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bobasheebaby · 5 years ago

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200 Brooklyn 99 Prompts

Rosa

1 “Talk to him, that's what friends do.” “Nope. I'm gonna wait 'til I'm on my deathbed, get in the last word and then die immediately.” “That's your plan for dealing with this?” “That's my plan for dealing with everything. I have seventy-seven arguments I'm going to win that way.”

2 “I'm already seeing somebody, NAME.” “Oh, and just like that, things got interesting.” “And just like that, I left.”

3 “NAME is even wearing his/her formal leather jacket.” “It's the one without any blood on it.”

4 “Right, that's the guy/girl you said the lame stuff about. Like he’s/she's a good listener.” “Sorry, what do you look for in a guy/girl?” “Real stuff, like the shape of his/her ass.”

5 “Sorry I'm late. I had to go back to the deli and return my Everything Bagel. In what world does everything not include beef jerky?” “All of them.”

6 “He/She also likes to look up recipes online and go, "Who's got the time?"

7 “Thank you, NAME. Your entire life is garbage.”

8 “NAME , tell us about your family.” “I have one.”

9 “Anyone over the age of six celebrating a birthday should go to hell.”

10 “I am dating his/her nephew/niece. Now we are hanging out on weekends. What is next? Oh! Small talk.”

11 “Wait, is that a smile I see?” “Possibly. My immune system is too weak to fight off my smile muscles.”

12 “Whoa, what happened? You know what, forget it. I'll just read NAME’s notes.”

13 “NAME? Are you stuck in there?” “No, I'm in here by choice.” “Oh, 'cause I hear some banging noises as if someone was struggling to open the door.” “No. That was the pipes.” “Or, is it the sound of you learning how to ask for help? You know, you can't spell ‘independent’ without ‘dependent.’” “And you can't spell ‘Go [bleep] yourself’ without ‘[bleep] you.’”

14 “I've said "excuse me" more times this morning than I have in my entire life. Twice!”

15 “Oh, nothing better after a long shift than coming to BAR NAME. It's like Cheers, where everybody knows your name.” “A place where everybody knows your name is hell. You're describing hell.”

16 “So, what is this? Casual, serious? I need to know how to make fun of you.”

17 “NAME and I broke up. He/She ate soup too much.” “What, like every day?” “It happened twice.”

18 “So, what are you drinking?” “I'll have a margarita. But, like, a skinny margarita. So, like, tequila, lime, and a tiny splash of agave.” “Mm. I refuse to order that.”

19 “What are you looking all wistful about?” “Just thinking, about relationships and love, and how I'm way better at them than I thought I'd be. Should I do a TED Talk on it?” “Doesn't seem any dumber than all the other TED Talks.”

20 “Why didn't you tell me? I had no idea things were getting that serious.” “Yeah, it's very embarrassing having feelings.”

21 “So are you bringing someone to the wedding?” “No, I'm taking a break from dating for a while.” “What?” “I'm sick of asking people how many siblings they have. Oh, is it somewhere between zero and two? How fascinating.”

22 “I grew a goatee and it looks amazing, and I know you can see it.” “Of course we can see it, NAME. It's horrible.”

23 “It feels like you're being a little harsh.” “Thanks, good note. I was going for extremely harsh. I'll turn it up.”

24 “Are your senses heightened?” “I think I might be pregnant, not bitten by a radioactive spider.”

25 “You're what sneezes are!”

26 “Seriously, you guys should stand up once in a while. You know, for your hearts.”

27 “NAME, this is dumb. I'm just gonna go.” “No, no, no. You promised me more time. I still have seven minutes.” “I really don't want to miss my flight, and I cannot physically stand the way that room smells anymore.” “Just breathe through your mouth.”

28 “You know, some people say, ‘Mo money, mo problems,’ but those people are idiots. Money's amazing.”

29 “Dude, just admit you ruined everything and turned our lives into a living hell. No biggie.”

30 “We don't want anyone getting alcohol poisoning, so if you throw up, you're disqualified.” “I never throw up. I just tell my stomach to deal with it. My body is terrified of me.”

Jake

31 “I also have a hairline fracture in my thumb. Mankind's least important finger, am I right?”

32 “I wasn't hurt that badly. The doctor said all my bleeding was internal. That's where the blood's supposed to be.”

33 “How much could I possibly owe you? Fifty, sixty bucks?” “Two thousand, four hundred and thirty seven dollars.” “Dollars?! Wait, of course dollars. Why was that the part I was surprised by?”

34 “So, I'm going to grab a healthy breakfast.” “Are those gummy bears wrapped in a fruit roll-up?” “Breakfast burrito, but yeah.” “I pity your dentist.” “Joke's on you. I don't have a dentist.”

35 “I'm talking to my credit card company. I tried to get an online subscription to the New Yorker and they declined me. Apparently, based on my previous purchases, they assumed it was fraud. That's crazy. I'm fancy. One time I had coffee-flavored ice cream.”

36 “Rules are made to be broken.” “They were made to be followed. Nothing is made to be broken.” “Uh, piñatas.” “Glow sticks.” “Karate boards.” “Spaghetti when you have a small pot.” “Rules.”

37 “Hey, can I ask you something?” “Mm-hmm.” “If the toilets drain into the ocean, does that mean a tiny shark could swim up and bite me in the butt?” “No, not at all.” “Psh, lame.”

38 “NAME, super important question. Which one of these shirts should I wear to dinner with your dad/mom tonight?” “Those are exactly the same.” “I have a signature look, NAME.”

39 “Hello, good sir, I'd like your finest bottle of wine, please.” “That will be $1,600.” “Great, I'd like your $8-est bottle of wine, please.”

40 “I am straight-up depressed. NAME’s been doing her best to cheer me up. He/She gave me this sticker this morning just for waking up.” “Ew, it's like you're dating your teacher.” “I know, it's so hot.”

41 “Wait. Before you say anything, I want to guess what happened based on your face. Someone died. No! You won a prize. I'm not getting better at this.”

42 “What is the bandwidth on the wifi here? We have much content to stream.”

43 “Oh, you sweaty, chair-spinning morons. You're gonna get us out of here.”

44 “Sir, I think I speak for all of us when —“ “He/She doesn't.” “He/She doesn't.”

45 “So, your brother/sister's a bit of a nightmare.” “I wouldn't say that. I mean, at most, he’s/she's a daymare.” “Those are so much scarier.” “Yeah.”

46 “Look, NAME, I burnt two hundred calories.” “That's your heart rate.” “Yeah, that checks out.”

47 “I don't slump, people. I opposite of slump. I pmuls. That's slump backwards and it's what I do. I pmuls all over this bitch.”

48 “Excuse me. We were just looking for a place to —“ “Boink.” “Yes, boink. That's my preferred term for it, too.”

49 “Thank you for doing this. I love you.” “Noice. Smort. I love you too.”

50 “Adult parties? I believe they're called orgies.”

51 “I have a sexy voice!

Champagne.

Mountain range.

Hugs.”

52 “Has anyone ever told you you look just like a statue?” “Yes.”

53 “NAME, you're smiling. It's very weird. Like seeing a turtle out of its shell.”

54 “You look happy. Let me guess. Your egg sandwich fell on the floor, and they gave it to you for free.” “No. Can you do that? Why doesn't everyone just drop their sandwiches on the floor?” “I was trying to insult you.” “And instead you gave me an amazing life hack!”

55 “So, we gonna talk about what happened back there? I haven't seen someone cry that much since NAME heard they were remaking ‘First Wives Club.’”

56 “Hey, there, NAME. Everything okay?” “No, I'm having a meltdown.” “Props. That was amazing.” “Thanks. It was a lot of work.”

57 “Almost makes me wanna take things seriously all the time. But then I'm like ‘boobs, farts, boobs, whatever’.”

58 “Ahh, babe, this is so nice. There are hot stones on our butts for no reason.” “Not on mine. My butt stones keep falling off, because I'm so tense about NAME being here and ruining everything.”

59 “Okay, don't shoot! That's how people get shot.”

60 “Rule number 3: Let's not have sex right away.” “Cool. Cool cool cool cool cool. No doubt, no doubt, no doubt. Good rule. No sex. Good rule.”

Charles

61 “Okay, but I thought since you were in charge, maybe I could be your right hand man? Your Tinker Bell?” “Tinker Bell?” “Let me tell you something about Tinker Bell. Tinker Bell is a loyal lieutenant and a real thorn in the side of Captain Hook.”

62 “NAME, why don't you show Danger what a fax machine is.” “Okay. Imagine a letter had unprotected sex with a phone.”

63 “Hey, NAME, are you ready to go streaking?” “What?” “That's what my dad/mom and I called getting blonde streaks in your hair. We used to do it to our ponytails on road trips. You just take a little lemon up top, and let the sun do the rest. We called it giving each other road head.” “You just said you called it going streaking.” “It had a couple names.”

64 “So we have good news, and we have bad news.” “My Nana always said, ‘Bad news first because the good news is probably a lie.’ Fun fact: she made me cry a lot.”

65 “What about me? What if something happens to NAME, and he never gets to meet my baby? I don't want to hang out with some stupid baby who's never met NAME.”

66 “Oh, you're right. I'm gonna tell him/her. It might not be today. It might not be tomorrow. It definitely won't be later than tomorrow. So pretty much today or tomorrow then.”

67 “No! I was eavesdropping. I'm always eavesdropping.” “I don't like it.” “Look, I didn't spend the last seven years watching your love ripen, only to have it sullied by a city hall wedding. You're getting married right here, right now.”

68 “I know you think my judgement's clouded because I like him/her a little bit.” “You doodled your wedding invitation.” “No, that's our joint tombstone.” “My mistake.”

69 “How many times have I smacked you in your face?” “Lost count.” “And you still have no fear of me.” “I'm trying to read your womb vibe.” “Exactly. Knock it off.”

70 “Okay, first of all, NAME, you look amazing. Secondly, I made an appointment at the salon with Nikki, for you, under the name Gabriella Fuentes de San Miguel Estrada. I had fun with the name.” “Clearly.”

71 “He’s/She's got a type, which is really any one but you.” “Yeah, that was my ex-husband/ex-wife's type, too.”

72 “Sexy train is leaving the station. Check out this caboose. Later, sluts.”

73 “I can't wait to see you, my luscious little breakfast quiche. I just want to draw you a bubble bath and spoon-feed you caviar. I think we should open up a joint checking account. I love you. [pause] What am I doing?” “It's okay. I hung up right after ‘Chucklebunny’.” “Help me. I've gone Full NAME.”

74 “Do you desire a crispen potato?” “Oh, don't mind if I do-ble. Wait a minute. Crispen potato. Why are you fancy talking.” “How dare you, sir/madam. I speak the common tongue.” “There it is again. You only do that when you're lying or hiding something.” “Hiding? Ha. Pish-posh.”

75 “Hey, donut holes. Don't mind if I do. Eurgh! Fish? Fish donuts, NAME? What is wrong with you?” “It's takoyaki. I'm drowning my sorrows in octopus balls.”

76 “Put on a T-shirt for all I care. It doesn't matter what you wear.” “Of course it matters. He has to wear the smaller checks. Big checks wash him out. Where are you, NAME?”

77 “Ooh, if they have your phone, we can track where they're going. I have ‘Find My Phone’ set up to track you. What? I do that for all my friends, not just you.” “Show me.” “There's no time!”

78 “You okay?” “Yeah, no burns. The doctor said I was lucky my body was so damp.”

79 “You guys have been down here for two hours. What, did you have sex forty times?”

80 “What? You don't need closet space. You have, like, one outfit.”

81 “You just graduated pie school, bitches. [pause] Sorry I said bitches, I'm just really worked up.”

82 “So, I know you're NAME’s best friend, and —“ “Did he/she say that? Did you get that on tape?” “No.” “No, he/she didn't say that or no, you didn't get it on tape? Doesn't matter. Either way, you screwed up big time.”

83 “What you did is the culinary equivalent of unprotected sex.”

84 “That's right. Boom. Just kicked Santa in the testicles.”

85 “No, there's no one in my life. [wink] Sort of a sad thing to wink about, I realize now.”

86 “NAME! Were you dreaming about NAME again?” “Why did you wake me up?! I told you never to wake me up!”

87 “You used all the touching time, NAME. I get 100% of the goodbye touching time. 100%.”

88 “Do you wanna know why he/she went out with him/her and not you?” “Yeah.” “Because he/she actually asked him/her out.”

89 “NAME, will you taste this batter?” “Mm-hmm. Hmm. I think it's a little off.” “You know what's off? Your mouth! Why NAME lets your stupid tongue anywhere near him/her I'll never know. Nope, I forgot the sugar. That's on me.”

90 “There's no need for NAME to see me unleash the beast.”

Captain Holt

91 “Look at you. Always working. What happened to my fun big/little brother/sister?” “Fun? I was never fun. You take that back.”

92 “It's the most fun day of the year. Something you wouldn't understand because you're not programmed to feel joy.” “Yes, but my software is due for an exuberance upgrade.”

93 “Sticks and stones, NAME.” “Describing your breakfast?”

94 “NAME, how are you feeling?” “Better today. I even managed to eat some plain toast this morning.” “Smart. Something bland.” “That's my favorite breakfast.”

95 “Joining us for lunch, Sir?” “Oh, no, I've already consumed the required calories for this day period.” “Yummy.”

96 “You all right, NAME? Tough weekend?” “I went to Barbados with my husband/wife. We wove hats out of palm fronds and swam with the stingrays. I've never been happier.”

97 “Maybe I should wing it. Love, it sustains you. It's like oatmeal.” “Okay. Okay. Not bad for winging it.” “I lied. Took me two hours to write that.”

98 “I do not have a problem. If I want to play Kwazy Cupcakes, I will play Kwazy Cupcakes. Kwazy is a difficult word to say in anger, but I think I've made my feelings clear.”

99 “This place is so romantic.” “Yeah, and so intimate.” “Don't worry. I'm not listening to you. I'm just thinking about how this sea bass is cold but not as cold and cruel as the hands of fate that have thrust my entire life into darkness.” “Ah, damn it. I just ordered the sea bass.”

100 “Yeah, and your new shirt is very aggressive and confusing. Is the pineapple the slut, or is it calling someone else a slut?” “Clearly the pineapple is the slut.” “Huh.”

101 “Oh, I've caused a problem. I think I am getting a text message. Bloop. Ah, there it is.”

102 “So nice of you to greet us, NAME. I thought surely you'd still be crushed under that house in Munchkinland.”

103 “So, do you NAME --“ “Yes.” “And do you --“ “Yes. Yes. We do. We're married.”

104 “I mean, don't people call you NAME?” “How dare you.”

105 “So you lied to me? Out of pity. You pity me.” “I wouldn't put it that way.” “I would. I am offended. I am angry. I am very tired. So I'm gonna take a nap, but when I wake up, oh, you are in for it.”

106 “Look at that. You've helped me find my smile.”

107 “Huh. Meat from the street. Sounds like a fun treat. Hah. I'm a poet and ... I didn't even know I was rhyming those words. But it happened anyway.”

108 “Oh, look at that. An alert. I'm probably trending already. What? My account has been deactivated?” “Twitter thinks you're a bot.” “Why? I am a human. I am a human male/female.”

109 “Care to sit? I'm sure you'd like to take some weight off your cloven hooves.” “Call me the devil, NAME? How original.” “Actually, I was calling you a goat. You goat.”

110 “NAME! I'm coming with you.” “Thank you, NAME.” “I'm also coming.” “Not necessary.”

