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lilacwineandthesinkingsun · 2 years ago

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Sweeter than honey.. Part 5

MINORS DO NOT INTERACT.

WARNING: this contains physical abuse, blood, please skip this episode if you're sensitive.

Summary: You're a close friend to the modern!Ragnarssons, and when you find yourself in a bad place they help. Even if it's finding a new room to rent, or your sex-life.

Masterlist

You woke up feeling weird. You weren't sick or anything, there was just this anxiety that's been making the hairs on your back standing on alert. That wasn't going away for the remainder of the day. You felt like you've been watched the whole day. Followed around.

Then you just sighed and finished work.

When you got home, Ubbe's car wasn't there, so you went ahead and started to prepare dinner. Not long after you heard the front door open.

-KITCHEN. - you yelled, so he knew where you were. You didn't look up when someone stepped behind you, thinking it was him coming to greet you. But instead a piece of cloth was shoved before your mouth and nose, strange smelling chemical laced in it. You fel your body go heavy before you passed out.

When Ubbe got home he thought you went to the bathroom, so he waited patiently. But when you've seemed to spend an awful lot of time there he went to check. Only then did he find out that you're not in the apartment. He tried calling you, but it went straight to voicemail. There were no sings of someone breaking in, so he texted his brothers, askng if they had heard from you.

Just when he was about to call again, Bjorn called him. He picked up immediately, maybe it's news from you, Bjorn was away, so he was the last he planned to call.

-Ubbe, is (y/n) with you?

-No, i'm trying to get a hold of her, why?

-Shit. Call the others immediately, i'll be back by morning.

-What? Why? What happened?

-Your fucking ex-wife and out halfwitted brother Sigurd got back to the country yesterday. If i'd have to guess then i'd say they want (Y/n).

-Shit, she said she felt someone was watching her the whole day. FUCK, i should've been picking up her regardless of her saying no. FUCK Bjorn... what the fuck do we do now?

-As i said, call the others, they will know what to do, i'll be back tomorrow. We'll get her back, and i'll sure hope that without any bruises and shit. You know how bad those two can be...

-Fcking psychos....

An hour later 3 very anxious guy and Lagertha was pacing around Ubbe's livingroom. Nor Margrethe nor Sigurd picked up their phones.

They had not heard from you for long hours now, even Bjorn got back into town. He nearly tore the door off of it's hinges. The plan was for Ubbe to try ang get back on Margrethe's good side. He sent her a text.

-It's done.. and it better fucking work.. If these fucking fake messages get to (Y/n), she'll let them kill her willingly...

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

Meanwhile in an abandoned factory in the outskirts of town..

You were strapped in a chair in a dimly lit room when you woke up. Your head was pounding, the rope was burning into your wrists harshly. Judgind by the wet feeling it already reached your soft flesh and you were bleeding.

The door opened and someone jumped over to you.

-OOoh, you finally woke up. hahahahaa - she giggled. You knew this voice. When did she got back?

-WHy.. why did you kidnap me? - you asked still dizzy. She harshly took a hold of your chin, making you look in front of you as she whispered.

-You took what is mine.. also... i know someone who you missed out while fucking all the Lothbrok men.. - she saig still giggling like a maniac, as Sigurd came into view with a sick smirk on his face.

-It's not a nice thing to fuck my brothers and not me...

-You don't even like me.. just.. just let me go.. I am not fucking responsible for any of your brothers choices.

He walked closer making you look up at him, you hissed as he held your chin, it hurt.

-You see, i do not like you, but i do like your body. I fantasized about fucking you senseless since you grew tits... Also i would very much like to have my bastard brothers listen to you moan and scream my name...

-They won't give shit... when she was more than a simple fuck anyways? - Margrethe said as she was typing away on her phone. When she was done she walked up to Sigurd, putting an arm on his shoulder, looking at you.

-Ubbe just told me she was a quick fuck to help him forget me which he couldn't so.. Have fun lil bro in law, i'll be on my way on a date with my husband. - she said, nearly spitting the words at you.

You had tears in your eyes. Ubbe was so quick to forget you, so quick to call on her. It was so easy to believe that noone will help you and that you were just some fuckdoll to them..

-Awww.. pretty baby.. you thought you matter to them don't you? It's alright.. i'm here to fuck them out of your system.. well of course.. my way,, - he said, his smile evenb more sinister as he cut the rope that held your hands to the chair, yanking you after him to an even darker room. It only had ropes and chains hanging in the middle. He started to tie you up, not mindig if it hurt or not, or if you could feel your hands or legs. You were nothing for him but a toy. Well.. for him too. He soon had you suspended in the air, one leg barely reaching the ground, the other is tied to you side. At least you still had clothes on... Up until he came over and cut them down, not minding if he cut you or not, which he did a few times.

-Cry all you want.. you see... it actually makes me harder.. so does blood.. - he said as he smudged over some cuts harshly. You were handing in a cold room, only wearing your underwear, completely at the mercy of a sociopath. Not how you imagined your night to go. - and noone's gonna hear you.. - he whispered before he harshly spanked your inner thigh, not even bothering to smooth over it. It was plainly for hurting you. This all was. You tried to remain quiet, to not give him the pleasure of either hearing you cry, or hearing you hiss in pain. You're gonna give him nothing. He will either let you go or kil lyou when he'd become bored, and you were fine with either.

When you didn't react to spanks and bites anymore, he started using his fists. You were bleeding from your nose and mouth now, he also busted your brow, but you still refused to give him a single sound. When he got tired of it and searched around for stuff to hurt you with, the door opened, revealing a giggling Margrethe and a giggling Ubbe, hand in hand. You looked at him, and spat on the ground.

-Good to see you came to your senses Brother.. - said Sigurd as he hit your back with a lash.

-Yea, well it was only a matter of time till i missed my wifey like crazy.. She's a good fuck though.. - he said as he put an arm around Margrethe. She huffed and pouted. - not as good as you honey... - he said before he kissed her. Your heart broke at the sight. You trusted him, you believed him when he said he loved you since you were kids.. and now it was all a lie. No son of Ragnar deserved to ever have you. Why did you even try, why believe them? Silent tears escaped your eyes, stinging where they've gone into your bruises.

Ubbe then told her to watch, while he makes a call to a client. And she happily stayed and watched as Sigurds lashes you, drawing blood already from numerous cuts.

-So this turns you on huh? - she asked seemingly interested.

-Aren't she prettier this way? Bloodied, silent, vulnerable.

She just hummed. Soon Ubbe got back, and sat down on the couch next to Margrethe watching you with an emotionless face, as if the last few days meant absolutely nothing. You hung your head low, and just looked at the blood under you. As the small dots got bigger an bigger. Then the door opened again, and then it all went blank. You heard shouting, fighting, but all the energy left you. You weren't gonna fight anything anymore. The ones you trusted betrayed you in the most disgusting way, what point was there anymore? These were your last thoughts before you passed out.

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

Ubbe on the phone...

-Ivar, Bjorn, Hvitserk.. need you to come to the old factory downtown, the abandoned one. Basement level, follow the lights. Also... call Lagertha, we'll need medical help..

-For them? - scoffed Ivar.

-For (Y/n).. - Ubbe said, then Ivar saw red. so did Bjorn and Hvitserk. They loaded the truck, calling Lagertha on the way.

When they barged in Ivar didn't even saw you at first, he just threw his axe at Sigurd, hitting his chest, killing him immediately. Then he saw you. Unconscious, suspended. When he looked to the side, he saw Ubbe holding a knife to Margrethe's neck. Hvitserk and Bjorn was already getting you down. Bjorn put his jacket around you, carrying you princess style. You were badly beaten, all over. They would never forgive Sigurd this, nor Margrethe. After Ivar saw you, and your state he started to beat up Sigurd's lifeless body, making him almost unrecognizable. Hvitserk tore Ivar off of him, while Ubbe tied Margrethe up. They will deal with her later, until then she will be good in the cell under the family mansion.First and foremost, they needed to get you to the mansion before you lost even more blood. Lagertha was waiting there. The color left her face as she saw you, watching as Ubbe yanked a giggling Margrethe behind him, straight down to the cells.

-Sigurd?

-Pulp, abandoned factory downtown. Slowly burning to shit now. - said Bjorn as he put you down, immediately lighting a cigarette. They could not lose you. Not when they only just got to have you.

Lagertha tended to your wounds, stiching a few together, bandaging the others, smoothing over ointments and antiseptic. She gave you painkillers through IV too. Now they just had to wait. They all refused to leave, so they sat out in the huge livingroom, sipping on their whiskey silently.

-WHat will we do with her? - asked Hivtserk.

-She needs to die. - said Bjorn as he clenched his jaw.

-Should've killed her in Norway. - said Ivar looking over at Ubbe.

-Should've never taken her o na fucking date. - said Ubbe as he slammed his glass down. He stood up, loaded his gun. -Call Floki, we'll ned to do something with her body. - he said before walking down to the cells. A single shot was heard then silence. Only the steps Ubbe took, before sitting don with his refilled whiskey.

-Do yall think she believed them about me? About us?

-We'll know when she wakes up..

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

You did wake up 4 days later. Silently looking in front of you, with an emotionless face. When Ubbe woke up next to you, he immediately called out.

-(Y/n), sweetheart, you're awake.. - he sighed - i thought we're gonna lose you..

-You did not.. what i don't understand is... why did you even save me? go be with her..

-why did we even save you? we love you.. we really do..

-you sure as hell did not love me while you watched Sigurd beat me to pulp..

-what was i supposed to do? take on them myself alone? I had to alert the others and wait for them to get there.. i wish i could show you how much it fucking killed me to see you that way...

-just leave Ubbe... what's the point in pretending that i matter? as soon as i can walk i'll be out of your hairs... for good.

He cannot say anything else... he barged out, the others flowing in. Lagertha came with your medicine when she heard you scream at them to leave you alone.

-Give her time boys.. She'll come around.. - she said, trying to calm their nerves. She was the only one you were willing to talk to... well occasionally..

She changed your bandages, took out the stiches, gave you your meds. Before you fell asleep again, you asked her.

-Do you think they are telling the truth?

-I know they are. I watched you all grow. It might not always seem that way, but.. everyone knew you would be theirs as much as they would be yours. Even the gods told us.. . I remember when Torvi, Aslaug, Helga and I were dreaming the same thing over and over, that you were made for eachother.. with all of them.. There are things you should not fight (Y/n)... - she said gently holding your hand. You were asleep now.

The next day you woke up to Bjorn's blue eyes boring into you.

-How are you feeling? - he asked softly.

-Better.

-Still want to move away?

-Not sure..

-Well if it makes any difference... i um.. i got this after the second night we spent together at my place.. - he said placing a small box down on your lap before leaving the room.

You slowly opened the box, revealing a ring. Not diamond, that wouldn't be really you.. It was a simple band out of gold, with a black inlay, and with gold letters it said, till death. You cried softly. A few hours later Hvitserk visited, you two talked while Lagertha changed your bandages. He got a call and Lagertha gave you a knowing look.

-DId you know? - you asked.

-It dawned on me, yes. Remember when you kicked his ass when you were just a child? I remember him coming home huffing and puffing. And when i asked why he was so angry he said that he don't care that the others laughed at him, or that you bested him, but he was angry that when he was about to kiss you, Ubbe jumped on him, tackling him to the ground. He wanted you to be his first kiss..

-Well i wasn't.. and as i remember there were plenty others. - you smiled to yourself.

-Yes and all had similar qualities as you. Either from the inside or the outside, but none of them were you..

She kissed your forehead before leaving. That night you could not sleep. You knew they were all in the mansion. Lagertha told you they all refused to leave. You slowly got up, still weak so you were trying to be as quiet as you can, heading for Bjorn's room. You knocked gently, and he told a quiet it's open. probably thinking its his mother or one of his brothers. When he saw it was you, and also because you were so weak, barely standing, he shot up from his bed, Hugging you to himself gently.

-Careful now. - he said holding you flush to himself. - What are you doing out here? SHouldn't you be in bed princess? - he looked at you with concern.

-I um.. i know i just.. i couldn't sleep.. and i.. i thought..

-Shh, it's okay, i'm happy you're here, i was just worried. Come let's get you to bed. - he said slowly leading you to his bed, then taking you into his arms as gently as he could. He missed your perfect body, fitting into his side perfectly. You were made for him. Your presence both calmed him and made him unbeliavebly happy.

After a few minutes of revelling in his scent, and the heat of his body, only did you realize that he was halfnaked, only wearing his sweatpants. You reached for the pocket of your gown, taking out the small box, putting it on his chest. You heard his breath hitch, but then you put your arm around his middle, and your head on his chest.

-Wanted you to give it to me properly. - you whispered and he let out a low chuckle, holding you closer. He took it out of the box, looking at you sweetly, taking your hand in his.

-(Y/n), i know this might sound crazy.. but.. i haved loved you ever since i knew you. And i just.. i ... i talked with them about this.. we all know the prophecy, but... that shouldn't mean that i cannot do this... and if you.. if you'd have me.. i would be so fucking honored if you'd marry me.

You didn't answer just cried and nod into his chest, holding out your finger for him to slip on the ring. He kissed you softly, aware of your injuries.

The next morning Lagertha came running into his room.

-Bjorn.. Bjorn.. (Y/n)'s not in her...... - she then stopped and smiled as she saw you curled into Bjorn's side, his arm protectively around you, as you both slept. Ubbe and Ivar along with Hvitserk came too, they all smiled, knowing they did not lose you. When Lagertha motioned to her finger, they saw that you had the ring on.

-Guess we have a wedding to plan now huh? - asked Hvitserk with the biggest smile on his face.

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spicyicymeloncat · 2 years ago

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Crystalised part 2 ep 22 spoilers

Last one for tonight bc I don’t wanna watch them too quickly

Aww yeah Pixal you made their cars cool!

Also ronin being pro ninja again. Good for him tho

Jay calling Lloyd a party pooper is an important reminder to Lloyd’s s7 characterisation, I always love a good “Lloyd says we have food at home” moment

I feel like Wu committed one crime and now refuses to sit still. Like he wants in on all the action now

Garmadon why do you be spouting your weird plant son metaphors at Nya?

Oh wait Nya plant nerd?? It’s cute that her mum keeps plants :). Also jay tried to keep houseplants as well

Idk how to spell the scientific plant name but it’s also named after Ninjago. The people of this universe really said we’ll name everything Ninjago, even the plants

Ohno water sadness

At least Garmadon’s favourite son survived. I told you guys no one dies in this show not even the plants

I actually need wu and the overlord to duel bc they both have stupid brain rn. Ck really said it’ll be fineeee, and it wasnt

Also zane really said “and I can kill you again bitch!”

OH WAIT NO I BETTER NOT BE RECOGNISING THIS SCENE FROM TRAILERS

CHRISTOFERN REALLY CANT CATCH A BREAK MAN

Garmadon: how can I choose between my beloved children Christofern and Harumi?

Lloyd, five feet away from him:

The old man has achieved flight!! Can’t believe Wu Garmadon and the overlord all decided the Sky’s the limit at the same time

Garmadon just poofed that dragon thing

Garmadon shaking his head and wu’s zero brain celled attempt to climb into the overlord’s walls:

The overlord, having an equal number of brain cells to wu:

Wu really chose chaotic gremlin energy

Nooo lava man

OH MY GOD FCKING DAMNIT ZANE EVERY SINGLE TIME WTF TAHT WAS SO SAD HE JUST CLOSED HIS EYES MANNNNANMSKSKWMWK

Man wu talking about the fsm let’s goo

This fight scene is so freaking cool man

Garmadon saying “brother?” 🥺

Oh god ofc the one thing that can defeat Jay’s final girl energy is simping. Bestie look at the rose Ik ur girl might turn into water again but still

The gang really got separated. Again.

Ahhhhhhh I wanna watch the next ep but also I wanna pace them so I don’t burn through them too quickly and cry when it’s over yknow (although if they disappear immediately before I get a look in I’ll cry)

#ninjago #lego ninjago #ninjago crystalized spoilers #Ninjago crystalized #reaction

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svnaslove · 4 years ago

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cuddles. II

Genre: fluff !! and chaos 😔 !!

Characters: Kishoshita, Narita, Kageyama, Hinata, Tsukishima, Yamaguchi

warnings: uhm.. yams’ part is a lil suggestive 😳

#7 | Hisashi Kinoshita | 木下

kinoshita !!

chile let me take a moment to breathe because he’s so underrated but idk how because this man is so pretty !! and kind !! and respectful !!

im about to bark

n e ways

he’s a lil insecure bub🥺

since he sits alot i feel like that did a little something to his confidence :((

but it also made him more aware of his surroundings and he’s very very supportive !!

when you first said you wanted to cuddle he was like

“😳 y-you wanna cuddle?”

kinda scared to at first because he doesn’t know what to do lsjfdls

so you guys started small like just leaning on each other, then laying on each others laps and then full on cuddle sessions <3

he’s so fcking cute !!

if your hair’s long, he ties it up while you’re cuddling so it doesn’t get in the way for you 🥺

if anything he’s trying to make sure you have a good time when cuddling more then himself

#8 | Kazuhito Narita | 成田

cutie !!

again, another v underrated boi, imma cri real quick

he’s literally the cutest ever

he was the first to initiate cuddles and it was so cuteee

he went in to give you a hug while you were standing in the kitchen and he was just like “i miss you :(”

he was touch-starved😭

but then he just...

didn’t let go DSFJLKDS

“kazu, baby, do you want to cuddle?”

HIS EYES LIT UP, HE GOT SO EXCITED

but then he got bashful,,, “if you want to....then i want to too... “

“dummy, i saw how excited you got, let’s go cuddle”

literally happy boi, just trailing after you to the bed to cuddle :))

holds u so tight >.<

but a comfy tight :)

#9 | Tobio Kageyama |影山

my heart goes out to kageyama this absolute baby😭

he’s so awkward because he doesn’t know how to initiate anything and the only thing he’s ever thought about is volleyball

it’s to the point where he has this weird feeling that he just wants to hold you but he doesn’t know how to ask ??

and sometimes he doesn’t know what it is either so he’ll be like, “damn, maybe if i drink some milk, this odd feeling will go away”

spoiler alert: the milk does not help 💔

heart 💔 been broke 📉 so many times ⏰ i don’t know 🤔 what to believe 💯 mama 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩 said 🗣 it’s my fault 😢 it’s my fault 🤦🏻‍♀️i wear my heart ❤️ on my sleeve 💪

so one day you guys are just late night watching tv together and you’re both under the blanket and he’s like “damn, here’s that weird feeling again”

and he just

stares

he just stares at you because he doesn’t know how to ask because he’s scared to feel embarrassed

you feel him looking and you just turn to him like

“😳 hello?”

literally this pretty ass boy is just staring at you and you’re freaking out and he has no self realization and you’re just there, mad blushing

he gets all blushy too and looks away

SLKDFJLSDJF

“im sorry :(”

then he can’t take it anymore

he stares again 😭

“ 😳 tobio, do you need something?”

“c-can we cuddle?”

THIS CUTIE SLDKFJSDLKF

and you’re like oH, THAT’S WHY HE WAS STARING AT ME LIKE THAT

“yeah, come here”

you hold out your arms and he just goes to your arms

you’ll be laying on your back and he’s laying on your stomach

and you’ll just play with his hair and hum and he just feels so relaxed and he just takes in your scent and gets smiley sometimes

and now every time he just stares at you, you know that he wants to cuddle, its just a non-verbal agreement now fldsjsljf

bonus:

this position of cuddling with him was the first time he told you that he loved you 🥺

you were just the only person that could keep him grounded, and when he’s like that with you he just feels so at peace and he just realized out of nowhere that he fell in love with you 🥺

#10 | Hinata Shoyou | 日向

🥺 🥺 🥺 !!!

so baby !!

he can’t stop smiling when you guys are about to cuddle

like his cheeks are hurting !! and he’s still like :DD

like nishinoya, he would tickle you too but it wouldn’t go as far as a tickle fight, just a little something to get you to giggle

squeals “you’re so cuteeee” ALOT

he will squish your cheeks

honestly, at this point, you guys’ cuddles are more like both of you just laying next to each other really close face to face, some limbs intertwined and just squishing each others cheeks, tickling here and there and just tracing each others features

literally about to cry, the puppy love energy is astronomical 😭

count each others beauty marks, i just feel like that is def something that would happen one day lfkjs

silly faces !!

he compliments you all the time like “you’re so prettyy 🥺” but when you compliment him he’s like

“wait🤚 😳 , u talking about me?? 😳” will blush so hard he will blackout

he’ll have to hide his face into like the crook of your neck because he’s all blushy

#11 | Kei Tsukishima | 月島

i hate him with so much love

does that make sense

yes, it does.

will tease the HELL out of you when you show that you want to cuddle

gets all smug too😤

but tbh he just does that because he just gets wayyy too excited and his hearts all chaos

it’s his coping mechanism for being a simp 🤡

so he’ll just play with you

“oh? you wanna cuddle? hmm, i don’t know, ask me again in 5 minutes”

MF I SWEAR I WILL CLIMB U

also he gets way into that “hmmm” as if he’s thinking really hard about it SDLKJFSDLK

then you get all pouty and leave and he’s like

“IM JUST KIDDING JESUS WHERE ARE YOU GOING”

he let his simp side show 😔 r.i.p. ur pride tsukki

and you’re shocked, like where tf did tsukki go?? this ain’t him fkjsd

so you mess with him too

“oh? so you wanna cuddle with me now? hmm, i don’t know, you were kinda mean to me earlier, maybe i’ll just ask tadashi or something.”

you’re literally reaching for your car keys and walking out of your apartment and he just

*SWOOP*

this tree ass mf swooped you out of the floor over his shoulder earning a loud and embarrassing yelp from you and just carries you to bed

“you’re not going anywhere, don’t be an idiot”

puts you on top of the bed and just lays on top of you to keep you from moving anywhere

“KEI THIS IS NOT COMFORTABLE I CAN’T BREATHE”

“then stop being weird saying you’re going to cuddle other people and cuddle me already dumbass”

gets off and you guys lay comfortably together

“i hate you kei” ~in a playful manner ofc <3

“i know” *gives you a kiss on your forehead* 🥺

#12 | Tadashi Yamaguchi | 山口

i will violently *🥺* for yamaguchi any day, everyday

i love him so much he’s just so 🥺 🥺 !!

ok !!

so cuddling with yamaguchi is the softest experience any human could ever go through

he so soft ???

he’s so sweet ???

he’s so cute ???

he’s so respectful ???

im in love.

will always be asking if somethings okay, if you’re alright, if you’re comfy, if he’s doing anything wrong

but it’s never in an overbearing way, it’s more in a reassuring way !

he was def awkward the first time but he just got more comfy with you over time

but that doesn’t mean he still doesn’t get all blushy and a lil nervous on where to put his hands because he does

he just wants to know if you’re okay, he doesn’t want to accidently make you uncomfortable

but uhm....

one day...

you two were cuddling

and everything was going good, everything was just fine

in fact, he didn’t even need to ask if you were okay or comfy etc,, because he just knows what you like now and he can tell from your body language

but uhm...

you were cuddling, you were the little spoon and he was the big spoon

and you just wanted to get closer

so you nuzzled back into him

and he just

froze.

