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lollipopsimblr · 1 year ago
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..on this beautiful summer day, a random townie was murdered.. by a killer bunny!
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Catalina: Wait, wait, hold on! I finally witnessed DEATH! Does this mean.. I'm a PUBLIC ENEMY now?!
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keycomicbooks · 8 months ago
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America Chavez Made in the USA #1 (2021) Variant Junggeun Yoon Cover & Carlos E. Gomez Pencils, Kalinda Vazquez Story, 1st Cameo Appearance of Catalina Chavez, 1st Appearance of The Santanas (the family who found America when she entered the mainstream reality of Marvel 616), & The Origin of America Chavez
#AmericaChavezMadeintheUSA #1 (2021) Variant #JunggeunYoon Cover & #CarlosEGomez Pencils, #KalindaVazquez Story, 1st Cameo Appearance of #CatalinaChavez, 1st Appearance of #TheSantanas (the family who found America when she entered the mainstream reality of #Marvel616), & The Origin of America Chavez WHO IS AMERICA? America Chavez is incredible - her origins, her strength, her dimension-shattering star portals! https://www.rarecomicbooks.fashionablewebs.com/America%20Chavez%20Made%20in%20the%20USA.html#1 Website Link In Bio Page If Applicable. SAVE ON SHIPPING COST - NOW AVAILABLE FOR LOCAL PICK UP IN DELTONA, FLORIDA #RareComicBooks #KeyComicBooks #MCU #MarvelComics #MarvelUniverse #KeyComic #ComicBooks
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alarakcplan · 12 days ago
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Alara smirked, leaning back against the bar with a casualness she didn’t entirely feel. “Scrappy, huh? I’ll take that as a compliment,” she quipped, raising her glass in a lazy gesture before taking a slow sip. Her tone was light, almost dismissive, as if Catalina’s words hadn’t struck a nerve.
She let the silence stretch for a moment, swirling the liquid in her glass. “As for staying… who knows? People in this town love to think of me as unreliable, I’d hate to disappoint them.” she said with a shrug, her voice airy, detached. “MaybeI just wanted to see if this place still feels like home.” Her gaze flicked toward Catalina, the faintest hint of something real, something vulnerable in it. That was a big question for Alara. Would Briar Ridge feel like home now that her father was no longer here? Would Alara even have a home now that he was gone? “Guess we’ll see.”
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Alara downed the rest of her drink, setting the empty glass on the bar with a soft clink before offering Catalina a grin—too casual, too practiced. “Anyway, what’s the fun in giving you all the answers, little cat? You’ll just have to stick around and find out.”
Cat knew how inconsistent Alara could be, and even if she pushed every button that she had, she irked every nerve that ran through her body—it still hurt like hell when she left. No word, no reason, just dust following in her wake. It hadn't been fair, and Catalina sat on that for a long time. In the back of her mind, where she had sent the memories of Alara to live, she knew that the other would find her way back eventually. Now, here she was, her aggravating nature not lost on her through her absence.
As Catalina sipped and Alara leaned in, she paused, a huff of laughter filling the glass as she listened. She waited for a second or so before she continued sipping her drink, swallowing and setting the glass down on the bar top. "The chase is always fun," she started, keeping their distance from where Alara had left it. "Especially when the prey is someone as scrappy as you." Laughter bubbled out of her again. "So, are you actually going to stay this time little mouse? Come back to the club? Or are you five seconds away from fleeing again?"
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Comet Donati [Chapter 6: No Control]
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Series Summary: Sex, drugs, boy bands. You are a kinda-therapist recruited (via nepotism) to help Comet Donati through a recent crisis. Things are casual with Aegon, very not-casual with Aemond. Loosely inspired by One Direction.
Chapter Warnings: Language, sexual content (18+), drugs, alcohol, smoking, mental health struggles, all-you-can-eat sushi, bodily injury, violence, hungry deer, Selena Gomez, angst!!!
Selected Chapter Quote: “He can’t see on that side, you fucking snake!”
Word count: 9k.
Link to chapter list (and all my writing): HERE.
Taglist: ​@doingfondue​ @catalina-howard​ @randomdragonfires​ @myspotofcraziness​ @arcielee​ @fan-goddess​ @talesofoldandnew​ @marvelescvpe​ @tinykryptonitewerewolf​ @mariahossain​ @chainsawsangel​ @darkenchantress​ @not-a-glad-gladiator​ @gemini-mama​ @trifoliumviridi​ @herfantasyworldd​ @babyblue711​ @namelesslosers​ @thelittleswanao3​ @daenysx​ @moonlightfoxx​ @libroparaiso​ @burningcoffeetimetravel-fics​ @mizfortuna​ @florent1s​ @heimtathurs​ @bhanclegane​ @poohxlove​ @narwhal-swimmingintheocean​ @heavenly1927​ @mariahossain​ @echos-muses​ @padfooteyes​ @minttea07​ @queenofshinigamis​ @juliavilu1​ @amiraisgoingthruit​ @lauraneedstochill​ @wintrr13​ @r0segard3n​ 
Let me know if you’d like to be added to the taglist! 💜
Your last day waking up in Singapore: lying in bed and watching the shadows of birds shoot across the ceiling like falling stars. Your wrist aches in its splint. The door to the balcony is wide open. The wind blows in hot and damp off the South China Sea. You hear him before you see him: the swipe of a keycard, the swinging of the door, the clop clop clop of undoubtedly neon Crocs against the hardwood floor.
You look over at him, not moving from the bed. “Hey.”
“Hey.” Then Aegon notices something in the tiny trashcan beside your nightstand that’s cluttered with souvenirs. Nestled between empty soda cans and Starburst wrappers is a mostly full pack of birth control pills. He stares at it for a while before he says, tentatively: “Trying for a little bundle of joy? With anyone I know?”
“Definitely not.” You sigh, turning back to the ceiling, morose. “Baela and I did 23AndMe like a month ago, and we just got our results back. She’s distantly related to royalty. I have a defective gene that makes me extra susceptible to blood clots. So if I take hormonal birth control I could have a stroke or something.”
“Damn, that sucks,” Aegon says.
“Yeah.”
“But it’s good you found out, you know? I wouldn’t want you dropping over dead.”
“Yeah,” you say again, flatly, ungenerously.
“Hey, no big deal, Stargirl. You know I’d use condoms anyway.”
“Well I might at some point in my life want to have sex with someone who’s not you, so.”
Aegon steps closer; he appears upside down as he studies you from above, sunburned forehead knit into thoughtful grooves, smelling like Tiger Beer and Axe body spray and…you think…chicken wings. His hair is in disarray, his aviator sunglasses tangled in blond knots. He’s wearing a lavender tank top, like dusk, like a bruise. “Ohhhh, I get it. This is an Aemond and Shelby thing.”
You hate that you’re so transparent, like a window wiped clean of fog and fingerprints. You hate that he’s right. “Why are they even together? What the hell do they have in common?”
“Now or before?”
“Both, I guess.”
“Well, before…” Aegon scratches at his cheek. There is a bug bite there, a tiny pink welt left by the venom of a mosquito or a spider. “It was a mutually beneficial arrangement. Aemond got the satisfaction of boning the kind of girl who would have screamed if he touched her back in high school. Shelby got a massive career boost. She had 900,000 Instagram followers when they met. Now she has over 20 million.”
That recurring, futile refrain: I hate her, I hate her, I hate her.
“And I won’t lie. They had some good times.” Aegon grins down at you. “Just like we did.”
“What about now?”
“Now…” Aegon ponders this. “Now I think they’re both lost. Neither of them knows what comes next. Aemond leaving Comet. Shelby hitting that age when people like her start checking off the husband and kids boxes. When you’re thrown off a ship, you cling to the life raft, even if it’s small or ripped up or half-deflated or whatever, right? You try to hold on to what you have left. You return to what’s familiar. And that doesn’t make it right, but it’s what people do.”
“It is,” you agree mournfully. “So Aemond was the one who broke it off.”
“Yeah.”
“And then he took her back.” She called and called and called, he finally answered.
“He had a moment of weakness. Now we all have to live with it.”
“I didn’t know that.” Then you sit up on the bed and look at Aegon. “When the label wanted to get rid of Aemond, why didn’t you fight for him?”
“That’s just the way of the world, Stargirl.” He shrugs, an inevitability, good weather, bad weather, sun and clouds and storms. “He couldn’t stay in the band the way he is now. And the problem isn’t what he looks like. The problem is in his soul. But I have no idea how to fix it.” Aegon smiles, warm like summer. “I thought maybe you would. That’s why I called you.”
“You didn’t even know me,” you tell him. “I was just some girl from a bar.”
“No,” Aegon says softly, and he does not elaborate. And then, bright and cheerful again: “You’re really going to earn your paycheck at our next stop.”
“Where are we going?” You recall the names you’ve heard bouncing around since Comet arrived in East Asia, the cities you’ve seen on banners and t-shirts and Instagram posts. “Bangkok? Kuala Lumpur? Manila? Jakarta? Seoul?”