111 “Spot checks are done. Needless to say I'm thoroughly underwhelmed.” “Huh. From your expression, I would have guessed constipated. Or chilly.”

112 “NAME, you have a pretty low bar for what you consider drama. Once, I used an exclamation point in a email. You called me Diana Ross.” “I assure you, in this case, I do not exaggerate.”

113 “I know they say it's not good to have a TV in the bedroom. Which is why I don't.”

114 “NAME, did you just laugh?” “Uproariously.”

115 “You know when you play along with the robot jokes, it kinda ruins my enjoyment of them?” “Yes, I know.”

116 “And what do you hope to get out of this, NAME? Let me guess revenge on Dorothy for killing your sister?”

117 “It was a good game though for a dumbass.” Okay, you're kinda overusing that one. Maybe switch it up a little bit.” “Oh, good note. You dick.” “That landed good.”

118 “Dancing over. Situation defused.” “No!”

119 “All right, NAME, I'm sick of you wasting time. So, yes, I spilled some minestrone on my pants and I'm sitting in my underwear. Happy?”

120 “You found me. Drinking seltzer in the shadows.”

Gina

121 “It's a sloppy Jessica. Mac n cheese, chili, pizza on a bun. Its everything I've wanted to eat for the last 48 hours.” “What happened? I thought you were gonna 'last forever bitches.'” “Turns out I gave up easy. You hear that bitches? I gave up so easy.”

122 “If NAME had a twin, he/she would have eaten him/her in the womb.”

123 “Wait a minute, I think I just figured something out. I got to go.” “Aren't you forgetting something?” [person a gives Person b a kiss on the forehead] “Uh no, pay your bill! Damn, who raised you?”

124 “The English language can not fully capture the depth and complexity of my thoughts. So I'm incorporating Emoji into my speech to better express myself. Winky face.”

125 “All right, gang. Diet day 4. How's everyone holding up?” “Honestly, I'm going to last forever. You hear that bitches? I'm gonna last forever.”

126 “If I die, turn my tweets into a book!”

127 “The only reason I didn't tell you is I don't value you as people, so why be honest?”

128 “Breakups are a cartoony thumbs down. They make people feel face-with-Xs-for-the-eyes.”

129 “I'm sorry. I just don't think this is something you're good at.” “What? The only thing I'm not good at is modesty, because I'm great at it.”

130 “Click. I just captured the exact moment you realized you had failed. I guess we all got something out of this.”

131 “It's so addictive, right? I play so much that when I close my eyes at night, I just see cupcakes instead of my normal dizzying array of flashing lights.”

132 “Forget your ex with meaningless sex. It rhymes because it's true.”

133 “NAME. NAME. NAME, I screwed up, big time.” “NAME, given your daily life experiences, you're gonna have to be more specific.”

134 “So, talk to me, goose. How are we looking?” “Sexy, but not like we're trying too hard. Like, sure, we're trying, but it's almost effortless.”

135 “Give me the ring.” “You sound like Gollum.” “That means nothing to me. I don't see those movies, I'm too pretty.”

136 “Oh no, six drink NAME isn't fun. He’s/She's just sad. Damn it!”

137 “I never have second thoughts. That's the luxury of having great first thoughts.”

138 “Ugh, constantly getting NAME’s approval is the worst.” “Yes. I can only imagine.”

139 “You think you can just bully people, but you can't. It's not okay. I'm the bully around here. Ask anyone.”

140 “This just might work out after all.” “You're damn right it will, 'cause we're a ragtag, scrappity, fart-dumb, moron parade, smart-ass team!”

141 “Okay, NAME, stop freaking out. I have the day off. I can step in and help.” “Yeah, me too. I'm not off, but I come and go as I please. It's part of my charm. I'm like an outdoor cat.”

142 “Gina, please keep an eye on NAME today. He's/She’s gonna say something to the wrong person and get himself/herself punched.” “Sure, I'd love to see NAME get punched.” “Try again.” “I will stop NAME from getting punched.” “Correct.”

143 “Oh, I want him/her out. But I'm too scared to tell him/her. “ “All right, listen. I know that your spirit animal is a caterpillar that's been stepped on —“ “Mm-hmm.”

144 “What are you creeps doing? You made me look away from my phone. You better pray I didn't miss a text.” “In the two seconds you looked away?” “Seventeen texts. All of them important.”

145 “What is my favorite soup?” “Chicken noodle.” “Potato leek.” “Corn frickin' noodle. I mean, chowder, damn it.” “You're all wrong. I've never had soup.” “Don't bother. They all suck.”

146 “Okay, so that plumber was useless. But we are two smart and capable people who can definitely figure out how to fix a toilet.” “Of course we can. The internet will tell us what to do. She always does.”

147 “It's crazy how much he/she flirts with me.”

148 “Good morning.” “For whom?” “For you-m.”

149 “So he/she didn't say what happened, which can only mean one thing.” “He's/She’s in a fight club.”

150 “What's up? How can I help?” “Well, when I was a kid, I invented a magnetic flashlight clip so I could read under the covers. This clip and I went all around the world together the Shire, Sweet Valley High, Terabithia.” “But never to a friend's house, huh?” “Uncalled for.”

Amy

151 “That stuff with us is in the past. We talked about that.” “I know, but that was before you saw me in this dope ass tux. I mean you must be freaking out.” “Oh, I really am. I'm really into rented clothes. I love how many butts have been in them.”

152 “You know, we're birds of a feather, you and I.” “I hate cliches.” “Cliches are the worst.”

153 “And now I don't know what to do.” “I think you do know what to do.” “Thanks, NAME.” [leaves the room] “I have no idea what he’s/she's gonna do but that's the safest way to give NAME advice.” “Yep.”

154 “Insult me all you want, for I have only this to say —“ “Victory shall be mine!” “I heard you practicing in the shower. You can't surprise me. Letting me into your life was the worst mistake you ever made.” “Cool, fun take on our relationship.”

155 “NAME, where you at?” “Four drinks.” “What's four-drink NAME again?” “Why don't you come over here and find out?” “Right, Horny NAME”

156 “I'm sorry. We only excluded you because you're kind of an over-texter.” “Over-texter? That's not even a thing.” “Oh really? So you don't remember the time you sent 97 unanswered texts in a five-minute span?” “My phone vibrated itself off the desk. I think it was committing suicide.”

157 “What the hell? I used NAME's exact recipe. I know I'm not a great cook, but I love following instructions.”

158 “What's going on? Is this a dream? No, I'm not holding a label maker.”

159 “My power went out last night and my alarm didn't go off.” “Your alarm is power dependent? You brought this on yourself, son.”

160 “I'd also like to apologize for my friend. His /Her parents didn't give him/her enough attention.”

161 “I'm in! A bet which improves someone's manners? Double score.”

162 “He’s/She's scared.” “He’s/She's not scared. With all due respect, NAME, NAME has no feelings.”

163 “I'm so cold even my fiery dance moves aren't keeping me warm.”

164 “I'm sorry. I tried to be myself and they hated it.”

165 “All right, someone's gotta go out there and kill that feathery bastard. NAME, you're always looking for an excuse to behead something.”

Sergeant Jeffords

166 “It was like taking candy from a baby.” “Why are you giving candy to a baby in the first place? Don't give candy to a baby! They can't brush their teeth!”

167 “I was raised on disco. Little NAME loved to hustle.”

168 “Or is your favorite artist really Taylor Swift?” [Scoffs] “No.” “Lie.” “All right, fine, she is. She makes me feel things.” “She makes all of us feel things!”

169 “Urgh, what's in these?” “Potatoes, butter, a little milk. Oh, and I ran out of salt, so I used baking soda.” “Why wouldn't you? They're both white powders. Of course they're interchangeable.” “Yeah.”

170 “I warned you against using donuts. They're my trigger food.”

171 “Hey, NAME, you know how you're really good at doodling?” “I know you think you're complimenting me, but calling them doodles is an insult. You a big fan of Picasso's doodles?”

172 “Your tone's braggy but your words are real sad.”

173 “See, NAME? Tough love works.” “Damn it! NAME proved the wrong point.”

174 “Now, be respectful and grieve your asses off.” “I don't know why this is happening.” “NAME, I love it. Everyone follow his/her lead!”

175 “Everything's spoiled. My lunch is ruined. My chicken, my potatoes, pasta, my meatballs, ham, my yogurt.” “Wow, that's a lot of yogurt.” “I love yogurt.”

176 “Kind of seemed like you were gonna get up and leave after saying all that.” “I was, but I think I hear NAME.”

177 “You better look cute in this picture, or no one's gonna want you. Do something with your damn paws!”

178 “My tolerance has really changed since I had kids!”

179 “I'm hungry!” “Oh, you're in luck; the fanny pack is filled with granola.” “Mmm! Loose granola.” “I don't want fanny granola! I want steaks and whiskey!”

180 “You probably can't tell, but I'm flexing my brain like crazy right now.”

181 “What's that smell? That's lavender. NAME loves lavender.”

182 “Okay. Excuse me. Can we please eat? My body is starting to digest itself. NAME needs nutrients!”

183 “Don't look at me. NAME wastes all that time building muscles, make him do it.” “Oh, come on, you all know these are just for show.”

184 “Sorry? You bumbling son of a bitch. You just ruined my life. I hope you get hit by a truck and a dog takes a dump on your face.” “Nothing to see here. Just a little hypoglycaemic rage. Move along.”

185 “I feel like a proud mama hen whose baby chicks have learned to fly!”

Hitchcock

186 “NAME, why do you have your shirt off?” “Can't spill food on your shirt if you're not wearing one.”

187 “What bet? What are you guys talking about?” “Seriously? The bet? They've been keeping score all year. It comes up all the time. What are you doing all day?!” “Nothing. Why, you want to hang out?”

188 “So you just want us to lie on the ground and do nothing like a bunch of losers?” “Yes, precisely.” “No!” “Jackpot!”

189 “I don't like it. Something stinks.” “Well, I'm sorry, but I refuse to mask my natural musk with a bunch of chemicals.”

190 “My God. NAME, are you the only person still making sense?” “Yeah. It's bad.”

191 “All right, food is ready, decorations are set, guests should start arriving any moment, and the chairs are still perfection.” “He/She said they're perfection. I'm so proud of you, buddy.” “It was you. You made this happen.”

192 “Who do you think it's gonna be?” “I've no idea.” “I bet it's me. I just hope I'm ready.”

193 “Okay, look, this was maybe a weird way to start the night, but the good news is, we can still make our dinner reservation and no one got hurt.” “Actually, I cut myself real bad.” “Of course you did.”

Scully

194 “Oh, so your plan is to not take this seriously at all?” “Oh, I am as serious as a heart attack. No offense, NAME.” “Nah. Mine are never that serious. I call 'em ‘oopsies’.”

195 “I miss my home chair.” “You miss a chair?”

196 “Are those thumbtacks? What the hell, NAME?” “I thought they'd make good confetti.” “Why?”

197 “All right, anyone else have questions? NAME, NAME, you've been weirdly silent.” “We didn't want to say anything that would get us uninvited.”

198 “Okay, first of all, I want to say that this was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make. There is so much talent in this room.” “Just tell us, bitch. Act as if you already have the role.”

199 “I'll be back. Don't move.” “Not a problem. I hate moving.”

200 “Where should we begin? Do you have any experience with puzzles?” “Yes. I've never solved one.”

#brooklyn 99 prompts #brooklyn 99 quotes #jake peralta #rosa diaz #amy santiago #gina linetti #captain holt #sergeant jeffords #terry jeffords #charles boyle #scully b99 #hitchcock b99 #bb 99 prompts #bb 99 quotes #quaratine sucks and making these keeps my mind busy #i live in covid 19 hell

41 notes · View notes

dingopaws · 4 years ago

Note

8, 26, 40, 46, 52, 66 for MODIGA, 24 and 55 for Adhikari and please give me a piece of forbidden Harlowe lore as a treat....(pick one of 1-9)

MODIGA

1) What is something they cannot resist?

A silly challenge, honestly. I don’t think Modiga is able to say know to a dumb contest, not once. She’s not so arrogant as to place wagers on important shit, as dumb luck is dumb luck. But if someone tells her “I can hold my arms up longer than you can” or “I can drink more wine than you” or “I bet I can get to the top of the tree before you can” Then game on. Its that goliath competitive streak.

26) What would they want for their funeral?

Honestly I think that depends? If Modiga died before the team’s goal was accomplished, she wouldn’t want a funeral. She’d want them all to keep going, to keep fighting. She wouldn’t want them to slow down to mourn her, the ultimate way to honor her would be to accomplish what they were trying to do.

But if she were to die after the world was “saved” I think she’d want her body to be returned back home, to the North, if possible. If the world had healed enough by then, climb to one of the fingers of Eos and lay her down on a funeral Pyre. Let her ashes find whoever had left before her, her dear friends, her parents, her allies and old kinsmen. She’d want her remaining family and friends to tell her stories, her legend, sing songs that she liked, laugh, drink, eat, and leave in the morning knowing she’s no longer there, but with them always.

40) Describe a corruption/redemption arc version of your character.

HOOOOOO BOY, I know instantly where this one would go. If she lost Silas and Valter in the same breath, it could break her. It would make her cold, distant, volatile. She’d start giving in to the beast within her again, and she’d become an any means necessary kind of woman to defeat the evil who killed her beloveds. Mercy would not be in her vocabulary. She would team up with anyone it took, kill anyone it took, and leave a path of destruction in her wake.

But I think honestly the most poignant way for her to turn around would be if her team faced her, challenged her, defeated her, and brought her back down to earth, getting her to admit to the pain. After spending some time sobbing, utterly bereft. Slowly, they made her remember what she is, who she is, and she spends her time trying to make amends. Ultimately, sacrificing herself for the final mission. That kind of thing.

46) How does your character feel about growing old?

Modiga used to think she’d die in battle, die obtaining her legend, but now all she wants to do is just fucking grow old one day. She wants to have a life surrounded by family and friends and spend as much time with them as possible. Secretly, as un-goliath as it is, she hopes for a softer ending.

52) If your character was under quarantine, what type of quarantine person would they be? (Productive? Hobbyist? Lazy?)

A mixture of depressed/hobbyist. She’d try and find things to fill her time but ultimately be pissed off and stressed out because she cant DO anything, she cant SEE anyone. She doesn’t do well with extended indoor stays. She’s a very active and social girl.

66) Outward Passion or Quiet Rebellion?

This is tricky, actually. I would usually say Outward Passion, but over the course of playing her she’s come to value a lot of traits that she’s not one to have. I think she admires quiet rebellion for the advantages is can bring, for the work done in the shadows. It’s almost magical to her in that way, especially since she is one who faces life with an Outward Passion towards most things.

ADHIKARI

24) What’s a controversial food opinion they would have?

She would eat ribs with a fork and knife. She’s not getting her hands that sticky, she’s not going to look dumb, ruin her clothes. Its so tender it falls off the bone ANYWAYS, So no, you absolutely CAN eat ribs with a fork and knife, no reason to be a Neanderthal.

55) How has your character’s mental health been recently?

Well honestly, after finishing her story its been... great. She started off as an aggressive, repressed mess. Took a trip down paranoia and regret town, but as of right now She’s happy, she’s in love which is something she never really considered for herself. She’s got some great friends, and two boyfriends that she’d do anything for. She’s her own master now, practically, and is looking forward to changing the Empire for better. She’s just.. got optimism, hope.. it’s good.

