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photogirl894 · 8 months ago

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"Sun and Rain Part 2: Age of the Empire"

Chapter 34

"Eyes of Pain"

A "Bad Batch" fanfic!

Pairing: Hunter x fem OC, Echo (more best friend pairing)

A/N: Another chapter is here, my dears!! One I've been anticipating for a little while now, I'll admit 😅😁 Hope y'all enjoy!

Taglist: @the-sad-batch , @nimata-beroya , @intrepidmare , @legolkenxbi , @tech-aficionado ,

@ladykatakuri , @d1n0-dan , @sammi9498 , @darthzero22 , @scarlettrose9901 ,

@thebadbatchscyare , @chxpsi , @ilikemymendarkandfictional , @4pplecider , @locitapurplepink ,

@l-lend , @nekotaetae , @eternalwaffle , @merkitty49 , @avathebestx ,

@idoubleswearimawriter , @techs-stitches , @fantasyproductions , @totallyunidentified , @dreamsandrosies

《 Chapter 33

》 Chapter 35

All chapters (Part 2) (Part 1)

Explanation: Crosshair now stands between Kimber and her chance to warn the others that they're about to walk into a trap. Will she be able to reach them in time or will Crosshair hinder her escape as well as their whole rescue operation?

Suddenly seeing Crosshair in front of her, Kimber practically leapt back a couple of feet away from him. Just as she raised her rifle, he was quicker to lift his and shot her rifle out of her hands, sending it clattering to the floor a couple feet away. She instinctively reached for one of her blasters on her hip, but he now had his rifle pointed right at her, so she didn't dare grab it lest he kill her right then and there. It was a good thing she had her helmet on or else he would've felt a heat that rivaled the twin suns of her homeworld from the glare she was giving him.

“You,” he growled just after he closed the office door.

She let out a groan. “And here I was hoping it would be a long time before I saw you again,” she complained.

“What are you doing here?” he questioned.

“That's none of your concern,” she sternly said back.

He took a step forward and she took a step back, watching him closely.

“I see you're helping in the Imperial subjugation here. Can't say I'm surprised,” she taunted him.

He responded, “We are putting down an insurgency here on Ryloth."

Kimber scoffed in unbelief. “Insurgency? They're just Twi'leks defending their home from an unjust Imperial occupation! How can you look at any of this and think what you're doing is right?”

His head shook. “You're just like Hunter...still can't see the bigger picture.”

Her hands curled up into fists at her sides. “And you can?” she shot back. “You may have enhanced sight, but you're still blind to what you've gotten yourself into, Crosshair.”

Crosshair remained silent, keeping his rifle aimed at her steady.

“Was any of this worth betraying and leaving your family over? Was it worth betraying me?” Kimber demanded.

“I simply found a new purpose that you all failed to understand,” he said in reply.

“And how's that been working out for you?” she asked sharply.

He said nothing, but she saw his helmet rear back slightly.

If he wasn't going to give her an answer, then she saw no further point in continuing this conversation. “I don't have time for this. Now, get out of my way,” she told him, moving towards him.

She got two steps when he raised his rifle up more at her. “I can't let you leave,” he said.

“Or what? You going to shoot me again?” she questioned.

Once again, he said nothing.

Kimber smirked to herself. Calling back to when he shot her on Kamino seemed to get to him. Despite not trusting him, there was just a tiny feeling deep down in her gut that told her he wouldn't shoot her this time. Maybe she could use this to her advantage.

“Then fine,” she said, pulling off her helmet and dropping it to the floor so he could see her face as well as the pain and anger in her eyes. Then she held her arms out almost as an invitation. “Go ahead, take your shot. It'll hurt far less than the knife you drove into my back last time.”

Crosshair was stunned to hear Kimber tell him to shoot her. He didn't move and didn't say anything in return.

Her tone then grew harsher, more than he could recall ever hearing from her. “If you're going to shoot me, then take off your helmet. I want to see you look me in the eyes when you pull that trigger.”

Her daring challenge caught him even more off guard. The Imperial soldier in him was telling him to take advantage of this opportunity; to shoot her and put an end to her threats to the Empire or at least arrest her…but something he couldn't explain was stopping him. This was Kimber, his sister, standing in front of him. Despite what he knew he needed to do, he couldn't shoot her. Not like this.

His aim at her faltered and his rifle started to lower down…which gave Kimber a chance to act.

She lunged forward and grabbed his rifle with both hands, attempting to pull it away. Though, Crosshair caught on the minute she grabbed it and his hold on his weapon tightened as they both tried to wrestle the rifle away from each other, pulling and grunting. Then he gave a hard pull towards him and spun her around, slamming her back against the office door and pressing the rifle across her chest and neck. She tried pushing it away, but he was stronger. She redirected her focus and kicked him in the thigh, eliciting a cry from him and his grip on the rifle slackened. Kimber then pulled the rifle out of Crosshair's hands and threw it away before sending another kick into his stomach, making him stagger a few steps back. With him off of her, now she was ready to just unleash hell on him in her anger. With a cry of fury, she moved up and threw a punch at him, but he blocked her oncoming attack. Her arms were practically flying at him over and over, but he blocked and pushed away each of her punches. At one point, he ducked under her arm and moved himself behind her. Then he grabbed her wrists and pushed her backwards until her legs met the desk in the room and she fell back onto it, a slight cry of pain sounding from her as the back of her head slammed down. He pinned her arms up by her head, holding her down.

“Stop this. We don't need to fight,” he said as he stood above her.

“You chose this when you decided to betray my trust on Bracca,” she spat back. Then, in her rage, she threw her head forward and smacked it into his helmet, disorienting him enough that he loosened his grip on her wrists and she punched him in the side of the head. He stumbled away from the hit and she rolled off the desk, picking up her sniper rifle from the floor and aiming it at him.

He then spoke up as he turned around to face her, “I had no choice. I needed some way to find you.”

“So you could try and kill us again?” she questioned.

“No.”

That wasn't the reply she thought she would hear and she was taken aback. Nevertheless, she kept her guard up and her rifle at the ready. He then shocked her even more by holding up his hands and taking a step forward before slowly crouching down and picking up her helmet. As he came back up, he tossed it over to her. She let go of the front of her rifle and caught her helmet with her left hand, still keeping her eyes on him. What game was he trying to play?

“I just want to talk,” he stated.

“I don't believe you,” she replied.

Crosshair's hand reached across his helmet and he pulled it off, revealing his face. His silver hair was all gone, proving Kimber hadn't been seeing things when she saw him with a bald head before. Her heart twisted inside her as she noticed the right side of his head, which was now grotesquely disfigured with a red burn scar. It looked painful and she almost felt sorry for him for a split second, wondering how that happened. Did he get his injury back on Bracca or during another mission since then? What was more heartbreaking than seeing that he'd been hurt was just seeing his face again in person, which she hadn't seen since Kamino. There was pain in his eyes and his expression, but she wasn't sure where the pain was coming from. Was it from seeing her again or the wound on his head? Or was it something else; something deeper? She wanted to know, but then remembered that it didn't matter. He had betrayed her and her squad and didn't deserve her sympathy.

His gaze set intently on her, he implored, “If you would only join the Empire, there would be no need for you to keep hiding. You and I can fight together again just as we once did, Kimber.”

She inhaled sharply and turned away. Hearing her name from him now no longer held the same meaning it used to. Now, it just hurt and it hurt even more that he was once again trying to appeal to her and the bond they once had to convince her to join the Empire with him. Why did he keep doing this to her?

“You tried this on me before and it didn’t work, remember? I'd rather die than join the Empire,” she responded.

“Keep opposing them and you will die,” he said back. He slowly moved towards her and she moved back with every step he took. “Aren't you tired of constantly looking over your shoulder, worrying about being caught? Aren't you tired of running?” he asked, his voice oddly calm.

Kimber closed her eyes and shook her head, her jaw clenched tightly as she kept inching back away. He knew what he was doing with those questions, but she wasn't going to listen to him. She wouldn't let him manipulate her again.

“That can all end if you'd just reconsider. Then everything can go back to the way it was before,” he continued to plead as he came around the desk.

Having heard enough, she cried out, “No, I won't let you trick me again! Things can never go back to the way they were. Not anymore.”

Just then, she got close to the balcony doors and their proximity sensors activated, opening the doors. She peered over her shoulder and saw the soldiers down below were nearly ready to take position outside the other tower. She was running out of time. She needed to get to Hunter and Echo. First, she needed a way out of this tower. Crosshair stood between her and the exit of the office…which left the balcony as her only option.

She then heard Crosshair say, “You're making a mistake.”

Kimber turned back and faced him steadfastly. Then she stated in a firm voice, “The boys and I may be living on the run, but at least we all have each other. But you? You have no one. No real squad, no family. As long as you stay with the Empire...you'll always be alone…and maybe that’s what you deserve.” Then she placed her helmet back on her head. “Enjoy being a solitary Clone, Crosshair.”

Then she turned to book it for the balcony.

“No!” Crosshair cried.

Kimber pulled a hook from one of her pouches and launched herself over the railing, sliding the hook onto the edge as she did so. Then she whipped around and slid down the cable on her belt, swinging back towards the wall of the tower. Unfortunately, her momentum was bringing her in fast, so she slammed hard into the wall, drawing a grunt of pain from her upon impact. She was only a few feet above the ground and she detached from her cable, dropping to the ground. The soldiers in the square heard her and saw her and a few of them raised their weapons to fire as she darted for the side entrance.

“Commander, we've spotted one of them,” one of the troopers said over comms.

“Hold your fire,” they heard their Commander respond.

“Sir?” another asked.

“Forget her and maintain your position. She'll regroup with the others. There is only one way out for them…and then we will capture all of them.”

Kimber had half-expected the troopers on the ground to start shooting at her, but strangely, they didn't and she'd been able to duck inside the side entrance, shutting the door behind her. She was unsure if she'd be followed or not, but she wasn't going to stick around to find out. Once she was secure, she took off running down the hall.

She kept going until she came around a corner and saw movement in front of her. She almost raised her rifle, but saw it was the trooper with the teal-accented armor she'd seen earlier coming towards her.

When he spotted her, he stopped. “They're heading into a trap,” he stated, his voice clearly a Clone's like she suspected.

At first, she wondered how he knew or why he was helping her, but in the moment, it didn't matter. “I know. I'm trying to find them,” she responded.

“I'll help you. Follow me,” he told her and he took off running, Kimber tailing behind him.

She followed him into what looked like the base entrance to the tower and he informed her, “This is their only way out. We'll intercept them here.”

They both then heard incoming footsteps and Kimber told the Clone to take cover in case it was more Imperial soldiers. They ducked behind a wall near the back just as the side door opened. Kimber peeked around the corner and was relieved to see a group of six Twi'leks as well as Hunter and Echo carefully walking into the room.

“Cham, wait!” the Clone Captain called out, revealing his presence to the group.

Hunter and Echo, who were positioned in front of the Twi’leks, both pointed their weapons at the Captain upon suddenly hearing him.

“You're walking into a trap,” he said.

Then Kimber came out and added, “It's true.”

“Kimber? What are you doing here?” Hunter asked her.

“They jammed our comms, so I got over here as quickly as I could to warn you. He saw it, too,” she said, taking off her helmet and gesturing to the Clone.

The Captain removed his helmet, too, as he told the whole group, “There's a squad out there waiting.”

Kimber took in his appearance. Lately, all the regs they'd encountered since Order 66 all had the same looks, but this one had a different look. He had his dark hair buzzed on the sides and it was a bit spiked on top and then he had scars on his chin and cheek. It was refreshing to meet another Clone still with a sense of individuality.

“Why would we trust you?” the Twi'lek they'd met before named Gobi suspiciously questioned the Clone.

Looking at him, the Clone responded with, “Because I'm on your side.”

“He is on our side. He helped me. You have to believe him,” Kimber encouraged the others.

Moving closer to Hunter and Echo, who were staying silent, the Captain said to them, “What the Empire is doing is wrong. You have to get out of here. They have the exits blocked.”

“We can use Senator Taa's shuttle in his private tower hangar,” a green female Twi'lek suggested; one Kimber thought looked quite a bit like Hera and assumed that she must be Hera's mother.

The Clone Captain approached an orange male Twi'lek and said in a low voice of regret, “I'm sorry, General. I should've stopped this sooner.”

The Twi'lek, whom Kimber now realized was Cham Syndulla, laid a hand on the Clone's shoulder and reassured him, “Our fight for Ryloth is not over. We will return.”

Kimber came up beside the Captain and said to him, “You can't stay here, Captain. They'll know you helped with our escape. Come with us.”

He shook his head and said in reply, “I will not abandon my squad. They're good men. I have to try to get through to them.”

There was sorrow in his face and his eyes at the thought of having to face his own troopers outside and she felt sorry for him. He seemed like a good man, just like all the other Clones she'd met, and she wished he would come with them. She could see a great ally in him, but she also understood his brave decision.

The Clone looked back to Cham and urged him, “Go, while there's still time.”

With a final nod, Cham led the Twi'leks back through the side door. Echo and Hunter followed in the rear. Kimber got to the door, but then stopped and turned back. There was one thing she needed to know before they left the Clone behind.

“Wait!” she cried out to the Captain. When he looked her way, she asked him, “What is your name?”

With a small smile, he answered, “Howzer.”

She offered a kind smile back. “Kimber,” she said in return, placing a hand on her chest. “Thank you, Howzer.”

Howzer said nothing and just gave her a bow of his head before donning his helmet and turning back to face the door. Kimber felt her heart sink slightly as she ran after the others.

As they went, Hunter sent word over comms to Tech and Omega that they’d gotten alternate transport and told them to meet at the rendezvous. Hunter, Echo and Kimber followed the Twi’leks through the corridors to a nearby hangar tower where a singular private shuttle was docked in the upper level. Cham ran in first and took over the pilot’s seat while everyone else filed into the shuttle. Kimber, Echo and Hunter all sat in the back and removed their helmets as they sat down.

“Are you boys all right?” Kimber asked them.

“Are you kidding? This was one of the easiest extractions we’ve done,” Echo answered nonchalantly.

“Good,” said Kimber.

Hunter then looked at her and asked, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she responded.

She then noticed Hunter’s head turned slightly and then he fully turned around to look out the window of the shuttle, keeping his eyes on the Capitol slowly fading in the distance. Watching him closely, she saw his expression soften just a little before his eyebrows furrowed. Then he looked at her, his face etched with conflicted emotions. Kimber could tell right away what that meant: he had sensed Crosshair down there. Her confrontation with Crosshair was something she wanted to tell Hunter about right then, but she decided she would wait and tell the whole squad at once. She didn’t want to keep secrets from them anymore, especially regarding their brother. That and she didn’t feel it was something she wanted to bring up in front of the Twi’leks since it was the squad’s private business. Once the Twi’leks and Hera’s parents were secure, then Kimber would tell her squad what happened.

They met up with the rest of the squad in a hangar near the outskirts of the city. When they arrived, they saw Wrecker, Omega and Hera gathered around Tech, who was showing the girls something on his datapad. Once the shuttle landed, most of the Twi’leks got off and told Cham they’d be in contact before running off. Cham and his wife, Eleni, remained behind. A few minutes later, Cham and Eleni came out of the shuttle and both Hunter and Kimber went up to them.

Eleni held out a case to them, saying, “Here is the payment Hera promised.”

“Keep it. You’ll need it,” Hunter said back, folding his arms across his chest.

With a nod of agreement, Kimber said in addition, “He’s right. These Imperial occupations aren’t just on Ryloth; they’re happening on other planets, too. You’ll need as many assets as you can get, including money.”

Pulling his wife close to him, Cham stated, “I hoped to have fought my last war, but our people need us now more than ever. We must organize.”

“Well, that’s not something we can help with, General. I have my own people to look out for,” said Hunter, turning back and glancing at the rest of his squad a couple feet away.

“We look out for them,” Kimber said back, taking his hand in hers.

Eleni smiled kindly at Kimber before saying, looking at her husband, “If a war is coming, it will be their fight as much as ours.” Then she called Hera over and the bright-eyed girl came running over to the ramp with Omega.

“Tech showed me how to scramble a ship’s signature,” Hera proudly declared.

“We’ll soon see how well it works,” replied her mother before telling her it was time for them to go.

Kimber and Hunter figured they’d give Omega a moment to say goodbye to Hera and walked back over to the others. When Kimber looked back at the girls, she could see Omega’s head hanging low.

“Poor Omega. She seemed to really like Hera,” she said. “She hasn’t met anyone close to her age since Cut and Suu’s children.”

“I’m sure she’ll see Hera again someday,” Echo said in reply.

“I sure hope so,” said Kimber.

Before they knew it, the Syndullas flew off in the Senator’s stolen shuttle. With that, it was another successful mission for the Bad Batch and they regrouped back in the Marauder, ready to leave Ryloth.

In the blue tunnel of hyperspace, Kimber had just helped Omega get to sleep in the gunner’s mount when she decided it was time to inform her boys of the incident that had occurred back on Ryloth.

“Guys…I saw Crosshair.”

She stood in the doorway to the cockpit while the other four were seated all in the chairs. All of them turned their chairs to face her upon hearing what she said.

“Well, yeah…we all saw him when we scouted the Capitol,” Wrecker replied, wondering why she was bringing that up.

“No…he found me in the other tower,” she said. Then she looked specifically between Hunter and Echo. “That’s why they jammed our comms and had a squad waiting outside; that was why I came to find you. It was Crosshair. He figured out our plan while everyone else went to the refinery. When I went to leave, he intercepted me.”

Hunter shot up from his chair, his face immediately full of concern. “Did he hurt you?” he urgently asked.

“I’m okay, really,” she reassured him.

“What happened?” asked Tech.

“He cornered me and wouldn’t let me leave, so I tried to fight my way out. Then he claimed he just…wanted to talk,” she explained.

Echo then stood up and came up beside Hunter. “What did he say to you?” he inquired.

Kimber just scoffed and shook her head. “He just tried to convince me to join the Empire...again. That was all.” When she looked at Hunter, he raised his eyebrows questioningly at her. “I promise, that’s all it was,” she said to assure him. “I wasn’t going to fall for his tricks. Not again.”

“How did you manage to escape?” was Tech’s next question.

She smirked. “Jumped from the balcony.”

That made the boys all grin themselves.

“Yeah, that’s our girl,” said Hunter proudly. Then he took her face gently in his hands and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

“Physically, yes. Emotionally…it was still distressing confronting him, but if anything, it helped me get out some of my anger at him,” she answered.

“As long as you’re all right, that’s what matters,” said Wrecker.

She thanked him and then said she was going to get some rest, to which Hunter replied he would join her shortly and she did a good job on the mission. She made her way back to her and Hunter’s bunk and began to remove her armor.

The whole time, Kimber kept replaying her confrontation with Crosshair over and over in her mind. Something about seeing him this time felt so different from before. Last time on Bracca, he’d been so taunting, conniving and had been willing to resort to extreme methods, like activating an ion engine with them inside, in order to stop them because he viewed them all as traitors. This time on Ryloth…was practically the opposite. He had hesitated when she dared him to shoot her, he told her “we don’t have to fight” and when she questioned if he’d needed a way to find her to kill her and their squad, he’d said “no” and just wanted to talk. Still, he had tried to convince her again to join the Empire, but it seemed he was trying more of a diplomatic approach with her. For one, that wasn’t like him in any way, even before the Empire came into existence. He was usually the one to negotiate with his rifle before his words.

What had changed? Why was he suddenly calmer with her than before? It still didn’t change the fact that he remained loyal to the Empire and wanted her to be a part of it with him. No matter how much he tried to talk her into it, it was never going to work. Yet she had seen pain in his eyes when he looked at her. She’d wondered if it had been pain from his newly-acquired head injury, but there was a feeling deep inside her that wondered if it was something else. She knew what he looked like when he was in physical pain and this hadn’t seemed like that. No…it was something more than that. Was it hard for him seeing her, too? Or was he, in fact, miserable with the Empire and he wasn’t admitting it?

Did he miss them? Did he miss her?

Even though she knew she shouldn’t care nor did he deserve to occupy any space in her mind, she couldn’t help but reflect on everything that had happened with him. Something didn’t feel right and she couldn’t shake that feeling away. The small part of her that didn’t want to let him go; that didn’t want to give up on him kept telling her something had to be wrong, but what could she do? She had already tried to convince him to come back and everything had blown up in her face. If something was wrong and Crosshair wasn’t going to tell her, then there was nothing Kimber could do. Would she even want to if he wasn’t willing to change his ways?

This was all so overwhelming and she tried brushing it off, thinking maybe she was just imagining things…but the undeniable look she’d seen in his eyes that was now ingrained into her mind perhaps told her otherwise and she knew she’d be left endlessly wondering until she inevitably saw him again.

#star wars the bad batch #the bad batch #bad batch hunter #sergeant hunter #my sergeant #bad batch fanfic #hunter x oc fic #sun and rain fanfic

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multi-babii · 7 months ago

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this might be a bit niche but i just finished rewatching one of my favorite movies and at first i was gonna ask what characters y'all think watched the rocky horror picture show but during the whole movie i was thinking about what each fox would think about it. so here are my thoughts:

nicky - he absolutely loves it. he either watched it for the first time in germany with eric or he just heard about it and watched it for the first time with the twins. he knows every word to all of the songs and he sings them all the time. he will be doing the time warp any time there's an opportunity. his favorite character is obviously frank

andrew - he shows no emotion during the movie and he says he doesn't have an opinion about it but he loves it as well. he sings the songs in his head. everytime nicky wants to watch it again he is suddenly very bored and has nothing to do so he watches with him. no one caught on yet. his favorite is also frank

aaron - he doesn't like it. he doesn't like musicals and he doesn't understand them. and he hates how the creation of rocky doesn't make sense. but he will still watch it with nicky and andrew sometimes while complaining. (he later mentions it to katelyn and she actually likes it so he's doomed) (he actually doesn't mind that much)

kevin - at first he's basically forced to watch it with the rest despite telling them that he doesn't want to. he wouldn't admit it but he actually enjoyed it a bit (the songs are catchy alright). he sometimes hums the sword of damocles when he's alone. but he still thinks that the movie doesn't make sense and talks shit about it with aaron.

neil - i think andrew would actually convince him to watch it for the first time with just him. at first neil really doesn't get it but he sees that andrew is really excited about the movie so he gives it a shot. when rocky first shows up he jokes that andrew could be him for halloween. without missing a beat andrew says that rocky is more like a dumb jock like someone he knows. at first neil doesn't have anything to say but when eddie's song plays he can not not think about the similarities between andrew and eddie. he turns to tease andrew with it but andrew was expecting it and just tells him don't. he doesn't say anything but the stupid smile on his face tells andrew exactly what he's thinking. they later watch it with the rest of the monsters and neil pretends he still haven't seen it

matt - he first watched it with nicky. matt doesn't really get it but he enjoys it despite it. next time he and the others watch it he's next to nicky doing the time warp. his favorite song is sweet transvestite and his favorite character is brad

allison - watched it when she was younger. she likes it because she used to go to theaters a lot so she understands musicals. she also likes the campy vibes of it all. her favorite character is janet but she's also the loudest one calling her a slut (if you don't know when you're watching the play it's interactive and the audience is encouraged to call her slut). but she will also defend her no matter what because people make mistakes

renee and dan - they watched it with allison during their second year. after finishing it they talk about it for some time before deciding to rewatch it immediately now with the commentary like in the theaters. all three of them are definitely doing the time warp. once they found out that nicky loves the movie as well the plan a movie night with the team and everyone is forced to participate

(bonus: seth - allison made him watch it. he didn't really like it but he could admit that the songs are catchy)

(bonus bonus: abby and wymack - they decide to watch it after nicky keeps talking about it and singing the songs. wymack is confused most of the time and mildly concerned while abby absolutely loves the vibes)

this really got away from me. please give me your opinions, i need to talk about this with someone

#like honestly i don't know if this even makes sense #aftg #all for the game #andreil #rhps #the rocky horror picture show

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jayhawksofficial · 40 years ago

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The Jayhawks Album Cover Art Part 1

Here's an in depth look at the cover art that has adorned Jayhawks & Gary Louris albums, dating back to the first self-titled Jayhawks album (aka the "Bunkhouse" album), which was self-released by the band in 1986. This analysis was put together by Jim Reynolds, a long time Jayhawks fan who is now officially the Assistant Jayhawks Archivist and has provided invaluable assistance in all things archival in recent years. Jim has dug deep into the stories behind these various covers, combining previously known info with original research in his typically exhaustive manner. Thanks Jim!