“Tokyo.” Aegon is still smiling, though in an off-kilter way now, uneasily, his murky ocean-blue eyes somber. The scene of the crime. Where the accident happened. Where Aemond believes his life ended. “We’re performing at the Budokan.”
~~~~~~~~~~
White clouds turn to sapphire waves, then emerald green fields and forests, then buildings in a million different shades of grey that stretch on forever, steel and concrete and asphalt and glass. Tokyo is the largest city you’ve ever seen, the largest city imaginable. It is a labyrinth that makes you think of the hay mazes that farms back home set up each autumn; it beckons you in and then dares you to leave.
As the band hurries through Haneda Airport, you are pursued by paparazzi and hyperventilating fans. The usual suspects—Aegon, Daeron, and Jace—can be relied upon to high five, smile, flash peace signs and hand hearts, blow kisses, pass out crochet astronomical objects, and shout such endearments as (woefully mispronounced) “Konnichiwa!” and “We love you, Japan!” Shelby waves like she’s goddamn Princess Diana. Aemond bows his head, his eyes enigmatic behind his sunglasses, his steps swift. Luke holds Rhaena’s hand; Baela walks with them. You hide behind Cregan. He casts quite a large shadow.
“I look real rock and roll now,” you joke, gesturing with your splinted arm.
Cregan replies in his rumbly subterranean voice: “I think I have you beat.” He pulls up one of his sleeves—floral print, silk, Valentino—and shows you the underside of his right forearm. Bisecting the flesh from his wrist to the crook of his elbow is a long, faint, moon-white scar that you’ve never noticed before, never even heard anyone mention.
“Oh, ouch! You broke it?”
“Compound fracture.” He covers his forearm again with his sleeve.
“When? How?”
Cregan hesitates. Suddenly, he no longer wants to be having this conversation. “Years ago.”
Just outside the airport waits that trusty fleet of black, tinted-window Escalades; but Aemond has requested that his 1960 Gold Star be there too. He takes his keys, helmet, and jacket from one of Comet’s hulking security guards. Shelby’s detail is notably more subdued since that night in Singapore; the man who dislocated your wrist has been exiled from the tour. Aemond climbs onto his motorcycle and starts the engine. The sound takes you back to Rome: when your hopes and spirits were high, when you and Aemond were still living on the light side of the moon.
“You in the mood for a ride, Shelby?” Aegon asks, smirking unkindly, taunting, chomping loudly on cotton candy flavored Bubble Yum. “Don’t forget your helmet. We’d all be lost without you.”
Shelby combs out her beachy blond waves with her artful fingers, tan, reedy, nails turquoise and adorned with golden koi fish. “You’re psychotic if you think I’m getting on that bike.”
“Jesus,” Jace mutters. He is as shocked as anyone by his abrupt demotion to only the second most villainous person in Comet’s retinue.
Aemond doesn’t react, doesn’t say anything to Shelby, doesn’t even look at her. But he does glance over at you. And the words rise in your throat like a burning sun at dawn: I’ll go, I’d love to go, I trust you, I want you. But before you can say anything, Aemond has knocked the kickstand out of the way and is weaving through thick afternoon traffic towards the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. And as the Escalades roll and the band chats around you—indistinctly, abstractedly—you keep staring out the window and searching for glimpses of Aemond like the rare flash of a meteor in a city sky; but you can’t find him.
Criston knows he’s brought Comet to dangerous ground, peppered with quagmires and landmines. So he has planned a ruthlessly hectic itinerary. As soon as you’ve received your room key and unpacked, it’s time for dinner at an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant down the street. Criston herds the band there like the rugged Australian cattle dogs that your parents have back in Kansas City nip at the heels of snorting, intractable Black Angus bulls. You sit between Baela and Aegon, who is wearing his neon green tank top, matching Crocs (per usual), and khaki cargo shorts. He’s also gulping sake bombs until they dribble down his sunburned face. Countless varieties of sushi and side dishes rotate by on a conveyer belt, colorful little plates waiting to be snatched up: salmon, tuna, eel, octopus, shrimp, miniature omelets, fried tofu, Wagyu beef, squid, yellowtail, veggie rolls, chicken and pork dumplings, seaweed salad.
“You okay over there?” Aegon asks, grinning as he watches you stab at your eel sushi, topped with some kind of mayo-like sauce and delicious but tragically challenging to eat.
“I didn’t know how to use chopsticks before my dominant hand was put out of commission.” You glare down the row at Shelby. She glowers back. Since that night in Singapore, you circle each other like snarling undomesticated animals, wolves or coyotes. Now you’re on her radar. Now she knows there is something—that mysterious, ever-shifting, worrying something—between you and Aemond. She just doesn’t know what it is. Neither do you, neither does he, neither does anyone.
“Want me to feed you?” Aegon slurs flirtatiously. He plucks up a piece of your eel sushi with his chopsticks and promptly drops it in your lap. “Oh. Fuck.”
Baela presses the button on the counter to summon the server. “I’ll get you a fork.”
“You are a saint,” you tell her. “Patron saint of initiative. Or drive, whichever you prefer the sound of.” Aegon is mayhem, Aemond is lost causes. What am I?
“And you are an uncultured hick from Kansas.”
You smile at her. “Missouri.”
Your fork soon arrives. A few seats down the row, you hear Shelby ask innocently, like it doesn’t mean anything: “How old is Louis Tomlinson’s son now?”
Aemond shrugs. He’s watching the conveyor belt for vegan options; he keeps missing them when they pass by. “I don’t know, five?”
“No, Freddie?!” Luke says. “He’s gotta be like seven now. We saw him last summer at Niall’s pool party.”
“He was so cute,” Shelby says. She’s sitting on Aemond’s good side, as always. She rubs his back and you fight the urge to break her fingers one by one, snapping them in half like dry autumn twigs, lifeless and hollow. “Wasn’t he cute, honeybunch?”
“Sure,” Aemond replies distractedly. And of course Shelby is the type of person who believes that becoming a father will heal a man, rather than just dooming his children to be collateral damage.
Aegon peeks over the conveyer belt at the chefs who are preparing plates in the middle. He lurches and wobbles. Criston covers his own face with his hands, mortified. “Hey, hey, can I get a Crab Rangoon please?”
A chef says something in Japanese, soft and polite but clearly imploring him to sit back down.
Aegon repeats slowly: “Crab! Rangooooooon!”
“Hey dumbass,” Jace says. “That’s Chinese. We’re in Japan.”
“Oh. Right.” Aegon sighs, retreats, and orders himself another sake bomb.
You grab a plate of veggie rolls and another of fried tofu sushi off the conveyer belt and pass them down the row to Aemond. Shelby sends you the most venomous of glares, but Aemond mouths when she’s not paying attention: Thank you.
~~~~~~~~~~
Two shows in Tokyo, two performances on the stage where Aemond was mutilated. Of course, you don’t see mutilation when you look at him. You never have. You see the way the light hits the angles of his jaw and nose and cheekbones and think of marble faces in museums, generals, kings, saints, angels. You see the crystalline blue of his right eye and think of rivers, cool and rushing and clean. You see the ethereal haze of his left eye and think of other planets. You don’t know why everyone else reads his scar and blindness as a tale of unspeakable ruin. You can’t imagine seeing Aemond that way. It would be easier, less painful, simpler for you if you could. Maybe you could stop wanting him. Maybe you could stop dreaming about him, wisps of longing and memory that escape you as soon as you wake.
Aemond does not attend Comet’s concerts at the Budokan. They’re the only ones you’ve ever known him to miss. He rides out on his Gold Star instead, and then reappears to join the band for their post-show ritual in Jace’s suite, grim and quiet and scribbling in his black-paged notebook, smoking his cigarettes, sipping his Brambles. You cannot blame Aemond. You weren’t here last December when a piece of rigging collapsed during soundcheck and nearly killed him, and yet you can’t stop thinking about it; you can’t stop yourself from glancing up at the rafters during shows, wondering exactly how it happened, picturing Aemond bloody and unconscious on the stage, half-blinded and robbed without knowing it yet.
Tomorrow night is Comet Donati’s final performance in Tokyo, but today Criston has a day trip planned. He has filled every spare second of this tour stop with distractions. The band travels by bullet train (or shinkansen) and then local railways to Nara, the city that served as Japan’s capital in the 700s. Criston hires a tour guide—an 80-year old man called Toru-san, who possesses an incalculable amount of knowledge and also a very, very thick accent—to lead you all around Nara Park to see Isuien Garden, the Kasuga Taisha Shrine, the Nara National Museum, and finally the Great Buddha. Nara Park is full of food and souvenir vendors, as well as 1,200 sika deer that you can pet and feed, albeit at risk of being trampled by overenthusiastic herbivores. There are signs posted with warnings to exercise caution, complete with cartoon illustrations of deer gone rogue.
