#speaking of jonathan's choice to sleep in the library

[vickyvicarious]

I drew a great couch out of its place near the corner, so that as I lay, I could look at the lovely view to east and south, and unthinking of and uncaring for the dust, composed myself for sleep. I suppose I must have fallen asleep; I hope so, but I fear, for all that followed was startlingly real—so real that now sitting here in the broad, full sunlight of the morning, I cannot in the least believe that it was all sleep. I was not alone.

May 16

When, an hour or two after, the Count came quietly into the room, his coming awakened me, for I had gone to sleep on the sofa.

May 28

I came back to the library, and read there till I fell asleep. I was awakened by the Count, who looked at me as grimly as a man can look as he said:—

June 29

.

I just noticed this little detail today. Every time Jonathan falls asleep somewhere in the castle other than his room, he's awakened by vampires. He never wakes naturally, every time it's at the approach of a predator. And while Dracula at least certainly doesn't stay out of his bedroom, as far as I remember Jonathan never is woken by him there. Every time he mentions waking in his room it's a natural awakening.

Furthermore, these three events get closer. The first time, the three ladies are across the room from Jonathan and approach from there. The second time Jonathan wakes as Dracula is entering the room. This time, it sounds like he comes over and wakes Jonathan up himself, probably touching him or at least getting close and speaking to him.

It's a neat detail.

[chelseeebe]

undo.

this is sooo loosely (when i say loosely i mean two lines) based on undo - the 1975 but i loved it and wanted a happy ending for once lol

we’re not doing it again, so leave it.

i could hear you giving her head.. keep dreaming.

summary: a one night stand with your friend could never go to plan, could it?

friends to lovers i suppose, just takes a little bit of jealousy to get there

there was not a chance in hell that you were going to sleep with steve again.

no matter how much he persisted, or tried to charm you into going on a date with him. no way.

it wasn’t even supposed to happen.

a simple movie night in which robin was supposed to join you, had turned into something more.

your friendship group had seemingly already been notified of your encounter and had some choice words for you when you hung out again.

robin, steve’s best friend, was particularly concerned about how the dynamic would now affect the group.

‘i’m just saying, i really like you and i don’t wanna have to take sides in this.. that’s all,’ she holds her hands up.

‘robin, there is no taking sides, there is nothing going on.. it was one time! okay?’ you assure her.

you notice nancy flash a knowing glance at her boyfriend jonathan, but she’s quick to turn back to you and nod, not totally reassured by any of your words.

‘can we just leave it now? it was stupid and a mistake and..’ you’re interrupted by steve waltzing up to your table in the library, that shit-eating-grin on his face.

‘what’s a mistake?’ he asks, taking the empty seat next to yours and immediately shuffling closer.

‘you, apparently,’ robin adds, slumping back in her chair.

‘oh wow, well i am deeply offended,’ steve mocks, turning to you and clasping his heart in a sarcastic gesture.

you roll your eyes, shaking your head as you begin to pack away your books.

steve frowns, grabbing onto your book, ‘you don’t have to leave just because i’m here, yanno?’

‘i’m not,’ you lie, attempting to pull the book out of his grip.

‘then where are you going?’ his fingers still tightly holding on, his eyes staring intently at you.

‘are you my dad? do you need to know?’ you quip back, playing a pathetic game of tug-of-war with your copy of moby dick with steve.

steve cocks his head and grins, ‘i mean.. if you want me to be.’

you yank the book free and tut at his ridiculous comments.

robin stands from the table, ‘i can’t do this.. i’ll catch you losers later,’ shaking her head as she walks out of the library.

nancy grabs onto jonathan’s hand, tugging him up, ‘we’ve gotta go.. look, please sort out whatever is going on between you guys, before this weekend please,’ she pleads.

the group of you had all planned a trip to nancy’s parents holiday home, in celebration of finishing exams. of course, this was all decided before you and steve had had sex and now none of you were prepared for the tension that would now surround the pair of you.

jonathan gives you a small, pitying, smile before being dragged away by nancy. he and nancy has already been a couple before the group had become a thing, so hadn’t experienced the awful shift in dynamic.

‘nice one, steve.. real nice,’ you frown at him, standing from your own seat and swinging your bag over your shoulder.

‘how was any of that my fault?’ brows furrowed in confusion.

you huff and storm away, but you can hear his chair screech and his footsteps following.

‘can you just speak to me.. for five minutes?’ he pants, grabbing onto your arm and stopping you from walking away.

you spin to face him, pulling your arm back, ‘i don’t want to speak about it anymore, it’s done.. okay?’

‘i just.. i don’t understand, so you fuck me and then.. what? that’s it?’ he leers down, towering over you.

‘that’s exactly it,’ you stare back, but his eyes are intimidating and his fingers are still lingering on your skin and you can’t help but remember the way his lips felt on yours.

pulling your gaze away from him and searching the wall behind him for something more interesting.

‘you won’t let me take you out, just once? that’s all i’m asking for here,’ his thumb rubs against your wrist and you can feel his eyes on you.

‘no steve.. leave it,’ shaking your head as you pull away completely and walk off down the hallway.

he was not going to pull you in with his cocky smile and soft brown eyes, you were better than that.

-

you get a ride with jonathan up to the cabin, nancy in the front and robin sat next to you in the back.

steve had called nancy earlier that morning to let her know he’d be late and would find his own way up.

you’re relieved as you now no longer had to be squished between him and robin for hours, especially knowing that he would be completely relentless in his teasing.

the cabin in question is very quaint, large enough to accommodate all of you although someone was to be confined to the sofa bed in the living room.

it’s a collective decision that steve has to take it as a forfeit for being late.

you’re all sat around in the back garden, the low afternoon sun blaring down on you as jonathan’s boombox blares some pretentious indie rock.

robin hands you a beer and sits back in the chair next to you, none of them had mentioned you and steve and you were incredibly grateful.

you were sure they had just assumed you two had figured it all out, the situation was put to bed.

‘oh look who’s finally arrived!’ robin announces as steve walks through the open back door.

you look up to see him walking towards you with a random girl in tow, hanging onto his arm.

‘hey, sorry i’m late.. i hope you don’t mind, this is tanya..’ he motions towards the girl, who waves at you all, ‘didn’t wanna drive up here all on my own so.. tanya was happy to volunteer to join me.’

it had been a week? two weeks? since you and steve had had sex, and now he was already dating someone else?

you squint at him, choosing to keep your mouth shut in this situation.

steve’s eyes are firmly on you, watching for a reaction, any sort of inkling that you gave a shit, and you were not going to give him that satisfaction.

‘well.. hello tanya,’ nancy politely responds, slightly taken aback by the stranger who was standing in her backyard.

‘you two are on the couch.. punishment for being late,’ robin adds, sipping on the bottle of beer in her hand.

‘that’ll be fine, won’t it?’ he breaks his gaze away from you to look at the girl, who enthusiastically nods back, a sickly smile plastered on her face.

you can feel nancy glance over to you, probably worried that you might say something, anything, to cause an argument.

but you don’t. you slide your sunglasses on and relax back into your chair.

besides, you’d already told steve that you weren’t interested… so why would you care about the pretty girl stood next to him?

you don’t. you tell yourself, although you aren’t sure you fully believe it.

-

you wake up at some point in the night to a ghastly sound.

a horrible whaling, screechy sound.

it takes you a few moments to adjust, trying to decide whether to grab the baseball bat you had found in the closet and venture out to the source of the sound.

and then you can hear a high-pitched, drawn out, ‘steve,’ come from down the hall and it all makes sense.

you groan, rolling over to try and fall back to sleep but the moaning gets louder and so insanely over-the-top that you have to place the pillow over your head to muffle the sounds.

-

steve is completely unashamed when robin complains about their little performance, that smug grin on his lips.

‘sorry.. sorry, should’ve given me a room,’ he shrugs before taking a seat next to tanya, placing an arm around her shoulder.

you avoid eye contact, in fact, you don’t speak a word to him all day.

actively avoiding any conversation he was a part of and choosing any place in the house that he was not.

it’s driving him mad. how you won’t even look at him, hell you won’t even acknowledge that he exists.

he glowers at you over dinner, obnoxiously replying to all of your questions, all to no avail.

robin thinks it’s fucking hilarious and can’t help laughing to herself every time you wilfully ignore his answers and move on to the next question.

nancy is desperately trying to hold it all together, this was supposed to be a nice break away for all of you and steve had brought this stranger along and then proceeded to very loudly have sex with her on her parents couch. it was all a bit too much.

jonathan is quite honestly just enjoying himself, watching as his friends fall into chaos around him, quietly observing the insanity.

you all decide to head to bed early, hoping that a fresh start tomorrow would sort everything out.

robin threatens steve before heading to her room, telling him that she’ll actually castrate him herself if she hears anything tonight and you giggle when you get back to your own room.

you’re dozing off until there’s a soft knock at your door and you’re jolted back awake.

you sigh, standing up and padding over to answer the door only to find steve standing on the other side of the wood.

he holds his finger up to his mouth and creeps into the room, gently closing the door behind him.

‘what the fuck are you doing?’ you angrily whisper, frowning at him.

‘why won’t you just speak to me? fuck- you can’t even look at me,’ he hushes, moving towards you.

you back up slightly, moving when he does, ‘i don’t have anything to say to you,’ you hiss.

your heart is pounding, a shirtless steve was the last thing you had expected on the other side of the door.

‘that’s bullshit,’ he continues to edge closer, ‘you’re jealous,’ he smirks.

‘keep dreaming,’ you scoff, backing up into the wooden wall of the building.

‘you are,’ now only inches away, tilting his head to look down at you, ‘look me in the eye and tell me you’re not.’

you swallow, crumbling under the weight of his stare, his eyes drinking in every part of your face.

‘i’m not,’ you lie, chest heaving up and down.

‘liar,’ he says before closing the space between your bodies, pushing your body back against the wall as his hands find themselves on your waist, his lips crashing into yours.

your hands fly up to cup his cheeks, fingers tangling into his messy hair, desperately grasping onto anything you could hold.

the kiss is sloppy, heated as his tongue finds it’s way into your mouth and his fingers toy with the buttons on your pajama shirt.

he pulls back, gasping for breath as he holds onto your waist, waking you backwards towards the bed and collapsing on top of you.

the bed makes an incriminating creaking noise and you widen your eyes up at him, but he just smirks in response, pressing another kiss to your aching lips.

his hands begin to undo the buttons on your shirt, fumbling around and groaning into your mouth when he can’t get the hang of it one handed.

‘shut up,’ you mumble, moving your hand between you to help him with the task, he begins to kiss onto your jaw and down onto your neck.

you successfully unbutton the shirt and shimmy it off of your body beneath him, throwing your head back to allow wider access to your neck.

‘holy shit,’ he breathes into your neck, the hand that was previously struggling, running down your body to tug down the matching shorts you had on.

his lips are still attacking your skin, sucking and nibbling, which would probably leave some kind of mark but you could not have cared less in this moment.

he yanks down his own boxers and moves from your neck to press his forehead against yours, guiding himself into your slick entrance with a low groan.

your mouth falls open, trying with every fibre of your being to not make any noise as he begins to slowly move inside of you.

his eyes watch your face as he licks his lips, keeping a slow rhythm as to not rock the bed though this is all the more frustrating, your fingers tugging on his hair to urge him to move faster.

he moves steady and deep and you have to stifle a moan when he hits your sweet spot, whimpering underneath him as hips slam into yours.

the sound of skin on skin is undeniable, filling the room and you just pray that robin is sound asleep.

his lips lazily connect with yours in an attempt to not grunt as you rock your hips upwards into him, nearing your orgasm.

he pulls back, choosing to move faster as he finds his own orgasm approaching, letting out a throaty moan before your hand leaves his hair and clamps over his mouth.

though you can’t help the sounds of pleasure that escape your mouth when you reach your peak, choosing to burrow your head into his forearm and trembling around him.

‘fuck,’ he groans against your hand, coming inside of you before collapsing into a sweaty mess on the bed next to you.

you swallow, trying to find your breath, truly still coming down from your high.

steve breathes out, turning his head to look at you, disgustingly smug about it all.

‘don’t,’ you whisper, ‘don’t say anything.’

he shakes his head, ‘i wasn’t going to,’ his arm reaches over to pull you into his chest and you don’t fight it instead placing your head onto his still-heaving chest.

he moves the blanket to cover you both and you fall asleep in that exact position, hoping that the walls weren’t as thin as they seemed.

-

plates clatter in the kitchen and your eyes open, suddenly hyper-aware that you were still holding onto a very-much asleep steve, who most definitely should not be here in your bed.

you sit up and shake him, ‘steve,’ you hiss, ‘you need to get up!’

he groans, squinting at the sudden light, ‘w-what? what’s wrong?’ he says groggily, not sure why you had chosen to so aggressively wake him up.

‘you can’t be in here!’ you whisper loudly, eyes widened.

‘ohh.. oh shit,’ he sits up, realising where exactly he was and who exactly was outside probably wondering where the hell he was.

you look over at the window, ‘climb out the window.. say you went for a walk or some shit.’

‘right.. right yeah,’ he stands up, still disoriented from the sleep and grabs his boxers, sliding them on.

you stand and walk over to help him out of the window, trying to quietly slide it open.

he pauses for a second and grips onto your chin, tilting your head upwards to look at him, ‘see ya’ tonight?’

‘you’re so.. fuck- get out,’ you respond and he bites down onto his bottom lip before clambering out of the window, you close the window and shoo him away.

picking up a hoodie and your discarded shorts and throwing them on, attempting to hide whatever mess he had left on your neck.

you exhale before stepping out of your room, hearing your friends voices echo through the cabin.

‘well hello sleepy head,’ robin says, sitting up straight in her chair.

you smile at her taking a seat at the table, averting your eyes from tanya who was sat in confusion, waiting for the boy that had dragged her here to reappear.

almost on cue, steve stumbles through the front door and into the kitchen, your eyes flit up to him, only to already be met by his own eyes staring back.

you quickly look back to the table as nancy turns around, face screwed up in confusion, ‘where have you been?’

‘oh.. i woke up early and went for a.. walk,’ steve answers, using your excuse.

‘in your boxers?’ robin adds, nodding at his lack of clothing.

‘yes actually, quite refreshing,’ he answers, more confidently as he sits down next to tanya, choosing not to lean into her advances and instead picking up a slice of toast.

‘you’re lucky i don’t have any tools to castrate you here.. you’ve gotta learn how to be fucking quiet dingus.. disgusting,’ robin laughs, throwing a rogue piece of bread at his head.

tanya looks over at steve with a furrowed brow, ‘but we.. we didn’t?’ the cogs slowly turning in her brain.

you stare intently at the table, trying to keep a straight face, still chewing on the bite of toast.

‘must’ve been.. the wind or something,’ steve pats tanya on the knee.

she nods, still not really grasping the situation.

jonathan has already clocked on to what’s happened, eyes flicking between you and steve while nancy slowly comes to the same realisation.

‘what?’ robin looks around at everyone’s expressions when it dawns on her and her face drops, ‘oh my fucking god.’

you close your eyes, slowly chewing on the bread and bracing for whatever robin was going to say next.

‘you have to be fucking kidding me,’ she bursts out laughing, slapping her hand on the table.

‘robin,’ steve warns, glaring at her.

tanya still hasn’t caught on and is sat looking puzzled.

‘no no, steve that is fucking hilarious,’ she continues to laugh, prodding you on the knee, causing you to look up at her.

‘am i missing something? i don’t.. i don’t get it,’ tanya states, shaking her head.

‘why don’t we uh.. have a chat?’ steve stands, placing his hand tenderly on her shoulder.

she follows him out into the living room, utterly puzzled.

nancy stares at you, a small pout on her face. robin is still cracking the fuck up and jonathan just looks bewildered.

‘look.. he came into my room and then.. he just.. it was stupid and.. and,’ you stumble through your words, trying to plead with your group of friends around the table.

‘chill,’ jonathan assures, he could tell that you were flustered and you flash him a small, appreciative smile.

‘so it wasn’t just a one time thing then?’ robin asks, a smile still plastered on her face.

‘well, no but it won’t happen again..’ you can’t even be totally sure that that statement was true.

‘look.. we don’t care, okay? i was worried that i’d have to choose between you and steve, but i don’t think there’s much chance of that happening,’ robin nods at you, her previous scepticism had worn off.

‘clearly there’s something going on there.. you should do what makes you happy,’ nancy shrugs.

you look up at her, appreciating her kind words and their sudden acceptance of whatever the hell was happening between you and steve.

‘but, i do think you should apologise to that girl.. even if she is an obvious tactic to make you jealous,’ nancy puts her hand on the table, giving you that stern, motherly look that she had perfected.

you nod in agreement, trying to stifle your smile.

steve walks back into the kitchen, no longer practically naked, ‘i’m gonna take tanya to the train station.. she said to thank you for having her though.’

you glance up at him but immediately looking away when his dark brown eyes meet yours.

nancy sighs, ‘makes sense..’ her eyes flit to you, ‘go.’

you roll your eyes and stand, walking into the living room where tanya is stuffing her belongings into her bag.

‘hey.. i just.. wanted to say sorry y’know? for.. uh- yeah,’ you speak up, although very awkwardly.

she looks at you, a blank stare on her face, ‘yeah, whatever.’

you purse your lips together, not really expecting much more from the girl and spin to walk back into the kitchen, bumping into steve who was stood watching your interaction.

his hand lands on your arm, ‘we’ll talk.. when i’m back.’

you nod slightly, noting the nearly missable smile on his lips, reciprocating with a tiny grin before moving around him and disappearing back into the kitchen.

‘well, i don’t think we’ll be seeing tanya again,’ you raise your brows, sitting back in your chair.

‘oh nooo,’ robin wails sarcastically.

nancy throws her that trademark glare again but she can’t help the smile creeping onto her face.

you dig into your breakfast properly, only now anxiously awaiting steve’s return. not sure what to even say to him, or what you were even thinking.

you hadn’t really thought about the possibility of you and steve actually becoming more than friends, after you had had sex you’d immediately written off any potential relationship blossoming for the sake of your friends.

but now you’d basically been given the approval from them all, could you do it? give it a real shot?

-

you’re in the garden sunbathing when steve comes back.

you don’t even notice until his shadow cascades over you and the heat of the sun is obstructed by his body.

you look up, removing your sunglasses and squinting at him.

‘wanna go for a walk?’ he asks, holding out his hand to you.

you sit up properly and nod, taking his hand and standing from the towel laid out on the grass.

he holds onto your hand as he guides you through the house and out of the front door.

‘i think we can get to the lake down here,’ he points to a thin path.

‘did you see that on your walk this morning?’ you joke.

‘ha ha,’ he rolls his eyes, ‘nancy told me about it,’ his fingers intertwined with yours.

‘did uh, did tanya say anything?’ you ask timidly, not really caring about the answer.

‘yeah.. she had a few interesting names for me on the way there,’ he chuckles, leading you down the cobbled path.

‘well.. i hope you apologised for dragging her out here.’

‘i did, i even paid for her train ticket,’ he states as you walk through the clearing in the trees and across the lake.

he slows, finding a shaded spot under a tree and turning to face you fully.

‘so,’ he holds onto your fingers, gazing down at you.

‘so..’

‘i think you already know what i think about you.. and i am totally down to keep having sex with you but i can’t promise that it would ever be just sex.. not for me anyway,’ his fingers squeeze onto yours.

you nod, looking back at him, ‘i don’t.. i don’t want that.’

‘okay..’ his smile falters and his clasp on your fingers loosen.

‘no, i mean.. i don’t want just sex,’ you reply, hoping that he’d understand.

‘oh? so you’ve changed your mind.. like i can take you out?’ the smile reappears on his face.

‘yeah,’ you agree, ‘that’d be nice.’

he grins from ear to ear, taking your other hand into his and squeezing, ‘like really? a proper date?’

‘yes,’ you giggle, ‘don’t ask again because i might change my mind,’ you interlock your fingers with his, pulling his body into yours.

you weren’t sure how this was going to end but you were happy enough to at least give it a shot.