More from The Jayhawks Archive HERE

PART 2 HERE

THE JAYHAWKS (aka BUNKHOUSE) (1986)

For their 1986 debut album The Jayhawks (aka the “Bunkhouse” album), the Jayhawks used a photo from the porch of a house in Minneapolis. In an interview with Goldmine Magazine, Mark Olson explains: “That’s actually in another strange topographical area in Minneapolis: Nicollet Island. It’s right in downtown Minneapolis. …There are a couple of old buildings that are now restaurants, but there’s also a little hidden neighborhood back there. It was sort of a hippie neighborhood, kind of an alternate lifestyle neighborhood, where everything was rundown and almost spooky. Since then, I think it’s been fixed up a little bit, but back then, we were looking for something that, I guess, said country-rock (laughs). I just remember it being a fun day. We had hired the best photographer for music in the city [Dan Corrigan], and it was very exciting: We were doing our album.”

The back cover photo was taken inside the 400 Bar, Minneapolis, which was located at 400 Cedar Avenue South in a multi-ethnic neighborhood south of I-35W. The Jayhawks became so intertwined with the 400 Bar that they included a photo of the four founding members coming down off the tiny stage there.

Cover shoot outtakes

BLUE EARTH (1989)

For the band’s sophomore album, Blue Earth (1989), Minneapolis photographer Dan Corrigan was enlisted again for the photo shoot for the album cover—a maroon palate with a photo of the band in a field with a canoe and a spilled can of blue paint. On a February 6 2022 Patreon livestream, Gary explained that besides the band members, “The others on the cover were friends of [Mark] Olson. Olson had worked with that woman on cover, and the little girl may have come with her. They were people he knew. He brought the canoe as well. It was taken on the West bank of Minneapolis. I always liked the maroon cover, it reminded me of a Band cover.” Photographer Dan Corrigan recalls, “The wooden boat came from my first wife’s family cabin located on Balsam Lake, WI. I am uncertain, but I believe we did the shoot nearby there. I met the little girl from the shoot again as an adult many years later. The older woman in the pic was a waitress at a restaurant in the twin cities. The two models did not know each other.”

Mark Olson, the woman, and the girl, ended up on the front cover. Marc Perlman on the fold - with outstretched arms, with Gary Louris and then drummer Thad Spencer on the back with the spilled blue paint (the cassette had the full photo on the front).

Blue Earth is a city in Faribault County, Minnesota, at the confluence of the east and west branches of the Blue Earth River.

HOLLYWOOD TOWN HALL (1992)

The striking Martyn Atkins-conceived cover art for their 1992 seminal Hollywood Town Hall album shows the band posed in mid-winter on a sofa was shot outside the Town Hall building in Hollywood Township, Carver County, Minnesota by British photographer Andrew Catlin. That image of the wooden structure, about 35 miles west of Minneapolis along County Road 21, with its crisp geometric green roof against frosty sky, with the charming “displaced couch” concept, was an apt and iconic backdrop for their overall sound and image. However, out west, they know the building as the old District 76 School House. The one-room schoolhouse, built around 1906, served students for more than a half century, before merging into the Watertown school district. As of the census of 2000, there were 1,102 people, 371 households, and 307 families residing in the township. Coordinates: 44°55′53″N 93°56′44″W

Gary Louris (from Vinyl Emergency podcast Episode 132): “I do love the Hollywood Town Hall record cover, because it is just iconic. I remember Rick Rubin, the head of Def American recordings at that time, calling me and saying after he listened to the record and said, ‘I just love the record and I love the cover - I don’t know if I have ever seen a cover that just fit so well with the music inside.’”

In an interview with the StarTribune in 2011, Louris recalled: “There were these two Brits, the art director Martyn Atkins and this English photographer, who were both great. They flew out to Minneapolis after the record was made, and we started scouting locations in the winter and we started driving around in a 16-mile radius. And let me tell you: It was cold, man. It was awful. Those are not smiles on our faces, those are real grimaces. It had to be like 10-below or something. We ran to the car when we were done. We just accidentally drove into this place 15 miles outside of Minneapolis called Hollywood, Minnesota, which we didn’t even know. Just stumbled upon it. We drove by this kind of iconic-looking building that said, "Hollywood Town Hall," on the front of it. It was sort of fitting. Something about it hit us, and it all fell together. After spending four months in Hollywood, California, making the record, here we were in this crossroads-cornfield area that really looked straight out of "North by Northwest. The only other thing in the town was this little league baseball field that was kitty-corner, which was pretty funny. We popped the couch in front of the town hall building and took a bunch of photos. So that cover I love.”

Mark Olson added: “It was winter time, so the wind was blowing. We all kind of have this drawn look about us, because it was damn cold. So it was a true Minnesota picture in a way. I think they did a good job. It captured a bit of the feeling, and it showed that we were from a certain place, and it reflected our writing in certain ways.” https://www.startribune.com/louris-olson-the-full-q-a/114735624/

Former drummer Ken Callahan concurs about the weather: “I remember that it was zero degrees that day. We could only be out there for 10-15 minutes, and then we’d have to jump into the car and try to warm up.” Ken explains, “I was most impressed that these photographers from the UK drove around MN and found the location. It was a coincidence that the Hollywood name was the same as the studio we used to record. There are no online images of the cover that are high resolution to see this, but one of my favorite memories is that when you look really closely at the HTH sign on the church, there is a little paint blob that looks like Ray Charles’ head. I would have to dig out the album and take a pic.” “That car [in the centerfold] was Olsen's. I remember because he spilled milk on the floor board and didn't clean it and it stunk.”

THE ICONIC COUCH

On a February 2022 Patreon livestream, Gary explained: “The couch on the cover came from Pete [Clemence], one of the photographers in the film crew that was staging that photo session for Martyn Atkins. Pete had the couch up in his warehouse space on Washington Avenue in North Minneapolis, and he brought the couch; from there, a whole culture was born. Although I am sure it came a bit from the first CSN album cover, they kind of started the couch movement.”

Peter Clemence: “Gary [Louris], who was a friend from the music scene, mentioned he wanted an old mohair couch or something like that for a photo shoot. I told him I had one, and if we could get my dog off it, they could use it. I talked to the band, and an art director came over to look at it and said it was perfect. I lived in a loft above a massage parlor at the time and this was my dog’s bed, so you can just imagine the shape it was in. After the album was so well received, Gary called me back and asked if they could use it again. He said it was for a music video this time, and he felt like the video was more about the couch than the band. I don’t remember what they paid me, but do remember thinking it was about enough to cover a year’s worth of dog food. It wasn’t hard to get out, and they took it when they needed it. It took a while to get it back. Guess that wasn’t as important. I don’t remember, but I may have given them the couch when I moved.”

GeneO: “The couch unfortunately passed away when our roommate Pete Clemence’s dog, Gobo, ripped the arm off! He was one of those "Marly" types, always getting into something when you're not around.”

Outtakes from this photo shoot were used for the cover art on various single releases from Hollywood Town Hall.

The inside photo of the band sitting having drinks was taken at Nye’s Polonaise Room in Northeast Minneapolis. This image was also used for a large promo poster distributed during this time.

TOMORROW THE GREEN GRASS (1995)

The cover photo shoot for their 1995 album Tomorrow the Green Grass was “a last minute desperate measure after rejecting all preliminary ideas, and was done at a park near the [Lyndale Park] Rose Garden adjacent to Lake Harriet in Minneapolis,” according to Gary Louris. Marc Perlman concurs, “It was located in the Thomas Sadler Roberts Bird Sanctuary near Lake Harriet.” The album’s title comes from a song that was not included on the original album release. The album's title track was actually used in the closing credits of the 1995 film National Lampoon's Senior Trip, but was not included on the original edition of the album itself. Gary Louris: “The…cover [for] Tomorrow the Green Grass I don’t like, and that was just us chickening out. George Teocallis, who is quite the art dude with an eye for art and photography, had suggested this cool photograph by William Eggleston, who’s famous for his color photography. He is famous for the Big Star cover with the light bulb, Radio City. So he had a photograph called ‘Pink Swing Set,’ which was a rusted pink swing set in a field of grass. That would have been perfect. So that was kind of a lost opportunity to have a great record cover. So TTGG was a last-minute cover, ‘Oh, we need a photograph, so we flew somebody in, and sat on a big tree.’ To this day, I do not like that cover at all.” (from Vinyl Emergency podcast Episode 132)

Untitled, swing set by William Eggleston

When asked whose idea it was to have the cover tinted green and if it was the same person who advised Soul Asylum to do the same, Louris stated, “I don’t remember who’s idea was the tint. No connection with the Soul Asylum cover.” Although the two Minneapolis band’s both had similar green tinted covers, which spurred some friendly banter between Gary and (fellow Golden Smog member and Soul Asylum guitarist) Dan Murphy. From a Minneapolis Star Tribune from August 24 1995, Murphy explained how Gary had kidded him about the iconic green cover. “Gary accused us of swiping their vibe,” Murphy said, “because they had that song (lyric). ‘Let your real light shine.’ He kind of read that as ‘let your dim light shine’ (the title of Soul Asylum’s current bestseller). “It was more of a joke,” Louris said, “Actually I like your cover a lot.”

Photographer Marina Chavez, who took the cover shot, recalls: “Tomorrow The Green Grass was my first major label cover, I was so young, maybe 22 or 23 at the time. American Records hired me, and flew me in. I remember Marc Perlman picked me up from the airport. I was a bit anxious because here I was a young twenty-year-old, supposedly knowing what I was doing, surrounded by older musicians. I took some shots in a forest by a fallen tree, and that is what they eventually chose for the cover.” Chavez’s photography career began the night she broke curfew to attend a Motley Crue concert. After taking photos from the front row, she sold a handful of cheap drugstore prints to her classmates. Convinced she had found her calling after reaping a $27 profit, she moved to Los Angeles where she soon worked as an assistant for the likes of Herb Ritts and Anton Corbijn. Independent assignments led to an extensive client list. Marina Chavez is now a renown photographer for Rolling Stone, MOJO, Spin, Alternative Press, and her own self-named company. Marina Chavez is living in the Mojave desert in Southern California. She has been working with artists in the music industry for over 25 years. She has photographed artists like Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Adam Yauch, Beck, The Wallflowers, Wilco, Jayhawks, Green Day, Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams, just to name a few.

The finished cover, an outtake from the photo sessions that was used for the 2011 CD reissue and alternate cover designs.

3rd Avenue bridge over the MIssissippi River in downtown Minneapolis.

SOUND OF LIES (1997)

For their 1997 Sound of Lies album, their first venture after the departure of Mark Olson, they chose to go a different direction with their music, as well as their album art. The red cover shows a close-up photo of Gary’s iconic horn-rimmed spectacles he wore during this period, with a yellow tinged photo of the band within both frames. When folded out, his full face is seen. Photographer Dan Corrigan was enlisted once again as photographer. Gary Louris: “The Sound of Lies cover is okay, but I love the shots on the inside of the band, I think those are by Dan Corrigan. I think those are great.”

Minneapolis based abstract and mixed media artist Mary Leir was the art designer, and the album cover reflects her use of bright colors (especially her penchant for yellow and red) in her works of art. Leir studied architecture and studio arts at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and is a graphic designer by profession. Now in her third session of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design's Open Edition Print Seminar, Mary has grown to love screen printing as much as she does painting and photography.

SMILE (2000)

For their 2000 SMILE album, the Jayhawks chose to use a photo from David Katzenstein called “Hatsoldiers Cusco, Peru” from his series Distant Journeys 1984 (which was one of many of Katzenstein’s photos recently published in FotoNostrum magazine Issue No. 18 August 5 2021).

New York fine arts photographer David Katzenstein has traveled throughout the world on his lifelong artistic journey as a visual chronicler of humanity. Using subject, light, and composition to create visual dynamism, he sets the stage for the viewer to be in the moment with him. His goal is to allow viewers to experience a scene through his eyes—as if they were standing there beside him. Steeped in the tradition of documentary photography, Katzenstein imbues his work with immediacy, emotional engagement, and a deep respect for his subjects. Out of his fascination with ritual, over the years Katzenstein has photographed pilgrimage as practiced in different cultures. While visiting Memphis in the spring of 2017, he was inspired to expand on this theme by embarking on the project OUTSIDE THE LORRAINE MOTEL: Journey to a Sacred Place. The artist was introduced to the Mid-South region in the late 1980s while on assignment for Rolling Stone, documenting the roots of the blues in rural communities of Mississippi and Arkansas. In 2018 Katzenstein formed a nonprofit organization whose mission is to create and mount exhibitions of photographs depicting the human experience (www.thehumanexperienceproject.net).

GARY LOURIS: ”I remember Smile as not being… I didn’t know if I liked it, because it was not harmonious with the colors – the black green orange. It wasn’t my style, but I grew to love it. Now I think it’s really an interesting cover. The art director at Columbia, he was great.”

For the SMILE back cover, a photo from Patrick D. Pagnano’s Gathering/Parades and Events/Chicago from the early 1970s. Kari Pagnano, Patrick’s wife, said, “This image was from a photo project he was working on in Chicago on parades and events in the early 70’s. He was a student at Columbia College Chicago. We moved to New York in 1974 and he started showing his work to secure assignments or sell stock. All I can remember is that he saw the designer/art director who was working on the album cover for The Jayhawks and the art director liked this image and thought it would work for the cover. Floats and inflated characters were being set up on the beach along Lake Michigan. Not sure if it was for a Christmas parade. I am happy to help with more information if I can. Sorry Pat is not here to explain it better.”

An inveterate street photographer, Patrick D. Pagnano ventured out daily with his camera after moving to New York from Chicago in 1974, Pagnano developed a practice rooted in a kind of stream of consciousness, following what he describes as “visual clues” to guide him to his subjects. He immerses himself in the subject, shooting individuals in either the same space or type of event over time, a reflection of his belief in the importance of the existing environment and its role in affecting the people within. Patrick Pagnano’s photographs have been included in exhibitions at venues such as the Brooklyn Museum; New York Public Library, NY; and Mois de la Photo à Montreal, Montreal, Canada, amongst others. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of the City of New York, the New York Public Library, all NY; the Brooklyn Museum; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the Helmut Gernsheim Collection, Switzerland. He published a book, Shot on the Street, featuring 60 color images of his work, in 2002. Pagnano holds a BA from Columbia College.

More info at: Pagnanoandpagnano.com / Pagnanofineart.com.

On the initial SMILE inside photo shoot, photographer Ken Schles states: “Not sure there is much to tell other than the difficulty the band went through conceptually around images for the album. Much of that difficulty started before the shoot and continued afterwards, trying to settle upon how to present the band and the music. We went down to New Orleans because it was winter and freezing cold in Minneapolis. There were some personnel changes from the recorded album, so I think there was a little bit of juggling around who-to-place- where visually in the hierarchy of the photos if they weren’t on the recordings. On the whole, the band was modest and self-effacing. They didn’t want to engage in anything that would appear to be creating a cult of personality around the band photos (but how can one separate oneself from that when the whole purpose of band images are centered around a kind of fetish, be it commodity oriented or personality oriented?). There was also a general discomfort with being in New Orleans (which, you would think would have been settled before they agreed to go) and about presenting themselves for images there, not having been from New Orleans and, I suspect, with the line-up shifts compared to the recording. I thought the pictures came out quite well, but ultimately they didn’t want a “band” photo for the cover or a landscape/location related image, since they didn’t feel they or their music was connected to New Orleans, which already has a rich musical tradition. There is that oft quoted and lost to attribution quote, “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” I think the band felt that way about photos of themselves: Photography about rock bands is like dancing about architecture… Maybe they were overthinking the whole thing, but in the end, who could blame them?”

RAINY DAY MUSIC (2003)

Although the cover was supposed to be different, according to Gary Louris from a livestream Patreon session on February 6 2022, for their 2003 album for their 2003 album Rainy Day Music, the Jayhawks chose a sparse design--a Harry Callahan photo titled 'WEED AGAINST SKY', Michigan, 1948. Harry Callahan was a hobbyist photographer turned professional artist who left a lasting mark on the discipline thanks to his commitment to ingenuity and further expanding the boundaries of those who came before him—all in hopes of developing a style that was truly original to him. Callahan did just that. Widely considered by art historians to be the first photographer to capture and record abstractions of nature, his deep-seated passion for photographic excellence eventually led him to pedagogy. Callahan first taught at Chicago’s Institute of Design before moving to Providence, Rhode Island, to develop and chair Rhode Island School of Design’s (RISD) inaugural photography program in 1961.

Harry Callahan was a hobbyist photographer turned professional artist who left a lasting mark on the discipline thanks to his commitment to ingenuity and further expanding the boundaries of those who came before him—all in hopes of developing a style that was truly original to him. Callahan did just that. Widely considered by art historians to be the first photographer to capture and record abstractions of nature, his deep-seated passion for photographic excellence eventually led him to pedagogy. Callahan first taught at Chicago’s Institute of Design before moving to Providence, Rhode Island, to develop and chair Rhode Island School of Design’s (RISD) inaugural photography program in 1961.

GARY LOURIS: “Rainy Day Music, which I had a completely different cover worked out with Martin Atkins, the art director I mentioned and his wife, which was all completely different, very French looking with the names of the songs written on a window like they have at a café. Rick Rubin really did not like the cover I came up with. He got really locked in on things like mastering or artwork. I think we must have had Rainy Day Music mastered like 50 times ‘til he was happy. So when he locks in, he’s great. He completely took over the artwork, and he was obsessed with that. He took it upon himself to send me this Harry Callahan book, a famous photographer, and we picked this very stark photograph that looks like a painting, which is also the easiest one to sign because there’s a lot of white space.” As for the album title Rainy Day Music: In an April 11 2003 Boston Globe article, Gary is quoted as saying, “It is meant to refer to reflective music. It is like sitting inside reflecting on life.”

As for the album title Rainy Day Music: in an April 11 2003 Boston Globe article Gary is quoted as saying, “It is meant to refer to reflective music. It is like sitting inside reflecting on life.”

PART 2 HERE

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myshipshipsitself · 3 years ago

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Not Me Ep 11

SPOILERS

SO MANY SPOILERS

Ok my thoughts.

Todd is a piece of shit, but we knew this. BUT, the fact that he couldn’t drown Black, makes me curious. He was just thinking about Black, and when he’d been there before, and how they’d been friends, and he couldn’t bring himself to do it. I really hope wee get to see more flashbacks and explanation, cause there’s a lot to unpack there.

The preview with Gram, idek anymore. I’m not a diehard GramBlack shipper, but I think it makes more sense than whatever is going on right now. (And I REALLY want to know the story behind the lil trinkets and the card that he didn’t give Black with them). I want Gram to learn the truth about the twins, and get to really see Black again for the first time in however long. The show has done such a good job of tying things together, and it making sense, so I have hopes that whatever this is will make sense eventually too.

Gun’s acting is fucking brilliant. Even if he’s wearing the same outfit and doesn’t say a damn word, you can tell just from his face, from his eyes and how he carries himself, whether it’s Black or White in the scene. This man is incredible.

Sean doing the trust fall. I was equal parts between, “Nooooo it’s not Black, you’re gonna get hurt, please don’t,” and “Well at least you had the goddamn sense to not trust fall off the side of a fucking building this time.” His expression when Black told him to stay away from his brother was pure gold. He knew, he knew that he knew. But there was still that moment of, “Oh shit, I wasn’t 100% sure that I was right, but I was.... holy fuck....” And that moment into telling Black that he couldn’t stop him, was wonderful.

I saw someone say that Gumpa failed by not teaching these guys how to treat a gunshot wound, and they weren’t wrong. This is necessary gang life skill that Dan should not have had to talk Yok through while he was bleeding and looking like he was on the verge of passing out from the pain.

I love Dan and Yok. I adore them so much. The love at first sight trope is one of my least favorite (barely above love triangle) but it was done SO WELL with this show. Yok is just insane enough, and Dan is just desperate enough for someone to see past the masks he wears as a cop and as UNAR, that it WORKS. Yok’s face when Sean was like, “You move fast” was probably my favorite moment of the episode. Yok just looks cheeky and proud. And tbh, it kinda felt like this moment of Sean not quite approving of Yok dating a cop, but accepting it.

The scene when Yok found out that Dan killed Sean’s father. Just felt off. The acting was brilliant and they made it believable, but some of the writing felt a little out of character for Yok at least. Yok saying, “Or you’re the [cop] that shoots at people?” KNOWING that Dan carries so much guilt for killing someone unarmed, without knowing even who it is, but?? I can’t believe Yok would joke about that. It just did not sit well with me. I know it was to give Dan an opening for the confession, but. I think that opening could’ve been done better. And then Yok being shocked for like .2 seconds then accepting and being supportive of Dan after learning that he killed Sean’s father felt a lil off to me. I’ll let it slide, cause as mentioned, insane and in love. But just a while before, Yok was the first one to try and run back into the line of fire when Sean wasn’t with them. They fight and they disagree, but Sean is like a brother to him, and knowing that Dan was the cop that killed his father? I expected that to take a bit longer to sink in and for him to accept it. It was well-acted, and I’m not really upset about it, but Yok in this scene just felt a bit off to me. I’ll blame it on the shock of Dan being shot and then having to dig a bullet out of his shoulder. One thing that was in character but I didn’t like: I was a little disappointed when Yok told Dan not to tell Sean. I know he meant well. But I DO NOT want Sean to find out some other way, and that’s what I was worried would happen when Yok said that.

Which brings me to the teaser, specifically the Dan and Sean part. I know I’ve seen people annoyed and frustrated that Dan is going to tell Sean, and convinced Dan is going to die. I don’t think he’ll die (at least I hope. Back to that in a minute). I’m glad Dan is telling Sean, cause Sean finding out some other way would be so much worse. And he’s going to find out. That’s the nature of these shows. Secrets don’t stay secret. So I’m fucking proud of Dan for telling him. Back to Dan not dying though. None of the GMMTV shows I’ve watched have gone the Bury Your Gays route. I haven’t seen all of them obviously, and maybe I’m missing some keys ones. But I don’t expect them to do that. I will grant, Dan promising not to leave Yok, and Yok promising not to let him die, do not bode well in terms of the Bury Your Gays trope. Those are Famous Last Words. But I still don’t think they’ll kill Dan. For a couple reasons. First, even if Sean came close to killing Dan, I don’t think he would because he knows what Dan means to Yok. Even if it hurts him, Yok being safe and happy is more important than his revenge. He wouldn’t say that out loud, and would deny it in the moment when he’s beating the shit out of Dan, but he wouldn’t kill him. Second, Dan’s story since the beginning has been a redemption story. It’s been a story about how the worst thing in your life doesn’t define you, even if it feels like it does, and even when the guilt threatens to drown you. And third, in the teaser, when Sean says “A life for a life,” he puts the gun in Dan’s hand. And this may have been edited to be misleading, but it looks more like Sean is going to ask Dan to kill someone (Tawi?) to atone for his sins. The point is that he, at some point, puts a gun in Dan’s hand instead of pointing it at him.

#clowning probably #But that's fine #danyok #not me the series #not me ep 11 #Ep 11 was not cursed tbh #It hurts but it didn't Destroy #Gramblack #seanwhite #spoilers #I'm upset I have to wait a whole week #I want to go back to binging older series that are complete #taking recommendations

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heretherebedork · 3 years ago

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I have no doubt that with Black back, the twin mystic connection will come back, Black’s bound to get hurt somehow, or White will be dragged back into the situation because they’re twins.

Oh my gosh.. He hasn’t felt the connection because he was in a coma! Oh my- Maybe White gets hurt and Black feels it and loses it!!!! I want it!!!!! I don’t want White to be hurt, but I want Black to know that the connection is still there because he technically wouldn’t know… Oof major angst with that thought.