It’s 95 degrees outside with 80% humidity. You are drenched with sweat and guzzling boba tea. The handle of your bag from a gift shop is slung over your splint. Toru-san, despite his long pants and cardigan sweater, is looking spry as ever and is deep in conversation with Luke and Rhaena; he is regaling them with a bottomless well of Nara trivia. Cregan and Daeron are still browsing through gift shops, mostly for the opportunity to escape the heat and hover, sighing with relief, in front of every electric fan they come across. Aegon, lobster-level red—you aren’t sure if he’s more sunburned or flushed—is snoring under a tree as deer nibble at his cyan tank top and white cargo shorts. Aemond purchased probably $200 worth of deer crackers and has attracted a sizeable crowd of furry new friends. He’s like he always is around animals: beaming, immersed, at peace. Shelby is capturing pictures and video clips of him from a distance.
Nearby where you stand under the shade of a black pine tree, Baela is dressed in a crop top and yoga pants and stretching in the middle of a patch of grass. She keeps having to stop to shove deer away from her as they tiptoe close, searching for snacks. Jace is using Google Translate to flirt with a crowd of Japanese fangirls who have recognized him. They are giggling so loudly you can hear them from across a field. Baela is trying to ignore this. She falls out of a pose and sighs irritably, then walks over to you. Together, you watch Jace for a while, you slurping on your boba tea, Baela frowning with her hands on her willowy waist.
At last, she says: “Sometimes we love people who we know don’t deserve it. But that doesn’t make us love them any less. We just hate ourselves for not being stronger.”
“I think you’re incredibly strong, Baela.”
“Do you?”
“Yes. Strong enough to leave him. Strong enough to begin living your own life again.”
Her expression is suddenly uncharacteristically vulnerable, fearful. “I don’t know if I can do it. I’ve never been an adult without him.”
“You’d figure it out. And you wouldn’t be alone. You’d have Rhaena, and Luke, and ballet, and all your friends and family—”
“And you too, right?” she asks. “You’ll still be my friend? Even after you go back home?”
You are stunned into a silence that Baela first mistakes for rejection. Her face falls. “No no no, I’m not hesitating, you just caught me by surprise. Of course I’ll still be your friend after the tour is over. I’ll be your friend forever.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“And you’ll visit me in prison if I snap one day and throw Jace into a meatgrinder?”
You laugh and hug her, your sweat dampening each other’s clothes: her orange crop top, your Backstreet Boys t-shirt. “Absolutely. For sure.”
“Okay. I gotta go practice some more.” She spends long hours down in the hotel gym while everyone else is sleeping or partying or preparing for shows, running and stretching and yoga and repeating the same dance routines over and over again. You applaud and whistle as she leaves. “Stop,” Baela complains, but she’s grinning.
You procure another boba tea. You find a nice shady spot on a bench. You check your phone; there’s maybe fifteen more minutes until the band is scheduled to leave for the train station to begin the journey back to Tokyo. Naturally, Criston has dinner already planned: kaiseki ryori, a traditional multi-course meal. You wonder if there will be vegan options for Aemond. Your eyes drift back to him. They always seem to. He’s dragging his palm down the face of a ten-point buck as he feeds him a crumbling brown cracker. There’s a fawn curled up in Aemond’s lap. His blond hair is slicked back off his forehead, his black shirt mostly unbuttoned. Sweat gleams on his chest. Your fingertips ache to draw sloping lines and lazy circles in it.
“I never worried about him,” Criston says. He’s appeared beside you, arms crossed guardedly. You move over so there’s room for Criston on the bench. He sits, distant and troubled. “I always worried about the others. Aegon and Jace especially. But not Aemond.”
“Because he never needed you,” you say quietly.
“He didn’t,” Criston agrees. “And so I wasn’t there to protect him that day.”
The day of the accident. “From what I understand, it wasn’t something you could have prevented.”
“No, I couldn’t have stopped that piece of rigging from falling. But I could have made it so he wasn’t standing under it.”
You wait for Criston to explain. That’s an element that people often underestimate: the power of waiting for someone to be ready.
“It was soundcheck,” Criston says. His voice is strained, hushed. He repeatedly touches the stubble of his beard, a nervous habit. “Aemond was on time, as always. Aemond was exactly where he was supposed to be. But no one else was. Aegon and Jace had gone off to a strip club or a burlesque show or something, I don’t remember. They came back to the hotel and were absolutely hammered, they were crawling around on the hallway floor and puking in corners, laughing hysterically, completely out of their minds. Cregan and Luke were there trying to get them cleaned up. I was on the phone with Cregan, he was pissed, probably the most angry I’ve ever heard him, he kept pausing to yell at Aegon. He’d dragged him into a cold shower, but Aegon was fighting, trying to bite and kick him and whatever the hell else. So eventually I decided to go to the hotel and deal with it. Aemond offered to go with me. I told him no, you stay here, I’ll bring the other four even if I have to get the security guys to toss Aegon and Jace over their shoulders and carry them. Then I left.”
“And that’s when it happened,” you realize. “While you were gone.”
“Yes,” Criston says. And he gazes across Nara Park, here in body but his mind trapped in the maze of the past.
“You had no way of knowing what would happen, Criston. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I should have told him to come with me back to the hotel. Or I should have stopped Aegon and Jace from getting wasted. If they’d been on time, if soundcheck had happened as scheduled, no one would have been standing where that piece of rigging fell. Aemond would still be the leader of Comet. He would still have his face, his sight, his life.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” you say again.
“Alicent blames me,” he confesses. And you only know who she is because you’ve asked Aegon: the wife of Viserys Targaryen, the mother of his three sons. “She’ll never forgive me.”
Is that really why she avoids you, Criston? Or is there another reason? “If that’s true, it’s only because she’s feeling a lot of horrible things—grief, pain, regret, guilt—and she’s directing them at you. You haven’t earned them. You’re just the person standing in the line of fire. They’re a reflection of Alicent’s inner turmoil, not of your own worth. I think you’ve done a phenomenal job trying to keep this band safe and happy. And I know it’s not easy. I know it’s damn near impossible.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” he says, looking at you with large, dark, truthful eyes like a dog’s.
And you imagine a world in which you’d never seen Aegon after that night in Kansas City, never met Aemond, Baela, Rhaena, Luke, Cregan, Daeron, Criston. “I’m glad I’m here too.”
Criston reaches over and—for a moment, so briefly you could have imagined it—rests his hand on your shoulder like he sometimes does to Aemond and Luke. Then he leaves to collect Cregan and Daeron from a shaved ice vendor. Shelby has strolled over to consult with Toru-san, presumably so she can add his trivia to her Instagram posts and TikTok videos. You go to Aemond.
“I have a confession to make,” he says solemnly as you approach.
The oxygen vanishes from your lungs; you try to hide this. “What is it?”
Aemond smiles up at you. “When the tour guide was leading us here, I thought he kept saying that the park was full of bears. And I didn’t want to kill the mood or anything, but I was definitely concerned about going on a field trip to feed over 1,000 uncaged bears. I am very, very relieved that he was in fact saying deer.”
You chuckle and sit next to Aemond on the grass, petting the fawn in his lap. It blinks sleepily at you, its fur soft and spotted, its ears pricked up and curious.
“What’s your souvenir for this stop of the tour?” Aemond asks.
You pull it out of your bag to show him: a small stuffed sika deer complete with floppy felt antlers. “Isn’t it adorable?”
“It is,” he says. “Are you going to have room for all these keepsakes in your apartment back home?”
“Already fantasizing about me leaving, huh?”
“No,” Aemond says, seriously now. Deadly serious. “No, I’m not.” And then Criston is shouting through cupped hands for everybody to huddle up so you can all head to the train station.
It’s not until the band is trekking out of Nara Park towards the blissful promise of air conditioning that you realize someone is missing. When you look around, you see Criston, Aemond, Shelby, Aegon (rubbing his eyes and yawning), Baela, Jace, Rhaena, Luke, Cregan, and a smattering of security guards dressed in black.
“Wait,” you say. “Where’s Daeron?”
A chorus of confusion: “What?” Huh?” “He’s not here?” At last, Criston spies him sitting alone on a wooden park bench, glumly eating through his mountain of shaved ice.
“What the hell is he doing?!” Jace says impatiently, swiping perspiration from his forehead.
Aegon massages your shoulders. “I think this might call for your particular area of expertise, Stargirl.” And when Aemond’s eye flicks to Aegon fleetingly, resentfully, you think for the first time: And where were you, Aegon, when Aemond was waiting all those months ago? Whoring, drinking, self-destructing in ways that take other people down with you? Then you leave him.
Through the heat that lays thick over the city like a tangle of vines, you trudge to the bench where the youngest Targaryen brother is lingering. “Daeron? What’s wrong?”
He stares gloomily down into his shaved ice: blood-colored, strawberry, ichigo. “Everyone thinks I’m always joking and optimistic, but I’m not.”
