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from-memphis-with-love · 9 months ago

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Songbird - Ch. 1 - The Handsome Stranger

Summary: The year is 1969. The place is the International Hotel. Valerie Pedretti, an aspiring singer, has a chance encounter with one Elvis Presley in an elevator that will change her life forever. Notes: To me, 1967-1971 EP is kind of peak Elvis, and so I wanted to write a fic with him smack dab in that time period. In the 1969-1970 period, especially, Elvis was probably the most handsome and alluring man in the galaxy. Lots of anachronisms and historical inaccuracies in this one, but just roll with it because it's fun! I based Valerie, in a sense, off of a mixture of Kathy Westmoreland, Joyce Bova, and Linda Thompson. Kathy met the real Elvis for the first time in an elevator, and that really inspired this work. Priscilla exists in this universe but she and Elvis get a divorce far earlier than in real life. Theirs, in some ways like real life, is a marriage of convenience and an "arrangement." Lisa Marie does not exist in this universe.

Las Vegas, Nevada, 1969

Vegas was shimmering mirage of bad decisions just waiting to snare me—a sucker-punch I never saw coming. The lights, the noise, the impossible promise of it all crashed over me in kaleidoscopic waves as my cab cruised down the strip towards the International Hotel. I pressed my forehead against the cool glass, watching slack-jawed as sequined showgirls and vacationers blurred by in streaks of neon and rhinestone.

The cabbie swerved to the curb with a jolt, snapping me out of my daze. "International Hotel," he barked, his voice an ice bath to my face. I shoved a crumbled wad of bills into his hand and stumbled out and into a swarm of hairspray and cigar smoke congregating under the hotel's blazing marquee. Blinking in confusion, I took in the frenzied scene unfolding—beefy security shoving their way through the sea of pompadours, vendors hawking glossy headshots, teddy bears and "I 🖤 ELVIS" pins. The realization hit me like a freight train. This wasn't just any weekend at the International. It was the kickoff of Elvis Presley's residency. Ground zero for absolute Elvis mania.

The irritation set in, simmering beneath my skin. "Shit," I muttered, suddenly feeling foolish for forgetting. Of all the rotten luck. Out of all the times to visit Las Vegas, I had unwittingly chosen the kickoff of Elvis's shows—an event drawing crowds I had no desire to mingle with.

I wove through the throng, lugging my cumbersome suitcases behind me. Inside the lobby was even more chaotic—a swirling kaleidoscope of big-haired fans and cigarette smoke lingering over shag carpet. Elvis was everywhere, his angelic face beaming down from posters, gold records, life-sized cardboard cutouts. A veritable religious shrine. Groaning internally, I caught my bedraggled reflection in a mirrored column. Of course I would show up to the Presley Promised Land looking like something the cat dragged in. Normally I'd at least try to pull myself together for check-in, maybe swipe on some lipstick or fluff my chocolate curls into place. After all, I didn't want to look terrible in front of people dressed to the nines. But after the day I'd had, I couldn't muster the effort.

My flight from Chicago had been delayed six excruciating hours due to "mechanical issues," which apparently was airline-speak for "sit tight while we screw you over." By the time we finally took off, I'd already stress-eaten two sleeves of Oreos and read the in-flight magazine three mind-numbing times. To top it off, I'd spilled coffee all over my only nice blouse right before landing. Clearly, some divine power had it out for me today.

Feeling sweaty and vaguely nauseous, I trudged to the front desk. The angular blonde behind the counter, Brenda, barely glanced up from her well-thumbed issue of Variety as I approached.

"Welcome to the International Hotel. Checking in?" She smacked her gum, eyes never leaving her magazine.

"Yes, uh, reservation should be under Deena Lovelace."

That finally got her attention. Her penciled brows shot up as she inspected me, taking in the coffee stains and rumpled slacks. "Wait, you're Deena? The Deena who told me she booked for the Sinatra audition tomorrow?" The doubt was palpable.

I gritted my teeth into a tight smile. "No, actually. I'm her friend Valerie. Deena got sick at the last minute, some kind of exotic flu, so I'm filling in for her."

Suspicion clouded Brenda's face, but after a long beat she shrugged. "Huh. Well, takes all kinds, I guess." She signaled to a bellhop in a red monkey suit and thrust a key into my hand. "Room 2806, elevators are that way. If you need anything, ask for Hector."

Hector the bellhop scurried over and hoisted up my bags with surprising ease for such a slight guy. I made a weak attempt to protest, but he just grinned and ushered me through the cacophonous lobby to the first hallway. The doors slid open and I thanked him, pressing a few crumpled bills into his white-gloved hand.

“I can take it from here, Hector.”

As I walked along, I looked at my reflection in the mirrored wall and exhaled slowly. My nerves buzzed like an exposed wire as I thought about tomorrow's audition. Landing a spot in the Sinatra chorus line seemed about as likely as shooting the moon at this point. I barely knew the song Deena had been rehearsing for weeks, my go-go boots had a broken heel, and my voice was ragged from practicing the whole weekend.

But damn it, this was the first real shot I'd had in ages to claw my way out of the chambermaid grind and actually make something of myself. To prove Ma right for always saying I had stardust in my veins, even when it landed me more trouble than applause growing up. I had to at least try. For all those thankless nights warbling in dim lounges, waiting for my big break. For Deena, who I knew would kill for this chance.

I'd barely begun my little pep talk when someone brushed by me, sloshing their vodka tonic onto my sleeve and snapping me back to the present moment. I weaved through the crowd towards another inner hallway, clearing my throat.

I turned on my heel and started hoofing it towards my room. The hotel's layout was an absolute dizzying mess of twists and turns in every direction. My thudding, ungainly footsteps were muffled by the shag carpet and the dulled roar of fans congregating throughout the hotel.

As I trudged on, the ambiance shifted gradually. The hum of voices faded away, replaced by an overwhelming silence that signaled I was getting farther away from the bustling core. Exhaustion tugged at my bones while I navigated the maze of hallways. My room was somewhere in this labyrinth, but my bed felt worlds away at this point.

My steps sank into the plush carpet as I drifted into a quieter, dimly-lit corridor that seemed less traveled. Finally, I found myself alone in front of a bank of elevator doors. I stabbed the call button and waited impatiently, my arms aching from the weight of my overstuffed suitcases. God, why did I pack so much useless junk?

"Must be close now," I muttered out loud, my voice barely audible.

With barely a thought, I slipped out of my heels and bent my toes backwards and forwards, allowing my sore feet to relish the heavenly softness underfoot. It was soft, springy, and absolute relief for my aching soles. Automatically, I began humming a familiar, nameless tune under my breath - just a few sweet, absentminded notes I always turned to for comfort when I needed it. The thought of finally washing this endless day off my face and jumping into a crisp hotel bed was the only thing on my mind as the gilded doors opened with a tinny ding.

The cab was empty. Relieved to finally have a moment to myself, I dragged my heavy bags inside and slumped against the mirrored wall. As the doors started to slide closed, a large, ring-adorned hand suddenly shot out, halting them.

I straightened up with a jolt, my exhaustion replaced by a flash of irritation. Great, just what I needed, another overzealous Elvis fan trying to cram into my personal space bubble.

But as the interloper stepped into the elevator, my breath caught in my throat. Standing before me, in all his smoldering, technicolor glory, was the man himself. Elvis fucking Presley. The aura he gave off was undeniable, that much was sure. And I recognized his face immediately, the same one splashed all over the posters and knick knacks in the lobby. There he was, outshining the garishly glitzy elevator cab like a supernova eclipsing neon. And next to him, a well-built redheaded man, his hand resting at something shiny on his hip. Bodyguard, most likely. Quickly, I shoved my feet back into my heels, silently cursing myself for having taken them off in the first place.

I blinked hard, convinced I must be hallucinating from sheer fatigue. But no, he was unquestionably real, from the polished black shoes to the perfectly coiffed onyx hair that shone like quicksilver in the light. His lean, powerful frame was draped in an immaculately tailored black suit, a shock of pink peeking out from the silk scarf knotted at his throat. But it was the penetrating, electric blue gaze behind tinted shades that truly unraveled me.

I'd never considered myself much of an Elvis fan. Sure, I could appreciate a catchy tune like "Don't Be Cruel" or "Teddy Bear," but I'd always been immune to the mass hysteria he incited in his besotted admirers. Yet here, in such close proximity to his cosmic charisma and undeniable sex appeal, I finally understood. This man was a force of nature.

The redhead caught my awestruck stare and chuckled knowingly. "I see you've met my friend Jon Burrows here," he said with a wink.

But this was no "Jon Burrows." I knew who it was, plain as day. And his affect on me was immediate. Was I dreaming? My pulse started racing. Should I say something? And just how the hell did this happen? I opened my mouth, then closed it, swallowing hard. Play it cool, Valerie.

Any lingering self-consciousness about my frazzled appearance just evaporated in the sheer force of his presence. Though judging by the unmistakably mischievous curl of his lip, my travel-battered state didn't seem to faze him one bit. His perceptive eyes met mine, always accustomed to the spotlight but now studying me with curiosity. He took in my slumped posture and visible fatigue without a hint of judgment.

"You've had yourself a long day, haven't you, honey?" That voice, richer than a Mississippi smokehouse, sliced right through me.

I could only nod dumbly, a lump forming in my throat. "I—uh, yeah. No. I mean... yes, you could say that," I stammered like an idiot. Get it together!

His smile was pure bewitchment. "Well, you'll be tucked in in no time, I reckon. I hear the beds are mighty comfortable here."

I looked up at the ceiling in silence, tracing the swirling pattern with my mind's eye and trying to give off a vibe of cool indifference. But my stomach was actually rolling.

To my surprise, he kept talking. "Pardon my manners. My name's Elvis, and this is my pal Red. Who might you be?"

My throat locked tighter than a cowboy's bullwhip. "Valer—?"

"Valerie." He drew the name out, savoring each note and curve as if testing its ring. Each single syllable seemed to undergo some mystical transformation, alchemized to pure liquid amber from his lips. "A pretty name for a pretty little songbird." A ringed hand discreetly adjusted the bejeweled cups shielding his gaze, maybe hoping to make out my sides better.

Elvis was still steadily playing the blue suede shoes off me, from his elegant bent stance to the teasing half-smirk barely shadowing those indolently hungover features—the whole routine daring me to go chasing his bait. But I was far too busy trying not to spontaneously combust. I screwed my eyes tightly shut for a half-moment, desperately grasping to regain some sense of composure with an oxygen-deprived brain.

How did he know...?

Dumb question, Sherlock. The very notion conjured images of me, sweat-glazed and punchy-tired, mindlessly vocalizing sweet lullabies straight from my Off-Off-Broadway chambermaid days while I waited for the elevator. Of course he would've overhead that.

I cinched my mouth into what I hoped was a blasé half-smile, refusing to come completely uncorked by his pet name. I replayed the embarrassing moment in my head, wishing I could dissolve into the elevator shaft. Every breath I pulled in seemed to crackle with electricity. First I randomly share an elevator with The Elvis Presley, and now he'd overheard my nervous vocalizing and was complimenting me on it?

"Baby." A rich, salt-cured chuckle melted off his tongue, resining deep in my nerve center. "I got ears like a well-tuned radar dish. You in town for a show?"

I shook my head slowly. "Technically yes, but no. Just an audition," I replied, my heart thundering in my ears. I hoped he couldn't hear it pounding.

"Who for, if you don't mind me asking?" he inquired with that laser gaze.

I sucked in a steadying breath. Might as well take the bait since I'd already been barb-hooked but good. "I'm here for an audition, actually. Tomorrow. For Sinatra. I'm a singer. I mean, not like you, but hopefully one day..." I paused, unsure of how much backstory was worth burdening Elvis with. "Just got a last minute sub-in for a friend who's under the weather."

Something flickered across Elvis' handsome features before the mask of idle curiosity slid back into place. "Is that right?" His gaze raked over me again, slower this time, more deliberate. "And what will you be singing for Ol' Blue Eyes?"

Shit. Why was he asking me so many questions? My palms started to sweat as I racked my brain for a suitable answer. It wasn't like I could admit that I barely knew the material, that I was flying by the seat of my pants on a far-fetched favor for a friend. So I settled for a half-truth instead.

"Oh, you know. Just a little medley of standards. 'To Keep My Love Alive,' 'I Can Cook, Too,' that kind of thing."

Elvis nodded slowly, a shadow of a smirk still playing on his lips. "A classic set list. I'm sure you'll knock 'em dead, honey."

