#imagine adopting a lost little orphan and later finding out it has no soul and is a weapon sent from demonic aliens to enslave you. imagine | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

voidstilesplease · 4 years ago

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untitled 3/?

~•~

Theo is always second.

He is the second son, the second businessman, the second acknowledged, the second option, the second opinion, the second to know, the second they ask about, the second to receive glances. He is never first, maybe because his entire identity is a hand-me-down.

He is an orphan - was - before the Hales adopted him. He was ten and an addict. His father used to inject him just for fun - but it was all right if it dulled his empty stomach from the feeling of hunger. His father died in a drug raid and left Theo to fend for himself. His father had all of two dollars in his pockets. How was Theo to survive without money and relatives to take him? The answer to that was an orphanage where the Hales were sponsors. He didn't know how he was able to charm the couple - probably it was during his rehabilitation period to wean him of toxin dependency. But in less than five months, he was out of the institution and into the Hale mansion.

The Hales owned businesses from advertising to small food chains. The two largest are the sister companies Alpha Advertisements in New York and Beta Promotions in California. They said as an official Hale he could be managing one of the branches in the future.

Theo set out to do just that.

But he is always second - second to the Hales' only son, Derek.

It was always transparent that Derek did not like him from the beginning, as well. Theo had developed a good relationship with his adoptive sisters Laura and Cora. But he and Derek had long had an unspoken agreement that they weren't going be friends, much less be brothers.

God, he hates Derek. It isn't enough that he's a real son. He also has to be the better one. He always has to be first.

•••

Theo is not thrilled to be going home to New York. But Laura is going to get married to her soulmate, and he loves his sister. So, he leaves Beta Promos and flies to the other side of the States.

Theo spends the entire flight listening to Laura's pre-recorded gushing about her soulmate. Theo rolls his eyes every time Laura says the word. It's an old belief, soulmates, but they still exist today. Everyone is born with a red cord around their little finger. It hangs about three inches long with its tip glowing in soft sparks, like a severed thread. Only they can see the string unless it connects to their soul-bonded. The red cord then lengthens and ties around the finger of its other half. Only a few people meet their soulmates in their lifetime. Most live and die without finding the other end of their thread. And Theo's all right with that. His parents had been soulmates. But Theo's older sister died, and his mother followed a year later by overdosing. His dad had turned to drugs after losing them. Then, Theo lost him, too. Even soulmates aren't guaranteed a perfect life. They can even be destructive. Maybe it's for the best if they never cross paths at all.

•••

He wakes up the next day in his hotel room and notices it.

The thread in his finger has expanded. He no longer sees the glowing tip - there is no more tip. Instead, there's a bright red cord flowing from his bed. Then, down to the floor, and out of the hotel room door.

Theo's stunned. He pries his hand and stares at it wide-eyed. Experimentally, Theo tugs at the string - it feels concrete in his touch, instead of the usual semi-abstract existence. He can't believe it. His "soulmate" is somewhere close.

But when his initial shock has subsided, he decides to disregard the string. He doesn't have time for soulmates. He's going back to California after the wedding and obsesses over his work in the company. Theo will outrun Derek in the race.

That's where his soul bonds to, not to some stranger that he's never going to love, anyway.

•••

He's supposed to meet Laura in the Alpha building before going out for the lunch date they had arranged weeks prior. So, Theo gets into the vehicle that Laura sent and rides the way to Alpha Ads in contemplative silence.

He enters the property thirty minutes later and is aware that his red string continues inside the building. He tries to neglect it once more, but when he steps out of the elevator to Derek's floor, he gives up on his avoidance. The string's other end is somewhere on that same floor, and it bothers him to no end. Barely catching the assistant droning on in his tail, Theo holds the thread and starts following its tug.

He doesn't hear the assistant trying desperately to call his attention when he comes face-to-face with Derek's office door. He's only half-aware of the new voice attempting to warn Theo. The string goes through to the other side, so without second thoughts, he pushes it open.

What he sees is not exactly unexpected. Theo has heard from Laura that Derek has a younger boyfriend, about Theo's age, who works at a law firm owned by a Hale family friend. Theo's seen pictures, as well. And Cora has said his name is Polish from his roots, and a mouthful to pronounce, so he goes by the nickname Stiles. Theo has no doubt that the tall, slender man perched on Derek's glass table is that Stiles.

He never imagined seeing him in person. Derek is not the long-term relationship type; one of the few things Theo understands and can relate to him. Stiles has been the first one to pass the six-month mark --- but they're not soulmates. Laura has said so. Which isn't a problem, she said, because she likes Stiles. Cora is friends with Stiles; their parents adore Stiles, and Derek has never willingly introduced anybody into the household. It's pretty apparent that Derek caught feelings this time. They didn't need to be soulmates to work. They didn't need to be soulmates to love.

Derek jerks back from his previous position in between Stiles's legs, hands clutching the man's hips and sucking at his pale neck. Stiles also promptly leaps off the table, flushed from ear-tip down to his collarbone, trying to smooth down the creases of his clothes. Derek turns slightly aside, hands reaching to adjust himself in his pants, before turning back around and sending Theo his most vicious glare.

Derek signals his assistant, hovering awkwardly by the door, face horror-filled - at catching her boss getting it on with his boyfriend, or for having no power to stop Theo from interrupting; he doesn't care either way - to close the door. When it's shut firmly, Derek doesn't waste time barking his displeasure.

"You can't barge into my office unannounced, Theo! Are you crazy?"

But Theo doesn't hear it. His eyes are on Stiles.

His eyes are on the other end of his red string.

•••

He laughs, bitter and dry.

Theo is always second. He's even second at finding his soul mate.

•••

The joke's on Derek. Maybe soulmates are meant to cross paths.

Fuck if Theo's going to let Derek win this time.

~•~

check out this lovely moodboard by @sunel0. I can't appreciate it enough 😍🖤

[edit 12.30.20]

#untitled things tag #teen wolf #steo #steo fic #stiles stilinski #theo raeken #stiles x theo #fics tag #side: sterek #stiles x derek #sterek #soulmate au

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twohearts-hs · 6 years ago

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‘Long Lost Kitten’ - Harry Styles Imagine

Words: 5k

Pairing: Orphan!Harry x Orphan!Reader

Warnings: Swearing

Summary: Harry and Y/N grew up in the same orphanage with each other, becoming extremely close. He promised her something, but when she is fostered out, it may have taken ten years for that promise to be met.

|| Masterlist in bio ||

Harry first met her when he was eight. He watched a little girl come in the big black doors, fear all over her and a small frown. The eight-year-old watched the little one from the stairs as Ms Brown held her hand and explained to her that this is her new home. Harry wanted to comfort her and tell the little one that it would be ok, but Ms Brown was speaking to her and nobody can interrupt her, or else there would be trouble.

Harry watched her as she walked past him up the stairs to her new room in the orphanage. He gave her a gentle smile and Y/N gave him one back, but he had a talent of reading people. She wasn’t happy and he wondered what her story is. Her little doe-like eyes had tears ready to flow and he just wanted to hold the gentle soul.

He has been here since he could remember. He never had a mother or father and has been raised by the women of the home since a few months old. Yet, in his mind, he just craved a mother’s love. But, at that moment, he just craved her. He wanted to tell her it would be ok.

The next time he saw her was that night after dinner and the kids were set to do recreation hour. He saw the girl by the tree in the backyard. She watched the other children play as she just watched; so quiet, so innocent.

Eight-year-old Harry went up to her, sitting next to her. She looked at him and smiled back. Y/N liked him, he had a friendly smile and it rare in this world for someone to have a friendly smile. He had a nice smile and that was what she needed at the moment.

“It gets better,” he mumbled, looking at her, ��I’m Harry.”

She whispered her name and he smiled, but she was too sad for him, “they took me away,” she mumbled.

Harry gave her a sad smile and pulled her into a hug. She was just five years old and she was ripped away from her mother. He knew no matter what, his job was to protect this fragile soul.

When Y/N was six and Harry was nine, she got her stuff animal stolen by Marcus, the eleven-year-old boy. Harry was upstairs doing his homework from the local Catholic school as Y/N was in the living room, holding her bunny while watching a movie. Marcus thought it would be funny to take the little girl with pigtails’ animal and hide it, not knowing the meaning behind such a toy.

Y/N exploded. Tears flooded her eyes as the curly hair blonde laughed at her. His friend joined, calling her a baby. The little purple bunny was the only thing left from her mother. The boys laughed, as the red-eyed angel just stood there. Ms Brown and the rest didn’t utter a care for the tantrum, shushed her harshly and prayed for her to shut up. But, she was a six and desperately needed the bunny back.

Harry instantly recognised the cries. Anger rippled through him and was indeed worried. Why was his little one crying? Who hurt her? What is wrong? Questions flooded his brain as he instantly dropped the pencil to rush down the old house creaky stairs to find her cries.

He sat next to her holding her close to his body as the little one cried her heart out. He whispered into her little ears, “What’s wrong?” he knew her the best out of everyone in her life. Therefore he instantly knew her mumbled words through the tears. He looked up to the kid and glared, “Give it back.” The boy laughed and Harry wasn’t having it. “I said, give it back. It is not nice to take toys away,” the boy kept on laughing and pointing fingers. So, childish, but he hurt her and nobody under his existence can hurt his girl.

“Come on, Harry. She’s a girl and a baby,” Marcus said and Harry raised his eyebrows. He got up, kissing the little one on the head and mumbling sweet words and went to the boy who was much bigger than him.

“She’s six. Be mature and give her toy back,” the boy shook his head.

“What are you going to do about it, Styles,” Harry rolled his eyes, winding his fist up and hitting him straight in the jaw.

Y/N didn’t see Harry for a few days after that. She got her bunny back, but Harry got in trouble. She didn’t understand why, as he was just standing up for her. But, she cried because Harry was the only one who kept her alive in this hellhole. He was her only friend ever.

She saw him a few days, bruised up and a black eye. He went straight to her when she came down for breakfast, bunny in hand and pigtails messy with her pyjamas still on. He held her cheeks, kissed her head and asked if she is ok.

“You’re hurt,” she whispered, but he shushed her gently and smiled.

“It’s ok, kitten,” he told her, not realising such a nickname came out of his mouth. She was his kitten, so soft, so pure and he could hear her whimpers a mile away.

Their relationship continued. They got closer and formed a brother-sister like relationship, where they were each other persons in life. They were each other’s cheerleaders and they were the only ones that loved each other; it was Harry and Y/N against the world.

It consisted of Y/N sneaking into Harry’s room until the age of eleven whenever she had a nightmare. It consisted of Harry helping her with her homework, Y/N taking up art as Harry told her she is a good artist, and Y/N telling Harry to create a band. Everyone knew they couldn’t break this relationship. They held each other in their worst and they know each other like it’s the back of their hand. Harry loved her and Y/N loved him until it was a different love.

Y/N started liking this boy at twelve. Harry didn’t like it. Harry was fifteen and came to the realisation that he was in love with the girl and not in a sister matter. Y/N came into his room with a new conversation starter about the boy at school, how his blonde hair is perfect with his blue eyes. Or, how he is devoted to saving puppies. Harry scoffed, not liking him one bit, but he was comforting the girl in a loving matter.

Harry was off the racks at this age. The nuns couldn’t fix him nor the teachers. He’d be good with Y/N, but when she wasn’t in the room, he was smoking cigarettes and robbing the local store. Y/N knew about this and frown upon it; Harry hated seeing the girl in such a matter with a pout on her cute, petite face, but he was a lost soul.

So, the next day Y/N came to Harry with a worried look and told him how Peter, the boy, gotten beaten up by a masked man and his parents were looking to sue. Harry never told her it was him. He loved punching that boy in the face, knowing he was messing with his kitten and he was truly never a sweetheart.

But, there were times when Y/N despised the things Harry did. For one, finding him and a girl half naked in the school’s closet. It was the first time Y/N has ever seen Harry’s dick; uniform messy, hair messy, and the blonde with smeared lipstick. Y/N didn’t talk to Harry for weeks.

He held his feelings until it was too late. He held her when her first boyfriend broke up with her and she held him when she found out he could go to jail for drug possession. They were each other’s yin and yang, angel and devil, the pure and impure, but he was too late. She walked away from his life.

At the age of fourteen, Y/N was fostered out. Harry was seventeen and only had one more year to get his life together before he is placed out in the outside world with nothing but the clothes on his back and little cash in his pocket. Yet, he had an idea that when he turned eighteen, he’ll adopt Y/N out of the system and they could live together and be happy. But, he was too late.

He had to watch as Y/N gave a wave to everyone and left. He didn’t say goodbye, he was in trouble. He was locked in his room while he waited for his court date.

Y/N learned to love her foster parents, Karen and Anthony. Well, she had too, they eventually adopted her and called her one of her own. She got siblings, three older brothers and a dog, but it was nothing compared to the relationship with Harry. She missed him and she never heard from him again. Y/N’s veins were filled with worry as he was a troubled soul and constantly got into bad habits. She worries for him, but she was shipped away to another city in the country.

Ten years later she still hasn’t heard from him. He was a blurry memory, but an everlasting one. She wasn’t happy with herself, a little void in her life that needed to be filled. Yet, she had to continue her life because who knows what happened to Harry, as the orphanage couldn’t disclose it due to privacy laws.

She graduated, got a degree and has a steady job, something everyone died to get and a dream to have, but she was an orphan in her heart, something was missing. Y/N learned to love her new parents, to love her new brothers and the goddamn dog, but for everything, she felt like the elephant in the room.

Now at twenty-five, working as an assistant to a CEO of a law firm, she spends her days working at cases, grabbing coffee and drinking her guts out while crying to the ‘Notebook’, as she waits to hear back about her divorce from her asshole of a husband. It was her life, she was the only one to decide what she wanted to do with it.

At the age of eighteen, her “parents” handed her her file; where she came from, who her parents are, etc. Y/N Y/L/N was a daughter to a drug addict who overdosed by accident. Of course, the faint memories of the trailer came back and the random men that entertained her mother on her evenings, the yelling while she was drunk. It explained everything. She was just a stupid girl with a stupid life, her thoughts were.

Yet, she learned to love herself and forgive her past. The only thing she couldn’t forget was Harry, he made a promise to her and why the goddamn has he not filled it, “forever and always” he once said. He’d always be there for her and he will forever.

Harry woke up, groaning a little from the buzzing of his phone. He reached out, tattooed arm coming in view as he brought the device to his ear.

“‘Ello?” he mumbled, looking around his room and the blonde next to him.

“Hello, Harry, this is Mike Clifford, we talked earlier about investing in your company to..” he groaned, getting up and putting his joggers on.

He threw the clothes of the girl onto her and motioned her to get up, in which he got a dirty look.

“Yes, yes. The meeting is tomorrow about the investment,” he rolled his eyes, walking down the hallway of his multimillion-dollar flat in downtown London. He wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone relating to work at the moment. It was the weekend after all and he was holding a nasty hangover.

“Well, unfortunately, we can’t do tomorrow, therefore, your assistant booked us in for today at two,” Harry looked at the time and groaned, seriously, Nancy his assistant, knew how precious his weekends were.

“I’ll be there, Mr Clifford, thank you,” he hanged up and groaned, grabbing a mug and coffee and heading back to his room to get dressed.

Harry Styles was a European icon for his company, Styles & Co., which specializes in architecture and design. Yet, so admirable and wealthy that boy was unhappy. He misses his kitten, but for some odd reason, he doesn’t want to see her.

It could be the shame that ate him. The lack of looking for her or the fact that when she last saw him he was a deadbeat who fucked any girl and smoked anything he was given. He failed her. He failed with loving her, being there for her, protecting her and fulfilling that promise. He despises himself for it, but he had to move on, yet the guilt lived within him. Y/N Y/L/N was buried deep into his conscious.

Why on Earth did Nancy change the dates for his client to come on a Sunday? It angered Harry to the bones with his day being disturbed. In all honesty, he truly did love his work. He loved designing architecture and helping people build their dream workspace or home. Harry had a little folder in his apartment of a house he designed if his kitten came back to him; a small modern, yet rustic home that had an art room for her and a music room for him. It would have enough rooms for every child he dreamed to have with her and every flower that reminded him of her. It was a beautiful design and he desperately wanted to build it, but it was for him and his kitten and he had no idea where his kitten is.

“Nancy, why on Earth-” he walked in, expensive suit upon his body and hair perfectly in its curly state.

“Harry, meet Mr Mike Clifford with Clifford & Pearson law firm,” Nancy said, standing next to her desk. Harry smiled, putting his hand out to shake.

“Harry Styles, come to my office,” he told him.

“My assistant is on her way, Mr Styles. She just flew in from America, so she is stuck in early London traffic, you know what I mean,” Harry smiled, already hating the silver-haired and awful smirk man.

“Of course, can I interest you in a coffee or a tea?”

Harry was getting impatient, the man was trying to start a good conversation about his life and all, and Harry couldn’t care less. One thing he hates about his job is the amount of trust fund babies he deals with. They don’t know what the meaning of life truly means, the fight to live and to work to get what you want. Harry started this company with fifty quid in his pocket and he brought it up. People like, Mr Clifford, got the company handed over to him from his father.

“Y/N, my dear,” Mr Clifford got up and made his way to his assistant.

Harry looked up and instantly froze. His kitten was right there in front of him, more beautiful than ever.

“Mr Styles, this is my assistant Y/N Y/L/N,” Mr Clifford came around, hand on his kitten’s waist as he introduced each other. Harry smiled, wanting to scoop her into his arms and cry with happy tears, but he has to keep professional, so a handshake had to do.

“Ms Y/L/N, it's so good to see you again,” he told her, smiling. Y/N stood awkwardly, shaking the so foreign yet familiar hand. She instantly noticed the little tattoos peaking out of his jacket.

“Likewise,” she mumbled, a sad smile coming to her features.

“Right, so let’s get this meeting on,” Mr Clifford interjected, placing his slimy hand on her and walked behind Harry.

Harry couldn’t think that whole presentation. He hasn’t seen her in ten years and she was right there. His kitten was right there, but she was distant. She was still the broken girl he took in, in his eyes. Y/N grew beautiful, not just physically, but the way she spoke and the words she used in sentences. She was a dream.

