#and so had some shaky hands for a few of these panels ugh

[sweet-rabbit]

LXC’s inability to not use poetic language when addressing JC, as opposed to using his NAME, bites him in the ass

[vinyleee]

Kisaki (25) x Reader (18+)

tw: death, guns, blood

☆*:.｡. o

you held your breath as you stood between the two burly men that escorted you in the cramped elevator. the light was dim, even so it produced a glare against the scuffed metal. flashes of vibrant lights shown in the windows from the city, green and purple scattered against the thin surface of your red dress. he had requested you wear it tonight, for it was ‘a special occasion’

“damn how much longer is this lift going to take,” one of the guards grunted out looking at the key panel as he fiddled with his gun. he traced the tip of his index finger over the sights, as if preparing himself to aim at someone.

“heh, might take a half hour more for all we know… boss ordered us to take her all the way to the penthouse so it’s not like we can just get off on the next floor.” The other guard replied rolling his shoulders back, fixing his posture.

you released your breath and looked at the guard to your right, still fixed on his gun. you studied the features of his face as he lifted the gun up to look through the sights.

“hmm what’s wrong miss.. heh.. do you want to play?” he chortled when he noticed you staring. ‘here, don’t be shy.’

he placed one large hand on the small of your back, causing you to shiver. “don’t worry im friendly…��he grinned when you put a hand out to stop him from getting to close. he saw it as an opening, he placed the pistol he had been studying in your hand.

the weight of the gun shocked you, but it felt… almost comfortable. as you wrapped your fingers around the handle the gripping rubbed against your skin. it felt natural to you.

you twisted your wrist left and right to see the different angles of the pistol. nothing was rather interesting about the pistol except for a few tally marks, you guess to mark how many victims it had killed.

“hey now what are you doing giving that to her?”the other man bit out as you raised the gun up to see yourself just what the other guard found so enticing about the gun.

“oh come on were just having fun! right little lady?”,the one who handed you the gun chuckled.

you ignored him and looked up to the ceiling, your eyes moving across the space between the dying fluorescent lights. trying to spot a camera or a microphone somewhere you stood up on the tips of your toes and traced your fingers directly above you were standing. there was a slight convex in the metal that you skimmed the tips of your fingers over.

he was watching.

you felt reassured as you brought your hand back down to your side. “here, Ive had enough fun.” you sigh handing the man his gun back.

“oh silly you.. I’m not,” he put the gun back in its holster and placed his hands on your waist. he brought you into his chest and put his nose to the top of your head, breathing in your scent.

“ugh as soon as I take over this place and kill boss, you’re gonna be mine baby…”he said tracing one hand up your exposed back, from the opening of the dress.

“what are you saying?” the other guard said as he pried his partners hands off you. “you’ve lost it haven’t you? do you know who he is? he isn’t just some wanna be gangster… he’s kisaki.”

‘kisaki.’ the word rang through your ears, and left a warmth in your cheeks as if he had just caressed your face. kisaki, your kisaki.

you relaxed instantly at the sound of his name. ‘ah let him do as he pleases.’ you raise a hand up stopping the guards from a fight that neither of them would come back from.

just then the elevator chimes. “for fucks sake about time.”

you let out an exasperated sigh as you stepped out of the elevator. behind you the two men silently cursed at each other as the followed after you.

“stay by my side”, the guard set on stealing your heart said lightly wrapping his arm around your shoulders and pulling out his gun once more, except this time ready to pull the trigger on anyone who threatened your safety.

the other, more collected, guard walked a few steps in front of you with his gun trained in front of him. he looked down the turns and twists of the hallways that lead to different rooms of kisakis building. he kept his back close to the wall and stuck out his gun first then his head peaked out ever so slightly around the corner.

at the end of the hall you could make out shadows of men pacing back in forth through a crack in the door. suddenly the air around you felt static, why would kisaki call you to his penthouse and have two… very unqualified guards escort you.

your head started to throb as you searched for an answer. each scenario you played out in your head led to someone dying. that was the best case. you didn’t want to think of worse ones, so you stopped to take a deep breath.

‘nothing is going to happen’ you reassured yourself. kisaki would protect you. there was nothing to fear.

as you neared the door to kisakis pent house you heard someone murmur a few distasteful things about you.

“why do you keep that bitch around, she does nothing but distract you boss. your priorities aren’t straight anymore…”

“hmm so that’s how you truly feel,” you heard kisaki laugh.

as you approached the door you pictured the expression kisaki was making as kisaki laughed. his face was probably flushed with excitement, and his eyes were probably just as piercing as ever.

you felt your breath hitch as you thought of his eyes. the way they could make you fear for your life in an instant, turned you on.

closing your eyes yet again, you imagined kisaki restraining your hands above your head and staring you down with those eyes. you imagined him pressing his knee into your dripping pussy and forcing you against the wall.

“ehem”, the guard who had been swatting through turns of each hallway cleared his throat, trying to get your attention.

“hm what is it”, you turned around to face him after he whisked you away from your fantasy.

“we should go inside now before kisaki gets upset that we took so long…” the corners of his eyes squinted as he winced, imagining what would happen to him if he didn’t follow kisakis orders.

“ok then, shall we?” you straighten your shoulders and fix your hair before gently pushing the thick double doors open.

“boss I just think you should…never mind, if you’ll excuse me.” the man who spoke ill of you muttered stepping to the right to avoid coming into contact with the opening doors.

as the doors swung open and the two guards walked into the penthouse you took in as much of the room as possible.

the entire penthouse was made up of windows. lights from the city flooded in making the use of no lights seem rather understandable. kisaki leaned against a mahogany desk directly across from you. his arms folded over his pinstripe vest, his sleeves rolled up exposing the veins from his hands to his forearms. the purple and green lights that had danced across your dress in the elevator now illuminated kisakis figure.

“no,” kisaki gritted through his teeth at the man who wanted so desperately to leave after bad mouthing you. “you stay, and you my darling come here” he raised one finger up and curled it back, beckoning you.

you let out a shaky breath as you stepped forward, your hands bunching up pieces of the red dress he had requested.

“ah why so nervous sweetheart?” kisaki mocked taking long steps toward you, “you look perfect in that dress I ordered for you. as I knew you would.”

“thank you…” you said in a hushed voice, avoiding his eyes.

in a half of a second his hand was on your jaw, pulling your face towards his, “look at me when you speak to me, bitch”

you let out a surprised whimper at his sudden aggressiveness, your face flushed with heat. your head started to spin with anticipation. kisakis lips were inching closer to yours. his breath warm against your mouth.

he licked his lips and smiled as he pulled away, “ah ah ah, not just yet sweetheart we have some business to take care of.”

you shook your head and turned around to see the expressions of the ‘business’. you had known what was going to happen. you turned back around to face kisaki yet again.

he was now sitting on the desk with his legs spread and a mocking smile plastered on his face, “won’t you come sit” he patted his leg.

as you approached him you heart raced, his touch would turn you into a thoughtless animal searching for the pleasure that only he could deliver.

“good girl”, he murmured into your ear, nibbling on it a bit, when you placed yourself into his lap.

you wrapped an arm over his shoulders and placed your other hand on his chest. you ran your hands over the cloth of his vest, eventually you tugged on his tie a bit, begging him silently.

he slid his perfect hands around your waist and pulled you in closer to him. the scent of sage and liquor wafted into your nose as you put your face in the crook of his neck. he was so intoxicating.

“mmm you’re just so impatient tonight hmm” he said tracing a hand up your thigh and under you dress slipping two fingers into your panties.

“boss.” one of the guards whispered, “can we leave?”he rocked back and forth on his heels uncomfortably waiting for a response.

kisaki brought his eyes up to the men and sighed, “cant you see im busy, now be patient and wait for your orders until then.. keep your mouths shut.”

you let out a breath as he turned his attention back to you, biting your collarbone. “ah fuck,” he breathed into your neck. “i just can’t wait to be inside you.” he lifted his head and grinned at you.

you bit your lip as he placed two fingers against your dripping cunt. he rubbed soft, gentle circles into your pussy. your body twitched under his touch, your head felt light and you could feel the heat starting to rise up.

he slid his other hand from your waist directly up to the small of your back while pushing two fingers inside you. he chuckled as he felt you wrap around him in excitement. “oh you want me so bad don’t you slut?” he pushed his fingers deeper inside you. “say it and maybe I’ll give you what you want so bad”

“kisaki I want you… I want you so bad, please.” you whined out gripping his tie tightly.

“aren’t you ashamed, begging for me to fuck you in front of three strangers? mm not so lady like of you.” he said, abruptly pulling his fingers out of you and licking them.

“my apologies gentleman we should get back to business.” he lifted you off of him and placed you on the desk as he stood up. he took his time walking around to reach into a drawer, in which he pulled out a glock.

“kisaki…what’re you doing?” you asked trying to collect yourself after kisaki toyed with you.

“ah don’t worry princess just look at me, ok?” he stepped beside you grabbing your hand and training the gun to the man who had come onto you in the elevator.

“you shouldn’t have underestimated me, I have eyes and ears everywhere. I know what you did to her. offering a women a gun, have you no sense?” kisaki smiled pulling the trigger before the guard could answer in his defense.

you kept your eyes on kisaki even when you heard the guards body thump as he hit the floor. even when you knew the pool of blood that seeped from his corpse would spread out to the furniture. even still, you’re eyes never looked away from kisaki.

you squeezed your legs together when you saw kisakis smile grow and his eyes squint. the light shining in through the windows made him stand out against the darkness of the room. on your own face the light scattered onto you as well.

“now who’s next? hmm?” he chuckled moving his gun back and forth between the last two men. “you, the one bad mouthing my property, and questioning my priorities. you really are so stupid.” again he pulled the trigger. and still you kept your eyes on him. you felt heat rising up in your chest as you watched his smile grow with every person he killed.

“ah, the last man standing.” kisaki released your hand and stood up. he walked over to the last person he was yet to kill in the room. “you did well today, you followed my orders thoroughly. you can leave now. oh but one more thing, call someone to clean this mess up.” he used his gun to point at the bodies sprawled on the floor.

“y-yes sir” the last man stammered out before speeding out the door.

“finally” kisaki raised his arms up as he turns around to face you. “youve been such a good girl you deserve a reward.”

he came back to the desk where you sat cross legged waiting for him to give you the pleasure he denied you before. putting a finger out he removed a strand of hair from your eyes and put it behind your ear.

“do you know how many people I’ve ordered to kill for me? hmm you don’t think I wouldn’t kill for you? after all the things they did to you? stripping you of your clothes with their eyes. you’re mine, and I’ll kill anyone who doesn’t fucking agree. all mine princess, now I think it’s time for you to show me your appreciation. on your knees slut.”

your mouth watered as you slid down to the floor. kisaki rubbed his cock through his pants waiting for you to do as he ordered. unbuttoning his pants you moved one hand up under his shirt to feel more of him. “im getting impatient,” he whispered gripping some of your hair and pushing your face down onto his cock.

you licked circles around his tip and up his shaft, causing him to grunt and pull your hair roughly. you brought your hands up to stroke him as you sucked.

the air was filled with the sound of slurping and choking. you felt him deep in your throat, making you want more.

you’re head bobbed up and down as you picked up speed sucking and licking all around his cock. “ah fuck, just like that” he groaned out throwing his head back with pleasure. your hands came down to your pussy to touch yourself as you pleasured him. the more of a reaction you got from him the worse you needed him.

he pulled you by your hair taking your mouth of off his cock. “did I give you permission to touch yourself?” he leaned down grinning in your face.

“n-no but…” you stammered trying to find the words to say in your fuzzy head.

“then take your hands away from yourself and keep sucking you slut.” he thrusted his cock into your mouth as you brought your hands back up.

you moaned as his dick slid deeper down your throat, you did your best to lick and suck but your movements were getting sluggish from the pleasure.

“cmon,” he whined out thrusting into your mouth, “you can go a little longer. isn’t this what you wanted bitch? or would you rather be riding me right now?”

you looked up at him through watery eyes trying to beg him to give you the pleasure you needed so badly.

he pulled out of your mouth and picked you up laying you down on the table.

“youve done enough, good job princess.” he sighed kissing you lips gently before climbing on top of you. his face hung inches away from yours as he smiled, “since you were so impatient earlier I’ll give you what you want, but I cant promise I’ll be nice.”

he slid the dress of off you from your shoulders, following that he ripped off your panties and bra. he spread open your legs and licked circles around your nipples as he thrust into you.

you moaned out his name in surprise, he wasn’t going to go easy on you. you gripped the sides of the desk as he continuously thrust into your dripping pussy.

suddenly he stopped, taking off his glasses and shoving his tongue down your throat. “you’re insides feel so fucking good” he breathed as your tongues met. he sucked and bit your lip when you released the kiss for a breath, a string of saliva attached your mouths.

“ah ah ah, you don’t get any breaks.” he laughed breathlessly while groping your titties. you let out small whimpers as he slowly started to thrust into you again.

his breathing became erratic and his hands came up to your thighs as he came to his climax. “so fucking close, princess” your insides twitched around him as you neared yours as well.

you felt him twitch inside you as he came, “ah fuck” he whined out, moaning your name.

your hands came up to his face as he thrusted into you slowly, his movements becoming more sluggish. his face was flushed and wet with sweat. the slowness and sweetness of his movements felt even better then when he was going fast.

“ah kisaki…” you released onto his cock as you gripped his tie. he shoved his tongue down your throat yet again not allowing you a break from the pleasure.

“you can hold on a little longer cant you doll.” his warm breath breezed over your face as your eyes teared up once more.

“y-yeah” you gasped trying to catch your breath.

he shoved himself deeper inside you causing your back to arch and you to moan out his name. “god that’s what I wanted to hear, your pretty little voice… now I won’t stop till I have you screaming out my name.”

he placed a hand on your cheek and smiled devilishly, hearing you moan out so desperately gave him his motivation to go rough back.

your mind was flooded with pleasure as kisaki railed into you on the desk. by the end of the night all you knew was the sound of skin clapping against skin and the squelching noises of your fluids mixing with his. all you felt was kisaki inside you, so deep you could feel him in your guts.

you watched his desperate expression as he made you cum over and over again, the smile that stretched across his face every time you moaned out his name and begged him to make you cum. all you wanted was the taste of his mouth in yours. you wanted to feel his tongue in your mouth like two dancers performing a waltz.

you came over and over again to kisaki until you had nothing left. “kisaki… ah… please stop.. I cant cum anymore.”

“oh baby i know you have more in you.” he grinned as he slammed into you faster and whined as the pleasure was getting to be too much for him too.

“ah.. kisaki.. I’m gonna…” before you could get it out kisaki started sucking on your titties as he slowed down the pace.

“i thought you had nothing left.” he laughed when he felt you twitching around him again.

“i didn’t ” you whimpered, hands coming up to his back tugging on the fabric of his vest he didn’t have time to take off.

your body twitched under him as you held onto him, the pleasure wouldnt stop. slowly he pulled his sopping cock out of your twitching pussy and started leaving love bites all over you.

“ahh it still feels…” Kisaki shushed you before you could continue

“just relax,” he said combing his fingers through your hair and sitting you up. “I went to far im sorry. I… I just wanted you to know I’d do anything, for you.”

you relaxed into his arms and closed your eyes. you knew, even if he didn’t kill those men for you, and even if he didn’t pleasure you past your limit. you knew.

“thank you kisaki…”

authors note: this was my first serious ff so im sorry if it ended weird.. I honestly didn’t know what to do. I hoped you enjoyed it either way (^_−)−☆

[imnotwolverine]

Comic con relief

Henry Cavill drabble

Disclaimer: bit of strong language

Author’s note: For all my fellow dorky cosplayers who can’t go to events right now - I feel you. In this drabble you are stuck in an elevator with some of your nerdy friends and ..ehh..one very cute Mr. Cavill? 

Tagsquad: @tumblnewby @magdelen69

(Link to my Masterlist)

Henry. Was. Tired. He blinked as the elevator doors slid open and 4 Nazgûl strolled in, their hoods hiding the people beneath, animated chatter echoing through the small cell as soon as the elevator doors closed again. They didn’t even seem to notice him through their hoods, their bodies turning away from him as one of them peered at the buttons, face hovering mere inches from the buttons, before hesitantly selecting one - they probably could see very little through the gauze of their hoods. Henry stifled a sniffle as he managed to get a better look at them. They weren’t common Nazgûl, their arms clutching happily coloured pool noodles and candy-shaped floaties. Original, he had to give them that. Hehe.

Even after visiting at least a hundred comic cons, he could still savour these moments. There was nothing more enjoyable than to just be able to watch people as they were just so fully engrossed in being themselves that they didn’t even have time to throw themselves at Henry’s feet. Right now, Henry was just another regular man. A regular man standing in an elevator with the pool-ready ring-servants of the dark lord Sauron, like it was just another Wednesday.

Well.

Actually, it really was just another Wednesday.

And this situation wasn’t out of the ordinary for the Wednesdays Henry had been having.

Henry was currently on a tight scheduled press tour and today’s comic con was one of the many events he was attending to promote the new season of the Witcher. The rush of such a tour was a bit of a double edged sword. He loved to meet his fans, but he was only but a man of flesh and blood, a mere mortal. And mortals..well..they get tired.

Leaning heavily against the back of the elevator wall, he observed the Nazgûl as they pressed another one of the buttons, their voices discussing their plans for the night. From the sounds coming from their mysterious hoods, Henry recognised them to be men. Probably brits just like him. One with a deep baritone voice and two tenors. The fourth one quiet.

The elevator started to move up, the Nazgûl quick to widen their stances before it would be a sea of fallen over black robes. Henry smiled again.  

‘Ooph I can’t wait to get this off. It is the freaking Anduin river down my butt crack.’ The baritone voice chuckled.

‘Dude! Grossss. But agreed. Next time we better build in some cooling system. WEW.’ One of the tenors said.

‘Well you guys go ahead and fix that, you’re the techs in here!’ The fourth one spoke. A ..a woman? Henry looked in mild confusion, his eyes gliding down her shapeless black robes, trying to learn more about her but failing miserably. She was quite tall, but other than that there was no saying what she’d look like. It intrigued him, his eyes resting on her for a longer moment then was probably socially appropriate. He was glad they hadn’t realised yet that he was here with them.

‘Ey and we gotta take some last pictures guys. For fun!’ A tenor said, his hand already digging down his robes to pull out a smartphone. This whole scenario was getting more amusing by the second, especially because the dangerous looking gauntlets were obviously not very practical to take pictures with. Henry grinned, deciding to remain quiet.

‘You and your darn pictures. You could practically plaster your whole bedroom with the whole photo report you’ve made today.’ The other tenor sighed, his complaint falling on deaf ears as the tenor leaned into him to make a selfie, his gloves turning up into a “we will rock” sign.

‘Can you blame me though? I mean..look at us! We’re like the sexiest Ringwraiths of the waterpark!’ The tenor laughed, wobbling his head with a sass. A sassy Ringwraith, but of course.

