Tumgik
#anna tries to be original
statusquoergo · 6 months
Text
“When I was in high school, a senior asked me out one time. When I was a sophomore.”
“That must have been very exciting for you.”
“I was the stage manager for a play he was in.”
“Were the two of you close?”
“It was about halfway through the year, so we'd been working together for a while, and we were kind of friends, the way that underclassmen think they're friends with seniors because they'll talk to you for more than like ten seconds at a time.”
“How long were you and he together?”
“I was so surprised when he asked me out that I just said I'd think about it, like I was really taking him seriously.”
“Weren't you?”
“Then one of my friends told me he just did it because he was having a fight with his girlfriend. I didn't even know he had a girlfriend. She was in the play, she was a freshman.”
“Isn't that a kick in the teeth.”
“But fit still felt really important for me to let him down gently, like I had to do the whole 'It's not you it's me,' or 'I'm just not ready for this kind of thing' or whatever.”
“He was worth all that trouble?”
“I was really nervous about it. You know, was I really ready to maybe lose him as a friend, would he accept it when I told him no, would he be mad at me, would I...say it right. But then when I finally did it, he just said, 'Oh, that's okay,' you know, no big deal.”
“You must have been terribly embarrassed.”
“He'd already made up with his girlfriend by then, so.”
“You were a bit useless to him, I suppose.”
“I don't know what happened to him after high school.”
“If he's anything like the rest of us, he's probably suffering a bit.”
“I hope so.”
“Goodness, aren't you?”
4 notes · View notes
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
#elena of avalor#beauty and the beast#batbedit#disneyedit#eoa edit#belle x beast#estebalena#kinda but also not kinda#I think a lot about the fact that it's been confirmed that this is an intentional homage#like EoA series supervising director Elliot M. Bour was just like casually bringing BATB into things as an Easter egg#since it was his first job in animation#and like don't get me wrong; I LOVE that he did this. I just don't know how he expected anyone (i.e. me) to be normal about it afterwards#once you've introduced BATB; it ceases to be a fun and casual reference and just makes the literature major girlies go feral#i thought this was gonna be a quick and easy little project but it wasn't#the parallels are all there but they're in slightly different order in EoA than the original and the pacing for each reference is differen#so i had to determine which ones I needed to skip frames for and which ones to use all the frames#and then try to figure out the speed from there#the coronation day scenes were very hard to color because the grey skies and muted filter kind of whitewash the characters#like you don't even understand i added so MUCH vibrance and saturation to the 4th and 5th gifs but elena's skin still is just gray#and the coloring is still just a very very mixed bag#also i've realized that while I don't think it was an intentional reference in the same way BATB was#anna's sacrifice and resurrection from frozen is perhaps just as --if not more-- a clear parallel to the coronation day scene than BATB#so maybe I will do that one someday too?#once i psych myself up again to try coloring coronation day again#which i imagine will be awhile#these do not look like the same scene and pretty much the same scene at all even if i tried to use the same psd when i could#and edit them to make the coloring as close as i could
87 notes · View notes
kombucha-enjoyer · 2 months
Text
breaking bad roleswap au my beloved
edit: my friend called it breaking butch IM IN TEARS
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
36 notes · View notes
Text
Tumblr media
7 notes · View notes
ginger-grimm · 1 year
Photo
Tumblr media
SUNSHINE EXCHANGE
Eleanor Rogers Instagram Profile for @come-along-pond
I hope you like it!
8 notes · View notes
jontheredrc · 2 years
Text
Anna Lee is basically what would happen if your social anxiety was always right about someone
6 notes · View notes
roosterforme · 2 months
Text
Covering the Classics Part 1 | Bob Floyd x OC
Summary: Bob is happy for his friends, but feeling like the fifth wheel every weekend has gotten old. Anna's main goal is to fly under the radar as she starts work at San Diego State University with her shiny, new graduate degree. She is convinced that the only company she needs is her own, but a specific flyer in the faculty lounge catches her interest.
Warnings: Fluff, angst, adult language, eventually 18+
Length: 2800 words
Pairing: Robert "Bob" Floyd x Female OC (this story is part of the Beer Boy/Sugar and Jake/Jessica universe)
Covering the Classics masterlist. Check my masterlist for more! Thank you to @mak-32 for the beautiful banner!
Tumblr media
Bob hated it when Natasha was deployed without him. He always ended up feeling like the fifth wheel now that Bradley was married and Jake was dating Jessica. Well, both of those were actually understatements. Bradley was devoted to his wife, and Jake was soppy now that Jessica moved in with him. And Bob's feelings on the matter were never more evident than on nights out at the Hard Deck. 
Without fail, a girl or two or three would hit on one of the other guys, and they would deftly try to pawn said girl off on Bob only for the girl to look rather disappointed and kind of wander away. He just had that effect on women. He was a lot better with the written word than with the spoken, and something just didn't translate well for him when he was met face-to-face with an intriguing smile and an attractive body.
He groaned as he watched another woman head off in the direction of the bar as soon as he nervously stumbled his way through a sentence where he tried to introduce himself. How exactly was he supposed to compete with Jake Seresin anyway? Nobody who originally wanted him was going to settle for Bob. 
"I got you more peanuts." Bob looked up to see Bradshaw's wife smiling at him and holding out a cup. Ever since he visited Chippy's bar, he didn't want to admit to Penny that hers weren't quite as good, but if someone went out of their way to bring him a cup full, he was going to eat them. And it was also nice of her to make sure he was included tonight while Mickey was babysitting his nephews.
"Thank you," he replied softly, and she patted his shoulder.
"I saw you talking to that girl?" she asked, nodding her head toward the bar. "She's really cute."
Bob shook his head as he looked down at his ginger ale. "I mean, yes, she was very pretty, but I wasn't really talking to her. She didn't want to talk to me, actually." He could feel the heat rising in his cheeks as he looked up at her from his stool. "She wanted to talk to Jake."
She rolled her eyes, and Bob kept his fingers occupied by cracking open a peanut. He craved the familiar intimacy he saw when he looked at his friends and their partners. Maybe jealousy wasn't the right word, but he always felt left out of the loop. They all knew something he didn't, and he craved to be on the inside with someone of his own.
"I'd choose you over Jake any day, Bob. You're smart, and I like talking to you."
He smiled at her as he said, "That may be the case, but you'd choose Bradley over me."
"You got me there," she said with a laugh as she kissed his cheek, making him avert his eyes to the floor. "I'm probably not the best judge of character though."
Bob looked toward where she was smiling now and saw Bradley with his hideous tie dye shirt and idiotic looking backwards baseball cap as Jessica slaughtered him in a game of pool. "Yes, you are," Bob told her quietly. Because as soon as Bradley looked at his wife, his expression became one of complete wonder. 
"Sugar! Come here! Jessica is being mean to me again!"
She squeezed Bob's shoulder and then took him by the hand, bringing him along with her to the pool table. He blushed again as he looked a little nervously at Bradley, but everyone knew Bob was harmless. He was the one just drinking a ginger ale since he had to drive home.
"Baby," Bradley whined. "She won't even let me try to make a shot."
"That's not her being mean to you. That's her being better than you," his wife replied. "And what's the moral of the story again?"
"Women should never be underestimated," Bradley and Jake said in unison.
"That's right," Jessica said as she sunk the 8-ball into one of the corner pockets. "Especially ones who have a PhD and tenure." She handed her pool cue to Bradley and did a little dance. Then she reached into Bob's cup of peanuts and said, "Chippy's are better."
"They are," he agreed with a nod and a grin. He cleared his throat as Bradshaw's wife finally dropped his hand. "So I heard the new semester starts on Monday?"
"Yes," Jessica gushed as she fixed her glasses. "And Brian took a position at the community college, so this should be my best semester yet."
Bob already knew that Jake was relieved that his girlfriend would be going to work in a more comfortable environment every day, but it was nice to see how excited she was. 
"You know what I was thinking?" Jessica asked Bradshaw's wife quietly. Bob wondered if he should step away and give them some privacy, but they both kept helping themselves to the cup of peanuts. "Maybe we could put something up on the notice board in the main building, kind of inviting the other female teachers at the school to have lunch together one day? I felt so embarrassed and excluded from things because of Brian, I just thought it might be nice for anyone else who feels marginalized?"
Bradley's wife nodded. "I think that's a great idea."
Bob listened to them for a few more minutes before he wished them good luck as they started back to school for the fall term, and then he excused himself for the night. He stood outside in the dark parking lot for a few minutes and listened to the sound of the ocean before he climbed into his truck and headed for his silent house. 
--------------------------
"Dr. Webber."
Anna looked at the name placard on her office door and bounced up and down. "Dr. Webber," she read out loud again. She had the worst office on campus, no doubt about that. It was miniscule and kind of smelled like stale bread since it was so close to the cafeteria, but she loved it. All of the shelves were crammed with her books, and she could lock the rest of the world out when she needed a minute to herself. She just hoped that the tiny office wasn't a sign of bad things to come after San Diego State University willingly hired her less than a month before the start of the term.
In a matter of eight weeks, she had finally- finally- graduated with her PhD in English Literature and secured a job on the other side of the country. She sold everything she could think of, including her rings, and moved from gloomy New Jersey to a studio apartment in sunny southern California. Sure, all she had in her kitchen was a toaster oven and a mini fridge, but she was on her own. She had nobody to answer to. And she never would again.
"I guess everything is smaller here," Anna told herself as she locked her office door and went in search of the classroom where she would be holding the first lecture of her teaching career. She was too early for the class, but she was filled with nervous energy and decided that walking around would help. 
She looked in classrooms and listened to a poetry lecture on the third floor. She found a really secluded ladies' bathroom as well as a reading nook. Eventually, she and her copy of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn managed to wander all the way to the main building where she found a faculty lounge.
It smelled like coffee, and there were snacks out on the counter, and everyone was talking in pairs or small groups. She should probably get to know her colleagues, but she also didn't mind the anonymity that came with observing everyone without engaging. She was good at that, and she'd spend too much time around people who needed to be in the spotlight all the time. As she reached for a donut with pink frosting, she saw a notice board across the room and went to take a look. 
The hum of conversation around her was comforting as she read about a yoga class in the quad, alumni night, and a teacher appreciation banquet. Then her eyes caught on a single piece of paper with a plain black font. It wasn't flashy, and somehow it reminded her of a page from a favorite book.
WELCOME BACK FOR THE FALL SEMESTER, LADIES!
If you're interested in getting to know some other women who work on campus, let's meet for a friendly lunch on the first Tuesday of the term! Noon in the quad next to the weird tree.
Anna laughed. She knew where the quad was, but she wasn't sure which tree was the weird one. They actually all seemed a bit out of place to her since she wasn't used to living near palm trees. She started to skim a notice about how to recycle old textbooks, but she didn't get far before she was re-reading the one about meeting up for lunch. 
If it was truly meant just for women, then it sounded kind of nice. She could eat her sandwich outside. She liked weird trees. The idea of having zero men around made it even more appealing. The last thing she wanted was to develop an interest in anyone right now. Or maybe ever again. 
She took out her phone and snapped a picture of the page before checking the time and leaving with her donut. Twenty minutes later, with her class assembled before her in a small lecture hall, she cleared her throat and said, "Welcome to English 205. I'm Dr. Webber, and this semester we will be covering the classics."
------------------------
"You can do this. You'll be fine," Anna said as she walked slowly across the quad toward a palm tree that looked like it somehow started growing sideways about six feet up from the ground. "It's just some people."
But she wasn't good with people. Kevin had been quick to tell her that all the time. He liked to point out that she was awkward unless she was talking about literature or poetry or something from the New York Times bestseller list. Apparently she didn't know how to talk about normal things. Her hands started to sweat as she held onto her brown paper bag and can of ginger ale. 
"Oh god," she groaned as she got a little closer. Truly, there was nothing to be afraid of. It was just two women smiling as they talked to each other with their lunches. But they were both beautiful. Like the kind of stunning girls that Anna was always afraid to talk to when she was a teenager. One was wearing a suit and high heels, and the other was wearing cute brown loafers and some tweed, and she felt like her own outfit looked awful now by comparison. 
It wasn't too late to just walk past them and loop back toward her office and never try to socialize again. "Yes, let's do that." She nodded and picked up the pace a little bit. She could turn left at the weird tree and then maybe even make a run for it. "What are you doing?" she whispered, slowing down again. It was one thing to swear off men, but it wasn't going to be an enjoyable existence if she never tried to make a single friend here.
With a deep breath, she forced herself forward, and then soon two sets of eyes were on her. All she saw was matching smiles as she approached and said, "Hi. I'm Anna Webber. Is this the weird tree?"
"It's the weirdest tree I've ever seen," said the first woman as the other one jumped to her feet. 
"Hi! Are you here for lunch?" she asked as she adjusted her glasses. "I told you someone would come," she whispered to the first woman before sticking her hand out. "I'm Jessica Reed! I work in the physics department, and this is my friend, and we are so, so happy you're joining us."
Anna smiled at how bubbly she was as she briefly shook her hand. "I just got here," she said with a wince. "I mean... it's my second day working here? I just got hired. In the English department. I'm teaching literature." God, could she sound like any more of an idiot right now?
But Jessica gasped in response. "Advanced Literature!" Then both women squealed, and soon the other one was introducing herself and talking about the math department and pointing out a building Anna had never been inside yet.
"It's silly, we know, but we kind of have code names for each other. I'm Advanced Calculus, and Jessica is Advanced Physics. You can be Advanced Literature. If you want." Now she looked a little uncertain while Jessica bounced in her high heels. "Wow, we sound like absolute nerds."
"We are nerds," Jessica confirmed with no shame as she looked at Anna. "I collect scientific journals. She uses math as foreplay with her husband. Do you want to eat lunch with us, Anna?"
Her response came with an ease that she hadn't felt in a long time. "Yes. Please." Then both women were shifting their lunches down and making room in the middle of the bench. Anna took a seat and watched Advanced Calculus pick a carrot stick out of the most beautifully organized lunch container she'd ever seen. She also had a tie dyed lunch box that was charming in a hideous way.
"How's your first week going?" Jessica asked as she bit into a delicious looking sandwich on fancy, multigrain bread. Anna knew she didn't fit in here at all as she pulled a plain turkey sandwich and some peanuts from her bag, but it was all she could afford right now. 
"Well," she said with a sigh. "It's better than New Jersey."
Both women squealed again. "You're from the east coast!"
"Yeah," she replied as she opened her ginger ale. "I grew up in New Jersey. I went to college and grad school in New Jersey. I attempted to move to New York, and then somehow I ended up here." She left out the heartbreaking parts about Kevin, because he didn't really belong in a conversation where she was surprisingly kind of enjoying herself. 
She learned the two women were from Massachusetts and Virginia, and that they both had PhDs from prestigious universities. They were both in committed relationships with naval aviators who also happened to work together. And both of the men loved packing their ladies lunches. 
"Lucky," Anna muttered as she popped a peanut into her mouth and thought about the kitchen in her studio apartment. It was so small, it almost didn't exist. She was almost thirty and essentially still lived in a dormitory. How sad.
"Hey," Jessica said suddenly. "If you like peanuts, you'd probably love Chippy's!"
"What's Chippy's?" Anna asked curiously.
"Eww, no. Don't listen to Jess. Chippy's is a disgusting dive bar on the other side of campus."
"It's not disgusting! He just doesn't clean the floor."
Anna laughed. "I actually do love peanuts, but I'm not a big drinker." Then both women silently studied her, and she could feel heat rising in her cheeks. She'd said something wrong already. Of course things couldn't be this easy.
