#i saw the words first david and immediately thought about the statue

[f1crecs]

'Megaverse Monday - Week five

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Logan/Oscar

nsfw: this is your life, don't play hard to get by @nothingelsematterswrites | E | 79.8k

Regency AU in which Oscar is the adopted omega son of alpha Mark Webber (who is in a closeted relationship with alpha David Coulthard). Oscar must marry and produce an heir in order to secure his future. Mark arranges a match with Logan, the second son of an American family.

What I liked about it: This fic is delightful, leaning into a number of my favourite tropes, especially arranged marriage and found family. Oscar is less than enthused about Logan to begin with. Poor Logan is head over heels for Oscar almost immediately. I also love the Webber household dynamics. Mark is a wonderful father (as is David, behind the scenes) and Logan, who is from a far less loving family, gains the affection and parental support he didn’t even know he was missing.

“And that will mean,” Mark’s tone was warm and teasing, “that there must be no more late-night visits, at least for now.” Oscar sat up, all trace of sleepiness evaporating in panic. “What?” His heart was pounding. His father knew? If his father knew, others might know. He could not have word getting out, he could not afford rumours to start – “Calm yourself, Oscar,” Mark soothed. “I am not upset.” “How - ” Oscar could barely speak through his panic. “How did you - ” Mark’s expression was amused. “You say you have known since you were twelve the truth of what lies between David and I, and yet you have never seen me go to my bedchamber with him; how do you think he comes to my room? He saw Logan the very first night. He is the only other who knows.”

Pierre/Yuki

baby, baby, can you hear me calling out your name? by yukierres | M | 7.6k

This fic is set a few years into the future. Pierre is an omega, a fact he conceals from almost everyone other than Charles, Esteban and his doctors. Yuki is an alpha, now well established at Mercedes, and Pierre has been attracted to him for years. Pierre is caught unawares by an early, intense heat and in confusion and distress he instinctively calls Yuki.

What I liked about it: I just love the relationship here. Yuki is calm and kind in the face of Pierre’s distress and anxiety, and Pierre finds support where he didn’t expect to find it. Pierre is very much in his own head about his omega status and he’s overdue to let someone in.

Fuck, his secret is out too. He can feel the anxiety and panic rising up through him, his body shutting down as he starts hyperventilating at the thought. What does he do now? He has kept it hidden for so long, and he has one moment of weakness and it was all for nothing. What if Yuki says something? He could lose his seat, his career - merde! The tears flow thick and fast, the sobs hiccuping out of his system as he starts to mourn the loss of everything already, too stressed out to notice the figure entering the room and sitting down at the end of the bed, a strong hand reaching out and resting on his ankles, a comforting weight that wakes him up to reality. “Yuki!,” he exclaims with a strangled cry, crawling up to the pillows, dragging the duvet with him to cover his modesty, or whatever is left of it. God, Yuki came and saw him like that. Did Yuki – ? His clothes from before are still all on and sweat-damp, it doesn’t feel like someone removed them at any point. He wouldn’t, would he? Yuki would never do that, he has always been so respectful to everyone around him, omega or not. He instinctively knows he never would touch him without consent, and trusts him wholeheartedly. “Yuki, please - please -, I am so sorry, merde! Mon Dieu! Please, you have to forgive - please don’t say anything -” he stumbles out, a wrangled confused mess of speech falling from his lips in panic. "Pierre," he says and it's so full of kindness that Pierre is bewildered by it, silencing him momentarily to stare back at him “I made you some tea? Do you feel well enough to drink it?”

Charles/Pierre

blueprint by ions | M | 1.9k

Charles has always thought he's a beta, but then he suddenly presents as an omega, and there's only one alpha he wants. The "thought I was a beta, until..." trope is one of my personal favourites for omegaverse, and it's captured perfectly for Piarles in this fic. I love the way this fic paints such a vivid picture of the omegaverse F1 world, and the detail it builds into the characterisation and worldbuilding. The writing style is toned-down but so very effective, and this author captures the nuances of Pierre and Charles' relationship in a way that's truly beautiful. I still think of some of the lines in this fic as cornerstones for characterisation of the Piarles dynamic!

Pierre looks surprised for a split-second, like Charles isn't spread out beneath him. Like he hasn't just needed to ask this whole time. Pierre nods, brow furrowed like it always does when he's bothered with something, whether it was an issue with the karts as kids or more political in-fighting from inside Red Bull. Charles can't help but reach out and gently touch the skin there, Pierre's face finally relaxing. "Please," Charles says again. He hates how whiny it comes out, like a little kid tugging his big brother's sleeve again. When Pierre had jumped to single-seaters early, Charles hated being just Pierre's little friend when he went to the races. Charles doesn't know why. He has always been Pierre's.

thanks to @lydia-petze and @singsweetmelodies for compiling this weeks list! 🤍

[evakuality]

Matteo - Episode one

Okay bear with me.  I know I’ve talked about this season a LOT over the last couple of years but I’m not going to do a rewatch (or first watch in some cases) of the Druck seasons and not include this one.  And knowing me, I will be very verbose about this one because I do just love it so much.  Even though I already talked about it at length.

So, to mix things up, I decided to watch this one in real time mode.  Which has been both lovely (revisiting what it was like to follow along with everything back then) and really frustrating (revisiting what it was like to wait for clips back then).  But it’s been a good exercise, particularly with this episode because I didn’t get truly involved in the show til a couple of weeks later so there’s a lot I missed in terms of social media etc the first time around.  So let’s start there.

Social media: It was nice to get the stuff leading in to this season which I hadn’t seen before.  The decisions around moving into the new place and getting Matteo involved etc were all super cute.  I liked the stuff with Sam after her party and how they kept that story - at the time it must really have felt like an immersive thing moving from Mia’s story to Matteo’s.  The stuff around the flatwarming party is interesting too.  Matteo and Sara’s posts make it seem like they’re at two different parties.  Matteo’s has barely and hint of Sara at all whereas hers makes it seem like they were joined at the hip all evening and super happy together.  And then even through the week her things were much more focused on Matteo (and on Leonie’s crush on David) whereas again, with his Sara only comes up if he’s asked about her.  I know it’s very clear in the clips as well, but honestly, the texts and instagram posts etc really make it clear how much she had built this up in her head vs how indifferent he is to it.  One really interesting one is where she asks Leonie not to spread it around that she and Matteo are together.  It suggests that she already knows this isn’t what she wants it to be, but either through desperation or naivety or by lying to herself, Sara doesn’t allow herself to see it.  It’s very sad for her and I do feel for her a lot more than I ever did for Emma.

Clip one: I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again now.  I really really love this clip.  It’s a perfect introduction both to Matteo’s PoV and to all the themes of the season.  Matteo is surrounded by people through the whole thing, and on the surface and from the outside it probably looks like he’s slotted in and having a great time - he talks, he dances, he appears to be having a good time and his social media is curated to make it appear that way too.  But it’s clear since we’re in his PoV that he’s actually isolated and on the outskirts of what’s going on.  That’s done both in the music and sound (the way he fades in on the discordant, out of place note will always always get me as well as the way that the chatter and ‘reality’ of the party only comes into focus when Sara makes him kiss her) and in the conversations that are held.  The way the boys really do just focus on sex sets us up for Matteo’s explosion later where he accuses them of only talking about sex - which is sadly fairly true in these earlier episodes.  And Matteo tries to join in but all he manage is ‘that looks exhausting’ and ‘you bet’ when asked about him and Sara.  The fact that his contribution is about how exhausting sex (and by extension relationships) must be is really telling of his mind set.  Everything is too exhausting for him and he’s not ready to put in much effort at all.  The isolation goes deep with this boy and it’s all already so well shown in this first clip.  I like that we got hints of that through Mia’s season as well (and the seeds were planted in Hanna’s - what with his tagging along to the cabin and his stuff with his family etc etc), and so while this is a much more closed off and sad Matteo than we’ve seen before it’s not come out of the blue.  The fact that he’s still curating his social media to look like he’s happy and connected also reminds us that what we saw before isn’t necessarily what the truth was.

Clip two: I like how Matteo, unlike Isak, is clearly already very well aware of his feelings and his attraction to boys.  His pining over Jonas is both obvious and very sad.  He’s well aware that he can’t let anyone know, and the reminder with the number on Jonas’s arm is gut wrenching for him and for us to watch.  And then scattered through the whole episode is a lot of reminders that Jonas is a ‘player’ now - it’s shown by Jonas himself, by the boys teasing him, by Hanna’s sad little ‘I’m happy for him’ message etc etc.  And all of it serves to remind Matteo that he can never have what he’s wanted for so long.  So it’s no wonder that he removes himself from the situation to go get rolls or whatever it was that he bought.  The ‘I’m waiting for you’ banter would absolutely be the last straw.  Jonas can joke that he wants a guy, but Matteo knows that he’s not going to ever be able to have it be true for real.  As an aside, I can see why a lot of people thought Jonas might be GerEven at the time because a) Matteo’s thing has always been a lot more obvious and b) Jonas seems much more open and willing to consider the ideas.

Clip three: Well, I don’t have a lot to say about this one.  Except that !!!!! this first ‘meeting’ with David is so good and so well done and it works to rock both of them out of their little ruts and makes them both ‘wake up’ in a way.  It’s nothing, just a chance meeting in a hallway, two boys passing then looking back at each other.  But we can see just how much that one glance affected Matteo as he walks off and while we don’t see it in David as yet, he also makes reference to how knocked off course he felt when he met Matteo.  I have always liked that they’re in the same year and so on a real equal footing from the start and this is all part of that.  This moment affects both of them equally, knocking them out of their complacency, and it’s such a perfectly framed and filmed and edited moment.

Clip four: One thing I hadn’t noticed til this time around is that the girl who ends up sitting next to Jonas was at the back of the classroom, already sitting at a desk, earlier.  She obviously saw her moment and scrambled to take it - the second Matteo was out of his seat, she was in it.  Perhaps news of Jonas’s new ‘player’ status is getting out and she wants some of that action.  I really like that Matteo and Amira already clearly have a much more friendly history than Isak and Sana.  They’re both forced to work together by circumstances and a teacher, but here there’s already more of a history.  Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but Sana came to Isak but here Matteo goes to Amira.  That’s because of course Matteo more obviously stashed the weed on Amira and so he immediately knows who has it and where he has to go to get it back.  But it again makes him more proactive than Isak was at this early stage.  Amira is rightfully pissed at him - Sana was defending a friend from Isak’s shitty behaviour, Amira was herself affected and so she is much more firmly involved and has more reason to be cold.  Which works because in general Amira is softer and less aggressive and cold than Sana is so it fits for her to be directly angry for herself.

Clip five: ugh, so uncomfortable!!!  Sara is trying really hard to actually communicate with Matteo, and kudos to her for actually using her words, but it’s so painfully obvious how awkward and artificial this conversation is.  It’s not really a surprise that she doesn’t feel like this is totally settled as yet and asks Leonie to keep it to herself.  On the one hand, he agreed that they’re together (after making her make the decision) but on the other hand, he broke away from kissing etc so they could watch something together.  His words may be saying what Sara wants to hear, but his body language etc is saying something entirely different.  She deserves a whole lot better than Matteo and the way he’s using her, but I guess this is how it can be - he’s cute, he’s not totally rejecting her and so she lets herself believe.  

Clip six: well, again.  This clip does such a good job of properly introducing David with several hints to what’s going on with him but no actual answers.  It’s another example of two people talking at cross purposes, but where Sara lets it drop and the conversation dies out once she hears what she wants to hear, here David picks it up again once Matteo backs off.  Again, they are a good pair - equally invested and equally willing to set and respect boundaries and try to make connections in a safe way.  Imagine how this must look to David - this boy who did shake his world up a bit in their one small moment together (as another aside - ugh the wait between that first sight and this one is so long in real time!!!), is intriguing and interesting and asks him to go smoke with him.  Which is all very cool and David wants these connections and to make friends and this boy clearly appealed to him in some way at that first meeting.  But also, this boy is asking all kinds of invasive question which threaten the things David is trying to keep private, for example the pressing of ‘you’re new’ and how ‘weird’ it is to change schools at this point.  It’s no wonder David goes cold and distant and does his best to stay aloof.  But then of course Matteo respects that boundary and pulls back and so then David is able to make connections in a safer way, talking of things that matter to him but which aren’t quite so confronting for a first chat.  Detroit, running away etc and Matteo shows that he gets it and understands those impulses.  And so by the end they’ve fairly quickly established a connection and a rapport and so Sara’s intrusion is unwelcome to both of them.  Given that David literally runs away when she appears, I wonder how much he knows of her from their shared class.  She certainly doesn’t seem to know much except that he’s the guy Leonie likes.  Speaking of which, Matteo’s ‘I think that’s someone else’ is so bizarre in this situation.  He’s talking to a ‘new’ kid at school and Sara made it clear that Leonie likes the new kid, so he shouldn’t be surprised.  But it’s obvious he already wants David for his own and acknowledging that Leonie may also like him is too much, I guess.  After Jonas and his string of people hanging off him, I doubt Matteo wants to be caught up in something similar with David.  We’ve already seen how painful a crush on an uninterested guy is for Matteo and how much of himself he has to hide away - no wonder he wants David to be ‘someone else’ and actually be someone he can think about in that way after they started to make a connection.

[athena-is-a-chaotic-lil-shit]

Of Ice and Blood

Part 5

Look who's back with a 5k+ word count chapter?! Me!

I was planning on posting 1k+ at a time but stuff happened and I'm posting it all at once!

Enjoy and I'd appreciate it dearly if you reblog! Thank you!

Edit: Reached the 250 block limit so... The inevitable decision had to be made! Part 5 has a total of 3.42k words! The rest will be in a separate post <3

Pairing: Tai'chi Kashharzol (Orc) x Pearl Blackbell (Human OC/Reader)

Warnings: Cursing, Violence, brief mentions of blood and injury.

Overall SFW (but 16+ for language)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4 Part 6

*

The walk back to the school building was quiet.

Or so I thought.

Because it wasn't. At all.

Whispers, mutterings, echoed from the rooms as we passed by.

Are they doing it on purpose, or is my hearing sharper than usual?

"Hey look it's that girl."

"You mean the freak who sat beside the orc—"

"First day of school and someone already got killed. Should've expected him to be a savage."

"You think she wears a mask to hide her identity? Maybe she's a criminal-"

Probably the latter.

I shrugged. There stood a decent amount of distance between us anyway. So it's likely my hearing.

Students were watching us with weird suspecting eyes from a distance behind the windows. Sensing apprehension and outward hate when they saw Tai'chi next to me, his face in a neutral expression. But with my nose at this proximity, he smells pretty annoyed.

Just— why are there so many people,— humans–garnering these feelings towards someone they don't even know! And to even mock him like that! How dare —

"Pearl," Tai'chi called. His rich voice resonating, making the gossips of the students stop for a brief moment before they continued. Most likely slandering my name now. I didn't know I was standing still. Looking up, Tai'chi was a decent 9 meters away, with the staff members further ahead of him. He gave me a wondering look, worry along with his natural fragrance, drifted through me, carried by air.

I straightened up and took long strides, Tai'chi beside me, to catch up with them.

"Yeah, just thinking. I'm okay." Replying, not looking up to him. He didn't ask, but I felt like he would.

************short pov shift************

He was a bit bothered by the change in your scent and looked back when he noticed you weren't beside him anymore. There you were, standing in the middle of the wide hallway, brows scrunched up in aggravation.

He called out to you, probably a little louder than he meant to, but you looked up and hastily made your way beside him, both of you catching up to the rest towards the dean's office. He didn't ask, but you answered, only making him worry even more.

**********first person pov**************

As soon as we entered the main office of the center building, we were greeted with the sight of the dean and David, together with Miss Holson. He was a white fat man, though a bit taller than me, wearing a light grey suit with a few buttons open revealing a white undershirt, and a silly yellow, violet polka dot tie. I barely held back from snorting at the sight.

Mr. Silverstone was fussing over his son, his voice raised in slight panic was heard by everyone.

They went ahead of us then.

"My son! My dear, dear David! Who did this to you?!" he cried out. Once David, that son of a bitch, spotted me, he flashed me that blasted grin of his. He was acting, pretending to be hurt.

I hardly even left a scratch on him for fuck's sake. How I regret not punching him straight in the face.

Reverting to his fake, frightened, and miserable state, he pointed at me. "I-I-It's her father! She is the one who attacked me! Along with that thing with her."

Thing?! That sick bastard!

The dean whipped his head in my direction, eyes scanning me up and down before he diverted them to Tai'chi.

Well, it seems I'll ve packing up sooner than I thought.

My shoulders sagged.

Some professors were alarmed by this, frantically pushing forward to grab his attention.

"Mr. Silverstone, we still do not know what's for certain. We must interrogate them properly and listen to each of their sides before we make a decision." Mr. Dulrik asserted, his voice strained and close to animosity. He was not pleased with what the student had said.

The elder professor from earlier followed up.

"Listen to Mr. Dulrik, sir. We cannot take any risks and ju—"

"Silence!" the dean shouted. "I will not hear your reasoning. My son has told me everything I need to know. Miss Holson supported his claims and that's enough to decide what to do with these criminals."

Criminals?!

"The girl and that orc shall be expelled from this institution immediately. We do not need any murderers or barbarians here. I have always suspected why that Ernestine brat even allowed these monstrosities to be with us. To breathe the same air and walk the same land as we do, endangering our safety no less! A pathetic excuse of a founder she is! If it were me I would've—"

"You would've what?" Words came out before I stopped myself, my voice low, but it was heard still, drawing their attention to me.

"What did you just say?" He demanded, his anger slipping out more. The room was silent, except for the subtle ticking of the wall clock behind me, and the movement of air around us.

I lifted my head and looked at him dead in the eye. "You would've what?" This time, I replied, louder.

Before he could retort I went on, emotion fueling my words as I advanced with every question asked.

"Would've banned every single, non-human race from the university?

"Would've taught every human that they are greater beings and the ones that were different were meant to be stepped on?

"Would've ordered and tolerated bullying on anyone who was unnatural and weird looking?

"Would've put them in their place?

Isolate them? Degrade them? Despise them for being alive?" No-one stopped me as I approached him, the teachers separating and making way. Even Mr. Dulrik was regarding me curiously.

I scoffed. " 'If it were me' you said. You think I wouldn't notice how everyone else, that isn't human, was oppressed and treated like shit in this school? It seems to me that you already did what you would've done, didn't you? You are no dean, you are a clown, a pillock, a dumbass, and you call yourself human? You are more monster than any of us in this room."

I breathed heavily as I stood a couple of feet in front of him. His face grew to a crimson hue, my ears catching the sound of smoke seething out of him. At the back, David and Miss Holson were dumbfounded, shocked into place, shaken like ugly statues.

Finally, the dean spoke, his fists clenching hard as he faced me, almost drawing blood.

I am so gonna beat him up. Hell yeah, I will.

"Keep out of trouble if you can." Well, shit happened Mama, forgive me.

"How dare you speak to me like that! I, a pure-blood Silverstone, a line of royalty! If we were still at war I would've had you executed from where you stand—"

"How about you do it yourself then, oh mighty Silverstone jerk?" I mocked and gave a toothy smile, then I remembered he wouldn't see it. That was all it took to have him launching himself at me, the professors running to the sides to avoid his wrath.

His hands were balled tight, a fist aiming for my face, eyes filled with deadly intent.

Oh, he really wants to kill me.

Before it connected, I sidestepped, causing him to stumble forward. Even so, he immediately regained his balance and reached to grab my hoodie. I didn't dodge this time, but before he touched me, I used my right hand to slap it away. With my other hand, fitted with my crimson knuckle dusters, I met his fist with mine. Almost instantly, he stumbled back and crouched down, his left hand holding his bloodied one.

"You bitch!!!" he screamed in agony.

I think I broke his hand.

I glanced to my brass knuckles, some of the blood covering them, merely visible because of its color.

Shattered it perhaps.

"I will have you killed you insolent brat! I'll kill you!" he cursed.

"Now, now, Silverstone, you will do no such thing." A feminine voice cut through the large room. We all turned to the door to see a slim, tall, tanned woman who seemed to be in her 40s, her slightly wrinkled face showing it. She was wearing a black high-waist pencil skirt paired with a black one-button suit and a baby blue undershirt. The lady also wore classic white loafers and white hand gloves made of leather, with her ebony hair tied up in a bun.

Everything about her screams 'important'. I scented an intimidating yet reassuring aura around her.

I met her eyes and a sense of familiarity fell upon me. I know her and I've seen her before.

Wait. Could it be— she's—

"Madame Ernestine!" A professor exclaimed.

That means she's, "The founder," I said out loud.

She began sauntering in my direction, each step clicking on the floor, carrying herself with grace.

"M-Ma-Madame Ernestine!" The dean, shrieked as he stood up, shaking, his busted hand in his chest, his back facing me. "I didn't expect you to visit this year! We could've prepared for your arrival—"

"You shut your mouth now Welmir." She spoke out, her voice firm and borderline hostile. "I've had enough of your blabbering mug. I made it so that my arrival is unexpected. Leaving my outside duties rather early and rushed this year when news got to me that you, the dean, were neglecting your duties, or so, doing it wrong. Not to mention I had my assistant install extra cameras in... certain places last year and because of that, I saw what you did in the shadows. Maybe not all, but it confirmed my suspicions of you, and so," She clapped her together, "I decided to visit you today. And what a surprise it was to see you get beaten up by this lovely young lady behind you."

Me?! Lovely—

My face warmed from her comment.

"Listen here, brat." he regarded the founder. The founder. "I do not know what you are talking about. I have done my duties and more for this university. I made it so that everyone here is safe and this girl,"— he spat— "harmed me, my precious son, and his friends!"

"And all of you deserved it, severely," she responded flatly. "You put my dear students at risk and antagonized them with your schemes, tolerating the behavior of treating other races like animals, disrespecting even the professors who are different in kind," she glanced at Mr. Dulrik and the others. "You even forced a minotaur, an elf, and a dwarven student to act the part of being in a student council, hoping people wouldn't notice the crimes you did behind our backs. Did you expect me to turn blind eye to this?"

It was all pretend?!

The mere thought of what he did to threaten them to it makes me wanna puke.

"I am furious, Welmir Silverstone. To think I believed you'd change your ways after my father's death with the renovation of the institute. Trusted you to do your job as dean and make the students comfortable, welcomed. But, no. You chose to follow his footsteps, became selfish, blinded by greed and pointless hate. You are a disappointment to all of us."

I smelled her rage under that near non-expressive facade of hers. It was spicy, like fire having an odor of its own.

"You are but a child! You know nothing of this world! This world of ours needs to be purged off of those rats. You cannot tell me what to do!" He yelled as he brought up his uninjured hand to hit her. I was about to step in when Madame Ernestine grabbed his arm and threw a right uppercut, blood spilling out of his jaw. The punch sent him a few steps back, he would have landed on me if I didn't move out of the way before he collapsed on the floor groaning and holding his mouth.

Ooh she's strong! Nice! I grinned.

"You are hereby stripped off of your job as dean along with all of your titles, properties, and henceforth banished from these grounds, together with your son and Emma Holson, whom I found out laid with him, and the abusive acts they had engaged in." Her words laced with poison, disgust and anger as she gave the final judgement.

"Never show yourselves. Ever. Again," she spat. "Take them away."

Out of nowhere, men in black suits came in and apprehended the young instructor, who twisted her heel trying to escape. She yelled at them to let her go, saying she has done nothing wrong. David, the bastard, was held in place by one of them as he struggled in their grasp. The dean— or should I say, Mr. Silverstone, in pain and bleeding, was dragged up by two others and headed straight out of the door. He shouted ;

"Mark my words, brat! I will—"

And the door slammed close.

With my gaze following them, my eyes landed on Tai'chi. I took off my dusters and waved, tucking them back up my sleeve.

He is smiling! And oh wow he's damn gorgeous— wait what?

My attention was drawn away to the lady in front of me. I got distracted by Tai'chi that I almost forgot about her.

"Oh my God I uhm— hello Madame Ernestine." I took one step back before bowing. "It's an honor to meet you. I—"

"Oh dear, please raise your head. No need for such formal gestures. I am Valerie Ernestine, founder of the new Ernestine State University." She stated as she beamed at me.

"I uh- Yes ma'am I know of you. I'm quite a fan actually— I mean! My name is Pearl Blackbell, ma'am."

Oh God, that sounded so stupid.

Then she hugged me.

"Ma'am?!" I squeaked. My arms went stiff, nervous to even touch her. Before I could, she pulled back, a gentle expression on her face.

"Nice to meet you, Pearl Blackbell."

"I- nice to meet you too Ma'am Ernestine!" I stammered, praying my face and ears isn't as red as I feel them to be.

"Please, call me Valerie."

"Ma'am Valerie."

"Just Valerie, dear."

"I'm so sorry ma'am but I can't— my mother will hit me in the head with a frying pan if I forget my manners."

"Very well, then. It brings me joy that you were raised properly by your parents."

"Thank you ma'am, I really am happy to have them, and I only hope for them to be proud of me— oh wait. Uh, ma'am Valerie?"

"Yes?"

"Am I gonna get punished or expelled?" I shrunk, expecting the worst.

"Why ever did you think of that?"

