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meetmyothersouls · 2 years ago

Note

hey uhhh dunno if you're still taking requests to write but here goes nothing... umm what abt reader where she was like a party gal and she never had seggs without being drunk so she doesn't know how it really feels, but then she and Timmy have their first time together w her completely sober

sorry if it's confusing or smth like that, I love your blog 💕😊

Hi! I can do that for ya <3 hope you like it!

Desensitized

Warnings: smut, mentions if alcohol/being drunk, not proofread

I wake up naked and wrapped in Timothee’s arms. The after party for the premier of our recent film was last night and I’m pretty sure we had sex since...well, he’s naked too; I just can’t remember it. My bare legs are draped over Timothee’s and my aching pussy is soaked on his thigh. I should be embarrassed, but I’m not. This is kind of a normal thing the two of us have been doing for years. We meet up, we have sex. We attend the same award show, he follows me to my hotel, and we have sex. Timothee’s in the next town over for a photoshoot, we have sex. It’s only increased since we’ve been filming this movie together for the last 6 months. Sex has become an almost everyday thing for us since filming started, the only thing is...I’m usually drunk when we do it. I’m not sure why, but I’m only comfortable fucking when I’m fucked up. I kind of love it, only because usually have the best orgasms when I’m drunk. I kind of hate it, because I can’t remember any of the details. I can’t remember the kisses or the soft touches. I can’t remember the foreplay or the sweet words he may or may not have said to me. I think about this as I lay on top of him, wondering how he treats me when we’re intimate, and I feel bad for having zero memories of it.

Timothee shifts in his sleep, groaning a little as his cock slides against my hip. He hums out a small “mmm” and I can hear if vibrate in his chest.

“You awake?” He asks, his voice gravelly and unbelievably sexy. Maybe he sounds like that when we’re fucking. The thought of it makes me want to grind my naked body against him, but I don’t. I can’t...not sober at least.

“Mhm,” I say as I shift my body upward. The skin on his left thigh slides against my clit and I let out a soft moan that I regret instantly. Yep, I’m definitely soaked and if he didn’t know before, the shiny trail of arousal I left on Timothee’s leg has definitely given it away. My cheeks start to burn with a slow, embarrassed intensity and I suddenly remember why I’m nice and hammered before anything sexual ever happens. I hate this. Timothee lets out a knowing chuckle and I hate that too.

I lift my leg in an attempt to get my embarrassingly aroused vagina off of him, but Timothee’s large palm grips my thigh, and he stops me.

“Where you goin’, baby?” Timothee asks, he whines slightly and normally I find it sickening when men whine, but nothing Timothee does is sickening. His hand slides against the skin on my thigh, leaving prickled goosebumps in its wake even though his hand is perfectly warm. He rubs up and down my leg, traveling further up until he grips my ass. I relax into him and my mind screams loudly at me. “You leaving me so early?” He asks when I don’t say anything.

There are many things I could say in this moment. I could tell him I feel sick. I could tell him I don’t want to do this with him again. I could tell him I don’t like to have sex in the morning. Fuck, I could grab my clothes and book it. But I don’t do any of those. Instead, I bury my face into his chest and shrug. A sigh escapes me, and I feel Timothee sit up, pulling me with him. I groan softly as I’m now sitting in his lap. I feel him under me.

“What’s going on?” Timothee asks, he rubs his nose against mine and his bottom lip grazes my mouth. When I don’t lean into him for a kiss, he presses a soft one of his own to my lips. “I was hoping to steal a few more hours with you.”

My hands go to his chest. I rest them there while I try to think of something to say. He looks into my eyes, expectantly, but patiently. I sigh, knowing I’ll have to come clean.

“I’m just not…good…at…this.”

Timothee cocks his head to the side. The motion reminding me of a confused puppy. I almost laugh at the thought; Timothee Chalamet is a puppy in human form.

“Not good at what?” He places his head back in its normal position and his eyes explore my face, attempting to place an emotion or read my thoughts.

“This,” I say, moving my hands in between the two of us. “This cuddly, sex stuff.”

“You were great at it last night. And last week and the week before and-”

“No!” I interrupt him, placing my hand over mouth, I can tell he’s smiling by the curve of his lips against my palm and the crinkle of his eyes. “No. That’s not what I mean.”

“Well, what do you mean?” He asks from under my hand. His eyes steady on mine even with my breasts and naked body fully exposed.

“I’m not good at sober intimacy.” The words come out soft, but the guilt that burns the back of my throat is raging.

“Ah,” Timothee says, removing my hand from his face. He laces his fingers with mine and sighs. It’s not an empty sigh. No, instead it’s one filled with thought. Regret? One of those sighs that you hear right before bad news.

I hate those kinds of sighs.

“I guess I’m going to have to teach you then,” he says. Fingers slide from mine and begin to trail soft little circles on the bare skin of my back.

“Teach me?”

Timothee nods. “Lay down and let me show you how wonderful it is to be loved.”

My eyes widen and my body tenses instantly. I shake my head while I force myself to lay down. Why am I like this? My mind is racing as fast as my heart and as much as I want this to stop I…do I want this to stop?

I’m now laying on the hotel mattress. My hands are in fists, and my body is stiffer than what I imagine a dead body’s is once rigor mortis has set in.

Why am I like this?

“Y/n?”

My eyes snap to Timothee’s. He’s hovering over me and if I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was an angel—no not an angel—High Fae. Only otherworldly creatures have faces that look like his.

“Y/n?” He says again.

“Mhm?”

“I’d never hurt you, you know? Nor would I force you to into this if you’re not comfortable.”

I don’t say anything because I’m not comfortable as much as I desperately want to be and I hate myself for it.

He’s studying my face but when he begins to move off of me I realize he’s taking my silence as a no.

“Wait!” I say, grabbing at his arm. “Don’t go. I need this. I need this with you.”

Timothee crawls back over me and I’ve only slightly gotten over the fear of looking at his fully naked body. I force myself to study his body. I crane my neck to the side, resting my cheek on his pillow.

“You can touch me,” he says at the exact moment my eyes focus on his massive cock. He falls onto the mattress beside me, his cock jutting into the air. My breath hitches when he grabs my hand. He kisses the front of it and guides it to his length. “Like this,” he says. He wraps my hand around his cock and keeps his on top of mine. Together we pump his cock. I watch as tiny beads of pre cum form on the head. Every few seconds his breath hitches and is stomach twitches in unison. Soon, his grip on my hand loosens and falls to his side and it’s just me stroking his cock. I’ve been staring at it now the entire time and I’ve come to realize it’s actually a beautiful dick. A nice fleshy pink color that almost matches the color his lips. Thick blue veins pop out along the length of it and I can feel them as I continue to work him with my hand. He’s moaning and his right hand travels to my stomach.

“Can I touch you while you touch me?”

I nod my head but his hand doesn’t travel any further.

“You’ll have to spread your legs for me, sweetheart.”

“Oh,” I laugh. “Right. Sorry. I’m just nervous.”

I let my legs fall open and I feel completely exposed. Timothee’s finger tips travel down my abdomen. They circle my hip bone and finally make their way down to my core. He slides his fingers against me.

“I’m not even inside and I can feel how wet my you are.”

He dips a finger inside with ease and tests my wetness. Taking the liquid and moving it up to my clit. He teases it with slow circles that immediately throw my back into an arch.

“So much better when your mind is clear, yeah?” He asks in a sultry whisper.

“It feels so good, Tim.”

“I know, baby. I know what you like.”

I’m moving my hips against his fingers. My legs are relaxed my eyes are closed when he stops. I whine. I want more. He’s climbing on top of me again and I’m thankful all of my rigor mortis like stiffness has disappeared. Timothee takes his cock and drags it along my slit, positioning it just right before he pushes in.

“You let me know if you want to stop, okay? If you don’t like it or you want me to go slower or what ever. Okay?”

I nod.

“I’m serious, y/n. You tell me okay?”

“I’ll tell you,” I agree.

Timothee nods and when he pushes himself inside of me I see stars.

“Good?” He asks, once he’s bottomed out inside of me.

“Keep going,” is all I say.

And he does.

Why did I waste all this time desensitizing myself to his pleasure?

Tags: @imnotoverlyobsessive @dayafied @soulofendlessbook @fashphotolife @chicchanelcigs @scentedkittenperfection @weasleytwinscumslut @timotheel0ver @mxciscastleintheair @marvelmaniac2000 @lovelyrocker @divine-1 @louievr @love-poems-only @starberry-cake @inlovewithphantasy @alexagirlie @misswestfall @softhecreator @livresjaunes @timmymyluv @inannamoon @harrys-thick-thighs @s-we-e-t-t-ea @timolaurence @its-schmackin-dude @justagirlwhoneedshelp

#timothee chalamet #timothée chalamet #writing #timothee chalamet x reader #timothee chalamet x you #timothee blurb #timothee chalamet imagine #timmy chalamet #smut

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robininthelabyrinth · 4 years ago

Note

🍊🍋Wen Chao and/or wen xu is a good guy and actually wants to end wen ruo jan's reign of terror (cloud recesses, lotus pier, xuanwu cave or all are elaborate ruses)

ao3

Untamed

“A-Chao,” Wen Xu said. “I think our father is insane.”

Wen Chao’s eye twitched visibly, his shoulders rising up to his ears. “You can’t say that! That’s treason!”

“I’ve already made sure there’s no one anywhere around us right now, not even people I trust.”

Down went the shoulders.

“Of course he’s insane,” Wen Chao said. “Some of his orders recently…”

He shook his head.

“Not much of an empire to rule if they’re all ghost puppets, is there?” he concluded. “I think the Yin Metal is poisoning his brain.”

“I agree,” Wen Xu said. “Now what do we do about it? He’s just ordered me to raze the Cloud Recesses.”

“…when you say raze –”

“To the ground.”

“What happened to just dominating the rest of the cultivation world?” Wen Chao complained. “I liked that plan. I was going to have a really great life. A palace. Servants. Good food. Even better wine. Enough clothing to keep Jiaojiao from complaining.”

“I…don’t know if that’s possible,” Wen Xu said. “Haven’t you given her three closets’ worth already?”

“I have no idea, and I’m too attached to my balls to ask.”

“Anyway,” Wen Xu said. “What do we do about it?”

“You’re asking me?” Wen Chao said.

“Well I’m certainly not going up against him by myself! He’ll kill me!”

“You think he would hesitate to kill both of us?”

“Ugh. Is there anyone we can ask for help? Anyone we haven’t pissed off?”

They both paused, thinking.

“…no,” Wen Chao said. “But in our defense, we never thought we’d need any of them, did we?”

“I don’t think anyone is going to buy that as an excuse,” Wen Xu said, scowling. “Fuck. Isn’t there anyone?”

“Well,” Wen Chao said. He did not continue.

“No,” Wen Xu said. “No. He literally wants to cut off our heads.”

“So does everyone else in the cultivation world,” Wen Chao said. “At least we know Sect Leader Nie hates Dad more than he hates us, which isn’t something that can be said about the rest of them.”

“Fuck,” Wen Xu said. “What’s our alternative plan?”

“…become ghost puppets?”

“Fuck.”

“You do remember that I want to kill you both?” Nie Mingjue said, scowling at them.

“We were betting on you wanting to kill our father more,” Wen Chao said.

“I’m not sure,” Nie Mingjue said. “You’re very obnoxious.”

Wen Chao scowled.

“He has a point, A-Chao,” Wen Xu said.

“Shut up.”

“Respect your elders!”

“If you two are going to start fighting, I’m leaving,” Nie Mingjue said.

They both squinted at him. “Does that mean you might not leave if we stop?” Wen Xu asked.

Nie Mingjue’s scowl got even worse, but eventually he begrudgingly said “…well, I really hate your father.”

They both exhaled in relief.

“What’s your plan?” Nie Mingjue asked.

“This was about as far as it went,” Wen Xu admitted, and Nie Mingjue gaped at him. “What? If we had planning skills, we’d be ruling the world.”

“Jiaojiao wants jewelry now,” Wen Chao agreed. “Lots of it. Keeping a mistress is expensive.”

“I’ll…take your word for that,” Nie Mingjue said, looking mildly uncomfortable.

“You’re always plotting against our father, right?” Wen Xu asked.

“No,” Nie Mingjue said. “If I could plot, your father would already be dead.”

“Good point,” Wen Chao said, but he wasn’t the sort of person to let little details like that discourage him. “But surely you know someone who can?”

“Just keep in mind that I’m on a deadline here,” Wen Xu said. “I have to leave to go raze the Cloud Recesses by the end of the week.”

“You want me to come up with a plan to defeat your father before the end of the week?!”

“Uh, yeah,” Wen Xu said. “That’s what I said, wasn’t it?”

“It was,” Wen Chao agreed.

“I’m going to go get Meng Yao,” Nie Mingjue decided. “And Huaisang, too, why not, somehow he always gets his way no matter what I do. Maybe he can come up with something for this.”

“I think we’re going to need expert assistance,” Nie Huaisang declared. “I’m thinking this is Wei Wuxian levels of plotting.”

“He can plot?” Wen Chao said dubiously. “Are you sure? He took nearly a week to fight a mildly ominous bird.”

“…is that so?” Nie Huaisang said, and sighed. “Okay, fine. Meng Yao, guess it’s up to you and me.”

Meng Yao was blinking his eyes very rapidly.

“What?” Wen Chao said. “You have an awful father too, don’t look so shocked about us wanting to get rid of ours.”

“That’s just how his brain works when he’s thinking,” Nie Huaisang assured him. “He’s kicking it like it’s a sleeping donkey that doesn’t want to get to work; give him a minute and he’ll be coming up with all sorts of ideas.”

“Good ideas?”

“All sorts of ideas.”

“…any good ideas? Mediocre ideas, even?”

“Listen, we have until the end of the week,” Nie Mingjue said irritably. “You’ll take whatever ideas we give you and you’ll like it, you hear me?”

“Is it too late to get Wen Zhuliu in on this?” Wen Xu asked Wen Chao.

“He has that weird thing for Dad,” Wen Chao reminded him.

“Fuck,” Wen Xu said. “I’d wiped that from my memory through the application of a great deal of alcohol, but yes, you’re right. Okay. Hit me with your worst plan.”

“That’s worse than I thought it was going to be.”

“Shut up and just do it.”

“I will now, in the name of the Wen sect, attack –” Wen Xu grimaced. “– this cave.”

“It’s a very important cave, actually,” one of the Lan disciples muttered.

“Be quiet,” Lan Wangji said.

They were all pretending not to notice the main force of Lan sect disciples, led by Lan Xichen, carting their precious books and treasures out of the Cloud Recesses right behind him.

“I am attacking this very important cave,” Wen Xu clarified. “Of extreme importance to the Lan sect. So important, in fact, that it is clearly the correct target for an invasion.”

They stood around a while longer.

Someone cleared their throat. “Should we fight?”

“I can have my men beat you up if you really want,” Wen Xu said.

“…no thanks.”

“Then be quiet.”

There was a bit more standing around. Eventually Lan Qiren coughed.

“Would you like a chair or something?” Wen Xu asked, then frowned. “Never mind, I probably can’t justify that.”

“Probably not,” Lan Qiren agreed. He looked pained. Probably by the whole situation, but who knew, maybe he just had a bad back and the standing around was getting to him. “You will be taking Wangji hostage after this?”

“Along with most of the heirs of the Great Sects,” Wen Xu said. “As agreed, we’ll keep them out of the way.”

“Sometimes the most dangerous place is the safest place.”

“…yeah, that. Either way, they’ll be kept out of trouble.”

“This is not out of trouble!” Wei Wuxian shouted as they ran away from the Xuanwu.

“This stretch of river has never caused anyone any problems!” Wen Chao shouted back. “Ever! You’re the one who found the fucking cave!”

“Shut up and keep running!” Jiang Cheng howled.

“I really like your hair,” Wang Lingjiao told Madame Yu. “Also, that dress.”

Wen Chao sighed.

“Expensive tastes?” Wei Wuxian asked, pouring him some wine.

“You have no idea,” Wen Chao said glumly. “My allowance can’t cover it, so I ended up putting her as a line item in the military budget.”

“You did?” Jiang Cheng said. “Did your father, uh, object?”

“He’d have to notice.”

“I wonder how many other things he wouldn’t notice,” Wei Wuxian muttered to himself.

“You’re a young master of Yunmeng Jiang,” Jiang Cheng said, rolling his eyes. “What could you possibly want to fund that we won’t pay for?”

“I don’t know,” Wei Wuxian said. “Mad science experiments?”

“Can you pay him to stop?” Wen Xu asked. “I don’t even like flute music.”

“Shut up,” Wen Chao said. “You’ve been decapitated, remember?”

“Oh yeah, ‘decapitated’. And now I’m being force-fed lots of Qinghe barbeque,” Wen Xu said. “My life is really hard.”

“Why you…!”

Wen Xu sniggered. “How’s it going with Wen Zhuliu?”

“Fine, I think?” Wen Chao said. “He hasn’t actually noticed that the ‘demons’ we’re being hunted by aren’t really demons, but that’s because he’s been mostly drinking away his weird crush on our dad. I think Wen Ning is spiking his drink with something.”

They both turned to look at Wen Ning, who shrugged.

“Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person,” Wen Xu decided. “Are they attacking the Nightless City soon?”

“I think so.”

“What happens then?”

“Dunno.”

“Going to be kind of awkward when we ‘come back from the dead’ to take over.”

“I’m going to blame it on Wei Wuxian and his new weirdo cultivation,” Wen Chao decided. “We’re all sentient corpses he’s resurrected and using to puppet the Wen sect. Wen Ning, you in on this?”

“…sure,” Wen Ning said. “But only if I get first rights on ‘Ghost General’ as a nickname.”

“Oh, that’s a good one.”

“Thanks for the patricide,” Wen Xu said.

“Think nothing of it,” Nie Mingjue said. “Also, say nothing of it. Ever. In fact, let’s never talk again.”

“Can’t do that,” Wen Chao said. “Madame Yu told Jiaojiao that she got that fancy headpiece from Qinghe, so she wants to go there on a shopping trip.”

“Our economy could use the boost, da-ge,” Nie Huaisang said, and Nie Mingjue sighed. “It’s going to be a really big boost. Especially if she convinces Madame Jin from Lanling to come with her.”

“I still can’t believe they made friends,” Wei Wuxian marveled. “It must come from having more money than brains.”

“Brains aren’t exactly what I look for in a partner,” Wen Chao said. “Luckily for you, neither does your boyfriend.”

“Hey, I have brains!”

“You’re certainly intelligent,” Meng Yao – now named Jin Guangyao – told him.

“See?”

“That was an insult,” Nie Mingjue said.

“…hey!”

“When are you coming back to Qinghe?” Nie Huaisang asked Jin Guangyao, who blinked. “I mean, unless you want to spend all your time slaving away for a guy who thought Wen Ruohan was neat.”

“He’s right,” Wen Xu said. “Father or not, don’t do it. It’s not worth it. You’ll end up having to rebel and ask your worst enemies for help and it’s awkward.”

“I appreciate the offer,” Jin Guangyao said. “But I really can’t accept.”

“Why not?” Nie Huaisang asked.

Wen Chao pointed at him. “Seconded.”

Jin Guangyao grimaced at them both. Possibly it was meant to be a smile.

“You don’t have to go to the Unclean Realm, A-Yao,” Lan Xichen said.

“Thank you, er-ge.”

“You can come to the Cloud Recesses instead.”

“Er-ge…”

“Did anyone ever tell the Jin sect that we were working with the Wen heirs?” Nie Mingjue wondered out loud, and everyone frowned. “Because if they don’t know, and Jin Guangshan thinks he’s being subtle with the whole trying to hire Xue Yang thing, things are going to get really awkward.”

“…well, shit,” Jiang Cheng said. “I call not being the one to tell him.”

“Seconded!”

“Cloud Recesses, you said?” Jin Guangyao asked Lan Xichen, who looked pleased.

“I’m leaving,” Wen Xu decided. “I want nothing to do with this disaster. You all have fun now, I’m fucking off back to the Nightless City to live the rest of my life as a very rich man with no life goals.”

“I want to do that,” Nie Huaisang said.

“No,” Nie Mingjue said.

“But –”

“No.”

“Hey,” Wei Wuxian said. “Unrelatedly, anyone have any ideas on what should I do with the whole resentful energy seal thing now?”

“I don’t know,” Wen Chao said. “Play a giant game of keep away with it and then fake your own death?”

#mdzs #wen xu #wen chao #nie mingjue #nie huaisang #jin guangyao #wei wuxian #lan qiren #my fic #my fics #mutiny at the wen sect #Anonymous

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hitsuackerman · 4 years ago

Text

Unpredictable (Overhaul x Reader) pt.29

warnings: this cannot be read solo

Links: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10, part 11, part 12, part 13, part 14, part 15, part 16, part 17, part 18, part 19, part 20, part 21, part 22, part 22, part 23, part 23.5, part 24, part 25, part 26, part 27, part 28, part 30

Masterlist to my other fics: here :) (that has not been updated for how many months now... proceed with caution~)

“And that's about it.” You clicked the send button and stretched your limbs.

You weren’t too sure how many hours had passed but after venting it all out to Tsukauchi, you felt much better. The weight you carried still lingered but your mind was much clearer now. Looking at the office window, the skies were now a shade of pink. Not in the mood for cheap coffee, you stood up and took a peak at Tsukauchi’s desk.

Papers scrawled and pens scattered, Tsukauchi’s head was resting on his arms as he too snoozed off. Finding his sticky notes, you left him a small message telling him where you would be going.

You could always head home and freshen up but with the small window of time, the chief might call you out for being tardy. He’d been leaving you alone for the past few weeks and you hoped it would last a bit longer.

Making your way towards the cafe, you marveled at the emptiness the streets had. Quite some time had passed since the last time you took an all nighter. Now that you think about it, ever since that injury, you have been able to get an adequate amount of rest. Every now and then, food would be delivered followed by a text complaining how you were annoying.

Entering the cafe, you walked towards the counter. Greeted by a rather huge smile, all you could give was a forced one.