[harleysarchive]

No Fear from Me - Jonathan Crane x reader oneshot

Fandom: Dark knight Warning: Kidnapping, fear toxin  Pairing: Jonathan Crane x neutral!reader Summary: You gets kidnapped by Jonathan Cranes henchmen, but what they don’t know is that you are his student and can’t feel fear.

Requested

Gif from this blog X

I’m not too happy with the ending but I hope it’s okay anyway. But enjoy :D

You were a psychology student, going your last year at the university in Gotham. You had to write your master's thesis on a subject of your choice, which was hard enough to pick a damn topic but you wanted to write about something that you were interested in. You have always been interested in fear and the neural correlates that are associated with fear. Mostly because you didn’t really feel fear as you classmates did, you could walk home late at night in the bad neighborhoods in Gotham without feeling frightened. You were waiting for that one night when it would bite you in the ass to be so reckless, and tonight it happened.

You had been at the school library until closing time, for like the third time this week, because you were reading up about fear and different measurement you could use to measure fear on the participants that you were recuriting for you thesis. But the librarian told you that she was closing and you left the building. It had already gotten dark outside and you started to walk your way back to your apartment. 

You had like one block left to go before you were home when a car next to you started slow down and stop. From the car it came two men that grabbed you by your arms and legs and threw you into the back of the car and drove away. You tried you kick the door open to escape, but one of the guys sprayed you with something that knocked you out instantly. 

A cold sufface and muffled voices was the first things that you percieved when you woke up from your unconscious state. Your head hurt a bit and your eyes tried to adjust to the lighting in the room. You were on a metal bed or an operation table, in a big warehouse looking buidling. It smelled musty and you felt a little cold. The voices came closer and soon a door opened to reveal how the voices belonged to.

“I’m sorry boss, we didn’t know that.... We just took someone of the street and yeah...” the henchman said defeated. 

You looked over and saw none other than you professor in your psychology class. 

“Professor Crane?” you said confused. Jonathan pinched the bridge of his nose hard and the henchmen flinched when they heard you speak. “What am I doing here?”

“Ask the idiots behind me.” he mumbled and walked past you to his briefcase that were place not too far away from where you were sitting. You looked over at the henchmen again and they really looked like they had gotten a good scolding, which they had.

When Jonathan saw the person that his henchmen had kidnapped he almost had a heartattack. It was you, one of his students, one of his more brilliant students as well. 

“You absolute idiots.” he had said in a almost too calm voice. “Of all the people in Gotham, you had to pick one of them that knew ME PERSONALLY.”

“They know you?”

“It’s one of my students you morrons.”

“Oh shit...”

Jonathan gave away a big sigh and looked over at you. Your sleeping body looked so peaceful, and he was sad to have to kill you know. He couldn’t let you go when you woke up, because you would know too much. Jonathan looked over at you now, when you were awake and looked so confused, only confused. Not scared, you weren’t screaming or shouting or crying for help. This interested Jonathan.

“What am I doing here? Where am I?” 

“I’m sorry, (Y/N).” Jonathan said and put on his scarecrow masked and sprayed you with his fear toxin. “But I can’t let you go now, you know too much.” 

The fear toxin spread through you and Jonathan waited for you to scream and cry, but nothing happened. You just sat there on the operations table and looked around. He sprayed you again.

For you everything was just blurry, like you had taken some hallucinogenic drugs or something, but nothing else, until Jonathan sprayed you again then you saw something in the corner of the room. But it disappeared as soon as you noticed it.

“Why aren’t you afraid?”

“I can’t feel fear, I never have been able to.” you said looking at him directly. He still had his mask on so you couldn’t see his face or eyes. Jonathan however looked at you like you were a treasure that had fallen into his lap. You were the perfect guinea pig for his experiments. He couldn’t let you go, not now that he knew that your fear mechanims didn’t work. 

The fear toxin wore of and he took of his mask and looked at you. You now realized how beautiful he was upfront, sure you had noticed it in class as well but there you weren’t the only one drooling over him. Everyone wanted to take the psychology class at Gotham Uni to be near the gorgeous teacher. Now that you had the chance to really inspect his features, your eyes just kept going back to his icy blue eyes. 

“I can’t let you leave now.”

“Why?”

“Because you are perfect. You are the perfect test subject to my experiments and I can’t let you leave.”

“What is it that you are testing professor?”

“How this toxin in the mask causes fear on different subjects.”

Your eyes went big. “That is what I choose as my subject for my master’s thesis. Not fear toxin, but about fear and it’s neural correlates, I would love to help you, and if I help you I also help myself with my work. But I have one condition to do this with you.”

“That is?”

“We only work on bad guys.”

“Maybe we can arrange that.” he said and touched your cheek gently. “But I’m choosing the bad guys, deal?”

“Deal.” you said and smiled.  

[bluejayblueskies]

precipice

Part 20 of Whumptober 2020

Fandom: The Magnus Archives Characters: Jonathan Sims, Martin Blackwood, Annabelle Cane Tags: Whump, Hurt/Comfort, Loss, Character Death

Jon really isn’t sure what he’s expecting when he allows the crack that runs through the basement of Hilltop Road to swallow him whole, his hand clasped tight with Martin’s lest they be separated. Maybe a terrifying fall through space and time, pulled along by spiderweb strings and released at a whim into a place that Jon hopes, upon all hopes, could allow him to fix things. Maybe absolutely nothing, yet another disappointment in a journey littered with more wrong answers than Jon thought were even possible now that he’s quite omniscient.

 Maybe it would kill him.

 The thought makes him loosen his grip on Martin’s hand reflexively, an instinct to push him away and out of danger coming over Jon for just a moment.

 The darkness takes ahold of him and pulls, and Martin’s fingers are ripped free from Jon��s. And then there’s nothing.

.

Jon wakes with a splitting headache, something small and smooth clutched in his hand, and the burning sensation at the back of his mind that something is very, very wrong.

 The headache:

 Beholding still exists in this reality. Jon can feel it at the back of his mind, those ocean waves that had, as Jonah’s statement tore free from his mouth, become a tsunami. But where before, it had been knowledge almost to the point of suffocation, and fear that oozed into his subconscious from every direction, and a world that knew only fear, now it’s barely a drip through the cracks that the fears push through into this reality, still sealed almost-tightly against their influence.

 The Archivist still exists in this reality, and he’s both standing in the dusty, abandoned living room of Hilltop Road and sitting in an equally as dusty Archives, and Jon Knows that they’re both developing that same excruciating, paradoxical headache.

 The small and the smooth:

 A gift, Annabelle Cane had said with a smile. For you to find your way back. Once you get what you need, of course. It’s unique to this reality—quite special. Isn’t it wonderful that we’re working together now, Jon? I do think we’re going to be friends.

 The compass spins, its slender white needle flashing against a golden spiderweb design behind it, and finally settles. It’s not pointing North. There aren’t any markers on the compass at all. But Jon Knows where it leads. The problem isn’t the knowing; it’s the trusting.

 But what other choice does he have?

 The wrong:

 Jon’s all alone in Hilltop Road. And this reality has never known a man named Martin Blackwood.

.

Martin wakes to complete darkness, and something scuttling over the exposed skin of his face.

 With a yelp, he sits up, and the thing that Martin is 98% sure is a spider falls onto his hand. He brushes it off, perhaps a bit too forcefully due more to shock than to anger, and tries and fails to let his eyes adjust to the black.

 “Oh, god,” Martin says, a dizzying nausea rising within him. “Am- am I dead? Is- is this what happens when you die now? Just- just nothing, forever?”

 “I mean,” a voice says, too-close, “I suppose?”

 With a significantly higher-pitched yelp, Martin scrambles backward and feels his back solidly connect with something rough and hard that nearly knocks the wind out of him.

 There’s light laughter, gratingly familiar as it cuts through a second wave of shock, and the voice continues, “Dying would be nothing forever, if I had to guess. But this is far from nothing.”

 His heart still beating at the approximate rate of a hummingbird’s, Martin snaps, “Christ, Annabelle, you scared the life out of me.” Then, as shock makes way for terrified realization: “Oh, god. Where’s Jon? Where- where am I? Is he all right?”

 “He’s fine,” Annabelle says, sounding amused. “Don’t worry; it could be worse. I could have not caught you as you fell. You could be in an entirely different reality right now, stranded and lost and alone.”

 “Yeah, great. Thanks,” Martin says sourly. “And Jon? Is. He. All right?”

 “Oh, come now Martin.” Her voice is closer now, and Martin flinches back a bit more into the wall. “A little faith. It’s not like I can see where he’s gone, anyway.”

 “What?” Just like that, the terror is back, turning Martin’s hands slick with sweat. “How- how can you not see where he’s gone, you’re the one who sent him—”

 “The Mother sent him,” Annabelle corrects with something between a snap and a sigh. “I am not my patron, Martin, just as Jon is not his.”

 “Then how,” Martin grinds out, “do you know he’s going to make it back?”

 A pause. Then: “I don’t. But, unlike you, I do have faith. In my patron, and in the web we’ve woven.” A small laugh. “Even in Jon, I suppose. And I suggest you do the same.”

 Then, she falls silent, and nothing Martin says can get her to speak again. So he sits, leaning against what he’s pretty sure is a wall, and tries. To have faith.

 He just feels so very, very alone.

.

Four weeks later, Jon stands in the basement of Hilltop Road, clutching the compass in one hand and a small red volume in the other, and stares at a floor unmarred by cracks. His headache had become unbearable by the end of the first week, nearly bringing him to his knees as he reluctantly made his way to the Magnus Institute.

 Slitting Elias’s throat was easy. Finding out he hadn’t been lying was harder. But at least Jon’s head no longer throbbed in pain. And he hadn’t yet found what he was looking for.

 And then, at the end of week three, he had. The book was so small, just large enough that it wouldn’t fit in Jon’s pockets but barely bigger than his hand.  Its title was in small, blocky letters pressed onto the front of crimson leather, emblazoned in gold: LOCKE AND KEAY.

 The fact that this was a reality where Gerard Keay had been just a bit too successful at following in his mother’s footsteps probably should have bothered Jon more, as he slipped out of a library burgeoning with newly-written books spun from the hands of a master bookbinder who was, himself, bound. But he thought of Martin, and of how he couldn’t sense him no matter how hard he looked, and tried not to look back as he left.

 And now there’s nothing left to do but stare at a floor unfractured, through which no other realities bleed and writhe and scream, and to find himself, for the first time in so very, very long, completely ignorant.

 The compass needle points stubbornly at the floor below Jon’s feet, and he wants to scream. He doesn’t drop to his knees so much as slump in sudden exhaustion, four weeks of little sleep and a constant, thrumming anxiety at the loss of someone who had been beside him for so, so long catching up to him as one. The compass makes a soft click as it hits the floor, the book a softer thud, and Jon begins to beg.

 “Please, I- I have what I need,” he says, voice ragged from the choked tears that so very badly want to spring to the surface. “I’ve done what you asked. Everything you asked. I- I did so many things, and I just- I need to be able to come back.” His voice hitches slightly. “I can’t be stuck here forever, I- I can’t.” His eyes slip closed, as they so often have, and he reflects upon the only image of Martin he has left. “I can’t,” he repeats, barely more than a whisper.

 “Always so dramatic with you two,” a voice says.

 Jon’s eyes snap open to complete darkness. And then the floor drops out from underneath him, and he plummets.

.

It feels a bit odd, Martin thinks. Sliding the small red volume that contains the entirety of humanity’s fear made manifest in between a battered anthology of Keats’ poetry that Martin had picked up at a charity shop and a near-pristine Agatha Christie novel that Jon kept saying he meant to read. It pulses slightly under Martin’s fingers as he slots it into place and takes a quick step back, waiting for… well, for something bad to happen, he supposes.

 There’s nothing. And Martin begins to believe, finally, that it’s over.

 “It’s not an airtight prison, of course,” Annabelle Cane had said, when darkness had bled into too-bright light and Jon had tumbled out of it, turning the book over in her hands with a mild smile. “They’ll still be able to influence this world, as they could before, but we’ll all be just a bit less… watched.”

 Martin was squeezing Jon to him like his life depended on it, trying and failing to stop the tears that dripped from the corners of his eyes that were equal parts relief and lingering terror. Ten days he’d been trapped there, in that darkness that had almost driven him mad. Ten days for him, and four weeks for Jon.

 “I thought I’d lost you,” Martin sobbed, burying his face in the space between Jon’s shoulder and his neck and gripping the back of his shirt with white knuckles. “I- I was alone, I was so alone, and- and I didn’t know if you were alive, or- or dead, or—”

 “It’s. It’s okay, Martin,” Jon said, but Martin could hear that small hitch in his voice, feel him shake slightly against him, and he knew that it was very much not okay. “I- god, I thought I’d lost you too. That… that you’d been stranded somewhere, in a different reality, and that if I’d just held on tighter, I could have—”

 “No, no, Jon, it’s not your fault.” Martin squeezed Jon tighter, probably a bit too hard, but he was still trying to convince himself that this was real. There had been a lot of… hallucinations there, at the end, in that place between realities where Annabelle had said, in a mild voice that made Martin want to scream, “We wait, of course. Don’t want to leave too soon—it’s quite difficult to find the same reality twice, you know, and once we’ve closed this passage, well. It would be a shame to have to start all over again.”

 Martin squeezed Jon tightly, and laced their fingers together, and reminded himself through every touch that this was real.

 A gentle hand comes to rest on Martin’s back as he stares at the bookcase, and he startles under its touch.

 “Ah. Sorry,” Jon says sheepishly, withdrawing his hand slightly. “Is… is it safe?”

 “Yeah,” Martin says, still staring at the books. Then, with a small smile, because he just can’t help himself: “It’s under Locke and Keay.”

 The look Jon gives him is plainly exasperated, but undercut with a fondness that makes Martin’s heart flutter in his chest. “Really?” he says with a small smile.

 Martin takes his eyes, finally, from the books and studies Jon’s face instead. It’s still lined with worry and weariness, and probably will be for a long, long time, but underneath, there’s a warmth—a burgeoning, peaceful happiness—that makes a warmth of its own bloom within Martin. “Too soon?” he says.

 “Mmm,” Jon says, his eyes alighting on the small red volume and sticking there, almost subconsciously. “I can still feel it in there. The Eye.”

 Martin pauses, and finds it true when he says, quietly, “Me too.”

 He laces his fingers through Jon’s, and they let their gazes linger upon the bookcase for another long moment, upon the spiderwebs that are already eagerly lacing their way up the wooden shelves, upon an end that seems altogether too easy and kind to be quite real.

 Red leather slowly becomes caked with dust and cobwebs, and the world begins to recall a time when it was not Watched.

[lighthouseroleplay]

WILLIAM ‘WILL’ HARRIS BURKE

                          ( 22 ,  cis male, he/him )

♪♫ currently listening  ⧸⧸  drunk drivers / killer whales by carseat headrest

the graffiti-covered seat at the back of the class, sunglasses in every shade of the rainbow, band-aid covered knees. juggling baseballs with a careless ease, strawberries eaten by the handful, a laugh that ends in a snort. the teacher’s rolling eyes, joints tucked in a back pocket. phone calls that go late into the night, fresh flowers on a gravestone. always a scent of pine, a scrawled letter, stacks of books threatening to collapse at any moment.

    •  hadfield was the first neighbour you had in tenebrin who wasn’t a thousand year old angry man, and you appreciated that. you were determined to befriend them, and the fact that you were in the same grade made it even better. they were so new, so different from so many people who lived in tenebrin, people you’d grown up with, known since kindergarden. the familiarity was nice, sure, but this interesting new person got on very well with you, even if it was weird that your moms dated for a little bit. screw weirdness, you had a new friend, and you had a great time every day on the walk to/from school.

    •  lind-carter was someone you met for the first time in junior year, this tiny, insistent freshman, intent on going on the honors biology trip as if it would change her life. it made you laugh, originally, but on the trip, you became friends. you didn’t really know anyone in your bio class, and something about her intensity made you curious. it was a good choice, speaking retrospectively, because her whatever — you called it ‘bossiness’, she made rude gestures back at you — balanced out your indecision, your tendency towards laziness perfectly. she pushed you towards actually going to university, when your own mother couldn’t do that, and leaving her behind hurt you more than most things did.

taken by alexandra  ⧸⧸  joe keery .

i thought the earth remembered me, she took me back so tenderly, arranging her dark skirts, her pockets full of lichens and seeds.

William Burke was born on a rainy May morning, first baby-howls echoing through the hospital room, loud enough to rival the fat water droplets spattering against the window, and the dawn’s first light hidden between dark clouds. His father cried, as did his sister, though his mother was far too exhausted to join in, and all in all, it was a rather damp day.

He was a baby who had always been wanted, like his sister before him, with parents who had always wanted a pair to call their own. Jonathan Burke grew up in Tenebrin Port, but had little interest in staying there: which, as it turned out, was a rather good thing, as it was while working as a library assistant at UC Berkeley that he met Mary Slater, English literature PhD candidate with a love of King Arthur lore. They fell in love rapidly and deeply, buying an apartment together in San Francisco and planning a life together in that fog-filled, colourful city. Their first child was born there, named for the Guinevere of the stories her mother buried herself in while pregnant. She was delivered just after her mother finished her thesis, and they were, in the end, celebrated with equal enthusiasm and joy. They married soon after, and while many members of the Slater family were present, only a few of the Burkes did.

Mary was offered a position at Whitman College, assistant professor of English Literature, and she moved there, as did Jon and their child, where he embraced fatherhood with enthusiasm. He had no doubts in his mind at the concept of staying home and taking care of Gwen while Mary worked, and when she could support the family thus — why not?

Four years later, she became pregnant again, this time with a boy, and William Burke came angrily screaming into the world, completing their family of four perfectly.

    i slept as never before, a stone on the river bed, nothing between me and the white fire of the stars but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths among the branches of the perfect trees.

The family moved to Tenebrin when Will was only three, drawn more by responsibility than anything else, an illness in Jon’s family leaving his mother frail, and in need of her son nearby. Mary began research on a new book, surrounding the role of Uther in Arthur mythology. Will and Gwen were raised by their parents, yes, but also by their grandmother, a severe woman, strict about everything but more than a little willing to tell her grandchildren stories about Tenebrin — after all, she could do little else, stuck in bed as she was. More than one night, the pair would sleep with dream wreathed in swirling water, crashing waves upon a shoreline echoing in their mind. She wove a good story, and it was oh so easy for the children to find their way into the web, to the chagrin of parents who would so much rather their children didn’t have the screaming nightmares these stories inspired.

Though Will’s grandmother eventually died, four years later, her stories had an impact on him: while Gwen was made of stronger stuff, he grew terrified of water deeper than a bathtub, resisting the swimming lessons at the community centre to the point where even bribes of toys and post-swimming ice cream trips had little effect. He just wouldn’t do it, and so while his sister spent summers advancing up the rungs of the Red Cross Swimming levels, he was to spend his days at the outdoor camps, hiking and camping in the forest that surrounded the town, learning bear tracks and how to start fires and how to keep them from spreading. That he took to, spectacularly so, finding a love of the woods to match his fear of water. 

He threw himself into this love wholeheartedly, looking forward to summers spent in the Olympic National Forest, always begging his parents to let him climb trees. Will was up one such tree in the backyard of his house, all of nine without even the slightest fear of heights, on one of fall’s rare rainless days, when a police car pulled in, with two officers exiting the car to knock on the front door. Will was scared then, for a brief moment, freezing with the knowledge that this wasn’t normal, that maybe he was in trouble somehow, that something was wrong. He didn’t hear the discussion that took place inside the house, but when his mother emerged with the two officers, the group walking towards him, he knew he was right to worry. Her face streamed with tears, and Will scrambled down the tree, erring in a way he rarely did, and falling to the ground.

In the end: that was that. He broke his arm, and his father was dead, in terrible fluke of a car accident, on such a perfect day, no less. There was no one to blame but the cruelty of fate, and suddenly Will’s mother, an outsider to the strange, small town, was alone without her strongest link to it.

all night I heard the small kingdoms breathing around me, the insects, and the birds who do their work in the darkness.

