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ultimatetornshipper · 4 years ago

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To bee or not to bee - a Jasonette fic

@moonlitceleste I almost let this die, I honestly really wanted it dead but alas it was clearly meant to bee

(WARNING: contains puns, angst, crack and fluff. You have been warned)

If you don’t want to read my sarcastic/funny/fangirl commentary, skip the brackets

I have another bee movie au, i didn't plan it ("I don't claim to be proud. But my head won't be hung in shame. I didn't plan it. But the light turned red, and I ran it. And I'm still standing. It's not what I wanted, but now that it's right here. I understand it. A story written by my own hand" as quoted from Waitress), it just happened and i just couldn't resist. I'm not sorry

So what if instead of dying Joker turned Jason into a bee. Because Harley convinced him and told him that people were talking shit about him because he's named the Joker and they don't think he's funny. It surprisingly works. (Obviously Harley was the one who made the plan and did the magic I mean really what do u expect of Joker?)

Ok so now Jason’s a bee right? And he’s like 15 because .~:°*plot*°:~.

They look for him and Jason’s like flying around like, “Guys! Guys I’m right here!” Poor kid. (I mean I would make it funny but like angst)

Obviously they don’t understand him because he’s a fucking bee and Joker cackles madly and Harley laughs too but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes and it's kinda that laugh u do when ur supes overwhelmed and sound maniacal but like soft (I’m a simp for Harley being portrayed as the complex and beautiful character she id leave me be)

Jason is very sad. And also quite pissed

Not knowing what else to do he follows Batman home, he listens to them trying to find him, watches Dick freak out and Alfred wipe a tear the rest of the family doesn’t see.

Jason tries to approach Alfred, hoping he somehow recognizes what happened

He doesn’t, Alfred closes him in a glass and paper and takes him outside.

He sneaks back into the manor and sleeps in one of the flowers (it's a red tulip because aesthetic) next to his bed. He cries himself to sleep. (Can bees cry? Is this possible? Is this like a thing??? I don't need sleep i need answers)

The thing is even tho he's now a bee, he still has the durability of a human, so even stepping on him won’t crush him and he still has a human lifespan

Because Harley isn’t a monster and what Puddin didn’t know couldn’t hurt him. (Simping for Harley Quinn strike 2)

After a while at the manor and following them he decides he can’t stand it anymore. Alfred has thrown him out three times and Dick freaks out each time he sees him as he’s a tad allergic (read: he would die if stung)

Which is how Jason found out that getting hit with a newspaper wouldn’t kill him.

He leaves.

He’s a bee and it’s not like he knows about a way to reverse it.

But there was someone who might.

He goes to Arkham.

Luckily, Harley was still there. (YAY we get to see mah gurl)

He flies into her cell and she just watches him, then she seems to click. She gives him a small smile, “Hi birdie,” (she puns, honestly would make for a better clown of Gotham and I saw an idea for that once where she steals Joker’s title once and I’ve been yearning for it ever since)

She holds out a finger and he lands on it, she laughs but tears come to her eyes,” Hey at least you’re not dead. That was his original plan you know? To kill you with a crowbar. I convinced him this would be a cruller fate. I guess maybe it is, but at least this way... Ugh how the hell did I get here,” (Harley angst, honestly it’s all just self service at this point)

He simply stared at her as she cried, and he felt his heart clench. From here she looked so sad... not crazy, just broken.

She took a deep breath and looked at him seriously, “Look kid, there’s a way to get you back to normal, you just need to find someone, they’re called the Guardian of the Miraculous. They can help, I don’t know who or where they are, just follow your instincts. And come say hi when you get back, yeah? I could do with the... healthier company. And remember, I bee-lieve in you,” (Gasp what a shock, you mean to tell me Miraculous magic is gonna be involved in this Maribat au. Well I never what a shock. Also puns. Oh and she’s so nice to him. We love Harley in this house)

He sat there and studied her for a while more, there was more to her than it seemed. Than what he’d assumed.

But for now, he had his own problems to deal with.

She gave him a small wave as he left. (Adorable)

He left and started considering his options, as a bee, it would probably be safest to stay inside, away from birds and things that would view him as a snack.

Staying in Arkham seemed like his best option, as bad an option as it was.

Most of the prisoners wouldn’t have a second thought about trying to crush him.

A strong scent of flowers and plants suddenly came to his attention.

Of course! Poison Ivy. (Round 2 of me simping for beautiful, complex, badass women. Too bad Catwoman ain’t here.)

He followed the smell to her cell and saw her staring out of her small window. He was still taking a chance, but she loved plants and flowers and bees were important to those, weren’t they?

He flew to the window bars and sat on one. The moment she spotted him she smiled widely, in a soft way he hadn’t seen on her before. (Ahhhhh my darling plant redhead. I love writing the Sirens as soft badasses. Also has anyone noticed how rare brunettes are in superhero worlds? Like both in Marvel and DC but like irl brown is like a pretty damn common)

She held out her finger, “Hey there, little guy. A little far from home, aren’t we?”

She had no idea.

He landed on her fingertip and watched in awe as a flower and a few leaves formed on her hand. She let the flower grow itself around one of her window bars and held her finger next to one of the petals.

“There you go, it’s all I can manage with my power dampers. I haven’t had company in a while,” she said softly as he crawled into the flower. He made himself comfortable.

She laughed to herself and he saw her shaking her head, “Talking to a bee, well, I guess stranger things have happened,” (yeah ur crush is dating a green haired murderous psychopath and you get beat up by a billionaire in a batsuit on like a biweekly basis)

The flower was soft and warm and felt safer than he expected it to. He found that he could move between the petals but decided to curl up in the middle. (It's a pink rose this time because fuck yeah flowers)

He slept better than he had in days.

The next morning he took his leave, stopping only at the manor to say a mental goodbye.

Then he headed off.

Jason flew a lot the first few months, our boy was smart at least, travelling with a cruise ship on its way to Europe.

It was Spring in the Northern Hemisphere so he had until Autumn until it was in his best interest to head south to avoid the snow. He decided to head towards Africa when summer started coming to an end. (I have no reasoning for this, just that I want to)

His first spot would be the United Kingdom. Then he'd go through the rest of Europe following his instincts.

At least it was Spring.

Jason diligently searched through England, Scotland and Ireland but found nothing.

By the time he was done he realized it was time to start heading South. He’d decided to take another cruise to South-Africa, where it would be summer, he searched through the country until April. He would admit that he didn’t feel drawn to anything in any of their 9 provinces so his search wasn’t as diligent as in England. He didn’t feel anymore drawn to the neighbouring countries like Namibia or Botswana either.

(Once again no reasoning for why I picked these countries, I mean the French Hugonotes went there when they were fleeing from the French Catholics who wanted them dead so I guess I could make up some bullshit about Mari having an ancestor in common with someone there or maybe it was just the ship he could easiest get access I don’t know, you make something up)

Which was why he decided to go back to Europe as soon as April hit.

He hitched another ride on a cruise headed for France.

It’s been a year since he got turned into a damn bee.

He was sixteen now and while he’d seen some amazing things all through South-Africa (a place that proves that humans really do have a weirdly obvious way of naming things I mean the Amazon river and Chad Lake are just more examples really) as well as the United Kingdom, all he really wanted was to go back home, to be human again.

When he gets there he diligently makes his way through France, eventually arriving in Paris.

He lands on the tip top of the Eiffel Tower. As in the point of the antenna because why not.

During his year he realized that birds and other animals tended to avoid him, sensing his strangeness so that was at least one positive.

He stared out over the city. Well, the one good thing about this was definitely the views he’s been allowed to see.

That was until a massive explosion hit.

“What the fuck?” he said out loud, searching for the source. No one understood him, human or bee, but talking to himself reminded him of his humanity.

He found the source of the explosion but just as he started flying to its general direction, a blinding white light shone followed by a horde of ladybugs that were fixing everything that was wrong. (Imagine how scary this would lowkey be irl tho? Just a shit ton of Ladybugs descending on Paris my dude)

He decided that he needed a night’s sleep before he could even begin an attempt at deciphering what had just happened. He flew lower, finding a nice little balcony right above a bakery. And it had flowers. (I’ll give u five seconds to guess who this balcony belongs to)

He flew down, exploring.

He turned around when he heard a loud thump from behind him. What appeared to be a super heroine in red spandex with black spots had landed on the balcony.

She detransformed and started to talking to a floating bug- fairy thing. Strange. Though it wasn’t like he could judge, as an ex superhero sidekick who was thought to be dead but was actually a bee.

She disappeared down her trapdoor and he made himself comfortable in one of her flowers.

He slept soundly until somewhere during a night another thump woke him. He looked out of his sleeping spot to see a cat superhero stand on her balcony. He leaned down and knocked on her small trapdoor.

Ah, a teammate of hers, they were probably meeting about something, he thought as he heard her open up.

It didn’t take him long to realize that even though they were teammates, the cat, Chat Noir he later learned, was not aware of this fact.

Oh this was rich.

He couldn’t bee-lieve his eyes. (ok so Jason used self-referential puns but can you really blame him? It’s really just me and my pun problem so don’t blame the kid)

He was going on and on about his feelings for Ladybug, the girl’s hero form, that were clashing with his feelings for another girl he fenced with, while she listened, clearly fed up with it.

He also claimed that he thought that maybe they were one and the same. Which, to Jason, was hilarious as he was literally saying this to the actual Ladybug’s face.

Marinette- he learned from the Cat’s ongoing blabbering, he was a real blab-bee mouth, - was clearly tired, nodding half asleep, probably having heard it all before.

When he finally left Jason went to sleep again, incredibly amused and even more thankful that he was fluent in French. ( u think this is plot convenience? Just u wait mah dude iz about to get worse)

The next morning he decided to follow her to school. Which was how he learned of her huge crush on a boy named Adrien Agreste.

After learning the boy could fence thanks to Marinette’s obsession interest in him, he got suspicious.

Could it really bee? (not a typo)

After seeing the boy transform a month or two later for patrol he laughed like he hadn’t for over a year. It very much was. He'd spent the time staying on Marinette's balcony and decided to stay another week before moving on and continuing his search, after all, he couldn't stop now that he finally felt like he was getting close.

The next day she got home crying, claiming that Adrien had started dating someone else.

Kagami, she called the girl. Probably the fencer if he had to place a bet.

“I’m sorry, Marinette,” Tikki told the girl.

“That boy's an idiot,” he said, speaking his mind, another thing he’d gotten use to being allowed to do without consequence.

Marinette nearly jumped out of her skin, she looked around and he realized that she could hear him. He hadn’t really spoken too much before, at least not when she was around. He was usually content with watching her do whatever she was doing that day.

“Tikki, did you hear that?” she asked, Tikki nodded, her eyes landing on him.

“Oh,” the kwami said softly, flying over to him, “Oh, you poor thing, who did this to you?” (Tikki is the first ever mom friend and u can fight me on this)

He stared up at her, flying so that they were eye level.

Marinette gaped at them, heartbreak seemingly forgotten, “Tik- Tikki, are- who are you talking- are you talking to a – Tikki is that a bee?!” she finally spluttered out.

“No,” Tikki said, studying him, he felt his heart twist in hope and his stomach roll in surprise. Did she know?

“I mean yes, but no. He’s a boy whose been turned into a bee,” Tikki explained, turning back to Marinette.

“Oh,” Marinette said softly, turning to him. She held her hand out and after some hesitation he landed on her finger. She looked at him then back to Tikki.

How did they know? Would he really be that lucky? Was this real?

“Uhm, how?” she said, staring at him in disbelief. He tried shrugging but realized he couldn’t anymore- beecause of his- well if you haven’t caught on to the fact that he’s a bee by now you should really start from the beginning of this story.

“I don’t know, but Joker and Harley Quinn were involved,” he said.

Marinette stared at him in disbelief, blinking a few times. She sat in shock a few moments longer. (Our darling is an awkward lil bean, and while in media awkward is portrayed as cute, irl it isn’t, it’s just well… awkward. And we’re writing a serious and realistic fic about this sidekick of guy who wears a batsuit/billionaire's ward getting turned into a bee and falling in love with a magical girl fighting a butterfly man- none of this unrealistic nonsense)

Tikki flew over and sat on Marinette’s shoulder while her holder processed the information, the kwami stared at him sweetly, “What’s your name?”

He swallowed, he hadn’t said his name in ages, it stirred up something (emotion, it’s called emotion, Jason, you know? The thing Batman can’t process??) in him, “Jason Todd,”

Marinette seemed to finally snap out of her daze, “That sounds American. Are you American? Wait if Joker and Harley are involved then you’re probably from Gotham. Are you? Wait I’ve seen the name Jason Todd somewhere. Weren’t you some rich guy’s ward? It was all over the news last year, Alya wouldn’t stop talking about it for a month, she had a million theories. He was – you were announced dead two months after Robin was taken captive by Joker, everyone thought he was – you were killed. Joker made outrageous claims as they arrested him... saying that they’d never find Robin... that he’d all but disappeared in thin air... that he wouldn’t be the only one wearing stripes... I remember because he put a really weird emphasis on the words be and stripes and...,” her eyes widened and she gasped as she looked at him in what could only be described as pure shock. (Yes this happens, people can talk for this long and since I personally know headcannon that Marinette is ADHD this long ass paragraph is just another Tuesday bud)

He sat there, surprised that she figured it all out so quickly. (yeah bub it’s called plot convenience and it’s because of me, the writer, I don’t wanna focus on secret ID shenanigans, I got other plans for yall, also Mari is smart, don’t underestimate her)

“You’re Robin,” she breathed, “they turned you into a bee. Wait- How the hell did they turn you into a bee?!”

He chuckled, “Bee-lieve me I’ve been asking myself that question for more than a year,”

She bit her lip, seemingly contemplating his words and ignoring his pun, “Tikki do you know anything that could help? Do you think Miraculous magic-,”

He felt his heart stop, he flew up to her face, flying at eye level, “Wait, did you just say Miraculous? Harley said if I could find the Guardian of the miraculous, they could help me, do you know where they are? I’ve been looking for so long,” (‘°;~*.plot convenience.*~;°’)

Marinette blinked at him and Tikki's face dawned with realization.

“I’m the guardian of the miraculous,” Marinette said softly, “Tikki, that means I can help him, right?”

Tikki nodded and he had to dial down the hope in his heart because the look on her face told him there was a Kim Kardashian sized butt on the way.

“We can help him, but we’re gonna have to wait. (don’t look at me like that, do u want them to have time to bond or not?) You’re not trained enough to pull it off yet. If you were to do it now, all three of us would be out of commission for far too long, especially with Hawkmoth on the prowl,” Tikki said.

They must’ve been able to sense his sadness because they were staring at him with an incredible amount of pity. The amount was quite unsettling actually and he suddenly felt a primal like urge to pun. (An extract from my book: “My unhealthy coping mechanisms and how to use them,” specifically Chapter 8: “Humor hides the pain”)

Suddenly Tikki’s face lit up, the whiplash of her expression change throwing any notion of punning out the window.

“Well, there’s one thing we could do,” she said, excitedly, zipping buzzing around “If he wears a miraculous, he'll return back to human form while transformed,”

Marinette perked up at the idea, but confusion soon overtook her features, “But Tikki, most of the miraculous are bigger than he is,”

Tikki waved her away,” It’s fine it’ll work,”

“Ok,” Marinette said after a bit of thought. She stood and he followed while she started climbing down her skylight,” I’m thinking you can try each of them out for different patrols and then we’ll see which one matches you best. This could be fun, having some fun sized company while figuring out how to defeat Hawkmoth,”

He laughed, flying near her ear, “Fun sized, huh? I’ll have you know I’m considered tall in human form, unlike some of us,”

She laughed and rolled her still tear stained eyes, and so, the beginning of a bee-autiful friendship bloomed.

Marinette walked to her closet and Jason took in her room. It was very pink, but in a well-balanced way - it wasn’t completely overbearing. His eye caught on a few pictures of Adrien Agreste on her wall but figured now wouldn’t be a great time to bring it up. (Look he’s already more emotionally aware, #foreshadowing of character development)

She removed a big box from her closet. She opened it and it was filled with what appeared to be a bunch of scrap materials. At the bottom she removed a bigger bundle of black and red fabric and he flew closer.

She put it in her lap and Jason had to do a double take when he realized that her hands were glowing and what the actual fuck- it was a box now -fuck fuck fuck- why was it a box? How? What- Jason was pretty sure he did not sign up for this.

She put the box down in front of her and to his relief she opened her mouth to speak as she lifted the lid, so he’d understand everyth- and its jewellery.

The box contained jewellery. Animal themed jewellery by the looks of things.

He then realized that these were probably the other miraculous.

She looked over each artefact before handing him the yellow and black hairclip.

Out of all of them, she picked the bee miraculous.

“Hilarious,” he replied dryly, giving her a look, he realized too late she wouldn’t be able to register- on account of, well you know… (if u don’t know by now, you don’t get to find out anymore)

She gave him a grin and replied, “I certainly think it is,”

Her teasing expression turned into one of worry, “I mean we could switch it out if it makes you uncomfortable-,” (being a sassy people pleaser with no filters really do be like this tho)

He laughed, “Don’t worry, I’m only teasing. What do I do?”

Marinette opened her mouth to answer before obviously realizing that she didn’t have an answer. She turned to Tikki and the kwami had a fond smile on her face before turning to Jason. (Just Tikki casually mentor- moming Mari because Fu is useless)

“Just step on the miraculous, it’ll sense that you’re human,” the creature replied.

When he stepped onto the bee miraculous, its kwami appeared.

Pollen stared at him for a few seconds before she realized what was happening.

After an explanation about her power set and what exactly he could do in suit, he transformed.

He felt his human body appearing. He was taller and more built than he remembered being. His flying clearly had physical consequences then, not that he was complaining.

His suit included a pair of bee wings. His hair was longer than he remembered it being too.

He had a black leather jacket and combat boots. With it was a pair of practical black leggings and a yellow t-shirt with three thick black stripes. (The three stripes represent each one of his families, the Todds, the Waynes and The Dupain-Chengs, because I can) He also had a pair of black gloves. His boots had yellow laces. On his face was a black and yellow striped domino mask. The top sat on his hip. The bee miraculous sat on the middle of his chest in the form of a broach.

He all but sprinted to the mirror. He stared at his face, his blue eyes and his nose that never healed quite right after breaking it that one time. His black hair was messy and stuck up every which way, his cheekbones were as high as always, and he had a little bit of stubble and it was so familiar and so new all at once.

He touched his face, barely registering the tears flowing down his cheeks and laughed in relief. He was human again. This was real! He could- he was closer to normal than he ever thought he’d get to be.

He turned to Marinette who was staring up at him in shock. He picked her up and spun her around, laughing in joy. And after a moment she joined in. He put her down and put his hands on her shoulders, smiling widely, “Thank you. Thank you so much,”

She smiled up at him, a slightly sad look on her face, “I’m sorry, it’s not permanent,”

“Don’t be sorry. For the first time I have hope. It will be permanent eventually, and till then, I have you with me, right?” he squeezed her shoulder, still high on the feeling of hope and warmth and familiarity.

When he was overcome with the sudden urge to pull her into a hug, he didn’t resist.

He held her close, resting his chin on her head, “Damn, I missed this. Hugging, I mean. I haven’t... it’s been so long,” (not that he got all that many hugs from Bruce “emotionally constipated” Wayne)

She wrapped her arms around him, “I can imagine,”

They stood there a while before the time for patrol came along. She transformed and they made their way to the Eiffel tower, where they met Chat.

The cat themed hero rose his brow questioningly, “I thought we didn’t recruit new heroes unless it was an emergency?”

Ladybug smiled nonchalantly, “It’s Guardian business, he’s gonna be a permanent fixture in our team for at least a few months so we might as well get used to working as a team,”

Chat Noir eyed him wearily and he stepped forward, sticking his hand out, “Hi, I’m Blackback, nice to meet you,”

Chat Noir shook his hand and gave Ladybug a sceptical look, “An American? Really?”

“Please Chat, he's not American, it’s just the glamour hiding his actual accent,” she replied simply, shooting Jason a worried look.

He couldn’t give away his identity, but he was also technically a bee, he didn’t really have an identity to give away. So, her behaviour was strange. Unless she wanted to give him an identity somehow?

He couldn’t stop thinking about it for the rest of patrol.

When they got home Marinette revealed that she wanted to give him the fox miraculous. If they asked Trixx she would be able to design the costume in a way that allowed him to look like a normal civilian, without the mask.

Trixx's glamour was also stronger than the rest so his true identity as Jason Todd would be protected.

And she could help him fake an accent.

Since Marinette was a year younger than him he could just pick up where he left off school wise.

She convinced her parents that he was an exchange student in desperate need of a place to stay because the person he would’ve stayed with backed out last minute.

They agreed easily and Jason decided to not question it.

It was his third family. His second if you only counted non abusive ones. First if you wanted one with a healthy family dynamic.

They got him a fake birth certificate and name. He went with the alias Thomas Grayson. He thought it was kind of funny, and it paid homage to both Bruce and Dick. It gave him something from home to hold on to. (Jason isn’t really salty about not being avenged in this au, he didn’t die and Talia and the pit madness wasn’t there to egg on his anger. But maybe if I ever get back to this au we could do a thing with it… guess we’ll have to wait and see ;-) no promises tho)

He built himself another home with Marinette and her family. And before he knew it, he was happy again. He felt secure.

Through the weeks, he ingrained himself into Marinette's life. In a blink of an eye, they were best friends, and he couldn’t imagine life without her.

He loved living with her family as she trained to be strong enough to turn him back to normal.

He grew close to Marinette’s friends and was her shoulder to cry on about Adrien. He and Adrien got along pretty well, and he and Marc and Rose traded Literature jokes. Max would join in when it involved Shakespeare.

Then Lila happened. (She’s a staple in Maribat fiction. U can’t have Maribat without Lila. Or well u can but that’s usually a very specific au)

Her lies started out simple enough. Then she started manipulating everyone and he, Marinette, Chloe and Adrien were one scheme away from being ostracized. They sat in the back row.

They ignored her sneers and let her lie to her heart’s content. Then one day she said something that made both Marinette and Jason freeze.

“You know, I was childhood friends with Jason Todd (I know she usually gets the names wrong but like her knowing the name just makes this next bit better) You know, Bruce Wayne’s ward who died a while ago? It was just so sad. He grew up in a nice family but his parents both died in a car accident and Brucie took pity on him. He even let us keep in contact afterwards, since our parents were such good friends. We all miss them dearly of course. We were neighbours the year we lived in Gotham, you know? We'd play every day-,” she started fake crying, “Oh it just gets too much sometimes,”

But to Jason’s shock Alya didn’t move to console Lila, in fact, she was staring at the brunette in shock.

He turned his gaze to Marinette to see the girl wearing the biggest, coldest, most satisfied smirk. She rested her chin on her hands and grinned at Lila in a way that made shivers go down his spine.

He turned back, this ought to be good.

And it was.

Alya absolutely lost it.

She ripped Lila a new one and frankly? Jason was impressed. (Alya has a temper and she’s a fangirl, and we all know how we get when someone gets something wrong about one of our hyperfixations, even if it’s an old one so like yall can imagine how bad Lila had fucked up)

When an akuma flew in towards Lila, Alya grabbed it, staring the girl down with a fury he didn’t know she could possess, “Don’t you dare! Do you think I’m blind? I’ve seen how easily you get akumatized and this time I’m not letting it happen!”

Of course, Alya then got akumatized but hey it beat another version of Lila.

Everyone made up but they weren’t quite as close as before. Their group tended to consist mostly out of him, Marinette, Chloe, Adrien, Kagami and Luka.

Other than that incident and akuma attacks, life was pretty good.

In fact, it was great.

He and Marinette would spend nights on her balcony, laughing and slow dancing. They star gazed and went on patrols. He helped her when she got nightmares and she returned the favour. They went on long walks and spent the holidays together. They crammed for tests and he played model for her designs. They worked in the bakery and hung out with their friends both in and out of suit. They’d joke about his technical bee-ness and he and Chat drove her mad with puns. In retaliation she’d introduce him as her bee friend to people or only give him honey and bee themed things. (ok this sentence sounds weird but I mean like when she brings them sweets from the bakery to snack on while working and stuff.)

And one laugh, memory and fight at a time, he started to fall. (I just want good things for Jason, and really can you blame me?)

Through the months, he kept up to date on the news about Bruce Wayne and Marinette held his hand each time a new kid joined his brood. She reminded him that no child could be replaced and reassured him that of course Bruce would want him back when they figured everything out.

And if he didn’t, she’d kick his ass into space, and he’d stay with her family in Paris- a family she made sure he knew he was a part of.

He helped Sabine in the kitchen and was the only one who came closest to beating Marinette’s Ultimate Mega Strike 3 record. Tom taught him to shave and bake. He was integrated into their family and they treated him as part of the family.

But even if they were giving him everything they were, he missed Bruce. And Dick. And Alfred. And Barbara. And Gotham. He missed them all so much. He missed home.

So, 14 months later, when Marinette told him they had a meeting with the Justice League about the Hawkmoth situation, Jason felt his heart skip a beat.

“What?” he asked softly, his eyes brimming with tears (Marinette taught him how to emotion, you see. So Jason is emotionally stable-ish enough to cry without feeling embarrassed about it), “I get to see him again?”

Marinette nodded and hugged him from behind, “I’m planning on telling him what happened. Is there anything you can tell him to verify who you are?”

Memories from a million years ago entered his mind, “Yes,”

She took his hand and took a step back, “And I think I can fix you before we go, I’m strong enough. But I’d still like your help in the final battle, I mean I know you’re going home but...,”

He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and smiled, “Of course, Pixie. I’ll always be there for you when you need me,”

He pressed a kiss against her forehead, a movement so familiar it was practically a part of him. He pulled her close and cried into her hair.

“What if he doesn’t believe me?” he asked softly, after a while, resting his chin on top of her head.

“He will,” she replied, tightening her grip around his waist.

They both knew she had no guarantee of that. That she had no way of knowing for sure. Neither of them did. And it scared him more than he wanted to admit.

The next day they do the magic turning back thing. It freaks him out quite a bit but not as much as her revealing the miraculous freaked him out the first time, you get kinda used to the magic shenaniganary. They’re both passed out for an hour afterwards and when they wake up, he holds her, crying, because he was finally, finally back to normal and this was real and permanent, and it was over.

She cried with him and held him, and they then went out and he wore a shirt she made for him, and they got ice cream the next day. They celebrated some more and went to the park with the squad and they had a picnic.

It was better than he ever could've imagined.

While the sun was setting, they stood back on her balcony, where they first spoke all those months ago, slow dancing. He pulled away and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and smiled at her as the orange light of the sunset shone on them. (So aesthetic)

“Thank you, Marinette, for everything,” he says as he rubs his thumb across her cheek. His hand holding her face. She puts her hand over his and closes her eyes, savouring the moment.

She opened her eyes again and smiled, “I’d do it again and more, if it meant I’d get to be with you,”

He started leaning down, “If I lost you, I’d fly all over the world just to find you again,”

She raised to her tip toes, faces millimetres from one another, blue bells meeting ice, “So it was all worth it in the end?”

He moves closer, eyes searching hers. “Definitely,” he breathes.

She closes the distance, and he picks her up and spins her around. They break apart and their laughter fills the air.

(now that’s enough fluff, allow me to drown you in angst)

The next day they stood on the Eiffel tower. She took his hand, “Let’s recap. I go in, we have our Hawkmoth meeting, then I ask if I can speak to Batman and Nightwing alone. Then I tell them I found you, then I give them – are you sure it’s necessary for me to give them your blood, hair and a cheek swab? Isn’t that overkill?” (Batman is serious about his no kill rule, but he’s also serious about his there’s no such thing as overkill rule)

He shook his head and she sighed, “Okay. Then I give him means to contact me and I come back. Now remember they might take a while to process and they won’t necessarily call immediately-,”

“What if they never call?” he asked, gripping her hand tightly.

She ran her finger softly through his hair, “Then you have us to help you get through it,”

He nodded, she kissed his cheek and stepped through the portal with Queen Bee, Chat Noir and Viperion. He and Ryuuko stayed behind as backup, he wielded the Fox miraculous these days, but kept the name Blackback, always wearing a black leather jacket no matter the transformation.

He and Ryuko discussed fighting styles, she was kindly trying to distract him, and if it had been anything else he needed distracting from, it would’ve worked.

So passed the slowest forty-five minutes of his life. Chat Noir and Queen Bee exit a portal and so the wait for Marinette and Luka began.

She and Bruce were talking now. Bruce would know he was alive. This was make or break for him. Luka was nearby to act as back up worst-case scenario.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, followed by someone taking and rubbing circles on his back. He looked down to see Ryuuko on his one side and saw Chat Noir on his other.

“We’ve got you,” Chloe said standing in front of him, hand on his unoccupied shoulder.

He swallowed and nodded. She squeezed his upper arm and met his gaze, “Breathe, you’re safe, honey,”

So, 30 more minutes pass. They sit down and somewhere along the line Chat goes and grabs a dozen croissants from the bakery.

In another situation he might’ve laughed. He’d baked this morning’s batch and now he got to eat some of it for free, of course, technically he could get others for free too but-

The portal opened behind them and Ladybug and Viperion stepped out. He noted that she didn’t have the bag of his DNA with her anymore.

She smiled softly at him, “Now we wait,”

And wait they did.

They waited two weeks.

And then the burner phone that's number they'd given Bruce rang.

Jason froze, Marinette jumped up and ran to get it.

He couldn't move as she walked over and put the phone on speaker, she grabbed his hand and he held onto her for dear life.

"We can both hear you now, Nightwing," she said.

There was a beat of silence on the other side of the line, "Can he- If you're- can I speak to him? In- um- private?"

Marinette looked at him, and he nodded. She took the phone off speaker and handed it to him.

He held it up to his ear and squeezed his eyes shut, focusing on the circles Marinette were drawing on his hand with her thumb.

"He- hey Dick," he said. He heard his brother's breathing hitch, followed by a few seconds of silence.

"When did Batman find you?"

"25th May 2017,"

"Who's your favourite author?"

"Mary Shelley tied with Jane Austin,” he replied.

Dick stayed silent for too long and before he could stop himself the words fell from his mouth, desperation clinging to each syllable,” My favourite- my favourite playwright is Shakespeare, and my favourite school subject is English. If I could pick any day job it would be being a writer. My favourite colour is blue. Alfred has a secret fear of dolphins. You have had a ridiculously huge crush on Barbara for years and she had no idea, and I found a picture you drew under your old room's bedside table of you two getting married. I folded the picture up and hid it in a small box of memories I kept in the farthest corner of my closet under clothes I never wore. I have a round scar on the lower left side of my back where Willis Todd burned me with a cigarette when I was 5 that you don’t know I know you know about. My first Christmas at the manor you found me in the rose garden cutting a few off to take to my mother's grave and I was terrified that you would yell at me but instead you drove me to the graveyard and that was the day I decided to give you a real chance. I despise carrots but I eat them when Alfred makes them because I don't want to be a burden. And I-," he choked on a sob- when had he started crying?

