#an impromptu party i was not prepared for and i am so tired today

[riwrite-a]

this is maybe not the best idea bc i owe approximately 1 million things but i wanna do a little starter call!! theyll probably be short (<- potentially lying, every time i say this i end up writing more than i intend to) bc im just trying to kick myself back into the swing of writing :) please make sure to specify muse/s, and im also always available for plotting if youd rather go that route!!

[princess-of-inarizaki]

Heyheyhey!! Can i request manager birthday and the team forget about it for seijoh, inarizaki, and shiratorizawa bcs tomorrow ma birthday hahah. Thank youuu and i love you

Anon-chan!! This is SUCH an important birthday request and I am beyond honoured to write it for you :D 💖💖💖💖✨

Our birthdays are so close too👉👈 mine's next week. (Exactly ten days apart from yours!!)

Anyways, happy birthday Anon-chan!!I hope you have a beautiful day, filled with lots of happy things, and a wonderful year ahead. you're wonderful, and I hope you always remember that !! 💖💖💖✨ I love you so very much <3

The teams forgetting their manager's birthday

Characters: Seijoh, Shiratorizawa, and Inarizaki

Warnings: none

Oh btw!! since the type of manager is not specified, I'll go with my default fem manager :D she's cute and sweet (like you, Anon-chan 😺😆💖) and the boys adore her a ton. She's also very capable, smart, and confident, and she loves being physical with the boys, which constantly flusters them!

Seijoh

The Seijoh boys would be so busy practicing for an upcoming match, they kinda forget everything that's happening around them.

Lots of focus. You smile fondly, because that's what makes them such a good team. Their ability to focus on their goals and eliminate all distractions.

Until one day, Yahaba is just scrolling through his phone's calendar when he sees “Manager Chan's birthday, 19th November.”

And he's just so shocked and guilty. He immediately calls the rest of the team and tells them what he just realized.

The team feels so guilty and disappointed in themselves. They're a day late to wish you, and they desperately want to make it up to you.

You're their precious manager after all, the one who bandages their injuries with a smile and who always gives them the motivation to do better.

How could they possibly forget such a precious human being's birthday?

That same day, they create a group chat excluding you, and begin to plan something special for you.

They break themselves up into teams with specific tasks of getting things ready for an impromptu birthday party for you.

Iwa-chan is in charge of ensuring everything runs smoothly, and he makes sure to do it with zeal, hoping to make it the best birthday ever for you, eventhough it's a bit late.

The next day, you walk into the gym, and it's absolutely quiet and dark. The boys aren't there yet, which is pretty odd, considering practice should've started a few minutes ago.

You stand in front of the gym and dial Oikawa's number, because he's always quick to respond to your calls, but the number goes straight to voicemail. You're confused, and a little curious as to where they are.

Suddenly, you feel someone's hands covering your eyes, and Oikawa's voice saying “y/n-chan, don't be scared. We have a surprise for you.”

You laugh, realisation washing over you that the boys probably planned something because they forgot it was your birthday yesterday, and follow Oikawa as he guides you inside.

When he finally uncovers your eyes, you see the boys holding a huge, slightly odd looking cake, lit with candles.

Oikawa hugs you from behind and you pull him closer to you, snuggling in his embrace.

You then blow out your candles and make a silent wish. I wish to always be by their side

Iwa-chan is already hitting Oikawa for hugging you before the rest, so you hug Iwa too, then Matsukawa, Hanamaki, Yahaba, Kunimi, and even Kyotani, albeit him being slightly rigid.

“thanks guys, this is an amazing surprise!” you say softly, as your eyes tear up. It's obvious that they made the cake themselves, and eventhough it wasn't perfect, your boys, made it for you.

Your heart squeezed as you cut slices for everyone, and handed it to them, as they sat on the bleachers to enjoy it.

You sit next to Yahaba and leaned on his shoulder. “Thanks for remembering” you said softly.

He blushed. “how did you know?” you explained that Kunimi told you, and he smiled at you and ruffled your hair.

“We're sorry for not remembering sooner, Y/n-san. Thanks for being the best manager ever” said Iwaizumi. He seemed to be nonchalant about it, but his eyes and smile betrayed him. He was fond of you, and genuinely glad that you enjoyed the small celebration they had prepared.

You smiled and kissed his cheek as acknowledgement, which caused him to blush and Oikawa to throw a small tantrum.

You laughed as you looked at them bantering with each other, Hanamaki and Matsukawa teasing Kyotani, and Yahaba and Kunimi next to you. You really did love these boys.

Shiratorizawa

So I'm pretty sure it's exam week, and these boys are just so studious and hardworking, they're totally immersing themselves in their studies and books.

Until it's their calculus exam and Tendou just suddenly remembers “Oh my God, it was Y/N's birthday two days ago!!” as his pencil flies across the room, much to the sensei's disapproval (haha, miracle boy is so cute)

He pulls the other third years aside after the exam, like Ushijima, and Semi, and tells them what he just remembers.

Ushijima is just stoic, but internally he's like "how could I forget? I never forget important dates like these? Is something wrong with me?" And Semi's just so sad he wants to scoop you in his arms right away.

Tendou then proposes the idea of taking you somewhere after school to surprise you, and they agree, and run off to tell the rest of the team.

Goshiki is just close to tears he hates that he forgot his favourite senpai's birthday, especially when you remembered his (and the entire team's) and never failed to make it a special day for them.

So after school ends, you're getting ready to go back home, when Semi just scoops you into his arms and carries you to the rest of the team.

You're not all that shocked, since Semi does this pretty often, and so you let him. “where are we going?” you ask, and he just casually answers “to celebrate the end of exams”

You laugh silently. They're definitely planning more than that, but you decide to humour them, and smile at the team when Semi lets you down gently.

“let's go have udon” says Shirabu with a too-big smile. You and the team walk to an udon shop near the school, and enter quietly.

Goshiki sits next you, and he looks like he wants to say something, but can't, as he bites his lip. Ushijima sits in front of you, and rest of the team take their places and begin ordering.

You notice Tendou talking to the shop owner intently, with Shirabu next to him. Ushijima knows that you might suspect something, so he tries getting your attention by asking you about your exams.

Suddenly, Tendou brings a cake to the table and team begins singing happy birthday for you. You smile happily and wait for them to finish before making a wish and blowing off the candles.

You smile happily at the team and their hearts grow warm, seeing you so happy like that.

“We're sorry for not remembering sooner, y/n-senpai” says Goshiki in a sad voice. Your heart tugs at seeing him so sad, so you ruffle his hair and assure him that exams are tough on everyone, and that it was better to celebrate it after they ended anyways.

You and the team eat the cake after having udon, and talk about the week together. They start reminiscing about memories with you, as they talk about their first impressions, and cute memories with a soft smile on their faces.

Tendou retells the story of how you first came to the team and how much you've grown ever since then.

At some point, Semi sits in your place whilst you've gone to the ladies room, and pulls you to his lap when you come back.

The team laughs when they see you desperately refusing, worried that you'll be too heavy, whilst Semi reassures you that you won't.

Goshiki adoringly smiles at you, and Semi pulls you closer to him. Tendou feeds you small pieces of strawberry left from the cake, as Shirabu records everything, excitedly typing in a caption on his social media.

Meanwhile, Ushijima is just carefully adding in a small reminder in his phone calendar, so he'll never forget your birthday in the future ever again.

Inarizaki

My sweet little fox babies! I think they would be excitedly counting down for your birthday, you're their precious manager-chan after all (and I can't bring myself to say they forgot 😅😭) when Atsumu suddenly sees a friend of yours post a "happy birthday y/n!!" on their Instagram story.

Atsumu immediately jumps on his brother's bed and wakes him up, whilst texting your friend. “Isn't y/n's birthday five days from now?”

Your friend replies. “no haha, it's today!” which cause the twins to desperately call Aran, Suna, Ginjima, and of course, captain Kita!

The boys are hurriedly awoken a few minutes after midnight, and absolutely frazzled! They had all planned something special, but now they would have to change the date, and some things (like the cake and venue) weren't ready so soon.

Osamu groggily got out of bed and began taking out eggs, butter, flour, and other baking ingredients. Eventhough it was extremely late, and he had a tiring day, nothing could compare to his love for you. And so, he started mixing the ingredients at one a.m.

Kita tried to remain calm, but internally freaks out. He and Suna are trying to brainstorm ideas of places they could take you to make your day enjoyable.

Atsumu was busy wrapping the gifts they had all got. He got way too many papercuts and had a bit of trouble, but it was for you, and the thought alone of you smiling was enough to motivate him.

Aran and Ginjima made their own preparations in their own homes for the next day, and Aran even facetimed Osamu to keep him company throughout the baking process.

They were determined to make your birthday a happy one, and genuinely wanted to let you know they loved and cared for you so much.

The next day, six terribly sleep deprived boys arrived at school, with the needed arrangements set. The cake was safely secured with Osamu, and Suna took the bag of gifts from Atsumu.

Kita went to go find you, and he saw you waiting by the entrance of school. “Y/n-san, let's go.” said Kita with a mysterious smile.

You were a bit confused. School was the other way and he was dragging you away from it, but you trusted Kita and followed him.

He led you to the rest of the team, and gently places his hand on your back. “Let's go, y/n-san. We're going to the beach.”

You were super confused. “but school?”. Suna gives you a sleepy smile. “Kita and me have already handled that. We told your teachers you'd be absent today, now c'mon.”

Atsumu gently holds your small hand in his and you guys walks to the subway. As you dig for your subway card in your pocket, the boys get seated. There's one less seat, so Atsumu pulls you to his lap, much to the rest of the team's disapproval.

They're all so jealous, Atsumu laughs silently, and pulls an oblivious you closer. Osamu just rolls his eyes, but internally seethes.

Two stops later, the team motions to exit, and Aran shyly comes closer to you, taking your hand this time. You smile at him and make your way to the small beach you sometimes spend time in, with the rest of the team.

Kita finds an empty picnic table and everyone sits down, placing the items they had brought with them down, and looking at you expectantly.

“Happy Birthday, y/n-chan.” they chorused together. Suna ruffled your hair from the right side of you, and Osamu begins lighting up the candles on your left.

You gratefully thank them for going to the trouble of bringing you here, the fresh beach air and breeze immediately putting you in a cheerier mood.

They then start singing you a happy birthday as you blush silently and blow the candles out, making a wish. I wish to be able to love these boys forever.

You lean over and kiss Osamu's cheek. He blushes red immediately. “Thank you for going to the trouble of baking this, Samu'” if only you knew, he thought silently, as flashbacks of him almost falling asleep in front of the oven came to mind.

Kita cuts the cake and gives you the biggest slice, much to your happiness. The boys all eat their cake and joke around about all the memories they've made with you.

“I can remember when y/n-chan just came. She was so small and sweet, Osamu said she reminded him of a macaroon” said Aran.

Kita fondly smiles as he gives you a pack off green tea from his grandmother.

Ginjima gives you the gifts the entire team had picked and you begin tearing up, much to everyone's dismay. You're just so grateful to have them.

Suddenly Atsumu leans over and swipes frosting from the cake on your face. The mood is once again lifted, as Suna takes a ton of pictures, and contributes to the frosting on your face too.

“hey that's enough now” says Kita. He looks firm, but his eyes betray him. The slight sparkle shows that he thinks it adorably hilarious how the boys are annoying you.

The water seems to be calling you, so you pull Suna to the shore and lean down to the water.

The rest of the day is just filled with the boys and you doing random things by the beach, like eating popsicles, and finding seashells. You're unable to actually get into the water, due to your school uniforms, but seeing an excited you gush over the seashells and smile happily over ice cream is enough for the boys.

At the end of the day, you and the team watch the sunset together, and swear to work extra hard for the upcoming nationals.

As they see you looking up at the sunset adoringly, their hearts squeeze in their chest, so grateful to be a part of your life.

Taglist: @osamusriceballs @k-sakusa-old

[ellewords]

hey elle! i saw your answers for the questions i sent—i love coffee and cookie dough ice cream too! i’ve found that i like a lot of coffee-flavored stuff like ice cream, cake, and candy lol. i also really love cookies and cream! i’d say that’d be my favorite with coffee and cookie dough being VERY CLOSE seconds

BABY DON’T STOP IS ICONIC WHEW but may i propose....haikyuu boys dancing to it.......

anyways today i’ve got some headcanons for a past written on the margins question! first it was a karaoke party with the seijoh 4, and now it’s a road trip! aka you and iwaizumi are the only ones with any braincells in this godforsaken car (they make you handle the gps stuff since you’re the best with it). i can imagine each of them rotating and driving for a set number of hours or at least until they reach a rest stop, especially on long trips. whoever’s sitting shotgun (they rotate between this seat too) has control over the radio and aux cord and oikawa jokes that it’s the best part of going on road trips (but is he really joking though...)

makki and mattsun pretend to groan when you sit shotgun, but in actuality they don’t mind and will probably sing along to some of the songs you play (if there’s a rap part in the song currently playing everyone makes mattsun rap along i feel like his voice just fits it) while oikawa would be like UGH FINALLY SOMEONE WITH SOME MUSIC TASTE just to get a rise out of the other boys (but he really does think those kpop songs you blast lowkey slap he’s been listening to some of them while he works out or goes on his morning runs). iwa generally doesn’t have much of a preference but i can see him being partial to more upbeat songs to keep him or whoever’s driving awake, but even during slow songs the rest of you guys sing loud enough and chaotic enough to prevent anyone from getting any shut-eye (oikawa, makki, and mattsun dramatically act out a whole SAGA)

when you guys reach any rest stop makki is the first one out of the car and he makes a beeline towards the bathroom because he drank a lot of water during you guys’ impromptu karaoke session (gotta keep those vocal chords taken care of!). oikawa and mattsun are usually the ones in charge of getting snacks, they always end up getting a lot but they make sure to get everyone’s favorites! the amount of snacks they buy seems overkill but they’re athletic boys with voracious appetites and getting this many snacks ensures that the car is never short on food. if this is during or post-timeskip iwa is probably a little more strict on the snacks everyone eats (especially with regards to oikawa, being a professional athlete and all) but eventually decides to let up a bit—it’s not everyday he gets to go on a trip with his close friends, plus all those calories are gonna get burned right away once you guys reach your destination and go from place to place.