Also, Sean took that button, watch that be how he tells those two apart, I will die. Okay… You mentioned something about Dan’s face and Yok noticing that’s not it, what’d you mean? I feel like I missed something

I sent three paragraphs! I’m half-awake, and totally read that wrong. You said will Yok notice anything that isn’t Dan’s face and I read that so wrong, never mind.. 😅 I’m going to go back to sleep, I shouldn’t be online right now 😴

I hope it will! But I'm not totally sure because a lot of the connection really seems to have vanished. We haven't seen or heard a peep of it in 3 or 4 episodes, honestly, and that's just sad to me. Even if Black is a coma! Come on! It's mystic, not realistic! Magic connections can work magically.

But they had a fight. They fought each other, they hit each other. There definitely should have been something with the mystic connection and we got... nothing. Not even a hint. Imagine how good it could have been if Black had slapped White and then winced because he felt the pain himself? Or if White had hit Black when they'd found, felt the pain, and realized who he was that way?

I mean, he did take the button... but Black mostly just took his own clothes back, didn't he? So would that actually be a difference? Does Black own the same exact shirt just in multiple copies so he can wear a whole one for Sean to see? No, if Sean can tell, it'll be about the eyes and the physicality of White versus Black. Maybe it'll be the shirt? But I dunno.

And, yes, I'm just making bad jokes about Yok not noticing anything except Dan at this point. That's definitely going to come into play with Dan and Sean and the gang. Because Dan is literally the cop who shot Sean's dad and what is Yok going to do when that comes out? How will he handle the strength of his love over the strength of his loyalty?

#not me #not me the series #seanwhite #danyok #not me series #thai drama #thai series #gmmtv #gmmtv drama #gmmtv series #ugh the endgame drama has begun

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lightsovermonaco · 4 years ago

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His Good Sweater: Chapter 4

Masterlist

Thank you as always to my best friend and Beta reader @acollectionofficsandshit for putting up with me and my ramblings ♥

Word Count: 3.8k

Recommended song: "ily (I love you baby)" by Surf Mesa and Emilee

You'd never been more thankful that you kept a change of clothes in your car than you were after the race at Silverstone. You'd showered again, changing back into the sweaty tee and leggings. The clean emergency hoodie and jeans were a blessing, and casual enough for a night on the town.

Most of the crew had left, only a few poor souls pouring over race data or packing up essentials. James let you into the trailer yard this time without hesitation. "We really should just get you a key," He teases, "Sure would make my life easier."

Rolling your eyes, you give the tower of muscle a pitiful shove. He doesn't move an inch. "Thanks James. I'll ask Pierre to look into it."

A sudden wave of tiredness washes over you when you make it back to the trailer. You flip through the channels on the tiny television, settling on an analysis of the day’s race.

“And a brilliant drive from young Pierre Gasly, wasn’t it John?”

“I completely agree Martin. Gasly took advantage of every slip up by Mercedes and Red Bull and he has to be commended for that. Max made some rare mistakes and…”

You smile to yourself, their praise washing over you. Yawning, you curl up on Pierre's bed, the familiar smell of cedar lulling you into a light sleep in minutes.

**********

A gentle touch to your cheek wakes you some hours later. You crack your eyes open, greeted by a smile brighter than the stars in the night sky. You taste eternal sunshine on his lips when you kiss him, your soul sparking in response to his light.

"Good morning," He murmurs, thumb rubbing along your jaw. "Sleep well?"

You snuggle closer to him, eyes closing once more as you soak up the warmth. "Is it time to go out already?"

"It is. But we can stay here if you want to." He brushes a stray hair off your face. The gesture is so tender, if you didn’t know any better you’d never guess he could turn into the seasoned, take-no-shit racer you’d seen hours before.

You shake your head. You couldn't let him miss out on celebrating his victory with his closest friends. Besides, you hadn't seen any of them for a span of time longer than a few minutes in months, and truth be told, you missed them all.

Those boys had a knack for turning the simplest of outings into unforgettable adventures. You had been sworn to secrecy on numerous occasions after Pierre recounted drunken escapades that usually ended with Max sleeping somewhere preposterous, like a claw-footed bathtub in a fancy suite.

“Where are we going?” You ask sleepily. “Somewhere nearby?”

Pierre tugs you up until you’re sitting. He pulls you back against his chest, arms wrapping around you as he sets his chin on your shoulder. “Yeah. Maybe ten minutes away.”

You lean your full weight against him, admiring how perfectly your bodies slot together. “Can I leave my car here?”

“As long as you’re okay with it staying here until tomorrow, that’s fine.” He coaxes you to stand and presses a kiss to your temple as a reward. Your limbs are still heavy and uncooperative. Pierre winds an arm around your waist, supporting you and assuming the position of your rock as he always did.

"You don't sleep here," You state simply, looking at him for confirmation. He shakes his head.

"Wouldn't be enough room for two anyway." He gestures to the tiny twin sized bed and shrugs.

Your brow furrows. “Am I staying with you tonight?” You honestly had not considered it. The jet usually left early and you had assumed he would want to get as much rest as possible. But now that you had experienced waking up next to him, you realize how much you want his face to be the first thing you see when you open your eyes each morning.

“Of course you’re staying with me. I’m taking every second of your time that I can get.”

You bite your lip and lay your head on his shoulder. The idea of falling asleep in his arms was enough to shake any lingering sleepiness. “Okay.” Confident that you could hold yourself up, you step out of his grasp. “Ready.”

The few mechanics roaming about the grounds are enough to keep you cautious. You walk through the paddock a hair's breadth apart, although every nerve screams for you to touch him. Every time your arm grazes his, electricity ripples across your skin. All you want to do is hold his hand, but there’s enough prying eyes that you restrain the impulse.

You can tell he feels it too by the way his fingers curl and uncurl at his sides. And he's biting his cheek, you notice. A nervous habit of his and a clear indicator that he'd retreated inside his own head, likely contemplating if he'd truly deserved to win today or not.

Every few months his doubts crept in, the devil on his shoulder reminding him that Horner hadn't deemed him good enough to keep his seat at Red Bull after only a handful of races.

You'll never be as talented as them, is what you'd imagined it whispered. They're only here because they pity you. What makes you think you deserve a seat?

It couldn't be farther from the truth. Deep down, Pierre knew that. Driving in Formula 1 meant being under constant scrutiny from the public and sportscasters. Making an error meant debates about whether you were good enough and rumors about seat security.

There were no such errors today. You'd heard the commentary after the race; everyone was raving about his performance. Not one person had dared say he didn't deserve it.

Not wanting him to suffer alone, you subtly wrap your pinky finger around his. "You're okay," You say softly, his head whipping to you. "You deserved that trophy today. It was some of the best driving I've ever seen, everyone agrees. You deserve a trophy every time you get in that car. You'll always be my champion, even if the world tells you otherwise."

It takes a moment for it to sink in, but he nods and releases your pinkie. "You're my grounding rod," He says, lips curling in a knowing smile, and you can't hold back your laugh.

"Leave it to you to turn a romantic moment into a cheesy one." Instead of saying you're my rock like any normal person, he had to bring up the time you'd embarrassed yourself at the bar a year or so ago. He'd let you prattle on to poor Dan about building grounding rods of all things, and how you'd thought your professor's way of designing such a system was flawed. Pierre would never let you live that down, it seemed.

Max spots the two of you first, waving from where the boys had gathered outside Red Bull. “About time you showed up! We’ve been waiting for ten minutes!”

“She fell asleep,” Pierre says simply, his confidence back. “Takes her awhile to wake up.”

“Whatever, I’m just glad you’re here,” Daniel says, throwing an arm around your shoulders and tucking you tight to his side. You couldn’t help the broad smile creeping onto your face, twin to the aussie’s as you hug him back.

“We missed you,” Charles says, falling into step beside you. “I never hear from you anymore!”

You grimace. It was true, while the three boys had texted you quite frequently the past few months, you had barely responded to them. You felt guilty about it, knowing they were taking time out of their packed schedules to catch up. But uni had been kicking your ass and the only one you’d found time for was Pierre. Looking back, you were glad he had been the exception.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” You say. “Lots of projects.”

“And that new internship,” Max points out. Your eyebrows flick up, gaze flicking to Pierre. You had been awarded an internship a month or so ago at a local engineering firm in London. It was only part time work, a few hours a week, but it was enough. The only one you had told was Pierre.

Pierre grins, the gesture a silent apology. “I may have spilled the beans.”

You cut him a glare, the others laughing at your attempt at being intimidating. But you couldn’t turn away from him, not when he was looking at you with the same pride you had felt when he’d won earlier that day.

“Uber’s here,” Charles announces, checking his phone.

“Where?” Daniel asks, and Charles indicates a black SUV parked at the curb. Daniel and Max exchange a look, shouting “Shotgun!” at the same time. Both boys break into a full sprint, feet pounding on the pavement. Daniel wins - barely, leaving Max and Charles to squeeze into the back seat.

Pierre follows you into the third row of seats, his hand immediately engulfing yours. Your stomach flips, glancing up to find a reassuring smile on his face. You could barely focus on what was said for the first half of the ride, hyperaware of the callouses rubbing your skin. The world around you erupts into color at the touch, completing the part of you that you’d never realized was missing.

The remainder of the drive is filled with laughter, jokes, and plenty of selfies with the driver. It wasn’t every day one could brag about having four world class drivers in your car; you couldn’t blame the man for being excited.

By the time you arrive at the bar, your sides are already splitting with laughter. “First round is on you, Ricciardo,” Charles says, wagging a finger at him. “Punishment for bringing up the Abu Dhabi incident again!”

“Jokes on you, I was already planning on it!” He glances at you and winks. “Gotta congratulate the winner somehow, right?” Little did the Australian know, you had already congratulated Pierre a few hours ago, and you doubted that a few shots would outshine that performance. You hope the pink tinge that rises to your cheeks with the memory isn't obvious and you duck your head just in case.

A blast of air conditioning hits you as you all stumble into the bar. All eyes fell to you and the ragtag group of drivers when you entered, silence blanketing the patrons. The bartender slams a fist on the wooden bartop, rattling glasses and making you flinch.

“Been wonderin’ when you lot were gonna show your ugly mugs!”

Daniel, Max and Charles erupt into friendly laughter, shaking the man’s hand and making small talk. You look to Pierre for an explanation.

“Tradition,” He murmurs. The noise returned to a normal level around you, though you could feel the glances thrown your way. “We come here every year, but only if one of us wins at Silverstone. Been awhile since that happened.”

"Ah," You say, nodding dramatically. "Yes, very long time." Pierre grins, shaking his head.

"Who won this year?" The man - William, Pierre informs you- asks. He towered over you when you sat on the sticky bar stool, tall and lanky but well muscled and certainly not someone you would expect patrons to try disrespecting. He was already pouring five shots of a fine Irish Whiskey, waving Daniel off when he tried to start a tab. “My treat.”

Max claps a hand on Pierre's shoulder. "This one claimed the crown, for once!"

"Wey hey!" William says, passing out the shots. "Everyone else crash out or what?"

"You should watch the replay," You say, knocking Pierre's shoulder with your own. "It was amazing. The move he used to get past Max-" you bring your pinched fingers to your lips in a chef's kiss. "Gorgeous."

"Much to Max's despair," Charles adds, raising his shot. "To the underdog!"

You all echo the sentiment, the boys knocking back the strong alcohol with practiced ease. It didn't go down as smooth for you, burning your throat and making you wince.

Daniel laughs. "Not used to drinking with us anymore, huh?"

"Must have lost my edge," You say, the woody taste lingering in your mouth. "I'm sure it'll hit me hard in a half hour or so, too."

**********

Well, you weren't wrong about the alcohol hitting you like a punch to the gut. Two shots later and you were swaying like a sailor on his first excursion out to sea, Pierre's shoulder the only thing keeping you from toppling off the bar stool.

Pierre's eyes were bright as the others poked fun at him, William joining in with a witty remark now and then. His laugh wrapped around you like a warm blanket, keeping you content and grounded.

"Hey Pierre," Daniel says at one point, "Don't look now but that table of girls has been obsessed with you all night."

Pierre, blitzed as he was, pays no attention to Dan's warning and turns around. A loopy grin was plastered on his face, turning back and shaking his head.

You may not have been able to think straight, but your stomach lurches. Instantly sobering slightly, you follow Dan's gaze to the indicated table to your left. Three beautiful women sat there, whispering behind their hands and clearly speaking about Pierre. One bit her lip and caught your eye, giggling. Her looks were universally attractive enough that she would be anyone’s type, Pierre included. The possessiveness in the gaze she raked over his body set your blood boiling.

This… was not a scenario you wanted to play out. You didn't know if Pierre was ready to tell his friends about your relationship yet. You knew he wouldn't let any of those girls have the light of day, but he might let them fawn over him a little, just to protect your secret. And it would kill you, but you would have no choice but to let it happen.

"I'm good," Pierre says, sipping the beer he had been nursing all night.

"Come on mate," Max pushes, a wicked grin on his flushed face, "That blonde is so your type."

No she isn't.

You’re already staring up at Pierre when he turns to you. You have always worn your emotions on your sleeve for anyone to see, and it only got worse when mixed with alcohol. Pierre smiles softly, taking mercy on you. Slowly, he takes your hand and threads your fingers together before turning back to the boys.

"One of you can tell them I’m not interested. I already have my girl."

Heart beating wildly, you scan your friends faces. They were all wide eyed and slack jawed, staring at your joined hands. Pierre gives your hand a gentle squeeze, reminding you to breathe. He read you like an open book, offering reassurance when you needed it most.

"It's about fucking time!" Daniel roars, breaking the tense silence. Your shoulders relax, grinning along with the others. Pierre beams at you, knocking your shoulder to say I told you so.

"Does this mean I get a break from listening to you obsess over her every weekend?" Max asks, giving you a meaningful look.

"Likely not," Pierre answers. "I'm still just as obsessed as before. Maybe more." Max pretends to gag, earning him a playful punch from Charles. God, it was so freeing for your relationship to be more open, even if it was just between your closest friends.

"I'd just like to point out that I told you two this would happen years ago," Charles says matter of factly, pointing at Max and Dan. "Should've taken you up on that bet."

Your mouth hung open. "You were going to bet on us being a couple?"

"Oh come on," Max says, rolling his eyes. "We all knew it was coming eventually. We just didn't know when!"

Pink stains your cheeks, but Pierre laughs and leans in to kiss you. Remembering the girls behind you, you press a little closer to him. Under the guise of placing a kiss to his cheek, you meet the blonde's eyes and smile sweetly.

The woman preens, mouth twisting. Good. Pierre was yours, and now that he'd admitted it, you could let those girls know it. His hand slips to your thigh, squeezing hard. A clear warning that you were venturing into dangerous territory. You didn't care.

The alcohol in your veins makes you bold, and you want to drive your point home. They could look all they wanted, but he was coming home with you. You push the boundary farther and bite the soft skin of his neck just hard enough to leave a mark. Pierre's hiss finally makes you pull back and look up at him innocently.

"Get a room," Daniel teases with a wink. You smile at him, mumbling an insincere apology. Your point had been made. The arrogant smirk had been wiped from the woman’s face, replaced with a grimace.

"I think it is time for us to get going," Pierre says, annoyance flashing across his face. Oh, you had stoked the fire and now you would have to face the consequences.

"We're just getting started," Charles complains. Pierre slaps a few bills on the counter and gets up without responding.

"Bye guys!" You call over your shoulder as Pierre drags you towards the door. They all wave back, Max's lower lip jutting out in a pout. Your eyes slid one more time to the blonde, who had her arms crossed over her chest. You give her a wicked, taunting grin and return her earlier wink.

Pierre halts so quickly that you run into him. “Why are we leaving?”

“You know why,” He growls, flagging down a cab. “You didn't like how she was looking at me, so you did something about it. You might not have noticed, but every man in that bar had their eyes on you. So I’m following your example and doing something about it.”

Your brow furrows. Pierre won’t meet your gaze, and your eyes fall to the purple mark on his neck. You didn’t like his tone; it bordered dangerously on anger. “Are you… Are you mad that I did that?”

Tears threaten to spill when he finally looks at you. God, you were a blubbering drunk. When your lip wobbles, his anger fades and he sighs. “I’m not mad. I just… I didn’t think you’d want me flaunting our relationship yet. When you did this-” He gestures to his neck- “I could barely keep my hands off you. Not when I saw the guy walking up to you.”

You sniff, trying to conjure the image of the bar. “I didn’t notice anyone.”

“Yeah, cause I dragged you out here before he could say anything.” Pierre pulls his hood up and sighs. “Trying to catch a cab here is harder than overtaking Hamilton.”

You laugh harder than you should at the off-hand remark, following after him as he trudges down the sidewalk. “Why are you not drunk? I feel like you should be drunk. You won a race. They were feeding you shots one after another.”

“One of us had to be responsible and make sure we got home okay.” He smiles over his shoulder at you. “And I knew as soon as you had that first shot it would have to be me. Didn’t you notice me handing the shots to the other guys?”

“No,” You say, rubbing your eyes. “What about the boys? How are they gonna get home?” Pierre stops, forcing you to do the same. He tugs your hood up, makes sure his is secure enough to hide his face, and grabs your hand.

“I already told Seb to come round them up in an hour or so. They’ll be fine.”

You don’t respond, too busy trying to put one foot in front of the other and not fall on your face. It doesn’t help that your vision is a tad blurry. Finally you give up and whine, “How much further?”

“It’s right there,” He says, pointing at a towering glass building just across the street. “In five minutes, you can be tucked into a cozy, fluffy suite and you can rest all you want, my love.”

You hum at the words, warmth flooding your veins from more than the liquor. “I like that.”

“What, the building?” He asks, amused. He helps you cross the empty street, making sure you’re paying attention to where you’re going.

“Noooo, what you said,” You clarify, leaning on him as you try to navigate the handful of steps leading to the hotel.

He’s quiet until you reach the elevator. “My love,” He murmurs, and you grin up at him.

“Mon… mon coeur,” You manage to say, somehow pulling the French phrase out of the dregs of your memory. The words are slurred and you know that you absolutely botch the pronunciation, but the intent is clear. You may have lived in France since you were 18, but learning the language wasn’t a requirement when almost everyone knew english as well. But the two of you had spent many hours watching Pierre’s favorite french films over the years; some of it must have unintentionally rubbed off on you.

A disbelieving smile tugs at his lips. “How do you even know what that means?”

You shrug. “Just do.” The elevator doors open and you step out, Pierre following. You halt, not knowing which hall to take. You glance up at your companion for help, only to find him staring back at you. “What?”

He shakes his head and leads you down the corridor to his room. It's a spacious corner suite, with huge windows facing Silverstone that give him a perfect view of the track. You make for the window but Pierre’s hand on your wrist stops you.

“I don’t think so, it’s time for you to sleep.”

“But I just wanna see,” You protest weakly.

“Nice try. I know you. You’ll sit in front of that window for hours if I let you.”

You give in only because he was right. Cityscapes of any kind drew your attention like a moth to a flame. You pouted anyway, but let him take you to the bedroom. Gentle pressure on your shoulders had you sinking into the plush mattress, groaning at the luxurious softness. Pierre laughs as he helps you out of your shoes and jeans, leaving the hoodie.

Eyelids drooping, you climb under the covers Pierre had pulled back for you. He tucks you in and kisses your temple. You grab for him, tugging on his shirt until he stoops down and gives you a proper kiss. When he steps out of your grasp, you panic.

“Stay,” You mumble, fear bubbling in your chest. He had to stay, he couldn’t leave, not when you only had this one night left-

“I’m just taking off my shoes,” He assures you, his weight sliding in behind you to settle against your back. You sigh, moulding yourself to him as best you could. Being in his arms was somehow familiar, even if he’d never held you like this. It felt like home.

“Pierre?”

“Hmm?”

“I love you.”

Pillowy soft lips press to the nape of your neck. “I love you too, mon coeur.”

Tagging: @flashcal

#pierre gasly #pierre gasly imagine #formula 1 #f1 #formula 1 imagine #f1 imagine #formula 1 fanfiction #formula 1 fantasy #formula 1 fanfic #formula 1 fic #f1 fanfic #f1 fanfiction #f1 fic #f1 fantasy #formula 1 rpf #f1 rpf #pierre gasly x reader #pierre gasly fanfiction

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nelavili · 3 years ago

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I'm still processing Season 6 and as an unpopular opinion I'm not too happy about it as a whole. I feel horrible for not enjoying it as much as the Cast/Crew would like me to, but I just can’t change this feeling I have.

Just to clear my head I'll write the things down that irked me. I don't want to start any discussion, they're only my thoughts on stuff ‘n thangs. Huge spoilers ahead, please don’t read if you haven’t watched.

Michael

I admit it, I have probably more sympathy for the bad twin than I should. And after the whole S5 I thought we get a bit more closure with him. I didn’t expect a redemption arc, after Michael killed Remiel, Dan and Chloe it would have felt wrong. But after the “Everyone deserves a second chance” the dude is down in hell, scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush. Really, Lucifer? That’s cruel after such a righteous line.

When Luci realized he could help everyone, even if he hated them, I hoped for a dive into the twins’ relationship but it was like Michael didn’t even existed anymore. And if someone needed therapy it would be the twin with the huge inferior complex. That could have been so interesting. (I had hoped that he'd sat on the couch at the end, but noooo we get the Frenchman.. such a disappointment.)

Maybe Tom Ellis didn’t want to play 2 roles again, or there was no time, but I feel that was a huge opportunity wasted.

What even was the plan of Michael? To get God to retire and wreck havoc on earth to get Dad back, so Mickey can take over as the new God? And then what? Wipe out humanity? I see no endgame here.

Ella

I liked Ella’s Story so far. But she stole the personal file of Carol and even broke into his house.. and everybody is cool with this? Carol might be crushing on Ella pretty hard but if somebody tells you they broke into your house, because they feared you were hiding something bad, You run for the hills. But the dude isn’t even phased.

I’m glad Carol is a good guy, though. Even if he’s kind of bland.

Ella finding out the truth on her own came out of nowhere. I would have found it better if they would have her act a little suspicious over the whole S5. But since they wrote S6 while S5 was shot, a little to late for this.

The scene at the wedding was amazing. I had so much fun with her outburst there.

Dan

Ghost!Dan was my favorite by far in this season. And I really liked how he wanted to help and tried to find out what he still felt guilty about.

I am so glad he got to spend his afterlife with Charlotte and I laughed so hard with the pudding. Didn’t expect that, in a positive matter. :D

The scene with Trixie killed me. Bawled so hard as soon as Kevin got teary eyes. That really gripped at my heartstrings.

But how could he go to heaven while in a body of a killer when his daughter stands right next to that killer?

Comedy-wise Dan is top notch

Trixie

I missed her so much.

It felt like she was an afterthought with everything. She recently lost her Dad and Chloe spends most of the time with Lucifer. I really missed the scenes with her and Luci, they always were so adorable.

They explain it later that she’s at a science camp, but I honestly thought Chloe chooses Lucifer (and later Rory too) over her.

She wasn’t at Chloe’s deathbed but here I’m not sure if the scene with Rory isn’t placed somewhere at the threshold to heaven where only celestials are able to enter. But if she wasn’t there because Chloe sidelined her in favor of Rory, then I can understand her absence.

Linda

I love Linda, she always gives good advice but nobody’s ever took it.

Her book probably would fly under the fantasy tag if she ever published it. Still, it felt cringey.

It was so sad that she thought she was a bad therapist.

Apparently she wants to keep helping celestials because it’s better than helping humans. In the end, celestials have the same problems as humans just on a bigger scale. But okay.

Amenadiel

Amenacop was good, and a nice nod to Dan who put in the application.

It made him realize that he only can change things when he has more power. I’m white and no american so I don’t know if the BLM theme there was well enough executed. Got me wondering.

The apocalypse just being Angels who are incompetent was a letdown. Like this whole season.

I really like him as god. And I am glad he took the position in the end. Even if he could have decided this a bit earlier.

Rory

I like her sarcasm and her character.

Didn’t like the whole time travel, time loop and daughter spiel. I’m not a big fan of time travels or couples getting a kid just for the sake of a happy end or to add extra drama. I could have lived without a Deckerstar baby. Instead they could have focused on Trixie for a change.

