#either because of her party or through some freak accident because they were messing around with the dead god

[sleepeglitch]

I’ve been thinking about Lucy Frostblade every day since she’s been introduced in the campaign

[doueverwonder]

Alfred going out of town and giving Gil a full list of all the ghosts and what they MIGHT do to bother him before he leaves;

they're ghosts so like, typical mentions of murder and sickness under the cut

"okay, we'll go oldest to youngest, first off is Harald, Björn, and Sigurd, brothers. Vikings died of hypothermia in the 1020s after getting lost and being left behind when everyone else went back to Greenland, or Iceland I don't remember don't tell them that though. If the room suddenly gets cold, like windows frosting over cold, it's them. Make sure their blanket fort didn't fall over and the space heater in their room is still on and they'll probably calm down after."

"Arthur is my great x8 grandfather, he died in 1779 from food poisoning. He built the house if you try doing any major changes while I'm not here to convince him into it or at least calm him down you are at his mercy. His major thing is he'll fuck up your cooking, but he'll also leave like trails of feathers sometimes cause he was tarred and feathered not long before his death for being a loyalist"

"Molly and Lorenzo are a pair, they're like always together they both died in 1904 of tuberculosis so y'know trauma bonding i guess. Molly was a maid and Lorenzo was a cook working for my great-great aunt, the one that left me the house. Lorenzo can move stuff but usually only when he's pissed or bored, so just leave like a soccer game or the food network on and he'll be fine. Molly is the one you can hear humming or singing sometimes, but like you should be used to that by now."

"Katya, Ivan, and Natalya. Second set of siblings in the house. They were russian nobility but fled in 1917 to the US. They came to a party held here in 1920 thrown by someone who supported "the Russian people" and were poisoned. Ivan doesn't have his head because when they went to get rid of the bodies they didn't check that he was completely dead, and cut his head off. If you hear clattering in cabinets it's Katya and Natalya looking for his head. Nothing will actually move don't worry. Uh... if you want them to be quiet they really like the movie Anastasia yes, I know it's stereotypical, make sure the switch it to Russian dub though, their English isn't top tier"

"Remember when we did a walk through of the house and they told us the floor supports were fairly new compared to the rest of the house because like 60 years ago they collapsed and some guy died in the basement? Ludwig, he usually stays in the basement and doesn't bother anyone, if you walk through him you'll end up covered in like constuction-ish dust so just be careful."

"Then there is Tolys, in 1978 he and his friends went camping somewhere around here all got high, one of his friends got paranoid didn't realize who it was and killed Tolys. They freaked out and we're pretty sure dumped his body in the lake on the other side of the property. If you walk through him you'll get high, but like super nervous and paranoid even if you're not usually like that when you're high. Y'know"

"Mei, youngest ghost in the house, was murdered while her and her boyfriend were messing around after prom. Kinda like Ludwig but she just sleeps in the attic, warning though if she does come down while i'm gone she'll start drama and again not my problem. I'm not actually sure if she has any 'powers', um just don't go in the attic and wake her up and you won't be finding out either"

Gil just standing there,,, why me,,, as predicted he's going to walk through Tolys like 3 times on accident and is going to so paranoid all weekend poor guy ;-;

[stardusttkachuk]

Breaking Rules

Pairing: JJ Maybank x Female!Reader

Genre: Smut, fluff

Warnings: smut, fingering, unprotected sex, swearing

Word Count: 1.5k

Summary: The rules are no pogue on pogue mackin’. You and JJ sneak away from John B’s party and find yourself in the old Volkswagen, breaking that rule.

You slide the door to the van open, quickly climbing inside with JJ right behind you. JJ can’t keep his hands off of you; they’re on your lower back as he all but shoves you inside. They find their way to your thigh before he’s even gotten the door closed and then they’re on your cheeks and in your hair as he kisses you. 

He tastes a little bit like weed, but mostly of mint. Spearmint to be exact, a taste you’ve gotten used to when kissing his lips. Five and a half months ago the kisses were short and sweet and not much to savor, but now every chance you had it was hot makeouts that lead to more.

Nobody could know though. There was a strict rule of no pogue on pogue macking, one that everyone had agreed to follow when the rules first came about. So for the last five months, you and JJ had been sneaking around. You shared kisses behind your friends back and snuck off together whenever you had the chance. Tonight was no different. The party that John B was hosting at his place was the perfect opportunity for a getaway. The old Volkswagen was questionable as the most private spot, but it was far enough away from the house, and offered shelter and warmth. And who was going to come looking in the van? John B wasn’t going anywhere, and from past experience you knew Pope and Kiara would be spending the night too. The van was all yours for the evening.

JJ grabs a blanket from the front seat and spreads it out on the floor of the back. It isn't much more comfortable but at least it’s softer and warmer than the hardwood that covered the back of the Volkswagen. 

JJ sits on the blanket with his back against the bench seat and pulls you into his lap. Your knees are on either side of his legs and you’ve got his face in your hands as your makeout session continues. JJ slips his hands under your shirt, cupping around your breasts. He’s got you moaning at his touch already. 

He pulls away from the kiss just enough to rid you of your shirt and bra, tossing them to the side. You follow suit and pull his over his head, throwing it somewhere behind you, long forgotten as his lips are on yours again.

JJ unbuttons your shorts, slipping his hand down the front of them and into your panties. His fingers glide over your clit, rubbing circles against the sensitive bud. You moan which makes JJ attach his lips to yours to quiet you down. 

“We’re gonna get caught,” he whispers.

“Well if you’d stop fucking teasing me,” you start, only for JJ to lie you down on your back and kiss you again. 

Your shorts and panties join your shirt somewhere in the old van as JJ pulls them off. His fingers return to your clit and move down until his middle finger is teasing your entrance. It isn’t long before he’s got two fingers inside you, crooking them against your g-spot and watching you writhe beneath him. 

JJ loves foreplay. He’ll prolong sex as long as possible, always wanting to see how many times he can get you to fall apart. He’s good at it too. He knows exactly where to touch you and which spots have you moaning and begging for more. He knows how to make you cum before he’s even entered you, and he loves making you cum. 

“JJ,” you moan, hand gripping onto his bicep. You’re already close, and the sounds you’re making are keeping JJ going, faster now, letting you chase your release.

His fingers are soaked when he pulls them out. He hungrily sucks them into his mouth, licking them clean. He does it every time, practically fawning over the way you taste. If you had more time, you’d happily let him eat you out, but you know the rest of the pogues will realize your guys’ absence and come looking for you soon.

JJ’s cock is hard and tenting the board shorts he’s wearing. You slip them down just past his hips, watching his member spring up, precum leaking out of the tip. He sits down again with his back against the bench seat and pulls you onto his lap. He lowers you onto his cock, biting his lip to silence the moans he desperately wants to let out.

The new position felt amazing. A lot of the time you’ve settled for standard missionary, or JJ lying down and you on top. Sometimes you’d have a quickie in the shower, pressed up against the tile wall. But sitting on his lap like this was new. It felt closer than you just riding him. You were literally face to face, chest to chest, and it allowed a new, much deeper angle. It was harder to keep quiet.

You took the lead and slowly lifted yourself up before sinking back down on him. His head tipped back, hands finding your waist as he aided in the lifting and dropping. You took the opportunity to nip at his neck, carelessly sucking a mark into his skin, right under his jaw where you knew he loved it the most. The others would point it out later and would congratulate him on getting some, then ask who it was. You took pride in knowing it was all your doing.

JJ was a mess of moans. His fingers were digging half moon shapes into the skin on your hips. Your name would fall from his lips every time you changed speed or rocked against him in a new way. The best part of it was how close you were. He didn’t need to be loud - although he wasn’t exactly quiet - you could hear each whispered plea, feel his hot breath against your skin as it picked up from your activities. There was sweat dripping off of each of you, but neither of you cared, far too lost in the moment with each other.

You were so close to cumming again and you knew by the sound of JJ’s voice that he was too. Your movements became sloppy. JJ tried to make it consistent, bouncing you faster on his cock, making you drop down harder, even lifting his own hips up, chasing after his orgasm. 

“Fuck,” JJ cursed, forehead pressed against yours. He kissed your lips, drowning out the sounds of you both tipping over the edge. It was the first time you had ever come at the same time, and damn did it feel amazing. You were on cloud nine until you heard the familiar voices nearing the van.

“JJ! Y/N!” Pope called.

You scrambled off of JJ’s lap, searching around desperately for your shorts. JJ pulled up his bottoms, quickly resituating himself against the bench seat. He grabbed a pre rolled joint that was stuffed under one of the bags in the back, lighting it quickly and placing it between his lips.

You had managed to throw on your shorts and JJ’s shirt in the dark, sitting across from him and leaning against the backs of the front seats. “Gimme a hit,” you say, reaching out for the joint.

“No. Get your own!” JJ retorts.

“I hear them!” It’s Kie’s voice this time, and then it’s the sound of footsteps approaching the beaten up Volks.

She slides open the side door, the back suddenly illuminating with the interior light. “Where have you guys been?”

“Out here. Hot boxing the van,” JJ answers smoothly.

Kiara’s eyes dart towards you. “Why are you wearing JJ’s shirt?”

“I spilled beer all over mine,” you lie, holding up your own shirt that’s bunched up in your hands. “So, JJ lent me his.”

“John B’s freaking out looking for you guys,” Pope pipes up. 

“Why?”

“Someone said there was a car accident like 10 miles away. He couldn’t find you guys anywhere and neither of you were answering your phones,” Pope explains.

“Shit. Mine’s on silent,” you say. 

“I never even heard mine ring,” JJ adds. 

“You are pretty faded. Maybe you shouldn’t be smoking that one,” you tease, grabbing the joint from his fingers. After a quick puff yourself you extinguish the end of it, still saving plenty for another time.

“Hey!” JJ yells. “First you’re gonna take my shirt and now my weed?”

“Yes. Now let’s go, so John B stops freaking out.”

You climb out of the back of the van with JJ right behind you. Pope stops JJ though, as you and Kiara walk in front of them and back up to the chateau. 

“Nice hickey, J,” you hear him say. 

You can feel the heat rising in your cheeks. Kie must notice the red tint to them because her jaw drops. “You are not screwing JJ,” she says through gritted teeth. “And in the back of the van too!?”

You put a finger to your lips, shushing her. “I will tell you everything if you just promise not to tell anyone else.”

“You broke pogue rules,” she whispers.

You glance back at JJ, who is flaunting the hickey to Pope who is completely oblivious to the fact that you gave it to him. “We’ve been breaking them for almost six months now.”

“And how long are you planning on keeping this a secret?”

JJ’s eyes catch yours and he shakes his head, grinning from ear to ear. “As long as we can.”

[nukacoola]

Companions react to Danse stepping out of power armor for the first time!

Cait: 

She would look Danse up and down very obviously and grin which would make him extremely uncomfortable. 

“Ya’outgha get out of that thing more often Dansey. Who knew there were cookies in that tin can of yours.”

She obviously isn’t actually interested in Danse. Way too boring. But she’s not one to toss out eye candy just cause it isn’t her favorite flavor. She wouldn’t actively follow him but for fun and also to get on his nerves she would definitely cat-call him everytime he was in hearing range. Deacon and Hancock might join in for a few comments if they don’t have anything better to do.

She would not stop unless sole made a convincing plea or reason for why she should and maybe not even then.

Danse would not respond or look at Cait but he would be very red and never get out of his suit in front of her again.

Codsworth: 

“Why Paladin Danse I dare say you’ve been keeping up your workout routine! Cheers to your excellent health whether in or out of your power armor!” Codsworth is reassured that his owner is traveling with someone so equipped for the struggles of the wasteland.

“Uh, thank you, Codsworth.” Danse would feel a bit awkward but he would appreciate the compliment. 

“Might I polish that for you while you're otherwise engaged? It seems to be in a just dreadful state and I would like nothing more than for you to be looking your best in your wasteland escapades!” Though he is reassured by Danse’s physical state and abilities, he is mortified by the state his armor is in. All the scratches, dings, and dirt? It’s just horrible. Codsworth has always wanted an opportunity to fix that suit up and is pretty happy that the day has finally arrived.

“I- If you’d like to you can.”

“Oh good! I do so love a difficult task!” With that Codsworth would zoom away to procure the necessary supplies to return Danse’s armor to it’s original state. Danse didn’t really know whether or not he should be offended at the robot’s comments but he decided to just continue about his business and not think about it too much. 

Curie:

“Oh Monsieur Danse, you are quite zee lovely specimen! I would be eager to do a physical examination if you would allow me to.” Ever since leaving the vault, Curie has been astounded at how many different sorts of humans there are. Danse is particularly interesting to her because of the amazing athletic feats he does so regularly. She is also interested in studying the effects of constant power armor usage on the human body. When she sees him step out of his suit for the first time and sees his overly muscular physique, it just tacks on another reason she wants to study him. 

Before Blind Betrayal:

“The only specimen that needs examining is you, synth. Don’t talk to me unless you’re submitting yourself to the Brotherhood.” The only reason Curie isn’t already on the Prydwen is because Sole thinks it’s their friend. It bothers Danse immensely that Sole hasn’t destroyed or used this inhuman thing already.

(Don’t get mad at me he literally says this in game.)

Curie is very hurt, she expected this reaction but it still hurt. She was still getting used to feelings such as the pained ones she felt in moments like these.

After Blind Betrayal:

“No. Thank you.” Danse’s words were strained. Being around Curie was pretty awful for him. He had treated her so terribly before and he still had strong feelings of disgust towards her despite what he knows now. Everytime he sees her and has those feelings of hate and disgust, he remembers that he and Curie are the same. He’s still struggling to overcome the years of propaganda that were drilled into him. 

Curie is disappointed. Did Danse not see they are the same? If he didn’t believe in her humanity then he would have to not believe in his own. It is very confusing for Curie. She hopes that he will eventually go back on his denial of her offer. He would be a very interesting specimen.

Deacon:

He would be surprised that Danse would be able to wear that clunky thing so much in the first place. He wouldn’t be surprised at how muscular he is under the suit though. It takes a lot of strength to operate those suits. He’d read that before they were fully developed, a lot of trial runs had resulted in really terrible accidents. The kind of accidents that crush all of your bones at once or remove your top half from your bottom.

Deacon would definitely make a few jokes. “Hey the sardine’s outta the can!” “Isn’t getting out of that bulldozer against Brotherhood policy or something?” “And I thought it was glued on! Learn something new everyday.”

Danse would scowl at his comments but say nothing. He did not like Deacon one bit. That man’s hiding something and if it turns out what he’s hiding will harm Sole or the Brotherhood’s mission, there was gonna be hell to pay. Danse could’ve sworn he’d seen him on the Prydwen a few times but whenever he looked back again to check, he was gone. Danse didn’t much like the idea of leaving his power armor alone with Deacon around but Sole assured him he’s harmless. We’ll see...

Whenever Danse returned to his suit Deacon would stand suspiciously close to it and act like he was trying to play cool after almost being caught doing something nefarious. He would never get tired of watching Danse carefully inspect every part of the armor before apprehensively getting in. Man that guy’s fun to mess with.

Dogmeat: 

He was so surprised! He thought this human was just made of metal! But now Dogmeat can play and jump and lick! Yes!!

Danse has no idea how to deal with a dog he wasn’t allowed to kick so he would just try to awkwardly push the pup off until Sole took care of it.

Hancock: 

Oh HELL YES! Hancock has wanted to punch this fucker since he first laid eyes on him. “HEY SOLDIER BOY, TIME TO SEE WHAT YOU CAN DO OUT OF YOUR DAMN COWARD COFFIN!” He would make a beeline towards the paladin and the paladin would speed walk towards the ghoul as well. Sole barely let him insult the damn freak but this was a direct attack of which he was most definitely gonna defend himself from.

Sole would freak out a bit and try to get in between the two. They would both try to get Sole out of the way so they could pummel each other. A brief alliance in order to facilitate their battle. This was too sweet of an opportunity to miss. 

“Sorry Sunshine, this is happening.”

“Sole, it has directly started an altercation with me and I intend to see it through.”

If they both had a great relationship with Sole after a bit of panicked begging to both parties, the men would begrudgingly back off. They would, however, insult each other viciously despite Sole’s protests. 

“You have no fucking idea how lucky you are meathead. I swear to god if they weren’t here…”

“You call me a meathead but you’re the one who’s rotting, ghoul.”

They would continue to jab each other until Sole dragged Danse off to do what he got out of his suit to do in the first place. 

If one or both of them didn’t have a close relationship with Sole, well, it wouldn’t be pretty. They would forcibly move Sole out of the way and fight for a while. Though Danse is much bigger than Hancock, Hancock is quicker and better at hand to hand. Danse, being unused to fighting outside of his armor, was ultimately unable to beat the ghoul. Hancock landed one final blow to his face, knocking Danse flat. When he stayed down Hancock laughed loudly and spit at him.

“Done in by the best, lucky you.” It would be a huge blow to Danse’s ego and he’d resent Hancock even more now. Hancock would gloat constantly when Danse was around. “Heyyy, there’s my favorite punching bag!” “Come on over Dansey I won’t bite!” He wouldn’t out of shame, but if Danse ever did try to retort, Hancock would just taunt him. Saying something like “Oh yeah? Ya know my favorite way to settle conflicts is by beating the other asshole into the dirt. Hop outta that suit and we can go for round two.”

MacCready:

Mac’s always thought of Danse as an annoying asshole. He still thinks of him this way but when he stepped out of that armor for the first time. Ho lee sh-crap. MacCready might have to look into joining the Brotherhood if the rest of those guys looked the same as Danse. He had expected him to be strong cause of the whole carrying 500 pounds of steel everywhere but his body was something Mac was not expecting and something he could look at for a while. 

If Danse came near the merc he would probably clam up and blush a bit. If Danse caught him staring, he would annoyedly ask, “Is there a problem, civilian?”

“I- uh no.” any other day he would’ve fired back some snide remark but he couldn’t quite seem to think of one right now. 

Nick:

Nick really couldn’t give less of a damn. He hated Danse, Danse hated him, and the two did their best to ignore each other. 

Piper: Piper didn’t really care either. Sure he was muscular but she was very turned off by the everything else about him. All she really payed attention to was the possibility of an exclusive interview or an inside look at the Brotherhood’s workings. Danse would never agree to either of those though. Preston: Preston didn’t care. He already knew you had to be strong to wear power armor especially if you wore them as much as Brotherhood Paladins did. He didn’t like the Brotherhood and by extension, he didn’t trust Danse. Preston was mannerly of course, for Sole, but he knows Danse thinks very little of the Minutemen so he didn’t try too hard to be kind. Strong: Strong thinks this is good time to smash strong human. He has killed many brothers but he wears metal suit. He is weak without metal suit. Human friend tells Strong that if Strong smash, Strong will not find milk of human kindness. Strong angry, Strong want to smash, but Strong not smash.

Danse would never get out of his suit near Strong unless he absolutely had to. Sole insisted that the abomination wasn’t going to be a problem but he didn’t believe it for a second. It took all of his willpower to not open fire on the thing whenever he saw it. Sole has poor taste in companions...

X6:

X6 wouldn’t care. He would consider taking this opportunity to get rid of the high ranking Brotherhood soldier, but it would make Sole upset and would do relatively little to the Brotherhood as a whole. 

Ask and ye shall recieve! I decide the winner on Hancock’s one by their special stats. How the hell does Hancock have such good stats and he’s still terrible in a fight??

[mochegato]

Pixie Spy

Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Jason waited on the dancefloor anxiously watching the crowd of people who had just left, ready to pounce on the Sunshine Girl once she exposed herself by exiting the safety of the crowd.  But he hadn’t seen her exit yet.  The crowd had now thinned out enough that he could make out everyone that was still in the group.  She wasn’t one of them. The tablecloths that decorated all the tables did not go all the way to the floor, allowing him to see under the tables.  She wasn’t hiding there either.  There was no sign of her.  She was impossibly gone.

He was so focused on his search, he didn’t notice the wary looks of the people around him watching him as though he might lash out at them at any moment and he wouldn’t have been able to care less even if he had noticed.  He didn’t have a single fuck to spare about their opinions.  He needed to find Sunshine and figure out what the fuck was going on and how he could help.  

He felt a weight on his shoulder and spun quickly grabbing the hand, ready to defend himself against whatever it was.  He relaxed slightly when he saw Dick’s surprised and concerned eyes on him, hands held up in a placating gesture, “Hey, it’s just me Jaybird.  What’s going on?  A rogue?” he asked discretely, stepping closer and lowering his voice so nobody else could hear.

Jason’s eyes returned to the crowd, desperately seeking any sign of her, “No… at least I don’t think so.  Do you see a beautiful, short woman with black hair and a short black dress?” She couldn’t have just disappeared.  She had to have gone somewhere, but he had been watching not just the dancefloor but the exits as well.  There was no way he could have missed her.  She wasn’t someone you could miss.  She wasn’t there and she hadn’t left.  Where the fuck was she?  

Dick watched Jason cautiously before glancing around the room again.  He was getting concerned about Jason.  He wanted to write it off as a drunken fascination with a girl who walked away or an attempt to disrupt the night, but that wasn’t it.  Drunk Jason was belligerent, well more belligerent than usual, not paranoid and possessive.  Disruptive Jason never bothered to hide his glee at the disruption.  This was something else.  

Dick cast a wary eye back into the crowd looking for the girl Jason described.  “I don’t see anyone like that,” he said shaking his head and returning his gaze back to Jason.  He didn’t know what was going on, but clearly that girl was important to whatever it was. They should have known better than to think the night would go smoothly.  He had naïvely thought the worst he would have to worry about was Jason causing a scene for the hell of it, but this was something more.

“Shit!” Jason exclaimed loudly running his hand through his hair and looking down.  He needed to focus on the immediate issues and let the others know their identities had been compromised.  They needed to figure out who she was, what she knew, what she was going to do with the information, and just who the fuck got her involved in all of this, track that mother fucker down and kick the shit out of him for getting her involved in the first place.  Then figure out what was going on in Paris that had caused so much pain she felt responsible for and kick the shit out of that asshole too.

“Sorry about that everyone.  Guess we should have cut the bar off a few drinks ago. Please, continue dancing… and drinking, if you think you can handle it a bit better than him.” Bruce announced loudly with a charming, easy smile for the crowd eliciting a few chuckles from the audience.

“Is this related to what you were asking before?” Tim asked quietly, coming up next to them and scanning the crowd as well, not really sure what he was looking for but searching for anything out of place.

“Yes!  We need to go to the safe room,” Jason growled quietly.  “ALL of us.  Now”

“Did something happen with that girl you can’t find? Did she get taken?  Did she take someone else?”  Dick asked grimly still watching Jason with concern, gauging the breadth of the developing situation.

“Somebody got taken?” Bruce asked joining the conversation.

“Yeah, we did.  Let’s go.  Tim, bring up the cameras for back home,” Jason ordered stalking toward the family safe room without bothering to look at anyone.  

“Jason, we were just about to make the announcement. Is it something that can wait?” Bruce asked stepping between Jason and the door to the safe room.

“Gee, I don’t know, B.  Do you think someone figuring us out and breaking into our… home base is something important?” Jason asked snidely without breaking stride.

Selina sauntered over slowly just in time to see Bruce’s stoic expression pale slightly, not enough for the other party goers to notice but enough that the family could see the change and change their attitude accordingly.  “I’ll do some damage control out here,” she said patting Bruce’s shoulder before pushing him slightly toward the family safe room, a room the family had designated as a safe space in case of emergencies.  It was soundproofed, swept for bugs, and was locked to anyone but the family.  It was meant to be a place they could change into their suits in case something happened requiring vigilante activity.  It also had the added benefit of a place they could send Damian before he actually acted on any of the violent thoughts they knew he was having.  

“And make sure you take Damian with you.  He looks ready to cut someone’s hand off,” she said with an amused smile.  Damian glared at her as he followed his father to the room.  She heard a faint “trollop” as he passed by, making her smile. At this point, she was taking it as a term of endearment from the little terror.  If he really wanted to hurt her he would go after her with one of his katanas, like he did with his brothers.

By the time the family made it to the room, Tim had already pulled up the live feed to the Batcave on his phone.  He got it connected just in time to see… nothing, absolutely nothing out of place.  The cave was empty, the vehicles were parked, the suits and weapons hung up properly, and the computer was resting.  Nothing remotely concerning, Tim grumbled to himself.  It was bad enough dealing with Jason on patrols but now he had to put up with his bullshit here too.  He didn’t want to be here either, none of them did, but at least he wasn’t actively trying to make the situation worse.

Of course it would amount to nothing.  If anyone had broken into the Batcave his phone, along with everyone else’s, would have alerted them to the trespasser.  He and Barbara had set it up.  There was no way around it.  Nobody could be in the Batcave without them knowing about it.  There was no alarm going off, thus there was no trespasser. This was another of Jason’s paranoid delusions or another way to mess with the family, sabotaging the important night.

As soon as the door to the safe room clicked closed, Bruce turned to Jason with a concerned look, “What is going on, Jason?  What do you think got broken into and who figured us out?”

“There was a woman at the party,” he started unsure how much of the encounter he wanted to relate to them.  Before he could continue there were groans around the room.  He glared at them before continuing louder this time. “She seemed uncomfortable at the gala so I started talking with her.”

“How thoughtful of you.  Completely for her own benefit, I’m sure,” Dick rolled his eyes and shook his head. This damn well better not be about Jason trying to get laid.  There were far less public ways to accomplish that than this.  In fact, Dick had been working on one of those ways when Jason decided to take out an entire table in front of everyone.

“If you assholes are done interrupting,” Jason snapped at them, glowering in frustration.  “Out of nowhere, she suddenly stared hard at you guys for a minute then freaked the fuck out.  I finally got her to say she was there acting as a scout for your,” he pointed at Bruce with a scowl, “lover, so he could break into our place.”

“My what!” Bruce asked confused, “Selina?”

“What the hell, Jason!” Dick exclaimed.  Of course it would be Jason.  Of course Jason would end up with someone who was spying on them.  Jason seemed to attract it.  Even if he wasn’t trying to cause problems, he usually was but even when he wasn’t, they seemed to find him.

“Attempting to bed the enemy, why is that not a surprise, Todd.” Damian scoffed from his seat on the other side of the room.

“Fuck you.  I tried to bring her over when she said that, but she got away.  She kept ranting about a lover’s quarrel and a joke.  Whoever she is working with, she thinks you two know each other and are ‘friendly’, Bruce.  And she definitely did NOT know who we were until that point.”

Tim groaned in frustration.  They took their eyes off of Jason for just a few minutes and now he had to clean up the mess Jason had created.  They were wasting time looking at the batcave instead of looking for this girl.  The batcave was a dead end.  Jason just didn’t want to admit that he let himself get played by some girl.  A girl who he let get away, he might add. “Accident” his ass.  Jason didn’t let anyone get away accidentally.  And now they all had to play along with this delusion.  

He looked back at the live feed.  There was still nothing amiss.  He huffed, “She lied to you.  There's nothing going on in the cave.  Not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse,” he gritted out, brandishing his phone around so everyone could see it.  “I told you before, nobody could be there without getting noticed and us knowing immediately.  You got played.  And now someone who KNOWS OUR IDENTITIES is out there and we have no idea how much of a threat she is because you got distracted by a pretty face.”  

“It was I goddamn gorgeous face and she got away when I got distracted by you arguing with me instead of just helping,” he growled at Tim.  “And she isn’t a threat.  I’m pretty sure she’s a hero of some kind.” Jason defended.  He wasn’t sure about much of what was happening but the one thing he did know for certain was Pixie Pop was a hero or vigilante. She was trying to protect people and only got angry when she thought they were interfering with that.  She wasn’t a villain and hadn’t been trying to take them down.

“You’ll forgive me if I don’t trust your judgement here,” Damian drawled.

Jason spun to face him red faced in anger.  They weren’t listening.  People were suffering and they were still acting like it was a joke, just like Pixie thought they were.  He opened his mouth to respond but snapped it shut when he heard the door open.  Selina slid through closing the door securely behind her.

“How is it out there?” Bruce asked grimly.

Selina shrugged.  “Everyone bought the cover story easily.  Those looking for a reason were judging, but the rest thought it was cute. They think he's taking after his dear old Dad.  After witnessing you do something similar at almost every gala, ball, dance, opening, party, fundraiser, celebration, and just regular dinners for, what?  A decade?  Two?  They see nothing strange in your son doing the same,” she said with an amused smile, taking a seat next to Tim on a table he was leaning against to get a better angle on the video.  

“Disappears for a few years then comes back and gets drunk whenever possible.  It's nostalgic for them.  Jason got your drinking, Dick got your philandering, Tim got your arguing, I believe you prefer to call it ‘negotiating’, and Damian got your looks.” Damian nodded satisfied his description was the only genetic trait and the only one that would not be considered a weakness.  “Not that you aren't all very handsome,” she cooed mockingly, squeezing Tim’s cheeks to accentuate her point.

“Just to check, Selina you didn’t send anyone to spy on us tonight did you?”  Bruce asked annoyed.

“Me?  I haven’t sent anyone to watch you guys for ages.”  Selina said innocently.  “Someone was spying on you guys?”  

“That’s still up for debate, but regardless Jason said this girl knew our identities so we should try to track her down, assess the danger we and she are in… after the announcement.”  Bruce was tired before this all started, this did not help.  Dick, Tim, and Damian started to protest but Bruce held up a hand stopping them, “if she was intending to do something she would have made the threat to Jason or come up to us to extort us.  She didn’t so either she’s waiting for us to make a move she can jump on or…” he took a deep breath, “or, she had no idea and doesn’t intend to do anything with it.  I’m more concerned with whoever sent her.  That is who we need to find and we find that person through her.  As soon as the announcement is over, Tim, I want you checking security cameras to track her.”

Tim rolled his eyes and pushed off of the table he was leaning against, taking one last look at the live feed.  “Okay, this break has been fun.  I’m going back to the party.  Jason, just go home and sleep it..." his sentence tapered off as he watched a silvery, rippling portal open near the bat computer.  His eyes widened and his jaw dropped open in shock.  Holy shit, Jason had been right.  "What the fuck!  Bruce!  Look at this.  Dick turn on the television there.”  He pushed a few buttons on his phone and sent the image to display on the TV.

The family watched in shocked silence as a figure emerged from the shimmering pool with an enraged look on their face and hands clenched at their sides.  They stared at the figure trying to decide if they remembered ever having seen them before. The figure was wearing a full body suit in varying shades of brown that seemed heavily padded for protection. Their hair was pulled back into a series of long ponytails forming something reminiscent of a horse’s mane that flowed down their back.  The most unsettling thing about the figure, other than that they were in the cave without permission, was their expression. Even with half of their face obscured by a pair of pince-nez sunglasses, the angry expression was clear.  They glared at the computer but made no move to get closer.

“I fucking told you she was telling the truth!” Jason yelled pointing at the screen for emphasis.

Dick growled and turned to leave but Bruce stopped him holding up a finger to indicate he should wait.  “Can’t do anything without a car anyway.  Call for the car and watch until it gets close.”  Dick nodded and pulled out his phone to call Alfred.

Dick nearly dropped the phone when the figure suddenly yelled “Come out and face me you coward!” in the general direction of the computer as the portal behind them disappeared.

“What the fuck?” Tim whispered confused.  “Do they think there we’re there and camouflaged?”

“Or can they see something we can’t?”  Dick contemplated staring hard at the scene in front of him. The figure wasn’t moving to do anything to the equipment in the cave, wasn’t trying to damage it or investigate it. They were focused on something else, something none of them in the room could see.

They all froze when out of the ether they heard a man’s voice respond. “You ready for them to know we’re here, Spots?”

“Oh, they already know,” the figure growled out.

“Ah, that didn’t take as long as I thought it would,” the voice responded.  “Okay Trixx. Might as well drop it then.”

As soon as he said the words, it was like a curtain dropped and suddenly a man in a trench coat was standing in front of a very active bat computer.  Alarms sounded throughout the safe room, as all of their phones rang out with trespassing alerts.  

“What the hell?” Tim exclaimed.  “The computer was on sleep mode just a second ago.”  He brought his phone closer to his face trying to examine the scene better. He and Barbara had designed the system to detect changes in visual, audio, thermal, and electronic signals as well as vibrations caused by any movement.  Whatever they were using had somehow interrupted detection for all of those. “How the hell did they do that?”

Jason ignored the room devolving into chaos behind him, deciding to study the figure in front of the computer instead.  The hair and trench coat were very familiar.  “Is that Constantine?” Jason asked.

“You absolute bastard!  What was that?” the figure yelled gesturing vaguely behind them and stalking closer to the man.

“Yeah, that sounds like Constantine,” Bruce shook his head, resigned to the situation. “Tell Alfred there isn’t a rush.  Constantine won’t try to do anything he hasn’t already done.”

“You going to hit me while you're like that, Spots? Bit unfair don't you think?” Constantine said barely glancing over to her from the computer.

The figure stared at him shaking in rage for a few seconds before forcing out, something that sounded like “dismount” through gritted teeth. A blinding wave of sea green light engulfed the figure.  When the light faded, a woman in a long red dress and the same glasses as the other figure was standing where the figure had been.  She removed the glasses and shoved them in her purse before returning her glare to the man at the computer.

