#no other duo would have me able to just open a doc and write over a hundred words in one go before passing the fuck out HDKFKFKD

[icyfox17]

*takes a breath* man. This fucking 911 hyperfixation has got me locked in so intensely guys I was NOT prepared 😭😭😭

All my other fandoms besides mcu + dsmp die within weeks tbh. I normally get bored pretty quickly but 911 has a HOLD on me

[knickynoo]

Doc & Marty Friendship Mega-Post

As anyone who sees my posts knows, one of my favorite things to explore in regards to Back to the Future is Doc & Marty's friendship. There are plenty of examples of great dynamic duos in TV and movies, but these two are by far my #1. I know I’ve said it (many) times before, but I’ll say it again: their friendship is beautiful for so many reasons. So, I decided to put together a huge list compiling my absolute favorite things and moments about these two time-traveling best buds. 

(Absolutely gonna need to put this under a cut. Going full-ramble, people.)

THE BED & THE AMP. Listen, I can’t even estimate how many times I’ve seen the first movie, and I never knew that there were two beds in the lab until like, 3 months ago? But it is such a good detail, and definitely one of my favorites. It makes sense too, because obviously there are probably nights Marty is helping out with a project & it gets super late so he just crashes there. But I can also imagine that Doc fully realizes that with Marty’s dysfunctional home life, his friend is gonna need a break from it all every so often. And the amp? Look, I don’t care how it came about. Maybe Marty asked Doc if they could build one. Maybe Doc decided completely on his own to just spend weeks putting the thing together. Either way, it is wonderful. Without any dialogue or backstory needed, these things tell us that Doc’s lab is a safe-haven for Marty. There’s a key right under the mat so he can come and go as he pleases, a bed for him, and a gigantic amp that he can play his music on without fear of being told he’s too loud. 

The whole “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything,” line. I made a whole post about it, so I won’t go into my thoughts again, but yeah, it gives me feelings. (see post here)

How absolutely thrilled Doc and Marty are to see each other in the twin pines mall scene. (It is honestly one of my favorite moments in the entire trilogy, even though it’s almost a blink and you’ll miss it kind of situation.) In like 5 seconds, there are several things happening in rapid succession that wonderfully establishes their relationship. The warmth in the way Doc says, “Marty!”. The fact that they both immediately reach out to the other for physical contact. The smiles on their faces. This is not just a scientist and his assistant, people. These two need each other and bring genuine joy to the other’s life. I mean, look at them.

     And this whole little scene is even more significant when you take into account the McFly dinner scene that we got directly prior to this. (See my breakdown of that scene here-it was one of my favorites to write) You see Marty go from this still, quiet, solemn shell of himself at dinner to smiling and asking questions and moving all around in excitement and it is FANTASTIC. 

This line:

     There’s just something kind of warm and familiar about it? The way that Doc says it almost as soon as Marty starts to ask a question & the way he reaches out to briefly grab Marty’s vest in order to further get his attention just seems to convey that this is something Doc is really used to. Like he knows that when Marty is curious about something and excited that a barrage of questions is soon to follow, so Doc’s in the habit of quickly reeling his friend’s focus back in when they have a specific task to accomplish. I don’t know, I just like it a lot.

The fact that Doc doesn’t “dumb” anything down. He rattles off all his scientific jargon, knowing that Marty has the capacity to follow along as best he can and ask questions if he needs clarification (in which case Doc will completely break it down with models or drawings because he’s all about helping Marty to understand). Unlike Strickland, Doc does not see a slacker. He knows Marty just needs to be engaged and that once he is, he’s totally into all this science stuff.

Marty & ‘55 Doc being so comfortable with each other after only a few days. Because Marty of course has to adjust to this younger version of his friend and Doc obviously just met Marty when he showed up at his house, yet there they are...already totally in tune to each other and being the best of buddies. 

THE GOODBYE SCENES. See my ramblings here & here. For real though, Marty pulling Doc into that hug & looking absolutely broken with grief is probably one of my favorite movie scenes. Like, of all the movies I’ve seen. Yeah. 

Doc traveling back and forth through time to try to pinpoint what went wrong with Marty’s kids so that he can stop it all from happening. 

The scene on the roof of Biff’s hotel when Doc is there with the DeLorean as Marty steps off the ledge? And “Nice shot, Doc!” A+

The whole letter-reading scene in part iii. The way that Marty is wandering all over the lab in the background, touching everything and clearly trying to distract himself from the reality that he’s never going to see Doc again once he gets back to 1985. And when Doc is hyped out of his mind to end up as a blacksmith & Marty goes, “Pretty heavy, huh?” trying to smile but it vanishes instantly & there’s that look on his face that so clearly says he is miserable about this whole situation. And then. AND THEN.

THE ENDING OF DOC’S LETTER from part III. “You’ve been a good, kind, and loyal friend to me, and you made a real difference in my life. I will always treasure our relationship and think on you with fond memories, warm feelings, and a special place in my heart.” !!!!!! Honestly, sometimes I just think about the impact Marty must have had on Doc. Really though. Here’s this guy who’s spent most of his life in solitude. He’s super into science & shunned by the community for being a “nutcase” just because he’s a little different and quirky. So he throws himself into his projects, has only his dogs for companionship, and talks to pictures. Then here comes this kid one day who actually takes the time to SEE DOC and appreciate who he is. Who not only accepts him completely, but thinks he’s cool and totally best friend material. Imagine what it was like for Doc to connect with someone after so many years spent alone and looked down on. 

The look of awe on Marty’s face during the scene with the telescope, as he realizes how smitten Doc is with Clara. He gives this great expression with his head sort of tilted and there’s this disbelief and wonder in his eyes as he takes in the fact that he’s seeing his best friend in love for the first time. 

Just...all the times they risk everything to save the other’s life. 

The ease with which they show affection to each other. It’s so natural and refreshing to see. They’re open and honest about their feelings, allow themselves to get emotional, and are totally comfortable with physical closeness in the form of a supportive hand on the arm or a hug. 

** I of course have to acknowledge the completely baffling lack of a hug in the parking lot scene at the end of the first movie because...honestly, who was responsible for that? I would like a word with them. You’re telling me that after running all the way to the mall, scared out of his mind at the thought of Doc dying all over again, then the way that Marty just collapses and starts sobbing that he wouldn’t immediately grab Doc after seeing that he’s alive??? I tell myself that when the scene cuts after Doc delivers his line about the letter that there was a hug there**

So, um....yeah. I could go on I’m sure, but these are the main things that came to me when I started thinking about why it is that I enjoy these guys so much. It all goes back to the same theme I’ve mentioned in several posts. There is so much heart to these films, and a lot of it comes from the friendship between Doc and Marty. They’re both misfits in their own way. Doc is isolated from the community and Marty is living in a house devoid of support and healthy role models. They fill in gaps and are a source of safety and love in the other’s life. And I appreciate so much how these funny & exciting time travel movies are able to include such a complex, beautiful friendship between a 17 year old kid and an old scientist.

[lizardrosen]

@eirenical also asked "..and omg is it terrible to want to know about literally all your Les Mis, Narnia, and Star Wars WiPs?? Because I kind of want to know about all of them. XD" on my wip post

Les Mis

SINGING THE SONG OF ANGRY MEN is just my catch-all les mis doc from before I transferred everything from Word to Scrivener, meaning everything in there is before reading the book. I was probably really unfair to Cosette because i thought of her as competition for Eponine's happiness. Anyway, have a e/R fic i wrote based purely on dash osmosis, and complete with misspellings!

resurrection? was just a really strong image i had to write out and was always curious what the larger story would be. Basically Grantaire is smiling soppily at Enjolras and then thinks "That was before they died" and is sad and thoughtful about The Ideal.

Gray Is Okay - turns out I've already posted this one on tumblr! Grantaire and Enjolras talk about pronouns and convictions and uncertainty!

brietbart online - short fic where Enjolras gets himself worked up over right wing newspapers because “It’s good to know how the enemy thinks” and Grantaire helps him calm down. (Pretty sure this one was inspired by someone being Very Extremely Wrong about one of my favorite episodes of star trek, and then I noticed the source) This wasn't very good writing and it wasn't really going anywhere, so I'm never going to post it.

“Please Come Inside” - Enjolras is greyromantic and mostly he just loves all his friends, but he has a queerplatonic relationship with Courfeyrac which slowly develops into (possibly?) romantic attraction, and he's very confused and upset by this internal change and has to Process.

from my vague notes:

at some point they end up at a chinese restaurant because courfeyrac calls it "the ultimate comfort food" enjolras always makes a token protest when they go, but he secretly loves it just as much or more because salty foods are his weakness "we don't need to change anything we're doing," courfeyrac says as he stabs at an egg roll with a single chopstick, "or we can. Uh, your choice. But no matter what I won't be ashamed of you, and i'll trust that you aren't ashamed of me." (courfeyrac is not aro-spec, but he did introduce enjolras to the term) and they talk about their feelings and enjolras's main fear, besides that he's not aromantic at all, is that he'll be forcing courfeyrac into the closet, because even if whatever-he's-feeling is close to what someone else might call romantic, he still Can Not bear to have himself called a boyfriend courfeyrac mostly just wants enjolras to be comfortable, and he's willing to take whatever form their relationship eventually comes

Friendlier Skies - this one's my les mis space au, with a bunch of shorter stories that all fit into the same solar system. One of my favorite elements is that the Gorbeau Building has been remixed into a ship that accepts literally anyone as passengers with no questions asked.

And the Narnia and Star Wars are going under a cut!

Narnia

Gallivanters is an AU where instead of being from Narnia, Caspian is just a Spanish transfer student at the boarding school where Edmund and Peter are, and they have a bunch of nerdy adventures. I'm pretty sure Caspian/Peter was endgame in my head, but i never got that far.

once a king or queen was just my catch-all Narnia doc. Lots of Edmund, lots of Susan, and one ficlet where Susan Pevensie and Carrie White talk about the family they've lost and the girls they don't need to be anymore. I swear I remember writing a lot of Jill and Eustace too, but it must have gotten lost when transferring computers.

Theory of Narnia - technically not a WIP anymore, but I used the plot of Narnia to write an essay explaining different Theory of Knowledge concepts for extra credit in high school. It had footnotes and everything!

To Fill Different Lives was a passion project for several years! It was supposed to be for a fic exchange in 2010 but it got too big for me and I had to drop out. It's Jadis after the Last Battle, recounting her history to no one because there's no one left. Many things about it make me cringe looking back at it, but I still looove this opening:

I have lived for a long time, long enough to fill several different lives. Looking back, I begin to realize just how similar all of these lives have been. Each time, I had power, but needed more. Each time, I chose a color and assumed it as a part of my identity. And each time, there was a boy.

Star Wars

There Will Be Light - oops, I already posted this one on tumblr too! Luke has bad dreams after Obi-Wan is killed, and Han comforts him. Not meant to be shippy but it definitely could be!

Qui-Gon lives (and somehow everything is worse??) - never got past the "vague chatting" stage, but our conversation started with this

lizardrosen: you know how qui-gon tells padme something like "i can only defend you, i can't fight a war for you" ? and then the jedi order DOES fight a war for the republic eirenical: YES. lizardrosen: how *pissed* would he have been if he'd lived to find out about kamino and the clones and all of that eirenical: *nodnodnod* I think about that a lot, actually. About how Qui-Gon would have dealt with the war. Somehow, I think it would have either broken him completely... or broken his compassion for others. AND I'M NOT SURE WHICH WOULD BE WORSE.

and then we talked about how qui-gon and obi-wan and anakin are a really solid trio for a long time, so it takes a long time to break qui-gon's compassion, but it happens hard, and "obi-wan and anakin are never quite able to be the dynamic duo; they'll always be three minus one but they try, they try so HARD"

Obi-Wan after Revenge of the Sith is just what it says on the tin. He's sad and alone and trying to connect to Qui-Gon, but not quite ready for him even when he does finally show up. This one also has a really good opening paragraph!

Everyone Obi-Wan loves is taller than him. Everyone he has loved? Used to love? No, he loves them still, even those gone from the world, or out of his grasp. He would have grown to love Luke and Leia too, tiny as they are, if given half the chance, which is exactly why he cannot allow himself to take that chance.

[bluebellhairpin]

Something’s Not Right

Bruce Wayne/Batman X Batmom!Reader 

A/N: Oh dear, here comes the angst. (This is like 6+ pages on my google docs. Ha Ha ha oops) - Nemo

Warning(s): Blood, kidnapping, almost character death, mentions of miscarriage and infertility, not necessarily in that order. This could be distressing, so don’t read this if you think it could upset you. 

Summary: Ever since Batman’s third Robin, you’ve been know as the Batmom to Batman’s mask. But events lead you to break with not knowing what to do, and the only comfort you find is Alfred, who then tells you of something you never knew. With your newfound information, you set to work saving your family.

Listening to: “Something's Not Right” by Lily Allen 

Series Masterlist 

Masterlist 

You first met Batman when you were robbing a bank. 

In your defense, you were a little inexperienced, and he only knew you were there because he saw a shadow pass inside through a window. 

After that you kept running into each other, and ended up becoming each others first vigilante partners. 

You know, before he had a million Robin’s. 

You even came to know who was under the mask. Bruce Wayne the billionaire. 

When he brought home the first soon-to-be Robin, Dick Grayson, you were raiding his fridge in the Manor’s kitchen, having made yourself at home over the last few years. You looked at Bruce like he was crazy, he told you he’d explain later and you sure as hell made sure he did. 

You offered Dick some of the cereal you’d raided, and he accepted with a mumble and small smile. From speaking to Bruce later, that boy had been through a lot. 

You only hoped that Bruce wouldn’t push him too hard. 

We had forever We never got it together

Jason Todd joined a few years later, having been found by both you and Bruce trying to steal hubcaps. When Bruce brought him inside after the to had talked, you got the horrible feeling that Jason would become a Robin too. 

Your worries were confirmed when you caught Bruce and Jason sparring in the cave. You caught Bruce’s eye, and he froze. You shook your head at him and he knew he had more explaining to do.

After that, you become monitor of the computer. With Jason as the new Robin, and Dick starting to spread his wings off as Nightwing, you didn’t desperately need to be out fighting anymore. Someone needed to stay home, and with your relationship with Bruce becoming something more than friends, he felt better when you weren’t in danger. 

When he brought that up, you never once failed to play the card of “What about Dick and Jason?” 

Despite Dick being Nightwing and not living permanently at home, or Jason not really wanting to be in the Cave when he could have the house all to himself aside from Alfred, they always managed to be in the staircase of the cave when your voices started to raise in the same heated discussion. They knew it wasn’t anything to worry about.

You were protective, viewing them as the sons you could never have, and Bruce was too careless for his own good. 

But really what they stayed for was what happened after the yelling, the telling off, and the arguing. You always made up after, with softer words, a hug and a kiss. They’d never seen anyone else do that after a fight.

I waited for you For you I made it better

Jason's death hit you all hard, but Bruce didn’t get over it. 

Then, a couple years after Jason died, Bruce came home with another boy donned in Jason’s old Robin suit. He introduced himself as Tim Drake. He said he knew who you were, and you told him ‘Who doesn’t know (y/n) Wayne?’. Then he said he knew who you really were. 

'Valentine' was a name previously not spoken directly to you in over half a decade, and this thirteen-year-old seemed to know more about you than you thought possible. 

The next few years went on with their own struggles. Bruce got used to having a Robin again. Tim dealt with troubles and struggles in the form of his real parents. You got over the fact Tim was wearing Jason’s costume once he got his own. And Tim became a permanent residence of the manor. 

With Bruce and Dick protecting the city, Tim as Robin, and Alfred wanting to keep monitor duty with Tim, you gave up the vigilante life for good. 

Nowadays you only ever went to the cave to deal with injuries, last-resort monitor duty, and scolding Bruce or Tim for staying up too late. 

The one thing that didn’t seem to change was Alfred and Dick. They were always there, always a shoulder to cry on, and a listening ear. They knew how hard it got for both you and Bruce. 

Dick wanted to be there to show he was grateful for what you’d done in the past. 

Alfred was there because that’s where he belonged. 

They kept telling me that it was unlikely All I had to do was keep you beside me

Once everything seemed to be falling back into a semi-blissful state, the world served another harsh blow. The first was to Bruce, in the form of a vengeful and now alive Jason Todd. 

While Bruce had to serve every night going out to face the Red Hood, you went back to the monitor spending your days trying to track Jason down. Now that your boy was back you needed to have him home. Even though they didn’t know it, you knew that what both Bruce and Jason needed  was to be together. 

Naturally, once the initial tension disappeared, you were right. 

Even now, now that Jason is back, you can still see the haunted look in Bruce’s eye that makes you think he’s almost believing he is seeing a ghost.

The second blow was to you, in the form of Bruce’s long-lost son Damian. 

He came in silence, and for the first few days you barely noticed a change. It was mostly Bruce’s attitude and reluctance to let you in the cave that made you suspicious. Luckily for Bruce, he was around when you found Damian in the cave. 

Needless to say it took a good couple hours of conversation before everything was cleared up.

Damian listened from the staircase, and eventually Tim wordlessly joined. The new duo unknowingly recreating what their predecessors did before them. Alfred felt a wave of nostalgia from just glancing at them. 

What Damian couldn’t believe through the whole ‘discussion’ was how much you were blaming his father for him being in your home, not him. Even though you both were fighting over him being there, there wasn’t any hate in your words to him, only annoyance to Bruce. 

He wondered exactly how many times you had to deal with the same thing before, aside from Tim. 

Cause there aren’t many stars in the sky tonight

As far as you were concerned, having children of your own was never going to happen. One robbery gone wrong was enough to pull your chances of your own children from an already mere fifty to less than twenty.  

It was one of the reasons you were so good at welcoming each boy into your home with such open arms. As soon as they stepped through the threshold with a tired introduction from your husband, small faces and bleary eyes, you saw them as yours. Every time, without fail.

Naturally it came as a shock to you when the doctor told you to take a pregnancy test after you’d been horrendously sick for the past week. It came as a bigger shock when the test came back positive. 

Bruce’s excitement and yours was taken too soon. In reality, you knew it could’ve happened, but you didn’t think it’d happen so suddenly, or so easily. 

Dick and Jason were among those waiting when you came home from the hospital, and everyone would've much preferred if the trip happened nine months later, and you’d have a bundle of blankets in your hands rather than just a bag of clothes. 

Even Damian couldn’t help the horrible feeling in the bottom of his stomach. After all he still wouldn’t be a big brother. 

It had been a couple weeks, but you were starting to worry. While you had grieved, and in your own way moved on, Bruce seemed to stay the same. He didn’t react. When the news came he went straight into autopilot. 

In his life he’d lost a lot of people. His parents, Jason, many other residence of Gotham, and now your baby. You started to think that with every lost soul his lost part of his own too. 

Cause I know that it’s day but it’s dark outside

Your worries were well served. Not even a couple nights after you voiced your concerns to Bruce himself did he and Damian get captured by the Joker. 

Tim was monitoring the computers, instantly sending out and alert to Dick to go help, but he just got caught too. Tim then contacted Jason, telling him to meet him near Gotham Docks. 

You wandered into the cave to see the monitor set to where Tim left it. A camera from in an old warehouse displayed all five of your boys beaten, bloodied, and tied up with the Joker pacing back and forth in front of them. 

Near the monitor keyboard was a notebook, open to a page with words scribbled in Tim’s characteristically messy writing. He found writing down thoughts helped him get his mind straight. It cleared his head. 

“Knows fighting styles - been monitoring us for weeks to memorize patterns - new moves needed - Jason good idea - Mom the last resort.” you read a loud, sinking to the chair at the monitor.

As you processed what was happening, you knew time was running short. You felt Alfred behind you, placing his hands reassuringly on your shoulders.

“What am I supposed to do?” you said, resting your head in your hands, “The GCPD won't be able to handle it well enough, and I can't just contact Clark or Diana. And I got rid of my suit years ago - it’s not like I can just slip on one of Bruce’s suits and go fight myself.” 

“I think there’s something I should show you.” Alfred said, squeezing your shoulders. 

And I feel a weight in my heart tonight

All the batsuits were displayed on one of the walls of the cave, it was like a trophy wall. And while your old Valentine suit wasn’t there, there was a display photo of you mid-flip as homage to what you’d done. 

As you went passed the suits, both old and new, and the empty cases of the suits being worn by your boys, Alfred soon stopped near your photo. He pressed the logo of your photo-suit and the glass moved away, soon followed by the wall, to reveal another glass case.

“Mister Bruce has been working on it since you destroyed your old one.” Alfred explained, letting you walk forwards to inspect your pristine suit, “He figured you might need it, and if I’m being honest I did too.”  

“Who else knows?” You asked, running your fingers over the fabric and the slightly darker logo on it’s chest. It was a lot like Bruce's suit.

“No one, but Tim found out, nothing’s a secret from him long.” you smiled. That’s Tim alright.

The fabric was new, a material you’d never seen before, but looked a lot like miniature chain-mail. Knife-proof.

The chest where your signature V logo was along with around your torso sounded a metallic tap. Bullet-proof.

You noted that although the mask only covered your eyes it was embedded with reflective glass. Photo-proof. 

“He sure was prepared.” you said, turning back to Alfred with the mask in your hands. “Will you man the computers for me?”  

“It would be an honor, Valentine.” 

Something's not right

“Copy V? Guards ahead.” Alfred said. The mask was also fit with a com-link. Bruce seemed to put everything in your suit, from an oxygen mask, to a lock-pick.

“Copy.” you said, sulking along the side of the warehouse towards the guards. You knew this could get nasty fast, but over time you learnt from Bruce many ways to subdue without killing. The guards were out of it before they even knew you were there. 

Inside, Bruce and the boys were getting antsy. 

Once when Joker left Tim said to the others he’d left a note near the computer encase he and Jason were unsuccessful, in the hope either you or Alfred would find it and send help. It had been almost two hours, and they were starting to doubt. Especially now that Joker was back and pacing in front of them. 

An explosion somewhere in another warehouse made their tired heads, and the heads of the others in the room, move towards the noise. The familiar sound of batarangs flying through the air made their head turn back right as two of the dozen guards fell to the floor, soon followed by two more. 

Joker ordered to start shooting at where the batarangs were coming from, and the solid sound of shots firing rang out for a couple long moments. When a figure clad in black dropped to the floor from the beams, Bruce felt his stomach drop. 

He knew that figure. He knew that suit. 

“Search them. Make sure whoever it is, is dead.” Joker said, dismissive in his words but the boys could tell he was on edge. Joker had the Batman, Nightwing, Red Hood and the two Robins. There wasn’t anymore, right? 

The guard moved to the figure, nudging its shoulder with his foot, and with the second nudge the figure shot up, pulling the guard into a headlock, and the guard dropped down unconscious in less than a few seconds. The other guards were trained on the figure, and Joker smiled.

“Well, well, does Batsy have a new birdy?” he sang, and the figure stepped forwards out of the shadow to reveal you, donned in your Valentine suit for all to see.

“Oh no, dear Joker,” you said, matching his tone yet lacing it with as much venom as humanly possible, “I promise you I’m far from new.” 

Cause I know that it’s day but it’s dark outside

The fact Joker wasn’t expecting a sixth ‘Batman partner’ to show up helped with taking down the guards. And like Tim noted, he was tracking everyone’s fighting styles. Even if Bruce was in the right mind-frame he had little chance of coming out on top. 

You hadn't fought in the public eye for many years, so there was no recent footage of your style, and even so most of it was back when you weren’t working with Batman at all. 

You had tied up Joker when you set to work setting the boys free, and it came as no surprise that he’d somehow gotten away by the time you’d given everyone a once-over. 

Back in the cave Damian was the first. Once back in the confides of safety Damian practically flung himself into you. 

“Ummi, I thought-” he said, stopping himself with a sniff and burying his nose in your stomach.��

“It was a close call.” Dick added, his voice strained. With a look you pulled him closer, and one by one you managed to deal out hugs and just the right words. 

In the next few hours Dick and Jason were both sent off back home with food Alfred made, and the reassurance that you’d come visit. Tim was sent off to bed, being told everything from the past events would be waiting when he wakes up. Damian was also given bed rest, but only after he got one last hug from you. 

All that was left was to deal with Bruce, who’d been in the cave since you all went upstairs. 

Like the feeling of rain on a Summer light

“Bruce.” you said, reaching his place at the computer. He stopped rather abruptly, and turned to face you with an agonizingly slow pace. The look on his face made you pull him into you just like you did with Dick. And for the first time in so long, Bruce cried. 

He could’ve lost everything on top of the baby. The other boys. You. Himself. 

He knew what he did wrong, he knew he went in without a clear head, all because something wasn’t right.

[asherranceoftheheart]

A Fateful Encounter

Character/s: Chase Brody, Cat!Antisepticeye, Brief Appearance of Henrik Von Schneeplestein Warning/s: Soft!Anti, VERY brief mention of animal cruelty (it’s just one short paragraph) Genre/s: Fluff (Archive of Our Own Edition) Note: Shoutout to @beerecordings for giving me the inspiration and prompt to write this little monster

The very first time Chase met his little king, he could’ve sworn it had been fate.

It had been admittedly a shitty day for him. His ex-wife didn’t want to talk to him or give him time with their kids unless he pulled his shit together. He was having a hard time managing his and Jack’s channel after Jack fell into a coma after an accident. The other’s disappointment in him for drinking again yesterday got too suffocating so he just had to go out and get some fresh air.

But life seemed to be against him enjoying anything and it was suddenly raining even though the weather forecast didn’t say anything about rain coming soon so he didn’t bother bringing an umbrella. Thankfully he was wearing a hoodie jacket so even though he’s going to be soaked when he gets home, he’ll have something over his head at least.

He had been walking back home when he passed by a dark alleyway that had him pausing.

Chase looked into the path as he strained his ears through the sounds of rain for the thing that caught his attention.

...ew… Meow!

There!

He jogged deeper into the alley and looked around until his eyes caught sight of the wet, broken box that was shaking as if something was trying to get it off. He crouched over the thing and carefully peeled off the top and flinched at the sharp scent of copper.

HISS!

There was a pair of green cat eyes glaring venomously at him. There was a black cat with scraggly fur weakly squirming within the box. Chase inhaled sharply when he saw the bleeding cut on the cat’s throat that was staining the box’s floor crimson. What kind of sick fuck—!

“I can’t leave you here,” Chase said out loud, his heart was already made up. “I just can’t.”

His mind worked quickly as he took off his jacket and carefully placed it under the hissing cat’s body. The poor thing lost so much blood that it couldn’t even do anything against him save for hissing and snarling threateningly. He shushed it gently, idly patting the cat on his side as a comfort before making a victorious sound when he could finally bundle the jacket around the weakly squirming cat. He swaddled the now quiet cat who was staring at him with wary eyes.

Chase stood up, carrying the cat in his arms as he rushed out of the alleyway.

“Stay strong, kitty! I promise you’ll be alright!”

 0-0-0-0-0-0

“Mister Brody?” Chase looked up from his phone and saw one of the vet nurses standing in front of him. “Doctor Shane would like to see you now.”

“Is it okay?” He anxiously asked the lady who smiled kindly at him as he stood up from his seat.

“He is alright now. The doctor can tell you more when you meet him.” Chase gave the nurse his thanks and followed the directions she gave him to the office of the doctor.

He stood in front of the room with the name ‘Dr. Shane Walker’ and gave the door a polite knock. Chase heard a muffled ��Come in’ from inside the room and turned the doorknob before pushing it open.

The cat was sleeping on a cat bed, warmly cuddled up to a cat blanket. His neck was wrapped with a roll of bandage and he has one of those cones around his neck to keep him from moving it.

Chase approached the cat and couldn’t help but scratch the spot behind one of his ears and smiled when he started making an oddly scratchy rumbly purr.

“That one put up quite a fight before he went down with a sedative,” the vet sighed as he cleaned his tools in the nearby sink. “Thankfully, we have a matching blood bank for the transfusion and you managed to get him here right in the nick of the time. If it had been any later, I fear he would’ve lost too much blood.”

He was thankful too that there was a nearby open veterinary clinic from where he found the injured cat. He was just glad that he didn’t fuck this up for the poor thing.

“So what’s the verdict, Doc?” Chase asked the vet who scratched his chin in thought.

“Well… I’m keeping an eye on the infections from the cuts that he suffered, especially the one on his throat. It miraculously didn’t sever his vocal chords but it was certainly damaged. It will heal but he will have a croaky voice for the rest of his life. He’s really skinny so a proper diet will also be needed. You said you found him in an alleyway nearby?” Chase nodded at the question and the vet continued, “If I may ask… do you intend to adopt him?”

