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daincrediblegg · 2 years ago

Note

for the prompts! 'i don’t want you to be alone tonight and honestly, i don’t really wanna be alone either. ' with valery??? it struck me as v him <333

Stay the Night

A/N: girl. Weeks in the making. You're so right. This is so him. There will be a part 2 btw based on another prompt for him I got, but this one came out long enough... like it's over 3k which is wild. Enjoy!

When Valery had heard what had happened at Hospital No.6, something inside him sank like a lump of lead to the pit of his stomach.

The news coming from Boris hadn’t helped. It was so curt. Khomyuk had been arrested. You had been arrested. He’d known by whom and somehow for some shred of hope felt the need to ask anyway, only to be disappointed when Boris gave him no relief.

“I’m working on it”, he’d said. As though that was supposed to stop his heart from hammering against his ribcage like it was locked in there. As though he hadn’t been worried sick when you hadn’t called last night, while he waited here even now and you hadn’t arrived yet with your own notes for the meeting at the Kremlin, for the care of those who had been exposed to the radiation and what they would need.

As though the stories of what happened to people in those places weren’t turning over and over in his mind, replacing you and Khomyuk in every one of them. And Boris expected him to stay calm with “I’m working on it”? To think the man had told him he had come off as naïve…

The whole meeting he spent seething. So scared he was angry because they knew what was happening. They knew the work you were all doing and why and how bloody dangerous it was, and still they had time to arrest scientists, of all people? It infuriated him. Set a fire in him, burning, like the core not too long ago.

And feeling that fire settle there in his abdomen made approaching Charkov far too easy. Too infuriated to realize exactly what he was doing, not even Boris could have stopped him, though he had tried, and not well enough.

But he couldn’t have done nothing. What little weight or influence he had was still enough to say something, even if it wasn’t heard.

Charkov, however… he had heard him.

Or perhaps he hadn’t at all. From the way he’d felt under Charkov’s gaze, unfazed, and scrutinizingly cold, unyielding, Valery got the sense that he did not need to hear him. He never did. He’d simply known with the omnipotence of a God what he of all people would approach the Deputy Chairman of the KGB about. The whole conversation his lips passed words of ignorance and insignificance, and yet his eyes telegraphed something else entirely.

Knowing. Unfeeling. Without nuance, without humanity… Biorobotic. And it terrified him.

But he needed you. Khomyuk, too.

So he’d said it. Those three words that damned him for the whole afternoon as he went home, fed his cat, returned under the cover of darkness to see you and Khomyuk out of your cells. He said them, but he’d needed to say them just to get him to listen, to get him to understand how important you were.

“I need her.”

And there was nothing that could have prepared him for Charkov’s reply, or how it made him feel, how revealing it actually was. But he’d thought about it when the soldiers opened your cell, hospital clothes in hand, shed on your arrival for lack of use. You were unharmed, thank god for that. You were as safe as anything. And yet his unease did not abate.

It was about 1 a.m. when you were finally released and left that horrible building and horrible holding cell behind, when you finally felt the open air of Moscow again. Ulana had walked with you a while, discussing a little of what you had learned in the hospital outside of the ears of the KGB at last. But a few blocks later, she broke off with a final thank-you to Valery, before her return to Hospital No. 6 for the testimonies of… well, whoever was left, now.

But she shot Valery a look before she left. Pointed, stubborn and unrelenting. Like he had work to do.

And she was right, of course. As usual. He did.

But it wasn’t related to Chernobyl. Her glance to you in turn told him that, before she walked away, into the night.

It was silence from then on out, save for the click and thud of both your shoes on the concrete. Occasionally a car passed. Never the same. One of them was bound to be more KGB for certain. Their motors drowned his thoughts every now and again, but even they could not prevent Charkov’s words from ringing incessantly like bells, colliding over and over in his skull.

“So you will be accountable for her?”

It wasn’t an oath of responsibility. Not the way he said it. He knew about them. And it was no mere warning of what he knew, no. It was a threat.

Because now he knew what he could lose.

“Are we not going to talk about it?”

Your voice breaks him out of his reverie, as it so often does. His step falters, the way you ask. He wants to. But more than anything he’s too tired and rattled for this. Too scared to incur a greater debt of secrets. But then again, he thought, least of all would he want to incur that same debt to you. That would be worse.

“We can’t,” he concludes, “not now”.

But he can feel your gaze, doe-eyed, boring into him. It’s worse than wondering if the headlights passing their light behind you are that of an agent. It feels relentless between the two, to feel so scrutinized. Hopeless.

“I… I should have told you to stay in Pripyat”, he says pointedly, an air of frustration straining his words. He hears your pace skip to keep up, and a gentle scoff.

“Can you honestly say that it would have made a difference?” you question, a little louder, and his lips curl inward, as the anger did. He gave his reply. The only answer he could think of, to this, to any of it, to the weight of the whole damn thing.

“I can’t.”

“Valery, stop!”

And then your footsteps stopped. His footsteps stopped. He could have mistaken you for Boris, shouting at him like that. It was the same tone he’d used with him, so many times. Out of bluster, mostly, but from you it felt more like… care. Endless wells of it.

You stepped forward and he turned to face you, and his head hurt to see the concern written all over you, as you reached for him.

“Please, talk to me.”

“They know! ”

His voice booms. Clean, but breaking. Panicked. Like he’d felt that first day sitting in the Kremlin, reading, knowing, and horrified when no one else seemed to notice. Like he was displaced, where the reality that he knew was a mere dream… no, a nightmare, to those around him.

Did you not see, either? Would he truly have to explain it all to you as well? Knowing how smart, capable you were of seeing the truth?

“And I feel… such a fool.”

He can’t stop what’s welling in his eyes now. It spills. Out in the cool spring air for all of Moscow to see. And he knows there’s a man down the block who saw it happen, who saw him crack under pressure. You approach him, like a little wounded thing on the side of the road.

“Valera, it’s not your fault.”

Your voice is so even. So sure. He wants to believe you. This lie. It may be one of the prettiest he’s heard in the last few months.

“But it is”, he insists, voice low and gravely, “I should have listened to Boris, I should have let him handle it. If I hadn’t…”

His head spun, dizzy with what-ifs. But your hands caught his jaw. His eyes snapped to yours, and found their gentle countenance tugging him down from a height he hadn’t even realized he’d climbed to.

“Shh,” you soothe, and say nothing more as you simply hold his face, wiping his tears, worries, fears, and thoughts away with the stroke of your thumb on the craggy indents of his cheeks. He breathed deep, once, twice, until he felt his breath slow, your touch grounding him in this moment until it was all he knew. He didn’t know how you could have such patience for this, but there you stood with him, holding him. And after a few moments passing like this, that was when you spoke again, methodically, logically.

“All right,” you reasoned, “They know about us. So what?”

He winced, the pain of panic not fully gone from him. But he finds the root of the fear, at the end of it all.

“They know how to hurt us.” he says, but the tears in his eyes don’t relent. And in your eyes he sees you recognize the why. They know how to hurt you. They know how to hurt him by hurting you.

They know nothing but how to hurt. And they will use this to hurt either one of you.

The look on your face turned suddenly grim and contemplative. A tension released in your shoulders, as your gaze flew down to the ground a moment, the wheels in your mind turning, mulling, simmering. Until your answer, the only conclusion you could come to, passed your lips to his ears at last.

“More than they already have?”

… Now that gave Valery pause. What a question. He was so wrapped up in his own conclusion that it was one he didn’t think to ask himself. How he would have loved to have a student like you in one of his lectures. It was amazing to think that you’d never even set a foot in the institute. For the best, certainly, but still he takes a moment to mourn that.

The weight lifted in him, then, as he considered it himself. You were right. How much more doomed could either of you be more than you already are? Their negligence, their secrets, their lies had already sealed his fate… and yours. What more could they possibly do that the radiation hadn’t already done to them? What a good teacher you would be yourself, he thought, as he gave his answer, shaking his head.

“No.”

The conclusion, inevitably deduced, and more importantly, the truth. Right in front of him where he was too worried to see it. As blind to it as he had been about the bubbler pools, so too had he been too blind to see you, right in front of him. With him.

Boris was right, he really was naïve.

“They would have found out eventually, Valery. And whatever you said to get us released was not going to change that,” you explain further to assuage him. And it did, as he sighed, shoulders lowered, finally.

“But they made a mistake.”

His eyes met yours again, questioning. What more was there to this that he wasn’t seeing? What more would you reveal to him?

“Now we know too. That’s not the weakness they think it is. That’s armor.”

“I love you.”

He said it like he was just breathing. A foregone natural conclusion. A lecture he’d given a hundred times, it was so easy a thing to say. Only after a beat or two did it etch on his face, realizing at last that he had said it, that it was the first time he had said it, and that worst of all, he meant it.

And you beamed at him. You laughed, incredulous, and then you pulled him by the neck down to your lips to kiss him, and he felt the slight chill of the air and it felt clean. And when you pulled back, your hand stayed at the back of his neck, gently smoothing over the ends of his hair.

“I know.” you replied, and for the first time in a good long time, Valery smiled like the KGB wasn’t watching.

He leaned in to kiss you again, a weary hand reaching for you to find purchase in whatever place he could. He found it around your shoulders, holding you like the men did in those old films he used to watch with his mother. He couldn’t think of a better thing to be to you now, and so what if they saw? They could do with seeing something nice for a change, he imagined.

When you broke the kiss, he smiled at you. Softly, sadly, fondly.

“Come. My apartment is a few blocks away,” he states, a pin on a destination. You look back.

“But, my hotel-”

“No”, he shakes his head, grip tightening on your shoulder, gently, still, but protectively. He sighs, and explains as he beckons back the spare fearful tears.

“I don’t want you to be alone tonight. And, honestly… I don’t really want to be alone either.”

His hand drifts to your cheek, eyes beseeching.

“Please?”

He leans forward, forehead touching yours. His breath catching as he feels your own against his lips and cheeks again. And then you spoke, a few beats after.

“I was going to suggest you stay with me, actually.”

He huffed at that, closing the distance to rest his forehead against yours, shaking slightly for feeling so foolish at his own assumption. You withdrew with a small, tired smile, and linked your arm into the crook of his elbow.

“But if you’re closer…”

~*~

He had been right. A few short blocks, and you found yourselves walking up steep steps to the front of an altogether not too terribly run-down apartment building. The visage of the exterior was not so bleak as the ones in Pripyat, this one even lined with spandrels on the rails, a few plain columns outside, and ancient steel doors. How very Moscow. And how very Valery. How well you could have visualized him living here, even if you hadn’t known that he did.

He opened the heavy door like a true gentleman, ushering you inside, and another short climb of stairs brought you to a corner apartment at the end of the hall, facing the street you had just come up from.

Valery fuddled with his keys a moment, and opening the door, was met with a small and distant meow.

As you entered, a faint jingle of a little bell rang down the hallway until out of the darkness you were greeted by the bright-eyed face of his little flat-mate. Valery tried to lean down to greet her with a pat, but she trotted right past him to rub against your legs instead. He might have been offended, if it weren’t for the sweet gasp that escaped you as she stretched her back against your calves.

“Oh, hello!” you cooed. Valery smiled at that, as he turned the lock on the door, starting to shrug off his trench coat. He watched, enraptured as you leaned down, petting her a few times as you asked, “and who might this little angel be?”

“Polina,” he replied, walking over to set his keys down into the small dish by the phone where he usually kept them.

When he turned back, he’d found you snapping back up, Polina in your arms, purring affectionately, loudly, in your gentle, but firm grip. His heart swelled just to witness how you handled her.

“Oh you are a sweetheart aren’t you? I bet you snuggle right up to our dear Valery all the time.” you said, sparing him a glance as you spoke his name in a way that made him blush.

“She likes you more than me, I think,” he says, unbuttoning his suit jacket as well, prepared to fold and discard it as well over the chair by the phone. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so cuddly.”

“Ah, don’t be silly,” you interject, “I’m just a new face. I’m sure she loves you more. Aloof, maybe, but I can tell.”

A moment passes, your eyes locked with his, your real meaning clear.

A small irked meow told you she’d had her fill of your babying nonsense, and you placed her down gently to allow her to trot off into the living room.

“Do you need anything?” Valery said, out of instinct, hands finding themselves in his pockets,“I could fix you some supper, I’m sure the food in there wasn’t pleasant.”

You shrug.

“Oh no. Honestly, I’m exhausted, more than anything,” your hand rose to your temple, rubbing gently, “I couldn’t sleep in there even if I tried. I was too-”

Valery raised an eyebrow at that. There was a story there. He could see that much. But the look you gave him when your eyes rose to meet him made him think better than to pry. Not tonight. Not after everything. He had faith enough to know you would tell him eventually, that it was no secret you were trying to keep. But it was late, and you needed to sleep. His face softened, accepting.

