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dandelionflower · 4 years ago

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Felinette Month Day 27

In between

Alya stared, blank-faced at the pair in front of her.

Marinette and Adrien had always had chemistry, but this was unbearable. They were just standing at the doorway of the classroom, each one offering to let the other go in first.

“You go ahead.”

“No, you, I insist.”

“Please, just-“

“Excuse me.” Felix walked in between the two without a second thought or a third word. He headed to his desk and sat down, flipping open a book and reading diligently.

Felix Culpa. The destroyer of her OTP. He was terrible, almost always introducing himself at the worst moment, never seeming to purposely do anything, but it always ruined whatever was happening between the other two.

Marinette seemed to hate him just as much, always tracking him with her eyes whenever he entered the room. Adrien was his usual oblivious self, giving Felix a grin whenever he saw him. He seemed to be making more of an effort to connect with Felix, since he and Marinette started their awkwardness. Weird.

Still, Alya was certain something had changed since last week. Marinette and Adrien had somehow become closer and more awkward simultaneously, but she expected that the two would be dating within the week.

Speaking of, the two walked in together, whispering and shooting furtive glances at the back of the room, where Felix sat. Clearly they had noticed his tendency to ruin their moments.

They slid into the front desk, Marinette shooting Alya an apologetic glance that she waved off with a knowing smile. If the lovebirds wanted to spend more time with each other, who was she to stop them?

—

Felix was avoiding her. She just knew it.

Ever since Team Builder, she and her two partners had been out of it. She and Adrien were getting to know each other anew, but Felix seemed insistent on never looking at them directly again.

Team Builder was the coach of a failing baseball team. She wanted the all teams to be honest with each other and share deep secrets to become a closer team. Her first target was her baseball team.

Her second was the group of three heroes.

After working through the trust-building obstacle course with ease, they reached the truth telling stage.

Some of the questions weren’t so bad, even things they’d talked about before.

“What is your greatest fear?”

“Who on the team do you trust most?”

“What is your greatest pet peeve?”

Easy answers, with little opportunity to hurt anyone, even the question about trust. Both of the boys said they trusted her most, and she begrudgingly revealed that she trusted Chat Noir more. Apidae faux pouted for a moment, but admitted that he expected that would be the case.

It was around “who is your crush?” that things started going downhill.

Chat Noir opened his mouth, probably to proclaim his “undying adoration” for her yet again, but choked.

“What’s wrong?” She had teased. “Cat got your tongue?”

“My L- M- Mi. Kagami Tsurugi.” The words sounded normal, albeit strangled, but his face showed that he did not intend for them to come out.

Apidae was next. He stepped forward, breathed in deep, and said without a waver in his tone.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

She didn’t say a word. She couldn’t. What could she say?

On her turn, she walked up, ready to spill her guts on her crush on Adrien, but the words wouldn’t come out.

“A- Adri- Apidae.” No. That wasn’t it. What was happening? Was this how Chat Noir felt?

Apidae coughed as the doors opened to the next level. Neither of them looked at each other as Chat Noir bounded ahead of them to what looked like the final stage.

“Welcome! You have proven yourselves to be a secure and trusting team. With this final push you will become the perfect team!”

Apidae snorted. “What? No, let me guess. You’re going to take our miraculouses and force us to reveal our identities to each other, so our final walls are down.”

“You’re close!” She waved her hand and chains appeared on their wrists. “I’m not giving Hawkmoth anything until he proves he can be a team player with his blue belle. But I’m also not giving you the chance to fight me until you prove yourselves. So here’s your final question; what is your true identity?”

Chat Noir grunted, shifting against the chains. “I’m not saying a- Adrien Agreste.”

“Chat! You’re Adrien? All this tim- Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Apidae made a startled sound. “We don’t have time for this. We need to stop her. Now.”

“How aren’t you saying it?” Ladybug glanced at him as Chat- Adrien used his cataclysm to destroy their chains.

“I’m not using the initial sound in my name.” He said simply, though it was clear that he was struggling with his words.

It was a difficult fight, with Apidae unable to communicate to the best of his ability, Chat and Marinette awkward and embarrassed, and Team Builders ability to manipulate their environment.

Apidae tried to use his venom, but it was blocked, and they were left with less than five minutes before she would be fighting alone.

And soon she was. Chat Noir detransformed to reveal Adrien, who, while athletic, did not have miraculous armor to protect him from the blow. He was knocked prone against a wall, and stayed crumpled there.

A minute later, Apidae detransformed too, revealing the crush she didn’t even know she had until then to be Felix Culpa. Felix still stood, weaving around every attack, using one of the still-intact chains to hold her.

“Ladybug. Lucky Charm. Now.” He struggled for hold her, only barely containing Team Builder.

“Right. Lucky Charm!” She threw her yo-yo and was met with a baseball bat. She knew what had to be done. She gave Felix a look and he nodded.

Team Builder broke free of his hold and knocked him aside, not hard enough to knock him unconscious.

Marinette distracted her by asking about her batting form as he got back up and crept behind her.

Like a well-oiled machine, she tossed the baseball bat to him as he leapt up, he caught it and swung it into Team Builder’s head, just barely fracturing her helmet. A fracture was all that was needed for the akuma to crawl out and get purified.

She tossed her miraculous cure, and waved for Felix and Adrien to scramble away as she knelt by the dazed coach.

“Are you alright, ma’am?”

“Yes, I think so, but I can’t remember anything.” She looked up at her with horrified eyes. “Was I akumatized?”

“I’m afraid so, but you didn’t do much harm.” Her miraculous beeped and she waved a goodbye before swinging away, catching Felix’s eye as she left.

They hadn’t talked since then. She and Adrien had taken every opportunity to talk to him and he made every excuse not to.

“Enough is enough.” She hissed at Adrien, during quiet reading time. “We need to talk to him now.”

“So you two can talk about your crush?” He teased with a grin.

“Not just that!” She felt her ears turning red.

“But mostly that.” He gave her a kind look. “Just let me handle it. You go stand by your locker after class.”

“Okay.” The rest of the class was spent on trivial topics, jokes, and planning fo make it easier to slip away during akuma fights.

She left to go to her locker after class, Adrien shooting her a wink as he walked purposefully towards Felix.

A few minutes later and she was at her locker, in the crowded room, staring at the doors waiting for Felix (and Adrien too, of course).

Suddenly, the doors slammed open to reveal Adrien, carrying a struggling Felix over his shoulder.

“Adrien, I swear to-“

“Yeah, yeah. We need to have a conversation, and you have to deal with it.” He commented with an east smile.

He set Felix down in front of her, restraining him in a hug.

“I do want to talk, but in front of so many people?” She glanced at Adrien, then the room.

It was deserted. In the few minutes she had been distracted, Alya has shuttled everyone out of the room, shooting her a wink and a thumbs up before exiting herself.

“Never mind then.”

“Sir please.” A squeak came from Felix’s bag. “I’d like to see Tikki and Plagg. Just for a moment?” An adorable yellow head gave him puppy-dog eyes.

“Fine.” She squealed and flew out, hugging his cheek and dive bombing Adrien’s bag. “But I want it clear that I’m doing this for Pollen.”

“Noted.” Adrien cautiously released Felix.

“So, what needs to be said? I feel that there’s nothing to be resolved.”

“I beg to differ.” Marinette took a step forwards, fully aware of how close her face was to his. “I think we have quite a lot to talk about. Like your crush on me.”

“You mean our mutual crush on each other.” His eyes bore into hers and she stepped back, rubbing her neck.

“Y-yeah. So...”

Adrien waved his hand. “I’m gonna step out and let you two handle this.”

Once he was gone, Marinette sat down, putting her head in her hands.

“I have a crush on you. You had a crush on me.” She murmured. “What else for you want me to say?”

“Well, ‘yes’ would be a nice start.” His feet shifted.

“Huh?” She peered up at him. His face was absolutely crimson.

He coughed a pulled out a crumbled sheet of paper. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” he glanced at her, “when I first saw you, I thought you were immature, and preppy.

Then I actually had a conversation with you and I was proven exactly right.”

She made a little sound of dissent.

“But accompanying your immaturity and preppiness, was a deep compassion, and an impeccable fashion sense. I fell for you and kept falling with every day I spent in your presence. So, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, will you go on a date with me?”

She stared at him.

“This is why I made the request that you say yes.” He whispered.

“Oh!” She straightened. “Right.”

“So...”

“Of course.” She beamed and lunged for him, hugging him as tight as she could.

“Finally!” Adrien shouted from the hallway.

“Finally.” Felix whispered into her hair.

@felinettenovember

#felinette #ml felix #felix agreste #felix culpa #marinette dupain cheng #ml marinette #adrien agreste #ml adrien #post reveal #reveals #ml chat noir #ml ladybug #ml pollen #ml Alya #felinettemonth #Felinette month #apidae felix #bee!felix

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jojo-reader-hell · 4 years ago

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We’re not getting off this Poly Train until y’all realize we can have Erina x Reader x Jonathan: Modern AU

The muffled whisper of the pilot wakes you from a deep sleep where you’re ninety nine percent sure you had your mouth open. Fifteen minutes to landing, weather is rainy, he spouts off the temperature but you don’t really pay attention because there’s a very intense pair of blue eyes trained on you, chubby hands patting your chest in a demand.

“I’m sorry honey... you been awake long?”

Tiny fingers pluck at your top, far too chubby and uncoordinated to work the small buttons but his intellect is startling. Your baby is too smart for his own good, at two months he responds to certain words in unique ways, he knows that you unbutton your shirt to give him milk, and he responds to your smile with an even bigger toothless grin. Call you a brainless mother, but you can’t help but be one of those mothers that just thinks everything her child does is genius.

“We’re almost there.” You coo down at the little head of blue black hair as he eats. You heard that nursing helps calm babies down when the plane lands or takes off, and so far your son has been a good little traveler.

One tiny hand presses against your heart as you talk earnestly to the baby, telling him about the new country he’s going to make his home for the rest of his life and the new house he’s going to live in.

“Daddy is there,” you tell him, “And so is Mama and big brother. They’ve made a nice little room just for you in their big house, and your new doggie and kitty are waiting very patiently to cuddle you and give you so many kissies.”

Giorno watches you, his face impassive, lips turned outward like a fish as you tell him so many wonderful things. You wonder sometimes if he understands you when you talk to him, or does it all sound the same whether in English or Italian? You’re not really sure, but you speak both to him just as often and each time you speak his eyes focus directly on you no matter what.

“We’ll have all our things, your new crib, and even some toys your big brother got for you two to play with.” You whisper. “We’ll even have a bigger bathtub! So once we get home I’ll give us both a nice, warm bath. Won’t you like that mimmo?”

For some reason Giorno seems to have a little relief on his face, finally relaxing into the feed as his eyes droop. That was a big mood. You both are exhausted. It’s been a little rough living in a bare room this last week, but you made it work with the bare essentials and found it so easy to live with things you only had to pack up in two suitcases and a diaper bag. Your son was such a trooper. He did very well when your girlfriend came and helped you pack up everything so you both could ship it to London in boxes or sell the furniture you didn’t need anymore, but he did fuss sometimes about his toys, or the kitty your lover took with her.

In the long run, living with next to no possessions was a blessing. Erina was smart to take the cat and pack up the house immediately, months in advance she requested all the proper forms to have it transported, and after the last visit she said kitty was adjusting very well to her new house (George, she discovered, was a five year old cat whisperer who constantly made sure your pet was well fed and well loved). The last time you all had a group chat, kitty had even gone up to the screen at the sound of your voice, and meowed sweetly as though you were standing right in front of her.

You were excited and relieved. It felt as though you were going to the UK for the first time instead of possibly the hundredth. Who counted anymore? All you knew is this would be the last time you’d ever feel that familiar overwhelming loneliness being so far away from your loving family.

“Few more minutes Gigi...” you coo to your son. “You take your time and have as much as you want.”

You’re worried he’ll be overwhelmed with all the bustle around the airport this time of night. Customs takes forever, even if you’re arriving a few hours after your baby’s bedtime. There’s always a crowd, normally they never made you nervous before but with a new baby there’s nothing but anxiety and paranoia at the most minuscule of dangers. People stare at him like they want to interact with him and you’ll shift him out of view into your coat. Some other brat kept screaming in its seat and jarred your baby out of a deep sleep when it started coughing, and you’d had to do a lot of breathing techniques to prevent yourself from having an anxiety attack. Being stationary at the airport wasn’t much comfort either... Old women will pick their teeth, stick their hand in their pants, scratch nasty places, or poke their nose, then approach you with outstretched fingers wanting to touch your son’s clean cheek and it’s enough to make you gather your shit and run the opposite direction.

The world is a frightening, disgusting place now that you have a newborn, and you won’t feel safe until you’re surrounded by your impenetrable fortress that is currently parking the car at London Luton.

It takes forever for the plane to land and situate, but finally you’re able to stand and hoist your diaper bag over your shoulder after helping Giorno relax as the plane makes a jarring landing. He’s still latched onto your breast, and you notice with some relief that no one really stares at you when you adjust Giorno’s sling. Everyone is exhausted. Waiting to go home just like you are, and it’s already raining once you exit the craft and onto the tarmac.

Your phone is buzzing, the plan your boyfriend bought you has already activated and it will stay that way for a few days until you’re able to get a new phone here in London. It would be nice to answer the phone and hear a familiar voice, but your hands are full trying to burp the baby and it doesn’t make it any easier that you’re doing it on a shuttle. You grab for the nearest handrail, scrunch tightly in a corner and brace yourself as the bus totters along the tarmac while Giorno makes his tiny burps, his little face smoothing out from the scrunched up anger he had being around so many strangers.

Finally when you disembark the shuttle and hurry into the building out of the rain (it was a mission and a half trying to keep Giorno dry) you’re able to return the frantic calls you’ve been receiving.

“Hello?” Your voice is getting low from exhaustion. The prospect of customs is dauntingly close.

“Mum! Where are you? Are you bringing me my brother?!”

That tiny voice with the most decidedly cutest accent you’ve ever heard makes your heart flutter in your chest and your smile wake up.

“Hiya Georgie!” You coo back into the phone as Giorno watches you with big eyes. “Your brother is here with me. I just have to get us through customs and then we’ll be with you before you know it.”

“Would you please hurry mum? I miss you!” his voice is that typical demanding monotone, but you know he’s probably just tired and cranky from being up past his bedtime.

“I promise I’ll hurry as best I can my love. You don’t worry your pretty little head. I miss you too, but I’m here now topolino. Can I talk to mommy please?”

In the background you hear his father reprimand him gently, but you also hear his very serious “mummy, phone!” and the softest chuckle that makes your heart do backflips.

“I’m sorry darling. He’s been antsy all day and had to get the corner because he got grumpy with daddy.”

That soothing voice makes your heart leap, that familiar pull also turns your face a bright red as you follow the other passengers into a line up in customs.

“Well...” your voice is low, sultry. “I’m a bit antsy too, are you going to have to punish me as well, sweet Eri?”

The way Erina scolds you with a sharp squeak of your name makes you grin even larger. You lean down to kiss your baby’s head as he continues to stare up at you, transfixed on your voice and possibly wondering in his baby way who you’re talking to. Even Erina begins to scold, and you can tell she is over the long wait and ready for you to come home too. All you can do is smile at your baby like a fool as Erina pesters you about propriety. She may look on the outside the very picture of a timid little blonde, but you know better. She’s a spitfire who can take command of a rioting crowd with voice alone, and you can’t wait for her to cover you head to toe in her affection.

“-not be saying that in front of all those people! I swear, you’re both just the same! The nerve, the audacity-...”

“I’m almost there my love. I’m sorry. I just can’t wait any longer to be with my family. Can I talk to Jojo please?”

Erina stops her ranting when you ask so politely. You’ve still got a bit longer to wait to scan both passports, and you’re already fishing them out of the sling pocket where they’ve been resting with Giorno this entire time. She relents with a final “be safe” and an exchange of love before she relinquishes the phone.

“Darling!” A deep voice, so warm and sincere with boyish charm, almost sounds like a squeak at the prospect of hearing your voice.

“I’m home Jojo.” You say. “I just wanted to hear your voice before I go through.”

There’s a few more families ahead of you, and even though you feel a bit bad cutting his time talking to you short, you know you’ll make it up to him later on.

“Quickly, I just wanted to tell you we all love you both! And we’re all here waiting, do you have any bags?” He is breathless, excited, forgetting the plan and just as raring to see his new son as everyone else.

“Yes Jojo, we’ll have to get them once I’m free. It’s my turn now.”

“I love you!”

You have to respond, tell him you love him too before placing the phone in your sling pocket (did you even hang up? Oh well…), and you head up holding both passports at an awkward angle. Luckily you’re not doing this one handed. Jonathan had been the one to suggest the feeding sling for your baby, and it’s so easy to do things when Giorno is just nestled in his little pouch. You could probably juggle chainsaws with him, but right now it’s just needed to get you through this damn line.

As soon as you’re through, and there’s only one direction left to go passed the money exchange, you feel your heart begin to pound rapidly in your chest. Giorno pulls on your shirt, almost like he can read your mind, and you have to kiss his tiny hands with shaky lips. You have to be careful. Prevent yourself from losing your cool and tripping over your own two feet because you were too excited. So many extra things to worry about now that you’re a mother, but that’s ok. As long as you keep grounding yourself with the baby and slowing the hell down.

You hear them calling your name before you see them. Immediately your head snaps towards the sound, and you have to keep it together before you break out into a run. The first one you focus on is George, over excitable as always whenever he sees you. Then you see Erina, her cheeks are pink and eyes shining with those happy tears when she sees you with one hand on Giorno’s sling. And finally, you see Jonathan, trembling and holding tightly to the handle on Danny’s harness while even the gigantic Great Dane senses the excitement. It feels like walking underwater towards them, but George is the first to break free from his mother’s grip and lunges at you. You brace for impact and let him do what he wishes, grabbing your leg tightly and practically screaming for you at the top of his lungs.

“Mummy! Mummy!”

“Shhhh…” you try to calm him from screaming and scaring the baby.

Giorno doesn’t seem to be too frightened however, he turns in the sling to stare at the little boy with wide eyes, unaware that the screaming six year old is his big brother. George only stops when you shower him with kisses, his chubby cheeks peppered as you take his hand and lead him with you to your lovers. It’s all over after that. You’re pulled every which way to be kissed and loved it makes you dizzy, and Jonathan nearly loses balance when Danny tries to prevent him from having an attack because of all the excitement.

“Oh, oh!” Jonathan coos when he sees his newborn son looking soulfully up at him from the sling. “Hello my love. Don’t cry, did I scare you?”