god help anyone who actually falls asleep in the car because oikawa and makki are taking photos of whoever’s sleeping with their phones AND with the polarioid camera you brought. despite this, though, everyone makes a conscious effort to be quieter when someone’s napping, and the volume of the radio is turned a bit lower. one of your favorite pictures on your phone is a selfie you took of everyone while you were sitting in the passenger seat: mattsun was driving at the time and though he wasn’t looking at the camera, a smile is on his face as he makes a peace sign with one hand; oikawa, iwa, and makki are sleeping in the back seats with oikawa and makki leaning on iwa’s shoulders (he lost a few rounds of rock paper scissors and had to sit in the middle). this also extends to when you’re asleep in the car as well—oikawa jokingly made his phone background a selfie of you leaning on his shoulder while napping (featuring a blurry iwaizumi at the side) but he actually finds it quite cute and doesn’t want to change it to his usually background quite yet.

it’s evening when you guys finally reach your hotel and everyone’s a bit tired from being cooped up in the car all day but surprisingly enough no one’s really sleepy because everyone at one point had the opportunity to nap on the way there. if you’re dating one of the boys the others DEFINITELY make you two take one room while the other three take the room adjacent to it. after everyone’s gotten ready for bed you’re all gathered in one of the hotel rolls just vibing on your phones and you and oikawa decide it’s the perfect time to bring out The Sheet Masks™️ that you kept in the cooler in the car during the trip so they’d remain cold. many more goofy photos of everyone with the masks on their faces are taken.

by this point it’s late at night and eventually you guys fall into having some nice, genuine heart-to-heart conversations. if this is during or post-timeskip everyone’s sharing what they’ve been up to ever since graduation or ever since you guys last saw/talked to each other. it’s just such a nice and comforting environment to be in because everyone’s a little tired from the day’s events and so it’s not as loud and boisterous, but at the same time this tiredness and it being nighttime means everyone’s filters are a little looser than usual and you could ask for advice on just about anything and everyone else would chime in with both lighthearted and actual suggestions. the boys are just SOFTER during this time like you could bring up how you’ve been getting back into something you did during high school (like playing piano or guitar or something) and they’d want you to show them videos or pictures of what you’ve been up to! maybe one boy brings up something that’s been worrying them for a while and you and the others are giving him words of encouragement while also cracking jokes. it’s just really chill and nice and everyone likes these late night talks because they bring you all a little closer.

everyone ends up sleeping in the same hotel room. you wake up sandwiched between oikawa and mattsun (oikawa’s got an arm thrown around you and mattsun’s long leggies are literally on top of yours and you wonder how you managed to sleep soundly last night) and iwa and makki are on the pull out sofa bed and you’re like Hey Guys. What The Heck (makki takes this opportunity to snap a photo of the three of you wrapped up in the bedcovers) and when you guys go to get breakfast at the hotel buffet it’s strangely quiet because almost everyone is still sleepy lol.

after getting some food in your system and getting ready for the day you’re all back to your usual energetic selves! you snap a mirror selfie of everyone gathered around the sink in one of the hotel rooms because oikawa was finishing getting ready (he takes the longest i just know it) and the other boys were just hanging around him talking about what’s planned for the day. the schedule you guys have isn’t super specific but there’s a few choice locations that you guys looked into in advance and try to visit no matter what! a day out with them is definitely filled with photos. you’ve got a lot of them in which they’re trying to recreate some funny pose in a picture oikawa saw online (like the one of nct in the ask i sent you earlier!!) and they either turn out really great or really horrible (funny) because you have a knack for taking photos where everything looks normal but someone’s face would be really blurry. but they would also try and take some really nice photos too—they’ll all even help you if you want to take some solo shots! oikawa and makki know the best angles for aesthetically pleasing photos, mattsun has a knack for taking panorama photos that look perfect, and iwaizumi’s really good at taking those types of photos of you guys jumping in the air without them looking weird. you’ve basically got four tall hypemen it’s great!!

overall i think it’d be so fun to go on a trip with them because it’s the perfect balance!! they’re chaotic clowns but they also won’t hesitate to give you a piggyback ride if your feet really hurt or if your shoes are giving you blisters (oikawa will try and make iwa give him a piggyback ride too, though). you guys end up getting a lot closer and having a TON of photos and inside jokes at the end of the trip, and though you’re all reluctant to go back, you also all know that this is only the beginning of a lot more outings together! if you take little clips of various events throughout the trip and compile them all together into a little vlog they’ll all probably watch it together through zoom or discord screenshare or something loool

THIS IS SO LONG take a shot (of water) every time i say one of the guys’ names or if i say “everyone” or some variation of it FJDJSNS seijoh 4 brainrot things am i right.....i hope you enjoyed reading this as much as i enjoyed writing and thinking of this! i think in the future i might think of stuff for if you go on a trip with the miya twins (and maybe suna too?).....hmmm hmmm hmmm!!! —🌸

— from elle ! i love this so so much >_< like literally what do i have to do to go on a road trip with the seijoh four??? it would be so much fun and chaotic and i want that for me,, i love them and their friendship so much it's insane ;-; anyways, thoughts + additions under the cut <33 thank you for this !!

everyone who isn't driving makes it their mission to annoy the one who is; whether it's through repeatedly poking their cheek, asking how long of the drive they have left, etc. the person who can last the longest in driver's seat would probably be iwaizumi, all his years playing volleyball with them as prepared him for this moment — but also looked up breathing exercises to avoid getting angry.

the best person to have riding shotgun would most be mattsun, especially when it's really late or super early ; keeps the conversation going and doesn't fall asleep, even when everyone in the backseat is. he shotguns energy drinks every hour or so.

i love the idea of oikawa, makki, and mattsun acting out a whole saga in the backseat omg !! in my head it's a song like taylor swift's love story wherein makki is the love interest, oikawa is taylor, and mattsun is like the dad who doesn't want them together. they really go all out on the acting — oikawa might have let out a couple of tears — and even iwa cracks a lil smile from the driver's seat.

awe timeskip!iwa watching out for everyone's diets ;-; but i do agree that he's gonna let up a bit considering that everyone doesn't see each other all the time. but i feel like he gives everyone the look™ every now and then despite this.

aw cmon don't hit me with oikawa making his background me leaning on his shoulder as i sleep that's so adorable i might cry :<< but other photos taken during naps include : iwa leaning on oikawa’s shoulder, makki sleeping with his eyes halfway-open ??? mattsun’s face covered in stickers that you impulse-bought at a random stopover.

sheet masks with the boys ??? yes pls !! though iwa would definitely be the type to almost wash his face after and oikawa screeched just before he was able to splash water on his face.

but late in the night heart to hearts ??? ugh, peak softness from the boys — everyone cries at some point because woah all of you really grew so much since high school and it made everyone feel all warm and tender.

but at some point, without thinking, and also bec it’s late and what does he have to lose, iwa just goes “you know, i had a crush on you when we were in high school” at yn and everyone just goes ?!?!?!?!?

yn : what the hell i had a crush on you ????

and oikawa’s just cackling in the background like, “i knew it !!!! both of you kept saying i was crazy for pushing it i feel so vindicated rn” 

meanwhile makki hands mattsun some money because they bet on it years ago and they were finally getting answers — makki thought you would confess first and mattsun thought it would be iwa ; several years too late but at least ;//

also i would just love to fall asleep in between oikawa and mattsun,,, please how do i get that

also on mattsun’s panoramas: everyone likes moving around a lot when he takes those photos and it’s the perfect mix of weird and cool because yeah there are like five makki’s but one of them looks like he has a third arm and a triangular head

and the vlog and we all get to watch it together over discord ???? that’s it, that’s what i want ;-;

tldr; I would give anything to go on a road trip with the seijoh four ;((

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

a question: what are the hq characters like on a road trip?  |  written on the margins masterlist

taglist : @haikyuutothetop​​​​ @crystal-lilac​ @tobioespresso​ @sushijimawakatoshi​​ @itsmeaudrieee​​ @pantherhappy @jesssobs​ @mysticstrawberryballoon​ @cloudedsky_29 @sakusasimpbot​ @aoirohi @kokogxddess​ @tooru--o​ @meiankolia​

join my hq taglist here. <3

[nonsensicalobsessions]

Tom & the Cookie Monster Take 2

Author’s note: @villainousshakespeare , this idea came and hit me like a brick. Hopefully it did not leave any lasting damage, nor will it give you any by reading it. Anyway, you requested: “May I please have a Tom himself fic (since you are so good at those!) maybe something set during the Broadway run of Betrayal?“ I do not know if this will live up to your praise, as this is but a shortie, but I hope you enjoy, here is your promised prompt, my dearest friend:

Two male Hiddlestons made their way through the hallway towards their apartment door. One was prancing, sprightly and happy. The other was proceeding at a trudge.

Tom was tired, and he had every reason to be. It was Saturday night, which meant there had been the matinee production, as well as the evening show of Betrayal. And while the show was going extremely well, the pace was still grueling some days.

Like today. And yesterday’s. And last week’s...

He rifled through his keys, snickering as he remembered how one fan he spoke to was under the assumption he was living in a penthouse apartment on Fifth Avenue. Erm, no. He had quite a nice furnished flat, in a secure building where he did not have to be concerned any random fan could interrupt his rare moments of private life, but it was simply a nice flat. And at the moment, one of his neighbors was evidently baking biscuits, and his stomach growled.

And not just any biscuits, but chocolate chip biscuits. Damn it. Now he was hungry, and even though he knew of at least half a dozen places that would deliver even at this hour, he was tired, and didn’t feel like interacting with anyone. He wished to take his public face off, just as he had removed his stage make up a couple of hours ago, but then went and spent the time afterwards doing stage door appearances for his fans. Which he loved doing. But now, he just felt drained.

As he found the right key, Bobby was sitting at the door obediently, but Tom could see the dog was all but vibrating to be let in. “Bob, what is it, man?” As Tom unlocked the door, Bobby let out a joyous bark and sped in so rapidly Tom was grateful he had dropped the lead, or his shoulder would have suffered a hell of a jerk.

Tom walked in, his eyes bouncing quickly, dropping his bag and pulling out his phone in a reflexive action. While he had never had a fan break into any of his digs, it had happened to several of his friends, and his fingers were already preparing to call security, even as he recognized the smell of biscuits was even stronger now.

Apparently whomever Bobby had run to greet had baked for him. Which was a pretty decent thing to do, stalker-behavior aside.

“You forgot I was coming tonight, didn’t you?” The familiar female voice was amused, as her yet-to-be-seen form was bent over in the kitchen, acknowledging Bobby’s slavish adoration.

Oh, shit. He had.

He dropped his keys in the small dish she had given him to keep his keys when she learned he kept misplacing them.

“How much trouble am I in?” Even his voice was dull.

“Oh, honestly, Tom.” An arm came up from behind him, hugging his waist and brandishing a freshly baked treat, so fresh it was being held in a napkin. “If you’re so tired that you can’t even remember having given your extra key to someone for just this purpose, I think that speaks more to exhaustion than culpability. Have a cookie, Cookie. I made them just like the recipe printed on the bag, so I can’t have messed it up too badly...”

Then another hand snaked around his waist, this one bearing the body and face of none other than the Cookie Monster, who proceeded to menace the other hand’s bounty. “Delayed gratification, Hiddleston!!” Now the female voice behind him was growly and raspy. “No cookies for you, you must practice the art of...”

“Oh, fuck that,” quoth Tom, grabbing the napkin and spinning around to the laughing face of his baker-cum-stalker. “Get the hell away from my biscuits, Cookie Monster, and take your delayed gratification and get stuffed...”

“It’s a puppet, darling, I don’t think they can get stuffed...”

“No, but they can get a fist right up their...”

“Shut up, Tom, and eat your cookie! I am shocked, shocked and appalled by your uncouth behavior...” laughed Sabrina Wright, who was clearly neither shocked nor appalled.

Tom met Sabrina three months ago, when he did an impromptu visit at a children’s hospital as Loki, complete with costume. The entire event was kept under wraps and unpublicized, as it wasn’t sponsored by anyone. Chris Evans had come to the area to visit a friend who was facing surgery, and between him, Charlie Cox, and Tom, they hatched the idea. Then at the last minute, Brie Larson found out about the plan and came along as well.

The children were ecstatic and a “Marvelous time was had by all” as Tom kept saying later, much to everyone’s general disgust as they kept throwing things at him at his apartment...but Tom had noticed that while everyone, children, parents, siblings, and staff were excited and clamoring to be involved in the fun, there were a few patients that were just too ill to participate, and he and his friends made a point to leave some things aside for those kids to have, and to see if there was anything they could do for them once the furor calmed down.

There was one nurse that never joined in the carefully controlled chaos, but went about caring for, and ultimately consoling, the ones who wished to play but couldn’t, or were too ill to notice, or care. Tom saw her picking one child up, and simply rocking him in her arms in a rocking chair for awhile, rubbing his back, and apparently singing to him. He made a mental note to say hello to her as well. He knew there was always someone that had to stay behind and work when everyone was enjoying these kinds of parties, and he wanted to let her know he saw and was touched by the work she was doing with so much heart.

Once the brouhaha and the dust settled, Loki stepped aside, found Nurse Sabrina, and asked if the other children would be interested in seeing the Marvel crew, and she grimaced.

“It’s very kind of you to inquire, uh, Loki, if you and your...cohort would like to perhaps wave at the children from the doorway if they are awake, that would be fine, but that is the most I can allow. They really are quite sick.”

Chris stepped up. “Is it all right if we leave them some signed posters and things like that?”

“Cap, I know that would make them very happy, even if we have to put them up outside of their rooms, looking in...!”

Loki looked into the room where he had seen the little boy Sabrina had rocked. He seemed so frail... “Erm, that little boy...will he be alright?”

Sabrina’s face buttoned up. “I’m afraid I cannot comment on his prognosis, Loki. I will say...I wish you had healing powers. For all of these children, obviously...but especially for him. He was so distressed he could not come out and see you, in particular. He thinks you are, ah, badass. I do not bother correcting his more colorful speech. It’s not relevant.”

“I see. Is he awake?”

“Yes, he is, but I cannot allow you to go in...”