He took a shuddering breath, and swallowed some of his tears, trying to make sure the words got out right, "I've missed you guys for every single second that I've been gone,"

His stomach tied itself up in a million knots as the silence stretched on. He could hear Dick moving the phone.

"Can I speak to Ladybug again please?" A female voice he didn't recognize said.

He handed the phone to Marinette and pressed his hand over his mouth to try to contain the sobs. He felt like a knife was twisting his stomach. He couldn't even hear what Marinette was saying. (I’m going through something irl and as a result u guys get to read angst by the bucketloads and I regret nothing)

Dick didn't want to talk to him. He should've just answered the question, he shouldn't have given all the extra information. Now they were never going to believe that it's really him and he would never see them again. Maybe they knew it was him and they just didn't want him-

"Jason, breathe with me," he heard Marinette's voice. His eyes latched onto hers like a lifeline, he became aware of her hands holding his.

She took his face in her hands and rested her forehead against his, in a motion so familiar that it came as easy as breathing. Well as easy as it usually was to breathe, right now excluded.

After he calmed down, she explained to him what they discussed. They would go to Gotham and meet and discuss things from there.

They wanted to meet him, but they still didn’t completely believe that it was him. He knew this for a fact because they had organized for M’gann to be there to confirm what he was saying. (Yassss M'gann my darling girl, I adore out lil Martian)

Marinette had suggested that they meet in the Batcave in an hour. Everyone had agreed. He assumed she had a plan as to why she wanted to wait. And he trusted her, so he waited for her to explain.

“I want to take the team, as backup. If you’re not comfortable with it, I want to at least take Luka. I would suggest just letting one of us wield is miraculous, but his Second Chance Timer limit is an hour so it would be most beneficial,” she said, gesturing with the hand that wasn’t holding his.

He nodded, sitting up straighter, but not releasing his grip on her hand, “We can bring the team, it’s smart to have backup. Besides if things go haywire, we have Luka to stop us.”

“Then let’s go get our team, love,”

(oh, I should probably mention that only he and LB knows everyone’s Identities. Or well rather no one knows like officially. Like everyone lowkey knows everyone's and a few of them have officially revealed themselves to each other, but not everyone is officially revealed to everyone and Mari and Jason are the only ones who aren’t officially revealed to anyone else, it’s kinda like the vibes of knowing your best friend is queer but not saying anything because they haven’t officially come out yet but like you know because they ain’t nearly as subtle as they think. Like that aesthetic.)

Anyway, 50 minutes later, they’re all gathered on the Eiffel Tower. Jason saw Marinette give Luka a nod to reset his timer. Suddenly he was enveloped in a light with a scratch that wasn’t there a few seconds before on his cheek, his expression quite annoyed.

Marinette immediately furrowed her brows, “How many times?”

Viperion shook his head, “Don’t worry, only one so far, but they try to restrain us. We’re gonna have to try plan b this time,” Everyone nodded, they waited two minutes before the agreed upon time and Mari opened a portal, but instead of appearing out in the opened, they hid in the shadowy parts of the cave.

Jason used his illusion to hide them from any observant eyes and they spread out a bit. He and Mari stayed together, Cloe flew to get a higher perspective and hide Viperion on one of the cave’s many ledges while Chat just moved a few feet away to have a slightly different hiding spot. Kagami dropped into her wind form and was flying above them to eavesdrop, she’d go to Luka if she heard anything of importance so he could go restart again.

They’d be one step ahead of the Bats no matter what they pulled, after all, they had all the time in the world.

They watched them all get into position as time neared. Jason didn’t know all the kids but recognized them from the news.

Dick, Bruce and M’gann stood near the bat computer with Barbara – who was in a wheelchair but that was a realization to deal with later- and Alfred.

The minute they were supposed to appear Jason cast another illusion to make it appear as though they had arrived. As expected, weapons and restraints immediately swarmed on them, each kid going for a different miraculous member. Too bad the images turned into orange dust as soon as they touched them.

The tiny one in the Robin uniform was red in the face and immediately started throwing a tantrum, “Father! They’ve tricked us-,”

Before he could get another word out, Chloe mass-venomed the horde of kids that we’re sent to attack them. He counted Black bat, Red Robin, Batgirl, Signal and Robin. They were all frozen in the middle of the room and before the others near the computer could move, Kagami trapped them in a (rather large) ring of fire. They had enough space to move around comfortably but if they tried approaching the edge the flames would grow larger.

Batman growled and his eyes searched through the cave, but he wouldn’t see them, no matter how hard he searched.

Jason stared at them. Dick was also searching the cave, but he seemed to look more hopeful than angry. Alfred seemed his usual calm self and Barbara was glancing around the cave more subtly. He didn’t bother looking at the rest of the batkids because M’gann was staring right at him, staying right where she was despite her ability to fly.

“Hi, Jason,” she softly spoke into his mind, he felt emotion overwhelm him, she’d known him before everything, and she knew it was him and it was a lot.

He knew she wasn’t probing around his brain for information like he was sure Bruce had asked her to, she didn’t have to, she knew it was him.

“Can you please tell me why we’re surrounded by fire?” she asked.

“We have a time traveller,” he replied.

“Ah, not a fan of Bruce’s restrain and question method, then? Can’t say I blame you, though I do think you’ve proven your point,”

“You really think it’s a good idea to release all of them?” he asked sceptically.

“… Good point. Maybe leave the brood in the middle in whatever frozen state they’re in and just let us in the fire out. They really just think it’s too good to be true… Jason, I won’t let them hurt you,”

“Okay,” he agreed softly. He turned to Marinette and gave her a slight nod. She returned with one of her own.

They walked over to Kagami’s ring of fire and he held their illusion until they were right in front of it. He held on to it for a bit to make sure everyone else would be able to stay in position. Chloe would keep the cavalry venomized and Chat and Viperion would stick to the shadows, unless necessary.

Jason dropped the illusion and watched four heads snap to him. M'gann simply gave him a soft smile and a nod of encouragement.

Kagami moved herself to stand next to Marinette and turned back into her human form, glaring at them with a silent warning.

Their attention was elsewhere, though. For a long time they just stood there and stared at one another in silence. They studied every part of one another they could see.

His eyes caught on Barbara’s wheelchair and he felt ready to destroy whatever put her there. She met his eyes and he held her gaze. She must’ve seen something there because she gave a small smile as she allowed a few tears to escape her eyes.

“Miss Martian?” Batman broke the silence like a cheap dinner plate, shattering it in a matter of seconds.

“It’s him,” M’gann answered without a hint of hesitation.

It was Alfred that moved first. He took a few hesitant steps towards him and before Jason knew it the man was in front of him. Alfred reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, desperately studying him for a moment before pulling him into a hug only Alfred could give.

It took Jason a moment to respond but when he did he returned it wholeheartedly.

After a few minutes they pulled apart and it took him a moment to realize that they’d both started crying. When he looked up Dick was only a few feet away. The moment Alfred stepped away Dick pulled him close.

“I thought you were dead, kid. I thought I’d never see you again, I thought I lost even more family. You were too young, too innocent. Fuck Jason,” Dick whispered, tightening his grip, “I’m so glad you’re alive,”

Jason held on to his brother and that night they cried about terrible endings and broken beginnings. They cried about lost time and found family.

It wasn’t the end yet, Hawkmoth was still terrorizing Paris and he had no idea what Bruce thought yet. There were all his other kids, his brothers and sisters. There were his teammates and the incredible story of how he’d been turned into a bee of all things.

They had a lot of catching up to do.

But just for a moment, a strand of a singular moment, he had his brother in his arms again and he was back home. His first real home.

Things weren’t perfect, as things rarely are but it didn’t matter. Because part of the beauty of life is how it builds and breaks us in a cycle of love and loss.

And that night they laughed with a lightness and joy none of them had fully been able to hold onto in years.

I hope you guys enjoyed!

This is lowkey totally gonna be the au I go to when I don’t know what to write lol, maybe write a bit of what happens afterwards or a part of everything during the year he lived with Mari them or just y’know shenanigans

#maribat #jason todd #marinette dupain cheng #jasonette #bee movie au #aka the deep dark hole within the deep dark hole #I've been working on this for a month #probably more #my brain held me captive with this au it held me at gunpoint and stalked me and wouldn't leave me alone until i wrote it #me: casually attempting to write anything else #my brain: *slaps me with ideas for this* NO #and the worst part is there's more that's not written just bull my brain came up with #and i can't believe I put angsty life philosophy writing in a CRACK AU #THIS IS THE VERY DEFINITION OF A CRACK AU #WHY #I AM SO INVESTED AND I'M MAD ABOUT IT #i enjoyed writing this and that fact alone infuriates me #blame moonie for this #and u know what blame bugabunny too #(fuck i hope i got their name right)#if it hadn't been for the two of them discussing this again i would've forgotten all about it and i woulda been allowed to write #my kaldur x marinette fic in peace. or my lila time loop fic. OR LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE #anyway i tried to make his outfit red hood esque but like only the parts i liked about it #aka the leather jacket and the combat boots #I don't know how i feel about the fact that i wrote this but what's done is done #*sigh*#jason x marinette #why me #nightwing fluff #but also angst

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theravencawsatmidnight · 3 years ago

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I have nothing to upload so heres part one of the Rick n Morty ficco.

W! Swearing mostly.

Minty

Part One

“Thank you for choosing Intergalactic Radio, the only station thats out of this world”

A silver flask was swiped off the radio and quickly emptied down the throat of a man who was not paying attention to his driving. It was just some ‘me time’ for him, a little stroll around the galaxy to take his mind off things. An Auto Pilot was engaged and a very long relaxed sigh filled the cruiser.

“Yep, me time, no Jerry, no grandkids, nothin.”

Planet after planet passed without a care in the world. Rick was so at ease he felt like he could close his eyes, and wherever he ended up he would figure it out.

Cool space jazz music lingered throughout the cruiser , at some point he fell asleep which made him miss an important radio interruption; ‘we interrupt this cool jazz to bring you a PSA, the Planet Nyeh has been overrun by the Zerp , anyone on route to Nyeh should steer clear of the planet.”

“Rick, Rick, “

“Aauhhh,,, mm…”

The cruiser let out an annoyed sigh from its bright red eye. “Oh for the love of.. Re routing to planet Zeep”

The cruiser landed with a heavy thud waking Rick up from his nap, he groaned rubbing his eyes trying to make out where he was; all the homes were small either made out of boxes or rocks, most of the planet was directly in the suns vision making everything dry and crops wilted. Rick felt around his cruiser for his flask while arguing with his AI.

“Where the f-f-f- is this? Where did you bring me!?”

“If you had been awake you would have heard the PSA over the radio Rick”

“Why would i do that when i have you! Wheres my flask!!!-Ah fuck!” instantly the glass shield disappeared and Rick was booted out of his seat. “You motherfucker!!!” Rick stumbled around getting to his feet just to see hsi cruiser start to take off.

“When you are sorry you can get back inside.”

“Sorry fo what?”

“Being a dick”

“Un believable! Stupid shit s–ship!”

There was not much to explore, but Rick knew of the planet and figured it would not hurt to wander around, a lot of the citizens were dicks though, and Rick had to laser some of them to ashes but hell he enjoyed that. It did get boring though, at least he was not wanted on this planet right?

The citizens were all purple and … had four big eyes , all around the same height and had every complex you could think of, they hated being so small and felt inferior to anyone. One bumped Rick though and pointed up at him.

“You think your better than me?!” shouted the angry little alien.

Rick hunched placing his hands in his pockets, “well, yeah”

The little pink alien stomped around cursing up a storm getting a laugh out of Rick, he pulled his flask from his coat to take a sip of it. While this was going on a few Aliens were rushing past the two , the seemed to be saying something about “striking gold”.

“Hey, pink dick,”

“??!?!”

“Whats everyone going on about?”

“As if i would tell you!” the little man ran off leaving Rick more annoyed than anything. He rolled his eyes following the crowd to what looked like a big stage with one pink man on it holding up a jar.

“My people!! We have succeeded in getting a tongue from Nyeh!!! Soon we will have all the gold we could ever want!!! And we will-!!!”

“Nyeh? The fuck do these pink dicks want with the fetish planet”

“Money!”

“Food!”

“Women!”

“Oh for fucks sake.” Rick aimed his laser at the jar shooting it out of the mans hand causing it to float in his direction and into his hands. “Green Tongue? Gross” the jar went flying over his head along with the pink mens sending them into a frenzy trying to gather it up. Pleased with himself, Rick decided to make his way back where his cruiser left him. He was bumping into tiny panicked pink aliens along the way getting more and more angry over it.

“Dammit get out of my way!!!” Rick flung his arms around stumbling out of the crowd just to trip over a rock and get a mouthful of fur. “Idhfou!!? Pffa !! the FUCK”

Rick fell back jumping to his feet with one of his guns ready just to see a huge fluffy minty green tail shaking in fear in front of him along with two very large shaking ears at the top of it , little hands clutching the tail tightly out of fear. Rick rubbed his eyes as if he was seeing things; “the fuck? “

The woman lowered her tail slightly revealing her large green cat eyes to the man, she appeared to have blood smeared on her cheeks as well. This was indeed a Nyeh …but what the fuck is it doing here?

“Hey, fleabag, what are you doing here? This is not your planet”

The woman shook her head dropping her tail revealing an old cloth dress to Rick that hugged her body too tight, it was too small.

Rick looked the girl up and down a few times then took out his portal gun. “Well?”

She shook her head trying to make sense of what was happening and trying to explain but she could not get the words out which just drove Rick up the wall.

“Okay -yay-ya know what?! I dont care but dont think you can ignore me!!!”

The woman tilted her head at this angry man bringing her tail to her front , it covered her whole body pretty much.

“J-just go!!!” he shot the ground pointing to the warp. “Go -ho-home!!! This is no place for you!!!”

She was confused at first, everyone on this planet was mean to her in some way and she had only been here a short while..but this man was offering her a way home. She took a step toward Rick getting a slight scare out of him, she took his hand holding it with both of hers as if she was saying ‘thankyou’ to him, her tail was also wiggling now.

“Eehhe!!? Get off “ Rick swung around shoving the woman off him and jumping back. “Get outta here!!!!”

Her ears wiggled around as she stepped into the warp giving him one last look .. she waved at him… before falling into the warp. Rick shook his head in disgust stomping back to where his cruiser was calling it back so he could go the fuck home. So much for ‘me time’

#rick sanchez #rick sanchez x oc #rick x oc #rick and morty #MyMinty💚#.Minted

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blackjack-15 · 4 years ago

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Dead Weight — Thoughts on: Tomb of the Lost Queen (TMB)

Previous Metas: SCK/SCK2, STFD, MHM, TRT, FIN, SSH, DOG, CAR, DDI, SHA, CUR, CLK, TRN, DAN, CRE, ICE, CRY, VEN, HAU, RAN, WAC, TOT, SAW, CAP, ASH

Hello and welcome to a Nancy Drew meta series! 30 metas, 30 Nancy Drew Games that I’m comfortable with doing meta about. Hot takes, cold takes, and just Takes will abound, but one thing’s for sure: they’ll all be longer than I mean them to be.

Each meta will have different distinct sections: an Introduction, an exploration of the Title, an explanation of the Mystery, a run-through of the Suspects. Then, I’ll tackle some of my favorite and least favorite things about the game, and finish it off with ideas on how to improve it. For this meta and the next (DED), there will be a section entitled The Theme between The Mystery and The Suspects.

If any game requires an extra section or two, they’ll be listed in the paragraph above, along with my list of previous metas.

These metas are not spoiler free, though I’ll list any games/media that they might spoil here: TMB, DED, massive spoilers for SPY; quick spoilers for the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Supermystery Secrets of the Nile.

The Intro:

Here we are already (finally?) at TMB! This one’s gonna be a bit different, lads.

The next two metas in this series — this one for TMB and the next for DED are gonna be a little bit of a two-part sort of endeavor, mostly because the two games are thematically juxtaposed against each other. They should be uploaded within a week of each other (fingers crossed!) to make the comparison a little easier between the two games (and two metas), so if you haven’t played one or the other, you might want to do that before jumping in.

Obligatory heads-up out of the way, let’s get our mummy on.

TMB is a game that, if you were a kid like me obsessed with ancient Egypt (and an adult like me obsessed with ancient Egypt), was one of the most hotly anticipated Nancy Drew titles to hit store shelves. Fortunately, unlike a lot of the “anticipated” games in the series, this one actually delivers – and delivers in spades.

Heh. Spades. Archaeology. You get it. Moving on!

TMB is an interesting game that plays double duty with its literary significance; in other words, it’s one of the few games to have both a definite theme and a definite mission statement, and to have the two be entirely separate from each other. We’ll discuss the theme below, so this introduction is mostly going to be talking about the game’s mission statement — in other words, the main topic of the game, versus the theme it revolves around.

If it sounds like I’m splitting analytic hairs there, it’s because I am. But hey, ‘splitting analytic hairs’ could be the mission statement of this meta series.

Both this game and the title of the meta are about the dead — and more specifically, the weight that the dead have on the events of the game and people in the game themselves. Abdullah (archaeologist and artifact smuggler), Nancy (death of her mother; interest in ancient civilizations), and Jamila (mother; her lineage) are the big, obvious ones who are living under the weight of the dead, but they’re not the only ones.

Lily’s future is “dead” in a number of ways: her academic dishonesty, her position as an archaeology student, and her interest in dinosaurs. Jon’s position as the head of the dig isn’t his only tie to the dead — he also spends most of the game in a hospital after a brush with death itself. Dylan even gets in on it with his false IDs; not only could those be referred to as “dead” identities — they were never alive to begin with — but someone with that many identities could easily have their original said to be dead, buried under the weight of compounding lies.

The weight of the dead extends beyond even our characters and their backstory and motivations, however. The game takes place in what can easily be called a “dead zone”. Nancy’s odd ability to have perfect cell service aside, the camp for the vast majority of the game is in a secret place where neither people nor supplies can get to them, and they even run out of water, which will kill you quicker than anything in the desert.

The most concrete representation of the weight of the dead in TMB is the curse. Thought to be lethal for a lifetime after entering an ancient tomb, curses are little more than superstitions backed up by ‘mysterious’ deaths (usually due to ingesting bacteria within the tomb), but the curse in the first chamber that Nancy opens does press down on the game, with accidents and unfortunate or suspicious things happening one after another after the seal is broken.

Of course, it’s not the unquiet spirit of a dead queen causing the mischief and mayhem, but she is the reason that our cast is gathered in Egypt, and Nefertari’s presence — or lack thereof, due to the erasure of her by history and by those who followed after her — is, in effect, the curse itself. If it wasn’t for her presence, the mystery surrounding her, and the disappeared team of archaeologists decades prior, no one would be at the tomb in the modern day.

But she is there, like a magnet for those with ulterior motives, and she’s there to pull our cast tighter and tighter into her own personal land of the dead. “She’ll never let you leave”, indeed.

The last thing I want to touch on is the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Supermystery that very, very loosely forms the basis of this game: Secrets of the Nile. A well-known Supermystery for the fake marriage plot (the Hardy Boys and Nancy and Bess) and for the Frank/Nancy kiss on the balcony before they are like “oh yeah we’re dating different people huh”. The game doesn’t take much from the book other than the location and a financial motive for crime, but it’s interesting that they chose this book when very little was kept at all.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the pieces that make up this game, shall we?

The Title:

Tomb of the Lost Queen is a classic-feeling title for a Nancy Drew mystery, and accomplishes a few obvious things right off the bat. It first establishes that this is a game about the dead — as said above — and the presence that the dead have in the world of the living. Second, it gives us our location — “Tomb of the Lost Queen” immediately brings Egypt and its many royal tombs to mind — and the focus of the mystery that we’ll be solving.

And if that were all the title could mean, I’d say it’s a solid title – better than Secrets of the Nile, by any metric — but the title’s work isn’t quite done with that.

The last question that the title asks is who is the Lost Queen? We learn about Nefertari fairly quickly in the game and her history definitely qualifies her as a lost queen, but, in my opinion, there’s another candidate that the game title references: Jamila’s mother.

She was a woman of a royal bloodline, disappearing under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind only a trace that her presence ever existed in a tomb buried in the sand — if ever there was a story that would qualify you as a lost queen, it would be hers.

The Mystery:

Job shadowing archaeologist Jon Boyle (and once again showing off her interest in archaeology and ancient civilizations), Nancy is just settling in to the Kingston University dig site when a massive sandstorm hits camp — and someone attacks Jon, sending him to the hospital, whipping up talk of a curse that ended this expedition 60 years earlier, and scaring off much of the excavation crew.

Left behind when the dust finally settles are archaeologist Abdullah Bakhoum, PhD student Lily Crewe, and Nancy herself — and none of our three characters are interested in leaving, despite the shadow of a curse hanging over their work, and the ever-present feeling that the desert does not want them there.

They aren’t alone for too long, however; after Nancy discovers a secret room and hidden sarcophagus, the friendly yet secretive tour guide Dylan Carter and the alien aficionado Jamila El-Dine both show up (despite the dig being a closed and secret location), and it becomes clear that, whatever their own personal agendas might be, no one is at this location for scientific discovery.

The hunt is on to find out why everyone has congregated at this site, who hurt Jon and is causing incidents all over camp, and — most importantly — what exactly the tomb of the lost queen is truly hiding…

As a mystery, TMB holds plenty of turns and side plots worthy of a much longer game than it is, and as a result feels quite packed with story. Not only do you have the story of Ramses II and his Queen, but you have the story of Jamila and the Daughters of Nefertari, the black market scheme, Dylan’s past, and the storyline revolving around who hurt Jon.

Add to all of that Hotchkiss and Bess’ asides that give new meaning and perspective to the events in the mystery, and you have a solid, character-driven mystery that drives its suspense not from being a whodunnit — that’s not really a question through the whole game, as we know from the beginning that Abdullah is up to some shady crap — but from putting characters in a stressful situation and seeing what they’ll do.

The Theme:

TMB is interesting for many, many reasons — most of which will be detailed in this meta — but I think the most interesting thing about it is its theme. At its core, TMB is a game about fear — fear of death, fear of failure, fear of obscurity, fear of abandonment, fear of ignorance — and how this fear preys on people, but also how fear is a pathway to knowledge. As is nearly always the case with Nancy Drew games, it’s our villain who gives us the theme:

“For thousands of years, the lion spoke and no one understood. But understand the fear and you understand the man.”

This sentiment is added to a little further on in the game:

“When people feel like they can get away with anything, they change.”

In other words, it’s fear that defines who people are and what they do. Understand that fear, and you’ll understand the person. Remove that fear, and a person necessarily changes, because they’re not defined by that fear anymore.

This theme plays out through our main characters. Dylan’s fear is a fear of discovery — of being discovered by Nancy that he’s there to try to join the black market. When that fear is removed — or rather, superseded — by the fear of death after being a human paddle in a boulder pinball game, he’s able to be understood for who he really is — a bit of a con man, but not there to hurt or kill anyone.

Lily’s fear at first seems to be of the curse, but the curse really is just a stand-in for her true fear: the fear of repercussions for her actions. Once the fear is understood, it’s easy to see that she’s helping Abdullah in his black-market scheme by trying to injure — sometimes fatally — those who would stand in their way.

Jamila is a character tightly wrapped up — in every way — which illustrates her fear of exposure. When that fear is understood, it’s obvious that she’s hiding things about herself, which leads us to the Daughters of Nefertari plotline, and the discovery of just how bloody the tomb’s — and the queen’s — history is.

Last of the suspects is Abdullah, who fears a lack of notoriety — obscurity, basically — which parallels him to Nefertari nicely, who became obscure due to the actions of others and the passage of time. Once that fear is understood, it’s easy to understand who Abdullah is and why he does what he does — fakes finding artifacts, sells things on the black market, and constantly puffs himself up in conversation.

Because this game is centered around fear, let’s look quickly at how that fear affects Nancy. Sure, the fear of others causes them to try to damage her in one way or another, but Nancy tends to be somewhat fearless in her mystery solving. Her talk with Bess — more on that below — does expose one fear: ignorance.

When you’re in a situation where knowledge keeps you alive, which Nancy often is, it’s easy to say that fear of ignorance is simply the fear of bad things happening to you. But Nancy’s is a bit deeper than that; she defines herself as a curious person, and gets frustrated when things are purposely hidden from her. Nancy fears not knowing things, pure and simple, and it’s due to that fear that she puts herself in danger again and again to ferret out the truth.

The Suspects:

Our first suspect is the venerable and totally guilty Abdullah Bakhoum himself, preeminent archaeologist, egotist, and black market crook. A sort of dark shadow of Alejandro in SSH, Abdullah doesn’t think much about the taking of Egypt’s treasures to different countries’ museums, and is determined that if anyone is going to make money off of history, it’s going to be him.

As our preeminent Bad Guy, Abdullah is the rather obvious choice — which would be a problem if this mystery was concerned with hiding his presence in it, rather than building off of it. As it is, however, his presence strengthens the mystery, allowing for not only a focus for Nancy’s suspicions, but also a source of tension in the tomb, making it feel dangerous even when Nancy is simply exploring.

Of note is Abdullah’s decision when arrested at the end of the game to take the blame for everything that happened, eschewing Lily’s involvement completely. I’m of the opinion that it had to be Lily that attacked Jon — she was already above ground, he wouldn’t have been on his guard being around her, there were plenty of heavy things in the tent to hit him with — but Abdullah doesn’t try to reduce his sentence by offering information or implicating her in anything.

It’s a wonderful character moment that shows us what these later games really are capable of — villains with complex and consistent characterization. Abdullah is an egotist, a narcissist, and a smuggler, yes, but he has his own personal code of conduct, and ends the game not on the note of having tried to kill everyone, but on a singular note of mercy to a fellow student of history.

Next on the docket is Lily Crewe. Originally a paleontology student, she switched majors and ended up on the site by Abdullah’s request — a strange happenstance, considering the strong allegations of cheating on her record. Of course, that record is exactly the reason that Abdullah asked for her to be on the dig, as he needed help smuggling artifacts off-site.

As one half (possibly one third, depending on how culpable you think she truly is) of our Bad Guy Team, Lily is at once more sympathetic and less laudable than Abdullah. Having cheated — and been caught — she obviously was Abdullah’s best bet for a partner that wouldn’t betray him, as he was her chance at shoring up her rocky academic record.

However, a person of stronger moral fiber — or who appreciated her second chance — would have exposed Abdullah as soon as she had evidence in order to show her commitment going forward to honesty, so one can’t be too sympathetic. It’s worth noting that after Abdullah’s arrest (and sacrifice on her behalf), Lily goes back into paleontology. One can only hope dinosaurs have fewer opportunities for graft, and that she’s learned something from the tomb.

The next to show up is Dylan Carter, a man of many names (though only one handsome face) who moonlights as a tour guide. He also would really, really like to be part of Abdullah’s smuggling operation, but other than that, he’s really here for a good time.

And to be crushed by rocks.

As a culprit, Dylan would have been a little bit of a cheat, seeing as he wasn’t there from the beginning — though a reveal of him being the culprit would have necessitated showing that Dylan had been there the whole time, hiding in plain sight as part of the dig crew or something. While that would have been a cool reveal, it ultimately wouldn’t have accomplished the thematic goals of the game, and so is better left undone.

Last on our list of suspects is Jamila El-Dine, visiting the tomb under the guise of being a bat-crap-crazy Follower of the Annunaki — the alien race that supposedly built the pyramids, among other things — but who is actually a member of a secret society called the Daughters of Nefertari, dedicated to finding Nefertari (as they are her direct descendants); each daughter must search for her until she is found.

I will point out, reservedly, that Jamila definitely should not have been searching until she had a daughter of her own, in case she died the way her mother did, but I digress. It does point to Jamila being more of a firebrand (and more doggedly determined to end the search) than those before her, so kudos for that.

Like Dylan, Jamila as the culprit would have been a cheat, given her entrance into the game a good portion of the way through the mystery, but it also would have defeated the purpose of having Jamila in the story, which is to be a foil to Nancy.

Jamila is bound by the fate of her mother (and her mother’s mother, and on and on), who died under mysterious circumstances thought to be a car accident, but later revealed to be due to her performing dangerous work. Jamila thus journeys out to the world to find out exactly what happened and is tasked with doing what her mother had been doing at the time of her death, feeling the responsibility to prevent further deaths by completing her mother’s work. In order to do this, she pretends to be someone she’s not, uses those around her, and ultimately has to trust in a shady man with facial hair and a girl who frequently goes undercover for her job, fighting against a skinny man involved in a larger scheme with a heightened sense of his own importance.

Oops, should I have warned for SPY spoilers there?

Yeah, Jamila is basically playing out a future of Nancy’s (and one that happens, albeit with important differences, in SPY), and foils her in her sense of responsibility and curiosity about what happened to her mother, and in finishing the job she set out to do. While Nancy doesn’t immediately understand this, Bess does, and calls her out on it:

“That’s sort of like you…after your mom…I mean, I always thought it was your mom — the way she died — that made you so interested in mysteries.”

Nancy responds with “I guess I never thought of it that way,” and it’s clear the idea has knocked her off balance, because, importantly, Jamila exposes a characteristic of that becomes important in this and the next game: she’s not what we’d call self-aware.

And that leads into us talking about Nancy Drew as a character in this game. Pursuing one of her interests by job shadowing a professional, Nancy is thrown into a world that she’s far more comfortable in — that of solving mysteries without direct supervision — when Jon is attacked and sent to the hospital. From there, she goes on a rapid pace to figure out who the other people at the dig really are, and in so doing discovers a bit about herself.

Like a Lifetime movie, except without the Big Misunderstanding and the secret lost will of a dead parent.

Like I stated above, what this game really does to show us who Nancy is (besides showing us her reaction to someone exactly like her) is to show us her lack of self-awareness. Nancy spends so much time trying to figure out the motives and secrets of others that she doesn’t really spend any time soul-searching or figuring out how she, in particular, reacts to the world around her

Well, prior to the beginning of the Nancy games, she doesn’t. But she’s in for a whole lot more of that in the next few games as we unwrap (heh) more of her foils. As it is, Nancy herself tells us who she thinks she is in this game:

“I’m a curious person. I find that tact often gets in the way of truly getting to know someone.”

Joining us on the “Nancy Side” of characters are one new character and two familiar faces.