“We’ll take it, Mr Styles. The firm needs this design, it’ll really benefit not only us but the people,” Harry smiled, nodding his head as he shook Mr Clifford’s hand.

“Thank you, Mr Clifford-”

“Oh, call me Mike,” Harry rolled his eyes mentally.

“Of course...Mike,” he mumbled, trying to keep eye contact with the older man, but he kept looking behind him to her.

Mike began packing his things and exited, while Y/N took a second. She was so fragile still, Harry noticed, very timid and shy.

“Kitten,” he mumbled, walking towards her and she shook her head, looking up.

“Where were you when I needed you?” she mumbled, looking away and trying to form words, “Ten years, Harry. Ten years you haven’t contacted me. I gave you my foster parent’s number and you still didn’t contact me,” she mumbled. Harry placed an arm on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off.

“I couldn’t bear it,” she scoffed.

“Bear what, me, saying goodbye-”

“I was a mess. I was told I was gonna go to prison, kitten. I couldn’t let me taint you,” she rolled her eyes.

“Taint me? Please, we grew up in that hell hole. You just exploded and I exploded later. I come from a drug dealer father and a junkie mother, Harry. I live in a trashy apartment with mountains of debt from stupid shit I got myself into. My adoptive parents try to make me feel like I have a family-”

“At least you have a family, Y/N,” he fired back. She rolled her eyes and she looked at him.

“You are my family, Harry. You were my family and you left me,” she told him. He stared at her, “you don’t leave family.”

“Come here,” he wrapped his arms around her and brought her in. He felt tears coming to his eyes as she held onto him.

“You left me,” she mumbled in between tears as he kissed her head and whispered sweet words into her ear.

Harry opened the door to his flat as Y/N trailed behind him and shut the door. He turned around looking at her and just smiled.

“So, how’d the Harry I know become this Harry,” he laughed, watching as she placed her handbag on the kitchen counter and looked around.

“That’s a long story, kitten, need alcohol with that,” he mumbled.

“It’s four o’clock,” he turned around, holding two wine glasses.

“It’s five o’clock somewhere,” he chuckled. She rolled her eyes as he handed her the cup of vino.

“What happened after I left?” she questioned.

He began explaining the ordeal. He had to go on probation, because of drug possession. He just explained what happened after she left. Y/N listened, as he sat next to her on the couch, playing with her hair as he went on, “I had a girlfriend who got me into all this stuff, kitten. You have to understand that I did this to make money, I wanted to adopt you out once I hit eighteen and we could live together in a flat and all. I just wanted to make you happy, but you were taken away from me,” he whispered. He played with one strand of hair, “There’s not much to my story, kitten. Just got a scholarship and I started a company.”

She smiled, looking at him, “I’m proud of you, H. You truly turned your life around,” he smiled, kissing her forehead and brought the red wine to his lips.

“Now, tell me about you,” she shook her head.

“Not much; studied law, my boss is a pervert-” he laughed.

“I could tell,” she joined his laughter.

“My adoptive parents are crazy. My husband is stupid,” he stopped breathing for a second and stared at her.

“You’re married?” she nodded.

“Matthew Pearson, he’s a-”

“Dick,” Harry ended her sentence, he pulled away and looked at her, “Why are you married to him?” she shook her head.

“I loved him,” she told him, but Harry couldn’t believe her.

Matthew Pearson was his frat mate at college. He went to architecture school with him and all Harry could remember besides the heavy drinking and failing grades, he had no respect for women.

“You don’t love him, kitten. He’s an ass. He is a trust fund baby, he hasn’t been through everything we’ve been through. He’s had it easy, kitten, he doesn’t love you, he loves the idea of you,” Y/N looked at him with disbelief.

“You left me, Harry. I wasn’t waiting for you anymore. I was done with waiting,” Harry stood up, placed the glass of wine on the table and ran his ringed hand through his hair.

“Wait for me to come back to you? You could’ve googled me for goodness sake, Y/N,” she laughed.

“You’re so stupid. I waited for you to tell me you loved me, Harry,” she fumed, getting up and walking to her handbag.

“What?” she shook her head, not believing all of this.

“I read your poems, your journals and letters. You punched Peter because you didn’t like him loving me. You told Brayden that I was going out with him out of pity. You told Charlie that I was gay, you ruined everything, Harry. I know this, I know everything. You are or were in love with me and I was waiting for you. Yet, you screwed with girls and boys and you did drugs, while I got a yelling when you picked me up from a party because I was wasted. You think you were a brother, but you were one hell of a jealous, over-protective prick,” she yelled at him, pointing fingers. “And I was stupid enough to love you.”

She looked at him as he looked at her, “Kitten…”

“Don’t kitten me,” she mumbled, “I love you, but I am with Matthew now,” and she left.

Y/N didn’t exactly tell the truth about Matthew. She was gonna say that her husband and she were getting a divorce, but the way Harry reacted about her having a husband just made her boil with anger. He always needed to have the upper hand in everything, to have power over her and to claim her as his. She walked out, standing on the streets of London while rain poured. She wasn’t happy with this. Y/N knew Harry was the missing piece in her life, but he was such a dick sometimes; a wealthy, overprotective, stupid prick.

She kept walking down the road of the busy street as rain fell upon her. “Who’d to call,” ran through her head as she didn’t have her car nor was the tube nearby. Matt had no interest in her now as he ran away with his mistress and baby. Her friends weren’t really friends and her boss was a pervert.

“Kitten,” she heard from beside her, she turned her head and saw Harry in a black Range Rover.

“No,” she mumbled, pulling the coat closer to her body.

“Y/N,” she stopped, looking at him, “please get in the car, kitten.”

She groaned and looked at herself in the reflection of her in the puddle. Her mascara ran down her face and her hair was wet and curly.

“Fine,” she mumbled, opening the door and getting into the luxury vehicle. Harry watched as she buckled herself in and looked straight ahead.

“Look, kitten-”

“Matt and I are getting a divorce. I was gonna tell you that,” she blurted and looked at Harry, “he had an affair and ran off with his mistress with their baby,” Harry opened his mouth to try and form words, but he didn’t know how. “I know he’s a dick, you can say ‘I told you so’,” she smiled, laughing.

“I told you so,” he muttered, she rolled her eyes, hitting him on the arm gently.

“So supportive,” she winked, as Harry just smiled at her.

He drove off, telling her that he was gonna take her to somewhere that he loved to bits. The car drive was quiet at first, besides the singing coming from Harry and the laughs from Y/N as he created jokes. She hasn’t been happy like this for a while. She needed this.

“Tell me about your adoptive parents,” Harry said, hand on her thigh as he drove on the highway. Y/N choked on the drink she was sipping from.

“They’re fucking crazy,” she muttered, Harry raised his eyebrows, “They are severely catholic and only adopted me to set me up with one of their sons,” Harry’s head turned rapidly to her.

“What the fuck…” she laughed.

“I married a multimillionaire and they just shut up with all the pestering; haven’t talked to them in years. Their oldest, Josh, I am close with him, otherwise, I am on my own. I lived with them for like four years and left. They refused to pay for college, so I had to pay, got into debt, Matt saved me, then he separated our accounts with the divorce, so I am in debt again with the lawyers and shit,” she said, Harry stared at her and took her hand and bringing it to his lips for a kiss.

“You don’t deserve that, kitten,” she shrugged her shoulders. “I found out that my mum had me as a teenager and couldn’t take care of me, so she gave me up. My mum is a nurse now, I visit her once a month for dinner. My father lives in America and owns a chain of strip clubs,” she laughed at the last bit.

“I bet she’s like you, kind, sweet, selfless, amazing humour…” he pulled up and put the car in park.

“She is… her daughter is twelve and I help them out because her husband left her,” he muttered as he leaned in.

Y/N noticed this action and realised that he was already holding her hand as his other hand came to her cheek. He leaned across the seat as Y/N moved forward. Their lips came into contact as they moved in sync. Her hand came to his cheek as fireworks exploded around them. He pulled away from her and a smile so big came to his face.

“I’ve always wanted to do that, kitten,” she smiled, “come here, I wanna show you something.”

They got out of the car as Harry grabbed her hand. She looked out, the night sky and the land in front of her.

“I bought it,” he mumbled looking out at the meadow, “I bought it because I could see our kids running in this field.”

She looked at him with a confused look, “I don’t understand, H.”

“I had a house that I designed. I had this idea of our future in my head and I created a house after it. We were gonna have four kids, a cat and you like dogs, so a dog. The house has six bedrooms, an art room for you, a music room for me. It had a view that you’d paint all the time. It was a place where nature comes to you because you love mother nature,” he muttered, looking at her, “You dreamed of living by a forest, but you dreamed of running through a green meadow. I saw this land and I thought of you. I thought of us, waking up in the morning by the sun coming through the curtains and subtle bird chirping. I thought of you dancing in this meadow as I played my guitar. I bought this land because I love you,” he muttered, looking at her.

“You did that?” he nodded and she laughed.

“Harry Edward Styles, oh my God,” she looked at him and looked at the field.

“Please say something,” he muttered, playing with her hand with his thumb.

“I have a collection of drawings and paintings of you...of us… you by the water, you in a field, you in a bed...you’re a dreamer like me,” she muttered, “Fuck I sound creepy,” he quickly shook his head.

“No my love, you’re not crazy, you’re just in love,” he muttered, bringing her into a kiss.

“Who’d think that two orphans would fall in love with one another?” she questioned, cuddling into his chest as she watched the night sky.

“Who’d know?” he muttered, kissing her lips gently.

Tag list - dm, inbox or comment to be added/removed :)

@alinashawn @mendesnecessary @i-am-bisexual-and-a-girl @notunlimited @purple-cream-cheese @iimagineloves @ashwarren32 @claredolphinbear24 @shawns-mendess @lilya-petrichor @laggyphone @surfpitaya

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mountainmaster489 · 5 years ago

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Hi @ichibantiti The story of Tao's origin for you😉 Sorry that I did not keep the promised time, yesterday I was very busy.

Initially, 陶 Tao appears in the manga as a 13-year-old boy who serves Feilong. Relationship between them is warm and trusting. We learn that Fei took Tao to him, when boy wandered around the city like an orphan.

A young boy, who was attends Feilong. When he was younger, he was taken in by Feilong while wandering the city as an orphan. Since then he has sworn loyalty to Feilong. Currently, his work centers on tending Feilong, cleaning, and serving afternoon tea. Though he doesn't go to school, he is home schooled by a tutor. Sometimes Feilong helps him with his homework. He speaks Cantonese, the Beijing dialect and can even speak a bit of Japanese.

Yoh's thoughts on the relationship between Tao and Feilong (from the novel "Rakuin"): [It seemed as if Tao knew everything, but in the end he knew nothing after all. He had no idea how many people were courting for Feilong’s attention every day. And yet, Tao was currently the only one whom Feilong trusted. At some point, he had suddenly been by Feilong’s side and had since then carried out the work of a parlor boy. There were people in the clan who were bothered by Feilong’s special behavior towards Tao; however, no one ever seemed to ask about the reason. Therefore it was probably a subject matter that was better not addressed. Be that as it may, all of that no longer had anything to do with Yoh anymore] [Feilong probably loved the boy more than the little child thought, which also became apparent through Feilong’s dismay at Tao having to be hospitalized because he had wanted to protect his master. The members of the Baishe gave their own profit top priority. It was hard to imagine what a burden it had to be, keeping a widely scattered crime organization together at just twenty-nine years of age. Tao was surrounded by inhumanity and brutality, and yet he did not know what it meant to be betrayed. To Feilong, he was a calm anchor. Seven years ago, Feilong had lost his whole family in one stroke, and Tao was the only one he still considered his kin and cared for]

Later, in the novel "Rakuin", it turned out that Tao was the son of Yantsui. Feilong found out about that by chance and took the child to him. However, Fei hid the origins of Tao for security reasons. Feilong's thoughts on this matter: Tao… He thought of the innocent smile of the boy who looked after his well-being at the headquarters in Hong Kong – and of the fact that Tao was Yantsui’s natural son. Feilong was the only one who knew this closely guarded secret, and it was never to come out in the open either. No one, not even members of the Baishe, let alone Tao, knew anything about it. He had heard that Tao’s mother had been the wife of a ordinary Baishe member. On some kind of whim, Yantsui had laid hands on her, and she had fallen pregnant Tao, but there had been complications at birth and she had died. There was no way of finding out what had happened to her husband after that, and the old couple that had taken in their new-born grandson had died shortly thereupon, thus Tao had been the only one left behind. Not uncommon in the lower class of a criminal organization. However, the child was blood-related to Yantsui – that changed the situation. It was pure chance that he learned of Tao’s existence. To Feilong, who had been adopted by the Liu family, he was therefore a nephew, even if they were not connected by blood. Back then, the ways of Feilong and Yantsui were already separated for good, but Tao was not at fault for that. And if he had the child of someone who was virtually a relative by his side, it might give his strife-torn soul comfort as well. When he had taken Tao under his wing, he had been driven by nothing more than the feeling of picking up a stray cat off the roadside. Had Feilong not been in this mood at that time, Tao could not have survived under any circumstances – even in normal society it was hard for a young orphan to get by, and in the mafia world things were a lot rougher. Tao’s ancestry had stayed concealed, and Feilong had let him work as a parlor boy provisionally. At some point, however, he became his shelter of fondness. Behind Tao’s frankness were no malicious intents whatsoever. Every day Feilong had to expect to be deceived, but Tao would never betray him. He could trust him. He respected only him. For Feilong, he had become an irreplaceable person. Every now and then, there had also been moments in which he had perceived it as unpleasant that Tao knew nothing about all this; since Tao belonged to the Liu family, he should have been welcomed warmly. Privileged by his status, he essentially was not someone who had to spend his life as just a parlor boy. However, apart from that, sentiments of paternal love developed inside Feilong which did not want to make Tao mafioso.

In the end, in the novel, Tao learns about his origin and expresses a desire to stay with Feilong in the underworld: - Will you allow me to stay by your side…later on, too…even when I grow up? Feilong held his breath and looked down at Tao with a firm gaze. He was not sure what exactly Tao’s thoughts were, but should this be the path he had found for himself, it would mean that he would go the same way Feilong had chosen seven years ago. It was too early to take the decision of a thirteen-year-old child who had grown up without the love of his parents as final; however, Feilong could not discern the naivety of a child in Tao’s eyes. The fact that he was Yantsui’s biological son could not be changed. He would continue to suffer from the truth that the man who had tortured and attempted to kill his adored Feilong was his real father. But if Tao wanted to accept his mafia blood nonetheless and go on living with it, Feilong would welcome the decision. - If that’s what you want to do, then…I would be happy about it.

An interesting parallel between the present and the past. Yantsui used his brother and humiliated him. And Feilong takes care of Tao. He and Tao are a real family:

#feilong #feilong liu #liu feilong #tao #liu yantsui #liu family #manga #ayano yamane #viewfinder #finder series #you're my loveprize in viewfinder #finder no rakuin #finder no ori

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ezra-brainrot · 3 years ago

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“you find adventures in places i couldn’t see” retrospective - ch 1

Spoilers for Howl’s Moving Castle the book, the movie, and my fanfic below!

Hello! So - this is me trying something a little different. I’ve seen writers review / lampshade their works before so - this seems like a perfect time to go back and explain a few bits and share some rly dumb coincidences and try to help explain some random plotholes as they come about.

This is a Howl’s Moving Castle AU so - if you’ve seen the movie or read the book (and seriously - read the book! It’s super neat!!) then a lot of it should be familiar. This background commentary also has spoilers for - well, everything.

Other random asides - the title comes from a line in a song called “Nothing in this World” by Taxiride. No relevance, I’m just a music nerd.

The biggest difference between the book and the movie is that the book is its protagonist. There’s a joke that the movie is told from Howl’s perspective (where he is suave, tragic, romantic, and likable) whereas the book comes from Sophie’s (Howl is aggravating, annoying, over-dramatic, a liar). But the bigger thing with the book is that Sophie, as the POV character, refuses to believe she’s the protagonist of a fantasy romance because she’s “too boring” to be a lead character. She very stubbornly insists that she’s nothing special as she’s the eldest daughter of a well-off businessman and she doesn’t hate her stepmother all the while ignoring that she’s a very powerful witch that has the power to give “magic” to inanimate objects around her. So - I guess I should start?

The wicked wizard Hugor was causing trouble in the highlands north of New Galatea. His castle, a big, blackened assembly of sharp weapons and grey stones, sputtered around the rolling hills, disturbing all the goats and sheep and cows that normally spent their lives peacefully grazing on the highland grass and blue wildflowers.

This is how the book starts.

Few people lived, once they’d met Hugor in the flesh. It was said he would descend into the town late at night and challenge young men to duels

Kind of true, but only twice.

and feed their souls to his blood-red blade.

Not true, if only because Felix doesn’t have a soul-sucking blade and red is a tacky color for it.

It was said he’d carve out the virtue of young maidens should they be outdoors after the sun disappeared beneath the horizon.

Only once. This is from the books (Howl eats hearts of the women he seduces) but it really paid off to include it!

It was said that his eyes glowed with burning hellfire where his heart had once been.

100% true and the first hint of a connection between Felix and Sylvain.

Dimitri did not care as much for the possessed sword bit. But mostly, he was rather perturbed for the livestock.

Dimitri is very much a protector, even if it is only initially about goats and sheep and cows. Their feelings matter too!

“My, they are getting quite large, aren’t they? All of you will become the most impressive goats in all of Faerghus, won’t you?” Dimitri asked as he leaned down to rub behind a black goat’s ear. His owner, a rather short farmer named Albert, simply glowered at the sputtering black eyesore on the horizon.

(It was true actually. New Galatea’s livestock, without fail, took home the blue ribbons in the annual Faerghus Farming Fair. Old Gertrude, a cow nearly as old as Dimitri, was the current record-holder for “Very Large Cow.”)

This is the first nod to Dimitri’s ‘power’ which is mostly to give blessings to others as well as affect reality in small ways.