‘Poooolll partyyy…’ The baritone whispered with an ominous tone.

‘Aren’t we just..dreadfully moist.’ The woman said, a dry humour dripping through her words.

Henry decided to step in.

‘Hey, if you want I can take some pictures of you guys?’

With comical spins on their heels, the four quickly turned around, obviously surprised by the fact there was a 5th person in this elevator. They were properly startled, the elevator quiet as the cabin zipped smoothly through the elevator shaft. Henry smiled awkwardly, shrugging.

‘Woa…’ One of the tenors finally managed, his hand quick to move up his hood and reveal the face of a chubby ginger man, his chin hidden behind a thick beard. ’No effing way…eh.. Sorry we didn’t see you there Mr. Cavill.’

The other two men also took off their hoods, looking quite flabbergasted. ‘Oh..I should not have talked about my ass crack…’ The baritone muttered.

Henry laughed, shaking his head. ‘Oh no really, it is fine. You are amongst friends. Do not contempt yourself.’ His eyes quickly slid towards the woman, but she did not take off her hood, her hood only turned so she could see him. Or well..maybe could see him. Perhaps she only saw a vague blur right now.

‘But eh..want me to take a picture of you guys?’ Henry asked again. The men quickly started to nod their heads, hands pulling back their hoods. ‘Yea man! Thanks. That’s very kind of you.’

‘No problem, no problem.’ Henry carefully took the smartphone from the evil looking gauntlet that was stretched out to him, then stepped as far back into the corner as he could. Holding the phone up close to his nose he could just manage to get you all in the picture.

‘Alright. Great! Love your costumes by the way.’

‘Thanks! Oh can we have one picture with you too? I mean, if that’s not too forward. We understand if you -’

‘Oh no please. Sure! I’d love that. Could I perhaps take one with my phone as well, for my..Instagram? Is that okay with you guys?’

‘Heck yes! Woa..’

The men were obviously enjoying how easy going Henry was, and Henry was glad they didn’t go to overboard on the fangirling department. Henry squatted down in front of the Nazgûl squad and first made a selfie with their smartphone, before taking out his smartphone and shooting some selfies with that too.

It was then the elevator came to a very sudden, shaky stop.

The group wobbled dangerously uncoordinated, gauntlets gripping shiny railings and steadying against the walls as it appeared the elevator had gotten stuck, the doors not opening like they usually would. The woman shrieked in slight panic, her body stuck between one of her friends and the corner of the small elevator cabin, her hooded face probably having stopped her from grasping a railing in time.

‘Dudee!!’ She groaned, pushing off her friend.

The friend laughed, moving away before reaching out an arm to pull her back up. ’Sorry darlin’. Looks like you should have eaten less of that buffet..’

‘Very funny.’ She invisibly rolled her eyes.

‘Hehe. Went to that big toe again I’m sure. Gotta lay low on those chocolates dear!’ One of the other men chuckled, the last of the group now peering at the buttons on the panel.

‘Oh just give it a moment.’ Henry said, touching the man’s shoulder to alert him. ‘It’s probably just a little hiccup. It happens more often than you’d like to imagine.’ He smiled.

They all sighed, Henry’s eyes turning up to look at the ceiling. He chewed on his bottom lip in silent frustration, his fingers gripping with aggravation around his phone. 

UGH…really? Could this day get any more frustrating?

He wished he could just wind down for the day. He had been up since 7 o’clock and he maybe, accidentally, accepted to join his manager to an after party event tonight. Standing here, stuck in an elevator, he realised it really was the last thing he wanted to do. He wished he could just pull on a robe just like theirs and disappear into the comfort of just being Henry for tonight. To really..relax.

‘Had a long day?’ The woman asked, tilting her head in Henry’s direction. He looked at her, her face still hooded and cloaked. Alright, she probably could see him, otherwise she hadn’t noticed his quiet sulking. Henry sighed. 

‘Yea. And no end in sight unfortunately. I halfwittedly agreed to join this after party. So perhaps the almighty gods are just sending me a sign by stopping this elevator.’ He smiled a tired smile.

‘Can’t you just..cancel?’ She asked, shrugging.

‘Perhaps. But perhaps the decision to go has already been made by this elevator.’ Henry shrugged in turn.

‘Hey! You could join us for drinks if you want. Just gonna relax in our room. Play a quick D&D campaign with some beers.’ The baritone said, his hand once more moving to remove his cap. He offered Henry a comforting smile, making Henry realise these were really rather nice people. And fun people too.

He sighed. He wished he could say yes. But he ...he promised. He wasn’t one to break promises.

‘Well I promised my manager..can’t really disappoint him. But thanks for the offer -‘

The lights flickered and everyone instantly looked up, hands moving back to the railings to steady themselves for any sudden movement of the cabin. But…nothing. Still no movement.

‘Hmm, looks like they’re trying to fix it.’ Henry said.

‘Any idea how long that usually takes?’ One asked.

The other men once more removed their hoods, faces hot and slightly annoyed, brows furrowing.

‘Could be a few minutes. Could be half an hour. I don’t know really. Just prepare for it to take a while.’

‘UGH. It’s too fucking hot.’ The woman groaned, her hand finally moving to lift her hood. Henry’s eyes instantly moved to see her, his eyes taking in the bliss of recognising soft skin and blushing cheeks as her black hood pulled away.

She was…very…pretty.

He quickly looked away from her, not wishing to seem rude, but his stare did not go unnoticed by the other men, their mouths curling in knowing smiles.

‘Well looks we might be here for a while.’ A very slender faced man with receding hairline said. One of the tenors.

Henry nodded, chewing his lip.

‘Got any tips on what to do? You said this happens more often?’ The woman asked, Henry’s eyes not hesitating a moment to look back into hers. Gods she was far too pretty to be a nerd. He scolded himself for staring at her again, his brain not managing to process the question she just asked him.

‘Earth to Henry, earth to Henry.’ She waved her gauntleted hand in front of his face and he quickly blinked, a blush brushing over his chiseled cheeks.

‘…I am..so..sorry..I just..’ He shook his head and smiled awkwardly, the knowing grins on the faces of the other men growing by the second.

‘I guess I really should take a night to unwind haha. But, to answer your question; there’s not much we can do. Just wait.’

‘Our offer still stands!’ The bearded ginger said, winking. The woman rolled her eyes, but also shrugged in agreement.  

Henry looked at the group hesitantly, before quickly checking the floor sign that was now blinking erratically. It didn’t look like he was going anywhere anytime soon. Perhaps they wouldn’t even make it out of this elevator. Could you imagine? Stuck in an elevator with 4 Nazgûl? He sure had another fun story to tell after today.

‘Thanks..’ Henry smiled.

Could he cancel his manager? Should he..join these people? They seemed fun. And another night alone in a hotel room was probably not going to do him any good either. He chewed his lip again - he did that too often, he admitted it -, his hand suddenly buzzing. Or no actually it was the phone in his hand that was buzzing. 

Like the devil.

His manager had just texted him.

“Henners. I’m afraid I can’t make it. Feeling a bit iffy and gonna hit the hay early. See you tomorrow.”

YES. 

Henry sighed in relief, the weight of the world slightly less heavy on his shoulders just now. He didn’t have to spend his night entertaining others, striking up polite conversation and try to keep his composure while a hundred fans wanted to take pictures with him. He didn’t have to pretend to be this hot shot superstar. He could..

He looked up from his phone, the group of Nazgûl already conversing again about this D&D session they just spoke about. Hmm..Should he? He never…well..maybe?

‘Hey. UH..before I say..yes..is it like..okay if I’ve never played D&D before? I mean I don’t want to..-‘

‘YES MAN! Oh and don’t worry. We’ve had plenty of virgins.’ The skinny man quickly interjected, immediately realising those choice words were…well..less convenient.

They all burst out laughing.

‘Good ol’ cherry poppin’ murder hobos, we are.’ The woman chuckled, poking the skinny man in his side. He groaned, the sound drowning in the now very loud laughter reverberating from Henry’s chest.

‘What?!’ The woman shrugged, acting playfully unabashed.

‘Nothing, nothing. I just..never..ever..heard a pretty woman say something like that..ever.’ Henry chuckled, his laughter making him cough slightly. ‘Sorry about that.’ He grinned, offering her a cheeky wink.

‘Oh..’ The woman started to blush profusely, her hand quick to pull her cap back on.

Cute, Henry thought.

’No, no, please. No need to..’ Henry stepped in closer, his hand carefully lifting the hood back from her face, her flushed cheeks appearing from beneath the pool of black. Gods she was pretty. She looked up into his eyes, her breath coming in short, pupils dilated. Ah..she…liked..him..too? It must be Henry’s lucky day…

The elevator jolted.

And suddenly Henry had her in his arms, his body pressing her back into the corner. Oh she was shapely too. His breath choked as he blinked a bit, his brain short circuiting for the longest moment as his hands safely held her against his chest, perky breasts squished against him. Ooph..okay..take a hold of yourself Henry. Don’t be an idiot now.  

One of the man stood up from his awkward half-tumble and sniffled in amusement, looking at the way Henry held on to his lady friend.

‘WELL. Looks like we found ourselves a knight errant for tonight’s campaign!’

The woman blinked, still somewhat overcome by this strange turn of events, the feeling of being wrapped in the arms of one very hot Henry Cavill, the very man not making any attempt to let her go. And then her lips curled up in a smile, her shoulders starting to shake, a heart warming laugh bursting through her full lips.

‘Just…hahahaha..wiew okay..so you know..I play a very fat old wizardess. Not really likely to be saved by any knight errants..any day.’

‘Well..maybe this Wednesday is different?’ Henry tried, finally stepping back and joining them in their laughter, his lips turning up in an amused grin.

He liked these people and thanked the elevator gods for interfering on his night.

—

And what a fun night it was. It was about 3 o’clock when he finally made it back to his hotel room, his cheeks tired from laughter, his head slightly buzzed from the beer and his heart warm, hands clenched around his phone. His most prized possession right now, because it held her number. Her friends had quickly given it to him when she had gone to the bathroom. And he felt like he was the luckiest man in the whole wide world right now.

A nerdy girl? With humour? And that attractive? Stuck with him in an elevator? He would have said no way, had you told him he’d meet a woman like her this morning. But right now, all he could say was; yes way. Sighing in happy relief, he sank down into his pillow, his heart beating with giddy joy. Today, was perhaps the start of many very good, good days.

[vmheadquarters]

We’re still playing our game of written hot potato! Dozens of your favorite authors are taking turns to tell a Veronica Mars mystery story. Each writer crafts their chapter and then “tosses” the story to the next person to continue the tale. No one knows what will happen, so expect the unexpected!

Follow the “vmhq presents” and “murder we wrote” tags for all the installments, or read the story as it develops on AO3. --Chapter Twenty of MURDER, WE WROTE is written by @beezlebobble​​. And stayed tuned next week for Ch.21 from @DRiver2u - tag, you’re it!

—————————————————————————————————— CHAPTER TWENTY by @beezlebobble​ a/k/a orionseyes

“Wallace!” Veronica exclaimed as she hobbled as quickly as possible, clutching Logan’s arm. Logan dropped her hand as he raced over to the staircase to bend down and check Wallace’s pulse. As Veronica finally neared, he helped her clumsily and painfully crouch down to check on any other injuries Wallace might have. The rest of the group huddled around a very still Wallace.

“He’s alive! But we’ll have to wait to find out if he’s broken anything. I don’t see signs of broken bones, but he must have hit his head and back pretty hard coming down that slide.”

“Looks like a wild ride. Wallace was Slip, Sliding, Away…Slip, Sliding, Away…” Dick crooned as Veronica reached out and smacked his nearest limb hard, which happened to be his leg.

And slide it was. What had been previously a normal, albeit ornately fussy, wood-paneled staircase, was now a long, slick, wooden slide. The steps had collapsed like a funhouse trick and Wallace had been taken completely by surprise.

“Dick, how can you?! Someone’s trying to kill us! And I might be next. They know I’m wearing my Louboutins and I can’t outrun them or walk in the snow! Anyway, they would get totally ruined. Oh God, I almost went upstairs to get something out of my bag, that could have been me! Walter’s unconscious, but I might have been killed!” Gia wailed as she turned and cast herself dramatically into a nearby Luke’s arms. He patted her back ineffectually while Susan and Carrie simultaneously rolled their eyes. They caught each other and started to giggle. Alexis sighed and clutched arms around her middle as she looked down on Wallace’s still form. Duncan and Cole hovered behind Susan and Carrie with concerned looks on their faces.

“For the last time you idiots, his name is Wallace! Veronica shouted. She glanced around the room and rubbed her chin, “This seemingly-luxurious mansion appears to have a ridiculous number of secret rooms and hidden mechanisms, like it was built for the stage or as a movie set. I think we need to figure out what exactly this house is, who owns it, and see if anyone can recall its history.” Veronica had that steely, intent investigator’s look in her eye that made Logan equal parts impressed and aroused. He reached out and pushed a wild lock of hair that had escaped from her ponytail behind her ear.

“Baby, this is why I love you. There isn’t a challenge you won’t face.” He stood up briskly and brushed his hands on his jeans. He then reached out a warm hand to help her rise to her shaky feet.

She gladly took it. It was a solid comfort and she realized that she looked forward to Logan actually being her partner in the future. “At some point, sweetheart, you’re going to have to find me something I can use as a cane. I’m not built for resting. Us Mars’ are hardy, peasant stock, not made for swanning on some low-slung couch like Gloria Swanson. Girls like me gotta give birth in the cornfields and get back to milking the cattle, you know.”

Logan grinned and bent down to sweep her off her feet. “Honey, you need to sit still for at least fifteen minutes while we gather our collective wits and sort this out. Let Daddy Logan make you nice and comfortable.” He carried her carefully back to the living area and deposited her on the plush, heavily upholstered sofa which had been moved aside for the mattresses.

“Hey Casey, you and Dick grab Wallace and move him out here. Lay him out on the mattress by the dining table and we’ll get to business,” Logan directed as he grabbed a blanket to lay over Veronica’s lap. “Wait here a second.” He got up and left the room. A minute later he returned hoisting a leather tufted ottoman that had been in the library.

“In case you want to move around and keep that foot elevated.” Veronica cupped his face and gave him a quick, tender kiss. She’d missed how much he was always taking care of her.

“OK, everyone, gather round! Mother Goose has some stories for you kiddies. First, let’s figure out this house situation. Has anyone heard of this house, been at this house, or known anyone else who has? You’re all Richie Riches, surely, some of you must have visited or heard something.”

“I have never heard of this place, and please don’t call me Shirley,” Dick piped up. Logan reached over and slapped him on the side of his head. “Ow, man, why did you smack me so hard?”

“Shut up and quit fooling around, Dick. There’s at least one dead man and multiple attempts on other people’s lives and you have to keep acting like a fucking donkey.”

Dick grumbled and plopped himself down on one of the mattresses. Everyone else had seated themselves around in a circle.

“My dad used to sail out this way sometimes, but I don’t think he landed on the island or knew the owners. I think I remember something about it being a hotel or inn?” Casey suggested.

“No, I don’t think it was a hotel. There are no exit signs, or a front desk, or a lobby. It doesn’t have that institutional, sterile feel.  It feels like someone’s not-so-welcoming home,” Carrie stated. “I’m not sure if I could live here, but it looks like someone did. This island is not exactly inviting.”

“I think you’re right, but I guess it was long shot to think that any of us Southern Californians would have an idea about this place. If only we could boot up Mac’s computer or someone’s phone and try to find more info about this place.” Veronica mulled this over while she stroked the arm of the couch as she leaned back.

“If it helps, I was told that this place had been used for murder mysteries for a really long time. Like, maybe decades? That should help narrow down any search,” Mac offered.

“Did Jen know anything?” Veronica asked her.

“Maybe.” Mac shrugged. “She seemed like she had been doing this for a while, and that the house itself served that purpose for a lot of groups.”

“OK. First, we have to find Jen. For information and probably for her own safety. She might be in cahoots with the killer, or he might have already gotten to her. Regardless, she has info that we need. Second, we are partnering up if we need to leave this room, but otherwise staying put. I don’t think any of you are in cahoots with the killer, mainly because some of you are just not that clever.  So that means, everyone keeps an eye on each other. We are all going to leave this island alive. Even Dick.” Dick glanced over and pointed both his pointer fingers at himself as if to say, who, me?

“We know that our suspect is a large male. He managed to drag Leo’s body in the snow to the stable. He tossed me off the balcony like a ragdoll. But it’s entirely possible that he’s just the muscle because the mastermind behind this must be our hostess!” Everyone in the circle nodded in agreement and Alexis shivered.

“The other thing we are going to do is figure out how many hidden rooms, cubbies, compartments are in this place. That means going room by room, tapping walls and pushing unusual looking panels, knots in the wood, carvings, knobs, handles, sconces, books in bookcases, and lifting statue-like things. You’ve all seen it in the movies, so use some of those as guides. I have a feeling our mastermind can’t resist watching us and is hiding somewhere in the recesses of this large, weird house.”

Logan leaned over and threw his arms around her. “My girlfriend is so smart and sexy. You all listen up.  There’s no way we’re getting out without Veronica’s help.”

“Your girlfriend, huh?”

“Yup.” Logan popped his mouth to say. “The smartest, sexiest, peskiest girlfriend a lucky goofball like me could have.” He hugged her to him and kissed her firmly on her head.

“Unnnhhhh.” Everyone turned sharply around as Wallace moaned. He groaned again as he slowly sat up while clutching his head. “Oww, my head. Did the Hulk club me or something?”

Logan rushed over as Veronica looked gratefully at him. They truly were going to be a team and it made her heart almost burst to see him showing care for one of the most important people in her life.

“Now, Wallace, you need to be careful.  I think you bumped your noggin pretty hard as you came sliding down.”

“Ugh, now I remember! I took the first step and the stairs just disappeared, and that was it.”

“OK, Wallace, you need to lay back down, you might have a concussion.” Logan tenderly helped Wallace lay prone as he gazed up at Logan with a bemused expression.

“Look at you, helping me. Veronica would be so proud.” He sighed and laid back as Logan covered him a soft, camel-colored throw.

“I am proud.” Veronica called out with a huge smile on her face, showing all the affection she felt for him. Logan turned towards her and grinned back. It felt so good to be in tune with each other. They were going to grow together and face whatever the fates would bring.

“I can’t stand it anymore!” Dick cried as he rushed past Casey and pushed him into Cole, who raced after him. He grabbed both handrails and yanked himself to the top of the landing. There was a cry from the next room.

“Yee-haw!” There were some squeaks and then a low rumble as Dick rolled from the base of the stairs into the living area and rose with a flourish. “Ta-da!” ��Casey took one look at him and took off for the stairs. The next few minutes were chock-full of sound of a flurry of idiots and donkeys racing up the slope that remained of the stairs and hurling themselves down.