“Do you h-”

“Someone already ordered for you.” The cashier said. Telling you to wait, you went to a vacant table and took your phone out. It barely took 3 minutes before she came back holding a paper bag. “Shinoda-san has already paid the bill so you’re good to go~”

“How kind of him…” You took the bag and exited the building. The streets slowly getting congested as the seconds ticked by. Dialling his number, he picked up after the 4th ring. “Thanks for breakfast.”

“I put it on a tab.” Overhaul replied. His voice was muffled by his mask. “Everything I bought for you has been recorded and will be sent to you monthly.”

“That’s just mean…”

“That’s what you get for working overtime and not going home as we had agreed.”

“It was last minute, you dumbass.” You huffed but knew he was teasing. “Are you waiting for me to say ‘I’ll make it up to you. What can I do for you, Chisaki?’ or something like that?”

“Perhaps. It is still quite early but I did come bearing news.” He paused and you could hear papers shuffling. “I feel as though you already know that the Fukuo Kai case will start in about a week or two. I was thinking perhaps we should have a private meeting.”

“With Tsukauchi?” You stopped walking.

“Are you that dense?”

“I’m kidding. What do you wanna do?” Finding a nearby bench, you took a seat and took the sandwich out.

“I recall someone saying that their definition of a good date was something along the lines of ‘You and Me against the world?’”

“Go on…” The smile building on your face couldn’t be kept hidden anymore.

“I’ve booked us tickets. If things go as planned then perhaps the day after the Fukuo Kai case would be a good end to all this.”

“A parting gift I presume?” The smile slowly faded when you remembered what came after. The sandwich now tasted horrible. You waited for him to speak up but there was nothing but silence. “Alright. The day after the case sounds good.”

“I’ll pick you up at 6. Wear something nice.”

Ending the call, you stared at your sandwich. A week or two then once that’s passed, it wouldn’t be long before Overhaul’s case would be pushed to your priority list. Looking back towards the direction of the precinct, you decided to save the sandwich for later.

Now that you were seated and facing your computer once more, you decided to recheck your schedule.

Sure enough, there really was less than 3 weeks left of the Fukuo Kai case before things would finally be handed over. A meeting with the chief was also in store a few days from now to go over the plans for the raid. Upon further scrolling, you noted how Tsukauchi had set up a date for a stake out. Clicking on the attached comment, you wondered as to why it had taken this amount of time for them to make their move.

“You awake yet, Nao?” You knocked on your cubicle.

“Barely.” He grumbled. “What’s up?”

“Regarding this stake out, do you think we can push it to 4 days from now?”

“I’m not really sure. It’ll depend on Overhaul since he will be your partner for that one.” He leaned to take a peek at your station.

“Overhaul? Why?”

“Dunno. I just thought that it’s been a while since you two teamed up.” He shrugged as he dragged his chair closer to yours. “But it’s mostly because my schedule doesn’t fit. I have to meet up with All Might for the whole week. I did ask a few others but you can guess they turned it all down out of fear.”

“Hmm. No surprise.” You tapped your index finger on the mouse. Reminding yourself to call him later regarding the sudden change of plans, you leaned on your chair. “Who’s going to be in this meeting with chief?”

“The two of you and Shinezu.”

“Poor guy.”

“It’ll do him good. Speaking of which, we have to go over the initial plan for the raid. Do you wanna do it today or save it for some other time?” Choosing the first option, Tsukauchi nodded and went back to his desk. Grabbing the necessary documents, he waited for you to prepare and led you towards a private meeting room.

“Now that we're at it,” You took the adjacent seat. “What are the updates? I haven’t really heard anything about them for quite some time now.”

“Heh. Things got a little more complicated during your sick leave.” Sliding one folder, he waited for your reaction. Seeing how your eyes widened, he let out an exhausted sigh. “As if one organization is enough, having to deal with an alliance means more trouble for us.”

“Tsk. Damn it. When did you gather this information? What source did you get this from?”

“Believe it or not, the chief actually did some work and gave us this as some sort of peace offering.”

Peace offering? What was the man planning?

“When did you receive this?” You carefully read the details.

“If I recall, it was the day before you came back to work.” He shyly scratched his nape. “It’s kinda my fault, though. I honestly forgot to inform you regarding this information.”

“It’s fine.” You assured him. “I’m thankful you didn’t relay the information right then and there. So, it says here that we infiltrate them at their headquarters. The information was true? Their headquarters are downtown?”

“That’s right. The intel we gathered showed us that movement around that certain street has picked up. Akuji was spotted as well. He’s been involved from the very start, I presume?”

“Well, he was at that gala and the head of the Fukuo Kai gave him a business card. It’s only logical he is. But to go there in person only means bad things. Any ideas?”

“If it were a higher ups meeting, Overhaul should’ve been there. Unless they know he’s involved with us?”

“He’s not.” Overhaul was shady but you trusted him enough that he would have told you if he were called to attend a gathering. For once, he was in the clear. Or so you hoped. You’d have to inquire about that once you call him later. “My guess is that they too are finalizing whatever plan they have in store. With that being said, have you any clue as to what their main agenda is now?”

“We suspect that their main agenda now is to take over at least 50 percent of the yakuza network. Overhaul’s connections are rather large so they must be feeling pretty confident to make a move now.” Tsukauchi rested his chin on his index finger. “Akuji was one person we saw. The other one was Tamisura.”

“Hmm. Any sighting of Nokusu?” It had been a while since you last mentioned their names. The last time you spoke of them was days before the gala. Tamisura, with the momentum like quirk, and Nokusu with his shadow manipulation quirk.

“None. I am not confident whether or not it is safe to assume that they have declined the invitation to take part with the Fukuo Kai.” He shrugged. “I just kinda wished it was Nokusu we were dealing with and not Tamisura. We barely know anything about her quirk.”

“I’ll ask chief about his encounter.” You answered. “Perhaps the other precincts can provide us with some information. Whether it be big or small, we’ll take it. I do agree with you, though. It just had to be her.”

“Try asking Overhaul too. Perhaps they know something about her.” He watched as you nodded. “As for the plan, there aren’t too many changes from before. Overhaul will have to carry our asses for the last part but I feel as though he can do his part well.”

“I hope so.”

With the minor details now explained, you found yourself walking towards the chief’s office. Closing your eyes and sending off as silent prayer, you only hoped things would be fine. Knocking on the door, he gave you the permission to enter.

“Chief.” You greeted him.

“Oh~ (Y/N).” He closed the folder and motioned for you to sit down. “How can I help my favorite star, hmm?”

“I just wanted to ask you about Tamisura. What exactly did you see regarding her quirk?”

“Ah.” He leaned on this squeaky chair’s back. “Fine woman, I might say. Her quirk made her move at insane speeds. Because of the momentum, it was rather hard to stop her. When she moves, a trail of yellow light follows her. If my memory serves me right, then, I believe it would take her awhile to fully use her quirk?”

“Like charging herself?”

“Don’t take my word for it.” He raised both his hands up. “During that particular instance, one of my men noticed how she kept distance before attacking. Perhaps that’s the downside to her quirk. As for the duration, I cannot give any information.”

“This is more than enough.” You stood up and bowed. “Thank you for the cooperation and I apologize for disturbing you.”

“Anything for you, my star~” He winked.

Suppressing a groan, you awkwardly smiled and hurriedly left the room. Your prayers had been heard and the interaction was clean. The given information wasn’t much but it was something. Taking your phone out, you dialed Overhaul.

Strangely enough, he didn’t answer. Then again, you were sure he was doing whatever he did at 9am in the morning. The mental image you had as to what his activities were were rather vague but you could only hope he wouldn’t indulge in them too much. Who were you kidding? He was messed up. You were too for harboring feelings.

Not wanting to stay any longer, you informed Tsukauchi that you would be heading home.

When you locked your car doors, your phone rang. Checking who it was, you immediately answered it.

“You called?”

“I know it’s sudden but you think you can clear your schedule for me?”

“What exactly do you need, Problem Child?”

“I just wanna ask you a few questions about the Fukuo Kai case.”

“Does it have to be in person?” His voice was rather teasing. Admittedly, you always loved it when he spoke with that tone. “Alright. I shall see you where?”

“My apartment is fine. I’ll arrive there in about 30 minutes, so just take your time.”

“See you then.” He paused at your silence of a few seconds. “What?”

“Bring food! Bye~!” You ended the call immediately. Giggling at the moment, you tossed your phone to the seat and began your drive back home.

- - - - -

Hello everyone! It's me!

I know I haven't updated the story in 3 months? And I apologize :( My family has well recovered from the COVID scare of last year. What took its place was my declining mental health due to my shitty work environment. I could barely write any of my fics and even when I did write a new one, I could only hold on to very little chapters before feeling down and useless T.T

As to the next upload, I am not sure when but I can promise you that the next chapter is currently being written as we speak :) I hope you guys liked the 2 new chapters! and if you enjoyed the whole story, feel free to buy me a ko-fi.. it'll greatly help me :')

See you all in the next update!

PS. I didn't mention the tag list cause maybe ya'll don't want to be tagged anymore hehehe if you do want to be tagged then please feel free to message me or comment :)

#mha overhaul #bnha overhaul #overhaul #kai chisaki #chisaki kai #overhaul x reader #overhaul x y/n

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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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Blacksad: Somewhere In the Shadows Review

Hello you beautiful people! I have a WEIRD relationship with Noir. It’s weird because i’ve never really dived into the films of type, though I really should, But as a kid I absolutely LOVED the tracer bullet arcs in Calvin and Hobbes, where everyone’s favorite hyperactive and imaginative six year old would plant himself as the hero in a noir pastiche.. ironically like myself Bill Watterson was also not a huge noir buff and just relied on Cliches but hey, it worked.

Still love these. So from fourth grade on it imprinted a lifelong love of a good bit of detective noir. Not enough to you know, get me to read any traditional noir books or watch any noir tv shows or detective procedurals but I still love a good mystery from time to time and some of my favorite comics such as Howard the Duck by Chip Zdarksy and Peter David’s second run on x-factor run on the genre while having fun with it’s cliches.

I also love anthropormphic animal stories. Dunno why, I just do, so once I found out about Blacksad, a comic that combines disney quality art from a former disney animator with gripping, adult noir that rips your heart out... I couldn’t resisit trying it. Telling the tale of John Blacksad, a cynical private detective and the cases he steps into via gorgeous, straight out of a disney storyboard art, the series is by Juan Díaz Canales (writer) and Juanjo Guarnido (artist), the latter a former Disney artist who worked on several Disney films, meeting in the 90′s while working on licensed works and hitting it off, leading to this series. That’s.. really all I could find about the making of the series in English. The only other fact is the series is designed for first release in France, which has a huge comics market, hence the various volumes being called “Albums”, with them later being released in Spain and then english, currently in the latter through Dark Horse Comics, who last year collected the current 5 albums and some side stories into one big volume. And with Dark Horse having infrequent sales including Blacksad on comixology it’s easy enough to pick up all 5 volumes in one complete package on digital for 9 bucks, as it is right now. Seriously I’m not trying to shill for Comixology or Dark Horse, I just love these comics and suggest picking them up. The creators DO intend on new volumes... it’s just both have been busy with other work so they’ve been stuck in development hell since 2013. However given there have always been, if much smaller, the biggest being 5 years, gaps between the Albums, I don’t think the series is dead quite yet and with Dark Horse fully backing it, taking the series from only two volumes getting translated to both translating the first four AND translating the fifth within a year of it’s release, we’ll undoubtly get the next one quickly. The series has also spawned a game, Under the Skin, which i’ll probably also cover some day as i’m dying to play it, but i’m waiting for a sale because it’s around 30 bucks and I can wait. It’s also been nominated for an Eisner three times to no suprise and has had fans in Stan Lee, Jim Steranko, Tim Sale and Will freaking Eisner. Yes the GUY the awards were named after liked the series. So yeah, I love this series and highly support it, but the thought of covering it hadn’t occrued to me.. in part because I already had three comic retrsopectives going, my looks at The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Scott Pilgrim and New X-Men, and simply because I just hadn’t thought of it till Kevin, frequent patron and comissioner of the blog whose paid for tons of reivews, suggested covering the second Album, Arctic Nation, which has our hero searching for a missing little girl he feels has been taken by the titular white supramacist movement.. and if your wondering “Wait how the fuck does that work their animals”, John is black coded due to his black fur, while the white suprmacists are all Arctic Animals.. a touch I really like as I’d honestly never thought of that as a metaphor but it fits like a glove, especially given that most white furred arctic mamals are pretty agressive looking. So yeah I’ll be covering that one next month for Black History Month, among many other things, but I felt I wanted to cover the series in order and since again, it’s only the second of five and I had a free space on the schedule. So without further adew, join me somewhere in the shadows and under the cut as we enter the world of one John Blacksad.

We open as you’d expect for a Noir with a heady narration and a murder. John was brought in by Smirnov, the chief of police and an old aquantice who serves as his Commissioner Gordon. Since the victim is John’s ex, he was brought in to see if he knows anything and as you’d expect warned not to look into it further, as John dosen’t buy this was a simple robbery. His response is exactly what you’d expect.

I mean.. what did you expect? You called him out of bed to see his former lovers corpse, KNOWING he’s one hell of detective, dosen’t give up on things easy, and would probably be curious. For him to say “Cool gonna go smoke some reefer and take in a looney tunes short at the theater, call me when you find the murderer?” Also this series takes place in the 50s. Because of course it does.

So John goes back to his office to brood, reflecting that the office feels like the remains of an ancient civlization because “It seems to be all that remains of the civlized person I used to be”. Hell of a line.

We then get his backstory with the victim, Natalia. She’s a famous actress, who John first as a younger man when hired to investgate some death threats she’d received with a boquet of flowers. John shows off just how good he is at his job in just a few panels.

IT not only shows in just a few panels just how ferocious our hero can be when needed and how good he is at his job, easily having tracked down the man responsible and scared him shitless without breaking as sweat, but how fucking gorgeous the art is. I meant it when I brought up the old disney comparison, as Steranko even mentioned in his introduction to the collection of the first three volumes how it looks like animation cels on the page. IT’s utterly breathtaking and ONLY gets even more lush and beautiful as the series goes on and perfectly fits the noir stylings with it’s realisim, making it’s animal characters feel utterly human and real while still keeping their animal traits in perfect detail.

John impressed her, and as we see in the next page under his narration they not only had really steamy passionate sex, and why yes we do see them naked even if the bits are covered it’s still very much nsfw and we saw Natalia’s naked corpse earlier, so that ship had already sailed anyway, with Natalia taking him on both as her lover and her on staff detective and the two were much in love.. until the fame apparenlty got to her judging from the visuals, and the realtionship fell apart.

Before we move on i’d like to talk about the narration which CAN be a bit overwrought here or there and is a bit overused.. but does have it’s mometns of being utterly effective as with above, contrasting John’s statments about a sucessful job and being hired on.. with the beginnings of his and Natalia’s relationship and their passionate lovemaking. IT’s not BAD and it works for the setting, but it can be distracting, but thankfully the series levels this out as we go and they learned from it so no harm done. Just the kinda thing that happens early in a series life when the creators are getting a handle on things, so no harm done.

But naturally John isn’t going to take the love of his life, responsible for the happiest days of said life, being brutally murdered lying down and is going to find the bastard who did this. So he goes to an old friend, Jake Ositombe, a championship boxer and Nat’s former bodyguard who he recommended to her. Given we see him knock the shit out of his opponent without the slightest effort, yeah good call. Also yes we share the same name and no it’s not weird to type about another Jake, adventure time sorta.. knocked that out of me. Jake dosen’t know much since she fired him a long time ago as one of her lovers hired private security, and the last one he knew of was a guy by the name of Leon. John, naturally, easily finds the guy’s apartment, Leon Kronkski, a screenwriter.. but also rules him out as the guy lived in a humble apartment and clearly didn’t have the cash to hire his own hired goons.

He does find a clue, a matchbook for some place called the Cypher Club.. and another when the man’s sweet mouse landlady shows up, who John charms by pretending to be Leon’s friend and flashing a big smile, finding out a msyterious man with “big bulging eyes”, took him. This scene also to me is great in subtly showing off John’s skill. While the previous flashback showed how badass he is, shoving a gun down the throat of a stalking wannabe murderer with pure rage in his eyes.. here we see a lighter approach, how despite his serious and dour nature.. he easily slips into being cheery and looking like an average joe off the street. He bluffs the landlady not because the plot says so.. but because like any PI he’s just that good at slipping into whatever roll he needs to get the info he needs. He can be his dour self or a charming happy go lucky guy without missing a beat.

So with that he goes to the studio leon worked for where his boss.. is a walrus j jonah jameson?

But yeah J. Jonah Walruson wants pictures of spider-man.. moving pictures.. but he can’t film them with his star dead and his screenwriter indefintiely gone, with the same bulging eyed man having told JJ he’d be gone indefintely. Nothing suspicious about that!

So naturally John’s next plan is to find the guy.. who is already after him as you’d expect with both a knife to slash at our hero with and the fog covering him so he can hit and run. But unluckily for him .. well i’ll let john say it...

John headbutts the myserious snake, who only managed to get his coat before and tries to interogate him.. but gets a quick jab to the gut and the guy gets away.

We soon meet our big bag, who has a big speech about insects and things being usefufl.. and once they stop being useful.. they become dead and collectable, telling the snake man to back off John.. and sending his right hand man to go take care of the Snake who apparently took something from the office. Realizing his numbers up the Snake Man goes to a lizard bar, picks up a package from a friend and runs out the back, knowing he’s being followed.. and we get some hints there’s also racial tension between lizards and mammials here as the bartender, said friend, has the entire bar circle around the guy preventing him from following our mysterious bulging eyed man.

Meanwhile John goes to the Cipher Club, a wretched hive of scum and villiany. Given Nat was a glamorous movie star, it’s very clear she was here to hide from something or someone, and the bartnender, a wild pig.

No not you sweetie. The wild pig tells John leon was indeed here and a local rat, in both senses of the word, offers to take John to him.. though understandably John is supscious of the guy he just met in a seedy bar taking him anywhere except to get some heroin. Did Heroin exist yet? Questions for later. But he’s got a case so he follows. Though suprisingly the guy DOES actually come through and it’s not ENTIRELY a trap: he takes john to a tomb for Noel Krinsok.. an anagram for Leon’s name. Unsuprisingly he’s dead. And also unsuprisingly, two hired goons

Show up. As I said not ENTIRELY a trap but it’s obvious given the rat split moments before that our mysterious big bad knew where john would be headed next, and thus while giving him a clue, also set him up to get his head knocked in. And while John is badass.. these guys are a bear and a rhino, both stronger, bigger, and with suprise on their size, as well as a tombstone to knock john’s head into. They easily beat him senseless and hope he got the message, though john gives a defiant fuck you before being punched out for it. He returns home, feeling like he’s aged 20 years “But no one respects the elderly anymore”, PFFT, and heads home to his rathole, not literally this time, apartment to lay on his cot and think as he gets some rest.

And while the trail for Leon is cold. our mysterious murderer accidently tipped his hand: only someone with a LOT of money and influence could make a man disappear like this, and it tracks with what we’ve seen so far. The guy has multiple henchman and despite being a big star with plenty of clout, Natalia had to hide in a dive bar just to get away from him and even THEN clearly wasn’t so lucky given she and her new lover both wound up dead. But Blacksad has bigger problems.. he wakes up in a jail cell.

Turns out Smirnkov had him arrested.. but for his own protection as the case is getting too hot and while he was late on that front given John’s face is hamburger, it’s clear from his tone and demeanor that while he may of been harsh with John earlier.. the two are old friends, and the Chief is simply worried about him winding up dead, and John takes you know being thrown in prison in stride. Which while not a bad scene it is a BIT suspect that a black coded character was thrown in jail for nothing and it’s treated very lightly and as a simple protection between friends, though given they wouldn’t think of coding john like that till next volume, I brush it off as accidental implications in hindsight.

Smirnkov though also called John here.. because he needs his help. Since Natalia’s Murder Case is pointing very high up, so his superiors have ordered him to bury the case and as he puts it “the bastards know where to squeeze”. And given in volume 3 we learn Smirnov has a wife and children, it’s very obvious where they squoze and to the volume’s credit while we don’t know that yet it’s VERY clear from Smirnov’s body language they went after some form of family. So while he has to give it up.. John does not. So he brought him to jail to offer a proposal: John goes after this son of a bitch and nails him to the wall.. and Smirnov will FULLY protect John no matter what he has to do. Now naturally given the rightful reckoning for police that’s been going on for almost a year, this SHOULDN’T play well. You have an officer outright telling an outside party that he and his boys will cover up his crimes. But.. honestly even in that framework.. it still works. That’s because.. the system has failed here. The higher up and more corrupt cops put pressure on the honest and hardworking family man Smirnov to stop a legitimate investigation into a horrible murderer.. because the guy is rich. And even now we’ve seen time and time again how rich assholes effortlessly escape the consequences of their action: How our own president who actively asked other nations to interfere in our election escaped his first impeachment trial, but hopefully not the second, aquitted. How Jeffery Epstien took YEARS to bring down with his years of ellicit parties involving innocent women and children he fucking enslaved. How Bill Cosby got away with all kinds of sexual assault for decades. The rich are often literally above the law in this country, so having a down on his luck detective, who retroactively himself is a minority, go after him with the full support of an actually GOOD police officer who genuinely believes in these people being held accountable but is held back by his family’s safety.. it works. John isn’t able to skirt consequences BECAUSE of a corrupt system.. but because the system’s so broken and slanted in the rich’s favor, that the ONLY option an honest officer like Smirnov has is to go outside it. And when asked WHY he’s doing all of this, Smirnov merley replies

... I got chills, their multiplyin. So John plans to find the bulge eyed snake after a hot shower.. only for the guy to hold a gun to John’s head, having been waiting for him and wave the murder weapon, in a baggie around, the item he had retrieved, feeling John’s trying to replace him as number two. However before he can do anything our snake pal is shot full of holes by the rat from before, who John dispatches with his own gun.

So the Snake starts to expire.. but feels a kinship with John “We are nothing right cat? Spent so much time waiting for the right chance and when it happens it all falls to pieces”. The Snake explains his roll in things: He was one of the private security our big bad hired to guard Natalia. But being supscious he also hired the rat to follow her around, and thus found out about her affair, brutally torturing and murdering Leon and shooting Natalia in the head. And we finally get a name as our snake friend tragically expires.