The time she spent with Lucifer on the 4th August was precious though.

How in hell did the Frenchman capture her? How did he even know how she looked? IIRC Dan hasn’t seen Rory while in that body. Dan just went over to Trixie that’s why I thought he’d capture her and not Rory.

Lucifer

He found his calling to help the souls in hell only because Rory traveled back in time? No man, he already took the step with Jimmy Barnes in preparation to take over as god. I don’t think it’s far fetched to believe that he would have the same epiphany without Rory there.

But without Rory, he wouldn’t have been helping Ghost!Dan to go to heaven. Though, before Rory traveled back in time, Lucifer was already trying to help Dan. They probably would have needed more time to figure out about what Dan felt guilty about, but figure it out anyways.

How did he even got Chloe pregnant? Was it his subconscious deciding he was ready to be a father? Amenadiel had to believe that he was human to get Linda pregnant. Or maybe it’s because they always thought they couldn’t impregnate a human and self-actualized it that way. Anyways, it’s a tiny hang-up I have with it.

Somebody else besides me thought that the scene in the panic room was awkwardly long? I know they thought Lucifer would vanish somehow, but it seemed too much to me.

His singsong while the magician talked about the trick. :D

I don’t want to even get into the whole time loop thing because I think it’s ridiculous(ly bad).

It took a lot of time for him to realize that he didn’t want to be god, after he put it on hold for a second time. Even Chloe could have asked him if that is really what he wanted. Could have spared us an episode or so. Why is the communication on this show so bad? Q.Q

I loved that he helped Maze with Eve to get the wedding back on after their fight.

He didn’t say goodbye to Trixie - again. What a nice step-devil..

It’s been Chloe, Rory and his family since he found out she’s his daughter. Not even mentioning the one kid who probably loved him before even Chloe fell for him.

For someone who is all about free will and led a rebellion against God for it, he was quick to accept that he has a “fate”. I thought he’d find another way, or at least try to. Nope, he just did what his child wanted. And they disguised it at his “choice”. Doesn’t look like a choice to me if your daughter begs you for it and you have to promise it. Just getting along with what your child wants.

Why does everyone need to shoot him? Just cut him until he bleeds. The Americans and their fixation on guns. Nice parallel to Chloe though.

Lucifer trying to fix the relationship to Rory with gifts was so cringey. I don’t know why but I couldn’t watch him sing/dance in that scene.

Both him and Amenadiel didn’t want to become like their Dad because of the reasons stated in S5, yet Lucifer exactly did. Another letdown.

Chloe

As soon as she knew Rory was her and Lucifer’s daughter it was all only about Lucifer and Rory. No thought of Trixie? I understand she was worried about being a bad mother to Rory, but come on, you’re being a bad mother to your first child right now.

She was ready to go to heaven with Lucifer. And Trixie does what exactly without her parents? Living with her Grandma because one of her parent died and the other one is abandoning her? It’s like the writers forgot about Trixie while forcing Rory on us.

The addiction to the necklace got old pretty fast.

And that whole fight against Lucifer felt unnecessary just to add more drama.

She gets mad at Lucifer for not telling her everything while not telling him that she went back to the LAPD. It’s Lucifer, he always has things on his plate. Double moral, pretty much.

She looked so gorgeous at the wedding, oh my god.

Most of the Deckerstar scenes were good. I got tired of the obvious naked cuddle times, surprisingly. Somehow it felt not like the ones in S5 and it bothered me.

I thought Chloe would finally get to know about everything Lucifer did for her, but I didn’t expect her to read it in Linda’s book. And that she only took away that he left her every time they had an emotional breakthrough.

They spend Lucifer’s last day at the beach and once again, no thought of Trixie. I’m sorry I repeat myself here so often. But this whole season wronged Trixie so much.

They face the baddie without any backup. At least get Amenadiel with you.

Other things

The use of music between scenes was too much for me. Got annoying at some point.

I appreciate that they wanted to show us snippets of past Deckerstar scenes but here too, I felt like it was too much.

Couldn’t really follow the timeline. Maybe it were the cuts.

What’s been the point of bringing Adam into the mix? Just to wrap up Maze and Eve’s story? For Linda having another celestial to therapy?

The animation in the Jimmy Barnes Hell loop was AMAZING. I laughed so hard.

I’m not saying that Deckerstar shouldn’t have sacrificed everything for the time loop to stay intact, I say that the whole daughter-time travel plot shouldn’t have had happened. They never even talked about having kids, and then ignore the whole existence of the one kid that’s already there.

I really need all the Michaella fanfics, please. My first ship that’s actually a raft, because they never officially have met. RIP lmao

The acting was great as usual, all my problems come from the writing and the plot.

In the end, I really feel frustrated, underwhelmed and disappointed by the whole season. I didn’t have high expectations other than the same writing quality like S5. My excitement for that Season died as soon as Rory told Lucifer that she’s his daughter, to be honest. I waited for a plot twist that never came. Then the whole time loop shit. I’d rather have waited one more year for S6 if the plot would have made more sense, since this felt like a first draft of a whole other show. And now I wished that S5 would have been the last season. If I could travel back in time, I’d rather not watch S6.

I can honestly live with the fact that Luci and Chloe are in hell, trying to help souls to get to heaven. (But hello, not the murderers perhaps? Or I want Michael sitting on that couch right now.) But the fact that both “chose” to sacrifice their time together with their family and friends just because it’s fate now and parents have to make sacrifices for their children; and anyways there’s an afterlife because (human) life is just a blip in our existence… nah thank you. I do not want it.

I’m probably not gonna rewatch S6 anytime soon.

#lucifer spoilers #lucifer s6 spoilers #lucifer netflix #deckerstar

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elenamiria · 4 years ago

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Danny Torrance x Reader - Kinktober Day 30

Temperature Play | Sixty-Nine | Dub-Con | Xenophilia

Word Count: 4.5k (🤡 oops) Warnings: Dub-con! Possessed!Danny, fem reader, violence against reader, choking (in a non sexual way), brief oral (f receiving), Biting and marking, unprotected p in v sex, creampie, rough sex, slight daddy kink, feelings (fluff and slight angst)

Kinktober Day 29 « Kinktober Masterlist » Kinktober Day 31

Main Masterlist & Taggies: @legally-a-bastard , @katrynec , @mistermiraclee , @obitwo , @justanotherblonde23

When Danny had come home distraught you heard him heading up the stairs to his room, yours being below his, and thought maybe you should go check on him. You hadn't at first, not wanting to disturb him, he was closer to Billy than he was to you so you worried it might be odd just showing up. Billy had introduced the two of you and you all had dinner together a few times a week when Danny was off. You had a soft spot for Danny, the way he always seemed to know when something was bothering you, his kind eyes and smile, and his soft, caring nature all drew you towards him. Not that you would ever admit your little crush to him, he never seemed to look your way twice. But, when you heard a smashing noise and glass skittering across the ceiling you decided that maybe you should in fact go see if he was alright.

The door was ajar and you slowly entered the room. He was against the black wall, hands pressing firmly into it, and you called out his name softly. As you got closer you could hear him speaking but it wasn't to you. Unsure of what to do you stood there until he jolted towards the wall with a gasp - like he was waking up from a trance. You called out to him again and he spun to you eyes wide. You stepped back for a second at the wild look on his face and then quickly approached when you noticed the blood on his upper lip. Reaching up you gently trailed your fingers down his cheek as you whispered, "Are you hurt?"

He shook his head, still breathing heavily and he replied, "No, I'm fine but Abra. I have to go get her, they took her."

A million questions ran through your head but he had a desperate look about him and so you simply said, "How can I help?"

You could hardly believe the tale Danny told you on the way to pick up Abra but you knew he was telling the truth, the way he looked at you as if begging for you to trust him only confirmed that. It was a good thing you agreed to come along Danny was exhausted and when you offered to take over driving so he could rest he happily accepted.

Now the three of you were on your way to the Overlook Hotel and an uncomfortable feeling was sitting heavily in your stomach. You couldn't shake the feeling despite the determination that your two companions seemed to have and you knew Danny could tell something was going on by the way he kept glancing at you. When you stopped at the gas station at the bottom of the mountain you were tense you couldn't tell if your body wanted to scream or cry or both but something in you was telling you to run far far away from the hotel you were heading towards and never look back. Dan laid a warm hand on your knee and your gaze snapped from the mountain to him. He offered you and then Abra a small smile before he lowly stated, "Not too much further, up the mountain."

When his hand left you to return to the steering wheel you wanted nothing more than to chase after it and interlace your fingers together but you shook the feeling off as just your nerves besides now was not exactly the time for romance.

As you gazed into the gaping maw of the hotel you could feel your whole body trembling and you knew it wasn't due to the snow falling around you. As Danny explained that he wanted Abra to wait in the car you stood patiently waiting to see what your role would be in all of this. Danny finally turned to you as Abra retreated into the car, "I want you to wait with her. When we're in there you stay with her the whole time, that way if something happens to me she'll have you."

You blinked up at him, shivering slightly as you replied - "If it's dangerous for you shouldn't you have someone come with you. I'm not like you two, right? So maybe I could help you."

Danny smiled at you, "You are like us, you just don't know. Billy was like us too, he could always sense people, he could tell who they were before he'd even say hello. You, right now you're shaking and it's because you can sense things too."

His arms grasped your elbows, your arms tightly wrapping around yourself, "So you'll stay with Abra, I'll go in alone. I'll be alright"

You hesitantly nodded, sharing a long look at each other as if trying to communicate words unspoken before you retreated to the car and watched Dan Torrance walk into the overlook hotel.

It wasn't long before Abra was calling Dan back out to you and the three of you were heading into the hotel together this time, Abra clutching onto both you and Danny. From there everything happened so quickly you barely had time to process it all. One second everything seemed to be going according to plan and the next everything went to hell. Danny had ordered you and Abra to run and so you did, holding the young girl's hand tightly terrified of losing her to this place. You could hear Danny's screams as they echoed through the abandoned halls and you had to stop yourself from going back for him. When you and Abra ran into the the twins you knew something had happened to Danny and you wrapped a protective arm around Abra. Slowly you tugged her backwards away from the twins and turned to go back down the hall, freezing once you saw Danny. Abra spoke but you couldn't focus what she was saying as blood rushed through your ears, every atom of your being screaming at you to run. You found yourself whispering the word 'run' aloud as Danny lifted his head and pure terror rushed through you. Abra sprinted ahead of you, still holding onto your hand as the two of you fled. You let her take the lead as she seemed sure in her path, though there was nothing to assure you that it wasn't the hotel leading you to certain doom.

Ducking into room 237 you pushed her behind you as Danny's deranged shouts of your name and then hers filled the air, growing closer and closer. She clung to your back, small hands gripping your sides, and you bit back tears as the two of you backed further into the room. You held your breath as you watched Danny's shadow pass by the door and exhaled shakily when he seemed to pass by, you took long deep breaths - all you had to do was get to the car and you'd be fine. You turned to Abra who was staring into the bathroom but you gently shook her, she jumped slightly before focusing on you. You were certain Dan would return and when he did you were going to distract him so Abra could escape, she tried to argue but as you positioned her next to the door you reassured her with fake smile and, “It’s alright, I’ll be right behind you.”

The door sprung open far sooner than you hoped and your heart pounded in your chest as Danny advanced. His gaze intense, his white eye staring through you as his blue eye darkened. He stalked towards you calling out your name in a low growl, “You’ve been very very bad.”

You froze as the axe came dangerously close to your face, the blunt end trailing just along the edge of your body as Danny questioned, “Where is she?”

Trembling you felt tears gather in your eyes as the cold metal of the axe slid up your cheek and you choked out, “I don’t know we went separately.”

You could see Abra in your peripheral vision slowly sneaking out of the room and you wanted to sigh in relief but your attention was quickly brought back to Dan’s face as his eyes narrowed at you, “Naughty girl, I told you to stay with her and now you don’t know where she is is that right??”

You met Abra’s hesitant eyes over Danny's shoulder as you nodded and she took off. Danny started to turn at the noise but you did your best to distract him, attempting to wrestle the axe away.

He snarled, his voice distorted and echoing with other voices that didn't belong to him and he grabbed you by the throat lifting you effortlessly before throwing you. You slammed into the wall with a scream, falling to the floor and you let out a small whine as you tried to rise, gripping the side table next to you tightly. Dan approached you laughing as your head swam, you looked up at him tears in your eyes and he froze. His head tilted slightly as he watched you shakily fight back your sobs, his eyes narrowed - "How interesting."

You were hauled to your feet by a firm hand grasping your hair and wrenching your head to the side, Danny buried his face into your neck. Inhaling deeply there was another harsh laugh and then, "You smell so so delicious."

He bit harshly into the junction between your neck and shoulder causing you to cry out in pain that quickly morphed into a whimper as he suckled and lapped at the spot.

"W-what are you doing, Danny?" You knew the question was pointless as this wasn't your Danny. However you received a response though it didn't answer anything, "We're going to do what he was too afraid to."

Danny had dropped the axe at some point and his hand slid up your body to grope at your breasts before gripping your throat tightly. You gasped for air before Dan's mouth enveloped yours in a hot and needy kiss, his tongue slipping easily into your parted mouth. Your eyes slid shut as you tried to pretend that this was actually Danny kissing you and not whatever was currently possessing his body, when you didn't respond he tightened his hand cutting off your air supply. Your hands shot to his arm, scraping at his jacket desperately to pull him off, and your eyes flew open again. He pulled back, breathing heavily, as his eyes trailed you up and down. A half smirk covered his face as he spoke, this time sounding more like himself just low and gravelly, "Don't act like you don't like this dove. I can sense your arousal. Just let us in, let us feast on you."

His hand finally relaxed just as your vision had started to go blurry and you gasped harshly for air, barely able to get any before once again his lips were devouring yours. You moaned into his mouth when Danny slipped his hands under your shirt, sliding up to your tits and he grabbed at them with an appreciative moan of his own. He played with your nipples, pinching and pulling just hard enough that there was a slight sting and enough to make you cry out in pleasure. His lips pulled apart from yours after swallowing down every little noise you made while he played with you and trailed to your neck.

Danny looked up at you, his milky eye seeming to pierce your soul, before he bit once again though this time higher up. He seemed to delight in the cry that flew from your mouth. He continued his treatment as his hands made quick work of your clothing, tearing it away when it wasn't easy to take off. You called out his name in alarm as he ripped your shirt in half but he simply grinned as he once again teased your breasts. He continued marking you down your neck and collarbone until he reached your chest. Whispering 'mine.' before biting harshly at the tops of your tits and sucking marks into them.

You grasped at the back of his head, running your fingers through his hair and tugging slightly as he bit at you. His eyes snapped up to your face and your breath hitched at the feral look in his eyes. He stood up to his full height locking eyes with you while his hands trailed down your body to your waist, gripping hard enough you knew there were going to be bruises. He spun you around, pushing you hard into the wall, hands tugging your pants and underwear down your legs. You trembled as your face pressed against the cold plaster, shivering as your body was exposed to the cold air.

Danny knelt on the ground as he pulled your legs free of their clothing, warm palms grasping at your ass before spreading you apart and baring your wet cunt to him. You heard him inhale deeply and you yelped as once again Danny bit you, this time your sensitive inner thigh. He whispered 'mine' again before his tongue licked up your thigh up to your pussy. He licked three long lines up the entire length of your slit, groaning each time he tasted your sweet juices, his tongue pressing flat and wide against you. The fourth time he trailed his tongue through your lips, down your thigh, over your ass cheek and all the way up your spine until he rose behind you and pressed his body into yours.

Dan's clothing dug into your soft skin as he repositioned you, yanking your hips backwards but pressing your face harder into the wall. You couldn't help the garbled moan that flew past your lips when you felt his hard length pressing into you from behind. Your body, seemingly moving of it's own accord, ground into his cock pleading for him.

"Patience, dove. We have all the time we need." He growled out, his hands fumbling with his jeans. He undid them just enough to pull out his cock, hard and throbbing, as you tried to glance behind you to look at him. His hands returned to your body, one burying itself in your hair to keep you still and his other arm wrapping around your hips to pull you back towards him and then without warning he was inside you.

You screamed, startled at the harsh intrusion, as his length filled you. He stretched your tight little cunt out but you were so soaked he was able to slip inside without a problem. You heard a deep moan from him as his hips starting to pull back and forth, pumping his hard cock in and out of you. His pace started slow, with powerful thrusts burying him to the hilt on each forward movement, but that didn't last for long as he growled out your name and his hands flew to your waist. His grip was hard and his rhythm animalistic as he pounded into you, pulling you harshly into him with his firm grip on you. Your whole body was jerking in time with the power of his thrusts, your hands bracing on the wall to keep from slamming your face into it over and over again as you cried out on every thrust. Your vision blurred with tears as he fucked you, pleasure overwhelming your body.

Loud grunts echoed off the wall from behind you as he muttered out incomprehensible words mixed with light moans of your name. You begged him - "More, Danny harder! Please touch me, please!!" - as you felt your orgasm fast approaching, needing touch and stimulation elsewhere on your body. Suddenly everything was ripped away from you leaving you to pant against the wall until you were spun around. Your leg was hitched up around his hips as he plunged his rock hard cock into you once again, tearing a hoarse moan from you. His pace was brutal and one of his hands grasped your jaw harshly as he hissed, nostrils flaring, "You look at me when you cum dove. You hear me, are you gonna be a good girl for daddy?"

You cried out as his other hand circled your clit alternating between teasing touches and then pressing hard enough on the little bundle of nerves that you saw stars while he pounded away into you. Your walls clenched around him, squeezing hard, as a scream ripped from your throat when he pinched at your clit, pulling your orgasm from you. The tears that had been filling your eyes spilled over and Danny laughed before it broke off into a deep moan as your hot walls clung to him. You had stared into his eyes as he ordered when your orgasm hit but as it overwhelmed you your eyes slid shut of their own accord. You were gasping for breath as you came down and you didn't notice the way Danny's hands softened around you and how his hips slowed.

A weak call of your name met your ears and your eyes flew open desperately. Your eyes met Danny's confused and dazed blue orbs and you gasped. Your hands flew to his face as a soft smile covered your face, "Danny, I knew you were there."

He looked down at where your bodies became one and immediately jerked back, whimpering slightly as his length pulled from your warm body. You whined, trying your best to catch your breath. Danny’s face contorted in concentration as he gripped his head, “Fuck, I can’t hold them back for much longer. You have to go!”

“No, not without you Danny.” You cried as you inched towards him, freezing when you noticed for the first time his leg. Putting your danger aside you immediately walked to him and pulled his belt from his pants, ignoring his length bobbing next to your hand, pausing only to nudge his legs apart. He called out your name again, an edge to his voice that wasn't there a moment ago, “Go now! I can’t-”

He cut himself off with a cry as you wrapped the belt around his upper thigh and tightened it with all your strength, quickly tying it off. There was an inhuman roar and then you were once again being slammed up against the wall, both of his hands at your throat and face contorted in a snarl. Your feet lifted off the ground and for the first time in this encounter you truly feared for your life, hands scrabbling trying to pull his away. Having to fight your instincts you lifted one of your hands away to softly brush your fingertips against his face as you weakly croaked his name. Your gentle touch allowed him to gain control again as he let go of your neck, hands flying to your shoulders to support you.

Clinging to him you coughed and sputtered as you inhaled deep gulps of air after a few moments finally listening to what Danny was saying."You have to go, I can't hold them back and I can't stop them from taking you again. Please, you need to go."

Looking at him you shook your head despite wanting to crack at his pleading eyes. You swallowed deeply as you stood straight again, "No Danny, let them take what they need from me. I'm not leaving without you."

You cupped his face softly and pressed your lips to him, kissing him tenderly. Danny hesitated for a moment before he responded with a passion that took your breath away. As he parted he looked at you with a softness that you had only dreamed about before he whispered, "If I do this they won't be gone forever, I'm not strong enough to lock them all away right now."

You nodded as you stared up with the same affection that you saw in his eyes mirrored on your face, "I know, but I'll be with you through it all. If this is what we need to do to get you out of here alive, then we'll do it. Will you take me now, before they take control again? I want to know what it's like to be loved by you."

Danny leaned down to press a soft kiss to your lips, though it quickly deepened as his hand slid to your back tugging you close to him. You raised your leg and he was quick to catch it with his spare hand, angling it so it was most comfortable for you. One of your hands cupped his neck and your other trailed down his chest and stomach to grasp his cock loosely. You hadn't had time to appreciate just how big he was when you first were getting fucked but as you gently stroked his length a few times you couldn't hold back the appreciative moan as you felt his size. Lining him up with your cunt you swirled his tip through your drenched folds. Danny broke apart from you, forehead gently pressing to yours and connecting you as he asked, "Are you sure about this?"

Your answer was to press your hips forward, sinking his head into your cunt as you whimpered out a soft 'yes'. Danny pressed forward slowly easing his cock into you and even though he had been in you mere moments ago he still stretched you out deliciously. Where he had been fast and rough before he was now gentle and slow, wanting to savor every moment he had with you. His pace was slow as he pulled out only to fill you up again and again. You called out his name and he swore, face burying in your neck. Danny's hips sped up and you whimpered, his hands slid to your waist both to hold you up and to pull you as close to him as he could. He had noticed the blooming bruises on your neck and now he laved them with attention, pressing soft tender kisses to the areas and nuzzling into you.

You could tell he was starting to lose control again as his body jerked slightly when he pulled back and his grip on your waist tightened again to the point of slight pain. His breathy moans turned into deep grunts as he sped up suddenly pounding into you like he had earlier. Clinging to him his pace practically lifted you off your feet and you squeaked as he rammed into your cervix, legs buckling. Danny's face stayed buried in your neck, though now he was focused on marking up your collarbone with sucking and biting, while he destroyed you - fucking you so well you knew you would never be able to think of anyone but him.

He suddenly jerked away from your neck as one hand came down to rub tight circles on your clit, your walls fluttering in pleasure at the stimulation, and you thought he must be close with the way he fucked into you. Your mouth fell open in pleasure as he quickly brought you to another peak, the crown of your head hitting against the wall as your head lolled backwards, his other hand grasped your chin again to pull you up - forcing you to look at him as you came. Body trembling you spasmed against him, pussy clenching and flexing as he slid against your tight walls, it was only moments later when he was tipping over the edge as the two of you locked eyes.

For just a second his eyes flashed to their normal brilliant blue as he cried out your name before they darkened and a sheen covered his eye once again. His hips bucked deep, filling you to the brim, as his seed shot deep into your core. The feeling sent another wave of spasms through you as he painted your walls with him, claiming you in the most primal sense. As he finished his hips stilled as his head dropped to your shoulder and you stroked the back of his head and his hair softly.

There was a pregnant pause before Danny was pulling away from you, both eyes blue once more, and tucking himself away into his pants. You quickly found your clothing and tugged it on not wanting to risk him losing control again and you figured you only had a short period of time while he had full control to get out of the hotel. Pausing you realized your shirt was torn clean in half and was unsalvageable. Danny stared, face pink with embarrassment, he quickly shucked his coat and pulled the flannel he was wearing over his head offering it to you. Gratefully you accepted it, pulling it over your head, with your dilemma solved you turned towards Danny and tugged his arm over your shoulder once he put his jacket back on. You knew his leg would make it harder for him to walk now that there wasn't supernatural support pushing him along and you also knew your time was limited considering the boiler room situation. Glancing at Danny you couldn't help the soft smile covering your face as you simply stated, "Let's get the fuck out of here."

Your eyes blinked open blinded slightly by the bright lights shining down on you. A groan left your lips as you sat up straight, having almost slid all the way off your chair at some point during your sleep. Wearily you sat up as you remembered your surroundings, the hospital. Shooting forward your eyes shot to the bed and your face heated when you met Danny's sweet gaze.

"G'morning." He softly said, you smiled and rose to come close to his bedside, your hand resting on his lightly. Smiling you replied with a gentle, "Good morning to you too. How are you feeling?"

"Well I'm on some pain medication so it's not too bad. How is..." He trailed off, face dropping in guilt as he motioned to your neck area. Reassuringly you squeezed his hand, "It's fine, not bad at all. Honestly the ache in my...."