“tadashi? what’s wrong?”

“uhhhh.....”

literally his face is so red

and then...

u felt it.

you tense up too and you’re face is starting to get red and you’re like

“uhh.....is ....that...?”

yamaguchi looks like he’s about to cry lsdfkjs

“IM SORRY, I CAN’T CONTROL IT, YOU JSUT FJSDKL YOU BACKED INTO ME AND IT JSUT DID IT IM SORRY”

literally already standing up ready to run out of there

but then 😳

you just grab his wrist n you’re like

“let me help”

his v*rgin brain just short circuits like $(*#$)(#@*#*)$(@#*$)(@#$*

R.I.P. Yamaguchi Tadashi 2020

damn we already lost daichi and now we lost yams too 😔🕊️ fly high

TOBE FLYYYY HIIIIGHHHH ASE TOTHIDONARIDADE

HIKARU SUBASEYO IMA ZENBU ZENBU FLYYYYYYYY

*raw guitar riffs going WIIUM WIIUM WAUUM WAUUM WIIUM*

Part I: Daichi, Sugawara, Asahi, Nishinoya, Tanaka, Ennoshita

Part II: Kinoshita, Narita, Kageyama, Hinata, Tsukishima, Yamaguchi

Part III: Kiyoko, Yachi, Ukai Keishin, Takeda

Part IV: Saeko Tanaka, Akiteru Tsukishima, Shimada, Takinoue

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edie-baby · 3 years ago

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Les Fleurs du Mal Chapter 3 | Pierre Gasly

Summary: Sava Dvorakova had big dreams for Formula One. An opportunity of a lifetime comes around, so she takes it and runs. She proved just about everyone wrong, and is awarded a very controversial seat on the F1 grid. There’s smiles and grins, hugs and kisses, love and laughter. There’s tears and sobs, fights and break ups. There’s evil where you least expect it, hidden in the garden of eden. The Flowers of Evil.

Warnings: a lot of swearing, shitty parents (they’re a recurring theme), sexism, i ignored a lot of actual f1 rules because i couldn’t be bothered writing it into the story tbh, yuki is fcking adorable, a lot of smut eventually, like a lot.

Pierre Gasly wasn’t quite sure what to do. After coming into the F2 paddock to talk to his future teammate in the Carlin garage, he passed a small girl with pink hair, a pleated skirt and big, chunky boots. She was being guided through the paddock by a woman he had seen around the Carlin garage a few times before. He had heard whispers of a teenage girl taking the ‘spare’ seat for the remaining three races of the season, but seeing her in person completely consumed his mind. Distracted by the bubbly teenager, Pierre almost passed the Carlin garage completely, quickly correcting himself and keeping his head down so he didn’t make more of a fool out of himself.

“Pierre!” Yuki’s high voice called, waving to his friend with a large smile on his face that creased his eyes. Pierre walked over quickly, dapping his friend up and beginning the regular small talk about the car, and the weekend ahead.

“So, did you hear about my new teammate?” Yuki almost giggled. He had seen the reactions throughout the paddock and in the hotel that morning, and knew the Frenchman would have his own thoughts about the pocket rocket.

“The girl?” Pierre questioned, attempting to bide his time and think of appropriate questions to ask. Yuki nodded with a smile, his own thoughts disrupted by the bubbly, high energy, almost crackhead personality of the teenager.

“She’s very pink. I heard she qualified P2. I’m not really sure what to think about her, because I haven’t watched her race, but I guess I’ll see her soon. I saw her talking to Esteban this morning.” Pierre finished with a grimace. The mutual dislike between Pierre and Esteban was common knowledge, however Yuki still found it puzzling when he would speak so openly about how much the other Frenchman gave him a sour taste in his mouth.

“She’s very good. Considering she has only ever raced in go-karts before this, she’s going to give Juri a run for his money this weekend.” Yuki laughed again, already picturing the battles the two Eastern-European drivers would get into over the next 3 race weekends.

“I’ll keep an eye out. I should go back, our quali is starting soon. Good luck Yuki!” Pierre called, waving to his friend before he made his way out of the F2 paddock, and back toward his own.

The sprint race, and ensuing feature race had been entertaining, to say the least. After the shenanigans of the sprint race on Saturday, there was a large spike in viewers for the Sunday feature race before F1’s grand prix. And, as Amelia so proudly reported to Sava later that afternoon, it was the highest ratings an F2 race had ever gotten.

Headlines that Sunday afternoon were emblazoned with Juri Vips and Sava Dvorakova’s names and cars. The two had battled it out all weekend, a few close calls and both drivers finishing a maximum of two-tenths apart. Juri had won the sprint race on Saturday, where Sava came in P2, while she took P1 in the feature on Sunday, with Juri riding her gearbox for the entire race.

To say Dr Marko was pleased was a gross understatement. He hadn’t smiled, nor been so friendly as he was that weekend, since Max Verstappen won his race in Spain in 2016. It seemed to be an absolute miracle, and Alex Albon who had fared quite poorly through the weekend, was thankful to the new driver for cheering up the man who would have ridden his ass to hell and back.

After Sava’s first P1 finish, and the ensuing podium celebration, she was greeted by a few of the F1 drivers who had made their way over to congratulate the enigma. Esteban and Daniel were the first to stride toward her, enveloping her into a three-way hug where she was basically swallowed whole by the tall men. Daniel pinched her cheeks and pushed her around while they discussed her successful divebombs throughout both races, while Esteban leaned his elbow against her shoulder and listened in to the conversation. Both the men bid their goodbyes and left, allowing the next two drivers to approach her. To her surprise, it was George Russell and Lando Norris. She hadn’t interacted with either of them prior, so there was a small moment of internal fangirling before she greeted the men with a smile so large it completely obscured her eyes.

“Hey, we just wanted to say that you drove amazingly. Lando was yelling at the telly whenever you got cut off or nudged away. Alex was going to come over and say congrats as well, but he got held up with Horner.” George explained, his accent processing very slowly in Sava’s head. So, to her chagrin, she ended up staring at the ground, eyebrows furrowed, eyes bulging while she tried to process the words. Even worse, Lando leaned down to look up at her face, laughing that high-pitched squeal of a laugh that finally broke Sava’s concentration.

“Ah, fuck. I am sorry. Your accent, I have not heard one similar before, so it took a few extra moments to process. Sava.exe stopped working for a moment, but I am back, no need to worry. I must say, I am surprised the two of you are here. I thought you would have been concentrating on your own races for this afternoon, especially you, George. You might not be able to lose positions starting at the back of the grid, but you can definitely gain many.” Sava giggled, attempting to convey to George that she really was kidding and hoped it wasn’t a sore subject to be brooching. Lando squealed again, even going so far as to run away before circling back to the small group. George stood there, stunned.

“You just got owned by the new kid!” Lando yelled, pushing on George’s shoulder before the two waved and walked away, seeing the two men standing behind Sava, waiting their turn to speak.

When she turned around, she wasn’t expecting to see the man of her dreams and her teammate waiting patiently. Sava’s breath caught in her throat for a moment, and was left standing in front of Yuki and Pierre shaking like a leaf.

“Pierre, this is Bunny! He wanted to meet you after watching your races.” Yuki smiled down at his teammate who was still unmoving save for the tremble in her hands.

“It’s nice to meet you, Bunny. It was a really amazing drive today. A lot of those moves require more balls than most of the guys in F1 have.” Pierre smirked, and Sava swore she would have fainted on the spot.

“Holy shit wow, thank you so fucking much. You honestly have zero idea how incredible I think you are. Had I known that my social media would be released to the world, I would have definitely taken down all of my posts singing your praises before I actually met you because now that you’re here it feels fucking creepy. But, I meant everything I said, including the threat about Christian Horner, so if you ask, I will obey.” Sava spoke quickly. She glanced quickly into Pierre’s gorgeous blue eyes, the words tumbling out of her mouth before she had registered them. After she had basically told Pierre, to his face, that she would obey any command he told her, she was whisked away by Amelia toward the media pen, sending Yuki and Pierre a quick wink in the process.

With Pierre caught off guard and staring in the direction Sava had walked off in, Yuki coined the new nickname 'Pierre the Pedo'.

He might have gotten a quick kick to the ass because of that one.

#pierre gasly #Pierre Gasly fanfic #Pierre Gasly imagine #Pierre Gasly x reader #pg10 #formula one #formula 1 #f1 #f1 fanfic

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anxiousstark · 4 years ago

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S1 06 | Co-Captain

BIG MASTERLIST | TW REWRITE

Stiles Stilinski x Reader! Half-sibling!Mccall

Word count: 2091

Warnings: Mentions drugs, child abuse, swearing (always).

A/N: I’m sorry but this is a filler chapter, an IMPORTANT one. Y/N’s past start coming back, her mom’s story is quite significant, and the mention of his dad. NEXT WEEK WE FINISH SEASON 1! THINGS START GETTING FCKING INTERESTING!

Scott had told us last night what happened to him. Peter and Derek had gone to the changing rooms, searching for him. Peter had shown him what happened to the Hale family. It was a truly sad story. Stiles told him what happened in the hospital, including what I did. But he hadn't told him that while Peter was showing him his past, I was shaking in Stiles's bedroom while he searched what creature I could be.

"What's up?" Stiles stopped the jeep next to Jackson and his car. He was accompanied by Chris Argent, someone who looked like an asshole. He was.

"Is everything okay?"

"Hey, Scott. Your friend, here, was having car trouble. We're just taking a look." He replied with a smile on his face. His blue eyes weren't warm, they were cold, transmitting uneasiness.

"There's a shop right down the street. I'm sure they have a tow truck." Scott pointed down the street. I just silently sat on the back of the jeep, observing Chris.

"Yeah. You want a ride?" Scott opened the door while Chris turned his face to look at Jackson. "Hey, come on, Jackson. You're way too pretty to be out here all by yourself." Jackson started walking towards us, and Scott came out of the car to let him in.

"Hey, boys." He turned the engine of the car on, it was working. "Told you I knew a few things about cars." Then, he went back to his car, driving away.

"What, are you following me, now?" Stiles got out of the car while I decided to stay inside, rolling the window down so I could hear them better.

"Yes, you stupid freaking idiot. You almost gave away everything, right there." Scott started screaming. Seems like his 'anger issues' were still there.

"What are you talking about?"

"He thinks you're the second beta."

"What?"

"He thinks you're me!" Scott grunted, punching Stiles's jeep. Uh oh, he touched his baby.

"Dude, my jeep."

Scott ignored his best friend and continued speaking his mind to Jackson. "I can hear your heart beating from a mile away, literally! Now he thinks that there's something wrong, and now I have to keep an eye on you so he doesn't kill you too!"

He turned to the jeep again, to hit it. But Stiles stopped him. "Okay, how about we step away from Stiles's Jeep?"

"This is your problem, not mine, okay? I didn't say anything, which means you're the one that's gonna get me killed. Okay, this is your fault." Jackson couldn't control his temper, pushing Scott against the jeep, making it tumble a little. I decided to go out, standing next to the owner of the said jeep.

"Can we stop hitting my jeep?" Scott pushed Jackson away from him. "Yo, all right, yo, guys, stop. All right?"

"When they come after you, I won't be able to protect you." His gaze landed on his best friend. "I can't protect anyone."

"Why are you looking at me?" I put my hand on his back, rubbing it to help him calm down. He had concluded that Scott couldn't protect him if he didn't have the power.

"You know, now you have to do it. Get me what I want, and I will be fine protecting myself."

"No, you won't! Just trust me. All it does is make things worse." His eyes were desperate, but Jackson didn't seem to care. "Yeah, I can run really fast now. Except half the time, I'm running away from people trying to kill me! And I can hear things like - like my girlfriend telling people that she doesn't trust me anymore right before breaking up with me. I'm not lying to you! It ruins your life."

"It ruined your life." He smiled wickedly. "You had all the power in the world, and you didn't know what to do with it. You know what it's actually like? It's like you turned 16, and someone bought you a Porsche when they should have started you out with a nice little Honda. Me? I drive a Porsche." He turned around, determined to go back to his so-loved car.

"You aren't a werewolf." I decided to speak for the first time that day. Jackson stopped on his track. "You are something. I don't know what, but you are something." I choked, it was Stiles's turn to rub my back. I wasn't human anymore, and I hadn't had enough time to sit down and talk about it with someone. "And I am too." I stepped in front of the other two boys. "You were there that night." I simpered. "Do you remember that day at school? You asked me if my wound was hurting, you told me you felt different, that you weren't the same Jackson anymore." He turned around to look at me, jaw clenched. "I told you that all that was because you were a teenager. The changes a teenager goes through, you know?"

"Are you done?" He interrupted. "Don't wanna be here anymore."

"I lied." His attention was back on me again. "I lied, Jackson. I could smell you. And you smelled like the dead." He got into the car, driving away.

Stiles grabbed the milk from the fridge, deciding to take it with himself to his room, until he saw his dad sitting on a table, documents all over it. "Whatcha doing?"

"Work."

"Anything I can help with?"

"You know, if you poured me an ounce of whiskey, that would be awfully nice." He didn't have to think it twice, grabbing a glass and the bottle of whiskey.

"Any leads?" Stiles was going to grab a document when his father slapped his hand away. "Wait. Before we get into that topic. Did you know that Melissa was going to bring Y/N?" He bit his lower lip.

Sheriff Stilinski nodded, drinking his alcohol. "An old workmate had that case. The case of Y/N McCall." Stiles waited for his father to go on. "As you know, Scott grew up without his father but seems like that man wasn't in her life neither. She only saw him a couple of times for what I know." He wrote down some information about Derek Hale. "Her mother was a disaster. My friend carried that case. He freed her from jail one time."

"Jail?" Stiles drank milk again.

"Drugs. An entire criminal record related to drugs; driving under the influence, getting into fights while high..." He coughed. "Then," Noah Stilisnki gazed at his son for the first time that night, ignoring the paper works that were on top of the table. "Child abuse." Stiles dropped the bottle, thankfully it was empty. "Y/N went to court with bruises a couple of times, nothing more than that. But still, abuse."

"Didn't they took her away? What are social services for? Didn't they protect her?" His eyebrows furrowed while he glanced at his dad, who was now looking at the documents on the table.

"They called Y/N's father to court, hoping he would take responsibility for his daughter like any father would do." Stiles's mouth was agape. "But he didn't. The judge decided that the environment wasn't the best one for a child. But, still gave an opportunity to her with the condition of going to rehab."

"Did she?" The teen asked, immersed in the story.

"No, she left Y/N on the front door of one of her friends, who was also into drugs in the past. However, that friend was clean."

"She said her mother died."

"She did." Noah stared at his son. "In jail. She died in jail. She...uhm, ended her life." Stiles was shocked. He had to talk to Scott. She wasn't there to make Scott mad, she was there because she had nobody.

"Why did she end up in jail?"

Noah shook his head. "She was on drugs, and...Uhm, she murdered someone. Then, she took her own life in jail."

Stiles could feel his heart beating loudly. He couldn't imagine how she felt.

Someone knocked on the door, and I came out of my room to see Melissa all dressed up. "Hey." She grinned at me, eyes shining with happiness. "You look beautiful." I offered her a grin, she thanked me, looking back at Scott.

"Scott! Get the door. Scott! For the love of God, please! Hey. What are you doing? Aren't you gonna invite him in?" She was like a teenager on her first date. Not surprised if we remember that she once was married to the man who put his dick on the woman that I should call mom.

I walked down the stairs when I heard Scott talking to her mom's date. He must feel strange, but I was curious to know who he was.

"I'm ready, I'm ready. Sorry again." It was Peter. Peter Hale.

"Mom."

"Yes? Sweetheart?" She was grabbing Peter's arm. I could tell she wanted to go out with him, and have a delightful night. But we all knew why Peter Hale was here. It wasn't because he had fallen in love with Melissa, or because he wanted to get to know her better. It was because of Scott and me.

"Have a good time." The door closed in our faces. "Don't say it."

I did anyway. "Are you going to let your mom go on a date with that demented psychopath?"

"Look, he told me that if I said something-" He sighed. "And what do I tell her? That her son is a teen werewolf, and that dude is-" He had difficulties breathing. "And Allison is upstairs-"

"Scott." I interrupted. "Calm down, okay?" I bit my lower lip, trying to think of something. "Give me your phone." He was confused.

"C'mon!" When he handed me his phone, I called the only person who could help me. "Stiles? Hi! Uhm, I need your help."

I explained the situation to Stiles while we followed Melissa and Peter. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

I grunted. "I wish I was." I tried to get comfortable in the passenger seat. "Here they are." I glanced at him. "What do we do now?"

"We hit."

"Uh?"

Both of us got out of the car. Melissa's face becoming red when she saw Stiles. "Oh, are you kidding me? Stiles!" Her gaze fell on me next. "Y/N?"

"Mrs. McCall?" Great acting, Stiles. "Wow, this is - this is just crazy. What a coincidence, huh?" He looked at me for a second. "I mean - I do not know what happened. You guys just came out of nowhere."

"Came out of nowhere! We were parked on the side of the road, Stiles."

"How crazy is that? I mean, we should probably call the cops, you know, do like an accident report thing." I nodded my head while grabbing Melissa's hand. Please, please.

"I don't think that's necessary." Peter interrupted, looking around.

"Are you sure? I think I'm feeling a little whiplash." He touched his neck.

"Whiplash? You hit us!"

"I don't know - there's something definitely wrong with my neck." Melissa started screaming at him, and Peter went far from us, he was probably communicating with Scott, who had followed us.

I went closer to Peter, hearing him talk about Jackson. "Don't get close to her." He turned around. smirking at me. "Be a man." I glared at him. "Melissa has nothing to do with all this. Be a man, go for the ones who have something to do with this."

He grinned. "What are you going to do, sweetheart?"

"I was not the one held against a wall with a hand on my neck, choking to death." I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to look intimidating.

"You don't even know how you did it." He came closer to me. "But I know-how. Don't you want to know? Don't you want to know what you are?" He tried to brush my cheek, but I slapped his hand away. "You, my dear, are very powerful. More than you think. Maybe even more than Scott. When you learn what you are and what you can do, you will be a great weapon."

"I'm a person, not a weapon."

"Aw, sweetheart." He pouted. "You aren't a person anymore, and you know it." He whispered the next thing, but of course, Scott was listening to him. "You could be stronger with me. Be part of my pack."

"She already has a pack." I hear Scott's voice in my head. How did he do that? "She is part of my pack."

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nomadmilk · 4 years ago

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MADS!

i missed you dear *bear hugs*!! i hope you got to relax and have some much needed self-love <33

bruh i just found arlo parks and feel the same way. like why wasnt i aware of her sooner 😫 *on my way to queue some of her songs rn*

lol i do have a curveball taste (i really really really like that and im stealing it). im always on the aux so i have to have immaculate songs lined up. depending on who's with me i usually try to cater to their taste or something close to it (i do NOT dabble in hard metal/rock or mumble rap, as much as id like to feel the car vibration i like my hearing intact thank you very much) (not that those genres are bad, just not my personal style)

ive had a few cases where ive surprised some people. though im pretty vocal on the music i like. (such an easy topic to talk about!) but theres always a few people who are like "you really seem like the person to listen to mainstream pop" and one person said "damn you look like a frank ocean stan" (dawg wtf is that supposed to mean?? i dont listen to frank at all??) and then im like 🧍‍♀️ slowly queuing doja, kings of leon, and the backseat lovers. usually the most surprised when i play some rap songs AND know how to rap. (shocker am i right!?)

-🪐

p.s. hawks definitely is an eminem stan. but he will shred the dance floor up if lose control by missy elliott comes on. (also feel like he would be a vanilla ice fan 🤭)

Would you repulsed if I said I dabbled in Screamo for like a brief period of my life? I can’t listen to it anymore, though. Like it’s difficult to now 😅

Honestly, love those moments when people can vibe with you after a good surprise. I love that kinda’ connection, it makes ya feel more accepted in a way 🥰

Also, yes vanilla but consider the strangest flavour of ice cream in Japan that I’ve ever fcking heard: chicken flavour ice cream.

#🐄💜nomaanswers #🐄🪐anonmilk #🐄💬noma #Japan got the weird foods stuffs and I wanna try em all #would give up being vegetarian tho but just for that experience

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mingying · 5 years ago

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Ep 11 Spoilers!!