The snake’s death and tragic dying moments are something I forgot about.. but damn if their not really good writing, taking a character who before was seemingly just a murderous goon.. and comparing him to our hero. Another working class joe, and one who just caught up with the wrong asshole at the wrong time. He easily could’ve been john in another life and vice vers and it’s a good parallel.

So John’s nightmares finally have name and he naturally goes to confront the guy since he has an almost literal get out of jail free card. Turns out Smirnov is the richest man in town, and has his own big tower. Huh.. sounds familiar, and John simply sneaks his way up and once Statoc’s guards from before hear him rustling about.. sneaks up on them and clocks both one at at time with a fire extinqusher.

Statoc warmly welcomes our hero inside, and has the fucking lizard balls, as he’s some sort of lizard himself, to offer John a JOB

I mean he’s clearly lost a lot of his goons and most of them were incompetent. He fails to realize that John can’t be bought, is here for vengeance and has no intention of selling his soul to some rich asshole who killed someone he loved for the creepiest and most asinine reasons imaginable. He says john’s Concisence is why he can’t pull the trigger and that he lacks “cold blood”.. before we cut to the next page, where John’s shot the fucker in the head and left a gaping hole where his lack of a brain was.

And again what makes this work is the aftermath: John is clearly shaken, having ONLY been able to pull the trigger beause of Statoc’s smug grin and clearly not taking the sight of Statoc’s dead body bleeding out well. And while Smirnov keeps his word, covers for him despite the two guards clearly providing an iron clad argument against john and knoiwng thier blatantly covering this up.. he’s not happy about it.

This is WHY the narrtive still works. Statoc stacked the law against the bad guys. .but despite this being a necessary evil.. it’s still an evil and subverting teh law at this rightly leaves him not in a great place mentally. John himself isn’t even if he plays it off as otherwise, as we get our final bit of narration and one hell of a closing line.

Final Thoughts:

Somewhere in the Shadows is a bit rough around the edges, leaning a bit too heavily into the noir pastiche and Blacksad being a harboiled detective, something the next volume would ease up on. That being said.. it’s still a masterpiece, with gorgeous art and masterful pacing. While it’s the shortest of the stories, like those after it the pacing is sublime and never feels like it has any down moments or stuff that could’ve been cut, and the mystery keeps you on edge the whole time. Having forgot a lot of the details since last read I was on the edge of my seat the entire story and loving every second of it. Somewhere in the Shadows is the perfect starter for the series, introducing an important charcter in Smirnov and the noir nature and giving us a case personal to John so we can see who he was before, what he is now.. and what he WILL be for the rest of the series. The moment that MADE him into an even harder man than the one we follows here.. when he took a life in cold blood. A masterful story, seriously check it and the other volumes out, on comixology, in stores, great stuff. Next time we look into john and as I said, he’s taking down some racists and we also meet his sidekick weekly for the first time. As for me tommorow I dive back into my Tom Luictor retrospective but hit pause on our boy for a bit to take care of some of the larger plot. Until the next rainbow, it’s been a pleasure.

#blacksad #john blacksad #Smirnov #noir #anthropomorphic #anthro #funny animal #somewhere within the shadows #comics #dark horse comics #france #french comics #igor statoc #Natalia Wilford

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bisexualnathanyoung · 4 years ago

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Community Blowback

Fandom: Misfits, Nathan Young x Original Character

Summary: When Mel Albright, a low-life stoner with a heart of gold, ends up on community service, she assumes it’s just another thing in a line of mishaps that is her life. Will the aftermath of a freak storm and the help of a green eyed idiot show her that maybe things being fucked up aren’t always that bad after all?

Masterlist | Previous Chapter

Chapter Two: Questionable Decisions and Stupid Feelings

Word Count: 4.6k

Warnings: brief mention of domestic abuse, drinking, drug use. other cannon compliant ones I may have missed.

My hand was healing, and I hadn’t had any more lightning mishaps. I was hoping maybe that was just a fluke. The storm was a supernatural occurrence. Maybe the lightning just left some residue on me. Or something like that. There was no way to be sure.

Community service was normal some parts of the week. As the days went by, the less I thought being dead was a better option than being there. Don’t get me wrong it was still community service, and I did not want to be there, but it was alright. Sometimes Alisha got on my nerves. Nathan still didn’t shut up. Ever. Simon threw off my vibes a little bit. Curtis and Kelly usually didn’t bother me. It could definitely have been worse. I certainly expected much worse. I wouldn’t say it was fun, but it got entertaining. When I was constantly working, all I had to look forward to was the usual midnight drunks. That was a toss-up though. A lot of the time they were just sad, but sometimes they were either funny or slightly terrifying. They still showed up, but it wasn’t my responsibility to throw them out. I ignored them. I was usually in the back, paying enough attention, but lost in my own head. If I wasn’t thinking about my crippling trauma (which I tried not to), I was usually thinking about some dumb shit Nathan said. I couldn’t figure out whether I wanted to give him a kiss or a slap. Or both.

A week had passed since the whole business with the probation worker, and I thought it was going to be a normal day. Picking up rubbish and the like. I was staring at the ground thinking about how much I hate when people litter when I heard Curtis say,

“What is that?!” I looked up, and it appeared to be naked person slumped over. Not the weirdest thing to happen to me considering recent events.

“Is he breathing?” Kelly asked.

“I hope so. I don’t feel like burying another body,” I responded. Alisha walked over to him and poked him with her grab claw, “Hey, nude guy. You’re naked!” He rolled over giving us all an eyeful.

“You!” Nathan exclaimed and proceeded to chase after him. Alright, what the fuck.

“You wanna tell us who that was?” Curtis asked.

“He’s my mum’s— he lives with my mum…” Nathan answered.

“Your stepdad has a massive cock,” Alisha pointed out.

“What?! No! And he’s not my stepdad, alright?!” Nathan responded defensively. How many times have I said the same thing about dumb men my mother has brought into her life? I walked over to him.

“Weirder people have lived my mum. Good luck,” I patted him on the back and laughed at his expense. We threw out ideas on why he was passed out naked behind the community center.

“What if the storm messed him up?” Kelly said, throwing out another idea.

“That’s bollocks, what are the chances?” Nathan responded.

“I dunno, man. Weird shit’s been goin on,” I added.

————

Sally told us the day before we wouldn’t have to wear our jumpsuits to assist with the elderly. I decided to wear something cute. I rarely had the chance to these days, and I wasn’t going to get dressed up to go to the shops. I decided to wear a black dress. It had rose detailing in the front and a bit of a lace-up back. It was a little bit low cut, but I figured what the hell. It was probably the first time I hadn’t worn a sports bra to community service. The outfit was definitely more akin to the stuff Alisha usually wore rather than my usual t-shirt and skinny jeans. I just wanted to look cute. I wasn’t trying to impress anybody. At least that’s what I told myself.

Forever avoiding socializing, I took it upon myself to man the food and drink tables. It was basically what I did every day for work anyway. I politely made my way around the room seeing if anyone wanted anything. I was making a plate for some random old guy when I noticed Nathan following some pretty blonde girl to the table. I was at the other end, but I kept an eye on them. I felt myself inching closer and listening in on their conversation. She’d have to be really desperate to fall for whatever the hell this is because it sure ain’t flirting. I stared at the table, barely trying to complete my task and continued to listen to them. “He’s such an idiot,” I thought before realizing I was smiling to myself.

“Can you pass me those sausage rolls?” She asked him.

“I’ve got it!” I butted in. I grabbed and then leaned over the table to give them to her, not making any attempt to hide my cleavage as I bent over. An old woman seemed to be trying to get Nathan’s attention.

“I think she wants to dance with you,” the pretty girl said.

“Go on, Nathan,” I teased, slightly pushing him towards her.

I went back to try to remember what I was doing before and the pretty girl worked on the opposite side of the table.

“You know if you want him you should just ask,” she said, “Men aren’t good at picking up the subtle things.” Her tone wasn’t mean or demeaning, but of course, I got offended anyway.

I gasped, “I do not want him!” I chucked whatever poor soul’s plate I was making into the bin and stormed off. I plopped down in a chair next to Kelly at the table she was sitting at.

She looked at me, “You are so ridiculous,” she said.

“What?!” I said and held my hands up in surrender. She shook her head at me. Yeah, I might’ve known what.

We were in the locker room getting ready to leave when Curtis ripped a piece of paper off of his locker that someone had stuck there, “Someone knows. They know we killed our probation worker.”

We argued about it for a little bit. Curtis seemed convinced that the note was talking about the probation worker whereas Nathan argued it wasn’t. I kind of agreed with Nathan. It was way too vague to mean anything.

“So if we’re all done freaking out here over nothing, There’s somewhere I need to be,” Nathan said, finishing the conversation before walking out. I had to leave for work soon, so I caught up to him.

“What’s got you running outta here so quickly?” I asked.

“I gotta tell my mum about her— the guy she lives with,” he answered.

“Her the guy she lives with?” I mocked.

“Whatever,” he grumbled.

“Why didn’t you just call her? You didn’t think she’d want to know right away that the guy she lives with is lounging around naked in public?”

“I did! She won’t answer me.”

“Well, good luck with your mum and naked guy,” I said, giving his shoulder a little squeeze.

“Thanks,” he responded sarcastically, and we went our separate ways.

The next morning Nathan was running around showing all of us his evidence that he had collected of ‘the guy that lives with his mum.’ After a failed attempt at getting the group to help him tell the guy to fuck off, I simply added, “If he comes into the chip shop naked, I’ll get somebody to tell him to fuck off.” Then, we were off to do the same mindless shit as every other day.

As I was staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep, I was thinking about stupid Nathan Young again. I was worried about him. We had all exchanged numbers after our whole murder cover-up, so I thought about calling him and asking if everything went okay with his mum. It was the middle of the night, so I decided not to. I closed my eyes and tried not to think about it too much.

I slammed the snooze button on my alarm clock more than once before finally sitting up in my bed. I glanced at the clock. Shit. I had about ten minutes to get dressed and run to the other side of the estate. I quickly threw on some clothes and brushed my teeth and headed out, glancing at my phone for the time over and over.

I practically ran to the locker room to put on my deodorant and attempted to put on makeup. I went up to the mirror before dropping everything and struggling to pick it up. I threw some coverup under my eyes and put on mascara and chapstick. Good. Enough.

I quickly joined the others in the main area. Great. Dealing with old people again. Once Sally had fucked off somewhere else, I took to staring out the window and watching a little bird hop around. I really wasn’t in the mood to entertain old people. The bird flew away, and I kept watching the pavement like it was something worth looking at while trying not to fall asleep. I pulled a cigarette out of the box in my pocket before deciding I probably shouldn’t sacrifice the lungs of all these old people and stepped outside. I lit my cigarette and leaned up against the building and began to smoke it. At least I don’t have work tonight, and I can go home and take a fucking nap. Or just smoke my pot until my eyes go fuzzy. Do I need more rolling paper? I don’t think so… Shit. I hope the ones I prerolled aren’t dried out. They shouldn’t be I—

My thoughts were interrupted as Nathan ran out of the community center and zoomed past me. What the fuck is up with him? I flicked my cigarette onto the ground and decided to follow him. I was a bit of a distance back, so he didn’t notice me until he was sat under the bridge, rolling a joint.

“Are you alright?” I asked him.

“I’m fine. So kindly, fuck off,” he responded with spite in his voice. I sat down next to him anyway.

“Obviously not,” I responded, “How’d it go with your mum?” Probably not well based on how he was acting.

He furrowed his brow, “What?... Oh. Yeah, not great,” he told me, looking away.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked.

“No.” I watched him take a drag from the joint.

“Sometimes talking about it helps,” I encouraged.

“Well not for me,” he responded, “Besides, there’s nothin’ to talk about. She took his side like every other prick she’s been with.”

“I get it,” I replied.

“Do you?” He looked at me, probably not wanting to hear it.

“Considering I’m here for trying to protect my mum from her mistake of a husband,” I responded, “yeah, I do.”

“How’d that get you community service?” he asked.

“I had just moved out, so I wasn’t legally part of the household anymore, which ta-da qualified me for an ASBO instead of just counseling or whatever. And, get this, he had the fucking nerve to say that I should be greatful he wasn’t charging me with assault,” I said as I leaned my head up against the post we were sitting against.

“Was your mum there when it happened?” he continued to question me. I knew he was just trying to take the focus off of himself, but he already got me started, so I just kept going.

“Was she there?” I scoffed, “She fucking started it. Running her stupid mouth. I was just trying to get out of there, and he raised his hand at her. So I punched him. And he slapped me instead of her. So I kneed him in the bollocks and put a kitchen knife in his face. Next thing I fucking know I’ve got a court date, and they’ve changed the entire story. I haven’t spoken to her since. She’s spent my entire life trying to punish me for being born, and I’m done with it. If she goes and gets herself killed, it’s not my problem,” I finished, tears threatening to fall from my eyes.

“Shit,” Nathan responded, putting his arm around me and handing me the joint. I took a long hit and closed my eyes as I breathed it out. I can’t believe I just said all that. I hadn’t told anyone the whole story except for the judge, and, of course, he didn’t believe my version of events. When I opened my eyes, I noticed the others walking toward us. Oh yeah community service is a thing I’m supposed to be doing right now.

“Have you two been out here snogging?” Alisha asked with a laugh.

“No?” Nathan responded, moving away from me.

“Gross,” I deadpanned.

“Some old woman was lookin’ for you, Nathan,” Kelly said. I started to take another hit of the joint, “You shagged her?!” Kelly exclaimed. I started coughing as the smoke came out of my mouth

“I’m sorry?” I blinked.

“Yeah, nice one, I gave her a right good seeing to,” Nathan grimaced.

“You totally screwed her,” Alisha laughed.

“No. No!” Nathan tried to defend himself, standing up. I pulled my knees up to my chest. What the actual fuck is going on right now?

“You nailed that old woman? Aw, that is wrong,” Curtis added.

I put my head down on my knees, “I need a minute.”

“Did you enjoy it?” Simon teased.

“Shut up, you little freak!” Nathan responded.

“I think he enjoyed it,” Simon continued.

“Are you into that?” Curtis asked. I took another long hit from the joint.

“Nooo!” Nathan responded, “She didn’t look like that when we started. You remember that bird Ruth from Tuesday? That wrinkly old bint is her. It was the storm; it made her young again.”

“Please tell you didn’t,” Alisha said, mimicking oral sex with her hand, “He did!” Curtis and Alisha started laughing.

I looked up, “Is that really necessary?” I rhetorically asked. They ignored me. Nathan started to walk away. Kelly went after him.

“Nathan, wait, I didn’t mean to tell ‘em. It just came out,” she told him.

“Oh, well great job, nice one, well done,” he responded sarcastically. He started to walk away and turned around, “And stay outta my head!”

“Granny Fucker!” Kelly yelled back at him. With a huff, I got up to my feet. Why does everything have to be impossible with this group? I ran up to Nathan. He turned to me,

“What?! You come to take the piss too?” He snapped.

“No,” I replied, “I’m worried about you.”

“I don’t need your fucking sympathy, alright?!”

“I know— I just, call me if you need anything, okay?”

He got in my face, “I don’t need you to be my personal therapist. Just leave me the fuck alone! And this,” he snatched the joint from my fingers, “is mine!” I watched him walk away. Whatever.

Later that evening, I was watching the O’s I was blowing disappear into the ceiling as I laid on my back on my bed. For the first time in a while, my mind was empty. Thank God for drugs. My mobile rang, and I shook the blanket to find it. Please don’t be work, I begged the universe, knowing it was probably work. Our entire staff was high about 60% of the time, so it didn’t really matter if I came in high, I just didn’t want to. My phone fell back onto the bed and I answered it without looking at the caller ID.

“Hello?,” I answered.

“Do you wanna have a drink with me?” Nathan’s voice said, sounding kind of somber.

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” I responded.

“Meet me outside the community center,” he said and hung up.

It wasn’t the smartest idea to be walking alone in the dark, but considering the last time I was terrified, I basically committed murder, I wasn’t too worried about it. Not to mention, I did it constantly trying to get home from work. I could hold my own. I approached the community center and saw Nathan sitting there with a case of beer. I sat down next to him. He already smelled of alcohol.

“Are you drunk?” I asked.

“No,” he responded. I shot him a look. “Okay, maybe a little bit,” he admitted, “Nothin’ I can’t handle.”

“Do you want to talk about what happened earlier?" I asked, grabbing a drink.

"No, I wanna forget all that. I just needed someone to get wasted with," He answered.

"Oh, that's brilliant," I rolled my eyes.

"There's more in the community center for when we finish this," he added.

"Oh, I'm becoming an accessory to robbery now?" I joked.

"Hey, they owe it to us! We're the ones picking up shit and de-graffiting everything."

I laughed, "Yeah because we're court-mandated."

"Whatever. I still say it's ours for the taking. We're part of the community, aren't we?" He defended, taking the drink to his lips.

We finished the booze while talking about stuff that didn't matter. Giraffes. Bananas. Dumb shit. He got up, “Alright, that’s nice for a starter; time for something stronger.”

I shook my head, “I think you’ve had enough.”

“Come on, I’m not even hammered yet,” he replied.

“I’ve got some hash at my place if you wanna get high instead,” I offered. I’d been saving it for a rainy day, but I figured saving my friend from alcohol poisoning was a good enough reason to get it out.

“That works,” he said, smiling. God, he’s so cute. I hopped to my feet and went on our way towards my flat.

“You know what I wanna talk about?” He said as we were walking.

“What?” I asked.

“What the hell were you wearin’ the other day? With your tits flyin all over the place?” I’d forgotten about that. I laughed,

“My tits were not flying all over the place.”

“Might as well have been. It was weird. You looked like a girl.” Well, that’s wonderful. The guy I sort of maybe might like doesn’t even think of me as a girl.

“Maybe because I am a girl, dickhead,” I said.

“Really?! I hadn’t noticed,” he joked, “just don’t be doing that shit, gettin’ my cock all confused. We’re supposed to be mortal enemies, me and you. I’m the one that doesn’t give a shit about anything, and you’re the one that gives all the shits.”

“What are you talking about?” I started, “I haven’t given a shit about anything since I was five years old.”

“Oh, I’ll believe that,” he said sarcastically as we approached the stairs of the complex, “ ‘Call me if you need anything’,” he began to mock me in a high pitched, English accent, “ ‘there’s still paint on the pavement’, ‘leave Barry alone’’

“Who the fuck is Barry?” I asked, looking at him quizzically.

“You know… your little weirdo friend,” he answered.

“Simon?” I questioned.

“Do you think I give a shit what his name is? Perfect example of you caring and me not,” he said, getting in front of me and putting his finger in my face as he spoke.

“Whatever, get out of the way, this is mine,” I said, pushing him aside, “besides, I only care about stuff that matters.” I unlocked the door, let us in, and flicked the light on.

“Nice place,” he said, “what’s that?” He was looking over at some canvases I had thrown in the corner.

“Nothing. Stay here,” I instructed him as I went off to my bedroom to get my stuff.

I threw it all down on the coffee table and proceeded to roll the joint for us.

We smoked in silence for a little while before Nathan spoke up,

“Do you wanna know what’s fucked up?”

“Everything,” I responded, taking the joint from him.

“No. Well, yes, but besides that… I’m thinking about apologizing to her,” he said.

“Who?” I asked, passing the joint back to him.

“Ruth,” he said before taking a hit.

“Who?” I repeated, I’d forgotten her name.

“The girl…. woman,” he corrected himself, “that the storm turned young again.”

“Why d’you want to apologize to her? Shouldn’t she be apologizing to you?” I asked.

“I don’t know…” he responded, “I just feel like I was kind of a dick to her.”

“First of all,” I said lifting up my pointer finger, “you’re a dick to everyone. Second of all,” I lifted up the other finger symbolizing two, “you don’t owe her shit.”

“I know, but… how was she supposed to know she was going to turn back old? It’s not like she did it on purpose,” he continued.

“She still knew though. She could’ve at least found someone closer to her own age instead of being a creep like that,” I crossed my arms, “It just pisses me off that she would do that to you. If I see her again, I’ll give her a slap. I’m not afraid to hit an old woman, nobody messes with my friends and gets away with it.”

“I don’t think that—,” he paused, “I’m your friend?”

“Do you think I give my emergency hash to people that aren’t my friends?” I said, smiling at him. He shrugged.

“Well, this one’s about done,” he said, glancing at the quickly dying joint in between his fingers.

“Yeah, I guess it is,” I said, “I’ll make another.” I bent back down on the table and started making another one.

“Do you want to finish it?” He asked.

“No, you can have it,” I said, finishing rolling the next one.

“Do you want to finish it together? Do a blowback?” He asked.

I felt my ears get hot, “Yeah, sure,” I answered. It probably wasn’t the best idea, but I’d already smoked away my decision-making skills.

I dropped the unrolled joint onto the table and went to face him. I leaned in as he inhaled and flicked the remainder of the joint onto the table. Our noses were almost touching as he exhaled into my mouth. Our lips collided as he brought me into an open mouth kiss, the smoke coming out of my nose. He put his arm around my waist as we pulled our bodies closer. I brought my hands into his curls. I wanted to melt into him. It had been a long time since anyone had kissed me like that. He slipped his tongue into my mouth, and I felt like my whole body was on fire. I reciprocated and brought my tongue against his as I tightened the grip on his hair. He brought his hand up to my breast, and record scratch, I came back to my senses and pulled away.

I gently took his hand from my body, “You’re drunk. And high. You don’t need this right now.” And I didn’t either. The last thing I needed was to get attached to some boy that just wanted to sleep with me to get over someone else. Sure, the circumstances were a little different, but that’s essentially what it was.

“I should go,” he said, getting up to his feet, “we can just forget this ever happened.” I didn't want to forget.

I stood up to face him, “You don’t have to. It’s late; you can stay here if you need to.”

“No, it’s alright,” he said, walking towards the door.

“Nathan?” I said. He turned around to face me, “Be safe,” I said, putting my hand on his shoulder.

“Ow!” He exclaimed, shaking his arm, “Did you just use your power on me?!”