“That’s her!” Jason yelled, pointing at the screen.  “That’s the woman I was dancing with.  Different dress but same woman.”

“Well at least now we know why she thought it was a prank when she figured us out, assuming she knows who he is, which I assume is why she is working with him in the first place, so she does.” Bruce said rubbing his forehead to ease the quickly oncoming headache.  Whenever Constantine got involved things went to Hell, sometimes literally, very quickly and Bruce had not had enough sleep or bourbon to deal with this.  Contrary to his reputation, he rarely drank but this situation, this situation, whatever the hell it was, justified a drink.

“Fuck!  No wonder I couldn’t find her.  She somehow pulled a fucking Houdini and changed her entire appearance.” Jason yelled exasperated.

Constantine typed a few more things on the computer before finally facing her nonchalantly “Not to change the subject but that is a really good glare. Scarier than Batman, honestly.  I could feel it through the back of my head.  I’m this close to being intimidated,” he said holding his thumb and index finger close together.  “I swear, if you keep glaring at me that…” before he could finish his sentence the woman had delivered a strong right hook directly to his jaw.

Constantine fell backwards, knocking into the chair positioned next to the computer, sending it spinning away on his way down, landing on his hands and knees.  He gently rubbed his jaw with a wince and looked back up at her with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, fair enough.” He slowly stood back up using the chair and computer to help support him on his way up. “Have fun, kid? Meet any cute boys? Girls? Thems? Guess never asked which way you swing.”

The woman responded by kicking him hard in the chest with a suddenly bare foot.  He fell back against the computer from the impact with a surprised grunt.  Before he could get up she moved her foot on his throat to hold him there, braced against the computer.  She had been careful to place her foot flush on his throat but he wasn’t making any noises so she wasn’t pushing hard on it.  The family were all familiar with the move.  It didn’t allow him to move but did allow him to speak. A good questioning position.

“You left some valuable details out of the multiple briefings we had.  Weeks where you could have mentioned them.  Details like you could have just ASKED for this if you weren’t such a fucking self-absorbed coward.” She seethed at him.

Jason made a gurgling sound as he watched her stand over Constantine, suddenly feeling flushed.  He had not expected her to be able to take down a grown man like that, like it was second nature, effortless.  Two quick moves and he was at her mercy.  He couldn’t stop picturing himself in Constantine’s place, at her mercy, and that thought alone made his heart race and breathing more difficult.  The things she could do to him… He shook his head of the highly enjoyable thought.  Now was not the time for that.

“You know, I’m pressing a lot of buttons here,” Constantine croaked out.  “I might have to restart the whole process if you’re not careful.  Would take time.  Maybe enough for the whole family to return.”

“Fuck you.” She growled at him retracting her leg so he could stand up properly.

“Oh I swing all ways except that way. You may be legal, technically, but you're still a kid and I'm not a pedo.” He rubbed his throat as he straightened back up.  To the surprise of those in the room who knew him, he didn’t react at all. He seemed to accept the attack as justified and turned back around and got back to work on the computer.  Not that they were expecting him to attack back physically but Constantine was never had nothing to say, except now.

“You're an asshole.” She glared at him again crouching down to put her shoe back on.

“Well, yeah, but even assholes have standards.  By the way, really impressed you didn’t fall over there. Standing on one stilettoed leg without falling or losing your modesty?  Impressive. So you never did say, how did it go? Assuming you are done now.”

The family tensed for another attack when they saw her jump into a battle stance.  They watched confused as she switched to a crouching position and started cooing at nothing.  After a few moments, they saw what had drawn her attention.  Alfred the cat had jumped onto the computer like he was chasing after something.

“How the hell did your cat get into the cave?” Tim demanded from Damian.  “He better not mess with anything on the computer.”

“If that second rate concubine touches a hair on Alfred, I will cut her fingers off one at a time.” Damian growled at the screen.

Bruce squeezed the bridge of his nose, “Not quite the Alfred I would have hoped would intervene…”

Constantine looked over at the cat and grunted, “Not looking for a trip to Hell today, but thanks for the offer.  Scat.”  He shooed the cat away and turned to go back to his work on the computer.

The woman looked back at Constantine and frowned at him, “I don’t know if I’m done yet.  I’m still deciding,” she said snidely.  “And don’t you dare go anywhere near this poor cat.”  Alfred trotted over to the woman, keeping his eyes on Constantine the whole way.  When he got to the woman he rubbed up against her legs and looked up at her with a meow.

She reached down to pet the cat gently and start talking to him quietly.

“Holy shit, Demon Spawn.  I think the cat likes her better than you.” Jason laughed.  Bruce put his hand on Damian’s shoulder when he jumped up to charge at Jason.

“No bloodshed tonight, please.  And Jason, stop antagonizing him,” he admonished both of them.  This was shaping up to be the worst gala they’ve had.  And they’ve had galas attacked by rogues before.  That was still more pleasurable than whatever was going on here. Yep, that was definitely the beginning of a migraine he was feeling.

Constantine grunted out a single laugh.  “Yeah, right.  Because you can hold a grudge.”

She stared hard at Constantine for a few moments before something seemed to click in her head.  “Oh my God, he was right.  I was only there because you wanted me to get out and have fun, figuring I’d forgive you for the convoluted plans and the wait.”

“Is that so bad?  You’re still a kid, you should have fun at some point in your life.  Also, who is ‘he’?”

“So you gave me homework?  Are you so old you forget homework is not fun?  Or did they not have things like homework or school when you were my age?” She snarked annoyed, ignoring the last part of the question.

“No they didn’t have homework WAY back then, or paper, we just grunted to each other and absorbed information through osmosis,” he shot her a sour look.  “And fun wasn’t my only goal, but it was an important one.  Why, didn’t have fun?”

“Oh no, I did.  Until I remembered it isn’t something I get to keep, remembered that nothing about tonight sticks except that device,” she said pointing to something on the computer. “Everything about tonight is just an illusion because I haven’t been good enough, because I failed.  Thanks for that reminder.”  A guilty look flashed across her face before returning back to a glare.  “The remaining part of the night was focused on keeping tabs on the Waynes and fending off entitled pricks’ wandering hands,” she said slowly as if explaining something that should have been obvious.

A dark shadow passed over Constantine’s face.  He turned his focus from the computer for a moment to address her directly, “That is not on you.  None of that is on you.  Whatever the fuck your overactive conscious tells you.  That fucking conscious of yours is going to get you killed then I’m going to have to go to Hell to get you out.  I don’t enjoy Hell.  DO NOT make me go back.” He scolded her.  “For the hands, get any names?  I know a few demons looking for someone to… play with.  It wasn’t any of the Wayne kids, right?”

“You wanted me to meet the Waynes, didn’t you?” she narrowed her eyes in accusation.  “Why would you tell me to NOT get noticed by them if you wanted me to meet them?  How was that supposed to happen if I was avoiding them?  Did you really think I was so completely incompetent? ”

“No, I thought you were that gorgeous and innocent looking.  A combination that is impossible for any Wayne to ignore.” He sighed and glanced away seeming to brace himself for the conversation they were about to have.  “I needed you to think you shouldn’t get noticed because otherwise there was no reason for you to go instead of Chat.  And I needed you to go because not only do you need the break but precisely because you were going to get noticed by at least one of the Waynes and noticed in a very particular way that Chat wouldn’t.” he said waggling his eyebrows at her.  

“I thought it would take longer than it did, but at some point, one of the boys was going to take an interest in you and talk to you.  And you being you would figure out their identities and tell him everything.  You’re brilliant and noble like that,” he said sneering at the word noble, making it sound like the most disgusting word he had ever had to utter.  

“The youngest was the least likely to act but he is a bit young for you anyway.  The next one is as smart and focused-on-the-mission-at-the-expense-of-all-other-things as you, so I thought you might get along. The next one is as much of a smartass and has the same fuck-you-to-authority, sarcastic attitude as you, so I thought you two might click.  The oldest is as annoyingly sunshiney as you, so that seemed like it might work. Honestly, I thought he was the safest bet since he hits on everything with tits… Unless he was the one you were speaking with in which case, what I meant to say was… uh… keep an eye on him if cheating bothers you.”

Dick gave an offended gasp at the accusation.

“Yeah, totally unfair description.  You don’t require tits to hit on someone.” Jason said clapping him on the back

“I don't know that I like the idea of you dating any of them. But it would have gotten them involved without me breaking my promise because, I have said nothing,” Constantine said glancing back towards her for a moment. “But it sounds like you did,” he said with a cocky grin.

“Asshole,” she sneered at him sitting on the floor to get into a better position to pet Alfred.

“Yeah, but an asshole that keeps his word.”  He focused back on the computer and clicked around for a few more minutes before discretely glancing over at her, “Sooooo, did being here make you change your mind?”

“Nothing about tonight made me change my mind about bringing in outside help but it did make me reconsider the wisdom of allowing your interference.” She said shaking her head and glaring at him.

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” he growled out hitting the computer in frustration.  He rounded on her and stalked over to her, looming over her.  “Fuck the goddamned, mother fucking mission for ONCE.  Your life is supposed to be more than the fucking suit. Did being in Gotham make you rethink turning down that acceptance letter?”

“What?” She looked at him wide eyed in surprise but didn’t seem scared of his sudden outburst unlike Alfred who jumped up and hissed at him as he approached.

Constantine sighed sitting down near her and looked away seeming to examine thin air over her shoulder, “I know you got accepted to go here but turned it down because of Paris,” he said quietly.

Her lips pressed together in a thin line and turned her head to glare at the same point in the air, “How did you know that?”

“Your partners are worried about you. You turned it down because of the situation in Paris.  You can’t let that be the only thing in your life.  You got accepted everywhere.  You could go anywhere and you should.  Come on, if Gotham didn’t do it for you I can talk to people in Metropolis, Jump City, Central City, Starling City… Just somewhere out of Paris.”

Her eyes flared but she gave out a resigned sigh.  “I liked you better when you didn’t care about us.” She said with a wry smile, suddenly finding the cat at her feet batting at the air to be the most interesting thing in the room.  

“I still don’t,” he said unconvincingly as he backing up and returning to the computer.

She let out a doubtful scoff but continued to pet Alfred. After a few moments of silence she cocked her head to the side and looked up at Constantine with an impish smirk. “Awfully coincidental that all those cities have heroes that are roughly my age.  You trying to set me up with more superheroes?  First a bat now a titan?  Or were you leaning more towards an arrow?”

“With Roy!  God no. Jason is as depraved as I am willing to let you go.” Constantine sounded offended.

“Jason is NOT depraved!” she exclaimed affronted.

“Ahh, so it was Jason…” he said looking over his shoulder to throw her a cocky smile.

“Fuck you.” She grumbled with no heat behind it, returning her focus to Alfred, much to his apparent pleasure.

“Already said no to that.  But, if it was Jason, I sincerely hope they were watching that move you pulled when you first came in because he is going to be panting after you after seeing that.”

Her cheeks flushed brightly and Jason preened at causing her to blush even without being there.  She let out annoyed growl.  “This is not the place for this conversation.  Actually, there is no place where I would want to have this conversation with you but especially not where we probably have an audience.  Did you get the information?”

“Almost done.  Someone interrupted me,” Constantine subconsciously rubbed his jaw, “or I would be done already,” he said pointedly.  “And here,” he said throwing a small, white cube into the air but the woman made no move to catch it keeping her eyes on Constantine instead.

“It was important.  Believe me when I say I cut that way shorter than I wanted.  You should really thank this kitty for your lack of bruises,” she said cooing at the cat and petting him more.

“Hell of a thanks for getting this for you,” he said holding up a small device.  “Luckily for us, one of them, I’m guessing Tim, already did the hard work getting the information from the League for us.  Believe me when I say getting it from the League of Assassins would have been far, far more difficult than from the bats.”

“Awesome.  Let’s get out of here before any of the bats come home to roost.  I’m not looking forward to the wrath leaving a wake of bloody and bruised bats would create.”  She stepped away and whispered something they couldn’t hear.  As soon as she said the words, she was bathed in a blinding aqua light again and was replaced with the figure they first saw step out of the portal.

“She has a magical girl sequence…” Dick whispered in awe.

The woman said something sounding like “Voyage” and made a motion to her side.  A shimmering portal opened where she had previously indicated.  “Come on, we’ve been here too long as it is.” She said stepping through the portal.

Constantine looked up at the surveillance camera and gave a wicked smile with a salute before following her through the portal.

The portal closed, leaving the batcave quiet and empty again.

The bat boys stared at the screen for a few more seconds unsure what to say next.  Bruce moved forward to speak when there was movement on the screen.  They watched as a much smaller portal opened back up and Alfred was pushed through, the portal closed quickly behind him.  Alfred turned around and looked around meowing a few times, batting his paw where the portal was.

The quiet of the room was disrupted by a loud phone ringer waking everyone out of their stupor.  Suddenly everyone started talking at once except for Damian who just glared at the screen.  Dick yelled over everyone to silence them pulling out his phone.  “Hey Alfred, we’ll be right out.”  He started to make his way to the exit followed by everyone else when Bruce stopped them.

“They're gone and it's Constantine, it won't be against us.  We don't need to prepare for an attack.  The priority right now is the announcement.  We make the announcement then call Constantine and investigate her.”

“You would choose the one person in the room that was spying on us, Todd.” Damian growled redirecting his glare toward Jason instead of the screen.

“And yet, not the most deceitful one in the room or the most dangerous. Definitely the hottest though. No offense Dick.” Jason said shrugging off the accusation.

“Not the most dangerous to us?  She just threatened to leave a, and I quote, ‘wake of bloody and bruised bats’ behind her.  And she found a way to bypass all of our security to break into the cave and hack the computer.  How is that not a threat?” Tim yelled at him.  This girl was an immediate threat they knew nothing about.  She was skilled and had magic on her side and they knew nothing, absolutely fucking nothing, about her to know what kind of threat she was and Jason was just going with it because she had a pretty face.  He was going to let this girl saunter on into their sanctum sanctorum with no questions at all.  “I know it is hard for you, but you need to start looking beyond your next conquest or you are going to get us all killed.”

“Let me get this straight,” Jason glared at the family, “Dick spent the night talking up a chick that would sell us all out for a dime just so he could get lucky.  Tim spent the night talking up a business man I saw sexually assault someone AT THIS GALA just so he had the chance at a few extra bucks.” Tim opened his mouth to defend himself but Jason continued, speaking over him.  “Bruce spent the night talking up a known thief who was probably casing the guests for a future job, again just so he could get lucky. No offense Selina.”  She bowed her head and held up her champagne glass to show she took it in stride.  And he wasn’t wrong.  That was exactly what she was doing and why she asked for the information on that woman’s designer.  

“And Damian... well Damian doesn't talk to people but I guarantee he spent the night plotting multiple people's murder, mine included.  There’s no way he wasn’t.” Damian crossed his arms and looked away, even more annoyed by the accurate description.  “And I'm getting in trouble because I spent the night talking up someone working with an ally?” he asked incredulously.  

They had all just witnessed the same scene.  They had evidence she wasn’t a villain, she wasn’t a threat.  She was someone they needed to help and they weren’t seeing it.  This is exactly why he hated working with them.  Oh, they wanted to help, but only on their terms. Only if they controlled it and they didn’t control this.  This was an unknown that had been dropped on them instead of them finding and investigating on their own.  They were licking their wounded egos instead of trying to figure out how to help.  They were wasting time with this stupid argument.  “Fuck all of you and your fucked up so called ‘morals’.  She might have been the only really good person in this room, definitely the only trustworthy, honest person and you’re ignoring the situation Constantine mentioned.”

“She was spying on us, imbecile.” Damian growled at him.

“FOR CONSTANTINE!” he yelled back.  How were they still missing that point?  It was like they were intentionally missing it.  “Did nobody else watch what just happened?  Did all of you assholes miss Constantine say he devised this whole thing to get us to help her?  Did you shitheads miss how Constantine is treating her? He ain't treating her like he does us. He’s being protective.  That means he thinks she’s a good guy and a good person unlike the rest of us mother fuckers.  More than that, he’s treating her with kid gloves.  He doesn’t treat anyone with kid gloves, not even kids.  He’s trying to help her in and out of the mask.  He’s motherhenning the fuck out of her.  When have any of you ever seen Constantine act that way about anyone or anything?  She needs our help.”

“SHE HELPED SOMEONE BREAK INTO THE BATCAVE!” Tim yelled.

“ENOUGH!” Bruce yelled silencing everyone in the room.  “Like he told her, this entire night was more about her than us.  He wanted us to know something was going on and for us to get involved.  And he was desperate enough to keep her trust that he concocted this whole plot to make sure we knew without breaking his word. He probably left us a clue by not covering what he got from the computer if not a message.”

“That’s a lot of words for ‘Jason is right’” Jason said smugly. “Come on B, you can just say it. ‘Jason is right.  We should listen to him.’  It’ll make you feel lighter to just finally say it.”

“You can’t be serious father,” Damian groused.

“Stop being such a jealous ass bitch, Demon Spawn.  Just because Alfred tried to run away with her…” Jason smirked at him.

Damian jumped up, face bright red and furious indicating he had every intention of following through with the plans he had been making during the gala.  Bruce stepped between him and Jason, not prepared to deal with the fight right now. They had an announcement to make and it would not look good if the boys showed up with fresh cuts and bruises. It’s hard to sell the story of a happy, functional family when the evidence to the contrary is on full display. “Now that we all agree,” he glared at them all until they quieted down.  “We’ve been in here long enough.  Let’s get back out there and make the announcement and show everyone what a supportive family that is ecstatic to have their brother back we are.  After that, Tim and Jason can go home to start the investigation.”

“Father, I would certainly be more help than him,” Damian objected indicating Jason, “also, there is no reason for me to still be here with these vapid, insolent morons.”

Bruce grunted.  Damian had a point about no reason for him to be there.  And the longer he was here the more likely it would be for him to finally snap and break someone’s hand and maybe more.  “Fine.  Take Damian, too.”  He waved his hand dismissively.  “Now move, we’re making this announcement right now.”

Damian gave a curt nod and turned to follow his father out of the door.  Selina coughed discretely drawing Bruce’s attention back to the room.  He looked at her questioningly.  She eyed Damian and Jason then nodded toward Dick.

Ahh.  She had a point, those three together would result in blood at the very least and the high probability for broken bones, cracked ribs, and dislocated joints, making patrol schedules very difficult until they healed.  “And Dick.  Nobody kills anyone.  I don’t care what you find or what is said, I don’t want any blood to clean when I get back.”

He started walking again but noticed nobody following him. He turned back to them exasperated and raised an eyebrow.  He noted everyone’s eyes on him giving him a deadpan expression and questioning expressions of their own.  “Fine, I don’t want Alfred to have to clean any blood when he gets back,” he sighed.  There was a round of begrudging agreement noises and the family started moving toward the gala again.  

The boys followed him out the door but Dick held onto Tim’s shoulder prompting him to hang back from the rest of the group.  He watched the rest of the family walk ahead of them.  When there was sufficient space between them, he started hitting Tim’s shoulder repeatedly still not looking at him.  Tim brushed off his hands and glared at him annoyed, “What?  You know Bruce is going to be mad we’re not out there.”

“Yeah, yeah.  This will be quick.”  He glanced round to make sure nobody was close enough to hear them.  “Bring up the video of the woman in the cave again.”

Tim gave him a suspicious look but pulled it up. “Okay, now what?”

Dick grinned excitedly, “Rewind the recording to the beginning.  Can you get a better angle of her glare?  I need to see the glare that is better than Batman’s.”  Bruce’s glare was legendary.  If this girl’s glare is that good, he had to see it.  Tim grinned back and scrolled through the different feeds looking for the one that would give them the best angle.

Chapter 3

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 I think I included everyone who asked to be tagged.  I’m sorry if I missed anyone.

I realize there is no actual Jasonette interaction in this and for that, I am truly sorry.  I’m disappointed too.

[det-loki]

poison & wine part five

Oh, you let your feet run wild Time has come as we all oh, go down  

warnings: angst, mention of harm to a dog, cussing, kidnap/drug/alcoholism mention

pairing: detective loki x fem reader

word count: 3,554

A/N: feedback is welcomed! let me know what you think and if you want more!

1  2  3  4   ⌽  6

You stared blankly at the ground in Captain O’Malley’s office as Loki was talking to him angrily.

David was pissed. 

Arriving at the station this morning, you found out Alex had been missing after calling Holly about a dog that had been hit after Alex took it for a walk and never came back. You leaned against the wall lazily, observing the conversation between David and O’Malley.

The dog collar had been thrown onto the captain's desk, Loki gesturing to it, “Holly Jones’ dog got hit on Southward Street. Apparently, Alex Jones took the dog for a walk the night before last, they never came home. And his aunt didn’t want to tell us about the dog when we called her about it this morning. She said she thought it would get him into trouble or some shit. I thought you said you would keep him under surveillance.”

O’Malley picked the collar up, “Yeah, and I thought you said the guy was innocent. And I thought the guy from last night you said was our guy. Look, I don’t have money in the budget for watching innocent people.”

Loki pointed at him, “You said to me that you’d put him under surveillance.”

“What do you want me to say?”

“You gonna keep your word? You could have just given me or Y/N a call because we would have been there all night, I would have stayed up all night. I would know where he was now. I need to know where everybody is.” Loki was at his wit’s end, no one was listening to anything he or you said. 

O’Malley looked defeated, “All right, point made. All right? Point made.”

Loki’s voice was harsh, “If you can be clear with me, then I’ll be clear with you. I need to know where everybody is. If you’re going to do something different, please tell me.”

Loki walked out of the room, O’Malley turning to you with his eyebrows raised, “You have anything you wanna yell at me about too?”

You shrugged, irritated, “He’s not wrong, captain. All you had to do was give either of us a call and we wouldn’t be in this situation. That’s all you had to do.” 

O’Malley threw up his arms, “Look, I get it all right? I fucked up. But it’s day five, your window is closing. You need to start preparing yourselves for the worst,”

Your body filled with rage, your fuse was blown, “Captain, you don’t ever speak to me like that again, you hear me? You can be upset with me all you want, but you ever call my ability to my job into question again, I will make your life hell. Day five means nothing. You have no idea what David and I are going through with this case, okay? Go fuck yourself.” You walked out of the room before he could respond, you needed to find David to make sure he hadn’t punched a hole in the wall. 

 You found David in the interrogation viewing room as he wound, rewound, and wound the tapes of Alex’s interrogation over and over, obsessively looking for something he may have missed.  You walked deeper into the room without a word and sat next to him as he pressed play on the video. Ripping at the seams, crumbling. 

A secretary you didn’t really know the name of came into the room, interrupting Loki’s obsessive behavior, “Loki, you got a call.” Loki rolled his eyes and huffed, hand coming up to his face to clutch his eyes before he stood rigidly, the silhouette of his body creating harsh lines filled with tension. 

You remained in the viewing room as Loki went to take the call as you read over the notes he had scrawled on the yellow notebook paper.

RV?  

Kidnapped with help? 

Drugged…like her? M-

You stopped reading after that.

Loki came back into the room, pulling you out of your thoughts before they got too deep and pulled you under, “Hey, we gotta go.”

You stood in the local Value Mall, speaking to a young female employee, Jill, who had called about the man who fled from Loki last night.

“I called as soon as I saw the sketch on TV. He comes in here every week almost and buys kids’ clothes, but he’s always buying stuff in different sizes. Caught him messing around with the mannequins once.” Gross.

“What did he pay with?” You were silently hoping she said card, finally giving you something to work with.

“Cash.” Behind you, you could hear Loki mutter ‘fuck.’ 

You pull your business card out of your pocket with your name and number on it and hand it to the girl, “All right, you give me a call if you hear anything.” You turn to Loki who was still rifling through clothing racks, lost in thought, snapping your fingers, “Loki, card.” He turned around and handed the girl his card as well, now she had both your numbers. 

You walked out of the store and looked up at the gray sky, taking a moment to yourself and to take in your surroundings. Loki stopped a few feet in front of you, looking back at you with a quizzical look. You didn’t say anything, only bringing your hand above your head and crossing them, taking a deep breath. You dropped your arms and continued walking towards the car while David remained standing confused in the same spot. Even in times like this, he admired your ability to stop and take notice of the world around you. Even a gray sky meant something to you. 

The rest of the day was spent staring at a computer screen, researching anything you could get your hands on about Barry Milland. It was basically a dead end. Your cell phone buzzed in your pocket, grabbing it to see Dover’s called ID. It was 2 A.M.

“Hello?”

Ralph Dover, son of Keller and Grace was on the other end, “Hi, uh, my mom is kind of freaking out right now. She’s saying someone broke in, she thinks it’s Anna but no one is here.” He sounded nervous and tired. Poor kid.

“Okay, Ralph, we’ll be right there.”

Grace Dover was a wreck. You stood across from her, listening to her recount what she claimed happened. 

“And she wasn’t here. And I...I came in here and the window was open. And- and it wasn’t open before, And the...and then Ralph, he- he came in. And he looked and- and uhm- .”  Loki walked to the closed window, brushing the sheer curtain back to look as Ralph floated nervously in the hallway. Your eyes remained Grace, her eyes bloodshot and heavy as she watched Loki. “-And then I don’t know. Aren’t you gonna write this down?” Loki looked past her at you as he took out his notebook from his inner breast coat pocket to appease her.

Grace let out an exhale, “The basement. I didn’t check the basement. We need to check the basement. I’ll show you. I’ll show you.” Loki looked towards the bedside table covered in prescription medication for Grace’s anxiety since the abduction. He had experienced the same thing with you, a prescription being the only thing to get you to sleep months after the accident. He knew Grace wasn’t in the right mind, but he went along with it anyway. She walked out of the room frantically, brushing past an obviously distraught Ralph. Loki followed her out as you caught his elbow, “I’m going to stay up here with Ralph.” Loki nodded as he continued to follow Grace. 

“Hey, Ralph. Is it okay if I talk with you for a second?’

Ralph shrugged, “I guess.”

“Has your mom been sleeping much lately? At least that you know of?”

He shrugged again, eyebrows furrowing, “I mean, not really. When she does it’s because dad makes her take the medicine the doctor gave her. When she isn’t sleeping, she’s crying.”

You nodded along, “And you? Are you doing okay?”

“Not really.” He stopped talking when he saw his mother reappear in the hallway, Loki behind her. The look on David’s face concerned you. 

David slammed the driver’s door shut as he got in the car. He breathed heavily as he slid a hand over his face in frustration, “Grace said Keller was out with the search party, but you and I both know he’s not. And now Alex is missing. There's half a bag of lye in Keller's basement along with shelves of doomsday shit, something is up.”

“You think Keller had something to do with it, don’t you?” You wouldn’t be surprised, very few things shocked you anymore. 

Loki didn’t say anything, only turning the keys in the ignition and driving home in silence.

It was raining as you sat in the Crown Vic alongside Loki. You watched the water droplets fall down the window, collecting at the bottom. Stupid fucking rain.

Today you were trailing Keller Dover to see where he went when he claimed he was searching for his daughter when he wasn’t. You watched with tired eyes as Keller pulled out of his driveway while Loki turned the car on and followed. 

Loki pulled up to a light, Keller had pulled into a liquor store across town on the corner of Wallace and Campello Street. Except when Keller got out of his truck, he didn’t walk into the store, he walked towards an old building across from the liquor store. What are you doing?

Behind you, a trash truck pulled up and laid on it’s horn signaling the light was green. Loki didn’t move, his eyes were still on Keller who had now turned around at the sound of the horn. Loki was agitated, telling the truck to go around so as to not blow your cover. Keller turned around and started walking towards you and into the liquor store. Loki pulled into a vacant lot across from the liquor store, “Fuck.”

Loki turned off the car and rubbed his hands together to create some sort of warmth, still refusing gloves as he reached on the dash to grab his coffee beans, popping a few in his mouth. At least some things never changed. The rain continued to pour down outside, each drop hitting the window added to the memory of the night of your little girl’s death. It had stormed that night, worse than anyone had seen in Pennsylvania in a long time. Your hatred of rain was deeply rooted. 

“Come on, Mr. Dover.” You heard Loki mutter to himself as you brought your legs underneath you in the seat. Might as well get comfortable while you waited. You look out of the rain covered windshield to see Keller approaching quickly with his hood up, popping open the liquor bottle he had in a brown paper bag and taking a long swig.

He stood at Loki's window that had been rolled down, leaning at the waist as he spoke, “Why are you following me?” 

“Get in the car.” Loki demanded; Keller opening the rear passenger side door and sitting down, you and David turning to look at him. He looked even more tired than when you saw him last. His eyes were different though, changing from a scared father to a godless and angry man.

 Keller asked the question again, “Why are you following me?”

Loki looks him over before speaking, “Where were you going just now?”

Keller took a deep breath, “I parked at a liquor store.” He held up his bottle of liquor he had taken a drink from previously, “-I have a bottle of liquor. You’re the shit-hot detective. Work it out.” He took another drink from the bottle, the stench of whiskey filling the car. You wanted to puke, it reminded you too much of your drunk of a so called father.

“I actually meant before that. You were walking in the opposite direction across the parking lot. Towards Campello Street.” 

Keller took another drink before answering Loki, “Yeah, well...I haven’t had a drink in nine-and-a-half years. I figured if I walked around the parking lot for a while, by the time they opened, I’d stop wanting it that bad. And then-then I saw you two. Sorta helped me make up my mind.” He seemed to have an explanation for everything.

There was a long pause before David broke the uncomfortable silence, “There’s a bag of lye in your basement that’s half empty. Your wife thinks you’ve been helpin’ us...but we all know that’s not true.” Loki turned to look at Keller who was staring at him.

“I used the lye to bury our dog last year. And ‘helping the cops’ sounds better than ‘I’ve been driving aimlessly in my truck ‘cause I don’t know what else to do.’” He really did have an explanation for everything. 

Loki questioned him, “Is that what you were doing last Saturday night?” 

“Probably. Am I a suspect?” 

Loki’s voice went up as he spoke, “No, I’m only asking- I’m only asking ‘cause you assaulted a man who’s now missing.”

Keller looked away briefly, his eyes moving to the yellowing bruise on your jaw before turning back to David, “I heard about that. What happened to him? I thought you had him under surveillance.”

“I’m gonna assume you’re asking me because you have no idea.”

Keller shook his head, “Well, I didn’t think it was something I could get away with.”

Loki deadpanned, “It’s not.”

“Yeah, well. It couldn’t be that he skipped town ‘cause the asshole is guilty. Couldn’t be that, right? ‘Cause that would mean it would be your fault, right?”

“Mr. Dover?” Loki looked at Keller with an intense gaze as Keller’s defense began to crumble in front of you.

“What?” Keller snapped.

“You need to take care of yourself and your wife. That’s the best thing you can do right now. That little girl is gonna need you when she comes home.”

Keller took in a shaky inhale, “Kids gone longer than a week have half as good a chance of being found, and after a month, almost none are. Not alive. All right? So forgive me for doing everything I can-”

Keller struck a nerve in Loki, his finger now in his face, yelling, “You know what? It hasn’t been a fucking week!”

The energy shifted in the car quickly as Keller lunged furiously over the center console, yelling, “You’re right. It’s day fucking six! Day six!” His voice broke as he continued to yell, David blinking harshly beside you, “-And every day she’s wondering why I’m not there to fucking rescue her!” David attempted to calm Keller down as he furiously pointed to himself, “All right. Do you understand that? Me! Not you! Not you! But me! Every day! So forgive me for not going home to have a good night’s rest!” Keller pounded on the center console with his fist, shaking yours and Loki’s seats, “Now, why don’t you look for my fucking daughter rather than fighting-”

Loki interrupted him as Keller began to get emotional, tears welling up in his eyes. Your back was pressed against the dashboard as to put as much space between you and Keller as you could as he spoke, “Don’t follow me.”

Loki held his hand in the air in a calming gesture, “Hey. Hey. Mr. Dover, Mr. Dover.” A long pause occurred before Keller reached for the door handle, stopping as Loki called after him, “You don’t think we’re gonna let you get behind the wheel after you’ve been drinking do you?”

“I’m gonna walk. You look for my daughter.” You sighed in relief as Keller left the car, sinking back into your seat as Loki huffed beside you, eyes blinking harshly as he watched Keller walk away in the rain. Loki ran his hand over his face and jaw, lost in thought as he watched the rain fall. 

You crawled into bed alone that night. Loki stayed at the station, reading reports, telling you to go home and sleep. You couldn’t sleep however, for it was still raining outside and you never slept well without David. The sound of the rain outside made you furious, slapping a pillow over your head and squeezing your eyes shut. Somehow, sleep found you, pulling you under by your ankles.

You trudged into the station the next day to find Loki still at his desk where you left him, intently reading his computer screen. When he saw you he motioned for you to come over. He read you whatever he had been so enthralled in, “I looked into the old apartment building Keller was walking towards yesterday, it used to be his father’s. He committed suicide there, Keller and his mother found his body. I think it’s worth checking out.”

The car ride over was quick, Loki driving faster than necessary, he was obviously eager to have a lead in the case that had so far been working against you. You took notice of Keller’s truck in the liquor store parking lot as Loki parked the car. You stepped out of the car, your black boot landing on the slushy ground as the car dinged as Loki got out. The building was old, windows boarded up and looking to be on the brink of collapsing. 

