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#i am desperate to hear other people's thoughts on this please throw your own theories my way
starleska · 4 months
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Maestro, Ms. Flood and non-diegetic sound: a theory on what the fuck is happening in Doctor Who
okay my brain is still tremendously scrambled after everything we just saw but i have a theory...HUGE spoilers for the new Doctor Who eps (especially The Devil's Chord):
so we know by know that Maestro is the Toymaker's child...and it seems that the Toymaker's Legions may well in fact refer to his children. in The Devil's Chord, there's an interesting throwaway line from the Doctor which could be read as a joke: "I thought that was non-diegetic." The Doctor here is referring to the rising crescendo of background music: non-diegetic sound is sound that we, the audience, can hear, but doesn't exist within the film's universe. so when a couple are embracing and a beautiful love melody plays in the background, we can hear it, but the characters can't. now, this implies that in general, the Doctor is able to hear non-diegetic sound...but he understands that other people can't. the fact that Ruby is able to hear this non-diegetic sound is a violation - it's not supposed to happen. you know what else isn't supposed to happen? the way Maestro speaks to, and winks at, the audience. we see that Maestro has inherited quite a few traits from their father, and we know from The Giggle novelisation that the Toymaker is capable of fourth-wall breaking and metacommentary (e.g., writing a book in the Doctor Who canon, for instance). similar moments include Maestro playing the Doctor Who theme for the opening credits, and playing a distorted version of it later in the episode. there is one other character who has spoken directly to the audience and broken the fourth wall: Ms. Flood. here's my theory: i believe that Ms. Flood, like Maestro, is one of the Toymaker's children, and therefore one of his Legions. i also believe that she embodies some sort of form of storytelling, the way Maestro does music, and this gives her the ability to transcend form and break the fourth wall. and i absolutely believe she is directly responsible for the snow which keeps filtering through Ruby's memory. something about her presence and existence is melting the boundaries between fiction and reality. now, there are a few loose ends. i don't know what role Harbinger (the small boy from the beginning of the episode) plays...Maestro describes him as their 'prelude', and Harbinger calls Maestro their 'daddy'. it may well be that Maestro is Harbinger's parent the same way the Toymaker is Maestro's father. however...because we see him still around at the end of the episode, i believe that Harbinger is a prelude to another character. perhaps he is, in general, a Harbinger of doom. and a prelude to a Flood? [edit] i nearly forgot - i am convinced this melting of the boundary between fiction and reality is why we had a musical at the end, and the Doctor and Ruby didn't notice
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writing-in-lesbian · 3 years
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Salvation in Disguise
Pairing: Wanda Maximoff / Female reader (platonic) Tags: angst, cursing words, minor assumed violence, mentions of homophobia, legal age gap. Translations: pozhaluysta = please. Synopsis: When Wanda is leaving Westview, all its habitants felt relieved, left to their own devices to rebuild their old lives and to never heard from Wanda again. Except for you. You were left with an important decision. Her spell and control over your family gave you an escape from their control and mistreats towards you. So when she's driving away, you had a few minutes to save your life.
You were at the park having a rare time for yourself. Your parents allowed you to go and walk around before you have to go back for lunch. A rare occasion indeed, since you were 99% of your time with your parents and siblings, despite being legally out of age and with a well-paid job. 
For some reason, that seems normal to all your neighbors, living at your parent's house feels normal, but to you, there’s something else. You can’t explain it but you feel something is not quite right, but since you have so much fun when you’re with them you don’t question the nagging feeling in the back of your head.
With the day off, you decided to take on Agnes' advice and try that coffee shop in front of the park. Has it always been here? You can’t remember seeing it before, but with so many things happening lately and your constant daydreaming you think it might have been renovated and you never noticed.
You ordered the special of the day a “dirty chai” (which is just a chai latte with an espresso shot) and an integral muffin (balance) before going back to the park to do your favorite activity: people watching. 
Choosing your favorite bench in front of the fountain, you enjoy your small snack hoping to see at least from afar your favorite person in the whole town. Wanda Maximoff. 
You don’t remember when they moved here, maybe you never paid any attention to the people around your hood, but when it came to her? It was unavoidable not to. You formed a good relationship after the twins were born, helping her babysit for a few days after Monica went back to her hometown. The boys grew so fast (almost in the blink of an eye) but they were your favorite ones to watch. You even like Vision (was it an odd name? Sure) despite he being the one married to your crush. 
You were so engrossed and lost in your thoughts you don’t notice Wanda running into the park. It’s not until you heard a loud crash you turn your eyes to the sky and see it.
Agnes. 
Floating up there in the sky and throwing what it seems flashes of lights.
And Wanda. Beautiful and innocent Wanda.
Floating as well.
You see a purple light go straight to her.
You drop your muffin and get up from the bench so fast. “WANDA WATCH OUT!”
You’re not sure if she heard you but before you can yell at her again that same light hits you square on the chest, sending you a few meters away and impacting your body against a lamp post. Everything goes black.
… … …
”I’m not a witch. I don’t cast spells. No one taught me magic”
“Your powers exceed that of the Sorcerer Supreme. It’s your destiny to destroy the world” … … …
You hear a lot of commotion, you grunt and try to open your eyes. Everything is dark, a red mist covering the sky. You desperately look around for Wanda. You have a horrible headache, it’s as if something trapped in your mind is trying to get free. You try to get up but your body refuses, managing only to sit up.
You hear Agnes's voice up above you and when you look up at the sky, Wanda is there, surrounded by the red mist. It looks as if it's coming out of her. Her previous red hoodie is now a red top, on her forehead, there’s a tiara.
Standing there open-mouthed you can’t help but appreciate her beauty and strength. Even Agnes (did she call her Agatha?) Is it a weird kind of purple robe? You hear the twins and Monica around you, you even saw a flash of something red and white flaying on the other side of the park but you don’t have eyes for anyone else but Wanda.
A big explosion surrounds you and the park. And then everything goes black again, but you’re conscious this time. You know you should go back home, you’re not sure what’s happening but you’ll probably be safer at home.
There’s this nagging feeling again inside your head. At this point, it might explode from the pain. Migraines are nothing compared to this, but you can’t move. You are glued to your spot. You can’t stop outlook out for Wanda.
Suddenly, the sun comes out again (did it ever went down) and everything is bright. You see Monica in a black and white uniform in front of the twins, Vision s there as well but he’s….red? (You. Might have hit your head harder than you expect it. Westview was known for weird shit happening but this is extreme). 
When you see Wanda again, you see her talking to Agnes, and right before your eyes, her clothes change, her angry and scared voice goes back to being the overly sweet lady you once knew. You stand up and run back home despite your mind screaming not to.
// // //
It’s past midnight when you feel it. You were awakened by this flash of light bringing you back from dreamland gasping for air. 
Your mind is racing 3000 miles a second. Memories of your life coming up to you. 
Being yelled at, hit and slapped, punished by the person’s that should love you no matter what just for loving another girl. 
Been kept against your own will at the house.
The constant verbal and physical abuse. 
The loneliness of being taken far away from your friends and your ex-girlfriend and going to live in the middle of nowhere town when you were 16. A town so small no one would even think about looking out for you here. 
The hopelessness of not being able to run away because your father was a retired high-rank government officer. 
You check your thighs and wrists. The fading scars are there. The ones where you cut to numb the paint make you forget and maybe the final one that takes you out of this realm. 
You remember one day being up in your room crying yourself to sleep when your headaches started. You were no stranger to migraines, but this was worse, so bad you wanted to vomit. 
You ran to your bathroom. Next thing you know, you were having family dinners and going on Sunday family trips. 
And you knew everything was related to Wanda. Things changed when she came to town.
Wanda, the park, Agnes (guess is Agatha know). You suddenly put 2 and 2 together.
Wanda.
You need to see her.
You know you need to run to her. She might be your salvation.
You think you probably have a few hours before everyone is starting to get up and getting their memories, but the noise coming from your parent's rooms tells you it’s not that much.
Throwing a few changes of clothes, the few money you had saved from your babysitting days, you take your bag and slowly and quietly make your way downstairs. If the clock is right is almost 3 am.
You reach the main floor when the door of your parent's rooms cracks. You hold your breath, praying to someone they don’t notice you. The bathroom door closes a few seconds later. You make your way to the living room, only noticing the one picture is there. You stand there, behind your parents and where they used to be your siblings, you see there’s nothing there. It was just part of whatever Wanda created for you.
You take the opportunity and open the living room window and jump through it. The main and back doors are locked at night and only your father has the key. One night when he left you outside all night after getting late 3 minutes after your curfew, you made sure to break the lock on the leaving room window in case of an emergency. They never opened it so never noticed it.
You see the bathroom light is still on. You count to ten before sprinting toward the driveway and towards Wanda’s house, hoping to find her. At this point, you’ll be happy to find Agatha or even Monica.
Before you arrive at her house you stop. You don’t even know if your theory is correct but at this point of your life, you’re ready to risk it. 
You get there and look for her house. All you see is an empty lot.
No house, no construction, not even the reminiscent of anything. You start to panic.
“No, no, no, no”
Your breath gets shallow and your eyes are burning from your tears. You look frantically trying so desperately to find a sign of her. Anything but there’s nothing.
“You shouldn’t be here… Y/N”
Her thick accent makes you turn so fast your neck hurts.
“Wanda” you say with relief in your voice. She’s taken aback, clearly not expecting it. Her eyes are swollen and her red outfit is nowhere to be seen. Instead, she’s wearing a black hoodie.
You take a step towards her but she takes one back. You stop. 
“What are you doing here?”
“I…”
You don’t know. You just wanted to see her. The night air is colder or maybe is just your nerves. You hug yourself in order to get some warmth into your body. Your pj’s aren’t exactly the warmest ones.
She sees this and conjures a thick jacket around you. When you say nothing she continues putting some bags into her car. A black and heavy-looking bag pack at her shoulders. 
“You’re leaving?”
“I don’t think I’m welcoming here anymore Y/N. You should go home”
It’s the panic of not seeing her again, of her leaving you that has you getting closer to her and taking her wrist, stopping whatever task she was doing.
“Take me with you”
“What?” Her voice is barely a whisper but in the silence of the night is so loud she might be well yelling at you.
“Take me whit you Wanda… please”
You don’t beg. Never. Not after learning at a young age it only brought more problems, your father never stopped if you begged, it just enraged him more, so you learn to never beg, for anything.
She sees your hand on her wrist and feels the emotions swilling around you. She dares not to look at your mind but your thoughts are so loud she can’t help to see half of the abuse you have suffered. 
A small gasp leaves her lips.
“Why do you want to go with me? I’m a monster. You saw it yourself”
“You’re not a monster. Not to me”
She’s still watching your hand. Your voice is just a whisper.
“I trapped you here”
“You freed me”
“I controlled your mind!”
“You saved me!”
“You... I… what?” She’s speechless, her nose scrunched in this little way you always thought cute.
“I don’t know the extend of what happened or how it happened, All I know is that my life was hell, literal hell and then you came into Westview and…”
“I should never have done what I did Y/N. You should be afraid of me”
“I’m not”
“Well you should”
You can tell she’s getting exasperated. Her eyes flashing red.
“Wanda… pozhaluysta”
It’s that little world in her native langue that has her seeing you for the first time this night. She sees your eyes and sees all the pain and anguish you have. She sees the same reflected in her eyes.
A plea in your eyes. You don’t see her as a monster or the Scarlet Witch. When you see her, she can see hope in your eyes.
She joined the Avengers and fought at their side to save people. The recent events after Thanos sidetracked her and blinded her. She was grieving and in pain… and did things she never thought of doing. Was she really what Hydra, Ultron, Agatha, and a lot of people said she was? Someone to be afraid of?
But you were here and as much as she just wants to grieve and is suffering, she has the chance again of being a hero. To make the effort and fight for once she once fought, to be worthy again, to make Vision sacrifice worth, to fight for the love she once felt.
“Okey”
The smile you give her is prof enough she can start again.
When Wanda left Westview and all its habitants, they felt relieved, left to their own devices to rebuild their old lives and to never heard from her again. Except for you. 
You were leaving with her, escaping from the real prison you lived before she came into your life and offered you your salvation in disguise.
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pigeonp0st · 4 years
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Oh you could write one where reader and Supergirl are fighting together against some supervillain and reader gets hurt and almost dies and Kara is freaking out because she can't lose her girlfriend and just... angst (please don't kill reader though, i'm begging you)
Kara Danvers x Reader #5
Words: 1,905
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Warnings: Angst, Explosion not described in detail. Just an aftermath.
Notes:
MWHAHAHA! I technically didn’t listen to your plead...so i’m sorry? (Thank you for the request and sorry for all spelling mistakes)
——
They were kids.
You weren’t bulletproof like Kara, definitely not grenade proof, you knew that...but they were kids. Kids clutching onto their mom looking terrified. Terrified that their mom would get hurt, terrified that the three of them were going to die.
You’re terrified too. Lately as your life has gotten better with Kara, beautiful, caring Kara, you’ve been getting more scared everyday, scared that something was going to happen to ruin your happiness.
The fear is almost enough to paralyze you when you see the latest National City supervillain get ready to throw the grenade, but alas...when the man throws the grenade the stupid instinct to protect overtakes you and you jump into the air to catch it like a ball, before it can get to close to the family.
You’re more invincible than them, even if you’re not nearly as invincible as Kara...it’s time to test that theory, you think bitterly.
Turns out—when the grenade goes off and a piercing scream hits the air—you’re not that much more invincible than a regular human.
Kara, you think, tears running down your face, Kara, Kara, Kara. Kara. Everything hurts but all you can think about is Kara and whether or not she’s going to be okay fighting without you. Forever, possibly. Fighting without you forever, and just thinking about your death feels like ice water being poured over you until the cold sinks in and it’s just panic.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
It takes moments before she’s by your side, moments that feel like a lifetime, she was slowed by the kryptonite she was fighting against and wasn’t able to get to you in time when the grenade went off but now she’s here, and she’s sobbing. Sobs that wrack her body, and you’re trying to sit up despite the ringing in your ear.
“Kara!” You yell, eyes wide, and you don’t want to be doing this to her, you want to pretend like you’re okay with this—you want to be strong for her—but you can’t. You can’t, because holy fuck. Fuck. “I can’t feel my legs, Kara. Baby, I can’t feel anything. I can’t...why can’t I move?”
Kara places a hand on your chest, and you can feel that, it hurts, “Alex,” she says into the comms, “it’s Y/N...she’s badly injured. I can’t bring her to the DEO, I can’t fly; the kryptonite is still in the air around us, and I can’t move her away from it either.”
You hear Kara’s panicked voice next to you, and when you focus you hear it in your own comms.
Alex’s voice crackles through immediately, and even she sounds scared, “how bad, Kara?”
“She says she can’t feel her legs, and she...she’s losing a lot of blood. She’s cold, too, and her breathing is labored,” Kara’s practically ranting now, her fingers shaking against your chest. “I’d put pressure on the wound but there’s a lot of blood and I don’t know—”
You turn your face away from Kara when her hand travels to your cheek, and you try to tune her out, because her face...it really says everything about your condition, and you don’t want to hear Kara talk about all of the ways you’re dying.
You catch the last thing Alex says and it fills you with dread that makes your bones feel even heavier, “keep her awake, Kara. There’s no telling if she’ll wake up again if she falls asleep now.”
Kara’s resulting sob rips your heart to shreds.
“I didn’t realize until I met you how much I don’t want to die,” you tell her after a moment filled with her cries. You’ve never felt so scared in your life (besides after Kara’s fight with Reign) “but I really don’t want to, Kara. I really don’t want to.”
“You won’t,” Kara says, trying to give you a reassuring smile, “you won’t because I need you to stay. What am I supposed to do without you?” She tries to laugh afterwards but it’s really just a choked sound, and you can hear the fear in her words.
The iron taste that was on your tongue felt like death, but now as you slowly start to taste it less, and as the smell of gasoline slowly slips away, you wonder if this is really a sign of death. The reapers signature.
“You’ll live.” You say, “you have to. There’s no other choice.” Your voice is filled with too much certainty for a dying woman, “It’ll be fine. You’ll get to eat the last popsicle in the fridge,” a humorless chuckle forces its way out of your throat, “I hid it. It’s under the frozen peas.”
You can tell by the look on Kara’s face what she’s thinking about. A half empty bed when she goes home alone to your shared apartment, your favorite mug sitting on the counter half full of cold coffee, your dishes still in her sink—your sink—your clothes in the washing machine, your…
“I can’t,” Kara whispers, her voice filled with the amount of sorrow only she can manage, “I can’t lose two of my worlds. I’m not strong enough.”
Kara Zor-El not being strong enough. It’s a humorous thought. You know Kara will fight, she’ll fight because it’s all she knows. She’ll find her reason. She won’t give up on the world, even if she gives up on herself for some time. It’s the one thing you need to be sure of right now.
“Yeah you are,” you mumble, trying to lift your shaky hand to cup her cheek. She grabs a hold of your hand and helps you to your destination. You try not to scream curses at the world at the sight of your blood on her pale cheek. “You, Kara Danvers, are an anomaly in the way you never let anything knock you down.”
“This is enough,” Kara promises, and it’s the last promise you’d ever want to hear from her, “you’re enough to ruin me.”
“Kara,” you whisper, hating the world so furiously in that moment for all it wants to take. “That’s the last thing I want to hear...I only ever want to build you up.”
“And you do,” Kara says, “but love really does both, doesn’t it? Sometimes it hurts as much as it heals.”
“That isn’t fair,” you whimper out, and Kara nods against your hand, closing her eyes and trying not to breathe in the smell of your blood.
Moments later Kara opens her eyes in a panic after realizing that you haven’t spoken, only to see you trying to blink your eyes awake. She squeezes your hand repeatedly, trying to get your attention. “Y/N, it’s not time.” She tells you desperately, “it’s not time.”
One of her tears fall against your cheek, causing you to pout. “Stop crying,” you slur, delirious from the blood loss, “I resent it when you cry because of me.”
Kara shakes her head, only crying harder.
You smile up at her sadly, “I'm sorry i’m dying.” And you mean it.
“Stop saying that,” Kara pleads, like it’s breaking her, “stop.”
You wish you could give Kara what she wants but your eyelids are getting heavier and heavier and you don’t think you have much time. “Just tell Alex to name a kid after me, or at least tell her to name a fish after me.”
Kara’s shaking her head and shaking your arm, trying to get you to open your eyes again, “Y/N! Hey! Stop, come on, baby, just open your eyes…”
You try, you really do, you’ve never tried so hard to listen before, and it works for a moment, just for a second you manage to open your eyes, much to Kara’s relief, and that’s when you finally notice a crowd of people and a slumped alien (the man you two were fighting) a little ways behind you and Kara. When did Kara do that to him? When did the people come?
It’s when you see Alex though, rushing out of a black van, that you feel some sort of relief. Alex will protect Kara when you’re gone. You’re sure of it.
“Wake up! Wake up,” Kara sobs, “Alex, Alex—please, she’s not—”
“She died, Kara, in the van, we managed to bring her back...but things are looking uncertain right now. For now, the best thing you can do is look after yourself”
Kara’s glowing red eyes snap up from the floor towards Alex. Her powers have been going haywire since they arrived at the DEO. “Save her,” Kara pleads, voice hoarse from crying. “Please.”
It’s late at night after Kara hears your heart stop (the second time) that she gets placed in kryptonite handcuffs.
Alex doesn’t want to do it but Kara isn’t in control of her powers anymore, and she almost seriously hurt someone. Multiple times.
Kara doesn’t leave your side after they get your heart going again, she can’t hear your heart with the kryptonite on so the only thing she can take comfort in is the beeping of your heart monitor.
You wake up two weeks after your accident.
Kara’s asleep next to you when you do.
You’re confused and thirsty so it takes you several long moments for you to remember what happened, and once you do you’re sobbing hard, crying loud enough to startle awake a sleeping Kara.
She freezes when she sees you, you’re curled up in the hospital bed and shaking with your relief and the leftover fear, and she’s watching you like she doesn’t know what to do now that you’re awake.
She’s been praying for this moment, imagining it, waiting for it day after day, minute after minute, second after second, but now that it’s actually happened she’s paralyzed with her overwhelming emotions.
“Y/N?” Kara stutters, eyes filling with her own tears of relief.
You laugh at Kara’s face, loud and completely joyful, and suddenly she’s sobbing too, grinning all the while, because you’re here—finally— you’re gonna be okay. You’re gonna be okay, and you’re laughing, and the world is finally okay again too.
“Damn, weren’t we dramatic?” You smirk, paying no mind to the tears running down your or her face.
Kara laughs, pulling you into a careful hug (she got her handcuffs taken off only a day ago). “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too,” you whisper back, tightening your hold on Kara as much as you can and simply breathing her in. Breathing life in.
“I feel like i’m dreaming,” Kara says after a while, voice trembling. You feel like you're dead...and like you're in heaven. Is this heaven?
“You aren’t,” you reassure Kara anyways.
She nods against your shoulder, shaking even harder than you were. “Are you okay?” You ask worriedly.
“you’re the one who had to go and die two times.”
“Nearly three times,” Alex says from the doorway.
You notice Kara tense and shift in front of you until she realizes it’s just Alex, and you think that’ll probably be something you two will have to talk about, but for now you roll your eyes at Alex and say, much to both Kara’s and her amusement; “the only reason you tried so hard to save me is because you didn’t want to name your kid after me, isn’t it?”
Alex’s shrug and “maybe” gets a glare from Kara and a smirk from you.
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Train Cars and Sun Spots - Kaminari Denki
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—/—
You think he’s beautiful.
A disarming, reckless sort of beautiful as he barrels into the train, jumping headfirst through the doors just seconds from closing. He erupts into a flurry of fidgeting as he skids to a stop, one hand patting down his wild blonde hair and the other dusting off his sweats. It’s like he can’t sit still. Like he’s got an itch in his skin that’s shifting his weight around, balancing on one foot and then the other- rinse and repeat as he grabs onto the handrail above his head for stability.
Another second passes and then he’s pulling a plastic water bottle from his bag, twisting it open and crinkling the plastic. It seems to you that that he’s trying to make as much noise possible, but then you notice his headphones. They’re black and yellow, undeniably playing at full blast in his ears. You then decide it’s much more likely that he just can’t hear himself- that he somehow doesn’t realize how much of a scene he’s making in the otherwise quiet train car.
You find it a little refreshing, him seemingly appearing out of nowhere. You’d been riding this train for weeks now, to and from school, and you’d seen the same people day after day. The same old businessmen and their same old brief-cases and their same old silence. Not him though- never him and his noise. You were sure you’d remember hearing someone as loud as him.
Still, you try not to stare.
Although, you suppose, it wouldn’t really matter. He probably wouldn’t be able to pick you out of all the other people staring. It’s like he’s got the entire train car arrested and staggered; all eyes stuck on the strange boy who was moving far too much for a 7:00AM commute.
Shifting in your seat, you balanced your book higher in your hands. You hoped that by just barely skimming your eyes over the top, hiding inconspicuously behind the pages, you could look and not be noticed.
You were wrong.
When you glance over at him, he’s already looking at you. He’s got eyes like molten gold, and when he smiles they crinkle closed into happy little slits. That smile is easy and unrelenting when he pushes away from the handrail, hands shoved into his pockets as he nears.
“Hey there!”
His words are friendly, but god, if his voice isn’t loud. You wince, beginning to think that you’d severely underestimated the volume of his music. You’re sure now that it absolutely must be bursting his eardrums.
“Oh-“ He looks sheepish. Then he’s yanking the headphones from his ears, and dropping into the seat next to you. “Too loud, right? Sorry! Didn’t realize.”
You’re stunned.
At first, it seemed unbelievable that this conversation could’ve arised from just a single glance; but then you look a little closer, at his shifting eyebrows and his grin that’s colored shades of flirtatious and it’s a little more believeable. You realize quickly that’s all it ever would’ve taken with him- A single look.
“I’m Kaminari.” He announces confidently, your silence not deterring him in the slightest. “Kaminari Denki.”
“Oh. Okay. Um, hi?”
“Hi!” He greets again, and then he’s pulling that same water bottle from his back. It’s crinkling and half-empty and he’s extending it to you. “Want some?”
It’s in the way his eyebrows wiggle, the mischeivous glint in his eyes- you can see his intentions plastered across his face. The water bottle’s just a front for an indirect kiss. Quite literally the oldest trick in the book.
You want to roll your eyes, but then you look at him again. At his bright eyes and long lashes and shaggy hair falling softly over his forehead. He’s the sort of pretty that gives a lot of second chances- you were no exception to that rule.
“No thanks.” You laugh, easily dazzled by his sunshine smile. You raise a palm to push the bottle away. “Keep it to yourself, yeah?”
“Aww, but you’re too cute not to share with!”
The line rolls off his tongue smooth and easy, and you’re sure now- Kaminari’s a flirt. A shameless, brazen one dripping honey between his words as he fluffs his hair. It’s all a little too natural, a little too practiced. It takes only seconds, and you know definitively that you’re far from the first girl he’s offered his water to.
He’s still cute though, if only in a fleeting way, so you decide to humor him. It’s not like you’ve got anything more pressing to attend to.
“Mhm. And just how often do you use that line, huh?” You ask, rolling your eyes playfully.
“I-“ He starts, but then he’s slouching into the seat laughing. “Yeah, maybe not my best work. Meant it though.”
“I’m sure you did.”
“No, really! I did!”
You look at him again.
Kaminari’s straightened himself, eyes earnest and smile kind as he gazes back. He’s fiddling with the strings on his sweatshirt, idly twirling them between his fingers. It’s a human gesture. Unrehearsed and unpracticed and seemingly only for your eyes. You begin to wonder if that’s his real tactic- coming on strong just to melt into warm, sun-soaked softness.
“Alright. I believe you. Maybe.” You say. “But you’re on thin ice, Kaminari.”
“I’ll take it!” He fist-bumps the air. “See normally, I’d be totally crashing and burning by now!”
“So you are admitting I’m not the first girl you’ve tried that on?”
“What I- Okay. Yes? Maybe?” He laughs nervously, hand once again twirling his sweatshirt strings. “In my defense, I’m not the smartest guy, alright?”
“Nor the quietest either.”
“What?”
He’s got his head turned, cocked to the side as he blinks slowly at you. You think he looks like a confused puppy.
“You practically screamed at me when you said hi.” You tell him easily, letting an amused smile crawl across your lips. “Kinda thought I was being yelled at for a second.”
“Oh. Yeah, sorry! Really! I didn’t mean to do that.”
“It’s okay. Can I give you just a little advice, though?”
“Sure?”
“Don’t scream at the next girl and then immeadiately offer her something to drink. That’s generally pretty suspicious.”
You watch the light leave Kaminari’s eyes and then he folds in his seat. He snaps at the waist, dropping his face into his palms and letting out a theatric groan.
“God, I messed this up.” He whines, peeking at you through his fingers. “Messed up real bad, didn’t I?”
“A little,” You laugh. “But it’s alright.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. You’re good.”
He smiles then, so relieved and happy and just downright giddy that it nearly blinds you. It’s the kind of smile that makes you think he swallowed the sun; like rays of light were bursting through the tiny gaps in his teeth.
“So, what’s your name then?” He asks.
“L/n Y/n.”
“Y/n. Hmm, I like it.” He sighs happily. “Pretty.”
“That’s my first name.”
“I know.” He grins, all pearly whites and crows feet. You think he’s got a dangerous smile- one that lets him get away with anything. “Figured we’re close enough for that, right?”
“I’ve known you for two minutes.”