“No! I don’t know! I don’t know how it works!” I frantically said. I felt like I was going to cry.

“Whatever, I gotta go,” he said and then left the flat.

I collapsed back onto the sofa, smoked the joint I rolled, and fell asleep.

----

The weekend came and went, and I couldn't stop thinking about him. It was stupid. It didn't mean anything, so why was I still thinking about it? It wasn't like he was attracted to me. Besides how I felt, I didn't want to make things awkward between us. I still had to deal with him for many months to come. But sometimes it seemed like awkward was written into my DNA.

At community service, we were off picking up rubbish again. I hung back a good distance from the others, hoping no one would notice. It was mainly because I didn't want Kelly to know about mine and Nathan's little snogging session, and I couldn't seem to stop thinking about it.

Nathan left the others and ran up to me, grabbing the collar of my jumpsuit with his claw grabber, "Hey, are we still friends?"

I smiled, "yeah," I pushed the grabber away, "as long as this nasty thing never goes towards my face again."

Of course he immediately put it directly in my face, "Oh, like this?"

I took mine and used it to move his out of my face, "Do you know how many germs are on that thing?"

"No, do you?" He asked, looking at it.

"Well, no, but I can assume a lot," I responded.

"Yeah, but you don't knooow," he said, putting it back in my face.

"I will pour this entire bag of shit on your head," I threatened.

"You wouldn't," he said as I got closer, holding the bag with two hands, "hey, you can't even reach my head, you're too short!"

"I'll find a way," I responded, "I'll take out your kneecaps."

"No, you're not!" he pushed against my bag with his grabber, and I took mine and hit it against his,

"I challenge you to a duel!" I said.

"Oh you're on!," He responded, "wait what do I get if I win?"

"Uh, you don't get shit poured over your head," I stated matter-of-factly.

"That's not good enough. How about a handjob?" He wiggled his eyebrows at me, and I proceeded to go ahead and beat him with the grabber.

"That'll be a no," I said, "and besides, I've already won now."

"I wasn't ready! That's not fair!" he said, throwing his arms in the air.

"Get ready for the shit!" I said, laughing as I launched towards him. He widened his eyes and then turned around and ran the other way,

"Get outta the way! She's gonna take out my kneecaps!" He yelled, running past the others as I chased after him. We decided on a truce as we were putting things up since I couldn’t catch up to him.

————

“I told you there’d be other people messed up by the storm, and you didn’t believe me,” Kelly said to Nathan when we were back in the locker room.

“Yeah, well, I was wrong, wasn’t I?,” Nathan responded, “there’s a hurricane of weird shit out there.” I closed my locker and turned around to see Alisha mimicking oral sex with her fingers yet again.

“Will you fucking stop it?!” I snapped, leaning against the lockers. She looked towards me.

“What? You trying to get Gran’s sloppy seconds?” She responded. I gasped and crossed my arms,

“I’m not even having this conversation right now!”

“We need to be ready for when they come after us,” Simon said, facing the group. Really?

“What are you talking about?” Kelly asked.

“The other people that got caught in the storm,” Simon answered.

“Why would they come after us?” Curtis asked in response.

“Because that’s what people do,” Simon answered.

“Yeah, but if it’s affecting all these people, why would we be special? They’ll go after someone important,” I added.

“And if they go after us, we’ll just tell them it was all your fault,” Nathan said, opening his locker, “... you know that note you found in your locker? I think it was talking about the probation worker.” We gathered around to see Tony’s missing person’s flyer taped to the inside of Nathan’s locker with “I KNOW” written on the bottom of it.

Shit.

_____

Next Chapter

#nathan young #nathan young fanfiction #nathan young x oc #misfits fanfic #idk #nobody asked for this but i like it so #my writing #oc; melanie albright #fic; community blowback

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formerprincess · 3 years ago

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A tale written with fangs and claws || Chapter 61

Chapters: 61/? Fandom: Teen Wolf (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Liam Dunbar/Theo Raeken, Corey Bryant/Mason Hewitt Characters: Liam Dunbar, Theo Raeken, Mason Hewitt, Corey Bryant, Nolan (Teen Wolf), Brett Talbot, Lori Talbot Additional Tags: Alpha Liam Dunbar, Slow Build, Friends to Lovers, Dunbar Pack, Bisexual Liam Dunbar, Werewolf Theo Raeken, Alpha Theo Raeken, Canon-Typical Violence, Smut, Mates, Liam and Theo are mates, Top Theo Raeken, Bottom Theo Raeken, Top Liam, Bottom Liam Dunbar, Bisexual Theo Raeken, Original Character(s) Series: Part 1 of Morning Dew Pack

Maddie and Asher follow Liam's invitation. He also learns new things about were cheetahs and Theo gets a new job from an unlikely source.

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"Anyways, he invited the whole core pack to a BBQ. It's nice meeting with Luka. I learn so much about general history and other things. That's alright with you?" Liam switched his cellphone from the right hand to his left so he could reach for a shampoo bottle with his right. He was currently doing some shopping before his shift at Ellie’s started and also used the time to have a phone conversation with Byron. Byron chuckled softly. "Why shouldn't it be?" "Dunno. Maybe because you think I'm replacing you? Rather listen to him than you?" Byron sighed softly. "Liam, I am well aware of my own age. It is very noble of you to care about my feelings in that matter but I have to tell you not to worry. I know you listen to me but having another werewolf, an Alpha even, closer to your own age group, gives you undoubtedly the advantaged to see things from a different perspective. You young people see the world differently than we do, that is perfectly fine. You can never know too much and different viewpoints allow you a better understanding of things. I am not worried you will forgo my advice or replace me with Luka. In fact, I am excited you get to make this experience with other Alphas and leaders of supernatural groups." Liam exhaled and smiled. "Good. I am grateful for all of you taking your time to teach me things, explain things to me. Especially at the moment, I feel I'm learning so many new things about our world. Things I never ever thought of before." "Your willingness to learn is one of your most admirable traits. When we met, it was one of the first things I noticed", Byron praised him. Liam meanwhile opened the shampoo bottle and sniffed. He grimaced. Way too chemical for his liking. He hastily closed the bottle and put it back on the shelf. "I try my best. The way I see it, knowledge makes me a better Alpha. Which, funnily enough, is an insight I share with Scott." "You're right. Knowledge is always good." Liam found another shampoo he liked and took it to the cash register. Byron meanwhile reminisced. "I think I met Luka's parents once. Unless there is another pack with the same name in North America, which I highly doubt. Insightful and willing to listen. Remarkable people. It appears, their son takes after them." "Wow, maybe one day you two can meet and you can tell him that. I'm not sure when his parents died exactly but he still grieves them and hearing about them will surely make him happy. Maybe you can also meet Savannah and Maddie." He considered this a good idea. Byron hummed approvingly. "I'd love to."

"One second, Byron." Liam found it incredibly impolite to check out and be on the phone so he paused the call and turned his full attention to the cashier once it was his turn to pay. The transaction didn't take long and Liam left the store with his shampoo. Only then he picked up the conversation again. "Sorry, had to pay." Byron hummed again and Liam remembered a question from earlier he had wanted to ask: "You said it's highly unlikely two packs with the same name existing in North America. Why?" "I guess I should have worded it better. There is a chance of another pack having an Alpha named Barrett, it is not an incredibly rare name, but the possibility of the other pack referring to themselves as Barrett Pack is rare. You know, Liam, packs can have all kinds of names. A lot of them take their Alpha's last name. McCall, Hale, Barrett. Others, like ours, derive their names from the world around them or things connected to them. Red Ambers Pack, The Creek Pack, Silver Eyes. What all those names have in common is they are exclusive to those packs, simply because no one wants to be dragged into another pack's business because they share the last name. Imagine another pack, full of brutal and disruptive wolves, being called Dunbar Pack. One day someone shows up at your door and causes trouble. You would be furious. It's common werewolf etiquette to not have an already taken name. Also an etiquette stemming from old times." "Why do I now imagine all Alphas visiting an office where they register their names and pay the registration fee?" Liam snickered. Byron laughed wholeheartedly. "It's a nice image. Most come from hearsay, to be honest. And, in case of a pack having their Alpha's last name as pack name, the name changes with the Alphas. Unless it's another family member taking over, but that goes without saying." Liam pondered. "So our pack would have gone from Fairclay Pack to Dunbar Pack, if it weren't for Morning Dew." Liam opened his car and put the shampoo bottle on the passenger seat before he closed the door and locked his car again. Now he made his way toward's Ellie's store. "Exactly", Byron confirmed. "I like it better that way. Think of the poor registration office. All this paperwork for a name change." Byron laughed again and Liam joined him. "My shift's about to start, Byron. Talk to you later." "Take care, Liam."

He ended the call and pocketed his phone. The store was very central, with many shops around, and Liam used it to run some smaller errands quite often. When he now arrived at his workplace, Ellie was on a ladder. “Didn’t I tell you to wait with restocking until I’m here?” Liam asked lightly and sidestepped a few empty boxes. His boss placed a box on the shelf. “You mean because you’ll heal faster if you fall from the ladder?” “I…yeah. Besides I’m your young employee. Use me.” “I want to take up that task in case you have no use for Liam!” Carlie yelled from somewhere between the shelves. Her friends giggled. “Carlie.” Liam smirked. “What about Theo? He would get jealous of me for having you.” Theo had visited Liam in the shop before and as expected Ellie and her friends had fawned over his charming personality. “I take both of you!” They all laughed and Ellie thankfully climbed down from the ladder to let Liam take over.

He was working away for a while when the door opened and Theo entered the shop. He didn’t even need to open his mouth, the feeling of resignation and frustration pouring through their bond was enough. Liam gave him a pitiful glance. “The job interview didn’t work out.” Theo completely skipped over Liam already knowing his emotional state and just continued. “They wanted a twenty-year-old with thirty years experience and I can’t offer that. Tried telling her I’ve been to hell. She thought that was a joke.” "I'm sorry." Liam meant it and went to console his boyfriend. He hugged him tightly and Theo clung to him. He wanted to work again and Liam always felt a pang of guilt. Theo had hated working at the diner but he had been working and because his Alpha pressed, he was now jobless. "It's just...It's starting to get borderline ridiculous! Seattle is not a small town, how can nobody be in need of a healthy college student willing to get his hands dirty? Bullshit!" Theo ranted and Liam let him. It was only logical Theo needed to air out his frustration.

"Don't mind me barging into your conversation", Ellie appeared next to the couple. "But, Theo, if you really want a job, I can offer you one. Liam said you two wanted to work together after college anyway. Why not start now?" "That would be possible?" Liam asked surprised. She shrugged. "I see why not. There is more than enough work for the two of you. Also, two strong young men are always better than one. Carlie, don't even comment on that one!" "I didn't say anything!" Carlie shrieked and Theo laughed. "It sure sounds like fun." He looked at Liam. "Is this okay for you?" "Yeah, I don't mind." Liam really saw no issue with that. Ellie was right, they wanted to work together someday, might as well as start now. "Then, yeah, I'd love to accept, Ellie. Thank you." Theo was extremely grateful. She was happy. "Amazing. We can later talk about all the details. I'll offer you the same contract as Liam." He understood that. "Any rules for working together as a couple?" "Boy, you visited Liam several times since he started working here. I never had to fish you out of the storage room or the back office. I'll take the chance." "We are professional!" Liam squawked. Ellie shot him a grin. Then she pumped her fist. "Not me being selfish but there will be some deliveries arriving soon. You two strong men can take this, right?" "Absolutely", Liam promised and pulled Theo along to show him everything.

****** Working with Theo was easier than Liam imagined it to be. Sure, he would have never made the suggestion for their own coffee shop had he doubted that but it was even easier than in his imagination. They worked well together and knew how the other would react in certain situations. They also fell in an easy working rhythm without speaking so much. "Is it really okay for you? Me working here?" Theo still asked when they were storing the deliveries later on. "Yeah, sure. I don't mind in the slightest." Liam opened a box and began handing Theo things. The Second Alpha sorted them meticulously. "Just wanted to check, so you don't feel like I'm intruding or whatever." "You're not. We want to have our own store one day. This is a great exercise." Liam gave him a big smile which Theo returned. "Besides, Ellie is a great boss, you'll see. Makes life easier." "Easier?" Theo inquired and grabbed another box from Liam to store it away. Liam grunted. "She knows about us being werewolves. We don't have to find silly excuses if anything comes up. I had to lie so often in Beacon Hills and come up with stories to cover. Now my boss knows what I am, my coach knows, even my most important family members know. I don't have to lie anymore and that makes things so much easier. My friends all are either supernatural themselves or involved with the supernatural one way or another. I can be honest, and just be me, you know? It feels so much better", Liam confessed. "It truly is easier", Theo admitted. "Ellie is my first boss in known about the supernatural, it's quite a luxury for me." He gave Liam a cheeky grin and Liam laughed. "You don't mind working with me, right?" He then inquired. "If I did, I wouldn't have accepted the job offer. I'm desperate for a job, but not that desperate." Theo sorted the last thing and handed Liam the label maker. "I'm sure there was a compliment somewhere in that sentence", the young Alpha nagged but didn't mean any harm. Theo understood and scoffed playfully. But then he grew serious. "It's actually quite soothing for my wolf. Being around you, knowing where you are." "Knowing where I am? You know where I am, even if you're not here with me." "It's not that. I know where you are, yes. But are you safe? That's how the mating bond manifests for me. By the urge to protect you every time and at all cost." Liam loved Theo with all his heart and he loved the protective streak the older one had developed for him. Yet... "I like that and I appreciate that. However, I am perfectly capable of protecting myself." "I know you are", Theo confessed, "And that scares the crap out of me." "Huh?" Liam frowned in confusion. Theo grumbled. "One day, I fear, I will be too slow. And you jump headfirst into danger, probably sacrificing yourself for us, and I won't be able to protect you and keep you from doing it. One day, even though you're perfectly capable, I'm afraid a bad guy will get lucky and you will die." Theo shuddered and Liam smiled softly. He put his things down and moved closer to his boyfriend. "I protect myself as good as you do. I will never leave you like this, okay?" "Hm. Promise?" "Promise." Liam kissed him. Maybe it was a dangerous promise given their life but at this moment it felt needed. The sheer thought of one of them not returning after a fight was terrifying and cruel. So acting as if they had complete control over their fate was the only thing to stop the thoughts from going down this path. Theo responded to the kiss but then poked Liam's side. "Come on, let's get those things to Ellie. She didn't hire us to make out. That would be a different line of work."

Liam snickered but then grabbed a box and followed his boyfriend back into the store. "Before I forgot, Sadie and Mason plan on taking you shopping to your new friend Savannah's boutique. Told me before I left." "Me??" Liam shrieked and Ellie looked at him in shock. "Yep. Sadie stalked Savannah online and wants to see the stores. Mason's all for that idea but both agreed it would be rude to show up there without you. So, you have to be the sacrificial lamb, puppy." "No", Liam said firmly, "I'm not going shopping. You all dressing me up once was bad enough. No way!" "Tell them that. I'm just warning you."

The young Alpha grumbled and Ellie chuckled. Liam decided to change the topic slightly. "Luka said he would also invite Savannah and Maddie to the BBQ. I'm really excited to have you all meet. They're cool. It's nice hanging out with them." "Or texting with them", Theo teased. It was true, especially Savannah sent a lot of texts but she never expected a decent answer and just spammed with various things. Maddie, her sister in spirit as the two called themselves, responded equally excited and Liam's phone was buzzing significantly more since he met them. "Are you jealous?" "Me? Of what or whom?" Theo asked surprised. Liam shrugged. It had crossed his mind, he still remembered Theo's jealousy regarding Scott once. "Of Luka maybe?" "Why? Because you had a lunch date?" Theo joked and began tidying up behind the cash register. "It wasn't a lunch date. Not even a date. Just two friends getting something to eat. I do the same with Mason." The Second Alpha shook his head. "I'm not jealous. You're friends, you clearly respect each other and I see how happy it makes you. You see it as a chance to exchange views and advice. How could I be jealous of that?" He paused. "I mean, he is handsome and I know you noticed this as well. You have a type, puppy. Charming men with dark hair. Only natural you find him attractive." "I don't have a type." Liam had begun to fill the displays around the cash register and now shook his head. Theo raised his fingers while he enumerated. "Brett. Me. Luka. Even some of your exes. All fit the bill." "No." Liam scrunched his nose. Though he was not so sure about that one. "Hayden, for example, didn't fit the description." "Yeah. This particular type you have is reserved for males only. I met all your ex-girlfriends and when it comes to women you go for different types. But almost all your ex-boyfriends or crushes share the same traits." Flawless logic but Liam would rather swallow his tongue than directly admit that. "Okay, so what? He is attractive. Doesn't mean I want to start something." "Never said you do."

"Can the old coot give you advice?" Ellie injected. Both men looked at her. She shook her head. "Don't do that to each other. Don't tell yourself you're not allowed to find someone attractive just because your partner might get jealous." "I'm not jealous", Theo clarified. "I know you're not. It's just general life advice from an old lady." "You're not that old", Liam mumbled but continued to listen to her. "I saw relationships end over this. Because one partner thought they were not allowed to find anybody else than their partner sexy or handsome. It's ridiculous. Finding a person attractive says nothing about feelings or ambitions. Just like you said, Theo, it's a preference, a type. But this irrational of making the significant other jealous can become such a pressure, it ends in a breakup. And yet somehow society began telling people, young people, this is how it should be. It shouldn't. It's toxic. My advice is to see it as easy as you two do. A little bit of jealousy is good and I know there is a thing called emotional cheating, that is wrong, but not taking things too seriously is the best way to handle it. I am in a happy marriage and we both find other people handsome. Doesn't mean anything." Liam and Theo looked at each other. "I think we got that one covered", Theo muttered and Liam nodded with a smile. "Yeah."

****** "I hate you and regret all my life choices up to this point." Maya had her arms crossed in front of her chest and glared at the building ahead of her. "Why am I here?" Liam put his arm around her shoulders. "You know you love me and your life choices were good. But if I get dragged down by them, I need to drag someone with me", he explained sardonically and pointed at Sadie, Mason, Brett, and Corey currently gushing over the shop window of Savannah's boutique. Mason had managed to convince Corey and Brett to accompany them and they had excitedly agreed. Liam had decided for that alone they all would get one Christmas present less. Or a lump of coal. "Liam, look, they have suits." Mason was already at the entrance. Coal was a good idea. "And bowties!" Or nothing at all.

The boutique was perfectly illuminated and the carpet was held in pastel colors. One ground floor and a first floor, connected through circular stairs. Several clothing racks and shelves with all kinds of garments were placed around. Liam didn't know where to look first. "Welcome, welcome." Savannah walked towards them looking stunning as always in black heels, white ripped jeans and a black spaghetti top. She smiled brightly at Liam before she hugged him. Then she introduced herself to the others. "I am Savannah. Feel free to look around and see what you might like. If you need help, don't hesitate to ask. And shut up, those earrings are adorable." Just like that, Sadie had a new best friend. Both women excitedly greeted each other and soon enough their friends all swarmed the place. Maya stayed next to Liam. "You look out of place. Are you alright?" Savannah asked. "I don't like shopping", Maya admitted. "I just can't spend hours browsing a clothing store. It's just not me." "That's a shame. I think everybody should enjoy buying things for themselves. We try to give customers that here in our store. But maybe we can help you. Pilar!"

A dark-haired woman in Savannah's age showed up at the top of the staircase. "Yeah?" She called out while she walked down the stairs. She wore sneakers, grey shorts, and a colorful top. "Guys, this is Pilar, she works here with me and is also one of my Betas. Pilar, those are Liam and Maya. Maya hates shopping. Think you could help?" Savannah moderated the getting to know each other. To Maya, she further explained: "Pilar is great with clothing and has this unique talent of always finding something a person likes. I swear, she will make this a fun experience." "Oh, great." Maya still didn't seem convinced but she gave Pilar a brave smile when the were cheetah grinned proudly. Then she swiftly pulled her long, wavy hair up in a bun and studied Maya. "Tell me about yourself. Are you more tomboy or more sporty? Dresses yes or no?" "I'm not a tomboy. I'm simply not interested in too much makeup or dresses. Don't know if that makes me a tomboy already?" Pilar hummed. "What are your hobbies? What do you care for?" "Painting, I care about the environment, protests," Maya started to list. "Environment, amazing. We have a collection of local-made eco-friendly clothes here. I make all of them, so I know what materials were used and how. Maybe we can find something there?" Maya looked suddenly incredibly happy and followed Pilar up the stairs again.

Savannah grabbed a polka-dotted bowtie in blue and white and held it up to Liam. "You would look pretty in a bowtie." "Absolutely not!" Liam shook his head. She laughed. "Relax, I'm just messing with you. You're not my dress-up doll." He chuckled. Her humor was something you had to like, otherwise you might feel insulted or ridiculed. But Liam got it. "You're coming to the BBQ?" "Later, I think. It's a busy day here and I cannot plan in advance when we will be done. Stocktaking, you know? I'll keep you guys updated." She smirked. "I wonder what his house looks like. Is it big? Small? Maybe even bigger once inside." "Are we still talking about Luka's house?" Liam questioned. Savannah clicked her tongue. "Maybe. Maybe not." Her eyes flashed light blue. Liam narrowed his own eyes in concentration. "Are your eyes always this color? Or did they change after you did become an Alpha?" "Blue, you mean? It's the default eye color for cheetahs. Our Alphas don't have different colored eyes than the rest. Blue for everyone." "Wolves only have blue eyes once they took an innocent life. Hence why I'm asking." The blonde shook her head. "We don't have that." Savannah wrapped one arm around Liam. "Now, tell me, any life updates? Things I should know about? Should I take time off work for a wedding?" "My wedding is in a few years, don't stress." Liam blushed. She cackled and let go of him when three women passed the store window. They waved and Savannah waved back. "The brunette one is Beatriz, the redhead is Paola, and the one with the black hair is Carmen. They make the rest of my pack." "Your pack is solely women?" Liam was surprised. "I mean if you don't count our parents, yeah. It's not uncommon for were cheetahs. We are matriarchic minted packs most of the time. It has its origin in the myth of the first were cheetahs. We originated in Africa and there was a village. The old king had been okay-ish to the women in the village. Not the most supportive fella but not bad either. But he got dethroned and killed. The new king made women fair game. They had to serve the men, were mistreated, abused, raped, were no more than slaves. One night the women fled into the wilderness. But without any food or weapons, they were scared and so they prayed to the highest gods for help. One heard their prayers and decided to help them in exchange for something. The women would get the powers to overtake their oppressors and in return, they would forever serve the cheetah goddess. Thus were cheetahs were born." Liam marveled. "I have no idea how werewolves were created. It is so cool you guys know your origin story." "Well." She looked rather proud of herself. "It's tradition and we're proud of it. No, we don't hate men. That's not what this is about." "Who hates men?" Mason appeared next to them. "Nobody." Liam ducked last minute before his best friend managed to place a pink tie around his neck. He just didn't count on Corey appearing behind him and placing a small tiara on Liam's head. "We crown you Alpha of our hearts!" Liam wanted to be mad. But it was hard when he was already laughing. "You're ridiculous!"

