#we've been trying to figure out what's up with the car for the past 3 weeks

[evilfloralfoolery]

Sorry for the delay in fic posting, buuuutttt....

[airybcby]

I’m not sure if we were supposed to comment it but my top song was white ferrari by frank ocean and my top artist was Lana del Rey! (omg I love ur writing it is so good like it’s so yummy 😭)

ahh! it’s totally okay! i have a spreadsheet with everyone’s comments too so i make sure i get everyone :))

also tysm!! you’re too sweet

if your top artist was lana del rey / your top song was white ferrari by frank ocean i’d pair you with…

yukimiya kenyu!!

જ⁀♡⊹｡° stick by me, close by me

♡ a/n — part of my spotify wrapped event :)

♡ content — yukimiya kenyu x gn! reader, gn! reader, established relationship ( at least 3 years ), reader and yukimiya share an apartment, uncertain yukimiya, mention of kids (like once)

♡ synopsis — yukimiya kenyu has always given 110% into everything he's done, but can he do that for you too?

The world felt softer at night. The hum of cars passing outside your window was muted, and the glow of streetlights spilled golden warmth across the room where you sat beside him.

Yukimiya’s head rested against the edge of the couch, his eyes fixed on a point somewhere past the ceiling. His glasses were on the table, leaving his face bare and vulnerable. He looked tired, like he hadn’t been sleeping well—or maybe like he hadn’t been sleeping at all.

“You’re quiet tonight,” you murmured, leaning closer to him. You grabbed a throw blanket from the back of the couch and threw it over the two of you, your cups of tea sitting on the table.

He blinked, slowly turning to meet your gaze. “Just thinking,” he said, his voice low, almost hesitant.

“About what?”

“About everything,” he admitted, a small, wry smile tugging at his lips.

You didn’t press him further, knowing better than to pull too hard at the threads he wasn’t ready to unravel. Yukimiya had always been like this—carrying more than he let on, hiding the weight of his thoughts behind that careful, polite demeanor, even when you'd first started dating.

But tonight, he wasn’t hiding.

“I’ve been thinking about us,” he said after a pause, his voice quiet but steady.

The words caught you off guard, but you managed to keep your expression neutral. “What about us?”

He let out a breath, running a hand through his hair as he looked away. “How we ended up here. How long we’ve been... whatever this is.”

You felt your chest tighten, the words hitting a little too close to the thoughts you’d been avoiding for weeks.

“We've been together for three years. We’re fine, Kenyu,” you said, trying to reassure him—and maybe yourself, too.

But he shook his head, a small, bitter laugh escaping his lips. “Are we? Or are we just pretending we are because it’s easier than admitting we don’t know where we’re going anymore?”

You didn’t know what to say to that. Yes, your life had been put on hold because of blue lock, but that didn't mean you were mad. You knew exactly what this was, didn't he?

“I love you,” he said, the words sudden and raw, catching you completely off guard. “But sometimes it feels like love isn’t enough. Like no matter how much I care about you, I can’t give you what you deserve.”

Your breath hitched, the weight of his confession settling heavily in the air between you. "You wanted kids, and right now...we can't."

“We have time,” you said, your voice trembling slightly. “You give me more than you think.”

He looked at you then, his eyes filled with something you couldn’t quite place—regret, maybe, or fear.

“I’m scared,” he admitted, his voice barely above a whisper. “I’m scared of losing you. Of not being enough for you. Of waking up one day and not being able to see you. Of... of failing you.”

You reached for his hand, intertwining your fingers with his. “You haven’t failed me,” you said firmly. “And you never could.”

The silence that followed was heavy but not uncomfortable. It was the kind of silence that came with understanding, with shared pain and unspoken promises.

“We’ll figure it out,” you said finally, squeezing his hand gently. “Together.”

He looked at you then, and for the first time that night, you saw a flicker of hope in his eyes.

“Together,” he echoed, his voice soft but certain.

Yukumiya Kenyu was a troubled man, but if he got to see your smile for even one more day, he could overcome any problem.

i was really iffy on who to choose for this, but my bias towards yuki came through :)

i hope you liked it!

likes, comments, and reblogs are appreciated!

[givemeonereason]

Meditations: First, the Friend and then, the Son

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Photo Credit: Here

Dragon Ball Masterlist Givemeonereason Masterlist

Rating: SO MANY FEELS

Plot: Krillin seeks out Gohan to get some more information about the girl who lost her "Piccolo." A warmth between friends and family.

A/N: Hello, and thank you for patiently waiting for me to write up this next installment. I kept saying I was writing and I kept pushing it aside. Depression is so real and writers burn out is really real too. I think I just overdid it.

I'm so excited and happy that this series has taken off. Seems like there really is an audience for Piccolo. And he deserves it! I'll keep it going for as long as the story needs it. Tall, green, and handsome love for all.

╒══════════════════════╕

The police speeder came to an abrupt halt outside Son Gohan estate.

When Krillin gingerly unhooked his regulation helmet and hung it from the handlebars of his unit, the elderly man who was tending to flowers in the garden was swiftly walking towards the main house.

After he disappeared through a side door a kind-looking, middle-aged woman came out to greet him.

"Good morning, sir." She bowed her head politely. "To what do we owe the pleasure of the local law enforcement?"

The formality of the situation made Krillin perk up his shoulders. "Sorry, ma'am I need to speak with Gohan. Do you know if he's around?"

"I believe he is in the library." She turned on her heel. "Please follow me."

What seemed like an endless amount of stairs for a pair of small legs, the door to the library was ajar. Gohan was buried among several piles of books, a laptop, and three mugs, which presumably had an unknown concoction of caffeine.

"Gohan." Krillin called out to him as he walked towards the desk, but Gohan only pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He scribbled vigorously at the notepad before him.

"Gohan?" Krillin repeated with a little more oomph. Gohan began to mumble to himself.

with the help of prefectural flora cultivation, this can provide direct resources to the habitat of-

"Gohan! Snap out of it."

Gohan shook his head and blinked his eyes a few times while readjusting his thick black frames. "Whoa, Krillin I didn't see you there."

"Obviously..." Krillin rolled his eyes.

"Gosh, how long have you been here." Gohan finished the sentence he was muttering and almost stabbed the notepad when he poked the paper at the period.

"Well, I've been trying to get your attention for a few minutes now."

"Okay, I'm sorry I'm on the verge of a breakthrough here." He picked up a large blue mug and took a swig, only to spit it back into the glass. His face contorted when he tried to wipe his tongue on his sleeve.

Krillin had picked up a book nearest him and flipped through a few pages. "Cognitive Ecology of Pollination: Animal Behaviour and Floral Evolution." Too many words. He set the book back down and crossed his arms. "This might be out of left field, but have you seen Piccolo lately?"

"Not today, no."

"No, I just mean recently. There is something fishy is going on. I don't know if you know about the girl?"

"There's a girl?" Gohan took a sip from a different mug garnished with a Satan City logo. He set that one down quickly. "Did Piccolo do something to a girl? I'm not sure I understand."

"That's what I'm trying to find out." Krillin took a seat in a wooden car adjacent to the large desk. "This is going to sound odd. Considering we've seen and experienced some very odd things in the past, this one is hard to place when it comes to weird."

Krillins folded his hands and relaxed his shoulders. "Well, here goes. Long story short; I got a report of a girl screaming on a hillside about an instrument. When I went to investigate the girl said she lost her piccolo. I put two and two together and figured she might be talking about our Piccolo. So when I went to The Hideout to ask Piccolo about this girl, he got defensive and said he did something to her. And I think he couldn't forgive himself, or I don't remember fine details."

Gohan sat for a few moments in silence thinking. "Do you know this girl?"

"Never met her a day in my life...until I spoke with her."

Gohan scratched at his hairline, pushing the rouge tuft of hair out of his face only for it to fall back down towards his eyes. "Piccolo hasn't said anything to me about a woman." His shoulders were undulated with confusion.

Before Gohan could circle the same conclusion, he spoke again. "Whatever it is, he seems to care enough about this girl. You know him. He's a pretty unfazed guy. Very serious. Not too emotional, or softish. You know what I mean."

Gohan reached out for the last mug on the desk, hesitating before grabbing the handle. He stared down at the contents swirling around in contemplation and decided against it. The mug clanked against the desk surface as Krillin's pleaded with him.

"I was kind of wondering if you would go talk to him? He practically demanded I leave The Hideout when I pressed the issue. If he's going to talk to anyone it's got to be you. You're practically his son."

The last bit made Gohan chuckle. "I don't know Krillin. If he didn't want to talk about it, maybe we should just leave it alone."

Krillin stood up and walked towards Gohan. "Could you just at least try. If he doesn't open up to you then I'll let it go, okay?"

"Okay, okay." Gohan stood up, pressing his palms against the armrests of his chair. "I'll go to talk to him tomorrow morning. I'll call you when I get back."

Krillin smiled widely. "Thanks Gohan. I just think, you know, he does.. has done so much for us that we can try and help him too sometimes. Even if he says he doesn't want it."

═══════════════════

When the morning light touched the western side of The Hideout, Gohan walked through the threshold Piccolos room. “Hey, Piccolo.”

Piccolo turned towards the similarly dressed young man, putting down the small, leather bound book in his hands on the small desk beside him. “Gohan, what brings you here this early.”

Gohan stretched his arms, his elbow popping loud enough to warrant a light echo. He laughed with some embarrassment. “Well, I guess I’m just a little rusty. I was wondering if we could spar?”

The upturned smirk told all Gohan needed to know before the two of them were passing blows hovering over the ground far below them.

One after the other, fists flying, blocking, dodging, power surging. Time was passing as the sun arched across the sky, but it only felt like moments. The adrenaline of the fight.

When Gohan began to tire slightly he landed a singular hit that propelled Piccolo back that anyone with even the best eyesight wouldn’t have seen. The super Sayain gives his all in the last throes of battle.

Piccolo gathered his equilibrium, and wiped the blood staining his lip against his forearm. He laughed as he landed on the grass below them. “You say you’re rusty, but you still got it, kid. You just got to put your mind to it.” He gently patted Gohan’s head, shaking his hair lightly.

Gohan plopped down to the ground and lay sprawling, taking in breaths. Piccolo sat down near him cross-legged. "I still think you have it in you to be the strongest, Gohan. But you've got a family now and your studies. You have more important battles to fight than just with your fists."

Gohan put his hands behind the back of his head. "I get discouraged sometimes. Everyone chastizes me for not keeping up with training. I'm 'a shame to the Sayain race,' or 'If only he could have---'" He shook his head. "Sometimes I wonder if Dad is still proud of me, even if my progress is strictly academic." He pondered on the thought. "It really doesn't matter, does it? Between Dad and Vegta there won't be anyone as strong. There won't be anyone who can't save the world." He looked over at Piccolo. "You're pretty strong too Piccolo."

Piccolo let out a deep, humph. "You are still stronger than me. And I only get involved when I am needed."

"Right. Why should we constantly have to be ready for a threat that might never come?"

"They always do."

Gohan sighed, closing his eyes. "Well, if they need me I will always be there. I won't let anything happen to anyone. Not after all the things we faced before."

The subtle sounds of nature became more apparent with this silence. The shallow sounds of breathing between them. Piccolo looked off into the near distance, his voice calm and relaxed. "If it accounts for anything, I am very proud of the man you've become."

Arms were tightly wrapped around. "Thank you for never giving up on me Piccolo."

Piccolo smiled to himself as Gohan sat down next to him. "I've been meaning to ask you something. Do you have a girlfriend?"

"A what?" Piccolo's voice turned deep again with seriousness.

"A girlfriend. You know, someone who you like and date." The look in Gohan's eyes was hopeful and sweet.

Tch- "I know what a girlfriend is. Why are you asking me this?"

"Well, Krillin stopped by and---"

"Not this again. Did that small man send you to do his bidding?"

Gohan got up and followed Piccolo when he began to walk away. He shouted, "I told him to stay out of it."

Gohan picked up his pace to meet the Namekian. "I don't even understand what Krillin was saying. But I wish you would just tell me what's going on. If not, you know he's going to get my dad involved."

Piccolo stopped and grunted. His arms crossed in defiance. Anything but Goku getting involved. Piccolo will NEVER hear the end of this. And if Goku makes a big deal out of this, it's everyone's problem.

But it's just his problem.

He stood quiet and tense. Gohan stood beside him stretching his legs and preparing to leave for home.

"I--" He started and stopped.

Hmmm, Gohan turned towards him.

"I don't even know how it happened. She came out of nowhere. Day after day, she prodded me with questions about myself. She sat with me as I meditated. She wasn't frightened of me." Piccolo was speaking so fervently and fastidiously that he was almost out of breath. "And I didn't know why or what to do. So I tried to show her that she shouldn't be so curious. I tried to scare her. I tried to stop her from coming around." His arms were tight against his chest. His chin pressed down into his collarbone.

Gohan watched Piccolo in awe. He's never seen this man act in such a way. The sorrow within the tightness of his shut eyes. The deep purple across his cheeks. Piccolo usually being a towering man, now pulling inward at his middle.

Gohan reached out and hugged him again. "Okay..." He looked at Piccolo, who bent his shoulders, which would normally be difficult to see over his shoulder pads. "Okay." Gohan's hand on Piccolo's forearm. His voice was so sweet and kind. "What did you do to scare her?"

Piccolo only took a deep breath. His booming voice was now almost a whisper. "I picked her up and took her in the air, flying. I flew and made myself out to be like another version of myself. I tried to make myself into King Piccolo." He's bent over near Gohan's shoulder, and Gohan lets him rest his forehead. "I made myself into something worth being frightened by. I didn't want her to trust so easily because she can easily become fodder like so many others have." His voice was almost nonexistent. "I could have killed her."

"But you didn't kill her, right?"

Piccolo shook his head. "But I could have."

"You didn't though. Sure, you could have maybe got your point across in a different way, but she's alright, right?"

"The look of terror in her eyes. The tears. I don't know why-- why I went--"

Gohan could hear the choked sobs before he pushed Piccolo back to face him. "Piccolo, I have known you my whole life and I've never seen you like this. You're like a whole different person. Usually, you're a very reserved guy, but I know these types of feelings. You must care a great deal for this girl. You're beating yourself up over the smallest thing." Piccolo kept his eyes closed shut, but his head lifted slightly, his arms relaxing as much as he could muster. "Hey, at least you don't explode or anything. You don't resort to your power because a lady is hurt or in danger. Blame it on the Sayain blood.”

Piccolo tried to straighten up and fix his posture. He wiped the tears that escaped from his eyes against his sleeve. Swallowing down his feelings deep into his chest.

“Piccolo, you’re allowed to have feelings like everyone else. Look at Dad, he’s an alien and he’s insane half the time.” Gohan laughed. “It’s okay to care about something for once. I know you care about me, about my family. But you can also care about something for yourself. If you care that deeply about this girl then I think you should talk to her. I think you should set things right between the two of you. Even if nothing comes of it and you just get closure.” Gohan pointed to Piccolo’s chest, pressing down into the fabric of the Namekian’s purple Gi. “If for all of us, but just for you.”

Gohan turned and started to walk away, calling over his shoulder. “You don’t need to bare the weight of this on your own. We’re always here for you. This is just a different type of fight.” He began hovering over the ground. “I have to get home before Videl gets angry.” He laughed. “Responsibilities.”

Piccolo could he his voice fading as he flew away. “All you have to do is try, Piccolo.”

Piccolo stood there, silent. The weight in his chest was still heavy. Do I care about this woman this greatly? He pressed his palm firmly against his chest, his cape flittering in the wind behind him. A heart beating strong behind his fingers. Is this love or understanding?

What I was once so sure about, I am at a loss.

Who do I want to be now?

(Just an extra reference photo here of our precious, green boy) Credit

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© 2024 givemeonereason

Don’t steal other people’s works! Respect creators!

Reblogs and likes appreciated :)

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Tag List:

@jadew-08, @sussybacca, @imaginarydreams, @oriistar, @mddbsf, @boogeysmoth, @stefnarda

To be added or removed from the tag list reach out through asks or messages. Please and thank you.

[lily-janus]

The Art Of Letting Go

my first order for The Sleepy Bean Fanfic Cafe' on @tsspromptmonth this is for @edupunkn00b who wanted, a time travel AU with only one bed, time loops and any characters as long as we've got Logan in there. Hope you like it!

summary: Janus struggles with letting go of his husband Characters: Logan, Janus, a little bit of Virgil Relationships: romantic Loceit Word count: 1,506 Trigger warnings: car crash/car accident, death, grief, lots of angst, let me know if I missed anything.

Janus opened his eyes slowly, blinking as he got used to the light streaming from the window. Yesterday’s events returned to his mind slowly…

There was a car accident and... Logan is dead… his husband  is dead…

That can't be true… it couldn’t be true.

There was a knock on the door and Janus called the person in as he grappled with the reality of things. Logan was- standing in front of him?

Janus stared at the person standing next to the foot of his bed, Logan… and did he look younger?

Logan let out a sigh, “I know I'm the last person you want to see right now… but you haven't been to school for three days now, I had to check on you”

Three days? School? This felt familiar, a memory? A dream?

“I'm sorry about what I said, I know we always fight but I shouldn't have gone as far as I did” Logan stood there awkwardly, waiting for Janus to respond.

Janus then remembered this, during high school, Logan and him always fought, always trying to best one another... one fight went different though, Logan seemed more on edge and snapped at Janus harshly.

Rather conveniently, Janus got sick right after and didn't show up to school the next day, Logan felt guilty and came to Janus' house to apologize... that was the first time they really talked with each other.

The first step on the road that will eventually lead to them falling in love and getting married.

How is he back here? Was he dreaming? He pinched himself as hard as he could... and nothing happened. Odd.

"Janus?" Logan's voice snapped him back to the present... well the past that's apparently his present again?

Janus smiled, young Logan looked so cute and adoringly awkward, surely it couldn't hurt to stay here a while before trying to figure out what's happening, right?

Logan blushed, "what? You only smile at me when you're laughing at me, I don't think I did anything that can be mocked-"

"You actually think I didn't come to school for 3 days, because of our little fight? Oh honey, give me some credit, I know I can be petty but even I have a limit." He smirked.

Logan looked confused, adorable, "why else would you-"

"I'm sick, Pointdexter, as shocking as it may seem, not everything is about you." Janus teased, knowing full well how selfless Logan tends to be.

He cleared his throat, embarrassed, "ah... I see, I shall leave you to recover then." He went to leave and Janus hesitated for a second.

"...I could use company though." 

Logan stopped and turned around, frowning, "my company? You really are sick."

Janus chuckled, "indeed I am, I might not make it, would you deny a dying man's wish?"

Logan rolled his eyes, "you're not dying, Janus, but if you truly want me here... I guess I don't mind."

They spent the rest of the day together, talking, drinking tea, reading next to each other.

This was perfect, Janus almost never wanted it to end as he went back to sleep.

