#wow!!! ill read this report later but very interesting

[certifiedceliac]

In a new preprint, a research team, led by Dr. Jorge Dubcovsky and Dr. Wenjun Zhang, found that by removing specific sections of wheat’s DNA, they could reduce these harmful epitopes without negatively affecting the wheat’s ability to make good bread. One particular deletion, called Δgli-D2, removed major harmful epitopes, which not only made the wheat safer for people with celiac disease but also made the dough stronger and better for breadmaking. The Δgli-D2 deletion didn’t affect the wheat’s yield or protein content, making it a promising option for producing wheat that is both better for baking and safer for people at risk of celiac disease.

[eptodaytommorowforever]

Elvis Presley’s History Of On Tour Shows Performances, Concets, History, Today On The 28th November In 1976 He Played At The Cow Palace Arena In San Francisco In CA.

Elvis Presley The Cow Palace, San Francisco, Ca 8.30pm Show Performance Concert November 28, 1976 Rare Live Candid Photos Of This Show Performance Concert By Australian Fan Club President Wayne Hawthorne Of The Elvis Presley Fan Club Of Victoria in Australia.

Wayne Hawthorne The President Of The Elvis Presley Fan Club Of Victoria Australia 🇦🇺

A Review Of The Cow Palace Concert At San Francisco Arena On The 28th Of November In 1976 Also Of Meeting Elvis Presley Linda Thompson And The Fat Controller The Manager Colonel Parker Himself.

Wayne Hawthorne, President of Elvis Presley Fan Club of Victoria recalls the time he met Colonel Parker, Elvis Presley and Linda Thompson in concert...

Although it only seems like yesterday this time 25 years ago that I was in San Francisco for Elvis Presley concert of November 28, 1976 at the Cow Palace.

I had been to the US a number of times without catching an Elvis Presley concert but this time thankfully (as only 32 months later sadly he would be gone dead) I was not going to miss out.

Thanks to local member Hedy Drissen and Cow Palace manager, John Root we has scored front row seats which was an unbelievable bonus. The prelims are a blur as nobody paid much attention - Elvis Presley was the only topic of conversation!

Despite what many books say, Colonel Parker was very much in attendance and keeping an eye on everything. In fact, it was our club T-shirt that drew his attention and I had the pleasure of talking with him. Despite the many reports to the contrary I found him to be very amicable and openly frank and honest in his comments.

As for Elvis Presley travelling to Australia (there had been rumours in the local Australian rags) he gave a straightforward 'NO!'.

He was totally honest in saying the '...the money was not in Australia' and that if Elvis Presley toured in this region it would be to Japan. He further stated that Elvis Presley was not interested really in overseas tours.. except maybe for Germany which was on the cards for 1978 as Elvis Presley wished to thank the German people for their hospitality during his Army days there.

We (meaning Wayne Hawthorn and his first wife, Gina) had the pleasure of talking to a very beautiful and friendly lady in Linda Thompson, who was seated next to us front row!

'Marriage?' was the immediate question asked Gina blurted out which that offered a very quick '... awh not really on,' response from Linda. Ironically, it was that very night that Linda Thompson and Elvis Presley ended their relationship.

You may read many different dates in many different books regarding this but only Linda's brother Sam Thompson seems to have got it correct in his book.

There certainly was no the slightest hint of what was to come. For during the concert Linda walked the couple of paces over to Elvis Presley and asked for his scarf which she then gave to Gina (a cherished moment for her at the time'

Elvis Presley was in exceptional form that night. Despite rumour of ill health, he appeared vibrant, suntanned and fit.

The first thing that struck us were his piercing blue eyes. I'm sure each and every one of the 17 odd thousand people, whether front wow or in the bleachers, felt he was looking straight at them. Combined with an infectious smile his presence was awesome to say the least.

Elvis Presley went through some 23 songs and proved he still had that magical recipe that could whip audiences into frenzy. This was no Vegas crowd. On no less than six occasions there was a stampede towards the stage consisting mainly of the younger female brigade.

Teddy Bear and Love Letters were two of the songs that drew such a response but it was the suggestiveness of Fever that drove them wild.

With slow pelvic movements, wicked smile and caresses of the stand-up mike more reminiscent of the 50's Elvis Presley had them eating out of his hands.

Fever the crowd rushed Fever! a pelvic thrust - the crowd rushes again and so it went on.

Those poor security guards should have bee paid ten-fold just for that one song!

Throughout it was obvious that Elvis Presley just loved every second of the 'tease'. One could just hear him thinking '...here I am 20 years later and I've still got 'em goin' crazy!.'. Yes sure he surely did!

Elvis Presley late called for his guitar '...just to prove he could play' and strummed his way through fantastic renditions of Blue Christmas and That's All Right.

All too soon - it was all over!

Many of the crowd seemed too stunned to move. Elvis Presley had hit them like us like a thunderbolt that night!

[edendaphne]

“Discordant Sonata” Chapter 19

>>Click here to read on Ao3<<

>>Click here to read on Wattpad<<

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CHAPTER 19: ATTACCA

Music glossary:        Attacca - "To attack at once"; used as a direction in music at the end of a movement to begin the next without pause

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(Mood music: "The Conversation" - Pearl Django)

Being mere months away from graduating lycée meant that their group of friends didn’t have as many classes together, due to their diverse individual interests and talents. However, they always made sure to make time to hang out after school before their extracurricular activities began.

And thus, Adrien, Nino, and Alya made their way to the classroom where the art club gathered to meet up with Marinette. From there, Adrien would make his way to either fencing lessons or Chinese, depending on the day of the week. Marinette would join him on days when he had Chinese (as she’d become determined to master the language ever since her uncle visited from Shanghai a few years back), Alya would go to her journalism club, and Nino would travel to his part-time internship at the local recording studio.

“–and the backlogs just keep piling up!” Alya spoke as they walked, voice full of vigor and excitement. “I’ve had to recruit yet another mod to help me keep order in the forums! Especially since the Ladyblog has started going international and we’ve had to organize servers in different languages. You wouldn’t believe how crazy it’s gotten in there recently!”

“Dang, babe,” Nino interjected. “Sounds like things are super rough for you right now.”

“Not really, more busy than anything. Especially because I have that big research article due next week, there’s just not enough hours in the day to try to read everything that goes on in there. But I have my mods report to me daily, ‘cause I always like to stay on top of everything that goes on in the chats!”

“What’s gotten everyone so riled up in the Ladyblog lately?” Adrien chimed in. “I don’t recall it being nearly this busy last year.”

The trio entered the art club’s classroom and settled down at the table where Marinette sat, getting her various sketches organized. The art teacher was quite easy going, so they didn’t have to talk in hushed whispers and could come and go as they pleased.

“Well, to be honest, it’s because of Chat Noir,” Alya replied.

Adrien tried to contain his surprise. “R-really? What– uhhh, what do people have to say about him?”

He winced inwardly. He knew he shouldn’t ask. But curiosity got the better of him today. Maybe learning the news through the filter or Alya’s paraphrasing instead of reading the negative comments firsthand would lessen the sting of what people said about him.

Marinette whipped her head around at the mention of his alter ego. “Wait, what about Chat Noir?” she inquired.

“Girl,” Alya replied, her voice filled with renewed exuberance. “You would not believe how much we’ve had to censor and moderate all the inappropriate things people have been saying!”

Adrien flinched in his seat. “Wow… do people really hate him that much?” he asked, trying to conceal the dejection in his voice.

Alya busted out into loud guffaws. “Hate?! Dude, most people don’t hate him; they LOVE him! By ‘inappropriate’ comments, I mean the kinda stuff you wouldn’t want your grandma to catch you reading! There’s a whole giant section dedicated to his new fan club!” she said as she removed her glasses so she could wipe away the tears of laughter.

“WHAT?!” Adrien squawked in confusion, his face feeling hotter than the ovens back at the bakery. “A fan club??”

Marinette burst into uncontrollable snickering. “Has it really gotten that bad?!”

Nino joined in, “Bro! Adrien, I can’t believe you haven’t heard Alya rant about these rabid fans before! They call themselves the ‘Noir Nation’, and the kind of things they’ve been writing would make adult romance authors blush like schoolgirls!”

Alya nodded, thoroughly amused. “And that’s not including all the fanfiction people have been writing.”

“Wait– the WHAT?! There’s fanfiction?!!” Marinette gaped in shock, as if she’d been hit in the face with an enormous pie. “Alya, how come I never knew about this?!”

“Why? You wanna read em? Girl, you’ll get no judgment from me. If you wanna check ‘em out for yourself, just go check under the hashtag ‘Ladynoir’.”

Marinette stammered as her arms flailed in her bewilderment, accidentally knocking her phone off the table and onto the floor, her eyes bigger and rounder than Adrien had ever seen them. “They have a ship name?!” she screeched.

“Just mind the ratings though,” Alya advised. “Some of them can get pretty steamy. You wouldn’t want someone to catch you reading those in public,” she added with a wink.

Marinette continued to sputter incoherently. “NO, I am NOT gonna read it!! It would be different if they were fictional characters, but I could never read fanfiction about real people!”

Alya raised a skeptical eyebrow at her. “Mm-hmm… Sure.”

Marinette’s hands flew to her face, trying to hide how red her entire face had gotten, and released a long squeak that resembled a hamster on helium. As shocked as Adrien was about these rather unexpected news, seeing Marinette’s over-the-top reaction brought a wide grin to his face and he busted out laughing.

He bent over to retrieve Marinette’s phone, since she was too busy being mortified to notice it had fallen to the floor. As he was about to hand it back, the screen lit up and Adrien saw the lockscreen wallpaper: it was the same photo of Ladybug and Chat Noir that he himself had saved earlier that day. He smiled, not exactly sure what to make of it, but finding it adorable that she’d liked the photo enough to set it as her lockscreen.

He tapped her shoulder, waiting for her to respond. She emerged from behind her impromptu hand shield and turned her head, then her eyes widened once again as soon as she saw what Adrien was showing her. She jolted straight up, stiff as a board, and her eyes met his, cheeks turning tomato red. He winked at her, amused about this little secret between them, and handed back her phone without a word.

Marinette accepted it with a meek-sounding, “Thanks,” looking like she wanted to explain the photo, but not able to do so unless she wanted Alya and Nino to find out that she was potentially a… ahem– “Ladynoir” shipper.

Switching the conversation to something else (which Marinette seemed to be eternally grateful for), the group chatted until it became time for them to scatter to their next destinations.

With a wave, Adrien exited the classroom and headed towards fencing practice, one of the few activities he decided to stick with despite not being forced to participate. Fencing, along with Chinese lessons, were not only enjoyable, but were also quite useful. Sadly, he didn’t have access to a piano anymore, so he wasn’t able to pursue that hobby for the time being. Hopefully later down the line, when things had settled down and he’d found his own place to live, he’d be able to finance one.

Thinking about the future had become an exciting pastime instead of an anxiety-inducing one, and it was all thanks to his friends and those he cared about. He smiled as he reached the door to the locker rooms, continuing to daydream of what was to come.

(Mood music: "Recollection 3" - Shirō Sagisu (BLEACH OST, "The Diamond Dust Rebellion")

Adrien finished getting dressed for fencing, his head still blissfully floating in the clouds. He stored his belongings into his assigned locker, shutting it with a loud clang, which echoed through the empty room.

Huh...? Empty?

He swiveled his head around, surprised that there was no one beside him. He stood up and began walking down the large room, peeking down the other locker rows looking for his classmates; but there was nobody.

Where was everyone? There’s no way that every single one of them was running late. Had his lessons been cancelled and he’d somehow missed a text message or email? He began heading back towards his locker to check his phone for any schedule changes.

Before he reached his destination, however, heavy thudding footsteps broke the eerie silence. Adrien whipped his body around to greet whoever they belonged to.

The owner of those footsteps was one of the last people Adrien expected to meet here.

“Gaspard?!”

Adrien stood agape, face to face with his old bodyguard, whom he hadn’t seen in a couple of years; not since he’d resigned and moved out of the country. Nathalie had mentioned that in his resignation letter, Gaspard said that he’d become involved in an overseas business venture involving the market of rare action figures. Nevertheless, Adrien couldn’t help but suspect that his father’s ill temper and poor treatment of their employees was the true reason for his departure.

Adrien’s first reaction was surprise and joy, and he rushed forward to greet and embrace him. However, as he approached and got a better look at the man’s face, Adrien’s mood instantly morphed into confusion and apprehension. There was something odd about his eyes.

Something wasn’t right. Why was Gaspard here? And why now?

He came to a halt about a meter before reaching him. An oppressive weight seemed to press in all around him, and he had to suppress a shiver. “Wait. Gaspard, did–” he gulped, “–did my father send you?”

His old bodyguard did not reply, but took a heavy step towards him. Adrien stepped back.

“Please… I can’t go back. I live somewhere else now, and I’m very happy there. Whatever he told you about the situation, it’s a lie.”

His bodyguard continued to approach him, his stare vacant and unsettling.

Fighting the urge to panic, he pleaded, “You don’t have to do this. If he’s offered you compensation, I can match it; it’ll just take me a bit of time. But we can work something out, right?? For old time’s sake?”

He continued walking backwards until he bumped into something firm, but it wasn’t a wall; it was another person. Before he could turn around, they grabbed him by the shoulders, detaining him and preventing him from running away.

He was about to shout for help when something sharp jabbed him on the side of the neck, injecting a cold liquid. Adrien’s eyes grew wide in terror.

Shit.

Adrien swore as he jerked away, elbowing whoever was behind him and managing to break free. Rubbing at the spot where the syringe had stabbed him, he glanced back to take a look at his other assailant, only to see... another Gaspard?

Why are there two of him??

This was wrong. Gaspard didn’t have a twin; he knew that for a fact. He’d worked for the Agrestes ever since Adrien was a toddler and was too young to even pronounce his name correctly (hence the nickname “Gorille”, which stuck around for years afterwards). Additionally, there was something uncanny, otherworldly, even, about the way these two men looked and moved.

He shook himself out of his stupor. He didn’t have time to contemplate any possible explanations. He had to get out of there fast.

He sprinted towards the exit, but only managed to travel a few paces before he lost his footing and tripped. He fell to the ground hard, almost hitting his head on a nearby bench. As he struggled to get up, he realized that his fingers and toes had already gone numb.

Not good.

Time was running out. Adrenaline coursed through him and, with a grunt, he hefted himself to his feet and scrambled towards the exit, as fast as he could despite a heavy limp. Though his heart was hammering and his legs felt like they were filled with sand, he pushed himself, concentrating on reaching the door.

After taking a few steps, however, he realized that even if he did manage to exit the locker room, the area beyond was an open courtyard. Meaning he wasn’t going to be able to reach someplace safe before getting caught. He had no choice but to transform into Chat Noir, and hopefully Plagg’s powers and strength could help him escape and find somewhere to hide.

He’d scarcely uttered the first syllable in the transformation phrase when he was tackled to the ground. A giant hand swiftly covered his mouth and Adrien felt his hands get bound together with thick zip ties behind his back. A muffled scream of writhing frustration made its way up his throat as his limbs became more and more useless by the second.

No… This can’t be happening! Please, this can’t be how it all ends!

Just when his life had finally gained a semblance of normalcy and he’d found happiness again, it would get ripped away and he would disappear without a trace, leaving everyone to wonder what had happened to him. Leaving his friends to think that Gabriel had pulled him from school and they would never see him again. Leaving Ladybug to wonder if Chat had abandoned her forever. Leaving her to fight Hawkmoth alone. Again.

He couldn’t let that happen. He thrashed and struggled as furiously as he could, fighting the feelings of overwhelming helplessness that threatened to consume him. Nearing despair, he was too distracted to notice Plagg phrasing through the wall, away from the skirmish, in search of the only person who could save him.

(Mood music: "Run" - Ludovico Einaudi)

Marinette fidgeted with her pencil, her feet wiggled and bounced under her desk. She didn’t understand; when she’d arrived at the art club, her head had been filled with inspiration and ideas that she’d been excited to draw and execute. However, at the moment, her mind was filled with noise and disquietude.

Having had enough, she excused herself to visit the restroom. Once she’d walked far enough from the classroom, she opened her purse to talk to Tikki about her current dilemma.

“It’s the same feeling as last night, Tikki! Except that would mean one of three possibilities. Option A.) It’s nothing and I’m going crazy. And— don’t give me that look, Tikki! I can see what you’re thinking and I don’t have time for your cheeky sass right now!” The kwami snickered while Marinette cleared her throat and continued, “Option B.) that Chat is here, at this school, which is impossible because his school’s on the other side of the city, that’s why he always leaves the house super early for his long commute.”

Tikki opened her mouth and looked like she was about to say something, but then didn’t (...or couldn’t?).

Marinette resumed, “Or, C.) that my–– what do I even call it? My ‘Spidey sense’??–– that it’s got a long distance mode, and Chat is all the way across Paris and he’s in trouble! But what am I supposed to do about that from here?! I wouldn’t even know where to begin looking!”

Tikki shrugged. “Follow your instincts, Marinette. There’s no harm in taking a quick look around the school, right?”

Marinette groaned. “UGH! It doesn’t make sense!! Am I going to get interrupted like this all the time from now on?” She shook her head resolutely. “No. I can’t just go off on random field trips every single time I feel a random fit of anxiety. I’m sure it’s just leftover jitters from last night. I’m supposed to call Master Fu after school anyway; he can help me figure everything out. I’m just gonna go back to class and forget about it.”

Tikki frowned, not quite convinced, but deciding not to press further.

Marinette made her way back to the classroom in a frustrated huff. But as her hand reached to turn the handle, the feelings of danger and urgency multiplied tenfold. Without a word, she sprinted away in the opposite direction, not even knowing where she was running to, only knowing she had to get there immediately.

She reached the large common area of the school downstairs. Her head whipped around, frantically searching for something, anything. In her haste, she didn’t notice a small black creature zoom into her open purse.

A few moments later, she felt a frantic tugging at her shirt from below.

“Marinette!! Over there! Check the locker room, quick!!!” Tikki whisper-screamed as she peeked outside the purse, her tone uncharacteristically frantic.

Marinette nodded, then sprinted to the locker room.

“Wait! You should transform first!” Tikki added.

No time!

“Marinette, wait!!”

Despite Tikki’s protests, Marinette raced towards the double doors, tackling them open.

Three sets of eyes landed on her as she skidded to a halt, but only one pair consumed her entire attention. She gasped in horror, hands flying to her face as she stared at what was occurring in front of her. Adrien let out a desperate, muffled scream urging her to run.

His panicked voice snapped her out of her dazed shock; but instead of running, she stood her ground, eyes darting back and forth across the area searching for something useful. The room was remarkably barren except for a lone broom a short distance away from her. She grabbed it and leaped towards the closest attacker (the one holding Adrien down), swinging it like a baseball bat.

The man didn’t even try to avoid the hit; the broomstick merely bounced off the side of his face where Marinette had hit him. She frowned in confusion, then tried hitting him again, bringing the stick down on the top of his head like an axe.

SNAP.

The end of the broom flew off, and Marinette stared in shock at the broken broomstick.

“What the hell are you?!” Marinette exclaimed, shifting her grip on the shortened wooden stub.

She pounced at the second bodyguard, bringing her weapon down in a stabbing motion; but he swatted at her hand, disarming her. She yelped in pain, leaping backwards to get some distance between them.

She was outmatched. The only strategy available was to use their own size against them. With a feint to the side, she shot at his legs for a takedown, hoping to catch him off balance. He called her bluff and shoved her backwards with his giant palm, then kneed her in the stomach.

Winded from the impact, Marinette doubled over with a gasping wheeze, fighting with all her might to keep herself from collapsing onto the ground. She forced herself upright and attacked again. With a clumsy jerk, she lunged forward, swinging wild punches at her opponent. The shots connected but his expression barely changed; it was like beating a breathing punching bag.

The bodyguard backhanded Marinette across the face. Pain shooting across her cheek, she staggered, almost losing her balance. In her daze, she watched helplessly as the man reared his arm back. There was no chance to dodge. His fist connected with her abdomen, delivering a liver shot that shut down her entire body. She crumpled to the floor as if boneless. She tried to call out Adrien’s name, but her mouth merely opened in a silent scream.

Marinette could hear Adrien’s distressed screaming, but it sounded distant, like they were underwater. The edges of her vision grew black and fuzzy, the entire room dissolving around her. She had to consciously force her lungs to inhale, but couldn’t fill them all the way, as if a boulder had been placed on top of her chest.

Faintly, she felt herself getting picked up off the ground and carried away over someone’s shoulder. Disoriented and semi-blinded, the sudden movement and rough jostling made her head spin and gave her vertigo. She gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block it all out.

A few moments later, they stopped moving, and she heard a door burst open. Where were they? Before she could gather her senses, she was in the air, thrown several meters away, landing with a hard thud. A sharp pain traveled down her body as she rolled into the wall across them. The shriek that tried to escape her throat emerged as a strained, shallow whine.

The man stomped out, leaving her alone in the room. “Stop…!” she rasped out, managing to tilt her neck upwards, head pounding.

The bodyguard slammed the door shut, followed by a bang and a clattering sound that could only mean he’d broken the doorknob of whatever room she was in.

Marinette's vision became more and more blurred. At the verge of losing consciousness, she fought to keep her eyes open as tears pricked at the corners of her eyes.

No, she couldn’t pass out! She had to save Adrien! Stay awake, Marinette, stay awake!!