“Never mind,” you said, shoulders slumping again. Valery nodded.

“Well, I’ll… go turn down the bed. I can take the couch, if-”

“Really?”

He scoffed. He didn’t know why he suggested that. No use in propriety now. To give you space, if you needed it maybe? Or instinct. But then, you did agree to come back with him for a reason. He smiled, sorry, and gestured over his shoulder,

“Just down the hall, on the right. I’ll be there in a moment.”

You smiled back, and drowsily walked up, kissing him gently on the cheek before heading down the hall.

Valery headed to the kitchen. Polina was waiting for him, patiently impatient. He fed her what was left of the can of wet food he’d opened earlier for her, finally able to pet her a few times himself while she ate. Then, got a glass of water. It was odd, though. The pad of footsteps down the hall, the click of the lights, on, then off again. The flush of the toilet, drowned by the run of the sink. All new to him, and yet… familiar. Like you’d always been there. He smiled, sipping, before heading toward the bedroom.

He found you sprawled over his sheets, covers against your feet. The bed suddenly looked… so much smaller than he’d ever felt it was.

“I understand why you offered to take the couch now.” you quipped drowsily. He smiled, leaning cattily himself against the door frame.

“I still can.”

“No. We’ll just have to stay close is all…” you smiled suggestively, sending heat yet again to his cheeks.

“Besides, that thing looks horrifically uncomfortable, lovely as it is.”

Now at that, he laughed. The pretty embroidery of the deer is the only thing that made it worth keeping, in truth. He hadn’t the heart to get rid of it, though he never used it. Polina would disagree with him, though, he’s sure.

“It is,” he agreed.

And though the matter was settled, he hesitated to move. He felt almost a stranger in this place, with you there. He felt, still, like an interloper somehow. Like he didn’t want to intrude.

“Well? What are you waiting for? Come to bed, Valery.”

That summoned him forward. He sat on the edge of the bed, and began to undress. Shoes first, then suspenders, belt, and slacks. His shirt and tie followed, he didn’t even bother to set any of these on the chair by his wardrobe, tossing them all to the floor as he shucked them off.

And as he finished, he felt the little tickle of your fingers against his back, still in his undershirt, which had ridden up from his boxers as he moved. He almost jumped, if his head hadn’t suddenly started feeling heavy with sleep, and your fingers stretching into a whole palm. He looked over his shoulder, finding you admiring him, what little there was to admire, though your touch told him otherwise. But how much more there was to admire in you, he thought…

He turned fully, then, and lay down facing you. A rough sigh escaped his lips as he hit the pillow, blinking long in relief. His eyes opened once again at the sound of a faint giggle beside him, to find your hands reaching out to his face, he thought, to touch him. But instead, you slid the glasses off his face. He shed a sweet gap-toothed grin.

“I’m more tired than I thought,” he commented, as you smiled sleepily in turn, leaning back to lazily place his glasses on the night stand behind you before facing him again.

“You always look tired,” you said as you settled, cheek dipping into the plush pillow that supported your head. Finally, you said something about that wistful look he’d bore since you arrived, the one that still graced his face now. Your hand rubbed over his arm as you asked.

“What are you thinking?”

He sighed at the contact, sinking into the plush of the sheets himself.

“That this feels…”

He had a word. One he couldn’t get out of his head the whole way home. There must be a better one, he thought, and he’d searched his vocabulary for one. But turning up nothing else, he spoke it at last.

“Normal.”

You considered it, eyes fluttering shut, inching closer to sleep yourself.

“Then maybe it should be,” you uttered, and he hummed.

He agreed.

You wrapped your arms around him then, drawing him closer, and he felt his own hands tangling into comfortable places he found on instinct. Like roots mingling with the roots.

“Rest now, Valera moya,” you whispered your final word.

And thankfully, happily, with you at his side, and for the first time in weeks, he did.

STAYING THE NIGHT PROMPTS

#GOOD GOD THIS THING IS LONG #the longest proper prose thing I've ever published to date. you're welcome #valery legasov x reader #chernobyl hbo #jared harris #only he could do this to me like good christ #egg's fics #ask games

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quidfree · 1 year ago

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Hi first off I wanted to say I fucking love your writing, you've seriously got a beautiful style and you seem to understand tsh characters so damn well it's crazy. Second I have four very important questions for you if you wouldn't mind

1. in your mind/ in your tsh fics does francis have long/longish hair? I know it said in the book he has a short mop of hair or whatever but I really don't like that so in my mind he grew it out after Hampden or something.

2. in sober ii when Richard says " I haven't- since you" before Francis kisses him does he mean he hasn't fucked since Francis committed or he hasn't been with a man since francis in college? this doesn't actually matter but I'm curious

3. this is a bit more broad but I wanted to know what you thought about the Theo's three big romantic relationships in tgf (kitsey, Pippa, Boris)

4. have you read the little friend? did you like it? coz everyone seems to hate it but it was the first Donna tartt I read and I had me completely hooked for weeks. I literally re read it constantly and when I finished I would just start it over. I especially liked the dynamics with the ratliff family and ended up feeling kind of attached to Danny even if he obviously wasn't a great person. (I didn't like the amount of slurs she used in it though but that's a whole other topic)

sorry this is very long but I'd like to hear your thoughts on this

well first off thank you very much. i love when characters feel true to the source material. and i love questions like these, whether fic based or otherwise!

francis to me doesn't have a shoulder length mane or whatever (he's too conservative for that) but i also agree he wouldn't just have short hair like the other guys. i see him w a sort of bob-length situation- long enough to tuck behind the ears and such. i saw a rich guy in a paris gay bar once who was extremely over-dressed w a suit jacket hanging like a cape over his shoulders complaining to his friends about the venue and he looked exactly like what i picture francis as but unfortunately i can't airdrop my memory of this man to anyone so you'll just have to take my word for it.

richard's just saying he's never been w another guy. which i can't imagine he would have been. he's lucky francis has a long history of sleeping w straight guys bc honestly...

oh that is a big one. i think id need to do a separate post it so lmk if you want it. in the meantime more on the characters themselves... kitsey to me is an undersung hero like i love the character so much. she's so interesting and deeply fucked up. in her own mercenary way she is being so much realer w theo than he gives her credit for bc she sees thru the act of normalcy he is clinging to, as an expert actress herself. pippa i also think is great altho i actually have less of a sense of who she is than w kitsey due to the tartt protagonist dehumanize-woman-ray at work; i really like the layers of her relationship to theo and the way we the audience can glimpse at her reality beneath it, her discomfort and her charm. like she does love him and they are brothersistersouls and she is actually fucked in ways that theo is without knowing it and sometimes not, but she is also like white-knuckling a shot at being Okay and trying from a safe distance to get theo in that kind of uncomfortable space too. and then boris obviously is the easy fan favourite bc there's just so much to him. he's deeply charismatic yes but he's also really interesting. in many ways he's a lot more grown up and realistic than theo, at every age, but he's still self-destructive, just more outwards than inwards, and i think while his lack of introspection saves him theo's inner agonies it also shuts him off to some level of profound codependent connection which he and theo r always tight-rope walking over.

have not read it, didn't know everyone hated it. i tend to have too long a to-read list to read multiple works by the same author in any kind of reasonable timeframe.

hope these thoughts were of interest.

#qui repond #qui parle #itsstrangeisntit #tsh #tgf #tartt protagonist brainrot #papenathy

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lagt-duck · 2 years ago

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I wanna do something silly and like

Explain the plushies in my room

So bed.

We got Kermit and Hamtaro: both were in the show business, nowadays they are kinda just retired and enjoy chilling

Then u have uuuh Christmas Donald, who is still in the show business, he is overworked and would just like some days to go out and fish with his nephews please

Then u have the children tm

Cupcake Pompompurin and my panda unicorn squishmallows : pompompurin also works but he isn't as overworked as like Donald

Then you have twitch streamer girl and her little brother squishmallows (the beluga is called Jaiden) and at the end you have the old father who looks very gruff but is actually a Sweetheart

His name is Fat shark, he costed me more then kermit

That is I bought him for 3€ while Kermit costed me only 1€

Hamtaro costed me 6€ because the guy who sold me wanted to get rid of it and his wife wasn't near

Then you have the shelves

As you can see at the bottom we have Boris and Sylvester the marmot who are probably having gay uncle conversations (they aren't married with each other)

Going up we have rat omens, and rat Bruno plush, who exists because i am broke and good at sewing

Made by yarn you can also see the frog and Jeremy the dinosaur who i am very proud of making

We then have the actual merch shelf

Butterfree was made by me, woobat is original.

The Oswald plushie is also original and i got it from Disneyland Paris!

We then have my tiny lion plushie Who i named Garibaldi, because one of his back legs is a lil shorter, and my friends that year kept singing how Garibaldi was wounded to the leg

And at last we have soldier. The duck. Who is a Tru trooper and deserve the world

Special mentions to the giant Eevee stuffed with polyester under my desk. His ears are floppy and he isn't great to hug

But he was won at one of those games in a park so i am happy with it

#lagt yells #my plushies #yes i love plushies #what about it

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bluepoodle7 · 7 months ago

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#TheIdeaFactory #TheIdeaFactoryMeaniesSeries1MattTheFatBatPlush #BatPlush #Plushies #PlushPals

This is a The Idea Factory Meanies Series 1 Matt The Fat Bat Plush and this is a very cute plush.

I like this plush's tongue out expression and derpy eyes.

The hang tag fell off from the previous owner but can easily be put back on.

This plush is 5 inches from the tip of the ear to the bottom of the plush.

This plush is lightly stuffed with beans or plastic pellets at the bottom of the plush and this plush perfectly palm shaped while also spherical friend shaped.

This plush has it's hang and tush tag but the hang tag fell off from the previous owner but keeping it in a mini envelope.

This plush is round and doesn't have a bat fullbody which is strange but unique that might have made this plush cheap to make.

The plush's eyes are plastic which is cool and this plush gives me Kirby vibes like this could have been a new pal to Kirby with a new ability.

I wish this company kept making plushies and I know they would make some cool modern ones that are creative.

This plush can wear both the toy glasses and I'm keeping this.

There is a mini keychain version of the first series of Meanies that were a 7 11 exclusive.

Images not mine but links are there.

Teenie Weenie MEANIES KEY CHAIN - MATT the fat bat nwt | eBay

1997-98 TEENY WEENIE MEANIES Keychain Set of 9- HURLEY, SPLAT, FI-DO, BORIS | eBay

RARE 69 TEENY WEENIE MEANIES KEYCHAINS W/STORE DISPLAY | #104493313 (worthpoint.com)

#The Idea Factory #The Idea Factory Meanies Series 1 Matt The Fat Bat Plush #Bat Plush #Plushies #Plush Pals

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reaper-bloodmoon · 9 months ago

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How Peter/Petunia Met Allison Angel And Tom Boris (Part 1)

{Note: Peter/Petunia uses both of his/her/their names whenever he/she/they identify as more nonbinary.}

[A dark grey truck is seen driving out to an abandoned studio in Toon Town, a landmark that had been vandalized by some punks for a very long time. An old toon dog/human hybrid who looks to be in their early 20s is in the driver's seat, having tasked themself with going into the studio and recovering anything from it that they could use in a classroom lesson. They were a teacher at Toon Town High for toon history, and so anything from the old studio would be useful, even if it was a damaged still.]

[Once arrived in the overgrown parking lot, the old toon person stopped their truck and turned it off, putting it in park. They get out of the driver's side door, tugging their coat over their torso, especially around their exposed skin below their skirt.]

Petunia: Fah! Hooo should've worn leggings, should've worn leggings!

[They run into the abandoned studio, breathing out. They then notice the studio is oddly warm despite it being supposedly abandoned for years on end.]

Peter: Huh....you'd think they wouldn't have a working heating system if this place has been abandoned for years on end.

[They take off their coat and hang it up on a convenient coat hanger nearby the entrance. They then start exploring and rummaging around the abandoned studio for anything they could use in their lessons when they spot an elevator at the end of the hall they're in. They perk up and run over to it. If the heating system was still working in this place, perhaps the electrical system was also working just fine?]

Petunia: Well, only one way to find out....

[They press the down button, the elevator making a dinging noise. They went into the elevator as soon as the doors opened. There had to be something below in their storage area, or whatever they had down there that could be useful during a lesson. Once they reached their destination, they came across an...exhibit? Well, exhibit-like area. They stepped out of the elevator, the first thing that caught their eyes was a statue of sorts of a human man with two banners behind it that said "Joey Drew" on them.]

Peter: The only studio I know that had an exhibit for "Joey Drew" is...wait, is this Arch Gate Studios?! How did this building even get to Toon Town!? Oh so many questions, so many answers needed! This is perfect, I could make an entire lesson on this studio alone! Oh oh, but maybe I should offer it as an after school thing, there's so much behind it's history and I don't think every one of my students would be interested...okay okay, focus love, focus!