Loki inspected the boarded window for a way in, settling on ripping off the plywood. It fell on the ground at your feet as you whipped out your flashlight and looked inside the building. Loki climbed in first and turned for you to join him. You weren’t really up for climbing today but did it anyways, jumping down from the window as Loki’s hand found your hip, steadying you. 

You turned around with your flashlight, taking in your surroundings. It was falling apart. Dirty and musty, obviously not being taken care of very well. You and Loki walked through the doorway into another room looking the same as the last except this time you found Keller Dover lying on the ground surrounded by empty whiskey bottles.

Loki tapped him with his foot as he jerked away, squinting up at him through the fluorescence of the flashlight as he spoke, “Hey, rise and shine.”

Loki walked deeper into the room. “I’m not gonna find two girls here, am I?” 

You stood in front of Keller who was still laying on the ground, taking in Loki’s words, “Fuck you.”

You looked down at Keller as he moved to sit up, “What about Alex Jones?” You obviously weren't expecting an honest answer, but was curious to see what he would say. 

Keller looked at the ground, avoiding your questioning gaze, “What about him? I came here to drink. I don’t want to drink in front of my wife.”

Moving away from Keller you looked around the room as he spoke, “Look, my father left me this building, all right?”

Loki spoke across the room, looking at something you couldn’t see, “You mind giving us a tour?���  

Keller stood and put on his coat, glaring at Loki as he walked by with you trailing up the staircase you had come to. 

Loki spoke in front of you to Keller, “Why didn’t you tell us about this place?”

Keller huffed, “I didn’t think it mattered.”

“Everything matters.”

The three of you walked into another room filled with old materials and tools, “It’s all pretty much like this.” You couldn’t help but feel like Keller was hiding something, wanting you and David to leave as soon as possible. 

“I’m gonna renovate soon.”

Loki nodded in agreement, “Yeah, not as organized as your basement, huh? What’s up with all the survivor gear in there?”

“Pray for the best, prepare for the worst.” Keller’s statement caused O’Malley’s words to hit you in the face, ‘you need to start preparing for the worst.’

Loki spoke ahead of you, “Guess we agree there, yeah?”

Keller led you through door after door, each room looking exactly the same as the last. Loki was getting impatient, as were you. You felt like you were being led through a maze.

As you walked through another door, just like the same, you noticed Keller pause. Loki was across the room with his back turned, missing Keller’s sudden odd behavior. He stood in front of a hallway you hadn’t been down yet, acting as if he were guardian something. He followed Loki’s every move with skeptical eyes, completely missing your own skeptical gaze on him. He was hiding something. 

As Loki walked further away, his phone rang in his pocket. He picked it up, speaking to whoever was on the other line. As Loki walked further down the hallway, you could see the color drain from Mr. Dover’s face. What was down there?

Loki reappeared from the hallway running, nodding for you to follow with his notebook in hand. Obviously he had something for the case, you ran out after him, yelling at Keller to go home. You prayed it was something to help those two girls get home. You couldn’t handle anymore let down, your luck was running out fast.

Yet you had no idea what was to come, oblivious to the fact that your world would shatter around you and David soon.

taglist: @lexie-wayland @whew-oh-em-gee @winterlavenderskysworld​ @buck-this-nasty @heeyirenee @pinkpunkdynamite @eleventhdoctorsangel @multiyfandomgirl40 @thanossexual​ @speedybonkuniversityzine​

[scarlettaagni]

Kandore (Lancer)

Kandore is the current clan leader of the Half-Heart Clan. He was named for his proficiency with the combistick as his signature weapon, as well as general skill with pole-like weapons.

As a child in the Agoge, he failed many times at stealing under his teachers’ watch and thus was given lashes as punishments for his failures. However, he never cried, no matter how hard the teachers tried to get a plea for mercy out of him. He was rarely given special treatment despite being a son of the clan leader, rather, because he must prepare for a higher position in life, he must work to fulfill the higher expectations. Kandore was only spoiled with the privilege of affording Elites to be his personal tutors and teachers.

His father Kachare had many children before and after Kandore, but noticing the boy’s pragmatism, charisma, confidence, and ability to take command of situations, named Kandore his heir.

In his youth, a local Hunter dominated the local arena through multiple victorious deathmatches in a row. Up to task, Kandore challenged him after observing him from afar. Right before their match, he and Kandore had a traditional good-natured exchange. The undefeated champion put his fist against Kandore’s chest, a common pre-fight goodwill gesture, but proceeded to expand the combistick hidden in his hand, intending on skewering Kandore’s head at the very start of the match. Though this is how he had managed to become the undefeated champion, Kandore had enough foresight to dodge the blow, receiving only a gash up the left side of his head. Half-blinded from the blood gushing out of his wound, Kandore killed the champion, and decided to take the move for himself.

Though named heir, meaning he will inherit the position once Kachare dies, Kandore took it upon himself to speed up the process and challenged his aging father for it instead. He believed he was ready for the job as he was, that Kachare had already grown old and unfit for it, and he did not want to “waste time”. Engaging in a public deathmatch, Kandore fairly slew his own father with a stab through the chest and a cut across the belly, decapitating Kachare as is tradition and received the leadership at an unconventionally young age.

Kandore’s taking of the position was controversial among the Half-Heart Clan, due to the fight being completely fair, honorable, and with legal precedent, but also seen as wholly unnecessary because he was already publicly declared the heir. While it’s happened before, an heir wishing to claim the leadership from their parent is often seen as a sign of impulsivity or impatience, qualities not looked upon favorably. Aware it may not be a popular move or start to his command over the clan, he worked on relations and built a reputation on being a personable and forgiving, but strict when he must be, leader.

Most of the clan have never met him personally, or held more than five conversations with him. As a result, they don’t know that while polite, his niceties are for show, and his forgiveness comes with strings attached. Kandore shows mercy and gives privileges in order to both endear himself to people, but also to hold these favors hostage and threaten taking them away should the other party not play along, or do something he doesn’t like. Though, sometimes, on a whim, he’ll do a nice thing for someone without expecting anything back, usually when it’s at no cost to himself or the clan at large. This is rare as he considers wasting his time and resources as a cost to himself/the clan, but he occasionally thinks better on it.

Kandore is a skilled manipulator, and excellent at reading people. During interactions, Kandore is constantly multitasking by carrying the conversation, observing the other person’s reactions to what he says, and recalling previous knowledge about them. By experimenting with topics during conversation, he easily gleans their berserk buttons and soft spots to take advantage of and use should he feel the need to. He even conducts personal or ordered research on Half-Heart clan members to learn more about them, and even on Yautja from other clans should they be relevant. In all situations, Kandore continually formulates plans to find a way he will benefit from the outcome in some form, no matter what.

He traps his subjects within societal conventions, where he will code his polite words with underlying messages and implications. While he continues to either deliberately passive-aggressively dig at them, or simply say things with a tone that implies something, he will not make an obvious attack or insult. The other person is allowed to make dirty looks all they like, or respond with a tone of hatred, but the instant they voice their disdain for him aloud, no subtext, he will instantly counter with a scathing retort. Kandore has reduced grown men to tears with his sharp tongue in this way.

No one knows what makes Kandore tick, and no one has ever managed to hurt his feelings the way he hurts others’, or scrape his ego in a way he could not recover instantly from. He is seemingly untouchable and almost seems devoid of emotion in a way, only capable of smug amusement. Many conclude you can’t hurt his feelings because he doesn’t have any. In truth, he is just very in control of his emotions.

Often challenged for his position by strangers, as he had challenged Kachare, he uses that hidden combistick move to end the matches quickly. This too, is a controversial action among the clan. Kandore insists it is a valid strategy, as he considers the start of a fight to be when the challenge is issued, not when the first blow is dealt. Even if his opponents know of the infamous move and dodge it, Kandore’s skill and strength as his bite is enough to substantiate his bark, and he is consequently undefeated. Basically, he talks a lot of shit, thinks he’s hot shit, but he fights like it, too.

He inherited his father’s Ancient advisor, Zazin, who he came to understand as a bleeding heart. Respecting his wisdom, Kandore takes his advice seriously, though dismisses his more “soft” suggestions. Though they can both sense hostility or unspoken disagreement between themselves, they do work as a team to govern the Half-Heart Clan, and often stick by one another when questioned.

Kandore keeps his father’s skull in his quarters, to “keep himself humble”, but jokes that it doesn’t work. He talks to the skull, but no one knows what he says to it, or if he’s expecting anything to be said back. When criticized for killing his father, Kandore will coldly state Kachare died because he was already unworthy of the title, thus he had to give it up right then, a sentiment shared by most Yautja. But otherwise, people such as Zazin or Lo’bane note he seems subdued, crestfallen, unusually quiet and lacking a sharp tongue when his father or his father’s death is brought up. Despite this, any attempts to weaponize his father’s death against him fails.

When in situations he cannot control, Kandore tends to spiral via uncontrollable humor as a coping mechanism. Humor normally keeps him in charge by keeping others enraged or distracted, making them easier to manipulate and shows his ease and confidence. It shows that he has so much control of the situation/conversation, he can mess around and still stay on top of things.

When in a pleasant mood, he fidgets with his quills, rubbing a single lock between his fingers or twirling it around his pointer finger.

He does not hate the Odd Crests, only appearing so because he can be much more transparent with them. As a social pariah, the Odd Crests are openly treated with ridicule, contempt, and scrutiny, and as such, he can tease them how he likes. The Odd Crests have glaring sore points and insecurities, thus theoretically malleable, though wise to Kandore’s true nature, they often resist. However, he has shown them more mercy than any other clan leader would. Any other leader would have exiled them, or declared the entire family Bad Blood, but Kandore allows them to stay as they are and does not go out of his way to mess with them. As such, while they are privy to his true nature, they cannot afford to call him out or openly voice their disdain for him. He just likes to get a rise out of them whenever he talks to them.

When Halkrath’s sons died, Kandore and Zazin delivered the news to the Odd Crest household, as well as transporting him back home, and ordering further excavation to recover the sons’ bodies and belongings. The incident landed the Half-Hearts in trouble with some of the other clans, as the Half-Heart’s mistake could have cost the lives of Yautja from other clans that were nearby. Kandore and Zazin defended Halkrath, stating that while he will be named legally responsible for the Xenomorph infestation, it was acknowledged as a freak accident and was quickly dealt with by Half-Heart enforcers. Kandore allowed a personal several-decade embargo on using the incident to his advantage, though did not hide his disdain for/disappointment with Halkrath’s recklessness, besmirching his own family and embarrassing the clan once again.

Kandore is off-put by Luar-ke and Lo’bane, specifically Lo’bane, so he asked that whenever the Odd Crests see him, that only M’hsi or Vosandi attend, with Halkrath’s presence a must. It’s just a preference, and a soft suggestion, not an order. The only one better than Kandore at figuring out people’s deals is Lo’bane, who figures it out via observation and eavesdropping, not conversation. Lo’bane has Kandore’s number, and he deliberately avoids him. When once left alone with the 50 year old, Kandore ran out of the room in tears.

When M’hsi approached him and demanded an opportunity to restore her family’s honor, Kandore thought she intended on just restoring her father’s name on his behalf and planned on allowing her to do so. When she corrected him and stated she wanted to absolve the dishonor of every dishonored member of her family, and not just her father, Kandore was taken aback and found the idea completely ridiculous. Jokingly, he suggested, in a bad faith interpretation of her request, that she go on a Hunt for each disgraced member, do better than they had, complete her Blooding ritual, and then her family’s honor debt will be forgiven.

Shocked she actually accepted this challenge, he examined the outcomes of the situation and decided that if she died, then it’s one less Odd Crest to further disgrace the family (and thus his clan) and one less unworthy Hunter. If she was to succeed, then he can welcome back a courageous Hunter he is responsible for creating.

Despite her parents and Zazin’s pleas to reconsider, Kandore refused as M’hsi had already accepted, and she similarly refused to back down. Kandore went to work arranging the trip, hiring craftsmen to fashion M’hsi her custom armor and approving weapons for her to choose from. As is tradition, only those related to M’hsi were allowed to attend, thus Lo’bane was able to attend but kept home as per Kandore’s request (and as his parents decided it might be too upsetting to see her off). A guard was issued to supervise them as they normally do, but specifically to keep an eye on Halkrath.

Acting as if nothing was off, or upsetting, Kandore escorted M’hsi through rooms where he and Zazin assisted in suiting her up in her commissioned armor, watching her try out the preapproved weapons (to which Kandore expressed amusement at her choice), and bringing her before the scout ship. He managed to fit one more jab in by wishing her luck before she boarded the ship.

As clan leader, Kandore stayed on Yautja Prime to govern the clan and remotely observe M’hsi’s Hunts, while Zazin monitors M’hsi in the scout ship on Earth.

[hargrove-mayfields]

No, see, this is the point where I now come into your ask box /begging/ you to give me even a single religious Neil headcannon in exchange for my entire heart ❤️🤲

Ahh thank you for the ask! I’ve been wanting to ramble abt this! Here’s a few hcs for you!

-The number one most important one I think is that Billy is left handed. We all know the association between left handed folks and the devil and it would tick Neil off to no end when they notice that little Billy is tying his shoes left handed and picking up crayons and sippy cups with his left hand, so he trains Billy to use the right one instead through typical Neil fashion. His mother never let Neil hit him but he definitely scared him through threats of it, and when that doesn’t work he breaks his left arm so he can’t use it and pretends it was just an accident. Billy learns his lesson and starts forcing himself to use the right hand, but because of the constant focus on using the wrong hand or facing the consequences he develops pretty bad dyslexia. If you’ve got dyslexia you can’t read the Bible, so Neil tries everything he can to cure him of it (making Billy pray it away, forcing him into every educational church related program he can find, beating it out of him) but it only makes it worse. It takes him years after moving out of Neil’s place to be comfortable using his left hand for anything and even then he’s still mostly ambidextrous because there’s some things he just can’t shake using the right for.

-They have bibles literally everywhere in the Hargrove-Mayfield house. One on every bookshelf, in every drawer, on every side table, and whenever Billy or Max get in trouble for minor things they get verses read to them (in Billys case because of the dyslexia he has to read them himself and it always goes terribly) and forced to apologize to whoever is punishing them, whoever they wronged, and to God.

-Their church had a pastor who tried to be like, very hip with the kids but he was truly a nasty s.o.b under the surface. Neil was very close friends with this dude so he was able to get Billy one-on-one sessions with him after the church cleared out, and they are, very tough to sit through because he’s got this facade of being Billy’s friend, but he’s saying terrible things about him because of who he is (I hc that Billy outed himself before he realized the consequences of it as a little, little kid) and it’s so confusing to him that he ends up just bawling his eyes out after every one. His faith in the church is shaky at best, but he really internalizes a lot of what that man says to him because of the way he presents it. When the pastor moves on to another church and they get this new old guy in who’s genuinely really nice, Billy's still terrified of him regardless and sits through every service unable to look to the front.

-Bible school was absolutely mandatory. Most kids would go to have fun, but Billy didn’t like the church, and he couldn’t really click with the other kids. Making a prayer pillow and listening to the creepy kid friendly songs and reading in the Jonah and the whale tent just wasn’t cool and exciting like it was to his peers and he feels so isolated. So he sneaks off to go chill in the nursery where he can be alone and it’s not suffocating and crowded, but Neil wants updates since he can’t be there, and he knows Billy’s lying about attending because he asked the ladies in charge of it. As punishment for blowing off what he considered the easy route to teaching Billy the right path to take, Billy winds up enrolled in church camp.

-Church camp sucks. A lot. It’s marketed as being a fun outdoorsy getaway but it’s a lot deeper than that for kids who don’t have a normal relationship with their religion, and especially not for kids whose counselors know they’re gay. It’s basically torture, being away from home in a secluded place where literally around him treats him like a freak because they all know his secret. It’s like, during worship times it feels like everyone’s staring at him, and nobody eats with him in the mess hall and he’s got a bunk bed all to himself because no one else is allowed to share with him and it’s awful. When he gets to come back home he breaks down hard, and Neil is smug as all hell that it had made him that miserable. Billy starts pretending then and there that he’s changed, because he knows the next step would be conversion therapy and what he’s been through was bad enough, so he basically hides away anything that was left of his personality after church camp. For the first time ever Neil’s proud of him.

-Whenever Billy would get in big trouble he’d pretend to pray. Hide in his room and get on his knees at the foot of his bed because his dad wouldn’t hit him if he’s praying, right? Wrong. Neil started making him say his prayers out loud, and he’d stand in the door and wait for Billy to do it right. It makes the whole thing that much more unpleasant because now he knows what was inevitably coming when he got through with it, and he’d only get in more trouble if he stalled. Neil isn’t stupid either, he knows that Billys just trying to buy himself some time and he doesn’t truly mean what he’s saying, so once Billys got his punishment he makes him pray again through his tears. Just to drive the point home.

-Neil definitely made the kids do the annual Easter Pageant when they were little. It was humiliating for Billy, getting put in a reused costume and having to tell the story that’s been used against him so much. All the old church ladies fussing over how cute he is, standing up on the grassy hillside to be gawked at while Susan insisted on snapping picture after picture of her new step son even though he didn’t have any lines. It’s all just way too much. By the time he’s old enough to refuse doing it anymore Neil accuses him of tearing the family apart, ruining their traditions, embarrassing them in front of their community, but he stands his ground, and they all watch Max perform in her little angel costume, and Billy gets his ass beat as soon as it’s over.

-Their church used to have annual holiday parties for stuff like Christmas, Halloween, and Easter, and that was the only time Billy ever had any fun when it came to his religion. They weren’t the greatest little parties but there were some really tasty baked goods and the games were kind of fun because there was no underlying biblical message behind like, carrying a ping pong ball across the room with a spoon and pin the tail on the donkey. Neil doesn’t approve of them though, thinks they distract from what the church should be teaching, and Billy and Max are forbidden from going to them.

-As time goes on Billy still goes to church every Sunday and attends the holiday services but he’s not forced into the extracurriculars anymore because he’s a lot better at acting and following the rules. But I think the worst part would be that he would truly want to believe in God. Of course he’d be bitter that he’d been forced to go through so much abuse at the hands of someone who claimed to be religious, but deep down he knows that isn’t what it’s about and he doesn’t want to have to pretend that there’s something for him to believe in. He genuinely wants to believe that there’s hope for better things and someone looking out for him, but there’s just so much trauma associated with his faith that he can’t, no matter how hard he tries, and if not for everything else he did, he hates Neil so much for ruining that for him.

[justreadingfics]

Looking For a Heartbeat (15/?)

Pairing: Bucky Barnes X Reader

Series Summary: You and Bucky used to be in a relationship. Feelings were hurt, you left. It’s been two years and you’re back. You both will handle the reunion well, won’t you?

Chapter Summary: No more secrets.    

Word Count: 2.9k

Warnings for this chapter: angst.  

 A/N: @suz-123 is my angel and I love her. This one is a little shorter because I thought adding more would ruin the pace. Feel free to scream at me, just know I love it ehehe.  Links are ruining posts, you can find the masterlist link on my description.

 With his back against the headboard of his bed, Bucky twirls the soft tiny piece of clothing in his fingers.  He hasn't stopped looking at the little jumpsuit he scrounged from your room ever since he bolted his way out of there. 

When he told you he didn't know if he could do it, he wasn't lying. He's been so damn scared ever since he heard the doctor saying the words that…changed his life, he might say. He's never felt like this before and he has already faced too much damn scary shit in his long life. It was all a blur to him as his legs moved on his own and he spent the whole night wandering around the city.

Sighing, he realizes what a fucking coward he is and his eyes shut. It took him days to finally gather the courage to go talk to you. Steve offered his support, like he always does… Nat grabbed him by the collar and threatened his manhood, of course… Sam tried to reason with him, how Bucky had expected him to do. Wanda was the one to surprise him, calling him stupid when he expected gentle words from her. Can he blame her, though? Isn’t stupid exactly what he is?

Despite the effort of his friends, it was only time, the passing of the days that managed to get him out of his mind and finally go talk to you. Time he spent thinking solely of you, of the baby you are expecting… Replaying in his mind how he spent every single day which the baby already existed inside you, a little piece of you and him, getting stronger by the minute without him having a clue about it.  

He never, not for one single second, thought that this would happen to him. Having a kid…a little helpless creature that would depend completely on him, on both of you together…There’s no way he wouldn’t fuck this up…

How in the world a fucked up freak like him could be a father. A good one? He doesn't even know how to deal with his emotions towards you…towards Anna… or himself, to be honest. How, in the middle of that mess, one that he took a great part on creating, would he learn how to be a father? 

He knocked on your door and you’ve never looked as beautiful as when he laid his eyes on you. He saw the tiny shoe in your hand and his mind went dizzy. The coward in him took over as he insulted you and the history of you and him by asking if the baby was his… What a dumbass…

Taking you over, he noticed how comfortable you seemed with the idea of the baby. How could you not be freaking out? You acted so elegantly, so composedly, so…maturely. His love for you, the one he keeps trying to wipe away from his chest, swelled even more and made him be unable to find his breath.   

And when he heard you saying the exact same words he had told you once, that the love of yours wasn’t good for neither of you, he truly understood what dying would feel like…What right does he have to feel that  way, like he wasn’t the one to force you to think like  that in the first place… like he didn’t agree with you? There it is. The mess…it’s all his fault.

The kid has been lucky enough to have you as a mother, would he want to taint that with all his dark shit? Deep down, he knows the right thing to do would be to spare this child of the burden of having him in their life. It would be better for everyone, but especially for the kid…  he knows that.

But why the hell does his heart feels like it's going to combust ever since he gets a glimpse of this tiny little piece of cloth. 

For a second, he wonders if his old self, the one Steve keeps gushing about, would’ve been a good father... Ever since the hospital he’s been searching through his knotty memories and an image keeps flashing in his mind… a little baby, all in white, one he held so close to his chest when he, himself, was nothing more than a boy. If he tries hard he still can feel the relishing fluffiness of their blanket against him. His sister... Rebecca. He doesn’t remember being scared then, all he remembers is feeling so drawn to that little creature in his arms…

Perhaps…

Gazing down at the onesie, he sprawls the soft fabric all over his metal hand. It fits almost perfectly. When he smiles, he doesn’t even notice.

Is he really so scared of something that could fit in that tiny little thing? 

The doorbell rings and his easy smile drops.

Anna…

He gulps down and carefully folds the jumpsuit, placing it beneath one of his pillows before getting up to open the door. They haven’t really talked ever since the hospital.  While he bolted, he heard his name being called by her, but he didn’t let her catch up to him. He needed to be alone. And then he avoided talking to her like the plague.

He’s almost certain she’s been doing the same, since she didn’t try to reach out for him again, not once, not even to talk about their cancelled trip. It’s an odd feeling to him, the need to avoid her. Anna has always meant comfort and guidance whenever he felt lost, not knowing what to do, what to feel… However, this time, all he wanted was to be alone… to think things through for himself.

But he knows they have to sort things out. He has to understand how she’s been feeling about all this and he owes her an explanation, a position of some sort… that’s why he’s called her to come and talk.

When he opens the door, he halts and the sight makes his heart ache. She has her hair high in a messy ponytail and not in the usual stylish waves. There’s none of the habitual makeup on her face and the dark circles matches his as her eyes cast downwards. The corner of her lips curl in the same direction… Clearly, it hasn’t been easy for her either and it breaks his heart that he has neglected her so much these days, acting so selfishly and distant. 

“Hi,” his voice is soft and low, “Come in,” He steps back to give her room.

When she passes by him to get into his living room, she doesn’t spare a glance at him. He can’t really tell why, but this time, he doesn’t try to greet her with a kiss like he’s used to. Maybe it’s guilt.

“How’ve you been doing?” She quietly mummers, finally looking at him as she stands a few feet away from where he has just closed the door.

Bucky just nods and pulls up a tight smile, noticing as she doesn’t take off her coat and keeps standing up, fumbling with her fingers, not moving to take a seat anywhere in his living room.

“What about you? Are you ok?” He timidly asks, placing his hands on his back pockets.

“Have you talked to her?” She quickly ignores his question.

The air grows thick between them, something so unfamiliar for him and Anna. Once again, he just nods.

“Is she… is she and the baby alright after… after the accident?” Her question is tentative and shaky.

“Yeah… yeah. They’re fine. Guess they got lucky.” He tucks his shoulders.

“Did she tell you how it happened?”

His eyebrows pull together as his head tilts to the side, this is not a question he expects to hear from Anna, especially as she asks it in such a small voice, her lips becoming white as she press them in between her teeth. At least he didn’t expect her to ask about it right now, after he spent days without looking for her and they have so much more to talk about. Why is she focusing so much on your accident? Is she running away from the main subject? Is she afraid of something he might tell her? 

“Ahm… yeah.” He keeps frowning, “She said she got distracted and nothing more. I think it’s weird, but we didn’t really get to talk much about it.” He steps closer to her, aiming to reach out and touch her, “Anna…, listen, I’m sorry, I-”

“It was me.” She bursts out and Bucky stops on his tracks, “It happened because of me, Bucky. It was my fault she got in an accident. ” Anna chest heaves as her fists clench tight on her sides.

Bucky steps back as the air is knocked out of his lungs and his forehead scrunches up in confusion. Her words a puzzle in his mind as he watches how her face contorts into something… desperate, “What?” He puffs out.

Anna’s head hangs low while her eyes close and she takes a deep sigh, as if to control her frantic breathing caused by the words she has just let out, “I-I, before the airport,  I went to the tower and-.’

“What? Wait…” Bucky interrupts her, “You said you had some work stuff to do. Did you lie to me?” What the hell is she telling him? “What did you go there for?” He can’t avoid the biting tone to sweep into his voice.

She turns her head sideways, avoiding looking straight at him, before replying, quietly. “At Steve’s party… I-I listened Natasha talking to Y/N, about-” She breathes in, before directing her gaze to his, “about her being pregnant…”

Bucky’s eyebrows shoot high on his forehead.

“It wasn’t hard to figure out who the father was.” She shrugs weakly, tears glistening her eyes.

“You knew?” He utters through his tightened teeth. He can feel the shock leaving his expression as a scowl twists it and a dangerous rush of anger burns on his chest. 

“I-I“, She stutters, looking lost. Finding no words, she only nods.

A scoff slips from Bucky’s lips before he runs his hands down his mouth, “Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”

His harsh tone makes her flinch but he doesn’t find in himself to take it back, to tone down his demeanor. Not now. Not when a somber sense of betrayal, of deceive sting on his heart.  

“I- I was so scared of losing you, Bucky. I didn’t know what to do. And… and…fuck…”   She curses under her ragged breath, as she looks the other way.  

“And then you invented that fucking trip…” Bucky fumes, shaking his head in disbelief. He inhales deeply. He needs to calm down. He needs to understand. “What did you tell her? When you went to the Tower… What did you talk about, huh? Tell me, Anna.” He demanded.

“I asked her to give us time…’ She answers without hesitation, moving her pained stare to him again, “I told her how fucked up you got when she left and how I helped you get better, that… that if you knew about the baby you wouldn’t focus on yourself, on us… I… I said that she shouldn’t have come back.”

Exposed... Betrayed…Manipulated…. These are some of the words that cross his mind as a dull ache grasps his thundering heart and his whole body is stiff as a rock. He stares at Anna, but he doesn’t really see her…he trusted her… he thought he could trust her… and now he feels like someone has dragged the floor from under him. The floor that has been keeping him supported this whole time… He’s lost.

“Then the accident happened right after…” Anna spoke again and her voice is so small he barely registers the sound. “She could’ve hurt herself, her baby…” She blinks and her face contorts in sheer horror, “I’ve never hoped for something like that to happen, never… I promise.” She cries out, her eyes begging him to believe her. “But I know it’s my fault. It’s my goddamn fault. I couldn’t stop thinking about it all these days.  I kept thinking how…” She purses her lips, eyes shifting around as she looks for the right word, “Wrecked I left her there, she wasn’t in a condition to drive... I didn’t want this to happen, but it did, and because of me, because of my actions.” Anna chokes on her words, hitting on her own chest with her hand.

There are tears roaming down freely on her face now. Bucky can see the honest regret into her words and something in the back of his skull tells him he shouldn’t blame her and that, rationally, it’s not her fault, not entirely at least. But there’s something feral surging inside him. Something he’s never felt before… a primal emotion… a consuming and agonizing need to… to protect. To keep the object of this powerful feeling, safe, guarded, shielded, unharmed.

“Please, say something.” She implores, reaching out for him.

“Do you have any idea of what could’ve happened?” He shouts, the tormenting feelings inside him escape in an outburst as he jerks his arm away from her touch, making her recoil, “I don’t care about how you were feeling or what you felt it was better for me, they could’ve been hurt or… or worse… because of you…” He points an accusing finger at her.

She shivers under his hard glare, but doesn’t say anything, shutting her eyes closed.

“And you lied? You- you knew it…” He starts pacing from one side to the other on his living room, betrayal lacing his voice, “You knew it, Anna, and instead of telling me, you came up with that fucking trip-“ He halts, to stare at her, “You- you fucking manipulated the whole situation. You manipulated me.” He shouts even louder, “You didn’t have the right.” He bites his lower lip, shaking his head at her, “You didn’t…I trusted you.”

“Bucky, I-I didn’t mean, I thought…I-“. She fumbles with her words and moves towards him, but pauses when he steps back.

“I can’t do this, I can’t talk to you right now.” He turns around, dipping his fingers in his locks. He’s too angry, too defensive. That protective urge ruling his thoughts and actions. He’s afraid of what he might say… might do. He could tear the world apart right now…

He takes a deep breath as his arms drops and he turns to her again, noticing how she’s shrinking into herself, pleading eyes on him.

Her breaths are short and fast before she licks her lips to try to speak again, “Bucky-“

“I think you should leave now and we shouldn’t see each other… at least not for a while.” He pulls on a steadier, calmer voice, averting his eyes and folding his arms in front of his chest, biting on the inside of his cheeks.

The room is quiet when he hears the shuddering breath she takes, but he doesn't look back at her. He simply can’t.

“I get it.” She mutters, “You ́re angry and don’t blame you. I just want you to know I never meant to hurt you… That’s the last thing I’ve ever wanted.” She reaches for his elbow, and this time he doesn’t pull away.  His eyes meet her sad ones, taking in the sorrow resting on her face.

He feels his chest tightening, making it hard to breathe. It's not just anger… He’s sorry, too. Sorry for the emotions he feels slipping through his fingers, the feelings he had when he looked at Anna… The admiration, the safety, the love- yes love. It's not like the love he feels for you, not at all, but it was a love after all. Something else pricks at the pit of his stomach… an emergent sense of guilt… his old pal. Somehow, this, all this mess, it’s his fault. He’s damn sure of that.

Swallowing down the turmoil, his jaw tenses. He finds nothing to say to her.

Anna nods slowly, aiming her gaze to the floor as she withdraws her hand from him and swiftly moves towards the door.

With his back turned to her, Bucky hears it when she opens the lock.

“You know…” Her small, but now steadier voice resounds from behind him, “I once said there was no deal breaker for me when it came to you and me…” He can sense the sad smile through her words, “I...I just couldn’t guess that, in the end, I would be the one to break us.”

When she leaves, Bucky lets out a deep breath. Without thinking twice, his feet take him to his room. Sitting down on his bed, he reaches for the little jumpsuit beneath his pillow.  A calming rush sweeps into his tormented chest and, through it all, a stubborn little smile makes its way to his lips.

He finally realizes…

He already is a father…No one can take that away from him. Not even himself.

All he hopes is to not fuck this up even more. 

[iturbide]

Can I have some Headcanons on Claude's parents? Like how did his father ask his mom to marry him (or how did his mom ask?)

OHOHOHO MY TIME HAS COME

So I actually have an extremely elaborate history planned out for Claude’s parents, which I have been hiding in the wings for months because this is the kind of thing I think about in my downtime.  So just be warned that this is long and, like most of my headcanons for the game, takes nothing from Cindered Shadows into account (though I will grudgingly use the names that it lays out).

[[MORE]]

Tiana von Riegan was never a proper noblewoman.  She was certainly beautiful and stately, tall and elegant and poised, with quick wits and ample intelligence...but it was all offset by a razor-sharp tongue and a ferocity few hardened warriors could match.  She and Judith von Daphnel were a well-matched pair, and spent the better part of their time together causing trouble of some sort until they ended up called to the Locket to help repel Almyran invaders.

Back before the Gonerils had troops enough to defend the Locket full-time (and had Holst as their star general), Alliance members would send small detachments of soldiers or hired mercenaries to help out with the fort’s defenses.  Tiana and Judith made a point of always going together, so when one got the call the other invariably came with her.  And oh, they were forces to be reckoned with, both of them: Judith may have earned the moniker ‘The Hero of Daphnel,’ but Tiana was no slouch herself -- and as an aspiring Great Knight, she had no trouble fighting back the Almyrans heckling their border.

It was in one of those skirmishes that she met the man who would eventually become her husband, though she had no idea about that at the time.  He was just another Almyran, at first sight -- but unlike the others that she’d faced down, in that battle and all those before, he didn’t retreat when she bested him...because for the first time, she met a fighter she couldn’t best.  They were evenly matched on the field, meeting one another’s blows with blocks and parries and ripostes, but neither one ever managed to gain the upper hand.  And when both sides retreated, she wondered if she’d face him again, because that was a fight she wouldn’t be forgetting any time soon.