She bit down on her lip hard, focusing on the sharp sting, on the swelling that was already forming around her right eye, forcing herself to feel the pain her body was in. At this moment, feeling pain was better than falling unconscious. She concentrated on her breathing, slowly regaining her senses.

She reached down to open her purse and get Tikki’s help… only to be met with emptiness. Panic settled in her gut as she realized that sometime during the skirmish, the purse had slipped off her shoulder. She sat up, slowly, so she wouldn’t risk feeling faint again from the change in positions.

She squinted, adjusting her eyesight to the darkness of the room. It seemed to be some sort of supply closet. After a failed few attempts to stand, she crawled towards the door instead, careful not to bump into the crates and shelves that filled the area.

The girl eyed the broken doorknob wearily. She was pretty proficient at lockpicking and breaking into things, but not as good at breaking out. Her only hope was that Tikki would be able to find her… if she was even nearby.

She swore to herself. Why had she rushed in and attacked two grown ass men (who, incidentally, may or may not be supernatural to boot!) instead of hiding and creating a strategy?! Now she was useless, Tikki was gone, and Adrien was surely on his way to get auctioned to the highest bidder in the criminal black market and ransomed off for an enormous sum. Great job, Marinette. Adrien’s been abducted and it’s all your fault.

Gathering all the determination she could muster, she tried to call out for help. But her voice was still too hoarse, and only a weak croak came out. She clenched her fists, grumbling irritably. Time for a different approach. Somehow, she needed to make noise.

After a brief search, she found a hard, metallic object that she could use to hammer on the door. She tested it out; it was surprisingly effective. She doubled her efforts, making as big a racket as possible. Hopefully, it would only be a matter of time before somebody heard her, let her out, and she could go find Adrien.

She couldn’t let anything else happen to another loved one. Not again.

–––––

I'M REEEAAAAALLY SORRY FOR THAT CLIFFHANGER JSHDKFJHSKDF ᕕ(╯°д°)ᕗ  I tried splitting up the sections differently but it didn't really flow as well.

But the next chapter is almost done, so I'll have it ready by next weekend!!

[mxvladdy]

I can't stress enough 'wows' in tve way you write along with the fact that it's you first few posts (i think? Pls correct me) can you do luci mammon and satan with a reader who takes naps bc of overthinking? They just tug their sleeves and shot them a tired look, while looking down shying away. Also, have a nice day and take the time to be yourself!

Aw thanks fam! I am fairly new to posting my works, I tried twice before this with two different writing blogs but I deleted them both bc I felt discouraged. I’m older now and I feel a lot better about my writing, so third time the charm and all that lol! I’m so glad you like my writing! I know I need some work on grammar and expanding my vocabulary.  

This was a super cute prompt ;.; I hope I did it justice!

Lucifer

He is a mix of jealous and pissed. He wishes he could fall asleep so easily when he gets inundated with too many things at once. But also- just don’t do that? Where were your manners?

He starts noticing your little peculiarity in class. Specifically that you tend to nod off in advance alchemy and rune scripting. You were being so studious, jotting down notes, ask great questions. Next thing he knows you're out like a light.

He is shocked for a moment before he will wake you up. Your wide doe-eyed frown does nothing to him. JK his hearts clench at your wounded look.

He makes the other brothers report to him about your behavior and odd sleep habit. Were you ill? Was this just something humans did? Devils, was Belphie rubbing off on you?

They all say the same thing. One moment you are working hard or talking to them about a topic you are passionate about, and the next you are yawning hard enough to pop your jaw and shyly asking to lay down.

Well-he can’t have that.

If you are going to fall asleep around anyone it’s going to be him.

He sets up remedial lessons with you after dinner to make up for the work slept through. You sit by him at his long ornate desk while he tutors you on what you missed.

You weren't having any problems,  you even finished a few pages. He is proud and then-

“I can almost hear those gears slowing my dear.” Lucifer interrupts himself mid-explanation of Zosimos of Panopolis and Maria the Prophetess's theories of alchemy in human medicine.

You jerk awake and turn to him blinking owlishly. "Yeah, I just need to lay down." You admit.

Lucifer eyes you critically. This was sudden, were you ill? You had been fine moments ago, bright-eyed and enthusiastic. He cups your face, turning it from side to side. "So suddenly? We haven't even discussed the properties of mercury yet." You hum letting your eyes droop. He was always so warm.

"Hour nap break? Please?" His stern gaze softens at how your nose scrunches up cutely as you yawn.

“Very well.” He relents letting you slick over to his couch. You flop over face first with a grunt of satisfaction. You toss and turn for a while, moving his pillows around unsatisfied.

“Luci-” You call in defeat. He ignores you at first. If you wanted to nap fine, he would get some work done in the meantime. “Luci~” You say again. You could see his brow twitching. “Lu-”

“My dear,” He shoots you a withering look. “You are treading a thin line. If you have the energy to call for me you have the energy to study.” You say nothing at his brisk tone, instead of opening your arms to him to join you. “You tempt me.” He purrs hiding his smile behind his paperwork.

“Learned from the best.” Lucifer shakes his head laughing at your smug reply. He glances over you to his grandfather clock. Hmmm-perhaps he could spare a few minutes. He rises elegantly discarding his tie and waistcoat to his abandoned chair. Running a hand through his hair he snorts at your little whistle.

“Move.” He commands. You shake your head patting your belly. “I will crush you.” He laughs but lays over you regardless.

“Good-you’re warm.” You say muffled in his shirt. Wrapping your arms around his middle you drift off. Lucifer holds you close, running a still gloved hand up and down your side. Perhaps he should bring out some more complex topics next time. If this was the outcome-

Mammon

He noticed you get drowsy before in class. Your cute little head jerks as you nod off, hands rubbing at your face as you fight to stay awake before giving in to the need to sleep. It was adorable- not that he was watching you because of that! He was just doing his job of looking out for you

Ye-that was all.

Honestly, he thought you were just like him. He never cared for the books being forced on him in class. Boring useless crap in his opinion. He much rather sleep through a lecture on stats too.

Now books on photography? That's where it's at. He has a legitimate passion for it.

He likes being behind the camera just as much as he likes being in front of it. Though he doesn't snap photos often.

He doesn't need more beratement from his brothers than he already gets. Sides, he just feels like they would look down at this like everything else he does.

He'll share his hobby with you though. You at least seem interested in it. He'll show you his collection of vintage to high-tech cameras and talk your ear off about the makes, models, and features.

You nod along and ask questions from time to time, smiling along with Mammon while he prattles on about color theory next to you on the floor.

He was just getting to Auguste Lumiére when he feels a gentle bump on his shoulder.

"O-oi!" Mammon starts, shaking his shoulder to rouse you. You look up at him, blinking the sleep from your eyes. "Was...was I that boring?" He deflates a little, all previous excitement gone in a flash. You had seemed so interested...

"What? Oh, no. No Mammon I'm sorry. It's really all fascinating," You grab for his sleeve so he couldn't run away. "It was just a lot of information all at once. I just got a bit overwhelmed."

"So you fall asleep?" He raises a brow not believing you for a second. Who falls asleep when something is interesting? He'll admit he's fallen asleep while listening to Levi talk about a new anime or Asmo with a make-up release.  But that's because it had been boring. "Is that like a human thing?"

You shrug snuggling closer. "I don't know- but it's a me thing. Give me five? I'd love to hear you talk more about your collection, promise."

Mammon glows scarlet at your words. "Of course you do!" He puffs out his chest excitedly. “I got great taste.” You nod into his shirt before drifting off again. He tilts his head slightly to look at you chuckling internally when your breathing and heartbeat slow down. Damn, out in seconds. Well, better get comfortable.

Uncrossing his long legs he picks up the camera he had been showing you. The old Polaroid lens reflects his face back at him. He remembered the day Land had debuted this marvel of engineering. He just had had to get his hands on one. It was useless now, he had much better quality cameras than this old thing, but he remembered you reminiscing about your human friends and their portable camera. Would you take some pictures with him too? He would take one now, but the sound of the flash would definitely wake you up.

He fiddles with it for a few more minutes, opening and closing the film canister and checking for any parts that needed fixing as he waits. You stir at his side a few minutes later with a little mew of satisfaction. Mammon hears your joints creak and pop as you stretch. "Morning." He says sarcastically, earning himself a light punch to his shoulder. "Ready to continue?"

You nod eagerly, perky and aware. At least for the moment.

Satan

He didn't really notice at first the pattern of your behavior.

You would come over for book club. Which was really just him reading his current novel and you picking something at random to gain a little random knowledge.

You would find a comfortable position on his bed, curl up nice and small and read. Then after a bit yawn and start to snooze.

He first thought it was the atmosphere of his room. It was quiet, warm, and the sound of flickering candles and the rustle of paper sometimes caused him to doze too.

But when it starts happening outside of class he notices.

Hmmm….this is new.

He looks it up in his human anatomy books and finds nothing.

He's not particularly worried about you per se. You always bounce back quickly after a quick snooze.

Then you start dozing when he is talking… >:(

Like his brother/dad he is a little miffed at first but then your behavior reminds him a cat and he loves you 10x harder now

Satan stops in his pacing of the back gardens. His book of poetry hanging limply in his hand. He had been reciting some of the most fascinating lines of work from Lord Byron's later works and wanted a human's perspective. He had thought you were interested. You never complained before when he asked you out here. Perhaps you were just being polite all those times before. Anything to soothe wrath. He snaps his book shut sharply, take some perverse satisfaction in the way you start out of your light sleep at the noise.

"Why'd you stop?" You ask wiping at your face.

"No point talking to someone that doesn't wish to listen." He snaps tersely.

"Oh-Satan, no I was listening. It...it just got to be so much so fast." You flush. “You had some great points going, I just needed a minute.” He watches your eyes grow heavy again, and it dawns on him.

"Do you just sleep when overwhelmed?" He asks incredulously. In all his years with humans, this was new. You shrug making grabby hands for him to move closer. He scoffs but moves into your space. You grab at the hem of his shirt and pull him down to sit next to you. He goes willingly getting comfortable by your side. You eye his lap longingly, hands clutching around his coat sleeve. “Fine-” He rolls his eyes. “Come here you odd thing.” You smile in triumph and crawl into his lap. Once settled you nuzzle into his warm chest.

“Wake me up in ten? I want to hear more about your conversations with Byron.”

“I’ll hold you to it.” He kisses the top of your forehead, opening his book to read again with one hand. You hum at his soft kiss, returning it sleepily with one of your own before passing out again. Ten minutes go by in an instant and Satan looks down at your peaceful face. He smiles to himself, perhaps he’ll let you sleep for a little while longer. You’d need it for his next point.  

[cheri-translates]

[CN] Victor’s R&S - Flashback (Eng Translation)

🍒 @sage-n-rosemary​ has kindly informed me that this R&S (”闪回”) will not be released in EN or any server as it's one of the cancelled R&S which came with the Dream Heart Lake gacha event!🍒

Summary: The moment he catches her, he feels the scene and the one which happened seventeen years ago completely overlap.

Cancelled Victor R&S:

> six out of seventeen

> paradise on earth

> so-called disparity

[ Chapter 1 ]

When he regains consciousness, the young boy's eyes are slightly blank, and he hasn’t fully sobered up. 

He isn’t in his home, nor is he sleeping on his desk in the classroom... where is he then? 

He doesn’t recognise his surroundings - whether it’s the decor or the other children who are on the floor. The white walls were painted shoddily, and some parts of the walls are thicker than others. Some parts of the walls have even begun to chip off. 

He notices that there are other kids around him who are slowly waking up

He doesn’t recognise these children, apart from a girl wearing a dress.

Actually, he can’t really say that he knows her. He just happened to play together with her for a while, and happened to save her life from under the wheel of a car last week.

Seeing MC, Victor has a hunch on why they’ve been brought here

Young MC notices Victor’s line of sight and looks at him

Not wanting to rouse the children who have cried themselves into a gradual slumber, the young boy mouths a word in the direction of the girl-

Dummy.

When the words come out, the young boy himself isn’t clear on why he called her a dummy. Was she dumb for getting captured to this place? Or was it because she rushed onto the road to save a kitten? He doesn’t even know if the word “dummy” was referring to the girl or to himself. 

Without waiting for the young boy to comprehend his own thoughts, the girl in the corner responds with a grimace. Clearly, she understood what the boy was mouthing.

“Childish.”

Logically speaking, considering their distance, the girl wouldn’t have been able to hear the boy’s mutter clearly. However, she seems to understand it, and reaches out to make the number “six” with her hands. Seeing that hand pose, the boy is left dumbfounded. 

He recalls the scene when he called her “childish” for the first time: Back then, she looked very pleased with herself, and also reached out her left hand towards him to make the number “six”. She had announced matter-of-factly: “I’m six years younger than you, so it’s normal to be childish!”

The first time he met her... should have been around a year ago.

-

[ Chapter 2 ]

Victor recalls the first time they met at a park not far from his home

He was playing soccer with a few boys at an empty area near a sandpit because the usual grass patch they played at wasn’t available for use

With a volley shot, the young boy knocked down the sandcastle the girl had just piled up in the sandpit next to them.

That’s how their ill-fated relationship began.

The young boy clearly remembers apologising to her back then, and that the girl had accepted his apology. Even so, the tears in her eyes just didn’t stop.

“Don’t cry, I’ll make up for it by building you a sandcastle.”

“...it’s not the same.”

“I’ll help build a sandcastle together with you then?”

“I don’t want to. There’s no time.”

He didn’t understand what she meant by “there’s no time.” He just felt a massive headache: “I’ve already apologised and proposed solutions. The sandcastle is broken. What do you want?”

His tone wasn’t heavy, but for some reason, the girl started crying even harder. He had never met with such a situation before, and was at a complete loss. What’s worse was that the other boys jeered at him from the side, saying, “Hahaha he made the little girl cry.”

That day, the young boy learnt two things:

One - you know who your true friends are in times of trouble. Two - you should never, ever speak reason to a crying girl. 

After deciding in his heart never to play soccer with this group of boys again, the young boy tried questioning the little girl:

“To make amends... I’ll treat you to a dessert?”

“You... you’re not lying to me right?”

At first, he only wanted to try his luck. He didn’t think he would hear the girl gradually hold back her crying.

“I don’t have any on me right now, but you can follow me to buy it from the shop.”

“No way!!” the girl’s eyes, which were filled with tears, suddenly became resolute and decisive. “Dad said that I can’t go off with strangers, or I’ll get sold!”

“So what do you want?”

That was the second time he said this. 

This time, the girl didn’t burst into tears again, but seriously considered the question. “I’ll still be playing here tomorrow. Big Brother can bring your dessert over then.”

Looking at the serious and naive girl, the young boy was left speechless. The other boys behind him couldn’t help but laugh, their laughter mixed with several words of ridicule-

Certainly, the girl’s suggestion was very silly. He could make a promise right now and comply with the agreement to bring the dessert the next day. But he could also make a promise and then never appear again. Perhaps it was his conscience speaking, or the guilt he felt towards the girl - in the end, the young boy chose the former. 

He decided to fulfil this little promise. 

-

[ Chapter 3 ]

When the young boy returned to this place on the second day, the girl was already waiting. Same as yesterday, she was piling up a sandcastle alone, but this time, the sandcastle wasn’t broken by someone.

Upon seeing the young boy, there wasn’t any surprise on the girl’s face. She just stopped her “work” and tilted her head to ask him: “Big Brother, where are your friends?”

Asking this, she smiled just like a cunning little fox.

“They’re not considered friends.” After a moment of hesitation, he gave her such an answer. “Why... aren’t you asking about your dessert first?”

“Because I knew Big Brother would definitely bring it.”

The girl watched the young boy while smiling sweetly, her originally round eyes crinkling into a line.

“Oh. I actually made it. But I forgot to bring it with me when I left the house.”

Unexpectedly, the other party didn’t express anger or disappointment at his words. Instead, she excitedly stared at the bag in his hands. “Wow! This pudding was made by you! That’s amazing!”

“I haven’t taken the pudding out, and I called it a “dessert” yesterday-” the young boy keenly noticed the oddness of the other party’s words. “How did you know the thing I brought was pudding?”

“Because I saw it yesterday.”

Hearing the girl’s answer, there was a flash of surprise in his eyes. But he accepted this fact within a second, and choose to believe it.

“You... can see the future?”

“Mm.” The girl nodded her head with certainty. After a moment of hesitation, she placed a finger on her mouth with a “shh” sound. “Even though they are just a few images.”

As she spoke, the girl scratched her head in embarrassment, and the sand in her hand followed her actions, entering the spaces between her hair: “Yesterday, I saw it - you would appear here before the sun sets, and take out a pudding from the bag and give it to me.”

Now, the young boy finally understood why the the girl made such a silly agreement with him yesterday. 

“Also, what is your name, Big Brother?”

“Victor.”

In return, the girl also told the young boy her name, and also asked him a question: “Brother Victor, you said they weren’t considered friends. What about me?”

To the young boy, the girl who said this seemed to have stars in her eyes. 

-

[ Chapter 4 ]

That day, the young boy Victor didn’t make a new friend just because of the girl’s words. Instead, a bug who was six years younger than him yielded to him because of the pudding he made with his own hands. 

It was only in the park when he would meet the girl. He didn’t notice it before, but after getting to know her, he realised a few odd things about her. She didn’t stick to people. Most of the time, she would be at the side quietly reading a book, drawing, or talking to little animals.

He didn’t know what books the girl, with her limited vocabulary, would read from dawn to dusk. He also couldn't understand the undecipherable handwriting she would run over and show him with pride. Most of all, he didn’t know when she had grasped the “unique ability” to converse with animals.

However, without realising it, he had picked up a new habit - every time he came to the park, he would make a round to see if the girl was there that day.

If the girl was around, she would immediately fly over to his side and report her new discoveries:

Perhaps it would be how a flower looks when it blooms. Perhaps it would be the trail of ants in the process of moving their home. Perhaps it would be the bird’s nest on the tree. Or perhaps it would be a new friend she made.

Every time, the young boy would expressionlessly respond with a half-hearted “oh”, “mm”, “and then?”.

The girl would sometimes ask rhetorical questions: “Brother Victor, why don’t you smile? It’s so interesting.”

It was likely under these circumstances that the young boy first called her “childish”. To Victor, who is older than her by a few years, the girl’s discoveries were not considered interesting, which is why he didn’t smile. 

But what the girl didn’t know is that on days when she isn’t at the park, the young boy’s face would be far from “not smiling” - it would be cold.

Later on, Victor was more willing to term this “new habit” as a “conditioned reflex” - it was because she was at the park most of the time he was there, that he developed a conditioned reflex to look for her everywhere whenever he went to the park. 

And it’s exactly thanks to this conditioned reflex-

That he could save her in time on that rainy day.

-

[ Chapter 5 ]

It was a summer afternoon, and the sound of rain was gradually getting heavier

Victor saw MC squatting down and holding an umbrella, talking to a tabby cat

Suddenly, the cat seemed to hear or smell something and ran off in the direction of the road

From afar, he watched the girl toss aside the small yellow umbrella and chase after the tabby cat towards the road. Watching the cars rushing past and coming closer to the girl, and watching the girl close to losing herself in a place out of his reach...

Without needing to make a judgement, without needing to think, and without needing to hesitate, his instincts made the decision. 

This wasn’t the first time Victor stopped time, but it was the most thoughtless instance.

If the current situation they are in is the price to pay for using his abilities in public, he would just have to think of a way to get out of it. 

His thoughts return to the present, and he looks at the girl in the corner closing her eyes and taking a nap. The young boy starts thinking of a plan to leave this place.

As long as he wants to do something, there’s nothing he can’t do.

That’s how convinced the young boy is at this moment. 

-

Other cancelled R&S: here

Lucien’s cancelled R&S (by other user): here

[oss-crime]

Chapter 2-Project “Ma” –Eve–; Scene 6

Original Sin Story: Crime, pages 56-69

One of the cities that made up the Twelve Royal Capitals was the city of Asmouse.

This town, managed by senate member Ceci Vaju, was the place where the historical backing of the Twelve Royal Capitals was most pronounced.

The people who had once began the excavation of the god’s legacy in this area—Senator Vaju was a descendant of theirs, and he was also a very passionate researcher of artifacts.

Fumbling for a way to more effectively utilize these artifacts, Senator Vaju founded the Royal Research Institute in Asmouse with permission from the previous queen. He entrusted the position of first director to a friend who shared his passion, Horus Solntse.

As their initial goal implied, the Royal Research Institute’s research wound up contributing greatly to the development of Leviantan engineering, weaponry, and living wares. The artifacts could be made to work with magical power, but Horus and the other researchers progressively discovered more effective operating procedures, and brought yet more glory to the Magic Kingdom.

Meanwhile, Senator Vaju and Horus also used the institute to pursue a different avenue of research.

That was “to deliberately create people who have strong magical abilities”. In other words, it was to make a candidate for the next queen be born under the domain of Senator Vaju, and was also necessary research for him to obtain the position of the next senate head.

But that research had proved to be much rougher going than anticipated, and Horus had passed away from illness before they could achieve any results.

Horus had an adopted son named Adam, and he was, too, a skilled scientist. For that reason he was hired on by Senator Vaju as the new head of the institute, and he also inherited their research—the “Next Queen Project”.