"Huh. You like ginger ale," said Advanced Calculus as she sat paused with a carrot stick halfway to her mouth.
Anna nodded as she said, "My... well, a guy I know used to make fun of me for being a ginger and loving ginger ale." She gestured to her auburn hair which was clipped up at the back of her head. 
"Are you married? Or in a relationship?" she asked, and she finally bit into the carrot. 
Anna didn't even have a chance to reply as Advanced Physics gasped on her other side. "You like peanuts. And ginger ale. How do you feel about men with glasses?"
"How do you feel about men with greenish blue eyes?" 
"How do you feel about sweet men who blush?"
"Would you ever date a guy in the Navy?"
"Are you fond of beat up pickup trucks and country boys?"
"Do you want to come to the Hard Deck this weekend?"
Anna was starting to get whiplash as she looked back and forth between the two of them. "Wait, I'm sorry. What? I thought we were talking about a place called Chippy's?"
"We were. But now we're talking about a man called Bob."
-----------------------
Omg omg omg. Okay, here we are with a story for our lovable Bob. Thanks for reading about the Sugarverse. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks @mak-32 and @beyondthesefourwalls
PART 2
@thedroneranger
@theamuz
@cherrycola27
@katiedid-3
@yuckosworld
@je-suis-prest-rachel
@callsign-magnolia
@avaleineandafryingpan
@t-nd-rfoot
@wkndwlff
@eddiemunsonreader
@wintercap89
@the-fever-of-mankind
@sio-ina-bottle
@lovingperfectionsblog
@daisydont-lie
@sappy-seresin
@birdy-bat-writes
@cutelittlefakejourneys
@cottagecori
@fandom-princess-forevermore
@sotalife
@novastories
@xoxabs88xox
@rileyanntoinette
@midnightmagpiemama
@greatszu
@zetasaturno99
@lovingrobertfloyd
@taytaylala12
@captain-fandomwriter58
@grxcisxhy-wp
@hobireasns
@wolfquake23
@smileybouquet
@paintlavillered
@seitmai
@noonenuts
@amiets2
@sylviebell
@imnotcreativeenoughforthisblog
@lonelysoul50
@sweetwhispersofchaos
566 notes · View notes
pathologicalreid · 6 months
Note
hii!! its me again!! please could i request another spencer reid x female!reader where spence is just reading a book and minding his own business, and then the reader comes along and wants his attention bc she's feeling a bit needy, so she starts bugging him to get his attention and its just really fluffy and ends up being really cute :)) thank you!!
Tumblr media
attention | S.R.
in which you attempt to get your boyfriends attention
who? spencer reid x fem!reader
category: fluff! tooth rotting sweet fluff!
content warnings: defined relationship, anna karenina, idk its just fluffy
word count: 569
a/n: howdy! thank you so much for the request!!!!! this was fun and sweet to write. i hope you enjoy <333
Tumblr media
He was sitting on the couch, his nose buried in a book. Spencer wasn’t purposely ignoring you, but his reread of Anna Karenina held all of his attention.
You were sat in the reading chair, a novel open in your hand, but at some point, your eyes had wandered from the ink to your boyfriend. In your defense, he had just been in Oregon on a case for a week, and this was the first time you’d seen him since.
Tilting your head to the side, you looked at him, “Spence?” You whispered, not wanting to interrupt him, and hoping he would look at you when he finished his page or chapter.
He didn’t budge. He kept his hand covering his mouth and every once in a while, his lips would move as he read. Realistically, you knew that he would be done reading the entire novel within an hour or two, but books be damned, you had missed him.
“Spence?” You tried again, tucking your bookmark in your book, and setting it on the side table. “Spencer,” you called his name in a sing-song voice.
Like Excalibur from the stone, he stayed put. You couldn’t help but smile at him, because you had always been fascinated by his ability to get lost in a novel, let alone a novel he’s read countless times before.
Giving it a rest, you got up, refilled your glass of water, and sat back down at the opposite end of the couch he was reading on.
Spencer reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind his ear, giving you hope that his attention was off the book, but he just went back to the book, never even lifting his eyes from the pages.
You set your water down on the coffee table before turning to face him again, the leather of the couch was cold even through the fabric of your clothes. Instinctively, you moved closer to Spencer, who radiated heat like a furnace during all four seasons.
He adjusted so that his legs were more extended across the couch and kept the book at eye level.
Sighing, you said his name again before resorting to slightly more extreme measures. Making your way across the couch so that you could poke your head through the slot between the book and his body. Acknowledging you, he hummed and gave you a dopey smile. “Hey,” He murmured against your lips when you leaned forward to kiss him.
Feeling accomplished, you laid down next to him and settled your cheek on his chest, “Hi, Spence.”
Spencer moved his arms so one was holding the book up and the other was lazily scratching up and down your back, “Do you want to get dinner later?” He whispered lowly like he was in a library. Really, in his apartment that wasn’t much of reach.
You nodded against the fabric of his sweater, “Yeah.” You peeked at his book, “Are you reading Anna Karenina in the original Russian?”
He hummed, “I read a translated version on the flight home, I want to compare the two versions and see… Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I think you’re perfect,” you whispered before setting your head back on his chest. “Continue reading, I’m good here,” you said, closing your eyes, intent on taking a nap.
Spencer pressed a gentle kiss to the crown of your head, “You’re perfect.”
Tumblr media
980 notes · View notes
flowerbetweenfangs · 16 days
Text
Marked By the Moon: Part One
CW: Dubcon due to heat/breeding. Originally posted on A03.
An oldie, but one of my favorites.
Buzzing shook the nightstand. Bluelight pierced through the blackness, making it impossible to ignore. 
Reaching forward, Carmen groped across the polished wood, then seized her phone. Sitting up on her bed, she pressed the glowing screen to her ear. Sleep clogged her throat and eyes as she grunted out a greeting. 
It was just after four in the morning. She knew better than to say “Someone better be dying”, because a call this early meant somebody probably was. 
“‘Lo?” She gurgled, blearily staring in the darkness. Sweat clung to her face and clothes in the summer heat. Her window was open, the breeze doing little to cool her off. 
“Carmen!” The voice on the other end was frantic. “You’re not going to believe this!” Several dogs barked and howled in the background. “I’m sorry for waking you up, but we’ve got an emergency surgery.” There were several grunts as her coworker pulled something. “I think some poachers got to him. It looks like he was torn open by a bear trap.” 
The words floated in the air, before bringing horrific images to mind. Carmen’s phone beeped, indicating there were messages sent, images attached to them. 
“I’ll be there soon,” Carmen was out of bed and throwing on her clothes. “Start prepping.” She pulled her dirty blonde hair back without brushing it, making sure it was secured in a knot at the back of her head. Squeezing into her jeans and a presentable shirt, she quickly grabbed her phone and quickly looked at the incoming messages. 
What followed were images of a male ginger wolf, with a large wound on his leg and shoulder. His fur was damp, having been cleaned up. There was a muzzle around his snout, but his eyes were open and alert. He looked directly at the camera with what could only be described as a lupine scowl. 
No matter how many injured animals she saw.  Carmen always sniffed and felt a pang of pity for them. From little Spot and Mittens getting into a spat to the various wildlife people brought in, every creature needed a caring touch. 
“He really tried to fight me when I put on the muzzle.”   Anna’s words read. “ But a good jab of sedatives has him going night night. He’ll be completely under when you get here.” 
“Sorry buddy,” Carmen said aloud to no one. “But your jaw could tear off our arms.” Shoving her phone back into her pocket, she started to psych herself up for the upcoming meeting with this new patient. There were several wolves in the area, but they tended to stay in the mountains and parks, away from the city. A local wildlife reserve rehabilitated them and worked closely with the clinic, taking on all sorts of feral creatures that didn’t belong in the city. 
The poor thing was probably all sorts of confused. 
Going to the bathroom, she splashed cold water on her face and sputtered, slapping her cheeks to wake herself up. Quickly, she brushed her teeth and let the rush of mint further energize her. This was going to be one for the books. 
Seizing a canned coffee from the fridge, Carmen grabbed her keys and stumbled out the door. Guzzling it down, she drove through the dark streets, slowing strategically at speed traps. The one good thing about her random late night trips, the normal people of the world were still asleep. Although it was nearing a full moon, so the crazies of the world would be out. 
Something dug into her hip. At first, she tried to ignore it, but it dug into the sensitive skin at every movement. It felt sharp. Adjusting how she sat, Carmen tried to keep her eyes on the road. She was waking up, but the risk wouldn’t be worth it. 
Once she pulled up to a stoplight, she looked down to see a flash of silver wrapped in a leather string. 
Reaching down, she fished it out and saw the trinket she’d bought a month ago, a piece of rose quartz with wire wrapped around it, a small crescent moon, tree, and wolf charm tied to the gemstone. It had been a weird impulse buy. She couldn’t help but think of how thematically appropriate it was. 
Ducking her head, Carmen slipped the leather over her head and tucked it under her shirt. The light turned green, and she floored it once she got on the highway. The night whipped by. Rolling down the windows, Carmen let out a scream to further wake herself up. It was going to be a long day. 
It was barely four thirty when she pulled into the animal hospital. 
Anna let her in before she reached for her badge. She looked frazzled, her eyes wide and bloodshot. There were small scratches covering her arms, but it was a side effect of the job they were more than used to. Passing off the coffee, Carmen took the clipboard and quickly skimmed the contents. They didn’t have a lot of time. 
“He’s completely out,” Anna said as they rushed to the surgery room. “I think he’s a juvenile. But it’s hard to tell.” 
“Then let’s make good use of the time,” Carmen stopped to wash her hands. Once she was certain they were sufficiently clean, she went through the door. 
On the metal table was the body of the wolf. His hind legs were being propped up by a stool. His paws and ears twitched in his sleep. Instead of chasing rabbits, he was probably thinking of chasing sheep. Or perhaps deer. Hell, he probably could take down a bear if he wanted to. 
“I knew wolves were massive, but this guy is just…” Carmen fanned herself with the clipboard, trying to wrap her head around the sight. 
“Huge?” Anna asked, arching a brow. “Even when I worked at the park as a teen, I don’t think the wolves there got this big.” She took a long drink from the coffee. “He’s bulky too. Nothing but muscle in there.” 
“Yeah.” Carmen rubbed her eyes. The sight of the patient had completely sobered her up and released sleep’s hold on her. “Alright. Let’s patch this guy up.” Approaching the table, she placed a hand on the wolf’s haunch. 
There was almost an audible snap as his jaw clenched, lips curling back to show his fangs. His whole body went rigid under her touch. Slowly, his upward eye opened and tracked, staring at her. 
Carmen’s stomach dropped and she sucked in a breath. His paw twitched, brushing against her thigh. His claws could easily tear open her clothing and skin if he so chose. Silvery drool dribbled from his mouth, hitting the floor with a wet smack. 
Blinking rapidly, Carmed put a hand to her chest and kept her breathing under control. The gemstone firm in her grip, she willed the wolf to go back under. Something tugged at her, and she smelled something… Musty. 
The wolf’s eye rolled back and slowly closed again, his body relaxing. The drooling stopped. When Carmed rubbed her eyes, the puddle of drool was gone.
She was more tired than she thought. But she needed to give this patient the best care. 
At least the sedatives were doing their work. Anna hadn’t seemed to notice the incident, having rushed to the front desk when the bell chimed, indicating they had another patient. No doubt this one would be making the rounds on social media, if not the local news. 
She washed off the wounds again, then made quick work of them. His skin and fur were so thick that her tools were warped and bent when she started. Putting away the tools, she went and found the newest set she’d managed to scrounge up the money for. 
 Sutures were simple. Once she’d pieced most of him together, she bandaged him up. It was almost comical to see an entire roll wrapped around his leg, tufts of fur peeking out between the cloth. His paw twitched when she touched it. 
Now she had to convince a wild animal to ignore his base instincts. With man’s best weapon. Painkillers and more sedatives. 
His eyes moved under the lid, his nostrils flaring and lips twitching. 
They didn’t have an Elizabethan collar big enough to put around his head. Carmen doubted it would stay on even if there was one. He would probably find some way to tear it off. 
Hurt, thrown into the hospital parking lot, muzzled, sedated, then probably going to wake up drugged out of his mind. 
“Don’t worry,” She said, patting the side of his head. “I’m sure the assholes who did this to you are going to get what’s coming to them.” His heartbeat thrummed under her fingers. Hands sinking into his fur, Carmen found it somewhat comforting. Warm. She found herself leaning down to rest her head on his side. Stopping herself, she pulled back. 
How tired was she? Maybe she should have drank the coffee instead of passing it off to Anna. 
Sighing, she rubbed her eyes. 
Then, there was a growl. 
Eyes opening, she saw the wolf staring at her again.
No, not staring. The light was gone from his eyes. His paws twitched, like he was running in place, but in his sleep. She debated on tying his paws, but knew the poor thing would only wake up more confused and scared. The sedatives would work on him for another couple hours. Moving the patient to another large kennel, she locked him inside. 
Exiting the room, Carmen went to the back room and sat down, curling up in a chair and closing her eyes. 
It felt like she’d only blinked when she opened them again. Her whole body was stiff and sore. Tilting her head back and forth, she heard her joints popping and cracking. Taking in a deep breath, she got up and went to check on the patient. 
He had been moved to the kennels, a private section to keep him away from the domestic pets. His head laid on a pillow, his whole body limp. The exhaustion came through the glass, his expression pitiful. 
“I called the Wildlife Reserve.” Anna said, coming in with a steaming mug. “They’ll be here to pick him up in half an hour. They had some… Colorful words for me when I told them we had already gone ahead and done surgery on him.” 
Carmen crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “I still want to know who the hell did this to him? Who sees an animal and thinks “You know what, I should hurt him?””
“I dunno. Crazy.” A buzzing rang through the room. Sighing, Anna turned on her heel and went to greet the customer who had just walked in. 
Walking up the glass, Carmen put her hand on it. The wolf tilted his head to look up at her, eyes looking sorrowful. His sides heaved, the barrier muffling the whines. 
Then, his head snapped to the area behind her. Looking back, Carmen saw uniformed men with a large cage. They towered over Carmen, their bodies thick with muscle. Their uniforms had the logo of the local wildlife reserve. 
“Oh. I thought you wouldn’t be here for a while.” Carmen straightened. 
“When we heard about the wolf, we had to make quick time.” One said, offering his hand. “Especially knowing he was injured.” The gloves were thick, ready to take on any bite. He was maybe mid thirties, with salt and pepper hair and dark eyes. 
Carmen took the hand, shaking it. She wasn’t even sure if  his fingers could move within the fabric. 
“Well, he seems to be responding well to the medication. Here’s what we dosed him with.” She found the chart and passed it over to the agent as the other moved to the wolf’s room. He was younger, maybe in his early twenties with dark hair pulled back into a tail. 
“Good. Thanks for taking care of him. We’ll try to see if he belongs to a pack not too far from here. If he doesn’t, then we’ll make sure to release him somewhere safe.” The man handed her a card. “If you want to visit him.” 
“Of course,” Carmen heard the sounds of a struggle. Whirling around, she saw the wolf snarling and growling, lunging at the Agent despite the muzzle. They had him in a hold with a catch pole. He went to try and paw it off, before collapsing with a yelp when he put weight on his injured legs. 
“Stand back, ma’am. I have to go help him.” The agent rushed into the room as the wolf continued to pull and twist, trying to get himself free. 
When he opened the door, the wolf suddenly shot forward, knocking him aside and heading straight for Carmen. 