“I understand...tell this young Midgardian to expect a visit in a few minutes...”

One of the giveaway items they had was a small t shirt, which Tom had signed by both characters and actors, and then proceeded to his room.

Small Tim Curran was wondering why Nurse Sabrina had come in, and insisted that she comb his hair, and wash his face...and then...

“Midgardian.”

“Holy sh...smokes,” the little boy breathed. Standing in the doorway was none other than the OG, the badass himself... “Loki?”

“I understand you are unwell and as such I am not to enter your presence. I would not wish to undermine your recovery. However, I come bearing gifts.”

Sabrina entered, grinning from ear to ear, and showed him the T-shirt. Loki had even doodled his face next to his name. “I have embued it with as much healing seidr as possible. I do not know if it will be effective against your Midgardian illness, but I do know it will aid your prodigious courage and strength, provided you heed the instructions of Healer Sabrina, and all others who are working in your aid.”

Captain Marvel, Captain America, and Daredevil also spoke to him personally, adding what qualities they added to his shirt.

Tim was in heaven, and as Sabrina was looking at his vitals, saw he was getting over excited, and thought she would have to cut the visit short, but seeing as she was getting concerned, the actors all proclaimed they needed to depart to return to their duties.

Tim fell asleep that night clutching his shirt, and would not be parted from it. Loki would be pleased to know it did impart healing powers, because it brought the little boy so much happiness...

Tom called Sabrina the next day, and asked if there was anything else he could do for the children in the wing, and Sabrina replied they were still very excited, and he had done more than enough. She was very grateful. She was also very thankful he called to speak with her personally, not because she was flattered on a personal standpoint (although she was) but because her superiors in administration would be quick to turn it into a publicity request or worse, a financial one).

Tom shyly admitted he did have an ulterior motive for asking to speak with her personally...he wanted to know if he could see her sometime.

Something about the small nurse had gotten under his skin. Maybe it was the way she stuck to the background the entire afternoon, even when everyone was getting into the big group photo. Maybe it was the way she never asked for a thing herself, even when they were all speaking casually and privately at the end, when she easily could have. No one would have minded, and even Evans and Larson commented on it over pizza and beer later that evening, how she didn’t ask for a selfie, an autograph, nothing, even though she was as friendly and pleasant as old be...

Cox noticed how Tom blushed when Evans joked about he couldn’t get over someone didn’t want to get a photo with the man who saved New York, or the bastard that almost destroyed it. Cox noticed everything...as he was leaving for the night, he asked Tom, “Are you going to try to get Nurse Ratched’s phone number?”

Tom had flared, “Don’t do that. Don’t make fun of her.”

Cox grinned. “Ah hah. So that’s the way the wind is blowing...” and walked away, whistling.

Coffee became an exchange of What’s App phone numbers. Both of them worked long hours, so texting was a godsend. Texts became marathon phone calls at odd hours of the day, which became meetings in strange places to avoid the paparazzi, until they stumbled into each other’s arms, and each other’s beds.

Sabrina was like no one Tom had ever met: calm, compassionate, cheerful, and not giving a tinker’s damn about the industry, gossip columns, and all the rest of it. When he hesitantly pointed this aspect of her personality out to her she looked at him as though he was something of interest under a microscope.

“Sweet man, I act like I don’t care because I truly don’t. It’s completely irrelevant. Unimportant. Trifling. I have held children’s beating hearts in my hands while doctors have desperately tried to sew them back together in operating rooms because bullets ripped through their little bodies and their bedrooms in housing projects. I’ve held hysterical parents back as they’ve tried to somehow willtheir dying children back to life as they take their last breaths. I’ve held newborns in my hands as they have been only seconds old, and I have held children in my arms as they’ve breathed their last. That, to me, is real. That is life. And it comes wrapped up in tears and laughter and vomit and shit and blood and love and love and love. If some paparazzi, interviewer, man on the street, or tabloid tried to give me shit for loving you, ask me how much I’d care? The answer is not at all. It’s not going to change my mind, or my life.”

Tom knew, then, he had found his one, the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, and grow old with, maybe even have a family of his own with...the question was, would she want the same...?

“...Tom? Tom?...Earth to Major...oh, you know what? Forget about it, Major Tom has crashed, Houston, we have a problem,” sighed Sabrina looking at her lover who had fallen asleep on the sofa still clutching part of a cookie he had yet to finish.

“Well, Bobby, it looks like another night of delayed gratification for me...good thing he’s so cute, and I happen to love the charming beanpole,” she commented wryly, only to see that Bobby was also lying on the floor asleep...and farting.

“Good God, what is it with the Hiddleston men tonight, I wonder?” Laughing quietly, Sabrina got up and made sure the bed was ready (and not in the hapless disarray of clothing tossed all around, which was not usual but happened enough to be worthy of a check). She turned down the covers and made sure there was a bottle of water on Tom’s nightstand.

As she was doing this, Tom woke up with a jerk, and he looked around for Sabrina. He wasn’t quite awake, wasn’t asleep, and Sabrina wasn’t there...she wasn’t there, she had finally done it, come to her senses and left him, he had forgotten she was coming to spend the weekend with him, one the rare occurrences she had the entire weekend off, and then he goes and falls asleep on her, no, noton her, but next to her like a right pillock, as if she wasn’t even there...no, no...he knew it was going to happen eventually, she was too lovely a person to put up with him and his bullshit, the way he was so self-absorbed and caught up in his own problems and life, she was right, she dealt in the real world, and...

He put his head in his hands. “I’m sorry, Sabrina...so sorry. You deserved better, but I loved you the best I could,” he whispered. “I gave you all the heart I have...”

“What’s this then?” A soft voice, sweet like melted chocolate, soothing as a warm kiss...

“Sabrina!” His head shot up so quickly she winced at the cracking sound from his neck, and then saw his reddened, swollen eyes.

“Ah, love, what is it? Nightmare?” She came and extended her hand to him. “Come with me, you’re exhausted, and we’ll cuddle.”

“You’re still here.”

She looked at him tolerantly. “Yes, Tom. Still here. Complete with my Cookie Monster puppet, just to drive you mad. Come to bed. I’ll snuggle with you and chase the bads away, I promise. The only monster here is the blue one eyeing your cookies, and I’ve put him away.”

He took her small hand, and smiled. “There will be no delayed gratification in this house. We will enjoy the things we love, and live the one life we have to its fullest...no longer am I going to delay giving my heart what it desires most...I shall be bold, and decisive...Bobby, you have my express permission, nay, encouragement, to destroy the Cookie Monster, and anything else that dares come between myself and my love...”

Yes. He would be bold. Tomorrow, he would ask her if she would consider becoming a permanent star in his sky, he would stop living in fear of her disappearing the moment he closed his eyes, he would throw caution to the four winds, and belay any idea of delaying his happiness, and hopefully, hers, for any reason, a moment longer. There would be declarations made, and promises, and...

He tripped over his shoes.

“Careful! Harsh, Tom, very harsh...and Bobby, don’t you dare.” They turned off the lights and made their way to bed, Tom sleepily stripping along the way, making Sabrina laugh. “Ah, what the world to pay to see this strip show...”

“Quiet, Woman. This is not a strip show, this is a ritual divestiture of armor.”

“Uh huh,” she skeptically agreed, looking at the trail of clothes behind him. “So, if I was to get undressed like that...”

“Ah, now that would be a strip show, and a lovely one, indeed...”

“Sexist double standards...here, sit down, I will tuck you in...”

“Promise?”

“Tom!”

The naughty little boy expression he gave her was ruined by his yawn he could barely cover. Sabrina laughed as she quickly undressed and put on her sleep clothes, only to be greeted by Tom’s gentle snore the moment she turned out the light. He was so very tired. She was glad he could relax, and find some rest.

And while yes, it was definitely a night for delayed gratification, they had the whole weekend to look forward to sharing. She, for one, was so looking forward to bringing out the Cookie Monster puppet in the morning...maybe as part of a wake up call...

Tagging @villainousshakespeare , @winterisakiller , @vodka-and-some-sass , @lotus-eyedindiangoddess , @just-the-hiddles , @yespolkadotkitty , @hopelessromanticspoonie , @theheartofpenelope , @sabine-leo , @wegingerangelica , @ciaodarknessmyheart , @wrathkitty , @rhemasky , @catsladen​ @sourpatchkidsandacokecan​ , @redfoxwritesstuff​ , @the-insomniac-cat2​ , @alexakeyloveloki​ , @myoxisbroken​ , @ladyfluff​ , @toomanystoriessolittletime​

[wheremytwinwatches]

[Where My Twin Watches]: Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 19

Last time, Ross lived and was snuck out to Xing, Ed got yet another reason to hate Scar, Barry met himself, and Gluttony paid Riza a visit. Onwards!

Oh dear, all Roy can hear is gunshots from “Elizabeth”’s end. Go, Flame Alchemist! Save your bestie! Never mind, let’s just ignore the fights and go back to Sword Guy utterly disregarding the notion of Confidentiality. He says that Barry says the Colonel’s got a plan to smoke out the Goths from the Fifth Laboratory. This causes Al to head out, searching for Hughes’ murderer. Stop whining Ling, Al will tooootaly tell you when he gets back. Later, Winry! Episode 19 - “Death of the Undying” Uh oh, Gluttony’s got Riza by the neck, and she’s out of ammo. The Goth just chuckles at his multiple headshots, he’s about to eat Riza someone quick dog? Where’d the dog come from. Oh hey, Fuery’s here! Thanks for tossing Riza a new pistol, you’ve almost made up for ruining my Fuhrer Fury joke with this! Two people shooting at once is a bit more effective, but only just. Gluttony’s knocked to the window but his big frame doesn’t fit, and he’s healed up from the bullet holes in a few seconds as Riza and Fuery click their now-empty weapons. Ok, time for the backup of the backup to arrive!

Oh my Leto it is so satisfying to see that Goth go flying out the tower to the caption of [Gluttony screams]. Nice timing, Roy, good hustle! Riza… is not exactly appreciative of the rescue, yells at Roy for leaving his post and blowing his plausible deniability. Fuery just chuckles at them going at it, looking down at the charred body and wondering who the fat guy was. Ok, now get down there and finish the job, Gluttony isn’t finished off just- Whoop, Bio!Barry’s making a break for it, with the homicidal Soul Armor in pursuit. Roy and Riza bark out orders to the minion and mutt respectively. Then slooowly walk down the stairs as Riza thanks Roy for saving their life, Roy’s too focused on the mission to see her smile. Daw. Huh, once again Roy makes better time than I thought, Havoc’s barely run a few paces before he pulls up in a car and tells to loser to get in, they’re going Goth hunting. And then Al shows up! Buckle up buddy, time for a chase through the city. Well at least Barry’s having fun, chasing down the meatbag to do an impromptu funeral. Riza’s reloading and wondering if Blubber Man’s going to stay down, less sure than Roy after her own bullets had next to no effect. Al asks if he had an Uroboros tattoo, when she confirms seeing on his tongue he identifies him as a Homunculus. Hey, watch where you’re driving Roy! Said Colonel isn’t exactly happy to learn that the Goth probably survived the barbecue. Much later, looks like they’ve cornered BioBarry in the Third Laboratory. A direct tie to the military, then? Well, with that connection they can pull back. Uh, Barry? That is the opposite of pulling back. And Roy’s happy about this? Oh I get it, the crazy Soul Armor goes running in, and Roy’s Crew get to follow “in hot pursuit of the crazed murderer”. You other cops, go and secure the perimeter or something. Down into the Basement of Dramatic String Music they go, but then they face the bane of adventuring parties: a split corridor. Oh yeah, split the party, this can only go well. Roy and Havoc are going around, remarking at how dilapidated everything looks- Uh oh. Lust. Havoc, beware the Angry Girlfriend! On a more serious note, oh crap the party is split up in a basement presumably with multiple Goths. Might be time to stage a retreat. Ok ok, another laugh at how Havoc is a fool for honkers, but for real, back to seriousness. Roy asks about Hughes, and when Lust taunts him he goes for a kneeshot. It shows she’s a Homunculus, but it’ll take more than that to- Roy interrupts her monologue with the rest of his clip, it’s about as effective as we can expect but at least it shut her up for a few moments. But the claws come out, and Lust… stabs herself? Oh. Oh dear. That’s a Philosopher’s Stone. So if all the Goths are built around this miraculous tool of Transmutation then they’ll just keep coming back. On the plus side, now we have a clear weakness: destroy the Stone and they lose their regeneration. Quick Roy, shoot the Glowing Weak Spot! Nope, too slow. Now that Lust is finished talking to the Soon-To-Be-Dead-Men, she disarms them… and slices a water pipe, rendering Roy’s Ignition Gloves useless. Well, crap. Both men run screaming for the exit, tumble outside while Havoc asks what they’re gonna do. But Roy’s happy? Oh! He may have lost his signature ability, but he’s still a State Alchemist who can transmute any materials on hand. Say, a bunch of water into hydrogen gas? Thanks for cutting that pipe, lady! Here, have a lighter!