I was trying not to go too broad because if this was longer and/or more dramatic, I imagine Dimitri would very much have a crisis of believing he could curse people with just a nasty word said. But in general, Dimtiri’s “power” only works so long as he is not selfish with it and it’s up to “Faerghus” (the land / spirit of the land / whatever magic runs the country) to decide how to implement what Dimitri says. So his control over his own abilities is actually very limited.

Whereas Felix, being a talented wizard, can do just about anything so long as he knows how to cast the spell properly.

Tl;dr - Dimitri’s magic powers are significantly stronger but not really under his control due to the being a part of the royal line; Felix might be a little weaker but he’s also the one who can actively control his magic.

“They aren’t doing anything so long as that vagabond is drifting about.” Albert huffed and stared pointedly at Dimitri. “When’s your pa going to scare that ragamuffin off?”

I’d like to think the farmers of New Galatea are all secretly the type of people that live in a magical fantasy land and just say “Yeah, whatever, I have work to do.” and find the entire thing really silly. If you’ve ever read Discworld, they’re meant to invoke Lancre where kings are seen as a necessity but very boring and not special if they can’t do a day’s farm work.

Dimitri awkwardly brushed a strand of hair behind his ear. “Yes. Well.” He bowed. “I will see what we can do.”

Dimitri’s hair is still very Boy Scout-esque in this fic although he’s been letting it grow just a little bit longer.

Albert nodded approvingly. “Do that. Can’t have the mayors falling down on the job with no king to guide us, you know.”

The king, it was said, was on his deathbed - yet another thing that had most of Faerghus uneasy. The heir died many many years ago in a fire and the throne would inevitably fall to the king’s brother - by all accounts a lazy skirt-chaser who cared nothing for the Flame Witch to the high north or the Adrestian Empire to the south.

I… didn’t really think up much of a backstory here besides “fire.” Ultimately it just came down to everyone losing track of the heir who somehow ended up in New Galatea orphaned and with amnesia but young enough that everyone kind of collectively assumed he was someone’s child. Alois and Gertrude adopted him after his initial family died and Dimitri was brought up in a loving household despite the terrible, terrible puns.

“I will speak to my father upon my return. Do give your wife my regards.” Dimitri bowed once more and, after a moment, made sure to scratch the goat’s ear one last time.

“Yes - it is very important indeed that we protect the cows. Or should I say - provide sheepcurity.'' Alois, Sothis bless him, made a sharp snort before shaking his head. “Really. To have all this trouble at such a time - surely the Goddess is laughing at us.”

Alois was, by all accounts, a very caring man and an effective enough mayor for a small-sized town. He was friendly and boisterous enough to handle crises and loud and physical enough to handle the vagrants that occasionally would come through and threaten the peace. He’d taken care of Dimitri ever since Dimitri’s parents met an untimely death and indeed, Dimitri had not a single complaint of his upbringing save the occasional painful pun.

They were funny when he was a bb!Mitri. “What do you get from a holy cow?” was his favorite.

“I could go up to the wizard and speak to him?” Dimitri offered. They were both sitting in the small, spartan mayor’s office as Alois parsed through letters and notes and muttered over a map of Faerghus. Dimitri didn’t miss the several little red circles that indicated Adrestian forces drifting through, supposedly under the pretense of searching for some lost princess that disappeared years ago.

I really hesitated on including Edelgard here but I thought it would make a nice parallel that the two major countries lost their children, as well as that if you’re going to make the Flame Witch, there’s not many characters to draw from. I’ll try and go into more detail later there though.

Lost princesses and dead princes and wizards and witches running about. Perhaps Sothis really was playing some sort of joke upon Fodlan.

“You shouldn’t need to do anything, my boy.” Alois reached out to pat Dimitri’s shoulder. “You know, I heard Ashe did indeed receive knighthood at Gautier. Perhaps you should follow his footsteps? I hear they’re looking for young men to help with the border there and, after all, you’re quite adept with a spear. I would hate to see you spend your life looking out for this place.”

Dimitri smiled although the effect was more than a little strained. It was true - he remembered the day Ashe had set out and their last conversation where he’d reassured Ashe that he would certainly end up as a knight the second he set foot in Gautier.

Second mention of Dimtiri’s power, although it was really Ashe’s hard work. Dimitri’s blessing just provides the ‘in.’ Dimtiri’s aware enough and empathetic enough to note things about people; his blessing just helps them achieve it.

And Mercedes, bless her, who went off to serve in the church. Dimitri always did speak highly of her ability to soothe troubled souls.

Third.

And Dedue, his dear childhood friend, who had opened a restaurant to great aplomb, just as Dimitri knew he would. Dedue had, Dimitri noted, never burned a meal in his life.

Fourth.

But Dimitri was different. He was not the son of a poor farmer who, as a general rule, found out they were related somehow to some long-lost nobility and had some great destiny to fulfill. He was not the youngest child who tended to rise to the greatest fame and fortune and he got along quite well with his little sister Hannah instead of some great sibling schism that always led to blood and tragedy. He did not have any magic beans or long-lost artifact that needed to be returned to its owner. He did not even have an evil stepmother as Alois’s wife Gertrude was quite kind and devoted to her children.

Very much invoking book!Sophie here and the “I can’t be a protagonist because protagonists fulfill very specific criteria.” It’s not the refusal of the call - it’s assuming the call just has the wrong number and wants to talk to the farmboy three doors down.

This meant that Dimitri would forever live a life of mediocrity in a medium-sized town. At some point, perhaps, he’d dreamed of more but he was happy enough. Someone had to look out for the farmers and the sheep and manage merchant disputes.

Again invoking the book and the “Oh well this is good enough for me.” I was a little unsure starting out as to whether it was Dimitri holding himself back out of obligation / duty to those around him or general unease about adventuring as Dimitri in canon very much has issues with duty and obligation and who to provide his duty to. So - he’s looking at the small picture here, I guess, instead of following his own inner desires and has convinced himself that it’s all fine because someone has to do the small town jobs.

“Please don’t worry about me.” Dimitri pulled a letter from the stack. “I’m sure I’ll be quite fine.”

New Galatea was considered a quaint pass-through to most of Faerghus. Few people paid it any mind but no one spoke ill of it. The weather was quite nice, especially in comparison to northern Faerghus’s bitter cold. The inside of the town was usually bustling with activity as it had a rather well-known haberdashery

This is Sophie’s career in the book and the movie.

and a bakery that sold the most delicious pastries made with the most impressive goat cheese around.

This is what one of Sophie’s sisters does as she never wanted to be a magician and instead liked baking. The book does a lot with “wrong assumptions all around.”

At the center of the town was an old, creaking water wheel that had gone through so many iterations and repairs over the years that no one could remember why it was built or what it looked like to begin with.

Idk - I just hadn’t written a water wheel yet?

Dimitri had memorized each route, each bridge, each door of the pathway. He smiled pleasantly and greeted each and every member of the community and inquired politely about their goings-on. Each afternoon he spent some time in a private area of the back alleys to perfect his lancework, just to spend some time gathering his thoughts together.

And yet this afternoon he felt somehow - small. There was nothing unusual, aside from the speck of Hugor’s castle whirling around somewhere past the town limits. There was no danger, no bandis, no upset merchants that he could tell.

It was just him.

Alone.

Trying to invoke a feeling of “It’s fine that I’ve done this 888 times before and will do 888 times more.”

Dimtiri thought of Ashe and then Dedue - perhaps one day he would venture out and visit them. One day. There was still so much that needed to be done and Alois certainly had his hands full as it was. Perhaps -

Dimitri felt eyes on him.

He turned, pausing to look up as someone drifted into his field of vision. It was a young man - perhaps his age, if not slightly younger. He wore soft blues and had dark hair and a sword tucked against his hip.

Dimitri fixates very heavily on Felix’s looks. Everyone else will get a passing mention to set the scene but Dimitri always notes what Felix is wearing and his hair.

“May I help you?” Dimitri asked politely. Mercenaries and swordsmen weren’t an unusual sight but usually they stayed very close to the center of the town before going on their way. This one was rather -

Pretty -

Perhaps a knight from one of the lords then?

“Where did you learn to do that?” The stranger asked in a low, measured tone.

Okay so - going ahead in the fic here as well as spoiling a good bit of the book.

Book lore - The Witch of the Waste has almost been fully consumed by her fire demon. The fire demon, needing a new host, goes after the wizard serving the king and takes him (literally) apart to build the “perfect” wizard. His extra pieces become a dog, a skull, and a scarecrow. There is a lot of “Because Magic” involved here.

Howl is of particular interest because he’s clever but also a coward and so keeps slipping out of the Witch’s grasp. Howl thinks it’s because he jilted her which is - partially true, but also not really because the fire demon’s involved too and needs Howl to complete its new wizard host.

Fic lore - Lambert sent Rodrigue and Glenn out to search for his missing son upon realizing that baby!Dima wasn’t dead at all. Of the two, Rodrigue was captured by the (unnamed) demon and replaced / put under a deep sleep.

Glenn came to New Galatea as he was getting very close to figuring out Dimitri’s location because Glenn is an expert at investigation and hunting. He runs into the Flame Witch who, under influence of her flame demon, tries to capture him. Glenn had just enough time to shapeshift part of himself into a dog and run away. Glenn lives the normal life of a sheepdog even though a little part of his mind keeps fixating that he’s supposed to do something important.

Upon “Rodrigue’s” return to Fhirdiad, Felix recognizes that the “person” isn’t his father and so he bolts to hide out in his very own castle (which isn’t really a castle so much as a small cottage with moving rooms hiding behind the guise of a scary sword-castle) while still trying to track down his older brother and figure out what to do. This is also hindered by him starting to lose himself as Sylvain can’t help but burn through Felix’s heart which makes him less and less empathetic and ‘good.’

And so - Felix goes to New Galatea where he coincidentally runs into a most attractive young man who is wielding his lance suspiciously exactly like the king in his younger years.

Dimitri awkwardly spun his lance around, more out of habit than showing off. “I taught myself.”

The swordsman raised an eyebrow. He stepped closer, slowly -

Dimitri lifted his weapon just as the stranger charged. He blocked a high blow, then a lower one, then he whirred around to counter as his opponent deftly swung his blade downwards.

On impulse, Dimitri shoved his weapon forward, catching the stranger in his sternum. He fell back to the ground and Dimitri pressed the blunt tip of his spear against the other’s stomach.

Hey you remember the wicked wizard challenging young men to duels? Good thing he didn’t have a soul-sucking blade!

Dimitri and Felix should always meet in a duel it is romance.

And then Dimitri jerked back, flushed and embarrassed.

The stranger ‘s expression remained neutral but there was a slight upturn of his lips. “You’re good.”

Felix, inwardly, “Oh. He’s hot and talented.”

“Oh. No.” Dimitri shook his head, trying to settle the solid thud of his heart. “I do apologize for my recklessness.”

The stranger stood up, casually brushing the stray dirt off his trousers. He tucked his sword back in its sheath and went back to considering Dimitri.

“Hot and talented and probably the king’s son.”

“You could come with me, you know.” He tilted his chin northwards. “I’m headed for Fhirdiad.”

Felix is being self-indulgent here because sparring partner? That wins? That might be the prince? He’s still not going to admit to being the son of the duke though because Felix is also avoiding that particular subject and you don’t want to tip off that someone is really the prince unless you’re absolutely certain.

Dimitri bowed his head apologetically. “That’s not necessary. I am quite happy here.”

“”Be that way then.” The stranger sniffed disdainfully. “Keep living as some old, stubborn bore.”

“Why good looking maybe-prince not want to spar with me? :|”

And then he turned on his heel and walked off, not sparing a moment’s glance backwards.

Dimitri gripped his lance and wondered why he felt so - disappointed.

“Why good looking mysterious swordsman just spurn me? :(“

That night he stood in his very small room and stared into his very small mirror and sighed.

“Perhaps I really am an old boar after all.”

And this is where Dimitri creates his own curse.

He did not sleep very well.

Rain moved in to the highlands the next day. Dimitri did not remember the scholars predicting such but New Galatea weather was rather fickle.

Second part of the entire Dimitri is a magical prince bit - he can (passively) affect the weather. I really want to do a more overt Fisher King Dimilix AU someday but this is not it.

Alois packed his things and announced he would set out to speak to the regional governor to try and shoo off the bothersome wizard. Dimitri smiled and promised to mind the mayor’s office so that Gertrude and Hannah could accompany Alois on his journey.

Perhaps it was his bout yesterday but he’d noted a dull pain in his joints. If that was how one felt after a spar, he could only imagine the aches Ashe received!

Still, it was quiet. Few people would venture out in such a heavy downpour. Dimitri read through tax form after tax form and then, after that started to give him an odd case of eye strain, he turned his attention to the map of Faerghus.

This is to hint that he’s already aging rapidly here.

The door opened.

He blinked, looking up to see a small woman in bright red silk and black furs. Her light, almost white hair was fixed in tight braids. She carried herself with a grace Dimitri rarely saw around New Galatea.

Edelgard / Flame Witch is trying to track down Felix. At some point in the past they had an altercation where he cut out a small piece of her heart as he recognized the same fire demon connection as he had. It was partially a mercy, partially Felix being vindictive because he thinks she’s responsible for Glenn’s disappearance. (She is, but not the reason for it!)

I didn’t write / create a full backstory for either of them but they both made a connection with their fire demons when they were young teenagers and a little more reckless than is healthy. The difference is that Sylvain’s pretty easy-going and he and Felix are fast friends whereas Edelgard’s demon is greedy and malicious and burning through her pretty darned fast so she’s lost much more of her humanity. If Dimitri didn’t cut the curse when he did, Felix too would eventually become super-cruel and warped and fixate only on things like swords and himself.

“May I help you?” Dimitri asked, trying to sit up straight. Something inside felt wary; almost hesitant under her gaze. A mouse waiting to see what a cat would do to them.

“What did he want with you?” The woman asked, crossing her arms. “The wizard?”

Dimitri’s brain stuttered. “I beg your pardon?” He hadn’t ever met a wizard - not in all the years he’d been about. Surely he’d remember such. Wizards were rare and, aside from the wicked ones, served as advisors to royalty.

“I know he found you.” She pursed her lips. “There’s no need to be coy.”

Dimitri just does not want to think he’s a protagonist in a story here.

Dimitri rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “I can assure you - no one found me. I have no idea who you’re - “

He stopped.

The swordsman yesterday did not have glowing eyes. He most definitely did not perform any magic. Surely it was not -

No. This woman was - was quite dangerous. He could tell. “I’m sorry. I cannot help you.”

“Very well then.” The woman took one step back. “Continue to be stubborn, if you must. I’ll find him one way or another.” She turned to head back towards the door and paused, her hand hovering against the doorknob. “By the way - you will not be able to tell a soul about that little curse of yours. Have a good day.”

Edelgard does curse him, but only that he can’t speak about his situation. Dimitri’s just not aware of it because magic likes semantics.

I didn’t want Edelgard to be overly-malicious here because she’s basically Felix’s parallel and a lot of it is limited to Dimitri’s very limited POV. She never actively harms Dimitri because well, she’s just after Felix for taking away her heart and the flame demon working through her.

And then she was gone.

Dimitri rubbed at his nose again, tired, somehow even more aching and -

He looked down, startled to see wrinkles on his skin. There was an unfamiliar age spot against his knuckle, and then another.

He tried to jump to his feet but his bones protested with each and every aching movement. He shuffled weakly to the nearest mirror and stared -

An old man with ghostly white hair stared back at him. His skin was covered in wrinkles and age spots and his nose was more snout than human. Atop his wispy hair were two pig-ears, folded over and downright absurd.

In retrospect I… kind of needed to write the pig-nose part better. I handwaved it with most of the people Dimitri interacts with are just used to magic shenanigans and too polite to ask what’s going on there.

Well.

Dimitri felt strangely distant as his own hand went up to touch the wrinkly pig-man’s face. He felt skin like dry paper, hardly that of a young man.

Distantly, he went to the back area of the mayor’s office and gathered some plain cheese and dried bread, a coat and, after a moment of guilt, reached for one of Gertrude’s old light blue shawls. He tied it slowly around his face and shrugged the coat on, noting how much heavier the fabric felt.

In my first draft I forgot about the raining business and nearly had him going outside completely unprepared. Glad that I caught it!

Before he left, he wrote a short, one-paragraph letter in scrawling, shaking handwriting that he was most sorry but was going off due to an unforeseen circumstance.

The farmers would not be pleased to meet with an old man, let alone one with a pig nose and pig ears. The sheep would be put off too, surely. Best not to upset anyone, let alone Alois and Gertrude who would be most troubled about taking care of an old man.

Sophie leaves in an equally shocked / distant state of “Oh. I guess this is fine.”

There was no one in New Galatea that could undo curses. Perhaps no one at all aside from another witch or wizard, and Dimitri doubted he would run into one on the side of the road!

Dimitri messing with Fate again here.

Slowly, carefully, Dimitri left the mayor’s office. He made sure to turn the sign in the window to “CLOSED” and apologized profusely for failing in his duties.

In my first draft I forgot about him switching the sign over and was like “GASP he would not be so irresponsible as to leave the place unlocked!!”

He tugged a coat tight around his shoulders and walked slowly, the rain pelting on his head, towards the highlands.

There was nothing to be done about it but leave after all.

#hmc au fic review

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faustianexchange-blog · 7 years ago

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Master List of Faustian Exchange Prompts

All prompts, used or unused, that were submitted to the Faustian Exchange! All are posted with permission. If you use someone’s prompts, please credit them for the idea and tag us if you’d like us to reblog your work!

actresque

Grelliam: The first time William calls Grelle a woman or uses her correct pronouns.

Grelle/Angelina: first kiss after a Ripper murder.

Grelle childhood fic dealing with gender confusion

Modern day Grelle after fully transitioning to female, preferably with a tongue piercing.

Madam Red/Grelle with Grelle on one knee putting Madam Red's shoe on her (to mirror the Sebastian images with Ciel).