“Hey, 2 minutes, 2 hours, 2 years- who’s counting?”
“Me.”
“Okay, well good then.” He snickers. “Because I’m like, really bad at math- Wait. Shit. Should I have told you that?”
“Probably not.”
“Man, I am bad at this.” He whines. His knees knock into yours when he throws himself back into his seat. “It’s not my fault, alright? Usually I never get this this far with girls like you.”
“Girls like me?”
“Mhm. Cute ones.”
“Oh my god.” You roll your eyes, only so forgiving. “Really laying it on thick, huh?”
“For sure. My stop’s next so I gotta make sure you actually like me at some point in the next few minutes.”
Something evil slithers into your mind, and you’re smirking when you turn toward him. There’s just an inkling, a tiny little theory in your head, and you want to test it.
“Who said I didn’t already like you?”
Kaminari jumps, his cheeks reddening by the second. There’s nothing cool or composed about him and your theory is confirmed.
Kaminari is a dork. A massive, massive, dork desperately pretending to be a cool guy.
“I- what? You like me?” He asks excitedly, voice rising higher. “Seriously? Like, actually?”
“Sure.” You giggle. “You seem pretty harmless, all things considered.”
“That’s- is that a compliment?” He asks playfully, squinting his eyes at you. “Because harmless wasn’t exactly what I was going for.”
“Oh, so you were trying to creep me out?”
“No!” He shakes his head, cheeks slightly flushing as he laughs.
You giggle too, unable to help yourself. Kaminari really is cute, a lot more so when he’s not recycling tired lines.
“You’re mean.” He smiles something small and pleased. “I like it.”
Suddenly the train car jolts, brakes squeaking and squealing as it skids to a stop. You rock forward with the force, and Kaminari knocks his shoulders into yours. When you look at his face, he’s got that mischevious glint back in his eyes, as he bites down on his lip. A second passes and then he touches his shoulders into yours again.
“Really sorry.” He smirks. “Bumpy ride, you know?”
You roll your eyes again, but you are actually feeling a bit charmed. He’s got a sneaky way of buttering people up, you realize- of somehow weaponizing his own embarrassment.
“But I actually do have to go.” He stands, and then he’s pressing his hands together and winking. “I’ll see you here same time tomorrow, right?”
“I don’t know, are you gonna yell at me again?”
“Absolutely! Gottta yell at all the pretty girls, you know?”
“Stop.” You laugh, blushing. You nod towards the doors. “I’ll be here, but go. Door’s gonna close, you dork.”
Kaminari nods and then he’s shoving his headphones back in, still crinkling that water between his fingers. There’s nothing quiet about him as he leaves and you come to think that maybe that’s how he really gets you- it’s not with lines or indirect kisses or grace, it’s with air that seems uncomfortably vacant when he leaves. It’s with the vaccuum he leaves behind.
You watch the doors close after him, but he’s stops on the platform, shooting you a thumbs up through the window. There’s a goofy grin plastered across his face, wide and sunny and brillant. It’s the kind of smile that leaves you wondering if Kaminari knows just how brightly he shines.
When the train kicks into motion again, you’re smiling too, rubbing your eyes as you blink away the sun spots he left behind.
//—//
jus a lil somethin for denki,, as a ~treat~,,, may or may not turn this into a tiny lil series we’ll see :))))
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fakeloveaskblog · 3 years
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aw, sweet loceit in the evening sun. logan is actually super good at explaining healthy relationships and boundaries and stuff actually, i betcha he could recognize abuse no problem
…aye remy! REMY!! HAve you thought about going to that gay bar more often? who knows, maybe you'll encounter someone nice, make friends with like-minded people, hear some disco, the full nine yards. janus might be there, remus might be there. (just look around for the guy with the blue tie, he's a great guy, if he's not wearing it he'll look like he has that blue tie kinda energy! you could totally just get drunk and unload your grievances on him and i bet he won't even mind!)
(Mentions of U!Virgil but I say beforehand when that happens so those who don’t like U!Virgil can enjoy the rest of the fic up until then)
(Words: 4100)
Remy wiped away a tear while looking at your message. The cold light from their phone was the only thing brightening up the room. Virgil was sleeping beside them, his arm was laid around their waist.
"You just like tots gave me the greatest idea! I'm gonna invite Rem out to the bar! It's gonna the funnest thing like ever! Thanks girl!!"
--
2 days later Remus was dangerously close to eating the moss straight from the gay bar's wall. He had been left without supervision for over 15 minutes while he sat outside waiting for his friend to show up, what else was he supposed to do?!
"SSSSUUUP BABE!!!"
Remy came towards him as fast as they could. They had on a short leather skirt, a neon mesh crop top and a leather jacket over it.
They did a little turn "I just like felt a bit glamorous today!" 
Remus choked on his own spit "The world must be a dark place when you aren't feeling glamorous"
"Awwww babbbe"
He sent them a big grin. He'd just put on his usual oversized dysphoria hoodie and matching oversized (:O) sweatpants.
Remus' smile disappeared in an instant as he noticed dark bruises all around Remy's neck. Shades of purple and green collided against each other.
"Ehm did a vampire come and attack you last night? Seriously are you alri-"
"JUst a reminder that it will be loud in there" Remy interrupted.
"Oh. Right!"
He fumbled around in his bag after his headphones. After putting it and a chew necklace on he did a thumbs up. Remy took off their sunglasses and leaned down so they were face to face.
Their face was so close he could feel their breathe against his lips. They put the sunglasses onto him and sent him a soft smile.
“There’s like lots of bright lights too” They explained.
Remus’ heart fluttered. He didn’t understand why “T-thanks”
They moved their arm around his shoulders as they went into the bar. It was past 12 am so some of the daytime furniture had been moved to make place for a dancefloor. There was indeed lots of neon lights flickering all around the bar and fast pop music was blasting through the speakers.
It was hard to see any details of anyone around him so Remus quickly forgot about the bruise. In this lighting it just looked like a weird choker anyway.
A guy with a see through shirt bumped into Remus. He had top surgery scars. For a moment they looked at each other in the most knowing way. The stranger looked away and continued talking with whoever he was with.
Remus whole body seemed to vibrate. There were so many butterflies in his stomach it felt like he was going to puke, in a good way.
Remy sat him down on one of the tall barstools and slumped down right next to him “So whatcha gonna drink?”
“The squashed down organs of my enemies!!!” He shrugged “Soda?”
They burst out into laughter “What? You catholic or something? Not allowed to drink alcohol?”
He slumped in on himself and started fiddling with his necklace “I-I dunno-”
“No. No babe I was just like joking. Like a stupid bitch. It’s okay” They waved at the waiter “Your most alcoholic fruit mix and your finest coca cola please!”
Remus leaned in to whisper “With salt”
“With salt? Please!”
He kept vibrating like an overexcited weasel. After getting their drinks he kept tapping the glass to stim some of the happiness out.
“Honestly I’ve never been to a gay bar before. I’m digging it. Just like how I’m digging graves”
They playfully hit his shoulder “Then I’m tots gonna try my best to make this the  ultimate first gay bar experience! I can’t think of any other lil fucked up gremlin buddy I would wanna have by my side!”
"Muhahah!! I am officially assigned ultimate gremlin buddy-”
“Greetings” A voice suddenly came from behind them.
Both of them flinched away. Remy let out a short yell and Remus was close to throwing his drink in the person’s face when he saw it was just Logan.
He had on jeans and a black button up with the top button unbottoned. He had with him iced coffee from starbucks because he had to drive home later.
“LOGIE!!!” Remy threw their arms around his neck to pull him closer “Babe this is the Log-legend. Once he was like sooo drunk so when he like tried to kiss me puked on my shoes instead!”
Logan grimaced “I am still very sorry about that”
“Oh I already know him through Janus” Remus replied. 
“Oh my gawd babe” Remy looked between them all “So like we all know Janny?! Wig! Sad he isn’t here then”
Remus held up his cola “Cheers to J-anus!” The other two held up their glasses in agreement.
“Cheers”
“Cheerio!”
“He is very pretty and charming and cute” Logan dreamily sighed. He stopped himself from continuing to say compliments.
“Yeah” The other two sighed back in unison.
Logan sat down on a chair next to them. Remy looked around the bar before squinting at him “No Patty?”
He instantly started looking like a Very sad seal “Sadly my wife is away on a convention with her magical girl anime fanclub this whole week. I estimated that going to the bar would make me feel less lonely”
“You have a WIFe??? Like a real one???” Remus exclaimed, his eyeballs were close to popping out from surprise.
“Yes. This may be a controversial opinion but when I marry someone I prefer them to be physically real” He replied druly.
He got a smug grin on his lips “Does she peg you?”
“She does far more than just peg me”
“Nice!” His eyes went even wider “IS That a stim toy??!”
He pointed at the tangle Logan kept between his fingers “Correct. If I do not have something to relieve my focus onto I can easily go into senso- OH a chewie?”
Remus nodded while showing of his chew necklace. The two of them started rambling about their favorite stim toy. Until they went off into special interests (star trek/astronomy and art/animal biology respectively).
Soon enough Remus was showing pictures of the animal bones he’d found. Logan ooeh and ahhed at all of them before asking the most nerdy of questions (where he’d found them, their bone density, if any damage had been done to them) which only made Rem infodump which made Lo infodump which made them both happy stim.
Meanwhile Remy sat beside them completely zoned out. They got time to drink 2 more of those fruit mixes and a few shots. The room was starting to spin.
The loud music wasn’t keeping out the yelling. They dunked their forehead against the bar table and covered their ears to try and get it out. The music was supposed to keep it out! Why was nothing working! The bruise ached. Their throat closed in on itself until they couldn’t breathe. 
“Remus” They gasped out. They looked over to their friend with a desperate look in their eyes. They just needed a distraction.
“So my theory for why you keep finding bones in specifically that part of the woods is because of the kind of dirt making it take longer for them to deco-” Logan was explaining while Remus nodded along.
“Rem! L-let’s like go up and dance or something. Please” 
This time it caught Remus’ attention. He looked over to them “Sure- are you feeling alright? Did you drink too much? You’re looking like a mummy”
“Yes. No. I just like- Like- They’re playing Charli xcx of course we gotta like dance!!”
“I will protect your belongings then” Logan added.
Remy stumbled up on shaky legs. Remus sent them a warm smile that made them want to cry before taking their hand. He let them lead him out to the dancefloor. Honestly he was pretty nervous about it, but being with them always made some of the anxiety melt away.
They stumbled on their own feet and fell forward. Their friend took ahold of their wrists and pulled them close to his chest. Their faces were so close to each other. So so close.
He didn’t let go. They couldn't remember him ever letting them hold him this close. Their chests pressed against each other. Their arms around his shoulders. His hands on their back. 
"You’re right. It is a good song. Good to crash a car too" Remus said absentmindedly.
Remy let up into shaky giggles from how sudden he’d said it “Yeah. Yeah I guess” 
They kept giggling. He chuckled back. He started spinning around on the dancefloor. They moved with him. His arms wrapped closer around their waist. Their cheek leaned against the slope of his neck (even though they had to lean down to get on his height level).
Remy quietly sang along to the music which made Remus start yelling along to it. The enby threw their head back from laughter. They took his hand and intertwined their fingers.
Remus moved his hand out and spun them around before pulling them close again. Their cheeks were flushed red, his was as well. He playfully dipped them down when the song ended.
It continued on into a song neither of them knew but they kept dancing anyway. They didn’t stay as pressed close to each other but they always had some contact. Holding hands. An arm around a waist. A head leaning against a chest.
When they finally got back to the bar table they were both panting. Remy was completely leaning on Remus since their body had started to hurt, but even through the pain they were both bubbling over with so much happiness they kept breaking out into bouts of giggling.
To their surprise Logan wasn’t sitting alone. A tall person with long dark hair sat on the chair beside him. Xir hand was on his thigh. The nerd had a soft smile on his face as they leant close to talk.
“Uh Lo?” Remus had to wave his arms around to get his attention.
His head shot around to look at them “Hello” He glanced to the person “These are the ones I was protecting belongings for” He stood up and held out his hand “Shall we?” Xir took it. Logan waved at his friends before going off to the dancefloor with the stranger.
“Huh. Good for him” 
“I guess”
Remy ordered another high alcohol fruit mix. Remus happily chewed on his necklace while humming along to the music. Between their chairs their hands hang with their fingers intertwined. Holding their hand had started to make Remus feel all funny in the head for some reason.
The enby watched on as Logan and the stranger danced for a bit before moving to a corner to make out. When the stranger started to lead him towards the bar’s bathrooms Remy turned to their friend.
“Yeah okay he’s not coming back for like a while. Smoke break?”
“Of course!”
They finished their drink before leaving the bar. The pair stopped right outside. Remus sat down on the side of the pavement. Remy tried to sit down but they stumbled over themself and fell flat on the ground.
Remus got up to help “Are you okay? Are you sure you haven’t drank too much?”
“I’m fine. I’m fine” They laughed out.
He sat them down on the pavement while dusting off their clothes. He patted them on the head while pouting “You should get some water”
“Naaaah babe. I’m good”
In the moonlight the bruise was visible again. That horrible dark purple bruise around their neck. It looked like it hurt.
Remus put his hand on their shoulder “Beanie are you alright? I do know it wasn’t some halloween monster that got you that bruise”
For a moment their whole body tensed, they forced a smile “It’s fine. me and my boyf just tried like some new kinky shit in the bedroom y’know. Nothing more” They lied.
They took out a cigarette pack and a lighter from their bag. They traced their thumb over Remus’ lower lip and opened his mouth just slightly. Remy leaned closer while putting a cigerette between his lips. They lit it.
Remus took a deep breathe. It’d been a while since he’d last smoked. He leaned so close the cigarette nearly touched Remy’s skin. They parced their lips as he breathed out the smoke right into their mouth.
A smile spread on their lips. He held the cigarette over to them but they shook their head. They looked around in their bag again and took out a small poppers bottle.
“Should you really take that. Won’t your brain melt out of your ears?” Remus asked “I really don’t wanna have to slorp up your brain juice...yet”
“Relax babe. It’s like not dangerous as long as I don’t like take too much and I only take when partying” It took a moment before they quietly added “And I only party when I need to get out of the apartement”
“What?”
They forced on a bigger smile “What?”
Remy moved the popper up to their nose and inhaled as much of it as they could. It took a few seconds before they let up into a giggle. It was in a higher tone than their usual bubbly laugh, it almost sounded like cackling. They could see stars.
(U!Virgil mentions from here on out)
“Y’know my boyfriend gave me like a flashback or whatever last night” They giggled while swaying from side to side.
Remus gently grabbed their shoulders and moved them to lean against him so they wouldn’t fall over “Uhu. Did you stab him?”
“No silly. He just. He’d been soooo sweet all weeek and I just I just ruined it ‘cause i like overeacted to some joke he made while like we were washing the dishes” They were barely even aware they were speaking “And like it just kept going until we were like screaming at each other”
Remy was still smiling and giggling between every word but tears started to form in their eyes. Their fingers felt numb. Bile was rising in their throat.
“And he just like threw the plate he was holding down on the ground. And it like didn’t hit me. He wasn’t even aiming at me. He was just throwing it at the ground. But it shattered and it was so stupid and overemotional and stupid and pathetic but I just I just curled up on the floor and like had a panic attack like a stupid baby”
They smeared their hand across their face to try and get the tears away. They felt sick. Remus quickly put out his cigarette, it didn’t feel like the right time to smoke.
“And I just like- Is that normal? Is that fine? Like throwing stutff like that? I-I- he’s never done it before. Or I mean like not plates” They looked up at Remus “Is it fine?”
He gulped while fiddling with his hoodie sleeve “Well uh did he apologize?”
“Mhmm. He like- like for some minutes he like kept yelling ‘cause he thought I was just like faking a panic attack to like I dunno manipulate him but then he like comforted me and like calmed me down and like held me and cuddled all night until I fell asleep and- and he said sorry a bunch of times and like he said it would never happen again. He uh usually doesn’t lie”
“Well ehm then it should be fine right? Right?” They both shrugged at each other “I mean everyone can make mistakes! And it was during an argument! Everyone does drastic things during an arguments! So it’s fine. I think”
A shaking breathe of relief left Remy’s lips. They stretched themself over his lap and he moved his arms around them. “Thanks babe. I was like tots worried for a bit but y’know i was thinking like that too. So it’s fine”
“Yeah” He combed his fingers through their hair “You do know you can vent to me whenever right? I promise I won’t gross you out with details about how to pull out rabbit teeth ever again so if I can hold that back then I can also listen to stuff! I can super listen!!”
They closed their eyes. They felt so tired. So tired and sick and horrible. “Mhm. I know babe. I know”
Remy sent him a soft smile before suddenly puking. Some of it came on his pants but mostly on the ground. Remus stood up and carefully moved them down to a sitting position.
He rubbed up and down their back with one hand and held their hair back with his other. Their shoulders were shaking and they were taking in shallow breathes between every sudden throw up.
“It’s okay beanie-boo. Breathe. Breathe. You got all the time in the world. Until the sun blows up at least”
“I-I took- too much- too much” They slurred out before lurching forward again. It seemed to stop for now.
“I’m aware” He carefully wiped away some of the puke left around their mouth with his hoodie sleeve.
They leaned back against his chest. They closed their eyes and focused on breathing. He held them so so gently. As if they would break like glass otherwise. He pressed a kiss to the top of their head.
“There you are!” Logan said as came through the bar entrance “What a relief. I assumed you had left without me because you thought my actions were unacceptable” He noticed how pale and shaky Remy looked and got a worried look on his face “Is everything alright?”
“They feel like someone has slammed a fish into their stomach. Not good” Remus replied.
“I see. I suppose it woud be best to get them home”
Logan picked Remy up with ease to carry them to his car. He was quite sure he’d carried dogs that weighted more than them. Remus anxiously followed along.
He sat them in the passenger seat. He shook their shoulders until they opened their eyes. They let out a quiet whine.
He held up 4 fingers “Remy how many fingers am I holding up?”
“Fuck yourself”
“Noted”
They moved to the side and seemed to pass out again. Logan closed the door before turning to Remus.
“Did they take anything?” He whispered.
“Only a popper”
“Good. Do you need a ri-”
“Bus”
“Okay” Logan was about to go but stopped midstep and lowered his voice even more “Oh and Rem...Could you please not ask Janus to hang out next weekend? I am planning a surprise...I hope it will make him happy”
“Good luck comrade....Please text me once Remy is home safe. Please?”
“Of course”
He did a little nod before leaving. Logan got into the car. He couldn’t stop looking at the bruise around their neck. Remy continued to sleep for most of the ride until they they were 5 minutes or so away from their apartment. They suddenly flinched awake.
“Stop the car!” They gasped out. 
“Are you still feeling the same?”
“Logan stop the fucking car!” There was fear in their eyes. 
Logan stopped by the side of the road. The road was barren and dark. It had to be past 3 am at least. Remy crawled back into the backseats while their whole body shook.
“Don’t. Look. At. Me”
“Sure” He stared down into the steering wheel to not accidentally see their reflection in the glass.
“I just. I just have to change clothes. I just. I don’t want Virigl to call me a whore again. I mean. He won’t. But what if. What if he gets mad. I just. I just have to change” They slurred out.
They stumbled out of the car after changing into a pair of long pants and closing their leather jacket. A cold chill went up Logan’s spine. He quickly stepped out of the car as well.
“Okay bye bye Logie!!”
They tried to move but Logan grabbed onto their shoulders. He forced back a choking feeling in his throat “What do you mean by your boyfriend getting mad?”
“Pff! It’s nothing! I’m drunk!! Byyyeeeeee”
They started to stumble away but Logan easily followed along “It did not sound like he called you a whor-...you know what...with your consent. I am simply going to remind you that calling a partner things like that is not okay. Not in any circumstance”
Remy’s expression turned cold. They walked faster “I don’t like what you’re implying”
“I’m not implying anything”
“Yes you Fucking are!”
“Exscuse me for being worried about your wellbeing. What you just said sounded like a very bad sign”
“Yeah exactly it only SOUnded bad! My boyfriend isn’t bad!” Remy snarled out.
“I am not saying he is. He doesn’t have to be bad to say awful things, as long as he changes”
They shoved their hands into their pockets. Their hands moved into fists “You don’t know a fucking thing about me. You tried to kiss me once when you were drunk and that’s all. We don’t know each other”
Logan took a deep breathe “I don’t need to know you to see red flags. Remy-” He searched for words “Remy you’re bruised. How- you can’t expect me to not get worried”
Remy suddenly stopped and turned around to meet his eyes. “MY BOYFRIEND ISN’T ABUSIVE! I-”
“I’m not necessarily saying he is. I just wan’t to talk-” His voice started to sound desperate.
They looked like a cornered animal. Tears were brimming at the edges of their eyes “YOU DON’T KNOW A THING!”
“Remy-”
“I DID THIS TO MYSELF!” Their hand went up to the bruise “I DESERVED IT! VIRGIL DIDN’T DO A FUCKING THING! I DID! I TOOK A BELT AND HURT MYSELF! OKAY?! VIRGIL CARES ABOUT ME!”
He tried to sound soothing “Remy please take a deep breathe-”
“NO! NO! YOU KNOW WHAT LOGAN?! THERE IS STILL CUM ON YOUR FUCKING LIPS FROM YOU SUCKING OFF SOME STRANGER IN A DIRTY BATHROOM! SO NO! I AM NOT TAKING LOVE ADVICE FROM SOMEONE WHO IS CHEATING ON HIS GODDAMN WIFE!”
They stormed away. For a moment Logan was frozen in place before he forced himself to run after them to try and make sure they would be okay.
“I am not-”
Remy looked at him for one last time. The look in their eyes made him feel cold. It was pure hatred.
“Logan get the fuck away from me! I am drunk and high and alone on a street with no one but you who is sure as hell fucking stronger than me and all you’re doing is spouting bullshit! So please get why I want you to leave. And why I don’t ever want you to talk to me again!”
He stopped dead in his tracks “...Right....Yes....I am so sorry”
Remy didn’t even respond. They simply turned and walked away. Logan stayed and watched to make sure they got home to the apartment safe before going back to his car.
He slumped down in the seat. His heart was racing and his thoughts were for once an illogical flurry. He sat motionless for several minutes before finally getting some semblence of an idea.
He took out his phone and dialed one of his usual numbers. It took several signals before Emile Picani picked up.
“Mhm? Logie bear? I can’t today I have clients in the morning” He yawned out.
“This is about one of your patients. I am fearing that they are in danger”
In an instant all of the sleepyness in Emile’s voice disappeared “In danger? Physical? Is it urgent? Do I need to call someone? Which patient are you even referring to?”
Logan hesitated. If Remy had reacted that strongly to him just attempting to ask about his boyfriend it was very likely that they would stop going to therapy if Emile brought it up. His throat tightened, he didn’t want to put them in any more danger.
“I....Nevermind Emile....This was just a far too gone joke...Someone dared me to call you. I am sorry. Have a good night”
He ended the call. He leaned his forehead against the steering wheel and let out a long sigh. His hands held onto the wheel so hard his knuckles whitened.
Logan had no idea what to do. No idea at all. All he knew was fear. Fear for Remy’s safety. Fear for their well being. Fear that anything he did would only make their situation worse.
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Desperate situations call for desperate measures. #Writer Wednesday 21/04/21
Pairing: Dave York x F!reader
Summary: You're desperate, with nothing to lose you accept helping one of your friends in what looks to be a very dubious job and the man in charge intimidates you and owns every single one of your thoughts since you met him
Warnings: I mean is Murder daddy Dave 🤷‍♀️. Blood, violence, guns, swearing, descriptions of anxiety and panic and sexual innuendo. Nothing too graphic but let me know if I should note anything else, thanks
A/N: I blame my national public TV channel for broadcasting The Equalizer 2 a few weeks ago, now I have THOTS and reading many amazing Fanfics on this site it's making it worse. Another Pedro's character I'm fascinated by (and would gladly be railed by). This is my second piece for #Writer Wednesday thank you for this again @autumnleaves1991-blog 🤗 I’m super excited to read what everybody has prepared for this week. No beta’d, sorry for any misspelling and terrible grammar.
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Everything that could go wrong went wrong.
Suddenly you’re walking with a pair of stupid high heels in a cold muddy path, there’s nothing but a few street lamps but this white fog surrounds the night like a thick cape blocking their light so you can see nothing, even the moon is invisible and above you there’s an only a dark immensity without stars.
Fuck, fuck, fuck you repeat trembling, this stupid silky dress and the thin shawl you wear doesn’t protect you for this freezing night. Stupid fucking dress, stupid fucking heels you mutter, your teeth chatter and you try to focus on the road and finding anything that could get you out of here without getting yourself killed. Your shoes appear to have heard your complaints when they snap and break and you almost fall down.
“FUCK!” you scream this time and instantly regretting it, you don’t know who could be listening. Now you can walk faster but the probability to lose one or a few of your toes is getting higher every minute that you expend walking barefoot through this dreadful place.
As an apparition, a miracle, you see a dim white light at the end of the road. You run, you could even smile if your face muscles were not frozen. You feel your tears forming warm trickles on your cheeks when you arrive to the phone booth. You haven’t use one in years, even thought they were extinct but now it is as if you had found God.
You open your small red velvet purse, so pathetically small that your phone couldn’t fit in it so you gave it to Tom, and now what? It’s inside his pocket, probably soaked in his blood. Soaked in blood of your dead friend. You stupid friend that got you into this situation on the first place.
“Whatever happens, if everything goes to shit, call this number” he had told you giving you a white card, a number and a name on it: Dave.
Your hands shake so much that you almost drop the card, but you place it on the small tray full of vulgar vocabulary and very graphic drawings inside the booth. You thank karma or whatever it’s up there that all your cards got cancelled last month and recently you relay on cash. A few quarters and cents, a few bills that you had stolen on your way to the club where you were supposed to do the jobwere all you had on your name now. And the rest, what you had saved, your clothes and the few luxuries you own; a book, an old picture and a plant, are gone, forever, they’re at Tom’s house and you know now that he’s dead and has botched the job you could never return to his home if you want to keep being alive. You stretch your fingers and take a deep breath before dropping the coins and dialing the number.
Please pick up, please pick up
You see the counter on the small screen eating your coins away. And you don’t have anything else
Please, please
“York”
his voice is deep, a slight tone of annoyance in it, logically because you’re calling at 2 AM
“Dave?”
“Yes, who’s this?” you shudder hearing him, you convince yourself it’s because you’re cold but you know it’s not. You’re thinking of the man that owns this velvety voice: brown dark eyes piercing you as if you were made of paper and he could read every little corner and secret that you keep
“I’m Tom’s friend, he’s dead, and now I’m on the middle of nowhere and I need help, please” you plea, your last words sound more like a little girl whimpers
“I’m on my way” and he hangs up
You’re left there looking even more scared and confused. You recoil to the small protection of the booth waiting for that man. That man that lurks in your dreams, that scares you and intrigues you and that has occupied every thought since you met him.
A week ago
“So, explain to me again, what are we doing?”
“You need the money or not?” Tom stops and confronts you in the middle of the road
“I need it, of course, but I want to know what I’m getting myself into before ending up dead or in jail” you say not moving until he is a little clearer
“We’re meeting with one of my boss’ men and he will give us something to hand to someone else in a place and a time they had accorded. And that’s it. You and I get paid and everybody’s happy” he says with a desperate smile “C’mon” he approaches you and squeeze gently your arms, he even bends a little to meet your gaze “you know I have many friends and I have proposed this to you, only you, haven’t I? Cos I trust you” he adds
“Because I’m fucking broke, Tom. The rest of your friends wouldn’t be as desperate as me” You blurt
“Okay, let’s meet him and if it doesn’t convince you, I’ll do it alone. C’mon, let’s not be late, he would not like that”
You nod reluctantly. You hope this dude would pay for lunch, you’re starving, you had some instant noodles last night and today your breakfast was the crumbs of cereals that Tom had left because he was too lazy to throw away the box.