Omg I'm so happy that Ep11 of Crash Landing is finally out. As usual here is my weekly episode commentary just bc I need to spazz it all out. Things that I still remember now after finishing the ep that I loved:

1) When Seri told Jeonghyuk that she doesn't like this dream because she will wake up feeling sad, and then he tells her it isn't a dream T____T

2) Jeonghyuk really crawled through a cave for 20 hours just to get to South omg a MAN

3) I laughed so hard when Seri said if it's so easy to get to South why was she stuck in North for so long HAHAHHAHAAH like the writers really wrote this in knowing all of us had the same thoughts after ep 10

4) omg soldier boys thinking the food/drink in the sauna were free so they ended up spending 100k+ won LMAAAOOO

5) When Seri took Jeonghyuk shopping and had literal heart eyes at him wearing those suits (as did I omg Hyun Bin's visuals seriously-) and then got super jealous bc the sales lady was all over him akzkaksk

6) But then got so happy after sales lady said her husband was handsome and she asked if they looked like a married couple PLEASE YOU TWO!!!!!!

7) Okay when Seri's brother came by with his wife and said all those hurtful things and Jeonghyuk was THIS close to just rushing out of his hiding place to punch him WHEWWW

8) When Seri told him not to say anything bc she felt embarrassed and he said he wouldn't, but instead hugged her - mY FCKING HEART YALL

9) Seo Dan's model walk holy shit literal heart eyes

10) Seo Dan flexing Seung Jun to the rest of her friends wkdksks

11) I loved how supportive Seo Dan's mom is, as long as her daughter is happy and in love shes fine...and then she said 'as long as he isn't a thief or conman' I DIED AJZKAK

12) KIM SOOK'S CAMEO HAHAHAHHA

13) When Seri knocked her car hood and then got sad bc every time she does that she will think of Jeonghyuk T___T but thankfully bc of this method she managed to spot Cheolgang hiding in her car omg

14) Seri yelling out at the car park for Jeonghyuk to run...pls...I love that they're constantly protecting each other sobs my feels-

15) Seo Dan learned the lingo from Seri in Switzerland omg I love this plssss

16) Seungjun wondering if Dan saw his missed call and then couldn't sleep the entire night waiting for her to call him back omg I LOVE THEMMMM!!!!

Okay thankfully the next episode isn't so far away. I'm so excited!!!

#crash landing on you #kdrama #ri jeonghyuk x yoon seri #my otp #hyunbin #son yejin #episode 11 recap #i just need to scream ok

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scribblesandsnark · 4 years ago

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“Days Gone Bye” (TWD 1.1)

There’s so much about “Days Gone Bye” that is well done – not least because it operates primarily on silence and visuals rather than the preachy dialogue that takes over down the road. (Yes, season 2, I’m looking at you.) That said, not gonna lie, it took me bloody ages to figure out where the opening scene falls in Rick’s post-hospital, pre-Atlanta adventures. (And when I say ages, what I really mean is it took me about six or eight times watching the episode. Ye gods.)

I feel like Rick might have lucked out in the apocalypse. He’s a cop, so there’s obviously a uniform to wear as he waltzes off into the unknown. What would you opt to put on if you were in his shoes and didn’t have a uniform to default to? (Personally, I’ve realised I have a serious lack of practical apocalypse shoes on hand. Although I’m inclined to think that my high heels would come in handy for breaking dead limbs and stomping in undead brains, so there’s that to consider.)

Burnt out and/or flipped cars are popular for set design in post-apo/dystopian TV and films, as are buildings with blasted out/shattered windows, but until fairly recently I’d always viewed them as sort of abstract decorations without really registering how they might get that way. Indeed, in earlier drafts I spent some time snarking about how the zompocalypse must infect people’s driving abilities (a terrifying thought considering the actual driving ability of your average non-zompocalypse-affected person) and, to quote myself,

Given the amount of fire damaged/cars upturned/miscellaneous damage inflicted on cars, you’d think that fcking flamethrowers and grenades and rocket launchers were being wielded by random Georgian citizens as they frolicked through the streets escaping the dead.

But this year [2020], between the port explosion in Beiruit, which flipped cars with the force of the blast and turned high rises into ghouls with hundreds of gaping mouths, and the fires in California, leaving burnt-out hulks in their wake, it’s really come home to me how easy and careless that kind of destruction can be – and how swiftly it can come to be seen as a norm. No flamethrowers or grenades necessary.

Even the empty streets and the silence we’re greeted with in this opening scene, as Rick drives down a barren street and walks through an abandoned campsite, now has more resonance since the 2020 lockdowns brought that apocalyptic empty street into reality. I don’t think I’d ever really thought to walk down the middle of a street before, because, you know, traffic – and yet for a time, when there were no cars on the road and people were hidden away in their homes, that became a new normal. There was a freedom in knowing you could walk in the middle of the road with almost no risk, because all normal rules had been suspended indefinitely. Why stick to the sidewalk when you know a car’s unlikely to drive through?

I guess apocalyptic fiction only ever seems apocalyptic and unimaginable until the real world catches up.

There are a lot of things I could say about this opening scene, aside from the great visceral pleasure of getting absorbed by the camera work, feeling one with Rick as we witness the destruction, the abandonment, the death… There’s a stillness that I wish we saw more of in the later episodes. The introduction of the little walker girl sets up Rick’s hope and his despair in a wonderful way. Having the first appearance and first death of a walker be a little girl in her jammies really shows us just how much the world has been turned on its head – Rick’s a police officer, whose job is to help people (ideally, at any rate), and the realisation that in this new world the only way to help is to kill those he used to protect sets up a(n albeit inconsistent) through-line for the rest of the series.

So yeah, I could wax lyrical about the excellent beginning of “Days Gone Bye” – but because I’m a snarky arsehole, I’m going to talk about the dead. And I’m going to do so with the caveat that while I’ve read some of the behind-the-scenes commentary etc., I am not actually a Walking Deadhead, and consequently do not have at my fingertips the reasons why certain production decisions were made.

There’s an oddity in the first…two seasons? when it comes to cars and the dead, in that there are a startling number of people who seem to have just…died, while in the driver’s seat of their cars. We see two clear examples in the opening scene, as Rick passes between two cars, facing opposite directions, each with their own definitely dead driver slumped at the wheel. This appears, rather more egregiously, in the traffic snarl at the start of season 2, but for the moment we’ll stick with season 1. The camera’s shown us an abandoned camp, any number of cars that seem to have become part of stationary living. Yet we’ve got two dead people behind the wheel, in cars facing opposite directions. Now, I’m not disputing that people could die at the wheel. As the show later goes on to show us, you can get chomped, die, and resurrect within minutes. The problem is in the fact that a proportionally ridiculous number of people seem to die at the wheel. I suppose the logical conclusion is that said individuals stupidly had their windows down and their arms out, got chomped, and sent away the rest of the car’s occupants or anyone else in the vicinity, and then opted to just hang out in the car until death – at which point zombrain kicks in and any attempt to use a door handle is moot. (See, e.g., the number of zoms hanging out in closed cars.) Combine that with people more likely than this show’s putative heroes to shoot someone who’s been infected in the head before they turn and simply move on… Eh. I suppose it’s plausible. It’s just not very realistic. (Not least because oh my god, there are undead people, roll up your fucking window you fucking idiot. I know it’s hot in Georgia but roll those windows up, babe. You might sweat, but at least a stealth zom won’t use your hand for a snack. Gah.)

…not going to comment on the inconsistent zombehaviour in which a smolzom stops to pick up her teddy (see, later, other zoms climbing ladders, scaling fences, and using rocks to bash through windows – and in one instance, tugging her zip hoodie back up over her arm). Instead, my issue is with smolzom’s slippers. How has she not lost those by now??

(Total aside, but I’ve been bingeing L&O:SVU lately, and boy howdy do a lot of TWD people pop up like daisies there. Daryl, Shane, Noah, Dale, Beth, Lori, Amy, Tyreese, Lizzie, Liza (tbf from FTWD)…)

The fries that Rick and Shane are eating just look sad and wimpy and not worthy of eating. Do better, cops. (Do better, fries.) Really, it’s almost a surprise they’re not nomming doughnuts and coffee. There’s no doubt that the two are meant to be close, though; you have to be close to dab your fry in your partner’s ketchup (oh no, Lori).

Jon Bernthal is a good actor. I just wish they hadn’t given him a character who was so all over the place. (I’ll delve more into this in later episodes.) The first scene he appears in, after the opening credits, clearly sets him up as a chauvinistic dick, in contrast to pauvre Rick, whose relationship with his wife is suffering – and, critically, this is not because of Rick, but because of Lori. Her first introduction as a character is as a woman at odds with her husband – and the fact that her husband is in law enforcement really should not be glossed over here, not given America’s contentious relationship with LEOs. (We’ll get back to Rick and Shane eventually.) It’s no secret that spouses of people in law enforcement, or in the military, often struggle because their partners are always absent. I’m not trying to apply blame, here; law enforcement and military positions require a lot, and there is absolutely a high degree of trauma that can result due to the kind of work in which they engage. That said, the way Lori is set up as the antagonist from the get-go is just…distasteful. Rick is presented as reasonable, as wanting to try to make things right, as trying to do what Lori wants and yet always being the bad guy. The sad thing is that Lori is no one’s favourite character, and yet the character never had a chance. She was fucked over long before she actually turned up on screen, ensuring that our perspective of her is negative from the start. In a show that takes years to establish strong women, Lori stands out as a particularly egregious example of a woman, wife, and mother who realistically could have been a positive representation of a woman that instead was turned into a caricature everyone loves to hate. (We’ll get to Andrea eventually, I promise.)

I think perhaps, most egregiously, the fact that Rick says something like “It’s like she’s pissed at me and I don’t know why” sets up Lori as being irrational and Rick as being patient and anxious to fix things without knowing why. Lori is fucked in terms of character development from before she ever appears on screen and never has the opportunity to claw back some of that lost ground. Rick literally labels her as cruel – and cruel in front of their son, to boot. Who doesn’t view a person cruel to their child as a villain? Gah. Lori was absolutely fucked by merit of being Rick’s wife. And it’s really a shame, because every so often Sarah Wayne Callies absolutely kills it (no pun intended, but leading up to Lori’s death is perhaps the character’s best scene).

Of course, too, the whole convo between Shane and Rick sets up Shane as a “fuck me, women, man” – and yeah, absolutely, this attitude ends up extrapolated to his behaviour towards people in general. Yes, it bonds our two good ol’ boy policemen as lads who love each other and try to jive each other into better moods but are sensitive enough to listen to actual emotional shit… But ultimately it establishes Shane as a dick and Rick as a victim. Shane’s absolute disdain for women’s emotion/women talking about their emotions is in some ways bizarre when you look at his future relationship with Lori – and yet at the same time, that disdain echoes through all of anything he does with Lori, with Carl, and with Rick in future.

Okay, so, let’s move on to the fuckfest in which Rick gets shot. (Twice, Lord help me. These fuckers are alarmingly inept.)

Pro: they fling out the spikey “stop the bad guy” chains.

Con: …well, at least one dude doesn’t know about the safety, so that’s … not ideal. (His death: not surprising.)

Pro: Rick can apparently drive backwards with skill. I can’t even back around a corner.

Con: Leon is a fucking moron.

Pro: Rick and Shane disposed of their hats??

Con: what happens to the Black cop? Why is he the only one we don’t know the fate of? (See TWD’s treatment of Black actors in general…)

Pro: the car does not flip in their general direction.

Con: pretty much everything else in this scene.

I dunno about the average viewer, but I feel like the two apparently competent cops – Shane and Rick – should each be assigned to one of the shitty cops, rather than riding together, because really, do you want cops rolling in to save you when they clearly don’t know the first thing about gun operation? (Yes, as any number of viewers have pointed out, there’s no safety on the gun that Leon is holding, but the fundamental point is to articulate how much of a fuck-up he is as a cop. If you’re out in the field and don’t know how your piece works, should you even be out there? Don’t they give cops gun training? You’d hope so…yikes. Although I guess it does sort of set up the absolute nightmare of season 2’s gun control plot line. (Oh god, season 2. Help.))

Am I the only one amused by the name Leon Basset? He’s a cat and a dog at once!

It takes Rick and Shane and co. an embarrassingly long time to put down the baddies – one of whom manages to hit a cop in a spot not covered by his vest, after having been flipped violently upside down in a car crash. Seriously, the fact these dudes are able to crawl out of the car and start merrily firing away, much less actually hit someone, is fucking insane. Have they trained in post-car crash shooting? I have to conclude they have, because otherwise the fact they have better aim than the multiple cops shooting at them is absurd. (Also hilarious: bad dude #1 crawls out of the completely totalled, upside-down car with, like, a scratch on his cheek. Until bad dude #2 takes a shotgun blast the chest, he appears to have lucked out with almost zero wounds from the crash. Are we sure *they* aren’t actually already dead??) And really, Rick’s an idiot in this scene – his fellow cops are intelligently hanging out by the cop cars, using them for cover, while Rick displays a high degree of absolute idiocy in waltzing straight out into the open; it’s made even worse by the fact that he’s brandishing his cute little Colt Python revolver while at least two of the cops behind him are wielding shotguns.

Bad copping, Rick. Cop better, please.

There are several shots right before Rick gets shot the first time where the camera angle makes it appear that Shane has his shotgun pointed straight at Rick, including the actual frame where he *does* get shot in the vest – when he’s shot in the side closer to Shane than the unnamed assailant. Now, this is probably due to bad blocking, although you’d think Rick would know better than to walk directly between the baddies and his fellow cops when there’s active gunfire, since it makes him a liability (seriously, I doubt the efficacy of the cop training programme in whatever bit of Georgia this is), but with the benefit of hindsight you could also see it as foreshadowing the eventual deterioration of Rick and Shane’s relationship. Think about the scene in “Wildfire,” the penultimate episode of the season, when Shane and Rick are in the woods doing a sweep, and Shane sights down that shotgun at Rick walking through the trees ahead of him for a long moment before Dale turns up. In that later episode (and moving on increasingly through all of Season 2), Shane wants Rick out of the way, but it takes a very long time in terms of screen hours to actually get around to making his final move. Ironically, it’s only ever here in the opening episode, following Shane appearing to be aiming through Rick’s back at the assailants, that Shane ever successfully gets Rick out of the way. Unintentionally, of course, but there is nevertheless an odd parallelism created here due to blocking and weapon of choice.

Dammit, Shane.

You know, on thinking it over, I’m surprised that this police force functions at all. Yes, the dispatcher only noted two individuals in the car, but if I’ve learned anything from watching procedurals it’s that before stopping to chat about anything you clear every possible place an unknown assailant could be hiding. I’d think that would especially be the case for a car chase, because how accurately can you see inside a speeding car? (That’s a legitimate question; I have no idea.) And actually, entirely aside from the possible existence of a third assailant, if you shoot someone with a gun, surely the follow-up after they’ve gone down is to immediately approach, ensure any weapons are out of arms’ reach, ascertain if the individual is dead, and if not, call immediately for medical attention. I know the baddies took several shots to the chest, but come on. They also emerged almost entirely unscathed from a totalled car, so clearly they’re already marked as practically unkillable. And yeah, following procedure wouldn’t have allowed Rick to get dramatically shot for real after the first fake-out, but they could easily have had him get dramatically and unexpectedly shot by the third dude when following procedure and checking to see the other two were dead. Most of the dialogue could have been retained as well. But oh well. I guess the show sets up the failure of authority figures to function effectively from the very start; not following procedure proves to be useful to Rick, considering his future actions as leader of the Merry Undead crew.

Further proof these cops don’t know how to cop: literally no one notices the third dude crawl out of the car, not even to go “hey!” Dude literally has enough time to crawl out on his hands and knees, stand up, point a gun, and actually hit his target before anyone (aka Shane) so much as notices his existence. There are at least three other cop cars in the vicinity – the other car that arrived with Rick and Shane (the “wait what’s a safety” cop and his partner) and the two cars that were chasing the criminals in the first place (four more dudes) – and yet apparently no one noticed a third guy standing up with a gun in his hand. And yeah, I’ll cut some of them a bit of a break on the theory that they probably couldn’t see the guy until he stood up because of the car in the way, but with seven people standing, *someone* should have seen him. Given Shane’s angle when he shoots, the two cops behind him definitely should have noticed something. The fact that someone only shouts to move in after Rick gets shot is just…shoddy copping. Seriously, this is the kind of stupidity that leads you to wish characters would just die. I’m sure someone would miss these people, but the world isn’t likely to notice they’ve gone. (Also, Shane blowing away the third dude on the first shot is pretty much the only time any of these professionals have actually hit their target immediately. Glad to know the safety of the Merry Undead crew is in the hands of people with worse aim than people flung around in a totalled car. Hurray!)

I’ve decided that after Shane goes with Rick to hospital in the ambulance, the rest of the terrible cops get eaten by the reanimated baddie crew. It’s what they deserve, really.

Moving right along…

Rick has a frigging massive hospital room. Either he or Lori is secretly a drug runner, or else the local cops have some pretty sweet health insurance. Lucky for Rick; if he’d been in a shared room or on one of those corridors with multiple beds separated by curtains, he’d have been walker munchies asap. Unforeseen side-effects of the zompocalypse: healthcare edition.

I…am not going to deal with the time issues of Rick being in hospital and then waking up to a hellscape. Suspension of belief, yeah?

I think the weirdest thing in the cut from Shane with the flowers to Rick waking up on the bed is the silence. The background beep of the machines has vanished, telling us the power’s gone off; the off-screen background hospital noise – heard most notably in the undiscernible PA behind Shane talking – has also vanished. Rick’s harsh breathing under Shane’s words also vanishes when the shot does, though I’m not sure if that’s meant to suggest Rick is better, worse, or otherwise. The scene doesn’t show it, but it sounds vaguely like a ventilator is functioning when Shane’s in the room, which would suggest Rick’s still hooked up to breathing support following surgery; if that’s the case, Rick was taken off the ventilator to breathe on his own at some point after that, since he wakes up only with oxygen to his nose. The shift from all that background noise to absolute silence is incredibly effective, because though we can’t register it visually, and may not consciously notice the shift in audible sounds, it nevertheless conveys to the viewer that something has changed before Rick even opens his mouth.

Horrifying thought, though, being stuck in hospital in Georgia without aircon. (I’d melt. Not just in hospital, but in general. Heat and humidity are not my friends.) Frankly, I’m surprised Rick manages to get any words out of his mouth given he’s probably a wee bit on the thirsty side; my mouth goes a bit dry and I might as well be trying to talk through a damn desert for all the words I manage.

It’s kind of amusing that there’s a lingering shot of the clock on the wall. Yeah, it adds to Rick’s confusion and disorientation because dammit, he can’t even tell what time it is – and what is the world without timekeeping?? – but what are the odds it happened to run out of battery in time to inconvenience the last man standing in the zompocalypse? “Oh no! I’ve missed the end of the world! Ah well, better late than never.”

Helpful that Rick woke up during the day – can you imagine how disorienting it would have been to wake up in pitch dark with zero sound? Anyone who lives in a vaguely urban or suburban area is almost entirely unaccustomed to the dominance of both anymore; when I moved back to suburbia after living in a sort of downtown-y bit of an offshoot of the nearest city, I had serious issues for months because at night everything was so quiet and so dark, especially during the period when the house next door was unoccupied. Seriously creepy. (Although I’ve also seen raccoons, deer, and a coyote as well as the ubiquitous squirrels and birds and neighbourhood cats, so that’s exciting. Actually, weirdly, there’s a surprising dearth of animals, to say nothing of pets, floating around in the apocalypse. We see dogs occasionally as time goes on, running about the streets of Atlanta, eating the dead, getting eaten when times are desperate; deer pop up every now and then, and crows alight ominously all over the place, but…where are all the dead goldfish? The cats??)

Does Rick just have a super special water faucet in his private bathroom, or are the utilities still working? (Nice to immediately have a way to quench his thirst. It also apparently gives him super strength, since he doesn’t keel over again despite the probable weeks he’s been flopped out in bed not using his muscles.) Alexandria has running water, but if I recall correctly it was also designed as self-sustaining. Hospitals usually have generators, since if the power cuts for whatever reason (earthquake, hurricane, T-rex attack) you want to make sure a bunch of people don’t cut out as well as a result, but as far as I’m aware that…doesn’t affect the water systems? (I am definitely not a water engineer. Are there water engineers?) And since he later goes down stairs to get out of the hospital, is there really a system still functioning that pumps water up several stories when the electricity appears to be dead? Convenient water is convenient.

Obviously there must be a generator or some kind of power still functioning, since there are some lights on in the hall, complete with requisite horror-themed buzzing and flickering. (Help, I’m having flashbacks of my mother’s kitchen.) Useful, in any case, since otherwise Ricky boy would be tripping over the debris in the hall before he got to the nurse’s station. (I guess we’ll put his continued unclothed state down to disorientation, but if I looked out my door and saw that much of a hallway disaster, I think I’d find some shoes first. Yikes.)

The clock at the nurse’s station has also stopped. These are battery-run, guys, they don’t go off when the power does. Speaking of electronics, though – it’s 2010, right? Why doesn’t the nurse’s station have any computers? I mean, I got my first laptop in 2006 and I think we always had a family computer when I was growing up, so it’s not like this predates the computer era. Actually, that’s a point – in all of the places that the Merry Undead crew break into/crash at, I’m struggling to think of instances of computers, laptops, mobile phones, etc. Rick has an mp3 player at the start of season 4, when he’s in his farming phase, and Olivia in…season 6? still carries her long-dead mobile around, but aside from the CDC and actual hospital-related machinery, there’s a startling lack of technology. I dunno, it just seems odd. Like the lack of feral cats.

I know Rick wants to illuminate the situation (hah), but his first thought is RUMMAGE THROUGH SHIT TO FIND MATCHES. Like, seriously, open a drawer or something, there’s probably a flashlight in there somewhere? I suppose we couldn’t spend too much time on finding lighting resources, though, considering that would delay the DRAMATIC DISCOVERY of Rick’s first dead person.