[They patted themself on both cheeks as they continued through the exhibit while also rambling to themself. Once they came upon a door, they opened it up to reveal 6 empty pedestals, 3 on each side of a wall leading to a sort of machine that they didn't actually recognize. They then went around the machine, observing and poking at it.]

Petunia: I wonder if this thing even works anymore...perhaps it just produces ink to make new toons or is it something else?

[They look back to the empty pedestals, putting two and two together that they were somehow connected to the activation of the machine. Curiosity killed the cat, or in this case, toon dog person, as they went to find the items needed for the pedestals. A wrench, a book, an album, a gear, a Bendy plushie, and an ink jar. They placed them on their respective pedestals then went back over to the machine to look for a switch on it. A little noise was then made, their ears perking up, looking in the direction of said noise. There was a little, slightly rusty pipe switch nearby the pedestals on their right.]

Peter: Inconvenient much?

[They went back over to the pipe switch and pushed it to the opposite side, kick-starting the machine into producing ink...ink that wouldn't stop even though they tried to pull the switch back to stop the flooding.]

Petunia: Wait no no!

[They turned around and tried to rip open the door to the room, only to find it wouldn't unlock. And it's not like they could slip under the gap in the door by melting into a puddle, they would just get sucked into the ink that was nothing like the stuff their body was made up of.]

Peter: No no no no let me out! Let me ou-!

[That was their final scream before the ink fully pulled them inside. The ink itself tried to push itself into the toon dog person but found it couldn't, it couldn't even mold the toon dog person into something else. It eventually gave up and just spat them out into the world inside of it as is, frustrated by it's failed attempt to make the toon dog person truly apart of it. They gasped and coughed as they finally were somewhere solid. They struggled to get to their own two feet, grabbing onto an opened crate.]

Petunia: What....what the hell just happened to me??

[They then get tackled onto the ground by something small and aggressive. It was a Piper, a member of the Butcher Gang. Of course they didn't know that, all they really saw was a little monster randomly attacking them.]

Peter: Get off! Get off!! GET OFF!!!!

[They transformed into their "beast" form and smacked the little creature off of them into the wall, splattering them into bits....which just so happened to be nearby another toon person, or at least what looked like a toon person. More like a toon demon/human hybrid. They became flustered and went back to their normal form, approaching the toon demon/human hybrid.]

Petunia: I-I'm sorry, did I scare you? Ah, I'm Petunia....o-or Peter, whichever one is fine, my gender identity is more nonbinary today.

Allison Angel: ....No, you're fine, I just thought my husband was the only one who could go into a beast form. I'm Allison.

[Allison was surprisingly non-judgemental towards Petunia/Peter, which made their tail wag happily. Allison couldn't help the smile forming on her face as she saw their wagging tail, being reminded of their husband.]

Allison Angel: Well Petunia, welcome to the studio! You're pretty lucky you came out looking like that, most come back as searchers.

Peter: Was that the thing that attacked me?

Allison Angel: No that was a Piper, he's part of a gang so you gotta be careful.

Petunia: Right right...well I should mention that in the real world, I do look like this.

[Allison nearly went pale at that. So that meant....they were unaffected by the ink, which also meant they could help her and her husband like Henry and Audrey in the past...right?]

Allison Angel: That's actually a great thing to know, that means you're a "cycle breaker" in this world. You can help us!

Peter: By getting you and your husband out of this world of nightmares! But uh, that requires finding your husband and then getting out of here back the way I came in.

Allison Angel: That's not exactly what I meant-

Petunia: Love that is exactly what you meant and trust me, it is a lot better out there than in here.

Allison Angel: ....Okay yeah it is a nightmare in here but it's been years of me and my husband having to fight for our lives, I'm not sure I'll ever get used to not having to fight for my life all the time.

Peter: Trust me, you'll love living in Toon Town! Just lead the way to where your husband is and I'll work out in my mind how to get you both out while making sure that "ink" doesn't consume you.

Allison Angel: I...okay but stick close by in the shadows, alright?

Petunia: Alrighty Ally!

Allison Angel: .... Nuts I can't even get mad at that nickname that face is too cute-

[Allison tried to keep her blushing hidden as she leads Petunia/Peter towards the safehouse that her and her husband called home....]

#batim au #batdr au #batim allison angel au #batdr allison angel au #oc #writing

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latetothepartyandconfused · 1 year ago

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[ID: parts of poems and of lyrics to multiple songs . they go as: 1: Hello my old heart how have you been? Are you still there in my chest? I've been so worried, you've been so still barely beating at all

2: He was not dead yet, not exactly — parts of him were dead already, certainly other parts were still only waiting for something to happen, something grand, but it isn’t always about me, he keeps saying, though he’s talking about the only heart he knows — He could build a city. Has a certain capacity. There’s a niche in his chest where a heart would fit perfectly and he thinks if he could just maneuver one into place — well then, game over.

3: back when I used to wander, I was always out looking for signs but they were never there, so I'd pulled 'em from the air we all believe in something, but like you I can't say why It's just a whisper in our ear, or a bottle for our fears

4: and i am sorry, but Boris, I am leaving I'm not good for anyone here

5: I want to stand on the edge of the water and see horizons stretch on forever I want to know that there are lands not yet touched by human hands I want to be the one to find them I want to believe there's something left for me A new discovery waiting for me

6: No more shame, no more fear, no more dread No more shame, no more fear, no more dread

7: "And what about your friends? Don't you love 'em enough to stay?" And I say, "If I don't leave now, then I will never get away"

8: And the Earth looked at me and said "wasn't that fun?" And I replied "I am sorry if I hut anyone"

9: As the souls of the dead live for'er in my mind As I live all the years that they left me behind I"ll stay at the shore but still gaze at the sea I remember the fallen and they think of me for our souls in the ocean together will be

10: These days I barely wander, and I don't need no more of them signs I"ll just breathe in all that air and be happy that it's there

end ID]

but i never did quite forgive myself

on cwilbur and leaving the past behind you

hello my old heart, the oh hellos / road music, richard sicken / baptisms, radical face / i'm sorry boris, wilbur soot / new discovery, the crane wives / no more shame, no more fear, no more dread, ajj / maps, the front bottoms / when i was done dying, dan deacon / bones in the ocean, the longest johns / baptisms, radical face

#dsmp #c!wilbur

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theydonthavenames · 2 years ago

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Wille's arc appreciation post

I find it truly amazing how much Wille has grown and changed in season 2. At the beginning he was the same dramatic, hurt, chaotic, selfish, whingy (very affectionately) teenager prince we knew from season 1. He wanted Simon back badly, but he didn't have a clue how to win him back. But reality hit him in the face- Simon is still mad and he's actually trying to move on dating someone else- and with a *little* help of the biggest star of S2, Boris the Birkenstock Sossen ™️ he's gone so far and almost became a brand new person. There are a few scenes in the second half of the season where his decisions made me really proud of him. It's gonna be long, bare with!

I think the bravest thing Wille did this season was letting Simon go in ep 4. We of course knew he was so wrong, but Wille truly believed Simon doesn't love him anymore. He didn't see all of Simon's yearning, he didn't know Simon wrote him a love song. In Wille's eyes Simon trying to move on with Marcus and as much as it hurt, he finally accepted it. I think this was the most mature decision he's made this season, and I don't know what sort of strength one must have to let the love of his life go- I was lucky enough I never had to do that- I can't even imagine how much it hurt Wille. But he did it out of love and respect to Simon. He felt broken and hopeless too, but I believe Wille's primal reasoning here was that he loves Simon so much he just wants him to be happy, with or without him. Luckily the story didn't continue that way and it literally took Simon minutes to pull Wille back.

This one surprised me. When Simon decides to report August to the police, despite the potential damage it might have on his own and Wille's life, Wille just respects it. He told Simon he was scared, but he didn't try to change his mind. Season 1 Wille would loose his marbles in the same situation. He would probably end up shouting at Simon and calling him selfish (like he did in S1 piano room fight- which I expected). But S2 Wille trusts Simon's judgement and lets him decide for himself. Deep down he knows it's the right thing to do. And another beautiful thing that happened during this scene is Wille taking initiative to comfort Simon and hugging him. He showed Simon he supports his decision and will be there for him, no matter the consequences.

In this beautiful little scene Wille casually turns up at Simon's house to let him know he can give up the throne for him. First of all, he is so calm and collected, and he doesn't even ask for privacy, he lets Ayub and Rosh listen to their conversation- he knows they would find out anyway, but also he's not embarrassed to show his true feelings for Simon in front of his friends (and also I'm glad they were there because they needed to hear it too). But the best thing that Wille does here, after dropping the bombshell on Simon, he just walks away. He allows Simon space and time for the news to sink in and doesn't demand any answers, not even a comment. He really shows how much he starts to empathize with Simon- he must have realised it will hit Simon like a train, but he lets Simon deal with it on his own terms. S1 Wille would be dying to know what Simon thinks and he would not hesitate to ask. S2 Wille just walks away. So mature for a 16 year old.

And the final scene, my beloved. That 'I love you' whispered in his ear in dark Hillerska corridor worked wonders. The courage he's shown to admit it was him was unreal. But also it proves the amount of love he's got for Simon, that he doesn't want him having to compromise and keeping them as secret. He's grown to understand lies and secrets were not getting them anywhere. He was ready to break that circle and finally be true to his own feelings. Such a brave, beautiful moment, I'm so happy and proud he did that. They both deserved this ending, Wille and Simon.

Side note finally, we now know there is this deleted scene when Wille texts Simon at the end of ep 6, when everything is in pieces again and it almost feels like Wilmon is back to square one. As sweet as the scene is, I'm really glad that they didn't include it in the final cut, because it shows that after Sara's betrayal when Simon is ultimately sad, mad, hurt to the point of rejecting Wille, he just gives him much needed space. He doesn't try to run after him, text him, reach out, I think Wille understood that Simon needed the space and time to think things through. And that paid back beautifully. In my head, this scene doesn't exist.

Wille's gone a long way in season 2. His arc is beautifully written and makes me a proud mum 🥲 I can't wait to see him grow even more in next season- I have no doubt he will.

#that turned out long ooops #thanks to everyone who got till the end #prince wilhelms arc #young royals analysis #young royals #wilmon #prince wilhelm #simon eriksson

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thewild--flower · 2 years ago

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[Translation] Heart no Kuni no Alice Light Novel ~Sunny Day Sunday~ - Chapter 1

Author: Yukiko Uozumi

Original Work: Quin Rose

Previous chapter - Introduction

~Chapter 1 - Lost Girl~

A cold personality, gloomy, and without charm.

That was Alice Liddell's objective evaluation of herself.

Though one might suppose she was a quiet person because she was gloomy, it was the opposite.

She plainly said the things she wanted to, and if it was something she could not agree with, even if it was someone who was her superior, she would not yield. From her homeroom teacher's point of view she was a student that was rather difficult to deal with.

However, ever since Alice had become lost in this world that was called ‘the Country of Hearts’, she had come to learn of the existence of countless other ‘problem children’, compared to whom she was quite normal. No, she had a feeling that comparing the world where she had been born and raised to this one was a mistake in and of itself.

‘This is for you.’

‘?’

The pink-coloured cat— or more precisely, the man with pink-coloured ears and tail, casually handed something to Alice.

It was a profoundly cold sensation. For a moment, Alice wasn’t able to judge what it was. It didn’t appear to be a toy, but was unexpectedly rather heavy.

‘What is this?’

‘What do you mean what is it? It’s a gun. A gun.’ He answered as if it was no big deal.

‘You don’t have a gun, do you? I have lots, so I’ll give you one. They’re pretty useful.’

‘I-I don’t need it!’

Alice returned the thing she had been handed, almost throwing it back.

Guns were no joking matter.

To Alice, a gun wasn’t a convenient item that was useful for her everyday life, but a dangerous weapon, nothing more, nothing less.

‘Hey, why did you give it back?! This isn’t a toy, but the real thing, you know?’

‘That’s why I gave it back!’

Alice protested, while slowly backing away.

‘I don’t need a gun. What would happen if I used it and killed someone!?’

‘? Nothing would happen. Guns are supposed to be used for killing people.’

Seeing Alice’s reaction, he— Boris, shrugged his shoulders as if puzzled.

That’s right. Of course. Apparently, in this world, the value of life was exceedingly low, and criminal behaviours were seemingly a widespread everyday occurrence. It was to be expected that he would carry guns, being that law and order was so bad here not even murder would be charged as a crime.

Compared to the world that Alice had been raised in, this was a world where there was a clear difference in the definition of common sense— that was the Country of Hearts.

Here, the concept of time was vague, daytime, evening and night all arrived at random, there was no extreme weather, nor did the seasons change. She wondered how much time had passed since she had come to live in this wonderland that did not appear on any map.

Although she ‘lived here’, it wasn’t as if staying was something Alice had decided herself.