--That “Next Queen Project” had now changed its name to “Project Ma”, and was proceeding under the supervision of Head Senator Miroku.

.

…Most of that was inconsequential to Eve.

The important thing was the fact that Eve was, at present, the strongest candidate they had for “Ma”.

Not having much interest in science herself, Eve could only conclude that the Royal Research Institute was a cold, unappealing place.

“Wish I could have had a more comfortable chair.”

Adam gave a slightly troubled smile at Eve’s complaint, handing her a cup with a liquid in it.

“We’ll give that a fix the next time we’re making a device to test magical ability. But for right now this is all we’ve got…Well, anyway, give this is a drink if you like.”

“…What’s this?”

“It’s a drink called coffee. It’s not spread much outside the capital, so it’s understandable if you’ve never heard of it.”

With Eve’s mood souring more under the impression that she was being made fun of as a country hick, she brought the brown liquid to her lips.

“—It smells good. But it’s a little bitter.”

“It’s got a lot of milk and sugar in it. Drinking it should help you calm down a bit.”

“I think I’d be a lot calmer if I could get these wires off my arms and legs.”

“We need them to get an accurate reading of your magic. …It’ll take a little bit of time, so please try to be patient.”

The measuring device they’d used in the village of Nemu was a simpler, portable model.

Though, it wasn’t the fault of that device that they hadn’t gotten an accurate result back then.

“That spoon…is also extremely curious to me, as a scientist,” Adam said, brandishing the blue spoon that Eve used instead of a staff.

“At a glance it looks like a normal, bland item….But it can increase or decrease the magical ability of its owner at will. In other words it can amplify magic and also temporarily put a seal on it—”

“My mother gave it to me.”

“Did she make it?”

“I don’t know. I never learned that.”

“This might also be a legacy piece…Well, we’ll deal with that later.”

Adam set the spoon on a nearby table, and then drew closer to a large box that was next to the chair Eve was sitting in.

“Well, let’s get started.”

He pushed up a lever that was attached to the box.

Suddenly feeling slightly dizzy, Eve fell back a bit in the chair.

“I’m…a bit nauseous.”

“It’ll go away. We have to check to see if that powerful spell you used in the forest…was because of the spoon, or your own magical ability.”

“How…long will it take?”

“Hmm…About an hour, I think.”

“That long!?”

“It’s not like you have to keep perfectly still the whole time. Though you can’t leave the chair. You can drink coffee, or if you’re hungry I can bring you something to eat.”

“Then—” After looking up at the ceiling for a moment, Eve continued, “Can I talk?”

“With me? …Of course, I don’t mind.”

“Then…I want you to tell me something.”

“What is it?”

“About the ‘Witch of Merrigod’.”

Adam’s expression stiffened. “Why would you want to—”

“She’s the one who murdered the father who raised me. Isn’t it only natural that I would want to know about her?”

“What will you do with this information?”

“…Not sure.”

Eve herself didn’t know the answer to that question.

But—

“I can’t just go on not knowing.”

“…”

“Assuming I’ll become queen someday, I mean.”

“…I see. Yes, perhaps…so.” After gazing fixedly at Eve’s face, Adam steeled himself and then started to talk. “The ‘Witch of Merrigod’—Meta Salmhofer was originally an ‘Ma’ candidate.”

“You told me that earlier. But you said she was discarded for being cruel?”

“Yes. If you go southeast of the capital—far, far further east than the village of Nemu where you live, there is a place called Merrigod Plateau. That area is a dangerous region, used as a stronghold by a certain group.”

“…You mean the ‘red devotees’?”

“No, to be accurate those are little more than a single unit of this group. The name for them as a whole—is ‘Apocalypse’. There are some people who say they’re a simple crew of bandits, and there are others who caution that they’re an anti-social organization that seeks to overthrow the kingdom.”

According to Adam, not even the royal capital’s information bureau knew the true situation.

“What we do know is that the leader of Apocalypse is named ‘Pale Noel’. And that he and Meta are lovers.”

“Pale Noel…”

“His age, his appearance…all of it is unknown. Actually, we don’t even know if he’s really a man. Whatever the case, she’s this person’s girlfriend. We needed to exercise extreme caution even to go see them.”

At the time, Adam, Seth, and a few other researchers had gone to Merrigod Plateau with a peacekeeping force led by Gammon following along.

“But…that was a mistake.”

Adam heaved a great sigh.

“We just ended up provoking them. As a result…a small war broke out on Merrigod Plateau. Though that wasn’t what we scientists had intended at all.”

“But that wasn’t the case with the peacekeeping force and Apocalypse…Right?”

“Indeed. Gammon is always looking for glory. It’s like he’s a big bundle of ambition. Even more so after he became the head of the peacekeeping forces. He likely figured he could use his position as bodyguard to crush Apocalypse.”

But his plan ended in failure.

“Meta is an ‘Inheritor of Gilles’. She controlled the soldiers of the peacekeeping force with her power, and they all started firing at each other. Even us researchers, who they were supposed to be guarding, got caught up in it….We had heavy losses. That’s why the institute is still completely understaffed.”

Eve had come along to the institute with Adam, but now that he mentioned it she realized that she hadn’t seen anyone else up to coming to this room.

“How…many scientists survived?”

Adam spread his arms in a grandiose gesture and replied, “Don’t be surprised. Just me and Seth! Though this facility wasn’t very heavily staffed to begin with.”

“I see…How awful.”

Eve had the home where she’d lived destroyed by Meta.

But Adam too had had his friends murdered.

“Yes…Some of them I got along with quite well, and some I frankly didn’t much care for. But none of them deserved to die like that.”

On seeing Adam’s bitter expression, Eve was reminded of her own grief.

“Hey…Just what is an ‘Inheritor of Gilles’ exactly?” she asked, trying to change the mood.

“R-right…An ‘inheritor’ is, well…To put it simply, it’s someone with ‘supernatural powers’.”

“’Supernatural powers’? Unlike magic?”

“In this country there are people who possess ‘special powers’ different from magical power. For example…the white army. We know from our reports that clan has the power of ‘Inheritors of Salem’, able to wield fire.”

“I see…So that was it.”

Eve had always thought that the white army’s usage of fire was through magic, but it appeared this wasn’t the case.

“Among the white army there are people who are magically impotent—that is, they were born without any ability to use magic at all. And yet despite that they are able to use their fire powers just the same as their fellows. …Though I’ve heard that research into the fundamental theory behind it hasn’t progressed very far at present.”

“Is that research conducted here?”

“No. Research into ‘inheritors’ is the purview of Lighwatch Temple. Sir Yegor Asayev, the head priest, is the expert on it.”

“Wow…”

“So, honestly I don’t actually know that much about ‘Inheritors’. Just that they’re divided up into categories by ability, like ‘Gilles’ and ‘Salem’, and that those are based on the names of the god kin—”

At that moment, the box set next to Eve—the magical ability measuring device, started to faintly shake.

“Hey…Is this working okay?”

Eve pointed to the box.

“Hm? …Oh, that’s fine,” Adam replied, gazing at the symbols that popped up onto the box’s screen. “Would you like some more coffee?” he asked her, turning around and noticing that Eve’s cup was empty.

It was a peculiar drink; Eve didn’t find it all that tasty, and yet she kept bringing it to her lips for some reason.

“Yes, please…But before that, one more question.”

“What is it?”

“…Why did Meta go after my father?”

“…That I don’t know.”

His eyes looked somewhat shifty.

Still, Eve couldn’t tell if Adam was playing dumb or not.

“Well then, a different question.”

“You’ve quite a lot of those. I actually have a lot of things I want to ask you, you know.”

“What does the royal capital…or rather, the military, plan to do about Apocalypse?”

“What do you me—”

“They’ve killed a lot of people, right? The people of the village of Nemu, and the people from this institute…’Sin must be punished’…Even I know the laws of this country.”

“…”

Adam took the cup from Eve and left the room without a word.

--In hardly any time at all, he had returned once more with a cup full of fresh coffee.

“Here you go. I put in more milk than last time.”

“Thanks.”

“…They are to keep careful watch over Apocalypse—That is what the military…or rather, the senate, decided.”

“--! Why!?”

“At present, Apocalypse has done no damage to the Twelve Royal Capitals. For the kingdom, the white army and the others are little more than barbarians at their border. The capital’s protection would be imperiled if they moved their security forces against them any further than they have.”

“So you’re saying that as long as the royal capital is alright, it doesn’t matter what happens to the others?”

“…I’m just a mere scientist. What I’ve told you now is just what I’ve heard from Gammon.”

Even if he was involved in a project of great importance to the country, he wasn’t in any position to say much more on the government outside of that—That’s likely what he meant.

Eve could tell that.

She could, but…

“That’s unreasonable. The ruler of a country needs to understand the suffering of its people…I think now I understand why my father hated politics,” Eve muttered, frustrated.

“…”

Adam looked upon Eve in silence for a short while, but eventually he shifted his gaze to the measuring device.            

Then he took up the piece of paper and quill set on the desk and started to write something down.

--Midway through his work, Adam said, still not looking at Eve, “In that case…You should become the ruler.”

“…”

“It seems you have the qualifications for it.”

“So you mean…I can become queen? Has it come up with a result?”

“No, it’s still measuring, but…At this point I’m already seeing some impressive numbers. I think…your magical ability is much higher than that of your father.”

Even so.

No matter how gifted she was, Eve was still just a simple girl who knew nothing of governance.

Would anything change by someone like her becoming queen?

--Appearing to sense her anxiety, Adam set down the paper and quill and drew close to her.

“It’ll be fine, I know it.”

“…”

“I’m sure you can do it.”

“Can I do anything alone?”

“You’re not alone.”

“My father is dead. And the people of my village are gone. I don’t have anyone—"

“—You have me.”

Adam clasped Eve’s hands in his own.

…She couldn’t bring herself to brush aside the warmth in them.

“Do you dislike me?” Adam asked.

“…If I did, I wouldn’t be cooperating with all this…But, what about you?”

Adam had gotten close with Eve just because she might have had strong magic.

She was just a candidate for queen to him.

That was surely the reason for him being so kind to her like this—

“I wouldn’t be trying to have someone I disliked selected as queen,” Adam said plainly. “You’re an enchanting woman. I’ve thought so since the first time I met you.”

“…Didn’t you stab at me with a sword at first?”

Adam burst out laughing at Eve’s reply. “Pfff…Ah haha, that’s true. Please forgive me for that. I was desperate back then.”

“Are you good with a sword?”

“I’ve only learned enough to defend myself…Ah yes, speaking of swords.”

Adam shifted his gaze to a sword that sat in the corner of the room.

“We ended up bringing that over here.”

It was Raisa’s sword, the one that Gammon had thrown to him in the forest.

“It’s an unusual shape…Its current owner is currently in prison. Not much point in returning it.”

“Raisa is…alive?”

“Just barely. Though even if her wounds are healed, thinking on what she’s done…She’s not likely to avoid an execution.”

“…”

It wasn’t just Raisa.

The Witch of Merrigod Meta, and Pale Noel.

In this world, so much—

Evil had spread.

Even if Eve continued to fire lightning as the “Witch of the Forest”, she could never get rid of it all.

It was impossible for one person.

She would need—much more power.

And for that…

Eve chewed her lip.

.

--As though to mock the resolve that had begun to sprout in Eve’s heart, several days later something happened.

Raisa, the white fiend of Jakoku, escaped from prison.

There was no way that she could have accomplished this herself, being near death.

It was likely that an outside person with influence had pulled some strings.

.

Meanwhile, the magical potential measurement result…was suitable for queen candidacy, just as Adam had predicted.

Her M count was over 350…Eve didn’t know how much exactly, but at the very least it was more than enough to secure the agreement of both Adam and the senate.

And with that result, Eve could smoothly become queen—or so she had thought.

<<prev------directory------next>>

[worldserasingandcreatinginmymind]

Flesh & Blood | Part Two

Series Summary: A mysterious stranger with ties to your past shows up in your small village

Chapter Summary: a quiet village, every day like the one before... until a mysterious stranger arrives

Pairing: Count Dracula x reader

Word Count: 2126

Warnings: none

A/N: as always spelling and grammar is not my strongest skill so please be kind :) if you want to be added to the taglist please drop me a message in my ask box

Y/B/D = your birth date, Y/H/T = your home town 

Masterlist | Part One

- - - - -

2020

The shrill beeping of your alarm wakes you up with a jump. You groan and roll over, picking up your phone from the bedside table and hitting the snooze button before dropping it back down. You allow yourself to stay in bed for the next 5 minutes, but its not long before the alarm is reminding you it’s time to get up and start the day. 

An hour later you're ready and leaving for work. You close the front door of the cottage you live in and head down the hill toward the village high street, taking in the views of the sea as you walk. You’ve lived in this village for as long as you can remember, but the view still makes you smile. 

The high street is one main road that runs through the small village and is lined with shops either side. As you walk down the street you greet various other villagers opening up their shops for the day. You hold your breath as you pass the butchers so you cant smell the scent of the uncooked meat hanging in the window. Then you pass the florist and take a deep breath, floral scents flooding your senses. You stop when you reach the local clothes shop and see the owner cleaning up shattered glass.

“Morning Roger” you say and he turns to look at you with sad eyes “what happened?”

“oh someone broke in last night. Smashed the window and stole the suit straight off the mannequin” he points to the naked mannequin left standing in the broken window display.

“did they take anything else?” 

“Nothing. Not even a penny from the till. Just the one suit, thats it.”

“that’s weird. At least theres not too much damage though”

“I guess I should count myself lucky that it could have been much worse. Have a good day y/n” he says with a tired smile as he takes the bucket of broken glass inside the shop.

You pass a few more shops before you reach the door of the bakery cafe and swing the door open, the familiar scent of fresh baked bread and cakes fills the air.

“Morning Maggie” you call as you drop your bag behind the counter and head into the kitchen at the back.

“morning love” She responds, looking at you over the top of her flour covered glasses as she kneads dough on the counter. Maggie is an older lady, with a friendly wrinkled covered face and greying curly hair which was currently contained in a hairnet. She had always been like a grandmother to you, and since losing your parents she was the only family you had left. Apart from being a bit of a gossip, she was a really lovely lady and you love working for her and listening to her crazy conspiracy theories. “did you hear all the drama last night?”

“yeah I’ve just seen Roger outside, he told me all about the break in” you respond, grabbing your apron off the hook and tying it around your waist. 

“oh no I meant about the drama on the beach?”

“no? What happened?”

“oh it all kicked off. Helicopters, sirens, the works. You didn’t hear any of it from up the hill?” 

“nope, must have slept right through it.”

“you young people, you’ll sleep through anything” Maggie says putting another batch of bread in the oven “well you missed all the fun. They dragged a body out of the sea and-”

“a body?!” You interrupt.

“well according to Carol anyway. She said she heard from Jan that someone had reported a body on the beach. Her grandson works in the police so she finds out things from him. Anyway, the police raced down there straight away but when they got there the army had already arrived and told them to leave. Army outrank the local police apparently.”

“wow” 

“and thats not all. I ran into Nigel this morning in the supermarket. Nigel lives right by the beach and he said he heard a gunshot and a load of shouting last night. He looked out the window and saw a woman lying on the sand bleeding, and people in black uniforms running everywhere. Looked like there were chasing a man. He ran down to see if he could help but by the time he got there the beach was empty. No sign of anyone at all. Strange right?”

“very” you nod, trying to seem more interested “what do you think happened?”

“maybe it was a vampire” a mans voice suddenly speaks and you both turn around to see a tall man with jet black hair stood looking at you through the serving hatch. 

“a vampire? Now theres a suggestion I didn’t expect to hear” Maggie laughs and the stranger laughs back at her, but you get the feeling he wasn’t really joking. 

“What are you cooking back there? Something smells.. exceptionally good” he says, his dark eyes fixed on you.

“All sorts of magic happening in these ovens, but unfortunately we’re not actually open till 8am” Maggie replies in her usual customer service voice and she walks through into the shop. You stay back in the kitchen, mixing the dough for the next batch of bread. 

“oh I’m very sorry, I didn’t know. I’m new around here” you hear the man say, he talks like an old fashioned gentleman.

“no bother, it’s alright. If you want to take a menu and come back in half an hour we’ll be happy to serve you a slice of magic”

“wonderful. I’ll be back then.” You watch as he turns to leave, then stops. “see you later Y/N” he shouts through to you and your eyes go wide as he shuts the door behind him.

“ooh I think someone likes you” Maggie teases and she walks back into the kitchen.

“how did he know my name?” You say, not really asking but more thinking out loud. 

“hmm I don't know. Probably read it off your name tag” she replies casually as she carries on baking. 

You look down at the small name tag you forgot was attached to your apron and let out a small sigh. Of course that makes sense. But you couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach when you thought about the darkness in his eyes. 

— — — — 

The day was dragging. The usual customers came and went, each with their own theories about what had happened the night before. Maggie was happy to listen and share her own views with them but you ended up zoning out every time. Instead you wondered about the stranger from this morning. Who was he? He said he was new here, does that mean he’s staying or just passing through? Either way, something about him made you feel weird and you found yourself watching the door anxiously every time the little bell above it rang. 

You were clearing tables after the lunch rush before you could go on your own lunch break, when the door bell dinged and a woman you didn’t recognise walked in. 

“take a seat, I’ll be with you in a moment” you say politely as you carry a tray of dirty dishes and mugs into the kitchen. You pick up your little note pad and pen ready to go take her order when Maggie stops you. 

“its okay love, I’ll serve her. You have your lunch” she says gesturing to the plate of sandwiches she’s made for you then walking out into the cafe greeting the stranger in her usual loud and bubble manner. 

You smile and take the food out through the back door and take a seat on the grassy bank. The sunshine warms your skin as you tuck in to the delicious sandwiches which Maggie has packed with your favourite filling. Once you’ve finished eating you lie with your back on the grass, watching the seagulls fly high above you and the white clouds moving slowly across the perfect blue sky. 

You lie there daydreaming for a while but when a fly noisily buzzes past your face and makes you jump you sit up, swatting it away with your hand. You check the time on your watch, almost time to get back to work. You take a few deep breathes of the fresh air before standing up and brushing the grass off you. Something catches your attention in the corner of you eye and you turn to look. 

There he is. 

The stranger from this morning stood in the shade, leaning against a tree trunk. A shiver tickles down your spine and he smirks at you as the two of you lock eyes.

“Y/N love, could you come back in now?” Maggie calls, poking her head out the door.

“yes yeah ill be right there” you respond looking at her and she goes back inside. You look back over to the tree but he’s gone. Was he ever really there or is he just on your mind? 

You walk back into the kitchen, deep in thought. 

“are you alright love?” Maggie ask, concerned when she sees the look on your face.

“yeah I’m fine” you snap out of it and smile at her. You spot the unknown lady still sat at the same table she was at before you went on lunch. “she’s still here?”

“she asked if she could use our wifi to do some work on her computer, I said its fine as long as she buys something. Anyway, I’m just nipping out. Will you be okay to run things here for a while?”

“of course, see you in a bit” you smile as she heads out the front door. The lady looks up at you from her laptop and you smile, but she just looks back down and carries on working. 

Ten minutes later the cafe is empty apart from you and the mysterious lady. 

“excuse me, could I get two more coffees please?” She calls to you and you nod. 

“two? Sure yeah, coming up” you reply slightly confused. Two? Maybe someone is coming to join her. 

You make the coffees and carry them over to her, carefully placing them down on the table next to her laptop. 

“Thanks, this one’s yours. Will you sit?” she gestures to the chair opposite her.

“huh? Oh, no thank you. I cant, I’m working right now” 

“theres no one else in here. Just sit for a moment. I have something important to discuss with you” she says friendly enough but with a serious undertone.

“i don't understand-” you start

“Y/N Y/L/N. Born Y/B/D in Y/H/T, but moved here to this village when you were 4 years old and you’ve lived her ever since. Your parents died 5 years ago in a car crash and since then you’ve lived alone in your family home, the lovely little cottage up on that hill.”

“How do you know all of this?”

“Sister Y/N, your great great grandmother, was a nun in Saint Mary’s convent of Budapest in the late 1800’s. In 1897 every nun in that convent was slaughtered. All but three, your great great grandmother was one of them. She fled to England and started a new life. A family.”

“How do you know this?” You repeat, getting frustrated. 

“Because I am a direct descendant of one of the other survivors, Sister Agatha Van Helsing. I’m Dr Zoe Van Helsing”

“What, so, someone broke into a nunnery and killed everyone. But our ancestors got away?” You don't understand why any of this matters.

“not someone, something” she pauses “a vampire”

“a vampire?” You stare at her in disbelief and she nods. She’s not joking, she really believes this. “this is ridiculous, I don't know what game you're playing with me but I want no part of it” you say walking away from her. 

“this is not a game, this is real. Y/N, a vampire killed all those nuns back then, and now he’s back. He’s here, and I think he’s looking for you” 

Her words stop you dead in your tracks. 

“He could have killed her, Y/N, but he didn’t. He made the decision not to kill her and he let her go.” She continues and you turn to face her again. “it’s all here in this journal written by your great great grandmother. I think you should read it”

You slowly walk back over to her and take a seat at her table. She pushes a very old, slightly torn and battered journal across the table to you. You open it up to the bookmarked page and begin reading. 

“1897. 

