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jodilin65 · 17 years ago

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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2007 Been doing Netwinner like crazy. Some days are still better than others. Yesterday I was barely up over 1000 points after 500 spins, today I was up 1000 points after just 100 spins.

That person who has millions of points has referred nearly 3000 people, so that’s how they’re racking up points like crazy. I wish I had a spammer’s list of email addresses so I could send zillions of referrals out myself.

There are still no other suitable work-at-home jobs I could find. Just the usual “You pay to work for us” jobs. Better yet the “You buy our products and hope to hell you can sell them” jobs.

Two nights ago I dreamt I won 50 grand. I hope this means I’m sitting on another big win, just like the dream I had of winning a car or 25K meant a big win was to come as in the high-def TV.

Whoa, now I’m up 6000 points in just 125 spins!

MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2007 Today Kate Jackson is 59, and I’ve been journaling for 20 years as of two days ago! Right now the net is out, which still happens despite being faster and more reliable overall. You would think by now there’d be reliable service everywhere, but nope. Gotta be in your own place for that.

It turns out that Netwinner has 7 partner sites, each allowing you 100 spins a day. Either they’ve increased the odds on the multipliers, or I’m doing a better job of influencing it because I’ve been getting points like crazy. We had Tom sign up too, using me as a referral, so I’d not only get points for referring him, but a 10% bonus for all the points he wins as well. I should easily be able to get $100 a month as long as things stay this way! And as long as I can have a reliable connection too, though it won’t leave much time for much else other than sweeping. My stories will progress very slowly, but I figure there’s no hurry anyway.

We went to Walmart really early yesterday morning and then hung out here all day watching TV, munching on junk, and playing Netwinner.

Jessie read my journal excerpts on the nightmare we went through and said it was amazing how strong we are, despite having thoughts of giving up. I sure as hell thought we weren’t going to have a choice in that department for a while! I hope we never go through anything that scary and stressful again.

I saw Josephina today. She came to do the end room, and when I saw it was her since I had the window open, I stepped out to say hello. She said she still smelled the incense and wanted to know where to get it from. So I gave her the web address, as well as my phone and email, saying that maybe we could learn Italian together once we got out of here. She thanked me and said she’d pray for me.

What was weird was that she left next door without doing the room. She went inside before she took off, then she returned to do it later on after the guy had returned to it. I guess he doesn’t want it done unless he’s there.

Today they replaced the bed which had been in here for 5 years, though it looked more like 20, and later on they’re doing the door. I hope they won’t keep making pests of themselves after this, and that Josephina does the room this Thursday when it’s scheduled to be done next.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2007 Next door just got up to bang around, so I put the headphones on. They’re up all night and out all day, although I only just now heard them and have been up since 1:30.

I guess the guy on the end is still here, too. I wonder if he’ll pay for another month or not. I hope so since he’s usually quiet. There’s got to be more going on with him than just wanting an apartment. Apartments are so easy to get.

Sure enough, Josephina was off yesterday, so I ended up with that Indian lady. I don’t know if she was pissed or in a major hurry or what, but she wasn’t the least bit friendly when she stormed through here to clean. If anything she was bordering on rude and I hope she won’t be back anytime soon. I don’t know if she just doesn’t like to chat while she works or if something else was going on, but she’s definitely not a favorite of mine around here at this point. I noticed something was wrong with her the last time she came to assist Josephina. I thought she was just having a rough day or something because I heard her telling Josephina something about nearly passing out of thirst. I think this was the second out of the 4 times Josephina’s done this room.

They’re also making pests of themselves with this inspection thing they’ve got going on here. It’s not just about the sprinklers and smoke detectors, but about doors, beds and who knows what else as well? Motels and apartments always have something going on. Today the maintenance guy is coming to replace the metal plate on the outside bottom of the door so there isn’t as much of a gap. Then next week I get a new bed. At least it’ll be softer with its plush pillow top.

Netwinner’s got a new thing going on where instead of having unlimited plays at Netwinner itself, you only get 100 plays per day there, plus 100 plays at each of their two partner sites. There’s another one coming soon, too. At first I was pissed, though I don’t usually play more than 300 times a day anyway. I just hope they don’t go limiting anything else! Yesterday I did great and got 1810 points in my 300 spins, but today I’m not even up 300 points and half my plays are made.

Later…

I ended up doing better today at just over 3000 points, and I found another partner site, too. The problem is that the net’s been out the last half hour or so. I hope this isn’t going to turn out to be any big deal like the last time, and that it won’t be days before it’s fixed. The guy at the front desk said there’s a number to call cuz they don’t handle that, which sort of sucks. Why should it be on the guests to get it fixed? We’re the ones paying the motel for the damn service.

There was a Daddy long-legs in here and a big web at the base of the AC, so I started heading for the office to get a broom. On my way there, I could see some of the new mattresses laid out in the parking lot. They’re starting with the ground floor replacements. There I ran into the maintenance guy who said he totally forgot about the door plate and would probably do that as well as replace the bed on Monday. I told him that was ok because I was looking for a broom, though preferably a vacuum, to suck up the spider and web. So he had one of the housekeepers who’s only done this room once before come up with a vacuum. It’s a good thing it wasn’t that Indian chick. I’m sure she’d have hated to be reduced to having to drag a vacuum up here all for a spider and its web! I asked about Josephina and she said she was working on the first floor. I said to say hi to her.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2007 By Wednesday the 10th, the card still hadn’t come and we were faced with having to return to the streets once more. If one day of that nearly killed me, however, then a few or more certainly would! If we’d had a camper or even a bigger, newer, more comfortable truck, van or SUV, that’d be different. But even if we could live forever in our vehicle, we still need money for food and gas, and well, it’s nice to be able to take showers and wash clothes, too!

Wednesday was the most miserable day. I felt so out of touch with reality and just life itself. I truly believed that life as I’d known it for the most part was over and that we’d done all we could to try to save ourselves. As I lay in bed trembling and crying while he was at work, I told myself, “Face it, there’s no getting out of this one. You tried your best, but you simply can’t fix this one. Your time’s up here in this life. It’s time to move on now, so you better just focus on the good in dying.”

After all, I never did want to grow old, arthritic, and maybe get cancer or diabetes. And while I have no regrets about not having kids and having to deal with the burdens and expenses they’d have brought for 20 years or so, not having them meant having no one to look out for us in the end, and that was always scary to me, too. I also kept in mind that the stereos would only keep getting louder, people weren’t about to quit leaving their dogs out to bark all the time, and we’d probably never get to live where we wanted. So what would be the point in carrying on anyway just to be forced by fate to settle for this and settle for that? Although people like to think otherwise, life really isn’t what we plan it for the most part, so why bother?

I wrote a note to be copied for both our families. I also left messages I wanted given to Jessie, Paula and Mary. I explained that while neither of us wanted to die, it angered and frustrated us to know that our lives depended on a lousy piece of plastic, people did need money to live on, like it or not. I urged them not to be sad or mad, and to keep in mind that there are plenty of pros to not living as there are to living. I gave user name and password information for my online journals, stories and photo albums, including the location of the storage and mail places. I said that while I still had nothing to say to my brother or to Tom’s mother, who stopped caring years ago, to tell my sister (the drama queen) that she’s a bitch, but I forgive her, even though in reality I’m not sure that I ever could.

I asked that Jessie be told, “I hope you make it to the land of Disney magic!”

I wanted Mary told, “You really do have balls of brass.”

Lastly, I wanted Paula told, “Hey stranger, write more often!” since she never writes. It was the hardest thing I ever wrote, fully believing at the time that we’d be dead in a matter of hours.

A picture of our tombstones came to mind and I pictured the dates on them and wondered where we’d be buried. Not that it would matter since we would soon no longer be needing our bodies, but I was naturally curious just the same. Would they separate us and ship me back east? Would they bury us both down in Arizona? California?

I missed Tinkerbell like crazy but was glad she wasn’t there to have to go through this shit with us. I was glad I wouldn’t have to wonder what would become of her as well.

And then the paranoia set in. We were going to kill ourselves at midnight when we knew there’d be less chance of someone knocking, be it because they had the wrong room, wanted to change TV stations, inspect sprinklers, inspect smoke detectors, etc. But speaking of detectors, wasn’t it the law for motels to have carbon monoxide detectors set in their vents?

Now, everything that could possibly go wrong started running through my mind. I asked the guy on the end if he could possibly help us, but that was a waste of time and I felt like an idiot for trying.

Next came the feelings of guilt. I felt bad that I wasn’t a better influencer, and the thought that I may’ve “jinx-written” Tom’s death by having him die in one of my stories made me feel all the more miserable. I promised to change that character’s identity if I lived. I also felt that if I truly was in any way responsible for getting us into this mess by cussing God out, then I should be the one to try to fix it.

Then I became both sad and angry at the little things we wouldn’t live to do if I couldn’t figure something out, and fast, too. I didn’t care if I never got another doll again, but I wanted to see Tom do the hobbies he enjoyed, like watching TV, playing computer games, and even trying to fine-tune those damn handicapping numbers. Those stupid little things became such a big deal all of a sudden and my stubbornness was kicking in, and so was that survival instinct we all have. I wanted to live to listen to my stereo again, to see my dolls if I didn’t have to sell them, to hang my wind chimes, to learn Italian, and to finish my stories. After all, even though it may take quite a while and Jessie has enough to read of mine for some time to come, I promised to send her both The Influencer and We’ll Meet Again Someday once they’re finished. I also wanted to do silly things like laugh at the Klammers, Jessie and Paula when it was cold and snowing on them.

I lay there thinking of the things I’d do differently if I could figure out a way out of this mess. I knew I still would never be religious due to how strict, structured and narrow-minded religion expects you to be, and I wouldn’t go to church, buy religious icons or start bopping out to religious tunes, but I would return to the basic prayers I stopped doing up in Oregon. It wasn’t until I stopped praying for the basic necessities in life that things started going downhill. I told myself I’d try to be more grateful for what we do have and less resentful for what we didn’t have. After all, we simply weren’t meant to have the same lives or incomes any more than we’re meant to have the same personalities and preferences.

I realized I was afraid to die, not knowing if I would truly be going to a better place or what. More so I was afraid of the dying process and how slow and painful it may be, than actually being dead. Tom, on the other hand, was never afraid to die. He just didn’t want to. I don’t think anyone literally wants to. They just want to be happy and have the things they need in life. Even so, I remember thinking to myself, this is what it must feel like to be on death row. But even that would’ve been easier because you’re dead in seconds. Dying the way we were going to could take hours. It probably would’ve taken just a few minutes, but the possibility of it taking hours was pretty scary.

This was when I realized that the only way I could kill myself without hesitation would be if anything happened to Tom. I still don’t think we’ll ever get to “go home,” and find our ideal little corner of the universe, but I’d happily settle for those little things I was starting to miss like crazy.

Now totally desperate, I knew there was only one thing left to try, even if it may be a long shot. It was a last resort and definitely not something I wanted to do, seeing that it was kind of humiliating. But our need to survive overrode any embarrassment I might’ve felt, and thanks to my impeccable memory, I remembered Mary’s number. I was surprised she accepted the collect call from me in the first place. Maybe she did so not knowing if I were calling to say that Tom died or something like that, since it was my voice she was hearing as the caller requesting that she accept the charges. Knowing that she and the Queen wouldn’t care to help, I asked that she contact my parents in Florida who don’t accept collect calls. Sure enough, she didn’t offer to help, but asked what was wrong before she made the call, so I told her. While I’m grateful to her for contacting my folks, she never did care to call back if only to see how we were.

I’d have called my folks directly, but the phone charger accidentally got tossed in storage and the phone was dead.

After hanging up with Miss Perfect, each minute seemed to equal a dozen, but I knew all I could do was wait and hope for the best at that point. If no one would help us, we would have to carry on killing ourselves as planned. I couldn’t stay on this emotional rollercoaster forever anyway.

The phone rang a few minutes later. I snatched it up to find both my parents on the line. I explained the situation as best I could for being as freaked out as I was and with them being in their mid-70s and not as sharp-minded. At first my mother said $100 was the best she could do, saying that medical expenses were leaving them tight. I wondered if she was playing down their money, knowing they’d done that in the past. Yet I also knew that social security only covered the bare minimum and that you had to be the one to pay for anything extra.

This was when she told me she’d had her own problems, too. She smoked for over 55 years and had 40% of one lung removed before she quit smoking last January, plus she had breast cancer surgery as well. As lousy of a mother as she was, this really sucked to hear.

She also informed me that Goldie, Al, Jimmy and Marty had passed on. Marty, I couldn’t care less about but the others saddened me. I asked about Charlotte and mom says she’s ok.

She also wanted to make it clear to me that I was the only one she’d ever helped and that she never helped Larry or Tammy, as I assumed was the case. Either way, it didn’t matter who she had or hadn’t helped. It only mattered that someone helped us or else we’d be dead. And real soon, too.

Well, to say that they helped us turned out to be quite an understatement! Even though we still weren’t free and clear, they ended up doing a hell of a lot more than just helping. They saved us! They faxed in payment to the motel for two nights, and expressed a surprisingly generous amount of money to us here at the motel, too. They sent $300 when we thought they’d send around $50, which would hardly have helped at all.

So now I have seriously mixed emotions where my parents are concerned. They say things happen for a reason. I wonder if this happened because we were meant to be reconnected again. I’ve learned that we can push people away so that they can’t offend or hurt us, but then they can’t love or help us either. I feel for them in light of their problems and am so very grateful for them saving us. It doesn’t undo the horrible things they’ve done to me in the past, but it helps to compensate for some of it. On the other hand, these are still the people who made my life hell and have given me a lifetime of horrible memories, so it’s a real mental tug-of-war for me.

They called back on Thursday, the 11th, to let us know that the money would arrive between 10:00 and noon. The front desk called at 11:30 to let me know it had arrived, but since it was in Tom’s name, I had to let him pick it up after work. This was ok, though, because we still had some food we got with the money his boss lent him.

They never did call back after that and a part of me is hoping that’s just their way of saying, “Ok, we helped pull you out of the quicksand, and now you’re on your own again cuz of how different we are.” Either way, we fully intend to pay them back unless they write back saying not to, although it will take a while. That was another tough decision I had to make; whether or not to give them any contact information. Since she said she didn’t do email, and since I haven’t liked phones since quitting smoking, I decided just to give the UPS address in the 6-page letter I wrote them explaining why we left Oregon, why we chose to come here, what we hoped to accomplish, etc. I asked that they not give the address to Larry or Tammy, explaining that I wanted no contact with them. I said that while there may be safety in numbers on the streets, I truly believed it was just the opposite with relations and that the more people involved, the more likely there’d be some bickering. I doubt Larry would want contact with me any more than I’d want it with him, but Tammy might.

I had to laugh at one point when I remembered Mom asking who I was with. I guess she wondered if I’d dumped Tom for some chick. Well, as I told her, no chance there! I said we were only human and quick to recognize something good-looking when it passed by, but our hearts have remained in the same place. I joked about how they must’ve had their own share of eye candy over the years having been married nearly 60 years now.

Josephina, my favorite housekeeper from New Zealand, who’s getting better looking by the minute, came to do the room on the 11th. She took one look at me and knew something was wrong. I filled her in as best I could with our accents being a bit hard to understand, and she said she lived in her parent’s house with her two sisters, so she couldn’t take me in, but knew someone she could call. I guess the person ran a rooming house. Not exactly the ideal place for us, but if it wasn’t going to cost anything and we were out of choices, so be it, so I gave her the cell number.

She didn’t call until Friday, just when I was beginning to think she was one of those typical people who say they’re going to do something that they don’t. I wondered why she didn’t have the decency to at least let me know if she could help or not. Well, she did let me know after all. She left a message saying she was having trouble reaching anyone, but it would turn out that we wouldn’t need her help, thank God. She returned to clean the room a week later and asked if we ever had to leave, saying she’d been worried. This was after the nightmare finally ended. I gave her some incense as a way of thanking her.

Watch, now that I kind of like her, she’ll either quit or she just won’t be around for a while. All the good-looking or super-nice people end up leaving. She’s not only friendly, but she’s also about 5’6”-5’8”, thin, with dark hair and eyes. She’s a little young, maybe in her late 20s, and has some zits, but is attractive otherwise. She wears her hair in a high-pitched ponytail that she braids, but I’d guess it’d be to the middle of her back when it’s down.

All the while this was going on, I was hoping Jessie was too busy to check her mail and start putting two and two together, just in case we were to make it through the nightmare after all. I didn’t want to worry her.

Come Friday, while I was waiting for him to get back from work, and hopefully with cash from the money order my folks sent, I started to have one of my bad feelings again. I knew he was having difficulty cashing it. I thought it was because he had an Arizona license with an Oregon address, but as he would later tell me, it was because they were having trouble getting ahold of anyone in Florida to verify it. So while I was trying not to panic all over again, he searched the phone book for check-cashing places to call. He called one and they said they’d cash it. So after he got it cashed, he paid for just one night, hoping to set up the desktop the following day so we could book 3 nights for the price of 2 through Hotwire, using the new debit card he got for just $10, called Netspend. He deposited most of the money onto it. This new card should be much better. Unlike the other joke of a card, if anything’s ever wrong with Netspend you can go into any place that sells them and get a new card, and they’re cheaper to use as well. As soon as we can, we’re dropping Wired Plastic like a hot potato!

Needing to get the hell out of this room, we went to Walmart for some groceries. It was nice to be out doing normal things like that. I hoped it was a sign that our lives would soon be back on track. At least the wins were starting to go up again, even though I’d still only gotten small things like shower gel and books.

The next day, Saturday the 13th, I saw the first break in the trees, even though we weren’t officially out of the woods yet.