Chase flinched and looked at Dr. Shane with wide eyes. He did not expect to be put into this situation and the doctor must have noticed it because he took pity on him.

“It’s a big responsibility to adopt someone with a heavy past like him so I can understand if you don’t want to,” Shane smiled at the stunned man who finally recovered his voice.

He raised his hand and waved it back and forth in a pacifying manner.

“W-Wait, I didn’t mean to say no—I mean, I don’t know I’ve just got a lot going on and I don’t think I’d be a great, attentive owne—” Chase was cut off by the feeling of something soft rubbing against his fingers. He looked down and held his breath in when the cat was unconsciously rubbing its head against his hand. “Oh.”

Shane hid a smile at the lovestruck gleam that glazed over the man’s eyes. While there was still uncertainty and doubt in the young man’s body language, there’s no doubting the softness and melting of his heart that was going on right now. He liked to think that he was a great judge of character. Being around animals for nearly 24/7 can teach someone how to pick up the cues that animals could read on a person’s personality. Mister Brody seems to be going through a lot with the weary slump of his shoulders and the dark bags under his eyes. Shane couldn’t help but think that the kind man would be a great fit for his new sharp patient.

“You could come and visit him everyday until he gets better since you’re paying for everything after all,” Shane offered a chance for the man who was now scratching the sleeping cat’s head once more. “It would help you get to know each other and give you some time to think it over.”

“... Yeah… Yeah, that’d be great,” Chase gave the older man a small smile. “Thanks doc.”

“No problem. It’s my job to help my little patients after all.”

0-0-0-0-0-0

Tired but curious blue eyes stared into narrowed green ones as the duo held an intense staring contest with each other. Chase slowly blinked and hid a smile when the black cat hissed at him and snobbily turned his back at the man, a wordless ‘Fuck off’ if it ever meant anything.

It was already a massive improvement compared to the snarls and attempts of clawing his face off that was in the beginning. Chase didn’t know why but he felt like he had to keep being more patient to get this cat’s trust.

He already got a lot of bandages on his hand from when he was far too slow in drawing back when the cat reared up to attack him. But with the guidance of the vet and the nurses, he was slowly able to come nearer the injured furry void. He could sit a few inches close to the cat now even if he’d turn his butt up at him and ignored him. Doctor Shane said that it was a sign that the cat was beginning to lower his guard now that he knew that regardless of how much he lashed out, Chase would still patiently wait for him to come close of his own will.

“Are you going to adopt him? I don’t want to pressure you but… that one’s starting to get to know you and it might just break his trust if you just left him…” Shane asked Chase while he watched the man sit beside the black cat who was unconsciously coming closer against his body heat.

It was a painful chore to get the cat inside a cat carrier so they just left him his own little space to roam around in. Thankfully, he was a rather disciplined cat so long as you don’t attempt to put him in an enclosed space or touch him far too long. They had to learn how to slowly lure him into his temporary space with food and a bunch of toys.

“I— Yeah, I think I want to,” Chase admitted as he looked down at the black cat who was now a bit more relaxed despite his close proximity. He still doesn’t dare to touch that shiny fur. “I keep thinking about him when I get home and I asked one of my doctor friends if it’d be a good idea…”

He had pulled Henrik away from the others after he gained the idea of adopting the cat engraved into his mind. He knew that he was already considering it since he kept wondering how it would feel to have that black bundle of fur roaming around his house, and already worrying his head off just like he does with his kids if the cat was doing fine. It was why he kept visiting every single day to the point that the cat would be staring right at the door knowing just when he would arrive.

“Are you sure you are ready for that kind of responsibility?” Henrik asked Chase, an intent gaze on his face.

The doctor has to admit that Chase was looking better than he had been a week ago. Most of the black bags under his eyes were mostly gone since he was sleeping at a more reasonable time so that he could wake up early and be at the vet’s office right in schedule. Since he was interacting with people, Chase found the energy to clean himself up and look a little bit more alert than before.

“A pet is a big responsibility and you cannot just pass it off when you are experiencing a depressive episode. We could help you but I cannot in good mind advise you to keep one if you are just going to depend on us to fully take care of it.” The doctor cautioned the other man, he wanted to know if Chase truly wanted this.

“I know, Hen. I understand but… There’s just something different about that cat and I feel like he needs me like I need him and if I left him behind how would I be any better than the sick bastards that hurt him?” Chase rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. “You said that it would be good for me to have a routine that I should follow and taking care of a cat would make me have one since I have to keep to a strict feeding schedule since that one needs a bunch of medicine that’s dependent on schedule. I just…”

Henrik huffed, the sharp glint in his eyes softening at his friend’s self-frustration. Seriously… Chase is sometimes just too hard on himself.

He patted Chase’s back and smiled at the man when he looked back at him.

“I think you have already made up your mind, my friend.” Henrik teased.

Chase snorted.

“You don’t get it Schneep… Even though he’s cranky and almost always angry, that little goblin’s far too cute for me to not adopt…”

“He’s not gonna be an easy one to care for,” Doctor Shane pointed out.

Chase looked down at the cat who was now pressed against his side and looking up at him with those far too intelligent for a normal cat’s green eyes. He smiled, his eyes brightening up like sunshine in a way it hasn’t been lit up for a long time.

“That makes two of us.” He chuckled.

A hand gently reached out to scratch the cat’s head. The cat only relaxed under his hand and went back to his nap.

0-0-0-0-0-0

Chase pushed open the door to his house and entered into the main hallway. He closed the door behind him and carefully placed the cat carrier down to the floor.

“Hey little guy, we’re home.” Chase smiled at the pair of green eyes that were watching him from within the carrier.

He unlatched the lock on the cage’s gate and opened it up. A black paw cautiously tapped out into the strange, new territory with new sounds and smells. Chase sat down on the floor as he waited for the cat to slowly come out until he was standing right in front of him. He held out a hand for the suspicious cat who sniffed it before he began rubbing his head against his hand as a demand for a petting session. 

The man began scratching the spot behind the cat’s ears with a fond smile as he began to purr loudly in that scratchy voice of his.

“Welcome home… Anti.”

 0-0-0-0-0-0

Chase pleasantly woke up from the happy dreams of Anti’s adoption by the feeling of something heavy perching on top of his lungs. He blearily opened his eyes to be met by an extremely close up view of the cat’s sniffing nose.

“Mrowr!” Anti screamed in his face.

He wheezed and groaned even as he reached up to pet the cat’s entire body.

“Good morning to you too, Your Majesty.” Chase deadpanned, giving his smug cat an unimpressed look when he started kneading his claws into his chest in a not so silent demand for him to hurry up and feed him. “I guess it’s time for your royal breakfast and that’s why you have to wake up your poor pitiful servant.”

Anti meowed and stretched himself out on his body before rubbing his head under his chin.

“Yeah, yeah… Get off you cute acting little bastard,” Chase could only ever say that with complete fondness for the brat.

As he forced himself out of his bed to feed the demanding King’s orders, Chase thought that if his and Anti’s meetings were already written in Fate’s book, he would find it in himself to thank whatever god was listening to him up there. Since after all… No matter how bratty and feral his little King was, he was the main reason why he could honestly say now that he was fine and happy.

[timeaftertime-chriscornellfanfic]

Chapter 24 - Realize, Sweet Babe, We Ain’t Never Gonna Part

Seattle Washington, April 9 1990

(Andi is 20, Chris is 25)

ANDI: I wake to the bright July sun as it pours through the tall window of our bedroom. I open one eye and lift my head glancing at the clock to see that it was only 7:30am. Why does it have to be so bright so early in the morning? I groan and smush my face back into the pillow, my curls covering whatever the pillow wasn't and hear the bedroom door slowly open. I can hear Chris enter the room as the old hardwood floor slightly creaks. I keep my eyes closed, attempting to fall back to sleep but I feel him climb up on to the edge of the bed, playfully pulling the black sheet down over my body, revealing my black lacy panties.

"You awake beautiful?" He asks, his voice raspy from his performance at The Moore Theatre last night. It was his first gig since the European tour and it was fucking amazing. The only thing is that he and Jason were fighting the entire time, and Jason fucked up a few times but other than that, Chris was just 'on ' you know?

I let out a muffled groan as he moves over top of me, his rough fingers brushing across my back, moving my curls out of the way and places his lips between my shoulder blades, his morning stubble prickling me .

"No, I'm not awake... so sleepy," I say into the pillow and I hear him chuckle as he places sweet kisses up to the back of my neck.

"Well I hope this will wake you up," He says in my ear and as I turn to look up at him, pushing my mess of curls out of my eyes, I see him holding a small simple diamond ring between his fingers.

"Chris?" I say, my voice still full of sleep. I sit myself up, using the pillow to shield my bare chest as he holds the ring out to me kneeling in just his blue plaid boxer shorts, his curls messy from sleeping, falling across his gorgeous blue eyes.

"I know it's not much... it's pretty much all I can afford right now but... If you're going to be my wife, you need a ring so... " He trails off as he looks down at the ring and then looks back at me.

We still haven't told anyone that we're engaged because he wanted to keep it a secret. I think I know why he did now that he is holding this beautiful ring out to me.

"You still wanna marry me right?" He asks raising his eyebrow at me.

"Yes, Chris," I laugh. I hold my hand out to him with an excited smile on my face and he slips the ring on my finger. I then move the pillow from my chest and practically fall into his arms, threading my fingers through his curls and pressing my lips to his. He chuckles against my lips but then deepens the kiss as I flip him over so that I'm on top of him.

"Good, Now I can go pee," I giggle as I pull away from his lips and push myself away from him as he gives me a bewildered look.

"Hey, wait a minute, " Chris laughs reaching out for me as I quickly climb out of bed laughing, my curls falling across my face.

"I'll only be a sec - "I giggle as I make my way to the bedroom doorway but without warning, I am instantly slipped into another time and place once again.

*****

CHRIS: "Babe?" I call out as I see Andi disappear before my eyes, the diamond ring bouncing on the hardwood floor making a high pitched dinging sound before landing on the lace of her black panties. I sit up and run my fingers through my roots saddened and worried about where and when she has slipped to this time. I know I always say this but I will never get used to this happening. I just hope she comes back to me soon.

I let out a long sigh and slowly climb out of bed, walking over to where the ring was laying on the floor and shining so brightly. It didn't even occur to me that she wouldn't be able to wear it without possibly losing it if she happened to slip at some point - which is exactly what happened. I pick it up from the floor and walk over to her dresser that sat beside the full length mirror, placing her ring on top.

"Oh baby... whenever you are... I hope you're ok,"

*****

Houston Texas, July 20 1994

(Andi is 20 and 24, Chris is 30)

ANDI: "No.. no, no, no..." I say as I find myself on a cold tile floor of a bathroom trying to sit myself up and figure out just where I am. I have no idea where or when I am but I'm guessing it's in the future, since the air feels a little different. I definitely do not recognize anything about this bathroom. It's small and very white with only a shower stall, the sink vanity displaying a bunch of different miniature shampoos and lotions and white bath towels hanging off the rack with a logo imprinted down at the bottom.

"Holiday Inn?" I say and realize that I'm in a hotel bathroom.

I gather myself up, hanging on to the sink vanity to steady myself , grab one of the towels from the rack and wrap myself in it just in case there was anyone in the room. I push my curls from my eyes and open the bathroom door. I then slowly peak my head out into the room and see that there is no one here but I do see a couple of luggage bags beside the Queen size bed. I also see 2 guitar cases sitting beside the luggage bags and I somehow recognize the one that has an Aerosmith patch and a Black Sabbath patch on it, along with a bunch of other bands - a lot of them I haven't ever heard of. The Aerosmith patch is in exactly the same spot where I sewed mine on to just yesterday before Chris's concert.

I take one more look around making sure no one is here and step further into the room over towards the guitar cases and pull the zipper down revealing my '90 silver sparkle Gretsch Duo Jet with the leather guitar strap that Andy got me for my birthday.

"Ok... this is my room?" I say somewhat confused and unzip the second guitar case revealing a Cherry Burst Gibson with a Soundgarden decal sticker just below the pick guard. "...our room I mean?" I chuckle and I suddenly hear someone outside the hotel room door. I quickly zip up the guitar cases and run back into the bathroom just as the hotel room door opened.

"Babe is that you?" I hear Chris's voice call just as I make it back into the bathroom. My heart started to pound and I had no idea if I should answer or just stay quiet. I hear his footsteps walking up to the bathroom door and just as he opens it I jump, startled that he caught me in here, though it wasn't like I was desperately trying to hide myself since I really don't know where or when I am.

"How did you get back here so fast?" He laughs as his blue eyes glance at me up and down, wearing a white loosely fitted tank top and black baggy shorts with his Doc Martins .

"I uh... um... well..." I stutter as I am unable to take my eyes off of how different he looks. He cut his hair. He has it kind of messy curly but it's so short. He also grew a beard. He looks so different that I have no idea what to say

"Oh I get it... is this like, part of my birthday present?" He raises his eyebrow and smirks.

Birthday...ok... so at least I know it's July 20th... just wish I knew the year though.

"Um... yea, yea it... is," I try to sound convincing but I honestly have no idea what I'm doing. I place my hand over my chest holding up the towel as he steps towards me. I give him a half smile as he leans down to me, placing his lips on mine.

His lips feel incredible as he cups my face in his palms, deepening the kiss, as his tongue plays with mine. I suck his bottom lip like I always do, completely caught up in the moment and he pulls away touching his forehead to mine. He then attempts to take the towel from me and as he glances down to take my hand that was holding up the towel, his expression changes to confusion.

"You're time slipping aren't you?" He asks, his eyes looking into mine.

"Um... yea" I say sheepishly and suddenly the hotel door opens.

"Chris, are you here?" I hear my own voice calling out as Chris's eyes grow wide with panic.

"Chris?"

I then see myself appear at the bathroom door and though this has happened only a handful of times before, it's still disorienting to see yourself in two places at once. Chris turns from me to see the other me standing in the doorway and then glances back at me and I can tell the wheels are spinning in his head.

"Well um... this is..." Chris starts and I just give him a little smile. I glance at the other me and see that I look pretty much exactly the same. My long dark curls well passed my shoulders, wearing a pair of high waisted ripped black leggings, my Doc Martens and a band shirt that was cut up into a crop shirt, showing just a little bit of my stomach - which doesn't seem like me at all - and had the name of Pantera across the front in white blocked writing.

"Andi?" The other me says and I nod, still feeling awkward that I'm standing in a towel. She then walks over to me placing her hands on either side of my arms and gives me a warm smile, then pulls me in to hug her. Once again it was that moment where my future self and my present self immediately gain the memory of this, as if it was there all along.

"So um... is it considered cheating if I was just about to have my way with you in the shower?" Chris says and we both laugh.

"Ok that's just way too weird to hear you laugh at the same time in the same way," Chris says as we continue to giggle and he walks out of the bathroom.

"You think he would be used to this kinda thing," I say and the other me laughs.

"C'mon, you honestly think that?" She giggles.

"No," I say and she smiles at me.

"C'mon... I'll get you some clothes," She walks towards the bathroom door and I follow to see Chris sitting in a large reading chair across from the bed, pouring himself a shot of Jack Daniels.

"Here, these will work," She says and closes up one of the luggage bags, walking over and handing me a band shirt and ripped jeans, some panties and a pair of black and white Chuck Taylors.

"No it's ok, I'm not sure how long I'm gonna, you know... be here," I say but she still hands them to me.

"Andi it's fine, you can't sit in a towel the whole time," She smiles and she's right. I take them from her and glance at Chris as he downs the shot of Jack Daniels, he winks at me and I smirk, and head back into the bathroom to quickly change. Once I do I come back out and Chris looks back and forth at me and the other me and pours another shot.

"Damn... it's just so fucking... weird," He chuckles and downs another shot.

"Hey there birthday boy, don't drink too much yet. We still gotta get into the club," The other me giggles and Chris just shrugs.

" So um... what year am I in?" I say.

" '94" She says.

"What year are you um... slipping from?" Chris asks as he leans back in the chair.

" 1990... June 1990" I say.

"Well I must look completely different to you then," Chris chuckles.

"Not completely but, yea a little different," I smirk and he smiles at me.

"Ok I remember, oh wow this is weird, I remember you gave me that ring and like a few minutes later I slipped... remember?" The other me glances at Chris.

"Yea.. I do... I remember feeling like an idiot that I didn't think about the fact that you couldn't wear a ring because you would lose it," Chris says pouring another shot.

"Wait... are we married?" I ask glancing between the other me and Chris.

"Uh huh... since September 1990," She smiles at me.

"Don't... tell me anymore... I - "

"Wanna be surprised?" She finishes my sentence.

"Yea," I smile.

"Well the only thing I'll tell you is don't be so nervous when you step into the tattoo studio. I really would hate to have the whole time slipping experience happen again in the middle of it," She giggles.

"What?" I ask confused. She then holds up her left hand and points to her ring finger - my ring finger - and I see a tattoo where a wedding band should be. I take her hand and look at the design, then look back at her.

"It's the only thing that I could do, so that I could keep him with me no matter what," She says her eyes welling up just a little bit. Just as I was about to hug her again - cause I can't stand seeing myself cry - I hear the extremely loud ringing in my ears again and I stubble backwards.

"Shit, baby?" Chris says as he leaps up off the chair to catch me.

"I'm sorry... I - I'm... I-" I stutter and begin to feel myself fade.

"It's ok baby," His voice sounding like a faint distant memory as I find myself back in our bedroom, on the bedroom floor trying to catch my breath.

*****

Seattle Washington, June 5 1990

(Andi is 20, Chris is 25)

ANDI: "Baby, holy shit... that was fast. Are you ok?" I hear Chris's voice as he crouches down to me on the floor while I sit myself up coughing just a little.

"Yea, yea I'm ok," I cough. He then takes me in his arms and holds me like he always does and I love how he feels so warm and comforting, ready to save me every time I come back to him.

"Where did you go?" He asks as I rest my head on his bare chest.

"I went ahead this time... um... 1994" I say in between my breaths.

"Holy shit," He says, his voice vibrating through his chest.

"Yea, holy shit," I giggle.

"Is everything ok?" He asks and places his lips on top of my head. I then lift myself away from him looking into his eyes as he brushes a few curls out of mine.

"Everything is fine. I um... I have an idea on an engagement ring that I won't lose, you know just in case I slip again," I say and he raises his eyebrow at me.

"Oh yea? What's that?" He chuckles.

"How do you feel about tattoos?"

[fyrapartnersearch]

looking for longterm novella-style partner

general hey guys i'm lauren, 26 years old and living in EST! i just got dumped and thought i'd fill the void in my life with some good, good writing so i'm looking for some people to plot and rp with. i'm usually bopping around on social media and love talking to my partners, whether it's getting to know them or just plotting future events for our characters.

i'm also very ditch-friendly! if you're tired of me or our rp, totally just ghost me, i'll get the hint. no need to get all anxious over breaking up with a partner. it's rping, it's all chill. if you're able to, giving me a head's up that you're not feeling the rp would be great though! i will absolutely return the courtesy if i'm not feeling it anymore either.

as a quick side note, i will only rp with people over the age of 21, and have a preference for partners over the age of 23! i just feel more comfortable when my partner is around the same age as me.

posts and characters i only write in third person past tense and would prefer for my partner to do the same. i'm very flexible with post lengths, but i tend to be on the wordy side. i'd love it if you could provide four or five paragraphs per post on average, though i absolutely value quality over quantity so post length isn't a huge concern of mine as long as there's something to reply to! longer posts are wonderful as well, and i have no issue waxing lengthy posts if that is your preference.

i generally reply at least once a day or once every other day, but even if i'm tied up with work and not able to reply consistently, i'll absolutely be available to chat. i'll let you know when i'm busy and love to shoot plot ideas back and forth even when i can't put aside a chunk of time to reply.

characters! i love playing multiple characters, but having a singular main character is great too. i prefer playing OCs but can also do canons, which i'll talk about more below. i have no preference about what sort of character you're playing, that's your decision! i like to develop new characters for each rp i do, but feel free to bring in old characters if that's what you want! i like characters that are complex and interesting and not ultra-powerful people -- or if they are, you're able to explore the emotional repercussions of it. if you're looking for a specific sort of character to play yours against, give me some guidelines before i whip up an OC and i'll be happy to make someone that fits your needs. i adore creating characters, and like making side or background characters that pass through or come in and out of the plot.

i like creating characters before the plot, rather than the other way around. i have a huge preference for character-driven plots -- putting our characters in a setting, and then letting their specific quirks and motivations lead where the rp goes next.

i also can provide rp samples if you'd like to see my writing before we rp!

genres; love and sex so first let me prattle off some original character genres that i love! i will list fandoms later.

• adventure; anything with a band of people coming together and forming a found family, traveling together on the way to a goal with obstacles thrown in their way • fantasy; i adore fantasy, whether it's magical realism or all out medieval fantasy. world-building is one of my favorite things. sci-fi is great too, but i'm not great when things get too tech-y haha • paranormal/mythical creatures; sort of goes with the fantasy, but i'm always down to rp different species in any sort of setting • fairy tales; i love taking old fairy tales or stories and giving them a unique twist, whether it's making them #gritty or just tossing them in a different sort of setting • superheroes; people with superpowers using it for good or evil and coming together yesss • romance; romance is great and i'll discuss that below, but i prefer this to be like a sub-genre • AUs; i love taking a fandom and making it an alternate timeline or AUing it completely. also once we have characters and a rp established, i love love love talking about AUs for our characters. i will AU everything, there is no AU too AUish for me

those are just my favorites so feel free to suggest others, but i will not do slice of life. i just find myself bogged down when there's not a defined plot, and it doesn't keep my interest. i also love these things if you'd be interested in tossing any of them in the rp:

• mages • shapeshifters • daemons [like from his dark materials] • people with horns or wings • pirates • dragons

pairings what up what up. i love rps with a dash of romance, whether our characters come in as an awesome couple battle duo, or two dorks realizing they're developing a crush on each other. either way, i don't like characters who are not in a relationship immediately getting together -- i'm all about the bonding and character development. i do not like rping cishet m/f pairings. bi girl and bi dude falling in love is great. trans man and trans woman falling in love is great. ace woman and a masculine nb person falling in love is great. any other type of lgbtqia+ pairing is great. if you have a general preference for m// or f// just let me know!

i also love anything unconventional, from happy polyamorous couples to obsessive unrequited pining. love triangles are great, conflict is great, anything to keep the relationship fresh and interesting without verging into the realm of over-dramatic. if you're looking for someone to rp a dark and unhealthy romance with, i am your person. also if you want to rp cute poly couples. i am also that person.

for fandoms, i'll do canon/canon and OC/OC but not canon/OC!

smut smut is totally rad, as long as it's not the sole focus of the rp. i like the smut to add something to the character, the characters' relationship, or the plot in addition to just being for porn's sake. cute smut is great. dark smut is great. getting to do both is even better. i do have a handful of smut-based limits including things like water sports, pedophilia, vore -- if you want a complete list just ask when you contact me. themes i would enjoy exploring typically depend on the character and what my partner's limits are.

limits i don't have any limits besides the aforementioned smut limits. besides that, i love violence, gore, and swearing. i like exploring dark themes when the rp calls for it. i do not like rping with people who treat trauma, abuse, and psychopathy as personal traits or try to make things obnoxiously dark and gritty. but otherwise everything's pretty much on the table! if you have any limits please let me know -- i have no problem not swearing or avoiding certain topics or fading to black if that is your preference.

fandoms stars denote preference.

dragon age [origins; da2; inquisition] ✩✩✩ dragon age is my favorite thing in the world and i would love someone to rp it with. i have a preference for OCs though would also be up to rping canon characters. rping an OC MC with OC companions is my jam, though i also like exploring what the rest of the world is up to while the main plot is going on. also any AU of dragon age is great -- inquisition in a modern setting, kirkwall with a sci-fi twist; universe diverging where the bad guy wins and stuff like that.

pokemon [any gen] ✩✩✩ i am always down for a pokemon rp you have no ideaaa. however i really like my pokemon rps more serious (i know how ridiculous that sounds). i like exploring aspects of the pokemon world outside of just being a trainer and getting badges. i like to rp pokemon like they're intelligent animals, meaning that wild pokemon aren't so easily tamed and pokemon can get hurt. i'm also so down for crossbreeds/fusions. i have some plot ideas in mind for pokemon and would love to hear yours!

final fantasy [IV, VII, VIII, crisis core, advent children, dissidia] ✩✩ i have this random love for IV, but honestly i am total VII trash and have been playing the remake a lot. i'm also a little familiar with XIV and have some OCs already created for a setting like that.

fallout [any game] ✩✩ would love to do OCs for this, and admittedly something in the commonwealth would be rad because i've played 4 most recently. brotherhood of steel is always great, anything with them is awesome. also stuff with synths that involves questioning what it means to be human and have faith in your own identity/memories w/e w/e would be cool. also just a general AU of a fallout-like setting maybe set in a city that hasn't been explored yet.

kingdom hearts [any game] ✩ i'd love something in the bbs era, but honestly anything is great. exploring nobodies successfully turned into ansem-heart-holders, the new keyblade warriors to defeat ansem (this guy gets around), or kh1&2 characters during the bbs time is all great. for canon characters sora, aqua, ventus, marluxia, and larxene are the ones i've played the most but i'm always looking to branch out.

medium i like to rp over discord, email, or google docs, with a separate discord channel or IM for separate chatting and plotting. i'm also open to making a joint tumblr blog that we both post our posts on, which i did not know was a thing until very recently!

contact if you're interested please shoot me a message on my tumblr or at Lauren#5244 on discord! :)

[independentartistbuzz]

Good Music, Good News 3.0

We continue to be touched and moved by the depth of sharing and Good News that is coming from the Cyber PR Music camp.  Nd we are not surprised.  Ariel and her team have sent us some of our favorite gems over the years. We are pleased to bring you part 3 of our 4 part series.

Please Follow the Spotify Playlist below to hear all of these amazing tracks.

[HERE]

Thanks to all of the artists who shared their music AND their good news.

Mara Measor | “Love Will Find You”

Is Now An Expectant Mother During A Global Pandemic

I had a miscarriage back in February, right before the pandemic hit. Then was able to get pregnant again a few months later! We had another scare at our first ultrasound and was flagged with a higher risk of our baby having chromosomal abnormalities, but upon further tests the concerns were cleared. And I'm finally getting used to the idea of having a baby boy next year. It's been such a roller coaster, but I'm riding it. :)

John Ellis on behalf of Val Starr & The Blues Rockets | “Whether Blues (2020)”

Experienced Loss, Family Members With COVID & Made Music To Heal

Our daughter-in-law came down with Covid and is still fighting it, and our granddaughter Ariella tested positive as well, but being eight years old, she didn't really exhibit any symptoms.  Lost a couple of friends to pneumonia and strokes, cancer in some other friends, car accidents wracked up a good friend, and then the election happened.  Life rolls on, faith in our Higher Power keeps us sane, and had a lot of time to work on recordings this year. Val Starr, my wife and bandmate, has written a great blues song that we'd like to share with you about all of us pulling it back together again.  Called "Whether Blues" , whether you're right, whether you're wrong, don't mean a thing till we get along"

Tabitha Chapman | “Celebrity Boyfriend”

Got A Publishing Deal

I am immensely grateful to God that despite the hardship, sorrows, pains and restrictions that typified the year 2020, I was able to release 3 singles, and I also got myself a publisher.

Valerie Romanoff | “Pink Skies over Still Water”

Created An Online Music Festival About Mindfulness & Meditation

Without the hustle of preparing and traveling for my live events with the Starlight Orchestra, I stayed home and developed a way to share the energy and messages in my Healing Music albums. I came up with an online show called "Groove Into Bliss: Musical Meditation & More" where my guests and I talked about the benefits of relaxing and releasing stress, the power of music to open the channels to well-being, and offered guided meditations.  We spoke of tips and tools for positive thinking, manifesting the life we desire, and the many ways we can use music to boost our joy! Through the online show I made many connections and was invited to be a guest on many high-vibe broadcasts and events, and I was invited to wrote a chapter in an upcoming book titled “The Wellness Universe Guide To Complete Self-Care: 25 Tools For Happiness.”

Apostrophe Music | “Keep the Hope Alive!”

Released Home-Recorded Music During The Pandemic

I released whilst we were in the heart of the lockdown during the month of April. As India went into a historic lockdown with over 1 Billion people being asked to stay indoors, the air of anxiousness and uncertainty brought out this song called Keep The Hope Alive! The only feeling we all had at that moment in time. 

I felt like it was a message that needed to get out there and once we recorded it out of my home studio (no access to studios because of the curfew lockdown situation) I posted the song on to Youtube and Facebook with a video and subsequently after that we did an official audio release in July. So this is the story about this song I released as the whole world went into lockdown.