He woke up the next day, blinking against the light and hearing a soft knock on his door.

Logan walked in, why was he still so awkward? They spent all of yesterday together...

Logan let out a sigh, “I know I'm the last person you want to see right now… but you haven't been to school for three days now, I had to check on you”

What? That was exactly what he said yesterday...

"Logan? We already talked about this-"

"I know I said some awful things... I crossed the line, I didn't mean to go so far." Logan continued, as if he didn't hear Janus.

"Logan? I'm sick, remember? We spent all of yestarday together?"

"Ah... I see, I shall leave you to recover then." He said, as if only hearing the first part.

Something was wrong here wasn't it? They just had this exact conversation... or did they? Logan doesn't seem to remember and his memory is flawless...

Janus shrugged off the weird feeling, asking Logan to stay again, and they spent another perfect day together.

Except... the same thing happened the next day, and the day after that... what was happening?

"Logan, what's happening?" Janus tried to ask when the day started the same for the 6th time.

"Oh dear, are you sick? Is that why you didn't come to school? ...well that's embarrassing... guess I should leave then..."

Janus was starting to freak out now, "I'll come with you!" He jumped out of bed, grabbing Logan's hand and dragging him outside. 

The moment he opened the front door, however, he woke up in his bed again, Logan knocking softly on the door to his room.

This can't be happening... was he trapped? For how long?

...does it matter?

Logan is right here... why would he want out? What does life have to offer him without-

He shoved the thought away, knowing it'll lead to pain. No, even if he was trapped, he didn't want to leave... he's not ready to let him go... he just can't...

"Come in" he called his future husband in, he can stay here forever...

-------------------------------------------------

Logan felt... stuck, and he couldn't place why. He just came to Janus' house to apologize, they may not like each other but he never meant to hurt him.

But... didn't he do that already? He looked at the date, no he definitely wasn't here yesterday, he was sure of it.

The strange Deja-vu feeling persisted, however, despite all the facts pointing at it being the first time he came here.

He was walking to Janus' house to apologize, he never meant to hurt him despite their differences. But he couldn't shake off the feeling of something being extremely wrong. 

All the facts checked out, however, so he couldn't fathom what could be wrong...

He was walking to Janus' house to... to apologize...

Why could he hear a car crash?

...he never liked Janus much but he never intended to hurt him...

Distant ambulance sirens

...he- he needs to apologize to set things right...

Pain... he could feel pain everywhere...

"Come in!" Janus called from inside and Logan walked in. He looked at Janus and began apologizing.

Janus' face, struck with grief and shock...

...he's... he's not supposed to be here, does he?

"Janus? ...where are we?"

Janus froze, turning slowly to look at Logan, "...at my house of course, you came to check on me and-"

"Janus." He cut him off firmly but gently, "you know that's not what I meant... I'm... I'm gone, aren't I? in the process at least."

"You don't have to be...! You... WE could stay here... for... for as long as we want!" Janus grabbed his hands firmly, as if fearing he'll slip away.

Logan smiled softly as his husband, shaking his head, "you know this is wrong, Jan... you have to let me go."

Janus shook his head frantically, "no... no, no, no! I can't... I'm not strong enough... please I..  let's just stay... please!" He buried his face in Logan's chest, clinging to him desperately.

Logan brushed his hand over his husband's hair gently, "have I ever told you when was the first time I realized my feelings for you?"

Janus shook his head without looking up, crying, his tears staining Logan's shirt.

"We were on our way to meet our friends for a vacation, there was a storm and my car broke down, we had to walk in the rain for the nearest motel and, of course, the only room available there had only one bed. I would have offered to sleep on the floor but it was cold so we had to sleep together to keep each other from freezing."

"I remember that, the next morning I told you"

"Don't get used to it" they said in unison, then chuckled, Janus finally looking up to meet his eyes.

"That morning I realized... I liked waking up next to you." Logan said, "you'll always have these memories, Jan, and our friends will help you. You'll get through this, I know you will. I love you."

"I love you too... so much... I don't know what I'll do without you.." Janus said.

Logan felt himself slipping away and smiled, "you'll figure it out, you were always the smartest of us two." And with that, he disappeared forever, his consciousness finally letting go.

---------------------------------------------

Janus watched his husband disappear, and his surroundings soon after.

Next thing he knew, he was in his room... their room, blinking away tears. A knock came from his door and a tiny part of him still hoped it was Logan.

But, of course if wasn't, Virgil walked in instead.

"Hey... you've been hold up in your room since the funeral... how you holding up?"

Janus broke down, tears streaming down his face as Virgil went to hug him tight, "I've been better..."

But he'll get through it... he has to, he promised Logan.

[cherryaxiel]

Kiss Me (Sequel to 'Misunderstood')

Character: Chester Lake

Description: You and Chester go on your first date!

Rating: Mature - Strong language

Monday

7:00 am

Ever since THAT happened, I've been thinking about him for the past two weeks. Daydreaming and coming up with dumb scenarios. I can't help it. We've been texting, but haven't gone on a date because of our busy schedules. I'm trying to get ready for work, but he's still running through my mind. I'm imagining different scenes, waking up in bed with him, him making me breakfast, cuddling on the couch, watching movies together, late night dates- okay I need to focus. It’s Monday, and it’s going to be a long work day. I get dressed after a shower, eat breakfast, feed my cats, it’s my usual morning routine. I work at a thrift store which is just a few blocks from my house so it’s quite convenient. I’ve always loved clothes but I am someone who is big on sustainability, hence why I chose to work with preloved clothes specifically. 

While walking to work, my mind remains plagued with thoughts of him. I sent him a good morning text, wishing him a good day at work. I’m listening to music, allowing myself to seep into my desires. Once I arrived at work, I put down my headphones and prepared myself for the day.

3:00 pm

Oh my god, it was a disaster of a day. The only way I managed to go through it was thinking about him. I’m so fucking pathetic. Oh wow, a guy helped me go through the worst day of my life by invading my brain without even meaning to. Whatever, my shift is over, I’m going home. I packed my shit and left the store. I looked at my phone to see if there’s any messages from him, nothing, not a single message from him the entire day. I feel a certain sadness in my heart. I shrug it off and start walking home.

3:30 pm

When I reached home, I flopped on my couch, stretching all over as my body aches from the day’s labor. My cats came over to me, one loafing on my chest and another laying between my legs. I looked at my phone again, my eyes widened. A text notification from him. I sat up so quickly, shocking my cats. They jump up and about from the sudden movement. “Omg, I’m so sorry,” I blurt out to my cats, before unlocking my phone and pressing on the notification. 

‘I’m so sorry for not texting you the whole day, got held up with a case but no excuses. Let me make it up to you?’ The text from him reads.

I’m giggling and kicking my feet. I calm myself enough to reply, ‘It’s okay, I understand! How are you going to make it up to me?’

‘How about I take you out on a date? Dinner’s on me.’ Free food with a cute guy? Why not, right?

‘Sure! When?’ I replied.

‘Tonight, I’ll pick you up at your place, 6 pm, wear something cute ;)’ 

My cheeks are red, ‘Alright! Here’s my address :) Looking forward to tonight <3’ I managed to send out before turning my phone off and burrowing my face into the couch pillow. My heart’s beating fast. Oh my god, I need to figure out what to wear. 

4:00 pm

I’m stressing out, laying on the floor in defeat with piles of clothes scattered around me. I literally couldn’t find anything to wear. I decided to get back-up and called Selina. Thankfully she lives nearby, so she was able to get to my house quickly.

“OMG babe, did a hurricane come through this place?” Selina walks into my room, seeing the mess I made, and carefully making sure she isn’t stepping on my clothes.

“I don’t know what to do! I have nothing to wear!” I sat up on the ground with my face buried in my hands.

“Don’t worry, I got you.” Selina gets to work almost immediately. 

5:45 pm

Selina managed to get me cleared up and dressed, having enough time to clean up the mess I made earlier in my room. It’s 15 minutes before Chester arrives and I’m a nervous wreck. It’s my first date in a long time after all. Selina is comforting me by providing me positive affirmation and making jokes. 

15 minutes later, I could hear the sound of a car parking in front of my apartment building. It doesn’t take long before there’s a knock on my door. Selina does one last check of my appearance. I walk towards the door, prepping and hyping myself up. I took a deep breath and exhaled, opening the door to Chester holding a bouquet of flowers and a cheeky grin on his face. He’s wearing a black blazer, trousers, and shoes with a white dress shirt that has the first button unbuttoned. He looks me up and down. Oh my god, he’s checking me out. 

“Good evening, love.” He says in such a sensual voice that I feel like I’m about to fall to my knees but I stood firmly.

“Good evening, Chester,” I smiled with my cheeks all flushed, I tried very hard to hide my infatuation even though in my brain, I’m screaming.

“These are for you, flowers as beautiful as you,” he passes the flowers to me. I took the flowers and enveloped it into a slight hug while smelling it.

“Well, well, look who’s here,” Selina approaches from behind me and stands beside me, wrapping an arm around my shoulder, “Take care of my sibling, will you?” She plays it off as a joke, but there’s a hint of aggression in her voice to show she actually means it.

“Of course, I’ll take care of your precious gem.” He extends an arm out to me, prompting me to hold his hand, which I do. “Shall we?” He asks, I nod. As we walk out my door, I look back mouthing ‘Oh my god’ to Selina, who gives me an encouraging smile and two thumbs up.

As we approach his car, he opens the passenger seat door for me. I thanked him and sat inside with the bouquet of flowers in my hand. I’m nervously picking at my fingers as he gets into the driver’s seat, putting his seatbelt on after helping me with mine which was totally unnecessary but he did it anyway. I thanked him again. He gives me a smile before we drive off.

6:30 pm

We parked near the restaurant and it didn’t seem too crowded. Chester was able to get a reservation from this place since it was a Monday night. He opens the car door for me again and I get out of the car, leaving the flowers in the car and giving my thanks to him again. He closes the car door and locks his car before extending his arm towards me, wanting me to hold his arm closely. With me practically clinging onto him, we enter the restaurant.

Once we’re inside the restaurant and the waiter seats us at our table, we go over the menu. “Been here before?” Chester starts the conversation. 

“Nope, it’s my first time, what about you?”

“Same here, I heard good things about this place so I thought it was a good idea to experience it for the first time with you tonight.” His eyes were sparkling in the candle light and the way it made him look was making my heart flutter.

“Ah, I see.” I looked back down to the menu. I didn’t want to meet his gaze again, it was so captivating that I thought I was going to be pulled into him like being drowned by the thundering waves of the deep blue sea.

After a while, we ordered our food. I felt awkward in his presence. I’m not sure what it is about him but I’m anxious and I’m picking at my fingers again. He notices this, so he takes my hand in his, laying it gently on the table and caresses it. I let out a light gasp but all he does is give me a reassuring smile. For whatever reason, it comforts me. My heart slows. Maybe it’s also the calm atmosphere, or the jazz music playing in the restaurant, but I start to feel comfortable and my body relaxes. 

7:45 pm

We’re sitting for about an hour, talking about our backstories and lives. We eventually talk about our love life and how it has been. At this point, I’m sitting next to him, caressing his arm, and we’re looking deeply into each other’s eyes.

“How many dates have you been on?” I asked him.

“Too many to count, honestly.” He shrugs.

“Really? Can’t relate, it’s hard for me to find anyone I’m interested in.” I look down at his arm, drawing hearts on it with my finger.

“Oh? So, I’m interesting?” He jokes, making me lightly smack his arm.

“Were any of them bad?” I looked up, waiting patiently for his answer.

“This one time...” He recalls a story.

“Oh my god, that’s so bad.” I laugh at his story, appalled by it.

“Is my pain funny to you?” He laughs, which makes me laugh a bit harder. We tried to silence our laughter as we remembered we were in a restaurant and people were starting to stare at us.

“Hey, I'm craving ice cream. I noticed an ice cream place nearby, let’s leave and buy some. The desserts here don't sound too good.” He chuckles at my last comment and agrees. We left once he had paid for our meals.

8:15 pm

After getting ice cream, we decided to walk through a nearby park. The sky was so clear that we could see the stars and the moon. Other than the crickets chirping loudly, there was silence in the park. It was just us, and I found profound peace being next to Chester.

“Let’s sit here.” Chester gestures to a bench, holding my hand and lightly pulling me to it before I follow him. We sat down on the bench and finished off our ice cream. We looked up to stare at the starry night sky. The night was becoming colder, and I realized I was starting to shiver from it. I’m guessing he was feeling cold too because unconsciously, we got closer to each other. It was almost as though our bodies were seeking and moving towards each other for warmth. Chester notices that I was shivering, so he wraps his blazer around me, our faces closing into each other. So damn close. He looks at my eyes, then to my lips, and back to my eyes again. I did the same to him. His hand reaches to cup my face, holding me so gently. I sink into his hand, into his warmth. Before I knew it, he’s leaning in, we're both leaning in. Our lips meet, and my heart bursts like fireworks sparked on New Year's. Butterflies swarm my stomach. His other hand holds my waist, and my hands are on his chest. His lips are so soft, a juxtaposition from the rough hands on me. In each second, we deepen the kiss as if we're going to swallow each other whole. His hands move to my back to pull me closer, like he doesn't want me to leave his grasp, as I cup his face with both of my hands. After a few while, we pull away, breathless. All we could do was look into each other’s eyes as we catch our breath before we laughed at how flustered the other looked.

“Let's get you home, love.” He sees my tired eyes, and stands up, extending a hand to me once again. I nodded and held his hand. We walked back to his car, he opened the car door for me, I gave my thanks, and we drove back to my apartment.

9:00 pm

We arrived at my house. I tried leaving the car first with the bouquet of flowers but he told me to wait, wanting to open the car door himself.

“Aren't you tired of that?”

“Of course not, anything for my love. It's only the bare minimum.” I blush, giving him a peck on the cheek as a ‘Thank you’ after leaving the car. We walked up to the front door of my apartment.

“I had a wonderful time, we should do this again, Chester.”

“Me too, I hope to see you again. Have a good night, love.” 

I give him a kiss on the lips before bidding him farewell, making the both of us smiley and giddy. Chester leaves as I open my door with my house keys to see Selina on the couch with my cats, watching a movie. 

Once I closed and locked the door, placing the bouquet of flowers onto a nearby table, Selina urged me, “Oh my god, spill the deets!” Selina and I spent the night talking about the date with snacks and movies before passing out on the couch, with me still wearing his blazer.

[eclipse-rain]

'Awalie (Once; in the Past); Part 3

☆☆☆

- Spiders not in this fic because i literally cant handle writing any kind of redemption arc for him sry

Part 1 Part 2

Masterlist~

☆☆☆

Crawling through a vent wasnt something you thought you would ever do in your life once, nevermind twice.

As you had previously discovered the first time you went through it, the other end put you right inside the control room which was perfect for you, although not as much for Neteyam. This was because you had also previously discovered that although the vent could fit you, the same couldnt be said for your new seven foot tall friend.

This had been something you had thought about after seeing where the vent led to the first time you crawled through it though. Why else would you have risked your life to get the avatar who was guarding the door to the control room away from it?

Neteyam could get in through that way. What was even better was that he could once again be a distraction for the two who were left inside the room ; the pilot and co-pilot. While you suck in unnoticed through the vent to put what was hopefully the last part of your 'plan', to freaking hijack this spaceship, into action.

And thats exactly what you did. Okay maybe it wasnt the best idea you both could have come up with but what else were you suposed to do? The next thing you knew Neteyam had snuck in the control room door and was now grabbing all the pilots attention, while you crawled out of the vent and booked it towards the ship control panel where the pilots had previously been seated.

The good news was that the pilots were scared enough to flee the room when given the chance to by neteyam, unbeknownst to them who thought they had luckly eacaped. The bad news was that now they would call for back up. Sure Neteyam could have shot them as he brought the gun along with him, so as not to be completely defenceless, but by that point they had already pushed the emergency button on the control panel, sending warnings anew.

Locking the door to the room once they left, you both didnt waste anytime trying to find out just how many soilders would now be headed straight to this room. Now sitting in the pilots chair, you glanced above you only to see a computer screen desplaying the numbers 2169 in the corner.

"Oh fxck it really is 2169, you weren't kidding"

"See, i wasnt lying. I'm not as reckless as my brother." He laughed before becoming serious once again "Now how do we get this thing off the ground?" He asked you like you had all the answers

"How should i know? Try and find a manual or something"

"The pilots already started it though so cant you just fly it away now?"

"Well if its that easy then why dont you do it?" You scoffed, trying to figure out how to turn on autopilot. Of course you werent going to fly this thing, you had no idea how, you could guide it but autopilot would have to do the rest of the work.

"I thought all humans could fly a spaceship?"

"Of course not! Im sixteen, i cant fly a spaceship!"

"But all na'vi children can fly ikrans already by that age, isnt it like the same thing?!"

You paused for a split second, not knowing wheather to laugh or cry. You wondered if you should try slapping yourself to see wheather or not you would wake up from this absolutely ludicrous dream.

"...NO! When your sixteen you learn how to drive a car. A car! Not a freaking spaceship!"

"Whats a car?!"

"..."

"It doesnt matter!!" You shouted, getting off topic

You were both panicing now.

"Cant you do something? Anything?!" Neteyam questioned urgently, now seeing people start to gather outside of the control room door

"Im trying! Do you want us to die?!"

Hesitating, you finally layed your hands down on the steering wheel of the spaceship. You put them at two and ten like you had been taught when learning how to drive a car but the wheel was almost a completely diffrent shape.

"Well were going to either way so we might as well try it now that we've gotten this far." ; Was his reasoning to have you go along with him now that you both were here and in this situation together. A crowd of people gathered at the door now, along with even some avatars who wielded guns strapped to their person.

"Try what?" You asked him, trying to gat him to elaborate

"This!"

Suddenly Neteyam shoved his much larger hands over your own and pulled up forcefully. Shaking violently, the ship lurched high up into the air and the two of you lunged backwards with the force. You could only imagine what happened to the crowd of people outside the room after that happened, a small smile was etched onto your face in victory but it didnt stay there for long.

Neteyam, not being seated, was almost thrown to the ground had he not been clutching onto your hands on the wheel for dear life. You guessed he really didnt want to die a second time and frankly neither did you. But at this rate you werent sure if all your struggling up till now would end in a fiery spaceship crash.

"I thought you said you weren't as reckless as your brother?!" You shouted over the sound of the spaceship bursting into action

"Desperate times call for desperate measures!" He shouted back with a nervous smile

"Isnt that a human saying?!"

"I dont know, is it?!"

"Wait thats not whats important right now! Is this really the time to be having this conversation?!"

Just then the spaceship stoped traveling upwards and leveled out. A breef second of tranquillity was all it took to make your stomach lurch as the nose of the spaceship tipped towards the waves crashing up against the cliff down below, before it went barrling downwards, the both of you screaming in unison as it went.