Will Burke was not one for grief. It passed like it came, and though he’d make his way to the Tenebrin graveyard twice a month, a plaid-clad pilgrim carefully balancing flowers in the basket of his bike, and although he would always hold the memories of his father close to his heart, the pain left him. The first year, his grin was a little too wide, his laugh a little too loud, and if he disrupted the class with comedic antics one too many times, well, who could blame him. No child should lose a parent that young.

But it did pass, with time, and Will found himself settling comfortably into the role of class clown that he’d first taken on to hide his grief. It was so easy to make people laugh, and the grins on his classmates’ faces made all the punishments worth it -- especially when he managed to avoid those too! Let it never be said that he wasn’t smart: he just didn’t apply himself, said year after year at parent-teacher conferences. When he did try, though, he succeeded, and like his mother, Will found he excelled at English, though struggling more than a little with the more complex problems in Math. Biology didn’t come easily either, but he knew that to work in the forests he loved in a meaningful way, he’d have to work hard, and he did, pushing himself to seek out teachers after class, doing extra research online… It was perhaps the thing he worked hardest on, even if he didn’t know what path his life would take.

That was the problem, though: it all felt so theoretical, the idea of graduating, university, of getting a job. Being young was so easy, so peaceful, and Will didn’t want to trade away the crystalline memories of juggling strawberries in the cafeteria to generous applause, or late nights spent watching movies with his friends, for hard work and stress that seemed to come so naturally. Perhaps his mother had read him a little too much Peter Pan as a child, perhaps he’d simply observed her too well, but the result was the same. The effort was there, to do well, to succeed in school, but beyond that: it was easy to slip under the radar, especially with Gwen at a nearby university, and his mother increasingly busy, and easy to avoid planning and applications in favour of things that brought him more joy. Lind-Carter talked him out of that, in the end, forcing him to make plans for a future that was rapidly growing nearer, and while he frowned profusely at her at the time, somewhere in the back of his mind he was grateful.

all night i rose and fell, as if in water, grappling with a luminous doom.

He was one month graduated, the coastal chill of spring starting to burn off into summer’s warmth, Independence Day festivities past, looking ahead to university, to something different than the mundane existence he’d always known to be true in Tenebrin.

Will was just waking up when he got a text from Lind-Carter, brain fuzzy from sleep that had gone on a little too longer than it should, but hey, it was the summer! It was that first text that would always stand in his mind more than anything else, that concern, so immediate, pulling him sharply into the world. He’d biked over quickly, and it was all a whirlwind of memories after that, so fragmented and confused that he was never sure which was the memory and which was the dream. The water, Andy’s face as she leapt into it, the determination, and a haunting song that seemed pulled from his grandmother’s stories.

He made his appearance at the funeral, dressed in black alongside Gwen and his mother, shoulders down, eyes bleak, distant. He barely acknowledged the coffin as it was lowered into the grave, placing the flowers he’d brought next to the stone with vacant eyes. The next day, he fled to the woods.

by morning i had vanished at least a dozen times into something better.

He went north, in the end, fleeing Tenebrin and the loss that crushed him like so many falling rocks. It hurt too much to bear, and Will was grateful in a way he hadn’t ever been before that he’d decided to go to school so far away. It went smoothly, though he was reticent to make friends in a way he never had been before: it seemed easier to go without. He still laughed, partied, had fun, but it was all a little hollow inside. Some days he felt as though Andy’s death had affected him more than his own father’s: a fleeting, guilty idea, but one that was more than a little true. Maybe it was because he’d witnessed it, maybe it was because she was his age, but it had all felt so wrong in a way that stuck with him. Coming back to Tenebrin after graduating university felt like a homecoming, but it also felt like a resolution. He would use the summer to repair this odd, broken feeling inside of him, so he could leave again whole, and begin his new job in the fall with a clean heart. The trees had always felt like home to him, but perhaps the water would cleanse what they didn’t seem to be able to purify.

[carmenlire]

As You Please

Prompt: Holiday

read on ao3

Sunlight streams through the open curtains and Magnus burrows deeper into the covers. It takes him a minute, mind still clinging to sleep, to figure out why something feels off.

Instead of a pillow, he’s hugging Alec. That wouldn’t be so unusual except that by the time it’s light outside, his boyfriend is always out of bed and usually out of their apartment altogether, off to the Institute at painfully early hours most days.

Sighing a little, Magnus squeezes Alec closer and kisses his chest in a silent apology for what he’s about to do. It’s only happened a couple of times, but whenever Magnus wakes Alec up, it’s like ice water’s been dumped on the both of them-- Alec jumps out of bed in a tizzy, flying through the loft to get ready in record time and there’s no way that Magnus can just sleep when he has his boyfriend’s giraffe ass running around the loft in a mild panic.

“Darling,” Magnus says, voice rough with residual sleep. He leans up on an elbow just enough to see the clock on the bedside table and winces once he sees the time. “It’s 8:43.”

If anything, Alec seems to sink deeper into the sheets, moving infinitesimally closer to Magnus. It’s adorable even as it’s a little exasperating. Magnus leans down until his lips are pressed to Alec’s ear.

“Alexander, love, I’m afraid you’re dreadfully late. You need to wake up.”

“No,” Alec mumbles. Raising a brow, Magnus pulls back enough to look at him. They’d gone to bed just before midnight; Alec shouldn’t be that exhausted.

“Alec,” Magnus calls, firm. “Wake up.”

Frowning, Alec sighs with gusto before opening up one eye that seems to take more effort that he has. “What,” he asks peevishly.

“It’s almost nine in the morning on a Wednesday. Why are you still in bed?” A thought strikes Magnus and before he knows it, he’s placing the back of his hand on Alec’s forehead, gauging his temperature. “You’re not sick, are you?”

Alec closes his eye before turning to face away from Magnus, pulling the covers up to his chin. “I’m fine,” he says, talking through a yawn. “I’m not going in today, that’s all.”

“Alec, forgive me, but that is not all. I’ve never known you to miss a day at the Institute. What’s going on?”

Alec says something but Magnus can’t quite catch it, not with the way Alec’s not facing him and sleep is still slurring his speech.

“I’m sorry, what was that, darling?”

Alec huffs before rolling onto his back and shooting Magnus a glare at his interrupted sleep. “I said that the Institute is dead today. There’s no one there. I actually took today and tomorrow off, so let me sleep please. I’ll make us french toast in a couple of hours.”

He makes to turn back over but Magnus halts him before he can move, sitting up and caging him in from where he’s laying on his back and sending Magnus surly looks that look more like a kicked puppy denied his treat.

“What do you mean, the Institute is dead today? What are you not telling me?”

Magnus is beyond confused. As much as he loves Alec, he has a tendency to be extremely oblivious about just how much Magnus doesn’t know about shadowhunters and their culture. He’ll just say things like he expects Magnus to know all about it and just gets this blank look on his face when Magnus doesn’t follow.

It’d happened when he’d talked about breaking seven ribs during a practice field mission at the Academy when he was sixteen-- still finishing in first place without activating his iratze until the end-- again when he’d tried to explain the shadowhunter economy and how wealthy his family really was-- who knew that there were shadowhunters who dabbled in accounting and played the stock market-- and most recently whenever he’d casually mentioned that it was customary to surrender one’s second weapon of choice when visiting a shadowhunter’s home-- but not their primary weapon in case of an attack.

Truly, most of it seemed absurd and mostly baffling. Especially since Alec was a Lightwood, an old, prestigious family name that dealt more in the formal traditions and rituals of the past.

Magnus stares at Alec, who just looks up at him with that empty expression like what he’s just said makes perfect sense. It’s much too early for Alec’s opaqueness and Magnus closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before opening them again.

“Alec, I don’t know why you’re home today and apparently tomorrow. Care to enlighten me?”

At last, the light bulb seems to go over his boyfriend’s head and he smiles sheepishly. “Shit, I just figured you knew but it had slipped your mind.”

Raising a brow, Magnus just replies, “I have no idea what you’re alluding to, darling. I may be older than most but I’ve always taken great pains to ignore the trappings of shadowhunters-- something I seem to regret more and more often these days. So-- is there a special occasion or reason for your unexpected company?”

Alec reaches for Magnus’s hand, holding it and bringing it to rest over his heart and Magnus settles down to lay his head on Alec’s chest, wriggling closer as Alec’s other hand sweeps over his back in slow strokes.

“Today’s a bit of a shadowhunter holiday. Nothing like the mundane Christmas or anything, but today’s the celebration of Raziel speaking to Jonathan Shadowhunter for the first time. Centuries ago, we would hold ornate feasts with our best clothing and it would be a week long affair. When I was in the academy, we mostly used it as an excuse to go into the neighboring village and not go to class.

“Now that I’m the Head of the Institute and we’re all active shadowhunters, it’s one out of a handful of days that all of the Institutes shut down. It’s supposed to be for contemplation and reflection on how to improve your connection to the first shadowhunter, but people usually just take it as an excuse to go out and ignore their duties for twenty four hours.”

Processing that information, there’s only one question Magnus can think of. “But what about demons? Are you telling me that you all just leave the world defenseless for a day,” he asks, teasing lilt to his tone.

Alec chuckles. “I suppose you could think of it that way. There’s always a skeleton crew that doesn’t leave the Institute-- because they’re catching up on work or sleeping or reading in the library, etc.-- and if anything were to happen, they’d step up but usually it’s abnormally quiet during the holiday.”

Magnus tilts his head up until he can see Alec’s face. “You took tomorrow off, too?”

Alec nods, raising up to kiss the top of Magnus’s head before settling back down, eyes slipping shut as he hums. “Yeah. I’m tired and the past month has been hectic as fuck for both of us. I figured we could enjoy a couple of days relaxing and if you had work tomorrow-- or hell, today-- then I could just relax at home and catch up on my reading.”

“Or your knitting, darling. Don’t try to pretend that I don’t know that you’re trying to crochet a blanket.”

Alec smiles and Magnus watches as dull heat climbs into Alec’s cheeks, even as his eyes are still closed.

“Or my knitting project,” he admits.

Magnus closes his eyes and breathes deep, letting it out in a slow sigh. It’s not often that he gets to wake up with Alec, especially during the work week. He wants to savor this unexpected time.

The two of them shuffle a little, finding more comfortable positions. After a few minutes, Magnus feels himself about to drop off when Alec speaks.

“Let’s sleep for a little while longer and then I’ll make breakfast and then we can spend the day together. How does that sound,” he asks, voice already sounding like he’s mostly asleep.

“Perfect, darling,” Magnus mumbles.

The last thing he hears before drifting off is Alec whispering, “I love sharing my world with you, babe. I want to tell you everything.”

Smiling barely gracing the corners of his lips, Magnus has just enough time to think me, too, Alexander. I want to show you the world.

[canadian-riddler]

Jonathan Crane Backstory, Part Two

Part one here

Pre-note: please remember he was born in around 1964

Jonathan realised in short order that he had been nowhere near prepared to leave Georgia.

He made it to Gotham City without incident, but there were a lot of things he came to know by error more than by trial.  He managed to find a room near the university to rent without much trouble; however, his understanding had been that all would be forgiven if he could not come up with the rent.  He was evicted from the first house within two weeks.

He had no money, but at least he still had the truck.  He took to spending all of his days at the library and when he needed to sleep for a couple of hours he took it to some residential street and parked there.  The one time he was asked what he was doing there, he told them he was driving up the country and just needed somewhere to stop for an hour or so. He did not realise how much he looked the part.

He had enough money stolen from the boarding house that he could still eat and put gas in the truck, though the truck was of the higher priority to him.  If he could get away with it, he didn’t bother paying for the gas at all.   This led him to very nearly get caught once or twice, until he realised how few trucks with Georgia plates there were driving around the city.  After that he tried to avoid stealing from the same station twice.  

This was fine for the summer, but he was going to need to figure something else out for the winter. He managed to acquire a loan, which he put in the name of the person on the truck’s registration, and moved into a new room by the start of August.  

He had also not known how much READING university involved.  He spent as much time reading the textbooks as he did reading about retention techniques. He had to take lecture notes, and he knew that, but traditional methods of compilation were nearly useless.  He had instead to learn to retain as much as possible when he heard it and hope that he was remembering enough, and properly. The first few months did not go well but he devoted the entirety of winter break to this task and afterward became very proficient at it.  He did not develop perfect recall by any means, but he became excellent at connecting new concepts to what he already knew and maintaining those connections.

Jonathan was not prepared for winter in the slightest.  He had seen snow once or twice, but it always melted before very long.  Winter saw him getting the truck stuck several times in various places; he had never heard of snow shovels, or window brushes, or winter tires, not that he had the money for any of these things.  He tried to manage with the clothes he had but it was just not possible.  He was unsure of how he was going to continue leaving his room when he became aware of the concept of a thrift store, and he almost exclusively purchased all of his things from one in particular.  The social stigma of this went over his head for quite some time, since no one he’d known growing up had been particularly above the poverty line and the people that were were generally regarded badly.

In January the landlord came by and was horrified to witness the state of his room; he more or less just left everything where he put it down, no matter where he was, and as a result the room would not have been out of place back home in Georgia.  Jonathan by this time had also discovered coffee and drank great amounts of it black not to keep himself awake, but to calm himself down.  He was easily irritated by almost everything - why, he didn’t know - and it was the most effective method until he figured out a better one.  Once he ran out of tobacco for his pipe he moved on to cigarettes, but as he never purchased them and only picked them up if he happened to find any, he did not smoke often.  The landlord gave him two weeks to clean up or clear out, and he did the former because his truck bed was full of snow he did not feel like kicking out of it. His cleanup was more passable than anything and when the lease expired in May he was not given the option to renew it.

He spent as little of the loan as possible, most of it going to rent and tuition fees.  He initially did not realise taking food from the kitchen was stealing, until he heard three of the other roommates fighting over it one evening.  He kept doing it anyway, since none of them ever saw him and were barely aware of his existence, and they kept fighting over it and he became increasingly fascinated with how sure they were it was each other in the face of zero evidence. This graduated into his playing tricks on them to see just how far he could make this go, including one incident with the laundry where he took - very reluctantly - a brassiere out of the dryer and put it in the washer with a half-finished load of men’s laundry. This caused such a ruckus that one of the girls actually left, and he discovered two of the three upstairs had been a couple and he had just gotten the one man accused of cheating with the other woman.  Apparently their protests hadn’t been taken as fact.  He didn’t feel the need to take responsibility for this at all; on the contrary, he found it all extremely interesting and would have done it again if he’d had the opportunity.

His schoolwork was received poorly, though not for lack of trying.  It was only at the end of the first semester that one of his professors bothered to tell him why he had so many points taken off his papers: he couldn’t spell.  No one had ever mentioned this to him in high school, seeing as they had never expected him to so much as graduate.  

“I understand what’s going on now that I’ve spoken to you,” the professor told him, handing the exam papers back, “but you’re going to need to take some sort of action.”

“I beg your pardon?” Jonathan asked.

“People like you often have trouble with these kinds of environments.”

“What does that mean?” he demanded.

The professor had given him a pitying look he instantly despised and said, “Education in the Southern states is often found lacking, as we can see from your case.”

He had no idea how the professor even KNEW his home state until he realised the key phrase: ‘now that I’ve spoken to you’.  

His accent, combined with his difficulty with reading and writing, caused people to write him off as an idiot.  And PITY him.

He wasn’t going to delude himself: no, he wasn’t that smart.  He possibly even WAS a product of that stereotypical in-breeding; he would never, ever know.  But he had come here to reject his history.  He was not going to permit others to force it back on him, nor was he going to use it as an excuse.  He was just going to let it die, and good riddance.

The marginal free time he had was spent sitting in various places on campus and listening to the way the other students constructed their sentences.  He studied the phrasing of the more academic of his textbooks.  He was going to be educated and he was going to ensure everyone knew it.  Reshaping his accent was harder than absorbing the vocabulary, and he ended up with a vaguely snobbish affect.  He wanted to take the plates off the truck and replace them with new ones, but that required a driver’s license, which he had not known until then he needed to have. He knew he had a birth certificate around somewhere, at least, from when he had been christened, so the people in the town he was increasingly beginning to hate had not quite been useless.  In the end he acquired a copy of his birth certificate, which he left in the glovebox of his truck, and mostly forgot about the license.

By May he had moved into a new house and applied for a new loan, under his own name; this one was an academic loan he did not at all intend to pay back.  He was unconcerned about consequences, as he had no collateral other than the truck and though it was only a few years old it had already been put through the wringer.  It had not at all taken well to road salt and had been covered in dust and mud almost from the day it had arrived at the boarding house.  

Jonathan spent most of the summer reading and rereading the textbooks for the next semester’s courses. The simplest way to offset his difficulties was to get himself as far ahead as possible, and doing that meant spending all of his time strengthening an education that had clearly been lacking. When school returned to session all of his assignments were completed with as much immediacy as he had on hand and meticulously combed over multiple times before the day came to hand them in. Maintaining the 3.0 GPA required to continue on to the Master’s program, however, proved to continue to be a struggle. No matter how much time he spent on his papers they still did not seem to pass as much muster as he needed.  His midterms and finals proved easier than the papers, but he despised them for that very reason.  They boosted his academic standing, to be sure, but he did not consider multiple choice or true/false sections to actually test anybody.  If he was going to get his education, he wanted to EARN it, no matter how many hours into the night he had to stay awake to do it.

The majority of his time at the university was spent uneventfully, either studying or working and reworking his assignments, and by dabbling in chemistry when he thought he had some time to do so.  When he was particularly frustrated with those things he would conjure up some cruel prank to play on his housemates, which went a long way towards improving his mood.  If that weren’t possible he would take the trip to one of the coffee shops near the university with the goal of making someone as uncomfortable as possible without ever speaking to them.  It turned out he had quite a talent for it.

He had resolved to leave the world of relationships a mystery – and one he did not have time to solve at that – but a peculiar thing happened partway through the final year of his bachelor’s: a young man he sat near in two of his classes caught his eye, and he could not quite bring himself to look away.  He found that he didn’t even really WANT to.  It was peculiar, and he didn’t like it in the least.  But there didn’t seem to be much he could do about it, other than change seats of course, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to do that either.  The only way he could think of to solve this problem was to make arrangements for them to meet someplace so that he could evaluate whether or not there was a personality to go along with the face that had so entranced him, but once he had had enough of his own nonsense and actually took the step to ask, all he got for his trouble was a look of incredulity and laughter from the other young men sitting along the row.  But that wasn’t the worst of it.  THAT was the fact that he still had to sit there next to him for the rest of the year and pretend it had never happened while they glanced at him and smiled to themselves as though he weren’t there.  From that time on he swore to himself he would never put himself in such a powerless position again.  He might not be able to prevent himself from finding attractive young men distracting, but he COULD wait it out until such time he could control every aspect of their encounter, should he choose to try again.

He didn’t, instead devoting himself further to his master’s and then along to his PHD; his advisor was not his biggest fan and was skeptical of his thesis project – that of a theory he had established about the concept of primal fears – but he managed to complete that as well, though it took him a few more years than average. He went on to secure a teaching position at the university, but not without a little help from an entirely made-up scandal to make the position available in the first place.  He discovered in short order that he despised teaching just as much as he had grown to despise everything else.  He had thought marking papers as a TA had been bad enough; being a professor not only meant he had to mark them, but he had to ASSIGN them.  It took valuable time away from his research, which he became increasingly obsessed with. He had spent the last several years growing ever more resentful of the heritage that had tried so hard to bring him down and had decided his hometown would be the ideal place to do the final test for an aerosol he had been funnelling most of his funding into.  He had been able to utilise it in small doses here and there, on unsuspecting colleagues and a student or two, but there was no way to know just how potent or efficacious the fear toxin, as he had dubbed it, could be in such negligent quantities.  Not only would the town in Georgia be the perfect, out of the way, forgotten place to do a full-scale experiment, but perhaps he would also be able to put his bitterness to rest at last.  He had done his best to put all of it behind him but it lingered on every corner of his life.  He would eradicate it while also forcing penance upon those who would have destroyed him, and that would be that.  It would be over.