“I think he’s overwhelmed with all this love.” Erina laughs, picking up her son as easily as one would a feather pillow so that George could look at his new baby brother.

“My brother!” It’s all George can seem to say.

You beam at the attention, cradling the baby and pulling back the sling so your lovers can gush about their new son. To Erina, who hadn’t been able to attend your birth, this is the first time Giorno has been seen outside of an ultrasound or touched outside of her beautifully slender hands caressing the taut skin of your tummy. Jonathan attended the birth and stayed a few weeks after, and there’s a wordless struggle for possession of the baby between him and Erina as they lean towards your chest to place kisses on his plump cheeks.

Even more sweet is the tiny hand that reaches out from the sling, groping for something, the three of you are unsure what he wants, until you see Giorno’s tiny hand lightly caress George’s cheek.

“Let’s go, we need to get your bags, and then make our way home.” Erina smiles, kissing your lips ever so gently.

“Home…” Jonathan coos fondly.

The way they say it, it makes you ache. You won’t stop aching until you get home, but the pain begins to dull when Erina takes one hand, and Jonathan the other, leading you to the luggage carousel where you will collect the last few things you own. Your old life is behind you now, the prospect of a new life, a happier one now that you’re home, looms in the distance. At this time of night the airport is slowly being deserted, but there’s still a crowd that looks on, almost perplexed at the family consisting of three adults, a service dog, and two little boys who look at each other as if they have found a treasure.

#giorno is there too #so is george #no more ugly ass canon giorno mom #my kid now bitch #erina pendleton x reader #jonathan joestar x reader x erina pendleton #jonathan joestar x reader #jonathan joestar x erina pendleton #jojo’s bizzare adventure #jojo’s bizarre adventure phantom blood #alternate universe #george joestar II #giorno giovanna #LET GIORNO HAVE A GOOD FAMILY #every day i take the hammer and FIX THE CANON #jjba #jjba x reader #jjba pb

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scandalousfemale · 4 years ago

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7. When Doves Cry

Chinese!OC X Kelce

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Zombies were meant for apocalyptic movies and tv shows where one could binge watch for a day and return to their mundane life. But something happened, a lab test went wrong and suddenly the outbreak started. This story takes place exactly three weeks after zombies slowly started to take over the planet.

Series Master List

WC:1866

Warnings: PTSD, grief, dealing with grief in different ways and blaming someone for their grief, as always- there’s blood, and weapons

A/N: Hi! I don’t know if anyone is still interested in this because I stopped updating so suddenly. If you’d like to be taken out of the tag list, PLEASE MESSAGE ME!!! I will take you off the list, no questions asked so don’t feel bad. This is a short chapter just to get the ball rolling again. The song at the end is called Everything’s An Illusion by Mayday Parade. Please, enjoy.

Numbness was what Kaili had felt as she climbed back down the hatch. It was as if the world moved in slow motion and then crashed into her all at once when she found the side of her face being slammed onto the cabinet above the sink by a blonde blur. The sharp pain to her cheekbone was nothing compared to the ache spreading through her chest, sending a burning sensation with each pump of her heart that was followed by ice. She knew Sarah was yelling at her but the words were muffled by everyone else who were yelling at the girl holding her in place.

Kelce was the first to pry the girl’s hands off her, she’d say he tried but it was barely a contest-- Sarah was either going to let go or Kelce was going to bend her fingers back. Before Kaili had the chance to fully turn around, the blonde had elbowed Kelce in between his ribs, causing him to take a small step back from surprise, giving her the chance to pull a switchblade from Kaili’s band and press it against the girl’s neck. As Sarah crowded the already small space, Kaili leaned further back onto the counter, allowing the edge of the sink to dig into the small of her back.

“What the fuck did you do? What did you do?!” Sarah’s voice broke in the middle of her screech, keeping the cool weapon against Kaili’s neck and at this moment, the dark haired girl wished she could have felt anything but her body had shut down in the name of self preservation. In a twisted way, Sarah looked beautiful like this, Kaili thought to herself. The blonde’s hair was stuck to her cheeks, tears acting like glue. The wild look in her eyes was far from hollow, they were angry, confused, alive...far from anything Kaili was feeling.

“You’re a murderer! A fucking murderer!” Sarah continued, pressing the blade so hard against Kaili’s neck that it broke skin. In a flash, the girls were reversed. Sarah’s body was against the counter instead, her arm twisted to hold the blade against her own neck.

“You don’t get to use his moves against me!” Sarah cried, trashing herself against the paler girl. She was right, Kaili had learned this move from Rafe and though she didn’t intend to use it, reflex...or maybe another feeling took over. She didn’t like being threatened, especially when she only did something that her friend had asked of her.

“I did what he asked me to do. You don’t get to call me anything when you left him open back there!” Kaili grit through her teeth, pushing away from the squirming sobbing girl, letting anger be the first feeling that she allowed. Pushing the blade back into her band around her thigh, she put room between them.

“What are you— was Wheezie…” the blonde didn’t finish her sentence as her blubbering continued.

“You left him open, you all left him open! He fought by himself and got bit going after the fucking zombie that was on top—,” Kaili felt the frustration bubble up inside of her. The urge to throw the whole bus upside down just to show the hatred for this world that she was feeling but her words stopped when Kelce pushed through the end of the bus and aggressively closed the door to the main bedroom. She mentally took a step back from the scene and reminded herself that these were his little sisters and his best friends in front of her.

“You’re acting like I killed him,” Kaili’s words barely a whisper, “he was already dead. He didn’t want to be ripped apart in the last moments of his life so I’m sorry I made a promise to your brother. I’m sorry that he wanted a better death for himself and I needed him to have a more peaceful one.”

“Fuck you,” Sarah said in disgust. “There could’ve been something else we could’ve done. Anything else. You didn’t give him a chance!” In a swift motion, Sarah had wrapped her hands around Kaili’s neck, pushing her towards the other side of the bus.

Kaili, shuttling down again, had accepted the action. She knew when to pick her battles and though she wanted to sucker punch the younger girl just to get away from her, she didn’t. Sarah wasn’t too strong when she was sniffling and hiccuping through her tears so it didn’t hurt her as much as it would if the blonde was motivated by anger more than hurt.

Though the rest of the group, excluding Kelce who had gone to the bedroom and Topper who had been driving, stood around them, no one seemed to want to step in and pick a side. When Sarah reeled her arm back, as if to punch Kaili, Wheezie jumped up off the sofa where Kie had been holding her. The girl had yanked her sister’s arms away with such unsuspecting force that threw Sarah off, causing her to stumble backwards into her boyfriend’s arms.

”Stop it!” The smaller girl cried and kept pushing at her sister as they sob. “Kaili loved him, too!” The younger girl screamed and it made Kaili's breath catch in her throat, not ready to accept that admitting she loved Rafe meant that, in a way, she loved everyone else here.

Her heart grew heavy in her chest as the sisters had a screaming match. Sarah was placing the blame on everyone she could think of and finally, she sneered at her little sister, saying that it was her fault for leaving the doors open since it was the zombie on top of her that had bitten Rafe. This accusation had visibly knocked the wind out of Wheezie, making the girl to stagger back.

“Was it my fault?” Wheezie gasped as if she’d been holding her breath, “I didn’t mean to.”

“Stop it. It’s not your fault. No one could have known,” Kaili wanted to hug the girl and give her more support but right now she needed to get out of this space that seemed to be suffocating her. She knew that if Rafe was here, he’d never let anyone talk to Wheezie like that but what could she tell his other sister that’s just going through the motions of losing him.

John B had pulled Sarah towards him and away from the group as they made their way towards the front of the bus, as if he was satisfied with the damage that she had caused. Kaili numbingly handed a stunned Wheezie to Kie before she made her way into the bathroom and away from the scene. She’d ripped her clothes off and hopped into the shower, letting the water wash the blood off her thighs. She also inspected the very small cut on her neck with her fingers. The image of Rafe kept replaying over and over again, without even realizing she was sitting on the shower floor.

After the shower, Topper was convinced they were safe parking in a random parking lot at a plaza across from a mall for the night. He had retired to his bunk while Sarah made a big act about needing to sleep on the sofa that was converted into a bed because a bunk was too easy for Kaili to come and kill her. Kaili didn’t want to mention it but without the added deterrence of a low ceiling that a bunk would supply Sarah, it would’ve been much easier to kill her on the sofa. She didn’t have the energy toF be baited by the girl though, so she slipped into the bedroom when Kelce left to take a shower.

After what seemed like hours of hearing his voice mixed with Sarah, her annoyance grew. She knew that she was being unreasonable because there must be plenty of reasons he would be talking to the girl who called her a murderer, like the fact that that’s his best friend’s little sister but Kaili was going through grief of her own. She had just spared her friend a terrible death yet she was being blamed for it and with all the added stress of zombies, Kelce talking to Sarah seemed to be the easiest target for her to be angry at. So, when he softly pulled the sliding door open, Kaili wasted no time telling him to get out of the room.

The boy didn’t listen though, he shut the door and made his way to the bed. Kelce reached for her and she pulled back. He’d try to sit closer to her and she’d move away. As if they’re doing an unrehearsed tango, the moves were sloppy.

“Don’t touch me,” she finally snapped, climbing off the bed.

“Hey!” Kelce’s voice mimicked authority but it was hollow, “my best friend died, you don’t get to act like this with me.”

“I don’t get to act like what, Kelce? Like I’ve just had to put your best friend out of his misery? My friend? Because, guess what? I did” she tried to keep her tone matter of fact but her voice was strained. She was suffering more than she wanted anyone else to know. She couldn’t get the image of Rafe’s limp body out of her mind and the soft look in Kelce’s eyes showed her that he knew.

She hadn’t even noticed that she was squeezing her eyes shut until she was brought back to the present by the feeling of Kelce’s hands holding the nape of her neck.

“Don’t shut me out,” was all he could say before his body wracked in sobs, “I can’t stand it, please,” his voice cracked as he got on his knees, moving to her side of the bed and grabbing her arm so that her body was flushed against his. He buried his face onto her shoulder and pulled her roughly on top of his lap. Her knees hitting the bed hard on either side of him. Her heart was threatening to jump out of her throat listening to him sob and feeling his arms wrap around her waist as she wrapped hers around his head, holding his face to her body as to block the hurt.

She understood the pain, she did. Losing someone that you’ve known since you were kids was hard no matter the scenario. She remembered Wei every single day since her passing but it was also something she was starting to accept, something she knew that she needed to grow numb to in this type of world. So, she pushed the sobbing boy backwards against the bed and pulled the blankets over the both of them. As he lay his head on her chest, she ran her fingers up and down his back, singing a song she recalled from what seems like a lifetime ago.

“Sleep well, my friend, there will be another moment we’ll meet again. Just let it go. Sleep well, goodnight. You’re something I’ll remember. I wish that you were here by my side.” She sang the words like a lullaby and a prayer wrapped in one, not sure if there’s a difference anymore.

taglist: @millyelliot @annab-nana @downbytheouterbanks @anakinwalker @bedazzledbanks @anxietyandtacos @jellyfishbeansontoast @outerbankslut @bricksatlandyswindow @damndunner @butgilinsky @spideymyluv @jiaraendgame @thegreatestofheck @theelusivesofia @tomfreakinghollandneedsaoscar @deathcompass @queenk00k @stfukie @rafej-cambanks @kindahavefeelingskindaheartless @phuvioqhile

#outer banks #outer banks kelce #kelce fanfiction #obx kelce #kelce obx

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baepop · 5 years ago

Text

PRIVATE // 6

You crash the proposal dinner.

Word Count: 5.9k

Pairing: Jungkook x You x Jennie

Genre: So much angst...and smutty smut

You awoke in Yoongi’s bed the morning after. Your eyes had swollen and crusted over from the excessive crying that took place all night. At the thought of why your eyes were so puffy, the realization set in all over again. Thankfully, you were too tired and numb to start crying again. The pain inflicted on you from the memory of meeting Jennie’s mother was now dull and instead overshadowed by slight embarrassment at letting Yoongi see how upset you were. Though you were still pissed that he kept something so important from you, you were grateful that he was willing to nurture you in this wounded state instead of being his usual callous self. Yoongi could surprise you with his soft side from time to time.

You yawned and stretched out your limbs, your body feeling as stiff as if it had been asleep for years. You had no idea what time it was since Yoongi’s room was always dark from drawn blinds and dark curtains. You hesitated in getting out of bed for a few more moments, reveling in the comfort Yoongi’s quilted blankets offered. You knew that the minute you forfeited their warmth, you’d have to face reality’s all too cruel embrace.

You rolled over and slowly sat up right, preparing your bare feet to touch the cold hardwood floor, but before you did, you realized there was a body lying in the way. You fisted your eyes groggily then peered over the edge of the bed to get a better look. Yoongi was laying on the floor and his body was so still you weren’t sure if he was actually sleeping or just laying there with his eyes closed. You jabbed your toe into his rib and he instantly swatted it away. Ah, the latter.

“I thought you were sleeping on the couch?” You watched as he stretched and settled his hands across his flat stomach, eyeing the ceiling.

“I was. But I dunno…just decided to sleep in here. Had to make sure you weren’t gonna fucken kill yourself or some shit.”

This time, you jammed your heel into the boy’s side, earning a grunt of pain out of him. “Ha-ha. Very funny. Seriously though…thank you. I mean I still hate you for being a deceitful piece of shit, but thanks for having my back last night.”

“Wow, that’s like…the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.” Yoongi’s monotone made you giggle, but it came out horse. “Seriously though, don’t mention it. Last night was stressful as hell. Please do not put me in that predicament again.”

“I refuse to feel badly, you deserved every bit of it. But don’t worry, you won’t be put in the middle of any of this anymore. I’m going to settle this shit tonight,”

Yoongi paused briefly before replying, “So you’re still hell-bent on going huh?” You hummed a confirmation and hopped out of bed carefully so as not to step on him. Yoongi sighed and sat up, scratching the side of his head. “I guess there’s no keeping you from it then. They decided to host the dinner at Jennie’s place last minute, six o’clock. Now let me sleep.”

“Thanks, Yoongi.” You left his apartment swiftly to catch the very next shuttle going towards your apartment. You wanted to get home as quickly as possible and start your day. Considering that the fanciest dress you owned was an LBD with cutouts at the hips, you’d definitely need to do some shopping.

Jennie sighed heavily and massaged her temples. Her mother’s shrill voice could be heard even through the thick wooden door she was hiding behind. Her mother always made it a point to oversee the event planning even though she always hires professionals to do just that. Turns out it wasn’t just Jennie with whom she’d never be satisfied with. Jennie felt badly for the staff because, while she was able to escape her mother’s demands even if only momentarily, they could not.

There was still 45 minutes until the start of the first course, but Jungkook and his family were already perched in Jennie’s living room, politely pretending not to hear all the yelling going on in the dining room. They were making conversation with her father whom had just arrived from a 16 hour flight. Just when things got quiet from behind the door, Jennie’s mother barged into the kitchen and forced her daughter out of hiding out so she could mingle and be the perfect hostess. As she stared at the backs of her guests’ heads peering above the sofa from afar, her stomach churned, and she wished so badly that you were there to make this easier. She hated everything about this, but she agreed to it and there was no backing down now.

Jennie swallowed thickly and approached her guests. Her father immediately noticed her and made room for her next to him on the couch. He embraced her with one arm once she finished bowing to Jungkook’s family and began praising her. She grimaced and avoided eye contact with Jungkook, hating the way her dad sounded fake while complimenting her. Jungkook fought his instinct to roll his eyes valiantly.

You heard laughter and a medley of voices you’d never heard before from the other side of Jennie’s front door. You took a moment for yourself in the hallway to calm your nerves. You stared down at your heels and smoothed your lavender satin dress over your stomach. Loose curls hung from the sides of your face while the rest formed a carefully crafted updo. There was still 15 minutes until the dinner would be starting, but it seemed the event was already underway and in full swing. You didn’t hear Jennie’s or Jungkook’s voices at all and feared this was a huge mistake. You were so mad at them, but the momentum from your hurt feelings was losing steam as it suddenly became all too real. You took a few more deep breaths, deciding that you wouldn’t let this dress go to waste and that if you were going to lose your best friend and your boyfriend all at once then you wouldn’t go down without swinging. You knocked on the door loudly three times and listened carefully. It seemed no one was aware of the knocking, yet you heard the distinct sound of heels against hardwood approaching the door.

As the door opened, Jennie’s mother peered from behind it. Her shocked expression morphed into one of disbelief and then annoyance at your presence in the doorway. You cleared your throat when the woman seemed to be in no hurry to actually let you in.

“I’m just here to show my support, like you wanted me to.” You stared into her eyes innocently, but she could see right through your feigned innocence.

“Mom, who is it?” Jennie called out from the living room as the conversations died down. You smiled sweetly at the older woman, both of you realizing that she wouldn’t be able to turn you away quietly. The older woman stepped aside so everyone could see who had arrived.

“It appears your friend has come to show her support.” You stepped through the doorway and waved at the crowd of people sitting down. Jennie shot up in alarm and stared at you with wide questioning eyes. Her smile was wide and her expression inquisitive, her silence urging you for answers but you simply returned a blank stare and tight smile. The older man next to her whom you presumed to be her father stood up as well.

“Jennie, don’t be rude. Go greet your friend!” He then turned to you and smiled. “You came just in time, dinner is just about to be served.” You smiled and tucked a curl behind your hair as you bowed. “Thank you! I just wanted to be here during a really important occasion as Jennie’s best friend!” You made your way over to Jennie and hugged her halfheartedly while she was still unable to form words. Her hands lingered on the small of your back.

As you situated yourself at the independent sectional in between the two parallel couches, you finally allowed your eyes to rest on Jungkook. He was dressed impeccably with his hair swept to the side exposing his forehead. He had his eyes trained forward, determined to avoid your piercing stare. He was rigid as stone, but you were still able to detect the subtle way his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. It brought you faint satisfaction that you made him nervous. You were unbelievably pissed at him.

Jisoo on the other hand, was barely able to contain her laughter at the absurdity of the situation. She took turns staring in between the three of you then smirking down at her lap. Although she held no allegiance to you and continuously made that crystal clear, you were upset that she hadn’t said anything to you either despite having plenty of opportunity to do so.

As your eyes traveled further down the couch, you took in Jungkook’s dad for the second time. He seemed to be confused as to why you looked so familiar, so you offered him a little help.

“It’s nice to see you again Mr. Jeon! Do you remember me? I helped your son pick out that suit.”