The restaurant is clearly not made for people like you and Tom, the employees look at you up and down but when they’re about to kick you out, a big man approaches them and he guides you to a part of the local that is quite with a warm and intimate light. There’re a few tables but they’re all empty, the last one is occupied by a well-dressed man that looks at the both of you intently.
Your first thought is that he doesn’t look as you had expected. You were sure that Tom was involved with drug dealers and whatever the job entitled was about drugs, weapons or both. He looks like a middle-age business man, or a public agent. He wears a tailored dark gray suit, an elegant wool coat and he’s clean shaven, elegant shoes, expensive, you think. God, make him be nice enough so he pays for lunch
When you face him, although you stay behind Tom, your theories about the man crumble. His eyes, those dark brown orbs, are fixed at Tom and his defined jaw clenches, in a second his eyes are on you and you can’t stand his gaze much longer.
“Hi, Dave, I didn’t know I would be seeing you, I thought I’d be meeting Resnik as usual” Tom voice is high and shaky, so it confirms your thoughts; the man is dangerous even if he doesn’t look like it
“This is important, and you came accompanied” he tilts his head to you
“I thought this was a job for two” Tom takes a sit in front of him and Dave leans on his seat stretching his shoulders, he’s broad, strong, how did you think this man was no threat at all?
“You thought” he smirks and you freeze on your feet, is it too late to run away? “And what’s your name?”
You tell him, your voice sounds pathetic, a little too squeaky. He smiles and wet his lips with the tip of his tongue and suddenly every coherent thought that you could think is out of the window.
“Please take a sit” Dave appears to be a little bit more relax now, he crosses his hands over the table and smiles to the two of you “So why do you think you could be of service?”
“Well, it’s a club, a guy alone is usually a creep but if we go together we’re a couple, and they wouldn’t look at me if I’m with her” he chuckles and points at you
You open your mouth about to insult Tom and seeing that his intentions could be way more different that you thought. You’re not doing that kind of job
“Yeah” Dave agrees and looks at you up and down, he doesn’t avert his eyes when you look at him with you eyebrow raised. He’s not ashamed, he’s checking you out and he wants you to know it “It’s actually not a bad plan”
“I’m sorry, but whatis the plan?” you interrupt
“It’s simple, you and your boyfriend...”
“He’s not my boyfriend” you clarify
“Right” he seems to think about that for a few seconds, before he resumes the conversation “You two go to this club, there, you’ll meet the contact and you’ll give them this” he raises his hand and the big man that had previously taken you to the table gives him a black briefcase “There’re two things that are extremely important” He pushes the case towards you “one, you cannot open it and see what’s inside, I’ll know if you do. Two, whatever happens you must acquire the envelope that the contact would give to you in exchange for this”
“Consider it done, Dave” Tom reaches for the man and gently taps on his arm. You watches as the man tenses when he’s touched and if looks could kill...Tom would be dead on the ground in this very second
“I’m sorry, can I ask you a question?” you raise your hand and the tense moment passes when Dave looks at you and he’s smiling, actually a very warm smile
“Of course”
“You said whatever happens, what could happen? Who are we meeting?” you ask, Tom opens widely his eyes and kicks you under the table
“Don’t worry Tom, they are actually pretty good questions” when he switches his eyes to Tom, he’s back to that opaque stare that makes you tremble “I’m not going to lie to you, sweetheart” he sighs, the endearing term has made your belly turn and it’s not hunger, at least not the food type “this people are dangerous, and they could try to trick you into changing the terms of the agreement, or ask questions about me or any other thing, and you must stay put and seal the deal fast and easy. Don’t do anything stupid”
“Right... what’s inside the case?” you ask again, you try really hard not to avert your eyes, he has his eyes fixed on you, his gaze goes from your eyes to your lips and you squirm on your seat.
“I cannot tell you that” he shakes his head “but it’s something valuable, you have to be very careful with it”
“If we are caught by the police with that” you point to the briefcase “are we gonna be in trouble?”
He smirks and crosses his arms over his chest; you cannot prevent your eyes from admiring how the fabric of his clothes tenses around his muscles.
“You don’t have to worry about the police” he assures
“I feel you’re telling us not to worry about many things and I think it’s on the contrary we have too many things to worry about...with all due respect” you add, Tom kicks you harder this time and giggles nervously
“It’s your first time, it’s natural! I’ve done a few times, you don’t have to worry, you’ll be with me! right, Dave?” Tom slaps him on his shoulder again playfully and the man flinches and has a menacing look if you do it one more time, asshole, we’re going to die right here right now you think
“Right” he answers “Tom, why don’t you go with Kovac to the car you’ll use for the job, there you’ll have the phones and everything you’ll need to complete the mission” he says eventually. The big man, Kovac, approaches the table and stands besides Tom until he gets up to follow him.
You stand up too, thinking that the lunch is over.
“Stay, please” Dave grabs your wrist softly and you gasp when you feel his warm touch
“I-I” you stutter
“Don’t you want to eat anything? I sense you have more questions” he doesn’t let go of your hand, he brushes his fingers softly where you skin is thinner and you feel your pulse rushing, surely he does too
“Yes...I mean I could eat something” you sit, the rumbling on your belly confirms your hunger
“Order anything you want” he stands up and raises a hand towards a waitress. She rushes to the table with the menus while Dave takes off his coat and jacket, he raises his sleeves carefully and you are not aware that you’ve been staring at him the whole time with eyes wide open and lips partially parted, you’re completely dumb by his presence. He’s tall, strong and broad and you can’t smell his cologne and his aftershave from there and all you can think is coming closer to him and tasting his neck.
You look down the menu suddenly when you find that Dave has caught you admiring him and is smiling slyly at you.
“Anything you like?” he asks
“Yeah...I’d like...” you read as fast as you can trying to find something, the prices are ridiculous “the salad” you answer
“You can order anything, sweetheart” the term makes you skin tingle again, he’s voice is actually sweet and his smile docile this time when he sits again facing you
The waitress comes back and asks for your order but it’s smiling widely to Dave.
“So what you would like to order, sir?”
“We’re both getting the prime steak” he answers and you blush, of course you’d like to eat that but it’s so freaking expensive you didn’t even think about that
“Fries or roasted vegetables?” she taps on the screen
“Both” yes, you cheer inside your head, you’re going to eat properly for the first time in months
You actually don’t care about the job or Dave or anything when the plate arrives, and certainly you have forgotten about your friend, it’s been long enough but the scent of the meat makes your mouth water. You have forgotten your manners too; you attack the steak as if you were a caveman. The pleasure of the first bite makes you moan and wiggle or your seat.
“It’s good, isn’t it?” Dave comments and you’re suddenly aware of where you are and with whom, he has an amused look
“Thank you” you say with your mouth full
“It’s nothing”
“I looked that hungry, huh? that’s why you ordered this?”
“Yes, you seemed to need a bit of protein. Protein makes you brain function properly and I need you sharp and quick if you’re going to work for me” he says picking from his plate
“You think I will work for you, I mean for longer than just this one job?” you scoff, you’re desperate, but you want to keep on the good track, find a proper job, a small apartment and stay out of trouble
“You don’t want to? I think you need the job” he licks his lips and you are again looking longer than you should
“Yes, but I need a proper job, a salary each month a conventional one. No offence”
“None taken. So you’re not like your friend”
“No, I guess I’m not. I’m just in a rough patch. Desperate situations calls for desperate measures” You shrug
“Hmm” he hums “I’m glad I can help you out of it then” he adds
“Yes, thank you. Though I’m still thinking that it could get me more trouble than I already have” you counter
“No if you’re smart and I think you’re a pretty smart girl”
“You’ve just met me”
“I’m good at reading people, part of the job” he shrugs
“So I’m a hungry desperate smart girl. Seems accurate”
“Pretty” he completes
“What?” you ask thinking you had heard him wrong
“I said you’re a hungry―I hope not anymore― desperate, pretty comma smart girl. Pretty as an adjective” he clarifies
You blush and look at him opening and closing your mouth searching for words
In that moment, Kovac and Tom arrive. The large man nods to Dave, and Tom looks at you and your half empty plate with a confused look.
“I have to go, but please, sit and finish your dish, you can order whatever you want too, Tom. Everything is on me. You don’t have to worry” Dave stands up and puts his jacket and coat back. You think you see a little bit of disappointment on his face. He reaches his hand to you, you drop the fork thinking that he wants to shake your hand but he brushes his thumb over your lower lip where a drop of the meat’s blood and sauce stains your chin.
“It’s been a pleasure” he says and then licks his thumb. He goes before you can answer and Tom is talking to you but you don’t listen.
All you could think was him, repeating that moment again and again in your mind.
“Are you listening?”
“Huh?”
“I told you about the car they gave us. It’s pretty cool”
You smile and focus on your plate, the juicy meat is delicious but all that passes through your brain is his lips. You bite and moan loudly.
Two hours before the phone booth call
The club is actually a house, a clandestine local in a remote place full of people playing poker and other types of game betting more money than you’ve ever seen. You and Tom arrive there holding hands, his left hand holding the briefcase. Tom had bought you your outfit, high heels that you don’t know how to walk with, a very revealing dress and the idiot forgot you hadn’t a proper coat to wear with this and here you are in the middle of winter with a shawl. Luckily the place is warm enough and you just suffered during the time you run to the entry from the parking.
The establishment smells like alcohol and cigars, its red velvet walls reminds you of the interior of a coffin and that image makes you shiver. You try not to look at anybody and focus on following Tom to the black armored door at the back. When you arrive he knocks twice before a small slot opens and a man asks for a password.
“Just like spy movies, huh?” Tom smiles and you would laugh but you’re terrified. Once that door closes behind you, there’s no way out
A large man dressed in black escort you through a red lighted aisle towards another armored door. This time he’s the one knocking twice, the slots opens and when a pair of eyes look through it you hear the locks being unlocked before they open it.
There’re ten people inside, chatting over a black table with some glasses on it. The conversation stops when you enter. Without a sign some of them are escorted out and only three men stay.
“Sit please, your girl can serve herself a drink” one man says, sitting at the center of the table. He’s dressed also in black, he’s blond hair sleek and shiny with hair gel “I guess you have something for me”
“Yes” Tom approaches the table and places the briefcase at the center. You do as you’ve been told and approach the bar full of different drinks. You’re too nervous to drink but you grab one of the empty glasses and pour some liquor in it. Your back is pressed against the sticky wood and you try to act casual.
The second man on the left takes it and opens it and shows it to the two other. There’s only one light in the room above the table and from here you can’t see much but it’s clear that the briefcase is full of money.
“Excellent. Did you know how much there is inside it?” the blond man ask Tom
“No” Tom seems relaxed, his arm leans on his chair and has his legs crossed
“There’s half a million here” he answers
“Wow!” Tom laughs
“For such a tiny thing” the man grabs something from his pocket and places a small white envelope on the table “Do you know what this is?”
“No”
And we don’t want to know you answer in your head Gosh Tom, let’s go
“Just an address. Somebody really valuable for your boss, look how much he’s paying. This poor fellow” he taps over the envelope “it’s nobody to me, that’s why I’m willing to trade this simple information knowing it will get him killed, but I have another deal for you, one that I’m really interested in”
Say no, no, we have to go now you clear your throat to get his attention but Tom ignores you
“You just have to let us track you to the place where you’ll meet your boss. And you can take the case back with you and I promise one similar to this one will find you once we kill your boss” he offers. Tom bites the inside of his cheek and hums
“Just track me?”
No, no, no you scream inside. You place the glass on the bar loudly but Tom is fixed with hungry eyes on the case.
“Let us install a simple tracking device to your car. And take this” he pushes the open briefcase “it’s yours”
Tom smiles and grabs it “Thank you”
“My colleague will accompany you to your car” the blonde man smiles back and the other man that reminded silent during the meeting gets up to follow Tom back to the car.
You walk to the table before they leave.
“I’m sorry, but he’ll need the envelope for the meeting. He cannot present himself empty handed, he will be dead before you could find his boss and they will make sure it’s the right one” you say shyly
“You’re a smart girl” the blond says “Here you are” he tends the paper and you force a smile.
You rush towards Tom and grab his hand. The man follows you a few meters away in silence. So you grab Tom by the waist and faking a smile whispers to his ear “What the fuck are you doing? Dave is going to kill us. You betrayed him”
“It’s a million dollars and they can take care of Dave for all I know he can die, he was paying a misery and I’m the one getting my ass in danger, don’t I?” he says back
“It’s better than being dead. And he’s going to kill us both and I did nothing, you betrayed me too”
“Calm down! I’m going to give you a part of this. Isn’t this what you wanted?” He has to raise his voice over the music once you arrive to public part of the club
“I didn’t want to die, I just want money to start again, not being involved in killing people and shit” you accused back
“Yeah right and it has nothing to do with you making eyes to Dave during lunch. Gosh, you’re pathetic. Shut up, take the money, and we will see each other never again” he pushes you from him clearly not caring to keep the being a couple front anymore.
When you arrive to the parking, Tom leaves the briefcase on the back seat. You stand a few meters away not knowing what to do. Tom is the only way out from here but you don’t want to participate in his treason.
“Open the driver’s door” the man says standing behind Tom
“Right away, brother”
Everything happens in an instant. You hear the gasp, the air leaving Tom’s body and his corpse hitting the ground more than the shot. Once the man raises the gun to you, you’re already running away.
You hear the bullets breaking the air and you run faster, tears running from your eyes but your bite your lips to prevent you from crying out loud knowing that he can hear you. Once your chest hurts and burns you stop, hidden in the tall grass you listen intently trying to know if he’s following you. And you wait. And you wait more.
You crouch down and you suddenly remember that you’re holding so hard to your purse and the little piece of paper that your hand hurts. You hold the envelope to your heart and sit on the cold mud because your legs cannot hold you any longer.
Present. Phone Booth
You think about the trip from town to this place and try to calculate how long it would take Dave to arrive. And it’s long and probably you’ll be dead before he comes even close. The men from the club must be looking for you. You’re a loose end, you know their faces and their place, everything. And you know Dave too. Shit.What are you going to tell him? Yes, Tom betrayed you but I didn’t. I actually didn’t want to do it, but did I prevent it? I couldn’t but what would he think? You’re a loose end for him too.
You know he runs shady business. And for all he knows you wanted to take the money as well and just was quicker on your feet so you ran away. He doesn’t know you; he knew Tom and he betrayed him. How could he trust you?
You need something, something to make him think you are true, that you didn’t betray him. And though you felt something in your little lunch together, he could just be playing with you or interested in a carnal way. God knows you had had very inappropriate thoughts about him too, but that doesn’t make you any less of a traitor. Pretty he said, pretty enough to be kept alive even though he doesn’t know if he can trust you? You don’t think so.
Whatever happens you must acquire the envelope he had said. So you open it. There’s a simple address on it:
8518 Rayburn Rd, Bethesda, MD 20817
So you expend the rest of the time repeating again and again. Until the pair of lights of the car appear through the fog. You hope it’s Dave and not the men from the club If it’s so I’ve expended my last moments alive memorizing a stupid address. Great.
The black car drives slowly until it’s a few meters away. You grab the paper and make a ball out of it and swallow it fast chewing hard. It’s horrible, raspy and muddy, but you know that throwing it wouldn’t do it as well as tear it apart. The paper needs to disappear; you must be indispensable to him.
You actually cry in relief when Dave calls your name and you run towards the lights. You actually don’t think your action but when you see his shape you run faster and hug him tightly. He’s warm and smells delicious as you noticed at the restaurant. He tenses at first but then he holds you back, gently patting your head and hushing you with calming noises.
“You’re alright, you’re safe now” you know it’s not actually true but in that second you enjoy it “Get in the car, you’re freezing” he caresses your arms up and down trying to warm you
When you get in the car, you feel as you have step inside the gates of heaven. It’s warm and cozy, the leather is the softest thing you have ever felt and everything smells like Dave. He gets in the driver’s seat and grabs something from the back: his wool coat and throws it over you and tucks you in it. He stays in silence for a few minutes and you feel yourself doze off when he speaks in a soft and low tone.
“So what happened?” he sighs and leans on his seat turning to you
“Tom was a fucking idiot” you spat and he grins “They offered him the money inside the briefcase for your location and promised him more money” you speak the truth, you know there’s no point in lying to him “He accepted and well, I didn’t know what to say, I tried to change his mind but it was too late”
“What happened to the envelope?” he asks
“I took it”
“Can you give it to me?” he reaches a hand and you see he’s wearing leather gloves, actually he’s completely dressed in black
“No” you say and you bite your lip
“You lost it?” he asks and you cannot read what’s going through his mind but his eyes are fixed on you, darker than you remembered
“No” you say
“You have to give it to me” he says and his voice gets lower, it should be menacing, it is, but you feel your lower belly twist
“I ate it” you answer
“You did what?” he looks surprise but you cannot tell if he’s mad or amused
“I remember the address” you take out one single finger from under the coat and point to your temple “I memorized it and ate it so you wouldn’t kill me”
Dave stays there in silence for a few minutes, and then smirks and chuckles
“Very good” he praises “You did very good” he reaches for you cheek and brushes his leather gloved hands tenderly “Good girl” his voice is low and deep and it makes you squirm under your cover, his coat, that smells just like him.
“You’re not going to kill me?” you murmur
“No, I cannot do it now, don’t I?” he smiles at you
“But what about when I tell you the address and you kill whoever lives there, what then?” you say, now that you’re warm enough you are aware of the mess you made of his car, mud stains everywhere, his coat is ruined “I’m a witness and now I know you’re about to kill somebody” you add
“You remember what I told you at the restaurant?” he asks and starts the car finally moving from this dreadful place
Yes, you called me sweetheart a couple of times and then called me pretty you want to answer
“I told you about working for me” he reminds you
“You want me to work for you?”
“Yes. I want it since I first met you, sweetheart” you actually surprise yourself once you feel that you’re smiling when he calls you that again
“You trust me? But Tom...”
“Tom was Tom, you are you. And I trust you to be smarter than he was. You have proved it to me, he failed the test he had to pass” you admire his strong big hands on the wheel and his straight posture that allows you to marvel at his features and his long neck
“What test?” you say after scolding yourself for looking at him like an idiot
“This test”
“This was a test? What?” you cry
“Not in the sense that it was prepared, of course. Those men were very much interested in me and my team, and I knew they were trying to get some of my men to turn. I have to test Tom before he entered the team for more complicated tasks, I had to know if he was ready, and he wasn’t”
“And why did you let me get in this?”
“That was his first mistake. Never ever” he points with his finger “tell another person about the job or try to get somebody on it without me asking first. I allowed it because I saw something in you. A hunger”
“Is that a joke?” you ask
“I guess” he smirks “but also true, you said it yourself ‘desperate situations call for desperate measures’ That was what got me on this kind of job on the first place. I liked you, I’d just hoped you were as smart as you looked and got out there alive. And you did”
“What if I don’t want it?” you mutter
“Hmm” he evaluates for a moment “Again, I hope you’re smarter than that and refuse the only chance you have. I mean, you have been evicted, all your accounts cancelled, you don’t have a family and the relatives that you still have you wouldn’t contact them even if you were dying, so, I’m the only thing you got, sweetheart”
“Did you investigate me?” you ask after a few quite minutes. He’s right, you know that
“Yes, I have to know everything if you’re going to be part of the team” he admits with a shrug
“I know nothing about you, or your team, how am I going to trust you?” you demur
“You will learn to trust me and the team once you’re trained” he explains
“Train? Who’s going to train me? and for what?”
“I’m going to train you. I’m going to train you until you’re what I want and what I need and in time; I think it will be a satisfying ending for both of us and this situation”
“What kind of job would I do?”
“Kill” he says simple and straightforward
You shiver at his words and hold tight to his coat. Do you really want to be an assassin? Do you have a choice?
He stops the car. You don’t have a house, you have nothing, only this, a dirty dress and a borrowed coat and the help of a man you’re sure could and would kill you without hesitation. And though, you have no choice there’s a side of you that’s dying to surrender to him, to let him make you what he wants. You desire to be his, you want to be what he wants, what he needs but not as his associate, not exactly like that.
“So what do you say? Do you want to be mine?” you squirm on your seat.
“Yes”
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12. Granny Out of Control a.k.a. headless chickens, Gene Simmons’ girlfriend and Rapunzel
In the previous chapters: Judy and Stone act after their embarrassing encounter in the shower as if it hadn’t even happened; they implicitly agree on not telling Mike that his one-night stand was just the consequence of Judy’s revenge-fueled rumors about Stone’s sexual preferences. Ed loses his voice so the show has to be canceled, Jeff offers to give guitar lessons to Judy instead in his spare time. Granny buys a metal magazine to learn more about Seattle-based rock bands; the picture of Pearl Jam makes her think the perfect match for Judy isn’t Jeff but Stone. Krisha picks Effie up in the city to tell her that Kelly Curtis and Susan Silver have plans with her as a photographer; she also gives her the list of codenames the band and crew members use at hotels. Effie also joins her when she feeds Stone’s unsociable cat, Red who is incompatible with all girls who try to approach him.
 „I don’t know, man… Are you sure you saw them?”
“Don’t piss me off, Schmitty, of course I’m sure. I know whom and what I saw.” I mumble as I put the flashlight back between my teeth. I can’t believe I’m doing this. Not only makes he me do this stupid act, he even drives me crazy with this weak-minded questioning in the meantime. The guy obviously watches too much TV. Especially detective shows about drug cartels.
“But let’s go over it again. Maybe you were wrong or misunderstood the situation or…”
I sigh, and take the flashlight out of my mouth only to direct the blinding ray of light in his face.
“Okay, but this is the last time. And I’m only willing to tell it again because I have nothing better to do and because technically, I can’t do anything else until we finish this. Open the bag and hold it.”
“Yes sir... so you went having a shower…”
“Not that it matters if I went showering or shitting but yes, I went to the restroom.”
“And you opened the door…” he goes on with the storytelling like a small child who already knows his favorite bedtime story by heart.
“And there were they, standing at the sinks…”
“Stop. Are you sure it was them?”
“Of course I am, I could recognize Judy and Stone from miles!”
“Are you 100 % sure?”
“No, I’m only 99 % sure because there’s a very small chance that they both have doppelgangers right in this town but let’s say I’m very likely to have seen them.” I confirm while I start portioning the green leaves into the plastic bag Schmitty is holding.
“And they were…”
“…basically naked.”
“Basically?” he asks like he’d never heard the word before.
“Yes, basically.”
“How do you mean “basically”?”
“What? I’m fucking around here with sharing my weed with you and you’re already high? Unbelievable…”
“No-no-no, seriously, man, you didn’t say “naked”, you said “basically naked”. Define the difference. It’s important.” he flails fussily.
“Stop shaking the bag, it’s difficult enough to do this only with one hand. So, uh, they weren’t completely naked, they both were wearing a towel…”
“The same towel or…?”
“Hah, interesting idea, but no, they both had their own towel on. But I assume none of them was wearing any underwear…”
“That’d be normal, I mean, after showering… but that’s the weakest point in your theory, them having a shower at the same time… it sounds so unreal.”
“Yeah, I thought the same until I found the only logical reason.”
“What? That you only dreamed the whole thing? Or that it was just an intense trip due to the shrooms Mike gave you?”
“I know it sounds unbelievable but at this point, I’m pretty much convinced they did it on purpose.” I close the bag and throw it at Schmitty who hides it immediately in the inner pocket of his jacket and pats himself on the chest satisfied.
“Thanks. But I can’t follow your thinking, Scully. Why’d they secretly meet in the shower?”
“I don’t want to shock you but… I think they had sex right before. I almost entered but then I glanced them and they were almost naked, both giggling and Judy was groping Stone and… I backed out, I was so surprised, I didn’t even know what to do…”
“But they hate each other.” Schmitty protests shaking his head.
“And? Since when can’t people who hate each other have sex with each other?”
“Man, this is too much to me, Stone has Amber at home, Judy is like a nun, they can’t stand each other so obviously, they have sex??? Bullshit, that’s all I can say. I don’t know what you saw but it definitely couldn’t be a post-coital scene.”
“Look, I don’t understand the exact reasons either but…”
“I’ve always been told that as soon as we start touring, girls will try to drag me in the tour bus all the time but I imagined it somehow different…”
We both freeze at the hearing of Stone’s smug giggling and our surprise only grows when we recognize the voice that belongs to his companion.
“Sorry for ruining your wet rock star dreams but it’s impossible here to talk to someone face-to-face, even the walls have ears in this crew.”
Schmitty and I exchange a meaningful look and to his nod, I turn the flashlight on the lowest level. Walls might not have ears here but this bunk bed curtain we’re hiding behind definitely does. Even four, to be exact.
“So what’s the purpose of this conspired, hyper-secret meeting, Camden? I’m hungry so let’s get over with this as fast as possible!”
Hungry, yeah, I can imagine. So you prefer quickies, Stoney?
“I just wanted to talk about yesterday.”
Schmitty stares at me with popped eyes, even his jaws drop of shock.
“Ha. So you were thinking about it?”
“Yes but not the way you think. I’m not gonna tell you tirades about how much I regretted it or stuff because I didn’t. I only want to ask if you talked to Scully about it?”
Schmitty grabs my forearm, digging his nails into it, his other hand is shaking uncontrollably.
“No and I don’t know why I should force it, I mean it happened, it’s embarrassing enough for both of us so let’s draw a veil over it.”
“It’s embarrassing for both of us? Do you really think I give a damn about that? I mean, okay, I lost control, which doesn’t happens really often to me but who cares, I can handle the consequences. You feeling embarrassed, now that’s the last thing I care about. But have you already thought about the feelings of your friend at least for one single second?”
We both furrow our eyebrows and her words probably found their marks since Stone doesn’t answer, which makes Judy go on with the pep talk.
“Okay, neither of us is going to say a word since we both have selfish interest in keeping it in secret but if Scully shoots his mouth off and he finds out about what happened… just think into it, it’d ruin his self-esteem. I mean, it’s inevitable that it turns out later but the best strategy is discretion. Now, it’d be too fresh for him, let’s wait until he forgets about this little… intermezzo.”
Schmitty covers his still opened mouth in complete horror and even I start feeling uncomfortable now that my intuition is basically confirmed.
“So, would you finally promise to talk to Scully?”
“Dunno… I’ll consider it.”
“Jesus Christ, Gossard, would it hurt not to piss me off once in a lifetime?”
“To answer your question, yes, it would but this time it’s not about you, Miss Fussy. I was just thinking that we should let it slide since after all, it’s not as a big deal as you think.”
You fuck her and then try to ditch her? Come on Stone, I thought you were better than this.
“I mean, you make such a fuss but I don’t think Scully would let it slip, he’s probably already forgotten about the whole scene. And if I came up with it, he’d just start overthinking it; when he knows he has to shut his mouth, he becomes gossipy all the more.”
Ha, thanks Stoney but just for the record, I don’t gossip, I just process things by discussing them with other people, see also at “coping mechanisms”…
“It’s you who’s overthinking it. Just stop protesting and do what I ask you. I even use the word “please”.”
“Fuck, okay, I’ll see what I can do, just leave me finally alone with this. Can I ask you something too?”