Len Seligman

Turned The Tragedy of Losing His Mother Into Beautiful Songwriting

Like a lot of songwriters, I was moved to write a song about COVID-19. While neither my health nor economic situation suffered, the pandemic made it so that I could only visit my mother a couple of times in the last 6 months of her life, despite her living just 20 minutes away. She died in September at the age of 97.

When I looked inside to see what story I wanted to tell about the pandemic, I quickly knew that it would be about the beautiful ways people have shown up for one another. Yes, there's been enormous suffering, but it's also been extraordinary to see the tremendous upwelling of compassion that the suffering has brought out. That is what inspired this song.

Steve Andrews | “Where Does All The Plastic Go?”

Had A Successful Release That Led To Idea for Ocean Aid Concerts

My song “Where Does All The Plastic Go?” is getting included on playlists on Spotify, getting great reviews, and opening doors for me in unexpected places. This is wonderful because I'm thinking big and also came up with the idea for Ocean Aid Concerts to raise awareness of threats to the oceans. I am leading the way with songs on the subject of plastic pollution and my song could be included in any concerts that happen.

Richard Strange | “Christmas of Hope”

Used Hopeful Christmas Anthem To Fundraise for Charity

We (Musicians Together & Sweet Charity Choir) released Christmas of Hope, a single produced in aid of Help Musicians UK, last Friday December. We are donating the proceeds to Help Musicians UK, a charity that you may be aware of, specifically to their 3rd hardship fund. Some quotes from the charity's CEO, James Ainscough: “Music has been a unifying force that’s supported and entertained us all this year, more than ever before.” "But for tens of thousands of music creators across the UK the impact of lockdown and social distancing on their ability to earn, to create and to connect, has been disastrous for their finances and mental health.” "This 99-year-old charity has been in the privileged position of financially supporting over 21,000 musicians this year and we couldn’t have done it without the generous help of music lovers across the length and breadth of the country.”

Jody Whitesides | “A Perfect Man”

Created Deeper Relationships With Fans

I have been changing my approach to music this year. In doing so it increased the response I got from people on social media and via email. The most powerful thing was having a female fan tell me that the song “A Perfect Man” had brought her to tears. The reason, she could feel the love of the person singing to his counterpart and how he didn’t want to be put on a pedestal to fail the love of his life. Which is the main theme of the song. It was great to hear it hit home with a fan.

Andrea Kremer (The Aeon Wanderers) | “Don’t Say Anything”

Formed A Musical Duo via Facebook Groups

After 20 years promoting other people's music for a living, I partnered with a multi-instrumentalist/songwriter that I met in a Facebook music group, and we formed a musical duo called The Aeon Wanderers. My bandmate lives in Scotland and I live in Boston, so even before COVID-19, we were working remotely, collaborating on lyrics in a Google doc and doing videos "together" using green screens. We started by recording covers, but soon we were working on originals, and in August 2020 we released our debut album, "Fictional Histories." Being on the artist side of the equation rather than the marketing side has been eye-opening and fun!

Barbara J. | “Merry Christmas, Darling”

Has A Holiday Release Airing on World Indie Network Radio

My Christmas cover single, "Merry Christmas, Darling," has been selected to air on World Indie Network Radio's (WNIR) Holiday Spectacular Radio Special! This song, a holiday classic from The Carpenters, also serves as the pre-release to my Carpenters cover album, which I plan to release early next year.

Raphaela Gilla | “Michael’s Mantra”

Guided A Troubled Fan Through Meditation And Towards Healing

One of my fans wrote me a message that she was not feeling well and asked me if I could help her. I felt that the really needed help and gave my phone number immediately. In our conversation she told me that it was hard for her to breathe, and she felt a lot of fear. I could hear her breathing heavily.

I guided her into a meditation – I guided her to consider her breathing as an angel's feather. This opened her breath tracks to the earth and to the sky. I noticed how she slowly began to relax and began to breathe deeper. She cried out of relief, thanked me and asked me about my fee. I told her that this is a gift from me to her. It was a very touching moment.

We stayed in contact. Since then, she grows and feels better.

John Mueller | “I’m Doing Fine”

Brought Joy With His Latest Release

My fave moment of this challenging year was when a complete stranger wrote to me that they heard my new track "I'm doing fine" and how it was uplifting to them and brought some joy. I appreciated they took the time to notify me and to bring joy with my music is my ultimate goal. Getting this release out there and the entire album "You are Here" its included on during this year made a positive note for 2020.  

Nia Ocean | “This Christmas”

Channeled A Christmas Song To Help Us All Shine Our Inner Light

About two weeks ago, I saw an insta story from a dear friend of mine which literally “woke me up”! I got so inspired that the next day I had written a whole song, a Christmas song that is. The song is called “This Christmas'' and I made it really to remind us that WE make Christmas what it is.. our spirit, our love, our cheer, it’s OUR light that gives it all meaning. So even though 2020 has been a tough year, we can still choose how to end it. It’s easy to expect and allow for Christmas 2020 not be special because it will be so different due to quarantine, limited travel and lost loved ones, but this song is a ray of light in these times of darkness and difficulty, reminding us of what matters most and that we all have a light within us to shine and share with our ourselves , our dearest ones, and the world...especially this Holiday Season.

Stay tuned… There’s more Good News Coming!

[laserdog10]

Legacy Epilogue, part 2: Recovery

*It had been three days since Blossom’s incident with her Silver Eyes. Ruby and Jaune, with the rest of their kids, Garnet and Citrus, took her to the nearest hospital in hopes of helping get rid of the after-affects of using them for the first time. It didn’t particularly surprise Ruby that her daughter would suffer some repercussions of using her Grimm slaying power, but something was...different this time around. Their wait didn’t have to be prolonged further when the nurse came into the lobby.*

Nurse: Ummm, Mr. and Mrs. Rose-Arc?

Jaune: That’s us.

Nurse: Good! Right this way please.

*The family stood up and followed her down the hall to Blossom’s room, the nurse detailing on her condition*

Nurse: She-

Garnet: Give it to us straight doc, is our sister gonna live?

Citrus: Is she dying?!

Nurse: What!? Oh heavens no, dears! Blossom’s fine, she’s just temporarily blind is all.

Garnet/Citrus: Whew...

Ruby: Blind...?

Nurse: Unfortunately, we’ve tried everything that would’ve normally worked. We did take note that eye-drops helped clear up some dried blood behind her eyes. Other than that, they are still bloodshot and her pupils are still constricted.

Jaune: Is surgery going to be an option?

Nurse: It’s a low possibility, but given that Blossom is a Silver Eyed Warrior like you Mrs. Rose, I don’t assume you have a, how you say, solution of a “magical persuasion?

*The couple shared a nervous laugh.*

Jaune: Uuuhhh, heh, we do know one, in the form of a...wizard professor.

Nurse: OH! You mean Ozpin?

Ruby: He may be our only solution right now.

Nurse: Right...*writes on her clipboard*...give us a minute, we’ll get a wheelchair for your daughter on her way out! I’ll give you some time to talk with her until then. *turns to leave, but stops and turns after a few steps* By the way Garnet, do you mind if I ask why you’re only wearing one glove?

*Garnet instinctively grabbed his right arm. Underneath the baggy sweater he wore was an intricate assortment of a glove, straps, and bindings over the charred surface of his arm, keeping an other-worldly being at bay*

Garnet: I-it’s...a long story, ma’am...

Nurse: Ah, my mistake, sweetie. Well, I best go get that wheelchair, goodbye!

Rose-Arcs: Bye!

-Inside Blossom’s room-

*Being blind wasn’t so bad, even if it was only temporary...maybe. Okay, it was honestly scary, and while her other senses were enhanced, Blossom hated not seeing her surroundings. She knew she was in a bed, she knew the T.V. was on playing cartoons, she knew as alone in her room with gauze over her eyes waiting for her family or the nurse. But, this did give her time to be with her thoughts, “Welp, first time using my powers and look where I end up. Bet you’re pretty proud of me, o’ God of Light, eh? Did...mom ever have to go through this, did she get knocked out after her eyes activated, and what caused them to activate? Was Aunt Maria as inexperienced as me, or another prodigy? What about grandma Summer, did she struggle as much as I am right now? Heh, I should know the answer by now.....I’m just a weak link in a line of strong warriors. I’m a failu-”*

*A click is heard as her door opens*

Jaune/Ruby: Heeeeeyyy!

Blossom, snapping out of her trance: Ah! Hi mom, hi dad!

Garnet: You feeling okay?

Blossom: Aside from not being able to see and my self-esteem being at a pretty big low, I’d say I’m pretty okay.

Citrus: So is that a no...?

Blossom: *sigh* I don’t even know anymore.....

Jaune: Listen, the doctor said you’re going to be fine, and you’re not in pain right?

Blossom: I guess, but what about surgery?

Ruby: We won’t have to, we’re taking you to Ozpin.

The kids: Uncle Oz?!

Blossom: What’s he gonna do to help me?

Ruby: If I’m playing my cards right, most likely heal your eyes with whatever magic he has left.

Garnet: Which is basically limitless???

Ruby: Yup!

Everyone: Awesome.

Garnet: BUT, before the nurse gets back...I wanna try something.

Blossom: Garnet, I swear to the gods, I will shove my boot up your ass when I see again...

Jaune: Language!

Blossom: But dad!?

Citrus: Do it!

Blossom: Ughhh, fine..... *lifts the gauze off one eye, cracked lines of red on the silver surface of her pupil, still constricted*

Garnet: How many fingers am I holding up?

Blossom: Uuuuuhhhh...ssssssssix?????

Citrus: Nope! Three!

Blossom, red: You both suck...

Garnet/Citrus: *snickering*

-Beacon Courtyard-

Jaune: Ahhh, good to be back.

Ruby: It feels so surreal coming back here. To think we met here for the first time...

Jaune: But hey, look where we are right now. *takes her hand in his*

Ruby, leaning her head on his shoulder: Would we want it for anything else?

Jaune: No way, Crater Face. *kisses her forehead*

Garnet: *fake wretches* There is a time and place and this is not one of them!

Citrus: *hiding behind her hands but peeking through one*

Blossom: Y’know, this is the one perk of being blind, but hearing it is so much worse somehow.

Jaune: Oh hush, we’re just loving each other.

Blossom: Can we go see Uncle Oz now?

Ruby: Hahaha, yes.

---

Front Desk: Sir, the Rose-Arcs are on their way to see you.

Ozpin: Thank you.

*The now mortal Wizard of Remnant took a sip from his trusted and beloved mug, filled with his favorite brew of coffee. Letting out a content sigh, he adjusted the picture on his table of him, his wife Glynda Goodwitch, and his daughter Olivia. His gaze returned to the opening doors of his office, his two former students walking in*

Oz: Ah, Ruby and Jaune! Pleasure to see you two agai-...oh dear. *he exclaimed when he saw Blossom*

Blossom: Eheh, hey, Uncle Oz...

Oz: Ummm, may I ask what happened to you dear?

Ruby: Guess who used her Silver Eyes for the first time.

Oz: Oh! Pardon me...er, how did this happen?

Jaune: Training, but from the looks of it, she blinded herself.

Oz: ... *stands from his chair, concern on his face*

Ruby: Professor...?

Oz: First, tell me how this all happened.

*And so Ruby did; the test dummy Beowolf, the tip she gave to Blossom to properly use her eyes, the six wings of light that appeared from her daughter’s eyes, Blossom getting knocked unconscious because of her own eyes. Throughout it all, Ozpin’s concern seemed to dampen, and more to understanding*

Oz: Forgive me, but...this is quite unheard off, even to me.

Blossom: ...

Jaune: So what you’re saying is...?

Oz: We could be looking at the most powerful Silver Eyed Warrior in the history of Remnant.

Ruby/Jaune: !!!

Blossom: Pffffft hahaha! Alright, good joke Uncle Oz, but I seriously couldn’t be “the strongest S.E.W. in all of Remnant!” Right, haha?

Ruby/Jaune/Oz: ............

Blossom: Why is no one else laughing?

Oz, walking from his desk: Allow to me elaborate, dear. *he began as green electricity surrounded his index finger, to which he then poked Blossom on her forehead with it*

Blossom: OW! What the heck?!

*Just as she said that, her eyes felt an odd buzz as the magic took effect. The strain on her pupils lessened, the stinging of the veins around her eyes dissipated, and the stuck feeling of the dried blood behind them went away completely*

Oz, smiling: Now take off your bandages.

Blossom: *hands slightly shaking, she undoes the gauze around her head* I...*as she opens her eyes, Blossom is greeted by the sight of her uncle’s office, looking to her sides she saw her mother and father, tears of joy welling in her silver orbs* ...I can see!

Oz: Such as my magic, consider your power a miracle, something amazingly so one of a kind. But what you’re doing right now, is trying to be someone you are not, fearing that you won’t be a great Silver Eyed Warrior. You may not think it now, but trust me, your ability to slay Grimm is going to become something wonderfu-

Blossom: But what if it doesn’t, what if I don’t live up to this greatness of the people that came before me? What if I can’t become like my mom and grandma Summer!?

Ruby: ...

Jaune: Blossom...

*Everything made sense now. Blossom’s training, her pushing herself and forcing her Silver Eyes to work, why she didn’t tell Ruby or Jaune sooner. Ozpin chuckled and walked back to his desk chair*

Oz: That is because you won’t, you can’t, you can only be yourself. You can’t push yourself to master your abilities at the same pace as your mother or grandmother. You have to let your power come at its own time, for not only will it lead to less harm, no one will fault you for it.

Blossom, tears falling down her cheeks: I...*sniff*...I...

Jaune: No one’s perfect, sweetie, how did you think we fared when we became Huntsmen?

Blossom: *sniff* Probably poorly?

Ruby: Huge understatement, why do you think we call each other “Crater Face” and “Vomit Boy?” *she laughed, hugging her then kissing Blossom on the head* Thank you so much, Ozpin.

Oz: You are very welcome, Mrs. Rose. *as they got up to leave, Oz took on more swig of his coffee, but not before one last thing he had to say to the young reaper* And Blossom?

Blossom: Huh?

Oz: I hope no more stunts like this will occur in the future? Glynda and I already had to deal with that when your parents enrolled here.

Blossom, nervous: W-welll...! I’ll try not to? Haha.

Jaune: We’ll keep eye on her, sir!

Blossom: Was that intentional?

Jaune: Oh...my bad.

*The family laughed their way to the elevator, meanwhile Oz adjusted his glasses, having a laugh himself*

Oz: Hm, the youth is like a bonfire, bright and full of potential, but in need of a little guidance.

---

Ruby: Do you promise to come to me when you have trouble using your eyes?

Blossom: Pinky promise.

Jaune: And next time use a test weapon on the dummy, can’t have you dull Aureum Mortem’s edge, now can we?

Blossom: I can sharpen it again! *she said defensively but cracking a smile*

Jaune: I’m sure you can. *smiles, pats her on the head*

Ruby: Now where are your brother and sister?

“Wooooooohoooooo!!!”

*As if on cue the duo of reaper siblings peeled around the hall, Garnet utilizing his Spring Maiden magic to propel himself forward, Citrus riding piggyback on her older brother. As they reached the lobby Garnet’s flight came to a halt*

Garnet: Found your team’s old rooms!

Ruby: How did you know which was which?

Garnet: *pulls out his scroll to show a room with four holes in its ceiling* Aunt Weiss told us about your “bunk beds.”

Citrus: And I think I found one of Aunt Nora’s old shirts in the opposite room. *pulls out a wrinkly black shirt with the word “boop” on its front* Found it in the closet.

Jaune: So that’s where that went! Tell you what, you can keep, just your size too.

Citrus: *smiles, then puts the shirt on over her current one* Thank you!!!

Ruby: Be prepared if she wants it back though. *exhales* Right, been a long day for us, who’s ready to go take nap back home?

Everyone: Me!

Ruby: Roger that. Rose-Arcs, move out!

*Trekking to the car, Blossom once again had time to collect her thoughts. “I had hurt myself from thinking I could recreate what my mom could do, try to be like her...be the perfect warrior, exactly like the S.E.W’s that lived before me. But I’m not, I’m not perfect, but my power is mine, and I WILL make it so that power will be able to help others and rid Remnant of the Grimm once and for all. Yeah, I can do this!”*

Legacy -fin-

[incorrectsmashbrosquotes]

Little Mac walked in the kitchen and dug through the pantry. “Where are those protein bars?” He muttered to himself. Eventually, he pulled found the box and pulled on out. He walked out the kitchen and began eating his bar when he noticed a door right across from the closets. “How long has that been there?" 

Walking over to it, he opened the door and saw stairs that went into a deep basement. He followed those stairs and kept walking straight. The hall felt as if it had gone forever when Mac heard some muttering. With the slightest sound, he his by a wall and peered past the corner. He saw Dr. Mario surrounded by chalkboards covered top to bottom in pictures, with a few dim lights above his head with the occasional flicker.

A bit worried, Mac slowly walked to the doctor. "Hey, Dr. M? What’s… What’s all of this?" 

No response.

"Uh, Dr. Mario?” He called again, getting closer.

No response again. Just eerie muttering.

“Dr….?” He reached out and tapped his shoulder.

Dr. Mario swiftly turned around and had a crazed look on his face. “Fliggityjibbitubibbidyswoooity!” He started shrieking jibberish.

“Gah!” Mac took a few steps back.

“…..” Dr. Mario regained some of his composer. “Hello, Mac.”

“H-hey…uh, whatcha…whatcha up to?” Mac asked, slightly nervous.

“Oh, y'know. A bit of research.” He answered. Little Mac could easily tell that it had been days since the doctor had slept.

“Researching what, exactly?” Mac questioned. 

Dr. Mario slowly turned around and faced the chalkboards. “All of the incidents…”

“Incidents?” Mac tilted his head.

“Haven’t you noticed that ever since that purple pterodactyl got announced, more people have been getting hurt?” Dr. Mario asked.

“It’s pretty hard not to.” Mac answered flatly.

“First was with Regular Mario and Megaman…” Dr. Mario started.

“Wait, you two are for real not the same person? I thought you just go by that since your in doctor clothes.” Mac commented.

Dr. Mario rolled his eyes and ignored the comment. “Then, when the Belmont’s showed up, Luigi had his soul snatched. And King K. Rool? We all know what he did to Dedede." 

"Didn’t he just hit him really hard?” Mac asked.

Dr. Mario held up a sheet that showed Dedede’s skull facing right with a small crack in the back. “This is what happened.”

“Dr. M? Pretty sure you showed us all our X-rays before. That crack has been there for a while.” Little Mac told him.

“Dedede was facing forward. His skull was facing was right.” Dr. Mario replied.

“Sheesh! No wonder we didn’t hear him eat raid the kitchen for a couple of days.” Mac said, shuddering. 

Dr. Mario nodded. “And its only a matter of time until Dark Samus or who knows who else hurts anyone else." 

”…Wait, else?“ Mac repeated, worried.

Dr. Marion held a finger up. "And don’t you think this is a bit odd that Ridley came right after the Inklings? Things are happening and they’re all trying to make some sort of pattern.”

“Hold the phone, doc. First, I don’t think you have a degree for investigating stuff this deeply. It’s great you care this much about us, but I’m pretty sure that even Mario has his limits. Your a doctor, stick to that. Second, I know that specific people getting injured this badly is horrible, but I’m 100% certain that the Belmont’s and Inklings are just as worried as we are. They wouldn’t think for a second of hurting the group like this.” Mac told the Doctor.

——(Elsewhere)—–

Inkling Girl, Ness, Corrin, and Richter were playing UNO while Villager was watching from the sidelines. Richter sneezed, which would be the fifth time in the game he had done that. 

“Are you alright, Richter? That’s the fifth time you sneezed in under two minutes.” Corrin asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I don’t think I’m catching anything.” Richter reassured her.

“Hey, do you guys ever feel like someone’s mentioning you behind your back?” Inkling Girl asked.

“Eh, not really.” Ness answered.

“I feel like mentioning something…” Corrin said. She then slammed her cards down in the pile. “UNO!”

“W-what?! That’s not fair! You cheated.” Inkling Girl interjected.

“If you call cheating winning, then I guess I did.” Corrin replied. “Vill, can you mark down another win for me?”

Villager gave her a thumbs up, and pulled out a note pad from his pocket and was about to write it down.

“Villager, don’t write anything!” Inkling pointed at Villager, which he then put the notepad down. “Corrin, admit that you cheated.”

Ness put a hand on her shoulder. “Calm down, Orange, it’s just a game." 

Inkling then turned around and gave Ness a death glare.

Ness had a pale expression on his face, and quickly took his hand off of her shoulder. He then scuttled and hid behind Richter.

Inkling turned her attention towards Corrin. "Admit that you cheated!" 

"Or what? You’ll to shoot paintballs at me?” Corrin said with a smug look on her face.

Inkling Girls’ pupils shrank. She cocked her head to the side. “What’d you call my ink?”

“Paintballs.” Corrin repeated.

Inkling Girls stared at Corrin for a few more seconds. Next thing the group knew, Inkling and Corrin were engaged in a classic cartoon dustcloud fight.

Villager walked over to Ness and Richter. Ness looked at Villager. “Dude, why did you pick out UNO when you specifically know that it can cause fighting among friends and that these two are incredibly competitive?”

Villager shrugged. ;)

Richter sighed. “You love mayhem, don’t you little buddy?" 

Villager looked away before nodding with a grin. Ness and Richter sighed once more. 

—-(Back to Doc and Mac)—-

"Mac, you don’t understand. I’m not saying they’re trying to hurt us. I’m saying that whenever a villain is on screen, one of us is injured.” Dr. Mario defended.

“Well, that’s kinda why they’re villains. They hate heroes.” Mac told him.

“I know that! I’m just saying that there’s something lying beneath the surface. Remember those purple and yellow chairs we saw?” Dr. Mario said, shifting the conversation forward.

“Doc, if this is about what I think you’re making this about and annoy me for weeks about it, I’m going to hit you.” Mac told him in a straightforward manner.

“What? No, of course not.” Dr. M told him. “Isn’t it weird that we have a lot of villains coming out this time?”

“Well, now that you mention it, we do have a slightly higher amount of bad guys around.” Mac agreed.

“And the moon. It is it’s own Assist Trophy now, correct?" 

"Wait, you keep tabs on Assist Trophies? Do you even get enough sleep? I’m pretty sure we have someone to do that.” Little Mac questioned.

Dr. Mario ignored the question. “Now, who could make it so that villains are becoming more cunning and increasing in their ranks, and the heores (and to a lesser extent) Dedede are met with a terrible fate?!” Dr. Mario asked, his eye twitching. “I’ll tell you who. It was none other than-MMPH!” 

Little Mac covered the Doctor’s mouth before he could finish. “Doc. I think you’re over thinking it.” Dr. M was about to come with a comeback, but Mac I interrupted him. “I know that all of our friends getting hurt is really worrying, but jumping at random conclusions based on random evidence isn’t gonna help. You’re only going to tire yourself out and you won’t be able to be there for the people that need you." 

Dr. Mario looked down and looked around at where he had been for the past couple of days. It was a total mess, and he had let it get to his head.

”*sigh* You’re right. I’ve been trying to figure out what would happen next for so long that it started messing with my head. I can’t stay cooped down here when there are others that need me.“ Dr. Mario said. A smile grew on his face. "Funny how the boxer, the one who typically needs a doctor to patch him up after a fight, helped to heal a doctor who was stuck beating himself up.”

“Well, you either go down doing what you can to help others, or worry long enough to need some outside assistance.” Little Mac said. “…I don’t think that’s the right way to say it, but let’s get out of here. It smell like mushrooms down here." 

As the duo walked back, Little Mac turned to Dr. Mario. "How long have you been down here?”

“What day is it?” Dr. Mario asked, rubbing his tired eyes.

“Sheesh.” Little Mac said.

On the table of the doctors notes, there was one thing that all the notes led up to. No matter which one was examined, they all led to the same terrible fate. A fate that would most likely change the course of Smash history forever. And that change would all start…

With a mask.

———

After 15 minutes, Inkling and Corrin’s cartoon dust cloud fighting turned into gentle pats. Ness, Richter, and Villager came back from the other room to with snacks.

Richter saw them on the ground. “You two are still going?”

Villager stared at Ness. “Villager’s right. You two should stop fighting. Its not like you bet coins on it.” Ness said, slightly glaring at Villager, who was silently laughing.

Inkling Girl sighed. “Okay. Corrin, I’m sorry for getting mad and fighting you. Even though I was winning." 

"I’m sorry also.” Corrin replied. “And I may have been cheating a little bit.”

“AHA!! I knew it!” Inkling shouted.

Richter chuckled. “Wow, you were lying this whole time? Corrin, you’re hilarious!” Corrin blushed at this comment

“So, you happy you won?” Ness asked Inkling with a grin.

“You know it, ya lunkhead. My night plans have been complete.” Inkling said proudly.

“Well, the nights still young. What should we do?” Richter asked.

The group had a long pause before Ness came with a suggestion. “You wanna go mess with Wario?" 

Villager smiled and pulled out a basket of eggs while the rest of the group grinned.

"I’ll take that as a resounding yes.” Ness grinned.

“Last one there is a mean old Tom Nook!” Inkling Girl shouted, running off. The other four followed in pursuit. Though Villager did have a small sweat drop hearing Tom Nook’s name.

[kiruuuuu]

They were indeed open at the time you asked but even if not, you could request anything you wanted, @nutbrain, because you’ve brightened up my day so many times with your thoughtful, motivating and just generally absolutely lovely comments 💕 Thank you so much for everything. What I ended up writing might not fit your prompt 100% but I hope you still end up liking it! (Rating T, hurt/comfort, ~3.7k words)

The other parts of Protection Mountain can be found via tags or here on my Masterpost! (Mobile version here)

.

There’s something up with Bandit.

Not like there normally isn’t: he’s either busy preparing a large scale prank (and Montagne’s shoes will never be the same after the last mud fight), has a ridiculous challenge going on with someone (usually Jäger, these two are an absolute disaster duo) or he’s managed to get himself hurt in some way – it’s usually one of those three, meaning Montagne has to first figure out the specifics and then whether he needs to step in. It’s reassuring to know that Bandit always backs off should he ask him to do so, not without grumbling or an argument sometimes but he relents in the end, sees reason. He used to push back more than he does these days but he’s learned that if he lets off, he’s rewarded with copious amounts of affection he soaks up like a sponge, basks in gentle touches and becomes as docile as a kitten.

But this isn’t his normal shenanigans. If they were, Montagne wouldn’t feel worry creeping up on him; worry he usually pushes away for he knows his overprotective nature causes him to see dangers everywhere. His young teammates keep repeating the same thing at him: don’t worry. He can’t help it. When he comes across Ash with remarkable circles under her eyes, he grabs a coffee for her, when he sees Ying struggling to reach the box with the green tea, he gets a chair for her and chastises Echo for messing with her, when Tachanka ‘smuggles’ another bottle of vodka into his room, he checks up on him the next morning. And when he notices Bandit’s grimace upon having to eat worsen, he needs to know what’s up.

His lover has been more closed off than usual, his sleep and eating habits having declined even further, and yet he hasn’t approached Montagne on his own to disclose any reasons to him. He suspects its roots to be psychological rather than physical as he hasn’t been ill for a while or injured, for that matter, hasn’t overdone it in training and has otherwise not been doing anything alarming. They’ve not talked about his past much so far but they don’t have to – Montagne can piece large parts of it together and what little he knows might actually already be the most important bits. Still, it’s possible there’s something wrong with his family maybe or an old friend, causing Bandit a considerable amount of distress. He does seem troubled.

“Is something wrong?”, Montagne asks tentatively during lunch. He prides himself on being empathetic and yet Bandit is someone who often eludes him, who doesn’t react the way he expects him to.

The question earns him a confused frown. “No? Why do you ask? Why should there be?”

Defensive. “You seem a little distracted. I’m just making sure.”

“No. Everything’s fine.” His gaze is cast downwards and he’s eaten not even half of what he ordered.

He doesn’t like doing this. It feels too much like an I-told-you-so setup, too much like he eventually wants to guilt trip Bandit, point back at exactly this moment in time in misplaced triumph, but it’s also a kind of reassurance. And so he says: “If there was something, you’d tell me, right?”

Bandit’s gaze flickers up to meet his. “Yeah”, he replies simply. “You know I would.”

Montagne doesn’t think so. He wishes he could place unshakable trust in the man before him, rely on his words blindly and he curses himself for being unable to do so. Past experiences have shown that Bandit is someone who lets things fester instead of tackling them head-on, waits until he can’t keep it under wraps anymore. Montagne should trust him. But he can’t.

