latched onto your ass, squeezing so hard that his nails dig crescents into your fragile skin. He’s putting all of his strength behind his vicious onslaught, the feeling of his hips hitting your aching folds is invigorating. Amber eyes bore into yours, aroused by every contorted face that you make. Hisoka knows you’re close. Your legs are burning from meeting his thrusts, arms clutched onto him like he’s your savior. Hisoka can’t continue much longer. Seeing you such a mess, impaled on his cock while shamelessly taking him in public is driving him wild. Your legs finally give out, leaving him to use you to his heart’s content. You grind against him lazily, focused on chasing your orgasm despite the burn in your legs. Hisoka rolls his hips against yours, desperate for you to cream around him. You bury your face into his neck as you cum, letting out choked moans that bring a smile to his face. He doesn’t even give you a moment to catch your breath, quickly pistoning into you. He lets out a string of moans that could probably be heard by all of the other people on the Ferris wheel. Bringing your hands into his hair, you pull his face into your neck to shut him up. Hisoka bounces you on his length as if you weigh nothing, biting your neck hard enough to make you shriek. Your cunt gripping him like a vice proves too much for him. Shuddering, he coats your walls with his seed. Having regained some control over yourself, you sway against his length, greedily milking him until he stops twitching inside of you. He holds you close against him while drawing circles in your thigh. Your mouth meets his in a sloppy kiss, wordlessly thanking him for fucking you into the oblivion. Hisoka lifts you off of him gently, and you both fix yourselves properly into your clothing with perfect timing. Not even a minute later, you reach the bottom of the Ferris wheel and the operator opens the cart to let you both out. As you walk by, you keep your head down and follow behind Hisoka.

Exhausted is an understatement. Having spent over 8 hours at this place and going through several different emotions; you’re ready to go home, take a shower and go to sleep. Hisoka plays a couple of games, making sure to win you a small bear and an oversized one. Shortly after, the two of you make your way home after Hisoka buys candy to share on the way. Little do you know, he's already got two more tickets to visit again in the future.

[croatian-nt]

Sejan podcast

I know this isn’t in order but I also know everyone is waiting for this one so, here you go. Translation under the cut

Host, speaking to the camera: Good day dear viewers, and today-a treat. Dejan Lovren and Šime Vrsaljko. I was tempted to start this off with Šime's famos phase: Good day working people, tonight is a live" but it seemed a bit too much

Host, turning to them: should we expect something like that from the two of you during Euro as well?

Dejan: it's spontaneous for us. For Šime and me. We never know what will happen

Host: oh I see. Is it also partly the fact that you are a bit older now-

Šime: *giggling *

Host: -so you have this mindset of "oh we are older now, we'll leave it for younger players"?

Šime: *giggling louder * well no-we only improve with years that go by

Dejan: we get even worse

Šime: *openly laughing * yes, even worse!

Host: but the two of you continued that tradition even after WC. You call one another, you go live, you guve yourself into the ether, so to say

Šime: I mean, it's not...it's not showing people as much as they think-

Dejan: we show them maybe 1%!

*everyone laughs *

Šime: yeah we show them maybe 1% of the way we-I mean, we show everything through positivity and that's it. I guess people like that

 Host: I know the two of you have been active during quarantine. You were both probably bored and had quite a bit of interesting conversations. Maybe we should touch a bit upon that. Is it something you guys plan or does one call another and then you just talk?

Dejan: Oh, it's as I said before. Šime knows that when I call him, I'll call him three times. He has to answer

Šime: yeah, we really don't plan that. I often have some things I am doing but then he is calling me to comment on something and I-I don't have the heart not to answer

 Host: so Dejan, you were also quite bored in quarantine, and you tries quite a lot of activities. I believe cooking was also one and that one steak ended up burned

Dejan: the house almost burned down

Host: *laughs *

Dejan: no, seriously

Host: so it ended up completely black huh?

Dejan: yeah. But I did learn how to cook better after that

Host: and you Šime? I believe you said you didn't cook the eggs but the eggs cooked you. That there was oil everywhere

Šime: I mean, they closed us in the house. And I had some friends over and we were all really hungry so I made some eggs. They asked for fried eggs but they ended up getting scrambled ones

 *about getting haircuts in Russia*

Šime: so I came downstairs, after the lady was finished with Kova already. And we share a glance and Kova is like 'brate...this really isn't good' but I take a seat anyway, hoping it will turn out alright. And then she started cutting it and I felt she was taking out too much hair so I stopped her. Still had patches of hair missing. It was awful

Dejan: the rest of us surely didn't let him forget about it

Host: so how did all of this start? I know the two of you were roommate and that Dejan pressure you into opening instagram account, which you didn't want to do. But you did in the end

Šime: yeah, he was pesting me about it for days. 'Šime please. Com'on just open an account please' and what could I do? I relented. And then...I think we made that Marica video first?

Dejan: yes, that's how it all started

Šime: yeah. I didn't know how anything on Instagram worked, so I played with filters and that's how Marica happened. Interesting, what can I say

Host: what's interesting is that none of that was planned. There was no plan, no censure, nothing. You just showed us things as they were

Dejan: well I think that's the best, really. Plans rarely work out as you want them

Šime: yeah. We didn't do it to, I don't know, pretend we are funny or for views or something like that. Just...what happens, happens

Host: do you miss it now? The fact that you aren't roommates?

Dejan and Šime overlapping: we didn't-weren't

Dejan: everyone has their own rooms. But it's practically like we are. Not much of a difference

 Host: how did you think of your famous "aj lajk" idea?

Šime: well I don't it'-

Dejan: something got messed up in his brain

Šime: -something clicked in or out of place

Dejan: he just said something like "aj lajk a lot" and that was the end of it

Šime: no, I remember there was something-there was that moment well-erm

Dejan: laughs *

Šime: *sighs, shakes his head * I was watching this comedy from Jim Carrie and then he-and then he- *loses a train of thought *

Dejan: *laughs louder *

Šime: *smiles * there was something he did and-I thought of-

Dejan, whispering: aj lajk

Šime: no, it was-

Dejan, louder: ajjj laaajk

Šime: it was something different

*continous laughing from both Dejan and the host *

Šime: ...anway it was also spontaneous

 -Card break-

 Host: let's make first card break. You take the cards and ask the questions one to another

*Šime and Dejan take each one card *

Host: you can take all of-or you can take them one by one. Nevermind

Dejan: so what, I am asking him then?

Host: yes

Šime: don't give me any hard questions

Dejan: a yacht or a sailing boat?

Šime: a yacht

Host: a big one?

*voices overlaping *

Dejan: as long as everything fits in-

Šime: it doesn't really matter-

*pause. Šime shrugs. Dejan starts laughing *

Šime: I don't wanna sound too posh here. I don't spend much time on yachts and I was never on a sailing boat. And I am not very patient-

Dejan, overlaping: he doesn't have patience for that-

Šime, still overlaping: yeah, exactly-

Dejan, speaking over him: I think he is more likely to push the sailing boat himself-

Šime: I really don't think I'd like that- not one bit. Anyway, SUV or Cabriolet?

Dejan, looking pained: Cabrio.

Dejan: VAR or not VAR?

Šime: *sighs * no VAR

Šime: Jennifer Lopez or Shakira?

Dejan: *thinking*

Šime: Can he choose both?

Host: he can, but if he can choose one that would be better

Šime: I am just giving him an option

Dejan: JLo

Šime: ah, fine I guess

Dejan: rock or hip hop?

Šime: I listen all kinds of music so it depends

Šime: iPhone or Android?

Dejan: iPhone

  Host: Šime you didn't play a lot of games because of your injury. We are all happy you are back now but I am curious. How did you feel at home, watching them play and suffer on the pitch while you are at home?

Dejan: what about how I suffered?

Šime: If someone told me I will not play for the nt for so long after WC during WC I eould have called them crazy. But I kept postponing the injury during WC and I paid the price after. So yes, it was hard, watching my boys that I spent so much time with, play without me and struggle while I wasn't there. But I am here now and we have a big chance once again to cheer up people who love Croatia

Host: Deki, there have been some new player joining the nt recetly. How do you think they are settling in?

Dejan: I think, good. I mean when I remember my start, of course you are a bit more shy but I am sure they'll be more outgoing with time. But they seem like nice guys

Host: do you think there is a potential in some of them to continue this entertainment thing you and Šime do? Or are they more closed of?

Šime, cutting in: I think there is always a way to joke around a bit. But-

* Dejan, shaking his head and mouthing no*

Host: no huh?

Šime: but-

*voices overlaping *

Dejan: it just doesn't exist-

Host: how would you encourage them to-

Dejan: you can't. You are either born that way or you aren't

Šime: I mean the two of us have been in the nt for awhile now and it's always the same. Every morning if I wake up even at 4 am I'd start laughing

*Dejan laughing *

Šime: it's just the way it is and you can't really describe it

 Host: I wanted to ask, I don't know if this will ever happen but I would like to see you two as hosts one day. If you could choose someone to ask questions as host from the nt, who would it be?

* Šime and Dejan share a look and burst out laughing *

Šime, still laughing: no the thing-the thing is, the two of us commented on probably every famous person ever. Connected to sports or not. But if I had to choose-if I had to choose someone I think I'd laugh to tears with while interviewing it would be Goran Bare

*Dejan giggling in the background *

Šime: it would really be a show

Host: if he could hold a concentration during the whole interview

Šime: I mean it would be something casual, like this. And for the questions we would have...I reallly don't know

Šime, looking at Dejan: who would you choose?

Dejan: I don't know

*silence *

Šime: com'on brate, say someone

Dejan: hmmm. I don't know. No one is coming to mind right now

Host: and from the nt? If you had to choose one teammate?

Dejan: Brozović

Šime: well yes but-

Dejan: he is maybe number one for me right now. I just remembered

Host: and would he agree? To come to a show hosted by you?

Dejan: not only would he agree. He would have to agree

Šime, unconvincinly: mmm. Yeah

Host: Deki, did you get used to life in Russia?

Dejan: well yeah, yeah I did-

*Šime giggling *

Dejan: it's not how I expected. I expected to be able to survive the winter but it's really cold

*Šime bursting out laughing and coughing *

Dejan: I went out on the balcony one day and thought "my freezer is warmer than this "

Šime: so meat can be kept outside with drying clothes. If it's that cold. How cold it is?

Dejan: -30 C

Šime: wow. There we go then

Host: you didn't visit him yet?

Šime: no

Host: and you won't huh?

Šime: oh no *laughs * I said I didn't not that I won't

Host: Šime how did you face Luka after snatching the trophy from him?

Šime: normally. But I remember thinking-since he scored last minute to Villarreal and we won our game. If we ended with a draw and he scored a goal in last minute and won the championship-uff. I wouldn't be able to look at him

Dejan: he doesn't even have space for any more trophies anyway

Šime: him?

Dejan: yeah. Like com'on

Šime: but. Um- *looks at Dejan and forgets his sentence *

Dejan: dragi

Šime: hmm?

*Dejan laughs *

Šime: don't talk too much

 Host: We had Budimir here yesterday and we talked about how he got into argument with Savic. He didn't want to tell us any details, but he said you'll surely tell us everything

Šime: he really pushed it all on me huh?

Someone off camera: that's not exactly how he said it!

Šime: I mean I don't want to judge because I am on good terms with both of them. I didn't get involved and I actually found someone else to argue with-

*Dejan laughs *

Šime: but I am really close with Ante while we are with the nt but Stefan is also my friend I talk to every day so. I wouldn't want to pick sides

Šime: I am glad Ante scored thought and that the club bought him so I congratulate him on it this way-oh he just entered

Host: Ante you came a little late. We just talked about you and Savic. Šime told us everything

Dejan: he insulted you to the fullest

Host: he told us everything, we heard a completely different story from you, just so you know

Budimir: will I need to give some sort of reply?

Host: it's too late for that, you had you lr chance and you didn't say anything

Šime: I wanted to say, there was tension during the whole game and it escalated jn the tunnel-

Host: oh Luka, you are a bit late too. We talked about you as well

Luka: I was here already before-

Host: I think he waited until you left to say something-

Budimir: I just wanted to say, he sent Grbic after me. The biggest one

*all laugh *

Šime: I didn't even see Grbic. I was too busy with some other things. Some my exhibitions

  -Cards break-

Dejan: who has the best image?

Šime: ufff. Hmmm *thinks for about 30 seconds * Based on my taste? I guess Mateo? He knows how to dress well

Dejan: *laughs quietly *

*everyone from the background start laughing *

Host: you are not of the same opinion

Šime: well I said it's based on my taste

Dejan: next question

 Šime: who has the best car?

Dejan: what should I say?

Šime: just say it's you, brate

Dejan: I mean Barišić has a good car

Host: Barisic huh?

Dejan: I wanted to say Luka but Luka is *makes dismissing gesture with his hand *

Luka: soon!

Šime: Luka will have it soon but tastes shouldn't be discussed. Besides whoever has the fastest doesn't mean he is the fastest

*everyone laughs *

Host: so who is the fastest?

Šime: well that I don't know. We should have some sort of competition

 Dejan: who gets ready the fastest?

Šime: ufff. I don't know. I really don't know. I can tell you who gets there last but-

Host: who gets there last?

Dejan: captain

Host: Luka huh?

Dejan: well you know it's when you pass 30-31, you immediately pay a fine. So he comes exactly at 30

Šime: but at yesterday's lunch, you should have seen that show. It was 29 minutes and 45 second when suddely the door opens and everyone rushes in. There was pushing and running...chaos. but that's because we have some new regulations like no being late, no phones...but I think that's great

Host: who paid the most fines?

Dejan: ufff I can't quite remember. But I think Reba and Perisic

Host: now I'd like you both to tell me about your childhood, but perhaps something not football related

*Šime and Dejan burst out laughing *

Šime: there is still more of these dragi *giggles *

Dejan: are you fucking with me

Host: alright sorry guys, my bad. Continue

Šime: are you asking me or am I asking you?

Dejan: you ask me

Šime: no, I asked you last. You ask me

Dejan: alright. Who eats the healthiest?

Šime: I think Deki does

Dejan: Me??

Šime: yes. The way he makes and mixes those salad he eats...I am sick from only going to that part and looking at all the stuff you are supposed to put in them. But he does it so carefully and he clearly enjoys it. I mean we all eat healthy but he is like...yeah

Dejan: I mean I really do like salads. And I have this whole pressure-captain sits next to me and he says "make a double salad"

Šime, overlapping: well yeah, he uses him a little, so what-

Dejan: and it has to be perfect, salted to a gram, otherwise it's "what did you put in this?!" *sighs * it's fine

Šime: who cooks the best?

Dejan: cooks???

Both of them: no one

 Host: alright so, your childhood. Šime, you can go first

Šime: my childhood? I don't know what to say, really. It was good, I grew up loved, surrounded by fun and playing games with my friends outside. I also thankfully have a younger brother and...I don't know. Most of my fondest memories are the ones spent playing outside, usually with the ball of course

Host: which neighborhood?

Šime: well we moved once so there were two addresses in Zadar, until I finished middle school. And then I went to Zagreb at 14

Host: what about you Dejan? I know you had a harder childhood, but I'd like to touch upon happy moments and not so much on bad ones

Dejan: what should I say? I don't know where to start. I mean I had a really nice childhood in Germany. My parents introduced me nicely to the real world pretty early on. I remember at that time I thought we had everything we needed but...in the background everything was burning. I think I only realize how bad the situation was when we got back to Croatia. But that's alright-it happened for a reason. And I think we can all be proud that we survive it. I am actually sad my brother didn't went through that with us. He was too small

Host: you spoiled him a bit huh?

Dejan: well no. He is 10 years younger. By the time I went to Lyon he was just starting to grow up. Maybe that's why I-because of what happened I developed quite a character. So I can proudly say we all went through that together and today that's something that doesn't have a price

Host: you went to Zagreb when you were only 14 right? Although I believe you said in one interview you really wanted to go

Šime: I wanted to go because it was a call I couldn't refuse. It was football and football is my biggest love. And it's something you just feel you need to do. And when you are that young you are just pulled by your goal, by the love for football. But when I came and when the process of growing up was suddenly sped up...only then did I realize the consequences of my decision. But at that time that was a challenge to which I would never admit defeat. So there was only victory left. And I did win that game of my life. Those kind of moments left a mark on you. As Deki said those things make you stronger and make some things later in life easier

Šime: but don't get me wrong! I am not saying it wasn't nice as well. I am talking her like it's something awful-

Host: was it too much of a change to you at first?

Šime: well no, it was great for me actually. I was supposed to go to Hajduk at that time and I went to two tournaments with them in Zagreb, we won that tournament, I won the best player award and they were demanding for me to come to Hajduk but they couldn't make a deal with Zadar and then the offer from Dinamo came and...there wasn't much thought on my part. It was really great. I was at dorm for the first 6 months. And...I don't have time now but one time when we have time I'll talk about the details and my experience with boys from both on and off the pitch. It was a time of self descovery for me so to say

Host: Deki, I have to ask you something. I have a friend that played with you in Inter and he said that you spend the whole night with them celebrating, but you only drank Cola and similar drinks. Never alcohol

Šime: impossible. I don't believe it

Host: that's what he told me

Šime, turning to Dejan: is it true? How old were you?

Dejan: 16 or 17 I think?

Šime: oh okay, then I believe it

Dejan: I mean I had this sort of mentality of looking at things ahead. It's not that I never got drunk. I got absolutely plastered and I walked on my knees-

*everyone laughs *

Dejan: -but I definitely had days I didn't drink despite hanging out with teammates because i didn't feel like it

Šime: *still laughing *

Host: He is dying of laughter. I don't understand why

Dejan: that's because he saw the time I was on my knees and ge remember that now-

Šime: *laughing louder *

Dejan: so now for him that's-

Šime: no it's *laughing do hard he is incomprehensible * it must have been some time before the game so you didn't drink *proceeds laughing *

Dejan: well yes, that's what I am telling you. The rest of them were getting wasted anyway

Šime: *laughs even louder * this was good, my god

Host: he has good tricks huh?

Šime: no I mean, I am not saying what he is saying is untrue I just *laughs *

Dejan, overlapping: he just saw the worst version-

Šime: I know how he gets when he-*laughing harder *

Dejan: -saw the full transformation-

*both laughing very hard *

Šime, wiping his eyes: oh my god.

Dejan: anyway, next question

 Host: Šime that jump of yours after a ball during the game against Belgum...what happened?

Dejan: blackout

Šime: I mean yeah-I was so mad

Host: but jumping with both legs-

*Dejan laughing *

Šime: he is laughing but I am still mad. There were so many situations with Lukaku, he kept pushing the players with the whole "oh I am strong, oh I am fast" I mean he is but. Still. So when I saw him leading the ball I wanted to-I want to shorten his....

*everyone except Šime laughs *

Dejan: his legs

Šime: his way to towards the goal. And I failed and when i saw that in a duel I lost the ball-

* Dejan laughing again*

Šime: and I was tired and under stress so I had to get it all out somehow so i don't do something worse later

Dejan: I remember watching TV and I saw that, I looked at my brother and then back the TV and I said "he had some sort of blackout there"

Šime: I just did what I had to do. If it was concrete there, I would have threw myself at concrete at that moment

*Dejan absolutely losing it *

Šime: I am serious. I would have honestly threw myself at the concrete at that moment

Dejan: *slaps his arm, still laughing *

Šime: I realize it was a bit unexpected from the outside but I just had to do it so I don't endanger anyone else's health later

 -Cards break-

Dejan: only two cards?

Host: no there are supposed to be three

Dejan: *looks around, no sign of third card *

Host: lost it on the way huh? It's fine, there can be two

Dejan: alright. Favorite book?

Šime: pfffff

Dejan: *laughs *

Šime: there is no favorite book

Dejan: *laughs harder *

Host: nothing huh?

Šime: no. I know there might be a phase in my life when I will read books, but for now...I just don't have a patience

Dejan: *continous laughter that increases everytime word 'book' is mentioned *

Šime: favorite song?

Dejan: uh. I can't really choose, it depends on a mood *thinks for a moment * but now...let's say from Oliver "Bez tebe"(without you)

Dejan: favorite city?

Šime: Zadar

Šime: now another question that won't be hard to answer. Favorite number?

Dejan: *shurgs * 6

Šime: you didn't really choose some hard questions

 Host: if you had a choose one player from the nt who is really special? Personality wise as well-

Dejan: Broz

Šime, nodding: Definitely Brozović

Host: I keep hearing about him. Maybe people from the outside have the wrong idea about him-

Dejan: wrong idea? No, they have the right idea. Exactly the right idea. The guy is hilarious, but also an amazing player. I cannot believe someone can eat 2 kg of pate, 2 croissant and coca cola before a WC match and just. Run for 15 km. I just don't understand that. And then when you ask him how he says: "pateee" and makes hand gesture to the sky. I really don't understand him. I would need 4 days to recover from eating all that

Šime: yeah his mental state...I don't think there is much of a difference for him when he wakes up in the morning on a normal day or when he about to enter a pitch. But I think when you meet him you are surprised actually. He is actually quite quiet and nice and really smart, with a big heart

Host: and he is honest right?

Šime: yes. There is no doubting for him. He will tell you everything to your face and what you think about that-that's your problem. I think that's great

 *about their lives and interviews from Russia*

Šime: one thing that I specifically remember from videos of our interviews are people trying to read our lips

Dejan: oh god *laughs *

Šime: I remember whispering to Dejan "look that guy is the same Strina

Dejan: the guy really looked identical

Šime: and someone wrote that I said "look at that woman with big boobs"

Dejan: *laughs harder *

Šime: I mean, how do you even read it so badly??

 -Last card break-

Šime: which teammate would you let choose an outfit for your night out?

Dejan: Šime Vrsaljko

Dejan: which teammate would you choose...as a business partner

*they share a look and start laughing, the entire audience joining them

Šime: Well Dejan Lovren, of course

Šime, calming down: alright, alright next question. Which teammate would you choose to-*starts laughing * to-to babysit your child for a few hours?

*everyone burst out laughing *

Dejan: Šime Vrsaljko

Dejan: now, listen to this

Šime, already half laughing: yes?

Dejan: which teammafe would you choose to...change your tire

*both burst out laughing again *

Šime: *catching his breath but still laughing * what-I mean what should I say *laughing again, shrugging * oh fu-

Šime: which teammate would you choose for a gaming partner?

Dejan: *thinking * but you are always playing those video games. Call of duty and stuff. I have to pick Šime again

Šime: well I really sometimes do-

Dejan: sometimes?

Šime: often-and then I tried to get him to start playing-

Dejan: and I did, during lockdown. And he got me into Call of duty. And after 5 hours I say "I am going to bed" and my wife wakes me and she is like "dragi you are shaking "

Šime, laughing: he was shooting!

Dejan: it completely scrambled my brain. So I quit. Stupid video games

Dejan: alright now tell me...who would you choose as a partner in a fight?

Šime: ufff. Well him. I'd choose him for everything. It's a matter of trust. If we were to get into a fight together-

Host: you'd take a punch for him?

Šime: we'd-we'd make it a good fight. Guaranteed

  Host: well guys, that's it. I hope you enjoyed-viewers certainly will. This will be viewed a lot I bet

Šime: it was good. Fun. Although I saw that in some podcasts they drink while answering-

Dejan: where did you see that?

Šime: in podcast. When Goran Bare was a guest they also gave him the-the-

Dejan: so I end up on my knees here? Don't be ridiculous-

Šime: -and we'd open the topics much easier that way

Host: I don't know what your coach would say to that-

Šime: -it's classic art. I am not saying we have to drink here just that I think it's cool

Dejan: *laughing *

Šime: maybe some people are a bit stiff so this would help them relax

Dejan: how do you think we'd be like? How relaxed?