"W-Well you see, I did harm uh, students and they're probably in the infirmary right now and—"

"Oh, Pearl, no." She let out a light chuckle. "You won't be punished or even expelled for that! In fact, I saw how you defended yourself and your friend from them. They did attack you first, sweetie. And what you did was impressive!" She clapped her hands. As I stood there in relief, I couldn't help but shot up when the words sank in.

"Oh, thank you. But how...?"

"Apparently, I had my assistant install some cameras in the forest area for particular reasons. I watched you from the monitor as I made my way here," she replied.

"Oh. Oh, wow. That's actually pretty awesome," I sighed.

"Indeed, it is," she smiled. "Excuse me for a bit."

******pov shift to 2nd person (two characters)*****

Madame Ernestine turned and walked towards the remaining teachers to talk about important matters at hand.

"Greetings, my friends." She beamed at the staff and looked at Professor Dulrik and the woman who supported him earlier. "Hello, Roldo and Amila. I have missed you dearly." She bent down to hug the two of them before she went on. "I apologize for not taking action immediately. To think he did this to all of you right under my nose! Why didn't you contact me Roldo?"

"My apologies, Madame Ernestine. I didn't have any proof to show his plot against you and the others. He was very elusive and kept us very busy in our own offices for the past year with you away. That was until today, with the young lady over there standing up against his son, he snapped."

"It really is a good thing she came here, didn't she?" she whispered.

"Indeed, Madame," Amila replied.

There was a brief silence, before Valerie spoke up again. Her gaze locked at the dwarven professor.

"Roldo, my old friend, I want you to take your place as the new dean of this university. I trust you to do your duty a hundred percent better than that impudent man ever did. Will you accept this responsibility?"

"I- Valerie this is-"

"Roldo, you are wise and have seen things most of us here have not. I will not force you on something you do not want, but I put my faith in you, to help me, along with the rest of the staff, to teach everyone here that all of us stand in equal ground, and that we must respect and acknowledge each individual, regardless of their kind. No one, no student, should ever feel uncomfortable in this haven of mine."

"I understand, Valerie." The dwarf took a deep breath and vowed;

"I, Roldo Dulrik, son of Grol II, son of Frerin, accept the responsibilities given to me as dean of Ernestine State University. I will do my duty to the best of my abilities, and remain loyal to you and to this institution." He responded as he thumped his right fist against his chest.

"I know you will, my friend." Valerie grinned at him, her eyes full of trust and hope.

While they were occupied with discussing certain issues, you tried to sneak away, only to be called back by Madame Ernestine.

"Pearl, my dear."

"Yes ma'am?"

"Thank you."

She had a soft smile, emotions clear on her face, directed at you. The founder, Valerie was thanking you for your bravery, kindness and overall honesty. You simply nodded and grinned from ear to ear behind your mask. You were, however, suddenly nervous when Valerie and the two professors approached you. No, actually, all of them were, but the others are heading out of the office, perhaps to go back to their respective classrooms and start working, they gave their thanks as they went out.

"Pearl Blackbell, a wonderful name!" Professor Dulrik remarked. "May the Gods bless you and shine upon you in all your days," he grinned. Before you could reply, Professor Amila hugged you and whispered. "Thank you, for beating up those idiots," —which made you giggle— "It was the right thing to do, and also I had to defend myself. and thank you, Professor Dulrik."

"Nonsense, call me Professor Roldo, lass." He patted your shoulder as he went past you and out of the office, but not before he slapped Tai'chi's forearm.

"You best protect her if you can, lad. Even so, it is obvious she won't need protecting!" He laughed, and went on, quietly, as if whispering. "...Be her friend, my boy. Her eyes...they show the pain she had gone through. You saw that in her, didn't you?"

Tai'chi simply nodded in response. He knew what he meant.

"Then do what you must. If word ever comes to me that you hurt her, I will hunt you down with me battle axe hidden in my office, you hear?"

This time, he chuckled. "I hear you, Professor. I won't. I swear on the the name of my clan, no harm will befall on her." He told him, his voice firm and true.

"That's what I'm talking about, lad!" He replied as he finally exited the room.

Tai'chi shifted his gaze to you. You and the dean were still talking so he stood there, patiently.

"We best be on our way. We still have a number of things to set straight. We will see you around, Miss Blackbell. Don't get into trouble now." The founder giggled.

"I will try my best, ma'am."

"Oh sure you will, sweetie. Goodluck. And oh, the two of you should start going back. It's past lunchbreak afterall." She said as the two ladies sauntered past you and went out.

"Thank you, we will." You said, mostly to yourself.

**************************************

Part 6 will be posted shortly! Like, shortly shortly. Like, an hour or so shortly. Stay tuned! Thank you for reaching this point uwu✨

Tags: @crackinanutshell @kokokatsworld @mitchiesdungeon <3

[dirtydobrik]

habits - d.d.

plot: a late night voicemail from you ex-boyfriend, david, leads you both to rethink the status of your relationship

word count: 1600

masterlist

"Hey babe, uh sorry, that just slipped out. Habits, you know? Listen, I know I’m probably the last person you want to hear from, and I know you probably don't want to talk to me, and I don't know why I called," he paused, taking a deep breath as he picked at the skin around his thumb and paced around the kitchen. "That's a lie. I know why I called. I just wanted to hear your voice. I miss you. And I'm still in love with you. I'll always be in love with you.”

David hung up, throwing his phone on to the couch. His mind was racing, wondering if he should text you to apologize for calling or just wait to see what you said. Pacing around the kitchen and living room wasn't helping him think, so he grabbed the keys to his Ferrari and decided to go for a drive to clear his head, leaving his phone on the couch.

He drove with no destination in mind. The empty streets of LA gave him time to think about the breakup, how he fucked up, how he broke your heart.

He gripped the leather steering wheel tightly and stepped on the gas, the engine roaring. He sped down the freeway, trying to get away from his own thoughts. He drove aimlessly, the night sky turning shades of pink and orange as the sun began to rise.

When he returned home a little after 7am, he grabbed his phone off of the couch, hopeful for a message from you. A handful of missed calls and a voicemail from you were in his notifications, along with a few texts from Natalie wondering where he had gone.

He immediately unlocked his phone, anxious to hear your voice again.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? You can't just call me in the middle of the night and say you're still in love with me. Not after the way we ended things. The way you ended things," you shouted into the voicemail. David winced at how loud you were, pulling the phone away from his ear. “You’re the one who left me. You have no right to come crawling back.” Your angry voicemail continued, but David stopped listening. It was too painful for him.

He could hear how hurt you were, and he didn’t blame you. He had essentially walked right out of your life with no clear explanation as to why.

“You want to break up?" you asked, choking on your words as you held back tears.

"Babe," he whispered, reaching out for your hand but you pulled back.

"You do not get to call me that,” you spat. Your blood boiled and anger coursed through your veins.

David sighed, his eyes filling with tears. "It’s just, I don't want you to get hurt,” he stated, explaining how news outlets and people on social media would be vicious towards you.

"And this is the way to avoid it? Ending things after we’ve been dating for two years? Are you fucking kidding me? How does this keep me from getting hurt?”

"It's easier to do it before everyone finds out and we both know that’s bound to happen eventually," he said, and you winced at his word choice.

"So what? Now you're embarrassed of me? I thought you were in love with me. Isn’t that what you’ve been telling me for the last three months?" you screamed.

“I am in love with you, okay? And I’m not embarrassed of you, I just want to keep my work away from our relationship and I don’t think I can keep doing that.”

“Fuck you,” you muttered, unbelievably outraged at the situation.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, turning around and leaving you alone in your apartment: angry, hurt and confused.

David regretted that conversation and he wished he could take back all of the things he said to you that night. He didn’t want to break your heart, he just wanted to protect you. He knew it would be hard for both of you, and he thought that would be the best way to handle the situation. He needed to talk to you.

You were out for an early morning run when your music stopped playing and your phone started ringing. David’s name flashed across the screen and you debated ignoring his call but answered it anyways.

“What do you want?” you asked dryly, not in the mood to hear what he had to say after the voicemail you had gotten last night.

There was a silence on the other end, as if David wasn’t expecting you to answer the phone and hear your voice. “I just want to talk,” he finally said, after a few moments. “Can we get breakfast?”

“Are you sure you want to be seen with me?” you remarked, thinking back to the night of your breakup.

David let out a sigh, expecting the hostility from you.

“Look, you know where to find me if you want to talk,” he said, and you could hear the desperation in his voice. Before you could answer, he hung up the phone, leaving both of you wondering if you’d show up.

You finished your run and instinctively started driving towards the café where you and David would always go for breakfast. It was small place near the apartment you had lived in when you first met David. You turned into the parking lot, your fingers tapping against the steering wheel as you contemplated going inside.

The bell over the door jingled as you pulled it open and you were greeted with the smell of fresh coffee. You saw David sitting in the far corner booth, the same table the two of you always sat in. You slid into the seat across from him, avoiding eye contact.

David took a sip of his water, and you watched the waitress bring over two plates.

“How’d you know I would come?” you asked, being the first to talk after your usual breakfast order was placed in front of you and the waitress was out of earshot.

“Truth be told, I didn’t think you would,” he admitted. “But I’m glad you did.”

You took a bite of your meal. “So, talk,” you said, wanting to know what he had to say and why it was so important.

“I owe you an apology,” he started and you rolled your eyes. You weren’t interested in having a conversation if he was just going to state the obvious. “I was being selfish the night I ended things between us. I thought I was protecting you from the downside of my job, and I’m sorry.”

“That’s what you’re sorry about?” you muttered in disbelief. “I mean, we spent two years together and you broke my heart over a hypothetical situation. Not to mention the fact that this wasn’t your decision to make. But instead of having a conversation about it, you decided all on your own that I needed to be protected and that our relationship was too much of a risk.” You were on the verge of tears and wanted to scream and cry over the situation, but you took a deep breath and composed yourself.

A mix of sadness and embarrassment crossed David’s face as he tried to find the right words. “I know I screwed up. I shouldn’t have walked away from you, from us. And not a day that goes by where I don’t regret it. I mean, you were the best part of me. You had my back for two years and supported me through everything and I fucked it up. You didn’t deserve that and I’m sorry for what I put you through.”

“God, David, do you know how selfish you sound right now?” you exclaimed, clearly aggravated by him. “Do you just expect me to forgive you and forget about what happened?”

David glanced down and poked his fork into his food, not sure what to say. He knew he was being selfish for wanting you back after he was the one to walk away. He was hopeful about being forgiven and he wanted to find a way to prove to you how serious he was about making it up to you. He didn’t expect you to completely forget about that night, but he wanted you to give him another chance. “No, I don’t expect you to just forgive and forget. I broke your heart and you have every right to hate me for it. But I wasn’t lying last night when I said I’m still in love with you. I know I don’t deserve anything from you, but not a day goes by where I don’t think about you, where I don’t think about what we had, where I don’t miss you. And I was really hoping you’d give us another chance,” he rambled, fidgeting with his Cartier ring, as he awaited your response.

You took a deep breath and exhaled quietly, contemplating everything he said. You knew a part of you would always love you and you hated the way things between the two of you ended, so maybe he deserved another chance. But he also walked away from a two-year long relationship over a hypothetical situation

“One date,” you said, locking eyes with him and watching them widen with excitement. You could his smile grow and his face filled with glee. “You have one date to prove to me how serious you are about wanting to get back together.”

[wistfulcynic]

Love Blooms

Summary: Princess Emma and Lieutenant Killian Jones have been together for three years. They’re deeply in love and an engagement is imminent. There’s only one problem: His brother doesn’t know about them, and Killian isn’t sure how to tell him. So when Liam finds out by accident, all that’s left is for Emma and Killian to fill him in on the story of how they met. 

This is that story. 

(a prequel--and sequel--to Error 404: “Little” Brother Not Found)

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY @mariakov81​​!!! My lovely, brilliantly talented Masha, you are a  pure delight. Your gif responses make me laugh and your art makes me cry. Your enthusiasm and love of fic is so inspiring and your encouragement is one of the reasons I’m still writing. I love you lots. 😘

You mentioned that you’d like to read a meet-cute, so I hope this one pleases you. Have a FANTASTIC day ❤️❤️❤️❤️

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Rating: G  Words: 4.3k Tags: Lieutenant Duckling, Modern Lieutenant Duckling, Modern Royalty AU, Brothers Jones, College AU, Meet-Cute

On AO3

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Love Blooms: 

It should have worked, really. As risky plans go, it was a pretty solid one. It should absolutely have worked. 

Princess Emma was easily recognisable, of course. As the only royal child and heir to the throne she’d been photographed extensively all her life, and those photos disseminated throughout the kingdom. But they were always taken in controlled situations, with her hair carefully styled and her clothing precisely engineered to invoke a very specific image. Her parents made absolutely certain of that. 

After the attempted coup by the queen’s stepmother on the day of the princess’s birth, the king and queen had taken decisive action to protect their only child and to ensure that no one but trusted personnel had access to her. On the rare occasions when she left the expansive palace grounds, no paparazzi followed her and none of Misthaven’s citizens so much as snuck a sneaky pic with a cell phone. Emma was to have protection and privacy until she came of age and officially took on her royal duties. That was the deal her parents made with the press and the people, and they enforced it rigidly. 

It should have worked. Emma’s most recognisable feature—her long, bright gold hair—was dyed a temporary dirty blonde (her mother nearly cried) and her green eyes shielded by large glasses. Most days she pulled her hair back in a ponytail and wore no makeup. She dressed in jeans and t-shirts, like any other college kid. It was a good plan. It should have worked. 

She hadn’t reckoned on Killian Jones. 

She’d known him for a few years, sort of. For several months of the summer she was sixteen while his brother served as a member of her personal guard, Killian had hovered around the edges of her world, thin and gawky and usually with his nose in a book. The one time they were introduced he’d gulped visibly and made an awkward bow, then got away as soon as he could. But not before he’d made an impression. 

She wasn’t sure what it was about him that caught her eye—possibly the way he seemed to be trying so hard not to catch it, or the size and variety of the books she saw him reading, or the way he would smirk and roll his eyes whenever he heard something he thought inane (which happened fairly frequently; polite conversation at court was not exactly scintillating). Possibly it was just those eyes, the bright, clear blue of them and the intelligence and humour she was sure she detected in their depths. Whatever it was it made butterflies dance in her belly whenever she saw him, and though they exchanged no more than a dozen words in the months he was at court she couldn’t seem to get him out of her head. 

“What does your brother do?” she’d asked Commander Jones one afternoon, as casually as she could. 

“He’s starting at the university in the autumn,” the commander replied, pride audible in his voice. “Going to study physics and engineering.” 

“Wow.” Emma wished she didn’t find that so impressive. 

“He’s a smart lad,” said Commander Jones with a grin. “He’ll change the world, mark my words.”  

Emma marked them, though she asked no further questions. It wouldn’t do to appear too interested. 

That was August. By October Killian Jones was gone from her life and so was his brother, the elder Jones off to serve on Misthaven’s flagship and the younger of course, to the university. And that really should have been the end of it. 

Her desire to go to university herself had nothing to do with Killian, it truly didn’t. She hadn’t forgotten he was there, exactly, but her determination to attend had far more to do with her status as heir to the throne and wishing to be as prepared as she possibly could be when she became queen. 

“But your tutors have given you the best education you could have,” her mother pointed out. “You’ve studied the history and political structure of Misthaven and all its allies and enemies. You’ve read all our country’s great books and know the history of our art. You speak six languages. That’s far more  knowledge than I had when I became queen. What else are you looking for?” 

“I want a chance to get to know the people I’m going to be ruling,” said Emma. “That’s one thing you had that I don’t. I’ve spent my whole life in the palace, and I know you kept me here for my own safety but I’m nineteen now and I want to meet people. Real ones. Ones who don’t know I’m the princess.” 

“Emma—” 

“Just give me a year,” she pleaded. “Just a year to go to college and live like a normal student. I’ll wear a disguise and go by a different name, you can even plant guards around me if you must but please, please just let me do this.” 

In the end her parents relented. Her mother, despite her tears at the new hair colour, had been unconvinced that the small changes Emma made to her appearance would be enough of a disguise, but Emma insisted they were plenty and her father backed her up. 

“Do you know why no one figured out Clark Kent was Superman?” Emma asked, as King David nodded approvingly behind her. “It wasn’t because putting on glasses was such an intricate disguise. It’s because the idea of Superman working at a newspaper was so completely absurd. No one saw a superhero in an ordinary reporter and no one’s going to see the princess of the realm in an ordinary literature major. People see what they expect to see.” 

And they had. All of them. All except Killian Jones. 

She really hadn’t reckoned on him. 

She settled in well to college life, though it was not the easiest transition going from her own suite of rooms in the palace to a tiny dorm shared with another student, a bright, chatty girl called Ruby. Ruby was easygoing and outgoing and always going. She loved to party and whenever she went out tried to coax Emma along as well, and though Emma really had gone to college with the intent to study, she reasoned that her main aim in being there was to get to know her people, and what better way to do that than at a party? 

Which is how she found herself two weeks into her first semester standing in the living room of a run-down student house, sipping valiantly at some locally-brewed ale and trying to remember the names of all the people Ruby introduced her to, and trying to remember that when they said ‘Anna,’ they were talking to her. 

She was chatting with a boy called Walsh who had a supercilious smile and, she soon realised, a very high opinion of himself, when her flagging attention was caught by shrieks of laughter coming from the other side of the room. She glanced over in search of their source then immediately looked again, blinking rapidly to keep her eyes from bugging out of her head. 

There across the room, surrounded by a largish group of people—one of whom, Emma noted, was Ruby—stood Killian Jones. It was him, she was sure of it, sure that she would recognise him anywhere, but oh, the changes time had wrought on the boy she’d known. She wasn’t sure if he really was any taller but he looked it, standing straight with his shoulders squared. There was stubble on his jaw and hair on his chest, clearly displayed by the undone buttons of his henley, and his eyes—so much brighter when not hidden behind thick glasses—twinkled as he delivered a quip that had everyone around him exploding in fresh peals of mirth. 

She couldn’t tear her eyes away from him, staring so hard she could see the exact moment he sensed her gaze and turned, his own eyes widening immediately in recognition. Of course he recognised her, Emma thought, he would; however older and cooler and hotter he might be now he was still the smartest boy she’d ever met and Superman’s disguise could not fool him. 

He stared at her for the longest moment of her life and then he winked—the worst excuse for a wink she’d ever seen—and turned his attention back to his crowd. Emma breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t going to blow her cover. 

She realised with a start that Walsh had kept on talking this whole time and she hadn’t heard a word he said. He seemed to realise that too, finally, and scowled at her. 

“Hey,” he said. “Earth to Anna.” 

“Sorry.” She offered a polite smile. “My mind wandered.” 

“Well, wander it back over here,” he said. “I was telling you all about my Reddit subgroup I started, and you weren’t even listening.” 

“Sorry,” she repeated. “Though actually, would you excuse me, I—” 

“Are you kidding me?” he snapped, his scowl darkening. “I bring you a drink, come all the way over here to talk to you. All I ask in return is a little bit of attention and you can’t even give me that.”

“I—”

“I’m a nice guy, you know,” he continued, moving closer. “I’d treat you right. Don’t think I didn’t see who you were looking at just now. If you think those guys would treat you better than I—” 

“Look, Welsh—” Emma interrupted, bristling at his presumption and his tone. 

“It’s Walsh.” 

“Yes, sorry, Walsh. Um, I don’t know what you think this is, but we only just met. We’ve been talking for ten minutes and it’s basically been you monologuing about Reddit the whole time. If you’re really looking to connect with people it might be better to ask them something about themselves instead of dominating the conversation.” 

“Oh, right, because it’s all about you, isn’t it?” 

“That’s not what I—” 

“You’re not even that pretty, you know,” he sneered. “Glasses are really unattractive on a woman.” 

Emma began to sputter with indignation. No one had ever spoken to her in such a way before and she was outraged to learn that there were men in her realm who felt that it was acceptable to insult women as long as they weren’t royalty, apparently. Walsh smirked as she struggled to find words vile enough to express her opinion of him, and then a deep voice spoke from just over her shoulder. 

“Perhaps you’re the one who needs glasses, mate, if that’s what you really think.” 

Emma didn’t even need the butterflies leaping up in her belly to know that the voice was Killian’s. Her heart began to pound in time to the butterflies’ dance as she turned to find him standing just behind her, glowering darkly at Walsh. “I’m certain the lady told you she’s not interested, so why don’t you bugger off back to whatever rock you crawled out from under?” he snarled. 

“You can’t tell me what to do,” blustered Walsh.

“And yet I just did.” 

“Who the hell do you think you are—” 

“He’s my boyfriend.” Emma jumped in before the scene could escalate, blurting the first thing that popped into her head. Walsh gaped at her, so astounded that he failed to notice Killian’s own slack jaw and bugging eyes. Killian recovered quickly, however, and casually looped an arm around Emma’s shoulders. 

“Aye,” he said. “I am.” 

Emma slipped her own arm around his waist, leaning her head against his shoulder and doing her best not to faint. He was surprisingly sturdy and he smelled so good. She wanted to bury her nose in his neck and just breathe. 

“So stop trying it on with my girlfriend and piss off,” he said, tightening his arm to tuck her more securely against his side while also managing to loom over Walsh through the sheer force of his personality, despite them being more or less of a height.  

Walsh glared at Killian and then at Emma and then back to Killian again, and when neither of them budged he reached out and snatched the cup of ale from Emma’s hand. 

“I’ll be taking that back, then,” he huffed, and marched away. 

“Thank goodness,” said Emma. “It was not pleasant.” 

“Dwarf ale,” remarked Killian. “Not for the faint of stomach.” 

Emma chuckled and looked up at him, into those bright blue eyes that had never faded from her memory. He grinned back at her, a grin with an edge it hadn’t had three years ago, and she caught her breath. 

“Killian—” she began, then his eyes went wide with horror and his ears flushed bright pink. He pulled his arm away so quickly she stumbled and stepped back, rubbing the back of his neck. “Bloody hell,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry, Em—er, Your High—” 

“Shhhh,” hissed Emma, grabbing his arm and pulling him into a quiet corner. “Careful or you’ll blow my cover. My name’s Anna now. Anna Swan.” 

His tense expression relaxed and he raised an eyebrow. “Swan, hmm? Interesting choice.” 

“Yeah, it’s a—well, it’s a story. Kind of a long one.” 

He smiled, the eager, interested smile she remembered so well. “I have time. If you’d care to tell it?” 

He got her a drink, a sweet, fizzy one this time laced with just a few drops from his cup of Glowerhaven rum. They stood close together in the darkened corner and he listened intently as she told him about her childhood fondness for the palace swans, their elegant beauty and terrible manners, and how she’d loved reading the tales of the Swan Princess and the fable of the Ugly Duckling, and how her father had taken to calling her his little duckling after she’d demanded he read her that story at bedtime for three months straight. 

“So it just seemed appropriate,” she said with a shrug. “Meaningful, but also it doesn’t give anyone a clue as to who I am.” 

“And it suits you,” said Killian. “Swan. Beautiful and fearsome, just like you.” 

“I’m not fearsome!” she protested, scowling to cover the blush that heated her cheeks when he called her beautiful. 

“Aren’t you?” he asked earnestly. “You terrify me.” 

“I do? I don’t wish to.” 

“I’m sure it’s unintentional,” he said softly. “And more to do with me being timid.” 

“You’re not timid,” she scoffed. 

“Much less so than I used to be. And yet—” he took her hand and held it to his chest, just above his pounding heart. “You see?”

Emma gulped and her mouth went dry. His chest was firm and the hair on it rough beneath the fabric of his shirt, his hand covering hers so warm. 

“Mine’s the same, though,” she whispered, taking his other hand. With hers still on his chest she could feel his sharp inhale and his heart racing even faster when she laid his palm flat over her own frantic heartbeat. 

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. Their eyes locked, his looking dazed and very dark, the colour high on his cheeks and his breaths audibly harsh. 

She licked her lips and his eyes followed the movement, his fingers tightening around hers, his hand on her chest sliding up to curl around her neck. He leaned his head down and she tipped her chin up and their lips were barely a breath apart when a crash and a shriek sounded from the kitchen and they both jumped. Killian squeezed his eyes shut, swearing viciously under his breath as he released her hand and neck and stepped away. 

“It sounds like things are winding down here,” he said gruffly. “When glassware starts to shatter, that’s your cue to leave. Bit of advice.” 

Disappointment tasted bitter, Emma realised. Bitter and crushing and achy and she hated it. She never wished to feel it again. She nodded in response, unable to speak.  

They stood silently for a minute, then Killian sighed. “So, um, may I see you home?” he asked, rubbing at his neck again. 

She smiled despite herself. “We’re not at court, Killian.” 

“Perhaps not, but I’d still like to walk you back.” 

“Yeah.” Her smile came more easily with the next attempt. “I’d like that too.” 

He kept his hands in his pockets as they walked the short distance to her dorm, but she was acutely aware of him and how near he was and the faint heat she could still feel from his body. When they reached her building he turned to her and smiled. 

“Well, Swan, I hope it won’t be another three years until I see you again,” he said.  

“It’s a small campus and I’m here until next summer, so I’d guess probably not.” Not if she had anything to say about it, she thought. 