Al and Riza pick up on the Big Boom, but Riza just steels herself and keeps searching for their target. Good trust in your boss, here’s hoping you two don’t end up in the same situation. After the Jean Havoc/Lust narrator cards, Roy and Havoc are searching the now-torched room. A bit of snarking about the busted ex-girlfriend gift how bad cigarettes are, Roy says aw man why did you say that without a body. She’ll be just in the next room and or no she’s in this one under the rubble! Havoc’s been spiked! Oh crap oh crap, Roy’s still weaponless in a room with Lust, this isn’t good. Oh right, Havoc’s gun which good Leto is rather strong, Lust is down an arm. She’s still boasting about how Roy can’t put her down for good… while her Stone is exposed. Yoink! It’s rather effective, and Lust actually crumbles away. A bit anticlimactic, honestly. But now Roy’s got the MacGuffin! Now to heal Havoc, give it to the Elric Brothers, and the show’s over! I wonder what complication is going to come up now. Roy gets ready to cast Heal and GUH OH MY LETO NO NO NO Lust just grew back around the Stone, her half-formed body chided Roy for being so forward, and Spiky Fingers to the chest. And now HE’S here! [Lab Guard Captain]: “Uh-- Uh… Your Excellency!” [Fuhrer Wrath]: “What’s the current status?” This is not backup! This is the opposite of backup! Lust dumps Roy on the ground, oh-so-sad that she’s been forced to kill such a promising sacrificial candidate as she shreds his glove and leaves him to watch Havoc die before he himself bleeds out. Um. Wow. I can hope that with Lust pulling the classic “Leave before you see them die for sure” mistake that they’ll be ok? Please? Havoc? Come on, answer me buddy. While this awfulness is going on, Al and Riza arrive in an incredibly bright white room with a large Alchemy Symbol (the same on we saw in Xerxes?) on the wall, and Barry looking down at the lifeless remains of his old body, commenting on how a soul shoved in another form is so harmful. This of course shocks Al, makes him wonder if he’ll survive as a Soul Armor until they can reform their original bodies. Al… *Sigh* Riza, just put the pistol down, we’re perfectly aware at how effective that is against the Goths. Lust demands to know why Barry is helping out our guys, he basically says it’s for the heck of it and he wants to kill her anyway. The Goth just complains about how she’ll have to kill a second candidate now since Al tagged along, at which point Barry gets tired of waiting and charges and he’s dead now. Whelp. So long, Barry the Butcher. So now that that’s out of the way, Lust prepares to send Riza after her superior. Riza… does not take the news well. [Furious!Riza]: “You biiittch!!” She empties one pistol to mournful music, same with the second, and finishes with a revolver. All to achieve Lust standing back up and patronizingly asking if she’s done. Aw hell no, don’t you fucking dare call Riza weak. Al, pound her face in. Damnit Riza, take this chance and get out of here! Al’s the only one who can at least slow her down with his Transmutation ability and the fact that he’s friggin metal while you’re flesh and blood, get moving! But no, they keep doing the “save yourself, no you save yourself” thing heroes do while Lust stands there annoyed.

How old is Al again? Whatever it is, it’s way too goddamn young for him to be standing his ground against this murderer, screaming about how [Al]: “I’m sick of watching people die! And I can’t just sit back and take it anymore!” -to a montage of all those touched by death in this show, including that time someone got stabbed while inside him. Friggen Leto, this show. [wait, WHAT?!]: “Well spoken… I couldn’t agree more.” Al IMMEDIATELY earthbends up a shield to protect him and Riza as the room gets filled with ALL OF THE FIRE, it clears to see charred Lust looking oh-so-satisfyingly shocked as The Badass Roy grits out that he got her on her knees, after all. Then the camera pans to oh my Leto I did not expect to see The Badass Roy’s chiseled abs today but I am happy that I did, as he stands there in all his determined glory clutching his stab wounds with one hand and holding the not-so-broken lighter in the other. Or still broken, but The Badass Roy didn’t let that stop him as he just uses the flint to get a spark and a TC carved into his own hand. Cue EVEN MORE FIRE as Lust whines about how he should have bled out by now, but of course The Flame Alchemist seared the wound closed, admits that he aaaaalmost passed out from the pain before MORE FIRE. Now, about that claim that he couldn’t kill you? Let’s see how many FIREs it takes to get to the center of a Gothie-pop, huh?! Again! And again! AND AGAIN! AND AGAIN! BURN, YOU BITCH! No no fuck no you don’t get to suddenly be patched up and charging towards The Badass Roy no no no [The Bitch]: “You killed me.” YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS Lust is crumbling to ashes now as The Badass Roy’s attacks have seemed to finally have damaged her Stone. But she wouldn’t be a Goth if she didn’t go out with a disparaging monologue, pleased that she at least was killed by a man with such cold and focused eyes, looking forward to the day those eyes are wide with agony. [Lust]: “It’s coming... It’s coming…” The Philosopher's Stone falls, and crumbles away. Finally, Roy falls, the effort of his attack and his injuries overcoming him. Riza and Al brush off his thanks and prepare to get a medic aw HELL no I’d forgotten about Bradley, he’s just outside the room- but he just sheathed his sword and walked away. Bwuh? You’re letting them live? What’s your game, Wrath? Ok whatever, the Fuhrer is being mysterious, what else is new, just get Roy and Havoc some help right now! Oh yeah, Winry’s been left at the hotel all day. She’s telling herself over and over that Al’s alright. And here he is! A bit worse for wear, but nothing a little bit of TLT (Tender Loving Transmutation) won’t fix! And he can even do it himself, so no worries Winry! [Winry]: “Moron! Welcome back!” [Al]: “Uh, okay… thanks!” Aw, laugh it out you two. And maybe get some glue for Al’s arm. Wait, Barry’s still alive?! Oh, Lust missed his sigil with her attack, so he’s down to just that little piece of sheet metal. But he’ll be back- wait, BioBarry’s still alive?! How in Leto’s name did he survive all of the FIRE? Well whatever, we get a part-funny, part-bittersweet moment as dumb old BioBarry paws at Barry’s sigil, wiping it away and sending The Butcher off for good. Sayanora, you homicidal maniac. Thanks for your help in the end. Oh hey, Al! How you doing, Protagonist? The Mighty Armstrong and Breda are seeing him off at the train station, is he finally going back to Central to rejoin the Blonde Kids? Well, at least Al will have one heck of a story for him. Never mind, looks like a detour to the graveyard… where there’s someone there? In a brown coat with blond hair… no, it can’t be… It’s him. The man we’ve only seen in flashbacks and the intro. The man who’s forever covered up in pictures. It’s Papa Elric. It’s Hohenheim. … And THAT’S WHERE WE END THE EPISODE?! WHAT THE-

[bleedingcoffee42]

Eureka AU-  Part 1

RoyAi Eureka AU I got the idea for yesterday and had to write out.   More coming, easily a 20k word fic if I let it be.    Premise is a modern day AU where there is a secret small town in the middle of nowhere that houses a community of scientists who make tech for the government.   Great series that I miss.  An AU that is so vaguely built on the concept of this series you have to squint to see it.   Thanks Dream Me for coming up with another WIP I don’t have time for.

Under a readmore, Part 1 got longer than I wanted it to.  

xx

Riza Hawkeye watched the senators and military higher-ups try to interact with the scientists at this impromptu party Roy Mustang had thrown together.   Eyes were glazed over, tablets were displaying incredible scientific breakthroughs and there were small robots roaming the foyer with trays glued to them so they could deliver drinks and snacks.   She understood why this was necessary, funding was in jeopardy as always, but she didn't understand why an unfathomable genius couldn't used his goddamned phone to give them more than three hours notice this was going to happen.

Roy smiled and lead his group of important government officials around the room, purposely directing them away from scientists like Edward Elric who would instantly seize the chance to declare science was for the people not the military.   He has been in the capital for budget meetings, trying to prove that this little town nobody had heard of was the epicenter of technology and needed to remain funded.   Weapons, medicine, electronics, space technology....all was on display here by the country's best minds to prove to these individuals that Eureka was a vital asset to the country.

Eureka, a town that was on nobody's map and nobody's radar.  A town founded decades ago by  geniuses who wanted to remove the pressures of the outside world from interfering with research while also providing it's occupants with safety and resources.   Isolation also meant that these important people had no idea the routine mishaps that occurred because said experiments often went horribly, horribly wrong.

Scientists could be complete fucking idiots.

That was where she came in, Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye was on assignment here to be the military's presence and protection.  She wore the uniform of the town's Sheriff, something that did nothing to encompass the massive scale of her job description.  With only her and her Deputy Jean Havoc, the small town's law enforcement office covered everything from petty arguments to defending Eureka from attack if enemies ever discovered it for the treasure trove of knowledge it was.

Today's danger was only the head of the program itself, Roy Mustang.   Dr. Mustang, with a slew of doctorates that he would gladly brag about when given the chance, had just come back from a month away from Eureka and failed to send a single text or communication to tell anyone he was planning to do so.   A man with incredible resources at his fingertips, a phone on his hip at all times and enough brainpower to juggle a dozen tasks at once, yet not one single brain cell dedicated to thinking about how she would react to being surprised by his announcement three hours ago.

And she knew he did it for dramatic effect.   She knew he did it to surprise his people because she would have definitely let them know and prepare for this visit.  He wanted them scurrying around, tripping over themselves in excitement and fear when these important people arrived.   Chaos made things seem busy instead of the boring calm that was research being done; testing the research as when it could have unpredictable outcomes.

The alternative would have probably lead the group to enter Eureka and find the town in flames, chimera running the streets and clocks running backwards.   It's not that these geniuses were incompetent, it was that they had the resources and freedom to do what they wanted and every damned one of them took advantage of it.   Putting pressure on them to have something to present to Senators and Generals would have been a disaster.   It also kept some secrets, secret.   It gave tastes of things to come, if the budget was approved, versus delivering results they could shutdown the place and use now.    Roy knew what he was doing, but she hated it none-the-less.

And he knew it.

Riza decided to take a walk, help herself to some coffee that wasn't made by gourmet contraption that required way too many levels of input.  She knew she had to be emanating levels of anger from the way people were avoiding her and that wasn't helping anyone.   She walked down the hall to the break room, avoiding a cleaning robot who was spinning in circles trying to clean popcorn it was dropping from an overloaded popping machine epoxied to it lid.   Then she ducked as a drone flew overhead with a cookie tray.   Did nobody remember the Christmas Party disaster from last year?   Why the hell was all this stuff out of storage?  

No.   NO.  This was Roy's mess and if the tray gave someone a concussion that it was on him.   He'd spectacularly dance around the blame and find some positive to it, he always did.  This was her five minutes to brew coffee in a 'primitive' 'cheap' coffee pot she had to smuggle in to town on her own in order to have simple, perfect coffee.  Five minutes to cool off.

She heard someone at the break room door as she pressed the 'On' button after loading the offending machine.  She didn't turn around knowing who it was and her phone went off.   She pulled it out and saw a simple text message from Roy, 'sorry'.   Damn him.   “No, you're not.”

Roy watched her turn around and cross her arms.   “You're right.  I'm not and I won't insult your intelligence by explaining why I did it.  You already know.  I'm sorry that I had to employ that tactic and upset you, though.”

“Well, we are right back to where we left off before you ran out of here last month without so much as a phone call until you were in the car full of government officials driving back to Eureka.”

“Our conversation...” He paused and took a step towards her and then another.  Enough to close the gap and keep things quieter but not invade her space.  “Needed to be had in person not over the phone.”

“Don't patronize me, I'm not mad because you 'upset' me by doing your job.  I'm downright pissed you have no respect for me what-so-ever to include me in whatever scheme it is you think necessary to keep your job.” She said and remained in place, eyes on him, the coffee pot gurgling as it brewed it's batch of bean water like these people thought the early settlers did.

Roy reacted even though he was trying not to.   “Well, sorry if 'I think' it a priority to keep Eureka from becoming a ghost town so we don't descend into the dark ages scientifically or worse have the personnel here go to the private sector and sell their ideas to the highest bidder.    It's my job to protect our interests here and your job to protect this place physically.”

It was a misstep and he knew it.  She watched him close his eyes and put up his hand, asking to pause and take back what he said.  Unfortunately that project allowing the rewind of time for a few seconds had already imploded on itself last week.  A mess he wasn't here to clean up, so no her job was more than to just protect this place from invasion.   “Go back to doing your job Roy, when you can fit me in on your schedule you let me know.  I need to be read in on what exactly our partnership is here because I'm tired of being the ally when you agree with me and your enemy when I dare question you.  This is my town too.”

“Riza.”  He said and opened his eyes.  He took a deep breath and tried to take himself out of the mindset of dealing with politicians.   “You're not my enemy, you're my wife.”

“Am I?”  She asked.  “Because neither one of us is capable of not being who we are professionally in order to make those fleeting moments of personal neutral ground happen for longer than a few days.   My job is to protect you and everyone in this town.   Your job is to protect all of us from the world.   Why the hell can't you stop being such a dick and throwing around your rank when you don't get your way?  To me.  We should be partners professionally, but you can't give an inch and I do not answer to you.  I still am active military and this Sheriff's uniform is just to put everyone at ease.   So when General Raven comes to me for my situational report, what do I say?   Am I a member of this town or not, because I have a list of really concerning things I should be sending to him that we just put in the shredder and forget about once your people resolve them.”

Roy knew he should get back to the party but he saw his marriage slipping away as Riza turned her back to him to make her military grade garbage coffee.   She was right, of course she was.  She allowed him to focus back on reality.   He loved her and he took her for granted.   “Can we talk now?  In my office?”

“We have a lot to talk about.”  She said and turned back to him, coffee cup in hand.  “And, if I recall, you ran away when it didn't go your way last time.”

“OK, I deserve that.  I didn't run away from us, I ran towards a inferno that was our annual budget going up in flames in Congress.”  He replied.  “Riza, It was an emergency.   I'm not used to...sharing.   I'm just not used to burdening someone else with everything I deal with. ”

“Roy, this isn't about you running out the door and saying 'duty calls' this is about the fact that we got married and you thought you could soften me up about not turning over your technology to the military.”  She replied and walked up to him and looked him in the eye.   She could see him struggling with what to say because there was no compromising for them on a lot of issues.   He wrongly thought he could count on her to stop being a soldier, to stop seeing their successes here as something that could save lives.  Lives of men she served with, lives of men who were still serving while she was on special assignment.  

“Sometimes, what we make here is too powerful to be in someone's hands.  Sometimes it's too much to be released into this word and we need time to modify it for use.“  He said softly.  “I know I said the wrong things, but I don't know how to argue without being an asshole.”

“You should learn.”  She said .  

“Teach me.”  He said in a whisper, begging.  “Don't give up on me yet.”

“Go back to your party before Edward launches into a speech about the evils of having science married to the military and someone reminding him that this is a Department of Defense venture.” Riza said.

“Let him.”   Roy waved that threat off.   “It will make them want it all the more.    It will make them see the very real threat of a genius like him going and working on his own.   Don't tell him I said that.”

“If you want to talk, you know where my office is.”  She said and walked around him only to have him reach out and take her hand.   “It will do you some good to find out what it's like to not have everything happen on your terms.”

“Are you still sleeping in your office?”  He asked.  

“You know I am.  You have your house's security system reporting to your phone.”  She replied and tried to take her hand back.  He was rubbing his fingers over her wedding ring.  