Tom built a makeshift antenna for the desktop, went online and attempted to transfer half of the money from the Wired Plastic card, which was then up to $850, over to the new card.

I saw that Jessie was starting to wonder what was up with me, whom I dreamt about the night before. I dreamt I was laughing at her because it was snowing on her. I hoped this was a good sign. After all, I couldn’t laugh at her or anyone if I were dead! I chose not to reply just yet. I wanted to wait and see if either the money transfer would go through, or if the new Wired Plastic card would arrive by the deadline they gave us or both. So we had two shots left at a reprieve and days to go before we knew if we’d make it or not.

The suspense was agonizing, but I would learn the true meaning of the word “relief” when Tom called me Monday after work to say that the new Wired Plastic card had indeed finally arrived! In fact, he got two cards. And it was then that I realized that God had answered every single one of my prayers. Every single one!

I paced back and forth in joy, tears of relief streaming down my face, thanking God over and over again.

I then emailed Jessie and only told her we’d been on death row and were just now recovering, and that my parents of all people helped us, and that I’d send her detailed journal accounts once I’d written them up.

I didn’t mean to scare her, but she said I was scaring her and that she’d been about to call to see what was up, and was curious to know how my parents helped, and asked if she could help in any way. That was so sweet of her, but I didn’t think she could as broke as she is herself right now. Besides, I figured we’d be ok at that point. I hope we will be anyway! I really do believe the worst of the curse is over, and that things will slowly get better, but as I told her, I’d like to hear her voice someday, so when we get settled wherever one of these days, we’ll definitely chat by phone. We’re kind of like family as far back as we go. So I gave her a more detailed account of what happened and will send these excerpts once they’re finished.

I had said I wanted to save up whatever the rent ended up being when we got settled someplace, so we’d have money in the event of an emergency. Well, we’re going to save up a hell of a lot more than that if I can help it!

It’s a good thing the Wired Plastic card came because as it turns out, the transfer didn’t go through. The assholes no doubt have Netspend flagged as competitors.

I ended up doing laundry that night in the tub since it had been nearly two weeks since we were able to do laundry. Instead of being all pissed at having to be reduced to having to scrub it by hand, I simply saw it as something that had to be done, and so I did it.

Tom thinks they may start him on the 2nd shift next week with at least a 5% bonus. The only sucky thing is that we couldn’t go to the casino on Wednesday evenings. Every Wednesday, between 6:00 - 8:00, they accept entries for their car giveaway. That’s ok, though, as I learned I can still win big after all.

Tom decided that Wednesdays and Saturdays are good days to stop at the mail place, and he was excited to find an overnight letter from FedEx waiting for him when he went last Saturday. Well, I won a 32” flat-panel LCD HDTV! Thank God I started entering sweeps in his name too, or else he’d have had to waste time and gas coming back here to pick me up to sign and notarize things so we could get it back in time. He did a 2-day express thing, not wanting to trust the PO, knowing it could take a week or more that way. It was a short-running premium sweep that ran for less than a month, and 30 people got TVs. I wish all sweeps could be that short-running and have that many winners!

I also won a coupon for a free burger at one of Tom’s favorite fast-food places, which he got to enjoy.

The only dark cloud hanging over us right now is me being worried that all we’ll be able to afford is an apartment. Especially since I found I was wrong in thinking the average house rents for around $800. That’s only what the average 2-bedroom apartment rents for. The average house rents for $1,400. I hope that if we can’t have a house, because I still say we’ll never get to live where we want to anyway, we can at least find a duplex where the garages or carports run in between the two places, and that it doesn’t have a shared yard. I’m sick of sharing this and sharing that! We’ve shared enough already.

Another thing is the people next door who’ve been there for over a week now. Why is it that everyone who ends up over there in the inside room is noisy? Guess it just goes to show that that’s just how most people are no matter what. They’re not too bad, but they get annoying enough at times. I can’t figure out when they sleep. They’re definitely up all night. That much is obvious. I hear scattered thunks and clunks from over there all through the night, and when I put my ear to the wall I can hear music playing. They don’t wake me up when I have the sound machine on and my earplug in, but I still hope they’ll leave soon, even though I know we’ll get someone else in there soon enough doing the same thing.

The only other minor annoyance is that they’re always doing something around here. This is typical of motels and apartments, but first they had to change the TV channels twice, then the inspector came to check the smoke detectors and sprinklers, then they were supposedly coming back to fix them, but as it would turn out, this room was fine and not on their fix list. Yesterday they were checking doors. They want to lower the metal plate on the outside of it so there isn’t such a big gap underneath. This would be fine with me and I’m mostly on days now, but if they want to do anything else after this, I just may let them know they’re becoming pests and that I’d like them to wait till we’re gone.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2007 Continuing on with our 11-day nightmare: We left the casino an hour or two before sunrise and went to a Walmart parking lot. I lay in the cab while he went in to pee and check out camping equipment. It wasn’t until 6:00, when we went to storage again for something we’d forgotten, that I was finally able to get a few minutes of sleep while he was going through things.

We then had to wait till 11:00 for what seemed to be the most promising of pawnshops to open. While Tom was dealing with them, I remembered Mary’s saying that the more we alienate God, the more chaos we invite into our lives, and wondered if perhaps she could be right after all. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so quick to laugh at that one, I thought, so I prayed to God to please give us a break. I told Him He could continue to hate us, but just please, please give us a break at least temporarily! I promised never to cuss Him out again if He’d just ease up on us. Well, we were still many days away from our reprieve, but as Tom said, it’s important I keep my word to Him because there had to be some reason someone was suddenly giving us $65 for a diamond no one else would touch since it was uncut.

What was funny, though not at first, was that Tom had to come and get me to pawn the stuff in my name because he left his license at the casino which he picked up the next day, and he certainly didn’t want to say this in front of the guys in the store, figuring they wouldn’t be as sympathetic if he did. So that day, Sunday the 7th, we pawned the diamond, the camera and the laptop. I hated to pawn the laptop, but it bought us a night back in the motel and in the same room, too.

I met Michelle for the first time. She’s a heavy redhead who didn’t give us much of a deal other than to charge us for one person instead of two, which costs $70 instead of $40 if you don’t pay for the room online through Hotwire or one of the other sites that cuts deals with various motels. She also said I could wait in the office at check-out time until Tom got back, hopefully with the card, and hopefully to pay for additional nights here.

So back we went to this room, which now seemed so much bigger. I guess being cramped in a tiny truck can make most rooms seem bigger. After just 45 minutes of sleep in 30 hours, I slept on and off for 14 hours. It was so nice to be back in a room with a bed, some space, a shower, sink and toilet, but I was paranoid about being thrown on the streets again.

It sucked not having the laptop. Between not having that or much food to eat and my nerves being stretched to the max, all I could do was just lay in bed and fret, though I also prayed for help like crazy, too. Each day Tom returned without the card made me feel more and more doomed, although I continued to keep my word about not cussing God out.

Although we had a roof over our heads for the night, Tom didn’t have the gas money to make it to work on Monday or to buy us food. For several days in a row, we had barely 500 calories of food a day, and I was reminded of just how much I hate dieting and probably never will again. I’d be 200 pounds before I went through anything half as terrifying and stressful again! I definitely did lose weight, though, and wouldn’t be surprised if I dropped to 120. I’m up 5-10 pounds or so, but my tummy’s still messed up. I haven’t had the runs since the nightmare ended, but I’m not back to normal in that department yet either.

Each day I’d go through whatever dreams I remembered, mentally discarding most of them into my mind’s wastebasket. But one dream stood out and made me wonder if there was a message in it. It was a dream where I was congratulating a woman on having twins. It took me a while to figure out what it could mean. Then I wondered if it could mean life. The cycle of life. Was it a sign that life went on and that it would for us as well?

The next day, Monday the 8th, Tom used what little gas was in the truck to sell the autographed guitar for $20 and the Lasergrips gun sight for $40. We didn’t know this, or else we’d have sold the diamond, but that pawnshop buys things as well as lets you pawn them. The guy said we could pawn it for $20 or sell it for $40, so naturally, we sold it.

The 3 things we wanted back were the camera, the GPS and the laptop. I’m glad to say I got the laptop back a few days ago! They gave us 4 months to get the stuff. I’m going to let the diamond go, but we’ll be back for the camera soon. It was $93 to get the laptop back and will be $21 for the camera, and $30 for the GPS, which has been pawned elsewhere, and which he plans to buy back soon.

So now we had another night paid for, but still not enough for food, and definitely not enough gas to get into work, so Tom called both the temp agency and the card company and was now getting different stories from them. The temp agency was now saying that yes, they could stop the direct deposit, but not that week. The card company was now saying they could express us a new card if we didn’t get it by Monday and also that we could transfer money if we could get into the account. Yet when Tom specifically asked about expressing the card the week before, they said they couldn’t do that.

Nonetheless, Tom had enough gas to get into work, but not back again. He was worried about losing his job at this point, but when he called and spoke to the boss lady early Tuesday morning, she said she’d give him the money to get back. In fact, she really surprised us with her generosity and gave him $100! Thank God people find him as likable as they find me weird, eccentric and even scary!

Despite her generosity in which Tom plans to reimburse her for tomorrow, we were far from out of the woods, and things were about to really come to a head. The $100 bought us a roof over our heads for Tuesday night and got us a little more food and gas. After these things were paid for, however, we were right back to square one. Completely broke.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2007 Here we are, back in the land of the living after being on death row for 11 days, and probably closer to death than ever before in our lives. Of all the things we thought of that could go wrong upon coming here, we missed one. I would’ve liked to have documented the nightmare as it unfolded, but it was either not convenient to do so or I was just too distraught. This has got to be my biggest gap in entries in years! It’s been 15 days. We were granted a reprieve on the 15th, Mary’s 30th birthday, and since then I’ve been recuperating, gaining back my strength and sanity, as well as catching up on sweeps. They did go broadband, after all, so now I can do the dailies and Netwinner normally. My OLS membership expired on the 2nd and I decided to renew it last night since they’ve really improved the connection here.

I will try to remember all the things we did, felt, and thought during the hell we went through as best I can. The real hell didn’t begin till Saturday the 6th. I know I wrote that I dreamt the money wasn’t there on the 4th, my 10-year quit-smoking anniversary, even though I didn’t know why. Also, I sent Tom a text message about it, even though it did no good. Yeah, that’s the sucky part of being psychic. Just because some of us can see bad things coming doesn’t mean we can do anything to stop them. I really had trouble sleeping there for a while too, even when it was quiet. Not just because of the killer stress, but because I was afraid of what I might dream. Tom handled things well, but I was a basket case all the way, filled with fear, sadness, anger and stress. It was unbelievable! I had the runs 3 times a day, my ear was killing me, and it felt like a cement paver was sitting on my chest. The stress took its toll on me more so than the lack of food did. It really made those little things I’d complain about seem like no big deal, and those “big” things like the door slamming, the microwave’s carousel not working, the refrigerator leaking (although they fixed that) became such little nuisances I longed to have back as my worst problems, along with the waiting game, not knowing how long it’d take to get into a place.

These types of ordeals really make you see things differently and want to change some of your ways for the better and trust me, it was a life-changing experience! We can never know for sure, but I have my theories as to why it all happened. Yes, I’ve learned a lot from this horrible experience, like how important it is to scatter your money, get receipts, spend less and save more (I swear I’m going to be as obsessed with saving as I was with shopping), and never ever cuss out God no matter how pissed you get at your situation and no matter how unfair and cruel it may seem!!! I think this may be a big part of why we were so cursed, but like I said, we can never know for sure. After all, innocent children fall under even more serious curses, yet what did they supposedly ever do to deserve it? Tom thinks the queen started having health problems cuz she got pissed at God when Dad died, but who knows? It could’ve been just age and stress. It could’ve also been that someone she pissed off had a nasty influence on her as well.

We were scheduled to check out on Saturday the 6th. With not much more than a few bucks to our names, we went to the mail place pretty sure that the new card would be there. But it wasn’t. So now we were officially homeless and my worst fears had now come true, even though our stuff was safely locked away in storage (thank God this didn’t happen on the 1st!) and he had a job. What made it even scarier was knowing that the following Monday, the 8th, was a holiday! And it would’ve been unbearably terrifying had Tom let me in on a little secret. Normally I’d want to strangle him for holding back, but he did the right thing in this case. You see, had he told me that he was told that the card wouldn’t be coming till between the 10th and 15th, which usually means the last day they give you, it would’ve pretty much stamped out any remaining hesitations I had about suicide. I didn’t think we were going to have a choice for a while there anyway. Meaning, I thought we were dead for sure either way. I thought that even if we wanted to live, there would be no way we could and that we’d eventually starve off and die. So in the beginning I thought it may be better to get it over with in the 2-3 minutes to 2-3 hours they say it takes to die from carbon monoxide in the way we were planning to kill ourselves with it, rather than slowly die in the streets of hunger, nerves and exhaustion. I’ve had my share of nightmares before and as rough as they were, my survival wasn’t so on the line like it was this time around. That “trigger-happy psycho” wasn’t just teasing us with just a close call. There really, really appeared to be no way out at first! Even jail was easier than this because I knew there was an end to it sooner or later.

So anyway, the new card had been sent to Oregon, then returned because they don’t forward 1st class mail. The screw-ups at Wired Plastic, which is the company the card was from, didn’t even have the decency to call and ask why it was returned. It was so frustrating knowing that the money was there, we just couldn’t access it! To make matters worse, they were paying Tom via direct deposit at work and the equally screwed up idiots at the temp agency said they couldn’t stop the next check from being directly deposited and cut him a check unless the card was canceled altogether. But we couldn’t cancel a card we didn’t have!

The only thing that came Saturday was a pair of running shoes I won, but I was too freaked out to pay much attention to them. When the card didn’t come that day and we were out of money, food and a place to stay, I wished like never before that Jessie or Paula were local so I could beg for a piece of their living room floor in exchange for me cooking, cleaning, babysitting, and Tom fixing whatever needed fixing. But all those who gave a damn about us were either far away or in jail, and we were on our own. There were no little corners of anyone’s living room floor to run to.

The plan was to find a place secluded enough to kill ourselves in the back of the truck that night, but we never could find such a place. No one would notice the coals glowing, but the way they flare up initially certainly would’ve drawn unwanted attention and intervention.

Unsure of when we’d be able to kill ourselves, we first stopped at storage to pick up things we thought we could sell and to dump off things that were useless and in our way. Remember, this truck is very small. As I stood there looking at our stuff, it pissed me off to think that someone would get what cost us thousands for just $87 once we were dead and the stuff was auctioned off. I had the urge to start smashing things, figuring I’d make our deaths less profitable if I could help it, but never bothered to.

Next we set out to sell some of those “worthless” wins I’ll never again call worthless. He’d already pawned the GPS, so we had to do our best to find places to sell stuff. We ended up selling between 30-50 CDs and DVDs for an amazing $76! Thank God Tom went in and asked if they’d take them first because that’s when he saw the sign that said: All CDs and DVDs must be used, and no, you cannot go outside and remove the shrinkwrap!

While we waited for them to go through the stuff, we hopped across the street so I could use the bathroom at a convenience store, my anger towards God growing by the minute as Tom struggled to keep his sandals from falling apart, something I didn’t think he deserved to be doing at his age and with how hard he works. Some employees had smocks and coats hanging in the corner of the bathroom. I checked the pockets but didn’t find anything good other than a knife used for cutting boxes open.

Despite being worried about how we were going to make it until the card came, I was glad to be out of the motel and free of the door slamming and things like that. Besides, I figured it would be too hard for me to return, knowing that I’d only be paranoid about getting thrown on the streets again. Yet as I would learn, it’s amazing how you can miss the very things you’d been hoping to escape, and in just a few hours, too!

We stopped for some fast food, then tried to home in on free WiFi internet access somewhere, but were unable to do so. We wanted to find a Walmart that allows RVs to park in their parking lot, but as I reminded Tom, this wasn’t jail. Meaning that the security trucks weren’t going to shine their lights in people’s vehicles looking for anyone who might be sleeping in them. Still, we knew we had to worry more about them kicking us out than we did about anyone harming us. I was too furious for anyone to do much damage to us anyway!

We first wasted time and gas checking out a rest stop over towards Reno that was almost as high in elevation as Klamath. It felt like we were back there all over again. The sun hadn’t fully set by the time we got up there yet it was already freezing. We knew that if it could be in the 40s at that time, it was certainly going to be beyond freezing in the morning!

So we left “Oregon” and headed for the casino, figuring there’d be too much activity around for us to really stand out in any way. First, though, we used some of the money we made selling stuff to get some food and gas, and of course there seemed to suddenly be mattress stores on every block! Once we got to the far end of the casino’s parking lot, we moved some stuff into the cab and tried to make the back as comfortable as possible. Although it had been warm in the afternoon, it was now pretty chilly. It wasn’t too bad with me sandwiched between the comforter, but it wasn’t exactly toasty either, and we still had a lot of shit back there in the way. So we lay huddled together, listening to the trains and people passing by. One couple looked towards the back of the truck at one point but didn’t appear to notice us.

Tom was afraid to fall asleep and start snoring, so he went inside the casino and played a penny machine for a buck, so he wouldn’t stand out in any odd way. He also wanted me to have a chance to get some rest, but I was way too wound up to do so. As I lay there cramped in that small, old, uncomfortable, miserable truck, I mentally cussed God out like never before. I hated Him so intensely and was literally shaking with rage. I didn’t understand why we were being singled out and picked on like we were. We were just two people who only wanted a modest home that was at least relatively peaceful, but even that was too much to ask for. I even wondered if we were being punished for not settling for an apartment, since I’ve always believed that’s where God wants me, with plenty of people and chaos, yet we tried to settle for that upon moving down here and it didn’t do us any good.