More accurately, Alice had been carried away here against her will. By the man with the rabbit ears growing out of his head, Peter White.

Even now she clearly remembered it. It had been a Sunday afternoon, and she had been in the middle of enjoying the usual picnic with her older sister Lorina in the garden at their house.

As if he had been waiting for the moment Lorina left her seat, Peter had suddenly appeared and gallantly swept her up, diving away with her into a large hole that led to another world. And thus, in the place she had arrived at— Alice, who had been tossed out into the Country of Hearts, with no way to return to her original world, had somehow found a place to reside, and spent her days to reach this current point in time.

However, even now Alice wasn’t sure what kind of world this was, nor for what reason she had been brought here.

For all that she did not know, she had come up with a single theory.

In short, everything that was happening was a ‘dream’, and in reality she was asleep. If that was the case, without thinking too hard about this or that, it was likely best for her to enjoy the present and take it all as a dream.

If she didn’t think of it this way, it didn’t seem likely she would be able to maintain her sanity. Alice’s mind wasn’t so flexible as to be able to simply accept as reality the existence of humans with things like cat or rabbit ears.

‘—And, this is the safety. If you don’t release it, the bullets won’t come out, so be careful. After that, you just need to pull the trigger. Alright? Simple, isn’t it?’

Ignoring Alice’s rejection of guns, Boris continued his lecture.

Handling the dangerous object, his golden eyes sparkled like a child with a favourite toy in front of him.

Though he had a fairytale-like appearance with his cat ears and pink colouring, the truth was he was a hardcore gun fanatic.

Boris Airay. Also known as the ‘Cheshire Cat’, he was a freeloader here at the amusement park. In the Country of Hearts, the three powers,‘The Amusement Park’, ‘Heart Castle’ and ‘Hatter’s Mansion’ were constantly warring over territory. At present, though Alice was staying at Heart Castle, she was just a freeloader, so territorial disputes were nothing more than someone else’s problem. She freely came and went through each area and had built a circle of acquaintances, unlimited by friend or foe.

Both Boris and the amusement park’s owner Gowland welcomed her each time she came to have some fun. Even if she didn’t go to the effort of riding the jet coaster, the go karts, or the ferris wheel, she still enjoyed herself just having easygoing conversations with them like this. To be able to think this way was proof of how accustomed to this world Alice had become.

‘.....Sorry, but I still think I’ll pass. I don’t think guns are something I can use, and if possible I’d prefer not to carry one. I don’t feel as if I could relax if I did.’

Alice spoke gently to Boris who was still recommending the gun to her.

‘Eh-? It’d be more anxiety-inducing not carrying one. You’re really braver than you look. Walking around this country unarmed, it’s like you’ve got a death wish.'

‘I-I don’t want to die either. But what I can’t do, I can’t do, is what I’m saying. Even if I did carry one, it’s meaningless if I don’t intend to use it.’

She was well aware that her way of thinking was naive. In this world with neither law nor police, she couldn’t complain to anyone even if she did end up getting killed. She was the one that had to protect herself. Or—.

‘Or could it be that you have someone doing a good job protecting you?’

Boris narrowed his eyes, and bit-by-bit drew his face closer to hers.

This friendly cat was always freely getting close to her. Even if they were inside the park, it was still a place where a fair amount of people passed by. But as if he didn’t care that people might see, while swinging his long tail, he curled a lock of Alice’s hair around his index finger.

‘Oh yeah, there’s a knight at Heart Castle, isn’t there? It couldn’t be that he’s your knight in shining armor, is he?’

‘Hah? By knight….. You don’t mean Ace, do you?’

She thought of the man in the long red coat, with his suspiciously refreshing smile.

As Boris had said, there was a knight at Heart Castle, where she was staying. His name was Ace.

Though he held a high rank as a military leader because of his physical prowess, she wasn’t sure if he was someone to be relied on, and in any case was a man who was difficult to get a read on.

‘? He’s not?’

‘Of course he isn’t! I don’t know why you’d even bring Ace’s name into this. That guy has nothing to do with me. In the first place, before asking whether he’s protecting me or not, I hardly ever even see him at the castle.’

One of the reasons why he was unreliable, was that he had the characteristics of someone born without a sense of direction. It was already beyond the level of someone who merely couldn’t read a map. He could easily spend thirty hours getting to a place that would take a normal person an hour. At any rate, the current state of things was, he got lost even at the castle where he supposedly lived, unable to even reach his own room.

—Surprised he can even call himself a knight like that. She honestly was fed up with this world.

Even though she was a freeloader, Alice was severe in her assessment of the people she was staying with. Though she didn’t really see the aforementioned wandering man often enough to be able to call him someone she lived with.

‘Hmm, so not the knight then.’

Boris raised an eyebrow, and continued staring at Alice.

‘If that's the case, what about the Prime Minister?’

‘Huh?’

‘I’m asking you if your favourite is the Prime Minister, then.’

‘..................Huh?’

Alice doubted her ears.

Prime Minister. In other words, the Right Honourable Prime Minister of Heart Castle, she thought he had to mean Peter White. Other than him, she didn’t know of any other person that was called Prime Minister.

‘Favourite….. Wait a moment. Why are we talking about this?’

‘Why are you so bothered? Oh, don’t tell me it was a bulls eye? Uwah…… for real?’

‘No!’

She raised her voice and denied it. For some reason she didn’t quite understand, she had a feeling this was a scenario she absolutely had to deny.

‘I’m not sure what you’ve misunderstood here, but Peter is…… that man is the last person on earth that would ever be my favourite.'

Alice spoke in a low voice, her fists clenched. As if sensing her quiet anger, Boris' face stiffened and he gingerly drew back.

Peter White. The rabbit man with a predisposition for stalking. He should surely never be forgiven for the sin of rudely intruding that peaceful Sunday afternoon.

It was a strange thing, even in a dream, she could get angry, feel lonely and become irritated. In a world with no sense of reality, her emotions alone felt real.

Heart Castle, the place where Alice was currently staying, was one of three powers in the Country of Hearts.

The castle with its overly vivid pink and red colour scheme, striking architectural style and grand scale, exerted a dominating and eccentric presence even amongst other structures in the country.

On the castle grounds, red roses bloomed in profusion, forming an enormous labyrinth where the figure of the ruler of the castle, the Queen of Hearts Vivaldi, could be seen enjoying a stroll in the evenings. Though she was well known for being beautiful and cruel, for some reason it seemed she had taken a liking to Alice, and because of that her life at the castle was safe and without any discomfort, there ought not to have been any cause for dissatisfaction…… with one exception.

'Welcome back, my dear Alice!'

The moment she entered the castle, a high pitched voice called Alice's name.

Faster than she could prepare herself, a rabbit man wearing round glasses clung onto her. Such was his enthusiasm, a 'Guhaa-' escaped from her throat as she had the breath knocked out of her.

'Aah, I missed you……! I missed you, Alice! While we were apart, I was so lonely I was about to lose my mind. What a wicked woman you are, truly!'

'.......Your mind's been lost right from the start.'

She vigorously tried to push away his face as it nuzzled her cheek.

However, he did not draw back. No matter how hard she tried to resist, he hugged her tightly. Though she asked for help with her eyes from the soldiers that were nearby, there was no way they would be able to stop the rampage of his Excellency the Prime Minister, and they only looked on as if they felt sorry for her.

Silver hair and red eyes. A checkered suit and a pocket watch. And lastly, white rabbit ears. At a glance his looks were not normal, and as one would expect, he was not normal on the inside either.

'Peter…… I've been telling you from the beginning, don't hang onto me like this. You're being a nuisance. Think about where we are a little.'

Peter White's excessive displays of love were a source of distress for Alice. Clinging onto her was an everyday occurrence, each time he opened his mouth he would repeatedly say, 'I love you', and no matter where she was he would try to follow. There was no other word but abnormal to describe the way he would immediately pull out his gun and try to shoot the soldiers out of jealousy, whenever they were standing around talking together.

If this had been the world that Alice had been raised in, he was the kind of person that ought to be arrested. However, in this world, he was one of a small number of influential people known as a 'role holder.' No matter who he kidnapped, killed or stalked, he was free to do as he wished, a person of high rank and of extremely bad character.

'To be bothered that other people might see, you're more shy than I thought.'

As Peter chuckled, he continued,

'It's alright, Alice. Come, let us flaunt our relationship to them all!'

'Kyaaah!'

Dangerously on the verge of being kissed, Alice swung her hand high.

It connected with Peter's right cheek with a splendid and satisfying thwack.

'Owch-! Y-you're so mean, what are you so embarrassed about?'

'I'm saying your existence itself is embarrassing…..!'

How was it this man was always only able to think of things in a way that was convenient to him?

While she was completely fed up, Peter directed a dreamy gaze towards her while holding his right cheek.

'Heheh….. but I understand, that impressive slap of yours is just another form of your love, is it not……?'

'Hah?'

'You know, don't they often say? Tough love. You're too embarrassed to put your love into words, so you try to express it through your actions, right? Isn't that so?'

He was completely nonsensical.

He had it so totally wrong, she wasn't even sure where to begin.

It was always like this with Peter. And on top of that, was his pushy and over-the-top way of communicating his love. Because there was not even a hint of the concept of 'playing games' in any of it, Alice also didn't hold back in showing her rejection, but still he displayed absolutely no signs of withdrawing. If anything, his lovey-dovey aura only grew all the stronger. Even when she insulted, punched, and kicked him down.

It was simply futile to try and argue reasonably with someone who did not understand common sense, and recently Alice had half given up. Even if she used up her energy trying to argue with him in a direct way, she had learnt that she wouldn't gain a single thing from it.

'I-I've had enough…… I'm tired, so I'm going to get some rest.'

Pressing her temples, Alice quickly tried to leave the scene.

'Are you returning to your room?' For some reason, Peter's voice sounded cheerful.

'I've been working too hard, I'm completely exhausted. The working environment at this castle is the worst. Her Majesty is always in a bad mood, and everytime Ace leaves for work he never comes back, my word, they're all a completely useless bunch.'

'Hey, why are you following me!?'

As Alice walked at a fast pace, Peter kept tailing after her. Unable to bear it, Alice broke into a run.

'I said, why are you following after me! Quit it!'

'Why you ask, isn't it because you're running? Why not return to your room a bit more slowly? I think you're needlessly tiring yourself.'

'I'm running because you're following me!'

In order to put more distance between them, Alice ran. She was good at foot races. The sound of their footsteps echoed across the lavish marble hallways. The soldiers doing their rounds, looking startled, opened a path for them, one after the other, as they ran by.

However, even then Peter kept pace with her.

'Hey, stop chasing after me! Hurry up and go back to work!'

'I don't care about work, they should just feed something so worthless to the pigs. There isn't a single more important thing in this world than spending time with you!'

'You just want to slack off from work!'

Stamp stamp stomp stomp, the two of them continued their close race. However, though Alice was extremely out of breath, Peter was smiling, completely unfazed, as he ran alongside her. It was almost like he was a dog running around the fields with his owner, simple-minded and happy. However, that certainly did not mean she felt like being affectionate towards him.

'What's wrong? Are you tired?'

'Of course I am. Sheesh, who's fault do you-......Hyaaah!'

Alice yelled out as her body was suddenly suspended in the air.

Peter was now holding her in his arms. In the posture of the so-called 'Princess Carry.'

'Wh-what do you think you're doing, you kidnapper! Pervert!'

'Ah, please don't thrash around too much. What would happen if you fell?'

'I wouldn't be in a position to fall if you hadn't picked me up! Hurry up and put me down!'

'But, you're tired, aren't you? Please rest at ease, I shall take responsibility and deliver you to your room. Heheh, I'm stronger than I look, aren't I?'

'"Strong", you say, how rude, I'm not even that heavy…….'

And at any rate even though he had told her to 'rest at ease' there was no way she could. She didn't think there was any situation more nerve wracking than having your stalker see you to your room.

—What on earth was wrong with this man?

Still being carried, Alice directed a gaze of censure at Peter.

Even now she didn't know what he was thinking. Though he had kidnapped her and brought her into this world, it was not as if he had demanded a ransom or hurt her. No matter how much time passed, he merely repeated words of love and didn't try to take any further action than that.

If he was a true stalker that wasn't after money or material goods, even then it didn't make any sense. After all, Alice had not once met Peter in the past, and she could not think of any reason why he would feel so strongly for her. It wasn't impossible that he had one-sidedly fallen in love with her at first sight somewhere, but she didn't think her appearance was so exceptional for that to be the case.

But even so, Peter persistently told Alice, 'I love you.'

She didn't understand it at all. It was perplexing. She had no choice but to take this inconsistency as part of the dream, but even then it didn’t sit well with her.

‘Hey….,’ Alice summoned up the courage to put the doubts she had had over and over into words. ‘Why do you like me so much? We’d never even met before, right? Aren’t you mistaking me for someone else?’