Šime: from 1 to 100? 200

Host: well you gave us a good idea for maybe some future podcasts-

Šime: but I think that would need to happen when there are no football activities involved-

Dejan: I think the chair would be sitting on me and not me on a chair

*both laugh *

Šime: just prepare us two beds here so we can lie down after

Host, turning to the camera: Anyway, dear viewers, we'll stop here for today. I hope you all had fun today, and watch us tomorrow as well

[pistachoz]

legally blonde, tenth doctor

pairing: tenth doctor x fem!reader

synopsis: between trips and adventures with the doctor, you finally find the perfect timing to change your look. with no pointless dress codes to follow anymore, you try dyeing your hair on your own, ending up in a string of botched outcomes and unexpected confessions.

wc: 3K

warnings: none, mild cursing maybe??

author's note: oof, this took me more than i expected and it definitely ended up being waaay more. anyway, this is my first piece of writing for the doctor -also in general- and what a better way than start with a fluffy one! i hope it turned out decent! my first language it’s not english, so you can expect some -more like a lot of- writing mistakes.

also, a big shout out to @plxstic-rose​ bc she has been my biggest supporter when i felt like i couldn’t do this, she has helped me so much ily 🥺 💞

(GIF IS MINE)

A grimace appeared on your face as the sour taste of the coffee filled your mouth, you definitely needed to bring yours the next time you stopped on earth because the alien version of it tasted like stomach bile. You weren't even sure if it had proper caffeine or it was drug-fueled tea.

With a resigned sigh, you put the cold mug in the mirrored vanity table in front of you and checked your phone. Five minutes more and you would be rinsing the red dye out of your shower cap covered hair. You lift the right side of the cap slightly, trying to peek at your tinted hair, the pale red -almost blonde- pigments made your breath hitch in a halt.

Was it supposed to look that light? Oh crap, you should have gone to the salon.

That was actually going to be the original plan. You had been procrastinating changing your look; nothing wrong with the colour and length you normally had but since you started travelling with the doctor, you didn't count with office regulations to follow anymore so you considered shaking up a bit your aesthetic. Yet, it seemed as you could never stop to take a breath and the times you did, was always on strange-named planets where your peaceful state of mind lasted a couple of minutes. So, you took it upon yourself to change your look on your own. You knew it could have any sort of downfall, but you didn't really want to nag the doctor into making a 'short' stop on earth -even though you knew he wouldn't mind- just for a date at the salon. He needed a well-deserved rest after all the uncontrollable lifesaving shenanigans and every time you came back to earth, somehow you ended up enticing some sort of trouble.

Besides, how hard could it be, right?

You barged into the installed bathroom connected to your room and locked the door as soon as you stepped inside. The last thing you needed was for the doctor to burst in looking for you while you were in the middle of this crucial transformation, and even though he was probably too distracted tinkering around the console of the TARDIS, you knew how intrusively spontaneous he could be when he finds something new. It wouldn't be a first to hear him enter your bedroom in a spur-of-the-moment with enthusiastic hand gestures and euphoric rants about alien-y stuff.

You grabbed the light blue hand-sized towel that rested upon the toilet tank and draped it around your shoulders. A jittery feeling building up in the pit of your stomach at the prospect of how your new hair would look like.

You weren't particularly bold when it came to your style, always stuck with what you could call an average look, to be fair, before the doctor, your whole life was just brimming with a never-ending stodgy routine that encased every aspect of your life. You didn't see the point of making more than few changes in your image and it was not like your office let you go too risky either.

This was going to be the first radical change in your appearance, and you were lying if you didn't say a fit of excitement was already bubbling up your throat. You didn't know what exactly had gotten into you, but you were so adamant to do something. Perhaps it was the stockpiled adrenaline from all those adventures catching up on you, perhaps this was something you were going to regret later. Either way, right now, you could only think of how satisfying it would be to finally match your current lifestyle. New and thrilling.

To be completely honest, you were also eager to see the doctor's reaction. Of course, you were not doing this because of him…well, not for the best part, but a piece of you wished it would have some sort of effect on him.

You knew this regeneration was cheekier and maybe you were reading too much between the lines but sometimes you could swear there was something more in all those subtle touches and lingering hugs. The shared gazes that let you wonder if this was just some friendly treatment or if he really meant something deeper made your mind go into a frenzy.

You also knew that appearances didn't really matter to him but the need of looking bolder and more luring was still there. You wanted, for once and for all represent how traveling with him had changed you into someone who would risk more than just a ‘change of look´. You were becoming the best version of yourself and you wanted to show him that in more than one way, but one step at the time.

Warily, you lifted the plastic cap; your sticky hair popping in every direction. Without a prior look, you stooped over the sink and manoeuvred your head under the sprout. After some unsuccessful tries, you managed to open it and began massaging your scalp with your fingertips.

After swilling away the shampoo and applying the conditioner; you grasped the towel laying around your shoulders and swaddled your hair up in a turban.

You straighten your back and stroked your hair through the towel, trying -quite poorly- to pump it dry. You didn't anticipate it to be this gruelling. In fact, you thought this would be some sort of restful hiatus from your general tense state, but apparently, this had drained you more than expected.

Resignedly, you undid the coiled towel on top of you and let your new dyed hair fall freely behind you. The air fell out of your lungs and your stomach dropped when you stared at the sight of your reflection.

You were blonde. Blonde.

What in the name of god did you do? You were so sure you followed every instruction of the flipping tint box in lockstep- well, judging by the results, you obviously had made a mistake at some point, maybe even skipped one, but how catastrophic had it been that you ended up looking like a defective version of a Weasley that had awfully light shrimp coloured hair.

A trembling neigh-like sound left your mouth when you touched the ends of your hair. What were you supposed to do now? You didn't even have any dye left to apply another layer and asking the doctor for help was ruled out. He couldn't see you like this. Nobody could see you like this, for your dignity's sake.

This was all on you. You needed to think of something. Anything.

Hats, of course! The TARDIS must’ve a good stash of those, you knew you could find something in the never-ending wardrobe. That thing was three times bigger than your flat.

Well, problem solved. You were going to use a hat until your hair grew enough to cut it or until you stopped on earth again and got the chance to go to a proper hairdresser.

Good god, who were you kidding? This was a mess.

With shaky fingers, you fumble your way out the bathroom and dashed out of your room, in search for your only resource.

---

"You won't believe what I found underneath the floor panel!" You heard the doctor's elated voice buzzing through your room before he could even fling your door wide open.

All you managed to convey was a muffled hum through your pillowed-smashed face. Too tired sulking the crime you made to your hair to turn around from your current position. Your limp body was sprawled all over the bed; arms and legs stretched at your sides with your face buried deep down the mattress.

Without waiting for a proper response, he roved across your room and resumed his explanation of his oh-so-great discover with a shit-eating grin.

You didn't need to see him to know the already too familiar gestures he was making. You could picture with the most minimal detail how his eyes would sparkle with wonder and how a contagious gleam dotted the signature boyish grin he always wore.

You smiled fondly.

You could still remember thoroughly the first time you saw him in all his glory, ranting about scientific stuff you could not understand and even though you had never seen the man before, the brightness on his eyes and the insatiable curiosity he radiated made you grin almost immediately.

You sat up slowly; grunting when you stretched your arms upwards. You moved your head from side to side, trying to stir yourself up completely awake.

"…So technically, it should be able to make the TARDIS' chameleon barrier unfroze. Well... the possibilities are thirteen out of a hundred, but I-" He stopped mid-sentence when he turned around and saw you sitting on the edge of the bed.

He tilted his head slightly to the side and a puzzled look crossed his face like he was trying to figure out what was out of place with you.

Your heart skipped a beat.

Thankfully, you had managed to find a Kangol black bucket hat. It was pretty simple; a small metal fuchsia arrow was stamped on the front and the brim was big enough to fit all of your hair inside. Still It was just not your style. Well, the other option was an animal print floppy one, the type that Lady gaga would wear. So, you had to settled with the e-girl-angsty-teen looking.

"That's new" His left eyebrow quirked curiously.

"What?" Good job; try playing dumb and maybe like that he won’t notice it.

"The hat, I- " he made a circular motion around his head "I don't think I've seen you wear one before"

"Oh, I um- wanted to try something different?" You stated but the wince in your voice made it sound more like a question.

“Right, yeah” he rushed "It's not like it doesn't suit you"

"Right" You fidgeted absent-minded with the hem of your sweatshirt, trying to think of something to break the awkwardness “So… you were saying?”

"Oh yes!" a playful glint overtaking his features “I think I found a way to repair the malfunction on the chameleon circuit and hopefully it will be better than that time I tried a block transfer computation. I was so close, well- not that close but at least I managed to build a part of the outer plasmic shell. Anyways, if we are lucky enough, we could stop travelling around looking like a 'blue box'" he raised his eyebrows, a devilish smile gracing his lips.

“Hold on, didn’t you say it was kind of unsafe?”

"Oh no, don’t worry! It’s danger-free… for the most part, well actually, it’s a 4 out of ten, maybe 5. But I’m sure the old girl can handle- "

A shrilling alarm started echoing through the TARDIS’ walls and you almost fell out of the bed when the floor started shaking uncontrollably. The doctor stumbled upon his own feet and with strained struggle and held out his hand to help you up.

"You were saying?" You muttered, sarcasm dripping from your voice.

With one hand locked onto the doctor's and the other extended to keep balance in the middle of the tremble, you managed to head out of your room. As soon as you stepped outside, you were greeted with red flashing lights going off all around the TARDIS.

"Careful" You heard the doctor called out, his voice barely perceivable. You had to double check to understand his next words "We need to get to the console"

Both of you tried the hardest to advance without falling or tripping over. The din of your footsteps lost in the middle of the shrieking noise. You could feel the vibration of the walls crawling to your brain and rumbling. The longer you spend running, the sharper the dizziness became.

You felt his hand clasp yours tighter when you decreased your speed; a warm feeling squeezed its way through your chest instantly. He looked down at you, a small reassuring smile on his lips; he was going to solve this.

When you finally reached the control room, the doctor leaped his way towards the console. A string of garbled mumbling fell under his breath, which you were more than certain you wouldn’t understand even if he spoke up. You saw him go around the panel, flicking switches and pressing buttons but it didn’t lessen a bit the state you were in.

You stood next to the entrance holding onto the railing for dear life. Maybe you should have been trying to do something useful, but quite frankly you had no clue as to what was going on. And even if you could have done something, there was no way of giving more than a few steps without falling.

After several confused exclamations and scrunched up faces from the doctor, he stumbled his way to the other side of the room and kneeled next to an opened floor tile. He plunged into what used to be a makeshift storage and with a newfound enthusiasm, you heard him shout. "Found it!"

He reappeared back on sight and held a small cassette-looking thing, his hair sticking up in a messier way than usual and a triumphant grin spreading on his features "The resetting format key should be able to stabilize us."

With a quick motion, he stood up but before he could head back towards the console to plug it in, an abrupt shook threw the both of you across the room. You saw the doctor’s figure fall hovering over a coral column next to the panel as you held tight on the railing stronger, attempting unsuccessfully to stand still.

Maybe if you hadn't been distracted watching how the doctor got up and toss his weird-looking key into one of the TARDIS’ inputs, you would have noticed how your apparently well-put-cap was now laying on the floor a few meters away from you. And maybe, if you hadn’t been so awestruck at how quickly the room returned to its normal state with golden cozy lights shining from the ceiling, you would have notice your now-bright blonde hair flowing behind your back without a care in the world.

"Right, so it looks like the TARDIS went into some sort of safe mode." He spoke a little out of breath, arms still hunched over the panel "but it's okay now. Apparently, it was a defense response, she thought it we were under a- "

He turned around slowly but stopped dead on tracks when his eyes landed on you, or more specifically- on your hair. His once furrowed eyebrows were now raised, almost touching his hairline and open awestruck eyes were looking at you like you were an unknown species. A breathtaking unknown species.

He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Every part of his body was just not responding, it was like he had stopped functioning properly. His unblinking eyes were glued to your face and his agape mouth looked almost comical; you would have taken out your phone in that moment just to snap a picture if your brain hadn’t been dozing off at the reason for his reaction. Because what could possibly- Shit.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

You moved your gaze to the ground, eyes falling on the discarded hat near the entrance. You pursed your lips, thoughts running a mile per hour. When did it fell? Why weren’t you careful enough? This was the doctor’s fault. Yeah, all his fault. He had to come with his incredibly soft hair and that flipping sweet smile that made your toes curl up and your heartbeat race like there was no tomorrow. He had to come and distract you, oh and of course, bringing a mess along the way.

God! This was not helping.

“You- um, you are…blonde” Yeah, no shit, sherlock.

“I-…am I?” The breathy words rasping out, your mouth felt as dried as the Sahara and you were surprised a sound came out at all.

“You look-”

“I know” You close your eyes and shook your head, praying to whatever entity out there to swallow you up and throw you to the Bahamas “it wasn’t supposed-“

“I like it” he blurted out “I know you don’t need any sort of validation and I’m not trying to- what I-” He starting flapping his hands around in a cartoon-like gestures “you look stunning… truly stunning; not that you weren´t before. I mean, the colour really does suit you but I’ve always thought- blonde, not blonde, you’ve always been beautiful… Guess what I’m trying to say is that when you love someone, there’s really nothing that can make you look at them differently. Did you know that As’urs considered blonde people holy? Well they would if there were blonde people. Sorry, totally off topic, but they do. Everyone there is blue-haired. And there’s a lot of mystical myths and clergy influence involved but basically everything golden is sacred for them. If we go, they might even crown you as their queen.”

He looked like a deer caught in headlights. You could imagine the red alarms in his brain going off, trying to process what fell out of his mouth moments prior and desperately attempting to conjure something up but instead just causing a short circuit in the process. To be completely honest, you weren’t any better.

You felt your heart bumping up your throat and your skin grew hotter and hotter per second. You swore you could feel the maniac rhythm of your pulse piercing through your head and you were quite sure you looked like a pop-eyed toy from one of those claw machines at the funfair, with eyes nearly falling out of your skull.

Because he didn’t really say that, right? Your mind must’ve been playing some sick game with you. There was no way, he really-

“What?” It was all you managed to muster; your small voice barely hearable.

“Huh?” You saw the redness from his cheek expand through all the visible skin.

“What did you just say?”

“That As’urs would consider you a goddess?” He asked hesitant with a guilty expression.  

“No- before that”

“That the blonde hair looks good on you?”

“No! I-“ You took a small breath “Do you love me?”

You could sense the confidence returning to him like a tidal wave, a serious expression overtaking his features, but with a softness you couldn’t comprehend. “I always have”

Your legs seemed to move on their own, carrying you towards him. You stopped when your noses were almost touching and you could feel his hot ragged breath fall on your eyelashes. With hesitation, you placed your hands on his arms and looked up, letting yourself fall on those brown pools you have grown to love.

“Doctor…” you whispered

You had no idea what made you do it, but you moved your hands to his cheeks, and you kissed him. It was impulsive and stupid, and something you’d expect a sixteen-year-old girl do on her prom night. But you did it without a second thought. And for a moment you felt the doctor grow incredibly still, mouth unmoving and eyes wide open, until you placed your soothing fingers on the back of his neck, thumbs caressing and drawing invisibles circles on his sideburns.

And so, he gave in; firm hands grasping your hips and pressing you flush against him. His mouth spilling raw passion and his insides melting at the soft contact of your delicate lips. The tenderness on his touches and intensity of his lips drawing out all those words that didn’t need saying, because you knew. He was so sure you knew.

An involuntary whimper left your lips when he broke the kiss and intertwined his hands with yours. He brought your joined hands nearer and placed a light kiss to your knuckles.

“Did I mention I like your hair?” A husky laugh fell from your lips and your eyes sparkled when he gave you a soft smile that would be imprinted on your brain for the rest of your life.

When he looked at you with those old eyes that sung you stories in the most beautiful way imaginable and his swollen lips ghosted a smile you knew things were going to be better, with new adventures and new experiences awaiting on your door. And you had the whole time and space at your disposal to face it together.

author's note pt.2: OK that was a lot, honestly the ending got sloppy and there’s probably a lot of bad editing, but I invented a whole new alien species, so hey! kudos for that I guess. anyway, i hope you like it! and as always, feedback would be really appreciated, a comment or a like would mean the world to me! like my description says, requests are open! but It would probably take ages for me to finish it, so please patience. right now I have some more doctor who drafts and also some marvel ones!

-love, rina xx

[livylove151]

What Friends Are For: Part 2 (David Dobrik)

(A/N) Here it is! I’m so glad you guys loved the first part! You can find the first part HERE!!!! (it will take you to a page and you’ll have to scroll but if you scroll a little bit on my page it should be there) 

Your POV

Ever since you and David made out you had no idea how you felt. It wasn’t something you were expecting and it was honestly not bad. Not that you liked David or anything. Of course you didn’t. He was your best friend and that was it. That’s all you could ever be. He still wasn’t over Liza. And you didn’t want to be the one to get in the way of their chance of getting back together. 

But yet why did he kiss you? He said it was only to get over the fact that he hasn’t kissed a girl in over a year but you couldn’t shake the thought that maybe he liked you out of your mind. 

Stop. He didn’t like you. You know he didn’t like you. And you didn’t like him. You guys were strictly friends. That was it. Only friends. 

David was coming over in like twenty minutes. You didn’t really know why but he texted you asking if he could come over. And you two haven’t hung out since well since you guys made out. 

The next thing you knew David came barging into your apartment. 

“(Y/N),” He immediately said.

“David,” You said copying his energy. 

“I need to talk to you,” He said. You nodded, expecting him to keep talking but he just stood there. You raised your eyebrows. 

“Okay? So talk,” You encouraged. He took a deep breath. 

“You know the other day when me and you like, you know,” He said motioning between the two of you. 

“When you kissed me. Yes, I remember,” You said nodding. 

“Well you kissed me back so don’t act like it was all just me,” He said winking. “anyway, that’s not my point.” 

“So make your point.” 

“Did you feel anything at all when we kissed?” He asked. You looked at him strangely as you took a seat on your couch. Should you tell him that you felt something? It wasn’t a big something but it was something. Like a spark, maybe? You sighed. 

“Uh, no, no I didn’t,” You lied. Coward. You should of said something. You looked up at David and he looked disappointed? No that couldn’t be it. “Uh, did you?” 

“I thought maybe I did.” He said sitting down next to you. You slowly nodded. You two sat there in silence not really knowing what to do or say. You shifted uncomfortably. 

“So, I was thinking we could watch some-” You turned towards David but he cut you off mid-sentence by crashing his lips on yours. You were confused as hell at first but you melted into the kiss as his hands tangled in your hair. Your hands went to his cheeks as you pulled him closer to you. 

The kiss started to get more heated when David’s hands traveled down to your outer thighs. You didn’t know exactly what to do but you kept kissing him. Yep. There was definitely a spark. This was not like the other day. This was better than the other day. 

When David pulled away you were speechless. 

“Sorry,” He muttered as he fixed his hair. You smiled.

“I-It’s okay,” You said. 

“So did you feel anything then?” Tell him. Tell him you felt something. Don’t back out. 

“No,” you whispered. Your voice barely audible. His face fell. You were so stupid. 

“Uh, me either. I got to go. I’ll see you later,” He quickly said as he got up and rushed out of your apartment. Fuck.

**********

You haven’t heard from David in two days. Two whole days of you left alone thinking about you denying that you felt anything. You did feel something but you couldn’t tell him. He’s been your best friend for awhile and you didn’t want to risk losing that. Plus what if he still liked Liza? You sighed in confusion as you pulled into the driveway of David’s mansion. 

You knew he was avoiding you but you were determined to make him talk to you. You needed to tell him you felt something. 

You walked inside to find Natalie laying on the couch on her phone. 

“Hey Nat, have you seen David?” You asked. She looked up from her phone and smiled. 

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” She said wriggling her eyebrows. You scrunched your eyebrows together. 

“Uh, yes that’s why I asked.” 

“So how was your guys’ little makeout sessions?” She asked. Right when she said that David walked into the room. You turned to him, anger boiling inside of you. David froze in place and looked between you and Natalie. 

“What’s up?” He asked. 

“YOU TOLD HER!” You yelled. His eyes grew wide. 

“I had to tell someone! You know me I can’t keep things to myself!” He said trying to defend himself. 

“But you said you wouldn’t. What the hell?” You said. 

“Hey, you said the kiss didn’t mean anything to you so I figured it didn’t matter anymore!” He said holding his hands up in defense. You took a deep breath and looked at the ground. This was your chance. 

“Are you stupid?” You asked. David looked over at Natalie then back to you, a look of confusion spread across his face. 

“What?” 

“Of course it meant something to me. Why else would I kiss you back?” You said taking a few steps closer to him. 

“I don’t know maybe you were horny or something?” he said. You rolled your eyes. 

“I thought the first time we kissed that I felt something but I didn’t know for sure. I thought it was just because it was so spontaneous. But when you kissed me again I felt electricity. And David I like you. I like you a lot. So yes, it did mean something to me dumbass,” You said. You took a breath of relief. It felt good to get that off your chest. David started walking over to you. And when he got close enough he put a hand on your cheek and tilted your face up towards him. 

“I like you too. I only like you. I can’t get you out of my mind,” He whispered. You smiled up at him. 

“Awwwwwwwwww,” Natalie said. You couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. David rolled his eyes but there was a huge smile on his face. 

“Natalie shut up or I’ll fire you,” David said. He leaned down and placed a soft kiss on your lips. 

[saharamae21]

Midsummers (JJ Imagine - Part One)

Author: sguymon21

Summary: After JJ and you break up, it takes a lot to heal. Nothing seems to be working, so when Rafe invited you to Midsummers, it seems like just the distraction you needed. However, everything he does reminds you of JJ. 

Warnings: None?

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I’ve never been invited to Midsummers before. I was always this Pogue who never stood a chance of fitting in with the Kooks. I was in a bikini more than actual clothes and I preferred surfing over golfing any day. Maybe that’s why I caught JJ Maybanks attention for a minute. Maybe that’s why he liked more for a moment.

The days spent with JJ were the best days of my life. He was crazy and spontaneous and affectionate. I had never experienced attention before him, maybe that’s why I fell in love so quickly. He was a wildcard, but nothing he did was ever wrong in my eyes. However, everything I did was wrong in his. What I didn’t mention about JJ was that he was extremely particular. Everything had to fall into line perfectly and he got mad when it didn’t. Sometimes I felt like he needed things so perfectly, that I would never be good enough. Maybe I was right.

A week before midsummers, JJ and I were at the beach. We both knew we didn’t stand a chance of going. I laughed at the thought of JJ in a suit. He didn’t laugh with me. The whole day he was acting strange. He was quiet. JJ Maybank was never quiet. Maybe I was nervous because I knew what was going to happen. I knew in the back of my mind that he didn’t think I was the one. He didn’t think he could love me. When he told me he needed to break up, I didn’t hurt. I was used to one sided love. It was present in every aspect of my life; my parents, my siblings, my friends. Everything was one sided.

Over that week, I tried to figure out what I did wrong. I spent my time surfing and working. I was serving drinks at the country club one day when I heard a certain group snickering. Rafe Cameron and his group of losers gathered near a pool table and laughed. I walked next to them and grabbed their empty glasses. 

“Hey y/l/n,” Rafe yelled as you began to walk away. “Heard you and JJ broke up. Good riddance right?”

I rolled my eyes and walked towards the bar. I could feel my annoyance level raising within me. He followed me over to the bar and took a seat across from me.