Preoccupied with these plans, Jonathan’s classes became increasingly lax and he mostly failed to hide his disdain for his students.  They did not work hard enough, in his opinion; they expected HIM to do all of the work.  They were not willing to pore over the books as he had, they were not willing to FIGHT for it as he had, and he had no desire to give them the powerpoints and multiple choice questions and obvious answers they wanted.  Frequent complaints were made about his refusal to use a computer for anything at all, as he insisted on handwriting everything and photocopying his handouts.  He had a laptop that had been provided by his department for use at the university, but he only used it when other members of the faculty complained he never checked his email.  He found the machine onerous, slow, and difficult to use.  This was a stance he would not budge on for much of his lifetime.

His nights taken up by various university tasks and work on his toxin, his days saw him increasingly exhausted and distractible.  One afternoon, during which he was met with yet another room full of students who would rather whisper amongst themselves than do what they were there to do, he heard one of them say it.  He heard one of those ungrateful children say they could not take him seriously because he looked a scarecrow, and he finally had enough.  He had not worked for entire decades of his life to be disrespected in such a way.  He kept the revolver he had once shot crows with in the briefcase he carried his work in, and on this day he removed it and held it to the student’s head and asked if he was going to be taken seriously now.

He was.  But so much so that the faculty decided they could not be sure if he would NOT actually use the revolver for something more than an assertion of authority, and so they fired him.  The day he left the university for the final time he stood on the front steps and looked out into the road across from it, and he realised: he had no idea what to do now.  His entire existence had been channelled into the university for so many years he did not know what he was without it.  He had no further goals, no aspirations; his entire being had been focused on getting into the university that he had never considered LEAVING.  

There was really only one more thing he could do with a doctorate of philosophy when he had been expelled from academia, and that was to find employment as a psychologist. But his name would forever be attached to the incident at the university, and so he would have to attempt private practise.  He was only marginally successful at this; he did not really care for any of his patients at all and the ones that stayed did so out of desperation.  He attributed their lack of progress not to his deplorable bedside manner nor to his methods, but to the patients not trying hard enough. He spent all of his time on his research and was in fact quite often working through it on paper as best he could while he was in session.  He had come to the conclusion that people would not learn, would not IMPROVE, unless they were forced to do so.  And how better to apply that force than through fear?  Was that not, after all, the very thing which had driven him out of his apathetic complacency?  The fear of an empty future, the fear of being born to nothing and dying as inconsequentially as he had lived?  Everyone had these kinds of fears, read large portions of his notes, scribbled in an increasingly absent-minded fashion across every bit of paper he had within reach at any given time.  But very, very few people were willing to do anything about them, and fewer still were willing to make the long-term commitment to banish those fears and become… more.  His new plan, then, was that he would prove that it was both effective and beneficial to force personal improvement through fear, and he would do it without the university.  He didn’t need it.  He had been struggling all his life to become educated, but even after he had done that it had still been decided he had not done enough.  He could still make his point without academia to back him up. And he would, as soon as he had returned from Georgia.

The trip made him oddly peaceful, somehow, a far cry from the stress-inducing bitterness he had been steeped in for so many years.  When he returned to the cornfield he walked up and down the rows, spraying the stalks with the version of the toxin he had decided was most potent and refined, saving the centre of the field for last.  He stood there for a few minutes, looking up at the scarecrow that had once loomed so large, and when he was finished he set it aflame and walked away.

He spent the next several hours slowly driving up and down the streets of the town as the toxin spread over it within the cloud of thick smoke emanating from the cornfield, and he watched as anyone who came out to look at the spreading flames succumbed to the chemical permeating the air.  He felt a sort of passive self-satisfaction, seeing the living proof that his toxin DID work and it worked EXACTLY as intended.  By the time he was ready to leave the cornfield had burned itself out and most of the townsfolk were dead.  Those that were not were worse off than they.

Jonathan’s next task was to refine the toxin to work on a smaller scale; that was, to be tailored for minute changes in an individual.  Giving mass amounts of people anxiety such that it killed them was all well and fine, but a dead man could not see what Jonathan had seen. Unfortunately, given that he was not a good doctor by any means, his money had about dried up and loans were becoming more difficult to acquire.  He would have to turn to the criminal underworld.

He actually made quite good money using the toxin to scare security guards away from banks and the like, and he was able to work on his toxin in the field as well. ��He was as close to happy as he had ever yet been. Unfortunately, he was not very subtle and was soon picked up in short order by someone his toxin had seemingly no effect on: Batman.

During his days in lockup Jonathan pondered this odd turn of events and came to the conclusion some fear more powerful than even his toxin could conjure must be driving him.  But what did this mean?  Was this Batman allowing his entire life to be controlled by his fear, instead of helping him to proceed within it as Jonathan’s had? Or was Jonathan’s toxin only potent upon lesser-minded individuals?  He needed some way of figuring all of this out!

Jonathan knew that, if sent to Blackgate, he would likely not make it out again.  He was too easy a target and, though he had his tricks, the consequences for failure in such a facility would be dire.  He spent every moment of his pre-trial interviews convincing everyone that he had not been in control of his behaviour, that deep-seated personal trauma  - of which he remained enticingly vague – had created the persona of the Scarecrow, who was truly responsible for any reprehensible actions committed under Jonathan’s name.  He was either extremely convincing or the people he met with extremely stupid – most likely some bit of both – because it worked.  He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to Arkham Asylum. The day he was committed saw him warned of a man who was to be his roommate – one Edward Nygma, whom Jonathan had never heard of but apparently had something of a reputation – and he set his mind to getting himself released from the Asylum so he could continue his work and figure out just what it was about this Batman character that made him so resistant to what Jonathan had thus far achieved on so many others.        

[pridefulhevrt-blog]

Hello people, this be Val, presenting you her first character! A little about me: I’m 22, EST, use she/her, and my work is crazy so if I disappear, I’m probs working.

( cody christian. male. he/him. ) ✞ jonathan reeves has found their sanctuary in sanctum. the werewolf is 21 years old and whispers on the street describe the stepford smiler as charming & outgoing, as well as impulsive & secretive.

Jonathan is French Canadian, he was born in Montreal, and grew up there for a large part of his life. And he was actually born Mathieu Lemaire.

An only child, he was given almost pretty much anything he wanted? But he wasn’t acting too much like he had everything for granted. And the only thing he really, really, wanted was to play both football and hockey, even if those were expensive.

So he did play both of those sports for nearly 10 years, as he started when he was 4. And damn was he good. And loved. Jonathan was always a pretty chill kid, so he’d get along with mostly all of the players. 

He did have some anger issues though, but at the time, he didn’t know, since his anger would be taken out playing football and tackling things and people.

But in his second year of secondary school, when he was 13, he realized playing two sports was way too much. So he decided to quit football, since he prefered hockey anyway. But that also meant his anger issues started popping up more and more often.

Still, he kept on improving and playing, and by the time he was 16, he got drafted to play in the QJMHL. That was probably the best day of his life, and he LOVED playing in the league, because he was one step closer to being a professional.

But his dream came crashing down when he was 19. Over the years, he started getting a little more violent, not only on the ice, but outside as well. And that night, he went way too far.

He was coming back from a night out in a bar after their last victory when someone approached him in the street. He didn’t realize it at first, but then realized the knife in his direction, and that they were trying to steal from him. Anger kicked in, and before he realized, the person was on the ground. Still, Joe kept on punching them. It was only when he felt his arm getting tired that he stopped, and to his horror, the other person didn’t seem to be breathing anymore.

And that was when fear took over. He couldn’t get himself get caught for it, so he had to run. It was a hard choice, but without leaving any trace, Joe took off. Got his passport and some clothes from home while his parents were sleeping, got a bus ticket, and headed to the states.

His first stop was Boston. There, he found a sketchy, but somehow reliable person. They helped him change his name, get a new identity. And that how he went from Mathieu Lemaire to Jonathan Reeves, born in NYC instead of Montreal. That was mainly how he started to get more relaxed going around in the open, because now he had a new identity, one that could back him up.

But a few nights later, something happened. He only has vague memories of running out once the full moon started and taking shelter in a forest, which is where he woke up. He started researching on his condition, and it did catch the attention of a regular at the library. To this day, he still isn’t sure who they were, but they were the one to point him in direction of Sanctum, which is where he found answers to his condition.

Random facts:

Speaks both English and French.

LOVES CATS

Still plays football and hockey with friends probs.

Bisexual af but doesn’t realize it yet.

His mother was a werewolf, but saying as she wasn’t triggered and didn’t know, that was how Joe remained oblivious to his state.

He works as a personal trainer in a gym because he just really loves training and his life would be nothing without it.

[greed-the-dorkalicious]

Between Life and Death, Chapter III

Fandom: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Major characters thus far: Jonathan Joestar, Dio Brando Pairings: None Word count: 4,066 (9,642 total) Warnings: Semi-graphic violence, dark themes, endgame spoilers for Phantom Blood and Stardust Crusaders. Notes: There is a playlist that goes along with this fic, designed to sync with the story if listened to while reading the fic. You can find chapters 1 - 5 here, or alternatively here on YouTube. For chapter 3 only, go here.

Chapter I | Chapter II | Read on AO3

Chapter III: These People are Weird in Here

These people are weird in here And they're giving me the fear Just because you know my name Doesn't mean you know my game I look myself in the face And whisper "I'm in the wrong place" Is there more to lose than gain If I go on my own again? On my own again

~Marina and the Diamonds, “The Outsider”

Jonathan was suspended in the air, in a nightmareish hellscape version of Cairo- simultaneously Cairo and not, like Jonathan was in the city, yet also in empty darkness at the same time. Below him was a pile of dead bodies, in front of him was a broken clock tower and a water tank gushing blood, and surrounding him was knives. Dozens and dozens of knives, pointing at him from every possible angle. From an unseen location, Dio’s voice spoke. “One second has passed…” Dio’s voice boomed, sounding as if he was walking around Jonathan, but always in his blind spot. Jonathan tried to turn his head, searching for Dio, but he couldn’t move. “Two seconds have passed.” Each time Dio announced the seconds, more and more knives appeared, filling Jonathan with fear. “Three seconds have passed… Well, Jojo? What will you do? When time resumes, you can try to block the knives with your Star Platinum, but with so many… How could you possibly block them all?” Dio chuckled darkly, his voice seemingly coming from everywhere at once now, reverberating in a way that felt like he had destroyed physics themselves, filling Jonathan with fear. He knew that Dio was right; there was no way he’d be able to block all those knives. Unless he could knock them away now, or get to cover, he was done for. Jonathan tried to reach for one of the knives, willing his body to move, but he was still paralyzed. There was nothing he could do, as more and more knives threatened him. “Four seconds have passed.” That was very, very bad. There was only one second left. If Jonathan didn’t move, he was going to die. Why couldn’t he move?! He couldn’t afford to stay still! Jonathan tried with all his might to get away, his soul screaming at his body to move, damn it, but all he could manage was the slightest twitch of his right finger. That wasn’t good enough! He needed to get away, now! “Five seconds have passed! Time resumes!”

Jonathan gasped, opening his eyes and sitting bolt upright with a sudden motion. He was drenched with sweat, breathing heavily, heart pounding in his chest as he felt overwhelmed with fear and helplessness. Where was he? What had just happened? His memories were hazy, and he wasn’t sure what was going on. As his mind remained clouded by terror and sleepiness, he looked around to try to get his bearings, and the first thing he saw was-

“Dio!” Jonathan practically yelled in surprise, jumping backwards slightly as he struggled to form coherent thoughts. “You- you- what- I- ...Why were you watching me sleep?!” he spluttered, completely astounded.

Dio watched Jonathan with one eyebrow slightly raised and an otherwise unemotional expression, arms crossed as he sat on the edge of the bed. “You were sleeping late,” he replied simply, shrugging. “It’s nearly 6:30, you know.”

“So? What do you care how late I sleep?” Jonathan muttered in an almost offended tone, still leaning away from Dio and watching him with a wary look.

“Normally I wouldn’t, but I bought tickets for a play at 8:00,” Dio replied. “We’re leaving at 7:30 or so, so you should hurry up and get ready.”

Jonathan frowned hesitantly at this new information. “A... play..? What play? And why didn’t you say so yesterday? I never said I wanted to see a play,” he argued with slight confusion.

“It’s called a ‘surprise’, Jojo,” Dio said, in his usual way of speaking that felt cold and threatening even when he was teasing. “The truth is, I wasn’t aware of it until yesterday, but there’s going to be a performance of Dracula at the National Theatre tonight. So of course we have to go,” he explained with a grin.

“What’s it about?” Jonathan questioned, letting his curiousity get the better of him as he sat up slightly.

“...It’s Dracula,” Dio repeated slowly, raising an eyebrow at Jonathan as if that alone should have been enough of an explanation.

“Which is… what, exactly?” Jonathan responded.

For a moment, Dio stared at Jonathan with an open-mouthed look of astonishment, as if Jonathan were stupid somehow. Then he seemed to come to a realization of some sort, and relaxed, returning to his default bored, slightly smug expression.

“Ah, yes. I forgot Dracula was slightly after your time,” he admitted. “It’s a famous novel about a vampire. It’s highly influential, there have been quite a few films and books based off it. You should read it, I know how much you like gothic novels,” Dio told Jonathan thoughtfully.

Jonathan said nothing for a moment, only stared at Dio with a hesitant, debating expression. As much as he hated to go along with anything Dio said in any way, well… he always did have a hard time resisting the allure of books. Especially hearing about not only a gothic novel he’d died too soon to read, but one that had become highly influential…

“Anyway, I’ll leave you alone to get dressed,” Dio said, interrupting Jonathan’s internal conflict as he stood up from the bed. “I assume you’ll be wanting breakfast afterwards? You know where to find it,” he added nonchalantly, and began his descent down the stairs.

After Dio left, Jonathan remained sitting on the bed for a few minutes, taking some time to collect himself and think about everything that had just happened. He had only just woken up, after all, and it was a bit much to process all at once. He was still a little shaken by his nightmare (although he’d already forgotten nearly all the details), and now he had an hour to get ready to go to the theatre? Something about that just felt… annoying. It would be one thing if Dio had invited him to go, giving him some prior notice and an opportunity to decline, but it was another thing entirely to be simply told he was going- whether he liked it or not, apparently- immediately after waking up. He hated being treated like Dio’s puppet, with no free will of his own.

But what could he do? As much as he hated it, he effectively didn’t have any free will. He had no way of escaping, no choice but to follow along with Dio’s whims. He sighed as he opened the wardrobe and began looking through the clothes he’d been given, searching for a suitable outfit.

At least theatre was fun, he thought despondently to himself.

Jonathan felt slightly anxious as he walked down the stairs to the first floor of the mansion. Although he had been too asleep to think of it during his conversation with Dio, it now occurred to him that going to the theatre meant actually going to the theatre- in other words, in just a little under an hour, Jonathan would be leaving Dio’s mansion and seeing the outside world for the first time. And that, frankly, was a terrifying thought.

It wasn’t like he was completely ignorant when it came to the 20th century; He’d heard stories from Erina and Speedwagon, and overheard a few things at the mansion, and he’d even read a little bit about it as well. (Though admittedly not as much as he should have- the mansion’s library was impressive, but the majority of it had quickly become abandoned the moment he discovered A Study in Scarlet had grown into an entire series after his death.) He knew about cars and planes, and the World Wars, and movies… That is, he knew they existed, at least. He had never experienced them for himself. What’s more, he knew little of Cairo other than the narrow glimpses of the street that were visible through the mansion’s windows and holes. Egypt was an entirely different world from England, one he knew next to nothing about, and he wondered how well he’d survive it.

Still, he couldn’t help but feel a little bit excited at the same time. Dio’s mansion felt like a prison, all stone walls and boarded-up windows and weirdly dim lighting, devoid of life save for Dio, his creepy butler, and Dio’s occasional victims. Everything Jonathan did was at Dio’s whim, everything he knew was what Dio decided to tell him, and from dawn until dusk every day he was quite literally locked away in a tower. It would be nice to get out for a change, breathe some fresh air, and see ordinary people going about their lives. It would be nice to have a little taste of freedom, just for a few hours.

In any case, there was only a little under an hour to go until it was time to leave, like it or not. And so, Jonathan stepped off the stairs and turned down the hall towards a room Dio referred to as the “breakfast room”- a smaller, less formal dining room, with only a small dining table and simplistic lounge-like seating, as well as large windows (though they were generally obscured by curtains).

Unsurprisingly, when Jonathan arrived at the breakfast room, Dio was waiting for him while reclining casually in one of the chairs. D’Arby, too, was lurking rather ominously in a corner, waiting to obey any requests Dio might make.

“Hello, Jojo,” Dio greeted Jonathan as he sat down at the table. “What would you like for breakfast?”

“I don’t know, just… Normal breakfast, I suppose,” Jonathan answered tentatively. If he had to sum up his overall mood in one word, that word would be “uncertain”, and it showed. Every move he made was slow and hesitant, and he watched Dio and d’Arby with suspicion. As Jonathan finished speaking, d’Arby gave a nod and quickly, silently set out towards the door.

“D’Arby, bring some coffee too,” Dio ordered without looking away from the table. D’Arby stopped in his tracks just as he reached the door.

“As you wish, Lord Dio,” he replied with a bow, before continuing out the room.

With d’Arby gone, Jonathan was left alone with Dio while he awaited his breakfast.

“I apologize for not having more formal clothes for you,” Dio told Jonathan out of the blue after a few minutes. “You know how difficult it is to find clothes in such a large size. Perhaps tomorrow we should go shopping?” he suggested.

“And what about you? Surely you’re not going to the theatre in that, are you?” Jonathan wondered, gesturing towards Dio’s outfit.

Dio was clad in a tight-fitting black shirt that was cut short, showing off his (Jonathan’s!) well-toned abs, as well as having several long, tear-like holes that revealed his chest. Over this, Dio wore a metallic, slightly baggy deep purple jacket, and several bangles on either wrist. The rest of his outfit consisted of scandalously tight pants that matched the jacket, a belt with- god only knew why- a skull-shaped buckle, and what looked like the sort of shoes a medieval jester might wear, only more threatening.

Dio looked down at his clothes idly, as if he’d forgotten what he was wearing, and then looked back up at Jonathan.

“Yes, why?”

Jonathan opened his mouth to reply, but found himself unable to even begin to think of a response to such an absurd question.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to; It wasn’t long before d’Arby returned, carrying a silver tray containing two cups of coffee, a small silver creamer, two spoons, and two napkins. He placed the tray on the table and once again left the room, just as Jonathan and Dio both reached for their respective coffees.

Jonathan blew on his coffee for a few seconds to cool it down, and then eagerly took a sip. His face scrunched up in an almost irritated expression as he tasted the brew.

Dio gave a quiet, amused chuckle. “What’s with that face?”

“I forgot Egyptian coffee is different from English coffee,” Jonathan admitted, looking at his cup with both eyebrows raised. “It’s good, of course, it just took me by surprise is all,” he explained.

“You’ll get used to it soon enough,” Dio promised.

Just as Jonathan had been debating whether or not to add some cream to his coffee, Dio reached for the creamer. Jonathan watched as Dio tilted the small vessel, and to Jonathan’s surprise, an opaque, red liquid poured from its spout and into Dio’s coffee cup.

“That’s… not cream,” Jonathan said slowly, with an almost numb sense of dawning horror.

“What an astute observation,” Dio replied nonchalantly as he watched the blood pour into his coffee, and when he felt it to be a satisfactory amount, he tilted the creamer back up. Then, with almost cheerful casualness, he held it out towards Jonathan- “Want some?”

“No, I most certainly do not! Why would you even ask that question?!” Jonathan snapped angrily, feeling almost sick with revulsion.

“There’s no need to get so up in arms; I was just offering,” Dio replied with irritation. “Really, you should try it. Blood in coffee tastes much better than you’d think.”

“I’m not a monster like you, Dio,” Jonathan insisted, glaring at Dio with teeth bared.

