#I don’t want to make this your problem because that’ll just start another huge fight | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

moral-turpitudes · 3 years

Text

Just Business:

Trigger Warnings: Angst, Some Fluff, Slight smut?, Swearing, Drinking, Neglect, Fighting, Blood/Gore, etc.

Word Count: 3,195

Characters: Thomas Shelby x Female!Reader

Requested by: Anon

Request: “Could you make one with Tommy where he married the reader for business purposes and she wants to make things work but he’s cold towards her so she spends most of her time with Charlie, and when the whole family have to go back to Small Heath they become close but he gets jealous. Angst/Fluff and Smut if you think it fits.”

Summary: A marriage done for business seemed fitting at first, but as tensions rise among the family, Tommy eventually finds it in him to love again, but it falls on deaf ears as Y/N struggles to cope with his antics.

The clock struck midnight as you lied awake, the door ajar where Tommy had left to go to his study. He’d often leave you in the middle of the night when his thoughts became too much and when his emotions would threaten to take over. He had only cried around you once before, and it was when his wife Grace, had passed. Other days his mood would swing like a fragile ball on a pendulum, and you being one of his assistants at the company, you got to see almost every face of Thomas Shelby first hand, except one of genuine love. His love seemed to only be reserved for ghosts.

The next morning you would awake and hear Charlie crying, and scuffling down the hall looking for his father. He was a toddler, hell-bent on trying to run through the house any chance he got, so mornings were often spent chasing him around the vast expanse of rooms. Unfortunately, Tommy was already gone for the day, leaving you and the nanny to care for him until it was time for you to come in during the afternoon.

At some points while at home, you swore you could feel the portrait above the stairwell giving you daggers as you carried Charlie up to his room, Grace’s glistening, painted eyes boring a hole into your soul. Tommy hadn’t been the only one affected by her sudden death though, as the whole family was facing his wrath lately.

Your marriage had been a quick business arrangement ordered by Polly. She grew tired of Tommy’s antics, thinking him finding someone else would help him move on despite Grace’s death being only 6 months prior. And so here you were: a diamond ring and signed paper here, a nice dress and a family portrait of fake smiles there, and nothing but tense conversations and awkward attempts at affection getting you by until now.

Tommy was never one for love, at least not with you. You knew that deep down the only time that he seemed to love you was when he fucked you on the nights that the business became too much for him. When he’d come home needing some sort of release that wasn’t opium or whiskey, something to keep the memories of Grace and the shovels at bay, if only for a little while.

As the clock down the hall drew nearer to noon, you finally got Charlie down for a nap and got ready for work, a tear threatening to flow down your cheek as you put on your makeup, thinking about how much you had loved him secretly, even before Grace died. You’d always steal glances at him and would stay after to help him with paperwork, and it didn’t take long for Polly to know. She hated Grace, seeing as she betrayed them years before, almost destroying the family. But she’d always see the way you interacted with him and the rest of the boys and Ada, and how you immediately helped with Charlie when things got too much for Tommy. She loved you and the rest of the family did too, seeing as you were one of his most loyal assistants, and so it only made sense at the time that maybe you would be the perfect fit for Tommy. You never wanted his wife dead, and you could’ve gone your whole life just admiring from afar like all the other women would do on the streets, but you didn’t think you’d end up how you were now. Taking the place of his dead wife, being a step-mom to Charlie, and trapped in a loveless marriage to the man you felt so strongly towards.

As you blotted your tears away, you quickly finished up your makeup. Attempting to look somewhat alive despite your loneliness inside. If it wasn’t for this union being for “the sake of the business” as Tommy harshly put it when you’d overheard him talking to Polly, you’d be out finding someone who actually loved you, but in your twisted turn of events this was what had to be done.

The nanny came by the room, giving you a sympathetic glance as you tightened the belt around your waist that was accentuating your dress, you mentally kicking yourself for wearing such a revealing dress without thinking about the cold weather outside.

“I’ll have Charlie for the rest of the day as usual Mrs. Shelby, and I’ll let the maid know to straighten up and the cooks to start prepping for dinner later.” She said softly.

“Alright, thank you...truly. I...I mean we don’t know what we’d do without you all. I know Tommy doesn’t say much...but thank you for all your work.” You say, giving her a small hug. She was your only friend in the house it seemed. She’d help you when you’d drink yourself into a crying fit when Tommy was off on business, and she’d listen to you when you needed reassurance on if it was the right choice by marrying him.

“If he didn’t love you, you’d be sleeping elsewhere my dear. He’ll wise up, just give him time.” She would say, helping you back to the bedroom on those cold, dreary nights.

As you left the insanely large house you drove out onto the gravel roads, nearing Small Heath gradually. Your heart raced as you parked the car along the black dirt roads, the smell of burning wood filling your nose as the sounds of pounded metal filled your ears from the warehouses in the distance.

Other women and children would move out of your way as you swiftly walked down the narrow sidewalks and through the doors of the shop. The sound of papers flipping and typewriters clicking as you made your way silently over to your desk that was next to Tommy’s office.

“Good afternoon Y/N how was the drive?” Polly asked sitting near you. You sighed and looked at the stack of papers on the desk as you answered.

“It was fine. Quiet as usual up until arriving here of course.” You said with a small smile. You hoped she wouldn’t see the silent pain behind your eyes but you knew she did because she lingered there for a bit longer.

“Trouble at home?” She asked, her eyes flicking to Thomas as he sat in his office smoking a cigarette and looking at his own stack of papers.

“Always.” You said shortly, getting out your own cigarette and lighting it.

“Am I doing something wrong Pol? I’ve tried my best to be there for him. To be there for Charlie. To try to love him even though he couldn’t give a damn about me...” You said looking out at the lobby of the shop, wanting to be anywhere but here.

“You’re doing the best you can my dear. I’ll have a talk with him.” She said, an annoyance in her voice as she said the last part.

“Thank you.” You said as she walked off, knocking hard on Tommy’s door. You could see in through one of the windows, but you willed yourself not to look at him as your anger bubbled up inside you.

The stack of papers in front of you seemed like a mountain at the time, business proposals, unsigned license agreements, betting numbers, bank statements, anything and everything under the sun needing to be signed by the end of the day, and so while you heard Tommy shouting at Polly, you poured yourself into your work.

After awhile you saw Polly leave in a hurry and so you got up, following her out the door with your coat draped over you.

“Where are you going Polly?” You asked, the chilled air almost taking your breath away.

“To the Garrison. I need a drink. Do you care to join?” She asked.

“I thought you’d never ask.” You said sighing in relief as you both hurried into the bar. The familiar scent of smoke and whiskey filling your nose as a few people sat inside drinking their woes away.

“What will it be?” The bartender said.

“I’ll have a gin and tonic, what about you Y/N?” Polly said.

“Whiskey.” You said eyeing the bottle you’d grown to love only because of your bastard of a husband.

“He’s already rubbed off on you. Whiskey was never your drink till now.” Polly said sipping her gin.

“Well, now it is. Needed something strong enough to deal with his bullshit.” You said, knocking back a shot.

“What did he say when you talked to him?” You asked, bracing yourself for the worst.

“He told me that he’s wanting to move you and Charlie back here to Small Heath due to the recent gang problems.” She said.

“Is he mad? He can’t up and move right now! Why would he do that? He doesn’t care about us! I practically see his son more than he does.” You said, grabbing the bottle from behind the counter.

“Hey that’ll cost ya!” The bartender said. You and Polly shot him a look and he glanced at the huge rock on your finger.

“Oh...I apologize Mrs. Gray...and...Mrs. Shelby. It’s on the house.” He said before turning to serve the other patrons.

“Why would he fucking move us down here...if he doesn’t love me why would he want to protect me? I was just a fucking business deal after all...right?” You said, a tear slipping down your face as you knocked another shot back.

Polly glanced at her drink as she let you continue.

“He told me he wants to keep you safe because he loves you, I know my nephew well enough to see that he does love you, he’s just god-awful at showing it recently.” Polly said.

“Well when he wants to actually care about me more than his dead fucking wife then let me know.” You said before taking the shot glass and whiskey bottle and walking to one of the booths in the back of the bar.

Polly sighed and finished her drink, watching as a blonde haired man came over to your table and sat next to you, draping an arm around your shoulder.

The shots slowly made their way into your system as you poured yourself another one, barely acknowledging his presence at first.

“Why are you alone and wearing a dress like that with a ring around ya finger aye? Old husband getting ya down?” He asked, whiskey tainting his breath as he spoke in your ear.

“How about we go somewhere more quiet. I can love you like he couldn’t.” He said. You knocked back a couple more shots and smirked as you awkwardly ignored his advances and made flirty conversation to pass the time. Polly stiffly turned back to her drink, striking up a conversation with the bartender as you soon let your hand wander down the mans chest as he got closer.

You felt wrong for making moves on him as he wasn’t your husband, but at this point you had no love to really lose, or so you thought.

Just as you and the blonde haired man started making out, you heard the doors to the Garrison fly open, revealing your emotionless shell of a husband. His stoic face looking towards the bar to see Polly nursing another gin and tonic and chatting up the bartender.

“Thought you were working, Polly.” He said annoyed.

“I am. I’m trying to work on your love life because you won’t. I love you but you don’t know a good thing until it’s gone.” She said, her words stinging him a bit as he thought of Grace.

In the distance he heard a familiar giggle and his head shot up, his eyes glaring at the woman he desperately came to love, wearing a revealing evening dress, kissing and giggling with some blonde haired worker from god knows where.

“Is that what you call working on my love life Polly?” He said pointing to you in the distance, your face burning as the now half-drunk bottle of whiskey coursed through you, helping you not to have a care in the world as you giggled at the mans joke as he reached for your waist.

“If that’s what gets you to see reason, then yes.” Polly said sipping her drink as she watched you two making out.

“As much as I want to I can’t. I’m sorry...I’m married...” You said breathlessly, stopping his hands from traveling further.

“He doesn’t have to know.” He said.

You looked up through your slightly blurred vision to see the familiar peaked cap of your husband getting closer to your table.

“He already does.” You said, a nervous edge to your voice as you watched everything unfold before you.

Tommy yanked the man off you by the back of shirt and spun him around to where he was facing him.

“What are you doing here messing around with my fucking wife aye!?” He said pushing him roughly into the wall before landing a fist to his jaw.

The man smirked, spitting out blood right onto Tommy’s shirt before speaking.

“I was just about to do what you couldn’t.” He said.

You cringed and took another shot as you heard the sound of the mans jaw break as Tommy’s fist landed on his face once again, rendering him unconscious.

As you watched in silence, he grabbed his cap and cut a gash in his face that was deep enough to need stitches.

“Tommy stop!” You yelled, struggling to get up and stumbling towards him, nearly knocking him over. His breathing was ragged as you clutched onto him, his arms gripping your waist and steadying you.

“I-I can explain...” You said wiping a stray tear from your eye as you felt your mascara streaking down your face.

“Explain fucking what Y/N!? That you wanted to fuck him? Am I not enough for you? You had to go find some random man just because I’m busy?!” He said shouting loudly.

You shakily stepped forward looking him in his eyes which were burning like blue flames from jealousy.

“If I did why would you care? Just say it Thomas...you don’t fucking love me! You love Grace, and no woman will ever amount to her even though she’s six feet under. You’ve never loved me...and you just expect me to act like everything’s fucking fine, but it’s not!.....Hell! I even see your fucking son more than you do, now how is that love Thomas? If you don’t love me just say it. Because I’ve loved you as best I could...and I’ve loved you long before that. If you did love me, and I mean actually loved me...then this wouldn’t have been a “business deal” it would’ve been a proper fucking marriage!” You yelled, throwing your shot glass on the ground, watching as the glass shattered into a million sparkling pieces on the wooden floor.

He stood there silently as you stumbled off towards the restroom, shooing Polly away as you closed the door behind you and locked it. You practically collapsed on the floor sobbing as the cold tile soothed your burning skin, the room spinning the longer you laid there.

“What are you going to do Tommy?” Polly asked as she eyed him from her seat at the bar.

“I’m going to try to get my wife back. It’s not a fucking business deal anymore Pol. Never was. You think I didn’t notice the whispers from you and the lads when she’d leave the room? About how she liked me and how we’d be good together? You think I didn’t notice her eyes watching me as I worked despite being married to Grace? Of course I loved Grace but she’s not been the easiest fucking thing to get over. I know I’ve been a terrible husband, I can see it in Y/N’s eyes every day...I can see her withering away from me as well as Charlie and it kills me inside...I’m just not the best at loving people and you know that...ever since Grace died it’s like a part of me has too, but I’m going to get that back. I have to.” He said, his eyes glistening a bit as he headed for the restrooms.

He knocked lightly and waited before calling your name, panic coursing through him as you didn’t answer.

Without a second thought he shoved his shoulder into the door, busting the lock and stumbling in to find you on the floor barely conscious.

You mumbled something unintelligible as he crouched down and picked you up, bringing you out to his car as Polly followed quickly behind.

“My god where are you taking her?” She yelled over the start of the engine.

“Home. Tell the lads I’m taking the day off.” He said before speeding off towards the house.

Once there, he carried you to the lavish bathroom that connected to your all’s bedroom and sat you down in a chair. He quickly got a cold rag and wiped it on your forehead and around the rest of your face trying to keep you conscious. You perked up slightly at the cold sensation but were quickly overcome by the all too familiar feeling of nausea, your body cursing you as you stumbled towards the toilet almost blindly. Tommy held your hair back as best he could, waiting for what felt like ages for you to stop getting sick. With a weak hand you flushed and stumbled up, shakily brushing your teeth and staring at your tragic reflection in the mirror as Tommy kept an eye on you from the door frame. He held a pair of your sleepwear and one of his t-shirts in his beat up hands.

You looked at him as you grudgingly took the clothes from him, changing into them carefully as your balance was still shit.

After wrestling them on, you went straight for the bed, barely acknowledging Tommy’s presence as he watched you carefully.

“I’m going to bed Thomas. You can leave for all I care.” You said wrapping yourself in the plush covers and closing your eyes.

“I’m not leaving Y/N.” He said as you heard his footsteps softly move towards the bed. The mattress shifting a bit as he climbed in next to you, letting you snuggle up against him.

“You should be at work.” You mumbled.

He stroked your arm lightly as he laid there, an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips.

“I’m not going anywhere. Not while my wife’s a mess.” He said.

“Why should you care?” You asked, sleep threatening to take over.

“Because I love you, Y/N. I’ve just been terrible at showing it. To both you and Charlie. I love you and I’m not going to lose you. I can’t lose you.” He said quickly, knowing you’d fall asleep at any moment.

“Tell me you love me when I wake up then, because I won’t remember this.” You said, listening to his heartbeat as you let the darkness overtake you.

“I will, I promise.” He said, gently kissing the top of your head as he laid there with you, hoping sleep would take him too.

Tag List:

(If you’d like to be added/removed from the Thomas Shelby tag list, just shoot me an ask/message)

Main Tag List

@msbzowy, @nofckingfighting, @aranoburns, @sighonahurricane, @ugly-crying-over-bucky-barnes, @gaytommyshelby, @wowjeena, @fifty-shadesof-tommyshelby, @inglourious-imagines, @thebloodyshelbys, @tsolomons, @blinder-secrets, @reveparade, @shelby-fanatic, @ta-ka-shi-ma, @psychkunox, @peakyxtommy, @captivatedbycillianmurphy, @dreamwastakenx, @lovemissyhoneybee

#katiesrequests #peaky blinders #peaky blinders fanfic #peaky blinders oneshots #peaky blinders imagines #thomas shelby #thomas shelby x y/n #thomas shelby x reader #Thomas Shelby x female!reader #katiesWIPlist #I’m sleep deprived but I hope this was good lol

231 notes · View notes

lyricalporcupine · 3 years

Note

BY Prompt: “squeezing the other’s shoulder”, but it’s in a modern AU where Beau’s a detective interviewing Yasha and comforts her after hearing her story.

This one took me a sec to figure out. Hope you enjoy it!

Cw: small weed mention and mild violence.