Jon Boyle is the leader of Kingston University’s dig site, and definitely the person that you want to get out of the way if you’re up to shenanigans. He’s basically in the game to give some dirt on Lily and Abdullah, and to save the day at the very end by (as is his job) taking care of those he’s in charge of.

Just, you know, more physically than academically.

While she was a playable, seen character in the last game, it’s here in TMB that Bess Marvin gets a little more characterization and becomes more fully fleshed out. As Nancy’s lifeline to River Heights and normalcy, Bess is here to watch pulpy Egyptian horror movies and to drop some stone-cold truths onto Nancy.

Bess is wonderful in this game, full stop. Not only does she expose a few of Nancy’s character traits to the clueless girl detective – the whole mom thing, Nancy’s tendency to keep everyone in the dark but to get frustrated when she’s kept in the dark herself — but she also helps to show the difference between what the River Heights crew finds fulfilling — relaxing, internships, etc. — and what Nancy finds fulfilling — dangerous tombs hiding mysteries in the desert.

Last of all is Professor Beatrice Hotchkiss, academic extraordinaire and expert on lost and maligned queens — and heaven knows, Nefertari fits both qualifications. Hotchkiss is here for more reason than just to light up my life, however; she’s here to help Nancy understand the traps within the tomb and figure out exactly what — and who — she’s dealing with in the ancient past.

Hotchkiss is a proper choice here, and I probably would have been disappointed had she not shown up. She’s the perfect mix of spacey academic and, well, brilliant academic, and though Nancy isn’t too fond of her, she’s probably my favorite reoccurring phone friend outside of the Hardy Boys.

The Favorite:

There’s a lot to love with TMB, so let’s jump right in.

First off, my favorite puzzle(s) have got to be the word puzzles for unscrambling the special hieroglyphics. Longtime followers of this meta series (or those who read my ASH meta) know that my favorite thing in a Nancy Drew game is always the word puzzle, and these are so much fun that it’d be impossible for them not to be my favorite puzzle.

My favorite moment in the game is probably the finding of Jamila’s mom’s journal pages, culminating in the line “she’ll never let you leave”. Like I’ve said above, so much of this game is about the weight of the dead and the effect they have on the living, and Jamila’s mom weighs heaviest of all as our intensely personal, recent stake in finding Nefertari.

I’ve said before (in a previous meta about my favorite surprising moments in the ND games) that there’s shades of Kate’s last correspondences in Jamila’s mother’s journal, and those shades are never so present as they are here.

There’s not really another place to put it, so I’m gonna put a shout-out to the cover of the DVD case here. It’s really well-designed and captures the feeling of the game without being overly spoilery, so massive kudos to the developers and designers for it.

The last thing I note here (though I could go on and on about the small details in this game that make it great) is the feeling of continued exploration. In a lot — I’d say most, honestly — of Nancy Drew games, once you explore everywhere, there’s really nowhere left to go other than sometimes a new location at the end of the game while chasing down the villain. Here, the game is continually expanding through the new tunnels and passages in the tomb. It makes it really feel like this a real location you could explore, and not just a few screens limited for time, space, and design restrictions, and it’s wonderful.

On the less wonderful side, however…

The Un-Favorite:

The biggest problem I have with TMB is that the first fourth of it — pretty much until Nancy finds the first sarcophagus — is fairly unintuitive. Even replaying it multiple times doesn’t make it any easier to remember what I have to do and when I can do it, and playing it through the first time results in not a few times where you stare at the screen, wondering what it is you’re supposed to be doing. This is a rare problem in Nancy Drew games, but it’s fairly present through the first part of the game here, and that is a problem.

My least favorite puzzle is probably the lifting-the-rocks-off-Dylan puzzle, if only because it always takes me five or six tries to do it. It always feels like a sort of trial-and-error sort of thing, which (excepting its place in logic puzzles) isn’t really my personal favorite. It’s not that I think it’s a bad puzzle, it’s just my least favorite in the game.

My least favorite moment in the game is more of a meta moment, but it’s when Nancy asks for “a few tips” for translating hieroglyphics, and Abdullah mocks her a bit, saying that oh, yes, at first he was also confused, but then he learned a few tips. It would be a great moment in the game — and in the story itself, it is — if it wasn’t, well, immediately contradicted by the nature of the hieroglyphics puzzles. Like I said above, the unscrambling of the hieroglyphics puzzles are my favorite in the whole game, and I love them to death, but in a meta sense, this moment does stick out in a “you can’t say it’s stupid and then include it as if just saying it’s stupid makes it okay for you to do” sort of way.

The Fix:

So how would I fix Tomb of the Lost Queen?

The big thing that needs help in TMB is to make the beginning more intuitive. Whether this should be done by Jon giving Nancy a set of tasks to complete, having a checklist of what needs to be done that day (even if it’s vague), or some other method, there definitely needs to be a little more direction in the first part of the game.

I’m not saying that the game should hold the player’s hand — especially considering that the average age of the fanbase is well above the age 10+ marker — but a Nancy Drew game should always have something to do at the start, rather than wandering around to explore a place that Nancy has ostensibly already been for a bit.

With that change in mind, there’s really honestly nothing else that I would fix. TMB is a game devoted to the idea that the dead are ever present in life, especially for those who have lost people, and it really accomplishes delivering that idea through a myriad of characters, scenes, and clues that Nancy finds along the way. It also goes a long way in developing Nancy more as a character, and — perhaps most importantly — begins the task of setting the groundwork for a truly Nancy-centric story in SPY.

#nancy drew #nancy drew games #clue crew #tomb of the lost queen #nancy drew meta #video games #my meta #TMB

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darkficsyouneveraskedfor · 5 years ago

Text

The Man in his Castle

Warnings: noncon sex. Let’s not be fools here. You know what I write.

This is dark!Charles Blackwood and explicit. 18+ only. Your media consumption is your own responsibility. Warnings have been given. DO NOT PROCEED if these matters upset you.

Summary: A co-ed discovers that money is still king.

Note: Charles is fun because he’s already horrible. I know my summary sucks but I hope you all enjoy this. It takes place in the 1960s so keep that in mind and enjoy! But let me know what you think in reblog or reply and slap a like on there <3

There were more than a dozen girls squeezed into the windowless classroom in the basement of Victory Hall. The book club had grown quite a bit since your first week on campus. The Brownies, you called yourself. An ironic play upon a lifetime of ridicule.

Every Friday night you met in some abandoned room bartered off the registrar and set to discussing your most recent read. Sheila was the leader; bolder than you as she fostered your sprout of an idea. She was cooler, calmer, and by all means, more radical. And she was a senior.

The flock of freshmen looked up to her and the few other older girls in the group. She had brought along with her, Linda and Patty; the former with her stiff turtlenecks and the latter her faded beret. These were the types your mother had warned you against. Peddling their liberalism in the name of Kennedy and Kruschev.

That week, your group had chosen Miller’s famed play, The Crucible; still relevant despite a decade past. Though the red scare had faded to orange, there was still a breath of suspicion in the air. As people marched in the streets and sat-in at diners and cafes, the old breed was growing nervous. The world was about to change, with or without them.

You sat amid the circle with your worn copy against your knee. You took turns reading the lines and pausing to discuss the intricate and yet overt allusions made by the playwright. The furor of the blacklist which still lingered in the air. A paranoia much broader than years before. No longer just the Reds, but all who spoke of equality and freedom; no longer exclusive to a single group. The same tensions which kept you in the basement with the dingy old desks.

You couldn’t help but smile at the group of girls. When you’d arrived on campus, you were certain you’d be the same loner as before. Solitary nights spent barricaded in your dorm only to lose yourself in the crowd of the lecture hall.

But Sheila had changed that. She was in your elective Lit class, filling a void in her audit so that she could graduate on time. You had lost yourself in a discussion of Marx and the mounting tensions with the East; not that they ever really subsided.

Then she invited you to meet Linda and Patty for a drink. Your lack of ID didn’t keep you from the chance to make friends as she knew the doorman by name. That was when you mentioned the club. It was just you and your friend, Elsie. Not really a club, more so a pair of girls with nothing better to do. But Sheila liked it and the next week, she had six new girls to add to your duo.

Now, you were a full blown corps. The three seniors and at least fifteen freshmen, a few in between to fill out the circle.

Sheila snapped her book shut and declared the end of the night as she checked her watch.

“We’ll finish next week,” She chimed. “Granted we don’t devolve so easily again.”

The girls giggled and began to pack up. You stood and shoved your book into your leather bag. Sheila stood with Linda at the back of the circle and Patty offered a goodbye to each girl as they left. Most did so in pairs or trios. Safety in numbers.

Your dorm wasn’t far and so you would keep a brisk pace with your keys in hand. You turned and Sheila called to you before you could reach the door. You spun back and neared her and Linda.

“Hey, you need a walking partner?” She asked. “Me and Linda are head down the The Cask. We’ll be headed past yours.”

“If you’re headed that way,” You accepted eagerly.

You helped rearrange the chairs and desk with the three seniors. Patty left on her own as Sheila locked the door. You walked on her right as Linda kept to her left and made your way out of the depths of Victory Hall. The night was cool but not bitter. You pulled your collar up as you passed between the carefully trimmed hedges.

“You sure you don’t want to come for a drink?” Linda asked. “Seeing as Patty ditched us.”

“Oh, you know she has that boy waiting for her,” Sheila countered.

“Um, no, I have an early morning,” You replied. “But thanks.”

“What about next weekend?” Sheila asked.

“Next weekend?” You wondered.

“Wanna come to a party?”

“A… a senior party?” You glanced over at her as you tucked your hands in your pockets.

“Oh, no, it’s not on campus,” She trilled. “But I think you’d like it.”

“Off-campus?” You said surprised. “Really?”

“A bit of an older crowd but…” She lowered her voice, “Of a similar mind as us.”

Your eyes widened. You blinked at her and she laughed.

“Oh calm down, they’re no interlopers, merely open-minded,” She assured you. “You have to realize that this little club, that’s a children’s game. If you’re serious, these are the people you need to rub shoulders with.”

“I don’t know. It’s pretty seedy downtown and the last time--”

“Downtown?” She scoffed. “Oh, this is different from that hole in the wall.”

“Where--”

“Uptown, actually,” She preened. “You know, we do have allies with money. They hide among the enemy until we can truly act.”

“I don’t know. That sounds--”

“You worry too much. It’s not illegal to meet people who think like you do,” She said. “Otherwise us Brownies would be akin to the mob.”

You laughed at yourself and watched your scuffed shoes on the sidewalk. “I guess you’re right. Um, what kind of party is it, exactly?”

“Wear something nice,” She picked a thread from your jacket. “Fancy dress hides a humble heart.”

You nodded and gripped the strap of your bag. “Sure, why not?” You shrugged.

“I’ll see you in Lit,” She stopped just outside your gate. “I’ll give you the details then. You should ask Elsie to come with you.”

“Alright,” You breathed. “Yeah, I’ll ask her.”

“Have a good night,” She sang and Linda echoed her.

“You, too.” You smiled.

You turned and unlocked your gate as their heels continued down the pavement. You let yourself inside and listened until there was silence. You were happy to have friends, happier that you were so much alike, but the thought of a party had your stomach aflutter.

🏰

You found your only formal dress. Rather, your most formal dress. A long-sleeved black number that flared at the knee. You wore the simple silver chain your mother gifted you for your high school graduation and a pair of kitten heels. You hugged yourself with a red shawl and grabbed your purse.

Elsie waited just outside your dorm room. She looked as nervous as you felt. The lack of details gave both of you the jitters. You were two shy girls who found each other among the sea of students. You took comfort in knowing you weren’t the only one in over your head.

And Sheila would be there too. She could help you maneuver your way through this maze of etiquette and idealism.

You took a bus as far as you could but at the last stop, you were still three blocks away from the place. Blackwood Manor. Sheila’s loopy cursive marked it on the corner of paper. The house on the hill, she said, can’t miss it.

The gates towered over you as you approached. Tinted lanterns lit the walkway and you pressed the button over the small speaker box. A dull voice greeted you from the other side.

“Um, hello,” Elsie squeezed your arm as you bent to speak into the box. “We’re here for the party.”

“Par-ty?” The voice said.

“We’re friends of, uh, Sheila.” You replied nervously.

“Ah, yes, Miss Sheila.” The crackle died and the gate clicked.

You looked to Elsie and a man in grey neared from the other side. He pulled open the gate and removed his cap as he waited for you to enter. A car drove up, its bright headlights washed over you, as you walked up the drive and the gates man spoke with its occupants.

At the front door, you met with a man with grey hair and the same even tone that rose from the speaker. He took your shawl and Elsie’s coat and directed you to the next room. You detached Elsie from your arm and gave her a look. She smiled tensely and smoothed the front of her dress.

The sparkle of the chandelier drew your eyes first. The light refracted from the crystals and illuminated the large room. Men in suits stood around with drinks in hand and chattered. You heard the next guests enter behind you and stepped out of their way.

You spotted Sheila in the far corner, a broad pair of shoulders left her barely visible. There were several other girls you recognized; Linda. Darla and Colleen, two other Brownies, and even a couple girls from your Lit class. Every women in the room was barely that; they were all bright-eyed co-eds amid a conclave of stiff-lipped men.

You felt a chill crawl up your spine but resisted the shiver. You were just anxious about all these strangers. It was natural to be a little nervous.

Elsie followed you across the room and smiled at Sheila over the shoulder of the man she spoke to. She waved you over and the man turned to look at you. His blue eyes flicked from you to Elsie and back again. His expression was placid as he buttoned his jacket.

“Charles, these are my friends,” She introduced you and Elsie, “And this is Charles Blackwood, our host.”

He seemed to recall himself and shook your hand and then Elsie’s. His grip was firm and his expression unbreakable. He was entirely unimpressed by you and your plain black dress.

“You have a beautiful house,” You offered. “I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere so… grand.”

“It was my grandfather’s,” He said tersely as his eyes explored the room. “Sheila, if you’ll excuse me, I must speak with Gerald.”

“Of course,” She kissed his cheek and his lip curled before he walked away. “Sorry about him,” Sheila turned to you. “He’s a bit antsy, you know? Always is on nights like these.”

“I never…” You looked at Elsie as her eyes bounced around in wonder, “I never would think anyone who lived like this would you know, agree with us.”

“Oh, but we already know money isn’t everything,” She said. “You know, these men, they know that and they want to use their money for good. They want to make sure that students like us make it through college and go on to speak our truth to the world.”

She stopped a man passing by and took a wine glass from his tray. She offered you it and grabbed another for Elsie and herself. She batted her lashes at the waiter and returned her attention to you.

“Which is why you should loosen up and talk to some of these men,” She advised. “They are much preferable to the boys on campus and much more powerful. My second year, I had my tuition paid in full by one of Charles’ friends.”

“Wow,” Elsie gasped. “Really?”

“Consider it a grant,” Sheila explained. “Spread the wealth, right?”

“I suppose…” You uttered.

“Oh, there’s Patty,” Sheila perked up. “I knew she’d be the last one here. Pardon me a moment.”

“Alright,” You turned and watched her go as she waved over the heads to her friend.

You brought the glass to your lips and the alcohol burned your nostrils. Your stomach turned and you lowered the flute. Elsie drank deeply as you glanced around. A man with thick silver hair and a sharp aquiline nose stared at you from across the room.

You fidgeted and slipped behind Elsie to set your glass down.

“You should take it easy,” You warned her as she gulped down the wine.

🏰

The man with silver hair introduced himself as Harry. You weren’t fond of him as he talked of his new car and something about a cottage up north. You were confused. Sheila intimated that these people were like you; maybe not communists are heart, but left-leaning at least. They surely didn’t sound like it.

You glanced around for the umpteenth time and frowned. You didn’t see Sheila or Linda or Patty. Elsie was with a man in a striped suit, Darla and Colleen sipped from glasses as they listened to a pair of men banter, and you were stuck in the corner with this grey-haired boor.

You excused yourself, claiming to need the powder room, and walked along the wall as you searched the room. The seniors were gone. And something else caught your eye. The men drank from their stout tumblers and the women, more aptly girls, all held champagne flute. Yours was still on the table, untouched.

You neared Elsie and excused your interruption as you turned her away from her companion. You lowered your voice.

“Have you seen Sheila?” You asked.

She shook her head and wobbled. She giggled as she steadied herself with your arm. “Nope!”

“How much of that have you had?” You took her glass from her.

“This is only my…. Third,” She counted on her fingers.

“Well, I think three is enough,” You said. “Why don’t you come to the restroom with me? Splash some water on your face?”

“No, no,” She shrugged you off. “I’m talking to Gerald.” She turned back and smiled at the balding man. “He has a fellowship.”

“Elsie,” You drew her back. “Something’s… wrong.”

“What do you mean?” She hiccuped. “It’s all quite fine, isn’t it?”

“Just…” You peeked over your shoulder. “Wait here for me, okay? Don’t go anywhere else.”

She rolled her eyes and you sighed. You left her reluctantly and stopped a waiter as you neared the main archway. You asked him where the restroom was and ducked into the hallway. You passed by the foot of the staircase towards the next and paused.

You peered around the wall and pulled back. You slipped off your heels and looked back at the room that swirled with voices. You tiptoed to the door and tried the handle. It was locked. You searched for a mechanism but there was only the intricately wrought handle.

You went back to the stairs and listened to the buzz from the front room. You climbed a step at a time as your ears perked up at every creak and crack. You wondered what had happened to Sheila and the others. It was unlike them to leave early. And why was the door locked?

You found a window and carefully turned the latch. You shifted it up and cringed as the wood loudly rubbed together. You stuck your head out and stared down at the grass below. There was a tree not far from you, a few windows away.

“Can I help you?” The voice frightened you and you hit your head on the window as you reeled back. You turned to your host, Charles, as he leaned against the bannister.

“I was… looking for Sheila.” You lied.

“Oh, outside?” He wondered with a smirk.

“Well, no, I just needed a breath of fresh air so I thought…” Your voice trailed off as he stood straight.

“The party’s downstairs,” He said evenly. “I’m sure you just missed her.”

You stared at him. His eyes sparkled with mischief. Your heart dropped and your heels threatened to slip from your sweaty hand.

“She’s gone,” You said. His lips curved again and he chuckled. “What’s going on here?”

He inched forward as he pushed back his jacket and shoved a hand in his pocket.

“She did her job. Delivered what she promised.” He said coolly. “Can you blame her for cutting out?”

“What--” You backed up until you were against the window ledge. “I don’t understand.”

“You tried the front door, didn’t you?”

You blinked and your shoes fell from your grasp.

“You think you can get to that tree? Even if you moved a few windows to the left?” He got closer. “Or maybe… you think you can get past me.”

Your lips parted as his features hardened. His brow twitched as he held your gaze. He didn’t look away as he knelt and grabbed your shoe. He took your foot and shoved the kitten heel on. He did the other and stood.

“Let’s go back to the party,” He growled. “It’s only just getting started.”

🏰

You stood against the wall as the room spun. Your chest was filled with doom as you looked around at the girls in their sheath dresses and chunky heels. Many shared the same glazed look as Elsie. They swayed just a little, giggled airily, and their eyelashes drooped. They were barely awake on their feet.

The man who answered the door stood beside you. He squinted at you every now and then. Charles had told him to keep an eye on you. You watched the host of the event disappear through another doorway. You thought of the invisible lock and the tree just a few windows down.

It was that crushing sense of defeat when you knew loss was imminent but unavoidable. So you watched it slowly creep forward until finally you had to submit. You shivered and shook your head at yourself. Sheila had done this. Ensnared all these girls in whatever sick game this was.

Time dragged. You watched the servers offer their tainted champagne and the girls all too ignorant to realize that something was amiss. Your eyes stung and you gripped your purse tight. Whatever was planned, it couldn’t be good.

The clinking of metal on glass silenced the room. Your eyes were drawn with every other to the other side. The men exchanged knowing looks. The girls were confused but not suspicious. They looked to Charles as he relinquished the glass and knife to a server. He grinned at his rapt audience.

“Shall we commence with our evening?” He asked; the men nodded and mumbled in agreement. The girls frowned and wavered on their feet. “Very well. Girls…”

He waved an arm to his left and the waiters, now free of their trays, dispersed to herd the girls to the other side of the room. You were led along with them and stood in the row of drunken co-eds. For a moment, you wished you had drank the wine. That you could be as oblivious as the rest.

The girl at the head of the line was ushered forward to stand beside Charles. Her red hair hung in ringlets and her cheeks were rosy with alcohol. He asked her her name and she slurred “Carrie.” He repeated it for all to hear and shouted a number. Ten thousand.

A man raised his hand and Charles called eleven thousand. Another gestured and the number went up again. Again. Again. Carrie was visibly confused as she tried to keep up. She couldn’t. She was sold for twenty-five thousand and ushered into the arms of her buyer.

Elsie was next. She could barely stand as she struggled to keep her eyes open. Eighteen thousand for the mousy-haired girl. Colleen went for about the same and Darla was in tears as she was bartered for an even twenty.

You were near the end of the line. You marched up to the front and bit down as you stared at the bourgeois bastards. Harry was the first to bid for you. Your stomach flipped. Then another man you hadn’t even spoken to. You could see only his hand as he reached above the crowd.

The bids bounced back and forth, Harry cursed as he wondered who was so determined to have you. You sold for forty thousand to the faceless man. You were shown out the side door by a waiter as the last girl was brought up to stand by Charles.

You stood alone in a long dining room with a large table and more than a dozen chairs. You turned as the doors slid closed and faced the grey-haired man who had greeted you in his monotone at the door. You thought he was the help. You grimaced at him.

“You?” You sputtered.

“No,” He said blandly. “Not me.”

“Then…” You couldn’t finish as you were certain you knew the answer.

You swallowed and spun away from him. You gripped the back of a chair and placed your purse on the table. The furor from the other room reached a peak and then began to dwindle. The grey-haired man glanced at the doors.

“I must attend to the coats,” He announced. “Do not stray. He will be mad.”

You sighed as he slipped through the door. A hand kept them from closing and you watched the doorman rush away. Charles stepped through and shut the doors. He took a breath as he turned to you. He fixed his lapels as he stopped across the table from you.

“What?” You hissed as he stared at you.

“No… thanks?” He asked.

“Thanks?” You narrowed your eyes. “For what?”

“Don’t tell me you wanted to fuck one of those old men?”

You blanched at his language and your lip curled in revulsion. He laughed.

“Don’t worry. I only need… a maid.” He smirked.

“A maid?” You wondered.

“Cooking. Cleaning.” He tapped two fingers on the table as he spoke. “They ever write about that in your books?”

Your eyes were glossy as you gulped. You were furious, frightened, and frustrated.

“You girls think you know it all,” He scoffed. “There’s a lot they don’t put in books.”

“No, there are horror stories,” You assured him. “Of repulsive monsters and their nasty ways.”

He chuckled and rounded the table. He stopped just beside you as his hand closed over your purse. He slowly lifted the strap from your shoulders and batted your hand away before you could stop him.

“Trust me,” He said as he flipped it open and looked inside. “There is no monster like me.”

🏰

You were shown to a room with a barred window. It didn’t matter as it was in the basement and so narrow that you couldn’t hope to fit through it. The door was locked but even so, there was a man without. You could see his shadow under the door and hear him cough every now and again.

You didn’t sleep much. There was a blanket on the floor beside some dusty boxes. You sat against the wall and dozed in spurts. The night replayed in your head on a loop. Then all those moments you’d spent with Sheila. How she had lied so easily. Was she even a student?

Didn’t matter now. The sun rose slowly through the small window and the door opened shortly after. You were given a black dress, stockings, and a pair of black shoes. Nothing else. You were taken to a shower hidden in the cellar; the water was cold and you washed quickly in the closet-like restroom.

You dressed and contemplated turning your underwear inside out. They were too worn to re-use. You left them with the rest of your clothes and emerged in your uniform. The man in black who had spent his night outside your door was mute. You weren’t sure entirely if by choice.

Your first task was to clean the main room, still dirtied from the party. The grey-haired man, Albert, told you so and recited your list of chores. The kitchen would be next and then you were to sweep the upstairs corridors and check every room in case it needed dusting or new linens.

It took you hours to tidy up after the previous nights’ guests. When the glasses were cleaned, you stacked them in the cupboards and wiped the counters. Alone, you went to the back door. It was locked too. The windows on this floor only opened two inches. You cursed.

You climbed the stairs with a broom and pan and set to the endless tedium of sweeping every corner. That took another hour, if not more. You emptied the pan downstairs in the bin and returned with a duster.

You knocked on each door before you entered. Most were pristine and required only a touch up. When you reached the end of the next hallway, your rap was answered as the door opened from the other side.

Charles wore only an undershirt and pants as he looked you up and down. He waved you in wordlessly. You entered and set to dusting the mantle and all its ornaments. He moved around behind you and stopped in a doorway just left of the bed.

“I expect you to do more than dust in here,” He said. “Grab some fresh linen when you get the chance.”

He slipped through the door but left it open an inch. You huffed and continued on lazily. Call it spite or your fleeting mind. You tried the window. It opened but there was no way down. You closed it and turned away.

You went to find the sheets and when you had discovered the trove of pressed and folded cotton, you returned to the room. You could hear the soft ripple of water through the small doorway. You set the sheets down at the foot of the bed. You cleared the wrinkled clothing from the chair and dropped them in the hamper.

“Girl,” Charles’ deep timbre called sternly. “Girl.”

Your cheek twitched. He knew your name. You sneered and quickly wiped it away as you neared the door. You pushed it open hesitantly as you peered through.

“Towel,” He demanded.

He sat in the deep tub, his dark hair damp and his broad chest bare above the water. You tore your eyes away and grabbed the towel from its rack. As you faced him, he stood and the water dripped down his body shamelessly. You unfolded the towel and held it up so that you could not see all of him.

“Well,” He waved you closer and snatched it from you.

He stepped out onto the bathmat and fanned the towel around his body. You looked away quickly and a soft chuckle escaped him as he secured the towel at his waist. He passed you, his wet arm touched your sleeve and he neared the mirror as he admired his freshly shaved face.

“Did you make the bed?” He asked.

You shook your head and turned to return to the bedroom.

“Wait,” He stopped you. “That’s ‘yes, sir’ or ‘no, sir’.”

“No, sir,” You said bitterly.

“Then you better get to it,” He rebuffed.

You swept through and moved the new sheets to the chair before you stripped the mattress. He leaned in the doorway as he watched you. You could feel him as you moved around the bed and stretched the cotton over the corners. You spread out the top sheet and replaced the quilt over top. You changed the pillowcases and fluffed them.

Done, you bundled up the old bedding in your arm. He went to the bed and dragged his fingers along the quilt. He grasped the blankets and tore them from the mattress.

“Tuck in the edges,” He said. “Now, fix your mistake.”

“Yes,” You gritted. “Sir.”

You dropped the old sheets in the chair once more and set to redoing your work. He stood at the foot of the bed and when you slipped past him, you felt a brush across your ass. You ignored it, content to think it was natural friction, and carried on. You could feel the heat of his gaze upon you and as you faced him, it was confirmed.

“Very nice,” He commented. “You learn… quickly.”

“Quicker than the others?” You asked. “Huh? How many have you bought? What did you do to them?”

“Oh, you’re mistaken,” He said. “I’m not a buyer, I’m a seller… but well, I decided to indulge myself last night.”

Your mouth was dry. You turned and grabbed the linen again. As you backed up, you were stopped by a figure behind you. His arm stretched out around you and he held his towel out. Slowly, he released it and it flapped to the floor.

“You don’t learn that quick though,” He mused as his hand settled on your shoulder. “You think I would spend that much money on a maid.” His fingers crawled along your neck. He gripped your jaw as he pressed himself against you. You felt the prod of his arousal through your skirt. “But it was fun to watch you try.”

“Why me?” You breathed as he gripped your arms and pulled them away from the laundry. The bundle fell to the chair and drooped down onto the floor.

“Because you’re the first to figure it out,” He answered.

“Please,” You begged weakly as he pulled your arms back and rolled his hips so that he poked you.

“Get on the chair.” He ordered.

Your breath caught in your throat. You stood staring at the yellow wallpaper with its golden lilies. You turned slightly and he caught you.

“No, don’t turn around.” His voice sent a shiver through you.

Your lip trembled and you lifted a knee, then the other. His hands ran up your arms and around your back. He shoved you so you caught yourself against the back of the chair. You tensed as his hands fell to your hips and over your ass.

He squeezed and stepped between your ankles so that his legs were against the seat. He ran his hands down your thighs and kneaded through the skirt. He reached the hem and slowly raised it an inch at a time. When it was higher than your stockings, your hand flew back to stop him.

He grabbed your wrist and twisted until you cried out.

“If you scream, there’s no one here who will care,” He snarled. “And they certainly won’t help you.”

He pushed your hand away and tore your skirt up over your ass. He slapped you so hard you yelped. You could feel the heat of his palm across your ass even after it was gone. He bunched your skirts around your waist and hummed in approval.

“You look nice in black,” He said, “Better out of it.”

You kept your eyes forward. You couldn’t have looked at him if you wanted. This man, this stranger, was touching you like no one had before. And he meant to do more. Because he owned you.

His hand snaked around your hip and down your pelvis. He tickled the hair there and slid lower. You tried to press your thighs together but your ankles hit his legs. He tutted and leaned against you.

“I’m being nice,” He warned. “I don’t have to be.”

You grabbed his hand and shoved it away. He struck your ass again as he stood straight. He grasped the back of your neck and pushed your head down against the back of the chair. Your fingers clutched at the cushion beside your face as he held you there.

“I told you last night,” He pinched your thigh. “I can be the worst fiend you’ve ever known.”

He pushed his knees up on the chair between yours. His fingers crawled around your hip again and along your pelvis. He pushed two down along your folds. He rubbed your bud with his middle finger as he spread your lips. He flicked and teased until your hips bucked.

“Not so bad…” He purred. “Am I?”

“Stop,” You begged as his grip tightened on your neck. “Why are you doing this?”

“I can’t just let you go,” He said. “That’d be a poor investment. Even you could see that.”

He dipped his finger inside of you and you inhaled sharply. He drew it in and out and added another. Your thighs shook and your fingers bent against the cushion.

“You don’t realize how fucking lucky you got,” He pushed his palm to your clit as he rocked his hand. “Those other men; old men, they’d fuck you for two seconds before they blew. Leave you there, unsatisfied, discarded. The girls never last long.”

He curled his fingers and moved his hand faster.

“The men get bored. Naturally, they’re greedy,” His nose tickled your ear as his breath glossed over your cheek. “Or maybe the girl gets pregnant. No good. Send her away. Don’t care where, just don’t want to hear about her ever again.”

He nuzzled your hair as your breaths grew laboured. You found it hard to resist the heat that radiated from his touch. You shook as you tried to force the ripples back down.

“So, you keep me happy, girl,” He sneered. “And you might just last.”