As much as I knew it wouldn’t do us any good, I started beating myself up for not staying in Phoenix and just dealing with their shit next door. We would’ve been miserable with all the chaos, and I never cared for that house itself, but it would’ve been the safer misery, considering that the house would’ve been all paid for years ago.

Unable to get comfortable with the floor of the truck being so rippled, I went into the casino. It was smoky, but warmer in there. I couldn’t find Tom right away, so I had him paged. Together we went into the same restaurant we ate in the last time we were there and got coffee and water for me and soda for him.

At one point we got to talking to our waitress, Dee, about our situation. She offered us some hot soup at her cost, but we declined, as nice as it was of her to offer. She suggested we check out KOA (Kampgrounds of America), saying that they did have showers and that it was free as long as you didn’t have an RV or a camper.

Afterward, Tom said he doubted it was free. He and his family camped for many summers when he was a kid, and he said they’d always avoid KOAs because they were more expensive. The research we finally did later on proved him right, too. Even with just a regular vehicle, we couldn’t have gotten anything cheaper than $30 a day. The state campground charges $15 a day, and we may check into this more. We’re not sure yet at this time just what we’re going to do. It’s one of those catch-22s. Yes, it would be cheaper to camp out, but we’d have to invest in some camping gear, and we’d both be put out big time. The biggest problem would be not being able to go online. I could give Jessie my username and password to check for win notices, but we wouldn’t be able to sell things on eBay, and we’d be put out in lots of other ways, too. So campgrounds are up in the air right now. I do know one thing, though, cheaper or not, I hate camping!

The truck itself was something I came to have mixed emotions for. I hate the heap of shit, but there’s certainly no way we could’ve done anything without it! You really do need a vehicle to get around a place this big. Without it, there’d be no way to sell things, for him to get to work or a place for us to stay when we couldn’t stay here.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2007 Scratch that last sentence. The question is will we be gone tomorrow? And not to a house, but to wherever they’d bury us. Yeah, God’s really having a field day torturing us. The other question is, is it to compensate us for something good to come at work? To prevent us from something good at work? Or just to punish us simply for breathing, as usual?

See, yesterday at work they came out and asked him how soon he could start working second shift. Even though he had come to doubt there was any real future at the place, and still isn’t sure there is, he told them he could start right away. He’s been wanting second or 3rd shift all along so he could have time during business hours for other things. Once he got asked this, he said he knew something bad was going to happen.

Then there was my nasty dream premonition come true. Just like he sometimes gets solutions to problems in his sleep, I have dream premonitions. I dreamt the money wasn’t on the card, and I sent Tom a text message to let him know because I didn’t “feel” it was just a dream brought on by stress. As it turns out, the money’s there, but the card expired. They sent the new card to the old place right when we moved, and when it was returned to them, they didn’t even have the decency to let us know. So Tom called them and they said a new card was sent out Monday via 1st class mail, yet when he checked the mail place on Thursday, it wasn’t there. 1st class takes 3 days, so maybe it didn’t get picked up till Tuesday?

He then ran out of gas a mile away from here and had to park in the parking lot of a Jack-n-the-Box, the fast food place that’s all over the west except for K-Falls, Oregon. He walked back and we went hungry for the rest of the night since we were virtually out of food and living check to check until next week when we estimated we could finally start saving. But then we had to have some wonderful divine interference throw us this curveball just like I knew it would.

The stress has been a killer! I don’t know how many more of these security threats I can take, and having our lives be on the line every few days to a few weeks like it has been. The poster spirit I call Susie said the card would arrive today and that things would now start gradually improving just like they gradually went downhill. Tom said that made sense since we’ve now gotten over the major hurdles that could cause us to end up on the streets, thus killing ourselves to get out of having to suffer that kind of life. He pointed out that he was wrong about the truck having an internal engine problem (it would’ve broken down by now), and that of all the things that go out on vehicles, it’s fine, and that the new card will be good for 3 years if we can ever get it in time.

But I’m not convinced. If there’s one thing I’ve learned lately it’s that it doesn’t take much to really turn a person’s life upside down, if not destroy their life completely. I’m sick to death of having my very existence threatened and struggling for the simplest fucking things in life! Why are the barest of necessities such a struggle to get lately?! Why can’t God or whatever evil that’s trying to drive me crazy and maybe even to our deaths just leave us the fuck alone and go pick on someone else?! I just want a decent place to live, but we can’t even have that. Not anytime soon, if ever at all. I’m thoroughly convinced there’s no place for us. There really isn’t. A simple, peaceful house is just a dream. Just a total dream that can never happen. It’s either settle or die. If we’re not willing to live in misery, our only other choice is to die. And we’ll have to die if the card isn’t there tomorrow for damn sure because we wouldn’t be able to stay anywhere, and he couldn’t get to work anyway.

On Thursday evening I gave him the couple of bucks I had in my purse and he walked back to the truck to put gas in it to drive it back here. He didn’t feel it was worth risking running out of gas by going to the mail place today since we don’t have to check out till tomorrow. Instead, today he walked a total of 6 miles to and from Walmart and got us some food with the remaining few bucks he had. When he got back he called the mail place and the guy said I had a Mary letter and “two pieces of junk mail.” Well, what gave us a slight bit of hope was knowing that the envelope the card was in would look like junk mail. Most cash and credit card envelopes have the address of the person it’s going to in a window, then usually just a PO Box for a return. Logically speaking, if they sent it to the right address, which Tom verified online, and if God didn’t make sure it got lost or went to someone else, and it was sent 1st class on Monday or even Tuesday as they said, then there’s no reason it shouldn’t be there by tomorrow if it isn’t already.

We would still rather not find it’s not there when he goes to check tomorrow and be forced to kill ourselves, especially since Tom wouldn’t want to do that as much as I would. I’m honored that someone could love me enough to not want me to die alone, but I would feel more like I was murdering him, than that it was a mutual thing, not that he doesn’t get fed up with life enough of the time himself.

So tomorrow he’s going to see if we can check out an hour later, which he thinks they’ll let us do. He said he’s been in the office when others have asked to check out an hour or two later and were told they could. Also, Michelle works weekends, and she’s turned out to be the nicest so far. So he’s going to explain the problem with the card to her, hopefully get us a little extension, then go out and see if the card’s there. If it isn’t, we have stuff to pawn so there’s enough gas for killing ourselves tomorrow night. The last thing we want to do is botch things up and make our lives even worse. According to Tom’s research, he thinks we’d be able to go quicker and less painfully in the truck as opposed to the bathroom here. We’d also have the truck’s exhaust, too. Many have killed themselves by putting a hose extension on their exhausts which they piped into an enclosed area.

The stress is really getting to me! We’ve now had half a dozen or so crises and it’s scary as hell, but mostly I’m depressed, and even more so I’m angry. I’m sick of being picked on like this! What have Tom and I ever done that was so bad to deserve a life of hell like this? I just want to thumb my nose at society and live a sheltered life in a nice peaceful little house and only go out once every week or two, but no. I can’t even have that much. The more I try to avoid people, the more I get stuck with them and thrown into where there are plenty of them. God would just love me for settling for an apartment with tons of people and chaos, but He’s not getting His way on that one! He will have to drive us to our deaths first because we’re through settling!

I feel the same as I would if some trigger-happy psycho were breaking in here every so often and teasing me with my life, holding a gun to my head, making it as if he was going to shoot me, then pulling the gun away, and back and forth and back and forth.

I’m torn between wanting to live and wanting to die, but am perfectly ready to go if the card’s not there. Anything’s better than the streets, even death. However, a part of me wants to live to see if we ever do make it out of here, even if we still have to live on someone else’s driveway and with their dogs and music, too. I also want to listen to my stereo again, sleep in my own bed, and enjoy the rest of my belongings that’s been in storage. I miss high-speed internet without all the damn crashing and hang-ups.

But I’m also so damn tired of life. Totally, honestly tired of it! A part of me hopes the card’s not there so I can die and miss out on a lot of shitty things. Our lives can never be what we want them to be, I don’t like the idea of growing older, fatter, and maybe arthritic or developing cancer, diabetes, and whatever other health problems. I don’t want to live to have to deal with another stress-filled, scary crisis. Sooner or later it’s not going to be just a “close call.” I don’t want to live to deal with my teeth, even though they’ve been amazingly good to me since we moved. I don’t want to deal with my ear, even though that’s been better since we started oiling it. I don’t want to live here long enough to find out what my new health problems will be that I seem to get whenever I move. I don’t want to listen to people’s shit and struggle financially.

If the card is there, however, then we’ll at least have a choice. We’ll probably pay for another week here, see what happens at work, which we’re both curious about and then who knows? We talked about him working part-time either at night or during the daytime if they really do put him on second shift, and also selling plasma. Tom’s done it before and says it’s boring because you have to sit hooked up to machines for a couple of hours, but they’ll pay around $15 and you can do it up to twice a week. If the price was right, I wouldn’t mind doing this when my schedule permitted it. I could read or listen to my iPod while I was doing it.

A part of me wishes people didn’t need to piss, shit and take showers, and that I wasn’t such a light sleeper. Then we could live in the truck and really get into a place fast. We could park at Walmart when he wasn’t working, and at his job, of course, when he was.

I don’t know what to make of the dream I had recently of winning big. Tom said if I can have dream premonitions like I did about the card, then why not that?

Because God doesn’t usually want us having much money, that’s why, is all I can think of. And if He’s decided He wants us to die now, the card won’t be there tomorrow, and this will be the last entry I ever write, just one day after my 10th quit-smoking anniversary.

So many we-should-haves run through my mind, even though I know it’s pointless. We “should have” stayed in Phoenix and taken the safer misery. Yes, it would be noisy as hell, but the house would’ve been all paid for years ago. Noise is annoying, but can’t usually hurt us. Or maybe we “should have” stayed in the Oregon dump. Yes, it was too cold, I hated the snow, he hated his job, it could be noisy, the insurance and tax laws were fucked up, we hated the house and the restrictive hours and lack of stores and restaurants, but the rent was cheap, he made a lot of money, and we had so few bad days during the two years we were there. We had fun with Tinkerbell and the shopping sprees we’d go on.

Tom had been curious to check online obituaries. I thought you had to pay for those, but while most don’t tell you the cause of death or who they’re survived by, there was a 2005 obit in Phoenix for a Raymond which Tom thinks is his brother. Ray, who would’ve been 57 in ‘05, had health problems caused by a fall he had many years ago. Then he contracted hepatitis C before they knew it even existed from a blood transfusion.

The guy on the end broke his peaceful record for an hour or so yesterday before Tom got in by having a couple of chicks visit him that was loud. Every 10 minutes or so they’d come out of the room and hang out close to our door. I finally got curious enough to see what the hell they were doing, and they were smoking since they have a non-smoking room too, and can’t smoke in there. He said he was sorry if they were too noisy, then they took off. I later knocked on his door to see if he’d buy the gunsight for $20, which I’d have let him know was worth $250 and that he could sell it for more if he wanted to, yet he wasn’t there.

They did the inspection thing today and that went quickly and quieter than I thought it would. I had been up an hour before they came, too.

Since Mary’s in jail and Paula wouldn’t know what to do with the damn thing, I left a note in my address file, as well as on my desktop calendar, just in case someone searches this thing for clues as to why we killed ourselves if we do, to ship it to Jessie.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2007 I’m pleased to say that the rude assholes next door checked out this morning. I don’t know if Michelle spoke to them or not, but either way, they were obnoxious last night, too. I don’t know what the extent of it was because as soon as they started in with their shit, I threw the sound machine on and an earplug in my ear. I hope it stays empty for a while over there! I wish all these people could be like the guy on the end. Then it wouldn’t matter if every single room was occupied.

The pretty housekeeper from New Zealand came at noon and was soon joined by the Indian housekeeper. I wonder why they work in pairs so much of the time. They’re going to hope they can do so when we leave, cuz if that wonderful day ever arrives, the place will be filthy. The microwave will be trashed, the inside of the fridge will need wiping down, and the toaster and coffeemaker will need a thorough cleaning. On top of that, the dust in here will probably be an inch thick, and there’s still some bedding on the floor in the corner where the clothes are hanging that got kicked out of Tinkerbell’s cage.

I learned how to say hello in both Indi and Tongan. In Indian it’s kaysay, in Tongan it’s malolaylay. I’m sure they have different ways of writing the words, so I just wrote them out phonetically.

We weren’t back online till 2:30 this afternoon, and it said it was high-speed, though it’s not much faster. It’s still horribly unreliable too, so I doubt I’ll renew my OLS membership until we’re gone.

Tom’s now pretty sure he doesn’t want to be hired on where he’s working, so I’m surprised they don’t do so because of how good we are at getting what we don’t want. Unfortunately, it’s already coming up on Thursday and he’s only got 3 hours of overtime this week. He needs at least 10 a week to be right about us getting out of here in November. If he gets to work on Saturday, then we’ll be ok.

I wish I could work those extra 10 hours for him! Even if it was just to haul up carts of towels and sheets when I was awake to fold them.

The good news is that I definitely don’t see us here in January. I strongly vibe we’ll be gone by then. The question is if we’ll be gone in November or December.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2007 The good news is that the people next door left. The bad news is that we’ve been replaced with even noisier people who checked in last night. After a few hours of banging and them coming and going, I knew they wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon, not that it should take that long to set up house. They’re just your typical rude, inconsiderate, obnoxious assholes.

In other good/bad news, my incense came a day early, so that’s good. What isn’t is that I haven’t been able to get online all day. Michelle at the front desk said they’re still working on it. I mentioned next door and she said she’d talk to them, so we’ll see how they take to being complained on. The only thing that kept me from calling the office after midnight last night when they were still banging away was my sound machine and earplug. As long as I lay in bed with them I couldn’t hear much, but sitting here along the dividing wall was totally obnoxious. As I’ve been asking since 1992 now, what did I do to deserve to be so cursed with noise???

I’m also being pestered lately. First one of the housekeepers started to come in as I was finishing up peeing, thinking the room was vacant because the drapes were open. Then a guy knocked. He apparently had the wrong room. This happened yesterday. Tomorrow I have to hope the housekeeper doesn’t come too early. Then on Thursday or Friday, so they came to the door to let me know today, that they have to do their annual smoke detector and sprinkler inspection and we just have to be here at that time. So I’m trying to keep my schedule on days as long as I can hold it there.

Later…

As if we don’t have enough to deal with, the truck was broken into sometime last night. They pried the back open and stole the printer, the jump starter, and some tools. Fortunately, they missed some items of higher value, but still, ain’t God great to us? And I’m sure the little thief will not only receive full protection from the bastard above but probably something like a $1500 winning lottery ticket, too. And you know that if we were the type to break into vehicles, we’d not only get caught, but we’d get a sentence fit for a murderer, too! So Tom emptied the stuff that didn’t get stolen into storage and is now parking somewhere else.

Oh, they also stole his portfolio and birth certificate. He called and asked, and fortunately, no one can do anything with just a birth certificate alone. They’d need a photo ID, too. Still, it’s one more curse on us and more money to have to pay when he goes to order a new one.

0 notes

rangerdrabbles · 2 years ago

Text

A Florida ranger fan in the Guardians’ court

OOC: Self-insertion because I can. Whee!

One minute she was watching YouTube, the next she was in the middle of a dig site. She’d felt no change to indicate the shift-it had just happened.

She didn’t recognize the monster, but she did recognize the uniforms of the passed out Silver Guardians, and vaguely recognized the Quantrons.

“Oh crap, I’ve been sucked into Time Force. I’m screwed.”

She watched as a red ranger that could only be Wes went flying. “Where the hell are the other four? Poor guy’s about to get waxed, and if I jump in I’ll get waxed, but...wait. If this is a fictional universe and I”ve come up with character powers for this universe or at least characters using said powers, I wonder if...” She concentrated for a moment-concentrated on one specific thing-well two really, because it took one to make the other stable-and felt a sudden rush of power.

And suddenly she felt like she could do anything. She was half tempted to yell something badass, but instead summoned the sword that came with this transformation and used the distraction of the monster-whatever his name was-to sneak up behind him and slash him in the back.

“What the-” Both Wes and the monster echoed those words at the exact same time. The monster fell over,injured, but wasn’t entirely down for the count.

“You’ll pay for that!” He charged at her, but was deflected by the sword.

Of course the lack of combat experience was evident in her movements-they were sloppy, and it was only with the interference of the secondary force-a ghostly shark spirit-that she didn’t get hit at all. “Man, am I gonna feel this one in the morning,” she groaned.

By this time, a stunned Wes had been able to get to his feet and summon his own chrono sabers. “Thanks for the hand, but...who are you? Are you from the future?”

“I dunno, what year is it?”

“2000,” Wes replied between slashes.

“I’m from the year 2023, so I guess so, sorta. And I’m Kelli. Ouch, that almost got me.”

In the end, whoever the monster was-was forced to retreat. Kelli had no idea that she’d changed things, and in the original timeline,it had been Wes doing the retreating.

In the meantime, one Eric Myers had taken the distraction as time to snatch the very thing everyone was after for himself. At least that much hadn’t changed.

“By the way, how do you guys get out of these things? I mean, it’s a cool suit and all, but I can’t eat pizza in this helmet.”

Wes chuckled. “We usually just say power down.” When he said the words, his own transformation faded.

“Power down then,” she echoed. Thankfully, it worked, and she peered over at Wes.”You’re even cuter in person.”

“Pardon?”

“I said you’re cuter in person. Let’s just say I’ve seen your face somewhere before, and it’s not because your dad’s a rich dude. Anyway, are you okay?”

“I should probably be asking you the same thing. You look like you’re kind of new to this, but you did pretty well.”

“Thanks, I figured I’d fail miserably,” she replied. “I didn’t think I could do that, but I just went on a hunch. Hard to explain. I’m expecting to feel the impact of this in the morning.”