HARLOW

RNG SAID 1) What does your character typically keep in their pockets? An old costume jewelry necklace, peppermint Chapstick no matter the season, a wallet that’s made out of old Capri suns, a keychain with a sewn lucky rabbits foot, and some tic tacs.

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lovemesomerafael · 5 years ago

Text

El Amor Todo Lo Puede Chapter 53: After The Storm

For @thomas1340, who has been waiting a LONG time

Chapters 1-50 Chapter 51 Chapter 52

Laura had very quietly asked Sonny Carisi to take her to the airport, and asked him not to tell anyone. She had said her goodbyes to everyone else. She really couldn’t do it again. And she had a particular question she needed to ask Sonny.

One lone tear streaked her face as, for the last time, she locked the door of the apartment she’d shared with Rafael. She’d almost made it without crying. She would have been OK, except for the hollow sound the door made in the apartment as it closed. That hurt. It sounded like her heart felt.

Sonny took her suitcase from her and they walked together to the elevator.

The pain on Sonny’s face reflected her own. She wanted to comfort him, even as he tried to comfort her. “I wish I knew what to say. I don’t know how to help. I want to, so much. But I don’t…”

“I know, Carisi. And you are helping. It’s just… gonna take a long time.”

They were silent all the way to Sonny’s squad car, parked directly in front of the building with the emergency flashers going. Today was hard enough without getting into it with some flunky about fucking parking.

When they had buckled in, Carisi turned to Laura. “You said there was a question you wanted to ask me.”

“Yeah, there is.” She took a deep breath. “I need to know, Sonny. Would you tell me… when you pray… is God still there?”

The question, and the lost, frightened look in her eyes, broke his heart.

“Yes. Laura, yes. And He loves you. And He loves Rafael. And He’s got you. I don’t know much, but I know that.”

“I’m so mad at Him, Sonny! I’m so mad at Him for letting me waste so much time when I could have been with Rafael, and then taking him away as soon as we found each other.”

“I know. Me, too. And that’s OK. God can handle us being mad at him. If you’re mad, be mad. He knows, anyway.” Sonny blew his nose loudly enough to make Laura grin through her tears.

“And one more thing-” he began.

“Don’t tell me it’s His plan. I hate His fucking plan! His plan sucks!” Laura’s anger, always near the surface these days, flared. Sonny wasn’t bothered by it. He shared it.

“You’ll see Rafael again. You’ll be together again. He’s not gone. He’s just gone from here.”

“OK.” She couldn’t say more than that at this point. She didn’t know what she believed. But she heard Sonny say it. And she listened.

“So the reason I asked you to come get me so many hours ahead of my flight is, I wondered if you would, um… go to Mass with me? I thought maybe I could hold onto you and you could believe for both of us.”

“I’d be honored.”

“St. Augustine’s has a Mass in half an hour.”

Sonny nodded and pulled the car out into the street.

*********

Date: September 15 1430pm From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Hi from Stockholm

Hi, Peter,

Hope you will recognize my name after so long. If you delete this, I deserve it. I got your cards and emails, and I don’t know the words to tell you how much I appreciated them. You’re so much better of a friend than me. Sorry I didn’t write before. I’d rather talk to you than pretty much anyone else, I just haven’t really been talking to anyone for a while. Except my Mom, of course. That shit doesn’t fly with her. And Lucia, of course, because… well.

I hope I told you how much it meant to me that you came to New York. I don’t really remember much that week. So if I didn’t tell you, I knew you were there and it mattered.

Don’t know whether you heard this, but I’m in Stockholm, of all places. Liv helped me find this assignment and here I am, trying to learn how to pronounce letters we don’t even have in English and words that, between you and me, are really longer than is entirely appropriate.

I’m OK. I like it here. My job is all computer geekery all the time. It’s interesting. Do you believe I’m a fed?! We’ve been working on this one case for seven months, and they finally made the arrests this week. The only downside is they don’t let me beat anyone up.

A friend from work, Maiken, is showing me Stockholm. So between work and exploring with her, I have enough to think about other than my sorry self. Thank God, most people here start learning English in grade school, so my hellacious rudimentary Swedish isn’t so much of a handicap. Maiken taught me how to swear (no surprise I learned that first) which comes in handy sometimes on the Tunnelbana (subway to us).

I know I’m not worthy, but be merciful and write me back. I want to know how you are. I ask my idiot brothers but they suck. They only remember the scores of the games you go to. I hope you wear a disguise when you see them so no one associates you with them.

Love you.

Date: September 15 1450pm From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Hi from Stockholm

Sunshine,

So great to hear from you. I can’t stop smiling. And here I am writing you back immediately. What a sucker. So glad you’re doing OK but you’re too far away. I was mad when you left the country, but I know short of leg irons there’s no stopping you.

I’m good. Got a promotion. Yay, me. Mark asks me why I bother having an apartment, then answers himself it’s where my clothes live. Weekly, he says this and expects me to laugh. My life.

I miss you, Sunshine. Please tell me when you’re coming home. Or tell me when I can come see you.

I love you, Peter

Date: September 15 1510pm From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Hi from Stockholm

Hi, Peter,

I’m writing you back right away, too. Who’s the sucker now? Congratulations on your promotion! Mark’s joke sounds so much like him. I miss him. I miss you.

Would you really want to come see me here? I told Maiken about you and she wants to meet you. Beware: she has the messiest love live I’ve ever encountered. It’s like Game of Thrones, except with - no, it’s pretty much Game of Thrones. You have been warned. But she’s cool. She shows you amazing places to eat and teaches you how to swear in Swedish.

I can never figure out the time difference, but I think we can text if you want to. There’s some shit you have do on your phone (technical phrase) but I can look into it if you want.

Love, Laura d/b/a Sunshine

Date: September 15 1520pm From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Re: Hi from Stockholm

Sunshine,

No I don’t want to fucking text, I want to hear your voice! Give me your number or call me.

Peter

Date: September 15 1620pm From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Re: Hi from Stockholm

Peter,

Rawr tiger. I called you but you didn’t answer. You should have my number in your phone now, though. I also texted it to you. Call me but only if you’re going to be nice because I’ve thought about you a lot and in my thoughts you’re nice. I have no idea how it works, if we can just call and it’s like in the US or if we’ll get a massive bill but I don’t care. I heard your voice on your message and now I can’t wait to talk to you. Even if you’re not nice.

Love, Laura

Date: November 18 0953am From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Flight Info

Sunshine,

My itinerary is attached. Looking so forward to seeing you. Your family is pissed that you’re going to be with me for the holidays instead of them. I pretend to feel bad.

I want to bring you a present. What should I get you?

Love, Peter

Date: December 8 2120pm From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: St. Thomas!!!

Hi, Peter,

Here is a picture of me and Maiken. I’m the one on the left. So you’ll recognize me. Holy shit, I’m going to see you in two weeks!

You mentioned my family is pissed I’m spending the holidays with you. You have ignored my question (twice) about how Katie feels about it. She must be some kind of fucking saint if she’s not tearing you limb from limb. For the millionth time, she can totally come! I don’t want to cause trouble for your love life and I’m dying to meet her.

Love, Laura

P.S. For my Christmas present, you have to be in all the selfies I want. I know how much you hate them but you are wrong. Terribly, dreadfully, completely, utterly wrong.

Peter: Just landed. See you when you get here.

Peter: Checked in. Place is nice.

Laura: In line in customs. WTF. I brought like 2 bikinis and a dress. Do I really need to be behind the family with 9 kids who are apparently emigrating here and brought everything they own? There may be livestock. I’m about to lose it. For real.

Peter: DO NOT lose it. If you cause an international incident and make me miss out on those bikinis I will not be happy.

Laura: Can’t help it. I’ve been on a different continent from you for over a year and now we’re on the same tiny island and I’m trapped in bureaucratic hell. I’m not the most patient person.

Peter: Indeed. Really?

Laura: FU 😊

It was after ten p.m. when Laura finally arrived at the hotel. She intended to check in, get to her room, take a quick shower, and then let Peter know she was there. She didn’t want to be hagged out after over a day travelling when he saw her for the first time in over a year. She should have known. As she dragged her suitcase wearily across the rough tile floor of the lobby to the hotel’s check-in desk, she caught sight of Peter as he stood up from a wicker settee across the room.

For a moment, she just stood staring at him as he strode across the lobby toward her, smiling so hard it looked like it hurt. Or maybe she just thought that because her own smile was painfully wide. Sweet merciful heaven, he was so fucking beautiful! Everything about him was gorgeous, including his too-short hair and the truly heinous flowered board shorts he wore. She dropped the handle of her suitcase and let her carry-on fall to the floor as she ran toward him and leapt into his arms. He instantly swept her off her feet and she wrapped her legs around him, squeezing him with all her limbs as hard as she could. Both laughed and cried.

The desk attendant was becoming a little uncomfortable the longer they embraced, laughing and wiping tears, saying all the stupid things people said when they met after a prolonged absence. Americans, she thought. Give me some nice, polite Japanese people anyday. And these two looked a little old to be behaving like this, anyway. Her eyes widened when, many minutes later, the woman came to the desk and checked into her own room, separate from the man’s, and not even adjoining. Affair? But no, no one was joining them; they each had booked a room for only one guest. Whatever, the desk clerk thought. The day I understand the weird shit tourists do…

While Laura showered, Peter relaxed on her balcony, sipping a beer he’d brought from his own room. It wasn’t long before she appeared, toweling off her wet hair and wearing an ankle-length cotton halter dress in a very colorful print.

“You should have warned me about that dress,” Peter said, holding a hand over his eyes. “I woulda worn my sunglasses.”

“I got two words for you, hotshot. Those shorts.”

“Where’d you get a dress like that in Sweden?”

“Amazon. Like the entire rest of the known world.”

Their conversation went on like that, light and happy and easy, while Laura combed her hair and they sat watching the waves. Even at night, there was enough light to see the rocky shoreline in front of their balconies. Laura was exhausted after travelling for over a day, but didn’t want to miss one second with Peter. Eventually, she simply couldn’t sit anymore and said that she needed to stretch out.

“C’mon,” she said, “We can talk in here.”

In a very short time after they laid down on her bed, she under a sheet with her head on the pillows, he on top of the sheet with his head at the foot of the bed, they fell into a deep sleep. Peter woke during the night, and thought about crawling in with Laura, but decided it was best just to grab a pillow and stay where he was. There was no chance he would go back to his room, alone, when he could be here with her.

The next day, they hurried through breakfast so that they could catch a dive boat leaving for a sheltered bay perfect for amateurs. They snorkeled all day, exploring the bay and pointing at colorful fish, taking underwater selfies (which Peter said were the only thing stupider than selfies on land but tolerated all day long), and enjoying the sun and warm water. They had been smart enough to bring sun guard shirts, since both were coming from cold climates and had no tans at all. By the time the boat landed back at the pier near their hotel, they were both too tired to think about trying to shower and get dressed to go out for dinner. They settled for stew chicken from a street vendor they passed on the walk back to the hotel.

An hour after they returned to the hotel, Peter heard Laura’s knock on his door. She had showered and just knotted her wet hair at the back of her head, and was wearing a cool, cotton wrap dress that actually belonged to her friend Maiken. When Peter opened the door, he was wearing those damn board shorts again, and nothing else. As always, Laura immediately noticed his trim, muscular torso and his lovely, brawny arms. Tonight, though, she hoped he was planning to put on a shirt.

They sat on Peter’s balcony in the cool evening breeze, looking at the pictures they’d taken that day. There were some beautiful shots of the schools of yellow and purple fish, some of sea turtles swimming near them, and several very cute photos of the two of them. They’d also taken pictures of each other, some of which were very good, and some of which they teased each other about.

When they had tired of the pictures, they sat, side by side, sipping drinks and watching the moon come up over the water.

“I could live here,” Laura noted.

“You don’t like Stockholm?”

“I like Stockholm a lot, but it’s cold most of the time. I love this warmth.”

Peter sighed contentedly. “It really doesn’t seem like Christmas.”

“It doesn’t.”

He looked over at her. “Which, I’m guessing, is the point?”

Laura didn’t look at him. She took a long drink of the passionfruit juice she was nursing. “I don’t want the holidays. Can we leave it at that?”

“Sure. I want to hear more about Stockholm.”

Laura didn’t know whether Peter gave two shits about Stockholm, but she loved him for changing the subject. He was actually quite interested in her new life, but he also knew that this was only her second Christmas without Rafael, and that the two of them had gotten engaged on New Years’ Eve. Peter understood why Laura would need to ignore the holidays for a while.

They talked about a lot of things as they sat there, sometimes sharing stories about their work, sometimes talking about the Parkers, sometimes showing eachother photos and goofy internet memes on their phones. At one point, Peter scrolled past a picture of himself and a woman, sitting at a restaurant table clinking cocktail glasses and smiling. He had his arm around her.

“Wait, wait! Go back. Is that Katie?” She asked.

Reluctantly, Peter scrolled back and handed Laura his phone. “Yeah, that’s Katie and me on my birthday.”

“Wow. She’s a knockout.”

“Yeah.”

Laura handed Peter back his phone. “What?”

“Nothing. She’s beautiful. Yes.”

“Hmmmm. Not detecting a lot of enthusiasm there. ‘Nothing. She’s beautiful.’” She mimicked.

“I don’t really want to talk about Katie. Can we leave it at that?”

They looked at eachother and Laura shrugged more casually than she felt. “Of course.”

A silence descended, during which Peter absently flipped through pictures on his phone and Laura looked out at the waves and the moon. After a few minutes, Peter held his phone out to her and showed her a picture of the two of them huddled under a blanket at a Chicago Bears game, snow falling thickly on their hats and on the rowdy crowd around them. They chuckled.

“That was so damn cold,” Peter said.

“My toes hurt so bad when they thawed out. I thought I had frostbite.”

“Good game, though.”

“Great game. Worth losing a couple toes. How many years ago was that?”

“Don’t ask me that. I turned forty last year. I don’t like to think about how long ago stuff was.”

Another silence.

“Peter?”

“Hmmmmm?”

“I would like to have one minute of serious conversation, and then no more for the rest of our time here. You game?”

He looked out to sea. “One minute.” He made it sound like one minute of having bamboo under his fingernails.

“Are you OK?”

He looked over at her, surprise on his face. “You’re the one who… Yeah, I’m OK. I’m supposed to be asking you that.”

“Don’t lie to me, Peter Stone. I’ve known you too long. I’ll tell you how I am if you’ll tell me how you are.”

“Sunshine, I’m fine. I just don’t feel right about talking to you about some other woman. And, to be honest, turning forty kind of kicked my ass. I’ll be OK. If that’s the worst problem I have, I’m doing pretty good. OK?”

She looked hard at him for a moment. “OK. But you can talk to me if you want. And, for the record, you’re a seriously hot old guy. I’d hit that.”

Peter couldn’t help but laugh. Only she would say something like that to him. Only she could. “Well, thanks for that. Now you. How are you? Really?”

“I’m… OK. I feel like I’ve been frozen and I’m kind of thawing out around the edges, you know? I don’t really want to, but that’s what seems to be happening.”

“You’re too young not to.”

“Fuck,” she said, with some bite in it, then sighed heavily.

“You’re going to be OK, Sunshine.”

“Yeah, I guess. Someday. But not today. And not tomorrow.”

Peter reached out a hand and she put her hand in his. Their fingers entwined.

“You’re my best friend, you know,” he said, looking out over the moon-dappled sea.

“You’re my best friend, too.”

“Can the minute of seriousness be over now?”

“Hell, yes.”