.

During the next few days, it doesn’t get better. Bandit is without motivation a lot of the time, skips physical training one day and brings forth a lame excuse with a half-laugh but doesn’t get into trouble over it which cements Montagne’s suspicions that there’s something up – something about which their higher-ups know but he doesn’t. He can’t deny it hurts to realise he’s been kept out of the loop and he’s starting to think it is physical seeing as there must’ve been a good enough reason for him to not participate in normal activities. Not only that, Bandit is quick to discuss any topic even if it’s something he’d otherwise just shrug at, readily allows others to take up his time and seems to be trying to avoid being alone with Montagne.

It’s not that he’s avoiding him. They do watch a film together with others and Bandit spends the entire time on him in some way, stretched out over him, sitting on his lap, at some point even falling asleep against his shoulder. He’s oddly needy, climbs around on him whenever he gets the chance, steals kisses left and right and wraps himself around his lover more often than not, but when asked, he merely reacts with compliments or statements like I’m just really glad to have you which are nice and warm Montagne’s heart, that’s not it, he’s not complaining about all the things Bandit whispers in between kisses or into his hair or against his neck, no.

It’s all the things he doesn’t say.

A few times, he prods. Carefully, without reproach or judgement, bases it on observations he’s made or formulates simple questions all of which designed to open up discussion, allow Bandit to safely approach the topic – whatever it is – yet he meets a wall. Bandit blames bad sleep, bad memories, someone else riling him up, parades one excuse after the next or deflects completely. Montagne knows by now what would happen if he pushed and therefore he doesn’t. Not wanting Bandit to feel cornered, his only option is to wait.

He despises doing so. He’s trapped in limbo, not a single clue as to what concerns Bandit to a point where he repeatedly chooses cuddling over sex. The one time they actually do it, he’s doing all the things he knows Montagne likes, stays mostly passive and merely enjoys, beams up at him lovingly as if he hung the moon, keeps repeating the words he originally was so reluctant to say over and over, sucks dark purple marks onto Montagne’s shoulders and makes sure they come at the same time.

If he’s honest, it worries him even more. Bandit being clingy and generous to this extent is not a good sign.

It’s almost as if he’s trying to make the most out of – out of what?

.

He’s extremely uncomfortable. It’s unprofessional and possibly taking advantage of a long friendship which could be permanently soured by what he’s about to do but he sees no other way. “I’m sorry”, he says before even sitting down opposite of his teammate, prompting a raised eyebrow.

“What for?”, Doc wants to know cautiously and Montagne doesn’t blame him for the reservedness he displays.

“I know there’s something wrong with Dom. But I don’t know what.”

Doc remains silent for a while, clearly waiting for Montagne to elaborate yet he’s already struggling for words. “Have you tried talking to him?”

“Yes. Of course. He refuses to admit there is anything in the first place. If I tried to force it, he’d get angry and close off even more. I don’t know what else to do.”

Realisation dawns on his old friend and he leans back in his chair with a deep breath. “You want me to tell you.” A statement, not a question. Montagne remains silent but feels like he exudes guilt. He doesn’t miss the implication that there really is something. “You know I can’t do that.”

The accusing tone is entirely warranted. “I know. I know that. I just -” There is so much he could say: I feel so helpless. Looking at him is like drowning. If something were to happen to him and I could’ve helped I will never forgive myself. But none of it is in any way constructive and therefore he stays mute, forces down the dull ache and terrifying visions of the future, forces everything down before it spirals out of control.

“If you know this, then why are you here?”

He’s wringing his hands at this point, desperate for any kind of reassurance. “Can you at least tell me how serious it is? I have nothing to go by. I don’t know whether I need to insist and risk driving him off. I know nothing.”

“How do you even know there’s something up if he hasn’t mentioned anything?”

“There’s no need to. He’s reduced smoking, is more picky about his food – he hasn’t eaten any fast food in a week. He’s more exhausted than usual. And I don’t think he’s had a drop of alcohol either.” Doc is studying him with a pensive expression, so he feels the need to add: “I know him. This isn’t normal. I’m scared, Gustave, I’m -”

“He’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

Relief punches all the air out of his lungs, leaving him scrambling to regain his composure and still he feels himself tearing up. Doc waits patiently, lets him take all the time he needs. Eventually, he nods. “Thank you.”

“I don’t think anyone else noticed. You two are…” He frowns, seeks the right words, the correct moulds for the idea he’s trying to convey. “I was very sceptical at first, I don’t think I ever told you. I know him as unstable and high maintenance and didn’t think you’d be willing or able to deal with him in the long run. You proved me wrong. You’re good for each other and in general, his health has improved. Especially his mental health.”

Hearing this only soothes his worries further though it doesn’t help with the moisture forming in the corners of his eyes. They exchange a fond smile. “I’m so glad to hear it. Others shared your concerns, I know, but we’re really not that different – I used to think so too, but I’ve come to realise I simply was more fortunate in life. Ultimately, we do the same. And he tries, Gustave. He tries so hard.”

Doc nods. “I know. And if anyone can make him see this as well, it’s you.”

.

It doesn’t take long for his all-encompassing relief to tilt over into anger. Now that his fears have been placated, he’s left with a quiet fury which, if not addressed, might morph into resentment over time which he wants to avoid at all costs. He needs full disclosure and sooner rather than later, so he texts Bandit, inquiring about his whereabouts, receives no answer and thus concludes he’s in Montagne’s room. Seeing as he doesn’t want to be alone with him, he’d reply if he was anywhere more public, but like this he’ll pretend he didn’t see the message. It’d be a really bad lie because Montagne knows the only time Bandit doesn’t immediately check his phone upon it buzzing is when he’s around Montagne anyway and knows the message isn’t from him.

As expected, he finds him sprawled out on the sofa, playing on his phone and looking like just got caught red-handed. “Oh”, he says neutrally, “hey.”

Montagne takes a seat on the bed, a safe distance away as to not threaten him physically on top of verbally. “I would like to talk.”

The words seem to strike fear into Bandit’s heart as he pales slightly. “I don’t”, he responds and Montagne almost rolls his eyes.

“Stop being childish.” He means it and he can tell his lover knows. This isn’t the time for bickering or for Bandit’s stubbornness. “We both know what I’d like to talk about and please stop with the excuses.” Nothing. Bandit turns off the screen and puts the smartphone away yet remains mute. “I talked to Doc.”

“You went behind my back?” His righteous indignation is just another stalling and distraction tactic. Montagne is tired of it.

“I was worried. Do you realise this? Do you know how this makes me feel?”

“Look, it’s my own fucking body, it doesn’t concern you, you have no right to go snooping around without my consent -”

“No. I didn’t snoop”, Montagne interrupts him sharply, “I easily could have, but I chose not to. It would’ve been no trouble for me to go through your pockets, go through your phone, check your mail, scour the bins in both our rooms, look for medication. Nothing could’ve stopped me from doing it and you probably wouldn’t even have noticed. But do you know why I didn’t? Because it would’ve been a breach of trust I couldn’t have justified to anyone, let alone myself, and because I trusted you to approach me by yourself. Which you didn’t. I went to Doc to make sure you weren’t dying, Dom. Because I didn’t know even that.”

“I’m not dying”, Bandit protests but it sounds much weaker than his previous statements.

“And I’m endlessly relieved about it, even though you didn’t possess the courtesy to inform me of this.” Bandit is chewing on his lip now, embarrassed, uncomfortable. Visibly guilty. “You’re correct in saying it is your body, but you’re wrong if you genuinely believe none of this concerns me. You’re part of my life and I’m part of yours, whether you want to admit it or not. I plan to spend the rest of my life with you, so everything about your health, be it mental or physical, automatically concerns me.”

These words get Bandit’s undivided attention. Brown eyes widen in misplaced surprise, indicate doubts where there shouldn’t have been any. “You -” He doesn’t get any further than this, disbelief creeping into his expression at which Montagne feels his own soften. The urge to get up and hug him, reassure him is strong but there are more things he has to say. He can’t give in just yet.

“This isn’t temporary. We are not temporary”, he adds for emphasis and holds eye contact as Bandit slowly sits up, speechless, tugging at the seam of his jeans to keep his hands occupied.

He’s silent for a perceived eternity, has trouble processing the words, struggles to come up with a reply, the cogs turning in his head. Eventually, he murmurs, more to himself: “I’d like to know if something was bothering you.”

It seems he’s starting to understand it goes both ways. That they’re on one level in their relationship, that there’s no power imbalance. “And I would tell you”, Montagne states gently.

Bandit nods slowly, averts his gaze, but he’s relenting. “I have”, he gestures to his midsection, “I’ve got a stomach ulcer. It’s fucking stupid.”

Alright. Montagne knows a bit about it, knows they’re usually easily treatable, so that’s good. “How bad?”

A one-sided shrug. “Not that bad. I gotta take some pills for a while. That part I’m familiar with.”

Answering questions seems to work, so Montagne poses a few more, finds out that he’s trying to quit smoking but failing so far, looked up dietary recommendations and concluded he’s not allowed to eat anything ‘fun’ anymore and that Doc told him to try and stop drinking too. Once he’s overcome the initial obstacle of starting to talk about it, he treats the subject with the same mix of seriousness and sarcasm he usually displays, often misconstrued by others as carelessness – but Montagne knows there’s so much more to it.

Both of them quite obviously feel better once everything has been said, a lot of the tension has seeped out of Bandit and most of the guilt seems to have disappeared too. And Montagne finally knows what there is to know. It really is nothing serious, as Doc said: he’ll be fine. Bandit’s body language is unmistakable, he’s just waiting to be allowed into Montagne’s arms and it’s extremely hard to resist giving him that signal.

Still. There is one more question. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I’m stupid”, comes the flippant response which makes him frown.

“No. I want to know why.”

Again, Bandit is hesitant. “I know you’re not going to agree and you’ll probably think I’m dumb or – no, let me finish. I know it’s stupid. I know that, but that doesn’t change the way I think.” He scowls, works on sorting his thoughts. “I don’t want to be more trouble than I’m worth. I’m already an asshole a lot of the time and I’m gonna be insufferable on nicotine withdrawal and I’ll bitch about not being able to drink. That already fucking sucks. I didn’t want to make you worry on top of that, you worry too much already. You worry too much about me. I don’t – I don’t want you to decide it’s too much to deal with. That I’m too much.”

“You realise that by not being honest with me, you made me worry much more than if I’d known what was going on?”

“Well.” Bandit scratches his head. “I realise that now.”

Montagne heaves a deep sigh and shakes his head. “I meant what I said. As long as you let me, I’ll stay by your side. I’ll help you stay away from cigarettes and we can both order non-alcoholic drinks when we go out with the others. I’ll try to find things which are good for you and which you actually like.” He waits until Bandit nods in agreement before he adds: “Dom, you’ll always be worth it. I love you and you’ll always be worth everything.”

When they finally embrace, it’s like testing a newly built bridge, pristine and shining and much sturdier than the previous one, erected from both side and having met in the middle. It’ll withstand a lot. His hand on the back of Bandit’s neck massages away his doubts and the way Bandit’s nose brushes along his jaw before he follows it up with soft kisses makes up for the wait.

“Did it hurt?”, Montagne asks quietly. “Does it hurt now?”

“Yeah”, Bandit mumbles against his skin and sniffs once. “It was pretty bad at first, now it’s mostly alright. I threw up blood as well, that’s how I noticed.” He takes a deep, shuddering breath, his ribcage straining against Montagne’s in their tight hold. “I’m shit at this. I’m not good at talking about this kinda stuff – I want to, and with you I often try, but I’m still bad. I don’t know how or when to do it either.”

“It’s definitely something you need to work on”, Montagne agrees. “You don’t even tell me what you dream of.”

A pause. “These days it’s a lot of you dying.”

“… oh.”

“Yeah. I don’t like to talk about it because I don’t want to remember.”

“I won’t ask again. I’m sorry.” He takes Bandit’s face in both hands and kisses him until the crease between his brows has disappeared again. “But you’re already getting better. And I’m proud of you.”

Bandit doesn’t reply, just nods, but the corners of his mouth lift a little.

.

The soft click of the door wakes Montagne the next morning. He blinks blearily into the room and spots an apologetic-looking Bandit with an inexplicable stack of papers in one hand and his phone in the other. He’s fully dressed despite it only being six o’clock and seems disgustingly awake. “Oh, did I wake you? Sorry”, he says softly and complies when Montagne wordlessly lifts one corner of the blanket – he puts everything down on the table and joins him in bed, smiles and nuzzles his wild hair after Montagne has put his head on Bandit’s chest and pulled him close.

“What are you doing?”, he slurs, sleep drunk and humming happily when Bandit’s fingernails start travelling over his back.

“We should start to cook. Doc said simply hearing what I normally eat made him nauseous already and it’s just better overall. I printed out some stuff for it.” Despite relaxing against Montagne, he’s bursting with energy, more motivated than he’s been for the better part of two weeks, maybe even the entire month.

“I can cook a little”, Montagne points out with a yawn.

“Perfect, then you can teach me how not to burn water. For that, we need a kitchen though and so I’ve started looking for apartments, I got some saved on my phone, I can show them to you in a bit – there are a few promising ones but I don’t know what you deem as important, so we should look them over together. How does that sound?”

By now, Montagne’s smile is so wide his cheeks are starting to hurt. “Wonderful”, he mumbles into Bandit’s hoodie.

“And since we’ve not been on a proper date in a while, I thought we could do something today. Go shopping maybe, you said you needed new shirts, but I’ll ask you again when you’re more awake. Alright?”

Montagne knows what he’s doing. It’s neither a bribe nor an attempt to manipulate him, no, Bandit would be much more inconspicuous if that’s what he wanted to go for. It’s an apology. He’s trying to make it up to him but probably figures words alone aren’t enough, so he’s decided to take matters into his own hand, show initiative. Prove to Montagne that the voluntary bond they share means this much to him. It’s true he rarely was the one developing their relationship further, taking it to the next level, and Montagne is fully aware why – Bandit’s feelings of inadequacy stand in the way of him accepting all Montagne is willing to give. They played a role in him hiding his illness too.

And so his actions unambiguously show his effort towards accepting Montagne’s devotion, towards believing him when he says he’s not going to leave. It doesn’t work this quickly, it must’ve cost Bandit a lot of self-convincing to take these steps and even now he’s probably doubting himself. But he did it anyway.

“Yes”, he says and looks up at Bandit just in time to see some of the uncertainty on his face vanish. “That sounds lovely.” And the smile with which he’s rewarded, the smile mirroring his own, is blinding.

[this-is-big-lady]

Swipe Right part 10/10

part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9 can be found on AO3 here

C’est fini. It’s done. I never thought that I could’ve dragged out this silliness for 10 chapters, but hey, here I am! I love my two boys very much and I’m sad to see the end of them, but I can’t wait to write more for those of you who have liked my writing.  Enough rambling, lets get on with it!

A yell of his name alerted Crutchie to Davey needing help. His roommate had been calling out for him all afternoon for varying reasons, and as much as he loved Davey, he was starting to get annoying. He let the fork that he was drying drop down into the sink with a faint plop, drying his hands on the dish towel. Grabbing the crutches propped up to the sink, he headed towards Davey’s room, yelling out a confirmation that he was on his way.

He didn’t expect the sight he was greeted with in Davey’s room, but he couldn’t say he was surprised. Davey was sitting on the floor, surrounded by various shirts and jeans and shoes, radiating an air of confusion and panic. He could hear Crutchie stifling a laugh from the doorway, and whipped his head around to see his friend.

“Crutch, you gotta help me,” he pleaded, scrambling for the invitation laid out on his bed. “The dress code says ‘smart casual’ - what does that even mean?!” Crutchie couldn’t blame the guy, this was his first important date and was stressed out enough about that. Throw in the fact that it was an incredibly public date and there would be teachers there judging and assessing his face (well, Jack’s representation of his face), Crutchie was surprised that he wasn’t more nervous.

Navigating around the slew of clothing on the floor, Crutchie headed over to the bed, and made a spot for himself. From here he could direct Davey, while being out of the way of the fabric bombsite. “It means dressy, but not a suit and no sneakers. Get that nice pair of dark jeans you got a couple of months ago and pair it with a dress shirt.” He watched on as Davey sorted through the pile of trousers that had formed on his desk chair until he found the jeans in question, and placed them next to Crutchie. “See, that was easy! Now, pick a dress shirt.”

“I think that may be easier said than done, Crutch,” he said, as he swept his hand around the room. The shirt seemed to be what Davey was stuck with in the first place - he had one on practically every surface of his room.

“What one do you like the most, the one you feel the most comfortable in?” Crutchie could see Davey’s eyes immediately jump to a shirt still in his closet, but after a moment’s hesitation, he turned his attention back to two shirts hanging off his bedroom door. One was a plain pale blue shirt, the other a dark crimson red.

“I’ve been staring at both of these for half an hour and I can’t decide between-“

“I don’t care about them,” Crutchie cut him off, about to give Davey a much needed push. “Get out that shirt in your closet. The one you looked at straight away.”

Davey grumbled a little, a slight pink dusting his cheeks at being caught out, but diligently pulled the shirt out by its hanger. “It was a joke Hanukkah gift from Les-“

“It’s perfect, Davey!” Crutchie clapped a little out of excitement, he had never seen Davey wear this shirt before, and it was just so Davey. A black shirt with a pink floral print, featuring green and brown rattlesnakes weaving between the flowers. Crutchie told him to pair it with a pair of black boots and he was set to go. The fashion advisor was quickly shooed from the room to allow Davey to change, and was waiting out in the living room for Davey to show him the final product.

A few minutes later, Davey’s door creaked open and he slipped out into the living room, smiling shyly at the floor. Letting out a low whistle, Crutchie assured Davey that he looked as good as he must’ve felt in his outfit, even making the blushing guy do a twirl for good measure. For the first time in college, Davey was radiating confidence, and it made him so proud to be able to see how much his best friend had grown over the past few weeks with Jack. He sent Davey into the bathroom do his hair - they spent an hour together this afternoon watching hair tutorials, so if Davey yelled out for help this time, Crutchie was sure to throttle him. Occasionally the odd profanity was muttered from the bathroom but he exited after a while looking a lot tidier with his hair pulled back from his eyes, and a lot more nervous. He flopped onto the couch next to Crutchie, and watched some mindless afternoon television to avoid thinking about the upcoming date.

Despite it being 4:45, Davey constantly checked his watch, counting down the 15 minutes until Jack was due. At 4:50 he was up and pacing, double and triple checking he had his wallet, keys, and phone on him. At 4:55, Crutchie ordered him to sit down and chill out - they were both being driven crazy with Davey’s panicking. Crutchie turned the television off, and the pair sat in an uncomfortable silence permeated with only the sound of Davey’s bouncing leg, until a knock was heard against the door frame.

Davey practically jumped out of his skin as he sprinted to the door, skidding to a stop and yanking it open as fast as possible. Jack stood behind it, slightly shocked at Davey’s abruptness. But the shocked expression quickly melted into Jack looking stunned after taking in Davey’s appearance. He was drinking in the way the soft flowers brought out a hardness in his jaw, how the slim fit of his jeans clung to his legs, and the tiny amount of added height he got from the boots. Jack was in way too deep with this one. After a few beats of silence, Jack managed to choke out a short sentence.

“Wow, Davey, you look… incredible.”

Jack’s words made Davey smile, and he struggled to form a sentence of his own. “You look, uh, pretty… handsome. Pretty handsome, not like, yeah…” He could hear the words coming out of his mouth but seemed to lose all control of them halfway, opting instead to take in the view of Jack in a light blue shirt rolled up to his elbows, black chinos, and his favourite Doc Martens - which had been polished to hide all the scuffs on them. Jack somehow looked even better than Davey had expected, and he didn’t know how that was possible.

A few more moments of silence passed between them, before a voice from the couch could be heard calling out to them. “Alright lovebirds, get a move on. You don’t want to be late!”

Jack made way for Davey as he stepped through the door, going to close it behind them as he yelled out with a hint of irritability, “thanks mom!” A vague call of ‘use protection!’ could be heard as the door closed, both boys opting to just ignore it. As they started heading out of the apartment complex, Davey turned to Jack and apologised. “I’m sorry about him, I love him to pieces but he can be a pain in the ass sometimes.”

Jack snorted a little, mumbling out, “are you talking about your room mate or me?”

“Definitely my roommate,” Davey’s affirmation was lilted with a laugh. “I’ve been friends with him since high school. But maybe after I’ve known you for 5 years I can say the same thing about you!” He nudged his shoulder with Jack’s as the duo laughed, the idea of spending years together hovering in the air between them as they walked. “But he’s a good guy, maybe you can meet him one day.”

Looking over at his date, there was a glint of of something in Jack’s eyes that he couldn’t quite identify. “Yeah Dave, maybe I can.”

Jack was leading them down to the restaurant area of the city - since they studied on the main city campus, it was only a few streets away from the central business district and all its delicious restaurants. Davey was idly nattering away about piece he had prepared for his journalism exam about the student housing market as he was pulled to a stop by Jack. They were standing outside a bright little restaurant with retro style vinyl booths and a jukebox tucked in by the door. The neon light in the window read ‘Burgers’, as did the sign above the door.

“We’re here!” Jack exclaimed as he opened the door for Davey. Now, he wasn’t expecting a 5 star restaurant, but maybe something a little bit fancier than a burger place for a first date? But Davey did have to admit, it was very Jack. The sound of The Supremes floated out of the jukebox as Davey stepped foot into the diner. It was a bit of an assault on the senses - bright blue walls with red and white booths and seats, the mixture of music and sizzling fries filling his ears, and the unmistakable smell of burgers on a grill. Jack placed a hand on Davey’s back as he walked ahead of him, which snuck around to hold Davey’s waist as Jack asked for his reservation. Davey could feel his brain short circuiting as the waiter guided them towards the booth in the back, but was thankful to get his thoughts back as they sat on seperate sides of the booth.

The waiter placed the menus in front of them, and hurried off to collect the food for another table. Skimming the menu, Davey only noticed one thing. “They sure do have a lot of burgers here. I didn’t even know there were this many kinds of burgers…” Beef, chicken, pork, venison, fish, vegetarian, vegan, not to mention the sides, desserts, and drinks.

“I know, that’s why I love it! I made it my mission to eat through the whole menu when I first arrived in town. It took half a year, but I did it!” Jack smiled proudly at Davey, and Davey was unsure if that was something that someone should really be proud about. But here he was anyway, on a date with a giant nerd who loved burgers. And he found himself thinking that he wouldn’t rather be anywhere else.

“Do you have any recommendations?” Jack’s eyes lit up at the question, quickly naming his favourites - the buffalo chicken, the pulled pork burger, and surprisingly the vegan supreme. After a couple of minutes of silent deliberation, Davey decided on the vegan supreme and Jack’s choice was the Nemo -  Davey asserting that it was an awful name for a first burger, and Jack arguing that he was going to order two, purely out of spite.

As their giggles over the burger names died down, they were able to place their order. Thankfully Jack only ordered one burger, but he did also order a chocolate milkshake for them to share, insisting on having two straws.

“Are you seriously insisting on making us a walking cliché from every high school movie ever?” Davey scoffed as the waiter left them to give their order to the kitchen.

“Yes I am. I know you didn’t really date in high school, so I am making it up to you now. You can thank me later,” Jack finished his sentence with a wink, making Davey blush involuntarily and roll his eyes.

“You are impossible, you know that right?” All Jack did in reply was shrug his shoulders and smile broadly at his exasperated date. Of course he know that.

They shared small talk while waiting for their food to arrive, mainly chatting about the exhibition that they were about to go to. Essentially, the class’ project brief was to create a piece exploring the human condition - some people decided to do room studies and draw the interesting things they found in bedrooms of people they knew, one student drew all the things he put in the trash over a month, but the one Davey was most excited to see - other than Jack’s of course - was the student who snuck into social psychology lectures and illustrated the experiments that the class studied. Jack refused to say anything about his own project, preferring for Davey to see it for himself and let Jack explain it in the moment, something that was frustrating Davey to no end.

As time seemingly slipped by, the full plates and milkshake glass - with two straws - were placed in front of them. Davey went in for a sip of the milkshake, but Jack yelped and made Davey stop. He had a hand deep in his pocket, fishing around for something. “Hang on a sec’, Dave… got it!” He brandished his phone in front of Davey’s face, and told him then he could now take a sip. He was little confused by his date’s actions until he saw Jack turn on the front-facing camera on his phone and captured his own straw between his teeth - Jack wanted a selfie of the two of them and their shared chocolate milkshake.

Davey couldn’t help but groan, and mutter, “you are really making a cliché out of this, Jackie.” Nevertheless, Davey obliged and posed for the selfie, taking a quick taste of the milkshake, which was divine - he understood why Jack came here so often now.

While he was drinking, Jack caused Davey to choke by asking, “Did you just call me Jackie?” He tried to duck his head away from Jack’s gaze out of embarrassment, uttering a small confirmation under his breath. “Because it was really cute, Davey.” The poor guy was ready to combust out of embarrassment and overwhelming happiness that his crush just called him, or at least an accidental nickname, cute. If he looked up, he would’ve been able to see the pure adoration in Jack’s eyes, but he chose instead to pick up his burger and take a bite.

And he was surprised. Typically, vegan meals are as close to kosher as he can get in a typical restaurant, but the vegan burgers he’s had before haven’t been this good. No wonder a happy meat eater like Jack recommended it! He groaned in appreciation as he chewed, managing something that sounded like, “this is incredible,” before swallowing. “Thank you for the recommendation,” he said with a heavy dose of appreciation.

Jack swallowed his bite before replying with a flirty brag, “What can I say, I’ve got incredible taste,” a threw a wink Davey’s way.

He was sure that he would be dead by the end of this date by the amount of times Jack made his heart skip a beat. Or at least, his face would be stained red for eternity.

Like a true gentleman, Jack paid for both himself and Davey, despite Davey’s protests. As Davey was watching him pay, he noticed a a smudge of sauce on his chin. He tried to tell Jack this as they were heading back outside, but they couldn’t quite hear each other as they walked past the blaring jukebox. Davey decided to simply cut out the middle man, swiping a thumb against his chin. Both boys stilled at the contact between them, hovering in the open doorway - Davey on the outside of the restaurant and Jack on the inside. That feeling Davey got when Jack touched his hand weeks ago was back, and it was as intoxicating then as it is now.

Davey felt his mouth go dry as he tried to explain, “you had, uh, a bit of sauce, on your chin…” His hand was still there, cupping Jack’s chin. He really didn’t want to move it, but the shock still wasn’t budging from Jack’s face. “See?” he asked, a little overeager at his excuse, showing the red blob on his thumb to Jack.

Smiling and holding onto Davey’s thumb, all Jack could say was the first thing that came to mind - “You’re an angel, Dave.” Acutely aware of the customers grumbling behind him about the door being open, he stepped towards Davey and allowed the door to swing closed behind him. He took his proximity to Davey into his advantage too, and licked the dried sauce off Davey’s thumb, eliciting a shriek from his date.

“Jack! That’s disgusting!” Davey grimaced, but at least the awkward tension was broken.

“Quit your whining, I was saving it for later! Now come on, we don’t want to be late.” Jack could see Davey wipe his hand against his jeans as they started to head towards the gallery. He didn’t look too pissed off, but actually rather amused. Jack was glad about that, he definitely didn’t want to agitate Davey, especially since they were about to go see a project in which he was a pretty big part.

They mostly walked in silence, Jack was preoccupied with an uncomfortable nervous feeling settling in his stomach. He was suddenly doubting his choice to pull out all the stops for Davey. His teacher told him that it was a great idea and showed great ‘artistic vision’, as he put it. And as a piece of art, it was good. But when Davey was staring back at his own face as an oil painting? Maybe not such a brilliant idea. But all Jack could do is wait and see his reaction - and the anticipation was killing him.

Beside him, Davey could practically hear the cogs turning in Jack’s head. And he understood. He felt the same way before going into exams, and this was an exam of sorts for Jack. He’d normally just plug some headphones in and tune out the world, but Jack could hardly do that while he was walking with him. So he did what he would want Jack to do if he was walking to an exam - Davey took Jack’s hand. It was a little dry from scrubbing all the little paint flecks off them, but Davey had no complaints. It was Jack.

And it was Jack who slowed down a little as he felt Davey’s hand intertwine with his own. Both boys looked down at their linked hands with a soft smile on their faces, and he could hear exactly what Davey was trying to say with the little gesture. I’m here. Don’t worry. The electric feeling at their point of contact died down to a soft buzz as they kept walking, and was doing more to comfort Jack in this moment than Davey would ever understand. He softly caressed him thumb across Davey’s as a silent thank you, and out of the corner of his eye he saw a wider smile grace his date’s face. God, what he wouldn’t do to keep Davey’s smile there forever.