You ask gently: “What are you really, Daeron?”
“I don’t know what to be. That’s the problem. I worry about it all the time. I can’t win. If I’m sad, then I’m ungrateful for this tremendous opportunity. But if I’m happy, it’s like I’m dancing on Aemond’s grave.”
“He’s not dead, Daeron,” you say.
“Well, yeah, obviously.”
“But a lot of the time people talk about him like he is. You speak around him, over him, through him. Do you think he doesn’t notice?” Do you think he can’t feel the weight of that dark gravity that roots him to the earth? Do you think he can disentangle who he is from the wreckage that has buried its shrapnel in his bones?
Daeron isn’t insulted by what you’ve said. Instead, he seems fascinated. He seems grateful, like you’ve sat down to help him with an especially baffling puzzle. “What would he want from us, do you think?”
“I think he wants to know that his time in Comet wasn’t wasted. That even if he leaves, he will still be a part of this family. I think he wants to be acknowledged. He doesn’t want pity or awkward silences, he doesn’t want to pretend that the accident never happened. He wants to know that his life will go on in spite of it.”
Daeron ruminates on this, taking a bite of his towering mound of shaved ice. “If I said something about him at the last Tokyo show tomorrow, do you think he’d mind? I’ve had this idea for a while, but I didn’t know how he’d take it.”
“That depends on what you say.”
Daeron asks, peering up at you with large pale eyes: more translucent than Aegon’s, more harmless than Aemond’s. He has been shown more kindness than either of them; he is perhaps less deep, less singularly brilliant, but also less burdened. It is a trade many would happily agree to. It is a trade they would pay for in blood. “What should I say?”
You smile at Daeron. “The truth.”
~~~~~~~~~~
“I’d like to take a moment to share something with all of you,” Daeron says into his microphone as soon as Comet finishes The Worst Way To Be. The audience lowers their cheers to a reverent, intensely attentive murmur.
“Wait, what?” Baela whispers to you and Rhaena as you stand in the front row. Shelby, who had been looking rather bored, whips out her phone and begins a live stream. Aegon, Jace, Luke, and Cregan are upbeat and beaming—as is expected of them, as is required—but they pass each other nervous glances like folded paper notes in a high school classroom. This is not in the script.
“I just want to say thank you,” Daeron continues. His voice reverberates off the walls of the Budokan. “Thank you to all of you guys, of course. Our amazing, incredible fans. Thank you for letting us live this dream of a life.” There are claps and whistles, shrieked declarations of undying adoration. Daeron takes a deep breath. His hands are shaking; you can see the microphone tremble. “And thank you to my big brother Aemond.” Instantaneously, the crowd goes as close to silent as it is possible for a stadium at max capacity to be. The others are gawking at him openly now, unable to paper over it with masklike smiles. “I had been following Comet around for years before I got the offer to officially join. So I know how much work and talent Aemond poured into this band. I’m beyond honored to be up on this stage tonight performing for all of you, but I wish it could have happened a different way. I wish Aemond could be here too. And no matter where he goes in the world or what he does next, he will always be the person who made Comet Donati possible. And he will always be my greatest inspiration. I love you, man. We all love you.”
And the audience erupts into deafening cheers and applause, all for a soul who could not bring himself to attend the show. There are chants of We love you, Aemond! that go on for more than five minutes. Aegon is shouting as loudly as anyone; Jace, Luke, and Cregan are running around the stage and encouraging the crowd. They are a little shellshocked, but they are genuine.
Even Jace, you think, you marvel. Even Jace is honoring him. He doesn’t hate Aemond after all. He provokes and he taunts, sure, and he crosses lines on occasion, but Jace doesn’t hate Aemond. He might even miss him.
For their last night in Tokyo, Criston has grander aspirations for the band than the usual wind down in Jace’s suite. He gets everyone—Aemond included, fetched from the bar of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, already several Brambles deep—into the Escalades to drive to Club Camelot, where Criston has reserved one of the three floors for Comet. It swiftly fills like a flute of champagne: women in sparkling gowns, men with baiting smiles, security guards and label executives and friends and acquaintances and models. The tiles on the floor are black and white, but bathed in sapphire luminescence that covers everyone like rain. Empty hands are filled with frosty bottles and glasses clinking with ice. The song that thunders out of the speakers is a throwback: Butterfly by Crazy Town.
Cregan has acquired a harem of sorts; you look once and he’s flocked by three gazelle-like companions, you look again and there are five of them. Jace is mingling freely. Aemond is talking to Daeron—thanking him, it appears, offering heartfelt gratitude—while Shelby greets a pack of influencer-types as they arrive. They squeal and jump up and down with her in their clicking stilettos, then take turns snapping each other’s pictures. Criston actually appears to be somewhat relaxed. He sips on a Sapporo Premium and chats with one of the guys from the label, gesturing casually with his expressive hands. Aegon is curled up in a booth with Selena Gomez. Yes, Selena freaking Gomez. He keeps playing with her glossy dark tresses and making her giggle, propping his sunburned face up on his knuckles, glowing in that way that he does. It’s not just for you. It’s never been just for you. And sometimes he’s close to you and sometimes he’s not, and right now he’s on the other side of the solar system, he’s out in the Oort cloud, he’ll be back to visit earth in a few hundred years. Aegon disappears into the bathroom every few minutes. You see smudges of white powder on his hands, under his nose. If he tried to talk to you right now, you wouldn’t know what to say to him. He would feel like a stranger.
You’re watching Aemond. You wish you weren’t, but you are. He’s in all black, the top three buttons of his shirt undone. You nurse a Bramble and follow Baela, Rhaena, and Luke around the dancefloor, barely able to hear them over the music. Luke is lightheartedly making fun of Baela for something. Her earrings? Her shoes?
“I’ll have you know that I’m very important around here!” Baela cries over the music. “I’m the patron saint of drive!”
“Patron saint of driving herself to the Gucci store, maybe,” Luke says.
They’re all laughing. You feel like you’re observing them through a transparent wall, like you’re at the aquarium and they’re a dazzling rare species and you’re some grubby kid with your palms pressed to the glass. What am I still doing here? Why did I ever think I belonged here?
You break away from Baela, Rhaena, and Luke and drift by Shelby and her fellow influencers, not intending to eavesdrop but catching a few fragments of their conversation like Jupiter and Saturn capture moons. As Aemond talks to Daeron across the room, Shelby is lamenting her love life. She thinks she’s being discrete, but she’s had more than a few gin and tonics.
“No, he still…he probably doesn’t want me looking at him…he’ll let me blow him, but he won’t actually…you know…?”
And you remember what you told him on that balcony in Reykjavik: I think you haven’t fucked anyone since the accident, and you’re terrified to.
You were right. You’re still right. And here you are, like mirrors: Aemond not fucking Shelby, you not fucking Aegon, and there’s no especially good reason for either except that it just doesn’t feel right. After a while, Shelby and her entourage leave to check out another nightclub down the block. More photo opportunities, you suspect. A change of scenery.
“How’s your wrist?” Jace inquires. He’s found you loitering on the outskirts of the dancefloor. He’s wearing a black sequined blazer with nothing underneath except skin and ink. He’s unsteady on his feet, a Vesper sloshing in his glass. Now the song that’s playing is Ed Sheeran’s I Don’t Care, featuring Justin Bieber. In the booth she’s sharing with Aegon, Selena Gomez audibly groans.
“Great. It actually feels better when no one talks to me.”
Jace cackles, far too loudly. “You are hilarious. Hey, hey, listen.” His free hand skates around your waist. Instinctively, you jolt away from him.
“Nope.”
“Listen.” He grips you more adamantly. “Let’s do this.”
“No, no, that’s a very kind offer but I’d rather chew off my own limbs, thank you.”
“Look, I don’t care if you’ve hooked up with Aegon,” Jace purrs into your ear, sweating out vodka and gin, his curls brushing against your cheek. “Hell, I don’t care if you’re still hooking up with Aegon. I’m better than him. I have to be, right? That fat drunk. I’ll show you.”
You try to pull away from him again. You’re wearing the short sparkly dress you bought in Reykjavik, black velvet and silver stars. “Jace, don’t touch me.”
“Come on, Stargirl, give me a shot—”
“Jace,” you say harshly, your eyes blazing. “Do not touch me.”
“Okay,” he sighs; and, to his credit, he releases you. He holds up his palm in surrender. “Okay, fine, but when you change your mind—”
Aemond soars in out of nowhere, a comet, a meteor, the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. His fist connects with Jace’s jaw. Jace’s Vesper goes flying; blood spurts from his mouth, split lips and lost teeth. “Don’t you fucking touch her!” Aemond is roaring. He has Jace pinned to the floor, black and white and sapphire and red. “When she says not to touch her, you don’t, you hear me?!”