Adult Ciel and Lizzy, portrait-style.

mikhailis

Sebastian spending a day off with Agni when he's recovering after the Luxury Liner arc

when each servant first begins to suspect Sebastian isn't human

Mey-rin and Ran Mao bonding after Ran Mao discovers Mey-rin also speaks Mandarin.

Sebastian teaching Shiori to dance

Sebastian playing piano with Grelle draped over the back of it like a lounge singer

Doll wearing the Weston College boys' uniform.

pastelsweetart

Crack ship- Tanaka finds out who his true love was all along, tea.

Before the murder of the Phantomhive's and the cuteness of the twins.

Grell's past life? What drove them to suicide?

The real reason Sebastian is a demon. He ate a KitKat by biting it without breaking it first.Grell's eyes.

Elizabeth being a cutie while fencing

Modern! AU with Elizabeth and Grell in the cutest dresses

somniiari

D&D AU with Phantomhive twins and any other main cast on a quest causing mayhem. Are they playing D&D or are they in a D&D world? That's up to you!

Modern AU Phantomhive twins as fake paranormal investigators, claiming their caretaker Sebastian is a demon.

Sebastian/Agni bonding over taking care of their masters.

Phantomhive twins and Sebastian (and maybe Agni, Sohma, Lizzy and/or Sieglinde) as a D&D party.

Phantomhive twins OR Lizzy and Sieglinde in cute matching/contrasting outfits.

Sebastian/Agni dancing.

hannibalcatharsis-zero

Claudia and Undertaker (pairing/shipping optional, and if that's so, the use of Cedric name is up to you), canonverse. Claudia questions Undertaker about his mourning lockets, and if he would one day make one of hers. Implying/asking if she is important enough for him that her death might affect him.

Sebastian brings a cat home and naturally Ciel doesn't like it. Heartbroken, Sebastian has to let the cat go. But the cat won't go. Crack/funny, either canonverse or modern AU

Ciel twins (I'll address them as Ciel and Astre for convenience), canonverse AU or modern AU, your choice. The twins, as nobles/higher status, shouldn't be alone in this part of the city, but Ciel wanted to show Astre some factories to show how confusing, messy and poluting they are, in a way to dissuade him from his wish to have a toy company of his own - something that would drive the twins apart, with different life goals. In there, they meet an orphan employed in that factory. Alois. What unfolds from there is up to you.

Joker and Beast (shipping preferred), canonverse. Back in East End, Joker tries to find a present to Beast in order to show her gratitude for the care she showed him when he fell ill.

alternatively, Joker and Beast in modern AU. Both of them and Jumbo are legally adults, but Doll, Dagger, Peter and Wendy (regardless of their real ages) are still children under institutionalization and up for adoption. In a hurt/comfort manner, big brothers fashion, Joker and Beast dealing with their fears and emotions of having their little siblings sent into foster care versus waiting a few more years to be of legal age and all of them live together in a new life, after .

Vincent and Diederich, canonverse, brotp kind of relationship but shipping/one sided pairing is not excluded. Crack/funny. Diederich is positively shocked that Vincent would go full drag to solve a murder case of some sort. And even more shoked to see how well it makes him look.

Undertaker and Othello, canonverse. A conversation, some form of interaction, hanging out, opposing views (nothing aggressive, both seem to be very curious and open to hear other opinions even if they don't change their own). Brotp interaction between the two back in Undertaker's Shinigami days. Anything, up to your imagination.

Sebastian and Ciel, shipping not intended. Preferrably canonverse. Sebastian thinking of how everyone else sees him as deeply caring for Ciel's wellbeing, which he does with only one intent in mind - seasoning Ciel's soul to add to the 'delicacy' level he desires. Ciel knows this, so even despite living together for three years, he knows Sebastian's 'worrying' and 'affection' are all feints. However, maybe after a particularly bad nightmare, or after Sebastian doing something kind out of apparently no reason, Ciel seems to genuinely be grateful. What are Sebastian's thoughts on this? Maybe something dark and manipulating, kind of in the league of his words in the Green Witch arc when he's burning the laboratory? Or the other way around? Your choice. What I meant with no shipping is because I would prefer if this 'affection' I mentioned wouldn't be taken by you as romantic.

Joker and Bravat Sky, canonverse AU, in which they came across each other when they were young. Bravat was a charlaton, fooling people with fake fortune readings, and they meet by: either Joker is one of the people he tries to do it; or Joker attempts to steal his money and an exchange unfolds.- “Sieglinde, modern AU, rocking Japanese street fashion” (I completely stole this suggestion from the reply post on the blog, is seemed so damn cool!)

Ciel & Astre. Either tender, or dark, whichever you prefer. If it's the later, a classical contrast image, in whichever fashion you prefer.

Side by side, mirror reflex, bloody Ciel vs Astre, or some better idea in case you have it!

Joker, Doll or Beast from the Circus. Just one of them, I'm naming the three so you can choose which. Modern aesthetic/fashion look for any of them.

Undertaker and a Bizarre Doll, in a sort of gothic-esque style. Maybe something with like a cameo frame-thingy around it would work if it's not too troublesome?

Cat!Ciels, chibi or otherwise, just being fluffy.

grelluffandwillsprout

Grell Sutcliff x Reader

William T. Spears x Reader

platonic Lizzy x Sieglinde

Grell Sutcliff

Elizabeth Midford

Soma and Agni (together)

dipothebookworm

ciel/lizzy (ship)-lizzy gives ciel a fencing lesson

lizzy/seglinde(platonic/friendship)-they have asleepover. modern AU

ciel goes christmas shopping with sebastian (no ship) (before current arc)ciel/lizzy (ship) going for a walk, holding hands

lizzy and Earl Grey dueling/about to duel

Sebastian in a seifuku (preferably pink and very cute)

ciel in a dress (again) and very annoyed about it

greenfiredragonfly

Ciel gets sick, and Lizzie and Soma fret over his health; Ciel is either only mentioned, or appears briefly, with the fic focusing on Lizzie and Soma's attempts to help

Before Sebastian can be summoned, Undertaker rescues Ciel (and his twin, if you want to include him) from the cult

Soma/Lizzie (ship) - AU or possibly post-canon where Lizzie is the queen's watchdog1) Vincent and Frances as children, running or playing on the lawn of the Phantomhive Estate

Lizzie and Sieglinde; Lizzie teaching Sieglinde about British fashion: showing her dresses, etc.

Lizzie and Agni practicing with swords, Agni looking impressed

Lizzie and Soma, something cute and shippy

thequeensfakedog

Ciel and Astre (Our Ciel) taking care of each other in the cult

Astre (Our Ciel) and Alois (ship) going to a ball together

Vincent and Diedrich (shipping optional) going on a murder case for the Queen together

Ciel and Astre (Our Ciel) in the cult

Astre ("Ciel") and Alois (ship) doing basically anything together (modern or Victorian era)

Vincent and Diedrich (shipping optional) teasing each other/Vincent teasing Diedrich and Diedrich being angry about it

ifbatmanwereajedi

Grell goes overboard decorating the Reaper Dispatch for Christmas

Ciel finds old letters from his parents

Undertaker holds a comedy show to find the best joke out there

Anything with grell honestly I love them but specifically Grell in the Mean Girls Santa outfit

Claude dressed like Spider-Man

Madame Red and Grell actually happy

queencamelia

Charles Grey and Elizabeth Midford fencing or dueling. :D

Anything regarding Francis Midford and Vincent Phantomhive. Anything.

Lizzy and real!Ciel's interactions after discovering the truth about TCT.

Fabulous Lau lowkey shipping everyone of age. EVERYONE. (The Reapers are pissed, Queen's butlers are flustered.)

Ciel and co. thinking Queen Victoria's the true enemy, then Aleistor Chamber reveals he's the main Kuro villain and that he's had a hand in every scheme thus far.

Charles Grey and Elizabeth Midford fencing!

Edward and Lizzy being dorks. Maybe Edward tearing up because his little sister's about to marry? Ahaha I'm not picky. ^^

Claudia Phantomhive, Undertaker, Vincent Phantomhive, and Francis Midford in a family portrait???

easterneuropeswife

Ciel/Elizabeth going on a date

something involving the Prefects from Weston

something involving the Grim Reapers (whoever they want to pick)

Joanne Harcourt

Edward Midford

Doll/Freckles

hippykattrs

The two nine year old twins, Ciel and Astre, are having trouble sleeping. So, despite being sleep deprived, the two manage to stay up late telling stories and giggling. In their wake, they manage to catch the attention of Tanaka, who sings them to sleep. (Set in the cannon universe.)

A Hogwarts! AU, but set in Weston. The houses are the same, but it's still set in the Victorian Era.

The mourning process had never suited the Spare. He had lost everything, and he knew nothing would ever change that fact. So, despite the world around him urging him to cry, he decides to stand strong. Ciel would be. So he figured he could too. // (Please contact me if I need to specify anything. I'm not that great at writing prompts!)1. Modern! AU. The main characters, but dabbing with fidget spinners everywhere. // 2. Super edgy and dramatic™ drawing of Ciel. // 3. A headshot of Ciel and his brother.

theshadowisanotaku

Grell dressed as madam red

soma eating curry

gregory violet dressed as undertaker.

redrosecrown

Claudia/Undertaker going on a picnic inside a red cave.

Sebastian being Madam Red butler, where Madam Red sold her soul to him for giving birth and raising a child until 18 years old.

Grell baking a cake, and ruining her clothes in the process.

Sebastian getting a birthday surprise from his mother, where she gets him 100 cats, and Ciel gets furious.

Undertaker decorating Ciel's mansion with his own style. Ciel gets angry.

Viscount of Druitt has a half-demon sister. With Undertaker and her, he goes ice-skating.1.Undertaker painting Ciel wearing a violet dress and eating cake.

Undertaker and Claudia decorating a Christmas Tree.

Undertaker wearing Lizzy's clothes.

Undertaker decorating Ciel's mansion with his own style. Ciel gets angry.

Gregory Violet falling in love with Lizzy. He writes her a secret message, and watches her reading the letter.

Grell wearing Ciel's dress, he had worn in the party where he meets Viscount of Druitt.

Viscount of Druitt has a half-demon sister. With Undertaker and her, he goes ice-skating.

anonymous prompts

Modern AU, somehow, Drocell's sessions with a therapist, confronting what he has and doesn't have of his humanity

Sebastian and Agni trying to outdo each other as butlers, friendly competition that's really just thinly veiled flirting

Mindless fluff, Ciel and Elizabeth shopping for holiday presents for family and household

Grell in a green witch arc dress (but properly fitted)

The twins dressed as the prince and the pauper style aesthetic

The twins modeling on the cover of vogue

Cielois (ship) having tea, playing chess, and/or cuddling while reading in the library

Our!Alois and Real!Alois meeting

Lizzie throwing Alois a birthday party bc she finds out he doesn't really have any friends

Alois Trancy, Lizzie being a bad*ss

Fem!Grell in a nice dress

Undertaker babysitting the twins

Diederich babysitting Vincent while he was sick at Weston School.

Sebastian taking care of a stubborn, sick Ciel who refuses to stay in bed (bonus points if you add angst)

Sebastian carrying Ciel is something always good to see.

Ciel messily trying to decorate a cake (bonus points if you add Sebastian looking both amused and disappointed)

Undertaker and Grell braiding each other's hair.

Lizzy helps Ciel with his studies (ship optional)

Mey-Rin, Finny and Bard preparing dinner without Sebastian

Sieglinde Sullivan and Lizzy discussing about Ciel's work over tea-Lizzy with her hair down

Grey in Weston College uniform

Real Ciel picking flowers with his twin

The household having to take care of Pluto until Sebastian returns home

Ciel being mistaken for a girl by a group of ladies who decide to pamper him

Grell getting lost in the city and being adopted by a group of kids- Grell and/or Undertaker enjoying a train ride

GrellxUndertaker - Grell lying on the autopsy table trying to flirt with Undertaker

Ciel wandering the city in commoners clothes, maybe with a group of children

Vincents life as queen's watch dog

Shinigami dispatch life

Twin ciel angst

Sieglinde (maybe with wolfram)

Shinigami Dispatch/ or trio (william, grell, ronald), or just grell or ronald

Anything Alois related

Madame red and Grell

#black butler #kuroshitsuji #art prompts #writing prompts #prompt list #Ciel's Death Day 2018

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thestoryweneededtowrite · 7 years ago

Text

Priorities - Part 2

Part 1

Davey couldn’t get Jack out of his head. He tried so hard to think about anything else but he found himself writing Jack’s name on cups all throughout his shift at the coffee shop and handing over the wrong orders to the wrong people at the fast food place. It had been years since he’d had a crush on anyone beyond thinking the boy ordering coffee was cute, but he didn’t remember them being this all-encompassing. So Jack was cute, and charming, and earnest, and sweet but that didn’t mean he was allowed to run riot in Davey’s imagination and take up all of it and constantly tease him with ideas of what it would be like to go out on that date.

Putting Jack out of his mind was easier said than done, but Davey knew it was for the best. He went to a different grocery store next time they needed food, just so he wouldn’t run into him again, and he tried to stop all those dreams about Jack’s smiles.

“Are you okay?” Les asked him over dinner one evening. “You seem… weird.”

“I’m fine,” Davey said quickly, choking on the potato he’d been in the middle of swallowing and spluttering for a few moments until he could reach out and grab a glass of water to ease his throat.

“Yeah,” Les said, raising an eyebrow. “You seem totally fine.”

Davey shot down any further comment with a glare and Les knew that enough was enough, but it was painfully obvious that Jack was affecting his life far too much for someone he’d only really met once. He needed to move past it.

He changed laundry day, hoping Jack had a schedule he’d stick to that would mean they wouldn’t bump into each other at the laundromat. He didn’t have the time to walk to the next one away, so the old store would have to do. Only when Davey walked in, Jack was sat in exactly the same place he had been the last time, scrolling through something on his phone. Davey was just about to reverse out of the door and run for the hills but his movement caught Jack’s eye and suddenly Jack was fumbling with his phone and earnestly scrambling to his feet and Davey was reminded just how attractive he was.

“I’m so sorry, I promise I’m not stalking you. I figured you wouldn’t want to see me so I came on another day, but apparently you had the same idea…” Jack rushed through the words and Davey couldn’t help but find it endearing. “I can go, if you want?” Davey knew it would be best if he did. But he couldn’t help himself from shaking his head and taking a step towards him. Jack was the only person with whom he felt like he’d had a real conversation in what felt like forever and he was keen to repeat it. So, he did. He piled his washing into the machine and took the seat next to Jack, letting that feeling of lightness sweep over him as he talked to another human like he was a person and not just an orphan or just a pseudo single father.

This time Jack owned up to when his own washing was done. He stood up at the beep, only twenty minutes after Davey had sat down, and sadly pulled out his washing. It might have only been the second proper meeting he’d had with Davey, but he wasn’t keen to leave. Especially with no idea when, or even if, he’d ever get to see him again.

“Still won’t take my number?” he tried, knowing it was a risk.

Davey bit his lip. If things were different he’d have taken it in a heartbeat. “I really don’t need the temptation,” he sighed. “I want to call you so much.”

He didn’t mind admitting he was attracted to Jack. It likely wasn’t news to him with the way they’d been flirting playfully. “Then do it,” Jack encouraged, catching Davey’s hands to stop him winding his fingers together so tightly. It was the first time they’d properly touched since Davey had run into Jack at the store and they both looked down at the point of contact like they were trying to work out if it crossed some sort of line. But neither of them pulled away and Jack cleared his throat, continuing with his plea. “Or text me, whatever works. I just want to see more of you.” “Jack…” Davey blushed, unable to stop the warm fuzziness that swam through his veins. He hadn’t had anyone speak so candidly to him since his last boyfriend. “I can’t. I have to look after my brother. It’s just not a good idea for me to start dating or get involved with anyone. I can’t even afford someone to look after Les for a night so even one date is just not on the cards,” he explained sadly.

Still, even as Davey said the words he let himself imagine what it would be like. It would be too easy to step forward into Jack’s arms and kiss him – they were still practically holding hands and the other people in the laundromat were starting to stare and whisper.

Jack let go of his hands to reach into his pocket and Davey was sad to lose the contact. When he was confronted with the exact same scrap of paper from the first time Jack had tried to offer him his number, he started to protest, but Jack just cut him off. “Be my friend, then,” he suggested. “Sorry?” Davey asked, convinced he’d misunderstood. He didn’t really have friends.

Jack just shrugged. “We don’t need to go on a date,” he promised, although he was still hoping that, one day, things might chance and that date might be on the table. “You just… you seem like you could do with a friend, Dave.”

Jack knew a fellow lost soul when he saw one. It was a plain of existence he’d inhabited a lot before Medda had adopted him, and he wanted to help lead Davey back to earth. He wouldn’t flirt unless flirted with. He wouldn’t beg for a date. He wouldn’t push Davey into anything he didn’t want.

“I… I guess you’re not wrong,” Davey admitted. A friend sounded good.

“So here. Please use it,” Jack held out the number again, grinning when Davey finally took it. “Even if you just need someone to talk to.”

“Thank you,” Davey smiled genuinely.

He folded the paper in half and tucked it carefully into his wallet. And he really was planning on using it. Maybe not for a phone call – that seemed too formal – but texts sounded nice. The only contact he ever used in his phone was Les. It might be a healthy change to be able to have a friendship with another adult.

Davey did start to text Jack, but he needn’t have bothered. The universe seemed intent on bringing them together and they’d invariably see each other at least twice a week whether they planned on it or not. They weren’t dates, Davey was adamant, but they’d shop together and talk as their laundry span in the machines. It was comfortingly domestic and Davey found himself looking forward to errands just to see Jack’s smile. Sometimes he’d sit up in bed texting Jack and wonder if it was considered inappropriate for him to ask him to send him a selfie just so he could see that grin.

Les noticed the difference in his brother, because of course he did. Davey was happier more of the time and was actually learning to relax. Whatever was happening to him, Les knew it was good. And he suspected it was a boy, because no one smiled inanely at their phone like that unless they has a crush on the person receiving the texts they were sending – but Davey wasn’t telling him about a boyfriend so Les decided that, at least for the time being, it was better to keep quiet and keep watching.

