#i just threw together random images nonsense post

[humans-are-tasty]

[dylinski]

Magnetism

Warnings: SMUT! bondage (but barely), language, violence, kind of dom tommy (but y/n is a brat so it doesnt last long), angst (obviously)

Relationships: Thomas/Reader

Word Count: 7.5K

Author: @dylinski​

A/N: Here’s my fic for day 4 of tomuary!!!! if i get them finished, i plan on posting two more but we’ll see how that goes. lol hope ya’ll enjoy and let me know what you think please. i’m really unsure about writing smut and idk if this is any good, so if i shouldn’t write anymore it would be nice to know. lol

There’s something about running for your life and fighting against all odds to survive that make a person reevaluate their life, but with Y/N, that’s not the case. Being in the scorch with a bunch of boys wasn’t much different from the glade, so what was there to consider? She knew who her friends and her enemies were and that’s all she needed to know in order to survive in this world. If Thomas had just listened to her when she said not to trust Teresa, more of them would be alive, but him not believing anything Y/N says is to be expected. Since the moment he came up and out of the box, something repellant between them switched on. The only proper way to describe it is when you try to force two poles of a magnet together with the same polar direction.

Fighting their way out of the maze, through the scorch, and now in this abandoned town lets a person see a lot of death and Y/N was tired of it. If that meant trying to convince Thomas that running around and attacking WCKD at random to find Minho, risking other’s lives, was a bad idea then she was willing to take all the blame. They were so close to paradise and they had saved so many souls already. At least Vince agreed, having one person on her side is nice.

There was another meeting, discussing all the usual topics, but Thomas seemed more pissed off than usual, which is saying something as of late. He’s been nothing but a pissy bitch since the search for his raven-haired friend had turned sour and unwilling. The meeting was held in a moderate-sized room, big enough to hold the handful of people permitted. Thomas was leaning on both hands over a table with Newt at his hip, what a surprise. They were combing over a map with Vince and Jorge, arguing about a last city or something. Y/N was sitting in the corner, rolling her eyes at practically every other word, a sad image of men and boys arguing over nonsense around the circular table. 

Newt would look up every once in a while and give her a sympathetic smile to let her know she wasn’t forgotten in the exchange of emotions and words. She liked Newt, he had always been kind to her when most of the other boys treated her like she was fragile and delicate in the maze. He never doubted her or underestimated her abilities despite what was between her legs, well, until that little shit popped up and out of the ground. Motherfucking Thomas, the angel, the savior, the one who will lead us to paradise. Yeah right, more like the one who will lead everyone to their preventable deaths.

“Look! He was there, okay? I know it. Minho was there!” The vein in Thomas’ neck was protruding and defined from the strain he was putting on his words. He was desperate. “We grabbed the wrong container!”

“Thomas, there was a 50/50 chance and we made a choice of which one to grab. Not to mention the odds of him being in either train car, to begin with, were small.” Vince was calm and collected, he always managed to keep a cool head.

“Yeah, but he was there! If I had just..” Thomas was quieter now, but no less desperate.

“You didn’t pick the wrong one, Mate. We saved at least 100 people from WCKD today. I wouldn’t call that a failure. We didn’t find Minho, but I have faith we will. He’s still out there, I know it.” Newt looked up at Y/N when he finished, and she couldn’t help to give a forced smile. Leave it to him to be the voice of reason, but also the one to egg on the bumbling buffoon everyone seems to eagerly place their faith in.

“Newt, I get that, but he was there, he was right there! If we hadn’t been so pressed for time I could have-”

Y/N jumped up, utterly pissed at this point and tired of hearing these idiots run round and round in the same circles. “You could have what, Thomas? You could have picked the ‘right’ container? Hmm? Why don’t you go tell that to Sonya? Or Aris? I’m sure they’d love to hear that you saving their lives, along with everyone else in that box, wasn’t your goal and you’d gladly trade them for the single life of Minho.”

Everyone in the room fell silent and it was filled with the light of the moon shining through the missing part of the ceiling. The flames from the lanterns danced on everyone’s shocked faces. Y/N was never one to prance around the daisies when it came to stating the obvious. Thomas looked almost ashamed and it was honestly annoying. She was tired of his pitiful ’I didn’t ask for this’ routine.

“You know that’s not what I meant.” Despite the guilt that raged in his stomach, he used it to fuel his anger towards Y/N, which was to be expected. He took most of his negative emotions out on her, his own personal punching bag, but he could never land any punches because she honestly couldn’t care less. She rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her hips, shooting knives at him and his nostrils flared under her eyes. An unknowing battle of spiteful gazes between them.

“Well, as entertaining as it is to watch you two practically have hate-sex with each other, we need to discuss our options.” Jorge obviously chose his words to jolt the two out of their staring contest and it worked. They both made faces like they had tasted something sour, scrunching their noses at the idea of actually wanting each other. Well, I mean, it’s not the first time Y/N had thought of it, but just because he had the body that could rival a god doesn’t mean she was ignorant of his pea-sized brain.

“There’s nothing to discuss. We’re not risking anyone’s lives to go to the last city, if it’s even real.” Y/N couldn’t help but sights the relief of Vince seeing reason.

“I’ve heard things over the years, that it was a last resort for WCKD, their place of operations. I’ve never managed to make it that far north, but it’s one of the safe heavens that were put into place when things went to shit.” Y/N huffed in annoyance, thanks, Jorge. Great job at giving the little shit ideas.

“Look, we could make it there with a small team in a week and then be back with Minho in no time.”

“No, Thomas. I’m not risking any more lives to save one person. This is a suicide mission. If it’s anything Jorge says it is, the city will be a fortress. Not to mention the road to get there, riddled with the infected. We don’t have the people or the resources to take on a fight like that.” Vince was tired of arguing with him, so he was standing his ground and that would be the end of it. Thomas may have been the leader in the glade and the scorch, but here he was allowed the privilege to have a say by Vince.

“I don’t need an army, just two or three-”

“Thomas, no!” Vince was done with these petty arguments and put his foot down. “The ship is almost done. We’ll be ready to sail in less than a week. There are casualties in war, and in this world, the life of one doesn’t out way the lives of the many. We’re not going and that’s final.”

Thomas grunted and threw his arms up in rebellion, stomping off to brood somewhere by himself. 

Y/N couldn’t help the small smile of satisfaction that crept onto her face from seeing him so pissed off. She strode over to where Newt was standing and crossed her arms, leaning her back against the table to face him.

“He’s hurting you know? He blames himself. He blames himself for everything honestly.” The smile melted away just as easily as it appeared. There goes Newt, always defending his puppy.

“He should! I told him not to trust Teresa!” Newt let a small shudder roll over his body at her name and Y/N couldn’t help but feel empathy and guilt for mentioning it.

“We all trusted her, except for you, of course. You never let us forget it, but we had no reason not to. She helped us, she helped Thomas. Maybe you were just jeal-”

“For the love of God, Newt, if you say I was jealous, I’ll break your other leg.” He chuckled at the threat, knowing it was empty and mostly a joke. It made her smile a bit, seeing him smile and laugh. He was always like a brother to her and she missed seeing him so happy. A lot of them haven’t been able to feel that way for a while now. Not since Thomas showed up and shucked it all up, anyway. 

“He understands why you hate him.” Y/N was caught off guard, lost in her own head when Newt broke through.

“I don’t hate him, I just…” There wasn’t really a word for it. It was like Thomas was made specifically to boil the blood in her veins and ignite a fire in her stomach that was begging to rage. He knew exactly how to get under her skin and press her buttons, and most of the time he wasn’t even trying.

“You two are a lot alike actually.” Newt let out a chuckle and ignored the hard stare directed at him. “You’re both stubborn as bulls, reckless too. Jumping into things without thinking clearly. You’re guided by emotion rather than logic, but there’s nothing wrong with that.” He turned his head to face his friend and curled up the corner of his lip. “Go get some sleep, we’ve all had a long day.” Newt patted her shoulder and limped off, leaving her alone in the room that now felt huge.

Y/N wasn’t really that tired, so she decided to go around to her favorite spot by the water that she found when they first arrived. The way the moonlight danced on the water in the darkness created the illusion of twinkling lights and reminded her of looking up into the sky in the glade. She hopped down from the ledge onto the sand and trotted through the thick and moist beach towards the large rock that always managed to be warm despite the sun. When it finally came into view, she halted in her tracks.

Of course, Thomas would fucking be there, laying on her rock in her secret spot. A low grumble resonates in her chest as she clenched her fist and stomped towards him. He heard and sat up hazily, having been lost in the limbo of sleep and consciousness.

“What? Who’s...oh. It’s you.” He laid back down, resting his head on his arms that were raised over his head.

“That’s my spot.” Y/N spoke through gritted teeth and clenched fists, trying not to punch him.

He lifted his head slightly and opened one eye, looking Y/N over and then let his head fall back down. “I don’t see your name on it.”

Y/N’s jaw went slack as she let out a small whine of protest, which seemed to put a shit-eating grin on Thomas’ face. Despite being pissed as hell, she couldn’t deny that his smile, with the crescent eyes and the way the moon illuminated his face, was...beautiful. No. No no no no. She’s mad and he’s an annoying little shit that gets everybody hurt or killed. Okay, good. She couldn’t stand the thought of actually being attracted to him.

“You know, Newt says-” Thomas was cut off by her.

“Newt says a lot of things.” Despite being so close to him, Y/N still couldn’t help but feel the rise of annoyance as she rolled her eyes.

Thomas sat up on his elbows and looked over at Y/N. The way he looked at her, and the light of the night with the waves crashing, for some reason it made her feel vulnerable. She moved her arms that were crossed on her chest down to wrap around her stomach. Thomas tilted his head in the most quizzical of ways like he was trying to decipher her. She was a puzzle he couldn’t quite solve, but so terribly wanted to. 

Tired of being gawked at, Y/N took the few steps between them and leaned against the large boulder, her back mostly facing Thomas. She looked up to the sky that was mostly black and empty and let out a sad sigh. She missed the stars, but since they left the maze they seemed to have all died out.

“I know, I miss them too.” Y/N shot a look over her shoulder at Thomas who was looking up. She couldn’t help but linger her gaze on him, he looked so...broken. He must have felt her stare because the muscles in his arms flexed under his weight as he shifted uncomfortably. His jaw clenched, but he still kept looking up, searching for something they both knew he’d never find.

“Why do you want to save Minho so bad?” He broke his lock on the sky and looked at her like it was the stupidest of questions, which it was. “I mean, I know why, but he’s probably dead. We haven’t heard anything about him in months and-”

“He’s alive.” Thomas laid himself back down flat against the rock. “I know it, I can feel it in my gut.” He spoke like it was the truth, something factual rather than the simple feeling that it really was.

“Yeah, but what if he’s not? Are you willing to risk our lives, your life, for someone who may not even be alive?”

He sat up fully and his eyes were dark and full of emotions she couldn’t quite decode. His posture changed to confidence and purpose. “Minho would do it for me.” He looked out to the ocean and crossed his legs, letting his elbows rest on them, placing his cheeks between his hands.

Y/N couldn’t argue with him there. She had known Minho longer than Thomas, and if there was one thing he’d never do, it would be leaving a friend behind. Thomas scooted over and patted the hard surface next to him. She examined the spot and looked up to him, questioningly. He gave her a small smile and she climbed up next to him. There was silence between them, not having much to say, as they shared the space and took in the sea and its illusion of stars.

“I’m going,” Thomas spoke softly as he continued to stare out at the water. They could hear the waves lapping against the stone as his words echoed. Y/N wasn’t entirely sure what he meant. Was he going now? Going to sleep? He looked up and his lips turned down, eyes full of sadness and it hit her. He was going to the last city, alone.

“What!? You can't go! Did you not hear Vince? It’s a suicide mission!” Y/N surprised both of them at her exasperation to get Thomas to stay. I mean, sure she didn’t like the guy, but it’s not like she wanted him dead.

He looked at her and pulled his knees to his chest, wrapping his arms around them. “I don’t care. I have to at least try.” The look in his eyes was pitiful and unrelenting. The decision was made, and once he made his mind up on something, there was no use arguing with him.

“If you want to die, that’s fine, I won’t be a part of it.” Y/N hopped down from the rock and started to walk away hurriedly. “But I’m telling Vince.” 

Thomas’ eyes grew wide and he jumped from the rock and chased after her. “No! You can't say anything!” He grabbed her arm and she reactively spun around, landing a solid punch in his gut. Thomas grabbed his stomach and took a step back, grunting in pain. She rolled her eyes and turned to continue walking when Thomas ran up behind her and tackled her to the ground.

“What the fuck, Thomas!?” She struggled but managed to spin around, her back to the sand and Thomas hovering over top her, caging her in with his arms as they held her wrists down over her head.

“I can't let you tell anyone before I leave!” His hot breaths were huffing into her face, a contrast to the cold breeze that had chilled the air.

Y/N looked up at him in frustration and confusion, but mostly at herself. Her eyes flitted down to his lips for the slightest of seconds, but she had to throw those thoughts from her mind. Sorry, Thomas. She slammed her head up into the boy’s nose and he let out a shout as he flew back, grabbing his face and releasing his grip on her arms. She wiggled out from under him and stood up to keep going, but a hand wrapped around her ankle and she face-planted into the hard earth and let out a groan, rubbing the sore spot on her head.

Thomas climbed up on top of her, straddling her waist from behind. He held her wrists to her side this time, avoiding the possibility of her bucking her head back and hitting him in the face again. She writhed underneath him and fought as best she could, but he was stronger than her. It didn’t help that he had the advantage either.

“Are you jacked!? Let me go you little shuckface!” She let out screeches and shouts as she struggled, but it was no use. She gave up and relaxed under him. “Well, you can't hold me down forever! What’s your plan here slinthead?”

Thomas didn’t reply, obviously trying to make this shit up as he went along. He pinned her arms behind her back and stood up, making a grunting noise as he pulled her up with him. “Oh, now he’s the quiet brooding type. Couldn’t get you to shut up for the life of me in the glade, but now you got nothing to say?”

“Shut up.” He grunted through his teeth as he pushed Y/N forward a bit, jerking her around as they walked. He still had her arm pinned behind her back and it was getting kind of painful now.

“Where are you taking me? Are you gonna kill me? Didn’t think you’d have the balls. Well, actually with all the people you’ve killed over the last year, it probably won’t be that hard.” Thomas threw Y/N up against the wall of one of the buildings as they passed through the camp and her head bounced off, now throbbing in two places. She slammed her eyes shut and grabbed the back of her skull as Thomas slammed his hands into the wall on either side of her face. His body was pressing into hers and she could feel every muscle tense as he gritted his teeth and flared his nostrils.

Their faces were inches apart as he growled at her. “I’m getting fucking tired of you reminding me how many mistakes I’ve made!” She has seen him angry like this before, and it was intense, but to have it directed at her, if she was less of a stubborn mule, she probably would have klunked her pants. Thomas was like a raging sea when he was truly angry, everything in his path swallowed up and demolished. He had so much anger, so much hate towards WCKD and himself that when he reached a tipping point it would all spill out like an erupting volcano, and Y/N just happened to be in his path.