It all started when the undead man arrived…”

Part Three

Taglist: @a-dorky-book-keeper​ @agent-smulder​

[haich-slash-cee]

I luv emotional comfort in books

and IDK if y’all are aware but romance books are prime for this. So, my prose reading includes: Speculative fiction, #ownvoices type books that are middle grade YA ish, and also random romance novels that are inclusive. I’m going to go over why these books are great.

Speculative fiction (ie scifi, fantasy, horror): I just like these. These are my jam. I have a whole tag of mild horror for this blog, and most of the books I talk about on this blog are spec fiction.

Middle grade books: they have happy endings, they are short, they are easy to read, they are often diverse. V good.

YA books, New Adult books: also written in an easy-to-read style. Also, MG and YA books and I think New Adult tend to be more on top of inclusive representation. Or maybe that’s what I hear about and read more of.

FYI, things get potentially more angsty in these older reader books. Sometimes I’m up for that drama-filled YA book about a trans demi-boy artschool teenager in NYC, or I want to read about the teen mom who wants to be come a chef and she gets everything she wants and it’s great and I cried. Or, sometimes I just wanna curl up with a warm and lowkey MG book about a young Syrian refugee who wants to audition for a school play. (All these books have happy endings fyi)

(Also, I know I’m about to extoll the virtues of romance books.... but if, in fact, you prefer your books to be low/null on romance and stuff: first, there is a growing # of aro ace protagonist or oriented books, whooo! Also, often MG and some YA New Adult books fall into that category of “Characters are concerned about things besides a crush or love interest”.) 

Romance books: I don’t actively go looking for them, but occasionally an #ownvoices type romance book will show up in my radar and I’ll read it.

Having just actively pointed out that I appreciate ace aro ish books.... why romance books?

First, Romance book are legally required to have a happy and optimistic ending. That might not be the exact phrasing, but basically: you can’t call it a romance book if it’s not “happy ever after” or “happy for now”. So if you pickup a book with minority characters and it’s labeled “romance”? The minority characters are guaranteed to be cherished and loved and have a happy ending. Minority characters will be told “you’re amazing, you are loved, I am so happy when I am with you”. Which is revolutionary in its own way.

Also, when there’s so many books with themes of “Bury Your Gays”, “The PoC will Die for the White People”, “This Author Wants to you Connect With this Minority By Making Them Die Because That’s The only Way to Make a Minority Character Relatable?”, “Women Being Happy Is Too Weird Apparently?”, “This Gender Minority Needs to Suffer For Reasons and this Book is Written By an Outsider FYI and the Representation is Suspicious”, “While racism and pain is a part of PoC and minority day to day life that is not realized by majority groups, and minorities should speak up when they want to because they are often discouraged from speaking due to white fragility and systemic stuff -- I have questions when I see writers from a majority group writing about Minority Suffering, especially when imposed as Minorities Suffer And This Can’t Be Changed Narrative, because that is a very convenient narrative for an oppressive system, as it enforces that Things are Unchangeable and Oppressors don’t have to do the work to change a system that benefits them, and this narrative needs to be challenged", “Minority Characters Suffers, Suffers, Suffers.... Look, I need a break from reality, I just can’t read this right now”, and finally, “Did you know that ‘diverse’ books are popular, but it’s still white people making money from writing issues of PoC, while BIPOC authors are still only like 7% of the market and BIPOC writers are very aware of this gatekeeping happening in publishing?”.... Happy minority characters and also actively reading and supporting minority-author’d books is a thing to be discussed. (Link, link, link and link to publishing industry reports on the 2nd point.)

Also, romance books are generally character driven, and character driven stuff is my jam.

H/C: There’s like, sooo much emotional comfort in romance books, y’all. People are showered with love. People are vulnerable and comforted and happy. Listen, I just read “Wrapped Up in You” by Talia Hibbert and it was basically was two solid hours of this. Literally. And a few cats show up. Also, the writer put a note in the front of the book about some possible triggers in the story, assured that she handled these as lovingly as she could, and that this books was meant to be a Christmas comfort read. (It was.) I really like when published books put info like this in the front.

...Occasionally there is straight up physical h/c or whump or at least sick fic scenarios in romance? Like, I expect piles of fluff and emotional comfort from romance. It’s almost a legal requirement. I’m here for these saccharine piles for fluff. Anyway, there’s more physical h/c than I expected.

So I was reading “Let’s Talk About Love” by Claire Kann (which has a young Black woman who is Ace and falling in love in the most adorable way, fyi... so we have ace rep in romance books too!) Anyway, y’all, there was a whole section which was basically a sickfic for one character with cooing and nursing and worrying by another character. It went on for a while. Personally, I thought the illness sounded pretty dang serious here and I think these people should have just gone to the doctor or a hospital, maybe, instead of days and days of home nursing and convenient character backstory exploration through looking at photo albums. But this is fiction. (Also they are young adults and are struggling for money and maybe they’re afraid of healthcare costs, idk. It takes place in the US.)

Actually, while I have admittedly not read too many romances, I feel like half of the books I have read include a “uh oh the protagonist/love interest just got the flu, the other character has to take care of them” scene.

Also, once I was reading a romance story and someone just... fell off a cliff? And cue subsequent expressions of feelings from other character and spending time together etc. IDK why I’m laughing, it was just funny that I had a vague idea of what romance books were, then I read this book and thought, “People are just straight-up falling off cliffs and limping around and later they can’t move from a bed and someone fusses over them, wow, there is just straight up h/c in these published romance books for ladies and no one talks about it, huh”

[myhauntedsalem]

Hexes and Hauntings of Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has a long tradition of religious tolerance that brought diverse settlers to the young colony, so it’s no surprise that the state has become known for the various modes of religious expression of its people. But these very traditions brought with them their own unique ideas about magic and the supernatural, and the state’s central position in national affairs and wars has drawn plenty of ghosts to the region.

The Pennsylvania Dutch emigrated from Germany and nearby areas in Europe in the late 17thcentury. These people stuck together, but they came from a number of religions and some chose to live simple lifestyles rather than blend into Pennsylvania culture. As a result, modern Pennsylvania Dutch communities are rural, but it isn’t uncommon to see Pennsylvania Dutch influences even in large cities like Philadelphia.

However, because the early communities were relatively closed off, their own cultures developed. And with these cultures came magic. Pow-wow is a system of folk magic unique to the Pennsylvania Dutch, but with heavy European and Christian influences. The charms and spells offered by Pow-wow offer protections from illnesses, witches, and other dark forces. A book about it was written in 1820 by John George Hohman, called Pow-Wows, or The Long Lost Friend, contains descriptions of many spells, that give an idea of the Pennsylvania Dutch way of life at the time. For example, if your horse refuses to eat, here’s a Pow-wow spell that will fix the problem: wrench open your horse’s mouth and knock on its palate three times. If you want to apply Pow-wow to your life, get your Bible in hand and read through Pow-Wows, which contains incantations to remedy diarrhea, headaches, colic, sore mouth, parasites, and more, and also has charms that will guarantee the success of your lawsuit and prevent criminals from getting near you. You can find the full text of the book online.

Many Pennsylvania Dutch barns are decorated with large circular symbols that usually have some kind of five-pointed design inside of them. These are hex signs, which were once thought to be Pow-wow talismans that would bring fortune to the farm, but are really just designs that grew out of a Pennsylvania Dutch art tradition. The symbols that are used to bring fortune to the household were called barn stars, large metal five-pointed stars. Hanging a barn star on your house is similar to nailing a horseshoe above your door in other cultures. You can buy hex signs and barn stars from Pennsylvania Dutch craft shops if you want to bring a little extra luck into your life.

The modern age may have decreased belief in magic power, but it seems to have had no effect on the belief in life after death. Pennsylvania is littered with pre-Revolution buildings that still contain their original inhabitants. Many born long after then still remain with us.

Philadelphia is home to many of these lingering spirits. Eastern State Penitentiary, a prison dating back to 1827 and now located well within the city, is a famous paranormal landmark, with every ghost hunting team you can think of probably having taken a sweep of its cellblocks. Al Capone had a brief stay in the penitentiary, and even he claimed to be haunted by a victim of the St. Valentine’s Day massacre. Visitors interested in the paranormal should visit what is reportedly the most active cellblock, Cellblock 12—but personally, on my visits, I can’t go into Cellblock 14. Going through the entryway fills me with an inexplicable sadness and a sense that I’m intruding.

Eastern State Penitentiary is a famous, publicly-accessible paranormal site, but another famous location that can only be entered with special permission is Pennhurst Hospital. Pennhurst was formerly an asylum for people, mostly children, whose mental illnesses or disabilities rendered them incapable of caring for themselves (or their families were too embarrassed to keep them around). Conditions for patients were notoriously bad, and Pennhurst employees, understaffed and intolerant, frequently abused their charges. These atrocities were eventually exposed and Pennhurst was shut down, but many believe the hospital is still haunted by the ghosts of patients and caretakers who suffered there mentally and physically. Workers hired to help maintain the site often report seeing shadow people, hearing crying, and feeling presences when they should be alone.

Pennsylvania is also home to another site of misery and despair, though this next location claimed more lives in three days than Pennhurst did during the decades of its operation. Cited as one of the most haunted cities in America, Gettysburg is a small town surrounded by beautiful, rolling fields. These fields, hills, and forests were once where one of the most important engagements of the Civil War was fought, and it may still be living that history, as numerous sources claim to see both Confederate and Union soldiers marching there. Ghosts of soldiers have been spotted at every major location of the battle, and many ghosts are spotted inside buildings within the city proper. Even the sole civilian casualty of the battle, Jennie Wade, is reportedly haunting her home. But spirits aren’t the only relics from the battle you can find in Gettysburg: to this day, visitors can stumble upon bullets laying quietly in the grass. But perhaps the most haunting aspect of Gettysburg is how peaceful and serene is. Though statues and monuments commemorating the battle now dot the landscape, it has remained mostly unchanged; imagining the area as it must have sounded in the chaos of war is horrifying in its own way.

These are famous haunted locations, but there are plenty of lesser-known hauntings in Pennsylvania. York, for example, was once home to an asylum that burned down before firefighters could arrive. Seven gates were built so local authorities could rescue (or capture) patients that had escaped. According to a legend, anyone who walks through all seven of the gates goes straight to Hell. Another haunted town is Centralia, under which burns a massive coal fire that forced the city to be abandoned by all except a stubborn few. The fire is still burning decades later, and the smoke attracts tourists and ghosts. Even Hershey Park has its share of paranormal encounters to its name.

Pennsylvania may be known today for its sports, sports fans, food, cities, and being strangely conservative in a very liberal region, but maybe it’s the state’s observance of tradition and rich history of tolerance and brotherhood that keep old magic alive and souls animated.

[mattygraygubler]

our campus: chapter 8 (tom holland fic)

summary: frat!tom and reader go to the same college and y/n is tasked with being his tutor, they don’t really get along at first (because i love reader and tom hating each other trope)

warnings: drinking, drinking, more drinking, mentions of sex

word count: 2.6

a/n: sort of a cliff hanger at the end???? we’ll see what happens! 

as always texts are bolded

for a list of characters click here

to be added to the tag list send me an ask !

masterlist

✰✰✰✰✰

You slowly opened your eyes and were immediately confused. You were in your room, but you felt someone’s arms around you. 

You drank almost an entire bottle of wine last night, so needless to say, you didn’t really remember anything. You didn’t think you slept with someone… But did you? 

The body groaned, but you still couldn’t figure out who it was because the lights were off and blackout curtains closed. You pushed their shoulder a bit and heard a british voice say “Whaa?” 

“Tom?” You asked incredulously. 

“Good morning, darling,” he said. His voice was raspy and low, so incredibly sexy. 

“What are you doing here? Why are you shirtless, where are my pants?! Did we- ohmigod tell me we didn’t…” 

“You don’t remember?” He asked and you shook your head, still very aware that his arm was around you and your legs were intertwined. “Relax, we didn’t have sex, love. We just hung out and then watched a movie and fell asleep.”

“Then where’s your shirt?” He laughed. 

“You’re wearing it. You were cold and wouldn’t let me leave the bed, so I gave it to you.” You bit your lip, very uncomfortable. It was one thing to sleep with someone and not remember it, but to spend the entire night cuddling? You weren’t a couple, who does that?!

“Oh. I’m sorry.” You said and sat up, untangling your body from his.

“What are you apologizing for?” He asked. 

“I mean… I’m your tutor, we’re just becoming friends, it’s weird for us to-to sleep in the same bed together and-” 

“Y/N, slow down. We’re friends. It’s really not a big deal, totally platonic. I mean, c’mon, you’ve never slept in the same bed as Kyle? Or Emily?” 

“No, I have…” “Then what’s the big deal?” He asked. 

“I guess there isn’t one…” You replied. Tom swung his leg over the side of the bed, stretching and getting his stuff together. You couldn’t help but watch his back muscles flex when he stretched. You wanted to run your fingernails along it. 

“I gotta take care of some stuff, I’ll see you later today?” He asked. You nodded. 

“Sure, I’ll see you later. Wait, Tom!” You said before he could walk out the door.  

“Yes?” He turned back to look at you. 

“You’re, uhm… You need your sweatshirt back.” You started to take it off. 

“I’m only going down two floors. You look comfy anyway.” He said and smiled at you before walking out. 

You lied back down in bed, picking up your phone and checking the alerts. You scrolled through all the drunk texts from last night, laughing at a lot of them. 

♡girly girls♡

Em

GUYS

Al

whaaaaaat em

Em

GUYS GUYS GUYS

Iz

em what happened

Em

NOTHING HAPPENED

YET

CHECK THE WEATHER REPORT

You rolled your eyes and checked the weather report, unsure of what she was referring to. It was the first weekend in February, so you weren’t expecting your weather app to show you a 100% chance of snow starting in a few hours and lasting until Monday night. 

Em

THATS RIGHT LADIES

SNOOOOOOWWWW DAAAAYYYYYY

Al

Y/N we’ll be over at 9 to play games, iz you and i are goin to grab the booze, em youre in charge of food

You

what am i in charge of? 

Al 

dont you have homework? plus were using your room, we can take care of all the stuff

Iz

are we inviting anyone else?

Em

thank you for asking i would love to invite harrison

Iz

im fine with that if i can invite cal

Cal was the nerdy boy from delt who Isabelle was seeing. It was really low key, they’d only gone on a few dates, and things hadn’t gotten physical yet. 

Em

Y/N! invite tom and we’ll make it a total delt nite !!!

You

yeah ok ill invite him. were gonna be studying anyway. 

Al

wow i expected more push back

You

were friends now, it wont be weird. its not like its a quintouple date

Iz

it is if one of those delt boys has a gay sister

Al

not interested. besides i doubt more than 7 people can fit comfortably in Y/N’s room

You

fine ill see you guys tonight.

You hopped in the shower, putting on a pair of leggings and a cropped sweatshirt. You decided to text Tom. 

You

hey so it looks like its gonna snow i was wondering if we could work at my place instead?

also ive been told to invite you to our game night tonight

Tom

interesting, because i was already invited

what took you so long Y/L/N?

You

sorry i was in the shower

Tom

likely story

but yeah that sounds great ill see you in a few hours

A few hours. That’s plenty of time for you to put your glasses on, earbuds in, and really focus on your homework. 

* * *

You were pulled from your law reading by a knock at the door. You opened it, seeing Tom in a soccer tee shirt and gray sweatpants. His hair was wet and he ran his fingers through it. 

You hoped he didn’t see the fact that you bit your lip, but you couldn’t help yourself. He just looked so incredibly sexy. 

“You look... “ His eyes scanned your body and you immediately wrapped your arms around you, insecure. 

“What?”

“No, you just never wear stuff like this in front of me. You’re always so put together.” 

“Your point?” 

“You look cute, that’s all.” Tom said and walked into the room. He thought you were cute? No, you needed to calm down, he’s the biggest player ever, he didn’t mean anything. Just some accidental flirting. 

“I brought tequila, Harrison said it’s your favorite.” He said and dropped his backpack on the floor and put the tequila on the table where you kept your booze. 

“That’s sweet of you, thank you, it is my favorite.” “Really? I thought he was joking.” “No, why?” 

“You’re just… you’re really something else, Y/N.” He said with a laugh. 

You grabbed your notebooks and started the session, you checking his homework, him redoing the mistakes, and you answering any questions he had about the material. 

“You’ve definitely made an improvement,” you said as you finished reading his essay on the power shifts in England from the 1600s to today. 

“Thank you? I think?” 

“You’re welcome. You’re almost there, but you’re still not incorporating this source correctly.” 

“That’s because that source makes no sense. The writing is so convoluted, it’s mental!” 

“Then why don’t you find a new source?” You asked. 

“Well… I thought I’d be easier if I just stuck with this one.” Normally you would have rolled your eyes at that, but instead you found yourself laughing. 

“Read it again,” You said and handed him the library book he was using as his last source, “And if you still can’t understand it, I can explain it or we can just find a new source.” 

You grabbed your own book, Rage Becomes Her, which you were reading for your Women, Politics, and Public Policy class, and started highlighting right where you left off. 

You both got lost in your books, highlighting and annotating in silence. Every once in a while Tom would stop to ask you about a particular passage. 

It was another hour or so before you both heard a knock on your door. You got up to open it, and as soon as you did Emily burst into the room, Harrison right behind her holding three pizzas. 

“TOM!” Emily said and tackled him in a hug. “It’s so good to see you again!” “I didn’t realize you two had met,” you said and helped Harrison with the pizzas. 

“Just once,” Tom said with a laugh. He made himself comfortable on your bed instead of the floor, Harrison took a seat on your comfy chair and Emily made herself comfortable on his lap. 

“I better leave this unlocked,” you said. “I would offer you guys a drink, but Isabelle and Ally are-” 

“Did someone say something about a drink?” Isabelle said, pushing the door opened. 

“What’s up bitches,” Ally said and put a bottle of wine, svedka, prosecco, and a 30 on the booze table. 

“How long do you guys anticipate this storm lasting, because that is a LOT of booze for 7 people,” you commented. 

“Lighten up, babe, it’s not like we have to drink it all tonight.” Isabelle responded. 

“Better to be safe than sorry.” Ally said with a mischievous grin. They greeted the others in the room when you heard a knock on your door. 

“I heard there was a party happening here?” Cal said as he pushed open the door. You closed it all the way behind him so no one else could stumble in. 

After everyone introduced themselves to each other, Harrison said “So what does everyone want to play first?” 

“Oh, you’re new.” Ally said. “See, we kinda of have an agenda.” “Is that so?” Harrison asked. Emily kissed his cheek. “Tell me more.”

“Well the first time we had a snow day, we took turns picking our favorite games, and then we just stuck with that formula. First is A which means kings,” Isabelle said. “Then Emily, which means never have I ever. Then me, which means truth or dare. And then Y/N.” 

“And what does Y/N pick?” Tom asked.

“Y/N picks poker, of course. But most of the time were too drunk to get there.” Ally said. 

“Yeah I really got the short end of the stick there. It’s a good formula, though.” You replied and grabbed a deck of cards and a beer. 

“Let’s go, boys and girls.” You said. Everyone sat in a circle, the beer in the middle like you were worshipping it, and you spread out the cards in a circle around it. You saw Tom and Harrison exchange a look across the circle. 

“Something wrong?” You asked. 

“Well… Don’t judge us, but we’ve never played this game before. They don’t have it in England.” Everyone else laughed quietly at Harrison’s statement. 

“It’s easy. Everyone picks a card, and each card has an action assigned to it. Ace is waterfall,” You said. 

“Two is you, so you pick someone to drink.” Isabelle said.

“Three is me, so you drink.” Cal said as you went around the circle explaining the rules. 

“Four is floor, so the last person to slap the floor loses.” Emily said. 

“Five is guys,” Ally said. 

“Six is chicks,” You said and the circle started again. 

“Seven is heaven, so last person to touch the ceiling drinks.” 

“Eight is date, so you pick someone and whenever one of you drinks the other has to too, for the rest of the game.” 

“Nine is rhyme, so you go around the circle saying words that rhyme and the person who can’t continue the rhymes drinks.” 

“Ten is categories, so it’s the same as nine but with a category of something, like animals.” 

“Jack is never have I ever.” 

“Queen is questions, so the next person who answers a question they ask drinks.” 

“And finally, king is the ruler, so you make a rule that everyone has to follow until the next king is pulled.” 

“Make sense?” You asked. 

“Not one bit.” Tom responded. 

“You’ll get the hang of it, I promise it gets easier.” You said. “Al goes first.” 

“Why?” Harrison asked. 

“Gay goes first.” The four of you said in unison. The boys looked scared. They had no idea what they had gotten themselves into. 

“One last rule. First drink is a shot of your chosen poison. After that, you can drink whatever you want.” You explained as Isabelle gave each person a shot glass and the handles of hard liquor were passed around.

“Four,” Ally said and everyone slapped the floor except Tom and Harrison. Harrison realized first, so you watched as Tom downed the shot across the circle. He tensed his jaw after, which made you wet already. When he saw you looking at him, he winked at you.

Your turn was next, so you quickly pulled a card, a six, so you and the other girls did your shots and then began to pour yourselves your chosen drinks. For you, that was a second shot of tequila and then a rum and orange soda.

“Two.” Isabelle said with a grin. “I choose our kings sponsor, miss Alexandria Park.” Everyone whooped as Ally dramatically took a sip of her beer. 

“Five,” Cal said. The boys took their shots, except Tom who took a sip of his beer. 