It wasn’t long until Les met the guy Davey was clearly infatuated with. Davey had picked him from up school and they were a couple of blocks away from home when someone had shouted out to them and run over the road, dodging a couple of cars, to say hello.

“Hello Jack,” Davey laughed. “I’ve told you not to do that. You’re going to get yourself killed one day.” “It would be worth it,” Jack teased, grinning. Then he tore his gaze from Davey’s eyes and realised they weren’t as alone as they usually were. “Oh, hello! You must be Les.”

Davey shot him a warning look that he couldn’t quite translate but he was pretty sure it meant something like behave.

“I might be Les… That depends on who you are?” Les asked skeptically, folding his arms.

“Les, this is Jack. My friend,” Davey explained.

Jack held out his hand for Les to shake and started asking him about school. They ended up walking as they talked, mainly so they didn’t hold up the bustling New York pavement, and Les watched carefully as Jack seemed to know the way to their apartment block. Jack did know, of course. He’d walked Davey back home dozens of times, always wanting to spend as much time in his company as possible. This time he stopped at the entrance to the building, knowing Davey would want to keep up boundaries.

“Well it was good to meet you, Les,” Jack grinned, offering the boy a fist bump before turning to Davey and slipping into that soft smile that was reserved for him and him alone. “See ya later, Dave.”

He tipped the newsie cap he was so fond of wearing and whistled as he walked away. Les watched as Davey watched him go. This had to be the person Davey was always texting. He approved – Jack seemed cool. He’d been telling Les all about the art projects he got to work on and the galleries he’d been featured in and Les had never known someone with a job like that.

Keeping quiet for most of the evening, Les made it until ten o’clock before he just had to ask.

“Is Jack your boyfriend?” he said casually as Davey tried to shepherd him into the bathroom so he’d brush his teeth.

The question caught Davey off guard a little. He’d been hoping Les wouldn’t notice the way he was drawn to Jack. But even so, they weren’t together.

“No,” he said firmly, hoping to nip the conversation in the bud. But this was Les, and the interrogation continued.

“Why not?” he asked. They were clearly interested in each other. He wasn’t stupid, he’d seen how they walked next to each other like they were both hyper aware of their hands, as if they wanted to reach out to take the other’s.

Davey sighed. He avoided this conversation inside his own head but it wasn’t as easy to distract Les with a tome of Russian literature as it was his own mind.

"It’s just for the best,” he mumbled.

"But he’s gay?” Les pressed.

Blushing, Davey shrugged. He’d been carefully avoiding the topic of sexuality with Jack. They both knew the other was queer but bringing it up would just lead to the elephant in the room.

“I’m honestly not sure,” Davey said, because Jack had never told him what label he preferred. “But yes, he’s attracted to men.”

In hindsight, he shouldn’t have fed Les’ interest in the matter.

“Are any of those men called Davey?” Les grinned, knowing he was getting somewhere.

The blush got worse. Davey could have lied. No, he has a boyfriend. No, he doesn’t like me like that. No, it hasn’t come up. But he couldn’t bring himself to.

“…maybe,” he admitted, quietly.

This was the kind of gossip Les wanted to hear. He leaned forward conspiratorially, wanting to hear about the boy who made his brother happy for the first time in years.

"Have you kissed him?” he asked.

“No,” Davey said firmly.

"Do you want to?”

Davey faltered. He did. He really did want to kiss Jack. There had been countless times where he’d been close to leaning in for a goodbye kiss after Jack left him at his door after they’d been shopping. It just always seemed to natural, as if it was the right end to what wasn’t a date but always felt like one. He wasn’t sure what Jack would do if he ever did try it, but he was pretty sure the reaction would be enthusiastically positive.

“I think it’s time for you to go to sleep,” he said pointedly to Les, trying to signal that the discussion was over.

Of course Les wasn’t about to let it go.

“So you do,” he grinned, triumphant.

Getting information out of Davey wasn’t always easy. If he was protective of something, then he defended it fiercely. Any little nugget of knowledge was something to celebrate.

“We’re not having this conversation,” Davey growled. He tried to poke at Les to get him up off the sofa and getting ready for bed, but his brother didn’t move. “Actually it looks like we are,” Les laughed. “Drop it, Les,” Davey warned.

Les pouted. It was rare that Davey treated him like an adult and he was getting tired of being shut out from the difficult life Davey life had to keep in order to look after them both. “Just talk to me,” Les pleaded, and Davey could hear the genuine sadness in his voice so he gave in. “Fine!” he sighed, lifting his hands up in defeat. “Okay, I want to kiss him.”

“Aha! Knew it!” Les sang, good-naturedly taunting his brother just a little.

Davey rolled his eyes and grabbed a cushion from the sofa to hit at Les with it gently. “It’s not a secret,” he pointed out. “Then why were you guarding it like one?” Les teased. “Why don’t you kiss him, then? I have eyes – he wants to kiss you, too.”

Swallowing, Davey looked away. He had eyes too and he knew how Jack looked at him. He just tried to ignore it, which was a lot more difficult when someone else was pointing it out. “I can’t,” he whispered. “I can’t get into anything like that.”

Les flinched. “Because of me?” he asked gently, worried that the answer would be yes. He didn’t want to be the reason Davey wasn’t able to have a life. “Because of a lot of things,” Davey shrugged, trying not to place any blame on his brother. This wasn’t on Les. This was on the universe for taking away their parents and for putting far too much responsibility on his head far too soon. “You should get to be happy,” Les frowned. Jack seemed like something that would help with that. “Thank you,” Davey smiled, touched. “And I am happy, I promise.”

He had his brother and he had his health and he had a friend in Jack. That was enough. His life could be far worse, he knew that, and he was determined to be content with what he did have. “If you say so…”

Les was unconvinced but he climbed to his feet and went to brush his teeth. It wasn’t much, but it was one little thing that made Davey’s life just that bit easier.

#newsies #newsies fanfiction #javid #Jack Kelly #davey jacobs #Jack/David #priorities

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dweemeister · 7 years ago

Photo

Pete’s Dragon (1977)

Combining live-action and animation in film has been around longer than you may think. Among those pioneers included Winsor McCay, who synchronized an on-stage performance with Gertie the Dinosaur’s (1914 short) on-screen performance; Max Fleischer’s Koko the Clown short films also experimented here, as did Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks for the Alice Comedies (1923-1927). Of those names, it is Disney’s that is most associated with live-action/animation hybrids – Song of the South (1946), Mary Poppins (1964), and the subject of this review, Pete’s Dragon, which is directed by Don Chaffey. The rights to Pete’s Dragon – based on the unpublished short story by Seton I. Miller (better known for hard-edged film noir and 1938′s The Adventures of Robin Hood) and S.S. Field – were purchased by Walt Disney in the 1950s, who hoped to use it for his anthology television series. The project languished for years, outliving Walt, and is one of the better live-action Disney movies released in a difficult decade for the studio.

The 1970s and early 1980s were marked by the studio’s shifting approaches to its movies by catering more exclusively to children. This is reflective of the Dark Age of Animation (historians and other writers will differ, but I label this as beginning after Walt Disney’s death to 1988), where the overlaps between films intended for children and those intended for adults almost disappeared. Pete’s Dragon is expressly for children, but contains just enough appeal to save itself from being all but permanently locked inside the Disney Vault.

It is the 1900s in coastal Maine. An orphan named Pete (Sean Marshall) is escaping his abusive, bedraggled caretakers, the Gogans (Shelley Winters as the matriarch, Lena). Unbeknownst to the Gogans, Pete has befriended a dragon named Elliott (incredibly, even official sources differ between one “t” or two in his name), who is determined to protect Pete from any danger and can alternate between visibility and invisibility at any time. Pete and Elliott escape to Passamaquoddy, where the local lighthouse operator Lampie (Mickey Rooney) and his daughter Nora (Helen Reddy) provide a place to stay. Elliott, being too large for the lighthouse, stays in a spacious cave nearby. Pete loves Elliott, and speaks of length about him – Nora, Lampie, and other townspeople think that the dragon is just an imaginary friend. In town, snake oil salesman and quack Dr. Terminus (Jim Dale) and assistant Hoagy (Red Buttons) arrive to turn things upside down; the Gogans, too, eventually arrive. As time passes, Pete finds a home and family with Nora and Lampie – but this is a Disney movie, so chaos must ensue first.

After the release of Mary Poppins, a formula of a magical person/creature saving the lives of a hero became the tonic of Disney’s live-action movies. Blackbeard’s Ghost (1968), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971; which is Mary Poppins lite), and Pete’s Dragon rigidly adhere to that structure. Pete’s Dragon offers nothing innovative or profound in terms of its storytelling, and anybody who goes into this movie with slightest expectation of any of that will come away frustrated. This is a safe comfort movie with its messages – depicted with more invention and grace in earlier decades – muted.

Even a young, talented animation team boasting names like Don Bluth (the American Tail series, 1988′s The Land Before Time); Glen Keane (who worked at Disney from 1977′s The Rescuers to 2012′s Paperman) as Elliot’s character animator; Ron Clements (who later directed eight Disney animated features, including 2016′s Moana); Ken Anderson (who worked at Disney from the 1930s-1970s); and Don Hahn (best known as a producer for various films in the Disney Renaissance) were unable to navigate around a breakneck production schedule. This leaves Pete’s Dragon with worse animated effects than even Mary Poppins and Song of the South as characters clip into the animated Elliott and the background-foreground composites are more distractingly artificial than they should be. Given the restrictions and the fact Pete’s Dragon is the first animated or partially-animated Disney movie without the input of the Nine Old Men, the animation’s efforts are valiant, but too limited given the technology of the era.

The screenplay, penned by Malcolm Marmorstein (primarily a television writer for the original Dark Shadows series), is filled with cockamamie characters and cringeworthy attempts at humor. As Pete and Elliot descend upon the unsuspecting population of Passamaquoddy, we are introduced to the mayor, trying to propose a new town motto:

Passamaquoddy... where the sun always rises and where the sun always sets!

Oh brother.

Too many of the supporting characters seem to have a single quirk that defines them throughout the film – a punchline with no modification or a person who adopts a behavioral tone and never alters it regardless of the situation. As Lampie, Rooney is a caricature of crassness (albeit appropriate within the bounds of Disney family movies) in public while almost inexplicably dropping that persona around Pete and Nora. Nora is pining for her beloved, lost at sea for a year, becomes a mother figure to Pete (this part is not a criticism and will be expanded upon shortly, because Nora’s nurturing results in the most genuine moments in Pete’s Dragon), and little else. The schoolteacher, Ms. Taylor (Jane Kean), is a frumpy, no-nonsense woman with little sympathy for misbehavior. And the Gogans? Good lord, the Gogans. Unhygienic backwoods hillbillies with tendencies towards kidnapping and post-Thirteenth Amendment child slavery are as easy to write about as villains can be.

But enter Nora and, to a lesser extent, Lampie. As justified as many of the criticisms directed towards the Walt Disney Studios’ there are, even the bitterest critics concede the studio’s films have long championed non-traditional, surrogate families. Without questions, judgment, they take in Pete as their own. And though their acceptance and early days of taking Pete in seem a little too easy, without conflict, Nora and Lampie (Reddy and Rooney give good performances) give the constancy and nurturing that Pete has been lacking from others. Well, that is if you exclude Elliott, who – at the end of the film – is revealed to be a benevolent soul who goes around helping frightened, vulnerable children. Elliott – imaginary friend to some, menace to others, but a steadfast guardian to Pete – might be the eponymous dragon in the film’s title, but this is still Pete’s story. Sean Marshall is serviceable and never grating as Pete, a character too passive for my liking, but makes up for in his kindness.

Composer Irwin Kostal centers his score around the songs penned by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn. The Kasha-Hirschhorn musical numbers are as uneven as can be. Starting with insomnia-inducing jumpscares, “The Happiest Home in These Hills” opens the film by introducing the audience to the Gogans. Oh yes, the so-called Disney Villain song opens the movie! This is the most menacing the Gogans ever get (thankfully; their other song, “Bill of Sale” makes so little sense in every way imaginable). with threatening lyrics regarding Pete like:

Gonna snag him, gag him, drag him through town. Put his head in the river; let the pup drown. Trap him, strap him, wrap him in a sack, yeah, Tie him screaming to a railroad track.

It’s a juvenile, difficult way to start a movie, and that’s not even mentioning a lyric that has something to do with lynching Pete (which, as a Disney fan, gave me weird flashbacks to the Ku Klux Klan’s appearance in 1976′s Treasure of Matecumbe). Other weak entries include: “Boo Bop Bopbop Bop (I Love You, Too)” (in addition to its shoddy special effects) and “I Saw a Dragon” (Onna White’s choreography recalls her work for 1968′s Oliver!, but this is discount Oliver!). More creative are the likes “Brazzle Dazzle Day” (songs that capitalize on nonsense words are risky, but this one is okay) of “Every Little Piece” (because songs about con artists licking their chops about imminent fortune are usually hilarious).

But the two best songs in the film are the most lyrically modest in this score. “It’s Not Easy” is sung on Pete’s first night with Nora and Lampie, and where Pete talks about Elliott to Nora for the first time. Upon my first listening (as some may know, I get picky with music), I rejected the song because I found the rhyme scheme awkward: early in the song, Nora interjects between Pete’s first rhyme describing Elliott:

PETE He has the head of a camel, The neck of a crocodile... NORA It sounds rather strange! PETE He’s both a fish and a mammal, And I hope he’ll never change.

Soon after, Nora completes one of Pete’s rhymes, throwing off my expectations of a constant rhyming scheme. But as the song progresses, they sing together (when Nora sings her aside about the one she loves, she changes key and breaks the consecutive rhyming scheme) and their rhymes come together as they begin to better understand each other. In a very subtle way, keeping rhymes close together in a duet can heighten emotion, develop a relationship.

But the film belongs to “Candle on the Water”, a torch song that is referenced throughout the film in Kostal’s score and that might not have been out of place in any musical movie decades earlier. The staging might be unimaginative and the gradual close-up a dreadful decision, but it is Reddy’s performance that defines this scene. “Candle on the Water” should be considered an essential entry in the esteemed Disney songbook, yet it does not appear to be in the canon (why is Mary Poppins the only Disney live-action film that receives that treatment?).

Pete’s Dragon would be the last live-action/traditional animation hybrid released by Disney until Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988; released through the company’s Touchstone Pictures label). These techniques, now even more of a curiosity in times where movies featuring human actors interacting with CGI environments and characters are commonplace, were the culmination of decades of experimentation and punishing handiwork. For the film’s value to today’s audiences, its messages will be fine for children, if they can get past the first musical number featuring the Gogans (if I was younger and watching this for the first time, I would not have accepted those jumpscares if I did not know in advance that this was a Disney movie). Elliott is selfless and lovable to a fault; Pete displays an understandable mixture of courage, courtesy, and fear.

The version shown on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) on December 20/21, 2017 shows how much Disney cares for its older movies – the print was beautiful to look at, despite the questionable yellowscreen. But is the company interested in having their older live-action films not called Mary Poppins a chance to connect to younger viewers? That is something to ponder about as live-action remakes only do so much to raise awareness or interest for the original versions.

My rating: 6.5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found here.

#Pete's Dragon #Don Chaffey #Sean Marshall #Helen Reddy #Mickey Rooney #Jim Dale #Red Buttons #Shelley Winters #Jane Kean #Jim Backus #Malcolm Marmorstein #Irwin Kostal #Al Kasha #Joel Hirschhorn #Don Bluth #Glen Keane #Onna White #TCM #My Movie Odyssey

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leftinthedarkofficial · 6 years ago

Text

Seize the Night

Part Two

Johnny's thoughts raced faster than his bike could go, but that didn’t stop him from trying to outrun them. He rode out of the city, squinting his eyes against the garish bright light of the sun that still threatened to break through the clouds in places. He hated wearing a helmet, and he knew from experience that it didn't matter one way or the other if he wore one or not. He'd wiped out on his bike before, and Johnny had always come out without a scratch. He wore the annoying helmet solely for the boys' peace of mind.

Johnny had moved into Anthem City for a reason. He'd had a change of heart, mind, and spirit. He wanted to reinvent himself and become something better. He'd taken a large amount of cash from the safe in his home, thrown two saddle bags of the things he wanted to keep on his motorcycle, and ridden away. He had decided to adopt the name Johnny, and when he met his new friends on the stoop, he told them that his aunt had died and left him the apartment he now lived in.

In truth he'd simply seen that there was a vacancy, paid the astonished landlady in cash for ten years of rent, and settled in. It wasn't five star, but it was enough for him. He didn't need a lot of space, he didn't have many belongings, and he found the lack of fuss refreshing. He'd taken up providing for Billy from the start, feeling sorry for the poor orphan boy. Over time the boys had all become the first healthy family to him that he'd really ever known.

The large metro area of Anthem and surrounding suburbs housed a population of 600,606 and Johnny felt like that was a satisfactory number of people to get lost in. What he had always loved most about Anthem were the winding mountain roads just past the carefully cultivated gardens of the suburbs. He discovered that no matter how long it had been since he'd moved into the city there was nothing as soothing as riding through the familiar, shady hills. Here the asphalt led through over-arching trees, rolled next to murmuring creeks, and the road twisted up to the ridges where the old strip mines now were silent, steep pitches.

Johnny could let his mind whirl, but today his thoughts were fixed on the strange beauty he'd seen fifteen minutes before. There was a quality about the girl that snagged something in him, something familiar that stirred up ashes of memories he was sure that he’d burned away long ago. He thought of her smiling face, and an odd tension in his chest made breathing sting as though he'd breathed in frigid air. He picked up speed on his bike, inhaling and exhaling slowly to settle himself.

In an old life he'd had dreams of a stranger with rippling honey-blonde hair, clad in white and shining like silver. She always passed him by like a blur in the first dreams of her, and in later dreams he knew he was with her, but he could never see her face. Johnny was certain of only two things in those dreams; the woman was a queen, and he felt something for her that manifested as sharp, pure pain. He wasn't even certain that the feelings he had for this dream-girl were real, or that he had the capacity to feel them at all, but the dreams had haunted him for so long they had become a part of him.