“Why don’t you get me a drink?” he asked.

“You’re not old enough to drink and I’m not old enough to serve,” I said. I set my tray of empty glasses down on the counter and turned to walk away from him. I felt him snag my wrist and pull me towards him. I lost my footing for a second and stumbled right into his chest. He had a strong grip on my arm as he stared down at me.

“This might work,” he said, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear. “How would you like to be my date for midsummers?”

I laughed. I didn’t mean to laugh that hard, but Rafe Cameron had just asked me, a pogue, to midsummers. He smirked down at me.

“I’m not kidding,” he simply said. “We can go dress shopping tomorrow. Do you work?”

I shook my head no as I stared confusingly at him. He traced his thumb over my lower lip like JJ used to do and I felt my heart sink a little bit. I pushed his arm off of me and walked out of the clubhouse quickly as memories flooded my mind.

I always surfed here. There was a good sandbar, great ways, and very little people. Only the locals knew this spot and none of them ever came here. The sun was on it’s way down and I smiled at the thought of Apollo riding his chariot, bringing the sun with him. What an interesting mythology the Greeks had. I sat on my board in the middle of the ocean as the waves rocked me. A storm was picking up and the waves were getting higher and higher, I just had to wait for the right one. Just as I thought I had it, a blonde boy paddled up next to me.

“This one’s mine, kay?” he said and took off, racing the wave. I sat there jaw agape as I watched him take the wave. Who did he think he was? I took the next big one and met him on shore.

“That was my wave,” I said. “I was waiting.”

He turned around to face me. I had seen him before, there wasn’t a pogue who didn’t know who he was. He chuckled and apologized insincerely. I rolled my eyes and muttered works of annoyance under my breath. I was ready to call it quits after that wave. He grabbed my wrist as I turned to walk towards where I parked my car. I stumbled into him clumsily when he pulled on me.

“What’s your name?” he asked. I looked up at his blue eyes.

“Y/n,” I said. He looked at me. His eyes were mesmerizing. I could feel myself being drawn in by them.

“It suits you,” he said, dragging his thumb over my bottom lip. “I hope I see you again, y/n.”

Rafe followed me outside and cut off my escape. He had his usual smirk on his face, but it seemed softer than usual. He looked at me with comfort and ease. He wasn’t intimidated by me and he wasn’t fearful of my pogue germs. He just looked at me almost as if we were equals. In a moment of weakness, he stuck me like a venomous snake.

“Pick you up at 3?” he asked, almost seeming charming for a moment.

“Don’t be late,” I said and walked quickly away.

That night I went over to Kie’s house, feeling guilty. She was the only who knows how much JJ breaking up with me actually killed me. I wasn’t a very emotionally expressive person, but a few days after our breakup, I broke down. I don’t cry often and I especially don’t cry in front of others, but Kie witnessed it all. I sat in her room on the floor and listened to her talk about the Pogues. She told me they missed me and wanted me back. She told me JJ’s been weird since we broke up, but I didn’t want to hear it.

“I’m going to midsummers,” I said quietly.

“What?” she asked. She smiled at the idea of me being there, but she didn’t understand why I was saying. “How? You’d have to be asked by a kook and…”

“Exactly,” I said. Her sentence drifting off like that means she caught on. She stared at me with a confused look. “Rafe Cameron asked me.”

“Y’n!” she yelled in shock. “You’re going to Midsummer’s with Rafe Cameron?”

“Yeah,” I said quietly. There was no emotion in my voice. I stared ahead with a black face. “He approached me at work. He ran his thumb over my bottom lip. He reminded me of JJ.”

“Y/n…” Kie said.

“Kie, he’s not coming back,” I said, finally I could feel tears in my eyes. I blinked them away and swallowed hard, clenching my fists while I did it. “Maybe it’s time I move on.”

I didn’t stay long after I told her. I went home, but when I got there I could leave my car. I hated it here. I was the middle of five kids. No one cared when I came or when I went. My dad was a workaholic and my mom was an alcoholic. I was the child they didn’t remember. I forced myself to go in and fell on the couch. I didn’t really have a room here anymore, so this was the best spot I could be.

When the morning light filtered through the blinds, I groaned. It was too early for me to want to get up. I forced myself though and went to the kitchen, grabbing myself some breakfast. I cracked opened a few eyes and threw them in a pan.

“Nice of you to come home,” my dad said. “We knew you’d get hungry.”

“That’s not why I’m home, dad,” I said. He just sighed and walked out the door. I pretended that didn’t hurt. I finished my breakfast and walked into my old room. My clothes were still in the closet, even though it was now my youngest sisters room. I grabbed something cute and changed in the bathroom quickly. I couldn’t remember the last time I wore this shirt. I couldn’t remember the last time I put on makeup or did my hair. Here I was though.

I left my house early. I didn’t want to be there when my mom woke up. I walked around town, trying to think of something to take my mind off of everything. It was probably no later than 10am when I finally felt bored. I parked by The Wreck and got out. I thought I would come back and eat some lunch before I met Rafe, but he would find me before I got that chance.

I was walking around carelessly when I heard a bike come up behind me. It stopped next to me and Rafe off his helmet. I watched him smile for what seemed like the first time. He always a smirk, but today his smile seemed wholesome.

“You’re up early,” he said. “Want to get a head start on shopping? Let’s go catch the ferry.”

He tossed his helmet to me and I smiled. This wasn’t my first time on a bike. I put the helmet on and hopped on the back. I wrapped my arms around him tightly and leaned against him. Memories of JJ came rushing back as we took off.

I was scared. I had never been on a motorcycle before. I stared at him with a nervous smile. He got off the bike and walked over to me. He cupped my face in his hands and stared into my soul. I could feel him brush his thumbs over my cheeks affectionately. He kissed my forehead and the biggest smile spread across my face. He made me so happy.

“There’s no reason to be scared,” he said. I placed my hand over one of his that cupped my face. I closed my eyes and nodded. He got onto the bike and held the helmet out to me. I slipped it on my head before hopping on the bike beside him. I wrapped my arms around him and leaned against his back. The adrenaline filled me as we took off, but love was the only thing that I felt that day.

We got to the ferry and Rafe helped me off the bike. I wondered to myself what I was doing, but this was a great distraction from everything. We boarded the ship and he put his arm around me as we sat down. I moved uncomfortably away and looked at him.

“There’s one thing I don’t get,” I said. “Why did you ask a pogue to Midsummers? You hate pogues.”

“I couldn’t take my eyes off you,” he said. “Maybe it’s time I rebelled.”

“You rebel all the time,” I muttered.

“Yet, I’m still invisible to my dad,” he said. My head snapped towards him. This was the first real thing Rafe had ever said to me. It almost made me understand him a little more. I smiled at him and he looked back at me. We were silent the rest of the boat ride over.

_________________________________________________

Tag List : @justcallmesams @jellyfishbeansontoast @prejudic3

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[slashingdisneypasta]

Hiya! Could I possibly request a Jason the Toymaker x Reader where the reader meets Jason through their younger sibling and offers to be Jason's friend to keep their sibling safe but actually ends up liking him? Thank you so much if you choose to accept my request! ❤

Hey! Ahhhh... I literally wrote this over months and months' worth of time, so I think it gets kinda better as you read on? Haha. Still not totally happy with it but I hope you like it!! So sorry for the wait, I had a lotta trouble figuring out how I was gonna spin it😬😆😅