“My turn then?” Tom said and drew a card. “Eight. Which one is that?” 

“Date. You pick someone and for the rest of the game whenever one of you drinks, the other has to too.” Cal explained. Tom looked around the circle, but you already suspected who he was going to pick. 

“Y/N,” he said. “Would you care to be my date?” 

“You’re exhausting, Holland. What, are you trying to get me drunk or something?” That shut him up, right as Harrison said ‘seven’ and everyone reached for the ceiling except Tom, who groaned and complained about having to drink again. 

Cal was the one who finally popped the beer and had to chug it. You put the cards to the side and everyone held up ten fingers, already ready for never have I ever. 

Things started off innocent enough, with Emily sharing that she had never peed in a pool. By the time you all went once and it was Harrison’s turn, he made things more interesting. 

“Never have I ever slept with more than 15 different people.” You and Tom were the only ones who clapped. 

Harrison rolled his eyes. “Jesus fucking christ, it’s like you guys were made for each other.” He commented. Your face got red, which Emily noticed, so she went quickly next. 

You finally lost, getting rid of your ten fingers before anyone else. You were always a bag of secrets, and Tom found himself learning more and more things about you he didn’t know. Like that you had a tattoo, or that you’ve gone skinny dipping, or that you’ve never had a gin and tonic. 

You were all wasted, that was clear. Isabelle was in between Cal’s legs on the floor, leaning her back against his chest. Ally was lying on the couch all by herself, upside down. Harrison was in your big chair with Emily on his lap, and you and Tom were on your bed, you lying on your stomach and him sitting against the headboard. 

“Isabelle, truth or dare?” Cal asked. 

“Dare,” she said, looking back at him. 

“I dare you to ditch your friends and come back to my room with me.” He said. 

Isabelle shared a look with all of you before saying “Sorry guys, I’m not one to turn down a dare.” They grabbed the half-drunk bottle of prosecco on their way out. 

“Al, truth or dare?” Emily asked. This went on until Ally passed out from drinking, still upside down. 

“We’ll get her home.” Harrison said. He picked Ally up as Emily collected their stuff and bid you and Tom good night. You both sat in silence for a few minutes, when Tom’s phone lit up. 

“Do you mind if I chill here for a while? I’ll stay on the couch if you want to go to sleep, but Harrison just said him and Emily want some alone time and her roommate is home.” 

“Of course, I don’t mind.” You responded. You stumbled off the bed, going to pour yourself another drink. 

“Ok, Y/N.” Tom said, moving so he was sitting on the edge of the bed. “Truth or dare?” You turned to look at him and saw a dark look in his brown eyes. 

“Dare.” 

“I dare you to kiss me.” 

[phoenixmaiden-reading]

Lethal White Book Review

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith (AKA: JK Rowling)

Read: November 25, 2019 - January 7, 2020

I’ve read the 3 previous books before this and I loved them. So when I saw this at Barnes & Noble it was immediately added to my stack.

It was really good! So many twists and everything that happened was somehow connected. And the ending! Wow. I was not expecting the murderer to be who it was. They played their role well. The only thing I didn’t like was that Robin and Strike’s relationship didn’t end up anywhere. Oh well, maybe in the next one. But I really enjoyed it.

Stars:  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Spoiler Summary Ahead!!

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The book starts off right where it left off in the last book Career of Evil with Strike at Robin’s wedding. Though it is supposed to be a happy event, Robin is less than happy with her new husband. She had found out that Matthew, her husband, had deleted her call history and her message from Strike. He had fired her from her job because she didn’t listen to him and she got injured. But now that it was all over, he wanted her back as a partner in his Private Detective business. Strike was hoping that maybe Robin wouldn’t marry Matthew, but she did anyway. He was not that happy about it.

One year after Robin’s wedding, she moved into a new house with Matthew and returned to work with Strike, but they keep avoiding each other. As always, there is something between them but they refuse to talk about it or acknowledge it. Especially now that Robin is married. With the capture of a serial killer, Strike’s private detective agency has boomed and has a lot of new clients that keep them apart. Plus, Strike started seeing a woman named Lorelei so they were both busy.

One day, Strike has a mentally ill man named BIlly comes in and starts saying he had witnessed a child being strangled when he was a kid. But he wouldn’t say more, only that Jimmy would get mad. Nothing more than a mad man’s ravings, but Strike is curious and finds out who “Jimmy” is. It’s Billy’s brother and he’s a Communist against the Olympics that is coming to London. Strike let’s Jimmy know that he’s worried about Billy since he had run off and remarked about what he had told him about the strangling of a child. Jimmy just said Billy was not thinking clearly and said nothing more. A few days later, the Minister of Culture, Jasper Chiswell, comes to Strike with a job saying he’s being blackmailed by Jimmy Knight, the same Jimmy from before, but wouldn’t say about what. But also there was another man, the husband of the Minister for Sport, is trying to force him out of office. So he wants Strike to get some dirt on the two of them in case they have proof of anything he did to have some leverage.

So Robin goes in undercover as one of Chiswell’s goddaughters to get information from the Minister of Sport - Geraint Winn. Something that her new husband, Matthew is not happy about. He doesn't like her working for Strike, but she loves it. So she goes undercover anyway as Venetia. She works near Winn’s office with Chiswell’s daughter, Izzy, and his son from an affair he had named Raphael. He had recently gotten out of jail for running over a pregnant woman and killing her. He also couldn’t hold a job because he kept sleeping with the other employees. So he’s not in good graces with his father. Robin manages to get a bug in Geraint’s office but has to wait to get it back when no one is around, yet the attendant Amir is suspicious of her so she has to be careful. So Robin continues to work there and tries to get information on what is going on between Chiswell and Geraint. She is able to find out from Raphael that his father, Chiswell, has been very snappy at Izzy lately. It could be because he had lost a gold pin that had  used to belong to his son, Freddie, who died years ago in the war. But it could also be the stress of the Olympics going on at the time or because he was pressed for money. Raphael also revealed that the Chiswell family home is falling apart and they don’t have much money to keep it up. Interesting. Especially as it seemed like Jimmy was asking for money.

When Robin was able to get the listening device back, she listens to them with Strike and Barclay (the other detective undercover with Jimmy) and finds out that Geraint and Jimmy are working together. Geraint wanted Amir to look for photos that they may be trying to get for Jimmy for the blackmail from the Foreign Office. Strike and Robin don’t know what the blackmail might be and Chiswell won’t say, it wasn’t what he hired them for. Also, they find out that Amir, the attendant, and Geraint’s wife Della may be seeing each other. Robin also says that Chiswell’s wife, Kinevra came by and told Chiswell in front of everyone that she saw a man outside the window of the house with a spade. Interesting.

Jimmy is an activist and was going to put on a rally against the Olympics, but Barclay is taking time off and Robin has her anniversary dinner to go to, so Strike had to go instead. Strike was able to overhear Jimmy and his girlfriend, Flick (strange name, I know) arguing about how she thought he was flirting with other girls while she was out cleaning and getting information on Chiswell. She also said that he should be in a hospital. They were talking about Billy, Jimmy’s brother, and the one who had come to Strike in the beginning. Apparently, he had been talking about Strike thinking he was going to rescue him. Jimmy wasn’t too happy about that. But said he would take care of him and her when they get the money. Strike tried to follow them as they left, but he ended up falling because of his prosthetics and lost them. He ended up calling Lorelai for help since there was no one else to call.

Strike ended up staying with Lorelai for a week or so to heal since he tore a hamstring. It wasn’t what he wanted to do since it had been his rule to not spend more than one night. He had told her from the beginning that he was not looking for any permanent relationship and she agreed. But apparently calling her in his time of need meant something deeper and she then used the “L” word. But got mad when Strike didn’t say it back. This eventually leads to them breaking up. Meanwhile,  Robin is not happy in her marriage with Matthew but it trying to make it work. Yet they always argue and it comes to the point that she is relieved when he is out with a friend or at work so she doesn’t have to deal with him.

Later, Strike then got a call from a reporter asking for him to work for them regarding digging up dirt on a government minister. AKA, Chiswell. He declines. Not good if the newspaper is poking around. Around the same time, Robin was able to find out some information about Geraint. He had been  promising gifts to people when he has no way to come through. He has also lost some money and hasn’t told his wife, who by the way is blind. She tells Chiswell who is happy with this development.

Later, Robin finds out that a different detective is following her, possibly working for the newspaper. They don’t know who she is. Strike tells her that they think she is the story. Chiswell had an affair years ago and now there is a new young woman working in his office...they are going to start digging and will find out that she is not really Chiswell’s goddaughter. That won’t be good. So after a reception dinner, she is going to pull out. Before that though, Robin finds out that Chiswell was snapping even at Izzy for a simple mistake she made. He had really been on edge because he lost a gold money clip that belonged to his dead son, Freddie. Also, Kinevra keeps calling him driving him crazy because a detective put it in her head that Chiswell was having an affair with Robin. Add on everything going on with the blackmail and the Olympics...he’s very testy. Raphael then said that Chiswell had called him the other day, which was strange since they didn’t get along and he said Chiswell started to ramble about things including Jack o’Kent, a creepy man who was Jimmy and Billy Knight’s father. He used to work on the Chiswell’s land as a caretaker. He was dead now, but according to Chiswell, he had called. Strange.

On the day of the Reception, Strike got a call from one of his other hired men who was following Jimmy and he said that Jimmy was planning something with some men and signs at the reception. Barclay was on vacation and Robin was going to the event so Strike had to go and put a stop to what he was planning. So off he went and ended up getting into a fight with Jimmy, putting a stop to a riot he was planning. Jimmy got hauled off to jail but Strike was saved by Chiswell who had spotted him being hauled off by the cops. He was then summarily invited to the reception. Robin went off to try to question a woman who was at the event and Strike went to try to make himself unobtrusive, hard to do with his size. While there, he runs into his ex-fiance, Charlotte, who is now married and pregnant. Not a good thing since they’ve had a rocky relationship because she always liked creating drama centering around herself. He had had enough and broke it off when she had lied about being pregnant and losing the baby to make him stay. He was still trying to get over her, but she seemed to be trying to worm her way back into his life.

The next day, Robin and Strike were to meet Chiswell at his house in the city at his request because he wanted to talk to him. Robin got there first and went in and found Chiswell...dead. He had been suffocated with a bad over the head and a helium tank to suck the air out. It looks like a suicide but some things are out of place. Robin takes pictures of the scene after calling the police so they can look at them later. Strike arrives and they find a note from Chiswell’s wife, Kinevra who had left him the night before. At this point, the news will get out about the Minister of Culture’s death and it will be in the news, so that means Robin’s undercover work is done.

Whew, and all that was just part 1!!

In the next part, the news is out about Chiswell’s death. Both Strike and Robin are brought in by the police for questioning since they found the body and also why they were there in the first place. So Robin’s cover was blown as well. But Della Winn, the Minister for Sport had put a super-injunction on any investigation so they were safe from the press for now. But also, Robin and Strike have begun to suspect that Chiswell was murdered. 

After Chiswell’s funeral, Izzy calls Strike and wants to meet. She paid what her father owed for the investigation then tells him she wants to hire him to find proof that her stepmother, Kinevra, killed her father. She’s convinced Kinevra did it. Her father wouldn��t commit suicide. Strike agrees because he wants to get to the bottom of all this, but he needs information before he can take the case. She revealed that the police had questioned Raphael more than anyone because Chiswell had called him before he died, also that Kinevra had once hit Chiswell in the head with a hammer. Crazy. But she wouldn’t tell him what Jimmy had been blackmailing Chiswell with, saying she was trying to protect his legacy.

Robin and Strike were then able to meet a guy that works in forensics that got some information for them. He told them that Chiswell had ingested some sleeping pills ground up in his orange juice. But it was the suffocation that killed him. But there were no drugs in the orange juice carton and only Chiswell’s prints were on it. There was also a pestle and mortar in the kitchen where the drugs had been ground up with only his prints too. So nothing suspicious. Geraint and Jimmy also have an alibi. So does Raphael and Kinvara apparently. Days later, they then go to see Izzy and her sister and her husband at the old Chiswell house. On the way there, Strike reveals that he spoke to Izzy and she said that her father had a will that had the Chiswell House and some heirlooms willed to his eldest grandson, Izzy and her sister will get some money and Kinvara will only get with whatever is left from the second house and any personal gift, so not much. Raphael will get nothing. Harsh. There wasn’t much money left after the stock market crash, so Strike and Robin didn’t really think Chiswell was killed for money. On the road up to the Chiswell house, they spotted a white chalk figure of a horse and was reminded of what Billy had said at the beginning of everything: that someone had strangled a kid by the horse. Oooh, there might be some truth to it.

At the Chiswell House, Strike and Robin learned a few things. One, that Della Winn and her husband had split up. The family had also all agreed to not say anything about what Chiswell was being blackmailed about, so that was a bummer. They also learned that there are only 3 keys to the house, Chiswell had 1, Kinvara had another and the last was with the cleaning lady. They also asked about the helium canister and no one knew where it came from and assumed Chiswell had bought it, but there was no receipt. They also questioned about the phone calls Chiswell made to Kinvara and Raphael. Kinvara ended up getting upset and leaving when they talked about a painting on the wall with a dead foal. Raphael then revealed that Chiswell had a horse put down when it was sick without consulting Kinvara, she had been hysterical and hit him on the head with a hammer. He then said that Chiswell had called him the day died to have him go down to the Chiswell House to make sure Kinvara didn’t do something stupid. So he did. Which was kind of weird when there was already someone else out there staying the night. Stike also asked Kinvara when she came back if she had any pills in a blue bottle (there was a bottle at the crime scene) and she said she had. It was supposed to be for her horse but she lost them and ended up buying another. She thinks Chiswell had stolen them. That was all they could get out of them. Before they left the property, they went to see the now-abandoned house of Jack o’Kent where Jimmy and Billy grew up. They also found the dell that Billy had told Strike about. Robin went down to it and was able to find an old cross. That doesn’t bode well. There might be something there.

Days later, Strike finds out where Aamir lives and questions him to get information about what Geraint was blackmailing Chiswell about. But he denied being involved. So Strike asked about his and Geraint’s whereabouts on the night of Chiswell was murdered. He said he was home and Geraint was there. But it was suspicious that Geraint was at his house so early in the morning. Aamir said he had called because Della had fallen and needed his help to persuade her to go to the hospital. So they were each other’s alibi. He wouldn’t get anything else out of him, so before leaving he went to the restroom to look around and found a drawing carved into the back of the door. Before he left, he questioned Aamir as to why he left his previous job at the Foreign Office, but he just said he didn’t like it. And when Strike questioned why his family has seemed to have disowned him after leaving that job and proceeded to read off some nasty comments that they had left on his Facebook page. This threw Aamir into a rage and he tried to hit Strike with a lamp but Strike was able to knock him down. He then left and texted the picture to Robin. She said it looked like the White Horse on the hill by the Chiswell place.

Robin then went undercover as Bobbi, a goth, at a jewelry store that Flick worked at in order to get close to her for information. She was able to get on well with her in their first meeting as Robin played toward the downside of politics. While they were talking, Flick got a text from Jimmy saying Bill had been found on the streets and had been taken to a hospital. Jimmy wants to convince Billy to leave because he’s afraid what he will say to the doctors. Jimmy is also upset because he lost a piece of paper that had Billy’s name on it and he thinks Flick took it. So Robin was going to search her bag to see if she could find the note, but didn’t get a chance to because Flick had a phone call from Jimmy where they fought over the phone and she left upset on an early lunch, taking her bag with her. When Flick came back, it was with Jimmy in tow, yet as it was time for her lunch, she couldn’t stay. So before she left, so left her phone recording to catch what they said and left.

Robin played her recording later with Barclay and Strike and they were able to learn that Jimmy was still accusing Flick of taking the note and had gone through her purse looking for it. He told her that she would be more in trouble than him because she was the one who took it in the first place. He then took her house key and left Flick to cry. Barclay then said that he had gone to Flick’s flat with Jimmy and looked around but didn’t find anything. Robin, Strike, and Barclay then put together that Flick had been the Polish cleaner working at the Chiswell house, so she had access and probably took the note and found blackmail material that she then gave to Jimmy. It’s why he keeps her around, so she won’t betray him. Barclay told them that they went to see Billy. He had been having delusions about being chased but is doing better now that he is on medication. He keeps talking about Strike though and Jimmy is not too happy about it. Barclay left early, so Strike and Robin brainstormed about Chiswell’s murder. Raphael was a suspect but he didn’t have a key to the house. Aamir could have done it but had no means to do so. And there was also Jimmy, but there were factors to think about. The murderer had to know of the anti-depressants Kinvara was taking, have access to the helium, and able to get inside the house. But they were missing something…

The next day, Strike went to the Art Gallery that Raphael used to work at. The owner, Henry Drummond, had called the Chiswell’s house the night he had died as well. Drummond said that Chiswell hadn’t been suicidal but he was under a lot of stress, with his difficult wife and work/politics. He then told Strike that he hadn’t told Chiswell the first time he had caught Raphael with his goddaughter who was working there. But the second time it happened, he had to do something. His goddaughter had come in on her day off to see Raphael and they had sex in the bathroom, she then crawled out the window to get away before Drummond could see her. When Chriswell came he looked in the bathroom and went pale and closed the door behind him; he was in there for a while. Then he left taking Raphael with him as he had been fired. Drummond also told Strike that Chiswell never told him what he was being blackmailed over, only that it was legal at the time. But the night of Chiswell’s death he hadn’t been able to talk to him, he might have already been dead. He had been calling about some paintings that Chiswell wanted to sell.

As Strike was leaving the interview, Charlotte was there supposedly looking into buying a painting. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that she was there at the same time Strike was. She wasn’t feeling well, so she had Strike take her to a restaurant to wait for her sister to pick her up and got him to wait with her. He didn’t want to, but she insisted. Strike clearly didn’t want to be there and Charlotte brought up that she didn’t get rid of their baby, that she had lost it but Strike didn’t want to hear it. They were

over now. She was making a scene, and clearly enjoying the attention, crying and saying that once she gave birth, she was going to leave. Her husband’s family wanted the twins so she was going to let them have them. It was clear she was trying to make Strike take her back, especially now that he’s made it big, but he didn’t want anything to do with her. When her crying act didn’t work, she changed tactics and instead got angry and tried to hurt him with words, but Strike just ended up leaving.

Later, Robin goes to a party with Flick at a bar until it was shut down and it moved to Flick’s flat. It was crowded with people. Flick was starting to trust “Bobbi” and told her about Jimmy’s brother Billy not being right in the head. He had got to the detective, Strike about something he had seen when he was younger, a murder, but it wasn’t true. When Flick went to go dance, Robin took the chance to look around the flat as to where Flick could have hidden a note. It was hard to do with so many people around. She ended up running into Jimmy. They talked mostly about Robin’s made up background until the bathroom was free and she could go in. She looked around and was able to find the missing note Flick had stolen from the Chiswell house folded up inside of a tampon; a place no man would look. So she took a picture of it and put it away, sent it to Strike and left the party.

Strike called Robin when he got the text. He couldn’t believe she had found it. The note was a list that had the name Bill circled though they are not sure if it meant Billy, but Jimmy seemed to think so. The word mother was crossed out and also the name Suzuki which could be the name of Jimmy’s car, but Robin said that it was out of commission because it didn’t pass it’s MOT, but one of Chiswell’s family members had one, she remembered seeing it when they went to the Woolstone house. And the name Blanc de blanc was on the note that could be a type of champagne. Robin thought it sounded familiar too. There was also a Latin phrase on it that they didn’t know why it Chiswell wrote it, but it could be about his marriage with Kinvara was falling apart. With this new information they couldn’t keep it to themselves, Strike was going to have to go to the police with it.

After a day of running errands, Strike called Robin to tell her his findings. He had learned from a detective on the force that Chiswell had an account with forty thousand pounds that he was using for house repairs. No one in the family seemed to know where the money came from. He also called Izzy and told her about the note, but she didn’t know what any of the words meant, yet she did say that her father was allergic to champagne and didn’t entertain people. So the box of champagne in the house could have been to smuggle the helium and tubing into the house; Chiswell wouldn’t have opened it. Also, the gold money clip that he had been looking for had been in his pocket, so either he found it or the killer put it there. Strike had also gotten an interview with Della Winn and Billy. Della had only agreed because Aamir was missing. And the doctors at the hospital agreed to the interview with Billy as long as it was supervised.

Robin was impressed that Strike was able to get the interviews but hoped he could get some information out of them. After hanging up, she went to get ready and stepped on an earring…it wasn’t hers. Matt had left already saying he was going to go golfing with Tom from work. So after turning off her caller ID, she called Tom and when he picked up she could hear that he was at home watching TV, not out golfing…

Strike went to Della Winn’s house for their interview. She was worried about Aamir, saying that she was all he had after his family disowned him. He had nowhere else to go. When he asked about the Chiswell’s Della said that Jasper Chiswell didn’t like her since they were on opposite sides politically and constantly butted heads. But she did know Kinvara; she had met her once when she had come into the

office hysterical and crying saying there was another woman and that she was just a part of his game. Della had heard that Chiswell’s previous marriage had ended because he had cheated and assumed he was doing it again. And later she had heard that Kinvara had been sent to a psychiatric clinic shortly after. She had felt sorry for her, but when she saw Kinvara again she acted like they had never met.