He zig-zagged in and out of the lanes, trying to focus on the road, pushing his bike to take him faster. He was afraid that if he let his past keep eating away at him that he would spiral back down into the person that he had left behind in the smoke from his spinning tires. He let the clutch out, shifted into fourth gear, and shot around the curves. The trees on the side of the road flew by in blurs as the clouds above his head parted a little more, letting light leak in streaks through leafy branches onto the asphalt.

He was steadily climbing Woodcrest Road, soon to reach his favorite pull-off spot up on a ridge. From there he could see the whole city. It reminded him of home, and at the same time reminded him of nowhere. It was simply somewhere to be and not think of anything in particular. Sometimes, he would imagine himself taking off at a run and jumping from the bluff to take off soaring. He never let himself linger on that notion too long before he shoved it back down to that same dark place he stored everything else.

Just when he was about to reach another sharp curve, something silver glinted in the beam of the setting sun, bright enough to completely blind him for a moment. It was gone just as suddenly as it had come, but it was already too late. He hit a patch of loose gravel and his bike swiveled out of his control causing him to wipe out hard, the bike’s momentum carrying him over the steep ridge along with it.

He rolled with the motorcycle, down eighteen feet to the bottom of the old strip pit. Johnny didn't hit as hard as he had expected to, but it was still enough to knock the wind out of him. He untangled himself from the bike, his hands flying up to take off his helmet to inspect it, expecting at least a few scrapes or gouges. There was nothing wrong with the helmet, at all. “What in the Hell?” he whispered to himself.

Johnny groaned and turned over on his side, feeling annoyed, but otherwise fine. He laid there for a moment catching his breath, noting that his bike was on fire. He reached his hand out quickly hitting the kill switch, cutting the engine. “Damn it,” he took a deep breath in, preparing to put the fire out, but a familiar, minty-cold gust of wind blew around him and blew out the fire like it had been nothing more than a candle on a birthday cake.

He let his breath out slowly, sitting up straight as he blinked a few times in confusion. There weren't even scorch marks on the motorcycle where there should have been damage. Johnny knew that he hadn't shielded it, but somehow the bike looked to be in almost perfect condition, albeit sideways. He stood up slowly and looked around the pit completely bewildered. “I'll say again...What the Hell?”

“You’re okay, Johnny,” he thought he heard a soft voice say behind him. It sounded like wind chimes in a slight breeze, or the distant tolling of a cathedral bell.

Johnny wondered whether or not he truly was in his right mind. What I think is happening can't actually be happening, can it? Why is it happening? he asked himself. He turned to look behind him, but there wasn’t a soul to see. “Where are you?” Johnny asked as he narrowed his eyes. No one answered his question, but out of the corner of his vision he could swear he saw the little flash again; like silver jewelry caught in sunlight. He furrowed his brow in suspicion, turning his head quickly to get a better look, but there was only rock and the steep slope up to the road. “So, we're playing games, then. How impish of us.”

Johnny dusted off his clothes that were a little worse for wear and torn in places, then grabbed the handles of his bike turning it upright. He looked around one more time and shook his head slowly as he walked his motorcycle through the low part of the pit to a hill near the road. Johnny slung his leg over the bike and kick-started the engine, without a single sputter. “I'll be damned,” he said, surprised at the fact the motorcycle started at all.

He scanned the area around the old quarry one more time, but all was quiet and still. “Cute. Very cute,” he whispered to himself, then made his way back into the city, deciding that he'd had enough fresh air for one day. When Johnny got back to the stoop twenty minutes later Timothy, Billy, and Ricky were waiting there, ready to go out for the evening.

“Well, men. Look here. Johnny has returned to us in one piece again,” Ricky crowed.

“Not for lack of trying,” Johnny muttered as he hit the kill switch and kicked down the stand of the bike.

“What?” Billy asked. “Did you wreck?”

Johnny climbed off of the motorcycle and looked down at his dusty torn clothes before turning his eyes back to Billy, arching a brow. “What makes you ask that, son?”

“Pops...You gotta be more careful!” Billy said, his eyes wide. “Are you alright?”

“I'm fine. It's nothing.” He waved a hand dismissively as he walked wearily toward the stoop. “You guys ever think about gettin' hobbies? I think sittin' around here's makin' me too soft,” he said, a hint of his occasional Anthem accent creeping into his voice.

“Nah, we're doin' great! Aren't we fellas?” Timothy asked, straightening his shirt collar.

Billy eyeballed Timothy skeptically. “I'd be doin' better if your shirt wasn't fryin' my eyeballs. The 70's called and said they don't want that shirt back, and to burn it.”

“Don't be jealous, William,” Timothy said with a glare.

“Sometimes I miss the seventies. They were eventful,” Johnny grumbled.

“How old are you, Pallbearer?” Ricky asked, shaking his head.

“Too old, Rick. Too old,” Johnny sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“You just need another beer, Pops,” Billy said. He looked around, and then patted his pockets as if he would find a spare beer hidden on his person. “Well, damn. Guess we drank it all.”

Johnny shook his head, but smiled. “I think you need to call it a night, Bill.”

“No way! We're goin' to The Inferno! Just got word that Rise From the Ashes, is playin' tonight. We're not missin' seeing Franky and his band play! Lots of 'pretty ladies' are said to be attending,” he said, making quotes in the air with his fingers, casting a pointed look of amusement at Billy.

“Well, I'm out. I'm gonna go upstairs and maybe catch something on TV. Surely something good has to be on television on a Sunday,” Johnny pushed the door open with his foot and paused in the entryway to finish farewells to the boys.

“You do that all the time, Pops. You can miss one episode of The X Files,” Billy half-whined. “Come on!”

Johnny put a hand up. “Not tonight, Bill.”

“Suit yourself, but you're missin' out. I bet we see that girl there tonight, and one of us lucky boys are gonna go home with her.” Timothy laughed and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. There was a silence as the three boys watched for Johnny's reaction.

“Tim, not one of you has that much luck,” Johnny said. He grabbed his leather jacket off of a hook by the door and slung it on. “Okay. You know what?” Johnny huffed, pulling the door shut.“Which way is this Inferno? I'm in.”

“I told you! I told you the girl would get him to go!” Ricky cackled, punching Timothy in the shoulder lightly. “Right this way, Mr. No-Fun.” Ricky took a wobbly bow as he held out his hand.

“You're not gonna change clothes?” Timothy asked, arching an eyebrow.

Johnny looked down at his clothes again. “Why?”

Timothy narrowed his eyes and tilted his head as he pointed at him. “Why? John, you look like you got in a fight with a paper shredder, and it killed your clothes.”

“You act as though I haven't fully educated all of you boys on something called punk rock,” Johnny said, looking at Timothy pointedly before walking down the steps past the boys to stand on the sidewalk.

“The jacket completes the look. Seriously, though, how are you wearin' that? It's still so hot!” Billy said, pulling at the collar of his shirt so puffs of air blew onto his face.

“It's not that hot. The sun's going down!” Johnny said as he pointed at the sky.

“Sometimes do you feel like you could just...” Timothy said, turning to Ricky, gesturing to Johnny with a tilt of his head as he strangled the air.

“Often, yes. Often,” Ricky chuckled.

“You could try, boys. You could try,” Johnny said, grinning as he quirked up an eyebrow.

They filed out from the stoop, and as they walked Billy and Timothy started singing Bad Moon Rising, warbling in and out of key intentionally, while Ricky repeatedly told them to can it. Johnny followed behind with his hands in his pockets, laughing to himself. He knew that all four of the boys could sing, and sing well, but they loved to torment one another. One of Ricky's peeves, in particular, was poor pitch. “I would never have let you listen to CCR at all if I'd thought this would be the end result. The neighborhood can't stand the menace. Even the dying cats are covering their ears,” Johnny joked with a grin.

The scalding heat of the day had finally given way, but the evening was balmy and blustery. People were coming out of their buildings to sit on their own stoops, or taking a walk through their neighborhood to shake off the confinement of staying in all day. The climate in Anthem was normally fairly moderate and cool, so the high temperatures had caused people to avoid being out in it, hiding from the intense heat.

The sky was now fully covered by clouds that reflected back the lights from the city, and as the street lights blinked on thunder rumbled far in the distance. Five blocks of walking, and one turned corner, had the four men standing in front of a pub with a big neon sign in the window that said The Inferno Pub. Spray painted beneath that on the brick wall was a message: Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here. “What's that supposed to mean?” Johnny asked, arching a brow.

“It means what it means, Pops.” Billy smiled and waved his hand in the air as if he'd just explained something deep.

“Those are just words, boy. You're just sayin' things.” Johnny squinted in confusion.

“It's a motif! Like you're supposed to be enterin' into Hell. Go with it, Pallbearer!" Ricky said, clapping Johnny on the shoulder as he followed Timothy and Billy into the pub.

“Go with it?” Johnny threw his hands up in the air and then let them fall and slap against his thighs. “Why do places like this always think that Hell is a party?” Johnny asked, but his friends didn't seem to pay him any mind, too busy looking around the pub to listen.

The Inferno had black walls with flames painted up from the floor to appear like the room was on fire, there were a few neon signs on the wall advertising cigarettes or alcohol, and there was a jukebox against the wall by a pool table. The bar itself took up a decent portion of one side of the room and on the other side there was a small stage where Johnny could see Frank's band mates, James, Jason, Chris, and Aaron setting up their gear. The pub was only half full of people, but Johnny guessed as the night went on more people would come in.

“Hey, Pallbearer!” Frank said enthusiastically. Johnny arched an eyebrow as he looked over Frank's appearance. The boy looked far less like his older brother than he normally did, dressing the part of the rock star for the special occasion. He leaned against the bar next to Johnny, a beer in his hand and a big grin on his face. “This place is awesome! They don't check your age.”

“I've noticed,” Johnny said, looking from Frank's beer over to where Billy stood talking to one of the other members of Rise From the Ashes, holding a beer in each hand. “I see now why Billy was so excited about this place. No ID necessary.”

“Yeah, well, we'll both be eighteen soon,” Frank said with a shrug.

“You'll be eighteen in four months. Billy won't be eighteen for a year and seven months,” Johnny said, arching a brow.

Frank waved his hand. “He'll be fine. You know we'll all watch him! It's a party!” Frank clapped Johnny on the shoulder before walking back over to the stage.

Johnny shook his head shot a wary look at the boy as he moved away from him before sitting down at one end of the bar. He studied the crowd, ordering himself a glass of whiskey, neat. Since I'm here I might as well enjoy myself, he thought. Before he knew it an hour had passed and the band had begun the show, walking up onto the stage to whistles and howls. The people in the pub slowly gravitated together to stand and listen to the music.

Frank started singing some cover songs from the 70's and 80's that Johnny recognized from his own record collection, and he smiled to himself as he tapped the heel of his boot on the foot-rest of the bar stool. One thing that all of the boys had picked up from him as they'd grown up was an appreciation for good rock music. Gradually the band worked in some of their own original songs to loud applause, and somewhere in the crowd he heard Billy cheering loudly.

People were dancing and singing and enjoying themselves, as the crowd ebbed and flowed. Some people rejoiced in the music, and others had tears streaming down their faces. It was interesting to Johnny how music could move people in different ways, and he wondered why the music was making him feel anxious. He liked the songs, and Rise From the Ashes was talented, but he found that the more they played the more unsettled he became. He'd always liked his music loud and his melodies dark, but Johnny couldn't keep his thoughts from wandering.

He found himself longing for his old records at home. The records were a few of the only things he had taken from the place he had lived before he moved into the apartments. In his life before his paramour Saraqael would play his favorite songs when he was in a particularly dark mood, and it would be reprieve from the horrific monotony that his life had become. It was only when he listened to music that he could get a sense of what happiness might feel like.

Sara would smile at him as they danced and sang along late into the evenings before climbing the stairs to her room together. Sara could be overbearing and demanding, but in those moments, listening to those records together, she seemed to be something better than she was. Johnny had known that it was all just an illusion, though, and after a while he’d grown weary of every aspect of his life. Despite Saraqael’s protests, he had cut and run, and he had finally found some kind of peace and balance, though every now and then he found himself wondering what Sara was up to.

Johnny took a deep breath. He ordered his fourth whiskey and told the bartender to make it a double. He rarely let himself walk down memory lane, but the events of the day had gotten under his skin more than he'd thought they had. Saraqael had known about the dreams he'd had long ago about the woman with the honey-colored hair. She had taken to dying her hair to try to fit the description of the woman he couldn't get out of his mind. Though she was only a dream, Saraqael was jealous of the woman and his fixation on her. She had never managed to get the shade right, and finally she'd simply taken to bleaching her brown locks because she found she liked it.

The girl he had seen that evening had the perfect shade of honey blonde hair, matching his dream exactly. Her dress had been white, and the silver shine was there in her anklet, but his instincts told him that the girl would upend his life. He could sense that she was cloaking power that she possessed, likely thinking that he wouldn't be able to detect her energy through her shielding. He also knew that she'd been at the pit with him that afternoon, but he couldn't figure out why she would be there, or why she would help him out when his gut feeling was that she sought him out to cause trouble.

“Hey, Johnny!” Timothy shouted, next to him suddenly, making Johnny jump and clack his teeth on the rim of his glass.

“Hell, Tim! Easy, kid!” Johnny scolded.

“Whoa—jumpy. Just wanted to see how you liked the place!” Timothy called over the music, clamping his hand onto Johnny's shoulder.

“Feels homey,” Johnny drawled, cutting his eyes down to stare into his whiskey glass.

“What?” Timothy held his hand to his ear.

“It's alright!” he said loudly, right into Timothy's ear.

Timothy flinched at the volume with which Johnny had called to him, but then he smiled and nodded. He danced as he backed his way into the crowd holding the beers he'd signaled for before he'd startled Johnny.

Johnny noticed that the crowd was only getting thicker, and he was starting to really feel the weight of the day. He'd had enough of everything, and it seemed like the girl wasn't going to show up so that he could ask her what she wanted, so there wasn't much point in staying. He asked the bartender for one last beer and drank it down before checking on where Billy and the boys were, then closed out his tab.

As Johnny pushed open the door to The Inferno he heard the first strains of the band playing a cover of The Promised Land by Bruce Springsteen and he spared a glance behind him to see everyone in the bar start dancing. Though he loved the song, he just couldn't find any interest in staying.

I've never been this bored, he thought. No, that's wrong. I absolutely have, but I haven't been this bored since...Castile, maybe? Isabella I's court? Hell, that was terrible. He stepped out under the awning of the building, just as the sky finally broke and rain cascaded down. He put his hands in the pockets of his jacket and cast his eyes up, frowning a little at the scent of mint and the sudden dip in temperature.

“You can't go out walking in this monsoon,” someone said quickly from beside him.

“Shit!” he blurted, caught off guard. Johnny had felt her presence next to him before he had seen her, but he was still startled. People popping up next to him was getting old, and for her to get so close before he knew what hit him meant that he was definitely losing his touch. “Tap a guy on the shoulder first or something. Wow...”

“Sorry to scare you,” she said, smiling. “You didn't notice me before?”

“No,” Johnny said, stepping back inside the pub, holding the door open for the girl. “I didn't notice you coming. I've been distracted today.” Johnny crossed his arms over his chest. He was actually feeling nervous around her, and Johnny had never been nervous in his existence. It just wasn't part of his composition. He was well trained, he'd lived a very long life, and he had seen things that would terrify most people. I am a thing that would terrify most people, he thought to himself grimly, setting his jaw as he wondered why this girl seemed so at ease around him. “I'm a little out of sorts.”

She laughed softly. “Out of sorts? A guy like you—wearing a leather jacket in July? You have to be some kind of tough guy.”

She looked up at him with her glittering, amber eyes and he felt his breath catch a little before he got himself together. “Yeah, not so tough today. My name's Johnny,” he said, putting his hand out to shake hers. He braced himself for the shock he suspected he'd receive from touching her.

“Jenny,” she said, taking his hand and holding it. She seemed to blink a little in surprise, just as Johnny felt the electric sensation he had anticipated. The feeling was faint, but he knew that had to do with her trying to cloak her power, and his suppression of his own. He pulled his hand away swiftly, and her smile faded a little, but she didn't seem to be dissuaded from talking to him.“Johnny and Jenny. Sounds musical, I think.”

She bit her bottom lip and Johnny found his eyes darting down to her mouth as his pulse picked up its pace and the ache hummed. Get it together, Johnny, he said to himself. She's trouble. Sometimes dreams are just dreams. “I'm particular about my music,” Johnny said, straightening his spine, planting his feet so his balance was better in case this turned into a fight. “I think I've got your number now, lady.”

Her eyes widened and her eyebrows shot up, seeming to notice that he was on the defensive. “Oh! No! This isn't what you think,” she said, putting up her hands as though to show she wasn't a threat.

Johnny put his hands on his hips.“What is it then? You're the first angel I've seen on Earth in a thousand years aside from Azrael, and Az and I are not on speaking terms at the moment. I'll have you know that I'm retired.”

“I know that. I'm not here on orders,” Jenny said. “I'm retired, too!”

“Angels don't retire,” Johnny scoffed.

“Neither do demons, but here you are.” Jenny raised an eyebrow, a touch of annoyance in her tone. “So why are you heading home when everyone else seems to be staying?” she asked trying to change the subject and shift the mood.

“It's late. I've had an eventful day. An angel distracted me while I was out riding this afternoon, and I wrecked my bike into an old strip pit.” Johnny tilted his head. “You see why I grow weary.”

“It's not really that late, and I did protect your bike from getting damaged,” she said.

“It wouldn't have needed protecting if your dainty little ankle trinket hadn't caught the sunlight and blinded me,” he argued. “What are you doing down here alone? Shouldn't there be at least fifteen of you?” Immediately he wondered why he should care, but he did.

“I told you, Johnny. I'm here on my own. I've run away,” Jenny said with a nod of her head.

Johnny studied her for a second. She smiled at him sheepishly, and he narrowed his gaze. “You really ran away? You ran away from Heaven? From icy cold tranquility?”