Prompts are closed!

~~~~~~

Beau pulled up to an absolute clusterfuck. There were already several squad cars and the suspect had been detained. The victim could be seen sitting in the ambulance, getting stitches above his eyebrow and the hero was sitting on the steps of the owner’s flower shop, red faced and eyes shiny with tears.

Okay so clusterfuck may have been an over exaggeration. But it had been a clusterfuck when the responding officers showed up so Beau’s rolling with it.

Beau walked towards the ambulance, nodding to the two uniformed cops that had this side of the street blocked off from bystanders trying to get into the thick of things. She smiled up at the victim, a firbolg named Caduceus Clay, who owned the flower shop that had been targeted.

“Mr Clay,” Beau began. “I’m Detective Lionett. How are you doing?”

Despite his injuries, Caduceus gave a slow and gentil smile. “Oh, I’m okay,” he answered. His voice was slow and warm and Beau wondered briefly if he had been given medication. “Thanks to my friend,” he added, nodding towards the woman who was sitting on the shop’s small stairs.

Beau blinked over at the woman. Even from this distance Beau could tell she was huge and sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest did nothing to make her smaller. She turned back to Caduceus and pulled out a small paper pad and a pen from the pocket inside her jacket. She flipped the small pad open and poised her pen. “Are you able to tell me what happened today, Mr Clay?”

“Oh, of course,” he answered and told Beau what had occurred. He told Beau that while helping a customer that the suspect came into his shop, demanding the money from his till. Being a dispensary, the thief figured Caduceus must have had plenty of it.

That’s when the woman, Yasha, had come in, having plans to meet with Caduceus for lunch. The thief only had a knife and panicked when they saw Yasha. They took a swipe at her but she easily blocked it. Caduceus, after his customer ran out of the shop, foolishly tried to interject and stop the fight. The thief turned and swiped at him instead, catching the firbolg across his forehead. Yasha apparently took this very badly and wailed on the suspect and knocked him unconscious. The police showed up soon after, the customer who ran having called them.

Beau took Caduceus’s statement down and asked him a few more questions, which he answered. She nodded at him and said, “Thank you, Mr Clay. If I have further questions I’ll be sure to give you a call.”

Caduceus smiled at her with a nod. “Not a problem.” Then he winced a bit as the EMT tending to his injuries slid the curved needle through his flesh, sewing up the wound.

“Sorry,” the blue tiefling said. “Are you sure you don’t want any pain medication?”

Caduceus went to shake his head but stopped. “No, Jester, I am fine. Thank you.”

Beau turned and made her way over toward the woman, Yasha, on the steps to get her statement. There was a bandage on her forearm, Caduceus mentioning Yasha had been injured during the scuffle.

“Ms Nydoorin,” Beau said as she approached the woman. Mismatched eyes flicked toward her and Beau did her best to be reassuring as she introduced herself.

Yasha sniffled, rubbing her nose across the back of her arm. “Is Caduceus okay,” she asked in a soft voice that Beau hadn’t expected.

Beau smiled at her with a nod. “He’ll be okay. I know the EMT taking care of him, he’s in good hands.”

Yasha nodded and dropped her gaze back to the sidewalk.

“Uh, how’s your arm,” Beau asked, feeling herself starting to become flustered. Focus, Lionett, she mentally scolded herself. Just because this woman is fucking gorgeous is no reason to get tongue-tied.

Yasha looked at her arm for a moment then up to Beau. “It’s, uh. It’s okay.”

“Good, good,” Beau said. “I uh, need to ask you a few questions if you don’t mind.” Yasha gave a small nod to which Beau mimicked. She put pen to paper and began. “Okay. So.”

She ran through the scenario with Yasha, asking what happened. Yasha’s story matched up with Caduceus’s retelling of events. The witness had already left the scene before the police showed up so Beau would have to track them down for questioning, as well as checking the security footage. Beau was sure this was a pretty cut and dry case but it didn’t hurt to be thorough.

But all through the questioning, Yasha started to become more and more distraught. When she was barely holding back her tears and her soft voice was thick with emotion, Beau lowered her pen and pad.

“Yasha,” Beau said gently. “What’s wrong? Is it something to do with the robbery or something else?”

Yasha swallowed thickly, her eyes darting around. “Am— am I in trouble, too?”

Beau’s head cocked to the side. “Why would you be in trouble?”

Yasha’s eyes fell to the sidewalk again. “I’m from Xhorhas.” She seemed to curl in on herself and she reached her good arm up to scratch at her shoulder absentmindedly. “And I attacked someone.”

Ah. Yasha was worried about her status in the Empire and Beau quickly put things together. “On a visa,” Beau asked.

“Refugee,” Yasha whispered. “My case is still pending.”

Beau nodded. She slipped her pen and pad back into her jacket pocket and came to sit beside Yasha on the steps. “I wouldn’t worry about that,” Beau said. “What you did, you did out of protection, not malice.” She reached a hand up to gently grip Yasha’s shoulder. When Yasha looked at her, Beau gave her a warm smile. “You’re a hero, Yasha.”

The smile Yasha gave her could light up the fucking world, Beau thought.

“Thank you, Detective Lionett,” Yasha said quietly, still smiling at Beau.

Beau felt herself flush to the tips of her ears. “Beau, please.”

Yasha’s smile grew. “Beau.”

Beau’s heart tripped over itself. She coughed and cleared her throat. She quickly stood and turned to face Yasha. “I think I have everything I need but if I have more questions I’ll need to be able to reach you.” Beau pulled her notepad and pen back out. She flipped to a blank page and handed the pad and pen to Yasha. “I’ll need your number in case anything comes up.”

Yasha took the pen and pad and quickly scrubbed down her name, number, and address. Then she handed them back to Beau.

Beau took them, nodded, and slipped them back into her pocket. “I think that’ll do, Ms Nydoorin. You’re free to go.”

Yasha looked over at the ambulance then back to Beau and shook her head. “I’m going to wait for Caduceus, if that’s okay. Make sure he’s really okay.”

Beau nodded. “That’s fine.”

They looked at one another and Beau shoved her hands into her pants pockets. “Whelp,” she said lamely. “Imma. Uh. Imma go and pull the security footage.”

She stared down at Yasha who, after a moment, got the hint. “Oh, right!”

She quickly stood and moved out of the way, stepping down to the sidewalk.

Beau felt like her head was completely tilted back. This woman really was fucking huge, Beau’s head barely coming to her shoulder.

“Fuck me,” Beau whispered.

“What,” Yasha asked.

“Nothing,” Beau squeaked. She coughed, beat her fist on her chest and cleared her throat. “I’ll uh. Be inside.” And to save herself anymore embarrassment, quickly loped up the stairs and disappeared into the building, cursing her thumping heart and praying to any gods that would listen that hers and Yasha’s paths would cross again and on much better circumstances.

#beauyasha #lyricalporcupine #yasha nydoorin #beauregard lionett #beauyasha fanfiction #porcupine writes #detective au #weed mention #small but it’s there #mild violence

21 notes · View notes

gra-sonas · 3 years

Photo

Chris Hollier serves as showrunner for The CW’s hit series Roswell, New Mexico. The show first premiered back in 2019 and is now heading into its third season. Season 3 premieres on July 26 and new episodes will continue to air Mondays at 8:00 – 9:00 PM. Roswell, New Mexico was already renewed for a fourth season as well!

I spoke with Hollier about all things season 3, the one year time jump, getting renewed for another season, which episode he’s most excited for fans to see, the show’s relationships, which new duos we’ll see on screen, and so much more! Keep reading to find out everything he told me.

First off, we ended season two with a big cliffhanger. So how can you tease and set up how the premiere is going to kick off and and resume from that? Chris Hollier: Well, I think much like you said, we have to at least answer that question, we left him on; “howdy, partner” is quite a way to go out. So, we got to get our partners involved there. Then I think by the end, I want to tease out that much like in life, you don’t always know the best response right then and sometimes it takes a little time, and we gave our character some time to really evaluate all of their decisions with the jump, but also romantically.

The show will be doing a one year time jump; what made you decide to go this route, and is there a character that you were most excited to apply this to and see where they would be a year later? Chris Hollier: I think that what we try to do is honor the decisions of people that age, which what I mean is sometimes you don’t know, you need distance and perspective for things, even if they’re good. You need to knock that against something, you need to go after the dream that you said that you want and stand in it for 10 minutes to realize, is this really where I want to be or should I jump ship before it gets to be too late? And time just does that to you.

Which of the characters’ storylines do you think after the time jump is going to shock fans the most? Chris Hollier: Is going to shock fans the most? Interesting. I think ultimately throughout the season, what Liz realizes about herself is going to be a journey that they don’t quite expect; that as it gets up and running, it’s going to feel as the episodes roll on, and she is growing and running through a gauntlet to push her to places that I bet she never would have said, “this is what I want to do, say, and be,” in seasons one and two.

What can you tell us about the relationships? Chris Hollier: What I would say is they’re on the poster; what I would say is also what we want to do is when we look at Max and Liz, we always look at them as two sides of the same coin. How are they the same? How are they different? But like two sides of the same coin, they are linked together in ways that you cannot pull them apart. So, we put that up on its feet to explore really what does that mean? It doesn’t mean that you end up loving that person or sometimes it means like this is the only person for me, and we put that larger question to them to really decide like, “Are we gonna make a go at this or are we better apart?”

Congratulations are in order as well because the show has already been renewed for a season four and season three hasn’t even premiere yet. So what was your reaction when you heard the news? Chris Hollier: I found out on set– quick funny story, I called the two people that like, make the show with me there on the ground, my line producer and my producer/director, and I said, “I’ve got a problem that only the three of us can fix.” They said, “Oh no, what is it?” I said, “They’ve given us 13 more.” So, the greatest thing that I got to do though was go down when they announced it to tell the crew that all of their hard work meant something and that we can continue to employ all these families that I love, during a pandemic, which meant a lot to our entire Roswell group. We make the show together. I truly believe that and so that was the best moment for me is to say, “They’re responding to what we’re doing, they want more of it, and we all get to find a way to be together, even though times are crazy.”

You brought us to our next question because you all filmed this season during the pandemic, and that is such a huge accomplishment. What was it like filming with these insane circumstances and then finally wrapping? Chris Hollier: The biggest thing I think it did for sure is that I think when you watch it for the most part, you’re not gonna feel that. We made that decision again to like– we didn’t even know where the world was gonna be by the time we got to a premiere date; we didn’t know who was going to be president, you know? We had to look at all of that. What I would say the biggest thing that it changed were some of our protocols of the closeness that people could be and I mean that like when it comes to kissing and fighting. I feel it really made us look at telling a story, leaning into telling a story more like a romantic comedy where it’s about longing, rather than necessarily like being together. So we leaned into romance as a way to bolster some of the things that our hands were tied with a little bit.

If you could do a crossover between Roswell, New Mexico and any other CW or Warner Bros. show, which would you pick? Chris Hollier: Oh, that’s funny. I think I have to go back into the Plec universe, where I came from. We gotta mix them with the vampires. Aliens and vampires, I’m ready.

Well, going off of that question, which characters would you be most excited to see interact from those universes? Chris Hollier: I would love to see Hope Mikaelson meet Liz Ortecho. Or Hope Mikaelson and Rosa might be a good pairing; I bet those two could get into some trouble. A little science, a little magic, what could go wrong?

If you could create a tagline or phrase to get fans hyped for season three, what would you pick? Chris Hollier: I would say that this season is a crossroads moment for all of our characters. They’re going to have to make the next huge decisions of their life, and the villain that shows up is forcing all of them to redefine who they are as people and their relationships with one another.

Are there any themes that you’re excited for fans to see in this upcoming season or is there any sort of message that you hope to give them with the season? Chris Hollier: I would say almost as a reaction to everything going on the world last year, while we made this, that we saw a lot of stories of people trying to divide people. We were drawn to ideas about how you’re tested to do that and how you still come together. So, these are stories about how there are always people and always ideas that will try to divide us, but a real hero, really good people stand up and find a way to still bond with others in that time.

Are there any memorable moments that when you look back on filming the season now that you’re preparing for the premiere, that really stick out to you as a nice memory from the experience? Chris Hollier: There’s a nice memory where there was a moment in the middle of the season, around episode seven, where a lot of our characters on the show were all in one space together and that’s something that doesn’t happen. That’s also something because of COVID, we started off this season like we can’t really even do that. So, there was a moment where we’re all standing outside and we were gonna blow something up, everyone was there and there was a great energy that we were doing it safely, together.

Is there a favorite dynamic that you enjoy creating and seeing come to life on screen? Chris Hollier: Let me answer it this way, for this season, we looked at characters on our show that never had scenes together and we found ways to put people together in ways that we never have. We looked around like Max and Alex have never had scenes together. So, we found ways to put them together. Rosa and Michael have never had scenes together, so we found ways to put them together. That was most fun and it added a level of joy to all these actors who started to realize like, “Oh my god, I love this person off screen. I get to act with them now!” So, it gets everyone invested.

Lastly, is there an episode that you are most excited for fans to see? Chris Hollier: I think that episode eight is a highlight for me, it’s a Maria heavy episode. It’s an episode that a third of it takes place in people’s minds. I think that’ll be fun. I’m excited for where we’re going near the end with some of the crazy places that the show ended up in that I promise fans won’t see come episode one. We really just pushed what we could possibly do and how to get there; we continually, especially, I’d say the last half, wrote ourselves into corners that we couldn’t see the way out of, when we did that episode. So, I think that’ll be challenging for the audience to have to come back like, “How do they get out of this?”

#chris hollier #rnm cast interviews #rnm spoilers #rnm 3x08 #roswell new mexico s3 #long post is long

28 notes · View notes

jungshookz · 4 years

Text

CHAPTER TWO; A cry for help.

chapter one

Player has chosen: [A] Open the door.

“I DON’T WANT TO DIE, PLEASE- PLEASE LET ME IN, Y/N, PLEASE-”

the doorknob is being tugged at so aggressively that you’re worried it’ll just pop right out

“y/n, we could die-!” jungkook warns once again and pulls you back

it’s only when you hear taehyung let out another desperate cry for help that you make your decision

“oh, for christ’s sakes-” you shove jungkook’s hand off of you as you stumble towards the door

you know you’re going to regret it if you don’t let taehyung in

and you know he’d do the same for you!

anD if you don’t open the door right now, you don’t want to have to open the door later only to have to step over his mutilated corpse, so there’s that, too

you unlock it hastily and mentally prepare yourself to swing your bat at whoever’s out there hurting taehyung and-

your heart sinks to your stomach

...

there’s no one there.

you immediately slam the door shut before pressing your back right up against it and looking at jungkook with wide eyes, “that… can’t be good, right?”

“see?! what’d i tell you?!” jungkook groans, throwing his hands up into the air before beginning to pace back and forth out of stress, “i-i told you not to open the door because i said something shady was going on here, a-and you didn’t listen to me because you had to play the hero and-”

“are you seriously blaming me right now?!” you scoff, “i-i thought- i thought taehyung was- was in trouble s-so i opened the door and- and-and-and no one was there but-”

you’re understandably in shock because what the hell just happened?!

well, at least you know one thing for sure:

this… doesn’t seem like it’s a regular old house.

and once again, the only weapon you have is an old baseball bat.

are baseball bats effective against evil spirits and demonic beings??

“there has to be another way out of here, right?” jungkook rushes towards the boarded up windows before shining a light on the planks

he tucks his fingers behind one of them and gives it a pull but it doesn’t budge

they’re nailed into the walls pretty securely…

“you’re right! you’re right, we can just- w-we can just jump out through the windows, it’ll be fine!” you stammer, reaching down to lock the door again before joining jungkook by the window, “we can- we can tie our clothes together or something if we’re on a higher level, and then we’ll just climb down, and then we’ll be totally fine, and-”

snap!

jungkook grunts to himself as he manages only to break a little shard of wood off, creating a hole just big enough for someone to look through it with one eye

he hurries to look outside, opening his eyes as wide as they can possibly go as if that’ll somehow help him see things clearer

“what do you see?” you ask, getting up on your tip-toes to try to peek through the hole over his shoulder

“i… i don’t think we can leave through the window.” jungkook pulls away slowly before turning to look at you, “i think we’re underestimating just how huge this place is.”

“what are you talking about?”

jungkook moves out of the way so that you can look through the hole yourself

you feel the blood drain from your face when you look through only to see that you guys are… high… high above the ground

two sweaters and two pairs of jeans certainly aren’t going to be enough to get you down on the ground safely

and don’t you have a slight (very large, very intense) fear of heights?

how big is this place?!

when you look off into the distance, all you can see is that you guys - this place - is surrounded by nothing but trees

and not even the nice looking trees!

all the branches are thick and gnarly and twisted around each other and instead of being a nice oaky shade of brown, they all look... black from here

you probably wouldn’t feel any safer being in the woods compared to being trapped in this house

“what do we do?” jungkook asks quietly and you chew on your bottom lip anxiously as you try to come up with some kind of a decent plan

“okay. this is the plan.” you step away from the window before turning on your heel to face jungkook, “we- we have to leave this room, jungkook. from the looks of it, we’re maybe on the fifth? sixth level of this house? if we jump out, we’re... well, we’re going to die.”

“if we leave this room, we’re going to die!” jungkook argues before shoving you out of the way so he can start tugging at the planks again, “can’t you just use your bat to smash the boards or something? we can call for help!”

“and attract attention to us? so that we’ll be killed by whatever’s out there? i don’t think so!” you whisper-yell before grabbing jungkook’s arm to try to get him to stop pulling at the boards, “jungkook, it’s no use! i don’t think there’s anyone out here for miles! we’re surrounded by nothing but trees! we just need to leave this place and then we’ll figure the rest of the plan out later!”

jungkook shoves the flashlight into your hand and re-hooks his fingers under the planks

he is NOT leaving this room

he lifts his leg before pressing his foot up against the wall, his face scrunching tightly as he pulls back as hard as he can

“jung-”

“-!” it’s only a second later that jungkook ends up tumbling backwards and falling flat on his ass and you resist the urge to tell him that you told him so

but

you told him so!

dumbass

unless a hammer suddenly appears out of thin air, there’s pretty much no way of getting the planks off the walls

“ow.” jungkook mutters to himself, frowning in discomfort as he pulls a thin splinter out of his finger

:-(

he flicks it aside before looking up at you, “…we… have no choice but to leave this room, don’t we?”

you nod slowly before giving him a helpless shrug, “it’s gonna be fine. we’ll be fine!”

at this point, it seems as though you’re trying to convince yourself that everything will be fine instead of convincing jungkook that everything will be fine

but you can’t let him know that you’re scared shitless because then he’s going to get even moRE jumpy and you really don’t have the energy to take his anxiety and plunk it on top of your already growing anxiety

“front doors are easy to find, right?” jungkook asks, dusting his bum off after getting up off the ground, “we’ll just keep going down the stairs until we find a door that’s obviously a front door.”

“right!” you nod enthusiastically, the both of you turning to look at the door that now seems to look a little more menacing than it did a while ago, “and this place is obviously a mansion, so the front door will probably look super fancy-”

“exactly!” jungkook grips the back of your arm as the two of you slowly approach the door, obviously not wanting to leave the safety of this dusty old bedroom, “we just have to run down the stairs and then run out the door, and then run out into the woods-”

“okay, you are not helping right now-”

“i’m sorry!! i’m nervous!!” jungkook’s hand trembles as he points the flashlight towards the door and you wince when you feel his nails digging into your arm even through the thick material of your sweater

you squeeze your eyes shut as you blindly reach for the doorknob, jungkook cowering down behind you

the metal feels cold underneath your palm as you wrap your fingers around the knob, twisting it to the right with a trembling hand

your heart is practically pounding out of your chest at this point and you’re just waiting for something to trigger your fight or flight

the hinges on the door creak lowly as you pull it open - just open enough for you and jungkook to slip through but also just closed enough for you to slam the door shut in case any demons decide that this is the moment they want to attack you guys

you peel open one of your eyes and wait for a second before opening the other one

…

huh

okay

okay!

everything’s fine!

“see?” you breathe out, your shoulders dropping in relief, “i-”

“BOO!”

taehyung and jimin both suddenly jump out from either side of the door and you and kook immediately let out ear-piercing screams (you’re pretty sure his scream is at a higher pitch compared to yours)

jungkook wraps his arms around you from behind to use you as a human shield and the baseball bat falls from your hand and clatters to the ground before rolling towards the door

“what the fuck is wrong with you two?!” you roar, pressing your hand against your chest to try to get your heart to calm down before you actually get a heart attack, “why would you joke around like that??”

“i hate it here, i hate it here-” jungkook wheezes as he continues to cling to you, crouched over with his face pressed into your back, “i think that just took ten years off of my life-”

“you should’ve seen your faces!” jimin chortles, throwing his head back in obnoxiously joyous laughter, “i wish i’d taken a picture or somethi-”

“you two suck!” you snap, gently pushing a clearly traumatized jungkook away from you before going over to smack the living hell out of taehyung and jimin

if you were still holding your bat, you would’ve knocked all their pretty teeth out three seconds ago

“oh my-” taehyung dodges your slaps and holds both his arms out to defend himself, “will you relax, please?? jesus, what is your problem??”

“my problem is that y-you clowns decided it’d be a good idea to pull a stunt like that-”

“oOoOoh, is y/n scared of the spooOOoOky ghost house?“ jimin teases, holding his hands up above his head and wiggling his fingers, “spooky ooky-”

“shut up. shut up!” you bend down to pick up the bat before letting out a huff, “let’s just go- do you guys know where everyone else is?”

“well, we thought that they were in here with you…” taehyung purses his lips before reaching up to scratch the back of his neck, “are they not?”

you turn around to kick the door wide open so that you guys get a full view of the clearly empty room, “no. they are not.”

“oh. well, it’s fine. they’re probably here somewhere… this is a pretty big house.”

at this point, your eyes have pretty much gotten used to the dark so it’s a little easier to navigate

and it helps that you can see light at the end of the hallway (moonlight streaming in through the cracks in the roof, but it’s better than nothing)

“so, where did you guys wake up?” you ask, turning to glance at tae over your shoulder as you approach the top of the staircase

“in the room down the hall.”

“how’d you find us?” jungkook chimes in, pausing for a second to whack the flashlight against his palm again when it flickers

“the walls are, like, super thin.” jimin points out, “so it wasn’t hard to hear you two bickering with each other.”

“we weren’t bickering with each other-”

“oH, by the way-“ taehyung stops in the middle of going down the stairs to turn and jab a finger into jungkook’s chest, “did you seriously tell y/n to NOT open the door for me?? when i was clearly in trouble??”

jungkook opens his mouth to speak but,.,.

well

he can’t really defend himself here because he diD tell you to not open the door for taehyung lmao

“uh, can you blame me?” jungkook shakes his head, “i didn’t wanna die!”

“we totally would’ve opened the door for you!” jimin scoffs and stops on the stairs as well and you immediately roll your eyes when you realise that this is going to become a thing

you let out a sigh before turning and leaning against the railing so you can look up at the boys, “do you people have to do this right now?”