‘No. I’ve known you well for a long time.’

The red eyes behind the glasses narrowed.

Frustratingly, in inverse proportion to his personality, this man’s face, and only that, was rather good looking.

‘And you also know me very well, do you not? Our love has always been mutual.’

‘............’

Not only was he a stalker, but a complete fantasist as well. He was beyond help.

‘Listen, I don’t remember ever meeting you, or falling in love with you, either.’

Though she complained to him, Peter only smiled happily. Somehow, it seemed as if those long ears of his were unable to hear things that were not convenient to him.

Alice sighed.

—Why am I with this crazy guy, I wonder.

Peter was without a doubt a kidnapper, but he did not try to restrict Alice’s actions. He would look lonely whenever she went to leave, but he had never once tried to stop her by force.

In short, if Alice wanted to escape him, she could do so at any time. Rather, from the beginning, the one to choose Heart Castle as her place of residence had been Alice herself. Peter’s will had had nothing to do with it. Now that she thought about it, on top of pulling her into this world, he hadn’t particularly done anything to look after her afterwards. He had simply left her at the place called the Clock Tower, without any detailed explanation of this world or any assistance with daily necessities.

It had taken her this long, but now that Alice thought about it, for all he talked so much about loving a person, his lack of responsibility towards her was somewhat suspect.

She didn’t pretend to understand the thought processes of a criminal, but supposing it had been a crime of love, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for him to confine or keep her under his watch. If he did not, then kidnapping her was meaningless.

……And so, in the end, not sure what to do after having been halfway left to her own devices, she had chased after Peter, found out his location, and chosen to live under the same roof as him. Though she had been reluctant, she hadn't anywhere else to go, and she had thought that surely he would know the way for her to return to her original world.

However, even now she had been unable to return to her world, and was still stuck in limbo to this day.

If this was a dream, it was one that had gone on for far too long. It was a long running dream. She thought that it was about time it came to an end, but as of now there were no signs of it doing so. It was highly unlikely that the dream would continue on forever, but while it still did, it wasn’t like she didn’t worry over it.

‘......Peter.’

‘What is it, Alice?’

The rabbit man was dashing through the hallways, looking happy. There was no ill will in his smile. If it was just in appearance, he was a genuine pure white rabbit.

‘Why don’t you have any intention of returning me to my original world?’

It might be a stupid question to ask of a stalker. But she couldn’t give up. Because this wasn’t the world she should be living in.

‘Do you wish to return to your original world?’

‘Of course I do, I’d want to go back right now if I could!’

Alice retorted with raised eyebrows at his shameless question. But even then his expression remained unruffled.

‘Hmm~? That’s strange. But are you not always able to go back anytime you wish, if that is the case?’

‘......Hah?’

‘If you truly wish to return, you can go back at any time, Alice.’

‘Don’t mess with me. As if you can say that, when you were the one that kidnapped me.’

‘Dear me, I am not messing with you.’

Peter continued as if sulking.

‘To return, or not return. That is the game you are playing. It is all up to you. While it is unfortunate, there is nothing I can do.’

—What’s unfortunate is that head of his.

Even if he told her it was a game, Alice had no idea what that meant. She had no memory of becoming a player, and it was not as if she were holding any cards. However, the residents of this world uttered the words ‘game’ and ‘rules’ at every turn.

It was ridiculous to be playing a game without knowing the rules

She very much felt like complaining to someone. But then Alice suddenly realized. …..What did she used to do at times like these? Whenever she had a problem, did she ever talk to anyone about it? The faces of her female classmates vaguely floated into her mind, but there wasn’t anyone in particular that she thought of. As she thought about it more, Alice, with her cold personality and plain way of speaking had often ended up in the role of listener, rather than being the one confessing her troubles.

—But, I used to talk about a lot of things with my big sister.

Her older sister Lorina. Ever since her mother had passed away due to an illness, though her sister had taken on the clear role of guardian, she had always been a good sister and friend to her as well. In front of her sister, she was able to show an unreservedly relaxed expression that she wouldn’t normally show to her classmates.

However, as to whether she was able to speak to her sister about anything at all— the answer to that was no.

She loved her big sister, but all the more because she was her beloved big sister, there were things she couldn’t talk about in front of her.

Each time the number of such secrets increased, she would look lonely and often say to Alice,

‘You’re no longer a child. To have secrets you can’t tell your family means you must be pretty grown up now, right?'

‘......So then, why come to me?’

As he looked at Alice’s face, the man with eyes the colour of dusk was clearly displeased.

She was at the Clock Tower, located at the centre of the Country of Hearts. Its master, commonly known as the Clockmaker— Julius Monrey, gave her a brief glance, then returned his gaze to his work.

‘That's a good question, though I’m not quite sure myself……’

‘Hah? What’s that supposed to mean? I have no business with you. Hurry up and go back home.’

At this point, Alice understood his personality well enough that she did not feel hurt. For him, ‘Go home’ was just a set phrase that he would say in place of a greeting. Or, at least that was how Alice had decided to take it, when she would sometimes wander over to visit this obstinate and gloomy man at the Clock Tower. While knowing that he would curtly dismiss her whenever she showed her face.

‘I climbed all the way up here, you could at least show a little appreciation.’

‘No one asked you to come. If you need someone to talk to, there are plenty of people at Heart Castle. The lost knight, the heartless queen, the crazy rabbit, pick whichever one suits your fancy. Leave me out of this.’

He’d told her to choose one of them, but weren’t those rather slim pickings? She didn’t really want to say it of people who she was indebted to, but there wasn’t a single normal person among them.

‘......Hm, but Vivaldi was easier to talk to than I had first thought. She seems scary, but has an unexpected cute side to her.’

Alice said to herself.

There were times when the Queen of Hearts, who was famous for her highhandedness and cruelty, showed Alice a smile like that of a young girl. …..But then, there were also times when just a few seconds after showing her such a smile, she nonchalantly declared ‘executions’ for her servants.

Peter and Ace aside, she could somewhat be at ease with Vivaldi because she was a fellow woman as well. She was a proud and beautiful person. There were many things she admired about her, but when all was said and done, that brutal hobby of hers was far from normal.

Then, what did it mean to be “normal”? Amongst her few options, Alice thought it over.

At the very least, someone she could have a back and forth conversation with. Someone without animal ears coming out of their head, and who wasn’t always quickly drawing their gun every time she saw them.

Truth be told, there was barely anyone in Alice’s vicinity who met even those few modest conditions. It seemed like a lie, but all the more because it was the truth, she was at a loss.

‘What. Why are you staring so hard at me?’

‘No, it’s nothing.’

Nevertheless, it was still difficult to say outright that Julius was normal. He was only interested in his work, and spent his entire life holed up in the Clock Tower fixing clocks all day long, hardly ever making contact with other people. So complete was his concentration that even food and sleep were an afterthought.

However, as he did not lightly commit murder like the others, relatively speaking, he could be classified as normal.

To begin with, it couldn’t be said that Alice, who was well aware that she was a gloomy and contrary person, had the right to be criticizing other people’s personalities so minutely.

‘Hey, Julius. You’ve known Peter for a long time, right?’

Placing a chair near his workbench, she asked him the question head on.

‘Was he always like that?’

‘......What do you mean “like that”?’

‘I’m asking you if he was always annoying, one-sidedly stubborn and a stalker.’

‘He’s always been the first two, but I don’t know about being a stalker.’

Julius continued while inserting a screw into the clock he was working on.

‘Why are you asking me about Peter White? We’re just acquaintances, it is not as if we’re close.’

‘Of course I know that. Peter doesn’t seem like the type to have close friends.’

Like this, even while acting as if she was a bother, Julius would go along with Alice’s conversation. Fundamentally, he was a kind-hearted person.

‘If you already know, all the more reason not to ask me. ……Good grief, is there something wrong with you? Why would you come to me for love advice?’

‘......Wait a moment.’ Hearing words that she could not overlook, Alice directed a stern gaze towards Julius. ‘Did you just say “love advice”?’

‘? What about it?’

‘What do you mean “what about it”? Don’t get the wrong idea!’

She slammed her hands onto his desk with a bang and protested.

‘Why would I be asking for love advice…..?! And in the first place, who are you saying is in love with whom?!’

‘You sure are a noisy one. Of course I’m talking about you and Peter White. If you just want to brag about your love life, go somewhere else.’

‘~~~~~~~~~!’

Wondering exactly what he had heard to think she was after love advice, Alice was indignant. She was so indignant, she had trouble speaking. His interpretation was so completely the opposite of the actual situation, she felt like her head was spinning.

‘Julius…… it’s not as if you don’t know what that guy did to me, right? When I was first brought into this world, you saw part of what happened, didn’t you?’

Alice, having been pulled in by Peter into a hole that had suddenly appeared in the garden at her home, had come out onto the top level of this Clock Tower before she had even realized it. The one who had also happened to be there at the time was none other than Julius, the person currently sitting before her.

‘Just remembering it pisses me off. …..That jerk, making me drink that weird medicine……’

Shaking in anger, Alice gripped the vial she had tucked away in the pocket of her apron dress.

When they had arrived at the Clock Tower, the first thing Peter had done was make her drink the contents of the vial via mouth-to-mouth.

Mouth-to-mouth.

In other words, he had kissed her.

Of all things, it had not been enough for him to just kidnap her, he had also forcefully stolen her lips as well.

Alice had gotten her revenge for the time being, giving him a good punch in the face, but her anger had not yet completely abated.

What effect had the medicine had on her body, and for what objective had Peter made her drink it?

The answers to those questions were still a mystery, but after he had made her drink it through his mouth, he had definitely said,

‘This is the medicine of Heart. Now that you have drunk it, you must participate in the game. Until you have gathered enough hearts to fill the amount you have drunk, you will not be able to return to your original world.’

The details of the game he had proposed were certainly deranged, befitting of a deranged rabbit. Was there anyone alive who would simply agree and answer, ‘Why sure I will!’ when ordered to ‘Drink the medicine of hearts in the Country of Hearts and gather hearts’?

‘............’

‘What’s with you since just now? Stop looking at a person as if you’re holding a grudge.’

‘It’s not “as if”, I really am holding a grudge,’ Alice immediately snapped back. ‘.....When Peter forced his kiss on me, you were right there but didn’t do anything to stop him. You’re terrible.’

‘Wha-……you’re still holding something like that against me?’

Julius sighed with a worn out expression on his face.

Alice knew all too well that her resentment was unjustified. It was Peter who was at fault, and there was no wrongdoing on Julius’ part. It was just that since long ago and even now, he had decided that he would remain a bystander.

‘I told you before. I have no interest in the relationship between you and the White Rabbit. Don’t hold a grudge against me, but the turn of events that led you to be loved by such a troublesome man.’

As she thought he might, he sharply detached himself from the situation.

Julius’ stance on the topic would not waver. Despite the Clock Tower’s position in the center of the Country of Hearts, he did not involve himself at all in the territorial disputes. With the approach of maintaining his independence by not making himself anyone’s ally, not pandering to others was Julius’s way of life.

It wasn’t quite possible to say the Tower was a complete safe zone, but in this place, time passed more quietly and peacefully than anywhere else. That was likely the reason she kept coming here, undiscouraged by the harshness of its master.

‘You’re still the same as ever, Julius. But I feel relieved.’

Shrugging her shoulders, Alice smiled.

Being pushed away made her feel at ease. This kind of treatment suited her just fine.

Alice knew she didn’t have the kind of personality people found easy to like. In the real world she thought her personality was almost the ruin of her, always somehow or other causing strife in her personal relationships.

However in this world everyone was kind to Alice, and held unconditional good will towards her. She couldn't help but feel a sense of unease at an environment that was so excessively convenient for her. Even though it was a dream…… No, all the more because it was a dream, it was futile. Perhaps it was like this because deep within her unconscious mind, she wanted to be loved by everyone.

A personality that is beloved doesn't suit me. I'm different from my big sister.

Even if I were upside down, I can't become a pure person like my sister. And so for now, she didn't need to be loved by anyone. Like or dislike, a crush or love, for the time being, she wanted to live at a distance from such emotions.

'You're really a strange one. The Castle or the Amusement Park must be much more fun for you than a gloomy place like this.'

Julius murmured while looking slightly fed up. His seemingly fussy look softened a little.

'.....But, don't get used to this place. That is, if a part of you still wishes to return home.'

After saying this, he at last closed his mouth and ceased to speak.

Since Julius was now fully immersed in his work, Alice had no choice but to leave the Tower.

The day time period was always good weather. It was never windy, and the sun equally blessed the trees and flowers with its light. It wasn't just during the day, this world's weather always maintained a comfortable temperature, neither too hot nor too cold.

As Alice came out of a path from the forest, which twinkled with the light of the sun spilling through the gaps in the trees, she could hear pleasant music.