“I’m hungry.” Gia whined. “I don’t want pop-tarts for dinner. I’ll just die if I don’t eat anything. My doctor says I’m anemic and should forage at least every two hours. I wonder if there’s anything paleo in this god-forsaken dump?”

“Right, we’re all hungry, but the food is being guarded by Madison's corpse. Do you really want to eat that?” Logan asked, looking around at the glum faces.

Dick chimed in. “I don’t care; if no one else does, we should go for it. Logan cooks a mean pasta. I mean, my doctor says I’m a growing boy and I gotta forage every hour.”

“But pasta is carbs!” Gia complained.

“Gia, god help me, just shut up for once. I think pasta is a safe bet and there’s probably enough down there to feed all of us.” Logan got up and pointed at Cole and Duncan. “You and you are coming with me. I’ll go into the pantry, grab supplies, and pass them to you. We all have to keep up our strength for what lies ahead.”

The three of them headed down to the basement as Veronica leaned back and sighed. This was not going to be easy. Her injury was going to make everything so much harder and really put her at a disadvantage against her two or possibly more hidden foes.

In her hideout, Della watched the screen closely and focused on Veronica. She did not trust that girl. She was always kind of skeevy. Look at the way she ordered Logan around. And he was literally waiting on her hand and foot. It really was disgusting. She would never make Logan do that. She would worship him, and cuddle him, and stroke his hair, and then make delicious pasta meals for him. Pasta, wait? That gave her an idea. She couldn’t do anything to what they were currently going to eat, but she could sneak down there after and prime some of their future meals. Hmm. This was going to be lots of fun. She had the perfect stuff to spike their food.  She walked over to the small desk in the room and pulled on its only drawer. Inside was a bottle of just what the doctor ordered.

[uglypastels]

True Reflections // Tom Holland

request: how about something with Tom, where his girlfriend is insecure about her body and he comforts her and just tells her how beautiful she is (idk if you do smut, but add some in if you want)

(a/n) It’s late, I’m tired and emotional. I have no idea if this is actually any good. also, as I said, it’s really late so I can’t be bothered with editing (will probably regret this later whoops) 

word count: 2098

warning: angst, light swearing, self-consciousness, mention/indication of smut, indication of self-harm, depression. but it's not all that bad, there is a lot of fluff. I promise. 

One more kiss. That’s all he needed. Just one more to seal the deal. Her soft lips pressed against his as his hand supported her neck lovingly. Her hot fingertips grazed his chest and to his dismay, she pulled away. He tried to lean into her but she giggled: “Hmm, babe, I really have to get up now.” 

“Fine, but get back here quickly, I’m not done with you yet.” He smirked as he watched her scoot out of the blankets that were wrapped around their naked bodies. She put on her underwear and walked to the bathroom. While she was gone Tom let out a deep breath with a smile. His hand behind his head, chest still glistening in sweat, head spinning. 

All his senses were overthrown. He could only smell her sweet scent mixed with his. He couldn’t feel anything except for her lingering touch. When he closed his eyes, he only saw the image of her beautiful eyes looking up at him. His ears were ringing with the little moans and curses she let out while his lips were burning with the desire to taste her again. The boy was going crazy and he was fine with it. Being in love did that to you after all. 

Some time passed and she still hadn’t come back. The space in the memory foam next to him regaining its normal shape as the covers started to get cold. Tom hadn’t bothered to check the time but he knew it was longer than she usually took. Something was wrong. 

“Babe,” he called out, “I miss you.” It was a reoccurring joke in their relationship but when he didn’t receive any response he really started to worry. “Babe?” Still nothing. Tom sat up and picked up his boxers from the ground. He threw them on and jumped over the bed to the open door. 

The cold wooden floor sent shivers down his whole body but it was nothing like the anxiety he was feeling as he jogged through the small hallway to the bathroom. He knocked on the white door softly. “Love, you okay in there?” No response. He tried spinning the knob and to his surprise, it was unlocked. 

Carefully, preparing himself for anything that might be facing him on the other side, he opened the door. The hinges creaked as usual. What he saw broke his heart. There she stood the most beautiful girl in the world, looking at her reflection. One of her arms crossed over her chest, as the other rubbed her neck. She was slowly turning from left to straight ahead to right and back. Any time she turned too far she would strain her neck to see the rest of her body in the mirror. 

Her face was showing disgust. Hatred towards what she saw. Shame at her own body. She didn’t turn around when the door opened behind her. Her eyes didn’t even glance up in the mirror to look at her handsome boyfriend walk in and stand next to her. So handsome. Too handsome for her. 

“Why do you love me?” It wasn’t supposed to come out. She meant it as a silent thought. Not to be heard by anyone except for her own demons. To be left in the dark corners of her mind forever. But he heard it… and it wasn’t a pleasant thing to hear.

“Is that a serious question? You know why I love you.” He made sure to remind her every minute of every day. It was the first thing he told her when they woke up. He told her at breakfast, at lunch, and at dinner. He told her no matter if he was sitting right next to her or on the other side of the world. It wasn’t always with words. Sometimes it was as simple as letting her pick out his outfit when they went out because she had much better taste than him. Or buy her those cookies she liked so much because they reminded her of Christmas even though it was July. Or let her screw up the lyrics of his favorite songs because he loved to hear her sing.

“I’m serious Tom.” she sighed, finally turning around. He noticed how she was holding in her stomach. Looking back up to her eyes, she said with the most serious tone he could form: “So am I. But fine, let me remind you.” He walked up to her, placing his hand right above her hip and the other on her cheek. Her eyes were glistening in the yellow light of the bathroom. He could feel how her skin had turned cold from standing naked in the bathroom for so long.

“I love you because you are funny, smart, kind, loving and so much more. A day with you feels like an eternity because I can’t help but cherish every single moment. Every little thing that you do in your own special way. I love it how you always stay up all night on Halloween just to play a Christmas song the moment the clock strikes midnight. I love it how you scrunch your nose when I say something you don’t agree with,” he chuckled when she did what he just explained, “Just like that.” he gave her a small kiss on the tip of her nose.

“I love it how unique you are. Every inch of your body is covered with nothing but love and care for others and you are beautiful… absolutely divine.” She had been beaming but when he spoke his last sentence the smile faded and she scoffed.

“You don’t have to lie to me.” She pulled away from his grip and looked into the mirror just to leave him standing there, mouth agape and eyes wide open.

“Excuse me? Have I ever lied to you?”

“I’m not beautiful Tom.” her words came out strangled. “I’m hideous.”

“Darling, please don’t say that.” He wanted to reach out for her hand, to turn her around from that cursed looking glass. She just stepped away.

“But it’s true. I’m- ugh!” she groaned in anger and frustration. “My hips and stomach make me want to vomit. I have saggy boobs and rolls…” tears were forming in her eyes, “my legs are short and stumpy and so are my fingers. I have acne and stretch marks all over the place,” her eyes fell on her hips and thighs. “Not to mention the scars.” She moved around so the light would hit all the marks she was talking about. Suddenly, her lower body was covered in thin pale lines, some accentuating her body shape with the purple-red tinge in them, some even thinner and parallel to each other, Tom had memorized all of them. Sure to kiss every spot of hatred away from her when they were in bed.

“My nose and forehead are huge, while my eyes are tiny. My smile is horrendous and don’t even get me started on my eyebrows.” Her hand went up to smoothen the hairs in her left eyebrow, the one with a little scar going through it. Tom knew she despised it but to him, it was one of her finer details. Just like anything else on her body.  

“Darling-” he couldn’t listen to it anymore. She was killing herself with her own words and he was dying alongside her.

“And my hair, god, my hair. Always a mess, I don’t know how you can live with me… how you can even look at me. I don’t deserve you. Everyone else knows it. All of those people are right. I am just a waste of space and I should just let you go. I shouldn’t keep you away from something better. You can do so much better than-”

“That’s enough!” Tom didn’t mean to yell. He just wanted to pull her out of the trance that she put herself in. He should have seen it coming. It happened every time. Her mind would subconsciously wander off to the darkest place and she would start to say all of those horrible things. Just staring in front of her. Eyes blank and unfocused. She turned her head in shock when he shouted out. Tom lowered his voice.

“Love, you are breaking my heart. I can’t listen to it anymore. For the love of god, please stop.”

“But it’s true Tom, all of it. I’m hideous! I am a disgusting, piece of shit, that doesn’t deserve you or anything you have ever given me.” The tears were now streaming down her face. She looked broken. The last few pieces only hanging off of their corners to each other. Ready to fall apart.

Tom took a step forward and she took a step back. Even though the floor was clean and smooth, every time she back away from him it felt like stepping of lego and shards of glass. Only when her back hit the tiled wall could he finally close the space between them. But before he did take that final place, the last pieces fell apart. The little cries turned into sobs as she put a hand over her mouth and slid down to the floor. Her forehead leaning on her raised knees. Tom immediately slid down the wall next to her. She fell to her side, her cheek on his bare chest. Tom could feel the tears trickle down his skin as he stroke her hair. That all he did. He didn’t say anything. He just let her cry.

They stared there for a while. Her sobs softened but her breathing stayed uneven. Tom was looking up at the ceiling, recounting the panels over and over again, holding back his own tears.  He only looked back down when the grip on his arm loosened, when her breathing finally found its rhythm again and faucets in her eyes ran out. He pulled her close and leaned in to kiss her forehead.

“Darling,” he whispered, “You are the most beautiful girl the world has had a pleasure to have created. Everything you see in that mirror is exactly the reason why I love you. I love every inch of your skin and yes, that includes every blemish, spot, scar or mark you got. I love each and every hair on top of that pretty head of yours as tangled or messy it might be sometimes.

“You are the love of my life and you make me the luckiest guy in the universe just letting me be with you. Not to mention to see you, to touch you, to love you...It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. We got each other and that’s what’s important. I can’t thank you enough for that.”

“Tommy,” her voice was still shaky. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, darling. Now let’s get you to bed. You’re freezing.” She nodded against his chest and like that he helped her get up, not letting go of her for a second. His arms snaked their way around their favorite place in the world, her hips. Like that, they were walking back to their bedroom. Before they stepped through the doorway though, she turned around in his arms and kissed him. It was a long, passionate and sloppy kiss. Tom’s grip on her hips tightened and he heard her whimper just the tiniest bit.

They simultaneously pressed deeper into the kiss. Her small hand now on his jaw, her thump right under his bottom lip. He smirked into the kiss and at that moment her lips started to make their journey sideway. Beginning at the corner of his mouth, down to his jaw to his neck. Tom rolled his eyes in pleasure when he realized what she was doing. When he felt her suck on that sweet spot of his, adding on to the purple mark she had left him as a present just two hours ago.

It was all the motivation he needed to grip her tightly and pull her up bu her legs up to his hips. Her legs wrapped themselves around him as her arms did the same around his neck. Their lips connecting again. As he lead her back to their room, Tom hoped she would never let go of him. That she would let him stay in her life. To let him love and cherish her. To show her how truly wonderful and beautiful she was. Let her be there for her. Help her piece herself back together. Let his kisses be the glue that she needed to be a whole again.

The End 

> check out my masterlist (link in bio) 

> please leave comments, feedback anything. I love reading it 

tagging (sorry): 

@andwhatdostarsdobest   @tomhollanders2013 @thelazypangolin @spiderrrling @merryspidermas @tom-holland-and-textposts @lovelyspidey @hazsterfield @nerdraging4point0 @hey-its-grey @winterwondholland @tominachristmasjumper @rachramblesstuff @theprincesofasgard @fratboievans @musiclover1263 @peter-parker-life @moonkissedtom @christmas-marvel  

[not-another-archive]

D-Day fic (title undecided)

Storyboard for context (btw I’m calling the guy next to Murdoc on the 4th panel Terry)

“You’re really gonna lug that bloke everywhere, eh?”

“Yes. Required by law.”

“Since when did you start obeying the law?”

“Since I got caught’s when,” Murdoc snapped as he shoved the comatose Stuart into the car. Terry had tagged along, one of his many hooligan friends that seemed to come and go at moment’s notice. Murdoc stared at the one-eyed, blue-haired heap slumped in the back seat. A second passed. Murdoc sat the boy up and daintily placed the limp forearm on the kid’s lap, pleased. Terry scowled. “Get in already, bender,” he muttered. “Bender!?” Murdoc yelped as he slammed the door shut. Once he hopped in the driver’s seat, he pouted and flitted his eyes around, trying to think of a comeback. Suddenly, a smirk crept across his lips. “Say, would a bender be looking to participate in...oh, I dunno, that parking lot with all those loons mucking about, eh? Care to go for a hell of a spin, Terry? Or are you some kind of bender?” Terry’s eyes widened as the greasy animal revved his late father’s jalopy.

“You’re bluffing, now.”

“Nuh-uh!” Murdoc cracked a snaggle-toothed grin, “we’re in Nottingham, mate, we may as well.” He cackled as the beat-up Vauxhall Astra, patched up from the fairly recent crash that bestowed him the unresponsive teen, sputtered its way to the parking lot derby.

By the time they got there it was raining lightly, but that wasn’t stopping anyone. Terry wasn’t too keen on potentially snapping his neck, much to Murdoc’s amusement. He opted to stand and watch while the mop-topped madman tore up the parking lot. Despite Murdoc’s mockery, Terry gave him a big smile and a double thumbs up for luck before stepping out. Murdoc smirked, and a chuckle rolled out of his throat as he fiddled with his cigarette. He tossed it out the window and slammed his foot on the gas. The deafening roar rumbled out of the car, almost drowning out the cheers. He picked up more speed and performed a few donuts, tossing the blue-haired ragdoll, still in the backseat, to-and-fro. Murdoc, however, was having a whale of a time, laughing maniacally and beeping the horn. Eventually, when he’d had his fun, he screeched to a halt next to the crowd, surveying his captive audience, panting and feeling — kind of — alive. They were going wild, waving, whistling, hollering; it’s what he longed for, what he dreamed would meet him onstage one day…

Murdoc was quickly snapped out of his musings with something else that allured him so.

Tits!!! On a lady!!!

A girl had taken her top off to, well, encourage him. And boy, did it ever. Murdoc’s freakishly long tongue lolled out of his maw as he tried to plan his last trick on the spot, the grand finale. He revved the engine once more, to another wave of applause. The speedometer gradually climbed up to around ninety as he spun the car around the lot. With his rearview mirror ravaged with cracks and rendered useless, he turned his head out the window to see if that lady was still offering her “encouragement.”

B-DUM!!!

It hadn’t been so much as two seconds before Murdoc’s car barrelled head-on into a bollard at top speed. There was a deafening crunch of metal twisting, shattered glass, and the smell of rising smoke. The car alarm rang like a cry of agony. Murdoc shrunk in his seat. The impact had left him pretty scraped up, but mostly alright; a bruise or some cuts here and there, but it was nothing he wasn’t used to. The very kid he was supposed to look after would beg to differ. Having not been buckled, Stu careened through the windshield and hit the pavement, skidding on his face for what felt like half a mile before his head made a final impact on the curb. Oops.

Almost on cue, the rain seemed to pick up slightly, and the surroundings grew dreary to match the sky. Stuart lay limp on the road, surrounded by bits of broken glass. Murdoc, hands still latched onto the wheel, craned his neck to get a look at him. Moments passed. Despite the blaring alarm and the rain, it felt just as heavy as silence.

Stuart’s fingers twitched.

He lifted his head off the ground.

Painstakingly slow, the boy who was a crumpled, immobile heap mere seconds ago pushed himself off the road. Disoriented, the spindly teen hoisted himself to a shaky standing position. And there he stood, swaying, but there he stood. Murdoc stared, gobsmacked. Then he finally got a good look at the boy’s face. He was missing teeth, he was all bloodied up, but that was barely noticeable compared to what took center stage.

Stuart had no eyes. In their place were two empty, reddish-black voids. Murdoc had bashed one in before, but what were the chances it would happen again?

Now, this was quite a unique look, Murdoc thought as a smile began to stretch across his face. That kid worked in the Keyboard Emporium, didn’t he? He was fervently plotting now, gleefully hunched over the wheel. This was an opportunity he couldn’t miss.

Murdoc stepped out of the wreckage and trotted over to the bizarre-looking fellow.

“Hey!” He waved as he approached the lost-looking lad.

“...Huh?” The further disfigured Stu turned to squint at the small, grayish, greenish, blackish blob.

“...Erm…” Murdoc scratched the back of his head. Perhaps he didn’t plot as well as he thought. “R’you...ok?” He asked, surveying the damage. The younger bloke didn’t respond, staring blankly in a now quite literal sense until he could figure out it was a person he was looking at. He looked at Murdoc, then back at the wreckage, then back at Murdoc, then the car again. Suddenly, his pitch-black eyes widened and his bleeding jaw dropped. “Oh my god!” He warbled, turning back to Murdoc, “did you crash that car?” Murdoc wasn’t entirely sure how he was supposed to answer that.

“...Yeah.”

“I coulda been killed!”

“Oh, shut up, you-“

“You saved my life, mister!” Enthused, Stuart leaned closer and began twiddling his fingers.

“...Beg your pardon?”

“Not sure why I was on the ground, but if you hadn’t crashed your car, you woulda run me over n’ killed me for certain!”

Murdoc was at a complete loss. At least this idiocy and/or delirium was in his favor.

“Yeah, let’s go with that.”

“What was that, sir?”

“Nuthin’.”

There was a bit of a pause. Stuart observed his now fuzzy surroundings. Murdoc looked at the ground and whistled for a second or two before clearing his throat. “You play keyboard, right?”

“Yeah!” A big, dopey smile spread across Stu’s scraped up face, “I work at Uncle Norman’s Keyboard Emporium. Ever been?”

“Oh yeah. I don’t think they like me very much over there, though.” They chuckled, but only Murdoc knew why it was funny.

“...Why not?” The boy tilted his head. “Not important,” Murdoc made a dismissive gesture, “anyway, erm, I’m forming a band, actually, and I think you’d be a welcome addition.” Stuart’s new eyes tried their hardest to light up. “You really mean it?”

“Sure, sure. I’m certain those… interesting looks of yours would make good frontman material. Definitely draws attention.” Stuart beamed another jacked grin, overjoyed from the pseudo-complement. “Why, thank you, mister! Sign me up! I owe ya for saving me whole life ‘n such.” Bingo. With some disinfectant and patching up, Murdoc would have the perfect face for the band. Other than his own mug, of course. “I sing too,” Stuart added. With a voice like that? “Doubt it,” Murdoc replied curtly. “Well,” he tutted, “no use standing around in this rain. I’ll nick a car and you can clean yourself up at my place.”

“Ok!”

The new recruit was rather complacent watching Murdoc smash a random car’s window and start it up, and soon enough the budding band was on the road. It felt strange for them to both be conscious. Once they were properly introduced and caught up, small talk was made, but it was dull. As frustratingly dull as the former coma patient himself.

“Er… Murdoc… whose car is this again?”

“I told you, it doesn’t matter!”

