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foxy-exy · 4 years ago

Note

23 + andriel 👀

Bloom (forget me not)

Prompt 23 from here: “No, we’re going to talk about this now.” (and tattoo artist/piercer Andrew AU also came from Syd!!) TW: lots of talk about scars i’ve been mia working on my very-close-to-my-heart and very-long-compared-to-what-i’ve-been-writing-lately aftg big bang fic (WATCH OUT FOR THAT PLZ) but syd hit me w/ tattoo artist/piercer andrew right when my need for just one (1) tattoo and many (MANY) more piercings was highest so here we are (also my aftg server was talking about flower tattoos on jean and i was like oh worm flower tattoos on aftg characters you say??? so they are also partially responsible) also i may have never actually gotten a tattoo before but this is definitely Not How It Works, unrealistic, unprofessional, and general bad clienting but shhh you can also find this fic on my ao3 here!

Andrew’s pencil scratching is the only sound in the parlor — he thinks maybe his phone died an hour ago and with it, his music playlist. He should probably get up and plug it back in.

The cat eyes glare at him from his sketchpad page, though, and he can’t leave the face half finished now. He swings his chair back around to look at the picture on the shop’s computer screen that he’s sketching. God, this cat is ugly. He wouldn’t want this cat as a sleeve, but what the paying client wants, the paying client gets.

He blocks out the nose and jaw, shakes out his aching hand, and glares back at the drawing as he leans back in the chair and shoves the pencil eraser into his mouth to chew on.

“Hey.”

Andrew sends his sketchpad flying and nearly tips his chair over to turn back around. Nobody ever shows up for random walk-ins this early, it’s why he’s usually the only one on the schedule. (They retain more clients when Andrew is not the one who talks to them. Because Andrew is, as Nicky puts it, an asshole.)

Neil Josten stands before him, dressed as plainly as ever in his standard gray sweatshirt and baggy jeans, looking bemused and out of place in the strange context of Andrew’s workplace. He is not a piercings-and-tattoos kind of person. He is a somewhat-friends-with-Kevin-purely-because-they-like-to-yell-about-sports-together-on-Andrew’s-couch kind of person.

“Thanks for not even setting off the door bells,” Andrew says coolly, around a mouthful of pencil eraser, and takes it from his mouth immediately after, because Neil is smiling a little, eyes on it.

“Sorry, I’m pretty quiet.”

“No, you aren’t,” Andrew says, and Neil’s lips twitch again.

He and Neil are distant acquaintances at best. Kevin shares Andrew and Nicky’s apartment for rent purposes as Aaron moved out months ago to live with his girlfriend, but Kevin and Andrew don’t share friend groups. Even so, it is impossible to ignore Neil Josten when he’s worked up and shouting about Kevin’s favorite teams being terrible.

“What are you here for?” Andrew clicks off the cat photo and pulls up their schedule — empty for several hours, until Kevin comes in for an appointment with somebody who wants some script work. He doesn’t know why Neil is here when Kevin isn’t working, they’re the ones who know each other.

“How much for a…a medusa?”

“Fifty.” Andrew eyes him. The uncertainty in his voice is clear, which is…interesting. “I didn’t think you were into piercings, or Kevin would have bullied you into at least three by now.”

Neil doesn’t answer, because his gaze is glued to Andrew’s arms — his shirt sleeves have ridden up to show the patchwork pieces winding their way up his wrists and forearms.

“And…” This comes out more rushed now, clearly the actual reason for the visit, “What about tattoos?”

Andrew pulls back down his sleeves. “Are you asking for pricing? I can’t give you an estimate without any kind of idea of what you’re looking for. Do you even know the style you want? Where you want it?”

Neil drags his eyes back up to meet Andrew’s. “You covered up Kevin’s old tattoos, didn’t you?”

Andrew folds his arms. Enunciates clearly because he’s never been one to beat around the bush. “Are you looking for a tattoo consultation or not?”

“Yes,” says Neil, and his mouth flattens, brows pinching.

“Glad to see you’re so very excited about it,” Andrew deadpans, opens up an appointment entry on the schedule and types in Neil Josten, tattoo consultation: Andrew Minyard. He snatches up his sketchpad and pencil from the ground and curls a finger at Neil to follow.

***

“You don’t have tattoos to cover up,” Andrew says, when Neil tentatively perches on the edge of the lounge seat in the private office. “What do you want?”

Neil tugs at the fraying cuff of his shirt and looks pained. “I just…I don’t know.”

“That really sucks, because you’re paying me to help you figure out specifics on what you want right now.”

“Can you cover up scars,” Neil mumbles, and Andrew freezes. And Neil must pick up on this, because immediately he says, “Never mind. This was a bad idea.”

Andrew catches Neil’s shirt hem before he can completely turn towards the door. “No, we’re going to talk about this now.”

“I changed my mind, it’s okay, don’t tell Kevin, I just thought maybe —”

“I won’t tell Kevin,” Andrew says.

Neil tugs at his hair.

“I can cover up scars,” Andrew says.

Neil looks back at him, and he is very pale.

And then, because Andrew is stupid, “I’ve covered up my own scars.”

Neil’s face does something very complicated, his hands shake a little, and slowly, carefully, Neil sits back down.

***

Neil doesn’t know what he wants, exactly, he says. He says he likes what he’s seen of Andrew’s work, which isn’t all that helpful.

“Abstract,” Andrew says, and Neil shrugs.

“Animals.” Shrug.

“Skulls,” Andrew says, with a hint of impatience.

“Anything,” Neil says.

“You’re my least favorite client.”

“Even that one with the lion back tattoo?” Neil asks, and he is smiling again. Teasing. Andrew knows that Neil was in the house when he was telling Kevin about that client and his ridiculous whining, but he hadn’t realized Neil had been listening.

“Yes, maybe you’ll overtake even him,” Andrew retorts, reaches for the binder sitting in the corner marked Andrew Minyard — full of his past work — and tosses it at Neil. “I can’t work with ‘anything.’ That’s how people get tattoos they regret.”

“I liked Kevin’s black rose,” Neil says, and flips through the book, lingering on a page with more floral designs. “But you do color, too?”

“That is a style I do, yes.” Andrew watches Neil’s fingers trace delicate petals and fights back a curious rush. “Scar tissue can be unpredictable when it comes to holding ink, and it can hurt. But I’ve had experience with it. Do you want something like that?”

“I like these,” Neil says quietly, and Andrew shoves his pencil eraser back into his mouth and turns resolutely back to his sketchpad so he doesn’t have to look at Neil looking at his work.

“Colored flowers,” he says, drumming fingernails against his paper. “Fine. What flowers do you like? Where would this be?”

“Forget-me-not? On my arm?” Again, Neil sounds uncertain, and Andrew turns a glare on him.

“If you want this, you want this. If you’re not sure, I’m not inking an inch of you.”

He decides he hates looking at Neil’s soft smile when he is on its receiving end. This is the first time it’s happened, and he thinks if it happens again, he should check into a hospital for heart palpitations.

“I want it. Here.” Neil rolls up a sleeve, and Andrew clamps his jaw shut as Neil taps a finger to his forearm, covered in circular red puckers of skin and the occasional, familiar raised line of white. Andrew forces himself to lean closer to examine the canvas with clinical detachment, and press his fingers to the skin, measuring.

“This big?”

“Yeah,” Neil says, and that’s that.

***

“Why the hell was Neil on your schedule?” Kevin asks very loudly from the front desk as Andrew lounges across the waiting room couch and doodles blue petals.

“Huh, Kevin, I don’t see how that’s really any of your business,” Andrew says, and scribbles out another draft.

“No, seriously. He’s never wanted anything before. Why didn’t he tell me?”

“Contrary to what your ego says, not everything is about you,” Andrew drawls.

“Neil,” Kevin barks, and Andrew looks up to find Kevin with his phone to his ear. “Why did you come to see Andrew?”

Neil must apparently say something similar to Andrew’s sentiments because Kevin rolls his eyes. “You should have told me that you wanted something. No, I — he didn’t say anything to me. Neil —!” The last part is said to an apparently dead line, because Kevin pulls the phone away with a huff. “I don’t understand why he came to you without saying anything, I’m his tattoo artist friend.”

“Too bad,” Andrew says, and pulls out his own phone when it buzzes.

Thanks, is the simple text from Neil Josten. For not telling him.

Andrew doesn’t reply, but he tucks his phone between his elbows and pretends to ignore the warmth blooming in his chest as he flips the page and starts to shade another forget-me-not.

***

Do you like this? Andrew asks, and attaches a picture of his latest draft.

Almost immediately, the text is marked as Seen, but Neil doesn’t respond for a solid few minutes.

Finally, Andrew locks his phone again, irritated, and shoves away his sketchpad, feeling too jittery to sleep like he should be doing at — he checks the clock — 2 AM.

His phone chimes, and Andrew looks down at It’s perfect and thinks that having such a giant crush on his apartment mate’s probably uninterested friend is maybe really, really bad.

***

“Hey, Andrew.”

Andrew looks up from the fridge. He has been studiously ignoring Neil’s presence on the couch while Kevin chatters to him about the latest hockey wins. But Kevin has disappeared, and Neil remains, and Neil is…looking at him.

“I like it a lot. Like, fuck, really a lot.”

Andrew glares and slams the fridge closed. Neil’s smile only grows wider as Andrew stalks over to the table to deposit whatever leftovers he grabbed (that he most definitely did not look at) onto it.

“So, when are you free to ink me?”

Andrew’s going to die, and Neil Josten saying when are you free to ink me is going to be the cause of death.

“Tomorrow. 10 AM,” he grits out.

“Okay,” Neil says.

***

“Andrew.”

“Shut up.”

“Andrew,” Neil says again, shakily.

“Don’t.”

“Thank you.” Neil stares at the forget-me-not cluster blooming across pinkened skin underneath the plastic wrap, lips parted. Andrew wants to kiss them.

“Oh,” says Neil when he looks up, and Andrew is still too close, and Andrew would usually probably pull back but instead, he dips closer. And Neil would usually probably avoid physical contact like he does with everyone but instead, Neil kisses him back.

“Oh,” Andrew agrees, and starts to turn away, but Neil shifts with him, eyes too intense, and a finger hovers at Andrew’s collar to tug very lightly.

“When would be too soon to ask when you’re free again?”

“Has the tattoo bug bitten you already?” Andrew scoffs, and Neil looks down at his forget-me-not and nods. “You’ll have to schedule an appointment like everybody else. You’re lucky my schedule hasn’t been as booked lately.”

“Okay,” says Neil, and then, “and what about asking when you’re free outside of work?”

Andrew stares at him. “For?”

“What about a repeat of this kind of thing?” Neil gestures between them. “Or…lunch, on me?”

“Lunch, on me,” says Andrew automatically. “You just gave me a lot of money.”

“Okay,” says Neil again, and laughs. “Kevin’s going to be so pissed that he missed all this happening.”

“I don’t see why I have to tell him who I’m kissing,” Andrew says.

“You’ve only done it once.”

Andrew raises an eyebrow and fixes that grievous mistake.

Neil’s answering grin is not soft, just impish, but it does things to Andrew’s heart all the same.

#andreil #andrew minyard #neil josten #the foxhole court #all for the game #aftg #tfc #aftg fanfic #tfc fanfic #all for the game fanfic #the foxhole court fanfic #fanfic #xcazzy #kay answers #scars tw #kay fanfic #kaystuff #ficlet #off the court

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somebodyhelpthenotdeadfreds · 5 years ago

Note

Team Zombie + “So you’re in charge of us freaks? What’d you do to get this kind of punishment?”