Dio rolled his eyes. “Yes, you are. Like it or not, you have to face reality sooner or later. Do you honestly think eggs and toast can sustain an immortal body? Don’t be naive. You can’t live in denial forever,” Dio said in a suddenly serious tone. His harsh words made Jonathan’s blood run cold- a truly ironic expression- as he realized that there was at least some level of truth to what Dio was saying.

A truth he didn’t want to face.

But Jonathan was nothing if not steadfast, and he refused to give in and fall to Dio’s level. He would stand by his morals to the very last, no matter what the cost to himself. If he had to go through hell, so be it; He’d done it before, and he would do it again.

“I don’t care if I starve, and I don’t care what you do to me. I will never, ever do what you’re asking me to do,” Jonathan snarled.

Dio stared at Jonathan strangely for a moment, and then took a long, savoring sip of his coffee before speaking again.

“You know, even if we don’t share the same set of morals, I do understand where you’re coming from. If I’m being honest, your commitment to your values is something I’ve always found admirable about you,” Dio confessed. “But I would like to point something out.”

Jonathan stared expectantly and warily at Dio, waiting for him to continue.

“The person this blood came from is already dead. That’s a fact, regardless of how you may try to distance yourself from it. Abstinence cannot bring back the dead, Jojo,” Dio said, meeting Jonathan’s eyes with a serious expression. “So, knowing this… Wouldn’t it be better to drink the blood, and give their death meaning, rather than simply throwing it all away like yesterday’s spoiled milk?” Dio finished, and pushed the creamer towards Jonathan with a smirk, waiting for him to make the next move.

Jonathan froze. He knew Dio was right, and that hurt. Knowing innocent people were being killed, and sometimes for almost nothing… It made him sick, sick with the same sort of overwhelming sadness one feels after hearing about a catastrophe. It wasn’t right that those people had to die, and he knew there was nothing he could do.

But… Regardless, he could never drink blood. Doing so, no matter what the justification, would mean becoming like Dio, and that was something he would never do. Besides, the very thought was so revoltingly disgusting that he didn’t think he’d be able to anyway.

“Enough. No matter how many excuses you come up with, I won’t do it,” Jonathan told Dio, glaring back at him with equal intensity.

Dio frowned slightly, seeming almost as if he was plotting something (like usual, really), before sighing slightly.

“Fine. It’s clear this debate is going nowhere. It’s too early for this sort of argument,” he decided.

As if on cue, Jonathan heard footsteps approaching the door- not the soft, slow thuds of d’Arby’s footsteps, but rather more steady, energetic, clacking footsteps. A woman with curly, purple-hued hair entered the room, clad in a flowing yet fitted yellow dress, a multitude of colorful ocean-themed jewelry, and tall blue heels.

“Ah, Midler! You’ve certainly recovered well,” Dio greeted her enthusiastically, with the sort of smile that was impossible to tell how much of it was genuine and how much was fake.

Midler smiled, blushing slightly. “Thank you, Lord Dio. I’m glad to- Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you had guests,” she said upon noticing Jonathan.

“Not at all,” Dio assured her. “This is my brother, Jonathan. Jojo, this is Midler, one of my best assassins- and an excellent dancer,” Dio introduced the two of them.

“Nice to meet you,” Jonathan said, hesitant as he always was when speaking to Dio’s associates. So this one was an assassin, was she..? Jonathan wondered whether she had always been so evil, or if Dio had seduced her with his mind control like he’d done to poor Poco all those years ago. Or maybe she’d simply fallen victim to Dio’s natural charisma, no magic needed other than a pretty face and a smooth tongue.

Midler smiled almost teasingly at Jonathan, walking over to him slowly. “That’s an interesting scar you got there, handsome,” she said, speaking as if to seduce Jonathan, though he could hear an underlying question in her voice. She poked his neck playfully with a flirtatious wink.

“...Uh.” Jonathan instinctively touched the still-tender wound on his neck, at a loss for words. He felt slightly stunned and confused.

“His body used to belong to Jotaro,” Dio explained to Midler.

Midler’s eyes widened as she looked back at Dio. “You’re kidding,” she gasped breathlessly, and Jonathan thought he caught a glimpse of something unguarded for a moment- Fear? Regret? Guilt? Anger?

But if there was truly something there, it disappeared quickly, as Midler returned to her role as a lascivious assassin.

“Well, you know what they say… When one door closes, another opens. When you lose one man, you may gain an even better one.” She spoke the last sentence in a low tone as she looked at Jonathan with a half-lidded gaze, walking slowly, teasingly around him.

Jonathan shrunk back uncomfortably, this time maintaining most of his composure as he finally understood what was going on. “Please, I’m married,” he explained with a frown.

“So? Plenty of men here in Egypt have multiple wives, you know,” Midler replied with an innocent shrug.

As she spoke, d’Arby entered the room with another tray, this time with Jonathan’s breakfast. Jonathan sighed in relief as Midler finally backed off slightly, and his breakfast gave him a legitimate excuse to ignore her.

...And admittedly, he was also just glad to have breakfast. Jonathan had always been quite enthusiastic when it came to food, and even the horror and misery of his situation couldn’t negate the sheer joy that could only be created by bacon.

While Jonathan eagerly began eating his breakfast, Midler sat down calmly in one of the chairs, watching Jonathan with a thoughtful expression. “...You know, Lord Dio… I didn’t know you had a brother,” she admitted curiously after a few minutes.

“He’s adopted,” Dio explained.

Jonathan gave Dio an annoyed look. “Uh, pardon? You’re the one who was adopted,” he corrected Dio between bites of toast. “Besides, I’m fairly certain father’s disowned you by this point.”

“Yes, well unfortunately for him, dead men have little say in the legal system,” Dio replied in a bored monotone.

“Dead men have little say in anything, it seems,” Jonathan muttered bitterly.

“Oh, stop whining,” Dio said with an eyeroll, before turning away from Jonathan. “Now then, Midler…”

Midler sat up attentively, giving Dio an expectant look. “Yes, Lord Dio?”

“You have served me well all these years. You’re beautiful, intelligent, powerful, loyal, and your High Priestess is quite formidable,” he began.

Midler gasped slightly and smiled, a wider, more genuine smile than the seductive ones she’d given before. “Thank you, Lord Dio. It is my honor and privilege to serve you,” she said excitedly with a deep, reverent bow of her head. (Meanwhile, Jonathan remained deeply absorbed in his food.)

“But, Midler…”

“...Yes, Lord Dio?” Midler responded uncertainly to Dio’s sudden dark tone.

“Despite all this, what was it I sent you to the coast to do?” Dio prompted, sounding almost like a condescending school teacher, only far, far more sinister.

“...To… to kill the Joestar group, my lord,” Midler answered quietly, going slightly pale as she realized where the conversation was going.

(Jonathan looked up slightly with his fork still in his mouth, raising an eyebrow at Dio and Midler’s exchange.)

“And did you kill them?” Dio prompted once again.

“No, my lord,” Midler answered even more quietly, head bowed in shame rather than reverence this time.

“Then you know what that means,” Dio said darkly.

“...Yes, Lord Dio.”

Without further prompting, Midler stood up from her chair and walked over to Dio. She knelt down in front of his chair on both knees, head bowed and eyes closed.

“It is my honor and duty to give myself to you,” Midler said with solemn conviction. She then tilted her head up, looking towards the ceiling in an almost prayer-like pose. “My life is yours. Please accept it,” she finished.

Dio smiled a slow, hungry smile. “Good.”

Dio reached towards Midler’s neck, and-

“Wait a minute! Don’t tell me you’re going to kill her?!” Jonathan interrupted with a horrified gasp, standing up abruptly.

“Of course I am,” Dio replied, as if this were common sense. “She knew the consequences of failure. If she wanted to live, she should have tried harder.”

“B-but that’s not fair! That’s hardly a reason to kill someone!” Jonathan insisted distressedly.

“I’m happy to give my life for Lord Dio,” Midler chimed in, still kneeling in front of Dio.

Jonathan shook his head in horror. “No. I won’t let this happen,” he said firmly, stomping over to Dio and Midler and grabbing Dio’s wrist with a rough, strong grip.

Dio yanked his arm away from Jonathan’s grasp, glaring at Jonathan in annoyance and anger. “Oh, for god’s sake, Jojo, are you seriously going to play the whole pacifist game every single time? Get over your damn idealism already!” he snapped. “Like it or not, you have to accept that you are a vampire, and more importantly, I am a vampire. I have no intention of changing my lifestyle and going against the natural order simply because you have a weak stomach. If you want to starve yourself, so be it, but you have no right to tell me what to do. Remember who’s in control here,” he threatened with a dark, violent snarl.

“Then at the very least, you could have the decency not to murder people in front of me while I’m trying to eat breakfast,” Jonathan hissed in response, matching Dio’s show of dominance- as always- with equal fire.

For a few moments, Dio and Jonathan continued staring each other down unblinkingly, locked in a battle of wills. Finally, Dio scowled and turned away from Jonathan.

“Fine. Midler, you are dismissed,” he announced sharply, with a clipped, seething tone.

Midler stood up quickly and said nothing, for fear of further provoking Dio’s anger. She hesitated for a brief second, glancing between Dio and Jonathan with wide eyes, before hurrying out of the room.

Jonathan ate the rest of his meal in angry silence. A tense, bitter aura filled the air between him and Dio, neither party willing to look at the other. Jonathan finished his food as quickly as possible, all appetite and enjoyment gone, and stormed out of the room as soon as he was done. As he left, he slammed the door hard enough to leave a crack in the wall.

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Usa today Gingerbread destruction raffle, toilet paper pyramid, Tiehm's buckwheat: News from around our 50 states

Usa today

Usa today Alabama

Hayneville: A teenager admitted to fatally shooting a sheriff who turn out to be attempting to disperse loiterers at a gas assert, a assert investigator testified Monday. Lt. Shawn Loughridge of the Allege Bureau of Investigation testified in a preliminary listening to that 18-three hundred and sixty five days-oldschool William Chase Johnson admitted after being arrested that he shot Lowndes County Sheriff John Williams Sr. Johnson is charged with capital assassinate within the sheriff’s death. Retailer security video showed the sheriff arriving at a gas assert and attempting to disperse a loud crowd that turn out to be blocking gas pumps, the investigator said. He said witnesses indicated Johnson first approached Williams in an “aggressive” manner, and the sheriff told him to reach to his automotive. The sheriff turn out to be shot after drawing terminate Johnson’s dusky Silverado truck, Loughridge testified.

Usa today Alaska

Juneau: One in all the longest-serving individuals on the assert Supreme Court docket plans to retire later this three hundred and sixty five days. The Alaska Judicial Council is accepting functions for the seat held by Justice Craig Stowers, who plans to retire efficient June 1, in response to Mara Rabinowitz with the assert courtroom machine. Stowers, a former Superior Court docket make a choice, turn out to be appointed to the Alaska Supreme Court docket in 2009 and later served as a chief justice. Of the hot justices, handiest Daniel Winfree has served on the Supreme Court docket longer. Winfree turn out to be appointed in 2007. The judicial council plans to meet in Could maybe to interview applicants. The names of finalists evolved by the council shall be sent to Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who will originate the appointment.

Usa today Arizona

Tucson: Relish many city libraries, the one in downtown Tucson is a refuge for homeless americans attempting to get a bathroom, a computer or trusty a respite. Nonetheless workers at the Valdez Fundamental Library are attempting to be even extra of a helpful resource for men and girls americans having a onerous time. For bigger than a three hundred and sixty five days now, the librarians right here were conserving month-to-month conferences as share of the On the Streets program. Those experiencing homelessness can as soon as a month catch a meal and fasten with products and services. The program has helped mood friction that might develop when library staffers absorb to method americans which might be sleeping, bathing or bringing in a pair of items. A imply of 50 americans contemporary up for the month-to-month sessions. They receive a meal willing by a local meals bank and might moreover make a choice to quit for the meeting. They catch to form the topics of debate, too.

Usa today Arkansas

Small Rock: Allege officials launched Monday that the closure of a hog farm come the Buffalo River has been accomplished, months after striking a handle the strength’s owners. Arkansas Parks, Heritage and Tourism Secretary Stacy Hurst launched that the phrases of the assert’s settlement with the owners of C&H Hog Farms Inc. are total. The shuttered hog farm’s owners absorb obtained $6.2 million in assert and private funds that turn out to be held in escrow since closing August, and the assert in return now holds a conservation easement for the property. Under the settlement, the assert shall be accountable for the closure of the waste ponds at the property. Gov. Asa Hutchinson in June launched the settlement with the 6,500-hog farm in Vendor, about 95 miles northwest of Small Rock, which had been the source of controversy since it turn out to be approved loads of years within the past. The Nature Conservancy supplied $1 million of the funding.

Usa today California

San Diego: A personnel of peer consultants has operated on an unparalleled affected person – a gorilla. A cataract turn out to be eliminated Dec. 10 from the left peer of a 3-three hundred and sixty five days-oldschool western lowland gorilla who lives at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, the park launched Monday. The gorilla, named Leslie, turn out to be given a muscle blocker to acquire her soundless while a personnel that incorporated vets along with anesthesiologists and an ophthalmology personnel from UC San Diego Wisely being eliminated the cloudy lens and modified it with a synthetic lens that must closing for lifestyles. The operation turn out to be performed at the San Diego Zoo Global’s Paul Harter Veterinary Medical Center. Cataract surgeon Chris Heichel, who led the personnel and has performed thousands of operations, said it turn out to be his first on a gorilla.

Usa today Colorado

Denver: An initiative to reintroduce grey wolves to the assert has certified for the November ballot. The secretary of assert’s assert of industrial said Monday that backers of the proposal turned in adequate valid voter signatures to qualify the measure. The grey wolf has been efficiently reintroduced to a series of U.S. states. It turn out to be eradicated in Colorado within the 1940s. Colorado ranchers and other interests strongly oppose the initiative, announcing it would threaten farm animals as properly as elk, moose, deer and other animals. The Rocky Mountain Wolf Motion Fund is campaigning for the opinion. It says voters absorb the synthetic to select for themselves whether to introduce the wolf, whereas efforts in other states are directed by federal flora and fauna officials. If passed, the initiative would teach the Colorado Parks and Natural world Commission to devise a opinion to introduce wolves on public land west of the Continental Divide sooner than 2024.

Usa today Connecticut

Westport: Gov. Ned Lamont is scheduled to seem at a public meeting this weekend to focus on his proposed transportation opinion, which might embody freeway tolls. Town hall-model meeting is deliberate for Sunday at a university in Westport, the set apart the Democratic governor is anticipated to be joined by Transportation Commissioner Joseph Giulietti. This might occasionally moreover moreover be hosted by assert Sen. Will Haskell and assert Earn. Jonathan Steinberg, each and every Democrats. A transportation discussion board that within the first assert turn out to be deliberate for Tuesday night in Westport had been postponed. “Bettering our infrastructure is a top speak for my district. That’s why I’m so enraged to host Gov. Lamont and leaders from his administration to listen to correct now from my constituents at this town hall meeting,” Haskell said.

Usa today Delaware

Wilmington: An 18-three hundred and sixty five days-oldschool man has been charged with throwing an incendiary instrument at a Deliberate Parenthood space within the assert, a federal prosecutor’s assert of industrial launched. Samuel James Gulick, of Middletown, turn out to be charged Monday in federal courtroom. Safety video recorded Gulick spray-painting the phrase “Deus Vult,” a Latin expression that method “God wills it,” in pink letters across the Newark constructing’s exterior Friday, the U.S. attorney’s free up said. Gulick then stepped away, lit an object and threw it at the front window sooner than running for camouflage. The object exploded, and a fireplace burned for a minute sooner than going out, the courtroom documents said. Gulick turn out to be arrested by the FBI on Saturday after investigators identified his automotive throughout the safety video and situated social media posts under his name containing the identical phrase he scrawled on the constructing, as properly as loads of anti-abortion messages.

Usa today District of Columbia

Washington: The viral art work phenomenon identified as “Infinity Mirrors” is returning to the Hirshhorn Museum on April 4. The Hirshhorn launched Monday that a mini assert of Yayoi Kusama’s work, “One with Eternity: Yayoi Kusama within the Hirshhorn Series,” shall be on assert through Sept. 20, WUSA-TV experiences. The assert involves two “Infinity Mirror” rooms, including Kusama’s 1965 installation “Phalli’s Self-discipline” and a brand contemporary room which might be launched quickly. An early painting, photos of Kusama and the 1964 sculpture “Flower Overcoat” will moreover be share of “One with Eternity.” The Jap artist has created bigger than 20 of the mesmeric contemplate rooms, allowing company to bodily partake within the limitless repetition for which her paintings are identified.

Usa today Florida

Tallahassee: The assert’s environmental law enforcement officials gorgeous polluters this day lower than half of as distinguished as they did a decade within the past, sooner than former Gov. Rick Scott took assert of industrial and shifted assert regulators to a extra pro-change posture, assert files shows. By means of the principle week of December, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection assessed 352 penalties in 2019, totaling $4.4 million in fines for violating air, water, sewer, petroleum tank and other assert environmental regulations. By comparison, in 2010 DEP assessed 1,249 environmental penalties in Florida, totaling $10.2 million – bigger than 3 1/2 instances as many penalties and double the fines assessed this three hundred and sixty five days. DEP holds that the decrease figures imprint the success of the agency’s mission to encourage companies, utilities and other polluters to comely up their acts. Nonetheless the agency’s critics whisper the steep fall in fines shows an ever-softening stance.

Usa today Georgia

Atlanta: The city’s police chief has ordered a discontinuance to all police automotive chases after crashes that killed or injured americans. “I don’t are attempting to gaze us label somebody their lifestyles in pursuit of an auto theft person or burglar when the courts aren’t even going to acquire them responsible. I imply, how build we teach that?” Chief Erika Shields said at a files convention. Two men were killed closing month in Atlanta when their automotive turn out to be hit by a stolen automotive evading authorities, police said. The chief said the converse will quit in build while she reports a dash policy that has been in assert since 2018. Changes might embody allowing handiest highly educated officers to expend part in chases, Shields said. “I no doubt absorb no longer heard of any division entirely limiting pursuits without some exception” for indecent eventualities comparable to engaging shooters or terrorists, said Jack Rinchich, president of the Nationwide Association of Chiefs of Police in Titusville, Florida.

Usa today Hawaii

Honolulu: Motorway crews are working to restore a fraction of freeway that collapsed into the ocean as some residents set apart a matter to of the assert’s actions to strive in opposition to boulevard deterioration. Repair crews started working Sunday on Kamehameha Motorway in Hauula after coastal erosion caused the collapse of the shoulder and share of a lane. An assert north of Pokiwai Bridge will remain closed till extra earn, the Hawaii Department of Transportation said. Ed Sniffen, the assert deputy director for highways, estimated the repairs would label about $120,000 and expend a few week to total. The collapsed assert of boulevard is 12 feet long and 6 feet above the beach. Inspectors found the shoulder had been undercut for roughly 20 feet in each and every instructions, the division said.

Usa today Idaho

Boise: Gov. Brad Small says education funding shall be his top priority for the assert price range, persevering with a theme from his trusty-accomplished first three hundred and sixty five days in assert of industrial. The 65-three hundred and sixty five days-oldschool Republican governor delivered his 2nd Allege of the Allege handle to lawmakers Monday in what is opinion to be the kickoff to the legislative session. “I am dedicated to working with you to put money into education, proceed reducing regulatory burdens, and enlarge all Idahoans’ prosperity and quality of lifestyles,” Small declared. His price range limits unparalleled fund spending teach to 3.75%, a low cost from most modern years. His price range leaves a surplus of $60 million and increases the assert’s moist-day funds by $102 million as protection in opposition to a seemingly financial slowdown. The assert spends about half of its price range on K-12 education, or about $2 billion yearly. Small’s price range increases that by about 4%. In particular, Small is serious about rising the reading skill of younger college students.