Again that night, they eventually moved to stretch out on the bed to talk, and fell asleep next to one another. This time, Laura was the one who awoke in the night. She was cold from being uncovered in her thin, short dress, and crawled under the covers, resisting the temptation to cuddle up to Peter.

*************

The rest of their time in St. Thomas was spent lounging in the sun, sightseeing, kayaking, swimming and snorkeling. They were surprised to find that the most fun they had wasn’t in the ocean, but ziplining through the rainforest canopy. Peter’s favorite picture of the trip was one that an attendant had taken of them, wearing helmets and harnesses and laughing their heads off.

True to their agreement on that second night, they had spoken about most aspects of their current lives, but hadn’t tried to tackle any subject more difficult than annoying coworkers. The front desk clerk who had checked Laura into her room would have been very confused by the fact that they never spent one night sleeping apart, but never got more intimate than the hug they’d shared that first night in the lobby.

#law & order svu #law & order: special victims unit #rafael barba #raul esparza #chicago pd #chicago fire #chicago med #chicago justice #philip winchester #peter stone #I Will Stand Alone Loving On Peter Stone If I Have To

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soradragon · 5 years ago

Text

Went Away

Prompt 9 from the 52 week challenge hosted by the beautiful @sdavid09 I changed it up a little and made a short tale about a story that I have in my mind. I had a lot of fun creating this and i hope you all will too!^^

Prompt 9: The screams echoed around the room, creating a cacophony of emotion.