****** "Do we have everything we need? Are you sure it's fine? Maybe we should have picked up wine? I don't know." Corey stood in the kitchen and nibbled at his thumbnail. He had begun that after running his hands through his hair and destroying his hairstyle three times in a row which almost caused a nervous breakdown on Mason's part. Liam reached out and gently tugged his friend's hand away from his mouth. "Wow, you are nervous. Relax, it's only Maddie and Asher." Corey groaned. "I know. But I feel this is the first time Mase and I represent this pack as emissary and consultant. Yes, you are here but nobody else is, and what if something goes wrong?" "Corey, you advised me in the past", Liam reminded him. "I know but that was in group settings. This time, it's just us." He pointed at himself and Mason who also seemed incredibly nervous. Liam almost pitied them. "Look, I felt the same way before the Alpha meeting. But it turned out fine. Maddie's a great character and I'm sure Asher is as well. I mean, otherwise, they surely wouldn't be friends." He exhaled. "I also don't think you two are even capable of starting a war or offend somebody. I know you. Mason, you're great at diplomatic stuff, and you, Corey, are great with keeping the peace. I trust you." Sometimes as an Alpha, you had to give a pep talk. Liam could relate to the anxious feeling and the fear of destroying everything but he absolutely believed in his consultant and his emissary. He would have never given them those positions otherwise.

The doorbell rang. "Okay, relax!" Liam felt like a father protecting his kids from trouble in school as he now made his way towards the front door and Mason and Corey followed closely.

And then he opened the door. "Liam! I brought the playdate for your boys" Maddie announced cheerfully and with the biggest grin on her face. She stood at the front door alone, Asher still at the car which he currently locked. Other than last time Liam saw him he was now wearing jeans, sneakers, and a grey henley. It fit him better than the suit. More like him. And it seemed like his best friend had not bothered to wait for him. It also seemed as if he was used to this given he didn't even comment on it when he now joined them at the door. "I'm thirty-one. I don't need a playdate!" He now corrected her playfully exasperated. He smiled at Liam. "Hi, I'm Asher, please ignore her." Maddie opened her mouth in mock outrage and Liam laughed. "Hi, I'm Liam, welcome. Those are Corey and Mason." He stepped aside and pointed at his friends respectively. Both raised their hands. "Hey." "Hi." Maddie had overcome her faked shock from before and stepped into the house. She continued the conversation with her best friend as nothing happened. "No, what you need is some happiness fucked back into your soul." "Oh my god!" Asher glanced at the ceiling as if he asked higher powers for help. Then he gave Liam, Mason, and Corey an exasperated glance. "Please, double-ignore her." "You can't ignore me! You love me!" She reminded him gleefully. He sighed. "I wonder why." But the banter between the friends managed to break the ice, Mason and Corey warmed up immediately, and smiles spread over their faces. "You just stepped into the house, so you don't need an extra invitation", Mason mused. Maddie nodded. "No, I don't need this. We can enter any house unless a or mountain ash barrier prevents us. Speaking off, you have one outside, right? I felt it." "A ghostly barrier created by our witch, yep", Corey confirmed. "You were only able to pass because Liam invited you. Other supernaturals without invitation would have not been able to get over it. But it's amazing you could feel that." "Sometimes we can feel those things. Not always", Maddie explained.

Mason was already on the case and lead them to the dining room where they had put the bestiary and Corey's computer. "He needs to write this down." Liam knew his friend. Maddie pointed at Asher. "I have one of those as well." Asher was more interested in what Corey and Mason had gathered. "Is that a bestiary? I've heard about those but never saw one before. Wow. How did you get that?" "From friends. Yeah, I think that's a good explanation." Corey kept it simple. It didn't need more explanation for the moment, the three of them started talking animatedly. Meadow and Liam retreated into the kitchen.

"I know it's weird. A human and a vampire being best friends. But he makes me feel normal." She smiled weakly. "I don't think it's weird." Liam shook his head. "Mason and I were friends before I became a werewolf but after I finally came clean to him, it was good to have him. To know not everything is supernatural. Sometimes I need this. Normality. I understand what you're saying." Maddie seemed happy he understood and looked at the three men. They were still deeply involved in their exchange, didn't even notice their friends being gone. "I think this was a good decision", she said quietly. "Yeah? That's good." Liam was also pleased it worked so well. She sighed. "He doesn't have many friends. Acquaintances, yes. But not those I-can-call-you-at-three-in-the-morning-because-my-whole-life-is-exploding-right-now type of friends. It's good he's meeting new people." "I thought Asher was part of your coven." Had Liam been wrong? "No, he can't be", Meadow declined, "See, vampires are independent beings. We can form covens but even then we tend to ourselves. I told you I can walk around during the day but at night, vampires are more active. You won't find a vampire sleeping during the night unless they're forced to. Our rhythm is completely different than a human's. It's not like your pack, you are humans as well. We have a human side and yet we're detached from the human living. Having a human in a vampire coven wouldn't work." It made perfect sense Liam just had not considered it before. Logical. "So best friends but not part of each other's groups. Huh, okay." "Yep." She popped the 'p'.

"How did you two meet?" Corey asked meanwhile. Asher put one arm over the headrest of his chair and looked at Meadow. He started laughing. She grinned. "Oh, I can tell you. A few years ago this vampire came to town. She had been going on my nerves for a while and causes some havoc. One night, she was on the hunt for new prey and picked Mr. Asher himself. Look at the guy, who can blame her?" Asher groaned and rolled his eyes but continued to look highly amused by how she was telling the story. "Anyways, she lures him away and I follow. She's doing the most, all seductive and sexy, and then I barge in, ready to save the innocent human. The vampire chick and I start yelling at each other, she cries about how she almost had him and what does he say? Sitting on the couch, frowning as if she insulted him, and then he hits her with: I'm gay!? Like, how could you not pick that up? Completely unfazed by the reveal about vampires." "To be fair, I knew about supernaturals through my father. It wasn't a groundbreaking discovery", Asher relented. Maddie ignored him this time. "From that moment on I knew he is game for everything. We started talking, I learned whose son he was, the rest is history." "Meaning since this moment she's pestering me and acting like my undead auntie", Asher teased her. "Well, someone has to take care you're not going to the dogs. Also, undead auntie? If anything I'm the cool auntie!" She acted arrogantly and watched her nails. "Don't be fooled, she's the one getting her heel stuck in the streets and lands on her behind while trying to get it unstuck." Asher let Liam, Mason, and Corey in on a secret. Meadow shrieked and walked over to his hit shoulder. "This was one time and absolutely not my fault." Every word was followed by a hit. He laughed and tried to stop her from hitting him. "You were drunk and the shoes too big. Which I told you in the store." "Yeah, the only fashion tip of yours actually useable." Asher groaned. "Oh god, no, not this again." Mason used this to take notes. "So calling out god in the presence of a vampire is okay. Nothing happens." "I'm not Satan. We can walk into churches without bursting in flames or getting hit by lightning too." "Demons burst in flames upon entering a church. Hence why my father never visits one", Asher put in his own two cents. Corey eyed him. "Morbid sense of humor or truth?" "Dark humor. His father is the human equivalent of a demon if you must know. Though I personally prefer to call him a walking trash pile of a human being. You never know when a demon is around and overhears. Wouldn't want to insult them", Meadow nagged and Asher shushed her. "Maddie!" "What? Your father is garbage. Not just because of his businesses but just alone based on how he treats you." "It could be worse." This didn't seem to be the first time the friends got into a spat over Asher's father. "At least, he didn't let me be homeless." "He lets you live in a tiny shoebox of an apartment and makes you pay horrendous prices for rent. The bar is so damn low and yet this rat walks beneath it with his head held high." Liam didn't want them to fight and cut in. "The joy of terrible fathers. My biological one is also one of those. But it's good to have people in your life who care about you." "You cherish them more. That's how I see it", Asher agreed. Meadow understood the peace offering as what it was and kissed his cheek. "Such a cutie." "Hate you." "Asher, you're embarrassing me in front of our new friends." "They know you for a few days now. That train has left the station. They already know how nuts you are." Mason cackled. These two gave him and Liam a run for their money. They also could banter and bicker but when push came to shove, they were there for each other and had each other's backs.

Asher returned his attention to the bestiary and pointed at an entry. "That information is false. It says nymphs are redhaired. Nymphs can have every hair color in the world, not just red. If you can, I would note that somewhere." "You can read Latin just like that?" Corey was baffled. Asher shrugged. "Sure. Learned it in school and never stopped using the skills. Especially after I met Maddie and started helping her with a few vampire-related things. Comes in handy." "Asher is good with languages. It helps him in his job as well." "What are you doing for a living?" "I'm an event planner. My client list is small but exclusive. It's not the most charitable job in the world but you have to get out of bed." And just like that, Liam decided he liked Asher immensely. He had this wicked humor you only got after years of being through an absolute shit show and from what he already heard about his father and what he saw at the meeting, Liam could see where this came from. Meadow had said Asher's mother died when he was a child, another traumatic experience. Yet here he was, talking openly with strangers and sharing things with them. Away from his father, Asher seemed more relaxed and himself. And it was obvious he cared deeply for Maddie. Liam liked people with their hearts in the right place. Those were his type of people.

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Author’s note:

The eyes of a were cheetah when they flash:

______________________________________

I am happy I got to insert Asher more. I love this guy. I love all my characters but after I barely had a chance to write about him in the last chapter, this chapter felt good. Next chapter they all finally come together. Or do they? We will see 😁 Did you like the chapter so far? I hope I managed to bring out the friendship Maddie and Asher have. They're each other's persons.

#thiam #A tale written with fangs and claws #My writing #Morning Dew Pack series #alpha!liam

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chilling-seavey · 4 years ago

Text

Passchendaele WW2 Extension - Say Your Prayers

Richie and Charlie,

I have heard what you boys know. I am being moved too when that day comes so it seems, in a way, we will all be fighting together. I want to say I hope to see you, but I suppose, as a nurse, I should say I wish not to see you at all. Fly safe, boys. You make us all so very proud. I’ll see you on the other side!

Your adoring sister and friend,

Frances

June 5, 1944

“Normandy?”

“France.”

“I know where Normandy is, Charlie.” Richard smacked his best friend’s arm lightly behind their whispered banter. They had been called into the main tent suddenly, only to find out that the day they had been training nearly a year for was finally upon them. They hadn’t been told where or when they were going or any details at all really, their only hint that their planned operation was coming was when their planes received black and white stripes over the wings. Invasion Stripes; a tactic used to reduce the chance that they would be attacked by friendly fire during large scale attacks. They didn’t know that, however, until it was the night before and that’s when their officers decided to tell them everything.

D-Day was what they called it. Operation Overlord for code. It was the Allies’ big push to try and regain foothold in Nazi controlled Europe.

“We will take off at dawn no earlier and no later than 0600, expecting to hit the beach by 0700. The Navy and the Armed Forces are landing on the beaches here, and here.” Their highest-ranking officer gestured to the map of Normandy set up at the front of the large tent. “We will be flying above Gold Beach over the 50th Infantry Division. The Canadians taking the north with the 3rd and the Americans taking two beaches to the south. We expect heavy fortification and we wish to minimalize as many casualties as we can so use your training and use it well.”

“We’ll see you at 0530 tomorrow, gentlemen. The fate of Europe – and the world – is in our hands.”

When they were dismissed and gave their officers a salute, the men shuffled back towards the bunk houses and Richie and Charlie walked behind the group slowly, trying to take in everything they had been told. They had never directly flown into enemy territory before and so much was riding on this one day.

“It’s all kind of settling in how important this is.” Charlie mumbled, scuffing his boot over the gravel they walked along. “But we already beat them once in Battle of Britain, so what’s one more dogfight?”

When he was met with no response, Charlie glanced over at his best friend. Richie had his hands in the pockets of his uniform and his head down.

“Hey.” Charlie nudged him lightly. “What’s on your mind?”

“I dunno.” Richard took a shaky inhale as he stopped walking and looked around the near empty air base they were back at after months of harsh training. “I just…I feel weird about tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I understand. I feel weird about tomorrow too. It’s a massive offensive and it’s going to be absolutely brutal.”

His honesty didn’t do much to aide his slightly younger friend’s anxieties.

“Listen, Richie,” Charlie stepped in front of him and set his hands on his shoulders, “We’re in this together, right? You and me. It’s been four years of this shit and it’s just one more day.”

Richard took a breath to try and calm himself down and he nodded, repeating softly to reassure himself, “Just one more day.”

“Yes.” Charlie smiled at him. “Okay?”

Richard nodded, although he still wasn’t completely at ease. Charlie could sense it but he didn’t pry, even when they joined a few of the other men for drinks and they each had a beer and discussed home life and all sorts of eccentric ideas of what they could be flying into the very next morning. Richard simply sat quietly beside Charlie and tried to hold in his supper.

Charlie didn’t realize he was just as riddled with anxiety until they returned to their bunks that night. He laid down and stared at the ceiling and couldn’t even get himself to close his eyes yet alone sleep; his heart was racing in his chest and he wondered if Richard could hear it from the bunk underneath him. Charlie rolled over and plucked the few photographs from his little shelf and shuffled through them; him and Evelyn as children, one of Mary, him the one of him and his father, a smiling one of him and Richard as boys with Corbyn bent down with them and their grinning faces squished together, one of his late Uncle Christian, and finally, a family portrait of Charlie and his sister and parents. He lingered on their soft smiles a little longer and his bottom lip habitually found its way between his teeth and he bit on it anxiously.

The bunkhouse was silent but a soft voice from below startled his attention,

“Charlie?”

Charles kept his eyes on the family photograph, “Yeah, Rich?”

There was a moment of pause as if Richard was nervous to ask his question, but he replied with an ever so quiet, “Can we pray together?”

Charlie shifted to set his pictures back on his shelf before shuffling to the side of his bunk and hopped gracefully to the cold ground. Richard wiped his eyes quickly as if to avoid being caught crying by his best friend that had been through life with him, and he kept his head down. Charlie shuffled onto his single bed with him and they sat shoulder to shoulder for a moment in silence. They were well grown men by then, barely able to fit easily into a single bed together like they once used to, but they found each other’s presence more than comforting and they folded their hands on their laps, bowed their heads, and shut their eyes.

Charlie led their little quiet prayer in a soft whisper as the rest of their squadron slept on.

“Dear Heavenly Father…please watch out for us and our troops tomorrow morning as we brave this front. Keep us strong and safe and in your care and help guide us to victory for a better world. In Jesus name:”

July 2, 1924

“Amen.”

“Good boys. Now right to sleep.” Elizabeth whispered softly, getting up from the side of the single bed and made sure the two six-year-olds were tucked warmly in together.

“Mummy, why do we have to say ‘amen’?” Charlie asked.

“It seals your prayer. Like sealing an envelope with a kiss.” Elizabeth explained sweetly to her son.

“Is it a kiss for God?” Richie asked from Charlie’s other side.

“Yes. I suppose it is.” Elizabeth chuckled. “A little amen to seal your prayer with a kiss and a please and a thank you.”

Charlie clasped his little hands together again and scrunched his eyes shut, “Please and thank you give us good dreams tonight. Amen!”

“Lovely.” his mother praised.

Richie copied his best friend and smacked his hands together too, “Dear God, please don’t let any monsters take us in our sleep, please and thank you, amen!”

“Oh goodness, you boys are silly.” Elizabeth laughed, leaning down to kiss each of their heads as they giggled at themselves, “Now it’s time to sleep. I’ll see you in the morning for a special breakfast.”

“Amen!” the boys replied in union before breaking into fits of giggles again.

In the dark of the bunk house and in the dark of the unknown, the grown young men sat shoulder to shoulder in the unfamiliar single bed, inhaled softly together, and breathed out a mirrored, “Amen.”

Taglist: @randomlimelightxxx @hopinglimelight @jonahlovescoffee @hiya-its-amber @chanelwonders

#✉#daniel seavey #corbyn besson #why dont we #daniel seavey fanfic #corbyn besson fanfic

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lambourngb · 4 years ago

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Get me out of here - places to go when canon is complicated

It’s Day 3, time to celebrate those stories that I turn to when I can’t deal with canon, or when I don’t have the emotional energy to untangle all the emotions I have for what’s going on in canon. Alternative universes, the safe harbor for us. Below are a mix of rewrites of canon, remixes of canon, or out right not even set in Roswell- to fill every type distance you want from canon- from near to far.

The first story I’m reccing is a long one,- so pardon the very long review below.

my love is a life taker by @jocarthage (267,600) So one day, Jessi popped into discord to share a dream she had about timetravel and being able to save yourself in the past basically, particularly Alex getting to give his baby-self a hug, and we all went, “holy shit that’s a cool fic idea please write it!” and really reality sucks right now with quarantine and whatnot, so what better thing to do than follow a WIP? I can’t tell you how badly I needed to something to look forward to as I was staring down a milestone birthday with all my plans in tatters, and this story filled the void.

Okay- now about the actual story itself, the world building about time travel in this is incredible but easy to absorb. Jessi dumps you straight into the action in chapter 1 with Alex, at 28, assassinating an Iraqi intelligence agent in 2009 that averts a bomb that was planned on US forces. You learn so much about both the story-universe and Alex here- one, that even dressed in mask and killing someone, Alex is kind and uses morphine as an overdose and has arranged for his victim’s family to be compensated, you learn that time agents can only visit places they themselves have visited during that time, and Jesse Manes had dragged his son, who was ‘time aware’ to every place of war and ruin on the planet before he was 18 and that, Alex’s victim, even as he’s dying, recognizes what a shit childhood Alex had but that Alex doesn’t.

The next part is where Alex’s time crystal malfunctions, instead of returning him to 2018, it takes him to 1998 where an 8 year old Michael is getting beaten by his foster dad and Alex, out of his time line mysteriously, visible to only Michael, saves him, but only temporarily. We all know with abusers, until you’re out of the house, it’s just a matter of time before the next beating. However, with one act, Alex at 28 starts putting into action (even though he doesn’t recognize it at the time) the steps to save his own life as he works to save Michael from his childhood. Each mission, each jump through time, Alex meets Michael, always a year apart and only for 1000 seconds, or almost 17 minutes. Jessi takes you through some of the darkest points of US foreign policy, only as Alex takes control of his life, he also starts to change the missions, and change the world. The details of places, people, food, etc are authentic from the author’s experience, if you don’t click on the links at the end of the chapters and disappear down google-rabbit holes about the events in history, well- you’re made of stronger stuff than I am. There are lots of heavy subjects discussed, but there’s always care and honesty behind the intent. The way Michael grows, the way Alex grows, and of course the journey to the present time when they could be together? It’s like pining on steroids but it’s so wonderful. I wish I could pull out one thing that I loved in particular in this story- but it’s impossible, only to say that I love that I could disappear completely within the confines of ‘my love is a life taker’ knowing that I would be kept safe by the author, that goodness prevails.

 when I’m oceans away by @neapeaikea (28,000) this is a post-2008 shed canon-divergent AU where Alex Manes, after the best/worst night of his life bolts from Roswell and leaves Michael behind. 10 years later, on the hunt for a child conceived at Caulfield, Michael walks into a youth home in California and finds Alex. A few things, I love that this author writes an Alex who didn’t join the Air Force but still lost a leg, I don’t really enjoy disability erasure in modern AUs (I’m better at looking past that in historical or sci fi aus) . It’s pretty clear after five minutes that the connection between the two men is still there and strong despite anger, secrets and guilt. The teasing and flirting between them is great but so is the acceptance of baring their vulnerabilities. I loved the care they take with each other, and the tie in to an alien child is just so perfect.

Crucibles (series) @ninswhimsy (9,000)- I’m cheating and naming both here, but obviously nin had her finger on the pulse of fandom, by writing crusade-set queer stories before The Old Guard ever boomed into a fandom from the movie. I was lucky enough to trade DMs over the ideas of holiness and the body, and how Alex would have treated himself, certain of his doomed soul, and how Michael would have responded in turn. It’s no secret I love everything Nin writes, but this series stuck in my mind. I will be drifting off to sleep, and think about Alex walking through the ancient city of Aleppo, ready to be done with his burden and Michael there with soft palms and scented oil, and boom! I reach for my kindle to re-read it.

no regrets if we walk this new road by @andrea-lyn (97,000) This author has written so many amazing AUs, some quite far away from canon events like her Mummy AU or her Avengers AU, but I have to say, I have a very soft-spot for this rewrite of season 1 for a lot of reasons. I mean, it’s 2020, so my appetite for Cop!Max is definitely at an all-time low, so the idea of exchanging his job with Kyle’s was extremely appealing. At least Kyle is a POC holding the badge, not a white man like our canon. Anyway, politics aside, this story is special to me for the scorching good Isobel/Kyle relationship that develops, the way Isobel sharpens herself into a lawyer (not an event planner) and how Michael rounds his own edges off in turn by becoming a teacher (and being secretly married). Each deviation from canon made complete sense once you alter the way Rosa’s death affects the pod squad, and how they covered it up ripples out toward Liz, Kyle, etc.