“Shit!” Carmen didn’t have time to move as the wolf barreled into her. When she hit the ground, the Agents managed to get hold of him again. 
Then, he lifted up a massive paw and raked it across her arm. Two long crimson lines formed across the skin. Blood welled up, dripping onto the floor. 
“Carmen!” Anna shrieked, rushing over. “Oh my god, are you okay?” 
“It’s fine.” Carmen insisted, getting to her feet. Drops of crimson fell on the floor. The skin was already red and puffy. “Jesus.” She struggled to draw in breath, her heart leaping into her throat. 
The wolf continued to pull and tug at the Agents, but the second wind seemed to have gone out of him. Once they got him into the cage, the fight completely went out of him. With a metallic WHUMP, he collapsed, staring at Carmen through the bars. 
“You need to go to the hospital.” Anna insisted. “That looks bad.” 
“ER visit is not in the cards.” Carmen argued. “Can’t afford that.” She winced and cradled her arm. “How far away is the closest urgent care?” 
Walking to the desk, she pulled out a first aid kit, popping it open with one hand. At least they had plenty to handle small incidents. No way was she going to walk through the front lobby while bleeding like a stuck pig. Pulling out disinfectant, she went to the bathroom and applied it. 
The burning sensation nearly made her black out from the pain. Her head hit the wall, and she barely registered what Anna was saying. The other Agents were apologizing, or at least Carmen hoped so. 
“- about ten minutes?” Anna frowned. “I’ll fill out the incident report.” She looked Carmen up and down. “You don’t look so good, you should take the rest of the day off to rest. I’ll call someone from the other clinic and see if they can cover the surgeries. Thank God those guys knew the nearest Clinic offhand.” 
“Probably go there all the time themselves." Carmen shrugged. Anna reached over and helped hold her arm still. 
"Thanks, Doll.” Carmed winced again, seizing a roll of bandages and binding her arm the best she could. The Agents were gone, with the cage loaded in a trailer. “I’m not even mad. Poor boy was probably scared out of his mind.” 
***
The Urgent Care had just opened when she pulled up. Once admitted, she sat in the room, still cradling her arm. She didn’t dare unwrap the wound to get a better look at it. 
When the door opened, Carmen jerked her head up to look. 
The man who came through was older, maybe mid to late 40s. His hair was completely white, small bits of stubble on his face. Tired brown eyes looked her over, dark circles under them. A fatigue they both seemed to recognize and share a sympathetic half smile over. 
“Alright, tell me what happened.” His voice rumbled, still raspy from sleep. He held up a clipboard, clicking a pen to take notes. Old fashioned, then. She caught the name on his nametag, Esau Remington . 
“So, I’m a vet,” Carmen began, unwrapping her arm as she recounted what she thought was needed. He paid attention, unblinking and nodding. 
By the end, his brow was furrowed, the pen’s clicker tapping against his lips. 
“Are you sure it was a wolf and not a really big dog like a shepherd or a husky?” 
Fishing her phone out, Carmen showed him the pictures that Anna had sent her. His frown deepened, his brows rising to meet his hairline, the pen twirling back and forth between his fingers. The corner of his lip twitched, and he sucked in a sharp breath. 
“Well, I’ll be damned,” His cheeks flushed and he gave a nervous chuckle. 
“Sorry about the language. It’s not every day you see a wolf.” Clenching his jaw, he looked at the wound on her arm. “Just the scratch? He didn’t bite you anywhere?” 
Carmen shook her head. “No. They had a muzzle on him.” She winced as he rolled her arm between his fingers to look the gash over, making sure there was nothing inside it. The skin was more swollen, the congealing scabs weeping with clear fluid. “I’m up to date on my rabies shots and the like, unless you think I should take a booster?” 
Shaking his head, Dr. Remington sighed. “No, I think you do need sutures though. He did a number on you.” 
The pen scribbled as he took down a few notes. “I’m going to write you a prescription for some antibiotics and steroids. Take them all , even if you feel better.” The tone did not offer an argument. “And I’m going to recommend you take the next few days off. If you have a wily patient, you’re going to rip the sutures back open.” 
Carmen let a groan slip past her lips. The Doctor seemed taken aback, pen pausing mid scribble. Brow cocked, he looked her over. 
“I’ve got a lot of patients I need to look after.” She complained. “The wolf was a wild card, normally I just handle check ups.” 
“I’m sure your patients would appreciate you in a healthy state.” Remington argued back gently. “Take some time off, don’t strain yourself.”
  He looked over his shoulder, then back to her. “I know when I have some days cleared in my schedule, I like to go camping with some of my friends. We go hiking, swimming, and get to see nature.” Looking pointedly at her wound, he shrugged. “Although it wouldn’t surprise me if you’re a little sick of nature right now.” 
With a sigh, he began to prep her arm. Another round of disinfectant, making her hiss with pain. 
“I don’t mind nature.” Carmen shrugged, wincing as he began to apply the first suture. “Just don’t know if it’s a good idea to make a spontaneous trip into the woods with a messed up arm.” She tried to force a smile, but hissed when he pinched her wound closed. 
Dr. Remington tilted his head to the side with a grunt of agreement. “True. But it was just a suggestion.” His Adam’s Apple bobbed and he swallowed hard, his lips moist. “Not to mention the meds you’re on… Probably will make you too woozy to do anything strenuous.” He chuckled. “I got a little ahead of myself, sorry.” 
Carmen shrugged. “I get it. A little early, trying to wake yourself up.” 
"I find it hard to sleep some nights. Especially around this time of the  month. Always finding people doing stupid things. Must be the full moon." 
Once he’d finished stitching her up, he presented her with a prescription and doctor’s note. After calling the clinic back, Carmen assured Anna that she would be back as soon as possible. 
At home, she popped the first round of pills and collapsed onto her bed. 
When Carmen woke up next, sweat soaked her sheets. Panting, she pulled herself from her blanket cocoon. The cool air of the night was like ice. Shivering, she popped another round of meds, then  got into the shower, letting the water pour over her. 
The sweat and grime from sleep rolling down into the tub made her feel a little more like a human. Her phone was blowing up with texts from Anna and other coworkers. Pushing her phone aside, Carmen collapsed onto her bed again, shivering and trying to cover herself up enough to combat the shivers, but not feel overheated. 
Shaking, she tried to claim sleep, but it refused to come. Getting up, she began to pace back and forth across the floor, feet slapping loudly across the hardwood. The walls around her seemed to close tighter. 
Opening her window, she popped out the screen and leaned out. A spell of dizziness hit her. Head swimming, she nearly fell forward. Holding tightly to the sill, she yanked herself back in, rear slamming hard against the floor. Leaning against her bed, she took a few shaky breaths. 
Closing her eyes, she drug the sweat soaked blanket down from her bed and wrapped it around herself, falling into a fitful sleep. 
When the first rays of sun pierced the open window, chilly winds of dawn rolled over Carmen and made her hair stand on end. The necklace pressed into her hip, leaving red indents over her skin. Fishing it out, she simply tossed it aside, watching it skitter across the floor and come to a rest against her dresser. 
Crawling to the window, she pulled it closed and then collapsed under it. Curling into the fetal position, Carmen fell into another fitful sleep. 
She found herself standing next to a woman made of stone. A crescent moon covered her eyes like a mask, her mouth open in a howl. A silver wolf draped itself across her lap, head thrown back to mimic hers. Cracks and chipped off pieces had worn it down, but it still held a beauty to it. 
The grass around it was green and lush. Thick trees grew around the statue, the song of the forest crying out. Animals, insects, bubbling streams, wind, all of it calling out to something in her. Taking a few steps forward, she looked at the wolf. Its stone eye seemed to move, looking right at her. Even though she was clothed, it made her feel naked and nervous. Stomach flipping, she took a few steps back. 
“Come to me, my child.” A woman’s voice whispered in the wind. 
The golden sun had become the silvery moon when Carmen opened her eyes again. Her whole body ached. A throbbing in her head and arm helped drag her away from the land of sleep. She saw the necklace tightly clutched in her grip, leaving an impression of the moon in her palm. 
Every muscle protested when Carmen drug herself off the floor and took the meds. They went down hard, nearly making her throw it back up. 
Filling up a tall drink of water, she guzzled it down to fill her stomach. Hunger gnawed at her, staving off sleep. Breathing hard, she took another shower and let the hot water soothe her muscles. 
The strange fever and fatigue had worn off, replaced with an energy that she hadn’t felt in years. Blood sang in her veins, wanting to run. Even in the shower, she found herself shifting from one foot to the other, eager to start… Something. 
Stepping out of the shower, she found herself dressing quickly. Hair still damp, she pulled it back and mapped out a potential run she could do. She just had to go outside. Get away from the walls of plaster and sheetrock. 
A smell made her pause. It was buried under her smell. But she could still pick it up. Pulling out her pants from the other day, she pulled out the business card and sniffed it. A small drop of blood was on the corner. Hers? No. The scent drove her wild. She held it close and inhaled deeply, before pulling it back. 
“What the hell am I doing?” Setting it back down, Carmen rubbed her face, sweat pouring down her brow. She stared at the address, the image of the wolf coming to her mind. 
He stared at her, looking pitiful. Then, his claws flashed and raked across her arm. When she fell to the ground, she saw the statue. 
“ Come to me, my child .” The woman’s voice whispered in the wind again. “ Join the hunt. ” 
Walking outside, Carmen let the night air roll over her and went to the car, heart thrumming. Pulling out her phone, she punched the address of the wildlife reserve and then prepared to travel. 
Her drive was a blur. Tunnel vision made her unaware of how fast she arrived, or even if she was driving safely. Static crackled in her ears, making her hair stand on end. 
The mechanical voice telling her she’d arrived at her destination was what brought her back. She stared at the spot illuminated by her headlights. A line of trees, then a chain link fence. More foliage behind that, but it was too thick to see past. 
Getting out of the car, Carmen slammed the door and began to take a few steps toward the fence. The wind shifted, blowing a scent toward her. Wrapping her fingers around the links, Carmen inhaled.
  Closing her eyes, she let the smell wash over her. It caressed her very being, tugging at something within her. Dropping to her knees in front of the fence, she clenched the links tight enough for her knuckles to turn white and her injured arm to throb. Metal warped under her grip, the coppery scent of blood following. 
Bringing her hands down, Carmen saw crimson pooling in her palm. A laugh escaped her and she sat with her back to the fence. Lapping at the wound, shook her head. 
“What on earth am I doing?” She started to stand. Her body protested at the movement. The soreness was back with a vengeance. Closing her eyes, she pressed her bandaged hand to her face, pulling it away to see it soaked with sweat and grime. 
Staggering to her feet, she ignored the tantalizing scent as she headed back to her car. When Carmen put her hand on the roof, the smell hit her like a load of bricks. Opening her eyes wide, she turned back around to look at the line of trees. The area around her was tinted with a silvery-blue hue, but it was almost as bright as day. 
This had to be a dream. None of this made sense. Leaning down, she touched her forehead to the warm metal of the car. 
“Just wake up.” She urged herself. “You’re having a bad reaction to the medicine.” 
Slowly, she raised her head. 
Time seemed to slow down. Turning back toward the fence, she felt her feet moving on their own, dragging across the asphalt. 
Something glistened on the links in the silvery light. Reaching out, she brushed her knuckle to it. Once she touched the metal, it sent a jolt through her.  
Then, she saw the small gap in the links. Someone had cut through it with bolt cutters. But they’d put it back to where it was almost invisible to anyone far enough away. No wonder she had been able to bend the metal so easily.
 Clenching the fence, she pulled it back and crawled through, metal raking across her back. Wincing, she dropped to her stomach and drug herself through, feeling more tugs at her clothing. 
Once she stood up, her arm was throbbing, the pain making her head spin. Staggering, she sniffed the air. The scent was stronger than before. Her whole body ached, but she had to follow it. Cradling her arm, she began a slow walk. 
Cicadas cried, a creek flowed, and the wind continued to blow, stirring a few stray wisps of her hair out of its knot at the back of her head. 
Then, she came to a break in the trees, showing a sheer drop. In the meadow, a group of wolves ran around, wrestling and snapping at one another. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw one stop, then stand up on its hind legs and sniff the air. It turned a massive head around to look right at her. 
“I knew you’d come.” A voice called behind her. It was gruff, like it wasn’t used to speaking. As it rumbled through her ears, Carmen’s hair stood on end. 
Slowly, Carmen turned to see a bipedal wolf looking at her, its hindleg bandaged and stiff. Its shoulder was also wrapped up. 
The wolf took a few shaking steps toward her. Then, it dropped down onto all fours. Even then, it still looked her in the eye. Drool glistened on its teeth as it licked its muzzle. Then, she saw the same eyes, in what she recognized as a lupine scowl. 
Her ginger wolf from the clinic. 
Now she knew she was dreaming. 
It took another step toward her. She backed away, stopping when she felt the give of the ground, warning her of the drop below. Heart hammering in her throat, she could only stare at the wolf as it took a few steps closer to her.
Her stomach fluttered. Fear? No. Something else she couldn’t identify. Head swimming, she tried to string thoughts together to make a plan of escape. However, her vision began to blur. Daring to blink, she took in a shaking breath. 
Something tore through the grass. But she didn’t dare take her eyes off the creature approaching her. Caught between a rock and a hard place, she focused on the visible threat. 
“The Goddess has blessed you. And you’ve been marked by her hounds.” Ginger grumbled, nose nearly touching her. The inhales were strong, almost like a human. 
“You’ve gone into heat.” His tongue lolled out of his mouth, hot breath rolling over her skin. Something about it made the ache worse, spreading it through Carmen so fast she nearly screamed. “You’ll send the rest of the pack into rut.” 
Then, a large silver wolf slammed into the ginger, swatting him with a human shaped front paw. The action was so quick, Carmen could only gape. Her knees nearly gave out, but she managed to keep herself upright. If she went over the cliff, she’d drop and probably break below. But if this was a dream… 
Ginger flew back, screaming in pain. The noise shook her thoughts loose and she gasped, reaching out for him. Crimson blossomed on the bandaged haunch and shoulder. His back legs gave out as he struggled to get on all fours again.
“You bastard!” He barked at the silver wolf. “You broke my leg!” Yelping, he looked at Carmen with pleading eyes. “Help me!” 
Carmen took a step forward, only to feel a hand clamp on her shoulder. Claws dug into her skin, making her stand still. Then, she was whirled around to face the silver wolf, who towered over her. 
“You shouldn’t be out here.” The voice rasped. “Not without being taken into the pack first.” His nostrils flared, his pupils blowing all the way out as he stared at her. Brown eyes, glinting with the want for a hunt. His scent overpowered Carmen. 
Squeezing her eyes shut, she whispered to wake up over and over again. 
The fear held fast to her, not allowing her to move a muscle in fear of both wolves tearing her to shreds. 
Then, the hand on her shoulder went to her waist, picking her up. Before she could scream, it squeezed tight enough to push the air from her lungs. Finally, she opened her eyes to see that she was moving. Well, the wolf was walking, simply carrying her like a ragdoll. His massive paws had wrapped around her, although he’d taken care to not scratch her further with his claws. 
Ginger flew at them with a snarl, his back leg suddenly seeming to work perfectly. 
Silver swatted at him, then heaved. The wolf flew through the air, screaming as he went down into the meadow below. When he hit the ground, the crunch echoed through the night. Carmen felt sick, her stomach heaving. Covering her mouth, she squeezed her eyes shut again. 