Warnings: Angst, mentions of death and blood, injury

52 week writing challenge masterlist

main masterlist

If you want to be tagged in future stories ask away!^^

Anyway, enjoy^^

~~~~~~

It was already done before she even could react.

Watching wide-eyed full with horror as a spear drove itself through his body.

She could see his eyes widen a fraction, could hear the involuntary, broken gasp leave his mouth.

All noise faded to the background, everything became blurry before her eyes, only his form was she able to distinguish between the moving bodies.

Everything felt like it happened in slow motion, his body tumbled backwards as blood mixed with saliva, dribbled down his chin.

A jab shot through her heart, filling it with the feelings of numbness. It spread through her body like a wildfire.

This felt all too familiar...

She staggered backwards, trying to regain the sense of composure and stability before rushing forward. Pushing past anyone who crossed her path, not caring if the blurred out bodies were friend or foe.

She reached out, clutching his body against her before he hit the ground.

With a swift movement, she let free her large bat-like wings and folded them so the both of them would be protected from the raging war going on.

Ignoring her protesting knees, she softly laid him in her lap, letting him lean against her shoulder as she supported his head with an arm.

He unconsciously leaned in, burying his head against her chest, letting the familiar, comforting warmth guide him.

She felt a pang of guilt and sadness when she saw his weakened state, his body moving up and down, pacing to his irregular breathing.

His eyes looked into hers, yet he didn't really see her, his eyes were glazed over and unfocused.

It hurt...seeing him like this.

He didn't try to push away from her, he didn't look at her with that stupid, playful smirk of his, no annoying remarks, nothing...

It was as if he already knew his fate and accepted it...

Her eyes begun to sting as she delicately swept her thumb across the side of his chin, wiping off the red streak trailing from the corner of his mouth. Before lowering her hand to the gash in his stomach, pressing down on it. Being careful to not drive the spear deeper into him.

Her mind told her it was futile, her heart begged her to put pressure on it, to do something to get the bleeding to stop.

She wanted to do anything to save him, to stop the warmth from leaving his body gradually, to stop the colour on his skin from fading into a sickening white.

She didn't even know she was sobbing until a familiar hand cradled her cheek, weakly guiding her to face him. She leaned into it, laying her palm against the back of his hand as her lips trembled.

A tiny smile tugged at his lips as he looked at her, his eyes still clouded yet focused.

"...Hey..."

He breathed raggedly, an almost invisible glint appeared in his eyes, it made her almost laugh.

How could he be so casual in a terrible moment like this was beyond her, she went along anyway.

"Hey..."

She closed her eyes for a moment.

"Y-you have...lovely eyes...did you know that?"

Her eyes snapped open, staring at him with a dumbfounded look.

His dazed expression morphed into a gentle, loving one, it left her breathless.

"D-don't joke at a time like this!"

He shook his head slightly, "I'm not...I've always f-found your...eyes pretty, Narida..."

He let out a ragged breath before continuing.

"Beautiful, like gems..."

Narida had to do a double-take, her mouth stood agape, not believing what he just said.

A weak yet playful smirk tugged at his lips, taking the opportunity to close the gap between them and capturing her lips in a soft kiss.

He closed his eyes, relishing the moment.

A content smile crossed his features as he separated from her, whispering three words to her. Eyes lidded heavily.

Narida stuttered over her words before she could get out his name finally. But...He did not respond, his hand laid limp in hers.

"No..."

She began to tremble, "...Please...no..."

Sobs escaped from her lips, she cradled his limp body in her arms, hugging him tightly.

She faced the sky as a scream tore its way out of her mouth, without her knowing, she spread her wings as every fibre in her body tensed up. It was as if she's drowning, drowning in the sea of emotions, the pain, the guilt, the sadness, it spread through her body, leaving behind a numbness that felt all too familiar.

The scream echoed around the room and catacombs, creating a cacophony of emotion.

It went straight through the cores of the people, making them shiver.

...Narida lost so much that day...A friend, her sense of security, her comfort, her family, a love she never had the guts to confess...

#story #original story #tale #Tale Teller's 52 Week Writing Challenge #writings #sora's writings #original writings #prompt 9 #fantasy #fantasy story #love #love story #drabble #fiction #fantasyfiction #romance #romancefiction #romance fiction #fantasy fiction

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hawkvalley · 5 years ago

Text

Hawk Valley

Quick Review

The Broncos Beat the Chargers 23-20. Vic Fangio will finish the season 2-0 against an opponent from the division.

The Broncos outscored the Chargers 14-0 in the first quarter.

The Chargers outscored the Broncos 20-9 in quarters two through four.

The Game Stats

Denver

Time of Possession

27:51

Passing Attempts

Passing Yards

134

Rushes

Yards

Los Angeles

Time of Possession

32:09

Passing Attempts

Passing Yards

265

Rushes

Yards

115

The Running Game

*AYPC is average yards per carry

PlayerCarriesAYPCLongTD(s) Fumble(s) Lindsay1731500 Freeman52500 Lock35800

The Passing Attack

*he was targeted twice

PlayerReceptions%LongTD(s)Fumble(s) Freeman4100%600 Sutton480%3320 Heuerman360%700 Lindsay3100%900 Hamilton267%700 Beck1100%1100 Fant133%500 Patrick*00%000

The Quarterbacks

Lock

Passing

compypaTD(s)INT(s)LongRating 64%5213385

Rushing

AttYardsLongTD(s) 31580

Sacked

TimesYards LostFumble(s) 000

Rivers

Passing

compypaTD(s)INT(s)LongRating 69%92152106

Rushing

AttYardsLongTD(s) 0000

Sacked

Time(s)Yard(s) LostFumble(s) 3210

During the Week

After the game Sutton praised Lock for changing a play call from the sidelines that led to a Bronco touchdown. This is the kind of story I want to hear about the new quarterback. Joe Flacco was the first quarterback of the season and he just took his marching orders without question, until he was relieved of his duties. Perhaps Lock heard Flacco’s message about bad play calling costing the team victories and took a mental note. Brandon Allen was the next quarterback to play for the team and he was able to scramble. Hopefully Lock noticed Allen took fewer hits and opened up the offense by moving outside the pocket.

The problem though and this has happened in almost every Bronco game this season is the hard headed, defensive, controlling, conservative play calling coming from the sidelines. In the first quarter, Lock was making plays and the team looked great. In the second quarter, the staff started to exercise control and the play calling became extremely conservative and the Broncos play went downhill. This lasted till the end of the game.

Members of the media jumped all over the attendance numbers. There were 19,000 no shows. These are people that paid for their tickets but didn’t go to the game. It was noticeable on the TV. Personally, I don’t really enjoy going to the stadium. Everything you buy is a complete rip off. Security is annoying. The Broncos prefer you use e-tickets which means bringing a ‘smart’ phone to the game. I didn’t even bring up the fact that concession stands in the Denver area have terrible rankings, which I pointed out in one of my posts last season maybe. Basically health inspectors found rats in food storage areas. For those reasons and many more, football is best enjoyed at home on your couch.

Von Miller was back in the news. He didn’t play on Sunday and sports talk speculated on his value to the team. The point being made was that you can have a losing season with or without him. People were questioning the value of spending a lot of money on a pass rush when you haven’t even found your franchise quarterback. Von Miller’s mom even gave Elway flack about that during the Vance Joseph era. Von’s Halloween party of 2018 reentered the news because Von’s personal photographer has decided to sue x-Bronco quarterback Chad Kelly over injuries suffered during a fight at the party.

During the game, there was an ad by the Broncos showcasing the Broncos offensive line serving food to the homeless. A pretty standard pr move by the NFL during the holidays. I’m mentioning it because it was of the Broncos offensive line. Garret Bolles was not in the ad.

Last week I forgot to mention that the next generation of the Bowlen family, Britney, was given a new title/position with the Broncos. I didn’t mention it because the title sounded like corporate gamesmanship to me. The title was fancy, but to me, it sounded like she would be in charge of parking outside the stadium. I’m bringing this up because there was some talk about the contracts of Elway and Ellis coming up in two years and some think Brittany was put on the “fast track” to take over the team. The big assumption is that the contracts of Elway and Ellis will not be renewed. Who will replace them? Nobody knows.

Today’s teams ranked by stats

Broncos (4-8)

Points: 30th

Yards: 27th

Passing yards: 31th

Rushing yards: 16th

Passing TDs: 11

Rushing TDs: 8

Field Goals: 22

Interception return(s) for TD: 0

Safety(ties): 0

Punt Return(s) for TD(s): 0

Kickoff Return(s) for TD(s): 0

Fumble Return(s) for TD(s): 0

Net Turnovers: -1

Streak: Won 1

Texans (8-4)

Points: 10th

Yards: 9th

Passing Yards: 12th

Rushing Yards: 7th

Passing TDs: 24

Rushing TDs: 11

Field Goals: 15

Interception return(s) for TD: 1

Safety(ies): 0

Punt Returns for TD(s): 1

Kickoff Return(s) for TD(s): 0

Fumble Return(s) for TD(s): 0

Net Turnovers: +1

Streak: Won 2

Outlook

The Broncos are slowly making progress. If the offense could play the way they do in the first quarter for four quarters, they'd be a playoff team.

Quick Review of the qbs this season

The 2019 Bronco quarterbacks PlayerWinning %PPGPPA Flacco25%1619 Allen33%1722 Lock100%2320

The AFC West

*Oakland outranks Denver within the division, because they beat the Broncos in head to head play on the 9th of September (24-16). TeamWinning %Net Kansas City100%+80 Oakland*50%-39 Denver*50%-22 Los Angeles0%-19

Here's a look at the race for the top draft pick.

Sub par NFL teams

TeamWinning PercentageNet Dallas Cowboys50%+74 Chicago Bears50%+4 Indianapolis Colts50%+3 Oakland Raiders50%-87 Tampa Bay Buccaneers42%-6 Carolina Panthers42%-40 Los Angeles Chargers33%+3 Cleveland Browns33%-26 Denver Broncos33%-39 New York Jets33%-76 Atlanta Falcons25%-63 Jacksonville Jaguars25%-72 Washington Redskins25%-117 Miami Dolphins25%-177 Detroit Lions17%-35 Arizona Cardinals17%-96 New York Giants8%-109 Cincinnati Bengals8%-119

Game Time

11:00 AM MT

The Remaining Schedule DateTimeDayTeam December 811 am SundayHouston Texans December 1511 am SundayKansas City Chiefs December 222:05 pmSundayDetroit Lions December 292:25 pm SundayOakland Raiders

All times MT

Home=Orange

Away=Blue

#nfl football #denver broncos #houston texans #john elway #drew lock #afc west #denvshou #houvsden

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andrewuttaro · 6 years ago

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New Look Sabres: GM 52 - MIN - Savior Sam

The Buffalo Sabres have given us all the bait and switch… or at least that’s how it felt for a while now, certainly since the Blackhawks game. That game broke me. I couldn’t pretend anymore that the Sabres are a third place club just waiting to get back on a good stretch and make the playoffs. My confidence in the coaching, management and playoff prospects were all shaken. This team hasn’t looked good for a while but that was just embarrassing. For six years this team has been uncompetitive trash and that loss reaffirmed that in spite of early season hope it probably still is. Over the weekend as the Superbowl bored us all to tears I refreshed twitter hoping for anything to make being a Sabres fan right now not feel like garbage. Jason Botterill is a regular Dumbledore at this point: selectively being a master wizard between large stretches of being grossly negligent. Phil Housley has gotten to the point with most of us where his presence behind the bench makes us shutter in fear at that thought we’re becoming the Oilers organization just full of team alums and worse off for it. Hell, looking at the roster right now there’s few people I don’t hate a little bit. Then Monday came and the organization finally signaled some changes. With Remi Elie clearing waivers the spot opened up for the call-up of C.J. Smith that, with all due respect to the Amerks, I want to be a full-time Sabre now. That move was followed by a practice yesterday where the blender that was taken to the lineup had to be industrial strength. No forward line or defensive pairing was left untouched: even Eichel and Skinner were split up! Eichel now centers a top line of Conor Sheary and Kyle Okposo while Skinner rides Mittelstadt’s wing across from Jason Pominville. The third line was Evan Rodrigues centering C.J. Smith and Sam Reinhart which has potential to be fun. At this point I’m ready to try just about anything to spark a team half as fun as this one was in November. It may be Housley’s last chance to save this season with only 31 games left. Our last matchup against this Minnesota team was in the midst of the win streak and the Sabres came back from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2 in regulation. Capturing any of that would be great for a current Buffalo team needing wins now to stay in the playoff race.

One of the changes in practice yesterday was booting Ristolainen off the 1st Powerplay unit to create the absolute unit of Eichel, Dahlin, Skinner, Mittelstadt, and Reinhart. As nice as that looked the 2nd powerplay unit that Ristolainen got bumped down to with Rodrigues, Sheary, Okposo and Thompson broke the ice tonight. Evan Rodrigues got the puck along the blueline in the O-Zone from Ristolainen before launching a laser pass Devan Dubnyk. The Sabres looked strong in this first period which means of course I was not able to watch. It wasn’t until later in the first frame when Minnesota began getting their shots and pushing back. It was an unfortunate deflection off of Linus Ullmark’s own stick that gave Jared Spurgeon the Wild’s first goal of the game 6:29 into the second. Then the Sabres responded. Yes, like they had been reading our frustration that sneaky good third line raced the visitors into their own zone and Sam Reinhart shot the puck to CJ Smith who tapped it in the open net. The play wouldn’t have happened if Evan Rodrigues isn’t straddling the blueline preserving the play. A couple minutes later Jonas Brodin slashed Reinhart on a wicked breakaway and sent the Sabres on another powerplay opportunity. The powerplay resurrection continued and Rasmus Dahlin pounded one past Dubnyk all by himself in the slot. The Sabres were now up 3-1 having scored as many powerplay goals in one game that they had in the prior eleven games combined. With a humming powerplay the Sabres needed to identify themselves to us and Jared Spurgeon got his second of the game before future Sabres Charlie Coyle got Minnesota even at 3. The Minnesota counterattack was rooted in simply being tough on the boards and protecting the puck: a method Buffalo has not been great at any point this season. The third period would have to be the moment of truth.

At this point Phil Housley couldn’t help himself. It was really a must-win situation and old habits sometimes come back to roost. Remember all those super-blender line combinations I started off tonight talking about? The forward lines at least were jumbled up again as we go into the third. Jason Pominville was on a top line with Skinner and Eichel, the Wild were checking and the boys got mouthy. It started with Jeff Skinner and old pal Marry Me Marcus Foligno sharing words and almost knuckles at the faceoff line. There was a botched non-call on the Wild for interference and the Sabres bench exploded in protest. The ring leader: Shit Talking Skinner making Rob Ray learn all the new mean words the kids say these days. The play on the ice got chippy too but through the chaos Sam Reinhart decided it was time to save the Sabres. Jake McCabe streaked in and fed Sam the puck in his Sam spot almost in the crease. Reino sent the slapper home. Jack Eichel got the puck into the zone and kept it there long enough to produce the play that made it 4-3 Sabres. Buffalo took over for a while as the final frame went on. Rasmus Dahlin was unreal at several moments in this third nearly making 5-3. I’ve never seen dekes like his and if all else fails: holy hell the savory swede is a Sabre. Linus Ullmark stood on his head but it was Zach Parise’s skate that redirected the puck to a place Ullmark was not prepared for. The puck hardly crossed the line but it did. That made it 4-4 for with a shade over a minute in regulation and the last four minutes of that period was so intense you thought maybe the Sabres could end it in still. It was overtime and a very pressurized one at that. Minnesota out shot and out possessed Buffalo in the 3-on-3 period and for every near miss tap ins there were for the home team the visitors got two. It helped that the refs missed every possible call that could’ve gone the home team’s way but I’ve never been one to rail against the refs. This one needed a shootout to see if it could completely stop my heart.

Honestly, I’ve relished Ullmark’s opportunities to show off in the shootout. If it wasn’t in such a rough stretch I would enjoy it even more. Victor Rask, having benefited from half a dozen non-calls over the course of the game lost the puck before he got the shot off on his shootout attempt so that felt good. It was Sam Reinhart who got Buffalo ahead and snuck it past Dubnyk on the third Sabres attempt. Sam the Savior’s tally held up on the ensuing Ullmark save on Parise and Buffalo wins 5-4. The win was dampened by an apparent Ullmark injury on the save and the team not exactly inspiring optimism of late but Ullmark looked ok in postgame interviews and this is two points in the standings. He really needs to be the starter now but I’ll wait for the deployment choice on Thursday to rant and rave about that. Carolina won tonight so that’s no ground gained on them. As of posting this the Blue Jackets are tied with the Avalanche in the second period of that tilt so the real impact in the standings is yet to be seen. If I’m being entirely honest: I need a win on Thursday to emerge from this fatalistic funk I’m in with this team. I built this blog on looking at them with a new set of eyes but they’ve made it really hard to do that. If Thursday is a W it’s the first two straight wins since the middle of December. Yikes.

Just like Sam saved the Sabres this blog provides plenty of fun anecdotes and alliterations on the regular so you should share it like it and leave a comment of your favorite Sabres pun. If you don’t laugh you’ll cry right? Prayers for Linus Ullmark, he was God to Reinhart’s Jesus tonight and I’m not apologizing for that comparison. I need some real hope. Give me hope. Give me something Sabres Calvary. I’m going to try to not utter Phil Housley’s name from here to Thursday. Wish me luck. Let’s go Sabres!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Let me repeat: if he’s ok, Linus Ullmark needs to be the starter now. I’m talking to you, Phil. That’s the last time I say your name until you make the correct choice on Thursday.

#buffalo sabres #hockey #nhl #blog

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booksaremyoxygenn · 7 years ago

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Looking for Alaska: Best Quotes

“Francois Rabelais. He was this poet. And his last words were ‘I go to seek a Great Perhaps.’ That’s why I’m going. So I don’t have to wait until I die to start seeking a Great Perhaps.” (p 5)

“At some point, you just pull off the Band-Aid and it hurts, but then it’s over and you’re relieved.” (p 7)

“Things never happened like I imagined them.” (p 8)

“He - that’s Simon Bolivar - was shaken by the overwhelming revelation that the headlong race between his misfortunes and his dreams was at the moment reaching the finish line. The rest was darkness. “Damn it,” he said. “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!” (p 18-19)

“That’s the mystery, isn’t it? Is the labyrinth living or dying? WHich is he trying to escape - the world or the end of it? (p 19)

“Feeling - probably for the first time in my life - the fear and excitement of living in a place where you never know what’s going to happen or when.” (p 29)

“For we are engaged here in the most important pursuit in history: the search for meaning. What is the nature of being a person? What is the best way to go about being a person? How did we come to be, and what will become of us when we are no longer? In short: What are the rules of this game, and how might we best play it?” (p 32)

“I’ve never been religious, but he told us that religion is important whether or not we believed in one. in the same way that historical events are important whether or not you personally lived through them.” (p 33)

“I guess I stay with her because she stays with me. And that’s not an easy thing to do. I’m a bad boyfriend. She’s a bad girlfriend. We deserve each other.” (p 38)

“Y’all smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die.” (p 44)

“And it occured to me that I could have made up any last words for Millard Fillmore and Kevin probably would have believed me if I’d used that same tone of voice, the Colonel’s confidence rubbing off on me.” (p 48)

“I wanted to be one of those people who have streaks to maintain, who scorch the ground with their intensity. But for now, at least I knew such people, and they needed me, just like comets need tails.” (p 49)

“Be present in this class. And then, when it’s over, be present out there.” (p 90)

“I may die young,” she said. “But at least I’ll die smart.” (p 52)

“It’s from an Aleut word, Alyeska. It means ‘that which the sea breaks against,’ and I love that. But at the time. I just saw Alaska up there. And it was big, just like I wanted to be. And it was damn far away from Vine Station, Alabama, just like i wanted to be.” (p 53)

“Jesus, I’m not going to be one of those people who sits around talking about what they’re going to do. I’m just gonna do it. Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia.” (p 55)