Your face heated at your thoughtless words before you muttered, "My soreness elsewhere is uhm distracting me."

Danny couldn't hold back a gentle laugh at your words as a blush rose to his cheeks another beautiful smile breaking out across his face. Your spare hand rose to stroke his face fondly before you paused and pulled your hand away, unsure of where your relationship stood with him. Dan's smile dropped slightly as his head tilted, he seemed to sense the problem as he whispered, "Darling I'm yours if you'll have me, I promise as soon as I get out of here I'll take you on a date and we can go from there."

For some reason his words overwhelmed you and tears pricked at your eyes, whether from relief or happiness you couldn't quite tell. Danny's eyes grew before he cooed out your name, hand tugging you forward so he could press soft kisses to your cheek whispering pleas not to cry into your skin. You nuzzled into his cheek before cupping his face once again as you pulled back finally ready to admit what you'd known all along, "Danny I'd love nothing more than for you to be mine, I think it's pretty clear by now. I love you Dan Torrance."

#danny torrance x reader #Kinktober 2020 #Danny torrance #doctor sleep fanfiction #possessed danny torrance #reader insert smut #ewan mcgregor fanfiction #ewan mcgregor smut #tw dubcon #Ewan McGregor #doctor sleep #danny torrance smut #danny torrance x you #danny torrance x y/n #horror

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imagineddworld · 4 years ago

Text

Favorite victim

Pairing: Fred Weasley x Reader

Summary: You are Fred’s favorite prank victim, which creates a lot of hatred towards one another. Until a mistletoe proofs you both wrong.

Word count: 2 k (2000)

Author’s note: I am so sorry for being this unactive. Also sorry for the lack of quality. University is taking up all my time and has given me a headache that lasts for a week already. Thanks for understanding. I hope you enjoy this shorter fic.x

You and Fred had a complex friendship, if it even could be considered that. He always seemed to take the piss with you. For some unknown reason you were his favorite pranking victim. It all had started innocent. Hiding your ties, placing your books at the highest shelves that were impossible to reach, and switching your ropes with one of the other houses. Putting potions in your food that made it taste odd, made you sneeze, and made your voice a high pitched squeak. But over time they became more evil. The potions no longer got their innocence. They coloured your hair in plenty vibrant colours, made your nose bleed, and made you cough up feathers. The twins put traps everywhere, so you would trip and get covered in a thick, stinky liquid. In class they made your books explode, messed up your potions so you would end up with a loud explosion to the face and getting covered with whatever concoction was in the cauldron.

It was getting out of hand. Last week they had replaced your soap with one of their own brewed ones. It was supposed to make your head purple, but instead you had started to swell up. Your face felt as if it was about to pop. You angrily approached them during breakfast. “Thanks a lot mate. Good luck explaining to McGonagall why I can’t attend her class”, you threw the soap at them, shaking your head in disappointment. “This hurts a lot”, you said through gritted teeth, before leaving them. You quickly headed over to the hospital wing for the umpteenth time. Later on you found out that you had a bad allergic reaction to one of the oils the twins had put in their soap. Your swelling first got worse, before it vanished. You barely could open your eyes and breathing had became difficult too, but luckily it faded soon enough. Their stupid little prank had resulted in you spending a good few days in the hospital wing. As soon as you were released form your bedrest, you gave the twins a lecture about the dangers of their pranks. Luckily for you they never used that oil ever again. But they managed to cross the line many more times in various other ways. You started to grow more hatred towards the beloved twins. One day they would actually kill you.

Today they had stolen your alarm clock. You were woken up by annoyingly loud ticking noises coming from your closet. Over time it grew louder and more unbearable. As if being late wasn’t bad enough, they also had to steal all your clothes and replace them by those idiotic toys. They didn’t even had any specific shape, just odd metal forms. As if a robot and car got merged together but had melted during the process. After you finally found some clothes, hidden somewhere safe, you stormed out in search for the redheads. They were sat in the common room, happily chatting with some other students. “Weasley!”, you slammed the door shut behind you, angrily stumping your feet on the ground as you made your way over to him. “I swear to Merlin, If i find another of your stupid little - toys- I will personally stick all of them up your throat till you choke to death”. As you were yelling at Fred, you had earned the attention of the whole common room. Even if the constant bickering had become a daily routine, they still waited impatiently for the scene in front of them to unravel into your usual fights. “Wow (Y/n), relax”, Fred showed his famous smirk. He stood up, meeting you halfway of the common room. He towered over your small frame, looking challenging into your eyes. But two could play his game, you didn’t budged as you gave him your darkest, murderous glare. You raised your eyebrow as a signal for him to explain himself, already knowing that only nonsense would be spewing from his mouth. “It was just a joke. Not even a dangerous one-”, the last part of his sentence got cut off by a loud exploding sound coming from the girls sleeping room. Or more specific, your closet. At the same time, the toy in your hand had exploded as well. You let out a scream of shock, while throwing the lightly smoking object to where Fred’s feet were. He jumped as a reflex. His face turned angry for a slight moment, but you could care less. You were beyond furious. The day were he would succeed in killing you, would came sooner than you had thought. “Not dangerous?! Not da-dan- Are you joking me?!”, you stuttered due to your overwhelming emotions, mostly furiousness and hatred. “Well, that’s kind of the point”, he cocked as if nothing had happened. As if he didn’t just could have injured someone really badly with his stupid prank. “I still could have been in there”, you said, hitting him on the chest to have more impact on him. “Someone could have gotten hurt, or worse -” Which each word that left your mouth, you hit him a bit harder. But he didn’t moved at all, he just grinned down at you. As a foolish idiot, loving the sight of your angered state. His smug face only made your anger worse. Nothing would ever sink in his brain, he just brushed it off. You wanted to comment on it, but found yourself unable to. You were just going to waste your time, so you decided to storm off to somewhere you wouldn’t need to see his face again. Somewhere you could calm down.

Once you vanished out of the room and the watching crowd returned back to their daily routines, George stepped up to his brother. “Well well, Freddy. You know we are meant to play nice”, he smiled with a hint of a smirk hiding in the corner of his lip. “Shut it. I’ll play nice when she does”, He glowered, looking like a grumpy little child. “Oooh, so you want her to play nice with you”, George teased, as he wiggled his eyebrows at his twin. “Shut up”, Fred responded again, leaving his twin alone. George just smiled and shook his head at the foolishness of his brother.

Luckily for you, you didn’t saw Fred’s face until your study session. You were nearly done with your potions essay, when a huge amount of ink fell out of the sky. Your clothes were soaked by the black liquid. As you looked down to your desk, you saw your essay covered in huge spots. “Noo”, you said a bit too loud, voice lightly cracking from your exhaustion. Your head shot towards the chuckling sound. “You”, you spat out, as if he were a poison in your mouth. You murderously glared at Fred while approaching him. “What have I done”, he smiled innocent. You bit down on your teeth, clenching your jaw. It was hard not to slap him across the face right now. You dug your fingernails into your palm, while deeply breathing in. “Do I really need to explain it?!”, you grumbled through gritted teeth. “Be my guest”, he smiled, beaming with excitement and mischief. His hands rested on his hips with much attitude. “You- Ruined - My- Essay”, with each word you stepped forwards, closing the gap between the two of you. You slapped your essay onto his chest, staining his clothes with the black ink. “I’ve spent days on it. And you know for a fact that Snape won’t care”, you pushed him away from you, making him stumble the slightest bit. “Ruin your own essay for once”, you said in a small voice, as the previous event slowly started to sink in. You were devastated, all your hard work was for nothing. Your eyes started to water a little. You were exhausted, not only from the long nights you had spend on the now ruined essay; but also because of how draining these pranks had gotten. Ever one of them gave you more reasons to hate these beloved twins.

As you looked up from your ink-covered hands, you saw Fred with a dumbfounded look on his face. Only seconds ago, he was beaming with joy. “What?”, you asked harsh, but nowhere near the intensity it usual would have. He gave no response, so you sighed and tried to walk off. But you found yourself unable to do so. A force kept you in place. “What do you want?”, you muttered in a mix of anger and despair. You were too exhausted and too distressed to have a fight. “Just let me go”, you said with a much softer voice. You were still turned away from him, as you were trying to hold in your tears. “I don’t have a hold of you... I thought you had a hold on me”, he said slow, confusion knitting his eyebrows together. “What? Why would I-”, you started, turning your head back in his direction. As you eyes trailed to his face, you caught sight of something green above Fred’s head. You let out a frustrated sight as you realized what it was. Stupid mistletoe and its bright green leaves.

You pinched the bridge of your nose, totally over this whole situation. You desperately tried to free yourself with some spells. But the mistletoe wouldn’t move, neither could any of you. “(Y/n), you know that won’t work. You should know that. You are lots better at charms than me”, Fred said, sounding sincere. A unexpected heat raised to your face. Fred Weasley just had given you a compliment, what a rarity. “But we need a way to get out of here before any teacher catches us out past curfew”. You used the lame excuse. You truly didn’t care if you were out past curfew or even got caught. You just wanted to get away from Fred before he could pick up on your emotions. Not that he would care. Everything just seemed to be a joke to him, surely when it included you. “I know a way”, he responded casually. But you were unimpressed, showing it clearly with your facial expressions. “Trust me, okay?”, he muttered softly, his voice almost coming out as a whisper. His big hand cupped your cheek, leaving a warmth at the place where your skins touched. “Just this once”, you replied, before his sweet lips pressed against yours. His other hand went to the small of your back, pulling your body tighter to his chest. Your hands lightly tugged on the fabric his shirt, staining it even more with the black liquid. Neither of you caring how big of a mess it would be.

The kiss lasted longer than you had expected. You melted in his touch, losing yourself in the heavenly kiss. Your hands found their way to his jaw and the back of his neck, leaving a trail of blackness everywhere you had touched his soft skin. Only when you broke apart to breath, you realized what had happened. Your eyes slowly fluttered open. You were met with a grinning Fred, who now also was covered in the black liquid. But you weren’t going to give him the satisfaction he wanted. He was not going to get you that easily. “This changes nothing, Weasley”, you suppressed the smile that desperately wanted to curl your lips upwards. You turned away from him, relieved that you finally could move again. You were about to head over to your belongings, when he pulled you back by your arm. “Well, I think it does, (Y/l/n)”, he grinned the biggest smile he had ever had, “Mistletoe only sticks to people who have feelings for each other”. The smug bastard. Of course he would know such a thing. As he pulled you in for a second kiss, you couldn’t help but smile against his lips.

#fred weasley #fred weasley imagine #fred weasley x reader #fred hp #fred x reader #harry potter imagine #hp imagine #weasley twins #fluff #Fluffy Imagine

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geekys-corner · 3 years ago

Note

Mind listing the OCs/personas and a couple facts about them? (Might help with questions lol)

Sure! I’ve written 16 below lmao *sticks in a read more*

Anthony - Originally my version of Anti, he’s now a sweet bean who really likes plants. In his backstory and the start of his story, he was found in a tiny pocket dimension inside his old apartment while he and the place around him fell into disrepair with the only thing truly alive being his plants. After losing his entire family, he was very fragile and hurt himself quite a bit, but my other characters rescued him and nursed him back to health and stability!

Onyx - My angsty punk dude who I adore. He is on the autistic spectrum and is mostly non-verbal, once going 4 months without speaking before breaking the silence to tell his best friend that Viggo Mortenson broke his toe in that one scene in Lord of the Rings. They have a twin sister who is 13 minutes older and a firm witch while he is a firm nonbeliever. Sometimes he goes to the junkyard with a baseball bat to let out their anger.

Leon - His backstory is very dark so I won’t get into it, but he’s a very shy bean with one arm and a love for sewing. He has the fluffiest light pink hair, and is just the embodiment of pastel.

Kyle - The older brother of the duo! He’s friends with Onyx and also has a punk look with spiked blue hair, but he’s an absolute sweetheart! He’s eight years older than his brother, and ran away with him when he was a newborn to escape their abusive mother. He raised Joey on his own in the streets, escaping care systems that would split them apart and shove them in to foster homes, and grew up to be completely independent, albeit unaware of what it is like to have a loving family besides his brother. He may be quick to resort to fight or flight to protect his brother and grumpy to strangers, but he’s built them a good life!

Joseph - The little brother! Joey is a smart little kid, (ranging from 10 - 14 depending) with very bright ginger hair and freckles. He’s on the far side of the autistic spectrum and is completely nonverbal, but he’s very expressive, spunky, and loving whenever he’s able to. He adores peanut butter and milkshakes, and would very happily have them six times a day. While he can’t speak, he will send Kyle countless facts from astronomy or marine life through text at any time of day or night. He’s always seen in his blue skateboarding frog hoodie, a beetle backpack filled with his supplies, and his headphones and tablet. He loves to draw and he’s great at it, and always draws sharks, especially whale sharks.

Caelan - Another punk, but this time in bird form. He is a griffin, and in some AUs a dude with prosthetic feet. He has messy blond hair covering his eyes and is based around an Egyptian falcon. He’s very quick witted and very annoying to people who don’t know him, but would go to hell and back for his family.

Marioma - The model of a modern major general- this dude is the only one like him, meaning he has no AU counterparts! He’s different from my other characters since he’s technically self-aware, and acts in my stories if and when I want him to! He’s a grumpy, determined dude who’s trying to quit smoking per request of his boyfriend, Arthur. Before him, he was a sly, hardened, and cunning man who needed someone to rely on who wouldn’t die on him.

Arthur - Foster fails: 5. He owns a bookstore in the universe he inhabits and, just like Mari, he’s one of a kind! He lives the ideal rainy city aesthetic, with an apartment above his store with open windows, plants, cosy blankets and homemade food, handmade clothing, and animals. He’s got curly hair and his scarf is his comfort item, and he takes in animals if and when he can. He and Mari just live a comfortable life :’)

Clyde - A duo with Anthony, he was originally a version of Henrik, but is now completely different. This boy is a classic OC and therefore my teenage angst punching bag. He’s a doctor in his husband Lucas’ mafia, and is very strong-willed and the biggest sweetheart. He has water powers that I always forget about, and could very easily drown someone if he wanted to. Besides that, he does cry a lot over small things, and Lucas has walked in on him crying over their cat in a business-tie.

Levi - If he and Clyde fused, they’d make Henrik. He’s my 55 year old doctor who just the embodiment of grumpy cat and expresso. He’s very lanky and has joint problems after trauma in his late 20s, and sometimes you can hear his bones cracking as he walks. He has, can, and will slap the sense into Clyde when he needs to and hated him to begin with, but warmed up to him. But, he’s completely different to his husband Sage, and in the end, is a very caring guy who won’t take any shit. He’s also therapist, and gives sessions to most of my OCs- (he’s also the doctor at the end of Don’t Leave! Dr Allison!)

Tyrell (Cloak) - So I split the same OC into two halves, essentially from two AUs but in one? They’re not twins, they’re the same guy with separate families but they’re the same. They’re both POC with the same face, hair texture etc. Cloak-Ty is very grumpy, and is called Cloak because of the cloak he wears in his fantasy-based AUs! He wears an eye patch and lost his eye depending on the AU, and went through a lot. You can tell he’s angsty because half of his hair is buzzed off. He tried to push away his now-husband Demitri, but luckily he’s an absolute himbo who doesn’t know when to quit, and eventually melted through the icy layer to a loving, sarcastic, hard-working man.

Tyrell (Ponytail) - Same as above description wise! He’s taller and buff with a ponytail. He went through the same backstory, but was found by Daniel who took him to Lucas’ mafia where they recovered together and eventually fell in love. Half of his face is badly burned and the eye has pin-hole vision, but it doesn’t stop him from being the best sniper on the team. When at home, he loves tea, hanging with his family, and painting. He’s amazing at watercolour and earns money on the side from selling his work! Sometimes he and Dan team up and draw together!

Bloodbranded:

Wayde - He lives in the Winter Forest Region and hunts for his family with his exceptional archery skills. He’s witty and pretty spontaneous, making him good under pressure, but incredibly reckless. He has a bad claw scar across his right eye which cuts into his hair, but he can see just fine! He has beautiful green eyes with central heterochromia, so they turn brown in the centre. While he may be annoying and hot-headed, he cares a whole bunch and grows as a person to fall in love with Milo. He’s a hopeless romantic and protective as all hell, even when Milo can handle himself just fine.

Felicity - She wasn’t born in the WFR like Wayde, she was adopted by her two mothers and is Wayde’s cousin! She’s a POC with beautiful dark skin, and her parents style her hair in unique braids that are decorated by gold rings. She’s a magic user and a very skilled one at that, even when she’d just started out, and wishes to revive the old form of magic that had been taken over by the modern, corrupted magic form that’s based entirely on nepotism. She uses a staff and a book, and is clumsy to start out, but soon becomes a mage to be admired, or feared if you’re an enemy!

Milo - Unlike Felicity and Wayde, he was born in the desert region, and ends up in the WFR by mistake (which is a vast change in temperature for him). Because of the contrast in temperature, he’s always wrapped up in winter clothes, even in places where the others are sleeveless, just because he’s spent his whole life in the heat! When he’s at home, he lives with his Mother and goes out to collect lightning glass after the nightly storms to sell and turn into jewellery or windows etc. Milo was born deaf and uses sign language to communicate. He’s smart, energetic, and excited to see new things, but can handle himself with ease, and knows how to take care of himself through quick thinking and fighting skills from living in the desert. When he and Wayde start dating, he likes coming up behind him and cuddling him or giving him quick kisses!

Prism - Much like their name, they are very colourful. They are a dragon hybrid and live in a kingdom of others like them, but unlike any other dragon, their scales are - like their name - prisms. They gradient between rainbows across their body, but each scale has a rainbow shimmer when they move. Their wings are like stained glass, and their hair (as of now, it might change) is like labradorite! Prism is mute and doesn’t express much, usually communicating through eye rolls. They live as the King’s new heir after he took them in as he believes Prism is the symbol of their kingdom and species’ beauty. Because of this, they are completely untouched by any blade and don’t have a single blemish or scar as to preserve them. Many guards have died to prevent them from obtaining even the slightest scratch. Beyond their anxiety, they join the crew and act as the voice/sign of reason! Even if they are assigned to their kingdom, they soon learn that their friends truly care about them more than their appearance.

That’s most of my OCs, this is already super long so I don’t want to drag it on! If anyone is interested in any OC, feel free to drop an ask, I’d love to write one shots or answer questions! <3 ^^

#geekyfox1's ocs #oc #oc list #bloodbranded #bloodbranded development #oc description

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abbydramarambles · 5 years ago

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The REAL Ending CLOY

This is my headcanon and you can’t tell me otherwise. The epilogue in Switzerland is set a few years after the events of that piano concert. They have already found a way to be together more permanently. To me the house doesn’t seem like a vacation house, it seems like a home home.

There is that photo of Se-ri on the bridge, not something one would frame for themselves. RJH definitely lives there. Check out the north Korean coffee kettle and other souvenirs as well. This is the sort of stuff one would have in their home.

The only thing holding RJH to North Korean is his parents, the fact that they could be killed if he were to defect. After they die, he has no reason to stay. We’ve already been shown that he is resourceful and would know exactly how to get out. Not to mention that everything in north Korean runs on money, if you have connections like Se-ri and RJH do....anything is possible. And to me these two people with all their power, well they would find a way.

Dan’s mother travels out of the country a lot as well for business. I think the 2 weeks is the longest trip Se-ri takes while RJH’s parents are alive. It’s not the only trip of the year. I doubt her employees would be saying “you’re going to Switzerland again??” if it was a once a year sort of deal they wouldn’t think she had a man. They even say “it’s lasting a while this time”. Come on who in the world would think it’s a relationship if their boss goes to switzerland for 2 weeks a year. It’s her favorite 2 weeks of the year because of it being uninterrupted time.

Well with her wealth and his determination, and connections via his family, I'm sure they'll find a way eventually, either it is his parents passing away (since it has been about 6 years between him going back to NK and the epilogue meetup), or him somehow getting a long term mentoring position at Switzerland. You’re telling me Dan’s mom a department store owner can swing to Europe anytime, and Se-ri who created a whole scholarship for her man can’t swing something in collaboration with Papa Ri?

I got the impression the student performing his song on stage was a full-time student in Switzerland. RJH is not studying abroad but is teaching NK scholarship winners. Seri has been traveling back and forth a lot but these two weeks are the longest continual time they have together.

When Seri first sees him in Switzerland she asks how dangerous his journey was, and he didn’t answer, just said he got on the wrong train but reached his destination. “Destination” implies a final location to me, not just a two-week stay. For two people who find it torturous to be apart for even a moment, destination would not have been thrown around like that. It could’ve taken his Dad some time to manage the politics to make a permanent teaching position with the National Symphony. He did see his son cry in the car after leaving her. That man is powerful, the 3rd most powerful man in North Korean. A political manipulation genius, a man always one step ahead of the others. He got his son and 5 people in and out of South Korea. You best believe he can make it happen. He’s not going to sit back and leave his only son living without his only dream. Plus RJH was never a flag waving patriotic North Korean anyway. He already expressed that he wanted to stay with SeRi in South Korea, have a child that looks just like her. It’s kdrama script writing 101 to not have your lead character mention a deep desire such as this one unless its foreshadowing or serves a larger purpose. And Park Ji Eun is no noob writer.

Let’s look at the way the show itself references fate and destiny. Regardless of how impossible it may seem, these two always managed to find each other again. Fate is pushing them together and is on their side. I don’t think fate wants them to meet 2 weeks a year. Fate didn’t make them meet in Switzerland, in North Korea, in South Korea, and in Switzerland again for 2 weeks a year for the rest of their lives. I can’t entertain that. A lot of people think that the epilogue on the hill and when she meets him for the first time again in Switzerland with the parachute are the same time frame. I don’t think so. I really do think the piano concert is the ending and the picnic is the epilogue. It’s years from then, when everything has been sorted about how to be together permanently and it’s a window in to happy every after. Just look at their body language and expressions in the last scene, they are totally at peace and seem to have gotten everything they wanted. Even the music radiates peace. Listen to the lyrics of Sigriswil that play as the camera pans out “wandering this strange night, won’t you be here by me? now I hold your hands, with you I’ll be alright...how does it feel, my friend? It’s been a long day and night” THEY ARE NO LONGER WANDERING ALONE THAT IS THE POINT. period. It was a “long day and night, but now I hold your hand” ... how does it finally feel to have your happy ever after....my friend. IT REEKS OF OPTIMISM and closure. In film making the atmosphere says everything about what is unsaid in the script.

You best believe he won’t leave a stone unturned to be with her, see her grow old and live in the house of dreams with their twins. Just the fact that he vocalized this thought in the show leads me to believe that it did indeed happen.

Believe in what the show is telling us to believe. What it’s showing us, not telling us even. That love will always find a way.

Cloy’s ending also reminds me of very heavily of (spoiler) that of “my love from the stars”. It was written by Park Ji-eun, the same writer as CLOY. So yes they are forced to be apart in that show too, but he finds his way back and each time they meet its for longer and longer and its implied that one day it will be forever. If an alien could find a wormhole to make it back to his love interest, north korea isn’t looking too bad. Same thing with her other star crossed lovers show “legend of the blue sea”. The mermaid finds him again against all odds and they live happily ever (plus a baby). Hey I’m just saying that the precedent has been set on how this seperation works through our writers own works. Having seen all of Park Ji Eun I know exactly how she structures her endings. It’s almost always the same. The mermaid made it back, the alien made it back...north korea is where we draw the line? They’re only apart for awhile till they figure it out, and they work hard to do so.

Whatever this image is from TVN left it unaired. They shot something they had to pull back. My crack theory brain says she looks a bit pregnant. Actually, that ain’t even a crack theory, I stand behind it. Son yejin is so slim, and judging by the material of the dress it just wouldn’t fall like that unless they were trying to make her look pregnant. Like LISTEN, just LISTEN to me. They put in the effort to get the actors in these outfits we have never seen before, they even gave seri flowers...whY?? There are no other purely promo shots that didn’t have footage attached. The only ones I can think of are the ones they took in front of a greenscreen for the photoframes inside their house. THIS WAS A REAL SCENE THAT WAS DELETED. South Korean dramas pre-film certain scenes (like the swiss ones) and live film the others to make slight changes to the storyline based on audience reaction. During airing there was quite a lot of political backlash a la north korea.