Similar conversation plagued the car throughout the ride. All the while, Murdoc found it ridiculous that this moron could look so strange and have a name like Stuart. Not if he had anything to say about it.

“We can’t keep calling you Stuart, man.”

“Then call me Stu!”

“No! It’s boring! You need a stage name, looking like that.”

“...StuPot? That’s what they called me in school.”

Murdoc groaned. “Let me do all the thinking, and you can tell me what you like best. C’mon, man, it’ll be cool.”

Murdoc ran through a list of nicknames he thought of on the spot. As Stu dismissed one after another, Murdoc grew exasperated.

“Well, if you don’t like Denthead, Dentrimental, or Dent, Daft, and Beyond, then what?! Come on, those were good!!!”

The boy shook his head, “Too long for me. I like Stuart. It’s easy to remember and quicker to write.”

“I can’t work with that criteria!”

Stu almost rose his shrill voice. “Just keep it simple, please.”

“Ugh, simple’s what we’re trying to avoid!” Murdoc scowled. “Just Dents, then?”

“Does it have to be about the dents in my skull?” Stu whined. “Well, I mean, yeah,” Murdoc retorted. “You have dents in your skull,” he continued, “that’s fuckin’ metal.” Stu nodded slowly. “It’s just a bit on the nose, innit?”

“Then…” Murdoc was damn near out of ideas. “How about… 2-Dents, then? ‘Cos you’ve got two now, don’t you? It’s not just ‘Dents’ and it could be ‘2-D’ for short, yeah? It doesn’t sound bad, even without the implication of brain damage, so there you go.” Stuart mulled it over, nodding slowly, then picking up speed as his bloody face beamed once more. “I actually really like that! That- That’s quite good, innit?” He went so far as to declare, “from now on, I want everyone to call me 2-D!” Murdoc was pleased. “That’s the spirit!” He hollered. “Right then, 2D, this is it. The big one. We’re on the road to stardom, I can feel it. This is gonna be revolutionary, just you wait.”

“Well, no… we’re on the road to your place, remember? If we’re going to stardom we must’ve taken a wrong turn…”

“Well, you see, my place happens to be where stardom is.”

“Wow! No kiddin’!”

The new duo was jovially cruising to Murdoc’s shitty bedsit in high spirits now that everyone had an appropriate title. Still, likely due to 2-D’s lack of brain functionality, it wasn’t long before conversation dissolved to nothingness.

Suddenly Murdoc cussed and banged his fist on the wheel, wide-eyed.

“What happened, Murdoc?” 2-D chirped, craning his neck at the fellow.

Murdoc had one hand on the wheel, one hand rubbing his temples. “We forgot Terry.”

“Who’s Terry?”

Murdoc hesitated, then he sat up, looking straight ahead. “Eh, you’re right, no one important.”

[princesstreaclefanfic]

Twilight Kinktober 2019 Day Five

Disclaimer - All recognisable characters belong to their original owners. I do not make a profit from writing this; I simply do it for my own amusement. No copyright infringement intended.

High Heels / Deep Throating

ESME AND CARLISLE.

As long as she was wearing heels, he was hard. It didn't happen with any other woman, just her. It was those damn heels.

He heard her coming before he saw her. She was wearing a navy blue lace dress that fell to her knees and navy blue high heels with a delicate strap that wrapped around her slim ankle.

The dress showed off her plentiful cleavage and shapely arms. The navy blue complimented her pale skin.

He was hard. Who was he kidding - he was always hard for her. As long as she was wearing heels, he was hard. It didn't happen with any other woman, just her. It was those damn heels.

She was the forbidden fruit he couldn't have. He was a junior doctor and she was a consultant; one of the best in her field. She specified in children's medicine and she was wonderful. She soothed parents and children alike and had saved more lives than he could count. She was his fantasy.

"Not daydreaming again are we, Doctor Cullen?" Bella, the nurse asked and Carlisle felt his ears heat up.

"Apologies, Nurse Swan," Carlisle responded as he stood and gave her some files he had been working on.

"Dreaming about a specific consultant?" she inquired and Carlisle felt his face heat up this time.

"You should just ask her out," Bella told him. Bella and Carlisle had been working together for the last few years and she was well aware of his crush on Esme. She couldn't understand why he didn't just ask her on a date.

The truth was, Carlisle thought she was too good for him. She was several years older than him and knew what she wanted from life. Carlisle… well, Carlisle didn't even know if he wanted to specialise in anything yet. He was quite happy going home to his crappy little one-bedroom apartment, eating a microwave meal and watching reruns of Frasier. Somehow he didn't think that would be what Esme saw as a good time.

"Forget it, Bella," Carlisle politely said, walking past her to go and get some more supplies that he would need later in the day.

Once he had got the supplies, Carlisle decided he would go for lunch. He didn't feel like taking the stairs and decided instead to take the elevator.

Stepping inside he was slightly surprised when it stopped on the floor below and Esme Platt entered, giving him a blinding smile and standing next to him.

"…What floor?" he asked in a shaky voice.

"The same as you," she responded, pointing to the control panel. "Ground floor - I'm hungry."

"Me too." Carlisle wasn't quite sure why he told her that and he looked at the floor, feeling incredibly embarrassed. The embarrassment was replaced with arousal when he saw her heeled feet. God - how did she make high heels look so attractive?

"What are you going to get for lunch?" Esme asked him in a pleasant voice, turning her body to face him.

"Me?" Carlisle stuttered once more. This earned him a giggle and Esme nodded. "Well… ugh. I quite like the meatball sub…"

"Oh! I love those!" she exclaimed. "You're Carlisle Cullen, right? You've been here a few years?"

Carlisle nodded, his voice stuck in his throat.

"I'm Esme Platt - it's weird that we've never spoken before." It's because you're too good for me, Carlisle thought.

"Shall we?" she asked, gesturing towards the doors as the elevator came to the bottom floor.

Carlisle exited after Esme and to his surprise, they got lunch together.

The more she spoke, the more Carlisle found it easier to talk to her.

Everything was going alright when he felt the need to ask her why she always wore high heels. He tried to fight the need to ask, but his mouth and brain were working in different directions.

"Why do you wear heels all the time?" When the words came out of his mouth, his eyes went wide and he began to apologise profusely. "I'm sorry - I didn't mean to be rude."

She waved him off. "Don't apologise. I like wearing heels because they make me feel powerful. Sexy, Beautiful. Some women wear lace underwear to make them feel good about themselves; I wear heels." Being a visual person, Carlisle could only think about Esme in lace underwear and heels.

"We should get back," Esme said, glancing up at the clock before she stood and they got rid of their trays together.

"Are you going to the financial meeting this afternoon?" Carlisle asked as they got back into the elevator together.

"Yep," she sighed. "I have to - the board want us to reduce our spending but they don't seem to understand that when we have ill patients, we have to treat them, we can't let them suffer." Was there anything negative about this woman?

"I'm going to the meeting too," Carlisle said. "Eleazar can't make it and wants me to go on his behalf."

She nodded her head in understanding.

"Carlisle?" Esme asked, his name rolling off her tongue. "I've seen you staring at me - do you like me?"

"Uhh… well… uhh…" His mind felt like it was melting in his head. How was he supposed to respond to that?

"It's alright," Esme cooed, stepping closer to him. "I think you're very cute." Carlisle was now stood at the back of the elevator with Esme stood in front of him.

He didn't know what came over him but Carlisle leaned forward and kissed her. His arms wrapped around her waist and held her close.

When he pulled back, Carlisle thought she might slap him, curse him or even knee him in the balls. But she did none of those things. She smiled and then pushed him back against the elevator, fisting her hands into his shirt and kissing him back hard.

It was glorious. Her lips were soft and tasted like cherry (why did they taste like cherry?). She smelled like disinfectant (something you couldn't get rid of when you worked at the hospital) but it suited her and she was so warm under his fingertips.

"You asked me why I wore heels," Esme panted when they parted. "I only told you half the answer." She leaned forward and kissed him again, lightly nipping at his lips. "They put me at the perfect height to do this." Her hand let go of his shirt and crept down to his slacks. She fondled him lightly, rubbing the fabric of his slacks against his underwear.

Carlisle moaned and she smiled.

His pleasure was short-lived when the elevator began to shudder to a stop. He began to panic, but Esme didn't even flinch. She turned slowly so she was stood in front of Carlisle, never taking one hand off his cock. She brought the other one behind her back and smiled at the nurses who entered.

When the elevator started to move again, Carlisle fully expected for Esme to remove her hand from his cock. She, however, had other plans.

The hand that was already on his cock, moved upwards and pulled his zipper down, her hand slipping into his trousers first and then his boxers.

Carlisle's eyes widened and he looked down, Esme's heels only bringing her up to his shoulder. He looked down and she turned her head slightly, giving him a wicked grin.

She slowly caressed his cock with her hand, the soft skin making his cock weep with relief.

Bringing her other hand to the inside of his boxers, Esme's worked him over, carefully twisting each hand in the opposite way to really stimulate him.

Carlisle tried to keep his eyes open but the pleasure was mounting. His knees felt weak and he wanted to throw his head back and moan with pleasure.

The elevator ding brought him back and he watched with relief as all the nurses got off leaving him with just Esme and her hands down his pants.

"Shit," he growled into her ear, causing her to giggle.

"Hold the elevator!" a voice called out as the doors began to shut and Carlisle was pleased that Esme couldn't do anything as both her hands were down his pants.

A good Samaritan had other ideas though and stopped the doors for her, smiling when she thanked him and got in.

"Esme - how good to see you!" the voice exclaimed and Carlisle could have cursed when he saw who it was: Jessica - the hospital gossip.

Carlisle tried to discreetly step away from Esme but when he stepped back, her grip on his cock tightened and he felt pleasure surge through his veins like a lightning strike. Okay he thought don't do anything to make her grip it any harder or you'll be coming quicker than a virgin during his first time at a strip club.

Esme moved backwards and slightly to her left, blocking even more of Carlisle as she increased the speed of her hands on his cock. Now she was blocking Jessica from seeing anything and the brown-haired girl was none the wiser.

She chatted with Esme about new hospital developments and Carlisle nodded along even though he had no clue where the conversation was going. All he knew was that he was going to blow his load - and soon.

"Well this is me," Jessica said, stepping off the elevator, giving Esme a wave.

The second the doors had closed, Esme turned back to Carlisle and kissed his neck.

"We've got one more floor - think you can cum for me in that time?"

Carlisle nodded desperately and let his head fall back against the elevator and a deep moan escape his mouth.

Esme attached her mouth to his neck and sucked, her hands swiping over the pre-cum that beaded on the head of his cock.

Her mouth kissed its way up to his ear and she began to whisper to him.

"Do you know how many times I've thought of this? How many times I've fantasised about having you at this hospital? How many times I've imagined you bending me over my desk?" It was that last image that did it. The thought of Esme bent over her desk, dress shoved to her hips as he pounded into her, high heels still on her feet that sent him flying over the edge. His poor cock dribbling cum all over her hands and the inside of his underwear.

When he had finished, his whole body leant against the back wall of the elevator. Esme pulled her hands out and then using a tissue she pulled from the pocket of her dress, she wiped his cum from her hands. But not before she teased him by sucking two fingers into her mouth and moaning.

She quickly pulled his fly up just as the doors opened and she led him out, his legs still weak.

"Well this is my floor, Carlisle," there was a teasing light in her eyes. "Thank you for a wonderful lunch."

"Thank you," Carlisle told her back. "I've not had a lunch that enjoyable in quite a while."

She bit her lip. "You're more than welcome."

Feeling brave and knowing that there was something between them, Carlisle tried his luck. "Maybe we could have lunch tomorrow? Same time?"

"I'd really like that."

"You should wear heels again." His eyes travelled to her feet once more and his cock began to stir to life. His eyes met hers and she smirked. "I might give you an enjoyable lunch tomorrow."

Her eyes widened and she grinned. "I'll see you tomorrow, Carlisle."

He resisted the urge to fist pump the air as she walked away, those heels making the signature clicking noise.

[captainmercer20]

Dreams Become Reality - Part 1-Chapter 1

Captain Ed Mercer was on bridge with his crew as it was a dull day.  Gordon and the other Helmsman was mapping out stars.  “Ugh!"  Gordan complained, "There has got to be more then just mapping or supply runs.”

Ed chuckled as he didn’t even look up from his tablet.  “At this point, I rather it be dull.  I think we have more adventure then we counted on.”

Gordon turned to him.  “But isn’t that the point of being on a Union ship, the adventure.”

Ed put his tablet down and looked at him with a smile.  “Yes, but also this is as well.  The dull is good sometimes.  I rather it be quiet.”

Gordon huffed as he turned back to the panel.  Just then Bortus said, “Sir, there is a Krill ship not too far from her.”

Kelly looked at Ed as she said, almost annoyed, “So much for it being dull.”

“Are they heading our way?"  Ed asked concerned.  After everything with Janal who was actually a Krill agent, Teleya, Ed wasn’t exactly excited to deal with Krill again.  He hoped he wouldn’t have to deal with the Krill for a while especially since he let Teleya go.  

Bortus looked into more.  "No, sir."  He turned to the captain as he seemed confused.  "In fact, sir, the ship seems to be just sitting dead in space.  No engines going.  It’s like it has been abandon.”

“Can you see if there is anyone aboard?"  Ed now seemed to be puzzled.

Bortus turned back around and scanned the ship.  "We are too far.  We have to get closer to do so, sir.”

Ed wasn’t exactly thrilled to do such a thing.  Kelly looked at Ed.  “What should we do?  I mean, it could be some sort of a trap.”

He thought about it for a moment and then ordered, "Take us closer.”

“Sir?"  Gordon turned him, seemingly confused and worried.

"That is an order."  Ed said, sternly.

"Alright."  Gordon turned back to the panel.  "But if I die, I am haunting you.”

They flew till they saw the ship in view.  Ed moved forward in his seat.  “That is odd.  It seems to be just sitting there.”

Bortus then announced.  “Sir, I am only picking up one living lifeform and it is human.”

Ed now was more confused.  “And the crew?”

After pushing a few more buttons, he turned to Ed and said, “Sir, seems as if the crew is dead.  Ever single one of them.”

Ed was now even more confused.  Kelly asked, “You don’t think one human could have done this, do you?”

“I have never known a human to be able to take out a whole crew of Krill."  Then Ed stood up.  "Kelly, Bortus, you are with me.  I think we should see what the hell happened."  Then he looked at Gordon.  “Get us closer.  If you see any problems, get us out of here as fast as possible.”

“Yes, sir.”  Gordon quickly replied.

Kelly quickly stood.  "Do you think that is a good idea, Ed?”

He looked at her.  “We have to find out what happened on that ship, Kel.  And god knows if that human could possible be in trouble."  Kelly seemed unsure.  "Don’t worry, we will be prepared and arm ourselves.”

She sighed.  “Alright.”

Kelly and Ed walked off the bridge as Bortus followed behind them.  They got to the loading bay and got onto a shuttle.  They drove to the Krill ship and docked.  The door opened.  Ed looked at Bortus and Kelly.  “Now, we should prepared.  Whatever happened to this crew might still be a threat.”

Both Kelly and Bortus nodded in understanding and they all moved off the shuttle.  They walked around the ship for a few moments.  “Which way did you detect the human?”

Bortus took the lead.  “This way, sir.”

They kept moving around the ship till they got to a room that Ed recognized all too well.  “This is where they hold their prisoners.”

Kelly then asked, “How…"  Then quickly remembered.  "Nevermind.”

They walked in and looked around.  They noticed a cell that still had it’s forcefield up.  They looked in to see someone in it.  The individual was curled up in a corner.  “Open it."  Ed ordered Bortus.

Bortus moved over to the panel and pushed a few buttons.  The door opened and Kelly and Ed walked in.  They noticed it was a young woman.  She looked terrified.  They slowly moved towards her and she panicked as she couldn’t see them clearly.  "Don’t…don’t hurt me!”

They stopped and Ed then said, “There is nothing to be scared of.  I am Captain Ed Mercer with the USS Orville.  We are here to rescue you.”

She looked over at them as she still shook.  She looked unsure and scared.  She slowly sat up more and looked at them more.  Just then Bortus walked in.  She got scared again and went back to huddling in the corner.  “No!  I’m sorry.  Please!”

Ed stopped Bortus.  “Please wait outside for us.  Seems your presence is frightening her.  We have to ease her into it.”

Bortus nodded and walked out.  Ed slowly walked over to her.  “He’s gone."  She relaxed a little more and looked at Ed as she squinted her eyes.  "Are…are you human?”

Ed answered as he moved even closer to her and knelt in front of her.  “Yes, like I said, I am Captain Ed Mercer."  Then looked back at Kelly.  "And this is my first Lieutenant Commander Kelly Grayson.  We are here to help you."  She looked still scared.  Ed held out his hand.  "It’s okay, you are safe with us.”

The poor girl looked bruised up, beat up, and filthy.  Like she was tortured and there for a long while.  Probably was by the Krill.  She still seemed cautious but held a shaky hand out to Ed and took it.  He stood up as she stood with him.  He gave her a small smile.  “What is your name?”

She removed her hands from his and hugged herself as she said, softly, “Michelle Langley.”

“Well, Michelle.  We are going to take you back to our ship and we will have our doctor look over you, okay?"  Ed said, sweetly.

——————————————————————————————————————————-

Michelle sat on a table in the lab as Dr. Finn looked over at her.  The light around her was dimmed as she complained that it hurt her eyes.  Kelly and Ed stood there as they had questions for her.  "What happened to you?”

Michelle watched Dr. Finn as she looked over her.  “I, uh, was on a Union ship, USS Odessey, I was just getting a ride to Crayton.  One of the helmsman and I took a Union shuttle to get to where I needed to be, when they came upon us.  They shot out the engines and brought us aboard, they killed the helmsman but they kept me prisoner.  They thought I was part of the Union and tortured me to get information.  But since I wasn’t part of the Union, I had no information.  They kept torturing me almost every day.  I don’t know how I managed to survived.  They kept me in that prison, feeding me scraps, like I was some animal.  Ever so often, they came in there and found new ways to torture me.  It was hell.”

“How long have you been there?"  Kelly asked.

"What day is it?"  She asked them.

Kelly and Ed looked at each other in confusion.  Then Ed turned to her as he answered, "May eighteenth.”

“Almost six months."  She answered.

"You poor girl."  Dr. Finn looked at her in shock.  "And they have tortured you all this time?”

Michelle hugged herself and nodded as tears flooded her eyes and one fell.  Ed breathed, “No wonder the lights hurt your eyes.  You adjusted to the lightening on their ship.”

Dr. Finn took a flashlight and tried to look into her eyes.  But as soon as the light hit Michelle’s eyes, she closed them and pulled away.  “Please, that hurts.”

“Okay, okay."  Dr. Finn pulled away.  "No lights.  But I can correct that, where the lights will not hurt your eyes.”