As they neared the student gallery, Jack dropped Davey’s hand and turned towards him, smoothing out his shirt. “Do I look alright?”

You look perfect, handsome, like a dream come true, Davey wanted to say. “Of course you do, stop worrying,” he settled for, as he helped Jack readjust the collar of his shirt. He dropped his hand to Jack’s bicep, and gave it a gentle squeeze that he hoped was comforting. “Now go in there and knock ‘em dead.”

Jack took a deep breath, and took a moment to appreciate the sweet boy that this crazy project helped him to find. With Davey following behind him, Jack turned on his heel, walking to the door and holding it open for Davey. Heads inside turned to see who was entering, a few students raising a hand to wave at Jack, who was right behind Davey. A deep voice to the right of them asked if they wanted a beer or a glass of wine, and Davey turned to face the stranger. He was an older man, probably not a student, and wore very round, very statement-looking glasses. Davey politely refused the drink, and then man moved his gaze to Jack.

“Can I grab his one then, Specs? If he’s not gonna have it?” The older man, Specs, Davey presumed, let out a chuckle at that.

“Sure thing Jack, just make sure Davey holds it for you. It’s a strict ‘one drink per person’ tonight.” Jack grabbed two glasses of white wine, and handed one to Davey. Jack whisked Davey away from the drinks table, and answered an unasked question that he knew Davey had.

“Specs is the coordinator slash teacher of this course. His real name is Spencer, but we just call him Specs, it’s easier.” Davey just nodded and looked down at his wine. That was one question he had, but not the most pertinent one.

“But how did he know my name?”

“I, uh, well…” Jack stammered. It was an easy explanation of course, so why was he nervous? Probably because he didn’t want to give away the fact that he had to spend hours with Specs discussing the painting his was doing of Davey, and of only Davey. “I obviously drew you for this whole thing, and he must’ve recognised you from my drawing. And I obviously named the drawing after you.”

As the students and their guests mingled in the foyer, waiting for the last people to arrive, Davey was introduced to a few of the other students in Jack’s class. They had some strange names, like Finch and Jojo and Romeo, and even weirder nicknames, like Mush and Buttons. But then again, he lived with a guy named Crutchie, so he wasn’t really one to judge. At least with such different names, Davey was sure that he’d remember them.

Slowly the din in the room quietened, thanks in part to Specs hitting an empty beer bottle with a spoon he must have found. “Hi everyone, welcome to all the students here tonight showcasing their work, and to their friends and family that have come to support them. I’ll keep it brief since I’m sure you all want to see the art, but for those of you who don’t know me, I’m Spencer - although you may hear the students call me Specs - and I run this course every year. It is centred around drawing, but you will see some artistic license being taken with that brief as you walk around. I have a note here from Finch that you’re welcome to pick up paper from the pile slash sculpture - and I use that word very loosely - that he created, as there are drawings on every page.”

Jack nudged Davey and whispered, “That’s the one with all the drawings of the rubbish.” Davey just let out a soft ‘oh’, as he tried to keep listening to Specs’ speech and ignoring the warm breath that was ticking his neck when Jack spoke.

“… Some artists posed as students from other classes - “

“Romeo and social psychology,” Jack clarified.

“… And some went above and beyond the brief,” Davey noticed a rather poignant glance that Specs shot Jack on that statement, to which Jack just tipped his head back and downed the rest of his wine. What the hell did that mean?

“And you can see all of that for yourselves. Happy viewing, everyone!” Specs stood aside and pushed open the gallery door to a round of applause from all present, which Jack took as his cue to exchange glasses with Davey. His previous one didn’t last long at all, hopefully it helped calm him down enough that this glass would last the rest of the night.

As they stepped through, The were immediately greeted with Jojo’s piece on the life of a student. She’d copied every form she had to fill out in order to apply for tertiary study, and her loans, also including a bunch of receipts from the local art supply store, and drew one thing on one piece of paper every day - varying between conversations she had overheard on campus to a gorgeous bird that frequented the window frame of the class’ studio space. The explanation she gave on a board next to the drawings stated that although studying comes with a huge financial burden for a privilege that’s seen as compulsory by many, the beauty in the opportunity is often overlooked because of it. Her work had seemed to grab a big enough crowd for the meantime, even explaining some of the finer nuances to those who wanted to listen. Davey and Jack kept moving though, Davey desperately trying to find Jack’s section, and Jack desperately trying to fight the nerves of Davey finding his section.

But Jack’s nerves were relieved for a moment when they found Romeo’s artwork. Davey had always found social psychology interesting, why people did he things they did. That’s why he studied journalism, so he could recount tales of people to a wider public, without all the science-y stuff that psychology required. He found himself particularly enraptured with a rather gory picture of the famous murder of Kitty Genovese. Over 30 people heard her murder taking place, and no one did anything about it - one of the great tragedies of social psychology’s research. So incredibly engrossed, Davey didn’t even notice the shutter clicks coming from behind him as Jack took photos of him. He looked so damned cute with the inquisitive look that would grace his features whenever he was studying or learning something knew, and Jack could never permanently capture it. Until now. As Davey was chatting Romeo’s ear off, Jack had time to finish his next glass of wine and set it on a table in the corner. Davey could’ve talked to Romeo about his time in social psychology until they got kicked out of the gallery, but that was not why he was here. He was here to support Jack, and after passing on his admiration and congratulations to Romeo, Jack swept Davey off to the next collection.

They slowly wandered around, taking in and discussing the art, until the pair turned a corner and saw Jack’s name and his explanation board. Jack could practically feel his heart jump into his throat as he searched for Davey’s hand again. He found it, and after a chuckle from Davey, he was told, “loosen your grip, Jack. You don’t want to strangle my hand.” And thankfully for Davey’s circulation, he did.

Jack’s project consisted of 9 drawings, 6 in the first section and the other 3 placed on the walls around a dead-end corner. Davey started walking forward to check out the first drawing on the left, ignoring those on the right wall - they could come back to them after they went around the corner. It was all in greyscale, except for the bottom right hand corner coloured with reds and oranges and yellows - the actual corner was even burnt off. As he scanned the rest of the drawing it seemed eerily familiar, until he checked out the name plaque underneath, which simply read, ‘Race’.

He couldn’t help but let out a laugh that echoed a little too loudly in the gallery. Of course Jack found Race on tinder, that boy would flirt with a bush if he had the chance. And he had seen Race drunk enough times to know that he always found a chance.

Extremely confused at Davey’s outburst, Jack asked, “Why are you laughing?”

“Did you ever notice that both Race and I have the same high school listed in our tinder bios?” It took Jack a couple of seconds to make the connection, and then his jaw dropped.

“Wait, you and Race went to high school together?!”

“Yes, you idiot!” Davey exclaimed, smacking Jack’s arm lightly. “Let me guess, he told you about his smoking habit, thus the burn in the corner?”

Jack just stood there, dumbfounded, for a moment, before nodding. “Yeah. I guess you really do know Race.”

“And I guess he’s too busy with that Sean guy he’s been seeing to come to the gallery tonight.”

“Sorry, did you say Sean?” Jack questioned, not quite believing what he was hearing.

“Yeah, why?!”

“No reason.” Jack just shook his head and smiled in disbelief. So his roommate was in a casual relationship with his date’s friend from high school… damn, Jack really needed to get out more.

Davey kept pulling Jack along to the next drawing. The one adjacent to Race’s had a crowd of one in front of it, and Jack stood next to her in the middle, with Davey flanking his other side. The other admirer spoke up to the pair who had just joined, noting, “Apart from screwing up my name, Jack, I’d say it’s a pretty good representation.”

The girl stood proudly, Sharpie in hand, and had just finished writing ‘Plumber-‘ into the name plaque which now read, ‘Katherine Plumber-Pulitzer’.

So this was the famous Katherine that Davey had been freaking out about. And he couldn’t deny what Jack had told him, she was gorgeous. But he would be able to gather that just from the drawing too. On the wall, Katherine’s thick brown hair blurred into the suffocating black background with two pairs of piercing eyes, “to represent your overbearing parents”, Jack explained to her. Her eyes were larger than what was strictly proportional for the drawing, but it allowed Jack to draw a silhouette of a girl reflected in her eyes, “to show your crush on that girl in your class… Sarah, wasn’t it?” The final touch was newspaper headlines decorating the collar of her shirt, because “that’s obvious, you’re a journalism student, like my Davey here.”

“You study journalism too?” Davey could feel Katherine’s sharp eyes trained on him, so he shook himself out of his drawing-induced reverie.

“I, yes. I do. But I’m a year or two below-” His affirmation made Katherine light up, and he could see why Jack wanted to draw a woman as beautiful as her.

“Oh hush,” she said, cutting off his explanation that his skills are a few years behind hers. “We’ll have to chat about it sometime, I’m sure Jack can give you my number.”

Leaning over to envelop Katherine into a hug, Jack whispered a thanks into Katherine’s ear for showing up. Jack hadn’t told Davey the entirety of what happened in Katherine’s portrait sitting, and what they discussed. They spent nearly the whole time discussing their respective crushes, and Katherine managed to convince Jack to ask Davey to be his date for the showing tonight - as long as she asked her art history girl out for coffee. And she did so after their next class, so Jack had to hold up his end of the bargain. He didn’t have the guts to do it himself, but knowing that Katherine was going to be there to ensure that he did gave him the push he needed. The last thing he wanted was the very intimidating Katherine Plumber-Pulitzer after his head for being too afraid to ask the incredible Davey Jacobs on a date.

“Now go!” She laughed, while pushing Jack out of the hug. “You have more art to show this boy! It was lovely meeting you, Davey.”

“You too, Katherine,” Davey called, as Jack held onto his arm and dragged him along to the next drawing.

They stopped a couple of steps later, in front of a drawing that looked nothing like a person - at first glance it just looked like a pair of sticks. Davey turned his head and asked Jack, “I thought you were drawing people, not still life?”

“I did. Look at the title.”

And Davey did.

‘Charlie “Crutchie” Morris’.

It quickly made sense. They weren’t sticks, they were Crutchie’s crutches. This was also the only drawing with an extra explanation beside it, stating, ‘Artist’s Note: I got talking to Crutchie one day through a mutual friend, and asked if he’d want to join my project. Upon accepting, he had one condition: that I didn’t make it a piece redeeming his ‘humanity’ despite his disability. Crutchie is a person who is happy to use his disability as a strong identifier for who he is, but understands that not all disabled people do this. After all, the nickname that his friends call him, and insisted that I call him, is based on his disability. After talking with him, we both decided that to best represent him, we weren’t going to downplay the importance of his disability for Crutchie. Instead of drawing his portrait, I drew his crutches, one of the most important things in his life. This is how Crutchie wanted to be represented, as he recognises that this is often the first thing a stranger sees about him. And he’s already asked to have this drawing framed for his living room when the showcase finishes.’

Davey could feel the tears welling up in his eyes, and tried to furiously blink them back. It was such a touching representation of his best friend, and the fact that Jack would create something so beautiful effected him more than he’d care to say. With a quiet voice that surprised Jack, Davey asked, “when did you meet Crutchie?”

“On Sunday, I found some flashcards you left at my place before I left to meet Katherine. I came over to your place to give them to you, but you weren’t there. Crutchie said you were at the library studying, and invited me in to have a chat. We got talking, and that drawing was the result. I invited him tonight, but he didn’t want to intrude on our date.”

Bursting into astonished giggles, Davey was genuinely surprised that Crutchie - widely known as being too excitable to ever keep a secret for more than a couple of hours - didn’t tell him this earlier. “That bastard,” he whispered under his breath, and a slightly shocked look on Jack’s face showed that he heard Davey’s mutterings. “He helped me get ready tonight and he isn’t tell me that he was a part of this! I gotta get a photo of this.”

Turning his back to the drawing , he pulled up his phone and yanked Jack into the shot. Posing so that the crutches could be seen between him and Jack, Davey snapped the selfie of the unlikely trio, and sent it off to Crutchie without a caption. That boy was going to get an ear full and a giant hug when Davey got home.

Jack was able to see that Davey was ready to move onto the next drawing, so he took hold of Davey’s hands to halt him. Standing in from of him and taking a shaky breath, Jack looked Davey dead in the eyes. “Just so you know Dave, this next one is a bit bigger than the rest. And it means a lot of me.” The sincerity in Jack’s eyes scared Davey a little, so he nodded and intertwined Jack’s fingers with his in a bid to calm down the artist. Davey could see Jack’s shoulders sag a little as he sighed, a little bit of tension melting away with the contact. Uttering, “let’s go,” Jack pulled Davey around the corner and braced himself.

Davey knew that his drawing must be coming up, but he was too occupied thinking about the anxious artist beside him. So when he saw a large canvas on the wall, he didn’t think much of it. Honestly, he thought they wandered into someone else’s space, because Jack was only doing drawings on A3 pieces of paper. It was only when he took a couple of steps forward to drink in the details did he let out a gasp.

The painting was of him.

It was a canvas around the same size as A0 paper, with a deep blue background. His portrait was painted face-on, his green eyes crinkled at the corners and stood out in contrast to his pale skin with a fair smattering of freckles. His mouth curved gently upwards in a contented smile, while a gentle wash of pink adorned his cheeks. Of course Jack had to paint him as the blushing fool he was. A light blue kippah was perched on top of his black hair - Jack managed to make his hair look much more styled than Davey could ever achieve. But what truly caught Davey’s eye was the centre of the painting. The painted rendition of him was wearing the same black button up shirt that he wore to Starbucks the first time that him and Jack met, with one vital addition. On the right side of Davey’s chest, there was a heart outlined and filled with the rainbow, and a white Star of David in the centre of the colourful heart. Above where real Davey’s heart would be.

It was beautiful.

The way Jack captured his nuances - his right shoulder was pulled up slightly higher than his left, a habit from carrying a schoolbag that was too heavy - to being able to seamlessly incorporate such important information - his Judaism and his sexuality - blew Davey away. It was far more than he ever expected. He was planning on a simple coloured sketch that took an afternoon or so to complete, with a couple of the details they talked about to be incorporated in subtle ways. The thought of being the painted canvas centrepiece of a drawing exhibition never crossed his mind. Until a few moments ago.

“I remember you telling me,” a gentle voice from behind him started, “about how you were now ‘pretty happy to say that you’re a gay Jew’, and that’s what struck me the most from your portrait sitting. So I wanted that to be the focus. The muted background and your dark shirt were meant to bring focus to this incredibly generous and bright and fulfilled heart that you have. A place for two things that have been discouraged in the past, and well, the present, to live harmoniously. That’s something I really admire about you, Dave.” He could feel Jack’s arms wind around his waist from behind him, as Davey clamped a hand over his mouth, still in shock that Jack actually painted him.

“And I couldn’t capture all that in just a drawing, so over the span of a couple of weeks I convinced Specs to let me bend the rules and paint a portrait of you instead. I had to find a way to make your eyes shine as much as they do when you’re reading a new back, and a way to show how you blush when I flirt with you, and how important both your religion and sexuality is to you. And the only way I could find to do that was with paint and a big-ass canvas. All I can hope is that this isn’t way over the top and scaring you off.” He felt Jack let out a self-depreciating laugh and drop his head against his shoulder. It took a lot of guts for Jack to do what he did. He took a huge risk, placing both the grading of an assignment on Davey and heralding his admiration - and dare he say, adoration? - for him in public. And who was Davey anyway? Just some random guy on a dating app, that an algorithm helped Jack find, that placed their fate on a simple swipe on a screen. It was a slightly ridiculous situation that they were in, but one that also felt incredibly right.

Turning his back on the painting, Davey enveloped Jack in a tight hug, holding onto his shoulders as Jack gripped his waist. They just stood there for a few seconds, drinking in the comfort of being so close to each other. Davey gently murmured in Jack’s ear, “It’s perfect, I love it. Thank you.” He pulled back slowly, and placed a soft kiss just under Jack’s cheekbone. Davey could feel Jack’s eyelashes flutter against his skin, and Jack’s arms gripped him tighter, prolonging the moment by keeping Davey close.

Letting his arms drop to Davey’s elbows, Jack asked, “you really like it?” Ignoring the way his voice cracked in nerves, he was overjoyed to see Davey nod.

“Of course I do, Jack.”

“And it’s not too much?”

“Not at all, it’s amazing. I mean, I’d normally ask you to buy me dinner before you did something like this, but you already have!” Davey giggled as Jack looked down and nudged his shoes against Davey’s - a modified nervous habit of scuffing his own shoes.

Davey cast his gaze down to see what Jack was doing with his feet, as he heard Jack take a shallow breath. He saw Jack lift his hand from its location holding his own arm, and he tucked a finger under Davey’s chin. He used this hand to push Davey’s chin up, making Davey look into his date’s eyes.  They stood in a heavy silence for one, two, three seconds, before Davey saw Jack’s eyes flicker down to his lips. Another second passed before Jack lent in. Another second passed before Jack’s eyes closed. And then Davey felt Jack’s lips against his.

It wasn’t his first kiss, but it was his first kiss that truly mattered. With someone that truly mattered. Jack’s lips were slightly chapped and pushed softly against his, moving slowly. Their noses bumped together as Jack moved his other hand to Davey’s back, the pressure grounding Davey in the moment. It made their chests touch, and Davey hoped that Jack couldn’t feel the strength of his heart beats through his shirt. He could feel Jack’s gentle exhales dance across his cheek and Jack’s hint of stubble tickled his jaw line. He brought a shaky hand up to caress the painter’s jaw, making him sigh into the kiss.

Upon hearing Jack’s contentment, Davey started to smile, effectively ending the kiss. No longer being able to kiss him, Jack pulled back as his date ducked his head to hide his broad smile from the gorgeous man that just kissed him. Jack pressed a tender kiss to Davey’s forehead, taking advantage of the taller boy’s downwards gaze. Davey dropped his hand down to Jack’s waist, and lightly squeezing it in a way that he hoped expressed his complete joy and gratitude for the selfless artist.

They stood still for a few moments, Jack pressing his forehead against Davey’s, his arms wrapped around Davey’s torso while the other place his hands on Jack’s waist. They were breathing into the small the gap between them, the sound of their own heartbeats loud in their ears. Out of nowhere, Jack muttered, “I have an idea” - whether to himself or to Davey, the other boy didn’t truly know. Jack pressed a chaste kiss to Davey’s forehead, whispering, “stay right here,” as he extracted his arms from Davey’s. He turned quickly on his heel and darted around the corner, and a yelp of, “Katherine!” could be heard. An unintelligible but brief conversation followed, and not 20 seconds later Jack came back to Davey.

He walked past his date, grazing a hand against Davey’s, and strided up to the painting on the wall. There was a faint pop sound and Jack bent down to the wall next to the painting, an unpleasant squeaking sound filling the space. Staring quizzically at the back of Jack’s head, Davey had no idea what was going on. Until Jack stepped back with a huge grin on his face, and gesturing for Davey to step closer. As he did so, he could see that Jack had taken Katherine’s sharpie from her and written on the name plaque next to Davey’s painting. More accurately, he had striked out ‘Davey Jacobs’, and wrote two words above it.

My boyfriend

Jack’s confident smile and the pride that was radiating from him would’ve made Davey swoon if he wasn’t still dealing with the after-effects of Jack’s glorious kiss. He just tipped his head back and laughed at exactly how much he’d fallen for this ridiculous man. And he didn’t regret a single bit of it.

The warm and fuzzy feeling that was spreading through his body gave Davey the confidence to step forward, experimentally wind his fingers through the hair at the nape of Jack’s neck, and close the gap between the two of them. Jack cupped Davey’s jaw in his hands and Davey grabbed at the loose sections of the shirt on Jack’s back, other people in the gallery be damned. Their lips moved in a silent harmony with each other, quiet breaths and noises of appreciation shared between the two of them. It was only their second kiss, but they were already learning how the other’s lips moved and how they felt under each other’s fingertips, and it was enough to make them realise how much they had been missing out on until now.

Tinder got Jack a boyfriend and an A on an art class assignment, and it got Davey a boyfriend and a giant painting of himself to hang in his apartment. And neither of them would’ve wanted it any other way.

[kitchenwitchsuperwhovian]

Trouble

Pairings/Characters: Jim, Leonard x Reader, (mentions) Nyota & Pavel

Summary: What happens when fuck buddies find out they have an unexpected connection that could spell trouble for the duo…..

Word Count: 1,806

Prompts: I had the song prompt Trouble by P!nk, Best friend’s brother!AU, and the line “He does dress better than I do. What would I bring to the relationship?”

Warnings: Not much in the warning department but a couple of swear words and descriptions alluding to sex. It’s the first time writing for the Star Trek universe so if there are any grammatical or behavioral mistakes, they’re purely my fault.

Tags: This is for @reigningqueenofwords and @izawrites writing challenge, #StarTrekWinter. This story took off with a mind of its own so enjoy!

A/N:  @leatherwhiskeycoffeeplaid who is not in the fandom but beta’d my story anyway. Thanks for the help. I really needed it this time around.

“Nyota, turn off the radio please. I barely got in an hour ago and I’m exhausted.” Y/N mumbles into her folded arms.  

No attorneys to plead my case. No orbits to send me into outta space. And my fingers are bejeweled with diamonds and gold but that ain't gonna help me now. I'm trouble, yeah trouble now. I'm trouble ya'll, I disturb my town. I'm trouble, yeah trouble now. I'm trouble ya'll, I got trouble in my town.

As the lyrics play softly in the background, Y/N has flashes from the past two nights she spent away from home.

���Name’s Doc, sugar. Let me refill your drink and we can get to know each other better.” says a darkly seductive voice from behind Y/N’s seat at the bar.

“Name’s Baker and if you can answer one question for me first, then by all means, saddle up to the bar with me, stranger.” Y/N whispers sultrily.

“A challenge I am sure I will be more than capable of accomplishing darlin’. Ask me anything.”

Y/N knocks back the last of her bourbon with a hiss and turns to face the man with the gravelly voice and she is not disappointed. Dark unkempt hair, steely blue eyes, angled jaw and lips that are downright sinful to look at.

“My question is….wanna get out of here and cause a little trouble?” Y/N asks as she closes the space between them and takes his lower lip in her teeth with a teasing nip before stepping back with a smirk.

“Darlin’, before the night is over, these legendary hands will have mapped every inch of your body as you scream my name to the stars.” He grins widely as he knocks back his drink in one gulp and slams it on the bar along with a few bills for their drinks. He grabs her hand and hauls Y/N close as he devours her lips with his in an intense kiss that is more potent than the bourbon she’d consumed earlier.

Slamming the door to his place open, they continue to kiss, hands busy removing clothes with nimble fingers as Doc kisses down Y/N’s neck and across her chest. Her clumsy fingers working as she tries to take his pants off but when they get stuck on his hips, Y/N growls and pushes him slightly away from her trembling form.

“You take off yours and I’ll take off mine.” Y/N grins sexily as she unhooks her bra from the front and throws it at his face. She enjoys the look of awe on his face momentarily as his hands freeze on his zipper. It’s her turn to look on in awe as he removes his shirt and pants. The muscle definition on his body has Y/N salivating, wishing for a taste.

Y/N rushes into his arms and lands fairy kisses across his neck and chest, dropping to her knees as she kisses down his happy trail towards his straining erection through his black briefs.

“Fuck, Baker. Keep doing that darlin’ and this will be a short ride.” He growls as he drags her into the bedroom by her belt loops.

Turns out that he wasn’t kidding about having legendary hands. Between the teasing, edging, and finger-fucking, she was surprised that she could walk out the door this morning. Y/N’s neck and most of her chest is covered in dark marks from his talented lips and she has a slight stinging across both inner thighs from his five o'clock shadow. The memory alone has tingles of desire shooting through her veins straight to her core. The only thing that holds Y/N back from heading back to bed is the promise she got from Doc just before she left this morning.

“One more for the road Baker.” Doc moans against Y/N’s clit as she explodes in the most intense orgasm yet.  

“Fuck Doc, those lips should be considered illegal.” Y/N pants as she tries to control her shaking limbs. His chuckle reverberates through her right thigh as he kisses her once and rolls off to the side, his breathing still uneven.

“I have to work tonight but maybe we could do this again, if you want to blow off some steam sometime, Doc?” Y/N asks as she places a gentle kiss on his forehead and grabs her panties off the wall clock.

“Deal, sweetheart. Just put your number in my phone on the nightstand and I’ll text you my schedule. Let me take you home Baker or my mamma would slap me across state lines for not treating a lady right.” Y/N chuckles as she sits to put on her shoes when she sees Doc wobble towards his pants on the dresser.

“So is keeping this light with Doc and Baker as our names okay? I feel like my regular life can’t or won’t intrude if our real names aren’t revealed. You know what I mean?” Y/N stares at his face to gauge his reaction and by the small smirk on his lips, she knows that he’s on the same page. What he says next though throws her for a loop.

“Works for me but just so you know, I will break you down until I hear you scream my real name in pleasure darlin’.” With a wink and a heart-stopping smile, he grabs his keys and jacket and leads her out the door.

Y/N lays in bed thinking of his words and she just knows that her roommate, Nyota, will have something to say about the smile she can’t seem to wipe off her face, not to mention the hickeys littering her neck and chest.

I'm trouble, yeah trouble now. I'm trouble ya'll, I got trouble in my town. So if you see me coming down the street then. You know it's time to go (go-oh-oh..I got) trouble, yeah trouble now. I'm trouble ya'll, I got trouble in my town. I'm trouble, yeah trouble now.

As the song fades into the background, Y/N gets out of bed with a groan as she realizes why she set her alarm so early today. Her best friend JT is in town to visit his brother and they are supposed to all meet up for lunch at the cafe down the street, Pavel’s.

 As Y/N gets to Pavel’s, she sees JT is already there talking with a dark-haired man sitting in the booth. He has his back to her and she races forward quietly and covers JT’s eyes.

“Guess who, punk?” Y/N whispers as she playfully taps her fingers over his eyes. When she finally sees that man he was talking to, she freezes and the world becomes white noise. They lock eyes and with a frantic shake of her head no, he taps JT’s arm and asks who this lovely creature is in a smooth as honey drawl that has her pussy clenching in remembered pleasure.

JT grabs Y/N’s hands off his face and spins her around into a crushing hug. “It’s been a long time kid. How is the bakery business been treating you?” Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Doc’s eyebrows raise in a silent question.

“It’s been hectic but good. I have some really talented workers so I’m able to take off more since opening last June. Who are you hiding, Jimmy?” Y/N asks as she points towards Doc with feigned innocence.

“Y/N, this is my brother, Dr. Leonard McCoy. He recently moved here so he could open his own clinic. Doc, this is my best friend from college, Y/N Y/L/N.”

“Pleasure ma’am.” He mutters as they shake hands in greeting. Y/N has to suppress the full body shiver at the remembered feel of those hands across her skin this weekend.

“So how come you and Jim never gave it a go?” Leonard asks over a bite of his salad. Both Jim and Y/N share a look and with a silent nod from Jim, Y/N answers as seriously as she can.

“Well, he does dress better than I do. What would I bring to the relationship?” With a slightly shocked look on his face, Y/N cracks and starts to laugh in mirth.

“Ha ha, very funny. I can see why you and Jim are friends. A barrel of laughs you two must be.” Leonard grumbles as he tucks back into his salad.

“No really, in all honesty we never really had the inclination to change to that type of relationship. Plus, we are too alike to actually be compatible if we were to be romantically linked. Also, Jim here is still stuck on Ms. Marcus…” Y/N lets slip so the romantic talk is directed away from her pathetic love life.

“I have news on that front actually. Carol has decided to move back to be Doc’s head nurse so she and I are giving it another shot.”

“Jimmy, that’s great!” Y/N congratulates him with a quick hug but her joy is short lived.

“So Y/N, that just means we need to find you someone to put up with you and we’ll be all set.” Jim announces smugly as he tucks back into his sandwich. “Leo, any ideas on who can hook up with Y/N here?” Jim asks innocently as dread creeps into Y/N’s veins. As she meets Leonard’s amused gaze, she can’t help but recall the irony of the song that woke her on this unpredictable morning.

You know it's time to go (and you know it's time to go 'cause here comes trouble). No attorneys to plead my case. No orbits to send me into outta space. And my fingers are bejeweled with diamonds and gold but that ain't gonna help me now. I'm trouble, yeah trouble now.

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior September 18, 2020 – MR. SOUL!, THE GRIZZLIES, MY NAME IS PEDRO, ANTEBELLUM, THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME, THE NEST, ALONE and More!