Before the both of you ended up dead once again in a head on collision with the ground, you fumbled around once more, soon seeing a little light ding on, indicating you had hit the right button for the autopilot.

"Neteyam!"

Understanding your calling of him instantaniously, Neteyam helped you to pull the nose of the space ship up and away from the crashing waves below.

Soon you both breathed sighs of relief, thanking Eywa or whoever else that you had gotten out of that with your lives and all your limbs still intact.

~~~

Mapping out your destination was easy, for whatever reason they already had the co-ordinates of Neteyams home in the spaceship. As you rested, while autopilot took the lead with the flying, Neteyam had time to tell you why that was and everything that happened to his family and the Na'vi people.

You didnt know where you were going to go from here or what you were supposed to do to get home but one thing you were sure of was that you couldnt stay with the humans who were on Pandora. Even if there was a slim to none chance that the Na'vi where you were going would help you that didnt matter.

It wasnt just your own feelings, it was something more than that. You had been feeling it for a while now, since you woke up but you had been trying to ignore it. Your body must have been feeling wierd because of what those scientists did to you. Thats what you had thought but you even had this gut feeling that those scientists had definitely been experimented on you, even though you were asleep the whole time. Why was that? What made you so sure?

And why werent you more scared to be heading to a Na'vi settlement? You were all alone here, that was true but somehow you felt that you werent as well. That something inside of you was trying to calm you, keep you safe, guide you, for whatever reason. Maybe those experiments really had done a number on your body as well as your brain seemingly. Or maybe the adrenalin was making you delusional like how it can block out the pain.

You didnt know what was going on with you, with your family, with this world, with the humans. But you wanted to. You needed answers and for now, this was seemingly the only way to get them. Neteyam told you alot, you bet your life that the others could tell you more. It was another gut feeling to you, was it still a reckless impulse? Probably. For lack of a better word, although if you had a choice that better word you would use would be 'improvisation'.

The blaring sirens had stopped, so did the blinding red lights but the humans at the door did nothing to ease your minds. The avatars contributed to that even less so. You had made it about half way to your destination before you couldnt take it anymore. You had to get away from them and this ship now before they broke down the door.

Setting off the alarms again to give you some cover you both slipped through the vent and made your way to the exit chamber door of the spaceship, although not without a little protest from Neteyam.

"I cant fit through there"

"No time to complain, you'll be fine"

"Barely"

"Okay then stay here and perish, see ya"

*2 minutes later*

"Could you crawl any slower?!" You asked having worked reverse sicology to its finest

"You're the one who made me go through here"

"Thats because your lanky ass didnt wanna be left behind and i will leave you behind if you dont hurry up!" The two of you bickered in an attempt to push things along

With the humans still trying to get into the room behind you, it would not be long before they realised what had happened and came after you both once again.

And that they did, much faster then either of you had expected and so neither of you had any sort of plan. You both now stood with the door to the spaceship wide open, thousands of feet in the air, wind threatening to suck you out down to the watery depths below.

"So...whos going first?"

"Are you right in the head?" He asked in a panic without any parachute or any kind of machine around that would aid in a safe and swift landing

"No, what made you think that?" You retorted completely serious "I did just wake up from being brain dead so what gave you the impression that listening to me was a good idea?"

"Alright, point taken" he sighed in defeat

You heard the hurried footsteps of soilders rush towards you, guns clinking against their uniforms. There was only one option left and you both knew it.

"So....on three?" You shouted towards Neteyam over the wind

A banging on the latched door to the exit chamber you were both in swiftly coerced you into action.

"Three!" You shouted in usison, turning to each other with a nod before running and diving out of the wide open exit of the spaceship. The humans would be left with an unpleasant surprise once they managed to break down the door.

Now hurtling through the sky as the cold wind rushed passed you, you both turned to look back at the space ship.

"We should have done something before jumping, their gonna follow us!" Neteyam shouted over to you

"Dont worry! I got that covered!" You shouted back in reply

"So what did you do?!"

Just then a loud clanging of metal rang out indicating what was previously the spaceship you both were on turning into a fiery explosion of flames.

"That works!"

"Well since i had that one covered, do you have anything that could potentially make us not break every bone in our body when we hit the water?!" You questioned as you were both still free falling

"Umm.....maybe?!"

"Maybe?! Whats maybe?!"

Suddenly Neteyam brought his fingers up to his mouth and made a high pitched sound.

"Wait for it!" He shouted

"Wait for wh-?!"

Just then something bigger than you had ever seen before jumped up from the depths of the ocean.

"What the fu-?!"

Before you could say another word, it clamped down and swallowed the both of you whole, diving straight back into the ocean where it had come from, with you both in its mouth.

~~~

The first thing you never thought you would do in your life was crawl through a vent three times, the second was getting eaten by a giant sea creature that was about ten times bigger than a whale. Oh and maybe being shot and becoming brain dead and then becoming not brain dead anymore because scientists used your body for experiments. Then being brought to an alien planet, but you were asleep for all of that so this was all definitely wierder.

What could you say? Humor was your coping mechanism, another thing you shared with Jake. And you hadnt been using it enough in this obviously stress inducing situation you were thrust into.

Having been plunged into darkness you struggled with not being able to breath and the salt water stinging your eyes. Soon enough you felt arms around you and you were pulled to the surface of the ocean, seemingly now out of the sea creatures mouth and also no longer falling to your imminent death.

You and Neteyam layed your torsos onto what seemed like a huge piece of debris to catch your breath, now feeling how tired you were as the adrenaline keeping you together left your bodies. That was until the big piece of debris started moving and making clicking sounds and you almost fell back into the ocean when you screamed in fright.

"Its okay! He's friendly!" Neteyam tried to assure you

"He just tried to eat us!"

"He was saving us, i told you i had a way to stop us falling. He's my younger brothers spirit brother, his name is Pakayan"

Pakayan blew water out of one of his many blowholes in response, sprinkling you both in a light rain as if trying to confirm he wasnt a threat.

You let out a nervous laugh "Oh righttt, nice giant whale thingy" you said patting his fin but suddenly as you looked into Pakayans eye you felt an unusually serene calmness come over you

Neteyam let out a chuckle at that "He's a Tulkun, remember i was telling you about them on the ship. About how the humans were after them"

"Oh right they wanted the stuff in their brains" you remebered that converstaion as well as many of the others

"The amrita." He confirmed for you

"Right because it stops humans from...aging..."

"Mhm"

"Hey, Neteyam..."

"Yeah?"

"How..." you stuttered "...How did the humans find out that it stops them from aging...?" You questioned suddenly keenly aware of a certain fact

And with the way the boy next to you eyes widened you knew that he had exactly the same thought pattern as you.

"You dont think..." he started

Something the humans wanted to stop them from aging and a girl whos brain dead body was used for experiments.

A girl who's body didnt age.

In all that time of course she didnt age mentally but being in a comatose state couldnt have stopped her body from aging, especially for fifteen years.

Suddenly the light hearted atmosphere from earlier, of being free from the spaceship and alive, was now replaced with a chilly reality. The sun sunk behind the clouds and the water became dark and grey and murky, dropping a couple of degrees in temperature in the process.

"Y/n-" Neteyam started but a voice in the distance cut him off before he could finish speaking.

In the wide open ocean with seemingly nothing around for miles this caught you both off guard. Hauling yourself up onto Pakayans fin with Neteyam copying your movements you readied yourself for any attack crouching down behind the rest of his body.

Although you made sure to take into consideration that someone who was a threat to the two of you wouldnt announce themselves by calling out like that.

"Hey Pakayan why did you swim off like that?" The voice echoed from not to far away now, the person seemed to be approaching rather fast

But suddenly Neteyam grabbed your arm, stopping you from readying yourself to attack any possible threat.

"What?" You whispered at him

"Its my younger brother" he said with almost a slight tone of anxiety laced in his voice

"The one whos spirit brother this is?"

"Yes"

"That makes alot of sense actually" you reckoned he was nervous to see his brother again, seeing as the last time he probably watched the life drain from his eyes.

You would be too if you ever got the chance to meet either of your brothers again, it was a normal reaction. Although you werent quite sure what to do, especially since you were a human and they were the ones who killed him. His brother might think you were holding him for ransome or something like Neteyam had told you how the humans had done so to his siblings to lure out his father.

All you could do was grab his hand in reasurance and try to pull you both into a standing position on Pakayans fin. You had to briefly hold onto Pakayans body in the process to keep your balance as his fin slightly jostled in the water. You could only hope for the best in this situation.

And when you stood up and finally saw him you also saw that he wasnt alone, there were five others with him. You assumed Neteyams brother to be the one at the front since they were the same shade of blue. He was sat on a much smaller sea creature than Pakayan and behind him a girl with more of a teal blue skin colour sat with her arms around his waist.

Two boys mirroring the girls skin colour rode on two of their own sea creatures side by side, conversing before turning their attention towards us. A girl with the same skin tone as Neteyam rode on her own as well, with a child mirroring her same shade of blue holding onto her shoulders, standing up for a better view.

Silence was all there was for a painful few seconds and you sort of hoped in that moment that the sea would open up and swallow you.

"Oh shit i think im hallucinating"

"Am i the only one seeing him"

"No i see it too"

"Well we cant all be hallucinating together"

"Maybe we got sun stroke"

"We've barely been out for half an hour"

"Maybe we're dehydrated, someone get some water"

"Are they okay?" You whispered to Neteyam

"I cant take any more of this..." he whispered back "Hey skawang~ you're not hallucinating, im really here and alive" he waved turning his attention to his brother

Once again there was silence, then all hell broke lose.

"Oh my god he talked!"

"Why is their a human next to him??"

"Speak apparition"

"He's not dead you idiot"

"How do we know for sure?"

"Somebody slap him!"

"No! No! Definitely do not slap him"

"How much longer do you think this is going to go on for?" You whispered to Neteyam once again