“You walk around, talking shit about me to everyone and I can’t take it anymore! You think I don’t carry those people with me, that I don’t know the lives I’ve cost!? I didn’t want any of this! I never asked for it. I didn’t want to be the leader! That’s Minho’s job, but for some God-forsaken reason, everyone but you thinks I’m some savior. I just want to save my friends! I just want to get as far from WCKD and this fucking place as I can! The last thing I need is you reminding me how royally I’ve screwed up every five seconds!” He pulled her off the wall, she was mostly shell shocked from his burst of fury. He gripped her bicep tight enough to leave a bruise as he guided her further through the camp. “But first, I’m getting Minho.”

They traveled the rest of the way in silence which was preferred by Thomas since he was trying not to wake up anyone anyways. They made it to the small building that Thomas had claimed as his own and he shut the door behind them. He pushed Y/N down forcefully on his excuse for a bed and she sat there, still and silent. Thomas paced and ran his fingers through his hair as his mind raced a million miles a minute.

Y/N gulped and wasn’t entirely sure what to say to keep him from exploding again. It wasn’t that she feared he would hurt her, she knew he wouldn’t, but she feared to see him like this. Seeing him like a rabid dog biting at the ankles of anyone who caught his eye. Thomas grabbed a shirt from the floor and ripped off a piece and grabbed her arm, pulling her up the bed.

“Are you serious? You’re tying me up?” Thomas glared at her and then proceeded to tie her wrist to the post of the bed. “Kinky.” Her words were meant to antagonize him, and it worked as he visibly clenched his jaw in vexation. He got up and started to walk around the room when Y/N cleared her throat and waved her hand at Thomas. “Well you’re not very bright, are you?” He looked at her with bewilderment and she rolled her eyes. “My other hand. What’s to stop me from untying your sad excuse for a knot?” Thomas growled under his breath, mostly at himself for not thinking about that possibility. He ripped off another strip of cloth and tied her other wrist to the opposite bedpost.

She wasn’t entirely sure why she was helping him, but she was starting to find this entertaining. Seeing him sputter around in an attempt to get himself killed and digging himself into a deeper hole. Y/N watched him with enjoyment as she crossed her ankles and relaxed against the headboard. He was scurrying around the room like a squirrel, trying to find things and stuffing them into a bag.

“So you’re just gonna leave me tied up when you leave until someone finds me, huh?” Thomas looked over his shoulder and huffed as he continued to rummage through his belongings. “Don’t forget your jacket, might get a little chilly.” He stood up from where he was squatting and threw his bag down hard on the ground and curled in his lips with impatience.

“Keep talking and I’ll gag you!” 

“Ooo, promise?” Thomas shot daggers as he glinted his eyes and growled. Y/N just smiled and wiggled her head in triumph. “If you wanted to get me into bed, all you had to do was ask.” Thomas rolled his eyes and turned to keep packing. She was getting bored of the silence and made an attempt to rile him up again.

 “Some of the boys in the glade used to talk, you know?” Thomas ignored her as she rambled on. “Apparently you weren’t very quiet when you used to, you know?” Thomas turned to her with curiosity. Since her hands were, tied she couldn’t make the motion, so she thrust her hips up twice, but he got the idea. His eyes went wide and he froze in place. Y/N couldn’t help but laugh at his discomfort. “I overheard Jeff telling Zart about how they accidentally saw you in the woods rubbing one out and when you came you said my na-”

“SHUT UP!” Thomas grabbed what was left of the shirt from the end of the bed and shoved it into Y/N’s mouth. She just laughed through the fabric, her enjoyment muted. His cheeks were so pink that they looked like they were hot to the touch and it was almost adorable how flustered and embarrassed he looked. He was sitting on the side of the bed, his back mostly facing Y/N and his head hanging low in shame.

Finally, his cheeks turned from pink to red and he looked to her as he stood. “Well, what do you expect with you prancing around the glade in those short shorts and spaghetti-strap shirts!?” Y/N’s face went from amused to resentful. She tried defending herself through the cloth but all that came out was stifled noise. Thomas threw his arms up and huffed in annoyance, then grabbed the shirt from her mouth.

“I said, you fucking misogynist, that it was fucking hot out while I was working, unlike you who avoided his duties like the plague! Besides, how is it fair for you to fucking say shit like that about me when you paraded yourself around in those pants that clung to your ass while you were shirtless? Do you think I liked staring at your abs as sweat rolled down them?” Both of them were stunned into silence, Y/N realizing what she said and Thomas just amazed that she even thought about him like that. 

They both stared at each other, Y/N turning flushed and Thomas trying to hold back his smile. “Shut up!” She pushed her leg out to the side as she kicked him as hard as she could in the leg. He shouted at the impact and bent over to grab the spot that now throbbed.

“You’re such a violent little shit!” He hollered at her, referring to their brawl earlier.

“Yeah? Imagine me in bed.” Her words were sultry and aimed at being intimidating, but Thomas just smiled the most devilish grin. 

“I already have.”

Y/N rolled her eyes and blushed as she turned her head against her shoulder in the opposite direction of Thomas in protest. After a moment she looked back since he was so quiet and he was still standing there, looking at her with hunger and gnawing on his bottom lip. She narrowed her eyes and couldn’t help but look down and noticed the bulge in his pants. Her eyes went wide and she gasped as she went to kick him again. He yelped and swatted her foot away. “What the fuck, Thomas?”

“What!? You’re the one who said to imagine you in bed!”

“Jesus fucking Christ, you’re such a whore!” Thomas had a smile of amusement at being called a whore like it was a funny joke. Y/N just huffed and turned her eyes up in annoyance. 

“C’mon, you haven’t thought about me?” Thomas sat on the edge of the bed, keeping distance between them in case she wanted to kick or headbutt him again.

“God no!” Her words were firm and strong, but she was betrayed by her face. His lips went dry at the lie and she licked them unknowingly as her eyes darted to his. She blushed and looked away quickly to avoid any further incrimination, but Thomas grabbed her chin and turned her back to face him. His face was so close to hers now, them only needing to whisper to communicate.

“Tell me, what did you imagine? Do you think about my thick cock while you had your fingers inside yourself?” She shuddered at his words and her mouth was like a desert, begging for water. Her lips were parted and she couldn’t gain control of her tongue as she searched his eyes, full of need and hidden desire. He licked her bottom lip with the tip of his tongue and a chill coursed through her. He pulled away and her face followed, but was she restrained by the ties on her wrists. She let out a small whine at the loss of his mouth. Thomas bit his lip and chuckled. “If that’s how your lips taste, I bet the rest of you tastes just as amazing.” His hand rested on her bare calf and trailed its way up her leg until it reached her thigh where the hem of her shorts began.

Her hot, panting breaths were mixed with his, their lips nearly touching. She wanted desperately to close the minuscule distance between them, but couldn’t make her body move, frozen under his touch. Thomas went in, but just before their lips connected he tilted his head and collided his mouth with her neck. She let out a gasp at the sudden feeling of his warm lips against her chilled flesh. He kissed and sucked at the spot just below her jaw as she leaned back, giving him more access. He worked his way down to the pulse in her neck and bit down, then licked over it to alleviate the red marks. The mix of pain and pleasure, hot and cold, had her rubbing her thighs together in search of friction. Y/N let out a small moan into Thomas’s ear and his hand made its way further up her leg. He continued to lick and nip at her neck, leaving marks and right before his hand reached her core he pulled away.

Y/N let out a whine of protest at the loss of his warmth as he stood up and started to walk away. She was finally able to find her voice, but just barely. She croaked out in a pant, “You can’t just do that.”

“Can’t I?” A smile crossed his lips and the asshole had the nerve to wink. She pouted and huffed in retaliation and Thomas was now standing at the end of the bed, his legs touching the mattress, directly vertical to her. “I’m not going to just give you what you want. You have to work for it, Princess.” Y/N’s eyes went wide, seeing him like this, so domineering. The last thing she ever expected was for him to be authoritative in bed, let alone letting herself be subdued by him.

Thomas was such an arrogant little shit, he got into crevices that she didn’t even know she had. Working his way through her walls and made her squirm. She tugged at the cloth around her wrists, digging into her flesh and creating a pleasurable sting, wishing she could jump on him. She’s not entirely sure if her desire is to jump his bones or beat his ass though. He laughs and leans over her feet, placing his hands on the mattress. “Come on, baby girl, beg.” He took his time saying the last word, allowing the ‘g’ to bounce off his tongue.

“I don’t fucking beg!” Y/N spit at Thomas and the wet hit his chin. He grinned and stood up as he wiped it from his face with his finger, then placed it in his mouth. He sucked on it and let it out with a pop. Even if her tongue wouldn’t beg, her eyes sure did. “Fucking Christ…” she mumbled under her breath, but he still heard and chuckled.

Thomas places his hands on her ankles and slowly slid them up the length of her legs, maintaining eye contact. He placed his knees on the bed and was straddling the lower part of her body. When his fingers reached the waist of her pants, he curled his fingers into the band and looked her in the eyes. His digits against her flesh were thrilling and like fire coursing to her core. He searched her eyes for protest, but Y/N bit her lip and gave him the slightest nod. He smirked and looked down as he dragged the clothing off her hips. The tug pulled her down slightly, now resting on her tailbone instead of her ass. He pulled her shorts all the way off with her shoes and let them drop to the floor.

Y/N crossed her legs, feeling vulnerable, but Thomas leaned in and forced them apart by her knees. She dragged her legs up, placing her feet flat on the bed as Thomas’ fingers trailed up her thighs, leaving a trail of fire. He leaned down, his heat breaths against the inside of her legs. He kissed and licked at the warm skin and left bruising marks as he sucked into it. His mouth made its way up painfully slow to her sex when he blew cold air across it. A shiver radiated up her spine and left her feeling dizzy at the mix of everything.

Thomas kept licking and sucking everywhere around her core, the place where she so desperately wanted him to be. Her hips bucked up uncontrollably whenever he got agonizingly close, but he would always move away. “Thomas..” His name was breathy and needy, a plea for him to stop being such a tease. He moaned at the sound of his name on her lips and it reverberated through her skin as he continued to kiss and she felt it in her core. The stimulation causing her to whine. 

“Tell me what you want, Princess.” His words vibrated against her flesh as he refused to release his lips. 

Y/N let out a couple hearty breaths when she finally panted out, “Fuck me with your tongue, you prick!”

Thomas dove into her core without hesitation and the sound that came from her was somewhere between a screech and a gasp. His tongue lapped up around her entrance, licking up all the wetness he caused. He hummed at the taste and it sent shivers through her body and down to her toes. “God, you’re so fucking wet.” He licked a stripe up to her clit and clamped his lips around the nub as he sucked hard. The pressure around it was inciting, but then he started to flick his tongue across the bundle of nerves. The two sensations mixing together sent a warm thrill down to her bones as her back arched up slightly. 

The noises coming from Y/N were a mix of moans and gasps as his tongue worked on her fervently. He let go of her clit and replaced it with the pad of his finger, rubbing circles into it. He traced the ring of her entrance with the tip of his tongue until her hips bucked up and he penetrated, just like she had said she wanted him to. He thrust his tongue in and out, drinking up the dampness she was producing for him. “So wet. Taste’s so good.” The words vibrated through her core and a deep long moan was released. 

“Fi..fingers.” She struggled to get the word out, but Thomas knew what she needed. He placed his mouth around her nub again, sucking and flicking while his finger traced the place his tongue had been. He looked up at her through his eyelashes and watched as she writhed under his torment. She looked down at him and whined, so he gave in and pushed a finger inside her. He slowly pumped it in and out as she let out soundless gasps. He wiggled his finger, stretching her out and slid a second one in. He pumped as he sucked at her clit and her moans were constant now. Her body, unable to keep still, was beyond her control and fully reacting to everything that Thomas was doing.

He scissored his digits, widening her for his cock. “Are you gonna come on my fingers, baby?”

“Mhmmm” That was all Y/N could manage with all the sensations she was feeling. That fire building in her stomach was overflowing and begging to spill out. She was such a wreck that she felt like she was being torn apart. Thomas curled his fingers and pumped them vigorously as he kept his mouth to her bundle of nerves and hit that spot that triggered everything. His digits brushed across it once, twice, three times, and then the coil broke.

Thomas watched as Y/N let out a silent scream and threw her head back. He smiled at his victory and hummed around her clit, causing her body to spasm through her orgasm. He licked around his fingers, taking in all she had to offer. Pulling his fingers from her, she went limp on the bed, panting with her eyes shut and her wrists red from tugging at the ties around them. He licked his digits, eating up everything he could and couldn’t help but be smug at how well he unraveled her. “Oh, I’m not done with you yet babygirl. If I made you come that good on my fingers, I can’t wait to see you on my cock.” 

Thomas started to rub the all too obvious tenting in his pants and Y/N opened her eyes, panting, and looked at him in awe. He pulled off his shirt and, dear God those abs and his chest. He wasn’t chiseled or defined, but you could still see the muscles easily. There was a patch of hair between his pecs that spread down and across to his nipples that were hard pebbles. Y/N licked her lips as she thought about running her tongue across them. Her eyes found the thick brush of hair just below his belly button that led down to the band of his pants that hung low on his hips, showing off the ‘v’ that disappeared into his waistband. 

Y/N gulped as she rubbed her thighs together, becoming aroused again just by the sight of the man. He reached a hand down his pants and started rubbing, as she poked his legs with her foot. “Take. Them. Off.” Thomas smiled and did as he was told. His pants fell around his ankles as he stepped out, kicking off his boots. He pumped his cock, the flesh around his swollen head begging to be tasted.

He crawled onto the bed, his heavy dick hanging between his legs as he hovered over Y/N. She was licking her lips so much they were bound to become chapped. He laid his body on top of her, his cock resting against her pelvis. He reached a hand under her top, pulling the hem up to reveal her breast. The rough pad of his thumb brushed over the sensitive and raised peak, making her close her eyes. She let out a hot breath and Thomas took advantage of her open mouth. He plunged his tongue between her lips and swirled it around, filling her with her own taste.

Their lips smacked against each other, creating a dance of tongues filled with moans and whines. Thomas released her mouth and trailed suckling kisses across her jaw and down her neck until he reached her nipple. He took it into his mouth and thrust his hips forward, rubbing his shaft against Y/N’s all too sensitive clit. She shuddered and met his hips as she bucked up against him. He let out a deep groan at the friction he’d been craving so frustratingly and lightly bit down on the flesh next to her nipple in response.

“Untie. Me. Now.” Y/N huffed, trying to keep herself coherent enough to speak.