“Yeah, it’ll do that. I’d ask if I could take you home, but it might take some help from Time Force to do that.”

“Just promise me they won’t lecture me about time travel, cause this totally wasn’t my fault. Jen’s a total badass, but she can be kind of mean. And that Alex guy is kind of a stuffed shirt.”

Wes looked at her quizzically. “How do you know about Jen and Alex? I don’t know much about the guy, other than the fact that Ransik-”

She winced inwardly. “Oops. Well, cat’s out of the bag. I guess I should explain somehow, but long story short, where I come from, Alex is somehow alive, perhaps having reading about all this stuff the others did in the year 2000 in the year 3000...or something. Tell you what, can we go someplace a little more quiet and I can explain to you, and then you can explain to everyone else? Because explaining to groups is nerve-wracking for my introverted personality, and I feel like Jen would interrupt me a thousand times and I’d get pissed off.”

Wes tried to keep a straight face upon hearing all this, but couldn’t help himself-he started laughing. “I’m telling you, she’s not that bad. But I think that would be all right.”

#power rangers time force #wes collins

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buckypcrker · 3 years ago

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mission as usual // i love y'all 3000 challenge

hi everyone! this is a submission for @pagesoflauren's i love y'all 3000 challenge. i saw this come up on my dash and figured i would do a prompt (or two, maybe). i haven't written anything in quite a bit, and the inspiration may as well have slapped me in the face. here is the link to her original post!

pairing: Clint Barton x James "Bucky" Barnes [WinterHawk]

warnings: hurt/comfort, possible fluff overload, typical canon violence

prompt: "Who did this to you?"

word count: 1.5k

Mission As Usual

After most Avengers missions the tower became chaotic. The brisk footfalls of new agents discussing upcoming missions. Stark's R&D engineers tweaking and updating weapons and transportation vehicles. The medical staff taking care of patients and preparing for those who would be coming from other missions.

You could say that the Avengers were a kind of group who believed in self-sacrifice — even if it was a subconscious effort — and the worst of the bunch had to be one-Clint Barton.

Clint had this streak of consecutive medical visits post-mission going — he was currently weighing in at 62, and that's not counting the various clumsy accidents he gets into in the tower.

But the only problem he truly faced was getting past his mother-hen of a boyfriend. Bucky meant well, truly. He just can't help it when he gets his Sargent voice going and telling Clint to "be more careful".

"He was like this with me when we were kids", Steve had laughed, "glad to see that hasn't changed."

The only difference is Steve Rogers was the most sickly kid in all of Brooklyn, hell, all of New York and Clint was just a huge, self-sacrificing klutz.

Missions with just himself and Natasha were rare nowadays. They hung out all the time in the tower regardless, but there was nothing quite as special when they got to team up against HYDRA or former members of the Red Room.

Half the time that they were out in the field they were back to back watching each other's six. Clint's bow always drawn tight with an arrow and Natasha's batons buzzing in her hands. No one worked quite as in sync as the two of them, well, unless you look at Steve and Sam Wilson.

Their mission this time was tracking down a rogue HYDRA agent who escaped their grasp during their last roll in the mud with the whole team. Seemed simple enough. In, out, get the guy, interrogate, and have time to catch a new episode of The Blacklist.

As most injuries to the Avengers happen, one minute Clint was in a Mexican stand off with the HYDRA agent, Natasha coming up from behind, and the next his face was slammed down onto the asphalt.

His ears were ringing, head throbbing. There's another one, he must've called backup. Clint slowly pushed himself up to his knee, blood trickling down his temple. He flung his head around, seeing his attacker coming back for another blow.

Clint ducked under his leg that was out to kick him and snatched a knife from his boot, swiping at the back of the man's knee. A hiss sounds above him as the agent joins Clint on his knees, slamming his knee hard into his stomach.

All of the air that was in his lungs rushes out, and he's sitting hunched over, suffocating, and trying to regain his breath. "I'm supposed to be watching Nat's six", he thinks.

He finally returns to his feet, wheezing but breathing better than he was. His and Nat's grunts are heard as they continue to fight the HYDRA agents. In due time, Clint knocks out the agent by kneeing him in the head and Nat had apprehended the other.

"Alright Squad Four come in for clean up." Nat says briskly into comms.

Two quinjets land, and suddenly the steps Clint needs to take to get to them seem so impossible. Thankfully, Natasha comes up next to him and helps him to bear his own weight. Bless her and her red head.

A few SHIELD agents rush out of the first quinjet armed and with handcuffs to apprehend the HYDRA agents. The second one that Nat leads him towards has a pilot and a few medical techs to give them a basic once over before Bruce and Dr. Cho can get to them at the tower.

The flight from their mission site to the tower pass by in a total blur. Clint is fading in and out of consciousness, his head is throbbing, and everything hurts.

"Mr. Barton, sorry to interrupt," one of the med techs signs, "your hearing aids were damaged during the fight, Mr. Stark is going to have to make some new ones for you."

"Aw hearing aids, no." Clint says slurred and he knows he's a bit loud due to not being able to hear himself.

Landing at the tower winds up being more of an affair than usual. With Clint's lack of hearing, he had no clue what was happening. Lips were impossible to read as hurried conversations occurred around him.

Of course, Bruce and Dr. Cho tried to gang up on him and force him onto a gurney, hell, at least a wheelchair to wheel him to an exam room. As the sharpshooter does, he makes a big stink with slurred words and glassy eyes.

Natasha had pushed him into a wheelchair anyway.

Clint really just wanted to crawl into a vent and hide until he felt better — and maybe pop a few ibuprofen tablets too. But there he was, post-checkup with Bruce, sitting on the counter in the communal kitchen.

As with most of Clint's now 63 consecutive medical visits, bandaids were on multiple parts of his face. He was also sporting some nice bruises on his stomach and temple where his head had been slammed into the ground.

He looked and felt like he was hit by a truck filled with 17 elephants, and then ran over by a train. Ok, maybe he was getting a bit dramatic now.

Nonetheless, he was sitting with Natasha, Tony, and Peter — this new spider-child that he swears Tony picked up off the street and he has to stop calling him 'Mr. Hawkeye, sir'. His injuries were on full display, only because after having to cut Clint's shirt off to give him that once over Bruce didn't even want to try and get a shirt back on the poor man.

"You know, I know I'm an asshole, but you look like shit, Legolas." Tony snarks as his hands move quickly.

"Thanks, Tony. You are so sweet to get me a glass of water." Clint pulled this master guilt-tripping look that always got to Tony and like their game always goes, the short man retrieved what Clint wanted.

And that sure put a large grin on his face. Ow, it hurt... damn bruises. It also helped when he saw Peter laughing and the shaking of Nat's head as she sipped from a wine glass.

Everything was finally settling down, and as he got sucked into a tough game of Angry Birds on his phone, he was stunned at the sudden movements in his periphery.

Looking up — and completely missing his shot with the bird that was simultaneously a bomb — he saw Bucky rushing at him, pressing into his space between his legs. Words were tumbling out of his mouth but Clint couldn't begin to comprehend them. Too much, too fast.

"Buck, no aids, they broke." Clint signs quickly.

He watches Bucky's face change from concerned and kicked puppy to an angry scowl and back in two seconds. His metal hand reaches to cup Clint's cheek, the archer immediately pressing into his hold.

"Who did this to you?" Bucky signs with his other hand, face serious.

"HYDRA agent. Thought there was one, turns out it was two." Clint sighs in exhaustion.

Clint watches as his boyfriend looks him over, grimacing at the bruising and the bandages covering him. He knows Bucky worries when he goes on missions without having him as a backup, and this just further proved that.

He watches as Bucky turns to Tony and say something, but Clint doesn't bother to try and follow along to the conversation. He looks to Steve and Sam, both dressed in their running gear, the sweat on their brows, and they share a knowing look.

Clint was about to be put on bed arrest by one Bucky Barnes. So much to his plan of hiding out in the vents.

He watches Sam mouth 'Buck, overreacting again', and shakes his head with a fond smile. As much of a pain he was when Clint was hurt, he found it very endearing. At times when Clint had been injured way worse, Bucky had helped him into a warm bath to soothe his aches and pains, massaging his scalp, and rambling to him about his day.

Bucky taps Clint's knee twice, their signal to pay attention so they can see each other signing, he looks up into his steely blue eyes and catches a small smile on his face.

"How many now?" Bucky signs with a smirk.

"63, and counting!"

"Stop that Clint Frances."

"You did not just middle name me."

"Hm, whatcha gon' do about it doll?" Bucky smirks, signing something vaguely inappropriate as their friends had cleared out the room to give them privacy.

"Nothing. Although, I could use some good ole Bucky-bear cuddles." Clint smiled softly, looking at his boyfriend lovingly.

"Of course, I'm always going to take care of you. No matter what."

Even with Bucky's overprotective nature, Clint still couldn't help but blush at the affection from his boyfriend. He knew he still had to face the upcoming Sergeant speech, but in that moment, nothing else really mattered as he sat in Bucky's arms.

#winterhawk #james bucky barnes #bucky barnes #bucky barnes x clint barton #clint barton #bucky barnes fan fic #clint barton fanfiction #marvel #marvel fanfiction #buckypcrker #ap.fic #i love y'all 3000 challenge #pagesoflauren3000challenge

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mechanicalinertia · 3 years ago

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STMPD Recommends Bubblegum Crisis Fanfiction: Nightfall Wars, complete with spoofing

Well, October is over and so the usual obsession with the usual spooky Halloween monsters for now. So much the better, I say. I honestly can't stand Halloween - the commercialization isn't a suffocating layer that can be dug through to find genuine intimacy like with the winter holidays (I may be atheist/secular but I still celebrate Christmas with my extended family and have a wonderful time of it), it's the entirety of the holiday, the beginning and the end. So is Thanksgiving, mind you, but the advertising and marketing of various products is less omnipresent and so less cloying.

Which is a pity, because I was going to post a link to a little fanfiction involving both Bubblegum Crisis and Vampires, dug up by its own author after he typed it up sometime in the late 90's like all the rest of the fanboys when BGC still had cultural currency. Even better, it's ostensibly the vampires of The Masquerade, that great big clusterfuck of an RPG franchise which taught generation X that being edgy meant being deep. Without further Ado, here's Nightfall Wars by Arthur Hansen...

Or rather, what the community at the time called its MSTing.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 was another icon of nerd culture in the 90's, I assume most of you know it from the Netflix revival a few years back. If you don't, then its opening explains the whole goddamn thing just fine:

youtube

So what people would do is copypaste someone else's fanfiction - preferrably a particularly bad fanfic - and write in first some prose involving Joel / Mike / whoever and his robots 'watching' or rather reading a fanfiction and interjecting in the middle of the original fic's prose. Kind of a badass move, but no one does it anymore because the riffing of Mst3k morphed into stuff like Nostalgia Critic and everyone hates that particular breed of riffing nowadays. The cultural currency is dead - and anyway, the internet's too big for people to really make something like this work. If I start riffing on something - anything - from Wattpad, it becomes less funny because it feels more like punching down than punching to the side of oneself.

Also it didn't always work, especially when the riffer sucked at writing themselves SHAWN HAGEN. I think - I really think I should start cataloging BGC fanfiction like this more often, recommending it or, well, you know, not recommending it. I have so much goddamn knowledge about this useless topic it probably can't hurt to do it as a long-form kind of thing, even if TvTropes already has a rec page, and even if I already put a much more cultivated Greatest Hits out there for my 2068 RPG doc.

Anyway, Nightfall Wars reads pretty B-Movie out of the gate: Sylia gets turned by a vampire, survives and is un-thralled by virtue of her father's nanotech, the two tussle one time, she kills him with a solar collection satellite, she escapes her vampirism by uploading to a 2040 Sylia body, all is good. The writing isn't great, but it's good enough to get the plot and the action across, and the author gets a point in my book simply by making a fanfiction centered on the Sabers proper instead of their own OC (which leads to more misses than hits in BGC fic).

On the other hand, the MSTing is indispensable. It keeps the normal cast of MST3K and adds in a lady vampire punted up to the Satellite of Love by the Mad Scientists. Not even as a love interest - there's remarkably little flirtatious stuff - but since it is a fic about vampires having a guest like this is a clever little device, especially since Tom and Crow keep harassing her about vampire stuff and she responds with light-hearted violence. It wouldn't work if Ben Da Mad Irishman (the guy who wrote the MSTing) wasn't good at the sort of wholesome comedy the original show rests upon. But he is, even if his original site is no longer on the internet, and so the fic-hybrid works. It's great, really, and you should read it.

Anyway... Yeah, I think doing a series of posts like this might be fun. Already got that last tag for your further convenience. Yeah. Let's do this.

#mystery science theater 3000 #mst3k #bubblegum crisis #fanfiction #fanfic rec #vampire #90s nostalgia #bgc #stmpd reviews bgc fanfic #Youtube

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evendeadlmthehero · 5 years ago

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The Five Year Promise: Visit From a Sorcerer (4/10)

Summary: Y/N Stark, 20 year old superhero, makes a promise with a 16 year old Peter Parker after being cheated on, that if she hasn’t found love in the next 5 years, they’d finally go on a date. Then the snap happens. Y/N is gone and Peter isn’t

Warnings: swearing, a little bit of angst

Twitter// BuckysLemons

A/N: this chapter is really long. I might add an extra part and make it an eleven part series if the next chapter is also too long.

The Five Year Promise Masterlist

Based on Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

It was 12pm.

12pm and you were in a lab, working on your suit.

It was a complex equation that was your suit, and you were still trying to figure it out. Yes, after one year of almost dying, you were still trying to figure out the secret of your suit.

“Which is velocity squared...” you trailed off, talking to yourself as you scribbled down the numbers. You then stuck the pen in your mouth, thinking of what to add now.

“Maybe the coefficient of kinetic friction?” You spoke, finishing out the equation. You were about to see if the equation was viable before your dad came in, scaring the hell out of you.

“Happy Birthday to you!” He yelled obnoxiously, wearing a birthday hat and a shirt with your face on it. “Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear pumpkin! Happy birthday to you!”

You stared at your dad with a ‘what the hell’ look. Your dad looked at you with the same look, shaking his head.

“What? You want me to sing it in Spanish?” He had asked, rolling his eyes. “Anyway, before your ungrateful self looks at me like I’m an idiot, I have made reservation for us, Pepper, Peter and Samwell Oshdorn.”

You let out a little laugh, folding the piece of paper containing the equation and placing it in one of the desk draws. “Dad, ‘Samwell Oshdorn’ and I broke up last week.”

Your father straightened up at the news. He was happy. Of course he was. He hated the Osborn kid. His father always competed with him and his son was equally as annoying.

“You got want you wanted dad,” you spoke out quietly, playing with your fingers. “You got what everyone else wanted.”

Your dad face fell at your sad tone. Despite your Dad’s perception of him, he knew you were just blinded by love.

Taking off the birthday hat, he placed it on the table and walked over towards you.

“Hey, pumpkin,” he spoke out, rubbing your shoulders. “You’ll get there one day. You’ll find love. And also, sometimes I am stupid, and you won’t hear me say that again about myself so don’t take this for granted, but your feelings matter more to me than what I think about someone.”

“Dad,” your voice cracked, shaking your head as a tear escaped you eye. “I just- I just want to know what I did wrong. I don’t know what- he just.”

You stopped shaking your head as tears cascaded down your cheeks. Your father embraced you, rubbing soothing circles on your back.

“Sweet pea you did nothing wrong, okay. I might be a little biased, but I think you are the most smartest and beautiful young lady in the world. He’s just an idiot who didn’t know what he had until it was gone.”

You sniffed, letting out a chuckle, giving your dad the tightest squeeze you can manage. You moved away from the hug, wiping the tears from your face. “Thanks dad. I love you so much. Like a lot. Like 2000.”

“2000?” Your dad faked being hurt, grabbing his chest. “I’m at least a 3000. I mean I have a shirt printed with your face on it, I deserve bonus points.”

You laughed at your dad, shaking your head. You then looked away from him, biting your lip. “Can I tell you something else dad?”

“Shoot”

“I miss Nat and Wanda,” you spoke, your eyes welling up with tears again, but this time you didn’t let them fall. “I miss having them around. I miss- I miss venting to them. This is the secound time that I’m not celebrating my birthday with them and it’s harder than the first time.”

Your dad let out a sigh, crossing his arms as he looked away. “You know it’s hard hun. Cap and I-“

“I know Dad,” you spoke, looking at your fingernails. “But one way or another, we will need them to come back. You and I both know there’s something big coming.”

Your dad nodded, getting up for the chair before placing the birthday hat on your head. “Get dressed, we’re leaving soon.”

You nodded, annoyed at how he changed the subject while placing the birthday hat on the table. “Sure.”

Your dad walked towards the door before halting. He turned around, pulling a little box from his pocket. “This came in the mail for you today.”

He handed you the box, giving you a final look before leaving the room. You ripped the brown paper around it before opening the box.

Inside it was a charm bracelet and a little note that said:

Hey mini me,

They were selling these at a little shop near Wakanda and I thought it’d look good on you. Happy 21st Birthday and remember; when you drink in front of your dad, make sure it looks like your first time ;)

With Love,

Your big sister Nat

P.S Wanda says she loves you a lot

You smiled at the note, placing the charm bracelet around your wrist. It had a bead that you assumed was made out of vibranium and engraved on it was a baby panther with an adult version panther.

You placed the note back into the box before placing it in the draw.

“And then he told the terrorist his home address!” Pepper exclaimed, drinking a glass of water as she shook her head. “Terrorist! We almost died!”

Your father had rented out the whole reasturant so that you guys could get some privacy of the media. You were thankful, not wanting to get asked questions from the public about your relationship.