“Its our house.”  He said and could feel months of bad decisions all coming down on him and wishing he had that damned time machine to go back and fix them.  It really wasn't their house.  He just had her move in with him when they got married, assuming it was just a house.   A place to live. Another decision he didn't consult her on.   She felt more at home on a surplus cot in her office, in a jail cell, than in his home.   He felt a flutter of panic now.  “Please, give me ten minutes.”

“You really think that ten minutes will finish the conversation we were having last month?” She asked.

“It's a start.”  He said.  “It will give you time to drink your coffee.”

“Fine.”

xxxxxxxxx

[iamcinema]

IAC Reviews #19: Wishbone (2000)

Hey, is anyone still alive out there? I hope so.

Coming off of last year was a disaster, and well, we didn't enter 2021 on the highest of notes. I guess you could say I've been burned out and not having a ton of motivation to do a lot, even with how much I've been grinding on Letterboxd over the past few months. I think I'm ready to come back, and since there's a storm is brewing outside, let's make today a movie night...and boy, do I have a treat for you.

I think I've made it kind of apparent that I have a weakness for terrible, low-budget, trash fires. There's something oddly charming about them where they always find a way to lure me in, and given the scene on Letterboxd, there's a bunch of SOV masochists out there waiting to get their next fix. While digging around for material to cross off my lists on titles to find and add, I was reminded of a terrible, low-budget film that was shot in my hometown over 20 years ago. I'm full of fear for what's to come, and you should be too.

________________________________________

Wishbone is a 2000 horror film directed by Timothy Gaer and co-created by Michael Fasciana, centering on a woman named Laurie who receives an unusual artifact from her eccentric aunt she acquired from a pawn dealer that causes those around her to disappear when they make wishes on it. Hmm, seems simple enough. Let's what we're in for, and I'm absolutely not ready because the IMDb page says this shit is over two hours long, despite a version on Youtube having it just a bit over 90 minutes. Let us pray.

Wishbone in One Gif:

This acting is might be the death of me, but I'm not sure what's going to be the catalyst that causes me to fall down the stairs and break my neck: the sound quality, the weird editing, or the music...oh, god what the fuck is the music doing? So much noise, noise noise!

Okay, so let's dig into this before I take too long of a break and I don't come back to this. I've already had to pause the movie a few times to catch my breath or just rewind and go back because there's a good amount that I keep missing because, apparently, the star of the film is the score and not Laurie. This is so, so slow. I've seen a lot of long horror movies, but at least with those, it feels like things are happening. Even Blood Lake had filler that did something to some degree, and with that, it was consistently bad. This movie doesn't even know what it wants to do. So, as a disclaimer, there's a good chance I'm probably missing some key details that I didn't hear because it seems that characterization isn't important if the music insists on talking over everyone.

________________________________________

So, to date, this might be one of the worst horror movies (and movies in general) that I've ever seen and it might be one of the slowest things in the entire megaverse. This is over 90 minutes of, somehow, nothing and something happening simultaneously - if that makes any sense.

This takes its sweet ass time moving along and there's so little pay-off. The majority of the characters are either nameless or we aren't introduced to them in a way that matters enough for us to care about them. It's kind of like with Violent Shit and other low-budget slasher films where the majority of the characters serve no purpose but to be disposable. Next to the two main leads, Laurie and Joe, and maybe a few others, everyone is just forgettable and even then I couldn't honestly tell you anyone's name if it was explicitly brought up. IMDb isn't helpful either, and at this point it just makes me care even less. I'm not sure if my patience has been tested too much with this, but it's kind of sad that I'm more invested in seeing what the background characters are doing than Laurie and Joe - even though I can't really hear what the hell they're saying.

Yeah, I really can't move on without talking about the sound and the music. Why is it always the audio with these movies? This has an estimated budget of $100,000, or $154,779.43 today in August 2021. How do you have the ability to somehow not make this look like a potato for the most part, well for the day shots that is, but you don't have it in you to get a good mic and someone who knows how to mix and edit correctly? I would sort of understand if you spent the majority of the money on talent to cut corners, but this is just ridiculous. Did they use the cameras' built-in mics to catch the audio here?

I feel like I need to interrupt the movie constantly to tell them to speak up because if I turn up the volume, I'm just getting bombarded with this really weird soundtrack that doesn't fit. I shit you not, during one of the kill scenes, the music booming over it sounds like it was ripped from Kevin MacLeod's "lounge" library and then the reverse happens where ominous music is playing over a more touching scene - and that's not even a dig at Kevin as an artist. That's just how inappropriate and unfitting this editing is. The weird fucking thing about this specific kill scene is that it sounds like the audio is stacked, so there are two different instrumental tracks going on.

How do you fuck something as basic as tension up like that? The audio choices are so painfully inconsistent and it doesn't know what it wants to do. There are moments where you can hear the dialogue just fine, but then the music comes in out of nowhere to segway us into the next scene and it starts to muffle things out. If it isn't that, then the dialogue is just so soft that you'd think there was a pillow on the mic or we're hearing them from the opposite side of a sound-dampened room.

This is what I meant earlier when I said I apologize in advance if I miss anything crucial because I can't make out half of these conversations. So, I'm having to keep going back if I care enough or just having to pause and take breaks because there's only so much I can handle. This means that there's a good amount I'll blank on because I have to keep going back because I can't remember the majority of these no-named characters. Who the fuck are you people? Why am I supposed to care?

If I'm understanding the non-existent rules of the wishbone, you're connected to whoever dies in some way. So, why is any of this relevant to what's going on? If it's random, then it's another reason for me not to care just because some frat kids made a wish at some point. Again, who the hell are you and why am I supposed to lament over them? Why is there so much useless filler here? Did I mention that this is over 90 minutes long and there are *three* fucking party scenes? Party scenes are to Wishbone as ten-minute-long jetskiing and beer game scenes are to Blood Lake.

Oh, speaking of other shit that's annoying. Let's talk about general editing because the sound isn't the only thing that's a mess here.

I swear that almost every single scene in this ends with a fade-out/fade-in shot. Only one or two scenes come to mind where this doesn't happen, and the first time it did I thought my browser was freezing because it abruptly cut to black and then smash cuts to a party scene. I've never, ever seen a movie that abused this that much before and it's on par with something I would have seen made by a bunch of high school kids. So, when we have a moment where this doesn't happen and it plays out normally, it feels like a breath of fresh air. I'm sure this movie's run time could have been shaved down by at least a minute or two if this wasn't a problem, along with all the useless close-up shots that serve nothing to the plot.

It's such a waste of time. I'm so fucking tired. How was this movie's budget $100k? Did they spend most of it on renting the Scranton Police Department for a few shots or did it go towards their impromptu trip to Party City? I'm so tired and I don't care anymore.

Do you want to know what the real kicker is? With just barely twenty minutes left, the whole lore about the monkey's wishbone paw comes back and that's when Laurie and her friend Karen think something is weird. Isn't this whole realization trope that happens within the first or second act, not now with your Great Value brand version of the Dream Warriors?

Also, it's not specified how much time has gone by since the start, but it has to have been at least a week or two. It's incredibly weird how they paint the main characters and the unnamed background ones as such good friends that they don't think it's weird how almost all of them have disappeared - especially one girl who doesn't seem off-put that her boyfriend (or ex) disappeared after getting into an argument at one of the parties and none of his friends could reach him either at his own house.

The final showdown is an utter pain in the ass to get through because the conflict ends as abruptly as it starts and it's so unsatisfying. We get to see the face of our villain, I guess, and then more or less cut to our leads holding hands down the street set to the same looping lounge music we've been dealing with for over 90 damn minutes. Is everyone else who went with them dead? Did they live? Who cares! That's one thing the movie and I can agree on since we never see them again. We end on a shitty cliffhanger that's supposed to prepare us for a sequel, which thankfully never happened.

________________________________________

And that was Wishbone. Holy fucking shit, I've never been so thankful for a movie to be over in my life. It's 11:07 PM as of tinkering with some minor revisions and I've been in purgatory with this for over five hours, and yet, it feels like an entire lifetime has gone by.

I've raved about how bad Blood Lake was with its incredibly bad pacing, but this is next level awful and a testament to bad filmmaking if I've ever seen it. I expect a lot of the things I complained about from super amateur filmmakers who are shooting on an actual shoestring budget, not people who had that much money to fuck around with. How did they have that kind of a budget, and the most they can give us is bad audio, Windows Movie Maker levels of basic editing, three wrap parties, and a few crumbs of gore that we could see?

This was physically painful to see and I'm in much worse shape having endured it than I would have been if I sat through something liked Boardinghouse, and that has a two-and-a-half-hour-long version tied to it. This is just a marvel and I mean that in a so-bad-it's-bad way, not like how SOV enthusiasts who love this stuff pine over. If I had to give one thing going for it, one single granule of gold that I enjoyed from this, it's the limited shots we get of the area so I could make a game out of seeing what local spots I recognized. If playing I Spy is the only way for someone to endure your movie, then I don't know what else to say.

Wishbone is a hot mess where shit's happening, but also nothing is happening at the same time. I wouldn't wish this on anyone. In fact, I wish this movie never existed or would die in the ether and never return to our mortal realm ever again. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go have a smoke and hope I don't get run over by a hearse tomorrow.

RATING: 0.5/10

[tomerasange]

Chapter 10: Wyvern Tor

“Your punishment for the actions taken today will be significant and swift. You are hereby banned from the arena, and you will be expelled from the walls of this city.” “Damn your consequences! I am here for victory, and you have stolen it from me!” “We have rules you must abide by.” “I will have my justice and vengeance. I swear my life on this.”

As I awoke, the words of a memory reeling in my head, I could see my effects in the room sustained by the morning air. The night hung on my conscious person, and I arose to greet the day.

My hair was starting to fray and crosshatch from its standard curtain of poise, and my personal opinion was the sooner I could find a measure of peace, the sooner I could attend to my appearance once more. Somehow never to know peace in the traditional sense again, I heard a clatter and a boom from below my location. I could only guess to the reason, and I dressed and descended.

In the tavern’s main room, Urnig had awoken and in a fit of action was eyeing up a half-orc, who was acting in earnest. In a ceremonial beating of the chest, Urnig challenged the half-orc to a contest of might. They had locked arms in a test of strength, only for Urnig to find himself clocked upside the head and driven into the floor. Epide and Artemis sat off to the side with breakfast cheering on the scrum as Fardahr dug into his plate of humble meats. The barkeep was in a row over this impromptu melee, crying out, “Why must you have this dispute in my bar? Can’t this be held outside?”

In a moment of lucidity, I decided against involving myself with the hoi polloi, lest I suffer a deck against the cheek. I walked towards the front of the inn and tried to redirect the poor barkeep’s attention with a nonemotional response. “Just allow them to have this moment, darling. Now, onto breakfast. I think a coffee and... perhaps a light serving of bread.”

The barkeep only shook his head in disbelief, and turned to his work. As I proceeded to survey the ongoing fight, Urnig went for another attack. The half-orc blocked heartily again, and ended it with a punctuated blow. Both Epide and Artemis were stunned that Urnig, the mountainous sorcerer whose violence met no quarter, was fell by this newcomer. I walked over, silver tongue at the ready, to engage with our guest.

“My, my. Quite the showing, there. Absolutely powerful. The name is Tomera Sange. And what might your name be?” “Rokk” “Pleasure to meet you, kind sir. I must ask, however... why did you choose to fight our friend?” “Challenged me” “I see, I see. I must ask, out of sheer curiosity, what your purpose is in Phandalin.” “Lord’s Alliance sent me. I’m your backup.”

A chill and sudden flattening of mood swept though me in a perhaps comedic sense. While I did find another ally in our party perfectly acceptable, to think the Alliance was growing tired of our supposed lack of results. Perhaps they were worried that Glasstaff’s betrayal might occur once more. Perhaps they were still concerned about the safety of Gundren, whose location still evaded us. Perhaps Sildar had been so concerned with other incidents that his report read in listed form cut down to only needed details, like the events of a warfront, and failed to acknowledge we might have no need for backup.

I kept a diplomatic face. “Ah, yes. The Lord’s Alliance! Wonderful, darling. As a representative, I will see fit that you are acquainted well into our group.”

Rokk only nodded in curt acknowledgement and sat down with Artemis and Epide. Urnig, still reeling from the fight, stood up and dusted himself off, content with the results. At this time, Aurora joined us downstairs. With the group rejoined, we greeted our newest company member:

ROKK, the Half-Orc Fighter. He wielded a wooden club with a measure of unbridled confidence, and possessed a fighting style quite unlike mine. A brutish and physically taxing art, he seemed more adept at taking blows than most of my compatriots, let alone my own frame. While we were deciding towards our day’s itinerary, Artemis took a vested interest in talking with him, wanting to know of his exploits.

We sought out the decision for our next exploit. Given we weren’t any closer to discovering the location of Wave Echo Cave, and a travel towards Thundertree seemed like it could wait for us, we agreed that clearing the Triboar Trail would do us and Phandalin the most good. The seasons were turning a colder sorts, and soon winter would come to the continent.

As I examined a map of the Sword Coast, I realized this would be quite advantageous for my reputation. Clearing the Triboar Trail would allow supplies to flow between the North and East and Neverwinter, and in addition give the chieftain of Triboar more weight in the continent’s economy by superseding the high and low Dessarin Valley and Long Trail via the town of Beliard, another frontier town even smaller than Phandalin. Having convened with Triboar’s leader, this would give me a great reputation of one who secured the trade routes.

We set off for town and upon closer examination of the distance to travel, it would take roughly a half day’s travel to the settlement of Wyvern Tor, where most activity was occurring on the trail.

Aurora made the initial suggestion. “Perhaps it would be a boon for our purposes to rent a team of horses and cart for travel. If we come across a lode or treasure.” “So, a visit to Barthen’s Provisions before we leave?” “Would be in our favor.”