On which point – what are the walker rules for nomming a corpse, and what are the rules for reanimation? If the only way to actually put down a walker is through the brain, why isn’t our eviscerated lady corpse in the hospital undead? Her head appears entirely intact, although we might be missing a wound on the far side. (Although jeez, given how many facial bites and tears we see throughout this series, including the little girl at the beginning of this episode, how has no one snacked on her delicious face??) A single bite will kill and turn you, and some people do manage to get an initial chomp and then remain unconsumed before turning, like Sophia and the little girl at the start of the episode. But is there a maximum limit of flesh that can be consumed before a person is thoroughly dead and won’t reanimate? A severed head sans body will reanimate, as we see later with Hershel and the Whisperers’ victims, so it seems like percentage of bodily consumption can’t factor in. Certainly bike lady later in this episode is missing her entire lower half without it having affected her walkerdom eternity. Yet we have people like hospital lady corpse and T-Dog in season 3 who get more or less entirely consumed without reanimating. And that’s without even talking about all of the dead who appear to have croaked in their cars without becoming undead despite the lack of a head wound. So where’s the boundary?

At least some of this we can probably attribute to early days inconsistencies, since most shows don’t dive in with all of the rules for new worlds and supernatural creatures laid out and set in stone, but the amount of consumption has always bothered me. From the other side, too, actually, because walkers appear to be wholly driven by a single purpose: consume. So when a walker has a nice juicy item in front of them with plenty of flesh left on it, why would they leave it behind to drift off after something else? Walkers are later shown to be drawn by light, by sound, by smell (operating on the suspension of disbelief that undead would retain any of the senses of sight, hearing, or smell, but never mind), but since the underlying drive remains to consume, why would light, sound, or smell be sufficient to draw them away from a meal directly in front of them? I could see it if, for instance, a corpse were being devoured by a whole bunch of walkers and so those who couldn’t easily get to the body went “welp fuck it, Imma go follow that gunshot I just heard,” or if a body has pretty well been picked to the bones, since then there’s not anything left to consume and the drive would push on to the next. But there are plenty of times over the course of the series when walkers abandon a perfectly delicious human with plenty of meat left on the bones in order to go chase something else. I’m not saying walkers are meant to be intelligent hunters or anything, since as Jenner shows us there’s just some sad little sparkles at the brainstem that are still operating, but if you boil it down to the most basic drive, walkers are driven to consume, and it makes little sense that they’d abandon something consumable in front of them that’s a sure thing to chase something else (I could see maybe abandoning an animal to chase a human, like dropping the pigs’ feet to chase after sirloin). But to leave something not completely eaten… Unless they get full? The human stomach can only contain so much at one time, so maybe there’s a default survival code that overrides the consumption drive to stop a walker eating if continuing to do so would explode the stomach. Although that doesn’t really make much sense, either, since any number of walkers are wandering around with their innards more or less exploded without it being a problem. Hmm. No real answers, there, other than that overriding logic of THE PLOT. I guess the only thing I can say with some confidence is that at least part of the walker digestive system seems to still operate, because when Rick and Daryl gut a walker to make sure it hadn’t eaten Sophia, not only is the woodchuck turned from fur and flesh into nasty black goo, the skull of the woodchuck has also been stripped clean. (Then again, I have difficulty envisioning how a walker manages to swallow an entire woodchuck skull, but that’s neither here nor there. Who’s up for woodchuck chilli??)

Anyway, back to Rick and his terrifying exploration of his new world of doom.

I have to laugh when I look at this disaster of a hospital. Did someone, in the last throes of the world ending, just take medical records and fling them everywhere? When is there ever that much paper floating around loose in a medical facility? Ye gods, Rick could learn confidential patient information! Nooooooo…

Ahem.

Like the episode’s opening scene of Rick working his way through the abandoned streets, silence is used to great effect from the time Rick wakes up through to his encounter with Morgan and Duane. The audience takes in everything along with Rick, unfettered by exposition. The silence, the dark, the emptiness, the dead – it all unfolds through Rick’s shocked and bewildered eyes. I mean, what would you do if you wandered down the hall and suddenly discovered a mostly devoured corpse? (I’d probably hurl. Ew.) Alas that so much of the series later gets bogged down by humans who never shut up. (Yes, Rick, I do mean you.)

Of course, in order to do that, the episode also, to quote CinemaSins, conveniently conveniences a bunch of its walkers. Where are they? Where they can’t hurt Rick before he knows what to do. Which is…kind of ridiculous. Logic be damned! I mean, if there’s one thing this show has been consistent about, it’s the inconsistency of its walkers.

Wait.

Man, I would not want to be walking across that floor barefoot. Ew. And ouch.

I’d be a terrible candidate for the apocalypse. I’m afraid of the dark.

I do like the background details of all the blood spattered on the walls. It’s more quiet filling in the blanks of what happened when Rick was in his coma – all that lovely show, don’t tell that later gets left by the wayside. BUT HE’S WALKING BAREFOOT THROUGH GLASS OH MY GOD PLEASE STOP AND FIND SOME SHOES AAAHHHHHHH.

PUT ON SOME DAMN SHOES.

DON’T DEAD OPEN INSIDE.

The fact that the doors are bound with a chain AND with a slat of wood just makes me laugh. I don’t think that wood’s going to do much if the chain breaks.

That’s a shockingly good manicure for a dead person. She might be stuck in a locked room for eternity but at least her nails look fab.

I know Rick is freaked out by the groaning and dead lady manicure and chained up door and blood all over the place, but charging into a pitch-black stairwell armed only with a fold of matches seems really stupid. This is perhaps the most egregious instance in this episode of convenient walker placement. The fact that Rick not only makes it down the stairs and outside without tripping and smashing his pretty face is one thing, but it’s really stunning that there are no walkers who got trapped between the stairwell doors. I guess maybe that was the military exit route so they cleared as they went (and…took the bodies with them, as well)? Then again, I’d rather rappel out a window using bedsheets than make my way through an endless stairwell of night, so…

I’m going to be *extremely* nitpicky here and wonder why Rick hasn’t noticed the smell. Between lady chewy and the not insubstantial blood puddle he walks by, you’d think there’d be at least a whiff of the smell of decomp, especially if the power and thus the aircon are out and humidity reigns supreme. Blood is a biological hazard, and it…is definitely not odourless, especially after it’s been sitting around for days. Rick does grimace when he first goes into the stairwell, implying he’s caught a whiff of the dead, but he doesn’t encounter anything going down the stairs that seems likely to have caused it (maybe the dead laid out that he encounters outside?). Scent’s an ongoing problem with this show, though; it crops up when it’s a useful narrative point, like smearing yourself with guts to escape detection or realising there’s an ocean of the dead nearby, but otherwise, not so much. Okay, yeah, maybe I can buy that after a while of living in close proximity you’d acclimate – humans are stunningly resilient – but given how quickly humans tend to get tetchy when in forced contact with disgusting smells, are you really telling me that Rick just…doesn’t notice? Or is his own “I’ve been in a coma for an indeterminate period of time” smell so bad that it overpowers the death smell? Yikes.

That said, the moments of tension when Rick’s match goes out and he’s left alone breathing in the dark of the stairwell are lovely. It carries the audience along with Rick’s fear and anxiety and confusion, knowing he knows something is hinky without actually knowing what’s happened and what’s going on, while as a viewer conversant with the horror genre you keep expecting something to happen, to lurch up out of the dark. That nothing does actually is a delightful defiance of expectations. And after a silence and darkness punctuated only by the dim, narrow light of a match and Rick’s harsh breathing, the overwhelming brightness of the outdoors combined with the sawing of the cicadas almost begs you to retreat back into the contained, comparative safety of the stairs rather than venturing out into the huge unknown of the world outside the hospital and its endless supply of the dead.

Shame that the hospital’s flickeringly dodgy power doesn’t include the EXIT sign. Aren’t those supposed to work even if nothing else does? Maybe it was crashed with whatever took out the clocks. (Hah.)

Every barefoot step Rick continues to take hurts. Like, there’s all kinds of shit on the ground, and I’m not just talking bits of wire and other stabby pieces of metal. There’s blood and guts – do you really want to be squishing that between your toes?? Also, I’ve let it go this far, but Rick is wearing his hospital gown backwards, and if he’s been in a coma he…really shouldn’t be wearing boxers (and should have been hooked up to a catheter, but I think watching Rick rip that out instead of pulling the IV from his hand might have been a bit too traumatising for the average viewer). So out here in the open air, with all the wrapped rows of the dead, we get our first obvious sign of decomp in the number of flies buzzing around, and some of the limbs look like they might be mottling from decomp (kind of hard to tell, though). I know I said I wasn’t going to get into the time problems, but I promise I’ll try to keep it to this paragraph. The fact that the hospital and town are both almost entirely deserted, as we’ll go on to see, certainly suggests a decent amount of time has passed, since it takes time for that many people to up and leave somewhere. (I’m really surprised that in this show they only ever seem to encounter major traffic pile-ups on freeways or similar; if the people in my town were trying to skedaddle, we’d all get stuck on the road outside my neighbourhood. Hell, until they put in roundabouts it backed up horrendously just for getting to the schools in the morning! You’re telling me everyone was able to get out of their neighbourhoods to get to the freeway in the first place? Bullshit.) The state of the dead half-lady Rick runs into outside also seems to support that, since she’s pretty decomposed (though weirdly looks more mummified than not, which is odd considering Georgia’s on the humid rather than the dry end of the heat spectrum). On the other hand, though, the state of decomp of the lady in the hospital hallway and the corpses outside the hospital point to not much time having passed; they’re still juicy, if you like. As the following episodes will go on to show via characters’ minimal clothing and copious amounts of sweat, Georgia is hot and humid, and I hate to tell you this, guys, but if you keel over in a climate like that, you decompose quickly. You bloat up and your skin slides right off, and it’s all extremely disgusting. But here there’s a stunning amount of intact left on these corpses considering, again, it’s Georgia. (Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor, so my observations might not be medically valid. Then again, the very idea that dead people are wandering around eating people is … also not medically valid.) In any case, Rick should be walking through a soupy mess of liquefying human tissue seeping through the sheets wrapped around the dead (yum. One more reason to acquire footwear, mate). The bodies piled in the truck should be sliding over each other as decomposing human makes the sheets slippery. I suppose that’s a major flaw in zombie construction in this particular zompocalypse; it forgot to take account of actual decomposition in the specified climate. (The smell also ought to be enough to pretty well bowl Rick over, but again, everyone apparently has the opposite of super smell in this series, so we’ll let it slide). Of course, if corpses actually decayed like normal, they’d be rid of most of the zombies in no time.

There’s a weirdly small amount of damage that’s been done to this hospital, from what little we’re shown. The hospital scene in “TS-19” suggests that bombing of the hospital, or nearby, has commenced, but all we see is a relatively small chunk of building missing, rather oddly in the middle of a wall, a downed ambulance sign, and then a bit more horizontal damage behind the military encampment when Rick gets up the hill. You’d think they’d have kept bombing, not least to eradicate the piles of corpses, but unfortunately we never really get to see much of the early days and the military reaction; we get snippets about bombing Atlanta and see Shane and Lori watch as Atlanta’s struck, and when Daryl and Carol stalk Grady Memorial there’s at least one shot of the city where it’s clearly suffered aerial bombardment. But there’s really not a lot of engagement with the drastic measures taken to try to control the situation, just the idea that those existed. Fear the Walking Dead, from my understanding, doesn’t really do much to deal with this either, despite ostensibly aiming to initially tackle the very period of time that The Walking Dead skipped over. So that’s a shame.

The military encampment is odd. Surely you’d only bail on things like helicopters and Humvees if you absolutely had to, since otherwise they seem to me like the first thing you’d hop into as an escape route (and certainly in season 3, the Governor indicates that military playthings are highly prized). Sure, maybe your random joe couldn’t commandeer a helo, but surely joe schmo could yoink a Humvee. I mean, if I were fleeing a hospital and there were a whole military encampment hanging out in the back yard that no one was minding, I’d be inclined to hijack something and zoom away. Operation Save the Toes! If a herd had passed through, surely we’d see more damage to what remains (for instance, would that nice tent still be standing?). Points, though, for framing of Rick against the broken military might that both visually and metaphorically shows us how small he is. Okay, so I have to ask: how far away from hospital did Rick and his family live? Because he appears to walk for quite a while – with a bullet wound that’s still healing! – and their house looks like it’s firmly in a nice suburban neighbourhood. So did he walk several miles to dead half-lady and steal her bike, or did he literally just walk down the street? Maybe the unhappiness in the soles of his feet is just being overwhelmed by, well, everything. All I can say is that I ran away from home barefoot around age 8 or 9 and ended up with such bruised and blistered feet – after maybe twenty minutes of walking total – that I couldn’t go to school for several days because I couldn’t walk. And I wasn’t even recovering from a gunshot wound!

(Also, can we talk about that hospital wristlet. That sucker should have waaay more info on it. Really, if nothing else I think we can conclude that the hospital Rick was admitted to post-shooting spent all their money on giant rooms and then forgot about actually hospitalling. Do we blame that on Georgia, America, or bad TV writing?)

CORAAAL!!

Further proof of the rapid adaptation of the human species: Rick spots the bike and goes AH YES MINE, sort of clocking the half of a lady ten feet away without really being fussed; maybe an hour (?) into his re-entry into this waking nightmare of a world, he’s already become so numbed to dead bodies hanging about that it barely registers until she moves. And, mind you, while he’s seen plenty of dead people, and seen undead fingers poking through the crack between doors, this is the first undead person he’s actually seen. His reaction to just…flee is very much in line with his general “holy fuck okay moving on” attitude that we’ve seen thus far; each thing is weirder and worse than the last, layering up the horror as a surreal reality that’s made even more bizarre by the utter lack of any living people to ground him. While his collapse and “is this real?” moment at the Grimes household is, I think, a bit misplaced, it’s also really understandable because everything he’s seen is so far out of the normal realm of expectation that the only logical reaction is to question reality. He’s almost certainly both dehydrated and undernourished, on top of which he’s been utilising muscles that haven’t been used in some time; probably the most unrealistic aspect of his first hours after waking up is that he actually manages to get out of hospital and home so easily, rather than keeling over somewhere in the street and becoming Walker O’s (part of a balanced breakfast!). Although I feel like I would have hit the “wake up” whacking yourself in the head point long before getting home and realising my family wasn’t there. I think I’d be more likely to believe I’d walk through the door and my family would be out than to believe that all of the dead or the moving dead were real. Obviously the latter for Rick makes the fact his family isn’t home that much more surreal and distressing, because thus far he appears to have awoken to a world where there are no living people aside from himself, thus leading to the conclusion that if there are only the dead and himself, Lori and Carl must be dead – but I think I’d crack before getting to that point. (Though I sometimes wake up in the morning and literally can’t tell reality from what happened in my dreams, so who am I to judge?)

Weirdly as well, there’s very little in the Grimes household that tells me anything about any of the family. I know Lori and Carly frolicked off with Shane super fast when everything went to hell and took pictures and photo albums, but this house (as excellent as it is) looks very much like a set. There’s nothing really personal. It’s weird. Who are the Grimes, even? It reminds me of my ex-boyfriend’s flat. No pictures, no posters, no books (!!), nothing on the walls, no trinkets or files or any personal touches at all (please don’t be a serial killer eek). No wonder Carl settles into the apocalypse quickly and Lori has no personality other than being a disaster. They had practically no pre-pocalypse life other than “I’m Rick’s child” and “I’m Rick’s bitchy wife.”

As Rick walks back out of his empty house, you can see that the letterbox appears to be full of envelopes. Do you suppose Lori wrote a bunch of letters to people on the off-chance they’d get picked up after she and Carl left town with Shane, or do you think the post carried on even after everything else collapsed? (Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds… Nor zombies either, apparently. Now I really want a series of shorts following a postman as she strives to deliver every letter she can (well, not the bills, obvs) even as the world continues to collapse around her head.)

Okay, so if you get home and discover your family is not there, and everything is topsy turvy and haywire and omg what the hell is even happening – who just goes and plonks outside to think? Surely you’d think “hmm, okay, maybe I should check the neighbours”?

Are overhead fans on the porch a southern thing? I can’t imagine having one here in the Pacific Northwest.

Can we talk again about how absurdly lucky Rick is when it comes to the existence of walkers in this town? The only ones in the hospital are literally chained behind doors with an explicit warning to piss off. The only one he encounters on his journey from hospital to home has no legs, and thus poses minimal threat to a man able to walk (or cycle, as the case may be). The first mobile walker he sees is in the distance and hasn’t noticed him yet, and before he has a chance to shout out and put himself in danger, Morgan and Duane ex machina themselves into position to not only take out the walker but also provide medical support. (I guess Rick’s just been running on…adrenaline? And yes, I know Rick also takes a shovel to the face – we’ll ignore the fact that there’s no apparent lasting damage from a shovel to the face, good grief – but that’s a far cry from the fate of having his flesh ripped from his bones before he even knew what walkers were. Boy, would that suck.) A whole bevy of walkers turn up that evening, ostensibly because Morgan had fired a gun, but then they all vanish by morning aside from a single walker still skulking around for the convenience of whacking practice. (I wonder what would have happened if the single walker still hanging around had been Morgan’s wife. Somehow I doubt he’d have been as willing for Rick to practise his new world survival skills on her.) Quite aside from his dubious hospital survival, Rick Grimes should be dead. I really wish this could be attributed to his cop training (but we know that shit is dubious as fuck), but unfortunately he’s just a dude wandering aimlessly who gets super lucky. Sigh.

(I can’t be the only one who looks at the walker Rick sees and thinks he must be either a mortician or a goth kid. That much black? When it’s apparently warm enough in Georgia that Rick is totally fine in your not-standard-issue hospital gown and boxers? Also, thanks camera for keeping the walker blurred out so we can’t tell he’s dead (did you save on makeup?), but in retrospect it kind of makes you wonder if Rick has eye problems. Now there’s a real problem in the apocalypse.)

Two things about Duane’s first appearance. First, he was inches away from Rick; how did he get enough room to swing a shovel? Second, wtf is Duane doing shrieking for his dad? He’s been living in this world for at least a month and his mum’s a zom: he has to know that walkers are drawn to noise, yet he’s yelping out like a wounded dog here. Apocalypse better, kiddo.

Rather hilariously, it’s when Rick sees Morgan casually shoot the walker through the head that he starts to panic. OMG HE KILLED A DUDE. I feel like with everything Rick’s seen so far he ought not to jump so quickly to the assumption that Morgan killed another living dude. Then again, he did just get whacked in the face with a shovel and should probably have a concussion, so…

Convenient that Rick passes out when Morgan threatens to kill him if he doesn’t answer, since given his current state I’m not sure he could have done coherently. Note to self: when faced with difficult or awkward questions, keel over. It’ll give you time to think.

The first conversation Rick and Morgan have when Rick first wakes up tied to the bed raises far too many questions related to how long Rick’s been in hospital and how bad his wound is. I…am not going to spend much time on this, because it’s a never-ending chase with no real answers. This is the scene that rips us out of the glorious silent exploration of Rick’s new apocalyptic world and thrusts us into exposition, which at least in this case has a reason given Rick’s total ignorance of the current state of the world – but it’s still exposition.

Anyway, briefly – didn’t Rick get hit from behind, under the armpit? Shouldn’t Morgan have had to change two dressings? But there’s only one, and moreover, Rick’s original bandaging didn’t come close to covering where the original gunshot entry wound was. Magical moving bullets! Mystery wounds! Exposition! Hurray!

Ugh, reasons never to work on The Walking Dead: you have to film in Georgia, and it’s hot and disgusting and everyone sweats, even at night. Blech. Thanks but no.

Morgan’s stupid use of the gun to kill the walker provides helpful exposition, but his reason for why he did it – “it all happened so fast, I didn’t think” – doesn’t make much sense. It was one walker, with no others anywhere in the apparent vicinity, and while his son had potentially whacked down another walker, there wasn’t exactly an urgent need to use the gun. And while I’m not sure that Rick would be able to articulate the idea that what Morgan killed was something other than a living human being, the fact that he’s so insistent that it must have been a man speaks to his desperation to cling to anything resembling normalcy, while unfortunately ignoring his experience since waking up in the hospital. What do you do when you don’t have the vocabulary to articulate what you’ve seen?

As an aside, Rick chained up to the headboard wearing his boxers and hospital gown kiiinda looks like he’s ready for someone’s doctor dom fantasy playtime fetish. Good thing Morgan’s not into that, right?

There’s something deliciously hilarious about Morgan warning/threatening Rick with his tiny little knife when the backdrop is such delightfully mundane floral pillowcases. Laura Ashley does not approve!!!

Why couldn’t Morgan have found Rick a snuggie? Or, I don’t know, slippers? Or socks? Or an actual bathrobe? He’s stuck with blankie chic.

I do love that shot though.

Sidebar, your honour, I have a digression to indulge.

