#while the little we saw of father Charlie was fascinating and there were so many possible motives/explanations for his behavior

[voluptuarian]

Finished the last episode.

[cosmiccandydreamer]

Too little late chapter 3

Alastor x F!reader.

*summary* flash back to Many years ago, when you first realized you'd be making friends with the handsome and mysterious radio demon.

No warnings this chapter.

🕸️Hello there, the angel from my nightmare 🕸️The shadow in the background of the morgue 🕸️The unsuspecting victim of darkness in the valley🕸️ We can live like Jack and Sally if we want🕸️

Father, why do I have to wear this stupid outfit? It's itchy. I hate the ruffles!” You pulled and prodded at the ridiculous dress your father had insisted you wear to Prince Stolas's annual party. You hated these parties, so mindless and driven with boring people and conversation. “Stop fussing, please,” he signed, rubbing his hands over his temples. “You know it's important ALL of us attend; it looks good as a family.” “Will cousin Charlie be there?” You pulled a giant bow off your curls that your father had placed there a moment ago. “I'll wear the dress but no bows! I'm not six anymore”. Your father, fixing his tie in the mirror, turned in your direction, clearly annoyed at the questions. “I told you no, the Morningstar's aren't coming. They have a lot going on now”. “Can we go see them?” He approached the vanity and placed his arms on your shoulders. “not right now, sweetheart; we should give the family some privacy.” Walking up to the enormous embellished Palace, you couldn't help but feel your anxiety rising; big parties where you have to pretend to be friends with everybody and pretend to be interested in pointless conversation was not your cup of tea.

The party went on. He tried his best as you could to disappear into the background. You were trying to blend in with the wallpaper. Your father tried hard to introduce it to other high-ranking numbers of hell, all of which had very little to say that interests you. You politely nodded in response as best as possible, looking for an opportunity to enter the garden and disappear for a while.

You were 20 now, which your father saw as a marrying age, socializing age, or whatever. He was tired of you being caught up in your books and your fantasies; he was also frustrated that you were not in control of your powers, yet you can bend fire to your will, A power that you tried to hide the tragedy of when you accidentally burnt down an entire section of the city in a fit of rage when you were practicing what your father one evening. He says, in his mind, it is because you have not given up your humanity yet.

You are a half-human, half-demon when your father lived on Earth for a while, more involved with Earth than politics. He had fallen in love with a young witch who had unfortunately died in childbirth. You were often told that you resembled her in looks and personality. You only had pictures to comfort you when searching for your maternal comfort.

Luckily, you spent many, many days with the Morningstar family. Although you weren't technically related, your father and Lucifer Morningstar were best friends and often became standing parents to you. You would hang out there while your father attended meetings and other critical diplomatic situations. You weren't entirely sure what he meant when he said give up your humanity. Maybe he meant this frivolous fascination with Earth. He had been a couple of times on some of his work outings to the planet, but other than that, you weren't sure you didn't care to ask either. You felt lost during this parade of parties, balls, and conversations that went nowhere.

You also thought that you were never fully respected as a demon. Many demons and sinners considered you a freak for being half-human. They would never say that to your face. You noticed a large wall behind the bones and flowers that seemed away from prying eyes. Determined to leave this wretched party, you attempted to hoist yourself over the wall. The confounds of your garment restrict your movements, causing you to hop back down and huff out of frustration.

“sneaking out too, I see?” You whip your head around to identify the voice of none other than the radio demon Alastor. “Oh Mr. Hartleft! You startled me,” you chuckled, turning to face him. Embarrassment overtook your face as you smoothed down your dress. “Please my dear call me alastor you must be y/n! Your father has said great things about you” you rolled your eyes “oh God please ignore him he's trying to marry me off like some prized cow”. Alastor looked over to the wall you were attempting to scale, “hmm, what was the plan once you had scaled the wall? Run away into the sunset?” You chuckled.

“I'm not sure. I just wanted to be anywhere but here; I dislike these parties and the people. Usually, the conversation is so boring,” you say on a bench with a huff. Alastor tilted his head to one side, studying you. “mind if I join you? I do dislike parties filled with mindless chatter” you nodded and scooted over for him to sit with you. “Why do you come alastor if you dislike them so much” “oh the stipulations of being a bureaucrat as an overlord I have obligations I must fulfill and one of them is making an appearance at social gatherings”. You two ended up sitting and talking for about an hour.

You had heard of the radio demon and listened to his radio show several times. He was a lot more charming and personable than you were led to believe and you found yourself drawn to him, and honestly he was starting to feel the same. Granted he didn't know a lot about you, only that your father was strict and that you were an anomaly here in hell. Funny, smart down to earth, curious and beautiful.You were unlike anyone he had met so far down here. He had eventually conjured a bottle of wine to share with you. Neither of you wanted to go back inside. After a while you found yourself laughing with him, your side's hurting from how much he tickled your funny bone. “So tell me more about when you were alive. I've wanted to see New Orleans” you grabbed the wine bottle taking another swig. “Oh,” his eyes seemed far away, like he was suddenly somewhere you couldn't see. “it was truly a magical time. There's nowhere else in the world like it”. “I sometimes go to earth to see my uncle Crowley and Uncle Azira; maybe I can convince them to take me.” “Oh, I know them, yes, great fellows. Crowley sought my help in some of his temptations, and stolas were nice, kind enough to allow me to travel to earth from time to time with his spells, you know maybe we can go sometime together, if you'd like,” he tilted his head a bit flashing you a gold smile and taking the bottle back. “Oh please!” You turned to face him fully now “oh alastor I would love that! I want to go to the record store and the cute coffee shops I've seen,” your voice trailed off, and he watched your face intensity. Suddenly, he stood up and offered you his hand. “I have an idea. Come with me, please.” you swallowed the last of your wine and grabbed his hand. Sparks flew when your hands met, sending warm shock waves through your body. You knew at that moment you'd follow him anywhere.

You both scurry through the Halls of the castle you silently giggling behind him Where is he taking me you thought this handsome stranger? The potential of a new adventure and what seems to be a new friend had your heart racing with Glee. You were a little lonely and bored, so this was a welcomed change of pace. His long legs walking slightly ahead caused you to half run behind him cursing the frilly dress. “Come come, my dear, we must hurry” he chimed looking back at you “sorry! It's this stupid dress my father made me wear it's weighing me down” he stopped suddenly turning to you “oh well if that's the problem. Let me assist you” he snapped his fingers and a simple black long sleeve dress appreaed on your body a lot more comfortable. “oh I love this! How did you know?” You spun around, admiring the black lace that lined the bottom. “A gentleman never reveals his secrets! Now, just through this door!”

He pushed open a large wooden door leading to an impressive library. Humming to himself his red claws lightly tapping the books until he found the one he wanted. “Ah, here we are.” Suddenly, a bright light swirled around all of you as he muttered some words that you didn't understand from the pages of the book, within seconds a portal opened, and you could hear faint jazz music playing from it. “I'm afraid we can stay long, '' he motioned for you to enter it. Without questioning it, you did; something about him made you feel so safe.

You passed through the portal to a lively and bright New Orleans Street. Gasping, you turned to face him, but this face was new. Human, he was human! “Alastor?” You asked racking your eyes over his frame. “In the flesh! This was my human form! It makes for a wonderful disguise don't you think?” You were speechless. He was so unbelievably handsome. Shaking off your shock you smiled “so where should we go?” He held out his arm for you to take, which you gladly did. “I want to show you my old radio station! And maybe my old stomping grounds! Where I stomped on more than the ground ha ha!!”. And with that, you both headed off down the lively street.

You weren't sure how much time had passed while exploring the streets in New Orleans with him, but by the end of it, he, too, had solidified that you were going to be great friends. Giggling and walking back through the portal, you turned to him. “Thank you for a wonderful evening. This was the best.” “My pleasure dear,” he replied, taking your hand and kissing it. “Hopefully, we can do this again. I do enjoy your company”. “Y/n, there you are. What the hell? Where have you been?!” Your father's angry voice ran out thru the hallway. “ and what are you wearing?!” “I um” “I'm afraid that is my fault, sir, she spilled some drink on her pretty dress so I conjured up a new one”! Alastor clapped his hands together as if it suggested the matter was closed. “Oh, hello, Alastor,” your Father replied nervously.

It appears he just realized that the radio demon was standing next to both of you.” I hope she wasn't too much trouble. Thank you for looking out for her.” He walked over towards you, grabbing your arm to lead you away.” nonsense she was a delight! I hope to see you around dear y/n”. You looked over your shoulder and gave him a small smile, making a mental note to see him again as soon as possible. This was not the last time you would cross-pass with the radio demon, in fact you could encounter him many more times.

[blondie20000]

Balance (Part 1) - Father Charlie Mayhew x Rowena MacLeod

Never in her life did Rowena MacLeod ever thought she would go to a Church willingly.

Yet here she is outside the entrance looking inside admiring the place

More like admiring someone.

She pauses in her search when she finds who she is looking for.

He is standing across the room lighting up a candle. He has his back to her. The witch sighs a little debating whether she should go in or not.

She hasn't been able to stop thinking about earlier. The first time she met him. There was something about him that drew her in. A sense of curiosity, intrigue. She can still remember the way he took her hand to shake it. His grip is strong and firm.

She can also remember his thumb brushing against her skin as he introduced himself.

“Father Mayhew.” He smiles warmly at her. “It is a pleasure to welcome you into my Church.”

He had a look in his eye. A reflection of her own feelings. Fascination, interest. The way Mayhew kept looking over at her as Sam babbled on about the case his eyes bright and intense made something stir in Rowena. A flutter, a burning desire feelings the witch knew all too well.

Damm him.

Sam carried on oblivious to the sudden change in atmosphere. Mayhew’s attention stayed on her. He barely acknowledged the younger Winchester.

“If there is anything…anything at all, even the tiniest bit of information that could help us please give us a call.” Sam stressed as he handed the Priest a card with his contact details on.

“I will.” Mayhew slowly nods. He automatically sticks out his hand and allows the other man to shake it. “I hope the next time we meet.” His eyes are back on her again. “It will be under better circumstances.”

Rowena bites her lip while his curl upwards in the corners of his mouth. He is addressing the final part to her and her only.

Since then that damm Priest has been on her mind.

A Priest? Absurd right?

He wasn't like the other Priests. The image he projects the Holy Man, the shining light Rowena saw through all that. Beneath it all is darkness and hunger. His eyes so dark almost black bore into her and while that might scare some to Rowena it thrilled her.

Also did she forget to mention he is gorgeous?

And a rebel?

Because no Priest would outright flirt with someone the concept of a relationship is forbidden to them yet Father Mayhew has decided to test the waters. He wants to break his pact and reach out to her of all people. A witch. To be his sin, his forbidden fruit.

Rowena couldn't help but be flattered.

Once her services were no longer required Rowena decided there and then to head down to the Church to see him. It is only when she is at the door she then stops and hesitates.

What if it's terrible?

The sex? She highly doubted a Priest would be an expert in that department. He might be attractive but is he good in the bedroom? It could turn out to be awkward. He could be like a horny teenager who watched too many porn videos, a desperate wee lad in need of a good release. That would destroy any attraction she has towards him.

Rowena watches him glide around the room. He had an air of arrogance, a confidence she can feel from here.

Her stomach flutters again.

She shakes her head.

Father Mayhew is different.

He is not like the other Priests.

The feelings of lust and desire consume her. Rowena knows that the only way to get rid of these feelings is to confront them head on.

Fuck and corrupt a Priest?

Challenge accepted.

With a deep breath and head held high Rowena walks in. Just as she reaches the altar he turns around. No surprise, no reaction whatsoever from him. His face is blank.

But his eyes showed a different story.

The hunger, the lust. All directed towards her.

Mayhew addresses her with a nod then gestures towards the door.

No words were needed.

The witch happily follows him through the door and up the stairs. He takes her to the room at the bottom of the hallway which she assumes is his room.

She gets her confirmation when she sees the sad, lone bed with its plain white sheet and one pillow. Being loyal to God comes with no luxuries.

He pours them both a drink and offers the glass to her. She thanks him and takes the offered drink. She sips it and hums with approval.

At least they have good wine.

“I knew you were smart.” Mayhew finally speaks. He sips his glass. His eyes never once leave hers. “I knew you would understand my message.”

“It wasn't hard.” Rowena sighs. “Even a child can figure that out.”

“Not your friend though?” He said with amusement in his voice.

She smiles and takes another sip.

“Father.”

“Charlie.”

She raises her eyebrows.

“First name basis already? Going a bit too fast now aren't we Father?”

“Who said anything about going slow?”

Eager.

The witch puts her drink down and folds her arms.

“Why?” She asks.

She didn't need to elaborate; she can see in his face he knows what she is referring to.

“Why not?” He replies.

“There are many young ladies out there you could have chosen but you choose me? Why?”

“I don't want them, I want you.”

Rowena blinks, surprised by his blunt response. Charlie drains the last of his wine and puts it down.

“The moment you arrived I felt…connected to you. There was something back there and I know you felt it too. When I shook your hand…”

He rubs circles on her skin with his thumb. A sensation, a spark goes through them like a current.

“Father Mayhew. It is a pleasure to welcome you into my Church.”

They remained like that. Holding each other's gaze. His hand clasped in hers.

Rowena, too stunned to speak, clears her throat and steps back pulling her hand away from him.

“Pleasure it is indeed Father”. She answers with a smile.

“I have never met anyone like you before.” He adds.

“Aye I could say the same about you.”

He smiles a little before his face turns serious again.

“You are beautiful.”

Rowena feels a rush of heat flood her cheeks. She smiles and replies.

“Well thank you.”

“It should be appreciated…greatly appreciated. The Lord took great care in making you.” She snorted at that causing him to frown. “Something funny?”

“Nothing. It's simple really my dear a splash of makeup and America's most popular brands of style. Genetics may have given me the head start but I mainly did the heavy work.” She twirls a strand of her locks and gives him a smug smile. “That's how you stay fabulous.”

“No.” He said firmly with a shake of his head. “Your beauty should not come from outward adornments, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”

Rowena frowns at him. Charlie looks briefly to the ceiling before placing his hand on his chest.

“The Lord looks at the heart.” He gestures towards her. “I saw you…the real not the mask you put on. God taught us to look inwards, appreciate the inner beauty, the spirit.” He then brings his hands together. “That was the connection I felt…our souls reaching out to each other. A song only we can hear.”

The witch laughs.

“Oh dear. The way you go on you are making me sound like those sweet wee girls. I am far from that. I think it is fair to say you have got this wrong Father.”

Maybe this was a mistake.

“Oh I'm not denying there are flaws.” His eyes flash, the intense stare is back at full force. I can see the imperfections that's what drew me to you in the first place.” He grins. “Perfect is boring. Yes the scent of sin is strong on you, it clings to your very bones but I see a good heart…but she won't open herself up to it.” Rowena goes to laugh again but stops as Charlie takes several steps towards her. “I can bring out that balance in you. The good and bad, restore order.”

Rowena shakes her head.

“Don't go all satanic cult on me. I'm not interested.”

“You were drawn to me.” Charlie asks. “Why?

Because I saw through you.

Like you saw through me.

I saw his darkness.

You saw the light I so desperately try to hide.

Reading her expression his lips tug upwards.

“Balance.” He repeats. “Opposite forces attract. You see it now?”

So much for a simple fuck.

She didn't expect the conversation to go this deep.

“Doesn't this go against what you believe in?” She asks. “You know no intimacy, adultery whatever you holy lot call it.”

“You are correct it is a sin, disobedience at its worst but I think you know I am a man plagued by sin. I am drowning in it.”

She grins.

“A rebel.”

He tilts his head.

“ If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves.” He quotes.

She raises an eyebrow.

“So you have done this before then?”.

The slow nod confirms it.

She sighs.

So much for corruption.

“But I am honest about it, I am not in denial like some others. The way I see it if you don't confront it head on those thoughts and feelings they will fester and risk straying you off your path to Him. So I do it, I sin and I repent afterwards.”

“Hopping into the confession booth every five minutes?” She teased.

Charlie steps back and starts to slowly remove his clothes.

“ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” He says.

He lets the clothes drop but his underwear stays on.

Rowena eyes his impressive muscles, biceps and abs. She nods with approval.

Very fit.

Her face then morphs into shock when he turns around.

On his back there are angry red lashes. Some are more new than others. They look sore and painful.

“Well?” He says.

Rowena gives him a ‘Seriously look’

“This is insane, you are bloody insane!”

Charlie turns back towards her and chuckles.

“Actually this is what keeps me sane. The others who choose to ignore their urges and desires end up going insane. My mind is clear…wait let me rephrase that… was clear…now you consume my thoughts.”

The sly grin he gives her causes another blush to rise up in her cheeks.

Rowena hasn't never met a man who has made her speechless like this.

Damm. Damm. Damm.

“I need to put it to rest now.”

“Ah.” Rowena raises her finger as Charlie goes towards her. “So I'm just a distraction huh? A quick shag then you will move on and act like nothing has happened.” She laughs the sound hollow and empty. “I bet you say all that nonsense to your escorts! ” She spits out the word like it is venom.

“Now you sound like a hypocrite.” He folds his arms. Rowena did her best to not look at his muscular arms. “Your intention is the same as mine? Am I wrong? You are here for I quote a quick shag .”

That word sounded wrong on the American tongue.

Rowena huffs feeling annoyed at being caught out like this.

“I meant what I said earlier.” He hisses at her. “You are unlike the others I have bedded with. They pass the time but they did not awaken such intense feelings within me. It goes beyond just lust.”

He places his hands on her shoulders and makes her look him in the eye. She does. His dark eyes stare at her, looking straight into her soul. Rowena did her best not to squirm under his gaze. She hates how vulnerable and exposed she is right now.

The witch curls her fingers, a chant on the tip of her tongue ready to come out.

Charlie’s hands go down her shoulders. He rests one hand on her chest. His face softens. Up close did Rowena notice a small scar along his forehead. Questions form in her mind but she does not voice them out loud.

“It is my mission to set you free.” Charlie says.

“I am free.”

“No you are not. You are afraid. Afraid to open up because if you do you will feel the pain, the hurt, the loss but also love.” Rowena swallows. Charlie slowly shakes his head. “You see all that as a weakness.”

He hit the nail right on the head. The reveal made Rowena silently gasp. She abruptly pulls away and glares at him.

“You know nothing about me!” She said angrily. “How dare you!”

“The defence is out and ready to attack. That's not healthy.”

“You bastard.”

“The scales have tipped. You are doing yourself no favors.”

He is back in her personal space again. His presence is overwhelming her. It feels like the air has been sucked out of the room. The tension has become so thick it is suffocating.

“Stay away or I will…”

“Shh!” His finger goes to her lips. Silencing her.

Rage flashes across her eyes.

“It is okay.” He assures her.

He rests his hand on her cheek. She allows him but the anger remains clear on her face.

“I just want to help you.”

“I don’t need your help.”

“We can help each other. They say humans bring out the worst in people but also they bring out the best in people. That’s what I want to do here. I want to bring out the best in you and for you to bring out the worst in me.”

The last part immediately causes those feelings to stir in her again. The temptation and the thrill.

“Balance.” He adds.

He loves that bloody word.

But Rowena couldn’t do this; she couldn’t let herself open up. Especially to be a bloody stranger.

“I can’t.” She says.

“You won’t.” He corrects her.

“It's better this way.”

Instead of pushing her away he pulls her in and wraps his arms around her.

“Is it really?” He replies with his voice low.

The words are stuck in her throat. Her face is pressed against his chest, her petite form is held in his strong arms. She should no…needs to push him away. The manipulating bastard!

He ducks his head and looks down at her. She looks away and blinks back the tears that are threatening to form.

She had to shut down that side of her for a reason.

Rowena was born into poverty. She started off with nothing. No money, no food. She had to work her way up in the world but every time she formed a connection, a relationship her life would then crumble.

Her Coven betrayed her, they bound her powers and they weakened her. She lost Oskar, a boy she became very fond of. In the end she had to kill him because she cared about him.

Fergus’ Father.

Rowena always said Fergus came from an orgy. A one night stand. That wasn’t true. She did once meet a man who became her first love. She loved him with all her heart and when she found out she was with child she believed they would run away together and start a family but that didn’t happen. Instead he chose to marry the woman his family picked for him. He abruptly broke things off with Rowena, treated her like she was nothing like their baby that was growing inside of her was also nothing just an inconvenience to him.

After he walked Rowena was left to pick up the pieces.

Due to her anger towards him and the situation he left her in she swore she would never love again. Love is a weakness.

So she decided to hate Fergus. Hate is easier because then he would never hurt her.

She never opened her heart since.

Father Mayhew strokes her back. He is very patient and she will give him that. He never once lost control; he never once raised his voice towards her. Despite the darkness that circles him, Rowena in a strange way felt calm around him. The anger she had moments again has eased and she allows the beating of heart to soothe her.

Several minutes later she takes a deep shaky breath.

“Rowena.” She forces the word out before she could change her mind.

She can feel his smile against her. He strokes her hair and hums.

“Good start.” He praises her. His smile widens. “Rowena.”

The way he said her name sent a shiver down her spine. She goes stiff in his embrace. The fire in her burns red hot now. He angles his head towards her. His hot breath hits her face causing her to bite back a groan.

Fuck!

“Are you religious Rowena?” He asks.

She barks a laugh at that.

“Absolutely not.”

“Yet here you are in His Church.”

She smiles.

“Well I have a confession to make…I do know Him.” She teases. “I am here to cleanse His place.”

A low chuckle comes from him.

“Call it a gift to His truly.” She adds. “I’m sure He will appreciate it.”

He raises an amused eyebrow at that.

“That so?” He says keeping the banter going between them. She nods.

“Hmm. Me and God you could say we are friends I think in another universe we could have been together.” She smirks. “But the poor man is very… very busy. I guess I'll have to make do with the next best thing…His servant.”

A sharp inhale comes from the Priest. Rowena pushes forward. Her lips linger over his. She can hear his heart beating wildly. She again smirks and traces her finger along his jaw.

“Such a handsome man He wouldn't want you to go to waste.” She purrs.

Feeling like herself again. Fully composed and in control. She locks her lips with his and kisses him.

Rowena pushes her tongue inside him and deepens the kiss. He responds just as eager. His tongue rolls along hers and his arms tighten around her. She bites down on his lip causing him to grunt which sends a wave of joy through her. She deserved to have some fun after what he just put her through.

To Rowena’s surprise Charlie pulls away and quickly picks her up. He turns and presses her against the wall. She gasps as his lips return to hers again. He grabs her arms and pins them above her head. When he goes back to catch his breath Rowena finds an entirely new person looking back at her.

No, not a person.

An animal.

A predator.

Cool calm Father Charlie Mayhew is gone.

“I want to bring out the best in you and for you to bring the worst out of me.”

“Take off your clothes.” He orders. His eyes wide and full of lust.

She grins.

“You forgot to say please.”

He comes forward. His lips are inches away from her ear.

“Please.” His voice barely a whisper.

She turns her head towards him and nods.

“I like a man with manners.”

With a snap of her fingers the clothes fall off her. He blinks, dazed. He frowns down at her.

“How did you…?”

She cups his face, forcing him to look up at her.