I started to stammer out a thanks, but Elvis was already moving past me towards the door as the elevator finally shuddered to a stop. He paused, throwing a glance back over his shoulder. There was a new intensity in his eyes when they met mine, a dark promise that made my toes curl involuntarily in my heels.

"I'll be rooting for you, songbird. Break a leg."

And with that, he was gone, leaving me weak-kneed and dizzy in a cloud of his smoky-spicy cologne. I sagged against the wall, trying to collect myself. What in the ever-loving hell had just happened? Had I honestly just been shamelessly eye-fucked by Elvis Presley in an elevator?

More importantly, why had I liked it so much?

I shook my head, trying to dislodge the treacherous thoughts as I finally stumbled out into the harshly lit hallway. It was late, I was tired, and I had an audition to rest up for. The last thing I needed was to dwell on smoldering looks from a celebrity Casanova that I had no business panting over in the first place.

But even as I went through the motions of unlocking my room and sinking face-first into the marshmallowy duvet, I couldn't stop my mind from wandering back to the electric encounter in the elevator. The way Elvis had stared at me, equal parts scorching and inscrutable, as if he was trying to crack some tantalizing code. There was no way I could have imagined that. The effortless command he'd exuded, the sheer magnetism rolling off of him in waves. How ridiculously, unexpectedly good he still looked, hips swiveling in slow-motion in my mind's eye...

I punched a pillow in frustration, annoyed with my traitorous libido. This was so far beyond the scope of anything I'd anticipated when I'd agreed to sub in for Deena's audition. But one thing was certain—my time in Vegas was shaping up to be a hell of a lot more interesting than I'd bargained for. And something told me that a chance run-in on a hotel elevator was only the beginning.

#elvis presley #elvis #elvis fanfiction #elvis fanfic #elvis fic #elvis x oc #elvis presley fic #elvis presley fanfic #elvis presley fanfiction #songbird #elvis fans

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violetstormms · 2 years ago

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FNAF Sun/Moon x Reader MerMay Fics

MerMay DCA x yn fic list

With Mermay coming to a close I decide to make a list of all the fun fish filled fics I have found so far. Remember to look at the tags and read at your own discretion.

Call of the Abyss by Buligete

archiveofourown.org/works/41191230/chapters/103261704

It was probably all very silly, considering the precarious situation I found myself in, but it really was all I could think about.

Could you really blame me? I never expected to find myself in this kind of a mess. I was not some big shot, thrill seeking space explorer. I was no seasoned freight worker. No avid alien world survivalist. Not even a simple cruise liner flight attendant.

I was a gardener. My feet belonged firmly planted in the soil of a garden world. I had spent my entire life up to now solidly anchored on Earth, and never dreaming of leaving the safety of gravity and atmosphere, despite the increasingly uncomfortable quality of life on the crowded homeworld. Sure, I dreamed of greener pastures. Of fresh air and fertile land. But frontier life and adventures in the big expanse of space? Not quite.

---

A FNAF x Subnautica crossover, about the challenges of survival, surprise friendships with quirky software and alien merfolk, man made horrors beyond our comprehension and unexpected mysteries to be uncovered within the depths.

Below The Surface by Justaduck6432

archiveofourown.org/works/46186750/chapters/116275786#workskin

You aren't what people would call friendly. No. You're not even polite. Much like the salty old sailor who raised you, you're short-tempered and not too social. And that's how you like it.

One day, a dirty-rotten fish steals something important to you. You know better than to tangle with a creature so large and dangerous. But you have little to lose and, by the gods, you're not about to let that smug fish keep what's yours.

Dive into this chaotic tale of merciless mers and our hot-headed protag who has to wrangle them!

Growing Pains by Celticwolfie

archiveofourown.org/works/46891666/chapters/118117984

It was going to be a normal fishing trip. Just a normal hike to the secluded river beach and maybe relax while listening to the forest waking up around you. However, that isn't how things go for you and now you managed to gain the attention of a legendary creature. Now everything seems to be turned on its head. Hopefully, you can adapt to it quickly enough and help these living legends out as their world is starting to shrink around them.

Free Space by omenofthevoid

archiveofourown.org/works/46904299/chapters/118150342

As a Leviathan, you aren't meant for the shallow water which inhibits your growth and keeps you small. You finally move to the Dead Zone, where you hope to be able to grow.

Galaxies, Lost in Ice by StarvingMe

archiveofourown.org/works/45778489/chapters/115203013

(Subnautica/Subnautica: Below Zero AU)

Sun went hunting, and he's been gone for a few days, and so it's up to Moon to drag Sun's Human Scientist Best Friend out into the ocean to find him.

(Leads into romance with aliens, no spice, that'll be a separate work that won't be necessary to enjoy this)

Abyssal Lights by PhoenixDaNeko

archiveofourown.org/works/46600771/chapters/117353191

You used to be powerful. Feared. Vicious. A man-killer. You were one of the most fearsome myths in the sea.

Then, despite everything, you were caught. Stolen from the depths of your home. Your older siblings had always cautioned against going too close to the surface. You wished you'd listened. Captured, placed into barely big enough tanks, traded between rich bastards and unethical scientists. Losing weight, power, sanity, you're beginning to give up, when a mysterious 4 armed... Person (?) comes by.

Who is this metal man, and why is he so interested in you?

My Lungs are Full of You by Xmimi89eR

archiveofourown.org/works/47111743/chapters/118694248

You didn't like the ocean.

The water felt like it would burn (and it does). Your lungs would give out sooner than others and you didn't even know how to swim!

You never asked for this trip, never asked to be here. Yet, here you are, stuck all alone and waiting for rescue that probably would never come.

Or, well, not really alone. The burning gaze of something in the water wouldn't leave you alone.

There Are Many Benefits (To Rethinking This Career Path) by moonliched

archiveofourown.org/works/47449438/chapters/119573569#workskin

Life is cushy, working on a subterranean research facility on an underexplored ocean planet. As the resident handyman, most of your work takes place underwater - lucky for you, cave diving is your passion. With the building between bi-annual research teams, and the next lot yet to arrive, you find yourself with an excess of free time. All you have to do is fulfil your weekly duties, prepare the facility for the next team of researchers, and relax. Oh, and track down the net that went missing some time ago.

And then you find it.

In a submerged cave.

Trapping a mermaid.

You really wish this wasn't your responsibility.

(Moon thinks he should have listened to Sun and stuck to hunting in warmer waters. Why does this bizarre two-tailed mermaid keep coming at him with sharp instruments?)

Song of the Sea by TheDreamerFae

archiveofourown.org/works/38958630/chapters/97435890

You always loved the tales of Mermaids, of Selkies and of Sirens, of people who lived in the ocean as a child. You remember vividly seeing merfolk, but chalked it up your imagination. But then a boating accident with your grandpa had left you scarred, and you no longer wanted any association with the sea. But life has other plans

INSPIRED BY BAMSARA’S FIC god I love Celestial Omens.

Unusual by BlueMoon_13_31

archiveofourown.org/works/47008036/chapters/118422505

Your love for the ocean has sent you all around the world. However, the beaches of your coastal home have always been your favorite. Returning to the cloudy skies along the Pacific, the last thing you expected was to run into two creatures far from their natural habitat.

The Sea Has Always Known Your Name by CleverButDevastating

archiveofourown.org/works/47410663/chapters/119469997

Everyone is so caught up in your expulsion from the ship that they don’t see the pair of dark, sinuous shapes that slip up through the water only half a dozen yards away. No one notices the flashes of vivid yellow and luminous blue, or the intelligent eyes that take in the human spectacle with inhuman curiosity.

No one except you.

Clownfishing by Sujithe2DWaifu

archiveofourown.org/works/47314285/chapters/119220796

A night fishing trip lends itself to a chance encounter with a siren. After unknowingly showing it some kindness, your life is derailed in an extremely bizarre way.

Special thank you to Bug, who puts up with me, and Tobi(@Glambots on Tumblr)-This was originally a short story written in their ask box. While the first chapter will be short, they will get longer, just so you know what you're getting into. ;) Please also remember that I’m still learning and this is my first time posting on Ao3 specifically. I apologize in advance for any formatting issues.

Also warnings for this chapter and future chapters of thalassophobia, megalohydrothalassophobia, ososphobia, injury, body horror, animal death, offscreen minor character death, and something at bare minimum reminiscent of drugging. While these may be removed during the editing process as it currently stands these will apply at some point.

Turquoise Love by Wcat03blu

archiveofourown.org/works/47208670/chapters/118947625#workskin

You finally visit the aquarium by your college and fall absolutely head-over-heels for some celestial mermaids. Then you chill with them a lot :)

Leviathan Storms by TheDreamerFae

archiveofourown.org/works/47008924/chapters/118518967#workskin

Moving back to your old home rims has brought with you a sense of nostalgia of being. Sure most of the time it was cold and rainy but it didn’t make the scene any less beautiful. But a song keeps making itself known to you, and you must find it.

But who would’ve guessed Mers existed?

Bubbly by Robin_Green

archiveofourown.org/works/47513692/chapters/119741380

A little waterlily mer guppy is trapped, home destroyed, and taken to a pet store to be sold. After spending some time living in a fish bowl, our little guppy is saved and moved to a tank that has been dubbed the daycare by the human tending to it. The daycare tank is set up to rehabilitate fish before they are released back into their natural habitats. There our guppy meets Sun and Moon, two fish that live full time in this tank taking care their healing guests.

Sun and Moon and our guppy fall in love and then shit goes down.

Pearl Eye by NaffEclipse

archiveofourown.org/works/47400922

Movement. A mer swims overhead, speaking to someone, blocking out the starlight. The interloper lays a hand on the rim of the entrance but doesn’t look down just yet, and doesn’t see you, red-handed.

Your gut clenches with the urge to flee, your strength already spent in the fight moments earlier, and you heed the warning.

A Sleuth Jesters MerMay Fic

The Sea Jesters are Real Science by MatosaurusRex and sixty_nine13

archiveofourown.org/works/38833821/chapters/97107810

You stare into the glass. At first you see nothing, just a greenish-blue landscape, peaceful and ordinary. There is nothing special about it... Or so you think. As the seconds pass, two figures become more and more visible, slowly growing from two distant dots to two large figures, easily two metres tall. The two creatures stare at you, and you raise your hand, slapping it against the cold glass that holds the creatures trapped. These two beings, which until now had been considered to be legends, raise their hands to clasp yours as well. The most wonderful living beings in the world stand before you, separated by thick glass, suffering every day at the hands of greedy people.

How long will they resist this?

((This fic was inspired by Tumblr shenanigans and merMAY! Thank you all for inspiring us to create this <3))

And the Sea Swallowed My Screams by Burnt_Chicken_Lookin_Ass

archiveofourown.org/works/39115788/chapters/97855353#workskin

"Thalassophobia is the persistent and intense fear of deep bodies of water such as the sea, oceans, pools, lakes. [...] Thalassophobia can include fear of being in deep bodies of water, fear of the vast emptiness of the sea, of sea waves, aquatic creatures, and fear of distance from land."

You are a freelance diver. You are hired to perform difficult dives for item retrieval, research, and/or maintenance checks in less than safe underwater environments. Rule of thumb is to never dive alone; you live by that religiously. Hardly will you ever do a job without your diving partner: Iris. You have a deep seated fear of the open ocean, so if you cant see the bottom of a given body of water, then you simply wont go in.

One day, you receive a job from Fazbear inc. to retrieve the body of an employee at the request of their family. They had drowned when a company ship they worked on had spontaneously combusted and subsequently sank. The company is willing to pay big hush money to keep both the family and your retrieval team from mentioning the wreckage for some reason.

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Looking for more stories? I have a list of DCA stories sorted by type here https://www.tumblr.com/violetstormms/710457016218435584/sunmoon-fnaf-fanfic-recommendation-list (or my pinned comment if you don’t like clicking links)

Also if you have any recommendations please leave a comment, its always fun finding new fics. :)

#fnaf moon #fnaf daycare attendant #daycare attendant fnaf #fnaf sun and moon #fnaf sun #fnaf sundrop #fnaf moondrop #daycare attendant x reader #mermay 2023 #mermay #fnaf sunrise #fnaf moonrise #moon x reader #security breach au #Violetstormm's fic list #sun x reader

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wolfpants · 2 years ago

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saturday wip snip

Thank you for tagging me lovely @tackytigerfic! Check out Tacky's incredible snip here, I am foaming at the mouth (respectfully) for this fic! Here's a little something from my upcoming Drarry fic, Terrible People, aka the Gay Cruise Fic™️ If you haven't already, check out a preview of @getawayfox's art for the fic here!

a bit nsfw

Harry blinks, giving himself permission to remember that exact moment he wandered up to the Tower. It had been a cold winter’s night, and he hadn’t felt like going straight to the common room after dinner.