There are some stills TVN released that weren’t screencaps. But ALL of them were in outfits relating to scenes we have seen, such as this one. It just would make no sense for them to go out of there way to get this image on the jam packed expensive swiss schedule and not just do greenscreen in korea like they did for all the other promo material UNLESS it was a real scene.

So you want more evidence for plot points that indicated the original, unaired, together forever in Switzerland ending?

Let’s look at some details, at one point in Episode 14 when Jeong Hyeok's father is meeting with the bad guy Senior Colonel who tries to use photos of Jeong Hyeok in Korea as a bargaining chip, he says "You should retire quietly. Using your health as an excuse won't raise any suspicions." now whilst this may be a casual reference to him being old and that health issues are plausible, it's also possible Jeong Hyeok's father has had some long term illness they've not mentioned which would add to why it wouldn't raise suspicions.

The main reason I thought of this is it would sort of line up with some other details, in the finale when they're deciding whether to send them back or not, at the NIS briefing they mention how the North has requested keeping it quiet and confidential, they mention "They want the confidentiality term to be five years. They're being sensitive about it because one of them is a high-ranking officers son". Then if we fast forward toward the end when Se-ri is receiving the timed messages, a year passes after her birthday message from Jeong Hyeok, after that scene we see Jeong Hyeok having his farewell meal with the townspeople and preparing to leave after being accepted as a pianist for the National Symphony Orchestra, presumably around the same time as Se-ris birthday given that scene was right before. Se-ri then comes up with her Switzerland Music academy idea probably a few weeks or month or so after she read RJH's text about meeting and then it tells as it's one year later, Se-ri waits but doesn't meet him and returns home, her mum says "It breaks my heart to see you return in disappointment every time" which if that's a correct translation it means it's been more than once by this point. Add up this entire timeline....guess what it comes out to. FIVE YEARS. That’s how long it takes them to sort out a permanent solution for their problem.

When he chooses to defect it will be much easier for him considering he’s making trips to Switzerland already. All he would have to do is walk into a South Korean embassy in Zurich. They have an open door policy for North Koreans, he doesn’t even need to cross the DMZ again.

You want even MORE proof? Okay my friend, I’ll bite. Why are there photos of a couple with children?? Honestly come on I really don’t have to say more.

They had to leave the ending open. Due to the political situation, they couldn’t exactly show RJH, a North Korean, defecting. Pretty sure our buddy Kim Jong-un would not be chill with that. However ridiculous it is, the show had multiple attacks on it while it was running by political parties saying it violated the “national security act”.

The ending was clearly cleverly re-edited to be less explicit so the viewer can read between the lines but the show-runners can protect themselves from lawsuits and public sentiment regarding a sort of maybe illegal situation. If you believe they met for two weeks a year for the rest of their lives, you don’t know RiRi Ri-eally well ;)

#crash landing on you #cloy #yoon se ri #ri jung hyeok #ri jeong hyeok #hyun bin #son ye jin #kdrama #binjin #dooly #riri couple

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nanoland · 3 years ago

Text

Ponder on the Narrow House

fandom: Lucifer

main characters: Mazikeen, Eve, Michael

pairings: Mazikeen/Eve/Michael

summary: In which Mazikeen isn't finished with Michael yet.

warnings: Violence, gun violence, trauma, dehumanization, outdoor sex.

In 2019, Fodor’s had crowned LAX the worst airport on Planet Earth, comparing it – much to Mazikeen’s amusement – to Dante Alighieri’s Hell.

She couldn’t comment on the comparison’s accuracy; she’d never read Divina Comedia. Human poetry bored her.

Up against the real thing, however? Hell was quieter, cleaner, and smelt better than Los Angeles International, and it wasn’t even close.

Granted, Mazikeen was biased. Hell was her home and she liked it quite a lot. But surely even a human – even an angel – would sooner take a stint in one of Lucifer’s loops than spend more than thirty minutes in Terminal 3.

Yet there he was, leaning against the wall, watching the bustling crowd with a faint smile on his face, like a man in the park resting his eyes on the ducks. Perfectly content.

“Do you know,” he said as she approached him, “that around forty percent of all humans are scared of flying?”

She hadn’t been sure how this encounter would go and, being innately practical, had dressed accordingly. Black satin skirt, flattering and loose enough to both conceal several demon daggers (invisible to the full-body scanner she’d just sauntered through) and not impede her reaction time in a fight. Red silk wrap blouse, easily unwrapped to serve as a garrotte or tourniquet. Hair down, curled, dyed pitch black with bronze-gold streaks – possibly a tactical disadvantage if he grabbed it, but possibly a distraction. She knew he liked her hair.

When she was satisfied he wasn’t about to lunge for her throat, she took a gamble and moved in to lean against the wall alongside him, following his gaze. “Not surprising. Think of it from their perspective. They don’t have wings. Actually – huh. I guess that’s a perspective you can sympathise with now.”

He sneered. “You’re trying to bait me, Miss Mazikeen. That’s cute. But I’m not in the mood, dollface. This? This is me time. I’ve had a shitty few days and I came here specifically to soak up these idiot mortals’ fear and chill out. Get lost. Go play with my twin if you’re so starved for entertainment.”

Mazikeen stretched. “That’s the problem. He’s hanging out with the rest of your lousy family. Gabriel. Raziel. Jophiel. Now that he’s in charge, they’re all trying to crawl up his ass. It’s pathetic. And annoying.”

His jaw clenched and she knew exactly what he was thinking: ‘That should have been me.’

“Also,” she added, after a pause, “they don’t like me. Most of them have never met a demon. There’s no outright hostility but… they talk to me like I’m some gross exotic pet Lucifer found and adopted.”

“They’re afraid of you.”

“Bullshit.”

“Nope. I’m wrong about some things. Never about fear. They can tell how much you matter to him, how much he’d do for you and vis versa, and it scares them shitless. Chloe Decker they can understand – she was Dad’s gift, after all. You, though? Lucy was never supposed to love you. No one was.”

She fiddled with her earring; big, gold, shaped like a swallow with rubies dotting its tail feathers. A gift from Eve. “Whatever. Anyway, that’s why I’m here. With you. Instead of them. You’re the worst, most obnoxious, most cowardly creep ever. I mean it. Christ, do you suck. But you always talked to me like I was a person. Right from the beginning.”

Ugliness flared behind his eyes. “Seriously? Now you’re being nice? Lucifer sent his general to console me? Ha! That’s how pitiful he thinks I am?”

“Pfft – no. Lucifer doesn’t give a crap about you. I’m here because I wanna offer you a job, moron.”

“A… job.”

“Yep. Ever heard of ‘bounty-hunting’?”

He nodded. Slowly. Smirking, she pushed off the wall and twirled on her six-inch heels to face him.

“Here’s the thing, o Angel of Dread; I’ve spent centuries in Hell learning how to terrify people. I look at you and you know what I see? Potential. Sure, you’re rough around the edges. Still got some celestial baby fat clinging to you. Still a little squeamish when it comes to certain tricks of the trade. But Mikey, honey, six months under my tutelage and I think we can turn you into a bona fide fucking nightmare.”

She let the skin on her face’s left side melt away and grinned at him. “So? How about it?”

“Eh,” he said after taking one last glance around the terminal. “Fuck it. Why not? Nothing better to do.”

“Los Angeles is kinda like me,” Mazikeen told him, taking off her red-lensed cat-eye sunglasses as she strutted down the pier.

“Doesn’t have a soul?”

A withering glare. “Tough. Pretty on the outside, mean on the inside. It’s easy to make enemies around here and when you’ve made ‘em, you need to stay on your toes. Stay nimble. Stay mobile. Ready to fight or flee at any moment.”

Michael nodded. “And that’s how you justify living on a tugboat.”

“Ahoy!” called Eve, standing on the deck in a polka dot bikini and pirate hat Mazikeen had presumably stolen for her off the set of some summer blockbuster or other being shot nearby, the salty breeze playing with her hair.

“It’s a yacht,” Mazikeen growled.

“No. That’s a yacht,” Michael replied, pointing to the gleaming white MCY 70 Skylounge docked nearby. “What you have is a glorified raft that can, at best, accommodate two people and maybe a toaster.”

He should, perhaps, be trying harder to ingratiate himself with his new boss.

But he was tired.

Getting in his face, she snapped, “Hey! That’s our headquarters, asshole. Show some respect.”

“It’s covered in seagull crap. It looks older than me. There’s a very obvious bloodstain on the helm. Jesus, doesn’t Lucifer pay you?”

She pushed him into the sea.

Offering him a hand when he bobbed to the surface, Eve said, “Don’t take it personally. She’s just mad because we weren’t able to steal a bigger one.”

It was while Michael was towelling himself dry down below decks that the chunky-faced cop wandered in, took one look at him, and strode across the room.

“Mister Espinoza,” he drawled, “what can I-… oh. Oh, wow, you really thought that was going to work, huh?”

Curled up on the floor, clutching the fist he’d very mistakenly slammed into Michael’s jaw, Dan hissed, “Fuck you. You killed me.”

“Poppycock. I had you killed. That’s entirely different, buddy.”

Dan staggered to his feet and shouted, “Maze! Eve! What the hell is he doing here?”

Taking off his wet jacket and draping it over the rack alongside the towel, Michael said, “I was invited, thank you very much. No one told me you were part of the arrangement.”

“What arrangement, asshole?” Dan snapped, turning red. “I’m just here to help Maze fix her boat’s engine.”

“Oh. You don’t work with her, then? No, I suppose you wouldn’t. As we’ve established, you’re entirely too killable.”

“You sleazy son-of-a… Maze! Get down here!”

Grumbling, Michael’s new boss stalked below deck carrying a crate of beer on her left shoulder and a sleeping bag under her right arm. “Goddammit – Dan, I told you to wait. Is your hand bleeding, you big meathead? We seriously just dragged your ass out of Hell and you couldn’t go two whole days before breaking yourself again? Ugh. You’re impossible. You’re worse than Decker.”

“Maze, d’you wanna explain what the actual fuck Lucifer’s psycho twin is doing here?”

“Interning,” Michael said, cheerfully.

His face now practically purple, Dan half-yelled, “What is he talking about? This is not okay, Maze! Does Chloe know? Does Amenadiel? Why is he even still on Earth? Lucifer’s God now; can’t he stick him on Mars or turn him into a bug or something?”

“Look, Dan, just calm down-…” she began.

“I died! I actually, literally, physically died! Because of him! No, I’m not going to calm down!”

Michael scoffed. “Please. Like that’s what you’re really upset about. You’re not angry about dying. You’re not angry at all. You’re scared, buttercup. And not just of me; of her, of Lucifer, of everything, and to be honest, I didn’t even need to use the ol’ angel juice to work that out.”

Mazikeen set down her cargo, pulled a knife from her belt, and flung it. It embedded itself five inches deep in the floor between them. “This? This is not Lux, dickheads. Mortals and celestials don’t hang out here to have a good time while I sit behind the bar and tolerate them. This crummy, crusty-ass, piece of crap boat is my domain. Here, I don’t have to put up with one femtometre of your bullshit. If you want to fight, do it somewhere else. If you want to fuck, do it quick and clean up afterwards. If you want to make yourselves useful, help me get the weapons on board.”

“Wait – wait, weapons? What weapons?” said Dan to her retreating back. “You said you were going fishing. Maze! What weapons?”

“Where’s all your stuff?” Eve asked when she showed him to his tiny cabin.

“I’m an archangel. I don’t have ‘stuff’.”

(Michael had already decided he didn’t like her. She was bubbly.)

“Heh. You should travel with Lucy sometime. We went to Vancouver for a weekend and he brought seven bags, five watches, and six pairs of shoes. Okay, do you – uh, do you at least have a change of clothes? Because those look kinda soggy.”

To his annoyance – and embarrassment – she spend twenty minutes hunting down a shirt and pants that would fit him.

“They’re mine,” she said, dropping them into his lap. “But I bought them to sleep in and I like loose pyjamas, so they’re a dozen sizes too big on me. Oh! Also found you this.”

She presented a hot water bottle in the shape of a fat, cuddly sheep.

He accepted it carefully, wondering if it was booby-trapped. “You’re Lucifer’s ex, right?”

“Er… yep? Amongst other things. The Original Sinner. First Woman, First Wife, First Mother. Mother of Mankind. Second Human. First Knowledgeable Human. But sure, I was also your brother’s girlfriend for a while.”

“And now you’re Mazikeen’s. Do you also work with her?”

“Sure do!” she said, interpreting the question as an invitation to sit down next to him. “I’m The Choronzon’s captain. That’s our boat’s name. My idea. I know she’s not much to look at but she’s got so much history. There’ve been fourteen homicides on her! Plus, she’s fast; way, way faster than she looks. And I know the beds are hard, but we’ve got three hammocks stashed away and getting them set up is easy as pie.”

“Wow. Those suckers up in the Silver City don’t know what they’re missing.”

She nodded, blinking slowly. “Hmm. Maze was right. You are mean. That’s cool. I get on well with mean people. Anyway, just in case she hasn’t told you; we’ve got a job lined up and we’ll be setting sail tomorrow at dawn. You get seasick? Not a problem; we’ve got a medical kit full of antiemetics. On that note, should we pick up something for you before we leave shore?”

“No.”

“You sure? Just that – uh – I mean, my third son, Seth, the one nobody talks about – he also had pretty severe scoliosis. Wasn’t a whole lot we could do about it back then. But these days they’ve got tons of stuff; opiods and anti-inflammatories and memory foam. Science is so, so cool. And I’m going shopping for sunscreen anyway, so dropping by the pharmacy wouldn’t be a problem.”

For a moment, he reviewed a list of responses that would deeply, profoundly hurt her, responses that would ensure she didn’t approach him again.

But he was tired, tired, tired.

“Here.”

He took a folded piece of A4 paper from his pocket and handed it to her. “These are what the last human doctor I went to recommended. Getting hold of those three I’ve circled is tricky, but I know a guy. Call him on that number down there and he’ll meet you wherever. If he gives you any trouble, remind him that Michael knows about the vacuum cleaner. That’ll shut him up.”

As soon as she’d bounced out of the room, he shut the door, locked it, and laid down to sleep.

It was night when he awoke.

He went upstairs to find Mazikeen and Eve sitting on the deck, admiring what stars could be seen through Los Angeles’ perpetual light pollution and sharing a pizza.

“Mickey! Get over here,” called Mazikeen, clad in a black dressing down and slippers shaped like plump pink pigs.

“It’s freezing,” he complained.

She snickered and threw him the prickly blanket that had been resting over her knees. “Wimp. Eve told you about the job, yeah?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know how to use any weapons?” Eve asked. “Maze sticks with her knives most of the time. I prefer my traps and crossbow. But we’ve got guns, if that’s more your speed.”

They were clearly expecting him to sit down. Eve had even scooted to the left to make room.

He opened the blanket up and wrapped it around his shoulders, remaining standing. “Can I ask a question? What, precisely, is my role here?”

“For now, you’re a meat shield,” said Mazikeen, talking through a mouthful of pepperoni and violently yellow cheese. “Me and Eve are both vulnerable to bullets. I mean – I’m less vulnerable, obviously. But I don’t hate any of my relatives enough to go about finding out exactly how many bullets it takes to snuff a demon. So your job, at least tomorrow, is just to soak up enemy fire until we’ve got our hands on the target.”

Scowling, he said, “Getting shot does hurt, you know.”

“Yeah,” she replied, eyes shining with spite. “Dan sure seemed to think so.”

When the tense silence had stretched for over thirty seconds, Eve clapped her hands, smiling anxiously, and said, “So! Anyone up for rummy?”

Along the California coastline, the cruise ship Illustrious Voyager bore four thousand three hundred and ten passengers, one thousand two hundred and ninety-six crewmembers, and two guide dogs.

Five thousand six hundred and eight souls, in total.

At around 4pm, without anyone noticing, that number became five thousand six hundred and nine.

Hands clasped behind her back, Eve strolled down the promenade, admiring the vessel’s size and beauty. This fresh new millennium’s wealth astonished her. Sickened, sometimes. Entranced, sometimes. But always astonished.

Back in the garden, they’d slept on and under rocks. When it rained, they got wet. When large animals came by, they hid. No weapons. No shelter. No blankets. The only resource they’d had in abundance was food. Good grief – so much food. God had been so proud of all the different fruits and nuts and mushrooms he’d made available to them, and Adam had been so grateful. Eve supposed she had been, too.

It hadn’t stopped her from one day approaching her husband and the plump rabbits resting in his lap – two of several dozen pets – and asking if he didn’t think the cold nights would be much more endurable if they each had a warm pair of fur slippers.

Then she’d met Lucifer. Fallen in love. Bitten the apple. Learned how powerful he and his Father truly were. That was when the real questions, the sticky, prickly questions, had come bubbling up.

If Lucifer has such a vast family, with so many siblings, why can’t I have even one? she’d asked the sky. Why is Adam all I get?

And later: If You can simply bring people into existence, why must I scream and bleed and shit myself in order to have children? Am I doing it wrong? Is there another way? If there isn’t, why not?

And later: Why is nothing fair?

And, most recently, after meeting Mazikeen: Why isn’t everything at least equally unfair? Why do humans get a world of options while Maze and her family are expected to serve angels from birth to death? Why isn’t Maze allowed into Heaven, even after an eternity of loyalty and hard work?

“Sorry,” she said, flashing white teeth at a passing crewmember. “I’m trying to find a friend of mine. Can you tell me how to get to Room 835?”

Half an hour later, there was a splash and the ship’s population dropped to five thousand six hundred and seven.

Before binding his arms and legs, Eve had secured Andrew Bismarck’s lifejacket and gagged him. Furious and helpless, he bobbed alongside her as the ship moved on and Mazikeen rowed up in her inflatable raft, wearing a sunset-orange swimsuit.

“Should I be worried about those, babe?” she asked as she gripped Bismarck’s lifejacket and hauled him out of the water.

Eve smiled at the dolphin pod swimming in playful loops around her, and patted the nearest one’s nose. “No. They’re my friends.”

The inflatable wasn’t big enough for three people, so Eve held on to a friend’s dorsal fin and let him drag her back to The Choronzon.

Michael stood on the deck, looking bored. As they climbed aboard, their prisoner slung over Mazikeen’s shoulder, he drawled, “Seriously? This sad specimen’s worth two million dollars?”

“Actually, his net worth is eight hundred million,” said Mazikeen, dumping him down. “Two million is just what his ex-wife is willing and able to pay.”

Wringing out her hair, Eve added, “She took half his money in the divorce but she gave almost all of it to a chimpanzee shelter. I really like her!”

His lip curled. “How delightfully sordid. Isn’t this all a little beneath you, Ms Mazikeen? I mean, you’re a big deal in Hell. High Commander of Lucifer’s legions, head advisor to the king himself. Aren’t you worried taking jobs like this diminishes you?”

Busy handcuffing Bismarck to the railing, Mazikeen said, “Eve, honey? Do me a favour?”

“Boop!” Eve chirped, having already snuck up behind Michael, and pushed him overboard.

“I know it’s your whole gimmick,” Mazikeen called down as he splashed and spluttered, his face red with princely indignation. “And I know you don’t have a lot else going for you. But the next time you try that on me, I will stop being nice. Kapish?”

“Kapish,” he muttered.

The Choronzon had barely travelled a mile before Eve spotted Bismarck’s henchmen coming after them.

“Someone gimme details!” shouted Mazikeen, busy putting a bulletproof vest on over her bikini and opening up the box she’d told Dan contained a fishing rod, not a halberd.

Eve peered through her binoculars. “Two speedboats. Twelve guys on jet skis. Guns everywhere.”

“Heh. Awesome. Mickey – move that tight ass to the front and make like a nice juicy target.”

“Wait, what about-…” Michael began, trailing off as Mazikeen dove gracefully into the sea.

Bouncing from foot to foot, Eve shot him a grin. “Don’t look so glum, sourpuss. This is the fun part.”

She’d never spoken to Michael in Heaven, despite the millennia they’d both resided only two miles apart, her in a lakeside cottage on the outskirts of the Silver City, him in the crystal palace in its centre.

Granted, she’d not exactly had a warm and fuzzy relationship with any of Lucifer’s siblings. They all knew what had happened in the garden. Some had been nice – Amenadiel had visited often, even though he’d never had much to say and they’d spent their time together skipping stones across the lake’s surface. But the others had kept her at a distance. She was a bad influence.

Michael, however, was the only angel she’d not ever said one word to.

She’d seen him, now and then, in the early days, when she was the only human in Heaven and, as such, grudgingly invited to divine family get-togethers. On those occasions, she’d spent too much time feeling awkward and out-of-place to pay attention to the sullen figure lurking in whatever shadows were available. The one time she’d glanced his way, it had been to marvel at the stories of people getting the twins mixed up; beyond the raw basics of bone structure, Michael couldn’t have looked less like her old lover.

Bullets sprayed across the hull. Humming, Eve stepped daintily into Michael’s shadow, seconds before they started bouncing off his shoulders and chest.

“It is beneath her,” he muttered.

She made an ambiguous noise. “How d’you figure?”

There came a shout and a splash from the nearest jet ski. The bullets stopped.

“C’mon. She’s Mazikeen. Everyone in the Silver City knows about Mazikeen. Ordinarily, we couldn’t give two dry shits about Lucifer’s minions, but her? She’s a minor celebrity. The power behind Hell’s throne. Christ, it’s no secret my beloved twin couldn’t govern his way out of a paper bag.”

“Yeah,” she said, smiling fondly. “He’s kind of bad at everything. Except music. He’s a great musician.”

More shouting. More shooting. More bullets bouncing off Michael’s torso. Mazikeen rode by, one hand gripping her newly-acquired jet ski’s throttle lever, the other clutching her bloodstained halberd. Watching her circle the enemy, Eve was reminded of a sheep dog.

Michael went on: “And then there’s the fact that for a while, everyone thought Lucifer was going to marry her. It was all anyone could talk about. Jophiel was taking bets on when the proposal would happen. She’d have been High Commander and the Queen of Hell. Instead? All of a sudden, Lucifer takes an indefinite vacay to the mortal realm, drags her with him, and next thing anyone knows, she’s working behind a bar.”

The remaining jet skis and their terrified, wounded riders had been neatly rounded up, which meant it was time for Eve to open her purse.

“Um – how long have those been in there?” asked Michael, watching her take out three grenades.

“You want one?” she offered. “Don’t forget to take the pin out before you throw it. I did that my first time.”

One thing to be said for millions of dull, dull years spent sitting next to God’s Greatest Warrior, skipping stones across a lake; your aim got good.

The first blast was a warning, not close enough to actually kill any of Bismarck’s men, though the resultant waves did knock several into the water. They tried to retreat, turning their vehicles around, only to remember Mazikeen, corralling them single-handed and now armed with machine guns she’d confiscated from those already bested.

When they saw the second and third grenade incoming, they gave up and abandoned the jet skis, jumping into the sea and swimming for their lives.

“Fuck!” Michael yelped, blocking his ears at the concomitant explosions.

Gazing past the debris and smoke, Eve saw Mazikeen head for the nearest of the two speedboats. Its occupants, preoccupied with aiming a rocket launcher at The Choronzon, saw her coming far too late.

“I get your point,” said Eve, as her girlfriend and her halberd made short work of the crew. “But that’s a really… how can I put this? It’s a really angelic way of looking at things. Maze doesn’t consider anything ‘beneath her’.”

“Wow. Sick burn. You’re basically admitting she has no pride.”

“Oh, she’s got pride. Tons of pride. Her pride’s just dependant on how well she does a job, not on the type of job she has. She wasn’t happy working at Lux, but that wasn’t because she thought bartending was ‘beneath her’; it was because she prefers doing things she’s good at. Customer service isn’t really one of her strengths.”

The second speedboat was abandoned by its crew mere seconds before Mazikeen rammed the first speedboat into it, cackling victoriously.

“Actually,” Eve said, moving from Michael’s shadow to where Mazikeen had earlier set a crate of peach soda – her favourite – out on the deck, “now that you mention it, I guess I’m the one with no pride. Haven’t really ever had anything to be proud of. Your Dad never gave me the chance. I was never meant to do things. I was just meant to be.”