There was a grunt. Air whipped around Carmen, stirring the scents again. An impact jostled her, and she opened her eyes. They’d landed in the meadow, the other wolves approaching, much more cautious in their steps. A few sniffed, inching closer with flared nostrils, but never close enough to touch. 
The smell made her mind swim. Heat flushed in her cheeks, and she shivered. All the eyes on her were like hands, caressing her very being. Each one hungrily taking her in, assessing her. 
The ruined pile of fur and bone groaned. 
“Your brother decided to go against the rules and try to bring another member into our ranks. Without permission. Or consent, for that matter.” Silver growled. “So now, he must put himself at the mercy of Diana.” He set Carmen down, setting his massive hand on her shoulder so she couldn’t run. His touch froze her further. Not even a breath passed her lips. 
The wolves sat or laid down in the grass, staring at the pair. They knew who the one in charge was. 
“What’s going on?” Carmen choked out, eyes watering. “Please. Tell me or let me wake up.” She slapped her cheeks, stopping when Silver’s hand wrapped around her entire uninjured forearm. It was a gentle, but firm grip. 
“No one touches her.” Silver insisted, before forcing her to face him. His eyes seemed to stare into her very being. They looked alert, but so tired. More fluid dribbled onto her legs and shoes. But she didn’t dare break the gaze. To assert dominance with a canine, you couldn’t be the first to break eye contact. 
Hopefully the same rules applied to lupines. Alpha and Omega only applied to captive and family packs, but this was all she knew to work with. 
As they stared at one another, Carmen felt the fear and desire to know more about everything warring with one another. Part of her wanted to escape the dream no matter how, the other part wanted to stay and listen. Sit on her haunches like the other wolves, watching him speak. 
His eyes explored hers, flicking over her form to take her appearance in. The gleam only added to his dangerous look. His pupils were slightly dilated, his muzzle twitching. His tongue tasted the air around her. 
Silver broke away first. A sigh of relief escaped her, and she dropped to her knees. Silver’s grip on her arm didn’t release. Closing her eyes, she urged herself to wake up. 
Then, she was being pulled back to her feet. Arms cradled her, twisted and alien enough to make her uneasy, despite the strength behind them. She tried to not shake, but her body refused to listen. 
“What do we do?” One of the wolves asked. “Her scent is going to roll on the wind. If she’s changed, there might be others we don’t know about.” 
“Guard the entrances. Make sure no one else gets in.” Silver rumbled, before he started to walk, each step jostling Carmen enough to nearly make her cry out. 
Then, he took her away from the meadow. There was a hole on the side of the cliff. Bowing his head, Silver brought her inside. Only then did he set her down on the stone floor. Once he’d done that, he went to the mouth of the cave and sat down. 
“Can you please tell me what’s going on?” Carmen begged, not daring to move from her spot. “Did… Did you kill that wolf?” She’d have to call the Wildlife reserve when she woke up to check on him. 
“No. If Diana is merciful, he will be healed when the moon and sun switch.” Silver didn’t look at her. “You care about the one who did this to you? Was he your mate?” 
The question made Carmen blush. “N… No. I just…” Her brain felt addled. Why was she getting flustered over a wolf? “I took care of him. He was already hurt.” 
Silver snorted. “We’re sturdy. Don’t worry.” He slammed his paw on the ground. The open palm slapped hard, the noise amplified in the cave. Carmen resisted the urge to clap her hands over her ears. “As you saw, he wasn’t nearly as injured as he pretended to be.” 
Still, getting flung over the side of the cliff… 
Carmen shuddered. “I just… I want to go home. Or wake up.” She scratched at the side of her head. The blood on her palm smeared on her cheek. 
Silver turned to look at her sideways. “You think this is a dream?” 
“Talking wolves, seeing them walk upright, it’s like a werewolf movie.” Swallowing, Carmen flinched when she felt the sting of pain, more blood dripping on her clothing. 
Standing upright, Silver approached her, taking her hand in his massive paws. Rolling it back and forth, he stared at it. Then, he slowly leaned down and ran a large pink tongue over the wound. The sensation sent a shiver up Carmen’s spine. 
The wound slowly began to shrink, before sealing itself closed. Carmen stared at it in awe. She flexed her fingers and brushed them against the twisted digits that now clutched her hand. Silver’s fur suddenly bristled, and he dropped her hand, turning away from her again. 
“You are werewolves, aren’t you?” Swallowing hard, Carmen tried to calm the roaring in her ears. 
“Correct.” Silver sighed. “We don’t bring pack members in willy nilly. It was supposed to be a tight ring.” He scratched at the ground, his claws bringing up grains of stone. “And not without my permission. Every werewolf in this pack is under my protection. They abide by my rules. In exchange, they are given this area to run every cycle.” 
“Why haven’t I changed?” The words were hard to force out. 
“You’re refusing to.” Silver turned to face her fully. “You’ve surely felt the way your body is hurting? How you need to do something, but you’re not sure what?” His nostrils flared, his pupils nearly overtaking his iris. “The Goddess has touched you. But you’ve managed to keep control, I’m impressed.” 
His hands shook as he reached for her. Claws traced her cheeks, making her hair stand on end. The scent of him was overpowering, making her mouth almost water. Something in her ached. 
“You are safe now. If you give into the change, you will not harm yourself or others.” He assured her. “I will take you into the pack. Every moon, we will come here. Once you are recognized as a member, we’ll do what we can to make sure that this is as painless as possible.” 
His hands on her, the rumbling of his voice, his scent, the way the air tasted around him drove Carmen crazy. Trembling, she felt herself nearly falling again. Why was she so weak in the knees? 
Something in her finally let go. The world exploded in silvery blue, the scents, sounds, and feelings overpowering her. Gasping, she felt her back arch. 
She suddenly jolted forward, slipping from the grip of Silver. He stared at her with wide eyes, flinching when she touched him. Burying her hands into his fur, inhaled his scent, listening to the rapidly increasing beat of his heart. 
The touch seemed to awaken something in him, his rapidly growing erection brushed against her midriff, pushing the hem of her shirt up. 
“N-no.” He weakly tried to push her away, nearly tripping over his feet as he tried to get away from her. “You can’t.” 
A fire formed in Carmen’s belly. She felt the emptiness inside her clawing up into her womb, begging to be filled. Dropping to her knees, she panted, sweat trickling down her brow and upper lip. 
“Please.” She said, her mouth dry. “Please. Help me.” Her eyes widened and she felt heat flash through her. The scent rolling off her mingled with the air. It was hard to resist the urge to tear off her clothes and start plunging fingers inside herself. 
Silver’s erection grew, beads of precum dribbling from the tip as he inhaled her scent, tasting it in the air. Silvery saliva drooled out of his mouth, and he stared at her. But he didn’t dare move. His hand gripped the mouth of the cave, looking ready to rip it down rather than come near her. 
“You must have your first change,” He urged her. “Please. Let the Wolf inside come out.” He flexed his free hand. “My fangs and claws would rip you to shreds.” His voice was growing more raspy, each word a chore to push past his teeth. 
Carmen’s body twisted as she cried out with a need she’d never felt the intensity of before. Her throat felt raw from the primal screams escaping her. She tried to find the part of her mind and push for the change to occur. Begging the wolf to come out. 
The other wolves were making their way over. Their scent made Carmen launch herself, only for Silver to clothesline her. With a grace that suggested practice, he managed to push her back into the cave. With his hand still tight around her waist, he laid Carmen on the floor. 
“Diana, forgive me for what I’m about to do.” He muttered, holding her to the ground. “You can’t scream like that. You’ll make every wolf in the area come running.” His cock brushed against Carmen’s clothed groin, the sensation sending another blast of lust through her. 
“Please.” Carmen panted, unable to catch her breath. “Help me.” Eyes watering, she reached for the Wolf’s arm, gripping it tightly enough she thought she might burst her stitches. 
“I could rip you in half.” He shook his head. “You’re not changed. You’re not made for it.” His nostrils flared, his hands shaking and gripping her tighter. 
“Help me change.” She urged him. “Please.” Why was she in so much pain if it was a dream? There was no way she’d been this horny in real life. Sure, she’d wanted sex before, but never this bad.
Sighing, he looked over his shoulder to the entrance of the cave. It was empty. But each movement and second he made her wait was agonizing. 
Slowly, he took his hand off her. With considerably less grace and control, he tore off her pants and underwear. The full scent of her arousal hit him. His hand slammed the open area above her head, his cock dribbling onto her thighs. A few drops landed on her exposed groin. Crying out, she bucked her hips up, reminding him what needed to be filled. 
Leaning down, he nuzzled against her neck, his nose cold. Fangs traced over her skin, making her gasp. Warmth followed as his tongue went across her neck, trailing to the collar of her shirt, leaving a large wet spot. Tensing, he ran his hand up her stomach, slipping it under the fabric of her top. 
It rested there, his open palm’s warmth mingling with her own. Slowly, he slipped it off her, taking care to not tug on the bandages on her injured arm. His claws tore through the cheap fabric of her sports bra, but the loss wasn’t going to break her heart. 
His eyes rested on the necklace now laying against her chest. 
“Diana forgive me,” He said again, before pushing her legs apart. His fur tickled her bare skin. It was softer than she thought it would be. Lowering his head, he lapped at the wetness forming between her legs and spilling out into the floor. 
The touch of his tongue made her cry out. Her legs locked around Silver’s head, forcing him to inhale her scent and arousal completely. Whether the motion or her cries finally made him let go, it seemed to awaken something in him. 
Growling, he sent a rumble through her that shook her very being. Breath escaped her, and she fell back flat, drowning in the pleasure. 
Grabbing Carmen’s thigh, Silver plunged his tongue in deep, rolling his head with each lick. She thought she would scream, but all that came out were quiet moans of satisfaction. Her hands tried to grab at something, to distract her from the sensation long enough to hold her rapidly approaching climax. She settled on resting her hand on his head, pushing him in further. 
Her legs went slack, shaking with desire. He gave a few more licks, before pulling back and running his tongue over her clit. Each movement sent a wave of pleasure over Carmen, making her cry out and arch her back, wanting to be filled again. 
Then, he pulled back, fur slick with her arousal. Breathing heavy, the Wolf stared at her entrance, his warm breath tickling her wet folds. Leaning down, he licked the ground and lapped up every drop of her that had spilled out. 
He picked her up off the ground, pressing her to the wall. Carmen’s legs snaked around his waist, barely able to hold herself up. Rocking his hips, Silver, growled in her ear. The breath tickled the curve of her neck, making her shiver. 
“Tell me you want it.” He rasped, the tip prodding against her. She could feel their fluids mixing together, dirtying the cave floor. 
Wrapping her arms around his neck, Carmen nodded. 
“P-Please.” She begged. 
Then, he entered her. She was so slick it slid right in. Once she’d wrapped around him, he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her down. Rolling his hips, he thrust up into her. Arms wrapped around Carmen’s body, he kept her from scraping against the stone of the cave. Cradling her head, he had her look at him. 
“Your pupils are so wide, I can’t see your iris anymore.” He growled, each thrust sending pleasure through Carmen. “I didn’t think my cock would fit, but you’re taking it so well.” The words weren’t teasing or hurtful, he seemed just as surprised as her. “It’s like you were made for me. There’s a little bit of the wolf getting teased out.” 
Carmen couldn’t deny the pleasure sweeping through her. She wriggled her hips and took him to the base, gripping him tighter. The growl that escaped him was one of pleasure. His thrusts were strong, each one filling her with white hot heat. Every moan and gasp that escaped her echoed loudly in the cave, no doubt funneling into the meadow. 
“Hold me tightly.” He encouraged her. “Scratch, bite, yell, let yourself fall to your base instincts.” His thrusts became almost vicious, impaling Carmen and reaching deeper than she thought possible. 
She screamed, tearing at his fur. The cries encouraged him further, and he bucked his hips hard, slamming into her. Bareback scraping against the wall, Carmen took it all in, pleasure building in her stomach and bringing her closer. 
There was no way she should have been able to take his cock. It was too big. The thought of it entering would have made her scoff, but now she was drawing it into her like it had always belonged. 
Then, she grew uncomfortably tight. Wincing, she dug her nails into his thick fur. Part of her was tempted to bite down on his shoulder, but the sensation would probably shock him into letting go of her. 
She grew more slick, wanting to take him all the way in, thicker cock be damned. It needed to be all the way inside when he came. Rolling her hips, she tried to press herself down against him when he thrust up. 
“Fuck… The knot.” Silver panted. “I’m about to-” 
He winced when she wrapped her legs tighter around him. “Wait, I’m going to-” His eyes were clouded with lust, his tongue lapping her neck. Words became grunts and growls 
Carmen’s body tensed. Throwing her head back, she nearly slammed it against the wall of the cave as the orgasm ripped through her. She clenched down onto the cock inside her. 
The pressure made Silver howl, and he erupted. Thick ropes of fluid filled Carmen, then dripped onto the floor. Two more aftershocks followed, although they paled in comparison to the first, merely spilling more onto the stone and Silver’s feet. 
Panting, Silver brought her down, collapsing onto the cave floor. His rapidly shrinking and softening cock was still slick with Carmen’s wetness. 
Carmen crawled over to him, falling onto his chest. His rapidly beating heart gradually slowed, his shallow breaths becoming deeper. Within moments, he was snoring. 
Closing her eyes, Carmen laid against his sleeping form. Even though he was a beast, it felt safe. His clawed hand rested against her thigh, the other encircling her chest and pulling her to him. 
***
Slants of light fell on Carmen. Groaning, she tried to move. Soreness filled her body, her joints and muscles straining against the movement as she tried to rouse herself. The floor underneath her was cold and hard. Hadn’t she closed the window last night? 
Looking down, she saw her naked body. Bruises traced up and down her hips and thighs. Stone was beneath her, scents of sex and animal mixing with her nose. 
Warm hands clutched her close. A half hard cock rubbed against her leg. 
“Mmm…” The person holding her groaned, pulling her back down to the ground. Stubble scraped against her bare shoulder, followed by a kiss. Squirming, she resisted the urge to twist away. 
“Morning.” The grogginess was clear in the voice. 
Carmen felt a familiar soreness between her legs. Panic seized her when she realized what had happened wasn’t a dream. 
Slowly, she turned to look down at her partner. 
And into the half asleep face of Doctor Remington. 
157 notes · View notes
jikookuntold · 1 month
Text
What Is Like Crazy About?
Since the day "Like Crazy" was released, I wanted to post about it, but couldn't get the time to focus and do a comprehensive analysis. Finally, right before the first anniversary of this masterpiece, I got the time, and the post is ready now. Before starting off, I have to remind you of the fact that a work of art can be interpreted in many different ways, and none of those interpretations are necessarily right or wrong. Every work of art contains a message that is the artist’s main intention from that creation, but the artist doesn’t have to explain it to the audience because a true work of art speaks for itself, even though not all audiences can receive it thoroughly.
I know that in the past year, so many different types of analyses and theories were made by fans to explain this song, and most definitely, I couldn’t keep up with all of them. Therefore, I’m not claiming my analysis to be a breakthrough, and you might have read most parts of it somewhere else. In this post, we are going to discuss “Like Crazy” from a lyrical and conceptual point of view, trying to find out what message or messages Jimin wanted to convey by creating it.
Tumblr media
About “Like Crazy”
“Like Crazy” as the title track for Jimin's first solo album, "FACE", stole the hearts of millions of fans and locals around the world, and inarguably became one of the most successful pop songs of the year 2023. I can talk for hours about how beautiful and successful “Like Crazy” is, and how it broke KPop boundaries and countless records. But, in this post, we are going to break to the surface and talk about the meanings and motivations behind this song and answer the questions like “How this song was made?” “What was Jimin's intention in writing these romantic lyrics?”