Strike then sked about Aamir’s alibi. Della said she had called Aamir after she had fallen…which wasn’t what Aamir had said. She backtracked when Strike questioned her and revealed that Aamir had left the Foreign Office after he had been groped and harassed by a senior civil servant and he was accused of being gay. Aamir’s father didn’t like the thought of a gay son so had disowned him even though it was all a lie. Della had stepped in after hearing about it and gave him a job and a place to live. So she was surprised to hear that her husband was pressuring him to get pictures from the Foreign Office. To her, it explained by Aamir had been pulling away from her and accusing her of controlling him. Strike left after promising to try and find Aamir.

Robin on the other had packed her bags. She had gotten several text messages from Matthew saying Tom wanted to talk and was going to be late, and later that Tom was drunk and he couldn’t leave him alone. But Robin had called Tom again and he had sounded sober when he picked up the phone, still at home. So Matthew was lying…and cheating. And she knew who it was with. She was just going to leave but decided to just end it face to face which she did as soon as he came home. She told him she knew he was cheating on her with Sarah, a woman from college that he had cheated with before. Matthew tried to deny it at first but then said that they had just ended it. Very convenient. But Robin wasn’t going to have it this time, she was leaving. Matthew got angry and called her a flake; that she had bailed out on University, her therapist and now their marriage. He then accused Strike of only taking her back on the job because he wanted to get into her pants. Robin told him that Matthew hadn’t seemed to mind that she dropped out of university after she had been raped and didn’t have a job, she was quietly waiting for him back at home while he was off at college with Sarah. He had said it was okay that she did, but when Robin finally got a job she always wanted Matthew got angry and possessive and jealous. She had dreams before she was raped and now that she was finally achieving it, Matthew didn’t like it. She then told Matthew that she didn’t love him anymore, and they should never have gotten married. She only stayed because he had been safe. She was her first boyfriend and had been there after what happened to her and had clung to him. But if it hadn’t happened, she would have left him a long time ago. She then took her bags and left.

Strike’s next interview was with Billy at the hospital. He was doing a lot better now which he was glad of. Billy told him that when he was younger he thinks he had been given drugs which is why things aren’t clear. He remembers being with Jimmy and his friends when they took him along with a little girl. The little girl was screaming and they strangled her to keep her quiet. He remembered her falling to the floor. Later he saw his father and the one who killed her put the little girl wrapped in a pink blanket in the dell and bury her. When he questioned his father, he had just said he had done it for the family – the Chiswells. Strike questioned him further about who was there and he said some men and women with the little girl. Billy then said that after he had left Strike’s office he had been in a house he believed was rigged with explosives. He only got out because the man who had kept him there let him leave. Strike asked him if he had carved anything into the bathroom door and Billy said he did. He said that he hated to carve those horses into those things, but didn’t say what. So basically, Billy had been at Aamir’s house the entire time.

Later, Robin is now staying at a friend’s house whole she searches for a place to live now that she’s left Matthew. She speaks to Strike about how she is meeting Raphael later to question him and that Tegan, the caretaker that takes care of Kinvara’s horses has agreed to see them. So Robin meets up with Raphael at a restaurant and he can tell she is not well so she tells him she had just left her husband. During their interview, she kept getting phone calls from Matthew until she blocked him. Raphael told her that he never had a key to the Chiswell house and the last time he had been inside was when he was a kid. After he had gotten out of jail his father had summoned him and he was briefly inside the house only to be told he had an interview with an Art Dealer and sent him out again. Also that his father wasn’t having an affair as far as he knew, they weren’t close. Kinvara was just upset that he didn’t come home when she expected him too, it was why she said he was. Raphael was also a bit upset that he was left out of his father’s will. He was jobless and broke and no one will hire him because of his past. His mother was of no help either, she refused to help him even though she had money. He revealed that when she was having the affair with Chiswell, she got pregnant on purpose hoping he would marry her, but he didn’t. Raphael was just a failed plan. Robin then questioned about the night of Chiswell’s death and Raphael said his father had called him saying to go down to Woolstone and stop Kinvara from doing something stupid. But Robin told him that the police don’t buy that story. So Raphael told her that his father had actually called to get a valuable necklace that Kinvara had taken, it was supposed to go to Izzy when she turned 21, but he had forgotten. Chiswell had let Kinvara wear it, even Raphael’s mother got to wear it at some point. The family thought she was going to turn it over because it belongs in the family. But Robin told him that Drummond had told them, Kinvara had left a message on getting a valuation for the necklace. Things would have imploded if the family had found out. Fighting over money yet he is treated like a second class citizen, couriering all the paintings to be sold. Raphael is really better about it.

Raphael then revealed that years ago Izzy lost her virginity to Jimmy Knight at Freddie’s 18th birthday party. He must have had some sort of sex appeal to attract her. It may also have been why Kinvara had taken Jimmy’s side when he came asking for his money the first time. But he doesn’t know what he was blackmailing Chiswell about. He then told Robin that he had heard a story of what happened at Freddie’s party to Rhiannon, Della and Geraint’s daughter. Some of the girls spiked her drink and she didn’t react well to it, they then took pictures of her and shared it around with the rest of the fencing ream. A month later, Rhiannon killed herself.

The next day, Robin and Strike made plans to go up to the Woolstone land and dig in the dell with Barclay to see if there was any truth to Billy’s story. Robin agreed but had to run some errands in the morning first. She was trying to find a place to stay and had a few places in mind. Plus, she has to pick up the car at the house and doesn’t want to run into Matthew. Meanwhile, Strike, who doesn’t know about the breakup, thinks Robin is pregnant.

The following day, Robin and Strike are on the road when Geraint Winn called Robin drunk and angry. He started calling her names like a slut and a whore for playing him, leading him on when she was working in the office. His marriage was ruined and he was going to sue her for damages done to him. Robin had enough and told him that she didn’t ask him to ogle and touch her and called him a creep, she really went off on him. Strike ended up intervening and ending the call for her. Robin ended up having a mild panic attack and had to pull over and get out to calm down. She revealed to him that she’s been having them for a while, but has been managing them on her own. Also that no she was not pregnant when he asked, but that she split up with Matthew for cheating on her. She then cried on the side of the

road and Strike comforted her until she stopped. He then told her that his sister and her husband would be happy to let her stay with them for a while, but she didn’t want to intrude. He then told her that he used to have panic attacks whenever he got into a car after his leg got blown off. He still felt like that sometimes but Robin was a good driver, so he was good with her. Robin felt better after getting it all out and they continued on.

They arrived at a Horse Race arena where Tegan Butcher worked so they could talk to her. Strike then told her about what happened in the car and made her promise to get help for her panic attacks. He didn’t want to die because it would stick on his conscience for the rest of his life. So she agreed. Strike also told her that he and Lorelai broke up.

Tegan then came when she was on her break. She told them that she’s worked for the Chiswell’s for 2 ½ years. And her brother’s had been carpenters for them when they were younger, they now worked out of the area. Tegan then told them that the night Chiswell was murdered, Kinvara was there at the Woolstone house. She had slept in the house because Kinvara needed her early in the morning. So she was her alibi. Kinvara had 2 phone calls that she heard, one that night to Drummond about the necklace valuation and another from her husband, Chiswell where she told him she was leaving him. And later, Raphael came and they fought. Then the police came to tell them about Chiswell’s death.

Strike asked her some questions and we learned that Suki Lewis, the girl that had disappeared around the time Billy said he saw a girl strangled, but it wasn’t her, she had run away to her dad and is fine. She also told them that Jimmy’s father was a gallows maker and her brothers used to help to transport them.

And there was the big secret. Chiswell had Jack O’Kent, Jimmy and Billy’s father, build gallows and would sell them for a profit. He would split the earnings with Jack and have the Butcher brothers help transport them. A side business for extra money. And at the time, 6 years ago, it was still legal to export torture equipment. But it would reflect badly on Chiswell if anyone found out. Strike and Robin put together that Billy used to carve a horse into the wood of the gallows as a brand. So there must have been some leftover after Jack died and Chiswell sold them which is probably where the money in the hidden account Chiswell had come from. Jimmy found out and wanted his father’s share, which would go to him since his father is dead. But Chiswell didn’t give it to him so Jimmy started blackmailing him to get what he was owed. Yet Chiswell didn’t believe him because the gallows had no distinguishing marks, so he didn’t know that Jack had his sons brand them. It was possible that there may have been pictures of it, which could have been what Geraint Winn wanted Aamir to get at the Foreign Office. But Jimmy never got them, so he had no proof that the gallows used in a boy’s murder was one of the ones that Chiswell had sold.

After the interview, Robin and Strike met up with Barclay on the Woolstone grounds by the dell where they dug to see if they could find anything. Barclay told them that Flick’s flat had been raided by the police and they “found” the note in the bathroom and arrested her in the possible involvement with Chiswell’s murder. Izzy had also called and confirmed Strike’s theory about the gallows, she also wasn’t

happy that Kinvara had an alibi for her father’s murder. After digging for a while, they found something. A pink blanket with a skeleton…of a horse. It was a miniature horse and looked like it had been shot. So Billy did witness a burial, but it wasn’t a child, nor was it strangled.

Back at the house, Kinvara let out her dogs that were barking and headed straight for them. Barclay took off because he was still undercover with Jimmy and had to keep himself out of it. So in order to distract her, Robin and Strike revealed themselves to Kinvara saying they had seen some men on her grounds and they had scared them off. So she ended up inviting them inside the house. Robin noticed that the painting of the white mare was gone from the mantle and Kinvara said she sold it but acted like she didn’t even know it was gone. Kinvara then wanted to go check on her horses and Strike went with her. So Robin took the change to look around. While she did, she heard something upstairs and went to take a look. She took with her a marble weight as a weapon and went upstairs, but didn’t see anyone. She did find the White Mare painting that was supposed to have been sold on the bed of an upstairs bedroom. Why would she lie? So she took a picture of it and went back downstairs before Kinvara and Strike came back.

When they did, Strike questioned Kinvara and she verified that there had been 2 gallows that Chiswell had sold and that Jimmy was blackmailing him for his half of the money. She said that the shipment had been intercepted and they had disappeared, but a gallow had shown up in Zimbabwe where a boy had been hung that may have been the ones Chiswell had sold. There had been pictures of the scene that Jimmy thought may be proof showing the brand that he was trying to get. Kinvara also confirmed the new story that Raphael told them that he came down to the house to stop her from selling the necklace. But Strike didn’t believe the story. So Kinvara told them that he had come down for Izzy’s sake, she had been the only one to visit him when he was in jail. So he wanted to do right by her. He had told her that his mother had replaced all the jewels in the necklace after Chiswell refused to marry him after getting pregnant. Raphael was going to try to convince his mother to give it back, he just told her to not tell his father. Strike then asked her about the time she had a breakdown at Chiswell’s office with Della Winn thinking he was having an affair. She just said she had been wrong and had been overemotional. Kinvara then got a bit hysterical saying that her husband had killed himself not that he was murdered like she originally said. Then she made them leave. Once they left the house and back to the car, Robin told Strike about her finding the painting upstairs and how Kinvara seemed surprised it was gone from the wall. Plus, there had been someone else in the house. Strike then said they had to go to the police because there might be another murder.

Three days later, Strike and Robin were invited down to Scottland Yard to talk over what they knew about the investigation and listen as they questioned Kinvara who they had brought in. She kept insisting that her husband killed himself, but the police kept asking her why she was at the hotel. Robin had remembered that the hotel she had stayed in for her anniversary had a suite called Blanc de Blancs that had been really expensive, it was also on the note that Flick had stolen from Chiswell’s house. The reason why was that Chiswell had been calling different hotels pretending to look for his gold clip when he was really trying to find out if Kinvara had been there with someone. They had footage of her coming from the Gala party and taking the train to a car that was waiting for her at the station and it took her to the house in Woolstone where she stayed all night with Tegan as her alibi. Yet the police believed that the murder had been a two-person job. So even if Kinvara had an alibi she may have helped the person who did.

They had reworked the murder scene and had determined that Chiswell had poured the Orange Juice from a doctored carton with the crushed anti-depressants inside. And because Chiswell’s sense of taste and smell was impaired he didn’t know he was being drugged. The killer then took the doctored carton and replaced it with a clean one and put Chiswell’s fingerprints on it. Whoever had done it knew Chiswell drank orange juice in the morning, knew what anti-depressants Kinvara took and had a key to the house. They also looked at Chiswell’s body. The anti-depressants had a side effect of making a person drowsy, so he wouldn’t have been able to put the bag over his head; someone else would have had to do it. Kinvara couldn’t have concocted a scheme like this by herself, so someone else was pulling the strings.

The police also found Aamir with his sister and he had enough hiding things for Geraint Winn and spoke to them. He told them that he had found Billy on the street by chance raving about a strangled child so he took him home and was going to have the hospital take him. But he called Geraint first and he told Aamir not to because he was worried about the credibility because it was one of the Winn’s houses and just wanted him out. Only Billy wouldn’t leave; he was delusional and thought Aamir was holding him hostage and had bombs rigged at the door. Aamir also confirmed that he was not with Geraint the morning of Chiswell’s murder, he had pressured him to lie. Geraint had a phone call that morning that had made him leave the house early. It had been from a burner phone that had contacted both Winn and Kinvara on multiple occasions. They also questioned Flick who talked. She said she was the Polish cleaner at the Chiswell house and was the one who took the receipt of the champagne and hid it in the house. The credit card used to buy the champagne belonged to Flick’s old roommate who reported it missing soon after. It had all been planned for months.

In the meantime, Robin had been getting texts from Matthew from a different phone because she had blocked him, but she ignored it. But she did pick up the phone when Sarah, the woman Matthew cheated on her with, but only because she worked with paintings. She confirmed that the painting found in the upstairs room at Woolstone might be a lost Stubbs painting worth over 22 million pounds. Robin hung up before Sarah could apologize about the cheating, she didn’t want to hear it. She also kept getting messages from Matthew and one caught her attention when he said if she didn’t meet him he was going to the press. He had sent her a story from a magazine that had seen Strike and Charlotte together at the restaurant from before insinuating that they were seeing each other even though Charlotte was married and pregnant and Matthew accused Robin of sleeping with Strike and that he will go to the press with that. She tried calling him, but he didn’t answer and sent an angry text saying he was with a client and not to call him, he wanted to meet or he was going to give a statement. So she agreed.

Robin went back into the room and told the police about the White Mare painting worth and then showed Strike the article that Matthew sent her. He wasn’t too worried about it. He asked if she wanted him to go with her to meet Matthew, but she declined, it would be better if he didn’t. So Robin left and took a train to Little Venice by the water to where she was supposed to Matthew at a restaurant. When she got to the alley where it was supposed to be, it was blocked by a locked gate. She got a call from Strike and he told her it wasn’t Matthew before it was ripped out of her hand and thrown into the water. She was then sucker-punched in the stomach and dragged onto a boat. The man asked who called and Robin lied and said her husband Matt. The man then revealed himself to be Raphael, no longer the charming man from before. He wanted to know what the police knew and then he was going

to kill her. He was going to dump her body and go into hiding because he wasn’t going to go back to prison.

Robin was trying not to have a panic attack and she knew Strike and the police were looking for her, so she just had to keep him talking, so she told him what they knew or at least suspected. They suspected that Raphael was having an affair with Kinvara, but they didn’t have proof, yet there were clues. Kinvara had come to the office and had a breakdown with Della Winn saying he was having an affair and being part of a game. Della had assumed she meant Chiswell since it was not the first time he’s cheated, but the police believe it was Raphael she was going to see and that he had ditched her during that time. But suddenly she was happy again, so they assumed he resumed the affair.

They also put together that when Raphael was taking his father’s paintings to Drummond that he wanted to sell, he found the Stubbs and knew what it was and switched it with another. He was planning to sell it himself. The plan won’t work now, but Raphael planned on playing dumb and tell the police that his father must have sold the painting. (Which is stupid since Strike and Robin already know where it is, Chiswell can’t have sold it if he was already dead) But Robin told him that Kinvara was already in police custody and won’t be able to collaborate his story. Robin also told him that Strike didn’t believe the story about the necklace. He didn’t believe that Chiswell would send the son he wasn’t even close to, to get something so important. Plus, Kinvara had lied about Raphael’s mother switching the jewel’s; Raphael didn’t know that and it made him angry that she went off-script. Robin also told him that there was still Flick to consider too. She could identify him. Apparently, he had slept with her and told her about the gallows that Chiswell sold, who in turn told Jimmy, in hopes that it would put pressure on his father. Plus, around that time her roommate's credit card went missing. Several items were charged on in and sent to another location that may be another lover of Raphael’s.

Raphael still thought he could get away with it, but Robin told him he made a stupid mistake. He kept meeting up with Kinvara before the murder. She kept appearing in the wrong places saying she forgot where she was meeting her husband, but really she was sneaking around at every opportunity to see Raphael. She did it before too when Raphael was working at the art dealers. It hadn’t been Drummond’s goddaughter who came in on her day off, it was Kinvara who had been in the area picking up her pills. When Chiswell came in, he already suspected that they were sleeping together, so when he went in the bathroom, Kinvara was already gone, but she had dropped her pills, which was his evidence that she was cheating. He had already been calling around at different hotels trying to see if Kinvara was staying there with Raphael, not looking for his money clip.

Raphael admitted that his father was about to confront him when he went over, so he had to kill him sooner. The pills were supposed to kill him as an overdose but it didn’t work, he was still alive, drowsy, but alive, he even managed to get Freddie’s fencing sword and hit him with it before Raphael was able to subdue him and put the bag over his head. Only he forgot about the pill bottle that had fallen out of his father’s pocket in the struggle when he was cleaning up. But the police wouldn’t be able to connect it to his murder, nor hers. But Robin told him that even if he killed her the police still have Kinvara and she won’t lie for him forever. She’ll eventually tell them that she gave him the key to the house the night of the party and are now currently searching his movements on CTV footage.

Raphael knew he was trapped but said he wasn’t going to jail. He hated it there; the people, the smell, he would rather die. He had been planning to live the best life after he sold the painting. His accomplices would all have unfortunate accidents, he had learned a few tricks while in jail, they would never catch

him. But Robin had gotten in the way. But they will go together now and pointed the gun at her…but Strike and the police came through the door and were able to arrest Raphael and take him away, Robin was okay.

Strike told her that 5 minutes after she left he realized that the phone number that Matthew supposedly texted her from was the number of one of the burner phones. He had called Izzy in hopes that she knew if Raphael knew anyone around the address Robin had been given and they were able to find it.

One month later, Robin and Strike finally sat down with Izzy at a restaurant. She told them that Kinvara admitted to everything. She still couldn’t believe it. She hadn’t been able to show her face in public for a while after the news broke. She also told Strike that Charlotte had been admitted to the hospital and put on bed rest, but he didn’t care. Billy Knight then came, better now that he was on meds and managing on his own after being released from the hospital. Strike had invited him down to meet with them because he had figured out what had happened when he was a child and Izzy can fill in some of the details.

Izzy said that years ago her brother, Freddie, was home from school with some friends. She was at school so she heard everything after, but her father hadn’t been home that night so they got drunk and some of the girls wanted to go to the eye of the horse on the hill. But first Freddie wanted to buy some marijuana from Jimmy. So they went down to his house. Billy had woken up and Freddie must have put some in Billy’s yogurt as a joke and it made him feel sick. Jimmy wanted to go with Freddie but had to take Billy with them. So they all went Jimmy, Freddie, Freddie’s friends, and a little girl. But it wasn’t a girl, it was Raphael. Freddie thought it would be funny to dress him in girl clothes and call him by a girl's name. That was the girl Billy saw. But they didn’t strangle him, he was still alive.

Billy had gotten confused on 2 separate events because of the drugs. He had mixed things up. He had remembered the little girl, but also murder, but not of the girl, of a horse. On a different night, Freddie was showing off a rifle and “accidentally” shot a miniature horse 2 times in the head. He panicked and got Billy’s father and got him to buy the horses’ body in the dell. Izzy had loved that horse, so she had put a cross there, which Robin had found the first time they went out there. So that mystery was solved too. Billy was just relieved.

At the end, Robin was now takin her panic attacks seriously and taking steps to manage it. She had also taken up Strike’s offer to stay with his sister until she could move into her new place. They had been happy to have her just like Strike had said they would. Things were going well with the agency and were getting new jobs and finishing up old ones. Everything was moving forward.

And that’s it!

THE END!!

[aboyandhisstarship]

SICON verse: the interview/Kvella

Kvella moved down the corridor of the council news service, an private company who handles broadcasting over the councils subspace bands, she entered the office of her Boss a Kalber who groaned “the public is demanding more information after that footage leaked!”

Kvella asked “footage sir?”

The boss asked “you haven’t seen it?” pulling up the shaky footage from Sorak 9, it was clearly shot by civilian who typed a Human protecting a Kalber, the human grunted and groaned in its language before the Kalber followed the Human back to a group of other’s. The Human kept grunting and groaning before the other humans chanted something then a little bit latter there was a massive roar as 5 objects blasted through the air before the footage went crazy after there was a flash of white and the video ended.

Kvella asked “uhh what was that?”

The boss answered “exactly! No one knows and the public wants to know!”

Kvella asked “you contact SICON press division?”

The boss groaned saying “the human kept saying called…classified no idea what it means.”

Kvella experimented with the English word “class-a-fried?”