Pepper and Tony were sitting side by side, opposite you and Peter. Happy had tagged along, sitting where Harry would have been sitting. Peter had gotten an apple juice whereas you had gotten a cocktail.

This of course made Peter feel like a little kid, with him and Pepper being the only ones not drinking alcohol. But then he remembered the countdown on his watch.

��I still have a chance,’ he thought in his head, playing with the straw of his apple juice. ‘Just need to make sure that neither of us find love.’

“I remember that,” you replied back, laughing as your dad put his head down in embarrassment. “He had shipped me off to the Avengers facility.”

“Excuse but I seem to recall it is Y/N’s Birthday,” your dad spoke out, titling his head to the side as he took a sip from his drink. “Meaning that we should talk about her most embarrassing moments, not mine.”

“I’m up for this!” Peter exclaimed, laughing as you gave him a look. “I’ll go first actually. It was when we had a mission to stop some drug lords in Colombia and Y/N-“

“Oh my god no,” you whispered, putting your hands over your face to cover your embarrassment.

“-And then she- she,” Peter couldn’t finish his words as he kept uncontrollably laugh. This of course had made Y/N laugh even more. “I l-“

“I sneezed!” You spoke laughing, as you smacked his arm, making his face turn red from the lack of air in his lungs. “I told you I sneezed!”

“But-But you didn’t!” Peter kept on laughing, shaking his head at you whilst pointing a finger. “The man grabbed you- and you- you-“

He went on a fit of laughter once again as you were already gone. Your laughs were silent and your stomach was pounding. “I- I did not fart!”

This comment made Peter fall on the ground from his chair, holding his stomach as he continued to laugh. You got up from your seat, bending down to smack his shoulder.

“Shut up!” You told him, tears running down your face as you kept laughing. “In the name of Pablo Escobar I demand you to shut up!”

Pepper, Tony and Happy watched on, smiling at the both of you.

“They’d make a great couple,” Happy spoke, looking towards Tony who smiled down at both of you.

“Yeah,” Tony replied, shaking his head as you guys kept on laughing. “Just give it time.”

“Pepper,” you spoke, as you girls walked behind Tony, Happy and Peter who were in a deep conversation about nanotechnology and Peter’s Aunt.

“Yeah,” she hummed, holding her purse as you all took a stroll along a park. The birds chirped and it was a perfect day, not a single cloud on site yet a cool breeze was present.

The park was simple, surrounded by oak trees, benches and a backdrop of the city buildings. There were couples and singles jogging around, but not many on sight.

“I have a question,” you stated, pushing your hair behind your ear. Your cute little white French dress with frills was being blown back by the cool wind. “You didn’t have alcohol today. You had water.”

Pepper smirked at you, looking down at the pathway. Sometimes it amazed her how observant you were, sometimes the opposite of your father. “What are you implying little missy?”

You smiled at her, looping your arm around hers. “So it’s true isn’t it?”

“Yes it is,” Pepper nodded at you, instinctively grabbing her stomach even though there was no bump present yet. “I was planning to tell Tony later tonight.”

“Pepper, I’m happy you’re going to be my stepmom,” you revealed to her. She squeezed your hand in gratitude.

“And I’m glad to have you as my step daughter,” she replied back, giving you a warm smile. “Just a couple of more months, and you get to be a bridesmaid.”

You smiled, so happy your father had finally found love and was soon getting a secound child with his future wife. “What names were you thinking of?”

“I was thinking about Patience,” Pepper spoke, nodding to herself before looking at Tony who was a good 3 meters away from you guys. “Because being with Tony required lots of it.”

You giggled at her remark, making Peter look back at you. You smiled at him which he had returned before continuing his conversation with Tony and Happy.

“How about Morgan,” you told Pepper. “Like after that dude who does the voice over on Nat Geo. It’s a nice name.”

“That,” Pepper pondered, her face scrunched up in thought. “Is not the most horrible name that I’ve heard.”

The boys in front of you suddenly halted, looking back at you guys to make sure you caught up.

“Do you girlies want ice cream?” Tony had asked you both. You walked up next to Peter, nodding your head at your dad.

“I wouldn’t mind some ice cream.”

“Good, there’s a gelato shop a few blocks down that are still open we can-“ Tony stopped mid-sentence as a yellow-glowlike circle appeared in the middle of the path.

You pressed the button on your necklace, allowing nanoparticles to start spreading around your body and form your white suit. You were always prepared to fight the unknown.

Suddenly a 40 year old man came out of the portal that was formed, donning a red cape and a blue long formal shirt.

“Tony Stark and Y/N Stark,” the man announced, his facial expression remaining unchanged. “I'm Doctor Stephen Strange. I need you to come with me. Oh, uh, congratulations on the wedding, by the way.”

All five of you were understandingly shocked, looking at him like he grew multiple heads. This guy had come out of nowhere and requested you and your father’s presence.

“I'm sorry, you giving out tickets or something?” Your father spoke in his usual sarcastic manner.

“We need your help,” Stephen Strange spoke, looking at your father, you and Peter. “Look, it's not overselling to say that the fate of the universe is at stake.”

Your heart stopped when you heard those last words. You still had PSTD from Sokovia and New York, similarly to your father. You didn’t want another fate-of-the-world battle, although your anxiety always told you there was much worse than what you’ve been through.

“And who's "we"?” You had asked, crossing your arms. Your eyes suddenly widened as the man you always thought of as an uncle, emerges from the portal. A man you haven’t seen since Sokovia, which was three years ago.

“Hey Tony,” Bruce spoke, holding a blanket around himself as he emerged from behind the sorcessor.

“Bruce,” your father had gasped as he watched him walk over in disbelief. Bruce gave an awkward smile, as he pulled the blanket closer to his body.

“Pepper,” Bruce had greeted her too before looking at you. “Hey little rascal. Look at you all grown up.”

“Hi,” you and Pepper replied simultaneously, not believing your eyes. And why would you? This man was gone for three years. You guys thought you’d never see him again.

“You okay?” Tony asks, but Bruce gives Tony a desperate hug, not answering.

You knew something was up. Something was wrong with Bruce to have him shaken up like that, like he’d seen the devil himself.

Your hand instinctively reached Peter’s hand, scared to find out what had the fate of the universe in stake.

You then looked at Peter, your eyes still wide, pupils dilated in fear.

“You better suit up too.”

“At the dawn of the universe, there was nothing, then boom,” Wong had explained as you all listened intently, watching the visual representation. “The big bang sent six elemental crystals hurtling across the virgin universe. These Infinity Stones each control an essential aspect of existence."

“Space, Reality, Power, Soul, Mind,” Dr Strange listed as each stone glowed. Your eyes watched in fascination has he opened his necklace to reveal a stone emitting an emerald light. “And Time.”

You looked at your father to figure out his game plan. He looked at the demonstration intensively before speaking. “Tell me his name again.”

“Thanos,” Bruce spoke out, getting up from his seat and staring your dad dead in the eye. “He's a plague, Tony. He invades planets. He takes what he wants. He wipes out half the population. He sent Loki. The attack on New York. That's him.”

“This is it,” your father whispered to himself, as he rubbed his chin.

“Um Mr Dr. Strange,” Peter’s voice wavered as he lifted his arm up. Stephen gave him a nod, indicating him to continue. “What exactly is our timeline? Like today? Tomorrow? B-because we have a birthday to celebrate.”

“No telling,” Bruce looked at Peter, shaking his head as he gripped his blanket. “He has the Power and Space Stones, that already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. If he gets his hands on all six Stones, guys.”

“He can destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of,” Dr Strange finished him. You shivered at those words as goosebumps appeared on your skin.

This is it. This is what you and your father have been prophesying for 6 years.

Your father leans against a cauldron, stretching like he's about to go for a run. “Did you seriously just say "hitherto undreamt of"?”

Dr. Stephen Strange looked at your father in ridiculousness as he kept stretching. “Are you seriously leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?”

“Is that what this is?” Your father had spoke before Dr Strange’s cloak suddenly moved and smaked your father’s arm making him jump back.

“I'm going to allow that,” your father glared at Stephen, straightning up his jacket.

“Look this seems really dangerous and it’s getting out of hand,” you spoke, gathering all the men’s attention. “Maybe we should call the police.”

Your father snorted at that comment but the sorceress looked at you like you were an idiot. “Wha-“

“Or maybe the Avengers, idk,” you cut him off. You were stressed, and like your father, you made jokes when you were stressed.

Peter knew this so he decided to join along so you weren’t alone. “Or stick his stone in the garbage disposal.”

“Do you think if we auctioned it on Ebay, thanos will bid for it?” You turned to look at Peter. “Can you imagine him betting like 100 gold pieces. Or like paying with slaves-“

“We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone,” Wong interrupted you both like you had offended him. Which you probably did. “With our lives.”

“And I swore off dairy, but then, Ben & Jerry's named a flavor after me, so,” your dad replied back, giving both the men a shrug.

“Quince Quasar is the best,” you shot back.

“Whatever,” Your father replied before looking back at the man in a cloak. “Point is, things change.”

“Our oath to protect the Time Stone cannot change,” the doctor had urged your father, looking at you too in seriousness. “This Stone may be the best chance we have against Thanos.”

“And still conversely, it may also be his best chance against us,” you spoke back, now standing up from your seat. “We are bringing what Thanos wants right under his nose. To me, that sounds fairly stupid.”

“Okay, guys, could we table this discussion right now?” Bruce had interrupted you guys. “The fact is that we have this Stone. We know where it is. Vision is out there somewhere with the Mind Stone, and we have to find him now.”

“Yeah, that's the thing,” your father groaned out awkwardly. “He’s offline. We don’t know where he is right now.”

“Who could find Vision, then?” Stephen had asked.

“Shit,” your father whispered to himself, pushing his hair back. “Probably Steve Rogers.”

The doctor sighed in discontent, shaking his head frustration. “Oh, great.”

“Call him,” Bruce spoke out innocently making you sigh before you took your seat with Peter.

You smiled at him before leaning on his shoulder and tuning out the rest of the conversation.

“I hope this is a false alarm,” you told Peter. “Because frankly I’m scared of dying and also, we don’t have the rest of the Avengers so we’re screwed.”

You then looked at his watch.

1818 days and 3 hours

“I still have a lot to live for,” you then replied, closing your eyes. “I want to graduate MIT. Buy my first house that isn’t in the Avengers compound. Have 6 kids and name them after the infinity stones.”

You snorted at the last part, wanting to slap yourself for being so annoying.

“Hey,” Peter spoke, watching as your father spoke to the Bruce and the two sorceress. “You will. Except the last part. That last part is where you sort of went downhill.”

“Shut up web man.”

“Say, Doc,” your father had spoke, making you look at him. “You wouldn't happen to be moving your hair, would you?”

Dr. Strange looked up at his forelock fluttering in confusion. “Not at the moment, no.”

You looked up at the Hulk-made opening through the ceiling and see debris flying by outside. You then get up and walk near the door, seeing people running and screaming.

You open the door, your father and Peter following you close behind. A women runs into you as you stop her from falling. “You okay?”

The woman ignores you and runs away. The wind his blowing your hair everywhere and you are struggling to see through the debris that you almost miss the car hurdling towards you.

Peter, with his instincts, quickly webs the car into the wall before it hits you. You look at him, giving him a grateful smile that he returns.

Your father the puts on his sunglasses as you and Peter stood by his side, awaiting his intructions. “F.R.I.D.A.Y., what am I looking at?”

“Not sure, I'm working on it.”

Your father then faces Dr Strange. “Hey! You might wanna put that Time Stone in your back pocket, Doc!”

Dr. Strange moves his hands and now bands of spells were readied around his forearms. “Might wanna use it.”

A mechanical hum grows louder as you, Bruce, your dad and Strange approach the intersection with Wong following behind. As you turn around the corner, you see a huge circular ship floating over Bleecker Street.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y., evac anyone south of 43rd Street, notify first responders,” you spoke as you readied up, your suit emitting a golden glow. “Make sure they set a perimeter 6 blocks from this area.”

“Will do.”

Doctor Strange throws some kind of spell that forms a strong wind over Bleeker Street before winking at your father who was begrudgingly amused for a split second.

The dust cleared and suddenly two aliens, one large and one small wearing a robe, exited the ship by what seemed to be a transmat.

The two aliens seemed emotionless and threatening as they spoke.

“Hear me, and rejoice. You are about to die at the hands of the Children of Thanos. Be thankful, that your meaningless lives are now contributing to-“

“I'm sorry, Earth is closed today,” your father cut him off, echoing his usual sarcastic self. “You better pack it up and get outta here.”

“Stone keeper,” the alien spoke, looking at Doctor Strange. He then gestures to your father. “Does this chattering animal speak for you?”

“Certainly not. I speak for myself,” Dr Strange spoke, as he hit his wrists together and formed a magicial shield before stepping forward. “But you’re trespassing in this city and on this planet.”

Wong copied his actions and formed shields around his fists. Peter got in an attack stance, placing a mask on his face whilst your suit begun emitting quantum energy more profoundly that your hair was floating up.

“It means get lost, Squidward!” Tony yelled at him. You saw your father’s fists clench and his whole body tense up.

Your father did not want a fight, you know that. He, just like you, wanted to continue your day without a worry in the world.

The alien looked displeased and stood his ground arrogantly. “You all exhaust me.”

He then turned to his bigger friend, lifting an arm up. “Bring me the Stone.”

The alien lets out three untranslated syllables. He drops his huge alien hammer and drags it along as he obeys his brethren.

“Banner, you want a piece?” Your father had asked Bruce.

“Cool!” Peter spoke excitedly, getting up from his fighting position. “We get to see the hulk?”

“When do I ever get what I want?” Bruce muttered to himself as he took a step forward. Bruce attempts to release the Hulk. Instead of Hulk coming out easily, the most that turns green is Bruce's neck. It almost looks painful to watch.

“Been a while,” your father had replied patiently, watching as the alien neared. “Good to have you back buddy.”

“I just-“ Banner stopped, trying to get himself to hulk out. “I need to concentrate here for one second. Come on, come on, man.”

“Are you okay Bruce?” You had asked him, walking over to him to rub his shoulder. “Because at this rate your more likely to shit yourself then hulk out and we don’t need that right now.”

“Me and Hulk are having a thing.”

“There’s no time for a thing!”

“Don’t you think I know!”

“Uh guys,” Peter spoke, pointing at the alien who was now running towards you guys. “I don’t think we have time for the Hulk to show up fashionably late.”

Bruce gives out a loud grunt, but fails to release the Hulk once again. Doctor Strange stares at your dad and Bruce in disbelief, making your dad face Bruce. “Dude, you're embarrassing me in front of the wizards.”

As the giant alien approaches the team, your father dons his nanotech Iron Man suit in the space of three steps. He grows a shield on one arm to protect himself, then grows a set of blasters that easily throw the giant back to his master who gestures and deflects his massive companion into some cars.

“Where'd that come from?” Bruce had asked excitedly. Your father smirked at him, showing off his suit.

“It's nano-tech. You like it? A little someth-“

Before your father finished his sentence, the alien creates a spike of earth that throws your father far up.

You feel anger bubbling within you as you clench your fist. “You’re gonna regret that.”

You fly over to him, your whole body emmitting a yellow bright light as you pulled your fist up, ready to punch him before Maw, the alien, lifts up his hand, throwing a car at you.

Before it hits you, your father returns and joins the fight, pushing a car thrown by Maw back at him. Maw cuts it in half and lets the pieces fly past him, untouched.

While he’s cutting the car in half, you let out a quantum blast, knocking him to the end of the street.

Your father looked at Stephen, his face now serious. “Gotta get that stone outta here, now.”

“It stays with me.”

“Exactly. Bye. Y/N, come with me,” your dad speaks before flying off.

“No. You, Strange and Wong fight off the beast and take Bruce with you,” you replied back in the comms. “Peter and I have got Voldemort.”

“Okay little miss bossy.”

You nod at Peter as Strange and Wong open a portal where both of them and Bruce disappear into.

“Just like we practiced,” you told Peter, as you saw Maw get up, dusting his attire. Peter nodded up at you, getting in position.

He shot an electric web at you, powering up your suit, before you shot a surge of quantum energy at Maw, blinding him.

You had five secound to attack Maw before the temporary blindness from the light would fade away. This had to be quick or else you’d both be at a disadvantage.

Peter grabbed you by the waist and webbed the surface of a building. He then swung over to Maw who was currently rubbing his eyes, letting out an incoherent sentence.

Peter made one final big swing before letting go of your waist. You swung your fist back, flying down with full speed as quantum energy surged throughout your body.

You punched Maw with full power, forcing him 3 meters down the earth’s surface. Peter then webbed you back up before throwing a timed-web bomb down the hole.

You breathed in heavily as Peter swung back to your side. “Don’t get too excited, he’s an alien. They usually need more than just a big hit to stay down.”

And just as you predicted, Maw surged out of the floor, using a piece of the road to levitate. “Let’s try this again shall we.”

Maw lifted up a finger, causing a massive rock to hurdle towards you. Peter quickly picked you up once again, and webbed you up into a balcony before the car would hit you.

“You sure do hate cars.”

Maw looked at you both angrily, getting sick of you guys. You gave him a little smirk before flying off the balcony and towards his direction.

You shot quantum blasts at him. While he was distracted trying to not get hit, you took a sneaky shot near the building next to him.

You got out of the way as the building started following towards him. But it was too slow. Maw had caught it his telekinetic powers, his arms up as he let out a groan.

Peter took this as an opportunity to swing down and kick him in the stomach but before he did, Maw quickly released the building and bended metal scraps around his wrists and ankles to the wall.

“I can’t move!” Peter spoke, trying to break free from the grips of the metal but failing to do so. What kind of power did this alien possess to have him stuck like this with metal scraps, he had thought.