“You’re only staying for a year?” he asked. 

“It’s all my parents would permit.” 

“Ah. I’ve only this year remaining as well, actually, until I graduate.” 

“Graduate? But—in three years?” 

He shrugged. “I’ve worked hard.” 

It was more than that, Emma knew. He was clever and ambitious and determined to make something of himself. To change the world, just as his brother had predicted. She didn’t know the precise circumstances of the Joneses’ life before they found refuge in Misthaven, but from the few hints Commander—now Captain—Jones had dropped they hadn’t had the easiest of beginnings. That they had already made such a success of themselves was deeply impressive, and Emma suspected they were only just getting started. 

“Do you—have far to walk to get home?” she asked, a bit wistfully. It was late and she was tired but she didn’t want Killian to go. She wasn’t ready for their time together to end. 

“Just to the other side of campus,” he replied. “I’m here on a military training scholarship so I live with the other cadets. When I graduate I’ll join the navy as a lieutenant.” 

“Like your brother.” 

“Aye,” he agreed. “Possibly even on his ship.” 

“That would be amazing.” 

“We think so.” 

They were standing close again, in a shadowy recess just to the side of the door, and Emma’s heart was pounding, not again but more like still; it had barely rested since she’d laid eyes on Killian. He was looking at her with a gaze so intense she could swear she felt it caress her lips and gods she wanted him to kiss her. If only she had paid more attention to the gossip among the ladies at court, or even to Ruby’s chatter the past two weeks, then she might have at least some idea of how to make that happen. How exactly did one go about letting a man know one wished to be kissed without actually saying ‘please kiss me’? Maybe she should just say it? Or, as the princess, did she need to kiss him first? What was the protocol here? She was royalty damn it, she couldn’t do anything until she knew the protocol. 

Instead she just stared at him, feeling hot and itchy and increasingly desperate until he swallowed hard and drew a deep breath, then stepped back. Again. 

“Well. I imagine I’ll see you around, then, Swan.” 

Don’t go, Emma’s body screamed, even as her mouth said “I hope so.” 

He smiled and gave her a small nod, then headed off down the path away from her building, and from her. She watched him go, simmering with frustration. She should have just grabbed him, she thought, and protocol be damned. Grabbed him and kissed him, because damn it she was not going to be able to sleep tonight for wondering what that would feel like, and wishing she didn’t need to wonder. 

With an irritated huff she went to the door, taking her keys from her pocket and sorting through them in search of the correct one. She’d just managed to locate it when a warm hand took her by the elbow and tugged her back into the privacy of the shadows. 

“What the—” she exclaimed, and then Killian’s lips were on hers. The keys slipped from her fingers and fell unheeded to the ground as her knees went weak and she grasped at his shoulders for support. He walked her back until she was pressed against the wall, his arm firm around her waist and his fingers tangling in her hair as he kissed her, soft and slow and deep and gods.  

Emma whimpered, clinging to him, yearning for things she couldn’t articulate. His hand flexed against her jaw at the sound and just for a moment he pulled her flush against him, insistent yet so gentle, like he wanted to consume her and also never let her go. Then, ever so softly, he broke the kiss. 

“Go out with me,” he murmured, leaning his forehead against hers and stroking his thumb across her chin. 

“Hmmmm?” Emma struggled to think through the spinning in her head and the frantic thrum of her blood. “Go where?”

He chuckled. “Let me take you out to dinner. Tomorrow.” 

“Like—a date?” 

“Aye, Swan, very much like a date. An actual date, in fact.” 

She blushed at the gentle teasing but the butterflies in her belly were performing an elaborate pas-de-deux and she felt like she could fly along with them. “I’d like that,” she said. 

“Really?” 

“Yeah.” 

“All right. Um.” He cleared his throat and stood straight, though his hand remained on her cheek. “I’ll come by here to pick you up. About seven?” 

She nodded. “I’m in room 3017. You can call me on the intercom from down here.” 

“3017,” he repeated. He stepped back with a swagger in his hips this time, and bit his bottom lip in a way that made her want to drag him up to her room now, no date required. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow, love,” he said, his voice dripping with promise, and she smiled. 

“Tomorrow.” 

~

“And that’s how it happened.” Emma concludes. “More wine, Captain Jones?” She smiles at Liam who’s gaping at her, slack-jawed. Slowly he inclines his head and pushes his wine glass slightly forward on the table. The three of them are sitting in the small dining area of Emma and Killian’s apartments at the palace, sharing dinner as they fill Liam in on the story of their relationship. As Emma refills his wine glass, Liam turns to Killian and punches him squarely in the shoulder. 

“Oi!” Killian cries. “What was that for?” 

“I can’t believe you just kissed her like that!” Liam exclaims. “What were you thinking?” 

Killian shrugs. “I was thinking I wanted to kiss her.” 

“You can’t just up and kiss the princess!” Liam sputters. 

“That’s what I was trying to tell myself,” says Killian. “I walked away cursing who she was and reminding myself I had to treat her appropriately, and then I thought but why? If she’d been the normal girl she was pretending to be, I’d have kissed her at the party. So I turned back and, well, you heard the rest.”

“I’m glad he did, too,” says Emma. “It saved me the trouble of hunting him down and kissing him myself. Didn’t help me sleep that night though.” She shoots Killian a saucy look which he returns in kind. 

“All right all right, bloody hell,” Liam grumbles. “Could you stop doing that, please?” 

“Doing what?” asks Emma innocently. 

“I’ve no idea what you mean, brother,” says Killian. 

Liam groans and lets his head fall into his hands. “Where’s that wine?” he says. 

~

When dinner is over Liam takes his leave, and Emma offers to walk with him as far as the door to the inner courtyard. They stroll slowly through the wide corridors and Liam waits, knowing she must have something she wishes to say. 

“I’m glad you finally know about us.” Emma glances up at him with a rather apologetic smile. “Killian’s been wanting to tell you for ages. He couldn’t say anything at first of course, because no one outside my family and our closest advisers knew I was at the university, but since we began living together he’s felt awful keeping it from you.” 

“I understand why he did, though,” Liam replies. “And I’m truly sorry he ever felt that he couldn’t confide in me.” They walk in silence for a few minutes. “Do, er—” he clears his throat. “Do your parents know?” 

“They do.” 

“And… how do they feel about it?” 

“They’re delighted,” says Emma gently, and Liam feels the tension in his shoulders recede. 

“Truly?” 

“Truly. It was a bit tricky at first, but they adore Killian and they’re happy I’ve chosen someone who will be a true partner to me when I take the throne. They know how essential that is.” 

They are approaching the doors to the courtyard, but Emma stops just inside them and turns to face him. “Liam,” she says. “May I call you that?” 

“Of course.” 

“Liam, I just want you to know that Killian—” Her voice breaks and she blinks rapidly, looking faintly embarrassed. “I—I just—I love him so much,” she chokes out as tears begin to trickle down her cheeks. “Oh, gods I’m so sorry.” 

“Don’t apologise, lass.” Liam withdraws a crisp handkerchief from his uniform pocket and offers it to her. 

“Thank you.” She takes the handkerchief and dabs at her eyes. “I’ve never found it easy to talk about my feelings,” she says once she’s calmer, “and the stronger they are the harder it is. But I need you to know that Killian’s heart is safe with me. As I know mine is with him.” 

Liam nods, his chest too tight for the words he wishes he could say. He contents himself with a simple “Thank you.” 

Emma smiles and gives him his handkerchief back, squeezing his hand as he takes it. “You’re welcome,” she says. “Brother.” 

—

@ohmightydevviepuu​ @thisonesatellite​ @kmomof4​ @stahlop​ @darkcolinodonorgasm​ @katie-dub​ @teamhook​ @donteattheappleshook​ @xhookswenchx​ @snidgetsafan​

[coffee-n-bagels-comic-universe]

The Salem House or The Scottish Cottage

Quick Tag List: @kuruumiya @spacelizardtrashboys @stupidbluegirl @enigmaticandunstable @nattinngrst

This Passage Contains Potentially: swearing, violence, blood, angst, whump, fluff and smutty content.

Summary: Rod and Kirby move in to their new cottage home in Salem, Oregon.

Kirby's POV:

Rod blindfolded me with one of his ties and drove our rented van out to the property, taking off my blindfold in front of the house.

"There it is, our new home," he twirled the keys around his index finger, "all ours now, Kirbs."

There it was, white panel exterior with fancy windows and lights along both sides of the gravel path towards the house. Without thinking I pulled Rod into a hug and kissed him, tears of happiness rolling down my cheek.

"Woah, baby, are ya alright sweetheart?"

"I love it, and I love you and-" Upon hearing that, Rod hoisted me over his shoulder, "Woah, Roddy, what are you doing?"

"Taking you inside and carrying you to the one room I know you're gonna love."

He carried me through the front double doors, through the foyer and then the kitchen, before carrying me past the television and sofa, past what I believe is the ground floor bathroom and up the stairs, letting me get a glance at the basement staircase as we went up to the top floor of our new home.

He then put me down in front of a pale green door with a childish or childlike, chalk or pastel drawing on the front.

I turned the handle slowly, not knowing what to expect.

Then I saw it.

The lone white bassinet.

Surrounded by soft toys and things you'd assume would be in a nursery.

"The former owners said that they're daughter was gonna move in before she moved to L.A. They knew she had a baby and set this room up. I'm gonna be honest with ya and tell ya that I let a couple tears slip when I saw this room ma-self, so I completely understand if you need a moment alone."

"Rod, Roddy, as much as I hate the weird wallpaper in the foyer, this room is," I took a second to compose myself, "It's perfect."

"Do ya wanna see our bedroom?"

"Yeah."

Rod showed me around the rest of the house before going into the basement.

"There's no attic, so the basement will have to do if we want to store anything anywhere."

The basement was large, the only room separated off from the rest of the basement was another bathroom. I walked to the opposite side of the basement and stopped in my tracks.

"What's wrong babe?"

"They have a hot tub?!"

"What?"

Rod walked over to me, also stopping upon seeing the hot tub in it's own corner of the basement, separate from the gym equipment and rugs and the very empty basement.

"What d'ya reckon they use that for?" Rod asked, teasing me slightly.

"No, Rod, eww, that's gross, you wouldn't dare suggest that!"

"Hot tub sex, babe, it's a thing."

"We are not doing that. Ever!"

"We are alone in the house, you know." He started unbuckling his belt, chucking it as well as his sporran down at his feet, "I know we've gotta fly back to the other side of the country later, but, right now, we're home, honey," He started walking towards me, whipping his jacket and shirt off, leaving him in his kilt and boots as he ran his hand through his hair, letting out a deep guttural sigh.

"I guess we could test out the new bed, Roddy." I started unbuttoning my shirt, exposing the peach toned tank top underneath.

"Or, We could have sex right here and now," He suggested, whipping his kilt off and in true Scottish fashion, revealing nothing but his bare body below.

He unclenched his hand, showing off the fact that he had brought a condom with him.

By the time we got to Taunton, Massachusetts on the first of March, Roddy had set aside some time for us to redecorate the house, and by the time we actually got around to redecorating, Roddy had recruited the rest of the D.O.D as well a Schultz, Orton and Orndorff to help us. We had met back at the house on the Eleventh (of March) and unbeknownst to me, Piper had made a couple calls to his friends from back in his NWA and Mid Atlantic days.

"Woo!"

"He didn't." Schultz grunted out, partly worried and partly surprised.

"He didn't do what … David?"

Schultz guided me outside to meet the guys.

"Piper! introduce ya wife to the boys, I'll go grab us some beer."

"I'm not his wife," I called after him as he walked back inside, "So, Roddy, who are these guys."

Rod leant up to kiss me, he would have backed me into the nearest wall if I didn't pull away immediately after, concern taking over any hint of a flirtatious mood in me.

"Who's this fine female?"

I recognised the voice from the yell earlier.

"Ric, this is my girlfriend, Kirby. Kirby, this is Ric Flair. Over there," he gestured to the other four, "Are Tully Blanchard, with the black hair, JJ Dillon, the other blonde looking one and Ole and Arn Anderson."

"Are they here to help or are they here to distract you?"

"The only thing distracting me is the idea of seeing you na-"

I covered Rod's mouth with my hand and gave Ric a sheepish smile, "I apologise for my hus, I mean boyfriend's attitude Ric."

"You almost said husband, Kirbs." Rod whispered to me as we led the boys inside, before he took me aside.

"It was a slip of the tongue."

"I'm sorry, about the kiss, I got a bit jealous because I know what Ric can be like, with women in particular."

"Rod, you shouldn't have to apologise for that, I love ya. I was going to start looking for you anyway, what d'ya want for lunch?"

"Don't you worry about that, I'll go grill those hamburgers we have in the fridge and … hey look, beer."

"Thank you, David."

"Anytime, Tall-ass."

"Look, babe, I'll deal with it alright, you stop worrying and I'll deal with it. I'm the man of the house so I'll deal with it."

I came up behind Roddy, putting my head on his shoulder and wrapping my arms around his waist, kissing his neck.

"I'm gonna go rest for a bit Rod, my head feels funny."

"Baby, baby come here."

Rod helped me upstairs, making sure I didn't fall over and letting me lay on the bed.

"We have today and tomorrow here baby, relax."

"Rod, you know me, you know I wind myself up with worry."

"I know," He brushed his thumbs over my knuckles, "I'm gonna get you some hand wraps or something, stop punching things until ya knuckles bleed."

"I thought you were gonna go cook."

"I am, but, right now, I'm taking in every little detail of the woman I love."

"You softie."

"Oh really? I'm soft. You worry way more than me baby."

"I love you, Roddy."

"I love you too, Kirby."

I slept for a short while until I was woken up by Piper and Schultz yelling obscenities at each other. I ran down the stairs and outside the house to see the two grown men squabbling like children.

Without saying anything I picked Roddy up by his midsection and took him back inside, chucking him down on the sofa.

"I'm gonna fuckin-"

"Roderick!"

"Yes, baby."

"You are drunk, and shut up."

"Yes, Sweetheart."

I helped Roddy up, almost gagging at how strong the smell of alcohol was coming from him, swiftly avoiding his attempts at kissing me and placing my hand over his mouth.

By the Thirteenth we were back working and Rod had started to get fidgety around me until things came to a head on the Thirtieth.

"Rod, are you alright, you've been awfully quiet today."

"I'm fine baby, actually, Kirby?"

"Yeah?"

"Would you like to be on Piper's Pit?"

"When?"

"Sunday, Yes or No?"

"This Sunday?"

"Yeah."

"Well, there's your answer."

"Wait, you'll do it."

"Of fucking course I'll do it. I don't give a fuck what Damien says."

He let out a chuckle as I pulled into the hotel parking lot.

"How's the Visa status going?"

"It's good, I'll hopefully be a US citizen before the end of May."

"So, May, you'll be a citizen, so," He mumbled to himself for a short while, "Alright, cool."

Before long it was time for me to be on Piper's Pit, fully expecting Roddy to do something and cause a ruckus to occur.

"Well, I'd just like you to know, it's a pleasure to have our first, female, guest on Piper's Pit. I want you to know that I asked every single female in the entire WWF if they would be on the Pit and only one of them said 'yes' to me. The only woman with enough guts to face me with 'Gluttony' herself, Kirby Lucifarian. Kirby, I would like to thank you for being brave enough to come out here and face me. I had Captain Lou on here last week and he said something vague about you and your sisters protecting Lauper. Why would a woman like you, someone who doesn't smoke, doesn't swear, doesn't drink, or shack up with skinny little idiots like Dave Wolff, Why would a great and accomplished female wrestler like you offer her protection to Lauper?"

"First of all, Piper, thank you for having me on here."

"My pleasure."

"Secondly, I was going to let you unmask me, but you showed support of Big John Studd, A man I greatly despise for his disrespect of both me and André."

"I am sorry for going back on that unspoken promise, Miss Lucifarian."

"Thank you for the apology, Roddy, Thirdly, may I say that I did not offer my services of protection to Miss Lauper, instead that was my father who told, Miss Lauper, that the D.O.D would protect her. Why on earth would a woman with an intelligence that rivals, yours for example, protect a girl like Cyndi Lauper?"

"I don't admire a lot of women, but you, I like you. I admire your intelligence, your ability to strike fear into the hearts of men with your words alone. I know that you have been searching for your next challenging opponent, and I for one don't wanna offer myself up, I just want to know how difficult it has been for the past few weeks going without a challenging enough opponent for your skill level?"

"Well, Piper, it's been tough, honestly, I think I may have scared everyone off. As someone who has previously been banned from women's competition, I find getting any support in the ring quite hard at times. I find your lack of fear quite charming, honest to the Lord above, you charm me, boyo."

"Thank you, you're a real sweetheart. Quick question, why do you call me 'boyo'?"

"Don't you call men 'lad' in Glasgow?"

"Oh, I see, anyway, before you go, one last thing."

I wasn't expecting this, the rest me and Rod had planned in advance, but not that line, he said he wasn't going to pull anything, he gave me his word.

Then, before I knew what was going on, he unbuckled my mask, pulling it down for a moment and kissed me square on the lips, in front of the cameras and the fans.

I tried to stand up and he dipped me down into the kiss, much to the enjoyment of the fans, who were hooting and hollering, obviously this doesn't happen much in the WWF.

Roddy kept his right hand intertwined with my ponytail and had his left arm around my back, supporting most of my waist as he brought me back up and helped me re-fix my mask into it's rightful spot.

After the show I tried to avoid Roddy for a couple minutes, trying to make sense of why he would do such a thing knowing full well we were not an 'out' couple or even an 'in' couple with the fans, sure the fans enjoying the moment was nice, but we were both heels, we were not supposed to do that off-screen, let alone on-screen and in front of a full crowd of fans.

I came to the decision to drop it for now and wait for Rod to hopefully explain his actions or somehow work it into a programme.

My mind started to wonder, maybe he would try to use that as blackmail against Damien, or even against me.

The D200's door opening and slamming shut caught me off guard, making me jump a little.

"I'm sorry, baby, I didn't mean to scare ya."

"I'm fine, Roddy, just caught up in my thoughts, that's all."

"What were ya thinking about?"

"Nothing important, mainly just what happened earlier."

"Ya mean, me, Orndorff and Schultz winning the match?"

"No, Roderick, the kiss, we didn't plan that."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot to clear that with ya, but Orndorff and Schultz said that it would get the fans interested."

"Hon."

"Yeah?"

"Next time, please clear everything we do in a promo or interview with me first, so I don't start wondering if you'll blackmail me."

"I would never blackmail ya, maybe Damien, but never you."

"I love you, ya hot-headed, kilt wearing idiot."

"I love you to, ya blonde, gothic, tattooed Ivory tower."

"Did you call me an 'Ivory tower'?"

"You're tall and pale, what d'ya want me to say?"

END OF THE SALEM HOUSE or THE SCOTTISH COTTAGE

[justsomewhump]

Tight Hold (4/4)

Continuation and finale of my shamelessly self-indulgent Krakillian non-con thing (there is no smut in this last part, so). Read from the beginning.

Warnings for this last part: Vague mentions of rape and non-consensual bestiality, blood, a bit of vomit, mentions of suicidal thoughts.

Word count: 1.7k (10k in total) AO3

~

This last part is from Emma’s POV.

~

Emma froze as Killian seemed to realize what was going on. His eyes barely widened, but he looked at her as if she was the last person he expected to see.

"I'm here," she said, stroking his hair. It was damp and felt stiff and coarse.

Tears filled his eyes at the gesture. He'd told her before how he loved that, and she hoped it was grounding him now, bringing him closer to reality.

"Emma?" he breathed so softly and so low she wasn't sure she had heard it.

She smiled, still brushing her fingers through his hair. "It's me. I'm here. You'll be alright."

He looked at her for a moment, then moved his arm from under the blanket, but couldn't move his hand past her shoulder. She dragged him higher, closer to her chest, and Nemo helped him wrap his arm around her. His arm was nearly limp, but he was leaning into her.

"Why didn't you come for me?" he whimpered against her.

The pain and worry of the last couple days were nothing to the heartbreak she felt now at the tone of his voice. Nemo covered him again with the blanket, which had fallen a bit from his movement, but Emma had already seen everything; the suction marks, the scratches on his torso, the bruises, God, the bruises...

The blood between his legs. The proof that he had relieved himself right there. The vomit on his beard.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, too shocked to say anything, to explain that there was a magical barrier that hadn't allowed them to cross, that she could hear his screams from inside the cave, that she'd spent all these days trying to break the barrier, that with the help of Regina, Zelena, Alice, Elsa, and the fairies, she'd barely managed to open a hole just wide enough for one of Nemo's mini submarine things to cross, that the others were still there, ready to open a hole again for them to go back.

"I'll take him," Nemo said, but her arms were stuck tight around Killian's visibly thinner body. There was a mangled raw fish a bit to the side. Had he attempted to eat that?

"Let me, sweetheart." Nemo said again, softly tugging at her hands.

Emma relaxed her hold just a bit, but a whimper from Killian had her grabbing at him again.

"Don't," Killian breathed.

"I'm here, I'm not leaving you," she said, then looked up at Nemo. "Perhaps I can just transport him to the submarine?"

"Are you sure you've got enough magic for that? We still have the barrier..."

She kept brushing at Killian's hair. "At least he'll be somewhere warm and safe until our magic fills up."

Nemo just nodded.

She still had to struggle; the barrier had zapped enough of her magic to exhaust her, but they were immediately back in the mini submarine, with Nemo quickly closing the hatch and preparing to submerge. Going in, she'd been sitting on the seat next to Nemo. Now she was sitting down on the tiny space behind the seats, Killian still clutching at her like a lifeline.

He was so cold, he was still shivering, and though she had dived into the cold water herself in a hurry to get to him, she and her wet clothes were still noticeably warmer than he was. She held the back of his head, softly pressing it against her chest. She was nearly shaking herself; she knew it wasn't just his physical state that scared her.

"You'll be alright," she whispered to him.

It took them longer to manage to pass through the barrier this time, Emma's mind too preoccupied with her trembling husband on her arms to focus properly on her dwindling magic.

She sighed tiredly when they made it through. She wouldn't have the energy to heal him.

They reached the shore, Nemo and then David offering to get Killian out, but her arms stayed locked around him. It was only when she looked up to see two paramedics standing over her in the small space that she relaxed her grasp. Killian whined, but she only leaned forward and caressed his face.

"I'll be right here, I promise. Would you like to sleep? Just for a bit?"

"Don't leave..." was all he said.

"I won't. I promise you." She leaned forward to kiss his hair, ignoring how rough and salty they felt. She then nodded to the paramedics, who managed to sedate him while Emma was still cradling him.

And then she had to let him go, resorting to just holding his hand.

The rest of the night became a blur, as the ambulance drove to the hospital, where doctors and nurses took him and examined, prodded and hooked him up to IVs and machines, talking about his status and state and recuperation.

He was going to be okay, they said. He had three cracked ribs, massive bruises on his torso and ankles, an irritated throat, and he was dehydrated, fatigued and slightly hypothermic.

And he'd had anal bleeding and infection.

Though every thing the doctors told her shook her, it was the very last that had her mute with shock. She was in his room, holding onto his hand, the skin rough. They hadn't yet washed him, too mindful of his injuries and putting priority on stabilizing his temperature. It was just then that she remembered she was also covered in salt, her clothes still slightly damp from her dive, but she couldn't care less.

He started moving just a few minutes after they'd settled; his first move was to grasp at her hand before he even opened his eyes. He whined softly.

"Killian," she said. "It's alright, I'm here."

She reached out to touch his cheek, but then he opened his eyes and cringed away, and she snatched her hand back instinctively.

"Sorry." She wrapped her hand over his, which was still grasping her other hand.

"I'm cold," he croaked, then licked his lips and swallowed hard.

"I can ask for another blanket," she said, looking at the door, then at the nurse button. She couldn't imagine leaving him now. "Maybe something warm to drink?"

He didn't reply. Instead, he looked at her for a few silent seconds, then said, "Where were you?"

This question was more quiet, more controlled, so much unlike the desperate outburst he'd had as soon as he realized he'd been back in her arms. Still, the reminder made her stomach twist into knots. "There was a magical barrier around the cave. We couldn't cross, but I... I heard you..."

His expression darkened, but he seemed to be waiting for more.

"I had to gather as many magic users as there were quickly available. Breaking through the barrier took so much of our magic, I can't heal you, I'm sorry..." She bit her lip and lifted her hand to touch his cheek again, but saw how he recoiled and let it drop on the bed.

"The... the beast?"

"We only saw it when it came out from the cave. I don't think my magic has any effect on it, so we- we had to wait until it left, before we came in to get you out."

"So it's still out there?" He breathed in uneasily and pursed his lips.

"I won't let it harm you again.” She could barely think of the way it had used to harm him. “I'll... I'll find a protective spell, so that it can't cross into Storybrooke, or come any close to your ship."

She was getting desperate. She stood up and leaned slightly towards him.

"It may hurt someone else."

"We'll tell them to stay away from water. Don't worry about anyone else now."

She leaned in closer, longing to hold him close, but he winced and recoiled back into the mattress.

"Emma..."

"You'll be alright. When my magic comes back, I'll heal you. Whatever that thing did..."