“okay, lemme explain my thought process before you freak out on me-” jungkook clears his throat, the three of them too caught up in this conversation to pay an ounce of attention to you, “i… didn’t wanna die. that’s it! i just didn’t wanna die! is that so wrong? to want to save my own life?!”

“yeah, well, that’s a selfish decision!” taehyung barks, “do you think we wanna die?? if y/n didn’t step up and open the door, then we would be dead!”

“no, you- how?!” jungkook flings his arms up into the air and lets out a scoff of disbelief, “no one was after you! this was your dumb prank!”

“we’re just saying we would hypothetically be dead, so you should hypothetically be feeling VERY guilty right no-“

“okay, okay, okay!” you tuck the bat underneath your arm before trudging back up the stairs, “we can talk about hypothetical deaths and hypothetical guilt and hypothetical hoeur d’oeuvres served at hypothetical funerals after we find everyone and get out of here, alright??”

you use the tip of the bat to nudge everyone down the stairs and you let out a little huff of frustration as they continue to argue with one another

boys are so dumb sometimes

and that’s when you notice... something peculiar

just as you’re about to descend the stairs yourself, you catch a brief flash of movement in the corner of your eye

you quickly turn your head so you can look back down the long hallway that you guys just came from

your eyes narrow suspiciously as you look all the way at the very back of the hallway - the darkest part of it

it’s weird

the movement almost seemed like it was someone… leaping? from one room to the other

a particularly large particle of dust floats past your face and you reach up to wave it away

…

it was probably just dust

by the time you guys make it down the main floor, taehyung and jimin have fully forgiven jungkook for not wanting to open the door for them

it’s so weird how boys can get over issues so quickly

all they have to do is fist-bump each other and then call it a day

“so! do we have a plan or something?” taehyung places his hands on his hips and looks up towards the large glass chandelier hanging from the ceiling

you glance up at it as well and watch as the crystals twinkle slightly

“the first part of our plan was just to leave the room, and now that we’ve done that… well.” jungkook shrugs, “i dunno.”

“oh. the first part of our plan was also to leave our room. so… what should we do now?”

“beats me.”

“i need to take a leak. do you guys think i can get away with pissing in the corner of the room? maybe there’s a dead plant in here that needs watering?”

you look around at everyone in disbelief

god

boys are?? literally SO dumb

“the… next part of the plan would be to find everyone else…?” you point out as if it’s the most obvious thing in the entire world (because it is) and the boys immediately hum in agreement, “and if you need to pee, just… i’m sure there’s a bathroom here someone. don’t urinate in the corner of the main floor-”

“okay, well - we should probably split up, then!” taehyung claps his hands together, “the sooner we find everyone, the sooner we can get out of here.”

“mhm. i agree!” jimin nods, “i call dibs on this floor because i am not going back up all those stairs again. my calves are killing me.”

“wait- you guys wanna split up?” jungkook gawks, “why would- why would we do that?? it’s creepy as hell in here!” he frowns, instinctively stepping behind you again

“oh, please. it’s just a dusty old house, jungkook. and you’re the one with the flashlight, so you should be fine.” jimin raises a brow before crossing his arms, “don’t tell me you’re actually scared.”

“you saw the way they freaked out when we jumped out,” taehyung snickers before nudging jimin’s side, “the two of them are scaredy-cats-”

“we’re not scared.” you narrow your eyes at taehyung and your grip tightens around your baseball bat, “well, i can’t speak for jungkook, but i’m definitely not scared-”

“okay, if you’re not scared, then you’re okay with us splitting up to find the rest of the gang, right?” taehyung tilts his head before raising a brow

you swallow thickly

what do you want to do?

> [A]: Split up! Taehyung has a point… the sooner you find everyone, the sooner you can get the hell out of here! And you’d really like to get the hell out of here.

> [B]: Stay as a group! You’re stronger together. Plus, Jungkook’s shaking like a leaf behind you. You can’t leave the poor guy alone.

Place your vote here.

You have one hour.

Good luck.

#choh2020 #choh2020 drabbles

93 notes · View notes

iam93percentstardust · 4 years

Text

AU-gust Day 4: Angels/Demons

Requested by @justsomeoneunordinary for an Ironfalcon AU!

Also on ao3 here

So maybe Bucky doesn’t laugh when Sam gets put on gate duty as punishment for their prank but he certainly snickers hard enough that Sam feels no guilt in tugging on his wings as they’re dismissed.

Stupid guardian angels considered too “important” to assign to a different job.

Still, he thinks and brightens up at the thought, at least Bucky’s been given a particularly hard case this time. He got a chance to see the file before Bucky left for Earth: some secret agent with a penchant for getting himself injured. That’s not gonna be an easy job like the last couple have been.

He takes up his post at the gate and tries hard not to roll his eyes every time someone falls to their knees to think him for allowing them into Heaven as though they didn’t do that all by themselves. It happens ten times just in the first hour that he’s standing there. He stifles a groan after the last one goes inside and resists the urge to check his watch. He knows how long he has to be here—another nine years, three hundred and sixty four days, and twenty-three hours. There’s no point in checking the time.

It’s mostly an easy job. Sure there’s the occasional person who gets sent up when they should have been sent down and they always try to fight him but Sam isn’t one of Heaven’s best warriors for nothing. So it’s an easy job. It’s just…boring. And tedious. And a thousand other dull adjectives that he doesn’t feel like thinking of at the moment, even if he does have the time.

“I want Saint Peter,” the guy standing in front of him insists.

Sam glances him over once—little bit of a beer belly, tucked under a too-small suit, hair combed and slicked, definitely a politician—and then checks his list on who’s supposed to be arriving today. This one’s been insisting for the last ten minutes that he’ll only enter if Saint Peter comes out to personally welcome him. Sam hadn’t worried about it at first but the longer it had stretched on, the more he’d started to wonder if this guy was really supposed to be there. Most people don’t care who greets them at the gates, just that they’re at the gates.

He maybe takes too much of a vindictive pleasure when he realizes this one isn’t actually on the list so he gets to inform him, “Sorry, there’s been a mistake. You’re not supposed to be here.”

“What? Let me see—” He snatches for the list and Sam doesn’t even get a chance to warn him before he disappears in a flash of light. Trying to take the list—that’s a big no up here. Oh well. It’s not like that was a huge loss and the guy’s only been sent to where he was supposed to be anyway so who cares?

Sam goes back to waiting, leaning up against the side of the gate, wishing that something interesting would happen.

Then there’s a little pop, followed by the scent of campfire smoke and wood ash, and a demon appears in front of him.

He looks the demon up and down—immaculately groomed goatee, tiny horns poking out of his curls, whiskey warm eyes, and a prehensile tail lashing irritably behind him—and then says, “You gotta know I can’t let you in.”

“I know that,” the demon snarls. “But I need to get Herself to sign off on something.” He holds up a file and Sam catches a glimpse of a name glittering in gold ink before the demon tucks it back inside his jacket.

Sam crosses his arms. “Uh-huh.” Like he hasn’t heard that one before. About once a century, Lucifer tries to send a demon up here to infiltrate Heaven. It never works and Sam usually gets sent to kick their butts back to Hell, which is great, but it still happens.

The demon’s eyes narrow. “You don’t believe me, do you,” he states, not even really a question. “Fine. You sent someone down there a few minutes ago, a politician, presumably because he wasn’t on your list. Well, he’s not on ours either but he definitely belongs there so I need Herself to sign off on the form so we can keep him there.”

“You guys have a list?” Sam asks, surprised. He doesn’t see why they would need one. If they’re not on the list for Heaven, then they’re definitely set for Hell so what’s the point of them having a list?

The demon gives him a sidelong look. “Some people,” he says slowly, “don’t believe in a Christian-based Hell so they don’t belong with us either.”

Oh. That—that makes sense actually. Maybe he should see about getting more stringent requirements for kicking people down to Hell. He’s seen the Gates of Hell; they’re pretty terrifying for anyone, let alone someone who belongs in another religion’s version of the good place.

“You’re really not here to infiltrate Herself’s court?” he asks, just double checking but the demon gasps in offense.

“How dare you accuse me of lying?”

Sam gives him an unimpressed look. “You’re a demon.”

“I take offense at that! I am a demon with honor! And integrity! And—”

“Okay, don’t wear yourself out. Come on, I’m gonna have to escort you through.” He presses the button that’ll open the gate. It’s hidden up his sleeve so that it looks like the gates are opening magically for the humans entering. The demon doesn’t look awed though.

He just snorts and mutters, “Pretentious.”

Sam rolls his eyes. “It’s Sam by the way, since you didn’t ask.”

“Tony, since you didn’t ask either.”

Yeah, that’s probably fair.

“So is this what you do all the time? You check the list and come to us if there’s a problem?” he asks as they walk inside.

Tony does an admirable job of ignoring the askance looks he’s getting. “No,” he mutters sullenly. “I’ve got a job on Earth but I got in trouble for causing too much mischief so I got assigned to gate duty.”

“You can cause too much mischief?”

“Interfered too much with someone set out for sainthood. Lucifer doesn’t like to mess with those. Says those end with too much smiting.”

A plan starts to take form in Sam’s mind and he grins. “But you can interfere in other people’s lives?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“So if I gave you the name of a guardian angel, you could go and mess with them?”

Tony gives him an amused smirk. “Yeah. Who?”

#ironfalcon #august2020 #alle writes #if you like please consider reblogging

72 notes · View notes

mutalune · 3 years

Note

Hey! I hope November is treating you better than October! (Other than the first tuesday. It lasted like a whole week! Crazy!) Do you have any branching stories of your AU? Like would Izuku’s birthday phone call have happened in the original universe? What if Aizawa had a password from Nedzu so he could approach him early? That the time travel aspect of your fic was so ... ill-prepared? is absolutely fascinating. Finally, yours is so good that I’m even recounting it to Datemate! Ihopethismakesit!

first off plz tell your datemate that i said hi because that’s so fucking cute and i hope they’re enjoying the recounting

second off november is going MILES better than october thank you so much for the well-wishes <3

third off thank you??? for your kind words???? seriously appreciate it so much <3

okay onto the fun stuff - i don’t have anything written that’s branching off from the AU, but i have Ideas if you’re interested in hearing them!! (i’m gonna try not to spoil future things in my fic and not give too much away but i’m also Dumb so read at your own risk lmao)

izuku and his dad - AU vs OU

in general, the way i view a lot of the stuff with izuku’s dad is that if izuku had been even a teensy-bit more genuine with his dad in the Original Universe, his relationship with his dad would be way different than the Original Universe. i see the OU relationship between them as unmatured - Hisashi cared about izuku in the OU as well, but he never looked deeper into izuku’s life other than a cursory “oh he’s doing well, his grades are good, he’s healthy, he made it into the high school he wanted.”

and that’s because in the OU, izuku only had all might and his mom as role models. Inko gave him kindness and strength and determination. all might gave him hope and something to aspire towards.

all of that makes the wonderful being that is Canon Deku and i do adore that boy, but Hisashi does Not Like All Might and he wouldn’t be able to handle a tiny deku’s gushing over the hero that destroyed his quality of life. and deku hadn’t been socialized enough to talk about anything EXCEPT all might or heroes - a consequence of having no friends except your busy working mom.

so even if izuku had been open in the OU to a relationship with hisashi (which i don’t think he was, because i think without aizawa there to help him be confident, he would default to protecting himself and hiding and he wouldn’t have the safety of aizawa’s love/support to shield him from if hisashi had rejected him in any way - better to stay away than risk getting hurt and rejected by the only other adult that was semi-obligated to give a damn about him) - i don’t think hisashi would’ve been open to it himself

(i think i said this in an A/N somewhere but i have literally no idea of when AFO and all might had their Big Blowout Fight in canon, so for my purposes, it happened pre-fic when izuku was 6 lmao)

Hisashi has some amount of trauma from that fight - who wouldn’t after losing their sight and most of their face? - the same that all might does, even if we don’t see all might explore that very much. and as someone who has her own trauma, i know i go into “AVOID!!!! AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!!” mode when i come across any kind of trigger.

multiply that by 100x because it’s Your Son who You Adore More Than Anything Even If You Don’t Know Him That Well Because You Also Have Family Trauma - yeah, i can’t imagine hisashi being comfortable with more than the bare minimum kind of relationship with his all might fanboy son.

SO THAT WAS A REALLY LONG WAY OF SAYING: yes, the phone call would’ve happened, but it would have been:

“hey happy birthday”

“thanks”

“how’s school”

“it’s fine. how’s america”

“it’s fine. americans, ya know.”

*awkward silence*

“okay talk to you next year.”

regarding nedzu and aizawa

honestly that’s one of those things i hadn’t even considered when writing this fic if i’m being honest. like the whole reason i started thinking about writing this fic was “how can i give aizawa a tiny izuku to protect and care for without killing inko or making her a Terrible Mother” because that was most of the fics i was seeing (which are all still fun to read don’t get me wrong but i like inko and i like writing women and i am a lesbian who Loves Women!!!!) and i just started writing and THEN made the plot and actual details fit with the first 5 chapters i wrote lmao

i think, though, that nedzu is such a wildcard. like i haven’t read the manga so maybe he’s more understandable in that, but it seems to me like his motivations aren’t very clear. he’s not really a dumbledore-type figure in my eyes - he’s not the general of the battle against the LOV, even if he has authority and has a position and has the intelligence, ya know?

he’s very inscrutable to me, and he has his own bias and own motivations that are intriguing to consider - but i can’t imagine aizawa trusting a past-version of nedzu to work towards the same goals he’s working towards.

like, aizawa thinks he’s logical. but at the end of the day, i write him as a “loved ones comes first, the world comes second” character. and whether he can admit it to himself or not, he knows that nedzu would put the world first.

and it would scare him that nedzu might see izuku (or any of his students, or hizashi, or nemuri) as expendable if that means avoiding the future aizawa came from. with nedzu being as smart as he is and as inscrutable as he is, aizawa could end up as his pawn towards whatever *nedzu* thinks is the best course of action, even if he was completely honest with nedzu.

this is something that i don’t think has come up yet, but aizawa *knows* he’s not the smartest guy. like he knows he’s not an idiot, but he knows that hizashi is WAY smarter than him, and he knows that he wouldn’t be able to beat nedzu in a game of checkers, let alone a life-size game of war.

i could see a version where aizawa gets all might’s help and has some sort of “i know this thing that you never told anyone else, i’m from the future, help” type of password, or i could see him doing it with just about any other pro-hero or any of his students, but i really can’t see a version where he would enlist nedzu first. i think he would want to set some of his plans in motion that even with all of his intelligence, nedzu wouldn’t be able to stop.

(does aizawa even have plans? no he doesn’t, which means he would wait to involve nedzu until he came up with a plan, but he can’t come up with a plan b/c he is Not a Strategic Thinker, so he keeps fixing small problems and saying that when he comes up with a plan he’ll call nedzu, and then he’s fighting the LOV singlehandedly because he’s a moron.)

aizawa isn’t a big picture guy, to me. he’s the best and worst person to send back in time because of it lmao - he’s the best because he is smart and sneaky and (if he had all of the right information) he would find the easiest, quickest solution. he’s the worst because he would be the guy who, given the chance to go back in time and stop someone from destroying the world, he would go “okay i’ll just kill that guy before he becomes a Big Huge Villain” and then not realize “oh wait that just means someone else will step in a fill the void and now i don’t know who that guy is so that’ll be harder and all of my future knowledge is For Nothing” (cough CHISAKI cough)

WOW THIS IS SO LONG i hope if you read it all the way to the end you enjoyed my babbling or at least didn’t hate it enough that you won’t ever open my fic ever again~

in all seriousness, thank you for your ask and thank you for giving me a chance to babble about some of this stuff because i have BIG OPINIONS and a lot of thought has gone into this AU and what the OU of my AU (that is in and of itself a canon divergence/AU of canon lmao) would look like. it was really fun to dive into this onto a medium that isn’t just another document on my google drive~

i hope you’re having a lovely november and if you do anything for the holiday season, you have fun with it~! (also plz feel free to stop in and chat more/ask more if you want to!!! i’m trying to be better about being on tumblr more often lol)

#shmoo92 #starlight fandom #starlight ask #starlight personal #you are a sweetheart and i had so much fun writing this ngl #hope this actually answered your questions i didn't really check to see if i stayed on prompt lmaooo #i could talk about aizawa all day tbh i Love This Tired Man

21 notes · View notes

mikkomacko · 4 years

Text

In The Shadows 4

The bacon on the stove cackles lowly, spitting out a spark of hot grease and y/n is grateful that she's not standing in front of the pan. She hums, flipping her hash browns as the creak of the front door opening and closing flows through downstairs. The sound of a duffel bag dropping, and light shoes on the floor makes her smile. She moves over to flip the bacon, lowering the flame under the pan.

"They upstairs?"

Y/n turns, rolling her lips into her mouth to keep from smiling too much. Harry's on the other side of the counter, tiny hair clip holding his rouge curls back, and he's dressed like he just came from practice. She nods, stomach fluttering when his dimples sink into his rosy cheeks.

"Sleeping or getting ready?"

It takes her a moment to peel her focus off of him enough to answer. "Jess is in the shower, Jo went for a run, and Tia should still be sleeping."

Harry's smile deepens, and he quickly maneuvers around the counter, crowding her back into the corner and cupping her face. His lips are like a cool shower after a hot day, or coffee early in the morning, or the sun rising after a night of rain.

The bacon pops again, and Harry jumps away from her. "Fuckin'-" he furiously rubs his arm where a red splotch has grown, pouting like a baby at the mark.

Y/n giggles, flipping the meat again. "You okay?" She asks, moving the finished hash browns to a serving plate and working on scrambling eggs.

"I guess so," Harry mutters, leaning his hip against the counter top. He crosses his arms over his chest, glaring at the pan of bacon. "fucking cock blocking bacon."

She giggles again, leaning over to peck his cheek just because she can. After all this time she can finally kiss him. Well, as long as Jess isn't around. But it's worth it, it's so worth it, and judging by the smug grin on Harry's lips, he believes it too.

The sound of that bedroom door opening upstairs pops the bubble around them, sending Harry two steps further from the stove and y/n staring intently at her eggs. Not wanting to seem awkward or different in front of whoever's coming downstairs, y/n strikes up conversation. "How was practice?"

Harry groans, throwing his head back and pouting. Y/n has to try really hard to not smile like a puppy being handed a bone. "Exhausting. Don't have a game this week so we're conditioning."

"I'm assuming it's a lot of running?"

"You've no idea." He huffs, crossing his arms over his chest, "Made me glad I didn't eat breakfast this morning or it would've been-"

"Why are you here so early and why are taking about gross things?"

Her shoulders deflate at the sound of Jess's voice, disappointed that she's not really gonna be able to speak to him much now. Jess always has to be the one talking.

"Didn't even say anything gross!" Harry defends, eyebrows scrunching.

"You would've if I hadn't stopped you!"

Y/n continues cooking, the siblings arguing fading into background noise as she sneaks gazes at Harry. It's odd to look at him now and know he's more than Jess' brother, more than a friend. He's her boyfriend. Her very hot, yet adorable, captain of the soccer team boyfriend. Her stomach flutters. Harry's turned her into a mushy fangirl fonding over her favorite heartthrob. She supposes he's always been her favorite heartthrob though, so she shouldn't be too surprised.

"Stop bitching at me and go suck Tina's dick or something."

The snip in Harry's voice snaps y/n out of her thoughts, eyes widening as Jess gasps. She turns to her best friend, wincing when she sees her angry squint. If this were a cartoon, her head would be red and smoke would pour out of her ears.

"Stop annoying my friend and go tap another keg!"

Harry snorts, rolling his eyes. "Good comeback, m'such a stupid frat lad aren't I?"

Jess slams her hands on the counter, screaming in frustration before taking off out of the room, stomping all the way upstairs. The kitchen is now uncomfortably silent, a disembodied ring filling the air alongside Harry's obvious annoyance. He slumps back against the counter, head falling forward as he huffs to himself.

It's not the first fight she's ever seen between the two siblings, not even close, but it is the first fight in which Harry's hers and Jess only wants her when it's convenient. Like for arguments, or help studying, or someone to make her breakfast. With that thought up front in her mind, she tip toes to Harry, hands behind her back nervously. Usually when him and Jess fight, she's giving him a sympathetic smile and following after the younger of the two.

She gently butts her forehead into his shoulder, muttering, "Hi." She's not sure what else to say.

Harry peeks at her out of the corner of his eye, only pausing for a brief second before his teeth are releasing his bottom lip and he's grinning. "Hey,"

"Do you want toast?"

Chuckling lowly, so manly in his chest yet so cute on his mouth, Harry drops his arms and wiggles her into his chest and caging her in with hands steady on her back. "I'd love some toast."

"Yeah?"

He pecks her nose and her stomach swoops. "Yeah."

"Only if you shower right after breakfast."

Harry's mouth parts in offence, eyebrows pinching together. "Are you saying I'm stinky?"

"Not explicitly." Y/n giggles quietly, fingers tightening on his shirt where they rest on his abdomen.

"She's not gonna let me use her shower peanut." Harry shrugs, as if there's no other way for him to possibly clean himself in a house with four showers and a spout out front. Not that she'd spray him down with a hose, but still.

"You can use mine. S'probably cleaner than hers anyway." Both her and Harry giggle at that. Jess and Harry are known for being quite messy, and y/n is known for being the one following behind to clean up the mess.

"Thank you."

"Of course," she lets her lips ghost over his in a teasing kiss. "now let me finish breakfast before you start fermenting."

"What happened when we all got home? Did you stay at the house?"

The courtyard is empty, everyone most likely back in their rooms getting ready for the football game tonight. Which is convenient for Y/n and Zoe because they haven't seen each other since Saturday and they need a safe, low-key place to talk about what happened with Harry. Zoe told her that her and a couple of the girls saw them kiss, but most of the crowd was clearing out already and probably missed it so they were safe there. As for the team, Harry's already asked them to not say anything, wanting to keep their relationship quiet for now.

"He just walked me home. I didn't even think about staying with him if I'm being honest."

Zoe rolls her eyes at y/n, giggling, "you can stay with him without being hunted down by the church ya know?"

Blushing, y/n wraps her arms around her chest and elbows her friend. "I know that! It just didn't come up, like he didn't invite me and I'm not going to invite myself."

A whistle blows from the direction of the soccer field, hopefully coach calling the end of practice. Usually she's goes home right after class, but Zoe texted her and asked if they wanted to hang out before the game. Apparently part of "hanging out" is waiting for Niall and Harry to get out of practice, not that she minds. She loves hanging out with Zoe, and she loves the warmth that bubbles in her veins when she thinks of Harry now.

"I mean, that'll probably be the spot for you two now, right? It's not like you can be all relationship-y at your house with his sister around." Zoe makes a face at the mention of Jess, greatly disliking the girl after seeing how careless she is with her friends. She's probably heard some stories from Harry as well.

Y/n shrugs. She hasn't thought about it much, too excited by the fact that Harry actually likes her the way she likes him. They both decided to not tell anyone who could potentially let Jess know, wanting to see how they work as a couple before causing a disaster with Jess. It sucks to think that she can't share this part of her life with her best friend. This is her first boyfriend, her first college relationship, and she should be giggling and complaining about him to Jess like normal friends. But Jess has made it very clear how she'd feel about Harry dating any of her friends, let alone y/n. A part of her is flattered that Jess is so selfish over her, but deep down she knows it's not that way. If Jess loved her so much, why is she always dropped for Tina?

"No one at the house would do anything to fuck this up for you, ya know?" Zoe bumps their shoulders together, offering her a reassuring smile. "The boys all love Harry so much, and the fact that you're like the first girl he's ever been interested in is a huge deal. They wouldn't chase you away or spread rumors. You're safe there."