“A, er. Handy.”

“Classy.” Draco dips his hand into the bag of crisps. “Were they enjoying themselves?”

Harry’s laugh is weak. ��Yeah. I mean. We were eighteen and we’d all just survived a war? I think a nice little congratulatory hand job would have felt fantastic.”

“Hm, well, I wouldn’t have known,” Draco says, looking into his drink. “Not back then, anyway.”

Harry scoffs. “Come on. You’re telling me you didn’t get your tackle tickled at all during Hogwarts?”

Draco makes a face, still looking at the melting ice in his plastic cup, his cheeks flushing scarlet. “Don’t be crass.”

“What?” Harry asks too quickly. The colour on Draco’s cheeks intensifies. He frowns at Harry. “No way,” Harry says. “I thought you and Theodore Nott were shagging all through Eighth Year.”

“Well I can tell you right now, that is categorically untrue,” Draco says. “He and I were barely friends, let alone—that. We studied together, because we were both interested in… studying. That’s all.”

Harry tries to remember that part. Hanging back in the common room late at night, lounging across the red velvet sofa because it’d been his favourite: the one in front of the windows that looked down onto the Quidditch pitch. Sometimes he’d be with friends, sometimes he’d be alone, sipping Butterbeer or whisky snuck into the castle from the village, the honeyed smell of it tickling his nose, reminding him of Sirius. How he’d just lie there and listen to the radio or Dean’s CD player and stare: at the sky, at classmates playing chess, at the door, waiting for Draco and Theo to return from the library, both of their heads down, their arms full of books because at that point, no one else was carrying them for Draco. At that point, Draco had taken to carrying everything himself.

“I had a lot to reconcile with, in 1998,” Draco says, speaking when Harry doesn’t, pulling him out of memories that are worn and fuzzy around the edges. “I wasn’t really in the mood for casual sex.”

“I think it’s all I wanted,” Harry says.

no pressure tagging @skeptiquewrites @thehoneybeet @kbrick @mintawasalreadytaken @moonflower-rose @shealwaysreads @magpiefngrl @phoebe-delia @nv-md and anyone else who wants to share words!!!

Read another Terrible People Snip here 🍋🏳️‍🌈💖

#wip snip #thanks for the tag tacky!#drarry #terrible people #writing

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arachnxphobe · 1 year ago

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random miguel hcs

will not admit it but he has cried to multiple animated kids movies

definitely the classics like toy story 3, the iron giant, and inside out

but he also BAWLED at the end of finding nemo because he was thinking about gabriella

he thinks that toothless from how to train your dragon is cute

no i will not elaborate on that

secretly celebrates st patrick’s day

likes to wear something green under his suit or have one piece of decor hidden in the depths of his office

has really low spice tolerance BUT really likes it and also he has a reputation to keep up as the big and tough guy so he WILL try and hide how much water he is chugging

he likes the dad ice cream flavours like pistachio and rum raisin

but hates dad hobbies like golfing or collecting stuff like antique coins or dioramas

he just doesn’t have the patience for it

can cook and bake!!!! actually scratch that he can do all of the chores and is basically a househusband but is simply unwilling to do it

peter b may or may not have gotten him a kiss the cook apron that may or may not be the only apron he owns…

he could 100% have gourmet meals every day but he doesn’t have anyone to impress but himself so most days he just lives off of the sealed, pre-cooked chicken breasts from the convenience store and reheated rice that he makes in a big batch once a week

because yes chicken can be store bought but microwaved rice tastes too much like chemicals, especially for his heightened taste buds

is a shower guy

he thinks that baths are too inefficient and most tubs can’t fit him

but if you somehow manage to find one that’s big enough…oh boy he’ll act like you are waterboarding him but honestly he’s having the time of his life

competitive as hell, even when he acts like he could not care less

like he does not understand the concept of letting somebody else win, why is he handicapping himself and letting them think they’re better than they actually are?

he doesn’t mean it in a way to establish dominance or superiority

he just thinks that it’s weird to let someone win because wouldn’t lying to them be worse? now they can’t even improve

designed his own suit and probably gets a little bit self conscious when someone comments on it because he really isn’t an aesthetics guy but he worked really hard and is proud of his suit 🥺

was perhaps a little bit salty about the dark garfield comment but you didn’t hear that from me

please never trust him with naming or decorating though because if left on his own, it’s either going to be the most disgusting combination of items ever known to man or quite literally the bare minimum

don’t even think about a bed frame, there’s a chance that he doesn’t even have a mattress

he’s good with personal hygiene though

a slight germaphobe in the sense that he wants everything to be sterile (a habit he picked up from always being in the lab) but is more than okay with getting his hands dirty, just as long as he can thoroughly sanitize them afterwards

a terrible movie watcher

he either does not understand the movie whatsoever and keeps on asking questions that they just answered a minute ago

or he’s ripping them apart for their weird pseudoscience

honestly his ranting ends up being more entertaining than the movie at times

be prepared for a full lecture if you don’t stop him at some point though

i’ve heard a lot of people throw out spanish songs that they think he would listen to but might i suggest some non-spanish songs

he gives me doja cat vibes, don’t ask me, i just feel it

personally, i don’t think he would actively listen to kpop or be into the fan culture but he probably enjoys some songs without even realizing they’re kpop

i’m thinking newjeans and maybe epik high??

ABBA

mitski and hozier (where are my depressed wlw at) because you know that when he’s in his brooding self hating mood that he needs suitable bgm

HATES cruises

something about being on water does not vibe with his spider-catness

neither does the overall cruise ship experience

hot tubs and buffets just don’t really do it for him

there’s not much space for privacy except for your own room but even then the walls are fairly thin

so it’d be nearly impossible for him to get any sort of peace

me and the rest of the internet all seem to have agreed that he has insomnia and i feel like a cruise ship would not help whatsoever

would complain about how the mexican food is just what americans think mexican food is like

is too much of a workaholic to take an extended break, and it’s too difficult to jump back into work should there be an emergency

#i am mentally unwell but i am free #do i know where these came from?#no they simply spawned from the void #miguel o'hara #across the spiderverse #atsv #miguel o’hara hcs #miguel o’hara headcanons #atsv hcs #atsv miguel

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hanakihan · 1 year ago

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man you have no idea the sheer DESIRE to write something about Titanic esque chulwoo AU

The main drill is that Sungs come from a rather wealthy old noble family (courtesy of Ashborn as their predecessor being royal knight or smth), Jin-Woo is a next heir while Jin-Ah studies to become a doctor (or a nurse depending on timeline it happens im not even completely sure with setting but probably og titanic vibe mixed with Korean Idek wheeze) and parents send them on a cruise ship for vacation (and in hopes jinwoo will meet nice noblewoman or any woman since sungs are pretty chill about bloodline)

Then there’s Jin-Chul who’s a ship engineer/captain in training courtesy of navy captain on pension Gun-Hee. Gun-Hee comes from rather humble background but managed to reach rather prestigious position of first navy and then civil ship captain but now he’s on pension, and this man is an example to Jin-Chul that you can reach your dream despite your upbringing. Jin-Chul himself also comes from rather humble background on verge of poverty but money and fame never fascinated him, but ships and sailing did. When Jin-Chul was assigned on Gun-Hee’s ship as a new engineer, Gun-Hee saw talent in boy and unofficially took him under his wing teaching him to be a captain. Then Gun-Hee left (or honestly more likely was forcefully dismissed) and Jin-Chul got assigned as one of engineers/coal workers on this giant ship, but Gun-Hee still sails under his own name as a trader or smth like that.

Cue sailing day and at evening Jin-Woo excused himself since noble parties bore him to death and anyway, evening is beautiful and sea is calm. Wandering around he stumbles upon Jin-Chul doing small repairs and who nearly hit Jin-Woo in nose with his elbow because he came too close without announcement. Jin-Chul stiffly apologizing because he knows how annoying nobles can be but is surprised when Jin-Woo is the one to apologize for being so careless and invites him for an apology tea or coffee since compared to other choices Jin-Chul seems as a perfect company thanks to his sharp tongue, wits and knowledge.

Some day of cruise pass and they become rather close friends, Jin-Woo visits Jin-Chul in lowest decks which surprises everyone here and they have a rather nice drinking and dancing session, while in turn Jin-Woo helps Jin-Chul to sneak in 1st class deck so they can chat and play chess in peace of room (and so he can introduce Jin-Chul to Jin-Ah). Jin-Woo even tries to gift Jin-Chul his sapphire brooch so he can sell it for nice sum of money and get his own ship or even open his own company or smth, but Jin-Chul politely refuses, satisfied with their friendship.

Cue disaster night. Now think about captain being an incompetent prick (maybe even on levels of Costa Concordia captain damn) and fucking up entire probably miss into sure hit (even if Jin-Chul risked it and asked people to follow his instructions despite it being a big ass discipline insubordination but no one really minded because people saw that captain gives shit orders) but since bridge was still under captains command, instructions contradicted, but it still allowed a graze hit rather than direct one. So yea this gets worse, Jin-Chul was in section that suffered from impact and got tore, barely got out of here along with most of his men. Seeing how fast water fills decks he tells people to go higher and himself runs to find Sungs or other people he knows. Apparently he finds panicking Jin-Ah and through dangers of ice cold water and falling construction manages to cross paths with Jin-Woo until they got separated again. They manage to get out of sinking shell that nearly becomes their coffin (because he promised Jin-Woo to take care of and save Jin-Ah no matter what goddamnit), Jin-Chul manages to place Jin-Ah on some drifting wood before starting to sink because of cold water.

Now, I’m a sucker for happy endings despite shit looking really bad, so let’s say Jin-Woo with others on safe boat manages to find shell shocked Jin-Ah wrapped in Jin-Chul’s coat, pointing at water and trying to say something with her teeth chattering and managing to say that he’s drowning, Jin-Woo saying ‘not on my fucking watch’ and jumps after, managing to grab him and drag on surface, man is absolutely freezing with lips blue and not really conscious but still weakly breathing.

ANYWAY they safely get back on shore, they all get medical treatment, Jin-Chul earns himself pneumonia (well fuck his sailing dreams ig), Sungs’ gratitude for saving their children and a fucking trial because captain blamed entire catastrophe on lower deck crew defying his orders and following engineer’s ones and that’s a big ass crime in navy. Things ain’t looking good because they want to prosecute him in shortest time to give people answers who’s the guilty one, Jin-Woo is really ready to throw hands with people, Jin-Chul’s patient explanations through coughs ain’t helping because no one can confirm accuracy of his words and that’s when Gun-Hee himself enters court saying smth like ‘maybe you should interrogate deck staff too to hear what commands captain was giving’ and then our sir proceeds to destroy this captain‘s whole career. Jin-Chul is cleaned of accusations and becomes a sort of a good example semi-legend, but thanks to extreme colds diving he now can’t sail on long distances but fear not Gun-Hee invites him to work for him since Jin-Chul is out of commission and Jin-Woo once again gifts Jin-Chul a sapphire brooch but this time asking if Jin-Chul will share future with him. Jin-Chul honestly having ??? reaction while Jin-Woo with the most deadpan face asks ‘You seriously think I’ll dive into cold waters of ocean at night to drag you on surface and then using my body warmth to keep you alive if i didn’t cared about you???’

#solo leveling #woo jin chul #sung jin woo #titanic au #sort of #okay listen I’m a sucker for good catastrophe stories that have good developing romance #jinchul trying to prevent it by being a badass and MVP #still failing tho but at least ship didnt kiss obstacle directly #jinwoo looking at slightly tipsy smiling jinchul who passionately tells about ships while covered in coal and old repaired clothes:#god I love him so fucking much #jinah staring at these two cringe flirting without realizing it from behind her book #‘man the ultimate form of chess homoerotism mixed with density of idiots’#she totally approves tho #jinchul smiling and saying dumb things to cheer hysterical jinah on drifting wood even if they both know it’s pointless #it still works and she laughs and slightly calms down so she won’t flip herself in water #jinchul trying his best until his muscles in water give out and he disappears under water when jinah turns away to yell for a boat #imagine her turning back excitedly only to find herself alone #and being a medical student she knows what it means #jinchul having more bonding moments with jinwoo before catastrophe and with jinah in middle of it #ha I got you #now I made myself sad ffs

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theflyingfeeling · 2 years ago

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Ending the year with Blind Channel + a bunch of some lovely people, aka not-a-concert-report from the Helsinki ice hall show (29.12.) and Tampere Pakkahuone (30.12.)