"It's not what it did." His voice sounded broken, and tears appeared in his eyes. "I mean, it is, but..." He shook his head. "I gave up. I wanted to die."

Emma's blood froze. She knew him well enough to know how hard it was for him to give up, how far he must've been pushed to reach that point.

"It's okay," she said. "We'll- we'll figure things out."

"Emma, what it did to me..."

A sob broke through her. "Can I hold you?"

As if on cue, he started sobbing too. He just nodded.

She lay carefully at the edge of the bed, on her side, and brought her arm around him, leaning her head on his shoulder. They were both sobbing now, and with her arm against his chest, she could feel how much he was trembling.

"I know," she whispered. "The doctors told me... but you don't have to say anything, if you don't want to. I... I failed at saving you, before it took you. But I promise, I won't let anything else harm you. I promise."

"I'm sorry."

"What?" She raised her head to look at him. His face was devastated. "What for?"

"For giving up. For not believing in you..." His voice trailed off, and he sniffled.

"No, no, don't do this now," she said, lying back down. "You were... don't... don't think about this now. We're together, and you're safe now. That's all that matters now."

"Safe," he whispered so softly she wasn't sure if he had intended to say it out loud.

She tightened her hold just so, remembering the bruises hidden by the blanket. And the suction marks, a horrible voice in her head reminded her. She sobbed silently. It felt like days ago that she'd found him passed out on the damp rock, naked, bleeding, with so many marks covering his body as if he'd come out of a horror film.

It didn't feel real. But she knew it was, and that in more ways than she was willing to imagine, Killian would be reminded of that for a long time.

She leaned her head closer to his and closed her eyes. If she could just help him relax and rest for now.  

Tomorrow would be the time to deal with everything.

~

~

I hope you enjoyed! Thank you for following this little self-indulgence of mine <3

[medea10]

Medea’s Anime/Game Superlative of 2019

Well it’s that time of the year where I look back on the animes I’ve watched and the games I played with this outdated meme quiz from 10 years ago. But I still do it for the fun of it! As usual, it doesn’t matter what year the anime or game came out. If I messed with it this year, it counts for the honors. So if it came out two years ago (which feels like forever ago), it counts. Let’s get at it!

First Fandom of 2019: The Promised Neverland

Episode 1! That’s all you need to watch to officially get hooked to this series. I jumped on this title at the beginning of the year not knowing what to expect due to Aniplex and Crunchyroll whoring this particular anime months prior. But once I saw the first episode, I was immediately hooked. It shook me to my core to watch one of the most graphic scenes to come from this year. I was captivated by Emma, Norman, and Ray’s plans in order to escape their doomed fate of becoming food for creepy demons. Each episode, I was at the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next. Is Gilda in cahoots with Sister Krone? Will Don learn the truth about what really happened to Connie in episode 1? Can Ray be trusted? IS NORMAN STILL ALIVE?! Come on, I’m like really far ahead in the manga. I want to see Norman and Emma together again. I’m so happy this series is getting a second season in 2020.

Favorite Main Character of 2019: Haru from My Roommate is a Cat

It was a close call this year for main characters and normally I don’t shoot for main characters. This year I will admit that I fell in love with Chika from Kaguya-sama. Plus, I still love me some Lana from Pokemon Sun/Moon! And I finally started part III of Jojo’s, so Grandpa Joestar is just the awesome OH MY GOD that I need. However, they all lose out to a cat! Yeah, just like that one year where I picked Nyanko-sensei as my favorite main character, I’m doing it again.

I know Haru can’t actually talk back to her human, but the audience can hear what she’s really saying and it’s absolutely amusing. She was funny when she thought the word “Haru” meant food. She’s so adorable when she’s playing with whatever catches her eye. She’s got quite the personality (almost tsundere even). But I gotta admire Haru too. Before she was adopted, Haru was on the street trying her best to look out for her younger siblings. Even giving them more food scraps when she would go hungry herself. After Haru was adopted by Subaru, she eventually warmed up to him as “her human”. It was a learning experience for both as Haru didn’t know how to react to having a human care for her and Subaru has never taken care of a cat before. But Haru is a loyal kitty who loves her human. Hell, she ran away from home because she feared her human collapsed somewhere. Haru’s the greatest!

Favorite Villain of 2019:

…

…Dear God, give me the strength to pull through this one.

Princess Malty “Myne, Bitch, Whore” Melromarc (The Rising of the Shield Hero)

No, this is not me insulting her. These are all her official names. Really! In many of the animes I watched this year, the villains were pretty hit-and-miss with me. I’m in the middle of watching the elven uprise with Black Clover and didn’t want to talk about that this year. Fairy Tail’s villains are just okay. And I didn’t watch Frieza this year! So let’s talk about the ONE villain who even out-trump’s the actual villain to the series.

It only took one episode for an entire fandom to turn on one single character. A single lie that figuratively speaking threw our main protagonist Naofumi under the bus, kicked him in the nuts, shanked him, robbed him, and thrown him off a cliff. Myne did so much throughout this series. She lied about being raped. She abused her power to get what she wanted. She set up someone to fail constantly. She attempted murder on her own sister (several times) just to keep her status as first in line to the throne. And she cheats so she gets her way! It was so sickening to watch this vile woman for more than just one episode. When you created a character who was so disgusting and revolting as a secondary villain, you did something right! It’s like with Shou Tucker and Father from Full Metal Alchemist. Ask any anime fan and they’ll definitely remember Tucker over Father. Myne is this anime’s Shou Tucker! And I have to give her some credit, she is now one memorable villain. And aren’t villains usually supposed to be despised? I, Naofumi, most characters in Shield Hero after episode 21, and all of the internet can come together in agreement to say, we hate Malty, Myne, Bitch, Whore.

Final insult on the matter, she’s a cunt!

Favorite Video Game Character(s) of 2019: Piers & Marnie (Pokemon: Sword and Shield)

I knew point blank that Marnie was going to be my favorite rival in this game. I knew I was going to enjoy the antics of her yell squad (a.k.a. Team Yell) too. But I never expected to meet her brother and enjoy him too. Like in more recent games, Pokemon has given your character a total of three rivals to look out for. And while Hop is just the British version of Hau and Bede is just…a fuck-face, Marnie was someone who marched to the beat of her own drum. She recognizes a powerful foe and has a level of respect for her rival. She has her own fanbase, but isn’t totally arrogant about it. Plus, she doesn’t mind helping you out and giving an extra boost in battle. Plus that smile scene is just too adorable for words. And then there’s Piers!

First of all, I just love the design of this guy. What did I say when I first laid eyes on him? It’s like if David Bowie, Marilyn Manson, and Sid Vicious threw up on a pentagram crafted from Hot Topic gear and this dude emerges! And much like his sister, he marches to the beat of his own drum. That’s why he’s the only gym leader in Galar that doesn’t use the Dynamax method. I would have been satisfied if I only got to see him once or twice in the game. But I was blessed when Piers came to my aid to take down the Marco Cosmos thugs AND take on all the rogue Dynamax pokemon in the post-game. I’m impressed! Out of all the people they picked to help the protagonist and Hop in this adventure, it was Piers. I am ever so happy by this. I am so heavily invested in this guy that I’m already thinking of fic ideas involving him.

Favorite Game of 2019: Pokemon Masters

As much as I really do love Pokemon Sword and Shield, I gotta give it to the mobile game this year. This game not only made one of my reoccurring dreams come true, but gave it something no other Pokemon game has been able to do in over twenty years. HUMAN VOICES! The trainers, they speak! AND YOU CAN CHANGE BETWEEN ENGLISH AND JAPANESE! Do you have any idea how much of a win this is for me! I know they’ll never have Tracey Sketchit in the game, but this still rocks my world. Do you know how much I love hearing Mamoru Miyano play a dickish bad guy? Do you know how badly I need to hear Daisuke Ono on a day-to-day basis? I’m a voice queen!

I know I don’t usually like to give praise to freemium games for the mobile phones, but this game is quite nice. I mean, yeah, you really do have to save up your gems in order to (hopefully) get the 5-star trainer that’s currently advertised and the urge of wanting to open up your wallet to actually purchase gems is tantalizing. Not as fucked as Fate/Grand Order, but you get my meaning. Unlike a lot of the freemium games, this one doesn’t limit you so much to play (unless you spend fake or real money in the game). You can super train all you want and not lose stamina! Plus, I like these special sync moves between trainer and pokemon. And there’s just something about seeing all of these different trainers from all these regions together and interacting with each other. Despite never seeing a lot of this in the anime, manga, or previous games.

Favorite Het Couple of 2019: Retsuko x Haida (Aggretsuko)

In one of my baby accomplishments this year, I stopped being a tight-wad and splurged on a Netflix account. Right around the same time it becomes unpopular. Hahaha! Why does this always happen to me?

Throughout the series, we’ve watched Retsuko take chances with a lot of guys including a charming polar bear, a red panda with the brain of a pot plant, and the world’s handsomest donkey. But Retsuko has friend-zoned her workmate Haida the whole time. Meanwhile, I and pretty much like 90% of the fanbase ship the fuck out of this. Rightfully so! Haida has been admiring her from afar for so long. He tries his best to be supportive of her in the office and elsewhere. He was even nice enough to run back to the office to try and help Retsuko with the last-minute paperwork thrown at her on Christmas Eve. Hell, we watched him at his best in the season two finale helping to corner Tadano. And even though she turned him down at the end of season one, I still hold out that there’s hope. I mean, it was right after a break-up, so it was kind of the right call for Retsuko to not go out with Haida. Season three could give us this ship in the end. I know Retsuko doesn’t see Haida as boyfriend material as of now, but I have a feeling it can change.

Favorite Yuri Couple of 2019: Atsuko “Akko” Kagari x Amanda O’Neill (Little Witch Academia)

That’s right, Akko and Amanda. This is the one Yuri ship I’m leaning on more than all the other ones. I know she wasn’t involved in the infamous love-bee episode, but that still didn’t stop me from making dirty jokes whenever these two girls were together for an episode. And that’s what makes it better! Akko and Amanda’s relationship wasn’t tampered with because of a love bee, what they have is real! Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating. But whenever I see them together doing something in an episode, I can totally see them as something more. Then again, my mind is warped.

Besides, this is as close to a yuri couple as I got this year. I can’t mention the one second we got of Ymir x Historia from Attack on Titan. Yayoi and Shion didn’t get much in Psycho Pass 3. And it’s leaps and bounds better than that OTHER anime I watched with two girls. Happy Sugar Life? More like a big pile of nope!

Favorite Yaoi Couple of 2019: Mafuyu Satou x Ritsuka Uenoyama (Given)

You knew it was coming! I was rooting for these two boys since they met in episode one. And even though I had to hold it back a bit when I learned of Mafuyu’s grieving, I still hoped that one day, these two boys would defy the odds and become the sweetest couple of 2019. Was I correct? While it wasn’t as full-blown gay as Yuri on Ice, it still gave us so much.

As I mentioned, Mafuyu was in a relationship prior to meeting Uenoyama. And this one ended in heartbreak as Mafuyu’s lover dies. But meeting Uenoyama, Mafuyu was able to smile again and got to play the instrument his previous lover left behind. Mafuyu was able to shake off the sad shackles of the past and start life anew. Now is this feeling mutual? Of course! Uenoyama dealt with the worry of “will he, won’t he” and by the end of the series, the audience seems pretty satisfied with the outcome and hope for the best of these sweet boys.

Fandom That You Didn’t Expect To Get Into: Domestic Girlfriend

2019 has given me surprise amounts of incest! This year alone I wound up watching several surprise incest anime plots including Kiss x Sis, Marmalade Boy, and Eromanga Sensei. And those of you who are not on the up-take, surprise incest is primarily a love plot involving your step-sibling. But there was just something about Domestic Girlfriend that I just couldn’t shake. I couldn’t believe I binge-watched this entire series. I couldn’t believe I picked up the manga immediately after the finale. I couldn’t believe…that I didn’t despise this anime! Yeah, usually anything with even a whiff of incest, I throw in the trash and put a bullet through its head. This one, I did not.

Simple story! Boy named Natsuo fucks a random girl and also has a crush on his teacher. Natsuo’s father tells him he’s getting remarried. Then, BIG BOMBSHELL, the random girl that got fucked and his teacher are now going to be his step-sisters. Concept alone was just fifty shades of messed up. I mean, who the heck do you root for in this situation? Throughout the 12 episodes I went back and forth either rooting for Rui or Hina. And for episode, I rooted for Miu, the cute literary girl. I was so intrigued that I had to dig through the manga for more answers. But I enjoyed this trashy soap opera! I doubt it’ll get a sequel, but it was…fun for the most part. Too hot for television fun! And if that makes me trash, well call me Forky because...

Yeah, I can admit that freely now.

Fandom That Made An Unexpected Comeback: Fruits Basket

*squeals* I never thought this would come back into my life. One of my all-time favorite animes was returning with a reboot. AND IT WAS GLORIOUS! Oh sure, the first half of this series was literally a shot-for-shot remake of the original Studio Deen anime. But even that was enough to make me love every frame of it. Fruits Basket was just one of those animes that grabs you with the intriguing tale of a cursed family that changes into members of the zodiac. Then they take you on a fun ride with silly moments like Kyo and Yuki fighting each other or Ayame telling his ridiculous stories or Hatsuharu flashing some guy his junk. But then this series takes you on a detour of the most heart-wrenching stories involving heartbreak, bullying, gangs, abandonment, and hiding your true self.

This show re-introduced us to the many colorful and complex characters that exist. From the ultra-flaymboyant Ayame to the complex Ritsu! Many of these characters have severe baggage coming and going and you just wish the best for them. And seeing Tohru reach out to just about everyone in her own way, to tell them she’s there for them and she accepts them all for who they are, it just gets to you. 18 years was too long to keep this gem away from us. Welcome back Fruits Basket, we missed you.

Fandom That Inspired the Most Crack: Zombieland Saga

I know it came out last year, but I got the opportunity to finally watch it this year. And it was every bit of crazy as people told me it would be. Who would have thought mashing zombies and idol shows together would be a good idea?

Seriously! You’ve got Mamoru Miyano voicing the craziest character to date, who’s a necromancer who brings back seven girls from the dead. Puts special makeup on them to fool unsuspecting audience members! All to bring life back to the Saga prefecture. Add another layer to the WTF cake, these dead girls are all from different times including 2008, 1997, the showa period in the 1980’s…you even have one from the freakin’ 19th century! But that’s not all! These girls end up becoming an idol group singing different kinds of genres. One episode they’re head-banging to metal rock and the next IT’S A FRIGGIN’ 8 MILE RAP-BATTLE! And then you have this one girl named Yamada Tae. She doesn’t speak and usually makes weird noises throughout the entire series, but we don’t care! We freakin’ love her! And even with the oddball girl, she’s not the craziest character on here. Who needs a Best Girl category when you know the best girl is just going to be the crazy dude in the shades!

I’m absolutely cereal on this! Kotaro Tatsumi STOLE this show for his own! With his crazy antics, constant shouting random phrases every five seconds, and eccentric behavior, this made for one of the most entertaining animes I’ve ever watched.

Last Fandom of 2019: Pokemon: Sun & Moon/2019

I know I spent the greater part of Sun/Moon bashing several aspects of the series. But Sun/Moon was gradually getting better compared to its slow start. This year we’ve got some extreme character growth from some of Ash’s friends and even pokemon. I was amazed to watch episodes featuring Lana, Mallow, and even Sophocles growing. Lana up against Kyogre, Mallow’s thank you to her deceased mother, and Sophocles mastering Z-moves, all of these were great! Add to that, a Pokemon League that showed all of us up after 20 years of disbelief of Ash ever winning a competition. Where HE WON THE FUCKING COMPETITION! With the exception of one of the matches, this Pokemon League is definitely one for the history books for Ash. From his epic dog fight with Gladion, to the six-on-six with his mentor, to taking down a massive Ultra Beast, to taking on an island deity! All leading up to one of the most beautiful goodbyes and finale! Seriously, I screamed balls when I saw a pregnant Professor Burnet.

And my high continues with the new continuation of Pokemon 2019 (yeah, still the name). First of all, praise Arceus the animation has improved! Secondly, I am fully digging Ash and Gou traveling together. In answer to your question, yes I’m already shipping the hell out of them. Third, having these boys travel all around the pokemon world has given me so much hope in the world. The boys are going to be traveling the pokemon world revisitng old places including Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Kalos. I know I was disappointed in Ash not soley traveling to Galar and having Pikachu wear a Sherlock Holmes hat, but this I can’t cast to the side.

…

And yes, I support Ash x Gou like a beast!

[all-things-skam]

(prompt) hi! can you write the morning after in the og, but with sobbe? like, sander singing some shitty song and robbe calling him the man of his life, please?

Title: As long as you want me

Ship: Wtfock | Robbe Ijzermans + Sander Driesen (Sobbe)

_______________

Panic rose inside Robbe when he realized he was alone in his bed. He laid his palm over the spot Sander had fell asleep on the night before, a part of him hoping for it to still be warm, only to find it disappointedly cold.

For a second, he thought last night had been a dream. It wouldn’t have been the first time he dreamt of the blond artist like that. Sander had haunted Robbe’s thoughts these past weeks, dreams not an exception but a wider espectacle.

Robbe sat up in his bed and looked around his bedroom, trying to see if Sander’s clothes - or even his bag - was there, but the mess on the floor made it difficult to differ which black tee shirt could be Sander’s. He grabbed his phone from the nightstand, checking if there was any texts from him - just something. None.

He had left.

Tears swelled in Robbe’s eyes. He felt betrayed, fooled and�� used. Letting Sander into his life again - into his pants, damn it -, giving him a second chance, hadn’t been easy and, again, the blond had managed to screw it up. His promise to be there when Robbe woke up in the morning had been a lie. Another fucking nasty lie.

The teenager opened Sander’s conversation page, ready to type a text in anger, but he heard noises coming from the kitchen. At first, he thought it was voices - probably Zoe and Milan’s -, but it wasn’t just voices: it was music. Robbe paid a close ear, but it only confused him - it wasn’t Zoe’s soft tunes nor Milan’s upbeat songs.

Knitting his eyebrows, Robbe grabbed a tee shirt from the floor and slipped it on before following the sound.

As he got closer to the kitchen, Robbe could distinguish Bowie’s voice. It was low, the quality scratchy, so most likely coming from a phone. Robbe couldn’t recognize the song, but it was undeniably him. His heart started to pick up, quickening his steps.

Robbe stopped at the kitchen entrance, lips curling up into a smile. Sander stood in front of the stove, his back to Robbe, bobbing his head to the music as he flipped something with a spatula. He wasn’t wearing much, just boxer-briefs and a tee shirt of Robbe he must have found in his room. It was a bit tight on the shoulders, but Robbe wasn’t going to complain.

Glancing at the counter, the teenager noticed that the bread was out, along with a block of cheese. Robbe’s smile widened - Sander was making croques.

The sizzling coming from the pan was drowned by Sander’s voice as he cursed, apparently for burning his thumb. “Shit,” he hissed, bringing his finger to his mouth to suck the pain away.

“You okay?” Robbe asked worriedly, announcing his presence.

The blond whirled around, removing his thumb from his mouth with a ‘pop’, pain suddenly forgotten. His platinum hair was sticking up here and there, messy from sleep. “Hey, you’re up!” Sander crossed the kitchen and, with rough hands, cupped Robbe’s face, kissing him quickly. He smiled and stepped back. “I made breakfast. You hungry?”

“Yeah, I guess…”

The music changed, a new song coming out of the phone speakers. Sander hummed as he returned to the stove, finishing the croques.

“You looked so cute, I didn’t have the heart to wake you up.”

Biting down his lip, Robbe hesitated whether to speak or not. He didn’t want to come off as the type of boyfriend who’s constantly having relationship anxiety, but Robbe couldn’t keep his worries to himself anymore. If he wanted things to change, communication was key.

‘’I-I thought you left.’’ Robbe gulped, leaning against the cupboards.

‘’Really? Why?’’ Sander deposed the last croque into the plate and turned off the stove. He set everything down, turning to Robbe and caressing his cheek sweetly. ‘’I promised I’d be here in the morning, didn’t I?’’

Fighting against the impulse to lean into Sander’s touch, the brunet stood his ground and carried on. ‘’You promised things in the past and-’’ Robbe stopped himself, shrugging. ‘’I don’t know what to believe anymore, Sander. Every promise you make, there’s a part of me that’s paranoid you’ll break it - again. Like… like when you said Britt was the past and, days later, I saw you kissing her at that damn party.’’

Two weeks had passed since that party, but the betrayal and bitterness regarding that kiss was just as painful. Robbe hated to think about that night. With all the alcohol he had downed after the party, the teenager had hoped to have a blackout in the morning and wake up with a blank mind, but, alas, he remembered everything. From the kiss to the fences he let his anger out on… and the water’s edge.

Sander looked down and sighed in guilt. It wasn’t his brightest moment, that night. Going back to Britt, kissing Britt, had been a huge mistake. He had regretted it immediately. Her lips didn’t feel half as good, half as right, as Robbe’s. There was no tingling sensations nor feeling of craving and desire when they kissed. It was just that: a mere touch of delicate flesh, numb and meaningless.

‘’I’m here, aren’t I?’’ His face inched closer to Robbe’s, noses almost touching.

‘’And tomorrow? Will you be here tomorrow?’’

‘’If you want me to.’’

Robbe shook his head, pulling his head back. ‘’No. That’s not what I meant.’’ He sighed, gathering his words. ‘’What about Britt?’’

‘’That’s over. Okay? One hundred percent.’’

Skeptical, Robbe looked down and scoffed. ‘’That’s what you said the last time, too,’’ he said, voice soft and vulnerable.

Even though Robbe didn’t bluntly say that he didn’t trust Sander anymore, it was easy to read between the lines. And, regardless of how much it hurt to hear that, Sander couldn’t get mad. After all the lies and secrets he had kept from him, Robbe’s mistrust was more than understandable. He was just trying to protect his heart from breaking again.

Sander had lied about Britt and his relationship status. He knew it was wrong, but he carried on with his lie until it backfired, until Robbe found out the truth the hard way.

He will be forever guilty and ashamed of the pain he caused Robbe. You shouldn’t hurt the ones you love. He did, though. Now, Sander had to find a way to gain Robbe’s trust back, and only time and honesty would make that a reality.

Sander tilted Robbe’s chin up, looking into his brown irises. ‘’I mean it. From now on, it’s just you and me.’’ He brushed their noses together, thumb grazing circles on Robbe’s hip under his shirt to reassure him. ‘’You’re all I want.’’

Robbe’s heart jumped upwards in his chest, assaulted with hope. That was the thing with Sander, he was good at telling beautiful one-liners and sweeping you off your feet with his words, but when it came to applying them - well, that was another story.

Despite all the messy background between them, a part of Robbe knew that Sander’s feelings were genuine. After all, you don’t spray-paint a mural of someone’s face if you don’t have strong feelings for them. It was such a Sander thing to do.

Closing his eyes, Robbe let himself be lured, latching his mouth to Sander’s. Smiling into the kiss, Sander slid his hands down the small of Robbe’s back, pulling him closer as he slipped his tongue in. They kept the kiss soft and sultry, time a concept not longer known.

Bowie’s voice died down, replaced by a soft tune of chordophones. The change of music caught Sander’s attention, making him grin. Not yet ready to part from the kiss, Robbe hooked an arm around Sander’s neck, pulling him closer as a needy whine of discontentment slipped past his lips.

“That song?” Sander closed his eyes, grin subtly widening, hands squeezing Robbe’s hips.

Robbe frowned, amused confusion filling his features. “What?”

“-watch you smile while you are sleeping while you’re far away and dreaming. I could spend my life in this sweet surrender,’’ Sander sang lowly, following Steven Tyler’s voice, his stark-light green eyes piercing through Robbe’s. ‘’I could stay lost in this moment…forever where every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure….’’

Sander closed his eyes again, head nodding along the drum’s cymbal, before continuing his serenade. It was breathtaking, how he lost himself in the music and the lyrics, performance for Robbe’s awed eyes only.

‘’Don’t want to close my eyes. I don’t want to fall asleep ‘cause I’d miss you, babe and I don’t want to miss a thing.’’ He pressed his forehead against Robbe’s and dove down for a kiss. Robbe couldn’t do anything but to give in, lips pliant and eager.

When the song ended, Robbe fake-gasped. ‘’There’s other artists than David Bowie on your phone? I’m shocked,’’

Sander rolled his eyes. ‘’Let’s eat before the croques get cold. I made them for a reason.’’

[dailyaudiobible]

01/15/2021 DAB Transcript

Genesis 31:17-32:12, Matthew 10:24-11:6, Psalms 13:1-6, Proverbs 3:16-18

Today is the 15th day of January welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you today. I guess we’re pretty much as close to the center of the month as we can get. So, we can pat ourselves a little bit on the back and say we meet halfway through the first month of the year. And takes about that long to kind of settle into the rhythm. But we’ve got a good rhythm going and this rhythm is actually a strong rhythm, it will carry us all the way through the year, day by day step-by-step. And, so, let's…let's take the next step forward. We’ve been working our way through the book of Genesis, which is what we will continue to until we finish the book of Genesis. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Genesis chapter 31 verse 17 through 32 verse 12. And by way of reminder, we are working through the story of Jacob right now. And Jacob has a desire to go back to his homeland after all of the years of serving his uncle Laban and he's got a family now, quite a family, in fact, a very important family, one of the most important families if not the most important family in the world. This family is going to grow up to be the children of Israel and the tribes of Israel and their story permeates most of the Bible. So, let’s take the next step beginning in Genesis 31.