“Not yet.” Thomas purred into her ear and licked a long stripe from her jaw up to behind her ear that left chills on her skin as the cold air hit the wetness. She grunted in revolt at not being untied but was distracted as Thomas thrust his hips up again and she let out a hitched breath. He zoned in his focus on her nipple, sucking and nibbling until Y/N was writhing beneath him.

Thomas started to kiss her passionately in a chaos of lips, teeth, tongues, and saliva as he lifted his hand not preoccupied with her nipple to untie the fabric around her left wrist. She pulled her arm away at the freedom and immediately wove her fingers through his hair. He gave her other nipple equal attention when he switched hands to release her other wrist. It went for his ass without hesitation. She drew her leg up over his thigh as her fingers dig into the flesh on his behind. He moaned into her mouth at the feeling of her touch, not realizing how sorely he needed it.

His hips bucked up against her core rhythmically now as they deepened their kiss in a flutter of groping and tugging of flesh. “Fuck me.” Y/N spoke into his mouth and Thomas growled in response. He leaned up, pulled her shirt over her head and lined his cock up with her cunt. His head and shaft were already slick with her wetness from gliding across her core. He pressed the tip against the entrance and slowly pushed the head in. Y/N let out a moan as she felt him move deeper inside her, inch by agonizing inch. Halfway, he easily slid in until he bottomed out.

He kept still, taking in her heat around him and allowing her to adjust to his size. She whined when he was still for too long and the look in her eyes was all the answer he needed. He hiked her leg over his hip for a better angle and slowly pulled out until she was almost empty. He slowly pushed back in until their pelvis’ met again. He repeated this excruciating movement until she couldn’t take it anymore. She gripped the back of his head, intertwining her fingers in his hair and pulled his face to her. She kissed him hard and pulled on his lip with her teeth letting it bounce back with a plop. He let out a rumble in his chest and thrust into her hard. A small yelp escaped her chest and she dug her other hand into his shoulder. “Fuck.”

Thomas pulled out slow again, but rammed into her hard. He did this a few more times until he couldn’t take it anymore himself. He started to quicken his pace and Y/N’s head fell back as she clung to him. Her moans and grunts unrelenting, littered with profanities and his name, egging him on. “Oh fuck.” She forced out her words with each breath as he pushed into her like there was no room for them with him inside.

“Fuck, baby girl. You feel so fucking good.” Thomas let his head fall into the crevice of her neck as he pulled her other leg over his hip, the heels of her feet digging into the bottom of his ass. He mercilessly thrust into her, over and over, moving the bed along with them and they were both practically screaming now. “Christ, princess you’re so tight.”

Y/N couldn’t answer, her mind too wired and out of control, just like her body. She let out noises she couldn’t decipher and felt that heat in her abdomen start to boil like a hot white flame. They were both covered in sheens of sweat, and she watched as a bead dripped down Thomas’ temple. The vein in his neck was defined and strained, pulsing visibly. “I’m so fucking close.”

Thomas reached down between them and started to vigorously rub circles on her clit, he shifted his pelvis and with his next thrust hit her g-spot perfectly. “Holy..” She gasped out as the build-up reached its peak, the split moment of feeling lighter than air, her stomach jumping. “FUCK.” Her dams burst and she let out a long and gruff breath, exhaling hard as she came around his thick cock, her eyes and head rolling back.

Thomas could feel her clenching around him and the hot pressure sent him over the edge as he came inside her, letting hot spurts coat her walls. He took his fingers from her clit and wrapped his hand around the base of his cock as he milked out every last bit of his orgasm into Y/N. He collapsed down onto her, their bodies a mess of sweat, saliva, and come. They both panted and sighed as they let their bodies catch up to the moment, exhausted from what just happened.

Thomas got up and grabbed a cloth, dousing it in water, then cleaning up the mixture of come from Y/N. He cleaned off his limp cock and let it drop to hang between his thighs. He laid back down in the bed next to her and wrapped his arms around her as she curled up next to him. He reached over and played with the ends of her hair, examining her face. “I’m still leaving, you know.”

Y/N laid flat on her back and sighed. “I know.” She turned back into his side and looked up from his chest. “Let’s go get Minho, together.”

Taglist: @xoprincessmel​ @bitch-banshee​ @parker-potter​ @writingsbychlo​ @lettersofwrittencollective​ @fan-child​ @moongoddesskiana​

[lokis-lady-death]

The King of Gods Pt 7

Tom Hiddleston/Loki x reader

Lady Death: This is a sequal to the Interview with a God series I completed a few months ago. This picks up months after the original story ends. If you haven’t read IWAG, HERE is a quicklink to Part 1 or you can find it on my Master List !

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

The King of Gods Part 7

The night life of the city was one of the main reasons you lived here. Neon lights lit the windows of night clubs and bars down the popping Main Street, beckoning to the hip crowd to come party there. Poison was just one of the many places tailored to the party goers, but it’s main distinctive factor? That it was considered low key, supposedly only known to people who were able to be fortunate enough to hear about it by word-of-mouth.

The truth? Everyone and their mother knew it existed.

The main entrance to the night club was originally a side entrance, left unmarked and unspectacular, normally only accessed by the staff. However, it became just the hole-in-the-wall millennials appreciated. The only marker of the entrance was the large set of metal doors with two large bouncers .

As the car pulled into the parking lot, you could already make out the mile long line of people waiting to get into Poison to see the newest rock sensation. “This was a bad idea,” you croaked, getting cold feet. “I should’ve stayed home.”

“Nonsense, you need out of your apartment and this band is gonna be awesome!”

“Who exactly are we here to see, anyway?”

“Mount-N-Do-Me.”

Your eyes narrowed, sure she was joking. “No way.”

Her shoulders shrugged while all she offered was, “You know these bands never keep their startup names. Eventually a manger will scoop them up and fix it, I’m sure they came up with it when they were twelve. Anyway, they’re not what tonight’s about!”

Carmen turned in her seat to look at you while she started, “We gotta find you someone to make you forget pendejo.” She shot you what was meant to be a reassuring wink but it did little to soothe your nerves.

After finally finding a suitable parking spot, Sue fussed with her hair in the mirror as Carmen dug around in her bag. “Here,” she ordered, reaching back to hand you four vials of lime green liquid. She passed another one to Sue and held onto another. “A toast to y/n!”

“Why do I have so many?”

“Because this is your salvation, y/n! We are here to liberate your soul!” Sue decreed with a fake accent that might have been meant to sound dignified but came out as a southern preacher. “This is to clear your mind of all bad you’ve felt since what’s-his-face broke your heart and left you all alone!”

“But mostly it’s to help loosen you up so you can rub your butt on strangers.”

Shaking your head, you couldn’t help but comment, “You’re both ridiculous.”

“Maybe,” Sue accepted, popping her vial’s top. “But I promise, this is going to be a night to remember.” She and Carmen held their drinks out, beaming as they waited for you to join.

You sighed, popping the top off one of the four vials. Lifting it up, you donned a weak smile. “Cheers.” The vials made a soft clank together before all three of you chugged it down. The drink was obnoxiously sour like an apple candy with only a slight sting of alcohol. After a week of binge drinking, it was tame aside from the sugar rush.

“Now, you gotta finish,” Carmen instructed with a stern expression. Sue nodded in agreement and you did as you were told. One after another, you choked down the green shots.

After you finished, Sue clapped her hands together. “Alright, now for the rules-”

“Rules?” you repeated.

“Rule One, don’t interrupt the rule maker.” Your eyes rolled, but you did it with a smile. “Rule Two, don’t speak of he-who-shall-not-be-named.”

“Um, is that a Harry Potter reference because his name is Tom like Tom Riddle?” you genuinely wondered.

Sue glared at you as Carmen pulled yet another vial from her purse and passed it to you.

“How many of these do you freakin’ have?” She shrugged so all you could do was throw your head back. Smacking your lips, there was a flutter from either the alcohol or the sugar deep in your stomach. “Anything else?”

“Yes, Rule Three, don’t go home alone.” She made her eyebrows jump as she did a little shimmy in her seat.

You scoffed, “I’m not hooking up with some random guy at a bar!”

“It doesn’t have to be a guy,” Carmen iterated with another wink. You let out a flustered laugh, your cheeks flushing without your consent.

“Carmen and Sue hopped out of the car as you took a deep breath. ‘This is normal,’ you thought, trying to convince yourself to add pep to your step. ‘This is how we move on.’ Sue opened your door and you slinked out.

“Alright, I have my press badge to get us in, so while I’m interviewing the band, you guys can start scoping out the specimens.” Looking out at the masses of people at the door, you pushed yourself to keep pace with the others until coming up to the set of bouncers checking people in.

“Hiya,” Sue charmed, holding out her badge . “I’m here from people’s magazine, ya’ll shoulda gotten a call?” One bouncer eyed the press pass then looked back at the three of you.

“It takes three women to interview a band?”

Sue let out a sharp huff while pressing her hands to her hips. “If you must know, Carmen is here to take pics of the boys on stage and y/n here is my trusty assistant.” You cut your eyes at her, certain you wouldn’t have come out if you knew she was going to pull such a scheme. But when Carmen pulled a camera from her bag, you couldn’t help but be a little impressed.

This was certainly not their first rodeo.

“Hey, wait, I recognize you,” the second bouncer started as he leaned closer to your face. “You dated that bad guy from that superhero movie. What’s his name? Tim something?”

“Tom Hiddleston,” you corrected, immediately stricken as the name left your lips.

Swallowing, you went to correct that you weren't seeing him when the same bouncer commented, “Who knows, she could up our presence on social media. Get a few good pics of her out on someone’s page, it’ll spread like wildfire.”

The first bouncer rolled his eyes, passing the press pass back to Sue. “You ladies can go on in then.”

Carmen and Sue smiled as they walked in, but you kept your eyes low, hoping they were wrong and no one else would recognize you. Dating a celebrity had its perks, but being seen as just some extension of someone was never your goal. Tom himself liked hiding from the limelight, enough so that you didn’t get harassed too often. Nearly every day, Dave would drive you to and from work, and if the two of you ever went out for a date, the facility would be called in advance to ensure the place was clear of any paparazzi. As a journalist for a magazine that focused on making famous people’s privacy public, you knew first hand the damage that could be to a normal person.

The entryway was so dark you wondered if a light had gone out. With just a thin set of twinkling string lights lining the walkway, you followed the girls until you reached another set of doors. Sue stepped forward and, after shooting one quick wild grin, she threw them open to release a booming sound of rock music. Drums keeping the rhythm, the bass speeding up as the main guitar sent electrical power waves through the air. Out in front of the stage, you could see a crowd jumping and hollering to the music, either singing along or just screaming. Red and White strobe lights lit the dance floor while most of the space was dark, only lit by more twinkling lights against the baseboards. Just opposite of the stage set a raised deck with the bar which was lit up in multi colored neon lights that lined the glass and mirrored liquor shelves behind it.

“This place is a little loud, don’t you think?” you yelled over the music to Sue.

“I know, ain’t it awesome!” she yelled back with a wild grin.

You looked over towards the bar and, as if reading your mind, Carmen looped arms with you. “Ready to party?”

You didn’t think you were, but a small flutter in your head from the shots gave you just enough liquid courage to say, “Let’s do this!”

*****

It was just as generic as any social media post a girl would make: all three women’s faces crammed close together making the signature kissy face, sultry face, silly face looks with the caption, “Out to forget you loser chollos ;D”

Elliot didn’t have a hard time figuring out which club the three of you were at, seeing the Press Pass clearly in two of the images. It also didn’t hurt that he had been to every bar and club in the tri-state area. Looking for a buzz, chasing a high, paying for a lay, but mostly trying to feel something, anything, other than this miserable melancholy. In the months following Hela’s death, Elliot had an immense void in his life that, despite his most valiant efforts, he couldn’t fill. Where once he felt thrill in diaviant behavior, now nothing gave him satisfaction. Alcohol, drugs, sex, nothing settled his emptiness. It was like everything in life had lost meaning, like his own senses were gone.

It wasn’t until his uncle Jared sought him out that he was able to get a grip on himself and slow down the self destruction.

Putting his car in park, he looked out at the line formed outside the entrance to Poison. Checking his reflection, he pocketed his keys and made his way to the door, ignoring the grunts from patrons still waiting to get inside.

“How are my boys tonight?” he spoke through a sly grin, “Looks like a lot of fine asses showed up for the show tonight.”

The first bouncer held out a fist to Elliot and they bumped knuckles. “How it goin, Stranger Danger, what’s got you out on the prowell? I thought you might be dead in a ditch somewhere after the last time I had to boot you outta here.”

A few women standing in the front of the line snickered as Elliot simply shrugged it off. “Ya know, I think I just had a little too much that night-”

“That's what they all say,” the second bouncer rebutted as he crossed his arms. “So what can I do for you tonight?”

“”Hoping to check out the new band, heard they’re the newest up and comers in the industry. Ya know, gotta stay on top of the newest, hottest people if I wanna get back into the celebrity gossip.” When they didn’t look convinced, he thew in, “Well I used to write for Rolling Stones, so I thought maybe if nothing else I could get something on these guys and try to get all of us some recognition. Cause that’s what this is about, right? Getting the band’s name out?”

The first bounce raised his brow while the second one shrugged. “Well, we did already let those magazine chicks in earlier…”

“Yeah, see, just trying to stay in the game,” Elliot tried to convince. “Come on, Drake, what’s the harm? Let me in?”

Letting out annoyed grunt, he stepped aside while the other opened the door. “Go on, but I’m only warning you once, Stringer. Don’t make me throw you out.”

“I’ll be on my best behavior,” he promised through a toothy grin.

*****

You and Carmen had barely made it to the bar before a short man offered to buy a round of shots. While you tripped over your words, Carmen gave the man a flirty giggle and accepted. Once he passed her the tray of tequila, she handed you one then took one for herself. “Salud!” she commanded in Spanish.

“Sa-lood?” you asked dumbly.

“Salud! Drink!”

You initially wanted to argue, knowing that letting a stranger hand you free drinks usually meant he wanted something in return. But you choked back your inhibitions and swallowed it down. Unlike the sweet apple drink from earlier, this burned. You smacked your lips as Carmen handed you another glass, again calling out, “Salud!” which you repeated back. After three more, you held up your hands in surrender. Carmen passed the tray back to the short man who looked at you both confused.

After you were out of ear shot, you said, “You know he was probably expecting us to at least talk to him.”

With a very serious expression, Carmen stopped walking to face you. “I don’t care if chollo buys me a house, if I don’t wanna talk to ‘im, I ain’t finna talk to ‘im. Besides, that pendejo still had his wedding band on.”

Her arm linked with yours again as she pulled you into the crowd. People were singing and dancing to the music, mostly jumping in place with hands up as they screamed the lyrics to the cover band’s songs. Carmen pulled you closer, loudly speaking into your ear, “Let loose, compa! It’s about letting go!” She pulled back, her red lips curling just before she went on ahead and burried herself in the sea of bodies.

Taking a deep breath, you plunged in after her.