When Billy had reopened his eyes, he expected Max to still be there. He didn’t expect the blinding white lights and the smell of cigarette smoke. Hospital. Yeah, that had to be it, he was in a hospital and he could go - somewhere, after he was let out. Dad wouldn’t let him back in the house, he knew that much. Harrington’s family had a pool house, maybe he could stay for a few-

The cough beside him was startling, even more when his eyes moved to the side and saw the Hawkins chief on a slab across the room, like they were in a morgue together as Billy felt the cold steel under his own body.

The smoke flitted up to the ceiling as words were spoken. They were in a low Russian accent, but to Billy it sounded like he was right next to his ear.

“Gentleman. Welcome to the new Project Starcourt.”

Billy could only stare at the ceiling, as the words crawled over his skin as he heard the chief say, “What the hell is this?”

“Relax, you’re very safe.”

“Where are we?”

“Safe.”

Billy heard a curse and a sound like scraping metal and then a grunt. It was loud, so loud, and he felt a cold ache in his chest. He couldn't reach it.

“Now, now, none of that. Won’t want to do something foolsy. Foolish.”

“You can’t keep me - keep us - here.”

He could see Billy? Billy wondered why he couldn’t speak, everything was heavy and pressing down on his limbs.

“Oh, we can. I will warn you both: if you end yourselves before we finish my work, we will bring you back.”

A hand touched Billy’s hair, stroked it down, and Billy couldn't move. He couldn’t speak.

The voice felt like it was coming from inside of him, but it was in Russian and Billy didn’t understand. He hadn’t understood much of anything for a week. He closed his eyes again, and when he woke up this time, he could move, and his tongue was looser.

His hair was gone. He screamed, and not a soul answered him back.

The - thing - flayer? - was out of him. Supposedly. He didn’t hear its voice anymore. He heard the man with a cigarette and a clipboard speaking low and calm to him a lot, asking what happened. Billy told him over and over about the car and Heather and her parents and the sauna and the mall, but it never seemed like the right answer. Every time, he got put back in his room, and heard Russian whispers. The longest time, he didn’t see any of them for a week.

After week, he was put in bed and strapped down, and was put to sleep. He had a nightmare, like he had almost every single night. This time, though, it felt like a tangible thing, something he could push away. So with a hard shove, he pushed at the air and watched his surroundings melt like ice cream on a hot day (pistachio, hazelnuts, cherries; that’s disgusting, Hargrove) until they swirled down into nothing by his feet.

He opened his eyes and saw the man with the cigarette taking notes, as his assistant next to him was screaming, begging, crying, clawing at the wires attached to his head until there was blood dripping out of his skin, his ears, his nose.

The man wrote another note and patted Billy’s head. Billy hated that. He got a pat after sitting for in a cool or hot room. He got a pat for when he was told to read a chart at the end of the hallway and did that pretty easily.

Every pat left him with the smell of soap, hair grease (Farrah Fawcett, if you tell anyone it’s your ass, Hargrove) and iron. Billy didn’t like that. Smells were bothering him now. He could smell something downstairs, where he wasn’t allowed. Something green.

Billy could read his chart if he focused when he was wheeled down the hallway, and it said day 40 the day he and Jim were sat at a table, food on plastic plates with plastic forks. The man with the cigarette sat with them, with his own plate, and smiled at them both. He didn’t have a cigarette with him today, today he had his clipboard. Billy didn’t have anything to say.

Jim did.

“So you’re in charge of us freaks? What’d you do to get this kind of punishment?”

The man placed a forkful of mashed potato into his mouth. “I volunteered. You are the natural next steps after my success with Project Kore.”

“What the hell is that, Matvei?”

Matvei. A name. That was good. Billy had been calling him fucker in his head for the past 40 days when he wasn’t pumped full of drugs.

“You have to introduce your pets slowly, Jim. You understand that, didn’t you have any growing up?”

A dog. Billy had a dog once. Neil got rid of it after Mama left. It was fluffy, yellow, and yipped instead of barked. Mama would always play with it, sing it Janis Joplin songs as she cleaned the kitchen.

“Billy, eat your tray.”

Billy wasn't listening. He was thinking about running on the beach, not after the dog or after Mama, or away from Neil. Just - running, and running, and running, towards humming.

Take another little piece of my heart, baby!

He stepped in a dip in the sand and it swallowed him like quicksand, and suddenly he was somewhere surrounded by green. The green he could smell from his room. A mix of fresh salad greens, the pine that covered the shit smell in Hawkins (it doesn’t always smell like shit, Hargrove!) and dirt. He kept walking towards the song, and stopped when a hand came up and brushed a leaf away from their face.

It was a girl. She had freckles, short red hair that curled. Her skin was slightly green, not like it was rotten, just overripe. She was humming Janice Joplin. The plants curled around her to keep her out of Billy’s view.

She was alone.

“I can hear you,” he spoke to the green.

The leaves were brushed back, and she stared through him. Not at him. Through him.

“But I’m dead.”

“I’m not dead, and I can see you. I can see - I can see so much now. I can hear everything now.”

“Did you die?”

“I don’t - think so. Something did.”

“Did it touch you, too?”

Billy nodded, but she didn’t react. So he spoke. “Yes. It went through me. What about you?”

“They said one of me died. Didn’t know there were more than one. I’m just - here. They didn’t know what I know.”

“What do you know?”

“They don’t know I can remember.”

“Remember what?”

“My name. My life. My death. The pool, at Steve Harrington’s.”

Steve.

“You know him.”

“Do you?”

Yes.

“Why are we here?”

“They want guides in and out. Like guides for Everest, you know? Sometimes I get those books to read.”

“Guides to - the Upside Down? What do they want?”

“To open the Gate again. To let it out. I saw you, my last trip, to get the - the thing.”

“Dem-demagorgan.”

“It was using you. And now they’re using you, too. And Hopper. I saw him once down there. It’s inside of us.”

“Nobody tells me what to do. Not anymore,” Billy snarled.

The girl’s eyes lit up, like petals opening.

“We can get out.”

“How?”

“Come down here again, and we can work out a plan. Somehow. I’m - I’m Barb - what’s your-”

Then Billy was rewinding his memory, his sight, he was running backwards out of the green, back down the beach, until his head rolled forward and he was staring at Matvei, who wrote another note while cocking his head to the side.

“Billy, welcome back to the land of the living. What did you see?”

“I’m not going down there,” Billy told him, fingernails cutting into his skin. “You can’t make me.”

Matvei sat down his pen, removed a needle from inside of his coat, and smiled at him. The way Neil did right before the dog left, before he announced the move, before he broke Billy’s jaw after he caught him with Roger Lee back in Santa Mon-

Billy focused all of that blackness forward, but Matvei didn’t stop. Billy focused his hearing, and heard a high frequency from the man’s earpiece that made him wince and shrink back, but then Jim’s arm was covering him, snapping at Matvei. “What do you think you’re doing? You want to put someone down there, send me.”

“I’m sorry, Chief,” the man mocked. “But you and I know that magnets are useless in the cold, unfortunately. Alice here and Dorothy downstairs are our only options.”

Billy heard Barb’s voice from downstairs. Get him to put you down here so we can get out.

Billy pushed Hopper lightly and the man flew into the table easily. Billy knew he’d been stronger since he woke up from the Flayer. Matvei wrote another note. Billy heard him whisper about blood tests and injecting another text subject with the creature’s matter. But Billy looked at him with as blank a look as he could muster. “I want to go.”

Matvei smiled, and patted his head again. Billy felt like biting it off.

Then he was strapped down into a wheelchair and brought into the green again. Barb was nestled in a corner, sketching a crude map that could not be deciphered.

“Dorothy,” Matvei said with a cheery smile, smoothing her hair back so she had to look up at him and Billy. “Meet Alice. You’ll both be going in tomorrow, yes?”

“Yes,” she nodded, picking at the dirt under her fingernails. One of the guard dogs started barking, but Billy noticed when she let out a near-silent shhh then they were quiet.

They were left alone, and Barb told him sometimes she could feel what the dogs were thinking. Like they could understand her. They both heard too much, all the time.

Jim was put in his own room again, after the small satisfaction of turning all the thumbtacks in the hallway board onto a passing guard. A sharp electric jolt had gotten him to the ground, and Matvei calmly explained how he was to be their tether when they went down.

“If you lose either of my pets,” Matvei told him, tapping his nose like a bad dog sniffing the trash. “I will erase you.

Hopper couldn’t reach him as he left the room, stuck watching some Disney movie playing at full blast in his cell so he couldn’t sleep.

Then he heard a voice.

Jim.

“Kid?”

We’re going to get out.

“Who?”

All three of us.

“By clicking your heels down there?”

Do you trust us?

Hopper scrubbed the side of his face, missing the hair tie around his wrist. “I don’t have a choice, do I?”

No place like home, right?

#stranger things #billy hargrove #jim hopper #barb holland #harringrove #agentmarymargaretskitz

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writingpuddle · 6 years ago

Note

anything with baby neil is my life blood right now, like de aged to four or five and just so precious and doe eyed and everyone can love on him like he deserved to have!

*shows up two months late with starbucks*

I have no idea if this is what you were looking for anon, butI sure did have fun writing it. also on AO3

—

“So,” Nicky said, huddling at the doorway withthe others. “This is fun!”

“Nicky,” Dan hissed. “Not the time!”

A pair of wide blue eyes poppedup behind the couch. Dan tried for a friendly smile, but the eyes dropped backdown the second they spotted her.

“What? It’s been awhile sincewe’ve all hung out with the ickle newbies around—”

“How the hell did this happen?” Allison demanded.

“I don’t know!” Kevin said. “Oneminute I was in the bedroom watching videos and the next moment they were—like that.”

His voice rose shrilly towardsthe end. “Shhh,” Dan said, hearing a scuffle behind the couch. “They definitelydidn’t recognize you?”

“No,” Kevin whispered, staringat the room more fearfully than Dan thought a pair of six-year-olds warranted.To be fair, she was currently repressing her own panic pretty hard. “They sawme and scattered. Andrew’s barricaded himself in the bathroom.”

“Okay,” Dan said, lookingaround. Even Renee looked incredibly off-balance. She was going to have to keepthis together or it wouldn’t be long before the whole team was in hysterics.“Okay, who here has experience with kids?”

The only thing that could’vemade the following silence more resounding was if crickets had chirped.

“None of you?” Dan said. “Fuck.”She covered her mouth, holding out a hand towards the child behind the couch.“No, don’t listen to me, don’t—”

“Dan, I’m pretty sure Neil hassaid a hell of a lot worse than that—”

“He doesn’t remember thatthough!” Dan rubbed her hand over her short hair, taking a fortifying breath.“Alright, Kevin, call Coach, tell him to get his ass here as fast as possible.”Then maybe she could have a proper meltdown. “Allison, try and look up someonewho might have expertise in this kind of—whatever.Renee, try to lure Andrew out. Matt, you’re with me.”

“Oh, let me help!” Nicky said.“I’m sure I’m great with kids!”

“I think they’re going to need abit more subtlety, Nicky.”

“Come on! Don’t forget Ipractically raised Andrew and Aaron, and they turned out alright!”

The others just stared at him.Nicky deflated a little. “Alright, you may have a point.”

“Just…order food or something.Keep it simple, kids don’t like fancy stuff.”

Nicky nodded, eager to help. Dantook another deep breath, and stepped into the living room.

She tucked herself in beside thecouch, crouching down to seem less frightening. “Hey, there,” she said, andwinced internally at the horrible, cutesy voice coming out of her mouth. Mostof her experience with kids had been her aunt’s squalling baby.