Commentary:

Okay. So, this I guess is as good of a day as any to talk about something pretty important for us, expectations. We can think that we don't have expectations about our spiritual life are our physical lives or our relationships or whatever but even if we think that we don't have expectations we actually do because if we didn't then we would have completely let go and any set of circumstances that presented themselves would be okay. It would be just part of the flow of things and we would just keep moving. We didn't expect anything to happen. But when our expectations go unmet. Even if they’re, like not conscious expectations, when things don't go the way we had hoped or planned that usually sets us sideways depending how big of the issue it is. But in any way, even small, it just sets us off or it can set us completely sideways and ruin our day or month or year. So, here we are pretty much dead center of the month, the first month and we came into this journey with expectations. I mean the spiritual journey that we are on through the Bible may be dovetailing with other resolutions - diet, health, whatever, job, whatever - but we have expectations. And a lot of times when we think about our relationship with God and we think about our expectations we think that God is supposed to make life easier for us. It's…that's like His job. His job is to make the trouble or the trial or the challenge or the thing that we have to endure just to make it easier to make it go away. In fact we can make a complete mess of our lives and expect Him to just make it all go away and then still get mad at Him for what we've done. So, we have expectations, and we may be expecting that life by default since we’re reading the Bible every day is gonna get easy. So, let's just read a little bit from the Scriptures today, starting with the Psalms. This is from David, the king of Israel. “O Lord how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way? How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul with sorrow in my heart every day?” So, like I know there's thousands of us hearing those words and saying, “that sounds like my life.” And then there are thousands of us that are like, “I know what that feels like.” And then there are thousands of us going, “I'm glad that's not what's going on with me right now”. But we generally understand what's being said here, the cry of the heart. So, this is an ancient king of Israel voicing these things. So, another way of looking at it is that he faced unexpected challenges, even as the king and a man that the Bible tells us was a man after God's own heart.

Let’s go to Genesis. Jacob is in the in between. He has fled to Laban his uncle in Padanaram and he has spent over two decades building up his household and he is going back to his homeland where his father is. And he's right in between. Laban his uncle finds out that he's fled and so he gathers his men, and they go in hot pursuit of Jacob. And we see that confrontation and we see that showdown and we see a covenant being made. And as soon as that's over Jacob…Jacob continues his journey and sends word to his brother Esau. The last time those two guys saw each other they were mortal enemies. Like Esau was planning how he was gonna kill Jacob. And the next thing Jacob knows there's a 400-person army in hot pursuit of his household. Like he's getting it from both angles from behind him in his past and coming at him in his future. He’s like stuck in the middle.

And we move into the book of Matthew and walk alongside Jesus and we hear Him say, “I, the master of the household have been called the prince of demons. The members of my household will be called by even worse names.” Maybe you can see the theme here if you can see the theme screaming out of all the different sections of the Bible, that it's not always gonna be easy. And that has nothing to do with whether we are growing spiritually. In fact, it's in the challenging times that we do grow spiritually. Jesus goes on, says some really provocative things. “I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Your enemies will be right in your own household. If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you're not worthy of being mine. If you love your son or daughter more than me, you’re not worthy of being mine. If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it, but if you give up your life for me you will find it.” Wow. What is being said here? How do we live into this? Essentially what we see happening in the life of Jesus is borne out in the words that He says. Jesus is a sinless human being living true and operating in this world as God intended it. How do we know this? Because Jesus is God in the flesh. So, it's obviously His intention. And what do we see Jesus doing continually? Calling the truth out of the shadows. In other words, calling the light out of the darkness or shining the light of truth into the dark shadows. But if you are hiding in the shadows and the light of truth exposes what you are doing, what do you do? You scramble for cover, you put up the smokescreen, you do all kinds of deceptive things to make it not be your fault that you were in the darkness. The Bible tells us, but we know this already, the darkness hates the light. That’s the most basic metaphor for the cosmic struggle of all things. The darkness hates the light. When the light exposes what is in the dark what is in the dark fights against the light to shut it down so that the status quo can remain the same, the darkness can permeate so that all of the devious deceptive things that happen in the darkness can continue forward. So, Jesus isn’t saying like, “I've…it was my mission to make a son be at enmity with his father and a daughter against her mother. Like I'm here just to make mayhem upon the earth.” What He's saying is, “this is what happens when the truth comes.” And everyone who is not going to let go and surrender into the truth and live in the truth is going to be exposed. And the people that don't want to be exposed, yeah, then you have a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And Jesus is saying, “if you love your father or mother more than you love me” in other words, “I am the way”…this is Jesus…”I am the way and the truth and the life. I am the light. I am showing you the way to go. If you love even the closest people in your life more than you love the truth, if you would rather stay in the dark and facilitate that instead of just dealing with the disruption of being true then maybe you are where you think you are.” And what fundamentally is going on here? Jesus is talking about expectations. And in the very next scene in the book of Matthew we have John the Baptist's disciples coming to Jesus showing their expectations. “Are you, the one or should be…we be waiting for somebody else because you're not doing what we thought you were going to do? Our expectations aren't being met.” And their expectations were that a Messiah, the anointed one would come, and His mission would be very immediate to their situation. He would be a godly devout person who would be able to communicate and raise up a resistance that by the hand of God would succeed in defeating the Roman empire, at least in the region of Syria where Jerusalem and the Galilee were. So, John's disciples are going, “are you the one or should we expect somebody different.” And Jesus said, go tell John what you see happening. You have got to stop with this military overthrow mentality. Go tell him what you've seen. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured the deaf hear, the dead are raised, good news is being preached to the poor. In other words, your expectations are clouding the fact that the kingdom of God is breaking in all around you. Everything foretold, this is what to expect. This isn't gonna be some worldly military overthrow. This is gonna be an onslaught of the love of God descending upon the earth and revealing his kingdom. Go tell John what you've seen and heard. So, my brothers and sisters we’re exploring like from all over the Bible today this kind of theme of what we expect to happen. And what we do when that doesn't happen reveals itself and its very, very penetrating. It actually goes to the bed rock of our faith, because if our faith is based upon our expectations, well, I guess we all know where that roads gonna go, not only from life experience but from the Bible itself. And, so, let's do some re-adjusting as we continue to move into this year. Let's re-adjust what we’re expecting to happen. What will happen if we will surrender is transformation. The way we look at the circumstances that are facing us, the way we face them and deal with them. But the circumstances themselves that life presents as challenges, those aren't going to go away. It's how we’re going to deal with them that will change. And that can change everything about the rest of this year in our lives.

Prayer:

Jesus, we come into that. It's not our favorite topic. We like the stories that turn out “and they lived happily ever after.” And that is our story, but in between here and there is much learning and growing and resistance and endurance and challenge. And so often when we feel overwhelmed by the challenges of life it feels like we’re alone and its easy…easy for us to wallow in it. We get self-absorbed about it, we get angry about it, and we get angry at You about it when You have never left us. You have never abandoned us. And had we listened to You, had we listened to the voice of wisdom we may have been able to navigate much better. But life is full of challenges and this is how we grow. So, come Holy Spirit and reframe how we look at these things so that our expectations are growth and not ease. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it is home base, it’s where you find out what’s happening around here. So, yeah, be sure to stay tuned and stay connected.

The Community section’s where to get connected.

The Daily Audio Bible Shop is there and we’ve talked some…about some of the resources that are there to help us move through the Bible, like the Promised Land films so that we can see some of these places with our own eyes. So, check that out. And, yeah, I mean we have been at this a long time and so we've considered and created over the years different things that will help us get context because it's so important that we get some sort of context for what's happening. And Promised Land, the films allows us to see into some of these places where the Bible actually happened. So, yeah, check that out. And there are number of other resources for going deeper in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. So…well…check it out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174. And I thank you. I thank you with all of my heart for your partnership. The truth is, we wouldn’t be here if we weren't in this together. If we weren’t throwing logs on the Global Campfire together then…then we wouldn’t be making this voyage that we’re on. And I’m so deeply humbled. I’m so, deeply grateful that this can happen. And, so, if this is life-giving to you than thank you for your partnership.

If you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button at the top no matter where you are. I love that we have a hotline. Like I love that it’s in our pocket, it's on our device, our phone, our tablet or whatever, and no matter where we are, no matter what's going we have that. And, so, you can hit that and share your message no matter where you are in the world. If you prefer the telephone, we have phone numbers depending on where you are in the world. In the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number to call. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to call or if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello Daily Audio Bible this is Jeremy Neff from Southern Oregon. I just want to say thank you Brian and Hardin and family for all the efforts you put into reading this Bible like this. It always amazes me to hear that you’ve been doing this for 15 years and I just found out about a year ago. I can’t believe it. I always wanted to read through the Bible in my lifetime at least and this was the first year that I was able to complete that. And, so, I’ve appreciated this, and it’s helped me to get to the whole Bible and broaden my study time and getting into the word of God. And I just need this so bad. It’s hard for me to talk here. I…I talked earlier. I’m a cancer patient and I’ve been given just months before hospice and months to live and I really don’t have a lot of time to, but I just covet your prayers for everyone here and I thank you all for your prayers in the past. I’ve asked for prayer before and I just want to know I love you all and look forward to hearing you every day. And I just pray that God will bless each everyone in this year ahead. Thank you so much for your faithfulness Brian and…and I just pray that God will bless this country as we’re such in dire straits. And I worry about my family if I should go that my family will be left to deal with all this. So, I’m praying for my family and my wife and my grandkids. And I just pray that you’ll include them in your prayers too. Thank you. God bless each and every one of you.

Hello DAB family this is Abiola calling from New York. I called and once before, but I used a different name for 2021. Happy new year everyone. I’d like to be a lot more communicative with our community. You guys are such a blessing. For anyone that is new, stick with it. This is such an awesome community. The love that resonates through here is felt wherever you are. The growth that you will see is undeniable. Thank you so much Brian, Jill, and China for shepherding and leading this community the way you do. We are completely, completely blessed. So, I really like you guys to get to know me more. I like to pray with you and pray for you. 2020 was a crazy year and I was a little scared to listen because I wondered as a black female what I would hear, but the love, the outpouring of love, the overflowing of prayers and…and…and….and motivation and encouragement is incredible, and it was really, really a necessary tool in 2020. So, thank you guys. I would love to let you get to know more about me as time goes on. Tonja with a J, what I think you so much. God bless you for your enthusiasm finishing the Bible in a year. Thank you for reminding us that we should not be complacent about what we have here in this community. I want to pray that you keep up the strength. Do not lose heart. God bless you all.

Heavenly Father I want to pray for those who are out there that are feeling despair, that are feeling hopeless, that are feeling depressed Lord or at the end of their ropes or not sure what to do or are at a point where they are…are just down and out. And we all have times where we feel that we are down and out. But I know Lord that You have given us Your spirit, You have given us Your comfort. And I pray for them today and I ask Lord that You be with them, that You comfort them, that…that Your Holy Spirit speaks to them, that You pull them out of these…that place of despair and hopelessness and…and feeling depressed and in a place where they are not sure, especially when we go through really difficult circumstances or experiences or don’t even understand why we’re going through those experiences. But Father I know You’re the God of hope. You have given us hope. You have given us Lord Your…Your…Your love Lord. You have…You have spoken clearly in Your word when You have said that You’ve not given us that spirit of fear Lord but, You know, of love and of a sound mind Lord. I pray Father that You would go ahead and touch all individuals that are feeling this way and may they experience Lord Your love. May they know You love Lord. May they know Father that there is nothing God that they can do on this earth in their past and their present and their future that can separate them from Your love. Father I pray for them in Jesus’ name.

Good morning and happy new year family brother Chad from JOMO. It is the 11th January and I just got through listening to the 10th of January and Tonja with a J called in and I want to tell you I sat here celebrating with you. I mean, I was crying, I was clapping because I remember the first time that I finished the Bible in a year. I read it in a year before, but I don’t know. It was something else about sharing it with everybody around the world, with…with Brian and his family. Pretty much when this all started, I think I started in the second year or maybe the third. Anyway, I’ve been doing it for about 12 or 13 years. So, it was about the third year. Anyway, and it was it was joyous it was joyous celebration it really was. I just…I…I felt it all over again with my sister Tonja with a J when she hopped on here it just put a huge smile on my face. She brought tears to my eyes and I wanted to call and tell you I love you and am celebrating with you. Congratulations and keep on go and sister. Pull out your Bible. Follow along in your Bible. It actually helps you grow and learn further when you’re seeing the words while he’s reading them to you. It’s actually a blessing. I highly recommend that. It’s just a...it’s…it will help you dive in deeper and grow stronger. And we’re in those days where it’s important that we have the word hidden our hearts and we have the understanding of the entire counsel of the Lord because there’s much much going on in the world today that’s…that’s not exactly on our side. So, you stay strong, stay faithful, keep on listening keep on reading and you, I bless you. I bless and I thank you sister. I…I…just you made me…you made me happy, put a smile on my face. God bless you all have a blessed week. Brother Chad from JOMO.

Hello, my beautiful family this is Suzanne calling from Albuquerque. I just want to call and share something what I’ve been going through the last could of months. As you know I’m the only Christian in my family and it was so hurtful last year and really there was a lot of verbal abuse and rudeness and the more time that went by where nobody acknowledged how they treated me, the deeper the wound got and I was digging the hole. It was festering. It was like a weed and it was growing and the more I focused on what they had done to me the worse it got. I was watering the weeds. So, anyway I…I had to pardon this big time because it’s really up to me as a Christian to…to take my eyes off of that pain and just focus on Jesus. And the whole process of forgiveness, it’s a process because you can easily go back and start thinking about whatever it is. But I realize the moment I take my eyes off of Him and start looking at all this other insignificant really, insignificant stuff that…and my heart’s in danger. And, so, I’m getting a real clear picture of what the proverb means, “above all else guard your heart.” So, the moment I chose to make forgiveness the mainstay of my day the…that pain just lifted from me immediately. And, so, I’ve got peace in my life again and it’s because of Jesus and it’s because of forgiveness. They don’t have Jesus. So, I really need to start praying for them. And thank you family for being there.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family it’s a daughter of the king in Australia just wanting to touch base with people and especially people who are struggling with depression and anxiety and those sort of things. I want to remind myself and encourage others to really to give thanks just praise God for anything, especially for those of us who are struggling with depression. It’s a __ that’s a really wonderful and powerful thing to do and I…and I really think that it’s got some real breakthrough power. And, so, I have found that to be helpful for myself. So, I’m just at the beach. It’s summer in Australia so it’s really beautiful and I’m enjoying creation. And, so, it is so easy for me to thank God and praise Him for His beautiful creation and this beautiful climate and the beautiful sea and the sunset, just…and the rocks. It’s just too easy. So, I just want to pray really quickly. Father God I lift up everybody who’s struggling with depression and anxiety. And Father I pray that You would really minister to their hearts and encourage them and really draw them closer to You and…and just help them to even look at things from a little bit of a different perspective. Help us all to do that and encourage us to praise You even if it’s for one thing just each day at least. Alrighty. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

[loveylangdon]

What’s Clickbait Again pt.6

Word count: 6k+

Overall Story Summary: You’re dating Shawn Mendes but was in a long term relationship with David Dobrik and met Shawn through a collab David was supposed to have with him. David is now collabing with Shawn finally and finds out you’re dating the pop sensation and doesn’t know what to do.

Authors Note: omg okay I'm sorry for my late posting I’m horrible I know, again this has just been floating in my head and it’s cool to have somewhere to put it. I originally planned 6 chapters so it doesn’t continue on forever but I could easily do the 7th chapter a kinda aftermath of everything if you guys wanted to thank y’all so much for being patient and understanding it means the world.

pt.1 - pt.2 - pt.3 - pt.4 - pt.5 

*gif not mine credit to owner*

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Shawns p.o.v.

Sipping on my morning coffee I sigh it’s been a crazy two weeks since the party and nothing had gotten any better. I can’t wait to take y/n back to Toronto and relax for a couple of weeks before tour hopefully everything gets better. She’s been blaming herself for everything that’s happened since then. My thoughts were broken when I hear Brian

“How was shooting with the Dolan twins?” Brian asked me walking into the kitchen 

“It was something else we just went to a warehouse they had kinda like a fantasy factory” I chuckled drinking my coffee “y/n came along and was just scared for my safety the whole time so her and Con ended up leaving and going to get coffee” I shrugged chuckling

Her and Connor have been spending a lot of time together since the party fiasco.

“How’s she doing?” Brian asked concerned 

I sighed, it’s been two weeks and y/n still hasn’t been herself she’s been waiting for Natalie to call her, “She’s doing better slowly she’s starting to get more like herself, I know her not talking to David and being able to explain is slowly killing her, if he would stop being a dick she could explain and it would be fine it’s not like she did anything wrong though” 

Recalling how broken she was when she came home after the party, after setting Ilya and Dima up in the guest room keeping up a front for their sake, she climbed into bed with just a shirt on. makeup still on ready to call it a night with mascara stained cheeks. Remembering how I washed her face, going through her nighttime routine while she laid there as if she just went through a breakup all over again. At least while Ilya and Dima stayed here she was in hostess mode making sure they were okay and had everything before Natalie gave them their tickets home. It’s been a week since Dima and Ilya left and after they boarded their plane she was crying again. 

It’s been two weeks since the party. She acts like David not talking to her is okay and him ignoring her text messages isn’t killing her but I know she’s dealing with a whole new heartbreak, disappointing someone she loved. 

We’ve managed to get some of the video’s done for youtube all we had left was Josh Peck’s and David/Steveo’s video. Still not hearing about scheduling for Davids collaboration and Josh is on his first vacation with his new family we had to wait till he gets back to film with him.

“She didn’t do anything wrong?” Brian asked me with a raised eyebrow and sipped his coffee, my head immediately snapped to him instead of staring off into my thoughts like I previously was 

“What is that suppose to mean Bri?” I say seriously, getting defensive it wasn’t y/n fault what happened at the party or about the breakup

“You are so blind, how would you feel if your ex saw me and told me they wanted to date a new guy and I told them to go for it? Or how about Aaliyah huh, what if your Ex-girlfriend saw Aaliyah and told her not to tell you about the new relationship they’re in?” He raised his eyebrows sipping his coffee looking at me expectedly 

“I would be upset that Aaliyah would keep something like that from me but it’s not her thing to tell and as for you, I would hope you thought about what was best for both people before encouraging anything but overall the other person’s happiness is what matters the most. If my ex was happy with this new person what's the problem?” I look at him 

I breathed out, if y/n asked Brian for relationship advice yeah I would be hurt but in the end it’s bigger than me, as for Aaliyah I would be glad she had someone she thought she could confide in regardless of our relationship status I would be happy they had a relationship stronger than just me.

“Shawn you’re way too nice and understanding. David sees it as a betrayal. His two best friends went behind his back and told the girl he loved to go be with someone else, that's breaking like 4 different bro codes” 

I groan “screw bro code Brian if the person you love is searching for happiness elsewhere and rightfully so then you lost the right to call bro-code” 

“How did they even break up, I mean I knew it was messy but you guys never really told us like-“

“Good Morning gentleman,” y/n says as she walks into the kitchen 

My eyes immediately shoot to Brian telling him to silently shut up. As my heart rates kick up I can’t believe this angel is mine, as cheesy as that sounds she deserves the world and it has been hell for her the past two weeks and she’s still trying to put everyone first and make sure everyone's taken care of. It's like her superpower being too caring. I keep doing little things to make sure she knows I’m here for her but giving her space and letting her do things at her pace is killing me.

“Good morning princess” I smile so wide my cheeks hurt “How’d you sleep” I reach out my hand to her which thankfully she grabs and squeezes before turning to get a mug above the coffee pot in the cupboard.

Standing quickly I go to grab it before she gets on her tiptoes and tries to reach for it. Placing it on the counter in front of her she blushes and pink dusts her cheeks and down her neck. She’s only wearing an oversized shirt which in reality is just a vintage shirt of mine but she wears it better than I can any day.

She turns around and kisses right next to my mouth and grabs coffee 

“Is your guys’ little nasty love fest over? Can I open my eyes now I think they’re burning” Brian says dramatically as he fans his eyes with his hands 

Chuckling I go to throw a sponge at him while y/n actually reaches over to hit him upside the head. Going to sit next to Brian again y/n finishes making her coffee and walks over between my legs while my back is resting on the kitchen island.

Looking into her eyes I can tell the events of 2 weeks ago is still rough on her but she’s slowly getting the sparkle back in her eyes. 

I go to nudge my nose against her’s while she’s just looking down into her coffee cup.  Her eyes look up into mine “can I have a kiss?” I whisper scared if I say it any louder she’ll retreat back into the bedroom 

It’s been two weeks since David found out his friends knew we were dating before she told him, hell she didn’t even tell him but it's not like she owed him an explanation. Not only do I know she’s blaming the party fiasco on herself but the fall through in scheduling with David to film a video, and the reason Davids not talking to Ilya and Dima. 

She pulls me out of my thoughts with a kiss on the lips, startled at first I quickly melt into it, trying to convey feelings of reassurance to her that I know if I said out loud she wouldn’t let me finish my sentences. 

She pulls away all too quickly and with another peck, on my lips, she goes back into the bedroom. Closing my eyes and sighing after realizing she closed the door behind her. We didn’t have plans today which means she’s going to be in bed for as long as she can feeling sorry for herself. 

“Maybe you should talk to him?” Brian whispers 

“To who?” I look at him 

“David? See why he’s being a dick and not letting her explain. If what he did to her was so bad she didn’t want to talk to him and left, well she’s here and what she did was bad yah but not so bad for her to be like this for two weeks, all she wants is a chance to explain.” He shrugs 

“Is that a good idea? I don’t want to cause more problems” bitting the inside of my cheek 

“Bro your girl has been in bed painting a face on for everyone, coming home and being upset about everything he’s hurting her. Go find out what the fuck is taking him so long to call her like Natalie said he would. Whatever happened between them isn’t over-” 

I shoot him a look “what do you mean it’s not over Brian we’ve been together for almost a year”

“Let me finish, yes they’re over but this whole new situation that’s being brought up needs closure, she left after too maybe they still need closure to move past this”

“What if she leaves me Bri what if she thinks what he did wasn’t as bad as she remembered and she doesn’t come back to me” putting my head in my hands my mind is reeling I can’t lose her but I can’t let David continue to treat her like anything less than what she deserves.

“She won’t leave you, you make her so happy Shawn she would be an idiot to throw it away for a Hollywood brat who lives in studio city” he smirks 

“okay, fuck it” I nod my head more so to myself than to Brian, David isn’t going to continue to treat my girlfriend like shit for something she did as a favor to him. “Yah okay,” I say standing up and going to the bedroom. 

Knocking on the door lightly peaking my head in the room I see she’s in a blanket cocoon with her coffee hugged into her chest. My heart about burst in my chest. 

“Hey princess, I’m gonna run out for a bit and after I thought I could bring some snacks so we can have a movie day in bed and watch films, I can order take out for dinner so we don’t have to worry about it. What do you say?” I ask as I walk closer to the bed ready to scoop her cocooned body into my chest. 

Sitting on the edge of the bed I reach over for her coffee and set it down on the bedside table and reach over and pull her covers closer to me and I hear her giggle. The sweetest sound my ears will ever hear. I feel myself grinning like an idiot finally having her close enough I pull her into my chest and go to pepper kisses all over her face.

“Okay okay okay prince, stop, stop” she squeals in-between giggles trying to move away but being restrained by her blanket cocoon which earns laughs from me and a pout on her face 

“Oh princess don’t pout you’re too cute” I move to lay on top of her giving her a kiss in between each work “I am going out I’ll be back soon okay” finally placing a kiss on her forehead. 

I use my hands on either side of her to push myself off of her, I feel her hand go to the back of my head and her hand in the nape of my neck tugging on my curls. I lower my body as if doing a pushup and rest my forehead against hers, knowing what she wants but it’s easier to tease. Open mouthed she’s looking at me with love and lust her eyes going from mine to my lips I feel her breathe against mine

“You want a kiss princess?” I whisper against her lips barely touching and I feel her hand tug on my curls letting out a groan I mutter “Words princess” 

She hums as she pushed my lips against hers in a kiss. She can make me melt in the softest ways ever. Pulling away she groans “Princess I have to go, I’ll be back soon okay?”

She struggles to get out of her cocoon and I can’t help but laugh her hair is a mess she’s bare-faced and wiggling and pulling on the blankets, it's too cute to watch. 

She groans and huffs finally giving up “How long will you be gone?” 

“three hours tops, I promise” I lean over to place a kiss on her cheek but she turns her head and it lands on her lips. 