“A magician never reveals her secrets. Now…” His eyes blow wide as she slides her other hand down and brushes it against his manhood. “This certain part of His creation is waiting to fulfill its purpose.”

The confusion clears from his face. Forgetting about what just happened Charlie grabs her hands and pins them above her head again.

“Don’t move.” He says.

He kisses neck and all along her collarbone. He latches on to her earlobe and nibbles at it; he then drags his tongue down her chest towards her breasts. He wraps his lips around one nipple and sucks on it. His other hand goes to the other breast and he fondles it. He presses his hand hard into her causing the witch to curse. He eventually switches breasts and repeats the same process as before.

Rowena can see his cock straining against the fabric. Demanding to be touched.

She grins to herself.

Who needs hands?

Seconds later a gasp escaped his lips.

The phantom hand brushes against him and teases the corners of his underwear threatening to push them down. This causes him to press further into her.

Another brush.

The shock sends him digging his teeth into her skin. She is sure he has broken the skin but she doesn’t care. She is enjoying this.

“You fucking bitch.” He growls.

“That I am.” She replies with a husky voice. “Father.”

Another sharp inhale.

He is kissing her again. She meets him on one of those kisses and smirks.

“You do know… sorcery… black magic is a sin.” He says between the kisses.

Rowena lowers her head until it is touching against his.

“Forgive me Father for I have sinned.” She purrs.

A brush followed by a stroke along his length.

He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. Then he chuckles.

“You are doing your end of the bargain well I’ll give you that.” He opens his eyes and looks at her. “But…how far are you willing to go?”

“Care to elaborate?”

He leans forward and whispers something in her ear. Rowena’s eyes widen and her mouth hangs open.

“I never thought a Priest would know about that.”

“I am more educated than you give me credit for.” He smirks. “But for it to work you have to trust me.”

He gently makes her lower her arms. He rubs circles on her arms and waits for her to respond. She laughs.

“It's just sex.”

“No, it is more than that.” He replies. He goes back, his face is blank again. “I’m not doing it until I know there is trust between us, an understanding.”

“Oh come on.”

“Relationships are built on trust.” He states. “What I’m suggesting is big, it requires you to submit to me, to give in and trust that I will stop when you tell me to.

“I want to bring the best out of you.”

Rowena sighs heavily. She comes away from the wall and brings her hand up to his face.

He leans into her touch.

She bites her lip. She rarely becomes the sub she always wants to be in control. At least then she can run before things go too deep.

So she wouldn’t be at risk of getting hurt.

He is back to his patient self again. Stroking her hair and twirling the long red locks between his fingers.

“Your hair is so soft.” He says.

“Thank you.” She answers.

She meant that.

She comes up and kisses his lips. Soft and gentle this time. She could have sworn she can detect a hint of vulnerability and hope in his eyes. The hope that he can help her and chip away at the wall she has put around her heart.

Maybe the image he projects to his followers is genuine.

Light and dark.

“Balance.”

Another kiss before she slowly nods. A message she sends across to him loud and clear.

Yes but don’t make me say the words out loud.

That brings a real smile out of him this time.

For some reason seeing him like this causes a warm fuzzy feeling inside her. A strange sensation she hasn’t felt in a long time.

Rowena quickly dismisses it when Charlie orders her to lean over the desk. Out of the corner of her eye she sees him push his underwear down and kicks it across the room. He strolls over to her. She catches a quick glimpse of his dick.

He is huge!

“Hmm, Father you are truly blessed.”

“Keep looking straight ahead.” He says as he positions himself. Before she turns she notices the devilish smirk on his lips.

He is hot and he knows it.

Rowena always did love a man with confidence.

“The password?” He asks softly.

She sighs.

“Sunflower.”

He nods and runs his hands over her ass.

Rowena then gasps as he smacks her cheeks.

“You okay?” He asks.

He is not like the other men.

He won’t hurt you.

Rowena nods.

She can feel his cock pressing against her ass, teasing her entrance.

“You sure?” He asks. “If you are lying to me I will know and I will not be happy.”

“Really now?”

“I’ve been nothing but honest from the beginning so I expect the same from him.”

Despite his order Rowena turns her head and smirks at him.

“And if I don’t Father? Will I get punished?”

His eyes darken. He runs his tongue along his lips.

Rowena turns back round. Excitement bubbles inside her.

[fanficsfreeideas]

The night on the rooftop marked a pivotal moment

chapter 5

Alastor sat quietly, observing Charlie and Emily as they chatted animatedly. Their lively conversation and similar mannerisms made them appear almost like sisters, despite the lack of any real relation. Alastor found it fascinating to watch, noting the shared enthusiasm and thought processes between the two.

While he appreciated their company, he couldn't help but think about how he would have preferred being with Adam to discuss the hotel's future. Adam's steady presence and straightforward approach were more reassuring compared to the unpredictable influence of Lucifer, who had insisted on involving himself in their plans.

However, seeing Charlie so happy in Emily's company brought a sense of contentment. Emily, with her genuine sweetness and infectious energy, seemed to lighten the mood and spread joy wherever she went. Her presence had a calming effect on him, making him feel a rare sense of peace amidst the chaos of their usual routines.

As Alastor continued to watch them, he allowed himself to relax, appreciating the moment of tranquility. Charlie and Emily's laughter filled the room, and for a while, all worries about the hotel, Adam, and Lucifer faded into the background.

Charlie stopped talking and looked over at Al, her expression softening into a fond smile. "Aww," she whispered, catching Emily's attention. Emily turned to see what had prompted the reaction and saw that Alastor had fallen asleep.

Charlie leaned closer to Emily and whispered into her ear, "Al never sleeps out in the open, so he must feel safe with us."

Emily's eyes widened, and she gasped in joy. She was so happy, her heart swelling with emotion. Charlie had warned her ahead of time that Alastor could be a little difficult to deal with but reassured her that he was sweet underneath his prickly exterior.

"That's so wonderful," Emily whispered back, her voice filled with excitement. "I'm glad he feels comfortable with me."

Charlie nodded, her eyes warm with affection for Al. "Me too, Emily. Me too." They both sat quietly for a moment, watching over Al as he slept, feeling a profound sense of connection and peace in their little circle.

While Alastor slept and the two women talked, a meeting was taking place.

Sara maintained her composed demeanor, deeply engaged as Adam spoke passionately about his mate and his anticipation of fatherhood, expressing his dedication to raising their child. Sara found herself intrigued by this new dimension of Adam's character, revealing another side to him. She had only ever known him as rude and piggish, but seeing him great with kids made her think he would be a good father.

Amidst Sara's contemplation, Michael started laughing his ass off. "Wait, wait, so you ended up knocking up a sinner, Adam? That is fucking funny! And then Luci tried to take the sinner you knocked up away from you. Azrael, can you believe it?" Michael poked his brother on the side, laughing.

Azrael frowned, then slapped Michael 's hand away with a deadpan look. He turned to Adam. "You really impregnated a sinner?"

Adam glared at them. "Yeah, that's what I said. I mated with Alastor. It was a bond that was there; I knew I couldn't be without him. His my everything."

Azrael nodded his head and then said, "I believe you." He got up to leave the room. "My vote is with Adam. He is many things, but I can see he speaks the truth."

"Wait, brother, don't go! We're not done picking on Luci," Michael said.

Azrael looked back at his older brother and sighed. "Grow up." Then he shut the door.

Michael turned to Lucifer. "Well, Luci, you still got me. So, you actually watched Adam go at it and then tried to take his mate from him? Wow, little brother, going three for three. But for real, Luci, I think you've got an addiction with Adam, and you're into watching them. I never knew that about you, baby brother." Michael hugged Lucifer.

Lucifer pushed his brother off of him and said, "It was the only time. Well, that time in the kitchen, but Al doesn't let anyone in there but that was on them, not me."

Adam was growing red in the face. Michael's laughter only intensified at the growing tension in the room. Adam, still visibly angry, glared at Lucifer, whose attempt at nonchalance was crumbling under the weight of Michael 's amusement and Adam's accusatory gaze.

Lucifer struggled to find the right words to dispel the awkward atmosphere. "It's not what you think, Adam," he finally managed, his tone strained as he sought to salvage his dignity or whatever was left of it.

Adam's brows furrowed deeper. "Then what is it, Lucifer? Michael seems pretty convinced," he retorted sharply, feeling a mix of confusion and anger. What the fuck is up with Lucifer taking from him and this new fucking deal with watching him have sex with his mate?

Michael, now composing himself after his fit of laughter, interjected with a mischievous grin, "Come on, Adam. You know Luci always has his ways of... observing things."

When Michael's implications about watching and interference emerged, Sara intervened cautiously, her tone measured yet direct. "Michael, what are you implying?" she inquired, seeking clarity amidst the mounting tension. Before Michael could respond, Adam started yelling about how Lucifer had watched him have sex with his mate and then tried to steal him, and it turned out the little perv had been taking random glances here and there.

"Hmm, so Little Lucifer has a penchant for voyeurism?" Sara remarked, her words landing heavily in the room. Adam visibly blushed, struggling to process Sara's unexpected observation. Lucifer looked away under Sara's scrutiny, his embarrassment evident on flushed cheeks.

Attempting to lighten the mood, Michael interjected with a mischievous grin, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. "Oh come on, Luci. Don't be so shy about your hobbies!" he said, hugging his brother.

Recognizing the impact of her words, Sara swiftly moved to defuse the mounting tension. "I apologize for my remark," she stated sincerely, addressing both Adam and Lucifer. "Let's refocus on our agenda," she continued, her voice firm yet reassuring.

Adam stared hatefully at Lucifer, and Lucifer avoided his gaze. Why had he told Charlie he would handle this while she had fun with her friend? He was getting bullied and didn't have a hobby in watching others.

Despite the awkward moment, Sara's trust in Adam's character remained steadfast. She discerned the sincerity in his claim of a deep bond with the sinner, tempering her initial surprise and prompting her to delve deeper into Adam's plans for Extermination and his role with Charlie's hotel. Observing Adam with a new perspective, Sara contemplated the depth of his transformation and the significance of his connection with the sinner. She honestly couldn't wait to meet the little sinner. Adam had blocked him from her view and then placed him in the room with Emily and Charlie. She just wished Charlie was the one here instead of her father; at least nothing got broken this time.

Adam came running out of the meeting when he bumped into Lute. She nodded, acknowledging that she had been asked to step into his role in his absence. Though unsure about how to handle this change or the idea of Adam being out of her life, she was happy for him.

Adam grinned down at her. "Hey, sugar tits, want to meet my mate? Come along."

"You want me to meet him?" Lute asked, surprised.

"Yeah, Lute. You're my best, and I trust you won't try anything with him," Adam replied.

"Yes, sir," Lute said, grinning. She was excited; so far, only Emily had met Adam's mate. Not even Sara had seen him yet.

"So, sir, how did the meeting go?" Lute asked as they walked.

Adam frowned, then started yelling, "That bitch Lucifer has a thing with watching me have sex since Eden!"

"Eh, sir, that's not what I meant, but for real?" Lute asked, trying to hide her laughter.

Adam sighed. "It's true."

Lute started to laugh. "What's so funny, sugar tits?"

Lute then said, "Then does that mean Lucifer must have a thing for you or something?"

Adam made a puking sound. "Gross, Lute. So, did you get what you want?"

"Yeah, get ready for next year 'cause there are going to be a whole new set of fun and games," Adam replied.

"The hotel?" Lute added.

Adam laughed. "You and I both know it will not work, but it will still be fun to watch them fail."

They stopped at a door. "Get ready to meet my wonderful mate, Lute."

Lute smiled. "Ready, sir."

They walked in, and Lute looked around to see a sleeping deer demon in the chair, cuddled up with a pillow and covered with a blanket. "Okay, cute," she thought. Adam ran over, picked him up, and sat down, placing Alastor in his lap.

Charlie and Emily stopped to look. Charlie was used to Adam holding Alastor like that all the time. Emily gasped, overwhelmed by the cuteness. She grabbed Charlie's hands and giggled. "Does this happen all the time?"

Charlie smiled. "Yes, it does."

Adam rolled his eyes and rubbed Alastor's ear, gently saying, "It's time to wake up, Sleeping Beauty."

Alastor rubbed his face against Adam's hand, slowly opened his eyes, and crawled forward to hug his mate, forgetting about Charlie and Emily.

Lute just stood there, thinking, "Wow." She then turned her head away when Adam and his mate started kissing. "Should she leave the room?" she wondered.

Adam patted Alastor's head and laughed. "Hey, Lute, meet my mate." Alastor cuddled up in Adam's lap with his wings wrapped around him.

Lute raised an eyebrow. "Sir, I thought you trusted me."

"I do, sugar tits, but my little mate likes me covering him up," Adam explained.

Lute walked over to them. Alastor popped his head out and said, "Hello, darling. Pleasure to meet you," while sticking a hand out for a handshake.

She started to laugh. She hated sinners, but this one was different. "Sure, nice to meet you, sinner."

Alastor's smile widened. "So, how many sinners have you killed?"

Charlie and Emily gasped. "Al, can you not bring such things up?"

Lute really liked this sinner now. She grabbed a chair, moved it over, and smirked at Charlie before starting to talk numbers with Alastor. Adam enjoyed the discomfort of discussing killing sinners. His little mate also enjoyed killing those who did evil acts. He was just upset that he couldn't partake in the fun.

Adam sat back, enjoying hearing the only two people he cared for talking. Then his peace was ruined by Lucifer and his brother. "Char Char, I want you to meet your uncle," Lucifer started, but he was pushed out of the way by Michael.

"Oh my, is this my little niece? I've only ever seen pictures of you. The others are going to be so mad I got to see you first," Michael exclaimed, running over and picking Charlie up, hugging her tightly.

Charlie was gasping for air. Adam was about to say something when the sound of radio static was heard, and Alastor leaped from his arms, grabbed Charlie from Michael's grasp, and said, "My dear gentleman, don't touch what is not yours." He then walked back with Charlie in his arms, set her by Lute, and got back into Adam's lap while growling at Michael.

Lucifer, still lying on the floor, started to laugh. "Hey, big brother, did the little sinner scare you?"

Michael laughed. "No, he didn't. It was honestly cute, Adam. You didn't say he was already showing signs of being a mother hen."

"Fuck you, Michael," Adam retorted.

Sara walked in. "Adam, no swearing. Michael, what did you do this time?"

Michael looked hurt. "I did nothing. I only tried to hug my niece."

Sara sighed. "Charlie, did he nearly choke you to death? His hugs can be deadly."

"Hey!" Michael yelled.

Sara walked towards Adam and his mate, paying no mind to anyone else in the room. She knelt down to get a good look at the sinner. She gasped, the sinner looks like his mother. "such a sweet woman, always wearing a smile always telling her about her son back when she was alive. Should she tell him?" Sara wondered, deciding to wait.

She smiled down at him. "So, sinner, how are you feeling? Is there anything I can get you while you're up here?"

Alastor moved underneath Adam's wings, hiding. Sara could only see his ears. Did she do something wrong? She turned her head to the side. Emily took her sister's hand and said, "Don't worry, he's just prickly." he got to warm up too you.

Alastor then whispered, "I'm fine, just being with Adam. But can you kick out the dumb and dumber?"

Lucifer and Michael pointed at each other and asked, "Which one is which?"

Sara said, "Both of you leave. Honestly, the Morningstar family is childish, except for Azrael. But since he deals with death, there's no need for him to act childish. At least Lucifer's daughter escaped that curse."

"Okay, sinner, they are gone. They are very annoying, but you are lucky you only have to deal with Lucifer. I'm stuck with the rest of his brothers and sister."

Alastor poked his head out. "They are a curse."

Sara grinned. "They truly are."

Alastor added, "The only good thing that came from the king was Charlie. She's such a good girl."

Charlie smiled. Since Alastor had gotten pregnant, he had been mothering her non-stop, along with Niffty. He had even tried to mother Vaggie, but she now tried to hide from him. Even Angel was getting mothered by him, being told to eat more. The only one not getting Al's love was Husk. When asked why, Husk laughed and said, "I'm older than the boss." He then rolled his eyes and added, "Just let him be. He's feeling many new emotions, so it will stop once the fawn gets here. Then all his love and affection will be for it. None of you will have to deal with his need to take care of you anymore."

Charlie's smile faltered for a moment. She hoped Al wouldn't stop caring about her, even after the fawn arrived.

[ananxiousgenz]

I HAVE AWOKEN. ITS REVIEW TIME BABY

my legit reaction to this opening was "oh yay, Jay posted more to read!! ................*GAAAAAAASP* EEVEE?????"

not the fucking ai 💀💀💀

oooo she's a lil bit spicy and sarcastic I like her already

ohhh that's right she was working when everything with peter happened damn that's rough

me 🤝 baird: being indifferent to our fathers post divorce, I know how you feel king

oh yeah I didn't even think about how confusing that must have been like this random kid gets branded as a revolutionary but he's not actually involved in the revolution so the actual revolutionaries are like "well he's not ours so who's is he??"

cyrus and baird are her brahma cyrus and baird are her brahma cYRUS AND BAIRD ARE HER BRAHMA-

I can see why they divorced they seem better off as friends tbh

cyrus and eevee bestie RIGHTS

"we attended Book Club" I can only imagine her saying this in the deepest tones of sarcasm

I love the books being used as an allegory for everything that happened with peter, he IS the main character that's so true of them

the cyrus/eve dynamic is really and truly fascinating to me like they were married and now they're divorced but they don't hate each other and they're just like chill friends

BAIRD AND CHARLIE SLEEPING TOGETHER AWWWWWWWW MY BABIES (on a real note tho, the naps you take while cuddling with your partner hit different tbh like I've never fallen asleep faster or harder in my life)

"We are a proper family. Mom who works too hard, dad who left to get milk and never came back– see? Proper family." CYRUS MAN THAT YOU ARE-

OH SHIT ITS THE COPS

no. no no no no no. you cannot sit here and fucking tell me that baird started doing the "this week on brahma" thing bc he heard his mom doing it first and he wanted to keep doing it in her honor. fuck you. I feel like I've been stabbed.

is it weird that I'm happy that no one remembers who the fuck mag is?

god. it's weird to think that peter was literally only a few years younger than me when all this bullshit went down

"children's games used to be much less violent" ma'am I hate to inform you of this but that is just how boy children work they beat each other up and call it a game

its the "BAIRD (FUTURE REVOLUTIONARY):" for me..........

NOOOOOO DONT TELL ME BAIRD STARTED SINGING BECAUSE OF HIS MOM TOO YOURE KILLING ME HERE JAY

YOOOOO YOU ORGANIZE THAT LABOR STRIKE QUEEN!!! GO UNIONIZE!!!!!

eevee seems like such a good mom it's no wonder baird missed her so much

FUUUUUUUUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK NOT HER TELLING BAIRD ABOUT PETER LIKE ITS A BEDTIME STORY OH MY FUCKING GODDDDD THAT HITS SO HARD BUT SO GOOD

"'And what is history but a story we have to learn from?'" eevee you are so fucking real for this queen

more song for me to sing........mwuahahahaha >:) (I might have to slightly edit the lyrics for rhythm purposes bc I think this will have a similar melody/timing to charlie's lament just in a happier key but other than that this is great)

no. no. no wait. THIS IS THE NIGHT EEVEE DISAPPEARED ISNT IT. THATS WHEN THIS RECORDING IS FROM. THIS IS THE LAST NIGHT BAIRD EVER SAW HER. HOLY SHIT

me and baird are just basically the same person at this point like I too ask too many questions when the vibes are off for me, I too say "love you to the moon(s) and back" to my mom, I too sing my silly little songs all the time

I love reading calypso's notes at the end bc it's just like seeing what we both picked up on

FUCKIN DARK MATTERS

what happened to calypso's mom?

UGH there was so much juicy stuff here this was good eats my friend <3 its a 20/10 from me

Our Angel of Brahma, pt. ix

Travelers. Friends. Mutuals. @ceaseless-watchers-special-girl @ananxiousgenz @the-private-eye @demonic-panini @gwenlena

SOUND: COMMS BEEPS. RECORDING BEGINS. MOTHERLY VOICE: I finally got a moment to myself thanks to Eber and Camilla… Thank the Goddess… I don’t know what I would be doing without them. (THE PERSON SIGHS) Where do I begin? I guess… my name would be a good start.  (CLEARING THEIR THROAT) My name is Eevee Bell, and I am one of three to four dozen Dome Wardens on Brahma. Our duty is to perform routine maintenance on the planet’s Dome, track incoming and outgoing shuttles and ships, and monitor Brahma’s severe weather outside the Dome. I love my job. I think I do my job very well. From what I’ve heard about other planets, they have robotics and computers to do this job now. Artificial intelligence that the Solar Planets spent a fortune to perfect. Of course just like with everything else though, Brahma gets left behind in the dust. (EEVEE CHUCKLES UNDER HER BREATH) EEVEE: Goddess bless our savior New Kinshasa. (EEVEE LAUGHS A BIT HARSHER) EEVEE: What happened to us though has been brewing under their noses for some time now. I guess it was only a matter of time before… something was done.  To be honest I’m still not entirely sure what did happen. I know that our alarms went off when the Reactor Core was removed, and I know they stopped going off when the Core was put back. I know that the Chief Constable called all of our stations, and ordered us to go home. I know that we have not gone back to our stations for nearly ten days. I know that if we don’t accept any imports within the next seven days Brahma will begin to suffer. And if we fall, New Kinshasa falls with us.  Cyrus called me while I was rushing to get home to Baird. He asked me how much I knew and after I told him, I asked how much he knew. He said it would be better if he came to speak to me in person. He lives across town with Iris. I told him it wouldn’t be wise to meet up so late, especially with a curfew in place. He disagreed, but I talked enough sense into him that he waited until morning to catch a tram over here to the apartments.  Baird was not enthused to see him. He was rather… indifferent, actually. I know it hurt Cyrus’ feelings, I do plan on talking about it with Baird when I can, but it’s so hard to talk about anything seriously right now. I’d rather keep things as light-hearted as possible.  I sent Baird over to Camilla and Eber’s apartment while I had tea with Cyrus. He looked so worried. He asked me if I saw the Chief Constable’s broadcast about the Revolutionary, Peter Nureyev. I have. I watched it with Baird the night before after I got home from my post. Cyrus said that he doesn’t know of any Peter Nureyevs in any of his revolution circles.  He surprised me by asking me for my thoughts about the Constable they allegedly found murdered by the Revolutionary. I didn’t at the time, and I still don’t now. Cyrus said that he has reason to believe that part was a lie. He doesn’t believe the Revolutionary killed a Constable. He thinks it might be an elaborate lie or cover-up for some more vain truth. (EEVEE INHALES SHARPLY) The revolutionaries are holding a meeting tonight. Cyrus invited me to come. He wants me there. I don’t want to get in trouble, but… I need to keep Cyrus and Baird safe. And by extension, it’s my job to keep Brahma safe.  SOUND: COMMS BEEPS. RECORDING ENDS.