Morgan’s “friend, you need glasses” is kind of hilarious given that now they’re into the apocalypse, sucks to be you if you have non-perfect sight or any medical problems requiring medication or other intervention. There’s a surprising lack of your average American with lots of health problems on TWD, perhaps in part as commentary that many of those individuals would have stood no chance against the relentless people-eating horde. While the introduction of Connie offers a welcome insight into how someone with a disability is able to survive in an apocalyptic situation, the show on the whole oddly glosses over that whole issue. America is not a healthy country (we weren’t pre-Covid and we’re certainly not doing well lately). Nearly half of Americans take prescription drugs, according to a survey from the National Center Health Statistics. Some of these are vital, in that without them the person would die sooner rather than later; others treat conditions that won’t kill you immediately if untreated, but will kill you eventually or will cause significant problems as time goes on; and still others treat conditions that, while usually debilitating, you can usually survive and be at least vaguely functional. Some medications can be substituted by herbal remedies (digitalis, marshmallow root), but many can’t. I have chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, and deal with chronic pain and migraines; I take daily meds to counter both pain and migraine, as well as an assortment of supplements (and hayfever tablets, oh god) that I *can* function without, but which to do so would seriously suck. Where are these people in the apocalypse? There are so many people with disabilities or on medication who would be able to keep functioning as potentially beneficial partners in the post-apo world. Where are they? And where are the characters grappling with the choice of whether to sacrifice themselves or let their family and friends deal with an ongoing and worsening condition? The only times we really encounter that sort of thing are Milton’s test subject Michael Coleman, who ultimately dies of prostate cancer, the vatos’ little senior citizen safe haven, and Lilly and Tara’s father, all of whom are elderly. We only ever get a little blip of each of those instances, as well, in what appear to be relatively comfortable and secure locations, so we really don’t get a sense of how their frailties or differing abilities play into the survival of those around them. Hershel’s worst health problem was the leg amputated post-walker bite, and that ultimately was irrelevant to how he lived and died. I might be missing someone – I probably am – but it’s an oddity, one that I suppose arises out of both a narrative need – the elderly and disabled and sick are often viewed as less capable and thus less interesting except as an emotional zinger – and a practical in-world need that wants to focus on the strongest and most active rather than devoting time to people who’ve not only had to adapt emotionally but also physically and psychologically. I’ve got a main character in a post-apo situation who’s not only hauling herself through cities and forests with a bad lower back and weak hip and reliance on a cane but who also is unquestionably the leader of her group, because while her disability is not ideal in this post-civilised world, it doesn’t negate her value. The apocalypse doesn’t eradicate every non-fit, medicated adult, and leaving them out or using them as plot conveniences isn’t ideal. To get back to Morgan’s glasses comment – a quick google search suggests that around 61 percent of the population is reported to wear reading or visual aids at least occasionally. This probably isn’t nearly as many once you wipe out the need for reading glasses among the older population (and, you know, people in their 30s like me… *sob*), but nevertheless there’s a significant portion of the population who can’t see very well without glasses (and let me tell you, good luck getting contacts during the apocalypse). My sister is pretty well blind as a bat without glasses and has been since she was in middle school. Imagine how differently things might have played out if Carl’s vision had been super shitty.

Sidebar complete.

I like the all-male hand-holding over the meal prayer. There’s something sweet about it, a clinging to old habits even in chaos.

It’s interesting that Morgan asks Rick if he even knows what’s going on, because by this point it must be at least a month into apocalypse (per Morgan’s line later in the episode that the gas mains have been down a month or so) – what are the odds you’d run into a random person so utterly clueless a whole month in? I guess maybe the hospital gown, boxers, and bare feet clued him in.

I’ve been thinking this all episode: Rick’s beard is beautifully trimmed for a dude who’s been in a coma.

Rick’s response to Morgan’s “yep, the undead, they’ll try to eat you” line is so blasé it’s funny. Like he’s just so overwhelmed by everything of the day that zombie cannibals or whatever are hardly worth getting fussed over. He jumps right from sort of reacting “oh dead people” to going “so they’re out there? Okey-day then”. Meanwhile, Morgan’s cool air comment about drawing zoms never occurs again, and there’s such a time gap between the firing of the gun and the walkers skulking around outside the house that it’s odd they’re still hanging around. Actually, you see this too at the end of season 2, when the herd of walkers wanders out of Atlanta and eventually ends up on Hershel’s farm – they turn when they hear the gunshot, but how good are their powers of perception? Like, they’re attracted to sound – fine, whatever, I can buy that, fine – but a gunshot, for instance, is a single instance of noise that then dies away. If you’re not in the immediate vicinity, as a walker, how do you continue knowing where to go? The show suggests that when zoms are drawn by noise it’s like a magnet, pulling them in unerringly to the source of the sound, but how do they continue to know which is the right direction for ages after the sound has ceased? It’s not like they have a compass or GPS.

Aww, we’re still early enough in the apocalypse that car alarms still work.

Morgan’s wife makes me sad in a lot of ways. Obviously she’s undead and roaming around looking for her next snack and her son and husband love and miss her and find her undead state to be traumatic, but it’s not that specifically so much as the consequences down the line. Morgan and Duane stayed in the same house where Mama Morgan died, meaning they’re regularly within eyeshot, thus inflicting pain and anguish, or suffering the threat thereof, long after her actual death. (Yes, of course, they had a secure and safe base in the house and didn’t want to move, but still.) Morgan couldn’t kill his wife when she dies, the first time around (although that makes me wonder at what point she was booted outside, considering she died in the house; did they chuck her dead body out the front door before she turned, or wait until she was ambulatory and forcibly eject her?). This – I guess you could call it weakness – proves tragic. When Rick gives him a rifle, he sets out deliberately to kill her and still can’t. And then, because Morgan repeatedly failed to put her down, she ultimately causes the death of Duane – and Morgan takes the blame, flipping into a state of madness that operates until he meets the cheesemaker. (I’ll come back to Morgan in later posts. I have *thoughts* about him as both killer and pacifist.)

How do you grieve loss or try to move on if you can’t actually lay the dead to rest? It’s a question that I don’t think gets explored enough in the show, because most of the time everyone is so concerned with pressing on and surviving that grieving is set aside. I’m not going to go into this here, because there’s ample opportunity to do so in later episodes without needing to jump seasons ahead.

Early days: walkers attempting to work doorknobs are a thing, rather than just pawing at the door.

Man, I miss having a bat. I have a wok and a kitchen knife to protect against the undead these days…and assorted high heels, should it come to that. (Oh god the humanity. My shoes would be ruined!!)

There’s something adorable about Rick wearing a damn headshield mask as he waltzes out the door in the morning with his wooden baseball bat and WHITE T-SHIRT to whack the undead dude on the front walk to death. Where did the headshield mask come from? Did the Drakes just happen to have one in the back closet in case of a pandemic? (*sad hollow 2020 laughter*) In any case, it’s a laughable contrast with rest of the show; by the end of the season, no one gives a shit about facial protection or protecting the skin. Potential backsplatter? Eh, give it here, I bathe in zomgoo for the health benefits daily.

Lori appears to keep a glass jar of pinecones on a shelf. She also apparently took framed photos from the wall in addition to the photo albums. At least one photo album makes an appearance in this season, but unless Morgan repurposed the empty frames for defensive purposes, there’s no indication ever of what Lori did with those framed photos. (Sadly, the photo album is lost when they flee Hershel’s farm. One assumes, anyway, since Carl later gets hold of a single photo for Judith because there are no others.)

Atlanta as a safe haven/refugee centre is…well, it’s a plot point to get Rick where he needs to go. Realistically, you don’t want to go into an urban centre when there’s a pandemic. In America, Covid is now hitting rural areas with force, but pretty much all of the early outbreaks and spread were in urban areas. And that’s without the added complication of the dead getting back up again! Cities obviously have more resources, but… I dunno. Although, to be fair, unlike Covid or the flu or the common head cold, zombieism appears only to transmit through bites (since we don’t yet know that everyone is infected!), like rabies, rather than being so contagious that if someone breathes on you, you’re sick. But even then – even accepting that people think that it’s passed solely through bites and not any other way – being bitten doesn’t necessarily mean instant death (Carl is perhaps the most obvious example of this, I think, but Jim and Deanna both also survive for a time after being chomped), so you could conceivably be bitten in a non-obvious area (your side, for instance), waltz into a populated area with only minor symptoms or hop on a plane and then be released into the population of another country, only to then actually die and start to nom people. Eh.

How many sets of keys do the Grimeses have??

I’d suck in the apocalypse because without showers I’d be so sad.

Ah, bonding is always best when undertaken half-naked and wrapped in a pristine white towel.

Duane is adorable. Why couldn’t we get a show following Duane and his sass?

This episode is almost entirely about following Rick in his discovery and acceptance of this new, batshit life, but in some ways I wish we’d got a snippet of flashback with Morgan and Duane and Lady Morgan. It wouldn’t really have fit into the episode, but I can dream.

Rick showers and puts his uniform on rather than civvies. The implication here is that the uniform retains a certain power – protect and serve – so anyone living who sees him would know that here’s a person whose job is to help. Contrasts sharply with the police officer in the second episode of Fear the Walking Dead who’s stockpiling water and clearly has already shifted over to an every-man-for-himself mindset. In light of America’s current epidemic of problematic police officers, it’s interesting to contemplate differences had TWD first aired in 2020. Or had it aired, for instance, in the Pacific Northwest or Northeast, which generally tend to have a more left-skewing and police-condemning attitude.

I mentioned guns briefly earlier, but seasons 1 and 2 have this cute “must respect guns” thread underlying any use of a firearm. Here Duane wants to learn to shoot, but both Morgan and Rick make sure to emphasise that he has to respect the weapon – “Yeah, it’s not a toy, son, when you pull the trigger you gotta mean it.” Season 2 has Shane (and Andrea) flouncing about articulating THOUGHTS about gun ownership and use and training. After that? Welp, fuck it. You get a gun! And you get a gun! And you get a gun! To be clear, I do think if you’re going to handle a gun you should know how to do so properly and safely, but in the context of the Walking Dead it’s an early seasons thing that’s totally dropped by season 3 as the zompocalypse marches on and nobody got time for that shit anymore. (I’ll get around to discussing the shooting practice in season 2 later…)

I don’t know if it’s just the camera angles, but when Rick remarks that a lot of the armoury is gone, it seems like a massive understatement – from what we see, almost all of the guns are gone. Which might be a prop issue (although given the number of guns floating around on this show you wouldn’t think that would be a problem), but does sort of make season 3’s trip to the ol’ hometown with Michonne and Carl kind of funny given that all the guns are gone if there were never really any left to begin with. (And, thinking about it, when Rick is trying to justify going back into Atlanta to get Merle, he comments that he cleaned out the armoury, which makes it even odder that Rick decides to go back for weapons against the Governor et al.

“Conserve your ammo. It goes faster than you think, especially at target practice.” Unless you’re in season 2 on Hershel’s farm, in which case everyone has so much ammo that they’ll never run out.

I know Rick is still in early days of understanding the apocalypse, but it’s still sweet, and ridiculous, that he gives Morgan a radio with the expectation they’d continue chatting and catch up with each other. It also highlights Morgan’s downfall: the unwillingness to get involved in others’ business. He could go with Rick and probably be safer, not least because there’s two grown men to protect one boy, but he instead waits – ostensibly to up his and Duane’s shooting proficiency, but ultimately we see that it’s very much about the unfinished business with his wife.

As an aside, it seems the police station was useful for (1) hot showers and (2) guns and ammo. I’ve never been in a police station, but weirdly I’d have thought they’d have supplies stashed away. Rick and co. didn’t even have a gander at what might be there. But again, early days, I suppose!

RIP Leon Basset.

I love how Morgan hammers the shit out of the wood he’s using to barricade the door. I guess the zoms are conveniently faffing about elsewhere. Especially funny given that he then goes upstairs to snipe walkers, none of whom seem to have noticed the hammering. Are hammers just soundproof??

Christ Morgan’s wife is beautiful.

There’s something…poignant about Rick tracking down the first living dead person he ever knew in order to put her to rest. It’s the same kind of early apocalypse care that we see in “Guts,” when he stops to look through the walker’s wallet so they know the life of the undead man they’ve killed. His sorrow and tendency towards mercy are both here clearly indicated and provide a sharp contrast with the man he becomes. The mercy and drive to do what’s right is what results in him feeling he has to go back to Atlanta to get Merle, what makes him so adamant that they don’t kill the living and should strive to go where there might be a cure, what drives him to hop off the road and go after Sophia and to keep optimistically searching for her. There’s a sweet innocence there that still exists because he came to the zompocalypse after the fact and still retains a strong need to do what’s right that time living in zombieland will beat out of him. The parallelism in this section of the episode, which switches between Rick and Morgan’s actions after leaving the police station, also highlights the difference between having to kill someone you love vs. killing someone you don’t know (or, rather, have no personal attachment to; Rick kills Leon Basset with few qualms, but also frames it as mercy).

Rural Georgia looks hot. And sticky. Thank God my sister didn’t end up moving to the south.

Are the cracks in the windshield and the dirty appearance of the glass supposed to be the result of the apocalypse, or just their police department being a bit short on funds? (Also, it’s Rick’s face in a cracked mirror! Premonitions of mad Rick??) At least Rick’s got his windows rolled up like a sensible person.

Initial observations of Camp Outside Atlanta:

Dale is wearing glasses that I *think* never appear again.

Amy is carrying an armful of kind of hilariously long twigs.

WHY IS AMY WEARING WHITE TROUSERS IN THE APOCALYPSE THIS IS A TERRIBLE DECISION.

Who on earth is on watch on the RV? From a distance it looks, frame-wise, like either Shane or Daryl, but Shane makes his appearance to the side and Daryl is off on a hunt, so who’s this? Actually, in general, it’s kind of amusing that there’s a whole slew of other people in this camp (mostly older/heavier people, based on visibility) that are just sort of vaguely there until the walker attack. It’s actually a shame, really that they didn’t do anything other than plonk some irrelevant extras in the background; it means that when they all die, it means pretty much nothing as a viewer. (I’ll come back to this.)

Shane has great hair. Shame he shaves it off later…

It’s difficult to see when you’ve watched the episode multiple times, but we don’t know what either Lori or Carl look like before they appear in the quarry group receiving Rick’s radio call – we only actually realise who they are when Rick flips down his visor. And, actually, despite what I said above, Lori’s first appearance is not that bad. She observes that there are others – Shane sort of dismisses it with “oh well we knew that.” And then she says that they ought to put up warning signs on Highway 85 to warn people away from the city. Which is smart. Yes, it’s potentially dangerous, but as we’ll go on to learn, they’ve sent people to Atlanta with no previous problem, on top of which the road into town is absolutely empty – Glenn’s exit from Atlanta on the same road Rick rode in on tells us that the road Lori is talking about here is the same road Glenn and Rick have been in and out on. And this is the first time that Shane puts forward an argument that’s just plain wrong. He says they’ve had no time. Okay, fair enough – but they have a group of five literally in Atlanta as they speak. And based on Glenn’s exit path on the way back to the quarry, that group of five followed the same route in. Setting aside the question of why the hell their scavenging team apparently couldn’t stop along the road to place a “Stay Away, Walkers Ahead” sign, Shane’s argument is that they can’t spare the time to place the sign, because it’s “a luxury we can’t afford.” This makes no sense. As we’ll go on to see, this isn’t the first time someone from their group has gone into Atlanta (although it turns out that Glenn, their “go to town” man, has previously only gone himself, without anyone else). Everyone else up by the quarry is basically just fucking around doing nothing. The fact of the matter is that putting up a sign to warn people away from the city isn’t a luxury, but rather a helpful, logical, and overwhelmingly safe thing to do. Shane’s objection comes, in the first instance, from a man reluctant to relinquish control; it’s clear that Shane is viewed as a decision maker with practical knowledge the other survivors lack, and as a result of that knowledge is viewed as a leader. It’s an important if subtle moment in which Shane is established as the leader of the camp, a position that he then unwillingly gets shoved out of when Rick turns up. It is interesting, though, that here Lori is gung-ho about leaving their mountain and going down to put up a sign, while she later adamantly vetoes her husband going back to Atlanta. Shane’s argument is that no one goes anywhere alone, but given later events, it seems that Shane’s objection is not that someone wants to go warn people away from Atlanta, or that they want to risk Atlanta itself, as much as it is his desire to not let Lori be in danger. And Lori’s frustration at Shane’s decree is obvious – and yet she relents and gives in once kisses are to be had. Shane following Lori to verbally whack her for even thinking of putting herself in danger just points up Shane’s chauvinism. NOT LEAST BECAUSE, OH MY GOD, HE CALLS HER GIRL. SHE’S A WOMAN, YOU TWAT. If the argument had been made that Lori shouldn’t go because she has a son, and she shouldn’t risk him being an orphan – that I could understand. But Carl is so side-lined here that he’s really just a reason to make Shane and Lori stop kissing. Sigh.

God I wish Lori would have socked Shane in the eye. He does have nice hair, though.

Also, those are some *really* nice giant tents. Although my best friend’s adventures have made clear to me that I have unrealistically small expectations about tents.

I’m a little concerned about the condition of the windows of Rick’s cop car. They’re…disgusting. The driver’s side front and back windows look equally awful – I guess it’s good the apocalypse happened, because good luck seeing traffic out those windows. His windshield doesn’t look much better. Is over-enthusiastic pollen a thing in Georgia??

So, about the dead couple whose farm Rick encounters/steals a horse from. They’re both dead, woe, sadness, etc. What I’m fascinated about is that dude took the time to shoot his wife, and then decided to write a message IN HER BLOOD on the damn wall. I mean, okay, you wanted absolution for killing your wife and being about to kill yourself. But you kill your wife and then use her blood to write on the wall??

Signs that Rick is still in early days acceptance: he doesn’t enter the house with two clearly dead people (and thus likely no walkers) and then has a sit on a bench, throws up, and then goes in search of alternative transportation.

…that poor horse.

Is horse-taming a southern thing? I feel like I’d be terrified enough of the giant heavy horse to…not approach it.

Iconic shot!

It’s stunning that Rick has encountered zero walkers aside from the little girl. Works with the need for the story to move along, but is silly in terms of later walker distribution (ignoring season 2, which is its own special disaster).

Is everything flat in Georgia? Legitimate question. The extent of my knowledge of Georgia is a flight transfer through Atlanta. (Atlanta airport employees are all super nice, though.)

There’s something about the two zomdudes hanging out on a bus that cracks me up. How do walkers decide to just park it somewhere? “Ah yes, I recognise this bus, I’ve taken it to work every day for ten years. Definitely the best place to spend eternity.” It’s also odd but entertaining that the two dudes on the bus are repeatedly seen once Rick is in the horde and then in the tank. Why these two? Yeah, they’re the first Atlanta walkers he passed by, but they’re not exactly presented as special or important enough to appear repeatedly. Rick pops out of the top of the tank and whacks the one across the face, and the other skulks around the base of the tank and makes eye contact.

One of the weirdest and most uncomfortable moments in this episode, for me, is the two crows nomming the dead military officer. Caw caw! There’s a mild horror at the thought of ever being carrion. Though I guess everyone is just food for something else…

I can forgive Rick for a number of odd decisions based on the fact that he’s really only been awake for, what, two days? Maybe three? He’s still adapting to the new world, learning its rules, etc. But he rides a damn horse into a major city and is just generally not concerned. He comments to the horse when they pass the bus with the two walkers that it’s no big deal, they can outrun them – and yet somehow doesn’t think ahead about the existence of the dead in a major city. I guess it can sort of be attributed to the fact that he’s encountered remarkably few dead, plus in his brain Atlanta and its refugee centres are the answer to everything. He just hasn’t actually thought about it.

And, again, I’m stunned at the amount of abandoned military equipment. I guess the moral of the story is “don’t trust the military, don’t trust the government, they can do fuckall to help you.”

So Rick sees a helicopter. When he meets the others after Glenn rescued him, they ridicule the idea that helicopters still exist. Which brings up two instances. Firstly, beginning of season 3, when Andrea and Michonne witness a helicopter crash with military dudes who’ve got others attached to them. Secondly, the helicopter that rescues Rick and has apparently set up Rick Grimes’s future films. I just wish I knew where this particular helicopter was from and where it was going.

For a cop, even one with minimal experience with the world as it is now, Rick is an idiot. He lunges forward as stupidly as he went forward alone in his confrontation with the idiot car guys. Surely you should be thinking ahead? He’s in relatively unknown territory in a relatively new world. I’m not saying he should have anticipated a horde of dead people, but you’d think he’d exercise as least some caution, especially when his nearby décor indicates that the damn military was swamped with the enemy, such that they fucked off elsewhere. But maybe it’s just me.

Ooh, look, an extra drinking water.

I like that the makeup artists decay the walkers more each season. Season 1, most of them are sort of “hai I’m a regular human, I just have some dramatic injuries and some zombie eyes.” They look like people who are mostly dead but haven’t started to decompose. (I’d never be hired as a walker – the longer the show goes, the more they need skinny people so the makeup and prosthetics aren’t so obvious…and I am not skinny.)

That poor horse…

Yet again, Rick seriously lucks out. We see him multiple times with “omg dead people” face, with walkers just sort of lurking/dancing in place because they can’t lunge in or he’d be dead. And then there’s conveniently a tank above him. I’ve never been able to decide whether Rick going “Lori, Carl, I’m sorry” and then putting his gun to his head is a genuine “Oh no, I’m about to die” or if he’d realised the hatch was above him and so it was a “welp if I die, I love you.”

Men have huge feet. Yeek.

It’s stunning how long Rick’s in the tank with a zombot before said zombot wakes up and attempts a menacing growl. Not least because Rick’s so overwhelmed at having been upwardly mobile that he completely fails to take in his surroundings. (Although, as we’ve seen, Rick has never been great at checking his surroundings. Dude should be walkerbait by now.)

Oh no, a walker. Haaalp.

I do appreciate that Rick suffered auditory pain from firing a gun in an enclosed metal space. I also find it funny that one of the buszoms comes into his eyesight, like for some reason he's important.

“Hey, you. Dumbass.” Glenn is fucking amazing and iconic. I wish he'd been the main of this show. No offense to Andrew Lincoln, of course, but Steven Yeun is great, and Glenn's development from a kid into an adult is just lovely.

Anywho, that marks the end of "Days Gone Bye." Good in so many ways, eh in so many others. What's not to love?

love em

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harveywritings92 · 5 years ago

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When someone flirts/Asks you out in front of them: Altair,Malik.

Altair Modern AU: Y/n was taking community college courses for her job, She were currently on her free period before going home when her husband decided to stop by on his way home from work,And holy hell was he exhausted! The y/nat could see the bags under his eyes; poor thing looked dead on his feet! So, the y/hc woman told him to sit down and have a little rest and She'll drive them both home when she was done studying.

Altair was reluctant at first he wasn't really big on PDA let alone napping in public! but after some coaxing he agreed and His wife scooted forward on her chair letting him sit behind her, the Arab man wrapped his arms around her waist with his head resting on her shoulder,he gave her neck a small peck and relaxed.

Y/n didn't know how much time had passed, but she was suddenly brought out of her study trance by a coffee cup being put down, next to her laptop which confused her, Altair was still sleeping on her back. the y/ht woman a brow and looked to see who brought it and saw one of her classmates standing there with a eager smile. She couldn't remember his name. but knew he was in her class, He had a I'm better than you air which made Y/n mentally grimace...