“It depends…”
“Could we stay here for ten… fifteen minutes? You know, it’s about my reputation…”
“Fuck off, Gossard!!!”
We both exhale with a deep sigh when we hear them leaving the bus.
“Holy. Shit.”
“Holy. Fucking. Shit. Dude, you were right!”
“Of course I was right, I always am, you just never believe me.“
“But… damn… I didn’t see that coming… Gahhh.” Schmitty facepalms, rubbing his forehead worried.
“I’m surprised, though, I thought they didn’t notice me.”
“Apparently, they did. Jesus, I doubt there’s something serious between them but now that I heard it with my own ears, it all makes sense! They hook up, they are both embarrassed since they are enemies, plus the Amber-factor… and poor Jeff, he has a massive crush on Judy and she knows it, maybe she tries to have two irons in the fire… So she convinced him to keep the fling in secret not to ruin her chances at Jeff… She looks so innocent and now she turns out to be an actual snake… Do you think Karrie knows about it?” he jabbers staring desperately in front of himself.
“Whoa, stop, dude, are you insane? She’s not a bitch, they just made a mistake and she freaked out. Her worrying about Jeff sounded genuine, after all, Stone is no perspective for her, he’s got that… he’s got Amber, whatever she is for him. And I don’t think Karrie knows anything, even if she does, she’ll pretend she doesn’t.”
“But this changes everything! Jeff is our friend too and I don’t want to lie to him.”
“Trust me, he’ll never ask “And tell me Schmitty, have Judy and Stone had sex?”, so you don’t have to.”
“You’re making fun of me but you know too how dangerous information these are so you’d better have a good idea what are we going to do know.”
“I’ll tell you, Schmitty: we’re gonna act casual. Just watch me.”
***
„There’s no chance I could reach that string. Just… no. I don’t have that muscle, I’m done.” I moan as I desperately try to stretch my pinky finger to play the next chord following Jeff’s instructions.
“Hey, relax, just reach a bit further, you’ve almost got it.” he chuckles and makes an insecure move to help me out but he changes his mind in the last moment and pretends he only wanted to scratch his arm. And I pretend not to have noticed it.
“No, it’s impossible, I can’t twist my wrist that much. I don’t have freakishly long fingers like Stone, it’s enough.” I give up and put the guitar aside. We’ve been practicing for like one hour, I played him my still rudimentary sounding song idea, of course without telling him what exactly it was. He improvised a bass line to it on his acoustic bass guitar, his fingers are still running back and forth over the strings despite the fact I stopped playing. When I was a kid, Grandpa would tell me that if you cut the head of a chicken, it can still run around for a few seconds before collapsing, maybe it’s a similar phenomenon. Or maybe it’s like when a freight train hits a car and it pushes the vehicle in front of itself for miles before stopping. Headless chickens and train wrecks, why am I thinking about stuff like these while hanging out with a nice guy?
“I’m sure you can do it if you practice it. Look, my fingers aren’t long either.” he raises his palm. Is he expecting me to measure mine to his by placing them together? Could we rather just draw them around and compare the drawings like small children? Okay, he’s got strong, manly hands, that’s not bad at all. But how can he stuff those thick fingers between the strings? And those jewelries, God, they are terrible. Would he mind if I asked him to put them off?
“No, I can’t. I’m not good at these moves, I’ve already tried to play the violin, it didn’t go well. It went awful.” I protest, rather to overtalk my racing thoughts than to argue with him. I hope he’s not going to ask me about the details, I don’t feel like telling him that story at all.
“Okay, it was you who asked me for help, so…” he shrugs with a half smile, his fingers are still nerve-wrackingly torturing the instrument.
“Actually it was you who offered to help so…”
“Fair enough. I don’t want to force it so… if you want to finish all your future performances by saying “sorry, now comes the chord which is incompatible with my wrist so go the fuck home” – then okay, I don’t care.” he puts down the guitar. I try to decode the expression on his face, is he disappointed or just casual or…?
“How do you do that?” I ask quickly, I can’t bear that look.
“What?”
“This… everything…” I flail helplessly.
“I don’t know… I think I got bored with doing nothing and wanted to try something new and I realized I could do everything instead of nothing.” he leans back with a challenging smirk.
“Geez, you spend too much time with Stone.” I roll my eyes. “I mean… I played you something and you immediately knew what to do with it. Your head is full of ideas and variations, can you hear the harmonies instinctively or…?”
“I don’t know… when I hear a melody, I start hearing the other parts in my head… but sometimes I just mess around and try different things to check if they can work as a song or as an idea that I can use later. I try to keep my ears fresh, I fight against crafting only bass lines in my head, that’s why I pick up the guitar from time to time. You know, if a bass player never leaves his comfort zone, after a while, he’ll tend to operate only with the same five or five notes, it’s like a tunnel vision… or tunnel hearing…” he ends his explanation with a shrug and a lopsided smile, as far as I’ve observed, he does that pretty often.
“That’s amazing… I envy you so much. I’ve been studying and playing music for as long as I can remember but I’ve never felt that… sense of liberty? I practiced my ass off, I learned everything I could, at Juilliard, we basically dissected classical musical pieces into single notes and… I developed some weird perfectionism in the meantime, I know how good music is supposed to be composed but… I myself just can’t do it. I was so busy with studying other people’s works that I couldn’t develop the ability to create something, it’s like… my knowledge paralyzed my creativity… Or that’s just what I keep telling myself because I1m not willing to accept the fact that writing music is a gift you can’t just earn by practicing and learning…”
“Maybe you’re right.” he shrugs again and his reaction somehow hits me hard; I don’t know why, though. “I think I’ve already mentioned you that I took piano lessons but I hated it. I found literally nothing intriguing in it, it was boring, I’ve never been into Beethoven or some shit like that.”
“What?” I frown. I didn’t expect him to like the same things I do but… could he just show at least a little interest in what I like? I even talked about art and skateboarding with him. Okay, he doesn’t owe me anything, we’re not dating and all but if he ever wants something from me… okay, he probably doesn’t, it was obviously just a stupid gossip.
“Hey, I didn’t mean to trash your music, it’s just not for me, I appreciate it but I don’t like it. I’m just a Montanan jerk, did you forget?”
“You’re not a jerk, don’t say that… I’m just… nothing, forget it.”
“No, if you want to say something, don’t swallow it. Did I hurt you?”
“You didn’t… I’ve just spent my entire life playing classical music so I can’t imagine how someone is able not to like it at all.”
“Same here with sports.”
“God, I hate sports!” I exclaim and I immediately begin to laugh realizing I’m not better than him either.
“You see? But speaking of your music studies, there’s one thing I’ve always wanted to ask.”
“No.”
“No what? Am I not allowed to ask the question?”
“No is the answer to the question.”
“But I haven’t even…”
“Trust me, it’s no.”
“If you say so…”
“I’m just kidding. Most people attack me when they learn I’m a musician asking if I’d sing or play something for them, it’s so annoying, it’s like the “grunge question’ of classical musicians…”
“Okay, I get it.” he smiles. “But that’s not what I was about to ask.”
“Thank God. So, I guess you don’t want me to teach you reading sheet music either, because that’s usually the second question, which is usually asked by people with no musical hearing at all...”
“No, it’s more of a… personal one.” he hesitates squinting at me for the final permission.
“Hit me.”
“Why are you here?”
“Here? Like, here and now, with you or…?”
“No, I mean, why are you here, with the band? You graduated from one of the most prestigious music schools on Earth, you could conduct top choirs or whatever… and you’re here, loading our shitty van every single night, smelling sweat and cigarette smoke, spending days in a tour bus with beer drinking ugly dudes… Why? I guess Juilliard graduates can pick whatever job offer they want so...”
“I’m here for the money.” I answer without thinking and it immediately sounds false. Am I? Really? “I came here for the money, I don’t deny it, I had no job and however terrified I was, something told me I had to take this opportunity.”
“But… as a classical musician trained at Juilliard… why this job? I just can’t get it.”
“Well… I’ve known for a very long time that the music of baroque era is in which I’m the most interested. It’s, you know, a passion to me, it’s like punk was to you. And if you want to be really good at it, you have to go to the place where it comes from. Here in the States, you can basically hear nothing that was written before Mozart.”
“Europe?”
“Exactly. So in my senior year, I applied for a scholarship of the music academy in Leipzig.”
“And…?”
“And I won it.”
“So you studied in Europe too?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because my father died a few months before I graduated and the small firm he ran died with him… it was a very complicated period so I asked the academy if I could postpone it by one year.”
He’s chewing his lower lip and speaks up only after digesting for a few seconds what he’s just heard.
“And they refused your application?”
“No, they sent me a kind acceptation letter in which they cited their scholarship regulation that said postponement is allowed once. So I moved back to Seattle and started teaching.”
“Oh. I guess something came up one year later too.”
“Well yeah, my sister’s almost dying, that came up.”
He exhales with a deep sigh, I have the feeling he already knew all the details, he just couldn’t do the math. Maybe Karrie told him our family saga. I don’t mind, though, I don’t feel like telling him those stories either…
“Well, that’s a lot… but it also sounds like… you gave up your dreams.”
Now it’s me who can’t do anything else but shrug.
“Maybe… or maybe, it was just a warning from the universe. I’m not religious but I do believe that everything happens with a reason, maybe you can’t find it out ever because it’s something bigger than you or your shitty little life. My family needed me and they still do, or at least they need my two hands I can make money with so… plus, I’ve always been terrified of performing. I have worst stage fright, I doubt I would be able to conduct in the spotlight of the world’s biggest concert halls… anyways… have you ever heard about famous, female conductors?”
“Normally, I’d say you’re a coward and you should follow your dreams but I understand the family factor, of course. And I don’t want to act like a hypocrite either, I could have looked for another graphic design program too when mine was canceled in Missula.”
“But changed your dream instead.”
“Exactly. And maybe that’s what you should do too if universe or God or Buddha or the spirit of Johann Sebastian Bach is trying to message you that you picked the wrong dream.”
“Are you trying to say I should switch my brain to believe loading shitty vans and smelling Scully’s and Schmitty’s stinky feet is my real dream?” I giggle.
“If that’s your way, than go for it, girl!” he plays the overly enthusiastic motivational trainer. We crack up but none of us is laughing heartfelt. His face finds finally rest in a genuine, encouraging smile. “Let’s raise our glasses to the new dreams!”
We both reach our hands to clink our imaginary glasses.
“To the new dreams!”
***
I’ve been on the road with them for days and nothing. Not a single move or a sound that’d confirm we’re following the right traces. And I’m thirsty. So thirsty. But they are so envious, I know they are hiding spare water in their stupid spacesuits or what but they claim they have nothing to share. Sure. I would never drink recycled pee, anyway. But those two moons look pretty cool, the night sky compensates me for every inconvenience I’ve experienced since we started chasing that gross sandworm… everything for the melange…
However important my mission is, it gets interrupted by three quick, impatient knocks on the door.
“You’ve been shitting in there for forty-two minutes! I know you’ve finished and you’re just reading! I have to pee! Get the fuck out of there! Why do you have to do this all the time?”
Maybe because this is the only place where I can have some progress with my current reading undisturbed? I reluctantly close the hardcover volume of Frank Herbert’s Dune and glance lazily at my wristwatch.
“First of all, it’s been only forty minutes. Second, it’s shorter than a blink of an eye, if you measure it in cosmic time. Not even applicable.”
“Okay, I can use astronomical metaphors too. My bladder is a red giant that is about to explode so…”
“I’m coming, I’m coming, geez, urinary incontinence? You should see a urologist.” I remark opening the door. He basically tosses me out of is his way and almost slams it on my nose.
“It’s rather you who should see a doctor, fuck, Stone, what did you eat? Uuugh, I’m dying.” I hear his muffled indignation.
I lie down on my bed and stuff the pillow under my nape. I turn the pages back and forth for a few times until find the place where I was before Mike kicked me out. So, back to those goddamn pervert Fremen fuckers…
I barely manage to read a few lines, when Mike comes back and throws himself on his bed, unmuting the TV that is showing underdressed ladies caressing their own body and telling their erotic fantasies in seductive voice. I clear my throat. No reaction. I do it again, this time longer and louder. Nothing.
“Sorry, am I bothering?” I ask sharply but our guitarist seems to be completely immersed in the curves. “Okay, busted. I know you only went to the toilet to jerk off. You only watch Playboy TV and noname porn channels, you really need to get laid.”
“Done, last night. Remember?” he answers slowly and mindlessly, his eyes are still glued to the screen.
“No, because I wasn’t there, thank God.”
“You’re just envious because you have to practice celibacy, otherwise Amber would cut your balls off.”
I squint at the girls over my book.
“Not that I feel tempted. Jesus, I’m sick of these… udders…”
“Hey, watch your mouth! Those ladies deserve more respect! Especially her!” he points at the blonde, blue-eyed, busty woman on the screen who is dropping her lingerie standing at a bath tub.
“Why, who is she?” I look back at the text in front of me, not that I understand a word of it. Since I receive no answer I turn my head towards Mike only to see he sat up in the meantime and stares at me offended. “What? I have no idea.”
“That’s Shannon Tweed!!!” he flails outraged.
“… who is…?”
“Who is a goddess, Playmate of the Year in 1982 and last but not least, the girlfriend of Gene Simmons!”
“Oh. So she’s old as dirt.” I summarize laconically.
“Stone, what’s wrong with you? What’s wrong with her? What’s wrong with big boobs? I thought you liked them… I mean, you are the guy who’s entitled to do anything with Seattle’s most spectacular pair of bosoms so…”
“Hey, you’re talking about my girlfriend!” I grunt.
“I’m talking about your girlfriend’s tits!”
“Exactly, that’s it! Don’t talk about my girlfriend’s tits! Anyway, how do you know what they look like?”
“Hey, first, I’m only talking about them. It’s called freedom of speech, First Amendment…”
“What the fuck, parts of the Constitution are printed now on beer tags or did I miss something?”
“…second, it is very difficult not to know what they look like, they basically poke your eyes out!”
“Only talking, ‘course.”
“Certain female anatomical features attract men’s eyes, it’s in our genetic code. Don’t even try to make me believe those features had nothing to do with you ending up with her. Wait!” he exclaims with a finger snapping. “Oh, I get it already. You miss her! That’s why you can’t stand the playmates on TV! But you could have said, it’s not a shame…”
“Dr. ‘Cready, expert of constitutional law and anatomy, psychotherapist. I’ve just said I don’t feel tempted…”
“Because those boobs” he points at the screen “are forbidden fruit and remind you of those boobs in Seattle.”
“You’re pointing in the wrong direction, Michael. You’re pointing at boobs in Indiana.”
“Whatever. You miss her, admit it. My boobies are over the ocean, my boobies are over the sea…”
“Stop!”
“My boobies are over the ocean so bring back my boobies to me…”
“Shut the fuck up!”
“BRING BAAACK, BRING BAAACK, BRING BACK MY BOOBIES TO ME, TO MEEEE!”
“I’m only saying that even huge breasts can be boring after a while.” I overshout his off-key singing.
Mike suddenly stops singing and just blinks at me completely frozen.
“You mean… you want to leave Amber?”
“Jesus, what did I do to deserve this?” I bury my face in my hands. “I mean… imagine your favorite food!”
“But that’s… risotto…?”
“Perfect!”
“But risotto doesn’t look like boobs!”
“Jesus, of course not, just imagine it!”
“Okay. Mmmh, it looks delicious. I can even feel its smell.” he moans with closed eyes.
“So you want to eat risotto now, right?”
“Oh yeah, I want it more than anything.”
“And if you could… or had to eat risotto every single day, would you feel the same?”
“Uhm, probably… not.” he opens his eyes.
“And here we are. If you’re in the position where you can play with huge breasts every day, it’s not such a big deal anymore.”
“Hm, makes sense…” he lies back. “But wait!” he sits up quickly again.
“What?”
“In that case, risotto wouldn’t be my favorite food anymore.”
“Yeah, probably…”
Congrats Sherlock. I drop my book on the nightstand, by now, I basically gave up all hope for finishing the chapter I was reading.
“But that means that you prefer small boobs now!”
“I didn’t say that but obviously, smaller tits have their appeal too. And there are girls who would look ridiculous with big breasts.”
My mind begins to wander involuntarily… Yeah, Amber is a bombshell and she drives me crazy whenever she’s around but I’ve always had a thing for more fragile looking girls…
“Who are you thinking about?” Mike asks greedily like a curious puppy.
“Jesus, no one.” I scoff frowning. “I mean, very slim girls look better with… proportionate breasts, you know, like small apples…”
I catch myself cupping my hands, what the hell, am I honking imaginable tits in the air? Okay, I have to talk to Eric to fly Amber here, I’m going to put an end to this, I’m pathetic.
“Say an example!”
What? I don’t know whom I was thinking about, I don’t even know if I was thinking about an existing person, maybe I was just fantasizing about freaky phantom breasts, I couldn’t even see them, it was just a desirable cleavage… and round hips… and shapely thighs…
“I can’t!”
“Just say an example, I don’t know, someone famous who looks like that, or someone who we both know…”
“Kylie Minogue?” I groan in agony. Hopefully I satisfied Mike’s need for a new protagonist for his erotic dreams because he only nods with an appreciative pout.
The ringing of the phone on the bedside between us interrupts our intellectual conversation and we both stare at the device surprised and confused for a few seconds, it’s usually us who call family members and friends, not the other way around. Finally, I decide to pick up.
“It’s Stone.”
“…” No one answers but I can hear some indistinct noises coming from the other end of the line.
“Hello… who’s that? Wo am I talking to?” I ask, and Mike pulls closer to the speaker of the receiver too.
“Ah… excuse me… I must have dialed the wrong number… you’re obviously not the Notre Dame Hunchbach…” an old female voice answers.
What the hell? Is this a prank call? Old people make phone pranks too?
“Who?” I mouth to Mike who mouths “Judy” as a response. Ah, yes. She also chose a codename, not that anyone is interested in her. “You’re talking to Dr. Hugh Jeego, but who am I talking to?”
“Ah, you must be Mr. Gossard. I’m Mrs. Albertson, Judy’s grandma.”
I almost drop the receiver.
“Ugh… uhm… hi, Mrs. Albertson, it’s nice to meet you… I mean, even if not in person but… I guess you wanted to call Judy so…” I make an attempt to finish this awkward intermezzo but she cuts me off.
“Actually, I am glad that I can talk with my Judy’s new colleague, this job is so different in comparison to what she worked earlier, you know, she taught in a school…”
“Yeah, I know…”
“…and now she’s with a rock band, and there are so many rumors about musicians, they drink and do drugs and…”
“We… we don’t drink… that much… not before shows…” I answer and Mike nods approvingly opening a beer can with a loud fizz. “… and we prefer herbs…”
“And mushrooms…” Mike adds.
“Shut up, you ruin everything!” I hiss between my teeth while I cover the microphone with my palm.
“Who was that?”
“It was… it was Mike, our lead guitarist.”
“Ah, Mr. McCready!”
Mike pats his chest proudly.
“Exactly, Mr. McCready…” I flip him the bird.
“I hope my Judy takes care of herself, she tends to become obsessed with work, she even forgets to eat… does she eat properly?”
“I’ve… I’ve seen her eating… so I guess she does…” I try to reassure her but I’m afraid I don’t sound very convincing; after all, the eating habits of Miss Smarty Pants don’t belong to my main interests.
“I wish she ate more, she’s so skinny, isn’t she?”
“She is… I mean, she’s slim. But like… not too slim. Her body is proportionate… I mean, physically, anatomically… her shape is feminine…  and when I say “feminine” I mean she’s not malnourished…” I babble and the small apple tits appear in front of my eyes again, Jesus, I’ve started losing my sanity… For some reason, Mike feels necessary to grab the receiver and yell a gratuitous, cheesy tirade into it.
“My learned colleague is trying to say that she’s a very pretty young lady, with all the respect, of course. She’s the most virtuous girl I know, she behaves well, you can be proud of her, Mrs. Albertson.”
Yes, Mrs. Albertson, exactly, your grandchild behaves well, she brought condoms only enough for a whole fuckin’ football team, safety first… I snatch the receiver out of Mike’s hand and lift it back to my ear but before I could finally get rid of the old lady, the TV catches my attention. While we were listening to the phone call, the harmless playmate fantasies ended and the channel started airing hardcore porn. And either was the petting part very short or it didn’t even exist since the “characters” are pretty much in the middle of things and before we could react anything to avoid the disaster, the actress starts screaming rhythmically.
“What was that noise? Are women with you too?” the old woman inquires suspiciously.
“Turn down the volume, for fuck’s sake!!!” I scream-whisper to Mike.
“No, we’re alone, Mrs. Albertson… we’re just watching TV… Murder She Wrote, someone is being killed!” Mike improvises aggressively poking the remote. “It’s not working…” he groans with a miserable expression.
“Oh, I like that show… which episode? Maybe I turn on the TV to watch it too...”
If you knew… In the meantime the man starts moaning too so the obvious noises grow even louder.
“Oh, the murderer is being killed too!” I try to win some time for Mike, I admit, it wasn’t the most creative lie I’ve ever said…
“I’m saying it’s not working, it must be contact failure or low battery…” he explains beating the remote against his palm at full strength, creating a counterpart to the sound of the bodies snapping against each other on the screen.
“It’s the episode about the slasher.” I maintain the conversation and then address Mike again. “Then use the power button on the TV device or throw it the fuck out of the window, I don’t care, just do something!!!”
“Ah, great idea!” his face lights up and finally, he walks to the TV and turns it off. I swear, I thought for a second he was going to choose the window version, like Keith Moon. I’m sure he was considering it but found the box too heavy.
“It’s over…“ I transmit to Mrs. Albertson.
“It ended with a cliffhanger, what a shame…” Mike remarks and I can barely suppress my snorts.
“I hope for a happy ending…” I grin, Mike presses his pillow against his face, while the poor lady obviously doesn’t even know what to say. After a few seconds of silent, body-shaking laughter, he rearranges his face muscles and takes the receiver away from me.
“It was a pleasure to meet to you, Mrs. Albertson. Judy is a great girl and as far as we know, Effie too, please, hug her for us. I hope we can meet you in person too, when we get back.”
“I admit, I’m relieved, I want you to know I think you are just darling guys. And now, I call the Notre Dame Hunchbach, as I intended to. Goodnight, Mr. Gossard, Mr. McCready.”
“Goodnight, Mrs. Albertson.” we sing in unison.
After I hang up the phone, we stare at each other silently for long moments, before we burst out laughing hysterically.
***
Great. She’s late. She promised she’d be waiting for me at the bar counter at 9 p.m. I’m doing the third circle in this goddamn place and she’s nowhere to be found. Okay, RCKNDY is actually my favorite place and I was happy when Krisha offered to meet me here to unveil Kelly’s and Susan’s “great idea” about which I only know at this moment that it concerns my photos. The cigarette smoke irritates my throat and some unknown band is in the middle of sound check on the stage, the indistinct guitar noises and the female lead singer’s instructions blast at random moments from the speakers causing me mild heart attack every single time and making the crowd members overyell them. Despite the early hour, the place is packed; I can barely struggle through the mass of flannel-wearing guys and girls. Early hour… what am I talking… now that my lifestyle converges on clinical death, both metaphorically and literally, I usually spend my evenings in front of the TV wearing my pajamas. It’s good Krisha picked this day, Mom is working at that new side job again so I didn’t have to make anything up to prevent her from asking suspicious questions.
I visited the restroom to kill some time but it just made me frustrated all the more since I involuntarily became the audience of a bunch of girls, one of them was gushing about the kissing skills of her current crush… gah, I can’t believe I turned into this sour bitch, just because I’ll end up as a spinster, she’s entitled to have some fun…
Almost fifteen minutes have passed by and she still hasn’t shown up yet. I can’t hang out with Victor either, he’s helping with putting the finishing touches at the sound check. I guess I have to wait then. I pick a bar stool and try to decipher the list of beverages on the wall.
“What can I get for you?” a red-haired bartender girl asks. Her question catches me off-guard, since my good old answer “beer” hasn’t been an option for a while and I didn’t have enough time to consider the alternatives. She’s chewing gum with a bored face, reminding me of a ruminant… a hot ruminant.
“Uhm… I… ugh, I haven’t…” I jabber and she reacts with an impatient eyeroll, the countless bracelets are clinking around her wrist as she runs her fingers through her red mane.
“I’d like to have a virgin mojito.” I utter the first thing that comes to mind. She acknowledges my choice with a scornful scoff… Yeah, in case I haven’t felt embarrassed enough yet, she makes obvious that she’s the sexy and cool femme fatale and I’m a straight-edge cripple in a boring, worn, brown jacket.
“Hey, here you are!” someone grabs my shoulders.
“Me? I’ve been waiting for you for like… hours?” I frown while Krisha settles down on the bar stool next to me and places her beer on the counter.
“Gosh, sorry!” her eyes pop as she checks her wristwatch. “I arrived too early and went to the executive office to meet a few friends.” she points at some people talking in front of a door that probably belongs to the office rooms. “That’s Alex, he runs this place, he’s a good friend of Stone, by the way. And that girl next to him works here too, she’s the girlfriend of Regan.”
I observe the girl she’s talking about, she has a nice, bright smile. Fantastic. Krisha knows everyone here… and I have no idea who these people are, and by the way, I’m nobody.
“Regan?” I furrow my eyebrows. “It’s a unique name, I swear I’ve heard it but I can’t place it…”
“He’s also an old friend of mine. And of Stone of course. You might know his name because he played in Malfunkshun with Andy. I mean Andy Wood.”
“Wood.” we say the name at once. “Of course I know his name, I didn’t grow up in a cave…” I explain, maybe in a sharper tone than intended.
“Oookay… “ she raises both hands defensively. “Actually, Regan almost became the drummer of Mother Love Bone, until they replaced him with Greg Gilmore. They made Stone fire him, I was thinking “okay, that’s it, he’s gonna hate us forever” but somehow, he managed to convince him by using logical reasons. If you ever want to fire a drummer, just call him because he’s your guy.” she nods meaningfully and takes a sip of her beer.
“Based on my sister’s opinion, drummers probably leave the band willingly, after having spent some time with him.” I remark dryly. “Thank you.” I reach for my drink and slide the money towards the phlegmatic redhead. I suppress a smile when I see her realizing with disappointed face that I spared the tip. What was she thinking, seriously?
“Oh yes, I forgot your sister and you sew Stone-shaped voodoo dolls in your spare time. By the way, Regan has played with a guy called Shawn for a few years, he’s a huge talent. The dude is a Prince-freak, which is somehow odd in a city where you can’t make a single step without stomping on a distortion pedal but he’s an awesome singer. AND they are planning to jam with Stone as soon as he gets back. I can give you the address of their rehearsal room in case you want to assassinate him…”
“No, thanks, I already know where he lives so…”
“Right!” she slaps herself in the forehead.
“Anyway, can I finally learn why we’re here?”
“Soon. We’re waiting for someone… I’m going to introduce you to someone… who has a job offer for you!”
“Wow… let me guess… healthcare branch has discovered me and they want me to be the face of some firm’s dialyzer portfolio?” I squint at her as I loudly slurp my cocktail.
“Damn, you nailed it!” she bangs her fist against the counter. “Anyway, I’m not going to tell you anything until she arrives, you need to be punished for the self-deprecating joke.”
“Spank me…” I mumble but my retort stays unnoticed since Krisha stares in an indefinite direction next to me sending an enthusiastic wave towards someone.
“Look, Jer is here too.” she points at the target of her smile and I follow her gaze only to recognize Jerry Cantrell… he’s wearing black jeans and a black leather jacket with a white tee.