SOUND: COMMS BEEPS AGAIN. NEW RECORDING BEGINS: EEVEE:  What the fuck! NEW VOICE:  What are you doing? EEVEE:  What am I doing I’m recording you idiot! Cyrus, don’t you see? If what was discussed tonight has any truth to it, New Kinshasa isn’t going to let any of this get out. More than– I bet you my next paycheck that Dark Matters is going to play a role in covering it all up! (CYRUS TRIES TO SHUSH EEVEE) CYRUS:  Alright, alright– you have a point. Keep your voice down alright the streets have ears… You really hope your little comms though is going to play a role in– This? EEVEE: Mark my word, I think my little comms will outlive both of us. If Baird’s lucky it will outlive them.  (CYRUS GROANS. EEVEE GIGGLES) Okay, okay… I attended the meeting– CYRUS: The book club. We went to a late-night book club meeting. What? Don’t give me that look. Plausible deniability, Eve. EEVEE:  Right. The Book Club. We attended Book Club and talked about the climax of a war story. In the story, the main character kills a man with radical ideas to overthrow their government. The man he killed was not popular amongst the rebels. In theory, they should have agreed with him. CYRUS: In practice, however, the rebels do not condone murdering hundreds of thousands of people. Thus the whole unpopular amongst the rebels.  EEVEE:  Of course, word got out about the man’s death, and to cover it up, the government claimed him as an Enforcer. And they were getting away with it because the last clothes the man was found in was a stolen Enforcer uniform.  I don’t know if I believe the rebel or the government’s of the story– CYRUS: Eve– EEVEE: But! But. But I do believe that it was the right call for the rebels to sit back and wait for information to trickle out to them slowly… I think I’ll need to attend the next meeting to really make sure I understand what I’m getting myself into. Oh– I’m so tired. Can we discuss all this in the morning? With hopefully less ears listening in? (CYRUS HUMS AFFIRMATIVELY) CYRUS: I’ll even let you sleep in if you let me crash on your couch.  EEVEE: Of course, I wouldn’t make you walk across town while already breaking our curfew.  CYRUS: Thanks, Eve.  (LONG PAUSE) Baird’s not going to be mad to see me, is he? EEVEE: This late at night? I doubt it. If anything he’s staying over at that Spade’s apartment probably fast asleep with Charlie. Oh, they’re so sweet together. I went to say good night to them one evening and I couldn’t kiss Baird’s head because Charlie had a death grip on his shoulders. He's always polite and entertains all of Baird’s whims… I wish you were around more to see it happen. CYRUS:  You and I both know why that can’t happen.  (BOTH OF THEM SIGH) EEVEE: You know he’s only so pouty around you because you and I split up, right? He just wants us all together again. Like a proper family. CYRUS: We are a proper family. Mom who works too hard, dad who left to get milk and never came back– see? Proper family. (EEVEE LAUGHS CAUSING CYRUS TO LAUGH) UNFAMILIAR VOICE: Hey, state your business and show your credentials. CYRUS: Shit, Constables. Run Eve! SOUND: COMMS BEEPS. RECORDING ENDS. 

SOUND: COMMS BEEPS AGAIN. RECORDING BEGINS.  (EEVEE WHISPERS) EEVEE: Cyrus and I got away from the Constables last week perfectly fine. This week on Brahma: we went to another revolution meeting. A few old timers took roll call and one of them said he had reason to believe that the person the Angel of Brahma killed was one of theirs. A man who wasn’t the least bit popular in any particular revolutionary circle. Apparently, he wanted to drop New Kinshasa out of the sky and saw it perfectly fit to kill all of Brahma in the process.  (EEVEE SCOFFS) The nerve of some people. No one at the meeting could remember his name though, and no one still knows who Peter Nureyev is outside of the photos projected on every billboard on the planet now. He looks so young. Those dark and haunting eyes and sharp teeth. I find it hard to believe that he’s just a teenager. But– he is.  I’m trying to keep my voice down right now because Baird is asleep. The meeting was held before curfew this time so Cyrus went home to Iris and I walked alone back to the apartment. Eber was waiting for me just outside and before I could say hello he was dragging me down the halls to Hank’s apartment. His dog Missy was sprawled out on the sofa but Hank, Camilla, and Josie were all gathered around the dinner table. Mrs. Darius was upstairs with Talia, Charlie, and Baird. I sat down and told them everything I could.  The revolutionaries wouldn’t let me record anything with my comms during the meeting, but there wasn’t much that I think needed to be recorded. Just talk about who was storing what, who was leaving their doors open to help others. There was a lot of talk about going on strike. Either food or labor. They want to send a message to New Kinshasa. I don’t think I can afford to do much of anything. Me and the other Dome Wardens just went back to work two days ago, we are working through a backlog of off-planet imports and exports still. If I strike alone I’ll just be fired. If all the Wardens strike, then the Constables will take over and that will lead to certain catastrophe. And if I stop eating then Baird will stop eating and he’s already so… short.  Oh– I wish I got a chance to talk to Cyrus before we went our separate ways. He’d help me think of some way I can help. Better yet, he’d probably be able to give the others here at the apartments the answers they wanted from me. Hank didn’t say anything other than telling us to get out. Eber, Camilla, Josie, and I were silent on the walk upstairs. The kids were delighted to see us. Eber walked Talia back down to Hank, Josie was trying to fill in Mrs. Darius, and Camilla and I watched the boys play some sort of game where they kept pinching each other and trying to not shriek? I think that was the objective? Children’s games used to be much less violent when I was that age. I remember when– BAIRD (FUTURE REVOLUTIONARY): Memma? EEVEE: Bairdy! What are you doing awake? BAIRD (FUTURE REVOLUTIONARY): I couldn’t sleep. You were being too loud.  (EEVEE TSKS) EEVEE: Then let’s put you back to bed alright baby? C’mon. I’ll even sing for you if you’d like.  SOUND: COMMS BEEPS. RECORDING ENDS.

SOUND: COMMS BEEPS AGAIN. NEW RECORDING BEGINS. EEVEE: I have either made the best decision of the revolution that will turn the tides in favor of Brahma, or the worst mistake of my life.  I told the old-timers at this past meeting that I work as a Dome Warden, and that a few of my colleagues seemed interested in joining the rebellion but were uncertain on how to go about it. The old-timers were delighted for a number of reasons and had drawn the same conclusion that I had a few weeks ago when a labor strike was first brought up. They think it would be very good if I was able to get some of the other Wardens on board with the revolution.  Cyrus was very quiet during the meeting. I asked him before we left if he had any opinions he was holding back, and all he said was to trust my gut. So… I trusted my gut. I told the other Wardens at my post about the meetings. I told them about going on strike. A few seemed skeptical. Others wanted to know when the next meeting was. I’m going to contact Cyrus and get him to help me get the others to the next meeting.  I hope… this wasn’t a mistake. I guess time will only tell. SOUND: COMMS BEEPS. RECORDING ENDS.

SOUND: COMMS BEEPS AGAIN. NEW RECORDING BEGINS. EEVEE: –you turned it on. Good job, baby. BAIRD (FUTURE REVOLUTIONARY): Mom, why are you showing me how to use your comms? Is something going to happen to us? Is something bad going to happen to you?  EEVEE: What? Oh no, baby. Nothing is going to happen to me. I just think you would find more use out of my comms than I would. Look, since you got it to record you can start recording all those little songs you like to sing. Or maybe you can get Charlie to record a story for you.  BAIRD (FUTURE REVOLUTIONARY): But Mom, I like your singing and your stories more. Will you sing for me? And tell me a story tonight? EEVEE: Absolutely not. You get one or the other. Take your pick. And whatever you don’t choose, you have to give to me.  (BAIRD POUTS) BAIRD (FUTURE REVOLUTIONARY): Fine… I want a story from you, and then I’ll give you a song. EEVEE:  Good choice, Bairdy. What kind of story would you like? (BAIRD HUMS) BAIRD (FUTURE REVOLUTIONARY): I want a story about Brahma.  EEVEE: A story about Brahma? Well… there once was a boy born on Brahma with nothing. Not even a name. He grew up just like everyone else, hungry for more. More food, more freedom, more time. The boy followed a man who dreamed of dropping the New Kinshasa on top of the planet.  The boy was very tired. Tired of being poor, tired of being hungry, tired of being alone. But he knew, that if he let that man drop New Kinshasa out of the sky, he would never be able to forgive himself. Brahma is his home. He looked down at Brahma from up high, and saw them: his people.  Starving young faces just like his looked up to the sky and stared back at the city as it trembled. The boy had the power at his fingertips to stop a tragedy.  This is it. The people thought. This is how we go out. Not with the big bang, but crushed under the heel of our jailor.  The boy heard their thoughts. He felt a rush of adrenaline and stopped the man from getting away. The city of New Kinshasa never fell out of the sky that day. The people were ordered to retreat to their homes. But that evening, everyone heard about the great threat against the Guardian Angel System. And everyone learned the name Peter Nureyev. And for the first time in the last half-century, hope bloomed on Brahma. The Boy, The Legend, The Angel of Brahma.  BAIRD (FUTURE REVOLUTIONARY): That’s not a story Memma, that’s history.  EEVEE: And what is history but a story we have to learn from? Now, I believe you owe me a song. (BAIRD GROANS AND HUFFS) BAIRD (FUTURE REVOLUTIONARY): Fine… (BAIRD TAKES A DEEP BREATH AND HUMS. THE SOUND GETS CLEARER LIKE HE’S BROUGHT THE COMMS CLOSER) My angel, I must ask you keep singing for me.  How sweet your tune, like a songbird at noon.  What a lovely trill, it makes me feel ill. O’ My heart overflows, I could never let go.  Like chimes in the wind, it must be destined.  I’ll find my way home, with your voice I’ll never be alone. Happy? (EEVEE SNIFFLES) EEVEE: Very. Thank you, Baird. That was beautiful.  (FABRIC RUSTLES, BOTH BAIRD AND EEVEE HUM) Promise me you’ll never stop singing baby. BAIRD (FUTURE REVOLUTIONARY): Of course, Memma. I don’t think I could even if I tried.  EEVEE: Good. Now– (EEVEE PRESSES A KISS TO BAIRD’S HEAD) Get some sleep. Okay? We have a long day tomorrow. And Bairdy? BAIRD (FUTURE REVOLUTIONARY): Yes, Mom? EEVEE: You know that I love you, right? BAIRD (FUTURE REVOLUTIONARY): To the moons and back, yeah… Mom you promised nothing bad was going to happen to you.  EEVEE:  And nothing will. Good night, Baird.  BAIRD (FUTURE REVOLUTIONARY): Night Mom.  SOUND: DOOR CLOSING. BAIRD (FUTURE REVOLUTIONARY): Which button was it to end the recording? Was it this o– SOUND: COMMS BEEPS. RECORDING ENDS. 

- EEVEE BELL. BAIRD BELL. must contact Frannie’s friend about both of those names. - Dome Wardens are indeed an old, out of date job. Eve is right, they’ve been replaced with robots. It’s actually kinda scary how right she was about things. About that, about Dark Matters probably covering everything up with New Kinshasa. - Cyrus and Eve sound so fun together. I can see why they got married and had a kid together. - Bairdy and Memma… right up there with Charls and Dearest. - Oh Baird, he was 12 when these recordings were made. 12. Just almost a teenager, not quite. Almost too old to be called a baby. - Eve loved Baird so much. She reminds me of my mother a bit. And she knew exactly what she was doing tucking Baird into bed that final time. There’s no doubt in my mind this is the last recording with her in it. She was taken away after this and never came back. The Dome Wardens did go on strike at some point according to Baird in other recordings, so did someone snitch to a Constable? Did she the Constable that almost caught her and Cyrus track her down? - I think that’s the most frustrating part of my job. No matter how much I dig and research, there are some things that will be lost to me forever.

[norahastuff]

penny for your thoughts on salmondean codependency ?

Sure. Fair warning it’s long (was longer but I stopped myself.)

I think it’s complicated in a show that’s had so many different showrunners because they’ve all handled Sam and Dean’s relationship very differently. In Kripke’s era (s1-5) there was a romanticization of the bond. Sure there was a lot of in-depth exploration of how they wound up at the place they were at, spoiler alert: it was all because of John and his obsessive crusade to find the demon that killed his wife. That’s all he cared about and as a result, Sam and Dean had to be everything to each other. But Kripke had no intention of dismantling that at any point because he was (and always had been) writing a tragedy. Gamble continued that too. There was no room for anyone else in their lives and it would always just be the two of them against the world. So Cas had to go. Bobby had to go.

(Actually, it's funny because Gamble didn't intend this at the time, her plan was to kill Cas off, but by Edlund creating the masterpiece that is The Man Who Would Be King, he not only saved Cas from being seen as a villain, but he also deepened Dean and Cas' relationship in such a profound way and inextricably linked the two of them emotionally. And since Cas was eventually brought back, that laid the foundation for a lot of what their relationship would become.)

Up until this point, there hadn’t really been any significant dismantling of perhaps the more unhealthy parts of Sam and Dean’s relationship. Enter Carver. He stripped things down and started to explore what drove these characters. What they wanted and why they couldn’t have it. It starts with Dean being mad at Sam for not looking for him in purgatory, which sets up the whole speech in the s8 finale of Sam’s guilt about letting Dean down, but the thing is, Dean was never honest with Sam about his year away either. He never told Sam he could have gotten out much sooner if he hadn’t stayed to find Cas. I mean Dean had assumed Sam was up there alone doing God knows what to try to bring him back, and yet still he stayed in Purgatory because things were clear there. He needed Cas. Anyway, I just find that interesting, but Cas isn’t a victim of Sam and Dean’s relationship in s8.

Who gets the honour of being cast aside? That would be Benny and Amelia, two characters they introduced in s8 specifically to highlight that Sam and Dean’s relationship doesn’t allow for anyone else to be a significant part of their life. I mean that’s nothing new, we’ve watched that happen many times before. Lisa even said as much to Dean. The thing is this time? It’s framed as a truly sad thing. That moment at the end of 8x10 when Dean has just ended things with Benny and Sam leaves Amelia, and they’re sitting alone drinking beer and watching tv is such a hollow empty moment. This is not what they want. But it’s the way things have to be.

I’m actually fascinated by Sam and Dean’s conversation in the church in the s8 finale. Not so much Dean’s assertion that there is no one else he would put before Sam, but more so what provokes it, which is Sam saying “who are you going to turn to instead of me. Another angel? Another vampire?” See the thing is Dean saying he would always put Sam first is not news. We know this and it’s not really an unhealthy statement in itself either. A lot of people would put their sibling above anything else, not less a sibling who you raised and is the most important person to you. But in this context? After what Sam said? It just highlights how unhealthy they are if Sam believes that Dean having other people in his life means he doesn’t love him enough. That he’s a disappointment to him. That’s so profoundly fucked up.

(Note, Dean tells Sam that he killed Benny for him but he doesn’t say anything about Cas. I think like I said before, this is because Cas and Dean’s relationship has largely existed out of the Sam and Dean stuff up to this point - Sam and Cas don’t even really have much of a relationship yet besides both of their connections to Dean.)

And then from here, things start getting steadily worse. But we also keep being shown how bad they are. Dean lying to Sam, taking away his free will by letting Gadreel possess him. Dean sending Cas away, Kevin dying. It’s all awful. The whole “there ain’t no me if there ain’t no you line” from 9x01 isn’t really said by Dean, it’s Gadreel, but that is how Dean feels. He does think that’s all he’s good for. And over the season we’re shown how much of himself and what he truly wants he’s had to give up because of his ingrained “Save Sammy” and “Sammy comes first” mentality. It’s always been this way for him. In 9x07 we see that he had found a happy home, a good father figure, and his first love, a first love might I add that he had to leave behind with no real explanation because Sam needed him, and Sam comes first.

I mean just one episode earlier we had him rushing out the door elated about seeing Cas and spending time with him, only for their time together to come to sad and melancholic end when Dean once again leaves Cas behind without any real explanation, because despite what he wants Sammy comes first. What he wants doesn’t matter.

See I think after the Gadreel stuff comes out is where the narrative starts to get a little wonky for me. You can clearly see that this was intended to be a shorter story that they ended up stretching out to a much longer one because of renewals. There’s also the fact that this is a formula show so they can’t necessarily be separated for longer than an episode or two. S10 is a rough one to get through at times, I think the themes still mostly hold up but it’s a rough one to get through.

S10 highlights all the connections that Dean has, Cas, Charlie, Crowley even, but Sam doesn’t really have those bonds in the same way.  For Sam it’s just Dean, so he goes down a reckless destructive “do anything to save Dean!” path and so many innocents pay the price, and ultimately with the release of The Darkness, the whole world.

They skirted right up to the edge of exploring just how toxic and dangerous their relationship had become in the season 10 finale.

DEAN: I let Rudy die. How was that not evil? I know what I am, Sam. But who were you when you drove that man to sell his soul... Or when you bullied Charlie into getting herself killed? And to what end? A..a good end? A just end? To remove the Mark no matter what the consequences? Sam, how is that not evil? I have this thing on my arm, and you're willing to let the Darkness into the world.

I can’t say evil is the right word, they were never evil, but they were wilfully blind to everything and everyone else when it came to saving each other. S10 tested my love for the show because after watching it, because there was certainly a feeling that the two of them had become the villains of this story. And don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have a problem with that, it’s just after 2 seasons of this I can’t say I had a lot of faith that this was going to be properly addressed or if we were going to keep going in circles around it. Keep being shown, it’s bad and then nothing much being done to fix it. Your mileage may vary on how it was handled, but I think s11 did a relatively ok job considering it wasn’t the end of the story, and the show needed to keep going.

See from Dean’s side a lot of the codependency rests on 1. His father’s orders to always save Sammy 2. His low self-esteem where he sees himself as nothing but a blunt instrument. 3. His guilt at not being able to perfectly fulfil every familial role in Sam’s life 4. His belief that no one could choose to love him but family has to love you. 5. The unhealthy example of what it should look like to love someone that he got from John. You give up everything but them.

For Sam (and honestly it’s not as clear for me as Dean’s side is so feel free to correct me/disagree on this) 1. Everytime he’s tried to leave and create his own life it’s never ended well. 2. His guilt over wanting freedom and a normal life when he was younger (I’m referring specifically to Stanford era here) 3. His guilt over everything Dean has given up for him. 4. John. 5. Jess.

Ultimately it all comes down to isolation. They both had to be everything to each other, and the deeper they got into this fight, the more people that they lost, the tighter they clung to this notion of family and brothers. I think s11 (and 11x23 in particular) was an important turning point, both for Sam and Dean’s relationship, as well as for them as individuals. Because they weren’t alone there anymore. Cas was there. Sam let Dean walk to his death. Of course, it would devastate him, but he knew it was what had to be done. And he didn’t walk out of that bar and go back to the bunker alone. He had Cas, he had someone who cared about him and wanted to help him and talk to him. Sure Dean asked Cas to take care of Sam for him (you know after Cas offered to walk to his death with him) but Sam let him. He let him be there for him. We didn’t get to see much before the BMOL showed up and blasted Cas away, but still, we saw enough.

I think that’s a significant difference to note why their relationship was different in the Dabb era. It wasn’t just them anymore. Cas was an important member of their family and given a level of importance he’d never been given before and couldn’t have been when the story they were telling was of the dangers of their codependency. Mary was back. Eventually, Jack would become a part of their unit too. Just the two of them wasn’t enough for them anymore. This is made abundantly clear with all of Dean’s desperate attempts to get Cas to stay in s12, followed by his inability to keep going when they lose Cas and Mary in s13. Similarly, Sam really struggles when they lose Jack and fail to get Mary back later in the season.

Another big moment is Dean letting Sam go alone to lead the hunters against the BMOL in 12x22 while he stays back to try and reach Mary. Like he tells Mary, he’s had to be a brother, a father and a mother to Sam and he never stopped seeing him as his kid, but in that moment he makes a choice. He lets Sam take charge and he shows that he trusts him and believes in him. He knows he can handle it.

Sometimes it’s not even a character growth thing. Sometimes having other people there stops you from making destructive choices even though that’s still your first instinct. I’m thinking specifically of 13x21 after Sam was killed. Dean would have run headlong into that nest of vampires and got himself torn apart, but Cas was there to stop him. He was able to make him see reason.

Basically, I think that for a long time, they thought the only relationship they could have was each other, which then became a self-fulfilling prophecy because their desperate attempts to keep each other around led to them losing the people around them. They eventually started to learn that that wasn’t true, they could have more, they were allowed to want more, and that it wasn’t an either-or situation. Dean didn’t have to choose between Sam and Cas. They didn’t have to choose between each other or Jack. The same goes for Mary. Different relationships can coexist without threatening each other, and not say that their relationship in s12-15 was all smooth sailing, but it was certainly so very different from everything that came before.

(There’s maybe a point to be made about how they didn’t have anyone or anything in the finale and how that relates to the story we got, but honestly I have no idea what the intention was with any of the choices made in that episode so I’ll leave it at that for now.)

[gstqaobc]

THE ROYAL FASCINATOR

Friday, March 12/2021

Hello, royal watchers and all those intrigued by what’s going on inside the House of Windsor. This is another special edition of your dose of royal news and analysis.

Reading this online? Sign up here to get this delivered to your inbox.

      Janet Davison Royal Expert

The Harry and Meghan interview: Beyond the turmoil

While sifting through everything Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, had to say to Oprah Winfrey Sunday night, many saw parallels to other troubled times for the Royal Family.

The interview raised concerns particularly around race and mental health, and many found in it reminders of what Harry’s mother, Diana, experienced, as she laid bare the lack of support she felt after her ill-fated marriage to Prince Charles.

But the Diana period, which came as the clock wound down on the 20th century, was hardly the first time of family turmoil.

And in those earlier experiences going back decades — and centuries — there could lie hints of the House of Windsor’s fate after this latest crisis.

“I don’t think the history of this Royal Family, which has been written off so many times, tells you anything other than they know how to survive,” said John Fraser, author of The Secret of the Crown: Canada's Affair with Royalty, and founding president of the Institute for the Study of the Crown in Canada.

“Going back, back, back, there has never been a reign that hasn’t had some domestic problems.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly for an institution that emphasizes keeping calm and carrying on, there have been only the slimmest of hints this week of what will come next.

In a 61-word statement issued by Buckingham Palace Tuesday, the Queen said she and her family were saddened to learn of Harry and Meghan’s experiences, and that issues raised, particularly of race, would be addressed privately by the family.

In response to a question from a reporter while at an engagement at a school in east London on Thursday, Prince William said, ”We're very much not a racist family.”

BBC royal correspondent Sarah Campbell said William could have ignored the question.

“Despite the Queen's statement saying the race issue would be dealt with privately, the prince clearly felt he had to push back on what has become a very public and damaging allegation," Campbell wrote on the BBC website. “Remaining silent, he felt, was not the best option.”

In the interview with Winfrey, Meghan and Harry said there was a conversation — or conversations — with an unnamed family member in which concerns were raised about the colour of the skin of their first child before he was born.

It was perhaps the most damaging moment of the interview for the family, and one that is still surrounded in murkiness.

While Harry told Winfrey later that neither of his grandparents — Queen Elizabeth or Prince Philip — was part of that particular conversation, he refused to say during the interview who was.

“The fact that [Harry’s] on the outs with his father leads everyone to believe it must have been Charles, or possibly William, and until that’s dealt with, it’s this huge problem if they’re going to be future sovereigns,” said Fraser.