She then heard chuckling and noticed the guys group of D-bag friends one of whom was a nasty girl,[NG/n] that just didn't like Y/n for some reason, the group was snickering at them. It took a moment for the y/wt woman to realize what was going on; because this was how she met Altair! through a cruel bet that backfired when he got to know Y/n and fell for her for real... When the truth came out, It took him nearly a year to win her back! and here they are four years later married.

She gave the guy a tight smile and asked what she could do for him? She mentally cringed as the guy gave her a false confession almost identical to Altair's saying he's noticed her from afar for a while now and wondered if she was free tonight? Y/n felt her husband tense up and his arms tighten around her waist he lifted head up and his golden eyes glared up at D-bag alight with murderous intent.

D-bag hadn't even noticed Altair he thought the mass behind Y/n was a hoodie laying over her backpack. So, when he found out it was a man he nearly jumped out of his shoes. "Holy shit who the fu-" D-bag yelped when the Arab man grabbed him by the front of his shirt.

"I'm only going to say this once..." Altair huffed as he rose to his full height lifting D-bag off his feet in the process said jerk looked ready to pissed himself. "Stay away from my wife..." Altair hissed loud for D-bag's friends to hear they all blanched as their stooge was thrown to the floor, Before Altair grabbed Y/n who just barely manage to put her things away as her Husband dragged her out of the library, He got them to the car and well....

Altair had a bit of meltdown! ranting about how shallow people can be, how arrogant, immature and miserable does one have to be to play with a girl's heart like that?!...And how stupid it was that He used be like that! He slammed his fist on the dash as his temper simmered only to be blindsided when Y/n gave him a small peck on the lips.

"No, You were never like that." His brows furrowed bemused wondering exactly where her mind was right now. "When you first approached me you were blank and hollow, nothing was there when you smiled." Y/n trailed off then watched some leaves swirl around in the wind outside. "I think it was right after you told me about the bet that I noticed the change..that desperation and raw emotion when ever you tried talking to me,That's what drew back to y-" She cut off now by Altair passing out on her lap, a small smile stretched on his scarred lips, the poor dear really was exhausted! "I'll tell you later, Rest well sweetie." Y/n cooed patting his head.

______________________________________________________________

Malik Modern AU: Y/n and Malik were at the movies waiting for some of her work friends, but the couple were confused why only one showed up, a man named Ryan who was dressed a little to nice for just watching the movies with friends...

while you and Ryan chatted Malik scanned to street trying to pinpoint were the rest of the group was? he saw someone duck behind a car. His eyes narrowed something fishy was going on here....

He was brought out of his thoughts by Y/n grabbing his hand and leading him inside during the entire movie Malik noticed the same group from outside hiding waay back in the theater, a frowned graced his lips and was about to tell Y/n to be cautious, when she suddenly leaned close to him while giving Ryan an uncomfortable look.

Her fiancee gave the man a pointed look causing him to sink into his chair, then he noticed Ryan kept trying to hold the y/hc woman's hand or put his arm around her he whispered something to her that made her grimace Malik tapped her on the shoulder and gave her a look that said *Do you want to switch?* she nodded timidly and the couple switched seats. Ryan frowned annoyed then took out his phone he didn't even try to hide it, as Malik read the texts.

(Ryan){Yo, does Y/n volunteer at hospital for amputees or something? Cus this guy will not Fcking leave!]

(Geoff)[Hey yur the one who pussy'd out and said it was group thing, just tell her it was date when you drop the guy off and ask 4 a do over or something...}

(Katty) [Wait...ur on a date with Y/n? ...Y/N L/n from [job department]?}

(Ryan) { Yeh Why?]

(Katty) [ Ya'll know she's getting married next week right?}

Malik resisted the urge to burst out laughing at Ryan's face as the ginger haired man scrutinized the text, like he wasn't reading it right then looked at the Arab man sitting next to him who seemed focused on the movie before going back to his phone.

(Ryan) {what does her fiancee look like?]

(Katty) [tall, middle eastern, black hair, has a prosthetic arm in a sling...I think his name is Milkweed?}

(Katty) [Malik*....damn phone.}

(Geoff) [Dude abort! get the hell outta there!}

Ryan blanched and gawked at Malik who was now staring right at him. "Everything okay Ryan?" he asked trying not to laugh as Y/n looked over her fiancee's shoulder, to see what her co-worker was doing? the ginger haired man coughed then sputtered something about needing the bathroom and ran out of the theater like the bat out of hell, knocking a few things out of peoples laps in the process, causing them to cuss him out.

"What was that that about?" She asked bemused why Ryan ran out here like someone told him his house was on fire? Malik just put his arm around her shoulder while watching the rest of the movie. "Oh nothing, he just forgot to do his homework." the brown eyed man mused pulling her close.

#assassin's creed x reader #Altair x Y/n #malik al sayf #Malik x y/n #Assassin's creed #modern au #scenario

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finding-the-daylight · 4 years ago

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It’s been a long, stressful week. So, I’m going to drunk-watch Twilight (this is part 1, I’ll do a part 2 later). So far, I have drunk watched and reviewed Eclipse, Breaking Dawn Part 1, and Breaking Dawn Part 2. I will probably drunk-watch and review New Moon some time in the near future. My sober review of Twilight is that it is the best of all the movies (But New Moon though, I know, it’s a very close second for me). I love that it was meant to be like a cool, niche indie film and Catherine Hardwicke is the best. The baseball scene. The meadow scene. The bio scene. Iconic. Anyway, my drunken thoughts are below the cut as per usual:

- So I know it’s like .0 seconds into this ish, but I just realized when Bella’s tlakign about dying in the place of someone she loves @ the beginning, we see the deer and then in BD2, when the mountain lion tries to kill the deer, Bella kills the mountain lion. Feels like symbolism idk.

- Phil really is like 25 years old lmao. Does it ever say how old he is? He looks young af.

- Forks seems super depressing. Like the scenery is cool, but like there’s no one there? Only 3,000 people? Boring af.

- everything is so green and blue and aesthetically pleasing, thank you catherine

- i just realized the picture above the shelf with cds is also of a deer. the deer is important.

- the friendship between charlie and billy is all i want in life

- the truck literally brought a smile to my face. and the whsikey.

- the high shcool looks more like a fancy ass mansion and idk why no one else has ever called out this fake shit

- eric is so precious an we deserved more of hom

- bella playing volleybal is me lamo i’m so uncoordinated at throwing shit liek that hahaha

- i just keep thinking about how anna kendrick forgot she was in this movie. if i played a character as written in canon by smeyer, i’d probably choose to forget it too.

- mike is so fcking creepy lmao he could’ve been written better but smey r said no

- if people don’t look @ me and my mans on my wedding day the wya they look @ rosalie and emmett int he cafeteria scenr then imma fuking fight

- do not disrecpt carlisle like that hoe he is a flawless mna and deserve your full respecgt

- what the fuck i hate this scnee now that ik now abotu banner fck smyer’s nast y ass

- also lmao @ rob’s face he was foin to fuckng mucj

- wy the fuc did bella wear a bowling shirt over al ong gray shirt?

- my arms feel heavy af right now lmaooooo

- the lady they had play renene lowkey looks like krisen they did a good job casting them

- oooooh hell yeah eyes on fire time bitch

- emmett is my fave pullign up on top the jeep and hopping out like it’s nothing

- this scene is actually pwowrful because bella’s wathcin g the cullens but her human friends try to get her attention so it’s liek she’s being torn between the two worlds. cahterine’s mind

- i duckinf love the aesthetic and scnery of this movie

- mike really said how you likin da rain girlllllll lmao

- when edward apologizes though lowkey that shit’ cute and i would’ve fotgiven him too

- this bitch lied. tlaking about i don’t like any cold thing. homie. you a damn lie.

- “i’m just trying to figure you out” mhy ex said th same damn thing lmaoooo bitch i ain’t about to let you figre me out unless yo uput a ring on it-

- whne i say edward stopping the van was ome iconic shit i mena inconng

- awww hell ya the hot doc is almost here

the moment i’ve ukjng been waiting on

- i love carlisle i’m so fucking thirsty for this bitch even though i just downed som mufng whiskey

- literally carlisle could get it period.

- rosalie is 1000% a daddy’s girl like anytime someone gives her shit she runs to carlisle and he’s got her back. he only supported edward and bella becaus esme did and she’s a hopeless romatic and carlisle loves that about her. but if it wans;t for esme, edward would’ve gotten his as sent lmao.

- if you see acreepy dude int eh corne of your room what ar you gonna do?

- agaain with the shot of bella being town between the humans vand vamps chathetiner’s mind

- tbh i eel like i know what should’v happened in canon better than smeyr at this poijtn and it’s not canpn that the cullens would’ve gone on a field trip. they just wouldn’t have like it’s extra risk and it’s unnecsary.

- edwar’ds fae when jessica rna upt talking about mike lmaoooooooo

- not gonan lie i love thsit shirt bella’s wearing when they’ra tlaking about la push kind of wanti kt

- the dumbas s salsd

- i want an edward fanvid to bad guy by bullie easihr lish

- love thatb ella encouageed angela to ask etic to prom. a feminsit quenenne

- why di d theyr rcarst the original embry and quil?

- when taylor said old scar tsotry the midwest accent popped thef ick out

- i love jow bellas all serious baout this shit and jake doesnt give af he’s like bitch it aint real lmaoooo

- i stan laurent and i’m so angry about what smeer did to him

why do people just layo out in the sun like this lmaoooo

- awww i’m so happy fro angela i love her

- bella was ahrdore fucking femimnist and it should’ee been more cental to the plot fmeinist bella never would’ve tolerated half the shit she tolerated from jale and edwar.snmeyr has no consitnency

- why tf would opu statt wlaking down a dark alley @ night

- edward saves the day from thos ecuckgjn scumbags

- i just relaized they/re usposed to be in wahsingtob but they have fucmngn oregon plates on the car lmaooooo

- but if a dude whopeped his car lioke that idc what kinda car he drove even a volvo that shti sexy aaf

- he looks so fcking angry lmaooooo @ jess and angela

- yhis scene is cute but it also looks like this is where rob regretted his decision t op lay an emo edodei boi

- the older ig et the creeperi it gets to me that edward followed her like yeah it worked and he ended up resuing her but like still creep yas fuk

- carlisle in that coat at the staitons does a lot for me

- if i was chalrie iw ould’ve given her a hwoel ass taser

- someone tell me why bella tbought the book if she was just goign to golg.e it all

- edward weares the same thign evry damn day lmaooooo

- why werent the yf facgtin eah other when bella was tlaking this shit is too mcuh

- i wouldn’t be afriad eitgher @ carlise

- it would be fun to run tlike that thou lnao m

- the spakrling skin thuing is funny af while durnki thogjh

- eddie bou is so damn emo and overramatic liek bitch yo uuahgt feelings too chill thf out

- efawrd remind sme s omcuhg of chuck in gossip girl has anyone else thoguth this

- bella striahgtu p toldthis dumbass she was aafrianf onky of losing him and he left her in the next one

- the meadowa as fucking iconing as everrrrrrr

- i;m not gonna make it through this hwole movie i’m tired watch out for part 2

#Twilight #Twilight Renaissance #Twilight Review #Drunken Twilight Review #Drunken Reviews

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aureumjeon · 6 years ago

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Strip (M) Pt. 2 || JJK

●Pairing: Jungkook x Reader ●Genre: College!Au, Smut, Fluff, Angst ●Warnings: Making out in a supply closet at school during school hours? Strip clubs/Stripper, Special services iykwim ●Word count: 6.3K

A/N: Hmmm some taehyung action grrr. Jimin will have his time, just you guys wait. btw jungkook is 3 yrs older than mc and taehyung ok Sorry it took so fcking long. Enjoy

[Part 1] || [Part 3]

Finally, at home, you flopped yourself on the sofa and tossed your bag on the floor. You grabbed your phone from your back pocket and immediately texted Jin.

(You 5:49 PM)

-JINNNNN!

(Jin 5:50 PM)

-Yes, hun?

You screamed when he replied.

(You 5:50 PM)

-You won't fucking believe what happened today!

(Jin 5:51 PM)

-Spill.

(You 5:52 PM)

-Remember the VIPs you told me about???

(Jin 5:52 PM)

-Yes, omg I swear. Just tell me already! wHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?

(You 5:53 PM)

-One of them. Uhmm. Jeon Jungkook..

(Jin 5:54 PM)

-The one with the thicc thighs? *wink wink did you guys fuck?

(You 5:54 PM)

-Yes. That one. And NO WTH. Last night, when I was performing. I kinda saw him eyeing me.

(Jin 5:54 PM)

-Girl everybody’s always staring at you when you perform. Haha

(You 5:55 PM)

-Omg stop. Hahaha okay back to the story. I bumped into him when I was heading home. I fucking got scared and ran for my life. Lol. And Guess what!?

(Jin 5:55 PM)

-WHAT stop it with the cliffhangers I’m about to choke you

(You 5:56 PM)

-HE IS A NEW TEACHER AT MY UNIVERSITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Jin 5:56 PM)

-Giiiiiiiiiiirl. You whipped. Tell me about it more the next time you come in. Saturday night? You available?

(You 5:57 PM)

-Yes, I have no plans Saturday night. See you then! Xoxo

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" you screamed at the top of your lungs, unable to express yourself. It felt like hundreds and thousands of tiny little butterflies swimming in the pit of your belly. Feverishly tickling your insides. You can't help but smile at the fact that things were actually doing great and not going downhill the way you expected it to be. You drew out a sigh of relief.

Fast forward the next day, you woke up earlier than normal to make yourself extra pretty for your teacher. Hair tied into a loose but cutesy top bun with side bangs resting just above your lashes. Makeup light and simple yet powerful enough to turn heads. Your outfit was a light blue tank top that perfectly hugged your curves in all the right places partnered with a white chiffon cardigan to make things a little more wholesome and plain black skinny jeans that accentuated your perfect ass.

And for the pièce de résistance, you took out from your dresser the expensive perfume gifted by Jin last Christmas. You swore to yourself that you would never use it on normal days because there's no way in hell that you could purchase another of these high-end scents, but this time is different. You took one last look in the mirror and thought to yourself that this is probably the first time you tried to look good for a guy.

Sure you've had a few boyfriends here and there but none of them were serious. The farthest you've ever gone with a guy was during sophomore year, you made out in the music room, he tried to get into your pants that time but you were scared that someone might walk in on the two of you, and the rest was history. You never had any relationship after that which kinda explains why you're still a virgin at 22. It felt kinda ironic when you think about it, a virgin working as a stripper, funny. You shrugged off all the unnecessary thoughts and headed off to school.

As you made your way through the door, your phone started ringing inside your bag. You took it and looked at the screen only to see an unknown number calling you. You had second thoughts about answering the call, what if it was a stalker? Or scammer? But you answered it anyway, what impeccable logic you had. " Hello? May I know who's this?" You asked in a soft tone.

"Jungkook."

Your eyes beamed with delight the moment you heard his voice "How did you-" He cut off your question and answered, "I asked the owner of the club for your number, I hope you don't mind." A grin made its way onto your lips "No, I don't mind. " You replied timidly. "Where are you now?" He questioned. "Ah. I was about to step out of the house. Why?" You asked.

"If its okay, I could give you a ride. What do you say?" You thought about what you were going to reply. " Are you near X convenience store?" He added another question to his previous one. " Yeah! It's just right around the corner. I could go there now." You happily answered. "Great. See you." He hung up the phone. You locked the door behind and dashed to the location given.

Once there, you spotted a black BMW parked beside the shop. Not sure if that was his car, you took small steps and inched closer to the stationed vehicle. The window suddenly went down and you saw Jungkook. He stepped out and waved. Your eyes sparkled at the sight of him and made your way over to the passenger side where he currently stood. He opened the door and lead you by the hand to take a seat. He closed the door and marched to other side and got in. "Seatbelt." He said while buckling his.

"Oh, right. Sorry." You replied with a hint of shyness on your face. Jungkook started the engine and began to drive. You couldn't help but stare at his face. His side profile was just as mesmerizing as his front. The line of his forehead to the slight curve of his bridge sloping down to the tip of his nose making it way back to his cupid's bow. You felt your mouth water as your eyes met his lips, pink and plush. Don't forget about his well-sculpted chin drawing a sharp line up to his jaw. Ah, what masterpiece of a person he is.

Too immersed in your thoughts, you finally found your way back to earth and realized that silence had filled the confinements of his car making it hard for you to breathe. You had to think about something to break the ice and you had to think fast "Do you live around here, Mr. Jeon?" You awkwardly asked voice cracking " Call me Jungkook. Mr. Jeon is my Dad." He chortled. "And yeah, I live around here. My apartment's a block away from the club." he stated "That's why I was there last time. A senior of mine invited me. He said that the dancers there were amazing" he looked at you with a sinister smile "And he was right."

You felt all the blood in your body rush to your face making you red all the way to your ears. A faint "Really?" Was all that you could reply looking at the window, hoping that he doesn't see your tomato face. He stopped the car at a cafe just outside the University. "Is here alright?" he said "I don't want to get you in trouble or have rumors spread about you. " You grinned at his words, he was so sweet and caring. "Yes," you said as you unbuckled your seat belt and hopped out of the car. "Thank you Mr. J-- Thank you, Jungkook." He smiled after hearing his name escape your lips. "You're welcome, Y/N. And by the way, you look very beautiful. See you in class." And drove away.

You breathe the sweet air in and then out "Ahhh~ If this ain’t a great feeling, I don't know what is." You murmured to yourself. Since you were early, you decided to check out what this little cafe has to offer. The bell rang as you pushed the door open "Hello, welcome!" The nice lady at the counted gleefully greeted you. "Hi, can I get one large Iced coffee?" You paused while scanning the menu "And a giant chocolate chip cookie." You added. "Is that all miss?" The lady asked not losing the happy tone in her voice. "You know what, today's a great day. Make that 2." You smiled while handing her the bill to pay for your order.

Lunchtime and you still haven't seen Jisoo, maybe she took the day off school. You wondered why maybe something came up. You made a mental note to call her later and see what's up. After you finished eating one of the cookies you bought you heard someone calling out to you "Y/N. What's up?" You shifted your attention to the left and spotted a very nervous Jimin. He sat beside you and interjected, "You look great, Y/N." You slapped his arm and replied "Stop it, Jimin! You're making me blush." While in truth he was the one blushing like crazy. "I mean it. You look extra good today." He smiled.

While you were busy chit-chatting with Jimin about academics and school-related topics, you heard your name being called out again "Ms. Y/N." You looked over the direction from where the voice was coming from and it was Jungkook.

Your heart rate increased tenfold. "Mr. Park, Can I borrow Ms. Y/N for a while?" Jungkook asked the boy. "Yes, Mr. Jeon. Of course." Jimin replied. as he stood up from where he was seated "See you later, Y/N" he concluded and walked away. "Y/N," Jungkook said your name again, sending jolts of lightning throughout your entire body.

"Yes, Mr. Jeon?" You asked trying your best not to look like a complete mess. "I need help with the handouts for finals, Is it okay if you come with me to the printing room?" He inquired. You can hear your heart beating so loud inside your chest while walking beside Jungkook and hoped that he didn’t.

He opened the door to the tiny room where the printers, xerox machine, photocopiers, and other office supplies were neatly stored. "Y/N can you please set up photocopier while I prepare the set of handouts?" He asked politely to which you obliged. Once the both of you were inside, he carefully shut the door behind him, discreetly clicking the lock without you noticing.

"It's good to go, Mr. Jeon" you chimed while rummaging your bag searching for the cookie you were supposed to give to Jisoo "By the way, Do you like sweets? I have an extra cook--" You were taken aback when you saw him towering in front of you. He snatched the cookie from your hands and said: "Does it taste as good as your lips?". You felt him push the erection hidden in his tight black slacks harder on your stomach.

You were amazed at how incredibly solid it was right now. Jungkook ripped the packaging of the cookie and broke off a piece. What he did next sent shock waves to your core making it instantaneously drenched with your juices. Jungkook took the piece, hovered it just above your chest and crumbled it with his fingers.

Your pupils dilated at the series of events happening before you. Some of the flakes managed to stick to the skin of your chest while others made its way to your cleavage. Still overwhelmed, you somehow managed to speak "Mr. Je-- Jungkook. What are you.." You weren't even able to finish your sentence as he yanked your cardigan down in one swift motion exposing your shoulders.

The cold air that suddenly brushed against your exposed skin caused goosebumps. His hand made its way to the small of your back pulling you closer to him. He let out a heavy puff of air and said "You drive me insane. Who allowed you to act so cute in front of another guy?" As he kissed your jugular passionately trailing down to your shoulders. You felt the hairs on the back of your neck stand up the moment his lips met with your sensitive supple skin.

"I want you all to myself, baby." He growled before diving into your chest, cupping both breasts with his hands. "Oh-- fuck" you moaned. The way he has his face buried in your breast, It felt like a dream. These kinds of scenario only happen in your head when you're horny as hell except this is REAL. Whatever the hell was happening right now, it wasn't just pure imagination. Like putty, you melted in his grasp, knees feeling weak to the point that they wanted to cave in.

In that heated moment, pure bliss was all that you could feel. Your muscles were tense but relaxed at the same time under Jungkook's ministration. His teeth nibbled at the little remnants of the sweet treat that clung onto the surface of your skin. Occasionally switching from fervent kisses to sloppy licks. Lewd sounds and your feeble moans echoed within the walls of the small room, you pray to God that no one hears. Jungkook brushed his hands along the sides of your upper arm up to your shoulders, slid his thumbs under the thin strap of your top pulling it downwards until your bra was exposed.

He chuckled "I like the ones you wore at the club much better." You were practically frozen like a statue, your face bright crimson and breathing rapidly. "May I?" Jungkook questioned while his fingers fiddled with your bra's closure.