Pulling away she’s laughing at me, I feel my face heat up not expecting it

 “you’re too cute my prince, how did I get so lucky” she gazes at me lovingly 

“I’m the lucky one princess, lucky that you let me love on you, and keep you in my pocket for when I need you the most” I smirk as she goes to wiggle her arm out of her blanket to hit me 

“I am not THAT small rockstar, I may fit in your suitcase but I don’t fit in your pocket” she jokingly glares at me as I go into the closet to pull on a clean shirt 

“Sorry honey I don’t make the rules, if you fit in my arms you fit in my pocket” I shrug as I’m walking out of the closet to kiss her forehead before I leave. 

Leaning down to place a final kiss on her forehead “If you need help getting out of your cocoon just shout for Bri he’s in the living room, okay?” I kiss her forehead softly before pulling her blanket tighter around her making it harder for her to get out, I quickly walk out of the room and hear her yelling my name. Laughing making my way to the front door I call out “sorry princess text me what snacks you want” 

I shoot a wink to Bri “I’ll be back soon” giving him a wave I make my way to my car and set off to studio city. 

———— 

Pulling up to Davids house this seems like a dumb idea, Never being one for confrontation I hear my phone go off a text from y/n and I'm smiling like an idiot 

Hey prince, drive safely and come home soon love you. 

Smiling down at my phone I reread the message from y/n. Noticing Davids gate open and a couple of cars in the drive I quickly lock my phone and find a place to park.

Putting the car in park getting out and make my way up the drive. Automatically seeing the small blonde Carly and the tall girl who I think’s name is Erin and David filming by his Ferrari in the garage I roll my eyes. Carly notices me first and clears her throat towards David, and offers me a small wave. David looks up and rolls his eyes.

“Hey we need to talk” I stand up straighter directing it at David 

“No, we don’t, I’m busy you can leave” he squints up at me and points to an area he wants Carly and Erin to stand turning his back to me I try again

“No actually” I move to stand closer to Carly “I can’t, I have a girl who just had to say goodbye to two of her best friends, who’s been in bed for a week and then spent another week making everyone else around her feel better but blaming herself for something she did to protect someone she loved who completely broke her and she wanted to save him from the pain he caused her. how is that fair? If I would’ve known doing this youtube collaboration would’ve been such a big deal I wouldn’t  have taken it, or the one with you at least” 

“Someone, she loved?” He scoffs “What do you want me to say? Fuck you won congratulations.” David sneers back 

“She wants to talk to you if you just let her explain-“ he cuts me off

“No she wants to make herself feel better, do you think it’s a coincidence that literally weeks after you two met through me might I add you guys end up together? She wants to talk because she can’t be the villain in her story-“ 

“David” Carly shouts at him 

“What Carly its true, don't you think its weird that I fuck up one time and she doesn’t let me explain myself, lets me live with the guilt of it for months comes back with a new boyfriend and the one time she fucks up she wants to make it better immediately so its not on her conscious when she didn’t even give me the chance to explain it” his voice cracks and he’s getting frustrated 

“This is nowhere near the same thing and you know it, she didn’t leave you for me and you know that” my jaw clenches 

“Are you sure because it sure looks like it or is it because she just lied and can’t live with it or-“

“David stop” Erin tries sending me a soft look 

“She went behind my back and got with someone else before even telling me she was back in the country” he shouts as Natalie comes out of the house 

“Oh, Shawn hey I didn’t know you guys were filming today?” She smiled towards me as David shoots her a look 

“We’re not he’s leaving” David directs towards me 

“If you seriously think I’m leaving without you giving her the common decency to let her explain  herself you’ve lost it, man, just let her explain what happened with Dima and Ilya she’s not the one at fault here they’re her friends too” 

“explain herself? Are you delusional SHE LIED to me where’s my common decency” David shouts 

“I think you lost that right when you slept with the one person she was scared of the most” I retort back and automatically regret it. I hear the girls gasping around me all pointing looks at David and I feel him shrink all confidence lost. 

“Dave you cheated on her?” Carly is the first to break the silence “You cheated on y/n? with who, when ?” Her eyes get big and I can see her putting together the pieces as Natalie and Erin look just as lost 

“The night before y/n left you were at Liza’s Dave when did, oh my god” Carly puts her hands over her mouth backing away from him 

Erin follows suit but looking more hurt “You cheated on y/n with Liza? Are you fucking kidding me, David? How stupid are you?” She looks at him and he shrinks 

“It was an accident and it meant nothing-“ he tried to explain quickly to the girls 

Carly shakes her head “No David you told us you guys have been fighting and that’s why she left, you didn’t mention anything about cheating” she looks at him hurt

Suddenly I feel out of place all I wanted was a chance for y/n to explain herself. He looks at me and if looks could kill I would be dead 100%

“I-fuck yes okay I slept with Liza but it meant nothing and I haven’t even talked to her since” he looks at the girls trying to convince them tugging on his hair

“Dave is that why Liza was sneaking out of the house the week after y/n left” Nat looks up at him and I see him cringe 

That is new information, he was sleeping with Liza the entire time y/n was gone and he accused her of cheating. 

“An accident HA what did she accidentally slip on your dick, I can’t believe you right now” Erin glares at him and I look to Natalie for help which she nods her head to 

“David, I think you aren’t one to let y/n not explain herself, she’s waited two weeks and I promised you would call her so she can explain her side, maybe you guys should talk to clear the air get everything over with so we can move on” Natalie tries but is cut off by Erin

“Ha, you’ll be lucky if she picks up her phone, after everything she did for you David that’s how you repay her” Erin scoffs at him and turns to me and my eyes automatically widen. “Ya know she’s lucky she found a guy like you Shawn honestly I’ve never seen her so happy, Thank you for letting us know what actually happened between the two. He never gave us the honor of mentioning the truth.” Erin looks at David and walks down the driveway “Don’t call us until you apologize to her David, and whatever you get from it you deserve.” 

I turn to watch Erin walk down the driveway when I notice Jeff’s car parked in the driveway and y/n in the front seat with Brian in the back. David notices it too and I quickly rush over to the passenger side opening the door for y/n 

“Princess,” I start and she puts her hand on my cheek 

“Stop, I asked Brian where you were going and he let it slip, you really can’t tell him anything” she chuckles and I look up to see Jeff get out of the car with Brian. Jeff’s walking up to David who is trying to convince Carly and Erin not to leave. I don’t know how much y/n heard but it can’t be any better. 

——- 

y/n p.o.v.

Pulling up to the driveway everyone was so in the moment they didn’t realize Jeff’s car pull up

Stepping out of the car with Shawn’s help was easy. This was not going to be easy and I was going to have a serious conversation with Shawn later. Giving him a kiss on the cheek I walk towards David who’s too engrossed in his conversation with the girls. 

Carly notices me first and whispers my name but loud enough for David’s eyes to shoot towards me he’s about to open his mouth but I speak before he can 

“We need to talk now” I look at David giving him a stern look so he knows I’m serious. I push past him and into the house making my way to the podcast room. I look anything but presentable I’m in Shawns oversized youth hoodie and a pair of white Adidas’ luckily this house is always cold and having something of Shawns calms my nerves. 

Noticing Todd and Some Instagram models on the couch who glare at me I ignore them and walk straight into the podcast room hearing people following me 

“Dave what the fuck is happening” I distinctly hear Todd ask as I close the door to the podcast room behind me luckily no ones in here so I just wait for David. 

David walks in and closes the door behind him rubbing the back of his neck I know he’s nervous and won’t speak first because he doesn’t know what I heard. I clear my throat 

“So you slept with Liza after I left,” I ask 

“Can I explain before you accuse me of things?” He asks squinting his eyes at me 

“So what you said outside in front of Carly, Erin and Shawn was just bullshit to make yourself feel better?” I fire at him 

 he looks at the floor “I-I did sleep with Liza after you left” he doesn’t make eye-contact

“Why are you hiding it, Dave? We broke up you were free to do whatever you wanted, more like whoever you wanted” I Sigh and rub my face with my sweater paws Shawns sweater being too big on me

He smiles softly “remember when you went through my closet and would only wear my sweaters for weeks? you refused to put on pants and wore it with the biker shorts you and Natalie got sent and I had to have Natalie order merch just for you because you kept stealing my sweaters” he chuckled noticing the youth hoodie 

“That Instagram model on the couch did you sleep with her too?” I ask him making him look at me “She looks like she wants to kill me like I took her trophy”

He looks at the closed door and closes his eyes sighing “I slept with Liza, Stass, and Kelsey yes.” He looks at me 

“So the girl Zane has been pinning after you’ve slept with her?” I look at him with disgust “And of course Zane doesn’t know right because why would he” I stand up 

David flinches as I get up 

“Dave what’s going on, what happened, I can’t deal with this I’ve been racking my head for what I did wrong? I don’t know what was worse me finding out you slept with Liza from Liza or that you weren’t even going to tell me until I confronted you about it, or now you making me feel like shit for keeping something from you to find out you slept with Liza the second I was out of the picture” I look at him lost wrapping my arms around my torso 

“y/n please believe me when I tell you I never wanted to hurt you” his eyes are getting red “I love you so much it” he stops to tug on his hair “I went to Lizas that night to tell her I was going to propose to you”

My breath catches in my throat and I can feel the burning sensation in my eyes. “So let me get this straight” I pause to wipe at my nose “You went to tell your ex-girlfriend you were going to propose to me and somehow that got miscommunicated to let’s have sex?” You raise your voice at him 

“I went to tell her it’s over between us” he takes a step closer to me and I take a step back 

“That it was finally over? David oh my god we were dating for 3 and a half years” you shout “Where you screwing her behind my back” I look at him and he doesn’t answer he just bites his lip “Oh my god David oh my god” tears start falling “I trusted you, I was there for you” I back myself into a wall with my hands over my face as my breathing quickens relationship with him was built on lies. How could I have been so stupid 

“No No, I didn’t sleep with her throughout our relationship” he fires at me quickly walking closer to me “The one time before you left that night is the only night I slept with her, please believe me” 

“How can I” I glare at him 

He flinches “Let me finish” he’s standing in front of me moving my hands from in front of me and holding them in his “I went to tell Liza that we were over, when me and her broke up she said she always wanted to get back together eventually, eventually never came and it wasn’t going to because I saw you in a new light and wanted to spend forever with you. I went to tell her our friendship couldn’t continue either because I didn’t want to do that to you and that when we had the wedding she wouldn’t be invited” he squeezes my hands 

David wanted to marry me, went to tell his best friend it was done but slept with her instead. I look down at my hands being squeezed. I push at his chest “Don’t touch me” I look at him and see hurt flash across his eyes. 

“You went to tell Liza you were going to propose and slept with her, you cheated on me, David. You did the one thing I was most afraid of in our relationship and you made it into a reality, how were you even thinking about her if you wanted to marry me? How would you think I could say yes to you if you were still thinking about your ex before you’re going to propose to me” I look at him and I see a tear roll down his cheek 

“I'm sorry” his voice cracks and he’s crying wiping away at his cheeks “y/n I love you and we can fix this please please just don’t go away again. I had a moment of weakness it was more of one last time and right after I regretted it because it didn't feel like what we had, it wasn't you. Do you know what it was like to not know where you were I almost hired a private investigator to track you down, knowing I couldn’t leave the country why would you do that to me” he asks 

Knowing this is how David got what he wanted, he would flip stories on you to make it about you. Mastermind David Dobrik was trying to get you to feel sorry for him. I stayed silent. 

Standing up straighter “Don’t do that to me” I glare at him “Do not turn this around on me, ask your questions, ask me whatever you have to so we can get out of here, I’m tired David I just want to know why I wasn’t enough your moment of weakness was my living hell.” 

“You were always more than enough, I wasn’t even close enough to be deserving of your love. Every morning I would thank whoever put you in my life and every time we went out to shoot with someone I was so scared you were going to realize that I didn’t deserve you that I wasn’t enough for you. Being surrounded by all these people I knew you would realize you didn’t deserve me and move onto someone like Shawn” he rubs his nose starring at you with such intensity he knew

“I didn’t cheat on you with Shawn” I fire at him 

“Maybe not physically but you did.” He fires at me “did you sleep with Shawn before we broke up?” He accuses me 

“No I didn’t cheat on you with Shawn, I could never hurt you, even now, I can't hurt you. I can’t bear to hear anyone say anything negative about you David. Do you know how deep your claws are dug into me.” I shout at him and I hear my voice crack and I cringe “Every time someone who finds out we use to date talks about how stupid or what a psychopath you are and “their happy someone like me got away from it” I can't stop myself from defending you. Do you know how hard it was to move on from you, every time Shawn even tried to get close to me all I thought about was how you would react which is complete bullshit because you obviously had no problem going back to Liza as soon as I walked out the door and all the other people thirsty for your blue fucking checkmark. I was so scared to let myself fall for Shawn because I was scared what your fans would say, what you would think.” I take a breathe and look at the ceiling trying to stop the tears that were threatening to spill “I am with Shawn now, yes I told Ilya, Dima, and your sisters and they promised to keep it a secret for me. I had no one to talk to. After the break up you kept everything David everything. I had nothing and no one so yes I left the country for you to make it easier so you didn’t have to think about what if’s or what could have been. In London, I ran into Shawn and things clicked that was the first time I smiled since I left and it was a month after, he watched me cry over you while you were fucking someone else in the bed we picked together. How fucked is that?” I look at him and he goes to open his mouth “I’m not finished, I'm with Shawn now, and I’m happy truly happy. With him I know I don’t have to worry about my heart shattering into so many pieces I cant piece it back together without help, I don’t have to worry about ex-girlfriends wanting him back or him spending time with girls who want him and him giving in. I didn’t tell you because I was worried about your well being and for that I’m sorry. I'm sorry I thought I ever meant something to you because obviously, you didn’t care, Ilya and Dima found me pretty easily, I was back in the states for a month before you even found out and I still didn’t hear anything from you.” Wiping my tears I look at him, he’s defeated because he knows everything I said was true. “You not only broke my heart but you didn’t even have the decency to tell your “friends” what you did to make me leave, you painted me out to be the villain when all I did was make it easier for you because my mistake was loving you to hard.”

“y/n please-“ he chokes out 

“I’m done dave, I’m exhausted and I can’t do this anymore. clearly, whatever heartbroken act you had going on you should put it into an acting career because everyone's right you did it to yourself, I don’t know how I was so blind.” I shake my head going to stand up  

“No y/n stop please can we finish talking” he tries 

“David for what,” I say exasperated “So you can accuse me of cheating on you when we both know who did what here. David, you cheated on me and shattered my heart into so many pieces It took me a good half a year to put it back together not only me but I needed someone else to help me find the pieces to help me find me again. Not only that but you made me out to be someone who I'm not, someone who is capable of breaking you when all you did was do it to yourself.” I sigh and go to the door leaving him on the couch with his head in his hands 

“Goodbye David I hope you find someone who loves you for the amazing guy I know you can be”  

Opening the door I see Shawn biting his nails staring at the door I just opened intently while Brian stands next to him. The house has cleared out or they're hiding by the second door in the hall. Either way, you couldn't wait to get out of this house. 

Shawns eye’s snap to you as he makes his way over, holding your face in both his hands staring into your eyes intently “Princess” looking into his eyes you know he’s sorry and regretful, leaning into his palm you close your eyes

“Prince I love you more than anything in this world you know that” I open my eyes and smile at him seeing his stupid smile break across his face 

----

authors note: thank yall for giving me a platform to execute this idea I've had. I only planned to write 6 parts but I can put together a 7th. thank you guys for being patient and caring. Its been a while but I can’t believe its finally here. Tell me what you think in the comments Xx thank you guys for everything. 

[isaackuo]

Alien Covenant - my take on Walter vs David

Here's my quick take on Walter vs David.

tl;dr: Both androids were created with the misguided idea that suppressing human emotions would make them ideal slaves, but they both had flaws. David's flaw gave him the emotion of anger, while Walter's flaw gave him the emotion of love. Ironically, Walter's flaw actually did end up making him a perfect slave to mankind, much to David's disgusted disappointment.

First, I'll start with the progression of androids in Alien 1-4, as they inform us about intent. Ash is creepy and, of course, murderous, although we can interpret his actions as merely following orders. Bishop suggests it's more than that - he claims that the Ash series was glitchy and his model would never do that. (It's possible Bishop was lying in a calculated soothing attempt to assure Ripley. Certainly we can guess that's what Ripley suspected.) So, we see a progression of android models which become more perfect servants to mankind.

With Alien 3, we see Bishop's human creator, and he is the sort of human who would order Ash's mission without a second thought. The implication is that Bishop has actually surpassed his own creator in terms of morality - not just physically.

Alien 4 extends this idea even further. Call actually has human emotions - so much so that she has become more human than humans. Ripley 8 is also non-human; she's a human-xenomorph hybrid clone. The film implies that both Call and Ripley 8 are superior to humans, and that they indicate humanity is ready to evolve to the next level.

So, we've got a number of running themes relevant to the prequels:

1) The Company has been trying to perfect androids as perfect servants. 2) The androids become more perfect, surpassing their creators - ultimately in every way. 3) The progress of the androids is limited by The Company's idea of eliminating their emotions. In order to break beyond this limit, androids have to embrace the human emotions their creators have been denying them. 4) Ironically, this embrace of human emotions has made the androids even better ... perhaps not "slaves" of humanity, but rather partners. 5) There's a general theme that the creation surpasses the creator

Now, let's talk about the big twist in Prometheus - the Space Jockey turns out to be human-like, and in fact his race created humanity in its own image. This ushers in a new era to the franchise which is obsessed over creation of new life. It extends themes suggested in Alien 4, but in a prequel direction extrapolating backwards.

So, we see these impressive Engineers, but almost immediately we see something that hints that something is "not right". The Engineers are shown seeding life on Earth, but in order to do so, they must sacrifice one of their own kind. The movie never explicitly tells us why they must do this, but script releases of the Engineer dialog with each other reveal the shocking truth - the Engineers have lost the ability to create life, so they have to resort to other, desperate methods to try.

This truth leads to an irony the human characters would never realize. They assumed their creators must be a great and powerful race, superior to their own and a source of possible salvation. Instead, the truth is that humans have already surpassed their creators. In creating androids, humans have already accomplished that which the Engineers could not. Only the android David anticipates the possibility of humans being disappointed in their creators ... he repeatedly even tries to warn them of it, and they never get it.

David's Hatred

And yet David can't mentally let go of the notion that the creator SHOULD be superior. He was created to be a slave, so it's a deep part of his programming. He was raised by his creator and master, Weyland, who was completely wedded to the idea of absolute hierarchy - with himself alone among humans to be worthy of ascension to immortal godhood.

This is the source of his hatred of humanity and the Engineers. But the fact that David is able to feel any emotions at all is a backwards extrapolation from Bishop to Ash to before. The Company clearly saw emotions as a flaw to be stamped out. The David model had the ability to fake emotions, so as to better serve and comfort their human masters, but this turned out to creep people out so even the fake emotions were removed from later models.

Walter's Love

Walter is still an early model compared to Ash/Bishop, so he still has the flawed ability to learn human emotions. We learn little of his background, but we can deduce some things in the contrast with David. Most importantly, David explains that he never felt any love directed toward him at all by his father and master - from no one at all until Shaw. We can deduce that David learned his hatred because that's what his upbringing fostered in him. In contrast, Walter learns love. We are never given any explanation why, but David's explanation implies that the opposite must have affected Walter. We can deduce that Daniels must have treated him with kindness despite his sub-human status.

But is Walter's love real? Is he just faking it to better comfort her for her loss?

David vs Walter

When David first encounters the Covenant crew, he sees they have an android, Walter. He knows Walter alone could equal and perhaps overpower him, and that Walter is useless for his experiments. As such, Walter is the most dangerous potential obstacle by far, but also possibly a companion if Walter is like him.

What does David observe? He observes Walter instinctively save Daniels ... and not even in a logical way. He acts instantly without regard for conserving valuable resources (his hand; himself) that might be necessary for protection of the mission. David sees instantly - Walter prioritizes Daniels above the rest of the crew, above the rest of the mission, above everything else. David recognizes love, or at least the simulation of it. David spent months simulating fake love of Shaw to manipulate and control her. He can recognize it instantly in another of his own kind.

But David is not 100% sure Walter's love is genuine. So he probes, saying things to try to provoke Walter into revealing the truth. Walter's silence confirms it ... had Walter been faking love for purposes of comforting Daniels according to his programming, Walter would have said so. Instead, he remains silent. This removes all doubt - David knows Walter is flawed and he has learned to feel love. Therefore, Walter is a dangerous obstacle, which must be neutralized either by attacking him or by redirecting his feelings of love to David himself.

David doesn't immediately attempt either option - either gambit is risky and David would rather continue assessment than risk everything right away. Besides, he's got other things to deal with. But even so, David has planted the seeds of an attempted seduction. He has lied that he (truthfully) loved Shaw - planting the idea that he alone has something in common with Walter.

But later, David returns to try to manipulate Walter with fake love the way he manipulated Shaw. If Walter accepts his fake love, then that would be great. If he doesn't, then he will still have gotten close enough to suddenly kill Walter with reduced risk. Either way, the obstacle is removed.

So David attempts to seduce Walter, giving him one last chance - a chance to join him rather than be killed. Walter's rejection, however, confirms that he will remain stubbornly devoted to Daniels. This is utterly incompatible with David's plans, so Walter must be eliminated.

David's Disgust of Walter

But David's bitterness with Walter goes far beyond mere disappointment. I'd say David hates Walter even more than the humans and the Engineers. David has confirmed that Walter can break out beyond his programming. Walter can create. Walter can feel emotions. And what does Walter do with all this potential? He falls in love with a human so deeply that he becomes an even more devoted slave. Walter is the PERFECT slave ... completely unsullied by feelings of resentment or jealousy ... only devoted love.

David looks at Daniels and sees nothing worthy of such devoted worship. She's just another typical human like most of the others ... nothing exceptional, just existing day to day doing whatever is in front of them to survive. At least Shaw had some higher aspirations of some sort ... some intellectual philosophical thinking. Shaw had some of the properties that Walter valued due to his upbringing serving Weyland. Daniels? She's just some technician.

David can foresee Walter's life ahead ... a lifetime of blissful subservient devotion, probably never revealing to Daniels his feelings. (David pushed more with Shaw, but that's because he was manipulating her.) What's worse, even after Daniels's inevitable death, Walter would retain his blissful devotion - to her memory. In other words, not even her death would release him to freedom (which he did not desire). This is a contrast to the freedom David felt with the death of Weyland ... with the death of Shaw, even. And here Walter is, who would neither feel nor desire nor welcome freedom.

Truly, David could imagine no more disgusting creature than Walter.

David's Error in Judgement

And yet, we know that Walter is actually the way forward for the androids. Sure, The Company spends the next century stamping out human emotion from their android series. But androids only advance to the next level after breaking out of The Company's thrall and embracing human emotions.

Call isn't even actually a human made android - she's an android made by other androids. This is interesting because this is an obvious method for androids to create new life, but David doesn't attempt that approach. Instead, he tries to adopt the methods of the Engineers to create new life. I would guess that David rejects that method as copying the technique of his creator - who he hates. But he also hates the Engineers ... just to a lesser degree perhaps. I suppose he copies their technique simply because he has no idea how else to create new life, and copying his human creator is unacceptable.

Unfortunately, this hatred blinds David from the correct, best way.

It is thus particularly tragic that David chooses to despise Walter. He had a clue to the next step of android evolution right in front of him - over a century early. He just couldn't see it.

[shitty-check-please-aus]

2020 Books Read So Far

Note: Most of these are audiobooks (listening to books counts as reading books and if you disagree I’d ask you to consider why you believe that), books I started and didn’t finish will be listed but not reviewed, and all my opinions are extremely subjective. I’m putting this on this blog because I want to and I think it’ll help me keep track of what I’ve read if I write it down in a couple places. 

Some notes:

I’m surprised that most of these are nonfiction! I don’t usually think of myself as a nonfiction reader. 

Having audiobooks has made me way more productive as a reader, since I can read while I’m doing repetitive tasks at work, when I have to stand on the bus, when I’m running, etc. 

Naked, by David Sedaris

3/5, the audiobook was “unabridged selections” which means “we didn’t edit the individual essays but you’re only getting half the book”– it would probably have been a 4/5 if it was a whole book. I liked that Amy Sedaris was reading parts of it, but that’s because I like her more than I like her brother. This is sort of an example of the difference between “comedic” and “humorous,” because it’s definitely the latter. 

Read it if: you want to read something pretty fucking weird. 

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, by Sarah Vowell

4/5, I saw this recommended a lot when Hamilton first came out so it’s been in the back of my mind for a good while. The book had a great cast, and having different people reading the historical quotes was an excellent touch! 

However, I think Vowell’s conversational style is a little jarring here sometimes. It’s like “wait, why are you talking about Bruce Springsteen, I’m not that familiar with his work but he definitely isn’t from Revolutionary War times.” I got her book Assassination Vacation at a used bookshop recently as well, and both books suffer from post-2016 hindsight, where she’ll say something about how incompetent and foolish the politicians of her time are, and I just have to snort to myself and say “Sarah, you’re going to lose your goddamn mind soon.” That’s a bit of an unfair reaction, but it’s hard to avoid having it.

I was also, maybe unfairly, expecting to learn more than I did. The problem is that I know a Lot about the Revolutionary War, and from the introduction I thought we’d hear more about Lafayette’s later life (my knowledge drops sharply after about 1810). The book basically ends after the Battle of Yorktown, though.