He said he finds it “unbelievable” that Charles, the man who walked Meghan halfway down the aisle at her wedding, would be worried about the colour of his grandson’s skin.

“Nothing in his life suggests that he is that callous or stupid,” Fraser said.

Still, it’s not clear who might have said it.

“It’s been left like a timebomb,” said Fraser. “How can [Charles] be the head of the Commonwealth, which has so many Black nations, until this is resolved? It’s a real dilemma.”

Fraser expects we will eventually learn who was involved in the conversation in question. “It’s just the nature of the way things go.”

But Fraser hopes it will be a given a context, and that it will be worked out within the family, “at some point down the road when they’ve got some distance from the immediate hurt that everyone must be feeling at the moment.”

Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, a lawyer and human rights activist in London, says the family’s circumstances are not beyond repair.

“But the point is Buckingham Palace better take this seriously, not come out with any stiff-upper-lip nonsense,” she told Adrienne Arsenault, senior correspondent and co-host of CBC’s The National, this week, before the statement from the palace.

“Nobody’s going to stand for it. Not for the racist comment, not for their lack of support for Meghan’s mental health, suicidal thoughts, not that fact that Prince Charles apparently failed to even speak to his son….

“All of those things should be answered and they should be answered humanely, like the Royal Family is in touch with what the public expects from it.”

Maybe there is at least one more signal of efforts within the family to work things out. While the relationship between William and Harry has been deeply strained, William said Thursday he will be speaking with his brother.

Who can be a prince or princess

Amid the many issues Meghan raised during the interview, one that seemed particularly troubling for her concerned conversations before Archie’s birth.

“They were saying they didn’t want him to be a prince or a princess — not knowing what the gender would be — which would be different from protocol, and that he wasn’t going to receive security,” she said.

That got a lot of people wondering about just what provisions there are for determining who becomes a prince or princess.

Under provisions of a letter patent issued by King George V in 1917, Archie would not at this point in his life be eligible to be a prince.

But his cousin — Prince William’s eldest son, seven-year-old George, who is in direct line to the throne — is a prince. George’s siblings can be a prince or princess, too, under provisions of a letter patent issued in 2012 by Queen Elizabeth, before George was born.

But that’s where it ends for that generation of royal great-grandchildren of the monarch, as things stand now.

“None of Harry’s children automatically get to be a prince except if there’s some reason that the Queen would bestow it on them,” said Fraser.

Grandchildren of a monarch can be princes or princesses, however, and things could change for Archie when his grandfather, Charles, becomes the monarch.

Whether Meghan’s comments might refer to what might happen then isn’t clear.

There is a broad understanding that Charles is looking toward a more streamlined monarchy, with fewer working members.

"I saw that Meghan mentioned that there were plans to narrow eligibility and I imagine that this is a reference to the Prince of Wales's stated view that the size of the Royal Family needs to be reduced," Bob Morris from the constitution unit at University College London told the BBC.

"However, he has not so far as I know given details of how it should be accomplished."

Fascinator readers write

Readers of the Royal Fascinator shared their views in droves after the Winfrey interview. Here’s a sampling of emails and excerpts from longer messages that reflect the wide range of thoughts offered on Harry, Meghan and what they said on Sunday.

From Linda: “I was saddened by the interview. It could have been a great opportunity for the royals to move forward and acknowledge mental health issues, but The Firm refused to take that route. Shocked to hear how the men in grey suits direct so much of the agenda.”

From Susan: “Unsubstantiated accusations are very damaging. It’s easy to allege things were said and then refuse to say who said them. Then it’s just a case of he said, she said. But the damage is done.”

From Charlie: “I feel for Harry and Meghan and I don't blame them one bit for the decision they made for leaving the U.K. and the Royal Family, in search for a more peaceful, sane and healthy lifestyle and mental health. I have never been a royal watcher or a fan of all the pomp that goes into it. I personally think Canada should abolish all that nonsense as it relates to a Governor General as the representative of the Queen in Canada (who is still our head of state). Canada should maintain close ties with the U.K., for sure, as partners, allies and friends, but this monarchy BS is a waste of taxpayer dollars.”

From Margaret: “I am still grappling with the intent of the interview and tell-all. And what is to be gained by the couple? Probably more paparazzi and Hollywood-like behaviours…. The constant referral back to Diana gives one pause for thought as well. Yes, Harry was totally traumatized by his mother’s death…. That said, although there are some similarities in press and media reporting, Diana was very young and naive when she joined ‘The Firm,’ whereas Harry and Meagan were well into their 30s when they married and should have known full well what could happen…. I do not mean to downplay or negate the comments on race/skin colour. Hopefully there will be some conversations around that at the palace level.”

From Tina: “I felt so much of this interview resonated with the Diana era. It left me with many questions, but mostly: How on earth can a parent stop taking calls from their child? How on earth can a parent not want to keep their family safe? How on earth can a parent allow the words of racism to be spoken amongst anyone, never mind their own? How on earth can a parent knowingly watch your child go through such pain and not reach out?... I applaud the two of them for coming out to the world and letting people be reminded, once again, of a dated monarchy who cares more about how they are perceived to the world than that of their own. One can only hope for Meghan and Harry to have a life of joy with their little family and always be safe .... and perhaps maybe Harry's wish that 'time heals all' comes true and his family come to their senses.”

From Paul: “Unless I misheard Meghan, she mentioned that she was not informed/prepared with the protocols of ‘The Firm.’ I find this difficult to believe. She is an intelligent, successful woman with a mind of her own.... I am not naive enough to not know there would be some racial problems.  But I do believe too much emphasis was placed on the racial issue. As for protection being dropped for Harry, why not? He is in a foreign country, by choice…. With all Harry and Meghan's money, they should be paying for their own protection. Remember, they optioned out of the U.K. Nevertheless, I wish them the best in their endeavours.”

From Anna: “I do not feel this interview will damage the Royal Family. There are differences of opinion in all families. I do not feel the whole Royal Family should be painted with the same brush. This interview will be so hard on the Queen. My heart goes out to her.”

We’ll continue to include comments from readers in future editions of the Royal Fascinator

Royal reads

1. Harry and Meghan’s interview might have some thinking it’s time for Canada to retire the Queen and its connection to the monarchy, but it wouldn’t be that simple to do, writes CBC’s Aaron Wherry.

2. Harry talked of an “invisible contract” between the media and the Royal Family. The BBC took a closer look at what it is.

3. Journalist and TV presenter Piers Morgan left British broadcaster ITV after long-running criticism of Meghan that reached a crescendo after the interview with Winfrey. [CBC

Cheers

I’m always happy to hear from you. Send your ideas, comments, feedback and notes to royalfascinator@cbc.ca. Problems with the newsletter? Please let me know about any typos, errors or glitches.

GSTQAOBC🇨🇦🇬🇧🇦🇺🇳🇿

[alice-beaumont-ravenclaw]

História

A/N #1: Finally! Fic number 3 of the Brazil series! I apologize for the wait. Let’s just say that stuff happened after I posted the second fic of the series that kinda zapped my creativity. Anyway, now I am back! 

Hottest Spot South of Havana (Part 1, Part 2) |  A Wonderful Surprise

Word count: ≈3000

Alice’s outfit

Alice could perceive the sunlight through her closed eyelids, but she didn’t want to open them just yet. Wanting to enjoy the warmth of the bed some more, she turned around, thinking her pillow felt firmer than she remembered. Her nose detected a familiar smell that reminded her of the sweater she slept in during cold winter nights at Hogwarts. Her boyfriend’s sweater. Charlie’s smell…

Charlie!

Her eyes opened up at that realization, landing on a sleeping freckled face with messy longish red hairs framing it. What was she doing in the same bed as Charlie? Where was Penny? In fact, where exactly was she? She did not recognize the room she was in as she quickly glanced around. As her mind was going at lightning speed, trying to remember how she ended up here, she looked under the covers. Thank Merlin, they still had their pyjamas on. Lost in those thoughts, she felt the pillow underneath her head shift slightly. She soon realized the “pillow” was actually Charlie’s shoulder, and as she slowly looked up towards his face, her green eyes met his warm brown eyes.

“Good morning,” said Charlie.

Alice stared at him, silent, her eyes wide.

“Why are you…?” started asking Charlie before being hit by a realization. He smirked. “You don’t remember how you ended up in my bed, do you?”

Alice shook her head, still staring at her boyfriend.

“Well, you missed my body so much, you just couldn’t help yourself…” started saying Charlie biting his lower lip to stifle a laugh he could feel coming as he saw Alice’s cheeks turn pink.

“What?!” exclaimed Alice, sitting up in the bed holding her face. “Oh, Merlin! They won’t stop teasing after…” She then heard Charlie’s laughter behind her. “Charlie Weasley!” she exclaimed, grabbing the pillow underneath his arm. “How dare you scare me like that?!” she added, throwing the pillow at Charlie’s face.

Charlie barely dodged the pillow as he sat up, still chuckling. “Sorry, it was just too easy, and you’re so cute when you blush,” he said, hugging her and giving her rosy cheek a small peck.

“Honestly, though, how did I end up here?”

“I was sleepy myself when you joined me, but if I remember, you were woken up by Tonks and Tulip getting ready for their hiking expedition, and I think you weren’t able to go back to sleep because of the racket they were making. So you came here,” explained Charlie.

“Oh… Yeah… I remember now. Tonks tripped over an ottoman in the living room; Tulip burst out laughing, followed by Tonks; Dennis escaped Tulip’s pocket, so they started looking all over the room for him while Penny and I just watched. I vaguely remember Penny suggesting I go over to your room since the boys were already waiting outside, so it would be peaceful,” said Alice, scratching her head.

“Feeling you cuddle up to me was a nice way to go back to sleep,” said Charlie, kissing the top of her head. “Are you sure you want to go to the museum today? I wouldn’t mind spending the day in bed with you,” his lips brushing against her neck.

“Charlie!” exclaimed Alice, scooting away from him. “Penny and Andre are probably out there waiting for us!”

“And it looks like Andre brought your outfit in here while we were sleeping,” said Charlie, noticing clothes neatly laid out on the armchair close to the window.

“All the more reason to not make them wait with… whatever you had in mind. They could come in at any moment.”

“Fine,” said Charlie as he started to remove his t-shirt.

Alice let out a small gasp as she backed away some more, only to find out she had reached the edge of the bed. She fell backward, the little thump it made alerting Charlie. He turned around and saw Alice’s ankles and feet above the bed.

“Alice, are you…?” 

Before he could finish his sentence, Alice raised a thumbs up to indicate she was okay, making the both of them laugh. They quickly got dressed, Alice using magic to get her hair into a braid. 

“I’m surprised Andre picked out the overall for the museum. When we were in Paris, he wanted to dress me in couture when we went to the Louvres,” said Alice as they left the bedroom.

“That’s because I know you and also because I thought we might walk around where the museum is after visiting it,” said Andre, who was sitting on the couch, sipping his cup of coffee.

“How… how long have you been sitting there?” asked Alice, frozen in place.

“Since I’ve been done with breakfast on the terrace with Penny,” said Andre, nodding towards the open doors leading to the terrace where Penny was still sitting, reading a book. “You know, I could get used to this lifestyle,” added Andre as he got up, placing his empty cup on the saucer on the marble top of the coffee table.

“We know,” said Alice and Charlie in unison.

“The two lovebirds have decided to join us?” asked Penny as she closed the doors of the terrace behind her.

“Seems like it,” said Andre as he held the door of the suite for Penny, Alice sticking her tongue at her Hufflepuff friend.

Alice and Charlie walked a few steps behind them as they made their way to the elevator.

“Good thing you didn’t give in to me earlier,” whispered Charlie.

Alice simply nodded, her eyes on their two friends waiting for them next to the lift.

After arriving at the Museu Histórico Nacional, they made their way to the inner courtyard, where carriages, probably used by the nobility back during the colonization and the Empire periods, were on display. Andre seemed to find them quite interesting as he stopped to look at them in detail, Penny staying with him as Alice and Charlie walked inside.

They slowly made their way around the permanent exhibits, which seemed to be divided into three periods: pre-colonization, colonization, and independence. The pre-colonization rooms mostly had native artifacts and prehistoric cave paintings. The rooms that pertained to the colonization period contained portraits of Iberian royals, including an equestrian depiction of Philip II of Spain, who ruled during part of the Iberian Union period between Spain & Portugal. There were also displays showing the extent of slavery in the colony as it was a big part of the economy back in those days.

“What’s slavery?” asked Charlie as they passed miniature models representing the slave trade.

Alice stopped in her tracks, turning around. “You don’t know? Actually, I shouldn’t be surprised. Grand-papa always said wizards live in a bubble. Well, in general, slaves are human beings that are owned by other human beings, and they are treated like property and traded as such. They have no rights. Slavery has existed for centuries, but back during the colonization period, Africans were taken by Europeans as slaves and were used in the colonies as cheap labour. That’s a very succinct summary of it.”

“How awful! Why would Muggles do that?”

“Greed? But it’s not like wizards are perfect. While a majority of house-elves love doing their work and find the idea of compensation insulting, the way some families treat them is… despicable,” said Alice, frowning, as she turned back and walked into the next room, Charlie following her.

They eventually reached the rooms that covered Brazil’s independence period, starting with a life-sized statue of Emperor Pedro I and the text of his acceptance letter to stay in Brazil in the early 1800s, marking the beginning of the country's independence period. There were also paintings representing naval military scenes, one of which seemed to have caught Charlie’s attention as he stood there, looking at it.

Alice, noticing he wasn’t close to her anymore, walked over to him to see what could be so fascinating about that painting. “Are there any dragons?” she said, a small smirk raising the corner of her mouth.

“What? No,” he said with a small chuckle. “No, it’s just most paintings we’ve seen so far represented daytime scenes, but this one is a nighttime scene. There’s something… enchanting about it, I guess, with only the moonlight illuminating the scene.”

“How poetic of you, Charlie Weasley,” said Alice, her lips forming a tender smile. 

“I have my moments,” said Charlie, his cheeks turning slightly pink as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“But you’re right. The moonlight does have something magical. This reminds me… You know the book I was reading yesterday at the lovely library you brought me to?”

“The Brazilian fairytales one? Yes, I remember. What about it?”

“Well, there was this story about how night came.”

“It comes when the sun goes down, no?”

“Well, yes, but it’s a story about how the phenomenon that is night came to be, because at the very beginning of time, the story said, it was day all the time. There was no night.”

“Really? And how does it explain the arrival of night?” asked Charlie as they sat on the bench near the nighttime scenery.

“Well, the daughter of the Great Sea Serpent, who dwelt in the depths of the seas, married a human,” started Alice. “She left her home among the shades of the deep seas and came to live with her husband on earth, in the land of daylight. Because she wasn’t used to that much daylight, her eyes grew weary of the bright sunlight and her beauty faded. That saddened her husband, as he did not know what to do.

“‘O, if night would only come,’ she moaned as she tossed about wearily on her couch. ‘Here it is always day, but in my father’s kingdom, there are many shadows. O, for a little of the darkness of night!’

“Her husband listened to her and asked, ‘What is night? Tell me about it, and perhaps I can get a little of it for you.’

“‘Night,’ said the daughter of the Great Sea Serpent, ‘is the name we give to the heavy shadows which darken my father’s kingdom in the sea. I love the sunlight of your earth land, but I grow very tired of it. If we could have only a little of the darkness of my father’s kingdom to rest our eyes part of the time.’

“Her husband quickly called his three most faithful slaves. ‘I am about to send you on a journey,’ he told them. ‘You are to go to the kingdom of the Great Sea Serpent who lives in the depths of the seas and ask him to give you some of the darkness of night so that his daughter may not die here amid the sunlight of our land.’

“The three slaves made their way to the kingdom of the Great Sea Serpent. After a long, perilous journey, they arrived at his home in the depths of the seas and asked him to give them some of the shadows of night to carry back to the earth. The Great Sea Serpent gave them a big bag full at once. It was securely fastened, and the Great Sea Serpent warned them not to open it until they were once more in the presence of his daughter, their mistress.”

“I have a feeling they didn’t listen,” interrupted Charlie.

“You would be correct. So, the three slaves started out, bearing the big bag full of night upon their heads, but they soon heard strange sounds within the bag. It was the sound of the voices of all the night beasts, all the night birds, and all the night insects. It sounded like the night chorus from the jungles on the banks of the rivers to give you an idea. But as night was something no one had ever experienced on land, the three slaves had never heard sounds like those in all their lives. They were terribly frightened.

“‘Let us drop the bag full of night right here where we are and run away as fast as we can,’ said the first slave.

“‘We shall perish. We shall perish, anyway, whatever we do,’ cried the second slave.

“‘Whether we perish or not, I am going to open the bag and see what makes all those terrible sounds,’ said the third slave.”

“Oh, Merlin…” interjected Charlie.

“So,” continued Alice, “they laid the bag on the ground and opened it. Out rushed all the night beasts and all the night birds and all the night insects and out rushed the great black cloud of night. The slaves were more frightened than ever at the darkness and escaped to the jungle.

“The daughter of the Great Sea Serpent was waiting anxiously for the return of the slaves with the bag full of night. Ever since they had started out on their journey, she had looked for their return, shading her eyes with her hand and gazing away off at the horizon, hoping with all her heart that they would arrive quickly to bring the night. In that position, she was standing under a royal palm tree when the three slaves opened the bag and let night escape. ‘Night comes. Night comes at last,’ she cried, as she saw the clouds of night upon the horizon. Then she closed her eyes and went to sleep there under the royal palm tree.

“When she awoke, she felt greatly refreshed. She was once more the happy princess who had left her father’s kingdom in the depths of the great seas to come to the land. She was now ready to see the day again. She looked up at the bright star shining above the royal palm tree and said, ‘O, bright, beautiful star, from now on you shall be called the morning star, and you shall herald the approach of day. You shall reign queen of the sky at this hour.’

“Then she called all the birds about her and said to them, ‘O, wonderful, sweet singing birds, henceforth I command you to sing your sweetest songs at this hour to herald the approach of day.’ The cock was standing by her side. ‘You,’ she said to him, ‘shall be appointed the watchman of the night. Your voice shall mark the watches of the night and shall warn the others that the madrugada comes.’ To this very day in Brazil, we call the early morning the madrugada. The cock announces its approach to the waiting birds. The birds sing their sweetest songs at that hour, and the morning star reigns in the sky as queen of the madrugada.

“Once it was daytime again, the slaves came out of their hiding place. Their master turned them into monkeys for having disobeyed the Great Sea Serpent by not opening the bag only in the presence of his daughter. To this very day, one sees the mark upon the monkeys’ lips, where they bit off the wax which sealed the bag; and in Brazil, night leaps out quickly upon the earth just as it leapt quickly out of the bag in those days at the beginning of time. And all the night beasts and night birds and night insects give a sunset chorus in the jungles at nightfall.”

“Wait… Did a Muggle really write that? There are a lot of elements in there that seem magical,” pointed out Charlie, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Well, most Muggle fairytales have magical elements. It’s like they know about us and our world without really knowing… Like when you heard The Sorcerer’s Apprentice at the Proms. You said how the music really fit the feeling of magic, even though a Muggle composed it. Perhaps people can feel it without realizing it, and some things we see in their tales come from the days when Muggles knew more about us, but now that knowledge is viewed as pure fantasy instead of truth,” said Alice, her eyes brightening.

“Maybe… Wait, aren’t sea serpents a type of dragon?” asked Charlie, smiling broadly.

“Hmm? Oh, hum, yes, I think so, but you’re the expert on the matter,” said Alice, her eyes on the painting, but her thoughts on something else.

“So based on that story, we have nights because of a dragon?”

Alice stared at him, quirking her eyebrows. “I guess so…”

“Cool,” said Charlie, nodding his head in satisfaction.

Alice shook her head slightly, biting her lower lip to avoid laughing. Of course, the dragon would be the one thing to stick with Charlie. Lost in their respective thoughts, neither of them noticed Penny and Andre making their way to them.

“There you are!” exclaimed Penny, standing in front of them, her hands on her hips.

“I am starving,” said Andre, holding his stomach.

“Sorry, we didn’t see the time,” said Alice, as she got up with Charlie.

Penny rolled her eyes, smirking. “You two don’t seem to notice the time go by when you’re together.”

“Shut up,” mumbled Alice, taking a hold of Penny’s arm.

“Did you know that there’s a story that says a dragon is the reason we have nights,” said Charlie as he walked in front of them with Andre.

“Ok, maybe in Charlie’s case, it’s when dragons are involved that he forgets about the concept of time,” whispered Penny, making Alice snort with laughter.

After eating lunch at the museum’s café, they looked at the other exhibits before returning to the hotel. The rest of the afternoon was spent around the pool as they waited for their friends, Charlie wanting to tell Barnaby about the dragon story. Alice stared at the same page of her book all that time, her mind still on fairytales and their origin...

A/N #2: Thank you for reading my fic! I hope you enjoyed it! Now, before someone comments one what Alice says regarding house-elves, I based it on this article. The fairytale Alice tells is from HERE and the painting that catches Charlie’s attention is THIS ONE.  The reason the title is “História” is because in Portuguese, it means both “history” and “story,” which I felt worked with the story. Feel free to leave a comment, including constructive criticism.

[notfunnydean]

Coming Out

Pairing: Dean Winchester / Castiel Tags: bisexual Dean, pansexual Cas, first kiss, first pride Word Count: 1.969 Challenge:  SPN Fam Pride Month Summary: While being on a hunt Dean discovers a pride parade. He sneaks out of the motel room to explore the parade but also to learn more about himself. There he meets someone familiar. Link (if posted on AO3): https://archiveofourown.org/works/24963385

Dean takes a deep breath and then finally gets out of his beloved Baby. He hastily looks around, to see if he knows someone, even though he is miles away from Kansas. Still his brother and Castiel are with him.

Not right now, but at the motel. 

“Okay, you can do this.” Dean mutters to himself and then throws his jacket back into the Impala. He feels a bit lighter already, but he is still wearing a flannel. For now he would stay like that. 

Dean feels ridiculous, but he almost sneaks down the alley into the city. He can hear loud music and people singing and gulps. Okay, he had waited a long long time for this and he wouldn’t freak out.

He wishes Charlie was still with him.

She would’ve liked this. Dean is sure Charlie did things like this all the time and he’s proud of her. He tries to be proud of himself too, but it’s difficult. 

“Hey. First pride?”

Dean looks up to see a young guy and nods shortly. Does he look like it’s his first time? God how embarrassing.

“No need to worry. Just have fun, maybe try a smile? I’m Max.” Dean nods again, but then he realizes that and smiles shyly. Max looks good, he wears a rainbow flag around his torso and has a lot of pins on his shirt.

“Sorry, I’m just really nervous. I haven’t really come out so far.” Dean mutters and Max looks almost compassionate at that, but he clasps Dean’s shoulder and nods.

“We’ve all been there. Just don’t pressure yourself. Some of us never come out in public or to their family and friends and they’re still valid.” Max continues and it helps Dean to feel a bit better.

He’d never been out to his father and he is kinda glad for that. He doesn’t know what John would’ve thought of him. Maybe… he would’ve come out to his mother, but he didn’t get the chance.

And yeah he could’ve always come out to his brother. Dean knows that. Sam is probably the most open human there is, but he’s still scared shitless. Hell, it took a lot to admit to himself that maybe he likes to look at guys as well.