(let me know if any of you want your (@)mention removed from this post 🖤)

Not a concert report because y'all know pretty much what happened; this is just my own diary entry about the events 😌

So, Thursday was a bit of a struggle for me personally: there were some surprise changes regarding my train trip to Helsinki that gave me a good ol' spook the first thing I woke up, plus I had a killer headache for most of the day...

...and on top of that I fell! 🙈 We were already inside the venue and on our way to take our spots on the floor. Naturally there were all sorts of electric chords going across the floor, but thankfully they were covered so that people walking normally and minding their step wouldn't stumble all over them 🙏👍👌

Needless to say I wasn't one of them, however 🙃 I wasn't running, I was just walking quite fast, and I totally wasn't watching where I was going, and so I tripped and ended up on the floor and had super minor injuries on my hand and knee (thanks @matelas for the pink bandaid 💗)

My fall wasn't quite as dramatic as Porko's though, gosh what a show-off, can't even fall on his pretty little ass without pyros blowing off 🙄🔥

We weren't super close to the stage, but close enough to see what was happening with our bare eyes, and definitely closer than I dared to imagine in advance! 🤩

The surprise Robin was one of the highlights of the gig, that was truly something straight ouf of fanfiction 😆 I mean, imagine being such good friends with your ex that you ask them to be a special guest in your special show with your new bf's band :')

And the money shooting in the air was a m a z i n g 😂💞💸 sadly I didn't catch one, but @thisisntaparty was terribly kind and gave me one afterwards as a keepsake 🥰 I've put it on the Place of High Honour™ (the fridge door)

(let's not talk about how the setlist was a teeeeeeeeeny tiny disappointment (to me personally at least; I was totally excpecting to hear SLB and many other songs they KNOW are fan favourites 😔), and I feel like the show itself wasn't as special I was expecting it to be 🤔 I mean, of course having Robin fucking Packalén there took us all by surprise etc. but somehow I expected more, especially because the setlist was exactly the same the next day in Tampere (and maybe the cruise show setlist was similar as well?). For example, Dark Side being the ONLY encore song wasn't how I had imagined them to end their biggest headline gig to date)

But, speaking of Tampere, HOLY FUCKING SHIT 😭😭😭😭😭 It was incredible, and not least because we were on 3rd row with a direct view to Olli 😵 @matelas and I competely lost it when he first appeared in front of us, in all his sinful beauty ✨

I had never been this close to Olli's side before, so it was amazing to see his happy face during the songs 😭 You can really see from his whole presence how much he enjoys playing shows, I wanted to ruffle his hair too like Niko did during Glory For The Greedy 🥺

And Aleksi was really enjoying himself as well, it was cool to see him up close too when he came to stand on Olli's platform a few times 🥰 I feel like our eyes met very briefly near the end 💖

Niko did the eeeeeeeeyo thingie, as he always does, and we did the longest eeeeeeeeeeeyo known to mankind back at him, in fact I think you can still hear it echoing inside Pakkahuone! 😌

In both shows (and also in general) my favourite songs to hear live are Don't Fix Me, We Are No Saints, and Balboa; I had so much fun boundcing and partying to those songs 💃 I had made a conscious decision to not film too many videos during either gig, because I truly wanted to take it all in and enjoy the shows to the fullest, but at the same time I wish I had taken just a few more, because watching the videos and sort of getting to re-live the whole thing all over again is so much fun 🖤

Great fun was also had at the very informal, extremely small-scale, and otherwise perfectly wonderful BC tumblr gathering we had after the ice hall show in a bar downton Helsinki, and in the Gathering 2.0 after the Tampere show!! 🥰 You guyyyyyyssssss, both hangouts were filled with laughter and kindness and soft feelings and I was so happy 🥺😭💕

(I DIDN'T CRY, but if I did, it was because @himmelno44 made me!! 😭)

Thanks to BC and their superb energy and songs I probably would have had a great time even if I had gone to the shows all alone, but I gotta tell ya, spending time with such lovely people made it so much better and I had the most fun I've had in a long time 🥺

Special thank yous go to my queuing buddies @ladysorbus and @matelas without whom I would've frozen my ass off and died of boredom while waiting for showtime both days (I'll have you know Envy and I acted so incredibly mature the entire time and totally did not annoy the heck out of @ladysorbus and each other 🥰💞)

Thank you to my BC tumblr meet organizer buddy @sinking-into-mist (the meet was succesful and no one passed out due to anxiety, look at us!! 🎉) and my darling dearest sweetest most loveliest @himmelno44 I miss you so terribly much already and I'm counting the days until we see again, no matter how many there'll be 😭

Thank you to @thisisntaparty (keeping the door open for Stockholm shall we 👀) @mil-peri @madeofbrokenstuff @gingervivilou and @into-the-hell for hanging out, it was so nice meeting you and I'm up for getting together with any of you sweet people any time! <3

And thank you to everyone else I met a little more briefly (but not too briefly to get a hug 🥰), it was great to see you all, mwah mwah mwah 💋

And now the emotional part:

This year's been a bit rough for me personally for various reasons, as there has been a couple of changes that I'm still trying to get used to (+ the always-present feelings of loneliness and inadequacy), but Blind Channel has been this one consistent element in my life this year, something I have been able to escape to when things in my personal life have started hurting too much. Their music and all the content on the side (from the guys themselves as well as fan-made) are one thing, but equally important to me are all the amazing people I have met (in person and online!) and the incredible memories we have made together that have given me endless joy throughout the year 🥺 There have been many, many days when I have felt so incredibly sad and lonely and desperate and the thought of being happy has seemed downright impossible, but during the last two days I have laughed so much and felt such joy that I don't really know how to put it into words 😭 I just want to thank everyone who was part of it, and of course I hope to one day be able to meet Blind Channel in person again too and thank them, for giving me so much more than just the music 🖤

To anyone reading this, thinking I'm crying my eyes out all alone in my apartment, having to continue living my sad, boring life not knowing when I'll see Blind Channel and some of the lovely peeps mentioned above again: I am crying my eyes out, but I want you to know I'm also crying happy tears because of how grateful I am for all these memories, and also that I'm happy to sleep in my own bed tonight and to be eating cauliflower soup and having some fun snacks while watching hockey later, so life's not all bad I guess, even if I have a small wound on my right hand and a bruise the size of Niko's balls on my left knee :')

(last night I was actually so happy that I had forgotten all about the falling as well as the hassle with the train 🥰)

#blind channel #tw flashing #ok to reblog if you don't mind having my emotional rambling on your blog 🙈#not me singing on the video btw #(...i think? 🤣)#happy new year everybody! may there be many BC concerts to attend and fun times to be had in 2023 for all of us <3 #my next live gig will be lost society next month 🤘🖤#btw i may have a new year's themed shitpost coming up later tonight (if I get around to making it) 😏🎆#my concert #gig reports by theflyingfeeling

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hypocriticaltypwriter · 1 year ago

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MORE FOR THAT ✨A Unique Self Ship Ask Game With Unique Questions!✨

Because I love when my wife rants and I love learning more about their silly and adorable relationship ((both Donnie and the vampy bois🤭))

1. Everyone always asks about the first kiss. What about your first make-out session?

3. What was your SECOND date like? Was it an improvement on the first in some way?

6. What kinds of kisses does your F/O give you? What kinds of kisses do you give your F/O?

((I don’t remember if i added this question in the first one but I’m gonna add it here just to make sure kdkdkjde))

9. What's your F/O's favorite cuddling position? Yours?

MJ OUT HERE BEING THE BEST WIFEY LETTING ME RAMBLE ABOUT MY BBGIRLS 🥺🥺🫰🏻🫰🏻🫰🏻💜💜💜

⚠️Warning! Spicy content in the first question! (No NSFW) You've been warned... 👀🔥⚠️

1. Everyone always asks about the first kiss. What about your first make-out session?

OK but let's be honest here... When are these boys NOT looking for an excuse or place to make-out??? 🙃😏

LMAO but on a fr note 👏 the first time any of the boys actually got all smoochy with Chrysta was out of pure spite.

Marko and Paul had gotten into a stupid hissy fit over which of their bikes Chrysta was gonna ride home on. It got to a point David had stepped in to tell them to act like the dumbass adults they were or she'd riding home with him.

Yeah... They didn't like that.

The blondes were already at each other's throats for most of the night, even with Chrysta squished between them with her arms linked with each of theirs, leading them around the Boardwalk happily (and obliviously. 🤭)

So, it wasn't until later into the night when Paul decided to get all hot and bothered near one of those mini photo booths after Chrysta had mustered up her best puppy-dog-eyes and asked Marko to go get her some ice cream.

Paul really wanted to get on his buddy's nerves, apparently. He wanted to make Chrysta a sight that'd get his curly-haired friend baring his fangs in jealousy. Legit went down like this:

"Oh! When Marko gets back, can we go on the ferris wheel, Paulie? Pretty plea-AEEK-!" *gets dragged into the photo booth*

By the time Marko got back, he saw Paul cooly walk out of the booth with the smuggest side-eye, quickly followed by a VERY flustered Chrysta.

You know in the cartoons when they get covered in kisses and have that lazy dopey love-drunk look on their face, hair and close all unkempt and crazy, and sunglasses crooked, and they walk around all dazed and in a dream-like state, unable to stand straight?

That was Chrysta.

She also drove home with David that night. :/

3. What was your SECOND date like? Was it an improvement on the first in some way?

So, given her true first date was probably the night she even met the boys (which was just a cruise around the boardwalk and beach on the back of David's bike.) The actual/official second date was a movie night at Chrysta's house (the first time ever invited them in too 👀) in her attic bedroom.

She rented Fright Night (OH THE IRONY CHERRY), and they all got an excuse to get snuggly with her and let her cling onto them when she got scared. She was whining and complaining the whole time how they didn't even flinch at any scares or the twists!

... They're exscuse was that they've just seen it too many times. 🤭😏

6. What kinds of kisses does your F/O give you? What kinds of kisses do you give your F/O?

David is probably first (or at least comes into a hot second) when it comes to being one to kiss Chrysta the most. Wether it be a little peck on the lips after she comes running over to him perched on his bike, asking for a couple dollars so she can go buy a sweet or pretty jewelry.

Or a slow, passionate kiss to show her off and who she belongs to if he sees people staring at her just a little too long for his liking. 🫣🙈

Marko is probably more touchy than he is kissy, but he isn't gonna deny his angel-face from a little kiss here and there if she's just being too cute - he can't help it! Especially when he picks on her enough to see her pout her lips out - he just has to steal a quick peck. 🥺

Or he gives her some chaste kisses to her shoulder or cheek from behind her if they're sat and doing nothing for too long and he just wants to start shit. 🙄

Dwayne’s a guy who does not PLAY when it comes to kisses. Either go big or go home. 🫠🫡

And he also doesn't do them as constantly as the other Boys do, so much so when Chrysta wants a good kiss before she's taken back home for the night, she usually just stands in front of him, her lips pursed and her index finger tapping against them. Waiting patiently for when he leans his head down just a little, a hand reaching to the back of her head and one sneaking into the back pocket of her jeans to tug her closer.

And oh MY HEAVENS IF YOU THINK PAULS MAKE-OUTS MAKE THIS GIRL A PUDDLE-

She's literally sneaking back into her room through her window giggling and twirling her hair, all in a tizzy with her cherry-favlored lipgloss smeared at the corner of her lips and chin. 💀💀

And fighting David for the most often smooches with Cherri is probably Paul. Without a doubt there isn't a second in the night when he isn't trynna do something to get kiss as a reward. Winning her gifts, buying her jewelry or clothes, spoiling the ever loving guts out of his Dime-Piece so he can get that feeling of her lips against his for just a little longer. 🫠🤤

And sometimes, he gets way too impatient to wait for the kisses to just come to him and takes matters into his hands. It's become normal/second nature to the curly-haired brunette to feel Paul just come up behind her and start leaving a few kisses on her neck or pout against the back of her ear, making huffing noises till she's finished talking to whoeever so he can snatch up a little smoochy.

TBH she probably learned the nature from Paul himself when it comes to getting kisses from Dwayne LMAO

9. What's your F/O's favorite cuddling position? Yours?

Given the boys sleep in rafters upside down, snuggles are rare. Even when they decide to bunk with Chrysta in her bed at her home, Marko and Paul are usually the only ones who are willing to take up the offer and gladly (+ literally) jump into her bed and spoon her.