"I'm not sure we might be dead again by the time they stop" he replied

~~~

After everyone calmed down Neteyam got to explaining how he was alive, there were tears, there were hugs and there was you standing by yourself wondering if you would ever get to reunite with your family.

"Oh and this-" Neteyam gestured to you "-is Y/n. She's the one who saved me, i probably wouldn't have made it out of that spaceship without her"

Just then you were glad that you had taken off the lab coat you had disguised yourself in when you were in the control room, that would have been a really bad look. Now you were just left in your black top, baggy cargo pants and combat boots, albet now soaked through with salt water.

Even so you felt as if Neteyam had put you under the spotlight when all heads turned in your direction. They seemingly scaned you up and down to see if what their brother and or friend told them was true.

Neteyam continued to speak once again but for your benefit this time. "Y/n, this is my brother Lo'ak-" when he gestured to him you realised you had been right in your previous assumption.

"My two younger sisters, Kiri and Tuk-" You now remebered their names from parts of the stories he was telling you when you were both in the control room of the spaceship.

"And our friends Ao'nung, Tsireya and Rotxo" he finished

He mentioned before that Ao'nung and Tsireya were the children of his new clans leaders Tonowari and Ronal, if you remebered correctly, you should probably be extra careful around them.

"It's nice to meet you all" you greeted as non-threateningly as you could, if that was even a thing

"So you really killed another human to save my brother?" Kiri asked

"Um, yes?" You answered a little caught off guard by the question

"Well i think that says enough" she replied seemingly appeased

"If both my older brother and spirit brother trust you than I will too" Lo'ak agreed

Before long they all seemed to have come to a decision to trust you for the time being after hearing what you had to say and what Neteyam had told them. But they didnt hesitate to make sure you knew that one toe out of line, one hair out of place and they wouldnt hesitate to treat you like a normal human.

Leaving from your standing position on Pakayans back, the others returned to their sea creatures which Neteyam told you they called an ilu. After they mounted them Neteyam took placement behind the Metkayina clan leaders son but not before he guided you over to sit behind the other teal skined boy. He had previously introduced him to you as Rotxo and you quickly noticed he seemed to have a keen facination with you being a human now that you were deemed non-threatening.

However, even so, soon it became apparent that, except for Rotxo, it was alot easier for the Sullys to accept you than the Metkayina kids, this was probably because they had grown up around humans and avatars according to Neteyam.

You wondered if Tommy had ended up being able to go to Pandora if he would have been one of the avatars they grew up around, but it was a useless thought. You had a gut feeling that Tommy was dead and your gut feelings were rarely wrong.

But now with you and Neteyam having come to an unsettling previous realisation another thing became more clear to you, another feeling. That feeling of relax you had felt when you had stared into that Tulkan, Pakayans, eye. How you somehow knew that he wasnt a threat to you, how you could understand the meaning in what his eye was portraying to you.

As well as the feelings that you had been having up till now that somewhat felt out of place. How you hadnt been afraid to go to a na'vi settlement, or how even if you thought Neteyams friends and siblings might lash out at you for being a human you still werent scared of them.

Your feelings that should have been there but werent and were replaced with something else, someone elses feelings. Goosebumps laced your body, you rubbed your arms in an attempt to alleviate them but to no avail.

A sound rang out in the distance as the others laughed and joked and made coverstaion all while making their way back to the place they called home.

The sound grew louder but no body else seemed to notice.

"Does no body else hear that?" You asked

Everybody now turned their attention to you, having been the first time you spoke since splitting from Pakayan and starting the journey home. They didnt speak a word only seemingly listening intently before looks were shared among them.

"I think you might be tired after everything that happened Y/n" Neteyam tried to reason

"No, listen" you urged

They did once again, but it was the same result as the first time, nothing came of it.

"You dont hear that...?" You asked breathlessly

"Hear what?" They questioned

"..."

If one stared for too long or too closely at you in that moment, even in the light of the setting sun, they might be able to make out the slight unnatural gold colour around the rims of your irises or the tips and roots of your hair that were not there before. Only if they did they never said so, perhaps that was because the next words that fell from your mouth were enough to strip all of the thoughts from their minds.

"What is it Y/n...?" Neteyam questioned, sounding worried

"The ocean...its crying."

☆☆☆

I told you guys that the last part would be a way less bad cliff hanger and that they would only get worse from here MUAHAHAHA 👹

If you guys havent voted on my recent pole (its important to me) pls do here

@thehoneymushroomhealer @corgicord @lovelyygirl8

[yourmomni]

Fix You 3

A/n: Hola so I'm sorry im late I was gardening this morning till 3 and took a nap that was more like a coma and forgot to turn in the post schedule. But since I messed up I'm going to be dropping part 4 tomorrow YAAAAAY. Anyways please enjoy @loveyouselfalways I hope you enjoy it

I threw my bag over my shoulder hurrying to the front to walk with the others out of the building and too our car.

We walked together waving and bowing to the cameras, smiling rushing to our vehicle. I huffed as I adjusted myself in the seat.

" Hey you okay." Jay was sitting beside me dropping his bag in front of his seat and slamming the door close.

" We haven't talked in a while. I just wanted to check on you." I bit the inside of my cheek feeling bad about ignoring everyone for the past week. " Yeah I'm sorry about that." He smiled. " it's okay we've just been worried about you with the tweets and all." Jay was always the one checking up on me when I was feeling bad about myself. He would make me food, listen to me rant or vent. He was always the one to comfort me.

Not saying the others didn't do their part. Heeseung would find ways to make me laugh, sunoo would distract me by talking about face care making me go shopping with him for new products. Sunghoon acted like he just wanted to go skating just to show off a skill but in reality he just wanted also get my mind off of things. Jungwon would make me sit in his room and watch movies, and Jake would have me help him build his new Lego set in the living room with a show playing in the background.

They all had their ways of making me feel better, they all cared.

We made it back to our company and immediately started changing for our interview. The theme was black so I was dressed in a black dress and a ribbon pulling back two curly strands of hair in the front of my head to Meet in the back. I had a Tiffany necklace on my neck with a matching bracelet.

They set us up in chairs. I was in the front sandwiched between sunoo and sunghoon.

The interview started like any other one. We talked about our new album and a couple of behind the scenes things. It was going well until we started answer these stupid questions that were in a bowl that our fans wanted to know.

" Okay this one says who is the cleanest member." Jay read out loud. I raised my hand. " Oh most definitely me yesterday I went into Jake's room and I swear I saw his clothes in his basket move like it was alive." They started laughing and Jake whined that it was just my imagination. Then I picked a question to myself then out loud. " ohhhh who has the most chemistry?"

Every ohhed " I would have to say Niki and y/n, they get along well maybe because of their ages but their always together and practicing together and they complement each other well." Sunghoon said and everyone began to agree with him. I turned around to look at niki and he was looking at me.

Was he blushing, he smiled at me and I quickly turned around facing the front biting the inside of my cheek Keeping from smiling too hard.

I passed the bowl to Niki and he happily took it spinning his hand in the bowl. " Okay it says……." His smile faltered and his eyebrows frowned a little. " What I don't understand this." Jay leaned over his shoulder reading the question. He scoffed, taking it out of his hand and ripping it in half.

" i don't know who thought that was funny to put in the bowl but it's really unprofessional." Niki and Jay got up and walked behind the camera. We all looked at eachother confused about what was happening.

Jungwon got up taking his mic pack off walking to Jay to figure out what was happening. I turned around and the question was sitting in Jay's seat.

I picked it up reading it

" Who's the strongest member, show by trying to pick up Y/n who is the heaviest."

Sung Hoon snatched the question from me reading it over and over again. The others were reading it over his shoulder. You could hear Niki yelling at the producer behind the camera and Jay was backing him up.

Niki was fuming, his nose was flaring and his knuckles were white from how hard he was clenching his hands into fist. " So you're telling me you read all of those questions and you thought that one was okay to put in there?" The producer rolled his eyes. " it's not that big of a deal it's just a question."

" so it won't be that big of a deal if I punch you in the fucking face " Jay and jungwon grabbed Niki before he could swing his fist.

Everyone rushed towards him trying to calm the situation." I'm going straight to the media, after I tell them about a young kpop star threatening an Elle employ you group will never see another Prada runway Ever again" Jay laughed.

" Is that a threat?" The man glared up at Jay walking towards him. " Try me."Jay's face darkened " If I see so much as a rumor about this situation in the news I will sue you for everything you have with not even an ounce of mercy, after I'm done with you I'm going to sue your company for exploitation of a minor. I will take everything you own. I will rip your company to shreds. You will never work for another company in Korea for as long as I'm alive. I'll make sure of that. Now that's a promise."

The producer was toe to toe with Jay. " I think it's time for you to go." Jake said standing behind his member. The producer mumbled under his breath as he and his crew packed up their cameras and stuff.

" woah Jay the CEO in you came out that was pretty cool." Sunghoon punched his shoulder. Niki started looking around the room. The camera Crew cleared out swiftly. But he was more worried about one thing.

You

And you were gone.

[an-aura-about-you]

ok gang who's ready for the story of the bullshit I've been dealing with today?

so the day is already off to a promising start because I have to take my cat to the vet for his 3 times a week fluids treatment, so we're sequestered in my bedroom and he's waking me up because he has to mess with my stuff and can't just leave the room.

but eventually he chills out and we both go back to sleep.

I wake up and see I have a couple of missed calls. one's a voicemail from the body shop.

rewind for a bit: I had a car accident back on the 4th of July. I didn't mention it here because it was basically a fender bender, no one was hurt, and I didn't have to pay for anything since the other guy was considered at fault. but part of my car got crunched pretty good, so it went to the body shop for repairs and that's where it's been for the past two weeks.

anyway, my car is ready, so it's time to return the rental and get my car back. after taking the cat to the vet, which thankfully was without incident on my end but took some time because of an emergency they had.

I go to the rental place and return the car, and they try to stick me with the extra costs even though my claims adjuster said it should be free of charge to me. the extra costs being they were unable to provide a car in the covered size, so according to their contract with the insurance company the upgrade should be free to me. and I don't want to be a Karen about this but I also don't want to get the runaround from two groups telling me two different things. it also makes me wonder who the heck my claims adjuster talked to since she said she would give them a call. because really, it is neither my fault nor the insurance company's fault that they didn't have a small car available for my reservation. hell, maybe it isn't the rental place's fault either since they say they're returns based, but looking at the cars they had at their lot, I have to wonder if they DID have any small cars at all.

in any case, they charged it to the insurance company minus the fuel I agreed to cover (since I chose the option to bring it back on an empty tank instead of trying to match what fuel I had when they loaned me the car.) and they give me a ride to the body shop.

I get there, my car looks great, I go in to get my key and sign off on the paperwork.

and then my car won't start.

I go back inside like ??? and they go, "yeah we've had to jump your car a number of times while working on it." which, they didn't tell me that before?? and Dad and Razzz jumped on this being suspicious, but we'll get to that.

the guy jumps my car, I drive it over to the nearby AutoZone, and the car dies just as I'm pulling into the spot. I think, "well, if it is the battery, I couldn't have asked for a better spot for it to die."

I go in, I tell the dude what's up, and we jump my car again to get a read on the battery. things look bad but inconclusive, so he recommended I take it to another place to see if it is just the battery or if something else is going on. and I can't get it out of the parking lot.

fine. ok. I knew one day I'd have to cowboy up and handle things, so I pull up my insurance app and request roadside assistance for a tow. I don't have roadside included in my plan because this is the first time in the 7 years I've owned my car that I've needed roadside assistance, so I figure paying it out of pocket this one time balances out. they say it's going to be possibly 2 hours for them to get here, and I have to be at work in an hour at this point, so I make arrangements to have the car towed without me there.

fortunately the guy at AutoZone was happy to help, but that led to an interesting interaction. he saw the stickers on my car, including an Arkansas sticker in the colors of the Progressive Pride flag. and he asked if I knew a friend of his who was trans. we had a nice talk about it, but in my brain I was like, "??? We Don't All Know Each Other!" don't get me wrong, I would love to meet his friend! but we don't have like a meetup place or a psychic link.

THEN I call Dad to see if he can give me a ride. he can't, and that really should be the end of the conversation. but no, dads gotta dad, so he asks for more details about my car trouble and tells me it's super sus that I get the car back from the body shop and suddenly it's having this trouble. and it's like he's not wrong but he is not solving any problems by talking to me about them over the phone at that moment. he was also like, "the car didn't give you any trouble like this on your vacation," and I was like, "because I had the rental on vacation and haven't had my car for two weeks!" I eventually had to be like, "I'm handling it but right now if you can't give me a ride I REALLY need to get on the phone with someone who can!" that fortunately did the trick, and I jumped onto Uber.

I managed to get an Uber just in time for work, and the driver was weird about me slamming her doors?? I didn't think I was but she seemed to think I was slamming them. I wasn't even thinking really, just wanted to shut the door firmly because I don't want the door just hanging open. but that's whatever and I managed to remember to not "slam" the door when I left.

also, while in the Uber, I got a call from the tow truck saying he was almost there. I updated him on the situation including the guy at AutoZone who I left my key with. and turns out tow truck guy and AutoZone guy are friends who used to work together! that at least was a happy coincidence.

somehow I made it to work on time, then I was on the phone for like an hour talking to various people about the situation and where the car got towed to because it was brought to a different dealership (and actually the one I would have chosen had it been offered as a default on the app) and now that whole mess of it is sorted. as far as they can tell, it IS just the battery, but I asked them to make sure just in case anything else happens with the car. I will be a little sore if it IS just the battery because AutoZone could have resolved that problem without me paying for a tow, but I would rather be safe than sorry about my car.

anyway that's been my day so far. how are y'all?

[zarvasace]

Vidow Animatic Thoughts (pt 2)

(continued) Still long, so under cut.

part 1 // part 2 // part 3

Chorus 2

Last part mentioned the tears, so I won't go over that again (other than the fact that I like how they move! I think that turned out well.)

We also see Shadow as a whole figure again here, perhaps indicating that Vio's reality is collapsing, that he's entered a sort of dreamlike state. He gets up from kneeling (I like how that flow ended up, by the way) and stands there for a second.

We've been right there with Vio this whole time, but now we face some uncertainty as to what his next move will be: continue to brood and try to move forward (or in the past, he is still facing left...), or do something about it? Is "doing something about it" even a good idea?

We see Shadow again, and this time when he touches real!Vio, Vio touches him back to hold his hand. The white circle is meant to show the moment Vio decides. Vio also smiles for the first time, and we see him from the front, facing right nor left.

And then he stands dramatically with what might be magic or just representations of his emotions coming into play. Really, this shot is just meant to say that hey, Vio's decided something, and he seems happy about it. He's confident in his next step.

The final time we see his face until the end, and it's a liiiiittle ominous. What he's decided may not be good. That's the next narrative question. There's also more white here, showing that change and that he's still really sad despite his manic smile. We don't know his mental state anymore.

Interlude

I love this part. I love that the music picks up a little. These shots are also fun environment shots. Things are really getting more detailed in my art now, which wasn't really intentional but serves to amp up the intensity a bit, I think. We see several items that come into play later: candles, herbs, a dagger, a book, most with little flashes of white. I think this is probably the prettiest sequence in the whole thing.

It's not clear if the candles and herbs are in Vio's room or not, but the book definitely is. That's the post of his bed. He's been studying this, but hasn't actually done it for some unknown reason.

Vio's intentions are pretty obvious at this point to people familiar with fandom interpretation, but it hasn't been outright stated, so it's still a little unclear. I could be trying to fake you out again, who knows? There's still uncertainty as to what he's doing, and definitely uncertainty as to if it's even a good idea. Things are ominous and dark right now. Vio does not look like he's doing well, and a mentally unwell Vio is not uh. Not good.

People familiar with canon and fanon may be even more concerned, because some of you have seen the directions this has gone before: Vio exchanging his life or well-being for Shadow's, Vio burning things down, Vio becoming a villain in his own right... lots of possibilities. We aren't sure exactly what'll happen, even if we might have a good idea (and a hope.)

The music picks up again, and we get some repeated shots, intensity heightened. Vio is walking again, but not for as long. He's in front of the (not bright) window again (with smoke clinging to him.) Notably, he's facing right, this time. He's leaving his room and going elsewhere. He's leaving safety and entering the unknown.

The key sort of parallels him opening his bedroom door earlier but also signifies that he's going somewhere private. The bag falling to the floor means that he's arrived, and is a callback to the bow and quiver falling to the floor early in the video. He's ready.

Bridge

And then the guitar solo picks up!! When I came up with this part, on song listen like five in the car, I laughed out loud because it was glorious. I hope I captured some of that drama here. I'm not perfectly satisfied with the timing of the "drawing the circle" part, I think it went too quickly, but by then I'd already synced up the candles to the music, and I didn't want to take the time to mess with it. You can really tell that I started getting fancier in here, almost every individual frame in this part is edited somehow.

The words in the magic circle are Latin: "obumbratio die bris" means "shadows die twice," which is apparently the name of a video game? I dunno, I just saw it as a suggestion on Google Translate and ran with it, it sounds appropriately fancy. There is also "reduces eum" which is Google Translate Latin for "bring him back." Which gives it away, if you can read Latin that fast. XD

The magic circle is white, and some of the last white period, potentially signifying that the magic circle is the cumulative product of everything trying to get Vio to change, to notice something different, to move on. (I don't think this is moving on, exactly, but it is him taking action to change his circumstances.)

The candle flames are black, mostly for contrast, but also because this whole thing is "lit" by Shadow. He's everything here, not physically but definitely spiritually. Also I really like the way the candles and flames appear on cue with the music. :)

And here we get some payoff with the interlude stuff earlier: there's the book, a candle, some of the herbs and jars we saw. It's just various magic stuff. The book has a visible S and R, though the rest of the title is obscured. It might say "shadow revival" or "shadow resurrection" or "shadow recall" or something like that.

I like the way that plant burns, it looks cool. And all the stuff falling into the bowl took forever, that's probably the most complex sequence of the entire video. But the flowing liquids and shaking powder certainly look quite good! It's very clear now that Vio is doing something complicated and magical, and maybe dangerous (black-burning candles might be some kind of dark magic, right?) The more complicated magic is, the more risk it poses, or maybe the more problems can arise. It's not clear exactly, yet, what this is meant to do, but it's implied. And we still don't know if it's a good thing or not.

At least Vio is determined, and no longer constantly distracted.

I don't really like the way that mortar and pestle bit moves, but I also didn't know how to do it better without rearranging everything, so I decided to just leave it. Gets the point across: he mixed the stuff.

And here's the dagger back, too! At least it's just his hand. (: (also if you haven't noticed, Vio is consistently left-handed! I use my own hands for reference so I did have to flip a couple drawings. oops.) He closes his fingers around the blade, but I faded that out pretty quickly so the viewer knew that I wouldn't show the actual wound. Also I think these hands look pretty good.

The first (and one of only two) appearance of red! It's blood! Dramatic! If you didn't know this was potentially dangerous to begin with, now you do! Blood is involved! Oh no! I made sure to leave the blood until the last shot before the lyrics started up again, since it's the most ominous thing so far, and that red has Consequences.

(continued in part 3!)

[whovianwatchingstartrek]

A Whovian Watches Star Trek for the First Time: Part 062 - TIME TRAVEL!

Star Trek: Enterprise - Season 3 Episode 11 - Carpenter Street

The episode opens in some grimy alleyway, presumably the Carpenter Street in the title, and this definitely isn't the 2150's. But for some reason, A Xindi Reptilian is contacting a human in this time. Time Travel Episode!

The Xindi have asked this guy to make some sort of drug, or chemical, and now we're watching him drug prostitutes to get test subjects, and he actually has a pretty big lab.

Almost 10 minutes into the episode, we jump back to Enterprise, and Daniels shows up in the Kitchen. It's been a while since we've seen him. Daniels lets Archer know about what's happening in 2004, and gives him the means to go back to stop them. Specifically, Archer and T'Pol go back.

Watching T'Pol and Archer utterly failing to find a suitable car to steal was adorable, and honestly I could watch a whole season of these two bumbling around 2004. Either way, they find where the dude's lab, and unfortunately for them, the dude shows up with another subject just as they arrived.