The boss said “something like that…listen I called in a couple of favors and found out about the Kalber in the footage, His name is Specialist T’Mai and get this…he is currently assigned to a SICON ship.”

Kvella said “so no chance of an interview?”

The boss said “who said that? Not me…The council needs interest in this war and the humans want to improve their image on the galactic scale…so you are being brought aboard The SICON ship Watson for a little while.”

Kvella asked  “sir why me?”

The boss said simply “SICON needed someone with experience in bad spots as a requirement for the job”

Kvella nodded “and I was in the piece core…”

The boss said “exactly…you are on the next shop heading for Fleet station nine.”

Kvella said “sir?”

The boss laughed “human outpost…Pack light you leave in an hour.”

 The Watson:

Lieutenant Ericson entered the bridge of the Watson saluting saying “you sent for me sir?”

The Captain nodded adjusting her hat saying “Will I’m sorry.”

Ericson asked “what exactly is going on Hailey?”

The Captain said “sorry this is official Ships business.”

Ericson chuckled “my apologized Captain Hernandez…should I have to squad prepped?”

Hernandez shook her head saying “not physically…command just came informed me that a council reporter is coming aboard…and will be assigned to Dagger.”

Ericson said “permission to protest this for the record?”

Hernandez nodded “permission granted.”

Ericson said “that’s a pile of nonsense; we don’t have time for a tourist.”

Hernandez chuckled “your protest has been noted…she will be coming aboard when we stop at Fleet station nine I suggest you prep your squad Lieutenant, dismissed.”

Ericson sighed saying “yes ma’am.”

 Dagger squad Quarters:

Sargent Francis Mulligan saw Ericson coming flying to his feet shouting “officer on deck!”

The rest of the squad hurried to their feet and to attention as Ericson saying “at ease…everyone we will be having someone else joining us for a short time.”

Mulligan asked “who exactly sir?”

Ericson sighed “a reporter from the council news service.”

Madeline Depoint Team medic/doctor asked in accented English “why exactly would a reporter want to speak with us?”

Futuba Kurogane the team’s combat engineer, computer genius   and “baby” of the squad answered simply “because of the humans can fly incident…”

Ericson said “that what!?”

Futuba rolled her eyes “remember that air strike back on Sorak nine?”

T’Mai eyes went wide “that’s what they have been asking me about?”

Francis said “what is that Hitchhiker!?”

T’Mai growled saying “my family has been writing me letters asking for how long have humans been able to fly.”

Ericson nodded “apparently a lot of council civs are getting weirded out…to the point Command is worried we could have an image problem and has allowed this reporter to come aboard.

Francis crossed his arms “sure bring a tourist along is wise LT?”

Ericoson frowned “decision has been made Sargent! But I checked her out she is legit, former war reporter with the Council peace core”

Francis stepped back chastised as Ericson said “since she will be joining us for a bit we need to on our best behavior, Understood!?”

Everyone chanted in unison “Sir Yes sir!”

Ericson nodded “alright, carry on I got some paperwork to fill out” before he turned to leave.

Madeline asked “soo this video?”

Futuba smiled “ill pull it up.”

Fleet station nine:

Petty Officer Melissa woods waited patiently in full dress uniform outside of the Medical Bay. After a minute the Alien exited Kvella looked kind of like resembled an earth squid equipped with an torso and arms and legs, she looked around before making eye contact with the Yeoman.

Woods smiled “I assume you passed your medical checks ma’am?”

Kvella answered “yes I did…?”

Woods smiled “Petty officer Melissa Woods I will be taking you aboard the Watson and giving you the standard tour.”

Kvella nodded a little drone like device buzzing around her shoulder as she asked “Petty officer Woods…do you speak for SICON?”

Woods frowned “ma’am?”

Kvella asked “Are you who I am going to be interviewing?”

Woods shook her head saying “no ma’am that will be dagger squad…your news service was quite adamant about speaking to them.”

Kvella opened her eyes wide “the same humans form the humans can fly video?”

Woods blinked “ma’am?”

Kvella smiled “apologies Petty Officer please show me your vessel.”

Lieutenant Ericson’s office six hours Later:

The human shifted awkwardly He was wearing a brownish T-shirt with SICON logo on it a pair of Cargo pants and had a medal Necklace hanging over the front of his shirt that he called his “Dog tags.” Kvella’s drone hung nearby it’s Universal translator microphone pointing at the human who asked “you sure I should not be in dress uniform for this?”

Kvella made a gurgling noise roughly equivalent to human laughter “don’t worry about Lieutenant…we are going for an informal feeling”

The human shifted saying “I’m really not a PR guy…”

Kvella asked “PR?”

The human made an odd noise that the subtitles described as a chuckle “public relations.”

Kvella nodded “well let’s get started a reminder that is going to broadcast all over council space.”

The human went red before baring its teeth “uhh hi everyone?”

Kvella shuttered “please don’t do that…”

The human asked “do wha…oh yea sorry” closing its mouth.

Kvella gurgled again before saying “soo the first question is the big one what exactly was those birds?”

The human frowned “birds…wait what birds?” the footage from the flying human incident was shown with subtitles showing what the humans were saying.

Kvella said “those birds…you referred to them as Rollers.”

The human scratched his head saying “those are planes…do you guys really not have planes?”

Kvella looked at him blankly as the human explained “a long time ago A couple of brothers living in a place called Ohio decided that they wanted to fly so they crashed a bunch of prototype’s until they eventually succeeded for about 14 seconds. After that aircraft have been developed and used in many of the major conflicts on earth as well as the first contact incident.”

Kvella asked “so humans can fly using machines…do they flip like wings?”

Ericson shook his head “no…the planes used in that footage are jet propelled aircraft.”

Kvella asked “jet?”

Ericson recited “Jet propulsion is the propulsion of an object in one direction, produced by ejecting a jet of fluid in the opposite direction. By Newton's third law, the moving body is propelled in the opposite direction to the jet. Or in layman’s term we shoot something out of the back of the plane that pushes it forward at high speeds.” Kvella replied “wow that is…insane!”

Ericson nodded “I guess it is ma’am…I am no expert on that topic so you have any more aircraft related questions I can’t help you.”

Kvella asked “so what about that flash in the video.”

Ericson nodded “that was dentation of a low yield tactical nuclear device.”

Kvella said “wait a nuclear bomb?”

Ericson answered “it was a low yield device.”

The Lieutenants console lit up and he said “sorry ma’am but you can’t be here for this communication…we will have to resume this interview later.”

Kvella turned to the camera “stay tuned for more exclusive interviews.”

 Dagger squad quarters:

The drone drifted in to see a group of different humans doing various things, one was on her bunk reading a book another was on her computer and another was playing a video game the Camera locked on to the Kalber as Kvella approached “T’Mai?”

The Kalber glanced up from his grooming saying “yes?”

Kvella said “I’m Kvella from the council news service I would like to interview you about what’s it’s like on a human ship?”

Before T’Mai could say anything one of humans grunted the subtitles reading “officer on deck!”

The camera whipped around as Ericson entered saying “listen up! We got a group of dug in bugs on Tozau. Council folks already landed but they want us behind the lines we are out of the Chekov and ready to drop in forty questions?”

Ericson looked into the camera saying “Futuba…get the reporter combat ready.”

Watson equipment room T minus 27 minutes until drop.

A wide shot was shown as Kvella was standing up a young human fitting a metal casing around her body the subtitle’s displayed  “this is your power suit…it will keep you alive as well as in contact with the rest of the squad when we land.”

Kvella asked “land?”

The young human said “yep orbital insertion” Kvella looked like she was ready to protest but was cut off as the human held up a slivery weapon saying “this is Marita A14 P pulse rifle it fires projectiles very fast and can punch holes through bugs like they were not even there, underneath it is a grenade launcher for explosive’s.”

Kvella said “of course.”

The Human said “alright you’re ready…as you will ever be.”

The screen went black before cutting to a helmet camera inside of a tight capsule subtitles reading “inside of the human drop capsule just before dropping out of hyperspace”  as second later the Camera Jerked around hard for several seconds as the subtitles read “dropping out of hyperspace” there was a loud noise and a tap on Capsule the subtitle’s read “they are checking that I am set” Kvella hit the capsule back making a taping noise.

Human grunts were heard over a loud speaker the subtitle’s said “Dagger squad coordinates dropping now!”

The capsule began to lurch before it shook again once hard before it began to vibrate and Kvella was heard screaming the subtitle’s said “drop has started”

The vibrating got worse as the camera shook, rocking form side to side as the subtitles explained “the capsule is shedding outer layers making the falling capsule harder to track using computers.”

A minute of shaking later the entire capsule opened up and the camera was pointed at the sky seeing Anti-aircraft explosions before the camera flipped around to see other sets of power amour bellow rapidly approaching the ground.

The wings open up on the back of the suits deploying rockets, a second later the camera started freaking out as the subtitles read “my jets just activated.”

The camera hit the ground shaking for a second as loud noises was heard everywhere and Ericson spoke “Move out! Kvella turn that thing off!”

The camera went black.

When the camera turned back on when it hit the ground Kvella leaned over a dirt mound as a bug charged but was shot by a human whose helmet had the name “Depoint” written on the side, the medic said “Stay close Kvella”

The camera showed the other side of the dirt mound as hundred’s bugs charged. It looked down to see the Mortia rifle in Kvella’s hand start firing.”

Depoint fired a series of bombs blowing bugs up before moving out of the shoot as a giant Bug charged the camera rolled again and went black.

The camera was on the ground as a human groaning was heard the subtitle’s translating “corpsmen!”

The power armored human leaned down adjusting something out of the camera view before groaning in response the subtitles reading “she is hit but it’s not bad she is just out of it.”

Another human groaned subtitles reading “good work Depoint! On your feet tourist!”

Kvella was dragged up by Depoint and Mulligan as a human groaning was heard the subtitles reading “come on you want to live forever!” the camera want black again.

 Watson infirmary:

The drone buzzed over to Kvella’s bed side as the human grunted smiling “you wasted a good set of power amour you know”

Kvella said “Sorry…”

The human said “don’t be…you did good work…for a tourist.”

Kvella made a gurgle noise before one of pain saying “stop being amusing human!”

Ericson shook his head “get well soon…” before the camera went black

[orcinus-ocean]

1. Vaccination And Immunization Are The Same

 What the vet says:

“Prevention is better than cure. Vaccination is the way we cause animals to become resistant (immune) to infections. A vaccine consists of a modified or killed virus or bacterium. It is prepared in such a way that the body’s defenses recognise it as a threat and react to it as if it were a real infection. The body will produce antibodies which are proteins which recognise and attach to chemicals on the surface of the organism, killing it. These antibodies are then available to kill any of the real infection organisms the animal might pick up during its life. They are lost gradually and the body needs occasional reminders (booster vaccinations) to keep the antibody level high enough to prevent real infections. Vaccination reactions are very rare. A booster is recommended each year.“

Our issue with this advice:

The body doesn’t react to a vaccine the same way it would to the real disease.

When exposed to a real virus, the body forms immunity by filing that information away in memory cells. The memory cells, called cellular immunity, are responsible for mounting a quick attack the next time they are faced with the same disease and the body, armed with the knowledge the memory cells have stored away, quickly neutralizes the disease by triggering circulating antibodies. This is why humans only get chicken pox once and dogs can only get parvovirus once. After the first episode, they’re protected for life.

Vaccines try to emulate this, but they don’t do a complete job.

Vaccines stimulate circulating antibodies, called humoral immunity, and they bypass the memory cells. This creates an artificial immunity called humoral bias and this essentially turns the immune system inside out.

To learn more about this effect, read our article on Vaccines And The Immune System.

But the real problem with this statement is their desire for antibody levels to be high. High antibody levels mean high levels of circulating antibodies – or humoral bias.

The higher the titer, the more chronically inflamed the body is.

This humoral bias and resulting chronic inflammation result in many of the autoimmune diseases we commonly see in dogs today: allergies, cancer, arthritis, diabetes, bowel disease and many, many more. Vaccine reactions may be rare, but the risk and severity of chronic disease that vaccines cause increase with each and every vaccine given.

2. Vaccinating Puppies At 6 Weeks Of Age

 What the vet says:

“Your puppy vaccination course should be started at 6 weeks of age. A primary vaccination is first given and a booster 2-4 weeks later. This course must be completed before your puppy is fully protected. Unfortunately, the protection provided by vaccinating is not life-long and hence an annual booster is recommended. At XXXX veterinary clinic we will send you out an annual reminder to ensure your pet is kept up to date and protected.”

Our issue with this advice:

Vaccinating a puppy at 6 weeks? According to veterinary vaccine researcher Dr Jean Dodds, only 30% of puppies will be protected from a vaccine given at 6 weeks of age.

100% of them will be exposed to disease when taken to the vet clinic for that shot.

Moreover, vaccines create immune suppression for 10 to 14 days.

So, choosing to vaccinate a puppy at 6 weeks means exposing him to the most disease-ridden location he could possibly be in – the vet clinic – while creating immune suppression at the same time. Your puppy is much more likely to get the disease he is being vaccinated for, and all in exchange for a 30% chance the vaccine will work.

That’s a pretty high gamble with a puppy’s life.

The reason the vaccine is unlikely to work at that young age is because the puppy is protected against disease with maternal antibodies – immunity passed down from his mother. This protection wanes over time, but is still pretty strong at 6 weeks. That’s why in most cases the vaccine doesn’t work at this age: the maternal antibodies are strong enough to block the vaccine.

Here is problem number two with vaccinating at that age: the maternal antibodies will be less effective after the vaccine is given because vaccines cause immune suppression.

We also object to this statement: “This course must be completed before your puppy is fully protected.” There are two problems with this statement actually.

You can’t be partially protected: immunity is like being a virgin, you either are or you aren’t. Either the immune system has filed that information away or it hasn’t: there is no grey area, you are either immune or you are not.

As for the other problem, a course of vaccines is not necessary: it only takes ONE vaccine to protect a puppy – ONE AND DONE.

For more information on this, you might want to read Taking The Risk Out Of Puppy Shots.

3. Lifelong Immunity

 What the vet says:

“Primary pet vaccinations do not cover your animal for the rest of their life, so annual booster vaccinations are required for continued protection.”

Our issue with this advice:

Wow, bad grammar aside, there’s one very big problem with this statement – a monumental problem of biblical proportions!

Not only do core vaccines last for years, some for the life of the animal, vets have known about this for about forty years!

We won’t even go into why annual vaccination is a very, very bad choice – because vaccinating every three years or every five years is also a bad choice based on unsound science.

Why would you vaccinate every year if the minimum immunity starts at 7 years? Why put your dog at risk?

Nuff said.

4. Revaccination Is Backed By Research

 What the vet says:

“At XXXX Veterinary Hospital, we are aware of some of the controversy currently surrounding immunization protocols. However, until industry leaders and experts, such as the vaccine manufacturers and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), arrive at some definitive conclusions, we believe it to be in the best interest of your pet and the general public to continue to adhere to our established immunization protocols. We recommend that your pet should receive annual boosters.”

Our issue with this advice:

Controversy? Industry leaders and experts?

Here is the crux of the problem: these vets are waiting for the vaccine manufacturers, AAHA and the AVMA to decide how often to vaccinate. Don’t you think that all of these entities have a financial interest in how often you vaccinate your dog?  Are they capable of making an unbiased recommendation?

Apparently, they aren’t.

The report of the American Animal Hospital Association Canine Vaccine Taskforce in JAAHA (39 March/April 2003) includes the following information for vets:

Misunderstanding, misinformation and the conservative nature of our profession have largely slowed adoption of protocols advocating decreased frequency of vaccination; Immunological memory provides durations of immunity for core infectious diseases that far exceed the traditional recommendations for annual vaccination.

This is supported by a growing body of veterinary information  as well-developed epidemiological vigilance in human medicine that indicates immunity induced by vaccination is extremely long lasting and, in most cases, lifelong.

And the American Animal Hospital Association’s own Preventive Healthcare Guidelines state:

Tailor vaccination protocols to your pet. While some vaccines, like rabies, are required by law because of the risk to humans, others may be necessary for your pet’s lifestyle. In some scenarios, a titer to previous vaccines can be measured to help decide if a booster vaccination is necessary. Your veterinarian will know what’s best for your pet.

If you would like to read more about how vets arbitrarily chose the period of three years for revaccination, even though they knew back in 2003 that vaccines lasted likely for the life of the dog, read Lifelong Immunity And The AAHA Revaccination Guidelines.

5. Your Vet Is A Vaccine Expert

What the vet says:

“Annual boosters are painless for your pet, and help to fight off contagious illnesses throughout the year. The staff at XXXX Veterinary Clinic are expertly trained in the welfare of your pet.”

Our issue with this advice:

Any vet who advocates annual vaccinations – or even uses the term booster – is clearly not expertly trained in immunization or the welfare of your pet.

In fact, most vets are woefully inept when it comes to understanding immunity. (We already talked about this above)

They are very good at giving vaccines – yet most vets are not taught very much about immunity at all.

Perhaps that’s because immunity is taught by the vaccine manufacturers. It’s no wonder that vets are well armed with needles yet lack the knowledge or motivation to question just what damage those needles are doing.

And even if they acknowledge the research that proves annual vaccines are unnecessary, most are not willing to lose the profits those yearly visits bring in.

If you would like to learn more about how little vets feel they were taught about vaccination, and the diseases they’ve seen vaccines cause in their patients, read our ground-breaking featured article, Vets On Vaccines.

In the end, it doesn’t matter whether vets continue to dispense this bad advice out of ignorance or for financial gain (most veterinary practices earn 14% of their income from vaccines). Either way, the bad advice is out there and dog owners – and dogs – will fall victim to that bad advice every day.

If you find your vet dispensing bad vaccine advice, don’t ignore it.  Perhaps reading and sharing What Every Vet (And Pet Owner) Should Know About Vaccines will help you both to begin understanding that immunity involves more than just shots and boosters.

[ariadnelives]

Chapter 18 -- The Heist

[Missed earlier chapters? Go catch up here! Otherwise, welcome back! Oh, and make sure to join our discord server! Chapter can also be found @ ao3”]

Sometimes, when a person makes a declarative statement, they are only referring to one specific, usually fleeting instance. For example, if someone said “it’s cold in Lohnausfall,” what they may actually mean is “it’s cold in Lohnausfall today.” This statement would remain true even if it was warm there the next day. They could also mean “it’s cold in Lohnausfall in winter,” which would also remain true even if it is incredibly hot in Lohnausfall in the summer.

However, they could also be referring to the general, often much more permanent, state of things. In that case, when they say “It’s cold in Lohnausfall,” what they mean is that it is just generally a cold place, and that whenever you visit Lohnausfall, it would make sense to bring a coat.

In some cases, both senses of the word apply. For example, if someone said “it’s cold in Lohnausfall,” what they could mean is “I know it’s always cold in Lohnausfall, but wow, it’s especially cold today.”

A more relevant example would be the statement “Nicks Rizzo was bored,” which is, unlike “it’s cold in Lohnausfall,” was true both in general, and specifically at this moment.

Nicks Rizzo was bored. She rarely managed to find a moment when she was not bored, but right now, she was especially bored. The night was dark and dull and absolutely nothing was happening in the casino that you wouldn’t expect to happen at a casino.

Most movies about Cosa Nostra crime families made the life seem glamorous and filled with mystique. In reality, it was incredibly dull and almost bureaucratic. Her father, Harry “Big Top” Rizzo, spent most of his time running numbers, loaning money to desperate people so he could charge insane levels of interest, and having his goons launder his ill-gotten money through their family’s casino. It was, of course, fairly easy to launder money through a casino, since it’s one of the few forms of business where money is exchanged for neither goods nor services. In fact, most of the time, it is simply surrendered to the business in exchange for nothing at all.

Since anyone could enter with thousands of dollars of ill-gotten cash and leave with nothing, while Big Top Rizzo could report those thousands as legitimately earned casino profits, pretty much all of his illegally-obtained money was handed down to subordinates who were instructed to lose it all gambling in his casino. The family business wasn’t doing so well lately, but a recent acquisition might turn that around.

The most exciting part of the life, in Nicks’ eyes, were when a minor turf conflict escalated into a shootout. That seemed rarer and rarer lately, however, and after the fifteenth time you’ve seen six guys shooting at each other from behind washing machines in a dirty laundromat until the cops show up and they have to flee out the back, it loses some of its charm.

This was how she’d fallen in with a community of confidence tricksters, since that allowed for a little more creativity than organized crime, but even that had grown a little stale.

At this very moment, she was sitting on a gaudy red velvet couch in her father’s office, whose already low comfort level was made much worse by the baggy plastic slip-cover (placed there to avoid the same dust-covering that coated her father’s trusty but long-unused pulse handgun on the shelf behind her), watching the security hologram of the casino floor that flickered about two inches above the surface of an antique mahogany coffee table. She was, as she often did in this situation, praying to god that a rival gang would burst through the doors and try to start something.

Today, for the first time, she would not be disappointed.

On the corner of the hologram, she saw a young woman about her age jump up onto a blackjack table and brandish a fully automatic pulse rifle in the air. A thrill surged through Nicks. The unmistakable flicker of repeated muzzle flashes appeared from the gun’s tip, blowing holes in their very expensive ceiling. The hologram didn’t provide audio of the casino floor, but she imagined the young woman was shouting something to the effect of “EVERYBODY GET ON THE GROUND,” since the next thing that happened was that all of the casino patrons dropped to the floor and covered their heads. A few of the casino employees reached for concealed firearms, but the woman on the table quickly revealed some kind of switch in her hand and opened her jacket to reveal rows of explosives strapped to her body. She began speaking again, likely something in the vein of “ANYBODY MOVES AND I BLOW THIS PLACE SKY HIGH,” since even the armed employees stopped reaching for their guns and slowly kneeled down on the floor.