People are screaming and descending upon them, trying to pull them apart. Your Bramble shatters against the tile floor. Criston is here, and security guards, and Baela and Rhaena and Luke and Aegon. Everyone is talking at the same time, so it’s almost like no one is. Jace is striking at Aemond from the ground. Aemond hits him again, and again, knuckles into defenseless flesh and bone, blood vessels bursting, nerves on fire. The music stops, the lights come on.
“Aemond, stop!” you shout. “Aemond, Aemond, you’re going to kill him!”
“Let him go, Aemond, please!” Baela is yelling, and there’s raw terror in her voice.
Then Jace lands a solid punch at last, a hook that comes in from Aemond’s left. Blood pours from Aemond’s nose, it’s on his face and his throat, it’s running down his chest. Cregan arrives, locks his arms around Aemond’s waist, and heaves him away. Before Jace has a second to recover, Aegon wrenches him up by the collar of his blazer and slaps him open-handed across the face.
“He can’t see on that side, you fucking snake!”
Criston bellows: “Aegon, back up, back up, back the fuck up!” He finally gets a good look at Jace: bleeding, bruised, teeth missing, blinking dazedly at the spectators, too stunned to feel the pain yet. “Oh my God!” Criston whirls to Aemond, who is struggling against Cregan’s grasp. “How’s he going to perform in five days, huh?! Jesus Christ, he looks like he’s been butchered! How am I going to cover that up?! How is he going to sing?!” Criston pulls Jace to his feet; he practically has to carry him. Baela follows after them, more distressed than you’ve ever seen her, flowing tears and strangled sobs. Rhaena and Luke go too.
You, Aegon, and Daeron rush to Aemond. He’s bent over and spitting blood onto the floor so he doesn’t choke on it. “Not broken,” Cregan pronounces after examining his nose. “Just gonna bleed real bad. Needs pressure on it.”
“Are you okay?” Aegon asks you, a hand careful and tender on your face. He’s back again, for a minute, an hour, a day.
Your voice quakes. “Yeah.”
“What did Jace do…?”
“Nothing, nothing that bad, I mean he grabbed my waist but—”
“Aegon?” Selena Gomez says tentatively, waiting nearby and hugging her arms around herself.
“Yeah, one second, love. Give me a second.” He appraises Aemond and whistles. “Man, you are wrecked.” And not just physically. He’s incensed, he’s in shock. You reach for Aemond’s hand and he lets you take it.
“You got him?” Cregan asks you.
“I’ll clean him up. I’ll take care of him.” And as blood continues to run down his face, you draw Aemond towards the bathrooms. You lead him inside the women’s room and lock the door, blue walls and white florescent light. Somewhat ungainly—relying mostly upon your non-dominant hand—you press a pile of paper towels against his nose and tell him to hold it there. Then you wet more paper towels and wipe down his knuckles, his face, his throat. The blood on his chest has run beneath his glossy black shirt. We match, you think randomly. “Can I…?”
He yanks the shirt over his head, then returns the mass of crimson-stained paper towels to his nose. Fortunately, the bleeding appears to be slowing. You erase the smudged trail of scarlet that runs all the way to the waistline of his dark jeans. When you reach the end of it, Aemond flinches away from you; not a pained flinch, but a fearful one. He turns his back on you and walks to the other end of the small and shadowless room. He braces one palm against the wall and sighs deeply. He throws the wad of paper towels in the trashcan and then covers his face with his hand, shaking his head.
“Aemond,” you say. And you wait for him to look you in the eye. It takes a long time. “What do you want?” Why were you watching me and Jace? Why did you lose control?
“Nothing,” he replies immediately.
“That’s a lie.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does,” you insist, your voice fracturing. “It does matter. Just tell me what you want.”
“Why, so you can let me down easy? Or worse, pretend to be into it to make me feel better, to help piece me and my fragile little ego back together? I don’t beg for anything. You really think I’m going to beg you to want me?”
“No, you’re too fucking proud, you’d never even ask for it. You’ll beat people half to death for things you’re too much of a coward to say out loud, and I’m supposed to feel sorry for you?!”
“Then why are you even in here with me?! Just go back to Aegon, I know that’s what you want. I guess you’ll have to wait in line behind Selena Gomez, but he’ll work his way back around to you eventually.”
“Jace stole something from you, right?” you say. “You feel like he stole the band from you after you were kicked out, and then tonight you felt like he was stealing something else, and that’s why you freaked out and almost murdered him—”
“No. No, because you’re not mine.”
“What do you want, Aemond?” you ask him again, tears of exhaustion and desperation in your eyes.
“I don’t want anything from you,” he says, coming in closer. “So you’re absolved, you’re free to go, I don’t need your goddamn charity—”
Your good hand juts out, and what you plan to do is plant it against his bare chest and push him away. What you do instead—as if by muscle memory, a reflex, an instinct—is reach up to plunge your fingers into his hair. And then his palm is cradling the small of your back and his lips are on yours, moving seamlessly like how currents thread through the ocean. He helps lift you up onto the counter; there is just enough room between two of the sinks. Your legs link around Aemond as he presses himself to you, lips still tinged with coppery blood, bare chest, his waist, his hips. Your back hits the mirror—cool and unyielding, the ink of his lyrics flat against the glass—with enough force to make a thump.
“Are you okay—?”
“I’m more okay than I’ve been in years.”
He tilts up your chin and kisses you deeply, dizzyingly, his tongue darting between your lips. He tastes like his Brambles, sweetness cut with the bite of gin, and smoke, and something else too, something that’s just purely him, something you could drown in like the river of his clear right eye. Gently, you bring your fingertips to his face, to his scar. “Don’t,” he pleads softly, pained.
“There’s nothing wrong with you.”
“Don’t—”
“Aemond, look at me.” And you hold his face still so you know he hears you. “There’s nothing wrong with you. There has never been anything wrong with you.”
You watch it hit him like a stone into water, ripples that wash away everything he’s felt before. He knows you mean it, he can feel it, the same way you can feel the care with which he caresses you, not just lust but engulfing warmth, wordless veneration. He whispers between kisses: “Tell me what to do. Tell me what you want.”
Your lock your gaze with his, then reach down to unbutton his jeans. It’s difficult with the splint, but you manage. You think he might stop you, you prepare yourself for it, but he doesn’t. Instead, Aemond’s hands vanish beneath your dress and slip off your panties, black lace you hadn’t planned on anyone seeing tonight. As you kiss his face—jagged scar, flushed cheek, the slope of his jaw—his fingers slide into a pool of staggering heat and wetness.
He moans. “Oh fuck, that’s for me?”
“I’ve wanted this from the start.”
“Show me…show me how you like it…”
You guide his hand to exactly the right spot and give him a rhythm, a pressure, a pace that rolls a euphoric shudder down your spine. He’s barely touched you, and already you’re shaking all over; you’re throbbing, you’re dazed with that delicious needful aching, you’re gasping into the sweltering, salt-strewn dampness of his neck. His fingertips stroke you in commanding circles—only a few times—until you’re on the precipice, until you stop him. You’re ready, even though he’s huge: long and thick, revealed as he tugs down his jeans and boxers. He pins your uninjured hand against the mirror and kisses and bites at your throat as he eases himself inside you: a stretching that is intense but not unpleasant, hunger being satisfied. And when he thrusts—carefully at first, waiting for you to tell him he can be rougher—there are so many layers of pleasure that it stuns you, it leaves you speechless. Has it ever been like this before? Never, never, never, not once, not for a moment, not with anybody. His future was stolen from him, but he’s taken your past from you; he’s carved it out like a gemstone from the earth and locked it away in a vault no one remembers the passcode to.
“I’m so close,” you whisper, you beg. “Aemond, please, please, I want to come for you…” And you gasp as his fingers skim down your belly again, stroking you forcefully as his thrusts become deeper, quicker, impossibly powerful.
His voice is low and murmuring. His scent is everywhere; it’s all you know how to breathe. “You okay, baby? You alright?”
“Yes, yes, oh God, Aemond, don’t stop, please don’t stop…”
“I won’t stop, baby. You’re doing so well, you’re almost there.”
“Aemond…yes…I love this…”
“I love you.”
He what…? He WHAT…??
And it doesn’t just drag you over the edge; it pushes you, it propels you, you go plummeting off the cliffside and freefall for miles. There’s no disguising it. You have to bury your face in his chest to keep from crying out, clinging to him, your fingernails leaving indents like crescent moons. Aemond, fighting his own climax viciously, lasts just long enough to fuck you through the aftershocks and then empties himself not just physically but also of the shame and aimlessness of the past seven months, of his fears, of his suspicions.
“Wait,” you say as he pulls away from you. You yank a paper towel out of the dispenser and wet it with cold water. First you cool his forehead and the back of his neck with it, then you wipe his fingers and his cock. Still perched on the counter, you wet another paper towel for yourself.