Apparently, a man in the shadows is also helping the dude, working his payments. At first, I thought this was maybe a scheme by Shadowy-Villain guy from seasons 1 and 2, but then I remembered he can't actually interact with the past, and then just turns out not to be him, it's a regular Xindi.

Archer follows the dude back to his apartment, and a chase ensues, but it's quickly dealt with, and an interrogation occurs, and it ends up with Archer offering himself up as one of the victims, in order to get into the factory. Turns out, the Factory is trying to develop the Xindi Bioweapon.

Archer manages to recover the weapon and all the Xindi tech in 2004, and hands over the bioweapon to Phlox to study.

I enjoyed this one, the whole time travel spy plot was really fun, and I was enjoying trying to figure out the Xindi plot the whole time, and it had a few cute moments, like the burger scene, or the car theft I mentioned earlier. The action in this one wasn't great, but plot held my attention well enough. The episode also does fall into trap of being way too visually dark, but 21st century earth was fun place to put an episode.

[little-corritrice]

| The Mafia | ~ Part 3 ~

Genre: Mafia Au, Fanfiction

Pairing: N/A

Rating: Semi-Angst, Fluff

Warnings: Gas Poisoning

Synopsis ~ y/n was just living her life, but when she ran into troubles of her past, she found herself being auctioned off to a mafia named Ateez. Within her time, she soon finds another whom she knows...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There was a sudden loud bang, making me jolt awake from the floor. I looked around, and saw nothing was wrong with my room. I heard a commotion outside, making me go to see what was wrong. I walked down the hall quietly, leaning against the wall. "I don't know why you guys kept her here! She's useless to us! I bet she's still crying like a little bitch up in the room!" Wooyoung yelled, and I heard an aggravated sigh. "She is under our protection now! She has a fucking huge amount on her head because of her bastard of a father! Feel a little sympathy for the girl!" Hongjoong exclaimed, obviously frustrated with the conversation. "So why don't we just kill her? We've killed a bunch of people, so what's one more? Wooyoung yelled, and Hongjoong and him kept arguing as I stood around the corner.

I didn't want to hear anymore so I ran up to the room, and started collecting all of my belongings. I grabbed my backpack, opening the window. I was on the second story, but there was a tree branch that extended over to my window. As soon as my feet hit the floor, I was running out the main gate, trying to figure out which way I was going. I saw a car coming, and decided walk the way it came from. After a couple hours, I finally made it to my town, crying out in relief. I started jogging to my house, and when I reached there, I was shocked. My front door had been kicked open, and some of my windows were broken. I slowly walked in, seeing everything turned upside down. I walked to my room, and there was a note on my bed.

- y/n, We know where you are hiding. You can't run from us, and we will have your head. You got 24 hours before we come after you. Remember, you can't hide forever... - XXX

I shook slightly as I read over the note, dropping it on the bed. I didn't need much time to think before I turned around to start packing. When I did, I saw Yunho standing behind me, and I fell back, shaking more now. "Hey, hey. I'm not going to hurt you. We need to get back to the mansion before someone knows you're here." He said, holding his hand out. I debated my options and chose to go with him because it was probably safer. Right as I was about to grab his hand, a bunch of spotlights were shown in the house, and I was blinded. "Yunho?" I whispered, and felt him grab my hand. "Just stay quiet. And whatever you do, don't let go." He said, and we crawled on the floor to the bathroom, shutting and locking the door. "What are we supposed to do?" I whispered, and he looked for an escape. "The window" He said.

I watched as he climbed on the sink, slowly opening the window. "I want you to go out and just run into the woods, okay? Follow the trail." He said, and I shook my head. "What about you?" I whispered, and he smiled. "I'll be right behind you, okay? Just go. Now!" He whispered, and I climbed out the window. As soon as I landed, I started running towards the woods, finding red circles of spray paint on the trees. I followed it until I was in a clearing, and the rest of Ateez was standing by. I collapsed to my knees from exhaustion, and everyone ran over. "Hey-...an y-...ar me-...y/n-..." Everything was cutting in and out, and I didn't know why. "y/n!" I heard Yunho yell, and he ran over to me, dropping to his knees beside me. "Sta-...th-...me...Ke-...yo-...eyes-...en..." Was the last thing I heard before I let the darkness engulf me entirely.

~ ~ ~

I slowly tossed and turned, feeling a cool cloth on my forehead, making me groan. "Try not to move too much. Your body needs to heal." I heard, and looked up to see Yeosang. "W-what happened?" I whispered, and Yeosang sighed. "You ran away from us, and another gang set up a trap at your house. You were poisoned with gas. Your lucky you got out of there in time." He said, and I nodded. I swung my legs off the bed, going to stand up. "Wait, wait, wait!" Yeosang called, coming around the bed to hold me up. "Where are you going?"' He said, trying to get me to sit, but I was already walking to the door. "To the kitchen." I said, and he made a noise of protest. "No, no. You have to rest." He exclaimed, but I groaned. "Please?" I asked, and after looking in thought for a little, he sighed. "Fine, but then your coming straight back to bed." He said, and I nodded. He helped me down the stairs, and into the dining room.

There was only one other person in here, and it was San. "I'll be right back." Yeosang said, leaving before I could protest. As the door shut behind him, San came over, and I flinched away. "Hey, I won't hurt you. My name is San. You must be y/n. You got a pretty good swing on you." He said, and I stared at the table. "I-I'm sorry. I w-was just p-panicked-" I started, but San chuckled. "It's all good. I understand completely. You were scared, and I shouldn't have approached you like I did. Though, I did hear how Wooyoung has been treating you." He said, and I turned away at the sound of Wooyoung's name. "He just needs to warm up to you. He's very protective of his family, and doesn't trust newcomers easily." He said, and I nodded. "It was a pleasure meeting you. If you need anything, you know to call any of us. I guess I'll see you around, y/n." He said, giving me a big smile before he walked out of the room.

[lifblogs]

Enjoy the first 7 pages of Lien Lost. Not in correct format because, you know, tumblr.

FADE IN:

INT. HOUSE/LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

CHRYSSE, a 28 year old white woman, is herding her two children, JET, 7, and LEXI, 3, onto a light gray couch. Lights outside show in through the blinds. A car drives by. The flat screen TV across the room is on, a news reporter is talking.

CLOSE ANGLE - TV

NEWS REPORTER

(on television)

...and now, to the events on Mars. We've been closely following this mission, and we have some troubling...

CHRYSSE

settling an excitable Jet and Lexi on the couch.

JET

And then, and then! The spaceship blew up!

LEXI

Boom! Boom! Boom!

CHRYSSE

Shh, we have to listen. This might be about Auntie Lien.

LEXI

Who's... Auuunie Leen?

CHRYSSE

(somehow patient)

She's my twin sister, sweetie.

Jet is now jumping up and down on the couch, and Chrysse is grabbing for him.

JET

I have a sister!

Lexi is clapping in acknowledgement.

The TV

showing recent footage from Mars on the screen behind the reporter. He is watching it, there are jumbled words said that we can't make out because of Chrysse's children.

Zoom in on white and silver hab stations and a ship. They have been blown to pieces, debris strewn out for miles.

CHRYSSE

she has managed to settle down Jet and Lexi. Lexi is in her lap, playing with the rings on Chrysse's fingers.

CLOSE ANGLE - TV

NEWS REPORTER

...we regretfully have to say that the mission to create safe habitats to sustain human life is over.

ON CHRYSSE

stricken

CLOSE ANGLE - TV

NEWS REPORTER

I'm sorry, folks. This one ended in a disaster. NASA will be reaching out to the families of the deceased, and...

(sigh)

...making arrangements to memorialize them. Again, I repeat, the deceased are as follows: Wyn Smith, Winona Avison, Gori Zova...

CHRYSSE

No, no, no...

NEWS REPORTER

...Lien Jane...

ON CHRYSSE

sound of the TV fades out. Her eyes are very big, and a small shudder takes over her entire body. Her eyes tear up, and then tears are rolling down her cheeks, dripping off her face.

Lexi is still playing with the rings on Chrysse's fingers, and Jet is now kicking his feet and watching his mom. He knows something is wrong, but doesn't understand what.

Suddenly, Chrysse puts Lexi down, and Lexi lets out a sharp exclamation.

JET

Mommy, what's happening?

CHRYSSE

she leaves the room, heading out to a kitchen with a coat rack near the front door. She grabs a coat, her keys.

CHRYSSE

I have to go.

JET

Mom!

CHRYSSE

(trying to hold in sobs)

I'm sorry, I have to go. I have to go, I have to get out of here. I'm sorry.

Chrysse walks out the door, leaving her two confused--and now distressed--children all alone...

EXT. PORCH - NIGHT

Chrysse heads to the street where a blue Honda Accord is parked.

She gets in.

INT. CAR - NIGHT

With fumbling hands Chrysse presses a button that starts the car, a light on her keys flashing. The engine revs, and she drives out into the night, reckless.

Passing street lights and headlights illuminate her face. Her lips are pinched together. She worries that if she opens her mouth she'll start screaming; we see it in the set of her jaw.

CHRYSSE'S P.O.V. - THE ROAD

It flashes past her, and everything begins to blur, her eyes welling up with tears.

Lights ahead.

Are they in her lane or the other lane? Is that a truck?

Loud honking has her swerving.

EXT. CAR - NIGHT

Chrysse's Honda Accord swerves up onto a sidewalk and part of someone's lawn, missing getting hit by the truck. Car stops.

INT. CAR - NIGHT

Chrysse starts banging her hands on the steering wheel, and she's screaming, tears pouring down her face. Any words she tries to get out are incomprehensible.

Eventually she hunches over, forehead against the wheel, hair a limp mess around her face. She sobs.

EXT. MARS/DESTROYED HAB STATION - NIGHT

A bloodied figure in a ruined space suit stands up.

EXT. CHRYSSE'S HOUSE - DAY

SUPERIMPOSE: "Five Months Later"

Through the windows we can see Jet helping Lexi into her seat at the kitchen table. Chrysse is at the stove, making breakfast.

INT. CHRYSSE'S HOUSE/KITCHEN - DAY

Sizzling fills the air as we see eggs and bacon cooking in some pans. Toast pops out of the toaster, and Chrysse is trying to juggle everything.

Her phone is on the counter.

It buzzes. An alert.

Distracted, Chrysse goes over to it to check the alert/message. She picks it up.

CLOSE ANGLE - PHONE

"Lien" followed by three blue heart emojis.

"Hey, Chrissy Lissy."

BACK TO

Chrysse drops the phone on the counter.

Another buzz. Another message.

CLOSE ANGLE - PHONE

"We need to talk."

BACK TO

Chrysse flips her phone over, and continues making breakfast for her kids. She puts the bacon and eggs on three plates that are set out, grabs the toast and butters it, and then pours three glasses of orange juice.

She looks at her empty coffee mug, and then at the coffee maker. There isn't any coffee in it. Chrysse groans, subconsciously determined to focus on this problem because the messages don't make sense.

She sets about getting herself coffee.

JET

Mommy, what are you going to do today?

CHRYSSE

(weak, faltering)

I have to go to work, sweetie.

Lexi blows a raspberry at this, and Jet laughs, some snot coming out of his nose.

Chrysse, with her motherly instincts, goes over with a napkin to clean his face, and he is trying to dodge. Chrysse lets out a bit of a laugh at their antics--or is it a sob?

Coffee maker lets out a strange grinding noise. It's broken.

Chrysse tries to see what's wrong, as...

LEXI

(pounding the table with her silverware)

No work! No work!

She gives up, and sits at the table with her children. She stares into her empty coffee mug. She seems tired, lifeless, while her children are so full of energy.

Focus in on Chrysse's phone, the family is blurred out, but we can see her stillness punctuated by the children's activity. Sound is muted. We hear a fast heartbeat.

Scenes comes into focus again.

CHRYSSE

You know, maybe I'll take the day off today.

EXT. SCHOOL - DAY

The schoolyard is teeming with children from ages 5 to 10, and cars and buses are lined up outside. Parents kiss their children goodbye.

Chrysse helps Jet put his backpack on, and gives him a light nudge towards the school. He turns back for a kiss on the cheek, and then he waves to a boy who has paused in entering the school to wait for him.

Lexi is in the car, waving through the window.

INT. CAR - DAY

Lexi fiddles with a hard-paged children's book while sitting in her booster seat, and Chrysse is driving somewhat recklessly, shaking. We see the phone, still flipped over.

Another buzz.

Chrysse jumps.

The message goes through to her car.

Screen lights up.

CLOSE ANGLE - SCREEN

"Aaron"

"Want 2 grab dinner 2night? There's that new Thai place on Bobbins I've been DYING to check out."

BACK TO

Chrysse lets out a forced breath at seeing it's not from Lien.

She presses the screen, getting rid of the message.

EXT. DAYCARE/FRONT ENTRANCE - DAY

Chrysse kisses Lexi goodbye, eyes not totally focused on her, and Lexi grabs the hand of a young DAYCARE WORKER to be led inside.

LEXI

Buh-bye, Mommy!

DAYCARE WORKER

Bye, Ms. Jane, hope you have a nice day.

CHRYSSE

(distracted)

Yeah.

She gets back into the car.

EXT. FOLLOWING THE CAR - DAY

Chrysse drives.

EXT. CHRYSSE'S HOUSE/PORCH - DAY

Chrysse sits down on the porch steps, blowing out a breath, and holds her phone.

CLOSE ANGLE - PHONE

"Lien" followed by three blue heart emojis.

"Hey, Chrissy Lissy."

"We need to talk."

BACK TO

Chrysse, typing.

SUPERIMPOSE: "Who are you?"

[globalspaceandrocketgroup]

SOUTHERN PULUNADU - August 28th, 2055 - Chapter 0 Pt. 1

HEY MILSTOV!

GOOD TO HEAR THE SKY IS CLEAR OVER THERE. WE ARE UNDERWAY WITH WORKING THROUGH HOW TO ACCOMPLISH HENAD 4'S BIG LIST OF OBJECTIVES, ACTUALLY. QUITE A SHOW WE'VE HAD WITH GRISGIA IN THE LAST STAGES OF THEIR ASSIGNMENT TRAINING - I'M JUST READY TO GET MY DESK BACK! NO WORRIES, THOUGH, I LIKE MY SITUATION IN MY TEMPORARY BLOCK, NICE FRONT SEAT VIEW OF THE GOING-ONS WITH OUR BOYS WEARING THE FANCY TIES. AS YOU'VE SAID, LOOKS LIKE MAKS IS REALLY PREPARING FOR SOME BIG THINGS. STILL JUST HOPING HE DOESN'T BRING US IN WAY OVER OUR HEADS, HA HA. WRITE BACK AFTER THAT ASSEMBLY AND TELL ME HOW IT GOES, WE'LL SEE EACH OTHER AT MUOINE'S ON THE 17TH ANYWAYS.

HOPE YOUR WEEK IS GOING FINE,

LEOPOS

I blink at the end of the letter. Good to hear Leopos still has more going for him than I.

Glancing around the crumbling concrete walls that remind me of where I am. Pulunadu. Never thought I'd be living and working here even just a few years ago.

Since then, though, I started my job with the GSRG. Not the most lucrative career path, but I had some connections and I'm excited to see where this place goes. When I applied, it was to work in Pulunadu for a few months before being transferred to the Kanitan division they were planning to move forward with. Since then, though, things with the war there complicated any groundwork they had done.

My work is with the communications side of things, designing antennas, figuring out how we're going to speak with folks orbiting Ulina roughly 200 kilometers above our heads. Except, for one reason or another, I've been assigned to work on some collaborative endeavors with the Pulari government, which basically involves me sitting in a derelict old monitoring station for the massive bundle of wires and metal that is the huge radar towering over our building. It can't be less than 70 years old and is surely just as obsolete, but hey, this is Pulunadu.

Really, I think I could get along just fine working over here IF I had any idea of what I'm meant to be doing. See, I don't speak a lick of Pulari, and nobody here does with Rutherish either. Which makes the entire process of putting me in this position pointless. After desperately trying to figure out some way to communicate and failing, I've taken to sweeping a broom around, and nobody has cared enough to stop me yet. The thing is, though, I am bored halfway to death like this. Earlier this week, I figured I could take some initiative and pull out my Pulari translation dictionary, and start doing my own research.

So, in the interest of actually getting some work done here, I just so happened to acquire some rolls of microfilm from behind a busted cabinet lock. Against my better judgment and my strict work policies, I have found myself the past few days spending hours scouring through these archival pieces.

For how terrible it would be for me if anyone reported my activities, there is not a single thing of note in any of the slides I go through. No scandalous giant secrets being held away from the public view, just charts of frequencies and hour-by-hour reports that make me feel sorry for whoever had to write them up. So, I silence the electric hum of the giant microfilm reader and let my eyes recover from its now dead glow.

At the end of the day, I walk back out to my car feeling no more content than when I started the day. Fail ass job....

HENAD 3 MISSION SUCCESS - A follow-up repeat suborbital flight earlier this month has proved the GSRG's first crewed flight program's ability to do what it needs to do. Every individual part was inspected heavily before flight and no notable failures were reported. A landing on solid ground made for a simple recovery.

Henad 4 is expected to launch sometime later this year after the GSRG shifts momentary focus towards its small-lift launch vehicle.

[dear-ao3]

we are fucking BACK BABYYY second half of the season LETS GO!!!! and look i see all of you saying to make a post and i say as long as tumblr lets me update this one, well, we've come to far to quit now.

so without any further ado, today is august 30, 2024 and we are in the netherlands for the dutch gp

so. we got 10 races left. the dutch and italian double header, a week off, the Azerbaijan and singapore double header, several weeks off, and then we end the season with 7 week straight slam dunk of the texas, mexico and brazil triple header followed Immediately by a week off and then the final shebang vegas, qatar and abu dhabi triple header. why on earth they decided to make the last part of the season two back to back triple headers WITH sprint races at half of them after all the complained complained about the stress and strain and general lack of attention to wellbeing last year after the final triple double header, i have no idea. but we will burn that bridge when we get to it.

for now though, we have the dutch gp. and we are starting out strong with one george william russell.

george, if you recall, won the race in spa immediately before summer break only to have the title revoked form him after the car came in under weight. lewis inherited his race win. and well, the team has had some time to try and figure out What The Fuck Happened. and here is what they came up with:

"lewis and george were both weighed after qualifying. the cars were within 500 grams" and in addition to that there was also "much higher" tire wear, more plank wear and they even said that george lost "quite a bit of weight" according to andrew shovlin (i cant remember his exact title but hes somewhere in engineering? performance? something? hes in charge of things)

and yes we already knew that theres no cooldown lap in spa so no way to pick up marbles (rubber) to get the car to weigh a little more, but the george weight situation is Intriguing.

now before we get going down this rabbit hole i want everyone to remember that the problem was Distinctly With The Car. it was the car that got stuck in weighing because it was found that the car hadnt been entirely drained of fuel so they needed to re weigh it and when they got all the fuel out that was when it came up underweight. so remember, any way you want to spin this, the car itself was definitely underweight.

but it definitely didnt help matters that george was also slightly under.

ive talked about this before. a driver can loose up to 4 or 5 kilos during a race depending on how warm it is. this is taken into account so that when everything is weighted at the end the car and the driver weigh together 798 kilos.

so at the press conference they asked george about it and heres what he had to say:

"i knew before the race i was a little bit light, but it was too late to make a substantial change without eating a steak or something! which was probably not the best pre-race routine." and i think he ended up being 1.5 kilos under.

whether this is on george or on the team, no one really knows. But we do know that this is not the first mercedes driver to have been pushed to some level of unhealthy eating. lets take a brief look to the past:

mercedes has had four different driver line ups in their history:

nico rosberg (first driver, or at least he was doing better than michael significantly) and michael schumacher (second driver - ish. he had come out of retirement to race for merc)

lewis hamilton (first driver) and nico rosberg (second driver) (ish. they were both trying to be first drivers because they were so close in championship standings for 3 years running)

lewis Hamilton (first driver) and valtteri bottas (second driver)

lewis hamilton (first driver) and george russell (second driver)

now idk what michael and nico were doing at mercedes too well, but it is widely regarded that michael was kind of insane about fitness throughout his career. he was also forcing nico rosberg to piss in a bucket. but thats not really here nor there.

nico, as we have talked about, did all kinds of insane things to beat lewis when they were teammates, including cutting weight. again, unclear how much of this was from nicos own doing (cause driver weight was still unregulated at this point) and how much was from the team.

valtteri has come out and spoken before about how the team pretty much forced him into some disordered eating and general bad habits. his job at the team at this time was pretty much to just make sure lewis won.

and now we have george, who we know was told by an engineer around canada to loose weight and he has, clearly. this is a bad trend. george had also talked about mental health and all that before (i think this was a year or so ago). but in any case. idk what the hell is going on at mercedes, but george decided to b the most unbothered about it that he could by pulling up in what could be descried as the princess diana revenge dress:

george even managed to out cunt sir lewis hamilton, a feat previously thought impossible:

he then proceeded to enter an absolute pr villain arc (or, as villain as george russell can get) by saying things like this about his dsq in spa:

"nobody can take that feeling away from me. from crossing the line and celebrating with my team, standing on the podium. i think if i was in a championship fight this year it would have been a much bigger blow to us, those 25 points but, you know this season, unfortunately we're not quite there."

saying this to lewis hamilton on the fan stage after lewis showed up dressed entirely in red tommy hilfiger:

"mate, what is this red? that's next year, not this year!"

(at that same fan stage lewis tried very very hard to side step questions about when he is next making music (for those of you who dont know he is featured on the song pipe by christina Aguilera as the artist called xnda) by taking friendship bracelets from fans)

and george almost hit oscar with a golf cart.

george also asked if a reporter was talking about kimi raikkonen when they mentioned the possibility of kimi antonelli getting the other merc seat next year. he also said "hes the f2 driver, right?"

speaking of kimi antonelli, toto wolff may have accidentally confirmed that he was signed for next year because he was supposedly quoted as saying “The two drivers in our car next year have our full support. I want it to work with George and Kimi.” kimi is also driving fp1 next week in monza and many people think that it is going to get announced there because that is his hime race. but only time will tell if the rumor mill is correct.

but there is far more interesting toto wolff news and that is that somehow the mercedes social media admin got him to do the "its very demure" trend. no. i am not kidding.

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this becomes infinitely funnier when you realize that alpine also tired to get pierre gasly to do this and they failed epically.

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williams also hopped on the trend with this picture of alex

accompanied by this caption

but alpine tho did pop off with this stroopwaffle video

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and as usual, they were not the only ones with stroopwaffle content.