The tiny child huddled behindthe couch stared at her, wide-eyed. Dan didn’t have a good sense of thesethings, but he couldn’t have been much more than four, still round-cheeked andchubby. “It’s okay,” she said. “You’re safe. Do you know how you got here?”

Toddler-Neil shrank a little bitfurther. “Where’s my mommy?”

Dan inhaled sharply, her chestsqueezing. “She’s not here right now, but we’re taking care of you right now.My name is Dan, this is Matt.”

“Hi!” Matt said, with a big grinand a wave.

The little boy’s eyes jumped toMatt and he flinched, shrinking behind the back of the couch. “Oh no, Neil,it’s okay,” Matt said hurriedly. “Shh. Shh.”

“I want my mommy,” Neilwhimpered, squeezing into a tight ball.

“I know, sweetie, I know,” Dansaid, gesturing Matt to get back. He backed away, drooping. “Do you wantsomething to drink? Some juice?”

“I want my mommy!”

“She’s going to be here soon,”Dan lied. “Why don’t you come watch TV with us?”

A soft tap came at her shoulder.She looked up, and Nicky held out a glass of milk with a shrug. She acceptedit, turning back to little Neil. “Hey, Nicky got you some milk. Isn’t thatnice?”

Neil’s face screwed up, hischubby cheeks growing redder.

“Oh, no, Neil, shh. It’s okay.”

“My name’s not Neil!”

“Oh,” she said dumbly, glancingaround for help.

“Nathaniel,” Aaron supplied fromwhere he stood behind the kitchen counter. Dan supposed this was all probably prettyshocking to him too, considering his twin was also shrunk, but right now sheneeded to focus on the immediate problem.

“Right. Nathaniel.” Shegrimaced. The memory of Neil’s flinch whenever the name was spoken made hermouth taste foul. “Can I call you Nate?”

Neil’s big bottom lip trembledas he watched her. “Lola calls me Natty.”

“Who’s—” She stopped, spottingMatt’s desperate gesture from the corner of his eye.

He tapped his finger to hischeek. “She’s the one that—”

“Right. Okay. Nate sounds good,right? How old are you, Nate?”

“Four.”

“Wow. You must know a lot ofcool stuff by now. Um.” Fuck. Oh, fuckit had been a long time since she talked to kids. “Do you play Exy?”

Aaron made an exasperated noise,but it was the exact right thing to say. Neil’s whole face lit up, starry eyed.“Exy is the best!”

“It’s totally the best!” sheenthused. “Can I tell you something cool?”

Neil nodded hard, his curlsbobbing and falling into his face.

“We all play on an Exy teamtogether. I’m the team captain!”

“Are you good?” Neil demanded.

“We’re the best.”

“Wow,” Neil said, scootingforward a few inches. “I wanna play, but mommy says I’m too little.”

“You are very little,” Dan saidin a serious tone.

“Am not!” Neil said indignantly.“I’m four.”

“Sorry. I’m sure you’re very bigfor a four-year-old.

Neil scrunched up his face, alittle pouty. “Not little.”

Dan actually smiled at his tinysulk. “Are you hungry?”

Neil picked at the carpet.“Yeah.”

Dan shot an inquiring glanceover at Nicky. “Pizza’s coming in half an hour,” he said.

She turned back to Neil. “Do youlike pizza?”

“I guess.”

“Okay. Is there something you dolike?”

Neil’s shoulders hunchednervously. “Mommy says I should eat whatever she says.”

Dan had to physically restrainthe anger that surged through her. How dare that woman treat Neil—

She was dead, Dan remindedherself. Neil’s mother was dead, and nobody was going to hurt him ever again.

“Well, mommy isn’t here rightnow, so you can eat anything you want.”

Neil’s eyes peeked up at herfrom under his hair. “Anything?”

“Yup.”

He picked at the carpet foranother couple seconds. Finally, he whispered, “Hotdogs.”

“Okay. Hotdogs it is. Nicky, dowe need to do a grocery run?”

Nicky ran to the freezer andflung it open. “Uhhh, so we’ve got burgers—”

“Neil—sorry, Nate wantshotdogs.”

“Okay, I’ll just—” He paused.“So would it be wrong of me to take Andrew’s car, considering the only twodrivers should definitely not have their licenses right now?”

“Nicky,” Dan growled.

“Right! I’m off!”

“And get some toys or somethingwhile you’re out.”

“Got it. Aaron, come with?”

Aaron looked deeplyuncomfortable, but he nodded.

When the door closed behindthem, Dan settled back against the side of the couch, holding her arms out toNeil. “Okay, so we’ll make hotdogs soon. Want to watch TV?”

Neil stared at her for a longmoment, then abruptly threw himself into her arms, latching onto her side likea limpet. Dan scooped him up, cradling his tiny, soft body in her arms andtrying to hold him clear of the milk glass.

“You’re so nice,” Neil murmuredagainst her sweater, squeezing his chubby arms around her neck. He smelledclean, like soap and baby powder, and Dan’s heart melted as she hefted him up.She crooned softly against his head, smoothing his silky curls with one hand asshe got to her feet.

“Oh my god,” Matt breathed, eyeswide. “Oh my god, he’s so cute.”

Dan kept bouncing Neil gently,an involuntary smile on her lips. “Can you check how Renee’s doing?”

Matt stared at her for anotherlong second, looking hypnotized.

“Matt?” she prompted.

“Right,” he said, skirting theroom to give her and Neil lots of space. Dan settled on the couch, rubbingNeil’s back. He nestled into her side, warm and solid.

She could just see the hallwayout of the corner of her eye, so she noticed immediately when Renee and Mattemerged from the bathroom a minute later. Renee had her head ducked down, apainted-on smile on her face, and beside her—

Holy shit.

Andrew was nearly as small asNeil, his hair glowing platinum blond. His hand was firmly wrapped around two ofRenee’s fingers, eyes suspicious as he cast about the room. “You said there wasice cream?” he demanded.

Renee’s smile eased a littleinto something more genuine. “I promised,” she said, tugging him over to thekitchen. Matt hovered in the hallway behind them, staring over at Dan andmouthing, “Oh my god.”

Dan could only nod, mute. Andrewwas so small, so fragile—her arms tightened around Neil protectively. They werechildren for God’s sake. It had neverreally struck her before that either of them had ever been this small—it feltlike they’d manifested directly into hard-eyed young men. How stupid of her—

Neil squeaked in protest,squirming out of her grip. “Sorry,” she said, loosening her arms, but he hadalready forgotten, clambering up the back of the couch to stare over at Reneeand Andrew with wide eyes. He attempted to climb right over the top of thecouch and Dan grabbed him, airlifting him to the floor.

He toddled off quickly, grabbingone of the barstools for support and staring at Andrew. “Your hair looks dumb,”he announced.

Tiny Andrew scowled. “Your facelooks dumb!”

Matt looked like Christmas hadcome early. He fumbled his phone out of his pocket, and grinned over at Dan.She buried her head in her hands, uncontrollable-borderline-hysterical laughterbubbling up in her chest.

The door swung open, lettingAllison in with a fog of rose-scented perfume. “Alright, I got a hold of somequack PhD at the university who claims to deal with this shit, but he—”

Whatever he said was lost.Allison froze in the middle of the living room, gaping at the scene in thekitchen. “Holy fuck?”

“Allison,” Renee, Dan and Matt said.

“Fuck,” Neil said.

“Neil!” Matt said.

“Fuck!” Andrew said.

“This is a disaster,” Dan said.

Allison sat down in an armchair,looking absolutely floored. Renee pulled a pile of bowls out of the cupboard,portioning out half a dozen scoops of ice cream. Allison blinked, pointing afinger at the two children, then closing her eyes for a long moment. “So, thisPhD assho—”

“Allison,” Dan warned.

Allison glared at her. “This guy says it’s a quantum flux, orsomething, and there’s no telling how long it’ll last. He says it usually wearsoff within a few days, but if it doesn’t, we should take them in for testing athis lab.”

“We’re not taking them into a lab,” Matt said, affronted.

“Well, we can’t just leave themlike this,” Dan said.

“Like what?” Neil asked,sneaking up behind Renee’s leg and poking Andrew in the stomach.

Andrew grabbed Neil’s hair, pullingit hard.

“Owwww,” Neil whined, boltingback to the living room and wrapping his arms around Dan’s knee.

Renee frowned down at Andrew.“That was mean, Andrew,” she said.

“He started it!”

“That doesn’t mean you get to bemean to him. He’s younger than you.”

“He started it,” Andrew sulked.

Renee cast her gaze over thegroup with a pleading expression.

No aid was to be found. Healthychildhoods were in short supply among the Foxes; Dan wasn’t sure if any of them knew a good way to teach akid a moral lesson.

Renee sighed, offering Andrewhis bowl of ice cream. He jumped up, eyes brightening. “You have to promise notto pull Neil’s hair again,” she said severely.

“What if he pulls mine first?”

“Then you’ll tell me, and I’ll dealwith it,” she said.

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

“Okay,” Andrew said solemnly.

Neil rubbed his face againstDan’s knee and she bent down, scooping him up. “Do you want some ice creamtoo?” she asked. She was pretty sure they had this all backwards. They weresupposed to give kids dinner before dessert. This had to count as extenuatingcircumstances, though.

“Yeah,” Neil mumbled, peekingover her shoulder towards where Renee was setting the table. Andrew clamberedup into a chair, grasping a spoon in his fist and digging into his ice creamlike he thought someone was going to take it away.

Actually, that was probablyexactly what he thought. Dan rubbed a hand up Neil’s back, as much for her ownsake as his, and carried him over to the table, sitting at the far end. Neiltwisted around but made no move to leave her lap, so she kept her arms in aloose circle around him as Renee put a small bowl of vanilla ice cream in frontof them.

Allison still looked leery ofthe two children, but she took a seat at Renee’s insistent gesture. Matt satnext to her and Renee took the head of the table in what had to be the weirdestteam dinner they’d ever had.

“So, Andrew,” Dan asked, “haveyou ever played Exy?”

“No,” he said, shooting her asullen look.

Well, that was never going towork twice.

“Have you started school yet?”she tried.

“I go to Mrs. C,” he said.

“That’s cool,” she said, as sheknew what that meant. “Do you like her?”

“She smells funny,” he said.“Her books are good. Sometimes she reads to us and it’s really nice.”

“What’s your favourite book?”

“The Giving Tree.”

A round of blinks went betweenthe adults at the table. Renee rallied first, smiling at Andrew. “I really likethat book,” she said. “Why is it your favourite?”

“It’s kind of sad but alsohappy. And Mrs. C always does weird voices.”

“I like The Paper Bag Princess,”Neil announced.

Andrew made a face at him.“That’s a girl’s book.”

“No, it’s not!”

“Books can be for boys andgirls,” Matt said.

“What’s the Paper Bag Princessabout?” Renee asked, distracting Andrew by scooping a little extra ice creaminto his bowl.

Neil launched into a longexplanation of the story which left the Foxes more confused than when they’dstarted. His ice cream melted into a puddle of sugary soup and he didn’t arguewhen Andrew stole it and noisily slurped it down.

A hammering at the door madethem all jump. “It’s unlocked,” Matt called, and Wymack breezed in with Kevinon his heels.

He stopped in the doorway,surveying the scene. “Oh,” he said dumbly. “So Kevin wasn’t drunk.”

Kevin looked affronted. “Youthink I would joke—”

“I think if you’d coached theFoxes as long as I have, you’d have some trust issues, too,” Wymack said.

Neil squirmed on Dan’s lap,wriggling up so he could flatten himself against her body. His eyes were gluedto Wymack, wide and fearful.

“Uh, Coach,” Dan said, wincing.“Volume.”