With the flick of his thumb and index finger, your bra came undone. He stared at your chest wide-eyed, slowly taking in the sight of you bare. "Wow" was all that he could make up as he was utterly mesmerized. Jungkook could no longer hold his urges back and helped himself. One hand on your right boob kneading it gently, thumb slightly touching your hard nipple while the other made its way to the curve of your ass.

Jungkook took one last look at your flustered face before taking in one nipple in his mouth. The way he stared at you was unlike anything you've ever seen. His eyes were dark, filled with need and lust. You felt like butter that was slowing melting under a heated pan under his gaze. God, he was so beautiful. You knew that what you were doing was wrong but damn, it felt so right. By the time his mouth was on your chest, you could feel his tongue trace circles around your sensitive nub. Every movement sent you higher in the clouds and all your senses went haywire. Your hand flew up to the top of his head, grabbing a fistful of his dark locks.

You can no longer conjure up words, moans and labored breathing was the only thing that managed escaped your lips. The feeling of him against your skin was heavenly. No words were enough to describe all the sensation rushing in your bloodstream. The surge of adrenaline coursing through your entire body made you feel delirious, sucking you into a whirlpool of emotions that had you on your tip-toes, arms reacting outward, desperately trying to pull yourself up.

(Un)fortunately, you were in too deep, there was nothing you could do about it so you just went with the flow, riding the waves of euphoria. You shut your eyes tightly and saw white stars everywhere as you felt the warm breath from his nose glide across your fragile skin as he takes your breast by the mouthful.

His hand that rested on your backside carefully slithered its way to your front, the gesture that he made caused you to slightly jolt and push him away. "J--Jungkook" you pant out "I--" your breath was heavy, chest heaving up and down trying to catch your own breath. "What's wrong, love?" He asked as he ran his thumb across the apple of your cheek, his tone seemed sincerely concerned.

"I don't know If this is okay.." You replied hesitantly. "This is...." Your voice was laced with embarrassment and your face clearly portrayed the emotion your feeling as you turned pink from one ear to another. "..my first time."

Jungkook had a bewildered expression on his face for a few seconds before composing himself again "Ahh.." There was a pause "Y/N" He pulled your bra up by the strap one at a time, hooked the closure back together and your tank top followed. You were confused for a minute, thoughts drawing a blank. What the hell, did you say something wrong?

Jungkook picked up your cardigan from the ground and dusted off the dirt that may have stuck to it while it was on the floor. "You should've told me." He chuckled while he handed the piece of clothing to you. Your brain was still fuzzy and only a "Huh?" was all you could reply. Jungkook smiled at the sight of you complete dazed, he absolutely thought you were adorable. He gently held on the back of your neck, pulling you closer to him. He placed a light peck on the middle of your forehead.

He looked at you with sparkling eyes and said "You should've told me. If I had known that this would your first time, I would've made it more special." He laughed. His eyes were now crescent, crinkled at the corners. Nose looking all cute scrunched up and his signature bunny teeth that get your insides all riled up was showing.

“Doing it for the first in a small stuffy room at your school wouldn’t be an experience to remember.” He added. It felt like light years for your head to process the things he said. You were in complete disbelief, the image of Jungkook when you first saw him was completely opposite to what you were seeing right now. His masculine exterior, striking presence and unbelievably sexual aura was only one half of the man he truly was. He was sweet, caring and thoughtful clearly shown through his words and action. Absolutely downright charming every time he smiles, his personality was bright and blinding. It would always shine like the golden sun and all you would like to do was bask in his warmth.

Cheeks tinted red and eyes looking elsewhere to avoid making eye contact, you were the epitome of the word awkward. To be honest, Jungkook could spend all day looking at you disoriented but no matter how cute you were, he knew that calming you down and bringing you back to your senses was the right thing to do. He pulled you into a hug, his arms around your waist, chin resting on your head and whispered "It's Alright. No need to be embarrassed." The scent of his cologne filled your space and got you in a trance-like state, in no time you felt your entire body loosen up, the slight ringing in your ears dissipated and your breathing was a lot smoother.

“I think lunch break is over.” He chuckled, looking at the clock hanging on the wall. “You need to get to your next class.”

You bit your lip and gave a slight nod before unlocking the door and exiting the stuffy room. The moment you walked out, you felt the rush of air pass through your nostrils as you deeply inhaled.

“Y/N!” An out of breath Jisoo hollered out your name, arms flailing in the air.

“Jisoo! What are you doing here? I thought you took the day off since I haven’t seen around all day.” You combed out the tangles in her hair, it was probably from her running around and looking for you. “Yeah, sorry about that. I forgot to tell you that my mother and I picked up my cousin from the airport.” She chimed.

“Ah, cousin?” You asked.

“Yeah, he studied here at our university for one whole semester.” She replied completely out of breath “After that, he changed school because his dad’s work required them to move around a lot from city to city. Well, now he’s back to finish his final year with us, though not in the same course.” She giggled, holding your hand in hers. “I can’t wait to introduce him to you! I kinda think it’s funny that you haven’t met each other around campus when he was here before.”

“Jisoo, the school is huge.” You casually joked “I doubt that I even talk to at least 5% of the whole school population. And you didn’t even mention that you had a relative studying here.” You crossed your arms while her hand was still intertwined with yours.

“Yah, I’ll introduce you to him later! He’s pretty cool you know. He’s really good looking and smart, too.” She wiggled her brow teasingly. “Maybe you’ll like him and he’ll like you back.”

You pinched her cheek and stressed, “If he’s as good looking as you make him out, he’d never fall for a girl like me.”

“Why?” She then gave you a foxy stare “I know someone who’d kill 10 men just to be your boyfriend.”

“Really, who would that be?” You playfully wrapped your arm around her neck and placed her in a choke hold, coaxing her to spill.

“I-I can't tell you.” She wailed through her laughter “I promised him that I won't tell you and that he’ll be the one confessing.”

You let her go as a sign of defeat. “Fine, fine. Whatever.” You looked at her and grinned “You owe me a cup of coffee for making me worry about you, I seriously thought something important came up to make you skip class.”

“Okay!” She pulled on your hand and finally headed to class.

The rest of the day was so-so. Lectures, presentations, lab activities and what not. Just a few more months, after finals you were already graduating and a free woman. You can’t believe that you actually managed to send you self to school and actually make it out alive. But you had to admit, being a working student wasn’t all that fun and games and even if your part-time job was not something to brag about, you still felt pride well up in your chest as you were one step closer to reaching your goals.

For now, the only thing that you’ve been looking forward to this afternoon was the coffee Jisoo was gonna treat you. You walked into the shop you bought the cookies from earlier, the image of what had happened in the supply room flashed inside your head the moment she handed you the same pastry you gave to Jungkook.

“Hello? Y/N?”

Your friend’s words cut you out of your thoughts. “Yeah?” You confusedly reply.

“Want a cookie?” She hummed sweetly.

“Ah..” You hesitated for a bit before finally taking the sweet treat from her hands. “Thanks..”

“Taehyung said he’d meet us here after his class.” Her gaze turned to her watch wrapped around her tiny wrist. “He said that his class ends at 5 o'clock. It’s 5:30. He’s late.” She scoffed, slightly irritated at her cousin’s act of tardiness.

“Wait.” The wheel started to turn inside your brain when she mentioned her cousin’s name. ‘Taehyung, taehyung...Where have I heard that name before?’

“Jisoo.” A low voice called out from behind you. You slowly turned your head to the direction of where the voice was coming from.

“T-taehyung?!” You exclaimed, recognizing the gorgeous boy standing in front of you. “K-Kim Taehyung?”

“Y/N?” He was in complete disbelief as you “Y/f/n y/l/n? Is that really you?”

“Wait, hold up.” Jisoo stood up from where she was seated and interrupted this weird ass mini-reunion. “You know each other??” She questioned with an inquisitive look written all over the face.

“ Uhh..” You rubbed the back of your neck, thinking of ways to explain the situation to your equally shocked friend. “You see, Jisoo...”

“We dated,” Taehyung announced, without a hint of embarrassment in his tone.

"Jisoo, wait let me explain!" Your hands were shaking, your eyes flickered back and forth from Jisoo to her not-so-stranger of a cousin. Taehyung took the seat next to you which only made your heart pump blood faster. He still looked good, or even better than you last saw him.

"It was only for a few months, Jisoo. 4 months? To be honest I can't remember. I didn't mention it to you because it wasn't something too serious, a fling probably and I didn't know he was your cousin! If I had known that he was I would have never even considered dating him in the first place." You rapped the words out of your mouth, now your lungs were trying so hard to catch your breath.

"Ouch." Taehyung chuckled, he placed his hand over his heart. "I really liked you, Y/N."

"Oh. My. God." Jisoo shrieked like a little child. "I can't believe you two dated!" Her facial expression changed in an instant, looking over to her cousin sitting beside you. "Why did you guys break up?"

"Ah..." Your voice once again faltered at her questions, you didn't have the guts to tell her that your relationship with her cousin went awry because you didn't want to go all the way with you know what.

"We moved, remembered?" Taehyung's tone shifted from a calm and collected one to a slightly irritated and annoyed one. "Stop making everything into a big deal, Jisoo. So what if we dated? We're not children anymore, we can date whoever we want to date. And for your information, it sure is none of your business so stop sticking your nose up my or Y/N’s ass. " He scolded her harshly.

Your eyes grew wider at his sudden outburst, one minute he was chill and the next he's like a volcano with his words like lava spewing out of his mouth. "Hey!" You balled your hands into a fist and aimed at his shoulder. "Don't talk to my friend that way, you little shit."

"Y/N.." The flustered girl tugged at your hands, tightly gripping at it. "It's okay, Y/N. It was my fault."

The expression on your face grew softer as you saw your friend grew guilty over being too nosy. "I didn't mean to pry or anything. I was just really surprised that you dated my cousin without me knowing." She laughed "Who would have thought, huh?"

She then turned her attention over to her cousin scribbling something with a pen on a piece of a napkin on the table, he sure had the attention span of a squirrel she thought to herself. Maybe that was the reason why the did not last long. "Would it kill you to pay attention, Taehyung?"

"I'm listening, I'm listening... Sheesh. Would ya stop putting your panties in a bunch, cous?" He pointed out, stuffing the piece of paper in his back pocket.

"Okay okay... I think I've had enough of this bickering." You explained "Jisoo, sorry for not telling you about me and Taehyung dating. It was no big deal back then so I hope that it won't be a big deal right now. And Taehyung.." You looked to you right, now eye to eye with the guy who had the face of a Greek god. Fuck, what did he ever do in his past life to be given a face like that? Well, He is Jisoo's cousin. Beauty really does run in their family.

"It's great seeing you again, really. The fact that you’re my best friend’s cousin is flipping amazing and proves what a real small world it is. And you're totally right, we're not kids anymore, we should act like the adults we are and not let whatever happened in the past ruin the way we treat each other now." You put your hand out in front of him, waiting for him to shake it. He watched you intently, his eyes scanning your seated body up and down before reaching his hand to hold yours.

"Lets." A small smirk found its ways onto the corner of his lips, though you were too busy to notice it because you were now smiling happily at your best friend.

45 minute passed by so quickly, you wouldn't have noticed it until a text from Jin popped up on the screen of your phone.

[Jin 6:15 PM] -You coming in tom hun? xoxo

[You 6:15 PM] -Yes! See you then!

[Jin 6:16 PM] -Yes girl, thanks so much for helping out! I'll buy you dinner next time, promise!

You smiled at how sweet Jin was to you, he really was the sister you never had.

The small bell attached to the door went off every time a customer entered the shop, casually mixing in the music playing in the background. You were too immersed in the conversation you were having with your friends that you failed to notice the light tap on your shoulder until a stunned Jisoo pointed a finger behind you.

“M-M-Mr. Jeon?” You abruptly stood up from where you were seated, causing you to lose balance and fall straight into the arms of your teacher.

“Are you alright, Y/N?” He asked, holding your waist and giving you the much-needed support. “Are you feeling sick?” He checked again, holding a hand on top of your forehead.

“Ahh..” You quickly pulled away from his grasp, fixing your messed up hair in the process. “I’m alright.”

Teahyung carefully studied you, deciphering the look on your face as well as your body movement. He knew from just looking at how you reacted so anxiously around the other male that something was up, but he had to make sure of it.

“Taehyung, Y/N Ex-boyfriend.” He rose from his place and greeted the man. “And you are?” He quirked a brow.

Why the hell were things turning out this way? What the hell was this, a battle of who has the most testosterone in his body? They seriously looked like two wolves ready to kill each other for the title of alpha male and you and Jisoo could only watch in terror.

“Jeon Jungkook.” He smirked with no intent of backing down form this little fight “Y/N’s Anatomy professor. Nice to meet you, Taehyung.”

“Pleasure’s all mine.” The blond haired boy took his seat again, combing his fingers through his hair. “What brings you here, Mr. Jeon?” Jisoo cheerfully asked the young man.

“I was actually on the way home when I spotted Ms. Y/N here and thought it would be nice if I could join you guys.” He beamed, eyes sparkling like a puppy dog. Taehyung could only scoff at the man’s cheesy words.

“Excuse me?” Jungkook snapped at the rudeness younger boy.

“No, no. I’m sorry, you’re free to join us, Mr. Jeon. “

“I will after I buy Y/N a cup of coffee.” The black haired boy insisted with a sweet smile plastered on his equally sweet face. You looked at your friend with a pained expression and telepathically asked whether or not you should, of course, she understood and gestured you to stand with the curl of her lips.

“O-okay..” You shyly followed him to the counter and ordered,

“Okay, what's the deal with him?” Taehyung hissed through his teeth, glaring at the man who was obviously flirting with you.

“What the hell is your problem?” She told off her cousin “It’s not like your still dating Y/N to be jealous.”

The boy’s cheeks immediately turned pink, he then covered his hands over his entire face to hide his uneasiness.

“Shut up!” Jisoo gasped, she leaned in closer to her cousin and hypothesized based on Taehyung reaction to Jungkook “You still like Y/N, don’t you?” She reckoned that her assumption was true as Taehyung sealed her mouth with his hands.

“Pipe down.” He growled, “Now, are you gonna help me get back together with Y/N or not?”

Jisoo slapped the boy’s hand away from her face and shared “Sorry to burst your bubble but I’m already helping someone out with Y/n, and he’s a better match for her so I can’t help you sorry cous’.” She mocked Taehyung. The blond clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth in dismay.

“Jisoo... Taehyung..” You whined, standing in front of them with a warm cup of coffee in hand. “I have to go. I remembered that I had the only key to the apartment, I have to get home before she does or she ends up waiting for me outside the house. I’m really sorry.” You frowned.

“Let me take you home.” Taehyung implied, waving the keys of his car in the air.

“Uh.” You hesitantly mouthed “Mr. Jeon already offered to take me home.”

Both of the Kim’s eyes were about to pop out of their sockets and their mouths were hanging wide open.

“And we’re going in the same direction as well so... I thought it’d be okay.“ You quietly noted.

“Whatever.” Taehyung irked while eyeing Jungkook from head to toe. “Let's head home too, Jisoo.”

And with that, the four of you left the shop and bid farewell to each other. Before you could even get into Jungkook’s car, Taehyung suddenly called out to you one last time, trotting in your direction.

“Y/N.” He grabbed you by the arm and pulled you closer, sneakily sliding the piece of napkin he’d been hanging on to this whole afternoon inside your back pocket which caused you to jolt. He inched his lips closer to your ear and you could swear that you could feel his hot breath dance inside your ear canal. “Call me.”

You’re entire body froze and his bold actions left you speechless.

“Y/N..” Jungkook wrapped his arms around your waist and guided you back to his car.

The car ride was silent, too silent.

"Taehyung." Jungkook suddenly worded out of the blue. You felt a hard lump stuck in your throat as you try to swallow your saliva, needing something to wet your dry throat. "That was years ago." You nervously replied. "And It was only a few months." He simply nodded in response, placing his free hand on your clothed thigh, humming to himself. When you arrived at the convenience store he picked you up earlier, he suggested that he drop you off directly at your house. You politely refused and said that it was too much already. He was your teacher and not your personal driver. "Wait." He stopped you before you could open the car door and planted a chaste kiss on your forehead. "Take care." You nod and got out of the vehicle. The walk was calm and refreshing, the cool wind caressing your skin felt wonderful. You thought about the crazy things that had happened today. Doing inappropriate things at school with your teacher, finding out your best friend's cousin was actually your ex-boyfriend and that said teacher giving you a ride back home. Today was kind of a wild ride, unexpected plot twist and what not, but you smile and sighed looking forward to a good night's sleep. -- You spent your Saturday afternoon lazing around the house, munching on Cheetos and binge-watching the new season of Riverdale. You decided to text Jungkook, asking if he's free later tonight. [You 7:56 PM] -Jungkook? He instantly replied. [Jungkook 7:56 PM] -Yes, Y/N? [You 7:56 PM] -Are you free tonight? [Jungkook 7:57 PM ] -Yes, What did you have in mind? [You 7:58 PM] -I'm heading to Jin's bar later, they need extra people. 10 PM [Jungkook 7:59 PM] -Okay, see you. You took your time in the bathroom, shaving whatever patch of skin your arms and back were flexible enough to reach. Vigorously scrubbing your body with a loofah sponge until it was squeaky clean. You then put on your favorite pair of sweats and not to mention your grimy old ass hoodie, slinging your backpack on your shoulder and left for work. "Y/N! C'mere!" Jin exclaimed when he saw you enter through the back door. "Whoah, I just got here and you're already screaming at me." You playfully giggled at the older man. "You know I don't allow you to do special service, right?" He hummed sweetly, something definitely smelled fishy and judging by the tone of his voice, he wanted something from you. "Right?" You looked at him reluctantly, anticipating what he was going to say next. "Jungkook." He deadpanned. "Jungkook?" You absentmindedly repeated his words. "Jungkook. Wants. Your. Services." He stated word by word. "If you want, I'll give him the heads up and personally assist him to one of our private rooms." You were dumbfounded that you didn't make a sound. "If your not comfortable enough, I'll tell him to try his luck next time. So, whatchu say hun?" He added. Your heart was beating rapidly inside your rib cage, each thump ringing inside your ears, you had to decide and you had to decide right now because Jungkook was waiting on the other end. "I'll do it." You confirmed. Jin's face was filled with delight, he knew that you fancied the young man and that the young man fancied you too. This could either go right and bloom into a wonderful relationship or tragically end into an awkward situation. "Then it's settled, you don't have to perform tonight if you're catering to one of our VIPs. Get underdressed and meet me back here, I'll inform hot legs that his date is set." He winked and carried on to whatever he was doing. "Fuck.." You exhaled, your chest feels tighter with every breath you take. "Y/N! What are you standing there for? Come on and get dressed!" Jin yelled, he was few feet away from you, signing papers in his hand. You shook the jitter off your entire body and headed towards the dressing room. --

"You're really gonna make me wear this, huh?" You whined, looking at your self in the mirror. "Yes, doll." "Can I at least lose the bunny ears?" You mewled. "That's the best part about that lingerie, doll. Can't wear it without the bunny ears." He proclaimed, admiring how well the makeup, done by him of course, matched your outfit.

"Whenever you're ready, Y/N." Jin peeped through the door, wiggling his eyebrows.

"I'm ready." You announced, following Jin since this was your first time being near the special rooms.

"Don't worry, I gave you the best and cleanest room in this section. You only need to worry about yourself." He joked, nudging his shoulder against yours. "Go ahead, he's been waiting inside for at least 20 minutes. Wouldn't want to make a man that beautiful wait any longer."

You bit your lip and sucked in a deep breath, releasing it before knocking on the door.

"Mr. Jeon?"

END

a/n: Should mc lose the v tonight (on chapter 3)? sorry for typo and errors, will proofread tom. thank u

222 notes · View notes

typewrter · 7 years ago

Text

Scott’s phone vibrates. He lets go of the car door and fumbles his phone out of his pocket.

“You can sit shotgun,” he tells Liam and steps back to sit in the back instead. Liam pats his shoulder as he passes him, tired smile around the eyes.

He only half-listens to Mason’s and Liam’s hushed conversation about the newly bitten wolf whose scent they had lost. Instead, he checks Stiles’ message.

‘Fyi some newbie intern nearly killed ur best friend today! Pointed a LOADED gun at me & then tripped over his own feet’

Scott can’t help but smile as his thumbs fly over the keyboard to reply: ‘Aren’t you a newbie intern too?’ He follows it up with, ‘Sounds a lot like you actually, rmbr when your dad wouldnt give you a gun?’

‘Got upgraded to trainee! keep up, scotty!!’

Of course Scott knows that. Doesn’t change the fact that Stiles is very new at the FBI, does it?

“Are you texting Argent?” Mason asks from the front.

Scott watches the little icon symbolizing that Stiles is typing for a moment longer, then switches conversations.

“Yeah,” he says. “Let him know we lost the lead.”

“Thanks to me,” Liam interject, frustration evident in his voice.

Scott looks up. Liam is hunched up in his seat. It’s night and save for the passing streetlights it’s dark out, but Scott can still tell he has his hands balled to fists in his lap.

“Hey.” He leans forward to drop a hand on Liam’ shoulder, squeezing it briefly. “Don’t beat yourself up, okay? I lost the scent, too. We’re not totally sure there’s even a bitten werewolf here in the first place, right? It’s all just rumors and hearsay.”

Scott’s phone vibrates twice in quick succession. He ignores it.

Mason gives them a quick look. “Yeah, and what am I supposed to say? I can’t even smell the stuff you guys can in the first place!”

Liam gently shoves Mason in the arm, earning himself a “Hey, I’m driving, genius!”

“I’m texting Argent to let him know that we lost the scent,” Scott says and sits back again.

Stiles sent him an image and a text. Still, Scott forces himself to finish his text message to Argent before checking what Stiles sent him.

(After that, he waits a few seconds longer, to see if Liam is really all right. His heart is beating steady, his chemo signals are normal, and he’s arguing with Mason about whether they should throw Corey a surprise birthday party or not. Good enough for Scott.)