“Can’t spiders shoot webs from their ass?” You yelled over to him while fighting maw at the same time. You moved your head to the side, narrowingly missing the pipe he threw towards your head.

“No I can’t!” Peter yelled back, not believing what you just said to him. “I’m not an actual spider!”

“So you’re a fraud,” you told him as you shot at Maw which he kept deflecting with various metallic items. “You’re Fraudelent man.”

“No I’m not!”

Maw moved both his hands up, now two flying cars surging towards you from either side. Before you could react, Dr Strange appeared, creating a portal behind you so that the cars wouldn’t go through you.

He then went over to Maw fighting him whilst you ran up to Peter. You drew your wrist back. “Close your eyes.”

Peter obliged and closed his eyes as you sent a blast at his wrists and ankle, setting him free. “There you go.”

“Well that was fun,” Peter had muttered to himself. “I thought today was just going to be lunch before we go back to the avengers compound to sing happy birthday, but apparently no.”

You see your father fly past you and over to Dr Strange who was being taken by the alien. It seemed like Dr Strange was unconscious and that Maw was taking him and the stone with him.

“Shit,” you whispered before looking at Peter. “We have to stop that alien from getting the stone.”

Peter nodded, rubbing his wrists before following you and your dad to where Strange was being teloported.

Peter webbed your foot as you flew up to the spaceship. You struggled to fly due to the turbulence that Peter caused from being webbed up to your foot.

“Pete, you’re making it really hard to fly!”

“I’m sorry if I want to save the world with you guys but don’t have wings!”

You put a little more effort to flying up, nearing closer and closer to the space ship. You felt the edge of the spaceship in your fingertips before quickly picking yourself up and holding on to the spaceship.

“I-I can’t breathe!” Peter gasped as his eyes was closing and opening his eyes. He ripped off the web from your foot and held onto the spaceship tightly instead.

“Unlock 17-A,” you heard your father speak to F.R.I.D.A.Y. You knew what 17A was. It was the suit your dad spent all night working on.

“Pete you gotta let go!” You spoke to him as you held onto the space ship yourself, feeling the wind pushing your hair around.

Peter didn’t want to let go. He was scared of heights. But he was forced to let go after losing consciousness.

Peter started free-falling, but not for long before the pod reaches him. It attaches itself to him, becoming the Iron Spider suit.

Now being able to breathe, Peter lands on a bottom part of the ship, standing up heroically. You smile at him, watching as he looked at the suit in surprise.

“Mr. Stark, it smells like a new car in here!” He yelled over to your father.

“Happy trails, kid.” Your father had replied before speaking to his suit. “F.R.I.D.A.Y, send him home.”

A large parachute extends from the new suit, snatching Peter free of the ship's hull and him spiraling back to Earth. “Oh come on!”

“You should go home too,” your father told you as he latches onto the hull and cuts a hole to board the ship, looking for wherever Strange and Ebony Maw went.

“Well I’m not,” you spoke back in defiance as you too looked for where the surgeon had been taken to. “We’re in this together!”

“If you don’t turn around right now I swear to Thor that I will-“

“Boss, incoming call from Miss Potts,” F.R.I.D.A.Y spoke, making your dad sigh before answering. You walked a little further, trying to give him some privacy and also find Strange.

You ran your fingertips along the walls that were made out of steel, with multiple pipes running along. The lack of insulation in the ship was making you cold.

It also didn’t help that you were in outer space, where temperatures were even colder. You put your arms around yourself, determined to heat your body back up.

The ship however, was quiet. Eerily quiet. And this ship had looked like it was going in a coordinated location due to the lack of motion.

You were walking around, trying not to make a sound.

And that’s when you felt it.

A sickening feeling in your stomach that told you one thing.

This was a one-way trip and some of you weren’t coming back.

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all1e23 · 6 years ago

Text

Astrophile [Pt.9]

Chapter: Stardust

Summary: Bucky & Y/n spend the day apart, but find themselves struggling to make it through the day.

Warnings: Flirting. Fluff. Sweet Tony. Sweet Bucky. Slightly sad Bucky but only for a second!

A/N: Bucko is a little sad at the start, but I don’t consider it angsty at all. Progress babies. Progress. 😉Send me love because I’m needy, okay?! Plus all your comments make my day. Beta’d by the beautiful and talented @lokissoul I love you 3000.

***My fics are not to be saved or posted on any other sites without my written permission. Reblogs are welcomed! Thanks!**

“What’s been going on with you lately?”

Bucky rolls the glass bottle between his palms and shrugs in answer, glancing up at whatever game was on behind the bar to avoid Steve’s probing glare. They have been in this pub for over an hour now, and Bucky has no idea what game he’s been pretending to watch, and he hasn’t heard a word Steve has said. As much as he wants to throw himself wholeheartedly into tonight, he can’t. Bucky hasn’t seen Y/n in over a week, he had to take an extra shift, so he’s had less time with Comet and with everything going today, neither he nor Y/n have had a minute to talk to each other. The last message he got from her was a quick good morning text, but he had a feeling she only sent it because he sent her a message first.

Today is not Bucky’s day.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Bucky answers, distracted and withdrawn.

“We haven’t talked in weeks. I don't even know what’s going with you. Clint knows more about you than I do. You’re always glued to your phone waiting for a certain bookstore owner to call, and if you’re not on the phone with Y/n, you’re talking about her.”

“Nothing to talk about there, Stevie,” He sighs and tips his empty beer towards the bartender, slightly asking for another round. “We are friends. She’s been dating Tony for about a month. I don’t know. Seems to be going good. I guess their first date was amazing, and all that sappy love at first sight shit.”

“Not what I heard,” Steve mumbles against the lip of the bottle in his hands. “I heard she hated the restaurant and talked about you the whole date.”

“It wasn’t the whole date, and I don’t think she hated it.”

Bucky shifts restlessly in his seat, forcing himself to not look at Steve, using the bartender returning with their beers as his excuse – Steve isn’t buying it.

“Did – did she say that she did?”

Steve snorts at the stutter in the brunette’s voice and the painfully transparent way he’s been dodging Steve’s glances from the moment Y/n was mentioned. He nods his thanks to the bartender and spins around on his stool to face his friend. “Buck, come on. I’ve never seen you like this. Tell me what’s going on with her?”

“There’s nothing to say, man.”

“Okay,” Steve sighs, drumming his fingers against the bottle in his hands. “What if – Don’t give me that pissed off face. Just hear me out. What if the reason Y/n jumps up when you call or smiles every time you’re around, or I don’t know, spends all day talking to you and about you is that maybe, just maybe there’s something there for her, too.”

“Steve–”

“Hear me out, Buck.” Steve cuts him off before Bucky has time to tell him to shut up. “You have to know she is different. You’ve been different since she came along.”

Bucky hangs his head in defeat or annoyance he’s not even sure, and if he tightens his grip in the slightest there are going to be shards of broken glass all over the place.

“Can we please talk about something else?” Bucky asks, forcing as much annoyance into his voice as he can – he needs to be done with this conversation.

“Anything else besides her?”

“Alright,” Steve spins back around towards the bar, his leg bouncing nervously, and suddenly he blurts out, “Sam, and I are going to adopt a little boy, I think.”

Bucky chokes on his beer, spilling damn near half the bottle on the bartop making Steve grin.

“What?!” Bucky Shrieks. “You can’t just drop that shit on me.”

Steve shrugs looking complacent and not sorry in the least.

“When the hell did this happen?” Bucky asks, wiping himself and the bartop off.

“Remember Zoey from the gym?”

Bucky rolls his eyes but nods anyway.

“Well, it’s kind of her fault. We ran into her, and she was out with her nephew, and I don’t know honestly. Sam was talking to him and playing and…” Steve smiles and shakes his head.

“We are finally ready, I think.”

“That’s awesome, Stevie.” Bucky pats Steve on his back, drying his beer-soaked hand on his shirt. “You’re gonna be amazing parents. Ori might get a little jealous when she realizes she has to share her uncles, but I think it’s about damn time, to be honest.”

“She doesn’t have to share. I can make time for both of them. Babies sleep a lot, right?”

“Yeah,” Bucky chuckles. “You don’t remember much from when Ori was a baby, do ya?”

“You’re a jerk,” Steve murmurs.

“Uh-huh. You gonna tell me why you didn’t tell me sooner, punk?”

“We started the process a few months ago, but I didn’t want to say anything until we were sure it was happening.”

“You’re sure now?” Bucky asks, not judging, purely out of curiosity.

“Yeah, I know we are,” Steve assured him, firm and sincere. “And, this isn’t because we are missing anything because we absolutely are not missing anything. Sam is all I could ever need, but – I don’t know to explain it. It was like once we met him everything kind of clicked, and it made everything brighter, more meaningful. Now that we know him-- Now that we know Oliver, I don’t think we could go back to a time without him.”

Bucky stares at the amber glass in his hand swallowing the knot in his throat, Steve nudges his elbow grinning widely, and Bucky forces the best smile he can muster.

“You know what I mean?” Steve asks, hope and excitement filling his voice. Bucky wants to be excited for them, and he is, but his mind is somewhere else tonight – somewhere wrapped in story pages and stardust.

“Yeah,” He sighs, “I know what you mean, man.”

-------

Today has been a complete nightmare.

Well, that’s not entirely true. It’s just been a stressful, long day and the nightmare started last night. It began with her neighbors flooding her bedroom the night before and being forced to stay in Manhattan with Tony. She would have asked Natasha or… someone else who lived closer but Tony was dropping her off when they discovered the mess that was her apartment.

Thankfully Tony was there to save the day.

The incident, however, meant the bookstore was closed for the day while they cleaned up her apartment and Y/n had to plan Ori’s party from Tony’s penthouse, which wasn’t winning any prizes for the coziest spot. It’s not that Tony didn’t have a beautiful place, he did. He was in the middle of Manhattan with the perfect view in every direction. High windows, marble floors and beautiful artwork on the walls. There were some questionable paintings hanging that she wanted to question but didn’t. He had a preposterously fancy couch, and the view off the balcony was breathtaking first thing in the morning. Sure, the view is nice, a chef is on-site, and Tony is always sweet, but it feels wrong.

The couch, with as much money as Tony spent on the thing, it should actually be comfortable! It’s hard, the back has awkward cushions and they doesn’t squish down like Bucky’s does. The arms are skinny and unyielding - there is no way she could curl up on that thing and watch a movie. The entire place is so clean she felt bad laying all party planning books and idea boards out on the table this morning. Tony had insisted it was fine, but it still felt strange to muck up his astonishingly tidy living room.

Tony left her be for most of the day, he had work to do, and she was busy planning a starry birthday bash. He had stopped in to check on her throughout and asked more than once, why don’t you just use that Pinterest website everyone uses? Or at least make all those lists on your phone?

She always replied the same, I prefer handwritten notes, Tony. Then I can doodle in the corners.

Out of everything? The thing she hates most about today? Bucky hasn’t sent her a text all day, except for the quick good morning he sent her which she is almost certain was Ori’s doing. Bucky wouldn’t think to send her a message like that first thing in the morning. It had bothered her quite a bit, and she wasn’t the only one who noticed her sour mood. Tony watches Y/n chewing on the end of her pen from his seat across his living room. She’s been staring at her notepad for nearly an hour now, occasionally glancing over at her phone (that hasn’t gone off since this morning).

Something is cooking in that pretty head of hers, and he is going to figure out what. He drops his iPad to the table and strolls over to the couch. Her focus is solely on what’s laying on her lap, he runs his hand up her bare leg stopping mid-thigh right below her shorts and sits down on the coffee table in front of her – she doesn’t seem to notice he is even there. She’s lost in star-shaped Rice Krispies Treats, recipes for the perfect moon rocks and what appears to be every space themed decoration she can think of.

“You’re doing all this for Bucky’s kid?” Tony inquires, giving a gentle but firm squeeze to her thigh. The mix of his voice and the tickle to her inner thigh seems to grab her attention, but there is still a little something indifferent in her eyes.

“Yes, I’m doing all of this for Ori and for Bucky. Bucky and I are friends,” Y/n explained, credulously and matter-of-factly.

Tony can’t help but smile at her. He leans forward and kisses her forehead, whispering against her skin, "You’re adorably naive sometimes.”

The edges of her mouth curl down into a deep frown, and her brows draw together. “What does that mean?”

“Listen,” Tony begged, ignoring her question. They can talk about that after Ori’s party. “I’ve got an idea for baby Barnes’s birthday if you’re okay letting me help?”

“Depends on what it is?”

“You said her favorite place is your bookstore, right?”

“Yeah, I mean that’s what she said, but I can’t have the party there. I would have to move all the shelves, my apartment is still a mess, and I have no room to cook anything there. I think Bucky just wants to cook burgers or something and,” She hesitates, nervously drumming the end of her pen against her knee until Tony snatches it out of her hand.

“And… what? You’re killing me with the suspense.”

“I’m not family,” she whispers, so soft that Tony has to strain to hear it. “I think they were going to do it at Steve’s because they have the deck out back and well, he’s her uncle. I’m just some girl that owns a bookstore.”

This is something Tony can’t let go. Tony grabs the notepad from her hands, tossing it and the pen onto the couch and pulls Y/n forward by her hands.

“Your apartment will be fine. I’ll make sure it gets done, and the shelves are not a big deal. Her dad and uncles have muscles coming out of their ass–” They both wince at his choice of words. “– Sorry. That was vivid even for me. Point is we can move them, and I can pay for a caterer. Don’t even try to fight me on that one. It can be my present, and as for the rest, you are far more than just a girl that owns a bookstore to that little girl and particularly to Bucky.”

A wide grin slowly stretches across Y/n’s face, and Tony does not like the smugness of that smirk.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

He doesn’t like one bit.

“You’re pretty sweet when you want to be,” She says, still beaming.

Tony reaches forward and covers her mouth with his hand whispering dramatically as he does, “Shh, don’t say that so loud. There are spies everywhere!”

A muffled giggle slips through his fingers, and she places a soft kiss to the palm of his hand.

“Thank you,” She manages once he drops his hand.

“I like the idea as long as Bucky is okay with it.” Her eyes wander back to her phone on the table next to Tony’s thigh, and it doesn’t have to be said – he can see it written all over her face.

“You wanna call him right now, don’t you?”

She gives Tony an apologetic smile with a small shrug. It’s supposed to be their date night, but she is not going to relax till she talks to Bucky and gets this party sorted – they both know it. Tony rolls his eyes affectionately and waves his hand towards the balcony as he stands.

“I have to change before we go out anyway. Go, make your call.”

Y/n slips out onto the terrace as Tony disappears into his bedroom. There is a moment of hesitation before she makes herself to dial Bucky’s number. They hadn’t talked all day, Y/n thought it was because he was busy, but maybe he didn’t want to talk? They aren’t family, they are brarey friends and she could be bothering him--

“Hey, Beck,” Bucky’s soft greeting makes her skin prickle and her worry fades away when instantly.

“Hi,” Y/n sighs, content and somehow lighter from two simple words.

“Hi,” Bucky breathes into the phone with a huge grin on his face, his nerves finally settling for the first time all day. He’s not sure how she does that when they are a good twenty miles apart.

“So,” she mutters quietly.

“So,” Bucky repeats with a soft chuckle.

Y/n knows why she called. They need to talk about Ori’s party but now that she has him on the line, for the first time in what feels like forever she doesn’t want to rush him off the phone. She admires the soft orange glow and the pink clouds peeking out over the Manhattan skyline, and she’s never wanted to be back in Brooklyn more than she does right now.

“I’m not sure what all the fuss is about the sunset from Manhattan,” She scoffs. “Personally, I like a good old Brooklyn sunset.”

Dammit. Why does she have to be so perfect? Bucky thinks as he sneaks through Steve’s living room and out the front door– no witnesses needed for this conversation. He spins around to find the sunset peeking through all the buildings. It’s harder to do the deeper you got into Brooklyn, but he was able to spot the peach colored sky. He can’t explain why, he just needs to know they are both looking at the same thing.

“You called me to talk about sunsets, Beck?”

Y/n chuckles and shakes her head as if he can see her but quickly remembers he can’t and answers him with a nervous squeak, “Um, no? I don’t know.”

“You don’t know,” Bucky echoes her words once again.

“I’m sorry. I’m sure you are about to have dinner with Ori. I just…” I haven’t talked to you all day, and I hate it. She closes her eyes and turns around the block out the nightfall that’s overtaking the orange and slowly fading to plum. “I actually called about Ori’s party. If it’s okay with you, I would like to have it at my shop. I can handle everything. If you just bring the birthday girl.”

“That sounds good,” Bucky whispers, clearing his throat as he turns back around and drops his forehead against the front door – shutting out the dark falling around him, the one that seems to take over when she’s not with him.

“Ori would really love that. Tell me what to buy or set up. I can come early and help move things around.”

“Why are you whispering?” She asks in a hushed tone making him chuckle. “I’m hiding on the front porch at Steve’s. Why are you whispering?” He counters, grinning, foolish, and unabashed.

Y/n giggle softly, and the line goes inexplicably quiet. Bucky slowly lifts his head from the door and turns back around to find the sun was mostly set, he was about to apologize for teasing her when her soft voice drifts through the line, “Let’s not go all day without talking again, okay? I really hated it.”

Sweetest words he’s heard all day.

“God, me too,” He sighs. “Never again. I pinky promise.”

“Buck, you can’t pinky promise. We can’t lock pinkies,” She scolds with total seriousness because that’s just the kind of woman she is. “I’m in Manhattan, and you’re in Brooklyn. It only counts if you hook your pinkies together.”

“Who says we gotta lock, pinkies?” Bucky scoffs, amusement and sincerity filling his words. He may find her entirely adorable, but Bucky needs her to know he means every word – without a doubt.