As we approached the storehouse, the workers were hard pressed at work unloading supplies for the town, having no more concern for raids by the Redbrands. Barthen was in his store when we arrived. “Aye, welcome back! I’d like to thank you again for your work on the town. You’ve given me and a great deal of people a good boost of confidence. Now, what will you be needin’ today?” Aurora handled the transaction. “We are in the need of a team of horses and a cart to pull. Off to Wyvern Tor to halt the orc raids, and we might happen across some interesting pieces. At the very least, we’ll be given transportation.” “Smart on you to do that. I’ll have the lads hitch a team for you, and that’d run you... twenty gold to rent. In addition, I’d expect additional fees in the case of damages to the cart or horses. Bottom line and all that.” “Of course.” Aurora looked back to me with a knowing stare, and it occurred to me we were in the most advantageous position financially to rent the cart. We payed our share, and awaited outside for the cart.

The midday sun hung high above the town as we set off North. At the helm was Fardahr, driving the horses. Urnig and Rokk took to covering the sides of the cart. Epide, Artemis, Aurora, and I sat in back. I thought back to my first travels toward Phandalin, nearly a week’s time removed from my current situation. And yet, the ease of the ride brought back a similar fondness. The sun and peace let me rest my eyes for a moment.

As we neared the Wyvern Tor, the cart jolted to a halt. I was awoken to the sight of Fardahr looking off in the distance. “What’s the matter, Fardahr?” “Can’t tell. I’m seeing odd movement up ahead.”

I readied my sword in preparation, only to be nearly thrown from the cart as the horses bucked. Something terrified the creatures and the cart took off. Fardahr still at the helm, I had to make a quick decision, and in the confusion I jumped from the wagon. Thinking the wooded area would have a measure of soft loam, I was immediately hoist by my hubris as the ground gave way to a hardened soil. My shoulder hit the ground with a thud and I tried to gingerly ascend to my feet. As I tried to scan for what Fardahr had detected, I could see in the tree line to the left of the road that weapons had been drawn.

As I ran ahead, rapier drawn, I could see Urnig and Artemis pinned in a swarm of vile creatures. They appeared as giant insects, flying and encircling with rapidly beating wings and bodies filled with claret, a long and sharp proboscis the instrument of torture. Aurora had taken her harp from her side and dipped behind a covering in preparation to unleash her magic. Seeing me, she exclaimed, “What a situation we’ve found ourselves in!” I couldn’t agree more, as several of the vermin flew into our vicinity.

From behind, Fardahr wielded his crossbow and attempted to catch one of them before it collided with us. The bowstring snapped with authority, but the arrow soared wide, as the insects continued on our trajectory. Aurora met one in combat, but was quickly stabbed through the arm.

As I set my eyes on one of the smaller blights, the creature lost its height and collapsed to the ground. Turning about, I could see a familiar figure standing no more than six inches tall, floating in a bag of detritus and odors. Epide had cast a spell of sleep on the local fauna, making our task that much easier. Unfortunately, this had the added consequence of putting Fardahr immediately out of commission. This matter would have to be attended to before our eventual conquest against the orc population.

Having seen another of the flying creatures darting into my vision, I stuck the rapier through its carapace, instantly dispatching the creature. It was in this sudden attempt at skewering my foe I remembered the creature was filled to the brim with the blood and sinew of local creatures, and my blade was immediately coated with the viscous red. Gently, I set about removing the still twitching corpse from its perch, which proved simple given the base anatomy of this particular specimen. Still, the effort was disgusting, and I would need to clean my blade in the aftermath.

As the fight progressed, I could see Rokk pulling his measure of the fight. With a unheard-of measure of dexterity, he plucked one of the insects from mid-air and proceeded to bash it into a nearby tree. The resulting mess caused that portion of the field to be drenched in claret.

In this moment, I sought to help Aurora with the creature that had stabbed her through, but before I could react, she had used her rapier to silence the creature. With a taut and simple “No”, acknowledging the corpse that lay at her feet, she rose, ready to dive back into the fray. 

Urnig, seeing his sparring partner take the opportunity to destroy one of the insects with brute force, thought it fair to in turn unleash his magic savagery on one of the insects that had flown into his range. With a fist that rivaled my own skull in size, he grabbed the creature, and cast a blast of magic, slamming the beast over his knee and producing a similar explosion of blood that coated his entire body. Perhaps my time with Urnig had dulled my senses to abhorrent violence, or perhaps I was allowed predisposition, as such from my history of battle, but a peculiar sense of calm washed over my person knowing his simple savagery might win us the day.

Our halfling companion Artemis sought out one of the insects in the swarm she was entangled in and with a further brutal showing used her own rapier to cleave one of them in twain. This was further compiled upon as she used her boot to grind the body into the ground, effectively rendering any postmortem movement silent.

With most of the assault dispersed, Epide took this time to attempt to wake the sleeping Fardahr. The dwarf slept fitfully, a loud commotion coming from his person. A few slaps across the face proved incapable of rousing the man, so Epide, in a fit of complete madness from my perspective, dumped his floating bag of water, his method of transport and container of various corpse trophies, onto the sleeping victim. Fardahr arose from his sleep and immediately at the presence of the stench retched his breakfast twice over.

Epide was not complete with his effort of madness, as he began to run about, leaping onto one of the already dispatched insect and ripping its nose off in an effort to find a suitable weapon. This nose was, in essence, a shortsword to Epide, and I applaud his improvisation, but still condemn his method.

Having now reduced our quarry to two remaining foes, one of which remained asleep from Epide’s spell, I stepped toward the tree line and wielded my blade with a flourish to run the insect through. A costly mistake, as the blade fail to land the killing blow. Rokk, at this point next to my own person, to his chance to land the blow to conclude this fight. Unceremoniously, he missed the swing of his club, and we were both stunned in silence. Which gave way to a tirade of both Rokk and I unsure why this creature was not dead. Artemis, for her part, began rolling on the ground peeling with laughter at our misfortune. While I don’t recall what was said between Rokk and I, the resulting commotion might have been the triggering incident to cause what came next.

As Artemis lie in tears of joy over this sight of incompetence and Urnig dispatched another of the insects for good measure by slamming it into the same tree Rokk had previously used, a sudden rumble from the ground arose. In the woods to my left, the sound of a roar shook the air. It filled me with an oncoming sense of horror, as the very structure of my body was suddenly shaking with the reverberations of the air.

I turned to see a massive form rise out of the wood. I only had to notice the creature’s face to know what matter of violent beast had been summoned by the commotion. This was an owlbear, a creature born of the fiery imagination of lore and reality, a great beast that many knights of yore have slain and few have tamed. To now come upon its form was a measure of daunting I was not prepared to witness.

With a grown sense of immediacy, Fardahr loosed a bolt from his crossbow, only to see the projectile snap against the beak of the owlbear, doing no damage to the beast. If any result occurred, it was the owlbear’s humor becoming perturbed, and I found myself face to face with the creature.

Before I could make my attack against it, the owlbear reared back its claw and swung, connecting with my body. The two entry wounds where I had been impaled with javelins days earlier immediately opened, and as I was thrown against a tree, I could see my blood began to pool on my attire, the red staining my white under attire through. It took all of my fortitude to remain awake in this sense, as I saw the others begin to take their measures in retaliation.

Epide, though small in stature, raised his hands in defiance. Again, a vibration shook the area, as the ground turned in on itself. Below the owlbear, the earth became near impossible terrain, and Epide jumped for joy at the sight of the temporarily confused creature. Taking advantage of this distraction, Rokk took the chance to summon a well of energy and his eyes became a visage of death. With the fighting spirit of a whole regiment, he unleashed a vicious assault on the owlbear, yet the creature held firm.

As I roused myself to wake, I found myself cornered by the last of the insects, with the owlbear’s back turned. Were I to choose a target, it would have to be one that did not pose immediate threat to my wellbeing upon a strike. I lunged in desperation at the insect, as it dodged frightfully out of my grasp. I was beset by fear, violent and tremendous, and I stabbed further still at the owlbear. Again, no luck, and I felt my arm give way to intense pain. The only measure that remained was to flee from the melee in an act of desperation. As I ran in self-preservation, I felt the warm breath of the owlbear on my back, and was met with a stab of pain as the beak wrought itself into my back.

I was safe and away for the time being, but it was clear that I would by on death’s door if struck again. I collapsed to the ground, blood now seeping throughout my clothing. From afar, I only had time to see the hand of Aurora rise up through half-closed eyes, and I felt a burst of magic run through my person. One of assurance and protection, no doubt, but inherently still my being had been compromised. All i heard in my head, ringing like the bells of a cathedral.

I am a coward

I am a coward

I am a coward

I saw Aurora raise her hand again, this time in the direction of the owlbear. With a pluck of the strings, the beast burst into a conflagration. I could not appreciate this move fully, only feel the burning sear of the flames and the rancid smell of flesh and fur alight, only further choking my senses.

Fardahr dove beside me, and with a tuck and roll let loose another bolt towards the owlbear. Striking dead center in the face, the resulting spray of bodily fluids mingled with the flames, setting the face in a permanent shriek as the body collapsed and lay still. I hadn’t the will to cheer or whoop in excitement. Aurora immediately extinguished the fire and set about the body along with Epide. He later gathered the corpses of the insects for his vile machinations.

As I lay there, blood still pooling about me, I felt the warm touch of a guiding hand. I was not unconscious but still beyond any measure of good health, and the divine spell Fardahr cast on me aroused me from my state. My blood began to retreat back into my person, and my wounds were sealed in a process that despite its effect did not hurt or cut with pain. I sat up, with Fardahr holding my shoulder. “You gave me a scare, young man. Are you okay?”

I shook my head awake, my hair a tangled mess getting into my eyes. “I am now. Thank you, Fardahr.” I stood up, groggy and unstable, but better still. Patting his shoulder in acknowledgment of service, I stood up and made my way back to the horse cart. Only to hear further retching from behind me.

Aurora was beside herself with joy at the sight of an intact owlbear. I could see her eyes alight with glee at the prospect of the clothes this pelt would divine. The feathers adorning the arms and legs were still in beautiful condition as adornments. Even the teeth could be split, separated, dried, and crafted into ivory jewelry of untold wealth. I am only keen to this as Aurora began listing these elements shortly after we loaded its corpse into the horse cart, a bit of mania overtaking her eyes in anticipation for its dissection. We were slower going, and it only aided my situation as I still felt a measure of pain while walking. At some point, we halted and I was loaded onto the driver’s perch with Fardahr, allowed to rest and recoup. It was still fitful, having to sleep some time next to the creature that nearly ended my corporeal existence.

The Wyvern Tor itself is a crevasse in the hills of the Triboar Trail, and despite utilizing this route in the tour towards Neverwinter, my caravan had stayed north of the locale, having been alerted previously by members of Triboar of the orc camp. The natural feature has held many different hosts of fauna, given it’s advantageous position when seen from the trail. As we neared the location of the tor, I first smelled the telltale signs of a campfire. We could hear two orcs posted as guards towards the mouth of a cave, with others still in the open. I received in my mind a flash of the goblin outcropping that began our time in service.

By the time the cart stopped some distance away, my injuries had been attended to, as had Aurora and Urnig. While I was clearly in better health, I couldn’t shake the feeling of horror the owlbear had beset upon me. I had never seen a beast as large nor as powerful in combat. I was deemed only useful in duels of honor and fairness. Surely, I had realize the world did not allow for such contests consistently. Surely. Yet, in the deepest hole of my mind, I felt betrayed by this turn of events and fearful still for my life.

We huddled in planning, and agreed Artemis would take the first stab at the orcs, in both a figurative and literal sense. Her size and speed combined with precision would allow a swift attack and retreat back into our party’s numbers. We lie in wait, preparing our methods of war, as Artemis clutched her daggers with pause. Then, she was off.

Across the field she tore through the grass, faster than anyone had anticipated. Rounding the circumference of the open field against the trees, she rounded the final corner and went for the orc guard on the right. In a flash, she slammed headfirst into it and cut the throat, an instant and painless death. Further still, she marked the other guard and again tore into it, a bass cry of pain ringing through the air. With a dash back, she had given us the element of surprise.

With a ravenous want, Epide saw the corpse and began to run towards it across the ground. The blood that had sprayed from the orc’s body apparently was enough to distract him, as he bathed in it like a duck bathes in a lake. Despite this horrid distraction, he still summoned the wherewithal to again form the ground anew, creating a pitfall that trapped one of the orcs.

Fardahr, having reconstituted himself from retching, began to channel a spell with a mischievous look on his face. A form of light took shape on front of him, but suddenly a look of frustration came across his demeanor. Having resigned himself, almost as if the god of his dominion came to warn against a cruel prank, he concentrated further and produced an iron brand, still wielding with an air of confidence. I was confused by the sight, but was quickly made aware of the power of a holy weapon as Fardahr hurled it towards a nearby orc, striking it clean.

Artemis, having set herself once more towards the orcs, struck the trapped orc and produced a rude gesture in its direction. Against the field, I could see more and more a chaotic, ramshackle fighting. I was still in pain. I was still terrified of the scene before me. But again, I felt magic turn to me, as Aurora cast a spell against me. I was grateful for her art, and only wished I could repay in kind her help. I grasped my bow and arrow and took aim at an orc, but my hand slipped in disorientation, ricocheting off the brand. I was lost.

Artemis again was engaged in combat, dodging and weaving with precision, all strikes against her missed. 

I’m back where I started.

Fardahr took a shot and found his mark.

Five years alone, talent wasted.

Rokk, without mercy, decapitated an orc and let a war cry.

I’ll just hope to fire my bow from afar and not get hit. This accursed weapon. It’s brought me nothing but strife.

As it looked like my group of fellow travelers were on the cusp of turning the fight and seizing victory, we were stunned to silence as a mighty roar escaped the cave. From inside, only darkness permeated. Only dank and must. Only sound escaped the cave.

And then it came.

[licncourt-replies]

Ch 3 A Change of Heart

Rhodey growled at his phone screen and tossed it with more force than necessary at the bed, missing it entirely and hitting the wall. It was Starktech. It would be fine.

“Dammit, Tony. Talk to me.” Face in his hands, he collapsed on the bed and fished his phone out from between the mattress and the wall, staring defeatedly at his friend’s contact picture, one of them together, in the suits with their helmets off; tired, but smiling at the camera. He didn’t bother calling again. Tony and his phone were inseparable. Besides, no matter where he was, Jarvis would inform him of incoming calls. If Tony wasn’t answering, it was because he didn’t want to. Tony was like a brother to him, but he was as stubborn as he was self-destructive, and the fact that he’d swallowed his pride and self-loathing long enough to call him at all didn’t bode well. With that at the forefront of his mind, James Rupert Rhodes made a decision. Stepping out into the blistering sunlight of the base, he brushed past his superiors, ignoring their commands.