“Wait… didn’t… didn’t you mention… I mean, you dated, didn’t you?” I ask confused, trying to form coherent sentences. It’s not going well.
“Yeah, we did.” she wiggles her eyebrows.
“But exes are supposed to hate each other…” I try not to turn around too obviously, so I remove a non-existing hair from the shoulder part of my jacket. While he’s slowly walking through the crowd, I notice he’s holding hands with a long, brown-haired girl. She has a perfect body and she’s probably completely aware of it since the tight leather pants highlight every curves of her. Sure, a 10/10 chick for a 10/10 guy, that’s how world has always worked… His hair is let down… I catch myself smiling, Dad insisted on calling him Rapunzel…
“It was just a summer fling and we realized after a few dates that we weren’t made for each other. So no one got hurt.” she shrugs. “Anyway, we share the building with the management of Alice in Chains so we knew we would run into each other all the time. The music scene of this city it’s like a big, incestuous family so…”
We both crack up.
“Oh no…” she sighs annoyed, staring over me again. I don’t know what’s going on in her head but it must have to do something with another twenty-eight people I’ve never met. “DON’T TURN AROUND!” she yells at me when I try to check the cause of her reaction.
“Why, what’s…?”
“It’s too late, I guess she’s already noticed us… or hasn’t she? Bow your head…” she leans on the counter, letting her hair cover her face.
“What the fuck?”
“I said bow your head… avoid eye contact… shit, I don’t have the nerves for this right now…”
“Krisha? Oh my god, it’s you, I haven’t seen you for ages!” I hear a powerful female voice from behind my back.
“Oh, hi Amber, it’s nice to see you!” Krisha groans with a painful smile, lifting her head and letting herself be pulled in a half-embrace resigned. I have to bite my lips to prevent myself from giggling since she sends a cross-eyed grimace to me over the girl’s shoulder. So she must be Stone’s Amber.
“Hey, are you here with your little friend?”
And that must be me. I involuntarily straighten up as much as I can but despite the high bar stool, I’m still shorter than her in her heels. I wonder if Red peed into these ones too… Now that I’m checking her out properly, I realize somehow she doesn’t belong here. Mini dress, heels, perfect makeup… That’d be Stone’s type?
“Uhm, this is Effie, she’s the sister of the band’s new monitor engineer…”
“Ah, Julie, you see, I know everything…” she knocks on his temple with her index finger a few times. “I’m Stoney’s girlfriend.” she grabs my hand and shakes it aggressively. I don’t correct her, I just exchange a quick look with Krisha, her eyes confirm that it wouldn’t make sense anyway.
“And… are you going to stay for the gig too?” Krisha nods towards the stage after a few moments of awkward silence.
“Oh, no, I’m going partying with my girls, I just checked in, I wanted to say hi to Alex and ask him for a favor. We’re organizing a grunge-themed fashion show and this place would be a perfect place for it.”
“A what?”
Krisha’s face radiates shock and disgust at the same time.
“You know, this grunge thing is blowing up, the firm is about to launch a collection, you know, flannel shirts, jackets, shorts with leggings, so we’re looking for a grungy place to present it…” she explains with huge hand moves. As she begins to explain the details of her brilliant idea, I get immediately distracted. Not only because my mind is desperately trying to ignore this nonsense but because I spot Leather Pants Chick at the same sport were Alex and his colleague were standing a few minutes ago. Only a few seconds pass by until her partner arrives too, he immediately pulls her closer by her hips as he leans against the wall… they engage into a make-out session without hesitation. Jerry digs his fingers into her hair and as things are getting more intense, his hands slowly wander along her back until they reach and firmly grab their destination…
I swear it wasn’t so hot in here when I arrived, I can feel my face is burning, I’m sweating like I was in hell… Yeah, being forced to watch a hot guy smooching with a girl who isn’t you but in exchange, is much prettier than you, that’s how I imagine the first circle of hell. I can barely peel myself out of my jacket, my elbow gets stuck when Amber grabs its sleeve. I’m still a little dazed-off and stare at her expressionlessly while I’m trying to pick up the threads of conversation.
“...exactly like this one, thrift clothes are so trendy now, where did you get this one?”
She shakes the sleeve of my jacket impatiently, making me realize that’s what she’s talking about. Should I tell her the truth? That it’s not from a thrift shop, that it’s original, that Judy and I pooled the money we earned at our summer jobs together and made an agreement about taking turns on wearing it six years ago?
“I can’t… can’t remember…” I manage an effortless answer.
“You have a great taste, we three should do a thrift store tour together.” she rants on.
“Totally.” Krisha tries to seem enthusiastic but she rather reminds me of a snarling serial killer.
“Okay, I have to go, oh my god, I’m late and I haven’t even talked to Alex. We could hang out in the city next week, call me, Krish! And bring your new friend too!” she winks at me. “See you, later girls!” she finally leaves us alone, the quick tapping of heels echoes in my head even after she has disappeared behind the office door. Krisha grabs her glass and drinks its content for one sip.
“Ah, I feel much better now.” she sighs. “I’m afraid my phone is about to die. I may not be able to make phone calls for a while.”
I snort into my drink.
“I must say, she’s not the girl I’d imagine as Stone’s girlfriend.”
“Trust me, she’s not the girl whom anyone would imagine as his girlfriend. But seeing them together is always like a free circus ticket, it’s pretty funny, especially when you have coke and popcorn too.”
“Sooo… where’s the mysterious person who we’re waiting for?” I look around, although I have no clue what physical characteristics I should look for, I don’t even know if we’re talking about a man or a woman. As my gaze slowly wanders around the room, I admit to myself unwillingly, that I exactly know what I’m looking for. Long, blonde hair, black leather jacket and a white shirt. The realization makes me blush, I feel like in those good old high school days, trying to casually encounter my current crush who doesn’t even know I exist. Why am I like this all the time? Why? I’m such an idiot…
“Okay, I check Alex’s office, maybe we misunderstood each other and she went in without me noticing her. And I’m sure Alex needs some spiritual support too, the recovery will be tough for him. Do you wanna come?”
“No, I… I’d rather wait here.” I answer quickly, flushing, I’m stupid, stupid, stupid… “So it’s a she?” I shout after Krisha but she just waves me off laughing.
So… what was I thinking? I could have join her and meet her cool friends but I chose to drink here alone, not that I don’t feel lonely enough. And I ran out of drink in the meantime too… I want to procrastinate the next round until the other, friendlier bartender shows up again but unfortunately, the red-haired demon spots my empty glass and elbows on the counter opposite me with a challenging, patronizing smile.
“May I bring you a next lemonade?”
I’m about to snap back but a pleasant male voice over my head makes me change my mind.
“One more of this, whatever it is. And the lady is my guest.”
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murdereraisuha · 4 years
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screaming about chapter 5 but more coherently this time
This is gonna cover 1. the recent update’s events in comparison to my previous theories & expectations, 2. the winner of the VDC and Vil’s character development 3. Kalim & Jamil’s character development, and 4. the main story moving forward
Spoilers for everything up to 5-67. Word count: 2117
So, in my “Jamil is Snow White” theory post, I used the events of the original Snow White to try and guess how TWST chapter 5 would correlate to it and what characters would fill what roles (Snow White, huntsman, prince, etc.) in the story.
Originally, I kind of assumed the beginning of chapter 5 would line up to either the beginning of the movie or halfway through when the Queen is already hatching her plan to get Snow White with the poison apple. However, it seems like the movie events have actually been compacted into 5-57 to 5-67.
After the NRC rehearsal, Vil becomes the most beautiful, corresponding to the beginning of the movie when the Queen is still the most beautiful. Then, Neige, out of his natural cuteness rather than hard work and practice like Vil, usurps him, representing the point Snow White becomes the fairest in the land. The next part with the apple juice and Rook coming to the rescue is a mix of the next part of the movie, when the huntsman tells Snow White to run, and the part of the movie with the poison apple. Then, the MC and the rest of the dance team kind of act like the dwarves by fighting the Queen/Vil. However, other than that, everyone follows their corresponding role: Neige is Snow White and Rook is the huntsman.
I think the story as it has played out makes sense. I was initially startled by Vil suddenly going murder mode, but. To work so hard on this song and choreography and training up your team, only to have the media love your lifetime rival who’s only brought an arrange of a kid’s song with clumsy singing and dancing to the table, potentially crushing your plan for victory here... I understand Vil’s feelings here and the sudden, desperate decision to curse Neige.
Rook’s actions after that don’t seem too out of line with what we know about his personality and his unconventional beliefs/actions regarding beauty and Vil’s beauty. Seriously though, wtf please don’t just drink poison. Anyway, I really enjoyed Kalim coming in then. The way he noticed Vil’s face being like Jamil’s before his overblot? The part when he tried to remind Vil that no one drank the juice so Vil hasn’t hurt anyone yet? Good stuff right there.
However, the way things played out also disappointed me somewhat. Though we had a Kalim & Jamil interaction, we still haven’t had a good resolution to their character/relationship development, so hopefully that’s in the final part of chapter 5. Furthermore, though Kalim did slap the apple juice away, I really felt like he and Jamil would have had more involvement with poison/curses in this part considering all the stuff in this chapter about Kalim being poisoned in the past.
There’s also the fact that all Jamil did was evacuate the area, it was Kalim and Rook who were around when Vil overblotted. The pattern of the previous overblot causing the next has kind of been broken. It could mean that the pattern was actually the dorm leader causes the next overblot?? Anyway, I’m hoping that Jamil will have his time in the spotlight in the next part.
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So that kind of brings me to the future. First off, who will win the VDC? Personally, I think that it will be NRC. With everyone so enthusiastically proclaiming in 5-67 that they’re going to win the championship, it would feel off for them to fail. From things that Vil has said this chapter, like in 5-37 when he admonishes Deuce that effort isn’t enough to succeed, it seems like the bad route/worst case scenario of Vil’s outlook is to lose hope that his efforts will ever give him success or a happy end. Therefore, the good route would be for him to keep hope, to keep the belief that he can get his happy end, and I think winning the VDC would be the thing that would support this belief. I do not think he would learn much from losing; if he has already lost and got relegated to the role of villain so many times before, one more time would not mean much to him. 
Other people have said that Vil also needs to learn to chill and stop holding people to such high standards, which is something I agree with. Though Epel’s beliefs on masculinity and power were pretty harmful, Vil’s methods of trying to correct those beliefs were also harmful. Vil’s treatment of Epel at the end of Epel’s ceremony robes story seriously left a bad taste in my mouth. The thing is, something or someone would need to prompt a change in Vil’s beliefs for a change to occur. After Deuce and Epel’s  outing, they seem to be pretty chill with Vil, so there aren’t any conflicts in the group. I can’t think of anyone in the team other than Kalim and maybe Ace who would have a strong enough opinion on not pushing yourself too hard that they would try and give that opinion to Vil, and Kalim’s already had a big interaction with Vil in 5-62.
So, I feel like any further Vil character development this chapter would come from an interaction with Neige. Going back to the debate of who will win VDC, we know that Vil resents Neige for always being the hero. If Neige won yet again, would Vil take what he says to heart? However, if Vil won, that would be a new situation. I think that the first things he hears from a Neige that has finally lost would be impactful to him.
I’m not sure though of all this though because of this line in 5-66:
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Vil’s saying that throwing a tantrum and taking it out on other people was awful of him. Though it obviously refers to his attempts to murder before and during his overblot, it could also point to an overall shift in mindset regarding how he treats others. His attempts to mold Epel into a poison apple, for example, stemmed from his own ambitions and frustration at Neige, which you could interpret as a sort of tantrum that he then took out on Epel. Vil may have already learned to relax on pushing his high standards on others.
Regardless of if that’s true or not, I personally think that Vil and Neige still have a lot that they could learn from each other, assuming my perception of Neige as being innocent rather than a white lotus is correct. Vil’s team’s performance had a lot of cohesion and rehearsal put into it, but it was very competitive focused. On the other hand, Neige and the dwarves obviously had a lot of fun with their performance. However, it was clumsy and they were ill prepared. Therefore, Vil could teach Neige more discipline and planning while Neige could teach Vil about how to not lose sight of finding joy in your work.
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As I have already said, I’m hoping for more Kalim & Jamil stuff in the final part of chapter 5. I originally theorized that something would happen to one of them, probably Kalim, and that would lead to some sort of reveal about their feelings and the chapter would end with them clearly on the trajectory to repair their relationship and really become friends. 
Since nothing happened yet and neither got poisoned/cursed, I think then that the event that sparks the finale of their character development would probably relate directly to the VDC. First off for our possibilities, we have the two’s families watching as Jamil takes the spotlight as a main vocal while Kalim is in the back. Given what we know, I don’t think Kalim’s family would be too happy about that. The conflict from that definitely seems like it could result not only in some sort of understanding between Kalim and Jamil, but also maybe even a change in Jamil or his family’s status. For a less dramatic possibility, we also know from 5-47 that Jamil’s sister will be coming to watch. If she makes an appearance, perhaps she will have some unexpected insight to say that would lead to a discussion & development between Jamil and Kalim.
Finally, my Jamil becomes the most beautiful theory might still be partially true, though idk if that’s just me not wanting to give up on it cause of how funny it would be. Basically, the theory was that, after the VDC performances, the internet/media become super interested in Jamil due to how talented and handsome he is. I originally thought that could serve as a factor for Vil overblot, but now I think it could prompt some discussion & development between Jamil and Kalim due to it serving as a clear example of Jamil finally showing his true ability and by how much Jamil was letting Kalim win. Furthermore, Vil might be affected by an event like that. Though the overblot’s already happened, perhaps something happening with Jamil specifically would lead to something happening between him and Vil, fulfilling the pattern of the previous overblot doing stuff with the next. I’m out of ideas for the Scarabia boys, so let’s continue.
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Honestly, I don’t think anything will happen with Idia and Ortho outside of a quick teaser at the very end of the chapter. Considering that we still have to cover all the stuff with the VDC performance and its results and the aftermath of the results, Idia’s presentation thingy might not even happen until chapter 6.  ?
Idk, rn I’m more concerned about the overarching plot with Mickey Mouse than I am about chapter 6 Ignihyde shenanigans. So, we had a little flash of the Queen/Hag during the day, and also we finally discovered that Malleus is Malleus. So things are picking up a bit. I’m not sure if something unexpectedly big this chapter will happen though. I’ve seen people saying that the boss was surprisingly easy so there might be another big battle coming up. I don’t actually play the game so I don’t know anything about that, is it intentional or is it just that the chapter took so long to update that y’all had tons of time to beef up your boys? For me, it did feel like the Vil overblot was the climax of the chapter. With all the other stuff like the VDC results and the Scarabia boys’ character development, I don’t know if there’s any more room. There could be some big new info with Mickey Mouse or Grim’s bad eating habit, but I can’t picture something happening that would warrant another boss battle.
I do have some thoughts on Mickey Mouse, but I think I’ll save my memey ones for another post and wait for the end of chapter 5 before getting my serious thoughts together. Anyway, now a little talk on chapter 6. So, we have 4 options: chapter 6 will be something regarding Idia’s presentation, something regarding Deuce borrowing the magical wheel, something combining those two plot points, or something else entirely. 
Well, for something combining those two, Riddle was the one wanting Idia to go do the presentation in person, right? So, Idia probably doesn’t like Riddle that much. Maybe he wants to make some sort of plan to get back at Riddle. What can he use? 
Uh I just looked back at 5-39 to figure out what exactly is up and one translation says Deuce forcefully borrowed the magical wheel and another says he borrowed it as a huge favor??? The original says 無理言って借りてきた, deepL translates it as forcibly borrowed, 無理を言って means asking for something unreasonable. What exactly are the circumstances here?
Okay whatever, look, Deuce is in some sort of debt to Ignihyde. Idia could use him since he and Riddle are in the same dorm. Idk my train of thought got wrecked by the translation confusion.
But anyway so we know Deuce is probably gonna be Meg. I’ve never watched Hercules and I don’t know anything about it aside from what I’ve just read on wikipedia. The summary there says that Hercules kills a bunch of monsters and becomes famous then Hades holds Meg hostage in exchange for Hercule’s powers and Hercules accepts the trade but then “Hades reveals that Meg was working for Hades all along” ??? And then in the end though “ Hercules chooses to remain on Earth with Meg”. So what happens, is Meg good or what? Alright it might be better to at least wait for whatever sneak peek of chapter 6 we get at the end of chapter 5 before speculating. Let’s end this here before it gets any longer.
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lizacstuff · 4 years
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Hoşgeldiniz SCK/EDSER Anons!
Lots of people wanted to talk about lots of things after episode 32 and the episode 33 fragman. Fragman asks are at the end. 
Let’s get started!
(asks under the cut)
Anonymous said: The latest episode of SCK was a great step in the right direction for Eda & Serkan’s relationship but there is still a lot of work to do. They had a ton of scenes together which was a significant improvement not to mention solids conversations. Them working together to save the presentation was perfect. But how on earth are we four episodes into the Serkan & Selin relationship with no end in sight? 🤦🏻‍♀️Yikes! At least Selin is finally realizing that she will never be the woman for Serkan but real progress would be him realizing that. Hopefully he will finally take that step in the next episode!
I hear you! The funny thing is I’m fine with the pace on everything except with Selin. She is driving me CRAZY.  It is excruciating to watch her scheme and fool Serkan episode after episode!  Yes, he’s suffering from amnesia and probably Stockholm syndrome after she trapped him in that cabin and brainwashed him, yes she’s a childhood friend and he doesn’t remember her going off the deep end, but he’s free now, he’s seeing first hand that Eda is not what Selin told him she was, he’s getting other people’s perspective, he needs to question Selin a whole lot more than he has done. 
Let’s hope there’s a development coming soon (more discussion at the end of this post in regards to the Fragman) that will push her out the door (off a cliff?) 
Anonymous said: Do you think Serkan learning that Deniz & Eda are fake engaged to make him jealous is going to hurt or help the current situation? I feel like it should show him that she never stopped fighting for him but at the same time the show still has him acting very cruel at times. It could easily cause him to pick a quick wedding date with Selin as well or some other way to publicly humiliate Eda. Honestly I am hoping Eda tells Deniz that the fake engagement show is over early in the next episode and then have Serkan constantly trying to spend time with her to find out more. The fake engagement has run its course & Deniz needs to go!
Sing it!!!  I have several asks along these lines, and I agree that the fake engagement has run it’s course and Deniz needs to go. The good thing is that I think Eda is aware of that now.
I get the fear that Serkan will feel manipulated when he finds out Deniz and Eda is fake, and he may, and if he does he might use it as a lever to try and keep some distance between Eda and himself, but I think he will mostly be relieved. No matter what his feelings are for her, think how happy he’ll be that she couldn’t really move on that quickly from him and that she didn’t give up and was fighting for them in her own way.
I think the fake engagement definitely had it’s uses. It’s pushed Serkan in ways he needs to be pushed. It’s made him outwardly curious about his past relationship with Eda. It made him experience jealousy he didn’t understand. I think Serkan sleeping in the office clutching her wedding invitation is proof that it gave him a lot to think about and at least made him question why he was so affected by it. 
Here’s where I think Eda has gone wrong, she’s doing all of this to get Serkan to remember and when he doesn’t it crushes her, when she should be paying attention to the fact that he’s falling back in love with her even without the memories. She should be trying to connect with him more in those moments when he’s vulnerable with her. 
The coffee shop scene is a perfect example. They’re both drawn there, he doesn’t know why. When she sees him you can see her mind working, that maybe he remembers, and when he doesn’t, she just sinks. She’s near tears that entire conversation. I’m sure it was extremely painful for her, but he’s sitting there opening up to her and instead of encouraging him to talk more or maybe offering him some answers, she gets up and leaves. If she’d stayed, they probably would have talked for hours. 
Anonymous said: Do you think that Eda getting fakeengaged to Deniz was the wrong move? Am I being very unfair to her when I think this? Like I know Serkan is engaged to Selin and he's doing this even though he's not in love her, but he did experience amnesia and is genuinely confused at what has gone on in his life. Whenever he does have some breakthrough moments, like when he was questioning her in that cabin , she reiterates that she's with Deniz now and he's with Celine - I feel like that's the wrong move.
I think she’s made some missteps, yes, and you pointed out the biggest. 
Here’s the thing, though, Serkan is like a scared little rabbit and Eda is holding out her hand with some lettuce trying to get the wee scared rabbit to come and nibble on it. Any wrong or sudden move and he’s going to scamper away! She’s afraid if he knows she’s available and still in love with him he’s going to freak out and run far, far away from her. The problem is she’s so cautious, that when she finally succeeds and he nibbles the lettuce (opens up and becomes vulnerable with her) she’s the one that retreats!
Poor babies. 
That moment in the cabin felt like such a lost opportunity. Serkan was asking about their relationship, he was genuinely interested in learning more. And he sounded hurt when he asked about her giving up on him, which we know is a deep-seated fear of his, people abandoning him-- and there are so many things she could have done there to throw him a bone, but instead she doubled down on Deniz and Selin. Even if she would have ignored Deniz and just said, but you are with Selin, to drive home the fact that it’s him who gave up, but unfortunately she didn’t do that.  
Anonymous said: I need Eda to lose it, confess about fake engagement, tell Serkan shes done trying to make him remember their love while he's happy with someone else because it just hurts too much so she needs to leave him and all these fake people behind and just go to Italy. Then Serkan can chase her (following her to Italy would be nice) and 33 can be our 11.
I’m onboard. I would love to see Serkan chasing her down again!
Anonymous said: I don't even care about Deniz from a love triangle standpoint but it is very sad for Eda that this longtime childhood friend that she trusts so much is working with the enemy behind her back. No matter what his ulterior motives are, it will be devastating for her to realize this. And Ceren is now super bitchy to her so Melo is literally her only real friend right now. I wish they could give us some Eda/Ferit scenes or something because they /could/ connect over all things Serkan/Selin/CerenI
I agree, it’s super sad to see how alone Eda is in all of this and to find out that this childhood friend who became a source of strength for her when Serkan was missing is actually capable of conspiring against her is devastating. I really don’t understand him, he doesn’t seem unbalanced or desperate like Selin, you’d think he’d know that he can’t force Eda to love him when she’s in love with someone else. Also I’m now on board with the theory that he was purposely not as helpful in the search for Serkan as he pretended to be. It was all performative, not substantive. Eda put her trust in the wrong person. 
Thankfully she has Melo. What a terrible time for Fifi to have left and Ceren to have lost the thread.  I agree I’d like to see some Ferit/Eda scenes, we know he would at least sincerely care about her and how she’s doing because he’s just that kind. 
Anonymous said: Please can you explain to me why serkan keeps changing his attitude with eda? He jumps from eda to selin every episode and it's very frustrating. At the beginning of the ep he was like "you're not in my past or my future" and by the end of the ep he say "You gave up on me" come on serkan ily but boy make up your mind, one minute you don't want anything to do with her and the next minute you're making eyes at her...
This a pretty easy one to answer. The answer is because he’s suffering from trauma, PTSD, a brain injury, he has amnesia, he’s being manipulated by his oldest friend and is being lied to by the person he remembers as his girlfriend and all of a sudden he’s having powerful feelings for this strange woman that he doesn’t understand.  I firmly believe that the reason we hear Serkan say in episodes 18 and 20 that he never loved Selin, is because he never loved Selin, but he didn’t know that until he met Eda.  Before Eda, I don’t think he believed in love or thought much about it. If asked he might have said he loved Selin because he didn’t know better.  So now he’s once again experiencing something powerful he didn’t know existed, compounded by all these other factors and it’s freaking him the fuck out!  
The comment about you’re not in my past or my future was a reaction to whatever powerful feeling or recollection that made him say, “nobody touches you but me.”  It scared him.  And also, not for nothing, he apologized for being hard on her, something old Serkan NEVER did.
Most of the times he “jumped” to Selin in this episode were 100% in reaction to being confronted with Deniz and Eda’s relationship.  In the office he witnesses Eda and Deniz all affectionate so when Selin comes in, in front of Eda he greets her warmly.  When they’re outside the bungalows, Eda throw in his face that she’s so glad to be with Deniz now, so he throws a compliment at Selin.  Deniz tells him he’s glad he almost died in a plane crash and has amnesia so Eda can actually finally be happy, (enough can’t be said about how awful that would be to hear, so fuck you Deniz) so he throws his energy into Selin at their party. 
Every time he “changed” his attitude it was a reaction. 
When he had just had a very positive experience with Eda, helping her with the presentation and their ride back to the hotel, he has zero patience for Selin and let her stomp off without even a look. When Selin was trying to get his attention later, he had no interest.  
So, yes, while he was hot and cold, there was also a bit of rhyme to that reasons. 
Anonymous said: I liked this episode but at times it seemed like the writers wanted to do everything to make me hate Serkan. With serkan kissing selin on the cheek, hugging selin, making heart eyes at her and throwing a surprise birthday party for her. And I'm not even talking about all those bad words he says to eda. I think it's too much. I know what they're trying to do with serkan but I think that trying to do too much will end up making the character of serkan unbearable for the audience.
Okay, but why aren’t you paying attention to any of the good things? How can you hate Serkan when he sleeps on his office couch clutching her wedding invitation, and scrubs his face not understanding why she’s gotten so far under his skin? Or when he’s so confused sitting in a coffee shop and he doesn’t know why, but feels at peace? Or when he drops everything to rush back to the office to help Eda. When he brings her coffee and calls her boss? When he looks so proud of her as she does the presentation. When he looks like a big sweet Golden Retriever after she hugs him? When he playfully tackles her while having a snowball fight.  When he leaves Selin right as she’s making her birthday wish to go find Eda. He didn’t even ask if she wanted to help (which a sane, kind person would want to join everyone else in searching) he just bolted because Eda was in trouble. Then he carried her to safety and lit a fire and tended to her injuries. Does all of that make you hate him?
Is that “hateable” behavior. 
I mean if it’s in your personality to only see the negative, okay, but life is much better when you don’t discount everything positive just to sate your desire to live in a dark place and only see the worst in people. 
Anonymous said: eda & serkan are just so.. ahsjdkfd. such frustrating characters (whom i love but wanna knock them both in the head). everything they did with deniz & selin or when it came to their arguments was in reaction to what the other did. that's why i don't think this fake engagement thing is gonna work, bc if he's constantly being told by eda & deniz how happy they are, i dont think he's gonna be up front with this feelings. outside of eda leaving (like ep 11) i dont think a proper confession will come
Yes, I will give you that. THEY ARE FRUSTRATING!!!!!  I agree that usefulness of the engagements have worn off both from a character perspective and a narrative perspective.  
As I said above, I think the Deniz thing has served a bit of a purpose, but it’s now officially doing more harm that good and that shit-stain needs to leave ASAP. 
Anonymous said:  I was going to give a chance to these people who didn't care enough about Eda & Serkan in episode 29 but now 4 eps later, Selin has integrated back into the scene disturbingly well. Ferit is still the only one we've seen confronting her and Melo has been very supportive but that has not changed since 29 so development for other characters caring about EdSer has not improved in my opinion. They have accepted it :( And its actually worse now bc of Deniz. Aydan starting to feel bad does not count.
Oh I agree, they can all rot as far as I’m concerned, Piril is particularly disgusting to me.  
You know, having said that, part of me thinks, even from Piril and Ferit’s first conversations with Selin, that they all just know it’s a matter of time until Serkan realizes he belongs with Eda. Like none of them are doing anything because they’ve witnessed over and over Serkan’s inability to stay away from her and assume the situation will play itself out and they just need to let it be?  I would prefer to think this rather than any of them (other than Piril) being okay with Selin’s psycho behavior. 