“And the blurriness?"  Dr. Finn looked at her confused.  "My vision, it…it has been declining.  Everything is blurry.  After they tortured me one time, my vision went to hell.  I haven’t been able to see correctly since.”

“What did they do exactly?"  Ed asked as he moved closer to her.

She again hugged herself as the tears built up again.  "They used a device that pried my eyelids open and shot a laser into my retina.  It was quite painful.  I screamed, begging them to stop."  She then sobbed.  "But they wouldn’t, they kept going.”

Ed moved closer to her.  Reflex kicked in and she backed away, almost frightened.  “Hey, hey."  Ed stopped his movements as he held his hands up.  "You are safe here.  No one is going to hurt you, I promise.”

She untensed as she looked at him and nodded.  “I’m…I’m sorry.”

Ed gave her a reassuring smile.  “Nothing to be sorry for Michelle.”

Then Dr. Finn moved in and slowly moved her hands on Michelle’s arms.  “Let’s get you fixed up.  And to answer your question, yes, we can correct your vision.  We will fix you up in no time.”

For the first time in months, she smiled at Dr. Finn. “Thank you."  Then she looked at Ed and Kelly.  "All of you.  I thought I would never get out of there.  I am just ready to go home.”

Ed smiled at her.  “We will get you there and get you fixed up.”

Kelly and Ed started to move out the room and Ed stopped.  He looked back at her.  “I have to ask, what happened to the Krill on the ship.”

Michelle looked his way and shook her head.  “I don’t really know.  All I know is, I heard a lot of yelling and commotion.  Also shooting.  I couldn’t really see cause of my condition.  But I also was afraid and curled up in a corner of the prison cell.  I didn’t move till I heard nothing.  I called for help for two days, hoping someone would hear me.  Then when I heard your voices, I became frightened, afraid that whoever came to the ship and kill the Krill came back to finish me off, or worse that more Krill came onto the ship and was going to come after me.”

Ed then said, feeling sorry for the girl, “Thank you, Michelle.  That has helped us plenty.”

They moved out and as soon as they were in the hall, Kelly stated, sadly, “That poor girl.  I couldn’t even imagine what she had to endure on that ship.”  

“I can."  Ed said.  "I was only on a Krill ship for a couple of hours as a prisoner and that was hell.  But she did it for six months.  Jesus, I don’t even know how she is alive.”

“Hopefully, Claire can fix her up."  Kelly breathed.

"Physically, she can.  But mentally, that is going to take years to repair.  She is doing so well considering everything she went through."  Ed pointed out. 

——————————————————————————————————————————–

That evening, Ed walked into the mess hall to get himself a drink.  He became a regular again after the whole thing with Janal went down.  As he walked over to the bar, he noticed Michelle sitting there.  He walked over to her and asked, "Is this seat taken?”

Michelle looked over at him and his eyes widen.  She looked different now, no more bruises or blood on her and she was cleaned up.  She was beautiful.  She smiled at him.  “No, not at all.  Especially not for the man who saved me.”

He gave her a smile and tugged at his jacket.  He sat next to her and said to the bartender, “Bourbon, please."  In a moment, there was glass in front of him as it was filled up.  Ed breathed, "Thank you."  He took a drink and then looked at Michelle.  "Surprised to see you here.  Thought you would enjoy your first night in a comfy bed, catching up on much needed sleep.”

“Yeah, as tired as I am."  She said, as she played with her glass.  "Sitting in a room with just four walls and quiet with no one there, kinda would bring back bad memories.  I thought I could use a drink so I didn’t drive myself into madness.”

Ed was a little concerned by this.  She looked over at him and gave him a playful smile.  He realized that she had a dark sense of humor, he smiled at her.  “Oh, you are funny.  I like that.  Considering a woman who has been through what you have been through, it’s nice to see.”

She shrugged as she picked up her glass.  “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, isn’t that what they say?”

He looked at her as she finished off her drink.  “I guess they do."  Then he looked at his glass and asked, "But are you okay though?”

She looked at him and nodded with a smile.  “I am more then okay.  I am alive and I am grateful for that and it is thanks to you, Captain.”

The bartender came over and poured her another glass.  Ed looked over and held up his glass to her.  “Here is to being alive.”

“I think I can drink to that."  She picked up her glass and tapped his with it.  They both took another drink. 

They talked the next few hours away and then Ed walked her back to her quarters.  They got to her door and she looked at him.  "So, this is me.”

“You going to be okay?"  He asked.

"Hate the thought of being in this room, feeling like a prisoner again, but I think I can manage."  She smiled at him.

He smiled back.  He really thought she was beautiful, especially when she smiled.  “Well, you are anything but a prisoner.”  Then Ed noticed she wasn’t affected by the light.  "So, I see Claire fixed your eyes up.  So, I take it that you can also see just fine.”

"You mean, the blurriness."  Ed nodded.  "Yeah, I can see clearly now.  It is nice to have my vision back.  I mean, I can see how handsome my rescuer is."  Ed slightly blushed at this and smiled as he adverted his eyes to the ground.  Then Michelle moved in and kissed his cheek.  He was shocked by the gestured as she moved away.  He looked at her and she smiled shyly.  "Goodnight, Ed.”

He then smiled, warmly.  “Goodnight, Michelle.”

She moved into the quarters as Ed stood there, still smiling.  He thought she was beautiful and she seemed to be into him.  But he knew his luck has been a bit unlucky after everything, he refused to read too much into the kiss.  So, he walked away.  With only his thoughts.

[astranxmica]

Kids headcanon thingy for CanaryCorp

sara x lex’s kids || ( headcanon )

BEWARE ITS GONNA BE A BIGGUN, blame @corruptcorporateexecutive

cut because its looooong

pregnancy

do the parents have one child or are there twins, triplets, etc.? one boy and then twins

what do the parents name the baby(ies)? leander and then louene and lincoln

did the parents discuss other names, too? yep especially about breaking the L thing

how do they decide on the name(s)? they just knew it when it was right

what would the child have been named if they had been the opposite sex? quentin, dinah, lenanna 

did the parents find out the sex during pregnancy or is it a surprise? found out ( Lex had an army of nurses and doctors run an entire genetic panel on all of the kids )

were there any complications in the pregnancy? nope 

which parent carried the baby? sara obviously

how easy was it for them to conceive? none of the children took any effort other than obstaining from birth control

was the child carried to term? leander was a week late; the twins were a week early

did the parents deliver in a hospital, at home, or somewhere else? leander was at home in a pool and she was at a hospital with two twins cus she wanted an epidural 

did the delivery go according to plan? perfectly, sara was a champ

did the parents have any daily rituals (reading to their belly, etc.)? lex dotes on sara, does every cute dad thing, and tries to make her slow down; sara relies on eastern medicine which lex finds ridiculous, but would never say so to sara

do the parents have a baby shower? sara didn’t want one, but lex threw a huge one for her regardless and she actually liked it 

what about a babymoon? babymoon hell yeah. they both dropped everything for the kids, especially leander. 

how supportive was the other parent during the pregnancy? Lex was fantastic, despite public opinion watching him like a hawk

which parent worried the most and which one was chill? lex was much more worried, sara wanted to go out and kick ass the whole time

which parent left pregnancy books all over the house and which didn’t touch them? they both watched what to expect when expecting a lot

infancy/toddler

is the child a good sleeper? they all slept excellently

how often does the child cry? the twins soothed one another and leander needed lex more nights than not 

which parent finds it easier to get them to stop? lex is amazing, but they both are great with them

how does the child behave at bath time? they are all the. best

what is the child’s first word? leander - cheeyos ( cherios ); louene - dada; lincoln - marmie 

how bad do the child’s diapers smell and which parent has the misfortune of changing them? the worst because of crazy healthy diet parents going wild; and its totally lex, cuz sara does enough

which parent has a harder time adapting to their new role? sara

just how terrible are the terrible twos? the WORST; they know what they’re doing; evil baby geniuses

does the child go to day care? if they do, how old are they when they start? they start socializing at the premiere mother’s day out when they’re two, and sara uses the time to crime fight

if the child doesn’t go to day care, who says home to look after them? oh but they do

which parent babyproofs the house? both of them

which parents designs the baby room? also both

which parent is more likely to give in to tantrums? lex

is the child spoiled with toys? yes, they are spoiled with everything

which parent does the potty training? sara

which parent has to take them outside to hose them down after a particularly nasty diaper? sara cuz ew

which parent do they take after more? leander & lincoln – sara; louene – lex

what habits do they pick up from their parents? mischief, fighting, affection for science, chess prodigies, always having to be right, dopey smiles, killer glares, fearless loyalty, stubborn af, tinking with electronics af, geek af, badass af,

how often is the parents’ date night now? they generally manage once a week even if its only them having private sex marathon time together

who babysits when the parents go out? the lances, because sara doesn’t really trust the luthors other than lena

child

how did the parents decide what school to send the child to? or was the child home-schooled? lex sent them to the best schools, sara didn’t let him send them to boarding school insisting they stay with her in the manor

who packs the lunches? the benefits of being a luthor, they were made by chefs

are the lunches eaten by the child, or thrown away? always eaten and  loved

which parent helps with homework? lex is dedicated to his children

what does the report card look like? ALL A’s OF COURSE

is the child/ren popular, or only have a few friends? they’re a pack of wolves

does the child play a sport? fencing for all of them, louene is the best

does the child play an instrument? lex had them all classically trained-- louene plays the cello, leander the piano, lincoln the drums ( the violin didn’t stick )

do both parents turn up to the matches/recitals? always and you better not say a bad word about any of their talented kickass children

which parent buys their clothes? or does the child pick out their own clothes? dual effort, but lincoln is the most particular 

what’s the child’s style? louene is uptight and prim and can kick ass too; lincoln is her polar opposite and is a bad boy with a drumset; and leander is a total hipster

is the child more interested in playing inside or outside? both boys are more into it then louene

how often does the child get in trouble? what do they get in trouble for? they are too smart to get in trouble

does the child have any siblings/cousins? how well do they get along? pack of wolves, you’d have to. be an idiot to go up against the luthor children

what pet does the child beg for? do they get it? a dog named jeeves

is the child shy and reserved, or outgoing and gregarious? Lincoln > Leander > Louene

does the child still take after the same parent they did as a toddler? they are a rather equal split– a straight up mix

teen

what does the child want to be/do when they finish school? louene: lead L Corp; lincoln: a musician; leander: an astronaut 

which parent does the child get along with better? literally they a wolf pack family

is the child out all night partying and drinking with their friends, or staying in studiously doing homework? or both? both, but louene is the hardest to get to go out

how does the child go on their SATs? do they make it to the SATs? they all kill them, but lincoln hides his scores from his parents for months

does the child go to prom with their friends, or a partner? they all manage dates; Lex and Sara give them death glares before they leave

how do the parents feel about their first boyfriend/girlfriend? sara *flipping knives* and lex with a shovel talk to the boys especially 

what are the child’s friends like? do they get along with the parents? they tend to stick together, but the boys definitely have crushes on Louene’s friends

what kind of music is the child into? all sorts like all sorts, and they all end up sharing their music with one another in some melting pot of sound

how do the parents and child/ren go learning to drive? is it a disaster, or does it go fairly smoothly? Sara holds on for dear life, Lex laughs while they do donuts in the parking lot

does the child have a casual/part time job? what is it? sara is a big proponent about them working, but lex gives them extra cash and summer internships without question

does the child hang out with their family, or are they too ‘cool’ now? wolf pack again

what’s the child’s personality like? louene:  a little luthor queen; leander: too cool for school the all-star athlete and genius; lincoln: part of the band and rebel to boot, but dont mess with his fam

who does the child take after now? they are a perfect mix of noble captain and corrupt executive

adult

does the child make it to adulthood? all of them do don’t make me think sad thoughts, question. that’s rude af

does the child end up in the job/lifestyle they dreamed about? why? yep they all do, including lincoln who became a bit of a pop/rock star

are their any hiccups in the road? tons, but sara and lex are always there

does the child move far away from their family, or stay close? licoln is a jet setter, louene runs the company and has sunday dinner every week, leander becomes a philanthropist physician without expecting it 

what would the parents prefer? they all be happy

does the child have any significant others? any children of their own? eventually, louene settles down with a genius engineer and has one kid (alexander); lionel never marries but is a devoted uncle; leander marries a pulitzer prize winning journalist and has five children

how do the parents feel about being or not being grandparents? they love being grandparents

[candra-hearts]

All is Fair (In Love and War)

Here it is. 1.8k words of Soul of Evil Spova fluff. Some of this I wrote in response to a text post from almost a year ago, some of this is from a completely different wip, and some of this I wrote yesterday. I just love this show and these characters and I want Sparx and Nova to be happy, damn it.

Enjoy! *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     * Unfortunately, Nova’s injuries hadn’t just been limited to the cracks in her helmet. Sparx, in his possessed state, had stretched many of her joints to the point of nearly breaking. Her arms had been fixed with a simple adjustment and her helmet had been resealed easily, but she had felt a pop in her back and subsequently had lost all feeling in her legs and tail. Sparx was holding Nova down to the examination table while Gibson dug around inside her back, trying to reconnect her severed nerves and wires.             

Having to keep Nova still had the upside of getting to hold her arms and her head, and Sparx was fine with that. More than fine. But she was smiling up at him and giving him this loving look that he didn’t feel he deserved at all.

“Stop that, Nova,” he said quietly.

“Stop what?”

“Stop… stop looking at me like that!” His tail lashed and hit Otto who was operating on Jinmay on the other table.

“Sparx…”                                  

It was too late- the tears were already spilling over. “You keep looking at me like… like I didn’t just try to kill you. You keep looking happy and I don’t know why… because… I did this to you, and… and… oh, Nova… I’m sorry… I’m so, so, sorry.” The tears flowed down his face in time with the apologies streaming out of his mouth. Maybe if he apologized enough it would atone for his sins. The world blurred and he couldn’t see anything except a haze of yellow and blue and silver. “… I hurt you… I let you down… Nova, I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

“Sparx… Sparx… shh… shh, shh, shh…” Nova was whispering. “Sparx…” She was saying his name so tenderly, so gently, and it just wasn’t fair. He felt a metallic hand touch his cheek. “I’m happy because you’re here right now. Two hours ago I would have given away Shugazoom to bring you back, and here you are… with us. It’s okay now.”

He covered her hand with his own and tried to absorb the fact that she didn’t hate him as the tears slowed and everything came back into focus. He took a deep, shaky breath and opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by an indignant shriek from the yellow Monkey. There was a ker-snap, which was followed immediately by a “godDAMmit, Gibson!”

“Nova, such language!” Gibson reprimanded, removing his welding mask.

Nova fluttered her eyelashes and smiled innocently, and the blue Monkey gave her a reproving look before replacing his mask and going back to the operation. Sparx could have sworn he heard her mutter, “That hurt, dammit, and I’ll swear if I frickin’ want to. You’re not the boss of me.” If Gibson heard, he didn’t comment.

Sparx wiped his face, choked down a sound that was somewhere between a sob and a chuckle, and wondered if it was possible to love her any more than he already did.

The next fifteen minutes were the slowest of his life. Gibson kept tsking and sighing and mumbling under his breath and it was starting to drive the red Monkey crazy. Mutters weren’t reassuring. Sighing didn’t tell him that Nova was going to be okay. The tsking just got on his nerves. He wanted to reach over and shake Gibson for a solid minute to make himself feel better… but that meant that he’d have to let go of Nova.  

Ugh.

He didn’t know what he’d do with himself if Gibson wasn’t able to fix her. If she was permanently paralyzed because of an injury he himself had dealt her…

He entertained the idea of leaving the team for good. They’d probably be better off without him. But then he remembered the tender look in the yellow Monkey’s eyes, the way she’d said “You’re back with us. It’s okay now.” She wouldn’t want him to leave. He remembered also how she’d almost cursed Gibson out for hurting her and bit his tongue to prevent a hoarse chuckle from escaping. Shugazoom, he loved her. He wasn’t sure how that love could have been possibly warped into such hatred.      

At last—long long last—Gibson put his goggles away and closed her rocket pack panel. “I’m finished. Nova, you should be all right now.”

Sparx leaned back and examined her. “N-nova, can you… a-are you…”

Nova bent her arms and wiggled her fingers. She shifted her legs and wiggled her toes as well. She can move again. Sparx almost sobbed with relief—maybe he would have, if Gibson hadn’t been there.

The yellow Monkey rolled over, sat up, and threw her arms around him. “I’ve never felt better, Sparx, and that’s the truth. Please, please never forget who you are again.”

“If I do, I know I’ll have you to remind me.”

He was done.

He was done with being afraid. He’d dropped hints for years, hints that screamed “I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU NOVA.” He’d tried flirting, all the good pick-up lines, all the bad pick-up lines, being obnoxious, being sweet, ignoring her, being clingy, making fun of her, being nice to her, and even flat out asking for attention… but he’d been too afraid to actually tell her that he loved her. There had been so many times that they’d almost died, and every time he’d tried to tell her how much she meant to him… but he was scared of what she’d do. What she’d say. Whether or not she’d shatter his heart with a single word.  

He loved risks. It was why he loved piloting so much. He never felt more alive than when he was taking them.

Except when the risk was that Nova would never speak to him again.

To hell with all that.

There was absolutely nothing in the way of him actually telling the most wonderful creature in the universe how he felt about her. Nothing except his crippling anxiety and his damn ego that refused to take a backseat for once in his life.

And then there were the times when he had almost lost her. When she’d melted all the snow all over the city with only the heat of her energy, the heat of her anger, she’d been in a coma for hours. He was terrified she’d never wake up. When they’d nearly been chopped to bits in a garbage disposal, he had done his best to try and tell her, but the fear just closed his throat up and the words just wouldn’t come out. When they lost her to the rainbow void of the Skeleton King Worm’s path, she’d disappeared and they had no way of finding her. It was only through the good grace of a miracle that she had come back to them. And now, when she’d almost been pulled apart, circuit by precious circuit…

“I love you too much to lose you,” she’d said.

What a coincidence.

He loved her too much to lose her, too.

He was just going to tell her how he felt. Maybe not now, not when they were both rattled from what had just happened, but he would. She deserved that much. She deserved to know that the flirting had something behind it—that it was more than the meaningless banter that flowed so easily between them.

Freaking Shugazoom, what if she didn’t like him like that? What if she just wanted to be his teammate? That would be okay, maybe. But what if she didn’t even like him at all? His stomach dropped. What if she hated him? He’d messed up. Bad. It was his fault Skeleton King had been resurrected. He wouldn’t blame her for hating him. He probably deserved it.

No, a little voice in the back of his head said. She doesn’t hate you. Or she wouldn’t have kissed you, or looked at you like that, or still be holding you right now.

And she was. She was clutching him like he’d disappear if she let go.

Maybe she feared that he would.

“Nova, you’re choking me…”

It was a half-truth. He was choking, but it was probably because of the huge lump in his throat and not because Nova’s arms were wound tightly around his neck.