As luck would have it, they kept running into each other on the field in the months to come.  Some days she almost thought she had him -- and some days, she almost feared he had her.  But they never managed to claim victory, and they both always walked away alive, if somewhat worse for the wear.  She started looking forward to seeing him, and moving to engage him when she happened to glimpse him out there -- and, maybe it was her imagination, but she thought she saw him searching for her, too, and grinning when he caught sight of her in the crush of skirmishing forces.

And then, one evening while she was on watch atop the fort, she saw a lone man slip out of the trees near the Locket.  Understandably, she took up her arms, ready to sound an alarm...but before she could, the man pulled out a white flag and raised it over his head in a gesture of truce.  It got her attention, to be sure...so she slipped down to investigate.  And who should it be but her Almyran rival, holding a wineskin and tucking his white silk sash back into his belt as he bowed and invited her to celebrate their hard-fought battle.  It...seemed kind of weird to her, but he took the first swig without hesitation, so she hesitantly joined him.

He introduced himself simply as Kemal, and she returned the gesture with just her first name.  They just...talked.  For quite a while, sharing that wineskin until it ran dry, and then a while after that before parting ways.  And then, after the next engagement, she ended up watching the trees just in case he came back for another ‘post-battle celebration.’

He did.

Over the course of the next year or so, they met dozens of times in the late evening.  They shared bits of their history and heritage and language (Kemal’s very stilted Fodlan started getting more natural the more they met, and she started picking up some Almyran curses and signs in turn).  Tiana found out that these assumed ‘raids’ were, at worst, skirmishes and training exercises for Almyran fighters, or sometimes hunting parties mistaken for fighters, since the pass itself had once been Almyran territory and a fertile hunting ground that helped supply nearby settlements.  And sometimes they even talked about their friends and families: Tiana groused about her overbearing father and older brother and told all kinds of stories of her exploits with Judith, while Kemal laughed about his own younger brother and how both he and Nader had to keep the boy from rushing headling into battle to prove himself a warrior. 

It was good for what felt like a long time.

But then it ended.

The Twisted had been working on experiments to control Demonic Beasts for a long time, and began their test runs around this period; in years ahead, these experiments would give rise to the plot that killed Tiana’s brother and that Count Gloucester used to prey upon Riegan merchants...but in these early tests, the control methods were still hypothetical at best.  But they approached the commanders stationed at the Locket, offering them a Demonic Beast to lay waste to the Almyran raiders that continued to threaten their borders.  It sounded rather too good to be true, but they desperately wanted to put an end to the fighting once and for all -- so they accepted. 

They never saw it coming.  The Demonic Beast entered the field as intended -- but it very swiftly went berserk, attacking both the Almyrans and Alliance fighters in a rampage before escaping into the forests.  Tiana ended up concussed and generally worse from the wear, though she could still stand and walk (and counted her blessings for that fact)...but not everyone was so lucky: as she searched the field, she found Kemal huddled on the ground, his dominant arm a bloody, unsalvageable mess, doing his best to rouse a young man -- his brother -- who even she could tell would never wake again (but then, Kemal was suffering a combination of concussion, shock, and denial).

Tiana’s not a healer.  She never had been.  But she did her best to at least slow the bleeding, and stayed with him until Almyran reinforcements showed up -- and who should appear first but Nadar, who freaked out as soon as he realized what was going on because A) Kemal, who was in fact an Almyran prince, looked to be at death's door; B) his brother had already walked through it, and C) there was a Fodlan warrior there who, for all he knew, was about to send Kemal through next.  But Tiana backed off when he came rushing up and made no move to either stop him from taking Kemal or cause any harm to anyone, even warning Judith off when she came hurrying up to help her friend in what appeared to be a brewing fight...though, in his delirium and panic, Kemal begged Tiana not to leave him even as Nader tried to haul him away.

Kemal and Tiana both had been very secretive about their meetings.  Judith had certainly teased Tiana about her ‘admirer,’ and both Nader and his brother had mercilessly ribbed Kemal about his ‘secret love’ that he’s gone out to woo so frequently -- but no one expected that their admirers were across that border.  Until that moment, no one knew.  But the cat couldn’t go back into the bag after that.

Understandably, both of them ended up getting the third degree from their friends once they’re better on the mend.  Judith was surprisingly supportive of Tiana once she got the full explanation of everything she’d found out over the past year, but Kemal was dealing with a lot on every front: on top the physical loss of his arm, something that many imagined would preclude him from ever taking the throne (since no one imagined he would be able to fulfill the Rite of Challenge with such a severe handicap), he also lost his younger brother, not to a warrior’s death but to a horrific accident.  But eventually, when he was better on the mend (physically, at least, if not emotionally), Kemal made his way back to the Locket for what he imagined would be his final time, intending to say goodbye to Tiana, since he didn’t imagine he would be able to meet her again, given the circumstances...and in response, she more or less said “fuck that -- pull yourself together! ...and if you can’t do it alone, then I’ll help.”

It was, more or less, a proposal.  Kemal couldn’t mistake it for anything else.

They agreed to meet in a month at the usual time, in that familiar place outside the Locket.  They parted ways, with Kemal returning to Almyra to keep working at his recovery, while Tiana immediately sent word to her father of her intention to marry Kemal -- something her father expressly forbade in his return missive before starting to seek out potential bachelors among the Alliance nobility that might be able to rein Tiana in.  Not that she was going to let that stop her: she told Judith her intentions, got her best friend’s blessing, and on the appointed evening she headed out to meet Kemal, fully intent on going with him to Almyra.

(Kemal jokingly asked her when she arrived if he should carry her off over his shoulder to make it seem like a plausible kidnapping, to which she replied that she’d like to see him try -- and as a former archery star and capable lancer, he did not disappoint and quite cheerfully carried her off.)

Tiana was completely true to her word and stuck with him through his recovery, emotional and physical both; by the time he could start writing legibly again, both were dead set on the marriage.  Unfortunately, Kemal’s father was less than thrilled, given Almyrans’ general feelings about the people of Fodlan -- but, as he reminded his son, the Rite of Challenge still applied: if he could best his father in combat, he could have whatever he asked.  So Kemal leveled the challenge, selecting a light-weight sword for his weapon of choice.  No one actually expected much, least of all the King of Almyra -- but unbeknownst to them, Kemal had been putting a lot of effort into blade training once he was well enough on the mend: in very short order, he managed to disarm his father and force him to concede defeat.

What did he ask for?

His father’s blessing to marry Tiana.

The King, understandably, was quite shocked, because he’d expected that Kemal would demand the throne (as is traditional when the Rite of Challenge is laid before the king -- not to mention the fact that he wouldn’t require a blessing if he were ruler).  When he said so, though, Kemal only shook his head, remarking that he didn’t want to win the throne so easily: this was his father’s one and only warning not to underestimate him when he does come for the crown.

Kemal and Tiana married shortly after, and in the coming year Kemal did in fact level a true King’s Challenge at his father -- but though it was indeed a harder fight, Kemal still emerged victorious and took the throne of Almyra with his beloved queen -- and his father lived a very long life, with many of his later years spent doting on his adorable if incredibly mischievous grandson.

And there I have now written a small novel regarding Claude’s parents thank you for getting this far you deserve a prize.

[avengerscompound]

She Sets the City on Fire - One Summer’s Night

She Sets the City on Fire: A Bruce Banner Fanfic

MASTERLIST PREVIOUS //

Buy me a ☕ Square: @brucebannerbingo​ - U4 Pining

Rating:  E

Warning:  Age Gap, Self Doubt, Recreational drug use, Smut (M|F  vaginal fingering vaginal sex, squirting, sex while under the influence of drugs)

Word Count:  5234

Pairing:  Bruce Banner x OFC (Summer)

Summary:  Bruce is drawn to Summer.  She’s everything he wished he could be.  Carefree, exciting, and she knows exactly who she is.  There are so many reasons a relationship with her wouldn’t work.  So why can’t he stop thinking about her?

A/N: On the first chapter

2. One Summer’s Night

Bruce didn’t call Summer.

She was too young.  This was a one-time thing.  A guy like him couldn’t be with a woman like her.  He wasn’t sure there was a person on the planet that could tie Summer Martin, but he was fairly certain that if there was it wouldn’t be an over-the-hill scientist with a rather serious rage issue.

Although…

Maybe there could be something.  Starting with sex wasn’t a good sign though.  Especially for him.  He’d never done anything like that before.

Besides he didn’t have her number anyway.  So it wasn’t as if he could call her.

He did have Aidan’s email address though.  He could email him and ask for it.

But it wasn’t like Bruce was a hard man to track down these days.  People knew where he lived.  His email address was on five different official websites.  If she wanted to see him, she could have contacted him.  She probably didn’t want to start anything with him.  And who could blame her?

If only he could stop thinking about her.

“You’re thinking about her again.”  Tony teased as Bruce had been staring off into space again.

Bruce shook his head and looked over at his friend.  “Sorry.  Sorry.”

“She really got you good.  I haven’t seen you this smitten.  Ever.”  Tony said.  “Why don’t you call her?”

Bruce shook his head again and tapped the screwdriver he was holding on his hand.  “I can’t. Tony.  I’m old enough to be her father.  That’s not an exaggeration either.  If I had a child her age, no one would even think I’d had them young.”

Tony snorted.   “Wow.   Of all the men in the world to start fishing for jailbait, I never expected you to be one…”

“See … which is exactly why I need to leave her alone.  Even if… even if she was interested in me like that, I can’t do that to her.  I can’t condemn a person to a life with me.  Especially when theirs is still laid out in front of them.”

Tony came over and put his hand on Bruce’s shoulder.  “I have never seen you like this.  I mean…. When was the last time you even got laid?”

“Before the accident,”  Bruce said.

“Maybe she’s just what you need.  Someone casual who won’t be tied down and doesn’t get caught up in the details.  Call her.  Let her decide what she wants to do with her life.”  Tony said.

Bruce frowned and thought about it for a little while.  He decided he’d send an email to Aidan.  If Aidan ignored it, then that was fate telling him it was a bad idea.  He didn’t say what he wanted to ask about, just that he wanted to talk.

It was ten minutes later when his phone rang.

“Hello, Doctor Banner, why do I get the feeling that you’re not calling me about my research?”  Aidan said.

“I’m sorry,” Bruce said.  “Not that I’m not interested in it…”

Aidan laughed.  “It’s fine.  I’ve seen how Summer draws people in.”

“Do you think she might … would she be interested in…”  Bruce said, not sure how to even ask the question.

“Yeah, I do.  And you should call her.  I saw her reading one of your books the other day.  I don’t think that’s because she has a sudden interest in Nuclear Physics.”  Aidan explained.

“Don’t you think… aren’t I maybe… a little unsuited for her?”  Bruce asked.

There was an exhale of breath on the other end of the line before Aidan spoke again.  “It’s not for me to say who either of you sees,” he said.  “Summer is low commitment and low maintenance.   And she is a lot younger than you.  Whether that makes it a bad match isn’t for me to decide.  But can I tell you a story?”

“Yes,” Bruce said, as his stomach began to turn itself in knots.

“I didn’t grow up with Summer.  Part of that is the fact I’m eleven years older than her.  And part of it is because I was raised by my mom and my dad barely had anything to do with me.”

“Yes,”  Bruce said.  “Summer told me.  I’m sorry that happened.  I know what it’s like to have a negligent father.”

“Shit happens,” Aidan replied.  “When I finished school, my dad paid for me to go to college and gave me a job.  I didn’t even have to try to do anything.  It was all being handed to me but with the condition that I didn’t embarrass him.  So I went a little wild.  I started partying.  I got into some pretty heavy drug use.”

The story was a familiar one.  Tony had done a similar thing thanks to neglect from his father.  He’d also pulled himself around so Bruce knew not to hold that kind of thing against anyone.

“When I found out Summer had moved into the city for college I tracked her down,” Aidan continued.  “She was so excited to spend time with me.  I was a complete mess, but she followed me around.  She came over on weekends and she’d make me breakfast.  She’d follow me out clubbing.  One night she came to a really skeevy party with me.  Fuck, I regret taking her to that.  Except I don’t, because I ODed.  She found me unconscious with a needle in my arm.  Called an ambulance.  Called our dad.  Demanded that he send me to rehab.  Convinced him to buy that building under the pretense of us living together so she could keep an eye on me.”

“She told me your dad forced her to live with you,” Bruce said.

“She says that so it looks like our dad loves me.  I’m sure he does, but not like he loves her.  I don’t blame him though.  She’s the best of us.  I’d be dead now if it wasn’t for her.  She turned my life around.  I have my Ph.D. and my job because of her.  I’m clean because of her.  She’s worth having in your life even if all you get from her is a weird friend.  So call her.  You have my blessing.”

Bruce took down her number and then stared at it willing himself to call.  If Aidan was right, maybe that’s what she could be.  A friend.  Someone to help get him out of his head.  She did seem to have that effect on him.

He dialed the number and held the phone to his ear.  It rang three times before Summer picked up.

“Who hasn’t heard of texting?”  She said in way of introduction.

Bruce’s heart began to race and he felt the Hulk raise his head.  “Hello.  Yes.  Sorry.  It’s Bruce.”  He stammered.

“Who?”  She asked.

He swallowed thickly and tried to calm himself.  This had obviously been a mistake.  She thought of him so little that she didn’t even recognize who it was calling.  “Bruce Banner.”

There was laughter on the other end of the line.  “I just got you to say your full name.  It’s nice to hear from you, Bruce Banner.”

Bruce felt a large part of him relax and Hulk seemed to settle back into a doze.  “It’s nice to hear you too.”

“Aww, that’s always nice.”  She said.  “What are you doing tonight?”

“Something with you?” He said and cursed himself as soon as the words left his mouth.

Summer burst out laughing and a deep flush crept into Bruce’s cheeks.  “That was so smooth.  I bet you’re drowning in pussy,” she teased playfully.  “Anyway, Romeo.  There’s a rave on in Hell’s Kitchen tonight.  I’m going with some friends.  Wanna come?”

Bruce agreed before he even registered what he was agreeing to.  When he hung up the phone, he immediately started to freak out.  A rave?   He’d just agreed to go to a rave.  The guy with the huge green rage monster hiding inside him agreed to be pressed up in the dark with a bunch of sweaty strangers listening to music that grated on his nerves.  Not to mention that a rave was the worst place for a first date ever.  How could he even talk to her at a place like that?

As the hour approached, he got ready to go out.  He put on a dark purple button-up shirt but left it unbuttoned at the collar and put on a suit jacket.  He knew he wasn’t going to fit in but he didn’t think there was any way that he was going to be able to regardless of what he wore.

He had a car take him to the club and when he got out he scanned the crowd for Summer.  There were a few groups milling around the front and a line forming at the door, but he couldn’t see any sign of her.  He thought he’d go get in line with the people who were not only 20 years younger than him, but dressed completely differently, just to save a spot when there was a tap on his shoulder.

He turned around to see Summer, only she was barely recognizable to him.  She was wearing knee-high faux fur boots in hot pink and black and a matching latex outfit that consisted of what looked like just a bra and panties.  There were pink fur cuffs on her wrists and she was wearing a wig made of pink and black tubes and ribbons in various shades and materials.   She had appeared to accessorize with pink glow sticks.  They hung around her neck and wrapped around her arms and waist.

“Hey, Bruce!” She chirped, leaning up and pressing her lips to his.

It was one of those kisses that could be whatever you want it to be.  Her lips only barely parted and it lingered just that little longer than normal.  Bruce was so startled by seeing her in a complete cyber costume that he forgot to kiss back and she pulled away and grinned at him.

“Bruce, these are my friends; Cassie, Amanda, Liam, and Rachel.  Everyone, this is Bruce.”  Summer said indicating to her friends.  The group was all dressed in similar clothing, but various colors and levels of skin showing. Liam had color in his hair and he was wearing black flared pants and a black mesh singlet with yellow hazmat symbols on both.  Bruce felt extremely out of place, but he shook everyone’s hands and even returned Cassie’s kiss when she leaned in to kiss him.

“Cass, do you have any more glow sticks?”  Summer asked.

Cassie dug through her bag and pulled out a handful of glow sticks - the kind you’d get in tubes from the dollar store.  She and Summer then went to work cracking them and popping them together so that Bruce was wearing two circles of different lengths around his neck and one around his left wrist.

Summer took Bruce’s hand and led him to the door as the others followed behind them.  The bouncer looked Bruce over.  Bruce was sure he was about to get turned away.  Especially given how long the line now was.  Instead, the bouncer pulled the rope away and stepped out from in front of the door.

“Enjoy your night, miss Martin,” he said, holding the door open for all of them.

“How many times do I have to tell you; it’s Summer?”  She said as she passed him and headed inside.

“The bouncer knows you?”   Bruce asked, glancing back at him.  He had to yell over the sound of the club.  The loud and rhythmic thud of the bass traveled right through him and the scratch of what he could only think to call melody, though it was anything but that, drowned out almost everything else.  As they walked through the club, Summer and her friend lit up under the blacklights.  Their bare skin painted with some kind of UV paint. 

Summer stopped walking and pulled him down so her mouth was against his ear.  “I’m kind of a big deal around here.”  She said.

She led the group into another roped off area and up some stairs.  A guy who looked like he was Bruce’s age greeted her, pressing himself close to her body as he spoke with his lips hovering close to her ear.  She laughed and then continued on her path to a long, low table surrounded by beanbags and cushions.

It was a little quieter in this part of the club.  You didn’t need to yell to be heard and the music felt a little more like it was a background sound.  Bruce took a seat on one of the beanbags and Summer sat down directly in his lap.

“Who was that guy?”  Bruce asked.

“My uncle,” she said uncle with air quotes, which made Bruce think it was just a man who was friends with her parents and she’d been raised calling him that.  “He works with my dad.  Total creep.”

Bruce looked around the group.  He wasn’t sure what to do and they were all digging around in their bags.  He wasn’t sure where his hands were supposed to go either and all he could think was how much he wanted to put them on her thighs and how completely inappropriate that was.  “Did you want to dance?”  He asked.

“In a minute.”  She said, almost casually.

A waitress arrived with a tray full of bottled water and she placed it on the table and left without even waiting to see if they wanted anything else. Liam pulled a baggie of colorful pills from his pocket, took two out and swallowed them with water before tossing the baggie in the middle of the table.  The others each took one or two. When Summer went to take one too Cassie snatched the bag and shook her head.

“I’ve got yours right here, bitch,” she said, putting a little pink unicorn tablet on her tongue.  Summer leaned over to her and Bruce watched as they kissed.  They were all tongues, and Bruce shifted a little uneasily under Summer.

When Summer pulled back she looked down at Bruce.  “Do you want one?  No pressure.  I don’t care either way.”

“Do I get to take it like you did?”  Bruce asked aiming for playful, immediately cursing himself as soon as the words had left his mouth.

Summer started laughing.  She pushed her face into his chest, trying to smother it.  “Okay.  Okay.  Let me just go ask Cassie.  She does like kissing so I’m sure it won’t be a problem.”

Bruce shook his head, the flush he felt creeping into his cheeks and up the back of his neck.

Summer tilted his face up to hers.  “Let me get something out of the way, so I know for sure you aren’t agreeing to take drugs to fit in or impress me.”  She said.  Her hands went to his hair and she leaned in and kissed him.  Her tongue coaxed his lips apart and dipped briefly into his mouth and one of her hands slid down his arms, moving his hand to her thigh.  When she pulled away she looked him dead in the eyes.  He had trouble keeping eye contact with her, but he forced himself as he felt his breath hitch.  “I’m here with you, Bruce.  I plan to go home with you if that’s something you want to happen.  Unless you choose not to or something unforeseen happens, you’re getting laid tonight.  So knowing that, do you want to take some E?”

Bruce shook his head.  There was a part of him, this part that had never got a chance to shine.  The one smothered by bullies at school and then crushed by the accident that created the form of the Hulk, that wanted to be reckless.  That was relishing being with these carefree youth that had just accepted him as part of them, as much as he didn’t fit in.  He knew what ecstasy was supposed to do too.  That could make the Hulk quieten right down and he could be a version of himself he only knew the edges of.  But the risks with it were that he come out and Bruce couldn’t risk that here.

“Come on then, let’s go dance,” Summer said, getting to her feet and pulling Bruce along with her.

She led him down to the dance floor.  It was crowded and the strobe lighting played off her skin.  The UV paint she’d used on her skin glowed in the lights and made her look like fae.

They started dancing.  Nothing over the top.  It was just face-to-face with her arms around his neck and his hands on her hips.  She moved against him, bouncing and rolling her hips in time with the deep thud of the bass.  She seemed to have unlimited energy and moved with such abandon.  It was like the music just flowed through her.

He seemed to get high just on her.  He was mesmerized by her.  Drunk on her own enjoyment.  The way the light played of her skin.  The way she moved.  She was the music come to life.  She turned in his arms and began to grind her ass up against him and brought his hand to her public bone.

He nuzzled into her neck and she leaned back and kissed him.  It was wet and hot and his hands slid up to her stomach.  Her friend Cassie came and joined them, grinding into Summer.  Summer broke the kiss with Bruce and leaned in and started kissing Cassie.  When they broke apart, Cassie leaned over Summer’s shoulder and captured Bruce’s lips.

“I need a drink,” Summer said, squeezing out from between the two of them.  Bruce pulled away from Cassie and followed after Summer.  Cassie appeared completely unphased, simply turning to the closest person and continuing to dance.

The table they had staked out earlier was still free.  In fact, their bags were just sitting underneath, undisturbed.  Summer collapsed down in a bean bag and grabbed a bottle of water as Bruce sat carefully next to her.  He took his own bottle and drank it quickly.

“Are you having fun, Brucie?”  Summer asked shifting so her legs were draped over his lap.

“I think so.  Yes.”  He said, running his fingers through the fur on her boots.

“Those feel nice don’t they?”  She said leaning forward and running her hands over his cheeks.  “This is all scratchy.  I wonder what it feels like on my thighs.”

Bruce looked from her blue eyes that were blown out thanks to the ecstasy coursing through her system and down to the bare skin on her thigh.  He then did something he couldn’t have ever even imagined doing before.  He lifted her leg and leaned down, rubbing his cheek on the inside of her leg.

Summer snorted and broke down into giggles.  “That tickles.”  She leaned in and rubbed her nose against his and teased her lips over his cheek.  “Do you want to dance some more?”

“I will if you want to,” Bruce said.

She trailed her fingers through his hair, making his scalp prickle.  “Do you want to go home and fuck?”

He swallowed and nodded.  “Yes.  Please.”

She grabbed her bag and got up, grabbing Bruce’s hands and helping him to his feet.  They went and found Cassie and Amanda on the dance floor and let them know she was leaving.

“Can I come too?”  Cassie asked, trailing her fingers up and down Summer’s arm.

Summer shook her head.  “Maybe next time.  I love you, Cass.”

Cassie leaned in and kissed Summer gently.  “I love you too, Summer.”

In the back of the cab, Summer linked her fingers with Bruce’s and nibbled at the skin under his ear.

“Is Cassie your girlfriend?”  Bruce asked.  He was afraid of the answer.  Summer was exotic and hard to read.  He wanted her, but he wasn’t sure how much of her he could handle.

“No,” she said simply.  “We have sex a lot.  I think if we were different people we might be girlfriends.  Mostly she’s just my friend.  She has sex with Aidan too.”

“Would you like to date?”  He asked.  “Me that is.”

Summer hummed, running her fingers up and down his thigh.  “I don’t know.  I haven’t been anyone’s girlfriend for so long.  I don’t know if I’d make a very good one.  Last time I did it, I felt like I lost a little bit of what makes me, me.  There’s a song I heard once…”  Summer licked her lips and started singing.  “A triangle trying to squeeze in a circle.  He tried to cut me so I fit.”

“I don’t want to change you, Summer,” Bruce said.

“You know what I’d like to find?”  She said.  “I’d like to find a person who met me and loved me just exactly how I am, even though I don’t want to be tied down.  They’d love me so much that they would be happy to let me float about and do the things I like to do and they’d trust that I loved them too and I’d always find my way back to them.  But because I loved them and they trusted me, I didn’t feel like I wanted to do those things anymore.”

“You want someone who doesn’t change you, but inspires you to change yourself?”  Bruce asked.  “But then what if the person you changed into wasn’t the one they loved anymore?”

Summer shook her head and for a moment she looked really sad.  “That’s a huge problem, isn’t it?”

“I really like you, Summer.  I can’t stop thinking about you,” Bruce said.

“I’m here now.  Let’s just see what happens in the future when we reach it.”

The cab pulled up out the front of the Avengers Tower and Bruce paid and let Summer in. She looked around in the empty lobby at all the official signage and in the elevator, she wrapped her arms around him and nuzzled into his neck.  As soon as he let her into his apartment she began to work the falls in her hair out which he realized now were more like hair accessories than a wig.

“Do you want anything to drink?”  Bruce asked.

Summer looked up at him with a handful of ribbons.  “If you have something like Gatorade I will love you forever.  Otherwise, water is just fine.”

“I don’t but if you give me a minute I can get some,” Bruce said.  “What color do you want?”

“Ooh, blue, please!”  Summer chirped.

Bruce headed up to the labs and helped himself to a blue Gatorade from the drinks fridge.  When he got back to his apartment, Summer was sitting on his bed.  The falls were all gone from her hair and she’d taken off her boots.  She took the drink from him and she drank half the bottle in one go.  She poked out her tongue at him as she screwed the lid back on.

He chuckled.  “Yes, it’s blue.”

“Like one of those lizards,” She said putting her drink on the bedside table.  She took Bruce’s and pulled him closer to the bed. “Would you like to see if you can get me to do my little trick?”

“What’s your little trick?”  Bruce asked.

“Go get some towels.”  She said.  “This can get a little messy.”

Bruce looked at her confused but did as he was told.  He collected some towels from his linen cupboard and brought them back to his bedroom.  When he returned Summer was standing by the bed completely naked.  He couldn’t quite get over how perfect she was.  Even the little imperfections she had.  The stretch marks on her hips, the scar on the top of her left thigh, the small amount of cellulite she had, all those little things that everyone has just made her more perfect to him because it meant she was a real person despite how she might otherwise come across.

She motioned to him to come close and he approached her slowly, starting to get a little nervous again.  She wrapped her arms around him and rubbed her cheek against his before kissing him on the corner of the mouth.

“I still have my clothes on and you’re completely naked,” Bruce said.

Summer laughed.  “Something does seem remiss.  Let me help.”

She began to slowly and carefully undress him.  Hanging his jacket over the back of a chair.  Unbuttoning his shirt slowly and kissing a trail down his chest as she did.  She helped him off with his shoes and then his pants and when he was finally naked he was so hard, his cock felt like it was throbbing.

She took his hand and guided him back on the bed.  He ran his cheek up the inside of her thighs and she moaned and spread her legs wider for him.  “Oh god, Bruce,” she moaned, clutching at the sheets.  “Your skin feels so good on mine.”

Bruce ran his nose along Summer’s pubic mound, dipping his tongue between the folds of her labia.  He hummed as he relished the taste of her, her fluids coating his tongue.

“What did you want to show me, Summer?”  Bruce asked, looking up at her from between his legs.

Summer sat up and spread the towels, before sitting down on top of them.  “Have you ever made a girl squirt?”  She asked.

Bruce raised his eyebrows.  “I uh… maybe?”

“That’s a no.”  Summer teased, pushing him with her foot.  “Come on I’ll teach you.”

She took his hand and using her fingers she guided two of his up and down her folds.  She let his hand go and lay back, letting Bruce take his time.  He rolled them over her clit and circled her entrance a few times before pushing two of them inside of her.

“Okay,” she sighed.  “Push them right in as far as you can, and then you need to curl them towards you.”

Bruce followed her instructions, pushing his fingers into her right up to his knuckles.  He curled them inside her pressing his fingertips up against her inner walls.

A shudder passed through her and he felt her clench around his digits.  “So now, move them around a little, you’re looking for a bit that feels smooth and spongy compared to everything else.”  She said, with a slight breathlessness.

He moved his fingers inside of her until he found a spot that did feel different. Softer and with more give.  He pushed his fingertips against it.  “Here?” 

Summer moaned and raised her hips up, pushing into his hand.  “Fuck.  Yes.  That’s the spot.  Now you need to press really hard and do this.”  She made a gesture like she was beckoning him to her.

Bruce started stroking his fingers up and down along that special spot.  Summer moaned loudly and squirmed on the bed.  “Fuck.  Just a little harder, Bruce.”

He pressed down harder and the noise she made didn’t even sound human.  It was such a deep animalistic cry of such complete pleasure.  It made his erection throb painfully and his hand went to his cock without even thinking.

Bruce continued to move his fingers inside Summer.  He increased the pressure and pace as he elicited more and more incoherent noises from Summer.  He was completely entranced by her.  The way her body moved as it clenched and squirmed below him.  How her face contorted in a look of pure pleasure.  All of a sudden her whole body seized up, her cunt clenched around his fingers and as her body let go again, she came.  He’d never seen anything like it.  She gushed on him and cried out a long string of curse words he hadn’t heard outside of Tony hurting himself in the lab.

“Holy… Summer!”  Bruce gasped.  He desperately wanted to taste her again and dropped down between her legs and lapped at her soaked pussy, drinking everything he could.

Summer sat up and grabbed the Gatorade from the nightstand, drinking what was left and tangling her free hand in Bruce’s hair as she watched him eat her out.

“Brucie,” she half moaned, as Bruce’s teeth grazed over her clit.  “How about we take care of you?”

Bruce gazed up at her.  “Can we just make love?”  He asked.

She giggled and pushed his hair back from his face.  “Of course.”

“Oh,” Bruce said jumping up and going to his side table.  “I saw these and thought of you.”

He pulled out a box from the drawer and handed it to her.  She looked at it and her face lit up.  “You bought glow-in-the-dark?”  She said as she excitedly opened the box and pulled one out.  She stood up on the bed and held it up to the light.

“What are you doing?”  Bruce asked.

“You have to charge them up,” she laughed.  Bruce laughed softly with her and moved the towels off the bed.

“How long will that take?”  He said sitting beside her and kissing along her soft stomach.

She giggled and flopped back onto the bed, pressing the packet into his hand. “Go on then.”  He got up and sheathed himself and she started giggling.  “You need to turn off the light.”

He chuckled and switched the light off.  With the blinds drawn it was almost pitch black.  There were now only two sources of light.  The glow of his alarm clock and the brighter green glow of his dick.  Summer squealed with delight and clapped her hands.

Bruce chuckled and moved back to the bed, his cock bouncing as he walked.  Summer laughed harder and got up and wrapped her arms around him.  They started to kiss and Summer turned them, pushing Bruce back onto the bed and climbing into his lap.  Ever so slowly she sunk down onto his cock humming as he filled her.

“What do you think it looks like inside of me now?”  She asked as she slowly rolled her hips against Bruce and held him close.

“A spooky green cave?”  Bruce offered.

She started giggling.  It was infectious and he was soon laughing with her.  “My mysterious glowing uterus.  It’s where you need to go for healing potions.”

Bruce pushed her hair from her shoulder and rubbed his cheek on her exposed skin.  “You’re so odd, Summer.”

“You love it.”

Bruce hummed in agreement and rolled her onto her back.  They began to move as one, thrusting and rolling their hips with each other.  They kissed and nipped at each other’s skin.  Moans were made and names were murmured as they brought each other to the brink of climax.  When the came, it was together.  Clutching at each other.

Bruce slopped out of her and got up to dispose of the condom.  When he came back Summer was sitting up on the bed stretching.  He sat down next to her and leaned back against the headboard.  She snuggled into him, draping her arm over his waist.

“You’ll stay?”  It was half question, half statement and full of hope.

“Of course,” she replied.  “Will you make me breakfast?  I like when people do that.  I like doing it too when people sleepover with me.”

“Anything you want,” Bruce answered.  The answer scared him a little.  He knew it was true, but he knew right at this moment, he belonged to her.

// NEXT

[peace-coast-island]

Diary of a Junebug

At the Drumbeats Festival! 

Guess which camp had the honor of hosting the Drumbeats Festival? Actually, it was kind of a last minute thing. Sunny’s camp was originally going to do it but scheduling conflicts happened and since my camp’s the nearest, they decided to move it here. First the Happy Floral Festival and now this? It’s been a lucky year!

So for the past week Isabelle, Katie, Daisy Jane, and I have been working hard to get things ready for the festivities. Since we’ve had experience with the Happy Floral Festival, preparation was a lot less daunting this time around. I’ll admit, it was tight, but we managed to get it done.

Because things were a bit hectic due to last minute changes, we had help from some of the performers who arrived early. To my surprise, there were some familiar faces at the festival. One of them happens to be Hawk, the last of the BFF Squad who finally made it to the camp! His sister Paloma is one of the performers along with her partner Phoebe in a duo called Lo-Pheebs, which is a play on lo-fi. What a cool name! I’ve only met Paloma a handful of times and she’s always fun to hang around with. Phoebe perfectly compliments her in personality as they’re chill and laid back while Paloma’s enthusiastic and playfully aggressive.