But those rare days, when the summer chill runs through Santa Carla, and it's enough to irk they're cold undead bodies, they don't mind a cuddle puddle with they're own personal heater girlfriend.

Davids usually the one who has her laying facing him, her face buried into his neck, a leg lazily thrown atop his torso, or vice versa. Dwayne lays behind her, arms snuggled around her waist and face hidden away in his hair and her back. Marko lays squished between David and Chrysta's abdomens, arms wrapped around her hips below Dwayne’s and his face hidden into her stomach, resting against the soft chub on her tummy as his own (and favorite) little cushion. Paul lays at her legs, his body wrapped around them like a koala and his head rested on her rear.

It only takes about thirty minutes before Chrysta tries to pry all the cold bodies off of her feverish one... Pray for her these fuckers sleep like the DEAD. 🙏

🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

THANK YOU MJ I ALWAYS GET SO GIDDY WHEN YOU POP INTO MY ASK BOX

#cherry rambles #ask #cherry answers #🍒daily dose of cherry🍒#🍒cherrys spice cabinet🔥#tlb #the lost boys #tlb 1987 #the lost boys 1987 #tlb oc #the lost boys oc #x oc #selfship #tlb paul #tlb marko #tlb dwayne #tlb david

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purplesurveys · 1 year ago

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1783

How long has it been since you moved out of the house you grew up in? I haven't moved out.

What color shirt are you wearing? It's light purple.

The last time you ate leftovers, what was it that you were eating? I think it's been a while since I have a terrible habit of keeping leftovers and then never coming back for them ever again... BUT OH I think it was a double cheeseburger from McDonald's? sometime earlier this week. I still have a handful of other paper bags in the fridge that I need to get to soon.

What was the last flavor of ice cream you ate? I had Aice's coffee popsicle when we went to Tanay over the weekend which I was super stoked about since it's my favoriteeeeeeeeeee and I haven't had the chance to have it since 2021 ehehehe. I must have finished it in 5 minutes and chewed my way through the ice cream for the most part lol.

Do you regret anything you've done in the last 24 hours, and if so, what? Not charging my laptop last night because I had to painstakingly migrate from one outlet to another today, given that I was out all day for work.

What is your favorite type of soup? 🍜 Miso soup, mushroom soup, and this last one is more stew than soup but I love kimchi jjigae.

When was the last time you saw a beautiful sunset? 🌅 It's honestly been ages. I haven't had the time to pause and simply watch a sunset happen and silently soak in those few minutes in a while. The last time may have been all the way back in June when my friends and I had dinner on a tiny cruise boat in Bangkok.

What is your favorite song at the moment? Cult of Personality by Living Colour for reasons that anyone who even slightly follows wrestling would know, haha.

What is your favorite board that you've made on Pinterest? I'm not that deep into Pinterest to have boards. I only ever use it for quick searches when I need certain pegs for work Powerpoints.

Do you get on Facebook or Instagram more? I'm on the Reels tab on Instagram more frequently than I would like to admit, lol. I'm connected to more people on Facebook but it's also still more boring, so when I'm on there I typically just look at the first 10, 15 posts on my feed to see what people are talking about then already close the app.

What color is your favorite sweater? I don't have a favorite sweater.

What are three things people would never guess about you just by looking at the photos you post on social media? I don't talk to my brother; I don't know how to ride a bicycle; I was deep into the British YouTuber invasion of the early-mid 2010s.

What is one thing you have too much of? Right now that would be boxes of my fave coconut-scented reed diffuser but that's only because that's what I got my workmates this Christmas and I have yet to wrap them and give them out, haha.

What was the last thing you ate or drank that was blue raspberry-flavored? It must've been months or years now; raspberry is definitely not something I encounter a lot.

What are three of your favorite scents? Vanilla, anything that's being baked, and apparently coconut.

What was the last flavor of tea you drank? ☕️ Lemon.

When was the last time you wore your hair in a fishtail braid? Almost exactly a year ago.

What is one annoying thing your computer does? I'm so attached to this laptop and it's my baby that I don't even have the heart to say anything bad about it lol. It's extremely slow and the 10 hour battery life has turned into 1 hour in the last six years and it barely has any storage left and has stopped becoming eligible for updates, but IT'S MY BABY DAMMIT.

What type of fruit do you eat the most? I avoid fruits.

How often do you go out to eat? Once or twice a month, I would say.

What would your dream wedding dress look like? 👰‍♀️ I'm too lazy to describe anything in detail as it is 10:30 PM and I'm too tired from work lololol but I would love anything that'd channel Audrey Hepburn. Something that'd be able to accentuate the waist with verrrrrrry subtle sleeves and a quiet yet elegant train that doesn't try to steal attention.

Which fall flavor do you prefer: pumpkin spice or apple cinnamon? Pumpkin spice. Got to try the Starbucks drink when they were randomly giving out pumpkin spice free samples and I came out of that store a changed and converted woman.

What is the most annoying thing about your life right now? All other PR/ad agencies are going on shutdown by the end of this week and my fuckin workplace isn't starting ours until next Friday.

Which holiday treat do you like better: candy corn or conversation hearts? Candy corn I guess, but I'm not a big candy person to begin with so eh.

What is your favorite apple-flavored treat? Chewy candies, like Mentos.

What are you counting down the days to right now, if anything? Our office shutdown. I'm so excited for it that I've started to stop exerting 100% effort at work lol.

What was the last book you read about? It's an autobiography.

Have you been daydreaming a lot lately about a scenario you wish would happen? I've been dreaming about it a lot, frustratingly enough.

What are three of your favorite things about camping? ⛺️ I've never gone camping before.

If you could choose what month to be born in, what month would you have chosen as your birth month, and why? My birth month has never really been an issue to me and I wouldn't change it even if I could.

...and what is your actual birth month? April.

What are three of your favorite things to do on a rainy day? 🌧️ If I had it my way I'd turn on the aircon, make my room as dark as possible, and take a long nap.

Would you rather eat strawberries 🍓 or watermelon 🍉? Neither.

Do you prefer smoothies or milkshakes? 🍹 Milkshakes.

Do you prefer hamburgers 🍔 or hot dogs 🌭? Burgers.

When was the last time you felt nauseous? I had the most awful motion sickness last Monday.

What was the last thing you ate that made you feel nauseous? The bagnet and bone marrow dish I had two weeks ago didn't necessarily make me feel nauseous but it did give me awful heartburn.

Do you enjoy going to your local county fair? We don't have one in my city.

How far away do you live from the place where you were born? I'd say it's a 1.5-2 hr car ride.

Do you prefer zebra print or cheetah print? Cheetah.

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wordpimp · 2 years ago

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After you have a vision, then you dream

You were trying to get somewhere small, somewhere you knew. Not a lot of gear, but you camped in the snow, by a car and a river. You were waiting on someone, not a rescue. I know that look, it's a different kind of desperation. More supplies, a hand to build the fuselage, dig a well, put the honey in. I lit my side on fire with a nine inch blade, bruise I still feel on my hip, way up high, below the left ribs. A phone call that kept getting through, but barely. Was this the idea that scared me about you? Did it scare you too? Does it ever save you?

When I get to that classroom, I'm always in the wrong building. I'm in a setup, an escher building with a bosch facade. It's the mind's tricks. In the vision you were the good witch glenda. I had a word for your face that's unintelligible here. You would know it though. This is the wrong section, too public, too open. The room I want is at the top and it's closed for the day, it's already full. Make room then, it's what we do. Green orange yellow red. Blue, blue to be truly naked. Then white. But the lounge is an atmosphere, staircases and lobbies. So much marble. The best is yet to come, that future I looked at, we should put it in a song. Right, on the radio, cruising past town. I can only get so far here never up or through. Why would I want to? People sleep and they never talk. I can only talk to myself before I have to go on to the next one. That's not a clue either, but maybe the pattern is. Infinite return, golden section, fibonacci. I see you in the stars, you know.

From on the roof, I see a bridge. I see a car cross. It's always crossing. I'm in the car, I'm looking at the car. I'm on the bridge watching the car leave. I'm in the bridge, I'm it. Is that how it reads. Is this the January. Gray beams in rain, feel the rain, it's warm, it's heavy, I'm a lead curtain on the highway. The highway looks deadly but it's not a question. Happiness is also deadly. Rain turning to ice, then snow. I wonder if that's you, finally ready to cross. Then the two sides of me can lift into an arch, make a circle. Then release. Tap me here. Do I sound satisfying, could you drink your fill of me and be happy, in the rush hour, certain to be released home any minute?

#poetry #dream #prose poem

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kvitka97 · 2 years ago

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1. Breaking Bad (I know, don’t come for me please)., Schitt’s Creek and Hannibal (don’t know if I can tolerate the cannibalism)

2. I hate socks

3. Yes but without banana, that taste overrides everything else

4. Tailored dress pants, lace top and suit jacket

5. Omelettes with lots of groceries

6. Dog ear the page

7. Black

8. SPN paraphernalia, antique jewelry

9. The sound of light rainfall or a light wind rustling tree leaves. Scents wake me up, they don’t generally calm me down

10. Aesthetic

11. Neither - LASIK

12. She is loyal but not overbearing

13. Pen

14. Book store, my living room, my mom’s home town

15. Yes and no

16. Right now it’s my Mantra green hoodie, I’ve had it for over a year

17. Dishes

18. V Day - End of WWII

19. I went as a harried single mom ( my mom’s idea as she was one at the time)

20. Business Math and Intro. Statistics

21. High Renaissance, Pieta by Michelangelo, sculpture and painting

22. Iced

23. I don’t sing in the shower

24. I think so lol

25. Yes, yes, and definitely yes

26. I can do both, my specialties are probably lasagna and pistachio lemon pound cake loaf

27. Yes, mostly souvenirs and too many to describe

28. Nope, I can barely float

29. No

30. No but I’m working on it

31. Cruise - Florida Georgia Line (Ft. Nelly)

32. I’ve died my hair every color of the rainbow except black, I’d like to try that

33. Earbuds

34. Yes

35. Didn’t have them as a kid nor do I have any now

36. Air hockey

37. Nope, that’s standard with my family

38. I watched Black Money Love and am now looking for other Turkish shows to watch

39. Spending time with my mom and joking around with my brother over text (he lives a long way away)

40. Maple

41. Fresh

42. Yes but they’re for my toddler nephews so none

43. Lights on… are there people who answered lights off?!

44. Cup holder in my car usually

45. No

46. A perfume brand

47. Yes

48. No

49. Curl up with a blanket, a hot cup of coffee and a good book or fanfic 😉

50. Cool almost cold bedroom with a comfy blanket

This was fun, hope I see some from my moots.

50 Questions Just Because

What are three shows in your watchlist that you’ve been meaning to get to?

Describe your favorite pair of socks

Do you like smoothies?

What do you wear when you have to dress nicely?

How do you like your eggs?

What do you use to keep your place when you’re reading a book?

What color dominates your closet?

Do you collect anything? If so, what?

What sounds or scents calm you down?

What’s your favorite kind of uquiz question? (Lyric, color, aesthetic, etc)

Do you wear glasses or contacts?

What’s something about your best friend that you love?

Do you prefer to write in pen or pencil?

What are some places where you feel most at home?

Do you have any houseplants? Do any of them have names?

Describe your favorite hoodie. How long have you had it? What makes it unique?

What’s the last thing you ordered online?

What’s one historical event that you would have liked to have witnessed?

What’s your favorite Halloween costume from when you were a kid?

What kind of math are you best at?

What’s your favorite period in art history, your favorite famous work and/or your favorite style of art? If you don’t know any that’s ok!

Iced or hot drinks?

Which songs do you like to sing in the shower?

Are you a good driver?

Do you have any piercings or tattoos? Are there any that you want?

Can you cook or bake? If so, what are some of your specialties?

Do you have any keychains on your home or car keys? Describe them!

Can you swim very well? Do you like swimming?

Did you play with Legos as a kid? What was your favorite set?

Is your closet organized? If so, how?

What’s the last music video you watched?

If you could dye your hair any color, regardless of how you think it would look, what color would you choose?

Headphones or earbuds?

Can you read analog clocks?

Describe your favorite stuffed animal, either now or from when you were a kid.

What’s an arcade or table game (air hockey, ping pong, etc) that you’re really good at?

Do you mind if others are in the kitchen when you’re cooking or baking?

What’s one show you watch or musician you listen to that your friends know nothing about?

What was the best part of your day today?