“What?” Wymack said, then hiseyes dropped to Neil and understanding dawned. “Right,” he said, more softly.“I’m just going to call Abby. She’ll know what to do.” Which was very plainlydeflecting, and Dan wondered why she’d thought Wymack would be any help in thisat all. He was well-meaning, but he could be terribly conventional in his totalinability to deal with children.

She watched him flee into thehallway with something like resignation. Kevin approached the table tentatively,looking nearly as uncomfortable as Allison. “Hello,” he said, awkward andformal. “My name is Kevin.”

Dan steeled herself, knowingexactly what she needed to say next and hating herself for it. “He’s thegreatest Exy player of all time,” she told Neil.

His eyes lit up, but it wasAndrew who spoke up first.

“Mrs. C says tattoos are for badpeople which means you’re probably a really, really bad person because you havea tattoo on your face.”

There was a beat of silence,then Allison snorted. “Yeah, tell him, Andrew.”

Andrew shot her a suspiciouslook, but turned back to Kevin. “If you’re a bad person then Renee will hurtyou,” he said. “She’s really good at fighting. She said so.”

“Wow, Renee,” Allison said. “Whoeverknew you’d be so good with kids?”

Renee shot her a glare. “I don’tsee you doing any better,” she hissed.

Allison snickered, her pleasureat Kevin’s discomfort overriding her own awkwardness around the kids.

Nicky and Aaron chose thatmoment to arrive, a pair of grocery bags over Aaron’s wrist and a giant boxdwarfing Nicky. “I bought Lego!” Nicky sang, his face smushed and hidden behindthe giant box.

“Christ, Nicky,” Dan said. “Howmuch Lego did you buy?”

“It was on sale!”

“It’s not like—” Dan checkedherself, glancing at Andrew, who was still scowling at Kevin ratherimpressively. She sort of hoped thiswouldn’t last long, but she wasn’t going to say that out loud, not when Andrewand Neil had no memory of what had happened and abandonment issues ten mileshigh.

“Don’t look at me,” Aarongrumbled. “You think I have any control over him?” He dumped the bags of foodon the counter and regarded his twin brother. As if sensing his gaze, Andrewturned his head and stared at him.

“I got you something,” Aaronsaid, gruff, and dug a small stuffed cat out of the grocery bag.

He shoved it towards Andrew,dangling it by the neck. It swayed there, splotched in brown and white, itswhiskers drooping and bent from being shoved in the grocery bag. Andrewcontinued to stare at Aaron, eyes wary.

Aaron sighed and dropped the catinto Andrew’s lap, retreating into the kitchen. “We got hotdogs and we pickedup some more ice cream,” he said to the room at large.

“Thanks, Aaron,” Renee said, pushingher chair back and joining him. Pots and pans clattered as they set to cooking.

Nicky wobbled and finallytoppled, landing on his ass with a crash. The colourful box in his arms tippedover, rattling like a ball pit in an earthquake. “Ow,” he said woefully,rubbing his elbow and extricating himself from under the box.

“Do you want to play Legos?” Danasked, looking down at Neil. He’d already forgotten all about Kevin.

“What’s Legos?” Neil asked

“Oh man,” Matt said. “Legos arethe greatest. You can build anything!”

“Yeah?” Neil said, twisting hishand in Dan’s sweater and turning his big blue eyes on Matt. Dan couldpractically see Matt turning to goo at the sight.

“Totally! Do you want to try?”

Neil’s hand pinched Dan’s stomachas he twisted, nervous. She bit back a grimace, hefting Neil in her arms to tryand loosen his grip. “Matt’s very good at Legos,” she said, having never seenhim play with Legos before in her life. “And you can have a hotdog after.”

“Okay,” Neil said, voice small.

It wasn’t enthusiasm, but shecould work with that. “How about you, Andrew?”

Andrew looked up from his lap,jumping. “What?”

She caught a peek of the stuffedcat in his lap disappearing under his shirt and wisely said nothing. “Do youwant to play Legos with Nei—Nate?”

“No,” Andrew said.

“Okay,” Dan said. “Come on,Nate, let’s get the Lego set up.”

She lifted him off her lap andplaced him on the ground. He latched onto her leg immediately, giggling whenshe tried to take a step. “Hey,” she said, looking down at him.

He giggled again and wrapped hislegs around her ankle like a koala. She huffed and swung her foot through, hisweight like a tiny boulder on the end of her leg. “I’m going to need achiropractor after this,” she muttered as she heaved Neil into the living room.Matt snorted.

“Alright,” she said when they reached the Legobox. “You have to let go now.”

Neil’s hands just tightened,pinching her muscles uncomfortably. “Hey, buddy, we can’t play Legos with youattached to my leg.”

“You’re going to play too?” heasked, peeking up at her.

Oh. There were the abandonmentissues again. “Yeah, definitely,” she said.

Neil slowly let go, creepingforward towards the box. Nicky had already wrested the top open with a pair ofscissors, and was pulling the plastic packaging off of a giant bin of looseLego pieces. Dan gestured to Matt to sit, and he squashed down immediately, bigand gangly on the floor.

Dan grabbed the paperinstruction manual and folded her legs to sit next to Neil. “Hey, look, we canmake a race car. Isn’t that cool?”

Neil stared at the pictures andpointed at one of the others. “Rocket ship!”

“What do you think, Matt? Can wemake a rocket ship?”

“I dunno,” Matt said, toneserious but eyes dancing. “It looks pretty complicated. But if Nate’s helpingus, I bet we could do it.”

Dan smiled at him over Neil’shead and his lips quirked up at her, lopsided and sweet.

“We need orange bits for thefire,” Neil said, studying the picture intently.

“Okay,” Matt said. “Can you helpme find some?”

Dan leaned back on her hands,watching as Matt and Neil dug through the bin of Lego together. Nicky hoveredfor another second, hands wringing and eyes wide and adoring, then he met hereye and fled to the kitchen to help with the hot dogs.

Dan’s breath left her in a slowexhale. This was probably going to interfere with their season, she thoughtidly. They had a game tomorrow night, and the freshmen were definitely notready to cover for Andrew and Neil. They’d manage, though. They always did. Shewatched as Neil unfurled, his fearfulness evaporating in the face of Matt’sunwavering warmth, and felt settled, like a cat curling up in a sunbeam.

Pizza arrived almost exactly thesame moment as the hotdogs were ready, and chaos broke loose as the Foxesscrambled to make sure Andrew and Neil both got whatever they wanted. Neil gotketchup all over his shirt—she was about 90% sure that was actually one of hisreal shirts, shrunk down with him—and Andrew made lofty comments about howmessy and dumb he was until Nicky smudged pizza sauce on his nose, making himshriek.

Neil grabbed Dan’s hand andtugged her back towards the Lego. She bit back a groan of exhaustion. “Howabout you play with Matt for a bit? I’ll be right here.”

“But we’re not done the rocketship!”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m notyoung like you. I’m very old and slow.”

She made a show of hunching herback and creaking her way towards the couch and Neil giggled in delight, hunchinghis shoulders and tottering after her.

“Come on, squirt,” Matt said,holding out his hand. “Let’s finish that rocket ship.”

“You’re making a rocket ship?”Andrew asked.

“Yep,” Matt said. “Wanna join?”

“I don’t want him to play withus,” Neil said, stomping his foot. “He’s a meanie!”

Andrew’s face screwed up. “WellI don’t want to make a dumb rocket ship anyway!”

“Guys, guys, shhh,” Matt saidfrantically. “Neil, you shouldn’t say things like that.”

“I’m not Neil!”

“Sorry, Nate, buddy—”

“He’s mean!”

“And now you’re being mean.”

Neil stopped, staring up atMatt. “No I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. Now, how aboutyou say sorry for being mean to Andrew, and then he’ll say sorry to you. Andthen we can all build the rocket ship.”

“I’m not saying sorry,” Andrewsulked.

“Andrew,” Nicky said. “That’sbad manners.”

Andrew kicked his foot againstthe ground, and he hugged the stuffed cat against his stomach almost angrily.“Sorry,” he muttered, unconvincingly.

Nicky looked stunned that his reprimandhad worked. Dan couldn’t help but feel the same way. Andrew didn’t apologizefor anything.

Neil scowled at the carpet.

“Nate,” Matt said. “It’s yourturn.”

“He was mean first,” Neilmuttered.

“He said sorry.”

“Fine.” Neil scrunched up hisface, glaring at Andrew. “I’m sorry,” he said, in what had to be the leastapologetic voice Dan had ever heard.

Matt covered his eyes, his lipscurling with repressed laughter. Dan retreated to where Renee and Allison saton the couch, watching as Nicky and Matt tried to wrangle the two boys towardsthe Lego pile.

Aaron hovered beside the couch,watching with a frown creasing his forehead. Dan tapped her finger against herthigh, looking up at him. “It’s probably not permanent,” she reminded him.“They’ll be back to normal soon enough.”

“You don’t know that for sure,”Aaron said. “What if—”

He cut off, his nostrilsflaring, the whites of his eyes flickering in the light.

“We’ll deal with that if itcomes to it,” she said. Aaron shoved his hands in his pockets, his expressionpinched. He didn’t look reassured.

Dan glanced back at the kidsplaying in the Lego, unsure how to comfort him. Neil had just knocked overMatt’s rocket ship; it looked like he was trying to build his own now.

“Daaaan,” Matt whined. “Nate isbullying me.”

“Am not!” Neil said. “Matt isjust dumb!”

Andrew pulled the top off of thetower Nicky was building and pulled out all the red pieces, piling them to theside. Nicky pouted, trying to steal one of Andrew’s red pieces and nearlygetting his hand bitten for his trouble. Andrew added the red pieces to a smallsquare wall and carefully placed his stuffed cat inside.

“He really seems to like thatstuffie,” she said.

“Yeah,” Aaron said.

They watched the kids’ anticsfor another couple seconds before Aaron sank into the beanbag chair next to thecouch, chewing on his thumbnail. “I had one like that when I was little,” hesaid. “I brought it everywhere.”

“Huh,” Dan said. “Wow.”

Neil only lasted another twentyminutes before he started drooping, covering yawns with his hands. He crawledout of the pile of Legos he’d accumulated and toddled over to Dan, burying hisface in her knee.

“Hey, buddy,” she said,smoothing her hand through his hair. “Ready for bed?”

“No,” he said petulantly, butlet her lift him up and cuddle him against her chest.

“I don’t suppose anyone has apyjama shirt that would fit him?” Dan asked, not hopeful.

“I picked some up at Walmart,”Aaron said. “They’re on the counter.”

“Oh,” Dan said. “Thanks. How’sthat sound, Nate? Want to check out your new pyjamas?”

He nodded, his face smushed intoher collarbone. “Okay,” she said, hauling herself off the couch with a grunt.She transferred Neil to her right arm, propping him on her hip so she could up-endthe bag onto the counter. “Dinosaurs or cats?”

“Dinosaws,” Neil mumbled.

“Awesome,” she said, grabbingthe matching t-shirt and pants

“Want mommy.”

“I know,” Dan said, hefting himup a little higher. “Let’s get you ready for bed.”

“Not tired.”

“Sure,” she said. “Whatever yousay.”

She carried him into thebathroom, grimacing at the state of it. Boys.Two of the three towels hanging up looked like they hadn’t been washed inmonths; they smelled it, too. The sink was crusted in grime and powderytoothpaste residue, and the counter was littered in nail clippings and stubblyhairs.

Dan lowered Neil to the bathmat, holding out the pyjama shirt. He raised his arms expectantly.

“I’m not dressing you,” shesaid. “You gotta help me here.”

“Mommy always does,” Neilsulked.