“Yeah, well, there are some things that Heaven doesn't have,” she said, looking up at him through her eyelashes.

Johnny narrowed his eyes, wondering why the expression on her face and the question in her eyes was rattling him.“Really? And what is it that Heaven couldn't offer you?”

“Things like...Alcohol?” she said, looking around the bar, obviously not revealing what she was really talking about.

“Angels are really terrible liars, you know that?” He took a deep breath and then sighed it back out. “I'm too tired to figure out why you're really here. I'll let you off the hook this time, Jenny. Pleasure to meet you. Goodbye, Jenny,” Johnny said, putting his hand on the door handle to walk home, rain or no rain.

“Hey, Johnny, wait! Please, just stay for one drink? It would be nice to have somebody to talk to,” she said, tugging on his jacket sleeve.

Johnny was wary, but he knew that even if she was trying to pull something over on him, she wouldn't do it in front of all of these people. Johnny offered his elbow to her and she put her hand in the crook of his arm, the tight feeling in his chest increasing. “You might not believe it but I am a gentleman.”

“Why wouldn't I believe it?” she asked with a smile and a shake of her head. Jenny's eyes sparkled, and Johnny wondered if she had ever been sad in her life. Joy seemed to roll off her in waves, and Johnny found it almost infectious.

“Being a demon...we're generally mislabeled as vulgar, hedonistic assholes,” Johnny chuckled.

“You made a pretty good first impression.” She cast her eyes to the bar top as she shrugged one shoulder before looking back up to meet his studying gaze. The bartender came over and Johnny ordered them both a beer.

“I try not to make an impression at all, if I can get away with it. I exist, and sometimes—whether I can help it or not—people notice me. Like those boneheads out there in the crowd and up on the stage,” Johnny tipped the neck of his beer bottle to gesture toward Ricky, Timothy, and Billy who were cutting up with each other and some girls they'd met to the strains of the music of Frank's band.

“You're lucky to have them,” Jenny said, making a face as she sipped the beer. “They're lucky to have you, too.”

Johnny knit his brow. “Why do you say that?”

Jenny stared at him with her eyes wide. “What?”

“Why did you say that they're lucky to have me?” Johnny asked.

She cut her eyes to the side and took a few gulps of the beer the bartender set down in front of her. “I just—” She paused in speaking to take a deep breath, seeming to be sorting her thoughts. “I just figure that you'd be a good friend to have. You know, being a demon you can protect them and...you know.”

Johnny considered her for a moment. “You're a strange one, Jenny.”

Jenny laughed, yet she still seemed nervous. “Oh, I'm aware. Trust me,” she said, taking another long drink from her beer.

“I'm attempting to. Are you sure that you want to hang out here?” he asked over the music that seemed to be getting louder.

“Yes! This is amazing! Humans doing human things? Being here among them after just watching them for so long?” she yelled back. She stood and worked her way through the crowd to the dance floor near the stage.

Johnny shook his head when she beckoned him to follow. “I do not dance anymore,” he said, knowing that she wouldn't hear him.

“Johnny!” Ricky shouted right in his ear. Johnny spun and Ricky kissed him on both cheeks as if he was greeting him.

“What the Hell, Rick?” Johnny wiped what must have been gin off of his face and then smacked Ricky lightly on the shoulder. “Where's Billy?”

“No idea!” Ricky called with a shrug.

“You and the other boys are supposed to keep an eye on him, Rick! That Summer Slaughter killer is still on the loose and I don't want any of you getting into trouble!” Johnny shouted.

“I'll find him, Pallbearer! He's here somewhere, you know. He's fine! Hey, I saw you come back in with the girl!” Ricky yodeled. “All I heard while we were getting ready earlier was how she was gorgeous and how she actually turned your head!”

“Yeah, I—” Johnny looked around the pub for Jenny, not finding any sign of her. “Wait, where did she go?”

“Haha! She ditched you!” Ricky giggled, then cheered as he saw someone he knew as he danced over to them.

Johnny scanned the room for Jenny, then stood to walk around to see if he could spot her. He could still feel that she was somewhere nearby, but she wasn't in sight. Johnny was very tall, but he wasn't tall enough to see over the sea of people. Finally, after checking to make sure that no one was looking, he leapt up and balanced gracefully on one foot.

He stood on top of a bar stool near the abandoned pool tables, looking out over the crowd as heads bobbed in time with the rhythm, and swayed with the melody, but he didn't see Jenny at all. It was like she had disappeared without a trace, but then he noticed something that made him freeze, worry rolling over him. “Cambion,” he growled to himself. Johnny caught just a glimpse of Jenny's white dress and wispy curls as she was escorted out of the back exit by a man and a woman in drab, dusty gray clothes, and he recognized the energy signature of them immediately.

He jumped down and fought his way through the melee, finally squeezing out the back door into the alley, only to find that Jenny and the two bottom-feeder, demon spawn that she had left with were gone. He ran down the alley to where it opened to the street, but other than a rain-drenched couple making out against the window of a closed down shop front, and one stray cat sniffing around a discarded food wrapper, there were no creatures to be seen.

“Where could they have gone?” Johnny looked left and right, but didn't see any sign of them, and there were no indentations in the sidewalk or roadway that hadn't been there before, so he knew they hadn't gone through the ground. He let out a sigh that turned into a groan of frustration. He didn't want to be caught up in anything with the world he'd left behind, but for some reason unknown to him found that he didn't have the heart to let the angel suffer. He cast his eyes up to the clouds overhead, light rain falling down onto his cheeks, steaming as they touched his skin. Johnny knew if he was going to find Jenny, he'd need to start looking downward instead.

“Back into Hell,” he said, resignedly to himself. It was at just that moment that the entire city of Anthem went dark. “Shit.”

Back to Part One

Pre-order Here

#The Anthem Saga #Left in the Dark #Book One #Available for pre-sale on Amazon Kindle #Blackout Day #Heaven #Hell #Demons #Angels

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westywrites · 7 years ago

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The Orphan Experiments

Chapter 7

He looked at Rosa, she was in a frozen state of panic. Without thinking, Jacob got up, he shoved Willow out of the way and climbed onto the couch. He reached toward Rosa, he stretched and reached and he got her. He grabbed her ankle and began to pull her down. It wasn't until Willow grabbed his shirt that he paused.

"What the hell?" Willow whispered, her gaze locked on his arm.

First - Previous - Next

"How're you doing Rosa?" Mr. Kleary asked as he sat down on the empty couch across from Jacob. She grimaced at him in response.

"She was just sayin' that her hands are getting sore and it's hard to hold on," Willow explained. "We think it's getting worse really quick."

"There's gotta be some way to help, right Mr. Kleary?" Tanner stood up. "Something that can, like, hold her down?"

"We could put some of those books in her lap," Jacob said.

"They'd fall." Rosa's voice was strained. "And I think it'd have to be a lot or it wouldn't work for very long."

"This is miserable." Mr. Kleary moaned. "I can't think of a single thing."

"We have to think of something soon, please." Rosa was crying again.

"Rope!" Willow said. "We can tie her to one of those weird blue chairs in the corner or something." Rosa started sobbing.

"Rosa, are you alright?" Mr. Kleary leapt up and moved next to her. "Why are you crying? A rope is a very good idea if we can find some."

"It just m-made me r-realize..." Her words were hardly understandable. "T-that I'll have t-to be tied d-down forever ‘cause this doesn’t seem like something that’ll just go away." No one knew how to respond.

"I'm going to search for some rope." Mr. Kleary ran off. He moved so quickly around the room that his search was done in close to a minute. He bit down on his lip in frustration. "Nothing. No rope, nothing that could substitute as a rope. Nothing I could see that would work in any way."

"Woah, slow down," Willow said.

"Yea, we can't understand a word you're saying," Tanner agreed.

"Oh no..." Mr. Kleary sighed and repeated himself much slower. "There did you understand? It is kind of hard to speak like this."

"Well, maybe it wouldn't be hard if you spoke normal speed." Willow looked confused.

"My god, is this still fast?" Mr. Kleary felt like he was drawing out his words and speaking ridiculously slow. The children all nodded. He sat down hard on the empty couch and let his leg bounce fast enough that it was nearly a blur.

"What are we gonna do?" Rosa's heartbeat echoed in her head. "Everything keeps getting worse."

"There has to be something we can do for you at least, Rosa." Jacob had adopted a tone of authority and he looked around the room assuredly. "I have an idea, I'll be back." He pulled himself off the couch and made a determined face as he limped away. He limped all the way to the food window and banged on the metal shutters. Eventually, someone answered.

"What do you want?" a raspy voice asked.

"We need some rope and some ice for my ankle please," Jacob asked politely. He received a grunt in reply. Then there was some banging around in what was presumably the kitchen and the shutters opened a bit. A small bag of ice and a ridiculously long rope slid out. Before Jacob managed to say thanks the shutters slammed shut again. He shouted it anyways before grabbing the things and limping back to the others.

"Turns out all you gotta do is ask." He tossed the rope at Willow and sank into the couch. He lifted his leg up and carefully put the ice on it.

"You could've got one of us to go. You don't need to hurt yourself." Willow gestured at his ankle.

"Figured I'd be the best at askin' politely and handling things if they said no." Jacob leaned back with his eyes closed.

"What's that 'sposed to mean?" Tanner said aggressively.

"Exactly," Jacob smirked.

"Can someone just tie me down please?" Rosa's fingers were white from how hard she was holding on.

"Let go when I say." Willow tossed the rope to Mr. Kleary and grabbed Rosa's shoulders. "Now." Rosa didn't let go. "C'mon. Just let go."

"I'm scared," Rosa whimpered. "And you're hurting me."

"What? Oh." Willow loosened her grip. "That better?" Rosa nodded. "Ok, it'll be okay. I'm right here, I'm just gonna hold you down and take you to a chair."

"Oh shoot! The chair." Mr. Kleary ran off and came back with one of the chairs that had been lined up by the wall.

"You almost forgot the chair?" Rosa giggled a little. Her giggles turned into nervous laughter and she let go of the couch. Her laughter stopped immediately as she shot up into the air. Willow pulled her down and wrapped her arms around Rosa like a hug.

"She's harder to hold than I expected. I don't wanna grab too tight, I don't wanna hurt her, but she's kinda slipping." Willow tried to adjust her arms and Rosa was almost pulled away.

"I'd rather you hurt me," Rosa squeaked, her eyes were squeezed shut. "Please don't let me go."

"This is really weird feeling." Willow started walking to the chair. "Mr. Kleary can you bring the chair closer? I'm not sure how long I can hold her like this."

"Try to sit her down." Mr. Kleary seemed to appear out of nowhere with the chair. He helped guide Rosa's legs as Willow forced her down. Mr. Kleary then wrapped and tied the rope as quickly as he could, which is to say, very fast. "There we go!"

"This is so weird." Rosa plucked at some of the rope.

"Now we need to get you out of the way of the tv." Willow smiled and pulled Rosa over beside the end of the couch. Rosa had tears in her eyes again, but everyone decided to leave her alone about it.

The rest of that evening consisted of more cartoons and awkward conversation. Rosa tried to shift position a couple of times but had to surrender to the ropes, she couldn't really move. Later in the evening, Jacob pointed out a slight burning smell.

“Do you think they're cooking something in the kitchen?" Willow asked.

"Nah, doesn't smell like food," Jacob said.

"Oh no," Tanner said as he leapt up from the couch. There were several burns where he had been sitting; the armrest was even smoking a bit. He staggered backwards a few steps. "I-I wasn't even angry... I was actually fine. Why?" He rubbed away tears. "What am I supposed to do?"

"You could sit on the floor, that won't burn," Jacob suggested.

"That's only part of the issue." Tanner sighed. "And besides sitting on the floor will make me even colder, it's freezin' in here."

"No, it's not." Jacob leaned forward. "Why are you cold if you have fire powers? That seems kinda stupid."

"It's like how you feel cold when you have a fever. Because his body temperature is higher the air temperature feels colder." Rosa was intrigued. "That makes sense."

"So you're sayin' I'm doomed to be cold forever? That's just great." Tanner threw his hands up. "And by great I mean it sucks." He sunk down and curled into a ball on the floor.

"These couches are taking a beating," Jacob joked. "Of the three, one's torn, another’s burnt. The only one that's fine is mine." He pet his couch sarcastically. Willow glared at him. "Okay, chill. I was just tryin' to lighten the mood."

"And doing a horrible job." Willow turned up the tv's volume a few clicks.

They sat in silence yet again. The tv played some old cartoons they had all seen before and everyone dealt with the situation in their own way. Willow acted out a hockey game in her head, Tanner tried to think of ways to get out, Jacob thought about the puns he could make about everyone's powers, and Rosa, well, Rosa thought about whatever it is that Rosa thinks about; no one really knows with her. Mr. Kleary watched all of them and felt his heart twist in guilt. He got them into this mess. If he hadn't taken them to the museum... He shook his head, it was no use to think like that, but that didn’t change how he felt. Part of him still felt like it was all just a bad dream. He settled his gaze on Rosa, poor Rosa. The others made fun of her often and she was too quiet and kind-hearted to say anything about it. Mr. Kleary was particularly sorry about her, this would destroy her. If they ever got out she would need the most recovery, Mr. Kleary thought, her soul was already damaged and very delicate. This may push her over the edge, the edge of what he didn’t know, but he was scared nonetheless.

As Mr. Kleary was lost in his guilty thoughts, Rosa felt the ropes shift. She had thought she had imagined it at first, but it happened again. Her heart skipped a beat and she looked down. Before she could alert anyone, the knot came undone and the rope fell away. She let out a tiny scream as she shot towards the high ceiling. Willow shouted her name and reached for her but her fingers only grazed Rosa’s ankle. The ceiling was very high in the room, like that of a school gymnasium, and Rosa floated easily out of reach. Mr. Kleary was frozen in place and stared with his mouth open.

"Holy shit," Jacob said. He looked at Willow as she climbed the couch trying to reach Rosa. He looked at Rosa, she was in a frozen state of panic. Without thinking, Jacob got up, he shoved Willow out of the way and climbed onto the couch. He reached toward Rosa, he stretched and reached and he got her. He grabbed her ankle and began to pull her down. It wasn't until Willow grabbed his shirt that he paused.

"What the hell?" Willow whispered, her gaze locked on his arm.

"What are you talkin' about?" He followed her gaze and what he saw made him sway in nauseated shock. His arm reached further than should’ve been possible as if it was stretched out like an elastic band. He swallowed back the bile in his throat.

"Just bring me down," Rosa squealed. "Please,” she added. Jacob nodded numbly and pulled, his arm slowly returned to normal length and brought Rosa down with it. He grabbed her with his other arm and turned her to face him.

"Grab me like a piggyback but on the front,” he said. His words caught in his throat slightly. Rosa did what he said and he climbed down. He had his arms wrapped around her too, hands on her shoulders. His shaking arms struggled to keep her down, but he didn't mind. If the force of her pulling up hadn't been there, he felt he would've collapsed. He squeezed her into a small hug before moving to have her tied back to the chair. "Willow, you tie the knots this time. Don't rush and pull 'em tight." His voice came out weak and breathy, but surprisingly calm.

"Sure." Willow kept her distance from Jacob as much as possible. Whatever had happened to his arm... Just thinking about it made her gag. She wrapped the rope carefully around Rosa's legs and the chair, tying knots often. On Rosa's request, she made the rope a little loose. When that was done she gave Jacob a worried glance and sat back on the couch.

"So that was interestin'." Tanner looked at Jacob's arm. Jacob swayed on his feet and all the colour was gone from his face.

"Be nice, Tanner." Mr. Kleary finally reacted to what just happened. "Jacob, are you alright?" Jacob shook his head slowly. "Talk to us, Jacob." Jacob kept shaking his head.

"It was like his arm turned to rubber." Willow made a disgusted face.

Mr. Kleary shot her a disapproving look. "I think it's time for bed. It's been a very long day." He stood. "I'm sure you're all as exhausted as I am."

"We have a few problems with going to bed though," Rosa said quietly. Mr. Kleary looked confused. "Tanner's room was burnt, first of all. Secondly, Tanner can't touch any fabric things without them burning." Rosa took a sharp breath. "And I'm tied to a chair." She gestured at her legs.

"Oh. Right. I guess those are all issues." Mr. Kleary bit his lip. "I don't know what to do."

"We could tie Rosa to her bed," Willow suggested.

"No. I would not sleep like that." Rosa went wide-eyed. "That's not happening. Besides, that doesn't help Tanner at all."

"I'll just sleep on the floor out here I guess..." Tanner sighed. "I can't think of anything else that would work."

"And I think I have to stay in this chair so we'll both be out here." Rosa looked at Willow. "But first can you help me go to the bathroom? I really have to pee."

"Oh gross, do I have to?" Willow scrunched up her face again.

"Yes, you do." Mr. Kleary rubbed his eyes.

Rosa looked dejectedly around the large room once the others were gone. The fluorescent lights were harsh against her tired eyes. She began to count the seconds, hoping the lights would turn off. She lost count long before they switched off and plunged the room into pure darkness. Tanner whimpered and moved closer to her. He remained nearly a foot away, but she could feel his heat against her legs. A strange noise from by the kitchens made her jump and the warmth by her feet made her realize just how cold the rest of her was. Tanner shifted noisily against the tiled floor. Rosa sighed, it looked like neither of them were going to get much sleep that night.

#west's words #writers on tumblr #original story #ya fiction #super powers #the thing I have always thought about super power origin stories it that characters always seem to be in full control immediately #which is so unlikely #there are so so many inconvenient and horrible things that would happen before you gained control #if you ever could control it that is #when something so foreign is introduced to the body #it only makes sense that the body wouldn't know how to deal with it #it would take a long time to shift habits #and even longer for your body to be capable of control something so dangerous and new #which actually was basically the premise that made me start writing this one #also the idea that if people were given super powers it may line up or contradict something about them #so all of their powers were basically designed to pick up an aspect of who they are #in a way that would make it particularly hard to control #there's actually quite a bit of lore that I have behind this universe #reasons for everything #but it's not relevant to this story #so you may never know #though if you asked me I'd love to ramble about it

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ericawhitakerrr-blog · 7 years ago

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at the beginning...