*****

Elliot had been looking for a few minutes when he turned just in time to see you disappear into the crowd in front of the stage. Huffing while he straightened out his shirt, he walked out onto the dance floor. Shrugging his shoulders one last time, readying to dive through people, he made his way towards you.

*****

The alcohol was sitting on you just right, making you feel more and more relaxed by the second. You were standing beside Carmen in the middle of everyone, arms up and screaming as you got lost in the music. Bodies bumped against each other, hands pressed and pulled at each other, but you were so lost in the moment you didn’t mind. Sharing smiles with Carmen as you both screamed out, you couldn’t help but feel a sense of euphoria as the pain got pushed to the back of your mind. Closing your eyes, you breathed in this feeling.

It was right at that moment that you felt a set of hands land on your moving hips. You gasped, but didn’t pull away. People were so crammed you didn’t think anything of it until they started moving with your movement. Your heart sped up and for a split second you contemplated saying something.

But something stopped you.

The realization that you were, in fact, a single woman out dancing with friends, came into your mind, and rather than say or do anything, you divulged. You let the hands stay, felt them rock with you, whoever they belonged to behind you dancing at the same beat to keep up with the motion. A part of you wanted to divulge, back against him, dance like there was no tomorrow, maybe even drown in each other for the night. Just the suggestion was enough to send a shiver down your spine, though it was not out of pleasure.

The thought of dancing like this with him, knowing it wasn’t your Loki, sent a pin into your chest. Even worlds apart, knowing he was moving on with his life, you couldn’t move on with yours. At least not now. Not like this. Taking a deep, sobering sigh, you felt a wave of guilt, though you couldn’t place why.

Feeling you begin to slow your movements, the fingers curled against you, moving upwards to scrape across your exposed sides. That was too much. You pushed the hands back down to your hips, even more annoyed when your obvious objection was ignored by the hands moving back up and even taking a stronger grip on your waist.

“Lo0k, buddy, cool it with the touch-feeling, ‘kay?” you shot over your shoulder loud enough that they had no excuse not to hear.

To your disdain, the hands went right back to your sides. You turned with a jerk in time to lock eyes with the man , but rather than take him it, it was the one behind him that got your attention.

“Elliot?”

Your old coworker put a hand on the man’s shoulder, pulling him back from you as he leaned close to his face. “I think the lady said she’s done dancing with you, buddy,” he threatened before cutting a lott your way, “Just better hope she doesn’t tell her boyfriend on you, unless you wanna get thrown out a window.”

The man took the cryptic message at face value and stomped out of the crowd, while everyone else was still dancing, ignoring the scene.

Your eyes were still locked on Elliot when Carmen came and threw her arms around his shoulders. “Elly!”

“Don’t call me that!” he spat. When she pulled back, her fist came crashing against his arm. “Ow, what was that for?”

“You don’t call, don’t answer texts, don’t answer your Facebook messages for two months, you get punched.” Carmen’s brow furrowed, adding, “I was worried, stupido, your landlord said you packed up and moved off.” When all he offered was a shrug, she punched him again.

“Shit, ow, okay. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ghost you, I just had some… soul searching to do. But I’m back in town,” he answered, looking apologetic. “Think you can forgive me?”

She narrowed her eyes before planting a big, red stained kiss on his cheek. “I guess. So, what, you’re here to party with us? Y/n and cholo broke up, so we’re trying to cheer her up.”

“Broke up?” he echoed, looking down at you. “Oh, I hate to hear that.” His expression was hard to read, but his tone was less than sympathetic. “No, actually, but I am here to talk to y/n. It has to do with a mutual friend.”

Your eyes widened as you tried to think what he could possibly have to say, but Carmen already put a hand on your back to push you towards him. “Fine, but I expect nena to be returned to me in one piecec, amigo.”

He smiled at her before taking you by the arm to lead you away from everyone else. When there was no one left to move through, you snatched your arm from his grasp. Just as he went to speak, you slapped him, hard.

“You’ve got some nerve.”

“And you’ve got some muscle in that little body, damn that fucking hurt! ” he sulked, pressing a hand to his face to soothe the sting. “Shit, was that necessary?”

“You helped Hela! The entire time you were helping her! Even after she drugged me, you…” the words wouldn’t manifest, and you realized your eyes were watering up. Angry that you would cry simply out of pent up rage, you put but hands out and shoved him. “God, Elliot, you’re such a dick! And a liar! And just a fucking terrible person!”

“Yeah, you’re right. And I’m sorry.”

You were too stunned to speak, expecting him to provoke you further so you could unleash more, but his flaccid response was enough to dull the fire.

Subsiding your anger for confusion, you instead went on, “Well, I’jm glad we agree on something. Now, if you don’t mind,” you turned to leave but he caught your wrist.”

“No, serious, y/n. I am sorry for everything.”

The words struck you and left you momentarily silent. In a million years, you never expected to hear him actually apologize.

“And I need you to come with me.”

That was enough to snap you back, narrowing your eyes as you spat, “Yeah, no. I don’t trust shit from you, Elliot. Whatever you have to tell me, you can just go talk to a wall.”

“Even if I told you it’s about Loki.”

Your shoulders tensed while you swallowed, trying not to look as excited as you were just at hearing his name.

“What about him?”

“I may have a way for you to talk to him.”

Even as loud as the club was, it all went silent at the words he spoke. You felt your heartbeat quicken, the idea floating around in your head before you realized who it was you were dealing with. You rolled your eyes, cutting back, “Why the hell would you help me?”

Leaning down to speak into your ear, he elaborated, “Cause I know when Hela was away, it felt like I was a heroin addict that couldn’t get a fix. I know how painful being away from him is for you and how you feel numb to everything else with him gone.”

You pulled back from him, needing to look him in the eye when you asked, “That doesn’t explain why you would do this for me.”

Sighing, he rolled his eyes exaggeratedly to go on, “It’s really a long story and I don’t know everything, but Elsa called my uncle-”

“Elsa?” you repeated, “Elsa Hemsworth? Called your uncle?”

“Look, like I said, it’s complicated,” he got out quickly as he felt her get ready to just keep questioning him. “So what’s it gonna be, you coming or what?”

*****

By sun down, a dark cloud rolled over Asgard. While the people had dealt with minor rain showers before, this was no ordinary drizzle. Lightning flashed as golf sized drops came crashing to the ground, thunder roaring into the night sky like a lion on the hunt.

Yet the people of Asgard only had to be momentarily concerned, easily becoming distracted by Odin's invitation to a banquet in honor of Loki. They all crowded into the main hall of the palace, singing, dancing and drinking in the name of their future king.

The only issue? Loki was nowhere to be seen.

A couple of hours into the evening, food was being brought from the kitchen and laid out for all the guests. A few of the Asgardians asked when the crowned prince would come.

Finally the king was sick of waiting.

"Fetch him. Now," Thor overheard his father command Baldur. "They're here to see him, he needs to at least make an appearance. The people need to know everything is alright, with all of these… tremors. They need the reassurance of a smiling face."

Baldur made a hasty retreat with Thor ready to pursue him until Elsa caught hold of the back of his armor. "Where are you off to?" she asked, suspicious of how he tried to back away without her notice.

"I'm going to check on Loki with Baldur," he offered, pulling back from her hand to kiss it. "I'll be just a minute, Love."

Her eyes narrowed but she waved him away. She caught sight of him one last time before he tucked out of the grand room.

Baldur was quick up the stairs, brushing past servants still tending to the palace chores as he zipped down the halls to Loki's bedroom.

Just as Baldur got to the door and began knocking, Thor caught up to him.

"What are you doing?"

"What are You doing?"

"I'm getting Loki for Allfather-"

"I guess that I'm also getting Loki then-"

“I can appreciate your attempt to assist, but it is not necessary, you may go-”

“Oh, no, I think someone is going to need to bare witness to this.”

Both men went silent when they heard the disembodied voice from the other side of the door call out, "Come in."

Baldur and Thor both straightened up before finally opening the door. Neither moved at first until Thor shoved the slightly smaller advisor in ahead of him.

"He's here to retrieve you for dinner," the god of thunder announced, disregarding Baldur’s sharp blue eyes cutting at him.

"Yes, well," for the first time he looked out into the room to Loki lounging on a chaise with his face inside a book. "Allfather requests your presence downstairs for the-"

"I'm not going."

The air was stale as Thor looked between the two of them, his fingers twitching while he waited for someone to speak.

"I'm sorry?"

"I said," Loki reiterated, turning the page in total disinterest,"Im. Not. Going."

Thor watched Baldur inhale and wondered exactly how the two most well tempered men in Asgard would proceed.

It wasn't what he expected.

"Your father asked that you make an appearance,” Baldur started, stepping over towards Loki’s chair. “That's not too much to expect considering all he is giving you. Just go down, shake hands, reassure the people that you are their king and will care for them-”

"I told Allfather I wouldn't parade around for him,” Loki answered simply, still not looking up.

Baldur’s jaw tightened. “He is still your king, Loki. You may be the crowned prince, but he is still your ruler, and your father. You should show him respect and see to him.”

He looked like he would go on but went quiet at the clap of Loki’s book closing. “I should show him respect? I should see him? Should I also fall in line like the rest of you sheep, bring him offerings of good tidings in hopes of gaining his favor?” Just then, a loud crash of thunder sounded right outside the veranda of Loki’s room. He stood, looking into Baldur’s eyes as he went on, “This is him doing whatever he damn well pleases without my regard and you shouldn't be cross with me for not wanting to participate in his show. You should be grateful I'm even staying."

Baldur swallowed hard while Thor looked between the two of them.

Taking a deep breath before he spoke, the advisor knew he would be crossing the line when he asked, "Is this all over your little Midgardian girl? Just because you, what, want to go live out HER days? You want to return to watch her die, is that it? Or did you forget you live over a hundred of her lifetimes?"

Loki shook his head at the comment, arguing, "You don't know what we had, Baldur. We were in love-"

"Love? Love!" Baldur turned to speak to Thor, throwing out his arms as if he were surprised, "Did you hear that, Thor, they were in love! Well, what a true travesty for you that you have to put aside your own feelings for someone who will die in the blink of your eye to save your eternal home from destruction!"

"Don't mock me, little brother," Loki spoke in an unsettlingly soft tone. "Or you will regret it."

At that Baldur narrowed his eyes. "You asked Thor why she left? Your y/n?" he started. "I'll tell you-"

"Baldur," Thor interjected quickly, only to be cut off.

"You should have seen how that poor girl begged to leave, Loki. Said she had been under your influence all this time and only recently became aware of it herself. As soon as you got away from her, she sought an escape."

The god of mischief froze in place, his face losing color at hearing his worst fear. "You're lying."

Baldur spoke louder, his face red as he spat the words, "She just couldn't wait to get away from you, even called you a freak and a monster! Said her life was so  blissful until she met you! Pleaded for Thor to protect her from the evil, no good, demon that was savage enough to slay the only person who ever cared about him in his long, miserable life!"

Loki's rage subsided, hurt obvious on his face. "She was my mother, too, Baldur, and y/n knows that's not what-"

"She was Not your mother, she was Mine and you Slaughtered her!"

"Enough!" Thor bellowed as he saw Loki's fists tighten at his sides, his eyes dark and his face scrunched in barely controlled wrath. "Stop this, we are not here to fight. We're brothers, we must-"

"I assure you, he is most certainly no brother of mine," Baldur bit back with a cold stare.

That final strike made Loki change stance. His head tilted to the side while he glared at Baldur. "Look at you. Poor, pitiful, forgotten Baldur. You're so jealous you can hardly see straight," his voice slightly shook as he did all he could to calm. "You think you can just take your frustrations out on me because I'm not hot tempered like Thor, because you don't think I'll reach out and take your throat in my grasp and just squeeze? " he stepped closer, looking Baldur straight in the eyes. "I think you've forgotten I am the one Allfather chose because I am powerful enough to contain his powers. And you? What powers have you that make you worthy to try and speak like this to me? You, no more than an imputent runt of the litter, one that was so worthless to everyone in the family that he didn't even step foot on Asgard until Thor decided to stay on Asgard?" Another thunder boomed outside, but no one flinched.

Baldur's eyes were glassed over while his teeth grinded, taking in every last from Loki before finally speaking. "You think I don't know I'm not as powerful as you? I'm very aware of your strength, Loki. It's your lack of sympathy to your people that is so hard to watch. They’re scared, they need to see you to know they’re safe. It’s how you care so little about the rest of us that you're just resigned to make your own existence here miserable. And you know what? I'll have no part of it." Just then, Elsa tentatively pushed the bedroom door open, not meaning to make herself known but was taken off guard by the tension as Baldur was turning to leave. “Consider this my resignation, your highness. I won't be a part of this kingdom or this family any longer." He kept his pace even after he realized Elsa had heard him. Her mouth opened to speak, but he left too quickly for her to form the words, brushing gently across her shoulder on the way out.

"What? What's going on?" She looked back towards Thor who was about to speak but Loki, who ignored Elsa’s entrance, looked to him now.

"And you!"

"Me?"

Loki stepped towards the god of thunder, his voice harsh, "I wouldn't even be here if not for you! I would still be home, I would still be with y/n!"

"Oh, so it's my fault-"

"You were his first born son, this unbearable place was meant to be yours, his powers were meant to be yours, but you went off and started a family-"

“I can’t help what happened, Loki, if I knew this is how things would play out-”

“You’d what?” Loki asked with fire behind his eyes. “You’d trade places with me? You would have stayed in Asgard? Exactly what would you change because from where I stand, you are, once again, the only person in this entire damned place that is getting what he wants!”

"Shut up, both of you!" Elsa snapped, stepping between them. In their fit, both men had gotten less than a foot apart, steadily becoming more heated. "You don’t need to fight, please…"

Loki closed his eyes and stepped back, taking a breath to try and steady himself. "Thor, I never would never have agreed to this if I didn't want you to be with your family back on Midgard. I hope you don't waste my sacrifices by hanging around this place any longer than you have to." He sat back down on his chaise, picking up his book at where he left off, "And in case my meaning is unclear, let me be perfectly clear: I'm telling you to leave.” Going back into the same pose he was in before the interruption, he finished with one last jab, “After all, you’re quite good at."

With that, Thor gently led his wife out of the room. After closing the door, he expected Elsa to be angry, or in the very least upset, but instead she looked at him with something else in her eyes.

"You…"

He swallowed hard, “Yes, my love?”

Elsa's eyes watered up while her lips threatened to tremble. "Thor, you're a god. The god of thunder, feared by many, loved by all. Even living as a Midgardian you've managed to recreate this whole new persona of yourself as, well, you, but not just as a god: as a hero. And yet at every turn, you keep making these decisions… to do nothing."

"And what would you have me do, Elsa? You know my hands are tied-"

"Anything, Thor!" she shouted, "Anything at all! But this? Doing nothing? It's almost as bad as pulling the strings!"

“I’m trying to get us home!”

“You’re acting like a coward!”