As if lured by the sound, her footsteps naturally started to head towards the Amusement Park. The area around the colourful gates was bustling with families and couples. It did not very much look like a place that was part of the territorial wars, but rather a place that looked as if it should be called the picture of peace.

—She didn’t really feel like visiting the amusement park right now, though.

She didn’t necessarily want to bask in the fairytale-like atmosphere of the place, nor did she particularly feel like forgetting her troubles by screaming it out on one of the thrill rides. She simply did not want to return to Heart Castle just yet. Having left the Clock Tower, she had walked on as if to avoid the Castle and its surrounds, which meant she would reach either the territory of Hatter’s Mansion or the Amusement Park eventually.

Alice took out a single ticket from inside her pocket.

It was a visitor’s passport that she had received from Gowland, the park’s owner, some time ago. Not only was she able to enter the park for free, it seemed as if having it allowed her to skip the queues and enjoy any of the attractions whenever she wanted.

—Gowland. That’s right, Gowland.

His real name was Mary Gowland. It truly was an absurd name, however he was one of the people in this world who could just barely be classified as normal.

He was mild-mannered, friendly and helpful. At any rate, he was someone capable enough to serve as owner of the Amusement Park. Unlike a certain Clockmaker, he had a lively disposition for good customer service— although at times he was a little too lively, destroying people’s eardrums with one of the destructively godawful violin performances he was so proud of.

Nonetheless, at his core, he was a good person.

And, most importantly, he didn’t have rabbit ears growing out of the top of his head, and wasn't a stalker. The fact that she was at the point where if someone could clear just those conditions, she would think of them as mostly normal, meant Alice’s standards for what was "normal" had grown quite slack.

‘Welcome, Lady Alice!’

The female employee at the gate called out to her cheerfully. Having visited the Park many times now, she and the people working here had become well acquainted.

‘Hello. Hey, is Gowland here?’

Right now, Alice really, really wanted to have a conversation with someone normal. She wanted to get normal advice from a normal person, and arrive at a normal conclusion.

Whether she had sensed Alice’s modest wish or not, the employee gave an exemplary customer service smile and merrily replied, ‘Yes, of course!’

‘If you mean the owner, then yes of course, he is here~!’

‘Really? I’m glad.’

‘Yes, he’s right over there! See!’

By chance, Gowland was there, just over at the place she was pointing at.

Delighted at her good fortune, Alice went to run over to him,

‘Gowlan-…..’

She started to call out to him, but then her footsteps stopped.

Gowland was definitely there. However, he was not smiling his usual kind smile. The seemingly composed gaze behind his glasses shone with a dangerous light and his brow was furrowed grimly. His tall and burly figure, which stood out because of the cheerful-looking suit with a motif of musical notes and rocking horses he was wearing, emanated a clearly murderous aura.

‘That bastard…… I’m gonna kill him……’

Alice felt a chill down her spine at hearing such a bloodthirsty sentence.

His figure as he paced back and forth carrying a large rifle was madness personified. Children who sensed this alarming atmosphere began to cry one after the other. Of course, anyone who saw the normally good-natured Amusement Park owner marching about with a face like a demon would want to cry, and to run away. Needless to say, that included Alice as well.

‘......Where did he run off to, that blasted cat! I’m gonna catch him and turn him into cat stew!’

With a man who was currently in a state that was difficult to call ‘normal’ before her, Alice slowly began to back away.

—Ah, that’s right. I forgot. Gowland was this kind of guy.

He was a good person. That was without a doubt. However, for all that he was normally a good guy, his reaction when someone incurred his wrath was far too extreme. The moment he snapped it was over, heedless of the safety of the park’s visitors and employees, he would start recklessly firing his rifle all over the place. Nonetheless, his anger did not subside so easily.

‘Looks like it’s bad timing~! My condolences!’

The employee brightly apologized. For her, it must have been a sight she was used to seeing, but Alice couldn’t yet quite view it so philosophically. She was simply scared.

‘I-I think I might go home after all-......’

—Bang, bang!

‘Kyaaaaaah!’

Hearing gunfire, Alice instantly dropped to the ground and took cover.

A billboard painted with a picture of a clown was mercilessly blasted into the air. The gunfire did not stop there, and all kinds of things, from colourful flowers in the flower beds, balloons, and the glass in the buildings’ windows got destroyed one after the other. The sound of screaming grew louder as the smell of gunpowder in the air grew thicker.

‘Come out, Boris! I won’t forgive you this time! I’m gonna kill you!’

Somehow or other, it seemed as if he was hunting for Boris.

As she was coldly thinking well, in that case it would be nice if he would turn up as soon as possible then so that things would settle down here,

‘Sheesh, he really needs to cut it out. What a pain in the ass.’

‘Yeah, you’re right,’ while nodding in agreement, Alice looked at the man next to her and then her eyes widened.

‘B-Boris!?’

Before she had noticed it, a cat man with pink ears was beside her. As far as Alice knew, there weren’t any other pink-eared cat men other than Boris. And speaking of Boris, he was currently a wanted man.

‘W-wait a minute, Boris…… What do you think you’re doing here?!’

‘What do you mean “what”? Something wrong with me being here? This is where I live, y'know, more or less.’

Boris answered her question somewhat sulkily.

There was nothing wrong with it. There was certainly nothing wrong with him being there, but having him next to her was rather inconvenient. She had a feeling her chances of getting mixed up in something were now very high.

‘By the way, could it be you came here to see me?’

‘Hah?’

‘Truth is, I’ve actually been wanting to see you as well recently.’

‘I-is that so. But, um……’

‘—Boris.’

Feeling a sharp gaze, Alice nervously turned to face the direction it came from.

The thin lenses of his glasses glinted. It was the moment a hunter emitting an aura of bloodlust spotted his prey. His rifle was pointed straight at Boris.

‘You bastard….. How dare you wreck my brand new attraction…..’

‘Uwah, this ain’t good.’

Boris, who had noticed Gowland, uncomfortably shrugged his shoulders.

‘A-Anyway, I didn’t really break it, ya know? That go-kart was so slow, it was totally boring. So I just played around with it a little. I think you should be thanking me, actually.’

‘You turned ten of them into scrap, and you want me to thank you…..?’

Bang bang bang!

Without a moment to spare, the sound of a gunshot reverberated. A bullet passed by right next to where Alice was.

‘Eek…….!’

‘Don’t shoot so suddenly old man! It’s dangerous, ya know?’

‘I am not an old man!’

An additional shot from Gowland’s rifle went off. As Boris contorted his body to avoid the bullet in a way that didn’t seem possible,

‘I call it like I see it. Sheesh, that’s what I hate about old timers, the more decrepit they get the less endurance they have!’

‘All right, you’ve got guts I’ll give you that…… So how about I close that mouth of yours for good!’

At Boris’ words, far from subsiding, it looked as if Gowland’s anger had reached its peak. And as she looked on, dumbfounded, someone grabbed her arm.

‘What are you spacing out for? Come on, let’s leave that old man behind and make a run for it.’

‘Huh? H-hey!’

His pink tail wiggled as it swayed as if in challenge. The chief culprit in stoking Gowland’s anger ran away, forcibly taking Alice with him.

‘—Haah. I think we’ll be safe here now, Alice.’

As they came up towards a ferris wheel within the Park, Boris turned around and smiled proudly.

‘Not even the old man will chase us all the way here. At his age, when it comes to physical strength, there’s no way I would lo-......’

‘Why did you have to get me involved in this?!’

Bam, Alice directed a no-holds-barred punch towards his pink head. Because her attack was so sudden, Boris screamed, ‘Ouch!’ and held his head in his arms.

‘Just a little longer and I could have been killed! You and Gowland can fight all you want, but don’t cause trouble for other people. If you’re gonna fight, go do it out in the middle of the desert or something!’

‘Owie ouch…… Don’t be so angry.’

Without looking particularly ashamed, Boris scratched his head.

‘That old man isn’t an idiot, he wouldn’t let any bullets hit you. When he snaps he’s all over the place, but he never loses himself to the point that he’d hurt an Outsider like you. So you don’t need to worry, it’ll be alright.’

‘It definitely didn’t feel as if I was “all right” though……’

No matter how good of a person Gowland was, she didn’t plan on being so naive as to completely trust someone she had not known for that long a time. There was still a pretty good chance she could be hit by a stray bullet.

‘And also, stop calling me an “Outsider.” I don’t like it.’

‘?’

‘I’m saying that I have a perfectly good name, “Alice Liddell.” Are you listening?’

‘Ow ow ow ow owwww!’

This time she had pulled hard on his cat ears. She had been so scared just now. She wanted to counter-attack by having him take at least this much in punishment.

‘A-alright, I get it! I’ll call you by your name. I won’t call you an Outsider. Happy now?’

‘I’m glad you understand,’ she said and quickly let go of his ears. ‘I certainly am an Outsider, but being stereotyped like that makes me mad. Feels like I’m being discriminated against somehow.’

“Outsider” was a word that identified those who were visitors from another world such as Alice.

According to Gowland, such extremely rare uninvited guests became lost in this world. In short, from their point of view, Alice was an “Outsider.” In that sense, being called one was not incorrect, however, for someone like her who had been kidnapped here against her will, she was a little reluctant to accept such a name.

‘Discrimination, huh……’

Boris sat down on a nearby bench, and the corners of his mouth lifted a little.

‘So by that you mean, you’ve gotten pretty used to this world, then?’

‘Hah?’

‘But I’m right, aren’t I? You don’t want to be discriminated against. Doesn’t that mean you want to be treated as a resident of this world?’

The cat with a faint smile on his face, spoke those words, somehow full of confidence.

Obviously, Alice could not agree with his opinion whatsoever. She sighed deeply and sat down next to Boris.

‘Why would you think that?’

‘Eh, so I’m wrong?’

‘Of course. ……I’ve certainly grown used to living in this world. I’ve made a lot of acquaintances, and the people at the Castle treat me well. But that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ve decided not to return to my original world.’

It was often said that home was where you made it, and once she had gotten used to it, this world wasn’t so bad. Rather, she had even felt that it was quite comfortable.

As long as she turned a blind eye to Heart Castle’s over-the-top fairytale-like interior, there was no place more pleasant to have as her place of residence.

But no matter how pleasant it was, her family wasn’t here. Her school friends weren’t here. With all the things that were important to her left behind in the world of reality, Alice wasn’t so unfeeling that she could think it was fine to part with them forever.

‘Hmmm. You’re pretty cold, aren’t you.’

She didn’t need Boris to tell her that, she was well aware.

Although part of her thought that she should immerse herself in this fairytale world and think of it as a dream, another part of her held back. She didn’t have the courage to truly let herself go. Her attitude towards everything was always half-assed.

‘......My big sister always used to tell me. That “You should enjoy the world of stories more sincerely.” Whenever I read mystery novels I can’t calm down and read them through until I have someone tell me the twist and who the culprit is first. That’s the kind of boring person I am.’

Becoming unintentionally critical of herself, Alice slightly shook her head. Such negative thinking wasn’t fitting for the amusement park and such fine weather.

‘You aren’t boring at all. If you’re gonna say that, I’m way more boring than you. Suuuper normal, I am.’

‘......Normal?’

While looking him over from head to toe, Alice tilted her head in puzzlement. She had a feeling that having the kind of taste to declare such an idiosyncratic appearance as normal wasn’t normal in and of itself.

‘Yeah. I’m such an ordinary guy I get bored of myself. So ordinary you’d be shocked.’

‘............’

While Alice was unsure of how to respond, he all of a sudden brought his face close to peer into hers.

All the animals in this world had no sense of personal space. Since they came close to her with an overfamiliarity that was just like that of a pet, Alice couldn’t help but feel bewildered.

‘Speaking of boredom, how’s life at the Castle?’

‘“How” is it?’

‘It’s boring, right? A place like that. I mean, they don’t have thrill rides or a horror house, do they?’

‘W-Well yeah, they don’t have any thrill rides, but it’s not boring at all. It’s so comfortable I almost feel guilty. They’re all good people.’

Alice continued while pulling away from him.

‘......That’s right. Vivaldi and Ace are a bit odd, but they’re not bad people. The only problem one is that man……’

That man. Of course, she meant no one other than Peter White.

If she had one complaint in her luxurious lifestyle as a guest of state, it would have to be the existence of that ‘national-level stalker.’ If not for “that”, her life at the castle would have been very peaceful.

‘By “that man”, you mean the Prime Minister, don’t you?’

Boris asked her with a face as if he understood all about it.

‘You must be having a hard time too. Being liked by a troublesome guy like that. If it was me, I would just shoot him, no ifs or buts. Having him around looks like it would be such a pain.’

‘Yeah, yeah you’re right……!’

Alice’s hands shot out and took Boris’ as she faced him.