As I mentioned earlier, artists usually don’t directly address their main message and their intention in creating a form of art, but many of them speak about the motivations and inspirations that led them to the creation. Jimin hasn’t talked much about the sources of inspiration behind individual tracks of “FACE”, but I guess “Like Crazy” was an exception for him because he revealed on several occasions that he was inspired by “Like Crazy”, the movie. And this piece of information is the key to our analysis:
"I tried to express the feelings of that movie. You know, the somewhat complex, somewhat lonely, somewhat happy emotions. I tried to express all these ambiguous and subtle emotions in a slightly sexy way, but I’m not sure how it’ll end up being received by people.”
Like Crazy, The Movie
First of all, we need to keep in mind that “Like Crazy” is a completely original song, and Jimin has not used or sampled any songs, lines, or dialogues from the movie in his lyrical or visual concepts (even the intro and outro dialogues in the song were original and not from the movie). If Jimin had not stated his source of inspiration directly, the only hint that could have led us to it would be the title of the song, which duplicates the title of the movie since the title never appears in the lyrics.
So, Jimin chose this specific name for his song and announced his source of inspiration to make it clear that there is a straight and strong connection between the song and the movie. He made it clear that this connection is 100% conceptual and emotional, and if we want to know what “Like Crazy” is about, and what ambiguous and subtle feelings Jimin is talking about, we have to redirect the analysis to the concept of the movie, “Like Crazy”.
As we all know, “Like Crazy” is a romantic movie, and Drake Doremus directed it casting "Felicity Jones" and the late "Anton Yelchin" as the main characters, Anna and Jacob. Doremus based the storyline of this low-budget movie on his experience being in a long-distance relationship with his partner and developed it into a 90-minute-long movie, which was released in 2011 and became relatively successful.
Tumblr media
Anna and Jacob
A few days before the release of “FACE”, I was informed that the title track, “Like Crazy” is based on a movie of the same name. After learning this fact, I had to re-watch it because I couldn’t remember anything after a decade, and I had some questions like: “What was in this movie that made it so special for Jimin?” “How would Jimin feel watching this?”. Having this mindset helped me to see the movie differently, but before explaining those new insights we need a short storyline of the movie:
Anna is a British exchange student in LA, where she falls in love with Jacob, an American student, and they start dating. Anna, blinded by her love for Jacob, overstays her student visa and consequently gets banned from re-entering the United States. After experiencing a forced LDR, Jacob flies to London to visit Anna, and her father suggests that getting married might resolve the issue, but they are not ready for this big step. Jacob goes back to LA and basically chooses his job over Anna, but after some time, they realize that they can’t be apart, and they decide to get married. Six months after the marriage, when the time for the appeal of Anna’s ban comes, it gets rejected, and they lose their last hope of being together. Again, they go back to their sad lives, but after some time, Anna is finally offered a visa, and she leaves everything behind to reunite with Jacob. The ending scene shows how this separation has damaged their relationship, and things will never be the same.
The movie portrays the hardships of a long-distance relationship and the damage the separation can do to two souls and their connection. I think the recent movie by "Celine Song" named "Past Lives" was partially similar to like crazy, but also there was a big difference; unlike Nora and Haesung in “Past Lives”, Anna and Jacob don’t leave it to fate, they don’t forget about each other and don’t settle down with others just because their love seemed difficult or impossible.
They found true happiness only next to each other and did everything against all odds (especially Anna) to take that back. Maybe if Anna and Jacob weren’t in love like crazy and were more mature and realistic, they would end up like Nora and Haesung (Sorry if this spoiled that movie for you), but they didn’t and made their own bittersweet ending.
Many people claim that “Like Crazy” is a breakup movie with a sad ending, therefore, Jimin’s song also must be a breakup song. But, first of all, the ending can somehow be considered an open ending. We don’t know what happens after the shower scene, but we see them together, in each other’s arms, and this is not a totally sad ending by any movie standards. Other than that, Anna and Jacob became separated a few times, but they don't officially break up by choice, their separation is the result of contractual rules and laws, made by society.
This movie, as its director explained, might be originally about a long-distance relationship, but also the main relationship in this movie can be seen as a relationship that gets strained by laws and regulations, it’s about the rules and imaginary borders that decide if two people can be together or ban them from it. It’s a story of the “love against law”.
A Heterosexual Love Story?
When “Like Crazy” was released in theatres back in 2011, it got positive reviews for good acting that made the movie feel sweet and intimate with mostly improvised dialogues. Meanwhile, the negative reviews were focused on the plotline of this drama, calling it far from reality. Other than the fact that Jacob could have easily resolved this issue by taking his job from LA to London, in reality, the couple wouldn’t have faced this much difficulty over the legal complications, especially after getting married.
The fact is, straight couples usually never face this kind of hardship, and governments take that easy on them otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many sham marriages around the world just to get citizenship. So, the idea of a couple getting separated by law is not common, and that’s why many people called this movie implausible. But, a queer person can familiarly receive this implausibility, like when they want to be with someone forever, but the laws don’t let them.
Could it be this feeling that made “Like Crazy” special and a source of inspiration for Jimin? Or was it something smaller like the Santa Monica beach scene? I have no answer, I only make theories, and I think it’s better to leave the movie here and start the lyrical interpretation to see how these words and feelings can get connected.
The Lyrics
[Intro]
(I think we could last forever (I'm afraid that everything will disappear Just trust me)
As I said earlier, this intro is not a dialogue from the movie, but the narrators were told to do it based on the audio from the movie that was sent to them. So, hypothetically, it’s Anna and Jacob having this conversation. He is afraid of losing everything, but Anna assures him that if he trusts her, they can last forever. In the MV, we see Jimin standing in the crowd, but the time goes in reverse, and through a transition into his eyes, we see him sitting alone. Weirdly, the outro of the song is playing in the background here, but we will figure out the reason later.
[Verse 1]
Korean Version, Translated
She's saying Baby, don't think about it There's not a bad thing here tonight Baby, it's fine if you leave Stay with me, just for today
English Version
She's saying, Baby, come and follow me There's not a bad thing here tonight Save your reasons all for later Stay with me a little while
Anna asks him to follow her and assures him that everything is fine, it’s fine if this is not going to last long. It’s not the time for reason and overthinking. The gendered pronoun here refers to Anna, but we will know more about her in the next verses. It is worth mentioning that in the primary handwritten lyrics by Jimin, there was no “She” and it was modified later considering the dialogues added to the intro. Anyway, we know Jimin didn’t release these drafts in his album for no reason.
Tumblr media
In this part of the MV, we see Jimin sitting alone in a room, and with a flicker of lights, the room is filled with mud. Suddenly, a muddy hand of a girl grabs Jimin’s hand and leads him to a party. There are several symbols in this part, the lonely room is Jimin’s reality, and the party is his dream. The mud symbolizes dreams and desires that leave their trace on your life and soul.
[Verse 2]
Korean Version, Translated
Watch me go Drenching myself all night (Away) So that even the morning Gets drunk and doesn't arrive
English Version
Watch me go Now, I sink down, all alone away Where am I? A dark haze clouding up my eyes
From here, we don’t see the girl because Jimin and the girl became one. She was her reflection from the beginning, the side that leads him out of his loneliness, and allures him to his dreams and desires, tempts him to be careless and stop thinking too much. Some say she is Jimin’s Anima, but these lyrics never go to the deep levels of the subconscious to reach the Anima. She is his feminine side that is a tangible side of him, and Jimin’s asymmetric makeup gives it away. Also, the mirrored moves between Jimin and the female dancer in “Like Crazy’s” choreography made it clear that the feminine presence in this song is Jimin’s reflection.
[Pre-Chorus]
Korean Version, Translated
As the loud music I get faded out A cliché story like a drama I get used to it Have I come too far to find the me that you used to know Yeah, I know You know I know (Ooh)
English Version
I can hear the voices listening Don't know who they are Trying to take the pressure off Been reaching for the stars Tell me, will I find myself again? When I go too far? Yeah, I know You know, I know (Ooh)
Jimin enters the party and starts drinking, dancing, and having fun with the others. He laughs and enjoys himself in the crowd and trusts the supposed strangers, but the confusion doesn’t leave him alone. He feels lost, and as the lyrics say, he is worried about going too far and not finding himself again. The two opposite sides of him are conflicting. It’s the contradiction between "fear and desire", between "pain and numbness", between "loneliness and losing yourself", and between "reason and dream" that leaves him confused.
[Chorus and Post Chorus]
Korean Version, Translated
I'd rather be Lost in the lights, Lost in the lights I'm outta my mind Hold onto the end of the night Every night You spin me up high The moon with you in its arms Let me have a taste Give me a good ride (Oh, I'm fallin', I'm fallin', I'm fallin') Oh, it's gon' be a good night (Oh, I'm fallin') Forever, you and I
English Version
I'd rather be Lost in the lights, lost in the lights I'm outta my mind Can you help me numb the pain? Each night, you spin me up high Emotions on ice Let me have a taste Give me a good ride (Oh, I'm fallin', I'm fallin', I'm fallin') Oh, it's gon' be a good night (Oh, I'm fallin') Forever, you and I
In this part, he confesses which side he really wants to follow. He wants to go out of his mind, lose himself to the desire, and leave the reason behind. It’s the escapism that saves him from loneliness and the pain of real life. The chorus is the sexy and at the same time, the most poetic part of this song, especially where he is spinning up high in the arms of the moon.
The last line of the post-chorus, “Forever you and I” which also repeats in the last part of the interlude, is crucial because it declares that Jimin is not talking about vagrancy or promiscuity. He wants it all with his significant other, the only one who can help him numb the pain of real life and escape it. But this escapism has its consequences, and we see all that mud flush out of every corner symbolizing it. This scene artistically ends with Jimin facing his reflection in the crowd. The question is, is this reflection the same significant other, or is it Jimin himself? We will get the answer in the next part.
Tumblr media
[Verse 3]
Korean Version, Translated
The me, reflected in the mirror Is going crazy endlessly I'm feelin' so alive, wasting time
English Version
All my reflections, I Can't even recognize I'm feelin' so alive, wasting time
His fear of losing himself was true, and it's happening now. This duality confuses him and makes him question his reality. Which side is the true Jimin? He doesn't care anymore because this escapism makes him feel alive.
Here in the MV, we see Jimin facing the reflection, and it immediately cuts to the restroom scene where he faces his literal reflection in the mirror and talks to him about not recognizing him anymore. Then, the restroom being dismantled symbolizes his state of mind. "The reflection of myself in an unfamiliar appearance" was the concept of "his "FACE" which was a whole album about Jimin himself.
Tumblr media
[Outro]
This will break me This is gonna break me (Break me) No, don't you wake me (Wake me) I wanna stay in this dream, don't save me Don't you try to save me (Save me) I need a way we (Way we) I need a way we can dream on (On, on, on) (Alone again What's the point?)
Jimin knows the consequences of losing himself but embraces it. He knows it's gonna break him but doesn't want to wake up from his dream. He knows everything will collapse but doesn't need a savior. He wants to stay in that dream, but he knows it's impossible, and sooner or later, he will be dragged out of it.
Is there a way to cut all the connections to the real world of loneliness and stay in this dream forever? We get the answer in the MV, and it's not positive because suddenly, everything goes backward in speed, to where we started (remember the outro being played in the beginning? That was the clue).
He goes back to his lonely room with a muddy hand. Did his hand get dirty from a touch of his reflection, or was the muddy hand in the beginning his own hand? Is he trapped in a loop? Maybe. Maybe this wasn't his first or the last time coming back from that dreamland, and it was the reason for so much mud accumulated in his room. He is a regular in that dreamland and he can't quit.
Conclusion
It's understandable if this analysis of the movie, lyrics, and the MV didn't guide you in any direction, and maybe you are even more confused after reading it all. But don't blame yourself because Jimin already told us that, his emotions for this movie are complex. So, don't look for just one answer, maybe we are not supposed to end up with one conclusion, and this song also can have multiple interpretations and meanings. But what are these meanings?
If you pay attention to the lyrics and the MV you will realize that despite them being aligned and in sync, the lyrics have more connection to the movie. While filming the MV, Jimin mentioned that things (scenes of the MV) didn't happen like this in real life, which was an obvious fact, because this song is clearly not about being the life of the party and stuff like that, and has more internal meanings.
In "Like Crazy", Jimin talks about the loneliness of his real life, the isolation and limitations he experienced during the pandemic, and maybe other times. But Jimin finds an alternate reality, where he can be himself, be free and careless, and forget about the future. This alternate reality is rooted in two possibilities: The feminine side, and the significant other. The feminine side is what we face in the MV, and there are not many signs of it in the lyrics.
The feminine side appears as a muddy hand and a presence at the part that faces Jimin and becomes one with him as his reflection. The idea of "bigender" is nothing new in the concepts that Jimin has offered on different occasions, from his fake tattoos in ARMY-Zip 2019 to the performance of "Filter" in 2020 and his photopholio in 2022, he has expressed this fluidity in his work, and I think the visual concept of "Like Crazy" with his different makeup in the MV and the choreography was the epitome of it.
What about the significant other? As I mentioned in the analysis of chorus parts, "Forever You and I" Can only be interpreted as his exclusiveness to someone who is his significant other. This person is the one who saves Jimin from his loneliness and assures him about their happy ending. This person has no doubt in them lasting forever and only wants Jimin to trust him to take the lead and let that happen.
He keeps saying to his significant other that there is no future. They can't be together forever, this is just a temporary situation, and despite finding comfort in each other, they should not get attached because they will forced to be separated. It's not like Jimin doesn't believe in this love, he does and has the same wishes and dreams, but he keeps getting dragged to the real world where the rules govern.
This part is just a personal opinion as a Jikooker, but I did this analysis in my head last year when "Like Crazy" was newly released and had no intention of making a connection between this and Jikook, until "Seven" came out. We all know JK had no hand in making the sexy lyrics of "Seven", but after watching the MV (which had nothing to do with the lyrics), I couldn't unsee the fact that the concept of Seven's MV looked so much like a response to "Like Crazy's" lyrics. Still, we don't know if JK gave any ideas for the concept of the MV, but considering his record of working as an MV director, it's not impossible.
The End.
This is all I could say about "Like Crazy", a masterpiece that is still thriving in the charts and still touches people's hearts because it comes from real and deep emotions that Jimin had in his heart. That emotion got us the moment we listened to it for the first time, even though verbalizing it, is never easy, no matter how many analyses and reviews we write.
165 notes · View notes
statusquoergo · 9 months
Text
“Come on.”
“Uh?”
Diane looks up as Naomi stands and holds out her hand as if this isn't a ridiculously careless thing she's asking her to do, as if neither of them has the good sense to mention that neither one of them has any idea what they're getting themselves into. As if neither of them might be walking straight into a trap of their own making, or nothing much will change at all and they'll forget about each other in a month, or a few days. As if it's a risk worth taking to find out which.
As if there's anything else to do today.
“I'm not going to the hospital.”
“I know.” Naomi reaches a little closer. “I have a first aid kit at home.”
Enough to get them through, that's all. Enough for now.
“You know how to wrap it?” Diane asks as she takes Naomi's hand to pull herself up, as though the answer might change her mind somehow. Naomi smiles a little, as though she knows it just as well that it won't.
“Yeah.” She sets Diane's hand down on her shoulder. “It's not far, come on. I'll carry you down the stairs.”