 Layer on layer, down on down by @dotsayers (9,440) I love sci-fi tropes, especially time-loops, but they are incredibly hard to write (I know, I abandoned mine a while ago) so this story stands out because of just how well done the execution is and also the angst. Michael in a time loop about Caulfield, like how great/agonizing is that? The plot is so good, how it ties into Caulfield and why it happens in the first place, like wow. The care, and the hurt, and the fatigue that Michael has in this story, oh you just want to wrap him in a blanket. There’s a tiny throwaway line about how one of the first things Michael learned to do in foster care was to make himself heavy and unmovable- and you instantly picture kid!Michael not wanting to be removed from a house - like my heart broke! The structure of the story, with the background of his just how much he loves Alex but how badly it hurts to see him die, really makes this study of 1x12 special. Along with all the angst, there’s tiny gallows humor lines, so am I weird, that I laughed through a couple of these scenes even as Michael kept dying?

Petty pace by @aewriting (11,600) Aewriting has a couple of stellar AUs, so trying to pick just one was difficult, but I rather feel this story is sadly underappreciated it (mind the tags). It was a remix of @iwontbeyourmedicine ‘s fantastic ‘Freaky Friday’, where the humans and aliens swap roles. Alex in the role of Michael basically was something I had never pictured until Ly wrote that story, and now feel utterly changed by it, especially with this backstory- the idea of Jesse Manes bringing a foster child home? Incredibly well done because there’s an off the charts level of menace in this story. The way Jesse watches Alex, who at first mistakes it for how a pedophile might size up a victim, but then catches on quickly that it’s so much worse in a lot of ways. And Alex is such a loner in the beginning, even as he reconnects with his pod siblings Liz and Maria, he’s still planning on keeping his head down and leaving Roswell far behind. Like freedom is literally the only thing he can conceive of for himself, no real dreams outside of that until Michael slips under his defenses. I probably could have saved this story for angst day- because the second half of the story, if you don’t sob while you read it, then I dunno. It’s helpful to read Ly’s story right afterward as a reminder that things do get better for Alex ten years later. In a lot of ways this story is sadder than canon (though there’s no murder of Rosa/4th alien), I’m comforted that at least Alex has Liz in the aftermath, alike in heartache in a way that Michael didn’t have because of the pact he and Max made about Isobel in canon.

Unexpected tidings by @bestillmyslashyheart (24,800) Another rewrite of canon, that explores a couple of very interesting questions, like what would it look like if Michael never made it back to Roswell as a kid but met Alex by chance in 2008? Imagine the cornerstone of the Lost Decade love affair revolving around the mundane questions of a long distance relationship that wasn’t built on the pain of the shed or Rosa’s death? Marlo writes an amazing take on this, that is both real and deep with the normal couple problems, before introducing that spanner in the works of oh yeah, aliens are real. With Michael on the east coast, and Alex finishing off his service in Roswell, Project Shepherd still entangles Alex with Liz bringing him in on the secret in hopes that with his hacker skills he can track down the third alien child that Max and Iz remember so they can warn him. As interesting as the current plot was, I found myself absolutely revitted the slow piecemeal reveals that Marlo doled out about Alex and Michael’s relationship over time. (I also while rereading this recently got very nostaglic for season 1 Alex who didn’t trust Jesse as far as he could toss him.)

Don’t Punish Me For What I Feel by @winged-fool (3,600) Tarsus IV AU - another wonderful author with a catalog of great AUs, both sci-fi and dark, and honestly it was difficult to narrow it down to one. This story, well in 2009 I was a hard core Trek movie fan, so when I saw a trek-fusion story appear, I knew I would love it just on that basis. The thing is, this gave me Michael as the Captain, a surprisingly rare role for these space fusions, even though genius level repeat offender Jim Kirk and genius level repeat offender Michael Guerin seems pretty married in my mind as a connection. As a Tarsus-like story, all the tags are well earned by the story that Alex finally shares with Michael. It hit on so many levels, the hurt/comfort level for sure, but also to have a story where Michael is this stalwart protector of Alex was really nice to find.

this isn’t the ‘holiday best friends championship’ by @usbournejez (6,090) alright to leave this on a lighter note, my final AU rec is this masterpiece by Kieran that was part of Malex Secret Santa gift fics- and what a gift it was to all of us! The way she writes established Malex is first-rate, because she always includes their canon-levels of snark/sharpness but it’s never directed at each other and that’s something I love. Here we have Alex, where we learn in just a few short lines, is a huge control freak but has the extremely big emotional handicap, and that’s his love/fondness/deserve to caretake Michael. Emotional cactus Alex who is soft for Michael? Love it. There are small drops of angsty backstory peppered in this, but really that just fuels just how sweet and wonderful the main theme of the story- which is Alex might hate the whole world at large, he loves, protects and worships Michael (and vice versa). As someone who can bake cookies, but that’s about it, I was still enthralled with the baking details and this story has never failed to encourage me to eat dessert before dinner basically.

#rnmcreate2020 #malex fic #roswell new mexico #malex fic rec #malex #MALEX FEELS #michael guerin #alex manes #fandom positivity #worship our great authors in this fandom #can we pretend it's Wednesday?#a day late and a dollar short #working on today's now!

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steve0discusses · 4 years ago

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Yugioh S4 Ep 27: Joey Punches Valon to Death and Seto Kaiba buys a Car.

My favorite character is back!

THE STORYBOARDER.

Like clockwork, the best storyboarder of all of Yugioh saw in the episode notes “This is the one where we shall Destroy Joey Wheeler” and he was like “Yes! this is extremely my thing!” and he’s back at it again, destroying Joey Wheeler with such finesse.

Like it’s so hard to explain in caps because you can’t see stuff move, but this animator is so good at the Yugioh vibe--he makes these character designs WORK for him (or her? No idea the identity of the mysterious storyboarder (or team of storyboarders--maybe this was one little group they freelance out to that worked really well together? I dunno) ) they really capture what Yugioh IS in a really unique way and still remain fairly economical in the animation sense. They do not hold back on any pose, and go completely ham into this ridiculous concept of a card game where you put on a special suit and punch eachother in the face.

Mind you, it’s still a card game and I skipped all that, but man...this is such a good storyboarder and I know that next episode they’ll be gone but for now I’m just gonna bask in it.

First off, Rebecca manages to figure out Seto’s 6-letter password in order to access billions of people’s personal data off of a satellite (we don’t get to find out what the password was) and although the storyboarder is great--they did make one fatal mistake.

The bane of every Californian who leaves California. LA is like a completely different country to San Fransisco but everyone only knows of two Californian cities and assumes we’re right next door to each other.

And it’s like...no, man. I don’t have Disneyland. Do I sound like a cheerful person that lives next to Disneyland? Do I say “bruh” and smile with the force of 1000 suns as we surf the coast on the backs of Lisa Frank dolphins? No dude, I have a strong Bay Area accent that makes me sound like a dry sarcastic asshole and I wear sweatshirts to the freakin beach because it’s very cold and filled with great white sharks.

(Sorry I just had to delete like 10 k words where I compared the entire cast to US cities by saying cryptic stuff like Joey Wheeler : Seto Kaiba is like LA : San Fransisco and like it was the biggest random tangent that only makes sense to me. Quarantine brain, y’all, I got SERIOUS quarantine brain. Anyone else? Anyone else just find themselves wasting like 2 hours thinking of which cities match the personalities of different characters on a show that came out so long ago? Man I need distractions right now.)

But back to what’s happening on the show, Yami is coming to terms with Joey’s struggle about as well as Yami does.

Which is mostly Yami saying “I’m pretty sure I killed Joey in that card game with Bakura in S1 and Tea had to bring him back from the graveyard so like wtv.”

(read more under the cut)

This was like 2003??? I think I keep forgetting when this season came out but we had printers at this point. We had google maps and a printer.

I don’t think I’ve touched a map like that since the 5th grade, where we had this competition to make a hypothetical road trip across America. It was Awful, and if you won the competition to get from SF to New York with the shortest distance, you would win something like pizza and a cool engraved name plate. We did not win pizza, because I could not even unfold this asshole map.

And now we have Google so like thanks, Mrs. Lambert, it was cool, but I’ll never use that information again. I hope. It was such a vivid frustrating memory that these maps still fill me with anxiety to this day, hearkening back to my 5th grade self just desperately trying to use string to measure how many miles the freeways across the midwest contain. (spoiler: a lot)

How OLD is this kid? Rebecca’s like secretly a 68 year old. She’s secretly Mrs. Lambert.

At this point we had a swell in the music as each friend of Joey joined in to announce their willingness to risk danger and save him.

Were they...not going to join him the whole time? It just seemed like a weird thing to bring up sooo after the fact.

Yami then turned to Duke and was like “but not you. You stay here” and he was like “Oh, thank gods.”

Rebecca stayed behind because the animators don’t want to draw her. Honestly, she’s incredibly helpful and they were mad stupid to leave the only smart one in the car. But youknow...this team loves being mad stupid. It makes the show more entertaining.

As they left we had a weird aside where Arthur Hawkins reflected “Rebecca is having just a REAL hard time trusting Yami” and it’s like--Arthur Hawkins! You’ve been dumping on Yami for like an entire season, that’s why. Like don’t pretend you’re all on team Pharaoh now. Why ever stop dunking?

But youknow, character development, Rebecca is going to learn the trust the ghost that possessed her crush/best friend that she’s had for 2+ years on a kid who’s been living in Japan this whole time who literally forgot who she was 2 weeks ago. You trust that ghost, Rebecca.

Or not. I mean you really don’t have to. You don’t owe Yami anything, dude. You don’t need to blindly trust idiot men, Rebecca. You just do you. Trust that instinct of “is this guy not trustworthy?” because yep. Chances are if you’re having that thought, that he’s totally not.

Storyboarder!

Storyboarder what ARE you???

STORYBOARDER!

after this followed a scene that I’ve seen gif-ed just so, so often that I assumed it was in a Yugioh Spin-off. I don’t know why I thought it wasn’t in this OG series, but I didn’t expect it to be here, in the Dartz season. But, it does make sense that this scene was under the best Storyboarder‘s direction because *chef’s kisses * it’s perfect. Every frame is a joy. The amount of sinister expressions on Mokuba, the level of sass coming off of Kaiba. It’s such a freakin shame that this man’s best work so far only lasts like a few seconds.

PS my bro looked it up and this car salesman has a wikipedia page.

He also looked up if anyone has shipped this car salesman and it’s our lucky day because this ship does not exist with any human ever in the world. Thank you, humanity. But, they DID make a wikipedia page so maybe we’re just putting off the inevitable?

I’m not even gonna cap it because I KNOW this is a gif you can easily download from everywhere but mm--this is a SOLID piece of animation. This animator is just flexing so hard, man. Yugioh did not deserve this much care and attention to detail.

Shippers rejoice, Seto Kaiba did briefly consider helping out Joey (before he absolutely drove away in the opposite direction)

(They’re clearly in the financial district already, PS. They are driving 5 ft to Dartz’ house.)

At some point Joey nabbed Valon’s card and so now he also gets to wear a bunch of stupid armor outfits.

This one is weird! It’s very Kamen rider-ish...but it’s a color scheme that feels very valentines day. It looks hard to wear. Good thing it’s animated.

I may need to capture this walk sequence though...if I still have the energy...the picture does not display his very energetic arms-in-the-air walk cycle I haven’t seen since that one Season zero episode. I dunno if it’s a reference to that, but I can’t think of any other reason why Tristan is walking like that.

This is when Mai finally shows up.

Valon lost his helmet during this fight, which lead to this:

What a good note to end on.

Anyways, I have no idea what my update schedule will look like or be, so if you’re new here and you want to start reading these from the beginning, I have a link for that:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

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zodiyack · 5 years ago

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Melody

Pairing: Roman Sionis x reader

Warnings: Swearing, alcohol, fluff, mentions of murder, Roman being Roman (aka mentions of face skinning)

Note: This fic is based off a) an idea I had, b) Lindsey Stirling I guess, c) I guess somewhat The Umbrella Academy, d) I dunno I just liked the idea

Also this is probably horrible for my first Roman fic, but I think the more I write for him the more I’ll improve :\

Prompt: “’Do You Trust Her?’ ‘No...but I trust her anger.’”

Taglist: @stardancerluv

masterlist

A sweet sound of a violin echoed through the Black Mask. It was different from Dinah’s singing, this violin was rushed yet calmed. Roman sat proudly in his seat, Victor to his right and a glass of some alcohol in his hand. His eyes scanned the stage, smiling upon the sight of a woman playing her violin and dancing around.

The woman was his lover, his world, his girlfriend. She held the key to his heart and never let it out of her sight. Y/n L/n was her name. A violinist who accidentally stumbled into the Black Mask with blood all over her after escaping a situation that she could’ve gone to jail for. Roman took her under his wing and soon learned about her talents and murders. At first, he thought she’d be useful, but now, he wasn’t sure if he could live without her.

Victor, on the other hand, would be more than happy to live without Y/n. He didn’t like her. Not because she was, ya know, Roman’s girlfriend, but because she looked suspicious and she often strayed away from him. To make things shorter, he would trust her more if she just tried to get along with him. But like siblings, they both refused to say more than a few nice things to one another without getting into a fight.

The song ended and no one clapped. Infuriated by that small detail, Roman got up and clapped as loud as he could, the other people following. Y/n smiled brightly and hopped off the stage and into Roman’s arms. “Hello my love.” He chuckled.

“Hello Rome!” She scanned the area around Roman, confused by the two men sitting opposite of Roman and Victor. Y/n sat on his lap once he sat down, wrapping her arms around his neck and cuddling into him. “What’s going on?”

“Well, I’m talking to these men about business,” he leaned closer to her ear, “but they aren’t giving me what I want.”

As usual, it triggered something in Y/n. Roman watched as her eyes lit with determination. She shifted on his lap and glared at the men in front of her. Why did they look so...relaxed? “Romey, I’ll be right back, okay?”

He nodded and allowed her to get up and return to the stage. “Do you trust her?” Roman asked Victor in a whisper. His eyes remained on Y/n’s figure.

The white haired man leaned his head next to Roman’s and whispered back, “No...but I trust her anger.” They watched as Y/n grabbed her violin and started a rough tune. The melody started to turn eerie and Victor turned to Roman. “I think we cover our ears now...”

“I believe you are correct.” They looked at each other and clasped their hands over their ears, sliding off their seat and under the table. What was about to happen? Well you could tell something was happening by the way the men Roman complained about grabbed their heads and started screaming.

Many sharp notes played, quick and aggressive. Back on the stage, Y/n’s eyes were closed and she twirled around, dancing to the deadly rhythm. The sound waves felt visible, those who saw them thinking they had gone bonkers. She finished off the song with a casual ending, then she smiled and walked back over to Roman’s spot.

Roman and Victor got back up and sent Y/n kind and thankful smiles. She smiled back and sat right back down onto Roman’s lap. His arms snaked around her waist.

“So, what do you boys think about giving my Roman here exactly what he asks of you?” She inquired the men, who were gasping for air and rubbing their heads. When no answer came, she kissed Roman’s cheek and jumped up. “I said, what do you boys think about giving Roman what he wants?” The bow for her violin was now pointed at the pair.

“W-we’ll give it to him! Please, just d-don’t do that again!” One of the men whimpered. His partner stomped on his foot and shook his head. “What’re you doing? We have to say yes o-or else she’ll k-kill us man!”

“You’re right. She will. That, or maybe I will. Hmm, babydoll, how much do you think their boss would appreciate their faces?”

“I dunno Romey. Should we find out?” She moved, again, and straddled his lap, pressing light kisses to his jaw.

“No! No! Please! Anything but that! We’ll do whatever you want! Please!”

Y/n ignored them and kept her eyes on Roman. She took a second, looking into his eyes and then taking him by surprise by pressing a rough kiss to his lips. Their lips danced and her hands gripped his hair, his hands gripped her waist. Sadly, their need for air separated them after a minute or two. She slid her hands down to his jacket and clung to it, breathing heavily and still making intense eye contact with him.

“I love you Rome.”

“I love you too Y/n/n. Now, what do you say you give them one more melody?”

She smiled and nodded, shoving her face to his a last time before sliding off his lap and getting back on the stage for the third time. She winked at Roman and played that cursed long note, striking fear into the businessmen’s hearts. Roman winked back and covered his ears with Victor, sliding right back under the table as she started her final melody.

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hysterialevi · 4 years ago

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His Name Was Isaac - Ch. 3

Fanfic summary: During a mission to avenge his mother’s death, Isaac hunts down the men responsible for her murder and kills them off one-by-one, only to discover that his last target is taking refuge among the Van der Linde gang. In an attempt to kill them, Isaac attacks the gang and unknowingly becomes enemies with his own father, who is in the process of fighting his own battle for redemption.

Point of view: third-person

Previous chapter | Next chapter

This story is also on AO3

ONE WEEK LATER

OUTSKIRTS OF BLACKWATER

Steadily moving his line of sight just along the distant horizon, Shay Mackintosh kept a close eye on the bank in Blackwater as a number of customers went in and out, completely oblivious to the gang that lurked no more than a stone’s throw away from them.

At the moment, the town seemed pretty calm. Normal. Ordinary. Not nearly as hostile as the last time Shay set foot there. That must’ve meant that the people had either grown too comfortable with their lives, or that there was someone else guarding the perimeter for them. And considering the rumors of Pinkertons roaming around Tall Trees, Shay assumed it was the latter.

...Dammit, he mentally cursed to himself.

The last thing the Van der Lindes needed to worry about right now were Pinkertons. Dutch was already close to losing his mind as it was, and with the Skinner Brothers’ growing presence in West Elizabeth, Shay doubted the man would be calming down anytime soon.

If federal agents started going after them... well, he didn’t even wanna think about the chaos they’d cause.

Though... this could’ve been a blessing in disguise, depending on how one looked at it. As money-hungry as their gang was, Shay could see that everyone was anxious to get out of West Elizabeth and move on somewhere safer. Somewhere that didn’t have lawmen or rival gangs prowling around every corner.

A few of the other members had already expressed their concerns surrounding the upcoming robbery in Blackwater, and with the presence of Pinkertons now being an issue, Shay expected there would be even more infighting back at their hideout.

If too many threats presented themselves at the same time... perhaps Dutch would finally see sense and agree to relocate their camp.

But... then again, that could’ve just been wishful thinking on Shay’s part. Dutch was known for his stubbornness, after all, and Mackintosh couldn’t remember the last time their leader ever swayed his mind about something without raising hell about it first.

If he truly had his mind set on robbing this godforsaken bank, then... Shay supposed that was what they’d do. Dutch was the boss in the end of the day, and his word was practically law.

It didn’t mean Shay wasn’t worried, though.

“Mackintosh...!” A man’s voice suddenly called out from behind, cutting off Shay’s train of thought.

The outlaw whipped around in alarm and instantly reached for his pistol, only to come to a halt once he saw who it was.

“Jesus, Arthur...!” he whispered in a startled tone. “I nearly blew your goddamn head off. Thought you was one of them Skinner boys.”

The older man chuckled, crouching down so that he was at the same level as Shay.

“I’ll try not to take that as an insult. What’re you doin’ out here?”

Mackintosh returned to his binoculars, focusing the lenses. “Dutch asked me to scout the place out before we move in. He wanted to know what we’re dealin’ with.”

Arthur leaned closer to Shay and squinted his eyes, trying to follow the man’s gaze. “...And? You see anything worth noting? How many guards are at that bank?”

“Well... I’ve counted about a dozen so far, though there could be more I’m not seeing. They switch every once in a while, but it ain’t often. Not many openings for us to charge in.”

Shay lowered his binoculars for a second, turning to face Arthur. “...I won’t lie to you, Morgan. It’s gonna be difficult to rob this bank. The whole thing’s under heavy guard, and there are Pinkertons wanderin’ in the streets now. It’d be a huge risk to grab this score, even with all our men.”

The other man held his hand out. “Here. Lemme take a look.”

Passing the device over to Arthur, Shay patiently stood by as the man thoroughly scanned the area, picking up every detail he possibly could.

“Yeah...” Arthur muttered worriedly, “...security’s gotten real tight in Blackwater, that’s for sure.”

“And you still think it’s a good idea to hit this town?” Shay questioned.

“It don’t matter what I think,” Morgan replied. “It ain’t up to me.”

“No, but I imagine you still have a mind of your own, don’t you? As well as your own concerns.”

The older man gave him a cautionary side glance. “It sounds like you’ve got some, Mackintosh. Care to share?”

Shay sighed in a defeated manner. “Look, I know Dutch thinks this’ll be a easy score since Blackwater’s such a small town, but small doesn’t always mean easy. It just means more concentrated. I mean, look at this place.”

He gestured to the settlement in front of them. “Blackwater’s essentially one, giant square. All the buildings are more-or-less in the same area, and it ain’t nearly as convoluted as the other cities we’ve hit. There are fewer blind spots to worry about. Fewer entrances to keep an eye on. Fewer places for us to hide if things go south. And there’s also the fact that Pinkertons have been seen in Tall Trees. If this plan goes awry--”

“--It won’t.” Arthur interrupted.

“...If it does,” Shay reiterated, “we’ll be dead men. The law will have no problems cagin’ us in, and we’ll be hanged on the spot.”

As much as Arthur hated to admit it, the man had a point. Blackwater wasn’t exactly the ideal place for an outlaw to be right now, and with all the threats surrounding them in this area, he couldn’t deny that he thought they might’ve been better off staying the hell away from this town.

But even then, his thoughts were irrelevant. No matter what his opinions were, it was Dutch who always had the final say, and Arthur knew damn well that a few lawmen strolling about wouldn’t be enough to scare the old man off.

If they were going to convince Dutch to leave Blackwater alone, they’d need one hell of a good reason. And at the moment, Arthur couldn’t think of one.

“Look,” Arthur said, keeping his voice down, “I hear you, Shay. But like I said before, it ain’t my choice whether we stick around or not. That’s Dutch’s decision.”

Shay persisted. “Well, yeah, but you’re the only one he actually listens to. That’s why I’m tellin’ you this, Morgan. If you speak with Dutch, he might see where we’re coming from.”

Arthur put the binoculars down. “And if he doesn’t, we risk being accused of being traitors.”

Mackintosh quirked a brow. “What are you talkin’ about?”