Y/n leans closer to her friend, conveying her gratefulness for Zoe through the simple action. "All the guys there are nice, it's just weird still. Like I've never actually dated someone so to have my first relationship around that many people is kinda scary."

A soft chatter comes from the soccer field, and then a couple players are passing them to head towards the dorms. Y/n notices them wincing as they walk and frowns, knowing Harry's going to be just as sore from conditioning too. "Maybe it's a good thing, ya know? Going out of your comfort zone a bit. Could make your relationship even stronger in the long run."

Silence takes over, Zoe turning towards the field at the sound of more footsteps undoubtedly hoping it's Niall and Harry, while y/n tries not to well up with tears. She's going to have thank Harry for introducing her to a real friend. A friend that doesn't only talk about their problems, or try to control her.

Zoe pulls y/n up from the bench, tugging her towards the incoming group of soccer boys, and she notices Harry and Niall trailing behind them. They pass the group, that's all walking with similar limps, and Zoe launches herself at Niall as if they'd been apart for decades. Niall winces, stumbling on his tired legs but squeezes his girlfriend back.

"Why hello peanut," Harry greets, flushed cheeks sinking into two dimples, "what are you doing out here? Surrounded by all these boys?"

She blushes -for reasons unknown to her-and gently steps into his chest. "Waiting for you to walk me home, of course."

Harry slinks his arms around her, pressing a quick and chaste kiss to her mouth. Her blush deepens. "Yeah? Need your knight in shining armor to keep you safe from the harassment of smelly soccer bastards?"

"You do know that you're the 'smelly soccer bastard' that has been harassing me, right?"

Niall and Zoe both snicker making her grin proudly. Harry's smirk never falters, if anything it widens, and he gently butts his forehead against hers.

"Don't you forget it."

Eleanor sputters out water as Asteria finishes her story of the time Zayn let her pierce his ear, and Zoe and y/n burst into stronger giggles. Eleanor frantically grabs for a paper towel, face going red as she dabs at the drink spilt down her chin.

"Did Harry bring his stupid fr-oh."

Jess pauses in the entryway of the kitchen, lips pursing as she takes in the four girls sat around the island sharing a bag of Doritos. After meeting up with the boys, y/n and Zoe decided to get ready for the football game together at her place, inviting Asteria and Eleanor along too. They've all been invited to the party after, courtesy of their boyfriends-the word still makes y/n squeal-and figured they'd might as well hang out for a bit while the boys get washed up from practice.

"Harry's not here." Y/n says awkwardly, nervous under Jess' observing glare. Luckily, the other three girls aren't intimidated, heads high as they glare back.

"Okay," Jess looks at y/n, hands on her hips. "are you going to the game?"

She nods, noticing that Jess is dressed more for a day of shopping rather than a football game. She's wearing pristine white jeans with heels, a lacy top tucked into her bottoms, and her hair perfectly straight. "A-are you?"

"Yes, but I'm sitting with the girls so you should probably sit with them." Jess waves her hands at the girls behind y/n.

"She was planning on it honey." Asteria scoffs, making Eleanor and Zoe both giggle. Y/n is able to hold in her laugh, but she still smiles. Real friends. They're nice.

"Then I guess I'll see you tonight." Jess huffs, turning on her heel and clacking all the way to the front door. They wait for the sound of it closing to bust into giggles again. Zoe hunches over, clutching her stomach as she laughs and she knocks her knee into the counter. Her high pitched yelp makes them all laugh more, and y/n realizes this is the first time she's ever had one of those laughs with friends where you're really laughing just because they are. They're so distracted by giggles that they don't hear the front door open, nor the sound of four boys moving into the kitchen. Until Eleanor shoves herself off the counter, tripping on Asteria's stool.

"Louis!" She laughs again, falling in a heap at his feet. The girls manage to calm their hysterical laughs, y/n's side aching from the exertion.

"What's got you lot so worked up?" Louis chuckles, helping his girlfriend to her feet. She giggles, no shame present as she shares a kiss with him.

"We're just really fucking funny." Asteria smirks, flipping her black hair off her shoulder. Zayn slinks an arm over her shoulder, their hands linking together by her chest. Y/n hasn't officially met Zayn, but he seems nice for always being the quiet one of the frat house.

"We want to laugh." Harry whines with a pout, draping himself over her back. She's forced to hunch over under his weight, holding them both up with her elbows on the countertop.

"Well you missed it." Zoe teases, poking her tongue out at Harry. Y/n giggles at the wounded noise that leaves him, and he lifts himself off of her.

"Maybe next time you'll be here in time to see us embarrass your bitchy sister again." Asteria giggles, leaning further back into Zayn's chest. He smirks proudly at her, pressing his lips to the side of her head. Y/n thinks it's sweet how a boy as frightening as him can treat his girl so softly.

Harry's hands slip around y/n's stomach, leaning over her shoulder with a furrow between his eyebrows. "Was she giving you a hard time?" His warm breath tickles her ear, making her shy away with a giggle.

"Nothing she hasn't done before."

Harry's frown deepens at that. He knows that Jess has always taken y/n for granted. She could have the prettiest, smartest, funniest, most amazing girl as her best friend. Instead she chooses to make sure y/n is kept in her shell, always around to cater to Jess. He had never wanted to step in between them, hoping y/n would see for herself but after that day she was crying over book group, he couldn't take it.

"Doesn't make it right." Zoe reminds her, reaching past Harry's face to pat her cheek lovingly.

"I know," y/n assures, trying not to smile to widely. "that's why I've made better friends." By the way the other three girls smile, they know she means them. Harry thinks he could melt right then and there, seeing her laugh and smile and be rambunctious. She's turning into the person he always knew she could be, and all it took was one soccer game.

Glad that they're in the safety of their friends, he grips her chin and tilts her head unit he captures her lips in a kiss. He can't believe he survived so long without knowing what it felt like to have his mouth on hers. He swears he'll never forget it.

Y/n is drunk. Really drunk. And so is Harry, judging by the way they're practically carrying each other around the backyard. Harry finally convinced her to play a game of beer pong, and it turns out she's got pretty good aim. They won and decided to celebrate with a shot of tequila each because Harry swears it's his favorite drink.

They somehow get pulled into another game, this time against Zoe and Niall. Music blares from the speakers in the living room, flowing out into the backyard where groups have gathered to dance and drink. The beer pong table is set up in the far corner, hidden in a place y/n thought would be safe from Jess, Tina, and the little minions. She doesn't want to see her friend, doesn't want to be reminded that it feels like her high school years were wasted with such a bland friend. But apparently she's a magnet for the Styles DNA because Jess somehow struts out in the backyard just in time to see y/n and Harry win their second game of beer pong.

The group that has gathered around them cheers and hollers, the loudest being Louis and Eleanor, and Harry immediately tackles y/n into a hug. He lifts her up, the both of them giggling stupidly as he jumps in a group with his friends. Y/n wiggles out of his arms, stumbling into his side just as someone passes Harry a congratulatory drink. The cup gets bumped, it's contents spilling down her and Harry's shirt.

"I'm sorry Harry!" She gasps, pulling the wet fabric off his chest and squeezing the liquid out of it. Harry shivers but giggles, swatting her hand away.

"S'okay Peanut, m'fine." He promises, backing her away from the group with two hands on her waist. The party continues to move around them, y/n feeling dopey at his glossy eyes and flushed cheeks. "You're more messy than me. Gotta get you-"

"Y/n what are you doing?"

Harry's head snaps up at the sound of Jess' voice, y/n whirling around in his hold. Jess and her new friends have all moved to the porch, gathered around the fire pit. She notices they're all dressed similar, and they're sharing a bottle of champagne. Where did they get champagne from at a frat party?

"Hiya Jess!" Y/n giggles, Harry's warm hands tickling her sides now that her brain has actually registered their presence. Jess looks her up and down, eyes narrowing at the spill on her maroon shirt.

"Are you seriously drunk again?"

Harry jumps in before y/n can. "Are you seriously drinking champagne out of flutes? Where the fuck did ya get those?"

Jess shoots Harry an annoyed glare, but ignores his slurred comment. She takes a small step away from Tina, nose scrunching in disgust when she smells the alcohol on y/n. "Beer pong? You're not some raging frat guy y/n."

Y/n huffs, heart still registering her friend's harsh words despite how foggy her brain feels. "Who are you to tell me what I am? You meet Tina and now you're a fucking Popsicle."

Harry snorts from behind her, swaying on his feet and pushing her a step closer to Jess. The younger sibling rolls her eyes, blowing off y/n's insult. "And you're an embarrassment! You're a mess and you're acting stupid! This is why I can never take you anywhere or let you meet anyone worth a damn!"

Y/n stumbles back, feeling as if she's just been slapped. An embarrassment? Is that what Jess thinks she is? Who's the one wearing white jeans to a party? Who's carrying around a flute of champagne when this is clearly a cheap booze kind of place? Who's the one acting like a wannabe rich housewife? If anyone's the embarrassment it's Jess! But y/n can't say that. Because that's still her best friend. The girl she's shared so many years and so many memories with. The girl that kept her company through school and let her borrow her earrings. The girl that's always been like a sister to her.

"Jess that's enough!" Harry snaps, suddenly sounding more sober than he's been since they got back from the game. Jess opens her mouth, ready to sass Harry back but he's pushing y/n up the porch steps and shoving his sister out of the way. "I don't care how entitled you think you are, I won't let you be a bitch to y/n any longer."

Harry's always been good at pissing Jess off, but he's never spoken to her so harshly that she's been stunned into silence. Y/n feels dizzy as Harry leads through the house and up the staircase. An embarrassment? She didn't even do anything? She was just having fun? Why would Jess ever say that?

The second level of the house is a lot quieter than downstairs, the main noise being the muffled party sounds from below. Harry guides her down the hall. Throughout her friendship with Jess, y/n has always been the other. It's always Jess and y/n, not y/n and Jess. And she was fine with that because she had Jess. Yeah she could be a little mean sometimes, always bossing y/n around but it was good. They balanced each other out. But now...now she's just mean. It's like she doesn't even care about y/n.

"Aww peanut," Harry huffs, kicking his bedroom door shut behind him and locking it. After stumbling into his room after his first party to find a couple going at it on his desk, he always locks the door. "please don't cry."

Y/n sniffles, not even realizing she was crying until Harry said it. His words are like a nail in a cracked dam, y/n breaking into sobs and burrowing into his shoulder in embarrassment. Harry tightens his hold on her, not carrying that they're both covered in beer.

"I didn't mean to be embarrassing." She whimpers, crying even more when Harry shushes her. He strokes his fingers through her hair.

"You're not embarrassing peanut." He says firmly. "You're cute and you're funny and I was having so much fun with ya."

"I was having fun too!"

"I know, I know," he assures, pressing a tender kiss against her hairline. He lets her cry herself out, holding her tightly until she's nothing but puffy eyes and hiccups. "Lets get you clean clothes, hm?"

Y/n nods, peeling away from Harry's chest. She moves to sit on the bed but he stops her with two hands on her cheeks, thumbs swiping under her eyes. Her heart thumps loudly with the way he's looking at her, eyes gleaming with something she can't identify. It's like he's staring into her soul, everything she is, and not minding one bit of what he sees. Tears well up in her eyes again, this time for an entirely different reason.

"Even crying you're so beautiful." Harry whispers, lips quirking up when he sees a blush rise on her cheekbones. With a peck between her eyebrows, he nudges her to sit down and starts digging through his dresser.

Headache budding behind her eyes and body suddenly exhausted, y/n peels off her shoes as Harry gathers a shirt and sweatpants for her. "Can go change in there peanut." He coos, nodding towards the attached bathroom. She takes the clothes from him, closing the door. By the time she's changed and washed her face, Harry's changed into a pair of athletic shorts and a new shirt as well.

Her shirt gets tossed in Harry's wicker hamper, her jeans folded and placed on top of the stack of books on his desk. "Wanna stay the night?" Harry mumbles shyly, setting up Disney+ on his laptop. Y/n nods, a smile taking over her face as she knees her way into his unmade bed. Harry doesn't comment as he watches her arrange the pillows and straighten the blankets, but he does smile like a fool.

The intro of Lady and the Tramp starts playing, Harry shutting off his light as he slips into bed next to her. Y/n gladly snuggles into his side, head resting on his ribs as he runs his fingers up and down her spine. Not even five minutes in does she feel her eyes starting to droop, lazily looking around the room. She freezes when she spots a familiar poster hung up on the wall, the glitter on his name glinting in the moonlight coming from the window.

"You hung my poster up." Y/n mumbles sleepily, chest flooding with warmth. Harry doesn't skip a beat.

"Of course I did. My favorite person made it for me."

Now it's her smiling like a fool, finally letting her eyes slip shut. Half way to unconsciousness, she decides that she never wants to speak to Jess again.

#in the shadows #harry styles #fanfic #fanfiction #fluff #one direction #harry styles au #frat boy harry styles #soccer harry #best friend's brother #forbidden love #college harry

156 notes · View notes

radramblog · 3 years

Text

Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Commanders

Due to circumstances I won’t get into at time of writing (don’t worry it’s mostly good) I’ve been forced, dragged over, and required to actually fucking read all the new Commanders from Magic’s newest set, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. I’ve only recently gotten deeper into D&D, I don’t know who like any of these clowns are (except Tiamat, obviously).

Also due to circmstances beyond my control (that are less good but understandable) my Commander night has been called off and I don’t get to play with my shiny new Cabal Coffers. It’s a bit sad, and it means I want to get my fix elsewhere.

What better way than to combine these two and just write about every AFR ‘mander? That’ll pass the time. There’s like, what, 30? I can manage that if I’m quick. Let’s get into it.

(No I’m not doing the precon cards I haven’t been staring at those all week)

Acererak the Archlich

The way I see this guy going is one of two things. You either do infinite Venture by making him free (not too hard in Black, what with Heartless Summoning, Carnival of Souls, etc.) and have a probably fine combo commander. For the record, infinite Venture does kill your opponents flat-out, BUT only because of Lost Mine of Phandelver’s Dark Pool room, and only if their life totals are lower than your deck count because you’re going to be drawing it in the process. That shouldn’t be an issue, but you never know.

The other option is just playing him fairly, which requires completing Tomb of Annihilation, and you just have a kinda mid Stax commander I guess? Eh.

Asmodeus the Archfiend

This Devil is clearly trying to echo prior Demons like Griselbrand and Vilis, but I’m not sure it’s going to be successful- if only because the mana investment means it’s a lot slower. And if he gets killed when you don’t have B up? Blown the fuck out. Add in no evasion and this is a God I’m happy to pass on.

Barrowin of Clan Undurr

Okay so this is kind of like Alesha, in less colours and more mana, if you manage to complete a dungeon. And there aren’t that many dungeon cards, so you’re probably playing some bad ones to make up for it. This is definitely a 99’er in that Esper Dungeon precon, and certainly not a commander.

Bruenor Battlehammer

In an attempt to solve one of Boros’s problems, Bruenor saves you a bunch of mana on equips and makes shit like Argentum Armor substantially more playable. He also gets kinda fuckin beefy with even just a few on him, hitting that 7 no matter what the first one is and 11 not long after. As far as Boros Boys go, you can do a lot worse!

Delina, Wild Mage

Didn’t we just get this card? Like, in C21? This is harder to make busted than Rionya, but it is cheaper and works with legends, so fair call. There’s not enough “advantage” dice mechanics in Red, certainly, so you can’t go probability-mad with this, but it’s pretty decent value. It also happens to be a Shaman, so it works with that new MH2 card, and that’s fun.

Drizzt Do’Urden

This guy has a lot of potential, and for added bonus, he has a cat! A lot of the cards that are good in this are the ones that are good in, say, Varolz, but honestly if you just want to play Selesnya Beatsticks then Drizzt might be the way to go. Can’t play him in Cats, though, unless you want to lose Kaheera, so.

Ebondeath, Dracolich

Yeah I don’t think this one was for this format? I mean it’s super recursive, and probably a really good candidate for a Homicidal Seclusion/Deadly Wanderings deck. I think we need one or two more of that effect to make it actually playable, but I still like the idea.

Wait why isn’t this fucker a skeleton? WoTC Pls.

Farideh, Devil’s Chosen

Look, I tried. I really tried, but there really just isn’t enough to make Farideh work yet. At least in black-border, as I think she’s probably one of the best silver-bordered commanders printed in a minute. A shame, because I sure do enjoy Tieflings, and the effect is legitimately solid if you can trigger it consistently.

Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar

While I imagine it’s a perfectly solid commander in their own right, basically Mono-Blue Edric but not group-huggy, where this is going to really shine is in Ninja decks. Holy shit, this is so nutty for those. Honestly, ETB decks in general are going to like them, because the choice of either taking damage and letting them draw or letting them reuse a powerful ETB is pretty tough. I like everything about this, except the art, because I’m not into tentacles no thank you.

Gretchen Titchwillow

When Strixhaven came out, I thought Zimone was going to be the most boring Simic commander we’d ever see. But here comes Gretchen to outdo them.

Look, Simic can do good designs. Even at uncommon- Imoti, Moritte, and Eutropia are all super interesting in my opinion. But Simic being just draw and lands has become a meme, and I’m sick of it. Extremely so, for three main reasons- one, it’s boring, two, it’s been all over the place since WoTC decided +1/+1 counters being their only theme was bad (and, fair,) and three, it’s good.

Gretchen is the most boring card in the entire set, in my opinion, and I sure hope she isn’t a cool character in the lore because that’d be such a waste.

Hama Pashar, Ruin Seeker

There are 21 venture cards in Azorius, and some of them are even good. Most of the Room effects are pretty minor, however, save for some of the endgame ones (and copying Cradle of the Death God is pointless, Atropal is legendary), so copying them isn’t actually a huge amount of value. I’d still play this in Esper Venture, but I don’t think I’d build around it.

Icingdeath, Frost Tyrant

While this clearly isn’t built for this format, equipping this dragon with it’s own tongue is kind of a hilarious idea. You could do worse for Voltron decks, I guess, and in the 99 it’s both a thing to slap equipment on and an equipment itself- like a flying (and weaker) Halvar. Eh? I just wish the token wasn’t legendary- like yeah Flavour but this effect gets a lot worse when you can’t recur it. It’s rare that someone goes out of their way to kill an equipment that isn’t super busted, so Frost Tongue is probably hanging around for a while anyway.

Man, it feels awful if they bolt this one, huh?

Inferno of the Star Mounts

Okay this is fucking cool. It’s a Shivan Dragon with haste, and that ability is probably pretty feasible to activate- keep in mind Braid of Fire and Neheb and the like are in the format- and combined with a swing will just kill someone. In fact, when I saw this, my brain immediately started looking for ways to shrink it, just so you can get multiple 20-damage wallops in a turn.

…there aren’t very many. But still! Even if you can’t get to 20 multiple times in a turn, getting to 21 once or twice is pretty good!

Iymrith, Desert Doom

The fourth of our dragon cycle, because hey, it is Dungeons and Dragons. Iymrith reads basically identical to Dragonlord Ojutai, but without White- and for that kinda control deck, White is pretty nice to have. Iymrith can draw you more cards than Ojutai, but only if you’re low, in a blue deck, in Commander, so. With that said, a deck that just loads this with cheap auras/equipment might actually be pretty good, since they can load you back up on cards and keep the Voltron flowing, so, maybe? I’d honestly consider it if I didn’t already have Mono-blue Voltron as a deck.

Kalain, Reclusive Painter

Okay this is super interesting. He is, unfortunately kinda fighting with the RB precon face, Prosper, for the new RB treasure deck, but for an uncommon there’s a fair bit going on here.

Actually, wait, is there? I thought about this for another couple seconds, and I don’t think this card actually does that much. It’s one treasure, and it benefits you a little bit for doing something you frankly don’t really want to be burning treasures on? Like it probably plays a mean Marionette Master, but everyone does that.

There really aren’t any other RB Artifact commanders, though, aside from Prosper or a partner deck. So ehhhh? Why are more people playing this than, like, Bruenor?

Krydle of Baldur’s Gate

That’s a lot of words that don’t actually do a whole lot. I like the second ability, but Commander and especially Dimir aren’t hurting for evasion options. This is probably pretty good in Rogues, but that deck has a de facto best commander now, so. If this came out like, five years ago, it’d be kinda hype, but not anymore.

As an aside, I do kinda hate it when they just print a Tribal commander (or anything like this) that’s just miles and miles better than every other commander for that archetype, like with Anowon 2 or Edgar Markov or Anje Falkenrath. Wait….those are all vampires…….

Minsc, Beloved Ranger

Shivam Bhatt did a fucking excellent breakdown of this character’s lore on twitter, which I recommend reading- the history of D&D’s lore is fucking wild. As it is, this seems like a pretty fun Naya commander- there’s plenty of creatures that get way better if you make them large, even if targeting Boo seems kinda pointless.

Also, I need someone to explain to me why the “Top Cards” on EDHREC for this guy right now are, like, all combo cards.

WAIT NO FIGURED IT OUT, unlike Marath he doesn’t say X can’t be 0 so you can use him as a sac outlet, for fucks sake people.

Nadaar, Selfless Paladin

Hey remember all the things I said about the WB and WU dungeon cards? I mean, at least this guy could theoretically complete the dungeon on his own, but Mono-White is even more restrictive for what you could get, so. At least he draws a card every so often. And that anthem isn’t even remotely worth it, at all.

Old Gnawbone

Green eating up more of the colour pie, I see. Now to be fair, I’ve pondered Mono-Green artifacts for a while, and this is probably a better leader for that list than Oviya Pashiri (but…I like her….), but beyond that I’m not sure what you’re doing with this. I guess people playing Sakiko because they think she’s actually good and not because they like her have a new commander.

This is fuckbusted in the 99 of like a million decks though. So there’s that.

Orcus, Prince of Undeath

That…is so much mana. In a colour combo not especially great at garnering lots of it. The second ability scales fairly well, and it is a decent body on its own, but I don’t think this is going to be a particularly popular commander. Like, you have to pump 6 mana into this just to get a 2-drop back or to Infest the board? And that’s just the first time you cast it? Nahhhhh.

Oswald Fiddlebender

Artifact Pod? Yeah, okay, sure, that seems reasonable at two mana. Keeping this mono-white was a good idea, I can’t imagine how insane this’d be in blue. I’m no artifacts expert, I’m no pod expert, but this has to be busted, right? Like surely there’s an easy way to infinite this? Someone with more brains figure it out for me, but either way it’s still a bunch of value and also a tutor in the zone.

(convert two random 2-mana rocks or wellsprings into Basalt Monolith/Rings of Brighthearth, okay that’s a good start)

Shessra, Death’s Whisper

…ehhhhhhh. Okay, so, it’s a significantly worse Deathreap ritual in the command zone, and also a terrible Lure effect. Along with the flavour words on this taking up much more space than necessary, making the effects look much bigger and better than they are. Would it have hurt to give this deathtouch? Make it trigger on every end step? Lure more than once? I dunno, this just seems painfully weak to me. We’ve had an overabundance of Golgari commanders recently, to be fair- MH2 had 3, and before that was the enemy focused Strixhaven/C21, but that’s no excuse for this to be such trash- just look at Bruenor.

Targ Nar, Demon-Fang Gnoll

I hope you like Gnolls, because that’s gotta be the only reason you’re playing this. Hello Tuya Bearclaw/Syr Faren/im sure a bunch of other boring commanders, this is another one of you. This looks so bad next to the Gruul precon (which is apparently somehow the first Gruul precon) and, well, every other RG general from the past couple years (save, again, Tuya Bearclaw). Even the fuckin Walking Dead guy is cooler than this.

The Tarrasque

Disappointment part one over here is at time of writing the only commander from this set with a fat zero decks. Considering there were like 10 commanders at that number when I last checked, people are clearly trying out the set, so The Tarrasque being abandoned is particularly sad. It just…doesn’t do anything? It’s the fucking Tarrasque, and it doesn’t have trample, or a fear ability, or anything? Ward 10 is cute, basically being hexproof unless they have infinite mana (or an uncounterable spell), but really? I want more than this idiot for my 9 fucking mana commander. Ugh.

Tiamat

I believe I’ve talked about Tiamat before, when she got spoiled, but I can’t be arsed finding that and dredging it up. I’m still disappointed, basically, especially since I’ve now read her statblock and know what she actually does. They could’ve given her a cool ability per head like Cromat, or had her recur like she does in the lore, or something. I genuinely would have preferred if she was an Emrakul-style massive game-ender (with a no-reanimation no bullshit clause) than this. How utterly meh.