Another familiar face were the Thornton bros. Ever since the entourage officially disbanded I haven’t seen much of Josh and Lake, and even less of Demetri. Shortly after leaving the entourage, Josh became Lo-Pheeb’s manager, which was unexpected but turned out to be a good fit for him. Meanwhile Lake’s been focusing on his acting career as well as trying to become an influencer and Demetri’s studying at Seashore Path while working at Kitchen Cove on the weekends. In short, they’ve all been super busy to the point that they rarely saw each other anymore, which was surprising to me as all three are super close.

The Drumbeats Festival is a music festival where all kinds of artists come together to perform. It has an indie, folk rock, lo-fi vibe that makes you feel chill and pumped up at the same time. I wasn’t familiar with many of the artists so it was great listening to and discovering new music. Lo-Pheebs is definitely on top of my list of new artists to check out! 

Lo-Pheebs became a thing over a year ago, shortly after Paloma’s band Out of Sight disbanded. She met Phoebe while on tour a few years back and they became friends, later partners. Lake was the one who suggested Josh become their manager because he felt that his brother needed someone to boss around that wasn’t him or Demetri. Josh is the type of guy who can go a little overboard when it comes to being supportive, something his brothers know all too well. Paloma’s similar in that way too so that’s why they get along so well. At least Phoebe’s there to balance them out as they’re good at handling conflict and helping others see the bigger picture, something that Josh and Paloma admit they’re working on.

This year was supposed to be a busy one for Lo-Pheebs as they were finally breaking into the charts. The festival was actually their first performance in months as they decided to take some time off touring after finishing a major one earlier this year. Josh had to leave abruptly towards the end of their last tour when Lake was badly hurt while on vacation. Also, in between tour stops, Paloma was helping Hawk in Crescent Moon and Phoebe had their own family stuff to deal with. So with everything being so hectic, the duo decided to postpone their next tour and focus on studio work, resulting in their first EP, Bring Down the Beats.

Now that Lake’s almost fully recovered, Josh is slowly getting back into the swing of things. It’s good to see Lake again, especially since he almost died in a freak accident. So naturally his brothers are a bit overprotective of him, making sure that he doesn’t exert himself and such. He can’t run around and explore with his bros, but he’s perfectly content hanging around the camp and taking pics to post online. Honestly, I’m surprised that he doesn’t have more followers.

Hawk and Demetri are an unlikely duo I never saw coming. In a way, they’re kinda like Paloma and Phoebe - the enthusiastic and easily excited one and the chill and quiet one. They’re both into computers and tech stuff - Demetri’s a self taught hacker and Hawk likes to build stuff. Them building something together is either genius or dangerous - let’s be honest, if anyone were to accidentally build a killer robot, it’ll probably be them. Still, I’m interested in a collaboration between the two just to see what they can come up with.

In between setting up for the festival, we also took the time to hang out at the camp. Hawk was going to meet up with Paloma and Phoebe at the festival so when he heard that it was being moved to the camp, he decided to drop by early. So Paloma, Phoebe, Josh, Lake, and Demetri tagged along as they too wanted to help out and spend a couple days at the camp. When we weren’t doing festival prep, we went fishing, bug catching, swimming, cloud gazing, seashell hunting, and foraging - all the fun outdoorsy stuff that one does while camping. It was also a good way to wind back from the stress of setting up a festival, which we definitely needed.

The Drumbeats Festival was a blast! Like I said, I’ve discovered a bunch of new artists to check out. I also learned a lot about drums, which was unexpected, but now that I think about it, the festival is called Drumbeats for a reason. Who knew that drums can be so interesting? Some of the stands are interactive - not only you learn about different kinds of drums, you also get to play with them! 

There’s nothing more perfect than a fun festival under a starry night. Hawk says he’s been into constellations lately, especially now that he has a newfound appreciation for them after spending a couple months out in space. It’s cute seeing him and Celeste gush over stars and galaxies! 

We got to see the Starstruck Nebula, something that only shows up once in a blue moon so that was super amazing! The books were right, words can’t accurately describe how it looks. The closest I can come up with is like a rainbow kaleidoscope made up of stardust and flames, which probably doesn’t make sense now that I think about it. Now I can cross off another thing from my bucket list!

While messing around with drum tracks, Josh and I got to talking about the future. By that, we mean Hawk, Paloma, Lake, and their significant others. Paloma’s with Phoebe, Hawk with Kat, and now Lake and Tom are a thing. According to Josh, it was kinda a will they, won’t they relationship - though it was a surprise that they ended up together. Lake did say his near death experience caused him reevaluate some things and they spent a lot of time together while he was recovering so it makes sense. 

As for Hawk and Kat, there’s been talk of an engagement in the near future. AJ, Elara, and Micah have mentioned it - Micah being fully convinced that a conversation he overheard between his sister and dad has to do with Kat seeking advice on proposing. Devi, Leyla, Tulippa, Misty, and DT have speculated on it as well. So far, nothing from Kat and Hawk themselves so it’s still all up in the air. Let’s just say that when one of them finally pops the question, we’ve got the champagne bottles ready.

Josh also talked a bit about Lake’s ordeal and how it shook him and his brothers up. For a while, before the accident, things were rocky between the two brothers. Most of the time it was minor, petty disagreements, usually involving one of Josh’s schemes gone wrong. They still don’t always see eye to eye, but things were really bad around the time between the entourage disbanding and the accident. And in the middle of all that was Demetri, who was trying to keep the peace as he hates it when his brothers fight, especially when they try to drag him into the conflict. 

When everything came to a crashing halt, Josh had to come to terms with some hard truths. The main ones being that he can’t fix everything and that sometimes it’s not okay. Being the oldest and having practically raised his brothers by himself, he’s super protective of them. So it’s understandable why Lake and Demetri sometimes feel smothered by him. He’s been working on giving his bros space and their bond has grown stronger since then.

I’ll admit, sometimes while catching up with Josh I wonder if this is the same guy I met at Rave’s party (it was a weird time and no, I will not elaborate), but not in a bad way. Of course, he’s still the same happy go lucky, playful, and easily excitable goofball we all know and love - now with a touch of emotional maturity. He and his brothers don’t always have it easy so it’s good to hear that things are getting better. Seeing the three of them together not only reminds me of their close bond - something I always admired about them - but also how much they’ve been through. 

I’m glad that Josh is finally able to find some peace for himself. Being out on the road with Lo-Pheebs really helped him find a purpose outside of his bros and in return, Lake and Demetri can live their own lives without worrying about leaving Josh behind.

After having a busy week, there’s nothing more rewarding than a night full of fun festivities!  On a side note, Lo-Pheebs is on the roster for Concert in the Stars, so the camp will be a stop on their tour, which is set to begin in a couple months. Lake and I are making plans for him and his brothers to spend a weekend at the camp during an event. Also, Hawk and I are also making plans for a BFF Squad camping adventure. So there’s a lot to look forward to in the future.

[thots4daze]

HAPPY CHRISTMAS Y’ALL ! ! !                                                   IT’S A ME, Z !

i’ve been hella busy writing a whole bunch of stuffs for rps that i have joined and what not. but this little gem right here i have been working on tirelessly for the last week or so because i was being a lazy asshole and couldn’t narrow down all the ideas i had in mind for this~!

SO! This is my Secret Santa gift to the lovely and wonderfully talented @haikyuu-philia​ HEY BABY ! ! ! ! SURPRISE IT’S ME ! I hope you enjoy this fic I have composed for you.

Have a Merry Merry Christmas and holiday season and an even better start to your New Year ! ! !

FLUFF AND MORE FLUFF BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE EVER ADORABLE SUGAWARA KOUSHI

ENJOY LOVE !

It’s been a few years of you living abroad, studying hard and working even harder to make sure your life goals stay on track. Everything in life you have had a goal or plan and for the most part stick to it. Making sure to account for everything. The one thing that you never could have planned or accounted for came in the form of a sweet, literal angel on earth. With ashen silver locks, kind, warm eyes. Sugawara Koushi. A classmate of yours, and the first person to talk with you when you first enrolled into the university. Calm, polite and so, so very handsome how could you not enjoy speaking with the young man. Soon, casual conversations in class turned to walking to classes together, talking in  hushed tones with little inside jokes spoken to one another. Catching glances from across the room at the sorority and frat parties, tipping solo cups in each other’s directions. Linking arms and sharing umbrellas. Everything seemed so wholesome and perfect. And utterly unplanned. You found yourself falling harder and harder for your guardian angel. Something that was not part of your 5 year plan. Not to mention, with you being a shy person by nature - it was just surprising is all. But he, he’s the kind soul that he is, it was so easy for you to lose yourself in his presence, his words comforting and warm. He was able to pull you from your shell no matter the situation and after some time it became something that you looked for. Time together was spent hanging out with his friends or just the two of you. Enjoying the other’s company, reading, going to the local cafes and trying out some sort of new food of fad - snapshots taken to preserve the wonderful and fun moments. Suga had wanted to talk with you as soon as he saw your timid form stroll into his first class of his freshman semester. How could he not? You were cute and you looked out of place in the Japanese university, but never in a bad way - he would internally freak out and try to back track as if he spoke the words out loud and offended you. He would never, in a million years, want to do anything that would offend you. He never would want to see that smile fade from your face. Once he saw that radiant smile come from you, and at something he said, he was a goner and made himself his own personal goal to always make you smile like that whenever he could.

                                             - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Christmas time was upon you, and you had planned out your holiday trip - starting with purchasing gifts for your family and friends. One friend in particular; a amber eyed angel. You had decided to purchase a new watch for the guy, seeing as you may have been the cause of why his last watch is no longer operational. By complete accident of course. So, this was the perfect gift in your eyes. You may have also planned to announce your feelings for him too. But it would have to wait until after Christmas. You had plans to travel back home to see your family and your plans would not be derailed.

Or so you had hoped.

Again, the plans of your life had a wrench thrown in to knock you back a few steps. You mother had called you, you thinking it was to finalize the travel plans for the winter vacation. Instead it was her to tell you that they had received a nice bonus from your dad’s job and they were going to kick it on the beach and enjoy the warm weather this Christmas time.

“I’m sorry baby, but your father just surprised me with the news!” Your mother was apologetic but you could hear the excitement in her voice. You were happy for the two of them, they needed time away from it all. So you wished them a Merry Christmas and that you’d make plans to visit them in the new year.

Sighing you hung up and laid there on your apartment couch, wondering what you were gonna do. Christmas was in a few days and you had canceled any and all other plans with friends expecting to be on a plane heading home to see the family.

As you were contemplating on what you were going to do you received a text message from Sugawara. A giant grin gracing your features. You couldn’t help but to smile anytime you were with him or hell, even thought of the man. He was just too perfect.

Hey, Y/N what’re you doing tmro?

Nothing. You? Immediately you typed a reply and before you could second guess yourself hit the send button. The three little dots flashing at the bottom of the screen got your heart racing. His reply only made it beat quicker as a small blush coated your cheeks.

Perfect. Be ready by 6~

Yep. Definitely perfect.

                                            - - - - - - - - - - - -

Christmas Eve was upon you in a flash. You had spent as much time as possible making sure your outfit was in perfect condition. You were not going to mess up this night! Shyness be damned!

However, as 6 o'clock drew near you were beginning to get nervous. Anxious more like. Was this a date? No. It was just you going out. On Christmas eve, with a friend. Who happens to be a guy. Who also happens to be the guy you have a huge crush on. As you continued on down your list you felt you skin grow hotter by the second. Blushing furiously you shook your head to try and rid yourself of those embarrassing thoughts. Though, you wouldn’t mind being closer to Koushi than you are now.

Content sighs escaped your painted lips as you finished touching up your outfit, double checking that his gift was still wrapped nicely and snug in your purse. A giddy feeling began to take over and soon there was a knock at the door. There on the other side was Sugawara looking like a downright snack. Dark skinny fitted jeans with his dress boots, a colorful sweater blending blues and purples and pinks together beautifully brought out the sparkles in his eyes as he looked you over. The color rushed to your cheeks once more as you caught his gaze as it raked up and down your form - more than once. A feeling of pride but also second guessing your choice in attire. All negative thoughts were blown away when he opened his mouth, a large smile on his face,

“You look amazing.”

The smile that you graced him with nearly knocked him back just by the sheer genuineness of it. He loved that smile of yours and loved even more knowing that it was directed at him, because of him. Sugawara could die a happy man just from that alone. Though, he would be missing you terribly.

Extending his elbow for you to take he called out to you drawing you from your less than appropriate thoughts, “Well? Shall we go, m'lady?” You nodded your head and took his arm, making sure to grab your purse and keys, locking up before the two of you took off on your adventure. As the two of you walked and conversed he informed you that you would be sharing a nice, warm dinner before going out for some hot chocolate or coffee, “Lady’s choice of course,” he added with a wink and from there it would be up in the air.

“Do you think we could go look at the lights? I haven’t gotten the chance yet this year,” you asked tightening your small grip on his arm, leaning into his frame more and more, trying to bite back the shiver that was taking over your body. He seemed to have noticed and brought you in closer, holding you tight and squeezing your hand just a tad bit.

A beautiful smile lit up the evening as he looked down at you, “Whatever you want to do, Y/N. It’s Christmas Eve.”

                                            - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Dinner was fantastic, you didn’t expect anything less, but you also didn’t expect it to be as fancy as it was either. Much more elegant that the other times you two have gone out. As friends. Strictly as friends… but tonight, it felt so much different. Felt so… right. The two of you had taken your time in heading to the little cafe that became your unofficial place. The place you would go to after classes together, or met up with each other during weekends, and study dates and it was the first place he turned to when he was trying to find you and you weren’t at your apartment. It was just your spot. And it was always going to be.

With warm cups in hand, you decided that now was the time to go view the lights in the park and in the market. Shop keepers went all out during the Christmas time, making sure to decorate and put lights up around the shops - inside and out. It lights up the night like only Christmas can and it was something you always made time for during the holiday season. Who was Suga to deny you your tradition?

So there you two were, warm cups in one hand while the others were preoccupied with one another. Holding hands, lightly squeezing the other to make sure they were still there. So as to not float away. The feeling of his hand in yours, it sent jolts of excitement and warmth and courage course through you. You didn’t want the feeling to fade. If only you knew that he was feeling the same; drawing from you all the emotions he wished he could tell you without being afraid or nervous or anxious. He would settle with just this for now if that’s what he could get.

The center of the market was fast approaching and with that it meant that more shops were going to have more decorations and lights meaning that it was going to be very bright and very magical. The perfect spot to give him his gift you thought to yourself, a fire burning in you to shake away all nervousness. And with this new found power within you, you began to tug and pull him along at a faster speed, him calling out with a chuckle to get your attention, “Whoa! Y/N!”

You stopped abruptly nearly causing Sugawara to run into you. Almost. Thankfully his reflexes from volleyball had helped him with his balance and he caught himself before causing any damage to your perfect frame. Once he was able to regain his posture you were spinning around to face him. Lights from every angle casting light across your features and he audibly sucked in a breath. He didn’t even notice that you had let go of his hands and were holding a small, neatly wrapped package in front of you. Sugawara Koushi was so captured by your beauty and the moment that his body acted on it’s own accord. Soon he found himself edging closer to your frame, tilting your chin up ever so slightly. His breath mixed with yours between your bodies in the cold air.

Hands came up, in what seemed like slow motion, to grip your upper arms lightly, but enough to know they were there. Suga’s face was inching closer and closer to your own. It all happened so fast, but so slow at the same time. You couldn’t react to him fast enough and soon you found his lips pressed against your own. Chapped and warm but also soft and you could taste the caramel from his coffee from earlier. It all came together in a very Koushi fashion and you couldn’t stop the smile that took root on your face, even as you two stood there in the middle of the pathway, lips locked together.

It was over as fast as it took place, with Sugawara pulling away first, a dark blush tinting his cheeks. If you hadn’t known any better you would have just thought that it was from the cold. “I-I’m sorry, Y/N, but I couldn’t help myself. You’re so cute and wonderful and kind and I’ve liked you for a long time now. And just now with the lights and tonight’s been a great night I just needed to take the plunge, ya know? And-,” he didn’t get to finish his rambling as you cut him off connecting your lips to his once more.

This time it was longer and deeper and much more fulfilling. Fresh, light snow falling gently down onto your intertwined bodies. Pulling away your breaths mixed between the two of you. “I really like you too,” but it was his turn to interrupt you, “What about your plans and goals. I know how much your future means to you and-”

“Koushi~,” you cooed, “Just shut up and kiss me.”

Blinking in surprise. Where did this take control Y/N come from? He didn’t mind it in the slightest. It was refreshing actually. So he didn’t even try to resist the laugh that sprung from him. With foreheads touching, his hands wrapped around your body he pulled you as close to him possible. “I think I can manage that.”

Christmas Eve. A time that is spent with friends and family. A time to celebrate and live and love. Your time spent with Sugawara Koushi was always welcomed. It was time well spent in the company of warmth and genuineness care and just… home. Every other time you spent together was nice. Good. Friendly. But this, this time, it was different. Everything about tonight was. But it wasn’t a bad different. And it definitely wasn’t according to plan. But fuck the plans. You two were happy, and that’s all that mattered.

[vitosscaletta]

🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓 Christian, Helena, Gina, Georgie, and Aaliyah!!!

THANK U!!!! sorry this is so late :(

CHRISTIAN

IDK if I ever said this but his whole mansion in Bel Air is modeled after the interior in Versailles - still modern but with STRONG Baroque vibes

His favorite european city - besides Versailles of course - is Venice 😳 he lived there for some time in the 18th century and loved it there... he misses it a lot

He has a ghoul.... his name is Claude, the only living descendant of his favorite sister :(( Christian tracked him down in the early 1900s in Paris and eventually offered him to embrace him, but Claude was like nah... I wanna see the sunlight dude. They’re still living together in Bel Air since they’re the only family they have left :0 

Hangs out in LA nightclubs a lot - not the goth ones we see in the game.. the sexy ones where rich people hang out, he mostly feeds from them there.. slurp slurp!

Can speak english, french, italian, german and a few words in latin.. op king. being that old gives you time to learn languages ig

Went into an overdramatic state of fake depression after Helena dumped him.. didn’t leave his mansion at all, just hung around in his room, not eating (... drinking blood..), moping and talking about killing himself bc Toreadors are fucked up. Claude is like.. get up dude -_-

HELENA

I also dont know if I ever said this but even though shes not the fledgling.. Heather is still her ghoul (she was in the santa monica clinic to get somehting done for la croy and yeah).. she regrets it because Heather is soooo annoying and does all of this shit for her like calling her her master and all that and it’s just so uncomfortable. Especially when she offers her her student loans. Helena is like “oh my god I can’t take this what the fuck?????????? this is yours. okay you know what.. if you insist.. i will take it 😏”

She doesn’t have the heart to kick her out though.. mostly because Helena misses having a roommate :c

The only people who were genuinely sad about her death are her mom and sister jhdsjhds.. the fake rich friends she had before her embrace didn’t really give a fuck about her until they realized they could get attention through it & started posting sob stories on myspace. Helena is mad about it.. those hoes treated her like a third wheel when she was alive 😤

she probably ends up “accidentally” telling her family she’s alive.. 

what annoys her the most about her death isn’t even the fact that she was killed.. it’s the fact that she didn’t die in a beautiful way, she was just some random nobody with no friends or fame who may have been killed by her boyfriend (except that the official story is that she never arrived at his house). Christian couldn’t have waited until she was an established actress so it could have been more poetic, nah he had to embrace her when nobody cared :((

She liked Christian’s Bel Air mansion but honestly?? her weird old apartment was still better - it wasn’t big and the furniture was a mess but it was still her home

GINA

Grew up with a single mother because her father died early in an accident... he was a construction worker or something :c her mom worked as a maid for a rich family until she got fired for stealing from them jdfkjsd

gets to rapture by assuming some rich girl’s identity. idk how she does that but.. somehow she does. Of course nobody knows about that, it’s her big secret 🤫 to the other rapture residents she’s just a rich heiress who acts a little different from New York’s high society because she lived abroad

she dislikes Rapture’s upper class for living so large when the poor have nothing just like she had nothing growing up.. doesn’t do much about it though..  Gina: *donates like a tiny amount of her wealth to an orphanage* wow helping people feels so good :)

Doesn’t have any real friends in rapture either except maybe Diane.. ironically because she thinks everyone else is fake 🙄

She didn’t like F*ntaine AT ALL because she thought he looked creepy but also because the Bronx accent scared her.. she’s really paranoid that he might have run into her while she was still living there and remembers her even though that’s soooo unlikely 😒 every time they’re in the same elevator together she turns away and pretends to look for something in her handbag

The civil war is just the worst for her bc she doesn’t want to align with the rebels they’re all freaks but there’s also no way in hell she’ll be on Andy Ryan’s side.. she’s just like *reluctantly joins rebels because she thinks its the winning team and because she thinks A**** is hot and doesn’t realize its the same guy she hid from at parties* *doesn’t do shit* 

GEORGIE

has a weird relationship with her mom... she died when she was very very young and Georgie really doesn’t remember much about her - almost everything she knows is from her father reminiscing about how beautiful and loving she was but that’s not.. true.. its just how he remembers her, in reality she was a very cold & narcissistic person. she’ll never know the truth though :/

does NOT care about any politician or noble whatsoever but had a soft spot for Jessamine mostly because she made a friendly impression on her (from what she’s seen on posters and all that stuff).. Georgie liked to imagine she wanted to make things better for people like her. (the heart when pointed at Georgie: this bitch digs through garbage cans. freak.)

has little pots with flowers all over her little clinic in the distillery district, it adds a little life to her weird looking little home and makes it look even more goth-ish because they’re all dried out :/

is one of those people who are pretentious about drinking tea

has a weird rivalry with dr Galvani that he doesn’t know about 😒 her clinic is near his home and she's mad jealous of him, this dude has money to fund his research and expensive tools and what does he do with it?? dissect fucking rats? (she heard about it from Granny Rags and yeah she believes everything she says).. she’s out there calling him an idiot, meanwhile Galvani doesn’t even know she even exists

used to be a pickpocket as a kid.. mostly when her dad didn’t make enough money, she still got into trouble for it most of the time though and stopped when she got older -_- its ok though because she got to steal family heirlooms at the Boyle mansion during their masquerades because one of the sisters called her ugly

AALIYAH

unlike the game wants you to believe she’s from Nevarra City rather than Ostwick 😳 the youngest of 5 siblings and the only mage in the family - since Nevarra is pretty chill about magic and has no circles, she grew up without the whole oppression thing that’s going on in the rest of thedas, thus all this templar shit is nonsense to her. We’re fine back home, thank you! Your mages are just fucked up because you put them in prisons!

She was supposed to become a Mortalitasi and have a pretty powerful position in the Nevarran court until idk something political that involved the chantry in one way or another happened and she got shipped off to ferelden’s circle (post blight duh). She managed to escape after a few weeks in its weakened state and joined the mage underground - she never really was a circle mage like in the game 🙄

She and a group of other mages she was friends with were supposed to go to the conclave together to.. vote for mage rights but you know what happened! Also you know this excerpt from a very angry person’s journal you can find in the fade? that was from her best friend who died in the explosion :c She still misses her a lot

The only people she’s close to within the inquisition are Sera, Varric and Dorian.. the rest are either more acquaintances or outright hate her (especially Vivienne.. i love her but BOY did they not get along).. She likes the advisors a little more, Josie is cool they’re not like bffs or anything but they like each other.. Leliana and her got along soooo well I think they were really good friends. Cullen was.. unfortunately her boyfriend but they also hated each other in the beginning. more on that later

The worst thing for her was the attack on Haven it fucked her up sooooo bad :c All those innocent people she wanted to protect dying, she tried her best to save them but it was still too late for some of them despite her best efforts.. it just really messes with her and she hates thinking about it.. she actually tried to run off on one occasion after that 😳

Feels sooo weird about the fact that she’s nevarran because on one hand that’s her home and she’s proud of it!!! on the other hand everyone acts like she’s the biggest freak bc they think she was in a death cult or something and she HATES it :((

[blooblooded]

High School Story Act 1

KASSIDY NGUYEN

Twelve years to the day had passed since Kassidy Nguyen’s mother had taken her own life, and things weren’t exactly getting any easier. The passage of time did not heal all wounds; how could it? It was like her other mother and her brother were like open wounds, just walking around tearing and re-tearing themselves open. Every year it was the same and every year she did the same thing: avoided thinking about it.

In the bathroom, she avoided making eye contact with herself in the mirror. This at least was not anything new. She never looked at herself in the mirror, or if she did she spared only the slightest of glances to make sure that she did not have anything stuck in between her teeth or that her masses of unmanageable kinky blonde hair was not sticking up everywhere. Not that it mattered, since no matter what she did she always looked like a clown. It didn’t bother her much any more, it just affected her in this small uncomfortable way whenever she was around mirrors.

Instead of fixating on this-- something that even on the worst of days, Kassidy was not prone to-- she washed her hands, wiped them haphazardly on her pants, and left.

At least it was still relatively early into the first semester of her 4th highschool year, so she wouldn’t be missing out on much homework if the night went poorly. Not that Kassidy cared much about school or grades either. She had a pretty clear idea of her trajectory and it looked something like following in her mother’s footsteps and joining Eden’s bevy of law enforcement. Didn’t need good grades to become a cop. Didn’t need much of anything. Kassidy didn’t have much of anything. 

She made her way into the kitchen of their small apartment and sat down at the table, pulling her legs up and crossing them. The table was round and made of synthetic wood, since the real stuff was too expensive for the majority of the people who inhabited the underground city. Various plates and used utensils covered the surface in a way that was more lived in than it was messy. Well, it was also messy. Kassidy shoved a couple of plates out of the way so that she could comfortably rest her elbows on the table. 

There was a hole in the wall next to the table. Kassidy looked at it. She looked away.

It was like this every year, but every year the severity of her family’s behavior worsened. Every year it felt like they lost their grip on each other a little bit more.

Her communicator buzzed from inside her pocket and she pulled it out to check for any messages. The device’s rectangular screen had a crack in it from all the times she had dropped it. Sometimes this annoyed her, but where was she supposed to dig up enough credits to pay for a new screen? It buzzed again as her brother kept messaging her.

>christopher.nguyen: tell ma i’m gonna be out late tonight

>christopher.nguyen: we’re making signs for the workers march tomorrow

Kassidy rolled her eyes. It was good that he had found something to do with his energy, good that he had found people to relate to and hang out with, but it was starting to get annoying.

>kassidy.nguyen: don’t leave me with her she thinks all 3 of us are gonna hang out here

>christopher.nguyen: you didn’t hear her screaming at me last night?

>christopher.nguyen: just because i made one comment about police brutality in eden????

>christopher.nguyen:  didn’t even say anything offensive

>kassidy.nguyen: i heard you punching the wall and screaming at her right back you idiot

Kip sent a hybrid laughing-crying emoji, which was what he usually sent when he couldn’t think of something reasonable or normal to say. Kassidy replied with a long string of skull emojis. She shifted her position in the chair so that she was more comfortable. 

>kassidy.nguyen: iits fine. You shouldn’t have to torture yourself thinking about mom.

>christopher.nguyen: neither should you though.

>kassidy.nguyen: i don’t even remember her

>kassidy.nguyen: i mean like not as much as you

Kip sent her about 50 laughing-crying emojis in a row, which was just...impossible to discern. She decided to ignore him since he was being his usual self and opened up the internet so that she could watch videos of people slipping while waiting for the metro and nearly having fatal accidents.

This was where she was supposed to start on her homework, but nothing could motivate her to do so. She didn’t have anything that needed to be done immediately, or at least, she didn’t have anything that she couldn’t procrastinate on. It wasn’t like Kassidy was on the AP track; the only classes she was taking were the ones she absolutely had to for graduation--- the basic 4th level courses. If she absolutely needed to, she could always just cheat off of her best friend Esther Bellamy, who was generally the type to complete her homework.

Half an hour passed and her mother let herself into the apartment, struggling slightly with the keycard as she did so. She walked through the living room and into the kitchen and looked disoriented as she did so due to the novelty of getting home before 10:30. Before saying anything to her daughter, Dana Nguyen put her briefcase down on the floor and slumped down into the 2nd of their 3 chairs.

Kassidy looked a lot like her mother. They both had the same small and slouching way about them. Of course, her mother wore glasses and had straight black hair that was already peppered with grays. And of course, Kassidy was more prone to smiling and laughing and the light in her eyes hadn’t yet been dulled. They were blood related, which was something that her brother could not say. At least he could reach things in high places for them.

“I thought that I wouldn’t be able to get home at all,” her mother complained. “It’s like shit gets piled on top of me on purpose. Practically had to sneak out of my own office because if Anderson or Middleton had remembered I was there they would have jumped down my throat with this Mena Olowe fiasco. Jesus, I could pass out.”

“Did you pick up food?” asked Kassidy.

“Did you?” snapped her mother, pulling at her tie and unbuttoning her top buttons.

Kassidy scrolled boredly through a scary story message board. She knew better than to roll her eyes. 

Dana Nguyen rubbed her temples like she was getting a headache. “Sorry. Long day Where’s Christopher?” Whenever she used Kip’s full name, it meant that her anger was still simmering underneath the surface. “If he’s still out he could bring back pizza.”

“Uhhhh.” Kassidy scrolled more intently through her communicator so that she appeared busy. “Huh?”

While pretending to be hyper-focused on the story of someone claiming that the Red Religion was driving people mad, she watched her mother unwind. She watched as she slid her little shoes from her feet and unclasped the lanyard from around her neck. Her mother took an elastic from her wrist and tied her hair back with it, the greys at the sides springing out to frame her face. She rubbed her face again then stood up, went to the refrigerator, and grabbed a beer can. Without bothering to pour it into a glass, she opened it and took a sip, her shoulders relaxing.

Kassidy looked at her mother. She looked at the hole in the wall. 

Sometimes it felt like her family was crazy and she was the only one who didn’t blow up or freak out. Except that wasn’t true at all. Kassidy still blew up, just not over stupid shit. 

The story she was reading was actually pretty interesting, not that she believed it. Religious people were messed up and deluded, but not deluded enough to start brainwashing people and draining all the blood out of their bodies. Eden had a long history of fervent state atheism which meant that anyone with a more complicated belief system didn’t completely mesh well. It was difficult to be understanding; none of them believed in Science. They were the sorts who liked to hold onto the intangible and somehow that gave them comfort, instead of being comforted by the material world around them. Kassidy always shivered when she walked too close to their Churches. But their whole thing was that they were caring and compassionate, surely not the sort who would engage in blood sacrifices.

Well. From time to time, Kassidy enjoyed a good shiver.

Time passed. Her mother opened another beer and the skin of her cheeks started to flush. It was good that lately she had switched from liquor to beer. A couple years ago when Kip was in the Youth  Detention Center, she had drunk so much that Kassidy was always worried about her. The scary thing was that back then, her mother wouldn’t even cry despite the crushing waves of unhappiness that radiated from her. She would just stare at nothing, drink, then stare at nothing some more. As unsettling as that was it was better than crying. Kassidy had never seen her mother cry.

“Where’s your brother?” asked Dana Nguyen. Already she was looking rumpled, like the part of herself that was well put together immediately fell apart when she was home. “He’s not-- do you know where he is?”

“Uhhh,” said Kassidy awkwardly. “Yeah. Kind of.”

“And that is?”

She clicked out of the forums and pulled up her messages. “EWP meeting. Again, I think. Uh. I think he wanted to stay busy tonight, you know? He wanted to be with his friends.” How terrible it was that she could say that Kip had friends and she didn’t. All she had was Esther. If joining a stupid club was the way that one made friends in Eden, Kassidy did not want friends. The loneliness that she had known all her life was at least familiar.

The thin metal beer can crinkled as her mother gripped it, then threw it into the recycling bin. Her face grew redder. “EWP,” she said, bitterly. “EWP. You know, he is exactly like his mother was. Harry never shut up about the Workers’ Party, she never stopped trying to get us to unionize, never could be quiet about how she thought the Central Committee was corrupt. And look where it got her. Look where it’s getting him.” 

“The EWP isn’t that bad.” It was true. They weren’t. The Eden Workers Party was a popular organization for working class leftists who were averse to the organized crime connections that all the other labour-parties had. While it was considered fringe-- after all, Eden was a one-party system on paper and had been for over two hundred years-- it was accepted as something that passionate yet overly idealistic people involved themselves with. Mostly they protested things like low wages and prohibitive housing costs and were either ignored or laughed at. 

But Kip was not a part of the Eden Workers Party anymore. He had found something even more niche, more anti-capitalist, more extreme. Kassidy didn’t entirely understand it, but the thing that she understood well was how much her mother would flip her shit if she ever found out.

“So he’s out, what, painting posters or something?” asked her mother.

“I guess,” said Kassidy, who did not actually know. She pulled up her contact information for Esther.  

“Unbelievable.” Standing up once again from the kitchen table, her mother got a 3rd beer from the fridge, then went to the beat up couch that was the centerpiece of their living room. When she sat, she didn’t curl her legs up like Kassidy did, rather, she seemed to deflate and slouch even more. “He is unbelievable.”

For a moment, Kassidy wondered if she should join her mother in the living room. How was she supposed to shoulder all that misery? She didn’t want to, but she knew that she couldn’t just leave her by herself, not today. She began to message Esther.