The other problem is that Serkan is such an authoritative figure to all of them. None of them, other than Eda, know how to question him. Did you see Engin, he’s too scared to tell Serkan they lost a client when he had nothing to do with the reason why? He has balls of Styrofoam. Kinda stands to reason that none of those gutless wonders are going to try and make him see the light when he’s so obstinately trying to not be the person they all told him he turned into with Eda. 
For Aydan, while I will still never forgive her for keeping Serkan’s whereabouts a secret, she might be treading lightly because she knows Serkan tends to do the opposite of what she tells him to do.  If she pushes too hard for Eda, he might start reacting against that. 
Anonymous said: Serkan's change of attitude between day and night is really disturbing. The whole progression between him and eda is destroyed each time. At the end of the episode we always find ourselves back at the starting point with zero progression. At this point it's really tiring, they should stop it or at least take Selin out of the equation (also why selin and serkan are still engaged ? at this point is ridiculous).
While I agree that Selin needs to be out of the equation and her presence is beyond tiring, I disagree that their progression is destroyed each time. They really don’t start at zero.
Do you think they get to the point where they were in this episode without everything that came before? Having a couple of deep and real conversations, where Serkan is vulnerable, having Serkan leaving the hotel to come and help Eda? Calling her boss and working together as a seamless team? Him hugging her back? Him asking deep and sincere question about how she could move on and give up on him?
That would not have happened in prior episodes.  I assume you feel like a deep moment happens and the next interaction they act like it didn’t? That is partly true, but I think it’s both of them protecting themselves, so after a particularly close moment they boomerang back.  Serkan is being pushed out of comfort zones he didn’t even know he had. So yes he retreats after being vulnerable. Eda is at her emotional limits and she still has that pride. However, while that’s true that they do take a step back after a big moment, it’s also true that the next time they have a real moment, a big moment, it goes deeper than the last.  They all build on one another. 
So there is progression and they are building something. His feelings for sure are much different than they were in 29/30. He’s in a vastly different place, he’s recognizing that he has feelings for Eda to the point that he’s sleeping on his office couch clutching her wedding invitation.  The progress is slow, but it’s happening, just like the first time around, when they’d take a step forward and then one of them would freak out and pull back a bit.  
Anonymous said: It was a good episode but I still don't understand why writers keep on writing things that aren't necessary (aydan and ayfer killing alex plus all of theirs scenes together that are boring by the way, the scenes between selin and serkan where they are suddenly close, selin and deniz..) we don't need to see that. They should focus more on the trauma that serkan is going through and the way he falls little by little in love with eda with those memories of them that appear to him at the same time.1
They should just take Selin away and get rid of those fake engagement. 2
Well you certainly won’t get any argument from me that we need to get rid of fake engagements and Selin and Deniz. I’m also laughing because we’re all referring to Serkan and Selin’s engagement as fake. That’s because it is.  It’s something Serkan is using as a buffer, and we are now at the point that he doesn’t need it anymore, its only him who needs to realize it. 
As for Alex, Aydan and Ayfer the fact is this show is over 2 hours in length each week and they have to have B and C storylines in order to fill it.  This week it was A/A/A and I got to tell you, I’ve seen worse. If you don’t take it too seriously (which you really shouldn’t take too much on this show seriously, at this point it’s really just a vehicle for Hande and Kerem to work their special brand of magic each week) you can just enjoy the reprieve from Selin and try and enjoy these two ladies’ dynamic and their shenanigans.  Both Alican (Seyfi) and Evrim (Ayfer) previewed on twitter that they laughed so hard while reading episode 33, I assume it has to do with Alex’s “death.” I say bring on the comedy! 
Anonymous said: you know i've seen a lot of talk about how serkan is being "cruel" with eda and i don't agree at all. i mean, when they're bantering, she's giving back just as good as she gets.. and bantering/arguing is kinda their "thing" .. it's like their foreplay lmao. and when she does feel hurt by something he does or says it's not like he's doing it intentionally with the purpose of inflicting her pain. idk.. cruel is a very strong word to use for what the dynamic is between them right now..
Agreed. Remember when the narrative from episode 20-26 was that Eda was being cruel to Serkan and needed to suffer?  There are some people who can’t help but pit the two halves of the whole against each other.  I don’t do that. There’s enough empathy to go around. 
Especially when they’re arguing, as you say Eda gives as good as she gets (that’s why she’s the only match for Serkan, she’s the only one who can go toe to toe with him) and there were also quite a few moments where she was provoking him. As she told him in the shelter, just because they didn’t always agree, didn’t mean there wasn’t love. 
Anonymous said: I see a ton of people cancelling Serkan each week but I think he’s going to cancel himself when he remembers and that’s what will further prolong their reunion/wedding. He drove himself sick with guilt about her parents and he had 0 fault in that, but in this instance, there are things a version of him said and did, even if it was in the wrong state of mind. I hope the writing does this justice.
Me too. While I don’t want to spend episode upon episode with him wallowing and self-flagellating, we are owed a scene of his devastation at what he’s put her through.  He loves her so much it will be very painful when he puts it all together. 
On the other hand, I think he won’t remember enough to be at that point until he’s already admitted he’s in love with her afresh. That might dull the need for him to punish himself too much as he would have fulfilled his promise to fall in love with her if born again. 
jan31: Hi Liza, hope you are well. I am sure you have seen the fragman by now, have you got any idea why Serkan would give Seline 5% of his shares. Is at guilt thing after finding him with Eda? I want to believe he remembers more than he is letting on with her and it's some kind of test, but I think I am clowning! When it comes to love he is clueless but not business. Why would he take away his majority and now be 45%? I am perplexed! Maybe there will be something In the episode that will explain it, as I think this happens near the beginning? Not sure anymore if 33 will be Selines last episode now, maybe they are dragging out the drama a bit longer for ratings, who knows!
I think this is one where we can’t judge it until we actually see what happens.  Serkan has to wise up at some point and giving away 5% of the company (even though its her shares she sold to him when she left town) is very unwise and I find it hard to buy that its something he does because he feels guilty because he got all cuddly with Eda in the cabin.  He’s always been a savvy business man, and her hold on him has only been lessening, not increasing.  
Let’s hope he’s starting to wise up and it’s some sort of test or trap. Unless the new writers just don’t understand who Serkan Bolat is at all. 
Anonymous said: Anyone else need to take several deep breaths after watching that fragman? Everyone is canceled except for Eda, Melo, Ferit (if he knew nothing about the shares) and Serkan (although he is going to seriously make up for his cruelty at some point). I guess the only positive is that it seems like everything that happened in the last 4 episodes is all coming together finally. Eda will hopefully finally figure out what Ceren’s problem is and hopefully also figure out Deniz & Selin are working together. And at least Serkan seems determined to get Eda to admit there is still something between them which has to mean he has finally accepted his feelings for her. Things have been progressing slowly and Selin has been smug for far too long so exciting to think there will be a change.
My thought is we need to wait and see context for all of these things. I have a feeling not everything is as it appears. 
Though one thing I think that is exactly as it appears is Serkan trying to get Eda to admit she has feelings for him. That’s good. That’s really, really good. He’s making a move. He’s bringing the sexual tension. Love to see it. 
Anonymous said: Ok so do you buy the theory that Serkan suspects that Selin sabotaged Eda with that dossier? Because when I first saw him getting that flashback at the hotel, I didn't understand why they needed to show it - maybe just to let us know again that Serkan doubted Eda's work skills since they had been bickering all day? But then I read that the flashback could be to confirm that he knew Selin was present. This could be fans coming up with better ideas than the writers though. :/
I want to buy that theory. I want to buy it lunch and dinner and some wine and flowers and I want it to be true!!!! I also want the 5% shares to be a part of some plan he has to figure out what Selin’s is doing. 
Though... lets not get too far ahead of ourselves, this is just speculation which mostly never happens, however the spoilers have long said that Selin leaves in 33 or 34. For that to happen something drastic has to happen.  There’s also screenshots going around that show that there was definitely a security camera right behind Selin when she got into the network and deleted Eda’s files. So there’s a good chance hard evidence of her perfidy exists. 
Honestly, this makes the most sense to me in getting rid of her (which means it’s probably not true). 
However, if it were true, it would help bolster Serkan’s character a bit. He’s a smart man but they’ve turned him into a fool not suspecting anything about Selin, if he unmasks her himself and takes her down for business reasons and doesn’t care a bit about dumping her personally, it kills a bunch of birds with one stone. It restores his savvy, it gets rid of her, it gets rid of her by his hand so it’s not like the choice was taken away from him, it gives her some consequences and comeuppance without overtaking the plot, and it does all this without advancing the romantic story with Eda too quickly (cause I think they want to milk that a little while longer) 
Also the only other way they get rid of her at this point is if Serkan breaks it off and tells her he’s in love with Eda. And I really need her GONE now and not once Serkan is at the screaming at her about how much he’s in love with Eda stage of this story. 
Anonymous said: Okay so Serkan must have a plan and that is why he gave Selin the shares, right? Or he is doing it to make up for ruining her birthday? It would be great if he was doing it because he finally accepted his feelings for Eda on some level & plans to break up with Selin but feels bad about it. Just very weird that he would give her the shares (which to everyone that cannot read his mind comes off as cementing their future together) while at the same time trying to get Eda to admit her feelings for him.
Yeah, I think we’re all on the same wavelength that something is fishy here. Let’s hope it’s a ploy because Serkan knows Selin has been up to no good. And if so I really, really need Eda to be present for her takedown this time. Girlfriend deserves that. 
Anonymous said: what do you think of this third set of writers? I'm not sure if the episodes have been bad because they were instructed to write this stagnant plot and its not really their fault, or if the scene would've been fine but were just actually written badly. Idk if Im making any sense. I personally refer to 26-27-28 as the "edser renaissance" and was not missing Ayse's team and now I'm sad but idk if it's unfair to the writers if this is more likely the showrunner's idea or something
It’s hard to tell because it’s only been two episode, but I think the DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA seems to be a directive from the producers/network.  However, I think they’ve written some very nice individual scenes. As I’ve said, the scene where Serkan comes back to ArtLife to help Eda is already on my list of favorite scenes ever and there was a lot of goodness besides that. There was the accidental kiss, and arguing (how much did you love Eda sitting with Melo counting down until Serkan came to the coffee room) and the coffee shop and every second in that cabin.  So I guess I disagree with you that the scenes are all bad.  If there’s nothing you like in the episode, maybe go back and just rewatch some of the Edser scenes without having the stench of Selin and Deniz nonsense polluting them, I promise you there’s lots of goodness there. 
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Text
Just Like You - Kenny McCormick(South Park)
I wrote this a really long time ago when I was obsessed with South Park. I don’t know why lmao, but here it is. 
Warning: Also wrote this when I was an edgy teen™, so cringe and possible trigger warning.
~~~~~~~~~~
Welp, today’s the day...
New town. New house. New school.
My parents had gotten a better job offer here in this little town of South Park, much to my dismay. I love traveling, but moving from a large city in New York to a small mountain town in Colorado is a lot.
It should be interesting though, more opportunities that I’ve never gotten before. Although, I still have to go to school. The local South Park high school.
I put on my outfit for school and wear my black coat over it. It seems to always snow here, only on rare occasions it gets warm. I run downstairs and grab a piece of toast my mother made from the kitchen. I find a note on the counter.
Have a good first day of school, hon. Try to make some friends, and yes, that means being nice to people. Your father and I will not be back until tomorrow morning, so keep those memories of your first day in you head until we can hear about it. Love you!
My mother is a freak, I love her, but she’s a freak. I’m surprised my father has a job with all the day drinking he does. It helps him get work done, I guess.
I walk to school still eating my buttered toast. Approaching the school, I take in its features. It’s an ugly yellow color. Although, I think all bright colors are ugly. I walk in the school and all eyes are on me. I pretend not to notice. I get my class schedule and such from the receptionist and make my way towards my locker.
“You must be new. I think I would’ve recognized an ass that fine before.” A brunette says to me. I roll my eyes and huff.
“As a matter of fact, I am new. I was hoping for something better than a lame catcall on my first day, but at least you tried.” I said and patted him on the shoulder. He glared, tears filling in his eyes, and stomped off.
I bet he’s never been rejected in his entire life, poor soul.
I walk into my first class and immediately get called on. “Well, hello there! You must be the new student. Y/N right? Well, I’m Mr. Garrison and this here is my little friend Mr. Hat. Say hello Mr. Hat!”
Okay...already creeped the fuck out. Something about his southern accent and oh yeah, his fucking creepy ass puppet just rubs me the wrong way.
“Now, please, go take a seat. Wait...are you a troublemaker?” He asks.
“Oh no. Not at all, sir.” I lie. It’s easy to lie. I have a natural talent for it.
“Oh alright, I guess you can sit next to Kenny. That boy in the orange coat. You can keep him in check.”
Will do, you creepy old fuck.
I take my seat next to the blonde haired boy. He’s kinda cute actually. After class a group of boys came up to me, including that Kenny kid.
“Hi, new kid! Just thought we’d introduce ourselves. I’m Kyle. This here’s Stan, Cartman, and Kenny.” The redhead said.
“Holy shit, look at those tits!”
“Cartman!” Kyle scolded.
“Well, first off. It’s Y/N, not new kid. And nice to meet you too...I guess.” I said and walked off. 
Yeah, I don’t have great people skills. My harshness has pushed people away. I’m trying to work on it. But determined from what the fatass said I probably don’t wanna be friends with those dudes.
Off to lunch, finally. Hopefully the lunch here is better than the ones at my old school. I took my tray and looked around the lunchroom. Everyone in groups or pairs. I see one empty table. I head towards it and sit down.
The food isn’t that bad, but I’ll definitely be bringing my own from now on. While I was eating I noticed people staring at me. One, that Kenny kid, and two, that guy that used that lame catcall. I got uncomfortable real quick.
The rest of school was a bust. It was boring. Now, I want something fun to do. I heard that there’s a pond near here, that sounds like fun. I asked directions to where the pond was, which I found out was called Stark’s Pond, and headed there.
I approached and noticed no one was there. Perfect.
I looked around in my bookbag for some rope, and luckily I carry some around with me at all times. I look a heavy looking rock and tie it to the rope. I’m not that heavy so it should work.
I tie the other end of the rope around my ankle. I throw the boulder into the pond and it yanks me down, breaking my ankle. It drags me down until the rock rests at the bottom of the pond.
It’s dark and cold. I’m floating, suspended in time. I look up and see the sunlight breaking through the surface of the water, but it’s not enough to reach me. My hair flies around, loose and tangling each other. I reach up and run my fingers through my soft hair.
It starts...I try to gasp for breath but it isn’t there. My lungs start to burn with fire as no oxygen reaches them and they only fill with water as I struggle for air.
I always find this part of drowning so fascinating. Your survival instincts kick in and you try so desperately to fight to survive but come up short when your lungs fill completely with water and your body becomes stiff and frozen.
I black out.
*The Next Morning*
I gasp and bolt upright from my bed.
I sigh in relief to see that I’m back again, in my new home. Every time I die, there’s always a part of me that’s afraid I’ll never come back, and yet I always do.
The first time it happened, I was 10. I was at a birthday party. It was my friend’s party cake that killed me. Someone, while making the cake, accidentally put poison in it. I don’t know how in the hell someone “accidentally” puts poison in a cake, but it happened.
I started to feel hungry, it wasn’t time eat yet but the cake was on the kitchen table and I couldn’t help myself. I took a small piece of cake, it was delicious but it caused me to foam out the mouth and have a seizure. I died almost instantly. Good thing I died otherwise the rest of those kids would’ve had a bad day.
Then I woke up in my bed the next morning.
The hardest part was that no one remembered that I died, but I did. I remember the whole painful experience, and my parents didn’t even believe me. They took me to counseling after that, not that it helped.
One day, a few weeks after the first time I died, I tried crossing the road without my parents. I looked both ways and no cars were coming as far as I could tell. As soon as I almost crossed the, a car came out of no where and completely wrecked me. Again, I woke up in my bed like nothing happened.
The day after I built up the courage enough to test out the theory that I was unkillable. My dad had a 9 mil in his safe. I shot myself, and just like that, I woke up in my bed the next day.
At first, I was insanely afraid of myself and it wasn’t until last year that I realized it could be fun.
I’ve tested out so many ways of dying. Yesterday at the pond was my first time drowning, but I wanted to get over it cause I knew I’d drown soon even if I avoided it. Next on my list is falling to my death, but besides drowning heights is my biggest fear. Heights might be a good excuse to procrastinate getting that done.
I get up out of bed and take a quick shower. I wonder if I’ll ever stop being immortal? It’s probably a good thing I am since I’ve become so accident prone.
After my shower, I quickly got dressed and jogged down the stairs, almost falling in the process. I walked into the kitchen where I saw my parents.
“Y/N! Hello, sweetie!” My mom said and gave me a hug.
“Hey.” I said.
My mom was making waffles and my dad was just sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. Dick never pays any attention to me.
“So, how was your first day of school? Did you make any friends?”
“Uh, not really. Some guys introduced themselves to me, but you know how I am with people. And school was fine, learned a lot, teachers are a freaky though.” I paused. “Oh, and I drowned myself at Stark’s Pond.” I said nonchalantly.
My mom sighed. “That’s nice dear.”
Ever since I’ve been experimenting with dying over and over, I’ve been telling my parents about it. They never believe me of course. Even when one time I purposely hurt myself and bled to death in front of them, but they never remember. My dad didn’t really give a shit though. Anyway...
“I’m going to school now. Later!” I said, walking out the door.
Hmm, maybe I should take the bus. I wait at the bus stop, cause I don’t feel like walking to school.
“Y/N!” I flinch when I heard my name being called out. I turn to see Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman walking up to me. “I didn’t know you took the bus.” Kyle went on to say.
“Didn’t really feel like walking to school today.” I said, looking down and kicking the ground beneath me absentmindedly.
The bus finally arrived and we all walked on, I sat in the very back by myself. Until Kenny decided to sit next to me.
“Mmph!” He said, well I don’t exactly know he said. His bright orange parka covering his face made his voice muffled. I’m just gonna assume he said hi.
“Hi.” I replied.
“Mmph mmph mmph mph mmmph mmph!”
“Uh...huh?”
He rolled his eyes and took off his hood, revealing a mop of messy dirty blonde hair. “I said, how are you liking school so far?” He said.
“Oh, um. It’s okay, I guess.” I smiled.
“You guess? Okay, so I take it you don’t really like it.”
“Well, it always sucks when you’re the new kid and you have no friends.” I sighed.
“No friends, huh? Well, I’ll be you friend. I’m sure Kyle and Stan will too!” He said, making me blush. Darn. “Aw, you’re blushing!”
“Shut up. I always blush.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Kenny smirked.
When we finally got to school Kenny walked me to class, which was nice. He’s actually really nice and funny, also really adorable.
*A Week Later*
School so far has been good. I’ve grown really close to Kenny, since he’s basically my only friend. 
Kenny invited me to sit with him at his table, I agreed. Stan and Kyle seemed to enjoy my company though, Cartman didn’t. Didn’t like me for some reason, although he could be just an asshole all the time.
As the talk started to slow down and lunch was almost over, I looked around the lunchroom to avoid small talk. I saw the guy with brown hair staring at me again, but looked away when I saw him. “Hey, Kenny?”
“Yeah?”
“Who is that guy over there?” I ask, discreetly pointing at him.
“Oh, that guy in the red coat is Clyde. Why?” Kenny asked.
“Oh, no reason. He was just staring at me my first day here and also today. He also kinda catcalled me that day too.”
Kenny noticeably frowned. “He has?”
“Yeah, but it’s probably nothing.” I stuttered a little. Kenny giggled. 
“You’re cute when you stutter.” He smiled, which made me blush. “Aw, you’re blushing again.” He poked my blushing cheeks.
“Ugh, stop.” I whined, and shoved his hand away.
The rest of school was okay. Kenny stayed by my side the whole day, I didn’t mind, but he seemed like he was in a clingy mood which was weird. “I’ll walk you home.” Kenny said.
“Oh, no, you don’t have to do that.” I said.
“Nah, I insist.” He said.
Well, who could say no to Kenny. We were almost to my house, we had to cross the street first. We both walked side by side, Kenny had his arm around my shoulders to which I giggled. I suddenly hear a loud horn, I tried to push Kenny out of harm’s way but it was too late.
We’d both been run over by a semi-truck. 
I gasp and bolt upright from my bed in a cold sweat.
Oh, god. Kenny. We both got hit. I tried to get Kenny out of the way, but I was too late. I let him get run over. He’s probably dead because of me.
I start to sob. He’s dead and it’s my fault. My fucking fault. God no. Why couldn’t it have just been me? I wouldn’t even care if I wasn’t able to come back, I just want Kenny to still be alive.
My alarm went off. I smashed it. I’m not going to school today. I can’t. Everyone probably knows Kenny’s dead and they’re mourning him school. I can’t be knowing it’s my fault.
My doorbell rings.
Ugh...I don’t feel answering the door. The person is now beating on the door, damn they’re persistent.
I get up to yell at the person who’s beating down my door. I mumble profanities as I answer it. My heart stops. Not literally but it feels like it. 
“K-Kenny?” I start sobbing as I take the blonde haired boy in my arms, holding tightly. “I thought you died!” I sob. I pull away. His face looks like he’s in shock, also confused.
“You...you remember?” He asks.
“Of course I do! I tried pushing you out of the way of that truck, I guess I succeeded.” I sigh in relief.
“But...how? I thought you died too.” He said, flabbergasted.
“What do you mean too? Wait, you remembered I died?” I ask, also so confused.
“Y/N, I died. You didn’t push me out of the way in time, but I didn’t save you either. We both died,” he paused, “and we both remember.”
Suddenly, Kenny grabs both my upper arms and pulls me close to him and gives me a passionate kiss. 
I pull away, shocked. “Woah....what was that for?”
“I’m sorry. It’s just...nobody has ever remembered me dying. No one, but you can.” Kenny explained.
“And you remember me dying?” I ask.
Kenny nods. “You’re the first person that remembers me dying too.” He says.
I don’t know what to say or do. This has never happened to me before. I think Kenny feels the same, since we’re both just stood awkwardly at my front door. I finally break the silence.
“Kenny, I thought you died, and I’ve never been more scared in my entire life.” I said, with still a few salty tears flowing down my red cheeks.
“I was too.” Kenny said. “Well, looks like we have more in common than I originally thought.” He giggled.
~~~~~~~~~~
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enzo-zzz · 3 years
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A vent on the fandom + cg
If you dont wanna hear any negativity, please just ignore this post. It includes dissatisfication on the yttd fandom and ongoing belief in it. I'm not going to use very kind words here, so just ignore this post. 3b spoilers included.
I like yttd so much, but the english fandom, i cannot interact because how toxic it is. Even the smallest different of which route you choose, will attract anyone to abuse, harrass, ridicule or humiliate you. And to be truth, there are many of them who are so judgemental, to the point that there is only one thing that are right and the other are wrong. Black and white mindset. The term "canon route" is what fans created itself. I guess there are many of them who are teens or kids, since most of kids who havent grown up yet tend to lean towards black and white mindset, even if they believe they are not. If you find people who keep arguing especially on social media, you can bet that its teens. Adult are too tired to involve in things like fighting with strangers. There is one time when the poll asked your age and the age range quite small to teens age. I guess thats why i think so.
OTHER THAN THAT, THERE'S ONE THING I'M ANNOYED WITH. ABOUT THE CG AND HOW THE FANDOM DECIDES THAT THE MORE CGS, THE MORE CANON IT IS. To be perfectly honest, i'm the one who came up with the analysis that on certain route 2-2 ending the cg is more. But people really use it the wrong way and now thought that anything that has more cg is the canon route. The word canon route is wrong in itself, who tf come up with the term canon route in yttd? Is the reason for creating two route is for one to be canon only, or for sparing different characters, or for having different storyline? (I personally think that on different route, the story will change and the ones who got to live at last is probably different ). Now i see those who misuse that information everywhere. "In sou route 2-2 ending evil joe AI dont even have new cg but in kanna route he has. See how biased the devs are? he should have drawn more if he really meant the route to be the canon one. Kanna route will get happy ending, sou route is bad ending." I think thats stupid. B*tch, he keep reusing his old art here and there. You can check for yourself. Joe and midori has same hand based on the cg? He's just reusing the hand art. The arm in 3b and 1-1 is the same arm he reuse. Sou and kanna 2-2 ending basically use the same sou drawing, he just changed it a bit. Sara in 2-2 kanna ending use the same cg as when keiji try to calm her in front of computer, he just changed the face. Midori and sara on the 3b game screen cg basically use the same cg in the 3b content, but changed a bit. So i can think why need to create new cg when joe is still malicious as the hallucination in 2-2 sou ending? If i want to create something i will also reuse this to save my time.
So if you wanna really use this cg argument, then maybe you can consider why alice memory game got so many more cg than reko's? and how ranmaru gone insane has so many new sprite and pose with the hair like that. And why when dummy is dead they got cg's. Especially the ranmaru dying one, he got moving cg's and how it was put more effort into that. Then that means dummy dying is actually the canon route since when they alive they got no addtional cg? This is my assumption, but i think the devs just do as many cg as it takes depends on how impactful the scene he's working on, not because its canon, thats really a lazy take if he is actually unwilling to do extra route but still forcing himself to do it anyway. Imagine if dummy is dying but no cg, instead a message " ranmaru/mai/anzu died ". Do you think that will really give impact to you? This game clearly hinting that joe is going to be the spotlight of the game, even in 3b. So when sou set the real joe ai in kanna route for sara, the script is written for the real joe to genuinely react to sara. of course thats going to be heartwrenching since joe himself is the very important part of sara's life. When the script is made that way, lacking of cgs will hamper down the storytelling nankidai genuinely want to deliver. All i can say is it come from the heart of the author himself. If it is just only text for something as tearful as that moment and no cgs, it wont really touch the feeling isnt it? It is the same with alice memory game that tells about how alice "kill" midori. I'm not sure how many it is but atleast there is 3 cgs with one of them has variant. The story of how alice kill midori is also important and should have impact, thus the extra CG's. I can say its about being passionate and indulged in the storytelling.
I dont even know if joe will ever heal sara in sou route, but based on how the story still keep joe relevant til the end, then there must be something that need to happen between them in the end right? Nankidai even made sure that sara see the dog keychain in 3a if player probably choose to not ask gin about the dog keychain he's hiding in ch 2. Its also for relating ranmaru and joe. Having closure or conclusion with joe in the middle of game is still valid, and having a closure with joe at the end of the game is still valid. Imo, having closure with joe at the end of the game after all of those suffering involving him makes the better climax or impact for sara chara development since the game build up to highlight joe and mr. Policeman, it can be even better if all of it are to be pull together in the ending.
Even if the devs has route he prefer, he's not abandoning any route he less prefer, only if its true that he ever have a route he prefer. Plus you dont know which route he's prefer if any. He's taking his work seriously, it just some "fans" looking down on him, even to the point calling him biased, he's punishing the one who take another route, treating like he only use his career for egostatiscal reason (it somehow clearly mirrors that you are the one who egostatiscal to the point of wanting to find any excuse to punish other, you just using the devs name to validate your mindset). If he's dislike people who chose that route that much, then why create that route? If he know its tiring to make alternate route, then why still make the choice to let 3 dummy alive route at the end? It will make more work. I can only assume its out of passion, or just that he deep down wants the character to be alive atleast in a route ( idk if this is correct, i just read google translated version of his public fanbox that he's actually very reluctant at first when the time comes and "crying" so hard when he had to kill joe in chapter 1. So the part where he wants to spare some character is only my assumption ). By this punishing logic, shouldnt he not make alice die when you push reko ai to spare gin, and only do it to those who dont push the ai to save gin by killing real reko? I am more sure that the variants is to tell a different story or who to spare, and specifically for who sara actually was.