“No,” Aemond tells you. “Let me.” He takes it from you, opens your thighs, and kisses your mouth—teasingly, biting and sucking your lower lip—as he spreads your folds and cleans them of his seed, abundant hot white fluid that you can feel dripping out of you. As he passes over where you are most sensitive—where you can already feel longing for him rebuilding brick by brick—you jump a little, and you both laugh. I could go again, you think. I could do this with him forever. And then, as Aemond descends from the chemical high like a plane gliding down towards a tarmac, you watch as those old familiar poisons—shame, aimlessness, fear, suspicion—begin to fill up in him again, slowly but unmistakably.
He throws out the paper towels and takes several steps back. He starts putting on his clothes, staring at the wall, then at the mirror, not at you but past you, at himself, his clear river-blue eye wide and vacant. He looks horrified by what he’s done; or perhaps, rather, by what he’s said.
You grab your panties off the counter and step into them, readjusting your dress. “Look, uh…if you didn’t mean what you said…that’s totally cool. I get it, sometimes people say things in the moment that aren’t real, there’s the oxytocin and the dopamine, and I don’t want you to feel…uh…you know…like you have to keep up a false pretense or anything…”
Aemond turns around and walks out of the bathroom, the door slamming behind him.
“Okay,” you say to yourself. “Okay. I can fix this.” You use the toilet quickly—UTIs are not welcome here—and then head out onto the dancefloor.
The lights are dim again, and thank God for that; your makeup is smudged, your hair unruly, your eyes glazed, your dress rumpled and stained. Cregan is the only person still waiting. “Hey,” he says flatly, then squints at you. You avoid his astute greyish eyes.
“Hey. Where is everyone?”
“Criston took Jace to the hospital. Baela is there too. Rhaena and Luke are back at the hotel. Aegon is presumably balls deep in Selena Gomez. Aemond just sprinted out of this club and I’d guess he’s headed back to the hotel too. Daeron went after him. I think that’s everybody.”
You shift your weight from foot to foot uneasily. “Shelby?”
“Oh, right. Haven’t seen her. Still out with her friends.” His eyes sweep over you. “On a scale of one to ten, how homicidal would she be if she found out about whatever happened in that bathroom?”
“Nothing happened.”
“Uh huh.” Cregan strides towards the stairwell that leads down to the front door. “Let’s go.”
Back at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, you swipe your keycard and flick the lights on in your suite. You stand there alone, feeling the evidence of what you’ve done: sore muscles and bruised skin and pooling wetness, both yours and his. You are absorbed with thoughts of what you’re going to say to Aemond when you confront him, how much of your truth you are willing to bare. And then your eyes catch on the small trashcan beside your bed, which reminds you of the one back in Singapore, which reminds you of your pack of birth control pills discarded on a pile of crumpled soda cans and snack wrappers.
I haven’t taken a pill in days. How many days? A week?
“Oh my God,” you breathe. And then, more frantically: “Oh no, oh no, no no no…”
What do I do? What the hell do I do?
You race out into the hallway and knock on Baela’s door. Nobody answers. You try Rhaena’s next. She appears in her pajamas, pink and dotted with tiny green Tyrannosaurus rexes. “Hi,” she says agreeably enough, but she’s rubbing her eyes drowsily.
“Hi. I’m really, really sorry to bother you, but it’s an emergency.”
She perks up considerably. “Okay, how can I help?”
“Where’s Luke?”
“In the shower.”
“So he can’t hear us right now?”
“No, he can’t.”
“Good. Do you know when Baela will be back from the hospital?”
“Not anytime soon,” Rhaena says. “She messaged me that Jace needs stitches and has a concussion. They’ll be there all night, at least.”
You exhale, a defeated little squeak. “Is Aegon around? With or without Selena Gomez?”
“No, they haven’t come back yet. I have no idea where they are.”
“Okay.” You swallow noisily.
“What’s going on with you?” Rhaena asks, concerned.
“This really is not a Rhaena situation. This is a Baela or Aegon situation.”
“Alright, but neither of them are here. So I’m who you’ve got.”
You stare at her. “I need Plan B. Do you happen to have any Plan B?”
“Plan B…? Like, you just had unprotected sex with someone Plan B?”
“Yes, exactly, that one.”
Rhaena gapes, scandalized. “With who?!”
“Confidential,” you say briskly. “Do you have any or not?”
“No, I definitely don’t have any Plan B lying around.”
“No,” you groan. Tears are welling up in your eyes. “What am I going to do? How do I get Plan B in Japan?!”
“We’ll figure this out,” Rhaena says. She dashes to her nightstand to grab her iPhone. “Don’t panic. It’ll be okay. Let’s Google 24-hour pharmacies in Tokyo…”
You don’t have Criston here to summon an Escalade—nor would you willingly risk him finding out about this—but Rhaena uses Google Translate to ask the hotel’s front desk to call a taxi. She shows the taxi driver an address, figures out how many yen you owe him, and then asks him very politely (if haltingly) in Japanese to wait ten minutes while you’re inside the pharmacy so you can take a return trip as well. He seems to agree.
Rhaena accompanies you into the pharmacy and repeats these steps: Google Translate, an exchange of yen, the receipt of a service. She tells you that based on her quick research, Plan B is usually by prescription only in Japan, but pharmacists will sometimes be willing to prescribe it on the spot to a patient in need. Rhaena spends a long time typing out a message for the middle-aged, bespectacled pharmacist, then points to you. This is my friend, the maybe-pregnant slut from Missouri, you imagine her saying. She needs emergency contraception. It’s really in all of humanity’s best interests for her not to continue her bloodline.
“You have to show him your ID,” Rhaena tells you.
You give your passport to the pharmacist, and then he hands you a small package. You and Rhaena purchase a bottle of Coke Zero as well. You gulp down the single tablet as the pharmacist watches with bushy raised eyebrows, amused. You are pleased to discover that the taxi driver has waited, and within fifteen minutes you and Rhaena are back at the hotel.
“You’ve talked to a lot of people tonight,” you tell Rhaena matter-of-factly as you ride the elevator back up to the band’s floor.
“Oh, yeah. I guess I did. I mean, I’ve been practicing. And you needed me.”
“I’m proud of you,” you say.
Rhaena smiles sheepishly. “Thanks.”
“And I’ll be even more proud of you when I get my period.”
She giggles, she trots off to her suite, you retreat into yours. You collapse onto the floor and gaze up at the ceiling, studying the specks and grooves in the tiles like constellations.
“It was only one time,” you say to the ceiling. “I was on the pill for years. That takes a while to leave my system, right? I mean, what are the odds? It’s fine. It’s totally fine. Nothing’s going to happen, right?”
Right?
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dominadespina · 6 months ago
Text
THE FORTUNE OF THREE  
The life of Maria Gomez de Sotomayor: The Ottoman slave who had suffered great dispair in both Ottoman lands and outdoor lands. 
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Early Life 
The date of birth nor origin of Maria is certain. Unlike Catalina, who has a fitted name for a Hungarian-origin woman, same for Angelina with her Greek/Byzantine influenced name, Maria’s name is too relatively common in both Hungarian and Greek areas to be certain of her origin, though it is possibly more likely that she is of Hungarian origin. 
Maria is often regarded by some historians as the sister of Angelina of Greece, both regarded as Hungarian ladies who were captured by Ottoman raiders. While some historians suggest they could be siblings, others argue that they may have been referred to as "lady sisters" in a more metaphorical sense rather than literally.
Their differing names, Maria being called “Maria de Ungría”(Maria of Hungary) and Angelina referred to as “Angelina de Grecia” (Angelina of Greece) add to the confusion surrounding their identities. Additionally, some theories propose that they might have different mothers, as in Castile, children were often identified by their mother's nationality/ethnicity. 
However, the odds that two sisters from different mothers could be captured in the same area at the same time and later reunited in an Ottoman harem is highly unlikely.
First Capture
Maria is believed to have been captured shortly after the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396. It is worth mentioning that she might have been captured at a different time and location, possibly during another raid by the Turks near their home borders.
She was likely a child when she was captured, as she would later be sent to King Henry III of Castile as a “gift” in 1402/1403, which suggests she could not have been too old (possibly in her mid-teens to early 20s by 1402).
Life in the Harem
Though captured and sent to the harem, Maria did not convert to Islam and remained a Christian throughout her enslavement.
Considering that all potential concubines of the Sultan had to be converted Muslims, it is safe to assume that Maria did not have to worry about concubinage duties.
Second Capture
Maria was either captured following the plunder of Bursa, five days after the Battle of Ankara, which took place on July 20, 1402, or sometime later in an unknown residence in Yenisehir, along with Olivera Lazarevic, her daughters, and other servants.
Payo Gomez de Sotomayor
Payo was one of the two ambassadors (the other being Hernan Sanchez de Palazuelos) sent from King Henry III of Castile to his correspondent, Timur, in 1402.
After their mission ended, Timur tasked the embassy with escorting Christian maidens from the harem of Sultan Bayezid I, which he had decided to send to Henry.
As a result, Catalina, Angelina, and Maria were given to and escorted by Payo and his partner. It is unknown when exactly they left, but they were certainly in Castile by early 1403.