His eyes lit up instantly, “Ahh, yes of course! It’s lovely to meet you again. Thank you so much again for your help! He looks handsome, doesn’t he?” Jungkook’s father laughed and patted his son on the shoulder. Jennie’s parents laughed and nodded in agreement. You tried your best to laugh along hoping the stabbing feeling in your heart would go away soon.

“Oh, it’s my pleasure of course. Anyone who’s courting my bestest friend in the whole wide world should look the part!” You smiled cheesily between Jungkook and Jennie. You could see Jisoo’s frame shaking from the corner of your eye.

Jungkook’s dad made a comment on how small the world seemed to be just as a waiter appeared to escort everyone to the dining table. You took a seat next to Jisoo and watched everyone else for queues on how to behave appropriately. You’d never attended a fancy dinner and had no idea which utensil was for what.

“Lay the fabric over your lap, dummy.” Jisoo commented under her breath at you as the staff members placed small bowls of soup in front of everyone. You did as she instructed, trying not to seem like a rookie in front of so many wealthy people. If you were honest, you were in no mood to eat. The spectacle unfolding in front of you was proving too much to handle already. Jungkook and Jennie were made to sit across from each other as their parents took turns talking about how great they were and how profitable it would be to merge their families.

You watched everyone take hold of the wider spoon to the right of the bowls and followed their lead. You dipped the utensil into the reddish brownish liquid and sipped gingerly through barely parted lips. It was delicious of course, but you couldn’t force yourself to eat so you settled for wading your spoon around the bowl while looking around the table.

Your eyes first gravitated towards Jennie’s face. She was smiling at her parents and Jungkook’s but it didn’t quite meet her eyes. As if sensing your eyes on her, her head drifted in your direction and your eyes met for the second time that night. The edge of her lips feebly quirked upwards but you decided to turn your head and ignore it. Your petulant behavior didn’t bring you the revenge you craved, but it was a start.

Your gaze moved on to her mother who was animatedly chatting amongst the older people. Everyone laughed at her jokes and hung on her every word. They probably didn’t suspect her of being the type of woman to lure a college student into a car for the sole purpose of crushing her romantic relationships.

Her husband on the other hand, smiled with his eyes here and there but barely contributed to the conversation. He simply nodded along when a story included him in it and ate his food. He seemed tired and for a brief moment, you pondered what his relationship with Jennie might be like.

Jungkook seemed to be embarrassed by his dad’s constant praise. His hand barely left the back of his neck since everyone sat down. He circled his spoon around in his soup just as you did while sneaking glances in your direction. Your eyes dared him to look back at you for once and face you, but he never did. You sighed and faced forward again, waiting for the next course, but you instantly noticed Jungkook’s mom’s trained eyes on you. She seemed to have been observing you for a while. You blushed and smiled, but her look remained concerned. She spoke to you quietly from across the table without disturbing the ongoing conversations. “You’re a…friend of Jennie’s?”

“Yes, we’ve been inseparable for the past year!” A giggle bubbled up in your throat but died before it could realize its potential. The woman was clearly unconvinced. Your smile faded and you began sweating, feeling like she could see right through your false happiness.

“And how do you know my son, again?” You were starting to feel uncomfortable with her questioning, feeling as if she knew more than she was letting on.

“Mom, she was the girl who helped me with the suit, remember? What’s with the third degree?” Jungkook chuckled nervously from a few seats down but you could sense his annoyance. You were relieved he came to your rescue, but it was hurtful being reduced to just another store clerk. You felt a lump in your throat form.

Much to your relief, the waiters instantly appeared with the second course. Bite-sized appetizers sat perched at the center of each plate placed in front of all the guests. The dish was some variation of bruschetta and it smelled fantastic. Your mouth watered as you picked a piece up between your fingers and plopped it in your mouth. You hummed in delight with your cheeks so full your eyes turned into crescents. Jennie’s mother scowled at you for eating with your hands, but her husband reacted by chuckling to himself. You almost choked in a hurry to swallow.

The rest of the courses went smoothly, for the most part. After the appetizer, a spring salad was served followed by seared steak and finally, a pop colored mousse with an ambiguous taste that intrigued you. The only hiccups happened when you had to hold back dramatically gagging as their parents discussed the topic of grandchildren. The three of you wore the exact same pale and uncomfortable expressions. However, when Jennie’s mom decided to brag about Jennie’s nonexistent cooking skills, you failed to hold back the cackle that escaped your mouth. You held up your palms together apologetically for disrupting dinner again while Jennie covered her grin with her palm. Jungkook allowed himself a small smirk.

As the dishes were being collected around the table signaling the end of the dinner, Jungkook’s father began talking about his son’s budding career in baseball. He seemed to be immensely proud while informing Jennie’s parents of all the scouts that have visited Jungkook’s games.

“Isn’t that right, Jisoo?” Mr. Jeon turned to his niece while explaining how supportive she was of Jungkook’s athletics. “She attended the last one where he pitched a perfect game!”

“Uh, almost, Dad. I almost pitched a perfect game.” Jungkook intervened, the blush evident on his face. It was strange to see him in a setting where he wasn’t overtly cocky.

“Ahh, Kook’s always so modest!”

Jisoo put her phone away at the sound of her name but the bored look on her face stayed. “Oh…yeah I was there. It was a great game. Wasn’t it, Y/N? She was there too, being just as supportive!” Everyone turned to you at the table and you could feel the nervousness prickle at your scalp. You and Jennie’s mom shared the same horrified expression. You whipped your head towards Jisoo whom was facing you. No one could see the wild amusement on her face.

“Uhhhhhh…Yeah. I was there. I…uh…I’m all about school spirit! Way to go Jungkook.” You laughed pathetically, hoping their parents wouldn’t catch on to just how strange this situation was. You gulped while looking around the table. “Uh, Jisoo actually invited me! We’re actually becoming really great friends!” You ruffled the top of her head. The pale girl sneered at you and cringed at the physical contact.

“Oh? And how is it that you know my niece, seeing as she doesn’t go to your school?” Jungkook’s mom quirked her eyebrow at you and you never wanted the earth to swallow you whole more than at that very moment.

“Yeah, how DO you know me?” Jisoo placed her elbow on the table and leaned her cheek onto her palm, enjoying your misery down to the last drop.

You hated all this lying. It only led to more lies and you couldn’t take much more. You frowned and looked at Jennie who seemed to mirror your look. You took a deep breath, resolute in explaining what’s really going on.

However, it seemed Jennie was an expert at reading your face because she shot up from her seat before you could open your mouth.

“Oh my god! I accidentally ripped my dress! Y/N, come help me fix it!” Jennie scurried out of the dining area and up the stairs that led to her room. You hesitantly excused yourself from the table and made your way to the stairs but not before glancing back over your shoulder and meeting Jungkook’s annoyed stare. He was finally looking straight at you.

You held your dress in one hand and the railing with the other as you made your way up to Jennie’s room. You were so preoccupied with escaping the interrogation that you were only now realizing this would be the first time you’ve gotten some alone time with Jennie, since the night of the party and more importantly since you found out what was going on with her and Jungkook. You held your hand on your chest and felt your heart thumping furiously, willing it to calm down before you entered the bedroom.

You took a steadying breath, closing and locking the door behind you. Jennie was sitting on the edge of the bed, one of her legs crossed over the other. Her arms were folded in front of her and her fingers drummed impatiently on her arm. Her dress was in pristine condition, just as you suspected.

“Seriously Y/N? What the hell was that!? Are you playing some kind of game with Jisoo? Get it together! You were about to ruin everything in front of my family. Why did you come here if you weren’t going to take this seriously!?” Jennie was sputtering angrily. She had never talked to you like this, ever.

Your heart quickened in pace and you could feel heat radiating from your face. Your breathing shortened as you stood there getting scolded by her. Without thinking, you closed the distance between you two and smacked her in the face so hard your hand tingled. Jennie brought a hand up to her cheek but refused to move or talk any more. You were both in shock and reeling from emotions running high.

“How dare you,” you struggled to find the words to convey your electric emotions, “you have no right to sit there and scold me like a child after what you’ve been up to behind my back. I wouldn’t have to be so careful about what I say if this situation wasn’t so fucked up! Nothing about this is normal Jennie, NOTHING. And you’re the worst fucking friend EVER.” Jennie remained quiet and didn’t bother turning her head to look at you, so you turned to leave the room in a huff. Jennie’s hand immediately shot out and caught your wrist before you could get away.

“Don’t go.” Jennie’s voice was so small it was almost inaudible. You turned around to see her looking up at you with panicked eyes, but you were too mad to care about sparing her feelings. You ripped your arm out of her grasp as your chest heaved. Your heartbeat thrummed loudly in your ears.

“Seriously? That’s all you’ve got!? What was your plan exactly? After the stunt you pulled at the party and now stabbing me in the back like this, I don’t even get an apology?! You have so much explaining to do it’s actually laughable, Jennie. But instead, you haul me up here on the pretense of a fashion emergency, just to tell me to play along to your bullshit better!?” You reached for a seam at the bottom of Jennie’s dress with both hands and ripped the fabric wide open, revealing her legs underneath. She gasped in response and stared at her exposed lower body with a gaping mouth.

“Y/N, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!?” She stood up from the bed and pushed you in a huff. You stumbled back, matching the wild look in her eyes with your own. “You should really go. You’re acting crazy right now.” Jennie fiddled with the bottom of her dress. You walked up close to her towering over her.

“Oh? But I thought you wanted me to stay.” You questioned her innocently. If she thought you were being crazy now, then she was in for a treat.

“Not if you’re going to act like this I don’t.” Jennie jutted out her chin, refusing to back down.

“What am I doing that’s so crazy huh?” You yanked the single strap of her dress down her shoulder. She immediately brought her arms up to her chest, holding up the remainder of the fabric. Jennie’s nostril’s flared with rage. “Considering what you’re doing to me, this is pretty fuckin tame sweetheart!” You pushed her back and she fell on the bed with a bounce. She sat up on her forearms and blew her hair out of her face.

“I mean, what the fuck do you want me to act like!?” You parted her legs with your knee and then rested it on the bed between them so she couldn’t close them. Your hair slipped over your shoulder as you leaned over her, placing your palm over her underwear and firmly cupping. She gasped as her legs twitched. “Is this what you fucking want? Is this what you were expecting from me?” You began rubbing circles furiously over her underwear once you saw the lustful gaze that clouded her vision. She started mewling and panting. You didn’t care whether anyone heard her, in fact, you wanted her to scream so loud that it’d be impossible to keep secrets around here anymore. You also wanted to get back at Jungkook for betraying you so badly, and what better way to do that than to fool around with the person that made him so insecure.

You climbed onto the bed and sat on Jennie’s leg as your hand continued its relentless movement against Jennie’s middle. You could feel her underwear dampening rapidly, a light sheen of sweat already forming on the exposed part of Jennie’s chest. Her chest heaved irregularly, no doubt a result of the sharp pleasures wracking her body. She threw her head back and exposed her neck as she tried to keep her moaning quiet. You leaned forward and ran the flat wetness of your tongue from her collar bone to her ear, earning a shiver from her entire body. She was wearing her bottom lip out with her teeth, so you pulled it out from their grasp with your thumb and held her chin to keep her eyes trained on you. Her arms and legs broke out in goosebumps.

You observed Jennie getting closer to her climax, but it didn’t feel like enough. You were trying not to think through what you were actually doing. You wanted to convey your frustration so badly. You felt used and angry. You weren’t sure why your emotions were manifesting themselves sexually, but you couldn’t stop now. It was all so intoxicating and taboo. Everyone must be wondering why it’s taking you two forever to come down. You were holding the hostess hostage, after all. These simple facts thrilled you. To hell with everyone.

You climbed down from the bed and onto the floor so that your head was level with Jennie’s mid-section. You yanked her underwear down her legs so roughly you swore they tore a little and then parted her legs with the same vehemence. She was glistening and blushing. You hooked your arms around her thighs and pulled her closer to you. You licked a stripe up her pussy and latched your lips onto her clit, sucking on it with no remorse. Jennie began moaning and groaning incessantly. Her lower stomach twitched and her legs ached to close at the buildup of sensation. You held them wide open with both of your hands and continue sucking on her mound, taking brief pauses to swipe at the accumulating wetness. It still wasn’t enough.

Your right hand released her thigh so your fingers could work their magic. One of your digits entered her with slick ease. Jennie’s eyes burst open and looked down at you, her face portraying an incredulous expression. You eased a second finger into her, earning a loud moan. She was tight, but wet enough to take it. “That’s it baby, lemme hear you.” You cooed up at her but her eyes were glazed over and looking past you in absolute pleasure.

Your fingers pressed against the sensitive spot inside her and began moving in and out, slowly at first but gradually picking up speed until you were pumping relentlessly. Her entire body was overtaken with stimulation. She no longer had the strength to hold herself up, instead laying splayed out on the bed and bucking her hips into your hand. You leaned your face in and flicked her clit with your tongue to get more of a reaction out of her. She hissed and clench around your fingers, so you latched onto her clit again and settled the tips of your fingers on her g spot to draw her orgasm out from hiding.

“Ah…fuck…Y/N…Y/N” Jennie moaned your name over and over, so you made sure not to lose your pace. You could feel the signs of her climax approaching. Her walls clenched around you rhythmically and her hips waved around rapidly in your face. She was so shamelessly full of lust that, chasing her high without abandon. It was contagious, but you hadn’t come to please her. When her voice became high pitched, you pulled away instantly. Jennie opened her eyes, blinking a few times as if needing to remember where she was. She spoke to you while panting, “What the hell Y/N, why’d you stop?”

Bending down to pick up Jennie’s underwear, you wiped her juices off of your finger with them then chucked the pair at her. The thin fabric landed on her chest in a crumpled sag, then toppled to the bed as the girl sat up in confusion.

“Just giving you what you wanted.” You smoothed out your dress and checked your hair in Jennie’s vanity mirror. You sighed and turned to her for the last time. Tears were pricking at the edges of her eyes, though you weren’t sure if that was because of the sex or because she was sad. Her lip quivered and it seemed as if she was thinking about what to say, but you just didn’t want to hear anymore. “Good luck on the marriage Jennie, he’s a real catch.”

You exited the room without a glance backward. She didn’t stop you this time, and for that you were grateful. You weren’t sure if you’d have the strength to stay away if she had. You leaned on the door to catch your breath and steady your nerves before appearing in front of everyone downstairs. You stopped breathing long enough to hear Jennie sniffling from behind the door. You debated on going back in there. You knew you were being petty, but you just couldn’t take the high road, not with this. You hated everything about this and you hated both of them for creeping behind your back. And you resented the fact that neither of them considered you before making such a decision. Just thinking about everything had you realizing how hurt you were deep down. You’d never been hurt like this before, and you couldn’t believe the crushing blows came from two people you didn’t want to let in in the first place. This all served as a good reminder as to why you were so closed off like you were, because people end up doing things like this.

Footsteps coming up the stairs snapped you out of your thoughts. Your eyes met Jungkook’s just as his head came into view from the bottom of the stairs. You were caught off guard by his presence that all you could do was stare wordlessly. He looked amazing, even when his expression was so serious and guarded. The last few steps he took to reach the last stair were slow and hesitant. Soon you were eye to eye, both of you refusing to speak. He kept his hands in his pockets as his tongue rolled on the inside of his cheek.

He cleared his throat, interrupting the loaded silence in the air. “I came up to see what was taking you two so long. Everyone’s waiting downstairs.” He looked everywhere but at your eyes when he spoke. You didn’t doubt that he probably felt guilty about the situation, but you didn’t care about that, not when there was so much unsaid.

“Your finace’s in there crying, you should probably go comfort her.” You kicked off from the door to walk past him, but he caught your arm before you could get away. He kept his grip strong so you couldn’t move, but it’s not like you wanted to anyway, not when you craved his touch and attention. You wanted him to say something, anything that would make your hurting subside.

Jungkook sighed deeply, “Y/N, stop. Please don’t be like this. I know I have a lot of explaining and apologizing to do, but this isn’t the time or place. Please don’t let this change things between us.” He looked into your eyes, searching them for understanding.

“How can this not change anything? You’re getting engaged to my best friend, and you tried to keep it a secret. It’s so fucked up I can’t even begin to try to understand.”

Jungkook sighed again, releasing your arm and turning towards you. He tugged on his locks in frustration. “Do you think I’m happy about this? Do you think this is what I actually want? Y/N… just because I have obligations to fulfill doesn’t make what we have any less real.” Jungkook leans in so close you could smell his intoxicating cologne. You backed up until you hit the wall, but he followed you to it, leaving no space in between your bodies. His firm body pressed up against yours and you placed your hands on his chest in a week attempt to stop him. You held your breath as his cheek brushed against your temple. He breathed in lightly, taking your perfume in as well. His finger reached up and moved your curls out of your face, tipping your chin forward to get a better look at you. You allowed yourself to take his face in and all its features. His lips were parted and so close to yours, your head was swimming. As if reading your mind, Jungkook placed his other hand on the wall for support and went in for a passionate kiss.

His lips ate yours up in unrelenting motion that left you breathless. For a second, you didn’t care about breathing or not, you just wanted more of him. His lips sucked at yours, leaving them wet and swollen. You gasped for air as your tongues immediately found each other and began dancing in between your mouths. The sweet nostalgia of your sunny afternoons spent together, and sweaty lovemaking came flooding back, but instead of joy, they brought a pang of sadness with them. You couldn’t smother the sob that escaped you. Jungkook was too caught up in the passion to notice, so you bit down on his bottom lip hard enough to elicit pain. He backed off and brought his hand to his mouth, staring at you in wonder.

“What we had, Jungkook. I can’t do this with you anymore.” You couldn’t bring yourself to look at him, you were sure you’d start crying, so you bounded down the steps and escaped through the front door. You didn’t stop to say goodbye to everyone, nor check to see if they had noticed you running out. You couldn’t care less if you made a bad impression, you just needed to put as much space as possible in between you and this situation.

On the ride home you wondered if you should stop at Yoongi’s but decided against it. He’d seen enough of you crying for an entire lifetime. As lights and buildings and cars passed you by in the window, you scrolled through Instagram on your phone. It was probably a terrible idea to be on Jungkook’s page, but you were too worn out to fight your urges anymore. After everything that happened tonight, you wondered if it was worth reopening last night’s wound. Did you even get any closure?