“Thank you, that means a lot.” Dean says and this time it’s a real smile. 

“If you wanna buy anything. I got a lot to sell.” Max says and he points at all the colorful things he has in his booth. While Dean’s eyes stop at something particular, he excuses himself. Max nods towards him and then is already talking to another girl. 

Dean continues his own way, the sun is shining brightly and there are so many people around him. Dean stops to get himself a beer and then finally opens his flannel. His shirt is nothing special.

But it has a huge bi-flag on it. 

Everyone around him is so happy, a lot of people are waving to him, even flirting shortly with Dean and he likes this. He finally feels accepted and free and so good in his own skin. He can’t remember the last time this happened. 

Dean even stops and gets himself some pins. He actually likes the rainbow flag as well but the bisexual merch means a lot to him. Almost his whole life he hadn’t even known that he wasn’t really alone with that.

Sue his hunting lifestyle. He never had time to discover his own sexuality in school or college. He had always accepted that he’d never look into  that side of himself too much. But then… then someone appeared in his life.

“We got every flag there is.” A woman says and Dean stops to look at all the flags. There are just small ones you can hold up, but also huge ones like Max had around his torso. Dean gasps at a cowboy hat in the bisexuality colors. 

Dean has his wallet out before he can think about it. It’s not even that expensive, so Dean takes that cowboy hat and even one of those huge flags, that he can wrap around his shoulders. 

He can’t believe this. He would’ve never thought that he’d wear merch like this. Sure a few pins, his shirt, but this felt kinda huge. Dean smiles even harder and puts on the hat, before using that flag as a cape.

Dean snickers to himself and just as he turns around he walks right into someone.

“Whoops sorry.” Dean says and he feels a bit tipsy so happy is he, even though he hadn’t had a lot to drink.

“Hello Dean.”

Dean’s heart stops.

“Cas?!” 

Fuck. Okay. Dean smiles awkwardly and then even tips his hat in greeting. Like the dumbass he is. Castiel smiles anyway and Dean’s eyes widen when he finally sees what the angel is wearing.

Not his trenchcoat for once. Instead a shirt with a flag, that Dean doesn’t know. (He’s new to all of this, dammit) and a fake halo in the same colors. 

“I thought you don’t have a halo.” Dean gets out and wants to smack himself. Castiel’s smile gets only wider at that and there is something else in his eyes.

“That’s why I bought this one.” Castiel answers and they continue to look at each other. Like always, Dean gets lost in those blue eyes. He can’t help it. Castiel takes a step closer and Dean wishes he could take his hand.

Then he does.

“Come with me, I got an idea.” Dean mutters, blushing badly that he is holding Castiel’s hand. Luckily, his best friend isn’t saying anything and Dean knows he walks a lot more upright now.

People will probably think Castiel is his boyfriend and he likes that a little too much.

“Where are we going?” Castiel asks, while they walk and he even squeezes Dean’s hand. Dean walks a bit slower, wanting to enjoy this. 

“I think I saw something you should get.” Dean answers truthfully. He remembers that he had seen the booth when he first came here, the one where he met Max. It takes them roughly 10 minutes to walk there.

“I didn’t know you were bisexual.” Castiel says, it doesn’t sound mad. He sounds actually pretty glad, Dean almost squirms.

“I… I… never mentioned it, but I wanted… I finally wanted to be me.” Dean stutters. He can’t remember the last time he was this nervous and he looks at Castiel. He can feel how the hand holding Castiel’s sweats.

“I like it.” Castiel answers and there are a lot more butterflies in Dean’s stomach than around them. Maybe that actually means that Castiel could like him back?

“What does yours mean?” Dean asks carefully and he hopes it doesn’t mean he’s out of the game. He feels like an idiot for knowing almost nothing about genders and sexualities. He should look more into it.

To be ready for the next prides, too. But this one was rather accidental and he was glad to have the shirt with him at all.

“After the human meaning, I’m pansexual. I don’t care about the gender of my love interest. I just need to have a profound bond to the person.” Castiel explains and Dean gasps quietly. He knows exactly that Castiel had said before that they shared a profound bond.

“Hey there stranger!”

Before Dean can answer something to Castiel, Max has already spotted him. Dean goes over to him, painfully aware that he is still holding Castiel’s hand. Max grins, but says nothing.

“Hey again. Uh, I thought I would come back to your offer. I’d like to purchase something.” Dean says and he follows Max at the booth. Before that he tells Castiel to wait for him there. The angel does so and looks at the parade that just started.

“Sure thing, my twin sister Alicia creates all of this. Supportive Sibling thing.” Max says grinning and the girl from earlier waves at them. Dean smiles. He should tell Sam, too. (He just hopes Sam wouldn’t start crafting things too, he’s not super good at it.)

“I’d like to get one of those. Do you have them in the pansexuality colors?” Dean asks and Max gets them out of a cardboard. Dean loves them already, the colors suit Castiel perfectly.

“For your boyfriend?” Max asks while Dean pays, he looks back to Castiel, who seems still fascinated by all the colorful vehicles. Dean shrugs.

“We’ve known each other for ages but I hope I can finally be his.” Dean explains and he is blushing again. Max smiles wider and wishes him good luck. Dean hopes they will meet again some time.

He walks back to Castiel and carefully puts his present on Castiel’s back. It even has a small holder that he can attach to Castiel’s shoulders. Castiel jerks in surprise and then raises his eyebrows at the fake wings.

“Really?”

“Yeah you look… you look really gorgeous. Always I mean.” Dean wants to smack his head against something hard and heavy, but Castiel chuckles.

“Thank you Dean. You look very beautiful yourself.” Castiel answers easily. There was a time where Dean would’ve been angry with being called ‘beautiful’, and maybe even yesterday he would’ve been offended.

But he wants to learn to be himself now.

“Thanks.” Dean mutters, still embarrassed, but Castiel takes his hand again. Dean even gets a bit closer to him, as they watch the parade around them together.

“So. How come you are here today?” Castiel asks and Dean shrugs a bit awkwardly. At first he doesn’t know what to say. Then he takes a deep breath.

“I guess some things take me a while to understand.” Dean says and he even goes for a wink like a dumbass. But Castiel is still close, still holding his hand. Even smirking a bit now.

“Like what?”

“Like huh... this.”

Dean had killed so many supernatural things in his life and never been afraid beforehand. But he is afraid right now, as he leans closer and hastily closes his eyes, so he doesn’t have to see the angels face.

Luckily, Castiel comes towards him as well and their lips meet in the middle. Dean gasps quietly in his shock, but then Castiel is putting his free hand on Dean’s neck and pulls him even closer.

Dean opens his mouth without a second thought and fuck he hadn’t known that Castiel was such a good kisser. He is already addicted. Castiel even hums, when people are whistling at them.

The kiss breaks way too soon, but Dean kinda needs to breath. He licks over his lips, when he opens his eyes, only to meet Castiel’s hungry gaze.

“I really like you.” Dean whispers.

He then closes his eyes in his own frustration and takes a deep breath. What the fuck, is he five years old and talking to his crush at the kindergarten? He was never so bad at flirting. Castiel grins.

“I’m in love with you for years.” Castiel says as if it’s nothing.

“Me… me too.” Dean says and Castiel hugs him as hard as he can. Like always they seem to forget about the world around him. Dean doesn’t think he had ever been this happy. This feels right.

This feels like something new and exciting and at the same time like something he had known for years and gives him security. 

“So how come you’re here?” Dean asks, still shy even after the kiss. At least he is still holding Castiel’s hand. The angel smiles and then shrugs.

“Sam told me to find you here.” Castiel winks at Dean this time and Dean gasps quitely.

He would strangle his brother. And maybe send him flowers

“Now kiss me again, Cowboy.”

“As you wish Angel.”

[damfinofanfiction]

Chapter 8: To the East and The Gold Rush

Waking up in New York City was nothing new for the former Vaudeville performer. Buster was accustomed to whichever time zone he was in. He had gone to the east coast for a business trip/vacation with his wife Natalie and they’re staying at the Biltmore Hotel. The couple had attended the premiere of Seven Chances at the Capital theater. They were accompanied by people more favorable to Keaton such as his father Joe, a friend from childhood, Lex Neal, and Nick Schenck, a brother of his boss Joseph. Knowing that the missus missed their children and her sisters dearly, he held her hand the entire event. The screening had a good reception. Keaton was glad that the movie was well-received, although he remained resentful. Natalie was grateful for his presence, but nothing had changed as they still sleep in different bedrooms based on her insistence. After a few busy days, the real vacation began. Now he will be spending a day with his better half.

Once out of bed, Buster puts on his robe and went to the sitting area of their suite to call room service. He saw that Natalie was already awake and sitting frantically on the couch, he said to her, "Good morning Nate."

The missus stopped what she was doing and replied calmly, "Oh Morning."

Her fingers tapped on her knee as she appeared agitated. Buster had not seen her in this state in a while. Natalie was staring at the door and he shot his eyes at it, "Are you waiting for the letter?”

She quivered when she said, “I haven’t heard from mother yet.” Peg was watching the Keaton boys back in California.

He sat next to her and reassured her, "The boys are gonna be alright. We've only been gone since last Friday."

The tears started to form in her eyes, “This is the furthest I have been from our sons. Robert started babbling.” She wrapped her arms around herself, “What if he says his first word and I won’t be there to witness it?”

Buster patted on her shoulder, “I don’t think that would be likely.” He added, “I’m sure Bobby won’t say a thing until he sees his ma again.” To his surprise, Natalie hugged him in gratitude. Buster hugged her back until she broke the embrace to dry her tears. He went to the phone saying, “I’ll order us breakfast.”

That noon Buster and Natalie had lunch with the folks that went with them in addition to the Governor of New York. Joe Keaton shared stories of performing shows as The Three Keatons, dealing with wife Myra’s absences due to maternity leave, getting in trouble with The Gerry Society, and the times they fled out of burning Buildings. The couple spent the day together except when Natalie went out to buy gifts for the boys while Buster was catching up with Lex and discussing the latest film project. When he returned to their suite the middle Talmadge was already there, rounding out the toys and the clothes. He was going to ask her how much she spent on them, but he didn’t want to start another argument. 

She was in a cheery mood, “Got that letter back from mother. The boys are doing fine, they missed me. Dutch came over to cheer them up. She took them to the park for fun.” 

Keaton hid his hands in his pockets, “Did that letter said anything about me? Did the boys miss me too?” 

Natalie pulled a toy giraffe out of the bag, “It didn’t say anything about you. She usually didn’t acknowledge you in letters. I’m sure the boys miss you too. I can't wait to see their faces when they see what I got them."

What she said of the boys missing their father, Buster knew it might not be true. He wished to be a father, but had little time to spend with them because he was so busy at work. His fear arises with the thought of Natalie divorcing him and taking the sons away. He had to win her over to keep the family together. He asked her, “Nate, do you remember Coney Island?”

Natalie frowned upon taking a trip to memory lane, while neatly folding the boy’s overalls, “Why yes, it wasn’t long after Arbuckle made a short there. You took me because you wanted to include me and I obliged. You got us cotton candy to share, we rode on the carousel, and that one coaster you were begging me to ride along.”

Buster added with a narrow smile, “You were so scared that I held your hand the entire time.” he apologized for taking her to the coaster in the first place.

She concluded, “Then we finished the day with the Ferris wheel where we saw the bright spectacle and you pecked me on that cabin. It was a nice date.”

He sat gingerly on the bed, “I would be happy to take you to coney island again, but back then nobody could recognize me when I’m not with my folks, and then Roscoe and now if anyone took notice of me, that whole place would crumble.” 

She looked at him, “If you weren’t able to take me, why bring this up?”

He took her hands, “We were both very happy. I missed the days when you were in love with me. The same woman who proposed to me from another coast. I know the old Natalie is still there when you hugged me this morning.”

She took her hands off him to cross her arms, “That was only because I missed our boys.”

He put his hands behind him, “I missed them too. I can’t imagine life without all of you. I will take back the times I was unfaithful to you.”

“Buster, I don’t care if you embrace another woman behind my back. Please don't entice me to be in bed with you again.” She pointed him out of the door, “Please let me be alone to change for dinner.” Natalie closed the door behind him after leaving her room.

Buster was puzzled about the unusual pairings in his life; his parents, Joe and Myra, Norma and Schenck, and Natalie and himself. None of them shared the same age group except for the latter. He wished that his wife wasn’t a strict catholic so she could be comfortable with taking contraceptives and not worry about getting pregnant again and he wouldn’t have to cheat on her. But that’s the way it has to be. If he failed to win back his beloved, there are still less than 3 weeks of vacation to go.

****************

The hopes of Gail being a screen actress were dashed when production was delayed after Sennett comedian Ben Turpin backed out of the upcoming project due to personal matters. Gail wanted to take his place, but was unable to due to a lack of a contract. Though Sennett knew she wanted prominent roles, he was unable to fill them because too many actresses sought her out. But instead, he had heard his former employee Charlie Chaplin just returned from filming in Truckee to film more scenes in his studio and is seeking extras. So he recommended she find work in Chaplin's upcoming film The Gold Rush, and Gail was fine with it just to gain film experience. 

There at the Charlie Chaplin Studio, Gail is in the dance hall scene where Chaplin’s Tramp character dances with his love interest. She was busy dancing with a partner to watch the toothbrush-mustached comedian, but caught the part where he was tied to a dog and it chases the cat. She could laugh at this gag, but didn’t want to ruin a good take. The chestnut-haired woman across the hall seemed familiar. Gail didn't think she’s a famous actress. It must be on a tip of her tongue. Then the realization struck her, that was the same woman who was next to her onset of the seven chances. Their time between scenes was too busy to get them to chat. When everyone gets their lunch break, she located the woman eating with the other female extras in the studio courtyard. 

Gail sat at the same table as them, “Hi you remember me?”

The woman paused figuring out, “Oh goodness, we were extras in seven chances. Sorry we didn’t get to be properly introduced.” The woman extended her hand,  “My name is Eliza Smith.”

“I’m Gail Anders.” She shook it in greeting, “It’s good to see you again and I never got to thank you for saving me from the ridicule.”

“Don’t mention it. We actresses had to stick together.” 

Gail and Eliza were talking while having meatloaf and salad. Their discussion consists of their start on careers, Gail’s experiences as a bathing beauty, Eliza’s acting resume, their celebrity encounters, and then the subject fell to celebrity crushes.

"For me, it's Charlie Chaplin of course. I have a crush on him since I was barely a woman. Hell, if I was a virgin, I'd have saved it for him. Are you a virgin, Gail?”

Gail almost choked on her food being asked that. She replied with a blush, “That’s a very personal question to ask.” 

“That’s alright if you don't have to answer.” She raised her eyebrow leaning towards the raven-haired woman. “But tell me this is Buster Keaton the cat’s meow?”, When Gail couldn’t understand, Eliza rephrased, “Do you have a crush on Keaton?”

Gail's eyes were looking both ways as she drank her cup of water to try to avoid the touchy subject, but Eliza noticed the signs. “Please It’s all in your face. Your gaze was fixated on the stone face as if he was the king of England.” She chuckled, “It helped when you “pretended to faint” in front of him.”

Giving in, Gail confessed of the time she started seeing Buster in the Arbuckle films. She thought he seemed charming and took interest in watching his films because of his fascinating past, then when she heard the news of his wedding, she was a bit let down, but was happy for him and then she talked about her two other encounters with Keaton. In conclusion, She asked, “Is it wrong to have a crush on a married man?”

Eliza dropped a bombshell,  “Chaplin wasn't married when we dated.” Gail’s eyes widen and her jaw dropped hearing this “Really?!”

Eliza with a coy smile, whispered to her to avoid having others hear her “I met Chaplin when I started working in California. I took a job here as a part-time receptionist, but when he noticed me, He then hired me as an extra for his previous film, The Pilgrim. After production ended, we started a relationship. Spent countless nights with him,” she then frowned when she continued, “Then we broke up when he was seeing another woman, and another and another and another. But he did come back to me only for one-night stands and one of them happened while he’s married. Last I heard, if it's true, he has feelings for his leading lady."

She covered her face with her hand, trying to comprehend what happened, "Why are men so unfaithful to their wives?"

“Gail,” Eliza explained, “Men and women in Hollywood have unhappy marriages and have taken lovers. If Buster is one of them, you might have a chance.”

Gail stated, “But I have a boyfriend, I think I still do. And besides, I can’t see myself dating a married man.” Adding a final thought, “I would rather wait until he’s divorced.”

"True, but then where is the fun?” Before they finished eating Eliza looked Gail right in the eye and said, “I would recommend keeping this a secret. God knows what would happen to dear Chaplin if word got out.”

Gail returned to Lenore’s around 6 in the evening. Going inside she was surprised to see a finely dressed man talking with Sally and Lenore at the dining table. Upon noticing Gail’s presence, Lenore called, appearing to break away from her niece’s latest paramour, “Welcome home! We saved you fried cauliflower and turkey.”

The man said in his British accent told Sally, “I didn’t know you have a sister.”

The blonde chuckled, “She isn’t, this is my friend Gail Anders. I took her in when she moved from Nevada.”

The man stood up and bowed in greeting, “Sterling Thomas, my pleasure.”

As they shook hands, Gail said, “That accent, you must be British.”

 “Yes, Edinburgh very nice place.” Sterling’s dark hair was slicked back.

Lenore brought over her meal, “Gail just came home from work and you should be leaving too, sir.” This prompted Sterling to grab his hat and approached to the front door despite Sally’s protests for him to stay a little longer

He replied, "We can meet again. I'm here quite a while." She kisses him before watching him leave.

As Gail started eating, silence went on between aunt and niece. She later broke it when asking Sally, “How did you two meet?”

“Both of us were in New York City. I went to a nightclub and he was there. Same story, different ending.” 

“How did you find each other?”

Lenore added while crossing her arms, “I presume one of your nightly outings?”

Sally glared at her, "Well Auntie, we met somewhere, and I never felt lucky to bump into him again."

“How is Mr. Thomas any different from your last boyfriends?”

“He happens to be rich.”  

The aunt gave her a sarcastic look, “Oh, so now you're a gold digger?”

Sally stood up fumed, “How is that any different from you and Uncle Stanley?”

Lenore stood up in retaliation, “Don’t you bring my Stanley-”

Gail also stood up to soothe this out, “Could you not fight? I had a long day.” Sally and Lenore agreed and the table fell into silence for the whole dinner.

After all that was going on around her, Gail would end the day by kindling herself to a good book. After losing interest in the middle of chapter four she switched to another book. It was a journal about her interest in Buster Keaton. She would write down about the movies she had seen and clipped off the news article featuring a movie review of his and just news about him. Gail turned to a page in which the subject was Our hospitality. A news article glued there featured a picture of Buster and Natalie both wearing pork pie hats for a publicity photo. It was interesting to see husband and wife on the screen together, but now it was bittersweet knowing that buster is probably cheating on his wife. If it was truly something that must be wrong between the two.

The next afternoon, Gail was making herself useful in the Sennett studio, modeling the swimsuits for the other bathing beauties. A crewmember notified her of a call from her residence. Gail answered the phone, the voice at the other end was Lenore.

“The telegram came from your mother.”

Gail has already known what was happening around her family; her sister Geraldine is having twins and her father is due to retire from ranch work. Judging from the woman’s sorrowful tone in her voice, it must be bad news.

 “It’s your grandmother, she died in her sleep.”

Devastated, She covered her mouth as her tears began to form and a similar lump grew in her throat. Her whole body shook with the realization that the woman who got her to California is gone.

Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin around 1918

[rora-s]

The Derivative  Chapter 13: I Know

Chapter 1 <- Chapter 12 

“Well I didn’t exactly have a lot of options” I argued, hopping out of the car. 

“Maybe not but that sounds like an odd one for a snack” Alan stated getting out and grabbing the grocery bag in the back seat. 

“Ugh you sound like my mother” I grumbled as we headed toward the house. 

“Greetings friends” we turned at the call to see Larry walking up the drive. 

“Oh Larry what brings you here?” Alan greeted. 

“Well I was looking for Charles with the intention of spurring him into action on some of the math he promised me” the man explained. 

“Hey Larry you haven’t heard anything about my acceptance at CalSci yet have you?” I asked as we headed to the front door. 

“I’m afraid not but rest assured me and your uncle are keeping our ears to the metaphorical ground for any word from the admission board” Larry replied. 

I let off groan “I hate waiting” 

“Don’t worry, I'm sure they’ll accept you. You’re a great student” Alan assured me. 

“Well who knows I mean the school does get similar applications from young gifted applicants each year so” the physicist ended his statement with a shrug. 

I let out a breath still very anxious about the whole thing “thank you for that Larry” Gramps muttered with an annoyed edge as he opened the front door. “Hey Charlie” 

We headed into the house to see Charlie sitting at the table looking over some papers with a woman. “Hey, this is officer Morris of the California Highway patrol” the professor introduced the woman who smiled. Then he gestured to us “this is my father, my niece, and Dr. Fleinhardt” 

“Oh, please don’t tell me you got another speeding ticket?” Alan joked. 

“Actually your son’s helping me with an accident investigation” Officer Morris explained rising from her seat to shake my grandfather’s hand and then Larry’s, then mine “we’re trying to figure out what caused it.” 

“I didn’t know you were consulting for the CHP. Are you?” Alan inquired. 

“Don’s case” Charlie clarified. 

“Oh so this is why he ditched me here instead of taking me to the movies on his day off like he promised” I spoke with a slight edging looking at the documents laid out on the table. 

“Yeah? What sort of accident involved the FBI?” Larry questioned. 

“Prison bus crash” Morris informed. 

“The one I saw on the news.” Gramps inferred. “The bus with the escaped convicts? Don is working on that, huh?” Alan muttered the last bit as he sat down the grocery bag. 

“Yeah. Why?” Charlie questioned most likely sensing the same change in Alan’s demeanor as I had. 

“Oh nothing” Alan brushed the matter off as Larry took a seat at the table “it’s just that your brother was working on fugitive recovery once for a while, uh, anyway” he shook his head. 

“Appears to be basic Newtonian mechanics” Larry observed “the stuff of first-year engineering students. Now why are these elementary equations so captured your imagination?” 

“Well, the confluence of so many unrelated factors coming together at a given point in time” Charlie explained “it’s actually quite a fascinating approach to Bayesian inference as applied to the analysis of time series data.” 

“Yeah well as far as I know anytime an accident happens it’s because somebody made a mistake” Alan declared. “Am I right?” 

“Actually most car crashes happen because of one overestimating their own ability, to make a turn or get through a light. Willing choices that’s why the common public word accident is a misnomer and reports call them crashes.” I informed absently then paused as all the adults’ eyes shifted to me “I read it once” I shrugged. 

“This coming from the girl who doesn’t even have a license” Alan pointed out and I shot him a glare.  

“Either way that’s what we’re trying to figure out.” Morris spoke up “whether there was a mistake and what it was” 

“The answer’s not that simple” Charlie voiced as Alan pulled out his sandwich and went to open a beer I reached around him to grab my sandwich from the bag. “I mean, coincidences are a mathematical reality. Statistically unlikely events can and often do occur. Just look at the genesis of our planet.” 