Thor was quiet and for the first time, she really believed he felt the guilt of what he had done. “I don’t know what I can possibly do. If I help Loki I damn my family. If I do nothing, I damn him. What will you have me do?” he asked genuinely, bringing her hand to his face without looking away. “Tell me what to do?”

She really considered his words, really wondered if they held true value. 

Elsa’s eyes searched Thor’s for a moment before she resided that even if the drama of his family was clouding his morals, there was more to what was going on than just asking Loki to take the crown. Breathing in, she held onto his hands to ready him for what she was about to say.  “Actually, before I tell you that, there’s something I need to tell you... about these dreams I’ve been having.”

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[beesmygod]

this is what riverdale is about (part 6)

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

part 5

and now...we come to the end of our journey...the final 4 episodes of the season. who killed jason blossom? you forgot that’s what we were doing, huh. you  were way too distracted by sex archie and the jughead/betty relationship (called ‘bughead’ in universe). 

i have a friend who has been watching riverdale because i have basically tricked him into doing so and frankly, what i am typing here was and is only the surface of this show’s nonsense. as he watched episodes, he reminds me of all the completely bananas shit that this show throws at you literally every second it is on screen and honestly its a relief to know that, as much as i can try to just give you some basic facts, watching the show itself is still a totally different transcendent experience. its really the only show of its kind; shamelessly stupid but unaware of it while openly delighting in all the silliest cliches presented as straight faced as possible. if these write up do anything for you at all, please, please. watch the show. you will be shocked at how much more there is to discover.

images are from the riverdale wiki

---

SEASON 1 (PART 4): 

the lost weekend: this is the one with a very special guest star in it: molly ringwald as archie’s mom! she and fred (luke perry) have been separated for some amount of time for an unknown reason. yay she’s so cute! i love her. oh uh, also they’re getting a divorce. the papers are going through. archie gets the bad news in the middle of a gaming sesh with jughead.

meanwhile, veronica meets with her dad’s lawyer (whose name is paul sowerberry?? he never shows up again despite his unbelievably silly name) and tells him she’s not giving him a good statement as to her father’s character to help him get a lesser sentence. “fuck you dad!” is the general sentiment before she stomps out to go to school.

oh man there’s a weird aspect of this show that i have neglected to mention. this isn’t something i’ve ever experienced in school so it was totally foreign and weird to me but the students have their own lounge that they mingle and talk in...at...some point during the school day?? jughead’s opening monologue of this episode makes great pains to talk about how every moment of their lives are scheduled from 8am to 3pm but there’s apparently plenty of sittin’ time where they can just laze about this random room talking about crimes they have or are going to commit. a great deal of talking happens in this room when usually you’d have to like, sneak a convo while getting shit out of your locker between classes. i dunno, it’s weird. this is where archie tells veronica about clifford blossom sending her dad to jail so he can jack the land everyone is fighting over.

archie and betty make plans to celebrate jugheads birthday by taking him to the movies, which i feel like is in poor taste given his movie house was just destroyed but whatever. with betty coming along it’ll be just like the three muskateers! betty replies “AcTuAlLy ThErE wErE fOuR mUsKeTeErS” and somehow he doesn’t beat her to death with his bookbag right there and then. betty then doubles down on the bad words flowing out of her mouth and proposes they hold a surprise party for jughead since, according to his dad, he’s never had one. i have no idea what would compel her to think he would want this. even i know he doesn’t want this and i only know him through a tv screen. on top of this she goes out of her way to invite his deadbeat alcoholic dad multiple times. i thought she was supposed to be the smart, observant nancy drew type but like...what the fuck betty. jughead does, in fact, get pretty pissed at archie just for telling his girlfriend that he even has a birthday. presumably instead of telling him he emerged fully formed from the leader of the black parade’s forehead.

after finding out from some files that her dad was receiving money monthly from clifford blossom for some unspecified reason before the arrest, veronica challenges cheryl to a dance off and wins. unfortunately, veronica cant come forward with what she knows because it would make it look like her dad put a hit out on jason in retaliation. dance off to relieve the pain.

jughead fucking hates his party and makes sure everyone knows it. this is something NORMAL people do and he is NOT normal!!! he leaves the party in a huff when cheryl shows up to get her dance off revenge by ruining the party by inviting the whole school. this is the episode where he does his famous “im a weirdo, i have a hat” speech, which is deliciously dumb. they get in a fight, while jughead’s dad talks to kevin’s boyfriend (who you will remember is a member of his gang he assigned to keep tabs on the progress of the teens looking into the whole land plot mess) while betty’s mom secretly listens in?!

cheryl activates chaos mode and locks everyone in the house so they can play a game called “secrets and sins” which is really just an excuse for her to ask everyone horrible questions to make them feel bad. veronica accuses cheryl of fucking her brother, dilton doiley tells everyone about grundy’s statutory rape of archie andrews and chuck tells everyone about dark mode betty drugging him for an impromptu bdsm session which causes jughead to go apeshit and try to throw a weak little baby punch. jughead’s dad, as the only adult who for some reason let all this happen, finally throws everyone out and tells them to go home.

archie and veronica sleep together, by which i mean, next to each other in the same room. veronica testifies on her father’s behalf and discloses to betty the link between jugheads dad and the serpents and her dad’s land plot dreams. molly ringwald appears for 20 seconds.

INHALES. OKAY.

to riverdale and back again: its homecoming babey! archie’s very supportive mother has a nice talk with him. :) veronica founds out that her dad only has to serve “a few more months” in prison for his various white collar crimes, further proof that riverdale takes place in america. jughead and his dad have a nice normal breakfast while fp sweats and asks him “hey uh, how come uh you’re writing about the uhhhh murder and investigating it and stuff” like a normal dad would. archie and veronica tentatively agree to start going out. 

penelopy blossom brings polly (betty’s pregnant sister, remember her? i didn’t) a strawberry milkshake in the most ominous way possible. veronica plans to sneakily find out if jughead’s dad is helping her own and for what purpose, ultimately. jughead accepts and invite to betty’s house for dinner, not knowing her mom is going to grill the shit out of him and his dad over the whole kid murder thing.

polly finds the ring jason proposed to her with back in penelope’s room while snooping, and has no idea how it wound up back in the hands of his mother. according to penelope, jason threw it in their face when he renounced his lineage, then gives her another milkshake.

the cooper family event is disrupted when betty, wise to her mother’s horseshit, invites her estranged dad to dinner too. all hell breaks loose when the subject of homecoming comes up and fp reveals that while alice and hal were crowned homecoming king and queen, they got in a knockout, drag-out fight backstage. alice flips out before he can reveal what it was about and betty and jughead flee for the dance. meanwhile archie and veronica try, and fail, to find something incriminating in fp’s trailer.

cheryl discovers the milkshakes are DRUGGED and polly is going to sleep through homecoming. she informs her parents that she has disposed of the ring (evidence) and they dont have to worry about it anymore. you can see where this is going.

jughead’s dad drops a bomb on him right before homecoming that they’re going to move to toledo to meet up with jughead’s mom and baby sister. jughead hates this bc he just got used to betty and he wants to write his murder book.

archie and veronica sing a truly terrible cover of “kids in america” that has to be seen to be believed.

meanwhile, sherrif keller tears up fp’s house with a search warrant and finds the gun that was used to kill jason blossom. WHAAAA??? BUT ARCHIE AND VERONICA JUST SEARCHED IT??? how could this happen.....jughead finds out about the web of deception weaved by the friends and tells them all to fuck off so he can go to toledo with his family. jughead literally turns around and is informed that his dad was just arrested for murder. his life is so hilariously bad.

the sheriff sucks so bad at his job because he tells his gay son everything who then spills the beans to archie and co (sans jughead) who learn that fp is being framed, because they already tossed the place before.

cheryl has the ring. at this point none of these things mean anything.

i cant believe i still have two more of these. i’m going to have to split this post after this one.

anatomy of a murder: as it turns out, archie discovers, information you discover during a breaking and entering won’t hold up in court. oops. meanwhile fp inexplicably confesses to kidnapping jason after his fake drowning at sweetwater river so he could use him as ransom after discovering he heir to all that sweet maple syrup money. according to fp, jason nearly escaped so they cut their losses and blasted a hole in him. he also confesses to torching the car and stealing the sheriff's files (which we, the audience, know hal cooper did, not fp). well. that’s that, i guess.

betty’s dad comes back to the family home to destroy the murderboard evidence all like “whoo hoo! fp took a bullet for me!” hal’s concern and his reason for stealing the files in the first place, as it turns out, was because the feud between the coopers and the blossoms is more complicated than we thought. the coopers WERE blossoms, until grand-pappy was murdered, so they packed their shit and left with a new name. so that makes polly and jason related. cool!

fp apparently used his his last phone call to call kevin’s boyfriend who, after some pressing by the gang, admits that while he didnt see fp pull the trigger, he did help him put jason’s body in a freezer. this tip leads them to the corpse of a serpent who had a sack of money in a monogrammed dufflebag with the initials “h.l.” (hiram lodge). this is a comically dumb move for a crime boss to make. it is shockingly stupid.

joaquin tells kevin about a secret stash he and fp set up before he bounces from town forever because riverdale sucks. in the stash is jason’s jacket. everyone puzzles over what it means until betty, noted brain genius checks the pockets. in it they find a usb drive.

they sit down and watch the usb and react like they’re watching a sad documentary and not a snuff film. betty calls CHERYL OF ALL PEOPLE and tells her what they just saw on the usb. cheryl, queen of chaos, confronts her dad and tells him that everyone knows what he did.

it turns out the video depicts jason tied up in the basement of the whyte wyrm, there the dead serpent watches over him. clifford blossom walks in and blows a hole in his kid. fp confessed to protect jughead, who was threatened by cliff as the heat poured on.

clifford dies surrounded by his greatest love, maple syrup, by hanging himself in the syrup barn. lol

the sweet hereafter: how the fuck is there another episode of this? they solved the murder, what else could there possibly be to do. wtf. anyway.

the cops find hella drugs in the maple barn after clifford’s death. the assumed story is that jason learned about his dad’s heroin smuggling business and threatened to tell the cops on his dad which lead to his abduction, and eventual death. i guess the polly thing is in here too somehow. not important i guess. the lodges prepare for hiram’s arrival. betty and archie are going to be honored by the mayor for cracking the case at the 75th annual jubilee (wtf). hermoine attempts to buy fred out of the project now that the cops are cracking down on the serpents and making them the face of the construction company is now a very bad look.

betty tries to write an article for the town paper about fp being innocent but her parents wont publish it, citing it as a conflict of interest given she’s smooching the subject’s son. jughead FINALLY JUT NOW gets a social worker who realizes that fred has a dui and is not fit to care for a kid. he has to transfer to a new school district...SOUTHSIDE HIGH SCHOOL!!!

cheryl apologizes for throwing hands at jughead in a previous ep and gives him her iconic spider brooch. i am only bringing this up because she says, specifically, that selling it will net him a good amount of hamburgers and “s t-shirts” for years. why is she the only one who notices he only wears one kind of shirt. betty’s article getting published in the school paper leads to the above retaliation.

veronica’s mom honest to god asks her to sexually manipulate archie into convincing his dad to sell the project to her.

betty’s mom, after a confrontation, tells betty abt the fight she and her dad had on homecoming night when they were high schoolers. turns out...alice was pregnant. she gave the baby up for adoption after she went to the sisters of quiet mercy, like she did with polly, even though hal wanted an abortion. betty immediately tells all her friends this shit.

jughead transfers to the new high and flourishes. turns out they’re all baby gangsters there so they look at him and his dad as kings to be admired. when the archie group heads off to go rescue him, it turns out they dont need to do anything. but now that theyre all conveniently together, veronica gets a txt from cheryl saying she’s going to go be with jason....

they rush to the river where cheryl is having her ophelia meltdown in his stupid little river boat dress where she punches through the ice until she falls through. theres no way to describe how silly this scene is unless you see it so i won’t try but its so melodramatic and cheesy that youre going to be amazed that it got through the writing team at all. archie saves her by punching through the ice the other way. from under the ice. you will soon find, that all of archie’s solutions are to punch things.

betty does a speech at the jubilee that convinces fred not to sell. a nice ending for him.

meanwhile cheryl burns her fucking house down for a lark. just for the drama of it all. 

the same night, jughead and betty start to fuck, as do veronica and archie. not int he same room, like totally separately. but jughead is interrupted by the serpents and a dog named hotdog, who give him a jacket of his own so he can join the team. betty is scandalized.

archie goes to meet his father for a breakfast at pop’s chocklit shoppe for a serious talk. but while he’s int he bathroom, a man with a gun is holding up the chocklit shoppe. he demands fred’s wallet, then pops a hole in him and runs off.

and that.........is where this season......ends.

---

thank you for joining me for season 1 of this shitshow. i love this shitty show. if you loved reading about it, or were mortified by whatever the fuck happened here, then you should watch it as well.

i never pass up an opportunity to shill myself, so if you like what i write, drop me a buck or two at my patreon. i do more writing like this, but also i mostly make comics, so make sure to read the page when you’re signing up so you know what you’re getting!

i WILL return...with season...2!

https://www.patreon.com/aghoststory

[quietseraphim]

Dream a Little Dream of Me

My first BTS fic ever! Cross-posted on AO3

(I promise there’s a read-more link, sorry if it doesnt show up on mobile)

Pairing: Kim Namjoon X Reader

Genre: Drama, Angst, Fluff

Tags: Idol!RM Student Teacher!Reader. Soulmate AU, meeting in dreams. There’s a decent amount of cursing in this, just a heads up.

Summary:  There are old wives tales about dreams and what they can mean. There are also stories of dreams that you can share with your soulmate, dreams where even if you're not together, you can still comfort each other when you need it most.

What happens if your soulmate is not only on the other side of the planet? But they're also international icons?

Chapter: 1  2

Ao3 Link

Please be sure to like it here on Tumblr or give me some Kudos on Ao3! 

Also: my inbox is always open, any and all constructive criticism is welcome as well as questions/regular comments on the fic! Enjoy!

There were a lot of old wives tales about dreams, from the idea that a dream about your teeth falling out meant an unexpected rainfall of money, to the idea that dreams are visions of your past life. But there are also tales of dreams that feel so real that when you wake up, you feel empty inside. Dreams that felt so real that you could feel the warmth of the other person’s body long after they were gone. People would say all kinds of things, from writing them off as sex dreams or even going so far as to say it was a ghost. And in a way it was true, but according to others, these particular dreams were a snap of connection between soulmates. That they would connect when they needed each other the most. But like everything, this could be flawed; even if by some miracle that a pair would be alive at the same time, a pair of soulmates could be on opposite sides of the world where their sleeping patterns would never cross, each having to live out this life without their other half. In cases like these, they’d have to wait to meet in a different timeline where fate and the universe would be kinder. Fluff pieces would be written in newspapers, smattered between the stories of politics and murder to make people feel better. The pair would talk about how their dreams connected for months before finally meeting in person and falling in love. Most readers wouldn’t read too much into it, and no one really believed in soulmates.