You hit the unfollow button and then headed to Jennie’s page and did the same. If they were going through with this, you didn’t want a front-row seat to it. A montage of marriage pictures and future babies played in your head, and you surrendered to the sadness that came with it. You hated them, at least you wanted to believe you did, but the truth was that you were so hurt because you didn’t, not in the least. You exited the Uber and headed into your apartment. You began shedding your clothing on the way to your room. Once you reached your bed you were in nothing but your underwear and your fancy updo. You slid in between the blankets, pulling them up to your chin and staring at the wall in darkness. You must’ve left a window open because the chill in the apartment gave you goosebumps all over, but you couldn’t care about that right now. You were giving in to your feelings, yet the tears didn’t come. All dried out, I guess.

Just as the heaviness of the evening weighed you down, holding you stationary against the mattress, your eyelids began to close. Your breathing evened out and you welcomed the sweet release of sleep. But just before you drifted off, you became vaguely aware of your front door opening and closing, and then your bedroom door doing the same. In the grogginess and surrealism of sleep, you felt two bodies laying on either side of you, warming you up and comforting you for the night.

#jungkook smut #jennie smut #bts smut #bangtan smut #blackpink fanfiction #bts fanfiction #blackpink smut #bangtan #bts #private #private fanfic #baepop private

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give-seconds · 5 years ago

Text

Back To You

Summary: You and Mark are all each other have, he’s easily the most important person to you. But something happens and you both are slowly separated, so you work your hardest to be accepted into a college in Korea so you can find your way back to a home with him again.

Masterlist | Main Masterlist

I’m sorry this took so long! Also I apologize in advance for how boring the next three chapters might be, but I promise that I have an idea for where this is going! Italics are English, thoughts, or to emphasize a word! Also I promise that this story will get better!!

---Part 1

The e-mail had been pretty straight forward: schedule a flight between these specific hours, get on the plane, find the right terminal, check-in at the meeting place, and then wait to be whisked away by a shuttle. It was meant to make this exhausting process easier, but of course, you being you only turned it into a challenge.

The first half was easy, seeing as you only had to make sure not to miss the flight. It was after that, however, that things got difficult. This had been your first time traveling away from the city, and being a foster kid you had never been on a plane before. So navigating an airport, let alone one mostly in Korean, was harder than expected.

After having a near breakdown (the result of walking around the wrong terminal), a wave of relief washes over you as you finally find the right terminal. Smiling tiredly, you pull your suitcase towards the blue banner displaying ‘Ajou University’ in yellow letters.

A lady holding a clipboard and wearing a lanyard matching the banner meets you as you walk towards the sign, “Hi, are you here for Ajou University?”

“Yes, do I need to sign in?”

She smiles at you, clicking her pen “Nope, just tell me your name and I can check you in!”

“I’m y/n Qinn, Q-i-n-n.”

She flips a few pages, finger running down the left side of the page. Once she finds your name, she marks something down before smiling back up at you “Okay, you’re all checked in. You just missed the shuttle, but the last one will go out once the rest of the planes land.”

“Okay, thank you,” you say, bowing slightly before walking to the furthest corner.

You sit in the seat closest to the wall, setting your backpack on top of your suitcase. You better appreciate all that I’m going through for you.

Reaching forward, you unzip your bag to make sure your phone is still in your bag. You had checked it was there at the store, but as it was a new phone and you spent the first 30 minutes after border control buying a sim card and getting it set up, better safe than sorry.

“Can I sit?”

You look up to see a boy with dyed light brown hair pointing to the seat next to you. You nod your head, putting your phone back into the bag and moving your suitcase to rest against the wall “Of course.”

He takes his phone out of his back pocket before sitting down, placing his phone in the drink pocket in his backpack. “Do you speak Korean?”

“I speak a little, I don’t think I’m very good though,” you answer quietly.

He smiles at you “It’s okay, you’re still someone to talk to. Where are you from?”

“I’m from Canada, you’re from here right?”

He smiles, leaning back into his seat “More south, I’m from Busan.”

“Ah,” you say nodding your head.

He shakes his head, sticking his hand out to you, “Where are my manners? I’m Na Jaemin.”

You smile politely, shaking his hand despite not knowing what ‘manners’ meant “Y/n Qinn.“

Jaemin proceeds to ask you more questions, and thankfully he doesn’t seem too bothered by the basic questions you ask inturn. By the time the check-in lady announces that the shuttle is here, you’ve learned what Jaemin hopes to study, where the best food is (which he’s promised to take you there), and his favourite character (a cute lion named Ryan).

“Hey y/n?” Jaemin asks, slinging his backpack onto his shoulder.

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry if I’m coming off too strong, I’m just really nervous to be on my own. First time ever,” he admits, messing with the strap on his backpack.

You smile slightly, tilting your head to tell him to walk with you ”It’s okay, I enjoyed talking with you. I’m sorry if it comes off like I don’t, I’m not very confident in my Korean. But I’d like to think I made my first friend at the Gimpo International Airport.”

He turns his head to you, smiling brightly again “Aw, who knew you could be so sweet. I’m glad you’re my first friend too.”

You smile shyly up at him “Does this mean you’ll save me the trouble of finding a seat on the bus?”

“I may not know you that well, but I do know you’re lucky to have me to save you from the horrors of this world.”

You snort “And I may not know you that well yet, but I can already sense you’re a drama person.”

“Dramatic person.”

“Yes, dramatic person.”

“When we get off the bus, could students in the buddy program please meet me at the front of the bus. Students not in the buddy program, when we get off you’ll meet my colleague at the back of the bus. We would like you all to grab your things first and then meet us,” the attendant says, before repeating the message in Korean.

“By any chance, are you in the buddy program?” you ask, turning to Jaemin once the Korean message is finished.

He pouts “No. But we can meet up later if you want, if you’re not too tired. I don’t know if I can get you that good food I talked about, but I’m sure they have something equally good here.”

“Oh, okay,” you hum, bending down to pull your bag from under the seat in front of you, opening the front pocket. “Here,” you say, handing him your phone.

“I know I’m a smart guy and all, I am smart enough to realize this is to get my number, but I’m not smart enough to read the English. How do I add my number?” he asks shyly, handing the phone out to you.

“I don’t know what is so hard about the plus in the top right corner, but okay,” you tease, tapping the plus.

“Don’t take the tone up with me young lady,” Jaemin grumbles, adding his number and spending longer than necessary on the name. “Here,” he says proudly, handing the phone back “You should look at the name.”

You groan, already knowing it was going to be something extra. You can’t stop the smile once you see ‘Hansom 💘🐻✈️🚍🤍’

The bus slows to a stop, and you both stand up “Want to explain?”

“Well,” he says stepping into the aisle “The bear is Ryan, I am extremely sad they don’t have a yellow bear, the airplane because that’s where we met, the bus because of now, and the white heart because that’s my favourite color.”

“And the other heart?”

“Obviously because I stole your heart with my outstanding handsome looks.”

You snort, following behind him as the line starts moving “You spelled handsome wrong, idiot.”

He pauses before he regains his smirk “No, I spelled it cutely. There’s a difference.”

“Yeah, sure.”

You stop once you see the crowd forming around where the bags are being unloaded. “Come on,” you say, grabbing Jaemin’s arm and dragging him to the back of the crowd.

“Really, y/n?”

You shrug your shoulders, placing a hand on his shoulder to balance as you stand on the tips of your toes to try and look over everyone “It’s fine, this way we can avoid the crowds and spend more time together.”

“Okay shorty, how about you tell me what your bag looks like and I’ll brave the crowd for you.”

You smile, letting go of his shoulder and dropping back onto your feet “Okey, mine’s the pink one with the hard shell.”

“Shell?” he asks, laughing at your choice of words.

You wack his shoulder “Come on, I don’t know what it’s called. What is it called?”

“It’s called,” he pauses, before darting into the crowd. He comes back with a grey suitcase, a Ryan key chain hanging in place of a luggage tag.

“It’s called?”

He sighs in defeat, resuming his spot next to you “I don’t know y/n, shell is the best word for it I guess.”

“That’s what I thought,” you say, nodding triumphantly. “Hey, wait a minute. Where’s my bag? It should be out by now, I put mine in right before yours.”

“Wow, that eager to get away from me? I see how it is.”

You roll your eyes “You’re fine. You’re the one who offered to get my bag for me, so you should go into that crowd and find it.”

“Bossy much?”

You shrug your shoulders “It must sound that way because of my lack of Korean vocab.”

“Yeah, sure. Watch my bag,” he says, shoving his bag towards you and walking into the crowd again.

“Aw, thanks Jaeminie,” you gush, feigning a sweet smile once he emerges from the crowd with your bag.

He snorts “That is the fakest thing I have heard all day. Here,” he says, handing you the suitcase. “Take your stupid suitcase.”

You gasp, “No need to be harsh Jaemin, I was just complimenting you.”

“In the fakest way possible,” he pauses, taking his suitcase from you. “I guess we have to separate now.”

“You’ll be fine Jaemin, you came up to me pretty easily. You’ll make friends,” you offer, not knowing how to respond to the statement.

“I’m not worried about that, I’ll make friends with whoever is unlucky enough to be in my dorm. I’m worried about you and your lack of will to talk to people.”

“I don’t know if you’re being serious or not, but it’s okay. I already made one friend, I’m good waiting until someone else comes up to me.”

He shakes his head, grabbing his suitcase “Well then I guess I’ll see you for dinner.”

You nod your head, offering a small wave before you start your walk to the front of the bus. You see the lady from the check-in along with a group of students all waiting around the bus.

“Is this the buddy program group?” you ask the attendant.

She smiles at you “Yep, and can I have the folder you prepared?”

“Oh yeah, hold on,” you say, swinging your backpack off your shoulder and setting it on your bag.

“I hear that this is one of the harder parts, I bet you’re happy to finally be rid of it.”

You smile, handing her the file “I wouldn’t say hard, just time-consuming. Figuring out family relations was the hardest part.”

“Well we’re happy to have you here Ms-” she flips open the file “Qinn. We’re just waiting on a few more students and then we’ll get going.”

You nod your head, putting your backpack back on and moving to the side. Taking this moment to just breathe, you close your eyes and take a deep breath. You’re actually here, in another foregin country, looking for someone who you haven’t heard from since the end of your sophmore year. This doesn't count as impulsive if I’ve been planning this since Mark’s family said they were moving here right?

“Okay everyone” the attendant shouts, standing on the curb to get everyone's attention. “I just want to tell you a few things before we go meet your buddies, so listen up.”

“This is the bus stop, so if you ever take a bus off campus this is where you will be dropped off or picked up.” she points behind her to a building across the street. “That is the library, that’s where we’ll meet your buddies. Your buddies will have a folder for you, and in that folder, you will get your student ID card that you need to get into the dorms, your international student ID card, the code to get into your room, campus map, and instructions on what is on each floor of the dorms.”

She pauses, smiling to the crowd “Now that we’re done with the introduction, let’s go!”

----

Thank you for reading, I hope you liked it! Thank you to @mozartwasajungkookstan for helping me with this. I would love to know what you guys think of it!

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#nct mark #nct haechan #nct imagines #NCT #nct scenarios #nct jeno #mark lee x reader #haechan x reader #kpop #kpop scenarios #kpop imagines #mark lee #lee donghyuck #na jaemin #nct jaemin

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mrs-pissoff · 5 years ago

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Your eyes (part 2)

Part 1 here

Pairing: Reader (she/her) x Thane Krios

Disclaimer: I don’t own Mass Effect or its characters.

A/N: This will be a long one. I’m just verbose and love a slower burn. I have no idea how long this story will end up being, but hopefully I can finish it before my muse dies. I can tell she’s getting tired already.

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She retreated to her room hastily after the encounter, and if she wasn't feeling sleepless before, now she was definitely sure she wasn't going to get even a minute of restful sleep. It was all so surreal and his words rang in her mind endlessly.

You intrigue me.

Sitting down onto her bed a heavy sight escaped her lips. She wanted to understand why Thane of all people would say something like this, and to her. Someone who was less than kind to him. He didn’t seem to be the kind of man who’d say such things easily. The thought of him messing with her did cross her mind, but he surely has much better things to do than to get back at her in such a juvenile manner.

The need to remember and analyze her interactions with the drell overwhelmed her. She must have missed something that led to this moment. Surely she has.

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The last time they spoke was a few weeks ago, when he got word of what his son was about to do. The mission only required Shepard and Thane in the end, plus the cooperation of Captain Bailey and C-Sec, but she was still around while they gathered information on Kolyat's target and the person who ordered the hit. She was patiently listening from the sidelines, waiting for the pair to finish talking to Mouse.

She knew very little of Thane and his life. She never bothered to ask. ‘Assassins are not very complicated’, she thought. Meet contact, acquire target, fulfill contract by murder. Easy enough for someone who has the stomach to kill just about anyone regardless of their moral standing. Apparently, Thane was one such man and somehow that didn't make him appear in a more favorable light at all. Of course she was missing many of the pieces here. For example she never knew he had a son until yesterday. Someone was forgiving enough to love a man who kills without distinction if he's told to do so. The world was truly strange.

In hindsight her words seem awfully skewed now. Shepard had told her a few things about him since then, not that she cared to know any of it previously. It may have been better not to learn those things, but it was probably an attempt at trying to diffuse the situation by making her understand Thane's point of view a bit more. Not that it needed diffusing in the first place, it would never deteriorate further. She was done with that conversation, and with him. He was part of the team, and as such had to be tolerated, but that was the extent to what she could do for him. Nevertheless, Shepard, ever the peacekeeper, was relentless and in the end she learned certain things about him. Like how he was raised by the hanar and trained as an assassin from a young age, and how this was pretty much all he knew of the world around him. Seemed like an awfully meaningless life to her, having others make all the decisions for you as if you lacked free will, and being used as a tool. According to Shepard, Thane even referred to himself as such. It's hard to believe that anyone would think of living such a life as great honor. Senseless, all of it. Willingly giving away children to be trained as assassins, stripping them of the opportunity of a healthy and happy childhood. A fate like that can lead to no fully functional adult and Thane is a prime example of that. Life scars us all in different ways.

She knows these things now, but back then, at that moment when she first snapped at him, she didn't. These major differences in their culture flew right by her head and she never bothered to look deeper into why exactly Thane would do the things he had done. Perhaps it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Just because she knows, doesn't mean she has to accept it as well. It's just easier to understand now. But that day? That day when he admitted to abandoning his own son, who was now about to ruin his own life, Thane just looked like a dying coward with a filthy conscience, ready to save face. A man hopelessly scrambling to lighten his soul before the end. She thought his reasons were selfish and wanted to let him know how much of a hypocrite he was, how he failed to calculate the consequences of his negligence which culminated in this unfortunate situation. For the first time since joining the Normandy crew, she abandoned her cautious and reserved manner and let her words flow freely without filter. Words that were meant to tear at him. And she didn’t even understand why.

Shepard had just told him it was not his fault, and like a saint, he said he had to hold himself accountable. That was the last push, she couldn't stay silent any longer.

"How hypocritical of you. Leaving your son behind only to return now. Must have been one long journey finding that backbone." Her voice was low but bitter. She didn't want passersby to notice the conversation, but she wanted him to hear every word. Of course she wouldn't support his son's decision, but it was clear to her now where it was coming from. They never mentioned the possible motive during the debriefing on the shuttle, for good reason it seems.

"He faces a dark path." That much was evident, she wasn't debating it.

"If only he had a good example to follow, huh?" She felt her mood sink further as she faced him, and her tone mirrored that clearly. It was dripping with venom. And Shepard of all people told him just a few seconds ago how it wasn't his fault. There was no one left who was more at fault than Thane. No one.

"I left to protect him. To make sure that he would never be pursued by the people who killed his mother." A sound argument at first glance, but severely flawed at the second. At least he seemed to think it was the right choice, as his answer held a hint of resistance.

"You leaving isn't the biggest and only problem. It's the fact you never returned until now." Her jaw was clenched now and her eyes fixed on the male. His gaze was distant, almost as if a thick mist was obscuring his view. Perhaps she caught him off guard but his silence only angered her more and not waiting for a reply, she continued.

"Has it ever occurred to you that your son would have a different idea of why you left? Have you even stopped to think how it must have felt to him to lose not only a mother, but a father as well? Have you put so little faith in him that you've never considered returning to explain everything to him? You were fine leaving him in the dark all these years, but now that he's doing the only thing he can to understand you better, you decide to return!" Her voice was louder by the end than she would've liked, and she took a deep breath to calm herself. There was no need to draw too much attention to themselves. She wasn't even sure why she felt so affected, both Thane and his son were strangers to her. She couldn't even attach a face to the latter, as she's never met him. But here she was, getting worked up over something that wasn't even her concern.

She took one more breath and glanced at Shepard, half-expecting the Commander to step in and say something in Thane's favor like before. Instead she met Shepard's surprised eyes as they darted cautiously between Thane and her. There would be no fighting, no, Shepard didn't need to worry about that, but she would still bury Thane with her words. "It's almost as if the only reason you're here now is to clear your conscience."

"I wanted him to choose a different future, away from all the suffering I've caused. For him to live a better life than what I could have given him." His voice was almost too quiet to hear, his tone somber and remorseful. Her eyes met his once more.

"And so you decided to cause more suffering by leaving and never returning? So he could only guess why you left? Maybe even feel unwanted or responsible for it? You never gave him the chance to understand your reasons, you never asked him what he wanted and what would have made him happy. You weren't even there when he needed you the most! You hid like a gutless coward instead and would have died knowing that you were unworthy of being called a father!" There was little keeping her volume in check now as she hissed the last words, running out of breath as she finished.

The few concerned glances of the people around them made her snap out of her frenzy. Suddenly she felt more self-conscious than before. She glanced around uneasily before turning back to Thane one last time, careful not to be too loud this time.

"It may not be obvious to you, but it's certainly not rocket science either. Your son may have accidentally found the only way to successfully draw your attention to himself. Just think about how sad this is. Had he not decided to go through with this, you'd have never come here at all. It may not be his end goal to meet you, but I'm sure he hopes to gain an understanding of you at least. For his sake, I hope you can intervene in time and provide him solace. He deserved better."

There was nothing else she could or wanted to say. She felt drained of nearly all emotion, save for a drop of guilt. She didn't even know what she felt guilty for, it was certainly not for Thane. No. You reap what you sow, right? Right. She felt somewhat sorry for Shepard for having to witness this conversation, sure, but that wasn't it either. Perhaps it was the fact that she'd never shown so much of herself so publicly. A selfish reason, but who wants to make a fool of themselves in front of a crowd? Especially knowing how this whole issue had nothing to do with her. If only she managed to take her own advice and mind her business and stew about it alone, when no one was looking. She needed to leave. And right now. She looked up at Shepard, almost begging the Commander with her eyes to break the deafening silence and thankfully, Shepard delivered.

"Come on, we're wasting time. Let's go back to Bailey."