Happy endings? I'm not sure. I've expected that once from story with a lot of deaths, wishing for atleast the protagonists alive. Anime or story with a lot of death is definitely my jam, but from what i see, most of them has bittersweet ending, it depends on how the author wants it to be. Some author dont mind killing them all till the end, and some author just easily kill them all because they plan to revive them later. And everyone sense is different. Some japanese people sense in storytelling is a bit different imo. As the one being the audience, happy endings is the most common wish the audience wants. But its all up to the sense of the author. This is why i'm annoyed with some kids from overseas who rarely watch or play many things that involves a lot of death from japan suddenly says that this "one happy ending, this one bad ending! Everyone will survive in this route, everyone dead in this route"
Just play any route you like, nothing wrong with that. Whats wrong is to start this war of ridiculing others or have that irritating attitude towards those who play their own first route and start bad mouthing or desperately throwing bad assumption that one route will end very bad just for the sake of feeling better for your choice and to scare others.You do know that when you read a book, you'll only know if the overall story is good or bad until you know the ending right? The ending will conclude everything that happened. What happening in the fandom is now like, you only read 3/4 of the book and already expecting that this one will have good ending and bad ending. What if its not about the binary, but for the difference in direction? Its not that bad if the story of the book is kinda predictable, but with how plot twists become the main part of yttd's charm, its getting more difficult to predict how it will end. There's a lot of story which was masterpiece in every part as seen by fans, until the ending hits. Its what the author wants, but its not what the fans wants.
If you pick fights with others, even passively, the consequence is all on you. Good luck taking care of your mess.
Thats why i'm reluctant to publish any theory because the fandom will always use it as an excuse to pick fights with other and say " i'm more right bcs i got this proof" . U see in my caption i dont want any of those harasser to even digest my theory. If you are one of them get out of my blog.
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anika-ann · 5 years
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No Apologies Needed - Pt.1
Pairing: Steve Rogers x reader       Word count: 2380
Warnings: swearing, forced PDA, alcohol
Summary: Your friend left you alone in the bar only to make out with a cute guy she just met. So the plan is to go home. Except things rarely go as planned, do they?
Then again, this change of plans in the form of a handsome stranger seems rather pleasant. Until it doesn’t.
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You couldn’t believe she had convinced you to do it again. 
You couldn’t believe you had taken the bait, again.
A girls’ night out, she had said. Just the two of us having drinks, she had said. No boys allowed, she had said.
The first brunette passing your table caught her attention, but Nicol had tried to be a good friend and keep her promise, ignoring his suggestive wink. You wanted to congratulate her for the restraint.
And then another one had come and you were left alone in the bar, just like always. You were so stupid. Why had you come here? You weren’t exactly number one fan of bars. You just let Nicol tag you along, only to be abandoned. Every. Single. Time.
You finished your drink – the second one ever since your so called friend had left you – and considered taking off. You couldn’t see Nicol anywhere, probably because she was having a wild make-out session with the hot brunette no.2, and you were feeling a bit tipsy yourself – which was never a good state. One more drink and you might make a decision you would regret lately. Also, walking New York’s streets at night was bad enough itself; you didn’t need to add your drunken ass in the mix.
You slipped into your jacket and swung you tiny purse over your shoulder, making your way along the wall to avoid the people who had got encouraged by alcohol enough to start some sort of a dance.
“This isn’t funny at all,” you heard someone behind you complain in what was almost a whine. You rolled your eyes at the male voice and pulled your purse closer as you felt the man’s presence right behind you.
Yeah, getting mugged on top of all that, no, thank you. You quickened your pace, pushing past a girl who seemed to have more than enough; and you were not thinking alcohol. More like… you didn’t even want to know.
Nicol, I really hope your boy-toy is freakin’ worth it. You realized that you should shoot her a text at least – that you were heading to the apartment you two shared, for her to read when she wouldn’t be… busy. With that thought, you headed to your salvation – the exit.
It was when you heard him again, the guy almost sneaking behind you; his voice sounded differently now, more resigned than annoyed. Desperate even.
“Dammit!”
A strong hand gripped your arm and you choked on air as the man spun you around swiftly.
“Hey-“ you snapped at him – him being a hooded guy – your lungs gathering enough air to let out a scream.
“Please, play along.”
Those words shocked you, but you had no time to question them as you were suddenly backed against the wall, the stranger’s mouth on yours.
You gasped at the feeling, unintentionally parting your lips, only to meet his warm breath.
“Please,” he whispered, his large hand cupping your cheek and at the surprisingly tender gesture, you allowed yourself to close your eyes, your rapidly beating heart slowing down just a little.
Somehow, your brain was working one hundred percent – at least certain areas, while others were just too drunk to function. You had got the message – he possibly didn’t like the prospect of kissing you unexpectedly any more than you did and only did it because he was trying to get someone off of his back.
Your pulse wavered in fear and for a second you wanted to push him away – but then the memory of his soft apologizing tone hit you and you just couldn't do it. You suddenly didn't care why he needed to hide – whether it was a crazy clingy ex, a drunken friend or a drug cartel he owned money to. It didn't matter to you, as insane as that made you.
Perhaps it was the alcohol in your bloodstream – or the fact that his lips felt very nice against yours, or the broad shoulders you had managed to notice during your super-fast panicked inspection of the stranger who had grabbed you. The lips didn’t seem to be close enough and neither did his body. You sneaked one hand around his waist, gasping when you felt the firmness of his muscles, unable to stop your hand from reaching a bit lower to what you expected to be a booty feeling just as firm. You were not disappointed and boy, if that sensation didn’t warm your belly in the most delicious way.
Your other hand slipped under the hood of his sweatshirt and you could feel him stiffen as he probably thought you were about to expose him. But you simply slid your fingers into his locks, earning a soft sigh from him. It apparently encouraged him to press his body closer to yours.
Now that was a believable make-out session for this kind of place and you would be damned if your evening just didn’t turn way better than you had expected. The man’s lips were still dancing with yours, slowing down, until there was just a ghost of a touch of them on yours, his fingers resting lightly against your cheek, while his other hand was on your hip.
When had he started touching your hip?
You were breathing heavily, attacked by his unobtrusive cologne that somehow felt vintage. You crossed out a low-life persona from your mental list of people who might have just kissed you, because someone who smelled this nice couldn’t be hanging out on the streets most of his days. Also, you couldn’t smell large amount of alcohol on him, which only supported your theory.
And wow, your brain was so busying itself with stuff that weren’t important.
You licked your lips, gulping. Well. Now should come the awkward part. You couldn’t make yourself open your eyes.
“So… are we good, Stranger?” you asked hoarsely, your throat too tight to allow you to speak clearly. You fought the urge to swallow again.
“Depends,” his equally rough voice caressed you and your fingertips tingled. Jeeez, girl, get a grip, god knows who this guy is- “Is there a white male, 5 feet 9 tall, dark hair, athletic built, wearing black t-shirt and jeans or a white male 6 feet 3 tall, blond, muscular, in dark blue t-shirt and jeans in sight?”  
Your heart jumped to your throat and your eyes snapped open at the first words he said. White male about 5 feet 9 tall, athletic built-? What kind of a person described people like that? What the hell did you get yourself into?
…not that you had been in it voluntarily. At least from the beginning, later on it was— shut up.
You raised your gaze from his neck – because he was just that tall – and let your eyes roam around the room, searching for the men he had just described. You had no clue, it was rather the way he had said those words than their actual meaning that got stuck in your brain, but you didn’t think you saw anyone who looked like that… and seemed especially intimidating on top of that, because you guessed that if a walking rock like this hooded stranger himself felt the need to hide…
“No, I don't think I see anyone who would match that description,” you whispered dutifully, fighting the urge to add ‘Sir’. He was just giving a vibe of a man you should be addressing ‘Sir’.
With your mouth dry, you looked up to the man’s face still partially hidden in the shadows of his hood.
Beautiful eyes met yours with unbearable intensity. You stomach clenched, but not uncomfortably. Oh boy, he was a looker; bright blue eyes, blond hair, ripped body… you realized you were still touching him – quite inappropriately – and let go of his shoulder and… bottom, yeah. Though it was as hard as if there were magnets between you, the sensation just way too pleasant under your fingertips only a moment ago.
He must have come to a certain conclusions hearing your strangled voice, because his gaze softened, allowing you to breathe in properly.
“I'm sorry for... throwing myself at you like this, Ma’am.” Here it comes. Ma’am. I really should have called him ‘Sir’. “I really am, I would never-“
You felt the tension building in your shoulders ease with the way he sounded; slightly embarrassed and... well, utterly adorable. This guy was a good guy, you decided. There was no way he was not on the side of the angels, not with the sincere apologetic eyes and the tone he spoke in.
Crazily enough – and you blamed the alcohol, really – it made you smile rather confidently.
“Hate to break it to you, but you did literally nothing that would require an apology.”
Even with the poor light and the hood, you would swear his cheeks flushed with a little red. It was so cute you would cry. Putting a respectful distance between the two of you – and you did not feel sorry for the loss of contact, not at all, that would be weird –, he cleared his throat.
“I’m— at least... may I buy you a drink as an apology, Ma’am?”
The Ma’am thing again. Had he been raised in a freaking castle? Military, you dumbass, maybe he is military-
“Uhm... o-okay,” you stuttered, completely forgetting you had decided to stop drinking for the night. It would be impolite to decline, right? Plus, after what just happened – or was still happening? – you could use a drink.
He gave you a bashful yet brilliant smile and your heart melted, your legs turning into an uncooperative mass of jello. Seeing your hesitation, he offered you a hand. It was an utterly sweet and chaste gesture – especially given how the two of you had been touching just few moments ago.
You found yourself staring at him as he led you to the bar. He seemed to grow now, holding himself like… well, like a military man, perhaps. The grey hoodie looked size too big around his middle, but was struggling in the higher area – his shoulders and arms were wrapped tightly and you could almost hear the fabric cry. His jeans were… wrapping his bottom pretty nicely, making your cheeks flush with the memory of touching it without any warning or permission. You quickly raised your eyes, afraid he might catch you staring if he turned to you unexpectedly.
Even when seating himself on a bar stool and catching the bartender’s attention, he left the hood on. He only let go of your hand when you were both sitting and the man behind the bar approached you. You ordered another margarita while he had a scotch. He paid for you both of course.
His body was slightly directed to you, remaining somewhat polite, but his eyes were rather on his drink, not meeting yours; until they did.
You almost fell of the stool as you were surprised by gaze staring right into your soul.
“I truly am sorry for assaulting you, Ma’am. But I would like you to know I’m very grateful for your cooperation,” he exclaimed, voice less measured than you would expect with the way he carried himself.
You felt burst of blood in your cheeks when he called the make-out session and your wandering hands a cooperation.
“It was no trouble… Sir.”
You could see the corners of his lips rise as he offered you his hand again, this time obviously to shake yours.
“My name is Steve.”
You accepted his hand, nodding, and sheepishly whispered your name back. You wanted to ask whom the hell he was running from, why he had picked you of all people around, who he was, but you couldn’t make yourself to do it. Possibly because you were well-aware of the fact he wouldn’t answer any of those questions.
Instead, you raised your glass, gesturing towards his. You had no idea what you should make a toast to, so you didn’t say anything, just attempted a tiny smile. Steve reciprocated it and sipped his scotch, only to put down the glass down a second later.
He sighed then, sounding a bit irritated. You studied him carefully, wondering what you had done to cause the change in his mood. He made a subtle motion towards his neck and you noticed his fingertips brushing his ear.
Your heart skipped a beat before it broke into a gallop. Jesus, was he... was he wearing an earpiece? Comms? Was he actually… some kind of a spy?! What the-
“I'm sorry. I have to go.”
“Oh,” you only let out intelligently as he downed the glass in one go. Christ. He stood up hastily.
“Thank you-- thank you again for your help, Ma’am. It was nice to meet you,” he said with a nervous smile and headed towards the exit abruptly.
He couldn’t see the quick smile you gave him as you followed him with your stare.
“Was my pleasure…”
He was almost by the door when a redhead woman, also in a hood, only worn lower, wrapped her arm around his shoulder with a grin. Now you were taken aback utterly, possibly even more than earlier that evening. What the hell?! Was this his girlfriend? Or-?
Even from the distance, you could see Steve’s lips mimicking a very clear 'shut up' at her and then the woman turned directly to you, met your eyes and gave you a playful wink.
You blushed harder and not just from alcohol. The strangest thing was that… the wink didn't scare you or made you feel guilty or something. The gesture wasn't saying 'that's my man, bitch', but more like a 'good job, sister, I hope you enjoyed'.
And then they were gone.
You hypnotized at the door long after they had left, your imagination running wild. For some reason, the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith came to your mind and you had to roll your eyes at the ridiculous picture of Steve and the woman being a married spy couple.
You returned to your drink and shook your head in silent wonder. The alcohol was starting to taste a bit funny on your tongue; just another indication it was time to finish your last drink and go home.
That was the plan anyway.
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Part 2
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Tags: @mermaidxatxheart​ 
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Thank you for reading! Tags always opened, just like my inbox and whatever ;)
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writingwithciara · 4 years
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❀ summary: cause i was falling fast, now i’m just a dash between two dates [in which the reader finds herself angry, and confused, as to where her ‘relationship’ stands]
❀ word count: 1.4k
❀ pairing: kelce x reader
❀ warnings: maybe a swear word or two, but that’s it.
❀ series masterlist // full masterlist
♪ playlist ♪ to listen to if you want
↞ previous // next ↠
The air was chilled, and the night sky was shining bright with stars. Not far down the beach, the kegger that was being thrown to celebrate god knows what, was incredibly loud. You could hear people cheering, no doubt cheering on a party-goer for doing a stupid drinking trick.
Hidden behind a rock, on a large blanket, was Kelce and y/n.
“You know, moments like these are really special to me.” Kelce smiled as he ran his hand up and down y/n’s arm. They had just finished their nightly round of beneficial activity and were currently lying together, stargazing.
Y/n looked up at her friend and smiled. “They’re special to me too, Kelce.” She kissed his hand gently and began getting dressed. Kelce sat up and followed her actions. When they were done, the took their time to go back to the party. They both knew their separate groups of friends would be wondering where they were, but they didn’t care. For some reason, they thought what they had was special.
Back at the kegger, y/n had to watch as an unknown kook girl practically threw herself at Kelce. And to not draw suspicion to herself, she quickly changed the topic of her conversation with a touron who had been trying to keep her attention since she had returned. If she was being honest, the teen was making her feel a tad bit uncomfortable. Kelce took notice of her situation, but he couldn’t come in to rescue her. It would only cause the partiers to start coming up with their own theories.
“Hey, y/n. Haven’t seen you in forever. How’ve you been?” Pope, an old friend of hers, approached her. He must’ve noticed her discomfort, for which she was thankful. The girl politely excused herself from the touron and followed Pope to the edge of the party.  
“Thank you for rescuing me back there.” She let out a low laugh and looked down at her near-empty beer bottle. “He wouldn’t take the hints I was throwing him.”
“Some guys can just be ignorant.” He chuckled. “But I meant what I asked. How have you really been?”
“I’ve been,” she put a finger to her chin and looked up at the taller boy, trying to find something to tell him, knowing she couldn’t mention Kelce. “I’ve been pretty great. Been trying to focus on my art and photography.”
“Really? That’s amazing.” He touched her arm gently. “You’ve always been so talented.”
“Thanks, Pope.” She smiled. “Oh my gosh. Where are my manners? How have you been?”
“Other than a failed attempt at trying to get with Kiara, nothing new has been going on with me.”
“Did you ever hear back from that scholarship thing?”
“Yeah. I didn’t get it, but only because I ran out on the interview. They made sure to clarify the rejection, just in case.”
“Aw, Pope. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s not your fault.” He smiled and put his bottle to his lips. Y/n watched the other people at the party as they danced and chatted. Her eyes desperately tried to find Kelce’s, but failed, even though she had scanned her surroundings multiple times.
“Pope, I think I’m gonna head out now. It was nice catching up.” She smiled up at her friend as they exchanged their goodbyes.
Y/n had started walking towards her car when she finally spotted Kelce. The unknown kook girl from earlier was pinned between him and a tree as they went at each other like rabid animals. Y/n didn’t say anything. Instead, she got in her car and drove off.
Kelce looked up just in time to see her pulling away, and immediately regretted his decision to hook up with the kook girl. He knew y/n was going to be pissed at him, but he couldn’t exactly let this unknown girl know about the situation he was in with his best friend.
Y/n made it back to her house but couldn’t bring herself to get out of the car. She couldn’t face her parents with tears in her eyes. The whole deal her and Kelce worked so hard to build a wall around, would unravel and they’d be in trouble. Instead, she opted for staying in the car until she could compose herself. It only took a few minutes and when she finally made it inside, her parents were already asleep, so she headed to her own room. Her phone vibrated as she set it down on the desk. There was an incoming call from Kelce, but she couldn’t bring herself to answer it, too afraid that her voice would give away all her feelings.
Kelce, on the other hand, was freaking out. He knew she saw him with the other girl, and he knew he needed to explain himself to her. If she wasn’t going to answer his calls, he would have to do something he was so used to doing.
He parked his car down the street, so it wouldn’t be recognized, and he climbed onto her roof. When he got to her window, her back was facing him, but he knew she was crying. He could tell by the way her body shook. His heart was breaking. He knew he had to fix things, so he knocked on her window, startling her. She turned around and faced him as he climbed through the window.
“Kelce, what are you doing here?” she quickly wiped her eyes and stood up.
“I know you saw me with that girl earlier and I came to talk to you about that.”
“What are you talking about? I didn’t see you with anyone.” y/n tried to play it off, but Kelce knew her better than that. When he reached up to touch her arm, she pulled it back quickly, confirming his suspicions.
“Stop lying to me and to yourself, y/n. We both know you saw me with Je-“
“I don’t need to know her name, Kelce. It’s just going to make this whole thing even more real, and painful. So, please, just spare me the details and leave me alone.”
“I’m not leaving here without explaining myself. You need to hear me out.”
“Boy, I don’t to hear anything. I know what I saw, and I wish I hadn’t seen it.”
“The only reason I was even with her was because I couldn’t be with you publicly.”
“Well, maybe we should tell everyone about us then.”
“You know we can’t do that.” Kelce began to pace, raising his voice a little.
“Right. Because I’m not good enough for you.”
“That’s not true, and you know it. You know damn well that the reason we can’t be together is because of our friends. We run in different circles, y/n. That doesn’t sit right with anyone.”
“John B and Sarah are doing just fine.”
“Rafe and Topper aren’t happy with that. It’s made them hate the pogues even more.”
“Yes, but Kelce, you’re different.” y/n took a step closer. “We could be different.”
“No, we can’t.” his hands went up to his hair in frustration. On instinct, as his arms rose, y/n flinched. Her previous relationship had not been a great one. Kelce knew that. So, when he saw her flinch in fear, he apologized profusely. “Oh god. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to um, scare you.”
“It’s fine, Kelce.” She sighed and sat on the edge of her bed. “You know, I understand that this thing between us, can’t be public knowledge.”
“I think, until it can be accepted, it’d be a good idea to not be with each other anymore.”
“What?”
“Look, I’d rather have you all the time and have people know, than to sneak around. We just need time to calm it down.”
“So, you’re just dumping me then? Is that it?”
“Unfortunately, I am.” He sighed. “We just need time for things to be more accepted, that’s all.”
“Yeah. Whatever you say.” y/n swallowed the lump in her throat and bit back the tears that were coming as she watched him climb out of her window. As he jumped off the roof, y/n closed her eyes, leaving him no choice but to sadly turn away and head to his truck.
Kelce knew it was a bad idea to stop seeing her all together, but he would rather be with her publicly, than to lie to everyone he knew. So, until the whole ‘Kook vs Pogue’ rivalry played itself out, he had no choice. Leaving her was the only logical option.
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tags: @ebonyyyy-e​ @obx-direction-sos​
13 notes · View notes
mxtantrights · 4 years
Text
✹PART FOURTEEN
HAWKINS, INDIANA
DECEMBER 24, 1983
It's Christmas eve, and all through the house. Jessie's thoughts were the cheese and she was the mouse. It had only been a month since everything went down and our Odessa starlet was still recovering.
Even though it seemed life had gone back to the way it was, nothing was ever as it seems. In truth that November night never left Jessie's head. Not like her other memories which were filled with gaps and blank spaces. No, this was something she would never forget.
Another thing she won't forget?
The look on her mother's face when she got home that night. Jessie thought her mother would be crying when they all reached home. Or pacing the floors in anticipation for their arrival. It would be the only normal thing to come out of the situation.
That is not however what happened.
Jessie, her father and her brother got home. And her mother was waiting for them at the front door, she even let them open it. As soon as both the kids were though the threshold she grabbed them by the arms.
She told them that they put themselves in danger. That they should have called an adult for help. That they should have never been involved.
Mickey was able to escape, but not Jessie.
Jessie's mother told her that she was grounded. She wasn't allowed to go anywhere if it wasn't with the two of her parents. She also wasn't allowed to hang out after school. It would be straight home for her.
And then her mother pulled her close, as if to hug her. And Jessie felt off. Like it wasn't a meaningful hug. But just one that you get when someone wants to secretly tell you something. And her suspicion was right.
When her father left the two who were 'hugging' her mother's voice appeared in her ear.
Jessie was to know better. She was supposed to think of her little brother, protect him, keep him away from danger. Her older brother had done that for her and she was supposed to do the same for Mickey.
Her mother also let her know she went frantic looking for her and her brother. That she had searched her room, the whole house actually and found nothing. Jessie's eyes went wide with fear, did her mother find her guitar?, she thought to herself.
Jessie's mother let her go and looked her right in the eyes.
And with no words, she made Jessie feel off-balance. That feeling is one that she shares with her brother Dayton, who is coming home after his first semester at university. He had gotten the call from his dad about what went down and was almost ready to hop on a plane over to Hawkins.
But he refrained. He knew that jumping the gun would be the worst thing to do. For the family and for Jessie. He'd have to wait, research and come up with theories. Either way he was going to find out just exactly what he and his family were doing in Indiana a year before Jessie's birth.
And that's a conversation, for now.
˚ · · . · ✵ ✷
JESSIE
   ✹    ˚    .      ˚    ⋆     ⊹ .     ⋆  
Apparently Christmas can suck like all the other days of the year.
Not for my brother though. No. My mom was able to drop him off at Mike's house earlier so he could be with the boys. She's gonna pick him up later for dinner though. It seems that me and her have swapped places.
I really would have liked to see the boys, but they did give me a call earlier. Even they had missed me.
I flipped through the last chapter of my book, pride and prejudice, but I didn't read a word. It was like I was in jail. For doing what? Trying to figure out shit as I went and protect my brother? No. I think I'm in house jail just for existing.
A knock on my door sends me upright on my bed.
The door opens before I can even say enter, and I really want to be mad at my mom if it is her on the other side but when I see it's my dad I let it go. He was there with me that night after everything. He didn't yell at me. He didn't make me feel like a prisoner.
I send him a semblance of a smile.
"Hey so I just wanted to say that I am proud of you for keeping your little brother safe. I know partial things about what happened that night and I know it could have ended way worse." He starts up, and I can see him fiddling with his fingers. He never does that. He's not never nervous but usually he's not so outward about it.
"I'll alway protect him. Although I can't do that from this metaphorical prison I'm in." I wave my hand around my room, but really I'm talking about the house.
He chuckles a bit and comes into the room, closing the door behind him. "I know. And honey you know I would prefer you to be with your brother but your mom, she's just shook up about the whole thing."
I nod my head.
He's always being the mediator. I trust him more than I trust her right now. Maybe not enough to question him about the picture. But enough to tell him a bit of the truth I've been hiding away for some time now.
"Dad?" I ask him even though he's right there. He sits on my bed facing me and I think, okay this is it. There's no stoping it now. "I want to pursue music."
I can see the looks on his face. A range full. From confusion, to maybe one of worry, a little bit of stress and then- happy.
"I know honey. Who do you think does laundry in this house?" He throws the question which throws me for a loop. What did the laundry have to do with anything? What was that all about? He reads me like a book and grabs my hand. "I've been in your closet. I saw the case."
I want to gasp but- it's gone. She must've thrown it out in her effort to look for me and Mickey. I don't know why that was such a priority to her but it was. And it wasn't even like she paid for it, I worked my ass off to get it.
I shake my head. "It's gone. Mom obviously doesn't approve."
"Yeah, so when I give it back to you please find a better hiding spot." He says quickly.
I can't help the smile that spreads my lips wide. And I also can't help when I throw my arms around him and squeeze him tight. "Thank you so much dad, really. Thank you, thank you thank you!"
He hugs me back and lets out a long sigh.
"All I ask is that you go for what you want. Your grades in your old music class prove to me that you can stick the landing, so all you have to do is jump, Jess Odess." He says to me and I feel a little flutter in my heart.
I didn't think he knew.
And I didn't think that if he knew he would support me.
But he's managed to prove me wrong.
I let go of him and nod furiously. "I will. I promise."
He gets up from my bed at that and heads to the door. As his hands wraps around the knob and pulls open the door a crack he turns back a bit. "And also do your own laundry? Maybe?"
I chuckle at that. "Yes dad."
-
"Can the both of you get the cups from the kitchen?" My mom asks.
I look over to Mickey- who's already looking to me in confusion. But I don't want to wait another second so I nod over to the kitchen and we both get out of our seats to follow orders. It didn't take two people to bring for cups out.
Was she angry with dad?
I open the top cabinet and pull out two at a time. Handing two of them for Mickey to hold and placing down the other two for me on the counter. I close the cabinet and pick up the cups and join behind Mickey who's already headed back.
"Dayton!" I can hear my little brother scream.
I put my cups down on the nearest counter and run back into the dinning room. There he is. There's my brother. Mickey is bent over his shoulder as he tickles him- something that I cannot do because he will fight back. And he laughs, his eyes scrunched up for a moment.
Then they open again and he looks at me.
He sets Mickey down and holds out his arms wide.
I don't hesitate to run into them. It's a bone shattering hug. One like my dad gave me when we saw each other after that night. Not like the one my mother gave me that night.
He even lifts me off the ground little and I try to not squeal. But it's over before it's even begun because my mother clears her throat. God. He lets me down and we all look to her. She's eyeing the food on the table but that can't be it. She's just using that as an excuse.
Dayton wraps an arm around me. "Glad to be back."
-
I push Dayton into my room and shut the door behind us. Making sure to lock it. Do not need to be interrupted by weird mother. With that thought I turn to face my brother, egging him on to explain what I've been trying to wrap my head around for about a month now.
"Jessie what do you remember about your birthdays?" He asks me.
I shrug my shoulders, heading over to my bed. I needed to get him that photo he do desperately wanted. I crouch down and reach my hand underneath the frame and pull it out. "Don't really remember them. You know that, everyone knows that."
I hand over the photo to him and he takes it. Inspects it.
"So far every birthday you've ever had, you've spent it with mom." He explains and turns the pitchout around for me to see. "And I think it has something to do with the fact that you were born here."
What?!
"How could I have been born here? Dayton my birth certificate places me in a hospital in Texas. I can be in two places at once?" I know I sound irrational, but sue me. Wouldn't my own father know where I was born. If it says it on the certificate then- whats the point of the lie?