Trelasarra, Moon Dancer

This is literally just Ajani’s Pridemate but Selesnya and in the zone. Also you scry. Sure? It does also have two relevant creature types I guess, and they’d probably be good in a Soul Sisters deck. But it’s not like Selesnya was hurting for Lifegain commanders- this is basically just Lathiel but much leaner and voltron-ier.

Varis, Silverymoon Ranger

Wait you can’t even play this in Esper Venture, fuck. With Flash effects, you can start clearing dungeons well quick enough, but like, for what, a Wolf? And these defensive keywords aren’t getting you anywhere either. Blegh.

Side note- I’m a big fan of tokens, and collecting various token arts, and I was extremely disappointed when I found out that the Wolf token from this set is just…the Zendikar one again? They didn’t reuse the 3/3 Angel or the Goblin or even the Zombie, why just that one? Something must have happened behind the scenes here.

Also….Silverymoon? That sounds like shit.

Volo, Guide to Monsters

Hey, I know you, you’re from that one book. As much as Anti-Tribal sounds fun, I’m pretty sure this just turns into generic Simic value. Copying things is fun, I suppose, though not working with Legends hurts. I also appreciate that this supports playing a bunch of weirdo cards or ones that have fallen out of favor because they have more unique creature types- Anphin Mutineer, Acidic Slime, and Diluvian Primordial all seem like a lot of power here.

That said, is anyone ever letting this fucker stick around for a turn?

Xanathar, Guild Kingpin

Hey, I know you, you’re from that one book. This card is completely awful to play in webcam-commander, so it’s a good thing we’re all getting vaccinated, right?

So this is UB Gonti, I guess? And also unironically not the worst combo commander, since it stops people from playing spells on your turn in a very White-like effect. Add in some Lantern-style effects and you can get a real stew going with this guy. He looks like a lot of fun- and I’m sure he’ll end up popular as a result. Well, that and being on the cover of an expansion book gets you a lot of notoriety.

Zalto, Fire Giant Duke

Our final card, our final Venture card, and the only red one. So, uh, there are literally 4 other Venture cards in mono-red, and at least one of them is complete dogshit, so I can’t imagine this being very good. Also, it’s an Enrage trigger on a 3 toughness 5-drop? Far from ideal. I guess it’s a 7 power trampler for 5, but that’s kind of faint praise to damn with. Maybe if someone makes 5C Venture, or if Giant/Barbarian tribal feel lacking, then this guy can find a home.

Shoutout to the exactly one person who built this deck, by the way. I see you, Elder Demon Highlander, and your 100ish views on your deck tech.

And that’s the lot of them. Honestly, a lot more misses than hits, but that’s perfectly okay by me. 30 legends in a set is a lot, not to mention the 12 from the precons, and we’ve had so many actively playable legends recently that I’m fine with, like, half of these being trash. Trash is more fun anyway! Get yourself a fuckin Varis, why not.

Okay but seriously though who’s biting the bullet and building Tarrasque first? It’s not going to be me.

#ramble #mtg #commander #edh #mtgafr #adventures in the forgotten realms

3 notes · View notes

ilguna · 4 years

Text

Belamour - Chapter Nine (f.o)

summary: they say the odds tend to favor those who need them. well, they were wrong.

warnings; swearing, murder plot

wc; 11.2k

NOTES: i give reader a last name to fit the world.

–

Today marks the eighth day of the Hunger Games, you think. If you’ve been keeping track of it correctly, it’s been a week, and today is the eighth day. You’d like to say that the time has flown, but the days feel like they drag on forever. Especially with how hot it’s been during the day. It feels like you’re living through lifetimes in the span of a couple of days.

You should probably clarify that today is the eighth day of the games for you guys. Time typically moves differently inside of the arena, and it’s because the gamemakers are always trying to make something happen. Whether that be fights, or just plain death, it’s all dependent on the circumstances.

All you know is that your brothers and family friends have watched you survive in here, and come close to death three times now. The first one being Horace, the second being the mutts, and the third being the boy from Twelve. Although, you don’t think he counts much, holding you underwater was his own death wish.

Reed and Mox are probably beginning to gain hope on the situation. If you’ve survived an entire week, and managed to form a schedule of sorts, then you should be on track to go home. All you have to do is not fuck up between now and then. Don’t pick too many fights, drink plenty of water and eat more than enough food.

Keep your allies close but your enemies closer.

This morning was eerie. Allio didn’t say a word, mostly made grunting noises when Lennox suggested that him and Allio go out to try and hunt. It’s been three days since the storm, so the animals should be appearing back in the woods, but there’s no promises. If they come back with nothing, you’re going to be sent out to the pond.

As soon as the boys left, you and Trink had a quick conversation about how weird it was. You suggested the fact that he’s probably still mad at you three for yesterday, and she agreed. As soon as it was over, you and her started going through boxes to find any stray food.

She ended up finding one full of food. The cornucopia is normally plentiful with all sorts of stuff, so you weren’t surprised that she found it so quickly. The next thing to do was gather all the garbage and make a trash can of sorts. Already, you’ve thrown out wrappers and old bones.

It isn’t until you’re throwing out a fish’s skeleton, when you realize that it might be possible to make a soup out of these. Like chicken and beef broth, but instead with bones. Then you seem to remember that you never watched your brothers when they made it. You were always either out of the house or doing something in your room.

And the others don’t mind the fish--you could care less about eating it every night--but if you continue to make them eat it, or anything that has to do with it, they’re going to riot. It wouldn’t hurt to at least propose it, so you make note and toss the skeleton into the box.

“Hey, you know what I just thought of?” Trink is sitting in the sand, passing over trash when she finds it.

“What?” you ask, grabbing another handful and throwing it into the box. It looks like that’s the last of it.

You shut the lid on the box, and leave it unlocked, hoping that’ll be a good enough signal to you later that it’s the trash box. If not, the placement of where it is should be good enough for your memory.

“Snares.” she says, “We make snares and set them up in the woods, just so we don’t have to be out there hunting the entire time.”

You nod distantly, thinking it over. It’s not a bad idea. You could catch things overnight and go to grab the animals in the morning, and just reset it, you think. You’ve never had to do something like that before, so it’s more or less a toss up.

“Do you know how to make one?” you ask.

She’s shaking her head, face turning a light shade of red, “No, I was hoping you’d know.”

And your eyebrows are drawing in, “Why?”

“You and Finnick were at the snare station during the training days, remember?”

For a moment, you’re about to deny it all, not being able to recall a single moment like that. It hits you, after that. Sitting at the snare section with the incredibly impressed expert, and how you taught Finnick knots when he asked. It really does feel like years ago, when it was literally two weeks ago.

And the more it comes back to you, the more you seem to realize that you never actually learned any snares. You were more focused on trying to figure out new ways to tie knots, hoping that whatever the expert tried to teach you, you already knew and it would come back to you in that moment.

You fucked up, majorly. You spent an hour or so at that station without spending a single second of actually learning how to tie a snare. A skill that would now help to keep you all from starving. You grit your teeth, because who’s the one person that spent more time at that station after his first alliance was gone? Finnick.

You look over at Trink, shaking your head before the words form on your tongue. She seems to understand, maybe thinking that you don’t remember. Or maybe the change of expression told her that you don’t know how to tie snares at all.

“It’s no big deal.” she says, “I’m looking forward to fish for dinner, anyway. Even if it’s not the greatest, we can rely on it, hopefully.”

“Yeah.” you agree.

It’s only a few minutes later when the boys come back, absolutely nothing in their hands. Lennox tries to offer an apology, but you figured that this would happen. The gamemakers are keeping the animals from supplying the woods, what’s new? After all the shit they’ve thrown your way recently, it’s only customary.

You pack up your things, collect the empty water bottles, and leave for the pond. On the way, you hum a fisherman’s tune and try to recall the actual words to it. There’s a ton of variations to them, and you remember bits and pieces from the original and all the remakes. By the time you reach the pond, you’ve made a frankenstein version of the song.

You grab the fishing pole and then unpack your things, laying it all out. First, you get the water and purify it. You line the canteens up to make sure that they aren’t taking up a huge amount of room inside of the backpack. After that, you dig through the dirt to find a worm, making the situation beneath your nails worse.

At this point, you’re sure that it’s just stained that dark brown color. There’s really no other way to explain it. There’s a baby blue on the top, and a dark brown beneath the bottom. Picking at it has done nothing but aggravate you. So, you sit in tired silence and wait for the fish to bite.

You can imagine that your brothers are picking out everything that you’re doing wrong. Cringing when you choose to do one thing over the other, they’ve probably already found out ways to make your fishing pole better, and are just waiting for you to realize it too. You’ve already considered crackers and stuff like that, but it’ll eventually break off in the water, and you’ll just waste the food.

You wish that you were able to hear them and what they have to say. Beg them for advice on what to do. Allio is just becoming a bigger problem, the more that time goes on. The food is becoming more scarce, it’s hot here during the day and last night the weather plunged terribly, enough to make you grab out a second jacket from a box.

All you want is to survive, and it keeps getting harder the more that the days go on. You wish that the gamemakers weren’t allowed to interfere, and just had to watch from the sidelines. Of course, the games wouldn’t be nearly as interesting but manipulating the weather is unfair.

You pull out the first fish, and go right back in for a second. This one seems to bite only minutes later, faster than the first. You go to place the second fish down, only to find that the first is missing, with no sight of it around you. Your eyes barely manage to catch a quick movement in the bushes, and the knife is in and out of your hand in a flash.

“Shit!” a voice hisses, you jump to your feet, fingers fumbling for the sword to catch the thief before they have a chance to run.

You have the sword raised, prepared for the other tribute to jump at you. And you just barely peer around the bushes, about to swing and end it. But you catch yourself mid-air once you see who it is. His dark, curly hair is so familiar and it catches you off guard almost immediately.

He’s got a knife clutched in his hands, eyes wide and staring up at you. There actually seems to be some wince on his face, like he was fully prepared to accept his fate with the sword. Leave it to him not to even think of defending himself.

“Blaire?” you ask, eyebrows drawing together as you survey the area around him.

You’re looking for Finnick and Thyme, they have to be around here somewhere, right? They’re supposed to be grouped up together, so it would only make sense for them to be traveling together. Then again, you’re with the careers and you came down here by yourself. On the other hand, you wanted it that way.

You find no one around him. Maybe Blaire volunteered to go alone, like you? But that doesn’t make sense, Finnick typically travels with other people, no matter the weather or what they wish. You remember all the times in the rain, and how he’d walk his friends, girls and guys, home after school. Especially the ones that were looking upset.

One more look at Blaire, and you can see that his cheeks have sunken in, no longer as chubby as they were during the week in the Capitol. He’s been starving, and traveling down to look at his hands, it makes sense why he was stealing the fish. He’s hungry.

“Where’s Finnick?” you ask, looking back at him.

A fish in one hand, and a knife in the other. The longer you stare at the knife, the more you recognize it. Again, you’re looking at his face, and the guilty expression seems to set in. There’s only one knife that looks like it, and it’s the exact design of the one that had been stolen out of your backpack.

Good news, you found the thief that took the entirety of the feast from your backpack in the shack. It explains the disappearance of the food and the knife. Bad news, you accused Allio when it had nothing to do with him, which means that there is undoubtedly a bounty placed on your head, and he’s probably explaining it to them right now. It still doesn’t explain the grapes.

A part of you is angry, because Blaire has caused this riff in the alliance whether he knows it or not. And it’ll be nearly impossible to repair without explaining to them how you know that it wasn’t Allio. It would give up Blaire’s position, and how you didn’t kill him on sight. Even worse if he doesn’t shut up in the sky.

On the other hand, you’re fairly impressed. He managed to get passed four sleeping career tributes, steal the food and leave without making a single sound. The timing and execution is amazing, and you know for a fact that you wouldn’t be able to pull off something like that.

Unfortunately, his luck has run out.

Blaire’s shaking his head, the wince from his face fading as you lower your sword. For now, you have absolutely no intention of killing him. He’s too kind, and you know that the stealing was for his own survival. Even if you’re in the Hunger Games, you can appreciate it.

“I don’t know.” he says, you offer your hand out to him, but since his hands are full, he can’t grab it. Your arm falls back to your side.

“What do you mean you don’t know? You haven’t seen him at all? You’re supposed to be with Finnick and Thyme. Don’t you have an idea of where they are?”

He gets to his feet, you can see the damage you did to his leg, now. It’s a nick, enough to surprise him and make him think that you did some serious damage. You find your little knife a few feet away. You pick it up, and await his answer.

“I haven’t seen them at all since the first day. We all split up, I didn’t even know that Verda was going to the cornucopia.” Blaire frowns, “She died in the bloodbath, right?”

You nod quietly, bringing him over to where you had been sitting before by the pond. You throw the hook back into the water, “Yeah, it was a quick death, though. I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t any of us that had done it. Definitely wasn’t me.”

“You’re still with the careers?”

“Yeah.” you look over to him, “What have you been doing this whole time? Other than stealing from us.”

His face flushes, and he opens his mouth and then closes it. He shakes his head, eyes closed and then he looks down to the dirt, “I was hungry.”

“You left nothing.”

“Can you blame me? You guys looked well off, I didn’t see a harm in it at all. And I didn’t leave nothing, I left the crackers and figured that would be good enough. That and the water.” Blaire’s still got a grip on the fish, you have a feeling that you won’t be getting it back.

You pull up another fish, place it on the plastic, and then go right back in again, “We’ve been sharing food. One measly rabbit for four people, it’s not exactly the best. Doesn’t sit right with them.”

He hums, “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. Take the fish, and a thing of water.” you reach into the bag, pulling out the water bottle you’d used, it’s full of water, “Should be clean.”

“Thank you.”

“Yeah. Clean out the cut on your thigh to keep it from being infected.”

You can’t believe that Blaire doesn’t know where they are. So much for a second-hand alliance, none of them are together. Verda’s dead, Blaire is wandering the woods alone, starving. And who knows what’s happened to Finnick and Thyme? It could very well be Blaire’s situation but better or worse, depending on where they are.

You’re so guilty. This isn’t directly your fault, because Finnick had his own alliance so he should have been able to find all of them just fine. But had you… you’re the older tribute, you were supposed to be watching over him. Yet, he’s off somewhere, maybe alone, maybe starving and dehydrated.

Finnick might have broken the agreement on the alliance with the careers, but he’s your friend. Finnick and you have known each other for years. Had you just spent time changing his mind and reassuring him, he might be with you now. You were just so mad that he had turned his back on something so great.

There’s no way of knowing now, if you two could have survived out here. Knowing him, he would’ve wanted to stay away from the cornucopia entirely. Which just means going into the woods with absolutely nothing and banking on sponsors. You know how to do things like start fires, and hunt without all the good stuff, but it just helps.

Then again, you did warn Finnick. You told him that going about this alone or without the careers would be harder. There’s not as many people watching your back. And of course, at some point they’re going to be unreliable and dangerous. But you’ve survived this far, and you’ve only just come across problems.

As far as you know, the games are halfway over. There’s eleven dead, and it’s been a steady flow. In eight more days, the games could be over and you could be going home.

Blaire dips his hand into the water, pulling out a handful of water as he dumps it onto his thigh. His face twists, a hiss coming from his lips. You feel sorry for him, it has to hurt and it’s going to hinder his walking. But it’s what he gets. It’s justice, in your mind.

Doesn’t mean you can’t help him out somewhat. You and Blaire might not have talked to each other for long, but you don’t feel uncomfortable around him. And he seems to be pretty relaxed, too. You wonder if he sees you as a friend directly, or a friend of a friend.

Sticking the fishing pole between your calf and your thigh, you dig through the backpack for the first-aid. You pull it out, and toss it to him, hoping that he knows what he’s doing, and won’t have to ask you for advice. For a moment, you can see him staring out of your peripheral, and then he takes it.

“I really am sorry, (Y/n).”

“It’s fine.” you mutter.

Blaire doesn’t say anything else for a while. He washes out the blood, waits for his calf to dry, and then places a bandage on top of it. When he’s done, he carefully shuts the first aid and holds it out for you. You take it, tuck it back into its spot, and pull up the next fish that comes around.

Three should be good enough. You wrap it all up in the plastic once the newest one is done squirming, and then place the package into the backpack, right next to the water.

Blaire’s watching you closely again. Once you’ve zipped up the bag, you look at him, “Good luck.”

“Won’t you be down here tomorrow?”

“Not if we get something from the woods.”

Blaire looks down to the fish in his hands, “It’s been quiet.”

“We know.” you get up, placing the knife back into its spot on your belt, and then the sword. You throw the fishing pole into the bushes and then turn to look at Blaire, “If I have time, I’ll leave something for you.”

“Thank you.”

“Find a place to stay, Blaire.” you tell him, starting your way back to the cornucopia.

The walk is quiet, Blaire doesn’t follow. You manage to get back before sundown, and your allies have already got a fire started. You all get rid of the scales on the fish, then Lennox gets to cooking.

Allio still says nothing, not even when he’s offered food or if you guys ask if he wants more. Eventually, he gets up without a word and goes to take a walk, leaving just the three of you in the cornucopia. A part of you wants to tell them that you saw Blaire down at the pond, but figure that won’t go over well.

You obviously didn’t kill him, and explaining what happened with the food won’t be the best, either. Even if they were to get on your side, you’re sure that suspicions would start to rise. Unless you lied and said that you tried to kill Blaire and he got away. It would explain why he didn’t die immediately but then it would be a waiting game, and wishing death on him.

And coming clean to Allio, he’ll probably find a way to spin it on you. The two of you have made your distaste for each other clear, and Trink is the same way. The only semi-neutral person in this group anymore is Lennox. And you’re sure that’ll only be a matter of time before he’s turned again Allio, especially with the attitude that he has.

Allio has just come back from the woods, a dead rabbit in his hands and a victorious look on his face, when a cannon blasts. The look almost disappears, changing to confusion. But then he hands off the rabbit to Lennox, and takes a seat in his regular spot.

“Nice catch.” Trink murmurs, but it’s clear you’re all still puzzled about the cannon.

It could be anyone except you guys. Blaire, Finnick, Thyme, you think Mac is still alive and both the tributes from Eight. There’s one more, you’re sure of it, but can’t seem to think of who it is. Six tributes, the possibilities are endless.

Allio opens his mouth, another cannon cuts him off. Two tributes. Two tributes are dead.

You press your lips together. Could be Blaire, could be Finnick and Thyme. Could be Mac and Blaire, or both of the Eight tributes if they were caught off guard. Endless, really. Until you get to see the sky and their faces tonight.

You hope you didn’t call their deaths, Blaire and Finnick. You have the worst type of luck with things like that, pointing out how they could happen and then it happening. It knocks two players out of the game, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t matter.

“Two.” Allio says, as if you all don’t know.

Trink’s pulling her hair out of her face, “Probably a fight between three people.”

You nod along, and Lennox shrugs, “Mutual kill?”

“Isn’t that rare?” Trink asks, “Like I’ve never seen that ever.”

“Probably, I thought that there was one year when it happened, though.” Lennox begins to scoop up the scraps to throw into the trash box, but you’re flying across the small space to stop him, “What?”

“I can use this as bait.” your eyes scan the surrounding area, trying to find something to put it in. The spare canteen bottles come to mind.

After finding one, you pack as much as you can inside, and tuck the can somewhere cold. It’s not going to stay good for long, which means that you’ll have to use as much as possible, and then empty it out to start over. For now, it’ll have to work.

It’s agreed between you guys that it should be an early night. You wait for the death recap in the sky with them, finger crossed for whatever reason. You don’t want it to be anyone you know, but on the other hand, it would be easier. You wouldn’t have to kill them later on, if someone did all the work for you.

The music starts, the blue emblem of the Capitol appearing in the sky. You watch and wait patiently, heart beginning to beat in your chest. It isn’t that big of a deal, you take deep breaths to calm yourself down.

The first face in the sky is the girl from Eight, which immediately knocks out Blaire and Finnick. It leaves two tributes, though. The boy from Eight, and Thyme. Both tributes from Districts Nine and Ten are dead, both of them died during the bloodbath.

“It’s Thyme.” you say, and you really do call it. She’s next to appear in the sky, her district number below her face.

You turn towards an empty space in the sand, writing out initials. T and L for Trink and Lennox, A for Allio, B for Blaire. One for yourself, F for Finnick, M for Mac, and a number eight for the boy from Eight. And then a question mark, because you still can’t recall where the last tribute is from.

Nine tributes left in the game, four of them being you guys, and five being everyone else. It could be two girls left in the game, and it could be three. Which leaves six or seven boys.

You suddenly begin to worry about the alliance, one more death from one of the stray tributes, will mean an even score. You’ve seen this problem happen many times before, the career tributes all turning on each other. That or they split up, and you can’t see that happening without one of you dying.

One of you has to go to keep the alliance intact. You’ve been relying on it for this long, and you’re not about to get killed because of paranoia going on in the group. You quickly rub out the sand, and then look up to the others. There’s a sadistic smile on Allio’s face, and you know immediately. He has to go.

“We’re getting closer and closer.” Allio says, and then his eyes drag over to you.

You don’t like this. You’re the youngest, they’re all older than you by one or two years. To Allio, you’re small and weak, and possibly the most useless one still in the group. But as far as you know, he’s got no kills on his head, and you’ve got four. And you’re sure that Lennox and Trink still think that he’s the one that ate all of his food.

There’s evidence.

It’s obvious. You wonder if he knows this too.

You give them a lighthearted smile, because for now, they’re not going to kill you. They’re going to keep you around, because you’re their only supplier of food right now. You have until the animals begin to show themselves in the woods again. Which could be any day now.

The anthem finalizes loudly, and the outside is dark again. Inside the cornucopia, the fire is still going, still giving off plenty of light.

“I’d say we go out and try our luck with hunting again.” Allio says.

Bad idea, you’re already shaking your head, “Just so we can come right back here in a few days? The arena is huge, you have to know that at this point. We could walk for miles and still find nothing.”

There’s a glare in his eyes, “It’s better than sitting here.”

“I don’t think so. Everyone out there is going to die one way or another, let them kill themselves.”

“And what about us?” Trink asks.

You give her a look, and shrug, “We can’t stay together forever. But we might as well make the best of it.”

They already knew that, but you wonder if they realize that you’re banking on the hope that you all stay together. Allio is upset again, Trink looks like she’s taking what you said into consideration, and Lennox is indifferent.

Lennox keeps the fire going. He says that tomorrow will be Trink’s turn to watch over, and then it’s left to you and Allio to fight it out. Then, you’re all laying down to sleep. Except, it doesn’t come easy tonight.

Nine tributes left in the games. Eight that need to die to make sure that you win. Three of them are allies, one of them a friend from back home, two of them you consider friendly, and two nobodies that you could care less about. You’re almost there. All you have to do is not give up.