“You'll drop me.”
“I will not.” Naomi urges her forward, along the concrete path out of the park. “I mean I'm just offering, I don't have to.”
It's a nice gesture, though, isn't it? It was a nice thought.
They walk slowly down the street, stepping more or less in sync past the general store with the baking supplies just past the doorway, turning at the corner to walk toward the coin laundry that's open even at three in the morning and also on holidays. A hand-drawn poster in the window of the discount shoe store across the street loudly advertises VACUUMS REFURBISHED while a Times New Roman printout on the telephone cubicle in the middle of the block offers “suitable compensation” in exchange for willing test subjects, No Questions Please; a few steps farther along stands an apartment building that somehow looks like it's missing a couple of stories, and Diane shifts her weight to her good leg as Naomi steps away to fumble with the lock on the front door.
“It's the door on the left,” Naomi says, the door sticking only slightly as she shoves it open. “When you get to the basement.”
She opens the first door on the right, a stairwell that only leads down.
“Upstairs is that door over there, but I don't know any of the neighbors, so. I'm not gonna introduce you to anyone.”
That's fine. Diane doesn't want to know any of them, either.
Naomi walks down the stairs first and doesn't try to carry her.
“Bathroom's at the end of the hall,” she says. “The taps aren't broken, the water's just cold when it's cold outside and warm when it isn't, but if you let it run for a little while, it'll...fix itself. And make sure you don't touch the water heater, it's metal and it gets really hot sometimes.”
Diane clutches the wooden banister nailed to the wall as she limps her way down and wonders how much of all this she's supposed to remember. All of it, probably. It isn't very complicated.
Naomi unlocks the door on the left and holds it open.
“You can sit on the bed.”
It's good of her to offer. It isn't much of a bed, really, more of a mattress pushed into the corner, but that isn't exactly a surprise, and it's good of her to offer all the same.
“Thanks,” Diane says, a little too late to seem quite natural. Naomi hums a disinterested acknowledgment and doesn't seem to mind.
“Take off your shoes.”
Diane promptly unties her sneakers, placing them on the floor beside the bed as Naomi kneels in front of her with a roll of ACE bandage in her hand and her eyes focused on Diane's ankle like she's the only attending physician in the entire complex who doesn't have better things to do with her time than tend to something as trivial as all this. Diane should count herself lucky the timing worked out the way that it did.
Lucky, was it? It's about time.
The single bulb in the overhead light flickers a little as if a public execution has just disrupted the power grid, or someone's turned on too many air conditioners at once and blown a fuse a few floors up.
“Don't worry about it,” Naomi says. Diane doesn't bother to assure her that she wasn't.
#anna tries to be original#i started reading something that objectively has nothing wrong with it but within about three pages had me bored out of my mind#and i started skimming it to see if it picked up or anything caught my interest later on#but i noticed that a few of the paragraphs were like thirty lines long#and i immediately noped the hell out of there#and then i was like 'you know what i should do is i should work on that story that i spend about twenty minutes on every four or five days'#i took a phys ed class in college that was literally all education#we didn't actually do any sports or anything#it was all classes and lectures and stuff#one day we went to the nurse's office or whatever you call that area on a college campus#and we learned how to wrap sprained ankles#i know i picked it up very quickly but i have absolutely no recollection of how to do it now#also yesterday i had to spend the day dealing with some incredibly idiotic coworkers#i don't even think they're necessarily stupid people but they were certainly acting like it#and first thing this morning one of the messaged me with a stupid question to follow up on all her stupid questions from yesterday#'where is this data in the file?' oh gosh i don't know have you tried spending two seconds actually LOOKING FOR IT#and someone else messaged me at the same time to ask for help with something that he's now doing completely wrong#but it's a new system and i know he's trying and i also know he is actually good at his job so i don't mind helping him#but i'm going to have to waste my afternoon in a meeting with the other idiot#and two people who DO have their shit together but i know for sure that if he has to do anything it'll add like half an hour's time#to a task that should take five minutes tops#also there's a severe weather warning for excessive heat today#i want to go out and buy some fruit before it gets too unbearable#but in order for that to happen i need these people to leave me alone for twenty minutes
2 notes · View notes
hellsite-hall-of-fame · 11 months
Note
Morbius (2022)
\[♪♪♪\]
\[WIND WHISTLING\]
\[BIRDS CHIRPING\]
\[THUNDER RUMBLING IN DISTANCE\]
\[WATER DRIPS ECHOING\]
\[BATS SKITTERING\]
\[HELICOPTER WHIRRING\]
\[MEN YELLING INDISTINCTLY IN SPANISH\]
We shouldn’t be here when it gets dark.
Set the trap at the mouth of the cave, please.
\[MEN SPEAKING IN SPANISH\]
\[WINCES\]
PILOT: You need a doctor?
\[CHUCKLES SOFTLY\]
I am a doctor.
It’s impressive, don’t you think?
Vampire bats weigh almost nothing, but they can down a creature nearly ten times their size.
\[FLIES BUZZING\]
Wow.
What are you using as bait?
You volunteering?
Leaving.
\[TRAP CLANKS\]
Pay me now.
Before the sun goes down.
You throw in that bushcrafter on your belt and we have a deal.
\[♪♪♪\]
\[GROANS SOFTLY\]
\[ALL CHITTERING\]
\[SCREECHES\]
\[BATS SCREECHING\]
\[SHOUTS IN SPANISH\]
\[YELLING IN SPANISH\]
Come on.
\[BELL TOLLING\]
\[STUDENTS LAUGHING, CHATTERING\]
Move!
\[TICKING\]
\[CAR HORN HONKS\]
NICHOLAS: Should be able to take better care of you here.
\[CAR DOOR CLOSES, CAR DRIVES AWAY\]
Everyone’s here to help you.
Michael, this is Lucian. Lucian, Michael.
Michael knows more about this place than I do.
\[WHISPERS\] Play nice.
LUCIAN: Hello.
Hello, Milo.
My name’s Lucian.
The person who was here before was Milo.
No.
He was also the new Milo.
And before him was the other new Milo.
I don’t even remember the first Milo.
How long have you been here?
Long as I can remember.
\[MACHINE BEEPS AND WHIRS\]
And you’re still not cured?
There is no cure.
There’s something missing from our DNA.
Like a piece of a puzzle.
And until they find it, the only way to stay alive is an oil change three times a day.
What would you do if you could be normal?
Just for an hour?
I don’t think about it.
Hey, look at the freaks! Look at them!
\[STUDENTS CHATTERING, LAUGHING\]
Best not to be outside when school gets out.
Like the original Spartans, we are the few against the many.
\[BEEPING\]
Milo?
Milo?
\[ALERT BUZZING\]
Nurse?
\[♪♪♪\]
\[WHISPERS\] Okay…
\[BEEPS AND WHIRS\]
Lucian.
Lucian!
With one of these?
It took a team of scientists to build that machine and you fixed it with a ballpoint pen?
There’s a school for gifted children in New York.
I think that I could get them to agree to cover your tuition and provide private care to help manage your condition.
Somewhere you could study, learn, hone your skills.
You have a gift, Michael.
I don’t think I could forgive myself if I saw it go to waste.
MICHAEL: “Dear Milo, this isn’t goodbye. I’m gonna find a cure for us, so we can be cranky old men someday. Your friend, Michael.
P.S. You shouldn’t have unfolded this. Now you’ll never get it back together. See you this summer.”
No.
\[STUDENTS CHATTERING\]
“Dear Milo…”
\[ALL LAUGH\]
Please, can I have my letter back?
What?
Please, can I have my letter?
Okay. Here.
\[LAUGHS\]
Please. Ah!
\[SHOUTS\] Please!
\[BOYS LAUGHING\]
Please!
\[YELLS\]
Stop.
\[GROANING\]
\[BOYS GRUNTING\]
\[NICHOLAS YELLS IN SPANISH\]
Go away!
\[SIREN WAILS IN DISTANCE\]
Let me have a look. Let me have a look.
\[SCREAMS\]
He tried to steal my letter!
Milo, Milo, stop.
Stop. Stop. Stop.
\[CRYING\]
What about Milo?
I’ll look after Milo.
He needs me.
NICHOLAS: Michael Morbius completed his doctorate by 19 and quickly established himself as the world’s leading authority on blood-borne diseases.
His development of artificial blood has saved more lives than penicillin.
Michael Morbius, please step forward to acknowledge the receipt of your prize from His Majesty, the King of Sweden.
\[AUDIENCE APPLAUDING\]
\[TRUMPETERS PLAY FANFARE\]
ANNA: I can’t believe you dissed the king of Sweden.
The king and the queen, their loyal subjects, all of Scandinavia and the entire scientific community.
Yeah, but who does that?
Well, Anna, we both know I have issues.
But, hey, I kept the program.
\[TONE SOUNDS, THEN WOMAN SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY OVER PA\]
\[KNOCKS\] There you are.
Hey, Dr. Bancroft.
Hey, Anna.
We going to play?
Oh, I don’t think so.
See, now that Dr. Morbius is back, maybe you should try losing for a while, see how that feels.
MICHAEL: Not gonna happen.
Michael.
Uh, yes?
You got a minute?
Of course.
New one. For your collection.
\[WHISPERS\] Dr. Morbius is in trouble.
I’m in trouble.
MARTINE: “I can’t accept a prize for the by-product of a failed experiment.”
Lab 1.
Front page, “American Scientist Rejects Nobel Prize.”
You know that people actually like writing checks to Nobel laureates?
Makes them feel better about their investment.
It would help if you stuck around long enough to cash them.
\[GROANS\]
You’re pushing yourself too hard.
\[SIGHS\]
Does our generous benefactor, Milo, know what you’re actually doing here?
What am I actually doing here?
Remixing human DNA with bat DNA.
I have no idea what you’re…
Talking about?
Is anything ringing a bell?
No bells ringing. Uh…
Okay. Maybe this will jog your memory.
MICHAEL: I wouldn’t go in there if I were you.
\[BATS SCREECHING\]
That is a…
It’s a fish tank.
Hmm.
Like, for… flying mammals.
Oh, I see.
Some friends I brought back from Costa Rica.
So when were you gonna tell me?
More importantly, how did you get my pass code?
It’s the first six digits of pi backwards.
It’s your password for everything.
You should change that.
You could lose your license for this.
I’m not gonna need it much longer, doctor.
You, on the other hand, will.
You know, there’s something called “plausible deniability.”
You should be thanking me.
These are the only mammals on Earth that have evolved to feed exclusively on blood.
So in order to drink it, these bats produce saliva that contains unique anticoagulants.
So your theory is, if you can successfully splice vampire genes into your DNA, it would allow your body to produce those same anticoagulants.
MICHAEL: Yes.
It would be a cure.
At what cost?
The fusion of different species is a legacy we already carry in our bodies.
Viruses insinuating their nucleic acid onto our own over hundreds of thousands of years.
That’s evolution. This is different.
I don’t think it is.
We have to push the boundaries, take the risks.
Without that, there is no science.
No medicine.
No breakthroughs at all.
\[MACHINE BEEPING\]
\[CHIMES, THEN BEEPING SOFTLY\]
Okay.
\[RECORDER BEEPS\]
Test subject for cell combination 117.
\[MOUSE SQUEAKING\]
\[BEEPS\]
Come on, come on, come on.
\[SQUEALING\]
\[RECORDER BEEPS\]
\[SIGHS\] Test subject 117 has resulted in…
failure.
\[RECORDER BEEPS\]
I don’t wanna see you get hurt.
I should’ve died years ago, Martine.
Why am I still alive if not to fix this?
To save my best friend, Milo.
And everyone else like us.
Not like this.
Dr. Morbius, it’s Anna.
\[♪♪♪\]
\[MONITORS BEEPING RAPIDLY\]
\[PANTING\]
Her temperature’s spiking, and her kidneys are shutting down.
We have to induce a coma before she has a stroke.
A hundred milligrams of propofol.
NURSE: Sure.
MARTINE: Now.
Come on.
MICHAEL: It’s okay.
It’s okay. We got you.
There you go.
There you go.
Thank you, nurse.
We’re gonna let you sleep a bit.
Take a nice long nap.
\[MONITOR BEEPING STEADILY\]
\[SQUEAKING\]
Michael.
What?
It worked.
\[♪♪♪\]
\[CLOCK CHIMES\]
Dr. Michael Morbius.
\[IN NORWEGIAN\] Some crippled guy’s here to see the Boss.
MILO: Michael! Get over here!
\[IN NORWEGIAN\] As long as I am a cripple you’ll be fine.
♪ Stop dreaming Of the quiet life… ♪
You’re late. I was trying out this new thing called “working.”
Oh, yeah. I don’t believe I’m familiar with the word.
I don’t believe you are.
So, what’s up with the goon squad?
Oh, I won a hand of cards against some Russian gentlemen.
Apparently they found his luck improbable.
There you are.
More like impossible.
So, doctor, how is our favorite patient?
Still determined to make his short life even shorter?
Yes, I am. Anyway, you’re one to talk.
You look terrible. Look at the state of you.
Says the man wearing… What is that, a quilt?
Oh, sorry. I didn’t get the memo to dress for a funeral.
\[LAUGHS\]
\[CHUCKLES\]
Right. I will see you later.
And you… my door is always open.
We miss you at Horizon.
We could use your mind.
I’ll leave you two to your fun.
Bye, Nicholas.
I have some good news.
Let’s go for a walk.
How’s Martine doing these days?
Dr. Bancroft? She is, uh, overqualified, outperforming, brilliant as usual.
And a royal pain in my ass.
But she’s keeping me honest for the most part. Why do you ask?
Eh, no reason. Just haven’t seen you in forever.
I wondered if she had something to do with it.
Aw, I miss you too.
But, yes, she has been working with me to save our lives.
I could ask her to stop if you like, put us out of our misery.
Just don’t do something stupid and go and fall in love because, believe you me, there is absolutely no cure for that.
Says the guy who knows absolutely nothing about the subject.
Not true.
I read about it in books all the time.
Books, really? Wow.
Yeah.
Or romantic comedies. The point is…
The point is, love is not on the cards for us, my friend.
Listen, if you start quoting The Notebook to me, I am going to stop and hobble very slowly in the opposite direction.
\[LAUGHS\]
Throw it!
MICHAEL: I’m close, Milo.
I can feel it.
A cure.
It’s finally possible.
Seriously?
Highly experimental.
Ethically questionable.
Very, very, very expensive.
I knew that was coming.
And not exactly legal.
Oh, and it has to be done in international waters.
\[LAUGHS\]
You were always expensive.
Is it dangerous? Should I be worried?
You want me to lie to you?
That would be nice, yes.
It’s a walk in the park on a sunny day.
Oh, yeah, that bad, eh?
Listen.
We don’t have much time left.
This could be our last chance.
So, what do you say?
We go out with a fight?
\[SIGHS\]
Yeah.
You with me?
Till the day you die, brother.
Till the day you die. You’ll have everything you need.
We’re the original Spartans, mate.
The few against the many.
Yeah.
\[♪♪♪\]
\[INDISTINCT CHATTER OVER RADIO\]
You know, I’m sure you’re cheating.
No. No, you’re not.
What you got?
MICHAEL: Putting another one in the oven.
Wish me luck.
\[CHIMING\]
The moment of truth.
\[CHIMES AND BEEPS\]
Success, Martine. We did it.
It’s holding together.
\[RECORDER BEEPS\]
Test 243.
\[INHALES DEEPLY\]
Human trials.
\[RECORDER BEEPS\]
\[EXHALES SHARPLY\]
I’m glad it’s you.