over at red bull, max (whos home race this is) and checo hid stroopwaffles for eachother. and then daniel also delivered max a stroopwaffle during an interview.

lando norris, self proclaimed stroopwaffle lover, ate some with oscar and they managed to look like they were on a date or an album cover in the early 2000s:

and while we're at it here, lets get into the regularly scheduled mclaren update:

-lando has a mullet. im not finding a good picture of it you'll see it in the later videos.

-we found out that oscar's ribs got broken gradually because of how his seat was fitted. they have since fixed this problem and his ribs are no longer broken.

-lando's mom showed up to surprise him at the fan stage

-lando's dad was also there and he was wearing the most fuck ass cardigan shirt thing that i have ever seen.

-oscar shit on the mclaren instagram admin for hitting a curb at the airport and ruining a tire and then the next day for hiding in the motorhome instead of being out in the rain like oscar had to be

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ferrari had one very stand out, absolute shining moment this weekend, and it was when charles leclerc was asked how training leo is going. he was briefly free of the ferrari misery and his eyes were filled with light as he told us all that

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and the other team that really stood out with their insane pr this week, was weirdly, williams.

first we had alex albon call logan sargeant out for looking like the standing man emoji. he was correct.

but far more interestingly! team torque was back!! what is team torque?? its the fuck ass williams podcast! where they basically leave logan and alex in a room for like an hour and they yap about everything and also nothing. there was very notably no team torque at spa. and people were outraged. but it was back! and it was back with a bang:

alex: did you have a brat summer? logan: i dont even know what that means alex: well you should. i dont know what it means, but it sounds like it should be for you. slay summer. logan: mine was peaceful. i wouldn't use the word slay.

you know who definitely did have a brat summer though? gunther steiner. the disgraced ex haas team principal who was in the paddock inexplicably and even more inexplicably teaching random people the apple tiktok dance

speaking of haas. once again they were in some hot ass water. theres one thing you need to know about haas and it is that they have extraordinarily bad luck. such as the infamous tire incident in australia 2018, or, more relevantly, that time they had to fire nikita mazepin, their driver, barely 3 weeks before the start of the 2022 season because they couldnt prove that his father, who was the owner of uralkali (some kind of agricultural company thing), which was haas's title sponsor at the time, wasn't funding the russian Ukrainian war on the side of russia. and that was kind of bad for their image. so they dropped both mazepin and uralkali.

well. turns out. they still owe uralkali money. from the sponsor deal. and if they do not pay it this weekend, their cars are not allowed to leave the netherlands. thats kinda problematic you see because its a double header and they need to be in monza next week. but they did pay! so you know, fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong with that.

and once again, theres more rumors about adrian newey. people seem convinced that he will be announced to sign with aston in September.

also the alpine / renault workers are on strike again about the engine deals theyre negotiating with mercedes. mostly because of how the negotiations are being done aka leaving all of their employees in the dark.

in any case though, that is not the silliest silly season news.

another seat has been filled.

which seat? you might be asking.

yes! jack doohan is racing for alpine next year!!!

this is cool for several numbers of reasons. first, jack is the first driver to be promoted to f1 from the alpine drivers academy since romain grosjean in 2009. alpine has a history of fantastically fumbling drivers in their academy. grosjean was only promoted for half a year to replace piquet jr after crashgate (remember that whole thing with flavio briatore i mentioned a few races back? he rigged a race by having one of his drivers crash?) and then dropped off the academy and ended up with a seat at lotus. ocon and albon were both sponsored back when they were renault (or maybe lotus) but then were dropped. zhou was also an alpine driver academy driver and said it was bad and that he was happy to leave.

and they famously fumbled oscar in 2022. oscar had been the alpine reserve driver and academy driver. following the departure of fernando alonso from the team alpine jumped the gun and announced that oscar would be joining the team in 2023. oscar then tweeted his famous tweet:

and alpine of course had to do a callback to this

and many people of course congratulated jack, but one of them was oscar, during the post race show where he reached out to shake jack's hand and say. "congratuations, formula 1 driver."

and will buxton. he was overly pleased about jack.

and while it was very incredibly great that jack got signed, they did unfortunately screw mick over while doing this. mostly because they did not tell mick that jack got signed, he found out with all of us via social media when it was announced. and mick schumacher, if you will remember, was in contention for the seat. aparently everyone at sky sports germany was ready to throw hands on behalf of mick. both his mom, corinna, and his uncle, ralf schumacher, were both there this weekend and ralf told sky germany that flavio briatore (guy at alpine) has had both his and corinna's number for over 30 years and that he could have called them. and then aparently one of the reporters went up to flavio to ask him why that phone call didnt happen. they were all in agreement that it was kinda shitty for alpine to do that, but really, what do we expect at this point.

fortunately for mick though, all hope might not be lost.

because over at williams the rumors are full swirling again. and they are swirling about one logan sargeant leaving the team mid season. if you have been paying attention, you would know that this is not the first time that this particular rumor has circled around the paddock. but it seems like now james vowels, the williams team principal, has a list of people to replace logan with.

and let's remember, carlos, as we know, is signed for 2025. he still has a contract at ferrari for 2024 and there is no way in hell hes breaking that to go williams Early.

and williams are currently 9th in the constructors championship with four points, all of which have been scored by alex albon. alex has been consistently given the better car. logan at one point didnt have a car because it was given to alex because alex crashed at practice in australia when they didnt have a spare chassis and they gave him logans. logan's car also consistently had parts from 2023 on it until not too long ago. so all in all, its been a bit of a disaster over there.

but, just for lols, who does james want to replace logan with?

for that news its time for an episode of Who Wants To Be The Next Williams Driver?

first up we have mick schumacher. he is aparently the preferred option. this is supposedly a high possibility.

pros: has a super license (needed to drive f1 cars). has 2 years of f1 experience (also in a shitbox car). is trying to get back into f1 and several teams are interested in him so seeing him in a car on the track during races could help convince people. is currently a mercedes reserve driver, which means that under the engine agreement (williams uses mercedes engines) they could borrow mick.

cons: mick has a contract currently with alpine in WEC (world endurance championship) that he would need to abandon to sign with williams.

next up is liam lawson.

pros: also has a super license and f1 experience for half a year in an alpha tauri. he is also trying to get on the grid in a full time seat.

cons: hes a red bull/RB reserve driver, which is not really in any way associated with williams, so he would have to give that up to go to williams and hes really holding out hope on getting a seat there, especially because they havent announced the second RB seat yet. he also has already been someones replacement and is probably not looking forward to doing that a second time.

next is frederick vesti.

pros: mercedes reserve driver, so he could also be borrowed under the engine agreements. has done 2 free practice tests and 2 young derivers tests for mercedes.

cons: i dont think he has a full super license, has no real race experience in f1 like mick and liam do and he is currently racing in the european le mans series.

james could also get the mclaren reserve drivers under the engine agreement, which are pato o'ward (who is currently racing for indycar and again, would be hard to get cause he would have to stop that) and ryo hirakawa (who is currently racing in the world endurance championship and again would be hard to get cause he would need to leave that) and neither of them have a full super license either. ryo though Has won le mans and pato is a pretty big deal in indycar.

williams, notably, does not have reserve drivers because they are kinda like mercedes 2. (dont ask me why mclaren has reserve drivers cause they also have the merc engines, i have no idea. maybe williams doesnt have the budget or something)

in any case, mick seems like the most likely option. sebastian vettel even crawled out of the void to back him in getting a seat at williams, should one be made available to him. that is, if logan gets replaced at all. because as we know, theres a rumor going around that logans getting cut every week or so at this point.

but maybe, just maybe, mick is up to something because he changed his instagram pfp to this photo from 2019. that he had already posted in 2019. sorry for the shit quality.

and as we know, most of these rumors dont end up panning out, because despite all of the rumors that he wouldn't be there, checo was still very much in the paddock as a red bull driver this weekend.

but with all that selection of nonsense, lets get into the actual racing.

i didnt watch any of the practice sessions because i was busy, but i do know that it was windy and rainy as hell, ferrari and red bull were pretty much disasters and daniel ricciardo saluted the spot where he broke his hand last year.

"what?" you might be asking. "daniel broke his hand?" yes he did.

last year oscar spun out into the barriers at zandvoort during a practice session and daniel tried to avoid hitting him and ended up in the wall. he didnt take his hand off of the steering wheel and ended up with a hairline fracture. he was out from zandvoort to i believe it was texas (so a good handful of races) and was replaced by liam lawson, who slayed harder than anyone thought, managed to get points and knock max verstappen (IN HIS PRIME PEAK SEASON) out of qualifying in singapore (and remember that liam is up for the alleged williams seat)

in any case, daniel ricciardo is not the first driver to break his hand.

in 2013 (and please note that this has nothing to do with the dutch gp so you can skip it if you want) jenson button was in a bar with 12 other drivers in tokyo after the korean gp. it was a shot bar and you had to ring a drum (im assuming he means like a gong) to order a round of shots for everyone but the thing you used to hit it was missing so he punched it and it swung out of the way and filipe massa said "do that again" and held it still and jenson punched it again and broke his hand. apparently david coulthard knew it was broken pretty instantly (cause he was also there) and turns out it was in fact broken and the hospital said hey buddy your hand is broken. we need to put it in a cast for 4 weeks. and he said "i have to race an f1 car in three days." and didnt cast his hand. (aparently it was a hairline break of some sort but still not great when driving a car at high speeds) and mclaren wanted to put kevin magnussen in the car but jenson outright refused and was like nope. im doing this. im racing. and he did. somehow. he not only out qualified his teammate, checo, but he also finished in 9th and in the points. he said that he was in a lot of pain and had to kind of jam his hand under the wheel and strap it there. and aparently this is the only time his dad ever got mad at him during his racing career.

now, i have no idea if the jump out test all the drivers have to do originated because of this situation (and i scoured the internet and couldnt find when that specific test originated) but i would not be surprised if it had something to do with it. but in any case. lets get back to zandvoort 2024.

and the other interesting thing that happened in free practice was that logan sargeant crashed in fp3. it was quite dramatic. the car lit on fire and everything.

and he got out fine, clearly, as he was okay. but george was near him on the track and was very concerned about the whole thing as he drove by. he was just about really to stop his car and jump out to get logan out if logan hadn't gotten out of the car on his own

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in any case. this big of a crash meant that, while there was no significant damage to the chassis (somehow), williams had their work cut out for themselves ahead of qualifying to try and get logan's car ready. ultimately though they failed and logan was not able to qualify, meaning that he was going to be starting at the back of the grid. and as a result, fp3 had some very interesting results:

but lets take a look at the rest of qualifying

so. very notably. no one has won from pole in the last six races. but pole is crucial here.

also notably, according to crofty (or maybe this was martin?) "we've had rain, sun, wind, everything except plague and pestilence."

so with that. q1.

williams has an upgrade. it is aparently to the floor and to some other aspects of the car. this makes logans crash a little worse because he they only have so many upgraded parts to put back on the car. martin brundle also told james vowels live on tv that he would have lost money on logans car's chassis not having any damage. james was remarkably quiet for the rest of the session after that.

checo got impeded by lewis. "what the fuck is this idiot doing?" checo said loudly over the radio. "i was wet out of his way," lewis responded over his radio. though, race control decided it was worth passing on to the stewards so we will see what comes of that. though, martin did imply that lewis was an 8x world champion, so there is that.

several people had no grip, including george, who was upset and down in p10. many teams needed more than one set of tires to get through the round, which was upsetting because they were sacrificing having more sets of tires at the end. which resulted in several of them getting stuck in the pit lane. including carlos, who might get knocked out. but then he didnt because he went fastest. and then george went fastest. and then checo went fastest.

all in all the usual suspects were out in q1: daniel, esteban, valtteri, guanyu and obviously logan. esteban was especially pissed about it through, nearly cursing out the team over the radio and saying that the "cars a disaster since the beginning of the weekend."

we also learned that carlos has a 2-3 year williams contract. james vowels once again went on about how getting him to sign said contract was "remarkably like dating" or something similar (idk i lost the link and i dont feel like finding it again.) over on f1tv (the other broadcast) alex jaques said "williams thinks they have the best driver lineup for next year" which was followed by hysterical laugher from everyone else in the box and then kolton palmer saying "it's so nice that they think that, when ferrari..."

and alex albon himself was quoted as saying that "i dont know carlos that much compared to the others, we both have appendicitis and our conversations only revolve around appendicitis." which is firstly hilarious and secondly somehow more hilarious when you remember all the talk from james about how scary the two of them (carlos and alex) are going to be on track together next year.

but anyway. q2.

the only real thing i have written down here is that lewis got knocked out and then charles knocked out carlos. so carlos, lewis, yuki, nico and kevin all got knocked out. lewis also got a 3 place grid penalty for his impeding of checo

so q3.

if you'll notice, alex albon got into the top 10. which was rather astonishing in a williams. and so was the slander that crofty said to james on the pit wall: "another fine lap from the man who produces them from time to time." james mostly ignored it and attributed alex's q3 appearance to luck with the wind.

aside from that. both mclarens and also max had two sets of soft tires left. everyone else had to use a second set of softs earlier to get into q3 so they only had one set. so it was no surprise that they were going to end up the top 3. but in what order?

well. i'll tell you.

lando ended up p1 with max p2 and oscar p3. following them was george, checo, charles, fernando, alex, lance, and pierre.

so we had another lando pole, and even more misery from ferrari (who were very upset they were almost a whole second off of pole) and a red bull team that was devestated about how slow they were. (the car was aparently not really working and max was just free balling it. he himself said later that the car was not easy to drive.)

but anyway. thats not the most interesting part of qualifying.

the most interesting part of qualifying was that alex albon got disqualified for having an illegal floor on his car. it was slightly too thin, and by slightly i mean like less than a millimeter. so he got disqualified. and ended up starting p20.

but none of that matters. what matters is the race.

prior to the race, logan had a slightly interesting team radio:

which makes it sound like this might in fact be his last race.

speaking of races, it was max's 200th race, as i said earlier. and it was his home race. he has won the last 3 zandvoort gps. a reporter asked him this weekend if he likes the du du du du max verstappen or the max max max super max song better. he didnt really give an answer. and daniel participated in a nice tribute article for his 200th race. max found this out while he was live on stream. it was baffling and mildly homoerotic.

and to celebrate max's 200th race, lando bongled it into the first corner on sunday.

thats right. once again, lando is not beating the cant keep a pole position allegations. thought this time it was because of the wheel spin on the car, not because of him technically. george also immediately got in front of oscar.

also having an absolutely baffling start to his race was pierre gasly who managed to get up into 7th.

lando, meanwhile, was still trying to catch up to max and he had a george and an oscar and a charles behind him. and mclaren, somehow, were confused about who they were racing.

aparently though they did decide that they were racing max because lando finally managed to catch him on lap 17. and max was struggling.

"my tries are struggling!" he said. "they just dont grip!"

and then lando passed him on lap 18. by lap 23 he was leading by 2.5 seconds.

meanwhile, lewis was picking his way up the mid field. and most bafflingly, charles was taking a chance on the ferrari strategy and attempting to undercut oscar. he pitted and then came out in 8th. george also pitted to cover charles but kinda failed because it was a slow stop and he came out stuck in some traffic.

also trying the undercut was max on lap 28. lando responded by boxing on lap 29.

after all that the order was oscar (yet to pit), checo (yet to pit), carlos (yet to pit), lando, max, charles, pierre, george

and after another round of pit stops on lap 37, lando was back in front with max behind, then charles who had somehow successfully undercut oscar.

and then lance stroll did something. he got a 5 second penalty for speeding in the pit lane on lap 38.

and other insane things were happening down in the mid field as kevin magnussen managed to get passed by 4 people at once on lap 42. this is the only clip i could find of it:

it was at this point that things started to get a little slow again. and i was watching the race with my whole family (which doesn't happen often as my sister and i have both moved out and my parents live 3 hours away) but my dad was sitting next to me, saw that hamilton was down in 8th and said "we need a yellow flag." alas, there was no yellow flag. sorry dad.

but we can get an update on where everyone is as of lap 45:

p1: lando p2: +10.745s max p3: +6.615s charles p4: +1.692s oscar p5: +4.446s george p6: +2.254s checo p7: +0.482s carlos p8: +5.091s lewis p9: +21.710s nico p10: +9.232s pierre p11: +2.011s fernando p12: +1.827s lance p13: +1.194s alex p14: +0.762s daniel p15: +10.608s esteban p16: +2.161s logan p17: +0.641s yuki p18: +5.863s kevin p19: +15.441s valtteri p20: +1.098s guanyu

yes. lando was leading by 10 seconds. he was also surprised about this.

lewis pitted again for soft tires on lap 52 and was able to maintain his track position. they did this to try and get him the fastest lap of the race. they also pitted george on lap 57 for softs and he came out in 7th behind checo, with no hope of making up positions. so he lost positions on that move. baffling decision making merc.

meanwhile, charles, despite being in a shitboox, was still fending off oscar. though, Charles had older tires by 9 laps. the odds were stacked against him. and also very impressively, was logan fending off yuki further down the grid.

and lando was still leading by over 10 seconds, actually he was ip to 18.398s. the last time someone won by over 10 seconds that wasnt max was charles in australia in 2022.

lewis hamilton had the fastest lap still as the end of the race came to a close, but it was snatched up from him by lando, who won!

lando two wins!!!!

and as he crossed the line, he said "simply lovely" which is definitely a max phrase.....oh no.....

and he won by over 22 seconds, a whole half a second more than the gap that max had won the season opener with in bahrain. could red bulls period of dominance be coming to an end.......

fernando Alonso definitely thought so. he checked out the back of the mclaren after, just to make sure that there was nothing illegal going on there.

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but! we had again! for the second time! a lando, max, charles podium!

and the cool down room this time. ho boy. it was nothing short of miserable. well, it was for charles, who learned that he had finally almost caught max, just to discover that there was another car 22s in front of max.

both max and charles looked devastated at that news:

aside from that though, charles was positively thrilled with p3, mostly because the car had been such shit. even in all of his post interviews he looked shocked every time he mentioned that the strategy that the team had put forth worked.

max and charles once again through did champagne lando in quite possibly the most comical way.

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and the trophies....well they were comically sized:

unfortunately. no one drank champagne out of them.

i know, i know, i was upset too.

lando did post this absolutely fuck ass selfie with his though:

and charles seat belted his into his jet, just to make sure that he was really p3:

his instagram continued to express his shock, saying "Going home with a trophy was not really expected but I’ll take it. Great race considering the struggles of the weekend.  Time to go back home."

also going back home was one fernando alonso. but not without the help of his good buddy, mark webber, who not only aparently drove him to the airport, but also flew with him on his jet back to monaco (along with some others, but oscar was not among them. which disinteresting cause remember mark is oscar's manager and the whole reason why oscar is there so...?). and extra remember, mark webber is a self proclaimed "proud heterosexual" hm.

aside from, well, whatever the hell was going on there. going into the weekend there was a 78 point gap between lando and max. and coming out of the weekend there was only a 70 point gap. the title fight is really actually starting to heat up....

and what's more. mclaren currently now has 404 points in the constructor's championship. red bull has 434. theyre clinging to a 30 point lead here. things are HEATING UP GUYS

and you know what else was heating up? haas! because their payment to uralkali somehow didnt go through and their f1 cars got impounded and unable to leave the netherlands to make the trek to monza.

so. is red bull's period of dominance over? will logan sargeant be replaced? has ferrari finally gotten their shit together? will mick ever get back on the f1 grid? how many more times will james vowels mention courting carlos? WILL HAAS EVER GET TO LEAVE THE NETHERLANDS???

for the answers to those questions (and more!) you will have to tune in next week for the monza gp. and dont worry, this is f1. it will be bonkers.