“Maybe that will be our thing. Pinky promise without the pinky.”

Y/n finds herself unable to stop the ear to ear grin that forms. She drops her head back and looks up to the sky in hopes of catching a glimpse of the stars.

“No more days like today, Y/n. Pinky promise.”

There’s her glimpse. Perfect timing.

“Pinky promise, Buck.”

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#bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes x y/n #single dad bucky #fireman!bucky #daddy!bucky #firefighter au #james bucky barnes #james buchanan barnes #bucky x reader #bucky x you #bucky x y/n #alternate universe

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thehikingnerd · 4 years ago

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Day 139 (10/3).

Today I woke up and was on a mission for 30 miles. These short days kept pushing back our finish date, and it was getting dangerously close to interfering with me getting home before Halloween. After getting packed up and ready a little earlier than Butt'rs, I popped two ibuprofen and made a big pot of very very strong instant coffee... and we were off! It was a beautiful day and we were making good time right from the start. We saw bear prints everywhere in the snow as we made our first climb of the day, along with coyote and deer prints as well. The bright red huckleberries in the valleys were beautiful and we stopped for lunch at the peak of the first big climb in the snow. I cooked two ramen with some textured vegetable protein, olive oil, a few other things and then made more extra strong coffee. I needed entertainment and fuel, like I said I was on a mission and was feeling good, like 30 was possible that day if we pushed and could make up for the last 4 days being sub 20-mile days. Man... that second round of coffee must have done it... I was a hiking machine after that. I was rolling down the backside of the mountain! Butt'rs and I saw another bear and I tried to get around the bend quickly to see if I could find him and watch him run away down the mountain but I lost him. I stopped at a lake for just a minute because it was so pretty and because the water looked so nice and clear blue I wanted to try out filming under water with my phone being waterproof and hadn't tried that out yet. But then the race was back on. We made our way down into a beautiful valley and then a couple of fighter jets spaced out rolled through the valley... one came though just before our next big climb started and was low enough to hurt my hears and was pretty intense. This downhill seemed to go on forever and we could see the switchbacks up the other mountain and it was obvious that this was going to be one of the worst cases of PUDs (pointless ups and downs) on the whole trail and it certainly was! Mile and miles of steep downhill and we were just rolling at near-jogging pace. Finally, after crossing a bridge over a stream at the bottom, the trail went down another half mile or so before turning around and heading straight back up. They really should take you around the mountainside and cut off some of this pointless up and down. Normally I wouldn't complain, but this one is 3000ft down to a random point and then right back up 3000ft. It was just killer and uncalled for. But also, I was so jacked on caffeine and had the 30 mile goal in my head, so I just kept on rolling. I was a fair bit out in front of Butt'rs and I was only just starting the big uphill when I saw a hiker going SOBO. I said hey and stopped to chat for a bit. He said he had run into several NOBO hikers today... Will (the 19yr old from TX we had met at the trail angel's place a couple of days ago) I knew he was way ahead of us... he said he had seen him that morning so I guessed that put Will at least 15 maybe 20 miles out ahead of us and that he had just walked to Butt'rs! I was like Butt'rs?! Butt'rs is behind me I'm about 99% sure, but he insisted he had just talked to Butt'rs and then complained about how cold the last two nights have been. It was possible to have crossed the stream earlier on and taken a short cut that would have saved him more than a mile of down and up. Hmm... so it looked at this point as though one of two things was going on... either there was a second guy with the trailname "Butters" ahead (which was possible) or that Butt'rs had cut a corner and was now out ahead of me. With Butt'rs and I both being purists, however, I didn't think he would cut a big corner like that, and as weird as it sounded the notion of a second Butters seemed like the more likely of these two scenerios. This SOBO guy's name was Savage, and after just a brief chat I was on my way. Now I was really driven to go faster up this climb, which I usually go slower than Butt'rs on the climbs, but I wanted to either catch up to him or catch up to the other Butters. I was in a Butter sandwich, A Tale of Two Butt'rs, I can't believe it's not Butt'rs, lol, we're all silly things that came to mind when thinking of this situation. Unfortunately this side of the hill was facing south and had dried out enough that I couldn't make out any clear shoe prints the whole way up. I would have been able to recognize Butt'rs' New Balances and could have known whether he was really ahead of me or not. I did think it was odd that we had been following a set of tracks for two days or so now from a hiker who had passed us the morning we let the sun dry our tents out and I had been following these Altra prints for a while now and I figured this must be the person savage had just talked to, but I still hoped to catch him and see if his name really was Butters/Butt'rs. Finally, after a grueling 3000 ft climb I made it to the snow line and could see clearly that Butt'rs was indeed still behind me and had not taken the shortcut and gotten out ahead of me. I had told him that I wasn't going to take a break until I reached the top, but since it was snowy I thought I would just go a little further or maybe stop of the opposite side of the flat top area before the final descent of the day. About half way across the top flat part I saw another much smaller bear who was sitting and eating huckleberries on a hillside near a small tree (for some reason I knew I was about to see one before I saw him, had this weird feeling he was there before actually seeing him). He sat there and hesitated for a second but then ran away too; it's wild how these bears just get out of dodge when a human is near. But in looking down I saw tons of nice huckleberries and decided to wait for Butt'rs while eating as many of these berries as I could. I had eaten a good number of these when Butt'rs finally rolled up and we discussed the whole situation with Savage. It was weird, but Butt'rs thinks he was tripping on acid and must have gotten confused hearing me say Butt'rs and just kept saying the wrong name of the guy ahead of us. I wasn't paying that close attention to him personally to notice if he was tripping or not, but anyway it was all figured out that at least Butt'rs was indeed behind me and we took off down the mountain. We had gotten cold sitting up at the high elevation while eating the berries. I was once again feeling driven and got out ahead of Butt'rs and I was hoping to keep pushing even after we reached the bottom and try to make it to a campsite a few miles further away. But while going downhill, I was reading through the Guthooks app and saw that the town of Stehekin had already reduced their shuttle service down to twice a day rather than the normal four times during peak season... thus meaning that even if we pushed on we would really have to haul ass to get there by 3pm on October 4th if I wanted to get into the resort/town in order to call Angie on Mid-Autumn Festival... but we would also have agree to hike into the night tonight and probably wake up at 4am or so to make it, and even still would run the chance of just not making it in time (and to be honest, I knew he had little incentive to push like that personally). I sat down on the trail disappointed knowing we wouldn't be able to make it and that I wouldn't be able to call Angie on this holiday, it would be the first I hadn't been able to swing something from the trail on a special day and the first time to not talk with her on this particular holiday. So I just sat there and waited on Butt'rs while resting and looking at all the comments on the app so I'd know what to expect whenever we would eventually make it into Stehekin. Finally, Butt'rs came and said he was beat. I told him I would have wanted to push on, but since it was impossible to make it by tomorrow night's last shuttle that there was no point in killing ourselves, and we camped at a site beside a silty river after a 24-mile day with an estimated 9,000 ft of elevation gain throughout the day! It had been a rough-@ss day, and we were both beat and hurting all over. So at Mile 2532.6 we set up camp, ate, threw out decoy thrash for mice, and went to sleep.

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supremeuppityone · 5 years ago

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Written for Klaroline Valentine's Day Bingo 2020 @kcvalentinesbingo

Prompt: “A dare is a dare.”

Author’s note: This is the much-requested sequel to Chapter 63: Drowning Secrets in the Sea, found in my Klaroline series, A Beautiful Symmetry.

Warning: Casual references to drugs

Please review here.

“This is your idea of an adventure?”

Caroline whipped her head around, mouth curving up into a pleased grin as she took in Klaus’ rumpled appearance. “Your university’s still skimping on the travel budget, huh? You know, just because they pay for coach doesn’t mean you have to fly it.”

“Not all of us can afford first class, sweetheart,” Klaus replied, pulling Caroline to her feet and playfully spinning her around the cramped basement.

She kissed one of his dimpled cheeks, suddenly giddy and hopeful. He was here. She honestly hadn’t known what to expect when she sent him the artifacts and GPS coordinates. “Seriously? Just because I fly first class, doesn’t mean I actually pay for it.” At his amused chuckle, she allowed herself to press into him, his warmth and familiar scent washing over her. She’d missed him more than she’d cared to admit. It only had been a couple of weeks since he’d let her walk away, angry and hurt by what she’d done.

“Are you still mad at me,” she asked tentatively, stepping away to give herself a bit of space for this conversation.

He hesitated, running his fingers through his disheveled curls a few times before he finally spoke. “You pretended to be an archeologist to gain access to priceless artifacts that my father commissioned you to steal. You could’ve ruined my academic career — everything I’ve ever worked for.”

She bowed her head, her heart sinking in her chest. Did he come all this way just to tell her off?

“But then you also didn’t go through with it and came back to save my life,” he continued, his tone a bit shaky. “I’ve missed you every moment since you left,” he confessed, standing in front of her once more, his touch tender as he caressed her cheek. “And I’m tired of missing you, love.”

Their kiss was nothing like their first one — while that night in the bar had been hesitant, now their kiss was frantic; fueled by the past deception and a tentative promise of forgiveness. He tasted like her future. And Caroline had no intention of walking away from it twice. “I missed you too,” she admitted, placing kisses along his jawline.

It was when he started to untie the silken knot at her waist that she snapped back to reality. With a sigh of regret, she gently pushed away, telling him, “We’ll need to pick this up later — a business associate is meeting me here in a minute.”

Klaus looked skeptically around the dusty room, asking, “What sort of business meeting could you have down here?”

“The private kind.” She considered him carefully, bending down to scoop up a few dusty books and folders to shove into his arms. “So, I don’t want you to freak out, but we’re meeting a kind of go-between for a gunrunnermobbossguy — but don’t worry! He’s totally safe and I’ve worked with him before.” She winced as she saw his gray eyes grow wide with alarm despite the fact that she’d hoped her rapid-fire words wouldn’t really register.

“Did you just say we’re meeting with a ‘gunrunner mob boss’? Bloody hell, Caroline!”

She rolled her eyes, checking her watch as she corrected him. “He’s a go-between. He’s not actually a gunrunner mob boss. He just works for one.”

“How is that any better? And how are you going to explain me? What’s my cover?”

Caroline snorted. Klaus was adorable when he panicked. “Calm down, James Bond. You’re playing the role of a nervous archaeologist completely out of his depth. Something tells me you’ll pull that off beautifully.” At his grumpy expression, she impulsively poked one of his dimples, telling, him, “Where’s your adventurous spirit? You know you want to embrace it — otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”

“I’d thought we’d start with dinner,” he mumbled, a hint of a smile starting to appear the longer he looked at her.

“Perhaps you can postpone your plans a bit, mate? We’re on a bit of a deadline,” interrupted a cocky voice as heavy footsteps finished descending the stairs into the basement.

Caroline instantly went into her work persona, adapting her stance and demeanor to best put Galen at ease. “Galen Vaughn, you slimy bastard, the next time you let me borrow a grappling hook, make sure you didn’t break off one of the ends on Kangchenjunga Peak.”

His blue eyes crinkled with mirth, cuffing her on the shoulder as he said jovially, “You managed a’right, didn’t you, lass? If memory serves, you repaid me in kind when you sold me out to the Germans.”

“Looks like it worked out alright for you — considering you’re now their go-between.” Sharpening her tone slightly, she decided to move the meeting along. “Tell me the specs and deadline.”

“Two spear points about 12 centimeters each. Day after next.” He nodded toward Klaus. “Who’s this?”

Caroline kept her tone light as she explained, “This is Klaus, my expert. He’ll authenticate on-site.”

As though to make up for her non-committal introduction, Klaus sprang forward, shaking Galen’s hand a bit too enthusiastically. “I’m an archaeologist. I can identify artifacts from 3000 BC to AD 500. While my main expertise in in classical antiquity, I have completed extensive fieldwork in Bronze and Iron Age dig sites. In fact, I lectured extensively on the evolution of the battle ax and advanced smelting techniques. It actually was quite fascinating how groundbreaking their metalsmiths were...” he trailed off, somewhat self-conscious when he noted Caroline’s indulgent smile. “Anyway...I uh, like...old things.”

Did Klaus purposely make his accent deeper because Galen has a Scottish accent? “Right. As you can see, we’ve got this,” she told Galen dryly.

“I’m impressed you’d take such an eager partner,” Galen replied skeptically, “he seems quite green, lass.”

Since it looked like Klaus was squaring off to punch a friend of one of the most dangerous mobs in Eastern Europe, Caroline hastily shook Galen’s hand, sealing their deal. “Day after next,” she told him solemnly. He left with little more than a curt nod, his jovial demeanor instantly replaced by a more disquieting nature. Such was the way of this business.

“Bollocks. Between the dodgy codes and the wanker with the pretentious facial hair, I’m a bit lost as to our mission, sweetheart.”

She cheerfully answered, “It’s no big deal — we just need to infiltrate a party tonight and steal some Bronze Age artifacts so we can sell them to this gunrunner mob boss I know.” At his incredulous expression, she winked and added, “And you have stubble too.”

“Clearly mine’s better.”

Caroline softened her tone, noting the wariness in Klaus’ gray eyes. “If you want out, I get it. No hard feelings, ok?”

“It’s not that; I’d just like to know what I’m getting into.” His gaze was penetrating, as though searching for something. “Why put yourself in danger? There’s a larger gain than just riches, isn’t there?”

She crossed her arms, not comfortable giving so much of herself away. But she needed to learn. “Mikael took my mother off the donor’s list so that I’d work for him. When I killed him, I lost my one chance to get her name restored. My only option is a black-market kidney and this job will get me the cash I need to make that happen.”

The kiss he gave her was electric; it burned her all the way to her toes and she arched into him, a tiny little moan escaping. “Does this mean you’re in?”

That devilish smirk of his was all the answer she needed.

_________________________________

The estate was stubbornly built on the marshes along the coast of the Baltic Sea, proving that even the immensely wealthy could be ignorant dipshits. Caroline critically eyed the tall rooftops of the main house and its surrounding buildings, the crooked lines wordlessly demonstrating that everything was slowly sinking, eventually to be reclaimed by the sea. She could feel Klaus tensing beside her, and she patted his arm affectionately. “Relax — the doorman is barely coherent after his wild night at the Hunter’s Mark. He’s barely going to glance at our invitation, and even if he did, it’s been expertly forged.” She gave him a sly wink, adding, “By me.”

“How do you know what he was up to last night,” he whispered back, eyes darting around the ornate courtyard of marble statues.

“Because I paid off his dealer to ensure he never ran out,” she answered matter-of-factly, favoring the pale, sweaty doorman with a sunny smile as she handed over the ivory parchment invitation she’d painstakingly threaded with gold along the borders to match the genuine ones. As she suspected, they were waived inside with barely a glance, and she smugly handed Klaus a champagne flute.

“Impressive,” he murmured, casting curious glances around the immense ballroom with its 10-piece orchestra quietly playing chamber music.

“Yeah, they’re pretty impressive. The Martins have been running drugs out of Kiel for decades; their territory is perfectly situated to take advantage of the port. They launder much of their profits with a string of online boutiques set up by the younger siblings, Greta and Luka,” she murmured, snatching a smoked salmon canape from a silver serving tray.

Klaus seemed to slowly relax as he acclimated to his surroundings, a bemused look on his face as he eyed the cascading fountain of champagne flowing from a beautifully crafted ice sculpture in the center of the room. “I meant you were impressive, sweetheart. You’re brilliant, remarkably talented, and adventurous — enviable qualities the rest of the world only dreams of possessing.” He leaned in, his accented voice low and sexy as he added, “Not to mention your ethereal, utterly enchanting beauty.”

There went her heart doing that fluttery thing again. He already was wearing the hell out of that Tom Ford tuxedo, but then to have him whisper those things — things that maybe she’d heard before but no one ever really meant — made her want to shove him into that gold leaf and pearl-tiered cake and lick the buttercream off.

As though pleased she was rendered momentarily speechless, Klaus suddenly gripped her waist, spinning her onto the polished marble floor. His touch was commanding, but not forceful, which she appreciated. Almost as much as his smooth muscles underneath her touch. The red satin of her dress wound its way between them as Klaus performed surprisingly intricate footwork.

At her small gasp of surprise, Klaus flashed her a dimpled smirk. “I may have a few moves.”

“Nice moves,” she said, a bit breathless as he led her through a reverse spin that had her momentarily crowded against his chest. She couldn’t help but rest her palm against his chest. Firm, but it was more than that — he felt like a steady person. Someone she could trust. “Mystic Falls, Virginia.” At his questioning brow, she explained, “It’s where I’m from. Well, we bounced around a lot of big cities when I was a kid, but that’s where we finally stayed.” She hesitated, unsure of how he’d react. It was a big step — and one she’d never taken before. “My mom still lives there...maybe, um, you’d like to meet her?”

At Klaus’ stunned silence, she hurriedly backtracked, telling him, “No, I get it — it’s probably way too soon for that. I’vejustneverbeenlikethiswithanyone and I’m not sure what the steps are. But I can figure it out. Seriously, I can be good at steps. All the steps. Probably. It’s just that I need to head back there for a bit once we get our business here settled and her kidney secured and I know it’s a lot to ask —”

“I’d be honored,” he quickly answered, kissing her soundly. “And it’s certainly not a chore to get to know you better, love,” he admonished when he broke the kiss, dipping her until she giggled with relief.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a slight commotion as the aerial silk acrobats had arrived and were starting to set up in the main courtyard. Perfect. “Follow me,” she whispered in his ear, casually leading him down a narrow corridor full of priceless artwork resplendent with inlaid lapis lazuli and hammered silver frames. “While most of the guests are distracted, we need to get what we came for — two Bronze Age spear points.”