“Well now, I agree that the factors that brought about life on earth were statistically unlikely” Larry mused “but given the vastness of the cosmos, the limitless possibilities for matter and energy. I’m with Einstein on this. There are no accidents.” 

____________

“I can understand the fascination of kinematic equations when working alongside an attractive female police officer” Larry voiced as we watched Charlie set up his little reenactment. “But, all the lawn equipment?” 

“What you said about the confluence of the cosmos triggered a thought” Charlie explained “Abby you’re sitting in the road” he muttered shoeing me away so he could set down a skateboard. I scooted over to the side of the path. 

“Ah, note to self: Never talk quantum theory again.” Larry voiced. 

“The initial velocity of the bus barely exceeds that of the flatbed.” Charlie elaborated “the gap between them closing slowly, approximately two feet per second.” he moved the wheel barrel up. 

“And then along comes the skateboard?” Larry questioned. 

“That’s right, the pick up truck” Uncle C confirmed “the pick up truck pulls along the right side of the bus” he demonstrated with the skateboard’s movement. “Its velocity is 13 miles per hour greater than that of the bus. Now at this point the gap between the bus and the flatbed truck is at least..” he paused reaching for the paper in the wheelbarrow. 

“84 feet” I supplied having seen the paper. 

“Okay, that’s ample enough room for the pickup to safely maneuver in front of the bus” Larry declared. 

“However” Charlie objected, continuing to manipulate the lawn equipment “the gap suddenly closed. The pickup veers in front of the bus forcing the bus to maneuver and hit the guardrail which causes it to torque and flip onto its side” I tilted my head as Charlie turned the wheelbarrow over. 

“How did that gap close so quickly between the bus and the flatbed?” Larry inquired. 

“Acceleration or deceleration” I voiced. 

“Precisely.” Charlie nodded “two possibilities. One, the bus greatly increased its velocity.” 

“No no no” Larry dissuaded that idea “given the mass of the bus, that’s extremely unlikely.” 

I craned my neck as I saw Don’s car pulling up to the house. “Or two, the flatbed truck reduced its speed at the critical moment, causing the pickup to veer in front of the bus.” 

“That’s it” Larry determined with the snap of his fingers “the flatbed slowed down”

“That’s right,” Charlie agreed. 

“And that doesn’t mean anything good” I muttered letting out a breath. 

“It would also mean” Larry mused. 

“A Markov chain” Charlie finished the thought. 

“Exactly” Larry muttered. 

“Gentlemen and lady” Don greeted us as he walked up “what’s all this?” he looked over the reenactment. 

“Just trying to make sense of something that doesn’t make sense” Charlie explained. 

“Thought that’s what you do best,” Don sighed. “What, uh, what’s the problem?” 

“Well, apparently, that seed spreader” Larry voiced. 

Don gave a confused look and Charlie quickly jumped in “t-the flatbed truck” 

“What- what about it?” Don inquired. 

“The crash wasn’t an accident” Charlie informed. “Don, it was staged.” 

“You’re sure?” Don pressed. 

“Mathematically certain” I declared Don shot me a look “it’s lawn equipment and simple math please don’t lecture me on not helping” 

Don sighed “fine later” he grumbled then turned to Charlie “think you can work up a model to show at the office?” 

“That’s an easy matter of imputing these findings into a computer simulation” Charlie explained. 

“Maybe the cute CHP lady officer can help you” I teased my uncle. 

“Cute CHP lady officer?” Don questioned turning to his brother who shot me an annoyed look. 

“It’s not like that,” Charlie objected. 

“Sure Charles, sure” Larry murmured and we all shared a laugh at the mathematician's expense. 

________________

3rd POV. 

“All these different events and factors from the initial velocity of the bus to its final torque” Charlie explained to Don and Agent Cooper “all of these create what’s called a Markov Chain.” 

“What kind of Chain?” Cooper questioned. 

“Markov. A sequence of random values where the probabilities at any given time depend on the values at a previous time.” Charlie attempted to elaborate “the controlling factor in a Markov chain is called the transitional probability. Now in this case the bus reaches a certain point in the road just as the truck blocks the lane, just as the pickup cuts off the bus.” the professor gestured to his diagram. 

“Which tells you it wasn't an accident?” Don asked with minor confusion. 

“Bayesian statistics and the Chapman-Kolmogorov equation tell me that.” Charlie clarified. 

“Are you sure you’re his brother?” Billy joked to Don. 

“Yeah, you think he’s freaky smart you should meet my kid” Don replied off handedly focusing on Charlie and missing the double take Cooper gave him. 

“If the flatbed truck had maintained its initial velocity, well then the pickup should have enough space to roam freely past the bus safely.” Charlie continued “but it didn’t.” he pressed a button going to the next image “the truck slowed down just as the right moment just as the pickup timed its move, forcing the bus to veer violently and overturn.” 

“So the pickup driver and the flatbed guy are in on it,” Don deduced. 

“Only the gardener’s missing” Cooper muttered. 

“Let’s go find that truck driver” Don declared getting up and Billy following after him. “Good job Charlie thanks” 

Don and Cooper exited the meeting room and headed through the bullpen. “So uh that comment about you having a kid that serious?” Billy asked as they paused by Don’s desk so he could grab his jacket. 

Don let off a breath, his brain somehow just realizing that his former partner would have no way of knowing about Abby appearing in Don’s life a little less than a year ago. “Uh yeah um kind of a long story but uh you remember that girl from college I mentioned Janice Calvin?” Don asked as they headed toward the elevator. 

“Yeah the one left you a note and went back home?” Cooper recalled. 

“Yeah, well, turns out she was pregnant. And what will be a year ago soon I got this knock on my door from a social worker telling me she died and left a kid behind. And my name’s on the birth certificate” Don explained. 

Cooper let off a breath “that’s crazy man.” 

“You’re telling me” Don muttered as they entered the elevator and pressed the button for the lobby. “Still it’s been good having her in my life you know? Her name’s Abby and she just tested out of highschool as a sophomore applied to college for next semester” 

“Really?” Cooper nodded then a slight smirk came to his features “so out of all these geniuses in your family how the heck did you end up like this?” 

“Ah” Don scoffed, giving his friend a shove as the doors opened and they headed out chuckling. 

__________

Abby POV. 

“Why am I here?” I muttered in annoyance. 

“Because I find this interesting,” Alan whispered back. 

“That explains why you’re here, not why I am” I grumbled turning the page of my book. 

“Well, if you’d quiet down you might just learn something” Alan suggested. I sighed and looked up at Uncle Charlie who was standing in front of a black baord that read “Math for Non-Mathematicians''

“Most people believe that they can trust their instincts” Uncle C explained “however, math suggests that our instincts aren’t always correct” he bent down and picked up a couple big white boards and big red X’s off the ground. “We’re gonna play a little game.” he declared, setting out the white cards on stands “I want you all to pretend that we’re on a game show, and I’m your cheesy game show host. And behind one of these cards is a brand new automobile.” he added a joking deepness to his voice at that last line that elicited some laughs from the audience of the class “and behind the other two are goats. Yeah, goats.” I rolled my eyes and turned back to my story.”I’m going to need a volunteer” I glanced up making sure my uncle wasn’t thinking of choosing me as a couple hands went up “come on, more of you than that. Come on.” he encouraged, receiving a couple laughs in response “Julie” he finally selected. “Why don’t you pick one of these cards? Remembering of course the object is to win the car, not the goat.” 

“I’ll take the one in the middle” Julie chose. 

“She takes the middle card” Charlie declared, sticking an X to the card. “And what are the chances that that card is the winning card?” 

“One in three” Julie answered. 

“Three choices, one car. Right?” Charlie clarified “one in three, it’s simple enough, right? Now, here’s where the game’s gonna take a turn. I’m going to reveal to you one of the cards that you did not choose” he reached to the card on the right and flipped it around to reveal a goat “So, we have two cards yet to be revealed. Now, knowing what you know, do you want to switch your choice? Or more importantly for the purposes of this class, does it matter? Will switching your choice improve your chances of winning?” 

“Yes switch it” I muttered under my breath going back to my book. Alan gave me a side look. 

“Well no. because now, two cards it’s 50/50, right?” Julie replied to the teacher. 

“How many people agree with her?” Charlie asked. 

“Don’t raise your hand” I mumbled sarcastically, turning the page of my book. Inevitable people did though most of the class in fact Alan looked around surprised. 

“That’s what your instinct tells you, but you’d be wrong.” Charlie explained. “Switching your cards at this point actually doubles your chances of winning the car.” 

“How?” Julie questioned. 

“Well, since we started out with two goats,” Charlie explained “it’s more likely that your first choice was a goat. What are the odds of choosing the goats?”

“Two out of three” Julie answered. 

“Right. So it’s more likely that this is a goat, less likely that it’s a car” the professor gestured to the center card “and it’s more likely that this card is a car” he pointed to the card on the left. “See switching your choice gives you a two-out-of-three chance of winning the car, rather than the one-out-of-three chance that we all began with.” he revealed the left card as the car to make his point. “Vroom vroom” he joked making the class chuckle. “You won a car, Julie. Congratulations.'' Then Uncle Charlie paused his eyes drifting to the back of the room before he checked his watch. “I think. Yeah, yeah, we’re out of time.” I looked back to see Don standing in the back of the room with another man who I could assume was another agent. “So uh, go home make some of these for yourselves. Put together some reasonable “n” samples, and uh.. Yeah see what happens. I’ll see you all next week. thanks.” 

The students began to disperse and Alan followed my line of sight to Don and the other agent. He got up and I followed him back to the two men. “Hey Dad, what are you two doing here?” 

“Oh I like coming whenever Charlie gives one of these math-for-dummies lectures. It’s the only time I actually understand what he’s talking about” Gramps explained “plus this one needed to get out of the house I couldn’t stand anymore anxious pacing about this acceptance letter” 

“Hey I wasn’t pacing” I objected adjusting my backpack on my shoulders “much” 

“This is Billy Cooper” Don introduced the man next to him. “He’s an agent I work with.” 

“Hi” Alan greeted him with a hand shake “we’ve met before, haven’t we?” 

“oh, yeah.” Don murmured “I couldn’t remember” 

“You worked a case with Don out here once?” Alan guessed. 

“Back in the day, yes, sir” Agent Cooper confirmed and glanced between me and my Grandfather. 

“Donnie, can I talk to you for a minute?” Alan requested. 

“Yeah, sure.” Don agreed and looked to Billy “just give me a second” him and Alan shuffled out of the room. 

Agent Cooper turned to me “you must be Abby then” he inquired and I nodded “uh so your uh old man mentioned that you were some kind of genius like your Uncle” he gestured vaguely to where Charlie was packing up his stuff from class. 

“Um yeah I have a decent IQ and an Advanced Eidetic Memory” I explained shifting on my feet. 

“What’s that mean?” the agent asked. 

“I have near perfect visual memory recall especially when I read” I explained gesturing to the book in my hand. 

“Cool” Cooper nodded and glanced out the doorway to where Don and Alan were still talking. 

“So you work with my dad?” I inquired blinking as the last word came out of my mouth easier than I thought. 

“Yup” Cooper smiled “me and Don actually used to be partners back in the day when he worked fugitive recovery. Made a great team” 

I smiled slightly “that’s cool” 

“Hey agent Cooper” Charlie cut in as he came over to greet the agent. 

________ 3rd POV. 

Don walked with his father out of the room and into the courtyard outside. “Um- wh-what are you doing? What’s going on?” Alan asked, turning to Don once they were out of earshot. 

“What are you talking about?” Don asked, confused. 

“Well, I- I haven’t seen you for days. Not since you dropped Abby off.” Alan pointed out. 

“I’m working,” Don explained. 

“Yeah, I know, Charlie told me.” Alan informed “Are you going back to manhunting now?” 

“Oh, I see. Dad, come on” Don sighed in annoyance. “Don’t. This is one case.” 

“I seem to recall your saying that about only one case once before,” Alan pointed out, “but, if you remember, they were not good days for you, or for me. I mean, we didn’t hear from you for weeks. We didn’t even know where the hell you were.” 

“Dad-” Don tried to interject but failed. 

“You do realize that uh, chasing after someone you could be running away from yourself at the same time” Alan stated. “And now you’re a father Donnie, you have a daughter in there that relies on you and you have a responsibility to her. Have you even talked to her the last couple days?” 

“Yes dad, of course I have'' Don finally interjected agitated. Then he sighed “contrary to what you might think I don’t plan to abandon her” 

Before Alan could respond to that statement or before Don could process the emotions it set forth Charlie was joining them with Abby and Billy right behind him. Don looked at Abby for a moment as Charlie greeted them and asked Alan about his lecture. 

Sometimes it was easy for him to forget she was a kid with how her brain worked and how stubbornly independent she could be. However, with her duct taped and sharpied shoes and ratty backpack she wouldn’t let him buy her replacements for, fading freckles and various superhero and tv show related t-shirts. She really was every bit the teenager her age dictated. A teenager who Don knew needed her father. 

____________

“Hey” Don called walking up as Coop was loading up his car “So you’re out of here?” 

“Heading to Phoenix.” Billy sighed “meth tweaker I been chasing.” 

“No chance we could get you to stick around?” Don asked helping him with the bags “maybe put in for a position around here?” 

“What, and settle down?” Billy chuckled. 

“Hey, it’s not bad Coop, I gotta tell you.” Don advised leaning on the car. 

“You don’t miss it?” Cooper inquired. 

“No. Not really, no” Don shook his head. 

“The rush you get when you’re hauling his ass in,” Coop tempted “your fugitive’s a couple hours ahead of you and you’re closing ground.” 

“Alright, maybe a little,” Don conceded. “Hey, but not being in touch with my family, not being able to talk to anybody, I don’t miss that.” he took a deep breath “I don’t know, I think LA’s good for me.” 

“Well” Coop sighed closing his trunk “plus you’re a dad now” 

Don chuckled “yeah there’s that too” 

“Listen that kid’s lucky to have you.” Billy told him “and if she’s anything like her old man she got a good future ahead of her” 

“Thanks man” Don sighed as the two shook hands walking back toward the drivers side of the car “keep your head down, huh?” 

“I’ll do that,” Billy nodded, getting in his car to leave. 

___________

“You do realize watching out the window isn’t going to make him get here any sooner right?” Alan voiced. 

Abby sighed and slid down to sit on the couch. “What’s taking so long,” she whined. 

“Relax kid,” Don advised, taking a sip of his beer. “He’ll get here soon” 

“Easy for you to say” Abby grumbled. Just then the door of the house opened and the trio sitting in the living room turned as Charlie walked in. 

Abby bounced to her feet. “Do you have it? Do you have it?” she asked eagerly. 

“Hello to you too” Charlie mumbled earning him a glare from his niece. “It’s right here” he held up the letter from the schools admissions office. 

Abby took the letter and looked it over like it was some rare artifact. She let off a slow breath. “You want me to open it?” Don asked after a moment. 

“No,” Abby objected then took a deep breath and tore the envelope open pulling out the paper inside. 

The three men watched as her eyes scanned over it abnormally fast for the average person. Then another second before a large smile spread over her face. 

“I got in” she whispered almost inaudibly then began to repeat it louder jumping up and down in joy “I got in! I got in! I got in!” she stopped and whisked over to where Don was sitting “Dad! Dad! Dad! Look! I even got a scholarship!” 

“I can see that” Don murmured looking at the paper that was thrust into his hand “nice job kid” 

“We knew you could do it,'' Alan encouraged with a smile. 

“I’m going to go call Amita and tell her” Abby declared “this is awesome!” with that she ran from the room. 

“Donnie, uh,” Alan spoke up after a moment “you are aware she just called you dad right? Without uh any snarky backdrop or anything” 

Don smiled lightly eyes still on the acceptance letter “yeah I know” 

Chapter 14 -> 

[carlotta-the-nerd-winters]

Rough Diamond - Chapter Three: Into The Unknown Team

A Week Later…

Postwick…

Something she had discovered about Blaze after spending their first night together—he was a snuggle monster. He made a beeline for her bed and buried himself under her quilt and blankets. The fire-type seemed content to sleep by her side and Gloria had to admit, it was nice having a warm plushie-like figure to sleep with at night.

Second thing she discovered about her newest partner—he was insanely fast. Even without the use of Quick Attack, Blaze had some fast feet. Something she was more than happy to have in battle. But chasing after him had been another thing entirely. He’d zip away when she’d tried to get him back into his ball. Eventually, she just gave up after her father told her that out of the three he gave to Leon, Blaze despised his pokeball.

But she had spent the week training and getting to know Blaze a little better. Most of the time, she had been out in the Wild Area and would return home in the afternoon. Charlie and Sonia had uploaded the Pokedex app onto hers and Hop’s phones. Both of their families had gifted them camping supplies and one of those never-ending space bags that were popular in Kanto. All that was left for them was to grab their Dynamax bands from Professor Magnolia.

“Gloria! You’ll be late for the train if you don’t head off now,” she heard her mother shout from downstairs.

“I’m coming!” she shouted back, fixing her black ripped jeans. Glancing one last time in the mirror, she combed her hair back and tied it up into a small ponytail. Maybe I should let it grow out more…

“Gloria Elizabeth Aegis!”

The brunette groaned, grabbing her brown backpack and left her room. Running downstairs, she found Hop waiting in the foyer with her mother and Victor who had Blaze snuggled in his arms.

“Honestly, what could be taking you so long to get dressed? You’re participating in the Gym Challenge. Not Love Islands,” Kathleen clucked her tongue as Blaze jumped out of Victor’s arms and onto her shoulder. “I’ve phoned ahead to the professor to let her know you’re on your way.”

“Thanks Kathy,” Hop smiled, hands in his pockets.

“Call us when you’ve arrived at Motostoke. Be safe you two,” Kathleen told them, looking between the two teens. Victor hugged his little sister before messing with her hair.

“Piss off,” she swiped at him, fixing her hair immediately as he laughed.

“Just have fun you guys. And know I’m betting on you two to take down Lee,” Victor said as Hop beamed. Checking the time on her watch, Kathleen ushered them out of the house.

“We better get going. I can’t wait to get my band,” Hop told her as they walked down the front steps of Gloria’s place. A few Wooloo cried in the distance as the morning sun shone down.

Out of habit, Gloria glanced at the fence that blocked off the Slumbering Weald and found it thrown open. “Hop,” she tugged at his sleeve, pointing it out.

His eyes widened. “Crap. There was a Wooloo there earlier tackling it. I didn’t think it’d actually bust through,” he said and she stared at him.

“You didn’t think a Pokémon using a physical attack move could break down an old wooden fence?” she asked sarcastically, shaking her head at him and headed in.

“What are you doing?” he asked, grabbing her wrist.

“Going to get the Wooloo out of there.”

“But it’s off-limits. Nobody’s supposed to go in there,” he reminded her. “Remember when the professor’s granddaughter went in once, and she came back in a real state.”

Gloria frowned. “Yeah but I went in there too and came back fine,” she pointed out, shaking off his grip and taking her wrist back. “Look, I’m going in there with or without you,” she said, marching on.

Hop groaned and ran after her, glaring at her smile. “This doesn’t mean you’re right. This is just the kind of scene where you simply have to do what’s needed!”

“Whatever you say, Hop,” she responded, letting Rookie out of his ball when the fog began rolling in. “Remember this place buddy?”

“Corvi,” Rookie chirped, looking around.

“There’s a Wooloo that’s gone missing. Take to the skies and see if you can find him from above,” she instructed as he nodded, taking off. He flew through the trees disappearing from their sight. “Stick close. It’s only fog from here on out.”

“Right,” he murmured, standing closer to Gloria as they began walking through. Blaze was staring at the forest in awe. “That Wooloo…where do you think it got off to?”

“Not sure,” she admitted, taking in the surrounding area. The sounds of many different Pokémon cries, singing their tunes. Barely any sunlight managed to break through the thick leaves on the dozens of trees. The air was cool, a slight breeze running through and stirring up the leaves on the ground. The forest hadn’t changed since she was a child.

I wonder if that large Pokémon is still here, she wondered, coming across the small pond. “Careful to not slip,” she told Hop as she jumped on the small stone and got across.

“You seem at home in here,” Hop noted as they continued on, walking across the old, stone bridge. Covered in vines, leaves and moss…it had been here for a long time.

“Yeah,” she agreed, smiling a little. “It’s…it’s hard to explain but there’s just something that calls to me in here. And don’t you think it’s fascinating that time just stands still in here?”

He stared at her as she stood still, gazing softly at the dark forest. “Like there’s someone waiting for you in here,” he said, and she whirled around, beaming at him.

“Exactly. I knew you’d get it,” she said and Hop chuckled, lightly elbowing her in the side.

“I still think you’re barmy,” he winked and grabbed her wrist. “We better keep going or else that Wooloo might be in real trouble.”

She followed as they jogged further in. Just as she remembered from her childhood, the deeper they went in, the denser the fog became. Hope kept a hold on her wrist and eventually moved to her hand in order for them to not lose each other.

“This is mad!” Hope swore, squinting his eyes as they slowed to a walk. “I can’t even see my own hand in front of my face.”

“It gets worse the further we go in.”

“I think I get now why this place is off-limits,” he muttered as a large figure appeared in the fog. Hop flinched at the sight of the large, scarred dog-like Pokémon while Gloria beamed.

“It’s you again,” she smiled as its yellow eyes focused on her again. “Thank you for helping Rookie and I out that time.”

It growled low as she held a hand outwards. It stared at the hand for a moment before sniffing it. It’s ears, which had been previously close to its head were standing up straight.

“We need your help again. A Wooloo has gone missing around here,” Ria continued as it pulled back. It howled, the loud sound forcing the teens to cover their ears and more fog was released, covering the area.

“Ria!” Hop called out. “I can’t see anything. You okay?”

“I’m…I’m fine.” She answered, feeling a little weak in the knees and exhaustion washed over her. Her eyelids felt heavy and she struggled to keep them open any longer. It was if the fog itself was sucking all of the energy out of her body. “Hop…”

He called her name again as she collapsed onto the ground, darkness taking her.

We have waited for you, children of Alastair and Sander.

When she came to, Hop’s golden gaze was staring at her and his brows were furrowed. Behind him were the large, dark trees of the Slumbering Weald. Something warm was on her chest and she looked down, finding Blaze on her with his little paws gripping her grey cardigan.

“Ria, thank Arceus you’re awake,” Hop sighed, holding her tighter in his arms. She soon wiggled out of his arms and rose to her feet, holding the shaking Blaze in her arms. He must’ve been frightened by what happened.

“What happened?” she asked as she put her fingers to her lips, whistling for Rookie to return to her.

“I’m not sure, mate.” Hop admitted. “I was clonked out like you and woke up here. Heard Blaze here crying and saw you unconscious,” he shook his head, staring at her. “Gave me a real fright. Did this happen last time?”

Ria shook her head as she heard Rookie’s cry ring out across the forest. She whistled once more, hearing him draw closer—along with Leon.

“Wha—? Lee?” Hop exclaimed as his older brother broke through some thick bushes along with Rookie. Ria’s Pokémon landed in front of her as Leon checked on the pair. “How’d you manage to find your way here? You’re pants with directions. You always get lost.”