“Rhodes! Get back here! The hell do you think you’re doing, Colonel?” Rhodey was silent as his armor scanned his biometrics and he stepped in. “I’m going to take some time off. I understand the consequences of my actions, and I’ll be prepared to accept the necessary disciplinary actions when I return. I have complete faith in my airmen to hold down the fort while I’m away. I’m sorry, General, but my best friend needs me.” He powered up War Machine without waiting for a response and blasted into the sky. “I’m on my way, Tony.”

By the time he touched down on the landing pad outside Tony’s workshop, his body was thrumming with anxiety. Usually, he could hear (and feel) the bass from the genius’s rock music and the clank of machinery as he approached the threshold, but today there was silence, and that scared the shit out of him. He tapped his fingers in a discordant pattern on his thigh as Jarvis took his readings without a word. The doors hissed open, and the silence was impossibly more oppressive inside the lab. After a brief scan of the room, he saw a pale hand limp on the floor, barely visible from behind a half disassembled trans am. His stomach dropped. He crossed the room in lunges and knelt by his friend’s prone form, slumped unceremoniously against the ratty couch. Rhodey’s eyes landed instantly on the half empty bottle vodka and the pill bottle that had rolled partially under the car.

“Jesus fuck, Tony, what did you do?” Despite his friend’s waxy skin, he was able to find a pulse, thankfully strong, if a bit slow. “Jarvis?”

“He’s alright, Colonel. Sir should awaken without issue once the drugs are out of his system.” Rhodey felt relief flood his body at Jarvis’s confirmation, quickly followed by rage.

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me about this? Aren’t you supposed to be looking out for him?”

"I apologize, Colonel. Sir forbid me from answering your calls, and I was unable to override my programming in order to contact you. In an effort to avoid worrying you, sir does not allow me to inform you of any incidents unless his life is in imminent danger. In this case, my calculations indicated that sir was not in mortal danger, however reckless his action may have been.” The AI’s voice was regretful, but Rhodey was too worried to be forgiving.

“Whatever. Tony might be self-destructive, but I thought he was over this kind of stupidity. Drug and alcohol cocktails were for College Tony. He’s always drank more than I would have liked, but he worked so hard to sober up after MIT, and as far as I know he hasn’t been more than buzzed since his birthday party in 2010. What the hell brought this on?”

“I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to say, Colonel.” Rhodey hissed in frustration.

“It’s fine, Jarvis. We’ll deal with that later. For now, I’m going to get him up to his room." Rhodey hauled his friend into his arms, and Tony stirred briefly at the shift, just long enough to wrap his arms and legs around Rhodey like a drunk koala. Rhodey sighed and gave his back a pat. Knowing that Tony would try to sneak down to the lab without something to do when he woke up, Rhodey fumbled for his tablet off the desk. He noticed briefly that whatever happened must have been abrupt since the beginnings of a project were taking shape on the desk. He glanced at the specs, some sort of star-spangled body armor dated from today. It had been abandoned just a few hours in. Rhodey snorted. Good. He’d never gotten along with the Captain after how he’d treated Tony on the Helicarrier. He was a bit of a prick anyway.

Rhodey lugged Tony out of his lab and to the elevator, only having to stop and rest once. Wearing the War Machine armor had given his upper body strength a serious boost. Jarvis opened the elevator and moved them towards the penthouse without instruction. Once they arrived, he laid his friend out on the bed and sat down in the armchair beside it, face in his hands. He glanced over at Tony, who was still dead to the world. Rhodey was in it for the long haul, so he gave one last searching look at the still body on the bed and wandered into the walk in closet. Rifling through business suits and band shirts, he finally came across the drawer he was looking for, the one with “Platypus” emblazoned on the front in Sharpie. Tony insisted it stayed there permanently for when he roped Rhodey into impromptu sleepovers. He pulled his old MIT sweatshirt out, as well as some threadbare sweatpants. He stripped off his uniform and tugged them on. Maybe it was inappropriate to strip in a friend’s closet, but he doubted Tony would wake up. Besides, it wasn’t like he hadn’t walked in on worse in college. It would serve him right.

Rhodey wandered back into the bedroom where Tony was still down for the count, and on second thought, headed for the bathroom to get Advil and a glass of water. As he rifled through the drawers, his phone buzzed in the pocket of his sweatpants. His eyebrows shot to his hairline as he saw Steve Rogers’ caller ID. The only time any of the Avengers besides Tony called him, it was to get backup in a battle, but there hadn’t been any indication of a call to assemble.

“Hello, Captain. Is everything okay?” There was a pause on the other end.

“Yes, Colonel, everything’s fine. I was calling to set up a meeting with you, actually. Are you available anytime soon?” Rhodey’s brows rose impossibly higher.

“I’m on active duty at the moment, and I should technically be in Iraq right now. I’d need to get permission from my superiors to stay in New York.”

“Oh, you’re in the city? Why’s that?” Rhodey chose his words carefully, not wanting to get Tony into any trouble.

“Tony’s not feeling well, so I’m staying with him until he’s on his feet again.”

“Is that so? He seemed fine yesterday.” There was an edge to the Captain’s voice that set Rhodey on edge, strangely defensive of his friend.

“With all due respect, Captain, I’m not sure Tony’s health is any of your business, seeing as it’s never seemed to matter to you much in the past.” When he spoke again, Rogers’ voice had lost its veneer of civility.

“The meeting, Colonel?”

“The meeting can wait until my best friend is well again.” Rogers growled under his breath.

“Fine, but we need to talk.” Rhodey hung up on him.

By the time he returned to the bedroom, Tony was half conscious. Rhodey sat down on the edge of the bed and gave his shoulder a gentle push and a half smile.

“Honeybear?” Sleepy confusion painted Tony’s features, but he sounded pleased, if a bit perplexed. “Shouldn’t you be… somewhere?” Rhodey hummed in affirmation.

“Probably, but you didn’t return my calls, brat.”

“You flew all the way here because I didn’t answer your phone call? That seems dramatic, sourpatch.” Rhodey flopped out on his back on the bed and rolled to face Tony.

“Tones, you and I both know that I called more than once and that Jarvis lets you know about incoming calls from Pepper and I. You were ignoring me. Besides, if you of all people actually wanted to talk about your feelings, shit must have gone down, and recently too. Rogers said you were fine the last time he saw you.” Tony’s face darkened.

“Yeah, I’ll bet he did say that.” Rhodey bristled.

“What is that supposed to mean? This breakdown you just had is about Rogers, isn’t it? What happened, Tony?” He rolled away and Rhodey grabbed his shoulder and rolled him right back. Tony slapped an arm over his eyes, already half asleep again. Rhodey knew his window with a conscious Tony was limited, so he cut his losses. “Fine, but I’m sure as hell going to find out, the easy way or the hard way works for me.” Tony groaned.

“What’s the easy way?”

“You tell me right now and we deal with it together. Calmly.” Tony raised a dubious eyebrow.

“And the hard way?”

“I take Rogers up on the meeting he asked for drag it out of his ass, and then we do damage control for the fallout instead of taking preventative measures.” Tony bolted upright.

“Shit!” His voice dropped suddenly after his initial outburst. “He asked you for a meeting…? He sure works fast, doesn’t he?” The broken look on his Tony’s face moved him from worried friend to protective older brother in a split second. That expression made his best friend, the CEO, genius engineer, and superhero, look like the scared, lonely fourteen-year-old he’d been when they met in college.

“Tony. What. Did. Rogers. Do?” A sigh wracked the lean frame beside him.

“Look, he said he was going to replace me on the team. With you.” Rhodey went rigid as white hot anger bubbled from his core. His knuckles blanched with the force of the clenching of his fists. He trembled with righteous rage. “Come on, Rhodey. He’s not wrong… I fucked up today, and it’s not the first time. War Machine is better for the Avengers and you know it. Come on, buddy. Don’t freak out on me.” Rhodey stood silently and left the room. Without missing a beat, he pulled out his phone and dialed the one and only Captain America. When the phone connected, the colonel didn’t wait for a greeting.

“My schedule has opened up. I’ll be waiting in SHIELD conference room 12 at 6 pm. That’s not a request.” Ignoring the stammering on the other end, he hung up and returned to the bedroom. Tony was already back to sleep. Rhodey steeled himself and retrieved his uniform from the closet, sending it off to have it express washed. Once he felt that everything was in order, Rhodey descended to the lab, ready to take a polish rag to War Machine. After all, he had a meeting.

[brettonio-one-chicago]

Christmas Party...

A/N:  Well, here it is!  This was an ANON request for a story of Sylvie trying to cover her hickies... This is a first for me... so, hope it works! Also, this is my Christmas story... a few days late!  Sorry!  All the best!  Also, mature content passed the KEEP READING section...

Sylvie was beat.  After pulling a 36 hour shift, she was done.  She wanted to go home, curl up in bed and sleep for the next week.  She was starting to wish she hadn’t volunteered to cover for a fellow medic who had a family emergency.  She slammed her locker closed, grabbing her bag and heading out.

“Brett!”  Chief called out.

Sylvie cringed.  She was silently praying that he wasn’t about to ask her to put in another 12 hours.  She couldn’t.  She was too damned tired.  “Yeah, Chief?”

Boden walked up to her and extended his hand.  “Thank you... I know you probably had other things planned after shift... I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate you covering until we could get a relief PIC here.”

Sylvie nodded.  “Sure thing, Chief... hopefully everything works out in the end.”

“Always does, now... get on home.  You need your rest... We’ll see you in three days.”

“Got it.”  Sylvie smiled and headed to her car.  She looked in her rearview mirror.  She looked like death warmed over.  “Okay, just have to make it to the apartment... maybe.”  She yawned.  “Or... maybe not.”  She knew the dangers of driving under exhaustion.  She grabbed her cell and prayed that Antonio was able to answer.

He did on the 4th ring.  “Dawson.”

“Antonio.”  Sylvie sighed in relief.

“Sylvie... what’s wrong?  You don’t sound so hot.”

Sylvie explained the recent turn of events.  She asked.  “Would I be too much of a pain... to ask you to drive me home... please?”

“Baby, of course I will... hang on...”  He talked to someone.  “We’ll be right there.”

“We?”

“Just trust me, babe.”  Antonio replied.  “Be there soon.”

“Thanks!”  Sylvie put her cell away and smiled.  Her boyfriend was the best.  

Ever since the impromptu wedding that Gaby and Matt had had a couple weeks ago, they’d become even closer.  On some of their days off, they’d take Louie to allow Matt and Gaby time to adjust to being married.  She’d also been able to get a chance to get to know Diego and Eva a little more.  

She couldn’t wait for the weekend. It was the Annual Firehouse 51 Christmas Party.  Antonio was coming with her, and then they were going to his place.  Normally, he’d come to hers, but for some reason, he was insisting on having her crash at his place.  She was lost in thought when there was a loud tap on her window.  “Jesus Christ!”  She jumped.

Antonio stood outside her car, snickering.  “Sylvie... you wanted a ride... kinda have to move from the driver’s seat.”

She opened the door and got out.  “Uh... what about your truck?”

He pointed behind them.  “Good thing my partner is laid back.”  

Sylvie could see Laura Nagle, Antonio’s partner in the DA’s office, was driving his truck.  She waved and Nagle waved back.  “So... what’s the deal?”

“Well... you are going to crash at my place... tomorrow, we’ll go to your place and... well... we’ll talk about it tonight when I get home... but you need sleep, now.”

“Okay?”  Sylvie was confused but, being as tired as she was, she wasn’t going to argue.  She went to the passenger side and got in.

Antonio slid into the driver’s side and started her car.  

Antonio had to laugh a little.  By the time he pulled up to his apartment, Sylvie was passed right out.  He didn’t want to wake her.  He gently lifted her from her seat and carried her to his apartment.  He would get her bag later.  He laid her on his bed, took off her boots, putting them by the door.  He kissed her forehead and headed back to his truck.  He only had another 5 hours to go before he could come home to her.  He had wanted to wait til Christmas to give her her gift, but he figured tonight was as good a night as any.

Sylvie woke up about 3 hours later.  She was a little confused at first and had to reorient herself when she remembered that she was at Antonio’s and not her own apartment.  She stretched and looked around.  She was a little disappointed to see he wasn’t there but she knew he’d be home soon enough.  She got up and figured she should have a shower and get some supper going.  She was so thankful to have left some things here so she didn’t have to keep stealing some of this things.  After having her shower, she finally felt human again.  She got dressed and quickly went to the kitchen to raid the fridge.  There was a sticky note on the door.

                - Babe, don’t bother trying to make supper.  I’ve got it covered.  Relax                and I’ll see you soon.  Love you, Antonio.

Sylvie’s cheeks burned a little.  It was a new routine they had.  They’d leave little notes for each other.  She was secretly collecting the ones he left her and putting them in her small jewelry box.  This way she’d have a pick-me-up whenever she had a bad call.  She smiled and made herself some hot chocolate before plopping down onto the couch to flip through the Christmas movies that were on Netflix.

Antonio bid his team a good night.  They’d just wrapped a big case, so ASA Stone was giving them a few extra days off.  They’d be prepping for a big case after Christmas, so they were getting a little time off now.  Antonio was excited.  He was hoping that his Christmas surprise for Sylvie would be well received and these next few days weren’t going to be wasted.  He rushed out to his truck.  He had started it remotely, but the snow had been falling heavily.  He grabbed the brush from the back seat and dusted the snow off before heading home.  He stopped by his mother’s new apartment and picked up what he had asked her to make for him.  She was in on his surprise, so she gladly helped him out.  She had prepared some roasted pork, rice and veggies.  Antonio had the salad at home already.  She wished him luck and he loaded supper into his truck.  Hopefully, Sylvie would like it.

When he got home, Sylvie was in the middle of laughing hysterically at Christmas Vacation.  He knocked on the door so she knew he was there.  

Sylvie paused the movie and spun around.  “Antonio!  You’re home!”

“Yep... I am... how’re you feeling?”  He asked, kicking the door closed behind him.