Dan pursed her lips. “Can youpull your shirt off? I’ve got your new one ready.”

Neil squirmed, wrestling withhis t-shirt like a fish in the grasp of an octopus. He got one arm out of hissleeve but got stuck, and Dan had to pull on his other sleeve to get him out.She held the pyjama shirt out and he wriggled into it. Backwards, but Danwasn’t about to get particular.

She hesitated at his pants. Wasthis weird? Neil was her teammate.She shouldn’t be seeing him naked. This was just—

She shoved the thoughts aside;Neil was four, and she was going to be professional about this, damnit. Shetugged on his waistband and he obliged, pushing his pants down with theunselfconsciousness of childhood. She stripped them off his feet quickly andhelped him step into the pyjama bottoms, turning her head partially away. It was weird, but only because everythingabout today was weird.

He latched onto her hand once hewas dressed and she stood, knees popping from kneeling on the tile floor. “Bedtime?” she asked.

“Okay,” Neil said, leaningagainst her knee for a moment. She tugged and he followed her into the hallway.

“Hey, Kevin,” she said, tiltingher head towards the bedroom. “Which bed can Nate use?”

Kevin hurried up from thekitchen table, squirreling a small bottle of something into his pocket. Dangave him a hard look, which he avoided, ducking past them into the bedroom.

It was slightly less gross thanthe bathroom, though there was still a fugue of musty laundry smell over theroom. “Neil’s bed is the loft,” Kevin said, kicking a pair of dirty boxersunder the bed.

“Gross,” Dan said, side-eyeinghim. Kevin at least had the good grace to look a little ashamed of himself.“Which one’s yours?”

Kevin frowned in confusion, butpointed across the room at the single bunk. “Alright,” Dan said, giving him upas a lost cause and leading Neil over to what she presumed was Andrew’s bed,beneath Neil’s. She wasn’t putting a toddler in a loft.

Neil clambered up clumsily,hanging onto Dan with one hand. She let herself be drawn down, ducking her headto sit on the bottom bunk with him. The sheets, at least, were blessedly clean.

Neil burrowed down into theblankets, the tufts of his curls spilling out over the pillow. His eyes blinkedup at her, sleep-heavy but worried.

“Hey, buddy,” she said softly,smoothing his hair with one hand. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Neil mumbled, but shewasn’t fooled. His grip on her fingers hadn’t loosened yet.

“Um,” she said, casting aroundfor inspiration. Kevin stood in the doorway, hugging himself anxiously. “Do youwant me to sing?”

Neil scooted a little closer toher. “Yeah.”

“Okay.” She paused. Singingwasn’t really her thing. “Okay.”

She took a deep breath andstarted to sing, voice low and quiet. Neil scrunched down into the bunk,staring up at her with half-lidded eyes.

Amazing grace

How sweet the sound…

She kept singing even as Neil’seyes slipped closed, his face pushed into the pillow. His grip slowly went laxuntil finally she was able to gently tuck his hand under the blanket and easeup off the mattress.

Kevin still stood in thedoorway, and Dan jerked her head towards the living room. She closed the doorpartway and padded softly into the main room, where Nicky was arguing Andrewinto a pair of footie pyjamas with little cat ears on the hood. Dan droppedonto the couch with a groan, resting her head against Renee’s shoulder. Reneewrapped an arm around her, rubbing her back.

“Couldn’t we just have one quietyear?” Dan asked. “One year where we can just relax and focus on Exy?”

“At least it’s not the mafiathis time,” Allison said. “Just space-time itself fucking with us. You know,normal shit.”

Andrew perked up from across theroom, like he had some kind of weird swear-word radar. “She said a bad word,”he said.

“Stop eavesdropping,” Allisonsaid. “It’s rude.”

Andrew glared back from underhis cat hood. “You said fuck.”

“Ooookay there, Andrew,” Nickysaid, reaching his hands out and redirecting Andrew’s attention. “Don’t listento Allison, she wasn’t raised right. We were getting ready for bed?”

Andrew frowned petulantly.“Shit,” he muttered, kicking the carpet.

Nicky shot Allison a glare. “Youare a terrible influence,” he said.

“I’m not tired,” Andrew said.

“Um,” Nicky said. “Right. So…”

“We can watch TV for a bit,” Dansuggested. That had always put her to sleep as a kid.

“Good idea,” Nicky said. “HeyAndrew, how about you take one of the bean bag chairs? Which one do you want?”

“Red one,” Andrew said, claimingit immediately and curling up like the cat he was dressed as. Nicky disappearedinto the hallway and came back with an orange and white Palmetto Foxes blanket,draping it over Andrew and the bean bag. He scrunched up, pulling the blanketaround him like a protective cocoon.

Despite his insistence that hewasn’t tired, he was out like a light by the time they had even picked achannel. They settled on Discovery, just in case he woke up again.

Nicky watched Andrew snufflesoftly in his sleep, his tiny body rising and falling with his breaths. “Shouldwe move him?” he asked, uncertain.

“He’s probably fine there,” Dansaid. “I think—” She rubbed her eyes, groaning a little with tiredness. “Ugh.We should’ve put them in our room, Kevin’s useless.”

“Hey,” Kevin said, offended.

“When was the last time youvacuumed?” she snapped. “This place is a dump.”

Kevin’s ears went red. “We’rebusy,” he said.

“You’ve got the same schedule aseveryone else, and we don’t live like this,” Dan said. “I would have expectedthis from Neil—he’s basically a wild animal—but I expected better from you.”

Kevin muttered somethingindistinct, though Dan caught the words “cleaning staff” and “night practices.”Somehow, it wasn’t a surprise that the Nest didn’t expect its athletes to cleanup after themselves.

Dan sighed. “I’ll stay on thecouch. If this goes on any longer, we’ll move them over Abby’s house. Everybodymight as well head to bed, we’ve got a game tomorrow—”

A slight creak of a doorinterrupted her. She looked up in time to spot Neil sneak into the hallway, handstwisted into his pyjama shirt.

“Hey, buddy,” Matt said. “Youokay?”

“It’s dark,” Neil mumbled.

“Oh, sorry, Nate,” Dan said,hauling herself off the couch. “Do you want me to turn on the light?”

Neil fidgeted. “Can I stay outhere?”

Dan softened, looking at hiswide, staring eyes as he hovered in the hall. “Of course, sweetie. Andrew’ssleeping out here too.”

Neil’s eyes swept over the groupof adults before he crept out of the hallway and over to Dan, leaning againsther knee. She rubbed a hand over his hair. “That’s okay,” she murmured. “Shh.Shh.”

“The scary noises always comeout when it’s dark,” Neil said, voice muffled against her jeans.

“It’s okay, Nate. You’re safe.Shh.”

Neil reached his arms up and shepicked him up, cradling him against her chest. His arms wrapped around herneck, squeezing. She kept shushing into his hair, bouncing him gently andlowering herself to a seated position next to the other bean bag chair. Neilshifted, pulling out of her arms and lying down right next to Andrew on the redbean bag.

Andrew’s eyes squinted blearily,mumbling some kind of protest. Neil ignored him, squirming under the blanketand cuddling up against Andrew. Andrew made a soft, grumbly noise, beforesettling back down, Neil’s head pillowed on his hand.

“Oh my god,” Nicky whispered.“Can we keep them?”

“Nicky,” Dan said wearily,tugging him away from the sleepy children. The Foxes followed like a hive mind,congregating in the kitchen.

“What? Everyone’s thinking it,I’m just saying it.”

“They are nicer this way,”Allison remarked. “And there’s some pretty cute kids fashion out there. I couldteach Neil to dress properly from the ground up.”

“Not you too,” Dan grumbled.

“Our season is doomed withoutthem,” Kevin said. “We have to do something—”

“This isn’t about Exy,” Dan said. “This is about gettingour friends back.”

Everyone paused. “Andrew’s notyour friend,” Aaron added helpfully.

“Thank you,” Dan said. “Come on,Matt, back me up.”

“I dunno…”

“Neil’s your best fuckingfriend. Don’t pretend you don’t want him back.”

“He is pretty cute though.” Hewrapped his arms around her waist from behind, resting his chin on top of herhead. “Face it, we’d make great parents. You’re a natural.”

“Oh god no,” she said. “I am notgoing there with you today.”

“Aw, babe—”

A resounding pop startled her out of Matt’s arms. Hereyes shot over to check if the noise had woken Neil and Andrew.

Neil stared back at her, scarredcheeks sleep-smudged and sharp. The blanket she’d draped over him was tangledaround his legs, and then Andrew’s fist lashed out, catching a glancing blow tohis ribs.

Neil scrambled away, scanningthe room with wary eyes. The dinosaur pyjamas were weirdly warped and stretchedover his adult frame, mottled purple and blue. Andrew kicked the blanket offhis legs, rolling to his feet and glaring bloody murder. It was only slightlymitigated by the fact he was now wearing a giant cat onesie.

Neil looked down at his clothes.He looked across to the pile of Legos. He looked up at the rest of the Foxes,huddled in the kitchen.

“What the fuck?” he demanded.

Matt’s face melted into a grininstantly. “Oh man,” he said, already pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Youare never going to believe this one.”

#anon #prompts #aftg #tfc #the foxes #deaged characters #my writing #fic #sorry this took a million years #i am tired #but still alive

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clownsgobeepbeep · 5 years ago

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Invite

You requested some Mafia AU Stellar, so I’m gonna use that here ^^’

@grotesquegabby Because one of yours is in this X3

It was no doubt that Vespers was tired. Too much going through his mind if he was being honest; he really needed a bit more of a break.

So, he decided that he would walk around the town for a bit, put himself in the shoes of a tourist for now. Visit here and there, just to forget about the mob life for a bit. As he walked around he came across the docks where ships unloaded things, and he spotted large crates clearly reading “D’VITT PROPERTY”.

Speaking of D’Vitts, or a D’Vitt, it was disappointed that he had gotten turned down by this particular D’Vitt...again.

Vespers seriously didn’t understand what went through that man’s mind, especially as he tended to avoid the Blackwood like he was some sort of disease.

The man sighed to himself after having walked through some alleys and then crossed a street, coming across a bakery. He blinked up at it a few times before shrugging, deciding to walk in as he heard a bell above the door ring.

“Welcome! I’ll be there in a second!” Vespers heard from behind the counter where there was a nice display of cupcakes, and his eyes traveled to said location where he saw a woman pop out from under. “I just have to go get this batch!”

“Sure, don’t worry about it.” Vespers gave a small nod before the woman walked away, nearly tripping before she caught herself with a nervous giggle.

“I’m fine! I’ll be right back sir!”

“Of course.”

He watched as she eventually entered a door that lead into the kitchen, and he looked through all of the displays as he looked for a decent treat. Perhaps some...

“So, this is the place, huh?”

“Uh huh!”

“He always brings us here!”

“I’m pretty sure it’s because of the pretty lady who gives us cupcakes!”

Vespers didn’t bother in turning around at the sound of new customers, keeping his focus on the treats as the new customers approached his location. But then, he heard their footsteps cease before some whispering ensued.

“What? What do you mean you want to leave?”

“Is it because of that man with the white hair?”

At this, Vespers lifted his head before turning to see two kids with red hair and green eyes, each holding onto the hand of an adult who...oh.

“Is that it?

“Yuh huh, is it?”

Near Vespers was the very D’Vitt he had been thinking about earlier, said man now letting go of the children who grinned while he gave a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Stellar, how nice to see you here.” Vespers greeted before looking back at the kids. “Hello there...?”

“Veronica!”

“And Neil!”

“We’re twins!”

“Uh huh!”

“Twins?” Vespers raised an eyebrow as his eyes darted between the kids. “These...these aren’t yours, are they?”