“You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll secape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.” (p 55)

“You never get. That’s the whole point.” (p 55)

“Sometime you lose a battle. But mischief always wins the war.” (p 56)

“God will punish the wicked. And before He does, we will.” (p 71)

“I’m just scared of ghosts, Pudge. And home is full of them.” (p 80)

“because I do, Alaska Young, I do love you and what else matters but that.” (p 82)

“It’s not life or death, the labyrinth.” “Um, okay. So what is it?” “Suffering,” she said. “Doing wrong and having wrong things happen to you. That’s the problem. Bolivar was talking about the pain, not about the living or dying. How do you get out of the labyrinth of suffering?” (p 82)

“They love their hair because they aren’t smart enough to love something more interesting.” (p 84)

“You shall love your crooked neighbour / With your crooked heart.”(p 85)

“I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. NOt even have sex. Just sleep together, in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.” (p 88)

“Night falls fast. Today is in the past.” (p 89)

“Don’t you know who you love, Pudge? You love the girl who makes you laugh and shows you porn and drinks wine with you. You don’t love the crazy, sullen bitch.” (p 96)

“I finally decided that people believed in an afterlife because they couldn’t bear not to.” (p 100)

“The Great Perhaps was upon us, and we were invincible.” (p 103)

“Because no one can catch the motherfucking fox.” (p 104)

“Tonight, we were invincible.” (p 107)

“There comes a time when we realize that our parents cannot save themselves or save us, that everyone who wades through time eventually gets dragged out to sea by the undertown - that, in short, we are all going.” (p 120)

“We are all going,” McKinley said to his wife, and we sure are. There’s your labyrinth of suffering. We are all going. FInd your way out of that one.” (p 121)

“Pudge, what you must understand about me is that I am a deeply unhappy person.” (p 124)

“But a lot of time, people die how they live. And so last words tell me a lot about who people were, and why they became the sort of people biographies get written about.” (p 128)

“I know so many last words. But I will never know hers.” ( p 142)

“And now she was colder by the hour, more dead with every breath I took, I thought: That is the fear: I have lost something important and I cannot find it, and I need it. It is fear like if someone lost his glasses and went to the glasses store and told him that the world had run out of glasses and he would just have to do without.” (p 144)

“More than anything I felt the unfairness of it. the inarguable injustice of living someone who might have loved you back but can’t due to deadness.” (p 151)

“Meriwether Lewis’s last words were, : I am not a coward, but I am so strong. So hard to die.” I don’t doubt that it is, but it cannot be much harder than being left behind.” (p 151)

“Oh God, Alaska, I love you. I love you,” and the Colonel whispered, “I’m so sorry, Pudge. I know you did,” and I said, “No. Not past tense.” (p 152)

“At some point we all look up and realize we are lost in a maze.” (p 158)

“It’s like now you only care about the Alaska you made up.” (p 165)

“And maybe it was only because Alaska couldn’t hit the brakes and I couldn’t hit the accelerator. Maybe she just had an odd kind of courage that I lacked, but no. (p 167)

“I wondered if there would ever be a day when I didn’t think about Alaska, wondered whether I should hope for a time when she would be a distant memory - recalled only on the anniversary of her death, pr maybe a couple weeks after, remembering only after having forgotten.” ( p 172)

“I knew that I would know more dead people. The bodies pile up. Could there be space in my memory for each of them, or would I forget a little of Alaska every day for the rest of my life?” (p 172)

“You can’t just make me different and then leave,” I said out loud to her. “Because I was fine before, Alaska. I was fine with just me and last words and school friends, and you can’t just make me different and die.” For she had embodied the Great Perhaps - she had proved to me that it was worth it to leave behind my minor life for grander maybes, and now she was gone and with her my faith in perhaps.” (p 172)

“I am going to take this bucket of water and pour it on the flames of hell, and then I am going to use this torch to burn down the gates of paradise so that people will not love God for want of heaven or hell, but because He is God.” (p 174)

“A woman so strong she burns heaven and drenches hell.” (p 174)

“I’m tired of you acting like you were the only guy who ever wanted her. Like you had some monopoly on liking her.” (p 185)

“And, anyway, we didn’t know how much it might mean. Last words are always harder to remember when no one knows that someone’s about to die.” (p 187)

“Everything that comes together falls apart.” (p 196)

“The Buddha said that suffering was caused by desire, we learned, and that cessation of desire meant the cessation of suffering. When you stopped wishing things wouldn’t fall apart, you stopped suffering when they did.” (p 196)

“Because memories fall apart, too. And then you’re left with nothing, left not even with a ghost but with its shadow.” (p 196)

“She didn’t leave me enough to discover her, but she left me enough to rediscover the Great Perhaps.” (p 212)

“An ambulance. . . I almost wished it was someone I knew, to give new form and depth to this sadness I still felt.” (p 213)

“It shocked me when I realized that I wasn’t the only person in the world who thought and felt such strange and awful things.” (p 213)

“But it doesn’t much matter when you have just now realized, all the time later, that you are still alive.” (p 214)

“What is your cause for hope?” (p 215)

“After all this time, it still seems to me like straight and fast is the only way out - but I choose the labyrinth. The labyrinth blows, but I choose it.” (p 215)

“I know you loved her. It was hard not to.” (p 218)

“I had just now realized that I forgave him, and that she forgave us, and that we had to forgive to survive in the labyrinth. There were so many of us who would have to live with things done and things left undone that day. Things that did not go right, things that seemed okay at the time because we could not see the future. If only we could see the endless string of consequences that result from our smallest actions. But we can’t know better until knowing better is useless.” (p 218)

“I would always love Alaska Young, my crooked neighbor, with all my crooked heart.” (p 218)

And of course the long letter on pages 219 - 221

#Looking for Alaska #John Green #Alaska Young #Miles Halter #Takumi #Motherfucking fox #Young Adult Books #Quotes #Book Quotes #Novel Quotes

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zealoptics · 3 years ago

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The Tides: Riding the Ups and Downs on the Oregon Coast Trail

By Henley Phillips

I’m in a Safeway parking lot in Lincoln City trying to set a new supported fastest known time on the Oregon Coast Trail (OCT). I didn’t plan to quit when I sat down, but the combination of chair and lapful of Dairy Queen is drawing me down into a comfortable state that I haven’t felt in 139 miles. I do some quick math for the next section - 4 mile wrong turn earlier in the day, 270 miles left to go, 18 miles still left for the day, it’s 5PM, I’ve eaten all the chicken strips, no way I can do this. ** **

Am I quitting?

So far I‘ve covered the miles out of pure excitement and adrenaline, but now I feel well out of my league. I decided to do this just 6 weeks ago. My longest run was only 32 miles; the biggest week a mere 42. This was just to get a taste of what this FKT world is all about. I get it. It’s hard. I don’t want hard. I want a relaxed summer with my wife on the Oregon coast. 139 miles is pretty damn good.

Am I quitting? I think so.

When you attempt something like a fastest known time, your mind is constantly calculating the gains and losses of the experience to regulate and preserve your physical well-being. In fact our brains work in this mode every day with almost every task. It’s basic survival wherein your mind and body work to maintain a safe equilibrium of pleasure and pain. I think it’s fair to say for most of us, myself included, we do a good job of making sure the scales tip to the side of pleasure more often than not.

On my first day of the trail I ran in a state of almost pure bliss for 14 hours. The northern terminus of the OCT was windy and cold that morning, the ocean and sky a blur of blue and gray with waves crashing somewhere unseen. The trail had it all that first day - serene beach running all to myself, road miles through Seaside with its tourist trinket shops, enchanting singletrack over Tillamook Head and Cape Falcon, and then the quiet miles of a sleepy highway 101 at the end of the day. That night we stealth camped at the baseball fields in Nehalem. My wife made beef stir fry for dinner. I inhaled it, scrubbed my legs in a community faucet and went to bed like nothing happened, 52 miles later. Pure pleasure.

Day two. Katie asks how I feel first thing.

“Everything... feels intact.” I do a stupid dance to show it’s true.

The OCT is unique for two reasons - towns and trails. It’s less of a wilderness route like the word trail conjures up, so towns and resupply come easy. You also have to time the beach hiking just right or else you’ll be caught in high tide with no route off the beach or left with an unexpected road walk. Today the goal is to hit one of the main estuaries at low tide to avoid a 4-5 mile road detour.

Near the end of the day, trudging up Cape Lookout and nearing a cumulative 100 miles, my mind begins that gain vs. loss calculation - pain developing in my feet and knees, hips tight, stomach still good but then there’s the hamstring. I topped the climb as the sun was setting, and the thrill of making the estuary crossing at night took over. Headlamp, food, layers and a towel in case I had to swim the crossing. I dropped down to Sand Beach and covered the 4 miles to the estuary outlet under a sliver of moon and the beach to myself.

I sensed the outlet before I could confirm it. In the pitch black of 10:30PM, my headlamp beam was simply swallowed up by the ocean to my right and the now empty space of the estuary void to my left. No low-lying beach topography to bounce light or give perspective. Deep black on either side and moving water underfoot.

The water quickly rose to my chest on the first try, and I half-panicked and almost threw myself into the flow to swim across, dry clothes be damned. Luckily I took a quick glance across and saw a high, steep bank on the other side, which meant deep water and no easy way up. Trying again further up the estuary, there was no steep bank; in fact, there was nothing at all, which I chanced to mean shallow water rather than endless water.

The water is cold, up to my chest halfway across, but I feel in control, safe. Without thinking, however, I start chanting ‘please’ out loud. Please don’t let me have to backtrack now. Please don’t sweep me out into the dark ocean. Please let there be a safe way out of this channel. Finally my foot hits the bottom a little sooner, the water drops to my stomach, and I spot a level bank to exit the current. I let out an animal sound of satisfaction and relief but immediately realize I’ve crossed too high. Now I have a stagnant tidal lagoon to cross, the remnants of the estuary not carried out at low tide.

My phone battery is very low, so I forgo using Gaia to navigate and instead head towards where I think the beach should be, which is the other side of this lagoon. Compared to the relatively clear water of the first crossing, this stuff is a muck of seagrass and shoe-sucking sludge. I can’t see the bottom and have no way of judging depth. As I whip my headlamp around in all directions, tens of little fish jump silver streaks out of the water. Then I notice palm-sized crabs floating in the tops of the seagrass, right at chest level. Do crabs bite humans?

Twenty minutes later I’m back on the beach and running the last two miles to where Katie is waiting. The adrenaline quickly fades. I’m ice cold, and all the pain starts welling up after a day of 58 miles.

In anticipation of the building fatigue and inevitable pain, I quit on day three at the Lincoln City Safeway after a measly 28 miles. The third day was going to be tough, I knew, but my mental focus had already shifted from enjoying the Oregon coast to desperately calculating my next rest and meetup with Katie. I ended the tracking on my inReach and sent a message to my family letting them know I had quit, and to my surprise, I felt a choking, welling tightness in my chest and throat.

“I think I’m crying about this,” I told Katie.

Sleep came quickly that night, and I went to bed without dinner. We drove further south down the coast to where I was supposed to have ended my day on foot, tucked the van into a side road, and that was the end of my FKT.

In the morning I woke feeling better than expected. I stretched and jogged a little and figured I should be feeling a lot worse if I’m going to quit. We had a leisurely morning together drinking coffee with a quintessential Oregon coast view. Turns out the record was still doable, and my one-woman crew was still down to keep going.

I devoured miles for the next five days - 44, 52, 50, 50, 53 and then a casual 20 on the last day into Crissy Field and the California border. 408 miles in 8 days 5 hours 2 minutes.

I had assumed the most critical moments of a fastest known time attempt would be the cumulative minutes lost or gained during breaks, or, specifically for the Oregon Coast Trail, hitting the river outlets and tides at just the right time. Turns out the key decision for me was quitting on the third day when I thought that I’d had enough.

The important thing about quitting is that it immediately calls into question your tenacity. The moments directly after you pull the plug on something can be so illuminating and provide deep-gut feedback on the decision. In the past several years the concept of vulnerability has become quite popular, at times creating a culture and mindset of easy outs. Quitting has been flipped and is now strong, follow-through less important and rephrased as stubbornness. What’s worrisome to me about quitting is that the immediacy of relief can sometimes overshadow those moments of truer clarity directly after. Surely there are moments when quitting is the prudent, safe decision, but how often is this truly the case? Or is it more likely that your resilience, grit and ruggedness are simply being called into question?

Don’t hit the damn button. Keep going.

#zealopticsfeatured

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sumukhcomedy · 7 years ago

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LeBron James: The Rollercoaster Ride

I am a month older than LeBron James and probably half his size. For people like me who grew up in Cleveland as part of the age group that LeBron is, we feel as if we’ve grown with LeBron. We were aware of him at St.Vincent-St.Mary High School before the national media was. We saw him racking up the Ohio Mr. Basketball awards. We were proud to see him on the cover of Sports Illustrated in high school and his games broadcasted on national television. We chuckled as the local media covered LeBron driving in a Hummer like it was big news (news of how corrupt sports can be perhaps).

At the same time, the Cleveland Cavaliers looked like complete crap. Ricky Davis was shooting at his own hoop to get a triple-double. Coach John Lucas basically admitted after the fact that the team was tanking to get to LeBron. What a perfect fit. The pride of Ohio basketball could play in Cleveland.

I’ve never cared more about a NBA Draft Lottery and remembering being in the house I grew up in and ultimately so excited when it was announced the Cavs would be picking first overall in the 2003 Draft. LeBron was going to play for the Cavs. And what has progressed has been a 15-year career unlike any other in the history of the NBA and a rollercoaster ride for those of us who love basketball, appreciate LeBron, and have the strange connection of having observed the guy since his high school days while also being in high school ourselves. So, for the sake of the fact that Clevelanders like myself love Cedar Point, I will break down LeBron’s career and my perspective via Cedar Point rollercoasters.

“Mean Streak” – Cleveland Cavaliers (2003-2010)

“Mean Streak” was an acceptable enough ride at Cedar Point before it was closed after 25 years of operation. It was an enjoyable wooden coaster but at the same time it also jerked your neck around so much that you got whiplash. By the end of it, you asked yourself, “Should we have actually waited in line for a far better rollercoaster?” The same could be said of LeBron’s first go-round with the Cavs, none of which I would say is LeBron’s fault. The first 7 years of LeBron’s career which garnered only one Finals appearance was filled with fun moments in watching his progression but also in organizational blunders that led LeBron to leave. There was a lot of talk of finding the “Pippen to LeBron’s Jordan” and that was supposedly going to happen with Larry Hughes and didn’t even come close. Donyell Marshall and Damon Jones were seen as big splash signings and weren’t at all. As much as the team may have spent, they never found worthy pieces to be on LeBron’s supporting cast and it’s still pretty unbelievable to see that LeBron dragged that awful 2007 roster to the Finals. There are 2 moments from this time that are most worth remembering with LeBron. First is “The 48 Special” against Detroit. After that night, I knew that LeBron was simply too good to never win a NBA title. Even if he wasn’t going to do it in Cleveland, he was going to do it somewhere else. The second was his miraculous shot in Game 2 of the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals against Orlando. It was an amazing moment for Cavs fans but ultimately the team lost the series and it kind of is a symbol as a whole of those first 7 years in Cleveland. Like “Mean Streak” it was enjoyable but shaky and ultimately not successful.

“Millennium Force” – Miami Heat (2010-2014)

Since opening in 2000, Millennium Force has easily become one of the best rollercoasters in the world especially if you are able to experience it at night. Say whatever you may about LeBron’s time with the Miami Heat (and I, as a Cavs fan, will say that I loathed it and “The Decision,”) LeBron came to the peak of his career while coming together with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. This time period marked some of LeBron’s best performances but also led to only a 2-2 record in the NBA Finals (and 1-3 if not for Ray Allen’s 3). The Millennium Force is in some ways overshadowed or less talked about than many other coasters but it is a peak performer in entertainment and consistency. The same could be said of this Heat team who in reality should have done better than 2 titles but also lasted for as long as they possibly could particularly given Chris Bosh’s unfortunate health issues and Dwyane Wade’s age now showing.

“Raptor” – Cleveland Cavaliers (2014-2018)

Raptor is my favorite ride at Cedar Point and so to, for biased reasons, will LeBron’s second run in Cleveland for me. But, much like the twists and turns that the Raptor brings, so too was LeBron’s time in Cleveland which saw so much off-court drama and change that made me wonder as a fan if anyone was even happy playing on that team. Regardless, this 4-year stretch saw the best basketball played in the history of Cleveland and saw LeBron do amazing things I never thought I would see a basketball player do in front of a crowd that will forever love him. LeBron accomplished a goal in bringing a title to the city and ending a 52-year curse. If only I could ride the success of the Cavaliers over this time as often as I can ride the Raptor on a slow day at Cedar Point.

“Top Thrill Dragster” – The last 3 minutes of the 2016 NBA Finals (2016)

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Top Thrill Dragster is 0 to 120 MPH in 4 seconds and is awesome. The line to wait for it is usually forever. Sometimes it’s been closed for the day when I’ve been to Cedar Point. Even though the last 3 minutes of the NBA Finals felt like they took forever, the thrill of it was just as unthinkable as Top Thrill Dragster. I’ve rewatched these last 3 minutes probably over 100 times. I’ll be lucky if I get to experience Top Thrill Dragster that many times.

LeBron James is just an unthinkable athlete with a career so unique to anyone else. He was thrust in the spotlight in his teenage years and lived beyond that hype. He hasn’t succumbed to any major personal downfall like Tiger Woods. He didn’t falter to personal demons or addictions like Maurice Clarett (equally popular in Ohio at the same time LeBron’s popularity was rising). And when we look back at the top picks of the 2003 NBA Draft, none of them have sustained remotely to the level of LeBron. Darko Milicic fizzled out early, Carmelo Anthony is almost seen as a joke now to some with his only hope being a glimmer of the offensive firepower he once had, Bosh is unfortunately out of the league, and Wade’s age has caught up to him.

Many will point to LeBron’s legacy and his 3-6 NBA Finals record and discount him as compared to Michael Jordan and many of the other NBA greats. But the 3-6 Finals record can be attributed to a combination of the Cavs organization, the Heat organization, LeBron himself, and LeBron being ahead of his time. The Cavs organization never fully surrounded LeBron with the right people in his first go-round with the team. The rosters assembled couldn’t possibly match up to the kind of teams they faced and it’s still miraculous that LeBron took the team the 2007 Finals. The Heat organization surrounded LeBron with a great cast but it never fully understood LeBron and ultimately lost him because of that. LeBron himself does shoulder some blame because of his attitude and some criticism could be made of his ability to attract free agents in his first stretch with the Cavs and also that his role as a de facto general manager with both the Heat and the Cavs has just been terrible and he’s left behind his previous teams in salary cap hell with awful players.