He shakes his head in disagreement. "No. I'm telling you that I'm 90% sure that you were born here in Hawkins. And that something keeps happening to you on your birthday, something that you aren't supposed to remember, something that someone doesn't want you to remember and it has to do with mom."
I look at him.
He looks at me.
It's like that for a few moments.
I cross my arms over my chest. "So what the hell are we gonna do Dayton?"
"We're gonna make sure that you don't spend your birthday with mom. Play the long game."
8 notes · View notes
capcarolsdanver · 5 years
Text
Promise
Request: Can you do a Mason Weaver imagine ? Like her and reader going on an adventure and something bad happen and Reader have to protect her or something ?
Pairing: Mason Weaver x Reader
A/N: So this ended up being a lot longer than I originally planned! This is my first Mason fic and I love this character so it’s exciting to write for her! I’m sorry it’s taken so long! I had a lot of personal stuff go on and lost all motivation to write until recently. I kept the ‘adventure’ the same concept as the movie, an exploration of Skull Island, so I hope you enjoy it! As always, feedback is greatly appreciated!
Please do not repost my writing anywhere without my permission.
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“We said we’d always be there for each other. We promised.”
Mason looks at you from across the room, tears running down her face. “How can we be? We never even get to see each other anymore.” She gets the words out, holding back the sobs you know she wants to let out.
“There’s gotta be some other way we can work through this,” you say. You feel your own tears stinging at your eyes as Mason walks towards where you’re sitting at the edge of the bed.
“Y/N, you have a bag packed ready to leave. By the time you get back I’ll probably be gone again, too. We both know there’s no other way. At least not right now.”
Of course, you know she’s right. You both took your careers very seriously and neither of you would ask the other to sacrifice that. It doesn’t mean this hurt any less, though.
Tears start flowing from your eyes and Mason is quick to embrace you, holding you tightly in her arms and you try to hold on to the feeling of safety she’s always so effortlessly offered you.
Pulling back from her slightly, you press your lips to hers in a kiss that is both too fast and too slow before you rest your forehead against hers.
‘I think you’re the love of my life,” you whisper, your voice cracking. Mason closes her eyes for a long moment and when she opens them you watch a tear roll down her cheek. She can’t find the words but when she pulls you even closer in an almost desperate kind of way, you know she feels the same. Really, you’ve both always known.
You eventually manage to peel yourself away from Mason, grabbing your bags and walking away, leaving behind the greatest love you’ll ever know.
You shake the memory from your head, your eyes trained on the figure walking ahead of you on the dock. In theory, you know it’s unlikely to be her. The expedition you’re about to get on a ship for isn’t the kind that you’d consider an anti-war photographer to join. Still, you can’t help the overwhelming feeling of familiarity as you watch the woman.
At some point you lose sight of her among the crowd, and it finally gives you the chance to snap out of the trance you’d found yourself in. You continue walking until you reach the correct ship and board it. You’re led to your room and it’s only small but you’ve definitely experienced much worse, so you thank the man who led you here before walking in and shutting the door behind you.
You place your bag on the small bed and remove your jacket, tossing it onto the bed. You take a moment to collect yourself, taking slow breaths before pushing the door open and stepping out of the room again. When you reach the deck you almost immediately spot Bill Randa, the man leading the expedition.
“Bill, hello,” you say in greeting, offering a warm smile and shaking the hand he offers you when he turns to you.
“Y/N! It’s good to see you. Thank you once again for joining us.” You nod at him.
“Of course,” you say and he gestures for you to follow him.
“Let me introduce you to some of the team.” He walks you over to a group of people and gathers their attention.
“Everyone! I’d like you all to meet Y/N, our tracker for this expedition. I expect everyone to give her the respect that she deserves. I have it on good authority that she is very good at what she does.” They all seem somewhat surprised that their hired tracker is a woman, but you pay no attention as your eyes roam the group and land on a pair of eyes already focused intently on you.
Mason is standing amongst the team in front of you and she looks just as shocked as you feel. You realise rather suddenly that the group is standing in silence, waiting for you to speak.
“Uh, thank you Bill, I appreciate it. It’s good to be here with you all, I’m really looking forward to seeing you all do what you do best.” Everyone mumbles their own greetings towards you before Bill walks away with a wave and the rest of the group disbands.
You and Mason are left standing together, silently looking at each other before Mason’s face breaks into a grin and she throws herself at you, the force of her embrace throwing you off balance for a moment before you steady yourself.
“Oh my god,” she laughs, pulling back to look at you. “I can’t believe this. What are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here? I could ask you the same question, Mason Weaver, anti-war photographer.”
She smiles softly at the sound of her name coming from your lips before a more serious expression takes over her face. She quickly scans her surroundings before motioning for you to follow her, and really you never could say no to her, so of course you follow her without a second thought.
When she finds a more secluded area, she tells you that something doesn’t seem right about this expedition, that no one can give her a clear answer on what the purpose of the mission was or why the military are even involved.
“The second I found out about this I knew I had to come. There’s something going on here that we don’t know about.” She voices the thoughts you’ve also had since you had been asked to join the expedition, and you move closer to her, quickly checking the doorway behind her for anyone who may be trying to listen.
“Mason, listen to me. I have a feeling things are about to get very dangerous. You know it’s not too late to get off this ship, right?”
She rolls her eyes light-heartedly at you. “Come on. You probably know me better than anyone else. You seriously think the threat of danger is gonna scare me away?”
“No, but I thought it was at least worth a shot,” you sigh and Mason chuckles at you before you hear Bill’s voice calling for the team to attend a mission briefing.
------------------------
“Seismic charges? What kind of mapping mission needs explosives?”
After the mission briefing, Mason was quick to pull you aside, stealthily leading you to the ship’s cargo hold. You look around at the amount of charges you see stacked up around you.
“That is what they’re telling us it is, right? A mapping mission?” Mason’s fingers trace the side of one of the charges before she turns to you.
“Apparently,” you say. “The charges are for the geologists, to check the density of the earth.”
Mason raises her eyebrows at you. “And you believe that?”
“Do you think I believe it?” Mason maintains eye contact with you for a few moments before her features soften. She knows you, knows that you both had always shared very similar views on most things. The only outlier being the fact that you often needed a gun with you during your work, though she knew you only used it for protection, so she was always willing to overlook it.
You eventually make your way back to the deck together and your attention immediately lands on a storm cloud in the distance, the ship heading straight towards it.
“That’s where we’re heading?” Mason asks incredulously, just as Colonel Packard walks passed.
“Yep, and we’re getting set to leave now so if you intend to come with us, I suggest you get yourselves ready to go.” You and Mason glance at each other as he walks away to talk to some of his men.
“Well, you heard the man. Guess we’re going through the big, terrifying storm cloud.” You and Mason run off to grab the things you both need and a few minutes later you’re already sitting in a helicopter, hooked up to the safety bar. Mason joins you, hooking herself up to the safety bar too. She catches you staring at her and offers you a mischievous smile before you look away with a smile of your own.
It isn’t long before your pilot, Slivko, starts the chopper and takes off, joining the rest of the choppers in the air.
“Here we go, hold on,” he says to you and Mason and he takes the chopper straight into the storm. Immediately everything starts shaking and thunder flashes in every direction around you amidst the pouring rain. You grab the edge of your seat to steady yourself and look over to Mason. She wears a panicked expression on her face, and though you likely wear the same expression, you reach over to grab her hand reassuringly, which she clings to tightly.
Just as quickly as you enter the storm, you’re flying out of it, and you’re left only with clear skies and beautiful scenery before you. Mason gasps beside you and you share a look before you both grin widely. Mason lets go of your hand in favour of picking up her camera, snapping some photos of the island the chopper flies towards.
She lets out a joyous laugh and turns to you, aiming her camera at you to take a photo. You stick your tongue out at her and she chuckles, playfully bumping your shoulder with hers.
You notice the scientists being taken to the ground and setting up their equipment, painfully aware of what’s to come next, and you flinch at the sound of the first seismic charge being dropped. Mason furrows her brow and shares a grim look with you as explosive after explosive is dropped.
A loud banging sound and screams from another helicopter pull you from your thoughts, and you look up in time to see the chopper up ahead of you spiralling towards the ground, a tree sticking straight through it.
“What the hell?” Mason says and you hear even more screams in the distance as another chopper is taken down.
When your eyes fall upon the creature causing all the destruction, you gasp. You can’t believe your eyes, and you have to blink a few times to make sure you’re really seeing the gigantic ape standing ahead of you, glaring at the choppers as they approach.
Slivko speaks over his headset to the rest of his squad, obviously getting orders to engage as he and the rest of the soldiers fire at the creature. Mason shifts closer to you, her eyes open wide in terror.
You watch in complete shock as chopper after chopper gets taken down, the ape easily ripping them apart and punching them towards the ground. Despite the bullets seemingly having no effect, Slivko continues firing and closing the distance between you and the creature.
“What are you doing?! You need to retreat right now!”
“I don’t take orders from you!” Slivko yells back at you. You sense the clear terror in his voice and before you can say anything else, a body is thrown seemingly from nowhere towards you. It hits the windshield, a loud thudding sounding through the vehicle, and the body is pulled towards the rotor. Mason screams as the helicopter shakes heavily and a loud beeping comes from the cockpit.
“We’re gonna crash!” Slivko warns you and sure enough the vehicle starts declining towards the ground. Mason looks around frantically with wide eyes and you wrap an arm around her, pulling her into your body and tightly holding on to some railing inside the chopper as it plummets through tree branches.
------------------------
You hit the ground hard, quickly surveying yourself for injuries. You swipe at your forehead and find some blood there and your body aches a little from the impact, but otherwise you’re fine.
“Mason!” You exclaim, unhooking yourself from the safety bar and quickly moving over to her as she groans, squeezing her eyes shut tight. There’s some debris trapping one of her legs from the knee down and you struggle to remove it but eventually it shifts and you’re able to free her.
“Mason, hey. Look at me,” you say, gently grabbing her face in your hands. She opens her eyes and you look over her carefully. “Are you okay?” You help her sit up and she grimaces for a second.
“I think so,” she says and you grab her hands to help her stand up. The moment she’s on her feet she shifts her weight and lets out a cry of pain, practically collapsing into your body as your hands tighten on her arms.
“What is it?” You question, concern lacing your words. She stands gingerly on one foot, distress entering her features.
“I don’t know. Just give me a second, I’ll be okay.” She shrugs your hands off of her and you let her, but you remain close to her. Clenching her jaw with determination, she slowly moves to take a step before another cry of pain leaves her lips and you quickly reach out to grab her before she’s able to fall.
“I got you,” you say softly, spotting a log a few feet away and helping her to sit on it. You lift her pant leg, gently touching her slightly swollen ankle with your fingertips. Mason hisses in pain.
“Shit, I’m sorry.”
“It’s my ankle, isn’t it? Do you think it’s broken?” You look at her face, her eyes welling with panicked tears.
“I don’t know, but we’re gonna figure this all out, okay?” She shakes her head, tears falling from her eyes, and looks at you with a pained expression.
“No, I’m not gonna slow anyone down. If you just leave me here then I can try to-“
“Hey, stop,” you interrupt. “I promised I’d always be there for you, remember? I’m not breaking that promise today and I’m not planning on leaving you again. You hear me?”
After a second, Mason nods. “Yeah,” she replies weakly, another tear rolling down her cheek which you wipe away.
“Good. Now I want you to grab my hand and try to put some weight on your ankle again. I think it might just be sprained but I want to make sure, okay?”
She nods and takes your hand, letting you help her back to her feet. Hesitantly, she places some weight on her injured ankle. She visibly winces but is at least able to somewhat support some of her weight on it and you let out a relieved breath.
“Okay, looks like it’s not broken. Everything’s gonna be fine, Mase.”
------------------------
You make your way through the forest with the group you’ve found yourself in, an arm wrapped securely around Mason’s waist. You had found some bandages in the choppers emergency kit and wound it tightly around Mason’s ankle to provide some support, and to hopefully keep it from swelling anymore. Thankfully, as more time went by, she was finding it a little easier to place more weight on the ankle, though only slightly.
“So, you never told me how you ended up on this mission,” she said, breaking the silence that had fallen upon you.
“Well, long story short, my friend Conrad was actually offered this job. He’s former SAS, I met him on a tracking mission not long after we…” You pause and glance at Mason. “Anyway. He couldn’t take the job, so he recommended me. Like you, I was pretty intrigued. Plus, they offered me a lot of money.”
“Yeah, but you were never one to take a job based on the amount of money you were offered.” You shrug, lost in your own thoughts.
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately. When I was offered this job, I saw it as the perfect way out.” Mason squints her eyes at you curiously.
“A way out?”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always loved what I do. But it’s been so exhausting and it’s taken so much away from me. I mean, just look at what happened between us.”
“My career played a part in that too, you know.”
“Yeah, I know. But your work has always been more important than mine,” you say easily. "If I had just stayed two years ago, maybe things would be different now. We would have been able to work through everything.”
Mason hums, but otherwise remains quiet as you continue walking.
A few minutes later, as you follow the river towards the north side of the island, a sound from the water startles the group. You see what looks like a giant water buffalo emerging from the water, and it moves closer, looking down at you.
Mason shrieks in surprise and you quickly position your body in front of her, you and Slivko both raising your guns towards the creature. You watch it for a moment, quickly deciding that it is only curious, and doesn’t look to be hostile in any way. You lower your weapon, turning to Mason. She smile with wonder on her face and you move aside to allow her to take photos of the buffalo.
You look away from Mason for a moment, realising that Slivko still has his gun raised.
“Hey, Slivko. It’s okay, it’s not gonna hurt us.” You silently walk towards him, placing a hand on his shoulder slowly to avoid startling him. “Put the gun down.”
You feel him trembling and he looks at you over his shoulder. You nod reassuringly and he lets out a shaky breath before nodding back to you and lowering his gun.
“Are we ready to move on?” Everyone nods and Mason takes one last snap with her camera, wide smile still on her face, and looks at you.
“Yeah, let’s go.” She moves to take a step without thinking and winces. You’re by her side in an instant, your arm back around her waist and she slings an arm over your shoulders.
“I hate this,” she huffs with a pout on her face.
“I know,” you lightly chuckle, knowing she’s always hated not being able to do things on her own.
You direct Slivko on where to lead the group and stay towards the back of the group with Mason, stealing constant glances at her to make sure she’s okay. And just to look at her. You’d forgotten how much you missed seeing her face.
You walk on for at least a couple more hours without really taking any breaks, besides a minute or so here and there. Mason does her best to keep up with the rest of the group, though the last hour or so you notice her start to struggle a little. You know she won’t complain though. She wouldn’t want to slow the group down.
You keep going a little longer until you find what looks like a walkway, lined with walls and some kind of decorated arches. You all walk cautiously, looking out for any movement, and on a particularly rough bit of terrain Mason winces and tightens her grip on you. You immediately signal for the group to stop.
“No, don’t stop. I’m good.”
“Mason, it’s okay. We’ll just take 5 and then we’ll be on our way again, alright?”
She lets out a frustrated sigh but nods appreciatively at you, finding a large rock behind her to sit on. While the rest of the group pass around Slivko’s bottle of water that he shares, Mason lifts her leg to rest on the rock, pulling her pant leg up and touching her ankle.
“The sun’s starting to set. When we find a safe place we’ll stop and stay put for the night, okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” she replies. The bandaging on her ankle has loosened a little while you’ve been walking, so Mason begins removing it so she can reapply it. A deep bruise has formed along her foot and ankle, but you feel relieved when you notice that the swelling has lessened slightly.
You hold out your hand to take the bandage from her and she gladly hands you it. She leans back a little as you kneel in front of her to reapply the bandage to her ankle and you see her grabbing her camera and readjusting some of the settings.
“You think you’ve got some good shots?” You ask as you finish up with her bandage.
“I guess,” she shrugs. “Not as many as I’d like though. But let’s be honest, this whole expedition has been full of surprises so I might still have some opportunities left.” As she speaks she lifts the camera to her face, adjusting the focus. She lets out a sudden loud gasp, dropping the camera and rising from the rock as quickly as she can as her face pales.
You furrow your brow, quickly turning around and spotting what appears to be a tribe closing in around you, holding spears towards you. You immediately aim your gun towards them as they approach, using one hand to grab at Mason’s shirt and tugging her behind you as you lead her to the rest of the group.
“Stop, stop,” Slivko warns them, clutching his rifle tightly, not quite sure of where to aim it.
Some of the scientists in your group also hold up their own guns and Mason’s hand falls to her knife sheath at her belt, at the ready to pull her knife out if needed. You try to think the situation through quickly, looking around at all the natives surrounding you.
“Woah, okay. It’s alright, do not shoot. We don’t want to hurt anyone. Just wait a second.”
With no obvious plan coming to mind, you almost run out of options before you hear a booming voice coming from behind the tribe.
“Woah, woah. Hey, everyone just calm down.” A man in an old flight suit runs out, making his way through the natives and greeting the group. You’re skeptical but he seems happy to see you so you listen to him. He introduces himself as Lt. Hank Marlow and explains that he’s been stuck on the island for almost 29 years.
“See, they’re okay,” he looks around at the natives and they slowly lower their spears, you and the group lowering your own weapons.
“There’s something out there, man,” Slivko says to Marlow, who raises his eyebrows knowingly.
“Oh, there’s a lot out there. Now come with me, you don’t want to be out here at night.”
The group all look to you, and you eventually shrug and lead the group to follow Marlow.
------------------------
You follow Marlow to a village and he tells you that the ape, known as Kong, is actually king on the island. He’s a protector to the native people, and there are, in fact, much worse creatures inhabiting the island. With this knowledge, you convince Marlow to come with you to the north side of the island to finally return home.
“We’ll stay here for the night, and first thing in the morning we’ll head out,” he says, pointing out the tents you have been given permission to stay in.
“Thank you,” you nod sincerely to Marlow and he returns the nod. Once again wrapping your arm around Mason, you help her to one of the tents and she sits down, looking completely exhausted after the day’s events. You share eye contact for a moment before you move to leave.
“Hey,” Mason reaches out to gently grab your wrist, effectively stopping you in your tracks. “You know, you did a really great job at keeping your promise. You’ve been there for me probably much more than I deserve.”
“Mase.” You sit next to her, your thigh touching hers. “You deserve the world. And I don’t know if I can give you everything you’ll ever need, but I mean it when I say I’ll always be there for you.”
Mason gets teary eyed watching you speak before she clears her throat to compose herself.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Anything,” you reply, giving her your full attention.
“If we get off this island, do you really plan on retiring from this?”
You take a breath before nodding. “Yeah, I do. You know just as well as I do that it’s cost me a lot. And when they offered me what they did for this expedition, it seemed like a perfect opportunity.” You hesitate for a moment. “Seeing you on that ship was kind of perfect, actually,” you add.
“What do you mean?” Mason tilts her head at you slightly.
“Well, it just seems like a sign. I never once considered leaving this career until it was the reason why I lost you.”
Mason makes a point of taking your hand in hers, interlocking your fingers and looking you in the eyes.
“You never lost me.”
You look at her softly, blinking back the sudden tears that sting at your eyes and leaning forward to rest your forehead against hers.
“Oh, this seems eerily familiar. You’re not gonna tell me that I’m the love of your life and then leave again, are you?” Mason jokes.
You laugh at her words, at least glad it seems like you aren’t the only one who recalls that conversation so clearly. You pretend to consider Mason’s words for a moment before speaking.
“Hm, maybe. This time I’m cutting out the part where I leave, though.”
“Good. I think I’m gonna like this version a lot better,” Mason says.
Your smile grows before you lean forward, softly kissing Mason, and it’s like everything in the world is right again. You feel Mason smiling against your lips and when you both have to break away from smiling too much you suddenly feel hopeful that you might actually be able to get off this island and be happy again.
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𝕮𝖆𝖙𝖋𝖎𝖘𝖍 : Part II
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Marinette had known she was going to be kidnapped that day. Not many in the castle believed her to be anything more than the kind, clumsy princess that she appeared to be, but the truth was that she was extremely observant, and as a result, extremely good at predicting what may happen in the near future.
It’s how she knew that the Prince of Vipravia would ask for her hand in marriage, and how she knew that their (or rather, his relative’s) true intentions was to absorb her family’s kingdom and tax it to high heaven under their rule.
It’s how she knew that the infamous pirate, Captain Chat Noir, was fast approaching directly towards their palace, and would arrive three hours past midnight directly after the engagement party. The perfect time to infiltrate the castle, take the royal guard by surprise, steal as many valuables they can carry, and kidnap the princess to ensure their departure. 
She had packed her things in advance, and waited.
It is true that, with her knowledge of their incoming arrival, she could easily just tell the guards in advance and capture the wicked man once and for all. However, she would lose a very important opportunity in doing so. 
By opportunity, she means the chance to delay the wedding long enough for her to come up with a good, solid reason to break it off. 
Because, while charming he may be, she refuses to marry Prince Luka. The man himself is sweet, and genuinely seems to adore her, but his father was another story altogether. The King of Vipravia was a disgusting man who had no respect for women, believed himself to be smarter than he truly is, had no regard for the health and safety of his subjects, and had the shortest temper she has ever seen.
And, for some reason, she seems to be the only person aware that, immediately after the wedding and the paperwork to absorb her kingdom is complete, the King plans to murder his son, her, and the rest of her family. Just to ensure everything belongs to him, and no one else.
Because, clearly, that disgusting creature tends to forget that he isn’t an immortal god, and would need to pass down the kingdom to a living heir some point in the future. And, currently, Luka is his only eligible living heir. 
Like she said. The stupid man believes he’s smarter than he truly is.
So, yes, she packed her things and waited to get kidnapped by a crew of very dangerous pirates, all for the safety of her kingdom, her family, and her dear friend Luka. 
Unfortunately, she can’t predict everything. 
For example, she had no way of predicting that, despite the official announcement of her and Prince Luka’s engagement, his father would still go out of his way and order his royal navy to kidnap her themselves.
By Gods, does she hate that bastard.
“I’m so sorry about this, Princess Marinette,” said a young lady. She was petite, with short blond hair and pretty blue eyes. Despite her adorable appearance, she wore a men’s naval uniform, which was truly a surprise, given the Vipravian King’s attitude towards women. “We’re just following orders, truly. I’d loosen the binds for you, but...”
“But you’re the only other female on a ship full of haughty naval officers, and disobeying may result in unspeakable torture that would be excused as punishment,” Marinette finishes for her. “I understand. Although I must wonder, why are you here, then? Or, more specifically, how?”
The young lady sighs, as though expecting this question. She glances behind her shoulder, silently listening for any incoming footsteps through the door, before continuing.
“I have managed to pretend that I am a young boy supporting a single mother and younger sister back at home. They believe I am eleven years old, an only son, and mute. I’m short enough for it to be plausible, my cheeks are round enough too. But, if they were to hear me speak...”
“The ruse would unravel. That’s a... delicate situation.”
“Indeed, that’s one way of putting it.”
Marinette leans back into the chair with a thoughtful hum, ignoring the way the ropes around her wrists twist and tighten in response. The lady’s ruse would surely end when a few years go by and she shows no signs of aging, so either this is a temporary arrangement, or she’s desperate. Desperate for what, exactly, is not yet clear, however...
Marinette has a guess. She has no concrete proof, of course, and no reason for believing this theory to be true, but she does remember a young maiden that Princess Juleka would often mention. A small, blue-eyed blonde, who was skilled in her work of mixing fragrances and concocting quality perfumes. A year ago, however, this maiden had been (she very much suspects falsely) accused of witchcraft, and in fear of her life being taken from her, she had disappeared, leaving no traces behind.
Princess Juleka, though she clearly held strong affections for this perfumer, did not weep nor worry over her disappearance. In fact, she had seemed to have anticipated everything; from the accusations of witchcraft, to the young lady’s vanishing act.
Marinette’s guess is that Juleka had prepared a false identity for the young lady. She also strongly believes the reason Juleka had predicted the accusations was because, behind closed doors, the perfumer was more than simply a fine friend of the Princess’, but her lover. 
And Princess Juleka knew, sooner or later, their relationship would be discovered by her father, the King. There’s no doubt the swine would throw a fit over the discovery, and would have immediately come up with a reason to execute the ‘temptress,’ as he would call her. That reason would be witchcraft, because unfortunately for the king, homosexual affairs with non-royalty was common, generally never seen as a reason to throw a temper tantrum.
After all, the missing Queen Anarka was known to be deeply in love with a female sailor, and their story is a beloved one in the Vipravian Kingdom. Political marriages are well-known to be simply that: Political. 
Marinette sighs. She’s getting off track. The focus, here, is the true identity of the lady soldier, and if her hypothesis was correct, then that would mean she is...
“Rose Lavillant.”
The disguised woman straightens up in surprise, though quickly tries to hide it. Unfortunately, she does not seem very good at controlling her expression, much less her body language.
That was proof enough.
“I must say, out of all the identities Juleka could have prepared for you, I wouldn’t have expected she’d hide you in plain sight,” Marinette says. “This is beyond dangerous, but I will admit, it’s... clever. Who would suspect a wanted witch working as a soldier?”
“I’m no witch,” Rose says softly, looking pained and miserable. “I’ve committed no crimes. My lovely flower, she had planned for me to move into her chambers as her personal handmaiden. We did not expect her father to have spies... Not many in the palace are truly loyal to him. It surprised me.”
“But not Juleka,” Marinette surmised.
“No, not my flower. She was prepared. How could you know this? She swore to me she would not tell a soul, and she has always kept her promises to me.”
“I simply guessed,” Marinette answered truthfully. “Juleka has spoken of you before, and I, of all people, am aware of how evil the Vipravian patriarch truly is. I only needed your confirmation.”
Rose goes quiet, leaving an awkward stretch of silence between them that’s only broken by the rocking of the ship, the creaks of the wooden beams. 
“Prince Luka has mentioned your frightening intellect, before,” Rose finally says. “Juleka has only mentioned your kindness, and how funny you are. She has many stories of you, but they’re unlike the ones her brother would tell. I’m beginning to understand what he meant, when he said people often underestimate you.”
Marinette laughs, rolling her eyes. “Oh, please, he didn’t tell you that stupid rant of his about how my brain works, did he? You poor soul.”
“About how you see the world as a massive puzzle, you mean?” Rose smiles. “Yes, it did sound rather humorous at the time. Frankly, you may be as smart as he says, but I still think his theory is a bit silly. After all, you’re still the lady Juleka said was late to her own birthday celebration, and had arrived barefoot and muddy.”
“I was seven years old!” 
“Seven year olds aren’t late to their own birthdays!”
Marinette had laughed openly, while Rose, having grown accustomed to her mute ways, had bitten her lip to keep her own joy contained. Her tremoring shoulders, however, she couldn’t do much to still, nor could she hide the blinding smile.
And then, with the sound of descending footsteps echoing behind the door at Rose’s back, the mood had all-too-abruptly died. 
Knuckles rapped against the door.
“Switching out, Cameron, you’re on kitchen duty next.”
Rose opens the door, face blank, and nods silently towards the taller man as she passes by him. She doesn’t look back even once, and all Marinette can do is look on as her only ally disappears out of sight.
Of course, she can’t help but feel infinitely reassured to know that she has an ally at all. She had been prepared to be kidnapped by enemies who would give her no sympathy. She had been prepared to hold her head high and simply deal with it. She had been prepared to accept the worst of cases, in the event that things take a bad turn.
It feels good to know that she has someone in her corner, there to help her if things truly do go south.
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