You squealed as you came. You were ashamed and astounded. You’d never felt so… much. Never felt anything so deeply. You quivered around his hand and he slowly drew away and wiped his wet fingers on your bunched up skirt.

He reached between your thighs and you felt his length rub against your ass. He teased you and dragged his fingers along your ass. He pressed his tip to your skin and guided it down. He squeezed your neck and you whimpered. He pushed against your entrance and paused.

“You’re not…” He began and thrust inside of you all at once. “Well, it doesn’t really matter.”

Your walls ached as he filled you. The pain was nothing compared to relief that washed over you. You hadn’t realized how much you longed for that feeling. His hand slid from your neck and he gripped your shoulder. His other went to your hip and he rocked his hips.

You grunted as he thrust. You wanted it to end but you also didn’t want him to stop. He was relentless and impatient. You expected little else from the steely man. You quaked as his pelvis slapped against your ass. The noise echoed off the corners of the room, interspersed with his low groans and you pathetic mewls.

He moved your body against his as he plunged deeper and deeper. He sped up, driven by your helpless moans as you clawed at the upholstered chair. You wanted to get away as much as you just wanted to grab onto something steady. You turned your head back and forth as your nerves flared. You shook and gasped as you came again.

“St-st-stop,” You pleaded. “Stop. It’s too--”

He slammed into you so hard you shrieked. He didn’t let up as he crushed you against the back of the chair. He snaked his hand up in front of you and groped your tit as his other arm wrapped around your neck. His thick muscle choked you as he pounded into you and the chair creaked dangerously. You trembled as the ripples washed over you and you skin tingled with the heat of the man behind you.

His thrusts turned sharp and furious. His arm tightened around your neck as he pulled his other hand back. He pushed into as far as he could, holding himself there for just a second each time. His heavy breaths were like hungry growls in your ear.

He pulled out of you suddenly and you felt his knuckles against your ass as they moved frantically. A warmth spurted along your lower back and his hand slowed.

He sighed and unhooked his arm from around your neck. He climbed off the chair and smacked your ass again. It stung so much you were certain there was already a bruise.

“Clean yourself up.” He demanded as he sat on the bed heavily. “Then take that damn dress off.”

#charles blackwood #dark!charles blackwood #charles blackwood x reader #dark charles blackwood #we have always lived in the castle #au #fic #one shot #dark fic #dark!fic #read the warnings

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lesbianlovelanguage · 5 years ago

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Lost Boys of Starwood Ch 1

Fandom: Stranger Things Paring: Harringrove Chapter 1/10 Rating: T Co-written by myself and the amazing @catharrington

Summary: West Hollywood California was a lighthouse on the beach for Steve Harrington moving down from nowhere Indiana. But for billy Hargrove it was a cage with golden bars kept locked by his father good and tight. They both found safety inside the darkness and splendor of Starwood, but will they be able to see the only way they can be truly found is through each other?

Read it on ao3 here or in the read below

“Get your fucking hands off of me!” Billy grunted, trying to squirm his way out from between two massive bouncers.

They ignored his shouts and threats, and continued to lead him outside. Once at the door, they threw him on to the street and slammed the door behind him.

“And fuck you too!” He gave one final middle finger at the closed door, and huffed before pulling out his almost empty pack of Lucky Strikes and lighting up a cigarette. This night was turning out to be a bust. The few drinks he was able to pilfer from the bozos around the dance floor weren’t doing much more than giving him a light buzz. When Billy tried like hell to convince an older guy to buy him a shot of Jack, the old geezer got security involved. Billy had just slid his hand up the meat of this guy's inner thigh a little, nothing big. No one is ever down for a good time any more.

Thankfully, the lights of Hollywood Blvd never turned off. He walked slowly, hands stuffed down inside the pockets of his tight denim, sweat from the club slowly drying on his naked chest. Billy left the top buttons open, even out on the street, wouldn’t want anyone to miss the show.

In his short year of exploration of the strip, Billy was proud to say he had been in each club at least once. Usually he was able to get a beer in his belly and a hand on his ass before he got caught and kicked out for being 17. He didn’t look it though, hand to god. He could pass for older, no problem, the earring and cocky smirk only aiding in the ruse. It’s just he didn’t have a fake ID, and, whilst Billy hid his age, he never hid his loose sexual orientation. Some clubs were okay with it and some were not, to say the least. The ones that didn’t care played the music that Billy craved. The angry lyrics, the loud guitar, the volume breaking the metal from the speakers as quick as they can, that’s the music Billy needed in his veins.

Taking slow drags from his cigarette, head down and debating about going home for the night, Billy started hearing some halfway decent music. He turned up his head to the sound of hard drums and a fast guitar start up, followed by an angry voice practically screaming I don’t wanna live to be thirty-four. Billy was definitely intrigued, and so he followed the music to another club. The neon sign naming the bar as “Starwood” and proclaiming the night’s guest to be a band called The Circle Jerks . Between the music and the name, Billy couldn’t find one reason to resist as he steered towards the doors. The chaos of the loud music at a shitty bar seemed exactly the kind of excitement buzz Billy was craving so deeply.

Just as he was poised to go in, Billy faltered in his step as a towering brick wall of a man covered the doorway. His one hand pushed the heavy door open, while the other was almost closed in a fist around a bloodied up man's throat. They walked out farther into the sidewalk, with the bouncer dragging the other man like a doll.

Billy knew an opportunity when he saw one, and even though there was a heavy thrill in seeing this fight and getting a look at the full sleeves of ink up and down the bouncer’s arms, Billy saw an opportunity. Billy used the distraction to dive for the quickly closing door.

Inside Starwood wasn’t much. The hallway was blacked out and the floor was scuffed from use to be just as dark. Multiple layers of faded posters glued to the walls on either side were a buffer to the noise, but not a good one.

Billy let his hands slide alongside the short hallway as his ears lead him around a corner into a thick mass of bodies.

As soon as he entered the main area of the bar, he was overwhelmed in the best way. The music was loud and fast, the bodies were sweaty and constantly in motion, and the booze was pouring freely and creating sticky puddles that merely added to the atmosphere. For the first time in a long while, Billy felt at home. It was easy to slide between the dancing bodies towards the bar in the back. He hung back, read the crowd, and easily snuck over to a particularly crowded spot at the bar.

He tucked himself just behind a thin woman who was already slurring her speech and snatched the neck of a beer bottle right under her nose. She was too busy leaning forward into the space of another girl talking with her hands to notice the thief, and once Billy took enough steps away she would have no reason to suspect a thing. Sometimes people let their guard down too easily at a bar, and while Billy knew about that, thankfully he just wanted to get drunk tonight. He cleaned off the lip of the bottle with the hem of his shirt before gulping it down for dear life.

There was a uniquely shaped stage on the other side of the large room, taking up almost the whole wall but was narrow. The band performing that night had the singer squashed between a massive drum set and a guitarist who held a wide power stance in tight leather pants that fit him like a second skin. The singer didn’t seem to have a care in the world as he bumped and even grinded against his guitarist's ass during a long and heavy solo.

This bar kept getting better and better to Billy. He wondered for a moment if he would have luck with what he attempted in his previous escapade. He had leaned up against a support beam covered in stickers and something sticky, but he didn’t care about that, nothing he hadn’t felt before in other places like this. Sea blue eyes scanned around the dark room hunting like a shark.

Then he saw someone, a lanky boy, fresh as a daisy but rushed and sweating behind the bar. He had long brown hair that just seemed to float above his head like a damn halo, and brown eyes that were just as big. From where Billy was standing all the lights of the stage reflected off those eyes, rainbows of colors, and when the boy slid a glass down the bar top and smiled, it was just as fantastic. Something that pretty shouldn’t be in a place like this, where the floor was basically one big puddle and the paint was peeling. He belonged on the cover of those magazines Susan read. Billy wanted to get his lips on that smile.

Billy chugged the last of the beer and marched over to the bar, waiting for a minute until it seemed that the bartender, with eyes like that damned cartoon deer Bambi, had a second to stop and wipe his hands down with a rag, then Billy took his shot. He caught the boy’s attention with a small gesture, and he had to yell over the noise, but he didn’t really care who heard.

“Hey, fuck me if I’m wrong, but is your name Bambi?”

He heard a couple hoots and cheers from the small gathering around the bar, but all he got from the boy was an eye roll, and he strutted to the other side of the bar to continue working. Bambi it was going to be then, his goal for the night, and oh was it going to be a fun chase.

He didn’t get to keep good on his goal however, because after staring at Bambi, or rather Bambi’s ass, for a minute and debating his next move, Billy felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around, and came face to face with a person who was so clearly a skinhead, and not the nice kind judging by the nazi ring and the white laces in his boots, it made Billy want to roll his eyes.

He’d dealt with assholes like this at other bars, but he really didn’t want to go home with more bruises. It couldn’t be helped though, when the bald bastard leaned in close and spit “You a fucking fairy?” in Billy’s face.

Billy’s jaw flexed. This man was bigger than him, but Billy wasn’t a push over. Hours under the sun surfing through unforgiving waves, weight lifting, and getting into more fights than he would care to remember has left him with an impressive physique of his own. Billy knew he was cut. And he knew how to win a fight. It wasn’t always about bigger or stronger but sometimes about the tricks.

“Who’s asking, big guy? Looking for a good time?” Billy flicked his eyes back across the bar just for a second to make sure that Bambi’s eyes were fixed on him. Their brown color sparkling with something intense as they connected. “Sorry but I’m taken right now-“

“Can’t fucking go anywhere these days without some faggot trying to suck dick in public. You’re disgusting!”

Billy couldn’t keep his smile under control, practically baring his teeth at this point. “You wanna watch me suck his dick, fella? Promise I’ll make it a show.” Then Billy’s tongue darted out to swipe along his bottom lip rapidity, wagging so suggestively, and it was turning the bald head on this bastard bright red. He hollered loud over all the music and noise of the bar, then lifted two hands gripped like fists in a club, fully ready to swing at Billy’s head of curls.

But then, the skinhead's shout was cut short. His anger boiled over so he was attacking all offense, leaving no room for defense. Billy easily leaned to the side and lifted his arm to push hard at the back of his sweaty, ugly head, successfully sending the thick skull of the man into the bar with a sickening crunch. That must be his nose, Billy had heard that noise many times before.

The skinhead crumbled to the ground, whimpering pathetically as he tried to stop the blood flowing from his face. Another man at the bar was lumbering over to haul the man up, maybe another security guy, maybe the same one from the door, Billy wasn’t watching. He only had eyes for Bambi, turning in place to stare at the bartender.

The sweet brunette bartender had obviously heard and seen what Billy did, and it worked like a charm. He leaned one hand on the bar and another against his hip, fingers coiled tight around the part where his shirt was tucked into tight denim jeans. “Nice show,” he had his head leaned down to look at Billy but his chin cocked up, like he was sizing him up. “Got a name?”

“Billy! The name’s Billy, pretty boy. But you can call me any time.” He had to yell over the music that hadn’t stopped.

“Order a drink, Billy. Whatever you want, it’s on the house.”

“You on the menu?” Bambi clearly hadn’t expected Billy to try and flirt so blatantly again, blinking a couple of times as if to process what he had meant.

“Sorry Billy, not tonight. How ‘bout a beer?” His voice was loud from having to holler over the sounds of the bar, but somehow soft and spoken just into Billy’s ear. It felt almost like a caress.

Billy grinned, at least this time wasn’t an out-right rejection. It could only be a matter of time before he wormed his way into Bambi’s heart, or at least his sinnfully tight jeans.

“Or, what about a Dirty Shirley?” Billy said, licking his bottom lip.

“How about a good ol’ Moscow Mule?” Steve hollered back, a light chuckle in his voice.

“I think I’d much rather a Quick Fuck.” Steve’s eyes glinted mischievously under the harsh lights of the bar.

“I know just the drink for you.” He then proceeded to mix together three different types of alcohol from the bottles lining the back wall. He poured it all into a little shot glass and placed it in front of Billy with a flourish.

“Well, pretty boy, what’s it called?” Billy asked, trying not to seem too eager, but fuck if this wasn’t the most fun he’d had in while.

Steve finally leaned over the bar towards Billy, and whispered in his ear. Soft rose petal lips tickled the blonde hairs curled under the lobe of his ear.

“It’s called Blue Balls,” Steve pulled away, looking like the cat who got the cream, not realizing that his snark had only cemented Billy’s determination to win him over.

With one quick move, Billy downed the shot easily and stood up.

“You got me, Bambi, I guess I can handle a little blue balls tonight, but next time I’m really hoping for that Quick Fuck,” and with that promise of a return, Billy strode deeper into the club, thinking

You may have won this battle, Bambi, but I’m gonna win the war.

So this started as me being thirsty for headcanons, and then catharrington was a genius and brought up the amazing idea of punk!Billy in California, and well... Lost Boys of Starwood was born! I'm so excited to start sharing this story with y'all, so please let me know what you think :)

Also, if you're into punk music, totally check out the music in this fic! It's all LA based bands from the 1980s. Or message me for a playlist I made lol. Also let me know if you’d want me to make a taglist for this series!

#harringrove #harringrove fic #billy hargrove #steve harrington #punk!billy #bartender!steve #punk!au #lost boys of starwood

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macklives · 5 years ago

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hey so this is gonna be a long-ish one. ive decided its been far too long since i did a session, and we did so many i can often forget what happened. i started in july and im pretty sure its been more than half a year now since this whole blog happened. and in that time, we’ve gone through 88 sessions and i want to know if i remember the relevant plot points and what we got up to in the last few sessions. a refresh/reminder if you would.

so i hereby commence my own little recap of act 5 because yeah no, its too much to do a recap of everything and i have andrew for that after every few acts. but i wanna refresh my mind on act 5 for now. so here we go.

1. alternia.. fucked up place. but its a place the trolls live on so what are we gonna do about it? overthrow the government? seems about right, lets do that with the next troll that gets introduced and if its not kanaya idk what andrew is doing by not having introduced the best troll yet. why the long wait? it was the second introduced? i honestly expected it to go in order when i first read act 5, because first we had karkat talk to jade which was the first new piece dialogue in the comic besides the main kids, but then we had kanaya with rose, which was followed by tavros, then terezi (iirc). so id assume we were following that order but nope karkat got fully introduced, then this random fucking juggalo called gamzee made its way into the comic. imagine my surprise.

2. theres been terminology throughout act 5, that i do not fucking know and will not remember and probably never will. like tf is a perigee again? i made a doc somewhere ill probably find it.

3. karkat’s introduction... short but very sweet. and by sweet i mean we got to know the depths of the angry edge lord. and by depths i mean karkat got angry at gamzee for typing in a way that he didnt like so he yapped like a chihuahua. nah, but seriously, i do like karkat tho, hes growing on me but only bc hes a bitch baby and his whole personality makes me want to mock him so thats the reason im not that annoyed and think hes funny, and the most harmless troll. even more so than tavros. and thats saying something. 7.5/10 bc im generous.

4. then gamzee... the high juggalo troll who has the worst typing quirk imo, i cannot for the life of me read it. but hes chill, i actually really like gamzee. hes funny and the least problematic as of right now. 8.5/10.

5. terezi’s introduction next i think. she likes playing as a lawyer with her stuffed dragons, ie by roleplay, shes blind, can see through licking, and she likes eating chalk, maybe its even nutritious. shes good. 9/10.

6. uhh in the process of these intros, there are teams being made? karkat joins gamzee and terezi in, i THINK, the red team?? bc terezi likes red?? could be wrong, i dont remember the teams except that its red/blue to represent sollux’s duality in those colors. terezi then tries recruiting AC but AC is like lol sorry i have to ask this friend of mine who has authority over me for some goddamn reason and terezi goes yuck tf i hate that guy................... yeah thats all we have on the teams. pretty sure sollux had smth to do with karkat about the making of the leaders, and they did the “i hate me” and the “no i hate me more than u hate u” or whatever the fuck that was. they got embarrassed afterwards and deleted their messages. im pretty sure they have no messages because everything ends up being mutually deleted so their logs are actually empty. ngl, kinda enjoyed their convos, made me appreciate their characters. i hope we get more because its good content. i also dont know what order this whole thing is in, who contacted who first? couldnt tell you. ill remember later on. and since im basing this off from memory alone, gotta deal with what i remember. uhhhh so yeah. we havent met all characters yet so the teams have not been officially decided but we got the bases, which is that.

7. god i found it, and the only thing im looking at right now is the terminology list i made and what the fuck?? what the fuck?? you miss a few weeks and suddenly the word nubslurping comes up and you forget what the fuck youre reading.

8. im PRETTY SURE aradia is seen after that whole team fiasco?? or its sollux... maybe. wait. its sollux, right. i just knew someone gets introduced mid way through is all. actually, someone gets introduced after every 20 pages. i have no idea. but ik aradia and sollux go hand in hand.

9. oh shit. OH SHIT! RIGHT! I REMEMBER! so this occurs in the latest session i did, and not the beginning of act 5, but AG and aradia team up, right?? and sollux fucking gets manipulated by them and ??? idk??? they make him find the game, reprogram it and then make him believe its going to end the world (which in hindsight is true, but anyways) so he refuses to play it which was AG’s plan all along so she steps up and becomes leader in his place. but aradia says sollux will still play the game no matter what, but she never went through with the plan for AG but it was apart of a prophecy? that sollux wouldnt be the leader at all? that he’d still play? but it had to go according to plan so it could succeed??? we just dont know why yet. anyways, point being, she still cares for sollux since she did it for him rather than for AG. and thats what i recall. god tf i forgot about that whole drama until writing down “sollux and aradia go hand in hand” which gave me violent flashbacks to the memory.

10. oh and id give aradia 9/10 and sollux 7/10. i do like sollux but if i put him higher than karkat, id get crucified. so im keeping them around the same.

11. man i really like sollux and aradia tho, i may have put him at 7, but i really like their dynamic and i really hope they make up and aradia explains herself about AG. because from one side it looks shitty. and while sollux is rude and never makes up his mind, he apologized to aradia after going off, and that was the only time ive seen him be sincere, so im pretty sure he cares for her to some extent. and i think its somewhat mutual? considering the whole “did it for him” thing. man, i see potential because i actually like both their characters. theyre well written. may not have the best personalities, but i appreciate well written characters and homestuck has the best ones ive seen in a while.

12. oh shit, hell yeah, the more i write, the more im connecting the dots and remembering. however, the more i write, the more i want to just make an analogy post but thats not for now. jesus christ its not all about analogies, mack, this is a recap. but.. how does andrew do it? to not go off track??? hard. telling ya.

13. anyways, didnt we break the fourth wall at some point and have the demon gods or whatever the fuck speak to us in third person for the first time in the comic, after having only gone into second person narrative, right after we were introduced to sollux and his “virus”? the uh, the phrase “the demon was already here” was said, or something along those lines. first line in homestuck to give me the creeps ngl and i appreciate it bc it gives me motivation to know what the fuck its about. its cool bc you have no idea where its going and it sure doesnt have anything to do with the current plot, since the trolls’ session/game doesnt have fucking demons so im curious as to what the fuck that was about. and if i really have to make a theory, i feel it has something to do with aradia’s voices in her head which also connect to the gods rose heard when she started disregarding rules and told dave to look at derse without listening to music bc it was as if he was purposely blocking away their calls. like holy shit, that gave me the shivers. while i do want to know more about wtf happens after act 4, trolls are taking priority right now. just like we did with the intermission. no discussing the kids unless necessary. treat this as its own separate comic. and THEN we can connect.

14. ANYWAYS, tavros’ intro???? that comes afterwards?? with the fiduspawn that made me gag a little on the inside? yep. remember that. fuck that lol. -1/10 but tavros himself is MAYBE a 6/10? i wish we explored his character more in his intro bc right now he just looks like a character made only to be a victim rather than have any depth and i feel thats robbing someone of their full potential. give me more personality andrew, rather than a quivering boy who falls prey to bitches. im expecting more throughout the comic honestly and i hope he gets growth so hes not looked as a “victim” but rather his own character. he is still sweet, and i like him because i want to protect him, but id rather have more info, you know what i mean?

15. oh hell. kanaya had a chainsaw at some point. that made me happy. and didnt she cut off tavros’ legs?? and he got robot ones? and some creepy dude was looking and we called him saggy tits bc hes sagittarius? right? neat. that did happen. pretty sure saggy tits is ACs friend that tells her what to do. the more u know. OH and they all have colored blood similar to their text colors lol. that i remember... so tavros has brown, terezi has blueish green, um. karkat has grey the loser. and apparently it forms a rainbow which is nice. rainbow is good.

16. i dont remember anything else actually

17. wait no i do. AG appeared. shes a petty bully. idk what to say about her. we didnt get that much, except that she hates tavros but is okay with aradia. she also looks like a bottle opener. actually, i think she teamed with aradia to gain leadership rather than to “be friends”. and while that is similar to how karkat did it, meaning the gain, the motivation and how they earned it is entirely different. kinda seeing a trend tho. the leaders of the red/blue teams are both characters who wanted the role, but never had it to begin with. only to win their way into the position. but rather than ask non-stop like karkat did, AG manipulated others so she could be successful. not too sure if she also used aradia for that, or is actually motivated to become friends since they were “past enemies” and she needed a rebound. pretty sure its somewhat both. while AG did mostly use aradia to speak with sollux, what she doesnt know is that aradia is a bad bitch who never even thought about AG and only followed through with the plan bc she had a plan of her own. i guess we’ll look into that later. i lowkey want to know their history.

18. OH AC!!! she appeared for a second as well. love her. shes amazing. 9.5/10. and you may ask yourself, why am i saying “i love this character” but none of them are 10/10?? weellllll its because, and i cant stress this enough, 10/10 belongs to kanaya, i dont make the rules. im waiting for her introduction, shes my favorite and its obvious. sorry.

19. oh huh seems i forgot about the term “lusus”. which.. is.. their parents but not really, its these fucking weird ass creatures that the trolls fought in a cave or something as a child. i dont fucking know. terezi hatched hers and it died? gamzee’s also died but his goat sea dad was never really there to begin with so while it is sad, its more sad that gamzee never saw him? um.. karkat killed his own by exploding his computer bc sollux said dont run the virus and karkat said u cant tell me what to do and did it anyways. so thats on him. but apparently theyre supposed to die, to become prototyped during the game, right? yeah. i remember now.

20. thats.. about it? idk anything else, nothing is coming back to me apart from the shit above. huh.... im surprised how quickly things do come back to you the moment you rant about the plot tho.... handy trick.

cool. neat. fun. this took me too long. but im glad i remember a little bit.

#i wanted to catch u all up on this #but ill most likely do a liveblog tmr bc i was bust today unfortunately apart from writing this out #bc this took priority for better understanding where i am rn #maaaannnn #writing wears me out #i love it #but its tiring the fucking bitch #so im in need for deep sleep #wish i could do more smh #welll #goodnight :)

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dragonstoravens · 4 years ago

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Babylon Vol. 1: I’m an Idiot but At Least I’m Fun

[ID: a blue patterned banner with text reading “BABYLON.” End ID.]

BIG CW for this one: Blood, mild body horror.

(Totally ran out of time to post this yesterday, so here we are a day late again! For the 2/3 people that actually see this on tumblr lol. Just one chapter, and not a mega long one, but be safe while reading and feel free to message me for a summary or sections to skip if you’re worried about the content warnings. Hope you enjoy!)

Taglist (ask to be added or removed!): @charlottedotexe @glitterandstarshine @rainbowcoloreddays @the-starlight-chills @erased-in-stone

General: @elywritesbydarkness @residentofthedisc @humour-and-hyperfocus @skyfirewrites @viawrites-andacts

16. I’m An Idiot But At Least I’m Fun

There was a steady dripping from the edge of the table she sat on. Azure sighed and then held her breath, digging the scalpel into her arm once more. She’d missed the intended node once already, and this was getting a little dicey. It crossed her mind that she really should consider an assistant for when she did her more complex updates, but then she’d have to deal with their concern for her wellbeing and that really only ever did more harm than good for her efficiency. A twinge of pain shot up from her elbow, and she reached behind her to carelessly flip a switch on a box wired to her ankle by about four yards of copper wire. The pain subsided, and she set the scalpel down in exchange for a pair of forceps. Time to dig. The dripping continued, blood running onto the ground and towards her workshop drain. She paid it no mind. She’d eat a cookie later.

But still, something burned at the back of her mind. She looked at the clock on her monitor, brow furrowed as she wiped a bloody gloved hand on her shirt. She was forgetting something. The faulty node was still blinking beneath all the blood, taunting her. Suddenly, a spurt of blood crossed the room, and some wiring escaped her arm, snaking slowly out of her open incision. She grit her teeth. That was never a fun feeling, blood-warmed metal exiting her body. “Fuck, oh, goddamn it-” Another spurt of blood, this one dripping down her arm and to the ground even though she had her free hand clamped around it. She grumbled low in her throat, words coming through the forceps she now held between her teeth. “Sonofabitch, I swear everytime I try-”

“Bluemom, You have a visitor.” Her floating personal assistant bot, Bean, hovered over to her, his front display reading out her current rate of blood loss and the time. “He had an appointment.”

“I don’t recall my brother or Turq or even Smalls needin’ appointments to see me. Just send ‘im in, whoever he is he’s seen worse I’m sure.” She waved the bot off and he hovered away, whistling his customary exit tune. She used the hand on her currently bleeding arm to open a drawer and rummage through its contents. “Gauze, gauze, gauze….”

The door slid open, and a voice, not that of any of her shipmates and yet all too familiar, said, “Jesus.”

“Your Three O’Clock is here!” Chirped Bean. “Trinity Jericho has arrived.”

She looked up to see Trinity standing in the doorway, hands on his hips. She could practically see the loading screen behind his eyes as his brain searched its databanks for an appropriate reaction or facial expression in response to the bizarre scene in front of him.

She was a mess, blood running down her arm and all over her white tank top, a spare coil of fine wire hanging around the shell of her ear. A strange contraption was slithering its way out of her wound, the inside of her elbow flayed open. She’d have blushed in embarrassment, but she couldn’t really spare the blood, so she settled on smiling sheepishly. “Oh, uh, hey?” More blood, this time escaping her fingers and splattering weakly at her feet. “...I’ve got gloves in that drawer right there behind you, would you mind helpin’ me for a quick sec? My hands are occupied right now.” Her tone was conversational, as though she was asking him to grab something from a fridge as opposed to putting on gloves to shove wires back up into her bicep. She continued using her lacerated arm to dig for gauze, blood dripping from her elbow and onto her bare feet.

Rather than figure out how to react, it looked like Trinity had decided not to react at all. His face was exceedingly casual, save for his slightly raised eyebrows, as he went over to the desk and removed the gloves, pulling them on. “Should I even ask?”

Something between a human laugh and a pig snort left her mouth. “Only if it’s necessary. I think I just nicked a vein. I’m more concerned with these connectors, they’re not supposed to be connected this loosely, which means they really shouldn’t be hangin’ out my arm like a hound dog out a pickup truck window.”

“Just nicked a vein,” Trinity mimicked, affecting a higher pitched southern drawl that combined with the slight disbelieving tone to his voice. “Ok. Ok, you’re completely insane, and probably only partially from blood loss. Now, tell me what to do.” He turned his attention to the wires, examining them closely with an expression that rivaled his focus when looking at a particularly interesting problem in one of his own production lines. “I think I see the basics of what’s going on here, but you’d know best.”

“It’s just the coolin’ lines, they kinda just gotta be-Oh!” She pulled a roll of gauze and some medigel from the drawer she’d been digging in. “Found ‘em.” She looked back up at him, arm stretched out, still applying pressure. “I’m not insane until I lose a full liter, by the way. We’re not even a quarter of the way there. They’re just coolin’ lines, you can just shove ‘em back in. I’d have done it already if I didn’t need to keep my blood in my body.” The cooling lines glowed a faint purple and continued to slowly snake their way out. She beheld her own mess with interest for a moment, puzzling something out. “Wonder if I could…”

“Let’s save that little curiosity journey for later, yes?” he interrupted, just the slightest hint of panic creeping into his tone that stopped short whatever she’d been about to come up with. “Maybe best to explore all the other experiments you could run on yourself when you’re not already bleeding all over the floor.” He started pushing the wires back into her arm, probably more gently than she would have done herself. “And, for the record, you’re insane with all your blood in your body. But I’m sure you know that already.”

“It’s what makes me fun!” Her irreverence for her own safety could almost be seen as endearing, if it wasn’t so dangerous. She grabbed a spray bottle marked ‘alcohol’ in big red letters, a roll of duct tape on her wrist. “Here, put pressure on it once it’s all in there, I’ll secure it back down later. Musculature will hold it for now.” She put the spray top of the bottle of alcohol between her teeth and bit down, twisting to remove it and dumping some of the contents over the open wound, no sign of a grimace. “Quickly dude, or we’re gonna be covered in blood. My heart’s still beatin’. God this would be so much easier if my limbs were detachable.”

Trinity almost said wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been covered in blood, or detachable limbs are another thing we don’t want to explore right now, but he was a little too busy to worry about snappy comebacks. He got some disinfectant a little more directly to the wound by covering a bandage in medigel, and set to work sealing the edges together temporarily with glue that he knew should work like stitches. The alcohol had luckily done the double job of cleaning away the excess blood, so all he had to do was swipe away the fresh blood that had just welled from it with a piece of gauze and apply the bandage. On top of it he folded a few more pieces of gauze for extra pressure, and he secured the whole thing with medical tape. It was quick, but rather well done for a rush job nonetheless. Azzy blinked at the result.

“Oh, I was gonna slam some gauze and medigel in there and throw some duct tape over it but that works too.”

“I know that’s what you were going to do, which is exactly why I didn’t do it. Might as well make use of an extra pair of hands.” Said hands, though gloved, were a bit of a bloody mess now, and he walked over to a sink with a bin for biohazard disposal to clean up. “Luckily I know something about cybernetics and first aid. I know you do too.” Unspoken was the implication that not everyone did-- that most people would probably freeze up or panic at such a sight. Beneath even that lay certainty that she did this often. Despite his jokes about her being insane, she’d been perfectly calm. This maybe wasn’t how all her repairs went, with the blood and all, but it wasn’t a surprise, either. He thought maybe that should scare him, but instead he simply accepted it as fact. What else could he do?

“Can’t see how it matters too much, can’t avoid the scarrin’ anyway. Thanks, though.” she looked up at him with that same lopsided smile before bending her arm a couple times. “I forgot you were comin’, lemme get this shit cleaned up and we’ll get that maintenance outta the way.”

He shrugged as he finished washing his own hands and disposing of the gloves, and started to help her clean up. “Scars, those don’t matter. Everyone has them, visible or not, you don’t make it far in life without them. But in this kind of world… I think you might as well save yourself a little pain and danger any time you have the chance.” There was an honesty in his voice that drew her attention, but he was facing away from her. He cleared his throat awkwardly and turned with a crooked grin. “So, what nefarious plans do you have for my eye today?”