“Do they look like they’re mine?” Stellar made a weird face at Vespers who gave a bit of a shrug, then turning back to the displays as he tapped his chin. “And what are you doing here of all places?”

“Getting a snack, or am I not allowed to do that?”

Stella twitched his nose for a bit before turning back to the twins on either side of him, crouching down while looking over the cupcakes.

“So, where’s the lady?” he asked before everybody heard the kitchen door open, Stellar standing straight as they saw the baker walk out with a tray of cupcakes.

“I’m back!” she exclaimed before noticing the new customers. “Oh! Hello there and welcome!”

“Hi Miss Bella!” the twins eagerly waved at her before she gave a delighted gasp.

“Hello there! Neil, Veronica!” she smiled before presenting them each with a chocolate cupcake.

“Thank you!”

“And where is, ha...your, your father?” the baker shyly asked while twirling a strand of her hair, Stellar and Vespers making weird faces, right before Stellar spoke up.

“Might you be referring to Roger? Roger D’Vitt?”

“Oh, um, yes...you don’t happen to be anybody...um...”

“He’s my brother.”

“Oh! Well hello there Mr. D’Vitt. I’ll attend you in just a moment, I first have to attend this sir right here.” she turned back to Vespers who snapped out of his thoughts. “Have you decided on what you would like?”

“Uh, give me a few of these mochis please.” Vespers pointed to said treats before the woman nodded, grabbing some tongs before they somehow managed to slip out of her hands. She caught them and dropped them and caught them again only to drop them again, then finally catching them in a tight grip with an embarrassed laugh.

“Is this really her?” Stellar whispered to the twins who nodded while finishing their cupcakes, everybody looking at Bella who soon handed the mochis over to Vespers.

Vespers paid before thanking the woman, walking away and sitting at one of the tables before pulling out his phone, keeping a discreet eye on the D’Vitts.

“Your name is Bella, yes?”

“Yes sir.”

“Well, then I have something for you Miss.” Stellar reached into his pocket before pulling out a rather fancy envelope. “I hope you can make it.”

“Oh? What is this?” Bella looked over the envelope before the twins spoke again.

“It’s an invite!”

“To a party!”

“Our auntie is hosting it!”

“And you’re inviting me?” Bella gave an excited grin before Stellar nodded with a smirk, a quite vengeful one, this only being noticed by Vespers.

“Especially because my brother would love to see you there.”

“How wonderful! I hope I’m able to go!” Bella exclaimed while hugging the envelope to her chest.

“Just remember to bring the invite with you or you won’t be allowed in.”

“Of course! I’ll go put it somewhere where I’ll remember I put it!” Bella nodded before rushing back into the kitchen, hitting herself on the door before she laughed to herself and hope nobody had seen that or would at least mention it.

“A party, huh?”

Stellar turned with a frown to look at Vespers who bit into a mochi.

“And hosted by your sister?”

“Don’t worry, it won’t interfere with whatever schedule you have because you’re not coming to it.” Stellar hissed at Vespers who lay his head on his palm. “And you’re not getting in unless you have an invite.”

“Is that so?”

“Just try, bug eyes. I dare you.” Stellar spat out before turning to the counter where Bella now returned, his demeanor changing to a much polite and kinder one.

Vespers then saw as the twins scurried away from Stellar, he not caring much of it as he picked out what things he would be purchasing.

“Psst!”

“Yes?” Vespers saw as the twins sat on the chairs near him.

“You wanna go to the party?”

“Well-”

“Shhh!” the girl shushed as her brother reached into his pocket, taking out and sliding towards Vespers an invitation identical to the one handed to Bella.

“Don’t tell!” the boy whispered, he and his sister then hopping off the chairs before scurrying back to Stellar.

Vespers looked down at the envelope before giving a bit of a smile, placing it inside his pocket before standing and leaving after having thanked the baker once again.

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sophygurl · 6 years ago

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Dirty Dancing

I had a hankering to watch one of my old favorites today - one I’ve seen hundreds of times and that’s not an exaggeration. I probably watched it one hundred times alone the first summer it was on HBO and I recorded it - I’m guessing 1988 since it came out in 87?

Anyway - the short version of this post is simply that I’m pretty sure Dirty Dancing is a big part of my bisexuality and polyamorousness like. I’m sorry but Baby falls for Penny as much as Johnny and you can’t convince me otherwise and they would make an excellent throuple. And my little hetnormative-trained 13 year old brain didn’t KNOW that was a big draw of the movie for me but it was because the scenes between the three of them were my favorites - especially the dance training montage scenes where they’re all dancing together oh my HEART. But also just like you see so clearly how Baby is crushing on them both so much in those beginning stages and SOMETHING ABOUT THAT SPOKE TO MY LIL TEENAGE HEART OKAY?

So but the longer version is that I still love every single bit of this damned movie (2 minor exceptions - when Baby says “I’m not proud of myself” in her emotional monologue to her dad? I’d take that out. And also I wish the mom had just a smidge more agency but I also get that the lack of agency for the women was a big part of the story- hence these only being slight exceptions).

But okay yes. The movie? Is hella fun with a kicking soundtrack and amazing dancing and acting and Grey and Swayze have chemistry coming out of their whazoodles and I’d throw Rhodes in there too and all of that is fun and sexy and romantic and nostalgic (now for TWO decades since it kinda melds 60′s and 80′s stuff together in some ways).

You know what else though? It’s also just an amazing movie with incredible peeks into the sexism and classism of the era, and especially the intersection of the two. It explores both upper and lower class women’s roles and how both lower class men and women were treated. Swayze’s Johnny Castle is treated like a sexual object and expected to have sex with the upper class women who are being neglected by their husbands (interesting to note that the entertainment staff was forbidden to socialize with the daughters but expected to sex up the older ladies and the more educated upper class staff were expected to romance but not have sex with the daughters of the guests).

Then there’s Penny and the whole pregnancy/abortion storyline and how Robbie treats both her and Baby’s sister Lisa - spoiler alert he treats them both horribly but in different ways. The mom has almost no agency. Baby thinks she has it, but you can clearly see the difference between when she’s with her family or with fellow upper class Neil and when she’s with Johnny and Penny and Billy - she blossoms into this whole new wonderful person with new insights and opinions about the world because she’s finally seeing outside of the bubble of her family and class.

The movie does entirely ignore race issues, which is unfortunate. But I’m also guessing that is partly due to the setting - the vacationers would all have been upper class white folk and it seems most of the staff would have been as well. The band leader is a black man, but I think that’s it? IDK if that would have been indicative of the times or not, but it seems like the movie could have figured race into things if it had wanted to. The only other way it’s mentioned is when Neil says when the summer ends, he’s going to join the freedom riders. He seems to say this in order to impress Baby, who has shown she is concerned about social justice issues. And it comes off as a sort of privileged ally-cookie-quest. If Neil’s character did care about civil rights, it was not reflected in the way he treated the lower class staff at his uncle’s resort.

Despite this lack, however, the movie does a pretty decent job looking at this intersection of gender and class. The way Baby was raised to believe she could change the world, and that this meant she should care about everyone regardless of things like race and class - but then quickly learned that her family (particularly her father) meant she should do these things in a more dignified and distanced way. They sort of humor her ideas of joining the peace corp and studying the economics of undeveloped countries - but the idea of befriending the entertainment staff at the resort is *gasp* Scandal!!

But because Baby believed in those ideals she was raised with, and hadn’t yet learned the reality of what her parents expected of her - she plows right in and befriends these people whose dancing skill she so admires. She falls in love with dance, and with the people themselves (*ahem* Johnny AND Penny here) and with their easy way of being with one another.

She rushes in to help wherever and whenever she can, but is still ashamed of her association and hides it from her family. This new world she’s discovered is a sort of guilty secret, and especially so once her relationship with Johnny becomes sexual in nature (AND CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH AGENCY SHE HAD IN THAT FIRST SEX SCENE LIKE SHE IS JUST GOING ON ABOUT HOW IMPORTANT HE IS TO HER, STARTS TO DANCE WITH HIM, GRABS HIS ASS, AND IS JUST LIKE - YEA BABY LET’S GO!).

So okay, she’s having teh sex and doing teh dance and making teh friends - but it’s still a secret because her family would find it shameful. Does this stop her when she finds out that Johnny is about to be blamed and fired for the theft? SHIT NO it does not! She jumps in to tell the whole world (well okay her family and the Kellerman’s and some other folks in the dining room at the time) that she slept with him that night so he couldn’t have stolen the wallet so THERE!

And of course he gets fired anyway (I guess for defiling a rich girl? Blech.) but like. When he comes to find her and is all “nobody has ever stood up for me like that! ever!” - I die a little inside because this poor guy has been so beaten down that he doesn’t think he’s good for anything when what WE know about him is that he 1) totally stands by and protects his female bff (possible triad member???? shhh sophy we’re doing a thing here) no matter what and 2) he loves Baby so much because he sees all this good in her and he doesn’t think he deserves her but he is so proud of her and UGH 3) he stops taking the rich guy’s money to sex up his wife because Baby had finally convinced him he was better than that and 4) he works super hard all the time just to make ends meet but would Still have given Penny all his money to help her out and 5) GDI NEIL HE DOESN’T WANNA DO THE PACACHANGA!

All of this culminates when he comes back in and is all “Nobody puts Baby in a corner!” - which is such an epic and cool line but is also super cheesy and a bit nonsensical??? But what he means, really, is that in that moment he sees this woman that he loves sitting quietly in the corner with her parents who are suppressing this passionate and compassionate side of her (well mostly her dad her poor mom doesn’t wtf is going on) and he knows - okay - Johnny Castle KNOWS that Fances Baby Houseman is a fucking STAR okay and he is going to show the whole world (well all of the Kellerman guests and staff anyway) what she can do! PHEW.

So like. Yea, the movie is fun as shit for a lot of reasons. But it’s also so real and vital and important for more reasons than just this one gal’s bisexual/poly pre-awakening (it took another 5-10 years to fully get it - this was the 80′s/90′s in Wisconsin alright we didn’t have the internet back then to explain our sexualities to us!)

I don’t have a nice concluding thesis for this rambly meta except to say that I hope you enjoyed it and also I once again scared the crap out of my cats by singing and dancing a lot - they think singing means I’m sad and lonely so they come to comfort me because they call out and howl when they’re sad and lonely. They are so lovely to come and comfort me but the dancing and singing combo really freaks them out like what are you Doing lady - lady we’re scared - what’s happening? Are you ill??? Should we ... how do .. do cats call 911???

#dirty dancing #dirty dancing meta #frances houseman #johnny castle #penny johnson #bisexuality #polyamory #poly ships #intersectionality #i just love this movie a whole lot for a whole lot of reasons #why do i not have this on dvd #wtf #my birthday is in 5 months #just fyi #no real reason

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darthstitch · 2 years ago

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Look.

It is not the Many-Tentacled Lovecraftian Eldritch Abominable Thing's fault that tonight's nightmare had a certain flavor of... cuteness.

The goal for tonight was to induce that nameless, awe-inspiring, near-madness inducing terror that only cosmic horror could bring. It would have inspired the dreamer, who happened to be a horror writer of some note, to begin that very interesting, best-selling novel that would be the talk of the year and earn itself a few awards.

In fact, the dreamer goggled at the black-haired, blue-eyed baby that the Many-Tentacled Thing was cuddling in two of its tentacles.

Oliver, the little Prince of the Dreaming, burbled a greeting. A pudgy hand waved hello. He also tried to impart some words of inspiration, much like his Papa would, but the dreamer was not well-versed in a nine month old's vocabulary of babbles.