What’s your favorite kind of tree?

What scent is your deodorant?

Do you have any games on your phone? If so, which one(s) is/are your favorite?

Do you shower with the lights on or off?

What do you do with spare change?

Do you have good handwriting?

What’s the last thing a friend recommended to you that you looked into and actually liked?

Do you like to go on walks?

Do you have a favorite plate or bowl?

What’s your favorite thing to do when it’s raining?

Describe your perfect sleeping conditions

#these are fun ones #ask meme #ask game

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dsandrvk · 10 months ago

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Sunday, February 18 - Polar Plunge and Skontorp Cove (Paradise Harbor)

What a day! We were supposed to scenic cruise down the Neumayer Channel but we were awakened to an announcement of Orcas off of the port bow, and we were dressed and on the deck in less than five minutes. We spent at least an hour following them from a respectable distance taking lots of photographs and watching with binoculars. Our resident expert later explained about all the different ecotypes of Orcas, and thought our pod was a "B" type. There are southern and northern Orcas and they don't mix, and the different ecotypes are different sizes and slightly different body styles and also eat different prey. For some, penguins are on the menu, while others prefer seals, although I'm sure none will pass up an easy meal.

We never did get to the Neumayer Channel, but slowly cruised into one arm of Paradise Harbor (which is not a harbor, but an area where three channels come together), and the wind completely died down for a while, so the glaciers and mountains were perfectly reflected in the sea. A touch of sun highlighted a couple of ridges, and then disappeared into a little light rain and snow flurries.

An announcement was made that today we would have the Polar Plunge for anyone who wanted to participate. As it was described, it can be a few seconds of agony for a lifetime of bragging, so of course we had to do it. The ship had stopped by then, and a Zodiac was positioned just like when we leave the ship, but this time was set up for two jumpers at a time. We were called down by color group, and the Landing Zone (the place where we change our boots, clean our items after landings, etc.) was full of folks in robes and our cruise director, James in a penguin suit, grooving to some music. A bar was set up (shots for courage - my choice was tequila), and we waited our turn to disrobe down to our swimsuits, go down the stairs and get ready. They put a weight belt around us (this was probably the worst part, because it was cold and wet on my bare back), but we quickly stepped onto the Zodiac, were clipped into a rope, stepped up onto the tube and jumped! One of the crew filmed us with my phone and the ship photographer took pictures from in front of us (I haven't seen those shots yet - I wonder what my expression was). The water was cold, but by the time I climbed back up the ladder, the adrenaline was pumping and I no longer was chilled. Just putting the robe back on kept me warm, along with another shot for celebration. Turns out there are two kinds of people on the ship - those that wouldn't miss this experience for the world, and those who would never consider it an option. 100 of us were in the first group - a fairly common percentage.

Since we were already wet and in our swimsuits, it seemed like a good idea to head to one of the hot tubs and swap stories with our fellow passengers. We have met a lot of really nice people on this cruise - because of the expedition nature of it, the passengers seem to skew younger and considerably more active than the usual cruise type. Most of the folks here take the stairs rather than the elevators - on other trips we have often felt like we were the only ones walking up and down. And this crowd is far more casual than on standard cruises - not sloppy, but most folks wear slacks and sweaters or flannel shirts and puffy vests rather than more formal outfits, even to dinner.

During lunch we sailed further into Paradise Harbor to an area called Skontorp Cove, and did a wonderful Zodiac cruise past another summertime Argentinian base (unoccupied this year) to an Antarctic Shag nesting area, and past some really great ice bergs. The Shags have pretty much fledged, so mostly there were just youngsters left, but they were also intermingled with Antarctic Terns. The cliffs here show blue-green streaks of copper, and a lot of vegetative growth - probably encouraged by all the natural fertilizer.

On the way back to the ship, there was a Zodiac with a Seabourn flag (and James the penguin), and when we got near they were handing out glasses of champagne! We toasted being in Paradise, and headed back to the ship, while the next few groups took their tours.

Then before dinner, we had a "sail-away" with more champagne and caviar on the back main deck. By now, everyone knows that events scheduled for outside will be happening outside, barring a major storm, so we all dress warmly. And although it is Antarctica, it's a lot warmer than the average Chicago winter!

Tomorrow we will hit our southernmost point, and it will be our last day down here. We're hoping to do one last Zodiac cruise in the morning and one last landing in the afternoon before turning west and then north towards the Drake Passage. We headed down through the Lemaire Channel this evening, but the clouds came down, so it was hard to see the spectacular mountains surrounding us, but it is starting to really feel like Antarctica.

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rad-review-of-gigs · 7 years ago

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Prodigy

Brixton Academy, 22.12.2017

Always speeding, never reversing, like unbridled, joystick mayhem

Six number one albums to the good, lurid dystopia has rarely been as thrilling as The Prodigy and the Academy is crackling with anticipation as the band finally steps out under the stage's roving searchlights. Vocalist Keith Flint, still wilfully perverse with mohican and black eye liner, prowls the stage in an adolescent slouch, like an indolent hyena scavenging off 1997's Fat of the Land, braces dangling torpidly by his knees. Alongside him the avowedly macho MC Maxim stokes all the 'hot and sweaty warriors on the floor".

Everyone hopes the music will change their picture. However the opening salvos, though reassuringly demented, are a confusion of noise that belie the guile of the group's quarter of a century of studio samplings. 'Wild Frontier' stands alone in this briny chaos as having some shape and coherence. 2009's 'Omen' was first up and fortunately the writing is not on the wall, as the set gradually mutates into the kind of shamanistic experience that avid clubbers yearn for. Whether this is through being bludgeoned, as promised, into another dimension or the sound has simply been tweaked down a notch, The Prodigy's timeworn breakneck and careering fusion of punk and techno, reminiscent of a video game carjack, is soon in cruise control.

The band shrewdly dispenses with a truncated 'Firestarter' early on, as if to say you're here to live this gig not just wait for an anthem, and from that point the malevolent hedonism assumes its distinctive form.

A delighted crowd parties frenziedly to the ominous, snarling 'Breathe' and there is barely a moment to exhale before Rob Holliday, a prototype Mick Jones inhabiting the corner of the stage, outs the heavy guitar riff of 'Voodoo People', Other gems are the pounding 'Get Your Fight On' and recent single 'Need Some 1'. After the ragga of 'Poison' the rapturous adulation almost kisses the ceiling. So Maxim hunkers the flock, like the raving crab of Fat Of The Land's iconic album cover, for a wash in the ethereal, levantine interlude inside 'Smack My Bitch Up', before erupting it from the sea bed for a final burst of hysteria.

The encore is a mission back through time to the group's undistilled dance roots with club classic, 'No Good' and the reggae-infused 'Out of Space'. As The Prodigy vanish in the sulphurous cloud of dry ice the audience is left to float alone the chorus of "I'm gonna send you to outer space to find another race."

Suitably skewed with its tilted floor, the Brixton Academy is sold out for three nights of this explosive delirium and, in an era of snowballing institutional decay and social entropy, the punk spirit of The Prodigy could be the zeitgeist once more and ensures the event is more than an outmoded and corroded panto. "I've got the poison, the remedy, the rhythmical remedy" screams Maxim. Music indeed for a jilted generation.

Words: Adrian Cross

Photos: Richard Gray

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nigel-oh-nigel · 1 year ago

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I Remember You

Chapter 1: accidence happens but acceptance don't always.

Do you believe in destiny? For me, it would be a very unfortunate obstacle to avoid if it does exist.

One could argue that destiny isn’t set in stone, that you are the one who can choose the best path for yourself. And i do agree with that.

What if, with certainty, a horrible series of events were destined to be lined before you?

A person threatened by such a calamity would choose to fight that pin pointed path and rip away from fate. They would deny it and avoid conviction, complain until the problem ceases to be. Such as the nature to survive, searching for a hole until the end.

But what if willingly, beyond all logic, you couldn’t say no? Despite the troubling circumstances, you rather fall deeper.

The roads through this busy city were icy and slippery, despite its ill conditions, cars still cruised across the street kicking up slushy ice onto the outer pavement as if quick-moving knives leading through water. Large piles of crushed flakes caked high and lined the sidewalk. Remembering the weather report, this was about four days' worth of fall.

You could imagine the outcome of so many snow days to be inconvenient, but it barely hinders the hardworking lifestyle of this city.

This amount of snow wasn’t what I was used to. My frail skin easily bumped up to the harsh still chilled air. Luckily it wasn’t windy, I'd snap to pieces if i walked too far. Coming from a more southern region where the air is, most of the time, dry, many are often bliss to the sight of seeing the trees, buildings, the ground and the roads glazed in this white wonder.

My childhood consisted of futilely waiting for a few flakes of snow. Any amount would have made me dazzled with joy, even if there was very little fun anyone could do with the amount we would receive. The kids would talk and hope for it before losing that hope as it neared March.

I know a place like New York would have an over abundant of this white stuff nearly all winter long. In fact, because of how busy its people can become and how dangerous traveling looks to be for them, people here have a deep complication with ice and will strive to get rid of it.

I guess we’d have trouble as well. Our little town would honestly freeze over if we had these inches of snow. Our fragile road system could crumble and fall apart to the first sighting of clear ice. The schools will shut down and few would dare risk their lives traveling to the stores for any minor reason.

The roads would be mostly vacate excluding the factory workers who bosses couldn’t care less if they died getting there.

Speaking of work, this job. Mister Young never told me that the interview would be so… personal, and being that i am far from home, it actually came off as creepy. Like I'm going to be abducted, without notice, at any moment, but maybe its just my imagination.

You see, i was offered this job position by a rich guy named Davidson Young, known widely for his mass production in green friendly vehicles, commercial to the public as well as to companies that demands savvy transporters.

If hired, I'll become an errand boy, a well-paid errand boy who’ll handle the task of suppling one of his many residential homes and satisfying the occupancy in it. Maybe it's more of a butler’s employment.

The questions, at first, were standard, only asking about existing past work experiences that might relate to the job I'm applying for.

I’ve worked at the store my parents run for four years, but getting a reference from my parents would be as valuable to them as asking about my mom’s cake recipe. Only a horrible son, or a son who had life crushing parents would get such a bad review. I doubt the employers cared for whatever gray that fell in, not that i had such a bad relationship with my parents.

The questions then evolved into hobbies or skills. Asking me about hobbies is really needlessly scraping for something, isn’t it? Being the monster company “Ventumio”, you’d think they’d aim for more professional level interns. Maybe someone that came from a more outstanding school than me, a person whose school can't afford to replace ten-year-old computers, and equipment our teachers been practically begging for their lessons.

No matter if i helped someone out or not, i doubt Mr. Young’s people will find a need for me on any level, even if it’s just helping to maintain a portion of the house. I was told that they had a lot of applicates already, so they didn’t want to spend too long on me.

Whatever. On the better side, a trip out of town wasn’t too bad. I had the pleasure of rooming with my older cousin, who moved up here a few years back. His personality was always hard to pin. It's in-between spastic, well-expressed, inner monologues that obsess over figurines from some shows he likes, and a monotone, laidback approach towards everything else living in the moment as if he was only inserted nearby to look and gleam.

He gives the BEST advice, but you kind of have to pry it out of him. For someone who’s “there” at times, other than his grave shift job, he does go out a lot, nearly every day. I tagged along with him once my three days being up here and found out that he was going to a pretty cool comic store. Apparently, he goes there so much that manager gives him the employee discount whenever he buys.

My cousin would joke and say that the comic store was his volunteer service for nerds everywhere. Though he doesn’t do any work as far as i can tell, I was told by one of his “friends” that he would sometimes dress up like a wizard, as he stood, smiled sleepily, and did nothing.

If somehow, the job did fall into my lap, there would be another problem to face later down the road.

It seems as though I've misunderstood the nature of the job. The position requires you to live within the residence, that may not boat well for my parents who barely allowed me to go in the first place.

They have been not only calling me constantly, but my cousin as well. Dad called me for the second time today, half an hour ago, and it isn’t far of a reach to expect a call from mom as soon as she gets on break.

I told dad the simplistic of how it went but didn’t really bring up any of my festering concerns the interview made me feel. He would either demand that I jump on a plane at the very moment of worry, or he would likely jump on a plane coming to get me.

I think there’s no need to worry. Living on the property and being within close corners of people, it’s natural to wonder about my contacts, right? If I… might be dating at the moment, how often I'm in contact with people. Just the… basics.

Who am i kidding, that was bothering. Mr. Young did give me his number just in case i had questions, but he told me, at times, it would be hard to reach him. A time to call never crossed yet, but when I get back to my cousin’s apartment, it would be good to get some sort of clarity.