Usually, I’d be using this weekend in September to wrap-up my usual week in Toronto for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), though I haven’t gone the past two years and this year, I couldn’t get credentials because… well, who knows? You would think a virtual festival would allow more press, especially since there wouldn’t be the cost for attending, but the demand was greater than the capabilities of TIFF’s video streaming service, I guess. Either way, there are just way too many movies to talk about this week, so let’s get to it.

After sharing some stuff about TIFF… how’s that for a big-time fake-out?

Despite not getting credentials, I did get to watch a few of the movies, including the opening night film, Spike Lee’s movie based on David Byrne’s American Utopia; Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland, reviewed here; Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer’s new doc Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds; and I Care a Lot the new film from The Disappearance of Alice Creed director J. Blakeson, starring Rosamund Pike, Peter Dinklage, Eiza Gonzalez and more.

Starting with American Utopia, I wasn’t sure if this Broadway musical would be for me, despite being a life-long Heads fan. It seemed like it could be the definition of a jukebox musical with Byrne just playing his greatest hits and maybe talking in between. That’s exactly what it is, in fact, but it turns out that Byrne is quite a storyteller on stage as he is in music and books. The way that some of the Heads’ oldest tunes have been repurposed for the stage leads to a lively show where everyone on stage is playing an instrument while also singing and dancing. No, there’s no actual narrative or story tying all of the songs together as might normally be the case but the music and stage show more than makes up for it, and Spike Lee (as always) does a grand job capturing it. This will be on HBO on October 18.

Herzog’s latest doc is an interesting one, and a weird one, and one that’s chock-full of eccentric nerds speaking on the topic of meteorites, as Herzog fills the role of narrator and allows Oppenheimer to take center stage in front of the camera, as the duo travels around the world talking to experts on meteors and meteorites, accompanied by gorgeous cinematography and a beautiful score. I’m not sure this may be as immediate as some of Herzog’s Antarctica docs, but it’s another bonafide experience you’ll be able to see on Apple TV+ from November 13.

And that brings me to Blakeson’s I CARE A LOT, a dark crime comedy with an impressive ensemble cast but most of the focus put on Rosamund Pike’s Marla Grayson, a professional guardian and caregiver who has made a fortune preying on the elderly and putting them into retirement homes before cleaning them out of money. Her partner in crime, Fran, is played by Eiza Gonzalez, and things are looking good for them as they are given a “cherry,” in Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest), an old woman with no known connections who just happens to have a fortune in diamonds in a safe deposit boss in the bank. Oh, those also might belong to her estranged son, a crime-boss played by Peter Dinklage, who is outraged by what’s been done to his mother and swears revenge. Listen, these kinds of dark comedies aren’t always for everyone, because it’s really hard to root for Pike’s character, who is about as close to a “hero” as this movie comes. Either way, Blakeson has found a way to milk a rather untapped source in terms of a unique environment for this crime-comedy that ends up working far better than last year’s The Laundromat by Steven Soderbergh, maybe because it’s more about creating interesting characters rather than trying to give audiences a learning moment. (Also, Chris Messina is fantastic in this movie as Dinklage’s lawyer who first confronts Marla, and I’m really starting to see him in a better light as an actor. No idea what’s planned for this one, although it’s distributed by Elevation Pictures in Canada, and they seem to be making a foray into U.S. distribution. (See below)

Also, the New York Film Festival starts this week both virtually and in local drive-ins with opening night being one of three new Steve McQueen films that act as part of his “Small Axe” anthology with Lovers Rock being available to rent for just $25 via the Virtual Cinema starting Thursday. I still haven’t watched anything, as of this writing, but I hope to rectify that soon, so look for some reviews soon.

Before I get to this week’s movies, I do want to say that every once in a while (or maybe twice), I miss a movie or two. Very seldom do I have a chance to write about said movie while it’s still available to watch in theaters (or in this case, digitally), but not this time!

MR. SOUL! is a doc by Melissa Haizlip (co-directed by veteran Spike Lee editor and doc director Sam Pollard, who directed the excellent Two Trains Runnin’) about her uncle Ellis Haizlip, who produced and hosted the semi-long-running PBS show “Soul!” from 1968 to 1973. It was a touchstone for black communities throughout the country for those years, helping to break so many musical artists and poets and other personalities. I found the movie to be quite amazing, mainly since I had never heard of it. I didn’t move to the tri-state region until well after it was off the air, and honestly, I had never even heard of the show or of Ellis Haizlip, so watching his story being told in such a compelling way with so much archival footage, I was pretty blown away. I feel like what Ms. Haizlip and Mr. Pollard did with this movie is as groundbreaking and as important as the James Baldwin doc, I Am Not Your Negro, from a few years back in terms of helping modern-day people, both black and white, understand the black experience of he ‘60s and ‘70s. Mr. Soul! Is now available through Virtual Cinema across the country, and I hope those who enjoy learning new things will give it a look.

Let’s get to all of the new releases… because there’s a TON!

First, I’m gonna start with this week’s “Featured Flick” and yes, that might be considered Mr. Soul!, but the reason I write this column is to call attention to movies you might not have seen otherwise. That’s why I want to draw equal attention to a movie called THE GRIZZLIES (Elevation Pictures), which played at Toronto two years ago and is just now finally being released.

The directorial feature debut by producer Miranda de Pencier, The Grizzlies stars Ben Schnetzer as Russ Shepard, a recent graduate of McGill, who is sent to Kugluktuk at the very Northern ridge of Canada to teach a bunch of Inuit kids, as part of a program to pay back his college tuition. There, he learns that few teens even bother to show up for school, either kept away by their families’ traditions or just their desire to drink and do drugs. This kind of lifestyle inevitably ends to many suicides. Shepard has a hard time getting through to the kids until he realizes that maybe they just need a hobby, so he puts together a group of boys (and one girl) to play lacrosse.

My first year at the Oxford Film Festival (where I saw Sam Pollard’s Two Trains Runnin’), I also saw another excellent doc called Children of the Arctic about the teens from Barrow, Alaska, which is on a similar Northernmost part of the continent where this based-on-a-true-story takes place. Because I’d seen that doc, I was already interested in the setting for what might have otherwise been a typical teacher helps troubled students, not too unlike last week’s John Leguizamo film, Critical Thinking. What differentiates this from many previous movies like this (besides having lacrosse as its white savior sport, rather than chess) is that the setting is so unique, and it allows director Miranda De Pencier to work with a lot of really talented young indigenous actors, many who probably have never acted before. One exception is Boo Boo Stewart as Kyle, one of the kids dealing with domestic abuse from his drunken father.

I also liked Ben Schnetzer, who I wasn’t even remotely familiar with before seeing this, maybe because he had been doing mainly supporting roles; he proves himself to be perfectly capable of being the type of everyman lead we’ve seen other actors to portray. (Ben Affleck in The Way Back from earlier this year comes to mind.) More importantly, Schnetzer is just great with the talented younger cast. Sure, there are a lot of the normal cliches that come with this type of movie including the rousing coach speech to get the team motivated, but there’s no denying that this is one of the better iterations of a what has been a sadly overused movie genre.

I was kind of surprised to learn that this premiered at the Toronto Film Festival two years ago, and it’s just been sitting dormant waiting for someone to pick it up and release it. Actually, I found it quite shocking, because this is an absolutely wonderful and inspirational story that offers some hope in a world that’s gotten so dreary and depressing over the past few months. If you want to see a movie that can get you out of the doldrums, this is definitely one I’d recommend highly. If you can imagine a cross between The Bad News Bears (or even Slapshot) with Whale Rider, then that’s what The Grizzlies delivers.

Another wonderful and equally inspirational film to seek out is Lillian LaSalle’s doc MY NAME IS PEDRO (Sweet 180), which looks at the life and career of South Bronx resident Pedro Santana. The young Latino came from his own troubles going to school in the Bronx to becoming a beloved educator trying to help others using his unique personality and skill set. There’s no denyhing that Santana’s enthusiasm is quite infectious, so he’s quite beloved by everyone he encounters. Unfortunately, he runs into problems, including being systematically booted from his position at the Ramapo school district due to his lack of credentials. He then spends some time teaching in Haiti and gets a job in Dubai but then gets diagnosed with Stage 4 Kidney Cancer. I won’t say more because it’s a movie that, while not particularly ground-breaking in terms of technical aspects, it is indeed quite an inspirational and heartwarming film in the way it tells Pedro’s amazing story. My Name is Pedro will open at the Maysles Center’s Virtual Cinema in New York on Thursday, and then the Laemmle in L.A. on October 2, and then more cities on October 9.

There aren’t a ton of other prominent docs this week, although one of the more high-profile ones is Dawn Hudson’s doc THE WAY I SEE IT (Focus Features), which unfortunately, I received too late to watch and review. (Partially my own fault, to be honest.) It takes a look at two Presidents, Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan as seen through the eyes and lens of renowned photojournalist Pete Souza, who was the official White House photographer and had an unprecedent access to the country’s leaders. The movie will open in select theaters but then will be on MSNBC on Oct. 10 at 10pm Eastern.

Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz’s thriller ANTEBELLUM (Lionsgate) is a movie that’s being released this weekend via VOD after being delayed since April. Honestly, I’m not sure what I can say about it, because it relies so much on its rather ludicrous twist that anyone who watches the trailer can probably figure it out in 15 minutes or less. But I’ll play along. Janelle Monáe plays best-selling author Veronica Henley, who has been having dreams about being back in the Confederate South, working and being abused as a slave by racist soldiers.

We probably should get out of the way that Bush & Renz’s movie actually opens in the Antebellum South on a plantation where we watch a number of slaves being tortured and killed, including Monáe’s Eden and a fellow slave played by the always wonderful Kiersey Clemons from Dope. Jack Huston plays the particularly loathsome Confederate captain who is so awful to them.  About 40 minutes into the movie, we meet Monáe’s Veronica Henley as she wakes from a dream of going through that ordeal we just watched. Got it? So it was all a dream, right? And I bet you really believe that. Again, I promised not to give away the “big twist” but after watching Veronica and her friends (including Gabourey Sidibe from Precious) attending a book conference and Veronica dealing with all sorts of weird people (including Jena Malone in a deliciously evil role) and other strange things, the movie quickly gets tiring. It just takes so long to get to how and why Monáe and the others are on the plantation, and there had to be a better way of making that happen in a more interesting way.

At least the film’s last act turns into a bonafide revenge-filled action thriller, and by then, you’ll be ready to see anything that gets your pulse above a 5. The last 20 minutes are so good you wonder why the filmmakers didn’t seem to care that they were likely to lose people from walking out of theaters – or I guess their homes -- long before the movie gets anywhere worthwhile.

I didn’t watch the trailer for Antebellum until after seeing the movie, but it’s a particularly deceptive piece of work because it says it’s from the “Producer of Get Out and Us,” so you assume (as I did) that this is a movie produced by Jordan Peele or Jason Blum, but neither is involved with it. The trailer also inserts a number of scenes that do not appear in the movie to try to make it seem eerier, and frankly, this being sold as a “horror movie” is probably its biggest infraction. Instead, Antebellum is a weak “Twilight Zone” episode that’s handled so poorly you’re not sure whether to be offended by figuring out the twist almost immediately or offended that these two filmmakers thought they might have you fooled for longer than that. Again, Antebellum is skipping a theatrical release entirely and being released straight to VOD, which is probably for the better.

Antonio Campos, director of Simon Killer and Christine, returns with his adaptation of Donald Ray Pollock’s THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME, which will be streaming on Netflix actually right now! Set in 1957, it stars Tom Holland as Arvin Russell, the son of a religious father (played by Bill Skarsgård) who has come home after seeing all sorts of horrors in World War II. The expansive story follows both father and son but also the residents of a small town called Knockemstiff in Southern Ohio and how they’re all connected through a series of incidents.

Narrated by Pollock himself, Campos has created a brilliant Southern Gothic thriller that’s far more of an ensemble piece than some may expect because the biggest name stars, Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson, don’t appear in the movie for a good 40 minutes! Instead, we follow the story from Arvin’s father Willard and the incidents that lead to Arvin becoming an orphan, living with his half-sister Lenora (Eliza Scanlen). Years later, Arvin finds himself having to protect Lenora from the lecherous young preacher, Preston Teagarden (played by Pattinson), who is preying on the town’s young women. The movie also stars Jason Clarke and Riley Keough, as a couple who pick up hitchhikers for evil intentions, and Sebastian Stan as the latter’s sheriff brother who gets dragged into all the evil-doings in town. It also has Mia Wasikowska and Haley Bennett in smaller roles as two of the beleaguered women caught up in the story.

I went into The Devil All the Time knowing full well that I’m rarely a fan of most Southern-based dramas with a few exceptions, like Dee Rees’ Mudbound. There have been just as many that just didn’t connect with me like Hounddog. Either way, this is a similarly complex tale for Campos to tell because there are so many characters, and it spends quite a bit of time in the past before we finally meet Holland and Pattinson’s characters. This will most definitely annoy some people, but I was intrigued enough by how everyone was being slowly introduced that it didn’t bother me so much.

I’ve always been quite aware how talented a filmmaker Campos is but like with Rebecca and Michael C. Hall in Christine, he also benefits from having one of the strongest ensemble casts put together, as well as great craftspeople -- like cinematographer Lol Crawley -- helping to realize his vision.

It takes its sweet time getting to the point where things start to get interesting, which for many will probably be when Pattinson shows up as Preston Teargarden. At first, I didn’t like Pattinson’s character or performance much, but it certainly grew on me and it’s not the only solid performance of note. Campos has created a movie that gains so much from a second viewing once you know the true nature of the characters. Make no mistake that Campos has kept all the complexities of Pollock’s book for a movie that kept my attention in ways that few other movies have this year with a number of scenes that really shook me up. Besides streaming on Netflix today, The Devil All the Time will actually be opening theatrically in a few cities so check your listings! I interviewed Campos over at Below the Line, and you can read my interview with Cinematographer Lol Crowley over there later today.

As excited as I was to watch a new film from Campos, even MORE exciting, in some ways, is that we’re getting a new movie from his (former?) Borderline Productions partner Sean Durkin, whose Martha Marcy May Marlene was one of the breakouts from Sundance the year it premiered all the way back in 2011. Durkin has returned with THE NEST (IFC Films), a movie starring Jude Law and Carrie Coon as Rory O’Hara and his wife Allison, a married couple with two kids who move back to England for his job, taking up residence in an opulent mansion before things start to fall apart.

I went into The Nest (i.e. I hit play on the screener on my computer) thinking that it was going to be one of those old school British thrillers from the ‘60s and ‘70s, especially once it gets to the giant eerie mansion that reminds you of something from The Omen (one of my favorite horror movies, incidentally). In fact, the movie is more of an intense family drama where we watch Law, Coon and their kids pushed to the edge by circumstances, which one might assume is something being caused by some toxic aspect of their new house, but actually, nope, it’s just everyday life stuff.

For Law’s Rory, it’s a huge deal that falls through as he tries to bullshit his way through it, yet he keeps turning to his wife for money. She has her own problems to deal with including her rebellious stepdaughter Samantha (Oona Roche) and younger son Benjamin (Charlie Shotwell), neither of whom are adjusting well to the move. Her hobby is riding horses, and just bad things keep happening to all of them that all collides on one fateful night that includes Samantha having a crazy house party.

Although The Nest wasn’t nearly as much of a genre movie as I hoped it might be, one thing that really jumps out and makes it worthwhile is Carrie Coon’s performance. There’s no denying she’s just one great role or movie away from being in the Oscar game. Sadly, this one is is not it.

Like the film by Durkin’s producing partner, The Nest takes its own sweet time getting anywhere as Durkin goes for a slow roll approach, but that also allows him to embellish the images with a great score that includes quite a bit of ‘80s music. (I wasn’t sure if the movie actually was taking place in the ‘80s or not.) Although the influence of Stanley Kubrick seems fairly present in Durkin’s The Nest, it’s really more Eyes Wide Shut Kubrick than The Shining, and that might dismay those who are seeking the film’s horror potential. But if you like Eyes Wide Shut and go in expecting that, you won’t be as disappointed.

Another really solid thriller worth seeking out is director John Hyams’ ALONE (Magnet Releasing), which actually played as part of the Fantasia Film Festival a few weeks back. It’s true that there have been way too many movies with that title, but this is a fairly compelling thriller that starts as something that might seem fairly obvious and then goes into so many amazing and unexpected directions. The movie stars Jules Willcox as Jessica, a widow who is moving to a new place when she encounters a creepy guy on the road (played by Marc Menchaca), who seems to be following her. Pretty soon, it’s obvious that he is following her and has bad intentions for her by trapping her in his basement.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Alone, because it starts out so much like The Hitcher or even the recent Unhinged with a woman being plagued by a creepy guy, and it’s hard to watch at times because it gets pretty violent.  I was definitely uncomfortable watching this, since it felt like there was a voyeuristic aspect akin to torture porn that made me not to watch any more of this poor woman's torture and abuse. Fortunately, she does escape only to have to survive while trapped in the woods surrounding the cabin.

I wasn’t familiar with Jules Willcox before seeing this movie, but her performance and all the places it takes her in terms of fear and desperation is fairly impressive, as is Marc Menchaca, who does a great job playing one of those psychopaths who somehow can behave normal whenever it calls for it. (Think more Ted Bundy than Jeffrey Dahmer.) You combine these two amazing performers with a cat-and-mouse situation that combines their acting with some brilliant sound design work and cinematography, and you have a movie that goes far beyond what I expected from the premise.

Even so, Alone successfully explores the real fear women must face every day when they’re alone and feeling defenseless, and it shows Hyams to be an incredibly skilled filmmaker when dealing with a lot of elements. The last act where all of these skills come together, including some amazing stuntwork, is what takes what’s a thriller with an overly used premise and makes it something that’s far more unique and memorable. It will be available to watch in some theaters as well as On Demand.

Speaking of movies with unfortunate title choices, I’m guessing that director Kurtis David Harder was well into making his movie SPIRAL, on Shudder beginning Thursday, when it was announced that the next “Jigsaw” movie from Lionsgate would be called that. Fortunately, this Spiral has nothing to do with that one, the only thing in common is that they’re both horror. (This Spiral actually played at least year’s Brooklyn Horror Film Festival and a few others, in case you weren’t convinced.) In fact, this one is probably more in the vein of Get Out or even Hereditary, as it follows a same-sex couple, Malik and Aaron (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Ari Cohen), who move to the suburbs with Aaron’s teen daughter Kayla (Jennifer Laporte) and begin to experience weird occurrences and behavior from their new neighbors. Of course, Malik thinks it’s homophobia, something he’s experienced in his past when he was put through a horrific experience during his early years exploring his sexuality.

I was pretty impressed with what Harder did with this premise, but just as much due to the performance by Bowyer-Chapman than I was of the director’s ability to build the tension as we learn more and more about the couple’s new suburban neighbors. Spiral is just a really well-done thriller in every regard, because it keeps things rather enigmatic, so you’re never quite sure if Malik’s paranoia is justified or not. Combine that solid premise with a terrific score – definitely one of the themes of this week’s movies – and Spiral is another fantastic offering from the horror streaming network that keeps blowing me away with the movies they pick up that you really can’t see anywhere else.

As luck would have it Harder also produced and co-directed (with Noah Kentis, directing under the pseudonym “Lankyboy”) Summerland, a coming-of-age comedy which I didn’t have a chance to see. (Actually, I did, but from the trailer, it didn’t seem like I’d like it, plus I’ve seen WAY too many coming-of-age movies the last few weeks and I’m getting burnt.) Anyway, this queer coming-of-age indie stars Maddie Phillips (Teenage Bounty Hunters), and it’s a road trip comedy that involves social media (if you remember my review of Spree and read one of my reviews below, that’s another warning sight for me), and it’s available on Demand on iTunes, Vudu, GooglePlay and Amazon right now!

And here’s the trailer!

Noomi Rapace and Joel Kinnaman star in Yuval Adler’s THE SECRETS WE KEEP (Bleecker Street), a thriller set in the late ‘50s with Rapace playing Maya, a Romanian woman living in the suburbs with her doctor husband Lewis (Chris Messina), who thinks that their new neighbor (Joel Kinnaman) may be the Nazi soldier that assaulted and killed her sister during the war, so of course, she kidnaps him.

There’s something very familiar about this dramatic thriller, partially because it takes a similar approach as Bryan Singer’s Apt Pupil, but I feel there were other movies like this that I’m forgetting. The title basically comes from the fact that Maya has kept her past a secret from her husband, who gets involved in the grilling of Kinnaman’s character, who has kept his own past a secret from his wife, played by Amy Seimetz. Even while Kinnaman is tied up in her basement, Maya tries to befriend his wife to see if she can get some information that will prove that her captor is who she thinks.

I’m a pretty big Noomi Rapace fan, and I’m always excited to see her in movies because she tends to be give very dramatic performances, and that’s certainly the case although sometimes, the emotions go a bit overboard. The good thing is that here’s another movie where Chris Messina has really surprised me, just like he did all the way at the top of this column in J. Blakeson’s I Care A Lot. I always found him to be a rather bland and very vanilla actor, but he seems to be doing something to change that, and I fully approve.

There were certainly aspects and moments of The Secrets We Keep I liked because Adler is not a bad director, but there are also aspects that made me feel this would have worked fine or even better as a stage play. As a movie, it’s just kind of drab and predictable as the characters spend almost the entire film yelling and hitting each other. When you compare this to some of the movies above, there just isn’t enough mystery about where it might go, so more like Antebellum than Spiral or Alone despite being a more grounded and less genre-based thriller. Ultimately, it just fails, but it will be in theaters and on VOD starting today.

I knew I was in trouble with Will Wernick’s NO ESCAPE (Vertical)  -- not to be confused with the Owen Wilson-Pierce Brosnan thriller – when I realized that the film’s main character Cole (Keegan Allen) was another one of those social media wannabe stars like the kid in Spree. Surprise, surprise, he is JUST as annoying. The concept for this one is that Cole does all sorts of crazy stunts on his feed to prove he’s not scared of anything, but then he and a group of friends (including his girlfriend Erin, played by Holland Roden) are invited to Russia to take part in the “scariest escape room ever” by a guy named Alexei (Ronan Rubinstein). Bad stuff happens.

There are a few rare times when I watch a movie and wonder how on earth a filmmaker was able to put together what seems like a pretty hefty budget for a movie as bad as this one turned out to be, and stuff like that just leaves me shaking my head. The premise itself isn’t so bad, even if it isn’t particularly original. (Imagine my surprise when I looked at Wernick’s IMDB page and his previous movie from 2017 was called “Escape Room” and not the Sony one either. It makes it pretty clear that this guy is the definition of a one-trick pony. Oddly, he ALSO has a movie called Alone.)

The problem is that Keegan Allen and most of his friends – including his best friend Thomas, played by Denzel Whitaker, who seems to have been doing so well in his career up until this movie – are so effin’ annoying, you never care one bit what happens to them, whether they get beat up in fight with Russian mobsters or end up in a series of death traps, many that are swiped directly from the Saw movies. In fact, that’s basically what this movie turns into once the friends are locked into a Russian prison and Cole has to try to save them. It basically becomes a cross between Saw and Hostel, but with Cole so flippant with his jokes and asides to his watchers, it completely takes away from any tension or scares. By the time the movie starts to get serious, it’s just far too late, because just when you don’t think the movie can possibly get stupider, it gets stupider.  (And seriously, if I have to watch ONE MORE MOVIE that has people commenting or clicking on hearts in a way that’s so unbelievable and unrealistic, I’m gonna be even MEANER to that movie.)

The title of this movie may be No Escape, but there is a perfectly reasonable way to escape this time-waster, and that’s just not to watch it. It’s just another exploitative and predictable movie that lacks anything even remotely approaching originality.

There are a few other movies out this week that I either didn’t get to watch or I watched and just didn’t have enough to say to write a review. Listen, you have nearly 13 reviews above, so is that not enough for you?

Susan Sarandon leads an amazing ensemble cast that includes Kate Winslet, Sam Neill, Mia Wasikowska and more in Roger Michell’s BLACKBIRD (Screen Media), which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year and is finally being released. After a Fathom Events release over the last couple days, it will be released in more theaters this Friday. Sarandon plays Lily, a woman who has been battling ALS who has decided to end her life on her own terms, so she and her husband (Neill) summon their daughters (Winslet, Wasikowska) and extended family for one last goodbye to celebrate Lily’s life before she’s gone.

Kieron J. Walsh’s THE RACER (Gravitas Ventures) was supposed to premiere at the SXSW Film Festival earlier this year, but that didn’t happen. It’s set during the summer of 1998 during the early stages of the Tour De France where Belgian rider Dominique Chabol, played by Louis Talpe, has been one of the team’s better support riders on the tour for the past 20 years, his job being merely to set a pace and never to win. When Dom is dropped from the team (for doping), he has to see if he can accept a civilian life after meeting a pretty Irish doctor, played by Tara Lee.

Next up is Steve Collins’ absurdist comedy, I’VE GOT ISSUES (Gravitas Ventures), which includes an amazing cast that includes Macon Blair, Claire Titelman, John Merriman and Byron Brown, with Jim Gaffigan narrating. I knew almost immediately while watching that this movie wasn’t going to be for me, and that’s all I’ll say.

A few of the movies I wasn’t able to get to include Last Call (available through the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema), The Last Laugh (High Octane), Film Movement’s God of the Piano and from Kenya, Sam Soko’s doc Softie about photojournalist Boniface “Softie” Mwangi, which won a Sundance Special Jury prize for its editing. There’s a thing called Google if you wanna know more about them.

My beloved and sadly shuttered local theater, the Metrograph, are continuing their digital live screening series with their Ulrike Ottinger retrospective that will debut her film Joan of Arc of Mongolia  (1989) tonight at 8pm. Friday, they’ll be screening Eric Rohmer’s The Aviator’s Wife (1981) and then continuing the “Nan Goldin Selects” series on Saturday and then Ottinger’s Exile Shanghai (1997)  son Sunday.

Film Forum’s Virtual Cinema will add Jan Oxenberg’s Thank You and Good Night (1991) today and then Jan Swankmaier’s Faust (1994) this Friday.

Next, we’ll look at some streaming stuff. The latest from Ava Duvernay’s Array deal with Netflix is Merawi Gerima’s Residue, which follows Obinna Nwachukwu as aspiring filmmaker Jay, who returns to his home in Washington, DC, to find his neighborhood being gentrified and finds himself being alienated by his old friends. It will debut on Netflix Thursday as well as be available in select virtual theaters. A number of series are starting up on Netflix his week, including Ryan Murphy’s Ratched, starring Sarah Paulson as the Nurse Mildred Ratched character from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, this series being a prequel to that Oscar-winning film. Netflix is also launching the four-episode docuseries Challenger: The Final Flight, which features interviews with the engineers and crew’s family members from the 1986 shuttle disaster. Lastly, there’s Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, an all-ages animated series based in the world of the beloved movie franchise.

Over on Hulu, I’m super-psyched for the second season of Pen 15, starring Maya Erskine and Anna Konlkle, which I discovered well after the hilarious first season debuted.

No idea what’s going on next week, but Gerard Butler’s Greenland certainly isn’t! I guess you’ll just have to come back and find out.

[olivay-official]

Spiderman: The Day Peter Became a Villain

In the old comics Gwen Stacey blamed Spiderman for the death of her father, and was unaware of his identity. So I decided to write my own little Gwen piece on discovering just who Spiderman is, enjoy!

Gwen Stacey had a perfect life. She had a loving family, an amazing job working at Oscorp, and was well on her way to an ivy league college as soon as she graduated from high school. She also had an amazing boyfriend, Peter, who she was head over heels in love with. He had been there for her through some of the hardest times in her life. On the outside she was someone other people wanted to be but people were too quick to forget what she had been through in the past year. The past year had been hell for her. In a split second she had lost her father and her world had turned upside down. He had died in an effort to save a young child who had wandered into the line of fire between Doc Oc and Spiderman. She blamed Spiderman for her father’s death. To her he would never be a hero, her father was the only true hero she knew, Spiderman was only a show off in a spandex suit.

In three days it would be the one year anniversary of her father’s death. Gwen absolutely dreaded the coming date, she could only imagine the state her mother would be in on that horrid day.

A bell dinged puling Gwen from thoughts of her father. Her order was ready to go. She was picking up a decent lunch at her usual spot ready to eat on the go as she made her way back to Oscorp. As she approached the counter to take her order she noticed the television screen displayed behind the counter. On screen was Spiderman and the Green Goblin battling it out across the city and headed straight for Oscorp. The footage was live.