>kassidy.nguyen: can you call me so i can escape?

>kassidy.nguyen: my moms in a weird mood again

No answer.

“Unbelievable,” Dana Nguyen repeated, staring at the hole in the wall. “I don’t know what to do with him, I can’t get him to listen to me. I don’t know what to do. He’s-- he’s practically a grown man. He’s going to get in trouble someday.”

Kip had already been in a lot of trouble.

“I have people breathing down my throat all day, I can’t have my kid out there screaming about, I don’t know, stupid politics. Do you know what it’s gonna look like if he gets himself arrested? We arrested 3 of those socialist nutcases today for vandalizing a train station, can you imagine what would happen if Kip gets wound up in all that? The media gangfucks me hard enough already.”

“Ugh, gross Ma, don’t say gangfuck,” Kassidy glued her eyes to her screen. “That freaks me out.”

“The media gangfucks me during every press conference, Kassidy,” said her mother, who finished off her 3rd beer of the night. “I’m the Central Committee’s whipping boy, something goes wrong in Eden, I’m the one who gets the fucking blame. It’s nonstop, if it’s not one thing, it’s another. I don’t want this. I didn’t want this. If he gets arrested for I don’t know, destroying something, I can’t just bail him out.”

>kassidy.nguyen: she’s getting all crazy again i can’t deal with her by myself.

Her mother looked like she was melting on the inside. Kassidy cleared her throat to try and make a joke.

“It’s fine if you don’t bail him out, Vega will just do it for you.” She tried to arrange her face into something that resembled a smile. Why did she feel so awkward all of the time? “She’s done it be--”

“Is that supposed to be funny?” Dana Nguyen put her hands over her face. “Fucking Vega.”

This did not seem exactly fair. Eden’s Chief Personnel Officer Vega Pelenato had been a part of Kassidy and Kip’s lives as long as she could remember. Vega was the kind of person who picked up garbage that wasn’t her’s, she was a comfortable and trustworthy presence. Back when their mother wasn’t doing well and Kip was in the Youth Detention Center, she would check in on Kassidy a couple nights a week and bring her food. She had always figured that if she got in trouble, she’d call Vega first.

Defending Vega was the right thing to do.

“What’s wrong with Vega?”

“Shady. She’s shady. She wants my job.”

“Thought you didn’t want your job, Ma.”

Dana Nguyen just closed her eyes and slumped over on the couch so that she was lying down. 

(I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO GO WITH THIS)

AJAX GUTTIEREZ

It wasn’t usual for AJ to have enough time to grab a coffee and enjoy it before class. Generally he ran late. Not just in the morning either. It seemed as if he never had any time for himself, as if he was always doing things for other people and shoving his own needs down so deep that they could not be reached.

That morning however, as if through some miracle, everything was running smoothly. The metro eran without any weird delays or hiccups. The kids he babysat did not drag their feet for once as he got them ready for school. He didn’t have to run or wheeze or neglect to feed himself just because he was doing his job; he actually had time to enjoy the morning.

It was a novel experience. He was usually so busy.

The cafe which he frequented was located on the university floors of the Education District. It was one of the cheaper ones, despite its proximity to the sprawling section of classrooms which students who were enrolled in the Business and Marketing programs went to. Not that being on the Business track meant someone had money necessarily, but as a generalization, it did.

AJ did not have any money. It wasn’t like he was not being payed; his employer was the 2nd wealthiest individual in Eden— directly behind West Agapama’s shipping (and smuggling) empire. He got paid enough to pay the exorbitant tuition fees for a degree that did not guarantee a career in the future, but that was it. Sometimes he had money for coffee. Usually he did not. When he did have the money to treat himself, he ended up not having enough time due to having to drag the kids out of bed and making them get ready for school in the morning. 

One of the baristas at this particular cafe was his acquaintance, he had briefly dated her about a year previously and while the two of them had not remained close, they would still talk or hook up from time to time. When she noticed him, he nodded at her. Girls liked him, most of the time they would blush or giggle when he flirted with them. It was more difficult for him to hook up with guys. 

“Whaddya want, Gutierrez?” asked the barista, who was tall and slim and had an aura of bored disinterest about her. She had been in one of his Marketing classes, before she had been forced to drop out of school because her financial aid stopped coming through. “Haven’t seen you in a hot minute.”

AJ shrugged as he studied the iridescent signs that exhibited the various drinks available. “Haven’t had time.”

“Still working the same gig?” The name tag that she wore on her green apron read ‘Qian’, which was her surname— not many people had the privilege to call her Jenny. AJ had, back when he was sleeping with her, but it hadn’t worked out. “Still a miserable bastard, huh? You should come sling drinks with me.”

“You know I can’t do that,” said AJ. “Can I just get a coffee with cream and a shot of caramel?”

Qian nodded and got to work.There were no other customers waiting in line; either they populated the more popular coffee shops that were around the STEM classrooms or it was simply a slow day. Things like that were impossible to discern. He watched her work and envied the simplicity of a job where tasks were straightforward. All she had to do was follow the recipe and smile at the customers. There was no room for fear and speculation, she didn’t have to feel anxious about losing a couple of children or fucking up so monumentally that she got hung up by her toes in a meat packing plant. Customer service sucked too, but it came with less dangers.

AJ hadn’t considered his babysitting job personally dangerous until recently. Now he was brainstorming ways to get out of it but came up blank every time.

Compulsively, he checked his communication device for messages, but saw nothing. 

“Aren’t you graduating this year?” asked the barista. Steam from the latte machines made her straight dark hair stick to the sides of her face. AJ remembered how pretty she was and remembered how lonely he was now. “Marketing, right?”

“Business and Marketing,” said AJ. He took his cup of coffee when she handed it to him, it was too hot for him to drink immediately so he lingered. “Actually I just have 10 credits left. The end is in sight, haha.”

“You gonna work for Prosperity?”

“I mean, I sort of am already if you think about it.” He watched as she shook her head in kind disbelief. Nobody took him seriously. “I’m going to talk to Mr. Prospas about it later on in the semester, after I’ve started working on my thesis. Market research analyst, right? There’s always room for that kind of work in a huge company like Prosperity. I’ve been working for him on the books for almost 5 years, off the books for much longer. That’s gotta mean something, am I right?”

“Working as a babysitter,” said Qian. She wiped her dark hair back from her face. AJ didn’t correct her.

What was he supposed to say, that he had been forced to watch out for a known crime lord’s kids since he was 12 years old? That kind of thing was completely unbelievable. Even when he said it to himself, it sounded unbelievable. For nearly half his life, AJ had taken care of people who were not himself, had been left with minimal time for himself and his interests. Had he cultivated compassion for others during that time? Who was to say. All he knew was that he never had any time for himself, that he never had any time to do what he wanted to do. It was one of the reasons all of his relationships fell apart in the first place. 

(EDIT THIS SHE ALREADY GAVE IT TO HIM)Qian pumped a couple of squirts of caramel flavoring into AJ’s cup and handed it to him. The cup was warm in his hands. “You need to get out of there, man,” she said, and a cautious tone lent itself to her voice. “You know it’s not safe, right? I read about how EPD found some guy with his eyes sliced out of his head and his throat cut the other night, they’re trying to tie it back to Prosperity.”

“Could have been anyone,” said AJ, who knew exactly who she was talking about and exactly what had happened. Even those treacherous thoughts made his heart palpate. “What about AGA? What about the Reds? Or those socialist whack jobs, I heard that last week a couple of them beat the shit out of some guy just because he had an expensive communicator. This Colony is a shithole, Jenny, no wonder the Central Committee has been panicking. Every time something violent happens— so every day-- the cops try to pin the blame on one of the five families because they’re too stupid to figure it out for themselves.”

“Uh huh,” said the barista. She smiled at him a little like she didn’t believe him. “Sure. You need to get out of there. That shit ain’t safe for people like us.”

He already knew what she meant by ‘people like us’. People who didn’t have the means to post bail or people who didn’t have the flashy names to become media darlings. She meant people like him. People who might someday be found slashed to pieces in a warehouse, people who the police wouldn’t care about. AJ took a sip of his coffee. It was too sweet but bearable, he just wanted to sit down and not have to talk to his ex.

Come to think about it, AJ had a lot of exes.

He retreated to the relative privacy of one of the back corners and sat down. Not many students were currently occupying the small room; an accounting professor who he recognized was meeting with a mentee nearby and a couple shared a breakfast of bagels in the opposite corner next to the door. In theory the lack of distraction would lend itself to him being able to get more work accomplished before class, but AJ knew that he would inevitably start scrolling through the feeds on his communicator and waste all his time.

He took his tablet out of his tote bag and activated its keyboard function. One of his professors had assigned a short analysis of product proliferation, or what occurs when an organization markets endless variations of the same products. Take for instance Prosperity Inc, which made its money feeding the people of Eden. The majority of Prosperity's sales came from cellular agriculture— the in vitro cultivation of animal cells on a massive scale, then marketed towards the lower and middle class as an accessible alternative to traditional animal protein. But the company also raised cattle in the flat fields on the surface above Eden, and slaughtered them in the traditional way, then marketed them to the elite who could afford it. In this way, Prosperity sold the exact same product— animal protein— and almost entirely cornered the market.

Although AJ understood this concept of diversification and monopolization well from having grown up around it, he couldn’t bring himself to write about his own experiences. It just didn’t seem right. Instead he stared blankly at the screen of his tablet, his mind drifting every now and then to the conversations around him. He typed one sentence, then deleted it. He typed another one and deleted that one as well.

What was the point of going to college? The pit of fear opened up in that dark place in his chest and he struggled to swallow it down. Whenever he was still and quiet for too long, the terrible thoughts about how he was never going to be able to provide for himself and for his mother swirled up from that dark place. Even if he was able to graduate, he had no relevant job experience in his field. His only hope was to beg for the job he wanted and pray for the best.

To distract himself, AJ pulled up a crossword app. The clue that he got stuck at was 53 Across: ‘Pass (off) as genuine.’ Muddling over it took him a good 5 minutes until he recalled the word ‘foists’. 

In the reflective glass of his tablet’s screen, he could see his own face and he looked away, unable to stand making prolonged eye contact with himself. A few strands of hair were escaping from his short ponytail and he slicked them back with one hand, drinking his coffee with the other. What was it about his own image that caused him such internal disgust? It had never been like this before, it had slowly crept up on him seemingly without cause. The strange thing was that his self esteem was not low, he often felt proud of himself and his self-efficacy. To his knowledge, he was not overcome with shame or guilt. This was different. AJ did not want to watch himself slowly sink into the thick mud of his life.

He pulled up his textbook, read a sentence, and found himself unable to focus. But looking back at the crossword he was working on also could not hold his focus.

Vibrations in his pants pocket alerted him to a message on his communication device and he pulled it out and checked it. The youngest kid who he babysat, a 9 year old, had left him a string of smiley-face emojis. Not just a string, like 25 of them. Valentine was an excitable and loving child, but he never could leave anyone alone. AJ had tried to explain that he had to go to school too, but it just didn’t get through.

Without anything of importance to say to the kid, AJ put his phone face down on the table. What is someone supposed to say to a bunch of random emojis sent with no context? The kids were supposed to be in class anyway. At least the older one never messaged AJ or reached out to him. It was hard enough to deal with one needy child.

Unable to focus on what he was supposed to be doing, he pulled up his newsfeed. In 6 months Eden would have its first serious Mayoral election in over 10 years. Or perhaps, the first serious Mayoral election in 57 years? On paper, Eden did not have political dynasties, but for nearly 6 decades, somebody with the last name ‘Malena’ had been head of the Central Committee. The current Mayor, Jay Malena, had been elected when AJ was 12, after his father Jack Malena had stepped down from office. And when AJ’s mother had been young, Awhina Malena had been in power. It wasn’t something that bothered him, at least not that much. AJ wasn’t interested in politics because he couldn’t see how they materially affected his life.

No matter who had control of Eden, things weren’t going to get any better, at least not for him. Nothing ever changed. 

Anyway, the Mayor was only one part of the Central Committee. There was of course also a Commissar for each of the 10 Districts who supposedly had the best interests of their constituents in mind. Then there was the worthless Police Commissioner, the Minister of Science, the Comptroller, and the Chief Prosecutor. All in all 15 people who held Eden in their hands. They were the people who got payed to sit around on their asses all day while the five families— owners of the megacorporations which actually influenced Eden— did whatever they wanted.

The current newsfeed had a picture of Mayor Malena sweating in front of the cameras during his latest interview. He was a sharp, good looking man with big square teeth like chunks of marble. Moderately likeable, shiny and stupid. The shitshow that would rise up if he lost to his challenger, the flashy and dangerous idiot West Agapama, was unthinkable. Not just for the Colony. AJ’s boss would finally lose his mind. 

At least AJ knew who he’d be voting for. He didn’t know much, but he knew that. 

The youngest kid he babysat sent him another string of smiley face emojis. The corners of AJ’s mouth tightened and he tapped out his own message.

>ajax.guttierez: stop playing on your comm

>ajax.guttierez: you’re going to get in trouble

Valentine replied with yet another incoherent bunch of emojis and gifs. AJ turned his device off vibrate, unable to engage in any more emotional labor.

It wasn’t that he didn’t care about the Prospas kids. They were just a lot to deal with. The basic expectations of his job was that he made sure that they were safe, that he made sure they went to school, and that he entertained them briefly after school and took them where they needed to go. It was not part of his job to be their friend or act as...as some kind of surrogate older brother. AJ knew from terrible experience just how badly that could go and how much he could lose if he let himself get too attached to one of them. He kept himself closed off for the most part, he tried to keep himself professional.

Professional. He did not want his profession to be watching out for his boss’s kids for the rest of his life. He could not let that happen to himself, he needed to move on for his own sake as well as his mother’s sake.

His poor mother…

AJ took another sip of coffee and dialed his mother’s number on VidChat. Usually she slept in, she had always been a night owl, even when his father was still alive. Now she had good reason to sleep the mornings away. On the 3rd ring, she picked up her communication device.

“Ajax?” she said, her voice still sleepy. She was still in bed, her long brown hair uncovered. AJ took after his father more than he took after her, but he could still see his own traits in her long curled eyelashes and her slight overbite. “Are you getting breakfast before class?”

“Yeah,” AJ answered, even though he wasn’t. He didn’t want to waste his money on an expensive bagel or something when he had food back in the apartment. Well, technically there was also food in the kitchens of the Prospas family home which he and his mother shared, but he didn’t want to be accused of stealing. “Just checking on you. You weren’t up when I left.”

His mother rubbed her eyes. “I was up until 3, I think. I get caught up, you know. I keep praying that things will get better for us, I know God is listening. He’s always listening.”

“Uh-huh.” His mother had only started getting into religion a couple of years ago, when the Red religion gained popularity due to some scriptures getting spread online. AJ didn’t care for it or understand, but it was good for her. It gave her something to do, people to talk to, and faith to hold on to. It was better to think that the God from beyond the Rift existed and was listening to her when she was sad or in pain, better than not having anything at all. He had tried to get into it at her behest, but the bloodletting aspect of it made him queasy.

“Someday we won’t have to struggle or suffer anymore, you know? God is coming back someday, He’s coming back soon. Nobody will put us down anymore, nobody will hurt us anymore because you and me, we’re God’s children. He loves us, someday He’s going to come down from the Rift and protect us.”

“Yeah, I know he’s gonna do that, Ma. I know.” AJ turned his head to eye Jenny Qian up behind the counter and watched her bend over to pick something up. Seeing the thin slip of pink underwear show above her pants reminded him that it had been over a month since he last had sex. Probably not the best thing to contemplate while calling one’s mother.

“He’ll get rid of all the evil here. We won’t have to hide underground anymore because He’s going to purify the world.” Helen Guttierez’s face, tan and lovely, was so full of devotion towards her son that once again he wondered if he should go to one of the Red Churches, if only to give her peace. “Everyone will be happy the way that they were in the old days, before the Rift opened.”

Whenever AJ looked up while on the Surface Levels, he could see the impossibly dark red Rift pulsating far above the Dome. It made him sick to look at it for too long, so alien and unnatural. Nobody understood it, other than it had appeared suddenly 873 years ago and had ended almost all human life on Earth. It was a miracle that the few who survived the physical changes of that time were able to band together and form the 11 Colonies.

Then again, history and science had never been AJ’s strong suits.

“If God listens to anyone, it’s gonna be you,” he told her, just so that he could see her smile, that smile that was both like and unlike his own. 

And his mother did smile at him. She sat up a little straighter in her bed, which was covered in pillows and extra blankets for her comfort. She was a good mom, she had always given AJ the love and emotional support he needed to grow. None of this was her fault.

“Do you want to get dinner tonight?” she asked. She fumbled around on her bedside table to find her glasses and AJ wondered if he would also need glasses by the time he was 40.

“I’ll try to figure out something to do with the kids. Yeah, yeah of course.” AJ watched the little screen as his mother’s upper lip curled in disgust ever so slightly. “I’ve been so busy lately. You know.”

“You’re getting older. That’s what happens. You can’t— you aren’t that little boy you used to be. I loved you then and I love you now, just like I’m going to love the man you’re going to be. Growing older and more responsible isn’t going to change that, I pray for you every single day. Every day.”

A handful of students walked into the cafe, laughing and joking amongst themselves. More business and marketing majors, nobody overtly from the upper class.  AJ recognized most of them but wasn’t close to any. It was so easy for him to have fleeting relationships, romantic or otherwise. Even committing to a platonic friendship was difficult and growing more difficult by the day. It was hard for normal people to trust him once they found out who he worked for, and the people who were interested in him despite that? They were not the kind of people he wanted to associate with. 

The only person he actually wanted to associate with was his mom. It was fine to have short flings with people so that he could have casual sex, but anything beyond that? No. It was not worth it to drag out his history in the process of bonding with another human.

But the sound of a group of friends laughing together made something sharp and hungry twist deep in his gut.

His mother was still talking. “We could go to that restaurant in the 7th District that my friend Nneka owns. Their food is so good, cheap too. I think you’d like it.” 

“Vegetarian?”

“Yes. Of course. Of course it is.” She stretched, then rolled her shoulders back and in doing so, the collar of the oversized pajama shirt she slept in slipped down just enough to reveal a bite mark on her neck. It looked new.

It only took that to make AJ’s legs begin to shake. He pressed the hand that was not holding the communicator down on one thigh to try and control himself. “You OK, Ma?”

If she realized that he was upset, she did not show it. After all this time she minimized and brushed things off so that AJ wouldn’t get upset and do something stupid. The one time she slipped up and admitted to how scared she was, he’d flown into a rage and the aftereffects had not been pretty. That had been when he was 16 and he had ended up in the hospital. If he tried to stand up to the person who was hurting his mother now, as an adult? He’d end up like the guy Qian had told him about, the one who had been tortured before getting his throat slit.

Sometimes the best thing to do was not fight back. 

“I’m OK, baby,” she told him, and her smile took on an aspect that his never could: understanding. “It’s like I told you, God’s taking care of me. He never puts anything on our plate that we can’t handle.”

The nearby group of students were still laughing as they waited for their coffee orders and suddenly AJ couldn’t stand it. It made him want to lash out at them and he knew he couldn’t. He continued to press his fist into his leg as hard as he could and hoped that it would keep him calm. How could they be laughing? How could they have friends? When other people in Eden were so...stuck.

“Would you tell me if you’re not OK?” he asked his mother. 

“Of course I would,” she said, and he knew that she was lying. It showed itself in the way she did not look him in the eyes. Even without looking at her he could tell. “I know. You take care of me too.”

What was he supposed to say in response to something like that? When he knew that he did not. When he knew that he was about as effective an influence in her life as God was. If he kept pressing, if he kept asking her if she was OK, she would get upset with him, something which he could not bear. All he could do was grit his teeth and watch, pretend that he was not watching. All he could do was remain passive in hopes that he did not make anything worse. It was like that. She was not the only person who he wanted to protect, as loathe as he was to admit it.

AJ pressed his fist even harder into his leg— as hard as he could-- but it didn’t hurt; he didn’t feel it at all.

KIP NGUYEN

“You have the 16th highest GPA in your cohort,” said Ekala, one of the many Special Education counselors in the Ed. District. “That’s amazing, Christopher. That’s unprecedented. You can do anything you want to, if you put your mind to it. You can get scholarships, grants, all kinds of things with grades like that. Don’t you feel proud of yourself?”

Kip Nguyen, leaning back in his chair inside of the drab little office in which he had been meeting Ekala weekly for the last 4 years, looked up at the ceiling. The white plaster made him feel trapped. The tiny room with only enough space for a desk and an extra chair also made him feel trapped. He jiggled his leg. “No. Nope. Why should I?”

His SpEd counselor’s face was kind. She was kind. He knew that she actually cared about him and that she wouldn’t have chosen to go into the career path that she had if she didn’t have empathy. It was just that empathy and compassion didn’t matter in Eden, not really. Those weren’t traits that changed things on a large scale. “You’ve overcome a lot in your life. You’ve accomplished a lot. You should feel proud of yourself.”

“Why?” Kip asked again. He kept jiggling his leg.

“Because— because you should. //I// feel proud of you, you know.”

At a different point in his life, that kind of validation might have meant a lot. Now it was just sort of useless. Kip hated sitting in a chair in front of her for an hour every week. It was increasingly difficult for him to restrain himself, since he wanted to jump up and move around and talk. Whenever he was in meetings with teachers or his SpEd counselor, he could talk, he just couldn’t say the things that he wanted to say. In order to keep himself safe, he had to make himself...less than he was. Less energetic, less noisy. If he acted in accordance with his nature, the people who were in positions of power over him might get mad.

“I’m glad that //you// feel proud of me,” Kip told her. “But I don't think that really matters. Why does that matter? You know? For my future?”

Ekala looked at him flatly. She was young, less than 30 anyway, and kept her hair in short cornrows. The black uniform that every teacher, counselor, and professor wore in the Education District did not serve to make her prettier, it served as a reminder of who was really in charge. It served as a reminder that when it came down to brass tax, she held power over him that he could never contest. “You don’t feel proud of yourself for your hard work? You’ve come a long way in just two years.”

“It doesn’t //matter// if I’m proud of myself. Materially, I mean. It does not matter. The system doesn’t care about my self esteem, it doesn’t care about anyone.” As those words were coming out of his mouth, he realized that he needed to shut up. His Special Ed counselor wrote something down on her tablet, then looked back up at him like she expected him to say something else crazy. As usual, he could not help himself. “How does being proud of myself help pay 25,000 credits a year for college? It doesn’t.”

“Your grades mean you’ll qualify for scholarships.”

“They don’t give out scholarships to people like me.” It was true. She would try to dispute it but Kip knew it was true; he had talked to other people who had been arrested, other people who had been locked up either in the Youth Detention Center or the Prison District itself. His new friends were in the most part college students majoring in law, economics, or journalism, and all of them were being crushed by mountains of debt that they would never be able to pay off, no matter how hard they worked. Their backgrounds meant that the sprawling college administration hesitated to grant them any money, and their interests only solidified this. Eden did not reward those who were interested in social services or public works, Eden only rewarded those who could contribute to concrete betterment. In the Colony, STEM was everything. “They don’t give scholarships to anyone like me.”

That was not to say that he did not want to go to college. The idea of going into a career where he did something that changed things, a career where he was actually able to help people was like a far off dream to him. It just wasn’t feasible.

“You say that like you’ve already decided that you’re not going to try,” said Ekala. She rested her chin on the palm of her hand. “Is that why you don’t feel proud of yourself?”

Kip exhaled heavily and vigorously rubbed his head with his left hand, his uninjured hand, messing up his hair. “You’re not listening to me.”

“I’m listening to you.”

“//No//, you’re not. I’m //trying// to explain that it doesn’t //matter// because I either have to be in debt for the rest of my life or beg for scholarships I’ll never qualify for because I was in the YDC for 8 months. It doesn’t matter how I //feel// unless somebody does something to actually change things.”

Nobody listened, nobody ever listened. It was why he always had to make a scene to get his needs met or to get his points across. It was easier to be quiet and just take things, but Kip couldn’t do it. He couldn’t ever shut up and act passively, he couldn’t ever roll over. It made things harder for him and it made people dislike him, but it was better than acting like a doormat. He would not let people walk all over him.

When he was agitated he could not stop jiggling his legs or picking at himself, which was to say that he was always jiggling his legs or picking at himself. It took all his self control not to start scratching at one of the zits on his jawline.

Ekala’s face was very kind and understanding. She was a good person, he could see it in her eyes. He could see how much she wanted to help him, she just didn’t understand and would never be able to. “I’ve told you before that having to be detained as a minor doesn’t necessarily mean anything; you can even petition to have your record expunged. Do you want to fill out some scholarship forms with me? I could--”

Kip stood up without warning and realized that he had clenched his fists. WIth great difficulty he unclenched them. He knew that his eyes, which were already too big, were probably bulging out of his head. Due to the lack of space and the forcefulness of his movement, his chair scooted back toward the door when he stood. Aware of his capacity to make other people feel frightened because of his demeanor or his actions, his heart rate increased at the thought that he might frighten his counselor and make her press her panic button and throw him back in the Youth Detention Center.

He could not go back there. He could not be trapped like that again.

But his counselor did not react with fear. She smiled at him kindly. There was a big gap between her front teeth. “OK. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Do you need space?”

He grabbed up his bag which had been sitting at his feet and shouldered it. Everything he wanted to say to her swirled up from his heart and he had to keep his mouth clamped shut so that he did not start yelling again. Kip wanted to yell at her. It wouldn’t make him feel better, just like punching walls didn’t make him feel better. The only purpose yelling would serve would be to expel an iota of the endless energy his mind and body produced.

Ekala had given him an out though. That was more than most teachers did for him.

“Yeah. Space,” he said, not looking at her.

“Can you check in with me tomorrow then?”

Kip nodded. What other choice did he have? His heart pounding, he left the miserable little office. Even though he had recently turned 18 and was legally an adult in the eyes of the state, he was still being controlled by others.

The floors that he attended most of his classes on were similar to the floors of the normal high school. It wasn’t like the Prison District or anything, there was just a smaller teacher to student ratio. Supposedly the extra teachers were there to give students who needed more support the help that they needed, but Kip didn’t believe that for a second.

(I DONT KNOW WHAT TO WRITE. KIP BEING ANNOYING)

“What’s wrong with your hair?” he asked Esther. Usually her limp orange hair fell flatly to her shoulders, but now it had some volume to it.“Why did you fuck with your hair? Haha, did you curl it? You look like a, a, I don’t know. You look bad.”

Esther didn’t answer him, she just fluffed up her hair. Kip attempted to put his hands in it and mess it up and she smacked him in the face. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Ow!” He tried harder to mess up her hair and she smacked him again. Kip tried to hit her back but missed because she was slightly taller than he was. “What’s wrong with me?? What’s wrong with you??” They swatted at each other furiously for a couple more seconds before separating, breathing hard.

It had been like this with Esther ever since they were kids. Kip had met her when he was 8 and she was 7 and they had been squabbling ever since. Something about their personalities did not mesh, maybe because of certain similarities that they shared. Both of them were eldest children with high intensity and a list of diagnoses. They loved each other very much, they just didn’t like each other.

“Nothing’s wrong with me,” said Esther. She was already beet-red.

“Nothing’s wrong with me either!” responded Kip. 

There was absolutely something wrong with both of them. 

“Take some deep breaths then or something, you look manic. Are you off your meds?”

“Oh, that is so patronizing coming from you. You really are nuts, Esther. You take some deep breaths.”

“No, YOU take some deep breaths! Goddammit. I hate you.”

Kip laughed, feeling his body grow light with his fondness for his friend. She was a good match for him. Even fighting with her was fun, he liked to fight. Sometimes it was easy to forget his loneliness, that void filled with distractions such as politics or arguments online. Those distractions were destructive and he knew it. Being around people who cared about him was the truest form of distraction.

“How are the twins?” he asked her

“Oh my God, so annoying. They both have a crush on the same boy and they won’t shut up about him, I want to shove them both out of a window.”

“How would that even work? What happens if the guy actually likes one of them back?”

“The other one would kill that twin and act as a replacement, I guess.”

Kip tried to mess with Esther’s hair again and she widened her candy-apple green eyes at him as a threat. At her feet, the Creature which was her constant companion wound itself between her legs, rubbing itself at her ankles and making a curious sound, something in between a growl and a purr. It was a lethargic beast and only really seemed to be slightly cognizant, only really becoming active when Esther’s emotions ran high. Most of the time, Kip tried not to look at it so that he didn’t look like he was crazy. He wasn’t crazy, not the way that Esther was. He didn’t see things that weren’t really there. But it seemed as though she and him were the only people who could see it.

It was not the only black and gelatinous creature in Eden, but it was the only one that Kip had actually been close to. The others oozed around in the cover of the alleys in the Lower Districts, or scurried chattering into the pipes when he walked by. A few times he had seen them following people around. Some of them had legs like Esther’s did but most of them wriggled unnaturally like cat-sized mounds of black jello. To his knowledge they were harmless, bycatch that had fallen out of the Rift centuries ago. 

Esther’s monster raised it’s skull-like head to gaze at him out of its empty eye sockets. He quickly looked away. Not real not real not real.

“Is your hand OK?” said Esther, noticing the injury for the first time. 

He opened his fingers and made a fist a couple of times, wincing. The wounds on his knuckles had not yet scabbed over and it was painful to move it. It was bad, but it wasn’t broken; he knew from experience what it felt like to break the bones in his hand from punching something.

“Did you punch a wall again?” Esther asked him. Kip glared at her and felt his face grow hot. He didn’t need to answer. “Why do you keep doing that? Did you go to a doctor?”

This was starting to feel like an interrogation. “Doctor? No way I’m going to a doctor for this. I’m not like you people. I’m fine, you should see the wall in my kitchen.”

“‘You people’? If you were like me, you wouldn’t have hit the wall in the first place. You would be able to stay in control.”

He cared about Esther and her awful little siblings and loved them with his whole heart, but sometimes they really got on his nerves. They thought that they were better than he was and he tried not to hold that against them. His friends in the revolutionary socialist group he had recently joined talked a lot about how Artificials were a physical manifestation of how the bourgeoisie wanted to separate from the proletariat-- the rich had practically invented a new species of human. Posthumans. Genetic engineering and biotechnology operated to keep the wealthy in control, then allowed them to say it is in their nature.

Kip knew what people like Esther really thought about him. They thought he was a bug.

It was a struggle. He cared a lot about individuals, but if he started to think about what that meant in the context of the big picture, he started to get upset. 

Kip tugged the sleeve of his heavy old police jacket down over his injured hand to hide it. He’d gotten a lot of questions about his jacket when he started going to EWP meetings-- and he had gotten straight up hostility when he graduated to going to United People’s Liberation Org meetings. UPLO was strongly against Eden’s police state, which was fair since police misconduct was a hot topic in leftist circles. But the jacket had belonged to his birth mother. It was one of the only things that he had of hers.

It was also black, so it went with everything he wore, which meant that he wore it every day. Even though he had hit his growth spurt a few years ago and was reaching 5’10”, it was still too large for him. Whenever he could not find it, or whenever it got dirty or caught on something, he felt scared that he would lose it. And he would lose her again.

He didn’t remember the day that she had killed herself but he knew that he had been there. They had found him in a closet. One time Ma had gotten so drunk that she had told him when she found him, she had picked him up and there had been blood all over his clothes. So that meant-- so that meant he must have touched...

It was a good thing that he didn’t remember. Kip didn’t remember a lot of things. 

“What’s your girlfriend’s name again?” he asked Esther, trying to change the subject and take his focus away from his dead mother.

“Rosie. Rosaline Church. I wouldn’t have met her if she hadn’t been changed to my cohort this year.”

It took a lot for Kip to keep the look of judgement from his face, he always felt a twinge of disgust when he heard that relatively common surname. It was hard to not feel biased. His healthy mistrust of organized religion led him to be wary when it came to people who were raised in any of the Church-run residential group homes in the Lower Levels. In his opinion, organizations such as that needed to be eradicated by the State. “Still going good, huh?”

Esther shrugged. “It hasn’t been a month yet but yeah, I like her. She’s...solid? I don’t know how to describe her. She doesn’t get freaked out by things.”

“Of course she doesn’t get freaked out, she probably deals with fucked up shit all the time. You know those religious people dunk babies underwater, right? Did you know they practice circumcision? Ugh, I mean, right? Isn’t that insane? That’s like, that’s just so--”

“I don’t know anything about it,” Esther cut him off before he could start ranting about all the crimes of religion. “When she talks about her gods it sounds like it makes her feel safe. I don’t think that’s that bad, you know? It’s just something people start thinking when they don’t want to accept that nothing happens after you die. At least she’s not one of the Rift worshippers. I think you’d like her.” She took out her communicator and pulled up a picture so that she could show him.

In the picture, Esther looked genuinely happy. It was not often that her eyes lit up when she smiled; usually she was so glazed over and vacant. She had her head resting on the broad shoulder of the other girl, Rosaline Church. Rosaline’s smile was also completely genuine. She had a handsome butch look about her, and the picture froze her gazing at Esther in the same way that she would gaze at an angel.

Still, Kip did not trust this new union. 