The picture is of Stiles; he’s wearing a bulletproof vest with the letters FBI on it over his a dark blue outfit and he’s holding a gun, aiming at something to the left of the camera. The safety glasses on his faces do little to hide the look of intense concentration that Scott’s seen a thousand times before. He’s probably at a shooting range, from the looks of his surroundings.

There’s a curious tugging in Scott’s stomach.

‘Can handle a gun just fine now ;)’, the accompanying text says. ‘Plus I look rly fcking hot holding one so’

Scott has no idea what that has to do with anything but he can’t disagree.

The thing is, Stiles has been – well, Scott would almost say, flirting with Scott for a while now. It’s less crude and overt than when he did it as a joke when they were just kids. More like actual, real, adult flirting, and less like a silly joke. After everything that came with the bite, Stiles had stopped for a while, slowly phasing out the jokes about making out. Scott honestly hadn’t even noticed until Stiles had started up again a couple of weeks ago, mostly over text and on the phone now, since they rarely see each other.

Maybe it’s just Stiles’ way of saying he misses him.

Except, Stiles has no problem outright admitting to missing Scott, (and neither has Scott, for that matter, since he misses Stiles a lot, all the time).

So Scott has no idea what this thing is. All he knows is he always tended to completely ignore those kind of jokes when they were younger and now he wants to reciprocate.

Push the boundaries. Just a little.

‘Didnt know an attractive face was required for being a good shot’, he texts back, lacking anything more clever to say.

They enter Beacon Hills. As Mason stops at a red light, he turns around, trying not to get twisted up in his seatbelt, and takes one, two, three selfies with Liam and Mason in the background, their looks changing from surprised to silly faces with each picture.

“What’re you doing?” Liam wants to know.

Scott shrugs. “Letting Stiles know what we’re up to.”

He picks the second picture to send. Mason’s and Liam’s faces are funnier in the third one – Liam is actually sticking his tongue out and it’s adorable – but well. Scott looks better in the second one, he thinks. He can’t help that he looks tired and sweaty but his smile is less goofy and more attractive. He hopes.

‘Liam&mason say hi!! :D’

Stiles replies immediately with a bunch of shocked emojis. ‘Didnt know u were w/ them! How’s our firstborn doing? Where were u? I dont see any blood’, he adds and then a thumbs up emoji.

Scott is typing a reply, when another message comes through: ‘U rly spending ur weekend at home chasing wolves buddy?’

At that, Scott almost laughs because yeah, of course he does. So does Stiles whenever he gets a chance to be home. Scott regularly has to talk him out of going werewolf chasing (in the nice way) in Virginia, and he’s not always successful.

When another message with more question comes through, Scott just sends, ‘Hold on’.

Mason stops in front of Scott’s house just a minute or two later, Scott’s phone still buzzing in his lap.

“You gonna be okay to get home?” Scott asks, even though they have a car and nothing really happened tonight. He can’t help but worry. Malia likes to blame his mother hen instincts on him being an alpha, but privately Scott thinks that it’s all him.

“Yeah, dude,” Liam replies. “We gonna see you before you leave town?”

“Yeah, I’ll swing by.” Scott gives them each a clap on the shoulder before exiting the car. He barely has one foot on the pavement before his phone starts ringing.

“I was gonna call you in literally ten seconds,” he says as a greeting, letting the car door fall closed behind him and watching Mason and Liam drive off.

“But you haven’t. And you weren’t answering. Could’ve been eaten by a monster by now,” Stiles says, voice going a hundred miles an hour as always.

“I’m not. Still alive and kicking.” Scott knows Stiles can hear him smiling, but it doesn’t matter.

“You ever gonna tell me what you guys were up to or am I gonna have to drive over there and drag it out of you?”

“Dunno,” Scott says. He’s fumbling for the right key for the door, trying to keep his voice down now in case his mum’s already gone to bed. “If me not telling you results in you coming here, then I’m not gonna say a word.”

Stiles is quiet for a long moment. He sounds unusually fond when he demands, “Spit it out, boy wonder.”

So Scott tells him about the rumor of the newly bitten wolf without a pack three towns over, and how it was supposedly a young girl. That they’d gone looking for her, but lost her scent, or maybe never even had it, they’re not sure.

He’s still explaining as he walks by his mom on the couch where she’s watching one of her shows. He stops talking to drops a kiss on her hair.

“Who’s that?” she mouths up at him.

“Stiles.”

“Tell your mom hi from me!” Stiles demands in a loud voice as if he expects it to carry from the tinny phone speaker all the way to Scott’s mom on the couch. Scott winces.

“He yells hi,” he dutifully relays.

His mom smiles. “Hello to you too, Stiles. Tell me how he’s doing tomorrow, hm?” She’s already nestling back down into her blanket so Scott just nods and takes the stairs up to his room two at a time.

“So basically a whole lotta nothing,” Stiles finally sums up when Scott finishes explaining.

Scott laughs. “Pretty much, yeah. I texted Argent cause he was the one who told us about the rumor. If she pops back up again and I’m back at UC, Liam’ll have to go after her. Or I’ll come back down, we’ll see.”

“Think he can handle it?”

“Yeah,” Scott says. “I think he can. Better than he thinks he can, actually.”

Stiles laughs. “That’s cause you always have faith in everyone.”

“I’m just not as paranoid you,” Scott teases back, making sure his voice is soft so Stiles won’t misunderstand. That’s not entirely right anyway, he thinks. Stiles had faith in Scott, always and all along.

“That’s why we’re the dream team, Scotty.”

“Yeah.” Scott kicks up his feet against the wall, lets them slide down back onto the bed slowly. “Miss ya, buddy.”

Stiles exhales loudly and there’s a rustling sound. It sounds like he’s shifting around on his bed.

“Miss you too. So weird not to see your face every day, honestly. Earlier, I was staring at that pic you sent like some kind of serial killer scooting out his next victim.”

Scott snorts. He knows the feeling; though he feels more lovesick than serial killer-like. He’d known that Stiles leaving would be hard on him, but he hadn’t expect it to be like this. Hadn’t seen it coming that Stiles’ voice in his ear would be enough to make his heart beat in a quicker rhythm.

“You coming home for Christmas, right?” Scott asks.

“'Course I will.” Stiles pauses. “You’re gonna need a crowbar to get me off you.” There’s something in his voice – embarrassment, maybe. Hesitation.

“Nah, I’ll like it. I’ll superglue you to me and then no one can demand we be separated for the whole week. Like that time in second grade, you remember that?”

Back then, Stiles had spilled glue on their shirts, causing them to stick together within seconds. This time, Scott thinks, he’d glue their hands together instead.

Stiles laughs quietly. “That was totally on accident!”

“Well,” Scott says slowly. “It won’t be this time.”

He hears Stiles shift again. Suddenly, Stiles smacks his lips, making a loud, obnoxious kissing sound into the speaker. “Alright, Scotty boy, it’s a plan.”

Scott shakes his head and smiles.

#teen wolf #sciles #my writing #ficlet #idk how the fbi works #or how university works in america!#but i had some sciles feelings so i wrote them down #bc why the hell not #this is kinda longish for a ficlet #about 1.7k #just as a warning :)

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itsfinancethings · 4 years ago

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New story in Politics from Time: How Kamala Harris’ Senate Record Reveals What Kind of National Leader She May Be

The election hadn’t gone the way she expected, so Kamala Harris needed a new plan. Late on the night of Nov. 8, 2016, the newly elected U.S. Senator gathered her campaign team in a drab gray room in the Los Angeles event venue where she was celebrating her victory–just as most Democrats were mourning the unexpected win of President Donald Trump. “This is some sh-t,” Harris said mournfully, describing a godson who’d come to her in tears. The staffers’ faces were grave and a siren wailed in the background as she groped for words to describe what she was feeling. “We’ve got to figure out how to go out there and give people a sense of hope,” she said.

The four years since that night have been eventful ones–for America, for the U.S. Senate and for Harris, tapped Aug. 11 as the Democratic Party’s vice-presidential nominee. The ambitious pol who won her first national office that day expected to be helping a President Hillary Clinton confirm a Cabinet and Supreme Court, craft comprehensive immigration reform and pass legislation to address climate change. Instead, she found herself in Trump’s Washington, crusading against the President’s polarizing nominees, searching mostly in vain for policy victories, and before long running to oust him.

Harris’ time in the Senate is a relatively unexplored chapter of her record. Scrutiny of her background during her presidential run focused on her time as a prosecutor and her campaign positioning, both of which drew criticism from the left. On the near geologic scale of the Senate, her time there has been but a moment, and she began running for President just two years after she arrived. Yet Harris’ Senate profile sheds light on what she brings to the Biden campaign and what sort of Vice President she could be if elected. It also raises questions about what kind of national leader she may become.

Harris became famous in the Senate for her performance on camera. Colleagues, aides and Senate watchers describe a hard-driving and determined leader who found ways to be effective, creating viral moments with her cross-examinations of witnesses.

“The Senate is a place where they want you to sit and be quiet for three or four terms, and then, after 20 or 30 years, they might pay attention to you,” says Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, who was the vice-presidential nominee four years ago. “But Kamala has really made a mark.”

Off camera, Harris is harder to define. She worked to learn policy and advance legislation, playing a major role in shaping 2018’s landmark bipartisan criminal-justice reform and shepherding it to passage. Allies say she learned quickly on the job. But she lacked a signature cause of her own, and struggled to find her footing on other issues important to Democrats, such as climate, health care and national security. She struck some observers as wanting to be all things to all people–simultaneously progressive and moderate, principled and compromising, a partisan warrior and a dealmaking pragmatist.

Her defenders say her thin record and evolving positions are the natural result of her experience: junior Senator from California was her first time as a lawmaker. Those who have worked with her say Harris thinks through problems like a lawyer, a deliberative style that can appear indecisive but actually reflects an active intellect. Her fans also see undertones of sexism and racism in critiques of her as attention-seeking or opportunistic, qualities that are practically prerequisites to a political career. The Senate’s old “workhorse or show horse” heuristic is a cliché unsuited to today’s dysfunctional Congress and polarized politics. But her tenure reflects the same difficulties that eventually doomed her presidential campaign: a privileging of personality over substance and a lack of a clearly articulated vision. Whether it stemmed from open-mindedness or political posturing, the effect was the same.

What was never in doubt, all observers say, was her instinct for the fight. That night in 2016, with her desolated campaign staff on the brink of tears, Harris outlined a path forward. “I think our campaign is actually not over,” she said. “But it’s a different kind of campaign. It’s not to win an office. But it’s going to be a campaign to fight for everything that motivated us to run for this office in the first place.”

Jacquelyn Martin—APHarris rose in Senate hearings, grilling Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in September 2018

The questions were coming fast, and Jeff Sessions began to stammer. It was June 2017, and Harris kept interrupting the then Attorney General to ask about his contacts with Russians during the 2016 campaign. “I’m not able to be rushed this fast,” he complained. “It makes me nervous.”

It was an attempt at levity on Sessions’ part, but the comment quickly went viral, as liberals relished the sight of a Trump apparatchik squirming under Harris’ gaze. Episodes like these became Harris’ calling card as a Senator, racking up hundreds of thousands of views online. She would go on to earn similar attention for her September 2018 questioning of then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and May 2019 interrogation of Sessions’ successor, William Barr. Kavanaugh appeared positively stumped when she asked, “Can you think of any laws that give the government the power to make decisions about the male body?”

Harris was already a political star when she arrived in the Senate, but the hearings helped cement her reputation. In an interview last September, Harris told TIME her interrogations reflected her frustration. “I am new to the United States Congress, and seeing this stuff up close, it’s shocking, the lack of consequence and accountability,” she said then. (The Biden-Harris campaign did not respond to a request to interview her for this article.)

Republicans sometimes accused her of being overly partisan. On two early occasions, the late Senator John McCain interrupted and upbraided her for not letting witnesses finish answering her questions. Those exchanges, in turn, further elevated her profile when fans accused McCain and other Republicans of trying to silence her. Some of her questions that seemed suggestive in the moment didn’t bear fruit, like when she asked Kavanaugh about his contacts with Trump’s personal lawyer’s law firm. Her questioning of Kavanaugh also drew the ire of Trump, who has referred to her as “nasty,” “angry” and a “mad woman” since her addition to the ticket.

But Harris’ colleagues say she didn’t just grandstand; more than many lawmakers, who chew up half their allotted time giving speeches, she actually used hearings to elicit information from often hostile witnesses. “For all of the talents of members of Congress, it still shocks me how infrequently a member can get to their question within the first two or three minutes,” says Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii. “Kamala, without appearing rushed, without appearing hostile, can dismantle an adversary with a smile on her face.”

Harris’ hearing performances were well suited to a Senate that in recent years has done little traditional legislating. “It’s such a weird time in the Senate, because nobody really does anything,” says Adam Jentleson, a former aide to former Senate majority leader Harry Reid. “It is not a time that has tested people’s dealmaking abilities because there are no real deals to be made, and the few that do get negotiated are mostly done at the leadership level,” says Jentleson, who supported Elizabeth Warren in the presidential primary and is writing a book about Senate dysfunction. As a Democrat, “you’re mostly just voting against Trump stuff the whole time–that’s not a knock on her, it’s just the nature of the institution right now.”

The grillings were also central to why she made the Democratic ticket. They showed her mastery of the modern media environment–a key asset in a campaign against Trump. Introducing Harris as his running mate on Aug. 12, Biden praised her for “asking the tough questions that need to be asked and not stopping until she got an answer.”

With the cameras off, Harris’ prosecutorial edge vanishes, Democratic Senators say, revealing a warm, funny and accessible colleague who wears her star power lightly. In caucus meetings, they say, she provides important context for policy conversations by drawing on her experience as a person of color–one of just six elected Black Senators in U.S. history–and as the child of immigrants. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon recalled her looking up at him when they first met–he is 6 ft. 4 in. to Harris’ 5 ft. 3 –and cracking, “With you, I’m going to need a ladder!” Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii was walking out of the chamber one day last summer when she saw Harris getting into a car and called out, “Kamala, are you going to Iowa?” Harris replied, with a laugh, “I’m fcking moving to Iowa”–an exchange that was overheard by a reporter and subsequently put on T-shirts sold by an Iowa boutique. “Kamala made sure I got one of those T-shirts,” Hirono says.

Aides admit Harris is a tough boss, demanding hard work from those around her and rewarding them with fierce loyalty in return. Early in her tenure, one recalls, Harris held an event at a Syrian restaurant in California addressing Trump’s ban on travelers from Muslim countries. Afterward, her staff sat down to brief her, but she stopped them, insisting that everybody take a breather to eat and talk about their lives. She has worked hard to assemble a diverse staff, not an easy thing to do in an institution that has historically been overwhelmingly white and male.

Many aides recall Harris’ devotion to her former press secretary Tyrone Gayle, a fellow descendant of Jamaican immigrants who died of colon cancer in October 2018. Harris’ mother had died of the same disease in 2009, and she treated Gayle with maternal affection when his disease recurred. “She found a way to treat him with so much compassion and love, but she also held him to a really high standard, which Tyrone wanted and appreciated,” his widow Beth Foster Gayle recently recalled on CNN. “He didn’t want her to go easy on him.” The day he died, Harris dropped her Senate work to join his family at the hospital in New York City, holding his hand and making him smile. To this day, her Senate office is festooned with Clemson pennants in his honor.

Harris drew praise from Republicans and Democrats alike for her work on the intelligence committee. She was “a quick study” and “very effective,” the panel’s former GOP chairman, Richard Burr of North Carolina, told BuzzFeed last year. The committee is known for its unusual levels of both secrecy and collegiality. Because so much of its work occurs behind closed doors, “there’s no press to shine for, and it doesn’t really break down along partisan lines,” says the committee’s top Democrat, Mark Warner of Virginia. Harris’ task was made harder by the fact that she was near the bottom in seniority, he noted. “She’s down there at the end of the line, a spot where most of the questions have already been asked, but she would always find something that hadn’t been asked thoroughly enough or come up with a new line of questioning.”

J. Scott Applewhite—APHarris, with the intelligence committee in 2018, won GOP praise for her hard work offstage

During the presidential campaign, Harris’ record on criminal justice drew harsh criticism from civil liberties advocates and many on the left, who charged that as a prosecutor she perpetuated a punitive and unequal system rather than seeking to fix it. In the Senate, she focused much of her policy energy on criminal-justice reform. The first bill she introduced was a proposal to give people in immigration proceedings the right to a lawyer. (The bill has since passed the House but not advanced in the Senate.) She teamed up with Republican Senator Rand Paul on a bail-reform bill, which would encourage states to reduce the use of cash bail–a practice that opponents say criminalizes poverty and contributes to unequal outcomes. (That bill also has not advanced.) She worked with Democrat Cory Booker and Republican Tim Scott, the Senate’s other two Black members, on antilynching legislation that is currently blocked despite near unanimous support. Along with Booker, she was a key driver of the federal prison and sentencing reform bill that Trump signed in 2018, one of the few bipartisan accomplishments of his presidency.

Even as many of her proposals have stalled, Booker argues, she has brought fresh thinking to the tradition-bound halls of Congress. “A lot of times, when you bring out a new idea, you’ve got to get people familiar with it,” he says, noting that such efforts may take years to bear fruit. “Kamala came into the Senate and made an impact.”

Harris and Booker also collaborated on the Democrats’ police-reform bill that followed this summer’s racial-justice protests. It passed the House, and the Senators believed it was a good-faith effort at a compromise Republicans might be able to support. But Senate Republicans offered their own bill instead, putting it on the floor instead without the opportunity for committee deliberation, and Democrats blocked it from advancing. “It’s unfortunate that majority leader [Mitch] McConnell was not willing to give that legislation adequate hearing, because I think she was very effective in making the case,” says Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen. But Scott, the Republican bill’s author, accused the Democrats of playing politics. In a July interview with TIME, he alluded to Harris’ position in the Veep-stakes, saying, “I’m hoping that the presidential politics of choosing a running mate does not stand in the way of Senate Democrats coming to the table.”

Harris’ defenders say her shift to the left on criminal justice reflects not the political expediency of a primary candidate seeking to please the base, but the evolving national dialogue on a fraught issue. Advocates who worked with her on the topic say she was engaged, substantive–and realistic. “I’m a little frustrated by a lot of the criticism of her evolution on criminal-justice issues,” says Holly Harris, a Republican lawyer who serves as executive director of the Justice Action Network. “We don’t ask a lot of male bill sponsors to explain their evolution. We’re just grateful to have their support.”

Harris had a harder time finding her footing on issues further afield from her own experience. Her presidential campaign notably struggled with the central issue of health care: as a Senator, she co-sponsored Bernie Sanders’ single-payer legislation, but after months of conflicting statements, she issued a plan that would preserve the private insurance system. “Legislating is totally different than being an attorney general,” says an aide to another Democratic Senator. “Not being a veteran of these issue debates, she didn’t necessarily know the fine points of something like Medicare for All.”

Climate change was another issue on which Harris got more assertive over time. She was an original co-sponsor of the left-wing Green New Deal and signed a pledge not to take campaign money from the fossil-fuel industry. But climate activists were skeptical of her as a presidential candidate, particularly when she was the only major candidate not to immediately commit to a September CNN town hall devoted to the issue. After criticism, she changed her mind, and in her 33-minute segment she vowed to back ending the filibuster if Republicans held up climate legislation, endorsed a fracking ban and called for the prosecution of fossilfuel companies. “Everybody was pretty much leading in a progressive direction,” says Julian Brave NoiseCat, a climate activist who is vice president of policy and strategy at the progressive group Data for Progress. “And the question was, How far were you willing to go?”

The initial trepidation followed by outspoken position taking was typical of Harris’ approach to the high-profile issue. Harris subsequently found a niche that suited her comfort zone: environmental justice and environ-mental litigation. In July, she partnered with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to introduce a Climate Equity Act that would require environmental legislation to receive an “equity score” that judged how it would affect at-risk communities and create new burdens for administrative action. Her office released a new version of the proposal just days before she was announced as Biden’s VP pick. “She’s not driven by a desire to protect the polar bears,” says RL Miller, a California Democratic activist and political director of Climate Hawks Vote, a group that advocates for aggressive climate-change policies. “She is driven by the desire to protect low-income African-American people living next to the Los Angeles urban oil field.”

Harris’ lack of firm stances on many issues contributed to her campaign’s demise. But as a vice-presidential candidate, that flexibility could be an asset. Colleagues and aides say she is passionate but not doctrinaire, a team player open to others’ good ideas. Even some of the progressives who regard Harris with suspicion express hope that her malleability means she can be nudged leftward. The challenge for Harris will be establishing herself as a national figure in that role–showing that her flexibility comes from pragmatism, not opportunism.

When Biden was Vice President, he brought the perspective of an old foreign policy hand to the White House and served as a sort of Senate whisperer for President Barack Obama, who had, like Harris, spent just four years in the chamber. Biden, who fetishizes the Senate as an institution, is unlikely to cede that duty to his own second-in-command. But some on the left hope recent experience will make Harris more inclined than Biden to play hardball with McConnell, who they believe has abused procedural norms to destroy the traditional policymaking process. “I don’t see anything in her record in the Senate that suggests she’s not a strong progressive,” says Jentleson, the former Reid aide. “But the rubber will hit the road on issues like the filibuster. When you want to advance a very progressive policy and get stopped, do you reform the Senate to get things done?”

Aside from Harris’ campaign promise to end the filibuster to pass climate legislation, neither she nor Biden has committed to major changes to Senate rules–a proposition that’s highly contentious within the chamber on both sides of the aisle. Without such changes, it will be an uphill battle to enact the sweeping policy agenda articulated at this summer’s Democratic convention, even if the party wins the Senate majority in November. Would Harris’ time in the gridlocked body lead her to argue for drastic measures? If Biden and Harris are inaugurated next January, how Kamala Harris regards the U.S. Senate could be the question on which a Biden presidency’s legacy depends.

–With reporting by Anna Purna Kambhampaty, Justin Worland and Julia Zorthian

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