Gwen didn’t even bother with the food, she bolted towards the door. She needed to get to Oscorp immediately and get everyone to evacuate the building. With Spiderman involved things were certainly going to end in disaster. Knowing her colleagues she knew that no one would be keeping an eye on the news either, making for a problematic situation. Gwen ran the entire three blocks to the building opting for the elevator only because she wasn’t sure she had enough adrenaline to brave over twenty flights of stairs. Once on the top floor Gwen didn’t hesitate to pull the fire alarm. Those in white lab coats looked up from their work completely miffed, after all the Oscorp building was fairly safe especially when using any kind of combustable. They began gathering their things, not even panicked by the fire alarm. Gwen’s heart raced as she climbed up onto one of the empty lab desks.

“Spiderman and the Green Goblin are headed this way. We need to evacuate, NOW!” I shouted out to them. large goggled eyes looked up at me before nodding in understanding. Some began to race towards the door in more of a rush. Oh sure a fire doesn’t cause a mass panic, but a superhero and villain duo will sure clear a room, Gwen grumbled to herself. Gwen quickly crawled down from the desk she was on and began to run down the hall to assure that all the rooms were being vacated. As she made her way to the next room a loud explosion tore through the room slamming her into the wall and causing her ears to ring.

She coughed as she squinted through the smoke. Several people around her had also fallen to the floor from the blast. As they recovered they became more panicked than before, crawling over one another to get towards the door. Gwen stood on unsteady legs peering in to the wreckage. A whirring sound caught her ear, a couple shouts, and a woman’s scream. Without hesitation Gwen stormed into the lab. Her eyes scanned the room doing her best to assess the circumstances she had just walked into as quickly as possible. Spiderman and Green Goblin were circling each other in a pointless match as each took turns throwing their silly weapons. Gwen growled as she looked past them. In the corner of the room chunks of wall and ceiling had fallen on top of a frail woman in a white lab coat. Gwen didn’t hesitate to run towards her. Gwen picked her way carefully among the rubble. The lab had been completely ripped apart, the outside wall was now a gaping hole, the desks were all overturned, chemicals, broken test tubes, and bunsen burners lay strewn across the room.

Spiderman leapt to the side as one of the Goblin’s classic bombs came barreling towards her. Gwen dove out of the way as another explosion rocked her into the back wall. Gwen groaned as she pulled herself onto her feet again. The explosion thankfully however had caused the battle to move away from the girl under the rubble. Gwen hurried over to the woman. Immediately she went to work pulling the rocks away in order to free the woman, she only prayed the woman’s legs weren’t broken. All around her people screamed. Some were still in the lab and having trouble making it out with the commotion the Goblin and Spiderman were causing. Her ears still rung as she desperately pulled and pulled at the fallen rubble. Breathing heavy she finally managed to shove off the last big piece. The woman looked up to her gratefully as she managed to sit up. Gwen helped her to her feet and with a limp she was able to walk. Gwen took a minute to catch her breath which under the circumstances hadn’t been the best plan. Looking back towards the fight she was greeted by an orange and green bomb headed straight towards her. She flinched back preparing for the impact. Spiderman for all his faults managed to catch the bomb in a web and sling it back towards the Green Goblin. The bomb went off sending the Goblin crashing through one of the few walls left in the lab at this point. Spiderman paused turning to Gwen. She refused to thank him, saving her life once didn’t make up for murdering her father.

“Gwen!” He shouted in alarm. She pursed her lips trying her best not to glare at him.

“Gwen you need to get out of here now!” He shouted to her seizing her wrist and leading her towards the nearest exit. Gwen quickly ripped her hand away as if his touch burned.

“I’m not leaving yet! You need me! I don’t see you trying to help these people get out of here!” Gwen snarled back. Spiderman grabbed Gwen by both her shoulders leaning down so their faces were only inches apart. Gwen scrunched up her nose in disgust.

“Gwen please listen to me! You need to leave now! It’s not safe for you here. You just need to trust me,” He pleaded. Rage flared behind Gwen’s eyes. He can’t be serious, She thought to herself.

“Trust you? Like my father trusted you? Yeah that really seemed to work out for him didn’t it?” She seethed.

“Dammit Gwen!” He ran his hands over his head in frustration.

“I’m not going anywhere until I know these people will be safe and I sure as hell can’t trust you to do that,” Gwen hissed. In one swift frazzled motion Spiderman ripped the mask from his head. Big tear filled brown eyes stared back at Gwen Stacey. Crazed hair and a panicked face marked that of Peter Parker. Gwen’s mouth fell open as her mind whirred. This couldn’t be right.

“Please just trust me. You need to leave,” Peter choked out. “I’ll protect them but I can’t do that if you’re here,” Peter’s voice cracked. Tears welled in her eyes. Peter Parker, the boy she loved, had been in love with was the very same man she had despised, had blamed for her father’s death.

“P-peter?” She whispered. She could scarcely breath. Her heart pounded audibly in her chest. This couldn’t be. She knew Peter or thought she did… she thought… she had trusted him…. and all this time he had been… He was the reason her father was dead… and he looked her right in the eye after that… told her everything was going to be okay… suddenly she felt sick.

“Yes, it’s me! Now please just leave!” Peter begged. Gwen’s legs shook beneath her as the world spun with the new reality she was facing.

“You- you killed him,” She managed to get out much to both their surprise.

“No Gwen no, that’s not what-“ Peter took a step towards her. She wretched back nearly falling as she did so.

“It was you this whole time! You came to the funeral!! You looked me and my mother in the face when you told us you were sorry for our loss and all this time it was your fault!! You killed him,” She screamed suddenly. She couldn’t breathe. The world didn’t feel real. None of it felt real.

“None of that matters right now Gwen, please just get out of here!” Peter struggled to keep his voice even. Gwen shook her head. Her heart felt as though it were been shredded. All this time the man who had killed her father had been right next to her. She had kissed him, held his hand, and cried herself to sleep on his chest after the death of her father. All this time she had loved the man who had taken everything from her. It all felt like a lie, and the memories of Peter and her together now made her feel sick. She opened her mouth to speak only to have the words catch in her throat.

The wind knocked out of her suddenly as the Goblin’s hover board crashed into her. Gwen clutched to the smooth metal as it send her hanging over the open air just outside the crumbling building. Gwen kicked her legs in panic her hands and arms struggling to find a good hold on the board.

“Gwen!” Peter shouted desperately as he ran towards the edge of the building. The Goblin let out a maniacal laugh as he gave a little clap, emerging from the hole he had been sent through earlier.

“Well isn’t this a charming picture. Peter Parker and his star crossed lover. Tell me Peter what happens to you if she dies?” The Green Goblin gave them both a sinister smile.

“Don’t do this Norman! You’re better than this, please!” Peter begged. The Goblin’s smile grew.

“Oh I’m not going to kill her, you are!” The Goblin laughed. Suddenly the board Gwen had been clinging to fell and with it so did Gwen. Gwen shrieked released the board as she fell towards the earth below. Thwip. The sound of Spiderman’s webbing came racing towards her catching her waist. Gwen thought about her father in the snap second before her world went black.

There was a moment of relief as his webbing caught her. She was okay! He had saved her! But then as Peter pulled Gwen up towards him he noticed she wasn’t conscious. Panic set in as he desperately pulled her into his lap. He kept telling himself it was okay, he had caught her, she was fine. His fingers fumbled for her pulse. He found none. He put his ear to her chest rationalizing that the gloves made feeling a pulse difficult. There was no heart beat. He put his cheek next to her mouth. She wasn’t breathing either. Peter shook his head as he looked down at the beautiful girl in his arms.

“No no no Gwen please wake up. Please, you can’t do this to me. You can’t! You have to wake up Gwen please,” Peter begged uselessly. He could feel the lump forming in his throat as the tears began to stream down his face. He cradled Gwen in his arms. As sobs racked his body. How could this have happened.

“This is your fault Peter,” The Goblin said cheerfully without a smidgen of remorse in his voice. Peter glared up at Norman through his tears suddenly furious.

“No! This is your fault! You killed her! She was innocent in all of this!” Peter growled.

“Oh you think I killed her? Think again boy! The fall didn’t kill her, what killed her was your web, you snapped the poor girls neck,” The Goblin explained with a satisfied drawl. Peter’s eyes bulged as the reality of what had happened set in. Peter Parker had killed the woman he loved.

The Green Goblin had been right- Gwen’s death was Peter’s fault. Peter couldn’t bring himself to go to her funeral. Gwen’s mother had to be hospitalized, her daughter’s death had broken her mind. Peter had now caused two deaths in the Stacey family within a year and he would never forgive himself for what he had done. But worst of all was knowing that Gwen had utterly hated him when she died. Her last words to him were forever burned into his mind- You killed him.

For the first time Peter felt more like the villain in his own story.

[twdgfanfiction]

Chapter 25 - Escape

After breakfast, Lee was surprised when Ellie snatched him away from his way to the greenhouse, dragging him somewhere else instead before he could even say goodbye to his friends. Christa watched them leave, waving and with a smile on her face seeing the small teenager dragging the man away with no effort or hesitation at all, before she and Omid were forced to go to their jobs for the day, being herded by Luke as he gave an almost missable nod. Lee couldn't help but feel no one was actually ready for what was coming. At the base of the stairs, Lee awkwardly stood there, eyes darting over to the door leading to Jack's office.

Ellie continued to talk to him, her tone tired and yet frightened. She looked around a few times as she was slowly making her way to the doctor's office, like she was afraid someone could be watching, fidgeting with her fingers. She also spoke very fast, Lee barely understanding what she was saying. "Hey, I haven't been able to sleep much last night. How 'bout you?"

"As well as you can on shelves." He replied dryly, though his face was masked in sympathy for the obviously frantic girl. Despite the abrupt start to his day, he could see that something was eating away at her, and recalled her brother, his tone soft as he asked. "Is Alex alright?"

She didn't reply, but her face fell even more as bagged eyes stared downwards at the floor, her hand rubbing her arm whilst Lee waited for an answer. Staring down at her, he could tell from her slumped shoulders and worn face that she was exhausted. Eventually, her voice quiet, she muttered. "He's still in Jack's office. For now, he's stable but…"

She took a deep breath. "Lee, his ribs are fractured and he needs rest! Bill said he can't give him long enough, we're down so many people, and I'm scared that eventually, he's gonna decide that there's no hope for him..." Her voice cracked as she covered her mouth with one hand, trying to contain the sobs. "I can't lose him…"

Taking a step closer, he placed a hand on her shoulder, feeling it shaking under his scarred palm. With a frown, he watched as she looked up to match his gaze. He knew it was too much, he couldn't risk the plan failing because they had too many people, but he also couldn't just leave the kid to die. He spoke urgently. "If needed to, can your brother move?"

"What?" she asked, confused by the sudden question, and quickly answered when Lee's gaze narrowed. "Yeah, he can move with help, but it'll be painful for him. Jack said that if his ribs are injured any more, they'll break and can puncture his internal organs."

"Alright then, listen to me." Lee paused, glancing around to see if there was anyone around that might eavesdrop on their conversation, and when there was no one around, did he turn back to continue what he was explaining. "My group, we're leaving. We ain't staying for that fucker to eventually kill us."

"You're leaving? When!?" she whispered, surprised that the group had already made a plan despite spending a few days in the compound. Yet again, the place was so terrible that it wouldn't have surprised anyone to find that people were escaping.

"Tonight. Are you able to get Alex and meet up with us?" he asked, continuing to walk to the doctor's office with her. After a few moments of thought, she nodded silently, and Lee smiled. "Good. We're being sprung from the Pen when lights go out. Grab Alex and meet us in the loading bay, that's where we'll be smuggling our group out with one of the vans."

"Loading bay. Alright." She repeated, glancing nervously at the door they reached. Stopping, she placed her hand on the worn wood, glancing nervously at Lee as he nodded silently, watching as she took a deep breath and opened the door, walking inside with him right behind her. A quiet thump was all that the door made when it shut, and instead the pitiful moans of the injured and unwell carried through the air. Looking around as they passed through the doctor's office to the patients room, he spotted Jack writing on loose pieces of papers on a small table, Sarah sitting on one of the stretchers with a pale look on her face, a thermometer in her mouth.

Glancing up, he noticed Ellie and Lee standing there, his voice hoarse as he pointed out. "You guys realise that I'm busy? If you came here for Alex, he's over there, but I ask that you keep quiet whilst I'm working."

"Will do." Ellie obeyed, walking over to her brother whilst Lee moved towards Sarah instead. The young teen was pale, with sweat rolling down the side of her face, and as he got closer he noticed that her signature red glasses were gone, glancing around to see them sitting on a metal tray beside her. The illness must have been difficult for her, her face just staring straight ahead without giving any sort of glance or movement to Lee, not even the small wave she always gave him. Worried, his gaze moved from the sick girl to the doctor writing words down.

"How she doing, doc?" he asked Jack, watching as the doctor paused in his inane scribbling, and looked up from behind his glasses.

Frowning, he dropped the pen on the table, the object rolling slightly before coming to a complete stop, before he stood up, walking closer to Lee, and began to explain. "It's nothing serious, thankfully, but Sarah has developed flu symptoms and some signs of a chest infection, most likely from the incoming winter and the fact that she's sleeping practically outside."

"So what are we gonna do?"

"I gave her some antibiotics to fight the infection, but we don't have enough for a complete course. Soon, she gonna have to fight it on her own, but as she's quite fit otherwise, it shouldn't kill her." Jack brushed off, though his tone suggested he felt terrible for the teen's predicament. "I asked Bill that she be temporarily removed from the Pen during her recovery, to give her a better chance, and he gave the all clear."

"I don't want her to be somewhere with people she doesn't know." Lee muttered with a frown, watching as Jack removed the thermometer from Sarah's mouth, reading the numbers and then recording it on his papers. Placing the instrument on a metal trolley, he turned his attention back to Lee, his face pulled in a grim look, as he signed Lee to follow him towards the back of his office, away from the patients.

"Well, first, you're not her father to have a say in this matter."He pointed out, sitting on his desk. "Second, If Sarah stays in that place, chances are that she'll get worse, and that's a death sentence here. She's staying here for the night, then we'll decide in the morning if she needs to stay longer or be temporarily moved into a new room."

With that, he turned his attention to the paperwork on his desk. His voice softer as he asked. "I suggest you go to work," he raised his voice. "And yes, Ellie, you too."

The last part of his suggestion was spoken louder, directed to the girl as she moved away from her brother, a cold glare given to the doctor as she snapped. "Alright. God help any of your loved ones if they get hurt, they'd have to deal with your fucking bedside manners."

"They might have, if I had any loved ones left. Go on now, before you get all of us in trouble." Lee wanted to protest, as the thought of Sarah slowly getting worse from both fear and the infection spurred something within him, this protectiveness that he hadn't felt since Clementine, knowing that the reason she was ill was because of being forced to live practically outside, in the middle of winter, he couldn't help but blame himself. Carver may have forced them, but Lee could have asked, if not outright beg, for Sarah to be moved. She was only a child, and he made a promise to look after her. Seeing her health deteriorate, he couldn't stop the fears of losing her too, and the failure of protecting another child proved too much for him.

However, Ellie pulled his sleeve, nearly dragging him out of the room again. "Alex doesn't look good. The drugs given must have helped him with the pain, but I don't think I can even move him without setting Jack off."

"I can help. I'll meet up with you after we get sprung, and we'll move him together, steal one of the gurneys if we have to." He offered, unwilling to abandon Ellie in the community after giving her hope for Alex.

"You know, you ain't a bad guy, Lee. I kinda wish things were different." She wished, folding her arms as she added. "You remind me of my dad."

"I feel like I'm everyone's dad." That made them both laugh, and Lee felt somewhat happier actually joking with someone. It helped stem the twisting in his stomach. However, they couldn't stand there forever, and Ellie knew this as she grumbled. "We gotta get to work. We didn't finish cleaning the paddock yesterday, and no doubt it's worse today, so we better get crackin'."

The two fell silent after that, the younger of the duo nodding for him to follow her to the paddock to start their work. Looking back at the door, he couldn't stop the worry gnawing at him, and could only quietly hope that Sarah would get through this. Whilst he was looking, he heard Elie quietly mutter to him.

"God, I hope this plan works."

It was around midday when Dwight came downstairs, standing by the door as he explained to Lee that he was working inventory with Laurel until dinner time, before the duo bid farewell to Ellie. Going back in, they started to make their way, he noticed that Dwight was more anxious than usual, and couldn't help but feel like something happened to Kristina. It was the only thing that would explain the guard's behaviour. Slowly, and with caution, he asked. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah… Listen, Lee, that plan you were talking about the other day. Is it still going down?" So that's what was causing his behaviour, Lee thought, and wondered if Dwight had a change of heart over it.

After a few seconds of pause, he nodded. "It's happening tonight. You changed your mind on it?"

"Kristina was actually the one to suggest it. Turns out, nearly dying twice in this place can really sour your will to stay." He tried to joke, but it fell flat as his face showed what he was really feeling. Fear, worry, and he could see some anger at what this community had done to not only him, but the woman he loved. Whilst the two were walking, nearly at the flight of stairs leading up to the first floor, he decided to continue. "I want in."

"You sure, man?" Lee asked, getting slightly worried with the number of people that wanted to leave. "With my group, Ellie and her brother, and now you and Kristina… The group is reaching eleven people."

"It's not gonna be easy, I'll give you that, but Kristina and I can't escape on our own. I can run when I'm on my scouting missions, but she's stuck here all the time." He explained, rubbing his neck with his free hand, his rifle perched on his shoulder for support. The two started walking up the stairs, taking it slow to give them more time to talk.

"We'll be using one of the vans to smuggle people out. I guess, if you guys are serious, a few more won't hurt." Lee conceded, knowing that it was him that told Dwight of the plan. "If you can, meet my group in the loading bay after lights off."

"Lights off, got it." He nodded, and turned to the armoury opposite of the restaurant, standing at the top of the stairs whilst Lee finished walking up them. Silently, he carried on walking to the large shop, the shutters closed with the lock keeping it that way, and no Laurel in sight. Confused, he glanced around to try and spot the woman, and when he couldn't see her anywhere, he grumbled to himself. "Great."

"Is there a problem?" Lee asked, watching the guard as he leaned against the shutters, the former electing to just stand there and watch.

"Laurel was supposed to be here, and I can't just let you in because she's the only one with the key to the shutters. Besides, she'd shiv me if I mess up her order of stuff." Dwight explained, holding his weapon in both hands lazily, and just as those words left his mouth, his gaze shifted to something behind Lee, his voice sharp as he chided. "I thought you were meant to stay in the armoury during your shifts. What are you doing leaving it?"

"If you must know, I was with Kate, looking after her for Alicia. Only when she puked all over my files, I had to give her to Jack." A new voice chided, a Canadian accent laced in it. Turning around, Lee spotted a tall woman walking towards them, her tanned face frowning deeply as she stared at Dwight. "Is this the guy helping me for the afternoon?"

"That's Lee." He confirmed, standing up properly as he muttered to Lee. "See you later."

"See you." After that, Dwight walked off from the two, and Lee was left with Laurel as she moved to the shutters, key in hand. Unlocking the shutters, she pushed them up, giving it a extra push when they got jammed halfway, before turning back to her new help.

"'Cause Kate ruined my files, we're gonna have to take inventory of everything in here and write it down." Despite her hostile tone towards the idea that her files were ruined, she was otherwise a very professional lady, and she adopted a softer tone when she added. "Poor kid. You can never stay mad at her for long, I think it's her eyes. She definitely has her mother's."

Quickly, Laurel returned to her professional state and opened the door leading into storage, Lee quickly following after her. He was surprised with all the supplies that were there; food, water, weapons and even clothes, his mind going back to the clothes given to Christa. Walking in further, he looked at all the containers, and noticed that everything were in places according to what they were, the containers holding the clothes were in one side of the room, whilst weapons were stored in tall metal lockers that had a sign on them reading 'weapons and ammo'. It was all quite impressive.

Whilst he was looking around, he heard Laurel start explaining. "We're gonna start on weapons, then move around the room. You say what we have and I'll write it down. Maybe I can find new binders, ones that don't stink of sick."

As she continued mumbling to herself about binders, Lee nodded and moved over to the lockers to start inventory count, only noticing that the lockers were locked as well. Turning back around, he saw that Laurel was watching him, a composed look on her face as she pointed out. "The lockers have codes on them, just so our weapons and ammo are protected. Here's all the codes."

Taking a scrap of paper, he looked at them and noticed that each individual locker had a different code. "Well, you gotta give points for thinking of everything."

Starting with the one closest, he dialed in the code and opened it, noticing the pistols and knives first. That was what Lilly was talking about. Glancing behind his shoulder, he saw that Laurel was busy with something, her back turned to him, and so he quickly slipped some ammo into his inside pocket, and a long knife under his jacket, positioning the knife in his sleeve under his armpit, whilst the pistol was shoved in his pocket. When taking out the heavy weapon, he was careful not to make any loud noises, not wanting Laurel to find out what he was doing.

"Well?" she asked, Lee turning his head to see her finally looking at him, seemingly unaware that he had weapons hidden on his person. "Are you gonna start labelling stuff off or just kneel there?"

"Sorry, I was just distracted. Lack of sleep." He lied, watching as she nodded.

"I suppose those beds aren't the greatest, but just try to concentrate. We gotta get this stuff counted and written down, and hopefully these binders won't get retched on…" she explained, before looking down at her paper and back up at Lee, waiting for him to start listening stuff off. Turning back into the locker, he glanced at all the weapons that would have been handy.

He couldn't take anymore without rousing suspicion, and so he carried on taking inventory, telling Laurel what was in there as she wrote it down.

They continued this through all the lockers, and then went on to write down the rest of the supplies, Lee not daring to take anything else. He wanted to. The supplies kept there would help his group immensely when they were out in the world again, but it would be better for their escape if he only took what was necessary. He watched as light began to fade from the windows, as nightfall was coming, and soon after he wondered when dinner would be, a knock on the door caught both of their attention. Quickly, Laurel opened the door and, noticing how dark it was getting, asked the guard. "Is that really the time?"

"Yep, I'm here to make sure Lee goes to the restaurant." He quickly recognized Joel's voice, and appeared at the door, noticing the guard turn his gaze to him. "Come on, man, people are already eating."

Nodding, he walked out of the storage, leaving Laurel to finish up, and when he was about to ask her, Joel stopped him. "I wouldn't waste your breath. Laurel's a serious workaholic, and I'm pretty sure she'll melt if she leaves something unfinished."

"I got that from working with her." Lee agreed, before turning his thoughts to food. He was starving, and after talking with Dwight and Ellie, his appetite was starting to make a comeback. Hopefully, his friends were faring just as well as he was, especially Sarah. His mind started to focus on her, and he worried about the plan if she was taken out of the Pen tonight.

His friends were already in the restaurant, and he noted that he was always the last one in, smiling lightly when he noticed that Sarah was sitting with them. Relieved, he quickly moved over to them, dragging his chair out whilst glancing at the teen, his voice concerned as he asked. "I thought you would have been in the doctor's office, how come you're here?"

"I told Jack that I wanted to be with you guys." Sarah explained, rubbing her red nose and sniffed. The antibiotics seemed to have helped her coughing, but she still looked very unwell, her face pale and eyes dulled. She seemed nervous, glancing around, and Lee had to put his hand on her shoulder, a knowing look on his face helping calm her nerves. She wasn't used to this, and he wondered if Carlos even told her they were leaving last time.

He felt his hunger at full blow when Gabriel brought some plates to them, pulling him out of his thoughts. Placing them down, his mouth watered at the sight of cooked vegetables and canned meat, eating away with the rest of the group. When they were done, wanting to get to the Pen as soon as possible, they waited for the guards on duty to take them back. Whilst they were waiting, Lee decided to tell the group about Jack's plan on moving Sarah. "There's something going on that might put a dent in our plan."

"What is it?" Christa asked, shoving her plate to one side as she stared at him with a concerned look.

"Jack's planning on moving Sarah out of the Pen. Tomorrow." That set Sarah off, her face falling as the thought of being separated from her friends got to her.

Shaking her head, she tried to keep her voice low as she begged. "Please, don't let them take me. I want to stay with you guys."

"If it wasn't for the plan, I woulda been happy that she was taken out of that place, but this is bad. Do we know where he's gonna take her?" Walter asked, worried for the panicking teen.

"No, she's staying in the infirmary for tonight, and we can't let it happen. If Sarah gets taken, then the plan gets fucked. " Lee explained, determined to not have Sarah taken from him. It wasn't just the plan, it was the idea itself of being apart from her that concerned him. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to think what they could do.

"Wait…" Sarah suddenly said, getting the group's attention. Her voice not louder than a whisper as she explained. "If I have to stay tonight… I could steal the medicine! Jack would be asleep so he won't even notice-"

"Then you sneak out and meet us in the loading bay." Nick continued with a smile on his face. "That's a great idea, kid."

Sarah smiled at the compliment, visibly ecstatic with being useful to the group, after her doubts to her own worth. Glancing at Lee, her smile widened, and the two shared a smile. It wasn't long before someone came for them, a hand on his shoulder catching Lee's attention as he turned around, seeing Dwight standing there with a worried look on his face. Quietly, he addressed him and the group. "We gotta go down to the Pen."

"Finally. The sooner we get there, the better." Christa muttered, watching as Sarah stood up with them. With everyone up, Lee looked around as they were being herded out of the restaurant, watching as the other survivors around them started to get ready to retire for the night. He spotted Alicia in the crowd, an asleep Kate in her arms, and couldn't help but give her a smile, it wavering when she could only respond with a wary stare. Confused, he couldn't investigate further as the group exited the closing restaurant, walking through the dark open area towards the flight of stairs leading to the ground floor.

Sarah grabbed hold of Lee's jacket, her grip tight, and he glanced down to see that her confidence was slipping. She was terrified. Covering her hand with his own, they quietly followed at the back of the group. Looking ahead, his voice grumbled lowly, concern in his tone as he asked her. "How you holding up, Sarah?"

"I'm fine…" she lied, not meeting his gaze whilst her hand continued to grip tightly on the thick leather. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, she glanced up at the door leading back to Jack's office, before looking back up at Lee with a worried look. Slowly, she released her grip on his jacket, and started to walk over to the door as she softly spoke.

"I'll wait until Jack falls asleep, and then I'll sneak out with the medicine." She repeated.

"Be careful." Lee replied, feeling his stomach knot as the group said their goodbyes to the teen girl, before walking to the shutters leading into the Pen. Dwight paused, opening the shutters, before he watched the group walking in. When Lee was about to follow after his friends, he heard the guard mutter to him.

"I'll grab Kristina and meet you guys after lights out. You guys alright getting outta here?" he asked, glancing into the Pen.

"Yeah, Lilly and Luke are keeping guard for tonight." He revealed, walking into the Pen with a final word. "Be ready."

"Will do. See you later, Lee." With that, the shutters were closed, and the group were left alone. Turning around, Lee couldn't stop the hope that was lifting his spirits, his thoughts thinking about the freedom for him, and his friends. He wondered where they would go. Savannah was overrun, along with Georgia and Macon. South Carolina was most likely Carver's turf, so they would have to leave the state to get out of his grip. Thinking about it, he remembered Sofia's words when she first met him.

Up north. The walkers would be slow, and they'd be out of Carver's reach. With a faint smile, he briskly walked over to the group that were sitting down, and began voicing his ideas, watching Christa remembering those exact words Sofia told them as he explained. "When we get outta here, we gotta leave the state. Be sure that Carver and his men can't follow us. I say we head north."

"North? We'll freeze our asses off up there!" Nick snapped, already holding his arms as a rogue wind blew into the exposed Pen.

"So will the walkers." Christa added, turning to Nick with a knowing look, and glanced around the group as she took her turn explaining. "It's what Lee, Omid and I were planning on doing with that girl we met. Go up north to get a better chance against the walkers."

"What about south? Texas, Florida, Georgia?" Walter spoke up, concerned about the cold. "Winter is nearly here. It must be around December, and we'll surely freeze to death before we reach any shelter."

"We came from Georgia, it's overrun. Savannah, Atlanta, all of it." Christa rejected, frowning as she added. "San Francisco, all around that… it's gone too."

"We don't have to go all the way to Canada, just far enough to be out of Carver's reach. Once we're safe, we can see how it goes, and if it doesn't work out then we move down south." Lee compromised.

The group agreed on it, Nick nodding as he nervously glanced at the door, awaiting when it would open again and they would be able to leave. Lee shared his nervousness, feeling his stomach tie itself in knots, but he kept strong, and with the rest of the group; he waited. It took a while, but soon they saw that the lights in the pen were switched off, leaving them with only the light from the fire to see. During this time, Lee had sat down near Omid and Christa, watching everyone glance at each other, no one daring to say anything. The darkness spread, save for the spotlights in the distance, the gate barely being seen from the thick planks of wood nailed to the fences.