Sorry i tried to scroll past but, i know nothing about f1 other than max verstappen is fast, my dad doesnt like lewis hamilton, fast car goes in a loop and sometimes expodes. Could you give me a crash course in f1 drama? Im very intrigued. Whats the tea as it were?

a terribly loaded question, but i will do my best. i’ve talked about some of the drama before like the red bull second seat and the chronicles of haas but allow me to briefly try my hand at explaining the nightmare that is the upcoming silly season

under the cut we go

silly season is when the drivers go through contract renewals, extensions and switches. usually it’s confined to the first half of the season (march-july) but it has been known to extend all the way to the last race of the season and they like to switch people around at random sometimes. driver contracts are complex, there’s a lot of money involved and basically You Are The Face Of The Team so if you have a shit season then you make the team look bad. but at the same time you could have a shit season because you have a shit car. it’s sticky stuff.

so. there are only twenty seats in formula 1. 10 teams. each team gets two drivers. (there’s also reserve drivers but we’re not going to get into that). who ends up with a contract is largely up to the teams, they can pull the contract out from under people they can also cut you mid season. they’ve done it before.

of the 20 drivers on the grid, 14 of them have contracts expiring at the end of the year. yes. 14. you see how this could get complicated.

so let’s meet the teams.

red bull racing. they came first this year (and last year) in the championship. like aggressively first. like they won the championship by over 350 points. they are definitely the team to beat. but if you end up with a seat at red bull, you do have to deal with max verstappen being your teammate and he won all but three of the races last year. he’s the golden boy. red bull are also notoriously silly when it comes to contracts and famously swap people mid season who aren’t performing.

mercedes. merc is home to 7 time world champion lewis hamilton and they have won the championship a great many times, though not since 2021. they are kind of in their flop arc and their car the last 2 years has been pretty garbage, but they have still made it work because they were able to come in second last year.

ferrari. god help the poor little meow meows with a ferrari contract. ferrari is a notoriously great team and they’re trying to get back to the top again but their strategy every single time has fallen short. to the point where their drivers are the ones doing the strategy in their cars while driving. they came in third last year and have been decently consistent at getting first in qualifying and then getting beat by max verstappen on race day.

mclaren. they’ve definitely worked their way up over recent years. they ended fourth last year and have had some championship wins before but not nearly as many as say merc and ferrari. their team ceo (owner? director?) is a little interesting and their car started out a pile of flaming hot garbage at the beginning of the year but they did manage to get their shit together.

aston martin. they are owned by canadian billionaire lawrence stroll, father of lance stroll (one of the drivers for the team). they’ve undergone several name changes over the recent years (force india, racing point, etc). they positively slayed at the start of the season and then one day they sucked. they finished fifth in the championship.

alpine. the frenchest french team. they’re (i think?) still partially owned by the french government. both of their drivers are french. (their drivers also hate eachother but we’ll get to that. just know they’re in the middle of a modern french civil war). they had the opportunity to have a good rookie driver (oscar piastri) this past year but in a thrilling twitter battle, he publically flamed the shit out of them and went to mclaren instead (and slayed). they're usually solidly middle of the pack. they ended sixth in the championship.

williams. williams has been one of the back of the grid teams for the last many years but they have finally started to get their shit together and don’t quite suck as much as they used to. all of the points this year were scored by only one driver though (except one but we’ll get there). they came in seventh.

alpha tauri. they are the sister team of red bull. so technically redbull owns both teams (meaning they can swap drivers between teams. they like doing this.) they’ve just kind of been There for awhile but they did slay towards the end of the season when one of their drivers led the race for several laps. basically tho, this team is the gateway to redbull. they came in eighth.

alpha romeo. recently renamed to stake f1 team (but sometimes they are going to be called kick sauber. this is a whole other drama post and i’m not getting into it). they’re also just kind of there. generally unproblematic. seems that really great drivers who get ixed out of a contract for a younger driver end up here or young drivers who are in their early years are here before they go to a better team. they ended ninth this year.

haas. oh haas. goofy team. they suck. point blank they suck. they keep loosing sponsors because they suck, they don’t win ever (one time they came first in qualifying last year). they cursed themselves in australia in 2018 by not tightening their tires and its been downhill ever since. they came 10th. their team principle got let go (fired?) who’s to say today.

so those are the teams. it is important to note that:

-there is a cost cap. each team is allowed to spend no more than 135m per year.

-not all cars are equal. some things are standard. they all undergo the same testing. but the cars are all very different. so you can be a good driver but stuck in a shitty car. which makes it impressive if you are doing well in a shitty car.

let’s meet our drivers!!!

starting with the guys who’s contract is not ending in 2024:

max verstappen. 3 time world champion. 26 years old. general beast on the track. he dominated the whole season. he’s currently racing for red bull and has a contract with them through 2028.

lewis hamilton. 7 time world champion. 39 years old. he drives for mercedes. he will not leave mercedes until he retires. he really really wants to win an 8th world championship and is willing to stick it out a few more years as long as merc still believes in him. his contract expires in 2025.

george russell. the other merc driver. 26 years old. hes aggressively british and says thinks like blimey unironically. walking meme. got his merc seat in 2022 right when they entered their flop arc by getting his tractor of a williams to finish second in qualifying in the middle of a rainstorm. his contract expires in 2025.

lando norris. mclaren driver. 24 years old. he has notably never won a race in his five years of formula one (mostly because right when his car finally was good enough max verstappen was 20 seconds ahead of anyone) but he is regarded as Very Good. he has only ever driven for mclaren. and even though there is another year left on his contract there is mass speculation that he will not renew his contract with mclaren after it expires and he may move up to one of the top teams (red bull, merc, ferrari) (tho i think he doesnt hate himself quite enough to go to ferrari). his contract expires in 2025.

oscar piastri. the other mclaren driver. 22 years old. this was his rookie season and he positively slayed. like people compared his rookie season to lewis hamiltons rookie season. he also had the positively funniest start to his rookie year because alpine announced that he would be driving for them (he had been their reserve driver and in the alpine academy) and he posted a tweet that basically said yeah thats false i never singed anything with you and im going to race with mclaren instead (he dodged a bullet) and then alpine tried and failed to sue him for $4m USD. he signed a contract extension with mclaren this year and his contract expires in 2026.

lance stroll. aston martin driver and son of the aston martin owner. hes doing ok, tho there was conspiracy that he wanted to quit and have a tennis career awhile ago. but basically since his dad owns the team it seems that hes guaranteed a seat for as long as he wants one.

so now. moving onto the good shit. the people who have contracts expiring in 2024. hold onto your hats people.

charles leclerc. (everyones favorite slutty little soup can). 26 years old. he is currently at ferrari and he has been since 2019. notably, he was given the longest contract in the history of ferrari after a stellar rookie season at sauber (renamed to alpha romeo, renamed to stake f1) where he got the tractor of a car consistently into the points. having the longest contract in the history of ferrari was a flex at the time, but now its likely how he will introduce himself at therapy sessions. ferrari have fucked this man left right and center up the ass with a plastic lunchroom spork. hes talented, he can drive, and he can drive well. but the strategy that ferrari has absolutely sucks. either something is wrong with the car (see him blowing out his gear box on the formation lap in monaco, his car completely crapping out and spinning into the barrier in brazil before the race even started) or they fuck up his pit stops or put him on the wrong tires and honestly its just frustrating. but will he leave??? likely not. you'd have to pry ferrari out of his cold dead hands and at this rate that might be where this is headed though there has been some minor speculation of him going to another team like merc or red bull, but merc doesnt have any open seats and red bull is a whole other dumpster fire of drama. ferrari are going to have to pay him a boatload of money to make him stay.

carlos sainz. the smooth operator. 29 years old. ferrari driver. previously carlos was at toro rosso (renamed to alpha tauri), renault (renamed to alpine), and mclaren before signing with ferrari. he has been at ferrari since 2021 and has voiced that he would like to stay with them for however long he can. there is speculation that lando might replace him at ferrari (but landos contract is not up until 2025) and there is also some speculation that alex albon might replace him. while charles is clearly the golden boy at ferrari, carlos is slightly slower but also definitely consistent. he was THE ONLY non red bull driver to win a race this past year, in Singapore after max verstappedn was knocked out of qualifying by alpha tauri reserve driver liam lawson (more on him later) and because he basically came up with his own strategy in the car while he was driving.

sergio perez. aka checo. red bull driver. 33 years old. and oh boy here's where we open the can of worms. checo was previously at racing point (renamed aston martin) and it was very near the end of the 2020 (?) season and he was out of a contract. he had a bonkers race where he was knocked to the back of the grid and then overtook everyone and somehow ended up winning (there is more to that story but just trust me) and christian horner, red bull team principle, mr ginger spice and definite disney villain called him and said congrats sir you have a seat at red bull! well. fast forward. hes been causing problems. problems as in crashing a lot, generally not doing great and pissing the crap out of red bull. it is basically guaranteed at this point that he will not be getting a contract extension. there was actually talk this year of him losing his seat mid season to one of the alpha tauri drivers, because remember, red bull owns both teams and they can switch them whenever they want to (and they have!) but ultimately this did not happen. even though checo has a seat at red bull until the end of 2024, its mass speculated that he is going to get switched with an alpha tauri driver, probably daniel ricciardo (more on him shortly) mid season because there is a speculated clause in daniels contract that says that if checo isn't performing well in the first few races daniel is getting his seat.

daniel ricciardo. 34 years old. alpha tauri driver. man oh man what a guy. outside of being the prankster of the paddock, he has one of the most batshit careers of anyone currently on the grid. he started out at red bull and was showing real talent and skill and was on track to win things (and was!) and was there until the end of 2018 when max verstappen (his teammate) started getting preferential treatment and also red bull started having a lot of problems with their engines (which were being outsourced from Renault (now alpine) and another team on the grid) and well very very long story short he made the surprise move of the century and decided to sign with Renault (which makes no sense they're the one with the engine problems) and was there for 2 years before moving again to mclaren where he was reportedly not treated very well and had a hard time driving the car so they mutually ended his contract with them early and he basically retired at the end of the 2022 season and became a red bull reserve driver. then halfway through the 2023 season alpha tauri ixed one of their drivers, nyck de vries, because he wasnt doing well and promoted daniel back up to a full time driver at alpha tauri (which we know is only a step down from red bull) but then he broke his hand in a crash in zanvort (?) and then he was replaced for a few races by formula 2 driver liam lawson (who we will also talk about) and then he came back to finish out the season in alpha tauri after he was cleared. daniel has admitted openly that he never should have left red bull and he was given bad advice to do so. hes towards the end of his career at this point and its well known that he Really Really wants to finish out his career at red bull again. he and max have already been teammates before and they do work well together and daniel is great driver (see his comeback in texas (or maybe it was brazil?) this year). so. Pretty Sure that daniels going to get either an extension at alpha tauri or go up to red bull. thats what we all want. get this man in a red bull we need him there biblically.

liam lawson. now technically liam is not actually a formula 1 driver. hes a formula 2 driver, but he was daniels replacement for five races and there has been some speculation and some confirmed news about him so hes getting included. when he was racing for f1 he was at alpha tauri. hes 21 and looks like he belongs in the movie grease. no one was expecting him to slay in formula 1 and he positively knocked everyones socks off. the scene: Singapore. which, if you'll recall, is the one race that a not red bull driver won. this was largely because liam lawson slayed the absolute game in qualifying. the qualifying part of racing determines what order the cars start in on the grid for the race and theres three parts, the first two parts the bottom 5 drivers each time get knocked out and then the top 10 complete for the last 10 spots. liam lawson knocked BOTH max verstappen and checo perez out of qualifying in the second round by going very slightly faster than them, effectively fucking up red bulls race and allowing carlos to win. and he also scored points in that race, which no one was expecting. now thats all fine and dandy, but here's the speculation: hemlut marko (im pretty sure) (who is somehow decently involved in the decision making at red bull though i couldn't tell you how) said that he thinks that liam lawson will be in an f1 seat no later than 2025. meaning that he will probably get offered a contract this year. and hes already raced for alpha tauri. red bull have sunk a good amount of money into him. they clearly want him. so if he gets offered an alpha tauri seat in 2025, that means theres a good chance danny rics is going to red bull. do you SEE how the plot here is THICKENED

yuki tsunoda. age 23. currently at alpha tauri. and fun fact, the only alpha tauri driver to race there the whole year. he had three separate team mates. he is slaying and hes often slept on. he has a bit of a temper and likes to shout on the radio and also hates working out (they had to force him to move to italy or something to work out, long story) but hes been kinda killing it. he led several laps in the abu dhabi race this year and hes decently consistent. people think theres possibility that he could get moved up to red bull on account of the fact that he is younger than daniel and clearly has more years in him,, but there is also possibility that he might not because red bull like to make stupid decisions. and if he doesnt get moved up to rebel, will he stay with alpha tauri? we don't know.

alex albon. age 27. currently a williams driver. alex albon is another one with a batshit career. he started out his rookie year in 2019 at alpha tauri then got moved up to red bull halfway through the year when red bull decided that pierre gasley wasnt doing a good enough job (more on him later) and stayed with red bull for a solid year and a half until he lost his seat in 2021 to checo. he has been with williams for the last two years and is basically carrying the team. like. williams as a team scored 28 points this year. and alex albon scored 27 of those 28 points. and as we know, williams is still kind of in their shit arc (though they are doing much better. they didnt score any points for a solid 2 (?) years. so this is an improvement.) and if you can get a shit car to perform you catch the eye of bigger teams. now, alex has already been a red bull driver. and he was on the cusp of podiuming two separate times when lewis hamilton ran into him. this (among a few other things) basically killed his chances at getting resigned at red bull because he wasnt ""performing"" and red bull are bitches who love to win. but some people think that red bull should give him another shot. like daniel, hes already been max's teammate and he can definitely drive. but theres also talk he might go to ferrari because ferrari think that he might compliment charles's driving style (or something). but going to ferrari at this point is kind of suicide. so.

logan sergeant. age 23. the only american on the grid. the other williams driver. he just finished his rookie year. he scored a grand total of one single point this season, in texas, and it was because charles leclerc and lewis hamilton both got disqualified because the floor of their car had more wear (by literally less than millimeters) than it was allowed to, bumping him up from 12th to 10th. he has never done better than alex albon. he was also the very last driver to get a contract for 2024, with williams waiting until i think december of 2023 to announce his contract extension. clearly, hes on thin ice. but people have also said that he needs time to get used to formula 1 (other people have pointed out that oscar piastri slayed his rookie season this year and this statement about needing time is largely false). where logan ends up next year though will largely depend on how well the 2024 season goes for him.

fernando alonso. 42 years old. many people like to point out that oscar piastri is actually younger than fernando's racing career. he won tiktok creator of the year (somehow) and is also a 2 time world champion. he retired a few years ago, just to show back up again and slay. during the first half of the season when aston martin had a zoom zoom car he killed it, and then they had problems on top of problems and he didnt do well. except for that one race in brazil where he came in third, beating checo by literally .05 seconds. he hasn't really made any hints about retiring a second time and he is kind of carrying aston Martin right now (he scored 205 points this season, coming in 4th and tying in points with charles leclerc, lance stroll only scored 74 points this year.) and they did have their best year yet this year. (though they are relatively new).

pierre gasley. 27 years old. french. drives for alpine. the french team. previously he raced with toro rosso (now alpha tauri), then got promoted to a red bull driver in 2019, then halfway through the season they decided he wasnt doing a good enough job and he got demoted back down to alpha tauri. then he won a race with alpha tauri just to stick it to red bull. after the great oscar piastri contract twitter war, he was signed as alpines second driver, with Esteban ocon being the other driver (more on him soon). estie bestie and pierre (both french) were childhood friends and now hate each other for unknown reasons and basically feuded on the track for most of the season. french civil war at alpine. he scored 62 points in 2023 and came in 11th. not really sure where he will end up, it is possible that he will stick it out at alpine.

esteban ocon. 27 years old. also french. currently driving for alpine. another one with a silly bonkers career. he started out at force india and had a baller few seasons there but his teammate at the time was checo, and checo didnt really cooperate with him too much and caused some drama that cost estie bestie some places and some points. max verstappen also beat him up in the garage once. thats not really relevant but it did happen. anyway, after the owner of force india was arrested for .... i don't remember what maybe it was embezzlement or bankruptcy or something money related, the team was backed by lawrence stroll and became racing point. but all of that happened mid season and lawrence was basically like look ill back you guys for now but next year my son gets a seat (lance) so one of you two (checo and estie bestie) have to go. and ultimately they let estie bestie go even though he was more consistent because checo had more sponsors and they needed money. so he was out of formula 1 for a few years (but was a merc reserve driver) and then went to Renault, which then became alpine. he did come in 12th though overall this season, just behind pierre. so. will alpine keep both him and pierre and keep the civil war going? whos to say.

nico hulkenberg. 36 years old. haas driver. in his 200+ f1 races he has never been on the podium and he really really wants to be on the podium. unfortunately this will never happen in a haas because haas fucking sucks. and everyone knows it. he is getting towards the end of his career though. though! stake f1 will become the mario Andretti and audi team in 2026 (don't question it) and they have supposedly voiced interest in nico. so we will see if he hangs on that long to end up at audi. for now tough, hes definitely hating it at haas. though, haas are going to have a different team principle next year so maybe that will change things. i have a sneaky feeling through that haas will probably end up with another 2 rookie drivers because everyone else is smart enough to not race for them.

kevin magnussen. 31 years old. haas driver. hes another deeply interesting character. he has had one podium. in his rookie season. in his first race. and none since. kevin started at haas in 2017 and then left at then end of 2020 when he basically got kicked off because the team needed money and they wanted to bring in drivers with more sponsorships. these drivers were mick schumacher and nikita mazepin. so kevin basically was forced to retire after the 2020 season. this went decently well for haas. until russia invaded ukraine right before the start of the 2022 season and, well, nikita was Russian and it was never distinctly proven that his dads company (who was sponsoring the team) wasnt also funding the invasion. so nikita got fired and they were literally like 2 weeks out from the start of the season, down a driver. who are you gonna call? kevin magnussen! and hes been back ever since. but hes clearly getting annoyed with haas. there was one great clip from this year where his car caught on fire and he kind of just stared into to, clearly hoping it would burn for a long time. so the likelihood of him extending his contract is looking slim.

valtteri bottas. 34 years old. currently a driver for stake f1 (alpha romeo, kick sauber, whatever you wanna call it). previously, he was a mercedes driver and notoriously helped lewis hamilton win a great many championships, until he lost his seat to george russell in 2022. there was a rather awkward part of the 2021 season where valtteri knew that he was out of a merc seat the following year and kind of just chose violence. he slayed. then he went to alpha romeo, grew a mullet and made a calendar of his ass. quite the glow up if you ask me. hes also very interested in cycling. honestly though, i have my own personal speculation that hes going to retire at the end of this year.

zhou guanyu. 24 years old. driver for stake f1 (alpha romeo/kick sauber, etc etc). hes doing alright. he just finished his second season, in his first season he was majorly out qualified by valtteri but this past season he managed to out qualify him a good 6 times. which is decently good for the tractor of a car hes driving. its possible that he could get a contract extension, but like logan, its probably going to depend on how the 2024 season goes for him.

and thats all the drivers. theres also a few others i didnt talk about, like some other f2 drivers who want seats and mick schumacher, who is currently a merc reserve driver, all of which could be contenders for f1 seats. but one things for sure. this is going to be the silliest fucking silly season.

feel free to add on and peer review me

[jkbabiey]

🇵 🇷 🇴 🇲 🇮 🇸 🇪 [ 🇯 🇯 🇰 ]

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

Words: 3.7 K

Pairing: hitman!Jungkook x medstudent!reader