I really, really hope you like it!! ^^ Thank you, it definetly tested by skills, haha XD

~~~

“Oh my god,” I gasp, a sharp, almost painfully deep intake of cold air paired with a high-pitched noise because I get it. I know what he meant last night when he said he would take him. It didn’t mean to his shop, that I see just ahead, looking like it was just plopped down there on the ground like Dorothy’s house. I whip around and start sprinting back down the road the way I came. He meant wherever he came from, or wherever he’s going next.

And I left Noah at home, alone. “FUCK!” I yell, not caring that the Asian couple strolling down the path the opposite way I’m going startled at the expletive. Jason has made it perfectly clear that he’s not playing around. He’s cut him, he’s kept me in a metal box for a day, he’s taken Noah so many times in the past 2 weeks that he’s cursed our goddamn lives that I’ve learnt quickly to always be on high alert. It is always code red with him around, and now… Gritting my teeth, I force my legs against the air and stupid gravity until I get to the front door, which I lunge at so hard my wrists would probably hurt if I could feel anything except freezing, numb dread and even kick the fucking thing before I’m able to unlock it with the key and throw it open so forcefully that the doorknob slams and dents the wall. “Noah?!”

For a second, theirs no noise and I nearly stop breathing.

Then the tiniest, could-have-been-the-walls-creaking kind of muffled sound breaks the silence and that’s all I need. I rush through the house, and it feels like 2 seconds but still way too long before I find them. Of course, in Noah’s bedroom. Immediately a horrible, angry scowl because I’m so fucking scared, crashes across my face like wretched broken glass, seeing Noah held up in Jason’s arms, one covering his soft little mouth. “Put him down.”

“See, Noah? Told you you shouldn’t make any noise, Y/N’s such a killjoy!” Jason says in a light, casual tone as he ruffles Noah’s hair a little too roughly. His gradually brightening green eyes flash up to mine and make it obvious that he feels the exact opposite of relaxed, though. And poor Noah takes this time without Jason’s hand restricting his mouth to ask me to save him. Like he really believes I can, because I’m his older sibling. Jason rolls his eyes and tightens his arm around Noah’s shoulders, holding him against his chest and not even bothering to support him. “You don’t need to be saved, kiddo. It’s a playdate. Hardly a death sentence… “

“Bullshit.” I say, my brain frozen about what to do. I can try to fight him, sure, but that’s not going to go well. And might put Noah in danger. Jason rolls his eyes and pastes on a fake, sniggering look on his lips. “Go find another kid.” I half bed, half demand, not sure which he might spontaneously start to respond too. I’ve tried everything to deter him these past weeks! But he’s just rotten, right down to his core.

“-Don’t you get demanding with me, you bitch!” He snaps back, immediately, black creeping up the skin of his hands and his eyes glowing way brighter then before, telling me he’s reaching his bursting point anger level, and this is becoming as dangerous as it can get. He tries, to calm down though. Flicks the long, sharp fingers on the hand that isn’t holding up Noah… then loosens his grip on my brother momentarily, deliberately so now he’s holding him up by his neck. Forearm against his little throat. I cover my mouth with my hands in shock, watching Noah struggle and strain in vein. My heart starts to beat faster, sensing the end of this, which cannot be good for me or Noah. “… hah.” The monster stretches his neck out, rolling his shoulders. Hair turning a shocking white. “Hate to get pissed like this but you know not to talk to me like that, sunshine.”

… okay. This is the end. The rumours said that when Jason’s true colours come out, that’s when it’s over. Noah and I are not getting away from this.

I don’t have a choice anymore, like I even did in the first place… So stupid. Plan Z.

The funny thing is that now, when I should be the most afraid, I’m absolutely calm. I hold my hands up in surrender, dropping the tension in my shoulders entirely. “Okay, I’m sorry.” At least Noah will be safe. That’s the point. Jason, sensing something new, raises an eyebrow and tilts his head. “I won’t ever disrespect you again.” I love my brother so much. I would’ve done this in a heartbeat in the very beginning, if I hadn’t known that this, giving myself up, would also hurt him. I just… I don’t have any more ideas. If this means Noah will survive and he’ll grow up safe, with the chance to be happy? Then it’s worth it. I step towards them, slowly. “I’ll be kind to you, and I’ll play with you. And I’ll never leave you.” Jason’s second eyebrow meets the first halfway up his forehead. “I’ll be the perfect friend- I mean, what does a kid know about being the perfect best friend anyway? They’ll always make mistakes, Jason, and aren’t you tired of looking?” When I reach them, I swoop down and hook an arm under Noahs butt, holding him up so Jason’s choke hold doesn’t hurt anymore. But I don’t take my eyes off Jason’s, watching the understanding and agreement dance across them, both in horror and relief. It’s working. I’m so afraid, and I’m so glad, that it’s working. “I’ll be your friend instead. Just let Noah stay safe, in his home. And promise you’ll never see him, or have him hurt, ever again.”

“What makes you think you’re in a position to make demands like that?”

“Because I’m giving you what you want. No resistance this time, doesn’t… doesn’t that sound good?”

Please. Please, please, please. That’s all I can think now. Just please.

Please let this work, please let him agree. Please let him let Noah go, please let Noah forget me. Please let him live a long and happy life. I love you Noah, be happy. Please.

Then suddenly Jason’s eyes flash and turn into a brilliant golden colour, his hair goes back to red and the black, corrupted mould that had infected his skin crept down to the tips of his fingers and dappled away. He smiles.

“I’m willing to take that risk! It might work, actually!” Jason lets go of Noah, raising his hands up to either side of his head, in surrender, as I take Noah entirely into my arms and his little arms wrap around my neck. Jason almost looks like a level headed and understanding guy, as he backs off now. I turn Noah’s body away from him, looking reproachfully at the being, whatever he is.

“D-… deal then.” I state, offering a hand to Jason to shake. “Noah lives a happy life, not any longer or shorter than it was meant to be.”

Jason jumps, making me jolt in surprise and encloses his hand around mine, shaking enthusiastically- but I can see the evil glint still in his eyes and in his smirk. “’Course! You’re gonna love it Y/N, I promise. I knew you had a little something better in you, less moody and not a stick in the mud. In fact! I’m so on board, have a couple minutes alone with Noah. I’ll just be in the hall.”

With that he lets go of my hand, but his presence stays with me even once he’s gone out and into the hall. Like when you’re in the hospital, or at school, and your parent is outside the door while the doctor or the teacher sees you privately. Except, much, scarier. My stomach’s full of dread.

Finally I turn to Noah and see someone safe and I know I did the right thing. Still, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I have to go. “Okay little bro. Mum and Dad’ll be home later tonight.” I start, setting him down on his bed and leaning down to him instead of looking down at him. His eyes are wide, and full of fear. And I force myself to look at them because it’ll be the last time. Oh god, it hurts. Tearing my gaze away for a moment, I point to the clock. “When the little hand touches the 5 and the big hand touches the 12- that’s when they should be home. If not, make sure all the doors are locked-actually, as soon as I leave, make sure they’re locked, -, turn on the TV, get comfy on the couch and make some two minute noodles. Here’s my phone; Call them if you want, whenever. Keep it charged. Remember to get the police, the doctors, or the firemen then you need to call 000/911/ (Insert your countries emergency phone number). Our address is on the fridge, they’ll be patient with you so please don’t worry about that. Ummm… “I try to say everything calmly, and clearly so he understands but now my voice is starting to tremble because he’s started to cry. “I love you so, so much Noah. Please remember that I will be okay, you don’t need to worry. I’ll miss you, and I wish I could be with you but this is for the best, okay? This is not your fault, I love you. Be happy when you can, okay?” I lean in and give him the tightest hug ever, then pull back and let him go for the last time.

Finally, I blow him a kiss and leave the room.

___TIME SKIP: 3 Years___

Slowly joining the conscious world again, I feel hard floor under my shoulder blades and groan, remembering where I fell asleep. Stupid Jason making me play trains until we fell asleep- not to say it wasn’t fun, but couldn’t we have situated some pillows under me or something? Opening my eyes, I turn my head on the floor and see the monster himself.

Red hair a mess of streaks and rivers around his head and over his forehead, he’s fallen asleep on his back too, the trains still between us. Groaning again, I pull myself up from the floor into a sitting position and roll my shoulders back to relieve the stiffness. “Shhh, I’m still sleeping.”

“Time to get up now, its like lunchtime.” Smirking, I slowly stretch my arms forward, linking my fingers together as I do so. He’s an idiot.

“I disagree.”

“Are we gonna do this?”

“Me disagreeing?”

“Yes.”

He rolls over onto his side, sticking his hands under his head as if they could ever match the comfort of a pillow. “Then yes.” I roll my eyes at him, getting up and hobbling to my room.

A couple hours later, I’ve taken a 45 minute shower and warmed up my joints again and am just flipping through Pinterest in my room, when Jason finally decides to join the land of the living- slamming the door open suddenly so hard that wall behind it cracks open. “Goodmorning Y/N!”

“Its 3pm.”

“Time is a construct!” He rounds the room, stops by me as I sit calmly on my bed with my iPad on my legs, then leans down with his arms folded behind his back. His grin is wicked. “Anyway, we have places to be- Let’s go!” With his usual level of rudeness and eccentricity, he grabs my wrists and flies off out of the house.

With me just managing to not have my arm ripped off.

When I actually have our pace under control and not in danger of losing one of my most important limbs, I look around and the street that we’re on is… unnervingly familiar. I know exactly where we are, immediately.

I nearly stop dead in my tracks when the street I used to live on comes into view. “Where are we going? Jason? Jason! Where!” We’re getting closer, and I’m starting to panic. “Are! We! Going!? Where are we-”

“If you would stop asking that same question over and over, I would tell you!” He snaps, causing me to shrink back and stop trying to wrench my wrist out of his grip. Okay, point taken grumpy gills. “We’re going to check on Noah.”

Immediately blind, horrendous panic spreads to every little crevasse in me. I think the worst and I try even harder to get away; Yanking my arm so hard that Jason’s yoinked back a few whole feet. “No! You promised; We had a deal!”

He growls down at me through his teeth after quickly recovering from the shock of being yanked back. “Come on, you’ll see.”

“No!” I don’t know anything else to say but no. Nothing else that comes to mind properly describes how I’m thinking and feeling. I just want him to know, NO! No, we can’t go see Noah, no he can’t hurt him, so no. No, no, no!

He keeps on dragging me, all down the street and past my old house which I don’t care to even glance at, to a skatepark. When we stop under the shade of a tree, in the park right by the skating area where surely no one who’s skating will glance over and see us with any clarity, Jason looks over at my terrified expression and tilts his head. He looks strained. “Now, are you going to behave and let us have a looky-loo, or am I going to have to keep holding your hand, like a baby?”

I just feel stuck, and shaking. All that comes out of my mouth is a shaky, squeaky, as I’m sure I like a terrified baby bird. “No.”

He nods his head side to side for a moment and let’s go of me, crossing his arms over chest instead. “Fine, I guess that’ll do.” He rolls his eyes. “Now look over at the skaters, one of them will be familiar.”

I look over, and immediately search the helmet wearing boys for Noah. I search the face of every sweaty, lanky boy here but goddamnit, its hard! They’re all zooming all over the place, I can barely search their features. Its hard enough, since I haven’t seen Noah for 3 years!

“I… I don’t see him.” I force out, still in the squeaky, strained voice from before.

Jason’s strong hand finds my head, and turns it like a peanut butter lid carefully to the left. I keep looking immediately forward, until-

I find him.

Or, her, now.

I look at those eyes, the same as mine, and I know that the girl at the top of the curve with a Marvin the Martian skateboard is my sibling. She’s safe, and she’s smiling, and a lump grows in my throat as I watch her for whole minutes without blinking.

Slowly, I raise my hands to my mouth, tears clouding my vision so much that all Noah is, is a bright pink helmet flying all over the place. I wipe my eyes quickly, turning to look up at Jason. He’s watching Noah, or whatever her name is now, and looks bored of course. He’s never happy when he isn’t doing what he wants.  

But he came here. He brought me here. He did this for me, even though he’s bored.

All the love and the happiness I feel about him comes rushing at me all at once. These past few years were hard, yes. Absolutely yes, it’s a nuclear yes to that, but Jason has also been… an oddly wonderful friend. The way we got here was wrong, and it will always be wrong because of that and I’m never going to think otherwise, but -and this is not even really a ‘but’, because nothing will ever make what he did to me and to Noah even the slightest bit okay. It’s just a… its other feelings. Unrelated feelings that overlap the hatred and the fear, that sometimes, a lot of the time, stand out more, - there has been a certain overwhelming magic about my new life with him.

My eyes fill up with tears instantly, all over again. “Thank you, Jason.”

“Yeah, okay, great. Whatever. Can we go somewhere better, now?”

“Just a little longer?”

“I’m gonna go make a daisy chain for you.”

[cherishtaengs]

hi!! could i request 11 + 54 for jaeyoon, nsfw (i’m she/her) :D thank youu

Jaeyoon - Sleep Talk

11. “I think I love you.” “Oh… I wasn’t expecting you to say that.”

54. “Can I tell you a secret?”

Pairing: Jaeyoon x Fem Reader

Warnings: NSFW ! Bathroom sex !

(Sorry this is late, it’s been in my drafts for like two weeks aaahh… but I hope you like it! Also, it’s pretty long, so i’m gonna continue it under the cut)

Your eyelids fluttered open, met by the light of the tv screen.

Next to you, Jaeyoon stirred quietly, reaching over to grab another handful of popcorn. At the sight of him, you remembered the dream you had, and heat spread across your face. It was… a nice dream, and you were slightly upset that it had to end so soon. It had left a pool of warmth between your legs before reaching its climax.

The movie was still playing and he was the only one watching. Everyone else, including you, had fallen asleep at various points through your “Dusk-Til-Dawn Movie Marathon”. You’d knocked out with your head resting on his shoulder, and you knew you just had to play it cool.

When you lifted your head, Jaeyoon snapped his head in your direction. “Did I wake you up?” He asked, eyes wide and voice low so he didn’t disturb the others.

You shook your head, feeling the grogginess of sleep slip away as you yawned and stretched your arms above your head. You hoped you didn’t drool on him. “No, it’s fine. How long was I asleep?”

Jaeyoon nodded to the tv screen that showed some kids and a lady being chased by a dinosaur. Tonight’s theme was Science Fiction. “Halfway through this one, that’s it.”

“That last movie was just kinda boring,” you press yourself against Jaeyoon, reaching over him to scoop up some popcorn. “Stop hogging the bowl, I want some, too.”

That was a normal move, you thought. You were just leaning on him so you could get to the popcorn; it was just a casual closeness that friends were allowed to have. You tried not to think about the other, not so casual, scenes from your dream.

Passing the bowl over, Jaeyoon placed it right in between the two of you; half the reason was so you could take some, too, and the other half was so you could take popcorn without having to climb all over him. Not that Jaeyoon minded, exactly, but he didn’t think it was a good time to indulge in his fantasies, especially not when he’d heard the things you whispered in your sleep.

“Did you know you snore in your sleep?” Jaeyoon playfully asked. He wanted to ask about your sleep talking, but decided that snoring was a better alternative. And just then, you didn’t notice the way Jaeyoon made a point of not looking at you, how his hands slightly trembled while reaching to pull the blanket that was laid across your legs higher.

“I think I’d know if I snore in my sleep,” you roll your eyes jokingly. “And I don’t. I’m a silent, peaceful sleeper. You didn’t hear anything.”

Well, to be honest, Jaeyoon heard a lot of things besides you snoring. He heard some interesting noises and even more interesting sentences.

“Yeah, maybe,” Jaeyoon nodded and stared hard at the tv screen. He seemed completely engrossed in the movie, but you were far more interested in the way his hair was all messy around his face. You had the urge to run your hands through it, to see if it was as soft as it looked. It had felt pretty soft in your dream. “But I know what I heard.”

“What did you hear?” You turn to him, teasingly challenging him. That was normal, too. You and Jaeyoon had always had a playful relationship, so it was normal to tease each other and make fun of each other. You hoped it came off as an innocent enough gesture, but you didn’t notice the way Jaeyoon gripped the edge of the blanket tighter.

You weren’t sure if it was the light from the screen, or your imagination, but you thought you saw a faint blush across Jaeyoon’s cheeks. Pulse quickening, you turn your attention back to the movie, thinking he wasn’t going to answer you. You really couldn’t let your mind wander, especially not when all other 8 boys were right around you. But you couldn’t help remembering the dream, how Jaeyoon’s hands had been so gentle around you-

“‘I think I’m in love with you’,” Jaeyoon’s voice was quiet and he refused to make eye contact. He regretted saying anything, because now he’d have to explain things he wished he didn’t have to explain.

Everything froze for you. He didn’t just say that. There was no way that Jaeyoon- your friend of nearly 8 years, the friend you’d started seeing in more than just a friend way, the friend you were having a wet dream about- just confessed to you. It took you completely off guard, and there was really no warning to it. But your entire body felt like it was on fire and your heart began to pound. You knew you should’ve said something more profound, but all that came out of your mouth was “Oh… I wasn’t expecting you to say that.”

This time, Jaeyoon turned to look at you, eyes flashing with the reflection of the tv. “No, you said that. “You were talking in your sleep.”

And just like that, your heart seemed to stop beating and dropped all the way from your chest to your stomach, blood rushing to your face. So he had heard you talk in your sleep, and that was why he wouldn’t look at you this entire time. “I am so sorry-“

“You don’t have to apologize,” Jaeyoon interrupted, turning his body to face you now leaning forward. You instinctively moved back against the arm rest. “Can I tell you a secret?”

Jaeyoon knew he didn’t have to tell you this. He knew that your dream wasn’t that big of a deal, it happened to everyone now and then. But he just had the feeling that he wanted to tell you, to see your reaction.

“What?” Your eyes widened as he placed a hand next to you, caging you in. He was so close that you were afraid he could hear the way your heart thundered against your ribs. And you were suddenly even more aware of the growing warmth between your legs. It was like the dream was happening in real life.

“I get those dreams, too,” Jaeyoon said, voice low and hushed. His eyes swept over your face, flicking down to your lips. You didn’t know what to do with your hands, so you clutched them to your chest. “Sometimes you’re in them, just like I was in yours.”

You swallowed. Just how much had he heard? “How do you know I was dreaming about you?”

Jaeyoon smirked, bringing his lips to your ear. His breath sent a shudder down your body. “‘Jaeyoon, that feels good’. Do you remember saying that?”

The way he said that, imitating you in a breathless pant, made something burn in the pit of your stomach, and your heart flipped. You wanted to crawl under a rock and die. You absolutely could not believe he’d heard you say that, and in your sleep, too! But maybe it was his teasing tone, or maybe your mind was still stuck on dream mode, but you also found it exciting that Jaeyoon had heard you.

“So imagine what it did to me to hear you say all that and more in your sleep,” Jaeyoon pulled back, pushing the blanket off you in the process.

The way he was describing your wet dream to you, as if you weren’t the one who experienced it, made you want to hear more. “What?”

Jaeyoon stood up, shrugging. “You’re welcome to come see for yourself.”

As he passed in front of the screen, stepping carefully so as not to wake the others, you saw what he was talking about. The light from the tv cast a whiteish glow around his perfect body, and you saw the bulge in his sweatpants.

As you tried to comprehend what was going on, Jaeyoon made his way to the bathroom, carefully picking his way past the sleeping boys. He could handle things by himself if you didn’t take him up on his offer, but a part of him wanted it to be you. And he had a feeling you were on the same page.

You decided to follow him. Tiptoeing over and around haphazardly strewn arms and legs, you linger behind as Jaeyoon opened the door, turning his head to raise his eyebrows at you.

“You’re sure?” he asked, voice hushed. You think it over again, quickly. Half of your mind told you no, maybe this isn’t a good idea; but, the other half wanted to relive the dream and let Jaeyoon have his way with you. Someone stirred behind you in the pause.

“Get in before I change my mind,” you give him a light push, hands against his firm back. Jaeyoon reached around and pulled you in by the arms, spinning you around to face him as the door closed behind you.

“Then let’s make this quick,” Jaeyoon pushed you back against the edge of the sink. You felt the flex of his arms and stomach as your bodies pressed together for a moment.

You looped your arms around his neck, feeling the thudding of his pulse against your skin. The spontaneity and urgency of it all excited you- the other boys were asleep just a few feet away, and it was risky to do this in the bathroom, but it turned you on.

Jaeyoon placed a hand against your neck, tilting your chin up with his thumb. His dark eyes swept over your face, taking in every feature, lower lip caught between his teeth. The natural flush of his cheeks was more obvious now as he stared at you.

“Are you just going to stare at me?” You teased. “Or are you going to make me say all those things again?”

Jaeyoon let out a short breath, almost a playful whine. “Don’t say shit like that, or I really will lose my mind.”

And as if he was making sure you’d shut up, Jaeyoon pressed his full lips against yours. It wasn’t the innocent first kiss that you’d imagined you two would share some day; it was heavy with repressed emotions, your lips moving feverishly together. Jaeyoon’s hands wouldn’t stay still, they roamed all over your body. Heat bloomed everywhere he touched you and you slid your legs apart so he could lean his hips against you, wanting to feel all of him.

Then, Jaeyoon pulled back, pushing you around by the shoulders so you faced the sink. “I can’t wait anymore,” he hissed, pressing himself against you so you could really feel how hard he’d gotten. Blood rushed to your cheeks as he reached into one of the drawers, pulling out a square package. It was a condom, and you wondered for a moment why they’d leave things like that lying around in obvious places.

You leaned forward, bending over the edge of the sink and looked up at Jaeyoon through the mirror. You rolled your hips against him, grinding into him and earning a sharp intake of breath. “Neither can I,” you pout, hoping he’d stop wasting time and just fuck you already. You wanted to feel the real thing, to see if he could wreck you the way he did in your dreams.

Jaeyoon went to work, pulling both your pants and underwear down and then removed his own. You felt his cock spring out, hitting your ass. A moment later, you heard the crinkle of the packaging and Jaeyoon rested one hand on your hip, and brought the other to your front, touching a teasing finger to your soaked slit. You held back a whimper.

“You’re this wet?” Jaeyoon sounded surprised, a slight grin on his pink lips. “You should’ve told me earlier, Y/N. I would’ve helped you out sooner.”

“Please,” you whined, rocking your hips against his palm. “Don’t tease me now.”

“Then what do you want me to do?” Jaeyoon smirked, pulling his hand away slowly. You reach down to grab at it, holding it in place.

“Fuck me, please,” you begged. You knew he was enjoying it, even if the two of you had to make this quick. “Please, Jaeyoon-“

“As much as I want to hear you say my name louder,” Jaeyoon’s breath was warm against your skin when he leaned forward, raising goosebumps where he kissed the back of your neck. “You’ll have to keep it down.”

And he started moving his fingers, earning hushed whimpers from you. You bit your lip hard, holding back a moan. The last thing you needed was for the others to wake up now. You felt Jaeyoon shift behind you, positioning himself at your entrance. “Are you ready?” he asked, voice low by your ear. 

You made eye contact through the mirror and the sight of him leaning over you, cheeks flushed and hair messy, had your heart racing with anticipation. You nodded, gripping the sides of the counter. Without another warning, Jaeyoon pushed himself into you with a soft exhale. His hands found your hips, guiding them as he started thrusting slowly so you could adjust to him.

“You can go faster,” you mumbled, and Jaeyoon hums in response. A moment later, you feel his arms reach around on either side of you, caging you in. He picks up his pace, pumping hard and fast inside you.

Your mingling breath began to fog up the mirror and wave after wave of pleasure rushed through your body as Jaeyoon drove himself into you. It became increasingly harder to keep your voice down, and you fought the urge to just scream out his name. His head was nuzzled into the crook of your neck, and you turned your face to his, lips parted for a kiss.

“Jaeyoon-“ you whispered, voice shaking as he gripped your hands tight, lifting his mouth to yours.

“I love hearing you say my name,” he panted, kissing you hungrily. In the dream, you were both louder but something about hearing Jaeyoon’s voice, hushed and heavy with desire, was more than you could take. The thought that the others could wake up at any moment was pushed to the back of your mind as Jaeyoon ran his hands over your body, touching you wherever he could reach.

“Fuck,” you breathed out as he brought his hand back between your legs, rubbing in circles. “A little more.”

“Hold on just a bit,” Jaeyoon pressed his lips against your temple, his own release dangerously close.

As you felt the pressure building up at the base of your abdomen, a burning that spread from your center upward, you pushed yourself back onto Jaeyoon. He raised a hand to your mouth, covering it so you didn’t cry out like you so badly wanted to. All you could let out was a whine, feeling the pleasure burst through you, filling every part of your body with warmth.

Soon after, Jaeyoon followed, and you felt his erratic breaths hit the back of your neck. He pressed his mouth to your skin to quiet himself, and you felt the vibration of his voice against your back. For a moment, everything was warm and still.

“Here,” Jaeyoon pulled himself out of you, disposing of the condom. He reached in front of you to open the mirror and produced a pack of wet wipes. “We can shower in the morning, so just use these for now.”

You tried to steady your breathing, taking deep breaths to calm down your heart. Taking the wipes, you work at cleaning yourself off in silence. You weren’t sure if you should say anything.

“That was amazing,” Jaeyoon spoke up for you. “We should do it again, maybe. But y’know, we won’t rush it so much next time.

You were going to respond when there was a sudden knock at the door. Both of you froze, turning to each other with eyes wide in horror. One of them woke up. Jaeyoon motioned for you to fix your clothes, and as you pulled your pants back on he answered.

“Yeah?” He called back.

“Uh, if you guys are done in there,” came Youngbin’s voice, timid and shaking slightly. “We, uh, need-”

“Two seconds,” Jaeyoon turned around to give you a panicked look, face glowing bright red. Your own cheeks and ears were burning. Of course they’d wake up.

When both of you were properly covered and looked normal, Jaeyoon took a deep breath and cracked open the door. You really wanted to crawl under the sink and vanish. Outside, you saw that everyone except Chani was awake, and they all had their eyes glued to the tv screen. Only Dawon reacted in any way as you and Jaeyoon walked out, accidentally letting out a snort of laughter. Jaeyoon had an arm slung around your shoulders, but you wanted to hide behind him.

“How long have you been up?” Jaeyoon tried to ask casually, but it was obvious he was avoiding eye contact.

Youngbin was clearly unsure of how to handle the situation, but you hoped he wouldn’t even try. It was better if no one brought anything up. “We’ve… Been up since you, well, yeah.”

Jaeyoon nodded and pulled you along, reclaiming your seats back at the couch. “Hope you didn’t finish the popcorn.”

Then everyone started laughing, Rowoon and Dawon slapped him on the back, and Taeyang had his face buried in his hands, but you noticed the way both his and Hwiyoung’s shoulders were shaking in silent laughter. Juho just had his blanket pulled all the way over his head, but you heard his wheezing laugh from underneath. Inseong shot you a quick thumbs up before hiding his smile behind a cup. You wished you were obliviously asleep, like Chani.

Jaeyoon pulled you closer against him, wrapping his arm around you. “Was that as good?” he whispered in you ear. You looked up at everyone’s expectant eyes, trying to listen in on your conversation. You turned you head into his side, unable to hide your grin. “Shut up,” you mumbled.

You felt the comforting vibration of Jaeyoon’s chuckle against your cheek, low and playful. “I’ll take that as a yes, then.”

You took a deep breath. Sure the dream was good, but the real thing was definitely a lot better.

[onepdumpsterfire]

The Love struck neighbors

Modern life!AU