Usa today Illinois

Chicago: Plenty of recreational marijuana dispensaries within the assert were closed Monday, with some owners announcing valid set apart a matter to of has caused a lack in provides and workers exhaustion. The trusty sale of recreational cannabis started Jan. 1 in Illinois, with customers spending about $3.2 million on the principle day and bigger than $10.8 million over five days. By comparison, Michigan, which made recreational marijuana trusty Dec. 1, generated $3.1 million within the principle two weeks of gross sales. Neal McQueeney of Midway Dispensary in Chicago said the shop stopped promoting recreational product Sunday and doesn’t ask to resume gross sales till Friday. Jason Erkes said Cresco Labs shut its Sunnyside shops in Chicago, Rockford and Champaign to all customers to “reset” and provides his workers a damage after working five consecutive 14-hour days.

Usa today Indiana

Evansville: A no longer too long within the past retired College of Southern Indiana professor already has a brand contemporary job, because the assert’s most modern poet laureate. The Indiana Arts Commission says Matthew Graham of Evansville started his two-three hundred and sixty five days time interval as assert poet laureate closing week. He succeeds Adrian Matejka, an Indiana College professor. Graham’s tasks will embody making public appearances at poetry readings or literary events and promoting poetry. Graham is the author of 4 books of poetry, including “The Geography of Home,” released in 2018. He’s obtained a series of nationwide, regional and native awards, including a Pushcart Prize, an Academy of American Poets Award and two grants from the Indiana Arts Commission. Graham co-founded and co-directed “The Ropewalk Writers’ Retreat” within the historical southwestern Indiana town of Contemporary Team spirit.

Usa today Iowa

Des Moines: To reduction up with a fascinating enlarge in passengers, Des Moines Global Airport is adding gates to its deliberate contemporary terminal years sooner than construction even begins. Deliberate with 14 gates when it opens in 2028, the terminal will as one more need 18 to handle the additional load, airport officials said Monday. The extra four gates hadn’t been slated to be constructed till 2040. The airport can absorb a mixed $60 million in additional capacity-boosting projects, including the $40 million label of the extra gates. Nonetheless for the reason that teach in passenger web page online visitors has generated additional income, the shortfall in funding for the $500 million project stays at $194 million – equivalent to 2 years within the past, when airport leaders were taking a absorb a look at scaling wait on the project to nick costs.

Usa today Kansas

Topeka: Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly proposed Monday that the assert give itself extra respiratory room in its price range by slashing annual payments to its pension machine for teachers and government workers, offering a brand contemporary version of a opinion that the Republican-controlled Legislature spiked closing three hundred and sixty five days. Kelly’s proposal would give the assert an extra 10 years to terminate an extended-time interval gap in funding for the assert pension machine. The transfer would unlock tens of thousands and thousands of bucks each and every three hundred and sixty five days for bigger than a decade, money that would moreover very properly be aged for colleges and social products and services. Nonetheless it’s no longer decided if her contemporary opinion will fare any better than closing three hundred and sixty five days’s proposal – which turn out to be listless from practically the 2nd she introduced it to lawmakers. The Kansas Public Employee Retirement Gadget projects Kelly’s proposal would enlarge the price of closing the gap by a total of $4.4 billion – comparing it to extending the scale of a home mortgage.

Usa today Kentucky

Louisville: The Kentucky Humane Society had its largest adoption three hundred and sixty five days on file with about 6,902 animal adoptions in 2019. The Humane Society said it turn out to be the principle three hundred and sixty five days that cat adoptions outnumbered canines. In total, 3,424 cats found contemporary homes in comparison to 3,398 canines. Adoption officials said cat adoptions were rising over the previous couple of years. Humane Society spokeswoman Andrea Blair said cats are properly-liked by seniors, busy families, renters and americans that travel for work. Blair said 1,583 cat adoptions took assert at Purrfect Day Café, which opened in August 2018. The cafe serves coffee, snacks and cocktails while patrons work along with adoptable kittens and cats. Entire adoptions were up 816 from 2018.

Usa today Louisiana

Contemporary Orleans: Residents who had trusty Christmas trees to celebrate the holidays are being asked to encourage the assert’s fisheries. Jefferson Parish is seeking volunteers to encourage with its annual Christmas tree recycling program. It’s the parish’s 30th three hundred and sixty five days doing the project. Volunteers, specifically individuals with shallow draft boats, are wished Feb. 1 to encourage transfer the trees out to Goose Bayou, in response to Seamus Riley with the parish’s Coastal Administration Department. The staging assert is at Cochiara’s Marina in Lafitte and begins at 9 a.m. The parish collects trees from residents and uses them to give protection to Louisiana’s shoreline. The trees are aged to develop wave-reducing fences and to absorb in man-made canals, The Instances-Picayune/The Contemporary Orleans Recommend experiences. In 2019, bigger than 6,000 Christmas trees were soundless in Orleans Parish and airlifted by the Louisiana Nationwide Guard into the Bayou Sauvage Nationwide Natural world Refuge.

Usa today Maine

Augusta: Biologists with the assert Department of Inland Fisheries and Natural world are getting willing to round up some moose. Starting this week, biologists shall be taking pictures and collaring 130 moose as Maine’s moose survival be taught about enters its sixth three hundred and sixty five days and specializes in a brand contemporary be taught about assert. The be taught about started within the winter of 2014 in western Maine, and a 2nd be taught about assert in northern Maine turn out to be added in 2016. Over five years, 475 moose were captured by helicopter-launched nets and fitted with a GPS collar. This three hundred and sixty five days, the program will embody a brand contemporary assert north of Moosehead Lake. The collars enable workers to remotely track moose areas and actions over time and to be notified if a moose dies. Adult cows are monitored each and every spring and summer season to uncover birth charges and survival charges of calves. For every and every collared moose, biologists catch detailed health files, including a blood sample, parasite loads, physique situation and winter tick loads.

Usa today Maryland

Annapolis: A newspaper’s overview of assert courtroom data has found an apparent loophole that enables documents filed electronically to be kept from the overall public. The Capital experiences courtroom documents filed throughout the assert’s electronic file-preserving machine might moreover moreover be made secret by attorneys, judges and clerks and their staffers with out a courtroom converse or public earn. In distinction, attorneys who desire a file kept secret ought to put an converse from a make a choice when filing by paper. That course of requires earn and one more for any enthusiastic occasion to intervene. The newspaper experiences it’s unclear how many data were so without complications sealed across the assert. In the case of the man accused of opening fireplace within the Annapolis newsroom in 2018, killing five workers, the newspaper realized through a public data ask that nearly 70% of the documents were designated “confidential,” preserving them from public search.

Usa today Massachusetts

Boston: The Metropolis Council swore within the most diverse neighborhood in its historical previous Monday. The council made up bigger than half of by girls americans and americans of colour turn out to be ushered in by Mayor Martin Walsh for the length of a ceremony at Faneuil Corridor, the Boston Herald experiences. The mayor swore in 13 individuals who incorporated four contemporary faces, which is an unparalleled amount of turnover for the council. Voters in November moreover elected the council’s first Latina member, Julian Mejia, as properly as district councilors Ricardo Arroyo, Kenzie Bok and Liz Breadon, the principle openly delighted woman to aid on the council. Metropolis Councilor Kim Janey will moreover originate historical previous because the third woman of colour to aid because the physique’s president. The council turn out to be a white male bastion for decades, nonetheless Boston is now a “majority minority” city the set apart whites comprise roughly 47% of the inhabitants.

Usa today Michigan

Midland: It’s no longer what the Egyptians had in mind, nonetheless it absolutely labored: A neighborhood of excessive college college students made a pyramid out of loo paper – 27,434 rolls. It took 16 hours for college students to assemble the pyramid at Bullock Creek High College in Midland County. They are hoping to be acknowledged by the Guinness E book of World Records and sell the john paper as a fundraiser for the 20-member robotics personnel. “There turn out to be a vary of excitement after we purchased to the previous couple of layers, nonetheless the last roll at the pause turn out to be no doubt honest anti-climactic,” Maxton Herst told MLive.com. “Each and each roll you assert, you resolve to absorb it to be within the upright assert. It turn out to be trusty form of mind-numbing work.” Herst purchased the premise three years within the past after seeing a identical pyramid on YouTube. The college students constructed the pyramid for the length of holiday damage. Rolls of the two-ply toilet paper absorb since been positioned into 96-count boxes for resolve.

Usa today Minnesota

Winona: An employee has been fired after tweeting criticism of his agency’s holiday gift to its workers. A branch supervisor for Fastenal in Canada turn out to be fired trusty sooner than Contemporary Year’s Day after he posted a tweet chiding the corporate about its gift determination of barbecue sauce and a picket grill scraper. Fastenal says the tweet violated the corporate’s policy on social media posts. CEO Dan Florness said the policy about acceptable standards of behavior is given to each and every employee and posted on the corporate internet web page online. News of the firing has been widely shared on social media and introduced a few backlash, including loads of internet web page online posts and mobile phone messages that were deleted correct now because they were “wrong” or “threatening,” Florness told the Superstar Tribune. Fastena’l, based in Winona, says it’s the largest fastener distributor in North The US.

Usa today Mississippi

Jackson: Prisoner advocates are calling on the federal government to investigate the assert’s penal complex machine for seemingly civil rights violations, announcing the violence of most modern days highlights deliberate violations of inmates’ constitutional trusty to be free from merciless and unparalleled punishment. The Southern Poverty Regulation Center and other groups said they were sending the letter Tuesday to the U.S. Department of Justice. The letter warns that “it is no exaggeration to pronounce extra lives shall be misplaced absent rapid intervention.” U.S. Earn Bennie Thompson, Mississippi’s handiest Democrat in Congress, called Sunday for a federal investigation after inmates were killed by fellow prisoners across three prisons and an unknown series of inmates were injured in disturbances. Mississippi penal complex officials, who called in assert troopers and a different personnel of penal complex guards from Tennessee to encourage obtain aid watch over of the speak, absorb said four of the deaths are connected to violence between gangs.

Usa today Missouri

St. Louis: Gov. Mike Parson says he’s no longer convinced that unregulated and untaxed video playing terminals within the assert are unlawful, even as investigators in his administration work to discontinuance their unfold. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch experiences that Parson, the former Polk County sheriff, said he is monitoring a Platte County courtroom case that might offer trusty steering to the assert’s prosecutors on what constitutes a sport of probability versus a sport of skill. The video playing terminals, which work in a model equivalent to slot machines, were rolled out in truck stops, gas stations and convenience stores across the assert. Opponents argue that slot machines are handiest allowed in casinos. Nonetheless backers whisper the machines give gamers the option of viewing the end result of a wager sooner than placing a probability. The governor’s stance is in distinction to the Missouri Allege Motorway Patrol, whose leaders absorb made a determination.

Usa today Montana

Large Falls: A Native American tribe has deliberate a occasion after no longer too long within the past gaining federal recognition. The Small Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana has launched plans to host a occasion Jan. 25 in Large Falls. The occasion comes a few month after President Donald Trump signed the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act containing an modification giving the Small Shell Tribe federal recognition, officials said. The free occasion shall be held at the Vacation Inn from 5 to 10 p.m. and is open to the overall public, tribal council individuals said. The occasion involves dinner, ragged music played by fiddlers, and speeches by dignitaries and council individuals. Other tribes are expected to be represented at the tournament, councilmembers said. The final public is moreover invited to aid a pipe ceremony the identical day at 1 p.m. at the Shawn Gilbert Event Center, tribal individuals said.

Usa today Nebraska

Lincoln: The Metropolis Council is cracking down on unlawful dumping at recycling series sites. The council voted unanimously Monday to originate it unlawful to set apart recyclables anyplace nonetheless within the upright containers at the 19 series sites readily available to residents. The contemporary ordinance moreover bans dumping at the sites or within the recycling containers anything else that might’t be recycled. Folks absorb left rubbish and other objects at the sites, including hot tubs, tires, beds, televisions, picket pallets and pianos – all items that might’t be recycled. Cleansing up the resulting messes fell to the companies internet internet hosting the sites, Lincoln transportation and utilities assistant director of utilities Donna Garden told the council closing month. The ordinance moreover applies to recycling processing centers, salvage operations and commercial composting operations. Violators face fines of as much as $500 for the misdemeanor offense.

Usa today Nevada

Reno: An Australian mining company has agreed to a moratorium on contemporary activities at a deliberate lithium mine within the assert in alternate for conservationists losing a lawsuit to give protection to a rare barren region wildflower they are saying doesn’t exist anyplace else within the realm. The Center for Biological Fluctuate filed earn in U.S. District Court docket in Las Vegas that it turn out to be voluntarily withdrawing its lawsuit in opposition to the Trump administration seeking a ban on all drilling and boulevard constructing at the positioning on federal land since the newly reached settlement with Ioneer USA Corp. The heart filed an emergency petition with the U.S. Fish and Natural world Provider in October to checklist Tiehm’s buckwheat as an endangered species. The lawsuit filed weeks later accused the Bureau of Land Administration of illegally dividing the mining operations into two separate projects in converse to circumvent its bear regulations for any land disturbances greater than 5 acres.

Usa today Contemporary Hampshire

Manchester: Monks at a Catholic college confronted off in courtroom Monday in opposition to the college’s board of trustees in a dispute over an effort to limit the the monks’ strength – a transfer some disaster might lead to elevated secularization. A make a choice heard motions in Hillsborough Superior Court docket connected to a lawsuit filed in opposition to the Saint Anselm College board closing three hundred and sixty five days. The unparalleled conflict turn out to be situation in motion when the board moved to expend away the monks’ skill to amend the college’s bylaws. Michael Tierney, representing the monks, said the college’s constitution dictated that they protect the strength to amend regulations governing the college. The college turn out to be situation up and travel by Benedictine monks for 130 years. The board has argued that it has the authority under assert regulation on nonprofit organizations to amend the bylaws. It argues the transfer is severe to be decided that it has the major independence for reaccreditation.

Usa today Contemporary Jersey

Trenton: The assert might gaze a distinguished enlarge within the series of electrical autos traveling on local roads under a bill gaining momentum that might enlarge the assert’s network of charging stations and provides motorists a sizable rebate on a resolve or rent. The measure is considered as a cornerstone of efforts to decrease air air pollution, including greenhouse gases, in a assert that constantly receives failing grades for smog. The bill turn out to be permitted by two Meeting committees Monday as lawmakers push to breeze it sooner than the legislative session comes to a terminate subsequent week. To build those comely air reductions, motorists shall be given one of the most ideal incentive functions within the nation to resolve an electrical automotive. On the guts of the bill is a rebate of as much as $5,000 intended to decrease an electrical automotive’s sticker label to originate the sphere extra aggressive with gasoline-powered autos.

Usa today Contemporary Mexico

Santa Fe: The Legislature’s lead price range-writing committee on Tuesday urged a 6.5% enlarge in assert unparalleled fund spending and counseled plans to stash away a share of Contemporary Mexico’s windfall from oil production in belief funds to be decided that future financial balance. The Legislative Finance Committee that operates a three hundred and sixty five days-round policy and accountability assert of industrial urged a $464 million enlarge in sustained spending to about $7.5 billion for the fiscal three hundred and sixty five days that begins July 1. One other $325 million might be situation apart in an funding belief to underwrite early childhood education and products and services, alongside smaller trusts dedicated to highschool affordability and rural libraries. Legislators ask the assert will receive an $800 million surplus in unparalleled fund profits subsequent three hundred and sixty five days, in far extra than the $7 billion in contemporary spending tasks.

Usa today Contemporary York

Contemporary York: The country’s busiest put together assert would catch contemporary tracks, expanded terminals and better entry for commuters under a opinion launched by the governor Monday. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he'll imply acquiring the block south of Penn Field to add at least eight contemporary underground tracks, which he said will build contemporary, greater terminals and enhance track and put together capacity by 40%. More than 600,000 americans breeze through Penn Field on an routine basis on trains travel by Amtrak, Contemporary Jersey Transit and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, operator of the Long Island Rail Motorway and the Contemporary York Metropolis subway machine. The assert has 21 tracks and operates at corpulent capacity for the length of peak sessions, leading to rippling delays when trains or infrastructure damage down. The bigger than century-oldschool assert turn out to be opinion to be an architectural masterpiece in its day, and its demolition and repurposing within the 1960s provoked a public outcry.

Usa today North Carolina

Wilmington: A favored ferry route has closed for 3 months to enable crews to electrify repairs. The StarNews experiences the N.C. Department of Transportation closed the Southport-Castle Fisher ferry starting up Monday to substitute ramp tools at each and every ferry terminals. The division’s ferry division said contractors ask work on the roughly $3 million project has to be executed by early April. The work comes after a failure of the ramp machine on the Southport side of the ferry shut down the route for five weeks in August and September. The ferry closure shall be a headache for vacationers and commuters. What turn out to be a 30-minute time out over the water might expend an hour-plus by boulevard. Nearly 200,000 autos originate the Southport-Castle Fisher crossing each and every three hundred and sixty five days, the StarNews experiences, citing assert statistics.

Usa today North Dakota

Bismarck: A county commission that no longer too long within the past voted to limit how many refugees it would earn voted Monday no longer to set apart the speak sooner than voters in a nonbinding straw poll. The Bismarck Tribune experiences the five-member Burleigh County Commission voted 3-2 in opposition to a doable pollset apart a matter to of referring to future refugee resettlement. The vote breakdown turn out to be the identical because the commission vote closing month no longer to earn bigger than 25 refugees in 2020. That vote came after a four-hour meeting the set apart loads of refugees, in on the entire emotional testimony, urged the commission to proceed accepting contemporary arrivals. Had the commission voted a total ban on refugee resettlement in Burleigh County, home to about 95,000 americans and the capital city of Bismarck, refugee resettlement groups said they earn about it would were be the principle local government to construct so since President Donald Trump gave states and counties that strength.

Usa today Ohio

Columbus: Gov. Mike DeWine has asked the assert’s Medicaid unswerving to see into what might moreover moreover be executed in response to the most modern enlarge within the series of teens without medical health insurance protection. The governor’s directive came after a most modern file showed Ohio’s uninsured rate for infants, toddlers and preschoolers is now the third-very top within the nation, with with regards to 12,000 extra teens without protection in 2018 than in 2016, the Columbus Dispatch experiences. DeWine said he asked Medicaid Director Maureen Corcoran “to gaze what steps that we can expend to handle this” and to gaze if there's a manner to “originate re-enrollment more uncomplicated” so that it is no longer a hurdle for those attempting to catch insured. The series of teens without medical health insurance protection protection climbed to five% in 2018 from 3.6% in 2016, in response to file released in December by the Georgetown College Center for Younger americans and Households.

Usa today Oklahoma

Oklahoma Metropolis: Two days of conferences and contemporary searches are deliberate this week for 2 16-three hundred and sixty five days-oldschool girls missing and presumed listless for bigger than two an extended time, authorities said Monday. Investigators with the Craig County District Criminal educated’s Residing of job and the Oklahoma Allege Bureau of Investigation shall be joined by the U.S. Department of the Inner’s Residing of job of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement for Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman in and across the former town of Picher, about 85 miles northeast of Tulsa, said district attorney spokeswoman Michelle Lowry. Lowry said a ask from Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma gradual closing three hundred and sixty five days caused the federal agency’s involvement. The OSMRE will exhaust an underground digicam and, if wished, lighting fixtures to search the flooring and partitions of mine shafts within the assert. Picher, which now no longer exists as a town, turn out to be incorporated in a federally funded buyout after a 2006 Military Corps of Engineers be taught about printed abandoned lead and zinc mines under the assert had a excessive anguish of caving in.

Usa today Oregon

Salem: Lagging snow fall early within the season might imply a cosmopolitan, dry summer season for farmers and ranchers across the assert. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Sources Conservation Provider says the amount of water from snow that’s fallen in Oregon trusty now might be trusty 45% of unparalleled statewide, the Capitol Press experiences. Water from melting snow is a prime for replenishing streams and reservoirs for farms and fish, specifically in jap Oregon the set apart the climate is drier. Each and every water basin is measuring under moderate for snow moreover the Owyhee Basin in southeastern Oregon, which stands at 117% of unparalleled. The bottom totals are within the Hood, Sandy and Decrease Deschutes basins at 25% of unparalleled and the Willamette Basin at 26%. The water three hundred and sixty five days, as outlined by hydrologists, begins Oct. 1 and runs through Sept. 30 of the next calendar three hundred and sixty five days.