She was already across the room in front of a pair of doors, arms crossed over her front to pull her shirt up and over her head. She was facing away from him, her back tan and striped with thin white scars all the way up her spine, ending in one final splintering burst at the base of her neck. Barely visible at this distance was the white ink tattooed across her back to make the whole mess look like a dandelion puff. The shirt fell to the ground with a wet flop as she hit a button to open a closet full of more white tank tops, these ones pristine. Her hands were clean already. “S’not like I feel it anyway, that’s what the ankle wire’s for.” She grabbed a shirt and tugged it over her head, fixing her beanie as she turned to face him again and grabbed a mop from the corner.

“Ankle wire?” He glanced down, mechanical pieces fitting together behind his eyes. “Of course. You electrocute your nerve endings to suppress pain. Makes perfect sense.” Was she imagining the tiny edge to his voice? “And to think you lectured me before about the external charging I was doing. Don’t you ever worry you’ll fry them, go numb permanently? Although…” He shook his head, the joking tone back to his voice. “Never mind, you could probably fix that if it happened, anyway.”

Azzy began cleaning, ignoring the edge to his voice. This was why she never let anyone assist with her cybernetic self experimentation. This, and the process of the reset. She let herself sound cocky. "Of course I could fix it. Anyway, I have an update for the cooler, so it'll adjust with your body temp, like a real eye. Good for if someone's lookin' atcha with thermal imagin'." She hit a button and hopped onto a counter, the edges of the floor beginning to flood slightly with water. "I also thought maybe I'd upload this real spicy book I read last week to it, in case you get bored. You’ll love it." She snorted, unable to keep a straight face.

He laughed quietly along as he lifted himself onto the counter next to her. It was odd-- even through genuine humor he was looking at her like he was considering something, searching her for the answer to some unspoken puzzle. He let his gaze wander again just before the point where consideration became outright staring. “Feel free. That thermal imaging sounds like a great idea.”

The floor was done flooding, washing the remaining blood down a drain in the center of the room. She hopped back down, crossing the room and grabbing her boots off a shelf. Can't mess with people's eyes with your bare feet just out and around. She looked up from her feet with a curious expression, like he'd given her a brain teaser. "What was that look? You were thinkin' about somethin', and it's almost definitely not the alien erotica I'm puttin' in your peeper as soon as the standard tune up is done."

He shrugged. “I’ll tell you later. There’s some research I want to do first.” He slid off the counter. “First things first, heat regulation and alien erotica.”

"Don't have to tell me twice. Get on the table, I'll get the hookups. Pop that sucker out too, I need to check the retina." She pulled a clean pair of gloves on, snapping the cuff against her wrist. The sensation ricocheted up her arm. Her elbow and wound sparked. Her freshly patched arm swung out of its own volition, landing squarely on Trinity’s backside. Azure blinked, tips of her ears turning bright scarlet as her mouth twitched. “Oops.”

Trinity turned to look at her and blinked bemusedly. “...Getting an early start on the erotica part?” he quipped, but his already pink cheeks flushed darker as he spoke.

Azure giggled in response, pulling her arm back the moment she realized she’d left it there in shock. “Sorry. The node’s been misfirin’, if I hadn’t missed the incision point I’d have replaced and calibrated it by now, my bad.” Her eyes flickered briefly downwards and then immediately to her desk, smirking as she rolled her shoulder and shook her hand to get out any further bursts. “...Glad to know you don’t skip your squats. It’s a nice ass, now that I’m lookin’ at it instead of the wires in my arm.”

“A misfire, sure.” Trinity smirked back. It was easy to tell she was being serious about the misfire-- a lie would have come with a lot more stammering and awkward pauses-- but it was a prime opportunity to tease his friend that he wasn’t about to miss. “Your powers of observation are astonishing. Here.” He popped out the cybernetic eye, deceptively simple looking detached from its complex inner workings. He grinned, and tossed it lightly in one hand, waiting for her to turn back to face him. “Catch.”

She held a jar of fluid for his eye in her hand already as she turned, brow raised. As she faced him, he smirked and tossed the eye towards her, an easy to intercept underhand throw. “Ohfuck-” Snatching it out of the air and setting it gently in the jar, she pouted at him. “Dude, I’m not makin’ you another one if that one breaks.”

“You didn’t make the first one.” He smiled. “It’s fine, I knew you’d catch my eye.”

She stared at him blankly for a moment, then set the jar down and cracked a smile, some small hint of a blush on her cheeks. “Very funny Hotshot, well done. Don’t throw your fuckin’ organs.” Digging out a small monitor and some wires, she glanced over her shoulder with a smirk. “I’m sure all the girls tell you that though, right?”

He scoffed, amused at the idea of the women at the events he attended saying anything about organs out loud. “Just you. It’s a bit of an honor, really.”

“Flatterer. Don’t think I don’t know about your eight illicit rendezvous with five women in the last two days. Sara Mitchell told me all about them last time.” She rolled her eyes and stood, handing him the bundle of tech and tugging at his shirt collar to plug something into his port. “They’re tryin’ harder every time, I swear. I can see why you wanted the backup more ‘n more, I can’t imagine how you got anythin’ done at those things.”

“Mostly by ignoring anyone I didn’t want something from,” Trinity replied casually, opening his shirt a few more buttons to let her access his port more easily. The motion revealed those tattoos she’d already noticed a few times before when doing repairs-- the birds in flight, the trinity knot, the wall, the crumbling tower. Again she considered that their placement, so close to bone in most places and with so many heavy black lines and detailed patterns, must’ve really hurt. A phantom pain shot down her own spine in sympathy at the thought.

“Well, I guess that explains it just fine.” She flipped a few switches, monitors whirring to life. “Not very nice, but then again neither is listenin’ to them gripin’ because I won’t tell ‘em your-” She stopped herself, face reddening as she dropped a heartbeat sensor in his lap. A nasal feminine voice replayed in her ear, begging the question how big is it, really? She picked her sentence back up with a rambling vigor, trying her absolute best to drown her own thoughts out. “-current plans. Nasty, all of ‘em. Super nosy. Can’t blame you for ignorin’ it. Wanna put that on your finger? Don’t matter which, any of ‘em are fine, I gotta make sure the readin’s are accurate.”

He gave her a look like he wanted to question her about the hesitation, though she was certain he had a pretty good idea what the ladies had actually been asking her about. However, he simply quirked an eyebrow in her direction as he slipped the sensor onto his pointer finger.

Face still red, she hooked the eye up to a different wire. Something hummed and buzzed, and she heaved a dramatic sigh. “Sorry, you don’t have enough space for the porn. You have all of it allocated for images and text files made by the unit itself.” She made a few keystrokes and turned, looking at everything but him. “Okay, that’s updatin’. Lemme see your empty eye socket, your nerve is registerin’ some weird readings.”

Trinity turned his face up to hers, exposing the scarred inner socket of his eye. He’d never said what had happened to it, but it didn’t look pleasant. “The optic nerve? It should be fine, it’s totally cybernetic. It’s not degrading again, is it?” There was a hint of nervousness in his voice at the thought.

“It’s probably just one busted cell. It’s still machinery, sometimes parts need to be replaced.” She grabbed a pair of foreceps and clicked them together where he could see with his good eye. “Tell me if you feel this, because you’re definitely not supposed to.” She poked around at the back of his socket. “Anythin’?”

“No. I think your mother poked around in there enough when she was installing it that it won’t feel much ever again.”

“Then your actual nerve past the cybernetic and into your brain is fine, its just a couple of cones tryin’ to be data transmitters.” She poked at something else and made a small noise of triumph. “I’ll have it replaced, shouldn’t be hard. I think I made a couple extras when I was up all night last week.” The foreceps went back to the table and her face reappeared in his line of sight, beaming. “Your whole business is just as busted, but it’s no worse than when you came the first time. Matter of fact, some of the burns from when your eye wasn’t cooled properly have healed pretty well, like they weren’t even there.”

“Oh,” Trinity responded, pleasantly surprised. “Yes, I tried to do some first aid to keep it from scarring the way my leg did when I used to charge my taser externally.” He didn’t meet her eyes, even though he’d only done it a half dozen times, and all long before he’d met her. The second reminder of his own carelessness with his remaining nerves made him feel a bit guilty for sniping at her about her own. “I took the eye out when I could, used some burn creams and medigel, that kind of thing. Anyway, I’m glad to hear that there’s nothing wrong with the organic nerves.”

“Yep, if nerves had feelin’s they’d be happy as hell. Strong impulses, not too much overtime. Whatever took ‘em out the first time, you’re recoverin’ pretty well given that you lost your whole ass eye.” She returned to her computers, hands flying deftly across the keys and screens as she looked for more anomalies.

“Well, it’s been a couple years at this point. I let it degrade for a while before I sought out your mom, but… it’s good to hear that damage didn’t last.” At least those nerves had recovered. Others hadn’t, but that was going to be the subject of his research for the next few days. Despite what he’d seen earlier when Azzy had been working on her own cybernetics, he trusted her implicitly with his. If anyone could fix his problem, she could.

“It makes sense, the brain doesn’t like leavin’ things so close to it busted. Optic nerve is pretty close.” Her tongue poked out at the corner of her mouth and she squinted at her screen. “....Hey, want a wider zoom on your sensor?”

“Why not? Whatever you think, I trust your judgement.” He leaned back slightly, relaxing, and let her work. She stood quietly for some minutes, occasionally humming a quiet tune that was almost familiar.

Eventually, she was satisfied with her work. She unhooked his eye from its wires, passing him the jar. “There you go, go ahead ‘n smack that back into its place and you’re all set. Recalibrated it’s temperature sensin’ and the coolin’ system to be a little more sensitive to ambient heat. Don’t go swimmin’ in super cold water, though. Might be a little too ambient for it for now.” She had that same smug look she always did when she was done doing maintenance, eyes bright.

“Of course. Thanks, doc.” He said the last bit with a slight smirk, and popped the eye back into place. It rolled around for a few seconds before settling. “See you at the next event?”

“Only if that guy with the braid’s there, I hear he’s kinda fun.” She took her gloves off and waved him off the table. “Get outta here, I gotta reset my arm.”

“Alright.” He stood, a quick pat on her non-injured shoulder his goodbye. “Be careful of that wound. I bandaged it so well, it would be a shame if you messed up my handiwork.”

“I have three doctorates, of course I’m gonna mess it up.” She gave him a quick pat as well, her smile genuine. “I’ll go easy on it. Bean’ll take you back, careful none of my scary vigilante’s eat ya on the way out.” The small bot hovered over his shoulder, beeping a hello tune.

He grinned, and nodded. “I’ll try to steer clear. Let’s go, Bean.” He followed the little bot from the lab, with one last wave towards Azzy, not looking back. She heaved a sigh and grabbed a wire, connecting it to one of her ports once the door closed behind him. She had a limb to test and reset.

#chapter update #wip: babylon #writeblr #writers on tumblr #spilled ink

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loveylangdon · 6 years ago

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Fallin all in you

Requested: can you do something about Shawn dating one of his friend's sisters?

Word count: 3.8k+

A/N: okay I changed this a bit because I liked this idea or twist I put on it. however, posting this took so long because I originally filled this request with it being Connors older sister If you want me to post the one with Connor lmk but I fell in love with this version more. Thank you for requesting I adore you @r3ader

Masterlist

*not my gif credit to owner*

y/n p.o.v

Walking down the hallway you feel someone pull on your arm dragging you into a nearby room letting out a little yelp at the sudden movement and change in direction you put your hand on the door frame balancing yourself looking to find who disrupted your trek to the green room

Looking up surprised seeing Shawn blushing with a smile on his face

“Hi” he whispers softly looking down at you

“Shawn what the hell,” you ask chuckling looking around noticing your in an empty what appears to be an unused green room

“I missed you” he shrugs his shoulders and leads you into the room farther closing the door behind you hands intertwined

“Shawn we can’t do this right now” you laugh at the cute pout on his face, you’re standing in front of him and he’s holding both of your elbows lightly holding you in place as if he’s afraid of you walking out which you could never do.

He lets out a whine and dips his head to be eye level with you before moving his hands to cup your cheeks “You’re walking around here looking all cute and smiley I just wanted a kiss” he speaks out as he closes the space between you two catching your lips in his.

Melting into it you can't help but smile until you feel Shawn bite your lip causing you to part your mouth in a moan allowing him to explore your mouth. Moving your hands behind his head into his curls holding him closer if possible. You pressed to his front adding a little more pressure he starts groaning and pulls away for a breath. Leaving you to laugh at his swollen lips, messy curls, and pink cheeks imagining how both of you probably looked fucked from a simple lazy Makeout.

“Don’t laugh I missed you” Shawn pouts at you while you lean up and place another kiss on his lips which he smiles into “You missed me too eh” he laughs pulling away as you groan at the loss, looping your fingers through the belt loops in his jeans so he can’t go too far as you bite your lip up at him

“I have to find-” your thought interrupted by his phone ringing in his back pocket

“Shit” he hisses and pulls the phone out muting the call so the ringtone can’t be heard from outside glancing in the direction of the door you guys came through

Chuckling you look at the caller ID its Brian

“Answer it rockstar” you tease as you slip your hand into his back pocket as he throws his arm over your shoulder holding you into his chest

Smiling at the thought these secret rendezvous, hallway shenanigans before shows, lazy make-out sessions in backrooms it was all thrilling, cute and fun. Joining a tour with your best friend had you over the moon but never did you think you would get a cute guy out of it let alone the one and only Canadian heartthrob. After joining the tour for 3 months Shawn took a liking to you and always tried to be where you were. Him and his friends constantly crashing whatever plans you made with yours. After a while, it didn’t take long for the pair of you to you two sneak into broom closets and find yourself under the sheets in hotel rooms trying not to get caught.

Your thoughts are interrupted when Shawn pokes your cheek, not even realizing his phone call ended he chuckled “Am I that unamusing you can’t pay attention to a five minute phone call I have” he jokes

“mm regardless I was thinking about you Mendes don’t get too big headed now” you joke right back at him as you capture his lips in a kiss again letting out a sigh of content until he pulls away

“Alessia is looking for you apparently you left your phone in the green room and she can’t find you” he smirks down at you

“Oh I wonder why she can’t rockstar” you pull away from him and it's his turn to groan

“No I just got you in here I was waiting like a good 25 minutes” he pouts down at you

“Oh my god you were waiting in here by yourself for how long” you question trying not to giggle

“Stop” he lets out whining “It was cute in my head, kind of like those hide in the closet to scare your significant other videos” he follows you out of the room wrapping his arms around your waist, chin resting on your shoulder

“Significant other videos huh?” You look at him before he hides his face in your neck feeling his face heat up.

You’re about to tease him some more when you hear footsteps and Shawn breaks away quickly stumbling on his feet making you let out a laugh as he glares at you just as Connor walks in

“y/n oh hey!” He waves at you and then notices Shawn holding onto the wall “Bro what happened” he’s chuckling as Shawn glares at both of you

“He tripped over his ginormous legs” you giggle excusing yourself to go find Alessia

Walking down the hall, you're about to enter Alessia’s green room until you hear her and someone talking

“I don’t know y/n seems different do you think she’s sleeping with someone on the team” you hear Alessia ask as you tense up

You never meant to keep whatever was happening to you and Shawn from her but there wasn’t much to tell. You guys were just having fun. You know how she felt about Shawn, for the first couple months of the tour they were inseparable she fell quickly before deciding it wasn’t a good idea and Shawn told her he saw her as nothing more than an older sister. It crushed her but not in a bad way she soon realized it was just being on the road and not having someone to share it with. Being in a close space for so many days there's only so many guys that she can choose to be around and she misinterpreted her feelings for Shawn. She was actually way more into Brian anyways but was too scared to admit it.

“I mean maybe she’s just homesick you know how she gets, this is her first tour and we’re best friends if she was she would tell us” you hear Liv chiming in to reassure her

Alessia couldn’t be on the road without anyone for long, she always insisted that the next tour she would do solo but it never ended up that way. Going solo lasted 3 months and within the first break, she asked you and Liv to join her for the rest of the tour all the way through the NA leg. All expenses paid and maybe even a job opportunity here and there helping with odds an end things. You and Liv automatically agreed already having been packed just waiting for her to say when.

“Have you noticed Shawn acting weird too, I mean before he couldn’t not be around and now he’s hardly ever-” you hear Alessia starts but is cut off by Liv

“Les if she was sleeping with Shawn which I don’t think she is, she would tell us okay. y/n isn’t one to keep secrets. Even if she was would it be a bad thing?” Liv asks as you take in a breathe waiting for Alessia’s answer

“I mean-” Alessia starts off but you couldn’t bear to hear how disappointed in you she would be so you walked into the room

“I got lost again, I don’t know how you do it, Les, these places are a maze” you sigh plopping yourself onto the couch next to Alessia cuddling into her side

“Ahh we were looking for you, I figured you got lost again so I had Brian call around to see if anyone found you” she smiles and wraps her arms around you as Liv comes to join on the couch. “What would I do without my favorite two girls with me” She sighs

—

Alessia was singing Out of Love, the most heart-tugging song on her setlist at least to me. Me and Liv decided to watch side stage tonight so here we were holding each other and belting the words out as loud as we could. No one could hear us let alone see us except those on stage and with Alessia totally engrossed in the song paying no mind to anything around her we were in our own little world.

In the middle of the song, Liv was called by Brian to go help with something in the booth doing some odd and end work here and there we were both learning how to do every little job on the crew. It was fun to learn and be of help but not in the middle of your best friends set, where Liv didn’t mind because she’s toured with Les before she didn’t mind the disruption more than happy to help.

You felt a larger body wrap their arms around your shoulders from behind already knowing who it was you grabbed their wrists and leaned back. Moving in the same motion you and Liv were previously. You felt Shawn lower his head and whisper the words into your ear giving you chills and making your heart flutter.

Over the speakers fading out of the song, you heard a camera go off, looking over Connor peaked his head over the lens of his film camera taking photos of you and Shawn. Grabbing Alessia’s attention before the loud bass came back on Connor moved you and Shawn so Shawn’s back was facing Alessia and took a picture of her looking at you guys funny.

When Connor walked away you expected Shawn to follow thinking they just needed some B roll for his tour diaries. He stayed and even when Liv came back he wrapped both of you guys’ in his arms and into his chest swaying back and forth with both of you before he had to get ready to go onstage.

After Alessia walked off you and Liv followed her into the dressing room Alessia closing the door on Brian before he could walk in and tell her what a great job she did after every show. Leaving you confused.

“Are you and Shawn dating” Alessia turned to you asking

You couldn’t read her expression or emotions and it scared you, she was building her walls back up you looked to Liv for help but she looked away

“Les no, we’re not,” you told her and honestly it was the truth you and Shawn never said explicitly you were dating

“But you are? Though right? If I go out there and ask him right now what will he say?” She asked with no emotion in her tone

“Les,” you started but she opened the door facing a confused Brian and started walking down the hall to where Shawn was. Looking at Liv for help

“Well follow her y/n” she ushered you out of the room “Are you two dating?” She asked looking at you skeptically

“Liv no we’re not, I would’ve told you guys” you groan jogging after Alessia, Liv and a confused Brian following

Stopping abruptly you see Alessia just got to Shawn who was looking in a mirror fixing his “makeup” Connor recording him Alessia tapped Shawns shoulder making him turn around confused

“Connor turn the camera off,” Alessia told him giving him a look that made him almost drop his camera

You guys were in an alcove under the stage a very small alcove might you add it was crowded for seven people. Shawn had to crouch down to even fit and Cez sitting at his desk confused.

Trying to squeeze past everyone to get to Alessia was hard but you managed to make it over to her. Shawn saw you and his eyes lit up at the sight of you, which didn’t go unnoticed by Alessia who’s eyes widened too reminding her why she came down here in the first place she went to open her mouth when you put your hand over it muffling her words and with the screaming of fans Shawn couldn’t hear her.

Holding your hand over Alessia’s mouth, “Les not now” you spoke to her and looked up at Shawn who was smiling. She started shaking her head in an attempt to let you let go but you were holding her hands as well. you tried to walk backward with her Connor recording again finding the whole thing amusing with such a tight space it proved difficult.

Brian came up and picked up Alessia like she weighed nothing and slung her over his shoulder causing Liv and Shawn to let out a belly laugh hesitantly you removed your hand thinking Brian was going to take her back to the green room.

With Alessia’s mouth no longer being covered she let out a scream that had you guys all covering your ears as her eyes went wide and blush rose to her already rosy cheeks as the crowd got louder stopping Brian in his tracks and making him look at her

“My bad” she got soft “I didn’t think y/n was going to let go of my mouth” she spoke at you, still on Brians's shoulder making everyone laugh

“Shawn you need to get in position” Cez spoke to him making him put his in ears

“Mendes,” Alessia started pointing at him “We need to have a serious talk” she spoke out towards him with a look that made the color drain from his face, causing Connor and Cez to laugh and you and Liv to put your head in your hands groaning. How was such a small girl so intimidating. Brian took her away in the direction of the green room with Liv trailing behind laughing at Brian pretending to drop her.

Shawn turned to you quickly looked around and planted a soft kiss on your lips after making sure no one was looking. He smiled down at you and walked down the alcove onto the stairway to take him to the stage as the beginning of lost in Japan started playing.

Standing there frozen with rosy cheeks at the sudden act of affection, Cez cleared his throat breaking you from your thoughts

“So that's new” Cez started “Is that why Alessia came down here ready to cause hell” he asked with a small amused smile on his face, causing yours to heat up “You don’t have to tell me, but you should tell Alessia whatever it is that's happening between you two, She’s looking out for you, you’re her responsibility as silly as that sounds I’ve never seen someone go into mother bear mode so quickly” he laughed again “go talk to her I won’t say anything” he smiled turning around again to face the monitors back facing you.

Turning around you made your way into the green room peaking your head in “Are you done being a psycho Les can we go watch the show now” you chuckle seeing her on the floor cuddled with Brian and Liv

“We sleep now, show later” she spoke out opening her arms for you to join which you did.

---

You guys slept halfway through Shawns set waking up just in time for bstage your favorite part. Making your way over to the corridor adjacent to his piano you were joined by Alessia and Liv Brian having to go help Connor with his camera’s it was just you girls.

Hearing the chords to “When you’re ready” on the piano fills the room you couldn’t help but let out a big smile, the song was so pretty and seeing the whole arena light up was something out of a book. Seeing Shawn perform on stage was a dream in itself he was made to do this.

Holding onto Liv and Alessia you didn’t even notice Shawn staring right at you while he was singing. Alessia hit your shoulder breaking you out of your little trance. Looking over at Shawn he smirked and sent you a wink not breaking eye contact which resulted in Liv letting out a squeal which he chuckled at. He finished his little melody and went into like to be you leaving you and the girls screaming the words at the top of your lungs.

When his little guitar solo started Alessia pulled you closer to her, her arm thrown over your shoulder “I know you guys are sleeping together” she spoke into your ear causing you to back up and look at her with wide eyes before she pulled you back to her “Brian told me” she let out a small smile shrugging her shoulders, her eyes showing admiration. She pulls you back in “He really likes you, you know. Brian said he doesn’t shut up about you” you pulled away again looking wide-eyed

“Les” you started

“No look at him” she nudges you to look at Shawn who is looking at you already singing straight at you and when you caught him he quickly looked away as if he was caught leaving him blushing. “He likes you” she squeezed your shoulders “You should’ve told me y/n I love you like a sister I just want you to be happy, clearly he makes you happy I don’t know how I'm just seeing it. I support whatever this is, even if this is just a friend with benefits thing which he would be a fucking idiot to do, I am there for you 100% okay” she looked at you and you felt your heart burst

Pulling her into a hug she hugged you back with more force. She was really your best friend.

Ruin started playing and you heard Liv over the guitar

“Shawn got a starring problem or something he keeps looking over here,” Liv asked chuckling and nudging you both causing you and Alessia to laugh.

After ruin ended you three headed back down the corridor not wanting to get run over by Shawn or Connor who runs back to the MainStage through the crowd from bstage. To your surprise you heard footsteps following you three, breaking apart from each other wanting to make room for Shawn and Connor you felt someone collide with your back bringing you into a big hug from behind.

Squealing at the sudden movement and sweaty body now sticking to you you heard Alessia and Liv burst into laughter at your attempt to steady yourself from falling to the ground at the sudden impact.

Turning your head around to look at Shawn you see him smiling from ear to ear his eyes lit up before you noticed he leaned in and captured your lips in a kiss hearing a gasp come from the girls and Connor who let out “I knew it”

Shawn pulled away chuckling, “Brian told me he told Alessia” he looked over to Alessia giving her an accusatory glance raising an eyebrow

“And what about it Mendes, taking my girl from me after I open your show as a favor” she jokes but looks at him seriously

“Sorry we didn’t tell you Les but she’s stubborn and wouldn’t agree to be my official girlfriend” he squeezed you as you glared at him “She wouldn’t even agree to go on a date with me because there's nothing to tell if we don’t” he mocked you joking and laughed looking at Alessia “but now that Alessia knows y/n be my girlfriend please if you say no you just make me look like a creep staring at you through an entire set” he chuckles pushing his hair out of his face

“mm ill think about it you joke” finally making your way to the MainStage and he stops in his tracks and groans

“no, you’re supposed to say yes” he whines which causes you all to laugh

“fine yes ill be your girlfriend now go before Cez kills you” you push him towards the stage but not before he can pull you into another kiss earning hollering from your friends around you.

He starts to walk back under the alcove but before he disappears he shouts “Alessia y/n is going to be on my bus now ha” he jokes and turns around

“In your dreams Mendes we still need to have a serious talk” she shouts back at him but louder and seriously which causes him to turn around quickly with wide eyes causing everyone to burst into laughter again before Cez pushes a guitar into his chest and shoves him up the stairs.

Alessia slings her arm over your shoulder “Ha he thinks he can take my girls away from me, over my dead body” she jokes grabbing onto Liv too

“Damn who am I suppose to date now if y/n has Shawn and Les has Brian” Liv pouts looking at you two

“I have who now?” Alessia’s eyes go big causing us to hit her she’s about to protest when Brian walks down the hall towards us

“Ready Alessia?” He asks causing me and Liv to nudge her

“Where are you taking her” I ask smirking at them two

“oh” Brian starts but his face heats up “We were gonna go get food before we have to get back to the busses and it gets impossible to leave” he lets out scratching the back of his head

“hmm okay I’ll allow it, this time” I joke as I see them both roll their eyes and walk out the main corridor to the green rooms and the back entrance

“Guess it's just me and you Liv” you sigh holding onto her making your way back out to the crowd

“So Shawn?” She wiggles her eyebrows towards you as you push her face away with your hand

Walking back out to the main stage Shawn makes eye contact once again sending a wink in your direction causing Liv to squeal and Shawn to laugh. Pulling her into a hug to shut her up.

The chords to fallin’ all in you begins to start and you grab Liv to slow dance with. As soon as Shawn finishes his little speech you and Liv are rocking side to side with his melodic voice in the background when you feel another body collide into you two. Alessia came back but changed into new clothes smiling from ear to ear putting her arms over the both of you. All three of you swaying back in forth singing to each other.

“You think I would leave my girls for the most romantic song during his set” she beams at you two “I love you guys” she kisses both of you on the cheek as you guys turn to watch Shawn staring at you three with a twinkle in his eye

This was your happy place you and your girls together supporting each other for everything.

---

A/N: thank you for being patient and for reading don’t forget to like and reblog or leave comments below again sorry this took so long I originally filed this request with Connor but I liked this version more. lmk if you want to see the original request but with Connor Xx

#shawn mendes x reader #shawn mendes #Shawn Mendes Imagine #shawn x reader #shawn mendes blurb #shawn mendes fluff #shawn mendes x you #alessia cara #shawn mendes au

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wheresmynaya · 5 years ago

Text

Two Ghosts Ch. 23 | Brittana

Available on ff.net (x) ao3 (x) & below the cut!

“You think the girls are okay?” Quinn asks a little while later as she looks down at her phone, “They haven’t messaged us or anything.”

“Geez. Cut the cord, mom.” Santana quips mindlessly then realizes what she has said and looks to Quinn apologetically, “Shit, sorry.”

Quinn only shrugs as she says, “It’s fine.”

Santana’s not sure if she believes her or not, but she knows Quinn won’t talk about anything further if she doesn’t want. The topic of Beth hasn’t resurfaced in awhile, maybe even ever since they all reconnected, but Santana doesn’t pry. Maybe it’s off the table for a reason?

Quinn’s still busy scrolling but Santana finds the silence falling around them unsettling and looks to Brittany for help.

“Well, we haven’t had a call from the manager so that means they haven’t ripped up a bunch of pillows or had any noise complaints. That’s a good sign, right?” Brittany says as she recounts the time they all went to New York for Nationals and had the most awesome pillow fight in the history of pillow fights. They had been in deep trouble but it was so worth it!

“That’s true,” Quinn nods then begins to chuckle, “We were such little shits with Mr. Schue, we would’ve never gotten away with that if Sue was around.”

“You know what? I bet it was my speech that did it. I scared the crap out of them on the bus,” Santana says with her chin up, “They don’t dare defy me.”

Quinn sputters out a laugh, “Right, that’s exactly what it is. Well, I hope they’re at least having fun. We use to love these trips.”

“That’s true,” Santana nodded, “But I’m not sure how much more reality tv I can take tonight.”

“Should we watch a movie?” Quinn asks.

Santana ponders, “Depends, what do they got?”

“Well-“

“I think we should go explore the city!” Brittany suggests and hops off the bed, “It’s a Friday night after all. I’m sure Cincinnati has some kind of nightlife? At least, way better than Lima has to offer?”

Santana rolls the thought around then agrees, “I’m down for a drink. How about you, Q?”

“Yeah, I think we deserve some fun too!” Quinn grins and they all shuffle off to get ready.

They find a lively bar within walking distance of the hotel and are drawn in by the familiar music blaring from the outdoor speakers. It’s a little crowded but Santana slips her hand into Brittany’s almost on instinct to make sure they don’t get separated as the three of them head towards the bar.

The feeling is electric and Santana can’t help but look back at Brittany when she realizes what she’s done. Brittany wears a coy smile as her eyes focus on their hands before slowing meeting Santana’s. The coy smile evolves into a cheek bunching grin and Santana can’t help but mirror it before turning back to Quinn leading the way.

Luckily, they’re able to snag enough stools for each of them to sit as they order their first round.

While they wait, Santana takes in her surroundings and notices that it’s a relatively nice place, completely unlike anything Lima has to offer. She missed places like this, they were a dime a dozen in New York but she really didn’t know how good she had it until she left.