Leon shot him a glare. “Oh, that’s nice to hear from the little brother who had me worried sick,” he snapped at him before pointing his head at Rookie. “I’d been waiting for ages for you two and when you never showed up, I went to Ria’s place. Rookie found me and brought me to you guys.”

Ria crouched down, stroking her partner’s head. “Thanks for getting help,” she said as he nudged her hand.

“Where’s the Wooloo? We were trying to rescue that Wooloo.”

“The little chap’s fine by the entrance. Charizard is with him,” Leon answered, crossing his arms over his chest. “But you two know this place is off-bounds. However, it took courage to come in here all the same. And I can understand well enough why you did it.”

Hop rubbed the back of his neck, smiling. “At least that Wooloo’s all right.”

“Come on you two, let’s get out of this place. You’ll be all right now that I’m here with you,” Leon said, walking ahead. The two soon followed and Ria noticed Hop sticking close to her side.

“You okay?’ she asked him quietly and he nodded.

“Yeah. Just shaking off the shock,” he reassured her with a smile. “Even if we did get an earful from Lee, what an experience. This’ll make a pretty fine first page in the tale of my legend.”

oOo

A Few Hours Later…

After a flock of Wooloo halted their train ride to Motostoke, the teens were walking through the smaller Wild Area outside the great city. Eventually Hop parted ways to have one last training session before the opening ceremony tomorrow. They promised to meet up at the stadium so they could sign up together—something the darker teen made her swear by.

As she was walking along the Axel Lake, Rommie flew out of her pocket with Teddy’s ringtone playing. “Teddy’s requesting a video call.”

“Put him through,” she instructed, coming to a stop. Blaze jumped out of her arms, choosing to run around the area. “Stick close by where I can see you.”

“Bun!” Blaze answered back, disappearing into the bushes.

“Sounds like you’ve got your hands full already,” Teddy chuckled as his image flicked onto the small phone screen. He was the spitting image of their father—the same black hair and the Sycamore grey eyes—but he had a large scar across his left eye from a Pyroar a few years ago. Teddy jokes that it’s the only way people could tell him and their father apart. “I wanted to wish you luck on your journey. Sorry I couldn’t be there to see you off.”

Ria shrugged her shoulders. “It’s fine. People in Almia just don’t get how big the Gym Challenge is. They don’t even have a league there.”

“Aye but all the same, I’ve missed out on a family reunion. Have you got a game plan?”

“I picked up a Scorbunny. Both my fire and flying types will be at an advantage against Milo. I just need to get my hands on either an electric or a grass-type for Nessa’s gym. I’ll be able to find a water-type in Hulbury somewhere for Kabu’s gym.”

“Good. Make sure to follow through on your plan. I’ve got my TV set up to record all of yours and Hop’s matches. Tell him good luck for me next time you see him.”

“I will,” she promised as Blaze’s cried out. Frowning, she, and Rookie rushed over to where her smaller Pokémon just as a small explosion erupted. Dirt and dust flew into the air and Ria coughed a few times, swiping it away. “Blaze? Are you okay?”

“Bun, bun,” the small Pokémon confirmed as she discovered a small, lighter coloured Budew shivering behind him. Blaze was protecting it from his stance, and she glanced to where he was glaring. A couple of Nickit were on the ground, clearly injured and growling at Blaze.

They were attacking this Budew. Or at the very least antagonising it, she realised, running over, and picking up the Budew in her arms. “Rookie, use Air Slash to clear them away,” she ordered as he sprung into action. Using his large wings, he sent gusts of razor-sharp air pockets to whip them away. Only one hung onto the ground and sprinted towards Blaze once the air died down. “Blaze, use Quick Attack.”

Blaze disappeared for a split second before reappearing and knocking into the last Nickit. The collision sent the dark-type flying through the air and landing on the ground, completely knocked out. Seeing the enemy defeated, the fire-type spun around to flash them a wide grin.

“Good job bud,” Gloria complimented and knelt down to gently place the Budew onto the ground. A flash of light caught everyone’s attention and it turned out the source was none other than Blaze himself. Having seen an evolution in progress plenty of times at her father’s day care, the brunette watched in fascination. His body began to grow in height and width, his ears getting longer and flopping down. When the light disappeared, Blaze had finished his evolution and was staring at his paws in fascination.

“You got him to evolve already?” Teddy’s voice interrupted her stare, alerting her to the fact that he was still on the phone. “That was too quick. What kind of training regime have you been doing with him?”

“The same one as Rookie’s,” she answered, eyes flicking over to the floating Rotom phone. “Rommie, scan Blaze and bring up his Pokedex entry.”

“Okie dokie,” she chirped, quickly scanning Blaze’s form and brought the information up on the screen.

Raboot, the Rabbit Pokémon and the evolved form of Scorbunny. It’s thick and fluffy fur protects it from the cold and enables it to use hotter fire moves. It kicks berries right off the branches of trees and then juggles them with its feet, practicing its footwork.

“Congrats on evolving, Blaze,” she smiled as he checked on the Budew. Seeing how he checked for injuries had Gloria smiling widely. She also couldn’t help but stare at the different coloured Budew. It’s outer layer was a brighter green and the little bits of petal on its front was purple instead of the usual darker green. It took her a moment to realise that the Budew in front of her was an infamous ‘shiny’ Pokémon. Gloria had planned on obtaining a Pokémon for Nessa’s gym and the Budew line tended to have higher special attack stats. “Hey Budew,” Gloria caught its attention and smiled. “How would you like to come with us?”

Budew glanced at Blaze who gave her a nod. Encouraged, Budew walked closer to the teen and lightly tapped its head against the outstretched Pokeball. After disappearing and a few tense seconds later, Gloria had added a Budew to her team.

A quick scan on her Pokedex showed that this Budew was a female and had the ability of natural cure. An ability that would no doubt come in handy during the Gym Challenge.

Gloria released the Budew and pondered over a name. Not wanting for Victor to make fun of her again, she moved away from the obvious choice of Rose. Finally, after musing over a few choices, she smiled at her new Pokémon. “How does the name Pollen sound?”

“Budew,” she chimed happily as Rommie registered the name.

“Welcome to the team, Pollen.”

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Songs: Into The Unknown by Panic! At The Disco and Team by Tova. Both songs have been added to the Spotify playlist for this fic. Each time I'm writing up a chapter, I add the songs I'm listening to when writing said chapter so think of it as a preview. If you wanna check it out, it's called the Rough Diamond Playlist. 

Thanks to everyone who's kudos and a special shout out to a_human_called_aoife for your lovely comment! Honestly had me smiling while reading it and I hope you continue to enjoy this fic. More comments are appreciated! Seriously, they make writers post work quicker. 

Also, this chapter took a while as I've just moved into my new house and getting a new job. 

[somefantasticplace]

THE SECRET LIFE OF BOB

On living in a homeless hostel, a year of paralysis and the Hell's Angel who stole his girlfriend

"Do you want me to tell you the truth?" asks Bob Mortimer. "It’s just that most people want me to lie and talk nonsense to them." Generally, people like to assume that he is a funny little fellow wearing a bra and clutching an oversized frying pan all year round.

More than anyone else who has spent so much time on our television screens in the last ten years, the off-duty Bob Mortimer is an impenetrable character. He has always maintained a lower public profile than his cohort Vic Reeves and, such is the fantastical nature of his on-screen persona, it is almost impossible to consider the life he leads outside it. On the telly, his every move - whether he is lowered from a ceiling impersonating Liberace or mock-scolding his comic partner - is able to reduce an audience to hysterics. There’s something about the every movement of his diminutive frame that is unfathomably amusing . It’s much the same when he’s off duty; his face is boyish and cheeky, his eyes permanently excited and his shouty laugh an almost constant accompaniment to his words.

He’s surprised but willing when he’s asked to tell the truth. And, remarkably, he maintains his affable demeanour as he begins to recount it. For the 30 years before he was famous, he occupied a world characterised by drinking, violence, anarchy, homelessness and incapacitating illness. It was out of those often dark and disturbing experiences that Mortimer grew to become the self effacing, likeable and outstandingly funny 40 year old he is today.

"We got the shit kicked out of us"

A childhood in Middlesbrough

Bob Mortimer’s home was made to breed recklessness: there were four brothers and no father. His Dad died when he was six and his Mum was left to discipline the rabble as best she could. "She tried her best to be strict. My eldest brother was a rocker and the next one down was a mod. Ours was the house that all their mates would come round to because there was no dad."

While his troublesome siblings misbehaved on the streets of Middlesbrough, the young Bob would occupy his entire time with football. "I’d play all day long," he says. "I wanted to be a footballer and I went for the apprenticeship with Middlesbrough FC. I was in their under-15 team. At the end of the season you were dragged into the office to be told if you were going to be taken on and I wasn’t. It was a shock because I was good - one of the best in my town. But you don’t realise what a big world it is and how many other good players there are."

His passion for the club was therefore confined to watching from the terraces. He started in the early Seventies, when hooliganism was approaching its golden age, and developed a strange fascination for the violence that surrounded him. He spray-painted the words "Boro Boot Boys" on the wall of Barclays bank in Middlesbrough town centre, but he became less of an enthusiastic observer after experiencing yobbery close up: "When I was 14 we were at Leeds and suddenly found ourselves surrounded - they knew we were ‘Boro. We got the shit kicked out of us. I was running away when I looked back and saw three of the Leeds fans kicking the shit out of my brother. So I ran back to try and help but this little boy held out a coke bottle at about head height and it smacked me one. I managed to jump in and had quite a good impact at first but after that we were done. I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking of. My brother was in hospital for weeks."

"I was a Libertarian Anarchist"

Becoming politically aware in Brighton

Being far more cautious about avoiding trouble, Mortimer went on to follow ‘Boro to 63 league grounds. It’s a statistic he reels off with childish enthusiasm. Remarkably, he continued his devotion even after leaving his home-town. When it came to choosing a university, the young Bob headed as far away from home as he could. "Quadrophenia had just come out and I loved the album," he says. "So I went down for my interview at Sussex University, I went and stood on Brighton beach and thought to myself ‘I’ve got to fucking come here.’ "

It was a whimsical decision that was to have a distinct impression on his character: "I’d just been in Middlesbrough playing football and all of a sudden I was studying stuff about racism which really opened my eyes. Until then I probably was a racist in so far as I just thought everything was fine. In Middlesbrough we had an Asian community but I never thought of them having anything to complain about. But once my eyes were open I developed that youthful passion about certain issues. I was a Libertarian anarchist. We chained ourselves to things and disrupted exams . It’s a load of wank really but it’s worthwhile on a personal level."

The first few months at Sussex were unhappy enough to tempt him to drop out. He remembers with distinct embarrassment the occasion on which he arrived at a law society ball, dressed in his Middlesbrough shirt and Doc Martens, to be confronted by a sea of chuckling Southern-types in tuxedos.

He found solace in the football team, of which he became a member and was coached by current Leicester City manager Martin O’Neil. While his new found politics provided a further focal point he didn’t become entirely serious. Drunk, he rampaged through the streets of Brighton one fateful evening putting in the front windows of two shops. "The police turned up straight away and all I could do was shrug, admit to it and say ‘Sorry, I’m pissed.’ " Threatened with a charge, his university tutor intervened and Mortimer was let off with an enormous fine. He spent years paying it off, but keeping his criminal record clean was essential to the career he was about to embark upon.

"I lived in a homeless hostel"

Hard times in South London

"I saw an advert that said: ‘Take on the government with Southwark Council.’ So I took the job as a lawyer." The newly idealistic Mortimer had taken a masters degree in welfare law and embraced the crusade against homelessness and degradation in one of the country’s most deprived boroughs. Ironically, it was he who ended up without a home. "I had nowhere to stay in London so the Council said that I could stay in their homeless hostel until I found somewhere. I ended up staying there for four years."

He admits he was shambolic in his day-to-day approach to working, but he was relatively successful as a lawyer. " I did a very good job of playing the system," he says with pride. "I could more or less guarantee people that could re-house them, which is what they wanted. They were living in dumps and I could get them out. It really changed their lives."

His successes were largely due to dogged approach to the job. This was an attribute he was to apply to his future career. "Bob is a worrier," says the Fast Show’s Charlie Higson, a long time friend and colleague who has recently directed Mortimer in Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased). "Whereas Jim [Vic to us] has an unswerving faith in everything they do, Bob studies tapes of their shows and takes extensive notes. He’s learnt a great deal from doing that, though."

Bob’s happy memories of legal success are harshly offset by the hardship he experienced during the same period. " I woke up one morning with rheumatoid arthritis," he says. "I went to lift my head but couldn’t. Then my mouth went. I had to drink through a straw and be dressed and bathed for about nine months." His girlfriend of the time nursed him through the illness in the confines of the hostel. Although there is an obvious downturn in his usually cheery expression, Mortimer recounts his experience with surprising matter-of-factness. Eventually, he found the right combination of pills to relieve the pain and return to work but the problem has forced him to abandon his love of playing football forever. "I just can’t do it, so I don’t think about it," he asserts briskly.

"I was pissed out of my head"

Meeting Vic Reeves

Work as a solicitor was arduous and poorly paid, but Mortimer ploughed on: after moving to a private practice he got 70 per cent of his 1500 clients acquitted. "I enjoyed being a solicitor at the beginning," he says. "But after a while the appeal tails off a bit and I was such a conservative fella that I didn’t think there was anything else I could do.  I just though ‘Well, this is it for the next 30 years.‘ "

It took a dramatic course of chance events to redirect him. "I was living in this hostel with my girlfriend. I came home one dinnertime and found this Hell’s Angel shagging her. I was terribly upset. I was standing there in my suit because I’d just come from court, so I looked a right c***. I just told her to get out."

That evening, he was keen to drown his sorrows but had few friends in London. In the end, he looked up a vague acquaintance from Middlesbrough. "I’d never really been in touch with him but I was desperate so I gave him a ring. He said he was going to see his mate do a comedy show and I said, ‘All right, I’ll come.’ " The mate turned out to be Jim Moir who was performing as Vic Reeves for the first time that night at the Goldsmith’s Tavern in London’s New Cross. "It was just Jim and five of his mates in the room upstairs. There wasn’t much to it - everyone got up and did something, it was just arseing about." Bob describes himself as being "painfully shy" and implies that it was only the circumstances that had brought him to the pub that night that encouraged him to get involved in the comedy. Almost every week, word of mouth would cause the size of the audience at the show to double. In the end, it moved downstairs into the pub and Bob became more and more involved.

If his recently-scorned mood had encouraged him to perform on his first night with Vic, how did he overcome his shyness in front of a packed boozer? "I was pissed out of my head," he admits. "I can’t believe I did it. But they were nice people in the audience and they would come up and talk to me afterwards. There must have been something in that that tempted me to carry on. Jim is naturally quite outgoing but I don’t know what the fuck I was doing on the stage. Getting a reaction was quite intoxicating for a man who had always been shy." Vic refutes this, claiming: "I’ve never thought of Bob as particularly shy. But there was something in both our upbringings that discouraged us from ever parading ourselves like peacocks."

Bob still describes these early shows as the funniest things he and his partner have ever produced and, as crowds of 250 people began to fill the venue, television executives began to show an interest. "The show taking off was such a gift," he reflects. "I was so conservative that, even if someone had offered me another job when I was a solicitor, I would have said no. But the one thing no-one can resist is the offer to go on telly. Even when we got the offer to do a series I made sure I still had a job to go back to. In fact, I only took twelve weeks off work." Things were suddenly changing in all aspects of his life. Just before his television debut, he returned from a break in Middlesbrough to find the hostel burned down by the man who lived in the room below: "He didn’t think anyone was in but there was and they had to jump from the top to escape," Bob remembers.

He was re-housed by the council to a flat in a Peckam tower block. He stayed throughout the first two series of Vic Reeves Big Night Out on Channel Four, and when the BBC poached him and Vic (in what must have been a lucrative deal), he still remained in the flat. In fact, he was there for two whole series of The Smell Of Reeves and Mortimer, by which time he had become one of the country’s most high profile performers. Why? "It was nothing more than deep-rooted laziness," he confesses. "Eventually I bought a place up the road. But when I was still in the flat I remember Lloyd Grossman wanted to do a Through The Keyhole with me. It would have been funny because it was a real cockroach infested place, but I resisted the temptation."

"There's always one that wants to hit you"

Growing up

Today, Bob Mortimer is slightly drunk. "I tried absinthe for the first time last night and I haven’t really recovered," he reveals. His stocky figure is unusually bedraggled as he makes himself a cup of tea and recounts the proceedings of his night out, during which Vic showed him his large collection of photographs of dog excrement. His experimentation with absinthe was the first drinking he has done in a full six months. In fact, he says, he tries to avoid pubs altogether nowadays: "There’s always one when you’re just having a drink and they say: ‘Who do you think you are?’ And they want to hit you. And we’re not fighting men. I mean, unless we’re out with [Mark] Lamarr. He’s handy - is that the word?"

Mortimer embarks on yet another change of direction in the forthcoming BBC series Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased). In it, he and Vic make their debuts as straight(ish) actors. "Bob was a bit embarrassed at first," says Reeves. "He had a couple of weeks where he was coached for straight acting, but I don’t think he needed it. He does worry about things, like what show we should do next and what direction we should take. I just let him work it out in his own mind before I talk to him about it." Behind the playful, casual exterior, there appears to be an intensity borne out of the fact that he truly treasures his career.

Last year, he announced an intention to stop working for up to three years in order to spend more time with his family. Since filming Randall & Hopkirk, Bob has immersed himself in a long spell of doing nothing. "I enjoy it because it’s like when you used to nick off school when you were a kid," he enthuses. "And I know, eventually, I’ll be going back to work." He is also occupied with his two young children. "Fatherhood is a massive turning point. But it surprises me how many people say they enjoy it from the off. I mean, my memories of the first two years with both my kids is of not sleeping - passing my girlfriend on the stairs and saying ‘We’ve got to get through this.’ " He now sees fatherhood as providing a sense of purpose in life, as well as being a bit of a laugh. "Lying kids on the bed, putting adult clothes over them and drawing ‘tasches on them is fucking hilarious!" he says. "I remember when our plumber Ken Fowler came round to fix the boiler. My boy was sitting in a highchair wearing a vest and we’d drawn a big tattoo on his arm that said ‘I love Ken Fowler’." Hysterics ensue at the memory of the plumber’s bafflement.

Indeed, Mortimer is happy to get his kicks as a family man nowadays. The fact that he was 30 by the time he embarked upon a life in showbiz meant that he had a more considered approach to the trappings of his success. "Me and Jim are quite susceptible to ‘mad for it’ areas," he says. "But I suspect that, had it all been available to us when we were 18 not 30, it would have blown our minds. I think, being older, you have the perspective so you try and be polite and helpful. You see some young comics acting line c***s, like they’re a big deal. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t have been like that myself at 18, but you do feel like telling them how lucky they are." Perhaps more than anyone in his position, Mortimer is well aware of what the alternatives are.

Later

April 2000

[fixxofvixx]

BLOODRIGHT- VAMPIRE JAEHWAN AU- CHAPTER 3

I have some vampire Jaehwan for you all! I really hope you like this chapter. It was fun to write! I'm not sure what the next update will be. It might be Teaching VIXX or Possession. Both of those are running around in my brain right now.

Please let me know what you think!❤

🧛‍♂️🧛‍♂️🧛‍♂️🧛‍♂️🧛‍♂️🧛‍♂️🧛‍♂️🧛‍♂️

The cooks in the kitchen were very good at their job. You had never had food this good. There was only one cook in your old house and she was very picky with her kitchen. You were never allowed to help or even be in the kitchen. But, cooking had always fascinated you so you would sneak into the kitchen sometimes to look around. You were never brave enough to touch anything. She caught you one day and that was one of the most frightening encounters you had ever had. But, here, the cooks we jovial and caring.

Jaehwan sat at the small table in the corner and patiently watched as you gathered the food that you wanted. When you were finished you slowly made your way over to the table. You watched Jaehwan for an indication that you could sit with him. Then, you remembered what he'd said earlier so you took a chance. You carefully sat down across from him. You looked down at your dress and realized that you'd never thanked him for it.

"Oh, my manners are still terrible."

"What do you mean?" You jumped when he spoke and then gasped.

"I said that out loud, didn't I?" A heavy blush of embarrassment covered your cheeks. You were surprised when he just chuckled.

"Is that a habit of yours?"

"Yes, one that has landed me in trouble more times than I'd care to count."

"I think you'll find that it would take a miracle for you to get in trouble here. No training, remember?"

"Yes, but I should still have manners. I forgot to thank you for the dress. It's beautiful."

"You're very welcome. You have an entire wardrobe waiting for you upstairs."

"Really? I'm sorry, you didn't have to do that. I brought some of my clothes and things with me."

"More like that dress and coat from earlier?" His eyes turned angry again and you fidgeted in your seat. He noticed your reaction and took a deep breath to calm himself. "I'm just angry with your parents, you have nothing to be nervous about. You needn't fear me. I won't get angry at you and I sure as hell won't send you back."

One of the cooks came over and placed more food on the table. You smiled and thanked her. The cook had stepped away when you remembered that you didn't bow properly. You started to move but Jaehwan stopped you.

"If you get up just to bow I'm going to take away your food."

You turned back to Jaehwan, your face clearly showing that you were torn about what to do.

"But..."

"Just eat, y/n. She knows you're thankful. You said thank you and that's enough. They like you already. They aren't going to think less of you if you don't bow each and every times. Just relax and eat." He smiled at you and you somehow felt better.

You finished your food in record time and you felt a hundred times better than when you first arrived. Jaehwan chatted with you about the kind of food that you liked while you ate. He asked if there was anything you hated or couldn't eat.

"I have an allergy to some fish but it's not bad. Mother and father loved fish so I have gotten used to the side effects. So you don't have to worry about what is in the food." You smiled reassuringly at him but it was gone when you saw his hands turn to fists on the table. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths. You grabbed your now empty tray and stood quickly from the table.

When you turned from the table, your feet got caught on the hem of your dress and you tumbled to the floor. The tray went flying out of your hands and clattered to the floor. The glass for the water flipped off of the tray and shattered. You gasped in horror at your clumsiness and reached for the broken glass. You tried desperately to pick everything up so fast. One of the cooks came forward and started to help you.

"I-It's okay, I can clean it up. I'm so sorry. I'm very clumsy sometimes. I-" you let out a short scream when an arm suddenly came around your waist and pulled you from the floor.

"We've got this, Your Highness, don't worry." You saw Jaehwan nod quickly in agreement and then your vision was blurred as he sped you towards another part of the house. You partially saw the stairs and then you were in a bedroom.

When Jaehwan stopped, you closed your eyes due to the dizziness. With you still in his arms, he walked towards the bed, turned you around and placed you on the largest mattress you'd ever seen.

"Don't move."

You didn't move a muscle as he sped out of the room and then came back with some cloth and a box of some sort. As he approached you worried more and more about what he was going to do. He sat down beside you and grabbed your hand. It was only then that you realized that one of your fingers was bleeding terribly. You gasped at the blood that was dripping from your hand and onto your dress. You hadn't even realized that the glass had cut your hand. After cleaning the blood from your hand and applying something that smelled putrid onto your finger, Jaehwan ripped a piece of cloth effortlessly and wrapped it around the cut.