But the biggest issue for LeBron is that he simply was ahead of his time. He came into the league at a time when teams like the Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs and the big man game of Shaquille O’Neal were reigning supreme. The run and gun nature of Mike D’Antoni and the Phoenix Suns was just starting up and was looked at with doubt that it would succeed. LeBron’s decision to join forces with Wade and Bosh and create a “Big Three” started a trend in the NBA. It was a trend that unfortunately hurt him when Kevin Durant decided to join the Golden State Warriors, making it a much harder mountain to climb for him to win a NBA title. The most criticism of LeBron to me could be done of his time with the Heat where that was the greatest opportunity to win titles. The 2007 Finals was unbelievable to even get to. The 4 Warriors-Cavs Finals have asterisks associated with them. It would have been ideal to have a Best-of-7 series with the best, healthy rosters of these teams and that never happened.

If LeBron wins a 4th NBA title with a 3rd team and, especially a team in the iconic Los Angeles Lakers who have been seen as a joke over the past few years, I’d have a hard time not calling him the greatest of all-time. The numbers and records don’t matter. It’s the sheer dominance and uniqueness of his career over the years.

I’m not affected by “Decision 3.0” as I was by “The Decision.” In a way, in these subsequent two weeks, I think it was the best move. For the rest of the world, it’s fitting for Cristiano Ronaldo to play for Manchester United and Real Madrid and now the recent transfer to Juventus. These are the biggest soccer clubs in the world. It makes sense for LeBron to unite with the biggest name in the game of basketball worldwide: The Los Angeles Lakers. It’s even bigger if he can revitalize the team to its “Showtime” era.

It also just makes sense. It’s a time now for LeBron to try to be the greatest basketball player of all-time but he soon wants to be a business mogul. That sense of business is not going to be learned from Cavs owner Dan Gilbert who he has never gotten along with but rather Magic Johnson, an iconic and beloved player that seems to be most in the mold of both life and personality to what LeBron could pave himself to be in the future.

As a Cavs fan who lives in L.A., you’d probably think I’ll be making my way to many Lakers games this season to see LeBron. But that’s likely not going to happen. I can’t afford that! I’ll stick to being an NBA fan and seeing the much cheaper Clippers (they actually have what could be an entertaining roster).

But for LeBron to end up in L.A., to win a title for Cleveland, and to have gone through such a rollercoaster ride of an experience as a basketball player in 20 years, it’s pretty remarkable. And maybe one day we’ll all look at him as the greatest of all-time. That’s not bad in my mind for a “kid from Akron.”

#lebron #lebron james #nba #cleveland #los angeles #cavs #lakers #cedar point #rollercoasters #magic johnson #dan gilbert #akron #heat #showtime #cristiano ronaldo #basketball

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dark-rose89 · 7 years ago

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Rules: answer these 85 questions and tag 20 people

tagged by @bluegrumps

— what was your last…

1. drink: Blood orange juice

2. phone call: Some patron wanting to renew their books

3. text message: Some vodafone add thing I think

4. song you listened to: Kenji by Fort Minor

5. time you cried: Don’t really remember. Not that it has been too long, I just don’t know when it was

__ have you ever…

6. dated someone twice: Never even dated anyone once

7. kissed someone and regretted it: Same as above :’D

8. been cheated on: No

9. lost someone special: Yes

10. been depressed: Yeah, I guess

11. gotten drunk and thrown up: Does throwing up the next day count?

— fave colours

12. Black

13. Purple

14. Idk. Some orange shade maybe?

— in the last year have you…

15. made new friends: No

16. fallen out of love: No

17. laughed until you cried: Can’t remember

18. found out someone was talking about you: No

19. met someone who changed you: Not in the last year, but in general, yes

20. found out who your friends are: Idk, there hasn’t really been a change in friendships

21. kissed someone on your facebook friends list: I’m not even on facebook

— general

22. how many of your facebook friends do you know irl: see above

23. do you have any pets: Yep, a bearded dragon :D

24. do you want to change your name: I don’t like it too much, but I don’t want to change it either.

25. what did you do for your last birthday: Played D&D and my character got a birthday gnome :D

26. what time did you wake up today: 6.30 am

27. what were you doing at midnight last night: About to close down ESO and go to bed.

28. what is something you can’t wait for: If we’re going for short term things, then the weekend.

30. what are you listening to right now: My fridge humming

31. have you ever talked to a person named tom: Probably. I don’t remember if I ever met a Tom, but maybe one of the patrons at the library had that name.

32. something that’s getting on your nerves: Lots of things, but one of my pet peeves is people telling me I’m quiet. Thanks, I never would have known without you so helpfully pointing it out

33. most visited website: Tumblr

34. hair colour: Dark brown, but dyed black with red streaks. It just never lasts very long...

35. long or short hair: short

36. do you have a crush on someone: Ehhhhh, I’m more or less over my last one

37. what do you like about yourself: I’m pretty stubborn, which isn’t always good, but it can have its uses

38. want any piercings: Yes, but I also hate needles, so I’m not getting any

39. blood type: I don’t know. B, maybe?

40. nicknames: Kay

41. relationship status: Single

42. sign: Aquarius

43. pronouns: She/Her

44. fave tv show: I don’t watch many TV shows, but Sherlock. And when I was younger I was pretty obsessed with the X-Files

45. tattoos: Don’t have any

46. right or left handed: right handed

47: ever had surgery: I had my wisdom teeth removed, and since they had to get cut out, I’m counting that as surgery

48. piercings: One in each ear.

49. sport: I’m going to a fitness studio now. It’s mostly for my back, but that counts as sport, right?

50. vacation: What does that refer to? Have I been on vacation? (yes), Will I go on vacation? (also yes), Fave place to go to vacation to? (St. Peter-Ording)

51. trainers: What does that even mean? Fitness trainers? Shoes?

— more general

52. eating: Pumpkin seeds

53. drinking: Nothing at the moment, but sparkling water soon

54. i’m about to watch: Nothing

55. waiting for: Finishing those questions

56. want: To get that hour back that was taken on Sunday (stupid daylight saving time)

57. get married: Maybe, if I found the right person? It’s not really important for me though

58. career: I work in a library. Not much of a career coming from that, but it’s a good job

— which is better

59. hugs or kisses: Hugs

60. lips or eyes: Eyes

61. shorter or taller: Taller, but I’m tiny, so almost everyone is

62. older or younger: Younger, I guess? (Though not by much). But mostly because I haven’t quite come to terms with being almost 30, so the thought of dating anyone over 30 still feels weird

63. nice arms or stomach: Arms

64. hookup or relationships: Relationships

65. troublemaker or hesitant: Me, or a partner? I’m definitely hesitant

— have you ever

66. kissed a stranger: No

67. drank hard liquor: Yes

68.turned someone down: Random strangers yes, that one dude I was also friends with was more indirectly

69. sex on first date: No

70: broken someone’s heart: No

71. had your heart broken: Well, never been in a relationship

72. been arrested: No

73. cried when someone died: Yes

74. fallen for a friend: Yes

— do you believe in

75. yourself: Depends on the situation?

76. miracles: Maybe??? Though more closer to no?

77. love at first sight: No, but attraction at first sight

78. santa claus: No

79. angels: No

— misc

80. eye colour: Dark brown

81. best friends name: I have developed a weird dislike for the term “best friend” in the last couple of years, so just: the one I know the longest: Laura, the one I feel closest to: Jen

82. favourite movie: Underworld

83. favourite actor: Mhmmm, some years ago that answer would have been Johnny Depp, but since he turned out to be an ass, I’m going with Benedict Cumberbatch

84. favourite cartoon: I don’t even remember the last time I watched a cartoon

85. favourite teacher’s name: I don’t remember the name. but the last name started with an S

Tagging: I don’t have 20 people to tag, and one already did it, so I’m just going to tag @vita-brevis--ars-longa and @chibistarr. And @kelseybhatia for old time’s sake

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howellstvdies · 7 years ago

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pretty long post coming up! thanks to @flcwerstudies for tagging me! love ya, babe

1. when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk?

i try and make it even, but somehow there always ends up being milk left behind. it annoys me so much

2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day?

it depends. some days, i’m elsa (the cold never bother me anyway!); some days all i ever want from life is warmth and cuddles and a cat

3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books?

business cards, paper towels, my phone, pens, a necklace once. i nearly lost it, then

4: how do you take your coffee/tea?

tea: two spoons of sugar and milk, but i don’t take it that much.

coffee: creamer or two spoons of sugar.

5: are you self-conscious of your smile?

yes, it’s ridiculous

6: do you keep plants?

not yet!

7: do you name your plants?

i’m planning on naming them sherlock and finn, and then name some of them after bts

8: what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings?

journaling, writing, drawing (if what i do can be considered drawing), and lots and lots of singing

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself?

yes, because i like the fact that i can hit power notes (like when i’m singing burn from hamilton)

10: do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach?

stomach and side, but mostly on my tummy.

11: what’s an inner joke you have with your friends?

so far, there’s “i could be a stripper” and “goshdarn oprah”

12: what’s your favorite planet?

i like pluto because it’s a smol bean, and saturn because of the rings

13: what’s something that made you smile today?

i watched america’s funniest videos with my mom

14: if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like?

there would be books EVERYWHERE, and two cats lounging around, and a coffee maker, and blankets EVERYWHERE. also, high speed wifi

15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is!

scientists have traced unusually regular radio signals being emitted from an unknown object in the galaxy m82.

ALIENS PEOPLE!

16: what’s your favorite pasta dish?

i haven’t really had that many pasta dishes, but i’ll eat it any day

17: what color do you really want to dye your hair?

a dark blue, with streaks of tardis blue

18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up.

i don’t really have anything right now

19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it?

i do keep a journal. i try to write reflections and things like that, but i’m always just ranting about how stupid and cowardly i am. and there are some to-do lists.

20: what’s your favorite eye color?

i’m probably just saying this because i have a crush on someone with this color eyes, but blue-grey eyes make me weak at the knees.

21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that’s been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces.

my favorite bag is my school bag, to be honest, because that’s where all the books are.

22: are you a morning person?

nope, i’m a night person, but i also force myself to sleep early.

23: what’s your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations?

sleep, watch netflix, watch dan and phil, read

24: is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets?

there is one person that i’m slowly getting there with, and another person i really want to get there with, but none so far

25: what’s the weirdest place you’ve ever broken into?

nowhere, yet

26: what are the shoes you’ve had for forever and wear with every single outfit?

i wear my white sneakers quite a bit, but i haven’t had them for forever. i also wear my snow boots a lot, but that’s because they’re warm and i am weak.

27: what’s your favorite bubblegum flavor?

i don’t have gum that much, but i like strawberry.

28: sunrise or sunset?

sunset.

29: what’s something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing?

omigod, there’s so many; i find almost everyone cute. one of my friends does this thing when she’s proud of herself when she looks so smug and adorable. my other friend doesn’t laugh that much, so when i make him laugh, it’s like i’ve just discovered the secrets of life. and when my friend/crush laughs, he goes pink and he scrunches his nose and i die a little bit inside.

30: think of it: have you ever been truly scared?

i get really scared about emotions, but i don’t think i’ve been blood-curdling scared yet.

31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks.

i love socks! i love weird socks and fuzzy socks and any socks. i try to sleep with my socks, but i remove them in the middle of the night and i don’t remember.

32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends.

my cousins and i had just watched markiplier and danandphil play five nights at freddies, and we were spooked, so we started watching spongebob in the middle of the night.

33: what’s your fave pastry?

the first time i ever had a crosant with chocolate inside, i died and went to food heaven.

34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it?

i had an eeyore stuffed doll that i called doofy for some reason and i always slept with it. i had to leave it in kenya when we moved, but i’m on the hunt for another stuffed friend.

35: do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often?

YES YES YES. it annoys my mom sometimes

36: which band’s sound would fit your mood right now?

all time low’s theraphy would be my mood right now, i think.

37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean?

clean, but sometimes, the messiness is apealing.

38: tell us about your pet peeves!

people asking me if i’m mad when i’m just being quiet. people who are mean to teachers, complaining about them not getting grades in (70 kids, more than 100 assignments to grade, and they have a life, please just stuff it). people who gossip about other people. dramatic people. racists, mysogonists, albiests, general asses.

39: what color do you wear the most?

black and blue, mainly black

40: think of a piece of jewelry you own: what’s it’s story? does it have any meaning to you?

i have a necklace that my aunt gave me a few years ago. i always wore it to feel close to her.

41: what’s the last book you remember really, really loving?

the rosie project by graeme simsion. i got it at goodwill, and even my dad liked it. my dad very rarely likes the books i pick.

42: do you have a favorite coffee shop? describe it!

none yet, but there is a starbucks in our town that i’ve been to a couple of times. not only was it my first starbucks visit, but i’ve had some very good memories there.

43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with?

i don’t even think i ever gazed at the stars with someone. i want to, though

44: when was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything?

when we were moving and the place was quiet, and the tv was off and i’d just woken up. i sat on the couch and read and i was so calm and happy.

45: do you trust your instincts a lot?

kinda?? i do sometimes, but i do tend to overreact and overthink, so other times i don’t.

46: tell us the worst pun you can think of.

never apollogize for your bad puns about greek gods

47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe?

PICKLES. my god, i hate pickles so much.

48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today?

i was and still am scared of the dark

49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought?

i really like that idea, but i don’t have anything to play them on currently, so i don’t do that.

50: what’s an odd thing you collect?

i collect clothing tags for bookmarks, but i don’t really collect things.

51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them?

my dad. any bon jovi/rock song made in the 80s.

52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far?

salt bae and spongebob being a chicken.

53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them?

no, not yet. i keep meaning to, but i never get round to it.

54: who’s the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face?

my baby sister a few days ago. we usually leave for school at the same time, and she had to stay home because she was sick. she looked so sad when i was leaving that i could actually feel my heart break.

55: what’s the most dramatic thing you’ve ever done to prove a point?

i don’t think i’ve ever done anything dramatic.

56: what are some things you find endearing in people?

when people laugh and it’s a full-on laugh and they very rarely do that, dimples, when people engage my stupid questions (”dragons or dinosaurs?”) and go with it, people who are okay with just sitting in the quiet but they can also stay stupid funny thins, dimples, using hands to explain things, DIMPLES

57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics?

really happy. i kept reancting lyrics and playing air guitar when it called for it. that song is fun.

58: who’s the wine mom and who’s the vodka aunt in your group of friends? why?

i don’t really have a group of friends but i think i’d be the vodka aunt and my friend charise would be the wine mom. (sometimes it’s switched)

59: what’s your favorite myth?

icarus and persephone and hades

60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves?

i like it but i very rarely read it. i feel like you have to be really smart to understand poetry, and i’m not smart enough.

61: what’s the stupidest gift you’ve ever given? the stupidest one you’ve ever received?

i gave a few of my friend nail polish, and i don’t think i’ve ever gotten a stupid gift

62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind?

orange juice most of the time, grape juice when i have it

63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be?

i leave them be most of the time. as long as they’re not getting hurt, i’m good.

64: what color is the sky where you are right now?

dark blue almost black

65: is there anyone you haven’t seen in a long time who you’d love to hang out with?

i saw my cousin for the first time in MONTHS before we moved, and he’s really tall now, and he lets me cuddle him and he gives me back hugs and i miss him so much (but i’m not telling him that because he’d rub it in my face)

66: what would your ideal flower crown look like?

small roses! peach blossoms and cherry blossoms too. one huge ass hibiscus or lotus flower as a statement piece

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel?

cozy and sheltered, sometimes. really melancholy and silent most of the time

68: what’s winter like where you live?

not too bad (i’ve only had one so far)

69: what are your favorite board games?

monopoly and game of life and clue

70: have you ever used a ouija board?

no, but i knida want to??

71: what’s your favorite kind of tea?

i don’t really have one

72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you’ll forget it?

depends. if its something i care about, no. otherwise, yep

73: what are some of your worst habits?

running away from my emotions and other people’s emotions, expecting the best out of people when i know i’m gonna get the worst

74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns.

not too loud, but very passionate. listens to a lot more rap music even though they look like a punk rock person. doesn’t look people in the eye, but looks me in the eye sometimes and makes me wanna cry. i really like him

75: tell us about your pets!

i don't have pets!! (thanks mom)

76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t?

sleeping BUT I WILL FINISH THIS IF IT KILLS ME

77: pink or yellow lemonade?

pink

78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub?

fanclub they’re adorable

79: what’s one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you?

making me a grilled cheese for my birthday (was my first grilled cheese)

80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why?

white and no. i wanna paint them tardis blue

81: describe one of your friend’s eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of.

the ice floating in the open sea, the color of the sky right after it’s rained

82: are/were you good in school?

yes! i find it fun so it’s easy for me

83: what’s some of your favorite album art?

an airplane carried me to bed by sky sailing looks really preety

84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones?

i want to get slytherin in fancy font on my ankle and a semicolon on the inside of my wrist

85: do you read comics? what are your faves?

no, but i want to

86: do you like concept albums? which ones?

i don’t know if i’ve heard any

87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives?

the fundamentals of caring, dead poet’s society

88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy?

i don’t really know any

89: are you close to your parents?

yeah

90: talk about your one of you favorite cities.

london when i was eight - warm summer days and walking to the park in the afternoon, popsicle slipping down my hand. watching cartoons with my cousins and reading in a blanket fort. merry-go-rounds and playing with sprinklers even if i’m fully dressed. going to the beach, and the day is cold and windy, the sky is grey, and it’s so beautiful my chest hurts

91: where do you plan on traveling this year?

i wanna go to new york at some point but my parents are grade-a procrastinators and i can’t go without them

92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch?

half-and-half, but more towards the barely side.

93: what’s the hairstyle you wear the most?

braids with a right part.

94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday?

my little cousin turned 7 a few days ago

95: what are your plans for this weekend?

sleep and read and sleep

96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot?

procrastination is always my situation

97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house?

infp-t, scorpio, slytherin

98: when’s the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it?

almost a year ago, not my best hiking experience. that was more about the people than the hike

99: list some songs that resonate with your soul whenever you hear them.

for some reason, mess is mine by vance joy really makes me feel things. also, almost every single bts song i’ve ever heard