It wasn't until the lights were off for a while before a low scraping sound could be heard, Lee glancing to see the shutters opening slowly, as to not awaken anyone. Behind it was Lilly, her arm upwards to keep the shutters from slamming shut, and she waved with her other arm to signal for the group to come over. Quickly, they sprung to their feet and moved stealthily over to her. Whilst the rest of the group moved out, Lee glanced around, only spotting her, and made his thoughts known when he couldn't see someone. "Where's Luke?"

"He was taken to Carver's office for a debriefing. He's gonna be my new partner for scouting, considering Mike was killed." She explained, her lips pulled in a thin frown as she added. "He slipped me a note. He's gonna meet us in the loading bay after lights out, when he manages to slip his roommates."

"I don't like that. What if Carver's done something to him?" he pointed out, feeling the worry gnaw at him for the younger man.

"Don't worry. I don't think Carver suspects a thing, he's just been debriefing a lot of the scouts because they're gonna be sent out these next few days. That's why I wanna get outta here before then." Lilly tried to console.

Lee just nodded, unsure whether to take her words at face value or not, but continued on for his group's sake. With that, Lilly slipped the shutters back down, and moved to the front of the group as she whispered. "We're gonna go as fast as we can, but we gotta be careful too. We don't wanna get the attraction of the guards. Just follow me and keep quiet."

With that, she led the group along the hallway that led towards Jack's office and the loading bay, moving as quietly as she can. The group followed her; Omid and Christa at the front, the couple holding onto each other to make sure they were never separated. Nick was behind them, his body tense and frightened, ready to spring into action at the slightest provocation, whilst Walter just shared a worried look with Lee. Feeling the knife moving in the armpit of his jacket, he slipped his hand in and pulled out the weapon, handing it to Walter with a quiet. "If something goes wrong, you need to defend yourself."

"I don't know… but I'll try." Walter mumbled, taking the knife awkwardly and kept it tightly in his hand. Removing the pistol from his jacket pocket, Lee tightened his hands around it, feeling the sickening safety that holding the weapon gave him. The world was truly fucked if holding a gun was the safest he felt in a while.

Suddenly, Lilly pressed herself against the wall of the stairs, the group copying her as they straight upwards, following her line of sight. Up above, there was a lone light shining downwards, the source belonging to one of the guard's forehead torch. Lee felt his heart stop, watching the light move closer and closer to him at the end of the line, his foot moving in more to prevent it from being spotted. Watching the beam stop, the group was silent, all of them stiffened, and they could only watch as the light moved away from them again; the guard moving on.

Releasing a breath he didn't know he was holding, he moved away from the wall with the rest of the group. Quietly, he heard Omid whisper. "We better move. I don't want to stop and pretend to ask for directions if we're caught."

"Omid." The hiss from his girlfriend quietened him, and they continued moving along the hallway until they reached the door leading to Jack's office. The sound of it opening made them all jumped, and Lee didn't know that he raised his gun until he saw it pointing at the person at the door. A quiet gasp made him lower it, knowing that it didn't belong to Jack, and he was pleased to see Sarah standing with the door open, her hand behind her pulling something.

Confused, he immediately recognized another face appearing at the door, seeing Ellie standing at the other end of a gurney that had her asleep brother on a finger on her lips, he frowned further as he heard Lilly quietly scold. "Jesus fucking Christ. You nearly gave us a heart attack!"

"Sorry! We had to get Alex outta there, and we had to wait for Jack to go to sleep." Sarah explained, glancing behind her. He noticed that she subtly messed with a bag that was tied to the gurney, a bottle peeking out through a small opening before being shoved back in, she quickly closed the bag and carried on. That was the medicine, he was thankful, knowing that she lifted more than he had thought. She added. "He's worked himself so hard lately that he sleeps through anything during the night."

"Great, let's get outta here." Nick spoke up, glancing around to see if there was any guards. Sarah nodded, opening the door so that they could push the gurney out, Lee replacing her at front as he pulled with Ellie, moving Alex out of the office. With him in the hall, they continued to move towards the loading bay nearby. Glancing behind him, he saw that the boy was incoherent, laying there whilst mumbling softly under his breath. He had no idea what pain Alex was in, nor what drugs was being pumped around his system, but the noises were not working to their advantages.

Christa knew this as she snapped. "His mumbling is gonna get us caught!"

"Leave him alone." Ellie warned, her voice a low snarl. "He's on morphine. He doesn't even know what is happening right now."

"Come on, guys." Omid tried to cease the fighting, glancing between the two as they reached the large doors leading into the loading bay. Lilly raised a hand, stopping everyone behind her, and silently gestured for them to wait whilst she glanced inside. Opening it, her head peered in for a few moments as she looked around, before she pulled out again and whispered. "It's clear. Dwight and Kristina are waiting inside."

Nodding, the group quickly moved in, Lee and Ellie pushing Alex in when he noticed a light coming at the end of the hallway, shining against the wall. A guard was coming. Swearing to himself, he pulled harsh on the gurney, tugging it in and closing the door behind Ellie before they were spotted. For a moment, he sighed, and then turned to see Lilly keeping watch, moving briskly to her as he warned. "We got guards coming this way. We gotta get people loaded and hurry the fuck up."

"Help everyone get in the back, and I'll keep watch. If Luke doesn't get here by the time we've loaded, we gotta go." She pointed out.

Nick's voice reached them as he hissed at them. "What, you're just gonna abandon him here?!"

"I don't want to, believe me I don't, but we gotta think about the good of the group, Nick. Soon, guards are gonna notice that I'm not at my post, and that you guys aren't in the Pen." She explained, her voice quiet to avoid bringing attention. "We gotta be gone by then!"

"I don't believe this. We can't leave him here!" Nick countered, squaring up to the guard. "When Carver sees we're gone, he'll put two and two together. Luke is in danger if he's left here!"

"So what, we risk the group being punished for one guy!?" She snapped.

"Both of you need to shut up, or we'll be caught for sure!" Lee scolded, spotting Dwight loading Kristina and Sarah into the truck whilst Walter was helping Ellie loading the gurney that was holding Alex. "I say we wait as long as we can, not abandon our people, but if it comes down to it… we can't risk everyone."

"You held a grudge against Lilly for abandoning your old group, and what, now you're all for it!?" Nick revealed.

Lee's face fell, and his barely controlled anger bubbled to the surface as he coldly warned. "Watch it, boy, or you'll say something you'll regret."

"Look, everyone's nearly loaded up. I'm gonna open the gate, and then we can decide what we're gonna do." Lilly sighed, moving away to Dwight as she tossed the van keys she swiped. "Dwight, you're up front with me. If something goes wrong, I want you to drive and don't stop."

"Alright." He seemed unnerved with the thought, but he knew that the group overall mattered more. Lee watched as she moved towards the control panel he spotted the first time he came to the loading bay, slipping a key from her pocket and unlocking the panel covering the button that opened the shutters. Slowly, they started to move upwards, and the guard took a step back as she watched them, moving back towards the two when the shutters reached halfway.

"Let's pack up. Lee, Nick, get in the back with the rest of the group. Stay quiet, and we should be fine." She explained.

"What about Luke?" Nick repeated himself, crossing his arms with an angered look on his face. "We can't just up and leave him."

"Nick, please, we'll wait as long as we can but if he doesn't come, there's nothing I can do. I mean, I can't exactly go out and look for him." Lilly pointed out, before pointing to the van with her thumb and moved to the front cab. Lee glanced at Nick, seeing him dejected at the thought of abandoning his friend, and patted his shoulder as the duo moved to the open back of the van. Watching his friend jump up first, Lee spun around when he heard talking going on from behind the door, his heart pounding as he glanced around the van, seeing that the shutters were open. Jumping in, he shut the door down, hiding his group at the back of the vehicle as they all quieted down.

Listening, he waited for any sound that would give away the people's position, but all he was greeted with was silence. Calming down slightly, he turned around to see that Kristina had a flashlight with her, it on to illuminate the inside of the van. Everyone looked terrified, Ellie leaning against the wall as she kept the gurney still, Alex mumbling quietly. Eventually, Christa asked him. "You hear anyone?"

"I thought I did, but it might have just been my nerves. It's getting too close now, we need to go." Lee shook his head, noticing Nick's saddened face whilst Sarah appeared distraught, knowing that the group were gonna abandon Luke.

"We can't! Please, Lee, we have to wait for him!" she begged, staring up at him with wide eyes.

"I'm sorry, Sarah. We gotta do what's right for the group." She appeared heartbroken at the truth, lowering her head as Lee walked towards the wall connecting the back to the cab, knocking on it to signal Lilly that it was time to go. Slowly, the engine fired up, and they knew that the noise would bring the community down on them, feeling the lurch of the van moving as they began driving. The hum of the vehicle did little to calm his nerves, not until they were out of the compound, and so Lee remained standing, glancing around the group to see that they were tired, yet frightened.

Omid grabbed Christa's hand, keeping tight hold in an attempt to calm her down, and all she could offer him was a half-smile, knowing the danger they were in. Meanwhile, Nick was just sitting there, Sarah under his arm as the two remained still, not even sparing Lee a glance as he felt guilt rip at him. He didn't want to leave Luke behind, he really didn't, but it was getting too close to them getting caught for him and Lilly to risk being found out. He wondered what would happen to the man, but shook his mind of the thoughts as they continued to wait. Kristina wrapped her arms around her legs, her chin resting on her knees as she no doubt needed Dwight to comfort her.

"How you doing, Kristina?" Lee asked, staring down at her.

"My leg burns like shit, but I'm alive otherwise. I just hope this plan works." She confessed, her hand caressing her fake leg as she added. "You really think it was too late for Luke?"

"Yeah. We can't risk the group like this, but I did wish we had more time." He sighed, noticing Nick frowning deeply at that. Ignoring him, he steadied himself as the van hit a bump in the road, holding a hand out to control the bouncing gurney, noticing Alex wincing in pain.

"When we get outta here, where are we gonna go?" Ellie asked, staring down at her brother with worry. "He's just gonna get worse without rest."

"We'll go north, outta South Carolina, and hopefully Carver can't get us." Lee explained.

Ellie seemed unsure with that plan, knowing the weather up north, but she just nodded instead. "It's as good of a plan as any. As long as we stick together, we should be fine."

"We should stop in towns on the way, scrounge any supplies we can find." Christa suggested.

"You ain't gonna find much in the towns nearby," Kristina spoke up, turning her head to the pregnant woman. "Bill scavenged all that could be useful when he first came to power, and he's left nothing. We should keep driving until we reach the rural villages, see if we can find stuff there."

"We'll have to find something soon, otherwise we'll starve." Nick snapped, glaring at the floor whilst Sarah watched the conversation, visibly worried for the welfare of the group.

"We'll figure something out." Lee butted in, trying to calm everyone down. "The main thing is that we're out of this place, we should be near the gates no-"

A loud bang rang from outside, and the group were thrown against the wall as the van screeched horribly, skidding around as Dwight and Lilly could be heard yelling. Lee's head connected with the solid wall, his ears ringing as his body was at the mercy of the forces, the sound of Sarah screaming and Nick trying to protect her from the gurney that was wildly out of control. The flashlight was thrown from Kristina's hand, smashing against the wall and shattering, leaving them tumbling in the pitch darkness whilst the van kept spinning wildly out of control.

"Omid!" He heard Christa yell, unable to see what was happening from the lack of light. He feared for their safety. From the cab, he could hear Lilly yelling something loudly, but his ears were deafened, almost like they were stuffed with cotton, and he couldn't understand what was being said. Quickly, it stopped, and the whole group laid there on the floor, stunned.

"Is-Is everybody okay!?" He heard Walter say, seeing the older man supporting himself on the wall.

"No, Sarah..." Nick replied, and it suddenly felt as if his body was disconnected to his mind, not being able to hear anything else, his arms laying there uselessly as he finally heard Sarah crying softly, pulling him back to reality, Nick muttering to her quietly. "It's okay, it's okay. I'll try to stop the bleeding."

She was hurt. That thought made the strength return to Lee's limbs, forcing him to move slowly as he looked around, unable to see due to the absence of the flashlight. Groans came from the group, Ellie yelling in pain as she pushed what felt like the gurney against Lee, the wheels poking into him as he moved around it. Shouting could be heard from outside, and the group froze when someone could be heard from outside the door, light flooding in suddenly and illuminating the crash scene. Wincing, he covered his eyes in pain, glancing around to see his group in shambles.

Omid and Christa were terrified of what happened, their faces looking outside with the pregnant woman stiffening. Ellie was clutching her side, rage in her eyes as her brother laid on the floor beside her, now fully awake, the sound of his loud groaning the only sound they would make besides Sarah's pained whimpers. Turning his head to look beside him, Lee couldn't stop the shock at the sight of Sarah's face bleeding, a shard of glass embedded into her right eyebrow, her eyes wincing as Nick managed to finally pull the final shard from her face. The sound of fabric ripping could be heard as the survivor pulled his sleeve, shredding the fabric to halfway up his lower arm, and pressed the scrap to her bleeding forehead.

"Get out, and don't make any sudden moves!" The person who opened the door, quickly recognized to be Tess, her gun pointing at the frightened survivors. With their hands up, they started slowly shuffling out, all of them being watched by the approaching guards. Lee felt his heart pounding wildly, the sound of blood loud in his ears, and he could only look around for Lilly and Dwight, unable to find either of them.

"Line up, Bill's gonna be out in a minute." Another guard ordered, and watched as the group had no choice but to comply. Glancing behind him, Lee spotted the shredded tires first, the wrecked rubber lying across the pavement along with shards of glass, and the van itself collided side first into the gates, forcing them open slightly. Some of the guards moved towards the cab whilst the others kept watch. Opening the door, his face fell as they reached in and dragged someone out, the low groans coming from the body. His heart stopped, and he could only stare at the bloodied face of Lilly, her eyes squinted as she tried to stay awake long enough to know what was going on.

"We found one!" Joel called, his voice somewhat relieved as he lifted Lilly's arm over his shoulders, carrying her over to the rest of the group whilst his partner glanced back into the cab, pulling out her rifle, a feminine voice yelling. "We got her weapon, Dwight's too!"

"Where's Dwight?" Kristina asked, looking around for her boyfriend as her eyes followed the trail of glass and blood, before she just broke down. A pained wail came as she cried out. "No! No, Dwight!"

Following her line of sight, Lee gasped quietly at the sight of Dwight's body smeared across the pavement, his blood trailing behind him in a long line before pooling underneath his corpse. He laid face-down, his head covered in blood, the red liquid staining his clothes. Staring at it, unable to think clearly, Lee didn't see Kristina attempt to move to her boyfriend's body, being stopped by the guards as she shook her head. "Please, please, he needs me! Please, help him! Dwight! Dwight, can you hear me?!"

"His head's completely bashed in, he ain't gonna hear you." Tess scolded, unsympathetic as Kristina gave up, falling to her knees as Lee kneeled beside her, glaring at the female guard whilst the grieving widow just sobbed to herself. Walter watched this, moving towards Kristina to console her too, whilst Tess glanced behind them, a smirk on her face as she chuckled. "The boss is here."

Lee's blood ran cold, his eyes moving from Kristina to the approaching Carver, his frame towering over the three. Glancing around, he saw the group freeze up like a deer in headlights, none of them knowing what would happen, his eyes falling on Omid and Christa's hands intertwined with each other's. Despite his shorter stature, the former moved further in front of his girlfriend protectively, staring at Carver as the leader stopped short of his wall of guards, glaring around as he watched Ellie and Alex on the floor, the former staring up defiantly at him. After only a few moments of nerve-wracking silence, his voice echoed coldly as he demanded. "Where do you people think you're going?"

No one answered his question, instead just watching in fear. Lee felt Sarah grab hold of his jacket, shuffling closer to protect her from their leader's wrath, and watched helplessly as Lilly pushed herself off Joel, ignoring his attempts to help her. Limping forward slightly, her voice was pained as she gasped. "B-Bill, I-"

She was silenced by Bill raising his hand, ignoring her pleas as he continued. "I gave you people a home, food in your bellies, and safety behind these walls. No longer having to look over your back for walkers, or worse, and this is how you repay me? By causing disturbance amongst my people, by insulting my hospitality, by stealing!? Where is the medicine?"

Sarah crouched lower at the question. Lee noticed this, his grip tightening even more on her ski jacket whilst she clung to him, his eyes quickly flashing down at her before settling back on Carver. After it became apparent no one was going to spill, Carver quickly lost his cool as he shouted. "Where the FUCK is the medicine!?"

Once again, no one spoke, unwilling to rat their friends out. Knowing this, Bill ran a hand over his face, calming himself down as he coldly explained. "Fine, then. If none of you will talk, we'll have to get answers the hard way."

With that, the guards moved from in front of him, allowing the group to see another survivor dragging a body towards them. Lee squinted in confusion for a moment, watching as the body was thrown to the ground, their face down on the ground, before their hair was gripped painfully and wrenched upwards, exposing them to the group. Nick gasped, moving forward as Tess held her gun out, his voice distressed as he called out. "Luke!"

His face was beaten badly, his lip split with blood dried in his stubble and shirt, and cuts and bruises littering his exposed skin. With his hands tied behind his back, the young man was thrown back on the floor, a foot landing on his back as Carver explained, his voice gravelly. "This isn't how we do things here at Howe's. You follow the rules, earn your place, and you live an alright life than you would out there. But you people decided you didn't like the rules, that they don't apply to you, and this is unacceptable. I can be a patient man, but my patience has ran out. Punishments are in order, and they'll be worse if someone doesn't come forward with the medicine."

Sarah twitched, almost deciding on revealing herself to be the thief when Lee's hand clamped on her arm, their eyes locking for a second as he silently warned her. She frowned, turning back to see Luke glancing up at them, his face pained and eyes pleading for someone to help. With no response, Carver glanced down at the young man, his own son, and kneeled down, his voice low and harsh as he snapped. "I thought I could have trusted you. My own son, and you betrayed us, again."

"I would try over and over, if it meant I could get away from you." Luke spat venomously, yelping out as the guard with their foot on his back moved away, kicking him violently in the side. He yelled out when they did it again, Nick trying to rush to his rescue as Tess held him back, his voice desperate as he pleaded with them. "Bill, that's enough! He's had enough!"

"This is what happens when you break the rules. The medicine that you stole, that our people desperately needs, this is the punishment for it." He snapped, glancing at Luke as he raised his hand to stop the guard, the latter obeying and moving away from the groaning hostage. Slowly, the leader turned his head over to Ellie and Alex, moving towards them as the former held her sibling protectively, his head resting on her shoulder as she cradled him.

Kneeling down, Carver's voice was low as he accused her. "The medicine taken woulda helped Alex a lot, especially with the pain. You had to get him out of Jack's office, and that would have been the perfect time to swipe some of our shit for yourselves. Now, I'm gonna give you a chance to confess, Ellie. Where is it?"

Leaning closer to his face, Ellie kept her cold glare as she pronounced her words. "Get fucked."

"Now, that ain't very polite." He replied dryly, matching her glare in intensity as he growled. "I'm going to give you one last chance, and I'd think very hard on what you say next."

"I ain't saying nothing!" She defied him, holding her head high as he stood back up. "If you're gonna shoot me, go ahead."

"No." That made her raise an eyebrow, confused as Carver moved away, signalling to his guards to close in on her and Alex. With her brother suddenly wrenched from her arms, the boy couldn't do anything but weakly call out his sister's name, stretching his arm to try to reach her. Ellie was held back as she fought desperately to save him, yelling loudly as the tyrant added. "I'm gonna hit you where it really hurts."

"Please, no!" she snapped, fighting viciously against the guards' grips, her eyes wide as Alex was thrown unceremoniously by Carver's side. Coughing loudly, he tried to move, to look around and figure out through the haze what was about to happen, and Lee kept a tight hold on Sarah as she screamed. "Carver, stop!"

"You were all fine with throwing people's lives away by stealing, innocent lives! I'm simply returning the favour." Snatching one of the guns from Tess, Carver pointed it at the injured man, watching as Lee fought to keep Sarah from running to his aid, feeling the panic set in as he looked around for help. Staring up at him, the young teen was given a stern look from the adult to try and get her to keep quiet, unsure on what Carver would do to her if he found out.

After a moment of silence, and it becoming clear that no one would still talk, he sighed, lowering his gun slightly. Lee thought for those few seconds before speaking, deciding that if someone was going to pay for this plan, it had to be him. However, before he could even open his mouth, the gun was raised once more, and the leader coldly finished his rant. "The rules have to be followed."

A bang rang through the air. Echoing, it was quickly followed by Ellie's heartbroken screams. "NO!"

Lee was paralyzed. His eyes stared at the bleeding corpse of Alex, a bullet wound bleeding profusely from his chest, pooling underneath his body as he just laid there. He couldn't turn away, and spotted Ellie breaking free from the guard's grip as she ran to her brother's corpse, kneeling down beside him as she shook him. "Why? Why would you do this?!"

"This is just the beginning. Things will get worse until someone gives me what I want!" Carver addressed the group, looking around. Sarah started to panic more, her breathing quickening as she tried to calm herself, sweat rolling down the side of her forehead as she dropped the blood stained fabric she kept pressed to it. Lee knew that she would eventually crack, and tried his best to calm her when Carver snapped, looking at Omid and Christa and how the woman defensively held him close to her. "Grab the pregnant bitch's boyfriend."

"No! Pleas-!"

"It was me!" Sarah screamed, catching everyone's attention and freeing herself from Lee's grip, falling forwards before catching herself. Standing on her feet, she ran up to Carver, tears streaming down her face as she confessed. "It was me. I took the medicine. Please, don't do this."

Carver's hand stilled, his eyes piercing into Sarah's as she couldn't hold his gaze anymore, staring at the floor with her hand slowly pointing to the opened back of the van. "In a bag, it's tied to the gurney. The medicine is in there."

Gesturing to one of the guards, he stood there whilst they went off and retrieved the stolen goods. The group just stood there in shock, all of them staring at the young teen who could barely move her eyes from the floor, her hand holding onto her upper arm whilst the leader just placed his free hand on her shoulder, his gun still pointing to the injured Alex. With a softer tone, he praised her. "Well done, Sarah. It takes courage to own up to what you done, to be honest."

The last bit felt like it was directed to Lee, his eyes narrowing as he was powerless for what Carver said next. "Your friends should take a lesson from you in honesty. They have been very bad as of late."

"What do you mean?" she asked, wary of him as she backed away. "I don't understand."

"They've lied to you, ever since they met you actually, and Lee over there," he paused, turning Sarah around so she was staring at a distraught Lee. "Well, let's say he's been the main culprit."

"If this is about the escape, I don't care, I just wanted to find my dad! I swear, I'm sorry for stealing the medicine!" she tried to apologize, shaking uncontrollably as his grip on her shoulder tightened.

"It's convenient that Carlos is out there, just waiting for you, right Lee?" Carver mocked, smirking as Lee shook his head, anger flashing over his face.

"Carver, don't!" Lilly tried to snap, her voice weak yet stern.

Lee was unable to move as he just turned to Sarah. "Don't listen to a word he says Sarah. He just wants to turn you against the group, he can't be trusted!"

"I can't be trusted?! After all the lies you fed her, giving her false hope?! I told you to behave yourself otherwise there'd be trouble, and now it's too late to turn back." With that, the leader straightened, and released his grip on the young Sarah, his voice cold as he finally revealed. "Your father isn't coming back, Sarah."

She froze, her face stuck on confusion whilst she tried to figure out what he meant by that. Moving back slowly, she slowly came to realisation as Carver pressed on. "Carlos was attacked and he told you to run. Before he could find you again, he perished, and Lee knew it all along."

"Lee?" she called out, staring straight at him as she pressed. "Is this true?"

He tried to find the words, wanting to deny it all and try to keep her protected, but it was too late. Carver revealed it all, and he could only hang his head in shame as he finally confessed. "I did it to protect you!"

"I-I thought I could trust you!" she yelled, her hands balling into fists as tears resumed falling down her face, her breathing heavy as the gravity of the truth finally hit her. "Daddy… No. No, no, NO!"

Her hands moved to the sides of her head and she broke down, bursting into violent sobs as she shook her head, moving away from Nick before the man could go and comfort her. Lee tried to stand, to move towards her and help her through this, but the look of utter betrayal made him stop in his tracks. Sarah stood there, staring at him with a broken face before she just ran, rushing towards the ajar gates and slipping through, ignoring Lee's or the other's yells for her to come back, one guard holding Nick back as he tried to go after her, calling out her name, Tess holding Lee at gunpoint in case he tried to do the same. Carver watched this all, smug about what he had just done. He listened as one of the guards and the wall called out. "I have her in sight! Do I shoot her?"

"No." he rejected, staring at Lee as he continued. "Don't waste your bullets. She'll be dead a day out there, anyway."

Despair washed over him, his face broken as he just gave up, standing there as Carver continued to address them. "Now, this is what's gonna happen. You people will be worked harder than you've ever had in your lives, and don't think you'll get the same meals like before! That ship has sailed. Lilly, Kristina and Ellie, all of you will be tossed into the Pen with the rest of them, as punishment for breaking our trust."

The guards started corralling the group back towards the main building, some of the people going to push the van out of the way to get the gate fixed, and Lee only listened as Carver ordered Tess. "Get Nathaniel. Have him fix the gate by the morning to stop anyone from sneaking in or out."

"Will do, Bill." With that, she left the scene, walking to the back of the compound to enter through the loading bay, most likely to grab Nathan and close the shutters again. Lee watched her leave, before he was pushed by the guard behind him violently, silently told to keep moving. As they got closer, he heard Carver finish his orders.

"Your punishments will start tomorrow."

Carver was not lying. When the group was taken back to the Pen, it was only hours before sunrise came, the sky bathed in greens, yellows and blues. The group were distraught, most of them sitting around pitying themselves over the situation, whilst Ellie just moved away and laid down on one of the beds, her back to the rest of the group as she mourned her brother, Walter sitting next to her as he consoled her. Lee on the other hand, ignored his friends, Lilly, everyone, and stood by the fence that showed the rest of the world outside. Any sight of Sarah was gone, and he felt his heart tighten at the thought of having lost her too. No matter what he did, he was just a failure.

When the guards came back for them, they were given scraps, pieces of leftover bread and cold stew from last night, the carrots and such having dissolved to form a uniform brown soup. Once they had eaten, they were all taken to different places, and Lee, along with Omid, were stuck with Tess. He paid little attention to the jabs and insults she hurled at him, unable to feel any lower than he did at that moment, and his interest only perked up when he noticed he was being taken to the gate. Confused, he stood there, watching as Tess, holding a couple of large axes, her rifle taped to her back, was conversing with one of the gate guards. Glancing at it, he saw that the van had been pushed to the far end of the wall, no doubt unable to be pushed further without the wheels, and the gate was quickly mended as best as it could, a large dent in the metal framework shaped like the crashed vehicle.

All eyes were on him, the guards up on the wall watching him like hawks, and he couldn't slink away from them as he was forced outside. Pushed, he was forced to keep walking as Tess snapped. "Come on, asshole."

"Where are we going?" he asked, nervousness settling in his stomach as he continued walking. Tess ignored his question, instead leading him to a forested area to the side of the compound, the giant wall separating them from the people inside. Unsure, an axe was forced in his hands, and Omid was given one as well.

"What are we meant to be doing here?" Omid asked, glancing around as he pointed out. "This place isn't exactly the safest."

"That's the point. You two will start clearing out the forest here to make more room for the greenhouse. Bill's letting more people into the compound to make up losses, and that means more food." She explained, leaning against the wall as she snapped. "So get chopping."

It was not safe out there. Lee could have sworn he heard walkers growling in the background, glancing around nervously as he was forced to begin chopping a large tree, making sure he didn't chop the trunk in a way that it would fall on the wall. Omid helped him, and after a while the first tree was tumbling down, the sound echoing through the forest. Glancing back, he noticed Tess' bored expression as she yawned, not even bothering to watch out for walkers, but she kept one eye trained on the two survivors, ehr rifle ready to shoot if they even attempted to run.

"Are you alright, man?" Omid muttered, keeping his voice low to avoid incurring the guard's wrath. "About last night… I'm sorry about Sarah."

"She could be in trouble, or dead, and it's all my fault. I failed her." Lee confessed, carrying work on another tree. Omid seemed sympathetic, offering a trying smile in hope that it would help his friend, but they both knew about their situation. It would only get worse. Looking off into a direction, he noticed walkers shuffling in the distance, moving straight for them because of the noise. With a saddened expression, he prepared himself for a fight, and couldn't help but fear for the young girl lost out there in the world, no one there to help her.

Sarah, I'm sorry.