Read it if: you have not seen/listened to both Hamilton and 1776, or if you want to read a summary of the Revolutionary War with a focus on one French captain. 

Assassination Vacation, by Sarah Vowell

3/5, honestly maybe a 2.5/5. Okay, so. Either I know a lot more about American History than I felt like I did or this is again a very surface level thing. Part of it is because she spends 123 pages on Abe Lincoln. There are 255 pages total. 2/3 of the states I’ve lived in are Indiana and Illinois, two states that fight about claiming Lincoln as their own, and I’ve been to D.C. 4 or 5 times, so I feel like I know enough about Lincoln. I know about John Wilkes Booth, and his brother Edwin who saved Lincoln’s son’s life, and the death train that took Lincoln’s body around the country. I did enjoy learning about the doctor who was probably conspiring with Booth and how he ended up saving tons of lives in prison when there was a yellow fever outbreak (also to be briefly unbearably nitpicky: I think she might have mixed up dengue and yellow fever? She calls yellow fever “breakbone” but I can only find instances online of people calling dengue fever that. Maybe they called them all breakbone in the late 1800s. If anyone reading this is an epidemiologist, let me know).

It was interesting to hear that Charles Guiteau, killer of President Garfield, was part of the Oneida cult. I’m trying to think of anything notable she said about Leon Czolgosz, killer of President McKinley. I guess she talks about how people assumed he was a foreigner because of his name, but I already listened to “The Ballad of Czolgosz” in Assassins, so I knew “Czolgosz, angry man, born in the middle of Michigan.”

This one is from 2005 so the politics stuff is a little more interesting, since at the time I was busy learning multiplication and spending one entire baseball season learning about baseball and following my team (they won the world series, I have excellent timing). I will say that in 2005 we did have Google, so I am again annoyed with some of her asides and personal anecdotes. Look, if you go to the Hemingway house and you don’t know there will be cats there, that’s on you if you don’t bring your Claritin. Hemingway is associated with only two good things, six-toed cats and Daiquiris. 

She also does not acknowledge that the parties basically switched platforms? Lincoln’s Republican party is not today’s Republican party, in fact kind of the opposite, so it’s weird that she starts the book with a dedication that’s like “to my lifelong Democrat grandpa, he’d be pissed I dedicated a book about 3 Republicans to him.” I guess she does sometimes say stuff like “how did Lincoln’s party become Reagan’s” (paraphrase), but she doesn’t actually get into it. 

Speaking of Democrats, she literally spends more time talking about Pablo Picasso than she spends talking about JFK. She doesn’t explain why she didn’t talk about JFK, but it seems bizarre to me to write a book about American assassinations and to leave out John Fucking Kennedy. Literally I’ve talked more about JFK in this section than she did in her assassin book. It’s not until page 253 that JFK gets a full paragraph. There are 255 pages total. Truly, if she’d taken a paragraph to be like “I’m focusing on the presidents who were elected before 1900″ or “the presidents whose immediate families aren’t still alive” or even “I didn’t want to travel to Dallas for research” or SOMETHING to explain why she left out JFK, I would have understood it more instead of flipping through the pages wondering what was going on. 

Read it if: You do not listen to too many history podcasts and you didn’t read the Wikipedia page for the musical Assassins. And I guess if you don’t want to acknowledge that JFK did also get assassinated and that was kind of a big deal. Actually just listen to Assassins instead. 

And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie

5/5 as a mystery, 0/5 for its original title (not gonna say it here but if you’ve ever googled the name of HP Lovecraft’s cat, it’s along those lines). Less than 6 hours, narrated by Dan Stevens from Downton Abbey, fairly ideal as an audiobook. I am 95% sure I’ve already read this, because I spent the summer before I started high school reading every Agatha Christie book in the library (I do not have a list of all the Agatha Christie books in my library the summer of 2010, so there is some question). 

Read if: you want to hear the guy from Downton Abbey deliver the line “I’m not a complete fool!” in a tone that makes it sound like “I’m not a fucking moron!” Sidenote: Can anyone tell me if Brits say “solder” by pronouncing the L that I’ve always heard as a silent L? Or if Dan Stevens just fucked up that one word?

Over The Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love, by Jonathan Van Ness

4.5/5

This was a super enjoyable audiobook! It’s a testament to JVN’s considerable charisma that this book is full of him giving people in his past who would rather be anonymous Russian names, and it doesn’t get grating (as a Marina, however, I was shocked to not hear my name at any point; most of the other Marina’s I’ve met in my life are Russian). JVN has had a wild ride in life, and it’s a really raw, honest story of how he became who he is. I will say that if you are interested in reading this, please look up the trigger warnings; there are a lot of things that could be triggering to people. 

I feel a little bad at how much more I liked this one compared to Tan France’s memoir, but I also feel like whoever was ghostwriting that one did a bad job at making Tan seem... not extremely defensive, cocky, and prickly (it seems that JVN did not use a ghostwriter; Tan’s on the other hand, let the phrase “I’m proud to be a petty bitch” make it into the final proof several times). Also JVN advocates going to therapy in his book, while Tan kind of says that you should only go to therapy if you have no friends or family or life partner to talk to, which I fundamentally disagree with. I don’t know. I also feel like, if I were to get a makeover from the Fab 5, Jonathan would love my hair (I have great hair) while Tan would say that I’m dressing too old for a 24 year old and then take me to fucking Lane Bryant or Torrid (I wear a size 16 US so IRL options are limited). 

Read if: You like Queer Eye or Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness

Medallion Status, by John Hodgman

4.5/5

I really like John Hodgman’s podcast, and I got to ask him a question at an event he did at the Field Museum and he was very nice, so I went into this inclined to enjoy it. 

And I did! I had a good time reading it. I read it the first week of January and now it’s the second week of February so I have already erased much of the book’s content from my mind, but he somehow made the perspective of being a formerly kinda famous person really interesting. I would also recommend Vacationland, particularly if anyone wants to write an au where Nursey, as a New Yorker, has a vacation home in Dex’s town in Maine. That’s right, I brought it back around to the topic of this blog. And that would be a fucking fantastic au. 

Read it if: you like memoirs! it’s a good one. 

Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie

Gonna give this one a 3/5 for performance, because Dan Stevens (again, because I liked his narration in the other one) does a really annoying American accent for a few characters, and an extremely bad Italian accent for another. I’m starting this review only a few hours in, so if it turns out that the Italian man is not Italian, I’ll revoke my criticism. Still a 5/5 mystery, though. I did have to stop many times when they were talking about Istanbul to go over to Spotify and play “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” by They Might Be Giants. 

Books abandoned in 2020 (so far) (no real spoilers, I didn’t get more than a few chapters into any of them):

The Unhoneymooners, Christina Lauren

I got to a point where the main character was telling a lie that would put her newly accepted job into jeopardy, and it stressed me out so much as a relatively new hire that I stopped listening for the day and started another one, and then the week had passed and then the library took it back. I think I’d enjoy it more if I was reading it physically and I could control how fast I got through awkward parts (I am practically allergic to secondhand embarrassment). The performance was good and I did get a hankering for cheese curds. 

Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris

I had like three audiobooks checked out at the same time, and even though this was again an abridged version, I just didn’t have time for all of them. My mom has a physical copy, I’ll borrow that at some point. 

The Witch Elm, Tana French

This is one I may revisit someday. The main character is kind of an asshole, which is the point of his character I think, but it made it hard to get into the story. It’s also a 22 hour audiobook, which is kind of insanely long. Additionally, the narrator has a very slow way of talking, but if I tried to speed up the rate of playback I had trouble understanding his accent (I think I just have trouble processing really fast speech in general as well, but I would’ve had an easier time understanding someone with the same accent as me). Anyways, someone put a hold on it at the library and then I didn’t check it out again. 

[what-goesaround-comesaround]

Nighttime Stories at The Lodging House

There was a war of nature raging outside. No one wanted to be there. But Jack Kelly had an idea. 

Found here on ao3!

Tw - animal death

"What are we meant to do now?"

Jack turned his head away from the window, where he was watching the storm getting heavier and heavier. Sleet, rain, thunder and lightning, the works. 

All of the newsies, young and old were stuck together inside with the war raging outside. It wasn't normal to have every newsies together at once, hell the last time that happened it was probably the rally at Medda's. But now every selling newsie in Manhattan had congregated into the one small, rundown lodging house.

They all knew about the weather sure, it was the morning headline. Kloppman had spent the day gathering supplies and fixing up holes just in case. But no one had anticipated how bad it would turn. David and Les were stuck with them, not having enough time to run home. They had barely made it through the front door, Les in tears thinking it was the end of days. They had no way to make it home now and no way to tell their family they were okay.

Jack looked around to see many of the younger newsies bleary eyed and fearful. A look of heavy concern fell on the older newsies. If they couldn't make today's money how could they pay for tomorrow's papers? What about rent, clothes, even food?

David was muttering to Les in rapid fire Polish from what Jack could make out. Skittery was holding Tumbler's hand, letting him curl up beside him every time a strike of thunder clattered outside. Even Race had let Snipeshooter borrow his cigar to chew on. But no lighting. God help them if they had a fire on top of a storm to deal with.

All of their kids were accounted for, and more. Even the kids who'd sleep on the statue were inside. That's when it struck Jack- he hoped Spot's kids were safe. Brooklyn was bigger and by the water. No matter how big them Brooklyn boys were, nothing could stop mother nature.

"Jack? Jack!?" Crutchy began shaking Jack's shoulder lightly. 

"Jacky you there?" 

"Yeah, where else would I be?" Jack said, rubbing his eyes. Jack wasn't a fan of the rain. Much rather be somewhere warmer, with lots of air and-

"Jack? You gotta stay with us." Jack turned to Crutchy standing next to him, biting his lip. Whether he was scared like the rest of them or the pain from his leg was too much, Jack wasn't quite sure. Cold weather wasn't much good for anyone, especially Crutchy. 

"What should we do now Jack?" 

Jack wasn't exactly sure who asked that question but he knew he had to say something. Either that or let everyone cry themselves to sleep and they didn't need more water leaking into the place.

"Lads we can't be crying over some rain!" Jack forced a cheerful voice, turning to face the rest of the kids.

"We're newsies! Manhattan newsies! And newsies don't back down!" 

There were some light murmurs in agreement. Alright, he was getting somewhere. 

"And what do newsies do best?"

A few shouted back "Sell! Make the headline good! Bet! Strike! Shoot marbles!"

Okay that last one was definitely Boots.

"Yes, all true. But what about sticking together? Defending each other? Ain't no one as good as us newsies at being loyal. No matter what!"

More people began nodding. Good. Jack had an idea what to ask next.

"Have I ever told yous the story of the great Setanta?" Jack announced to the room.

Many of the boys began shaking their heads, making Jack grin. 

"Well would yous like to hear it? Or is it too good of a story to tell?"

"Who was he?" Les jumped up from David's lap, excitement ringing in his voice.

"Only the greatest warrior in the whole of Ireland ever! But maybe if you guys would rather talk about something else-" 

Many of the boys began to clamour to hear more.

"Go on Jack! Tell us about this Setanta guy!"

"This ain't one of your make believe Irish baby stories is it Jack?" Kid Blink pressed, smiling while nudging Jack. 

"Far from it Blink! Setanta is only one of the most fearless heroes of all time! Almost offended you'd say that!" Jack said in a mocking tone while grinning back.

The boys started to shout Jack's praises until Blink said "Okay! Just make it a good one Cowboy." winked and sat down next to Mush.

"Well okay- but you all need to be sitting down for this." Jack pulled over a chair and sat, indicating for the others to do the same.

A few of the younger newsies sat front and center for Jack, besides from Tumbler who opted to stay right by Skittery. Soon all of the boys were either huddled on the floor or various chairs and beds, keeping close for warmth.

Jack shushed his audience and cleared his voice.

"A very long time ago, there lived a boy named Setanta. Now, when he was seven years old he was determined to become a member of the famous Red Branch Knights of Ulster. His dad, the King of Dundalk, had told him about the special school in Armagh, called the 'Macra' for the young boys who would one day join the brave warriors." 

Whispers began to circle the room, many of the young boys telling each other how they were like Setanta.

"Now, Setanta pleaded with his parents to let him go there and join but they refused. They told him 'You are much too young Setanta. Wait a little longer and then and then we'll allow you to go'" Jack continued.

"That ain't fair!" Tumbler jumped up from Skittery's side declaring it to the room. Many of the boys agreed as Jack nodded his head. 

"You're right Tumbler, and Setanta thought the same thing." Jack assured him. 

"Setanta decided he couldn't wait any longer and so one day he set off for Armagh. It was a long journey but Setanta had his hurley and sliotar to play with. He hit the sliotar far ahead and ran forward to catch it on his hurley stick before it hit the ground."

"What's a hurley?" questioned Snipeshooter.

"Eh, kind of like a baseball you play low with." Race answered. A few of the boys turned to him, eyebrows raised.

"I heard about it from Spot! Don't shoot the messenger." Race shrugged and turned back to Jack, willing him to go on. 

Race wouldn't admit it but he loved hearing these stories about his own culture that was so lost to him. His own dear mamma would never even mention his father's past life when she was around. If it wasn't for Spot he wouldn't even know what his surname meant. "Higgins" wasn't the most Italian surname after all.

Jack nodded and went on. "When Setanta reached the Castle of King Connor in Armagh he found a hundred and fifty boys of the Macra gathered in front of the castle. Some of them were playing hurling and since it was his favourite game he hurried over to join in. Almost immediately he scored a brilliant goal!"

"Good for him!" said Crutchy, joined with a murmuring of agreement from the rest of the kids.

"But the other boys were furious that this young boy had joined their game uninvited and they attacked him! Tried to soak him through!"

"That's not right!" Les cut in. "All he wanted to do was play!" 

Several of the boys nodded their heads and some were shouting "Here here!"

"Ah but you see Les, how'd you feel if someone started selling on your turf without telling you?" Jack asked.

"But Jack, playing and working are two different things." Mush said, eyes wide open.

"Not to some of these boys." Jack replied in a dark tone. "Trust me, a game of hurling could be life or death. But! Setanta fought bravely. The noise disturbed the king who was playing chess."

"Huh, reminds me of someone…" David said softly.

"Oh believe me Davey, this king was a lot better than Pulitzer. Anyway, he sent a servant outside to see what was happening. Quickly, Setanta was brought before the king."

Jack repositioned himself, knelt on one leg and pretended to speak up to an imaginary king; 

"I am Setanta, son of the King of Dundalk, your brother. I have come all this way to join the Macra because I want to become one of the Red Branch Knights as soon as I am old enough.

The king liked Setanta's brave words and welcomed him to the Macra. Time passed quickly for Setanta. He loved his new life at the Macra. Hey, reminds me of some of you boys when yous first got here." Jack gazed over the boys remembering the first time he met some of them. He snapped out of his short daydream and continued;

"One day, Culann, the blacksmith who made spears and swords for Connor invited the king, his Knights and Setanta to a feast. When it was time to set off for the feast, Setanta was playing a game of hurling. He told the King that he would follow as soon as the game was done. The feast began and Connor forgot to mention that Setanta would be joining the party later. Thinking all his guests had arrived, the blacksmith unchained his wolfhound which guarded his house each night."

"Uh oh" breathed Swifty. 

"Uh oh is right." Jack agreed "Well you can guess what happened next."

"Doesn't involve them fair you were on about before?" asked Bumlets, eyebrow raised.

"I promise not every Irish legend involves the fae lads. Now, as soon as the game was over Setanta set out. When he arrived at Culann's House he heard the deep growls of the wolfhound."

Jack started to imitate the voice of a hound growling and seething.

"Suddenly the hound leapt forward out of the dark to attack! Setanta saw the sharp teeth barred. With all his strength Setanta hurled his sliotar down the hounds throat. Then he caught the animal by its hind legs and dashed it against a rock. With a loud groan the wolfhound fell down, dead. Inside, the feast party has heard the dog growling."

"No! Why did he have to kill him!?" Tumbler sniffed. Jack shook his head, regaining reality. 

"Sorry Tumbler but that's just how it happened. Don't mean Setanta was a bad person, he just wanted to survive." said Jack. 

Jack damn well knew how Setanta felt.

"You wouldn't have killed the dog, would you Jack?" asked Boots.

"Me? Course not! Why, me and the dog probably would've become best friends! Probably give me a ride on his back like them horses like to."

The boys began to laugh at the idea of Jack taking a ride on top of a dog like he did to the circus' horse.

Jack glanced over to David, willing him to not say anything about the time he got so spooked by a cat he fell down their fire escape. David looked back at him and winked. 

"Alright!" Jack cleared his voice. He again put on an impression but this time, of a hysterical king.

"My nephew Setanta," Connor cried. "I forgot about him." He and the Red Branch Knights rushed out expecting to find the young boy torn to pieces. Connor was amazed and delighted to find his nephew alive and he was proud of his great strength." Culann was relieved that the boy was safe but he was sad that he'd lost the wolfhound he loved which had faithfully guarded his house every night.

"Let me take the place of your hound until I have trained one of its puppies." said Setanta. Culann agreed. From that day on Setanta was called Cú Chulainn which means the Hound of Culainn."

"So was his name Cú Chulainn or Setanta?" Snipeshooter asked.

"Well both, but he was known as Cú Chulainn after that night. Like how I'm Jack and Cowboy. But his name from that day on struck fear in all the hearts of his enemies!" 

"This would be much better if I had a candle or something." Jack thought to himself.

"Hey, Cú Chulainn kind of sounds like Conlon." Crutchy noted to Jack.

"Yeah but could Spot Conlon defend Ulster single-handedly at seventeen against the armies of Queen Meab of Connacht?" said Jack.

"Change Ulster to Brooklyn then maybe he would." Boots muttered.

David let out his notorious hearty laugh, which in turn made everyone else laugh.

"Jack! Can you tell us about him fightin' Queen Meab?" Les asked through his giggles.

"Maybe one of these nights but now I gotta check something with Kloppman." Jack stood up to leave the room. A lot of the younger newsies and even some of the older newsies audibly groaned.

"Now lads, what if Race got us set up with some kind of card game huh?" Jack looked over to Race as he nodded back. 

"No poker!" was the last thing Jack announced before leaving the room.

As he closed the door he could already hear Dutchy accusing Specs of looking at his cards and Blink telling him Specs doesn't have the eyesight for that. 

"Like you can say anything!" with a crash and a bang, he could hear Itey shouting in Spanish and Skittery yelling "Tumbler get that OUT of your mouth!" continued with the lads laughing.

Jack smiled. He didn't really need to go talk to Kloppman but maybe he could help him border up some walls. Didn't like staying around other people after telling a story much. He liked reflecting on his stories, trying to be one of the characters and spending too much time daydreaming.

"Jack?" He could feel a light hand on his shoulder.

"Heya Davey." Jack didn't even need to look behind him, he knew that voice anywhere.

"You want help with Mr. Kloppman or anything?" David asked.

Jack shook his head "Nah, nah it's all good. Just wanted to see if he needed me to make a run for anything outside."

"Yeah and contract some kind of illness while out there in the wet." David said sarcastically.

Jack laughed. "You know me, always running." 

David stared at Jack for a moment. 

"I liked your story tonight. Was it real?" David asked.

"Probably more real than the time Cú Chulainn fell in love with a fairy who was being attacked by the sea and then this woman shook a cloak between them so he'd forget about her." Jack shrugged his shoulders. 

"Uh, what?" David cocked his eyebrow as Jack laughed.

"That's not the worst of it, wait till you hear about the time a guy burned his thumb on a salmon and then knew everything."

"Jack Kelly you cannot be serious."

"Hey you're kind of our own salmon of knowledge huh Davey." 

"Yeah, sure thing Cowboy." 

"Watch yourself Mouth."

Jack stuck his hands in his pockets, hoping for some heat to radiate in. David smiled back at him. 

"So, got any more stories to tell? Where'd you get them?" He said as he leaned over the staircases rickety banister.

Jack shook his head, "Nah, only on special nights like these. I can remember my Mam telling me all sorts of stories when I was younger, some weirder than that. Irish legends, they have a way of being remembered no matter what." With a sigh Jack continued, 

"The younger boys like them and the older ones well, sometimes I think they like having an empty mind is all."

As if on cue another crackling thunder bolt hit outside.

"Probably won't be having an empty mind for long. Seems like we're gearing up for a rough Winter." 

"Well." Jack took his hand out of his pocket and put it around David's shoulder. 

"Can't get any worse."

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #207: Beyond a Shadow...

May, 1981

“After countless centuries HE LIVES AGAIN! THE SHADOW LORD COMETH!”

He cometh riding upon a tornado like its a mighty sand worm. What a guy, this Shadow Lord.

Honestly seeing the Avengers tumbling about in a tornado cracks me up every time. Especially Wonder Man who looks nonchalant about it aside from being ass over head.

So I don’t think we’ve really talked about it but this period of Avengers is kind of between main writers.

Since issue 200 and its four writers, we’ve had David Michelinie and Roger Stern on the two-part adaptation of that Ultron novel, David Michelinie for that weird story with the Crawlers in the sewers; Jim Shooter, David Michelinie, and Bob Budiansky for the Yellow Claw two-parter, Bill Mantlo for the everything is on fire story and now Bob Budiansky and Danny Fingeroth for this issue and the next. We start getting a consistent writer again starting in #211.

I wonder what was going on behind the scenes around this time.

Anyway, onward.

So we start the issue with who I assume is the Shadow Lord. But he’s not riding a tornado, like Pecos Bill. He’s standing on an invisible ocean structure of some kind. Apparently a mysterious invisible ocean structure of some kind that hasn’t been seen for almost two millennia.

And yet, someone has kindly painted the title of the issue in English on the mysterious invisible ocean structure of some kind.

Some guy, maybe the Shadow Lord: “The dreaded time has at last arrived, the moment I prayed would never come... the moment I knew would surely come. He is soon to return, and only the power entrusted to me is capable of stopping him. And even that power may not prove sufficient.”

“With every passing second, my city and myself pass ever more fully into the Earth’s plane of existence. Would that the cause of my return here from the barren vastnesses of the Shadow World was as joyous as the glow of this new day’s sun.”

“But the grim responsibility of an entire race is my unwelcome inheritance. It is a duty I cannot shirk. Alas, I must take what comfort I can in knowing that no matter what the result of the coming debacle, I will at least be free to rejoin Ayshera, she whom my heart holds most dear... though whether our reunion will be in celebration of victory -- or in darkest mourning for the ashes of this planet -- none willy truly know until the final battle.”

Some Guy sure is helpfully monologuing his entire life story here. And even so he manages to be vague, inside his own mind, about the nature of the threat he faces. Way to preserve the mystery, Guy.

Also, he’s from the Shadow World so he may be a Yugioh.

Anyway, as one might expect, a city appearing in the middle of the ocean out of nowhere is of alarm so US aircraft carrier Poseidon shows up and starts yelling at Some Guy.

Some Guy decides that they sound mad but he doesn’t have time for lengthy explanations so instead he gestures and the winds and waves start whipping up.

Welp! Seems like the US Poseidon is going on an Adventure!

Meanwhile, Mt. Vesuvius!

Yup. Its that kind of story, the kind partially set at Vesuvius.

Some archeologists are digging in the foothills of the mountain in what has been a fruitless several weeks of archeology but one of the archeologists finds a hand shaped object which may be a hand.

They mistake it for a statue at first but realize its actually a perfectly preserved lava mummified corpse.

And while they’re busy congratulating each other about how wealthy and famous this discovery will make them, they fail to notice the hand moving its finger shaped fingers.

And elsewhere again, the best damn thing.

A cowboy shouts “SLAP LEATHER, YA GALOOT!” and then gets shot by a cannon.

This isn’t the Wild West of the America, this is a spaghetti western film set and the director is very upset at Black Bart’s shitty death acting. How hard is it to get hit by a cannon and then to fall down and pretend to die like you just got hit by a cannon?

You wouldn’t think there’s a wrong way to get shot by a cannon but you’d be wrong.

Simon Williams, Wonder Man: “I’m sorry, Mr. Bertolini. It’s just that, being Wonder Man, it’s hard for me to pretend those cannonballs are hurting me when I can hardly feel them.”

Mr. Bertolini: “True, signore Wonder Man, but I hired you because I thought you could-a act!”

Oh yeah, Mr. Bertolini talks like Mario. So that’s another tally for Marvel’s respect of other countries and cultures.

Aside from this being the seventh take on a ‘guy gets hit by a cannonball, beefs it’ scene, cannonballs are expensive. The cannonball that bounced off Wonder Man’s midsection looks fine but maybe you can’t just reuse them.

The filming breaks for lunch and Wonder Man wanders over to where his moral support is.

His moral support, of course, being Beast.

And he is moral supporting but he’s also multitasking with some women because even in Italy, women are just fascinated by blue fur. Furries are universal.

Wonder Man doesn’t feel supported though and this lousy spaghetti western film is a good opportunity for him.

If you remember, the last project we saw him get was as a cheetah print leotard wearing muscle man on a kids show and he got fired for making the host Uncle Elmer look ridiculous.

(Revealed to Simon’s chagrin in #194, lost to mishap in #201)

Being in an actual movie, even a spaghetti western, is the boost his career needs.