You’ve kept your strength this far, what’s a little more?

In the morning, you’re up to relieve Lennox so he can go straight to bed. By the time the sun is higher up in the sky, Allio and Trink are up. You all agree that it would be a good idea for you to go out and fish, because one measly rabbit isn’t going to do much for you four.

You take the backpack with you, and leave without waiting for Lennox to wake up. The others will fill him in, and since they’re awake, they’ll be able to watch over the cornucopia. You just hope that Allio isn’t going to fill their heads with the same thoughts you had last night.

The pond is devoid of Blaire, and it’s quiet. You fish, your thoughts being your only company. And they aren’t very pleasant.

You think that if Allio were to die and the others were to find out that it were you, they wouldn’t be angry. Obviously killing either Trink or Lennox would make the other mad, because that’s their friend from back home. It would be interesting to try and pin it on Allio and see how either of them react, but that could easily backfire. All they’d have to do is think that you’re accusing people too often, and suddenly you’re the odd one out.

And getting rid of Allio would do good, because he’s a boy. And if there are only two to three girls left in the game, it would be nice to even out the playing field a little. Give you, Trink and whoever the other person may or may not be, a good fighting chance.

You’ve done fine against boys so far, but it’s good to have that extra step, anyway.

There’s a crackle of a leaf, which makes you look over. Blaire’s coming through the trees, still looking malnourished, but a lot more energetic today, “Good morning,” he says, and then sits by you without a word.

It would be a lot easier if he knew how to fish for himself. He’s seen where you put the fishing pole, the real thing that he’s missing is the knowledge and a water bottle to reel in the fish. But then again, you don’t want to just hand out information without getting something in return.

“Good morning.”

“Saw the sky last night, right?” he asks, and you nod. The stench of fish coming from the canteen bottle is enough for you to rethink wanting to touch it and use it as bait, “I have a feeling Thyme and Finnick were working together.”

You look over at him, “Yesterday you said you all split.”

“Finnick and Thyme vaguely ran in the same direction. I couldn’t keep up.” he says, “And I haven’t been able to find them since. The arena is huge, (Y/n).”

You nod, “Yeah, we found that out a few days ago.”

Of course Finnick would work with Thyme, it just makes sense. From one companion to another. You wonder if he’s also hurt, or if it was just Thyme that took the damage. They probably brought in the Eight girl somehow, thinking that she’d be an easy kill, but wasn’t. Hurt Thyme pretty badly, Finnick finished Eight off, and then was left to Thyme.

In that case, she could be a mercy kill. They could have been using that tactic this entire time, which means that a handful of deaths could very well belong to them.

“Can I use your water-purify droplets?” he asks, you dig through one of the front pockets to bring it out for him. He thanks you, and then goes right to collecting water. As soon as he’s sat back, you’re pulling out a fish and telling him to take it, “Has there been any drama between you guys yet?”

You look at Blaire, again, and study his face. It looks like genuine curiosity, an innocent question.

He explains himself; “I’m just asking, since all the other times with the games and there being this amount of careers left, drama starts.”

Maybe Blaire has a problem with silence, “Minimal drama, I’m going to take care of it.”

Right after the words leave your mouth, you freeze, fingers still trying to unravel the coil of water. That statement could mean a number of things to him, and everyone back at the Capitol. But talk about giving away an undecided plan. Killing Allio won’t be easy, at all.

Everything has to be perfect. You have until the animals appear, you need a night when you’re taking the shift, and you need to somehow make him look guilty and make sure that he won’t be missed. You know that it’ll be easier, one less mouth to feed, and he won’t be offending you guys each time he opens his mouth.

You almost think his death will be premature, and you should wait until the ‘outsider’ tributes are down a little more. That’s when the thinking stops, because it comes into conflict with your original thought. You don’t want there to be an even playing field, and you don’t want a free-for-all at the cornucopia.

Allio has to go, but you don’t have the timing down just yet.

“Oh,” Blaire says, he probably caught on to the wording, “Right, is it a group thing or…?”

“No.” you say, “I don’t think that the other two will like the idea.” you put some more fish scraps on the end of the hook, and dip it into the water, “But it needs to happen.”

He doesn’t say anything. You fish for another hour before you’re tired, nothing has bitten since Blaire’s fish. He tries to give it up, but you assure him that it’s no big deal, and bid him goodbye, the fishing pole going straight into the bushes. Instead of taking the regular path home, you take a wide arch, hoping that’ll give you more time to find something else to take home.

Lucky for you, a rabbit darts out of the bushes, and the knife lands in the back of its neck. You’re about to say that it’s good enough, until the back of your mind is telling you that you might as well explore. It’s not anywhere near sundown just yet, and if you go back to the cornucopia now, you’ll just sit there with the rest.

And it’s easier to explore alone, you think. There aren't a ton of people trampling over the leaves, breaking sticks and such and leaving an obvious path that you had been there. It looks less daunting, and the other tributes might even consider staying around. One path isn’t a lot. It’s worrying, they might relocate, and they might not.

You use some of the rope to tie the bunny up onto your backpack. It looks funny with how it hangs down, and you’d put it inside of the backpack, wrapped in a sheet of plastic. Except, it’s still bleeding, and it would mess up everything inside. You’d rather the blood get all over the back of your jeans and shoes instead.

If you were standing and facing the mouth of the cornucopia, you’d say that right now, you’re on the right side of it. Roughly where Allio had disappeared off to last night. If you were to go left of the cornucopia, it would just be the coast, nothing good over there.

Out here, on the right side, should be relatively nothing. Especially with how the others have described it. You’ve never actually come over here, yourself. You always figured that there wouldn’t be anything interesting. They say they can’t hear flowing water, and it’s just trees.

So, you figure it’s going to be the same, and that the trip out here is useless, and you’re really just trying to burn time, not wanting to deal with Allio’s attitude. It’s devoid of animals, which makes you think that the gamemakers are slowly giving in to the supply of wild animals again, which is good news.

They were right about the dense forest part. You’ve seen worse in other arenas, but it’s still surprising. Having this many trees on what you think is an island. It smells green out here, too. Healthy trees and plants. Honestly, if there weren’t a coast, you’d just say that this is a regular forest arena.

Those tend to be the trickiest. Having to fight in them is hard. Hiding behind trees may seem comical, but they work better than you think. At some point, if you’re not careful, the trees begin to look the same and you can wander in circles for hours, thinking that you’re going the right way but you aren’t.

It’s even more embarrassing when you finally realize what you had done for the past hour, knowing that the people back home and the entire Capitol just watched you do it like an idiot. You always used to ask, “How hard can it be?” But being out here has opened your eyes. You always knew that the arena was hard, especially with how little the Capitol gives, but it’s just making you even more aware.

The more you wander this way, the more you’re able to see the tall cliff, which is beginning to look more like a mountain with how it peaks. It’s definitely climbable, you know that. Just by judging the incline, though, it’ll be a tiring walk. And for what? A good view? Right.

At some point, you get tired of walking straight, and go diagonal instead. If you get lost, you’ll just follow the beach around until you spot the cornucopia. Easy enough plan. Plus, getting lost won’t be too bad. Unless, of course, the Capitol decides to throw in their own twist with you.

After what you said at the pond, you have a feeling you’ve got them intrigued enough to not jump to do things with you. The Capitol has likely figured out that you meant Allio, and saying that you’ve got it handled means that you’re working alone. You even confirmed it by telling Blaire that the group wouldn’t approve.

He probably caught on too. He’s smart, older than you too. Just like most of the other tributes are, except for the Twelve tributes and Finnick. You don’t know the ages of everyone, just a basic idea of where they’re at. You know for sure that Allio, Trink and Lennox are older than you. There’s no question about that.

There’s a moment, while you’re walking through the trees, you hold your breath to make sure that you don’t hear anyone following you. And then you hear it, and it’s enough for you to look over with wide eyes, and not even hesitate about going over. It’s running water, loud and crashing.

As you move through the trees, you’re careful to make sure that there isn’t anyone over here. It’s uncharted territory for you. As far as you know, this is where all the tributes could be, all hiding out around the same area. It’s out of the distance of the cornucopia, and it’s away from the path you walk everyday to the pond.

It’s smart. If someone chose to stay out here, it’s smart.

Through the trees, you’re able to see the water, sneaking up onto the dirt enough to make it mud. You don’t dare move past the treeline, and even position yourself behind a tree, looking out to the scene in front of you.

It’s a paradise. Further out, there’s a waterfall, and it looks like there’s a running stream out here after all. Around the bank are flowers, there’s lilies and lily pads alike, floating on top of the crystal blue water. With how the sun hits the water, it looks absolutely clear. Clean, cleaner than the pond water.

You think you even catch a glimpse of a fish tail, before it’s disappeared completely. How did the others miss this? You have a hard time believing that their curiosity didn’t get the better of them. Especially the mornings that the boys went to hunt. You know you’d try and take a big track around to try and get the best of what you can.

It’s beautiful over here. And as much as you want to fish, gather better water and just walk into it altogether, you know that there’s something else here. Whether it be a water mutt, or a person. In the arena, everything is too good to be true. If it’s not dirty and clearly falling apart, then it’s gamemaker engineered and there’s something wrong with it.

Even with this thought, your eyes catch a vague movement behind the waterfall. A dark color, maybe an animal? But then it happens again, and you know better. It’s not an animal, not with how upright the figure is. One more movement, and it’s registered in your mind. There’s only one person that you know that would bet on something so delicate and dangerous. And it’s not Blaire.

It has to be Finnick. There’s a cave behind the waterfall, and he found it. Smart.

You have the sudden urge to call his name and wander out, but catch yourself before you act on it. You don’t know that it’s him, it could be another tribute that figured out how to swim or don’t have an insane fear of the water. And second, you don’t know if you’re still on friendly terms with him. Not after what happened.

Yet another secret to keep to yourself. You’re careful to sneak off without making much noise, a little upset that you’ll be missing out on a perfect fishing opportunity. If you had your spear, you’d be able to take out half a dozen fish before you realize that it’s way too much.

At least you know where Finnick--or another tribute--are now. You could easily blame them for Allio’s death if something goes wrong. And then the thought of the fact that you knew that they were alive, but again didn’t kill them, pops in your head. You can’t blame any old tribute for Allio’s death without being incredibly guilty.

You make it back to the cornucopia just fine, finding that there’s already a fire going again, and Trink is taking her turn roasting it. They’re all startled at your approach, reaching for their weapons. They must be used to you approaching from the side and coming around, instead of just walking out in the open.

“No fish, got a rabbit, though.”

“None at all?” Lennox asks, “We had so many yesterday.”

“I tried for hours, found nothing so I wandered around until I spotted this guy.” You free him from your rope and hand him off to Lennox, “It’s better than nothing.”

Lennox gets to work at ripping the rabbit apart. You go ahead and hand out the water, and then take a seat near the fire to keep warm. You can already feel the temperature change, again, the gamemakers are tampering with the weather. To combat this, Trink slides in another couple of sticks, and it’s just a waiting game.

“Who’s watching tonight?” Lennox asks, and he’s looking between you and Allio, because the two of you haven’t taken an overnight shift in a while.

“I’ll take it tonight, Allio can have tomorrow.” You say.

“I’ll take the next two days, since I haven’t been doing much.” He says, and then begins playing with his sword over the fire.

It’s an hour or so before the first rabbit’s meat is thoroughly cooked. You tell Lennox and Trink to share the first one, and you and Allio will get the second. For a moment, Allio doesn’t look that thrilled that you made a decision for him like that. But then he must realize that means that he might eat more, and the expression falls.

After dinner, you all stay up for a little longer, playing stupid games and trying to burn more time. As always, the Capitol symbol appears in the sky, along with the sound of the anthem. But there were no deaths today, so it fades quickly. Only then do the others call it a night.

You position yourself up against a box, the hilt of the sword in your hand. If you haven’t had any trouble up to this point, then there shouldn’t be any tonight, either. Which means that you get to sit around in the cold, watch as the fire slowly dies out, and try to keep yourself awake.

It’s just silence during the night. The only time there’s actual noise is during the day, when the birds and insects are awake. You can faintly hear the sound of waves on the shore, and you don’t even bother trying to hear the waterfall, because it’s too far off.

If you thought staying in the cornucopia was cold, you can’t imagine what it’s like behind the water. The water is freezing, and if it’s a cave, then that means the stone will be cold too. Unless the tribute inside of there thought ahead and somehow built a blanket of leaves to keep them fairly warm.

And the mist from how hard the water is coming down? It’ll make some things wet if it’s too close. The only real solution to that, is if it’s deep in there. Honestly, you thought caves behind waterfalls was a thing for fairytales. Like those stupid books your mom used to read you before bed, back when you were in elementary school.

You listen as the sand shifts, when you look over, it’s Trink rolling over. She’s got her back to you now. Within arm’s reach is her canteen and sword, in the case of an emergency. A few feet away lies Lennox, who sleeps on his back. His things are still by the fire, but with far back he is into the cornucopia, he could just use anything off the wall.

As for Allio, he sleeps on the other side of the fire. Compared to you and Trink, he’s by far the closest person to the mouth of the cornucopia. Easy access for anyone to come around and kill, and just run off into the woods. It’s not possible for you to do the same. It’ll be too suspicious over the fact that you were missing. Especially since you were supposed to be guarding everyone.

Tonight isn’t the night, and you’re not too sure that the next two nights are either. But time is running out, and you need to get to him before another random tribute dies. You need a plan, not something half-assed that could easily be seen through.

At this point in the games, you’re not even sure if that’s possible. Everyone has some sort of paranoia running through their heads. And it’s obvious that it’s gotten to you first. It’s for the right reason, you think. To keep an alliance intact. You could always go out and survive on your own, it’s clear that you can. Just take a backpack and don’t show up at the cornucopia again.

But you’re relying on the other's safety. And they’ll probably know where to go, down to the pond or to the shack to get to you and take you out for keeping them waiting like that. Of course, you could always go somewhere else to hide, but you’re not experienced in the woods.

Blaire might be. The only thing that he’s lacking is actual supply. If you were to team up with him, then you’d have a better chance than just going alone. But it poses the same problem that you’re working with at the moment. Eventually, tensions will rise between you and Blaire. And eventually, if you two somehow manage to be the last two alive, you’ll have to kill each other.

You don’t want to kill Blaire. You’d much rather someone else do it, because you consider him friendly, just like how you consider Mac friendly. It’s obvious why you don’t want to kill Finnick too. So it’s automatically knocking out three of the eight tributes that need to go, to make sure you win.

At the rate you’re all going, you don’t think that Blaire, Finnick or Mac will die by chance. Blaire might not have the same will to live as the rest of you do, but he’s still fighting to stay alive. And a good example of that, is him stealing food, even though it’s dangerous.

Maybe he has a death wish, and he was partly hoping that he’d get caught and immediately killed for it. It would be one way to end his pain, but you’re not entirely sure if that’s the best way to go, leaving your life in someone else’s hands like that. Especially during the Hunger Games, where everything is supposed to be entertaining.

You could beg for a speedy death, but in the end, you’re all just puppets for the Capitol. None of you want to displease them enough to the point where they do something rash. Whether that be another event in the arena that gets you hurt, or something to your family back home.

You too, are a puppet. And it’s exactly why you’re going to make Allio’s death shocking enough to keep the Capitol on the edge of their seats, and better for you.

By the time that dawn breaks, Trink is up. She lets you sleep into the afternoon, and then wakes you up so that you can still make a trip down to the pond for water for all of them. You’re fairly groggy, and spend a good amount of time just making sure that you’re awake enough to do things.

The good news is, there isn’t an immediate need for fish. Lennox and Allio went out to the forest while you were sleeping, and managed to catch a whole pig. The bad news, the animals are reappearing. They’re still scarce, but all that really matters is the fact that they’re there.

You say that tomorrow is your limit.

Blaire is sitting in the shallow end of the pond when you get there. The bandage is gone, but the cut is still on his thigh. He doesn’t seem to be bothered by it, so you assume that it's feeling better today. Before he can even ask, you toss over the iodine droplets.

“Thanks. For a while I thought that you weren’t going to show up.” He says.

“Took the night shift, I got to sleep in.” You throw the hook in, and resist the urge to yawn.

Unlike the boys, you’re pretty capable of staying up throughout the night. The only person that really gets a pass is Lennox, because he’s taking the most of them. He probably realized that the other day, and it’s why he’s pawned off the nights onto you guys. Although, to be fair, you’re pretty sure he was taking it until the difference between you and Trink and Allio was settled.

“I was thinking about what you said yesterday,” Blaire starts, but doesn’t continue past that.

Looking at him, you’re expecting him to pick up once he realizes that he’s got your full attention, you’re wrong, “About what exactly?”

He looks up from his water bottle, tossing the iodine back your way. You catch it easily, and he begins to shake the water, “Taking care of your problem--or the problem, I should say. Don’t you think that could get you killed?”

“Everything in the arena could get me killed.” you say, there’s a tug at the wire, you reel it in, “No matter what I do, I’m always putting myself into trouble. I come down here alone, I continue to feed you, I create plans and keep secrets and try to stay off my allies’ radar. It’s the same for you. Sooner or later, we’re going to get killed or be the ones that kill.”

“Not me.” Blaire says, taking the fish from you, and then watching you pack up your things, “Shouldn’t you keep going?”

“Friends caught a pig. I’m mostly down here to plot, but you’re here.” you look at him, motioning to the fish with one hand while you block the sun with the other, “Take it, it’s yours.”

“I could leave.”

“What you do, is your own free will.” you say.

Blaire sits down right next to you, pulls his shoes off and then places his feet in the water. He starts taking the scales off the fish, you want to warn him about the dangers of the water, how deep it is and you’re not entirely sure what lies in there. But decide you’ll let him figure that out for himself.

“Tell me your plan.”

You can’t stop the laugh that sputters out of you, loud and long. Blaire was expecting this, there’s a small smile on his face, and he waits patiently for you to stop. Even a couple minutes later, you’re still giggling at the idea. Telling Blaire your plan to kill Allio? And for what? You’ll give away everything about the situation.

“Fat chance.”

“You act like I’m going to work against you.” Blaire says, and you’ve still got a funny smile on your face, “(Y/n), I’m in your debt. Plenty of times now.”

“Why? Just because I fed you? As if that’s even a reason.” you roll your eyes, “It’s charity work.”

“You could have killed me by now. Or brought your alliance down and had them do the job.” Blaire says, “Or not shown up and let me starve.”

“You’re caught up in what-if’s, none of those are real reasons.” you say, and the second that the words leave, you want to take them back. Because they are real reasons, you’ve been smuggling this boy for days.

Back home, you know some other poor family would try and repay you. It’s just how it works. You could do something nice like give one of Naida’s boys an old pair of Reed or Mox’s shoes, and she’d be insisting on making dinner for you all for at least two nights. All of it would be on her.

And there was one day, something like that actually happened. It wasn’t for one of her boys, it was actually for the youngest girl, Windy. She’s older now, six or seven, you can’t remember exactly. But it was just after your dad had died, and your brothers and you were in a deep hole.

Reed was illegally fishing, Mox was desperate with his studies, and applying for jobs at the local stores around, but no one was falling through. Naida knew that the four of you were struggling, and scrambling to sell things to stay afloat. A lot of the things that you were selling were old dresses that Alyssum wouldn’t be needing for a long time.

Windy had some important event at preschool, and Naida didn’t want her to look dirty and poor. She was completely missing clothes for Windy, because she’d sold Calandra’s baby clothes a long ass time ago. And even worse, she was scraping by on rent that month, she wouldn’t be able to afford nice clothing.

You found some old dress in the plastic bin beneath your bed. Clearly expensive, and looking almost brand new. You knew that it would go for a lot at the Square. Even the richest families sometimes go down there to get a good deal on things. And if the Square wouldn’t have worked--you doubt it wouldn’t have--you were going to head down to the seamstress.

You didn’t even ask Reed or Mox if it was okay, didn’t even consider the fact that Alyssum would need something like that in a few years. You found an old shoe box in the boys’ closet, and then some ribbon off of a doll from your room. You tied the box up nicely, with some wonky ass bow on the top. And took your ass right over to Naida’s.

The dress was easily a month’s worth of rent, maybe more. But you knocked on the door, Naida answered, and you handed off the dress, saying, “I heard Windy needs something nice for her school thing. Hope you guys have fun.” and left Naida at the house.

Later that day, when your brother’s were coming back from what they did during the day, Naida stopped them on the porch. In no time, she was crying, and absolutely crazed because she thought you’d spent a ton of money on a dress that you couldn’t even afford. But Reed recognized the dress, reassuring her that it would be a hand-me-down. Even then, Naida didn’t want to accept it.

They didn’t give her a choice either. Said basically the same thing that you did. When they came into the house, they found you doing your math homework at the dining room table. You’ve seen Reed proud many, many times, but the look on his face is one you’ll remember forever. You did a good job.

Naida’s way of paying you all back, was the free babysitting for all of you. Taking Alyssum in during the day while you and Mox went to school, allowing Reed more hours for the illegal fishing. And even after he became a legal adult, she continued on with it. She definitely knows that she’s paid it over so many times by now, but chooses to do it still.

Anyway, Blaire might be thinking the same thing. But instead of a dress, it’s his life. Something that is so temporary in the Hunger Games, and even dangerous. You’re risking your life by saving his. You’re putting trust into him not killing you by continuing to do this.

And the one way he wants to pay you back is by listening and giving advice. You don’t know if Blaire has grown up in the poor part of District Three, or if you’re just overthinking all of this. But it’s what makes the most sense to you. You said it yourself yesterday too, that Blaire is not only older, but smarter. He’s got at least two to three years on you.

“There’s nine tributes left in the arena.” you begin, making him look over, “And I’m worried that as soon as it hits eight, my alliance will break up, and I want to keep it together for as long as possible. It’s nice having people watch over my back, knowing that they’ll protect me. And they’re not all that bad, either.

“Allio, the boy from Two, has been causing trouble between all of us, except for Lennox, the boy from One. Of course, last week you took our entire sponsor gift, and I honestly thought it was Allio, and so did Trink and Lennox.” you stare at Blaire, “They still think that it’s him, as far as I know.

“I would get rid of Lennox or Trink, except they’re friends, they’ve known each other for a while. If one goes, the other’s sure to go crazy, so I figured that Allio would be my best bet, anyway. The only problem I’m having is how to get it done. It has to be tonight or tomorrow, because I don’t want someone to die before we get there. And I don’t want the animals to reappear in the trees.”