“That’s how Dutch’s mind works now,” Morgan explained. “I dunno if you’ve noticed, but he’s a paranoid mess these days. He values loyalty above everything else in this world, and in his head, loyalty means you don’t question anything he does. If I bring up our concerns about this robbery and Dutch doesn’t see reason, he’ll lose all his faith in us. I’ve seen previous gang members get shot over less.”

Shay’s expression froze with shock. “Jesus. I knew Dutch was unstable, but that’s downright lunacy.”

Arthur sighed in frustration. “He ain’t a lunatic. He’s just...” he trailed off, unable to find the right words. “...look, forget it. Let’s just get back to camp. I’m sure Dutch is waiting to hear what we’ve found.”

Shay took his binoculars back, sliding them into his satchel. “And then you’ll have a word with him?”

The other man rose to his feet, nodding in response. “I’ll... I’ll see what I can do. I ain’t gonna promise anything, but I’ll try to make him see reason.”

Mackintosh followed Arthur’s actions and returned to his horse, preparing to head back to camp. “Thank you, Arthur. That’s all I ask. Lots of folk are nervous about this robbery, and I wouldn’t wanna see half our gang get wiped out all because of one mistake.”

Arthur thought back to the ferry job they did eight years ago, not even bothering to point out the extreme irony in Shay’s statement.

“...No,” he settled for, sounding much more regretful than before. “We wouldn’t.”

~~~~~~~~~~

A LITTLE LATER

AURORA BASIN

Opening the door to Dutch’s cabin, Arthur and Shay both sauntered into the cold living room as the smell of lingering smoke smacked them in the face, causing the latter to let out a series of coughs.

At the moment, Dutch was mindlessly chewing on the tip of a freshly-lit pipe and steadily pacing around the room, allowing him to think more intently as he listened to Micah prattle on about some nonsense.

It looked like the other man had just returned from his own journey, judging by the heavy satchel slung over his shoulder. There didn’t seem to be much in it other than a few dead rabbits, and considering the fact that there was still some blood on Micah’s glove, Arthur assumed the man had been out hunting.

About time he did something useful, Arthur thought. The man rarely ever lifted a finger around camp other than to swat flies, and when he wasn’t irritating the hell out of the other gang members, he was back in this cabin, doing whatever he could to lick Dutch’s boots. Though, this time... the tone of Micah’s voice suggested he may have been here for another reason.

“Shay! Arthur!” Dutch barked once his gaze landed on the two new guests in his cabin. “You’re back. What did you learn?”

“The bank’s locked up tight, Dutch,” Mackintosh answered, stepping closer to him. “We counted about a dozen guards standing outside of it, and I also spotted some new security measures while we was there. They’ve got more walls. More gates. More places to trap us if we ain’t careful. This is gonna be a risky job no matter how many people we bring.”

The older man didn’t seem pleased. “Well, that’s good to know, but I thought I told you to be discreet.”

Shay blinked in confusion. “We... were. We didn’t set a single foot in Blackwater and scouted it from the outskirts. Just like you said.”

“Oh, is that so? Then why is it that there’s someone in town looking for us?”

Arthur jumped in, his interest now piqued. “Wait, there is?”

Dutch gestured to Micah. “Yeah, Micah saw him. He was just telling me about it before you boys walked in. Said he spotted them in the saloon.”

The other man nodded casually. “Sure did. It was a young man. About this tall. Blonde. I didn’t catch his name, but he was askin’ all sorts of folk if they knew who the Van der Lindes were. Also if they knew Dutch. He seemed pretty determined to find us. Luckily, he didn’t notice me.”

Arthur rubbed his chin, suddenly feeling a lot less confident about bringing up his concerns to Dutch. “...Shit. Was he a lawman?”

Micah shook his head. “Nah, I don’t think so. He didn’t look like one. Didn’t have no shiny badge neither. My guess is he’s a bounty hunter.”

Shay furrowed his brows. “A single bounty hunter tracking us down all by himself? That doesn’t make any sense.”

Arthur took on a more cautionary tone. “Who says he’s by himself? You’d have to be a fool to fight a gang on your own. It’s most-likely he’s got more friends that we haven’t seen yet.”

Micah shrugged. “That, or he doesn’t realize how close he is to us. Probably thinks he’s still got a ways to go before worryin’ about any sort of fighting. After all, no one expects to find what’s right under their nose.”

Mackintosh changed the subject. “Either way, if this man’s asking questions all around town, he’s gonna draw attention to us. We need to deal with him before anyone else takes an interest.”

“He’s right,” Arthur agreed, turning to Dutch. “You want us to deal with him, Dutch? We can go back to Blackwater. Take him out right now.”

“No.” The man responded, causing all three of them to fall silent.

“...No?” Micah asked, significantly more concerned now. “But if we don’t kill him now, he’s bound to find our camp later.”

Dutch grinned deviously at that. “Exactly. It’s too risky for us to attack him when he’s in the heart of civilization. There are too many obstacles. Too many guards. Too many people. So, instead... I say we let him find us. We’ll play along, let him think that we don’t know what he’s doing, and when he finally comes waltzing into the lion’s den -- that’s when we’ll strike.”

“But what if he’s not alone?” Arthur pointed out. “We’ll have an entire group of bounty hunters right on our doorstep.”

“Then we fight.” Dutch said plainly. “We have enough men to deal with a few guns. We’ll be alright. For now, though, just stay focused on the bank. I don’t want any of you worrying about no bounty hunters unless we have to. Understand?”

The three of them exchanged looks for a moment, ultimately deciding that it wasn’t worth an argument.

“Of course, Dutch,” Micah finally complied. “You’re the boss.”

The older man appeared satisfied with that answer. “Good. Now get back to work. All of you. This bank ain’t gonna open itself.”

Ending the conversation there, Dutch put his smoking pipe away and gave a simple wave of the hand, signaling for everyone to return to their lives while he wandered back to his rocking chair.

Shay and Micah were already halfway out the front door by the time Dutch took a seat, but as always, Arthur remained the odd one out and stayed in place, pondering what he should do next.

Unbeknownst to him however, he wasn’t the only one thinking.

“...I know that look, Arthur.” Dutch remarked, his back turned to him. “I’ve known it for the past eight years. There’s somethin’ you wanna say, isn’t there?”

The younger outlaw hesitated for a second, unsure of whether he should tell the truth.

“...Yeah...” he grumbled out, “but you ain’t gonna like it.”

Dutch chuckled. “Try me.”

Walking up to Dutch, Arthur took a while to gather his thoughts before joining the other man’s side, stopping to lean against a nearby table. He still wasn’t entirely certain if he wanted to express his true thoughts to his friend, but deep down, Arthur knew that what Mackintosh said at Blackwater had merit in it.

“...I think we should leave Blackwater alone.” Arthur admitted at last, earning a puzzled look from Dutch.

The older outlaw paused for a moment, wrapping his head around what the other just said.

“Leave Blackwater... alone?” He repeated, clearly not on board with the idea.

“It’s too risky, Dutch. We don’t even know if the bank is worth it. We’ve got no idea how much cash is really bein’ held in that vault, and on top of that, there’s a shit ton of guards patrolling the area. You heard Shay back there. They’ll shoot us down before we even reach the building.”

“Which probably means there’s a lot of money just sittin’ in there waiting to be stolen! Why else would the security be so tight?”

Arthur knew he was going to say that. “And what about these Pinkertons? We’ve all heard the rumors. They’ve been seen in Tall Trees, Dutch. That’s right outside our camp! All they have to do is take one wrong step, and they’ll be on top of us before we know it. We have to leave now. We don’t want a repeat of what happened in Blackwater eight years ago. You remember the chaos that led to?”

Dutch sighed. “Of course I do. But we won’t make that mistake again. This time, we’ll be better prepared.”

The younger man held his hands out in a perplexed manner. “How? We have even fewer men than we did for the ferry job, and the bounty on our heads is bigger than ever. How are our chances gonna be any higher for this score?”

“Because we have you now.” Dutch said. “You wasn’t with us for the ferry job, and neither was Hosea. And look how that turned out.”

He stood up from his chair and placed a reassuring hand on Arthur’s shoulder, looking him in the eye. “But we have your help this time. Hosea may not be with us anymore, but I know for a fact you wouldn’t let me down, son. I have no doubts that this job’ll go just fine.”

Arthur saw right through the flattery and put his hands on his hips, completely at a loss for words.

There was nothing he could say or do that would convince Dutch to leave Blackwater, was there? The man was entirely obsessed with the city by now, and Arthur knew that at the heart of it, none of this really had anything to do with the money in the first place. It was purely about Dutch’s pride.

He knew that Dutch still hadn’t gotten over what happened to them all those years ago, and he knew that the old man wouldn’t take his eyes off this town until he managed to pull off a successful score.

He was falling victim to his own insanity, and Arthur had no other choice but to try and pull him away from the edge. It was one hell of a risky move to make, but he decided it’d be worth it.

Arthur let out a remorseful breath and lowered his head, almost whispering his next words.

“...You’re losin’ yourself, Dutch.” He said vehemently. “I can see it everyday. More and more of the old you is just... vanishing.”

The older outlaw appeared taken aback by the abrupt notion and narrowed his eyes, almost looking offended.

“Losing myself?” He replied, his voice dangerously calm. “...How so?”

Arthur gestured vaguely at the room around them. “Look at what we’re doing, Dutch. How many men have we lost just tryin’ to reach Blackwater? Not to mention actually stealing from it. Our gang is dyin’ out here. This area’s too dangerous for the likes of us, and yet... we won’t leave. You won’t leave. The Dutch I know would’ve packed his bags long ago.”

The other man fell silent at that and tightened his lips, making an expression that said Arthur had just crossed the line.

“You think I’m losin’ myself.” Dutch parroted once again, his tone completely flat. “You think... I’m... losing. Myself.”

He took a few steps away from Arthur and began pacing around the room, chuckling to himself in a heartbroken manner.

“...Hosea is dead, Arthur,” Dutch stated, sounding more feral with every passing second. “John is a traitor. My health is deteriorating, we have the law on our tail, and now, the only son I have left thinks I’ve gone crazy--”

The tyrannical man brought his gaze back to Arthur, his eyes wide open with madness.

“Of course, I’m losing myself, Arthur! Wouldn’t you? This world... has gone to shit! Civilization has no room for folk like us, and even within our own world of murderers, thieves, and rapists -- we are still tearing ourselves apart! I have sacrificed everything to keep this gang afloat, even when we went through hell! You are my family, Arthur. You, Hosea, John, Miss Grimshaw... you were all my family. But just like the rest of them, you’re startin’ to lose faith in me too!”

Dutch pulled his revolver out, blatantly aiming the weapon at Arthur.

“Are you gonna leave me, Arthur? You gonna turn your back on me and leave me to the goddamn wolves, just like the rest of them? Are you a snake?”

Arthur held his hands up, absolutely bewildered by Dutch’s deranged response.

“What? No! I’m right here, Dutch. I ain’t gonna leave you.”

“That’s what they all said,” the older man dismissed, evidently unconvinced. “That’s what they all tried to tell me. But when it really mattered, they all--”

Coming to an abrupt halt, Dutch’s words were cut off when he was suddenly struck by a coughing fit, causing him to drop his gun as his entire body heaved uncontrollably.

“Dutch!” Arthur exclaimed out of concern, rushing over to him.

The man continued to cough aggressively and hurriedly searched for his chair, desperately wanting to sit down as he leaned on Arthur for support.

“Easy, Dutch...” he comforted, helping the man into his seat. “Just... take it easy.”

Setting Dutch down, Arthur kept a firm grip on him until he was sure he wouldn’t keel over and stood patiently at his side, waiting until the man’s coughing fit calmed down.

“You okay there, old man?” He asked. Dutch coughed a few more times, eventually hacking up some blood before spitting it on the floor.

Arthur eyed the blood with a worried glance, trying to hide how frightened he truly was about the man’s health.

“Jesus...” he murmured. “Dutch, I’m sorry--”

“--Don’t.” The other man interrupted, wiping his mouth clean. “I don’t want no pity.”

Finally back to his normal state, Dutch let out a deep sigh and leaned back in his chair, clearly worn out from the havoc his own body just put him through. His skin was much paler now, and just by listening to the shaky rhythm of his breath, Arthur could tell he was getting weaker and weaker by the minute.

It wouldn’t be that long now before he was at Hosea’s side again. The only doctor who could’ve possibly given Dutch some sort of treatment was all the way in Blackwater, and even if they somehow managed to sneak him past all the law, Arthur doubted there was anything they could do to save him.

Dutch’s life was quite literally slipping out of his grasp these days, and much like everything else they had lost in the past few years, there was no way they could get it back.

Even with Arthur at his side.

“...R’you gonna be okay, Dutch?” Morgan asked solemnly, despite the obvious answer.

The outlaw shook his head, throwing a glare at him. “What d’you think?”

Arthur’s shoulders slouched in despondency. “I know, I know. Stupid question. I just...”

He cleared his throat, deciding to drop the subject. “...Never mind. Forget I said anything. Just... take care of yourself, alright? None of us wanna see you go too soon.”

Dutch nodded in response, admittedly curious about what Arthur was going to say.

“I’ll try, son.” He reassured, his voice much softer now. “You know me. I was born to be an outlaw. All the way to the end. And I intend to go out like one.”

~~~~~~~~~~

ONE HOUR LATER

BLACKWATER SALOON

Humming quietly to himself, Isaac relaxed on the edge of his bed as he gently cleaned the Springfield rifle in his grasp, preparing for the storm ahead. It had taken him nearly three months to get to where he was now, but after all the traveling and searching and questioning... he was finally close to reaching the Van der Linde gang. And to killing Shay Mackintosh.

It was strange, Isaac found, to think about everything he had been through these past fifteen years. At the start of this hurricane, he was nothing more than a boy merely trying to survive with the men who killed his mother, but now... he was the one delivering them to Hell’s gate.

He knew it probably meant nothing to the people around him -- and some might’ve even considered him crazy for pursuing revenge for so long, but ever since Eliza’s death -- Isaac had had this sense of hatred burning inside him that he just... couldn’t let go.

It was always there. No matter what he did. Even when he smiled, or laughed, or cried... he could feel it growing within him like a parasite.

There were some days when Isaac managed to go from dawn to dusk without a single thought of what happened to him, but late at night, when he’d delve into his dreams, the same nightmare would come back every single time to haunt him, and he’d see her face again. Hear her final words. Her final breath. And the next morning... he’d have a gun in his hand, ready to hunt down the men responsible for her suffering.

It was agonizing sometimes, to deal with such a unique rage. Isaac wanted nothing more than to settle down somewhere and live a normal life, but every time his memories reminded him of the horrific murder, he’d feel the same hatred growing inside him again and set out on his journey for vengeance, craving the blood of those who wronged him.

Perhaps that made him a monster in some people’s eyes. Isaac recalled Minister Swanson mentioning that he saw something darker in the boy’s heart, but to him, this was the only path that made sense.

There was no justice out in the Wild West, after all. You were either the victim, or the victor. If Isaac didn’t go after Mackintosh himself, Lord knew that no one else would. And on top of that, he figured his mother deserved to rest in peace after fifteen years of watching her killers wander freely.

It was what Eliza would’ve wanted, Isaac imagined, and he wasn’t going to forget it.

Sighing in discontent, Isaac set the rifle down and stared aimlessly at the window in front of him, admittedly feeling somewhat torn about these upcoming weeks.

What was he going to do when he found Mackintosh? What was he going to say? Would the man even recognize him after all these years? Would Isaac recognize Shay?

Well, whatever happened, one thing was clear. Mackintosh had to die. However or whenever that came to be, Isaac didn’t care. The only thing that concerned him was landing the killing blow.

Mackintosh was the one who pulled the trigger when Eliza died, so Isaac only deemed it fitting that he’d be the one bring it into a full circle.

He may’ve not had any family left, but by God was he going to avenge them.

Interrupting Isaac’s thoughts, a knock suddenly came from the door and averted the young man’s attention, causing him to stand up from the bed.

“Just a moment!” He called out, quickly slipping into his coat before striding to the entrance.

Swinging the door open, Isaac found himself face-to-face with a rugged-looking man. He had graying blond hair, a horseshoe mustache, cold-blue eyes, and a special kind of demeanor to him that shouted “degenerate.”

The visitor threw a casual wave at him, clearly not realizing what sort of impression he gave off.

“Hey there, cowpoke,” he greeted, his tone oozing with connivance. “...Mind if we talk for a minute?”

Isaac subtly kept a hand on his pistol, trying to conceal his mistrust. “That depends. Who are you? What d’you want?”

The man chuckled. “Suspicious one, ain’t you? Have no fear...” he held his hands up, “I ain’t here for that. In fact, I’m here to help you.”

That didn’t make Isaac feel any better. “That so? Well then, why don’t you answer my first question? Who are you?”

He placed an introductory hand on his chest. “Relax, princess. The name’s Micah. As for what I want, well... I couldn’t help but overhear your conversations with some of the folk downstairs, and it sounds to me like you’re lookin’ for the Van der Linde gang. Am I right?”

Isaac nodded slowly. “...Yeah. Why? You have information on them?”

Micah smirked. “More than you think. And I’m willin’ to share some of it...” He held up a finger. “For a price, of course.”

The young man wasn’t even surprised. “Of course. And how much are you willing to share?”

Micah shrugged. “That depends on how much you’re paying. Information like this don’t come cheap, boy. If you want somethin’ good, you’ll have to pay good money.”

Isaac was still hesitant to accept the deal. “Makes sense, but how do I know your information’s legitimate? Anyone can claim they know about the Van der Linde gang.”

The outlaw grinned and crossed his arms. “Aren’t you a smart cookie. Well... what if I told you I was one of them?”

The boy froze, uncertain of whether he should take the man seriously. “...You’re just pullin’ my leg now. Why the hell would a Van der Linde talk to me if they knew I was lookin’ for them? How does this benefit you?”

Micah sighed in a melodramatic tone. “It pains me to say it, but our current leader, Dutch van der Linde... let’s just say he ain’t doin’ too good.”

“Speak plainly,” Isaac said. “What d’you mean?”

“He’s ill.” Micah explained. “With what, we don’t know. But he’s withering away with each passing day, and it don’t look like there’s much chance of him getting better. Thing is, though...” he leaned on the doorframe, “he has yet to clarify who’s gonna take his place once he’s gone. And at the moment, he’s got two people in mind. One of ‘em being me.”

It didn’t take long for Isaac to catch on. “So, you want me to get rid of your competition?”

Micah shook his head. “Not yet. First, I wanna see what you’re capable of. I’ll give you the information you need, see if you actually manage to find us, and then I’ll know whether you’re just some yellow-bellied pretty boy, or if you really know how to handle that rifle. Then, we can move on to... other business.”

Isaac considered the offer, admittedly still somewhat hesitant to do business with this man.

As strange as it may’ve seemed, Micah actually sounded like he was being genuine. He spoke about the Van der Lindes as if he actually knew them, and his information had been pretty specific so far.

The only part that confused Isaac was why he would be so willing to endanger his fellow gang members. It was widely-known that outlaws weren’t the type to practice camaraderie -- Isaac had seen that for himself -- but even this was a new low.

Still, it wasn’t his concern what the Van der Lindes were up to. As long as Micah’s information got him closer to Mackintosh, nothing else truly mattered.

“...Alright,” Isaac finally agreed. “I’ll buy your information, Micah.”

The outlaw smiled slyly. “Glad to hear it. How much you paying?”

The young man quickly thought of an offer. “...Fifteen bucks.”

Micah looked impressed. “Good, but not good enough. How’s about we bump it up to twenty?”

“Seventeen.”

“Eighteen.”

Isaac settled with that. “Done.”

Micah shook his hand, a little too happy about where this was going.

“Pleasure doin’ business with you, mister. I promise... you won’t regret this.”

#Red Dead Redemption #red dead redemption 2 #rdr2 #arthur morgan #isaac morgan #dutch van der linde #Micah Bell #rdr2 fanfic #rdr2 oc

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the-starless-sky · 5 years ago

Text

cozmez / drama part full translation

As usual: If you want to see the prettier version a.k.a subbed version with proofreads, please head to the Paradox Live discord!

Names: Yatonokami Kanata: K Yatonokami Nayuta: N Suiseki Iori: I Mobs: M

P.S. This translation starts right after the sample (again!), so head there if you haven’t read it yet!

K: If I have to go back to that time, I’d rather…

N: Hm?

K: It’s nothing. I’m fine if I have only you, Nayuta. If you’re here, I can do anything.

N: Me too. This world is shit. There’s nothing good about it at all. Let’s rise up, just the two of us.

K: Yeah.

N: Then? What kinda people show up in that Paradox Live?

K: Huh? Dunno. But whatever kinda people they are, it’d be a cinch for us, right?

N: Well, that’s true. Ah, but, promise me just one thing.

K: What’s up with you, being so formal like that?

N: I want you… to not use your phantometal too much.

K: Huh?

N: Recently, y’know… Don’t you think the time until the trap reaction activate shortened?

K: There’s nothing like that.

N: I heard about it once. If you use it too much, you’ll get swallowed by your phantometal―

K: That has nothing to do with anything!

N: Why are you so angry? I… I don’t want Kanata to get bad… That’s why…

K: Ahh, shut up! I ain’t scared of trap reactions! I ain’t made that weak to die ‘cuz of that!

N: I’m not talking about that―

K: Look, Nayuta! This is our chance to rise up. When the time comes for the fight of our lives, it’s now or never! You understand, don’t you!?

N: …

K: Sigh, who is it…!?

I: Yo! How do you do? It’s me, me!

K: Aah, hello.

I: Come to my place a bit, I’ll be waitin’!

K: Sigh… understood.

N: Who is it?

K: It doesn’t matter who it is. Something came up. I’m gonna go out for a bit.

N: Is your body okay? I’m going too―

K: It’s fine so just stay at home, Nayuta.

N: ...Okay, got it.

***

I: Come in! Sorry for always havin’ ya come.

K: What do you need from me?

I: Haha, don’t be hurryin’ like that! Greedy men don’t get popular, y’know? You’re such a party pooper. Well, here’s what. Actually, that there’s someone who has a dirtmetal with super high concentration of phantometal purity around here... Or so I’ve heard.

K: I’m not that free to look around everywhere with just a rumor to go by.