She pulled away hastily. “I’m sorry, Sparx, I didn’t mean to.”

“I know.” The words came out quieter, huskier, than he’d meant them to, and Nova knew he meant them sincerely. They stared at each other for a few moments, neither one willing to either move forward or pull away.

Their reverie was broken by the sound of Antauri clearing his throat. Both Monkeys jumped guiltily. “Chiro needs you,” he said. “Once Otto and Gibson finish fixing Jinmay, we need to get started. Unfortunately, the war isn’t going to wait.”

Nova nodded and hopped down off the table, much to Sparx’s disappointment. The war could wait a little longer, couldn’t it?

He followed her out into the main room and Chiro set her to work figuring out the best way to contact their allies. Sparx tapped into the radar and saw what appeared to be hundreds if not thousands of Formless flooding the Pit. They were outgunned, out-manned, outnumbered and (probably) out planned.

So it was pretty much business as usual, then.

Otto, Gibson, Antauri, and Jinmay emerged from sick bay and began to converse with Chiro. He didn’t hear anything they were talking about, and to be completely honest, he didn’t care that much. He caught Nova’s gaze across the room and she winked at him cheekily, and he swore his heart stopped beating. Being so cute must be illegal in at least nine star systems.

Nova sneaked a look at Chiro, and, seeing he was busy, slid across the room to stand next to Sparx. She followed his gaze up to the black dots swarming like ants on the radar. “That’s a lot of Formless,” she said.

“Yeah,” he said. “I didn’t know Skeleton King could even make so many.”

“I don’t care how many there are,” she said. “Give me the whole army. I could fight them all.”

Sparx snorted and didn’t look at her, because he knew if he did, he’d want to kiss her senseless.

She looked up at him and smiled. “As long as you’re by my side, I can do anything.”

If she was trying to say and do everything in her power to make him fall for her even harder, she was succeeding.

He gathered the tattered shreds of his bravado. “You wound me, fair lady, to suggest that you have no need of your knight in shining armor after all.”

She folded her arms. “Spaaaarx.”

It was close enough to the niche of their usual banter that both of them felt comfortable. Later, they would talk. Now, it was good enough to know that she needed him by her side.

[solo1y]

They All Have It: Infamy

@rhetoricandlogic

I am honouring you with a full answer here, because you made an effort to read my blogs and actually review my content, for which I am grateful. I mean, you were a little shaky on the dismount, but you made the effort, which is better than just telling me to “fuck off”. Because you’ve gone to the effort of actually reading some of the stuff I wrote, I’m going to assume that you’ll be open to understanding where you’ve gone wrong.

However, you made a number of unjustified attacks, and it’s a real pain in the ass having to explain myself to anyone, so you’ll have to make allowances if some of this comes across as defensive. 

I followed your link. I read your reviews. There are 14 of them over the duration of one year. I don’t know whether you wrote only 14 reviews or read only 14 books, but neither strikes me as you being extraordinarily prolific when it comes to reading, let alone passing judgment on “classics” (and I refuse to count Vonnegut amongst their number).

I don’t review every book I read. I think that would be silly. Also, once you understand the reason you “refuse to count Vonnegut” as a classic, you may understand my central point that there is a difference between elitism and having standards.

On another of your blogs (and you do have many, ugh!), I found your GoodReads link. 15 books. In words: fifteen - three of them Flann O’Brien, who definitely counts as genre-literature and not a classic. 

I write a lot. I’m not sure why that should be “ugh”. Surely someone interested in reading should be encouraging that sort of thing. 

I gave up on GoodReads. I was encouraged to sign up, but I didn’t see the point of it after a while. I thought for a while that I might be able to write some reviews that people might find helpful, but I wouldn’t use my GoodReads profile as a basis for any conclusions about anything.

Also, shame on you. Flann O’Brien counts as “genre-literature”? Which genre? Maybe you have to be Irish to understand the genius (James Joyce has this problem too, and I think regarding Joyce as classic literature is fairly uncontroversial), but I was never more proud than when I went into a UC bookstore and saw copies of The Third Policeman stacked to the ceiling because they were studying it in an English course.

Two reviews: the one for Crime and Punishment - you seem to be particularly proud of that one, because you’re copy/pasting that thing all over the internet,

I want people to read the things I write. I’m not sure why that should be positioned as a bad thing. Most writers feel like that.

albeit it’s nothing to write home about - and another one for Lolita which goes like this:

A book where you’re compelled by the narrative to identify with an unrepentant paedophile? A book where every single character is so psychologically damaged that you have to read the book a whole bunch of times to work out what the hell is going on? A book which makes literally hundreds of jokes (that presumably everyone else will miss) based on the fact that you know French and German? It’s like he had a list of things that would alienate readers and ticked them off one by one. It has to be the bravest act of literature in history.

Well, I’m no writer and I’m particularly bad at reviews but this is hedonistic egomania, not a review where you actually discuss, you know, the book - not your own perceived cleverness.

I don’t have much time for book reviews which do nothing by re-state the plot. I’m more interested in how the book will make you feel, what it means, and so on. I’ll admit it’s not what you might be accustomed to from a “book review”, but in this age of Wikipedia, I’m fine with that.

Also, I’m not sure how you got “hedonistic egomania” from that post, or discussing my “perceived cleverness”. I was explaining why Nabokov was clever. There’s nothing in there about me at all. Literally zero. I still think it’s the bravest act of literature in history, right up there with Zola’s J’Accuse. If you believe that it comes off as me sounding clever, then, thanks, I guess?

I also found this video of yours where you discuss your 2015 reads (even less than your GoodReads!)

and where you had the gall to hit on a commentor

I think it’s the effect of the flourescent lighting on my Microsoft Lifecam. I don’t know. I’ll work on it for future videos. Also, you’re hot. We should get married.

That woman tried to discuss books with you. Like so many others here on this thread. And you are either condescending or sexist? 

That’s my wife. 

Here are our wedding photos. It’s the first thing I mention in my About page, which I assume you looked at. It’s the first thing she mentions in her About page, which you probably didn’t look at. Across our social media, it’s a running joke. Here is another example of me hitting on my wife for the purposes of humour, from a science fiction convention where I was a guest speaker. The guy in the middle, who was running the panel, got the joke immediately (because he goes along with it rather than bust the gag). 

Now whether or not you find that “funny” is a separate issue; you cannot deny that it was a joke. 

You have no reading experience 

You have no evidence that I have no reading experience. It’s a ludicrous suggestion based on your pre-loaded bias that I’m “the bad guy” here for posting some opinions you didn’t like about some books. If you decided that you liked me (for whatever unlikely reason), you could just as easily scan my blog and come up with several reasons to believe that I read a lot. 

[You’ve come at me here with a whole bunch of stuff that is either demonstrably untrue, or untrue in ways I can’t demonstrate for obvious reasons. Now, if you like, I’d be happy to take a reset on this entire thing and be friends. Maybe you’re too invested in the adversarial idea that I’m “the bad guy” to consider that, but the offer is there. I have never refused anyone the hand of friendship, nor have I ever stood in judgement of anyone who developed a negative opinion about me based on false information. Some of my best friends started out hating me for what they now understand to be spurious reasons.] 

I don’t even know how I’m supposed to demonstrate that I’ve read lots of books, or what that might even mean. I guess you could send a message to my wife and ask her how many books I’ve read? Although she likes me (for whatever unlikely reason), so that might be pointless. I don’t know. Find someone who doesn’t like me and ask them if I read a lot? 

If you think of a way I could demonstrate how many books I read that would work for you, let me know. Otherwise, we’ll have to both agree that (at least for you) it’s an unknowable piece of information and somehow struggle on with our lives without jumping to conclusions about it.

and your writing (on yet another blog, sigh, this one called Fifty Bad Dates)  

Again, I have no idea why you find it so frustrating that some random nobody on the internet about might maintain lots of blogs, or enjoy writing. I’m not forcing anyone to read them. I certainly never forced you to scan them for things you personally found irritating and then message me about it. If anything, I should be “ugh”ing and “sigh”ing you! I never even heard of you until you tagged me in your post.

I’m a writer. What the hell else am I supposed to do?

My blogs are supposed to be fun or interesting, and the many followers many of them have indicate that at least some of the stuff I write is interesting or fun for at least some people. 

Now, granted, Fifty Worst Dates doesn’t have a lot of followers, but some of my blogs have thousands of followers. (I don’t really like talking about it, because I don’t like the idea that the quality of content can be judged by how popular it is.) The About page explains that this particular blog is supposed to be about how awful I am with women. It’s self-deprecating humour, but everything in that blog is based on real things that happened to me in my real life (although I moved a few things around for the purposes of exaggerating the humour or narrative flow).

you write about a (fictional?) woman called Natalya:

This is how I learned that a) just because someone is ethnically Russian does not mean that they cannot be fluent in Spanish and b) menudo is a type of Mexican soup.

I won’t even discuss this. I’ll just leave this here.

This is a joke. Again, I have no idea how I’m supposed to explain having a sense of humour to you. If you don’t get it, that’s fine. But don’t think I secretly hate Russians or Mexican cuisine (or whatever the hell you think we should take from your refusal to “discuss this”) just because you didn’t like or get the joke. It was a joke. 

“Yes, but the thing about jokes is-”

No! Stop! It’s a joke. That’s it. You don’t get to tell other people what they should find funny, and you certainly don’t get to tell comedians what a suitable subject for their comedy is. All you get to say is “I didn’t find this funny”, and then stay away from them.  

On all of your blogs, I found only ONE sentence that I will give a standing ovation to:

I need a job.

That particular slice of self-deprecating humour was a bit on the nose. Fair enough. 

Hire me.

[tkipaniwrites]

Day to Day (Chapter 3)

Re-uploaded onto new writing blog!

Chapter Summary: Shiro claimed he had multiple duties. Allura only cared about one.

Also available on ffn and ao3

Day Three – Duty

Shiro bit back a string of curses as he ducked down corridor after corridor of the Galra supply ship.

The paladins had come across the ship by accident, and in an almost cocky move, they decided to infiltrate the ship, steal any reliable information, and then destroy it.

They had split into teams: Hunk and Lance in the blue lion; Keith and Pidge in the green lion; and Shiro in his own lion on a lone mission to find and access a control panel for Pidge’s hacking. Coran provided battle defenses should anything go wrong and Allura gave tactical advice through their communications from aboard the castle.

But, the sounds of Hunk and Lance’s cries shook the team as they maneuvered the enemy ship.

“Lance! Hunk!” Shiro shouted into his communications. “What’s going on?”

Over the chaos of what sounded like guns being fired, Hunk’s shaky voice filtered through to Shiro’s ear. “We’re… attacking… Lance… They’re taking him!”

Without a moment to lose, Allura’s voice carried through the communications channel. “I am sending you all the approximate location of Hunk. I can’t reach Lance or find his location. This Galra tech is messing with my systems, so I can only give you this much.” Her voice was strained, as though she were reprimanding herself.

“That’s plenty Allura. Thank you,” Shiro responded gently, forgetting for a second that it was a public channel. “Alright paladins,” his tone hardening, “Converge on Hunk’s location right now. We’ll set up a plan from there.”

By the time Shrio made it to where Hunk was, Pidge and Keith were already at his side, chests heaving from their sprint. Pidge was leaned over Hunk, assessing a wound on his right leg. Hunk looked battered, sitting on the floor drenched in sweat and his helmet lying on the floor next to him. His breathing was ragged and his eyes were shut tightly.

“Are you alright, Hunk?” Shiro asked, kneeling by the yellow paladin’s side.

“Ugh. I’ll… manage. But Lance…” His voice drifted away.

Shrio put a comforting hand on Hunk’s shoulder and squeezed. “Don’t worry. We’ll get him back. You just worry about getting patched up.”

Hunk responded with a groan.

Turning to Pidge, Shiro gave the youngest a firm clap on the back. “Pidge, do you think you can get Hunk back to your lion?”

“I will.” They nodded, pressing their lips into a determined line. Shiro gave them an encouraging smile then turned to Keith. He moved to give Keith an order as well until the clatters of metallic Galra drones coming down the corridor made the paladins jump.

Instinctively, they moved to cover the injured yellow paladin. As the noises approached, Keith turned to Shiro. “I could lead them away,” he murmured.

“You’re not leading them anywhere.” Shrio rebuked.

“Then at least let me go see if they’re coming this way or not.” Keith’s eyes narrowed, practically challenging Shiro.

With a deep sigh, Shiro nodded. “Go see, then come back,” he hissed.

Nodding, Keith silently moved away and slipped around a corner toward the sounds of the Galra. Shiro and Pidge then began to work on getting Hunk on his feet. Pidge whispered encouragement to the yellow paladin until he was standing, leaning on Pidge’s shoulder for support.

“Allura,” Shiro called into his communications.

“I’m here.”

“Can you guide Pidge and Hunk back to the green lion?”

“I’m sending a map to Pidge as we speak.”

A moment later, a hologram map popped up from Pidge’s gauntlet. The green paladin looked over the map, memorizing every turn and formulating plans already. They looked at Shiro and sent him and positive smile. “I’ll get Hunk back safely, you get Lance.”

“We’ll see you at the castle.”

“Shiro.”

Keith’s voice shirred Shiro, making him straighten up. “What’s the situation look like, Keith?”

“They’re not coming toward you guys. It actually looks like a few are heading away to the same location.”

Shiro felt a sense of dread wash over him. “Kei-”

“I’m going to follow them! They might lead me to Lance’s location.”

“Keith!” Shiro roared.

“Oh my god,” Pidge grumbled under their breath.

“Keith. Do not go off on your own.” Shiro was fuming as he began to move with Pidge and Hunk toward the green lion.

“If there’s any chance that they could lead me to Lance, I have to take it.”

“Keith! Keith!” Shiro swore loudly when no response came. He opened his mouth to call for Allura, but she was already at work.

“I’m sending you Keith’s location, Shiro. He’s moving deeper into the ship. I might not be able to pinpoint his place for long.”

“Thank you,” Shiro breathed, trying to calm his anger. He checked that Pidge and Hunk knew their way back before breaking into a sprint toward the blinking red dot on his hologram map. Sharply cutting from hallway to hallway, Shiro kept a fierce eye on Keith’s location until the small dot began to flicker.

“Princess?”

The dot faded.

“Allura!”

“I just lost the location! But his last known position is just ahead of you. Take a right.”

Shiro followed her order and nearly shouted when he spotted two Galra drones coming his way. While crouching into a hidden nook, Allura’s choppy voice echoed through his helmet.

“Keith disappeared down… hallway slightly ahead of you and to the left. Tell me… you see.”

After the drones passed, Shiro peeked out of his spot and saw a ramp leading further down into Galra ship.

“It’s a ramp going down into the ship. And you’re already starting to break up on me, princess.”

“Yes, I can barely… your voice on my end. When… go down that way, you’ll… completely cut off.”

“The cloaking…last long…” Coran’s voice sounded slightly panicked in the background of Allura’s communication link.

“You need… hurry Shiro.”

“Understood.”

“…have to… back…”

Shiro couldn’t catch Allura’s message entirely as he traversed down the ramp.

Keith and Lance had indeed been down the ramp of the Galra ship. The drones had carried Lance into a cell and other drones were gathering to guard him. Shiro had found Keith ducking down behind some supply boxes. After swiftly smacking the back of his head and promising a lecture later, the duo formulated a plan to escape with Lance.

Well, the plan wasn’t so much of a plan and more of ‘you take the guys on the right, I’ll take the ones on the left, grab Lance, and book it out of here’.

The blue paladin was relatively uninjured, only unconscious. Halfway back to their lions, Lance had woken up and hazily argued that he was well enough to fly his lion. Keith frowned, but they didn’t have a choice.

By the time Shiro made it back to the castle in his own lion, all the other paladins were gathered in the infirmary while Coran worriedly flitted between Hunk and Lance.

Shiro decided to visit Allura in the control room where, he could feel, she was flying the ship very far, very quickly.

Allura gasped as Shiro staggered into the main control room, exhausted and tattered.

She moved away from her control panel, near-sprinting toward him. Shiro expected worried questions or maybe a ‘good job’.

Instead, the Altean princess flung her arms around his neck and slammed her body into his, nearly toppling the both of them.

The hug was lasting a lot longer than a simple ‘thank goodness you’re safe, paladin’ hug, which Allura had given in the past on occasion. No, this was fundamentally different hug that involved tight arms and bodies pressed oh-so close to each other. Allura figured she’d provide an acceptable explanation later, but she just needed to hold Shiro now.

She almost pulled away until Shiro’s strong arms wrapped around her waist bringing her closer still. He let out breathy laugh, allowing the gust of air to brush the crook of Allura’s neck. He felt her shiver, which only made Shiro want to pull her closer.

“I did my job,” he joked with another laugh, “I brought them back.”

“Your ‘job’ is to come back safely,” Allura rebutted with a snort. She burrowed her face into his collarbone, gifting herself this guilty pleasure. “You have to come back. Always.” She could feel the rapid pulse of Shiro’s heart from the veins in his neck. She grinned, glad that he could not see her giddy expression.

“I will.” His voice rumbled through from his chest to hers. “I’ll always come back to you.”

[evans-addicted]

THE ASSASSIN CONNECTION | Part 5

Avengers x OC Reader Katya Ivankov …Relationship development later

Summary: New “recruit” brought in by Fury, too bad she’s got history with several Avengers and it’s not a happy reunion. How’s this going to go? We’ll have to see.

Warnings: swearing, angst, panic attack?

Word count: 2449

“Ah shit” you mumbled as you awoke remembering why you had a sharp pain in your left thigh. Fucking Romanoff. Looking over at the clock, it’s only 4:23am. Slowly you managed to drag yourself out of bed and into the bathroom. You thought hopefully a hot shower would help ease the tension that was threatening to squeeze the life out of you. You pulled off your shirt, bra and underwear and dropped them to the floor. You stepped into the hot shower not even taking off the gauze wrapping your wound. You’ll change it afterward you just don’t want to let the water hit it directly.

The shower felt amazing. Loosening up your muscles and cleaning the dry blood left over from last night. You got out and dried yourself off. Wrapping a towel around your body you went into the bedroom to change the bandaging. Limping around your room you got yourself dressed into some loose sweats and a t-shirt. You cleaned up all the wrappers and dirty towels and made your bed.

 You decided to watch some tv and maybe see if you can fall back asleep. You pulled out a package or pop tarts you snagged the other night and scrolled through Netflix to find something to watch. You settled on your go to movie, Die Hard. Halfway through you had dozed off. Waking to a knock at your door and the sun shining through the windows at 8:56am, you blinked to adjust to the light. “What” you yelled groggily.

“I just wanted to check on you and see how you were doing this morning. Steve asked me to take a look at your leg” Bruce said through the door.

“Thank you, but tell him I’m fine.”

“Can I please just make sure there was no major damage done?” he asked politely.

“Ugh fine, come in” you gave up.