Usa today Pennsylvania

Harrisburg: Voters in three Pennsylvania Condominium districts will make a choice contemporary assert representatives for the length of special elections scheduled for March, the assert Condominium speaker launched Tuesday. A top aide to Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, said the March 17 date turn out to be chosen to absorb seats that grew to change into vacant for the reason that incumbents were elected in November to other areas of work. The seats were most no longer too long within the past held by Earn. Tedd Nesbit, R-Mercer; Earn. Gene DiGirolamo, R-Bucks; and Justin Walsh, R-Westmoreland. Nesbit and Walsh were elected to change into county judges, and DiGirolamo is now a county commissioner. Earn. Tom Murt, R-1st viscount montgomery of alamein, will succeed DiGirolamo as chair of the Human Products and services Committee, and Earn. Gary Day, R-Lehigh, will chair Aging.

Usa today Rhode Island

Windfall: Nonprofits within the assert were awarded grants totaling with regards to $300,000 for outreach to bear participation within the 2020 census. The Rhode Island Foundation launched the grants Monday from the Rhode Island Census 2020 Fund, a statewide, collaborative funding initiative. The aim is to give protection to the $3.8 billion a three hundred and sixty five days Rhode Island receives in federal funding for education, health care, transportation and housing based on census files, the root said. Twenty-six organizations obtained funding for functions to reach onerous-to-count communities, including the Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Training in Windfall, Progreso Latino in Central Falls, and Meals on Wheels in Windfall. Nonprofits, municipalities, homes of admire, and public companies including libraries and colleges can follow for grants within the 2nd round of funding.

Usa today South Carolina

Charleston: The Citadel is evaluating the college’s existing structures, infrastructure and landscapes to construct an extended-time interval opinion that might files future constructing projects and campus renovations. The campus grasp opinion will build a vision of what the overall public military college might see enjoy 15 years from now, The Post and Courier experiences. “After we absorb a opinion in assert, this might files all of our facility decisions going forward,” said Jeff Lamberson, vice president of amenities and engineering. The college finalized a $450,000 contract with Ayers Saint Snide, an architectural develop agency spearheading the project, in October. College officials absorb talked with a total bunch of faculty students, college and workers in bigger than 35 focal level-neighborhood conferences.

Usa today South Dakota

Sioux Falls: Legislators absorb invited the Crow Creek Sioux tribal chairman to lift the annual Allege of the Tribes handle after some tribal leaders threatened to boycott a deliberate handle by a member of Gov. Kristi Noem’s Cupboard. Lawmakers on Monday invited Lester Thompson Jr. to lift the handle subsequent week. The transfer is a change from plans to absorb Secretary of Tribal Family individuals Dave Flute give it. The annual speech is alleged to advertise cooperation between the assert government and the tribes nonetheless as one more grew to change into a level of friction when tribal leaders objected to having a assert employee give the speech. Last week, some tribal leaders said they would obtain their very bear tournament called the Large Sioux Nation Tribal handle. That tournament will soundless happen in Castle Pierre across the Missouri River from the Capitol nonetheless has been rescheduled for after the Allege of the Tribes handle.

Usa today Tennessee

Townsend: One in all the Large Smoky Mountains Nationwide Park’s most well liked sites has been closed to all autos till repairs to a prime entry boulevard tunnel are executed. The Cades Cove closure started Sunday night and is anticipated to closing till March. Fundamental repairs are wished for the interior drainage machine within the 121-foot long Bote Mountain Tunnel on Laurel Creek Motorway, in response to the Nationwide Park Provider. The tunnel hasn’t passed through distinguished work since it turn out to be inbuilt 1948. The cove’s campground moreover shall be closed till March. The nearby Elkmont Campground and the Smokemont Campground in North Carolina will remain open three hundred and sixty five days-round to accommodate displaced cove campers, in response to WATE-TV.

Usa today Texas

Dallas: A contempt of courtroom fee has been dropped in opposition to the Dallas County district attorney over a television interview he gave on the eve of a excessive-profile assassinate trial keen a police officer. All facets filed a motion to fall the contempt fee in opposition to Dallas County District Criminal educated John Creuzot, who gave an interview sooner than the originate of former officer Amber Guyger’s assassinate trial no topic a gag converse by Mediate Tammy Kemp. The white officer turn out to be convicted of assassinate for the shooting death of her unarmed dusky neighbor, Botham Jean, inner his bear rental. Kemp said in an converse that the interview, in which Creuzot outlined why he opinion Guyger turn out to be properly charged with assassinate in determination to manslaughter, turn out to be a “teach violation” of the gag converse she’d issued within the case.

Usa today Utah

Salt Lake Metropolis: The assert Department of Transportation has started making security improvements come a homeless helpful resource center the set apart autos killed three men, officials said. The division has set apart in email correspondence signs to induce drivers to be cautious and alert for pedestrians come the South Salt Lake center, The Salt Lake Tribune experiences. Salt Lake Metropolis leaders called for rapid pedestrian security improvements after three men were fatally struck while attempting to rotten the boulevard come the guts. Police consider all three men were homeless and seeking safe haven at the guts. Four crashes, including those keen the fatalities, absorb took place within the assert for the reason that November opening of the 300-bed men’s helpful resource center, police said.

Usa today Vermont

Montpelier: A bakery is internet internet hosting a probability to get the lucky person that gets to stride down a gingerbread village. In a first for Birchgrove Baking, the candy treat institution is promoting customers tickets “for the probability to resolve the trusty to homicide the village.” Initially, after the holiday season turn out to be over, the bakery struggled to get a creative manner to extinguish its gingerbread village. Birchgrove co-owner John Belding says the owners absorb within the previous resorted to destroying it themselves, getting out their very bear tension from the annoying three hundred and sixty five days. Sales from this three hundred and sixty five days’s raffle will breeze toward the Central Vermont Humane Society, an ongoing collaborator with Birchgrove Baking. Winners shall be launched Friday.

Usa today Virginia

Richmond: More americans earned bachelor’s degrees within the assert closing three hundred and sixty five days than ever sooner than. Info from the Allege Council of Larger Training for Virginia shows that a file series of degrees were awarded in science, know-how, engineering, arithmetic and health fields. Throughout the 2018-19 college three hundred and sixty five days, private and non-private nonprofit colleges and universities awarded 122,168 degrees and certificates – an enlarge of with regards to 50% from a decade within the past. In-assert college students accounted for 86,325, or bigger than 70%, of those awards. Bachelor’s degrees accounted for 46% of the entire, while graduate degrees made up 25%. Accomplice degrees made up 16%, and certificates made up 13%. The three most well liked bachelor’s stage functions remained unchanged from earlier years: change administration and management; psychology; and biology/natural sciences. Those three majors accounted for 19% of all bachelor’s degrees.

Usa today Washington

Olympia: The assert Supreme Court docket on Monday swore in a brand contemporary chief justice, as properly as its first-ever Native American justice. The Spokesman-Evaluation experiences Justice Debra Stephens grew to change into the courtroom’s 57th chief justice. A former Appeals Court docket make a choice and adjunct professor of regulation at Gonzaga College, she called it “the greatest privilege I'm able to consider.” Raquel Montoya-Lewis, a former Whatcom County Superior Court docket make a choice who is a member of the Pueblo Iselta tribe of Contemporary Mexico, turn out to be sworn in at the identical ceremony. Montoya-Lewis is the principle Native American to aid on Washington’s very top courtroom and handiest the 2nd to aid on any assert supreme courtroom within the nation. Stephens called it a historical day. Gov. Jay Inslee said Monday turn out to be a day when “a daughter of Spokane ascends to chief justice,” and the courtroom gets Lewis-Montoya, a “judicial star” who is a right listener, decisive, caring and compassionate.

Usa today West Virginia

Charleston: The Department of Natural Sources says anglers might soundless ask trout stocked in assert waterways for the length of the winter months to be smaller than celebrated. An extended dry spell across the assert from gradual summer season through descend is opinion to absorb affected the moderate “catchable” size of the fish, Jim Hedrick, the division’s hatchery supervisor, told the Charleston Gazette-Mail. When the drought broke in October, the hatcheries’ water provides were replenished and allowed workers to launch feeding trout at the customary rate. Nonetheless winter weather quickly slowed the expansion rate again, Hedrick said. The expansion rate is anticipated to reach to unparalleled because the weather gets warmer, he said. The division is moreover adding feed to absorb a look at out to enlarge trout size. Hedrick said each and every of the 31 streams and 30 lakes designated for January stockings will receive as many pounds of fish as closing three hundred and sixty five days.

Usa today Wisconsin

Madison: Republicans made up our minds Tuesday to assert handiest President Donald Trump’s name on the assert’s main pollthis spring, developing barriers for any long-shot candidates to speak him within the assert. A committee made up of Republicans and Democrats met with assert election officials within the Capitol to select which candidates shall be positioned on the April 7 main ballot. The Republican committee individuals submitted handiest Trump’s name; he turn out to be permitted on a unanimous dispute vote. The Democratic committee individuals submitted 14 candidates. The Republican transfer will originate it extra sophisticated nonetheless no longer impossible for other GOP hopefuls comparable to former Massachusetts Gov. Invoice Weld and former Illinois Earn. Joe Walsh to catch on the GOP main ballot. They'd soundless be incorporated if they each and every catch 8,000 signatures by Jan. 28.

Usa today Wyoming

Casper: A college district has paid off bigger than $4,000 in student lunch debt after a crowd-sourced take a look at bounced. The Casper Police Department has opened an investigation into the “Feed Casper Students” fundraising campaign on GoFundMe aimed at paying off the Natrona County College District’s student lunch debt, The Casper Superstar-Tribune experiences. The district permitted about $19,000 in fundraising donations in April, the identical month the take a look at bounced, college officials said. The district paid off the lunch debt for about 250 college students out of its unparalleled fund, in determination to reopen the excellent debt for the college students, officials said. A college district administrator made loads of attempts to reach the woman who started the fundraiser, Brittny French, authorities said. More than one attempts by the Superstar-Tribune to contact French were unsuccessful closing week, including through GoFundMe. Police asked anybody who had donated to the campaign to catch entangled with police.

From USA TODAY Community and wire experiences

Read or Half this memoir: https://www.usatoday.com/memoir/files/50-states/2020/01/08/gingerbread-destruction-raffle-toilet-paper-pyramid-tiehms-buckwheat-files-round-states/40960031/

[gotshadowbanned-feralfungii]

A Beautiful Day to Die

Chapter 6

“Death Is a Law, Not a Punishment.”

Pairings: Jonathan Crane/Edward Nygma, Past Harvey Dent/Edward Nygma, backgrounds Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel

Summary: 

Edward looked out the window at the sun moving in the sky and knew he had to speed this up.

“Say what you wanted to say.” He ordered flatly, not bothering to look away from the window.

AO3 Link

1/2/3/4/5/6/7

Note: Before reading, please note that Harvey is making a personal choice for himself based on what he's comfortable with. This isn't me trying to say something about people with identity disorders or other mental illnesses. This is just how he feels about it right now.I think we might be approaching the end soon, though I make no promises. As always, comments and kudos are deeply appreciated and help me push myself to keep going.

“This is… a long list.” Harley almost sounded impressed as she read down the list Edward had written of all the people who might want him dead. The three of them were at a table in the library, speaking quietly and looking over the pages of paper spread across the table. “Wait, why are your parents on this-”

“I don’t want to talk about that.” Edward cut her off quickly, clearing his throat. “I doubt they’d have the cunning to set all this up anyway, or that they’d believe me to be worth the effort. I just… wanted to cover all my bases.”

“Fair enough.” She shrugged. “Still, you piss off an awful lot of people…” She sighed as as she tried to sift through the five pages full of names of people that might want to kill Edward Nygma.

“People just don’t like it when someone is smarter than them.” Came the defensive explanation. Jonathan scoffed, and said the first actual sentence since his frightening laughter.

“And I’m sure that’s all it is.”

“Your sarcasm is not appreciated.”

“I don’t care. Now, this… ‘Harvey Dent’ is at the top of your list. What did you do to him?

“Wait, do you not know who he is?” Edward had to ask first. Harvey wasn’t just well known on campus, he was well-known in the city itself. Everyone loved Harvey Dent and Harvey Dent loved everyone, or so he claimed. Those close to him saw a darker side, occasionally. But he still had a good heart. Edward hated it. Jon just stared at him blankly instead of answering, so Harley did it for him.

“Jonny doesn’t really… know a whole lotta people.”

“By choice, I assure you. I am not unobservant.”

“...Right.” Edward sighed, rubbing his eyes. His head was pounding. His body felt worse and worse the more he died and came back. The implications of that were frightening, but he already knew he had to put a stop to it all. It didn’t change anything. “He’s… my ex, but we never dated.”

“That makes perfect sense.” Jon replied dryly.

“You rejected him and he didn’t take it well?” Harley guessed, tone laced with a sympathy that did not register in even an inch of Jonathan’s being. Edward dropped his hands back onto the table and sighed, shaking his head.

“...No. No, loathed as I am to admit it…” Edward took a deep breath, closing his eyes and bracing himself for something that was so fundamentally against his very nature: Talking about things that upset him.“We were sleeping together. Just casual at first, then it seemed more… emotional, and we were spending more time together outside of it. He was… really nice to me, so I thought…” His lips pressed into a thin line and his fingers twisted around each other restlessly. “I asked if he wanted to go steady, and he verbally ripped me to shreds.”

“Jesus.” Harley whispered as Jonathan cleared his throat uncomfortably.

“We really don’t need to know-”

“Since then he keeps following me, showing up wherever I am, asking after me all the time… He keeps trying to talk to me, but I honestly don’t care to hear anything he has to say.” That caused Jon to hum in thought and lean forward, eyes narrowing as he observed Edward’s body language.

“Maybe you should.” He said finally.

“No.”

“Jonny has a point, Eddie.” Harley popped a bubble with her gum before continuing. “If he’s at the top of the list, whatever he has to say might be real tellin’ of whether he should actually be on the list at all.”

“I don’t want to be alone with him.” Edward countered.

“So you won’t be!” She offered the solution as if it were simple. “We’ll hide nearby ‘n listen in, and if he tries anything then we fuck’im up!” The way Harley said that was so cheerful, it was as if she wanted that to happen. Edward did rather like the idea of someone who wronged him getting beaten to death…

“Alright.” He agreed after a moment. “Okay. I’ll call him and ask him to meet me in my dorm. You two can hide in the closet.”

“Aw, what?” Harley drew out the word in a pouty whine. “But we spent so much time just coming out of the closet!” There was silence as both men stared at her. She crossed her arms and pouted more effectively. “Oh c’mon, that was funny!”

“Low hanging fruit, Harleen.” Jon sounded almost as if he were seriously scolding her, then he turned back to Edward. “Call him.”

And so he did.

Harvey was excited, or at least sounded like he was. He actually thanked Edward for agreeing to talk to him and showed up at his dorm in record time, looking alarmingly nervous despite his smile. Edward let him in, and they stood in silence for a good minute before Edward offered him a seat in one of the girls chairs. Then more silence as they sat down. Neither knew what to say. Edward looked out the window at the sun moving in the sky and knew he had to speed this up.

“Say what you wanted to say.” He ordered flatly, not bothering to look away from the window.

“...Right.” Came the eventual reply, before Harvey cleared his throat and continued. “I… I wanted to… apologize.”

“Mhm.” Edward hummed, feigning boredom.

“I was needlessly cruel in the way I spoke to you, when- Well, I doubt I need to specify. I… You know I have… my moods. You know that. That’s not an excuse, but at the time…” Edward saw him shift uncomfortably in his seat out of the corner of his eye. “At the time, part of my brain was telling me that… Being mean would be for the best. Cut you deeply and cut things off completely. I knew how to hurt you and I thought if I made you hate me, then things would be… easier.” Harvey took a breath and let it out slowly. “Not an hour after you left, I realized how irrational that was. I realized I shouldn’t have betrayed your trust that way. I should have explained myself properly.”

He paused for long enough that Edward glanced at him. Harvey was looking at him with a nervous gleam in his eyes that Edward had never seen before. Harvey was always so sure. Always so confident. He looked vulnerable now. A part of Edward knew how hard that must have been for him, but a more prominent part revelled in it. He just looked at Harvey expectantly, eyes tired and body aching. Eventually, the other man got the message.

“... The real reason I rejected you isn’t because I didn’t… want you. I did. I still do. But…” Every fibre of Edward’s being was screaming at him to cut Harvey off. He didn’t want to hear this again. He didn’t want to be told why he wasn’t good enough. “I’m not well.” Harvey said finally, voice strained and eyes dropping to a point on the floor. His posture was slumped, defeated, his elbows on his knees. He usually sat so tall and proud. Edward was stunned into silence for a moment.

“You’re sick?” He didn’t look sick, aside from how tired he seemed.

“Yes, but… not the way you might think. Edward, my ‘mood swings,’ the way I get sometimes… There’s more going on than I let on and it… that’s not… It’s…” He sighed harshly, dropping his head into his hands. “...I’m not well. I’m not. I’m very mentally ill, Edward, and I’m getting help but… At this point, I’m just…” He took another breath, running his hands down his face as he looked up again. “A real relationship means taking care of each other. It means being there for each other. It doesn’t mean you walking on eggshells every time you talk to me. I can’t get into a relationship with you when the way I treat you depends so heavily on something I don’t have a handle on yet. I’m scared, Edward. I’m scared of this, I’m scared of myself, and I am in… no fit state to take care of anyone right now.”

“...You said you’re getting help?” Edward asked softly, after a long moment of Harvey waiting anxiously for a response.

“I am. I’m learning some coping mechanisms and they’ve started me on some medication. It’s too early to know if it’s doing much yet. Listen,” Harvey started. “I’m not saying mentally ill people can’t be in healthy relationships. They absolutely can. But me, personally? I don’t feel like it’s something I should be doing right now. It’s not something I’m comfortable trying. Not until I have a better idea of what’s going on with me and how to handle it.”

“Then why even bother talking to me?” There was no bitterness left. No anger, no resentment. Just exhaustion. Harvey looked at him with a small, sad smile.

“Like I said, I was needlessly cruel. You didn’t deserve that.” Edward wasn’t sure he agreed.

“...Well, I won’t deny this helped a little. I appreciate the closure, Harvey.” Being polite was painful. He wanted to be angry. He wanted to be petty and bitter. Instead, Edward stood and gestured at the door. “Now… Please leave. I need some time to myself.”

“Of course.” Harvey stood as well, and as he approached there was a moment where Edward thought he was going to kiss him. Time slowed down, and Edward had no idea whether he wanted to allow it or not. He’d enjoyed kissing Harvey, before. But Edward was extremely picky about who he touched and who was allowed to touch him in turn. Harvey had lost that right. But Harvey just walked past him to the door, and then he was gone.

There was a moment of silence before the clamour in the closet started up. There were curses and banging as the two people inside tried to get out. Edward was sure he heard something about ‘ridiculous noodle legs’ and 'knife elbows' just before the doors flew open and Harley went sprawling onto the floor. She looked up with a smile and a small wave.

“Heeeey, Eddie.” She pulled herself off the floor as Jon gingerly stepped out of the closet, closing it behind himself. “So, we ain’t killin’ him?”

“No.” Was all he said in reply, loathed as he was to do so.

“Shame.” Jon commented dryly, eyes on the door. “He said he’s afraid of himself. I’d like to see how far that goes.”

“Hey, Jon?” Edward started innocently enough. Jon looked at him in question as he approached, and tensed when Edward put his hands on his shoulders. He looked deep into the frozen blue-grey of Jon’s eyes and said very simply: “You are the most deeply unnerving person I have ever met.”

“You are not the first to tell me that.” Jon told him flatly, but Edward just grinned.

“Bet I’m the first to say it as a compliment though.” He stepped back, taking his hands off of Jon and looking to Harley as the other man just stared at him in confusion. Harley, however, was looking at the door.