Michael snorted. “Lucky you. Trust me; he may have softened in his later years, but back in the day he never, ever stopped riding our asses. You think Lucy really rebelled because he had better plans for how the universe should be run? Because he was an innovator? Nope. Lazy dick just hated being told to do his chores.”

By the time Mazikeen swam back to them, saltwater had washed off the blood and her ponytail had come loose.

“Oh, hey,” said Eve, gripping her hand and pulling her up. “A mermaid.”

After pressing a rough kiss to her cheek and taking a swig of peach soda, Mazikeen asked, “You okay? He did his job?”

Eve patted the angel’s shoulder – the one that wouldn’t hurt. “He was terrific! Awesome addition to the team.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Michael mumbled.

Ignoring him, Mazikeen snatched up a towel to dry her hair. “Glad to hear it. Alright! Let’s get Bismarck back to shore, get paid, and find a place to have dinner so we can toast Team Hellrazor’s first successful mission.”

“R-A-Z-O-R,” Eve informed Michael. “To make it cooler.”

Bombshell curls. The only way to celebrate victory.

“Should I even ask why your hair smells like burning plastic?” asked Britney, a sixty-four year old veteran stylist with spectacles and a bright blue bob. She’d worked in Hollywood since she was seventeen and her skilled hands, according to rumour, had tended to Viola Davis herself.

Mazikeen flipped through a magazine with the hand that wasn’t getting its nails painted red-gold by two assistants down on their knees, as intensely focused as if they were touching up The Last Supper. “Blew up some jet skis. Don’t worry about it.”

Picking up the curling iron, Britney said, “That handsome guy you and Eve came in with… new boyfriend?”

“Ha! No. Not in a million years. He’s my intern.”

Eve had only wanted a trim and, as soon as it was done, had dragged Michael away to shop for books and shoes. She was trying, without much subtlety, to work out what he liked; what he did for fun; if he was even capable of having fun. Waste of time, in Mazikeen’s opinion, especially considering that before the end of the week he’d probably run away to some dark hole where he could get back to wallowing in his bitterness. But maybe not. Eve clearly had hope and Mazikeen trusted her judgement.

As the assistants moved on to her other hand, her phone buzzed.

Glancing up to meet Britney’s gaze in the mirror, Mazikeen said, “Get that for me? My nails are wet and it’s probably Eve. Word’s got out what happens to all other humans who call me on a Saturday.”

The older woman’s blue eyebrows bounced as she picked up the phone. “Might be that tasty boss of yours!”

“Nope,” she muttered, old unhappiness flaring hot in her heart. “He only ever calls when he wants me to do something and right now, there’s nothing he can’t do himself.”

Britney held the phone up in front of her face.

There was a message from Linda.

Charlie’s missing his Auntie Maze – see u for dinner Tuesday? J <3

“Uh – are you crying?” asked Britney.

“No!” she snapped. “Just… shut up. Reply for me. Say yes. And add a knife emoji. I always use knife emojis.”

Just then, a white woman with long brown hair and skinny jeans strode purposefully into the salon.

Britney tutted and held up a hand. “Ma’am? I’m sorry, but Ms Smith has booked the entire…”

She trailed off as the woman’s eyes flashed red.

“Chantinelle,” Mazikeen greeted, spinning the chair round and crossing her legs regally. “It’s okay, Britney. She’s a friend. Well – an ally.”

Gravel-voiced, like she smoked heavily, the other demon drawled, “I’m touched, your great and gracious Majesty.”

Mazikeen snickered. “Bitch, get over here.”

With a smirk, Chantinelle marched over and planted a fierce kiss on her cheek.

“What news from Hell?” Mazikeen asked her sister.

Chantinelle briefed her while Britney and the others finished up her curls and manicure. They spoke in Lilim, Chantinelle parking her denim-clad butt on the vanity next to an arsenal of combs and keeping one eye on the door. She’d already tried twice to convince Mazikeen that a queen needed a bodyguard, to no avail.

When their meeting was concluded, Britney said, “So you’re from Holland, right? Oh! It’s a lovely country. My cousin lives there and she’s always telling me to visit.”

(Britney knew they weren’t from Holland. Britney knew they weren’t from Earth. Britney was one of those people who coped with uncomfortable realities like demons in her workplace by ignoring them.)

“Will you be coming home soon?” Chantinelle asked before she left.

Studying her reflection – avoiding her sister’s gaze – Mazikeen said, “Mmm. Yeah. Soon. Just got a few things to finish up here.”

“Well, don’t keep us waiting too long. The family misses you. I mean – it’s been years, y’know?”

“I know. I do.”

“I didn’t know you had a family,” Britney commented after Chantinelle had gone. “How come you never talk about them?”

Mazikeen handed over a wad of blood-spattered cash. “Eh. After a while, I figured out that nobody likes it when I do.”

She began making her way across the mall to Eve’s favourite shoe shop, then stopped when she approached the arcade and heard her girlfriend’s laugh over the beeps and buzzes of various games.

Unsurprised, she wandered in and found her on the Dance Dance Revolution platform, barefoot and skirt twirling as she beat the shit out of someone’s high score, surrounded by a crowd of cheering, applauding onlookers.

Michael stood off to the side, clutching three bulging shopping bags and looking mortified.

“I couldn’t stop her,” he hissed to Mazikeen. “What the hell? What the actual hell? I thought you were trying to maintain a reputation on this crummy rock! What’re your enemies going to think if this is how your allies behave in public?”

“I figure they’ll think something like, ‘Oh my God, she’s tapping that? I am going to literally die of jealousy’,” Mazikeen said, kicking off her stilettos and handing them to him. “Go fetch us some bottled water, wimp. We’ll be here for a while.”

Eve’s competitor on the adjacent platform yelped as Mazikeen shoved him off and took his place.

“Hi, pretty lady,” said Eve, her eyes sparkling. “You know I’ve been dancing for millions of years, right?”

Mazikeen grinned at her and tossed back her bombshell curls. “Bring it, beautiful.”

Out the corner of her eye, she saw Michael blush bright red.

What was he doing here?

“We are fifteen miles over the speed limit!”

Mazikeen cackled and drove faster. In the seat beside her, Eve punched the air and turned up the radio until Michael thought Rihanna’s voice would burst even his divine eardrums. (Contrary to his brother’s accusations, he did, in fact, enjoy some types of music. Just not when it was loud or fast-paced.)

“May I remind you of a crucial fact?” he demanded, having to shout to be heard. “It’s not me who’ll die if this thing flips! Angel, remember? You two are the ones who’ll be splattered all over the road! Hello? Is anybody listening to me?”

“I’m a fine-tuned supersonic speed machine,” Mazikeen sang.

The desert outside the cherry-red convertible they’d stolen in Las Vegas was a sickening blur and he hated it. Not that he’d never travelled this fast – though he was slower than just about all his siblings in the air, he could still outpace a jet. But flying under his own power couldn’t be compared to being trapped in this hideous human death trap under the command of a demon and a madwoman.

“I’ll be fine,” he said, this time to himself, gripping his seatbelt with both hands like it was the neck of an angry serpent. “Whatever happens. Even if we crash. They’ll die. I’ll be fine.”

“Hey!” called Eve, turning to look at him, squinting. “Are you really not having fun? Maze! Slow down! He’s not having fun.”

Mazikeen groaned but brought them back to a less terrifying percentage of light speed, while Eve undid her seatbelt and climbed into the back with Michael.

He sputtered. “Jesus H. Christ – you’re not supposed to do that while the vehicle is moving. Rules exist for a reason, goddammit.”

“I’m sorry we freaked you out,” Eve told him, with… confusing sincerity.

None of his siblings had ever apologised for frightening him, Lucifer least of all (“Aww – don’t be so nervous, brother!” and a golden laugh from the brave, adventurous Morningstar after he’d enticed Michael to fly with him into a hurricane for fun and the noise and sight of it had made his twin cry).

When Michael was young, he’d assumed that was because apologies were for lesser beings, like mortals – except that when he’d discovered his latent talent for underhanded pranks, his siblings had all turned around and demanded apologies from him. The pranks had become progressively mean-spirited after that.

Waiting for the other shoe to drop – for the punchline – he said, carefully, “It’s fine.”

The wind had blown Eve’s hair all over the place. As she brushed it out of her eyes, he was reminded that today she’d chosen to wear one of her thin white summer dresses, this one low-cut enough to make it clear that that was all she was wearing.

Now mischievous, she winked at him. “But you know… if I made a habit of following those rules you like so much, I’d still be married and bored out of my mind. Wanna kiss?”

He nearly jumped out of the car.

“Uh,” he croaked.

His gaze flickered past Eve’s inquisitive face to the back of Mazikeen’s head. How long did he have? How many milliseconds left before she turned around and tore out his throat in a fit of frenzied jealousy?

“Hell, yeah!” Mazikeen cheered, throwing up the horns. “One of you take a picture for me. Or, better yet, move over so I can see you in the rear view mirror.”

Eve’s chin tilted downwards as she examined Michael. “I dunno. Doesn’t seem like he’s into it. Er – yikes. Actually, I think he’s gonna throw up. Might wanna pull over, babe.”

“I’m not going to throw up! I just need… just need air. Could you sit back for a moment?” he hissed.

She did so and he got his breathing under control. Crap, his shoulder hurt so much today.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, fidgeting. “I didn’t mean to-…”

“Is this because of him?” Michael snarled, suddenly furious.

“What?”

“Him! Lucifer! He dumped you, yeah? And now you’re – what, trying to get back at him by hitting on me? Or is it just because I look like him so I’m the best substitute you can get, or-…”

She slapped him.

It hurt.

(It really did. What? Since when did getting hit by mortals hurt?)

Mazikeen whistled approvingly.

“No,” said Eve, half-growling. “I’m not like that. I don’t use people like that, Michael.”

He touched the part of his face where her skin had met his. It felt hot. Tingly. He swallowed. “Um – right. Got it.”

“Do you?”

“Yes.”

The anger in her eyes subsided. “Good. Now, would you like to kiss me or not? It’s fine if you don’t want to. You’ll still be part of the team. This is just for fun.”

Feeling oafish and off-kilter, he gestured at Mazikeen. “Won’t she mind?”

“Nope!” Mazikeen volunteered without hesitation.

Eve, exasperated, huffed, “I already asked her if she’d mind. Do you really think I’d put the offer on the table if I hadn’t? Whatever they say about me in the Silver City, I’m neither frivolous nor disloyal. I didn’t go behind Adam’s back when I fell in love with your brother; I told him to his face what I was doing.”

“Oh. Didn��t know that.”

“Because he didn’t tell anyone. He didn’t care. Adam was a decent man who didn’t love me at all. But Maze does, and I love her, and we’ve decided this is something we’re both okay with.”

“Yeah, most demons are poly,” Mazikeen told him. “As long as everyone’s on board and on the same page, you can hook up with whoever you like.”

“Last chance: kiss or no kiss?” said Eve.

She was close enough now for him to smell her perfume. His chest felt tight. “I don’t like ultimatums.”

“Okay. How about wagers? I bet you anything I’m the best kisser you’ve ever met. Or requests? Please, please kiss me, Michael. Or-…”

She was so warm. Her breath flowing into his mouth felt like drinking hot chocolate on a Winter’s night, sugary heat poured down his throat and filling up his whole chest.

His bones seemed to melt. He slid down the seat, half-pushed, until he lay almost flat with her on top of him, cradling his face in her hands, her thumbs making slow, comforting circles on his jaw.

“Ghnnff-fu-fuck,” he slurred.

That he was hard, and had been hard ever since he’d noticed how low-cut her dress was, seemed almost irrelevant in the face of far more interesting observations, like the soft grunts she made or the way her breasts felt pressed tight against him, until she slid a thigh between his legs.

He cried out. Arched.

“There you go,” she purred against his neck.

Elegant and effortless, she took off her shoes and her panties, and slid down onto his cock with a soft, fluttering sigh. Grabbed his hand and raised it to cover one of her nipples.

Just before he came, he opened his eyes and gazed up, and the sun had moved behind her, draining all but her edges of definition, and the wind had picked up her hair again and sent it billowing up and out, like dark wings. Like his wings.

“Michael! Ah!”

The car stopped.

“Huh,” said Mazikeen. “There’s something you don’t see every day.”

She pointed. Panting, they both followed her finger.

Across the sky, from one horizon to the next, the clouds had arranged themselves into the words

I LOVE YOU DETECTIVE !!!!

-LM

“Oh, crud,” said Eve.

Fuck the next bounty.

After thinking about it for ten seconds, Mazikeen turned them around and started driving straight for Los Angeles.

Eve can talk to him. Not me. He needs to talk to someone, and Eve will do.

Barely half a mile later, Amenadiel dropped out of the sky and landed in the middle of the road, just far enough away for her to bring the car to a screeching halt before it would otherwise have slammed into him like wet clay into a steel wall.

“We’ve got a problem,” he said, looking exhausted.

She snorted and pointed skyward. “Yeah. This? Not gonna lie, I was expecting something like this. But I thought it would take, like, at least a month.”

Wincing, Amenadiel said, “No, that’s… that’s a different problem and Chloe’s promised to discuss it with him. Maze, we need you back at Lux. Now.”

“Hi, Amenadiel!” Eve called, waving.

He succeeded in smiling at her without even glancing at Michael, despite his younger brother sitting right at her side, glaring fixedly.

“Why?” demanded Mazikeen, tensely drumming her fingers on the wheel. (Inner voice hissing, Shouldn’t have left him alone, you dumb bitch, you’ve been doing this for centuries and you know what he’s like when you leave him alone for more than five minutes.) “Seriously – what could he possibly need me for? He’s God.”

Sighing, Amenadiel put his wings away. “Mazikeen, we’re all well aware that Lucy often… has difficulty focusing. To put it mildly. There’s a lot more for him to focus on now than ever before. He’s trying to undo climate change. To that end, he started refreezing all the melted ice in the Arctic. But he did it too quickly and, resultantly, there are several hundred trapped ships we need to save and several thousand dead penguins to resurrect and, to be honest, he hasn’t really got the hang of resurrection yet – you remember what Dan looked like for the first few hours after Lucifer brought him back to life…”

“Eurgh. Yeah. Yuck. Totes not the kinda shit you’d wanna see in Happy Feet.”

Michael was snickering.

“Right. And then there are all the changes he’s been making locally,” Amenadiel went on. “The expansion of Lux, the overnight disappearance of all Los Angeles’ firearms, his deciding that the city’s white supremacist population should grow a third ear so they can be easily identified, and, well, it turns out that a lot of Chloe’s colleagues at the police station-…”

“I get it, I get it. Chaos everywhere. As usual. What, exactly, is the problem he wants me to fix?”

Amenadiel exhaled heavily. “The demons. The ones you brought from Hell to help us defeat Michael.”

“Oh, so you do remember I exist,” Michael muttered.

Stonily ignoring him, Amenadiel said, “They’re still on Earth and they’re causing trouble. The one called Dromos, in particular. He’s gathered followers and they’ve surrounded Lux.”

Her brother’s face – his real face, not the human puppet he wore – flashed through her mind’s eye; a memory from when they were unruly children and had raced through Hell together, using the stone pillars that they’d not yet known were cells as an obstacle course. She’d been faster; he, more athletic. Together with a few cousins, they’d made a fearsome team, and not even their meanest older siblings had bullied them.

She folded her arms and looked away. “They’re demons. Lucifer can deal with them. Snap his fingers and turn them into rats or whatever. Make them explode.”

“Mazikeen,” Eve murmured, soft and low, touching her shoulder. “You don’t want that. They’re your family.”

Amenadiel blinked, as though that hadn’t occurred to him. “Er… yes, there’s that. There’s also the fact that Lucifer doesn’t want all of humanity to see him as the type of God who casually annihilates his enemies; a harsh, vindictive God. He wants to be liked. To be loved.”

“Fine. So why don’t you and the other angels sort it out?”

“Come now, Maze. A bunch of angels and a bunch of demons waging war in the midst of a bustling city? Humans will die. But you’re the Queen of Hell now and, by extension, the Queen of Demons. If you command Dromos to stand down, he will. This can all be resolved peacefully.”

Eve’s fingertips were cool against her skin.

Mazikeen looked back at the sky. The cloud letters were starting to dissolve. “What does he want?”

“Who?”

“Dromos. He doesn’t act on instinct. He’s a planner. He wants something.”

Shrugging, Amenadiel said, “He shouted at me about demanding an audience with the king. I didn’t ask for details. I don’t really care. Dromos isn’t someone I’m inclined to listen to at the best of times. The last time the wretch showed his face on Earth, he kidnapped my son.”

“Mmm. Kinda like your sister was gonna do. Kinda like you were gonna do, now that I think about it.”

“Maze!” he gasped, sounding shocked and hurt. “You can’t compared poor Remiel’s misguided actions to-…”

“I’ll do it,” she interrupted. “Take me to Lux. Now.”

“Excuse me? What about us?” snapped Michael.

Mazikeen met Eve’s gentle gaze. “You don’t need to be involved in this. My family drama, it – it’s not pretty.”

“My son killed my son,” said Eve, taking her hand. “My husband loved another woman. I’m used to drama.”

Swallowing, Mazikeen glanced at Michael. “And you, wimp?”

Feigning disinterest – feigning it badly – he said, “You showed up to my last domestic dispute. Guess this’ll make us square.”

“I’ve only got two arms. I can’t carry all of you,” Amenadiel pointed out.

Mazikeen rubbed her chin. “No… but you can carry the car, right?”

He didn’t have time for this. There was so much to do.

“World hunger,” he recited as he bounced from one laptop to the next, all twenty-three of them displaying a different article or video by a leading scientific or sociological mind, “wealth inequality, pollution, cancer, droughts, racism, elderly abuse, housing shortages, cruelty to animals…”

“Lucifer,” said Linda patiently, sitting on his best couch with her legs crossed, a cup of coffee and a laptop of her own beside her. “You said you wanted my advice as to how you should manage this whole ‘being God’ business.”

“I do, doctor! Very much. Your input is invaluable. Blast, where did I put that map of Alaska? I’m thinking of making it bigger; slotting it in alongside the Arctic to help stabilise all that new ice.”

“Right. Thanks. So here – here is what I’m suggesting now; slow down. Seriously. Take a breath, step back, and think your next move through.”

He scoffed. “‘Slow down’? Doctor, I need to work at least three times faster if I’m to keep up with everything. There are people suffering everywhere, millions of them! There are sinners in need of punishment! I’m seriously considering asking Chloe to be my Deputy God. I never imagined omnipotence would entail so much paperwork and she’s always been better at that than me.”

Outside the penthouse, many stories below, the chanting grew louder. None of the human police officers, journalists, and gawkers who’d gathered to watch could understand it; it was in Lilim.

Cursing, Lucifer strode to the balcony and shouted down, “For the last time, would you all kindly piss off? I’m trying to fix an entire planet here!”

He heard the elevator open and moaned. “Detective, not now. Please. I’m very sorry I haven’t returned your calls – I swear I’m not avoiding you – it’s just that I’ve got a lot on my plate today and we did already agree to meet for supper at-…”

“Lucifer,” said Linda, sounding terrified.

“Lucifer,” said someone else, sounding irritable.

Now that he was God, rage didn’t turn his eyes red anymore. It turned them gold and blindingly bright, like spotlights. Fists clenched, he turned to see Dromos step into the penthouse, once again clad in the flesh of the late Father Kinley and wearing a leather jacket.

“Nice trick, making all the doors disappear. Finally decided to climb up the side of the building with a sledgehammer and burrow my way through into the elevator shaft,” said the demon, hands in his pockets and concrete dust coating his beard and his bald head. “I want to talk to you, sire.”

Storming across the room while Linda remained frozen, white-faced, on the couch, Lucifer snarled, “You! You have the nerve to come here, to stand before me, after what you did to my nephew?”

He took Dromos by the neck and lifted him off the ground, his wings opening in fury (he had six of them now).

Stoical even as he choked, Dromos said, “I need. To talk. I will leave immediately afterwards.”

“Oh, you’ll leave, alright! You’ll be lucky if I don’t throw you into an active volcano, you accursed traitor!”

Dromos’ stolen skin began to sizzle beneath his fingers. He waited until the demon’s face was wrinkled with pain before throwing him to the floor hard enough to crack the wood and make a crater.

“I will leave,” Dromos gasped, coughing up blood, “when I have spoken.”

“What could you possibly have to say for yourself? Kidnapper. Child-thief.”

Still on the couch, Linda said tremulously, “Lucifer, you’re… you’re hurting him. Stop it. Please.”

“Let us stay!” shouted Dromos, and coughed again before dragging himself up onto his knees. “On Earth. That’s what I came to say. Let your erstwhile subjects stay on Earth if they choose – at least, those who served you in the battle against Michael. Don’t force them to return to Hell. Let them, let us choose where we live, going forward. That’s my request, your Majesty. My only request.”

Lucifer boggled at him. “Is that a joke? Demons? On Earth, indefinitely, unsupervised? Are you out of your tiny mind, Dromos?”

Baring teeth, Dromos said, “Why not? What does it matter to you now? You’ve got everything you could possibly want. Everything anyone could possibly want! All we’re asking is the freedom to come and go as we please.”

“No.”

He spoke the word bluntly, and then he stepped back, adjusting his cuffs. Regaining his composure. “Never. You’re dangerous and untrustworthy. This world is for humans, not you. Good grief, haven’t I got enough to preoccupy my mind, without the added stress of demons rampaging around town?”

“We won’t rampage. We just-…”

“Why are you even coming to me with this? Mazikeen’s the new Queen of Hell. Didn’t you get the memo?”

Dromos wiped blood from his lips. “I don’t know if my sister and I are on speaking terms right now. And she may be Queen, but you’re God; I assumed you would be tasked with such decisions. After all, there’s never been a demon in charge of Hell before. We were told – we were always told – that only angels could rule us. I don’t doubt Mazikeen’s competence, but I…”

He seemed to run out of steam, spreading his hands and finishing weakly, “Lucifer, you’re the king. You’ve been the king for millions of years. For my entire life. Look, if you really don’t want us leaving Hell, then can you at least use your newfound power to improve it? Let us have the things mortals enjoy? Pianos, dogs, blankets, weekends, all that stuff?”

Lucifer rolled his eyes. “That would rather defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it? Hell is supposed to be a place of punishment. The ultimate consequence awaiting sinners. I need a carrot and a stick, Dromos. How else am I supposed to convince people to behave if I don’t? Imagine a rapist arriving in Hell and being confronted with demons playing pianos and walking their dogs. Wouldn’t have quite the desired effect, would it?”

Dromos was quiet for a moment, then said without inflection, “Perhaps you could find somewhere else to put rapists. Somewhere other than our home.”

Throwing up his arms, Lucifer said, “More demands! Don’t you see how selfish you’re being? Here I am, doing my best to end all suffering, and you’re complaining about babysitting a few evil-doers – which, might I remind you, is your job. Nay, your very reason for existence. Always has been. Why’re you getting stroppy about it now?”

“I think,” Linda began, taking a tentative step forward before stopping and clearing her throat. “Excuse me. May I interrupt? Um. Okay, so I think that maybe Dromos has a point here, Lucifer.”

“Doctor! This is the creature that stole your baby!”

“Yes, I know. And I’m not saying I forgive him for that, but…”

“I wasn’t going to eat the brat,” Dromos grumbled. “I was going to make him a king.”

“You took him away from his mother!” Lucifer shouted.

“Gentlemen!” said Linda, sharply. “Please! Let’s try to talk this through like adults.”

Overcome with frustration, and only vaguely aware that he’d not been sleeping well lately, Lucifer kicked the nearest chair. “I can’t believe you’re siding with him, doctor.”

“I’m not siding with anyone. I-…”

“You don’t know these people like I do. You didn’t spend millions of years in Hell alongside them. The only demon you’ve ever gotten acquainted with is Maze, and she’s not like the others; even without a soul, she’s learned how to behave like a more-or-less civilised adult, barring the occasional tantrum. But your average, baseline demon has nothing to them besides wrath and cruelty. Lilith made them to be weapons and that’s all they really are. I mean – just imagine, for a moment, how hard it was for me. To go from the Silver City, the most beautiful place ever created, to a lightless nightmare realm full of these bloodthirsty animals. To be surrounded by them, for endless eons, while they nattered mindlessly on and on about how much they love torture and pain and…”

He trailed off. Linda and Dromos were both looking past him.