Walking seemed to be the safest method of travel as far as snow is involved, but since leaving the building of said job review, I felt off. Was it really that necessary to go that deep into my personal life?

The moral dilemmas question was just the weirdest.

If I could betray a coworker for a large sum of money?

How grey was my perspectives on breaking the law?

Have you taken any self-defense classes?

Would you consider yourself a good person? If so, then why?

How do you feel around dead bodies?

With extreme stretches of the imagination, I could link a vague reason to each bizarre question, but should I run? Calling my parents and tipping them a bit might be best, but there’s no way they’d allow me to stay an hour more after hearing this.

I'll think about it and try to watch out for suspicious stuff in the meantime.

To be fair, it was pretty cold at the moment about 2:00 in the evening, but the temperature was already dropping, resting now at fifteen or so Fahrenheit. On the sidewalk with me there were few people traveling in these conditions, about twenty-ish people scattered around coming and from me.

A man appeared from the corner of my eye pacing himself just a bit quicker in his steps than I did. the well-kept styled mid-trimmed haircut aligned with his aura of being a well statured man. A long fancy beige pea coat fell just above his knees, protecting the suit that laid under it.

He didn’t seem as though he was late, the expression on his face was too casual for that. Still, to his side he carried a workbag that suggested that he was either going to or leaving work.

I'd guess work related reasons would be the only thing that would drag anyone out the house, but now thinking about it, Christmas was just around the corner, two weeks from now. Though the late shoppers are common, I'd imagine the early birds would get a jump on things when they can.

Surely this man didn’t come out for that reason, but maybe some others did.

My eyes glanced away from him for just a moment to study others who were out. There was another man who worn too little clothes and was suffering from it, clattering his teeth and bracing himself in a hug.

I could hear slight mumbling from him since he was crossing the street very close by me.

“Stupid weather…”

He faded behind me.

My mind trailed off to wonder why he was out here, but was torn away by another person, this time a woman with a fuzzy head and matching earmuffs. She was bundled up in practical, thick layers of coats and sweaters.

Another person behind her was tall and muscular wearing mostly a thin overcoat that wasn’t as thick as what I could handle in this weather.

The entire that I had on was a shirt, a sweater, and a jacket. It blocked me from the elements decently, only allowing me to feel cold air at the very edges from any openings of my wear.

Strolling, kicking up my feet just a bit higher than my shin level, a simple, mindless thought came to me.

Why do we go through this?

Clearly the world can’t stop because of a few feet of snow. As long as the buildings stand people will be called to work. no one would turn down a workday because that would mean no income. That's just how it was. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to wish everyone luck on their travels.

Before I could enlighten myself to an epiphany that wasn’t going to come to me anytime soon, something sudden and worrisome caught my attention.

The man who walked with an expression that suggested that his heart and mind was already in his office doing desk work and making careful business decisions, stumbled backwards fighting for balance but failed to even withstand the forces of gravity for half a second, hit the ground.

As you could guess, this man who seemed to never accept a lesser hand dealt to him already showed an enormous amount of spite, rage, disbelief and a noticeable instinctive urge to do harm.

To whom? Well, it turns out that he didn’t fall completely on his own. There was a boy a decent amount younger than me, maybe twelve laying on top of the toppled man.

The boy eyed the man with an enduring, sincere grin as though blind to the cold, damped man’s bent hostile frown. If this was a cartoon, surely smoke would bellow from the glaring man’s head.

“Sorry there, sir. I didn’t mean it.” The boy dragged his words out but froze with hesitation to remove himself.

As if to dig a deeper, more definite consequential hole that would be hard to crawl out from, the wide-eyed quirky boy reached for the man's shoulder to dusk the lingering debris of ice on his arm, with hard slaps.

The man who finally recovered from whatever ill violent thoughts possibly crossing his mind finally spoke. Loudly, the business barked an order at the boy to get off, then latched a hand to the boy’s shoulder, fixing him in place. You could see nails penetrate the skin of the minor’s arm, a cold glare to match.

The explosive man gave a quick, forceful jerk to the boy’s arm to remove him, yet his gripe broke first before the boy budged an inch.

“You little fuck! Get your ass off me before I break your arm.” still upholding a bitter tone, the tempered man settled for a threat despite already trying and failing to do major harm. “You ruined my coat and suit. Do you want me to break your teeth in for this?”

The genuinely confused young teen gawked at the heated older, less than gentle, gentleman, then made an effort to remove himself off of him.

“that’s not a nice thing to say. Bro says you should be polite to people. I said I was sorry…” the boy lifted his bottom lip to his nose, childishly, then bowed his head firmly at the man apolitically.

“My shoes you little fucker! My clothes! What are you talking about?”

To his chagrin, a frown formed, then widened over the ever-puzzled kid’s face; nonetheless, he extended a hand to the souring man. “Um… let me help you up.”

With a clawing motion, the also childish man snatched for the shamed teen’s upper arm, ripping and pulling down to get up. The physically abled boy took it nonchalantly, still showing no visible signs of suffering.

“Wow! That's some grip for a guy who works at an office. You must do a little working out too.” the delighted boy remarked, praising him. “If you pull too hard, you might rip my arm off, ha ha.”

As if bothered that again he failed to make this dorpie kid whine in some way, the man fussed again, loudly and shamelessly.

“Where the hell are your parents? Don't you lie to me.”

It was subtle, but there was a sobering glow washing over the otherwise meek boy’s face. He sorrowfully laughed. “My parents died a few years ago. It's just me and my brother now. He's busy right now, so I'll have to- um… handle this myself.”

“You better not be lying boy. Where is your brother? Get him here now!”

“The name is drake.” the boy, drake quipped with a smile. “i said that I'd handle it please. Just tell me how.”

The now inquisitive man paused, mostly from the feeling of being dumbfounded by the hopeful drake. The once mostly boiled, but now mildly more simmered man clashed his teeth together.

“PAY. FOR. IT.” he chanted, fuming at the mouth. “A stupid kid doesn’t have the money to pay for my clothes.”

The naïve early teen cocked a brow to his words, then squeezed his lips together showing a small amount of defeat. “Ah, how much would it cost?”

The man rolled his eyes, adding the damage with an invisible calculator. “400. Maybe 500 for dry cleaner and su-”

“HA HA HA HA!” drake, after hearing the outrageous inflated cost, burst into a fit of laughter, then glanced up at the man with a friendly grin. “Nah. We can’t afford that. It would take years for me to pay you that much.”

Drake's laugh tapered little by little as he occasionally seen the growing bitter look of the dead serious businessman. “Wait, you were serious. No no, we can’t afford that.”

Drake dug into his worn pants pocket, then fished out five dollars. “Here. Please consider this.”

Like a bee sting, an aggressive straightened hook of the man’s hand swiftly struck the money away. The money drifted, gliding to the snowy pavement. To add insult to injury, a car came spilling snow from under its wheels. The airborne slush landed on the five dollars, burying it quickly.

“That was… wasteful.” the boy mumbled under his breath. “But we can maybe buy you a new coat. Maybe something as fancy as the one you have on.”

“Don't you bullshit me! You ruin this, a thousand-dollar suit. No crappy, poor jacket will make up for this.” the blinded angry man roared.

The man, that was twice the boy’s size, lounged at him then grabbed his hair ready to start a fight. He pulled Drake closer, pointing a stern index finger inches from his face. “I'm going to make sure your ass goes to jail, and you won’t see your fucking brother again!”

Having my fill, sitting by to watch this unfolding disaster, I was ready to intervene, surprised that an adult would take it this far.

A few onlookers had paused to stare, but since there was now physical contact being made between the two, more people stopped to watch.

As I stepped in to try and detour the crazy, a glint in the boy’s eyes stunned me to my core just from the glance alone. It wasn’t an angered, festered response to the old man’s aggression. It was a calm flame that I couldn’t comprehend.

“i hope one of these people call the cops so they ca- GAH!”

The loudmouth man’s words were cut short by a hand seizing the freedom of his jaw. I'd imagine confusion overcame him, draining the anger from the man’s eyes.

“i really hate people like you.” the boy whispered. The man’s cheeks caved in by drake’s handle, growing plump and red from the fingers that sunk into its flesh.

The man raised a hand then latched it onto the boy arm. It was wary to watch. Despite the desperate man’s best attempts, the short dominant kid grip was absolute and unwavering, fastened tightly around his mouth.

More instinctively than not, I stepped quickly to the fearsome drake, then grabbed his arm along with the stupid man.

“you’re hurting him, you know. This’ll get you into trouble.” I grunted, straining to loosen his hold even a little.

It shouldn’t be this hard. I was near double his height as well, and our combined strength can’t equalize to his power. This was unreal.

The boy looked up to me with lazy eyes, displaying the impression that he was giving this full-grown man and me trouble without really trying. He wasn’t what I'd call a normal kid.

I mean, what were his hands made of? Robot parts.

A little larger than a normal twelve-year old’s arm. It seems enduring and tempered. He was well-trained by someone, for whatever reason.

“So, you want to get involved now?” those fearsome, dangerous eyes had faded into a more inquiring glare. He stared at me, then grew more empathetic to my attempt to stop him. “no… You’re not a bad person, I guess. Your eyes are too soft. I wouldn’t feel good hurting you.” The boy unlatched the man’s face, then I let his arm go.

With a smudged look, he pointed his body at me, expressing a knowing grin.

“i even doubted you would have even tried to hurt me.” with a tilt of his head and a cock of his brow, he glared at the man on the ground. “I would have let him hit me for knocking him down, but someone like him shouldn’t throw weight he doesn’t have around. I can’t believe she likes him. I don’t see it.”

Drake scratched his head, turning his body away as if to ponder his dilemma in isolation.

Curious to the nature of the boy, i even wondered what he meant by “she”. It implied a connection of some sort the boy and this man shared somehow, but their initial interaction earlier didn’t suggest that they knew each other at all.

I bent down, reluctantly, to the out of breath man, checking the reddening area surrounding his mouth that will be there for a while.

“Who the fuck are you? Get the hell out of my face.”

“Yeah, you seem ok.” I halfheartedly moaned.

“Did you really stop me to save that man?” the boy inquired, showing a displeasing shift of his head, facing towards the ground.

Shame filled my eyes to the fact that I was sympathetic to a man willing to beat up kids.

“This guy is a jerk, but there’s no reason anyone should be walking away with any serious injuries.”, a gave drake a glaring smile, “also it would be bad for you to go to jail for a thing like this.”

Drake seemed to ponder my consequential words but shrugged it off. “Jail wouldn’t be so bad; they have food in there. But if my bro found out that I went to jail… it would make him feel less of a man. Plus being away from my bro would suck too.”

“Wait. What?” less of a man? “What do you mean?”

“He wants me to have a better life.”

Well, that makes sense, but the way he worded it sounded weird.

Drake turned his attention back to the man on the ground, who only recently caught his wind.

“Because of the stories she told me, I was kinda excited to meet you, but you have nothing in common with the stories I heard. And that really is sad.”

She? “Who is sh-

“you brat!! Don't you have any damn training?! Who do you think you are?”

To be expected and in his right, the man who collected himself within drake’s assessment of me, again erupted, squaring his focus to the boy.

A bit of the bite the once overly brazen man had a moment ago tapered from the intimidating way he was treated, but for some reason he again searched for the high ground to scold his attacker.

I saw a small flash from a phone within the corner of my eye. Surrounding us were now a lot of people, ogling at the “show” the two had. I was now fully involved.

Some just stood there, staring. A few seemed to have been shocked, as well as tickled by all that happened.

No one intervened like me, but there were some who had a phone close to their ears, possibly calling the police.

It was becoming clear that this boy was in trouble. I looked with panic in my eyes, scraping up some plan to redirect the attention, but before i did anything extreme…

“where’s your parents?” only after asking the crude question that I remembered that they had died. “Oh… sorry. I meant your brother.”

He glanced at me in a way that acknowledge I was heard, but no response was made to answer my clumsy question. Instead, Drake drove his regard to the capsized business man, the seemingly and sudden sorrowful boy pinched his lips together, wrinkling his nose in disgust.

“We were… supposed to be friends? But how is that?” he rolled his eyes, turning his back to the bewildered man, “there’s no way we would be. You're mean. Hot headed. and Like stuff too much.”

The bold boy, with a sudden, deepened, burning grudge towards the not-so-unfamiliar man, digging into his worn jacket pocket to fish out a dark-brown leather quality wallet with a light-black buckle that sealed it.