~~*~~

It was a reoccurring dream that always left me feeling empty inside once I woke up. It was a simple thing, more a feeling than a dream, but the weight of having someone’s arms around my waist, their face pressed against my own, their breath tickling my neck, a feeling of having someone there when they weren’t, it’s a hard feeling to shake when it felt so real.

My eyes fluttered awake as the last remnants of my dream were swept away by the harsh light of the afternoon sun, groaning I slowly propped myself up, checking my watch. The LED screen read 5:24 pm, my impromptu nap had only been little over an hour, work was more stressful than usual. I stretched my arms above my head and heaving another heavy sigh, I flopped back onto my pillows,  please let me continue that dream I prayed silently closing my eyes...After a minute or two after just laying with my eyes closed, I let out a huff, whatever hold on that sleep had on me was gone and now there was no chance of falling back into the dream. The dream that always felt so so real.

It happened every once in a while, the connection, but it always happened at random times, which basically told me that if soulmates were a thing, then my soulmate lived on the other side of the planet, or at the very least, had an odd sleep schedule. After every dream, I felt more refreshed and energized than before (though that could have been an after-effect of the nap itself).

If I was being honest with other people, I don’t think soulmates existed, it seems too improbable, too impossible that there was someone out there in the world who is my perfect match, who was my partner for life, romantic or otherwise.

But then again...the hopeless romantic in me firmly believed in it, believed that I had made the connection, if only for a split second. There were so many afternoon naps that I woke up from with the feeling of arms around my waist and a nose nuzzled in my hair. These feelings/dreams would only happen when I was super exhausted or emotionally drained, either because of how work/school went or because my depression came in a wave that crashed over me, making it hard to even see straight. It was especially on those days that I needed the comfort that came with the connection dreams.

I’ve basically resigned myself to the fact that the connection dreams will never happen when I need them to, that I’ll never be asleep at the same time as my soulmate (for longer than 20 minutes anyway), and that I’d never meet my soulmate. Until finally, it happens and the phantom feeling of arms around me develops into something more.

Until one night it happens.

I was struggling to open my apartment door, I had so much shit in my hands and I was so fucking tired from the shit-show of a day. As soon as I finally got in, I kicked off my heels, practically falling over myself. I threw down my lunch bag, backpack, purse, basically everything. I pulled out my phone from my pocket and as I fumbled to check my emails, it fell. And that was it. I stared at my phone on the floor and all of a sudden tears started welling up in my eyes. I started breathing heavier and faster and I just let myself fall to the floor, sobs wracking my body. I have no idea how long I stayed on the floor for, or why I was really in the middle of a breakdown. Yeah, work had been shit, the students I had were even worse than usual, but it wasn’t so different than any other day. But then again I was just so tired, I hadn’t been getting enough sleep lately, or come to think of it water or food. Financial struggles were such a burden and apparently, after months of the anxiety and depression bubbling up it finally spilled over.

Heaving a sigh, I dragged myself off the floor and stumbled to my room, too exhausted in all aspects to do anything other than just flop onto my bed. I rolled over and grabbed the stuffed sea otter plush I got at the aquarium, hoping it would help me feel better, closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

As soon as I fall asleep, I feel that familiar weight settle over the curve of my waist. I sigh and push myself back a bit into their warmth. Thank god you’re here, please don’t leave anytime soon I say. I don’t expect any response, why would I? It’s been months of on and off connection dreams and usually, I can feel them for, at most, 20 minutes and even then the time flies and I never say anything. I don’t know why I said anything to begin with anyway. But as soon as the words leave my mouth, whoever is holding me, they stiffen, and then a pit settles in my stomach as I realize,  oh shit, they can hear me.

Is this actually happening? Comes a voice from behind, soft but husky, it almost makes me shiver, the feeling of their breath against the nape of my neck, are we actually dreaming together right now? Oh god, how I want to turn around, to see them, but I’m terrified. Not of them, but I’m so afraid any sort of movement will wake me up, or worse, that I'll turn around and it’ll be a normal dream. Not a connection dream, and goodness knows I couldn’t handle anything like that right now with my state of mind. And so...I just stay quiet. After all, there’s no actual rulebook on how this sort of thing works. Relishing in their warmth in their presence, after all, I’m half-expecting one of us to wake up at any point and all I want to do is feel comforted. They sighed, I guess you’re not really here and I am dreaming. Or maybe I need you more than you need me, but whatever the reason, I’m glad I finally get to hold you for just a bit longer. His voice is soft but almost sad, tinged with such a longing that sends a pang through my heart.

Alright, so it’s definitely not a regular dream, if it was a regular dream, something wild would have happened by now, and I don’t think I would be able to dream up such a wonderful voice. But I still can’t bring myself to turn around just yet, so I just let out a soft breath, and he pulls me closer and nuzzles his nose into the back of my neck.

When I wake up the next morning, I honestly don’t remember anything other than a soft white light, the feeling of warmth and a soft voice.

The next time it happens is a few days later, and I still don’t say anything, the fear of waking up rendering me basically incapable of doing anything other than burrowing further into their warmth.

This time though, he doesn’t just stay quiet, he starts to talk to me, I wonder if you can hear me, if you’re ignoring me, or if you’re as scared as I am? He laughs a bit, maybe if you knew who I was you would be scared, but I hope not. He keeps talking, mostly nonsense but when I wake up the next morning, I remember more of it, the “image” of the dream becoming sharper.

And so it goes on for a while, each night learning more about him when he talks. He’s always pensive, always wondering out loud what I’m like, what I’m thinking about.

Because it keeps happening, now he knows that I am there but he’s understanding of my silence.

One night he brings up the idea that they aren’t actually speaking the same language (or is it thinking? Since it’s happening in our heads). Even though I hear him in my own native language, he apparently is thinking/talking to me in another language, I wonder if you don’t talk to me because you don’t understand Korean, or maybe you do?

Each night I learn more and more, it feels almost unfair that he’s telling me all this and that I’m too much of a coward to say anything. I learn he likes music and when he runs out of things to talk about, he starts singing softly or rapping depending on his mood. He’s good at both, but I prefer his singing voice, may not be the best, but that makes me feel better. Makes him more human to me. The nights after he sings to me, I always try to remember the melody, it’s familiar, but then as the day goes on I forget more and more of it.

I learn that he has a big family, always telling me stories about his big brothers and little brothers, all the silly antics they get into.

I also find out that he’s here for a short time. Here being the area/zone/whatever that lets them connect basically every night. Now, our dreams connect I’m actually sleeping,  not napping like the first few times.

With each night and each dream, I start to communicate more. I’m still paranoid that it’s a regular dream and that I’ll wake up (the logical side of me thinks all this is just a wine-induced dream) so I still don't respond verbally to him, but I do nod or shake her head. I always adjust myself to be more comfortable in his arms.

With each dream comes more vivid memories the next morning, where before, when it all first started, I would remember nothing, just a comforting presence, now she can see more of him as well.

Each morning, the first thing I do is scour the internet looking for more information on soulmates, dreams, connections, and each time I find the same thing, “reports inconclusive”.

Two months after we start connecting more frequently, things change.

I’m leaving soon, we had just been lying together in the white space that is our shared dream space.

As soon as I hear this, my brain kicked into overdrive and the worst possible things flew past my mind. I guess when I was imagining the worst case scenario (which at the moment was that he was in a coma or something and that they were gonna pull the plug and I’d have to live my life alone) I tensed up or froze. I could feel him laugh, I humphed and he pulled me closer, rubbing circles with his thumb against my side,   I’m okay, I’m perfectly healthy, but I am leaving this area. I relax a tiny bit, but before I let myself relax completely, I wait for him to go on, I’m going back to Korea, which means we won’t be able to connect as often his voice becomes serious and sad. I don’t even know where you are, for all I know we could be across the country from each other right now, or even in the same city. His voice falls silent and I reach for the hand that is rubbing circles on my waist and interlace my fingers through his.

I don’t know how long we stay like that, silent, but I know it’s now or never. Finally, I talk to him, I’m going to miss this. I have to resist the urge to laugh because I can almost the surprise radiating off him, I’m sorry I haven’t said anything until now, I say rushing through my words so I can explain, I was afraid this wasn’t real, that this was just a regular dream, but then when I knew that it wasn’t a regular dream...I didn’t know when to start, I liked hearing your stories, hearing you sing. I let out a bitter laugh, that and I’m an awkward coward who didn’t know when the right time to talk was.

His body behind her relaxes as he snorts, I think you may be one of the few who like when I sing, people usually praise me for my rapping.

I huff, I love your voice … Oh fuck. I freeze, I don’t know where we are and I have to go and say that stupid four-letter word??? Fuck!

As I’m in the middle of my freak out I can feel his smile on the back of my neck and he pulls me a little closer, well if old wives tales are to be believed we are soulmates, of course you’re gonna love my voice, he teases and he tightens his hold on my waist.

We stay like that for a bit longer, a small pit of dread sitting in our stomachs as we hold onto each other, not knowing if I would wake up soon or if he would, if our dream would end soon.

What do you see when you look at me? He asks suddenly, breaking the silence, well, when you see my arm anyway he says pulling his hand away from mine and waving it around.

I snort at the silly motion, All I see is fuzzy white all around, the only thing that’s clear is you I answer, reaching out and lacing my fingers between his again, what do you see?

The same thing, he says, I see your hair, your arms and shoulders, he falters a bit, If this is the last time we connect, I want to see your face.

My brain short-circuits as he continues hurriedly, you don’t have to if you don’t want to.

I don’t say anything, I just slowly unlace our fingers, before I can say anything I can feel him starting to pull away, but before he can let the distance get any bigger I quickly grab his arm, close your eyes, I say.

He nods and swallows hard. I can’t read his mind, but I can tell he’s almost too unsure of his own voice.

He squeezes my hand and I know he has his eyes closed. I take a deep breath and close my eyes too. I shift in the space to face him, my hands finding a place on his chest. I freeze for a split second, his chest a lot more broad than I was expecting. I shake my head a teeny bit and take another deep breath.

One, I start

Two, he continues

Three, we whisper together opening our eyes, for the first time seeing each other fully.

Holy shit, I don't know if I say it out loud or if I’m just thinking it (though in this case, what’s the difference?). The man in front of me, the one who I’ve had essentially been sleeping with for the better part of two months, was international star Kim Namjoon, RM of BTS.

In my state of shock, there’s a sudden snap and the dream connection is severed. I sit up quickly, back in my own lonely bed in my own lonely apartment. My hand comes up to clutch at my throat, chest heaving with rapid breaths. Shit shit shit okay, slow down, the last thing I need is to have a fucking panic attack I go through my usual routine of calming my panic attacks, but I’m in too much shock and I start to hyperventilate tears blurring everything around me, of-fucking-course the universe would not only give me a soulmate who lives halfway around the fucking world. But it had to top it off with them being a fucking International star, a fucking idol! Fuck! The more rational part of my brain was going through all the scenarios and it came up with the same conclusion over and over, if it all was real and not some elaborate dream, it wouldn’t matter anyway, it was well known that it was near impossible for idols to date anyone, let alone a fan.

Too afraid to fall back asleep, to reconnect in their dreams, I stay up the rest of the night, alternating between cursing the universe and all the gods and beings I can think of, and crying until I’m numb, aching to be held by him again. To letting myself imagine all the scenarios where, by some miracle, that we could find a life together, where we could be happy and have a family together.

~*~

Miles away, Namjoon was going through the same rollercoaster of emotions. As soon as he woke up, he basically hurled himself out of his hotel bed over to the desk and opening up his laptop. Logging into Twitter, he spent the rest of the night poring over every single account of every single person who had ever liked, commented, retweeted anything they had posted. Desperate to see a picture of her, see a glimpse of her. She recognized me right?? So she knows who I am, she could be a fan or something. That singular thought kept him going as he checked account after account, trying to push away the ugly thoughts, the thoughts that were almost angry that if she had just talked to him all those times they had connected, that he could have found her, that he could have seen her for more than a split second before their connection was cut off.

He stayed at that desk until dawn finally broke, until he finally had to close his laptop and load into a car that would take him to a plane that would take him far far away from his soulmate.

[cavitymagazine]

𝔱𝔞𝔫𝔤𝔩𝔢𝔡 𝔰𝔱𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔡𝔰

I first came across the Flying Spaghetti Monster when I was thirteen, chronically angry, and ridiculously susceptible to manipulation from dickhead losers with YouTube channels. Through those guys I discovered that spouting loud, ignorant nonsense about the existence of a 'Flying Spaghetti Monster' as if were factual felt like sticking my middle finger directly into the face of my Stepdad. He was a devout Catholic and a man with a habit of getting blind drunk and ranting menacingly at the rest of the household about everything, anything, and nothing at all. For about a year, the Flying Spaghetti Monster became my upside-down cross; a blasphemous symbol that I could brandish against my Stepdad and his authoritarian occupation of our home. This always made him unimaginably angry. Thinking about him used to make me unimaginably angry too. 

The thing is, my older sisters really loved him. They still love him. He sold Melissa her first car - a crappy little Ford Fiesta - for the grand total of one pound. He helped Stephanie through her application for Nursing School, a grueling process made even more difficult by her god-awful grades from high school. As the natural products of a doomed marriage, they inherited his blood and the animalistic sense of connection that accompanied it. They never lived here though. When I was four he convinced Mum to bring him home for the first time, and she spent most of the next decade trying to kick him out. As the natural product of a piss-poor home environment, I inherited a plethora of mental health conditions and a taste for hard alcohol. 

Melissa and Stephanie are still pretty religious, partly because their Dad provided them with tender, spiritual guidance throughout their journey through to adulthood. I turned to Dickhead Spaghetti Atheism, partly because I’d once watched him attempt to perform a frantic D.I.Y. exorcism on our cat using home-brewed ‘holy water’. But my sisters and I both saw occasional glimpses of the ‘other side’ to him respectively, and that was confusing as Hell. I was sure that they all existed in the mirror image of my world, familiar but reversed. My Stepdad loved Melissa and Stephanie for the same reason that he despised everyone else, including their mother: it just felt natural to him. So, I threw spaghetti-covered rocks at the reflective layer of glass between us. Honestly, the duality of the man has really fucked with them. Each time his birthday comes round, my older sisters wrestle anxiously with themselves over what to post on Facebook. His legacy continues to fuck with everyone who knew him. I never post anything at all because the mirror refused to shatter until the very end. 

My Stepdad has been dead for a long time now, and thinking about him doesn't make me feel so angry anymore. Just sad. Unimaginably sad. A potent cocktail of paint-thinning cider, stomach cancer, and regret ate him alive from the inside at an obscene pace - even after he quit drinking. A week or so after the funeral, Melissa and Stephanie took me to London. I was fifteen. They were now orphans. We scattered his ashes over the Thames, and, despite our differences, we all cried. 