The Incident In Jodar
According to a folk love tale, upon passing through Jodar, Payo, who had been traveling with Maria for some months, realized his feelings for her by a fountain in Jodar.
Argote de Molina, a Spanish historian, quoted a somewhat unknown poem which seems to be from the point of view of Payo:
“Beside that fountain at Jódar,   The maid with beauteous eyes I saw.   I died by the wound they gave me,   And not one hour could I survive.”
This is likely nothing more than Argote’s attempt at romanticizing the true story, which caused a scandal, especially considering the anger that fueled Henry upon learning this information.
Whether in a soft poem or not, a relationship with a maiden who was entrusted to you is completely inappropriate. Additionally, it is unknown what the extent of their “relationship” was, nor if it was even consensual.
Arrival In Castile
Upon their arrival at the court of Henry III, Payo had to face the wrath of the King, who highly disapproved of his inappropriate relationship with Maria.
Wishing to avoid the consequences of his actions, Payo fled to his lands in Galicia and later to France.
In the meantime, some nobles did their best to mediate some sort of reconciliation between the two, a mediation which ultimately succeeded, as Don Payo Gomez de Sotomayor was recalled to court and married Maria by order of the King.
The Death of the King
King Henry, who acted as the guardian of Maria and her companions, passed away in 1406. With the King gone, Payo planned to annul his marriage to Maria on the grounds of “forced marriage,” since the late King had ordered him to marry her to rectify his actions.
He set his sights on a relative of an archbishop, a woman named Maior de Mendoza; a marriage with her would elevate his reputation and status.
It is unknown when the annulment was finalized, but it is certain that it was from Dona Maior de Mendoza that Payo welcomed his eldest son and future heir.
Later Life
Some historians believe that after her “divorce,” Maria worked as a servant in her former husband’s household, based on a document released by Payo in 1453.
In his will, he names a certain Maria as his servant:  
“…regarding my estate, that both the legitimate heirs of my wife Dona Maior and Doctor Diego Albrea, who has received gains from Maria Gomez, my servant who has passed away…” - *Colección Diplomática De Galicia Histórica, Volumes 1-2
Considering “Maria” and “Gomez” are extremely common names in Spanish areas, and that Maria was buried in a convent a few leagues away from her former husband’s burial place, it is possible that he could be referring to a completely different Maria Gomez.
There was no true reason for Maria to end her life as his servant; upon annulment, it was his duty to return the dowry, which was likely sponsored by King Henry, allowing her to care for herself or even remarry if she wished.
It is much more plausible that upon her “divorce,” Maria’s dowry was returned to her at some point, and she might have used her resources to support herself and the convent in which she would later be buried in.
(Sources: Two Christian princesses offered as Timur’s present  for King Henry III  of Castile, the analysis of the introduction to Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo’s narrative (1403-1406) by Lukasz Burkiewicz. Colección Diplomática De Galicia Histórica, Volumes 1-2 by Antonio Lopez Ferreiro. Revisión y estudio de la obra poética de Micer Francisco Imperial by UNIVERSITAT DE VALÈNCIA. EMBASSY TO TAMERLANE, The Broadway Travellers. Bu Mülkün Kadın Sultanları by Necdet Sakaoğlu.) 
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rinnysega · 8 days ago
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One Autumn Night - Encanto OC Short Fiction
I started this last year, hoping to finish by Christmas, but now that I’ve got deadlines on other projects, I won’t be able to expand on it as much as I wanted to. It’ll live as a short piece ❤️
Ozzy - @thebiggestnope
Elena - @prophetic-hijinks
The Autumn celebration was still in full swing well into the late November night. Music and laughter poured from every bar room in the alleys that branched out from the plaza, and the main event in the Encanto’s town square was the star spectacle, explosive with more lively accordions and free flowing drinks among the townsfolk. Children weaved through their parents’ legs, holding up toys and sticks to chase one another, and fireworks lit up the night sky that complimented every bold and colorful skirt and ruana that danced along with their owners in the breeze.
Just off the main path, Elena Madrigal and Ozzy Pinheiro-Gomez sat on a bench near the church. The grassy knoll behind them acted as a cradle for the young lovers of the city, curled up in the arms of one another to kiss beneath the colors of the night sky.
It wasn’t that long of a time ago that both Elena and Ozzy were latecomers to the Encanto, finding their own pockets of the city to be in the arms of their beloveds. Although that night, those beloved ones were not with them on the bench, but instead at the top of a steep hill between the church and the knoll. Gustavo Pinheiro-Gomez in his wheelchair with Bruno Madrigal trying to find a way to keep secure on the back.
Elena sipped her wine while Ozzy waved back to his husband before their descent. The two then watched as their husbands screamed with either laughter or adrenaline on their way down the hill. At the last second, Bruno turned the chair to keep the two from crashing into a tree. A foot closer to their mark of trying to go between the short gap.
“One more time!” Bruno laughed, hiccuping from his drunken stupor. Gustavo meanwhile tossed back the last of his twelfth drink he managed not to spill.
“Be careful,” Elena called. She’d long since given up trying to talk him out of it. Same as Ozzy who poured her more wine from their bottle.
“Ozzy, did you see that?” Gustavo shouted. “We were this close!” He pinched his fingers together to prove his point, although it was heavily exaggerated.
“Yeah, you’ll make it this time!” Ozzy encouraged.
Bruno huffed through his laughter, pushing Gustavo in his chair back up the hill to try again. When they were out of earshot, Elena let out a snicker.
“You know, there’s days I think the two of them are joking with me about how they grew up.”
“The bullying?” Ozzy clarified.
Elena nodded. “They’re like two peas in a pod. I couldn’t imagine a world where the two of them didn’t get along.”
Ozzy nodded. “Makes me wonder if maybe Bruno looked into the future to see how the two of them would turn out.”
Elena shrugged. “Worked out for us, but I don’t think he was keen on looking into his future as a kid. That’s what he told me anyway. Besides, that’s the fun of life isn’t it? To not know how something will turn out?”
“I suppose, but the alternative would have been nice. It would have made my years with Nairo a lot better to know they were numbered, although I shouldn’t say that.” He smiled. “We had our good moments, but without that relationship, I wouldn’t have had something to compare my marriage to. I couldn’t imagine these past few years without Gus or the encanto. I guess things work out the way they’re supposed to in the grand scheme of things.”
Elena nodded, understanding to a certain degree his sentiments. “I hope Carlos is well too.”
Ozzy matched her nod of understanding, a beat of silence between them.
“So,” Ozzy started, “when are you and Bruno going to join us on our cruises?”
“Not until the kids are older. Pedro’s still a bit clingy, and Catalina’s always getting into something when we’re not around. Your vacation stories sound nice, and we appreciate the souvenirs you bring back in the meantime. When’s the next one?”
“Probably after the holidays. My patients have family visiting who will take care of their medical care while Gustavo and I are gone. It’ll be nice to relax with him a little longer.”
“We’ll check in on Anne, so Gustavo can relax too.”
“Thank you. I know it’s short notice.” He paused. “I just want to take advantage of the time. I don’t know how many good years we have left.”
“Bruno could…”
Ozzy shook his head, and Elena rubbed his arm.
In their silence, their husbands whizzed by again, finally making it through the gap before the wheels hit a rock, sending both Bruno and Gustavo flying into a nearby bush near the statue of Our Lady.
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berrycdx · 11 months ago
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You can call me abi i guess
Rules:
Just dont be rude🤷‍♀️ (i dont have much rules..)
● PLEASE DONT INVOLVE THE OC ON ANY POLITICAL ISSUE IN THEIR COUNTRY. THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THEIR GOVERMENT, NOR ANY OF THOSE ISSUES.
Ocs i have: (i alr have a lot of info about them)
● Guatemala - Flor Torres itzel Canek
● Venezuela - Dolores (still thinking about her last names.)
● Nicaragua - Azariel Perez Cruz Grote
● Honduras - Carlota Ana Ramirez Garcia
Ocs that do not belong to me: (latin hetalia basically but only for the designs.)
● Colombia - Catalina Gomez (more to be added.)
● Argentina - Martin Hernandez (more to be added.)
Ocs am currently working on:
● El Salvador
Countries that i havent started yet:
● Chile
● Uruguay
● Paraguay
● Costa rica
● Panama
● Guyana
● Peru
● Bolivia
● Belize
● Mexico
● Haiti
● Dominican republic
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briarridgerp · 2 months ago
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Welcome to Briar Ridge! Please ensure to make at least 2 IC posts in the next 48 hours!
Catalina Gomez
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manhattanindulgedrp · 8 months ago
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I am back awake, so, let me tell you a little bit about our wanted connections once again. To avoid occupying too big sections of your feed though, I'll put them under a read more.
We have
Alessandro Bendetti (Peter Dinklage) looking for their apprentice, a junior accountant who can take over for him in the Giannetto family in the future. Open to any FC, muse must be over 28. Gotta contact AMES.