To the elevator. Where – oh – Mazikeen was standing.

Where Mazikeen was crying.

No sobs, not like when Dan had died. No expression at all, really. Just open eyes, motionless muscles, and steady tears.

Before Lucifer could say a word, she pressed the button to close the elevator doors.

“Wait!” he yelped, sprinting over to stop them.

He needn’t have bothered. Now that he was God, objects did whatever he told them to do. The doors stilled, half-open.

“That sounded wrong,” he acknowledged, clasping her shoulders in apology. “You completely missed the context. What I was trying to say was-…”

“Don’t touch me.”

It was a phrase he’d heard many times before from mortal lovers to whom he had accidentally revealed his Devil Face. Some of them said it in horror. Some of them, the religious ones, said it in anger.

Mazikeen looked neither horrified nor angry. She looked sick. As though the very sight of him turned her stomach.

Lumbering over, Dromos stepped into the elevator alongside her and pointedly pressed the button again. With no idea what to do or say, Lucifer allowed the machinery to work.

The elevator closed.

“What have I done?” he asked Linda.

Nothing I didn’t know.

“Maze?” called Eve, waiting by the car with the others as Mazikeen stepped out of Lux’s front door and into the sunlight.

The door hadn’t been there when they’d arrived. She’d been forced to use Dromos’ route. Lucifer must have decided to put it back. He could do that now. Just decide things. Didn’t need servants, nor followers, nor anyone. Sure didn’t need a ‘more-or-less civilised adult’ whose kin were animals.

“Maze! Wait!”

Mazikeen didn’t know where she was going, only that she was walking very quickly and felt that she’d die if she stopped. She heard Eve’s heels patter on the pavement and heard her say her name a third time, quiet and worried, and that was what stilled her feet.

“What happened?” murmured Eve, cupping her face.

The fifty or so demons who’d been standing around outside Lux when Amenadiel had set the car and its passengers down were still there. Instead of chanting to get their king’s attention, they were now looking at her.

Michael and Amenadiel stood among them, the latter having been trying to convince them to stop blocking traffic.

Which was what she should have been doing. It was what he’d brought her here to do. But she’d been gripped by a sudden, violent need to see Lucifer, to check on him, just quickly, before tending to her siblings. Once a bodyguard, always a bodyguard.

Except that wasn’t what I was. Not to him. To him, I was a Rottweiler on a leash.

“Are you alright?” asked Amenadiel, his eyes overflowing with concern.

That was what cracked her.

To him. Not to everyone. Not to Eve, or Amenadiel, or Linda. It’s not that I’m incapable of earning love and respect.

I’m just incapable of earning his.

Her legs gave out. She crumpled against Lux’s outside wall and started to weep properly, loud and bitter.

Eve immediately dropped down beside her, holding her tight. Michael shuffled closer, rubbing his shoulder while his mouth opened and shut, testing out sentences that were never spoken.

Then Dromos was there, kneeling, his face sad and tired.

“We did what we were told,” she said to him in Lilim, through sniffles. “We obeyed. We were loyal. We… we…”

“We are alone, sister,” he replied. “But I think we always were.”

“We obeyed!”

“We obeyed Lilith and she left. We obeyed Lucifer and he left. No one wants us, Mazikeen. It’s just the truth.”

She took a shuddering breath and squeezed her eyes shut. “No. I want us.”

Seizing his jacket’s shoulder, she hauled herself to her feet and addressed the crowd, her voice raw: “I want you! You’re my family and I want you! And I swear I will be the queen you deserve, for as long as you’ll have me!”

Her human skin fell away, the left side of her face turning cold, bony, and brittle.

Stepping back to join their siblings, Dromos asked hesitantly, “What would you have us do, then, my queen? What are your orders?”

Hurriedly drying her eyes, she studied them one by one. “Whoever wants to can stay here. But I’m going home. Hell is going to be ours, Dromos. No more damned souls. No more angels. It’s ours now and we’re going to make it into something we can love.”

She turned to face Eve and Michael, her heart pounding. “You’ll come with me, yeah? You’ll stand with me?”

“Always,” said Eve, closing in to kiss her.

“Whatever,” Michael muttered, clearly just relieved that the crying part was over.

Amenadiel sighed, shaking his head gravely. “Mazikeen, are you sure this is what you want? You won’t be able to leave Hell on your own – you’ll need to contact me.”

“Yeah. At least until this one grows his feathers back,” she said, gesturing at Michael. “That’s okay. You’ll always come when I call, right?”

“Of course. You’re my friend, Maze. I’m sorry if I haven’t said that often enough.”

Fuck it. Cringing on the inside, Mazikeen drew Amenadiel into a quick, gruff hug. “You too, idiot.”

TO BE CONTINUED

#lucifer #mazikeen #lucifer morningstar #eve #michael #michael demiurgos #amenadiel #dan espinoza #linda martin #fanfic #my fic

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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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Ducktales Della Arc Reviews: The Last Crash of the Sunchaser!

Hello all you happy people. I’ve been dreading this one.. not because it’s bad. Quite the oppisite. In fact on rewatch I was marveling at how brilliant this one was and remembering why it was on my best of list. But because the ending, as you all well know, is the most gutwrenching part of the entire series. Three seasons and lots of other heartrending moments.. and the ending of this episode from the big reveal to that final shot above tears you the fuck apart. It’s hard to watch even know it all works out in the end and that i’d be watching the conclusion the next day instead of having to wait a rather painful week like I did at first airing. It’s just that good. So join me under the cut for a review of one of the series finest half hours and some of David Tennant’s best work as we crash the Sunchaser one last time.. for this season... and i think Launchpad crashes it again in the finale so I don’t get that title.

So our plot for the episode is that

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Yes Clan McDuck is taking their version of a vacation. It’s off to Monocrow for the E.X.C.E.S.S. Expo! Yes it’s the EXCESS Expo! With the latest in racecars lasers and many more! The EXCESS Expo! With booths from such welcome guests as Stark International, Muppet Labs, S.T.A.R. Labs, VenTech, The Franklin Sherman Memorial Fishmobabywhirlomgig Institute, TCRI, Gryzzl, Sumdac Systems, G-Heavy Industries, Tylerco, Lexcorp, Wayne Enterprises, Quickstart, The Gizmonic Institute, Alchemax,and Baintronics! But that’s not all! We also have huge paneeellls! Hank Pym’s “The ethics of dating your robot grandaughter”, Reed Richards “How to Dispatch an Evil Council made up entirely of yourself!”, Victor Von Dooms “CURSE YOU RICHARDS I’M SMARTER FOR I AM DOOM”, Stanford Pines with “How to Kill a Godlike Demon and Get your Smile Back”, Dr. Bunsen Hondedew with “How to abuse your assitant in 2020″ Dr.Light with “The Ethics of helping your robot child fight an evil albert einstein”, Profesor Henry Hidgens with “The incoming apocalypse with songs from Working Boys: A New Musical” Ray Palmer “Welcome To Pain”, and you know our friend Ass Dan will be in full effect> yeah bitch you know he’s going to live forev... what’s that? He’s dead. oh shame. Someone call rusty venture. Yes I know i’m typing this. Shut up. THE EXCESS EXPO. BE THERE OR WE’LL SEND OUR ROBOTS AFTER YOU.

... Where.. Where was I? Oh yes, big vacation. Monocrow.. which sadly is not just a big field with just Crow T. Robot in it. Someday you’ll get MST3K/Ducktales Jake, someday. Point is our heroes are excited, and Scrooge is also there to find the Maltese MacGuffin, a mysterious artifact no one’s ever seen. And the kids and Scrooge have their own specail guest joining them: Bentina! Yeah turns out she has hundreds of vacation days built up, and simply hasn’t used them so she’s using a few to join them. It also once again shows how much less of a heartless money monster this Scrooge is as any of his employees asking for a vacation, paid or not, in the comics would result in this:

So their off on their greatest adventure.. with Louie having’ bought something mysterious along with him he’s only telling the other kids about. On with the intro!

Beakly.. is intstantly not at ease as they take off after driving their jeep into the plane. She feels launchpad is reckless, rightfully so not helped by a lack of seatbelts on the plane or his cheefully saying the closest he’s got, a floatie, will help “When” we crash. She’s also equally annoyed by Scrooge’s cavalier attitude, having intrusted the kids to him only to find out what the adventueres are really like. And this is the only part of the episode that REALLY doesn’t work. She KNOWS these two idiots too well for this to be beliviable. Launchpad wrecks part of the mansion at least once a day, and before Duckworth she had to clean that shit up. He’s there all the time.. and more damingly HE DROVE YOU AND YOUR KID, YOUR KIDS BEST FRIENDS, AND YOUR KIDS GIRLFRIEND TO THE FUCKING MOVIES. I can’t buy given how bad a driver launchapd is she didn’t wrench the wheel from him to prevent their early graves. Scrooge meanwhile is her BEST FRIEND. And until season 2 for her and 3 for him ONLY friend. Sure she works for him, but outside of one incident in this episode he treats her as his equal more than his housekeeper for the entire series. They trust each other more than anyone else at this point. And the only other two people Scrooge ends up trusting as much are Donald and Della. She’s been around him enough to know how he is. What did she THINK he was going to be like with the kids? She’s met the twins, and even mroe so is on good terms with Donald even into the pilot and they only got off on bad terms due to clashing over house rules. So she KNWOS this is what he does with children. You can’t be shocked Scrooge took children on death defying adventures in a barely secured plane after all this time. It’d be like giving Donald a turkey to carve and being suprised when it ends in this...

It just dosen’t work especially with a professional spy! Her job is reading people! And yes I know many of you are going to say “Well she misread Bradford”... but so did Scrooge and so many others. NO ONE suspected him. He’s that good. So her suddenly having a complaint about all this stuff when she could’ve come along anytime to check it out or just looked at the plain bothers me a LOT. Thankfully it’s only really present at the start as while it sets off her concern their back and forth soon has a far deeper meaning. But Scrooge insists Launchpad take her on a tour to ease her worry, seems like a contrdictary set of sentences there, while he flies. How hard could it be. Somewhere on the Moon, Della has the sudden urge to kick her uncle’s ass.

So meanwhile in a secret base set up in a cargo box, the kids are working on the Della mystery. Turns out what Louie smuggled aboard was the documents shredded on the date the boys found on the Spear of Selene plans. Louie got them by smooth talking Quackfaster who even he found nuts. It also once again shows Dewey was only holding things back by keeping the other boys out as in jus weeks, since chronologically there were two other episodes between this and the last Della episode versus just one, their almost to the truth as one document from that day is simply torn into pieces and simply needs to be re-jiggered like a puzzle. Like most puzzles though naturally once they get it all together they find there’s one goddamn piece missing and it ends up loose int he plane flitting around... just as Scrooge majorly screws up and bumps things, leading Beakly to wonder where the kids are and them to scramble out.

So yeah Scrooge seemingly crashed the plane.. except Launchpad notes that if they crashed.. why are they still airborne? This leads to everyone finding out their precariously perched on a VERY narrow rock that’s skewered the plane. Orignially the crew decided to strictly adhere to the concept that any movement would rock the thing.. but realized i’td make things boring visually so they allowed themselves some artistic license.

So yeah our heroes are stuck in a hard place and Scrooge stubbornly digs in insisting he can fix this and turns on the plane.. which sends it spinning and prevents Dewey from getting the piece which ends up wedged in the jeep. Huh I think we need some appropriate music for going in circles.

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So yeah all Scrooge did was blow up one of the engines... I mean the blow up the engine button is right there, would’ve saved you some time. So Beakley berates him for not calling for help and digging in and for it’s next plan it’s time for Handyman Corner where he’s going to show you how to jumpstart a plane with a jeep’s engine. Beakly is not impressed and Scrooge’s case is not helped as Louie feigns fear , with Huey and Webby following his lead, so Dewey can get the piece. Unfortunately pointing out the very REAL dangers they face, with Huey giving the odds and Webby pointing out unlike most dangers they face there’s no easy way out and no villian to fight, sends Louie into an actual panic, jumpstarting the car and causing the cargo bay to open, leading to one hell of a sequence: From Bentina driving a butterfly knife into the ground to hold the kid’s secret base crate (and wondering why it’s so heavy), to Launchpad desperatley platforming his way to saftey to scrooge swining in with his cane to rescue them. It’s some whopper animation that really shows off how damn good the team was and how gorgeous this show truly was at it’s best.

The results aren’t good: the plane’s ballnce is now off so even a slight movement can move it, a holdover from the original idea simply saved for when it’d create the most tension. As a result Dewey can’t get the last piece as he can’t move and Scrooge berates the kids and has thems tay still watching the end credits of darkwing duck (It’s launchpad’s inflight movie and the tape is jammed to that section.

IT’s here the Scrooge and Beakley stuff went from poorly written to “oh shit” in one line. Scrooge is getting more and more desperate to prove he can take care of the kids on his own but Beakely’s demeanor has turned from annoying scolding.. to genuine concern and PLEADING with him not to go through with another dumb stunt that will leave them in a worse situation, int his case using the parachutes as counterweights to fix the engine. He refuses both rebuffing her as “your boss” (Which gets her rightfully pulling on the cord too tight) .. but then that one line comes in “I can protect her”. Beakley is confused.. but it instantly makes clear this is about Della and on rewatch now knowing the reveal at the end.. it makes it that much more heartbreaking. Part of his refusal to backdown is his natural nature as a stubborn ass. It’s been well displayed throughout this season and the ones after it: HIs refusal to backdown from nevverst, his jealousy of Dewey for being better at him and his refusal to accept it.. the man just does not back down and while it’s good in tight spots and against bad guys, as he finds a way out for him and his family with sheer grit and badassery... it’s a massive character flaw when dealing with people, as refusing to actually talk to them like a ratoinoal adult only makes things worse. And boy oh boy is he about to make things worse. But the other part is he can’t admit to himself there’s a risk in his lifestyle and that he can’t keep everyone safe constantly.. that theres inherent danger. He’s bought into the “because i’m scrooge mcduck” mantra here not out of his ego, entirely, but because he can’t let that not be enough again. He can’t LOOSE someone again like he lost Della and he can’t fail again. So his worst trait and his greatest trauma have mixed to make him act so rashly even Launchpad takes some shouting to agree to give him the other parachute. It’s clear he’s endangering EVERYONE to prove he can save them.

Eventually though things reach their head as Dewey CAN’T take the wait anymore. He’s waited his whole life to find out about his momma, and the answer’s feet away... and he can’t let it sit any longer. He HAS to know what happened. So he goes for it, though the rest of the kids are against it since i’ts highly risky and they can wait Huey ends up agreeing to help using his Junior Woodchuck knowledge (Where Newton apparently got the idea), to counterbalance hsi weight and guide him via walkee talkee. It’s a really nice moment, not only showing off Huey’s skill and intellect but also how much they care for her. Dewey may of screwed up last time but their still the duck boys and if he can’t talk him out of being sucidially reckless.. Huey’s going to at least give him a fighting chance.

Unfortunately Scrooge spots him mid argument with Beakley and naturally wants him to give it here... but once the ship buckles when Dewey tries we get the scene that makes the episode. Up till now the tension has been top notch, ratcheting up by bit, not knowing if the kids would get caught, if something would happen with the plane all building to this. Scrooge and Dewey’s final chase. Dewey uses the distraction to make a runner for it with Scrooge following.. and Launchapd using the fact he’s still attached to the airbag to stop him. It’s a small but excellent character moment, showing that as much as Launchpad loves his boss.. he loves his best friend and eveyrone else’s saftey more. SCrooge of course uses it to knock him back while Beakley and the kids counterbalance. We also get the best joke of the episode as Beakley tells them to stop running.. only for them to simply start tip toeing, with Bentina’s reaction being a perfectly resigned “That’s not what I meant and you know it”.

It’s a tense chase, with both sides using the enviorment to their advantage from the parachute to the crate.. and it’s breaking open reveals something’s gonig on and causes Beakley to notice Webby has the blueprints in her pocket and once she unfurls them and finds out what they are.. she can only give a sad, remorseful “oh children, what have you been up to” She’s not even mad like they seem to think.. she’s just sad, knowing the wound that’s about to be reopened for her closest friend and the one that’s about to be inflicted on those poor children, and knowing that they’re ALL made it worst by hiding it. Toks deserves all the praise for her delivery here.

Eventually the piece blows outside of the plane and Dewey refuses to give up and go after it. Things get their most tense as everyone BEGS him not to come back, it’s not worth his death to get this. It’s not worth all of this. But he simply chucks the walkee away and ignores them. We then get Scrooge going from scolding grandpa.. to dearly begging Dewey to come back... David’s delvery here is just heartbreaking “I can’t protect you. Is that what you wanted me to say. Please lad just tell me what it will take to come back inside?” And Ben Schwartz meets it with an utterly emotional “Tell me about the spear of selene”. The animation here is once again some of the series best with Dewey’s determined face and Scrooge’s heartbreak as he realizes he has to finally stop hiding this from them and he’s not ready. So he takes his uncles hand.. and if you thought all of this is painful.. oh boy.. we’re just getting started.

So back in the plane, with Launchpad setting up a table and a proper counterbalance so they can all sit, Scrooge finally explains and the boys, webby, and us int he audience all get the answers we desperately wanted: It was 10 1/2 years ago. The Original Trio had journeyed the world, having all sorts of adventures and making themselves into legends. But eventually you hit a wall and they’d realized they’d been just about everywhere. They could still globetrot of courser and as Season 3 would bear out there were some places they didn’t know about.. but the earth was about used up. So Della, being an aerospace wunderkind, thought of the next logical place to go. The stars. The Spear of Selene was a rocket, her pet project to give her kids, who she was expecting at the time the stars.

Thing was Donald wasn’t on board with this at all. And the clash between the two, which we see in the flashback but don’t hear since Scrooge is narrating all of this over some cool looking semi-still images, was inetiviable. As I coverd in the spear of selene review I feel Donald was burnt out at this point. That he was tired of adventures and just wanted normalcy even before Scrooge forced his hand with what was to happen next. So to him Della should just settle down, live a regular life and raise those kids. The problem is... Della WASN’T burnt out. She didn’t need a break to live a normal life like Donald badly needed. She wanted to keep going and it was her choice. While Donald ultimately was right about the risk, he was wrong to try and force her into a life she didn’t want and project on her like that.

What happened next though was all on Scrooge and Della. Scrooge simply did the thing that’s likely part of why Donald resents him so much and it took so long to fix thing: He ignored what Donald felt and thought, sided with Della and built the ship without telling either of them. His selfishness, thinking he knows what best and treatment of donald.. all backfired horribly. Della sussed out the ship.. and I still feel she was suspicious on her own.. and that Bradford telling her was him simply handing her a lit fuse knowing it’d go off and WHATEVER happened as a result of this would break scrooge. Even if the rocket had gone off saftely and everything was fine.. he could easily claim Della threatned him,k which she probably did and he simply went with it, and either way Donald would be unable to forgive either SCrooge or Della for the deciet. It just went better, and worse than he could’ve anpiciapted: much like the fantastic four she took the ship in the dead of night and hit a cosmic storm, with Scrooge only finding out in time to try and help her.. but the storm hit the ship.. and unlike the ff instead of gaining the power to turn invisible, she simply disappeared. She was lost. He and Donald didn’t speak again after Donald found out till 6 months ago.

If that wasn’t heartbreaking enough.. it gets worse. The kids, full of fresh pain and anger over Scrooge’s part in things, their mom abandoning them, and their uncles hiding this for decades.. take it out on the one person there. Frank and Matt recently said in an artcle detailing the best 7 episodes from one site, or at least what the site considered to be the best, that Donald was absent because he also knew and would’ve told them sooner. I also feel it’s because he would’ve disarmed this conflict, at least admitting what scrooge did alongside beakley. As mad as he was.. his own anger had started to disapate. The wound was fresh to the boys and thus they lashed out.

Dewey blames him for it outright, Huey tell shim he should’ve called her back, and Louie tells him he shoudl’ve sent a fleet of ships to find her. As we find out in the somehow even MORE crushing ending he did the last two and as I made clear, and the show does, this was Della’s horrible decision. She took an unfinsihed rocket, she left her kids, she did this. While she regretted it and I don’t hold it against her because she spent 10 years away from the mon the moon, she’s suffered THROUGHLY for it and I don’t feel I need to pile on, Scrooge wasn’t wholly responsible. Still partly. Dewey makes things worse by impling scrooge GAVE UP ON HER because it cost too much.

Look the rest of it is valid, if misguided, as Beakley tries to chime in on it and correct them knowing the full story. But claming, no matter how greedy he is that Scrooge would ABANDON HER.. that’s just wrong and he knows it. It’s why Scrooge gets so upset.. and why he pushes the last two people in his corner away. Webby critisizes building the rocket and Scrooge belts out “This is a family matter, your not family”. runing his position and poisiong his one ally by lashing out at someone who DID NOT DESERVE THIS. Make no mistake, this is present day scrooge’s WORST action. The past scrooge did worse, we saw that, but this is almost worse than the goat thing. Telling a child h’ed basically adopted, ignoring the finale twist for this as it’s irrelvant and all it does is twist the knife deeper, that “she’s not family” just because he wants someone to be mad at besides his boys... that’s fowl. Everyone’s against him except launchpad and tha’ts where his stubbornesst ragically comes in: he digs in his heels refuses to explain.. and the plane crashes due to it. though safely. Their safe.. but the family is broken.

So we get our hell of an ending scenes. Donald cheerfully announces to the boys, who earlier had no intention of leaving anyway, the boats finished.. only for Dewey to inform him “We know abotu the spear of selene” . Donald is heartbroken, not only that they know.. but that he didn’t tell them.

But since “it gets worse” is this episodes motto, we end on Beakley, Webby and Duckworth all leaving on vacation. How a ghost does vacations I dunno, maybe he’s going to go to Amity Park. Point is Webby, despite EVERYTHING , is crestfallen he’s not even going to say goodbye and still worried. As I said in my review of the finale.. it’s her heart that makes her and while Scrooge may be a dick right now.. he’s family. So we get the final lines of the episode Beakley: Well, you've successfully pushed your family and everyone who ever cared about you away... again. I hope you're happy. Scrooge:I AM

It’s just damn heartbreaking.. once again he’s lost everything and is too bitter to admit it and try and get it back. And as we see between the lines.. the boys were wrong: He drained his bin and his buisnesses creating a fleet to get Della back, and kept going despite the expense. He did everything he could to call her back. Nothing worked.. and he only stopped because the board yanked him away, Bradford sneering with pride as his plan, which backfired HORRIBLY, had at last finally gotten him what he wanted: a broken scrooge tired of adventure. And as Scrooge sits in his chair seething.. he’s broken again, angry, with tears in his eyes, loving nobody.. and nobody loving him, eerily mimickcking his first appearance in comics.

Final Thoughts:

This episode is a masterpice. It’s perfectly paced, with only a minor flaw tha’ts qwuickly snuffed out for a gripping drama. This was a gamble, taking 9 minutes where ther’es almost no jokes and just pure tensino and heartbreak.. but it paid off. This episode is one of the series finest and leads to one hell of a finale but on it’s own.. it’s nigh untouchable. This is the series at it’s best, and the finale and later information (More about Della and the spear, WEbby’s true origin, bradford’s role in all this and role as head of fowl), only make it better, with all those things being aware to the creators but not us. They really made us wait for this reveal but damn if it wasn’t perfect.

Next Time: Webby, Bentina and Launchpad try to desperatley piece the family back together before the boys and donald leave forever.. and Scrooge’s darkest hour leaves him vunerable for his greatest foe. It’s finally time to get back to Lena as the Shadow War descends over our heroes.

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#ducktales #scrooge mcduck #dewey duck #della duck #the last crash of the sunchaser #della arc #huey duck #louie duck #webby vanderquack #bentina beakley #launchpad mcquack #donald duck

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