‘He’s a massive pain, that guy. Even though he doesn’t even know me all that well he’s always following me around, even when I tell him he’s a bother he never learns, and for some reason he thinks we’re in love, truuuuuuly unbelievable. It’s so absurd. Don’t you think?’

‘W-Well. I suppose so.’

At Alice’s impassioned complaints, this time Boris was the one that looked as if he wanted to pull away.

‘That guy’s unexpectedly pretty stubborn once he’s gotten an idea in his head. Yeah. Really, my condolences.’

‘Stubborn doesn’t even begin to cover it. He’s crazy. That XXXXXX rabbit……!!’

Hearing such unladylike language come out of her mouth, Boris’ eyes widened further.

It seemed as if so much frustration had built up within her that she had ended up using quite vulgar language, the kind that would have her big sister collapse in shock had she heard it, the kind that her normally good girl-ish self would not say.

……However. Having said it, she did feel a little as if she'd gotten something off her chest. Just a little.

She certainly wasn't thinking of putting a round through that White Rabbit's head, like Boris and the other residents of this world would do, that was a bit much. What she really wanted— was for someone to listen to her complain and curse, and for them to sympathize with her. Just like her female classmates used to normally do, whenever something had pissed her off.

With just that simple desire fulfilled, Alice felt unexpectedly refreshed.

'Say Boris……you're more of a decent person than I thought.'

Even as she said it, she knew she was being somewhat rude. Sure enough, Boris raised an eyebrow and said,

'Is that a compliment? Not too sure how I feel about that.'

'Of course I'm complimenting you. I mean, your appearance, Boris, you've got pink cat ears, your hair and muffler are pink too, and your tail…..'

'You mean you didn't think a person who was pink all over could be decent? Haah, you're a lot more blunt than you look. And you seemed as if you wouldn't hurt a fly.'

'I-I'm sorry.'

It wasn't good to judge a person just based on their appearance. And as proof of that, this punk-looking gun maniac cat had shown Alice an unexpectedly normal sympathy. At the very least, he had acknowledged Peter's existence as the nuisance that it was, and had understood the pitiable position Alice was in.

That alone made her happy. If there was just one person that would acknowledge that her feelings were not abnormal, Alice felt as if she wouldn’t lose sight of where she stood just yet.

‘I didn’t mean it in a bad way. In the world I used to live in, there weren’t any people that had pink hair or animal ears. So when I first came here, I wasn’t sure how to deal with those kinds of things.’

‘Hmm~ And now?’

‘Now……’

She was about to continue and say for now she didn’t hold any prejudices towards animal men, when Boris started to hold her hands tighter.

She immediately tried to free herself, but couldn’t. Boris drew closer to her while grinning as if pleased.

‘H-Hey-’

‘Listen. I’ve thought of a good idea.’ Shaking their held hands up and down enthusiastically, he spoke. ‘You’re having trouble because of the Prime Minister, right?’

‘Well, yeah.’

‘Then, he just needs to give up on you.’

‘If something like that was possible, I wouldn’t be having such a hard time. No matter what I do, he’s never discouraged, that guy.’

‘Really? It may be easier than you think. Like….. You and I could declare that we’re lovers in front of him.’

‘—What?’

Alice tilted her head, and stared back at the golden eyes that for some reason, shone with excitement.

‘Who are you saying are lovers?’

‘You and me,’ Boris repeated himself, as if it were no big deal.

‘If you have someone special to you, even the Prime Minister himself might have to change his tune a little, right? It would be best if he saw that there was no chance at all of you giving him the time of day.’

‘............’

Setting aside any comments she might have on the content of Boris’ plan of action, she could see that it did make a certain amount of sense.

It was possible that the reason Peter’s passion had yet to abate, was that he still had a ray of hope regarding a relationship with Alice. Although Alice, for her part, did not at all remember doing anything that would have caused him to have any such hopes.

‘It may be as you say, Boris.’

‘Right? So then……’

‘But I can’t.’ Alice stated her refusal point-bank. ‘Much as I would like to do something about Peter, I don’t really want to tell a lie like that. Even though you went so far as to think up a countermeasure to help me, sorry.’

It wasn’t as if Alice necessarily felt guilty about lying. She simply didn’t feel as if she had the confidence to do a good job of it. Getting their stories straight beforehand, conducting herself so there would be no contradictions, just thinking of the effort it would take to get her mind around all the details made her head hurt. Frivolous lies only caused more trouble.

‘......Uwah. You really are such a square.’

Boris sighed as if exasperated. He was probably thinking she was rather inflexible.

‘And anyway, I’m not saying we should lie. We should just make it the truth, and not a lie. If we’re lovers for real, there won’t be any problems.’

‘Huh?’

Alice frowned. What was this cat saying?

There very much were a lot of problems with what he was saying. A whole bunch of them. She didn’t think he was being serious, but for a pickup line it was too thoughtless.

'Well, for now, whether it's true or not doesn't matter. It'd be better if it was for real though.'

'Um, I appreciate the thought, but I don't plan on-'

'No need to worry. I'll make it good.'

In high spirits, Boris gave Alice a wink.

'I was getting sick of hunting mice, so it's good timing. Sometimes it's good to play with a different kind of animal.'

Next - Chapter 2

#heart no kuni no alice #hnkna #alice in the country of hearts #peter white #alice liddell #heart no kuni no alice sunny day sunday #heart no kuni no alice translation #boris airay #julius monrey #mary gowland #otome game

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howlinchickhowl · 3 years ago

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@celestialmickey made us a fun new tag game and then she and all these gorgeous bastards @whatwouldmickeydo @7x10mickey @catgrassplantdad @sleepyfacetoughguy @sunoficarus @arrowflier @squidyyy23 all tagged me to do it, and I'm no chicken, so here we go:

name: howl 🐺

age: 34

height: 5’ 3”

zodiac sign: virgo

where do you call home? the hearts and minds of the mutuals 😌 but also, like, England.

any tattoos or piercings? 1 of each (I’m counting both ears as one piercing because it’s the most vanilla of the piercings)

last song you listened to: Slow Dancing - Aly & AJ

last movie you watched: Labyrinth 🖤

last book or fanfic you read: I read the new chapter of Dancing After Death by @squidyyy23 this morning, what a treat!

do you collect anything? Personal data 😏 (Question Friday is all a front!) Additionally, I collect particular editions of certain book series’, and also novelisations of films and tv shows because I find them wicked fascinating.

morning person or night owl? Haha well, I always considered myself a night owl, because I really don’t like getting up in the morning, but these days I’m falling asleep by like 10pm and STILL can’t get up in the morning, so, neither? Midday Sloth?

are you an optimist, pessimist, or realist? realist. I expect nothing, including disappointment.

are you an introvert, extrovert, or ambivert? introvert

do you believe in an afterlife? I don’t, and I really hope I’m correct. I get to the end of this life and you’re telling me I gotta do a whole other one?? Bitch i am tired. Don’t do that to me.

a weird or fun fact about yourself: I am physically incapable of burping. Cannot do it. Is that weird or fun? Maybe not. Is it a fact? Maybe not? Am I incredibly boring and average? Yes. Yes I am.

if you could have coffee with anyone dead or alive, who would it be? I’m gonna copy from Donna here and say my dad. We’d have nescafé gold so strong you can stand a spoon up in it in bone china cups and he’d call Boris Johnson a twat and it would be the best thing ever.

a quote you live by: I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough, without ever having felt sorry for itself. - Self Pity, DH Lawrence

WHO shall I tag?? 👀 @thisdivorce @shewantsthe-youngamerican @messedwithmandy @gallavictorious @y0itsbri @mickeymilkovichapologist @pink--and--white @abundanceofnots

#thanks macy for making a thing! I enjoyed this one #plus you know I love an overshare

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hello-im-not-a-possum · 3 years ago

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YEEHAW IT’S MIDNIGHT WHICH MEANS IT’S AUGUST 1ST WHICH MEANS INK DEMONTH SO I CAN FINALLY POST THIS NOW:

1. Pride

Diversity win! There is not a single cishet in the hivemind of ink creatures (To their knowledge) that you slaughter on a daily basis to make yourself beautiful! AKA: Possum has a fuck ton of LBGT+ headcanons regarding the BATIM cast and is happy to use this DeMonth prompt to indulge them. (Set before the loop starts, but after Buddy Boris meets/befriends the lost ones.)

Malice flicked through the channels of her cameras, trying to find more prey in her territory, and stopped when she saw a gathering of the lost and the searching (and exactly one Boris, the most perfect one she had ever seen.) in the Heavenly toy’s lobby, their prophet was brazenly sitting on the side of the waterfall as if he did not fear the ink when he should have.

Her ears steamed with anger as she saw that group, it was far too large for her to deal with on her own and too far away from the Projectionist’s grounds for her to manage to lure him to them. But on the bright side, she could learn some important information from them, after all, with how casually the prophet was sitting and gesturing and how the other freaks in the crowd were responding, this was clearly not one of his normal sermons.

(“I still find it rather funny that almost none of us are straight and that the few straight ones among us are trans, it’s like all this time we thought we were sheep hiding away in wolves’ clothing among wolves, unaware that the “wolves” were simply other sheep in hiding as well!”)

[Funnily enough, I’d rather be a sheep than a wolf, I think it makes more sense for me to be an animal that’s helpful to others but also easily scared.] The Boris wrote on a typewriter. [Or at least, I wish I had some kind of input on what I am, but I doubt I’d make myself an animal…]

(“Speaking of which...”) The lost one next to the wolf whispered in his ear as she looked over his typing. (“How are you holding up, Buddy?”)

Instead of typing, the wolf drew himself shrugging and put a bunch of question marks around him, then stuck the drawn-on paper in his typewriter and added to it.

[It’s hard to think most of the time, Boris always seems stronger when I’m alone, but I know the Ink demon will find us if I stay with you, this hunger is driving me crazy, and I just wanna go home. But on the bright side, I don’t have to deal with periods, chest pain from binding, or people condescendingly calling me ‘Miss Lewek’ anymore.]

She turned on the sound in that room, watching them like one would watch a Tv drama, but what she heard caught her off guard.

“So as long as we’re being honest about ourselves with each other…” The lost one stood up and pointed accusingly at Sammy. “Were you and Joey and a thing all along before the machine came into the picture!?”

If she was drinking water, she would’ve spat it right back out. Sammy, with Joey?! In the latter’s dreams, maybe! Even a few of the other lost ones looked shocked at the question, the Boris even gasped loud enough for it to be audible.

“Technically yes, but not by choice, mind you.”

“WHAT THE FUCK?!”

What the fuck indeed random lost one. The angel wished that she didn’t hear that, but now that she couldn’t unsee it, at least it made a little bit of sense in hindsight. After all, in her eyes, they were awful enough to deserve each other.

“...Why?”

“It’s just, well... somebody had to keep his eyes from wandering to the lambs- err- younger, more naive, less experienced employees, not children (to my knowledge). And at the time, I really thought that he did at least care about me beyond our work relationships, at least a little bit… But from what I’ve seen, I believe the only things he had ever truly loved were himself, and the idealized versions he had made of other people. His ‘dream versions’ of them, if you will.”

“And this whole time, I thought he was running off with Susie with all those lunch dates! Or where the three of you all… yaknow, *together* together?”

“Not knowingly… However I wouldn’t put it past Joey to cheat on people. As for Susie... I did like her, maybe even love her in a way, but I doubt I could ever love her in the way she wanted me to love her, and-or love her carnally. I don’t even think I could fake it like I could for Joey, she was never signing my checks and wasn’t holding that over my head so I’d be too disgusted to even try.”

Malice was almost about to march down there herself and push him into the ink, but she knew this troupe all too well, and knew that sometimes this place worked on story logic, he’s now going to say something that alters the context of that statement enough to not justify her going over there and slam dunking him into the ink.

“Now that I think of it, I don’t think that I’ve ever loved… anyone in that sense. I can’t think of a single person or situation where the idea of doing that is anything other than gross at best. In fact, there was someone who was close to me a long time ago, someone who, while I have long forgotten now, would perhaps even be what one could consider a soulmate. Even then, the mere thought of doing that with them still makes me queasy…” The prophet sighed. “I suppose I am simply meant to remain alone in religious celibacy. A relationship of that kind would interfere too much with my worship anyway.”

"Ahh fahr foehck's sake... I can't believe dat it's dis foehckin stupid..." A more lucid, absolute giant of a searcher in the back of the crowd slapped his forehead.

“It?” Malice repeated curiously. “Huh… maybe it and I had more in common than we thought.”

“You're clearly a sex-repoehlsed asexual, you doehmbass! literally everyahne who's ever been in de dark poehddles at de same time as you figured dis ooeht befahre you ded!” He shouted through cupped hands. “celibate people are people who WANT sex, boeht dahn't poehrsue it fahr variooehs reasahns, dey ARE NAHT people who are desgoehsted wit sex to de point where dey legitimately throw oehp and feel 'ahrreble after doin de nahrmal vanella stoehff! Stahp foehckin foehckin people when you're clearly naht cahmfortable wit it, and you and future partner..s? 'll be 'appier wit yooehr rahmantic poehrsuits!”