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She spent the rest of the time sitting on a bench not too far from Bailey's office where Shepard and Thane conducted their impromptu interrogation. The waiting was killing her, sitting alone and overthinking her previous outburst wasn't proving very productive. She needed to sleep, or cry, or both. Anything to purge her system.

The pained expression of Thane also haunted her more than she'd like to admit. The man made many mistakes, and paid for most of them. Now it was a possibility that he'd lose the only thing left that he may have held dear to his heart. It really wasn't her place to lash out at him. Of course Shepard's coddling of him also rubbed her the wrong way, for more reasons than one. So, so selfish. The thought of ruining an innocent child's hopes and future still sent her fuming though. Why are children always the ones who have to suffer the most? It was never fair, never. They'd have to carry the burden, be molded by it and grow up with it. If they were lucky, they'd become healthy adults who'll know better than to inflict the same on their own children. If not, then regardless of the reason, they could be tempted to follow a bad example, like Kolyat.

She snapped out of her thoughts when she saw Shepard return, Thane and another drell, his son, being escorted behind her by Bailey and his men. She didn't even realize they moved on from the interrogation. Just how much time has passed?

Thane and Kolyat were led into a separate room, while Shepard and Bailey discussed whatever happened and may come next. She breathed a sigh of relief as her eyes met Shepard's. They were all alive and seemingly well at the very least.

Bailey and the Commander continued talking for what seemed like an agonizingly long time before Shepard joined her. She spoke before the Commander could.

"Reunited at last. Did it go well?"

"Better than expected. We arrived before Kolyat could fulfill the contract. Bailey offered to provide a room for the two of them to catch up and... sort things out. They've been in there for a while now, we'll leave once they're done."

She listened but was somehow still distracted by how easily Shepard could solve problems. Attempted assassination, finding a ship that was lost a decade ago and saving its surviving crew, infiltrating a known criminal's home to steal something, and the list goes on and on. It never ceased to amaze her how Shepard managed to succeed at nearly everything. No wonder people put so much hope into them. But the Hero of the Citadel was still just one soldier and no matter how solid someone is under fire, the pressure of defeating yet another great threat, possibly relating to the reapers, could break anyone regardless of strength, training or experience. It's hard to believe she was a skeptic first.

Time sure proved her wrong.

Realizing that she's been staring blankly out of her head without acknowledging what was said, she nodded. "That's good, they probably have a lot to talk about. And Thane must have a lot of explaining to do." She regretted saying that immediately, fearing that Shepard may misunderstand it. She didn't mean any harm with this statement, not this time at least.

Luckily, before any more could be said, Bailey waved the two of them over, signaling that the family reunion has just ended. They could get ready to leave now. At last.

A silent shuttle ride later they arrived back to the Normandy and departed the Citadel.

The day finally ended, and not a moment too soon.

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I contemplated posting this, I’m not very happy with it, but I don’t know how to rewrite it. Oh well :/

Also, I’m very passionate about parents fucking up their own children (my personal experience is probably coloring my perception on this topic) and it bothered me how we can’t really call Thane out on his shit. I wish we could.

#mass effect #mass effect 2 #Thane Krios #fanfic

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victoriatvtravels · 5 years ago

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DAY 1

January 27~28 2020

I woke up a little earlier than I had expected, around 9 am, because I just could not sleep. I had been anticipating this day for the past three months,to the point I looked up all the possible clubs I could join but when it finally came down to it, I’m reluctant to leave home.

My flight is scheduled to leave Vancouver at 3:30 pm, so my family and I had an early breakfast at 10 am so I could still do some last minute throwing-things-into-my-luggage if I needed to. (Of course there were some things I definitely forgot but the past is the past and nine hours away by plane.) Arriving at YVR, it sunk in that I’ll need to carry fifty and twenty four pound suitcases by myself once I’m across the Atlantic (which I did with gREAT difficulty.) My suitcases were actually overweight, by half a kilo for my checked one and by a solid 5 kilos for my carry ons. It turns out that both the weights of my back pack AND my carry on suitcase needed to amount to 12 kilos (yikes, I didn’t know that). Thankfully the check in attendant was kind and allowed me to check the carry on suitcase for free, leaving my hands blessedly free for the plane ride.

I breezed past customs quickly and without any difficulty, probably thanks to not having to have an entire suitcase go through the scanner! I was early by two hours, so I got to sit in the food court and enjoy my tea and Pokemon Go. Boarding was on time and fast since there weren’t any lost travelers, and cabin crew was v helpful in making sure everyone was buckled in on time by 3:30 pm. I was pretty surprised that the plane was full. By full I mean PACKED, there was hardly any room for my legs, let alone extra baggage. I had checked into my flight early the day before and snagged an aisle seat which gave me the opportunity to stretch my legs into the aisle every so often. Knowing that I had an additional hour and a half of travel time on a train, I tried to drink as much water, pee, and sleep as possible since no one will be able to watch my luggage after I leave the plane. The flight time wasn’t that bad, around nine hours, but the plane felt very very small and I’m not sure if that’s because there were a lot of people or if I was suddenly struck by claustrophobia or what.

Disembarking was actually a struggle, the air traffic control actually sent out plane to a gate undergoing renovations, so there wasn’t actually a gate to we could walk out onto. We had to wait another 15 or so minutes for the crews to set up stairs and buses to shuttle us to arrivals which wasn’t too big of an issue since our flight was actually 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I was very confused after I was dropped off since I wasn’t too sure where to go to get to immigration. I followed the crowd until half of them split off to catch various connections. There was one very determined guy that zoomed with a purpose, and I thought that the purpose was the same as mine. Clearly, I was right, and UBC guy led me straight to the border control officers. I stuttered past them and wandered until I got to the baggage claim (which was HUGE.) Luckily, my suitcases literally just fell out right when I got there (many people on my flight were catching connections to elsewhere, so there weren’t much luggage at AMS.) When I was trying to leave though, an officer stopped me and I had to open everything up for their examination. Not that big of a deal but still a little annoying especially since I lost a suitcase lock during it. I walked around looking for a place in the airport that sold extra locks and when I found one it was 15€!!! I sucked it up and bought it because I’m paranoid LOL

Finally, I was released and I sat down to redeem my train vouchers. I had bought these ticket vouchers from ISIC and they were redeemable for two train tickets, making it so much easier for me to hop onto a train to my city. I wasn’t sure which platform had what trains, and where these trains were going, so I asked the guy manning the ticket info desk (who was engrossed in his phone) who directed me to platforms 5 and 6 for trains to Rotterdam. However, I didn’t expect there to be track disruptions, making a direct trip to Eindhoven impossible. I then had to consult the the NS app which told me to go to track 3 to catch an Intercity direct train to Venlo. I had to rush to switch platforms since the train would be pulling in in three minutes. I caught the train, but in my rush I think I got into the wrong car? or something, because there were no luggage racks and the seats available seemed to be priority seats. I had to choose between going upstairs or downstairs, but since the downstairs area had “Lounge” written on it, I thought that I wasn’t able to access it with my ticket, leaving me to go up. It was hard since the stairway was narrow and my luggage was big, but I persevered and made it through. I did take up quite a lot of room, so I ended up putting my smaller suitcase underneath the seat and my larger one next to me. My seat was at the back right before a wall, so I didn’t block the path or anyone’s way. Looking back, I’ll probably just sit on the damn priority seats because when I struggled my way back down to get off, there were regular people just chilling there. (Obviously I will get up for anyone that needs the seats, but it’ll probably save me a headache and back ache in the future.)

By the time I got off at Eindhoven Centraal, it was around 1:15 or so, and I was ready for a shower and rest. I had a small problem trying to figure out which ticket gate had a scanner, but the problem was me not being observant since all you needed to do was to open up the barcode and hover it over the scanner plate ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . My hostel was a literal 3 minute walk from the train station so I pretty much speedwalked there. Upon check in, it turns out that you’re supposed to check in after 3 pm but they allowed me to do so early AND they upgraded my room!! But only for my 4 day booking before my semester stay there!!! The room itself is fantastic, it’s roomy, comfortable, and the bed is so soft but I can’t fully relax in it because I know I’ll have to pack up in four days to move to a smaller room (and I don’t know how much smaller it’ll be T_T). I went out to the market just across the street to grab some shampoo, toothbrush, etc before returning and eating a bit of food. I wasn’t very hungry, maybe since I was a nervous and homesick wreck, but a shower helped me feel more like a human being again. The hotel provided a hot water kettle but the insides of it were pretty gross so I took out and used my own hot water pot. I drank so much water because the air felt a bit drier than home? (dead skin was peeling off from my forehead and chin.) I decided to sleep early to feel better, but sleep was also a bit restless, since I woke up around 12 am, slept til 6 am and then woke up at 8 am.

First day was busy, busy, busy! At least, I came a few days before school started!

Money spent:

Lock: 15

Food/shampoo/conditioner: 8.45

City tax at hostel: 14

Total: 37.45 €

#tue #eindhoven #netherlands #studyabroad #exchange #sfu

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imustspeakmyheart · 6 years ago

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A day late, but here’s my submission for the @junosteelfluffweek day 6, Comfort. Special thanks to my bud @illbecreativelater for giving me part of the idea for this!

Peter convinces Juno to teach him a dance on the anniversary of Ben’s death.

Read it here under the cut, or on ao3

Juno walked up the street towards his apartment with his hands shoved deep in his pockets and a mood sour enough to make other people out in the street actively avoid him. Good thing that they did; Juno felt like the next person to look at him even slightly wrong would end up getting punched. It was usual for Juno to be angry on this particular day, probably because he spent the rest of the year in desperate daily scramble to not think about his brother’s death. Repression is a handy coping skill until running away from the problem stops being an option. Pushing down the fact of Ben’s death on the day of his actual death was too vile, too unimaginable, even for Juno. So he spent a whole day dwelling on just that.

Only usually he made sure to swamp it with cases, with chores, responsibilities, things to distract from the chorus of voices in his mind reminding him of what this day represented. Just because he stopped blaming himself for Ben’s death years ago, didn’t mean it was any easier to deal with. Today, however, had been miraculously devoid of cases to solve or leads to follow up on. Rita had dismissed him not four hours into his workday. “I’ve got it all sorted nicely, Mistah Steel. Really not much for you to do around here, except paperwork I guess but are you really looking for that? Didn’t think so. Why don’t you take the afternoon off, huh?” She’d been right, of course. He wasn’t super excited about doing paperwork all day; while absolutely mind-numbing, it didn’t do much to distract him.

He’d tried to find something, anything, for him to do but, growing increasingly frustrated, he’d just given up eventually. So that’s where he was now, trekking back to his shitty apartment where he’d be forced to stew in his sadness by himself because of course it so happened that Peter had planned to be away from Mars that whole month. The only saving grace Juno felt right then was that at least he was too annoyed to actively feel upset about Ben yet.

When he finally got to his building it was barely late afternoon. Juno shouldered the door to his complex open and stomped up the stairs like they’d personally offended him. Honestly, right then they were doing just that. With his usual flashfire temper elevated to a bonfire it didn’t take much to feed the flames.

Juno unlocked his apartment, ready to throw his jacket on the hanger and collapse on the couch right after. Instead, he noticed that the lights were already on and Peter Nureyev was sitting on one of the arms of the couch wearing a suit, wine glass in hand and legs delicately folded into the picture of practiced nonchalance. Juno’s eyes naturally lingered on Nureyev for a few moments, but when his eyes slid away and noticed the state of his apartment… All Juno’s furniture was shoved out of its usual position to leave a sizable space in the middle of it.

“What the hell, Peter.” Juno grimaced and shifted his attention back to the very attractive, very smug thief sitting on his couch. Underneath the confusion and the steady grief that was settled inside of him, Juno felt a slow blooming warmth flood him simply at the sight of Peter. All his annoyance was almost forgotten then, in that moment. Almost.

Peter only smiled that fox’s smile of his and languidly got up from his seated position, picking up another wine glass from a table that had been moved to stand next to the couch. As Juno kept staring at him, expecting an answer, Peter handed him the glass and stepped closer to him.

“Why, my darling, that’s no way to welcome your partner who has just spent 24 hours on a crowded interstellar space shuttle just to prepare a little surprise for you.” Peter cocked his eyebrow and waited for Juno’s response, punctuating the end of his sentence by taking a slow sip of his wine.

“It is a way to welcome someone who fucked up my whole apartment, but hey what do I know.” Juno responded a bit petulantly. It wasn’t as if they couldn’t easily put his scant furniture back in their rightful places, but Juno was tired and not in the mood for any of Peter’s spontaneous flights of fancy. Not today, not when all he wanted to do was crawl in his bed and sleep away the guilt and sadness that still ate away at him on that particular day. With a small irritated shake of his head, Juno moved to put the wine glass down, putting some distance between him and Peter and subsequently turning his back to him.

“Look, today is just not the day to be doing shit like this, can we just put everything back where it was and go to sleep, I just wanna sleep this off and move on.”

“We certainly could do that, Juno, but I thought--” Juno felt Peter’s hand slide over his right shoulder with the intention of making him turn back towards him.

“You thought what, Peter? That we’d just have a nice night doing whatever it is that you planned? That I could just forget what today means? Fuck, Peter, do you even know what day it is today?” Turning around, Juno harshly shrugged off Peter’s hand. Tears were pricking at his eyes and he fought with himself to keep from letting them spill. In front of him, Peter had a sad sort of frown on his face, his hand still reached into the space where it had been shrugged off of Juno’s shoulder. Slowly, he lowered his hand and put it in his pocket instead.

“Of course I know what today means, dear. Which is why I thought,” Peter paused, waiting to see if he’d get interrupted again. When Juno gave a stiff nod, he continued. “I thought that you might teach me a dance.”

Juno sucked his lower lip between his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, feeling some tears find their way onto his cheeks. Looking at Peter, his genuine, hopeful face, Juno couldn’t find it in him anymore to be angry. He just wanted his bed back in its place and to sleep with Peter holding him close.

“Peter, I--,” He breathed a shuddering breath “I can’t think about dancing. Not tonight. Not the time.” With all the fight drained out of him, Juno couldn’t help but move towards Peter again, endlessly pulled in by his gravity. Without thinking about it, the whole movement as effortless as breathing, Peter met him halfway. Juno placed a hand on Peter’s waist and leaned on his tip-toes to give Peter a quick peck on his lips.

He’d intended to give his lover the proper welcome that he hadn’t given due to the shock of, well, everything that had happened since he came home, but Peter leaned his face away from any further kissing he tried to initiate. Instead, the thief took his hands out of his pockets and reached up to frame Juno’s face, using his thumbs to wipe at the tender skin below his eyes that was moist with the few tears that had escaped him during their little fight.

“My darling, I’m going to need you to hear me out, all right?” The honest entreaty in Peter’s eyes was all that kept Juno from snarking like he usually might. When Peter was satisfied that he wasn’t going to be interrupted, he continued.

“I simply think you might give it a chance to do something, well, fun today. Rather than the usual self-flagellation you insist on-- now, Juno, don’t give me that look. I know full well what grief is, but don’t you think maybe we can try to do something to celebrate your brother’s life rather than mourn his death? You’ve done your fair share of mourning, I can only imagine. You’ve done your due. I think it’s time, don’t you?

“Teach me a dance, any dance, your brother must have shown you at some point. You talk so fondly of watching him dance, please Juno. Humour me. Humour yourself.”

There was a long moment of silence, of Peter just cradling Juno’s face as Juno tried not to get too choked up on the love that he could so clearly see in those tender eyes that were looking at him. Then, softly:

“Okay. Okay, uh. Have you ever heard of a Venusian Waltz?”

At the answering shake of Peter’s head, Juno hummed and extricated himself from Peter’s hold on him, shrugging off his coat that he’d never taken off. He threw it over couch and out of the way before joining Peter again who’d been waiting with a small smile on his face, obviously glad his plan to get Juno to dance was working.

“All right, my dearest detective. Venusian Waltz you said?” Peter smiled and took his comms out of one his pockets, music flooding the room moments after. Then he raised up his arms, ready to have them directed wherever the dance required them to be. Juno huffed out a breath. He could do this, he had to remind himself. For Ben.

So he stepped close to this impossible thief of his and pulled one of his arms to rest around his middle, taking the other hand in his own delicately. It didn’t escape him what a ridiculous figure they probably cut together, dancing ballroom with one person dressed for the occasion and the other dressed in hand me down casual wear. Ben would have laughed at them, Juno was sure. Hell, he couldn’t help but chuckle himself when he caught a glimpse of them in his mirror, stumbling through Juno’s shitty living room with his furniture piled into one corner.

“Peter, if you don’t relax and let me lead, this isn’t going to end well.” Turned out it was an ordeal to teach someone to dance when their natural instinct was to take the lead in any aspect of their life. Including ballroom lessons, evidently.

“If you make a comment about me being a lady, this whole lesson is over, you hear me? We’re not on earth in, what? When was the last time people were still dicks about that kinda stuff, I should let Rita look that up actually.” And Juno was gearing up to say more, but Peter’s ringing laughter distracted him.

“All right, All right, I’m a terrible student, I get it. I’m sorry, lead the way my lady.”

They spent hours like that; Juno attempting to teach, Peter being an incorrigible tease while also being a quick learner. All the stupid mistakes he kept making were likely just for the benefit of Juno, to make him laugh or to make him pout so Peter could lean down to kiss the pout away.

Eventually it was evening and their hands had dropped from the formal position the dance required to just hanging slack next to their bodies, fingers still entwined but because they simply could not imagine letting go, not because the dance demanded it. Juno’s forehead was pressed against Peter’s shoulder as the shuffled around the room slowly, tired but not willing to end the day yet. He could feel Peter’s breath stir his hair, listening intently as they’d been talking in soft tones, the universe comprised of nothing but that apartment on Mars and their entwined hands.

“Just. I think Ben would be happy to see I still remember this dance enough to actually teach someone else. My boyfriend no less. Say something like ‘nice catch, Super Steel’ and then have this stupid grin on his face that meant he was going to grill me about it mercilessly once we’d be alone together.” Juno huffed out a laugh, nosing at Peter’s shoulder.

“I’m glad to know your brother would find me a catch.” His tone was joking, but Juno could tell Peter was genuinely moved by that idea. And the more Juno thought about it, unburdened by the crippling grief that usually come with such thoughts, Peter and Ben would have really hit it off. He felt the sadness of that in his chest, that sadness that comes with missed opportunities and things that could never be. But, most remarkably, it also came with the inkblot spread of warmth that mingled with that sadness, creating a feeling Juno wasn’t entirely familiar with.