To think that their go-to hangout on a Friday night in Lima now is the same place she and her friends use to fight over coupons for in high school is kind of sad really. Don’t get her wrong, she loves Breadstix with her whole heart. If she could, she’d totally be the spokesperson for it but it’s not exactly the place she’d choose to for a wild night out.

Not that tonight will be a wild night out. They’re young but they have responsibilities and there’s no way the three of them can turn up to Sectionals tomorrow with killer hangovers.

As Santana’s eyes roam the room, they land on a dancefloor and she knows Brittany’s bound to drag them off once they hit their second or third drink.

To Santana’s surprise, it happens a lot sooner than she thinks.

She barely has a buzz, but when the opening chords of Brittany’s favorite song began to play Santana knew what she had to do. Quinn hung back to watch their drinks while Brittany whisked Santana away to the dancefloor. They sway to the beat while Brittany’s lips move in time with the words and being able to do this again fills Santana with so much joy that she can’t help but laugh and sing along too.

It’s been so long since she’s felt this kind of happiness and she gladly soaks it all in.

“Dancing with you is the best,” Brittany cheers and her words slur a little as she pulls Santana in close. Santana doesn’t say anything, just continues moving to the beat with the biggest smile on her face.

Santana’s a little sad when the song ends and they go to rejoin Quinn at the bar. They happily sip on their drinks and only get approached by random guys wanting to buy them another a couple of times before they make their way back to the dancefloor, this time with Quinn in tow. The three of them dance without a care in the world and it’s kind of a cathartic feeling after the intense week of training they’ve had.

“Gotta pee!” Brittany tells Quinn and Santana over the loud music. They nod and go looking for the bathroom together. Brittany spots a neon sign that reads Ladies and leads the way.

There’s only one stall open so Brittany heads in while Santana and Quinn wait by the sinks and check over their make up. It’s not until Santana’s in her purse looking for her lipstick when she spots the time on her phone. It’s later than she expects but they don’t need to be at the convention center until noon tomorrow and figures they’ll be alright with one more drink.

“You look happy,” Quinn comments softly, catching Santana’s eye in the mirror.

Santana smiles and notices the sound of Brittany singing to herself in the stall. She lets out a chuckle and looks back to Quinn, “I feel happy. I haven’t felt this way in so long, Q.”

“Is it the alcohol or is it the awesome company you’re in?” Quinn smirks.

Santana just laughs and says, “Maybe a little of both.”

Of course, Santana must’ve done something to piss off someone in the universe because that happiness doesn’t last very long.

After their bathroom break, the trio are headed back to the bar for one last drink when Santana spots a familiar brunette sitting atop one of the stools and a girl with dirty blonde hair sitting next to her.

Santana instantly fills with rage. Because if memory serves her right, those two little shits are nowhere near old enough to be in a place like this.

“You have got to be shitting me,” Santana growls and Brittany’s quick to look at her, unsure of what has set Santana off so suddenly. She and Quinn scan the crowd but it doesn’t take Brittany long to find the source.

“Yikes,” Brittany grimaces while Quinn’s still searching. Brittany points over to the girls’ direction and Quinn’s jaw drops.

“They can’t be serious,” Quinn says in awe, “Is that Alex and Maddy?”

“Yup,” Brittany pops the ‘p’ and shakes her head at the sight.

“I’m going to have to kill them now,” Santana says calmly although she’s anything but, “Quinn, start looking for a new Cheerios captain. Satan’s Spawn has finally corrupted her.”

“God, do you see anymore of them in here?” Quinn asks and starts looking around.

“Better not be,” Santana huffs, “I can understand Alex going rogue because she’s a walking headache and I’m convinced she’s out to get me despite our obvious similarities, but Maddy? She is meant to be the good one. My mind is blown. I’m going to kick their little asses all the way back to Lima.”

Santana starts to wind up again but Brittany catches her by the wrist before she can stomp away, “Santana, wait. Just breathe for a second before switching into Snixx-mode.”

“But Britt…”

“Listen, I know you’re just being protective and I’m so attracted to you right now but-“

“Of course.” Quinn sighs.

“But getting angry first doesn’t solve anything,” Brittany says solemnly, “Just put yourself in their shoes. It’s not like we never went behind Coach’s back when we were their age.”

“I know, but they’re just kids, Britt, underage kids and people…they can be gross. I just want to make sure no one messes with them,” Santana replies and something in her makes her tone waver. Brittany notices the concern and she nods in understanding. Santana takes a settling breathe, “No one did that for us. Us three, we looked out for each other and we could handle ourselves but it shouldn’t have to be like that.”

“Santana has a point,” Quinn nods, “We got away with too much.”

“I won’t kill them,” Santana continues, “But we can’t let this slide.”

“Okay. You’re right,” Brittany relents with a soft smile and loosens her hold on Santana’s wrist, “Let’s get over there.”

The bartender is eying one of the girls’ ID but before he makes a judgment, Santana plucks it from his fingers. She glares at him with her eyes narrowed, “It’s clearly a fake. Do these girls look 21 to you?”

“Uhh..” The bartender stammers and quickly heads down to the other end of the bar to avoid the drama.

Santana rolls her eyes and thinks yeah you better run.

“Oh shit.”

Santana doesn’t know which one of them say it, but Maddy and Alex visibly pale as Santana turns her glare onto them.

“Yeah, oh shit is right.” Santana huffs while Quinn comes to stand off to the side of Maddy and Brittany stands behind them, successfully blocking them from running.

If they even had the balls to try.

Alex is the first to paste on a too-bright smile and try to de-escalate, “Hey Coach S, that’s a great dress. You look-“

Santana raises a single finger to cut her off, “Hot. I know. I don’t need you to tell me that. What I don’t know is why the hell you two are here?”

The girls stiffen and remain silent, too shell-shocked to speak.

“One of you better get to talking, Aunty Snixx is about to make an appearance.”

“Uh we just wanted to get out,” Maddy starts nervously, “Take a break from all the Cheer preparation.”

“Yeah! We’re kind of stressed out,” Alex adds, “An all the places in the hotel are overflowing with other squads and they’re kind of annoying. Plus, the girls keep hounding Maddy about being anxious for tomorrow and bitching about their boy problems or whatever. No one would leave us alone. I just thought she needed some time away to breathe, you know? We just wanted to get away to breathe.”

Santana eases – only slightly – at the word we and remembers the moment she shared with Alex back at Frank’s. She also remembers being on the Cheerios herself and the pressures of being on a consistently winning team and how it worsened when she made co-captain. She was a leader and with that title came a lot of responsibilities and that while balancing her studies and Glee Club and a personal life?

It’s a lot so she get’s wanting to escape. Especially with someone she finds comfort in.

She feels like a hypocrite for telling them off because she and Britt use to do the exact same thing when they were younger, only difference was that they never got caught and Sue didn’t come looking for them. Thankfully, nothing bad ever happened but that’s not always the case for everyone and that’s the thought she’s so hung up on.

Sometimes being the disciplinarian is hard work.

Santana shakes her head, unsure of how to proceed, then looks down at the ID and groans, “Who even made this? It’s pathetic, it doesn’t even look like you.”

“Let me see,” Brittany asks and looks over the tops of the girls’ heads, “Oh wow. Yeah, you should totally get your money back.”

Quinn tries her hardest to keep from snickering.

Brittany then glances to Santana and notices her silence and it’s like something clicks: Santana’s at a loss for words. Being a mentor and having to discipline kids properly is new for all of them and they often find themselves stepping in when the other wavers, this time is no different.

Usually, it has been Quinn that picks up where Santana leaves off but she remains silent this time. In fact, it’s Brittany who speaks first.

Brittany takes on a more serious tone as she focuses on the girls, “You’re both very smart and we are confident that you should know way better than this, especially since we have specifically said no leaving the hotel without supervision. Are we wrong for thinking that?”

It’s one thing when Santana goes off on the girls, but it hits differently when Brittany chastises them. Brittany has a little bit of a reputation for being the fun one which has a lot to do with her easy-going attitude. Santana is mostly about discipline but sometimes Brittany surprises everyone. She just has that tone and it makes everyone straighten up. She has used it on Santana a few times before and even she hasn’t grown immune to it yet.

Maddy and Alex look down guiltily, “No, Coach B.”

“Yeah. That’s what I thought too, but here we are. You’ve both blatantly gone against our rules and that’s not okay. We didn’t make them because we want to be lame and suck all the fun out of this weekend, they are in place to protect you.” Brittany tells them with such authority that Santana isn’t use to. She feels proud and softens even further as she listens quietly to Brittany talk.

“Listen,” Brittany starts and her tone is softer, “Competition weekends are very stressful and I get wanting to take a break. Breaks are super important but sneaking out to a bar in the middle of the night isn’t the way.”

“It’s dangerous,” Quinn adds and the other coaches nod to agree, “We’re responsible for you girls during these trips and we can’t risk any of you getting hurt. Coach B is right, there are much better ways to wind down that don’t involve underage drinking or sneaking off to bars.”

“We’re really sorry, Coaches.” Maddy apologizes sincerely.

“Yeah. It won’t happen again,” Alex adds and she catches Santana’s eye, “I promise.”

Santana sends her a pointed look, “It better not. We can talk about punishment when we get back to Lima.”

Alex and Maddy frown but ultimately nod to agree. It’s probably a first for Santana that Alex has been so easy to reprimand and she wonders if that has something to do with Frank’s.

“Come on, it’s late.” Quinn says in a lighter tone, “I’ll walk you back to the hotel and we can talk about other ways to deal with stress.” She looks over her shoulder to Santana and Brittany, “You guys can hang out for a bit longer here if you want?”

“You sure?” Santana asks but the slight smirk on Quinn’s lips as she keeps a hand on the younger girls’ shoulders and directs them to the door answers that question.

“Yeah, I can handle these two trouble makers on my own.” Quinn teases and gives the girls’ shoulders a little shake which cause small smiles to spread across their faces.

Santana mouths a thanks before Quinn and the Cheerios head out the door, leaving her and Brittany behind.

She doesn’t really feel like staying at the bar although Quinn offered to give them some alone time. Her mood was kind of killed after seeing Alex and Maddy there, but she’s not quite ready to head back to the hotel either.

“Take a walk with me?” Brittany suggests instead, “I think we passed a cool fountain on the way to the hotel earlier.”

“Okay,” Santana smiles and the pair of them head out to the street hand in hand.

The air had gotten so cold during their walk that they had abandoned holding hands and moved to link arms instead, huddling together for warmth. It takes them 10-15 minutes to find the fountain Brittany had mentioned but when they do, they stand in front of it and stare up in awe. The drop in temperature also meant that some of the water had frozen while some still trickled through the cracks in the ice.

Santana wonders if Britt’s thinking the same thing: how the hell does running water freeze like that? But when she glances over at the blonde to ask, she finds that she isn’t even looking at the fountain.

She’s looking at Santana.

It makes her want to shy away, but it’s like she’s stuck in a trance. She finds herself smiling back.

“What is it?” She asks but Brittany just unlinks their arms and moves to wrap Santana into a warm hug. It takes Santana by surprise but she relaxes into Brittany’s embrace and circles her arms around her waist, hugging her back just as tightly.

They don’t say anything for awhile, but the silence is comforting. With the city sleeping, she feels like they’re the only ones in the world.

“Thank you for telling Quinn about us,” Brittany says softly a moment later, “I kind of felt weird leaving her out of the loop.”

“Me too. I’m sorry, Britt.” Santana replies, “I’m sorry for making you wait on me again.”

She doesn’t mean for the words to hold such meaning, but with their history it’s hard to miss. They’ve always had trouble with timing in their relationship, either someone wasn’t ready or someone was too afraid or someone wasn’t single. It has never just worked out.

Brittany’s brows furrow and it’s like she knows exactly where Santana’s thoughts are headed. There’s this look Brittany gives as she tucks some of Santana’s hair behind her ear that Santana can only describe as someone completely in love.

“Things are different this time,” Brittany tells her, “You’re not making me wait, we’re taking things slow and I respect that. You want to do things right.”

“Yeah, but it’s not only about what I want,” Santana replies and pulls away to cup Brittany’s cheek. She regrets it because her skin is so cold against her warm hands, but she keeps it there as she says, “You have a say in how things go too. We’re not going to make decisions for each other anymore.”

“That never was a strength for us anyway.”

“Exactly.” Santana grins proudly and Brittany mirrors it.

“I can still thank you though.”

Santana can barely get out a reply before they’re kissing. It’s soft and slow and filled with many things still left unsaid.

Santana’s not sure who leans in first but it’s not like that matters when the tip of Brittany’s tongue slips along Santana’s lip. She inhales deeply at the feel and thinks about how nice this is. In fact, it’s kind of romantic because they’re the only ones there in front of this frozen water fountain and the glow of old-timey street lamps surround them.

It also reminds Santana that she should take Britt on a date soon. They use to love their Friday Night dates. It’s then that Santana remembers what day it is currently and her smile grows.

But she soon gets distracted as Brittany tangles her hand into Santana’s hair. She surprises herself when a whimper escapes and she can feel Brittany smirking against her as the kiss deepens. They haven’t really done something like this yet in such a public place since they’ve reconnected and the newness of it excites Santana. Her knees suddenly feel wobbly and her fingers dig into the material of Brittany’s jacket as if it’ll keep her from falling over.

She knows it’s not the alcohol, that buzz is long gone. The feelings fluttering in her stomach, the way her heart races, the heat settling lower than she cares to admit are all tell-tale signs of how her body reacts to Brittany. She feels like she’s in a daze with this spontaneous make out session and hopes no one is secretly perving on them but that’s only a fleeting thought when she feels Brittany pull away.

Santana pouts the instant she’s gone.

“We have to stop,” Brittany husks and Santana can’t think of anything worse right now. It must be written all over her face because Brittany bends down to press a kiss to the tip of her nose, “Don’t give me that look. You know I want nothing more in the world than to make sweet, sweet lady love to you right now but you’re so cold you’re starting to shake and so am I.”

Santana chuckles at Brittany’s way with words and concedes, “You’re right, I’m freezing my tits off. Let’s head back, make sure the girls haven’t taken Quinn hostage or anything.”

By the time they head back to their room, Quinn is already tucked in bed with a fuzzy pink eye mask over her eyes. There are soft snores come from her side of the room and Santana scrambles to record her for blackmail later. They both do their best to stay quiet since Quinn isn’t as heavy of a sleep as she let on in the past and make their way to the bathroom to get ready for bed.

It should make Santana a little nervous to see Brittany strip down, especially while they’re in such close quarters but they’ve been getting changed together in locker rooms since they were kids and Santana’s worked on her leering a lot since then.

Although, when Brittany’s bra lands on the floor it takes a lot for Santana to keep her eyes elsewhere and focus on getting changed herself. Brittany gets fully dressed first and goes to the sink to brush her teeth while Santana struggles to pull her sleep shirt over her head. Their eyes catch in the mirror as Santana soon joins her side. Brittany gives her a sudsy grin as her blue eyes twinkle and goes to hand Santana the toothpaste.

And it’s something so small, but the way they move around each other during their nightly routine brings back so many memories from when they were younger. Memories of sleepovers and that one time Brittany came up to Louisville for a visit run through Santana’s mind and she’s so thankful that they’re at this place again.

When they finally slide beneath the covers a bit later, Santana’s nerves begin to intensify. The size of the bed is only a double so there isn’t much room for personal space and for a moment Santana’s hyper-aware of every little part of her that brushes against Brittany.

“You look nervous,” Brittany whispers and Santana instantly blushes.

“We haven’t done this in awhile,” She explains shyly.

“I know,” Brittany replies as her hand slides up to touch Santana’s, “It’s just me.”

Santana wants to tell her that’s why she’s nervous but there’s something about the way Brittany says it that settles her nerves. There’s this kind of softness there and Santana finds herself easing the longer she’s there.

When she finds her pinky hooking around Brittany’s, she’s able to relax even further and gives the blonde a smile in return.

They lie facing each other, watching how their blinks become slower and slower. Their legs tangle together, clean shaven skin smooth against one another’s, while their pinkies stay linked near their pillows. Similar to their moment by the fountain, cocooned in a comfy duvet, Santana feels like they’re the only ones left in the world.

Santana can’t get over how comfortable she feels although she had just been so worried about crossing a personal space line before. It’s silly, she thinks, how easily her mind can have her overthinking the littlest of things. Many things have changed between them, but Brittany has always had a way with comforting Santana and thankfully she still hasn’t lost her touch.

“You ready for tomorrow?” Brittany whispers so softly Santana almost misses it.

“I think so,” Santana answers just as quietly, “The girls have been practicing so hard.”

“Yeah,” Brittany mumbles and Santana can tell she’s close to falling asleep.

“What about you?” Santana asks, “Are you ready?”

“Totally,” Brittany grins, “We have a pretty awesome squad.”

“True.”

They fall into a comfortable silence and Santana watches as Brittany tries to stifle a yawn. It’s the cutest thing she’s seen all day and she wants to tell her but her eyelids feel heavy and her ability to form words is delayed.

Brittany snuggles down further against her pillow and says, “I really hope we win.”

They’re her last words as Brittany’s eyes finally close. She looks peaceful with her blonde hair curtaining her cheek, almost angelic. Santana has to reach out to check that she isn’t dreaming just yet, that Brittany is here and very real. That they’re doing this again; sharing a bed and falling asleep tangled up in each other. She has to make sure she hasn’t dreamt the whole thing up.

When Brittany doesn’t stir from her touch, Santana has to stifle a giggle. She always envied how fast Brittany could fall asleep. One minute she would be seemingly wide awake, chatty as ever, then the next she would be out like a light.

Santana on the other hand let her thoughts run wild until she’d exhaust herself from all the thinking. Tonight is different though, she doesn’t feel the need to tire herself out. Not when she has Brittany so close and everything feels so soft and warm.

“I think we will.” Santana tells Brittany although she knows she’s dead asleep now. She then goes to press a goodnight kiss to Brittany’s lips before snuggling in close.

Sleep finds her easily that night and it’s the best one she’s had in awhile, but that’s no surprise.

She’s always slept better with Brittany.

Santana ends up being right about the win.

She never doubted it for a second, but their girls kicked ass with a damn near perfect score! The other squads didn’t stand a chance up against their stellar performance.

Santana remembered what it felt like to be in their girls’ position, that feeling of accomplishment and the relief from knowing that Sue would be in a much better mood after a win but being announced the winner as a coach hit totally differently. She was so overcome with pride and that feeling just multiplied as they all gathered to take a picture with their giant First Place trophy.

It was nothing but pure happiness as everyone exchanged congratulations. Santana even found herself welcoming a couple hugs from the girls which was so unlike her, but she didn’t care!

Nothing could beat this feeling of accomplishment.

Well, almost nothing.

“We did it! We’re going to Regionals!” Brittany cheered and suddenly Santana was being hoisted in the air and spun around.

“Oh my God, Britt!” Santana squealed through her laughter, holding on to the top of Brittany’s head for balance. Being up that high, she felt like she was on top of the world.

Most of the girls had been too preoccupied to notice them except for Quinn. She was giggling away from below with that same all-knowing look in her eye. Santana’s first instinct was to flick her off, but she was too happy to bring herself to do that.

Instead she smiled back and yelled, “Nice trophy!”

“The first of many under our reign!” Quinn called back as Brittany lowered Santana. She turned to the squad and held the trophy up a little higher, “Isn’t that right, girls?”

Then there was a sea of eager yes Coach and it was all the reassurance Santana needed, because this coaching thing?

Piece of cake.

#Two Ghosts #brittana #Brittana fanfiction #fanfic recs

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cravingcrazewriting · 5 years ago

Text

Reinvent Yourself {Treebros}

(Sorry about the error in the first one! It won’t let me edit it at the moment)

Being a shapeshifter was convenient for a number of reasons.

Evan could pretend to be anyone but himself, well, as long as he didn't strain himself too hard (that was never fun). He could completely redesign his body and alter the features he hated so much.

Even if he'd grown up in the confides of a government lab, and he didn't exactly get a childhood, he deserved to have a little fun, damn it, and explore the world he barely knew. He was finally free, and could do whatever he wanted.

Well, nothing illegal, obviously. He also had to keep an eye out for any government agents looking for him. But that was besides the point.

After flashing an ID at the bouncer, he stepped inside the bar and immediately was met with quite possibly the most beautiful person there.

They had a long, well built figure, with oak brown hair that poured down to their shoulders. Around their waist was a leather jacket, and they were wearing a black tank top, accompanied with multiple rings on long fingers, and ripped jeans to tie the whole outfit together.

Immediately, Evan turned on his heel and ran out and into an alleyway. He had to impress the beautiful stranger, and well, he couldn't, being his actual, boring self. His boring, actual self, who had sandy blonde hair, green eyes and the right mixed with red, soft skin, a snake tattoo on his upper back, little to no muscle whatsoever, and sort of plump build.

Throwing off a drawstring bag he previously had around his shoulders, he quickly stripped naked so his clothes wouldn't rip. Once this was done, he shut his eyes, and tried to imagine himself changing into a more attractive person.

He imagined curly, brown hair, a large physique, skinny waist, and a sharp jawline. Yeah, that'd do. He could change into the opposite sex, but most times he preferred using a male form, but couldn't do an animal, but everything else was fair game.

Bones began to unhinge and rearrange, as muscles started to expand, as his size grew, hair curled to his will, his vocal cords deepened, as his body made snapping and twisting sounds (it was never pleasant to do, let alone listen to).

When he opened his eyes, he was an entirely different person. On the outside, at least, but he could fake it till he made it, he supposed. It would work for the time being, until he didn't have to pretend anymore.

He doubted that'd be anytime soon, though, but that was beside the point.

Evan pulled out his ID again and looked directly at it. What was special about it was that it scanned all of his new facial features, and printed it onto the photo, adding on other specifics, like his height and stuff.

He strode over to the bouncer with confidence in his step, after putting a different set of clothes on, showed him the new ID, and went inside to find the beautiful stranger.

The Beautiful Stranger was sitting on a stool, on their phone, and a class of water sitting in front of them. They moved a hand downwards, and moved the sleeve of their leather jacket, before grabbing the water and taking a sip.

Evan decided to take the initiative, slowly sitting next to them, sparing a glance at their features.

They were a lot stronger than Evan anticipated. While they didn't have a body builder physic, the discarded jacket left a full view of two defined and broad biceps that this person could use to easily pin Evan against a wall or something because he just wasn't that strong of a guy. Sure, he could make himself strong, but it wore him out faster.

He wanted to speak to Beautiful Stranger, but the bartender already came over, and was asking him what he wanted to drink.

"Just some water, please," Evan didn't put any thought into the order, he just wanted the bartender to leave him alone. He spared a glance at Beautiful Stranger, wanting to initiate a conversation somehow.

Maybe a compliment would do? He wouldn't know, he never flirted with anyone before.

"Your hair looks soft," as he let the words unintentionally tumble out of his mouth, he realized that was a really fucking weird thing to say to someone. It sounded weird, too, and he was probably freaking Beautiful Stranger out, now.

Beautiful Stranger turned their head towards Evan, surprised by the compliment, but they smiled, and it was small and kind and friendly and just really nice.

"Thank you," they nodded their head at Evan, in a friendly type of way.

Evan wasn't good at upholding conversations. He really preferred it when someone else upheld it for him, because coming up with questions and creating small talk just wasn't his forte. "Where— where do you get it styled?"

"Oh um, this is all natural, actually," Beautiful Stranger gestured to the wild curls. Evan internally decided he'd keep referring to them as them until he heard a name or other characteristics because he did not want to assume anything. "It's god awful to take care of. It just— does it's own thing— that's how curly it is, it's ridiculous. Back in high school my dad would always tell me to chop it if I complained, but I was as stubborn as a mule, I suppose."

"I can't say the same," Evan chuckled meekly. "My uh— I was never aloud to grow out my hair. They always c-chopped it if I tried growing it out." Back when he was still living in a lab, his primary caretaker, Doctor Sherman, didn't let Evan grow out his hair or change it in any way, shape, or form. Previously before, he didn't know why they wouldn't let him grow it out or dye it, but he knew it was just to keep his appearance consistent on his file. Now that he was free, he was growing out his natural hair to a mullet.

"Oh," Beautiful Stranger looked like they wanted to say more, but chose not to. "I'm sorry," they looked away from him.

And just like that, the conversation died.

Evan resisted the urge to sigh, instead drinking his water, slightly disappointed. He needed a new plan, so he paid and left the bar, going back to the alleyway.

If some friendly banter didn't work, maybe seduction would do the trick? While he didn't know what attracted Beautiful Stranger, he decided he'd settle on a tall, skinny girl, with long, black hair, and would wear a shiny, ruby red dress with flats. It'd be the easiest way to find out what exactly caught Beautiful Stranger's eye (and if Beautiful Stranger seemed uncomfortable, Evan would back off, because he would never want to do something like that to them).

He let his muscles shrink and become more femininely shaped, as fat faded away and gentle curves smoothed their way up his thighs and hips, and his bones shrank and rearranged, as his face become a softer shape (despite having a women's body, he still preferred being as a guy).

Evan once again showed the bouncer his ID as he entered, spotting Beautiful Stranger just where he left them. He strutted over to him, feigning confidence, and willing his hands not to shake.

He gave them a gentle shoulder stroke to catch their attention, and trailed his finger down their arm.

Beautiful Stranger shuddered at the touch, and looked at Evan, seeming to be surprised.

"Hey hot stuff," he purred, silently hoping he was coming off as seductive and not as a predator or anything. "You're looking very nice tonight."

They chuckled somewhat awkwardly, and gave a little smile. "Um.. thanks?"

"You come here often?" Evan leant against the counter, allowing a relaxed pose to take its place.

"Not really? Look, you're attractive, and I mean like, super attractive, you're so beautiful but..." Beautiful Stranger let out a sigh. "I've stopped doing one night stands, and I'm here with my sister, celebrating something kinda important. So if you're looking for a hookup, sorry, but I can't."

Evan was surprised by his honesty, but stood up straight, knowing he wasn't wanted anymore. "Alright, I get it. I'll be on my way."

"Thank you," They seemed relieved. As Evan made his way out, he could feel their eyes on them. They cleared their throat and said, "Is that a snake tattoo?"

Evan turned his head back, seeing some of his tattoo slip out. He supposed he shouldn't have been surprised, as the dress he wore was a bit revealing, especially in his backside. He just nodded.

"What's it mean?" Beautiful Stranger asked.

Ironically, Evan had never been the one who chosen that tattoo. Doctor Sherman chose where it went and what it was, and that was that. That was four years ago, and he was just twenty two, and while he could try to get it removed, it was a special tattoo that changed along with whatever form he took (the same went with his right red-green eye).

"Er— I guess it's a conception of judging something by it's appearance, but it being completely different," he just made all of that up, because what else was he supposed to say?

Beautiful Stranger hummed thoughtfully, before turning away from him.

Throughout the night, Evan tried using different forms and personalities in an attempt to impress Beautiful Stranger, but none seemed to work. They didn't seem to bat an eye at the different people he made, and whatever conversations they had were short and unimportant. Evan could only assume they just didn't like him. It was somehow, still, just him.

Evan entered the bar a final time that evening, wearing a basic blue button up, neat jeans that had little to no holes, and a grey jacket, as he swung his drawstring bag that was filled with his various outfits he'd used that night. Evan was tired, and quite frankly just wanted to drink and to drown his sorrows in them. In the back of his mind, he told himself to stay sober enough to rent a motel to pass out in (he didn't have an actual place to stay).

He sat down a couple of seats away from Beautiful Stranger. He just couldn't bear another rejection or let down. He wanted to be alone, probably for the first time all night, with whatever drink he'd buy.

"What'll it be?" The bartender from earlier approached him.

"I'd like some Rose Wine, p-please," Evan fidgeted with the hem on his jacket. "And put it on my tab?"

As he ordered, he couldn't help but feel a set of eyes on him, which was weird, because he wasn't remotely interesting to be watching. While granted, Evan was a shapeshifter, he tried to live his life as vanilla as possible, because that's what he missed, he never got to live normally, and he probably never will, because the government is still after him, and all he wants to do is meet his mom, who supposedly just 'gave him up', which he doesn't really buy, not at all, and go live in Canada, because he erased all files on him before he left, so they wouldn't be able to get him (or at least, he assumed). The only thing holding him back was the lack of money he had, and he'd need a job for a good solid few months, but he also couldn't stay on the streets, because that was unsanitary, and it was only going to get colder and colder each and every day.

"Bad day?" A familiar voice asked above him, settling into the seat beside his.

Evan didn't even want to raise his head to face them, so he just shrugged feebly. "Shitty night..." he said softly, and fuck, when did his eyes start watering? Doctor Sherman always called him sensitive, and told him he needed to mask and control his emotions. It wasn't like he could control his emotions, no matter how much he wanted to, because feelings were complicated and messy, and he just wanted them gone so he wouldn't have to deal with him.

"You um, wanna talk about it?" The stranger offered, and his curiosity got the better of him, as he raised his head from the counter top, and wow, okay, it was Beautiful Stranger sitting next to him, giving him a look of worry that could be compared to offering someone their condolences when a family/friend died, which was kind of baffling, because they hadn't really cared about him before, well, more like the different versions of him, actually, they'd never formally met like his true, god awful form, and yet he was getting more attention than any of his others did.

For obvious reasons, he couldn't tell him he was trying to talk to him all night, because he'd sound crazy, so he had to make something up. "Er— my b-boyfriend, he didn't like how anxious I was— or well, still am, actually— with like, everything, and I— I tried to change for him, but... nothing worked... so he b-broke it off with me..."

"So wait. You were trying to change yourself for some selfish asshole, while you have anxiety?" Beautiful Stranger looked pissed off, but not at him.

Evan nodded feebly, not saying anything. Really, what could he have said?

"You deserve better than him," Beautiful Stranger said firmly, shaking their head. "You're better off."

The bartender set down a cup of Rose Wine, and Evan suddenly remembered his plan. Taking the cup, he downed it and asked, "Why're you here?"

"Celebrating with my sis. I'm four years clean from cutting and two years clean from smoking weed," it was weird, because they seemed more eager to tell him about this than before in his other form.

"That— that's great," he smiled at them, because it was great, and it had to be a big achievement if they felt the need to celebrate it.

"It hasn't been easy, but it's worth it... What about you?" Again, there's hesitation in their voice, but they fight through it. It's kind of admirable.

In a way, Evan's addicted to shapeshifting. He absolutely loves being able to reinvent himself, despite the pain that rushes through his body, and it never fails to get his blood pumping.

But it's another thing he can't tell Beautiful Stranger. So, he says, "Lying. I hate conflict."

"But you aren't lying to me," Beautiful Stranger was smiling at him, and was he flirting? Evan couldn't tell.