I: You’re being really aggressive today, aren’tcha? Don’t worry about that, I had Zen figure out a mark for you, to some extent. It’s fine if you just go and face some of them. It’s a huge issue this time. I’ll dish out some of the payment in advance. Please finish it by tomorrow morning.

K: But the sun’s already setting. Are you telling me to work without sleep?

I: Oi. Be careful how you speak. Ain’t it always like this?

K: …

I: So! You’ll probably get busy this month, but―

K: No, I’m sorry, but I’ll have to pass this one.

I: That’s rare. Is that okay?

K: Yes. A bigger chance has come, so. Bye.

I: A big chance, huh? Hmmm…

***

N: Ah. Welcome home.

K: Yeah. I’m home.

N: Are you… okay?

K: Yeah.

N: ...Kanata, it’s better for you to sleep now. You’re tired, right?

K: Huh? Yeah… I’ll do that.

N: Go and sleep first. I’m gonna take a breather outside for a bit.

K: Ah, Nayuta…

N: I know. I’ll be back quickly.

K: …

N: Sigh. There’s no helping it. Fine, I wont go outside. Learn to go to sleep by yourself already.

K: Shaddup…

N: Then, I’m turning off the lamp.

K: Nayuta.

N: Yeah?

K: We’ll start making our song tomorrow. The one for Paradox Live.

N: Got it.

K: That’s all. Good night.

N: Good night.

***

N: Mmm.. what are we gonna do for the hook?[1]

K: Hm… you’re right. Get it a bit more dope…

N: At this rate, it’s gonna take us a day just to finish our track.

K: You’re used to it, aren’t you? We’ve been doing this since we’re small, anyway.

N: You look like you’re having fun, unlike yesterday, Kanata.

K: Only when I’m doing rap. Rap is good. Our background’s became our weapon. We’re gonna kill everyone with this weapon.

N: Yeah. Let’s definitely do that.

K: Aah~ It’s not upper… I want our hook to be like… going ‘dizzy-dizzy’ in low temperature…

N: Kanata’s really good at making songs like that, huh.

K: Well, that’s ‘cause I’m a genius.

N: Don’t get ahead of yourself, idiot.

K: Huh…? Wait, wait! I just got an inspiration! Oh man, seems like we wont get any sleep today.

N: It’s good that you’re enthusiastic, but don’t push yourself too hard, okay? We’re gonna have battle with all teams in the competition, right? We’ll have to make a lot of songs, right?

K: I’ll make however many songs we need.

N: I’ll tell you this: not just any song works, okay?

K: Of course. They told us to make songs based on the theme of each battle, right? It’s a pain in the ass, though. Well, it doesn’t matter what the rules are: we’re still going to win.

N: That’s right. As expected, we have to go hard from the get go for things like this.

K: We’ll show them the absolute different in true strength and shut those people up. We’ll blow ‘em hard with our insane lyrics and music. The other guys’ll just half-assedly put together lip service to make their lyrics, anyhow. Something like that ain’t hip hop.

N: Yeah. Let’s show those asshole wacks living an easy life what the real thing is like. The winner will be us.

***

K: Is that Club Paradox?

N: Waah… there’s so much people.

K: Annoyin’… are these guys that free?

N:Ain’t it interesting if we just swindle all of ‘em?

K: That true.

N: Oh well, the ten billion’s ours anyways so who cares about the details.

K: Haha, you’re right.

N: Ah, but y’know…

K: Hm?

N: These clothes, they’re nice, right?

K: Well, guess they are. As I thought, it’s a good thing to let Nayuta choose our clothes.

N: The people are increasing…

K: What a pain. Let’s just quickly get inside the venue.

M1: Oi! Look at them! Aren’t they cozmez?

M2: The real deal!? It’s the first time I saw them! Dang…! Ah… I wonder if they’d give me a handshake…

M1: You idiot, don’t even try! By the way, the little brother Nayuta in flesh has a dangerous feel, huh!? Ah, our eyes met…!

K: Oi, it’s you, right, shitty glasses?

M1: Eh!?

K: You said something just now, didn’t ya?

K: Stop whisperin’ and say it clearly, wontcha?

M1: Eh… no, I…

K: What’s that about Nayuta, huh!?

N: Leave it, Kanata!

M1: N-no… it’s nothing…

K: Tch.

N: Don’t pick a fight with the guests, Kanata.

K: Sigh. Yea.

N: Sigh… even so, people are talking as they please, huh, about us.

K: Our surroundings has nothing to do with us. We’ve never had any ally up until now, anyways.

N: Haha, that’s true.

K: Nayuta.

N: Hm?

K: I’m gonna rise up. But I can’t do it alone. It’s meaningless if you’re not here.

N: It’s the same for me, Kanata. Let’s get out of this shitty world. The two of us, together. If it’s for that goal… I’ll give it my everything.

Notes

[1] In hip hop, hook is the reff/high point of rap. It’s the most distinguishing phrase in the song – it could be talking about the lyric and/or the composition.

#translation #drama cd translation #cozmez #paradox live

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henrikvanderswoon · 5 years ago

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Double the Kill: A Nancy Drew Play Written by 12-year-old Yours Truly - Readthrough Reactions

Okay, guys, I went through two cups of super strong coffee reading through this thing and I think I can hear colors now so… Have fun reading this!

I sincerely haven’t read this thing in probably ten years and I legitimately forgot almost everything about this play I wrote for myself and my twin/two best friends to perform. We used to write plays for each other all the time, as well as play Nancy Drew games together, so… this was all very fitting.

Anyway, this is a super long one and I APOLOGIZE but also I hope you enjoy reading this thing as much as I enjoyed writing it 😂

Okay, for starters, this story is titled: “Double the Kill” for two reasons that I can remember: (1) someone actually gets murdered, and (2) someone beheaded the Lincoln Memorial statue.

…

You know when you’re in middle school and you’re assigned some topic to research for a project and suddenly you have this stupid amount of knowledge about something you don’t know what to do with?

That’s what happened here.

Anyway.

So, apparently I didn’t know what the word “pervert” was when I was 12 (poor, sheltered creature) so I legitimately named a character Blake Pervey and I’m gonna fling myself into the sun.

Oh my gosh, I wrote up a case profile for this, complete with character roles and everything. Incredible.

Let’s provide that for you guys:

The Case: Billionaire Erving Nickels is holding a benefit concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., where the band “One Love” will be performing. Erv senses trouble, so he calls Nancy Drew and her best friend Bess Marvin to watch out for anything “suspicious.” But about an hour before the concert’s about to start, One Love’s lead singer Terri James is found dead near the Lincoln statue and the head of the statue is gone!

Contact: Erving Nickels - a billionaire who’d arranged the benefit concert. He asked Nancy to come and watch for anything “suspicious.”

Suspects:

Erving Nickels: Goes by Erv, for short. As it turns out, this man has actually gone bankrupt recently. Could he go to desperate measures to gain back his wealth?

Blake Pervey (I still want to die): One Love’s back-up singer. Terri had broken up with him recently because he’d attempted to cheat on her (huh, maybe he really is a pervert after all). Did he murder her to get revenge and take her place as the lead singer?

Lyza Benton: The make-up artist. Lyza is always on the prowl for the next juicy gossip to spill to the press and gain publicity. Could she have killed Terri to create the ultimate story?

Myra “Ryan” Williams: One Love’s guitarist. She was the person Blake had attempted to cheat with, but she’d refused. Terri didn’t believe Ryan’s story and blamed her for everything, which caused the two women to hate each other.

Victim: Terry James

Okay. Already this is a little better than “Murder at Turquoise Inn,” because there are actual suspects with actual motives??? aMAZING.

Wow, Nancy’s a bitch. She didn’t even tell Erving that Bess was coming along.

Erv keeps saying that he thinks something bad is going to happen tonight, and Nancy and Bess are both like,“Can you please explain why?” And he’s like, “I just have a feeling.” Like boi, that’s sketch.

Bess: “Sorry to change the subject, Mr. Nickels.”

Erv: “Please, just call me Erv.”

Bess: “No thank you.”

Bess…I know Erv is a weird name, but…why?

Mr. Nickels is taking Nancy and Bess on a tour, right? And I keep peppering in random facts about the Lincoln Memorial I learned for school and it’s SENDING ME.

“I’ll watch and wait for our groovy band to arrive, while you girls split up and watch for suspicious activity. Now, let’s boogie!”

Asfbadka Erv, no one talks liKE That!

I would just like to take a moment to preface the rest of this post with the fact that I wrote this for me and my friends, and we were always writing the stupidest dialogue for each other because we thought it was hilarious. Um…which hopefully explains lines like these:

(1) No one calls Erv Nickels, the handsome billionaire, “Darling.” Except his mother.

(2) [We’re going to change.] No, don’t change. We like you guys just the way you are. *laughs obnoxiously*

…

I hate myself.

So Blake and Terri arrive in the limo and let me tell ya’ll Blake is definitely flirting with Erv right now and I’m so fucking confused.

Terri: That man’s got problems. I guess money does that to people.

Blake: But we have money and we don’t have problems.

Terri: Maybe it only happens to men.”

Blake: But… I am a man.

Terri: Exactly.

Okay, you can tell my love for writing banter was here from the fuckin get-go.

Oh god, now Blake is flirting with Nancy. Fuckin hell. I may not have known what the word “pervert” was when I was 12, but this man was aptly named.

Suspicious, suspicious.*Mocking* ‘Can you girls watch for anything suspicious?’ Something suspicious, yeah right. Oh look! A BUG. Oh, soooo suspicious.

Bess…. I love you.

Okay, as dumb as everything is in this thing, some of this dialogue is fucking cracking me up so hard.

Bess: No! Honestly. I swear, it’s almost like he’s trying to keep us busy so something bad can happen.

*A faraway scream cuts in from offstage*

*Nancy and Bess look off in the direction it came from, way too casual*

Bess: What was that?

Nancy: I dunno.

*They pause, then their eyes widen in realization*

Nancy: Oh crap.

Listen, I know I’m a comedic genius, but this is getting out of hand. Dsbfsjkdsjfbk

Bess: Mr. Nickels! What woman was screaming so high like that?

Erv: That was me.

I CAN’T BREATHE.

I saw Terri lying there on the floor, apparently dead.

Erving… the woman is DEAD. What do you mean “apparently?”

Nancy and Bess find a letter Terri was going to give to Erving to tell him she can’t do the concert because she also felt like something terrible was going to happen to her, and all Bess can do is repeatedly laugh at the word, “Flee.”

Hey, too bad “Honest Abe” is missing his head, otherwise he could tell us whodunnit.

Wow, yall. Bess is my favorite.

You know, the funniest thing about this is that you can definitely tell how many of the games I played between writing my horrible novel at the age of ten and writing this. If this thing had better dialogue and more fleshed out story/characterization, I could picture this as an actual game, not gonna lie.

And… maybe if it didn’t involve removing the whole-ass head of the Lincoln statue…

Yanno, tiny details like that.

Lyza: *laughing* Scared you, didn’t I?

Bess: Oh, “scared’"is such a strong word. I’d say more… "severely startled.”

So Erving reveals to Nancy that he’s actually not dumb as bricks, but puts up the facade because he’s broke and doesn’t want anyone thinking he’s not still super rich and air-headed. I’m crying.

You sensed something bad was going to happen. You should have called the police to stand guard! Not some amatuer teenager who calls herself a detective and her little friend!

…. The pervert has a point.

So Lyza likes to meddle in people’s business. Ryan had written about Blake’s advances in her journal and Lyza blackmailed her about it, Terri blamed Ryan for Blake’s attempted cheating. Blake tried to bribe Ryan into going out with him by telling her he’d discovered a way to get his hands on a fabulous collection of priceless jewels, and Terri broke it off with him. He’s upset, Ryan’s pissed that Terri thinks she went along with Blake, Erving borrowed money to organize the benefit concert (in order to benefit himself) and now he’s in even deeper debt because the concert has been cancelled and Lyza is having a fuckin field day.

BOY AM I ON BOARD FOR THIS SHIT.

Before he came into wealth, Erving worked in a museum in Chicago, and Bess finds a piece of paper on the floor of Ryan’s trailer with the phone number to this exact museum. Nancy calls to see if there is any connection between that museum and the Lincoln Memorial and apparently there’s a theory that the head of the Lincoln statue contains jewels that the museum talks about in a part of their exhibit.

*kronk’s face* Oh yeah. It’s all coming together.

Nancy: For all I know, you could be the murderer.

Erv: Why would I do that? I needed the money from the concert!

Nancy: No you didn’t. You could’ve just–I dunno–stolen the head of Abe over there in search for the ALLEGED JEWELS INSIDE.

Ya’ll… please don’t ask me how the FUCK one person would get tools to remove that head without anyone noticing. Please.

Blake: Hey, guys, have you seen Ryan anywhere?

Nancy: Why? You gonna ask her out again?

Kjdbfisfdosidnf FUCKIN’ SAVAGE, NANCE.

oH MY GOD THE CULPRIT SLIPPED UP SO EASILY I’M SCREAMING.

oH my god, Nancy told Erving they needed something to pick the lock on one of the trailers and he’s all: “Like a bobby pin?” And just takes off his hat, removes a bobby pin, and “lets his long hair cascade down and over his shoulders like a waterfall” and I’m crying. I can’t fuckin’ breathe.

Oh shit, wait… the first culprit was actually covering for the real culprit all along I’m losing my mind. My twelve-year-old brain was so advanced I just threw a curveball at myself sjdbfshdbfagh

Okay, so I’m not gonna spoil anything because I think it’s hilarious to keep you all wondering what the fuck is going on and who the hell did it and why, but I would just like you all to know that this play literally ends with one of the characters singing Hannah Montana’s “The Best of Both Worlds” completely off key because I thought it would be hilarious and I think that really tells you a lot about who I am as a person.

#I'm so sad I dont have more things to live react to cause holy shit is this so much fun jxnzjznsksks #nancy drew #nd humor #nancy drew humor #clue crew #long post #have fun guys this went way longer than I'd expected it to jxbsjjsja

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malachite-isms · 4 years ago

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Your Kiss is on Their List Pt 5: Yang Xiao Long

This was familiar. This mental soup of lingering ecstacy and satisfactory subordination, she hadn’t always known it, but it was normal for her now. It wasn’t overly often that this would happen, all parties involved had things to do of course, but it was common enough that there was a sequence of events she was used to going through. As were they.

First, she would go to the club, that fateful club where she had made an impressive, if a bit unnecessary, show of force on the establishment’s security detail and owner in lieu of getting the information she needed. There, she would do some drinking, maybe a bit of dancing, or even, more recently, shoot some pool in that newly renovated nook beside the bar. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing one couldn’t find in most other nightclubs in cities like Vale. Great music though.

Then, the odd dance would begin. They would approach her, those bedeviling women, and they would flirt like they’d only met once or twice before and hit it off. They’d give her an opening line, she’d shoot something charming back and they’d go back and forth like that for a while. Then they’d invite her to the back, she’d push through the cool rush in her chest and say yes at an appropriate volume. They’d then escort her to the back, and she would positively relish the jealous looks she’d get from charmless men. Very few got the honor of meeting up with the twins in private regularly, save for Yang Xiao Long and one other.

Then they’d lead her to their room, lavishly furbished with leather furniture, modern art, and the most well-stuffed bed she’d ever been on. It was always just a little chilly in there; not cold enough for an additional layer, but you’d always be doing the little things to warm up ever so slightly. Things like crossing your arms, or being close to someone else. Part of their setup, no doubt. There, one of them would sit her on the couch and heap compliments on her while the other sat on an adjacent chair and methodically apply vibrant red lipstick. She’d catch her staring, she’d always catch her staring, and the other would know exactly when to stop talking and redden her own lips as Yang was caught in a suggestive gaze. They were frighteningly good at what they did.

Then, with gentle tugs, they’d pull her from the couch to the bed and begin the main event. They’d lean on either side of her and start with her cheeks. Gentle, lingering kisses that let her relish in the contact and warmth. They’d refresh the kiss-shaped stamp they had on her brain. They would work their way to her nose, and her forehead, and her temples, and her jaw, and her neck. Then they’d help her remove her jacket and scarf, she’d often already in a trance at that point. With only her tube top remaining on her torso, they’d kiss her neck, then her shoulders, then they’d let her slowly fall to the bed as they worked their way down her arms and to her hands.

At that point, they would ask her the question; how far would they go tonight? Yang would have to tell them, with a please. They never demanded one, never even asked for one, but she’d always say please. They’d always oblige her, if she asked for a full coat, they paint her red from head to toe. Sometimes, when she was in the mood, she’d ask for something along the lines of “the full package,” and they’d oblige her.

Finally, they’d be done, and she’d be speechless. It had been a long time since the first occurrence of this, but she would always be speechless, staring at the ceiling, and simply plastered in impressions of lips, residue of blissful kisses that would put her firmly on cloud nine, regardless of whether or not her pants stayed on. They’d leave to the adjoining bathroom and clean themselves up.

Recently, if they hadn’t gone all that far, another step would occasionally come up. She would, without cleaning herself up, pick herself off the bed and wobble her way to the bar. She would be too love-drunk to care about the bewildered stares she’d get from the jealous and the envious, and order herself a lite beer, or even a water. Something simple to revitalize her system. There, she’d be joined by the only one to be able to truly sympathize with her, the only one who could claim to be in her shoes more often than Yang herself.

Tonight was one of those nights, and Cody Baxter was that individual.

Cody was, in many ways, Yang’s polar opposite. A passive pacifist who never looked to instigate anything aside from chill vibes. He was a writer by trade, and wouldn’t consider himself charming. Which made it as baffling to him as it was to many others when the infamously seductive Malachite Twins rented out a space in the club for the guy and showered him with affection whenever they got the chance. The only one more often covered in lipstick from the twins than Yang was Cody.

Though tonight, he was clean and Yang was the recent target.

“Y’know,” he started “,we gotta stop meeting like this.”

“What,” she shot back, words slightly slurred “,you think you could hold up any better?”

They both chuckled like old war veterans, warmly recalling what others would consider nightmares.

“I take it this was your way of getting a ‘lightened sentence’ as it were?” he asked with a glance at the blonde.

“Yyyyyyou could say that I guess.” She took a swig of beer. “If what they did to my team was their version of going easy, I’d rather this,” she gestured to her marked self “,than whatever they were planning for an old vet like me.”

“Y’know, you say that,” he said, melancholy slowly entering his voice “,but I don’t think either of us handle them better now than when we got got for the first time.”

“Oum, the first time...”

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

That club was so nice on her first visit, and cleaned up so nice the second, why not go again just for fun?

She was owed a drink, after all. Yang strutted into the club, the music was back, the patrons were back, and Junior was back. Back, too, were those twins who she never got to be properly introduced to.

With strawberry sunrise in hand, Yang took a seat between them at the bar. This place was worth being a regular at, best to ingratiate herself with the staff, especially the boss’s right hand girls.

But there was two of them so... right and left hand? Anyway.

“W’hey there!” she opened “So, I’m not so great at apologies, so how about I just buy you ladies a round?”

The two haughty women rolled their eyes and nodded in acquiescence.

Yang signaled to the bartender who promptly slid some fancy drinks to the twins, their favorites, Yang presumed.

“So, dunno if you’re cool enough with me for this, but would you mind if I got your names?”

A heavy pause followed.

“Melanie.”

“Miltiades.”

Yang was thoroughly surprised. She would’ve bet her bike that, no, they were not cool enough with her yet. Might as well strengthen her advantage then.

“Well, I gotta say, Melanie, Miltiades,” holy shit, did she just nail the red one’s name on the first try? “you girls are pretty damn good fighters.

Apparently, the praise was enough for the twins to deign her with their gazes instead of cold shoulders.

“I mean, most people have to fall back on their semblances when I go on the attack, but you two? Correct me if I’m wrong, but you guys didn’t even raise your aura when I hit you, did you?”

Another heavy silence.

“Knowledge is power,” Melanie said plainly.

“Uhhh... huh?”

“If we used our semblance for every punk with their head in their ass,” Miltiades clarified “,people could scout us for planned attacks.”

“Not that you’d know anything about that.” They scoffed in unison.

Ouch.

“W-well,” Yang tried to get back on balance “,I’ll be the first to tell you, I have a lot of muscles that might be the strongest,” she flexed her arms to drive the point home “,but my brain ain’t in the running!”

Self-deprecating humor, she didn’t use it often, but this seemed like a good time to bust it out. Some humility never hurt when trying to earn some forgiveness, right?

*chu*

Yang felt what happened, heard what happened, but her brain needed some time to process it. she looked to each of her biceps and found a red lipstick-imprint on each of them and a twin caressing an arm each.

Yang’s face lit up like a traffic light, but no words came out. Noises escaped her mouth for sure, but they were most definitely not words.

“You know, for as hot-headed as you are,” Melanie said, pausing to kiss Yang’s forearm “,you definitely have a charm about you.”

More noises, no words.

A soft hand cupped her cheek and turned her toward its owner; Miltiades, who had closed the distance and was inches away from her face.

“Y’know, you’re so cute, we can’t stay mad at you. How about we get away from the crowds so we can... get to know you better?”

There was a heavy silence.

Without taking her eyes off Miltiades, Yang picked up her strawberry sunrise, downed it in one go and croaked out “Sure.”

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

“Well if it isn’t our two favorite patrons!”

Melanie’s peppy arrival snapped Yang out of her recollection.

“Heyo, Mel,” Cody greeted the twin “,to what do we owe the honor?”

“Just a quick bit of correspondence we would like our blonde friend to deliver.”

Curious, Yang turned to the pair fully to find Miltiades holding out a business card. She took it, read it, and her eyes widened.

“Uhh... girls?” she said with trepidation in her voice “,I don’t wanna tell you how to go about your business, but this... this might not be the best idea.”

“Yang, for real, we appreciate the concern,” Miltiades said with uncharacteristic bluntness given their recent escapades “,but we’ve done our research. Trust us, we’ve planned this one out thoroughly. We know what we’re doing.”

“If you say so.” Yang looked down at the lipstick-stained card. “Better brace yourself, vomit-boy.”

#RWBY #Yang Xiao Long #Malachite Twins #Cody Baxter #OC

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