He raised his eyebrows. “OK. I see why you like her. Her arms are the same size as your waist.”

“Sometimes I really want to kill you.” Esther put her communicator back into her purse. 

“Just staying.”

“Right, like I’m just saying that sometimes I want to blow your brains out. You know that my mother raised her voice at Eddie last night because he tried to karate chop the kitchen table? That was all you.”

It was funny but it was also very much his fault. He and Kassidy always got into fights and the Bellamys had learned it from them. It was not the kind of behavior their mother would approve of. Back in middle school Esther had been in a fight with another kid and her mom got so angry that she made sure that kid would be in the Youth Detention Center until he turned 18. People like Esther and her siblings weren’t allowed to be physically violent, they could only express their rage in more acceptable, more insidious ways.

“Your mom’s gonna kill you if she finds out that you’re dating someone like a Church kid,” Kip told Esther. “She wants you to settle down with another Artificial, not some religious orphan pleb.”

“//If// she finds out.” Esther said glumly. “That’s not going to happen.”

“You know about class consciousness, right? My friend Lee told me about it. It’s the beliefs a person has about their social class. Your mom has strong class consciousness, it’s been like a decade and she still thinks I’m going to steal your shit. ”

“I don’t care.” She rolled her eyes.

The 5 minute bell rang. Kip sighed. He did not want to run back down to the Special Education floors. They were more controlled than the normal floors of the high school. He could not stand it. Even though he loved learning and enjoyed his classes, he could not stand being so watched and confined. The student-teacher ratio was higher on those floors.

“Just prepare yourself for when your mom does find out.” Kip checked his communicator for messages. “You’re gonna eventually slip up or get snitched on. And it isn’t cool to hide that you’re dating her, she’s gonna start thinking you’re ashamed of her eventually.”

He watched as Esther’s skin flushed and hated how easy it was for him to pick up on people’s sore spots. 

“Sorry,” he said. “Have you seen Kassidy today? I haven’t been able to get a hold of her. We were going to do something last night but I kind of dipped out because my mom was pissing me off.”

“She’s been weird lately,” said Esther, taking a step back to signal that she was ready to get back to class. “I think she’s mad at me, I kind of ignored her messages last night but I was with Rosie.”

“Kassidy wouldn’t care about getting ignored, people ignore her all the time.”

“I don’t know then.” Esther shrugged. “I’ll see you later. Want to get together tonight?”

Kip shook his head. “Nah I’m going to meet with some UPLO people and paint some signs. A couple of them are protesting AGA’s union busting practices.” He heard his friend make a scoffing little ‘ugh’ noise under her breath, but she was too far away for him to react to it. His heart twinged. “It’s actually really imp--”

But she was already gone.

Kip checked his messages again only to be met with nothing. He walked back to the elevator and pressed the button that would take him down to his floors, using his injured hand. He pressed a little too hard and winced, then leaned back against the rail and waited.

At times it was frustrating to feel like there was nobody else who shared his values. For a long time it had felt like he was alone, even when he was around his friends and his family who cared about him. Now he was finally starting to feel less alone, he had found people who truly understood him and who had shown him that it was OK to be passionate and sensitive. It was OK to care so deeply about things.

The thing that was hardest to accept was that he could not make others care as deeply as he did. No matter how much he yelled or screamed or fought, other people would not be able to see his point of view unless they were willing to.

It...hurt.

It hurt badly. And over the years, Kip had dealt with a lot of pain.

He looked down at his injured hand, with its scabbed over and cracked knuckles.

He made a fist. In the secrecy of that elevator, a translucent blue bubble of energy formed around his closed hand, protecting it completely from everything outside. When he unclenched his fist, that bubble disappeared and he was left vulnerable again. Sometimes Kip wished that he could create a bubble big enough to protect his whole body, so that at least physically he would never be hurt again-- but he did not know how to control this strange thing that he could do and he knew that it was not safe for anyone to see.

KASSIDY NGUYEN

Since waking up at 6:00, Kassidy had burned herself with her new straightening iron no less than 5 times. The contraption was difficult to use and it took forever since the texture of her curls was so coarse and because her hair was so thick. She had separated it all into sections to make it easier on herself like the tutorial online had instructed, but in her mind it was tedious and next to impossible. The air in the bathroom smelled like burning hair and she had reddish burn marks on her neck from accidentally touching herself with the iron.

Still, she was determined to look less ugly. 

She had bought some make-up after school the day before as well and began to clumsily apply it. The cosmetics aisle had been overwhelming, there were simply too many choices. Who needed that many choices when it came to make-up? It seemed like the cosmetics aisle was better stocked than the cereal aisle. Kassidy hadn’t known the first place to start. She had grabbed some foundation that may or may not have been a match for her medium skin tone. Really she just had to hope for the best. She had bought a tube of mascara and a little stick of plum lipstick as well, paying for it with money that her estranged grandparents had sent her for her 17th birthday.

Kassidy leaned close to the mirror so that she could apply the mascara without blinding herself. Her hand was shaky as she held it and dragged the wand across her stubby blonde lashes. Because she didn’t have eyelid creases she was unable to produce the effect that she wanted and the mascara ended up clumping despite her efforts.

She looked at her reflection and saw a different person. Usually her hair curled up to about shoulder length, but straightened, it fell down to the middle of her chest. The makeup didn’t quite match her skin tone, but it covered up the dark circles under her eyes. For the first time in as long as she could remember, she didn’t hate looking at herself. She did not immediately want to look away. Kassidy practiced smiling with her plum painted lips.

Her heart beat faster. This wasn’t terrible. She had been afraid that she would look like an embarrassment but she looked nice, especially when she smiled. She looked like somebody who she would want to be friends with.

Somehow this prospect frightened her more than being ugly.

Somebody banged on the bathroom door. “Hey, let me in,” said her brother. “Why is the door locked? What are you doing?” He rattled the doorknob, unable to help himself.

Kassidy looked at herself one more time in the mirror and wondered when the last time that she had made eye contact with herself for so long had been. Then she opened the door and let her brother into the bathroom, which was more or less a narrow hallway with a shower, toilet, and sink crammed into it.

“Why are you up so--” Kip began, then froze, staring at her. His face, at first bleary from sleep, grew shocked and his big brown eyes strained in his eye sockets. For a second he appeared to be uncharacteristically at a loss for words.

She crossed her arms and hunched her shoulders. Instead of the baggy jeans and t-shirt she usually wore, she had put on black leggings and a green tunic she had purchased from one of the Church charity bins. It was strange and new and she waited for him to react or say something, say anything.

Kip started to laugh. He shook his head. “What are you dressed as?” he asked her. “What did you do to your hair? It looks so-- so stupid! Oh my god, oh my god, what’s going on? Are you wearing make-up? What is this? What are you dressed as?” He kept laughing.

Kassidy punched him in the arm and Kip laughed harder. She punched him again. “I’m trying something new, asshole.”

“You look like a clown. Why’d you put that shit around your eyes, it’s totally uneven.”

Hot anger rose from her chest to her face. She could feel it roiling beneath her skin, even though she knew that she never blushed. Her skin was already a dark tan with warm undertones, if she blushed it was hard to see it. “Shut up,” she said, pushing past him and stomping out to the kitchen. He continued to laugh at her as she went, it was never a normal laugh, always a braying belly laugh. 

Was it that bad? Were they going to laugh at her too? She would rather die. It wasn’t anything new to get made fun of but after she had tried so hard to make herself more presentable, Kassidy knew that getting laughed at would be unbearable. 

In the kitchen, Dana Nguyen was already awake and ready for work. She had her head down on the kitchen table, wallowing in whatever depressive thoughts had overcome her that day. Her job was important so Kassidy didn’t understand why her mother acted like she hated going in every day. As Eden’s Police Commissioner, she was one of the most powerful people in the Colony after the Mayor and the Central Committee. 

“What are you two yelling about now?” she asked Kassidy without moving.

“Kip is a fucking prick.”

“I’ve known that since he was 13.”

“I’m going to push him down the stairs.”

Her mother lifted herself up, her glasses crooked on her face. She did not appear to have slept well the night before. When she saw Kassidy, she squinted at her and frowned like she smelled something bad.

“What?” Kassidy asked, angry and hot with blood. She crossed her arms. “What do you wanna say, Ma?”

P.C. Dana Nguyen vaguely gestured at her daughter. “Is this some kind of... of scheme that you’re pulling, or should I be worried about you?”

Scheme? Kassidy didn’t pull schemes. She didn’t say anything, she just smoothed down her hair and skulked around behind the table to get into the fridge. The inside of it was empty except for mustard, a couple of nutritional shakes, and a 12 pack of beer. Something about seeing her family’s lack of food made her grit her teeth and swallow down her hateful words. Where did her mother get off on judging her when she didn’t ever go to the store to buy things to feed her family?

She shut the fridge and poured herself a cup of coffee, took a sip, then almost had to spit it out. Sludge. It was so thick that it was no good to her either.

Kip came out of the bathroom and pulled up a chair at the table, still laughing.He didn’t have any space to laugh at her! He wore the same stupid old police jacket he wore every day, still had acne on the sides of his face, and the only reason he didn’t have a unibrow anymore was because he had begged for laser hair removal for his 16th birthday. For some reason he thought the sight of his sister actually making an effort was hilarious. She made an obscene gesture at him and drank her undrinkable coffee.

“She’s dressed like a clown,” Kip repeated to their mother in a wheezing, high pitched voice intending to mock. Kassidy’s fingers tightened around her mug because she wanted to throw it. “Ma, ma, look. Look!”

Their mother smacked him. “Will you shut up? Kassidy, what’s going on? You going on a date or something?” Her brother cackled.

It was better not to say anything. After all, it wasn’t like she could tell them the truth! If her mother learned the truth of who she had been hanging out with lately, she would freak out and ruin everything. That couldn’t happen.

Very carefully, she set the mug on the counter next to the sink. She didn’t wash it out. Dishes rarely got done in their household, they just rinsed things off and re-used them. It was easier that way. For some reason, Esther’s little siblings always whined and complained when they came over and had to eat off of their dishes. 

As calmly as she could, Kassidy turned to face her family. She shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. “I just wanted to look pretty today, that’s literally it. I just wanted to look nice.”

For a moment, her mother and brother stared at her like she was an animal in the zoo, as if they could not comprehend this simple desire. And then Kip started to laugh at her again.

“Why would you try to look pretty?” he asked her. “You’re never gonna be pretty!”

Kassidy knocked her mug off the counter, sending it to the floor where it shattered. She turned and stormed out without another look at her family, grabbing her bookbag on the way. As she left, she could hear her mother start to scream at Kip.

They couldn’t help being the way that they were. They had known her her whole life so it was hard for them to be nice to her.

As she made her way to a cafe she had never been in, Kassidy thought about the person who had only ever been nice to her.

She thought about the person who she had been focused on for days.

Her name was Cassiopeia Agapama, but she liked to be called Casey, and Kassidy had never met anyone so dynamic. Casey was always in motion, but not in the same way that Kip was; she was graceful and had complete control over her body in the way that a dancer has. Even though she was an Artificial, she hadn’t been tweaked in that way that made all of them look unnatural. Her black eyes were turned up at the corners which made it look like she was always smiling-- and she was always smiling with those straight white teeth that contrasted perfectly against her dark, clear skin. It was difficult to look at her, not because she was so beautiful-- and she was beautiful, just not obviously so-- but because something about her was impossibly compelling. It was like looking at the heart of a star.

Casey waved Kassidy over. She and her sister were already seated at a booth. “Hiiii,” said Casey, and when Kassidy sat down beside her, she immediately touched her hair. “Wow. You straightened your hair? That’s so crazy.” Casey’s own hair was dyed pink and fell right below her ears in countless micro-braids. 

Whenever Casey touched her, Kassidy felt afraid. She knew that Casey was dangerous, she knew who her father was and what Casey had probably been exposed to her entire life. Simply being close to Casey filled her with adrenaline and every smart part of her brain told her that she needed to run away. But she could not. That same fear also compelled her to be close to her.

“I wanted to try something new.”

“Aw, I like it.” Casey hid her smile behind a hand bedecked with silver rings. “You look tiny without it all poofy. You’re itty bitty. Teeny tiny.”

“You missed a spot in the back,” said Casey’s sister, whose name was Ayda. Unlike Casey, Ayda was obviously beautiful, but not at all compelling. She was tall and heavy, with soft feminine features. While Casey was energizing, Ayda was languid and slow. It was impossible for them to be blood related; Ayda was certainly adopted seeing as she wasn’t black, but Kassidy was too uncomfortable around her to ask. “It’s like, sticking up. In the back.”

Kassidy flattened her hair down with one hand. Any moisture in the air would just make it poof up again. Casey laughed but it didn’t seem like she was laughing at her, at least not on purpose. It was more like she was laughing at the situation.

“You didn’t get it…” said Ayda, who cut her eyes up briefly at Kassidy before returning to her communication device, which she never seemed to stop typing on.

“Your hair looks fine,” laughed Casey.

“It doesn’t. It really doesn’t,” said Ayda. 

It was hard to understand what was going on between the two of them. That was not because they were wealthy. After all, Kassidy had been friends with Esther for years and she wasn’t weird in the way that Casey and Ayda were weird. It was like there was a joke they knew about that Kassidy was not privy to. Even so, she wanted to be in on the joke.

Being around Casey felt like someone was always paying attention to her. She had never felt that way. So even if she was strange and frightening, the attentiveness made Kassidy want to spend time with her.

It had been a long time since she had made a new friend. It had been years, since the only real friend she had ever made was Esther. Ever since Casey had introduced herself to her in class several days previously, the icy ball of loneliness inside of Kassidy had started to melt.

“Don’t tell me that you did that to yourself just because you started hanging out with us,” snickered Ayda. She wound a strand of her own long dark hair around one finger as if she was bored. When she smiled, only one corner of her mouth turned up. “Aw. That’s sad. Peeeeer Pressurrre...”

That made Casey laugh as well, but it was short, more of a reaction than anything else. Laughing. Always laughing. Again, Kassidy swallowed the urge to laugh with her, whatever joy Casey felt was contagious.

It wasn’t that Kassidy was unhappy, but she wasn’t happy either. She wasn’t exposed to people who were happy all the time. Her mother never laughed and rarely smiled. Kip laughed and smiled a lot, but lately that laughter and those smiles were more angry than happy.

The small moments where she did feel happy were ones she wanted to cling to. It was why she had made up her mind to hang out with Cassiopeia after the other girl first seemed to extend her friendship to her. It was nice to feel...light.

The funny thing was that over the handful of times they had hung out, Casey didn’t seem to talk to anyone else or even message anyone else. Well, everyone knew her-- how could they not, with who her dad was. All kinds of rumours went around school about the kind of person Casey was. All kinds of rumours about how she hurt people. Kassidy couldn’t see any of that. She saw someone who gave her her full attention and was always laughing.

Maybe she really was stupid. A small part of herself believed that, it was the part that told her that she could never ever tell her brother about her new friends because if he found out, his eyeballs would burst from all the screaming.

“What do you want for breakfast?” Casey asked her. Casey had already ordered a mug with a latte in it, and her sister was sipping on orange juice. 

Kassidy, who had a total of 12 credits left in her account, had no intention of wasting any more money. This was not the kind of place that people who were like her went to get breakfast before school. She shrugged. “I ate at home.”

“Really?”

“Uh.” It was hard to lie when Casey was looking at her. Kassidy lied all the time but her brain felt frozen then. She glanced to the side to break the intense eye contact with this strange girl. “Well.”

Ayda snickered.

“Do you drink coffee?” asked Casey. “It’s good here, I promise. Can I buy you a coffee? I bet I could pick something for you that you’ll fucking love, it’s one of my talents.”

This was how people ended up selling their souls but Casey’s little pink braids circled her head like a halo. Again, Kassidy had to swallow the strong instinct to run which interfered with the hysterical feelings of happiness. She would rather feel happy.

“Yeah, OK,” she said, too stupid to think up anything clever. “Thanks.” She watched Casey get up and walk to the cafe’s counter, where the other girl proceeded to give her complete focus to the barista who was working.

This was really scary. Kassidy wondered if her makeup was melting off her face because of how hot and sweaty she was. That was the last thing she needed.

“Oh my goddd,” said Ayda as she typed into her comm without looking up. 

Unfortunately, with Casey out of the way, Kassidy was comfortable enough to be a bitch right back to her. She scowled, which wasn’t helpful when a person wasn’t paying attention. “Hey,” she snapped. It must have surprised Ayda because her whole big body flinched at the aggressive tone of voice directed towards her. “You gotta problem? What’s so funny?” Ayda’s size relative to hers didn’t scare her, she had squared off with a bully three times her size as a middle schooler. This was the kind of person she got the distinct impression could not fight even a person who weighed 93 pounds.

You can always tell when a person isn’t used to being talked to in a certain way.

Blood rushed to Ayda’s face and turned her light olive complexion pink. Kassidy felt herself blush as well, although there was no reason for it. “Funny?” asked Ayda in a high pitched little bitch voice of a person who acts tough but is scared of direct confrontation. She kept typing but was now looking at Kassidy.

“You keep laughing.”

“No I don’t.”

“Yeah you do. Why the fuck are you laughing at me?” Kassidy made a jerky aggressive gesture with her chin.

Suddenly it felt like her body was covered in something thick and sticky, like honey. Heavy. Alarmed, she touched her own face as if to see if something had dripped on her from the ceiling, but there was nothing. The sensation was so alarming that for a moment, she forgot to breathe. Stupid. She was so stupid, what was wrong with her? Why was she even trying to make new friends? She was so unlikable and ugly, Casey was probably only pretending to be nice to her so that she could make fun of her. Unbidden, these negative thoughts about herself were more concerning than the sticky heaviness that seemed to crush her.

The strange feelings left as quickly as they had come. Kassidy gasped.

Something was wrong but the pieces of the puzzle were not all available to her. They never were. She usually just assumed that she was going insane.

Ayda stopped typing. A call beeped on her communication device and she swiped to ignore it. She glanced at her Casey, who was still chatting with the barista up front as she waited for coffee, like she was checking to see if she was looking back. “My sister is funny, that’s all.”

The tone in Ayda’s voice was not explicitly hostile, but there was still hostility in her. Kassidy knew when she was getting fucked with or bullied, and as genuine as Casey seemed to her, her sister seemed superficial. Like every other mean girl bully. The best way to ward someone like that off was to hit them right back.

The kid who had bullied her back when she was in middle school had been named Ben. Why was she thinking about him? She never thought about him anymore. He had been big and mean too, and when Kassidy finally got tired of him shoving her around, she and Esther had figured out a way to hurt him worse than he could hurt them.

But Kassidy wasn’t 12 anymore. She couldn’t just hit people and make them leave her alone. That stops being an option when you grow up.

“I didn’t even know that Casey had a sister,” she said, proud of herself for the way she was about to twist the knife in. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you on TV when your dad does something, even though he doesn’t shut up about her in his interviews. I’ve seen him say ‘Casey this, Casey that’ but he’s never talked about you. I’ve never even heard anyone say your name. You shy or something? You awkward? To me it looks like your dad is hiding you.”

The sounds of the other people in the cafe were loud in comparison to their own table. Ayda’s eyes were so large and placid that Kassidy could see her own distorted reflection within them. And beyond them was...nothingness. That was not to say that she got the impression that Ayda’s mind was empty. It was more like there was a...blankness inside of her that, like her eyes were dark pools of water that were impossibly deep. She grew more uncomfortable and was unable to keep making eye contact.

Again, a call beeped on Ayda’s comm, and this time she answered it.

“What’s going on?” The voice on the other line was a boy’s, funny and round sounding like he had some kind of speech impediment, but not any speech impediment Kassidy had ever heard. “Who’s bothering you, eh? Tell him to fuck off.”

If she craned her neck, Kassidy could see the little screen that was strapped to Ayda’s wrist, but didn’t feel like it. Very briefly she could see a blur of black and pink. In Eden, it was considered very rude to VidChat with someone without earbuds in, especially in a public place like a cafe. It certainly wasn’t normal.

“If he’s hurting your feelings, tell him your dad is going to break his fingers with a sledgehammer,” said the boy with the funny voice. “Quit crying and bitching and whining to me about it if you aren’t gonna do anything about it.”

Kassidy picked up her own portable device and pretended to message someone so that if other people were staring, they’d think that she was normal. 

Usually she would be hanging out with Esther and Kip right now. They’d be doing the same things they always did, talking about stupid stuff and arguing. All of their lives were changing. She was happy that Esther had a girlfriend now, just like she was happy that Kip had found some kind of purpose in his life, but she missed them.

“It’s not a boy, it’s one of my sister’s creepy new projects,” said Ayda into her communicator.

“I’m right here,” said Kassidy. “I can hear you.”

Before things could continue to escalate, Casey returned with a mug full of liquid and whipped cream.Before she sat down, she put the mug into Kassidy’s hands. She glanced at Ayda, who rudely had her communicator on, and her face lit up. “Mart-o!” she exclaimed, and grabbed at Ayda’s wrist so that she could get a good look. “Heyyy, my fav-o-rite greasy boy!”

The mug was warm in Kassidy’s hands. She looked down at it and saw that there was a star drawn in chocolate syrup floating on top of the whipped cream. When she lifted it to take a sip, the liquid was too hot to drink. For a second she wondered if Casey had just handed her poison because her fucked up evil dad wanted to do something that would hurt her mother, the Police Commissioner. She would probably drink it anyway though.

Casey pulled Ayda’s communicator off and fiddled with the settings so that the little screen expanded, then set it propped up in the middle of the table so that everyone could see it. Now that Kassidy could get a better look, she saw that the person who had called Ayda was a boy with pink cheeks and fluffy black hair. He looked a bit younger than she was and the room he was sitting in was strangely decorated in earth tones and rough furniture. He gave Kassidy a sneer.

“Have you met Marty?” Casey asked her. “He plays Candle Quest with Ayda. Marty, this is my new friend Kassidy. Doesn’t her hair look cute?”

“I didn't think you were capable of desiring friendship,” said the boy, Marty. He messed with a handheld game console, his image being captured by a desktop computer that he was sitting in front of. “I thought you didn’t have feelings. Like a reptile.”

Casey laughed. “What are you talking about? That is so funny!”

Kassidy blew on the mug of coffee and took a careful sip. The taste was something that she could not place, sweet and grassy. It wasn’t bad. She looked at the little star drawn in the whipped cream.

“We’re skipping class anyway,” Casey told the boy in the communicator. “We have to run back home because there’s a package coming that Yura and Emily can’t sign for.”

“I can’t skip class,” said Kassidy.

“Nobody said that you’re included in this…” said Ayda. “What makes you think you’re included? You can’t ever come to our house. Our dad has like, a picture of your mom on the wall that he throws knives at. You will never step foot inside of our house.”

“Haha, well maybe someday!” Casey patted Kassidy on the back and it was hard for her not to stiffen at the touch. “We’re all getting along so well right now anyway, you guys. What are you doing today, Marty? What are you up to at the unwashed freakshow?”

Marty didn’t answer or even look back up. He typed something on his handheld device. On the wall behind him hung a strange looking long-gun that resembled the ones in videos about the time before the Rift split open. It looked like it was made out of wood, a commodity that was next to impossible to procure in Eden. Kassidy squinted to get a better look at it.

The gun didn’t have a visible magazine and appeared to have two barrels. The sling that it hung on had been decorated with shiny circles that could have been badges, but were too far away to recognize. Even if one of Marty’s family members was a cop-- as legally, the State did not allow private citizens to own firearms-- a cop would not own a gun that looked like that, much less display it. It looked like it belonged in a museum.

She wanted to ask him about it. Instead, she drank the strange drink that Cassiopeia Agapama had bought her. 

They-- well, mostly Ayda and Marty-- continued to talk and bicker about things and people that only confused Kassidy. She felt like such an outsider, she didn’t know anyone who they knew. Sometimes Marty used words that she had never heard before, which lost her even more. When she checked her own communicator for messages, Esther hadn’t sent her anything and Kip had sent her a single laughing-crying emoji which reminded her that she wanted to kill him.

“Are you 18 yet, Kassidy?” Casey asked her. She rested her chin on one hand; her fingernails were long and sharp and painted pink.

“I will be in January.”

“Oh, my birthday is in November. That’s exciting, you’ll be able to vote on Foundation Day in May. Aren’t you excited to vote in our first real election in decades?”

To disguise her confusion, Kassidy took another long sip of her drink. “Uh. I mean. I guess? I’m not really into politics. I think things are basically fine.”

Casey leaned closer to her. “Don’t you think that the government should have less control, though? Especially when it comes to the free market. I think the state needs to get out of people’s business.”

“I don’t really care,” said Kassidy, who already knew she would be voting for Jay Malena in May. Voting for West Agapama, the guy who consistently terrorized the police and made jokes about her mother in his television interviews was not going to cut it for her. Even Kip was going to vote for Malena, and Kip’s whole life revolved around politics. Malena was OK. Whenever she saw him on TV, he was always smiling, and one time she had met him when she was in the Capitol column with her mother. He had even shaken her hand. “I don’t understand any of it.”

It wasn’t the answer that Casey wanted to hear and she could tell. She chewed on her lower lip.

From Ayda’s communicator, Marty exhaled loudly. “Voting is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of, I don’t understand why you people vote. Why do you think you know as much as the people who are already in charge.”

“Oh, shut up freak,” snapped Casey. Anger flashed across her face like a thunderclap, blinding and awful, and it vanished as quickly as it had arrived. When it came down to it, she was capable of being terrible.

“Ugh.” Ayda rolled her eyes. “Dumb!”

“It’s stupid,” he continued. “Everything you’ve told me about your dad running for king or whatever is stupid. How is some random person supposed to become a ruler? How are random people supposed to make a choice about that? The way we do things up here now makes more sense, we’ve fought for years for one powerful leader. You people are the dumb ones for voting.”

Whatever secret joke Marty shared with Casey and Ayda was incomprehensible to Kassidy. To her it sounded like he lived somewhere that people did not vote, but as far as she knew it was mandatory across all of Eden’s Districts. And outside of Eden and her equally democratic sister Colonies of Serenity and Green River, there was nothing. There was poisoned air and twisted mutants, transformed by the Rift.

The thoughts she was having were illogical.

Still, Kassidy stared at the strange gun behind Marty. What use did firearms have…She finished her drink.

“Your life is terrible, Marty,” said Casey. She poked the screen with her finger like she wanted to poke him and he stared at her nonplussed. “You have the worst life. Your life is actually tragic. You wish you were sitting here with us, talking about voting.”

“I am sitting with you and talking about voting.”

 Casey jabbed the little screen with her sharp manicured nail. She was...she was a lot like Kip in some ways, which was disturbing. They were both creatures of pure impulse, but what was annoying in her brother was fascinating in Casey. It was hard to look away. “Why are you so sassy today, huh? You think we don’t outnumber you just because you see Kassidy here?”

“Don’t break my comm again,” Ayda whined. “Case…”

Marty’s face was soft but his big black eyes were mean. He glanced briefly at Kassidy, who was still watching him intently. “What is sassy?”

“Bitchy. It means bitchy.”

“You’re the bitch.”

And Kassidy couldn’t take it any longer. She cleared her throat awkwardly, which surprised the sisters and reminded them of her presence. “Marty, what class are you in?” she asked him, but in her heart she already knew the answer. “Are you a 1st year? You might know my friend Esther Bellamy’s younger siblings.”

Ayda’s cheeks flushed and she grabbed her communication device like she had been doing something wrong. Casey laughed, shaking her head. “What? You don’t need to talk to him. That’s crazy. Hey, did you like the drink I picked out for you? Didn’t I tell you that I have a special gift when it comes to knowing what people like to eat? I did good, right?” She reached out like she wanted to touch Kassidy’s hair again but pulled back her hand.

“It’s fine I guess.” When she said that, Casey’s eyes went wide like nobody had ever given her a lukewarm reaction. Kassidy pressed on, the inexorable curiosity propelling her. “Do you not go to school, Marty?”

“Obviously I don’t go to school.” He was playing with his handheld device again and unlike his friends, did not seem to be bothered by the question. “School is stupid and a waste of time, why would I go to school? I couldn’t go to school even if I wanted to. Not that I would. I don’t.”

The state intranet was closed to other colonies. Even if someone from Green River or Serenity wanted to communicate with Eden, they could not unless they accessed one of the specific channels only intended for trade. Over the decades there had been dozens of hacking incidents directed from other Colonies and such communication was illegal.

Considering the type of man West Agapama was though, and considering that his fortune had been made shipping goods to and from the sister Colonies, this was not that surprising.

So Marty didn’t have a speech impediment, he had an accent. Accents in Eden were divided primarily between the Upper and Lower Levels-- anyone talking to Kassidy could easily figure out where she was from. Maybe everyone who lived where Marty lived spoke round little words like he did and didn’t understand what ‘sassy’ meant.

“I didn’t realize you were smart,” said Casey in a voice that could have been kind or cruel. “That’s nice.”

“I’m not smart,” said Kassidy, who believed that she wasn’t. “I saw the rifle behind him. Nobody in Eden has firearms like that, not even in a museum. Marty, is that yours? What do you need that for in Serenity? I always heard that they don’t have weapons at all there, at least that’s what my brother told me, but he’s always talking out of his ass.”

“I’m not from Serenity.”

Ayda groaned but did not make a move to turn off her communicator and banish Marty.

“Green River?”

“Nope.” Marty looked up from his game. “But my friends Wera and Seth are from Green River, we all play Candle Quest together. I wouldn’t want to be from there either, no way. That’s what I’m saying, everything I hear about the Colonies sounds so stupid.”

Poison air. Mutated flesh. The Rift, red and hungry across the sky.

Kassidy looked at the very normal and fluffy haired boy on Ayda’s screen like he was an exotic animal. Her heart beat faster. “So,” she said slowly. “So...so you mean that you’re not…”

The game that he was playing made a series of beeps and chimes and Marty smiled. He still had a lot of baby fat in his cheeks so smiling made him appear chunkier.. He put his handheld device down, quite proud of himself. “Can you really not beat that level, Ayda?” he asked, mockingly. “Yeah. No. I’m not from Serenity or Green River or Eden or any of the stupid Colonies. I’m from the Northern Territories.”

AJAX GUTTIEREZ

As usual, it had been an ordeal to get the kids up and ready for school. There was always some excuse they pulled out to avoid getting out of bed or to avoid getting ready. The two of them weren’t bad kids, they were both well behaved compared to what AJ was like at their ages. But for very different reasons, they did not want to go to school.

AJ sat on the metro with his elbows resting on his knees. He was exhausted, since he had put off writing a paper for too long and it was due that morning. Luckily he was still young enough to be able to pull all nighters, but whenever he blinked it felt like his eyelids stuck together. He rubbed his eyes but it didn’t help. Since the Prospas family home was located in District 1, the uppermost and wealthiest residential area and the only one located on the Surface, there weren’t many commuters going down to the Education District in the Mid Levels.

“I’m hungry,” whined Valentine, who was the youngest one at 9 years old, and who had undoubtedly had about 12 hours of sleep that night. “Can we go to the cafe to get doughnuts? I didn’t like my cereal, I want doughnuts.”

“You should have thought about that when you didn’t eat all your cereal,” said AJ. The kid was sitting next to him and kept trying to hold his hand, which he was getting a little too old for. AJ kept pulling his hand away. 

“I told you that I didn’t like it!” The only reason Valentine got away with acting the way that he did was because he was cute. His hair stuck up from his head in a loose afro and he had huge eyes, genetically modified to be yellow. His teeth were genetically modified as well; canines and incisors just large and sharp enough to give him a lisp. Because of this, and because of his genuinely happy and loving nature, he was never punished for misbehaving. “Can you get me doughnuts so I won’t get hungry at school?”

“No. You can’t have sugar for breakfast, it isn’t healthy.”

“I’m gonna be hungry though. I’m hungry now. Rome’s gonna be hungry too, he didn’t eat anything, right Rome?”

Rome, who was 14 and sitting on the other side of Valentine, briefly glanced over before re-focusing his own yellow eyes on his hands in his lap. “My stomach hurts. I think I’m sick.” Rome was the kind of kid who got scared whenever he had to get on public transportation, which was every day. 

“You’re not sick,” said AJ.

“I think I’m sick.”

“You’re making yourself sick because you’re thinking too hard about it.”

“Can I stay home from school?” Rome glanced back over at AJ. He looked scared and unhappy, but he always looked scared and unhappy. Rome kept his hair very short and neat, he buttoned his shirts all the way up to the top, and constantly worked himself up over nothing. “I feel like I’m going to throw up, I don’t want to go to school if I’m going to throw up. I’m nauseous. I don’t feel good, I’m sick. My stomach hurts.”

“If he gets to skip school, I get to skip school,” said Valentine. When he smiled he showed off incisors. The appearance of the Prospas children, with their glowing yellow eyes and sharp teeth, really revealed the values of their father. After all, he had paid ridiculous amounts of money 3 separate times to get his sons to appear predatory. Most Artificials just ended up appearing luminously beautiful in a way that was offsetting.

“Nobody is skipping school,” he said, shaking off his negativity. He pulled out his communicator to distract himself. “Your dad will get mad at me if I let you do that, he wants you guys to have a good education, it’s really important. Don’t you want to go to school and learn stuff? Just quit thinking about how you feel sick, Rome, I thought you were going to meet up with your new friends and go to class together.”