"Or— or so you think," really, he was lying to them, but only about small stuff.

"If you were lying, you'd get defensive, and well, you aren't," Beautiful Stranger laughed slightly.

Evan sputtered, "I mean— well—I guess."

Beautiful Stranger squinted at him, and then smiled, "Wait, hold on, you have it too?"

"Have— have w-what too?" Evan was confused by what he meant.

"Your eye. It's got a little red in it," they clarified.

Evan's face flushed, and he looked away, covering it. Doctor Sherman could never find out where the red came from, and called it a 'scientific anomaly'. "Oh... sorry. It's weird, I know."

"Wait, no! I didn't mean it like that!" Beautiful Stranger rushed, and— that's their hand? It's so soft. "Just. Look at me?"

Evan sighed internally, but complied, and watched Beautiful Stranger brush their beautiful, long hair out of their face, revealing his left brown eye with a large amount of blue in it. He gasped, gazing at it.

"I wanted to say we both have Heterochromia," they chuckled awkwardly.

"Oh..." Evan said softly, trying hard not to stare at them. He knew from experience how awkward it was to have people staring at him, but he couldn't help it. They were just... so beautiful (hence the nickname), and Evan would stare at them for forever if he could, and fuck, their hand was still on top of his, and their gaze was directed at him and felt all too tingly in a sudden moment.

His thoughts were interrupted by the bartender coming by. "Want a refill?"

Evan nodded to them, and watched as the cup filled once more with the Rose Wine, taking it afterwards, and took another drink.

Beautiful Stranger grimaced, "Please tell me you didn't drive here."

Evan finished half of it before setting the cup down. The alcohol was really starting to set in. "Can't drive if I don't have a car," he shot finger guns at him somewhat awkwardly.

"So you walked," they assumed, "cause I don't think you'll be okay to go out on the streets like this."

"I'll be fine!" Evan laughed, and oh yeah, the alcohol was really hitting now. "I don't—" he hiccuped, probably from not having any water in between drinks. "I don't even know y-your— name!"

"It's Connor. Connor Murphy," Beautif— no, Connor Mur— no, beautiful Connor Murphy, smiled at him, and Evan decided it was safe to assume his pronouns were he/him unless told otherwise.

Evan slowly raised his arm so Connor could take his hand, but it probably looked weird, but everything was spinning and he'd rather not fall off of his stool and get a concussion. Never the less, Connor The Beautiful took his hand and shook it.

"I'm... beautiful," he whispered, not really used to calling Connor by his actual name. He was just so beautiful, he couldn't help it.

"While I won't deny that, I still need your name," Connor laughed, letting go of his hand. Evan just let it drop, sort of like it was weightless.

"Oh," Evan drank the rest of his second cup, and asked for a third. He laughed at the fuzziness gathering in his chest and said, "It's Evan."

Oh so beautiful Connor was smiling shyly at him. "Well Evan, maybe I can convince my sister to give you a ride home?"

It dawns on Evan that he kind of can't accept his offer. He'd love to, definitely, without a doubt, but he just have a home. His cup was filled once again, so he took another drink, trying to figure out how to tell Connor he couldn't without hurting his feelings.

"I— don't have one," well, congratulations Evan, for being brutally honest with this super hot stranger that he'd never see again.

Admitting to homelessness probably always sparked concerned, Evan reasoned to himself, as he saw Connor's expression melt into shock. "What? But where have you been staying?"

"Shelters, hotels, motels, and sometimes on a bench," he laughed dryly. He was painfully used to this routine by now, but it's not like he could leave.

"God, I'm so sorry for asking," Connor groaned, hiding his face in his hand.

Another drink went down the hatch. " 'm not mad or anyth'ng, you d'dn't know." He was forgetting to articulate his 'i's, he was aware, but did that really matter? No, he was drunk, and he could do whatever he wanted (well, he'd probably get in trouble, but that didn't matter to his drunken mind).

"Fuck, are you going to be okay?" Again, there was that look of worry, while Sober Evan would appreciated, Drunk Evan didn't want to be pitied.

" 'll be fine," he insisted, his cup becoming empty. "Just need a motel."

"Well when you're done, can I take you to one?" Connor took a moment to pause. "And I know it's weird, because we barely know each other, but I promise it's not out of pity, but because you're important."

'Important to the government? Yes. Important around here? No,' Evan thought to himself, but didn't actually say it. "Okay."

While Evan had a couple more drinks, Connor made some small talk. He talked about how hellous his high school years were, as he was at the bottom of the food chain, among with the relentless expectations from his parents didn't make life easier. He'd spiraled into depression, and struggled with it for the longest time, but eventually got a support system he could fall back on if needed be. He went into Graphic Design and was interning to design Buildboards with a company. In the spring, he'd graduate and start working there, while his sister majored in Astromony, and her girlfriend, Alana graduated early with to be a Paralegal (that was normal for her, because she always went the extra mile, he explained).

Once done, Connor talked to a blonde haired girl Evan could only assume was Zoe. With every passing moment, he could feel his legs wobble and he had to use the counter to stay upright. Connor noticed this, and coaxed Evan into grabbing onto his shoulder for balance, which was super nice, as he lead him out into his car.

It was embarrassing that he couldn't even get his seatbelt on without help, but all he could do was slump back against against the seat and mope. Connor was typing into his phone, looking for a nearby motel, most likely, and Evan couldn't help but feel just... so lucky. He knew guys like Connor weren't nearly as common as he'd like to believe, and just the fact he was doing this for him... Just was amazing.

Finding a motel didn't take nearly as long as he thought it would, much to Evan's disappointment. Was it wrong he wanted to be around him so much? He barely knew him, and yet there he was, wanting to see him again.

"Can you get inside okay?" Connor turned to him once the car was parked.

Really, Connor was just too sweet for his own good. Was he trying to leave Evan swooning hopelessly after him, cause he hoped not. "Yeah. It's just a few feet."

But just when he was about to step out of the car, Connor spoke up, "Can I have your number?"

Evan felt frozen in his spot, out of fear or anticipation, he couldn't tell.

"It's just— believe it or not, I've had a really nice time talking with you tonight, and I wanted to see you again," Holy fuck, that smile, it was like finding a diamond in the rough. So beautiful and rare, and aimed just at him.

Evan could feel himself fumbling for his phone, and handed it over, watching Connor take his out so he could take it. He silently typed in his number, seeing Connor smiling as he did the same, and they swapped back. He couldn't believe it. He'd gotten Connor's number.

And as he stumbled into the cheapest motel room he could find for the night, he felt like he finally did something right for once.

#deh #dear evan hansen #evan #evan hansen #connor #connor murphy #zoe #zoe murphy #alana #alana beck #shapeshifter evan #shapeshifter #meeting #bar

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tastefullynefarious · 6 years ago

Text

Torment never looked so goddamn fine

Chapter 1 / 10 - Survivor - Eye Of The Tiger

So... this happened... Season 3 got me feeling all kinds of ways :))

Quick sneak peak into what you’re heading into if you do decide to read this little story of mine.

1) About the 'reader’, she’s one of the kids from the MKUltra project thing, though she’s not nearly as powerful as El. I decided to give her a name instead of the whole Y/N thing, thought...well, you’ll see :)) 10 points to your house if you guess where she picked the name from, hehehe

A little disclaimer about her powers: I actually took the idea from a book i love - Vicious by V.E. Schwabb, so not my idea at all, just borrowing.

2) Wanted to make this ANGST!!! All the angst, but keeps slipping into mushy romance, so I guess it’s somewhere in between :)))

3) Writing this for fun and to give Billy more time to shine. Gone, but never forgotten!

Words: 3,037

Warnings: Really? There’s gonna be a lot, just not in this chapter I think... Also, beware of the aesthetics/moodboards! I live for them.

That being said, hope you enjoy!

Risin' up, back on the street

Did my time, took my chances

Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet

Just a man and his will to survive

Windows rolled down and sunglasses on, she made a sharp turn to exit the highway after checking the map for the hundredth time. It still seemed surreal that her mission was bringing her to Indiana of all places, but she got more and more excited as she approached her destination. Six missing persons reports, one confirmed death and another supposed resurrection, the latter being the last drop that made her come all the way across country. Something shady was going down in that otherwise uneventful town and if it was what she hoped, she would finally put an end to sleepless nights and anxiety ridden days. No more looking over her shoulder wherever she went and perhaps, one day, she'd finally be able to settle down somewhere, have an actual life.

She passed the town sign in a blur. Hawkins, Indiana, Population 30.000 - the last chapter of her epic quest, if fate was on her side, which it usually wasn't. Still, she was hopeful. She deserved a break and most of all, closure. She parked her Chevy in front of the motel just outside town and checked in for the whole week. Now that she was older it was easier to travel, less questions raised. The ID she had was entirely fake, not that she knew the truth to begin with. There were perhaps a few years added to her age if her calculation were remotely correct, but not too much that she'd get comments about it and just enough to go place freely. A smile always plastered on her face and replies like 'visiting family' and 'don't want to impose on them' always gave her a free pass. Motel 6 was no different and before she knew it, she was in her room - lucky number 13 - ready to set her base of operation.

She placed her duffel bag in the middle of the room and checked around. The room itself was nice, though nothing special. There was no option for a room with any kind of kitchenette or even a refrigerator which was a bummer. The bed was queen sized and the mattress comfy, not that she ever slept much. If she worked fast enough, that would hopefully change. The first floor offered enough privacy and opportunity to escape if needed. The bathroom also had a window large enough for her to squeeze through, but the bathtub was what caught her eye. Or the lack of one to be more precise. She was longing for a hot bubble bath, but she'd have to make due with a steaming shower instead. She thought that could be some kind of metaphor for life or something, make due with what life hands you, but didn't dwell on it too much as she went back to her bag and took out a smaller map and her notebook. It was time to get to work. The more time she wasted, the more opportunities 'papa' had to find her. Even in her own mind, the word dripped with venom.

She spent the next 20 minutes reanalyzing the map of Hawkins and reading the news reports on one Will Byers, the boy who came back to life. Her fist guess had been that the lab was taking people again for experiments, but there had been no obvious pattern in the missing people and the girl that died was in highschool, too old to take as a project on and too young to test on. Unless of course she was pregnant, which was still a possibility. The truly weird thing was the boy. Had he escaped? Was the initial 'death' a cover up, but the mother found a way to prove her son was taken? Every news outlet let the world know that the people responsible had been punished, but none mentioned Brenner. Was he still running the place? She circled the empty area on the map where the lab would be and decided she should scout the place out. As she got up from where she was laying on the bed and went to pick up her keys her stomach growled. She'd scout the place, right after she'd eat something.

The store came into view fast, the map of the town already burned in her mind. She parked the car fast and darted inside, the cool air pleasant on her heated skin. She had been wandering for a while from isle to isle, not entirely sure what she wanted to get, when she stumbled upon a girl trying to reach a box of cereal way out of her reach.

"Damn it!" She smiled at the girl, probably not older than 13 and moved towards her.

"Here, I can get that for you."

"Thank you." The girl smiled back kindly and put the box in a cart, barely managing to push it. She watched her for a moment, wincing when the small redhead almost crashed in another customer. Normally, she'd help without question, but she wanted to keep as low a profile as possible. But wasn't not helping even more suspicions? Besides, she was just a child; surely there was no harm in helping one kid.

"Hey, you alone here, kid?"

"I'm alone. Well, my shitty brother was supposed to help, but his lazy ass stayed in the car."

"I can help with the cart if you want."

"You don't have to…"

"Don't be silly, I want to." She moved to push the cart instead, letting the girl hold her basket instead.

"It's really nice of you, thanks. Name's Max, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Max. I'm Sandy." There had a been split second when she thought not go give her name, but almost laughed at the concept: a fake name for her already make-belief one on her ID. They shook hands, the little girl smiling brightly. Sandy wondered if she was usually so open to strangers or was she really dreading to haul herself against the cart any longer. "So, do you still need to get stuff?"

"Just a few." The little girl got a piece of paper out of her back pocket and lead the way through the store. Sandy couldn't help but look at all the products in the cart. Vegetables, milk, flour, at least three types of meat, condiments, all things used to prepare some proper meals. She wondered when was the last time she ate anything besides fast food and chips. As if on cue, Max's voice brought her out of her daydreaming about a steaming plate of Ground Turkey Sweet Potato Skillet. Ah, with lots of garlic! Sandy's mouth was watering from the mere thought of it.

"Is this all you're getting?" She was brought out of her little food fantasy and eyed the items in her own basket: cheap beer and chocolate chi cookies.

"I guess." She smiled sheepishly, biting her lover lip as the little redhead watched her with a raised eyebrow. Sandy raised her shoulders in defeat and just a hint of embarrassment. "I decided I will go out to eat tonight. I think I saw a nice restaurant a little back down the road." The girl's face lit up with the genuine curiosity that came with youth.

"Oh, you're not from Hawkins either?"

"I guess I'm not. And here I was hoping you could tell me if there are any cool places around town." If anyone was going to know know anything about secret lab in the forest it was going to be the kids in town: reckless and not completely aware of the consequences. Maybe that was what happened to the Will boy.

"The Arcade is nice, but other than that I haven't explored much. Basically everything you'll need is downtown though, so you're in the place."

"Thanks, kid." They approached the register and she helped the girl bag her stuff and even carry them since there was no way she could on her own. She was lost in thought again, wondering if she should check the lab first or go eat, when Max spoke again.

"You said you're staying at a motel, right? What brought you to Hawkins if not relatives? You planning to move here"

"Nah, just passing through. I'm a bit of a wandered I suppose."

"That's so cool. You must have been in so many awesome places. And with no one to constantly pester you." Sandy smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. She always felt weird when someone complained about their parents or family in general, when she never had any of her own. But she also never could retort that being raised in a lab was worse than having your mother make you clean your room and finish your homework. Still, she tried to be nice to the kid.

"Ah, you'll see they mean well, your parents."

"It's… it's not my parents. I mean I love my mom, but my step dad and his son are awful." So she was coming from a broken home. Sandy would have given anything even for that distorted version of a family. No matter how annoying and mundane, it would have been 'normal', everything that she wasn't and probably never will be, even after she'd slayed her demon. But she wouldn't let her bitterness show. Max was just a kid, she would grow soon enough and see that family was a bound you found nowhere else. Bld was thicker than water and all that. "And now we moved all the way here. At least when we were in Cali I could still spend weekends with dad."

"I'm sorry, Max. I'm sure you'll see your father will visit when he can. And if not, you'll be old enough to go to him before you know it."

"Not sure Neil would like that very much." Sandy was about to ask if Neil was the step dad, but the girl continued almost immediately. "And then there's the devil himself." She followed her gaze to the blue Camaro and the boy standing on its hood, eyes glaring daggers at either Max or herself.

"That's your brother?"

"Yeah, it's Billy." They were still pretty far from him, but Sandy could see he was, like all devils, a handsome one. From the way his jeans wrapped tightly on his thighs and his opened button shirt, his whole attitude screamed confidence and there were few things sexier than that.

"Well hot damn."

"No, please, not you too. He's a complete tool."

"Hm, most pretty boys are, you'll see soon enough." They giggled as they approached the boy, Sandy sneaking a few looks at his car as well. A tool maybe, but he had good taste.

Billy had been bored out of his mind, despite having parked for only a few minutes. What was taking that little shithead so long to buy whatever Susan had put down on that stupid list? He knew, in the back of his mind, that there was no reason to be so angry, especially at Max, who hated their situation just as much, if not more. After all, her father was still back home and actually wanted to spend time with his kid. Somehow, that thought drove him even madder. His knuckles turned white around the steering wheel, jaw clenching so hard his teeth began to hurt but he didn't mind the pain, he hadn't for a long time. He eyed the store's door, hoping to see Max, but of course he wouldn't, she'd left just a few minutes prior. He just hated waiting, hated being alone with his thoughts in daylight where he knew he would eventually snap at someone, most of the times the little shithead herself. He hated he was so angry all the time, but that only got him angrier still. He was like a bull who fluttered the red flag in front of his own face. Hopeless and useless, he deserved the pain and he deserved being brought all the way to Nowhere, Indiana. They'd been there for only a few days and he was already going stir crazy. The people were idiots, the girls were boring and the whole place was just shit.

He got out of the car for air, closing the door with a little too much force and regretting it immediately. After the hell he went through to getting that Camaro… He let out a long sigh and pressed both hands on the hood, his head hanging in between. He had one year of highschool left and then he could go back to California. He didn't care he had no actual place to stay or plan to make a living for himself. All he needed was his car and some money for gas and food. Once there, he'd figure things out.

When his temper cooled down, he lifted his head and his eyes landed on a red 67 Chevy Impala. It didn't compare to his Camaro, but it was still a beautiful car, despite looking like it had seen better days. He noticed one of the back doors was dented in, the passenger window slightly cracked and the rust eating here and there, definitely in need of a paint job. But otherwise it was in pretty good condition for such an old car. The last thing he noticed was the registration plate - 007 DOL, Florida - and a small turtle sticker placed besides it. His fists clenched as his mind wandered to the beaches again. Why couldn't they have moved closer to any ocean? Florida would have been far away from Max's father to placate Neil and close to his only solace, the beach.

He turned to go after Max at the thought of getting home late and his fathers temper, but stopped when he saw her coming out of the store, a young woman on tow. Both had their hands filled with paper bags, one in each hand. Had the shopping list been so long? He hadn't cared enough to even check. Arms folded as he propped himself on the hood of his car and stared at the girl besides his stepsister. There was nothing particularly impressive about her. She was wearing an ugly plaid shirt, at least twice her size, stuffed in some equally baggy jeans and worn leather boots. He wondered momentarily if she had stolen her father's shirt, before shaking his head and putting her out of his mind. He doubted he would have noticed her if she wasn't in Max's company so there was no need to give her a second thought. But as the two neared him, all giggles and whispers, he saw a glint in her eyes as she looked him up and down and couldn't help the smirk on his lips. Even if there was not much to her, it was always exhilarating to be the cause of that lust-filled stare and even more thrilling to play with it.

"You must be the infamous stepbrother."

"Yeah, thanks for helping her. I'm Billy." He extended his arm to take the bags from Max, but she only gave him the largest one, all while glaring at him. He ignored her, eyes barely leaving the young woman as he popped open the trunk of his car. "And you are?"

"A complete stranger." She was smiling, playing hard to get, but he saw the way she checked him out. She closed the space between them and placed the bags she was holding in the trunk as well. "These are all yours." She smirked as her eyes wandered, accentuating a little cut on her upper lip, barely visible until then. He was about to thank her again, but Max beat him to it, all bouncy and smiling.

"Thanks again for the help, you're a lifesaver." Max handed her the smaller of all the bags and when she wrapped her left hand around it, the sleeves rolled up just enough to reveal some intricate tattoo on her left wrist. "Maybe I'll see you at the Arcade some time."

"Don't mention it, Max. And sure, I'll check it out later" She then moved her eyes on him and he couldn't help but stare at that little cut on her lip as she spoke. It was oddly appealing and if anything it actually made her stand out from the millions of pretty faces.

"Maybe I'll see you around as well, Billy." She winked at him and waved at Max and to his utmost surprise she hopped in the Chevy he had been admiring earlier, 'Eye of the tiger' barely audible from within as she rolled out of the parking lot.

"Who was that?" He had half a mind to follow her as he got in his car and started the engine. He would have if the little shit wasn't with and if Neil wasn't waiting for them to get back. The girl was direct enough to make him believe she was up for a good time. Max rolled her eyes at him, but he let it slide. Who knew the little shithead could be a chick magnet?

"She's new in town too." There was a small pause, her eyes going back and forth from the road to him. "Just passing through though, so don't get your hopes up."

He scoffed, but didn't argue with her, the little shit was obviously lying. The girl was staying long enough if she was making plans to check the Arcade. Long enough for a little one night stand on the back of his car. Or maybe even hers. He had two purposed now. The first, dethrone the so called King Steve. The second, bang mystery Florida girl. Billy decided that if he was going to be stuck for a year in Indiana, he would at least make the most of it.

#stranger things #billy hargrove #billy hargove x reader #billy hargrove x oc #love at first sting #fanfiction #i need help #Torment never looked so goddamn fine

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crowsent · 5 years ago

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👶,⭐,💘, and💻. Love you!!

thank you for ask anon! writer ask game is here if yall wanna send in something. still taking asks for these btw

👶- advice for new writers =

yall this is hella fucking generic but PRACTISE. theres a reason almost literally every writer on tumblr gives the advise of “practise practise practise” and that reason is it works. practise doesnt mean ‘oh just write bc youll automatically get better over time’ it means ‘write bc if you dont, you wont figure out what you need to improve.’ did yall know that i literally had no sentence variation in the past? i started every sentence with [character name] or [character pronoun] and i didnt realise until i was 15/16 and i only realised bc i started writing a lot.

i think there’s a fear of failure with new writers. there’s this lingering doubt of “what if its not good?” and boy howdy i will answer that question right fucking now. it wont be good. when i compare my current work to my earlier work, my earlier work sucked fucking shit. i spelled soldier with a fucking ‘j’ and i had no idea what the hell a point of view was. and thats okay. whoever tells you that youre going to perfect writing is a fucking liar. there is no perfecting writing. 20 years from now, imma look at the writing from today and im gonna think it sucks shit. writing is a process. its a craft. you get better and better over time and the way you get better is by experimenting w different styles, different genres, different ways of writing.

and the only way you can experiment and improve is through practise. in video games, especially rpgs (which are my favourite kind of video games), you struggle in the early game. youre at a low level, you dont have good equipment, you have a hard time moving to the next area. but the only way you progress is by grinding, gaining levels, and getting stronger. same w writing. if youre a level 1 writer, just starting out, no idea what to do, just experiment. fuck around a bit. write crackships, write rarepairs, write niche self-indulgent reader/character fics. at the end of the day, you should write for yourself. its good and cool if other people like your stuff and validate all your hard work, but at the end of the day, the one who should enjoy your writing the most is yourself.

you WILL mess up and you WILL struggle, but thats the only way you can improve. i struggle with pacing the most. still do. but others might have pacing down pat and struggle instead with word choice or pov or something else. cant figure out where you need to improve if you dont write, so just practise and worry about all the fine print later

⭐️- how do you get your inspiration? =

this is definitely not universal, but i just sit on my bed, close my eyes, and meditate. cycle through all my emotions and thoughts and filter them out. then i just toss everything out the damn window. like. id just meditate for a while, focus on breathing, on experiencing the present, picture a field and a tree and myself and breathe. thoughts fly by and i let them happen but dont focus on it.

meditating gives me some semblance of emotional control bc i normally have none, and it gives me kind of this space. this safe space that only exists for me and me alone. so i use that space to let the world drift away. just me and my thoughts and sometimes, those thoughts end up being good writing ideas. but i usually meditate for a set amount of time. like 15 minutes or 30 minutes so i dont write until i finish meditating.

then when i get out of my headspace, i open up my laptop and see what i remember. thinking too hard about something causes it to muddy up. same with art. in digital art, artists flip the canvas to refresh their eyes, see if there’s anything weird or wonky about the illustration that they normally dont see bc theyve gotten used to it. flipping the canvas is like giving our eyes a jumpstart and lets us see what we could do better. in traditional art, its turning the canvas this way and that or repositioning yourself. meditating is like that. a break. a cleanse. a kind of pause where you dont think about anything and just try to process what you already have. you relax and kind of let yourself float down a river of thoughts and sometimes, a fish would jump out of that river and youd go “hey, thats a good idea. i should try that” so when you get out of the river, youre refreshed and ready to go.

same principle with showers. more ideas come to you in the shower when you dont have anything to write with bc youre not thinking about it. youre not focusing on finding inspiration or motivation so ideas naturally flow through you. you know that feeling when you want to do x then someone comes along and says “hey you should do x” and suddenly all motivation to do x leaves? same w your brain. focus too much on “i should be writing” or “i want inspiration” and its never gonna come. just let things happen. at least, thats how i do it. some people might get inspiration by reading or watching tv. everyones different so if thats not what works out for you, dont feel pressured to try my method

💘- what’s your favorite AU? Least favorite? =

magic au. specifically fantasy au set in like a pre-modern era. shows like avatar where theres all this magic and fantastical beasts and so on and so forth. semi-modern like six of crows and nevernight are great too. i want that magic to be woven into people’s lives. harry potter is okay but there’s like this separation between magic and muggle. there’s this feeling of “magic” but like as a tool. like a spoon or a gun or a shovel. i want magic au’s that are INTEGRATED with the world its set in.

like in atla, earth kingdom people have trains they move with bending while fire nation people have machines powered by heat and steam. both correspond to their bending and makes sense for the world they live in. but if your plot is like harry potter and its less worldbuilding and more action, then there’s this book series called seasons rising (read it. so good) where there’s a bunch of spells but the spells have character. the people using the spells GIVE it character and it feels much more intimate. pokemon does the whole fantasy mixed w reality better. give two trainers the exact same pokemon and by the time that pokemon reaches lvl 50, its gonna have a different moveset, different fight style, etc bc it was shaped by the world and people around it. i like harry potter but tbh it could have been so much better

for the least favourite au, it’s A/B/O i dont like the whole “omegas are only good for breeding hurr durr” and “alphas are violent and aggressive and cant control themselves around omegas” thing and it squicks me out. major squick. i read the original harry potter squick (THAT one. yeah. you know the one) and i still hate a/b/o more. i get why people like it, and there are one or two fics set in a/b/o au that i enjoy reading, but as a whole, i severely dislike a/b/o fics.

the themes are squick, the character dynamics get so messed up, and shipping dynamics (bc a/b/o fics usually have shipping) just get so blown out of proportion. there are so many a/b/o fics that turn ooc or the character interpretations radically change or something else. no hate against a/b/o fans bc yall are amazing for writing/drawing yalls au. there are things that you can only do in this setting and exploring those things can be incredibly fun for people, but for me personally, its not an au i like to visit.

💻- three works of yours that are must reads =

i. dont know what fandom youre in anon or your genre preferences. so ill just rec you one fic for a different fandom each with kind of different genres. ts masterlist is on my side @hufflepuff-deceit and regular fanfic masterlist is on my writing blog @crownonymous

(BNHA) Viper. its my first serious attempt at fanfic in YEARS and its my baby. currently has 7 chapters, i havent updated it in a while bc im hyperfocused on ts rn, but i love it to bits. its just all of my fav bnha fics crammed into one fic. quirkless kind of villain izuku with stain as a mentor as they work together to bring light to the injustices of hero society and where bakugos bullying has visible and long-lasting repercussions? sign me the fuck up. you can read it on ao3 HERE bc its not on tumblr. kind of fast-paced, has a lot more action scenes than anything else ive written. heavy plot-wise but has a lot of humour and comedy to break things up

(Kimetsu no Yaiba) I Pray To God He Hears You. not related to my other kny fic oleander which is a multichap retelling au. iptghhy is a standalone one-shot and kind of a character study on one giyuu tomioka. i love him so much. giyuu is my baby and i adore him. so of course i wrote a sad fic focusing on him. well technically, the fic focuses on giyuu AND his relationships. SPOILERS for chapters 130 and 131 of the manga. focuses mostly on giyuu and sabito, but there’s a fair bit of giyuu and tanjiro and urokodaki. you can read it HERE bc this is also not on tumblr. also deals with heavy things but more emotion-wise since it doesnt have that much of a plot. loss. grief. moving on. survivors guilt. that kind of stuff. very sad. hurt but with comfort, especially at the end.

(Sanders Sides) Logan’s Birthday Fic: Logicality. just what the title says. i wrote 5 different fics and published them all on logans bday but the logicality one received the most feedback and honestly? the cutest of the bunch. its gonna be crossposted onto ao3 but for now, you can read it HERE on my ts sideblog. theres no plot since its literally just domestic and relationship fluff. and puns. patton is in the fic, theres gonna be puns. nothing but good things and warm feelings bc logan deserves it.

thank you so much for such interesting asks anon! i enjoyed answering these. have a lovely day!

#crowsas answers #kny #bnha #sanders sides

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dracocean · 5 years ago

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La La Lost You (Draco Malfoy Fic) - Ch. 1

❝ 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐞. ❞ | Wattpad Link

Word Count: 3, 357

Summary: To be honest, Renee and Draco's relationship is as complicated as it is. Besides her brother and him being destined rivals, Draco discovered that he had a soft side for Renee - even though he hates to admit it. It all started last year when they had an argument in Potions class and it just so happened it ended with them making out in the third floor girl's bathroom. Did they like each other? That they were unsure. Did they still continue hooking up? Definitely.

Chapter 1

"Have it your way," she said before disapparating to Merlin knows where.

Lily Renee Potter has always been a cunning and sneaky girl. Much to a lot of people's surprise, she's quite the opposite of her infamous twin, Harry Potter - yes that Harry Potter. A lot of people aren't really aware that she exists since Voldemort attempted to kill Harry first which obviously backfired, pegging Harry as the boy who lived or whatnot. All Renee knew was that if she was the first target of that unforgivable curse, then she would probably not live to experience the joys of partying.

Always out and about, Renee never feared the Dursley's petty rules of staying indoors. She would always sneak out in the middle of the night to wander around bustling London. Compared to her brother, Renee enjoys the company of Muggles. Acquainted with the social media trend, Renee has quite an audience who enjoys her food reviews and fashion sense. Oddly enough, she's glad that she lives behind her brother's shadow because she gets to enjoy the joys of the non-wizarding world.

Walking through the lively Soho district, she enters a pub filled with plenty of people. She moves past several drunk guys until finally reaching one of her friends, Zoe. Oddly enough, she's the only one she could trust despite her being a Muggle. They used to be good friends back in Muggle primary school and ever since then, they were partners in crime when it comes to sneaking around with their fake IDs. Zoe was fully aware of Renee's roots which took a lot of convincing growing up, but she eventually learned to see her best friend for who she is.

"Hey!" Zoe screamed amidst the loud audio. "You chopped off your hair!"

Renee's hands instinctively went to her short bob, touching the strands that now rested on the level of her throat. Just like any other girl, the spontaneous decision eventually crept into her mind as she dyed half of it blonde. Now she was left with black hair from her roots, and a bright platinum blonde color trailing her strands towards the end.

"Yeah," she replies. "I have a feeling I'm going to regret it tomorrow though."

"Nonsense!" Zoe says. "You look a hundred times better!"

"Lies!" she says jokingly as she takes a sip of her drink. The music was blaring as usual but she really wasn't in the mood to party tonight. She just wanted a time out from everything, especially since she was going back to Hogwarts tomorrow. She can't help but think about what Harry said about the possibility of Voldemort coming back stronger. With so much attention from the school, the Ministry, and even their friends, it's hard to miss the impending doom they were about to face. As much as she doesn't like thinking about it, the thought of losing her brother crept up every once in a while - especially after the conversation they had earlier.