“...I think there might be an easier way to do this than interviewing every single person on your five page hate-list.”

The three of them look at each other, realizing they all thought of the same thing at the same time. No one said anything until Edward sighed wearily and complained:

“I hate being bait.”

[buffster]

Passion (BTVS 2.17)

This is part of my ongoing Buffy Project, where I write notes/meta for every episode in an attempt to better understand the characters and themes of the show. You can find the full list here. Gifs are not mine.

Angelus: Passion. It lies in all of us. Sleeping. Waiting. And although unwanted, unbidden...it will stir. Open it’s jaws and howl. 

Passion was a joy to watch not simply from an entertainment standpoint but an analytical one as well. The episode spends a lot of time on Angelus and the line between him and Angel begins to blur. Just as Angel did, Angelus watches from the shadows unnoticed by Buffy or her friends. Her lurks at the Bronze just as he did before (did he stalk her constantly and just announce himself at opportune moments?) and is standing not three feet from Buffy sucking a girl dry as she walks past, oblivious. 

Angelus: It speaks to us. Guides us. Passion rules us all, and we obey. What other choice do we have?

He lurks in her bedroom and draws a picture of her sleeping to lay on her pillow. It begs the question: had Angel done this would Buffy have found it romantic? It has apparently only just occurred to the gang that Angelus has an all access pass to their homes and school. Cordelia is concerned she invited him into her car. Apparently no one bothers explaining to her this isn’t a thing because she later says she convinced her grandmother to switch cars with her. 

Xander: Yep, you’re doomed to having to give him and his vamp pals a lift whenever they feel like it. And those guys never chip in for gas.

One of my favorite things about Buffy is it’s willingness to make fun of itself. It does so this episode when Jonathan Levinson and an unnamed student walk into the library looking for books.

Xander: Does this look like a Barnes and Noble?

Giles directs them to the books and the entire gang watches in disbelief. They leave and Cordelia asks, not unreasonably, why Angelus doesn’t just slit Buffy’s throat. Giles says that he is just trying to provoke her and that she needs to ignore him. His dedication to procedure will see him punished this episode as he fails to take Angelus’ threat seriously. 

Giles: As the slayer you don’t have the luxury of being a slave to your passions. 

Both Xander and Buffy dumb down Giles’ long-winded explanations, but as pointed out by Xander only he is given the withering looks and snotty attitude. I’ve noticed that, for now at least, Giles seems to like Xander less than the other Scoobies. It’s unclear why that is, but my theory is that he sees him as a liability. Willow offers technical and research support. Buffy is the slayer. Xander gets the doughnuts. 

Willow is Angelus’ next victim. He strings up her fish and leaves them in an envelope. Buffy tells her that when things like this happen she still wants to run to Angel, but he’s gone. Willow tells her that one thing has not changed: she is still all he thinks about. 

Joyce is next. He leaves a picture of her for Buffy and then confronts her outside their house. He tells Joyce that he slept with her daughter. Right afterwards Willow performs the ritual to lock him out of the house.

There were quite a few insights into Joyce this episode. She asks Buffy what’s wrong and says, “I’ve read all the parenting books. You cannot surprise me.” Joyce feels the need to appear to be parenting well, but she clearly struggles to follow any of the advice laid out for her. She has little backbone and also isn’t even sure she wants to know what her daughter gets up to. Joyce also struggles to let Buffy talk and assumes she knows exactly what’s going on at all times. I could sympathize with her in this situation simply because Angelus doesn’t act at all stable when he speaks to Joyce. It would be hard to imagine how you’d fall for this guy’s tricks. She is also upset because she slept with a boy Joyce didn’t even know she was dating, clearly illustrating how out of the loop her mother is. But Joyce doesn’t exactly encourage things to be different.

Joyce: Buffy, you can shut me out of your life--I am pretty much used to that. But don’t ever expect me to stop caring about you because it’s never gonna happen. I love you more than anything in the world.

Giles and Jenny begin to speak again. Giles admits he felt betrayed and Jenny admits she fell in love with him. He wants her to make things right with Buffy but can’t deny he misses her. They plan to get together that evening, but first she wants to nail down the spell used to grant Angel a soul.

Back at the factory Spike is refusing to eat. He hates feeling helpless and childlike, especially with Angelus taunting all that Dru does for him. Drusilla seems thrilled to be fought over until she has a vision about Jenny’s plans. Drusilla is a serious danger and would have thwarted many a Scooby victory had she stuck around.

Just as Jenny figures out the spell translation Angelus appears. He says that he is able to get in because the sign outside reads Enter all ye who seek knowledge. Even watching this over and over again you can’t help but root for Jenny as Angelus chases her. And then you see the big window and think nooooo as he snaps her neck.

I noticed at the beginning of the episode Jenny told her students she wanted a paper and disc copy of their work. It foreshadows her leaving behind a disc copy. I also liked how Jenny had a lasting legacy on the show with this final piece of work.

Giles walks into his apartment to music, roses, and candles. Had Giles paid more attention to Buffy’s worry over Angelus he would have recognized the paper immediately (reading ‘Upstairs’). He finds Jenny’s body where he is expecting to find her ready for a romantic evening. This was an important episode to understand the cruelty of Angelus and how different he is from other vampires. The way he gets off on other people’s pain speaks to a deep sense of rage...but I’ll muse on that later. Giles stands frozen as the police arrive. When they ask him to come with him he says, “Of course. Yes. Procedure...” 

Angelus: Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love, the clarity of hatred, and the ecstasy of grief.

Angelus watches from the window as Buffy gets the call from Giles. She hands the phone to Willow and drops to the floor. Willow is the one to be comforted by Joyce as she begins sobbing. They go to Giles’ apartment and survey the scene. Angel has sketched Jenny’s face in death. 

Buffy: Giles didn’t set this up. Angel did. This is the wrapping for the gift.

They surmise that Giles intends to kill Angel.

Xander: Well it’s about time somebody did. Well, I’m sorry but I hated Angel long before you guys jumped on the bandwagon. So I think I deserve a little something for not saying I told you so long before now. If Giles wants to go after the fiend that killed his girlfriend...

Buffy: You’re right. There’s only one problem with Giles’ little revenge plan.

Xander: And what’s that?

Buffy: It’s gonna get him killed.

Xander’s being an insensitive ass here, yes. Honestly I think he views caring for a vampire the way we view keeping a wild tiger for a pet. How surprised and sorry do you really want us to be when it turns around and bites you? That’s what tigers do. He never quite understands the grey area of morality. He’d be a terrible fit for Angel the Series, which deals in it a lot more. I don’t think he’s trying to be a jerk. To him stay away from vampires is just what’s right and makes sense.

Back at the factory Spike is angry with Angelus for playing games. Buffy finds them and attacks Angelus before he can kill Giles but lets him get away to save her Watcher. Afterwards, Buffy punches Giles and says he can’t leave her to do this alone. They hug each other and sob.

Angelus: It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion, maybe we would know some kind of peace. But we would be hollow. Empty rooms, shuttered and dank. Without passion we’d be truly dead.

The events have moved Giles out of his comfort zone as the cool and removed Watcher. He admits he’s buried many people but Jenny was the first he loved. He now understands what it means to be personally involved. Buffy feels responsible because she wasn’t able to bring herself to kill Angelus when she had the chance. 

Buffy: Angel is gone. Nothing is ever gonna bring him back. 

She’s ready.

Character Notes:

Willow Rosenberg: Willow panics when offered the chance to teach the computer class. She’s excited but full of self-doubt. She spends five hours planning lessons for a few minutes of teaching time. 

Angelus: Giles says that “since Angel lost his soul he’s regained his sense of whimsy”. 

Buffy Summers: Buffy is still unhappy with Jenny but tells her to talk to Giles because she doesn’t want anybody to be lonely. One of the things that makes Buffy a hero is her ability to turn her inner pain into compassion.

[doctor-who-hears-a-horton]

These Grey STars Above Us (Ten x Rose)

Rating: Teen

Chapter: 11/?

Rose Tyler is a young lady of standing in society, and thinks little of marriage. She meets Dr. Johnathan Smith, a former soldier with taste for little else besides whiskey and reading. She finds herself intrigued by him and wonders if she can draw him out and bring him back into society

HISTORICAL NOTE**************** I made up the war for the purposes of plot, so there was no war like the one I describe in Victorian times.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10

Read it on AO3 Here!

“He will come,” Amelia said one night as she brushed Rose’s hair.  “I daresay the man was half in love with you already, Rose, he will come.”

It had been three days since Rose had left the Noble’s home and she had heard nothing of Jonathan.  She wondered, initially, if he was just embarrassed, but it seemed to be that that was not the case.  He had not bothered to come calling, and she wondered if she would be receiving a letter from him soon.

Or perhaps, and most likely, he had already given up on her, on any chance at making things functioning between them.  There was nothing left.  She met Amelia’s eyes in the mirror.

“He may have just decided he does not want to call.”

“That is not true,” Amelia said forcefully, shaking her head.  “He is simply not sure how to proceed.”

Rose had told Amelia everything that had happened, and her friend had been very sympathetic about the entire ordeal.  Rose was very grateful, but she wanted to talk about happy things for just a moment.  She smiled and patted her friend’s hand.

“Enough about Dr. Noble,” she said, “Tell me about Mr. Williams, I know that he certainly wrote to you in this time.”

Amelia blushed and ducked her head. “It is best we do not speak of him now.”

“And why not?”

“Do not be angry with me.”

“I could never be angry with you for something regarding your happiness, Amelia,” Rose said softly.

Amelia nodded slowly and met Rose’s eyes in the mirror.  “Mr. Williams has offered to enter into an official courtship with me.” Rose smiled and turned on her stool. “Really?” She said, “Oh, Amelia, how could you ever think I would be upset with you for that?”

“Because if I marry him, I shall be leaving you alone.”

“No, you won’t be,” Rose took her friend’s hands, “We shall always be friends, even if you no longer work for my family.  I should love to attend your wedding and see you in a lovely gown.”

Amelia beamed. “I fear I do not deserve all the attention that Mr. Williams showers upon me.’

“Of course you do,” Rose replied, furrowing her brows.  “And I am very happy for you.  I am sure your marriage will be a happy one.”

Amelia nodded. “I certainly hope so,” she said softly.  “Now, I suppose if you want to be awake in a timely fashion, we should both go to sleep.”

Rose smiled and patted her friend’s hand.  “Come on, then, let’s go to sleep.”

They bid each other goodnight and both retired to their separate beds, where Rose’s thoughts warred with her late into the night.  She chewed her bottom lip raw and clenched her fists in her duvet, wishing on stars and praying that perhaps Jonathan would come calling tomorrow.

Two more days passed before Ianto knocked on the library and entered, where Rose and Amelia were sitting and reading.  He put his hands together in front of him and nodded to the two of them.

“Miss Amelia, Miss Tyler.”

“Hello, Ianto, a pleasure to see you,” Rose said, smiling.  “What is it?” ‘Dr. Noble has come to call.”

Rose felt her smile slip. “He has… It has been nearly a week. Surely he could not have been drunk all this time.’

Ianto winced. “I would not put it past him, my lady, the way you and I saw him on our last visit to the Noble estate. He has requested that the two of you are alone, so I told him a walk around the gardens would be appropriate.”

Rose nodded. “I agree,” she said softly, “There will be plenty of servants about, we should hardly be alone.”

I agree completely,” Ianto said earnestly, “And Miss Amelia, I have a letter for you.”   He handed her the letter, which was clearly from her Mr. Williams.  “Miss Tyler, if you would like to come with me, I will escort you downstairs to him.”

Rose nodded and got to her feet.  Amelia offered her a smile and Rose forced one in return before moving to take Ianto’s arm, who was watching her with a worried expression.

“Where are my parents?”  Rose asked softly.

“They are downstairs with Dr. Noble, I am afraid,” Ianto said, “They think he is here to settle the courtship, but I think the two of you have far more to talk about than simply that.”

Rose pursed her lips and nodded tersely, “I would have to agree.”

Ianto worked to calm Rose’s anxieties as they reached the parlor.  The second she arrived in the room, Dr. Noble was on his feet, staring at her earnestly.  His hands were trembling, she noticed, as he locked them together in front of him.  “Miss Tyler,” he said shakily, nodding towards her.

“Look how sweet he is,” Rose heard her mother whisper to her father, “He is so nervous just to be in front of her.”

“Pardon me, Lord and Lady Tyler, may I escort Miss Tyler to the garden?” He asked, looking to her parents.

They nodded, looking a bit surprised.

“Certainly,” Lord Tyler said, “There will be plenty of servants there to chaperone you.”

“Rose, love, get a shawl to wear, the cold is biting this October.”

Rose nodded and turned, removing herself from Ianto.  She heard Dr. Noble thank her parents and exit, walking alongside Ianto.

“Pleasure to see you again, sir,” Ianto said kindly.

“Ah, Ianto, I do feel that I owe you an apology.”  Dr. Noble rubbed the back of his neck, unassured. “I am sorry, for what happened last week.”

“I feel that it is not I the apology should go to,” Ianto nodded to Rose, who was collecting her shawl from the coat room.  “Although I do accept your apology.”

“Thank you,” Dr. Noble said, and the two men shook hands before Ianto told Rose that he would be going back to his duties.  She smiled and thanked him before wrapping her shawl around her shoulders.  She looked to Jonathan, who was looking at her with eyes full. Of what, she could not be sure, but it was something akin to affection.  He held out his hand to her, but she kept her distance, now unsure.

“Have you had anything to drink today?”  She asked him.

“Only water, Miss Tyler.”

“And in the week that it took you to come and call on me?” She said, with a bit more ice to her tone.

He winced and dropped his hand.  “I fear I was not so good,” he said, “Although it was not as bad as it was.  Miss Tyler, I am, in fact, disgusted with myself.  I felt I could not see you until I knew I could face you without cowering, because I hate the man that I have become.”

Rose felt the ice around her heart melt a bit.  “But, Dr. Noble, if you had written me the day after our encounter, it would have arrived two days prior to now, and I would not have worried.” He frowned. “You doubted that I would come for you?”

“Yes, I did.”

His eyes fell from hers. “I am sorry. Will you let me explain?”

“Yes,” She said.  “Come, let us go to the library.”

“But we are to go to the gardens-”

“It is cold,” she said.  She waved Ianto back over to her.  “If anyone asks, Ianto, we were in the gardens.”

“Yes, Miss,” Ianto nodded to them and walked away from them, as though not seeing it would make it as though it was not happening.  

Rose took Dr. Noble’s arm and led him up the stairs to the library.  He followed along and said nothing, as though he felt anything he would say would be wrong.  She knocked on the library door, and when no one answered, she opened up the door and pulled him inside.  

“This is highly inappropriate-”

“And when did you care about that?” Rose asked. “We were very inappropriate in the market place,” she reminded him.

He blushed deeply and nodded. “I did not think you would want to remember such a time,” he said softly, “That you might be embarrassed of it now.”

“I am not embarrassed,” she said, “Anything that I did, I did willingly, and so did you.  Come, sit with me, we should talk.”

“Yes, we should,” Dr. Noble agreed quietly.  She walked to the couch and sat down, watching him expectantly.  He sat next to her, so that their knees almost touched, but not quite.  She laced her hands together in her lap and chewed her bottom lip nervously, not knowing quite where to begin.  

“I expect you have made a choice,” she said.  

“It has been difficult,” he said, “You have not been in my life nearly long enough to understand what has happened to me.”

Rose blinked at him. “No, I suppose I haven’t,” she said, “Are you speaking of the war?”  

He nodded, not making eye contact with her.  “I had to kill people, Miss Tyler. I fear that alone will never allow me to be worthy of you, but, oh, how I want to be.”

“I never thought about that,” Rose admitted, “I should have considered-”

Jonathan shook his head, cutting her off. “You couldn’t have known.  It was not something that I wished to speak of, you understand.  To kill another man… There are ways to forget, but they are not pleasant.  Well, they weren’t.  Until I met you.”  He finally met her gaze and was met with a frown.

“You cannot possibly be suggesting that I am fixing you,” she said sharply, “Because I do not believe that for a minute.”

Jonathan shook his head. “No.  I cannot be fixed, Miss Tyler, and people want to celebrate the war. And because I am a man, people think that I do not have feelings, and if I do, I should not.  But with you,” he reached out for her cheek, but seemed to think better of it, dropping his hand back to his lap. “With you, I do not think I have to pretend that everything is alright.  Because… If I am truthful, things are not alright.  Often times… I drink so I am so drunk I do not have nightmares.”

Rose had an idea then that was very inappropriate, but one she thought might help him. If she could help him, no matter what, she would do it.  Even if it did damage her honor.  She scooted closer to him and took his hand in hers, pulling it into her lap.  “And tell me why it took so long for you to call?”

He stared down at their hands, as though he had never anticipated being able to touch her like that again.  “Like I said, I hate who I am when I am not with you,” he said, “I hate who I have become, the man who needs a bottle of whisky in one hand.  And… I was that man, all this week.  It embarrasses me.  I do not want you to fix me, I know you cannot.  But I also cannot stand a life without you.  I wish to court you properly, to give up all drink and stay with you forever, but I fear it will not be easy.”

“Of course not,” Rose said softly.  She moved even closer to him.  “Are you sorry?  For last week?”

He nodded.  “I was afraid, when I woke up in my bed, fully clothed.  And Donna came in and told me everything that happened, and that Lady Reinette was gone, and that you had called.  I was relieved, but I was also… Disappointed in myself. I missed time with you because I could not control my urges.  I never want to miss anymore time with you.”

Her heart warmed at that, and she could tell in his eyes that he was sincere, and that he had been off of his whiskey for a least a day.  She squeezed his hand and smiled a little, nodding.

“You said you had nightmares?” She asked softly.

“Every night.”

She nodded.  “I think we should try something.”

“And what is that, Miss Tyler?”

“You and I… I may not be able to fix you, Dr. Noble, but perhaps I could… Comfort you.  Protect you.  Stay with me tonight.”

He sputtered and tugged on his ear with his hand that wasn’t holding hers.  “Miss Tyler, it is hardly proper-”

“Listen,” She said softly, touching his cheek.  “I will tell my parents that you wish to stay for dinner.  Then, when we have tea and exchange all our pleasantries, you will say you must go.  Ianto will drive the carriage away, say he is taking you home, and then I will sneak you in through the back.  We will spend the night together, see if you have any nightmares, and Amelia will wake you before dawn.  Please.”

He regarded her carefully.  “You want me to stay? Truly?”

She nodded vigorously.  “I do,” She said, “I want this, between us, to be… Good.  Not perfect. That is impossible.  I want to be close to you, and I want to court you and… Marry you.  But I think we should know.  And I would love to spend a night at your side.”

“It is very risky, Miss Tyler, should we be caught.”

She leaned forward and kissed him softly, their first kiss since the marketplace, and he sighed against her lips.  When she pulled back, he was sitting with his eyes closed, leaning slightly towards her.

“Should we be caught, we will simply have a hasty marriage,” she purred, moving closer to him.  “What do you say, Jonathan?  Will you spend the night with me?”

“I will drink no wine at dinner,” he promised, his hands coming to clasp her about the waist.  “I will be completely sober.”

“I count on it, Dr. Noble. Will you, then?”  She didn't’ even wait for him to answer, just leaned forward and kissed him again, bringing up her arms to wrap around his neck.  He pulled her as close as her skirts would allow him to, and he kissed her with a passion that she had never felt from him.  

When he pulled away, he nodded vigorously. “I would stay with you every night, if I could, but I suppose one night will do,” he smiled at her, and reached to stroke her cheek.  He sobered slightly.  “I am sorry,” he said, “For last week.  It made me realize I never want you to see me like that.  I never want to forget a moment with you.”

“I forgive you,” she whispered, “But… Do not wait so long to call next time.”

“Never again,” he swore.  She smiled, satisfied, and kissed him once more.  “Suppose we should go to the gardens now, shall we?”

“Anywhere,” he promised, and she could only hope that her plan for the night would go off without a hitch.