“Good.  Better than earlier...”  She went to give him a hug.  “Mmm... smells amazing... is that supper?”

Antonio leaned in and kissed her.  “Yep... Mom made it at my request... I wanted you to have a special treat... since I have no idea if Gaby is going to be making any of this for the Christmas Party Saturday night.”

“It’s tomorrow night... she has to have it all planned out.”  Sylvie grabbed the trays from his arms to put them in the kitchen.

“Is she doing all the food?”  Antonio hung his coat in the closet.

“Uh, no... I’m doing some, Cindy is doing the desserts and I think Trudy is bringing some stuff too.”

“So, what are you in charge of?”  Antonio wrapped his arms around her waist.

“Appetizers.”  Sylvie grinned.  “All the stuff is already bought... it’s at my apartment.

“I see... so in other words, we’re headed there tomorrow?”

“Well... that... or we go get that stuff tonight and then we do the cooking here.”

Antonio really just wanted to spend time with Sylvie, not necessarily cooking.  “What do you want to do?”

“I'm really wishing that I hadn’t volunteered... then we could just go to the party and not have to do the work.”  Sylvie smiled.  “Maybe we could do it here?  You have a nicer kitchen.”

“Then, let’s go get that stuff.”  He headed for the door.

“But... I made supper!”  Sylvie protested.

Antonio spun back.  “Babe, you didn’t have to.”

“I did... you saved my butt today... so... eat... then we can go get that stuff.”  Sylvie handed him the place settings.  “I’ll bring the food to the table.”

Antonio wasn’t about to argue.  He went and set the table, pouring them each a small glass of wine.  He pulled out her chair as she came to the table with a large tray of steaming lasagna.  “Smells delicious.”

“Well, I figured you needed something like this after saving my ass today.”

“Your ass didn’t need saving.”  Antonio laughed, pushing in her chair as she sat down.  “You were just being cautious... which was a good thing, seeing as you were out before I even pulled away from the curb.”

Sylvie blushed.  “I guess I didn’t realize just how tired I was.”

Antonio kissed her before sitting down next to her.  “You did... you’re just embarrassed... you’re cute when you get all red like that.”

“Stop it!”  She tried to sound angry, but it came out as more of a snicker.

She took his plate and served him some of the lasagna and the salad before serving herself.  They ate and talked about his day.  Antonio asked about the appetizer that she was making for the Christmas party and was surprised to hear that she was actually making 4 different ones.  She explained that Gaby had said she wanted a variety of things, so that’s what she was going to give her.  Antonio had laughed at that.  Gaby generally got what she wanted.  

After they had put the leftovers away, Antonio and Sylvie headed to her apartment to pick up the necessary things for tomorrow’s party.  When Sylvie walked into her apartment she was in shock.  There was a ridiculous amount of boxes in her living room and her luggage was by the door.  “What the hell?”

Antonio sighed.  “I did it... before you go freaking out.”

“Uh... you’re evicting me?”  Sylvie was confused.

“No.”  Antonio spun her around.  “I’m asking you to move in with me.”

Sylvie’s jaw hit the floor.  “Wha... Antonio...”

“I haven’t been this happy in a long time.  We already basically live together, we just keep bouncing between houses... so... I figured, why not make it official.”

Sylvie couldn’t help but squeal in excitement.  She threw herself at her boyfriend, wrapping her arms around his neck, kissing him passionately.  “Yes... I am so on board with this plan.”

Antonio laughed.  “Good.  I’d feel really silly if you said no, because I kinda already half packed stuff.”

“When?”  Sylvie went to see exactly what he’d all done.

“Yesterday after work while you were on shift... and I got done early today so I came by here for an hour or so to do some more work.”

“Antonio... I can pack my own bags... I am a big girl.”  Sylvie batted her eyes at him.

“I know... I just... I guess I wanted to help.”  Antonio went to the kitchen.  “What do we all need from here.”  When he didn’t get an answer, he looked around.  “Sylvie?”

“Over here.”

Antonio turned to see his girlfriend standing in the doorway to her bedroom wearing next to nothing.  “Sylvie... I... the food...”

Sylvie motioned for him to join her.  “Can wait.”

Antonio shut the fridge and let the passion that was burning fuel his movements.  He lifted her with ease and carried her to her bed.  Thank God I didn’t undo this.   He thought to himself as he laid her on it.  He trailed kisses from her navel up her body as he made his way to her lips.  He smiled as he saw goosebumps cover her body.  “Sylvie...”

She didn’t say anything.  She pulled him to her and kissed him, nipping at his bottom lip.  Antonio gasped and smiled.  He kissed down her jawline before moving to her neck.  He knew how sensitive she was there.  He sucked on her neck, gently at first, but as Sylvie became more vocal, he added more.  

“Don’t stop.”  She pleaded.

Antonio let his hands wander as he kissed and sucked along her neck.  He re-positioned himself over her, not stopping his kisses.

Soon they were lost in the throws of passion.  Their bodies were covered in a thin sheen of sweat as they collapsed against the bed in extreme pleasure.  

Sylvie had to catch her breath.  “Antonio.”

“Yeah, babe.”  He was breathless too.  Despite them doing this more often than he had with Laura, Sylvie just brought him further.

“I thought we were supposed to be getting... stuff...”  Her brain wasn’t letting her process what she was supposed to be doing.  “I can’t even think straight... you do that to me... every... single... time.”

Antonio laughed, pulling her onto his chest.  “Isn’t that what’s supposed to happen when two people who love each other get together?”

“Umm... yeah.”  Sylvie giggled.  She sighed as she got comfortable, pulling the blankets up around them.  “Do we have to get out of bed?”

Antonio stroked her shoulder.  “No... we can stay here tonight if you want... we can go back home in the morning.”

“I can’t believe it’s going to be our home.”  Sylvie whispered.  This was a thousand times more different than what she had had with Harrison, and to think she’d almost married him.  

“Believe it.”  He kissed her.  “We’ll move you in after the party.”

“Mhmm.”  She could feel her eyelids getting heavier.  “Sleepy.”

Antonio wrapped his arms around her a little tighter.  “Then sleep.”  He kissed the top of her head.  “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”  Sylvie whispered before letting sleep take her.

The next morning, neither of them heard their alarms.  They were woken up to pounding on Sylvie’s door.

“Sylvie...”  Antonio tried to shake her.  He would’ve gone to the door himself, but she was on his arm and he couldn’t move.  “Sylvie, babe... babe... someone’s at the door.”

“Mm...  5 more minutes...”  Sylvie groaned.  “I don’t wanna get up.”

“Babe... my arm...”  He tried to move her, but to no avail.  He resorted to his trick.  He used his free hand to tickle her ribs.  The end result was Sylvie squealing and falling off the bed.

She pulled herself up and glared at her boyfriend.  “What the fuck?”

“Someone’s at the door... one of us needs to go.”

“You go...”  Sylvie pouted.  “My butt hurts... I landed on your belt.”

Antonio snickered as he grabbed his sweatpants that were always here and headed to the door.  

“Antonio?”  Gaby’s jaw dropped.  “Uh... wha... where’s Brett?”

“In bed... well... on the floor by the bed.”

Gaby stuck her tongue out.  “I so... sooo didn’t need... blech... okay... is she...”  She looked behind Antonio.  “Is she leaving Chicago?”

Antonio looked back.  “Oh... uh, no... she’s moving in with me.”

“Oh... okay... then is she still making the appies for tonight?”

“Yeah... don’t worry, sis... it’ll be the best party ever.”

“Uh huh.”  Gaby nodded.  “You... just... be there on time.”

“Will do.”

Gaby turned.  “Bye, Antonio.”

“Bye, sis.”  Antonio laughed, closing the door and padding back to the bedroom.  “Sylvie?  You alive?”

“Yeah.”  She said coming from the bathroom.  “Who was at the door?”

“My sister.”

“Oh no.”  Sylvie pushed past him to get to the closet.  “What did she say?”

“She was surprised I was here, and that you were moving in with me.”

“You told her?!”  Sylvie exclaimed.  “Why?!”

“Because it’s true and because she decided to come pounding on your door at 8 in the morning.”

“OH GOD!”  Sylvie threw a punch of clothes into her suitcase.

“What are you doing?”

“Packing.”

“Babe... babe!”  Antonio grabbed her hands.  “Sylvie.”

Sylvie stared at him.

“Baby, I love you... but you’re not thinking straight.”

“But...”

“Babe, we can move your stuff after the Christmas party... but we have to prep the appetizers and get ready for tonight.”

“Antonio...”

“Sylvie... do you trust me?”

“Always.”

“Then trust me when I say that the packing can wait... go grab what you need for tonight and we’ll go back home to prep for tonight... the move can wait.”

Sylvie sighed.  “Fine.”  She didn’t really like not having control over situations like this, but she also knew that being with Antonio meant things weren’t always going to go according to plan.  She grabbed her dress for the night and a couple other things she’d need before running to the bathroom to grab her makeup bag.  “Okay, let’s grab the food.”

Antonio kissed her.  “It’s going to be okay.”  He pushed her hair behind her ear.  “I promise.”  He didn’t dare tell her about the large number of hickies that he was just noticing had developed since their adventure last night.  “Let’s go.”

They had made record time getting all of the appetizers cooked.  While Antonio packaged them for transport, Sylvie hopped in the shower to get ready.  While doing her hair, she noticed her neck and chest were covered in hickies.  She cried out, causing Antonio to run into the bathroom, slipping on the towel that she’d dropped.  

Antonio landed hard on his ass.  “Coño!”  He stood up, rubbing his ass.  “What the fuck is with all the shrieking?”

“You gave me hickies!”  She pointed to her neck.  “Look... I’M COVERED!”

“Babe, they’re not that bad.”

Sylvie glared at him.  “I look like I was attacked by a vacuum cleaner.”

“You weren’t complaining last night.”  Antonio reminded her.

She sighed.  “I know, but... have you seen my dress?  It’s low cut... and I can’t exactly go to this wearing a turtleneck.”

Antonio reached into her makeup bag.  “Here.”

“Cover-up and foundation?”  Sylvie asked.

“Worked for Gaby in high school.”

“TMI.”  Sylvie stuck out her tongue.

“Pretty sure that’s how she feels about us sometimes.”  Antonio laughed.  “Just try it, please... I need a shower, and we’ve gotta go... we’re going to be late.”

While Antonio showered, Sylvie did her best to cover up her ‘love bites’.  She managed to hide most of them, but there was one that was next to impossible to cover up.  Antonio got dressed and came back to check on her.  “How’s it going?”

“This one won’t be covered up no matter how much make-up I put on it... any more on it, and I’ll have just made it that much more noticeable.”

Antonio smiled.  “Here.”  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a velvet choker he’d bought for her.  “This should help.”  He clasped it around her neck.  “How’s that?”

Sylvie examined her reflection.  She undid her chignon and quickly restyled her hair to hide what the choker didn’t completely cover.  “Much better.”  She examined the choker more closely.  “This is beautiful.”

“I figured it went with the theme of the party.”  Antonio grinned.  “That and Eva picked it out.”

“I’ll have to thank her.”  Sylvie gently touched the pendant.  “Okay, let’s go... before you sister sends the cavalry.”

They arrived right on time.  They quickly reheated the appys in the oven.  Antonio mingled with some of his friends from 51.  He was joking around with Cruz when Sylvie came running out of the kitchen with Stella, Gaby and Otis chasing her.  Antonio didn’t have time to brace himself as Sylvie threw herself into his arms, causing him to stumble back into Cruz.  “Sylvie... what the hell?”  He tried to regain his balance.

“They’re after me.”  Sylvie whispered.

“For what?”  Antonio was very confused.  “Wait, why are you wet?”  He could feel it soaking through his shirt.

“Otis didn’t have the sink the right way and the sprayer hose was on... it got me and... well...”  She pointed to her neck and chest.

That’s when it hit him.  The make-up had been washed off.  All of the hickies were visible.  “Oh shit.”

The others had flocked around them now.  All of Firehouse 51 was inquiring about the hickies and mocking Sylvie.  Antonio knew it was probably all in fun and that most of them were feeling the effects of their cocktails already, but he also knew Sylvie.  She could take a lot, but having their relationship be the butt of a joke made her extremely uncomfortable.  Sylvie pressed harder against them.  Antonio whispered to her.  “I’ve got a solution.”

She looked at him and could see the mischievous look in his eye.  She knew whatever his response was going to be was going to be pretty good so she’d just go with it.

Antonio put his thumb and forefinger together and whistled shrilly.  “Whoa!  Okay, you pack of hyenas!  Back off my girl.”

“Well, Antonio... how about you fill us in as to where those came from?”  Stella pointed to Sylvie’s neck and chest.

“They’re from me.”

“Guess that’s what happens when you date a vampire.”  Sylvie smirked.

Gaby choked on her Manhattan while some of the older members of 51 just turned away.  Otis just stared.

“Vampire?”  Stella continued.  “Looks like you were an extra in the Twilight series.”

“Stella, do I look like that sparkly dumbass?”  Antonio lowered his head to her neck.  He kissed her.

Gaby groaned.  “Okay!  Okay!  We get it!”

Stella looked between the two Dawson siblings.  “What?!”

“Leave him alone or they’re liable to go at each right here... come on... he’s my brother and she’s my partner...”  Gaby whined.  “I really, really don’t... need to see that.”  Just the thought of some of the things she’d overheard Sylvie and Antonio discuss made her skin crawl.

“Oh come on, Gaby...”  Antonio turned the tables on his sister.  “I’ve walked in on worse with you... and...”

“Okay!”  Herrmann jumped up on the bar.  “Enough with the Dawson sibling drama!  Mouch, break out the karaoke with Christmas tunes and someone breakout the egg nog!”

Antonio laughed as the others left them alone.  “See, you had it.”

“I just... I guess I just needed you.”  Sylvie blushed.  

“I think what you need is a towel.”  Antonio laughed.

Sylvie punched him jokingly as she headed back to the kitchen to find the aforementioned towel.

There you have it folks!  I’m so sorry it took so long, again... Let me know what you think!  I do actually have a New Year’s story to post, but it may take a little while.  Sadly, I’m headed back to the real world which doesn’t give me as much free time.  Here’s hoping to get something up this weekend!  All the best of 2017 to you all!  Lots of love!  Nicole