Had a lot of other suitors, didn’t you?
Yeah.
You know, the whole near-death thing is very, very chic.
I read it in Cosmo.
\[LAUGHS\]
Do they still make Cosmo? I don’t know.
I know it’s just what you always wanted.
Could be a collector’s item one day, you never know.
This better not be my last one.
I know this is painful, but you got it.
\[GROANS SOFTLY\]
That’s it. Bingo.
Right there.
\[SHUSHES\]
\[GROANS\]
Almost there, almost there.
\[EXHALES SHARPLY\]
\[SHUSHES\]
It’s all right. Come on. Come on.
There you go.
\[GROANS SOFTLY\]
You can buckle me up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You all right? Great.
\[♪♪♪\]
\[ELECTRICITY CRACKLES\]
I call.
Bringing out the big guns.
Let’s go again.
I’ll be back. I’m gonna check on the doctor.
All right.
\[MONITOR BEEPING\]
\[DOOR CLANGS OPEN\]
You shouldn’t be down here.
I can be wherever I want, nurse.
It’s “doctor,” actually.
\[SNICKERS\]
I’m afraid you’re gonna have to leave.
Doctor. Sure, I can see it.
But, uh, you’re still the help, just like me.
Wow.
You can tell all that by just looking at me, huh?
Here I thought you were just another jacked-up dumb shit.
\[LAUGHS\]
Get out.
\[ALERT BLARING\]
Michael?
\[GUN COCKS\]
\[METAL CLANKS\]
Michael?
Where is he?
\[METAL CLANKS\]
Don’t move.
\[ROARS\]
What the hell?
Everybody down to the lab now.
\[WALKIE BEEPS\]
Roger that.
\[GRUNTS\]
Don’t shoot!
\[ALARM BLARING\]
Michael!
\[FOX GROANING\]
Stop!
\[GROWLS\]
Michael.
\[GROWLS\]
It’s just me.
\[ALARM BLARING\]
It’s just me.
\[POUNDS ON GLASS\]
Michael, please.
Michael, stop!
Stop! Please!
You’re hurting yourself! Stop!
Hey! Step back! Move!
Stop. Put that gun down…
Move!
\[GROWLING\]
\[GROANS\]
\[SCREAMS\]
\[YELLS\]
Shit. Close it! Close it!
What the hell is that thing?
\[♪♪♪\]
\[ROARS\]
Fall back! Fall back!
Shit.
MAN 1: Let’s move.
MAN 2: Go, go, go!
\[GROANS\]
Johnny!
\[GRUNTING\]
\[SCREAMS\]
\[MORBIUS GROWLS\]
Get out of here!
MAN \[OVER RADIO\]: Sweeping Level 3.
Jason, come in.
Jason. Jason?
\[SCREAMS\]
Oh, shit.
Son of a bitch!
\[GROANS\]
Shit! Oh!
Oh, shit!
\[HIGH-PITCHED SCRAPING\]
\[GROANS\]
\[GAGGING\]
\[MORBIUS GROWLS\]
\[PANTING\]
\[SCREAMS\]
\[ROARS\]
\[GASPS\]
\[♪♪♪\]
\[BREATHING HEAVILY\]
Martine.
Martine.
\[HEART BEATING STEADILY\]
\[WHISPERS\] Oh, my God.
\[VOMITS\]
\[GROANS\]
\[BREATHING HEAVILY\]
\[FEEDBACK OVER RADIO\]
Mayday, mayday, mayday.
This is the LCV Murnau.
Call letters 3-X5Y.
We are 13 nautical miles off the coast of Long Island.
Request immediate airlift.
Repeat, this is the LCV Murnau.
Mayday, mayday, mayday.
\[♪♪♪\]
It’s up here to the right.
\[PEOPLE CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY\]
FBI Agent Stroud. Can we have the room, please?
RODRIGUEZ: You heard the man. Can we please have the room?
If you could start exiting, that’d be fantastic.
Well, we haven’t had anything this good since that thing in San Francisco.
Uh, eight bodies, running IDs right now, but apparently they all shop at the same mercenary supply store.
Uh, one survivor, a Dr. Martine Bancroft.
Can we talk to her?
If she wakes up.
Uh, she fell down and hit her head, apparently.
Anything else?
Someone made a mayday call.
Not Dr. Bancroft.
Nope.
It was a male, didn’t identify himself, then wiped all the surveillance footage.
SIMON: He grew a conscience and jumped overboard?
It happens. Oh, and get this.
All the bodies that you’re looking at are nearly drained of their blood.
So, what hunts at night and drinks human blood?
You’re gonna love this.
REPORTER: Early this morning an unmanned cargo ship was discovered near the eastern tip of Long Island with multiple bodies on board.
Authorities are not making any comment at this time.
But there are reports of one survivor, and we have learned from a high-ranking Coast Guard official that the vessel was flying a Panamanian flag when it drifted in from international…
What’s happened?
Some kind of accident.
How’s your pain today? On a one to ten?
Eleven.
\[TONE SOUNDS, THEN MAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY OVER PA\]
\[MONITOR BEEPING STEADILY AND VENTILATOR HISSING\]
\[TONE SOUNDS, THEN MAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY OVER PA\]
\[WHISPERS\] I’m sorry.
You’re going to be okay.
\[♪♪♪\]
here you all go!! also I did have to read though this whole thing to make sure it wasn’t anything bad because I actually didn’t know what Morbius was lmao and idk if this is even the whole script (also i’m so incredibly sorry to everyone…. including myself, bc my phone is glitching so badly trying to post this)
457 notes · View notes
heckcareoxytwit · 5 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
The flashback shows angry mob storming over to the castle. Destiny sends Mystique to flee into the forest with the baby. Mystique leaves baby Kurt at the tree and rushes back to the castle as she worries over Destiny's safety. However, by the time she got there, Destiny is gone in the bedroom along with baby Kurt in the forest. (Though little did Mystique know that baby Kurt may have been taken away by Margali Szardos the sorceress who acted as a psychic of the carnival.) The disappearance of baby Kurt left Mystique screaming in agony. Back to the present, Kurt Wagner tries to comfort Mystique but she dismisses him as she had not finished her story yet. Mystique recounts that since the disappearance of the baby, she blamed Destiny for the misfortune. Destiny persuades her that even though their baby is lost, they could try to adopt another child to make up for their loss. Thus, Mystique and Destiny had adopted little Anna Marie (a.k.a Rogue). Destiny also told Mystique about her vision that Azazel might become a powerful enemy but only their son might be destined to defeat him. Mystique doesn't believe her wife and tries to strangle her for bringing up the topic of their missing son.
Then, Mystique and Destiny consulted with Professor Charles Xavier about their problems. In order to prevent Mystique from hurting/killing her wife, Charles Xavier alters the minds of Mystique and Destiny with their permission so that Mystique could forget about the missing child. Back to the present, Mystique is horrified when she realizes her mind compensated for the holes in her memories after Xavier altered them by leaving her to believe she abandoned Kurt as a baby to save her own skin, which led to her spending years resenting him when the truth is she loved him dearly and didn't want to give him up. Upon learning the truth, Kurt Wagner realizes that his mother still loved him despite all the misgivings so he comforts her with a hug.
X-Men Blue: Origins #1, 2023
145 notes · View notes
candycandy00 · 2 months
Text
Roses in the Sky - An Original Alien x Reader Story Part 1
In a future where humanity huddles in decaying domed cities controlled by alien invaders, you and your best friend Anna work as make-shift nurses in a tiny clinic run by the young doctor Terrian. The city is ruled by the aliens' violent, half-breed offspring who serve as brutal overseers. You and Anna have always tried to avoid these overseers at all cost, but your life is changed when one of those same terrifying offspring is brought into the clinic, injured and unconscious.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
This is an original Alien (well half alien) x Fem Reader story! I hope everyone who enjoys my fanfiction will give this a shot! I’m posting the first chapter just to check for interest. Any feedback whatsoever would be loved! I’ve already written this story so it’s not going to delay my fanfics. Just thought I might post chapters of this between fanfics if anyone is interested.
Slow burn, as this is a novel-length story, but there will be smut in later chapters! Also: violence, blood, rape attempts, death of side characters, etc.
Tumblr media
The sky was red, and you hated it. You hated more the fact that you couldn't remember what it looked like when it was blue. The whole city looked like it was coated in blood. You saw enough blood already.
You walked along the littered, decaying streets of Gallica with a blue duffel bag on your shoulder. You kept the hood of your gray jacket pulled down over your head and your hands buried in your pockets. Standing out was never a good idea, at least not where they could see.
As you rounded a corner, you were suddenly sprayed with red liquid, and you only dared to steal a quick glance down the alley it came from. A body was tumbling to the ground, and you didn't even have time to see who it was or what sort of wound had drawn such a huge amount of blood. Your eyes had been drawn, in that brief moment, to the pair of black-clad figures standing frighteningly still beside the body. Their bi-colored eyes flicked upward, toward you, but you returned your gaze to the street in front of you and walked quickly away.
Your heart pounded and your hands trembled in your pockets until you were far enough down the street to safely assume they would not stop you. You knew what happened to those unlucky enough to somehow provoke the half-breeds, regardless of intention, so you hurried along toward the clinic without looking back once.
When you reached the small, rundown clinic, you were met at the door by a girl in a nurse's uniform who placed her hands on her hips and scowled at you. “You're late!”
You pushed by her and dropped the duffel bag from your shoulder, flopping it onto a nearby cot. You unzipped it and pulled out your own uniform. "My alarm clock didn't go off."
The other girl stood leaning in the door way as you stepped into an empty patient slot and slid the dirty curtain closed. "Terrian is gonna be pissed at you,” she said. 
You emerged from behind the curtain in a white button-up shirt that was a little too tight and a skirt that was way too short. “He'll get over it."
"Yeah, as soon as he see's you."
You laughed. "You're jealous, Anna."
"Because that perverted freak lets you get away with anything?" Anna asked. She was so petite that even the smallest, tightest uniforms Terrian had given them seemed to fit her just right.
"No, because I look better in the uniform."
Both of you laughed as you laid out your supplies on rickety metal tables, organizing them neatly into categories according to how often they were used. The alcohol, thread, and needles were first in line, followed by bandages, then ointments and creams.
The door leading to the main treatment room flung open and a man with shoulder-length, pale blonde hair tied into a short ponytail walked in. He wore wide-rimmed glasses and a lab coat covered in blood stains. He looked angry as he approached, glaring at you, but suddenly froze when he rounded the metal tables and the full length of you came into view.
He smiled brightly, wrapping you into a hug. "You wore it today!"
Anna rolled her eyes and brushed her bangs, the longest part of her auburn hair, away from her face with her hand.
You pulled free from Terrian and adjusted your ill-fitting clothes. "It's the only uniform I had clean."
"And it's my favorite," Terrian said, then glanced toward Anna. "Stingy Anna always wears pants, even though I beg her to wear the skirt with the slit up the side."
Anna gave him a dirty look and he gave her a grin in return. He looked over the supplies then held out a thick stack of papers. "Look at all this. These are all patients who left the clinic in the last month and haven't returned for their checkups. Next week I'll be making a lot of house calls."
Both you and Anna frowned. You hated it when Terrian made house calls. He was the only doctor at the clinic, and you two were the only nurses. Things were hectic enough with the three of you, but when he was gone, the clinic was thrown into absolute chaos.
"Anyway," he spoke up, "we have a lot of patients waiting already. Let's get to work!"
You and Anna had no formal training, had not even finished high school, but you had both been living on the streets three years ago when Terrian approached you about working for him. He taught you two the basics, and the rest you learned over time. In this city, injured people couldn't be picky.
Together, you and Anna wheeled your metal supply tables through the swinging doors into the main treatment area of the clinic. Cots were lined up in two rows, facing each other, for the entire length of the large room. There was only enough room for one person to walk between each cot, and all but a few were occupied. People were moaning, screaming, crying, or unconscious. Anyone not in mortal danger was sent home after being stitched or bandaged up.
Illnesses were not often treated, as serious diseases were most often fatal no matter what the doctor did, but injuries were extremely common. Blood dripped from nearly every cot in the room, and a few patients were bandaged to the point of looking like mummies. You and Anna had both learned quickly to develop strong stomachs.
The two of you were checking on a patient that had been brought in last night with a chopped off leg when Terrian came zooming past you, pushing a stretcher.
"Emergency surgery!" he called, disappearing into the room you had just changed in.
You both dropped what you were doing and ran after him, then stopped dead in your tracks as soon as you were through the doors, staring at the figure on the stretcher.
"Doctor, that's... one of them,” Anna said, her voice almost a whisper. 
The man on the stretcher wore an ornate military uniform - black pants and a long black jacket with golden buttons up the front and matching trim along the cuffs and collar. The uniform was instantly recognizable to every single person in the city, because only they wore them. His skin was ghostly white and his hair a jet-black mess scattered across his face.
Terrian was ripping that glorious black uniform from the man’s motionless body. "I know what he is, Anna, but he's still a patient. And right now, he's dying unless we can stop the bleeding."
You and Anna hesitated just inside the door, looking at each other and then back to the man. Anna shook her head. "I can't... I can't help him. Not after all they've done."
Terrian stopped and looked at her. At first, you were sure he would scold her, but he merely sighed and nodded. "I understand. Go tend to the other patients."
You watched the other girl leave, then turned to Terrian. He looked at you with a pleading expression. "He'll be dead within the hour if we don't do anything."
You took a deep breath, then rushed over to Terrian's side. He held out his hands while you poured alcohol over them, then rinsed your own. Looking down at the young man, he seemed fragile, vulnerable. Almost human. His torso was exposed, revealing a long, deep cut across his abdomen that was gushing out blood. Funny how his body was absolutely impeccable, toned to lean perfection and resembling a stone statue, but marred by that huge red gash.
The cut was so long, and the bleeding so severe, that each of you began stitching on separate ends of the wound so that you would meet in the middle to tie things off. A sloppy job, yes, but the fastest route to closing the wound. He would heal faster than normal people, would probably be fine in a matter of hours, but only if you stopped the bleeding.
Once you and the doctor were finished, you again cleaned the wound and Terrian began bandaging the patient up. "Amazing, isn't it?" he asked when he was done, "It won't even leave a scar. Not on him."
You washed your hands in the nearby sink and thought of Anna. "It's not fair."
"Of course it's not," Terrian told you, wiping the blood from his hands on a stained towel. "Nothing in this world ever is.”
You dried your hands and walked again through the swinging doors. Anna was changing the bandages on a young girl's arm, but looked up when you approached. "How could you stand it? Helping that thing?"
"I didn't enjoy it, okay? But he would've died. This is a clinic, Anna. We're supposed to help dying people."
Anna stood up and stepped away from the young girl's bedside. "Yeah, people. Not them."
"But he's half human, isn't he? Isn't that enough?"
Anna snorted. "Was that enough to stop those creatures from barging into my house and slitting my mom's throat? Was it enough to stop them from crushing my brother's head under their boots? Was it enough to stop them from... from what they did to me?!"
You went silent. You didn't know what to say. You knew the half-breeds had killed most of Anna's family, but you had yet to hear any details before now. Finally, you reached out and took the other girl's hand. "I'm sorry, Anna. I'm really sorry."
Anna pulled you into a hug. "I know. I'm sorry I jumped down your throat. I just don't want to see you be hurt by them too."
"I don't think he's in a position to hurt anyone right now," you told her after you separated. "He's not even conscious."