   "Are you spying on her again?" Asked a voice from right besides me. "Gah! Don't do that, Ace. it isn't funny" I say, trying to slow my racing heart "And I'm not spying, for your information. I'm just looking outside, it's just a coincidence that our neighbor, that lives across from us, is uh... Stretching..."

   "Uhu just a coincidence, like the other times that she happened to be doing yoga in her living room," He walks towards the kitchen; all the while continuing his mocking, "or writing, or cleaning or-"

   "Okay I get it!" I interrupt him. "And, by the way, your drooling," Ace shouts over the clattering of pans. "N-no im not!" I reply, quickly wiping away at my mouth. My face is beet red and it'll probably keep getting redder if we continue this conversation. Time to change the subject.

   Getting up I follow him to our cramped kitchen. "Don't touch the food on the stove; wait till luffy gets here and then we can eat"

   "You should just go talk to her, if you like her so much," grabbing a piece of hot food from the stove, he tosses it into his mouth. "Ah, fuck! That's hot."

   "That's why you should wait till luffy gets here in 20 minutes." I usher him out of there before he decides to eat more food. "But it'll be cold then and I'm hungry nooooow, saboooooo," Ace whines. "It's in low heat so it won't get cold, and we're waiting till luffy gets here." I guide him towards the living room. "By the way you haven't answered. Why don't you talk to her?" Stopping us in front of the linen couch, he turns to face me. "I have but it's just so awkward between us? I wish we could just start over but by now she probably thinks I'm a weirdo." Sitting on the couch, Ace pats the spot next to him. "Nah I doubt it. You only, what? Fallen down the stairs in front of her,"

   Groaning, I remember that embarrassing day. I was trying to be neighborly and greet her, but got...distracted and tripped over the last few steps. At least she helped me up. She smelled so nice that day. "Dropped and broke most of her groceries." Remembering that one actually made me flinch. I'd seen her unloading some groceries when I got home from work. I offered to help, but clumsily dropped most of the bags I was holding. I exploded her soda and most of the plastic plates she bought for a get together she was having. She invited my brothers and I after that. I ended up avoiding her most of the time. Ace, on the other hand, tried to talk to her every chance he got. And luffy....ate just about everything there. "Awkwardly talked about labradors, for some reason. Yeah, no I see your point." I just couldn't shut up that day. Grrrr, I'm pissed off at myself.

   "Are you done listing how much of a loser I am? Thanks, man. real motivational pep talk." He turns on the couch, now facing me, he puts a leg on my lap. "Hey, you know what, luffy might have talked to her recently." Now that's news to me. "What do you mean?"

   "Well remember when luffy set that fire to the apartment a while ago? when we were out." Eugh, just remembering makes me wanna throw up. He tried barbecuing for us on the balcony once, but ended up almost burning the apartment down. AND he still made us eat that vile lunch. It makes me shiver at the thought. "Yep. He's the reason we have no balcony, why?"

   "Well she's a firefighter intern or something right?"

   "I think?" I'm not following...

   "Then she probably came here to help put the fire out. And you know how luffy is. He probably talked to her and mentioned we are neighbors and that she had invited us to her place before." My face pales, I'm following his train of thought now. He's probably gonna invite her over soon. He does that with every person he befriends. Oh no. Oh no no no..... If he did talk to her then he more than likely told her about me looking at her through her patio door. He has no filter! I'll never be able to face her again! "Luffy talks way too much! He probably told her that we've seen her through her balcony-" Ace puts a hand up, stopping me. "Hold up, WE? What's this 'we' you speak of? YOU'RE the one spying on her." He moves his arm to the small stand next to the couch, grabbing the controller. "And besides, if he did, she hasn't closed her curtains yet; she probably has a thing for you too."

   If she does I'd probably just about faint.  Considering how awkward things are between us. Man, I hope she does. It would be a big help. My panic subsides and the sounds of the TV provide a nice background noise while I drift off into a daydream about how it would be like to be with her. Being able to hear her voice all the time, see her smile everyday. To BE the reason she smiles every day. She makes my insides feel all warm and fuzzy. Gross, it's like I'm a school girl or something. I'm usually not like this, but she just seems to make my brain go mush. I sigh contently, probably smiling like a fool as I continue to daydream.

   I practically forget why I was panicking before. Then the day dreaming is cut short when I hear voices and the jingle of keys at the door. "Really, it's fine. You don't have to invite me over. It'll probably be awkward."  The door is opened in the middle of the first person's sentence. "No! It's no big deal! Honest, it's a thanks for helping put out the fire that time." Came the other voice.

   That second voice I recognize, it's luffy. But the first..... A girl.... Putting out fires... Oh no. My mind goes blank as the the two walk in through the door. Well, more like luffy walked in and y/n was dragged in by him. Oh god I'm not dressed. Is what I'm wearing fine, Shorts and a t-shirt?Will she like the food? I mean luffy did invite her over so we gotta offer her to stay for a while, right? Right? I hope she likes spaghetti and meatballs. Ace, help me, please.

   As if to answer my silent prayers, Ace mutes the TV and greets the two. "Hey, guys. What's up?"

   "I saw y/n get out of her car, and invited her over for dinner!" Luffy chimes. "That so? Well since Sabo seems to be frozen, I'll serve the plates." Stammering y/n tries to object. "Oh no. You don't have to. I wouldn't wanna impose. I'll just be going now." She turned to walk out, but Ace stops her. "Don't be silly. Stay for dinner, it'll be nice. Plus my brother, over there, made it. He's a pretty good cook, husband material." He winks at her and all the color returns to me once more. I shoot up from my spot, dragging Ace to the kitchen by the ear. "Ow. Ow. Ow. Dude stop." I let go of him, looking mad. I try to glare him down, but that's hard to do with my face being as red as it is. "Oh come on, you were just sitting there, frozen. I had to do something to help my bro get his boo." My cheeks sting from how much blood flow they're getting today. "Don't say it like that!" I whisper yell at him. "Oh calm down. It's hard to take you seriously when you look at me like that. It's adorable." Ace dramatically puts an arm over his forehead. Why, this asshole wants to get punched today. I'm about to blow a fuse when luffy walks in. "Hey guys what's up? Is it not okay to bring her over?"

   "No, no, it's fine. It's not that I uh..." I can't seem to find the right words... "Sabo, just can't handle it right now. His crush is getting him all flustered." Ace answers in a mocking tone. O-hoho I'm gonna kick his ass later. I glare at him walking out of the kitchen. "Just set the table."

   Back to the living room, y/n is standing awkwardly by the door way. "Come on in, the food is being served." She looks at me, god, her eyes. "I understand if you weren't expecting company. I can just go, it's oka-"

   "No! I uh... mean uh.. no no everything's okay, don't feel bad about this. It's nice to have company over for a change." I awkwardly trail off, cheeks still beet red. Swear to god, I'm about to spontaneously combust. "The uh.. Dining area is this way." I wave her over. I'm being awkward, oh god. 'Dining area' who even says that. This is an apartment; he can see it from where she's standing. God fucking djfjfhfuej...

  My head is swarming with thoughts. I can't do this. What do we talk about. Not labradors, please brain, something else. As I plead with myself, y/n takes a seat next to luffy.

  Hold up.... Do I sit next to her? Across? If I don't even go near her, will she be offended?? I must have looked stressed out because Ace ends up putting my plate next to hers. Pushing me into a seat. He sits across from her. Boxing me into a seat. If I move now, next to ace or luffy, it'll look rude. I have no choice, but to sit here.

  As awkwardly fantastic this would be, being next to her and all. I can't help but notice we boxed her in too. She must be feeling uncomfortable by now. Even more than before. Oh geez. Ice breaker. Ice breaker. Something to start a conversation. "S-so uh," my voice fills the, otherwise, quiet area. It caught me off guard, I didn't think this through. What do I say???

  "You helped put out the fire, right?" Ace saves me once again. "Yeah, I'm just an intern so I didn't do much, really" she has her hands in her lap, awkwardly, almost as if she's scared to get closer to the table. "Stop being weird, guys," luffy cuts in, "hey, y/n, is being a firefighter cool? Do you ride in the fire truck? Can you drive it? Have you-"

  "Stop bombarding her with questions, Lu. Giver her time to answer, at least." I stop him before he can drown her in his questions. He's too curious. Chuckling I relax a bit. "So, firefighter, what got you interested in the job?" Y/n turns to me, sending butterflies to my stomach. "Uh... Well," she tucks her hair behind her ear, nervous habit? "I just liked the idea of helping people, and really liked fire trucks I guess?" She forms her response like a question, laughs nervously. "O-oh um.. I don't know what you guys do? It's okay if I ask, you don't have to answer if you don't want to." she waves her hands in front of her.

  "Hahah It's fine. I'm working to be a paramedic. I'm about to graduate, actually" Ace smoothes over her awkwardness. "Oh! That's great, congrats!" Bashfully she congratulates his almost accomplishment. It's cute how flustered she can get. "I'm still in between majors. "I say, swirling some spaghetti onto my fork. "I thought I wanted to be a computer science major, but now I'm not so sure." 

   "I didn't wanna go to college." Luffy chimes next to her, spaghetti sauce on his lips, "more school after school? Boring! I'm working as a mechanic with franky!" He shoves the last pit of his pasta into his mouth. "Mm-sabo more!" 

  "Don't talk with your mouth full luffy. There's more in the kitchen" before I finish he's up and out of his seat. "Franky?" Y/n questions, going back to the previous conversation. "He's owns the shop luffy works at." I fill her in, "he comes by here once in a while. Really cool dude." Running back to his seat, luffy joins in the conversation "he has this cool robot arm and foot! He told me once that some of his head had metal in it! Like a cyborg!!" He's too excitable. "Stop screaming lu, she's right next to you." He practically inhales his next plate of food. "Sorry sorry," luffy mumbles, mouth full of food.

  "Franky isn't a cyborg, he just has prosthetic limbs and a plate from when an accident at the shop." Ace gets up, "you should get one of those cool prosthetics too, sabo." Now in the kitchen, he continues, "anyone else want seconds?"

  "No, this is enough for me." Y/n points at her plate. "Save some for me." I walk to the kitchen. "You have a prosthetic, sabo?" Y/n asks from the table. "Yea, my leg, I lost it in a car wreck when I was little."

  "S-sorry, I didn't mean to-" I stop her mid sentence. "Don't worry it was a long time ago. And Ace, prosthetics are expensive."

_

   After dinner is finished y/n offers to help with the dishes. Ace and I decline, she's a guest after all. "Y/n wanna stay for a bit and hang out?" I ask her, hopefully it isn't too forward. "It's not that late, promise to have you back at yours before 10." I give her the best smile I can. "Sure, haha." I hope that she doesn't feel obligated to stay. 

  "How's your balcony?" She asks no one in particular, "are they gonna start repairs on it soon?" I walk towards the sliding door, next to her. "Yeah, they were supposed to start a few days ago, but with all of the rain these past couple of days..." I trail off. She nods her head, still looking at the charred ground outside. 

  Luffy joins us at the door. "Look, y/n, you can see into your place from here. Sabo sometimes lo-" I slap my hand over his mouth. Oh no. Shit. I hope she didn't understand what he was getting to. "He does what now?" She turns to us all, wide eyed, startled by what he might have said. Fuck.

  "N-no. I don't spy o-on you or a-anything!" My face heats up, bright red. I scramble to find some form of excuse. "I just enjoy the view." I wave my hands wildly around me hoping it'll do ANYTHING to help this situation. "NO! Not what I meant. Outside! I like looking outside." There's no salvaging this situation. I can hear Ace laughing his ass off in the living room. This bastard! "No you don't" luffy says, pulling my hand away from his mouth. He takes a step back, away from my grasp. "Don't you like her?" Why this little gremlin!

  "No! No, of course not." I quickly turn to face y/n, "not that there's anything wrong with that. I do like you. I mean like a friend! Right, but iflateronweendeduotogetherthatwouldntbesobadeither..." I. CAN'T. STOP. TALKING.

  "..Ahahahah umm okay? I like you as a friend too?" She tilts her head. "What was that last part you said? I couldn't quite get that "it's like my body is trying to give me a heat stroke. I'm burning. "N-nothing! Nothing. Phew, is it hot in here? I'm gonna go turn the a.c. on." I grab Luffy's hand, hurding him to the small hallway, adjacent to the dining room.

   "Stop saying stuff like that" I whisper to him. "It's embarrassing." Luffy, completely bewildered, can't seem to wrap his head these words. "Why? Don't you like her? Was I wrong? You only wanna be friends?"

  "No. I mean yes. I like her, okay." I put both hands to my head, pulling at my hair. "And I wanna be more than friends, but she's gonna think I'm some kind of weido if she finds out I sometimes look at her through her balcony." Luffy laughes, to my dismay. "We'll it's a bit late for that." 

   "No, hopefully I can make her believe that I do just casually look outside. Just please stop talking about my crush on her." I give him a pleading look. "No, it's too late." Luffy points behind me, "she's right there." I turn around, abruptly. Shit.

   "I just wanted to tell you that it would probably be best I'd I left" y/n mutteres, her face completely red. She. Heard. EVERYTHING. My mouth is drawn into a taut line; my muscles feel stiff, my hands are clammy, and I can't seem to move from the shock of it all. It's almost like an out of body experience. I wish I could run away like my mind is doing. "You guys okay?" Luffy looks back and forth between the both of us. "Yes, everything's fine." My voice cracks at the end. "Let me walk you home y/n." I walk past her, robotically leading her towards the door.

  "I'm gonna take y/n home." I state outloud; not really noticing if they reach Ace or not. Opening the door, I let y/n pass though first. She walks to the stairs and all I seem to be able to do is look at the door closing behind me. The golden light diminishing into a crack until it's finally gone. I have to turn around now, but I can't. How can I bear to look at her right now? What do I say to her? Do I bring it up or does she just want to forget it?

   My heart sinks even further thinking about that last question. I could have stayed at the door all night panicking about what I had done; but she pulls me out of my anxiety induced hysteria. "Sabo?" Y/n calles out to me, barely above a whisper. I face her, half expecting her to tell me she could walk home alone. "Are you coming?" Her words hit me like a punch in the gut. Violent butterflies swarming inside me, excited about what's to come. Do I still have a shit? "Y-yes. Of course." My mouth pulls up into a smile. I can't make it stop and it'll probably creep her out; but the fact that I may still have a chance. I nearly trip down the stairs again with how much I'm overthinking it. Falling, again? I'd ruin my chances, being so clumsy.

   Walking side by side, y/n decides to start the conversation first. "So...." She looks up at the sky before staring straight ahead. She's nervous, like me, I hope it's for the same reason. "W-what I heard inside....was it true?" Her checks flair, refusing to spare a glance at me. Well, it's now or never. Taking a big breath I tell her how I feel about her. "Yes, I like you a lot." I stand in front of her on the steps to her apartment. I'm just as flushed as she is, but I need to know. "Y/n.... Do you like me?" Y/n stuteres a bit, unable to find the right words. My stomach tightens; taking the air out of my lungs. Please say yes. Y/n fiddles with the hem of her shirt. Please say yes. She looks up into my eyes; hers wide in panic? Embarrassment? Bashfulness? Please say yes. "I-I do...l-like you that is." She looks away, pushing some hair behind her ears. Her words are like electricity running through me. They send a shock all through me. I can't help myself, I'm just really happy, I throw my arms around her. The sudden embrace startles her, but she doesn't pull away. Slowly, she puts her hands around me; burying her face into my chest. I can feel her start to smile. It only makes mine grow wider. She likes me. Holy shit. She likes me.

[advernia]

around june of last year, i decided to revive my writing blog as one of the many potential stress-relief methods i could think of.... i didn’t think i’d be able to keep it active for long since work + family duties keep me preoccupied most of the time, but eyyy!!! so far i haven’t lost the motivation to keep going back to this blog, and i even managed to keep it afloat for half a year!!! amazing!!! (•̀o•́)ง

and now here we are halfway through 2020!!! it’s waaaay overdue but here’s a big T H A N K  Y O U  V E R Y  M U C H ! ! ! to everyone and anyone who dropped by this blog last year + all them likes, comments, reblogs...... please know that i’m still i n c r e d i b l y grateful for the support & interest in the content i’ve posted up!!!! tbh my activity’s still hella sporadic so it’s really amazing for me that i even gained new followers.... i’m very honored to have all of you stick around my blog despite my irregularity!!!!!!!! (༎ຶ ෴ ༎ຶ)

it’s also overdue, but i slowly managed and finally cleaned up the blog like i’ve been meaning to do + changed the blog name to match my ao3 handle for consistency!!! i make no promises to be super active... but i’m sure that i still want to continue writing & keep this blog alive!!!! 

again, thank you all for your time + reading my works!!!!!!  ∩( ´∀` )∩ work commentary on the rest of my works last year follows under the cut!

oct 1 // hero’s journey

a drabble on blanc + oliver about the alices... now that i think of it, calling the first alice first alice is kinda funny considering that alice is really her name... or is it? 

i do hope blanc’s route talks about her a bit, haha! i mean, i wish cybird remembers that they’ve been dropping the occasional background tidbits about her... like for example, her pocketwatch (that she gave to blanc eventually) having a magic crystal engraved into it.... her potentially leaving a fucking globe in the black army’s possession (like... wow... u fell with that thing????????)....

plus, i just find it interesting that she was remembered by cradle as a heck of a troublemaker lol! it also makes you wonder who among the main cast met her, blanc aside... though it’s not stated when exactly she fell into cradle, so maybe only blanc had the opportunity of meeting her...

so does blanc speak of her fondly bc she’s a woman, or is there something else??? has he been frequently visiting the land of reason pre-game??? has he found the first alice’s antique shop / met her again??? does he still try to figure out the reason why there’s a magic crystal engraved into the first alice’s pocketwatch????? hmmmmm......

on another note, it would be hilarious if cybird pulls a peter pan 2......... since we can’t pull off a mother-daughter relationship like wendy & jane’s, what if alice the second is somehow actually related to the first alice?? and while she’s completely different from her predecessor, blanc finds himself falling for alice the second........ just like he fell for the first alice? drama!

that’s just a random thought but kidding aside, i do hope blanc’s route is hella interesting bc i think he’s our mr. exposition for knowing more about cradle itself lol

oct 1 // fair (?) ladies & phony (?) enchanters

a result of going manic a few days after seeing harr’s trailer + route release.... ahaHAHA I’M STILL WILLING TO PLAY UR ROUTE IN JP HARR (if i actually had time to sit down and translate gET REKT)

i liked writing these drabbles and i think they’re cute but tbh they did nothing to ease my curiosity about harr’s route.... if anything else, it became even w o r s e  haha........................

if i think of blanc to have a cradle-centric route, i do hope harr’s route is magic tower-centric! naturally it will be since he’s got history there, but i hope a lot of my questions about the magic tower will be answered.....

will harr’s perspective of the magic tower be in the eyes of a test subject or a disciple???? he was scouted by the magic tower, but it wasn’t stated what he was doing exactly..... going by hints + loki’s & zero’s routes, it’s more of him being a disciple, so there’s bound to be guilt.......

hopefully alice’s characterization in his route is good + we get a fun group dynamic with loki!!! their potential.... the most(?) notorious criminal of cradle, a sought after test subject, and that one girl who nullifies all magic; a renegade trio lurking around the forbidden forest.... what an odd bunch!

oct 4 // god is a five minute hymn

a religious themed fic with lancelot & alice - tbh i don’t even know why religion was the first thing that came into mind when liz and i were talking about cultural differences, lol.

on that note though! i personally like thinking that if ever cradle had a semblance of a religion, it would be polytheistic & nature-centric, and not strictly practiced - the stratocracy of both territories i’d like to think makes it harder for religion to have a voice, much less have one that is practiced by the general population. the only thing general about it is that the religion centers or has magic crystals as an important factor... or something. yeah.

that aside, i think i specifically chose lancelot in this piece for the sole reason that his canonically stated lack of common sense, in my opinion, gives him the curiosity of a child sometimes - there’s no sense of malice or doubt, just the pure innocence of wanting to know something....... religion does that to kids, especially when introduced to it at first.

rereading the fic makes me think of the instances where when faced with dire or unsettling situations, people turn to faith as a life line.... well, i’m not sure if i had that subconsciously in mind when writing alice, but that does give a spin to it....

oct 6 // flow like the river nile

a spontaneous red army-centric fic! it certainly turned out better than i expected... i liked the formatting i used for this one!

if cybird can give us more about the pre-game suitors it would be great, tbh! and while the stuff about them in school is interesting, i’d like to see more about when they assumed their positions + combat scenes! the neutrals are special cases, but knowing more about their living conditions + daily lives is also a treat...

i was thinking of adding one last snippet about lancelot in the eyes of the reds, but i scrapped it out and switched it to alice & lancelot’s conversation about duty - it could’ve worked better if i stuck to using the what is your duty? question, but i scrapped it eventually too. ah well. it does look good enough as it is. 

oct 7 // seeking out phantoms

a mandatory(???) odd one out aka content that’s not ikerev, haha! i missed fe:a all of a sudden...

i never got around to writing properly for this fandom tho, what a shame - i’ve got some bits of pieces in my drafts that looked interesting and easy enough to pick up, and this was one of them.

robin investigating more of their plegian heritage could’ve been a good subplot tbh... i still wish there was something like a paralogue or dlc about it, bc honestly the valm arc goes a bit slow until you get to the future past revelations. ah well.

and gaius bc first husband for the win.... not like i actually had the guts to marry anyone else in my other save files lololol

nov 7 // push me off a bridge (to catch me as i fall)

my longest project of 2019, holy shit! i didn’t know i still had it in me to write something past 10k... i need more of that motivation + energy....

there’s nothing much to say about this since i blabbed about everything in the post-reading notes, but as much as i fought myself to get this done, i really enjoyed writing a long fic again! hopefully i can get myself to write another one this year...

nov 18 // beloved, beloved, let me be clear

18 sentences on zero & alice + macross frontier references! man, when i really got to the point about the earrings i was thinking of sheryl a lot....

kept it in sentences cause i didn’t have enough time to put up a decent ficlet! but i really wanted to get my screaming out of my system....... i used to do sentences + three word sentences challenges before, and doing one again was pretty fun!

but really.... zero’s route kept me happy for days???? their buildup + dynamic was something i was totally w e a k for, no joke..... thank gods the collection event was going on, bc i really made good use of my stocked chapter tickets lolol!

i was especially excited come the ball scene, and that cg..... a h a h a.... i need more of those pretty cgs where i can see alice’s face + costume change....... 

nov 20 // coloring inside the lines

jonah + alice + makeup!!!! tbh this was really fun, i enjoyed writing this one - if i remember, this was a fic that i managed to continuously work on the day i thought it up!

jonah may not be my best boy but tbh i find writing him very easy - i guess it’s because i’m very fond of characters like him!!! those uptight nobles who are as prideful as hell but can definitely live up to their name + are more capable than their bragging suggests... idk if there’s a general trope name for these doods, but i especially like analyzing their motivations + convictions!!!

i liked how i ended it, but i apparently i made an actual ending that’s now a snippet in my drafts - jonah & alice head to the ball, and somewhere along some bystanders’ flow of conversation someone drops a comment about jonah’s lips looking... quite more luscious than usual, lolol. so t h i r s t y. upon hearing this, alice can’t seem to stop smiling for some reason..... 

nov 27 // blue fields, verdant skies

a practice drabble set centric on a ray/alice development that i liked so much i made it into a series - plus, it’s black army content and honestly i need to write more of them! my red army bias is showing whoooooops

it’s a feudal + arranged marriage au, with the latter... being quite spontaneous. it’s those types of marriages where neither have even met - not even once - only to face each other come the wedding... so it’s a given that audiences from both parties are rather curious how this will turn out.

since i had the theme of fate in mind, ray was the automatic pick for the male lead. the rest of the black army is a given and for kicks, i added dean and dalim! i actually want to write about them + mousse, but since i’m still unsure on their characterizations i’ve been holding them off.... but i gave in anyway.....

alice is again named for word count convenience purposes since it’s in actual 100 words aka drabble form! i have planned scenes + an ending already in mind, but going there is pretty hard bc.... i still have to write the scenes in between + resist temptation to expand further on other scenes, haha....

initially i was planning to keep it updated here as well, but any more updates of this are on ao3 instead! the formatting looks better there instead of my blog tbh, and it also gives it a sort of muted tone to the story that works with me!

this is also the 31st fic in this blog, marking an end of the challenge liz bestowed to me lolol - since i brought this blog back to life around june, i was dared that by the end of the year, i should’ve posted more than 15 fics to add up to the initial 15 i had already posted before, thus the numbers on my fics back then.... now that i actually succeeded, i can stop counting lololol!!!! tho hopefully i can still be pretty active this year....

dec 22 // duck, duck, bullet

oliver & fenrir on guns... this probably wins as the most spontaneous idea i had on my head - tbh, i wasn’t even sure where i was going with it at first! but i’m sure i was suddenly thinking about that one detective conan movie.... then it became kid!oliver with a gun.....

i wonder if he tests the bullets at night, when he’s in adult form.... then again, kid!oliver with a gun still works.... say that because he’s a genius inventor, he made some models to serve as his shooting targets.... but another thought that amuses me more is.... blanc does the bullet testing for him!?

lololol i already thought about blanc being oliver’s live target, but i also find blanc with a gun very interesting.......... i mean, blanc certainly doesn’t look like he can fight, but who knows??? i mean, mousse is the former ace of hearts, but i still can’t imagine him fighting..... appearances can be deceiving....

the two aside, i wonder how fenrir even met oliver and got him working on his bullets........ was it through blanc or other connections???? how long have they been seller and buyer???? does anyone else commission anything from oliver?????? hmmmm.....

dec 23 // terms of surrender

i’ve been told by liz + luci + other friends that i needed to practice writing more.... cheesy fluff. i’m not sure if this sirius/alice piece counts, lol. in fact, i think it’s my definition of fluff i see here - and it translates to not exactly fluffy at all!

tho if you want me to be honest about it - when i write suitor/alice stuff, how alice was characterized in the suitor’s route is still my basis for how i’ll write her, and sirius’ alice................ haha......... i think she’s the alice that’s honestly easy to write but i choose to avoid.......... 

i don’t dislike the sirius/alice dynamic per se, tho. i do find it cute, especially if cybird stops emphasizing the issue of maturity in the relationship on alice’s side. i understand - i really do - that it’s a potential issue in the relationship, but...... that’s not the only problem you can possibly have as time passes, right?????

on another note, it’s funny that only sirius gets to be harped about the maturity due to age difference issue - setting aside blanc, who heavens know how old he is, lancelot’s 29 and since alice is presumed to be around ray + fenrir’s age, you could say that she’s 24 or even 23 to be safe.... so that makes a 5 / 6 years difference but it’s never brought up, lol. but i guess it’s because unlike lancelot, the black army’s been making sirius’ age a running gag....

anyway, this piece is pretty decent! i was thinking of something along the lines of mornings between a “married couple”.... there were two scenarios i had in mind, and i opted to write this one out first.... maybe i’ll have the second one posted up here another day.

dec 28 // a chain of black thrones