Bruce opened the door and slowly poked his head inside looking to make sure the coast was clear.

“You’re safe Doc. I’ve had all my weapons confiscated” you joked. He smiled, a little.

He walked over to the desk and slid the chair over to the side of your bed and sat down. He brought more first aid supplies and he set the gauze on the bedside table.

You lifted your hips and pulled your sweats down to your knees so he could inspect the wound. He looked away shyly.

“Aw so shy Doc?” you toyed. “Look I’ve already washed it and walked around on it so there’s no damage. It didn’t hit any major veins or the bone. There’s some bruising. That’s it.”

He unwrapped the bandaging and looked over the gash gently pressing around the outer perimeter to check for sensitivity. “Hmm good placement of these butterfly stiches to help keep the wound closed” he stated.

“Not my first rodeo Doc” you raised an eyebrow at him. He gave you a sympathetic smile.

He said nothing as he covered the wound with gauze and re-wrapped your leg.

“Thank you for letting me check it” he smiled and stood up. He pulled a small bottle of pain killers out of his pocket and set it on the bedside table “For the pain”.

You gave an appreciative smile and pulled your pants back up “You can tell Captain Nosypants that I’m fine and he can butt out now”

“Ahmm will do” and he pointed a finger at you “try to stay off it for a few days”. And he left.

 That was fine by you because you hadn’t planned on heading out to the common areas anytime soon. The last thing you wanted was to see her face or anyone else’s for that matter right now. You had enough granola bars to tide you over until tonight when you could sneak up and grab some more food. For now, you wanted to finish your Die Hard marathon.

***

That night around 1am you snuck up to the kitchen and quickly grabbed a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and some more of Clint’s poptarts. Oh hell you grabbed some of Thor’s twinkies as well thinking you could replace them before he comes around again. Your arms were full and you had package of twinkies hanging from your mouth when you decided to grab 2 bottles of Tony’s scotch before you left. You turned and as you started to push the pantry door shut with your foot you froze with eyes wide.

 There stood the Winter Soldier himself looking at you while opening a water bottle. The twinkie packages must’ve been making too much noise for you to hear him come in and open the fridge door. Great spy you are, getting caught over some damn delicious cream filled cakes.

He took a drink of the bottle, never losing eye contact with you. As he twisted the lid on he started to turn around and leave back to his room but not before he said “Sam’s protein bars are really good” and then he left.

 The fuck? You thought to yourself. I guess he’s not going to narc on me, sweet. You turned and grabbed a handful of protein bard and shut the door then hurried back to your room with your goodies. Once you got back to your room you stashed the food in your dresser drawers. You didn’t have many clothes anyway and after last night, you can’t wear those pants again until you can sew them up.

 ***

For 3 days you stayed hiding away in your room again. Ignoring invitations to come for breakfast or dinner. Luckily his guilt or common sense prevailed because Steve didn’t bother you if you refused to come out of your room. You hadn’t yet broken into the scotch up til now, but the boredom was killing you so you decided now was as good of a time to drink up.

 The amber liquid burned ever so nicely down the back of your throat. Of course Tony gets the good smooth stuff. Only the best for his royal pain in the ass. After about a quarter of the bottle down your gullet, you got the great idea to go workout. Apparently the liquor was telling you to get off your ass and work off those twinks and tarts. Hahahahaha twinks and tarts.

 The advantage of being on the training floor is that you don’t have to worry about waking anyone. You made your way into the gym. Once you found the control panel on the wall and figured out how to turn on the music you took a few moments to look over the equipment and settled on some leg curls. You took a few more swigs of the scotch and stumbled to the machine. You set the bottle on the floor next to you and set the weights at 40lbs. Start light to work out your wounded leg.

 You made your rounds on the different pieces of fancy workout equipment for what seemed like hours. The only thing you knew had passed was a lot more liquor because you had only a quarter left now. You moseyed over to the bench press and laid down dropping the bottle next to you.

 Once the elevator hit the floor, before the doors even opened, Steve could hear the music blaring. He had decided to come down to work out because he couldn’t sleep. He stepped out and walked to the gym to find AC/DC playing loudly and you falling sleep on the workout bench. He switched off the music, making you startle up. “Oh shit” you said as you placed a hand on the side of your head, dizzy from sitting up too fast…and being totally drunk.

 “What on earth are you doing?” he blurted out.

“Bass fishing DUH!” you laughed.

“Why are you in here drunk? You could get hurt” he said as he walked over to you.

“So sorry pops. I was just leaving anyway” you pointed a shaky finger to the door.

“Did you even realize you’re bleeding?” he pointed at the blood seeping through your sweatpants from your wound.

“Oh, um yes of course. That’s why I’m leaving.” You stammered trying to hide that you did not in fact know.

“No, I think you are going to do what I say now and we’re going to get you fixed up in the cradle” he sighed in disappointment.

“I don’t want your cradle damn it, I don’t want your help” as you tried to stand up, almost falling over.

“You can’t even stand Katya. You’re going if I have to carry you there” he leaned forward and placed one hand on your back and one hand on your thigh as he stood up and you were now being carried over his shoulder out towards the elevator.

You squirmed trying to kick him but he wrapped his arm around your legs and you couldn’t. So you had the next best idea your alcohol riddled brain could think of. You reached down and quickly pulled open his sweats with one hand and the band of his boxer briefs with the other and yanked as if your life depended on it. In one fail swoop his hands pushed up on your thighs propelling you backward over his head and onto the ground. You landed on your left side with a thud and what you thought was a crack.

 “What the fuck! You gave me a wedgie?” he yelled as he turned around digging the underwear from his crack.

“What the fuck! You broke my arm!” you yelled back as you held your arm to your chest.

“Why can’t you just accept some damn help huh?” he bent over resting his hands just above his knees.

“I’ve never needed help before and I don’t need it now” you pouted.

“Ok have, fun then” he flicked a wrist at you and turned to walk away.

You wiggled trying to figure out how to get up with an injured right leg and a broken right arm. “Wait” you mumbled.

He paused and turned sideways holding a hand up to his ear “I’m sorry what was that?”

“Can you help me” you huffed out quietly.

He started walking back to you “I’m sorry you’re going to have to speak up” he was grinning like an idiot.

“CAN you help ME?” you spat out gritting your teeth in defeat.

He laughed and picked you up effortlessly. “Let’s go, I’m calling Cho now to get you fixed up” he pushed against your back guiding you to the elevator as he pulled out his phone. You groaned but complied.

 Once up to the medical level you walked with eyes as wide as saucers. There was so many elaborate pieces of equipment you had never seen before. Fancy medical “art” hung on the walls of an otherwise non-clinical feeling space. It wasn’t super inviting as everything was grey or metal, but it wasn’t hospital white either. A sleepy looking Dr. Cho walked out from behind an open closet door. “Hey Steve. The cradle is all warmed up and ready to go” she smiled.

As you walked around a corner you saw it. It looked like a glass coffin and you panicked. Your heart started racing and you backed up until you hit a solid surface. That solid surface was Steve. You turned around and grabbed his shirt in your fist and you were shaking.

“What’s wrong, what’s going on?” he placed his hands on your arms completely confused, you had a far off look in your eyes.

“Please don’t make me go in the box, not again” you begged. “Please I’ll be good I swear, don’t make me go in the box again” you pleaded with tears welling up.

He wrapped his arms around you “Ok it’s ok. No one is going to make you go in the box” he stroked your hair as he waived to Cho. She turned off the cradle and walked over to the both of you.

“We have the mobile unit that we can use. You can just lay on the table and it’s completely open.” She tried to offer a solution.

“There, does that sound like something you could try?” he asked you.

“You’re not going to put me in the box?” you asked loosening the grip you had on his shirt.

“No honey, no box ok.” He reassured you.

 You sniffed and looked over at Cho who patted her hand on a low padded medical table. You turned and started to make your way over, looking back to make sure Steve followed. He did.

You laid down on the table carefully trying not to jar your arm. Steve helped lift your legs onto it. He stood at your side while Cho attached what looked like those desk lamps with the bendy necks to the table. One for your leg and one for your arm. She explained that it would only be laser lights I would see and I might feel some tickling from the skin and bone repairing. She told you she had to cut your sweatpants to expose the skin to the lasers and you reluctantly ok’d.

 Once the lasers started she told you not to move as much as possible and that the whole procedure will probably take just over an hour and that she’ll be back by then to check on you. You and Steve nodded and she left. Steve pulled over a club chair and sat next to the table.

“I’m sorry” you muttered.

“For what?” he asked.

“For being such a pain in the ass ever since I got here” you frowned.

“Oh I wouldn’t say that” as he did that sideways head shake and half smile “Let’s just say it’s been a challenge.”

“Ok sorry for being a challenging pain in the ass” you smiled. He laughed.

“I’m going to go grab some magazines ok I’ll be back in a few” he stated as he stood up. You nodded.

After gathering some magazines from the common room downstairs and coming back up to the medical floor he walked around the corner to where you were laying on the table and you had fallen asleep. Steve smiled and sat down and thumbed through magazines until Cho came back and advised him that your scans showed you were all healed up.

He didn’t want to wake you so he picked you up and carried you back to the elevator and back to your room. He carefully placed you in your bed and covered you up. He decided to go work out for a few hours then he’d come back and wait for you to wake up.

To be continued…

  part 1  part 2  part 3  part 4  ..  Part 6

@marvelbase001 @imamotherfuckingstar-lord @feelmyroarrrr

#avengers #chris evans #captain america #steve rogers #bucky barnes #sebastian stan #natasha romanoff #black widow #sam wilson #falcon #wanda maximoff #scarlet witch #bruce banner #hulk #tony stark #iron man #robert downey jr 

[this-book-has-been-loved]

Singularity: Chapter 5

AU where instead of landing in the trash nebula, Pidge finds herself on the same planet as a certain Galra prison camp.

(Holt family reunion fic; no romantic relationships)

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4

Read it on Ao3

Read it on FFN

Part II: Eclipse Chapter 5: Shelter

She was alone again.

The podship had carried her back to the Green Lion. It wouldn’t stray from its path, and Green had refused to relinquish control, no matter how hard her paladin had screamed and cried.

Pidge had wanted to wreak havoc upon the prison camp; bust in there, guns blazing, unleash hell, and get her brother back.

But with the weapons system––and who knew what else––still damaged, there wasn’t really much she could do. With the thrusters repaired, she could take flight again; but the fighting mechanisms were beyond her.

So she did what she could do––what Matt had told her to do––what Green was urging her to do, tinged with apology––and left.

And now she found herself lost in space, on her own…again.

Green did most of the driving. She operated herself, drifting aimlessly through the starscape surrounding them, while Pidge sat mostly-unresponsive in her chair at the cockpit.

Dried tears traced lines through the dust on her face.

She’d run out of tears a couple hours ago. The logical side of her, the side that listened to her head rather than to heart, had taken over at that point, focusing on coming up with a plan.

To find the rest of her team.

To rest and heal.

To save her family.

“Get back to the castle,” she reminded herself. “Find everyone else. Don’t…don’t think about––” She broke off, taking a shaky breath, focusing her thoughts. “Just find a way to contact the castle.”

Before too much longer, she found herself floating aimlessly through a field of debris. “What…?” she breathed, staring out the window. “It’s like…a trash nebula of some kind.” She frowned, glancing at the scrap metal that surrounded her. “Let’s stop here, girl,” she said, patting the console gently. “I’ll see what I can do with this.”

She poured herself into the work, letting it distract her, taking her mind off the loss she’d suffered on Serva.

Keeping busy was good. She’d always liked working like this: focusing entirely on a problem and trying to find a way to fix it, whether the problem was mechanical or more coding-related. She used it as a coping mechanism, letting it consume her.

In a jump from one trash pile to another, her foot caught on a cable, sending her reeling forward, tumbling head over heels. She cried out, crashing into a pile of junk. The wind was knocked out of her, and she coughed for a moment, inspecting the trash heap she’d hit.

She frowned, looking at the large metal disc. “It’s…an old, rusty satellite.” Her eyes widened, and she gasped. “Maybe I can find the castle before they find me.”

Within a few hours, she’d rigged up the satellite dish to her lion, connecting it all together with an extensive tower of scrap metal. She gently lowered the satellite onto the top of the tower, fitting it into place.

Using her jetpack, she flew down to the base of the tower and opened the control panel.

“That ought to do it,” she said to herself, plugging in one last wire. She floated back, admiring her handiwork, as the tower began to light up. “Now, let’s see if we can get a hold of the castle.”

The tower started glowing blue, segment by segment. The spire of the dish started to glow, then sputtered out.

“No, no! What’s wrong?” Pidge shouted, staring agape at her tower as all the lights powered down. “I need to get out of here! I need to find my friends! Come on!”

With a roar from the lion, power raced up the tower, stimulating the satellite on top. A spire of energy shot forth, blasting off into space, projecting her signal outwards.

Pidge smiled. “Thanks,” she told Green. “Now, let’s see if this thing works.” She climbed inside the lion from the hatch on the top of the head, settling into her seat and pulling up the communications display. “I hope the signal’s strong enough to reach the castle.”

The words had scarcely left her mouth before a magimechanical whirr sounded behind her. She spun around, turning her lion to face the massive blue wormhole that had appeared. A faint smile spread across her lips as the castle emerged into view. “Right on time.”

“PIDGE!”

She had scarcely stepped out of her lion before she was bowled over by a flying hug. Her helmet fell from her hands and clattered to the floor. “Agh––Lance?”

The blue paladin in question only squeezed her tighter. “The one and only!”

“Lance, I can’t breathe.”

“Shhh, just let the hug happen.”

Her vision was, for the most part, obscured by Lance, but she could make out other figures in the room: Hunk, Keith, Allura, Coran.

Hunk reached out to embrace both of them, lifting them off their feet in a bone-crushing hug. “Oh my gosh, Pidge, it’s so good to see you!”

She tensed, suddenly reminded of her injured ribs. The Altean painkillers were keeping the pain at bay for now, but she knew they weren’t really helping the healing process. “Agh, watch it, Hunk, you’re gonna crush me!”

He loosened his grip. “Sorry, Pidge. I’m just…really happy.”

She relaxed, a grin starting to spread across her face. “I know. I missed you guys too.”

Lance cheered, elated. “Got the team back together again!”

Pidge’s smile fell. “Yeah.”

Hunk released them, setting them both back down so that the rest of the team could greet their missing paladin.

Keith clapped her on the shoulder, pulling her into a quick hug. “Good to have you back, Pidge.”

“Thanks, Keith.”

Coran placed a hand on her back, smiling down at her. “Good to see you, Number Five. I’m glad you’re safe. Now, I’d like to take a diagnostic scan of the lion, if that’s alright,” he told her. “See what remaining damage there is for us to tackle.”

Allura wrapped her in a gentle embrace. “I’m glad we found you,” she said. Her face broke into a mischievous smile, and she ruffled Pidge’s hair. “It’ll be nice having another girl around again.”

Pidge chuckled. “It’s good to see all of you,” she said. She glanced around the hangar. “Where’s Shiro?”

“Healing pod,” Keith replied. “Haggar hit him pretty bad in that last fight, back at Zarkon’s central command.”

“Hunk and I got picked up a couple days ago,” Lance added. “And we only just found Keith and Shiro yesterday.”

“But now that you’re back,” Hunk continued, “that’s everyone!”

She didn’t say anything right away, rubbing nervously at her arm. Everyone. “That’s great.”

“Scans complete,” Coran announced.

“Good,” Pidge said. “Let’s see what’s left to take care of.”

“Well,” Hunk said, taking a step towards the door, “while you guys do that, I’m gonna head back upstairs. Pidge, I’ll check in on you in a bit, bring some snacks or something.”

“Mm-hmm.” She barely heard him, focusing in on the data Coran was looking through. Hunk headed out of the room, followed by Keith and Allura. Lance dawdled a bit longer, his gaze lingering curiously on the diagnostic readouts.

“Scans are showing that there are some damages to the Green Lion,” Coran reported. “Though not as bad as I would expect! For the most part, she seems to be in good shape.”

“I spent a lot of time fixing her up,” Pidge replied with a shrug. “I did what I could. But weapons system is still offline. And her external armor is a bit banged up.”

“Wait,” Lance interjected. “You were stuck out there on your own for days––without weapons?” He stressed those last two words emphatically. “Pidge! Are you okay?!”

She shrugged listlessly. “I’m fine.”

His brow furrowed, and he exchanged quick glances with Coran.

“The lions are predominantly self-healing,” Coran continued. “But sometimes they do get a bit too banged up to do everything on their own. Why don’t you go get out of uniform and wash yourself up while I stay down here in the hangar to get a closer look at Green?”

Pidge nodded. “Okay. Should I meet you back down here? I’d like to get Green repaired as soon as possible.”

Lance shook his head emphatically. “No can do, Pidgeroo. We’re going to have a celebratory lunch courtesy of the great Chef Hunk; and as you’re the guest of honor, you’re gonna need to be there.”

“We can meet back in the dining room for lunch,” Coran agreed. “We can fill you in on everything that’s happened these past few quintants.”

It wasn’t until she was carefully stripping off her armor that the pain returned.

Stretching up her arms to remove her breastplate––and a sudden stabbing shot at her torso. She cried out, clutching at her chest. “Ugh,” she groaned. “Of course the painkillers had to wear off now.”

There was a knocking at her door. “Pidge? Are you okay?”

She sighed. And of course Hunk would hear and come by to check on her. “Fine,” she muttered.

A pause. “Are you sure?” Hunk tried. “I thought I heard you yell. Can I come in?”

Pidge groaned, sitting down on her bed. No getting rid of him. “Yeah.”

The door slid open and Hunk walked in, taking in the sullen figure before him. One of those floating plates hovered beside him, loaded with food goo. Hunk frowned. “What’s wrong?”

Pidge massaged her chest, inhaling sharply. “I…my crash landing may have been a bit worse than I let on,” she mumbled. “It’s fine,” she hastened to assure him, “just…hurt a few ribs or something. I don’t know. I haven’t had the chance to really take a look at it.”

Hunk had gone pale, staring at her in shock. “Pidge!” he shouted, aghast. “We need to get you to the medbay.”

“I––,” she started to protest, but another painful jab from her ribs gave her pause. She sighed, relenting. “Yeah. Yeah, okay.”

She stood gingerly, and Hunk was there to guide her. He slung her arm around her shoulders, his other arm wrapping around her waist. He helped her out into the hall, supporting her weight.

They had only made it a few yards down the hall when her ankle started to throb. Her step faltered, and Hunk stopped. “Pidge, you’re limping.”

“I can still walk, Hunk.”

“Nope, I am drawing the line here.”

Pidge found herself lifted off the ground as Hunk gently carried her bridal-style. “Hunk!”

“Pidge.” His tone made it clear that he wasn’t going to argue with her on this. “Please?”

She deflated. “Fine.” She shifted in his arms, resting her head against his chest. “Thank you.”