Warnings: slight jealousy; harassment; violence; guns; jungkook being a pussy :) and not surprising anyone; remembering past trauma; y'all pls pray for Y/N

Song Rec: Doin' Time by Lana Del Rey; Lola by Camila Cabello; Relapse by ENVYYOU; You Get Me So High by The Neighbourhood; Nothing breaks like a heart by Miley Cyrus; Watercolor Eyes by Lana Del Rey

"You look stunning baby," Jungkook's voice resounded in your ear as you felt him wrapping both his tattooed arms around your waist. Your eyes focused on his figure behind you as he analyzed your body in the big mirror in front of you.

You finished applying your red lipstick as your boyfriend ran the tip of his nose along the shaft of your neck and smelled the perfume he had gifted you on your birthday. "Where are you going?" he asked, now running his hands along the side of your body.

You felt confident tonight. Your skin looked soft and your acne was apparently taking a rest. The time spent at the gym with Jungkook was paying off. And you felt amazing. You had even reached out for the shortest, tightest black dress in your closet tonight and paired them with some black high-heeled sandals you had bought and never dared to debut. To top it all off you had been confident enough to make a sharp eyeliner - that, don't ask how, had come out perfectly - and applied a bright red lipstick. "What do I do with my hair?" you asked Jungkook, completely ignoring his previous question, which he noticed and chuckled about.

"Hum..." he thought, looking at your now wild long curls. "What about you just let it down? There's nothing prettier than your natural hair."

You smiled his way in genuine appreciation. Jungkook was the best at making you feel good about yourself. He was a flirt, after all. And he had good taste, so you decided to just follow his advice.

"I'm going to a bar with a few friends from uni. We've just finished a full week of exams and they decided to get rid of some stress."

"Hwasa and Seulgi?" he asked.

"Hwasa, Seulgi, Yugyeom, and Joon," you answered, already expecting the following questioning.

Jungkook had offered you a quiet night in, watching movies and cuddling, which you had refused because you had already decided to go out with your friends tonight. And that had slightly upset Jungkook. You didn't pay it no mind - you needed some fun from time to time!

"Joon? Who's that?" he questioned, as you expected, using a noticeable mocking tone, mimicking the nickname you had used to talk about your new friend, Namjoon. You stared at Jungkook through your reflection through the mirror as he took his hands away from your body, resting them on his own hips and slightly raising his chin.

"Stop that," you turned around, throwing your arms around Jungkook's neck and leaning your body to his. "He's a friend, met him a few weeks ago," you answered him, kissing his cheeks.

Suddenly the ringing of your phone took you out of your transe of kissing your boyfriend's face and you walked towards it, reading Hwasa's name on the screen. You picked it up and put it on speaker.

"Babe, we're outside. You ready?" she asked to which you hummed positively, while walking towards your small bag and throwing your house keys, wallet and lipstick inside.

"Who's the designated driver tonight?" you asked, chuckling as they immediately started arguing on the other side of the line, trying to figure out who it would be, until Namjoon interrupted the argument to claim that as the owner of the car, he'd take that responsibility. "Namjoon is!" Hwasa exclaimed.

"Thank God for that! I don't think anyone else would be able to stay away from alcohol tonight," you answered and heard the not-so-surprising agreement from everyone in the car.

"I'll be down in a second," you said and hung up the phone, just before walking towards Jungkook, who automatically placed his warm hands on your hips and pulled you closer, softly pecking your lips. "Hwasa doesn't call him Joon," he muttered against your lips, pettily and you rolled your eyes pulling away from him.

Jungkook had had the chance to meet your group of friends at least once, but not Namjoon, so his sudden burst of jealousy wasn't surprising anyone - especially coming from him, a naturally jealous man. You decided to ignore his jealous antics just for tonight.

"I'm staying home tonight. If Joon decides to get something to drink, give me a call," you chuckled and Jungkook quickly kissed your lips once again, before completely letting go of your body.

"Ok. I'm going now, babe. I love you."

"Love you."

Dirty Habit.

That was the name of the bar you and your friends had gone to and it was full to the brim. There were people in every crevice of the place. Sweaty bodies danced and humped against one another everywhere.

Namjoon had recommended this place to your group of friends. He had been here before and it showed, given the, at least, seven enthusiastic greetings he had exclaimed in the first five minutes you had been in here. You supposed, by the countless number of people that filled the space, this seemed like a very well-known and popular bar, which shocked you, to say the least, because none of your friends had ever heard of it.

Namjoon was new to the group, which used to consist only of Hwasa, Seulgi, and Yugyeom. The four of you had met in your first year of college and had been the closest since then. But when Hwasa showed up at your lunch table, in the cafeteria, with this sweet-looking guy with big cheeks and adorable dimples, you had no choice but to welcome him.

"Wow," you heard Seulgi mutter from your side and looked her way. And it only took one glance for her to know you felt the exact same she did.

Something about that bar seemed quite off. It felt out of the ordinary - the neon lights were brighter than they used to be in other bars, people looked sweatier than usual, more exhausted, and the music was also quite different, you even dared to say it sound quite psychedelic, in a way.

"Should we go get some drinks?" Hwasa, who stood between Yugyeom and Namjoon in that mess of people, asked, turning her head back to look at you and Seulgi, who were a little behind them with linked arms, so you wouldn't lose each other.

Seulgi was the one in your group of friends you were a bit closer to than with others, even though you were all extremely tight. You two were in the same class as you were both studying medicine. You understood each other better than anyone else.

"Yeah, I guess," Seulgi answered, apparently uneasy about the whole ambiance of the smokey space. "Isn't this kinda weird?" she asked you, whispering in your ear and you instantly nodded, feeling her grip on your arm tightening.

When you got to the bar, you sat down on one of the stools, next to your friends and waited for the bartender to come to you. "So, Y/N how's your boyfriend doing?" you heard Namjoon ask from beside you and looked at him with a confused look on your face. "It's Jeon Jungkook, right?"

"Yeah... Do you two know each other-"

"Oh, Y/N! What are you doing here?" you heard a cheerful voice interrupt you, quickly turning your head back to the bar, and smiled widely when you found out the fount of the voice was none other than Park Jimin, your sweetheart and Jungkook's best friend.

"Jimin! Do you work here?" you asked. The excitement to see him was clear in your voice. You hadn't seen Jimin for so long.

"Yeah! Wanted to party tonight?" he asked, a pretty smile on his face.

"Yeah, had to get rid of some stress from uni, I've been having a hard time with that," you answered and he reached over the bar board that separated the baristas from the ones that asked to drink and pinched your cheek, affectionately.

You genuinely liked Jimin. Ever since you had gone with him and Jungkook to get breakfast, he had conquested your sympathy. Even though he was rough around the edges, he had a good heart - reminded you of Jungkook. Jimin had had a rough past, from what he had told you, and the only job he could land with the pratice he had had before with the part times he had had during his teenage years was as a bartender. You didn't know that he worked in this bar, though.

"So, what can I get you all?" Jimin asked your group of friends, sparing everyone a glance and spending a little more than a second on Seulgi, who sat on the stool to your left.

"I'll get your number," you heard Seulgi speak from your side and widened your eyes, looking at her, utterly shocked by her unusual boldness. The whole group started oohing and Jimin's smile got wider - you could swear there was even a bit of shyness as he lowered his head and licked his lips.

"We'll see about that," he answered and then, looked back as you started saying your order.

"I'll get a Cosmopolitan," you said laughing at your friend who took a chance to wink at Jimin when he stole a last glance her way, making him laugh too.

After everyone had their drinks in their hands, you and the rest of the group walked towards the dance floor - but not before Seulgi wrote her number on a napkin and seducingly handed it to Jimin.

The music resonated through your body like it hadn't in a long time. Seulgi, Hwasa, Yugyeom, and Namjoon were nowhere to be seen, even though you all came to the dancefloor to dance together. You couldn't care less though.

Your hips swayed from side to side, as you danced with your eyes closed with a drink in your hand. The neon lights run through your skin and the alcohol through your veins. It wasn't the first drink Jimin had handed you, even though he would warn you to be careful on the dancefloor every time you went to the bar to ask him for a refill - needless to say, you dismissed his warnings every single time.

It had been a while since you felt so free of all worries. You didn't care about other people dancing around you. You didn't care about the guy that had approached you before, asking you to dance with him - which you kindly (and drunkenly) refused, saying 'my boyfriend Jungkook is picking me up later, you know??'. And if you weren't that drunk you would have probably noticed the fear in that guys' eyes when he heard your boyfriend's name.

A few minutes of dancing later, you felt two strong hands gripping your hips and joining the sway of your body. You didn't even realize it at first, but the grip got tighter when you rolled your hips along with the music playing and you turned around. You intended on telling this guy that you were very much taken, but as you turned around, you came across a pair of very dark eyes. They didn't make you feel good.

"Hey bro," Jungkook greeted lazily, munching on a handful of popcorn he had made to watch the new Spiderman movie.

He loved lazy days. The only thing missing was your cuddles, but he was still making it work. Sweet popcorn had always been his favorite.

"Hey, dude!" Jimin answered in a awkwardly panicked tone of voice.

"Are you really on your phone WHILE working? What a bad-"

"Listen, I wasn't going to tell you anything. Wanted to let your girl have her fun, but I really think it's better if I tell you because Yoongi just got here, so I thought I'd let you know Y/N's here too," Jimin talked quickly and with a certain fear to his voice. He knew about every single thing about your and Jungkook's relationships, even the darkest parts that not even you knew about.

"At the bar?" Jungkook asked, already up and getting dressed to go get you.

"Yeah. Sorry for not telling you sooner, but I just didn't want to ruin her night, she seemed to really need to have her fun. I didn't want to keep her from it, but Yoongi just got here..." Jimin explained and Jungkook mumbled an 'it's okay', just before hanging up on him and calling you.

Calling...

No answer.

"Do I know you?" you asked, taking the man's hands off your hips, to which he chuckled, quickly getting a hold of you again and tightening his grip on your hips so that you wouldn't be able to get rid of it again. "I have a boyfriend, let go of me, please?"

"You don't remember me?" he whispered in your ear, after approaching your face, and it all came rushing to you. Your eyes widened as the memories of that night flooded your brain.

It was all coming back.

You tried, helplessly, to get his hands off your hips and get out of that club, but he was stronger. Your panic was obvious, and you just wished that someone would get off that numb stage that everyone seemed to be in and help you, but no one seemed to notice your fear.

"You're gonna calm down and walk with me, down that little corridor, yeah?" He whispered again and you whimpered, trying to stay calm.

It was him. After a little more than a year, he was back. The man who had made sure you were traumatized for the rest of your life and about whom you still had nightmares, was now standing right next to you in a club full of people, who were absolutely unwilling to help you.

You started walking with him. "Please, let me go." you whimpered as he gripped your arm roughly. The man took you to an empty aisle with red neon lighting and pushed you against a wall. "Stop, please."

"What are you doing here?" he growled and you shrank away from his face, which was centimeters away from yours. "Talk!" he growled.

"I-I just ca-came to have f-fun with some friends," you whimpered and he laughed sarcastically.

"You really want me to believe that?" he mocked, gripping your face in his hand. "You came here, trying to find me, right? You fooled my brother into thinking you didn't remember a thing so you could get rid of him and now you're here looking for me, right?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," you cried and he furrowed his eyebrows in anger.

"Don't be a bitch and just fucking spit it out!" he growled again, grabbing your jaw and banging the back of your head against the wall behind you. "Or do you need me to make you?" he whispered and you felt something cold and hard pinching the bottom of your belly. It was a gun.

"I don't know! I don't know! Please, s-stop!" you screamed in panic and watched the unknown man smiling sadistically and pushing the gun harder against your body.

"Yoongi!" you heard a familiar voice and your eyes widened as more tears fell.

Jungkook.

"Let her go," he said, walking closer to you two, as the man, whose name was, supposedly, Yoongi, stepped away from you, with a grin on his lips and his armed hand raised.

"I didn't know you two were back together! Isn't my little brother the cutest? Trying to save his girlfriend..." Yoongi said, mockingly and your brows furrowed.

"What?"

Jungkook stayed still, looking at Yoongi as if looks could kill. "Did you know she was gonna come to look for me tonight?"

"I didn't."

"W-What are you talking about? What is this about!?" you asked, absolute panic written on your face. "You're his brother?!" you asked your boyfriend but Jungkook's face showed no sympathy towards you. It was like a completely different person was standing right there in front of you. That was not your boyfriend.

"Oh, poor girl..." Yoongi mocked and you felt the physical need to shrink against the wall behind you, trying to get away from the scary voice that had filled your nightmares for months on end. "She's clueless. If I knew how clueless you were, I wouldn't have approached you. But Kookie here had told me you two had broken up so I thought - well now this crazy bitch is seeking revenge!" he laughed and you closed your eyes, taking a deep breath. "Guess I was wrong," he was the next to sigh.

"Just let her go." you heard Jungkook's cold tone of voice, directing your gaze towards his and watching him lower his eyes as soon as your eyes crossed. "I'll deal with the rest."

"Oh no! I'll do that! You took the goods out of this pretty little thing. I want that too," Yoongi denied, stepping close to you once again, making you scrunch your face and turning it to the side. Jungkook would prefer if you had turned it to the side opposite of him, so he didn't have to see the pure fear, panic, and disgust present on it.

"Yoongi, step away," you heard Jungkook say ina low voice that could barely be heard - it was like he was scared of his brother. As Yoongi pressed his body against yours, you took your hands towards his chest to push him away. "Get off me!" you screamed, tears already streaming down your face. Yoongi was way too strong for you to be able to push him far away from your body.

You couldn't understand why Jungkook, your boyfriend, the only person who was allowed to touch you like this, wasn't doing anything. Why was he allowing Yoongi to touch you like this right in front of his eyes? Seeing how helpless you were. How disgusted you felt.

In Jungkook's mind, stepping in was showing his weakness - which was you. And he couldn't show it, especially not to his brother. But after about a minute of seeing his brother try to use you, he couldn't stand that anymore and stepped in, pushing Yoongi's body away from you, and standing tall in front of you, protecting you from his brother. "Don't fucking touch her!" he growled and you heard Yoongi chuckle ironically.

"Oh... What is that? Was this pretty girl able to capture my brother's heart? For real, Kook? You could do so much better than that!" he joked and you saw Jungkook's fists closing in anger. "Does she know? Did you tell her everything? Because before you two elope on your romance, she should know why you approached her, in the first place..."

"Shut up-"

"Y/N, before you fully commit to my brother, I just wanted you to know that the only reason why he approached you was to kill you," Yoongi clarified and your eyes widened. "Yeah, you know me now, right? Do you remember that eventful night? Yeah, I couldn't kill you then, so I had to ask someone else to, or I was sure you'd end up going to the police. This pretty guy right here volunteered to do it! Well, a few months in and he told us you seriously didn't remember a thing. So his only job throughout this whole relationship of yours was to guarantee you wouldn't say a thing. That's the only reason he stayed with you. And well, it had been working until now!! I just had to come up to you a ruin everything, didn't I? Damn it, Yoongi! I guess now you have to die!" Yoongi exclaimed in the most enthusiastic voice ever, as if that was the most exciting news ever. He reached over Jungkook's shoulder to see your teary eyes. "You didn't really think he was in love with you, right?" he asked, and laughed out loud, seeing the miserable look on your face. "Kook, take care of this. Make sure she doesn't leave this place alive. If something gets out, you pay the consequences. It's you or her."

And with that, he walked away. And you broke down.

You felt your body shaking uncontrollably and unconsciously sliding down the wall you were previously leaning against, as your legs lost their strength.

Jungkook turned around, his eyes full of the sympathy he was previously lacking. He crouched down in front of you and got ready to embrace your body. "Baby-"

"Don't fucking touch me!" you yelled in his face, as his eyes widened and he took a step back. "What the fuck was he talking about?"

"Y/N-"

"Was all of this a lie? Were you with me just to keep the business safe?-" you took a break as the tears started running down your face faster and your voice started wavering. "And god... D-Did you really just approached me to get me killed? What the fuck, Jungkook. How fucking twisted is that?"

"Well, I didn't! I didn't kill you! Because I fell for you-"

"And is that supposed to make me feel better?!" you screamed and swore to god that if no one in this club had heard you two screaming at each other, they must be really high. "Is this the business headquarters? Is this where everything takes place?"

"Yes," Jungkook mumbled, looking down at the floor in shame.

"Were you ever going to tell me your brother is the one who almost killed me a few months back?" you asked, standing up from the floor but still keeping your distance from the boy.

He didn't answer, making it all more obvious to you. "It was all just an act, wasn't it? When I woke up at night, terrified by my nightmares and you were the one to comfort me. I never told you what I dreamt about, but you fucking knew who I dreamt about - your fucking brother! And you never told me a thing!"

Jungkook wouldn't dare open his mouth. Now that everything was out in the open, he didn't feel like he had the right to do that. "I'm fucking leaving this place," you said turning around to leave the club with a mascara-stained face and a broken heart, "or do you have to kill me now?"

[x3kristax3]

After Duskwood- Chapter 4

First| Last| Next

I pull into the police station parking lot and sit there for a moment. I finally get out and one of the FBI agents is walking out. As i walk up to the front desk "hi I'm MC, Alan Bloomgate and the FBI are expecting me"

"Someone will be right up with you" she says

My nerves are kicking in and i pace the waiting room for what feels like forever. Finally the door opens and Alan comes out "Nice to finally meet you in person. Sorry for the wait, we had to clear out a room to talk." He says

"It's okay i bet its hectic with the FBI here" i say as i follow him back to a room. As we walk past one of the rooms i hear one of the guys that arrested Jake raising his voice and I look.

"We have a lot to talk about and i know they want to talk to you as well" he says as he opens the door and i sit down

"What can I answer for you?" I say

"I know your not from Duskwood  so I've been trying to figure out how you got involved" he says

"I told you already. Hannah had texted Thomas my phone number. As why i did help i have no answer to that" i say

"How did you get involved with Jake?"

I sigh "he was the one to see Hannah get kidnapped and somehow got my number too"

"Why did you help him though?"

"We were working as a team to find Hannah"

"Why did you refuse to talk to me for so long?"

"I was scared. I knew from the start with how i got brought into this it looks suspicious"

"You're right, you did look suspicious, especially with no ties to Hannah or anyone in the group. Specially cause your just a bartender in a big city"

"Look, I got pulled into it and I agreed to help. Hannah was found"

"But richy wasn't"

"Oh no one told you?"

"Tell me what?"

"Richy was behind it all. He kidnapped Hannah. He threatened us all as thr man without a face. He's the one that blew the mines up"

Alan's face drops. "No it couldn't be" 

"Oh but it is"

"Okay i think that's all the questions i have for you. I'm gonna leave you in this room for the FBI" alan says

"Okay, can I get some water though?" I ask

"Sure i'll bring you one"  he gets up and comes back with a bottle of water.

As I wait for the FBI I stand up and walk around the room. After what feels like forever the 2 agents from the cafe walk in and i sit down "So miss.MC as you can imagine we have a few questions about your relationship with Jake. These are the same questions he was asked in regards to you and he shut up right away"

"I will answer the best I can" i say

"How did he reach out to you in the start" 

"A text"

"What was the relationship like in the start?"

"We were just trying to find Hannah"

"Why were you guys both at the cafe?"

"He came to see me and tell me he was going to come here and not be on the run anymore"

"Do you know why we've been on the hunt for him for 4 years?"

"No he didn't tell me"

"So you were willing to give up your life and family and friends to join him in the run"

"No comment" i say taking a drink

"Just answer us this. Why are you his weakness?"

"I honestly don't have an answer expect you meet people in your life who come and go and others that from right from the start are meant to stay"

"Okay i think that is all" one says.

The other ones been standing in the back quite "I have one we didnt ask your lover" he says

"Okay"

"Why did you lie when you got called early this morning?" He says hitting the table

I jump back. "I didn't lie. Until at the cafe i hadn't seen him"

"We know you were both at that motel"

"Well that is news for me because i just stopped there to sleep and shower. Everything with finding Hannah i had been awake for almost 3 days straight"

"We will catch you in this lie and then you'll be an accomplice to him"

"If that is all I'd like to leave"

"You're free to go" the one one says. I get up and he walks me outside to the front area.

I head outside and I see Jake against my car. I run up and hug him "they let you out" i ask 

"For now but i have to stay in Duskwood until otherwise" he hugs me back

I look up at him and i see his face in the sun "lets get your car and grab some food" i say

"Can I stay with you? The motel said they are booked right now" jake says

"Yeah lets drop your car off there" i say not wanting to let him go

"Im sorry for whatever happened with the FBI"

"The one was nice but the one that arrested you, he scared me. He hit the table demanding answers"

"Yeah he's been on my case from the start. I was hoping they were going to have someone else talk to you" Jake says

I finally let go and  i pull out the phone and open group chat 

MC: Where's a good spot to eat? We're starving

Everyone comes on

Lilly: Wait, Jake is joining you?

MC: yeah

Dan: honestly the Aurora has good food

Jake looks at me "do we really wanna go there?"

"Good food and drinks with the group? Plus Phil will probably be too busy to notice us" i say

"Okay i just can't get into a fight" he says

I laugh "i won't let you"

MC in group chat: sounds good where heading there for anyone who wants to join us