Several more young women filed in. All of their faces were covered by strategically wrapped scarves, and they were all strapped to the nines with automatic weapons. One of them used their free hand to pull an aerosol can out of her pocket, and seemed to aim it directly at Nicks.

Nicks smiled. These girls are clever, she thought. A moment later, everything viewed from that angle seemed obscured by a dark fog. The girl had sprayed over one of the composite cameras that formed the hologram. Nicks changed her angle so she could keep viewing the action, but it didn’t matter. Within a few minutes, all of the cameras had been painted over and the hologram on the table looked like nothing but a dark cloud.

She had to be a part of this action. She regretfully looked back at the safe behind her father’s empty desk. She knew she’d be in a world of trouble if she left the safe alone and something happened to its contents, but, she doubted anyone would be able to detect it. There was one safe hidden behind the portrait of her grandfather, which contained a few wads of petty cash and a handful of jewelry so that potential thieves would think they’d gotten away with something, but the real valuables were kept in a concealed secondary safe behind the vault’s false back.

She briefly considered staying there, but, thought better of it. Without her father’s handprint, retinal scan, and fifteen separate passcodes, it would take the system’s greatest hacker to break in, and from the look of these girls, they weren’t looking to commit cyber-crimes.

On her way out the door, she retrieved her father’s dusty Chekhov M2460 off the shelf, and quickly thought to grab something to conceal her own face.

This should do nicely, she thought, grabbing a metallic-looking cowl from one of the drawers on her father’s desk. She remembered he’d worn this to a recent masquerade thrown by a colleague who’d referred to him as a “snake” behind his back. Big Top thought it would be funny to show up to the party wearing a snake mask, and he’d paid handsomely to have a realistic-looking mask custom-made.

In the drawer, she also noticed a small device that she thought could come in handy, and hastily jammed it in her pocket.

She tucked the pistol into her waistband and left her father’s office, flagging down the two nearby enforcers to follow her. They quickly barrelled down the steps, but quietly slipped in one of the less conspicuous entrances to the casino floor, concealing themselves behind a row of large slot machines.

“We don’t need anybody to get hurt,” the main girl shouted, “My associates will be coming to each of you with a large sack. Consider them fare collectors. You are buying safe passage to the exit of this casino. The cost of admission is all the cash, credit cards, jewelry, and electronics you have on your person. Fail to provide this, and you will not be granted admission into the rest of your long, happy lives, and that’s not what anyone wants, is it?”

As if on cue, a woman who had been playing poker before the bandits arrived began to cry, and tried to make a break for the door.

The girl standing on the table did not hesitate to put three shots in her back. The woman fell to the floor and lay there, motionless. Her assailant announced, “Are we clear?”

The girls started to bring their bags to the casino patrons.

“It’s okay,” Nicks heard one of them say in a voice that was much softer than she expected, “you look scared so I’m not going to make you give us anything. Just pretend to put something in the bag and I’ll let you go safe, okay?”

This struck Nicks as strange. Why would a group of armed bandits be swayed by their victims seeming scared? Wasn’t the whole point of armed robbery to intimidate people into giving up their money?

Nicks looked at one of the other girls. She watched as a crying man in the suit reached into his pocket, brought an empty hand to the mouth of the sack, and open his hand.

It suddenly clicked with Nicks. “They’re just trying to cause a scene,” she hissed at the guards, “it’s a diversion, get back to the office now.”

They rushed back up to the office, but they were too late. The portrait of her grandfather was on the floor. The decoy safe was blown open and its contents left untouched. The false back was set aside with a note on it reading “Child’s play.” The duffel bag full of priceless religious artifacts was gone.

Thankfully, Nicks had thought to put a tracker in the bag. They wouldn’t get far. She turned on the tracking beacon and rushed back downstairs. The bandits were gone, as was the supposedly dead woman they’d shot.

She rushed out the front door, following the homing signal as fast as possible. The guards attempted to follow her, but she dismissed them by saying “Haven’t you two have disappointed me enough for one day? Send the rest of the guards after me in fifteen, you two take the night off. Without pay.”

This hurt their feelings, since it was her who’d left the office unattended and ordered the people in charge of stopping intruders to abandon their posts, but as so many people do in the workplace, they swallowed their objection since their continued employment meant more to them than their dignity.

Nicks knew the streets of Lohnausfall better than anyone, she’d been sneaking out from the watchful eyes of a crime boss for years and she knew all the shortcuts. Based on the movement of the homing signal, it looked like they were heading to Belafonte Park, but they were not taking the most direct route. Four narrow alleys and two jumped fences later, Nicks arrived in Belafonte Park just in time to see about a dozen young women she didn’t recognize, and one young man she did, running up to an idling shuttle with a duffel bag that belonged to her.

“Stop right there,” she shouted. She stepped out into plain view, holding her pistol in one hand and the small device in the other. She quickly hit the switch on the device and the bandits all felt a small electric charge run through their body. Nicks heard the engine of the shuttle suddenly go quiet. “Your weapons and explosives are useless. Right now, my pistol is the only one within 30 meters that is able to fire and it’s going to stay that way for the next 20 minutes.”

“Who the hell are you?” Said one of them, a Chinese girl with a pompadour standing unmasked with blood on her shirt. Nicks recognized her as the woman who’d been shot on the casino floor. She wondered how long she had to play the table to realistically seem like a casino patron before she could be “shot” to make the robbery seem real.

The girl next to her, who was still wearing her bandana, asked “Why are you wearing a corny halloween mask?”

“I could ask you the same question,” Nicks replied.

The man she recognized, Prescott, responded, ignoring her. “This is Nicks Rizzo. Remember what I told you about her?”

“Yes,” replied a short black girl wearing strange goggles, who Nicks had never seen before, “I tried that, but we’ve established that my pistol isn’t working.”

“Prescott,” Nicks smirked, “Thought you’d have been killed when you got caught punking out on the church heist.”

“Not for lack of trying,” said the tallest bandit, also still masked, but clearly identifiable as the woman who’d been standing on the table issuing commands.

“You have something that belongs to me,” Nicks said, and gestured at the duffel bag in his hand.

“I stole it, it belongs to me,” Prescott snapped, “you just betrayed me and left me to die.”

“Let’s not get caught up into what belongs to who here,” said the girl in the goggles, “it’s not like any of us acquired this bag legally.”

“We were supposed to use this to start our new life together,” Prescott said, sounding pretty genuinely hurt, “did you ever care about that?”

“Ugh,” Nicks replied, “a new life doing what, exactly? Running low-level cons on dumb wagoners? Scamming some bumblefuck cult out of their goodies?”

“With this kind of money, we could’ve gotten out of the criminal life,” Prescott sounded close to tears, “finally settled down somewhere, you know? We finally could’ve lived on easy street for the rest of our lives.”

“What fun would that be?” Nicks chuckled, and summarily unloaded two rounds into Prescott’s chest.

Out of force of habit, the bandits all raised their guns, despite the fact that they were still completely useless. Had they brought any sort of bladed weapons, there would be one lodged in Nicks’ neck before Prescott hit the ground, but as knives are better for covert operations and this was supposed to draw as much attention as possible, no one had thought to bring any.

“Don’t think I don’t know about your little trick, either,” Nicks said, gesturing her gun at the girl in the bloodied shirt. “I watched her take a fatal dose of plasma and here she is walking around, so I’m betting in a few seconds, our friend Mr. Cain will be in fighting shape again. That is, unless I do this…”

She aimed at Prescott’s corpse and fired off one more shot, this one landing directly between his eyes.

“Now,” Nicks began, “I’m going to take my duffel bag and then I’m going to go home and take a warm bath. I’m going to let you walk away from here unharmed, and I’m not going to call the authorities.”

“Sorry, I just…” the bandit from the table began, “You have us at your mercy and you’re just going to let us go? I mean, I’m not complaining—”

“Oh yes,” Nicks said, walking up to the tall girl from the table and the short girl in the goggles, laying one hand affectionately on the tall girl’s face, “you girls are just too. Much. Fun.”

“And what if we don’t let you leave,” asked the girl in the bloody shirt, “I mean, you can’t shoot all of us, we could easily overpower you.”

As though by magic, at this exact moment, the fifteen minutes Nicks had requested was up, and several dozen mob goons sprung out, all brandishing high-powered plasma hand cannons.

“Oh, I forgot to mention, these guys were 50 meters away when I disabled the weapons, so be aware: their weapons work too! Now, give me what’s mine.” Nicks gestured for the duffel bag and the bandit with the goggles handed it over. “Boys, grab this degenerate’s body and throw it in the incinerator. Last thing we need is a buncha pigs trying to jam us up on another murder.  Alla prossima, belle ragazze,” she called back, “arrivederci!”

The crew piled into the shuttle. As soon as Fastwing could get the motor running, they found their way off-world and navigated back to their station.

Tripwire was there to greet them. “So, the mission went well?”

“We didn’t get the cargo, Prescott died, and that pampered little princess has his decryption key and she’s going to incinerate it,” Sasha replied dejectedly.

“Only one of those things is true,” Tripwire said, and smirked at Ariadne. “You sure are quick on your feet, cap!”

Sweettalk looked confused. “What is she talking about?”

“I knew he couldn’t be trusted. When we got into the office,” Ariadne explained, “Prescott thought I was too preoccupied with the safe to notice him dislocate his wrist to get free of the Jumper, attach it to this, and stash it in a potted plant.”

Ariadne held out a small, visibly broken, electronic device.

“It’s a bomb,” Ariadne said. “Its detonator is configured to respond to the energy of a teleportation field. Proprietary hardware of the Rizzo crime family, to keep people from attempting to teleport valuable property out of the casino. He was planning to run off with the bag and leave us with a useless, burnt-up decryption key. So, while his back was turned, I grabbed the decryption key out of the Jumper and slipped the Jumper in the bag.”

“So,” Pilar practically beamed at Ariadne’s deviousness, “you’ve had the key this whole time?”

“Not only that,” Tripwire said, “but with their safe in our cargo hold, I’m betting the Rizzo crime family won’t be dealing in religious artifacts anytime soon.”

[blogaprimoramentohumano]

Woman claims to have found an 'alien artifact' The object reportedly matches a similar item that CSM James Norton allegedly found at a UFO crash site. This story comes courtesy of paranormal investigator Paul Dale Roberts of HPI Paranormal in Sacaramento who recently received a call from a woman named Stephanie Fuller. She claimed that her fiance - a maintenance worker at an apartment block - had discovered a very strange object while cleaning up the home of a WWII veteran who had recently died. The man had been a compulsive hoarder and it is unclear how he had obtained the object. After researching the artifact, Fuller came across the story of Command Sergeant Major James Norton who in 1977 had a very strange encounter with a UFO at Fort Benning, Georgia. On September 14th of that year, a group of men had been engaged in a live fire training exercise when a number of orbs appeared in the sky followed by a large triangular-shaped craft. Shortly afterwards, many of the soldiers became ill and reported periods of missing time. According to the report, the object, whatever it was, had seemingly crash-landed in the vicinity and Norton was able to surreptitiously retrieve a small piece of it. The metal fragment was said to be adorned with strange symbols and exhibited peculiar properties. Norton later posted a photograph online before burying the artifact on his property for safe-keeping. It was this photograph that Fuller would later match to the object that was found in the veteran's flat. Ultimately, it's difficult to know what to make of this story as there's no way to corroborate Norton or Fuller's claims and unless tests can be conducted on the metal, its origins cannot be proven either. As things stand, it makes for interesting reading, but it's authenticity is open to interpretation. . #ufo #ovni #militar #usa #eua #object #objeto #extraterrestre #extraterrestrial #alien #spaceship #wow #omg #real #true #truth #pics #potd #fotos (em Fort Benning, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4Cd-XnA0RN/?igshid=scyc7iyil38k

[bbclesmis]

Lily Collins on overshadowing dad Phil, beating anorexia and starring in the BBC's Les Misérables

As one of the defining voices of the 1980s and a man who remains one of the world’s bestselling artists, it would have been easy for Collins to overshadow his multitalented daughter’s success. Certainly, when I first interviewed Lily five years ago for the romcom Love, Rosie, she was still being defined not just by her famous father, but the Audrey Hepburn-esque looks that had won her modelling contracts as a teenager living in LA.

Since we last saw each other, Lily has redefined herself on her own terms. And when UK audiences are treated to her nuanced, poignant portrayal of Cosette’s desperate mother, Fantine, in the lavish new six-part BBC adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, they won’t see Phil Collins’s daughter but a remarkable British-born talent at the top of her game.

‘I had a few friends in the musical version, and I was so keen to play this part in what’s a very different adaptation,’ says Lily of the role that won Anne Hathaway an Oscar �� a role she begged producers to be allowed to audition for, so desperate was she to be involved.

That the director, Tom Shankland, had decided against his being a musical adaptation meant the all-star cast – including Dominic West as Jean Valjean, David Oyelowo as Javert and Olivia Colman as Madame Thénardier – were able to return to Hugo’s original characters, she says. ‘And getting to work through the whole arc of Fantine’s life was incredible. Although in fact the death scene was filmed on day two,’ she adds with a side smile. ‘So it was a case of, “Hi, nice to meet you – I’m about to die”.’

Crushed and betrayed by a pitiless society that demands the most from those to whom it gives the least, Fantine’s character is emblematic of so much. During the six-month shoot in Belgium and northern France, Lily found filming in minus-13C Brussels gruelling (‘I grew up in England, so I should know about cold – but this was something else’), but says it helped put her in the right state of mind.

‘My lips started to go blue and I began to shake. Even in my breaks I wouldn’t keep my jacket on for too long because I had to be at a level of discomfort that I hadn’t experienced before.’ And when a degraded and desperate Fantine is dragged through the snow wearing minimal clothing, ‘I was able to let go and be that vulnerable. It’s those parts that are the most fulfilling: that’s when you can see what you’re made of.’

Lily’s early roles were hardly inconsequential. She starred alongside Sandra Bullock in the Oscar-winning 2009 film The Blind Side, and with Julia Roberts in Mirror Mirror in 2012. But it wasn’t until 2013 with her portrayal of Clary Fray in the film adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s bestselling cult fantasy series The Mortal Instruments that Lily seemed to come into her own.

There was a concerted move towards tragic, multi-layered heroines like heartbroken Cecilia Brady in Amazon Prime’s The Last Tycoon in 2016, and recovering anorexic Ellen in Marti Noxon’s To the Bone the following year, and I wonder whether it was the writing of her startlingly honest 2017 memoir, Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me, that marked the start of Lily’s real evolution.

Five years ago a sweet, wholesome and reticent young woman in dungarees and Dr Martens boots had assured me that prudence had ‘always been my natural feeling’. And yet, outing herself as someone real and flawed in her memoir – someone who had suffered from a debilitating eating disorder as well as self-confidence and relationship issues – was anything but prudent. ‘Writing the book helped me let go of things I was holding on to emotionally,’ Lily says. ‘And in order to take on the baggage of the characters that I wanted to play I had to let go of my own.’

That she chose to play a recovering anorexic in To the Bone the same year she’d detailed her own illness in such detail – the diet-pill and laxative addiction, the bingeing and purging that started at the age of 16 and went on into her 20s – could be seen as brave, foolhardy or both. But her parents (Lily’s mum is American socialite Jill Tavelman) didn’t try to stop her, she says. ‘In fact, they were more like, “Wow, you’re writing a book!” And it turned out to be a form of therapy,’ she insists.

‘Luckily, we shot To the Bone in LA, I worked with a nutritionist to prepare for the part responsibly, and my mum was on set with me, so it was a way for me to harness something that had truly controlled my life for such a long time. Being able to turn the tables and really have control was amazing. Finally I could say to myself: “I am living my life and this is not going to be a part of my story from now on.” I’ll be 30 in March and I’m so glad that I dealt with these things in my 20s, because now I can get excited about what’s to come.’

As part of her research she went to an Anorexics and Bulimics Anonymous group, and an LA clinic for eating disorders, ‘where they gave me a lot of the factual information to understand the basics of the disorder’. Does she feel her illness is firmly behind her now – or is it important to remain vigilant? ‘Well it’s never going to be erased because it’s part of who you are, but it doesn’t define how I live my life daily any more,’ she says. ‘When I was going through it, I couldn’t imagine there being a day when I didn’t think about it. So really it’s about seeing myself as a priority.’

She’s in no doubt that doing To the Bone and Unfiltered in the same year was worth it in terms of getting the message out there. ‘We’re all flawed,’ she shrugs. ‘Giving a loud voice to a subject that people are often very ashamed of really inspired me to pour myself into characters that have something to say.’

Her accent may be pure La-La Land, but Lily’s got British steel, our madcap sense of humour – and a love of Topshop. And when she lands at Heathrow and drives out into the country towards her father’s Surrey home, ‘That’s when I feel most myself,’ she says. And yet only-child Lily was just five when her mother moved them back to California, where she was from, and away from the very public fallout of her and Collins’s divorce.

It was the musician’s second marital break-up and the press feasted on every acrimonious detail of the split, from the fax her father reportedly sent Tavelman terminating their 10-year marriage (he denied it) to the reported £17 million he was forced to pay out. But although Lily admits in her book that there was ‘anger’ towards her father and a ‘terrible disconnect’ between them in the subsequent period – Collins went on to marry Swiss translator Orianne Cevey, 20 years his junior, in 1999, whom he later divorced and remarried – she is now very close to the 67-year-old and her four half-siblings. Two of them, Simon and Joely (whose mother is Collins’s first wife, Andrea Bertorelli) live in Canada, and two, Nicholas and Matthew (sons of Orianne), in Geneva, but the family all assembled in London for their father’s 60th birthday.

Lily remembers the advice Phil gave her when she started out: ‘For every positive review you read you’ll probably find two negative ones, so if you’re proud of something, don’t let anyone take that away.

‘And it’s true that being proud of the work matters more than anything,’ she says, adding that growing up immersed in the industry allowed her to ‘see the pros and the cons of it all and really understand what happens when you decide you’re going to be in the public eye. Because of that I feel like I already have this armour built in, which I can use at any moment.’

The armour went on when I asked about her ex-boyfriend, actor Jamie Campbell Bower, and an alleged fling with Zac Efron five years ago – and she’s not about to tell me who she’s dating now. But as well as her book, Instagram – on which Lily has almost 12 million followers – has opened her up in other ways. ‘I used to be quite anti social media,’ she says. ‘But after the book I found that this hugely supportive community was forming around the world.’ Anyone who assumed that the gorgeous LA actress whose circle of friends includes the actors Eddie Redmayne, Jaime Winstone and Sam Claflin couldn’t connect with ordinary people, ‘I wanted to prove wrong,’ she says.

Instagram has also proved to be a great platform for Lily to showcase her love of fashion and photography. The Dr Martens are now long gone and today she loves mixing up pieces by Givenchy, Miu Miu and Chanel with vintage brands and high-street finds. ‘In Brussels there were so many amazing vintage shops,’ she says. ‘I found some incredible old adidas and Fila jackets. But I’m constantly changing when it comes to fashion.’

Many of these experiments have been exhaustively covered by the fashion bloggers who dissect paparazzi pictures of Lily out and about in LA, where she lives – ‘which can be frustrating when I’m just going to the gym’, but is an inevitable part of any coverage involving red carpets.

Asked whether she minds the ‘Who are you wearing?’ question that many A-listers have railed against post #AskHerMore, she deliberates for a moment. ‘Well, I like to give credit where credit’s due, and if I’m wearing something a designer has created, they deserve the credit. One hopes there’s going to be more than one question – and if it is just the one, I’d rather be asked what I’m doing there.’

To see how quickly her industry has changed since #MeToo went viral just over a year ago has been fascinating, she says. ‘And I feel very fortunate that the films I’ve been in have always involved very strong independent women – whether it’s Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock,Julianne Moore, Annette Bening or Jennifer Connelly: they all took me under their wing.’

Watching #MeToo filter down into other industries has been one of the most wondrous things about it, she enthuses. ‘But whereas this year has been about trying to level the playing field, I keep hoping that one day we won’t have to start conversations with, “Well, it’s great because she’s a woman…”’

In her next big screen role, Lily will star as Edith Tolkien – the wife and muse of Lord of the Rings creator JRR Tolkien – opposite Nicholas Hoult in Dome Karukoski’s biopic, Tolkien. ‘And what an amazing experience to shoot in Liverpool with someone like Nicholas, and be able to play a character that really inspired a series of stories I grew up loving.’ But prior to that, and also due out next year – she filmed Joe Berlinger’s Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, in which she plays the long-term girlfriend of mass-murderer Ted Bundy, Elizabeth Kloepfer – with whom she spent time.

‘The preparation to that – and meeting Elizabeth and her daughter – was so unsettling that I kept being woken up by all these images,’ she says. ‘And I had tried not to read the harshest and most visceral information out there because in truth my character didn’t know anything, and the story is from her perspective. But it’s such a fascinating story – and in the end storytelling is what connects us all.’

Les Misérables begins on 30 December at 9pm on BBC One (x)