That evening we went for dinner together at a chain restaurant. Italian. I ordered the bolognese before burying it under six feet of salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese. Resentful, confused, involuntary tears rolled down my cheeks and dripped into the bowl, adding an unpalatable garnish to my food. Sodium from the tears made the sauce too salty to eat, but I wasn’t all that hungry anyway. I wanted to dig the spaghetti back up and dump it into the Thames, to mix it in with the ashes. I wanted to throw myself into the Thames too. To let myself drown in the indecipherable mess that submerged me. The anger was gone, replaced indefinitely with something equally unpleasant: complicated grief. Spaghetti or not, death will swallow me one day too, so talking about the Flying Spaghetti Monster doesn't make me feel at all powerful anymore. Nowadays talking about the Flying Spaghetti Monster just makes me feel sad and stupid. It makes me feel unimaginably stupid. 

[Author Bio]

[James Stelzer (@ABadIdeaMachine) is a writer and vocalist hailing from just outside London. He is published by Soft Cartel, Misery Tourism, After the Pause, Flail House Press, and now Cavity Magazine. He is also a prose reader for Random Sample review. Outsider art fills him with hope.]

[michaelmyersmalewife]

LEVIATHAN | 4. Reunion | MASTERLIST

words: 6k+

warning(s): mark russell being an asshole

A/N: finished this chapter way ahead of schedule so decided to just post it anyway instead of waiting for next monday

you can also support this fic on wattpad & ao3

They had been airborne for a few hours now.

No one in the Osprey had uttered a word since leaving Mark's cabin, there was no need to. Aside from dealing with the craft's awful turbulence, the air was heavy with a melting pot of emotions. Serizawa was up front, looking out the window with a serious expression (not his usual one, Jodie noted, this one looked different - sullen) and flipping the old pocket watch he carried everywhere open and closed. Graham, of course, was right by his side, checking her phone so often it was borderline neurotic. Poor Sam was in the back with Mark, trying to keep his voice down as he answered call after call from what sounded like Monarch and Government officials alike. She didn't envy him.

Last she checked, word hadn't broken outside of close circles. And she doubted it would reach mainstream news anytime soon. Her journalistic mind wanted to be the first to break the story, but she knew the type of panic that came with anything involving Monarch nowadays - let alone titans. And that wasn't even covering how they would give word of the incident to each of their families (if they even had any). It was a mess. So instead she settled back, letting Sam take the reigns for the time being.

As they moved further east, Colorado's rolling mountains gave way to Kansas' checkered, grassy plains. By the time night came, they had already reached the wetter, greener country of the south. Eventually, in the earliest hours of the morning when the moon was still visible despite the warm glow of the sun breaching the horizon, they were already cruising over a seemingly endless body of water. On occasion they would pass over small, mist-shrouded islands scattered throughout like the scutes of a certain lizard.

Until then, Jodie had been dosing on and off throughout the trip, but each time she would be startled awake by images of Gill hiding somewhere in the outpost. She couldn't begin to imagine how scared she must've been to see her coworkers gunned down so mercilessly. She knew that she was one of the lucky ones, reassuring herself that she was now sitting safely in the heart of Monarch's HQ. But that couldn't stop her from replaying the security footage over and over again in her mind.

Why them? She could understand taking Emma, as she was the only one there that knew the ORCA like the back of her hand. It was her brainchild, after all. But the kid?

She wasn't as familiar with her as Gill was, but she knew Madison had guts. She had to, if she wanted to stay with Emma rather than Mark. As she mentally scanned through the footage once more, she recalled an..interesting segment. No one else had commented on it thus far, but something about it bothered her. She couldn't tell for sure, but there was something off about Emma's ORCA, it was as though it hadn't worked. At least, not until Madison appeared out of nowhere and stood between her mother and a certain end at the hand of a giant bug. If anything, it was simply a weird coincidence and the "terrorists", as they had been referred to, took her as a form of motivation. A sharp chill ran down her spine at the thought.

Snapping her out of her thought spiral, Graham walked past her and sat beside Mark.

"How are you holding up?" she asked softly.

Of course, he didn't respond. Typical, Jodie thought, rolling her eyes.

"You could yell at us more if it'll make you feel any better." she said with a lighthearted chuckle.

"I'd rather you not." Jodie muttered under her breath.

Though she couldn't quite see it, Mark smiled at the exchange.

"Don't get me wrong, it's good to see you two." he said. "I know you and Serizawa were good friends of Emma's after..y'know."

Graham paused for a moment. "When was the last time you spoke to her?"

Feigning sleep, Jodie listened. She didn't mean to eavesdrop, but after years of investigative journalism it became a habit hard to break.

"About three years ago. After San Francisco, we went back home to Boston...tried to put the pieces back together. Emma dealt with it by doubling down on saving the world, and I...." there was a long pause. "I started drinking..I can't tell you how much I hated myself letting Maddie see me that way."

Vivienne didn't respond. Yikes.

Lucky for them, Coleman's voice sounded from the back of the Osprey.

"Uh, you mind if we cut in here? It's just..you're going to want to see this." Jodie was roused from her pretend sleep.

Sitting across from him, he handed Mark a tablet. She couldn't make out exactly what it showed from looking over Vivienne's shoulder, but she could tell it contained blueprints. 3D models and what looked like sound frequencies. Emma's research.

"Emma combined the bioacoustics of different titans to create the ORCA's signal. A sort of baseline frequency that all the creatures respond to - attracting them, repelling them, and even at times calming them down. It's pretty remarkable, actually." Coleman couldn't suppress the impressed smile from growing on his face.

"The problem is that we don't know which titans she combined. But if you can identify those frequencies, we'll be able to track the ORCA." Graham said. "And find Emma and Madison."

Mark continued swiping through the data, eyes scanning x-ray upon x-ray of various titans. No two of them looked alike, some had tough exoskeletons like giant insects while others were more mammalian. A few even shared similarities with Godzilla.

"Scylla, Behemoth, Kong..." Jodie commented. "Even the G-man himself. And those are just the few we've been able to confirm."

"Jesus," he said. "How many of these things are there?"

"Seventeen." Serizawa responded. "And counting, after Gojira."

"Seventeen?"

"Now, now, don't throw yourself into a fit." Leaving her seat with an irritated sigh, Jodie inched closer to the group huddled around the tablet. Clearing her throat, she motioned for it. Mark handed it to her.

Pulling up a map of the world, various locations were marked in a seemingly random pattern. After all these years, the map of titans found and contained had become so normal to her. To Mark, not so much.

"Most of them were discovered in deep hibernation," she said as she watched him scan through each outpost, disbelief steadily growing on his face. "While others we've contained in sites around the globe."

"Cambodia, Mexico, Skull Island. We even found one in Wyoming. They're everywhere." Graham chimed in.

"Why don't you kill them?" he asked.

Jodie bristled. Before she could even think of opening her mouth, Serizawa spoke up.

"The government wants to. But we believe that some are benevolent."

"Don't kid yourself." Mark snapped.

Serizawa sighed, looking down at the floor. Jodie limply threw her hands into the air.

"Look, man, I know you had a bad run-in with the big guy but have you seen them They can't help it!" Jodie retorted.

"Yeah? Then maybe something that can level a city if it so much as sneezes shouldn't be kept in a cozy little containment center while everyone else suffers the consequences."

"That still gives us no right to decide whether they live or -"

Suddenly, something in the Osprey began beeping.

"Uh, hey look at that. We're here." Coleman said, nervousness potent in his voice.

Vexed, Mark got up, walking toward the cockpit. Jodie rolled her shoulders. It was going to be a long day.

Looking out the window, Jodie spied the oil platform that jutted out of the sea, shrouded in mist like a lonely spire from a fairy tale. As they got closer, the Osprey began to dip closer to the rig's landing pad.

"Castle Bravo, this is Raptor 1 on direct approach." the pilot spoke into the mic in her helmet.

With that, the landing pad opened, revealing an empty shaft that went down, much deeper than what the rig above suggested. As they descended, they passed by floor after floor, many of which were bustling with people going about their regular workday. Or about as regular a workday could get at Monarch's HQ.

"This is new." Mark whispered.

"Yeah," Coleman said, the pride in his voice unmistakable. "We call it Castle Bravo, our new flagship facility. Built to track and study Godzilla on his own turf."

To Jodie, it had become so much more. It was home.

"I thought it was missing." Mark said, all but gritting his teeth at the thought of the titan still being alive and well.

She bit the inside of her cheek. This guy's deep-running hatred for the giant amphibian was already getting on her nerves.

"Well, only if you don't know where to look." Coleman replied.

That was easier said than done. After San Francisco, Godzilla had taken a pretty bad beating at the hands of yet another MUTO just a few months later - the signature glowing spines that adorned his back had been completely shattered. After crawling back to his home in the ocean, there hadn't been a public sighting of him since.

Slowing to a hover, the Osprey landed. The bay was impressively large for being a little under a mile below sea level.

"This is our stop." Coleman said.

As the group filed out of the Osprey, a line of men and women donning camouflage uniforms waited on the deck. Their leader, a woman with a clean-shaven head and a no-nonsense air, was unmistakable.

"Dr. Russell, this is Colonel Foster. She's the head of G-Team." Coleman said.

"A pleasure." she offered her hand. This time, Mark shook it.

"I take it you're not part of the scientific mission here." he remarked.

"Damn right." a man with a dark, close-cropped beard called from the back.

Colonel Foster grinned. "Chief Officer Barnes," nodding to the rest of the group she continued. "And this is Sergeant Hendricks, Staff Sergeant Martinez, and First Lieutenant Griffin."

Mark gave a quick wave.

"If you'll excuse me, Dr. Graham and I have some catching up to do with Colonel Foster." Serizawa said, coming up from behind Mark. Looking over his shoulder at Coleman, he continued. "Sam, why don't you give Dr. Russell a tour, help him get adjusted."

Coleman cringed. "Sorry, Doc I uh," he placed his hand over his phone's speaker. "Senate's not really taking our sudden leave so well. They're starting to get a little antsy."

"It's alright, I can -"

"Oh, don't worry, Jodie could probably show you around." he said without a hint of sarcasm before quickly returning to his call.

Jodie groaned to herself, putting on her most convincing friendly face as she turned towards Mark. He didn't seem too happy about it either.

_____

The first stop of the tour was the submarine bay.

It was bigger than one would've expected, holding around seven subs, at least a dozen smaller submersibles, and with space for more.

Although Castle Bravo was technically a research facility, it also acted as a fortress, fitted with large reinforced glass windows along with raised metal sleeves that definitely contained weapons of some kind. It had to, when it studied the sort of creatures that would call for that level of protection. Thankfully, Jodie thought, they hadn't needed to use those in years.

"Looks like you could stage a war from here." Marked noted.

"Don't get too excited, most of these are just research vessels." she walked ahead of him, not bothering to pay attention to whether he was following her or not. "Remember, we're still looking for titans. For all we know there could be dozens more out there."

"That's just great." he grumbled.

"If you're so hellbent on seeing them all as mindless monsters, wouldn't you want to be better prepared?"

"Give me a break, Monarch's been chasing these things since the 40s. As far as I can tell, whatever they learned prepared us for jack shit."

Jodie's lips curled inward with irritation. "Y'know, for someone that studies a keystone species for a living I would expect you to know better."

"Those monsters hardly count as a keystone species, they're walking natural disasters." he said, voice as angry and venomous as a snake.

".....That's exactly the kind of mindset Emma was trying to change."

Mark recoiled. "She was messing with something she shouldn't have." he paused, eyes scrunching closed for a moment. "Now look where it got her."

No wonder she divorced your ass, Jodie thought. As much as she wanted to spit it in his face, it was a low blow, even for her. Instead, she kept quiet, continuing to march forward until they reached level two of the facility. Jodie perked up just slightly when they entered the massive room, hearing the softest of gasps from Mark.

"What the hell is that?" he whispered to himself, awe and horror melding together in his tone.

Before them sat a giant reptilian creature. It vaguely resembled Godzilla, in the sense that it too possessed jagged spines jutting out from its back. The similarities stopped there, as this one's face was flatter, almost like a marine iguana. It even had similar, rounded jowels. Not to mention that it was much, much smaller, roughly the size of a blue whale. Jodie was no zoologist but she could've guessed that whatever species this belonged to, it was likely a juvenile.

It was also undeniably dead.

A vast majority of its body was obscured by scaffolding and heavy lifting machinery, but what could be seen was pretty grisly. Whatever this thing ran into had it out for them.

"That's Margygr, poor girl." she said, eyes filled with sympathy. "Found her washed up in the Arctic a few weeks ago."

Mark's eyes wandered to the rest of the room, finding that - much to his dismay - Margygr wasn't the only titan on the floor. As Jodie led him through, they passed by an assortment of titan parts - bones, semi-intact limbs, an organ or two - less than a handful were completely whole. Nearing the other side of the room, he found one that he recognized. The decapitated head of the female MUTO. Out of the corner of her eye, Jodie saw him grimace.

"You're dissecting them?" he said, disgusted.

"Well, yeah. And that's just the start of what they do down here." she said, unfazed by the scene around her. "Don't ask me about the dirty details, though. This isn't my division. The most I know is that the general mission is to understand them - how their ecosystem works, sequencing their DNA, etcetera."

"Their DNA?" he froze. "What could you possibly need with something like -"

"Ugh, could you chill out? This isn't Jurassic Park."

"Chill out? You're just gonna drop a bomb like that and then tell me to chill out?"

".....Are you done?"

After opening and closing his mouth, Mark said nothing.

"What I'm trying to say is that things have changed since you left. We've gathered more information on them in the past five years than in the last decade and since Godzilla showed up again, we've gotten so much closer to understanding them. Connecting with -"

"Do you even hear yourself? This isn't some child's fantasy, we're talking about genocides waiting to happen."

"Mark, they're animals. Just like any other thing that breathes on this goddamn rock!"

"Just - I don't care about this." He waved her off, turning to walk away but realizing he had nowhere to walk away to. "I just want my daughter back. And once that's done I'm done. I'm washing my hands of - of all this. Again. Forever."

Frustrated, Jodie pulled her phone from her pocket. She couldn't deal with him, of all things. She was just about to scroll through her numerous unread messages before seeing the time at the top of the screen.

"Fuck." she muttered under her breath.

"What is it now?"

"The meeting. We've got ten minutes until it starts."

"Meeting?"

"Must've forgotten to tell you." she said nonchalantly. "Guess the tour's over."

_____

The walk to the command center was a quiet one, heavy with tension and just a hint of anxiety.

That whole time Jodie was mentally punching Sam for making her waste precious time with this has-been instead of her own wife. Thankfully, that walk had also been short, and as they entered the room, she made sure to sit as far away from him as possible. Pulling up a chair between Lieutenant Griffin and Dr. Stanton, she waited as more people filed in one after the other. Soon enough, Vivienne walked into the room, standing in front of a large screen. Immediately, all chatter died down.