"I've changed my mind." Jaehwan spoke so softly that you almost didn't hear him. When you registered the words, tears sprang into your eyes.

"You're sending me back?" Honestly, you were not surprised. "I understand. I've caused a lot of problems in the short time I've been here."

"That's not what I meant." You looked up at his face in shock. He wasn't sending you back? "I mean, I've changed my mind about the training."

"Oh." A new wave of despair hit you. The word 'training' was never a good word in your vocabulary.

"What do you mean, 'oh'?"

"I mean, alright. I'll try to succeed in my training here."

"The training you receive here is going to be far different than what you are used to."

You swallowed thinking about what kind of skills you would have to learn this time. And what the punishments would be if you failed. Still, you just nodded in agreement, unable to argue.

"The first thing you're going to learn is to not be afraid."

"What?"

"I want you to stop being afraid of every move you make. Everything that you learned at your house, I want you to forget it."

"But.....what should I do then?"

"Live how you want to. Yes, I get angry and lose my temper but it's not directed at you. I'm angry at how you were treated before you came here. I want you to forget everything from that house. Your new training will be to reverse ALL of your previous training. And.....no punishments." His finger lightly grazed your arm causing goosebumps in its wake. "This.....will never happen here."

Your mind turned over everything he said. The idea was certainly intriguing but you were still nervous about it. How in the world would you be able to reverse all of that?

"You're different than what mother said you'd be."

"Oh, really? I don't think I ever met your mother before. What did she say?"

"She said you were ancient, at least 900 years old. An evil vampire who had been around for ages terrorizing the town and that you promised to stop if you were given a blood donor. She said that you had grey hair, red eyes, and claws. She also said that your face was deformed and I should never look at it directly or you would get very angry." When you finished, he didn't say anything. You took a peek at him and his face only showed pure shock.

"Do.....Do I look like that?"

"No, not at all! Well, except for the red eyes. And your hair is more white than grey. I will admit that I believed her so I was a little surprised when I first saw you. I'm not really sure why my mother said all of that."

"I'm not ancient....." His face showed a pout and you laughed without thinking. He looked up at you and you froze.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh."

"It's alright, the situation is honestly laughable. I want you to laugh. Not many people in the village have seen me so I suppose it's only natural for stories to surface. But I don't think I've ever terrorized anyone so I'm not sure where that came from. The contracts with donors have been around for many many years. It's not something I invented." He laughed and started putting all of the supplies back in the box he had brought.

"Well, I'm glad that you haven't terrorized anyone. I wasn't sure what to expect."

"The only people I want to terrorize now are your parents. If I had known, I would have sent for you sooner."

"It's okay. I am thankful to be here now."

"Truthfully?"

"Yes. You can tell if I lie, right?"

"I can, but I wanted to hear you say it. And don't worry too much about the donor stuff yet. I want you to get comfortable here first. I have other means until then."

"Alright." You didn't ask what those means were. You were almost afraid to.

"You are welcome to go anywhere in this house. Nothing is off limits for you."

"Where is your room?"

"D-Do you want to go there?"

"No! No, I mean I wanted to know so I DON'T accidentally go in there." Heat flushed your cheeks at the thought of what he must have been thinking.

"Ah, it's on the other end of the hall. It's the very last room."

"The same floor?"

"Is that alright? I can move to another part of the house if you prefer."

"No, of course not. This is your house and I don't mind. I was just curious." And nervous....

"It's your house too now. But I promise not to intrude or barge into your room. I might be a vampire but I do have my manners." He smiled as if he was proud of himself.

"Yes, I believe you."

Jaehwan suddenly turned and cocked his head to the side as if he was listening for something.

"I believe Min has returned."

You were anxious to see if Min had found the boy, Charlie, at the stables. You stood from the bed but hesitated. You looked back at Jaehwan.

"Go on, you needn't my permission to leave." You started to bow but he stopped you. "And no bowing!"

Smiling, you took off for downstairs. Your smile disappeared once you saw Min carrying Charlie in the door.

"C-Charlie?" You rushed to Min's side but was afraid to touch the boy. When you saw that he was breathing you gave out a slight sigh. A rush of air came beside you and you looked up to see Jaehwan standing next to you.

"Took me a bit but I found him out behind the stables. His breathing is good and so is his heartbeat. I think they were hoping for the wolves to find him while he was knocked out so it would look like an accident. There were a lot of food scraps laid out around him."

You looked at the boy through teary eyes.

"How could they do this to such a good little boy? He just lost his parents not long ago. He's only 9 and had to endure so much already."

"Min, put him in one of the rooms upstairs, close to y/n's and then ask Penny to look after him."

"Yes, Sir."

You watched as Min carried Charlie up the stairs.

"I wanted to bring him with me but my parents refused. They said you would eat him if I did." Jaehwan laughed at your words.

"I wouldn't have minded if you brought him along," and leaned down and put his head next to yours, "and I don't really EAT people. I only bite."

Which was exactly what he was going to do to you. You kept trying to push that thought out of your mind, terrified of how it was going to happen. Jaehwan seemed oblivious to your fear or if he knew, he didn't say anything.

He nudged you forward and you both followed Min and Charlie up the stairs.

"Penny used to be a nurse before I turned her. She'll know how to take care of him."

"You t-turned her?" You looked up at him, shock written all over your face. You were not sure you wanted to know the story behind that.

"Yes, she asked me to. She had looked after this place most of her life and wasn't ready to leave it. I asked her to be certain about a thousand times but she wouldn't budge." He had a ghost of a smile on his face, evidently remembering old times. You almost felt at a loss. You'd never known that kind of dedication from anyone.

"D-Does it hurt?"

"Turning?"

"No......biting...."

"Ah, well I would be lying if I said it didn't but it's only for a moment. No more than a second." He smiled reassuringly at you, nothing but kindness in his eyes.

"Oh."

"I won't bite you right away, don't worry. I wanted to give you the choice but seeing as your mother took that priviledge away...."

"It's okay. Like I said, I accepted my fate a long time ago."

"You speak as if I'm planning to kill you. You're a donor, love, not a sacrifice."

"I-I know." His sudden term of endearment sent heat to your cheeks for what seemed like the tenth time tonight. He'd said it so easily and honestly, you didn't mind it.

"All of that stuff can come later. You just got here today and so much has already happened. Just focus on getting comfortable here."

You nodded, smiling softly. Maybe living here wouldn't be so bad.

You followed Min into the room next to yours and hurried around to the other side of the bed to turn the blankets down. Right after Charlie was in the bed, Penny came through the door like a hurricane.

"Where is he? Oh, you poor little ducky. What happened?"

Min explained the situation to Penny and you watched as the anger set into her features.

"Oooh how I wish I would have rung their necks while they were here! They had obviously planned for that to happen. Wretched, rotten people!" Penny went to work immediately. Gathering all the medical supplies she would need she set to bandaging the cut on the back of Charlie's head.

"Jaehwan, I need some clothes for him. Do you have anything small enough?"

"Maybe..."

"Then go get it! He doesn't need to be in these awful clothes a moment longer." You watched in fascination as Jaehwan followed Penny's every command without a peep. It as if the roles were reversed and you were genuinely impressed with Penny's fortitude.

"Y/N, grab that water basin and cloth. We'll have to make do with just wiping him down until we can get him upright in a bath."

"Yes, ma'am." You grabbed the water and began cleaning Charlie off as Penny removed his dirty clothes. She tossed them in the floor with a disgusted look.

"Ugh, Min, get rid of those blasted things, will ya dear?"

"Of course." Just like Jaehwan, Min followed Penny's order and walked out of the room, clothes in tow."

"Penny?"

"Yes, dear?"

"Are you sure you're not the royalty here?"

"Ha! Those two would be in a heap of trouble if I was!"

"I heard that." Jaehwan walked back into the room with some clothes for Charlie.

"I apologize for asking out of turn."

"Y/N." You looked at Jaehwan and he shook his head, silently disapproving of your apology.

"Don't say things like that. You know you can ask anything you want."

"Especially if it's at Jaehwan's expense!"

You smiled and then caught yourself. When you looked up at Jaehwan he was rolling his eyes then making a gesture behind Penny's back as if he was going to attack her. His hands were up, curled as if he had claws and his teeth were bared.

"Jaehwan, do I need to talk to you privately later?"

"No, ma'am." Jaehwan straightened up immediately and stood still. You couldn't help but smile a bit. Jaehwan looked over at you and winked which only proved to widen your smile.

"There, all finished, sweet boy. Now, we just need to keep an eye on him until he wakes. Y/N, you should get some sleep." Penny tucked the blankets around Charlie and smoothed his hair out of his face.

"Oh, that's alright. I'll stay and watch him for a while. I don't want to leave him yet."

"Well, alright. I need to finish the last bit of laundry and then a few other things. Let me know if anything changes, I'll be back soon."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Penny, sweetheart, you call me Penny. We're family now."

[rosevanhelsing]

Chapter 4

Manx got in the car and drove back to town, looked at the card, and drove to the Jeff’s  father workshop. He smiled when he saw that Jeff was there, Jeff  greeted him happily. Charlie got out of the car and said:

- Hello, young Stevens I have brought my car as I told you.

- Good morning, sir ... - said Jeff's father who had come out to greet them.

- Mr. Manx. I met his boy one day and he was so fascinated by my car that he gave me his card in case I ever needed  your  services.

- Ah okay. What has to be done?

- You have to change the oil, and a ruffian broke the car blinker.

Jeff's father Bernard leaned over to look at the  car blinker and said:

- Buff, I need to see if any scrap yards have spare parts ... and they won't be easy to find. While I could fix you if you need the car. Luckily it was only the glass and not the focus.

- Do what you can. Spare no expense.

Bernard went to his office to look at inventories and while Jeff gazed in admiration at the dark Rolls Royce.

"You've fallen in love ..." Charlie said in a joking tone. "Come on, hop up," he said, opening the door for him. You are dying of desire.

Jeff got into the driver's seat, although without starting the engine since Charlie had the keys in his coat.

"You want to take a ride in the Wraith, young Stevens?"

- Call me Jeff, please. And yes, the truth is that I would love ...

Charlie got into the car and Jeff moved to the passenger seat

- Well, while your father looks for the piece, I'll give you a quick walk, although I'm sure it will be the best trip of your life.

Jeff smiled, told his father that he was going for a spin, and settled into the soft leather seat of the Wraith. After two minutes of driving, Manx said:

- Well, Jeff. I don't know if your girlfriend told you that a boy had been bothering her and I helped her.

- Yes of course. And by the way, thank you very much for taking so much trouble, although surely Lily would have ended up solving it herself. Anyway, I'll talk to John and he'll hear me ... the weird thing is that he hasn't come today ...

Charlie chuckled to herself.  Jeff was a very innocent boy, despite his age, and he looked very confident, it would be very easy to get the information he needed from him.

- It was a pleasure helping your girlfriend, she is a charming young woman and without a doubt she could have solved it alone, she is seen as a very talented girl ... to tell the truth, I smell that she has some very special talent ...

- Lily? Well, she certainly has many talents. Like singing, for example, it's like an angel and Mary looks like it will be the same. They sing in a choir and tomorrow they do a little show for the people, you can go see them if you want.

- I'll think about it, it must be worth it ...

- However, I believe that Lily has a much more special gift ...

Charlie arched an eyebrow and smiled. "Now we are going to want to know," Manx thought.

- And what gift is that?

- I think he is able to predict the future using the Tarot Cards.

- Ah, well, how curious, and is she very correct with her predictions?

- I do not know. But once I saw her get weird while doing it ...

- Weird?

- She was like in a trance ... and both the television and the radio began to interfere ... that day he did make a very exact prediction and when he came out of the trance he began to cry and said that he had seen that his father would die, and indeed that same day he died.

Manx had already confirmed her suspicion, Jeff was a good boy but he had no power, the Wraith had not reacted, so it was clear that it was Lily who had it. She had to make it clear to young Aberforth that it was not a good idea to go after him. In fact, the best thing was to get hold of the girl's "knife", probably the Tarot cards she used, and destroy it. If she resisted ... well, maybe he would have to take her on a one-way trip to Christmasland ... although he didn't think it was necessary. Most of the people who were creative souls like him, and there weren't many, as soon as they met him they got out of his way. In other cases, like Jolene Julie, he had been forced to steal or destroy their "knives" and thus he had solved the problem. And  then there  another little problem that he had to solve, who the hell was that mysterious girl visiting Christmasland? He  would take care of that, though, when he was done with Miss Aberforth. Charlie Manx turned the car around and they went back to the garage, just in time for Jeff's father to come out of the office and said:

- It is your lucky day, I found a spare part, but it will take a couple of days to arrive, I will make a fix and a document so that the police do not tell you anything and you can use your car. It will be 450 $

- Thank you. No problem, I'll be around.

Jeff said:

- It's a beautiful car and it's in perfect condition, sir. How did you get it?

- Well ... let's say it was an irresistible offer ... it was a used car but it was practically new. I got it relatively cheap because nobody wanted it.

- And why is that? Is it too flashy? Too old?

- No. It was because its previous owner committed suicide inside with his family.

- Jesus! - Jeff started hurriedly leaving.

The next day there was one of the concerts given by the choir where Lily and Mary sang in one of the churches in town. Charlie came over to pry, since he didn't have anything else to do while he waited for the Rolls’s blinker to be fixed, and he also wanted to observe Lily, to know how to proceed with her. He stood in the last rows and in the shadows so that he can go unnoticed.  The choir director explained that the concert would be movie songs and then they would sing a rehearsal for the Christmas concert.

Lily, having one of the best voices, sang a couple of solo songs, Charlie looked at her and listened with interest, he had to admit that Jeff had not exaggerated, at all, respect for Lily's gift for singing and   also little Mary Aberforth it seemed that she would be as good at singing as her sister

When the two sisters sang Christmas carols, Charlie looked at them avidly and wished to take them to Christmasland, it would be so splendid to hear them sing Christmas carols with his children ... Manx only took children who were in the Cemetery of what might be, but  he was considering making an exception with them... However, it was too risky a move to take them alone. I needed to find a helper soon ...

When the concert ended and the two sisters were leaving with their mother and grandmothers, Charlie introduced himself to them and said:

- My sincerest congratulations, ladies. It has been a pleasure to hear them.

Mary hugged him, to everyone's surprise, including Charlie himself, and said:

- Did you like the way I sang, Mr. Manx?

- A lot, little one- said smiling

"But who are you?" asked Lucy.

- My name is Charles Talent Manx, ma'am. Nice to meet you ...

- Likewise, I am Lucy, the mother of Lily and Mary.

- So you are the one who helped my granddaughters against that stalker? - asked Martha, Lucy's mother.

- Oh, I'm sure her granddaughter Lily would have been able to handle that stalker, but the little girl seemed so scared for her older sister ... also I can't stand men who abuse women and even less children.

Martha looked at him approvingly but Cassandra looked at him suspiciously. She knew who he really was and what he wanted but she couldn't reveal  in public, and it disturbed her how Mary was already falling under the influence of that monster. Cassie grabbed Mary's hand and pulled her closer to her. Lucy said:

- I would like to thank you properly, Mr. Manx ... why don't you come for to have a drink tomorrow at five?

Charlie looked at her doubtfully, his mind weighing the pros and cons at full speed. For him it was too much exposure to public life, but on the other hand he could recognize Lily's terrain, perhaps even find her knife, and he said:

- I will be pleased…                                                                                      

[alexsfictionaddiction]

Alex Recommends: May and June Books

I must apologise for the late arrival of this post. It should have been up days ago but I’ve been struggling to read much for the last month or so. My head has been very foggy and dark with all of the confusion, anxiety and hate that has been filling my news feeds and I’ve been filled with a desire to combat it. Before this month, I’d have run in the opposite direction from any kind of confrontation but recent events have given me the kick up the butt to actively do better. I’ve been calling out bigotry when I come across it and I’ve noticed that some people, notably my older relatives, haven’t necessarily reacted favorably to the changed, more outspoken Alex. It has been pretty daunting and I’ve worked myself up into fits of rage and tears several times over the last couple of months.

A lot of things have changed for me since my last Alex Recommends post. I’m currently temporarily living in Staffordshire with my boyfriend because my depression got too bad for me to stay at home for much longer. I missed him unbelievably much and I knew that spending some prolonged time with him would help -and it has. Both him and I have spent 12 weeks religiously following all of the rules, so we’re both extremely low-risk for catching and spreading COVID-19 and being together was something that we simply really needed to do. Please don’t hate me for it! In other news, I have also started writing again, which feels amazing. I’m now a few thousand words into a queer Rapunzel retelling that I have lots of ideas for. Maybe I’ll even post an extract or two, when I feel it’s ready to show you.

In the centre of the renewed energy of Black Lives Matter and the undeniable exposure of the horrors that is police brutality, the book blogging and BookTube worlds vowed to uplift Black voices. I wrote a very long, in-depth blog post full of Black-written books and Black book influencers. Please check it out to diversify your TBR and educate yourself on Black issues, which is what every white person should be doing now and always.

June was Pride Month and I tried my best to compile a series of recommendation posts in honour of it. These included gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, ace, pansexual and intersex lists. I’ve had some great feedback on this, so I hope you find some fantastic new reads. It felt especially poignant to put them together the same year that one of my childhood heroes came out as an ignorant trans-exclusive feminist. As a lifelong Harry Potter superfan and someone who has repeatedly publicly supported Rowling in the past, I feel the need to clarify where I now stand. I do not support or agree with a single thing that she has said in recent times with regard to transgender people. I’ve never felt my own status as a cisgender female threatened by trans people wanting more rights or believed that children or women were at risk due to their existence. 

I read her words more than once and struggled to find any semblance of the woman who wrote the books that have most defined my life. I’m hesitant to say that we can always successfully separate the art from the artist but I will say that it makes sense to me that the Rowling of 2020 is not the same Rowling that wrote Harry Potter. She was a destitute single mother when Philosopher’s Stone was published in 1997 and of course, she is now a million worlds away from that lifestyle. It breaks my heart but it makes sense to me that she has changed beyond belief because her life has changed beyond belief. I’m not and never would make any excuses for her recent behaviour and I have stopped supporting her personally but I will not be getting rid of my Harry Potter books and I will undoubtedly re-read them several more times. However, I am now hugely reluctant to buy any more merchandise or special editions of the books, which saddens me but at the moment, it feels right. There is no coming back for her from this and I will make a conscious effort to keep Harry Potter and Rowling away from my future content. It can be really tough to admit that the people you once really admired aren’t great humans but it’s something that we all have to acknowledge in this case, in order to move forward with our own quests to become our best selves.

It didn’t feel right to post my May recommendations last month as I didn’t feel comfortable promoting my own content in the midst of boosting Black voices. So today I’m bringing you a bumper edition of Alex Recommends. Here are 10 books that I’ve enjoyed since the start of May that I’d love to share with you. Enjoy! -Love, Alex x

FICTION: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Set in the affluent neighbourhood of Shaker Heights, Ohio in the 1990s, two families are brought together and pulled apart by the most intense, devastating circumstances. Dealing with issues of race, class, coming-of-age, motherhood and the dangers of perfection, Little Fires Everywhere is highly addictive and effecting. With characters who are so heartbreakingly real and a story that weaves its way to your very core, I couldn’t put it down and I’m still thinking about it over a month after finishing it. 

FICTION: Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

When coding nerd Chloe Brown almost dies, she makes a list of goals and vows to finally Get A Life. So she enlists tattooed redhead handyman and biker Red to teach her how. Cute, funny and ultimately life-affirming, this enemies-to-lovers rom-com was exactly the brand of light relief that I needed this month. The follow-up Take A Hint, Dani Brown focuses on a fake-dating situation with Chloe’s over-achieving academic sister and I can’t wait to get my hands on that.

FICTION: The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart by Margarita Montimore

Just before her 19th birthday at midnight on New Year’s Eve 1983, Oona Lockhart finds herself inexplicably in 2015 inside her 51-year-old body. She soon learns that every year on New Year’s Day, she will now find herself inside a random year of her life and she has no control over it. Seeing her through relationships, friendships and extreme wealth, this strange novel has echoes of Back To The Future and 13 Going On 30 with a final revelation that I certainly never saw coming.

NON-FICTION: The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

Atmospheric and engaging, The Five details the previously untold stories of Polly, Annie, Elisabeth, Kate and Mary-Jane -the women who lost their lives at the hands of Jack the Ripper. Full of fascinating research and heartbreaking accounts of what these women’s lives may have been like, Rubenhold paints a dark immersive portrait of Victorian London and gives voice to these tragic silenced lives. Although we can’t know for certain if these accounts are entirely accurate, they feel very plausible and in some ways, The Five exposes how little time has moved on, when it comes to the public portrayal of single, troubled women.

NON-FICTION: Unicorn by Amrou Al-Kadhi

From a childhood crush on Macaulay Culkin to how a teenage obsession with marine biology helped them realise their non-binary identity, Unicorn tells the story of how the obsessive perfectionist son of a strict Muslim Iraqi family became the gorgeous drag queen Glamrou. Packed full of humour, honesty and heart, this book will give you the strength and inspiration to harness what you were born with and be who you were always meant to be.

MIDDLE-GRADE: The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates by Jenny Pearson

When fact-obsessed Freddie’s grandmother dies, he discovers that the father he has never met may actually be alive and living in Wales. So he has no choice but to grab his best friends Ben and Charlie, leave his home in Andover and go to find his dad! I laughed so many times during this madcap adventure and I know the slapstick crazy humour will hit the middle-grade target audience just right. It’s also a wonderful depiction of small town Britain with a focus on the true meaning of family.

MIDDLE-GRADE: A Kind Of Spark by Elle McNicoll

When Addie learns about her hometown’s history of witch trials, she campaigns tirelessly to get a memorial for the women who lost their lives through it. This wonderfully beautiful novel gives a unique insight into the mind of an 11-year-old autistic girl with a huge heart. Busting myths about neurodiversity while tackling typical pre-teen drama, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry but most of all, you’ll close the book with a huge smile on your face. 

HISTORICAL FICTION: Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

In 16th century Warwickshire, Agnes is a woman with a unique gift whose relationship with a young Latin tutor produces three children and a legacy that lasts for centuries. This enchanting, all-consuming account of the tragic story of Shakespeare’s lost son, the effects that rippled through the family and the play that was born from their pain will send a bullet straight through your heart. Wonderfully researched and beautifully written, Hamnet is worth all of the hype.

HISTORICAL FICTION: The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

When a vicious storm kills most of the men of Vardø, Norway, it’s up to the women to keep things going but a man with a murderous past is about to come down with an iron fist. At the heart of this dark tale of witch trials, grief and feminism, two women find something they’ve each been searching for within each other. Gorgeously written with a fantastically slow-burning queer romance, Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s first adult novel is an addictive, atmospheric read with a poignant, tearjerker of an ending.

SCI-FI: Q by Christina Dalcher

When one of Elena’s daughters manages to drop below the country’s desired Q number, she is sent away to one of the new state schools and Elena is about to find out something she’d really rather not know about the new system. Packed full of real social commentary and critique of life as we know it while painting a picture of how things could be even worse (yes, really!), this pulse-racing, horrifying sci-fi dystopian gripped me from the first page and refused to let me go.