Blaire nods, thinking this over. He’s quiet for a long time, staring down at his fish. You think he’s just as stumped as you are, and then he speaks, “You can’t ask the others to help you kill him?”

“They think I’ve only killed one person, and I’m not trying to come off as aggressive. I only blew some of it when I told Allio that I hated him, just like Trink seemed to. So, I bet I’ll already be suspected.”

“Could always say that it was some random tribute.”

“That’s what I was thinking, except there isn’t anyone around the cornucopia.” you say, ignoring the waterfall tribute. They’re not as important, they're too far away. Once again, if it’s Finnick, you don’t want to give him away to the others. You wouldn’t be killing him with your own hands, but you’d lead them right to him. It’s good enough.

“You guys explored around the area?”

“More or less.”

Blaire hums, “You said something about the night shift, who’s taking the next one?”

You look over, “Allio said he’d take the next two nights.”

“Oh, then that’s easy. If he falls asleep during the night, just get him then.” Blaire says, “And then find some outlet, like sleeping or whatever.”

You hold your breath, trying to picture it. In this case, doing it tonight would be suspicious, since you’d finally get him alone for once--or ‘alone’. The others will still be there, just unconscious. You could kill him while he’s asleep, and then quickly lay back down. As for the blood knife, there’s a box that you could probably slip it under.

There’s only one problem, the one that’s nearly impossible to get around.

“What about the cannon?”

Blaire huffs out a laugh, “Guess you’ll just have to move quickly and make sure you aren’t breathing heavily. Turn your back to them or something. You can’t over sell it either, so pretending to sleep through the cannon might be cheesy. Or, it might be realistic, I don’t know.”

Allio sleeps on the other side of the cornucopia, opposite to you, closest to the mouth. Unfortunately, another obstacle is going to be the lit fire, but there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t control the weather, the gamemakers can. And it’s going to be impossible to get them to just make it warm tomorrow night. Unless they come to the conclusion by themselves.

You stare into the water, almost losing yourself in your thoughts, when you see it. A dark motion, bigger than any fish, “Get out of the water, now.”

You push yourself to your feet, throwing the backpack away. When Blaire doesn’t move fast enough, you grab the back of his hood with both hands, pulling him out of the water and a couple inches away. He’s got it now, coughing because of how hard you were on the hood.

The black mass is towards the top now, just beneath the surface. You watch the bubbles appear, and pop. One of them lands on Blaire’s bare foot, and he hisses, backing up some more. You watch as his skin turns a shade of pink first, and then deeper to red.

You wonder if the water was hot, or if it’s poison.

Does it really matter?

You grab the water bottle that’s hanging out of Blaire’s back pocket, uncapping it, and then dumping it out, still staring at the water. No matter how much iodine you put into this, it’s not going to be clean. And it doesn’t matter that he grabbed it from the shallow end, either. Whatever is in the water can contaminated it.

“Here.” you say, placing it in his hand, and then moving on to your bag.

You pull each canteen out and dump them out, watching as the water runs downhill and back into the pond.

“Do you think that the fish is bad?” he asks.

You look over, he’s holding it out for you to see. You don’t spot anything abnormal with it, but you didn’t see anything wrong with the water initially, either, or the pond.

“Toss it in.” you shove everything back into the backpack, and attach the fishing pole to your backpack, “I know another place.”

Blaire follows what you said, tossing it into the water, and pulling on his socks and shoes after. You lead him around in a wide arch, exaggerating the path you took the other day. He doesn’t question you at all.

This walk is much faster than the first one, but the moment you hear the waterfall, you get a bit hesitant. You still lead Blaire through the trees, heading right towards the crystal blue water, but watching to make sure there’s no one there just yet. You’d like to give them a chance to leave.

There is no one, and there is no movement on the other side of the waterfall. Once Blaire sees what you’ve led him to, he gasps slightly, “Wow.”

“Yeah, I know. We shouldn’t be here for too long.” you glance behind you, there’s no one. If Blaire can sneak around you guys quietly, it’s no question that others might be able to do the same, “You watch out for anyone.”

“You don’t like it over here.” he says, it’s not a question.

“We’re invading someone’s space.” is all you say, “Fill up the canteens, I’ll get you something to eat.”

Blaire sits down, unfastens your fishing pole, and offers it to you. You shake your head, pulling off your shoes, and then your socks, and you roll up your jeans as far as they’ll go. After that, you pull your sword into your hand, and carefully wade into the water, watching for anything unnatural.

That was definitely a mutt in the pond, as always, gamemaker generated. It’s a wonder if it appeared because they made the creature come out, or because the fish that you caught made them appear. Either way, you couldn’t see it coming. You knew that the water was deep, but you didn’t know what else would be in it.

There’s a great chance that the gamemakers made the mutt appear to push you away and make you think of another place to go. Whether that be deeper in the forest, or over here. You need to work quickly, get Blaire his fish and tell him to go back to where his camp is, wherever that may be.

Your eyes travel back to the waterfall, still no movement. The tenant might be out, another reason why the gamemakers pushed you this way, to purposely cause conflict. If it’s Finnick, though, you think he won’t attack. And if he does, he’ll just leave Blaire out of it, since Blaire’s supposed to be his ally, anyway.

You feel something brush by your foot, and it’s enough for you to jump out of your skin. It’s a fish, curious and bold of what’s joined it in the water. You’re still, and stare at it, waiting for it to come back around. And when it does, you slam the sword into it, staining the blood a temporary pink.

“You should go back to your camp.” you tell Blaire, moving out of the water now, “Don’t stay over here. I’ll meet you back at the pond tomorrow, and we can take the walk around back over here.”

“Sure.” Blaire says, taking the fish off the end of your sword, “Thank you, again.”

Blaire must think that he’ll never stop being in your debt, and you’re afraid of that, too. The list keeps getting longer and longer. Eventually, he’s going to try and find something to pay you back with.

“I cleaned the water.” he says, “It’s all nice in there.”

“Thanks.” you dry your feet on your jacket, pulling on your socks and shoes before you unroll your pants. You sling the backpack over your shoulder, drying the blade on your jeans.

Blaire’s ready to go, too. He assures you that he’ll know the way back, and the two of you split. The entire walk to the cornucopia, you feel awful. Almost afraid that someone is following you back. You check several times, and of course, there’s no one there.

The second you’re out of the trees, the feeling subsides.

#ilguna #finnick odair #finnick odair imagine #finnick odair oneshot #finnick odair fanfic #finnick odair x reader #finnick odair lacuna #lacuna

64 notes · View notes

ayellowcurtain · 4 years

Text

Maybe a prompt for Elu: Lucas being bitchy and moody and Eliott is annoyed. Maybe they fight about it but with a Happy End

Can you write a fic about Eliott and Lucas and Lucas gets a little mad because Eliott wasn’t 100% truthful about how much their rent really is?

Part 1

Lucas had a great night with his friends, getting almost too drunk, smoking again after what felt like years, but the party was over before he could get passed out drunk like he wanted. It was still good, he was just a little too aware of his own feelings.

He tries to do his night time routine ignoring Eliott’s eyes constantly following his every move. It’s hard, Lucas has always struggled to keep his feelings inside since they met, but he’s tired of fighting so he’ll keep his mouth shut this time.

If there’s something that will drive Lucas wild is when his feelings are taken as a joke or as a cute trait of his spiky personality and that’s what Eliott usually does. Lucas will try to explain his worries and Eliott will just look at him with those half-moon eyes, kissing him like what he said shouldn’t be considered as a real problem, but as a cute, flirty conversation.

So Lucas gave up putting his feelings out for Eliott, he’ll never take it seriously anyway. Eliott has the tendency to brush everyone’s feelings off as cute and he takes his own feelings to his grave, not even sharing with Lucas, so he might as well have a taste of that from now on.

“Can we talk?” He finally asks when Lucas passes by him for the thousandth time to fill another trash bag with cups and bottles to take to the recycling bin tomorrow.

“Not really. I’m too drunk and tired and don’t feel like arguing again.”

He can’t see, but he’s almost sure Eliott is closing his eyes, trying to keep this conversation going instead of just dropping it and pushing yet another issue under the rug.

Lucas is almost sure if there was a real rug where they hid their unfinished arguments, you would have to jump a huge bump to walk on it.

“Lucas. The trash can wait.” Eliott quickly moves to stand in front of the door, holding Lucas’ hand, making him gently put the trash bags down and so he lets go, sighing in defeat.

“What to do you wanna talk about? You, the master of acting like nothing is a big deal.”

Eliott presses his lips together and raises his eyebrows, the face he does when he sort of agrees with Lucas while still trying to not laugh at his comments. And he doesn’t laugh because it’s funny, Lucas knows him that much, but because he really tends to brush everything off like it’s nothing.

“I’m sorry that I lied about the rent. We both wanted this place and I just wanted us to get it, that’s it. And I’m sorry for inviting Lamifex to come tonight, I know I shouldn’t have, I was just trying to make this...recovery process easier for you and them.”

Lucas can feel his jaw hurting already from clenching his muscles so hard and maybe - the thought crosses his mind - he was postponing this conversation too. If he’s being honest with himself, if he had a choice, he wouldn’t have this conversation, ever. If it was only his choices, Lucas would have made different ones so he wouldn’t have to go through this moment right here.

“So like I said before: Are you their babysitter now? If I said I needed time, it’s because I need time. And do you hear what you’re saying? Just today, right now, you had to apologize for lying or “keeping things from me” twice. In one conversation. One line! Do you see what I mean when I tell you your secrets get in between us?”

Eliott looks away and he nods his head quietly, making an even bigger mess in his hair.

They really should have waited to have this conversation another time, but Lucas is the type to rip the band-aid off at once, so they just have to finish the conversation and be done with it.

“If you want and if that’ll make you happy, we can split the rent equally. I just know it’s going to be a fucking nightmare to ask for more money for your dad and I was trying to save us this stress, but if that’s what you want, I’ll gladly accept it.”

Eliott shrugs in that way he does when he’s getting a little angry too, but Lucas doesn’t talk about it. He’s just trying to finish this conversation and go take a cold shower, not start another problem. There’s always a limit he can push Eliott to before he shuts Lucas out completely and that would be the worst scenario for tonight.

“Yeah, it is going to be a nightmare, but I thought this was a decision we had to make together since we’re living together, both paying the bills. I’ll find a job soon now that school is over. And we’ll have even less time together, that sounds good to you, right? So you can breathe and be by yourself and shit.”

Lucas stops himself, needing a second to not let his past emotions get the best of him.

Eliott looks deep into his eyes, clearly hurt and also done with this conversation. And the look he’s giving Lucas is exactly the first warning sign that he’s going too far for right now. “You’re not being fair now.”

“Based on which standards? Yours or mine? Because I feel like I’m being really fair with myself and my emotions and you see how that’s a problem? If I only think on what I need and you only think on what you need, then how any relationship could ever work?” Lucas takes another break, feeling out of breathe, his heart beating so loud inside his chest it’s almost too much, but he continues.

“I thought we were over this “needing space” issue months ago. We made big decisions together: to try this fucking relationship even when the start was a shit show from both sides, to move in together, to be together generally. I feel like we’ve talked about this so many times by now. I’m not asking for a report of your entire life, what you do, what you like. I’m just asking for enough information where I know when you leave the house late at night that you’re ok, that you’re safe.”

Lucas swallows the lump in his troath, really needing to go out to breathe some fresh out right now to sink his emotions back deep inside of him and lock them as far away as possible from coming to the surface again.

“If you need space or hours away from me, that’s okay. I can accept that, but don’t let me guessing. If you need anything different from me or from us, I’m gonna need you to use your words as soon as you have needs that involve or don’t involve me. I can’t guess what’s inside your head.”

Eliott moves closer when Lucas tries to get the trash bags from the floor, making him drop it again. “You’re thinking way too deeply about a small thing. I don’t need space, not like you’re saying of us going back to living separately. There’s nothing than I want more than to come back home to you. No matter where it is, if this flat or somewhere else, there’s nothing I want more than to come home to you, to spend time with you, to learn about you.”

“And that’s all I’m asking in return. What you’re saying you want is exactly what I want too.” Lucas sigh, feeling he’s about to start crying and he really can’t do that in front of Eliott tonight. “Now can you please move so I can taking this mess outside?” He ends up whining, but he doesn’t even care. He just needs a fast way out of Eliott’s sight.

“Wait.” Eliott says and his hand is in Lucas’ stomach, intentionally pushing him agaist the wall on their left.

It takes a second, but Lucas kisses him back, putting one arm around his neck, not even having to stand on his tiptoes because Eliott’s whole body is pressed tightly against his, keeping them at the same height against the wall.

It’s a different type of kiss, full of meaning and promises and some kind of possessiveness that Lucas’ drunk and needy brain is not complaining about, but it’s very different. They hardly ever kiss just so much intent.

They stop when their lips are sore and Lucas’ head is spinning so fast he needs a second to put his head against the wall behind him, looking up, to really understand his surroundings. He feels Eliott’s body moving against his when he stand on his tiptoes to be able to see Lucas’ face again.

Eliott looks like a hot mess and Lucas is sure he’s no different. He says what Lucas is always thinking when looking at Eliott.

“I love you.”

#skam france #elu fic #Lucas Lallemant #eliott demaury #elu

77 notes · View notes

moonsgreatestboydetective · 4 years

Text

ALRIGHT SO: THE PETALS TO THE METAL GRAPHIC NOVEL

I just blew through the book (holy shit you guys it was so so good) and before I do a more thorough read through, I wanted to share my thots for the good folx who didn’t preorder/aren’t sold on the whole graphic novel thing, maybe sell y’all on givin it a read through!

If you don’t want your experience SPOILED for any reason (I attached a couple of pictures and my first impressions, but nothing at all major that’ll reveal any of their hard work, so don’t worry if you just want a sneak peek), I’m keeping them under the cut, so read on at your own discretion.

TLDR: If you have the money to throw their way, I totally recommend getting your hands on this book. It’s beautiful, totally true to the source material, and a really a fun ride (sorry) from start to finish!!

First of all, this graphic novel is actually fucking gorgeous. Like wowsers. The whole thing is just absolutely beautiful, like the prior two are really amazing, but this one is full of huge, sweeping landscapes, really lovely detail work, super expressive faces, the works. There are multiple full page spreads (it’s a bit longer than the previous two), full of beautiful colors and just stunning visuals.

All of the character designs are really really good. Obviously everyone has seen the concept art for Hurley and Sloane (we’ll get to them, they’re everything I dreamed of and more), but other NPCs, the battlewagons, the backdrops, everything is so lovingly thought out and is such an amazing visual. Captain Captain Bane, Maarvy (who is a girl now!), GARYL, the Lich (again, no spoiling), they’re all exactly the way you picture them and full of life and character.

It’s also got a ton of inside jokes and references for fans of the podcast who know what comes further along in the Balance storyline, like advertisements for the Chug N’ Squeeze, a cameo of Carey Fangbattle, the Red Robe’s Cave, and I’m sure a bunch of others I’ll notice when I read it again!

Obviously, Petals to the Metal is a real beefy boy, with ten episodes and the Lunar Interlude beforehand. This is actually where I am now on my latest (third!) relisten, and I just finished episode five and they still haven’t gotten to the race. There are a ton of goofs and a lot of sidequests/sideplots like the elevator fight that lasts almost a full ep, the whole misadventure with Little Jerry and Jereeeeee, and a bunch of other very good bits throughout the arc, and one thing I was really impressed with was how well they decided which bits of “filler” could be cut without damaging the narrative and missing fan favs. SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER I’m super bummed they cut a large part of the hilarity of the Midsummer Festival, the majority of the scenes fighting Trent the Treant and in the elevator shaft, the iconic “Are you afraid?” line, and just everything about their attempted infiltration of the Hammerheads’ hideout [while this is actually a really hilarious cut and has been reworked to be a lot shorter] like the SAY MY NAME bit with Taako’s bad impression, Merle’s Evangelizing SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER. They do a really good job making it manageable to the readers by condensing a TON of material, but don’t outright remove anything that we the fans desperately were ready to see in full technicolor visuals.

This is, of course, referring to The Butt.

Just as an intentionally blurry sneak peek (there’s more that just this, I swear-- they were clearly Prepared for the fans) to ready y’all:

As for the other thing that everyone was foaming at the mouth excited for: Hurley and Sloane. Holy shit y’all. SO much more backstory, real obvious Gay™️, the ACHING when they look at each other, I’m just completely hearteyed in love with these beautiful ladies. They definitely changed a few things, as they’ve hinted at in interviews, but it’s really well done and still absolutely falls in line with the overall tone of the podcast. I could write a whole ass essay about how amazing their dynamic is, but I will definitely leave that as a ~surprise~ for everyone to see for themselves (along with the race itself, because we all know that’s the Main Event here).

The main THB character development is real real good too, with Taako’s “I’m a fully realized creation!” speech and Merle’s 50 Shades of Green moment being particularly amazing. Their facial expressions throughout the arc are wicked good and really convey the McElroy vocal inflections that are hard to show in print, like Taako’s shit eating grin while messing with Leon, and Magnus and Taako dying while listening to their FATHER seduce, well, everything.

In addition to all of the Easter Eggs for their listeners, there are also some great world building elements to tie this storyline back to the overall Balance Campaign, like another of the Director’s excellent speeches about the importance of disposing of the Grand Relics, the scene in Captain Captain Bane’s Office (which was also trimmed down and the lines modified, but still excellent), and our first look at the Hunger. The Hunger is absolutely terrifying (seriously, what a way to set the tone for the overriding storyline while still being wholly focused on the individual Petals arc)-- it looks Exactly the way Griff describes it in the Lunar Interlude and is just horrifying. The expressions on the THB’s faces are just *chef’s kiss*.

Overall, while there were a ton of elements that they had to adjust (partially for brevity and also to prevent potential copyright problems as in the first two books), the graphic novel is extremely well written, it absolutely feels like an extension/supplement of the podcast, and the art is utterly absorbing and gorgeously rendered. If anyone is somehow still on the fence about the book, I would give it a definite ten out of ten recommendation!

NOW GIVE ME THE CRYSTAL KINGDOM!

#the adventure zone #taz balance #taz graphic novel #taz gn #petals to the metal #FUCK ME UP BUTTERCUP #mild spoilers

39 notes · View notes

krysyuy · 4 years

Text

I continue to love Flower of Evil! There’s a lot going on in Episode 4, so let’s dive in. Oh, and I’ll be alternating between using Hyun Soo and Hee Sung, so apologies in advance if it confuses anyone. While the majority of the episode is focused on the chase for Hyun Soo, we still manage to get some crumbs about the Baek family. Me, every time with their scenes:

I keep saying this, but I’m so curious about this storyline!! What happened that the parents felt the need to have someone impersonate their son while he’s in a coma? I’m leaning more towards them being responsible for whatever happened… Unless their son did something so awful, they decided to cover it up thoroughly and completely in order not to lose face. Though Baek Man Woo (the father) seemed to treat his son with care. Whatever happened, they went to great lengths to conceal their secret. They even have a mute maid, though I don’t know how much that would discourage her from “talking” if/when push comes to shove later. We see that original!Hee Sung was quite the math whiz. So the only concrete fact we have about him (aside from the shady family) is that he’s extremely smart. Now is he good or bad… I initially thought we had a Queen Yoo situation on our hands with Kong Mi Ja (the mother), though apparently that’s not the case. I was genuinely shocked when she apologized, and THEN at the end admitted to the house being too big for two people, so she invited him to come over and eat some time. (Does that invitation extend to his wife and daughter?) I would not have expected this from the parents we see in the first episode. I love it though. This scene gave the mom a bit more depth, instead of her being another variation of the Evil Matriarch trope. For a moment, there seemed to be a kind of softening in the tension of this scene. Though of course she also majorly freaked when she found out Ji Won is on the case. I definitely feel like it’s the guilt and the stress of their situation regarding being found out, which then led to these anxiety problems. I am living for these flashbacks of Hee Sung and Ji Won’s past. And young Hee Sung is so clueless, please😭😂 I mean, it’s understandable why, but still. Kudos to Ji Won for not backing down. Their past versions are so cute, and the set-up could’ve easily been its own drama. I’d love to know what Ji Won thinks is going on when Hee Sung stares at an empty space, and then gets all guarded and freaked out. But later when Hee Sung says Ji Won scares his father - MY HEART😭 Even if she doesn’t know it, she protects him. “Why do you like me? Why?” I actually would also like to know this, lol. Hopefully we get an answer in the next flashback about why she fell for him. But I also would not blame her if it’s primarily because of his pretty face. xP Either way, she clearly sees something in him that he does not. I really like Ji Won’s team, but I’m always going back and forth on her sunbae, lolll. He’s funny but can also be a bit irritating. So sometimes I like him, sometimes I don’t. Which I think is how he’s purposefully written, haha. Her hoobae is always great though. Finally, we’re introduced to Hyun Soo’s sister. I was kinda ???? when she touched her phone with all that fake blood on her hands. She didn’t even ask her assistant for a towel or wipes… ANYWAYS lmao, I didn’t really get any ~shady vibes from her, but there wasn’t much to go on just yet. I do think she’s lonely and she misses her brother. When Ji Won was commenting on Hyun Soo’s life, and he’s right there with his head on her lap😢 It would be interesting to see her start to realize/uncover the truth of some things about Hyun Soo before she fully realizes he’s her husband. I’m very curious as to how the writer is planning this reveal. “Was my husband always this handsome?” Yes. But seriously, why are they so adorable. I just want them to be happy😭 Me, with the earlier eps: I mean, he’s possibly irredeemable, it’s cool if he doesn’t have a happy ending— Drama as it reveals more of his character:

Hee Sung faking sadness was so funny because we know he dgaf about his would-be murderer. I do feel bad for the wife, but she did end up giving Hee Sung a huge clue. I certainly didn’t expect the culprit to be the taxi driver! When the driver was telling his story to JW’s sunbae previously, I do remember thinking it was odd that the killer would share that they’re in the same profession as their father. If you’re a killer, why would you be dropping personal details like that to a possible witness later? I’m sorry, what is this coincidence of him being caught on camera in the photo background of someone visiting from his hometown???? I’ll roll with it, but wow. lol Moo Jin trying to sniff out the story of how Hyun Soo obtained his new identity with the Baek family… I was warming up to him, but then he tried to record HS. Thankfully, HS caught on, but if Moo Jin backstabs Hyun Soo/Hee Sung later ISTG… I wonder if he’ll change his tune (because he is so not giving up) when he meets up with Do Hae Soo again. There’s definitely something going on with Do Min Seok’s death. I doubt he committed suicide, so I wonder if HS or his sister did the deed. The chase scene with Hee Sung and Ji Won was amazing, and I could only think about how these spouses are hella in shape. And that fight - well, more like struggle - in the building! HS deserved that kick to the nuts lol. But the way he instinctively jumped forward to save Ji Won from the falling tools… 😭 He loves her GDI. I wonder if he realizes this though. He was suspiciously quiet when Moo Jin was asking if he really didn’t have any feelings for her. HS never directly answers this when it’s brought up. Everyone in the know asks if affection bloomed because of Eun Ha’s birth, but the flashbacks clearly show that is not the case. Also, this thought came to me in earlier episodes too, like when he snooped in Moo Jin’s place, but Hee Sung is leaving his fingerprints EVERYWHERE. Please wear gloves, I am begging😭 “We should’ve continued that exorcism!” “What does Do Hyun Soo have against this town anyway?” YOU ALREADY ANSWERED YOUR OWN QUESTION, PLEASE SHUT UP. The phone call with Eun Ha may be my favorite part of the episode, lmao. She’s way too cute. I was the grandma trying not to laugh in the background. Like Eun Ha was so devastated that he wasn’t around. It’s precious how much she loves and misses her dad, which is something that Hyun Soo must marvel at. Before Ji Won, he never experienced that. (Maybe with Hae Soo, but we still don’t know enough to gauge their relationship.) But that ending!! I’m dying to know what’s going on in Ji Won’s head when she sees this piece of evidence (Hyun Soo, please be smarter omfg). Like I don’t know if her mind will immediately jump to HS being the one she was chasing (even if she’d be right lolll). First, she’ll wonder how tf the watch got there and then go through different options before then landing on him. I don’t even know if she’ll get the chance to make that leap because from the preview, we know the taxi driver is up to no good and Ji Won realizes her husband is in danger. Hee Sung/Hyun Soo was injured from the falling tools earlier, and I think that’ll partially be the reason why the taxi driver gets the upper hand and subdues him. I’M SO EXCITED FOR NEXT WEEK!!! I’ve been hyped for the water scene since the teasers, and we’re already getting it. But I’m also so confused because there are still 12 episodes left, lollll. I thought this would be a mid-point scenario. And we’ve already seen a lot of the material that was in the trailer. Not everything, but a good chunk. I really love how things are progressing. Nothing’s dragging (to me). I am a little worried about the back half as that is where dramas tend to do or die. I’ll guess the situation with the Baek family will drive the 2nd half, and that the real son will wake in the middle eps or later. The writer hasn’t given me any reason to doubt them so far. I’m still along for the ride, and I hope the next episode is as promising as it looks. My Twitter liveblog for Ep4: twitter.com/krysyuy/status/1291852350747901952

#flower of evil #foe: text #character: baek hee sung #ship: hee sung x ji won #character: kim moo jin #character: baek eun ha #character: baek man woo #character: kong mi ja #foe: commentary #foeep:04 #krysyuy ♥s kdramas

25 notes · View notes

kindofcashton · 4 years

Text

𝕕𝕚𝕤𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕟𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕖𝕕 • chapter 11 (Calum Hood AU)

THE NEXT MORNING was spent consoling Hannah. She hadn’t heard from Ashton since the big blow up, which left her distraught. Whenever they fought before, they always called or texted to let each other know everything was gonna be okay. But Ashton was radio silent, and so it was my job to make sure my teary-eyed, emotionally wrecked best friend would be okay.

“Michael didn’t even look at me before he left,” she sniffled, rubbing her swollen eyes and pouting. I winced; this fight had been huge, and spilled over into everyone else in the house. I could tell Michael was feeling a little betrayed himself, and Luke probably shared similar thoughts. Calum, of course, I had no idea about. I only hoped they all wouldn’t hold a grudge against Hannah and make things even harder for her.

“He’ll get over it, Han,” I promised her. “Trust me. Once this all blows over you’ll be stronger than ever.” She shook her head, eyes cloudy and filled with misery.

“I don’t know, Scarlett,” she said in a weak voice. “It’s really bad.” I bit my lip, unsure of what else to say. I didn’t want to lie and say it wasn’t bad, because lying would help no one. But I also didn’t believe this was the end of her relationship with Ashton. They could mend the broken bridges between them, if only he was willing to try. I think time was the only remedy needed, and once enough time passed things could start improving.

We were joined at that moment by Calum. I avoided his eyes, still wildly confused about how to feel after last night. He’d shown a deep understanding that he’d never displayed before, and it stunned me. I thought Calum of all people would relish the opportunity to expose and humiliate me, but instead he chose to respect my plea for distance. As he sat down next to me, I felt the heat of his body so close to mine and shifted uncomfortably.

But apparently he wasn’t feeling uncomfortable at all, because there was a relaxed smirk on his face. He nudged his box of frosted cereal towards me. “Here, have some since I know you’d just steal it later.” His tone was jovial, causing me to finally meet his gaze. It was light and innocent, making my brows raise in disbelief.

I took the box and gladly dug my hand in, enjoying the sickly sweet cereal as Hannah distractedly scrolled through her phone. Calum shuddered beside me.

“I don’t know how you eat it dry,” he told me, pouring milk into his bowl. I wrinkled my nose.

“Because soggy cereal is disgusting, that’s why.” My expression was coy as I took another handful, and he rolled his eyes. I liked the way we could play off each other and actually joke around, the usual tension missing for some reason. I figured last night probably had something to do with it, but if this was the new normal I was completely on board.

Hannah looked up from her phone. “Do you have work today?” she asked. “I was wondering if we could spend the day watching bad movies and eating unhealthy food.”

I pursed my lips. “Actually, yeah, in an hour. But later we can totally--”

“No, no.” She waved her hand, heaving a sigh and staring off into the distance. “Maybe a little solitude would be good for me. I’m way too codependent.”

I frowned. “Hannah--”

“Don’t tell me it isn’t true, Scarlett, we both know it is. I’m overly dependent on people and you’re obsessed with fixing them. We both have flaws.” I blushed a deep red as she exposed our relationship problems. I felt Calum’s hand still above his bowl as he listened, and I suppressed a grimace. He had definitely began figuring out just how much I liked to fix things, how I obsessed over little details until I thought it was perfect.

Hannah pushed her chair away from the table and stood up, shoulders sagging and face crestfallen. “I think I’m gonna wallow downstairs all day. You’re welcome to join in the fun, Calum.” He gave her a small smile as she trudged towards the basement door, and when she finally disappeared downstairs I let out a sigh.

Calum pushed the cereal around in his bowl, frowning thoughtfully. “You think she’s gonna be okay?” His question was sincere, and I could detect behind the words just how much he cared for her.

Rolling my lips into my mouth, I shrugged. “I hope so. She’s been through a lot of shit recently, and I’d hate to see Ashton abandon her over it.” I briefly panicked that I had gone too far, made it seem like Ashton was entirely in the wrong. But if Calum thought this, he didn’t show it. Instead he just nodded, finishing his cereal quietly.

I checked the clock on the wall. “I ought to get ready, I have a bus to catch.” I closed the cereal box and began to get up, but then Calum reached out his arm to stall me.

“Why don’t I drive you? I have nothing better to do, and you’re probably really tired of riding that dingy bus.”

My lips parted in surprise, but his expression was earnest. I blinked a few times, at a loss for words. He merely rolled his eyes and stood up beside me, leaning in close as he said, “What, I’m not allowed to be nice?” His breath was warm and I felt my body tense up at the proximity of his face. But then he pulled away with a smirk to put his bowl in the sink. I exhaled, fidgeting a little as I considered his offer.

“Fine,” I accepted. “But you better be picking me up, too.” I quirked my lips up challengingly, and he chuckled at the counter.

“You’ve got yourself a deal,” he replied. I smiled before turning to head upstairs, thoroughly confused but pleasantly surprised. I told myself it was only because I didn’t have to catch the bus, not because a certain curly-haired boy was finally being nice to me.

I got ready fast and joined Calum by the front door, following him out to his car. It was another beautiful day weather wise, and I sighed happily as we climbed into his mustang.

“You better not complain about my music,” he warned as he put an old-fashioned tape into the cassette player. The car was vintage and had all the old features, something I found charming and very much in character with the owner. Soft guitar sounds drifted out, and I vaguely recognized the band. I didn’t say a word as we drove off, enjoying the way the music seemed to match our peaceful mood.

I was almost disappointed when we arrived at the cafe, wishing I could keep driving for hundreds of miles with just Calum and his music and the comfortable quiet. But this was reality, and I thanked him quickly for the ride before heading in.

Mack had realized a few weeks ago how well Roger and I worked together, and decided to schedule us with the same shifts since we had similar availability. This meant seeing him every time I worked, something the two of us were definitely fine with.

“Did I see you climbing out of a cherry red sex mobile this morning?” he asked innocently, and I choked on the water I was sipping.

“If you mean Calum’s mustang, then yes,” I told him, rolling my eyes at his insinuation. “He offered me a ride, how could I have said no?”

Roger smiled evilly. “I know a perfect way you can thank him,” he said, batting his eyelashes. I flipped him off with a laugh, trying not to imagine all the possibilities he had in his head. They were surely all dirty and seductive, and thinking about Calum in a dirty and seductive way was not going to help me do my job.

It was a quicker shift today, ending in the early afternoon. When I had about a half hour left, I began wondering what Calum was up to all day. I always wondered this; he didn’t have a job, didn’t go to school. What did he do all day? Where did he go? Did he have other friends, a different life away from us? I could tell he was full of secrets, and my mind drifted to what they could all be when the front door opened.

“No way,” Roger whispered, causing me to snap out of my daydreaming. Speak of the devil.

“Hey, Scarlett,” Calum greeted when he walked up the counter. His smirk was cool and his eyes were hooded, and I bit my lip. “Thought I’d try some of this coffee your always screwing up.”

I scoffed, and Roger shook his head as he butted into our conversation. “Oh no, she hasn’t screwed up an order all day. I want to see how long it will last.”

“Hey!” I protested, smacking his arm. “I didn’t mess anything up yesterday, either.”

Roger narrowed his eyes. “Debatable. The amount of whipped cream you put on that poor man’s hot chocolate yesterday was almost criminal.”

I folded my arms at him. “You can never have too much whipped cream, Roger.” He just flipped me off and got back to cleaning the display case. Turning back to Calum, I flushed. Having him here was overwhelming; he’d stepped into a part of my life that was entirely my own, and I almost felt like he was invading my privacy.

“Do you know what you want? Should I recommend stuff?” I didn’t know why I felt so nervous all of a sudden, trying to tell myself it wasn’t because of the deep brown eyes studying me so intently.

“I like the sound of that whipped cream,” he started. “Why don’t you pile it on top of a mocha.” I nodded, punching in his order and accepting his cash with a small smile. He went to sit at a table by the window, and I forced myself not to stare as I focused on his drink.

I’d made a hundred mochas by now, but this one I really wanted to get right. I made sure to add the perfect amount of steamed milk, and tried way too hard to make the whipped cream swirl as even as possible. Roger watched me work, clicking his tongue disapprovingly.

“You sure this is the drink that’ll get you in his pants?” I almost threw the hot coffee on his face, fighting a smile at his stupid jokes. I approached the counter and called Calum’s name, presenting the mocha proudly.

“I hope this is satisfactory,” I said as he took the mug and raised it in a mock cheer. I was slightly disappointed when he sat back down without saying anything, but pushed this feeling aside as I finished my shift.

Calum was waiting for me when Roger and I emerged from the back room after clocking out. My smile was shy and I hooked my bag over my shoulder nervously. But Calum’s smirk was oddly comforting, and he held the door for me.

“I thought we’d make a quick pit-stop at the grocery store for more beer,” he informed me, and I knitted my brows together.

“Didn’t you just get beer yesterday?”

“It was only a six-pack,” he defended with a laugh. “And besides, the guys all needed one after the blow up.” I nodded, understanding him completely. If I were Michael or Luke, I’d want to drown my worries too.

Roger appeared behind my shoulder. “Am I invited on this little road trip?” My jaw dropped, but he cackled and gave me a good-natured shove. “Totally kidding, go have fun on your grocery store date.” I almost tripped him at saying the word date, terrified that it would rub Calum the wrong way. But I don’t think he even heard, and I breathed a sigh of relief as we got back into his car.

“How was the beer I suggested yesterday?” he asked me, one hand on the wheel and the other resting on his rolled down window. I admired the way the sun struck his profile, the relaxed posture he drove in.

Licking my lips, I answered, “It was actually really good, probably the best beer I’ve had. But I’m not that picky when it comes to beer, though.”

He smirked. “What are you picky about?”

Smiling at his oddly personal question, I considered my answer. “Well, cereal, as you already know. I refuse to ever have it with milk. Other than that...not much, I guess. I’m fine with most things.”

Calum thought about this for a second, a distant smile on his lips. “So you’re just so easy-going and carefree, huh?”

I laughed, propping my feet up on the dashboard to reiterate this point. “Oh, totally.”

We arrived at the store and immediately went for the beer. Calum pointed out a few good brands, and I pretended to take meticulous notes on his suggestions. He picked out a case of the kind I bought yesterday, and we brought it back to the car.

He paused after stashing the bag in the backseat. His expression was clouded, and more protective than it had been all day. Clearly his walls were back up, but I didn’t know why. When he finally spoke, my question was answered, “Want to take this somewhere and crack it open? I don’t know, the park or something?” He was scared to ask me this, worried I’d say no. Fear of rejection, I thought. Interesting, considering all of his arrogant bravado.

I nodded eagerly, hoping to ease some of his nerves. “That sounds great. And it’ll give Hannah more alone time I think she really needs.”

The park wasn’t crowded at all, and we found a nice spot up on a hill a little ways. The shade of a tree provided us relief from the late afternoon sun, and at our vantage point we could watch the people roaming around below. I laid on the grass, propped up by an elbow as I watched Calum crack open the beers. As he handed me one we clinked the cans together in a toast, and when I took a sip I felt all of the past few days’ stress leak right out of me. The breeze, the sun, the fresh air; it was all so cleansing, and I couldn’t harbor any negativity in such a serene place.

Laying next to Calum, I inspected his face, unafraid of him catching me staring. I took in his full lips, thinking about all the different expressions they produced. His curly hair fell across his forehead, and I imagined what it would feel like to run my fingers through it. His eyes were definitely my favorite feature of his; rich brown in color, reflecting light in the dark depths. If I could, I would gaze into them all day, just to uncover whatever secrets they protected. Calum was an enigma I was itching to solve, and every day I felt a little bit closer to the truth.

Just as I thought, he caught me staring. But I didn’t look away, bravely holding his gaze as he confronted me with a look. A brief smirk crossed his face, before he took a swig of beer and sighed.

“What are you trying to find, Scarlett?” The question was innocent, but it set off butterflies in my chest. I liked the way he said my name, almost like it was music on his tongue. Blushing, I finally did look away and focused instead on the people in the park.

“Oh, I don’t know,” I responded. “Just trying to figure out all your little secrets, that’s all.” Something about the atmosphere had me feeling daring, and I hoped he felt the same way.

He laughed. “You don’t think I’m doing the same thing?” We met each other’s eyes for a second, and then he added, “Alright, fine. You tell me something and I’ll tell you something.”

“How democratic of you,” I joked, and he laid back on his elbows. I thought about what to tell him, sifting through the multitude of secrets in my arsenal. Deciding to take advantage of what little bravery I had right now, I said, “Okay, I’ll tell you something.” He shifted his position to face me better, and suddenly I felt nervous. But I pushed this away, determined to be honest, no matter how much his eyes burned into me.

“You’ve known something is up about me being home from school for a while now, and you’re right. I’m not on a break: I had to drop out.” I paused for a second to let him soak this in. His smirk faded to a frown, but I pushed on. “And the reason I had to drop out was because I was stone-cold broke. I couldn’t pay the tuition, so I had to leave. And the reason I’m broke is...” I trailed off, wondering if this was taking it too far. But I wanted Calum to know this. I didn’t know why I felt this way, why I trusted him all of a sudden. But I needed him to know what happened to me. “My parents both died recently, in a car crash. Everything went to the medical bills to try to keep them alive, but it didn’t work. And now I’m here, alone, broke, and...” I laughed morosely. “And with no idea what I’m doing.”

Calum’s face fell, his eyes filling with sympathy as he opened his mouth to say something. “Scarlett, I--”

I waved him off. “I don’t want any pity. That’s why I kept it to myself, because I didn’t want to be the poor sad girl with dead parents.” Already I felt Calum’s view of me shifting, and I only hoped he wasn’t seeing a weak, pitiable basket case in front of him.

He sighed, brows low on his eyes as he seemed to be waiting for me to look at him. When I finally did, he tilted his head. “Pity and support aren’t the same thing, you know. Everyone needs help when they go through something hard, it doesn’t mean people see you as weak or pathetic.”

My mouth felt dry as his words soaked in. I’d never looked at it this way before, and his fresh perspective actually made me feel better. I guess I hadn’t really let anyone just be there for me, I pushed everyone away. Smiling meekly, I said, “Now where were you two months ago when I needed to hear that?”

He chuckled. eyes dancing with amusement. I liked that even though we were talking about such a heavy topic, we kept it light. For someone I’d always thought was so brooding, Calum had a gentler side that was exactly what I needed in this moment.

I lightly pushed at his arm, leaning on my hand as I faced him. “Alright, since I just poured out my soul it’s your turn.” The anticipation of finding out one of his secrets was killing me, and I bit my lip to contain my enthusiasm.

Calum rested the back of his head on his hands so he was gazing up at the cloudy sky. His lips parted, and I held my breath.

“You’ve probably noticed the lack of shit going on in my life,” he started, and I nodded with a small smile. I was pleased that this was what he was going to talk about; it was what I was most curious about. “The reason I’m able to live this way is because of the checks my mother sends every month. She feels guilty for screwing up my childhood or something, I don’t know. The money is good so I don’t complain.”

This was a lot of information to process. I’d had a hunch for a while that Calum’s life was more complex than he let on. It was interesting to hear about his mother and their apparent estrangement. My fingers toyed with a few blades of grass as I waited for more of an explanation.

“I haven’t actually talked to her in months,” he admitted, sounding a little surprised himself at the confession. “Not that I don’t...care about her.” I noted the way he stumbled, avoiding the word love. “I do, I want her to be happy. I just don’t think me being around is good for either of us.”

Even though I had an entirely different view of my parents, this made sense to me. Sometimes distance is the best thing for a relationship. I was always close with my mother and father, but that was because they’d supported me my whole life. I had no idea what Calum went through with is mom, or how they ended up so estranged.

I hadn’t realized he was looking at me, expectant for a response, and I blushed. “Sorry, I just...it’s nice that you’ve found what works for both of you. So many people try way too hard and just end up hurting each other.”

He smiled, brows lifting. “Gotta say I’m surprised. With all of your psychology books and deep analysis I thought you’d try to tell me to reach out.”

Shrugging, I let a smirk twist across my lips. “I’m full of surprises,” I replied jokingly. Truthfully, I did think that Calum reaching out would be a good idea. Maybe not right now, but in the future when he was more mature and ready to confront his mother he should definitely do it. He deserved to have a mother, someone who loved him unconditionally. I wanted him to have a family.

When I glanced back over to him, I gasped lightly. The way he was looking at me took my breath away; it was as if his brown eyes had pulled back all of my defenses and were staring straight into my soul, my thoughts, my body. A gravitational pull was tugging at my chest, and for a second I contemplated closing the short distance between us and connecting our bodies. I was sure he could hear my thunderous heartbeat, and I wanted to reach out and feel his own.

His eyes flitted to my lips for a brief moment, and then he whispered, “We should go.” He rolled over onto his back and sat up, ending the moment just like that.

We were silent on the drive home, but it was a comfortable quiet I found myself sinking into. The image of Calum’s face, so close and illuminated by the setting sun, was burned in my eyes as I stared at the road in front of me. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to be the one to make a move, to reach over and do what we’ve both been yearning for. But I also knew how much it would complicate things, and in a moment that was so blissfully simple, I didn’t want to ruin it.

I thought once we got home we’d both part ways and say nothing. But as Calum parked in the driveway, switching off the engine and engulfing us in total silence, I held my breath. He was going to say something, that much I knew. But about what I couldn’t possibly comprehend.

The interior roof lights cast a thin veil of yellow on his features, and in the small car it felt impossibly tight. I twisted in the seat, lips pressed together as I waited in suspense. Calum pushed a hand through his hair, letting the curls bounce above his forehead as he rested his arm on the headrest behind me.

He licked his lips, watching me closely. “Remember when you said I knew nothing about you?”

I blinked, remembering the night clearly. I’d hurled the words at Calum in the hopes he’d back off, leave me alone. Instead he seemed to want to get closer, and now here we were together in his car after spending the whole afternoon together. “Yes,” I said plainly. “I remember.”

He looked away, out into the dark distance beyond the window. “Well, you were right,” he declared, suddenly turning back to face me. “I don’t have a clue who you are. But the thing is...I want to find out.”

All of the oxygen had seeped out of the car. Blood was rushing in my ears, my fingers tingled with nerves. I felt like I was tilting in the seat, like gravity had flipped and suddenly I was fighting not to float away. A million thoughts spun through my mind, none of them making sense. Only one stuck out: I need to get out of this car.

And so I did. I stuttered something incoherent and slammed the door behind me, practically running to the door then up the stairs to my room. I tore my jacket off, then my shirt and jeans. I felt suffocated by the constricting clothes, and pulled on soft shorts and a big tee shirt. I began pacing across my floor, wondering if I’d just made a huge mistake. Calum had said something I’d been itching to hear for weeks, without even realizing it myself. But I couldn’t wrap my head around how we got here. We fundamentally disliked each other, but somehow we’d poured our hearts out today and crossed into new territory. I liked the territory, but I was terrified of it blowing up. All it took was one wrong move for Calum and I to disintegrate, and I was scared of crumbling because of him.

I flopped onto the bed, staring up at the dark ceiling. The stairs creaked in the hallway, and I felt the door to Calum’s room next door shut. Having him so close but so far was driving me crazy and not helping me get over my anxiety. I tossed and turned for what felt like hours, only thinking of him. His eyes, his lips, his voice.

Before I knew what I was doing my body took over and brought me to my door. I twisted the door knob, expecting to walk into the pitch black hallway. Instead I opened it up and was faced by the exact person I couldn’t get off my mind.

I hadn’t even heard Calum come to my door. But here he was, clad in only a pair of black joggers. I could barely see his face but I could make out his eyes boring into mine

I don’t know who leaned in first, but within a millisecond our lips connected. My whole body reacted to his touch, lighting on fire with every skim of his fingers. My hands went to his neck, his face, his hair. I pulled him tightly against me, feeling his bare shoulders and running my fingers across his wide back.

His lips molded to mine like clay, his tongue teasing at my mouth as I breathed hard. Our foreheads bumped together, teeth clashing and tongues dancing as the kiss deepened even more. His hands ran along my sides, igniting the skin as he went. I felt his fingers hook under my shirt, sliding up my skin and causing a string of moans to fall from my mouth. The sounds only encouraged him, and I felt his thumbs brush my exposed breasts.

Our lips tore apart for a second, and I exhaled lightly. “Calum,” I murmured against his cheek, and he attached his mouth to my jaw. The sensation was overwhelming as he dragged his lips down my neck, finding a sensitive spot below my ear. I couldn’t control my heavy breathing, and my knees weakened as he sucked gently on my skin. I wrapped my arms tighter around his neck for support, melting into his body like butter.

He peppered kisses across my neck to my jaw to my face, kissing my cheeks before reconnecting with my lips. The kiss had slowed down, softening into a sweet caress that calmed my racing heartbeat. I traced my fingertips down his neck, resting finally on his bare chest as we disconnected once and for all. My forehead bumped against his collarbone, his larger height making him rest his chin on the top of my head.

His hands rubbed up and down my arms, and I pressed a feathery kiss to his chest before leaning back. I tangled my fingers into his, pulling him back into my room.

“Stay,” I whispered, and I heard him close the door behind him. I fell onto the bed, pulling him beside me so we laid face to face. He brought the covers up around us, encasing us in warmth. I was finally breathing evenly again, sleep beginning to pull me under. The last thing I felt before I went under was the feeling of his arm hooking around my waist and pulling me into him.

54 notes · View notes