Rome looked back down at his hands. “I don’t think they’re really my friends. It’s only been two weeks. How long does it take?”

“They’re nice.” Valentine attempted to stick a hand into his brother’s bookbag and take something out of it, but Rome pulled the bag away and set it on his other side. “I like them. I like their hair. I want somebody to be my friend. Why does nobody in my class like me? Did you know that there’s something living in our shower drain, AJ? It’s like, it’s like blah blah blah, I think it talks to me more than people in my own class. AJ. Hey, AJ!”

The two Prospas children were difficult for AJ to take care of because they were unlike normal children in many ways. He cared about them and wanted them to be happy, but it was easy for him to feel irritated by the burden of his responsibility. Luckily he didn’t have to worry about them getting into fights or becoming violent with other children like Ben ---well. He didn’t have to worry about that aspect of their safety.

The metro lurched to its final stop before it started making its way down to the Mid Levels. A few more people walked in, probably professors. AJ briefly assessed them to determine whether they might be people who would do harm to the kids out of hatred for their father, then went back to his communicator.

He had been messaging a guy on a hook-up app for the last 24 hours. Talking with Jenny Qian really reminded him of how long it had been since he had gotten laid. It was going well, the two of them were planning on meeting up soon. It would be some much needed stress relief.

The guy, whose name was Harlan, seemed nice enough. Not that AJ cared about personality in this context. The important thing about this guy was that he was attractive-- thin, with a cheeky face which he hid behind a neat little beard. That was all AJ wanted when he was looking for a guy to hook up with: somebody cute and fun. His profile said that he was into some seriously stupid stuff though, but that was best not to dwell on. Whatever Harlan did in his free time, politics or whatever, AJ didn’t care about it  too much.

AJ accidentally opened his DMs to reveal a nude picture that Harlan had sent him the previous night. Panicking, he clicked out of the page and shoved his communicator back into his pocket before one of the kids glanced at it. Even as an accident, if he exposed them to something like that, their dad would absolutely beat him to death with something imaginative and then leave his body somewhere public. 

He sent Harlan a quick message about getting together that night or the night after but didn’t expect him to get back to him any time soon. The guy didn’t seem like an early riser, the ones who are simultaneously lazy and clever never were.

It would be nice if he was able to spend more of his time doing what he liked to do instead of worrying about dragging kids around.

“I hate sitting by myself at lunch, but I bet you like doing that, don’t you Rome?” said Valentine. “I bet you like sitting by yourself, don’t you? Don’t you? Hey! AJ! Didn’t you hear me say there’s something that talks in the shower? You didn’t laugh!”

AJ pinched the bridge of his nose. 

A few of the other passengers were talking amongst themselves but AJ was not listening to them. For all he knew they could be AGA goons who were there to kill him and kidnap the kids so that West Agapama could blackmail their father. Richard Prospas constantly worried over scenarios such as this, but to AJ’s knowledge it was not something that would ever happen. Agapama didn’t mess with other people’s kids, nobody who belonged to the Four Families did. Even in organized crime one had to have standards which expressed a code of honor. 

The real threat that AJ had to worry over was ordinary people. People like him. People who were poor and angry and had been wronged in some way by Prosperity, either through job lay-offs or through violence. It was those kinds of people who were desperate enough to act drastically and it was those kinds of people who posed the greatest threat.

Over the years, AJ had never had to protect the kids from anything. There was nobody who wanted to hurt them; how could anyone ever want to hurt a couple of sweet but stupid kids? He wasn’t really needed. He was not a bodyguard, he was a baby-sitter and he was tired of it.

The metro stopped at the first station of the enormous Education District and the people in their car started to get off. AJ pocketed his communicator, grabbed Valentine’s hand, and jerked his head toward the door to indicate to Rome that there was no wiggle room for truancy that day. Their stop was never crowded because they got there early and because the only people who rode in their car were from the 1st Residential District too. Rich people. Rich kids. It was easy to get on and off; some metro stops in the Lower Levels could take the better part of half an hour to navigate.

The best part about the Education District was how safe it was. You had to scan your ID in order to access each floor, which meant that nobody from the University floors could wander down to the elementary school floors, and vice versa. This could become an irritating problem when one needed to get to one’s child or sibling in an emergency, but it meant that unauthorized adults were unable to interact with kids at any time. Apart from the Capitol, it was the District with the highest level of security. AJ never felt anxiety when he was dropping the kids off for the school day.

Sure, kids could be violent too. He had learned that lesson when the eldest Prospas brother got himself sent to the Youth Detention Center indefinitely after he attacked a middle-school girl. At least that was one problem he didn’t have to worry about anymore. But the younger two were not anything like Ben: neither one of them had an aggressive bone in their bodies, so AJ didn’t worry.

He thought about the paper that he had due that morning and sighed. He’d get a B on it, a C at worse. AJ took his hair out of its ponytail and finger-combed it. Sleep. Rest. When was he going to just rest?

“Are you sure I can’t get a snack?” asked Valentine.

AJ adjusted the child’s shirt collar with practiced firmness. “Yeah. When you get home.” At this point in his life he was immune to the high pitched whining that followed saying ‘no’. With a gentle push, he let him know that there was no room for discussion there. The 9 year old made his way toward the elevators that would take him down to the elementary school floors. AJ watched to make sure he didn’t try to sneak off.

Without asking, he already knew that Rome wanted him to stay with him until his friends showed up. As quiet and aloof as he was, it was harder to understand Rome and his needs than it was with his brothers. It would be easy for AJ to leave him by himself and go write his paper, nothing would come of it and nobody would even know because Rome was not the kind of kid who was always running to his dad. AJ had left him alone when he was distressed before, multiple times. Despite that, he figured he would wait around with him until 7:45 at the latest.

In the meantime, he mindlessly checked his comm. Nothing on the news feeds was new. More election stuff. Every time he saw a picture of Agapama’s face smirking or winking, he felt irritated because he suspected that he was only running to boost his company’s power-- and it was working. AGA was more profitable than ever, which was amazing seeing as it had been all but bankrupt less than 20 years ago. People could say what they wanted about the guy, but he was a savvy businessman, much savvier than AJ’s current employer.

How was it even possible to not turn a quarterly profit when you had a stranglehold on the markets due to a monopoly on one industry? People needed to eat. What kind of idiot manages a company like that but still manages to have costs greater than its revenue?

Those kinds of thoughts were treacherous but as time passed, he had more and more like them. All he really wanted was to be an asset to Richard Prospas. He wanted to be useful and help manage the numbers side of things, wanted to see the other pieces of the puzzle. 

Better to keep his hopes realistic. AJ opened up a picture of some leather shoes he wanted to buy for when he had to present his thesis next semester.

Rome wasn't looking at him. “I forgot my tablet at home,” he said.

“Hm?” AJ opened up a different option for shoes that were cheaper but looked about the same quality. Suspicious. Why would they be a whole 100 credits cheaper? Unless they were actually made of plastic or something that he didn’t want on his feet.

“I didn’t do my geometry assignment last night.”

“OK.”

“I was-- I don’t know. I didn’t even forget it, I just didn’t do it and I don’t know why. I don’t know why. I can’t get a bad grade on it though, it’s making me feel sick. I feel nauseous.”

“Right.”

“Do you think I should just copy someone--”

AJ put away his communicator suddenly. “You know, if you start doing stuff like cheating and copying other people’s work, you’ll get caught eventually. That will be way worse than getting one bad grade on something. Think about it.” He watched Rome hunch his thin shoulders and look at the ground. “You’re better than that, OK? You’re way better than that. Don’t cheat, you’re too smart.”

The kid snuck a glance at him and AJ had to try not to grimace; the yellow eyeshine was the worst when lighting was poor enough to produce a glow effect. “Can I tell you something?”

“Shoot.”

“I think there’s something really wrong with me. I feel--”

Whatever it was exactly that Romeo believed was wrong with him (AJ could think of a great many things off the top of his head as all of his psychosomatic issues changed from day to day) it was interrupted by a sudden excited shriek. In a split second, AJ dug his hands into his pockets to grasp his knuckledusters and had them over his fingers. His fists were clenched before he even turned around and adrenaline coursed through his body. This was it. This was it, this was it, this was it.

It wasn’t it.

Turning, AJ saw that it was only a couple of kids waving at Rome. He unclenched his teeth, forced his shoulders to relax. As carefully as he could, he slipped the harsh pieces of metal from his hands and back down into his pockets. While not illegal per se, if any authority figure saw him with weapons in the School District they would have him arrested. If that happened, his mother would have to bail him out and he couldn’t handle the thought of it.

His heart pounded in his chest. What was he so scared of? Throughout all the years, nothing bad had ever happened.

He passed a hand over his eyes. “Your friends?” he asked Rome.

Rome just scratched anxiously at his face.

The kids were twins, a boy and a girl, who were so eerily identical that it was clear that they were Artificals. They were white, with orange hair and long gangly limbs that gave them coltish gaits. They hurried up to Rome and AJ noticed the fine quality of their clothing and all-around cleanliness. When they got close to Rome, the two of them blushed prettily.

“Hey,” said the girl one.

“Hi!” said the boy one. “Hi, how are you?”

“I’m fine,” said Rome who appeared to have stopped breathing. He tried to smile at the other children without showing his sharp incisors and it came off as insincere. He had not been made with a face good for smiling so this was not entirely his fault. “How-- how are you guys?”

“Kip taught me new karate moves the other night,” said the boy, arranging his arms into an awkward fighting stance. His form was all wrong but his bright green eyes and lazy smile showed that he wasn't serious about it. “It’s pretty cool, do you wanna fight?” Without warning he faked a punch at Rome, then playfully got him into a loose chokehold. Passive as ever, Rome tried to cringe away but was at a disadvantage due to being shorter; his terrible yellow eyes started to glaze over with tears and he looked to AJ for help. Oblivious to the fear, the other boy tightened his grip like he was going to try to disastrously flip him.

AJ grabbed the gangly kid by the back of his sweater and peeled him away from his charge. “Uh-uh,” he said sternly. “Nope. No fighting.”

The kid tried to twist away and kicked ineffectively at AJ’s shin. “Heyyyy!”

“What’s your problem?” demanded the girl. She had her arms crossed and her pointy face screwed up in an unpleasant expression. “He’s just playing around.”

“I don’t care, don’t let me see you touch him like that again.”

At this point Rome’s skin glistened with perspiration. He hunched his shoulders and pulled at his collar, unable to pull his gaze away from his own feet because he was so mortifyingly embarrassed.

Playing or not, AJ couldn’t let either of the kids he watched over get hurt. More importantly, in his mind, he could not permit them to be exposed to violence. There would be enough time for that in their lives later.

He released the boy and watched him dart back to his sister’s side. “Are you going to introduce me to your friends, Rome?” he asked.

“I feel nauseous.” 

AJ took a deep, calming breath.

The girl opened up her purse, took out a stick of gum, and handed it to Rome. “Here, it’s mint, if you chew this you won’t feel as sick, even though it’s all made up in your head. I’m Evangeline Bellamy. My brother is Eddie. Who are you?”

Bellamy was a common enough name in Eden. They were probably harmless. AJ looked at Rome and the way he was chewing the gum and not flinching away when the boy twin, Eddie, patted him on the back. This was not so bad. He overreacted, he often did. All this was was something new.

“I’m Ajax.”

“Yeah, OK, who are you?”

“I watch after Rome and his brother.”

“A babysitter? That’s very very sad and depressing, what are you, like 30?”

There was nothing he could do about kids being snotty towards him. He supposed that he should be more thankful that Rome and Valentine were so well-mannered and would never dream of mouthing off to an adult they didn’t know. AJ grimaced a smile and checked his communication device. The guy he had been talking to had messaged him back.

“Why do you need a babysitter, Rome?” asked Eddie. It seemed as though the greatest physical difference between him and his twin was that she stood straight and rigid, while his posture was hunched over and droopy. He kept his arms crossed over his chest like he was insecure. “That’s weird. We’re the same age, we’ve never needed someone to ride the train with us.”

“We’ve been riding the metro by ourselves since we were like, 9,” said Evangeline.

“My dad is overprotective,” lied Rome, a person who had hyperventilated and cried the last time he had tried to get on a train by himself. “He’s worried I might get hurt.”

>lee.harlan: How’s it going?

>lee.harlan: Come over to my place tonight?

His comm buzzed a 3rd time. Harlan had sent him a picture of himself with an obvious erection, only wearing underwear. The guy was clearly exaggerating about a couple things in his profile. AJ fumbled to swipe the picture away again.

It was better than nothing. A distraction from his life would make him happy, for a while. For a while he wouldn’t have to think about his mediocre grades, or worry about his mom.

>ajax.guttierez: Is 8 OK?

Harlan sent back a winky face and for the first time that day, AJ felt himself smile. Just a little. There was something silly about another adult man using emojis-- every other man in AJ’s life was so serious. He couldn’t imagine Mr. Prospas sending something like that, nor Ib or Scotty who were his own bodyguards. This was good. This guy was going to be good for him, just a shallow funny distraction.

Beside him, the Bellamy twins were talking excitedly to Rome about something or other and Rome didn’t look like he was about to stress-vomit for once-- but he wasn’t laughing or smiling either. Uncomfortable perhaps, but not scared. It was probably not great that the other kids moved so quickly and awkwardly, but at least they weren’t trying out more stupid karate moves. 

AJ cleared his throat. “You good, Rome? I gotta get going.”

“Why wouldn’t he be good?” demanded Evangeline Bellamy as she rummaged through her purse for a yellow scrunchie, with which she tied her hair out of her face. “Of course he’s good. Do you not think everything is good?” AJ smiled at her tightly.

Instead of using his words, Rome just gave a little shrug, which AJ took as a yes. He turned and left, heading for the elevators that would take him up towards the University floors. 

He just wanted to be done with college, with OK enough grades to get an OK job. Hopefully he would work for Prosperity. With all the ass-kissing he had done lately, he figured he deserved it.

On that thought, he dialed his boss’s number as he got on one of the elevators.

Richard Prospas picked up on the first ring. “Is everything OK?” he asked immediately without so much as a hello. He was intense and high-strung and plagued by migraines, which wasn’t the best temperament for a CEO of a large company to have. Ever since what had happened to Ben, he had been intensely concerned about the development of his younger two sons-- who were, as far as he was concerned, his only sons.

“Just checking in,” said AJ. “Rome just told me he hasn’t been doing his homework, do you know what’s up with that?” For a moment he felt guilty about betraying the confidence of a child who trusted him, especially since he knew Rome would get in trouble over it later. What were his priorities though? AJ cared about Rome’s wellbeing, he just cared about his own well-being and the well-being of his mother more. It was important that he continued to ingratiate himself with his boss so that he could move up in the company, so that he could make more money and receive more respect.

“Goddammit,” swore Prospas. “What is wrong with him? That means he lied to my face, you know. He told me he had finished everything this morning. What is wrong with him?”

“Maybe he needs to see a therapist. He makes himself freak out by overthinking and then--”

“He doesn’t need a fucking therapist, he needs to grow up and start being responsible. At this rate Valentine is more responsible than he is.”

“Oh, absolutely,” agreed AJ, groveling as usual. Valentine was not responsible at all, with his clinginess and his imaginary friends. “Absolutely.”

“He knows that he’s going to be in charge of the company when I retire. He needs to be working hard and making connections, not hiding in his room all day. I don’t understand him, I don’t understand him at all. That-- that funny wheezy breathing thing he does is going to drive me up a wall.  At this rate he’s going to be a piss-poor leader, if he runs my company into the ground I swear to God that I’ll force the Board to make his brother CEO.”

“I don’t think anyone is going to be good enough to fill your shoes, sir.”

“Thanks, AJ.” For a long minute, Prospas paused. Then he cleared his throat. “You know, your mother is really starting to freak me out with her religious shit. Last night she-- she has these fuckin’ cuts on her stomach. Is she doing alright? She’s not going to try to kill herself again, is she? I can’t deal with that any more, I just can’t. It was awful the last time. I couldn’t sleep at all, you gotta picture it, I would lie awake all night just terrified that she would slit her wrists or something.”

Air suddenly would not fill AJ’s lungs and images he had tried to forget flooded his mind. His left hand clenched into a fist.

“You there?” 

The elevator was not moving fast enough. AJ forced himself to suck in a breath. “She’s fine,” he said, keeping the anger and fear out of his voice. “That’s how-- you know about the Rift religion? They do that. Something about blood, I don’t know. It’s how they worship. She’s fine. She’s happy, I think the church gives her a sense of community. She keeps telling me about how happy she is.”

“Oh, good,” Prospas said absently. “Thanks.”

“Of course,” said AJ, thinking about how his mother had tried to overdose the day after that Prospas sent his father into an Agapama storehouse to get shot. AJ had been 16 years old, and so angry that he pulled a knife on him. Prospas had his own bodyguard Scotty hold AJ’s arms behind his back and then beat him with his blackthorn walking stick. The severity of the beating left him with a concussion that he had to go to the hospital for. The memories served as a reminder to never fight back. “Anything.”

“Remind me to give you some different work one of these days. You’re too good a worker to keep wasting on the kids.”

AJ’s heart fluttered and the bad memories were pushed to the back of his mind. The past didn’t matter. All that mattered was the future. His future.  “I-- I would really enjoy that,” he said.

“Really?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Great. Maybe you can help with some numbers that aren’t adding up, I’ll tell the guys. Look-- I have to go. I have a meeting with one of our suppliers. Great talking to you, Ajax.” And he hung up.

AJ realized that his hand was still clenched into a fist. The elevator dinged and he walked out into the University floors, absentmindedly scanning the ID chip in his wrist as he went.

When he did not know how to feel, he generally busied himself and pushed the emotional aspects of his mind to the side. He had things to study. He had a paper to finish. The things in his life were not all bad. The things that hurt him, the fears that always crept in could be put into boxes for him to deal with later. He didn’t know anything else.

What he did know was that he was going to go to town on Harlan that night. A welcome distraction.

KIP NGUYEN

(I DONT KNOW WHAT TO WRITE HERE. KIP IN THE LIBRARY, SPACING OUT)

“Who are you?” he demanded, preemptively defensive. It wasn’t fun to get caught spacing out, it always made him feel like he had done something wrong. “Do you need something?”

The girl didn’t jump back or flinch the way that people usually did when he moved too fast or talked too loud. There was something gently familiar about her, with her solid build and her broad face. She wore a faded sweatshirt and a pendant with a deity on it around her neck. She looked at him in a way he wasn’t used to and he couldn’t put his finger on what it was. “You OK?” she asked in the low, coarse tone of the Lower Levels.

The question was so preposterous that he was unable to contain his reaction and tried to make himself a threat by looming over her. The girl still didn’t flinch, she gazed calmly up at him.

“What?” exclaimed Kip, puffing out his chest. “What the fuck, man, don’t just ask strangers how they’re feeling. It’s not normal. What’s wrong with you?”

She put her hands up to placate him but didn’t appear to be mocking. Her brown eyes were unremarkable except for their steady kindness. “Sorry, you just don’t look so good. What’s so wrong with checking in?”

Kip glanced down at the girl’s religious necklace, then glared at her. He knew what those people were like. They could sense weakness and used that to their advantage when proselytizing people. The way that they had formed religious branches of social services sickened him-- didn’t they understand that nonreligious mutual aid programs already existed? A firm believer in Eden’s state atheism, he took pride in never having been inside of a church. 

“Do you need something from me?” he demanded. He took a step back to give her some space, disturbed that she had not been flustered by his posturing. People didn’t just come up and talk to him, and when they did they never stayed calm for long. “What do you want, huh?”

“Seriously? You don’t know who I am?”

“How would I know that?!”

“I’ve been going out with Esther Bellamy for two months. I know who you are, I know all about you.”

The ghost of a memory attempted to move through Kip’s synapses and failed. In a vague way, he knew about Esther’s girlfriend. He knew she had talked to him about her and he knew that she had shown him pictures of her on more than one occasion. But the fogginess that had been filling his brain since he woke up that morning prevented him from accessing this information.

He shook his head and then slapped his own face hard.

The girl finally flinched when she saw him hit himself. “Don’t do that, what’s wrong with you?”

Kip snapped his fingers. “No. Yes. Church. Rosie Church. Rosaline Church, yep, I got it. Shit. I know about you, my brain just doesn’t kick in until I get my morning, uh, coffee…”

Rosaline stared at him without saying anything. Her thick eyebrows were knitted together in an expression that was either confusion or worry. This was the same expression that well-meaning adults got, not other kids.

Anger flared in him. Who was this stranger to judge him, to worry about him? He was sick and tired of being worried for and over. There was nothing wrong with him. There had never been anything wrong with him. He was-- he was simply in an environment that was not conducive to his health. “Whatever. What do you want from me? Are you looking for Esther? She has therapy this morning, she’s not coming back to school until noon.”

“I know Esther is at therapy,” said Rosaline. “I talk to her. She’s my girlfriend. No-- look, I’m not trying to get into your business…”

“But clearly you’re about to anyway.”

Rosaline shrugged. “Esther cares about you and your sister a lot, I care about her. I think it’s pretty simple. Anyways, I was just wondering, do you know who your sister has been hanging out with over the last couple weeks?”

“Nobody. She doesn’t have friends.”

“Wow. That’s-- no.” Rosaline pushed her shaggy hair away from her forehead. “So, OK. There’s this girl named Ayda Jay in my cohort and she’s pretty much the worst person I’ve met in my life, I don’t know, it’s like she wants people to feel bad about themselves. She’s quiet but she’s always talking to this guy on her comm and lately she’s been talking about your sister. Like making fun of her and stuff.”

Unfortunately, this wasn’t anything new. Bullying wasn’t anything new. There had always been bullies. Kassidy was small and ugly and over-reacted to things, she was an easy target. When he could, Kip tried to protect her, especially when the bullying became physical. Hell, he had gone to Juvie because he had protected her in middle school back when Ben Prospas was picking on her. When he had seen that huge Artificial take his fat hand and shove his tiny sister down to the floor, something broke in Kip’s brain. He couldn’t even remember attacking Ben, it was like he had gone to sleep and then woke up in the Principal’s office getting screamed at by his mother. Compared to that, some girl making fun of Kassidy was nothing.

“Thanks,” said Kip in as mocking a voice as he could manage. Religious people were really too sensitive. “Really. I think Kassidy is tough enough to deal with some mean words.”

“You don’t get it. Ayda Jay is related to Casey Agapama somehow, I think they’re sisters or cousins. They live together, they hang out together. Your sister has been hanging out with Casey Agapama, man. I’d be worried if I were you.”

In his shock, Kip grabbed Rosaline by the shoulders with both hands and brought his face close to hers. Rosaline’s eyes widened, she grabbed one of his wrists and twisted it so hard that she flipped him around and wrenched his arm up behind his back. It hurt but Kip could not even think of the pain.

Casey Agapama.

He knew about Casey Agapama. Everyone did. Her rat bastard venture capitalist father was unspeakably wealthy due to the labor he exploited from his workers. People were terrified of Casey, they said that she was a sociopath. She didn’t so much get into fights as she did beat the crap out of other kids for no reason. People said that she had stabbed a teacher and gotten away with it. When she walked down the halls, everyone else got out of her way.

In 4 years of secondary education, Kip had only seen her once. She had shoved him out of his chair in the library while walking past him when he was 15. She hadn’t even looked at him, it was like she had done it out of pure boredom.

What was Kassidy doing around a girl like that? Surely even she wasn’t that stupid.

Rosaline released her grip on his arm. “Don’t just grab people like that. You scared me.”

“What the fuck?!” groaned Kip, rubbing his arm where Rosaline had twisted it. He was used to scuffling with people who were 30+ pounds lighter than him, not people who were sturdy like she was. “Jesus, fuck my tits, my sister is gonna get fucking killed!! That’s why she’s been messing with her hair and shit, like all that make-up shit, she’s trying to impress that freak!”

“Wow, you cuss more than anyone I’ve ever met,” said Rosaline. “ Maybe you should--”

“My sister is associating with someone who could rip her arms off and you’re telling me not to fucking cuss?!”

“No, I’m just making a comment, calm down.” Rosaline put her hands up, as if that was going to calm him. She was looking at Kip like she expected him to attack her now, and that was a look he was used to, a look that was worse than pity or concern. Dangerous. Bad. When people like Rosaline Church saw Kip, they did not see a well functioning member of society, they saw a dangerous individual who might hurt them. Kip did not want to hurt anyone, he knew his heart was gentle, but he could not help the way he talked or reacted to things. 

(I DONT KNOW HOW TO WRITE THE KIP/CASEY FIGHT THAT BRINGS EVERYONE TOGETHER)

[mercutial]

A More Wholesome Take on Victor Vallakovich

Hey guys! I hadn't found any deeper interpretations that made Victor out to be particularly wholesome, so here's the version I'm using in my campaign.

I've read u/guildsbounty's post on Victor, and while I love it because it fits in so well with the gothic horror themes, my party had already become friendly with Victor and he had already been established as a mild-mannered guy who didn't really have an aversion to people in general, mostly just timidity.

I've borrowed elements from u/MandyMod's fleshed out version of the Vallakovich household - the parts about Vargas and Lydia neglecting Victor emotionally for pretty much his entire life.

Background

Vargas has avoided contact with Victor out of fear of being abusive like his own father was to him, and Lydia is no more than a brainwashed peanut. They don’t really bother socializing him with people outside of the household either... so Victor has been deprived of healthy human relationships. To pass the time, he read all of the books in his father’s library, which were mostly old histories and a few on philosophy, passed down from his great-grandfather. 

Cats

In lieu of human relationships, Victor has always loved cats. Cats are the closest thing he's had to companionship. He understands their need for space, their fickleness, and he loves it when he can finally earn their affection.

His first cat he found as a stray kitten and named it Twinkle, because as a child he read a book that talked about stars in the night sky, and how they “twinkled”. Being a Barovian, he had never seen a clear night sky before. So he named his cat after the sight he wished he could see, out in the free and open world beyond the mists.

However, Twinkle met an untimely end. (You can decide whether this is caused by the Wachter boys, either accidentally or intentionally, or if Twinkle was killed by an accident or rabid dog or something.) Victor was devastated. He refused to bury Twinkle, keeping the cat’s decaying body in a chest in his room until a maid noticed the smell and freaked out, prompting his parents to make him bury Twinkle in the garden. Later he went and dug up the grave in secret and took the body back to the attic. He never buried it, even after the body rotted away, leaving only the skeleton, which he kept hidden in an old toy chest.

He had read in a book somewhere of a mage who had been able to raise animals and people from the dead. Surely that was possible? Some of the travelers who came through Vallaki from were capable of magic. Driven by the promise of possibilities, he acquired spellbooks and books about magery, scouring them for knowledge. His two focuses: magic to raise the dead, and teleportation out of Barovia.

Magic

Eventually through numerous trials and errors, he figured out how to perform simple raisings. Despite the fact that Twinkle was now a mere skeleton, when Victor attempted to raise Twinkle, it was an undeniable success. The little feline skeleton picked itself up off the ground, turned to face him, and rubbed up against his leg just as it had always done. He was overjoyed.

His teleportation experiments weren’t so successful, however. The incomplete diagrams that he had acquired were not enough for him to complete a working teleportation circle. No matter what he did, the countless circles he drew in chalk, in ashes, in blood all remained inert.

Stella

Around a year and a half before the campaign started, Lady Wachter began to push her agenda of attempting to wed Stella to Victor, likely due to her husband’s recent death. Victor and Stella had met a few times in the past, but neither had really been made to interact. But now Lady Wachter began bringing Stella over for tea, “accidentally” bumping into Victor the few times he was out and about, and insisting that she and the Vallakoviches leave the two alone to talk on their own.

At first, Victor was resistant to the forced interactions. He had always been shy around people, and occasionally mocked or at least stared at, and so always tried to limit his time with other people as much as possible. But for whatever reason, Stella seemed to take a genuine interest in him. She was a cheerful and polite person, and her well-mannered inquiries into Victor’s daily life and activities grew on him over time. When eventually asked about why he spent so much time indoors in the attic, he dropped his hedging and timidly hinted at his “experiments”. 

To his surprise, she wasn’t put off. In fact, when he admitted that he wanted to find a way to cross the mists, Stella’s eyes grew wide in fascination. Uncharacteristically, she immediately began bombarding him with more questions about what he was doing, how he was doing it, what he had tried. Flustered, he offered to show her.

And so the two of them began to work together on the experiments in earnest. After swearing her to secrecy, Victor brought Stella up to speed on everything he had found – not difficult as she proved to be a quick learner. Lady Wachter and the Vallakoviches were curious at first as to why their children were spending so much time together, but the Vallakoviches quickly lost interest, and Fiona decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Soon it felt to Victor as if progress had more than doubled; Stella’s fresh inquiries and perspective revealed a couple of the faulty assumptions that Victor had subconsciously incorporated into his calculations.

Then at last, a breakthrough! One day, one of their circles came to life and zapped a test mouse away. However, Victor and Stella soon realized there was still some kind of issue with the circle. The various inanimate objects and mice that they zapped through only came back in pieces, and even then only occasionally came back at all. 

The two didn’t give up, however. At this point, several months into their pursuit, they were not only energized by their recent successes, but had also grown close. Perhaps, Victor hoped, as real friends… or perhaps even something more?

He had never really felt this close to anyone before – not his parents, not the servants, and certainly not the other townspeople. In contrast he found himself actually wanting to see Stella again, looking forward to hearing her lively voice, seeing her bright smile at the front door. He had always suspected that the love spoken of in his history books and novels might have a basis in reality, but he had never really felt it to be true until now. His parents’ loveless mess of a marriage, built upon the farce of a happy town they had created, had never come close to the ideal. But what he felt when he saw Stella… perhaps that was what the books meant. And perhaps the shining looks she gave him, the smiles and knowing winks they traded in their parents’ presence, the little inside jokes they had started to develop… perhaps that meant she felt the same way.

They had also begun to open up about things other than their experiments. He learned what she thought of her family – her concerns about her mother, her loving but somewhat antagonistic relationship with her jokester brothers. And he poured out his heart about his parents – how he wondered, after all he’d read in his books, whether something could have been different between him and them.

At one point they made several modifications to their most recent iteration of the teleportation circle. They were no longer receiving body parts of unfortunate mice and rats in return, but they were also fairly certain that the bodies weren’t being vaporized. Perhaps, perhaps they were really sending them elsewhere? But there was no good way to tell. Unless…

The Accident

Stella offered to send herself through the circle. Victor objected vehemently. Hadn’t she seen what happened to some of the things they sent through? It was their first full-scale argument, and it ended in tears and Stella storming back to her house.

Later that night, Victor was awakened by a sound on the stairs. He made it quietly to the door just in time to see someone slipping into the attic. Following, he discovered the intruder was Stella – activating the teleportation circle and stepping into it.

It all happened so quickly. One moment Stella was setting foot into the circle, the next thing Victor saw a blur of fur and realized one of his cats had darted into it as well… and then a flash of light blinded him.

In hindsight, it was lucky that Stella hadn’t been shredded to pieces, sent far away, or ended up with cat-like features or fur. But her mental state was just about as impossible to explain, and Victor was in no state to explain it. Lady Wachter was furious. She immediately took Stella home and locked her away while threatening the Vallakoviches with all manner of consequences she could safely threaten, and all Victor could do was watch miserably, numbly, in utter shame. Couldn’t he have stopped her if he’d just been a little faster? If he hadn’t lingered on the stairs? He should have known, he should have kept the attic door locked. In fact, he never should have introduced her to magic.

Victor had always been reclusive, but after the incident, he often shut himself away for days on end. Tray after tray of uneaten food sat by his door.

Eventually he went back to his attic and his books, but with a new objective in mind: restoring Stella Wachter.

During the Campaign

Stella is the only person who has ever shown that she truly likes Victor. He would feel numb about his parents dying, but if Stella died, he would probably lose all will to live. So she’s basically all he has left. If the party befriends him, he’ll likely ask them to help him find a scroll of Greater Restoration and/or someone who can cast it on Stella (e.g. Rictavio.)

However, even if the party manages to free Stella and find a scroll/caster, Victor will be nervous about restoring her to sanity. He’s afraid that she’ll be angry and blame him for her condition, and she’ll end up hating him… like everyone else in his life. To that end, he’s unsure if he should have someone perform a Greater Restoration on her at all.

And the way Stella is now (if she’s freed and gets to spend time with Victor), at least she’s very affectionate with him. She likes him a lot and wants to be with him all the time. If her sanity was restored, would she still feel that way? He doubts that. Why would anyone like him so much anyway?

Somewhere in the pit of his heart he feels that her former affection towards him was a fluke, or worse, fake. He knows that keeping her from being restored is selfish, but he also justifies it by arguing that it’s far crueler to force someone to understand the bleak world than it is to have them live in blissful ignorance. He feels that she’s probably happier being the way she is now. He feels like he would be. 

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So that’s it! Hope this was an interesting take on Victor and gives you a few ideas for how to run him in your campaigns. In mine, it led to an interesting (though a little frustrating) roleplaying scenario between Victor and the party when he started getting cold feet about using Greater Restoration on Stella. Let me know if there’s anything you want me to expand on!