They stopped in front of a tall glass case, admiring the artifacts perched on a carved ebony pedestal. “They were unearthed in the muddy riverbed of the Tollense Valley. It’s a unique find for the region, marking a significant battle around 3200 years ago. Archaeometallurgical studies have pinpointed the geological origin of the metals’ composition, which means you can trace the route these spear points took to get to the valley.”

“Except determining the geological origin of the metals isn’t infallible when you take into consideration the various ore ingots used along trade routes as currency. So, your premise, while admirable, is flawed.”

“My premise is flawed?! Are you seriously discounting all of the cutting-edge work Drs. Maxfield and Branson published in the American Journal of Archaeology? Or the Nordic Bronze Age metallurgy expertise of Dr. Hildegard,” Caroline hissed, feeling her temper rise. She’d just started to recite the latest research statistics on copper-based metals across Bronze Age Europe when she noticed the tips of his ears growing red. Suddenly, she burst into giggles at the ridiculousness of the situation.

Klaus’ confusion gave way to amusement as he too started chuckling. “We’re never going to agree, are we?”

“Nope. But where’s the fun in that,” she asked, leaning over to kiss him soundly on the lips. She broke off the kiss with a twinkle in her eye, sticking out her leg to take advantage of the deep slit in her dress in order to access her lock pick kit. She deftly worked at the enormous mechanism lock behind the glass case, rolling her eyes at the Martins’ foolish assumption that bigger was better when it came to security.

The interlocking tumblers easily gave way, and as she carefully opened the glass door, Klaus murmured, “You make burglary sexier than it has any right to be, sweetheart.”

“Sweet talker,” Caroline replied fondly, delicately sliding the spear points into the leather strap across her thigh. “If you’re lucky, I might let you help me remove these later. Artifacts require such a gentle touch, you know.”

From that lustful gleam, it seemed he was ready to take her up on her offer sooner rather than later, but unfortunately, they had company. From the heavy black eyeliner and holdover grunge ensembles, she knew exactly who had found them. “Shit. It’s the Travelers.” She quickly pulled Klaus up a narrow staircase, explaining, “So, maybethere’s also this cult of crazy fanatics who are interested in the spear points. They’re convinced some ancient ancestor was a powerful witch who disturbed the natural balance and was cast out of her community.”

With a troubled sigh that turned into a choked laugh, he pulled loose his bowtie as they hid out on a balcony, staring down at the courtyard very far below. “And what does that nonsense have to do with our artifacts?”

He said ‘our’. It inexplicably filled her with warmth and she again had to tamp down those lusty thoughts. Action now — then some real action later. “It’s kind of hard to follow and has more embarrassing plot holes than a CW show, but supposedly there was a curse that had something to do with doppelgangers, massive earthquakes and possibly a boat anchor and they think these artifacts will somehow break the curse.”

He scoffed, but whatever skeptical diatribe he was about to begin was stopped short when there was a loud banging on the double doors to the room where they’d been hiding. Glancing over the balcony once more, he wryly asked, “Does your skillset include flying?”

Following his line of sight, she spied some of the aerial silks the acrobats had hung for their performance. As the edges of the jewel-toned fabrics fluttered near the balcony, she asked, “Are you daring me to jump out this window and slide down a curtain?”

Wincing a bit at the sound of wood starting to splinter from the psycho cult just outside, he told her, “Perhaps I found my adventurous spirit.”

“Fine. But we’re jumping together.”

Klaus smirked, grabbing her by the waist as they each clutched the sturdy fabric. “I suppose a dare is a dare.”

#kcvalentinesbingo #klaroline fanfic #uppity bitch fanfic #klaroline #grifter caroline is so much fun to write #klaroline aesthetic #aesthetic

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poorrichardslegacy · 5 years ago

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Kacxa Week Day 9 - Movie Date

In the spirit of extending Kacxa Week 2019, here is my submission for Day 9. This is actually part 2 of the Day 12 (Pre-Kacxa/Coworker Crush) prompt, but keeping things simple I'll hold to the order of the prompts. I'll put them in order out on AO3 once I post them here. This is a college AU where Keith and Acxa are both in their junior year. A couple of tall dorks who had pretty much given up on the dating scene until they met each other. This is the tale of their first official date. Definitely a fluff piece.

_____________________

Practice is over, and not a moment too soon for Acxa. Her legs are dead. Between practice, the game the night before, and two days spent in a walkathon the previous weekend, she is physically spent. But the sight that greets her as she leaves the gym immediately brightens her spirits and puts a spring back in her step.

Standing there, fresh from hockey practice and grinning at her, is Keith.

"Hey, Keith! I didn't expect to see you here, but...I'm glad to see you!"

He breathes an immediate sigh of relief, for what she's not quite sure. "I'm glad you're glad. Acxa, is everything ok? I didn't see you in class yesterday and I thought...maybe...something was wrong. It's not like you to cut class. I...was worried..."

Keith, that's sweet. Nothing's wrong. We had to leave early to get to our game site on time yesterday. It was four hours away by bus. Ugh! I let Professor Hansen know last week, and he told me to make sure I got notes from someone. I...was going to call you later to see if I could borrow yours?"

"Then you'll be wanting this. My notes from class." Handing her the notebook, he asks a question that's been on his mind for the past three days, since the end of the walkathon. "I was wondering...if you're free this weekend...if you might like to go to the film festival..." Keith gulps hard to get the lump out of his throat. "...with me."

Eyes widening with delight, she can't say yes fast enough. "I am, and I'd love to!"

"Then...I guess it's a date. Walk you back to your room?"

Slipping her hand into his, she tells him, "Darn right you are!"

___________

In her room later that evening, she relates the story of Keith showing up after practice to Shay. Shay sighs heavily, shakes her head, and gives Acxa some additional insight.

"Sweetie, that boy has been shot down and had his heart broken by girls more times than you can possibly imagine. It wouldn't surprise me if he thought you were dumping him when you didn't make it to class."

____________

To say that Acxa and Keith stand out in the crowd would be an understatement. Standing at 6'7 and 6'5 respectively (Acxa being the taller of the pair), they tower over their fellow students. The stares Acxa is getting would normally bother her, but tonight she doesn't give them a second thought.

She is on a date with the guy she's had a secret crush on for over a year. The guy she was finally introduced to a week ago at the walkathon by her friend Shay, and Shay's boyfriend Hunk. The guy wo asked her to the university Fall Formal, an event she never thought she would ever attend, because no guy wanted to date a girl much taller than himself.

Tonight, she is with Keith. He has her full attention, and the rest of the world can just go away.

Tonight she is going to make it clear to him that she is not like the rest of them.

_______________

"So, here's a serious question for you. What do you think? Snack before we go in? Popcorn or chocolate?"

Acxa stares intently at the counter. "Hmmm...shame they don't have chocolate-covered popcorn. Or better yet, chocolate-covered bacon!"

Keith just groans and laughs. "Shay warned me you were a bacon-loving chocoholic. Sorry kiddo, no chocolate-covered bacon here. Not in any movie theater I've ever been to."

"Too bad. Ok, let's go with the popcorn. Better get a big bucket, though!"

____________

He selects two seats in the back row of the theater so as not to block anyone's view. At least that's what he tells her. She's hoping he has something else in mind, but it's best to play it cool and see how the rest of the evening plays out.

Settling in for a long evening of movie watching, she decides to have a little fun. "Hey...how about we play movie critic and give comments on the movies as they play out? Sorta like what they do on Mystery Science Theater 3000?"

"And they call ME a geek? So, you're suggesting we make tacky comments throughout the movie and annoy everyone around us?"

"Why not? It's not like anyone in this part of the theater is going to be paying attention to the movie anyway. I mean, the serious movie watchers are sitting closer to the front of the theater. Back here, it's all couples."

"Meaning...what exactly?"

Acxa just rolls her eyes. Her new boyfriend is definitely a clueless dork at time. But he is an adorable clueless dork. "Just roll with it, Keith. What do you say?"

"Sure." He picks up three pieces of popcorn and throws them onto the head of Hunk, who is sitting with Shay two rows in front of them. "If it means I get to annoy Hunk, I'm all in."

An annoyed Hunk turns to Keith. "Dude...if your idea of showing your new girlfriend a good time on your first date is throwing popcorn on someone...you have more issues than I thought you did!"

She senses Keith tensing up just a bit. She reaches over, takes his hand again, and squeezes it. "It's ok. I thought it was funny."

________________________

The first movie (a romance chick flick) proves to be more entertaining than Keith and Acxa though it would be. She is enjoying herself, and it's clear he is as well. She is so engrossed in the movie that she fails to notice Keith slyly slipping his arm across the back of her seat and putting his arm around her.

Noticing his left hand is now on her left shoulder, she smiles broadly, leans over to him, and in a sultry tone whispers in his ear.

"Smooth move, Keith!"

Sputtering, Keith begins to apologize and move his arm, but she stops him by putting her index finger on his lips. Raising and stowing the armrest between them, she slides over close to him and nestles her head into the hollow between his neck and shoulder.

"Keith...it's ok. I...like being held by you."

__________________

They are standing at the door to Acxa's room, their long first date night coming to an end.

"Acxa...I had a great time tonight. I...hope you enjoyed yourself."

"Keith, I had a great time. I'm glad you asked me out."

"I was wondering...if you would like to do this again. Go out on a date together."

Acxa gives him the answer he was hoping for, but not quite in the way he expected. She pulls him in to her and plants a long, searing kiss on his lips. Overcoming his initial surprise, she feels him returning the kiss with equal fervor.

He just rocked her world, and looking at the smile on his face she's guessing she just rocked his.

"So...I can take that as a yes?"

She rolls her eyes and chuckles. He is such a dork. But, he's her dork. She cups his cheek in her hand.

"Oh, Keith. I wouldn't have kissed you if the answer were no, silly!"

#kacxa week 2019 #kacxa week #vld keith #vld acxa #acxa #kacxa

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emmanuellesbrown-blog · 5 years ago

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286 a month on mortgage payments under new federal program

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coffin-of-eternal-darkness · 6 years ago

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Thank you for over 3000 followers

I reached 3000 followers a while ago and even though I didn’t do anything for my other milestones, I thought I should make a post about this one (though I couldn’t think of anything special). After all, 3000 is most likely the highest I will get and it really is an amazing number, considering I’m not doing anything special XD Kinda fitting too. In NnT everything started 3000 years ago, and for my blog everything started 3000 followers ago XD I’m not sure how many people from the old days even follow me anymore, but, thank you all. It’s been some amazing years!

As for what I’ll do… Well, my friend @maybeishouldwait helped me with some question prompts, so it’ll sort of be like an interview? I hope at least some of you are interested. So, let’s start!

1. Let's start with an easy one: how did you discover NNT, and what drew you to it?

I’ve recently answered an ask with a similar question but here we go! It was a complete coincidence. I wasn’t necessarily searching for something. I randomly browsed a manga reading site, probably looking foe updates and the title somehow caught my attention so I clicked on it. I didn’t take it seriously at first, the first chapter really didn’t impress me at all, and I only continued because I thought it was funny. It’s no secret I fell in love with the series but it still baffled me how fast it went from “Lol, this is funny and stupid” to “BEIRHJ I LOVE THIS SO MUCH” in a matter of a only few chapters XD Everything was such a new experience to me. The characters weren’t the usual stereotypes, they were actually deep and interesting. The story took a while to become interesting, at first it was more about just… gathering these super powerful knights and it was so cool to see what kind of crazy character the next one would be. I also loved how I could never see anything coming. Even now that we know what kind of series this is, there are still plottwists like Hawk’s eyes being the portal to purgatory or Cath’s whole appearance that just… could not be predicted and I really love that surprise effect when something unbelievable happens. So I love the characters and the surprises but I also love the story, or rather how it’s told. For the first… 70 or so chapters to me it felt like with every chapter it just got even BETTER than before. I still had a few of those moments in the Commandment saga, just, scenes that blew me away and made me think “Wow, I wonder how much better this series can get”. I think it also was around chapter 70 that I created my blog. And more than anything I think I love the tragedies. It’s hearbreaking but heartwarming at the same time somehow. Not many of you probably know this but my first NnT OTP was actually Banlaine and I cried so much when I read their backstory. I loved how deeply in love they were to the point of sacrificing themselves for the other. Both had to deal with a large chunk of loneliness in their lives and for both of them the other was their salvation. Every time Ban was saying anything about Elaine in the main series I was both crying and cheering for him. By now everything is a tragedy and while I wish there were a few more lighthearted scenes for… personal salvation… I like that and crying about all those characters and CARING for their happiness really helped me get into this series I think.

2. How has your blog changed since it started?

Well, apart from the fact that is has grown popular… I actually think I’ve burned out a but. I write a lot less text posts than before. I had an awful amount of (stupid) theories back in the old days and also an awful amount of free time somehow. Now I feel like I don’t think about theories that often anymore, let alone post them. Part of that is that I’m busy with work and other hobbies, but partly that’s because the series has gotten so long and it’s becoming harder and harder to remember details, especially from the newer chapters. I really want to reread the series but I never get around to do that anymore. I also think that back in the days I more or less posted just anything I found or thought was cool, while nowadays I’m always wondering what I could do. I still try to keep it up but it’s becoming harder and harder. Oh, there’s also a lot more follower interaction too!

3. What are some of your favorite blogs or sites for NNT stuff?

As for sites, I usually only check the official ones, like the official HP or the official Twitter account. As for blogs… I don’t really follow a lot of people since I look through the tag almost on a daily basis anyway. Of course there’s @spoilerkingjuliane, she’s a must follow XD I can also highly recommend @maybeishouldwait since she’s an awesome writer. I always enjoy @nostalgicbookworms gifs a lot and @sdsmangacaps is my go-to account for manga caps. There are a lot more blogs that I really like, there are tons of really good artists on Tumblr and Twitter but since I’m not actually following a lot of them and I fear I’ll forget a few I’d rather not mention them directly and hope they know I appreciate them. The most obvious Twitter account is yuka_sai0127 btw, but there are a lot of others.

4. What advice would you give to someone wanting to make their blog as successful as yours?

Tbh I have no idea how I even got so popular in the first place XD I started on a whim and thought I’d lose motivation immediately and nobody would follow me anyway. But before I knew it I had almost 100 followers in a matter of a few days. Maybe it was my obsession? I also quickly befriended the other popular NnT blogs, that probably helped too. I think it depends on what kind of blog you have, but I think the most important thing is frequent updates and high quality. I also think blogs should have a good balance between your own content and reblogs. There are blogs that live only through reblogs and that’s fine but I think it’s harder to be “interesting” when you don’t have your own content. Try to find something only you can do and do it. @spoilerkingjuliane for example is good at finding info and she is immensely popular because of that. I will forever be slightly jealous of her because I will never reach that level XD”

5. What's the best part of running your blog? What's something you wish was different?

The best part without a doubt is how much it involves me into the fandom. I’m more or less forced to see all kinds of fandom posts and while that’s sometimes stressing me out, I also see a lot of amazing content and being able to share those posts with so many people makes me really happy. Running this blog also helped me boost my own confidence. As I mentioned earlier at the beginning I thought nobody would be interested in my blog anyway and I’d give up right away. But I gained followers quickly and it showed me that yes, I might not be as boring as always I think I am. It showed me that I can do things if I just try. On the downside though, running a popular blog puts a lot of pressure on you, and I constantly feel like I have to do something, have to go through the tag, have to make SOME content somehow. And even when you’re stressed you can’t just take it out on people after all so the stress piles up. That’s probably my own responsibility and not the blog itself that is doing that, but I still wish I could take it more easy.

6. How did you learn Japanese? Did you find it difficult?

Well, it wasn’t easy at least. I started learning Japanese twice, once I gave up quickly because the book I used was a horrible starter and after that I learned the basic grammar and a few words through a magazine crash course. Learning specific words was easier than to learn all hiragana and katakana on their own and since I also knew the basic grammar it made it easier to learn and understand whole sentences. Still, I’m an extremely lazy human being and even though I’ve been learning Japanese for almost half of my life now I very rarely actively studied. Most of the time I would try (and fail) to read manga in Japanese and pick up new words and grammar here and there. But through switching between actually learning and trying to read manga I got better. Once I was at a certain level I bothered a ton of random japanese people too in order to befriend and speak japanese with them, which also helped. I think the most major step in my learning career was getting obsessed with Tales of Vesperia a few years ago tho. I was at a comparatively high Japanese level back then already but playing a game of THAT length completely in japanese was a challenge. I learned a stupid amount of new words and grammar and ways of talking through that game and it probably helped that it was just an amazing game that remains to be my favorite. I’ve also translated a few manga chapters back then that really got me practicing and I also worked at an Udon restaurant with (except for me) 100% japanese staff. And as is the case with all languages… Talking with real people is always the best practice. Then of course my year working in japan gave me the final boost. I still have a ton to learn and I’m nowhere near really GOOD but I like to think my japanese is pretty decent at least.

7. What do you see for the future of your blog?

It won’t be all too long anymore til the manga ends and when that happens there won’t be any theories or reviews to write anymore… There will still be an S3 and possible an S4 and maybe more anime projects. But it will be harder to update the blog with original content. Eventually it will most likely turn into a reblog only blog. But I hope I will have some more time and motivation to actually reread the manga, complete my NnT encyclopedia and update the blog with interesting stuff I find in between. I really want to keep this blog up for a few more years!

No matter how it will turn out though, I’m happy I came so far. I made a whole bunch of good friends during this time and had a lot of fun. To my friends and followers (silent or not): Thank you so much for your support!

#personal #follower celebration #kinda #man i really hope someone is actually interested in this #i feel kinda bad not doing something more flashy #like drawing a huge picture #or doing requests or whatever

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letsimportanttreecollection-blog · 6 years ago

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