He thought maybe it meant something like love, like family. Like Ben was there with them right now, having taught Peter the Venusian Waltz through Juno like he otherwise might have done himself on another special occasion. Ben had always said this Waltz was a staple at weddings, Juno remembered he’d always insisted on teaching him this Waltz. Juno never thought he might need it until a certain thief had asked him for a dance. And that was a thought he’d keep to himself, for now.

“Of course he would. You make me happy, that would have been reason enough for Ben to like you. That, and you’re both insufferable smug teases. Fast friends, I’m sure.”

Juno felt Peter take in a breath, elated and content. The hand he held in his own squeezed just a little tighter and the arm around his middle snaked just a little closer. Peter’s lips pressed against Juno’s crown and the smile there made warmth well up in Juno’s chest. The music played on uninterrupted in the background, their bodies swaying effortlessly to the changing tunes of different songs.

“I would have loved to have met him, Juno.” And this time Peter’s voice was dead-serious; Juno could even hear a slight choked-up quality in his words, a small stumble that gave him away. He wouldn’t point it out if Peter would ignore the tears that had undoubtedly soaked through his dress-shirt by now.

“Yeah.” Juno said, through tears and grief and love all welling up. “Yeah..” And he hoped Peter knew that a ‘thank you’ was somewhere in there.

#the penumbra podcast #juno steel fluff week 2018 #tpp #juniverse #jupeter #this took me way too long to write im such a weenie #writing this also made me cry at some point so

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duckyfruitbat · 3 years ago

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SimCity 2013: Yes That One

So in recent weeks, between tests and papers, I decided to play the last SimCity game, SimCity 2013. It was the fifth mainline game in the franchise and has nuked the whole franchise. It was the game that put a focus on multiplayer and has DRM, two things that alienate it from the SimCity audience, lonely introverts who may not care to have an internet connection, especially in the early 2010′s. I loved SimCity and I didn’t have an internet connection at the time, so I missed this one until a couple years ago, and then it sat on my shelf until two weeks ago. I got to say, I had to give up on this game, it was just too stressful for me. Everything always went wrong in my cities, and I was doing everything right.

Let’s begin with my region of Los Wiwis, to explain the cities are placed into regions to make the multiplayer aspect easier to manage between players. Another thing about the multiplayer aspect is that you can share resources and facilities with each other, power, police, hospitals, and water. This feature becomes a big problem later on. For now my city was growing, and I was starting to expand the schools and public transport. At one point I reached a problem of their being a worker shortage, I needed more people but my city was full. So I founded another city, but the worker shortage was still a problem, so I founded a city that was 90% residential right next to the first two and immediately beefed up the public transport. There was one small strip of commercial with a small industrial area. This was a mistake because then I had a freight shortage and businesses kept closing down, so I expanded the industrial area and then another worker shortage happened. This made me upset so I just downsized both areas and set up trade between my cities, and used the funding to build hospitals, schools, and upgrade the emergencies. That city then failed because and arsonist started running rampant all throughout Los Wiwis. Half my city was an inferno and was somehow never caught despite being constantly surrounded by police. There is certainly something wrong with the AI, because my fire station was fully upgraded and still had trouble. I had to abandon the region when an earthquake took out my water pump and hospital, sending the cities into a water and health crisis.

I decided to regroup and found a new region in an archipelago called Beans, the first city was to be Turducken. I built the city to be in a lovely grid system, three fifths was residential, the other two were commercial and industrial. This city had the best public transport in the world, busses streetcars, trains, ferries, it was glorious, the only thing missing was an airport. Then the troubles began, I still had a worker shortage and people complained about how over crowded the buses were, that should not have happened, I had huge fleets of shuttles, trams, and buses. There was no arsonist, but then the worker shortage began at the worst place possible, the sewage treatment plant. Suddenly the streets were full of poo, it was a real crappy situation. I was streaming this to my friend and they remined me that it was a very shitty job to work. I had to make some old fashioned outflow pipes, two seconds later I got my plant back up and working. The sewage service then started complaining about obsolete outflow pipes, so I shut those down. Then the worker shortage struck again.

Next city was fine, the city of Capitalism was industrial and mining, it worked the best, but the terrain would not let me expand the residential areas without putting them in the oil fields. Next city was Monetized, I decided that this would be my money maker, so I made it into a gambling town. It was doing fine for a while, but after I made a large sci-fi casino and started raking in the profits, I needed to expand a police and fire service. The other cities only had small stations and had some complaints about them, so I decided to use my casino money and share the services with the rest of the region. So I got the stations, upgraded them greatly and went to the region map to start sharing, but it wouldn’t let me.

In order to share the resources and services with other cities, you need roads connecting them. My casino town was on a separate island and now I couldn’t share anything with them except air services. Alright so this multiplayer infrastructure is sort of falling apart now, because I did build these cities with the intention of sharing services like EA wanted me too, and now I can’t. Not to worry I’m sure I can do something with all my casino money. Hey is there a barbeque somewhere? Oh god it’s the arsonist again!

My gambling town was now an inferno, and the fire service was somehow too slow. The fires eventually died down and I bulldozed all the rubble away and things were rebuilt with the people coming back, but now the sci-fi casino was losing money, for no reason. We had high tourism and they were coming to gamble yet the casino was losing money. This doesn’t even happen in real life, how is it happening here?! With my casino losing money, I couldn’t maintain my services and Monetized went bankrupt.

Alright so it looks like industrial and manufacturing is the way to go. So final city was Fucking Learn, a college town with an immense educational system with a processor plant to fund it all. The plant was a success, it was making me 100k a day. Naturally I used the money to make my city efficient with clean energy, filtration pumps, and a recycling plant. This city also had a public transport system, not as beefed up as Turducken, but still impressive. Despite the massive revenue stream, the city went bankrupt at random times. No idea why, I was rarely in the red, but then there was an education crisis. I think this might be a bug, the numbers were telling me everyone had an education with a four year degree. There was plenty of room in the classrooms too, and of course I expanded the bus service appropriately. Yet the data maps were showing me huge amounts of uneducated kids. Where did they come from? Why weren’t they in school? What is with this game? Why are people protesting low property values, they are very high?

After my mining town went bankrupt I decided that I had enough. These cities are unsalvageable, for every problem I’d solve, five more would come up. My cities were destined to fail, and I was at my limit with them, so I saved and went to the disaster tab and let the finger of god smite the cities with an asteroid. It was the most unsatisfying thing ever. Keep in mind that the Wii game had over a dozen disasters that could be stacked. This game had only six and they had to be waited out before you sent the next one. One option is zombies and they can only be released at night and they are so slow and so ineffective that you might as well spend the time removing bus stops. The asteroid was so slow with such a drown out animation that I was not willing to continue with it.

Finally I just quit, this game is so frustrating as a SimCity game, the multiplayer aspects made it so much worse. If I even had the ability to found bigger cities, it would be upgraded to tolerable, because than I’d at least have the room to build up all the services. Nope, EA wanted a multiplayer game and now we must all suffer, and I think part of that memo was to neuter the disaster system. I am also convinced some the issues like the worker shortage and transport issues were glitches. The freight shortage was something I could never fix no matter how many factories I approved.

I do not recommend this game, and I tried really hard to make it work, I’d sooner recommend SimCity Build It and it was trying to worm its way into my wallet. I’d recommend the Wii version, and it’s a simplified version of SimCity 4. Luckily there are game like City Skylines that are keeping city builders alive. Goodbye SimCity, it was good while it lasted.

#A Late Review #SimCity #dead man games #ea #multiplayer

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breakingdownsu · 7 years ago

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Chorus Chapter Two

Note: Updates to this and other fics I'm writing will be sporadic, as mentioned earlier my health is in a weird place and it's hard to get wifi in hospitals. Hopefully I'll be back to spamming chapters very soon. In the meantime, and as is now ritual, I recommend you check out my novel if you like my work, and that way you have something to read if I end up in the ICU for a bit.

US link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BGSPPBY

UK link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07BGSPPBY

And now, paperback!: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1981067620

…..

Prelude

Steven agonized over telling Garnet and Amethyst where he was going, but in the end they made the decision for him. He went home to pack some supplies and they weren't there, still on the last mission they'd taken. Aware that the clock was against him and this mysterious yellow gem probably wouldn't wait around, he threw some food and a change of clothes into his backpack. He briefly considered calling Connie, but given what Ruby and Pearl had told him about who they were getting involved with he decided against it. If things went badly wrong at least he'd be the only one in the firing line.

Nobody knows much about her, Ruby had said. She remodels pearls, it's illegal but pretty much everyone does it. She's the best on the planet but she only takes on some jobs.

Remodels pearls how? Steven had asked, with an innocence he would never see again.

She tampers with their manifested forms, or their gems, Pearl answered, trembling behind Ruby near the console. To change their appearance.

Oh, so it's like...plastic surgery, kind of? he laughed awkwardly.

I don't know what that is, Ruby shrugged. It happens because the pearls' owner doesn't like how they look and a colour wash and new apparel won't make the change they want. Or they want the pearl to stop doing something it can't help doing.

Did she remodel you? Steven asked Pearl, hoping to quell that sick feeling growing in his stomach.

Yes, she answered. Twice. The third time a different gem did it.

What did she do to you? Lars piped up from the captain's chair. Steven hadn't realized he'd been listening.

My owner thought my eyes were too close together, Pearl mumbled, and she declined to say any more.

Talking about remodeling clearly stressed her out, and Ruby had expressed anger towards the whole idea (obviously because it distressed Pearl so much) so why were they putting their trust in this yellow gem? Steven asked himself over and over as he climbed into the shuttle and detached from the ship.

The Rutiles had programmed the shuttle to slip through a gap in Homeworld's security gates, and he was due to land in a section of the main city that housed acres of factories. After that, he was on his own before he could be picked up by the yellow gem. It was nerve-shredding.

He managed to slip through, and the smog of the factories covered his landing nicely. So far, so much easier than he imagined. Sitting on the roof of the factory, he heard gems underneath him talking as they worked. They used a lot of words he didn't understand, but otherwise their speech patterns were human-like.

“Quartz?”

He jumped, nearly shouted. For such a large creature, the yellow gem was remarkably quiet.

“Wanna get those nerves under control, pebble,” she quipped. “Don't want to attract too much attention.”

“Right,” he mumbled. “Sorry. I'm Steven, thanks so much for...”

“You look different to other quartzes,” she cut across him. “I dig it, but it's a bit too conspicuous. Can you fix that?”

“Uh, well, I'm not really good at shifting yet...”

“Well, we have to get across the city on foot, we need to do something,” she said, stroking her chin thoughtfully. “Hang on...”

She took two small objects from the pocket of her ripped-up leggings. One of them, a small sheet of metallic-looking paper, she handed to him. The other, a small round gem, she tapped lightly and spoke to.

“We need you out here,” she drawled.

The gem glowed and a moment later a pearl, red-haired and dressed in a dark blue tunic but otherwise identical to Pearl, stood blinking impassively beside them.

“This quartz,” the yellow gem began, gesturing to Steven in a casual, slightly disparaging way, “needs to look less ready-to-be-arrested-and-tossed-in-isopod. Can you do anything?”

“Of course,” the pearl answered.

Her gem whirred and shot out a beam of light that traced Steven's body. It tickled, but he tried hard not to squirm.

“Those are nanobytes,” she told him. “Try not to make any unnecessary movements, it should cover you until we get to the workshop.”

It was kind of creepy how she sounded so much like Pearl but a hundred times quieter and with none of the liveliness. Like Pearl if she'd been stripped of a personality.

That's unfair, Steven scolded himself internally. You just met her, maybe she's just shy.

The two gems turned on their heels in perfect sync and started walking off. Steven grabbed his backpack and tried to keep up.

…..

The trip to the yellow gem's workshop took them right through the city, onto one of the public transport vehicles and through six different checkpoints. Steven and the yellow gem passed quickly enough, but they scanned the pearl carefully, even prying open her mouth to check her throat. They had a specific tool for that job, and Steven couldn't watch them use it on her.

Gems of all kinds milled around the city's immaculate streets. He saw a huge number of Amethysts patrolling, groups of Jasper mucking around in alleys, a crowd of Rubies huddled around a shopfront, a number of upper-class-looking gems on the train-type thing they got on. This was where he saw some other pearls, nowehere else.

Steven had known, if not dwelled on, pearls' status as more or less slaves on Homeworld, but the train ride really cemented it in his horrified mind. The few that he saw varied in style and colour but were otherwise the same, their faces were blank and their eyes downcast and they didn't speak unless they were spoken to.

The yellow gem had spent the ride watching the pearls, jotting down notes in a little tablet-type thing she had. Occasionally she leaned over to whisper to her pearl. They both pretty much ignored Steven. By the time they reached the workshop Steven had seen so much he felt dizzy.

“Okay, let's talk plan,” the yellow gem said with one foot in the workshop, tossing a wheeled chair in Steven's general direction. “What do you want and what do you want me to do about it?”

“Well, uh...” Steven mumbled, gulping. “Shouldn't we introduce ourselves first?”

The yellow gem snorted, but it was good-natured.

“Manners don't count for much in this business,” she said. “But okay, I'll bite. I'm Orthoclase.”

“Oh, I thought...”

“Yeah, I get that a lot. Unfortunately,” she muttered, rolling her eyes.

“Sorry,” Steven sputtered. It wouldn't do to annoy this gem, even if she wasn't a diamond. “I'm Steven. Steven Quartz Universe.”

“Are you a new kind of quartz? I've never heard that designation before,” Orthoclase asked, fingers poised over her tablet-thing.

“Actually, I'm half gem,” he explained. “My mother was a quartz...”

He stopped himself, remembering that that wasn't true. But he couldn't just tell these stranger gems that, could he?

“What's a mother?” Orthoclase asked.

“Uh...it's like a gem you grow inside,” Steven tried to explain. “You know, like you guys grow from the ground? It's like that except I grew from another gem and sort of took over her form...”

By the look on Orthoclase's face, this explanation was a really bad one. The pearl, however, looked unruffled.

“So you're a parasite,” she offered. “That's unusual.”

“I'll say,” Orthoclase snorted, shaking her head. “At least you're probably not a zoatox, right?”

“I don't know what that is,” Steven admitted.

“Then you probably aren't. Great. Parasitic gems, what next? And you're looking for a pearl...”

“Specifically, she's looking for the renegade pearl that fought in the rebellion with Rose Quartz,” the pearl said.

Orthoclase gaped, and quickly recovered.

“That's why you wanted us to take this job, isn't it?” she said, flicking the pearl's forehead playfully. “Holy Core...what makes you think that pearl is here?”

“She went missing a week ago...” Steven began. “Another pearl tracked down where she was taken from, she said there was nano-something and a macrowarp...”

“Microwarp,” the pearl corrected. “And nanobytes, she left memory behind. She had a nanotracer installed.”

Orthoclase whistled.

“This just gets better and better,” she laughed. “There hasn't been a pearl with a nanotracer on Homeworld in 800 orbits. I've never even seen one!”

“I know it's a big thing to ask,” Steven said, already feeling like they were going to send him away. “But we need her back. Please.”

“Are you kidding?” Orthoclase scoffed. “This has got to be the riskiest, most impossible job ever. Of course I'm going to do it!”

A hint of a smile began on the pearls' face. The relief hit Steven like a punch to the stomach. Tears gathered behind his eyes.

“Thank you,” he sobbed, wiping at his eyes furiously.

“Don't thank me yet,” Orthoclase said, patting his head. “I don't know how or where to start looking...”

“I've worked out a plan,” the pearl piped up.

“Of course you have,” Orthoclase drawled, spinning on her chair and throwing her feet up on the pearl's lap. “Do you want to share it or is it one of those things you keep to yourself?”

Apparently not being able to talk about things was a pearl-wide trait.

“There's really only one way to go about this,” the pearl began, folding her hands neatly over Orthoclase's feet. “If she's on Homeworld or near enough, we can get a signal to her.”

“Not if she's impounded,” Orthoclase interrupted.

“No, not a comm signal,” the pearl continued. “Pearls can communicate over distances without being detected.”

Orthoclase's posture shifted dramatically. She took her feet off of the pearl's lap, leaned forward, suddenly intensely focused.

“Since when?” she probed, sounding stern but not angry. “I knew you had some way of talking but I assumed it was that hand-thing you keep doing...”

“That is also how we communicate,” the pearl said. “But when the restrictions were placed on us, gesture-speak was rendered ineffective. We developed something else to take its place.”

Orthoclase laughed, and clapped Steven on the back hard enough to almost knock him out of his seat.

“Nearly eighteen orbits of asking and watching and waiting and then you come along and she spills all her secrets,” she chuckled. “I owe you, pebble.”

Steven searched the pearl's face for signs that she was upset, but she was as solemn and still as a marble statue.

“We call it song-weaving,” the pearl explained, to Orthoclase's growing amazement. “We learned to knit sound waves together and we share memory through them. Mostly our songs are at a frequency and volume too low for other gems to hear, but pearls can tell if there is one in the air. They can absorb it, pass it on or add to it.”

“Have you been doing that here all this time?” Orthoclase asked incredulously.

“Of course,” the pearl responded.

“How is that going to help Pearl?” Steven asked. “I think you didn't start doing that until after she left for Earth... that's when the restrictions were made, right?”

The pearl on Lars' ship had told him a lot about the restrictions. More than he wanted to know.

“Even if she can't pick up the art for herself, she can hear it and if it's still connected to the pearl that sent it that pearl will know where she is.”

The pearl's gem whirred and lit up the room. An image of long interconnected silver threads floated in front of them. On each thread was a small dot.

“With a song that is connected at several points, for instance woven by five pearls, it can expand and reach outwards at a considerable distance. It could reach up to twenty pearls, who could then pass it on and strengthen it.

“Huh. This is going to be easier than I thought,” Orthoclase said.

“I'm afraid not,” the pearl told her. “In order to cover the entirety of Homeworld, we would need a concentrated effort from at least five hundred individual pearls, all singing the same song. We would also have to compose a song that can support that many voices. And we would have to do it undetected.”

Orthoclase whistled low, and Steven's heart sank. It sounded impossible. He had seen less than a dozen pearls on Homeworld, how were they going to get five hundred?

“We don't need to find five hundred pearls,” the pearl said, as if he'd said that out loud. “We need around fifty to create the structure. If it travels far enough, other pearls will strengthen it as it goes.”

“That's a pretty big if,” Orthoclase mused.

“We also need to find a safe isolated place to create it.”

“That I can probably do,” Orthoclase said, rising to her feet. “I know just the gem. But this whole operation sounds like it's going to get dangerous, so we need something fighting in our corner.”