“Here.” Drake tossed the wallet into the lap of the confused man, who grew brighter in the face the more he seen what was in Drake’s hand. “Sorry Clover, I don’t want to be his friend anymore.”

“These…” the businessman gazed at the well-designed wallet, stunned. “This is my Wallet you brat.”

“Yep, time to go. I did what I had to do.” he spoke gingerly.

“you STOLE his wallet?!”, I affinized, realizing if i helped him now, I'd likely become an accessory to a thief.

His arms raised above his head, folded to be tucked behind his neck, then he intertwined the fingers into a net. He started off in the direction that he came from.

Metaphorically sucker punched and finding himself yet again on the hard icy sidewalk, holding his disrespected livelihood in his lap, the pride businessman had to pick himself back up to face his shame-er. His feet twisted and wobbled, hardly finding suitable ground to stabilize his feet. The heels of the designer shoes had some grip but weren’t the best fit for pure ice.

“You think someone as poor as you can get away from me, untouched? No. I'll make sure somebody get you.” He then bowed his shoulders in rekindled fury. “I bet you and your brother are homeless trash. That's why you can't afford to clean my suit.”

the boy turned so swiftly, though it might have been a fabrication on my part, wind seemed to slide off his shoulders. Feeling a different spark of heat flaring within him, my chest tightened. though he seemed like a person who would prefer a peaceful outcome at first, that look he had on his face now suggested things can go either way.

Grinding teeth of the boiling man, parted and his fangs were tucked away, but he wasn't done. this shady short dark-haired man that had his pride tampered with, still showed deep feral eyes that wish for long suffering. “I don’t have to call the cops; I'll get you myself.”

“ok” the boy quipped with a smile. “Sounds fun.”

I shuttered. "you two are acting stupid. just drop it and walk away." i thought that i could reason with them, but clearly there wasn't room for that.

The man, who realized that drake was leaving, pulled his phone out, then began to take a picture of the boy’s face. combining the information about what he said, not involving the cops anymore, erected a crimson red flag. it was just a feeling but this wouldn’t end well if he gets a picture. I ripped my coat off the tossed it over the drake’s face.

“HEY!” Drake remarked somewhat allowing me to place it over him.

“QUIT GETTING IN THE WAY! It has nothing to do with you.”

Both drake and the man had a negative reaction to me stopping the issue from escalating. i thought things were put on hold, but the faint sound of a shuttering camera caught my ears. I think my picture was taken instead.

" Now he got YOUR picture instead." Drake barked, frustrated at me. " I get you're trying to help, but…."

the odd kid with abnormal strength overpowered me, pulling the coat off. "I'm used to monsters like him."

" yep, you're pretty strong. maybe I should workout more." I scuffed, glaring dumbfounded at the boy named Drake.

surely the man, with an odd sense of justice, would want to try and take another picture.

With no urgency to his safety, Drake’s eyes floated to the camera phone again, by chance and another shutter sound echoed. "there. now you can just come after me."

“I got you now, brat!” the man cooed.

With a swift step and all the strength, I could muster focused within my legs, I kicked the iPhone up into the sky, sailing it yards away.

The man’s jaw dropped when the phone practically exploded from his hand.

“Wha?! You! Why did you do that? That phone costed me over a thousand as well.”

“I don’t like where this is going.” I stated, showing to be truly disturbed.

Glancing to both sides of me, a hot-headed man that would give a therapist a field day, a boy who seems prone to possible harm and a steady growing crowd, I rolled my eyes to the new level of involvement I've become.

“That was a nice kick.” Drake laughed. “Please play kickball with me and my bro when you get the chance!”

I felt like yelling at him for not being aware of his immediate threat to life, but I bit my tongue, opting for a more practical explanation.

“That man wants to REALLY hurt you and the police will be here soon.” I connection some points together in my head, then thinned my lips. The boy looked back with a smile at me.

“Yeah, I know, and the guy does seem like the type of person who would have "special friends.”, Drake mumbled, showing the wrong interested in that fact. " i hope they're a little tougher than him."

"wha?" my stress was nearly crushed by the crippling bolder of confusion his boy spat. "no. you shouldn't be planning a fight with a group of people."

“What if I am?” he plainly asked, searching my eyes with a solemn prowl.

A thought comprised of many assumptions, ruptured in mind like a balloon. It made me wonder if he had the proper priorities in urgency. If the police saw him, he’d be in child service pretty soon after.

“it's pretty dangerous to be in the street like this. I'm sure if the police see you, they’ll want to question your living status. yours and your brother's.” I nudged the fact more, pressing him to see doubt in his control. that some level of sanity would acutely strike him with a sense of crippling worry. however, there still wasn’t panic present on his face.

“You don’t know the half of it. They tried taking me three times now. I punched a police officer the last time they tried putting me in their car and now I think, they might want to press me for that.” Drake stated, showing some regret to the fact. “i hate that I did it. He was just worried about me, but he wouldn’t let go.”

That's… something. My eyes bucked; shock visibly displayed. He punched a policeman; this guy is screwed. Since that’s a federal crime, it could get pretty serious. An apology might not be enough, but… you never know.

“So… maybe you should apologize for what you did.” I brought it up trying to sound earnest about the suggestion, but maybe came off as an unreliable source for wisdom.

“no.” he respectfully declined. “ he went to the hospital.”

My stomach sunk and poured out somewhere inside of my body. This guy is screwed.

“Is that so?” I sighed, sickly. “We… should go.”

Yep. I'm getting too involved.

We skipped away through the various colored views of the crowd in a jog. there was one person that asked, “what happened Drake?”

And Drake answering the voice flatly, “I'll tell you later.”

I wonder if this will hurt my chances of getting that job. Likely if they find out.

Up to this point, you could have made an argument that I had no involvement in the actual conflict, maybe worthy of praise in wanting to stop the fight, but when I chose to flee with a delinquent and foul a mad man’s attempts to get revenge, that does make me involved.

We ran for a while, rounding a few corners and me slipping on ice that nearly made me fall before we stopped.

I was heaving air into my lungs, sucking the sweet nectar of air as though I was breathing through a thick filter.

We ran nearly a mile, so this was to be expected, but looking over to the boy, who stood by me waiting, breathed hollow breaths as if he never ran that mile.

“don’t die on me, brah.” he teased, reaching out to pat my back. “You should do some cardio and get in shape.”

“pant I- pant I thought I could speak, but my lungs still needed more time to recover.

I exhaled long lengths of hot air, injecting it into the icy wind, then waited for my breaths to become shallow before trying to speak again.

“pant I'm ok.” feeling as though I've remained a puddle of myself long enough, my back straightened from its coiled state. “huff more importantly… what are you going to do? The police are after you?”

“Go back to the apartment and wait for bro to get back so we can do a lil workout.” he smiled, “that jog was a pretty good warmup, but my blood is pumping now!”

Warmup? Workout? Apartment…?

“What apartment do you and your brother stay in?” I pointed out. He has a place to stay after all?

“Oops…”, he covered his mouth, then side glanced me, wary in the eyes. “Forget you heard that.”

Ignoring his request, I leaned back onto the edge of a brick wall. “I thought you said you were homeless?” I was feeling pretty hot from the run, so the cold didn’t bother me from resting a bit.

He stared at me, lack luster, maybe reflecting on my words. “I’m not entirely homeless, at least, not anymore. You know, I was told NOT to tell anyone about this, but you act like a nice guy.”

Maybe they’re in the building without being known? Occupying an empty room, they’ve gained access to.

“We live in an abandon apartment that was supposed to be condemned.” he confessed, finding a spot on the wall beside me.

“Sounds dangerous… when you say ‘we’ do you mean just you and your brother, or….”

“Nope. Can't tell you that much.” he hummed, laughing under his tone. “‘we’re’ ok where we live so there’s no need to worry. It's not illegal.”

“Yes, it is!”

“we’re not hurting anyone.”

“Who owns the building?!”

“can’t tell you.”

“that’s suspicious.”

“Are you going to tell on us?”

“No….” though a tiny part of me was convinced that i should.

He swung his head to study me, then snickered to himself. “Yeah, I believe you.” then looked to the ground covered in snow.

I creased my brow. “It’s none on my business. I mean, I don’t know your… situation.”

“let’s keep it that way.”

“But…”

“But?”

That well-dressed but more than cranky man came to mind. Sure, everything he barked should be tallied as empty under-toned threats, but it’s stuck in my head.

“Not that I think you should worry, but making enemies like that guy you bumped into could turn into a bad thing if they’d mean their threats.”

“He DID mean his threat.” Drake spoke ominously, “He's the type of guy who will follow through with hurting someone. In fact, it wouldn’t shock me to see some people trying to find me.”

“Wait, WHAT! H-how can you be sure about that?”

Plain faced, yet not completely relaxed like before. Drake Inhabited the wall no longer, standing strong, facing me. A sudden pressure was practically visible, growing and incasing me as if I was a trapped animal.

“Me and my brother… ran into people with eyes like him. He's shady and his hands are dirty.” Drake gave my shoulders, arms, and legs a glance-over before floating his focus to mine. “You look fit enough to fight, but you should definitely run if you ever see him again.”

I tunnel-visioned. My muscles stiffen, locking in placed. Sensing the fat in my cheeks solidify. My jaw slowly dips until finally a split formed between my porched lips.

“you’re… overthinking it. He's just an office guy.”

An invisible object, weighted, but not too heavy to completely stop the flow of air, formed over my chest. I was gradually growing uncomfortable. I sprung off the wall as well to chase that slightly better feeling I had earlier, but Drake’s eyes followed me.

“You made him mad too, you know. I appreciate that you wanted to help me, but shouldn’t have. You placed a bounty on your head.” he resonated an aura that felt murky with awaiting prowl. There was just something about him that was stunning. “He’s going to try and kill us.”

He wasn’t that tall, so feeling intimidated by him felt unusual, but his stance screamed heedfulness.

“He did get the chance to take my picture, so that might buy you some time.” Drake reasoned, folding his arms.

As if defending myself from a threat, I raised my hands, fiddling with the air to reach a point. “But what about you?! You made him mad too.”

“Yep.” Drake plainly stated with no care.

“So, he’ll look to hurt you too, right?”

“Yep.” drake added.

“aren’t you… bothered if he does try to get us?”

“Like I said before, there’s no need to worry about me. If he finds me first, you don’t have to worry about the guy anymore.”

Was that a threat?

My hands dug deeper into my pockets, squeezing into a ball. “what’s that’s supposed to mean?”

“whao whao! I ain’t no killer. It's just that I know how to handle people.”

I cocked a brow lifting and shifting my head away, then hummed going silent. “You must have had… a tough life."

“You seem cool to share a few stories with, but I'm going to have to go soon and meet with someone.” he groaned suddenly, “I'm sure she saw me throw Thomas wallet back at him. I'm sorry Clover, but that guy isn’t a friend of ours. Why would she wait all this time to meet such a-”

“WAIT. Did you just say Thomas?!” I yipped, straining my voice to a nearly formless squeak. “that’s my…”

Drake, the Stranger I've met just fifteen minutes ago, seemingly by accident, spoke my name with a sense of familiarity that I was not comfortable with. How would he even know me?

Drake cut his gaze towards me, discerning my flaring tone as a shift in our friendly chat. He frowned at me as if to be on guard, but reasoned to ask me what was wrong.

“dude. Why are you acting like that?! You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

He looked confused.

“it’s just that you said Thomas. I never told you my name yet.”

“What? I'm talking about that guy we… oh…” his face sunk and fell pale, almost sickly.

“ ‘Oh’, what?!” a rant of annoyance escaped.

“ N-nothing. Bro.” Drake huffed, glancing up at me just to give a response. Obviously, something was caked on his mind, but this, he didn’t want me to know. “we can… I have to… just…”

His body was so stiff. Locked in a similar way i shut down when I was told the man from before might want my head too. Drake was debating something in mind, this as well fed into my concern as well. How does he know my name?

"I- I just want to thank you for, you know, helping back there." Drake side-glanced me with suspicion and mild embarrassment.

"sure, but whatever i did, didn't really-" as i was rambling, the boy suddenly hugged me. "uhh?"

this awkward encounter lasted for about ten seconds before he was ready to peel away from me. "well, i got to go. see ya."

my face freeze, displaying plain dumbfoundedness. "you're leaving after that?"

"yep. don't die out here." he spun around then trailed away with a wave of his hand.

"don't die out here?" i cocked a brow.

#mystery #thriller #ominous #deadly #city #adventure #fighting

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