The searcher, upon realizing that he had furiously sworn at the Prophet, their leader, the one who does not fear anything within the studio, not even the deepest depths of the dark puddles, and most terrifyingly of all; the former music director, he slinked into a puddle within the crowd in fear of being the target of reawakened ancient wrath. Everybody else looked back and forth to the prophet and back at the searcher who spoke out as they remained in stunned silence, even their eavesdropper was worried for his fate, even if in her case she feared how the show would end rather than his outcome. Surprisingly, and luckily for him, the Prophet broke the tense silence by laughing in that caught-off-guard tone of it.

“While you were rather… crude about it, what you’ve said does make a lot more sense then Joey being so bad at sex that he turned me away from men altogether, even if it is funny to assume that he was.”

“A-aye… and I can't believe dat you wrahte an entire foehckin sahng abooeht it! 'ow ded you naht get fired fahr dat?!”

“Good question, I wish I could remember the answer…”

[Maybe you had blackmail on Drew?] The Boris typed out and handed to Sammy.

“Yeah, maybe because you used to be so close to him, you saw skeletons that Joey would want to keep in the closet” His lost-one friend added.

“Like HIMSELF!” A voice from the back added, making the others in the room burst into laughter.

With the tension in the room gone, the group just went back to talking about either journeys they took to become comfortable with themselves, or the various past relationships that they had, or wished they had or in some peoples’ cases, all three.

Malice continued to watch them bitterly. It was as if they had either forgotten what the outside world was like to people like them or they simply didn’t care, and she wasn’t thinking about the ink that made up their bodies. Part of her envied how freely they had talked about themselves and each other, part of her felt like she had been smacked across the face, and a third part of her felt lonely. All of them seemed so happy telling their stories and building each other up, and here she was hiding away with her own story that she had wished to bury.

However, there was no iron clad law stating that she couldn’t tell them her own story. In fact, maybe if she came out of her own cage, made Sammy understand that big part of why voicing Alice was so important to her, made sure that it understood that as the very first explicitly female character she voiced, that Alice Angel was more than a beloved character to her, that she was a part of her, the biggest symbol of her own femininity, then maybe it would recognize the error of its ways. Maybe it would see how devastating it would be to be shunted aside without notice in favor of someone newer, prettier, ‘more feminine’...

She shut off the camera and thought it over, and she made up her mind. While she still didn’t want to share her story with everyone, Sammy needed to know it. Whether the Prophet liked it or not, she was going to pay it a visit.

#Bendy and the Ink Machine #ink demonth #pride #fanfic #Malice Angel #dot batim #buddy boris #sammy lawrence #lost ones batim #searchers batim #shawn flynn

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litttlesilkworm · 4 years ago

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Chicken and Beets

Dear Comrades,

Here is another entry for the Chernobyl New Year Challenge 2021: a recipe + a bit of a story to go with it. The story turned out more than a bit sad, I must confess 💚💛💜

This project shares a common ingredient with our delightful collaboration with @alyeen1 on Valoris-themed cocktail recipes - beets! Check out our cocktail post if you haven’t gotten a chance yet!

As @alyeen1 has pointed out in the cocktail post, the idea with using beets comes from the fact that there is an untouched plate of boiled chicken and beets on Valery’s desk as mentioned in the Ep. 3 script:

We can, indeed, see the plate in the foreground in the frame below:

I wanted to imagine a little riff on this detail in a form of a scene that would take place later - in Moscow, not long after Boris and Valery come back from Chernobyl for good. It is New Year’s Eve, and Boris is having Valery over at his apartment to celebrate the arrival of 1987 together, just the two of them.

For the story and the recipe (and a picture of food), please click below!

Content warning: food/appetite, canon-consistent sad themes (”5 years”).

@shark-from-the-park @elenatria @drunkardonjunkyard @green-ann @johnlockismyreligion @borislegasov @owlboxes @seaweednpeanuts @attachedtofictionalpeople @gwinny3k @kylos-scarf @scarlettestar @the-jewish-marxist @cinemaocd @natasharedfox @ignalina-c0re @potter012 @stellan-pip-69 @art-is-a-malady @antonellachan4567 @hereliesnils @sunset-and-periwinkle @thegreenmeridian and everyone else!

“Something smells amazing, Borya,” Valery exclaims as he steps into Boris’ palatial apartment. He carefully sets two large white cardboard boxes, both tied with a string, and a canvas bag with bottles of champagne on the floor of Boris’ spacious hallway, and takes off his fur hat.

Boris is wearing a white shirt with rolled-up sleeves, black trousers and a red checkered apron. The heat of the kitchen has given his face a very appealing kind of sheen, a few errant strands of gray hair have fallen on his forehead, and his smooth cheeks look flushed. He seems excited about something, as if he has a secret that he is itching to reveal - but has to hold off on it for some only known to him dramatic timing.

He looks so attractive that the sight of him quite literally takes Valery’s breath away.

In the very next moment, Boris dives for his lips with a precision and determination of a hunting hawk. The tone and pitch of Boris’ contented hum, the way he holds Valery, the way he runs his fingers through his ginger hair as it crackles with static electricity, the way his thumbs rub circles on Valery’s cheeks, rosy from the biting wind outside, all tell the same story. It is a happy story, Valery knows. The one about how much he missed Valery, and how grateful he is to have Valery’s love, and how pleased he is to greet him here in his warm home, on this New Year’s Eve, and how he has prepared a surprise, and how much he’d enjoyed the process of preparation, and how excited he is to reveal it.

They part eventually, smiling, breathing “happy-new-years” into each others’ mouths.

Boris’ gaze falls on the packages Valery carefully carried from Yeliseevsky market down the iced-over sidewalks.

“You’ve brought champagne, wonderful! And dessert-”

“I couldn’t decide between eclairs and the Napoleon, so I got both,” Valery says shyly, feeling his face getting warm. In reality, he got both because both looked so tempting to him. He is the one with a sweet tooth.

“Remember the box of frozen eclairs I found in the freezer at the restaurant at Polissya?” smiles Boris.

Valery nods enthusiastically. A good memory.

“It was the first thing I’ve seen you eat at Chernobyl like you actually had an appetite! It was a relief to see you excited about food. Do you remember what they used to feed us from the mobile kitchen?” Boris asks as he helps Valery out of his coat, shaking the snow off it.

“Yes,” Valery says with a bit of dramatic shudder. They are like two soldiers reminiscing about the shared misery of a foxhole, Boris and him. “Pikalov’s unit has the best chemists and engineers in the Soviet Union - but not exactly the best cooks.”

Boris laughs heartily in agreement. “Remember what they used to serve most often?”

“Hmmm?” Valery cocks his head to the side and looks at Boris quizzically. “Boiled chicken and beets?”

“Right!” exclaims Boris. “Chicken that tasted like cotton balls.”

“And the beets! They must’ve boiled them all afternoon - they hardly had any color left in them,” adds Valery.

“You barely touched that food anyway. I was worried you will start wasting away. You would have a few bites if me or Nikolai were eating with you but if you were left alone with your calculations - forget it...” Boris waves his hand.

“That’s not true!” Valery exclaims, indignant. “I ate what everyone else was eating!”

“You know, after you told me that isotopes don’t go into butter, I’ve taken to buying slabs of butter from the few villagers who had stayed behind. I would put buttered bread on your plate as you worked late into the night in your corner of the suite. You would finish your piece without noticing it and then I would slip you another one. After I fed you five or six of those I could be content and go read my Pravda.”

The revelation catches Valery completely off guard - he recalls the buttered bread, yes, but he truly, honestly never realized that Boris had been slipping him an entire daily calories’ worth at nighttime. All he remembers is his papers, his calculator, his logarithmic ruler, his aching neck and a constant crushing sense of dread that he might be completely, irredeemably wrong with his projections.

“I know you’ve never noticed,” Boris tilts his head and looks at him softly, crinkles gathering around his laughing eyes. He reaches to squeeze somewhat disoriented Valery’s shoulder, shaking the younger man back and forth gently. “But I knew that I got you fed, and that was good enough for me.”

Something beautiful and sad rises inside Valery and spills into a mist of tears in his eyes. It’s not what he wanted or expected of himself this evening, but he can’t help it.

A tinny voice deep inside him, like a small radio hidden under a thick pillow, scrapes at him in its metallic, nagging cadence - this won’t last, you fool. This - all of this - won’t last. You’ve seen his radiospectrogram, you’ve seen yours. Your bones are chock-full of strontium, both of you. Your leukocyte count is starting to look bad. He’s got that new cough whenever he lies down, and it doesn’t seem to go away.

Every time Valery hears that cough is like a razor to his heart.

“Please don’t take him,” he thinks now as he lies awake during oh-so-common for him sleepless nights, with his face pressed to Boris’ broad back, listening to the soft sound of his breath - the amazing sound of life that is dearer to him than his own.

“Please don’t take him,” he says to someone he doesn’t know how to talk to, to something he isn’t sure exists beyond the electrons orbiting the clumps of protons and neutrons. Beyond the quantum uncertainty. Beyond the cosmic void.

After he knew the cough was here to stay, he seemed to have adjusted his nighttime bargain. “Please don’t take him first.”

The vision of Boris in his red apron blurs and trembles in Valery’s eyes, sliding slightly sideways and downwards. He blinks the veil of tears away, wiping his eyes with his small hand so he could see his love clearly again.

“You look so handsome tonight, Borya. And I love you so much,” Valery says softly, a wet sound escaping his throat. “So much.”

“Valera,” Boris wraps his arms around him in an attempt to quiet whichever emotion is roiling his lover, grumbling softly near his ear, “do you know what it meant for me to take care of you in the midst of all that... madness? It kept me together, too, you know - loving you. And you look amazing in blue.”

Boris’ hands slide down to stroke Valery’s plump sides clad in a soft blue sweater vest as he says that.

"Thank you,” Valery closes his eyes and breathes, soaking in the comfort of Boris’ touch.

“I want to dance with you later tonight,” he mumbles into Boris’ shirt.

“Yeah,” Boris answers softly into his hair. “Yeah, that would be good.”

Boris’ arm is around Valery as he leads him into the living room, where a holiday table is set next to an enormous New Year’s tree adorned with a red star and coated generously with silver tinsel.

Valery has been saving space in his belly all day and is now finding himself, in fact, very, very hungry.

As Boris shuttles back and forth between the living room and the kitchen with bowls and serving platters, Valery fusses with the wires of the champagne bottle, looking worriedly at the chandelier.

“I’ve got Olivier salad, red caviar sandwiches, oh! - pickled mushrooms, so good,” Boris recites proudly. “And for the main course... you wouldn’t mind if we had chicken and beets tonight, would you? Like in the old times?”

He pauses for a proper dramatic effect. The look of momentary dismay on Valery’s face must be so comical that it makes the older man laugh out loud.

“Don’t worry, love - it’s the good kind. This one you wouldn’t want to pass up,” says Boris, beaming, and proceeds to fill Valery’s plate. “Eat, Valera, eat.”

The winter winds are wailing hard outside, but here in the warm living room the air is filled with the clinking of cutlery and Valery’s delighted humming as he devours Boris’ creation. Even the nagging metallic voice in Valery’s head seems to have quieted down to an indecipherable murmur, as if tucked away behind a thick wall somewhere. Really, he can barely hear it at all.

* * *

Recipe: Chicken Delmonico + Warm Beet Salad with Pears, Gorgonzola Cheese and Walnuts

For the chicken, I followed Emeril Lagasse’s excellent Chicken Delmonico recipe exactly (just the chicken, not the mushroom part), except that I didn’t make my own spice mix the way he suggests, but instead combined store-bought cajun spice mix with salt in a 5:1 ratio.

The key to this recipe is to be generous with the seasoning!

For the beet salad, I did the following:

Ingredients:

6 medium-sized beets

2 large ripe pears

⅔ of a cup of walnut halves and pieces

⅔ of a cup of Gorgonzola cheese crumbs

Extra-virgin olive oil

Lemon juice

Salt and pepper

1. Scrub the beets with a brush, rub with olive oil and wrap in foil. Roast in a 350 F (175 C) oven for 40 min, then let them cool until you can comfortably handle them. Peel the beets and chop them into ½ inch-thick slices, set aside.

2. Toast walnuts in a 350 F oven for 6-7 minutes, chop, set aside.

3. Peel and chop the pears into slices similar in size to your beet slices.

4. In a large mixing bowl, combine beet and pear slices, toasted walnuts and Gorgonzola. Add olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste, and mix well. Enjoy!

#chernobyl #valoris #chernobyl new year challenge 2021 #valery legasov #boris shcherbina #cw food #cw appetite #valoris fanfiction

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