As I sat and thought about what I would write about, I realized so much of that was a time I have tried everything in my power to forget. If you have ever suffered the loss of a child you know how I feel, if you haven't you cannot possibly fathom it. Your body's natural defense when something truly awful happens is to block it out, and while it's true that I have large gaps in my memory from that time period. I realized I needed to sit down and remember, remember what Tomas meant to me. I sat down and wanted to write about what it meant to lose a baby, but the page stayed blank until suddenly it all came in a rush. Most women say there is no greater pain than childbirth, unfortunately there is, the pain of burying your child. People would say how brave and strong I was, our family was, but the truth is... I was scared, we all were terrified. Sometimes I didn't know if I would even survive this journey I was forced to walk. We survived the trauma, the shock, the agony of those first couple of weeks. Those long nights where I thought I might die from grief. The greatest loss a human can experience is the loss of a child, it destroys and demolishes you. But no one really has a choice to survive the grief, it's not optional, especially with 2 small girls at home. Someone asks me how I am and I simply say "I'm fine, thanks". I say this to you, because I simply cannot describe the pain. 6 months. It's been 6 months since our journey began. 6 months since that fateful Monday in November....There is nothing harder than sitting here during dialysis browsing social media and seeing little baby faces as they are welcomed into the world by their family. I'm so happy for all my friends having babies, gosh I'm so happy for them, but it's hurts, and it stings, and it sucks, to think sitting at home in his little spot on the top of a glass shelf... Sits a tiny urn. This wasn't supposed to happen, this wasn't the way things were meant to be. I write this to share and hopefully help someone else with my story. You aren't alone... I was a healthy, active, normal 30yr old in the prime of my life. I have 2 beautiful girls, (7 and 3), and a wonderful husband. We were expecting our third child, a son, in December of 2016. I was extremely high risk and hospitalized several times over the course of the pregnancy, but that only made me closer with Tomas Isaac, the name I agonized over for weeks wanting it to be perfect. A unexpected bonus was weekly ultrasounds so I would see his little face develop week by week. I couldn't wait to meet him, being a girl mom I was so excited to shift to boy territory. From lace, ribbons, dance class, and pink to the trucks, legos, sports, and of course a love of the Denver Broncos. On November 14th 2016, the unthinkable happened... I went in to the hospital at 36 weeks due to a lack of fetal movement over the weekend. When I awoke Monday morning and realized I had slept through the night I knew in my soul something was terribly wrong. Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next. When I got to the hospital they attempted to find his heartbeat with a doppler and eventually ultrasound and I was told there was no heartbeat. When something like that is told to you, the floor opens and you fall. At that point they told me I would need to be induced to deliver him. I was also given something to sedate me as I was understandably hysterical. I had arrived at the hospital alone because my husband was so sure that I was imagining things and he never truly felt there was any danger. Because of the sedation I actually didn't wake up until almost 2 weeks later and learned what had happened during that time. They had attempted the induction and Tomas's hand had come out first, in trying to reposition him my uterus had ruptured and I started bleeding out. I had to undergo an emergency c section and hysterectomy while they tried to get the bleeding under control. I had to receive 14 units of blood and the blood loss as well as fluid around my heart triggered me coding for 6 minutes. They were finally able to revive me after the 6 minutes but I had lost my kidney function at that point. I was deemed to high of a risk at this point for me to continue to stay at my local hospital's ICU and I was transferred still on the ventilator and with the feeding tube to a larger hospital in Charlotte NC to their ICU for more serious care. Which is where I woke up, with the tube down my throat and no clue what had happened. I had to have Brian and various nurses explain to me, heartbreakingly multiple times that I had lost my baby and the majority of the function of my body. I have no memory of those several weeks, I've tried so hard and failed to remember anything. The last thing I remember is the doctor telling my Tomas had no heartbeat and the next thing I remember I woke up at the hospital in Charlotte. This is my greatest heartbreak. I was never able to hold my son, I never got to touch his cheeks, I never got to kiss his sweet face. I fully believe in my soul, that when I coded I said goodbye to my baby boy. He knew my girls needed me. He sent me back to finish my work as a mother. I know he sent me back because given the choice alone I don't know that I would have chosen to come back. I was broken and there is no pain like that of the pain of losing a child. I was eventually able to come off the ventilator and discharged about 6 weeks after everything happened. I ended up back in the hospital several days later with gallstones and because I wasn't strong enough for surgery a JP drain was put in, in place of removing my gallbladder. I slowly resumed my normal life or what was left of it. After several weeks I became so sick from my gallbladder that we had to find a hospital who was willing to do surgery to remove it. My current surgeon in Charlotte was hesitant with my past history on the operating table. In addition to that, during one of my weekly Mon/Weds/Fri dialysis sessions I ended up having chest pains only to be rushed to the hospital and a blood clot found in my neck. We finally were able to locate a hospital who was willing to do the surgery on both my gallbladder and remove one dialysis catheter to put another one in my chest. The goal was at that point that I would be free a clear from the hospital. Sadly that was not the case for very long. During another routine dialysis treatment I had similar symptoms from when I had the blood clot before. I was rushed off to the hospital where they found another blood clot in my chest directly above my heart. I was treated for that and there were some very positive steps being made in my recovery process. It's been a long road and I have a even longer road ahead of me especially with me being a mom to two daughters who still don't fully understand the loss of our baby as well as the loss of my health. I'm still struggling, with another blood clot in my lung and I just got sick with bronchitis/pneumonia a couple weeks ago, but I know my road ahead will be easier with time. At this point my kidneys are still not functioning, we have waited, hoped, and prayed but unfortunately it doesn't look like that will work out for my own kidneys to start working again. I was placed on the kidney transplant list and the wait period is about 3 years at this point. My best hope for a match is a family member, but since I'm adopted that option is non existent. I have had several people offer to get tested, we should have all the details in the next couple of weeks and then we can start to make plans for anyone who might be willing to donate. I've also had some severe hair loss in the last couple of weeks, more doctor visits to figure out what is going on there. My body took quite a beating over the last 6 months, but I'm not quitting, I'm not slowing down. Most people don't go to bed and expect to spend the next 6 months battling for any sense of normalcy. The permanent scars on my body a constant reminder of what I went through, what I'm still going through. The bruises and needle marks from the IVs cover my arms and hands, the dialysis port in my chest, the 3 scars on my wrist from unknown causes and then of course the biggest one of all.... Perhaps my biggest reminder, the distinct square of a defibrillator paddle forever burned on me. 6 minutes I have no memory of, 6 terrifying minutes for my family, thankfully, 6 minutes my daughters are blissfully unaware of. It's a good time to remember. Remember what I've been through. Remember how blessed I am to be here. Remember the fight to get to where I am today. I did not just stop being pregnant. I didn't lose a pregnancy. My baby died. That one sentence, 3 words that rocked me to the core. I will never forget the words of the doctor "I'm sorry, I don't see a heartbeat". It's easy to say "God needed another angel", but He didn't ask you for yours. My greatest regret is that I never got to hold my sweet baby. My little playmate, my beautiful little boy. I would have loved to cuddle him and tell him I love him. I will always love him. There will forever be a piece of me missing. I read a saying; when a spouse dies, it's called being widowed, a child who loses parents is called an orphan, but there is no word for parents who lose a child. That's how truly awful the loss is. I was so lucky that I was able to carry Tomas for 9 whole months, to hold him, and while I was not able to say goodbye in this world, I know he knew of my love for him. I believe he sent me back, when I coded I believe I held my son, I told him of my love, and we said our goodbyes. To live is a gift, and I will live my life every day thanking God I was so blessed to have Tomas. He is and always will be, the little love of my life, my angel baby, my beautiful, precious baby boy. If I can help even one mother with my story of loss and perseverance then it is all worth it. That horrible day in November became a part of me; it was a turning point, a great threshold. Our story as a family is stilling growing, we have so much left to tell, so much left to live. Very few families can go through what we went through and survive, and function. Somehow, someway, we still are. That's not to say we don't struggle, there are days I struggle to get out bed, to move on. There are days I cry for hours until I'm so exhausted I can't breathe. The pain we have learned to live with is unthinkable. But we haven't been knocked down yet. This is my story, this is my families story, and it is far from over.

#baby #babies #stillbirth #stillborn #stillblessed #dialysis #kidney kidneytransplant

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katybudgetbooks · 8 years ago

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Romance Novels to Watch for in 2017

Feversong by Karen Marie Moning (1/17): MacKayla Lane and Jericho Barrons return in the epic conclusion to the pulse-pounding Fever series, where a world thrown into chaos grows more treacherous at every turn. As Mac, Barrons, Ryodan, and Jada struggle to restore control, enemies become allies, right and wrong cease to exist, and the lines between life and death, lust and love, disappear completely. Black holes loom menacingly over Dublin, threatening to destroy the earth, yet the greatest danger is the one MacKayla Lane has unleashed from within: The Sinsar Dubh—a sentient book of unthinkable evil—has possessed her body and will stop at nothing in its insatiable quest for power. The fate of Man and Fae rests on destroying the book and recovering the long-lost Song of Making, the sole magic that can repair the fragile fabric of the earth. But to achieve these aims, sidhe-seers, the Nine, Seelie, and Unseelie must form unlikely alliances and make heart-wrenching choices. For Barrons and Jada, this means finding the Seelie queen, who alone can wield the mysterious song, negotiating with a lethal Unseelie prince hell-bent on ruling the Fae courts, and figuring out how to destroy the Sinsar Dubh while keeping Mac alive. This time, there’s no gain without sacrifice, no pursuit without risk, no victory without irrevocable loss. In the battle for Mac’s soul, every decision exacts a tremendous price.

Hillbilly Rockstar by Lorelei James (2/7): She’s protecting his body and guarding her heart.... Country music star Devin McClain understands there’s a downside to life in the public eye, but the laidback Wyoming cowboy has never imagined he’d attract crazed fans who would do anything to garner his attention. When veiled threats become real, he agrees to hire a discreet security detail. But Devin is shocked when that bodyguard is a hard-bodied woman. He’s even more stunned to be attracted to the steely-eyed stunner. Former soldier Liberty Masterson’s return to civilian life has been fraught with challenges until she lands a job with a prestigious security firm. But when she agrees to provide personal protection during a cross-country tour, she doesn’t realize she has signed up to masquerade as the playboy star’s girlfriend. Though she’s more comfortable in combat boots than high heels, she has no choice but to appear to be the sexy groupie Devin prefers. Living in close quarters causes the chemistry between them to ignite, and Devin realizes he wants to turn their charade of a romance into reality. Although Liberty surrenders to his every whim behind closed doors, she fears the sexy country star doesn’t see the real her; and Devin can’t help but worry when the tour ends that there might not be enough between them to build something that won’t fade away....

Dangerous Games by Danielle Steel (3/7): Bringing together a cast of fascinating characters in a riveting tale of ambition and corruption, politics, passion, and ultimate justice, Dangerous Games is a thrilling drama from #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel. Television correspondent Alix Phillips dodges bullets and breaks rules to bring the most important news to the world—from riots in America to protests on the streets of Tehran. With her daughter in college, and working alongside cameraman Ben Chapman, a deeply private ex–Navy SEAL, Alix revels in the risks and whirlwind pace of her work. But her latest assignment puts her at the center of an explosive story that will reshape many lives, including her own: investigating damning allegations involving the Vice President of the United States, Tony Clark. Alix begins with a nationally revered woman who may be the key to exposing frightening secrets. Olympia Foster is the fragile, reclusive widow of America’s most admired senator, who had been destined for the presidency before an assassin’s bullet felled him. Since then, Olympia has found emotional support in Clark, who once wanted her as his wife and now stands as her protector and confidant. When Alix digs deeper, federal agents pick up the trail. Then the threats start. As the stakes rise in this dangerous game, Alix needs Ben’s help as never before. And soon they realize they are grappling with an adversary far more sinister than they had imagined.

How to Tame a Beast in Seven Days by Kerrelyn Sparks (3/7): From the brilliant imagination of Kerrelyn Sparks comes a bold new fantasy romance series in which passion and magic collide. Behold the Embraced... As one of the Embraced—one born with magical powers—the beautiful, innocent Luciana escaped certain death after her father hid her away on the Isle of Moon. Now, nineteen years later, her father has returned with a frightening request. He will be executed unless Luciana returns to the mainland and marries a man feared throughout the land: a terrifying brute known as the Beast.Luciana accepts her fate and agrees to wed the Beast—Lord Leo—in order to save her father. Soon she learns that her betrothed is also one of the Embraced. With the ability to wield lightning, Leo’s immense power strikes fear into the hearts of men. . .and his mere touch can put an end to a woman’s life. But Luciana cannot deny the passion that burns between them. How can she resist the man who scorches her soul and makes her feel intoxicated with desire—even if surrendering to him could destroy them both? We’ll be having a launch party with the author for this title, so keep your eyes peeled.

Hurricane by Cherry Adair (4/4): Rydell Case’s ship is his home, his heart, and his reason for being. After his ex-wife left him—taking his brand-new megayacht, Tesoro Mio with her—she sailed off with a royal billionaire and out of his life forever. Now Ry spends his days searching for treasure—until his ship is hijacked. With the prospect of his salvage business tanking, he needs both the ship and his ex back—if only she didn’t despise him more than any man on earth. . .When Addison D’Marco boards Tesoro Mio to find her ex-husband in her cabin, she’s furious. Ry is more handsome, more annoying, and more determined than ever. Addy can’t believe he has the nerve to demand the ship back after the way he broke her heart. With her fiancé about to board, she doesn’t want Ry back in her life to ignite painful memories and never- forgotten desires. But could it be that, amid troubled waters, Addy and Ry can salvage what they once had and have a second chance at love. . .or does fate have something else in store?

Love Me Again by Jaci Burton (5/2): In the latest Hope novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Don’t Let Go and the Play-by-Play novels, starting over doesn’t mean leaving your heart behind...

Wolf Hunt by Paige Tyler (6/6): Remy Boudreaux is back in his hometown, New Orleans. He's there with three of his fellow Dallas SWAT officers for a week of training with the NOLA PD. On the eve of a tropical storm, Remy and his buddies prowl the French Quarter. One tantalizing scent captures Remy's senses, forcing him to follow until he is face to face with Triana Bellamy--his beautiful high school crush.After reconnecting, Remy and Triana are close--very. Remy struggles to keep things casual. Ever since his partner--and first love--was killed on the job, he's kept women at a distance.But when a mysterious wolf pendant ropes them both into danger, Remy's protective instincts kick in. He may have to reveal his true self...and hope Triana accepts him.

Serenity Harbor by RaeAnne Thayne (6/27): In the town of Haven Point, love can be just a wish-and one magical kiss-away. Computer-tech millionaire Bowie Callahan is about the last person that schoolteacher Katrina Bailey wants to work for. As far as she can see, he's arrogant, entitled and not up to the task of caring for his young half brother, Milo. But Kat is, especially if it brings her closer to her goal of adopting an orphaned little girl. And as her kindness and patience work wonders with Milo, she realizes there's more to sexy, wary Bo than she'd ever realized. Bo never imagined he'd be tasked with caring for a sibling he didn't know existed. Then again, he never pictured himself impulsively kissing vibrant, compassionate Katrina in the moonlight. Now he's ready to make her dream of family come true and hoping there's room in it for him, too.

Beautiful Tempest by Johanna Lindsey (7/11): #1 New York Times bestselling author Johanna Lindsey now reveals the tempestuous story of Jacqueline Malory whose furious desire for revenge leads to a confrontation with the handsome pirate who abducted her—and sparks a much steamier kind of desire. For the first time, James Malory and his Anderson in-laws agree on something: It’s payback time for the culprit who kidnapped James and Georgina’s beloved daughter Jack from her American debutante party and whisked her away to the Caribbean, no matter that she escaped unscathed. James figured out who masterminded the dastardly plot and is leading a fleet of ships to the West Indies to deliver some Malory-style retribution. More interested in revenge than in finding a husband during her first London Season, Jack is furious that her father left her behind. Then an intriguing stranger leads her and her older brother Jeremy to her mysterious abductor. But instead of capturing him, the Malory siblings wind up as his “ guests” on a ship sailing away from England. As Jack re-engages in a battle of wills with her all too attentive captor, she realizes he is no ordinary pirate, perhaps no pirate at all, but a nobleman determined to settle a score that dates back to the days when her father was known as Captain Hawk—and what endangers her most is the increasingly passionate attraction they feel for each other.

Devil’s Cut by JR Ward (8/1): In #1 New York Times bestselling author J. R. Ward’s thrilling finale of the Bourbon Kings series, the Bradford family dynasty teeters on the edge of collapse after the murder of their patriarch—and a shocking arrest. At first, the death of William Baldwine, the head of the Bradford family, was ruled a suicide. But then his eldest son and sworn enemy, Edward, came forward and confessed to what was, in fact, a murder. Now in police custody, Edward mourns not the disintegration of his family or his loss of freedom . . . but the woman he left behind. His love, Sutton Smythe, is the only person he has ever truly cared about, but as she is the CEO of the Bradford Bourbon Company’s biggest competitor, any relationship between them is impossible. And then there’s the reality of the jail time that Edward is facing. Lane Baldwine was supposed to remain in his role of playboy, forever in his big brother Edward’s shadow. Instead he has become the new head of the family and the company. Convinced that Edward is covering for someone else, Lane and his true love, Lizzie King, go on the trail of a killer—only to discover a secret that is as devastating as it is game-changing. As Lane rushes to discover the truth, and Sutton finds herself irresistibly drawn to Edward in spite of his circumstances, the lives of everyone at Easterly will never be the same again. For some, this is good; for others, it could be a tragedy beyond imagining. Only one thing’s for certain: Love survives all things. Even murder.

#new releases #contemporary romance #Romantic Suspense #historical romance #paranormal romance #Danielle Steel #Karen Marie Moning #Lorelei James #Cherry Adair #Paige Tyler #RaeAnne Thayne #Johanna Lindsey #JR Ward #Kerrelyn Sparks #Jaci Burton

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