Lance ran into them on the way there. He skidded to a halt, quirking up an eyebrow as he took in the situation. “Everything okay?”

“She’s gonna need a healing pod. Do you know where Coran is?”

Lance nodded. “Yeah, down in the hangar. I’ll get him. And everyone else.” And with that, he went dashing through the castle.

The medbay doors opened with a hiss, and Hunk carried Pidge inside.

“You don’t need to make a big deal of this,” Pidge mumbled as Hunk set her down on an exam table. “I’m okay.”

“Pidge, you could barely walk.”

“Okay, now you’re just exaggerating.”

The door slid open, and Lance raced in, Coran on his heels. “Keith and Allura are on their way,” he said as Coran set to work on the scanner.

Pidge barely suppressed her groan. “It’s not that serious,” she protested.

“Yeah, I beg to differ,” Hunk replied. “Here, just…let us help you with your armor.”

He and Lance very carefully helped her out of the rest of her armor, gently removing the gauntlets, the belt, the boots, until she was left only wearing the black bodysuit.

Keith and Allura came in later, one after the other, asking what they could do to help. Pidge felt overly-conscious with everyone else staring at her, so obviously worried.

Coran and Allura activated the medscan, and it parsed over her, assessing her injuries.

“Well,” Coran said hesitantly, looking over the readouts. “You certainly got pretty banged up.”

“Just hit me with it, Coran.”

“Ah, well, starting with the ribs then….” With a swipe of his hand, the scan results were projected up onto the larger screen, where they could all see. “One of your ribs appears to be fractured, and three others are badly bruised.” He pulled up another window. “Also, you’ve sprained one of your ankles.” Another window. “And it looks like there’s severe bruising across your torso.” Another one. “And your legs.” And another. “And your arms.” And another. “Ah, pretty much everywhere, I guess.”

Lance’s eyes were nearly bugging out of his head. “And you were just going to keep this from us?”

Pidge smiled sheepishly. “If I’m being honest, it actually kinda slipped my mind entirely.”

“It––you––,” Lance sputtered. “Pidge!”

She winced. “Sorry.”

Keith raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “You forgot that you broke a rib?”

She shrugged. “There were painkillers in a first aid kit I found in my lion. I was fine.” She looked down, staring at the floor. “Couldn’t feel a thing.”

Allura sighed. “I’m glad we found you when we did,” she said, looking over the scan data. “If this had continued to progress, you could be in much worse condition.”

Coran pulled out one of the white bodysuits and passed it to her before he and the rest of them left her alone to change. Allura had offered to stay and help, but Pidge refused. She wasn’t that helpless. Even so, it took longer than she would have liked for her to replace the black bodysuit with the white one.

“It should only take a few vargas for you to fully heal,” Coran assured her as he and Lance helped hobble towards the cryo-pod waiting for her.

“And we’ll be here waiting when you wake up,” Lance added.

She smiled, stepping into the healing pod beside Shiro’s. “Thanks, guys. You’re the best.”

The command bridge of the Galra ship was shrouded in purple.

The comms screen flickered to life.

“Commander Reggar,” Zarkon intoned.

“Yes, your majesty.”

“I’m assigning you a very important mission,” the Emperor said, staring at the bowed form of the commander. “There’s been a disturbance in your sector. I need you to get to the bottom of it. Prison base Theta-twelve on planet Serva found itself under direct attack. Voltron is rumored to be involved.” Zarkon paused, as if waiting for a reaction from his subordinate, then continued. “I’m putting you in full charge of this investigation.”

“Vrepit sa, sir.”

[appynation]

I'm so excited you're writing! Maybe a prompt where Lance gets sick and goes into Keith's room to ask for help, but finds Keith havin' a crisis about the stress of maybe leading Voltron some day, or about a crush he has, or something. So Lance is helping him out and they're just sitting on his floor, chatting Keith through his feelings, and Lance gets progressively quieter and makes less sense until Keith finds out he's got a fever and was here for help and decided Keith was more important?

Yeeeeeees. Thank you so much for this prompt!

My first sickfic, y’all! This takes place after the end of season 2.

-

Lance may not be confident about a lot of things in hislife, but he knew one thing for sure:

He was sick.

What began as a low throbbing headache a day or so prior hadsince escalated to a full-fledged migraine, accompanied with congestion, anddry clamminess of what he hoped wasn’tthe start of a fever. He had tried to brush it off, telling himself that it wasjust exhaustion from the back to back missions they’d been on, but the wayLance woke up that morning made him finally accept the fact that it was morethan just being tired. He pulled on his jacket with a bit more effort thannormal before he stifled a sneeze or two into the crook of his elbow as soon ashe got the jacket on. He groaned in pain as the throbbing in his head worsenedand he had to admit it: he needed help.

He crossed his arms, walking out of his room as the doorhissed open. Who could he go to? Allura and Coran were no doubt neck deep in plans fortheir next mission, he didn’t want to bother them. And Pidge and Hunk had beentalking about staying up all night to work on some tracking tech to find Shiro,so he assumed they were either still working or passed out by now. He walkedout of his room, his eyes half lidded as he looked down both ends of the chillyhallway. Man, what he wouldn’t give to be able to tell Shiro. He probably stillwouldn’t have, he hated to worry the team on his behalf, but his leader’s kindeyes and gentle actions were badly missed right about now. It had only been acouple weeks since his disappearance, and the loss still fell heavy on theteam. No one was resting easy, not until they found Shiro, but of course it hadto be Lance that fell ill from itall. He bit his lip glancing to his right as he walked down to the next door.

“Keith?”

Lance knocked weakly on his door, suppressing a couplecoughs under his breath as he waited for the door to slide open, or Keith’svoice to beckon him in. He heard neither. Lance frowned and glanced around, hadhe gone to the training deck? He seemed to be doing that a lot after Shiro’sdisappearance… well, even more thanhe had previously. Out of everyone, Keith had taken it the hardest. It madesense, him and Shiro had known each other before they became paladins, and nowwith him gone… well, Keith had voiced to everyone Shiro’s wishes of areplacement leader.

Lance was about to turn and go back to his room when heheard a noise come from inside the room. He frowned, so Keith was in there. Was he ignoring him? ‘Ass.’He thought to himself, his sour mood from being ill flaring even more with thethought that the one person he thought he could go to on this ship was ignoringhim and damn it, he was going to give Keith a piece of his mind. He reachedover and pressed on the button to open the door, the panel sliding open with ahiss. Lance already had his mouth open, ready to spew his thoughts on thematter before it all faltered. Keith was in his room, sitting on the groundwith his knees pulled up to his chest and his gloved hands rung and grippedinto his hair.

Lance’s eyes widened and any form of negativity flew out theairlock as he walked over hesitantly.

“Keith? Hey, buddy… you okay?”

“Leave me alone, Lance.” A muffled voice sounded from inbetween his knees. It was a little too shaky for Lance’s liking. He didn’t likehearing Keith like this.

“Hey, come on. If something’s bothering you, you know youcan talk to me, right?” Lance suggested as he sat down next to Keith, crossinghis legs as he put a hand on his head momentarily to try and stop the room fromspinning. He shook it off as he continued, “I know you think you have to gothrough all of this alone, but know that we’re all going through this too—“

Before Lance could finish his sentence he was cut off byKeith, who finally looked up at him, the threat of tears glistening in hisviolet eyes.

“You’re not allgoing through this too! You’re not the one Shiro put in charge to lead Voltron!You’re not the one who now has to make sure we all don’t die! You’re not the one who will be blamed if all of this goes tohell in a handbasket!” Keith was yelling, his breath erratic as he gripped hishair again, his voice softening if only in defeat, “I don’t know why Shirothought I could handle this… he should’ve given the command to Allura. Allurawould be an amazing leader! I… I’m just some damn dropout who relies too muchon instinct to even think aboutleading a team and—“

“Keith.” Lance interrupted, putting a hand on his fellowpaladin as he subtly cleared his throat, all thoughts of telling Keith how hewas feeling had disappeared, he needed Lance much more right now. “Calm down.Breathe.”

Keith looked down at the floor he sat on for another momentbefore taking a few breaths, his shoulders relaxing slightly as he leaned backagainst the side of his bed. “I can’t do this, Lance…”

“Nonsense.” Lance gave a grin, “I mean, obviously Shirochose you for a reason, right? I feel like we should give him the benefit ofthe doubt that he knew what he was doing.” He said in the most cheerful way hecould. “I mean, look! You basically lead us through our last two missions, andthey turned out fine! I think you’re doing fine.”

“Yeah?” Keith glanced over at Lance slightly, noting that itwas strange how pale the blue paladin seemed. But perhaps it was just the harshlighting of his room.

“Yeah! Like, holy quiznak, when you took down that droneright before it could fire at me, you saved me dude! That seems pretty leaderlyto me. And when—“ his peptalk was cut off by a string of wet, congested coughsthat he buried once again in the elbow of his jacket. “—And when—“ he triedagain. When had the room begun spinning again?

“Lance??”

He could hear Keith’s voice, but it sounded muffled. Like hewas underwater. He looked at Keith’s face, it took far too long for him toregister that the black haired boy was looking back at him with a wide eyedlook of concern. “—when—“ he tried to start once more before the room tiltedsharply, his body following along with it.

“LANCE!”

–

When Lance came to, he was in a bed. His bed, he concluded by the smell of his conditioner on thepillow. How had he gotten here? He opened his bleary eyes and brought the heelof his palm to his eye to try and rub the blurriness away when a shift from thebottom of the bed made him jump and look in that direction. At the end of thebed was the red paladin himself, his arms crossed and his head leaned backagainst the wall the bed stood against, his eyes closed. Keith opened his eyesslightly after a second, glancing at Lance like it was something he had beendoing regularly before he did a double take and sat up straight, “You’re awake.”He didn’t even try to mask the relief that coated his words.

“Y-yeah” Lance rasped, his sore voice not cooperating as hecoughed a few times into his pillow.

“No, no talking.” Keith scooted up closer, “you scared thehell out of me. Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t feeling well??”

Lance opened his mouth to speak before a warning look fromKeith made him close his mouth with a frown. “You want me to answer you ornot??” he choked out.

“I just—ugh.”Keith groaned as he exhaled, “Just try to go back to sleep, okay? I told Hunk,and he’s trying to make you the space equivalent of chicken noodle soup. So…” Keith’svoice softened, “just rest up until he figures that out.”

Lance simply gave a nod as he turned on his side glancing upat Keith as his tired eyes slowly began to shut.

Keith sighed pinching the bridge of his nose, and Lance’sfinal thoughts before dozing back off was that that was a habit Keith haddefinitely picked up from Shiro over the time being spent together.

He knows Keith is going to do just fine as leader.

[artificialqueens]

Imbalance Ch.2 (Group Fic/Katya Centric)

A/N: Hey guys! So I’m finally getting the hang of this whole writing process, but like I said before please bare with me for the first few chapters as I figure my life out lol. Basically just to clear some things up (also because I’ve been trying to work this out as well) When Katya is in drag she’ll be referred to as Katya and it’ll be ‘her’, but when she get’s out of drag I’m going with Brain and will use ‘he’. You’ll see that in this chapter and I think I did a pretty decent job with it, but it it seems shaky of confusing let me know! If I’m talking about other drag queens it’ll probably be just their drag names unless they’re being serious, as to stress a point. If that makes sense haha (like using your full name when your parents are mad at you)…Anywaysss thanks for the support and I’m really enjoying writing this and I have some great plans for where this is headed! This is a longer chapter than the first so enjoy! Xx -Chloe

Katya cowered, shoeless mind you, against the far end of the wall in the small stall. Waiting for the two giggling girls who stumbled into the bathroom to get the heck out. The last thing she needed was someone from the club recognizing her and snapping a few pics. Twitter would explode. She couldn’t disappoint her fans like that. The other girls would flip. Michelle would probably take her off of the next few performances, at the very least (Michelle was quite scary when she was upset, and when her ‘children’ get into trouble she gets scared and then takes some not-so enjoyable actions, consequences Katya did not want to have to deal with to begin with).

The consequences. Oh dear lord, she needed this night to be over…well technically it was the morning.

3:37 am

I have to be in the hotel lobby surrounded by everyone and on a bus in less than 4 hours…kill me.

“I might as well try and at least make it back to the hotel in one piece and sleep in a real bed for at least a few hours.” Katya muttered to herself.

The clicking of heels became softer, the giggling disappeared, and finally the door shut once more. Leaving Katya alone once again.

After looking in the next stall over she found her illusive pair of red heels hidden behind the toilet. In her state of mindless panic (that she couldn’t really remember?) she must’ve kicked them off and shoved them away. Katya got like that when she drank…panicky. Well not just drunk, actually when she used any substance. It was because she knew it was just a temporary bandaid for the depression and anxiety that was about to rear its ugly head again. She knew that once the effects wore off she’d be in a hole so dark and deep she wouldn’t want to get up, or move, or live, or…

Focus girl

Taking a deep breath and grabbing her phone off of the sink Katya got ready, to exit.

Opening the door slowly she looked left towards the bar (only a very wasted man sat, with a very exhausted bartender trying to push him out the door), and then right which lead down a hall way. At the end lit up a sign saying EXIT in large red letters.

Walking/stumbling out of the club and into the side street she could see the entrance of their hotel glaring back at her.

“Thank God,” she breathed a sigh of relief. At least she knew where she was.

Making a run for it she bolted across the empty street, into the lobby, and into the elevator.

Wait what floor, what floor, what floor?

She stared at the bright numbers on the panel of the elevator…there were 36.

“Shit” she cursed, wracking her brain for some piece of information that would help her remember what floor they were all staying on.

Coming up completely blank Katya had to resort to her last option. Alaska fucking Thunderfuck 5000. The bitch would kill her for calling her so late (early? It was almost 4am..), but she had to get back to her room, and Alaska had the unlucky pleasure of being roomed with the one and only Katya herself.

Grabbing her phone she dialed…and waited…and waited…the ringing was killing her…

“Umm what the fuck hello?” A tired and half mumbled voice spoke on the other end.

“Hey uh Lasky its Kat, would you mind just um uh telling me what floor we’re on, and like um also the room we are…and you know while you’re at it maybe just open the door so I know where to go?.”

“Brian what in the actual hell, it is four in the fucking morning, what are you even doing here? Last I heard Michelle said you found some cute trade to cuddle up with,” Alaska drawled sounding annoyed she’d been awoken from her beauty sleep

Even while half asleep she can still be petty, Katya thought, rolling her eyes.

Putting on the most convincing ‘I’m Katya Zamalowhatever and IDGAF’ voice she spoke, “Look, none of your business, it’s not like you got any tonight. I just forgot the room number I was on my phone when Michelle made the announcement or whatever. Look can you just please tell me where the fuck to go so I can take this makeup off and go to sleep.”

“You’re still in drag?”

“Yes, that’s besides the point, can you just-“

“Kat, are you okay?” There was a serious undertone in Justin’s voice. He knew that as much as Katya loved being Katya, when the shows and parties were over she liked to go back to Brian…at least to sleep. Brain never slept in full face, and for it to be four AM and have a very flustered Katya call asking what room they were in? That was weird. Even for someone as naturally weird and eccentric as Katya.

Katya was exhausted and beyond done with this conversation. Justin was in his sweatpants cuddled in blankets in their hotel room laying on a fluffy bed. Katya on the other hand felt disgusting, was sitting on the floor of the elevator (there seems to be a theme of sitting on gross public floors tonight). Her feet hurt, her head hurt, her body hurt, her mind was racing.

There it was, the panicked feeling again. It felt like a weight was being shoved on her chest. The elevator suddenly seemed much smaller than it appeared to be.

“Justin, please,” Katya choked out. “I’ll talk later. I’m fine okay, just tired. Please don’t push it any further, it’s a moot point anyways, I am fine Barbaraaa”

“Ugh fine. Floor 19. Room 7B. I’ll leave it cracked for you. I’m going back to sleep though bitch. Take your makeup off, but don’t wake me up or I’ll slit your throat with my fucking nails. Goodnight, I’ll see you in the morning…well in like 3 hours. Good God girl you’re going to be fucked tomorrow morning,” Justin chuckled, and with that the phone went silent. At least someone was going to be sleeping well tonight.

Floor 19, room 7B. Easy enough.

Pushing the buttons and getting off of her ass Katya waited for the doors to open for their floor.

Seven B, Seven B, Seven B

She glanced down the hall to her left side, the sign read “1B-28B.”

Okay, that way we go.

It only took a quick walk past a few closed doors to see the one that was opened slightly, reading ‘7B.’

“Jackpot,” she whispered to herself.

The room was completely dark, and the only sound was Justin’s obnoxiously loud breathing.

Yup definitely the right room, she thought rolling her eyes once more.

Walking into the bathroom Katya turned on the light and shut the door gently, as to not wake the sleeping beast on the other side of the room. She didn’t want to look in the mirror anymore. She didn’t want to be Katya anymore. Stripping off the dirty clothes, matted and tangled wig, and tattered tights, she turned on the shower.  

He was Brian again, which originally he thought would make him feel better. Like he could somehow separate himself from Katya and the actions he had taken, but apparently that was not the case.

Washing the makeup off and cleaning his body seemed like it took an eternity, but at this point, this entire night felt like it would never end so the closer he was getting having it be over with the better.

Brian felt numb the more he thought about it. What did I do? You piece of shit. I hate you I hate you I hate you. Why don’t you feel anything. Feel guilty. Feel sad. Feel fucking something. Please. FEEL SOMETHING.

But Brian couldn’t. Just like Katya couldn’t. It didn’t matter if he wiped all of Katya off, it didn’t matter if he could look in the mirror and see Brian. It didn’t fucking matter. It all blurred together now. When Brian looked in the mirror he saw addiction. He saw suffering. He saw his anxiety and depression. He saw all his fucking past and history dug up and start to wrap their hands around his neck taking the life out of his eyes. Dressing up as Katya couldn’t fix that for him.

“Why can’t I feel anything,” Brain agonized running his hands through his hands, “What’s wrong with me.”

Turning up the temperature in the shower to a basically boiling point, he sat down and wrapped his arms around his slender body. The water on his back burned. It burned like a mother fucker, but at least he could feel it. It made things seem real for him. The water. The pain.

“Feel the heat on my sizzling meat…” he laughed dryly into his hands.

Okay girl time to get your ass up and out of here.

Brian could basically hear Alyssa in all her glory making a joke about “girl look how fucking red and wrinkly you look, girl.” That made him smile slightly, he was happy to have friends on the tour. He needed them. He just couldn’t tell them.

Maybe you should..you could get help.

“No.” Brian whispered as he turned off the water and grabbed a towel to dry himself off. “No one needs to know.”

Putting on some clean clothes and making his way over to his bed he finally was able to lay down and breathe. He’d never been so tired in his whole life.

4:32am….awesomeeee I can sleep for a solid 2 hours.

Wrapping the comforter tightly around him he started to close his eyes.

This night never happened.