Anita Mendez (Justina Machado) is looking for the final child of hers, a twin to Joaquin Mendez and little sister to Valeria Mendez. Can be any FC that fits (latino family) and the muse must be 25. Gotta contact CAT
Beatrice Giannetto (Maia Cotton) is seeking that very special person who believes they can make her settle down. The FC is up to you, but the character has to be between 26 and 30. You think you have what it takes to make the Giannetto princess settle? Gotta contact NELLY.
Catalina Alvarez Herrera (Becky G) is seeking a corrupt police officer who will be under her palm, and do her bidding, in return for something the players can discuss. They can look like any FC (Though Cat has suggestions), and has to be over the age of 30. Gotta contact CAT
Christopher Jacobs (Manu Rios) is looking for his sisters. They look like any FC's, but they are all between 21 and 35. A happy little family from the middle class, but are they going to remain a happy family when brother dearest is involved in the mafia world? Gotta contact PRESSY.
Jaw-Long Li (Justin Chien) is looking for their advisor, or co-conspirator. You feeling a little mischievous, and like you want to create more chaos? Well bring a muse who is over the age of 30, but who can look like any FC (Though I'm sure Heppy is happy to help with suggestions). Gotta contact HEPPY.
Kyosuke Nakamura (Nijiro Murakami) is looking for their handler from the police force, as they're undercover. So do you feel like being the cop-contact for a undercover agent? If so, they're looking for ANY FC though Miyavi, Mélanie Laurent or Diego Luna are preferred. This muse has to be over the age of 40 though, and you gotta contact LIZA.
Li Fang (Lucy Liu), our Li cousin, is seeking a friend with benefits. You think your character has what it takes to satisfy the feisty fashion director? Then you can bring a discreet muse who looks like ANY FC, but is over the age of 30.
Linn Ulva Tveit (Katie McGrath) is seeking a forbidden little fling. Someone who works at the hotel in an entry level position, such as a receptionist, housekeeper or perhaps a bartender, for them to step into a fling. The character needs to be between 23 and 33 for that age gap element, and Renee Rapp is a suggested FC, but any female FC under 35 is acceptable. For this one, you gotta contact CAT.
Lorenzo 'Enzo' Giannetto (Henry Cavill), the Giannetto Heir, is seeking a personal assistant. Well, personal assistant, executive assistant, whatever you wish to call it. If anything, it'd almost be business manager he's requesting. He has far too much going on with his businesses he manages, so he needs a muse who is over 25, and looks like ANY FC, to come help him manage all of them, and ensure that the public business side of things stays all above board and controlled. You think your muse can handle his grumpy ass? Then you gotta contact CAT.
Matteo Lombardi (Mason Gooding) is seeking their sister. A girl between the ages of 21 and 25, with any FC that would fit as a sister of Mason Gooding and that age. It is requested that the character would work for the Giannetto family though due to their father, but for details it's practical to talk with GREMLIN, though you can apply without contacting them.
Poppy Davies (Lili Reinhart), Valeria Mendez (Isabella Gomez) and Rosette Mehan (Simone Ashley) are looking for their fourth roomie to live with them. The three girls are already a chaotic batch, but they're looking for any FC over the age of 21 to join them. You do not need to contact Berry for it, but that is allowed. So perhaps you have a grump to counter their giggling pizza-sharing at 3 am, or maybe they're a cop where the two Park affiliates has to hide their affiliations?
Roxanne Basinger (Christina Hendricks) is looking for a best friend, like any girl or woman would want to have. They can look like any FC, but they have to be over the age of 30. Roxanne is looking for that bestie where you can just open your heart, and explain everything from the complications of your relationship, to the heartbreak of not having your favorite snack in the fridge when you're snacky. Sounds interesting? Then apply, you do not have to contact ROSY first.
And then the final WC that is open
Summer Walker (Anne Hathaway) is looking for their former partner in crime. They can be any FC you wish, or you could message Gremlin for ideas. The character has to be over the age of 40 though, just to make sense of life, you know? After all, they met in high school and created this deep bond, where they found out about Summers little secret, and joined the team. They did betray our sweet Summer though, so can the two repair what was broken? Only time will tell. For this connection, you gotta contact GREMLIN.
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lollipopsimblr · 1 year ago
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Santiago: I like to hang out with you, Grandpa.
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Catalina: Oh hi Pablo! I'm glad you're here on this important day.
Pablo: ..and it is important because..?
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Catalina: I have become a PUBLIC ENEMY!
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truthbureau · 1 year ago
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Best-Selling Author to Sell New Novel Page by Page as NFT's
In a groundbreaking move that may revolutionize the publishing industry, renowned best-selling author, Catalina Gomez, has announced that she will be releasing her latest novel, titled “The Digital Odyssey,” page by page as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). This bold decision is a first of its kind in the literary world for a New York Times best-selling author and it has sparked a wave of excitement…
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papaflynn · 2 months ago
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There were few times a single dad could get a night out with the guys, but thanks to River, Callum could spend a Friday night doing that. He knew he couldn't drink too much, as he was still recovering from how lit he got on Halloween, but a few shots with the lads wouldn't do any harm. That's what he told himself when one of the guys brought a tray of tequila shots to their table.
That's when a few of his friends started to smack him on the shoulder with loud laughter and frantic mumbles of something or other he struggled to make out. They seemed excited about something, and Callum hadn't a clue. That was until he caught sight of a brunette sashaying her way through the crowd in a direct line for him, eyes fixed on him like he was some sort of prize. Callum turned to his friends with a face scrunched up in confusion, then glanced back at her as she neared. "Now, what's going on here, lads?" He asked them, laughing, as they all backed away to form a circle, watching as Callum tried to pull himself together.
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Callum gulped as her eyes moved over him, feeling naked with the power of her gaze. "Uh—I don't think so?" he asked, almost questioning his own recollection and reality. The man's cheeks burned red as she complimented him, and he nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "I noticed you, too..." he mumbled, brows knitting together as she ghosted his chin, completely baffled. Callum looked around; sure, she must be talking about someone else, but no. She was locked in on him. "No," he started but heard the coughs and grumbles of his friends, who all looked to the sky when he glanced their way. "Yea, yea... all by myself." He gently punched her arm and grinned, "Not anymore, though. Thanks to you."
who: catalina & @papaflynn where: Golden Hour Beach Bar
Green eyes searched the bar for a prospect, any prospect, for some kind of lively conversation or maybe even a flirtatious one that could lead to some kind of excitement that Catalina was—at this point—begging for. Her sister was at a friend's house sleeping over, so she not only had the night to herself, but their home would be void of any teenage ears and eyes that could catch any kind of...adulterous event.
This wasn't to say that Cat wasn't checking in every hour on the hour, but she would have enjoyed at least a brief break. Drink in hand she meandered through the crowd until she spotted a handsome man in the distance, and her smile practically formed into one of a Chesire cat. "Jackpot," she whispered to herself as she beelined for him, slow steps keeping her from practically stealing him away from anyone else. He looked...innocent, in a gentle kind of way, and she knew mixed with her personality that it would be a challenge to see what she could pull out of him.
Dressed in bikini top and short shorts, she finally made her way to where he stood, placing her elbow against the bar as she looked him over. "I'm so sorry, but have we met before?" she questioned, partially to reel him in, the other part because he did in fact seem familiar up close. "I just couldn't help but notice you from down the way, and wow," she paused, a hand coming up to ghost over his chin as if she were to hold it. "Yeah, you look even better up close. Are you here by yourself?"
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usaccidents · 2 years ago
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KINGS COUNTY, CA (June 6, 2023) – Officers identified Catalina De Torres and Arturo Gomez who died in a crash on Laurel Avenue on May 30
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mearpsdyke · 2 years ago
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esto pusieron en la pagina de AFA
Es importante destacar que durante las próximas semanas la citación variará y se irán incorporando más futbolistas, a medida que finalicen sus obligaciones con sus clubes. El listado definitivo para la cita mundial será comunicado el 11 de julio. CATALINA ROGGERONE VALENTINA AHUMADA GABRIELA CHAVEZ ABIGAIL CHAVES GABRIELA HERRERA JULIETA MARTINEZ SOPHIA BRAUN MARIANA LARROQUETTE VANESA SANTANA ALDANA COMETTI DALILA IPPOLITO MILAGROS MARTIN LARA ESPONDA ANNIKA PAZ MARICEL PEREYRA CAMILA GOMEZ ARES
gracias corazón! 🫶🏻
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doodleshutart · 7 years ago
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Cata beia.
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miss-sugared · 7 years ago
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¿Alguien escucho “Ahora me llamas, Karol G-Bad bunny”? pues esta es la version que salio JAJAJA ahr :( Es la coco :”D Ya que segun vi... karol es colombiana y pues (?) la iba a dibujar con Puerto rico pero era demasiado y nunca mas lo iba a terminar (?
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