pre-game!sirius & ray and bc i was thinking a lot about the previous chosen, the former jack of spades!!! i wonder if the armies have a set age for retirement lolol... it would be awesome if there was still a chosen who’s already past his 50s or something, haha!

since sirius was constantly badgered to take on the role of king, i was also wondering about how long the black army was ‘king-less’... i mean, if the tension between both armies was really as great as they say, having no king puts the black army at a precarious position... i also thought that ‘nah, maybe there was a king or something but maybe the black army didn’t like him or something so they insisted that sirius take it instead’ but sirius’ 1st anniv. epilogue says otherwise - there really was a period that the black army had no king, wow. how the heck did they deal with that???? surely the red army saw this as a display of vulnerability....

can the black army’s chosen choose to leave their posts when they feel like it??? when they’re defeated by a challenger, what happens to them - a demotion, or do they serve under the ‘new’ chosen??? does the black army’s chosen change constantly because of their meritocracy + challenger system??? like, how do they deal with that, and do they announce their changes in chosen each council meeting??? each new question just snowballed my curiosity, whoops...

there were so many angles i thought of but i decided to settle for addressing the king-less state of the black army... through the eyes of a veteran who’s probably served many kings throughout his time of service as part of the black army’s chosen.

i gave this jack of spades character a name, actually - garret folner. maybe someday i’ll write him again, bc i actually enjoyed thinking about the present + past chosen interactions - maybe i’d think about that for the red army, but this time i find the black army’s side more interesting for this situation.

dec 29 // steadfast tin soldier

a zero/alice piece for zeroweek - i was about to post pt. 1 as a standalone, but then i just thought about how.... zero bought alice a gown.... but never got to dance with her at the day of the ball..... so i rushed to add pt. 2 haha!

with the addition of pt. 2 it looks cut short tho - i did think of putting a scene in between, but no good ideas came into mind bc i was too fascinated with the dancing scene... i swear at some point i will find myself writing a fic or a part of a fic that’s a dance scene for the rest of the ikerev suitors + alice....

this is the kind of fluff i live for, actually... i’m totally fine with the steamy content cybird throws during events + bonus stories, but if i were to be honest i say.... where’s my non-sexual intimacy????? the simple, wholesome stuff?????????????????

man, i feel hilarious for typing that out..... but well, i guess it’s a matter of different strokes for different folks, lol!

[merculuros]

Chrisker Series

When You Fall For Your Enemy

Beginning of An Unforeseen Love (Part 1)

Summary: Chris finds Wesker alive after their fight in Africa. Just when he thinks everything will get back on track now that he has arrested Wesker, he learns something very surprising and everything turns upside down. On top of that, he finds himself in a relationship with the last person he can consider as a boyfriend.

Pairing: Chris Redfield x Albert Wesker

Word count: 1,470

Tags: Crack, Humor, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Alternate Universe: Canon Divergence, Post Re5, amnesiac!Wesker, Slow Burn.

Author’s Note: You can find this series on AO3. I was going to add the link but if I do that, the post will not show up in the tags, so here we go. 

Chris squeezed his eyes shut for a brief second pinching his nose bridge. The headache he had got all day was making his life miserable and he was amazed he didn’t faint out of exhaustion at some point today. All that happened this past week was taking its toll on him. Looking at the man sitting beside him out of corner of his eyes, he felt his head throb with pain again. His hands tightened around the steering wheel, casting his eyes away from the said man he tried to focus on the road. All he needed right now was a good night’s sleep and a painkiller. But he kept replaying the recent events in his mind.

About a week ago, just after his confrontation with Wesker in Africa, he found the man somewhere near that volcanic area; he was passed out, injured but still alive. Chris wasn't exactly surprised to find out that two RPGs and a volcano hadn’t killed him. In fact he was starting to believe there wasn't a way to kill the other. However, what he didn’t expect, was that the man looked young, maybe even younger than his ex-captain from S.T.A.R.S days and Chris felt like he had gone back in time. After their return to America with the blonde, he was determined to seek justice for everything he had done. Even though killing him was out of the question, there had to be other ways to punish him like locking him away somewhere, cutting all his connections from outside world. But of course, his plans never worked the way he wanted. Because of his severe injuries Wesker stayed unconscious for days. When he regained his consciousness, Chris had the most shocking news of his life. The blonde had amnesia and remembered nothing, not even his name. He suspected his regenerative skills didn't work properly at the time, for they couldn't heal the damage done to his brain.

This unexpected situation led BSAA to take a different and risky approach regarding the bio-terrorist. And Chris was definitely not happy with what they came up with. They thought he could be an excellent asset for fighting bio-terrorism and gave him a totally different story - that he was a BSAA agent, had an accident on a mission and lost his memory -. Chris knew taking advantage of someone like this was morally wrong even if this said person was Wesker, but the threat he posed to this world was big, so he couldn't object to it. The worst part of the plan was the blonde needed to be supervised at all times, meaning he was to live with one of the BSAA agents to record the progress he would make and to take necessary precautions in case his memory returned. No matter how unwilling Chris was, he volunteered to be that lucky person, mostly because Wesker was still dangerous and he didn’t want to endanger his comrades’ lives. Also, who knew his own arch-nemesis better than him? Ongoing rivalry between them made it easier for him to put with the blonde’s bullshit over the years. He was used to the other’s arrogant and assholish behaviour so he could say living with him wouldn’t bother him much, at least he hoped so. Though he had to admit Wesker looked nothing like his usual self; he looked less ….. evil and menacing in this state. Chris never imagined he would feel sympathy for him but he was, because the other was probably feeling disoriented and lost. If Chris were in his shoes, he would certainly freak out. But then again Wesker was always calm and collected even in the most dangerous situations. That was one of his rare good traits he could appreciate about the blonde.

Coming back to reality, Chris shifted in his seat uncomfortably. This awkward and disturbing silence was getting to him and he wanted some sort of distraction to dissolve the tension in the car. His eyes met with Jill’s through the rear-view mirror who was as uneasy as him. She offered to come with them to take some documents she had left at his home before, but Chris knew she was here mostly for mental support but her presence didn’t really help right now.

“How is this possible?” Wesker questioned, his eyes fixated on the wing mirror, obviously shocked at his newfound discovery that he had red eyes. Before Wesker was discharged from BSAA hospital today, doctors had informed Chris about what was going with the blonde and how severe his condition was. Though he presumed that Wesker wouldn’t just forget everything about himself. Apparently he did. Based on this, perhaps he wasn’t aware of his superhuman abilities either, yet.

“Yeah about that …. It is really a long story, so I will explain everything later. You should just rest now.” Chris murmured, not wanting to deal with this right now.

“I am tired of everyone brushing over my questions. I want some answers.” Wesker snapped “also how long till we arrive at my place? I am starting to feel a little bit nauseous now.” He added.

“Actually .. we are going to my place.” Chris answered.

“Why?”

“Because you … uh … live with me.” Chris added nervously. He cursed himself for not thinking this through.

Wesker raised one blond eyebrow curiously.

“And the reason for that is …?” he dragged out the last word, he was getting frustrated by all this. Unfortunately Chris’s mind was occupied with a lot of things lately so he didn’t have time to make up a story that would cover up their plan, which was a huge mistake on his part. He should have guessed that the man would question this whole situation. He looked at Jill again with a what should I say kind of expression on his face, though she looked as lost as him. He speculated about the excuses he could make, yet nothing sounded convincing even to his ears. Then Jill jumped in to save the day.

“You know, you guys are together. Actually, you got … uhm … engaged last month, that’s why you live together” her voice turning into a whisper near end, realizing how ridiculous her spontaneous lie sounded but it was too late to turn back. Her reply took both men by surprise; Wesker let out a silent “oh” while Chris braked so hard that if they hadn’t had their seatbelts on, they would have flown out of the car. Behind them, angry drivers honked furiously cussing them for a possible car accident they could have caused. Feeling betrayed, Chris turned his head back to look at her with wide eyes. She pressed her lips into a thin line and sank into her seat as if she wanted to disappear.  

“Why didn’t you tell me that before?” Wesker questioned with narrowed eyes.

Chris had no choice but to go with her lie “I … uhm ... I didn’t want to overwhelm you with this information right away and I strictly told Jill not to mention this but she couldn’t keep her mouth shut�� answered scoldingly.

“Well … I guess I was going to find out this sooner or later, so you don’t need to be angry at her. Though I am still won-” Chris didn’t let him finish his sentence.

“I know. Can we not have this conversation right now?” retorted his voice raising and his body radiating anger. Wesker was taken aback by sudden change of attitude but made no further remark.

Chris gritted his teeth and tried to suppress his anger. Rest of the ride was quiet and Chris couldn’t care less now that he was in sour mood. As if it wasn’t bad enough that he had to babysit his arch-nemesis, now he would have to play house with him. When they finally arrived, Chris showed Wesker around the house and handed Jill the documents she came to take, then she left. Closing the door behind her, he was finally alone with the embodiment of trouble himself. Sighing, he headed to the bedroom to see what the blonde was up to and saw a sleeping Wesker curled up on his –from now on- their bed. Suddenly it dawned on him that he would sleep with his boyfriend in the same bed tonight.

Oh God. What did I get myself into?!

Chris rubbed his temples in effort to ease the pain, the headache from earlier coming back with full force again.

Grabbing a painkiller from the the bathroom, he slumped on the soft couch in the living room comfortably. Without water he swallowed the pill and leant his head back, closing his eyes tiredly.

He was so deep in lies that he was starting to regret his every decision. There was no turning back now, so he hoped things wouldn’t get any worse than this.

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

Star Trek Gold Key #30: Death Of A Star

Our story begins with an old woman doing something mysterious, which on its own wouldn’t be terribly foreboding, but of course, we can’t possibly start a Gold Key comic with anything less than imminent danger lest the readers feel they haven’t gotten their money’s worth, so she’s also about to explode. Or so Kirk tells us, anyway. How he came to this conclusion I’m not sure.

[ID: A comic splash page titled STAR TREK: DEATH OF A STAR PART 1. A narration box at the top reads, “Trapped on a veritable keg of cosmic dynamite, Captain Kirk and the Star Trek crew become an unwilling captive audience to the most shattering spectacle in all the galaxy: a star going nova! But the natural cataclysm takes on tragic overtones when a mysterious old woman’s life is mystically linked to...a strange cosmic force!” In the foreground Kirk and Chapel are holding their arms out, facing away from the camera and looking toward Spock and an old woman wearing orange and yellow robes, who is touching Spock’s forehead; swirls of red and yellow are spiraling away from the old woman. Chapel is saying, “Captain! What is happening to her?” Kirk is saying, “I’m not sure, Nurse, but I think she is going to explode!”]

Kudos to the narration box up there for its use of the excellent term “a veritable keg of cosmic dynamite” although “But the natural cataclysm takes on tragic overtones when a mysterious old woman’s life is mystically linked to a strange cosmic force!” sounds like a sentence that someone started out saying without knowing quite how it was going to end.

So, what’s the Enterprise crew done now that’s somehow resulted in an old woman spontaneously combusting? It begins, as usual, with a captain’s log. “Our mission,” Kirk tells us, “is to study and record, from a safe distance, the final death throe of the star Isis. According to our calculations, this gem of space has only 48 hours before it explodes, destroying everything for billions upon billions of cubic miles. Fortunately, its solar system is uninhabited!”

So a star is due to go supernova and they’re going to park somewhere at a safe distance and watch the fireworks. Cool. How close is a safe distance? At least billions upon billions of cubic miles away, apparently, since, sure, we definitely measure astronomical distances in cubic miles. I sure don’t know how far back you have to stand from a supernova to avoid getting turned into a cloud of nicely toasted atoms, but apparently the material being ejected from the star can travel at speeds up to 10% lightspeed, or about thirty thousand kilometers per second. Exactly how fast the various warp factors are is all over the place, but we know warp one is lightspeed. So the Enterprise can outrun a supernova, if it gets going in time. Let’s give a generous safety estimate and say it takes a minute to go to warp. At thirty thousand kilometers a second, in the space of that minute the ejecta, or in scientific terms, the Big Hot Cloud of Death, could travel about 1,800,000 kilometers, so theoretically they’ll be safe if they hang farther back than that. For comparison, one Astronomical Unit, defined as the average distance from the Earth to the Sun, is about 150 million kilometers. Astronomically speaking, they could get within spitting distance of this star and call it a safe point. I mean, they probably shouldn’t. But they could.

Anyway, while they’re hanging out waiting for the show to start, Sulu suddenly reports that he’s getting “readings of humanoid life-forms from Isis III!” Spock is dubious.

[ID: Two comic panels. In the first, Kirk is sitting in his captain’s chair saying, “What do you make of that, Mr. Spock?” Spock, standing next to him with his hands on his hips, is saying, “Highly unlikely, captain! Earlier, and much more thorough sensor scans suggest no such signs of life!” In the second panel Kirk is saying, “But you don’t deny that these readings are genuine?” and Spock replies, “Most likely a malfunction in the system, captain! The chances are 87.663125 to 1 in favor of it!”] 

love Spock’s pose in the first panel there

Kirk isn’t having it. “When that ‘1’ may be a human life, I consider the odds even!” he declares, somehow jumping to the conclusion that because the life signs are humanoid they must be human, even though practically everybody in this galaxy is humanoid. Point is, he intends to check this out, so he tells Uhuru to get a fix on the sensor readings. Which is not her job, and also, not her name.

[ID: Kirk half-turning to Uhura, who is sitting at her station, and saying, “Lt. Uhuru, get me a fix on those readings!” Uhura says, “Roger!”]

THIS IS THE THIRD TIME, GUYS, COME ON IT’S JUST NOT THAT DIFFICULT

Kirk then orders Sulu to set a course for Isis III. Spock quite sensibly points out that even if the sensors are right and there are people down there, they can’t evacuate a whole planet in the forty-eight hours before the star blows. Kirk isn’t having that either.

[ID: Kirk pointing at Spock, whose ears are drawn abnormally large in profile, and saying, “We can try!” Someone off-panel is saying, “Captain?”]

“Captain, that statement is so ludicrous it made my ears stand up straight!”

So last issue, the scanners reported no life signs, so they sent a landing party down to check. This issue, the scanners are reporting life signs, which Spock says must be a malfunction, so they’re going to send a landing party down to check. I’m starting to wonder why they even bother scanning for life in the first place if they’re so determined to go down and check anyway.

Meanwhile, Uhura has a report on the upcoming planet. I’d question how she got sensor data at the communications station, but as this panel demonstrates, whoever drew this clearly never saw the actual bridge set, so perhaps it’s a bit much to expect whoever wrote it to remember what everyone’s jobs are. Or their ethnicites. Not only is Uhura white once again, they didn’t even color in her earring separately, which results in a somewhat disturbing image.

[ID: Uhura, colored with a pale Caucasian skin tone, looking out over the bridge, where Kirk is sitting in a bright pink chair, and in front of him two helm officers are sitting at a control panel. A viewscreen is visible at the end of the bridge, with several computer screens below it. Uhura is saying, “Class M planet, sir! Capable of supporting human life! Sensors indicate a massive life-force, suggesting a large population! I don’t understand how Federation probes could have missed them!” Her large hoop earring is colored the same as her skin, making it appear to be part of her ear.]

Man, gauges got kinda extreme by the twenty-third century.

Uhura goes on to report that she has a fix on the life signs, but it’s weird, because “All the life-force is emanating from one spot as if the entire population were on the head of a pin!” “Perhaps that’s why your earlier probes missed them, Spock!” Kirk comments. “They’re either midgets...or angels!” Spock then starts to give the odds against this before Kirk cuts him off. Yes. Hilarious.

Kirk tells Uhuru (sigh) to get ready to beam down with him and Spock, and to inform Chapel that she’s coming with too. “She has proven to be of invaluable assistance on past missions!” he explains, and I use the term ‘explains’ loosely.

The unorthodox landing party is soon ready to beam out, although that might prove to be difficult because apparently a terrible transporter accident has fused the bridge and the transporter room together.

[ID: Two panels. In the first, Kirk, Spock, Uhura and Chapel are standing on the transporter pad, with Sulu and Scotty looking at some screens in the foreground. Kirk is saying, “Sulu, how much of a safety factor do we have?” Sulu replies, “24 hours, sir!” In the second panel, Kirk is leaning in and saying, “Scotty, I want you to wait precisely 23 hours, 59 minutes for us and then warp out of her immediately!” Scotty, who is sitting at what looks like one of the bridge stations, says, “Aye, aye, captain!”]

WHERE ARE WE

So...unless it took them twenty-four hours to get that landing party ready, they still have forty-eight hours before the sun goes nova. I’m not sure exactly what Sulu’s ‘safety factor’ means, but I’m guessing he means the buffer of extra time they’ve allotted to make sure they can get out of there before things get really dangerous. Which means Kirk is telling Scotty to leave...one minute before they have twenty-four hours before the sun explodes?

Having left those baffling instructions in their wake, the landing party beams down, and has the perfunctory exchange of comments.

[ID: Chapel, Uhura, Spock and Kirk standing against a dull purplish-gray sky with some foliage creeping into the panel on the right. A narration box says, “Soon…” Chapel is saying, “Wow! I’ll never get used to that sensation!” Uhura says, “Nor to the sight of a new world! Amazing! That sky!” Spock says, “Atmospheric conditions are caused by pre-nova solar activity!” Kirk says, “We’re not here to sight-see!”]

Wow, that sky. Breathtaking. Incredible. I’m in awe.

After reminding everyone that they are not here to sight-see, they’re here to save a WORLD! Kirk asks Chapel where they should be going, since their landing site is mysteriously devoid of all the people they were expecting to find there. Chapel says she doesn’t know because the atmosphere is scrambling her equipment. Dang Federation technology gets scrambled the moment you take it out of the packaging.

Uhura and Spock then have a baffling exchange in which she comments that she “feel[s] like we’d been plopped down on a “Doomsday Earth” movie set!” and Spock replies “For all intents and purposes, we have, Lieutenant!” I’m not sure if Spock understands what a movie set is. Or possibly I don’t understand what a movie set is, or at least what a “Doomsday Earth” movie set is. Ultimately it’s irrelevant though, because the conversation is cut off by Spock getting attacked by a giant cloud of spray cheese.

[ID: A tall panel in which Uhura is yelling, “Look out!” and pushing Spock out of the way of a beam of yellow energy strikes down from the sky in front of him with a “PHFFAZZZ!”]

Kirk declares that “Whatever we do, we better get out of HERE, fast!” and takes off running, but Spock grabs him and pulls him in the other direction; turns out that somehow in the past five seconds or so that Kirk was occupied, the rest of the landing party found a path. Which Kirk is pretty sure wasn’t there before, but there’s no time to deliberate on that, with more spray cheese energy bolts on their tail.

[ID: Kirk, Chapel, Uhura and Spock running through some woods with bolts of energy striking all around them, making “PAHZAZ!” “PHFFFZING!” and “PAHZOWIE!” noises.]

“Don’t ask, captain! Just keep moving!” Spock says. But Kirk, of course, isn’t going to let a little thing like running for his life distract him from asking questions. “I don’t like it, Mr. Spock!” he declares as they charge through the bolts. “This path from nowhere! These bolts just missing! It’s as if someone were herding us somewhere! But where?”

Fortunately we don’t have long to wait for the answer to that question, because in the very next panel Chapel points out a rather attention-grabbing landmark up ahead.

[ID: A full page containing mostly one large panel with two smaller ones, inset at the top and bottom. In the top panel, Chapel is pointing into the distance and saying, “Perhaps there, captain!” while Uhura, behind her, says, “Goodness!” In the main panel, the landing party is looking through a tangle of trees towards a large angular pyramid-like building with two flights of steps leading up to the top and a door inset under an archway in front. A yellow triangle with an eye symbol in the middle is hovering above it. Uhura is saying, “What is it, captain?” Kirk says, “I was just going to ask Spock that!” Spock says, “It appears to be a religious temple!” In the bottom right panel, the group has gathered around the door of the building. Uhura is saying, “It reminds me of ancient temples to the sun!” Chapel is saying, “Captain! My sensor’s going crazy! There must be an army inside there!”]

alright, who summoned Bill Cipher

I appreciate that Kirk’s first reaction to seeing this thing was going to be asking Spock, who has exactly the same amount of information about it as Kirk does, what it is. Which I’m not sure is a great idea in this case, because Spock’s over there leaping to some big ol conclusions. Sure, that could be a religious temple, but it could just as easily be a tomb, a dwelling, a government building, hell it could be an artfully decorated grain silo. There’s no way to know just by looking at the outside of it! Geez, keep this guy away from archaeological sites.

Kirk declares that they’re going inside the temple, since that’s quite obviously the intended way to advance the adventure. Chapel protests that they might be walking into a trap, but Kirk says they don’t have much choice—the path they came by has disappeared again. Oh, so this is definitely a trap, then. Kirk orders them all to put their phasers on stun and aim them at the door, presumably intending to stun the door into submission. But before anyone can fire, the door opens on its own.

[ID: Two panels. In the first, the landing party is gathered around the doors, which appear to be opening on their own, while a voice from within calls, “WELCOME! BEINGS OF EARTH...AND WATER!” Chapel says, “That voice! Like a light in my head!” In the second panel, we see through the doors to where an indistinct robed figure is sitting in a tall chair surrounded by curtains, saying, “Enter the temple of the sun! Home of the sun-god incarnate! Enter crew of the Enterprise!” Someone offscreen says, “Incredible!”]

Huh.

Foregoing all thought of this being a trap, Kirk strolls on in through the door, the better to put his hand to his chest dramatically and say, “You—you know us???”

“You are not the only ones with “eyes,” captain!” the robed woman replies, in a rather disconcerting use of quotation marks. “I saw you out there...watching! You were curious about me, so I, in turn, am curious about you!”

Kirk asks if she’s aware that she and the rest of her people are in some serious danger, but she’s not fazed in the least: “I know that my time grows short! As does everyone’s and every thing’s!” “But you don’t have to die!” Kirk says. “We can save you! We can take you aboard our...boat in the sky! And take you to a safe place!” Smooth, Kirk.

The woman only says that she did not summon them there to save her. “You wished to see me die,” she says, “I give you your chance!” This thoroughly baffles everyone in the landing party, since last time they checked no one summoned them here at all. Evidently they’ve missed something.

[ID: Kirk approaches up the steps towards the woman sitting on the throne, who is draped in a yellow cloak with a red head covering. Kirk is saying, “Look, I don’t know where you got the idea we came to watch you die, but maybe the rest of your people aren’t so eager! Where are they?” The woman says, “Alas, they left but moments before you arrived!”]

Or we could just decide the old woman is the one who’s wrong, that works too.

Kirk asks where all these people left to, and the woman points off somewhere and says, “There! From whence they came!” Helpful. Kirk wonders if this means they’re all dead and buried and the woman is the last of her race, but Chapel says she’s still picking up a huge amount of life-force from around the temple, more than one person could account for. I’m still trying to figure out how the heck their sensors are quantifying ‘life-force.’ I mean life signs, I could understand life signs, I could understand detecting, say, heartbeats or respiration or a thermal signature, but apparently Chapel’s just straight up got some kind of aura reader over there.

Kirk—very dramatically—asks the woman just who she is. She tells him.

[ID: The landing party stand in a line looking at the woman, who is extending her hands upward and saying, “I am the warmth! I am the light! I am the giver! I am the protector! I am Isis, the god of the sun!” Kirk is thinking, “You’re also a warp four loony!”]

Nice, Kirk, very diplomatic thought bubble there. The use of ‘warp four’ there also implies a scale of looniness that goes up to at least seven.

Kirk asks Spock what he thinks of Isis. Spock refrains from giving any rankings of looniness, only speculating that perhaps she was left here as a sacrifice. So we’re just dismissing the god theory out of hand, huh? Ordinarily that would be considered a reasonable enough decision, but you guys have already met several beings who may not necessarily have been divine from a theological standpoint but sure had enough power to make that pretty much a moot point. I’m just saying, if I’d personally encountered folks like the Metrons, the Thasians, Trelane and his parents, etc, I’d at least take a minute to hear out anyone else who told me they were a god, just to save any nasty surprises down the line.

But instead, Kirk tells Chapel to stay with Isis—not for any particular reason that he feels like explaining—while the rest of the party goes out to look around some more. “The other inhabitants must be around here someplace,” he says as they walk outside, “and we are going to find them!”

Uhura points out that the path is still gone, but this doesn’t bother Kirk. Not because it is usually actually possible to walk through woodland without a path (sometimes unpleasant, but usually possible) but because hey, they’ve got phasers, so they can make a path. He tells the other two to set theirs to ‘heat blasts. I didn’t realize that was an option for phasers.

[ID: Spock, Kirk and Uhura firing their phasers into a copse of trees with a ‘PHFFFIZZZZZLE!’ Kirk is saying, “Fire!” Spock says, “Captain! Nothing! Our phasers don’t fire!” Uhura says, “I think….we’re being….surrounded.”]

And evidently, I was right about that.

I don’t know what Uhura thinks is surrounding them that requires such heavy use of ellipses, but Kirk yells for everyone to get back inside, then throws his phaser at a tree for good measure. But once back inside, they find Chapel passed out on the floor. Uhura, who is not a nurse or doctor, and is using no tricorder or other medical equipment, nevertheless manages to instantly identify the problem as sunstroke. Kirk is so distraught by this that his hand starts mutating.

[ID: Kirk gesturing towards Spock with one arm bent in an unnatural position to put his hand on his head, his thumb inexplicably large and also at a wrong angle. Kirk says, “What’s going on around here??? Has this world gone crazy! Beam us out of here, Spock! Now!” Spock says, “I can’t captain! Solar flares are interfering with communications to our ship!”]

you okay there buddy

“I fear we are trapped here, Captain!” Spock declares. Oh, what a surprise.

[ID: A splash page titled STAR TREK: DEATH OF A STAR: PART 2. It shows the Enterprise orbiting a planet with a bright sun in the distance. A narration box at the top reads, “Captain’s Log, supplemental: While the Enterprise orbits helplessly overhead, due to interference from the near-nova sun, we are trapped on a planet marked for doom! Our desperate search for Isis III’s mysterious inhabitants has only led us to a strange old woman! But now I have a more immediate concern than saving the lives of the inhabitants—namely, saving the lives of the crew and myself!” Below that a smaller narration box reads, “On the Enterprise...” Two speech bubbles are coming from the Enterprise, one reading, “Are you sure about these figures this time, laddie?” and the other one, “I’ve checked and double checked everything, Scotty!”]

Part two begins with Scotty harassing Sulu in an exchange so generic you could probably stick the dialogue into a good half of all TOS episodes with barely any variation. “I hope you reach the captain before it’s too late for all of us!” Scotty says, to which Sulu replies, “I’m trying but something down there is interfering!” Having established this very important bit of information about what the people back on the ship are getting up to, we immediately leave them behind again and get back to the planet.