100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why?

5 years in the past, with the knowledge i have know, so i can fix mistakes my over-dramatic, 10-year-old self made.

this took fifty years i swear. i tag @studiousmochi @studytherin @pinetreestudies @athenus @eintsein @educatier @elkstudies and @studylustre , and whoever wants to do this. xoxo

#( about me. )#about me #ask #( ask. )#( mine. )#( text. )#( queue. )

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renaroo · 7 years ago

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Promises (10/30)

Disclaimer: Batman and associated characters are the creative property of DC Comics. Warnings: One Year Later/Evil Cass allusions Rating: T Synopsis: For an entire year after the Crisis which threatened to wipe everything they knew and loved off the Earth, after so many hardships and loved ones lost, Cass and Tim find themselves battling on different sides of the globe not only for the fate of what’s left of the world, but for the sake of once again feeling purpose. [A One Year Later fixer upper]

A/N: Thiiiiisssssss was an emotional chapter to write, not going to lie. I have a lot of Feelings about the Infinite Crisis/52 era and what things happened there. Obviously. I’m writing this fic. But this one’s where we’re finally getting to the... well, super painful stuff on Cass’ end. My poor darling.

Special thanks to @mitchthebat, @secretlystephaniebrown, @chimerakitten, Osamatsu, and kiyomisa on tumblr, ffnet, and AO3 for the feedback and support!

A Detective’s Currency

“Lacerations found on victims showed identical stroke patterns. Blade is believed to be a dual edged weapon, not a carving knife or other appliance. Exact centimeters of length of chest laceration over the sternum from Victim One to Victim Six include: thirty-five centimeters, thirty-four and a half centimeters, thirty-four and a quarter centimeters, thirty-five and—“

Cassandra sat, perched like a bird on the edge of the computer seat. She was looking at the main monitor of the Batcomputer with some amount of apprehension, her brain mulling over the facts being read to her from the scanned police files over and over again.

She was still in her suit, cape draped over her, elbows firm on her knees. But she’d pulled her mask off some time ago. The sweat on her brow was getting to her and it was easier to hear the computer without the distraction of her cowl.

But it was still a monotoned computer droning over very flat, though detailed, notes on the cases which the Commissioner had asked her to look over. There was no difference in tone, no hesitation before particularly dire details for Cassandra to clue in on.

Just the words. And the words were both descriptive and terrifyingly brief for someone whose relationship with words was still strained at best.

To try and concentrate even more on what she was hearing, Cassandra closed her eyes and leaned toward the speakers, forcing herself to only listen to the computer.

It wasn’t helping.

“My word,” Alfred declared as he walked down the steps from the Manor. “These crimes seem positively gruesome.”

Eyes snapping open, Cassandra glanced over in Alfred’s direction and she tilted her head at him curiously. He hadn’t even heard most of the details that she had but his ashen face seemed to tell he had more of an intimate reaction to the cold facts than Cassandra had had yet. Her frustration, as a result, only mounted.

“Have to solve it,” Cassandra explained determinedly before looking back to the screen and waiting for the words to escape the speakers.

Quietly, Alfred set down a tray of food on the console to Cassandra’s right — it smelled like a wonderful soup, some oyster crackers, and an orange juice. Smells that weren’t strong enough that Cassandra could immediately identify them, of course. But when her brain was desperate for anything else to occupy its time with other than translating words into visuals, it suddenly became all she could think about.

“Gah!” Cassandra cried out angrily, grabbing at her hair and squeezing her eyes shut. “Why’s… it so hard!?”

“I fear that, for whatever faults in corruption it once had, the Gotham City Police Department still has capable detectives and officers in its ranks,” Alfred offered, patting Cass’ shoulder tenderly. “Whenever they have asked for Master Bruce’s help or the help of the others, it has been only in the most dire of circumstances. Or with foes whose tactics are frightfully familiar and require their… unique attentions.”

With a whine from the back of her throat, Cass buried her face further into her hands. “I just want that one,” Cass groaned. “I just want them to say it’s Killer Moth. Then let me punch.”

“That does sound as though it would have some appeal toward you,” Alfred replied crisply. “But I am afraid this case looks to be quite the former. A dangerous and unknown culprit with nails ensnared in the city. Difficult. Very difficult.”

Cass looked back up to the words printed out over the screen, her frown only growing as she watched the letters and numbers bleed into each other. “I need to see… If I’d been there… at crime scenes. Seen bodies. I could read them. I could tell what happened. That’s… That’s my detective work.”

“Which Miss Barbara says you more than excel at,” Alfred continued reassuringly. “But hopefully your wit and skill will prevent the necessity of finding a crime scene which is fresh on this case. Instead, you will stop the perpetrator by learning from what you read here and save even more lives—“

Immediately enraged, blood boiling like the green pools that had once overtook her veins, Cassandra got to her feet, kicking the chair out behind her and slamming her palms against the surface of the computer console hard enough to dent its hardy metal. “I CAN’T!” she roared viciously. “I’m stupid! I’m dumb! I can’t learn — words… words aren’t real. They aren’t things! They don’t mean anything to me!”

As quickly as the flash of anger had come, Cassandra felt it begin to wane, her eyes losing a heated glaze and leaving her instead to look at a stunned Alfred whose brows were high and lips pursed in silence.

Heavily breathing, Cassandra looked down to the damage she had caused, then back up to the computer screen where the mess of words and the dullness of their arrangement brought tears to her eyes all over again. “I can’t be a detective,” she admitted, biting her lip. “I’m not… I’m not smart. Everyone is smart. But not me. Not… Not me…”

“Oh, child,” Alfred’s soothing voice called. Cassandra looked up to him and he gently held her chin with one hand as the other gently wiped the streaks of tears from her cheeks. “You are the furthest person I have ever met from stupid or dumb, and I almost would shame you for even using such terrible terms against yourself. You are far too smart and beautiful and promising to feel such heartache.”

“I’m not good… at this,” Cass argued through her sniffs, hands waving to the screen. “They… They want me to learn. But I can’t. Words aren’t real.”

“And what do you mean by that?” Alfred asked. “You cannot form a story in your head from hearing them out loud?”

For some reason, Cassandra’s memory drifted to Dick and stories of Cinderella. The story that had no meaning until he acted it out for her, gleefully and with great expressiveness. “Sometimes…” Cass admitted. “But not like this. Not… without help.”

“Well, then, help has arrived,” Alfred offered.

Cass was less than thrilled at the proposition. “Batman doesn’t need help.”

To that, Alfred looked genuinely offended. “Well then, young lady, I would dare you to explain how — if the Batman needs no help — the rest of us all fit into this grand picture of his?”

At first Cassandra opened her mouth to protest, but she wasn’t sure how she could.

Fortunately, Alfred’s snark was somewhat contagious.

“Right now?” Cass clarified. “So he can… go on vacation.”

Alfred stood still, looking at her levelly, but his mustache took on a certain amused twist at the notion. One that was enough to inspire Cassandra’s own broad smile.

The butler then opened his arms to her. “My dear Miss Cassandra, I do believe that all of this hard work and intensive thought you have put forward on the family’s behalf is most deserving of a hug. Don’t you?”

Tearing up again despite herself, Cassandra stepped forward and tightly hugged Alfred as he returned the same. She sniffed and buried her face closer against his chest.

“Do not forget, Cassandra,” Alfred said down to her gently. “I am also here, to provide you as much help as you need. We all are. For we all have our strengths and our weaknesses. Don’t you believe?”

“Yes,” Cassandra agreed. She then looked back to the computer screen. “Been listening for a while… still not getting the… the bruises.”

“They’re fairly gruesome attacks,” Alfred noted. “Wouldn’t you believe bruises would be a natural sign of defense.”

Releasing herself from Alfred’s hug, Cassandra looked back to the screen and shook her head, though hesitantly. “Don’t… know. Need to see bruising. Then I can tell… but… cuts are on chests…. also bruises across chest. Why all that? You don’t defend with chest against… knives.” She pursed her lips and remembered the description of the blade. “Not daggers.”

“You believe it’s a dagger?” Alfred asked curiously. “Using a dagger to make a superficial wound on—“ He paused, eyes widening. “Chubala.”

Cassandra looked back at him, eyebrow raised. “Chu…ball…uh?” she repeated.

“One of the master’s first cases, from so many years ago. Not even Master Richard or Miss Barbara were around to help in those days. It was only the two of us and…” Alfred put a thoughtful hand to his chin. “You wouldn’t know of the connection, how could you? Those files are ancient, so old and disconnected from most of the cases solved since that I would be doubtful if even Master Timothy read into them.”

“Alfred?” Cass questioned, not following hardly at all.

Alfred then looked seriously to Cassandra. “Those bruises… they could be from other hands holding the victim down. The cut is sacrificial — part of a ritual. Master Bruce solved a case, many many years ago, which involved a growing cult in Gotham’s elite circles surrounding a mystical and devilish figure called Chubala. He solved it and stopped the practices, but its roots were deep within societal elites. There has always been a darkness capable of roosting in its place ever since. Especially when so few of the cult members other than the heads themselves were properly prosecuted.”

“It’s connected now?” Cass asked, almost hopefully.

“Unfortunately the similarities are stark, even to me after all these years,” Alfred conceded.

Not wasting another moment, Cassandra pulled down her mask over her face. She paused then leaned over to press a kiss through the mask’s fabric to Alfred’s cheek. “Thank you,” she said sincerely.

Then, before Alfred could get another word in, Batgirl raced to the platform where he bike was waiting and she quickly jumped onto it to race back to Gotham.

“Chubala.”

The word has escaped her lips nearly fifty times on the drive between the Batcave and Gotham Central. She uttered in under her breath two or three times more as she ascended to the familiar window to Jim Gordon’s office and slipped in without further invitation.

When he entered his office and closed his door, oblivious to the way she waited for him in the shadows, Cassandra said it one last time, boldly and clearly.

“Chubala.”

Gordon fumbled with his keys for a moment, looking to the shadows with surprise. He obviously was not expecting her — at least not her her. Maybe more of a him’s voice. But Cass was seemingly just full of surprises that night.

“What is that?” he asked after the shock wore off.

“Chubala. The cult,” Cass clarified, heart pounding a bit in her chest. She really hadn’t allowed Alfred to get much further in his explanation and she should have. But judging by the expression on Gordon’s face, he knew what she was talking about.

“That case is from… well almost twenty years ago now,” he revealed, eyes wide behind his glasses. “You really think that it has something to do with the current murders? I don’t even know if you’re old enough to know about the murders yourself.”

Regaining the confidence of Batgirl, Cassandra tilted her head. “Read records.”

“I suppose so,” Gordon continued, putting a hand to his chin as he walked across the room and turned his attention to his desk, fanning out the papers that were there and almost humming to himself over the casework. “I remember when that happened. He— The Batman hadn’t been around for that long. Horrible stuff. Didn’t end well for most people involved. But also didn’t go much our way either. Most of the people in that society were more concerned about the impact of their reputations to their stocks than they were about ever getting legally implicated.” He looked back to Cass with a furrowed brow. “Gotham was a much different place at the time. I wasn’t even commissioner yet. The city had… problems at the top. Believe it or not, crazy colored goons and all, from an enforcement perspective it’s better than it once was.”

Though she knew it would not pass through the cloth of her mask, Cassandra softened her expression. “Thanks to… you, Commissioner.”

“Only in part, if I even deserve that much,” Jim replied. “I’ll pull the old records and get my men on that direction… The previous detective on it… Yeah. Dammit. It was Bullock. Well, I was hoping to find a reason to get to him anyway.”

Feeling that her part was done, Cassandra began to sink back in the shadows, but almost as if he had a sixth sense toward the motion at that point, the Commissioner’s head snapped back up.

“That’s good work. An angle we weren’t going to be looking at for sure,” Gordon answered. “That’s a hell of a lead, thanks to you.”

Thinking back to Alfred, Cassandra reserved her bodily flinch. “Only… part,” she assured him.

“I knew we gave you quite a load last time so I didn’t light the signal yet — at least, I hadn’t gotten around to it,” Jim explained, pulling a pen from his pocket and grabbing a sticky note from his desk. “Turns out, we found another murder that fits the profile. Woman. Mid-twenties Same marks. Same general location. I just got back from sending a few people out so if you hurry you might get there before they do and… well, I know Batman likes to be early and catch things before we leave the crime scene. Maybe your fresh eyes could use the jump on this, too.”

Heart rate increasing, Cass bit her lip and looked at the sticky note as Gordon wrote out the address. She recognized a few letters but then the scribble was as foreign to her as any other written word. Her throat grew tight and painful. “Time,” she blurted out.

That made Jim stop and look up at her over the rim of his glasses. “Hm?”

“Need to… get there. You can just… tell me address,” Cassandra tried, hiding the shakiness in her voice by going as deep as she could, almost gravely.

“Are you… alright?” Jim asked, clearly confused.

“Wonderful,” Cass coughed. “Address?”

“Central Heights,” Jim answered, slowly lowering the sticky note and his pen. “Kane Street. Old condemned apartment building — thirty-fourth on Kane. Do you know where that is?”

“Already there,” Batgirl answered, heading out the window as quickly as she could manage. She had no idea what the Commissioner would make of her behavior or of anything, really, but she was almost too relieved to have avoided the situation of finding out all the same.

She focused instead on his thanks and his trust in her.

Then, slowly, as she got to her motorcycle and began to drive toward Central Heights, it hit Cassandra like a ton of bricks.

Another person was dead. Another life was lost. On her watch. In her city. Because she wasn’t figuring things out quickly enough.

For a moment, she almost got ill, but the second the wave of nausea passed, Cass took a breath and reminded herself of two important things: she would stop these murders because she was a detective, and also Bruce would not have left the city to her care and to her skills if he did not have faith in them both.

And with those cold comforts, Cassandra took off, heart heavy and brain pounding.

Lives were on the line.

Despite a break, the blow still felt devastating to Cassandra when she reached the building the Commissioner had given her long before the detectives.

She pushed through the emotion of the very thought of a life being lost due to her ineptitude and determinedly kept to the shadows, parking far enough away she was not seen by the officers already on scene. Then she used the building next to the condemned apartment, crossing its roof, and then carefully leaped down to the building’s rickety fire escape.

The crime scene was already cordoned off, which was good for Cassandra as it was easy to identify and also meant that there were no officers around until the detectives were there to call the room.

It gave Cassandra the moment to slip in and do what only she — as a detective — could do.

The broken glass of the window was scattered on the floor just beneath the window sill and not scattering too much further. The intruder — or intruders — had broken the window from the outside, but had also done so at a speed and angle that indicated they had used the roof across the alley just as she had.

But that left Batgirl — and by extension, the GCPD — the question of how someone could break through a window in that way and not land hard enough to make an impression in the floor’s carpet or to crush the glass.

It was an anomaly that Cassandra would not have been able to maneuver herself, and she had been trained for such things from literal birth. That meant there was a possibility that the attacker had never touched the ground at all despite leaping through the window.

That left the possibility of someone flying, or at least hovering. Which made the case infinitely more difficult by Cassandra’s estimations.

Once more dwarfed by the enormity of the situation at hand, Cassandra reached to her forehead and took a deep breath. She was doing it. She was proving herself. She just needed to keep going.

Further into the room, the body was laid out over a few milk crates, arms crossed over her head, feet crossed at the ankles.

When Cassandra examined closer, pulling out her pen light, she could see the patterns of rope in the skin. She had been tied, for sure. Tightly and without a way to escape.

Which brought the question of why anyone would go through the trouble of untying her and taking the ropes with them. Most murderers, cultists or not, would find rope disposable.

Cass brought a hand to her chin and thought on the detail. Something might have been special about the rope, then. Something might have been related to the rituals.

But what rope could be that special?

The cuts were the same as the ones before, over the sternum, single blade that was dual edged. Ritualistic. Barbaric.

For a moment, Cassandra found herself not investigating with her limited time, but just looking into the poor woman’s eyes. They were glossy and rolled back, bulged with terror but frozen without life or feeling. They were the kind of eyes that would have been beautiful while alive — dark, endless pools to emote through. Cassandra’s stomach twisted at the painful thought that it was a life that was gone before she could personally have ever known her.

And that was sad.

By instinct, Cassandra began to move her hand toward the woman’s face, to close her eyes out of respect, when she heard the rumbling, dry voice of a man.

“Don’t. The police detectives need their turn.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Cassandra leaped over the crime scene, barreled through the apartment door and tackled the man who had been watching her at the waist. He must have been there before her in order to have not been noticed, but that also meant he had been hiding in the shadows from the other police officers on the scene in order to have seen her.

There was a very short list of people who would be in the room still after the police came to a clime scene.

The man was frightfully strong. Though he was taken down by the tackle and didn’t seem to have a particular fighting style to go off of, he was quick to rely on muscle memory for a swinging punch back in Cassandra’s direction.

When the man jabbed with his right fist it was tight and controlled, carrying the momentum all the way through. When he threw his right fist, it was quick to withdraw and go for a second punch she also evaded. His footwork changed, being quick and swaying.

Batgirl didn’t have to think for too long about who it was she was fighting.

Without another moment’s hesitation, she grabbed the bolas from her utility belt and in a blink of an eye threw both — wrapping around the man’s torso and ankles. He let out a grunt before falling.

Cassandra stood over him, eyes narrowed. “Two-Face.”

“Not anymore,” he grunted in return, struggling against the ropes. The normal face looked back at her from beneath a toboggan cap. “Just Harvey Dent now. Now let me go.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Why?”

“Because I’ve not done anything wrong,” he argued.

“No. Why here?” she demanded.

“Because I heard about the murder from the police scanner he gave me so I came to work the case before they got here and the evidence was away from me for good,” he answered.

Confused, Cassandra tilted back away from him. He wasn’t lying… “Who gave you it?”

“Batman,” he answered. “When he told me I had to protect the city. You can ask him yourself if you don’t believe me.”

“You?” Cass asked, heart thumping in her chest. “You… He left you the city… to…”

Police were racing up the stairs and Cassandra’s opportunity to further examine the crime scene was gone. But she wouldn’t have been able to do more even if they hadn’t been barging in. With a few quick steps past Harvey Dent, Cassandra was out the window of the adjacent room and grappling to the rooftop of the nearby building.

Unlike her beauty and grace before, however, she wobbled carelessly and once she was at the top of the roof, she slammed into the cement hard, rolling over the tarmac top until her momentum gave way and she stopped on her stomach, face buried into the surface as she tried her hardest to sob, to scream, but only came out with dry heaves so painful her lungs felt like they were going to swell and burst.

He didn’t leave her the city.

He just left.

They all just left. And she had nothing. She wasn’t even a detective without help.

Her heaving continued, her whole body shuddering with them, as the large feathers and plumes on the surface of the building blew around her in the wind.

#writing #batfic #Batfic: Promises #Cassandra Cain #Alfred Pennyworth #Jim Gordon

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