The dreamer woke up. Bemused. Bewildered. But still inspired. He would still write a suitably terrifying novel, but one of his protagonists was a magical black-haired, blue-eyed baby boy.

Oliver's Dada was quite confused when his son was clearly demanding that he buy a certain horror novel. "I think you're a bit too young for this, m'lad. Let's get something else instead."

This caused Oliver's first Official Tantrum, which had surprised his Dada, as he was such a little bundle of good nature and was often described by his parents' students as a "sunshine goth baby." This was only sorted out when Papa ruefully explained what had happened.

Dada's brain broke a little bit at that but he was, in the end, terribly amused at this early proof of how much chaos His Tiny Darkness, Oliver Robyn Gadling, Prince of the Dreaming, could bring.

-end-

#dreamling #dream of the endless #hob gadling #oliver robyn gadling #accidental baby acquisition #humor #i crack what i want #look oliver wants to do what papa does #he is also the little prince of stories #so he's helping to inspire them #shhh nobody tell neil

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Tenet Opening Opera Scene Explained

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This article contains Tenet spoilers. You can read our spoiler-free review here.

Christopher Nolan has a reputation for making complicated, hard to understand movies, but in all honesty, that reputation is unearned. In Memento, the scenes filmed in color are running in reverse order, the scenes filmed in black and white are running forwards, and the film ends when they meet in the middle. Inception is a pretty straight forward heist once you get your head round the idea that the dreams are nested inside each other like Russian dolls, each running a little faster than the one inside of it. Even Tenet isn’t as complex as it’s made out to be. There are no branching timelines, just an awful lot of bootstrap paradoxes and loops.

However, while the film as a whole has a fairly easy to understand plot after a viewing or two, one part of the movie really lives up to Nolan’s reputation. The opening.

A lot happens, zero context is given for any of it, and most if it is never referred to in the film again. So what the hell was going on?

Tenet Opening Recap

Let’s start by taking it step by step. Please pay attention, and remember the hand is quicker than the eye.

The film opens on a concert hall, and just as the musicians finish tuning up, a bunch of terrorists with machine guns come barging in shooting people and taking everyone hostage.

The police arrive on the scene.

However, there is another party of armed men—not the police or the terrorists—already there, waiting in a black van in SWAT uniforms.

One of the men in SWAT uniforms is John David Washington’s Peter Rotagonist—or the Protagonist for short. Pete is one of this team. As they see the police arrive, they slap on Velcro patches to match the incoming fuzz.

Then they burst out of the van, merging seamlessly with the incoming SWAT team as they storm the concert hall (which it turns out is an opera house because Nolan is too damn clever for his own good).

The police (the real police) pump sleeping gas into the vents of the concert hall, successfully knocking out all the hostages but, presciently, the terrorists understand the importance of wearing a mask at public gatherings.

At around this time we cut back to the box over the concert hall and a man who the script only refers to as “Well-Dressed Man,” even though he’s wearing a pretty non-descript suit to the opera. The person next to him, wearing a really much smarter looking military dress uniform, pulls a gun.

At this moment, the SWAT teams start busting into the concert hall, and Pete and his team storm up to the boxes, busting into the one where the Well-Dressed Man is sitting. They kill his military friend and anyone else in the room. Then Pete addresses the Well-Dressed Man, saying, “We live in a twilight world,” to which Well-Dressed Man responds, “And there are no friends at dusk.”

Then the Pete tells him, “You’ve been made. This siege is a blind for them to vanish you.” The Well-Dressed Man complains that he has already established contact, but Pete insists that he has to either bring the Well-Dressed Man in or kill him.

While this conversation is going on some of the Real Cops are coming down the corridor, shooting terrorists.

Who is “Them?” What’s the significance of “We live in a twilight world?” Who has the Well-Dressed made contact with? Shhh. Save your questions until the end, because right now we’re jumping out of this window to escape from the Real Cops.

But not before Pete can ask where “the package” is and be told “coat check,” and given a ticket.

We are three minutes and thirty-five seconds into the movie.

The Pete and Well-Dressed New Friend run and hide from the Real Cops among the audience, because if someone’s shooting at you there’s no better place to hide than a crowd of unconscious innocent by-standers. At the same time, the Real Cops come in and murder the last of the terrorists.

At this point the Pete notices the people in SWAT uniforms are planting bombs around the concert hall.

One of the Bomb Planting Cops tells Pete to grab a bomb from a dead cop’s bag. Pete stops to stare at the bomb for a few seconds, and then another cop sees him, thinks he’s sus, leading him to rip off Pete’s Velcro patch. Only then does Suspicious Cop gets shot by a Fake Cop who says, “No friends at dusk, huh?”

Pete tells Friendly Fake Cop to get Well-Dressed Man to the rally point, then runs to the coat room to pick up Well-Dressed Man’s bag.

The bag contains a strange metal object that, if you’re watching this for the second time, you will immediately recognize as part of the Algorithm (a secret formula for inverting the flow of entropy on a global scale, bringing past and future crashing together and ending the universe as we know it). Then Pete hoofs it to the rally point to meet up with Well-Dressed Man and the rest of the Fake Cops.

Pete says the Ukrainians are expecting a passenger. This is a Ukrainian opera house, so presumably he’s talking about the cops. Is the Ukrainian government behind this? No time to discuss that because we’reswapping outfits!

Well-Dressed Man, who I guess now is just Regularly-Dressed Man, puts on a SWAT uniform while a Fake Cop puts on the suit, presumably meaning he is now the Well-Dressed Man, and I’m sorry I may be making this more complicated than it needs to be, but please give your characters actual names in the future, Chris.

Pete tells the Regularly Dressed, Formerly Known as the Well-Dressed Man that he’s “never seen an encapsulation like this,” referring to the bit of Algorithm. “Encapsulation” is a term that often refers to the storage of nuclear waste, so Pete clearly thinks he’s there to retrieve parts of a nuclear bomb.

RDFKATWDM says, “We don’t know how old it is, but it’s the real deal.”

Pete wants to know if RDFKATWDM has an out, he does, the sewer, so Pete tells him to take that route, because he doesn’t trust the one they had planned. Pete also asks if the bomb (the cop bombs, not the nuclear one) can be defused. It can’t, and there are more among the audience. So even though it isn’t his mission, Pete goes back to rescue all of the audience members who didn’t get killed by stray bullets when he was climbing over them earlier.

He collects all of the bombs in a big bag, but as he picks up the last one a Cop (we think a Fake Cop) pulls a gun on him.

Pete says, “Walk away, you don’t have to kill these people.”

We know this because of the script. Until that became available there was a lot of debate online about who said that, because that’s a risk when everyone is wearing masks and delivers their lines in the same low-key tone of voice.

Then a bullet shoots backwards out of a bullet hole, through the Fake Cop, killing him, and into the gun of someone standing behind him.

Even on first viewing, this was the moment that made the most sense in the entire scene for me.

Pete has time to see his savior jogging away with a distinctive orange tag hanging off his bag. This is because he has just been rescued by Neil, the posh, trashy Robert Pattinson-portrayed English agent who we later learn has a timey-wimey River Song-esque relationships with Pete.

Fake Cop in Well-Dressed Man’s Clothes notices this and points out he’s not part of the Fake Cop club, but Pete isn’t fussed.

They run out, lobbing the bombs up somewhere I hope nobody else was hiding, and they explode behind them.

Pete and Fake Cop in Well-Dressed Man’s Clothes get back to the van, and as soon as they open the door, someone in the van says in Russian, “That’s not the guy!” presumably referring to the Fake Cop Who is Not the Well-Dressed Man, and shoots him in the gun. Then they knock out Pete. On second thought, maybe these are the Ukrainians?

Pete wakes up tied to a chair between some train tracks where the driver of the Fake Cops van tells him a man can be trained to hold out for 18 hours, so Pete’s colleagues will by free by seven. He points to Pete’s colleague to boast he didn’t last 18 minutes and knew nothing. The torturer confiscates Pete’s suicide pill, and tells him the clock is fast and turns it back an hour. This is called “Foreshadowing.” There are also trains running backwards and forwards either side of the torture scene. This is also “Foreshadowing.”

There’s some nasty implied torture, but in a moment of opportunity, Pete lunges forward and swallows the suicide pill that Fake Cop in Well-Dressed Man’s Clothes was smuggling behind his back.

Pete wakes up in bed to discover it was a test, despite the fact they pulled his teeth out for real and apparently it’s taken a lot of reconstructive surgery to put them back. Also despite it being a test, Pete’s team are all dead and the bit of algorithm is lost.

This all took eight minutes, and then we launch into the film proper.

What Was the Plan?

So questions. First, what was the actual plan here?

Near as we can tell, the once Well-Dressed Man works for the organization run by Kenneth Branagh’s Sator (the “Private Russians” mentioned during Pete’s post-death debriefing). Sator had the Well-Dresed Man infiltrating the Ukrainian government to make contact with someone (if you want to go down that rabbit hole of who, the mystery third party could be the Protagonist’s future, Tenet-running self).

The siege was executed by a senior Ukrainian military officer and apparently enough of the Ukrainian police force that Pete’s team didn’t know which unit would respond to the terrorist attack. The police also very clearly shoot a lot of the terrorists dead. So on discovering the Well-Dressed Man is a mole, the Ukrainian government decide to vanish him and either get a hold of or retrieve the piece of Algorithm in his possession.

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The corrupt personnel decide the best thing to do is take him to the opera with one of their senior military officials. They then pay some mercenaries to act as terrorists and take the audience of the concert hostage. Some of the civilians, or the terrorists, must have informed the police, so that a SWAT team made up of what must be real police turn up.

The police gas the concert hall, and a team of real cops go up to the box where Well-Dressed Man is. Along the way they shoot some of the mercenaries they share an employer with.

At this point, Plan A is that Ukrainian Military Official will shoot Well-Dressed Man. Plan B is that if somehow the Military Official slips and lands on his own gun, a SWAT team will burst in and kill Well-Dressed Man.

Sator’s team knows about this, and have their own fake SWAT team ready, not knowing that their fake SWAT team has also been infiltrated by Pete and his CIA friends. Sator’s team plans to extract the well-dressed man and steal the bit of Algorithm, then plant a bunch of bombs in the concert hall the blow it up and destroy any evidence.

Pete extracts the Well-Dressed Man, hands him over to his undercover CIA pals, but dresses up his friend as the Well-Dressed Man to take back to Sator’s people. Sator’s people don’t fall for it.

They kidnap Pete, torture him, and when he takes a pill and drops unconscious, they think “Well, we’ll leave this body somewhere it can be easily retrieved by his colleagues” and call it a day.

Alternatively:

The torturers are on Tenet’s payroll, and Future Pete has instructed them to go back, kidnap and torture him, then let him commit fake suicide so he can be recruited. This plan means Pete gives the order to have his own teeth ripped out, which you have to admit is pretty hardcore.

Meanwhile Pete’s friends, the Algorithm piece, and the Well-Dressed Man all run into some more of Sator’s team as they escape through the sewer, and are killed.

Having watched the same eight minutes of film over more times than I care to count, this scenario is the best explanation I can come up with. Feel free to offer your own theory in the comments.