It didn't take long for Zoe to realize her glum expression as she said, "is something bothering you?"

"It's nothing, Harry and I got into a fight," she replied.

"Oh bummer. What happened?" she asked as she took another swig of her beer.

"Just something stupid," Renee lied, not bothering to explain how Harry didn't want her to go to Hogwarts this year. Did he really think she would allow him to face that noseless prick alone? Did he think she couldn't handle it? And did he really think he could get away with it because he's the chosen one?

Renee chugs down her bottle empty as she tries to forget about it. Although she loves her best friend, she utterly hates the pitiful expression she has whenever they would talk about these things - especially since these problems were way beyond her.

Renee didn't have that many friends - may it be in Hogwarts or in England. Sure, she has several connections from brands, but never a close circle wherein she could confide to. Bottling up her emotions was fairly normal for her as she was the Slytherin counterpart of her brother.

"Hey I'm gonna go get some air," she says before disappearing into the large crowd. She makes her way to the building's rooftop and sits down on the ledge. Ever since she became a regular in this pub, the rooftop eventually became one of her favorite places to stay since nobody usually goes up there. Whenever she needed time to think or just space out, it was definitely her go to.

She sat at the far end corner, just behind the entrance - the usual. The lights on the roof evaded her position, making her blend in with the darkness. Her feet dangled about 10 feet into the air as she closed her eyes.

If only it could just stay like this forever, she thought. She looks at the beautiful London skyline, taking in the view she knew she would miss when she goes back to Hogwarts. Obviously the castle is legendary and magical as it is, although a small part of her wishes she wasn't part of that world - the world that brought so much trauma to her brother, the world that demanded so much from them, and the world that made them lose their parents. It was all just too much to handle for seventeen year old Renee.

She hears a loud thud in the rooftop door as she instinctively takes out her wand. She hides the weapon behind her as she carefully watches the boy who unwelcomingly distrubed her solace. Without warning, the boy kicks the plastic chair in front of him. He was muttering curses as he let out his frustration on the low grade polymer chair.

Well this is awkward, she thought. He probably doesn't know he's not alone.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." he says. Still kicking the poor plastic as if it wasn't lifeless to begin with, Renee looks at him curiously as it reaches the other side of the roof. His anger didn't seem to cease as the chair retained its ergonomically practical design.

Renee didn't judge him though, life could be a bitch sometimes and it just so happens that this guy had a way of expressing his sorrows unlike her. She found herself almost jealous of him for it though - almost.

Now he's holding the chair up with his arms and much to her dismay, it landed near her. The sound of the immortal low grade polymer crashing to the cement being the only thing that stood between her and the boy.

"Well, fuck." she mutters under her breath.

"Who are you?" the boy asks in an accusing tone, neglecting his dreadful opponent made of plastic. He steps into the light, his bright blonde hair giving his features a glow.

Renee squints as she covers her mouth in shock. "No way! What are you doing here?" She stands up and walks towards the boy who looked just as shocked as her.

"Potter?" he hisses. "What are you doing here?!"

"I'm surprised to see you too Malfoy," Renee rolls her eyes as she relaxes her grip on her wand. She looks at the boy in awe, remembering how it's been two months since they last saw each other. She softens at the though of him, the only boy she's ever grown to like. Unlike her brother, Draco Malfoy surprisingly didn't really bother her that much - well at least not anymore. Of course he was a rude little git to most people in Hogwarts, but Renee and Draco had a special connection - one that involved lust and cravings.

"I didn't know a pure-blood like you would bother exploring this horrendous Muggle rooftop," she says sarcastically. "Now tell me what in the world did this chair do to you?"

He rolled his eyes as he took out a cigarette from his pocket. With a blank expression, Renee looks at him from head to toe. He obviously looked like he'd seen better days judging from his disheveled blonde hair, his loose dress shirt slightly unbuttoned, and the dark circles under his eyes. As much as Renee was in shock of his state and how the hell he obtained cigarettes, she was tired enough as it is to bother. Draco looks out to the horizon, both his elbows resting on the ledge beside Renee, as she found herself mimicking his actions.

It was quiet - a surprisingly comfortable silence which she was thankful for. Both of them stayed like that as Draco inhaled the tobacco in his system, releasing a puff of smoke into the air. He passes the cigar to her, without even looking her way. She takes it from him, and with a deep breath, does the same.

"I despise your brother, you know that right?" Draco says bitterly, still looking straight ahead.

"You don't say," she snorts, taking in another swig of the silent killing machine. "If it makes you feel better, he doesn't really like you too."

This time, he laughs. Renee looks at him, seeing the wrinkles at the bottom of his smile and the way he nonchalantly brushes off his hair. If Harry would have been here, there would be no doubt he would protectively drag her away from his sworn enemy. Instead here she was, observing the small details her proximal view of him had to offer.

Draco shifts as he catches her looking at him. With a smirk he says, "like what you see?"

"Not really, you just look hideous," which turned out to be both a lie and a truth. To be honest, Renee and Draco's relationship is as complicated as it is. Besides her brother and him being destined rivals, Draco discovered that he had a soft side for Renee - even though he hates to admit it. It all started last year when they had an argument in Potions class and it just so happened it ended with them making out in the third floor girl's bathroom. Did they like each other? That they were unsure. Did they still continue hooking up? Definitely.

This caused him to shoot her an annoyed glare which she reciprocated with a laugh. "You're slowly killing yourself, you know," she says.

Draco's face grew pale as he looked at her with a shocked expression. He wasn't sure what she meant by it but somehow, he felt like he couldn't breathe.

Renee notices his tense expression, wondering why he took it so seriously. She motions to the cigarette between his fingers, "those are deadly."

Just like that, his shoulders managed to relax as if he'd been holding his breath underwater. Everything about the night felt weird on so many levels.

He drops the stick on to the pavement, stepping on it to put out the small fire. He paces toward the far end of the roof, and to her surprise, takes the low grade polymer chair and sets it in front of her.

"Sit."

Normally she wouldn't do what he says, but again, the night was weird. She sat on the chair as Draco sat on the ledge of the roof, but instead of looking at the horizon, he was facing her. The moonlight gives his exhausted features a bit of glow as he looks at her with his intense gaze. He opens his mouth to say something but decides to keep it to himself. He was acting very strange right now, especially since Renee was used to seeing the confident and dignified Draco Malfoy walking along the hallways of Hogwarts like he owns the place. But right now, all she could see was a boy drowning in his thoughts, unsure about where the night would lead him.

"So are we just going to act like this isn't awkward at all?" Renee breaks the silence as she looks at Draco, his mouth forming a small smirk.

"I don't think we're close enough to share our family issues with each other," he spats. "Not that you would know, your parents are dead."

She knew she had every right to be offended, but his insults were getting rather unoriginal. "At least I'm not the one beating up a chair. Clearly someone has more problems."

Renee stands up, heading towards the door. Having a peaceful moment with Draco Malfoy was obviously too good to be true. As much as she disliked reuniting with some random strangers downstairs, she thought it would be better than wasting her time with this evil little cockroach.

"Hey where are you going?" he calls out to her. Seeing how she wasn't looking back, he disapparated in front of the door, holding it down before she could open it.

"I'm sorry." he says in a low tone, almost like a whisper. "Stay?"

Renee heaves out a sigh as she makes her way back into the chair. She sees the regretful look on Draco's face as he scratches the back of his head. The awkward atmosphere was clearly enough to make both of them uneasy.

"I escaped from a party at the Manor," Draco says silently. "I didn't like being surrounded by.."

He looks to his side and then to Renee as he lets out a huge sigh, "my family's friends."

Renee wasn't stupid enough to not know that the Malfoys were associated to Death Eaters, it was basically a common fact. She could see his bothered expression as he looked at his shoes. Although Draco and Renee weren't the best of friends, she had a grasp of his personality based on their encounters. Contrary to hasty generalizations, Slytherins do have feelings - they just don't show it to most people. What annoyed Renee was how the other houses easily judge them for their desire for success when in reality, a lot of work is poured into it. Being cunning and resourceful might take a part of it but the constant effort to be better than themselves is a trait that tends to be misunderstood. Same goes with emotions - not every Slytherin manifests hate, they have vulnerable sides as well.

If there was anything she felt towards Draco other than the understandable annoyance, it would be sympathy. Behind his dignified family name, he looks rather burdened with it - even though he doesn't admit it.

"I don't judge," she says as she looks at the stars above them. He swallowed the lump on his throat as it occurred to him that she knows, she knows. "And I don't blame you either."

Draco looks at her intently. His eyes locked into hers as they trailed down to her lips. She prayed that the darkness would hide the blush creeping on her cheeks. She hated how he had this effect on her - it prevents her from thinking of any witty comebacks.

A smirk was plastered on Draco's face as he got on his feet. He grabbed the other unharmed low grade polymer chair as he set it beside her. Renee looks at him, feeling rather hot than when she came into the rooftop just a while ago. She crosses her arms, pulling her coat closer to her body.

"I miss having sex with you," Draco blurted out.

This caused Renee to cough - really loud. That was the last thing she expected him to say, especially after such a sensitive topic. Too many nights caught up in each other's skin eventually lead to him saying it so casually. As much as she hates to admit it, Renee knew that deep down that there was more to her attachment to Draco. A small part of her regrets how she easily allows herself to be consumed by him yet still continues to ignore the thought as much as she can.

Renee remembered the first time they did it when Draco made it clear he didn't want any strings attached in their whole ordeal. She wasn't sure why she agreed when it was obvious that being really close to him made her heart flutter. Perhaps it was safe to say that she had a bit of hope he would eventually learn to like her, but it's been going on for months yet the nicest thing he's ever said to her was to not get caught whenever she sneaks out his dorm. Of course she feels pathetic - but she's here, with him and she forgets about her feelings for a while.

"Sorry, I don't really have sex with people I just meet on some random rooftop," she teases. Draco's cheeky grin appeared and it took every fiber Renee had to prevent her from crashing her lips into his.

"How far would you go then?" he asks, resting his hand on her knee. Renee could feel chills in her entire body as he moved his thumb back and forth. Draco notices her off-guard expression as he trails his hands up to her waist, holding the hem of her shirt.

"Is this too far?" he suggested cockily.

"Not even close," she managed to breathe out.

Draco took this as a sign to move his hands up higher, gently massaging her breast. The cold London air sending her goosebumps as Draco bit his lip, obviously amused at his own doing. Renee closes her eyes in approval as a small moan escapes her lips. This was the last thing she ever imagined doing tonight.

Her body squirms under his touch as she shifts herself closer to him. She bites her lip as his other hand squeezes her bum. She felt too much, all at once. Initially, she really didn't mind the two months of vacation but this night made her remember all the things she had been missing out.

She looks at him. She sees the boy that fills her thoughts, body and cravings. She sees the boy that hides behind his confident aura to compensate for the love he never had. She sees the boy who could never give her half of what she feels for him.

Out of nowhere, the door to the roof swings open as a drunk man stumbles outside. Both Draco and Renee instinctively fixed themselves, hoping they didn't look too obvious. She could see Draco's cocky grin from her peripheral view and she just really wanted to punch him at that moment. Much to their relief, the man fainted even before saying something to them. Draco stands up as he straightens the creases of his pants, looking at a flustered Renee.

"Well that's enough fun for tonight," Draco winks at her. "I should really head back to the Manor before they find out I'm gone."

Renee rolls her eyes as she says, "of course they would know by now. You were taking much of your time."

"See you tomorrow, angel." He smirked before disapparating back to his home.

To say that Renee was disappointed of herself was an understatement. She doesn't know why she even bothers, she was breaking the first rule in casual hookups. It wasn't good for both of them, especially given her brother's relationship with him. She knew that getting involved with Draco this year would make things more complicated. Then it occurred to her - the excitement and pain all at once as she thought of the boy with bright blonde hair.

Just on cue, Renee's phone beeped. She looked at the sender as she tried to hide the smile forming on her lips. 'Your hair suits you.'

She knew she was definitely going to regret this, but all she could think about was that all her demons had his smile. It was in the form of Draco Malfoy.

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welcometophu · 5 years ago

Text

Into the Split: Evolution 1

Twinned Book 3: Into the Split

Evolution 1

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The library at PHU is fascinating.

Everything about PHU is fascinating, really, and terrifying at the same time. There are so many people, going about their lives as if nothing else exists, and Nikolai feels off-balance just to be around them. People smile and say hello to him and Seth, friendly and comfortable even though they know nothing about them. Nikolai isn’t sure how to handle it.

He’s thankful that Pawel was able to give them access to a smaller library within the library. They have little identification cards made of plastic that Pawel gave them after a day spent trapped in his house, and they’ve spent the two days since in the library. There is food available, as long as they hand over the card to get it, and they have this one room to retreat to when they need it.

Nikolai needs it often, Seth even more so.

The library is a riot of emotions, a rush of anxiety and random notes of pleasure. In their first few hours in the building, Seth had moments where he reached out to grab on to Nikolai and clutch his hand tightly. Even now, when they venture out of the special collections room, after a time Seth’s eyes squeeze shut and Nikolai can feel the way he centers himself, the warm, soft blanket of calm that settles over them both.

Then they retreat.

This one room is a treasure trove. The door locks behind them; Pawel explained that only Magical Studies majors can access the room, and then with his permission. The room is filled with books about Talent. Old books and new books. All hand-written or small runs from a printing press. A valuable history of this world’s version of how Talent works.

It doesn’t always match up with what Nikolai learned as a child, but it offers an interesting counterpoint.

They read a lot, while Nikolai drinks cocoa and Seth discovers a strong love of bitter coffee. At first Nikolai dislikes the bitterness on Seth’s tongue when they kiss, then it becomes something that is a part of kissing Seth, a part of his taste.

They adapt, slowly but surely.

Their ID cards show them as visiting scholars, and while the librarian on duty gave Pawel a dubious look when he first introduced them, she is kind enough moving forward. It makes it feel as if they have one ally in the library, someone who won’t look strangely at them for their questions. When Nikolai’s stomach rumbles on Wednesday afternoon, they gather their few things and make their way down to the front desk and ask directions to Teas Please.

That makes her smile, and she prints out a map and highlights the route. “Everyone loves Teas Please,” she says. “If they aren’t in the coffee shop here, they go there for tea and crêpes.”

“We’ve been, right after we arrived,” Nikolai tells her. “It was good, so we figured we’d go back for dinner tonight.”

“Are you at loose ends? There are some other good places around campus, and I can mark them off for you.” The librarian holds out her hand, and Nikolai gives her back the printout so she can highlight and label several addresses.

The names of the restaurants go over his head, but he figures they have time to investigate eventually. Pawel gave them other cards as well, ones for money in this world, with instructions to buy what they needed. One of these days they really need to just go explore.

Nikolai tries not to think too hard about assimilating their way into this place. They’re leaving, someday. It just doesn’t seem to be coming quickly.

He and Seth link hands as they walk along the pathways that wind through the campus, heading for one of the roads that leads out. It’s a warm spring day, and there are people everywhere. The sun hangs low in the sky, there’s a low breeze, and the lawn looks almost like a beach. There are knots of people sitting on blankets or towels. A few are wearing bathing suits, stretched out despite the air being still too cool for that little amount of clothes. A frisbee sails by, and a girl apologizes as she darts past them in order to grab it and send it back to her friend.

The atmosphere is full of joy, in an entirely different way than the sugaring festival had been. Nikolai has heard the darker news of this world—killings and famine and water so dead it could poison people—but at the same time, these students feel innocent. Like they have no idea how different the world could be.

Seth squeezes his hand, and Nikolai squeezes back. This isn’t their world, and it never will be. Even if they find a way to stop the Shadow invasion back home, they won’t see their world become like this in their lifetime.

When they reach Teas Please, they don’t recognize the hostess that greets them. She has two menus in her hand and is about to mark down something on a sheet in front of her when a waiter swoops in. He has his hands on her shoulders, leans in to whisper something in her ear, and she looks at Nikolai and Seth, wide-eyed.

“Oh,” she says, handing the menus off to the waiter, then marking a different spot on her sheet. “Nate will show you to your booth.”

“I’ve heard you’ve been here before,” Nate says cheerfully as he leads them through the restaurant and into the back again. The u-shaped booth at the back is empty, and seems far too large for just the two of them, but Nate drops the menus there anyway. He waves for them to sit. “You’ll have company soon. Alaric asked me to keep an eye out for you, and I figure if Alaric’s coming by, that means you’ll have a crowd before you know it. It usually seems to work that way.”

Seth slides in along the back wall, and Nikolai sits carefully next to him. “Thanks,” Nikolai says.

“He sent me pictures. That’s how I recognized you.” Nate shows an image of them on his phone—they’ve been having lessons in how these phones work ever since they arrived, and they’ve posed for several pictures along the way. “So hey, I’m Nate, and I’ll be your waiter. Do you want any tea or water to get started? Any advice on the menu? Or,” he lowers his voice, “Mallory’s in the kitchen, which means if you want a chef’s special, today’s the day to get it.”

Seth’s brow furrows as he closes the menu. “What’s the chef’s special?”

“It’s where I tell Mallory a little about you, and she makes whatever seems like you might want it. She reminds me of the mother of a friend of mine. A teammate of Alaric’s actually—the friend, not the mother.” Nate slides onto the bench opposite them, leaning on the table. “Similar Talents, I think, although Mallory swears she’s not Talented. She’s just good at reading people. So. Advice, time to look, or a Mallory special?”

“I want something I haven’t had in a while,” Nikolai says. “Something that reminds me of my childhood, and doesn’t have anything that comes from a can or a jar or something else that was in a safehouse.” He assumes that Nate’s heard their story, since he seems to know who they are.

“We’ll share. So, you have those tiered things.” Seth raises his hand above the table, then gestures at another couple at a smaller table with two of the three-tiered setups on their table.

“Afternoon tea, yes. You get any two of a crêpe or sandwich, salad, and soup, plus a dessert. It’s extra for some of the things,” Nate explains.

Nikolai digs into his pocket, pulls out the money card Pawel gave him. “If we have this, we should hopefully have enough, right? Pawel said he put money on it and to use it, because it’s easiest for now.”

“Should be good,” Nate agrees. “So you guys want to share a—”

“Not sharing,” Seth said. “Not like you’re thinking. We each want one of those tea things, and we’ll split between them so no duplicates. He opens the menu and looks down at, frowning intently as he holds up his hand in a clear signal for everyone else to pause.

Nikolai leans in, points at a couple of options, and Seth nods his response. Nikolai doesn’t mind letting Seth make the choices here, and he likes the idea of getting lots of things to share.

In the end, it’s going to be one savory crêpe, a bowl of lobster bisque, a simple green salad, a pilgrim sandwich, a sweet crêpe with raspberries, and a slice of marbled tea cake.

It sounds like a lot of food between the two of them.

It also sounds like bliss.

Alaric arrives before their food does, with a girl in tow. She has a silver bar in one eyebrow and cluster of five silver rings at her temple. A nose ring peeks out, and when she reaches across the table with one hand to introduce herself as Sera, Nikolai stares at the intricate black ink tracing across her entire hand and up her wrist.

Alaric leans in and murmurs something, and Sera thwacks his chest with the back of her hand.

“We brought you phones,” Sera says, sliding two devices across the table at them. “They should be ready to run through a setup routine, and we’ve already gotten them online for you, on a network, and you have email addresses and numbers.” She gives them each an envelope of information. “Memorize that, don’t let anyone else have it. Security is everything around here, and if someone gets that information, they can essentially become you. A virtual you.”

None of that makes any kind of cohesive sense, but Nikolai knows the polite response. “Thank you.”

“I’ve put in a bunch of numbers for you already,” Alaric says.

Sera puts a hand over Alaric’s as he reaches out. “Slow down, let them get their phones set up first.”

She walks them through answering questions on the screen of the phone by tapping, then pressing their fingers to the little buttons in order to set a fingerprint, then finally letting the phone somehow recognize their face. It’s nonsense but Nikolai follows all the instructions and in the end, he can at least get into his phone and lock it up when she tells him to do so.

“There are a lot of apps, and you probably won’t really want to use most of it for a while, but you’ll need to learn how to make a call, get a call, and deal with texts,” Sera says.

Nikolai stares at the thing in his hand. It’s cold, and weirdly small to try to read. He’s not sure he likes it. “Okay,” he agrees.

“Touch here,” Alaric instructs, and both Nikolai and Seth touch the same place on their respective phones. It opens up a screen with a list of names, and Alaric shows them how to scroll through. Nikolai spots Seth on his list, and his own name on Seth’s list. Several of the other given names are familiar, even if the surnames are not.

Seth mumbles something under his breath, and Alaric huffs. “Szczek,” Alaric says. “It’s Polish.”

There are names Nikolai doesn’t know—Drea Herne, and someone named Corbin. Dayton. Susan. Lucy. He wishes he could just get rid of all the other names, but maybe Alaric put them in there for a reason. Maybe Nikolai needs them. He can’t think why.

Seth touches something on his screen, and Nikolai’s phone vibrates, then sings out with music Nikolai doesn’t recognize. Seth’s name flashes on his screen, and Sera reaches across to show Nikolai how to answer.

It’s been a long time since he’s used a phone, and never one quite like this. He remembers mobile phones as being more awkward. A little clunky, and something only his parents or older brothers had.

On the other hand, he’s the same age they were when they went off to college, too, right before the Split.

That’s a hell of a thought.

“Hey everyone!” Nikita sings out, waving as she slides between two tables to reach them. She hip checks Sera so that she and Alaric slide down the bench, all the way around until he’s on Seth’s other side. That leaves room for Nikita and Heather to slide in.

Carolyn stands with Serina, the server from the other night. Serina has her palms on either side of Carolyn’s face, thumbs light against her cheekbones as they rub their noses together. Carolyn tugs Serina in, arms wrapped around her for a long moment before Serina withdraws and presses a kiss to Carolyn’s cheek.

“I’ve got to get to my shift,” Serina says, waving with a little flick of her fingers. “Nice to see you, Nik and Seth! Is Nate serving you? I’ll make sure he brings food out soon. Oh! Do the rest of you know what you want? I can bring your orders back and get that started.”

Everyone shouts orders like they’re used to being there, and Serina just nods, then reels it all back to them in order to confirm that she’s got it right. She runs off and the newcomers shrug out of their jackets.

“This happens all the time,” Nikita says. “It’s like one person comes here and then suddenly we have a crowd, and seriously, if we sit here long enough, half my floor will show up.” She wrinkles her nose, then clarifies, “Half the people who live on the same floor of my dorm as me.”

Carolyn pulls something out of her pockets, and unwraps and lays her deck of cards on the table. She looks across at Nikolai. “I was thinking that since we seem to have moved into and possibly through some of your last reading, a small three card reading might be nice for focus.” There’s a soft flush on her cheeks. “Also, Serina said you were talking about the cards with her the other night, so I was thinking maybe that’d be a good thing.”

“No Death,” Seth says firmly. “We’ve had enough change at this point, I think.”

“I think we’re still in for a lot more change,” Alaric rumbles. “I’ve been talking to Dayton—”

“Who?” Seth asks. Nikolai remembers the name from their phones.

“One of my Clan allies. You have her number, just in case. Things are changing in the Clan world, at least in this area,” Alaric explains. “We’ve always been traditional. What you saw in Havenhill isn’t like my home now, but it’s what I’d like to see. More relationships with other Talents. Opening us up so we can grow. We can’t stay the same.”

Sera knocks into Alaric. “Look at you being all grown up and everything.”

He bares his teeth and growls at her; she just grins in response.

Carolyn idly shuffles the cards in her hand. “Anyway. I don’t have to, if you don’t want. Or we could just do a general reading, for everyone. It might lock on to one person here, accidentally, or it could just be generically about the future we’re all working towards. Because we are all working on something, right?”

“We need to work on building networks,” Nikita says. “A Dreamwalker network and a Technopath network.”

“I love that you have a name for me now,” Sera murmurs. Her gaze has shifted, staring into the air somewhere over Carolyn’s head. “I’m working on that. It’s going to take time. It’s not like any of us have been trying to either hide or congregate so I need to figure out a way to get the word out without causing all kinds of entertaining trouble. Doesn’t help that I don’t know a single other Talent like me.”

“And we can’t get multiple Dreamwalkers in the same place, which is going to make that part difficult, too,” Heather says.

Seth gestures from Nikita to Nikolai. “Yes, we can,” he says firmly. “Your Dreamwalkers need to learn control. Because in case you haven’t noticed, we have two of them right here. And didn’t we have three the other day?”

“We also had an ice storm and now we have 70 degree weather just three days later.” Heather leans forward, her hands clasped on the table. “Maybe in the future they can all be one place, but right now, anything more than the two of you is asking for trouble.”

This is definitely going to take a while.

“Pawel said he’ll reach out to the few Dreamwalkers he knows, like the one I was training with, and they’ll reach out, and we’ll try to get together online and by phone to start talking,” Nikita says.

“Where is our erstwhile leader?” Sera asks, gesturing at the table. “If we’re talking saving the world, shouldn’t he be here?”

“He’s still walking a weird line socializing with his students,” Carolyn says quietly. “I think we’ve all spent more time with him lately than administration would say is appropriate.”

“Mac said he actually had an appointment or something,” Alaric says. When Carolyn makes a face, he adds, “Don’t think we’re exactly typical students and a professor anymore.”

“I think it’s a tricky line right now,” Heather adds softly.

Nikolai and Seth’s food arrives, three plates high in a little tiered cage. The scent of raspberry catches him first, followed by warm turkey and cranberry. Memories twist in his gut, and he reaches for the sandwich first. He breaks it in half, handing one part to Seth before taking a huge bite of his own.

Carolyn is still shuffling her cards, and probably still waiting for an answer. Nikolai ignores the question, letting the conversation flow without him for a time as he shares first the sandwich, then the bowl of soup, both he and Seth alternating as they dip their spoons in and carefully taste it.

Carolyn sets her deck aside when the rest of the food arrives along with Nate bringing a chair to the end of the table and a plate of his own. “I’ve got a thirty minute break due,” Nate says easily. “I’ve been going since the breakfast rush, and never took either of my fifteens. Serina will handle my tables while I hang out with you.”

Nate’s easy to talk to. One of his eyes drifts slightly inward, and Nikolai finds himself staring at it, but when he apologizes, Nate waves it off. “I’ve had a lazy eye since I was a kid and by the time anyone really noticed, it was too late to fix it. Doesn’t really affect much anymore. It’s not like I’m trying to catch a football or hit anything. I just want to run a long way as fast as I can, and I can see the distance just fine.”

“You’re a runner,” Nikolai says. “I think Mikhail did that for a bit in high school. He wasn’t very good at it.”

“I’m really good at it.” Nate’s gaze is far away, like he’s seeing a horizon in the distance. “When I get out there running, it’s me and the track or the road, and I can feel it in my feet. There’s a cadence to it, and it mixes with my heartbeat, and I just keep going. I’ve been doing it since I was a kid, and it’s how I have a scholarship to PHU.” He jerks his chin towards Alaric. “His teammate, Dax, is doing it now, too. Just started this spring, and he looks like he might be pretty good once he really finds his rhythm. We started training over break in March, and he and I have been doing a lot of extra training. He’s used to running drills for football, and distance running is different from the kinds of sprints he does on the field. It’s impressive to be as good as he is at both.”

Seth nudges a plate in front of Nikolai. The plate holds half the sweet crêpe and half the slice of tea cake, and both smell amazing. Nikolai nibbles while Nate keeps talking about running; when Nate talks about it, it sounds almost attractive, rather than a horrible thing you have to do in order to survive.

Carolyn pushes her empty plate away and shuffles her cards again, the cardboard making a soft zip in her hand.

Nikolai lowers his fork, watches the cards slip and slide together. “Okay,” he says finally. “Last time your cards warned me I was going to walk between worlds. Let’s see what they say this time.” It doesn’t look like she’s going to back down. She may not be saying anything, but the shuffling is a stronger hint than words would be.

“Three card reading,” Carolyn says. “It could be three potential paths, but I think this time I’m doing a standard past, present, and future layout.” She stops shuffling and holds out the deck, offering it to Nikolai. He waves his hand, but Seth reaches out to take off the top few cards and set them aside.

Carolyn nods, and starts pulling from the card left on top. The first card, on the left and upside down from Carolyn’s perspective, is labeled Temperance. A topless woman stands by a stream, pouring water from cups as she looks away. “This is your past,” Carolyn says.

“I have never been a half-naked woman,” Seth says dryly.

Carolyn continues as if he didn’t speak. “It’s a card of carelessness and indecision. It’s about giving up rather than moving forward, or about spinning in place without making the kind of decisions you need to do in order to stop going in circles. She’s pouring the water into the stream and it’s just washing away. She’s not even looking to see where it goes.”

Seth’s brow furrows. “Okay, go on.”

She lays down the second card, and Nikolai remembers it from the reading she did for him. “This one is about balance,” he says, and she smiles at him and taps it.

“The six of swords, and yes, it is. This was your thoughts about yourself last time,” she says. “It’s about balance, but it’s also about finding that new way to think that helps you achieve balance.”

“Like coming here is a shift in how we think,” Seth says slowly.

“Possibly,” Carolyn says, as she turns over the final card.

It looks joyous. The man on the card is grinning, leaping across the sky with eight wands shooting through the air around him.

Seth touches the cards in turn. “Okay, so just from the pictures, this looks like we go from wavering indecision, to balance, to leaping forward into the bright unknown.”

“Pretty much,” Carolyn agrees. She lifts the final card to show it to them more clearly. “This one isn’t just about moving, it’s about those big, sweeping changes that also result in big successes. If you weren’t taking chances in the past, this recommends taking huge chances in the future.”

“Like laying all our hope on things that have never been tried, and might not even work,” Nikita says quietly.

“This says it’s worth it to take a chance,” Carolyn says. She sweeps the cards back into her deck, glancing at Nate when he looks like he’s reaching out. “Did you want a reading of your own?”

He retreats, pushes himself to his feet. “Maybe later. It’s busy tonight, and Serina’s on her own, so I should probably get back. Besides, I know I’m not leaping into the unknown. I’m just running, steady and true and as fast as I can keep a good pace.” Nate gathers up his empty plates, stacks a few more on top. “I’ll be back to clear up for you guys. Anyone want any dessert while I’m heading to the kitchen?”

Everyone calls out at once, and somehow Nate manages to sort that into a coherent order. Nikolai’s already had his dessert, so he takes out the phone Alaric gave him and looks through it instead.

They’re balanced right now, yes, but it feels like any little thing could knock them off course. Hopefully it really does send them shooting forward into success. Nikolai’s a bit more worried about plummeting off a cliff and falling into the abyss right now.

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#welcome to phu #welcometophu #into the split #phu twinned #twinned #its evolution

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