"As you know," she began. "At approximately 0700 hours, our containment site in China's Yunnan rainforest was raided."

The screen behind her displayed a waterfall, and wriggling just behind its curtain was a massive larva. The same one from the security footage from before. Jodie squinted. The scale of the scene would've fooled her had it not been for the two helicopters shining floodlights down on the creature. What was it doing? It didn't seem to be as distressed as before.

"The specimen - code-named Mothra - escaped, only to cocoon itself under a nearby waterfall, while Dr. Russell and her daughter Madison were taken hostage."

As Jodie peered closer, she saw dozens of iridescent threads spouting out of the larva's mandibles. The silk casing that had already begun to form had to be at least two stories tall.

Then, Emma's file photo and personal data flashed across the screen, quickly followed by a screenshot from the Yunnan footage. It was grainy, and although it was enhanced as much as it could be it hardly showed any detail save for the basic outline of a man's face - an older man, all gray hair and sharp features. A cold, empty stare. Despite the anger Jodie felt looking at the man responsible for all this, she couldn't stop the wave of goosebumps from forming along her arms.

"This is the man responsible," Vivienne wrung her hands. She always seemed to do that when she was nervous. "We haven't been able to find much information on him save for assumed previous encounters, but other than that, it's as if he never existed."

"What we do know is that he's had a penchant for this sort of thing." she went on as the screen displayed multiple screenshots of the man, each from different locations spanning years. This briefing couldn't get any more discouraging. "At the current moment we've assumed he's part of a wave of violent ecoterrorist activity that's steadily been on the rise in recent years. He could possibly be the man behind it all."

"Ecoterrorists?" Mark asked incredulously.

"Someone's spent too much time off the grid." Jodie muttered to herself.

"Wouldn't be surprised. Why else would they go after one of our outposts?" Stanton chimed in.

"What the hell's someone gonna do with a giant worm?" Martinez asked, seemingly genuine.

"You kidding? What can't you do with it?" he went on, leaning forward. "Pharmaceuticals, bioweapons, food - hell, there isn't a country or company on the planet that doesn't wanna get its hands on one of these suckers."

Looking up at the screen that now showed an x-ray of the pupa, Stanton's eyes narrowed. "And remember, this one's just a larva. A baby. After it cocoons? Something else is gonna crawl out. Something bigger. Meaner -"

"We don't know that, Rick." a woman with short, black hair cut in bangs interrupted.

Dr. Chen, the same scientist that Gill followed around like a lovestruck high schooler for the first year after their recruitment. Jodie trusted her.

"Oh, yeah?" Stanton raised a mug full of lukewarm coffee to his mouth. "Just wait for it, Chen."

She turned away, shaking her head with an exasperated grin on her face. Jodie couldn't quite put her finger on it, but Chen always seemed to know something everyone else didn't.  Maybe that was why she liked her so much.

"Our intel indicates our perpetrator wants to capture the specimen alive, which means he and his mercs won't be far behind." Colonel Foster said, stepping forward. "At 0500, we'll ship out to launch a joint operation -"

"I wouldn't bother." Mark said, crossing his arms.

That got everyone's attention. Jodie could feel Coleman's anxiety shoot through the roof after the first syllable left the man's mouth. As quickly as he had spoken, the room became silent as all eyes turned on him.

"Excuse me?" Foster finally asked.

"Sounds like a duck hunt to me."

"U-Uh, Mark? Why don't we let Colonel Foster fini -"

"A decoy," he continued, this time standing up from his seat. "A diversion. Look, they already got Emma and the ORCA. Why would they want just this one when they've got the keys to your entire kingdom of horrors back here?" he pointed to the map of Monarch outposts in the back of the room.

Foster remained silent, hands curling and uncurling.

"I think they want you to go after this Mothra so they can go after a real prize. Something bigger."

"Right.." Foster said, trying desperately to hold onto her composure.

"Mark," Serizawa said. "This is not the first specimen they've captured, they know what they're doing -"

"That's not just a specimen, I've got an ex-wife and a daughter out there. In case you forgot."

"No, no one's forgotten that, Mark," Coleman said. "But, uh, to remind you, you were brought on here to help track the ORCA and to advise -"

"I advise you to kill these things," he snapped. "All of them!" Pointing at the screen that now depicted archival footage of Godzilla, he grimaced, brows closely knitting together. "Especially that one."

Serizawa leaned back into his chair. He was looking more troubled by the second. Jodie ran her hands down her face. At least now she didn't have to deal with his bullshit alone.

"You wanna make sure these things don't fall into the wrong hands? You kill them, and the ORCA is useless."

"Emma wouldn't have wanted that," Chen said firmly. "Even to save her life."

"Well it wouldn't be the first time she put all of this before herself." he retorted. "Or her family, would it?"

With that, he stormed off. Jodie practically breathed a sigh of relief.

"Glad that's over." Jodie said, running a hand through her hair.

"Damn..dude really hates titans." Barnes remarked.

"Yeah, well, you would too if you were him." Coleman replied.

_____

There wasn't much to see outside the small, circular window of the "dorm" save for the faint glint of the moon bouncing off of what looked like an infinite expanse of ice. But to Madison, it was better than looking around the equally cold cage around her.

None of those strange people had bothered them in the hours they had spent in the air. Save for once, a few hours ago when that same woman from before had come offering them all a bland substitute for food. It only reminded Madison that she hadn't eaten anything for almost a day. Looking at it, remembering what had happened, she didn't feel hungry at all.

She didn't think she'd ever forget the scene she had been subjected to in China - the smell of blood, the looks of surprise or fear or pain captured forever on the faces of people she knew. That's what made it all worse, she thought. She had practically grown up around these people. Dr. Tanis would always help her with her homeschooling when her mother was too busy. Tim would make it a point to visit their living compound every now and then for a cup of coffee before work started. And of course, there was Gill. The two of them had become a notorious pair after pulling a prank on one of the archaeologists early into their deployment at the outpost. And one prank soon became ten.

At least she didn't see her among the carnage. Maybe, she reassured herself, she had managed to get out in time. Her mother had told her not to think about it, how in order to get through this they had to keep a level head. That was easier said than done. If anything she wanted to scream. She wanted to scream and cry and beat her hands against the walls until they collapsed or her knuckles became bloody. Instead, she sat on the uncomfortably stiff cot, closing her eyes as she tried to file all those images of death away to the farthest reaches of her mind. Instead, she thought of Mothra. The feeling of connection that she couldn't explain. How important it seemed, despite not knowing how or why it was important in the first place. Maybe if these guys hadn't interrupted them, she thought, she might've figured it out.

She wondered if the pupa had remained unharmed, as the mercs that took them didn't seem all that interested in her. She hoped she was okay.

Suddenly, there was a shift in their course, it felt like they were descending.

Looking over at her mom and the other woman, they seemed to notice it too. Although her mother didn't like showing it, Madison could tell she was nervous. The woman - Elena - she seemed on edge. She had only known her for a few hours, and spoken to her much less, but there was something so startlingly familiar about her. It was like that feeling you got when you stared into a mirror so long that you couldn't recognize your reflection as your own. But she wasn't scared of her, despite the defensive and withdrawn air about her.

Seconds after the sudden descent, the door opened.

"Put these on, you'll need them."

The woman that other guy had called "The Regulator" barged into the room, not caring at all for their personal space. In her arms were three thick parka-looking coats.

"Where are we?" Elena asked.

"You'll see. Follow me."

As the craft slowed to a stop, Madison could hear the harsh wind buffet against the walls. Every now and then it would wobble in place from its sheer force. She struggled to keep up with their pace, falling just behind her mother while Elena walked ahead of them both. As she passed by a window, shrugging on the deceptively heavy coat, she could see a glimpse of the world outside. Under the light of a full moon was a desolate, icy landscape that stretched off as far her eyes could see in every direction except ahead. There, ice and stone joined with a metal encampment. A Monarch outpost, she realized. But not just any outpost. It had to be the Antarctic base.

Under different circumstances she would've been excited. She often overheard her mother talking with Dr. Graham about this place - the landscape, the surprising amount of life, the silence. And, of course, the sleeping giant that lay inside.

She shivered, and not because of the cold atmosphere that seeped through the walls of the craft. She had never actually seen the creature up close save for photos that she had sneaked glances at. Her mother had a high security clearance, but Madison didn't.

"Outpost 32," she overheard a man, presumably one of the pilots, say into a radio as they drew closer to the front (center?) of the craft. "This is Raptor 5 on approach with reinforcements and supplies requesting permission to land. Serizawa has all sites on high alert so transmitting emergency codes now."

After a moment of silence, the person on the other end responded. "Codes are good. Nice to have you back."

Madison's brows creased together.

They were definitely not in an Osprey. The base would notice that something was wrong right off the bat if they approached in whatever they were in right now. Still, they continued walking until they were herded into what looked like an elevator. After a quick and silent trip down, they exited, now in an area that looked like a hangar. It was bustling with a good amount of people, and in the center of the room was an Osprey. Of course, Madison thought. Why wouldn't they have managed to steal one.

As the Regulator corralled them into the Osprey, Madison could see the strange man - the Controller - waiting for them inside. Great.

He said nothing as its engines whirred to life, only staring outside the front window in the same position he had when they first met. As they sat down, Madison could feel her mother's hand on her shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly as the mercenaries took up their weapons. She tried her best not to flinch at the sound.

It frightened her how casual it all was. Like it was just another day at the office for these people. The Osprey hovered in the air for a moment, the bottom of the hangar opening up beneath them. Looking out the window, Madison found that they were actually far from the base, somehow standing still in midair in a ship that made no sound. It was only a little unnerving. Shortly afterward they began their descent, approaching the base after five minutes or so. To her, it felt like forever. As the Osprey neared the base, Madison could see Monarch officials coming out to greet them, illuminated by the floodlights.

Go back!, she wanted to scream, hoping her thoughts would somehow reach them.

When they finally touched down, she began feeling just slightly nauseous as the Controller and his men disembarked.

For a moment, there was a suffocating silence, the wind being the only sound filling her ears. Then the gunfire started. Without meaning to she huddled closer to her mother, and even out of the corner of her eye she saw Elena stiffen.

"I'm scared." Madison whispered.

"I know," her mother said, pulling her closer. "Me too."

At that second, Madison looked up, eyes connecting with Elena's for just a brief moment. In her eyes she had seen something akin to pity, but underneath that was something else. It wasn't quite fear, but it was something like it. In the next second, the gunfire stopped, and with it the Controller stepped back into the Osprey.

"Let's go."

The walk to the outpost was a nightmare. Besides the harsh wind and biting snow coming at them near horizontally, there were at least a dozen more bodies lying frozen on the ice. On either side of her was her mother and Elena, and despite their attempts at shielding her from the grisly view, she just felt even sicker than before.

"Keep your eyes straight ahead," she heard a voice whisper into her ear. It was Elena. "Take deep breaths."

Madison nodded.

Inside, the mercenaries crowded them into an elevator and began yet another descent. Standing just beside Elena, facing in her direction, was the Controller, wiping a drop of blood from his face. He must've felt her eyes on him, as his gaze suddenly turned to her, flashing the tiniest of smiles. If you could even call it that. He smiled as though he had just learned how to move his face in such a way. It was strange and terrible, and she did her best to stare straight through him. Finding that she couldn't quite manage that, she scratched her eye with her middle finger and felt a little satisfaction when he seemed to understand her. At that, Elena stepped between them, staring at him so intensely that Madison almost felt a little scared for her.

Thankfully, the elevator doors opened, revealing a cavern of ice. Dozens of catwalks and research equipment surrounded the massive wall of ice that was at least hundreds of feet high. But that wasn't what caused everyone in the elevator to look up with rapt attention.

"Mother of God," Elena whispered to herself in horror.

"She had nothing to do with this." the Controller replied.

Madison could only stare at it in wonder and just a little dread. Within the wall of ice was a titan, all serpentine coils and gigantic claws. It looked like it could've been several titans tangled together, as she could make out at least two dragon-like heads. Whatever it was was also massive, far bigger than Mothra and possibly even bigger than Godzilla himself.

"Monster zero." she mumbled. That's what she had heard Dr. Graham and her mother call it.

The thought suddenly sent a jolt of worry through her. Was Graham still stationed here? Had those mercenaries killed her too? She hoped not, that would've been too much. After the divorce, it had been somewhat of a relief to have her around. She was like an Aunt, though she didn't really know what it was like to have family outside of her parents. Or her brother.

She tried not to think about it.

Instead she thought about the tunnel she was being led through. It had been carved through the ice and insulated with something that looked a bit like a hamster tube. It was warmer, but she still felt goosebumps forming up and down her arms. As they worked their way up, past what was once people's workspaces, they reached the heart of the facility - the biolab.

From the catwalk, Madison could see one of the horned heads, while a vast majority of its body obscured by layers of ice. Her mother walked up to it, placing her hand against its frozen surface. Elena hung back. It almost looked like it was hard for her to breathe.

"Are you okay?" she asked, trying to keep her voice down.

Elena only nodded, trying to give her a reassuring smile but only further convincing her that no, she was not okay.

"Any survivors?" the Controller asked a man with short black hair.

"No," he replied. "They tried to launch an emergency beacon but we cut them off in time."

"Oh, they'll figure it out. Fire up the drills." Turning to her mother, his gaze focused on the ORCA in her hands. "Do you have everything you need?"

Her mother barely seemed to register what he said, but she nodded.

"Good," he said, that same dark smile growing on his face. "Let's get started."

As the men started up several drills mounted on robotic arms that hung from the ceiling, her mother began connecting the ORCA to the biolab's diagnostic equipment. She cocked her head in confusion when she saw one of the Controller's men walk next to her mother, connecting wires attached to what appeared to be two sleek headpieces into the ORCA. She didn't remember ever seeing those before. Standing closer to Elena while everyone was preoccupied, she looked up at her.

"The ORCA...it hadn't worked back in China. How's it gonna be any different now?"

Looking down, brows furrowed and lips pulled into a thin line, she exhaled. "It's not that it didn't work, it was missing something." she said, face hopelessly blank. "A human connection."

A connection.

Stepping closer to the wall of ice, she placed her hand against it just as her mother had.

Why were they bothering with the ORCA when this thing definitely seemed dead? It had been frozen for decades, possibly even longer than that. And how had a creature of this size been frozen like this in the first place? Other animals had been found in a similar state, but they were never like this. From what she could make out, Monster Zero had been standing in a very lifelike pose. It seemed impossible that the ice had accumulated on him over time. And how long ago had it happened? Antarctica wasn't always a frozen wasteland. Was it even possible that he wasn't dead at all? Stranger things had happened.

Madison got her answer an instant later, when she heard a series of beeps from one of the diagnostic machines behind her. On its screen it showed a flat line that slowly but surely spiked. The waves were brief, shallow, inconsistent - but they were there.

Monster Zero was alive.