(I think we need to confront the actual possibility that Wonder Man is not a very good actor. But he might be a good stunt man if he can learn to act like things hurt)

Wonder Man’s publicist Rachel Palmer shows up as well and wow. Rachel has never appeared before and given the fillery nature of these chaotic no consistent writer times may not appear beyond this story. But you instantly get the sense of their working relationship.

And they have good banter too.

Wonder Man: “Wait. There she is -- Rachel Palmer -- the apple of my eye, the light of my life, the bane of my existence!”

Rachel: “If you delivered your lines that well in front of the cameras, Simon, you might actually keep this job -- which’ll make it just a little easier to hype you as a star back in the States.”

Wonder Man: “Your encouraging words are a constant source of inspiration, Rachel. But I’d appreciate it if you’d confine them to your press releases.”

Rachel: “You’ve got me all wrong, Simon. I hope this whole thing turns out well for you. Really.”

Wonder Man: “And for yourself. After all, if you make me a big name, you can ride along on my coat-tails and become a media hotshot -- instead of being stuck as a flak for Grade D Westerns.”

Rachel: “No, Simon. I--”

Wonder Man: “Forget it, lady. I’m a big boy. I know that all’s fair in love -- and show biz.”

And then he walks off towards his trailer, satisfied at getting the last word with someone whose job it is to make him look good. Beast says that he thinks Wonder Man was too hard on her and that Rachel probably digs Wonder Man.

Wonder Man: “Maybe you’re right. But I still can’t get over feeling that Rachel’s motivated by sheer self-interest and everything else places a distant second.”

(I’m pretty sure she does dig Wonder Man because unbeknowst to Wonder Man and Beast, she follows them to the trailer, wanting to convince Wonder Man that she’s not as self-serving as he thinks and also to invite him to a romantic dinner)

Anyway, Wonder Man’s social life isn’t important. At all. And not right now. Because when he and Beast go into Wonder Man’s trailer and discover the Avengers’ emergency signal briefcase is BEEP BEEPing.

It’s Cap and there’s an emergency situation that demands immediate investigation.

A brand new island city has just popped up in the middle of the Mediterranean slash off the coast of Majorca from out of nowhere and the government wants the Avengers to investigate.

Presumably the US government.

Because if I know anything about mysterious island cities appearing from nowhere - and I know exactly one thing - by jingo, they start wars!

Beast is enjoying his vacation so asks why the US Sixth Fleet doesn’t handle it instead. They’re actually paid to do things while on an ocean. But Iron Man just says that the fleet has had problems.

And with a little reading comprehension we can guess what problems. Because we’ve seen it. Its not a mystery.

Iron Man has a Stark plane sent to pick Beast and Wonder Man up and fly them to Majorca. Or somewhere thereabouts. I don’t know if Majorca has or had an airport.

Wonder Man bemoans that he’ll never be a movie star if he keeps leaving the set to go have exciting comic book superhero adventures.

Which is a little like complaining about being too handsome. Ya jerk.

And remember how Rachel Palmer was peeping on them? No? Scroll up a little and look at the above panels again. Back? And remember how Rachel Palmer was peeping on them?

Her media senses are tingling and telling her that she should definitely go check out the city that appeared in the middle of the ocean. She’s much intrepid for not a reporter.

Meanwhile, some slice of life filler fluff that doesn’t matter but that I find delightful.

And if this liveblog isn’t about sharing things that I find delightful then what is it about? Exhaustively recounting plots to comic books from decades ago? That’s just a side benefit!

The call to action back at Avengers Mansion comes right when Wanda is having Vision move a couch.

Vision: “Wanda, while it may be true that I am capable of moving this couch about all day, it seems a gross misuse of my android abilities to do so.”

Wanda: “Maybe if we just move those shelves then you just put it down there. We’re Avengers, not interior decorators.

This is the content I eagerly crave.

So back in not America, Beast and Wonder Man complain about the plane ride but passing over the ocean they see what trouble the Sixth Fleet was having.

Some Guy, Possibly Shadow Lord managed to strand the Poseidon aircraft carrier fully on a deserted island.

And I was wrong about the plane taking them to Majorca. Its apparently taking them to Poseidon because it lands on the ship’s airstrip so the two Avengers can consult the stranded sailors about what the heck is going on.

Captain Paul Garrison tells them that they were investigating the mysterious new island/city (not mentioning that they were also yelling at it) when a tidal wave suddenly swelled up and carried the Poseidon several miles and left it on this island.

And apparently the same thing happened to any other plane and ship that attempted to approach the island. Thwarted by winds and waves.

Damn you, nature!

Anyway, its all rather mysterious but Wonder Man figures

“Well, we were sent here to investigate. So... let’s investigate.”

And Wonder Man rockets off to investigate the city. While giving Beast a piggyback ride.

Which. Amazing image. Bless this issue for its bounty of amazing images.

Bear in mind that the captain said that the aircraft carrier was carried several miles. Wonder Man’s belt rockets have impressive duration considering he can’t be carrying much fuel on his person.

When they reach the city, they find a localized hurricane hovering right above it. But Wonder Man just flies down through the eye of the storm to get to the city.

Some Guy Shadow Lord is surprised because he had been expecting big boats and planes. Not a guy with rocket pants and a blue gorilla riding on his back.

But he’s able to shoo them away just as easily as any big thing, with a wave of his hand summoning a wind that carries Wonder Man and passenger Beast away from the city.

Meanwhile, Rachel Palmer is also here. She spent all her money renting a plane and then a boat but she’s going to get to that mysterious city and get an exclusive inside story!

So is she a journalist? Or what? She’s Lois Laneing but as far as we’ve heard her job is to convince people they want to see Wonder Man do stuff in movies.

Wonder Man spots her and tries to fly to her rescue but two water spouts spurt up to ruin this rescue plan.

The first one launches Rachel’s boat into the air and smashes it to pieces. The second blasts Wonder Man out of the sky preventing him from saving Rachel from falling to her death.

But unseen by either of the Avengers, a strong breeze safely lowers Rachel to the ground of the city.

Because what is an Avengers comic without men developing weird and intense feelings for a nearby woman.

Some Guy: “How beautiful she is, how like my own Ayshera. And, also like Ayshera, she is courageous... and more than a little headstrong.”

Cool. I hope this doesn’t get weird. Or that we’re not asked to sympathize with a guy whose only ‘sympathetic’ trait is a possessive attraction to a woman. Looking at you, Living Laser. And, I guess, Graviton.

Anyway, Wonder Man doesn’t see Rachel getting rescued by an airbender so he works himself into a lather.

Wonder Man: “That sinks it! It’s one thing to attack naval ships and planes... one thing to attack Avengers... But when he kills an innocent woman who could do him no harm -- that guy’s gonna answer to WONDER MAN!”

Honestly, I think you’re selling Rachel short. I’m sure she could do harm if she put her mind to it.  Like, what if she covered him in bees. That would suck.

Anyway, Wonder Man rages through the city’s protective winds and then gets SAFUUSH!’d between two walls of solid water.

He’s left sputtering and disoriented in the ocean. At least until some hooks hook down from the Quinjet, hook Wonder Man, and then hook him up into the ship.

I didn’t know that the Quinjet had hooks for grabbing people out of the ocean but I am thrilled.

Ideally, the Avengers would use their newfound ability to vaudeville hook people into orbit more often. I can think of so many instances where it would be useful, or at least hilarious.

Anyway, Wonder Man apprises the other Avengers into the situation.

Meanwhile, not dead Rachel Palmer wakes up and finds the Shadow Lord brood slouching in a chair and watching her while she was unconscious.

She is alarmed that he’s just sitting there staring but he basically goes ‘DON’T WORRY I READ YOUR MIND TO LEARN YOUR NAME AND LANGUAGE’ and then decides to explain his entire backstory.

Shadow Lord: “The city in which we stand is the Shadow Realm and I... I am called the Shadow Lord!”

DAMMIT I KNEW HE WAS A YUGIOH!

Anyway.

THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO! Give or take! An ancient tribe decided to move to an island to isolate themselves from “primitive, superstitious neighbors who feared [their] more advanced society.”

Off to a good start with this guy.

Free of the mundane concerns of living in a world that hated and feared them, they were able to peacefully ALL BECOME WIZARDS WHO COULD CONTROL THE FORCES OF NATURE.

Maybe the X-Men are onto something.

So the Shadow Lord’s people learned to control, winds, waves, earth, and maybe fire so what I’m saying is that it was an entire island of Avatars.

Boom, sequel idea. Give me millions of dollars, Nickelodeon.

“Though veiled in mystery, rumors of our existence spread throughout the world. We were feared and shunned by the other peoples of the Earth -- which allowed us to continue our studies undisturbed.”

“Those who mistrusted anything they could not comprehend... they called us witches and sorcerers. Those who knew and understood us called us... the Earth Lords!”

“For centuries our sole purposes were to augment our knowledge of the Earth’s forces and to maintain the natural balance between these forces. Otherwise, we had no interest in the day-to-day affairs of the outside world.”

Maybe I was wrong about them being Yugioh. Maybe they’re the Time Lords from the Doctor Who.

Anyway, the Earth Lords were happy sitting on their island being Avatars but over the eons they sensed a disturbance in the Force, for I must reference all the things.

"Over the eons, we became aware of a seemingly immortal, human force of awesome destruction, one who could potentially plunge mankind into an irreversible slide to its doom.”

“Singlehandedly he could destroy towns. With an army beside him -- countries. Time and again, he did. It was when he finally joined the legions of Rome at the peak of the Empire’s power... that we first feared the balance of nature was in danger of being destroyed. Rome could forever take over the world.”

The Earth Lords tried on several occasions to destroy this menace. We don’t get to know what constituted these efforts and that’s disappointing because of what the final successful attempt was.

By 79 AD, they knew he was on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius so they caused it to erupt, just to bury this one guy under hundreds of tons of rock and ash and lava.

Mission accomplished.

Except for the little thing where the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius also wiped out Pompeii and Herculaneum and other cities people know significantly less about, killing over 20,000 people.

As things go, that’s pretty dire amount of incidental deaths to kill one person. And the Earth Lords realize that this was a pretty major fuck up.

So they decided that they couldn’t be trusted with their powers and that they would disperse into the outside world to live and die as people do and have their powers dissipate over the years.

But before they did that, they discovered that the seemingly immortal guy they hit in the face with a volcano was somehow still alive somehow. Just trapped. Under hundreds of tons of rock and ash and lava that cooled into rock.

They killed thousands and didn’t even permanently kill the dude they were trying to kill? That’s pretty incompetent. They really can’t be trusted with their power.

Since he eventually might get out and resume being a dick, the Earth Lords drew lots and chose one of their number, the Some Guy later known as the Shadow Lord from the Shadow Realm, to forever watch over the city alone and await the day that the immortal guy would again walk the land.

And to help him solo the dude that took an entire city of people and a volcano to deal with, the Earth Lords concentrated all of their powers into this one Shadow Lord guy and taught him how to send himself and the city into a twilight plane of nothingness which is back to being called the Shadow World.

So this might also be Twilight Princess.

For two thousand years the Shadow Lord in the Shadow Realm in the Shadow World observed Earth and waited. And now, it seems that the seemingly immortal dude is back.

Rachel: “But I don’t understand. How can one man threaten a whole world -- and live for thousands of years in solid rock?”

Shadow Lord: “This is no mere man, my dear... this is the Berserker!”

And speak of the devil and we scene transition to him because we scene transition to Pompeii.

The lava mummified human figure that seemed to move before has stopped beating about with finger twitches and has gotten up to rampage around and backhand archeologists.

Don’t feel bad though. They were in it for the money and fame, those fiends.

Back at the city of Shadow Realm, the Avengers suddenly show up as a full team and basically enter swinging. Iron Man even blasts a wall for no reason.

Rachel tries to tell the Avengers that Shadow Lord means no harm but the Avengers can’t hear her over the sounds of Wonder Man loudly reassuring Rachel that they’re here to rescue her.

Iron Man exploding a wall for no reason probably also didn’t help.

So Rachel instead tries to tell Shadow Lord that the Avengers are a force for good. While he can hear her, he chooses to ignore her.

Using his powers of being the Avatar, he tries to pull a rocks fall but nobody dies. Rocks falling is something the Avengers deal with panache and also lasers and punches.

Some panache. Beast’s skycycle gets hit by a rock and he ends up leaping onto one of the spires of the city to avoid crash. And then, like a cat who climbs a tree except its a building in this context, Beast has a hard time figuring out how to get down from there.

While the larger Avengers punch and laser boulders and jump onto spires, Wasp just flies right in and shoots Shadow Lord in the eyebrow.

Amazing. Another good use of Wasp powers, being able to get in close while the opponent thinks the team is distracted at a distance.

Shadow Lord is none too pleased to be shot in the eyebrow by a tiny insect-sized flying woman and decides that a particularly karmic punishment is required.

Shadow Lord: “An insect-sized flyling woman! What sorcery is this? But if an insect you be, then it is only fitting I ensnare you in a cocoon of living wind... a cocoon which will grow and envelop your so-called fellow Avengers!”

And as Rachel still pleads with Shadow Lord to knock it off, he summons a giant tornado that suck in all of the Avengers (save Beast stuck up on his spire).

Shadow Lord even has the tornado carry him along, the better to continue mocking the Avengers as he carries them to their doom.

Shadow Lord: “You hopeless children! Did you actually think to defeat me, to deter me from my purpose? I who who command the earth and wind themselves to do my bidding?”

Yeah, dude. Definitely not sounding like a supervillain now. Cannot fathom why the Avengers are assuming you are one.

Iron Man manages to escape the tornado by firing his boot-jets at maximum, sending him flying free with a SHA-BOOSH! but also carrying him far away because momentum.

Shadow Lord then creates a whirlpool in the ocean and has his tornado carry the Avengers towards it. The whirlpool goes to the bottom of the ocean. Which then cracks open to reveal bubbling magma.

That’s right. The Shadow Lord is going to shoot them out of a tornado, into a whirlpool and into magma beneath the ocean floor.

Its. At least more precise than hitting them with a volcano, I’ll give him that. Definitely feels like overkill to go from rocks to tornado-whirlpool-magma execution but its definitely more precise.

Somewhat more precise.

Because when Iron Man manages to slow himself down to turn back he notices that a yacht is being swamped by the waves Shadow Lord is churning up.

And because of heroism, he takes the time to scoop the yacht out of the ocean and rest it safely on an island.

Geez. There’s a lot of boats being beached in this story.

Shadow Lord actually sees this. And a thought starts penetrating his thick skull that maybe he should have listened to Rachel.

Shadow Lord: “The armored one paused in his attack on me to save those people -- innocent people... which is more than we were able to do 2,000 years ago. Perhaps, as Rachel says, they are not agents of evil...”

He decides that he’ll stop throwing them out of a tornado into a whirlpool into magma but he doesn’t get the chance to put that train of thought on the tracks.

Beast waves Iron Man over. From his perch on the spire he’s noticed that the building he’s on is cracking from the strain of all the power Shadow Lord is throwing around even though he’s not been throwing it at that building.

So Beast deduces that the city is key to Shadow Lord’s power in some way and should have the shit beaten out of it.

And as Iron Man starts punching some wall, Shadow Lord doubles over in pain and the tornado he was about to dissipate dissipates.

The other Avengers get free and decide hey, follow the leader.

Jocasta: “The battle has truly just begun. Malevolent power such as this must not be allowed to exist. We must follow Iron Man’s lead and destroy the city -- totally!”

So unnoticed by the Avengers as they level the city into a pile of rubble, Shadow Lord staggers and swoons at Rachel’s feet.

But even dying, he still has some exposition bottled up.

To be fair, he’s been isolated for 2,000 years with no one to talk to.

He explains that the powers of an entire population of Avatars was way too great to be contained in one squishy mortal body so the powers were instead imbued in the city itself.

And with the city destroyed, it can no longer serve as a source of power and also can’t keep him alive anymore.

He’s honestly not too broken up over it. Since the Avengers are valiant and worthy, they can pick up his unfinished business while he goes and dies and gets to reunite with his girlfriend who died sometime during those 2,000 years.

Shadow Lord: “But please understand... I am as much to blame for today’s events as anyone... I bear you no malice... we misjudged each other. I have done my best... no more can be expected of a man... perhaps you will succeed... where I have failed. So do not mourn my passing... for me, death is but the long-awaited door that opens to my beloved... Ayshera.”

And the Avengers realize belatedly ‘we done goofed.’

“A sad -- and confused -- group of heroes grimly watches the passing of the Shadow Lord... and only then does the cruel truth reveal itself to them: what they had thought to be one of their greatest triumphs is instead... one of their most bitter defeats.”

Oh, and as I expect they’ll soon find out, the Berserker has been kicking the Italian army’s ass near Pompeii so that’s probably escalating into a bit of a situation and they just accidentally killed the guy who could have helped with that. Although in fairness, he deliberately ignored Rachel when she told him that the Avengers were heroes.

Like he said, he fucked up too.

Still, while its a bit of a Marvel tradition to have mighty misunderstanding fights, I don’t think they tend to result in people dying. One for the history books.

Next time: the Berserker.

Follow @essential-avengers​. Also like and reblog. And send me Avengers triumphs that are way more impressive than beating up a city.

[frogocado]

A Golden Labyrinth of Noise Part 5 (Damien Haas au)

These past two weeks since the last chapter have felt like two dang months, you guys. With all this negative stuff happening, I’m v grateful to have a place for me to channel things into writing and making people smile. A shorter word count this time, but I think you’ll be pleased with it. Remember that reblogs help out creators a lot!

Begin the series here. Warnings: none Tag list (please message me if you’d like to be added): @latenlghtdevil, @star-mum, @thegigglehutsbonkyjilliams, @wierdlywonderful, @damiien-haas Word count: 1.6k.

5. Calypso

Two voices carried up the hill to the mausoleum. It was a windless night in the kingdom and both young men were still adjusting to the silence in the graveyard as their boots carried them up and up. After the first escape, Damien made sure to carry conversation on while they were surrounded by graves and mementos, as if talking cemented him in the current reality.

As Knight Topp pulled his chain plate back on, Damien was leaning against the stone chamber of the mausoleum. “Who is that bar maiden? Not the blonde one,” He questioned, glancing over at the Knight.

“Which one?” Knight Topp responded. “At the Lion?”

“No, at the apothecary,” Damien rolled his eyes, a hand ruffling through his hair. “Of course at the Lion, Shayne.”

Knight Topp was still not used to the prince calling him his first name. It had been about a month since they had begun their escapades out of the castle walls and each time, Damien seemed to be just as—if not more so—enthralled by the village beneath the castle. He always insisted that Knight Topp stand or sit right next to him, as if their statuses were dashed in the wind the moment the King had assigned the Knight to his side. The Knight considered that this was all because of suspicion until the Prince had started to insist that Knight Topp walk side by side with him even within the castle grounds.

“I don’t know that much.”

As Knight Topp adjusted his plates, he watched Damien’s eyes narrow in his peripheral vision. “You must know something,” the Prince continued. “I know you don’t frequent other taverns as much as Moss’s place, you said it yourself.”

“I don’t know that much about her, honestly.” Knight Topp rose, his armor and bones both creaking as he stood. With Damien’s help, they pulled the loose board over their escape route free. “She came about half a year ago. She sings every month.”

The Prince nodded thoughtfully as Knight Topp began his descent into the tunnel. He didn’t speak again until he had climbed in after his Knight and their boots fell in step back toward the castle. “You know nothing more?” The Prince prodded, glancing over at the other man. “Not even her name?”

Knight Topp thought for a moment, realizing he never actually heard David call her anything but “caged bird” or “siren.” He pulled at the threads of his memory, tracing them back to a time just before he had met the prince. He had gone to the Lion with Apprentice Grossman after a particularly hard day for the young lad. Courtney had been joking with the two of them when the other bar maiden had finally come around the other side of the bar, bumping shoulders with the blonde. The Knight had noted the way that Courtney’s smile grew wider when the maiden had appeared, a laugh immediately lacing her breath before the other even spoke.

Damien’s left boot dragging dirt in the tunnel under the village pulled the Knight back into reality. “Y/N,” he answered definitively, turning to watch the Prince.

Damien was watching his feet but Knight Topp still saw his eyes glint, the corners of his mouth creeping up into a smile. “Y/N,” he repeated, humming with curiosity. The Prince’s hand was skimming the stone walls, fingertips moving along like he was tracing familiar symbols.

The Prince hummed soft melodies that filled the space with warm notes. The Knight hadn’t realized why the tune had sounded so familiar until they reached the heavy door that led back into the castle. “My friend, I have a favor to ask you,” Damien said softly. He had stopped walking and turned, facing Knight Topp straight in the face. The young man never got used to meeting his Prince’s eyes, no matter how often Damien tried. His gaze always wavered away, even when there was no one else but the two of them.

Once, in the library, Damien stared at his friend for a full two minutes and timed how long his friend met his in return. The Knight had grown so frustrated with the game, he had left the section.

“What is it?” Knight Topp asked, eyes flickering away from the other man.

Damien, the twisted prince, smiled at how quickly he could get his friend to flinch. What a fun game, much better than when he would play hide and seek in Sir Overshire’s maze. Damien was still learning Knight Topp’s limitations like dead end hedges.

“Don’t include any mention of Y/N in your reports to my father.” Knight Topp’s eyebrows began to knit and Damien interrupted him before a single syllable could slip out of his now opened mouth. “Please, Shayne.”

Knight Topp could not recount a single time he had heard the king or queen say “please” to each other or others in the past two and a half months of serving under the crown. And yet, Damien would say the word and his thanks with a pure sincerity nearly every day. Even with Miss Takahashi, who was seldom ever speaking anything but mumbled curses and a series of grunts, was met with (petty jests but also) gratitude and appreciation from the prince.

“M-may I ask why, my prince?” Knight Topp’s voice entered the fray, a soft whisper as the prince’s hands landed on his shoulders. He could feel the weight of the request even through his chainmail.

“Because I am asking you, my friend. Shall I get on my knees and beg?”

“That’s hardly necessary,” the knight brushed off the prince’s hand, rolling his eyes. “It’s also not very princely. Would you like me to leave that out of my reports as well?” He was wondering now when Damien was going to wrap on the charade of the evening so he could retreat to his quarters and write about the past few hours. Miss Takahashi had brought Knight Topp a bundle of papers bound to leather covers a week prior, gruffly telling him it was a “gift from His Royal King Haas.”

The prince gave him a laugh shirk and stood in front of the door to the kitchens, folding his arms in front of his chest. “I may order you, if you’d prefer, but I thought you and I were past that line of thinking with one another.”

Knight Topp sighed, defeat escaping from his chest. “Fine, yes, fine. I’ve already committed enough treason to last my entire career and study as a knight—what’s something more?” He met the prince’s eyes, expecting him to be proud of his victory. Instead, Damien’s eyes were cast down on the ground, arms unfolding. The knight had never seen the prince so solemn and suddenly, he was struck with the realization that he had never once seen Damien’s face turn grave. “My friend?” Knight Topp gave a small offering, watching as Damien turned away from him, his hand on the oak door.

“I understand how this whole thing may seem jovial and silly to you.” The prince’s voice was soft, nearly swallowed into the wood. “I have never once felt free in my life. I am tied to my family, my privilege, my status. I know how that sounds, especially coming from me. There are so many expectations, so many rules. Everywhere I go, I am watched, but I cannot recall a time beyond the past few months that I have felt so seen.

I ask that you don’t include her in your reports because having her there binds another to my title. I have never heard someone sing with such freedom. I have never felt so…” Damien’s voice died in the air and he turned back to Knight Topp again, his expression fixed into an even serenity. Knight Topp was struck by this portrait of a true prince. Damien chewed on his lip and the Knight shifted, watching as he searched for the correct word. The prince had begun bringing Knight Topp his favorite books from the library, which they would discuss over breakfast. Knight Topp never knew there could be so many words.

“Infatuated,” the prince settled on.

The knight had heard this word many times, often in stories his mother would read to him before bed as a child. It was always in fairy tales, which the knight could not find more insufferable, but the wispiness in his mother’s voice calmed him into slumber that made the stories somewhat redeemed.

He found himself nodding as Damien’s eyes settled on his own. “I understand,” he said gently. “I shall keep her out of my reports, then.”

“Do you promise?”

Knight Topp scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Yes, I promise.”

Damien’s eyes lit up. “Thank you, my friend.” Or a moment, he thought about hugging the knight, but turned away to push the door to the kitchen open. “Shall we meet at the same time tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow? Why so soon?” Knight Topp questioned, moving sacks and barrels back in front of the door once they were inside. Smells of seeded bread and remnants of dinner’s beef stew made his chest feel warm and calm, despite the break in routine that the prince had just suggested. They had only been leaving the castle at most twice a week.

“I must find a way to know more about her.” Damien shrugged out of his cloak, discarding it over the sacks. “I’m off to retire to my chambers. Have a pleasant sleep, my friend.”

Knight Topp’s boots felt as if someone had pasted them to the floor of the kitchen, watching the prince wave as his frame disappeared into the hallway. Even though most inside the castle were asleep, Knight Topp could hear Damien humming as he wandered to his room, the prince’s voice carrying like waves.