She walked off, dialing a number on her tablet-thing.

“Hey, Hematite! It's me....I need to talk to you about your pearl...no, I told you she's not infected but I think I should take a look at her core circuit....”

Steven and the pearl sat in silence, watching Orthoclase negotiate with this Hematite.

“Um...” he began, awkwardly. “So...does Orthoclase just call you Pearl or....”

“Yes,” the pearl answered blandly.

“Doesn't that get confusing when there's other pearls here?”

“No.”

“Oh, okay.”

“You may address me as something else if you wish.”

Steven's mind short-circuited trying to think of a good name, but he kept flashing back to memories of the preschool he'd gone to that was ruled by a little girl with an iron fist whose given name was Annabelle but everyone referred to as....

“Ginger,” he blurted out.

“Very well,” the pearl said agreeably.

#steven universe #steven universe fanfiction #gesture-speak and song-weaving #pearl solidarity

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andaneum · 7 years ago

Text

No Longer Alone: A Reylo Fanfic Chapter 3 FB

(To make things easier, from now on, chapter titles that start with FB are flashbacks starting from the point that Ben and Rey are in the throne room).

3 years earlier…

There was a blinding white light and a searing pain that flooded her entire body as they were knocked far across the throne room. Rey’s head collided hard with the floor and her vision swam for a moment. Her whole body shook as a secondary explosion threw heat and chunks of debris in her direction. Her powers responded automatically to slow down the slices of metal, giving her just enough time to roll her battered body out of the way. The dust and wreckage that was thrown up from the ground caused her to cough and wretch violently. Her head was pounding, and as her vision finally came into focus she spotted Ben a few feet away, sprawled out on his side on the ground. She dragged herself up onto her knees and crawled to his side.

He didn’t stir at her presence, ‘Ben, BEN!’ She shook his shoulder, but he wouldn’t move. Rey couldn’t even feel him across their bond anymore. The room was collapsing around them and she threw herself over his head, protecting him from a shower of sparks raining down from the ceiling. She flipped him onto his back, pressing her head down onto his chest, and felt his heart beating gently against her ear. He was still alive. She grabbed his face between her palms, staring straight at him.

‘Ben, please. We have to leave now’ She leaned her forehead against his and a tear slid down her face, ‘Please.’ There was no movement beneath her and she no longer had the option to wait for him to return to himself. The room, possibly even the entire ship, was disintegrating around them.

She dragged herself up from the floor, stumbling a little as her head continued to swim, and grabbed onto one of his arms. She gave him a harsh tug, trying to get his body across the floor and into Snoke’s escape pod, but he didn’t move an inch. His body was so much larger than her own. She tried again, harder, wrenching her arms and adding to the multiple aches and pains she was already feeling. His body jerked with her efforts, but beyond that he still wouldn’t move.

As she stilled, a dark thought flashed through her mind. Maybe she could just leave him here and escape by herself? It seemed unlikely that he would make it out of this place without her help, not in the state he was in. She could finally be free of him; free of his darkness and free of his constant hovering presence at the edges of her thoughts…

No. Rey would never be able to escape him. She needed him like she needed air to breath. Even if she could force herself to run from him in this moment, somehow, she knew that his memory and his absence from her life would haunt her until the day she died.

Rey closed her eyes for just a moment, the room continuing to collapse around her as a tremendous steel beam destroyed, then broke through, the ground nearby. She gathered the force around herself, focusing on the still man lying before her. His body slowly raised into the air, legs bent at an odd angle and fingers trailing against the filthy ground. It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do. She moved him as quickly as she could across the room to the shuttle, using her own body draped across his to shield him from the worst of the chaos around them.

She got him to the ship and placed him as carefully as she could into the co-pilots chair, before throwing herself into the seat next to him. Her fingers reached up into her hairline, feeling the blood gathered there coating her fingertips. Her head felt as though it were made of lead, heavy and sluggish and fighting against any movement she made. But she couldn’t worry about that now. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts elicited a yelp from her, but at least the pain helped to alleviate her lethargy. They needed to get out of here.

She began tapping away at the panel in front of her, initiating the launch procedure. There was a hiss from the outside hydraulic arms as the shuttle detached itself from the Supremacy and ejected into space. As it travelled further away from the ship, Rey was finally given a moment to see the devastation that surrounded them.

Downed ships littered the entire area, white streaks still visible where something big had cut through them like a knife. Explosions continued to burst forth from the ships as the onboard fuel supplies caught fire and the electronic systems failed to control the damage. She knew that if she were to look closely enough, she would see the multitude of bodies that had certainly been sucked into the vacuum of space. Whatever had happened here had been a massacre.

She leant back in her chair for a moment, the sight of the carnage giving her a moment of pause. This was awful, but at least the resistance was safe. Rey knew that their numbers had been decimated in the time since she’d left them, she’d seen with her own eyes the First Order fleet firing on them after all. But with this destruction they would now have a break, a chance to rebuild and secure themselves before the next wave of attacks inevitably happened. It would be some time before either the Resistance or the First Order were ready to continue their war, and this was of some consolation to the fleeing Rey.

Suddenly she felt something stroke against the edge of her conscience. It was feather light, only a whisper of another mind.

‘Rey’ He groaned.

‘Ben, shhh. I’m here.’ He tried to lift himself up in his seat but could only let out another groan as he dropped straight back down. His arm was now left to trail down awkwardly at his side, almost certainly dislocated, and he couldn’t have been himself at all if he hadn’t noticed it before. She took a moment to take in the full extent of his injuries. His clothes were covered in scorch marks, from both the Praetorian blades and the burning debris that had fallen on them. His lip was split, blood running down to his chin and she was pretty sure his nose was broken. She ran her hands down his chest to check further, and the wince he gave as she passed his ribs told her that at least one had been damaged badly.

She brushed his hair away from his sweaty forehead. He felt too hot. ‘Rest.’

‘Where are we heading?’ He had never been one to relinquish control easily. But for the first time, she found herself glad for his weakened state. There was only one place she could think of that, for the time being, would be safe for her and the infamous Kylo Ren, and she certainly didn’t want him to find out where it was they were going.

‘Somewhere safe.’ She replied. He was too tired to question her further, he would just have to trust her.

‘Are you okay?’ His voice was beginning to slur, but his concern for her still caused a lump to form in her throat.

‘I’m fine, now rest.’ She fuelled her final words with a small push of her force powers, and in his state, he was powerless to resist her. His head slumped down onto his chest.

She programmed the coordinates for Ahch-to into the ships computer. She would need to keep Ben unconscious during the duration of their stay there, he wouldn’t forgive her if he found out she’d taken him to his uncle. But she couldn’t think of any other options. Once the First Order found the body, them missing and Snoke’s shuttle gone, it wouldn’t take them long to figure out what had happened to both Ben and his former master. They were fugitives now, but for some reason it didn’t scare her as much as it should have.

The computer finished its calculations and she watched the shuttle cockpit turn a pale blue as it made the jump to hyperspace. She risked another glance over at her partner, seeing the slight movements of his chest as he breathed. It surprised her how glad she was of this, as her eyelids slowly fell closed and she dropped further down into her seat.

-------------------------------------------

‘Rey. Rey, come on.’ She felt someone tugging on her, then her body was lifted into a pair of strong arms. Her head hung backwards, and the scent of the ocean filled her nostrils. She opened her bleary eyes and saw the upside-down waves of a calm ocean nearby.

‘What are you even doing back here?’ The voice mumbled to itself, ‘Of all the stupid, reckless…’ It trailed off as sleep claimed her once again.

-------------------------------------------

The next time she woke the world was much darker, something that her throbbing head was very grateful for. She knew her surroundings immediately, they were in Luke’s old hut on Ahch-to. A fire crackled merrily nearby, warming the small space, as Luke pottered around. It was crowded with two of them there, and the low bed she lay on had been shoved haphazardly against the sloping walls. She lifted her hand gingerly to her head, the blood had caked into her hair, but at least she was no longer bleeding freely. Luke sensed her waking up, turning to look her in the eye. His face gave away nothing of his emotions and his walls were firmly up around his mind.

‘Where is he?’ She asked guiltily, her voice quiet.

‘He’s safe. I fixed him up as best I could. It’s been a few years and I’m a bit rusty, but he’ll live. Not so sure how happy I am for that, but there it is. What were you thinking, Rey, bringing him here?’ Rey felt like a child being scolded by a parent. Didn’t he understand that she hadn’t exactly had a galaxy of options open to her when she’d chosen to return to Ahch-to?

‘I don’t know, I just… I needed somewhere safe for us and this was the first place that came to mind.’ Luke’s shoulders sagged, what little fight left in him expelled in a single long breath.

‘Well, he’s unconscious for now and I’ll try to keep him like that for as long as I can. You both need to be away from here before he wakes up though.’ Rey nodded. She knew that no matter how deeply Luke had put Ben under, he was still a uniquely powerful force user. His own powers would inevitably break through the fog covering his mind, and she needed to have him back on the ship and far away by then.

‘I know.’

Luke made his way around the fire, coming to sit next to Rey on the small pallet, ‘Why are you both here, Rey?’

How could she even begin to explain everything that had happened to her master. She rubbed at her forehead in frustration. From that first time seeing Ben in her hut, to the force vision they’d both seen, to the sudden and inexplicable need she felt inside her to see him safe; she could barely wrap her own mind around her life now, let alone share it with someone else.

‘It’s called a force bond.’ He said. Rey was speechless; how did he know about this?

‘When you leave here, get Ben to help you with your defences. It’s like watching a holovid, the way you’re shouting your thoughts into my head.’ He said with a small smile. Her mouth closed with a snap.

‘Then how…’

He held up a hand to silence her, ‘They’re rare, in all the texts I’ve come across I’ve only ever heard of a handful. Usually they require a lot more… I don’t know,’ His hand twirled in the air as he tried to find the right word, ‘…interaction, than you two have had. If you’re looking for answers as to how it happened, I can’t help you. You’ve only known each other a handful of weeks, as far as I know this should be impossible.’

‘I already know how it happened.’ She said angrily, ‘It was Snoke. He told us that he was the one who created the bond.’

He put his hand gently on her shoulder, instantly soothing her rising anger. ‘Then he lied, Rey,’ Luke said quietly, tilting his head to look at her face more closely, ‘he’s incredibly powerful but he could never manipulate a force bond like that. They’re a product of trust and understanding. They need the light to be created and to survive.’

‘You mean, he was powerful. He’s just dead now.’ She knew that a true Jedi shouldn’t gain as much pleasure as she did at the memory of Snoke’s body split in two, but for now she couldn’t find it in herself to care. She was glad he was dead. He had underestimated both her and Ben, and now he lay dead before his throne, his eyes left wide in surprise at the betrayal of his most faithful apprentice.

Luke’s face was frozen in shock, his thoughts running too quickly. She may have had great potential inside of her, but she had only been training for a number of weeks. How had she managed to bring down someone as ancient and powerful as Snoke?

‘Ben killed him.’ She said suddenly, interrupting him, ‘I was completely at his mercy, I couldn’t move and Snoke had my lightsaber. Then he ordered Ben to kill me, and he could have done. It would have been so easy for him. But he chose to kill Snoke and save me.’ She stared at Luke accusatorily, ‘I told you there was still light in him.’

He took a moment to absorb everything he’d just heard, ‘Rey, one good deed doesn’t erase a history of darkness.’

‘Just as one mistake doesn’t darken a lifetime of light.’ She said to him pointedly. She knew that his misgivings about Ben stemmed from his own failings, and her words hit him harder than he would have liked. The air became awkward and heavy around them, and Rey decided to move on to something a little less morbid.

‘So, what exactly should I expect from this bond? Am I suddenly going to fall madly in love with him or something?’ A wry smile came to her lips.

‘Nothing quite so drastic I’m afraid.’ Luke replied, ‘From what I’ve read it’s like… like the other person becomes a piece of you. Your feelings become clearer to one another. It’ll be easier for him to see into your mind, not that that isn’t already pretty easy.’ She nudged his body with her own in fake annoyance and they both laughed, though hers was tinged with nerves. This bond sounded terrifying to someone who had always been alone as she had, being so vulnerable with another person was not in her nature.

‘Does it mean we’ll be stuck together? I’m not entirely certain that’s something either of us could survive. I mean, if you count every conversation we’ve had so far, most have ended in either shouting, an argument or in serious injuries.’

‘Search your feelings, Rey. What do they tell you?’ She huffed slightly. It never was easy with Master Skywalker.

She closed her eyes, centring her feelings on the man still unconscious in the nearby hut. She couldn’t get anywhere near his mind, Luke had put him into a deep sleep to give them at least a day or two to recuperate. But just knowing that he was nearby, that he was safe with her and his uncle spread a rare warmth through her heart. It was the same addictive feeling she’d felt in her vision of the two of them together. She would be unwilling to ever give up such a feeling.

Her eyes remained closed as she began trying to explain how she felt, ‘I think of him and it feels… right? As though I’ve been missing something and now I have it, and it’s up to me to keep it safe.’

‘Rey, you don’t need to say it aloud, just continue like this and I’ll sense your feelings.’

She thought of Ben further, this time the darker things he’d done. The fear she’d felt back on Takodana when he’d held her unmoving in his grasp. Seeing his masked face in the interrogation room, knowing that he was about to take from her her secrets, her insecurities, her memories. Seeing him kill… no, she didn’t want to dwell on that. It made her grit her teeth, her own darkness rising and screaming at her that such a monster deserved to have been left behind to die on the Supremacy. But her heart twinged at this thought, it needed him by her side. She knew that she couldn’t survive without him, he was as much a part of her now as she was of him. It would a lot of take her time though to reconcile her head and heart, if she ever could.

‘You’re torn, Rey.’

‘I’m scared. How will we ever be able to find peace together? We hate each other.’

‘You need to learn to understand one another.’

‘Understand?’ She scoffed, ‘I thought you hated him for what he’s done? He murdered your students, his own father. He burned down your temple and stopped the Jedi from returning, and you want me to what… sympathise with him?’

He took a moment to collect his thoughts, and his voice was quiet and contemplative when he began to speak, ‘I may not condone what he’s done, but I’ve had many years to come to understand his reasoning, as warped as it’s been. And you wouldn’t have gone to try and turn him if you weren’t beginning to feel the same way.’

He was right. She knew that their time in each other’s heads had created something between them, something that had nothing to do with their bond. When he’d kissed her in the throne room, she hadn’t wanted to push him away, she’d wanted to pull him closer. He’d been grabbing onto her tightly, unwilling to let go for even a second, and she’d felt the hard lines of him pressing closely against her much softer curves. Their bond had opened up and she’d felt the need emanating from him, coming at her in strong waves. An awkward cough brought her unexpectedly from her thoughts. Judging from the small blush on Luke’s face, she’d been projecting again, and quite loudly. He chose to change the subject to something a little less embarrassing for the girl than his nephew.

‘So, what are your plans for when you leave here?’ He asked.

‘I don’t know. The plan was to run, I didn’t really think of anything beyond that.’ She admitted. Luke sighed and got up from his seat next to her. Clearly, they were going to need some help if the two of them wanted to remain hidden permanently. He pulled out a small memory chip from a nearby desk drawer and handed it to her.

‘Here.’

She turned it over in her hands, there were no discerning marks on the chip, ‘What is it?’

‘A map. There’s a system marked on there, deep in the outer rim. Leia, Han and I stumbled across it during a mission years ago that… well, let’s just say that Han was in charge of that particular mission.’

‘So things didn’t go according to plan?’

‘Exactly.’ Luke chuckled.

‘We were stranded on a planet there for a while, Nocoma I think it was, and we got to know the area pretty well. When we eventually got the ship working again and made it back to the rebellion, Leia made it her mission to clear the planet from the few navigational charts it was actually mapped on. Said she might need it one day for another rebel base.’ That sounded just like the legendary General Rey had heard stories of in her childhood; driven, determined, and always prepared for anything. At least she could be sure that if Leia had had any hand in preparing the planet then it would have the basics necessary to make it inhabitable, if not comfortable.

‘So only you and Leia know about it then?’

‘Yes, so don’t go there unless you don’t mind her finding you. I’m only giving it to you because I can’t imagine you staying out of the fight for long.’ No, he was wrong. She’d promised Ben that they would, and she would try everything to keep her word. But it wouldn’t hurt to keep the chip, just in case.

‘Thank you, Luke. I’ll keep it safe.’

‘Good. Good.’ His eyes trailed off, his mind clearly distracted by something as it often was, and he turned to leave the hut.

‘Luke?’ She had one more question that had been burning in her mind since she’d woken up. He stopped but didn’t turn back to her, ‘What’s it like, seeing him again?’

Rey could see his shoulders shift slightly as he took in a long draw of air. She felt her throat tightening, the tears beginning to form behind her eyes as her master’s strong feelings leeched into her mind.

‘I’ve missed him.’ He could only give her this. He had failed Ben, even before that night, by always keeping him at a distance from both himself and the other students. Now it was too late. He didn’t deserve her pity, and Ben didn’t deserve to be weighed down by Luke’s lingering feelings of guilt. He carried on out of the hut, leaving her alone to her thoughts. It took her only a few heartbeats before she was up on her feet and heading to Ben’s hut.

She pushed aside the curtain at the entrance, and the heat hit her almost immediately. Luke had set the fire roaring in the small space and sweat quickly began beading on her forehead as she moved to sit beside her partner. He looked so peaceful in sleep, even with the multitude of scars and bruises that currently littered his face. The space between his eyes had lost the deep groove that was usually settled there, and his mouth was no longer downturned in anger. It was as if she were seeing only the younger Ben Solo, before Kylo Ren had taken over his life.

His long hair was once again plastered to his forehead and curling handsomely around the edges of his face. Rey didn’t think she’d ever get over seeing something so ordinary and human on him, she couldn’t imagine him having a ‘bad hair day’. But that was what he was, just a man. An incredibly powerful man who had made terrible, disgusting choices in his life, but still just a man. A man that her life was now inextricably tied to.

She leaned forwards, close to his ear, not wanting anyone to hear but him. Her words came out in a low, shaky voice, one that was still filled conflict and doubts, ‘I swear, Ben. I will try my best with you. I know it won’t be easy; neither of us are exactly known for our friendly personalities, but I will try. This bond makes me feel better, less alone in the galaxy. I don’t want to lose that because you’re too busy being, well, you know how you can be.’ She released a breath that brushed over his face, ‘Just… just promise me that you’ll try too.’ She collected herself for a moment, finding that calm space inside herself as Luke had taught her to do, gaining the courage to lie down by his side. If Luke could admit that he’d missed his nephew, could begin to forgive the past after everything he’d done, then she swore that she would try too.