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freedomtotalk · 5 years ago

Photo

“Ben shapiro plays Pewdiepie LWIAY theme”” - poorly.

youtube

Shhh, nobody tell Ben Shapiro and other Nazi Jews of the Intellectual Dark Web like that they are in bed with the enemy that murdered 6 million of their brothers and sisters.

youtube

“Ben Shapiro, 12, Plays "Schindler's List"“

Nobody tell Jewish people in bed with Nazis that they are traitors. They might get upset and walk out on the conversation in a huff.

youtube

“Ben Shapiro: US commentator clashes with BBC's Andrew Neil - BBC News“

Very cool of PewDiePie to make a 20 minute video for his 12-year-old fan base about how one of the most influential Japanese fascists of all time is his favorite author

#pewdipie #Ben Shapiro #nazis #altright #far right #conservatives #Republican Party #jewish culture #videos #intellectual dark web #andrew neil #Eric Weinstein

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mattneil · 8 years ago

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RMR WHEN THE FOXES WENT HORSEBACK RIDING ON THEIR SPRING BREAK TRIP I SURE DO

dan: “these are some tall dogs”

nobody thought it was a good idea for neil to go bc he could still barely move his hands least of all to steer a horse

nicky offered to have neil join him on his horse so he could put his arms around him

that got a Big No from one andrew minyard

neil managed to get on the horse with matt’s help and he didn’t really have to steer it kind of just followed the rest of the horses everywhere

kevin chooses a horse named Queenie ITS DEFINITELY A COINCIDENCE HAHAha

she’s super wild and scares kevin at first but then he’s just holding his head high and both he and his horse know they’re better than everyone else

nicky tried to get matt and dan to race his horse and he lost quickly

“it’s okay buddy you did your best i still love you shhh” nicky whispers as he pets his horse’s neck

andrew chose the biggest darkest horse bc it was the only way he would agree to climb on an animal (that and he had to keep an eye on neil)

his legs are so short they don’t come very far down the sides and the bigness makes him look even smaller don’t tell him that

allison and renee decide they want to be those lesbians that have a ranch and raise horses it’s v brokeback mountain BUT ONLY THE GOOD PARTS

not only does neil’s horse only follow the rest of the line of horses on the trail but she’s a v old horse and more than a little slow

sometimes she just stops walking for a little while possibly out of boredom and neil just waits and gently pats her on the neck until she moves again

andrew gets annoyed bc he keeps stopping when neil stops bc he insisted on riding behind him last in line

they catch up with the others eventually and when they climb off all of them are walking funny

nicky: “it’s been a while since i’ve had such a sore ass lol”

everyone else: “STOP”

#the foxhole court #neil josten #andrew minyard #nicky hemmick #i can't tag all the foxes 2 many foxes #all for the game #tfc headcanon #aftg #jen.txt

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captain-cutie-pie-sfw · 6 years ago

Text

All about me:

200: My crush’s name is: panda

199: I was born in: 1997

198: I am really: uhhh Tina belcher tbh

197: My cellphone company is: straight talk

196: My eye color is: green

195: My shoe size is: 12 w 10 m

194: My ring size is: 13

193: My height is: 5’6

192: I am allergic to: pollen and dust mites

191: My 1st car was: never had one

190: My 1st job was: never had one

189: Last book you read: the sun and her flowers by rupi kaur

188: My bed is: comfy

187: My pet: is crazy lol

186: My best friend: I wish I could make her love herself

185: My favorite shampoo is: vo5 strawberry

184: Xbox or ps4: Xbox

183: Piggy banks are: cute

182: In my pockets: I never have pockets #leggingslife

181: On my calendar: I can’t wait for Easter!

180: Marriage is: a good way for two people to prove to each other how much they love each other

179: Spongebob can: gtfo (I don’t like spongebob)

178: My mom: is currently cleaning the kitchen while I lay down because I don’t feel well

177: The last three songs I bought were?

1) Halsey - without me

2) yungblud- California

3) blackpink - stay

176: Last YouTube video watched: one by little moo moo (her vids are adorable!)

175: How many cousins do you have? Uhhh idk I am part Portuguese and part white and the Portuguese part has a lot of family, and it’s a tight knit family because family and elders are very important to us. The white side is really trashy and I have cousins I’ve never even heard of

174: Do you have any siblings? One brother (he’s 13)

173: Are your parents divorced? Yes

172: Are you taller than your mom? Yeah by like 4 inches

171: Do you play an instrument? I sing

170: What did you do yesterday? Drank by the pool at the water resort in Orlando

[ I Believe In ]

169: Love at first sight: yes because it happened to me

168: Luck: no

167: Fate: yes but like... I try not to think about it too much because it stresses me out

166: Yourself: not really tbh

165: Aliens: anything is possible

164: Heaven: yes

163: Hell: maybe? I don’t want to think about that either

162: God: yes

161: Horoscopes: yes

160: Soul mates: yes

159: Ghosts: yes I’ve seen one

158: Gay Marriage: well I’m getting one...

157: War: no

156: Orbs: yes I’ve seen them

155: Magic: on the fence

[ This or That ]

154: Hugs or Kisses: kisses

152: Phone or Online: phone online. Online on my phone

151: Red heads or Black haired: red heads

150: Blondes or Brunettes: brunettes

149: Hot or cold: warm but not too warm

148: Summer or winter: winter

147: Autumn or Spring: we do not have these in florida

146: Chocolate or vanilla: chocolate

145: Night or Day: night

144: Oranges or Apples: oranges

143: Curly or Straight hair: curly

142: McDonalds or Burger King: mcdonalds

141: White Chocolate or Milk Chocolate: I actually like dark chocolate better

140: Mac or PC: pc

139: Flip flops or high heals: flip flops (I’m a size 12. I hardly ever see anything else in my size)

138: Ugly and rich OR sweet and poor: I’m already sweet and poor

137: Coke or Pepsi: they’re... the same thing

136: Hillary or Obama: hillbama

135: Buried or cremated: cremated so my family can keep my remains

134: Singing or Dancing: singing

133: Coach or Chanel: idk what this is

132: Kat McPhee or Taylor Hicks:idk who this is

131: Small town or Big city: small town

130: Wal-Mart or Target: wal mart

129: Ben Stiller or Adam Sandler: neither but my gf likes Adam sandler

128: Manicure or Pedicure: manicure

127: East Coast or West Coast: east

126: Your Birthday or Christmas: birthday

125: Chocolate or Flowers: chocolate

124: Disney or Six Flags: disney

123: Yankees or Red Sox: Red Sox

[ Here’s What I Think About ]

122: War: needs to stop

121: George Bush: uhhh idiot

120: Gay Marriage: I’m excited for mine

119: The presidential election: 2016? It was the first time I voted and I cried because of the stress

118: Abortion: not my body, not my choice

117: MySpace: I liked how customizable it was and I miss that.

116: Reality TV: guilty pleasure

115: Parents: I love my mom so much

113: Ebay: not as good as amazon

112: Facebook: I need to stop going on it so much!

111: Work: I want to be an elementary school teacher

110: My Neighbors: they’re all very nice!

109: Gas Prices: too damn high!

108: Designer Clothes: look, I’ve got a $10 hoodie from wal mart. I’m good.

107: College: I think it’ll be fun if I ever get my GED

106: Sports: the only one I really get is baseball

105: My family: they’re crazy but I love them

104: The future: uncertain

[ Last time I ]

103: Hugged someone:q I tried to hug my brother this morning and he screamed and called me weird

102: Last time you ate: a few hours ago

101: Saw someone I haven’t seen in awhile: two days ago (my cousin mike, who works for apple)

100: Cried in front of someone: last week

99: Went to a movie theater: it’s been a while

98: Took a vacation: just got back from one today!

97: Swam in a pool: a few years. I’ve had other things to deal with that get in the way of fun

96: Changed a diaper: not since my brother was like 1. Which was 12 yrs ago. I would sometimes offer to do it so my mom taught me how.

95: Got my nails done: never? I do them myself

94: Went to a wedding: my cousin Jen’s wedding. It was lovely.

93: Broke a bone: never

92: Got a peircing: uhh I was 11 and it was the cartilage on my right ear

91: Broke the law: I shoplift all the time

90: Texted: hour ago

[ MISC ]

89: Who makes you laugh the most: my brother

88: Something I will really miss when I leave home is: my blankets

87: The last movie I saw: instant family (it was cute!)

86: The thing that I’m looking forward to the most: taking a nap

84: People call me: when they have something funny to tell me

83: The most difficult thing to do is: admit you’re wrong

82: I have gotten a speeding ticket: never. I don’t drive.

81: My zodiac sign is: virgo

80: The first person i talked to today was: my mom

79: First time you had a crush: I was a boy crazy kid so I can’t remember. Maybe kindergarten?

78: The one person who i can’t hide things from: my best friend

77: Last time someone said something you were thinking: my brother and I say the same thing in unison a lot. He says it’s because stupid minds think alike. I think he’s right.

76: Right now I am talking to: nobody but I wish I was talking to my gf

75: What are you going to do when you grow up:be a teacher

74: I have/will get a job: hopefully

73: Tomorrow: I hope my annoying friend doesn’t call me. Like I don’t like talking to people just text me

72: Today: I’m tired

71: Next Summer: I hope to have fun!

70: Next Weekend: I’m going to church

69: I have these pets: a cat, a dog (he lives w my grandparents), and a bunny

68: The worst sound in the world: overcrowded places with all the people talking at once

67: The person that makes me cry the most is: myself

66: People that make you happy: nova

65: Last time I cried: last night

64: My friends are: cool as heck

63: My computer is: stolen by my brother because he was on it and he broke it but when he fixed it he made it run an OS I can’t use so I guess it’s his now.

62: My School: eckerd college hopefully

61: My Car: nonexistent

60: I lose all respect for people who: are mean to kids, animals, or old people

59: The movie I cried at was: les miserables

58: Your hair color is: brown but I dyed it purple

57: TV shows you watch: too many

56: Favorite web site: dress up games

55: Your dream vacation: new york

54: The worst pain I was ever in was: one time I busted my toe open but I didn’t like cry or anything

53: How do you like your steak cooked: no steak for me

52: My room is: messy

51: My favorite celebrity is: a queen by the name of Demi Lovato

50: Where would you like to be: in bed but my bed is messy

49: Do you want children: maybe

48: Ever been in love: yes

47: Who’s your best friend: I have two

46: More guy friends or girl friends: girls

45: One thing that makes you feel great is: when I help someone. Like yesterday I was at an arcade and I helped a little kid with skee ball and she got so excited when she got a good score

44: One person that you wish you could see right now: my gf

43: Do you have a 5 year plan: yeah but I think it might take longer

42: Have you made a list of things to do before you die: no

41: Have you pre-named your children: yes. Lilliann Alice and Rowan Grace

40: Last person I got mad at: my mom

39: I would like to move to: st Pete, Florida

38: I wish I was a professional: singer

[ My Favorites ]

37: Candy: sour patch kids

36: Vehicle: 67 impala tbh

35: President: Bernie Sanders (shhh I can dream)

34: State visited: mass. Fall River is cool because Lizzie Borden

32: Athlete: Sara Groenewegen, a t1d softball player

31: Actor: David tennant

30: Actress: Gillian anderson

29: Singer: Demi Lovato

28: Band: halestorm

27: Clothing store: Walmart

26: Grocery store:walmart

25: TV show: Star trek ent

24: Movie: men in black 1

22: Animal: turtles

21: Theme park: Busch gardens

20: Holiday: christmas

19: Sport to watch: basketball

18: Sport to play: lmao no

17: Magazine: revolver

16: Book: Neil gaiman- neverwhere

15: Day of the week: Saturday’s

14: Beach: coquina

13: Concert attended: I’ve never attended a concert

12: Thing to cook: stir fry

11: Food: asian

10: Restaurant: checkers

9: Radio station: classic rock

8: Yankee candle scent: all of them

7: Perfume: dark kiss by babw

6: Flower: gardenias

5: Color: purple or yellow

4: Talk show host: none

3: Comedian: John mulaney

2: Dog breed: mine

1: Did you answer all these truthfully? Yes

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