Kirk helps Chapel up, or at least, he kneels beside her and says, “Are you feeling better, nurse?” Yes, Chapel says, she’s fine now, but she doesn’t know what happened—she just fainted. No worries, low blood sugar happens to the best of us.

But Kirk isn’t satisfied with that. “You!” he shouts at Isis. “You’re behind all this, somehow, aren’t you?!” Unconcerned as ever, Isis replies, “You have come to record my death! So be it! But on my terms!”

Rather than make any effort to engage with her to figure out what she means, Kirk declares that this whole thing is hopeless-- “trapped on a sinking ship with a lunatic!” That’s what I love about Kirk, he’s so sensitive and respectful. But Spock has had an idea. Maybe, he says, when Isis said her people were “down there” she meant it literally. Perhaps they’re underground, in some sort of shelter. Wait...you mean, it’s possible that Isis could actually have meant what she said? I dunno about that, man. I mean, what she said didn’t immediately make sense to us, so I’m pretty sure it must be total nonsense.

But there’s not much else for them to do, so Kirk has Uhuru (sigh) and Chapel stay behind to try and get “some sense out of Isis” while he and Spock go looking for some kind of passage or tunnel around this joint. It takes all of one panel before Spock locates the incredibly obvious switch on the wall that opens a secret door.

[ID: Kirk and Spock standing in a long stone corridor, facing the wall. Spock is pressing on a large panel engraved with a triangle-eye symbol, which makes a CLICK! He says, “Captain! Come quick! I believe I have found a way to our “Lost Isisians!” Between him and Kirk a door is opening in the wall with a ‘HYMMMMMMMM MMMMMM’.]

For an extremely loose definition of ‘secret’, anyway.

While Spock and Kirk are off making their Perception checks, Isis, having finally gotten rid of that annoying guy who keeps shouting at her whenever she tries to say anything, leads Uhura and Chapel out on a walk in the garden, because “There is much yet to say and little time to say it!” As they head outside, some mysterious lights appear.

[ID: Chapel and Uhura flanking Isis, each with a hand on her back, leading her down a path through some greenery. A line of sparkling orbs is snaking around the three women.]

That’s probably fine.

Meanwhile, Spock is showing off his discovery to Kirk, when suddenly...uh, actually, I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here. I guess either the switch opened up the door in the wall and then a second door in the floor underneath them, or else they both just tripped and fell through the first door.

[ID: Three panels. On the top left, Kirk and Spock are looking at the door opening into the wall. A narration box leads, “Suddenly, while Mr. Spock investigates...” Kirk says, “What is it, Mr. Spock? What have you found!” Spock says, “Very simple, Captain. This “eye” seems to operate some kind of…..” On the right, a long panel shows Kirk and Spock falling into an abyss, Spock yelling, “...TRAP DOOOOR!” while Kirk yells, “WE’RE FLOATING! SPOCK!” On the bottom left, Kirk and Spock have landed in a cave. Spock says, “Though the odds were against it, there must have been a second passageway below our feet!” Kirk says, “Odds or no odds…..”]

What do you mean, the odds were against it? Spock, I don’t know if you’ve been playing too much Oblivion lately or what, but the architectural features of most buildings are not randomly generated. People either put doors in places or they don’t, there’s not just like a 30% chance of a trapdoor spawning in any given location.

But regardless of how the passage got there, they’ve clearly happened upon something significant. Or, as Kirk puts it:

[ID: Kirk and Spock look out through the cavern at a large underground city in the distance. Kirk puts his hand on Spock’s shoulder and says, “You’ve hit the jackpot, Mr. Spock!”]

Any hopes of locating a friendly NPC and getting some exposition about this weird place are quickly dashed, though, because closer examination reveals the city to be a thoroughly abandoned ruin. As they explore, Kirk wonders once again where everyone went, and why they left Isis behind. Luckily, Spock happens to stumble upon a room that has exactly what they need.

[ID: Three panels. On the top left, Spock is beckoning Kirk into a room that contains a pile of tapes and other junk in the corner. Spock says, “Perhaps these will tell us, captain!” Kirk says, “What have you got there, Mr. Spock?” In the right panel, Spock and Kirk look towards the tapes, each with a glowing spot on their forehead. Spock says, “They appear to be history tapes, captain!” Kirk says, “I can hear them, see them inside my head!” In the bottom panel, the light on Kirk’s head projects an image of a planet in space with a sun shining in the distance and a triangle with an eye hanging above the planet. A disembodied narrator says, “At first there was only “the eye”, Isis!”]

Well that’s an unorthodox method of data storage.

The tapes go on to explain how Isis—represented here by an Eye of Providence for some reason-- created life on the planet, inasmuch as the word ‘explain’ can be used to mean ‘somehow made things even more confusing than they were to begin with.’

[ID: Four panels. On the top left, a red sun is shining above a jungle, with the pyramid floating above it all. The narrator says, “And ISIS looked down on our world and saw that there was no light!” On the top right, the pyramid floats above the planet with a stream of tiny yellow eyes falling from it onto the planet, while the narrator says, “So Isis seeded the earth with her eyes!” On the bottom left, the eyes fall onto the ground, and a fuzzy red humanoid figure emerges from the earth. “And there-in rose up a people called Isisians!” On the bottom right, the figure looks up at the sun, which now has the pyramid in it. “And when they looked up there was light! For Isis now lived among them!”]

I’m...assuming this is some kind of metaphor, but it might make just as much sense either way.

Anyway, the Isisians (try saying that one three times fast) built the temple to house Isis, who proceeded to stay there to be with her children on the planet. Everything was great for a while, but “all things must pass! Even peoples! Even suns!”

[ID: A panel showing several figures gathered around the temple as the pyramid jumps up into the sky while the narrator says “And thus it came time for Isis to return to the sky, taking with her the gifts of life and light!”]

“alright my children it’s been fun but I gotta bounce byyyeeeeee”

The narrator (do you think they got some famous Isisian VA to do this?) concludes by relating that “in the twilight of our race, we have groped blindly underground to make this our final resting place! Yet we are not bitter! We are sad! For one day Isis too must give up the eye and pass! Thus ends our story! Thus ends our race!” So, what, they recorded their entire history and just left it laying around on a tape in some random room before they all went extinct? Were they intending for someone to come find this someday as a last record of them or did they just do it for kicks?

Well, anyway, Kirk is impressed. “Am I correct in assuming, Spock, that we have heard the legend of a people long since extinct?” he asks. “25 million years extinct, Captain, if my estimate is accurate!” Spock replies. Your...your estimate? Your estimate based on what, exactly? Did you just look around the city and go “hmmm yeah this looks about 25 million years old” or what? Also, that is one hell of a sturdy record tape that’s still fully functional 25 million years later. Can I get one of those anywhere? Cause I’ve had this harddrive for like five years and it’s starting to go on me.

Back up on the ship, Sulu is being pointed at so dramatically he’s having to lean back to get out of the way.

[ID: A panel showing the Enterprise bridge, with a narration box reading “Meanwhile, on board the Enterprise...” Scotty is pointing dramatically at Sulu, saying, “Still no luck, Sulu?” Sulu, only his head visible at an awkward angle in the corner of the panel, is saying, “No sir!”]

Scotty proceeds to explain to Sulu, who presumably already knows all this, that “Ya got tah raise ‘em, laddie! When the captain beamed down we told him he had twenty-four hours! But that was a mistake! That blasted star could go at any minute according to our new figures! If we stay, the whole ship’s in danger! If we go….” That’s all in one panel, by the way—there’s barely room for his head left under the speech bubble.

Having delivered his exposition, there’s not much left for Scotty to do but tell Sulu to keep doing what he’s been doing. Meanwhile, we’re told that Spock and Kirk “returned to the surface via the transport tube.” Ah yes, the transport tube. The transport tube that was definitely clearly established before that panel. That transport tube. Oh, and Uhura tells them she no longer wishes to change Isis’s mind.

[ID: Spock, Kirk, Uhura and Chapel standing in front of some trees and bushes, while Isis stands in the right corner. Kirk is saying, “You what??” Chapel says, “We no longer wish to change her mind, captain! We respect her right to die!” Uhura says, “She has a kind of nobility, sir! A soul! I have a tremendous empathy for her!”]

What, did you not think she had a soul before?

Kirk, apparently, takes quite a hard line on the whole right to die debate, because he immediately accuses Isis of bewitching his crewmembers. “See if you can reason with Isis!” he tells Spock, having made absolutely no attempt to reason with Isis. “I give up!”

Spock says he’ll try, but “logic rarely works on humans!” He then confronts Isis on how she earlier claimed that her people left just moments ago, “Yet there have been no humans on this world for millions of years! How do you explain that?” Which is an odd thing to say, considering that the images of the Isisians we saw were quite clearly not humans, yet Spock’s first statement rules out the idea of him using ‘human’ as a catchall term for sapient lifeforms. Evidently Spock’s definition of ‘human’ is ‘everybody in the galaxy that’s not a Vulcan.’

“So you have heard the legend of Isis?” Isis says, still as unperturbed as ever. “What do you think of it?” “An interesting folk tale!” Spock replies. Evidently this was not the right answer.

[ID: Spock and Isis stand in the background, Isis with one hand on Spock’s forehead, as she says, “Your logic is a cage, Mr. Spock! Come closer and let me set you free!” Red and yellow swirls are extending out from her in all directions. In the foreground, Chapel, Uhura and Kirk are watching. Uhura says, “Captain? What’s happening to her?” Kirk, leaning away in alarm, says, “I don’t know! It looks like...yes! That’s it!”]

What? What is it? What’s happening? Is she...no, she couldn’t be...

[ID: A tall panel showing the pyramid of Isis at the top with red and yellow light/flames emanating from it as the four landing party members float in the air. Isis says, “Farewell! Kirk says, “ISIS IS EXPLO...”]

Hmm, still not sure what’s going on. Could we get that confirmed one more time, please?

[ID: A panel on the Enterprise bridge, with a narration box reading, “On the Enterprise...” Sulu is standing up from his helm panel, saying, “The planet is exploding right now, sir!” Scotty rises from his own chair and says, “Then it’s...”]

cool thanks

Before Scotty can get the bagpipes out for a funeral dirge, our brave heroes are whisked onto the bridge, remarkably unexploded. For another few seconds, at least.

[ID: Three panels. On the top right, a narration box reads “At that exact instant...” above Chapel, Uhura, Kirk and Spock appearing on the bridge in a flash of light. Scotty, in the foreground, exclaims, “Captain Kirk! Spock!! Uhura! Chapel! How??” Someone in the landing party says, “Oooo! What’s happening? Am I dreaming?” On the bottom left, Scotty throws out his hands towards Sulu, saying, “Sulu! Warp eight! Immediately!” while Sulu says, “It’s...too...” On the bottom right, Sulu yells, “...Late! Ugh!” as explosions rock the bridge with ‘OOF!’ and ‘EEEEEEEEE!’ sounds and the helm shorts out with a ‘BZZZZT!’]

well maybe we would’ve had time if Scotty hadn’t stood around shouting the names of every single person in the landing party

And then the planet explodes. Hang on, I thought it was the sun that was exploding? Man, supernovas are confusing.

Luckily for the Enterprise, it turns out supernovas are also remarkably like hurricanes.

[ID: A large panel showing the Enterprise caught in a stream of energy from the pyramid of Isis as rocks and flame explode out from it. A narration box at the top reads, “The Enterprise is buffeted like a paper airplane in a hurricane as the force of a billion atomic bombs washes over it! Yet, like a hurricane, there is a place of calm in the center of the violence and the Enterprise, as though guided by some unseen protector, rides out the storm...in “the eye” of the hurricane!”]

Or, to put things less poetically:

[ID: The Enterprise bridge filled with smoke, a narration box reading “Suddenly...” Scotty, looking up with a stunned expression, says, “It’s a miracle! We’re saved! We’re in some sort of space pocket!”]

is that like a hot pocket

Unconcerned by the smoke now filling the bridge, Scotty asks Kirk what happened down on the planet. “I’m not sure, Scotty!” Kirk says, speaking for the audience. He asks Spock what he saw when Isis touched his forehead. Spock replies that he “felt...er...admiration, captain! And I saw things...inconceivable things! And I saw that a star had taken on human form in its final hours, so that it could talk to us!”

“You mean that Isis really was Isis?” Uhura exclaims. “It does explain a lot of things, lieutenant!” Kirk says. “Like how she could use the planet’s resources against us! And how she was able to block communications!” ...does it explain those things? Can stars usually control planets? Did I miss that episode of Cosmos?

As the Enterprise flies off, Kirk wonders if this means that stars really are living beings. “From what I glimpsed, captain, they may be more “alive” than we are!” Spock replies.

[ID: The Enterprise flies away with star-filled space on its right and a blue sky with a large sun on its left. A speech bubble from the ship reads, “Mr. Spock, next time we’re in the vicinity, remind me to have a long chat with our “lucky ole sun”, will you?”]

I dunno man, it didn’t go super well when they tried it in that Doctor Who episode.

And so ends another issue, with yet another planet destroyed. There’s not gonna be many planets left by the time this series ends. At least they didn’t start any wars on this one first, although I’m sure if there had been more than one person down there they would have found a way.

[mlpdestinyverse]

“Dear Twilight...”

One late school night, a troubled Sunset Shimmer decides to write to her dear royal friend back in Equestria.

Story and Description Under The Cut

“Dear Twilight, Hey, sorry that my response is late! It’s like...almost midnight. Whoops. Gonna feel that in the morning. I guess I was just pretty tired out today. I mean, can you believe that today was the start of my third semester here at Uni? I wish I could say “time sure has passed!”, but it was a pretty dang slow year. OH, I handled it just fine, though! I mean, compared to my magical studies with Celestia, it’s not like the workload here is the most challenging. Research papers, equations, a couple of lab experiments. Nothing too crazy. Anyway, I’m going to miss summer break. It was nice not having such a hard time planning get togethers with the girls. You know, ones where we can ALL make it? Pinkie Pie threw the biggest party yesterday to celebrate all of us entering our new year, and she went all out! So many sweets (too many sweets...). And she somehow just kept tossing out more. Ha, speaking of, even after all this time I’m apparently still not used to our powers being gone. I practically juggled my cupcake around after Pinkie threw it at me. I was WAY too ready for some sprinkle explosions.”

Sunset Shimmer chuckled, tapping her pen against her magic journal. She fondly remembered the powers that once inhabited her necklace geode and that of her friends. To think that a year and a half ago, they would run into the villain that would allow their gifted abilities to serve their ultimate purpose. ‘Who knew that villain would be our last?’

Sunset mindlessly fiddled with the pendant hanging from her neck, now a decorative friendship momento. No one that day could have ever expected that their final battle would absorb almost all of the magic - corrupted or not - that had trickled over from Equestria. Aside from minor remnants of magic (thank goodness that the magic journals and portals still worked), it was almost like things had returned to how they were before she had put on Twilight’s crown that fateful day.

Sunset paused in her actions, quietly staring at the journal before her. A tight feeling that had become familiar to her now settled back into her chest.

‘It’s almost like how things were before. ...yet it feels so, so...unbearably different.’

Sunset took a moment to recollect her thoughts. She sure was glad that it was too late for Twilight to be awake to read her messages...maybe now, without that pressure, she could finally be honest with herself.

“Hey Twi? Is it weird that I can’t remember how I was able to deal with a magic-less world? You know, before you came over and all. Actually no, maybe I do. I had stupid goals and my dumb obsession drove me. I don’t have that anymore, thank Celestia…” …. “But readjusting to a non-magical universe after dealing with magic for years...it’s been really-” ….. “Well...difficult. And I feel horrible for saying that, because I should be glad that things are normal. Right? Everyone can just live normal, happy lives in this world without some corrupted magic cursing objects and people. That should be a wonderful thing. So then why-” ....... “Why do I feel so out of place?”

Sunset could feel anxiety creep in and fought the spontaneous urge to shove the journal away or rip out the page in hopes of erasing any inkling of what she had just written. But she had to keep going. She had kept her thoughts to herself for far too long, and if she didn’t do this now, she’d never find the right moment again. As she wrote, she pressed the tip of her pen firmly against the page.

“It’s so strange, Twilight. I was fine at first. The others missed their powers, but it didn’t take them long to move on. And it was the same for me. I thought maybe I could just focus on earning some fancy science degree and then move on with my life. But suddenly the days just kept dragging on. I complete my assignments, I study, I keep my grades up. But for a subject I usually enjoy, everything about it feels empty. Like something is missing. Like...this isn’t what I was really meant to do. All throughout high school I was so determined to study the workings of the magic in this world. What started out as something utterly frustrating became...well, a full-on adventure. It was a rough ride, but I would never trade away those days for anything. And it’s not just because I loved being with everyone back then. We’re still best friends and that will never change. I think magic is just a bigger part of me than I originally thought. I was born with it. It’s even how I gained my cutie mark back when I still lived in Equestria. And now that I’m trying to pursue a path without it-”

Sunset let out a deep sigh and roughly ran her fingers through her hair to calm her nerves. Suddenly it was becoming harder to form her thoughts into sentences....where exactly was she going with this?

….Sorry. I’m just trying to make sense of my feelings. You’re the first one I’ve told any of this to. I know, I know. I’m supposed to trust my friends. But how awful would it be for a friend to tell you that they practically preferred how messed up your home universe used to be?

I just feel like there’s so much more for me, Twilight. I can’t keep spending my days wandering blindly while wanting things to be different from how they are now. But I don’t even know where to start. Do I switch majors? Or dig deeper until I find some undiscovered passion? It’s okay if you don’t know either. This is a pretty big messy ball of I-don’t-even-know-what that I kinda just threw at you. I don’t expect you to have all the answers. I really hope you know that. But if you do have some insight, I’d appreciate any of it. Above anything, I’m grateful that I could just vent to you. Anyway, I should probably head to bed before I wake up a complete and utter zombie. Thanks so much Twilight, and again, sorry for my senseless ranting. Sunset Shimmer”

A deep breath of relief and the clatter of a pen on a desk broke the silence in the room. Sunset leaned back in her chair and dragged a hand down her face. Well, she did it. As much as her heart felt like it was going to burst from her chest, and as much as her mind wanted to make her as paranoid as possible over her friend’s possible reaction, she had gotten it down and out of her head. Though a part of her felt like a small weight had lifted, now sheer anticipation took root in its place.

After closing her journal and turning off her lamp, Sunset buried herself deep within the warm cocoon that were her blankets. Minutes passed. She wasn’t sure how many, but despite the comfort of her bed, her thoughts buzzed loudly enough to keep her awake. She found herself glancing at the clock over and over until an hour had passed by. ‘UGH. It’s fine. It’s going to be fine...you’re going to sleep, check for a message in the morning, and not break from panic. It’ll be like any other day. It’s fine, Sunset, it’s fine. Everything’s fine-' At the sound of an overly familiar buzzing, Sunset yelped and nearly startled herself into rolling off the bed. With wide, disbelieving eyes, she watched as the journal on her table glowed and shook. Which could only mean... ‘No way. No no no, you’re kidding - of all days, she decided to stay up late NOW?' For a few more moments Sunset sat stiffly and stared at the glowing journal. She hadn’t prepared herself for an immediate response. Maybe she could let Twilight finish writing and then stick with reading it in the morning? ‘...who am I kidding. I’ll never get to sleep at this rate.’ At some unknown point, the magic journal finally sat still, although it glowed faintly as it waited for Sunset to open its pages. Though hesitant, her curiosity and dire need to get over her fears pushed her to walk back over to her desk and turn her lamp on. With a deep inhale, Sunset opened back up to the page where she had last left off. Just as she had expected, a new message followed her own;

“Dear Sunset Shimmer,

Please don’t worry about replying late! Getting to hear from you any time is always a delight. Also, I hope my replying doesn’t wake you! I tried waiting a bit, so I could collect my thoughts while you hopefully fell asleep.”

‘So far so good…’ she thought, struggling to keep reading without skimming or skipping ahead.

“I’m really glad you opened up to me about this. It sure does sound like a perplexing situation on your end, and I’m sorry to hear that things have been so confusing for you. At least know that I’d never judge you over your struggles. Your feelings are real, Sunset, and they’re valid. I’m sure the others would feel the same way, but of course you should talk to them when you feel you’re ready.”

Almost instantaneously, the heavy ball of emotions that had been weighing her down practically melted away. Of course Twilight would be...well, the best friend she had always been. How could she ever doubt her?

“As for a possible solution to your situation! Okay, bear with me-”

‘Oh boy…’ 

“Okay, here we go...” she murmured, bracing herself before continuing with her read;

“As you said, Sunset, magic clearly is and always has been an essential part of you. Things seemed to be working out just fine while you were figuring out your universe’s unpredictable magic. Now that it’s gone, it almost sounds like the “norm” of your world can’t compete with everything else you’ve ever been through. You’re lacking not only a challenge, but an essential component to those challenges; magic. So far it looks like magic won’t be returning to your side, at least any time soon if it ever does. I’m sorry to say that...but that leads me to my suggestion. Or well, it’s a question more than anything, but I really feel like it’s the best solution to this:”

Sunset’s gaze roamed over to the next line, and suddenly she found her head jerking back, a soft gasp escaping her. Her eyes darted over the line again. And then one more time. Just like that, any relief and peace she had previously found dissipated, and anxiety and doubt and every little bit of guilt she had ever felt returned to her. If she thought about it, it would’ve been such a clear-cut answer. Yet it was the last thing that Sunset had ever wanted to consider doing, let alone think about. After finding some semblance of composure, she was able to bring herself to read the line one more time;

“How would you feel about returning to Equestria?” 

One of the earliest events in Destinyverse.

This was greatly influenced by the deleted scenes from Equestria Girls: Friendship Games, as well as the deleted duet version of "What More Is Out There" between Sunset and SciTwi. Essentially those deleted scenes told a different story, where Sunset missed the magical challenges and adventures in Equestria compared to the unstable magic and mundane highschool activities in the mirror human world. Ultimately Sunset settled on studying the unstable magic, but in Destinyverse, what if that magic (for the most part) went away?

Princess Twilight tried suggesting that Sunset could try returning to Equestria to see if she could find that missing piece. But unlike the canon (where she returned to Equestria for a new journal without hesitation), Sunset understandably had reservations and fears. After all, she had shamed herself as Princess Celestia's former apprentice, and years had passed since she had last seen her homeland. Following this scene, stress and fear of facing her past led Sunset to hold off on her reply, taking a few days to clear her head. When she did finally respond and admit to her fears, Twilight assured Sunset that she had only ever seen Celestia worry for Sunset’s well being, and that she was sure Celestia would be relieved to see her. Though doubtful, Sunset decided to believe in Twilight’s word. Finishing that semester and taking a leave of absence from her college, Sunset proceeded to return to Equestria, where Twilight would happily accommodate her in her castle (practically having Sunset as her assistant - and then partner - in research and experiments) while Sunset rediscovered her place. Let's just say Sunset ended up very happy in Equestria and became closer than ever with Princess Twilight, who she ended up working with most of the time aside from her own personal projects. She later met a wonderful stallion and ended up with a family of her own (see Eventide Twister and Astral Dusk ).

[seashellrosekitty]

The Last Dance | Prologue

Author’s Note: Here’s my entry to @spxderbarnes Em’s 21st Birthday Writing Challenge! I’m so excited because this is my first Bucky fic (or Marvel fic, rather)! Hope you enjoy this, Em! Happy Birthday, darling!

Plot: 1940s post-war era. Steve and Bucky are brothers and are teenagers, and they never served in the army because they were too young to join during the war. You find out you’re pregnant with Steve’s baby. Both Steve’s and your parents arrange for you and Steve to get married, but Steve declines. Ultimately, his father offers his other son, James (later known as Bucky), to marry you in Steve’s place.

Prompt: 10. “Are you flirting with me?”

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Fem!Reader, Bucky Barnes x Fem!Reader (eventually)

Warnings: 18+ content! Teenage pregnancy, arranged marriage, religious theme, sexist theme, music theme, fluff, smut (of course), angst, Steve being a cold jerk (oops), characters coming from the comics (i.e. Bucky’s family)

Word count: 1.7k

Y/N, Y/L/N = Your Name, Your Last Name

P.S. Story starts under the cut.

P.S.S. Tag list is open for this series! For tag requests, send me an Ask!

Summer 1939. Red House, New York.

Y/N Y/L/N was selling lemonade in the park for 15 cents a glass. Every other kid was playing with a loose water hose. At the corner of her eyes, she noticed a young boy her age, seated on a bench alone. He wasn’t sulking or anything, just watching the other kids play. Then she grabbed a fresh glass of lemonade and walked up to him.

“Hi. Do you want some lemonade? This one’s on the house.” The 10-year old girl offered the brunet-haired boy. 

He glanced at her judgingly when he muttered, “Are you flirting with me?”

“No. Why?” she asked, expressing confusion on her face.

“My brother told me that if a girl gives me something, it means she’s flirting with me.”

The little girl laughed and placed the glass of lemonade beside the boy. “It’s just a glass’o lemonade. I’m selling these so I could buy the new Frank Sinatra record,” she stated with sparkling eyes. The boy accepted the glass of lemonade, his face still a questioning look.

“If you’re sellin’ lemonade, then why are you givin’ this to me?”

She shrugged. “I’ve made more than enough for the day. Don’t you want it?” The boy glared at her under the scorching sun, then drank the glass of lemonade.

“It’s good,” he remarked. “Thanks...er,” he trailed off to catch her name. The lemonade girl proudly announced her name. Then he responded with his.

“Bucky.”

“If you want more, I’m just at my lemonade stand. But no more freebies this time, Bucky,” she said with smiling eyes and mouth. 

“I thought you said you’ve made enough money?”

“I’m runnin’ a business here, pal. Oh! And tell your brother,” she said as she started stepping away. “He knows nothing about girls.”

Summer. Eight years later.

You couldn’t believe your ears. You had yourself checked by a gynecologist. You were only eighteen, and already three weeks pregnant. The world in your head felt like it was narrowing as you tried to digest the fact that a fetus has formed in your belly. How are you going to tell Steve? Your mother? Oh god, your father? What would your siblings think?

You’re the eldest of two children, spawns of a retired military man. Your mother, a devout Christian. You were born into an ideal family, really, but what happened to you wasn’t ideal. Especially not in 1946. You frowned in shame in front of your doctor, but she assured you that you’re not the only one in this predicament. With that thought, you came home, bothered in your head as you tried to contemplate on how to tell your parents about your unborn baby. And of course, your boyfriend and the father of your child, Steve. 

Steven Grant Barnes.

The two of you have been together for a year. After he smoothed his way into your heart for three months, you finally gave in. Steve was the promising son in his family. The top student in school. He worked hard in being accepted at the University of Oxford. Both of you were upcoming seniors that year. Steve was no ordinary scholar. He practically didn’t need to finish his senior year. You, on the other hand, still had a year to go before graduation. At this rate, you don’t know if finishing high school was still an option.