Chapter 4

#reylo #fanfic #reylo fanfic #reylo fandom #star wars #star wars fanfic

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chiefdefendofcherryblossom · 4 years ago

Text

He flexed his fingers, pen poised over the coastertablet. He blinked, trying to make his eyes focus, flinching in surprise as his fresibird warbled softly into his ear. He ignored the deafening roar of the crowds as they greeted their championing writers.

If he wasn’t able to win the favor of the crowds, he’d be letting down his team. All their scientific discoveries stopped, and he’d be sent back to Earth, where he was homeless and had no family. Worthless.

Their team’s writer - his master - had disappeared. Merissa had shoved him out here to write their document with only an hour of warning.

His palms sweat profusely as he reached up to his shoulder to stroke his fresibird, Forens. His legs shook, and his breaths were uneven.

“And Ignover writer -” The loud female announcer paused. “Hmm, wait...it appears Ignover has sent their new writing recruit for this job. Welcome new writer Arctil Weev!”

He stepped out of his waiting hovel, pen slippery in his hand. The stands seemed to stretch up and out for miles, a huge wave waiting to crash down on him. Claps were sporadic, and screams nonexistent at his arrival. He stood next to two other writers, each clad in their team’s uniform and holding a pen and coastertablet.

“We have three writers here, each striving to produce a new document for their cause! Yelven fights for new causes, to move and explore new planets -” Screams from the crowd - “Orphen to return home -” Deep, rumbling approval - “And Ignover fights for further study!” A portion of the crowd roared. It wasn’t much, and they weren’t confident in Arctil - but they believed in his cause.

“Who will win the favor of the masses?” The announcer asked dramatically. Breathe, Arctil thought loudly to himself. Breathe.

“Pens up!” Arctil wiped his hands on his uniform, and held up his pen. “Ready...GO!”

Arctil scribbled desperately. The more his pen scratched against his coastertablet, though, the more his breath seemed to even out, and his mind seemed to solidify. Just keep writing.

The crowd waited in heavy suspense, until - “Time! Contestants, pens down!”

There seemed to be a buzz in Arctil’s brain. But...he hadn’t finished…

The announcer bounced down off her stand, a short man beside her, the chip on her cheek serving as her megaphone. “Now the papers of these impassioned writers will be surmised by my trusty colleague, Reddus,” she flipped her violet hair over her shoulder and gestured to the short man, “And then will be spread to each of you, open to vote!”

Breathe. You made good arguments. Breathe. Arctil held out his coastertablet to the short man, who tapped it with his pen, transferring the document to his own coastertablet, and moved on to the other writers.

Forens nibbled Arctil’s ear as the adrenaline finished with him, making him shake slightly. For a minute or so, the man read over each document, tapping with his pen. He gestured to the announcer lady.

“And now, the essays of these writers are open to you! You have 10 minutes to read and vote!” The lady grinned. She tapped her cheek, turning off the megaphone application, and turned to Arctil and the writers behind him. “You guys can wait in your hovels. Good job!” She smiled and waved them away.

Arctil stepped back into his hovel, where Merissa waited. “Arctil? How do you feel? What’d you write?”

Arctil slumped against the wall, his shaggy brown hair hanging in his vision. “I feel dead. I wrote what I thought was right.”

She reached down and set a hand on his shoulder. It was trembling.

Altogether too soon, the voice of the violet haired announcer came back. “And now, contestants come out to receive their vote!”

Arctil watched as the middle-aged female writer for Yelven stepped out of her hovel, followed by the young man for Orphen. There was nothing from the crowds this time - the pressure was too much. Arctil stepped forward.

“It’ll be alright, Arctil.” Merissa’s voice didn’t register. He moved onto the flat green stadium.

“Are you ready?” the announcer yelled through her megaphone, and the crowds suddenly roared. “Yes!” She cried, and then paused as the short man whispered to her. “And for Yelven we have a vote 7 out of 10 with 30% popular vote!”

The Yelven lady pumped her fists into the air, beaming.

“Oh my...Yelven, hold your horses - Orphen has a staggering 9 out of 10!” The crowd screamed, and the young man ran to the crowds, yelling thanks. “Orphen has also earned a 40% popular vote!”

Sweat dripped down Arctil’s forehead and into his eyes. He blinked.

“Oh...and Ignover has an interesting dilemma...good content, but an unfinished document. Ignover is awarded 6 out of 10, with a popular vote of 20%.” The crowd mumbled. Arctil wasn’t sure if it was in disappointment or mocking. I lost. We lost everything. He turned back to the hovel.

Merissa’s short brown hair didn’t cover her crestfallen expression. Arctil clenched his fists as burning shame began taking hold. He shoved past her.

Arctil watched the dark moon rise from the roof of his station. The yellow and red suns were setting behind him, and cast a colorful glow onto the rising shadows. He would have to leave this world behind. All their discoveries would be stopped short in their tracks. His entire team would have to leave because he’d failed.

He still wore his writing jockey uniform. Taking it off felt like admitting he’d failed.

“Arctil! Arctil, where are you?”

Arctil bent over and looked down. Merissa was looking into his station, calling for him. Part of him wanted to ignore her.

“Here, Merissa.”

She looked up. “Oh, there you are! Arctil, I’ve got to tell you something.” Arctil couldn’t read her expression. He jumped down, the soft earth absorbing his landing.

Merissa took a step back. “We found Mettoway.”

Arctil’s eyes widened. His writing master! “Where? What was he doing?”

Merissa looked down. “He was on the beach. He’s dead.”

Arctil took a step back. “What?”

Merissa shook her head. “Ever since that explosion last week, he hasn’t been doing so well. And, well, he was ancient. I’m really sorry, Arctil.” She wrapped one arm around herself and set the other on his shoulder. “But there’s good news too. We’re getting a new shipment of people in two days. If you prepare, you can write another document and win them over. We can stay, Arctil.”

Arctil turned, letting her hand fall off his shoulder. He looked toward the violet tinted waves crashing rhythmically against the shore. “I wish we could, Merissa. Stay here, where we can learn and grow. Where we belong. The Orphen want to return home, and the Yelven want to move to discover new planets. But what does discovery mean at all if we don’t treasure it? We’re scientists, Merissa, and that means we can’t just do what’s exciting or comfortable - we need to do what’s necessary. To stay here, to finish our work to further human and ecological lives, we need the vote of the Populus. Our writer is dead, and I must admit, I don’t have much hope. I’ve never been a talented writer. I’ve had to slave over each principle, each word. I can’t improve enough in the next two days to win our rights.”

Merissa stood shoulder to shoulder with him. “Maybe not, but you do have a way with the spoken word…”

Arctil shrugged, but turned to look at her. She was biting her lip, eyes distant. “Maybe you can enter the contest, but give a spoken essay instead of a written one…or maybe you can talk to the new shipment when they get here.” She turned to him, green eyes imploring. “You should at least try, Arctil.”

It wouldn’t help. But it wouldn’t hurt, either. “Alright,” he agreed. “I’ll do it.”

The breath exited Arctil’s lungs, sounding musical to him. Merissa was right; the spoken word came easier to him than the written ones. He had given his essay loudly, confidently, imploringly. Now he awaited the vote of the critic and the people.

He turned back to his hovel without being asked, where Merissa waited. Her hands were clasped in nervous excitement. “That was amazing, Arctil! We’re going to win!”

Arctil smiled. “Maybe.”

He paced back and forth, Merissa leaning against the wall, waiting for the announcer’s voice to return. Finally, he heard, “And contestants, you’re up!”

Arctil practically ran out of his waiting hovel. He didn’t hear the reports of the other two teams - his ears strained for only his own scores.

“And we had an...interesting development with Ignover today. We were given a spoken essay instead of a document, and the Ignover writer, Arctil, has been graded with a 2 out of 10.”

Arctil stared. His vision spun. But - this was supposed to work!

Loaded on a shuttle. Leaving Forens and his station behind. Watching as the suns disappeared as the shuttle rocketed farther and farther away.

Back on Earth. Cold, hard, colorless earth. Worthless, lonely Arctil.

The imagined scene disappeared as the announcer’s next words filled his ears. “But Ignover’s won a shocking 80% of the populus!”

The crowd was bent on destroying Arctil’s eardrums, but this time, he didn’t mind. He grinned at them, and Merissa came careening out of the hovel to yell their victory. The announcer struggled to be heard over the din. “A shuttle will be sent to earth for Orphen, and another sent to look for new planets - but the remainder of peoples will stay on Olowen! Ignover has won!”

Arctil threw his hands in the air. Success. Merissa grabbed his shoulder. Her green eyes seemed to bore into him. “See, Arctil? You’re not worthless. You’re a good scientist, a good speaker, and a good person.” Arctil grinned. “ I -”

He stopped as Merissa continued. “We’ll get to finish our studies! All because of you!” She laughed and let him go.

Arctil blinked rapidly. Merissa took his hand and raised it into the air, laughing. “Cheer, Arctil!”

The yells of the crowd roared in his ears. The light of the red sun made his expression glow. He had done it. Arctil raised his hands and cheered.

I tried my hand at flash fiction...a little long, but I must admit I’m happy with it!

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taycofftoadventure · 4 years ago

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Utah Park Road Trip

What a year. I’ve taken a hiatus from the blog during 2020 for obvious reasons: pandemic travel is a challenge and not encouraged. It was hard to decide whether to venture out at all frankly. But after a a new gig, I desperately needed a getaway- so we took a week-long road trip to Utah. Our goal was to try to avoid people and get into nature. I’m so grateful for the escape. In the end, my soul really needed to go. Needed the break. Needed the change of scenery. I’ve gotten a lot of folks asking me what we did, where we went, so I decided to dust off the blog and share with folks our itinerary.

We traveled with surface cleaner, our masks, etc. We took precautions where appropriate. It wasn’t always easy, but I felt relatively safe. We stayed in hotels and cabins- camping is totally an option, but traveling in August meant very hot weather and we wanted the AC. But every place we went had camping options if that is more your speed. Also many of the places we stayed, we could enter the room from an external door. It felt safer generally than riding an elevator or being in narrow hotel halls. We also didn’t have maid service during our stays to limit who was in the room. But I encourage everyone to be smart about whatever they chose to do. It’s hard to control all elements. We did the best we could.

You may wonder why we went to Springdale and THEN Bryce and THEN back to Zion- well, cost (the Lodge in the park was cheaper midweek) and avoiding people. We aimed to hit the Narrows hike on a Wednesday- which was less crowded.

Day 1 and 2 - Springdale, UT

We drove from LA. We opted not to stop in Vegas because they have a lot of coronavirus cases. Without traffic, it’s a six hour or so drive to beautiful Springdale, UT- the gateway to Zion National Park. We stayed at the Majestic View Lodge at the edge of town for two nights. Springdale itself is a gem in the canyon between red rock cliffs towering above.

Zion National Park has a shuttle service with limited tickets to access certain portions of the park (**check for their policies regularly/they changed during our planning and we almost didn’t score tickets). But there are some sites that don’t require a shuttle. We hit those first. After a breakfast at Deep Creek Coffee (really good/we went twice!), we ventured up the scenic drive of the park. Surrounded by giants, we pulled off and took photos as we headed to our first hike on the Canyon Overlook Trail. It’s a moderately challenging hike, but not long. You can do it rather quickly, but we definitely stopped to take many a photo. You’re rewarded with quite a view. Some portion of the trail was narrow- so bring your mask (always bring your mask). After, we cooled down at the hotel pool until it got busier.

Before dinner, we rode bikes through Springdale to the Pa’rus Trail (paved so it’s not hard to bike). It was mighty glorious as the sun set below The Watchman. The grill at the Majestic View Lodge did have really good ribeye for take-out.

Day 3-5 Bryce Canyon National Park

The next day, we headed to Bryce National Park for two nights. What a special place. Powerful hoodoos dot the canyon. I felt like I was immersed in a giant sand castle. It was hot when we went. There was no water in the canyon, so take more water than you think you need if you plan to hike beyond the rim.

Our first hike was the Navajo Trail to the Peekaboo Loop and then up iconic Wall Street. It’s strenuous. If you want something lighter, do just Navajo Trail- but even that has dramatic elevation gain. Also, you have the challenge of Bryce’s naturally high elevation. The most common medical issues folks have in Bryce are elevation related problems. The number two problem; ankle issues (so wear supportive shoes) because the trails are steep. Despite being hard, it was JAW-DROPPINGLY beautiful. No photos need a filter. Go slow, take breaks, take photos, and stay hydrated.

The next day we woke up early and hit The Fairyland Loop. It’s the longest hike in the park, but you’ll have no issues social distancing. Bring lots of water and lunch- but it’s not as hard as Peekaboo/Navajo. Go early to avoid midday sun. We started at Sunrise point and did it counter clockwise. We liked this for a few reasons- our climb back out of the canyon was shaded by an occasional tree and the last two miles of the hike was the much easier Rim Trail in the hotter part of the day (which does have some climbing itself, but at least you’re almost to your car by the end)... and also I loved ending the hike near the General Store for a little lemonade and fruit.

Closer to sunset, we checked out Rainbow Point and Natural Bridge. If you skip Peekaboo, Bryce Point will give you a taste of what you missed from above.

The town of Bryce itself was only established ten years ago. Not too much there. We grabbed picnic/breakfast food in Springdale and then got take out in Tropic for dinners. Stone Hearth Grille was delicious and beautifully situated- I can tell it would be a great place to eat in when this pandemic is over. IDK Barbecue was also really tasty.

The last morning in Bryce we hit the Queens Garden Trail- the most popular trail. But you can see why, it’s not-to-be-missed gorgeous and it’s the “easiest” trail into the canyon (and by easiest, I still mean it’s steep). We opted to hit it on a Tuesday and found it wasn’t too hard to avoid folks. I did wear my mask more (i really dig my Variant Malibu mask btw).

Day 6-8 Zion National Park

After the hike, we headed back to Zion. On this stretch, we stayed at Zion Lodge in a cabin at the Xanterra run hotel in the park. It was worth it because you get a drive-on into the park where only shuttles can go and it’s great to be in the midst of the action (the only caveat is, you can only drive as far as the lodge). There’s also the bonus reality that if you stay at the lodge, the shuttle times are irrelevant, They let you on whenever, you just need a ticket for the day. Alternatively, you can ride uphill to the Narrows by bike.

We rode the shuttle once to go to the famous Narrows hike. We were very much rewarded for our early morning- there were very uncrowded stretches. What a colossally special experience. Almost religious- I felt like I was in a giant natural cathedral. The early morning light gifted us with such dynamic and extraordinary sights. I’ll never forget them. Besides snacks and water, I highly recommend a hiking pole and neoprene socks. Just buy them ahead of time- but you can rent them in town for the same cost. We were glad to just get started early and not have to deal with rentals. The rocks are slippery so mind your step. I also felt the current made it more precarious. Be sure to check the water quality and for flash flood warnings. Levels were low, but due to little rain there was a bacterial overgrowth harmful to humans and animals. So sadly, we couldn’t submerge (or ingest)- but I felt it was shallow enough to maintain safety. Avoid the algae mats.

As we wrapped up the hike six hours later, more people hit the trail- the mask was up and this was the most congested I felt all trip! But the ranger at the end of the hike said that actually, this was nothing compared to pre-covid. People used to wait hours for a shuttle... so thanks pandemic, we didn’t wait long.

In the evenings, we gazed at the Milky Way on the green lawn filled with deer and tried to spy meteors showering by (well, more like a trickle- we saw two between us) and hung out on our cabin porch drinking wine and playing cards. Staying in the park was peaceful.

Additionally, some of the popular hikes are an easy stroll from the lodge. It would have been possible to avoid the shuttle altogether if we weren’t intending to do the Narrows. We walked on an evening stroll up the trail to the Grotto picnic area where the Angel’s Landing Hike begins (the top is closed at present for Covid). Across the street from the lodge is the trailhead for the Emerald Pools. We would have made the trek but the pools are apparently very low right now. Some things for us to check out next time!

Day 9-11 Sundance, UT

After Zion, we headed north for two nights in the mountains outside of Salt Lake City. I was craving green and trees for sure. We stayed at the Sundance Resort but if you’re looking to save some coin, there’s plenty of camping off the narrow mountain Alpine Scenic Byway. The mountain pass is closed in the winter, but right now it’s dotted with gorgeous still-snow dusted peaks and the largest Aspen grove I’ve ever seen.

There were a lot of hikes in the area, but in the warm heat of the summer, we opted for Stewart Falls. There are a few access points- if you don’t stay at Sundance, there is a trailhead in Aspen Grove. If you stay at the resort, you get a free ski-lift ticket (or you can buy one). We took the scenic chalet to Ray’s Summit (you can go further up to the top for a cold beverage and what-looked-like-delicious nachos). From Ray’s Summit, you can hike a lovely but sometimes steep trail down to the falls. We then took the trail back to our lodging from the falls. Google maps was helpful in navigating the narrow trails.

We did shell out for the zip line tour which boasts one of the longest rides in the US. It was exhilarating. You fly from peak to peak and down the mountain. Definitely grab a bottle of water to take with you- it took us about 2 hours to do it all... but can take up to 3. Luckily our group was just the two of us, so it went pretty fast and I was thankful to not have to wait for anyone.

The food at Sundance was excellent with lots of outdoor seating and picnic tables- so it’s easy to get a fine dining meal and a swell spot to eat it in. Everything from the breakfast sandwich to the salmon to the pork chops was really good.

Day 12-13 St. George, UT

On our way back to Los Angeles, we drove back south again and stayed in St. George- not far outside of Zion. We stayed at a lovely renovated hotel Inn of the Cliff- bonus points for beautiful view and pool. Pro-tip, if you want the pool ALL to yourself, Sunday morning seemed to be the winner (because I think the community is all at church). Also for breakfast, skip the long lines and go to Tia’s Artesian Bakery. We picked up some delectable food ahead of the drive home.

In the end, I was so grateful for this trip. It felt incredibly long (even though it was just weekend to weekend). Getting into nature, surrounded by awesome views, and testing my body- but also having down-time- felt crucial to getting the rejuvenation I needed. On long, popular hike days, we rose early- but almost every other day, we slept in. The balance felt right. We were grateful to pack a cooler and have snacks and cold drinks on long drives or hot days.

Travel safe. Stay healthy. Take care of your spirit. Go find nature.

Photos by Zach Lupetin and Taylor Coffman

#zion #zion national park #bryce #bryce national park #national park #travel blog #travel tips #sundance #utah #roadtrip #road trip

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