You knew Steve had so much to lose if your father was going to force him to marry you. But you don’t know yet for sure. Steve loves you. He’s proven that lots of times already.

You called him at home and asked him to pick you up. He was more than happy to oblige and he arrived in your lawn in under twenty minutes. You told your mom that you were going to have dinner with Steve.

He drove a blue Ford pickup truck where you spent most of your steamy makeout sessions. You didn’t wait for him to honk in your street so you rushed downstairs. He kissed you as soon as you hopped in.

“Hey, beautiful. I was surprised you invited me out today. I thought you were busy?” He hit the gas when you smiled at him.

“Well, I thought I just,” you muttered, keeping your gaze at your blonde boyfriend. “Needed to get out. Can we go to that nice little cafe we went to last time?”

“Sure darling,” Steve said then held your hand. “Is everything alright? I thought you sounded...off on the phone.” Your heart started pounding, slowly, however. You scooted across the seat and clung to him, resting your head on his shoulder.

“I’m ok, sweetie. Just glad you’re here,” you whispered. Steve’s grip on your hand tightened, assuring you that everything will turn out okay. He’ll be a good father. You said in your head with a smile.

Moments later, you arrived at the cafe and order your dinner. The cafe had a small dance floor, where Steve invited you to dance on with him. The two of you enjoyed the night, having danced to a series of upbeat and spontaneous big band songs. When you finally got tired dancing, Steve took you back to his truck and drove to your favorite after-date spot, where you either made out or just cuddled together.

That night, you were doing both. It started with a cuddle in the center of the seat. You talked about random things and recalled how fun the dance you just had moments ago. His lips reached yours in no time when you both fell into silence just after laughing about a couple who danced silly at the cafe. His lips were warm on yours, feeling velvety in their every move. They left your lips to make their way to your neck. The sensation was getting overwhelming, your insides started to clench, aching for more friction in them. And then you remembered it.

“Steve? Sweetie?” He didn’t stop kissing your weak spot on your neck but whispered, “What is it darling? Talk to me.” His hands slid on your thighs and under your skirt. One of them was already reaching the warmest spot of your body. A finger, maybe two, started fiddling with your center, making you distracted from what you just remembered. You huffed a moan and mentally shook your head. You practiced saying it in front of the mirror as soon as you got home. You tried coming up with different ways, different phrases, perhaps, to soften the blow.

But there was only one way to say it.

“I’m pregnant.” His touches halted. It hasn’t been a full second since you’ve finally uttered the sentence you’ve been practicing to say in your head, but the silence was already feeling too long.

“What?” You were about to repeat what you said but Steve interrupted you. “Are you sure?” You nodded your head and said, “I went to the doctor today. My period was delayed.” His previously lust-blown face dropped. His hands slowly moved away from you as he shifted in his seat, looking anywhere else now but your eyes. Why did he have to stop holding me? You thought.

“I’m three weeks pregnant, Steve. I don’t feel a thing yet, but darling, we’re having a baby,” you cooed, reaching for his hands again, but he flinched.

“No, no, no. This can’t happen, Y/N.” He ran a hand through his blonde hair, worries painted in his face.

“What do you mean, Steve? Of course it can. We’ve been going at it like rabbits,” you remarked. It took you a second to remember how often you and Steve have stolen moments to fool around with each other.

His brows were drawn together when he stepped out of the truck. Your head hung over your shoulders. All of the assurance you had earlier was now gone. “Darling, please come back inside.” He paced back and forth and when he heard you call for him, he stepped inside the truck and turned on the ignition and drove away to take you back home.

“Aren’t you going to say anything all?”

He drew a sharp breath and without taking his eyes off the road, he said, “Just let me think.” The rest of the drive remained quiet. His hand no longer searching for yours. They remained on the gear shift or the wheel. The gap between you two in the truck felt bigger than it looked. You don’t like the silence you had now, so you turned on the radio, only to be shut quickly by him.

“I told you, I need to think, Y/N.” You turned away. He has never been this cold to you. Whenever you had fights, you always made up before the night ended. Of course, all of those were nothing compared to this. You didn’t fight, but the distance between you two suddenly appeared. This hurt you more having him argue with you.

The cold, silent treatment has never been something that Steve had given you before. He was always the one vocal and expressive of his thoughts. And it always bothered him when you argued until you got home. He would call you to apologize and sweep you off your feet before you went to bed. Sometimes he would drive in just to see you. One of those times even led to spontaneous make-up sex in his truck.

When he pulled over to your lawn, his gaze remained forward even though it’s evident that you were looking at him and waiting for him to return your gaze. But he didn’t. You suddenly felt like you don’t know Steve anymore. This was not like him at all. His jaws clenched before finally uttering a word to you after being silent forever.

“Do your parents know?”

“No. You’re the first one I told.”

“When are you gonna tell ‘em?”

“Tomorrow.” He nodded. You couldn’t read his face, but it’s not how it was like when he picked you up earlier. You pulled the knob open, remembering that you didn’t kiss Steve goodnight, so you leaned towards him to give him a peck, but he turned his head to you and whispered, “Good night, Y/N.”

Something pointy stabbed your heart with the coldness of his ‘good night’. It was impossible that he didn’t see it in your eyes, but you saw what was in those perfectly bright blue eyes of his. Something unfamiliar to you. Something you’ve never seen in him before, or never noticed.

You barely had any energy to make a big deal of his behavior since he found out you were pregnant. All you had left to say was, “I want to keep the baby.” Then you hopped out of the truck. You remained standing on the sidewalk as you watched his truck drive away. You have never been more uncertain in your life than you were that night. Not just with how you’re going to keep the baby, how you’re going to tell your parents - but if Steve is still with you in all this.

You waited for Steve to call and swoon you over like he always did, but tonight, he broke that record. You didn’t want your family to hear you crying, so you played an Ella Fitzgerald record on your phonograph as you cried yourself to sleep.

To be continued in:

Chapter One - The Dinner

I forgot to tag these beautiful people who want to be tagged in all of my fics:

@bojabee @jurrasicpork @thejourneyofabrokenheart @sav625 @seninjakitey

[zombiesbecrazy]

Toasting to Robins

Summary: Jason, Dick and Damian spend an evening together, toasting the fallen.

Takes place between Detective Comics 940 and 965 and before Batman Rebirth 16.

Word Count: 2383

AO3

“Alright. You get one free shot. Punch me in the face.”

“What?”

When Dick had opened his front door that night he wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but Jason Todd telling him to hit him was pretty far down the list, right below Alfred showing up and asking for his help in preparing Thanksgiving dinner in April. It wasn’t completely unheard of for the two of them to settle their differences with their fists, but Dick didn’t have the slightest idea what this was about because as far as he was aware, he and Jason were currently on pretty good terms.

Jason pushed past Dick and walked into the apartment, spinning around to glare at him. “When you came back from Spyral, I punched you in the face for faking your death.”

Dick closed the door and narrowed his eyes at Jason. “And?” This wasn’t the first time that the two of them had discussed his time as a spy, but other than that first encounter on the rooftop they hadn’t talked about the lie that led him there. Jason had been angry but with everything that had happened afterwards, Dick had thought that particular issue was over.

“You never mentioned that you actually died, you ass.” Jason had started pacing back and forth across the living room. “That means that the punch wasn’t cool and you owe me one.” Dick still looked confused and Jason sighed, apparently annoyed that he was going to have to lay it all out very plainly. He stopped moving directly in front of Dick and gave him a small shove in the chest. “You didn’t deserve to be punched in the face if you actually died.”

“I was only slightly dead. Five, six minutes, tops. It was like I barely lost consciousness.”

Holding up his hand, Jason cut Dick off. “Dead is dead. You get to be in the Dead Robins Club for fulfilling that sole requirement. As president and founding member, I’ll issue you a membership card next week.”

“But I faked staying dead.”

“That would make me a hypocrite because I didn’t let you guys know immediately when I wasn’t dead anymore. And when I did come back, I tried to kill you all multiple times. At least you were being noble and living the 007 lifestyle.  Therefore, you owe me one punch to the face.” Jason turned his head and tapped his cheek. “It’s only fair.”

“But I don’t really want to. I would have punched me too. I deserved it for vanishing on you guys.”

“Too bad. In order for us to be square, it needs to be done. Hit me”

“Can I bank it for the future?” Dick leaned against the counter and stared up at the ceiling.  This entire conversation was ridiculous. “I don’t want to hit you today, but one day if you do something that really ticks me off, can I use this punch then?”

“Nope.”

“But you punched me out of the blue.  You’ll be expecting it if I punch you now. If anything, you should get a spontaneous punch from me.”

Jason’s laugh came out as a snort. “Get real. You had to have known when you showed up that there was a very good chance of me hitting you. I’m just surprised that Timmy didn’t hit you too.”

“Your rules make no sense and lack consistency.”

“Part of my charm.”

“You aren’t going to leave until I hit you, are you?”

“Honestly, I’m not planning on leaving right away. I’ve brought dinner. And drinks. We are going to toast your living status.”

“Don’t get me wrong, because I’m thrilled that you want to hang, but that isn’t necessary.”

“Sure it is. It’s tradition in the Dead Robins Club to drink to the newly resurrected Robin’s health.” Jason jerked his head towards the front door. “The kid is bringing the stuff up from the car.”

“I have so many questions about what you just said.” Dick sighed and looked up at the ceiling, trying to sort his thoughts in his head. “You drank with Damian when he came back?”

“We may have had a glass of wine together.”

“He was eleven.”

“Kid had grown up with the League training him to drink poison. He could survive a little wine.”

“Still…” Dick could remember having sips of alcohol when he was a child, both with his parents and with Bruce, so he couldn’t judge. He especially couldn’t judge when he was faking his death at the time. “Whatever. He’s here?”

At that moment, the front door opened and Damian walked in carrying a few bags, and headed towards Dick’s kitchen. “Of course I am here, Grayson. Traditions are to be respected.” He sets the bags on the counter and examined Jason’s face from a distance. “Did you strike Todd yet?”

“Don’t you start.”

“It’s between the two of you but he seems rather insistent about it. I’m just glad I haven’t missed it.” Damian starts pulling bottles out of one of his bags, setting a six pack of beer and a bottle of whiskey beside him.

“You aren’t drinking those.”

“I didn’t think that you would approve. I brought myself some chocolate milk.” He pulls out a carton and shakes it in Dick’s direction, then pours himself a glass before putting it in the fridge. “However, for your information I have been consuming alcohol since I was six as part of my mother’s training.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Dick turned back to Jason. “Can’t we just skip the violence and just get right to the food?”

“No.”

“I still think this is,” Dick strikes fast and quick, connecting with Jason’s jaw with a loud crack, “a very dumb idea.”  It wasn’t quite by surprise, but it was at least unexpected that Dick hit him mid-sentence.

After stumbling back a few steps, Jason straightened up. “Took you long enough. Wasn’t thinking you’d left jab though. You don’t usually southpaw me.” Rubbing his jaw, he nodded, apparently satisfied with this turn of events. “Thanks.”

Damian had a satisfied grin on his face. “I think that was an acceptable hit.  I was expecting you to pull your punch a bit, but you didn’t.” He had set out all the food they had brought in the kitchen and was making himself up a plate. Satisfied with his selection, he passed them by to sit on the couch. “I’m going to find us a movie to watch while we eat.”

Dick and Jason took his place in the kitchen and started to serve themselves the food in silence.  Dick is about to leave and join Damian when Jason puts a hand on his shoulder to stop him. “Why didn’t you tell me that you actually died?” His voice was low and rough and Dick wondered when Jason had found out because it sounded raw and fresh. After all that had just happened he didn’t expect Jason to be genuinely upset. Maybe on any other day he wouldn’t have been.

“It didn’t seem that important when I came back from Spyral.” Jason’s eyebrows raised and Dick knew he had to explain himself further. He put his plate back down and faced Jason, folding his arms across his chest. “You and Damian. You each died horribly and painfully and were gone for a long time.  It was a miracle that one of you came back, let alone both of you, and we are so lucky for that. I was serious when I said my death wasn’t a big deal, at least not compared to what happened to you. I was scared, but I was at peace with it. Bruce was with me and my heart stopping saved everyone else there. I got lucky enough to wake up again right away. I just didn’t think that it really puts us in the same boat. It feels different somehow.”

Closing his eyes, Jason leaned on his hands on the counter and while Dick could hear Damian setting up the TV, the space between himself and Jason was quiet. The silence lasted for a couple minutes until Jason turned back around, but looked at the fridge instead of Dick. “It’s always a big deal, Dick. And it isn’t a competition about whose death was worse or whatever, because obviously I would win.” Dick chuckled softly and Jason’s eyes moved to just over Dick’s shoulder. “I’m glad that it was different for you than it was for us, but I’m still sorry that it happened.” Jason shifted on his feet a bit. “My big brother died. And then he didn’t. And then it turns out that he did after all and I’m upset that I had to find about it by Damian casually mentioning it in conversation when we had breakfast this morning instead of hearing it from you directly.”

“I’m sorry.” Dick grasped one of Jason’s wrists and locked eyes with him. “About everything.” And he was. Sorry about faking his death, lying about his death and for hiding from the family, for Jason finding out about it on today of all days, but for so much more than that. He was sorry for not being a better brother or friend to Jason when he was Robin. For not being on planet when Jason died. For not trying to do more to help when they found out Jason was alive. For fighting with him. For trapping him. For throwing him in Arkham.

For all the times that he had let Jason down.

Sorry didn’t even seem to be the right word to apologize for all the ways that he had failed Jason and he would never be able to make it up to him.

“Me too.” Jason placed his hand on top of Dick’s. “All of it.” And Dick knew that Jason understood what he was trying to say, and that he felt the same for different reasons. It wasn’t forgiveness, but an acceptance on both sides.

“Can it really be that easy?”

“Probably not, but we can pretend.” Jason turned back to the counter and started scooping food onto his plate from the take out containers. For all of this talk about death, there was an elephant in the room that no one had really brought up.

“Are you okay? Today, I mean?”

“I’m alright. Better now that I’m here and not left to my own devices.” Jason picked up his plate and the bottle of whiskey and headed to the living room. “Let’s go eat.”

The three of them sat on the couch, with Jason in the middle, eating and talking in front of the TV playing a movie on low volume. Once the food had been finished, Jason opened the whiskey and poured each him and Dick two fingers worth and muted the TV.

Jason cleared his throat and rapped his knuckles on the coffee table. “I would like to call this meeting of the Dead Robins Club to order. As tradition, a toast to welcome our newest member.” Jason raised his glass. “To Dick Grayson. The first Robin to fly. The third Robin to fall. The third Robin to rise.”

“Cheers.” Dick knocked his drink against Jason’s and Damian’s chocolate milk before downing it.

Jason had brought absolutely terrible whiskey.  It tasted a little bit like how Dick thought gasoline probably did and it was a struggle to keep from gagging and from the smirk on Jason’s face, he knew it.  Still, that didn’t stop Dick from grabbing the bottle off the floor and pouring them each another drink, and after a moment of hesitation he pours a splash into a glass for Damian.

“Do not mention this to Bruce.” Damian’s eyes widened and mimed locking his lips, making Dick grin and Jason looked absolutely giddy. “I don’t know all the rules to Jason’s club…”

Sniffing his glass, Damian scowled and jerked his head back slightly. “He seems to make them up as he goes. He claims that it’s his right as club president.”

“… but I’d like to make another toast if that’s allowed.” Jason nodded, and Dick raised his glass. “To our lost brother. To Tim. The third Robin to fly. The fourth Robin to fall.” Dick followed Jason’s format, hoping that was alright.  All three clinked their glasses again, tipped them back and after a short cough from Damian, settled into a silence. None of them had been there when Tim had died, battling the waves of drones on the Old Wayne Tower rooftop, but Dick had seen the surveillance video. Red Robin had died a hero, saving hundreds of people, but that didn’t help to dull the ache at all.

Neither did the whiskey.

“Drake’s sacrifice was admirable and selfless, but he still deserved better,” said Damian softly, breaking the quiet.

Jason took another sip of his drink before speaking slowly. “Who knows?  Maybe someday we’ll get to have one of these nights with him too.” Dick looked at Jason skeptically, who shrugged in return. “When I started out, you told me that being Robin gives you magic and I believed it. I even said it to Bruce once trying to prove a point about something. Maybe coming back is just what we do. Our secret meta power.” Jason was staring off in the distance again, rubbing his fingers against his glass.

“You’re being rather sentimental.”

“I’m allowed to as club president. It’s in the bylaws.” Jason leaned farther back into the sofa and cast his eyes down. “Especially today.”

Leaning over, Dick wrapped his arm around Jason and gave him a gentle squeeze and felt him relax into him. Damian shifted closer and pressed his leg against Jason’s. For all the showmanship of Jason’s arrival at Dick’s apartment, this was the real reason behind tonight’s meeting of the Dead Robins Club even if Jason didn’t want to admit it. The anniversary of the founding of the club. The day that Jason Todd had died alone in a warehouse.

Today he didn’t have to be alone. Not anymore.

“You’re right. It is what we do. We come back. And we have each other.” Dick raises his drink once more and Jason and Damian mirror him, with Damian switching back to his milk. “To Robins who thrive.”

"To us."

[caltropspress]

RAPS + CRAFTS #1: maassai

1. Introduce yourself. Past projects? Current projects?

I’m Maassai from Brooklyn, NY. An existentialist, rapper/vocalist, curator, performance artist, writer. My artistic practice seeks to tell hood narratives through an avant-garde lens. 

A part of my released works is the C0N$TRUCT!0N series, which will be a continuous project about building and taking up space as a black person in this country. I’m also a part of the duo H31R with JWords, which I'd best describe as experimental hip hop dance music if someone really wanted to box it in, but it definitely bends the concept of genre. “With the Shifts” will be my debut solo full-length project as well as a cementing or further exploration of certain themes in my artistic practice.

2. Where do you write? Do you have a routine time you write? Do you discipline yourself, or just let the words come when they will? Do you typically write on a daily basis?

I'm a very spontaneous writer. It depends on when the inspiration hits me, whether that's a really dope track I was sent or a situation that just unfolded in front of me. Inspiration mostly hits at really odd times. Some of my favorite pieces started walking down the block in my neighborhood or on the toilet or waking in the middle of the night after an intense dream. I try to at least journal some thoughts everyday to keep a groove, but I don't like to pressure myself to make a piece or force the feeling when it’s not there and that practice really helps to keep me in love with the process I think. 

3. What’s your medium—pen and paper, laptop, on your phone? Or do you compose a verse in your head and keep it there until it’s time to record?

Honestly I'm about using whatever medium is available. I’m not necessarily the die hard purist who has to write stuff on paper even though there is a special flow that happens there. But because I'm so spontaneous with my writing there's many times I'm in a situation where a pen and pad isn't available. 

4. Do you write in bars, or is it more disorganized than that?

A lot of times the process is super messy. I like to follow a concept through, so sometimes that’ll mean me making a plain outline in the middle of a piece so I can have clarity in my brainstorming or come back to it when I have the mental energy to think hard enough to make it all make sense. I like to think of it as a math equation. Creating the formula and then plugging in the details until it works. Sometimes the lines in my everyday journaling resonate with me so much that I’ll use them for a song or to prompt some bars. The process is all experimental honestly.

5. How long into writing a verse or a song do you know it’s not working out the way you had in mind? Do you trash the material forever, or do you keep the discarded material to be reworked later?

I don't normally trash material completely. I believe in things being reworked, sampled and built upon. I’m a bar hoarder maybe. Unless it really sucks and I wake up and completely disagree with what I wrote for some reason, I’ll usually keep it somewhere.

6. Have you engaged with any other type of writing, whether presently or in the past? Fiction? Poetry? Playwriting? If so, how has that mode influenced your songwriting?

For sure. Not necessarily known to many, I consider myself a writer of many different mediums. I grew up writing poetry. I’m working on screen and stage plays. These are passion projects that I've been developing over the span of years now. I actually went to high school for theatre so it's still a big part of me and has definitely influenced how I see myself as an overall artist. I'm really inspired by science fiction movies - and paying attention to the way writing is brought alive through film strengthens me to paint worlds with my words. Also writing stories of any kind strengthens your ability to focus on a topic and see it through, which I feel I've tried to carry into my music as much as possible.

7. How much editing do you do after initially writing a verse/song? Do you labor over verses, working on them over a long period of time, or do you start and finish a piece in a quick burst?

Both. But projects that I really go into with lots of intention I've likely worked on for a good minute. As I'm growing through life and the process simultaneously sometimes the words slightly change. Every word matters and sometimes a slight change goes such a long way to making a statement resonate. I have written songs with a quick burst of energy, mostly when i'm collaborating with others and that's always cool because I'm like, “Okay yea I got it, I can actually write something decent mad fast even though I don't do it that often on my own.” It feels really good. Again, that spontaneity of writing with different processes keeps it new, challenging and fun for me.

8. Do you write to a beat, or do you adjust and tweak lyrics to fit a beat?

I’ve done both. I think I usually prefer to have a beat beforehand because I like to think of my vocals as an instrument, a part of the overall music piece. I can really jam out and experiment with what sounds best on the track when I have the beat beforehand. But many times it works out to find new ways to execute something I wrote for a beat, and that's fun as well.

9. What dictates the direction of your lyrics? Are you led by an idea or topic you have in mind beforehand? Is it stream-of-consciousness? Is what you come up with determined by the constraint of the rhymes?

I’m led by ideas I have in my head a lot of the time and the stream of consciousness that presents itself with that idea in mind usually leads me to an unexpected conciseness. Once it's going in a particular direction I might rework it or add things to focus it more or it might just flow how it needs to in the moment. Rhyming as a practice in writing definitely limits not what you can say but how you can say it, and that's the most tedious part a lot of the time.

10. Do you like to experiment with different forms and rhyme schemes, or do you keep your bars free and flexible?

I’m definitely consciously experimenting with form as a musician. Sometimes flexibility and freeness is a part of it. I don't usually like to keep the same form for a whole song. I think a part of my style is unpredictability and versatility.

11. What’s a verse you’re particularly proud of, one where you met the vision for what you desire to do with your lyrics? 

“TU LIPS” produced by Keenyn Omari was one of those verses that just came so naturally. I was really in the flow of things and I surprised myself like, “Damn, I just wrote that?” I loved that it was catchy, gritty and revolutionary in the same breath, which is really the goal. It’s a personal fav because I wrote it so fast.

12. Can you pick a favorite bar of yours and describe the genesis of it?

“Anecdoche” off of Unsounded Points of View.

“Ever in a room and everybody talking but nobody listening? / Voices get dissonant when they over each other / trimming on the back of the last word / never get to process the sentence. / Now the convo is a figment of our egos.” 

It’s not my punchiest set of bars but I love how descriptive it is. I wrote this song in an attempt to describe the indescribable feeling of those conversations that just aren't going anywhere and the emptiness present when trying to converse with someone who doesn't listen. “Voices get dissonant when they over each other” - when people speak over each other without listening it's like when people try to sing together without listening - the harmony is off - it's like really cringey chords. “Trimming on the back of the last word / never got to process the sentence” - it's like you’re just talking to speak and only taking little pieces of what is said to make an unrelated statement because they just want to talk or want attention. “Now the convo is a figment of our egos” - this wraps it up so beautifully to me because it's like the conversation isn't actually happening because there's no understanding, but our egos make us keep talking. It points to this issue being deeper than just not listening in this one moment but instead an existential challenge of overcoming your ego.

13. Do you feel strongly one way or another about punch-ins? Will you whittle a bar down in order to account for breath control, or are you comfortable punching-in so you don’t have to sacrifice any words?

Punch-ins suck. I will cut down the bar as much as I can during the writing process to leave space. Saying the most with as little words as possible is my style as a writer. If punching-in is warranted I'll do it though. Whatever makes the song work.

14. What non-hiphop material do you turn to for inspiration? What non-music has influenced your work recently?

I grew up saturated in hip hop culture. It's really embedded in me as a being. So a lot of my time is spent studying and exploring other genres and just other facets of life. I actually listen to other genres of music more than I listen to rap - like jazz, soul, experimental r&b. I get lots of inspiration from those genres. I used to take some West African dance classes, which actually completely shifted the way I understood rhythm, which helped me improve my raps a lot. Outside of music, I like to watch trippy films and psychology docs. I've been exploring where science and spirituality meet, and that's been a big part of what I've been writing about as of lately.

15. Writers are often saddled with self-doubt. Do you struggle to like your own shit, or does it all sound dope to you?

Of course, my anxiety levels before dropping things are sky high but I also love what I create at the same time. So I am usually able to push past that feeling as long as I like what I make. Sometimes working on things for a long period of time can be confusing when it's time to drop, because I might be in a different head space or have just heard it too much to think of it as anything exciting, but I try to remember how good I felt after making it and that the resonation I felt then will always be a truth.

16. Who’s a rapper you listen to with such a distinguishable style that you need to resist the urge to imitate them? 

I don't feel the need to imitate anyone. I pride myself on not sounding like anyone else. There’s sooo many people I've been inspired by, but I actually try not to listen to too much rap music to make sure my voice is my own. I really love Azealia Banks as a writer. Her flow is so dynamic, especially crossing over into dance music - I appreciate her pen so much. Very unique and definitely in her own lane with rap.

17. Do you have an agenda as an artist? Are there overarching concerns you want to communicate to the listener?

Definitely to create a multi-disciplined platform that gives a way for me to create space for building and visualize a black future. One part of that is to create a new path for people who identify as black femmes to feel comfortable being a part of whatever this experimental niche of rap is, because it's overwhelmingly cis-male dominated. But mostly to push the culture forward and inspire people to push boundaries in this world as I push boundaries within my art.

RAPS + CRAFTS is a series of questions posed to rappers about their craft and process. It is designed to give respect and credit to their engagement with the art of songwriting. The format is inspired, in part, by Rob McLennan’s 12 or 20 interview series. 

Photo by Kristin Powell (details)