Anna looked toward the swinging doors. "Be careful. Even when they look harmless, they're still dangerous."
You nodded, and wheeled your cart over to the other side of the room. You stopped at the bed of an elderly man who was missing both his feet. He was sweating and breathing heavily. You took his blood pressure and wrote the results in a tablet. He looked up at you with astonishingly kind eyes.
"If the nurses look like this, I'm gonna have to get my feet cut off more often," he said with a chuckle.
You pulled back the sheet to check his bandages. "You sure are a charmer, Mr. Renaldo," you said as you began unrolling the strips of cloth.
"Don't believe a word he says!" Anna called across the room, "I told him yesterday he could hold my hand while Terrian stitched him up and he said he'd rather hold my ass!"
Rhoswen stopped cleaning the bloody stumps where feet used to be long enough to lightly slap his shoulder. "You shameless flirt!"
He laughed and looked at the man in the bed next to him, who didn't seem to be in such good spirits. "Can't blame me for trying, can you?"
The other man gave a weak smile and looked away.
"Now now, let's not disturb the other patients," you said gently.
"Everybody's so glum. That's what those damn Pagoda want," he said.
You finished his bandages and patted him on the arm. You bent down and whispered to him, "Thanks for cheering us up, Mr. Renaldo."
The next few hours went by steadily but quickly, as you made your way around the room checking on people, giving out soup, changing bandages, and occasionally holding someone's hand while Terrian performed some sort of painful procedure.
Unfortunately, pain relievers were as rare and expensive as genuine jewels were in the olden days, when the sky was still blue. The only way to put a patient to sleep was to quite literally knock them out with a blunt instrument, which was a last resort.
The clinic was dirty and crowded and in shambles. The people were desperate, demanding, and understandably irritable. But you liked being there. You liked being with Anna and even Terrian, who could at least make you smile. You liked helping people who were suffering, because you enjoyed seeing a tiny flicker of hope in their eyes.
Because you could almost grasp a little bit of hope for yourself.
The clinic was all you had after your parents died. And everyday you dreaded returning to your tiny apartment where hope drained from every inch of you like red sun fading into black night. But at least you could always come back the next day, where you could laugh with Anna and everything else would fall away into dust.
It was almost time to go home, and all the patients had been taken care of. Anna left out the front door, not wanting to walk through the back room where she would have to see the lone patient on the stretcher.
You waved to Terrian, who was making one last run around the room to check everyone over, then walked into the back room. The young man was still unconscious and the rest of his clothes had been removed, a sheet draped over his body. You crept up to the stretcher and looked down, watching him breathe. After feeling certain that he was indeed unconscious, you walked into the empty patient slot you had changed in earlier and pulled the curtain closed.
You couldn't walk home in your uniform, as it was dangerous enough for a girl to be alone on the streets in the evenings, but wearing an outfit like that was a definite no. You quickly pulled it off, then reached for your jeans. But before you could even unfold them, you heard the curtain suddenly fly open.
You whirled around in anger, certain that perverted Terrian would be standing there grinning like an idiot. But you were not met with the smiling doctor, but the cold, expressionless face of the now conscious patient. His eyes, one blue and the other lime-green, bore into you, unblinking.
He was completely naked, save for the bandage across his abdomen, and you tried your best to keep your eyes on his face.
You suddenly realized that you were only in your underwear, and backed up until you bumped into a cot, holding your jeans in front of you. The man’s eyes never left you, and your heart was pounding rapidly in your chest. You had never been face-to-face with a half-breed before, not in this close proximity.
There was a pause, where both of you stared at each other for several moments, not moving. Then, in the blink of an eye, the man lunged forward and was inches away from you. You jerked backward, inadvertently ramming yourself into the cot where the metal collided with your bare back. You dropped to your knees, wincing.
When you looked back up, the half-breed was looming over you, and suddenly reached out one hand toward you. You had seen what the hands of half-breeds could do, had treated many a patient who had somehow ran into one of them. In fact, just today you had bandaged up a woman who's left arm had been pulled right off, like the wings off a fly, by a half-breed.
You curled into a defensive ball and screamed, your horrified voice ringing out through the clinic and undoubtedly to the buildings nearby.
72 notes · View notes
99hook · 8 months
Note
Hello ma'am. Glad you had fun at aew. I have an idea if you don't mind. So I was thinking like Jack has Anna attack Hooks y/n and she is sent home to recover. Hook spends time with her at home. Yn wants to take this opportunity to have some "alone" time with Hook. But everytime she initiates anything he shuts it down.
She starts to have doubts about herself or if he is stepping out on her. She confronts him about it and explains that he feels bad for allowing her to get in the middle of his feud with Jack. And ya know they work it out and then smut. 😈
I was originally going to add it to the ones I did but you are queen of the fics and I was hoping to see what you do with it. ❤️
18+
Tumblr media
———
He felt like he failed at the most important thing that he ever tries to do. Protecting you.
Even though you were as tough as they come and had the outstanding ability to hold your own against whoever challenged you, he still watched your every move with intensive care, waiting for the moment when you’d need him as your backup.
But when the moment came, he couldn’t get to you in time.
He can’t stop replaying the scene in his head. Botched moves happen all the time but not like what happened almost a week ago.
The two of you were being ambushed by Jack and Anna. It was all planned, but the outcome certainly wasn’t.
Jack threw Hook over the ropes, landing him on his spine against the side of the ring. You and Anna’s brawl had made it to the turnbuckles in the corner of the ring. She picked you up and hoisted you on the top one. The intention was for you to bring her up and sell a risky move from the top turnbuckle that, in a perfect world, would’ve been similar to your partner’s signature suplex.
All Hook remembers is hearing the crowd simultaneously gasp before Anna shouted out, “Get the medics, now!”
He doesn’t think he’ll ever forget that feeling in the pit of his stomach. A nauseating, gut wrenching coil that made him woozy as he ran to where you were limply laying on the outside of the ring.
Everyone broke character that night and nobody cared. There was blood pooling on the mat and Hook was quick to snatch his wrist tape off and hold it to the laceration on the side of your forehead, attempting to slow it down while the medics took what felt like forever to get to you.
You were dazed and couldn’t move. There was a sharp, stabbing pain shooting through your ribs, nearly paralyzing you when he attempted to roll you onto your back.
You let out a pained cry and it breaks his heart every time that sound decides to haunt him. Jack was standing behind him with Anna, both of them frantically scanning the entrance for the medics.
“YN” He cradles your face, “YN, hey! Stay with me! Don’t go to sleep, alright?”
Your eyes rolled back and he lost it. The cameras panned in on him, his voice overpowering the mixed reactions from thousands of fans when they realized this was not scripted at all.
“Jack, go get the fucking medics! Now! Go!” He demands, sending his opponent racing up the ramp.
“YN” he tries again, gently tapping your cheek. “Come on, YN! Keep your eyes open! Please, baby, keep them open for me!”
Anna reached down and held pressure to the deep wound, your blood staining her fingers and Hook’s entire palm and forearm. She kept looking back to the ramp waiting for Jack to bring out the medics and time was a crucial factor to the point that Hook took it upon himself to get you the help you needed.
“Keep her awake” he tells Anna before he sprints towards the stage. Within moments he was back with five medics and a gurney in tow.
He watched their every move carefully, his hand squeezing yours tightly as they strapped you down and rolled you back to the awaiting ambulance in the garage. He never left your side that night, and doesn’t plan to still.
You were granted time off to heal so he took the time off to be with you. Your fractured ribs, a concussion and stitches served as cruel reminders that he just couldn’t keep you as safe as he was supposed to.
It was unbearable for him to see every time you struggled to get out the bed. He felt his heart cracking down the center each time he had to watch you clutch your side in pure agony when the jolts of sharp pain shot through you.
He wasn’t sleeping, barely eating, just waiting on you hand and foot because to him, it was the least he could do. He was the reason you were injured in the first place. If it wasn’t for him, you would’ve never been involved in the feud between him and Jack.
You were feeling better, though. He just didn’t believe that. After a week and a half of him tending to your every need, all you wanted was to show him how thankful you were to him. But every time you tried, he would muster up some excuse as to why he doesn’t want to.
It was starting to get to you. The way he would retreat from your lips when you kissed down his neck. How he kept stopping your hand from slipping beneath the waistband of his sweats. He never used to do that. Usually you could just give him a single look and he was taking you to the bedroom, but now you can’t even get him to kiss you fully.
It was late when you asked a question that had been sitting on the tip of your tongue. Side by side in bed, both barely watching what was playing on the tv. You both had a million thoughts swarming around in your scrambled minds, but for completely different reasons.
“Tyler” you whispered, your eyes falling to the sheets that covered you. He hummed in response, keeping his tired, low eyes on the screen.
“Are you cheating on me?”
His head snapped to you instantly, brows knitted tight under the disheveled hair over his forehead.
“Am I cheating on you?” He repeated as if he was taken back by the question.
“You haven’t wanted to touch me at all. You haven’t even been kissing me the same way since-“
“You’re injured.” His deep voice cuts you off. “And why would you ask me if I’m cheating on you? I’ve been here with you every single day since you got hurt.”
“Because you refuse to touch me!” You didn’t mean to get as loud as you did. “Like, I try to kiss your neck and you pull away from me. Every time I try to do anything you stop me! You never do that, so I can’t help but think that something’s going on-“
“A lot is going on, YN. But nothing like you’re thinking. I would never cheat on you, ever. I thought you knew that already.”
He looked hurt. Genuinely saddened by the fact that you felt this way and you actually had to ask him whether or not he remained loyal to you. That was never something he ever thought he would have to hear from you. He aims to make you feel like the only girl in the world every single day and now it’s just another thing that he evidently failed at doing.
He sighs as he drops his head, running a hand through his hair.
“Baby” he breathes out, “I can’t stand seeing you like this, especially knowing it’s all my fault.”
“Nothing was your fault.”
“It was all my fault!” He snaps with a sharp tone. “You wouldn’t have even been brought into this shit if it wasn’t for me.”
“It was an accident, Tyler.” You reached over and rested your hand on his arm, pleased when he didn’t pull away. “And if you remember correctly, we mutually agreed to do this storyline together as a tagteam. You act like you just drug me into it. You didn’t.”
You hoped you were reassuring him, but it was hard to tell. He glanced down at your hand and placed his over top of it, giving it a gentle squeeze before he sighed and dropped his head down again.
“I should’ve been paying attention.” He mutters. “I would’ve been there to break your fall when you slipped or-“
“It was not your fault, baby.” You tell him again. “It was a misstep on me, not you. These things happen all the time. It’s nobody’s fault, it’s just an accident.”
“That could’ve costed you your life.” He interrupts, his eyes widening as the different scenarios of what could have happened bombard him again. “You heard the doctor. You were lucky you didn’t break your neck the way you landed. That’s serious shit, YN!”
“I know it is, but that could literally happen to anyone at any given moment! You can’t beat yourself up because I made a mistake, Tyler. I’m okay. That’s all that matters.”
You slid your hand down his arm and caught his fingers, running your thumb over his calloused knuckles.
“Hey” you whispered, leaning over carefully, your lips lingering over his ear. “I love you, and I want to show you how thankful I am to have you. All the time, but especially during times like this. Please?”
“Your ribs are-“ but you cut him off when he turned his head, capturing his lips with your own.
“Please” you hummed against him, letting a slight moan slip out when he finally deepened the kiss. You felt him moving closer, sliding his hands underneath your hips to ease you down gently while he placed himself between your thighs.
But he hesitated as soon as he felt himself twitch beneath those sweatpants.
He pulled back, breaking the kiss to say, “YN, I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t know how to-“
“Just be gentle and I’ll be perfectly fine.” You breathily whisper before you pull him back down to your lips, desperate for the closeness that’s been lacking since you got injured.
You didn’t know if he was capable of actually being gentle with you, until he proved it.
He tenderly caressed your thigh as he placed a few lingering kisses to your neck. He focused on that sweet spot that earned him a couple soft moans and hums of appreciation but he had to fight the urge to take things to another level like the two of you usually do.
It was a challenge for him to keep his composure after so long of fighting the temptations but he knew he had to be as easy with you as possible, and when you’re fully healed he can take all night with you until you can’t take it anymore.
For now, he just wanted to make you feel what you’d been missing. He wanted to make sure you had no questions about his love for you.
He leaned back and slowly slid your panties down to your ankles and tossed them aside before he slid his sweats down his thighs.
You were needily awaiting what you’d been craving, and he knew it.
He was cautious about bearing too much weight on top of you when he made his way back up to your lips. He kept himself held with his elbows while he cradled your face, slowly and languidly taking his sweet time exploring every inch of your mouth, savoring the flavor on the tip of his tongue.
“I love you, YN” he whispers against them before he pulls back slightly, his eyes strongly holding the contact with yours as if he’s trying to make sure you wholeheartedly believe that. “You’re my one and only. Right?”
You nodded, your heart swelling in your chest as he stroked your cheek with his thumb. He placed one more gentle kiss to your lips before he positioned himself at your entrance. He observed you intensely as he slowly pushed himself in, making absolute sure that you were okay.
Your eyes screwed shut at the feeling of him stretching you out, and he paused.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes” you moaned out, “keep going, please.”
He was hesitant, so he pushed in a little slower. He held himself still despite the fact that his body was pleading for him to do more.
You ran your fingers through his hair, giving the soft locks an encouraging tug.
“Ready?” He asks, struggling to fight the divine feeling of finally being buried inside you again.
“Yes, please” you begged, earning a single nod before he slowly pulls his hips back and to. Your eyes fluttered shut again, but he could tell it wasn’t from pain.
He watched your every reaction until he felt you clenching tighter around him, and he couldn’t help but to drop his head to your shoulder.
“You feel amazing, YN” he breathes against your neck, peppering loose kisses along the way. “So fucking perfect.”
You moaned back to the praises and the feeling of him hitting your sweet spot just right.
He rolled his hips in. The thrusts so slow and steady, yet so powerful at the same time. He was taking the time he needed to really find the rhythm, and knew he succeeded when you let a gasp fly past your lips and a series of louder moans following.
“Right there?” He breathily whispers as he rolls his hips in again. He felt your nails digging into his shoulders, your heart stammering against his chest gently pressed to yours.
“Yes” you croaked out, “Oh my God, Just like that, please.”
“Don’t have to beg me, baby. You know I’ll give you whatever you want.” He continues that same motion. Slow, steady, and strong.
His lips latched to the side of your neck, sucking a deep patch in its place as he reveled in the sound of your broken moans and sighs intermingling through the room.
He sped up slightly when he felt your walls clenching tighter around him, knowing by the way you were hugging him tight that you were getting close.
He pulled himself back up, his lips locking with yours in the midst of another broken moan you couldn’t contain. His hips stuttered once when your tongue roamed over his. If he was standing he would’ve been weak at the knees.
“You have no idea what you’re doing to me right now.” He groans.
“I wanna keep doing it.” You say back, before your mouth drops when he gives one more forceful thrust. He watches, making sure that it wasn’t too much, but all you did was reassure him when you dug your nails deeper into his shoulders and your eyes begged him for more.
He obliged, snapping his hips in and out, but somehow just as gently as it was when the trusts were slow and smooth.
Your head pressed back into the pillows, eyes screwing shut when he hit your sweet spot with a stronger force. That’s what you’d been missing and he knew it.
He leans down, the ends of his hair tickling your skin as his lips hover over your ear.
“I gotta hold back right now, baby. But when you’re all better, I promise ima take my time making it up to you. However you want me to.”
He felt a warmth arising around him, matching the feeling in his stomach that was quickly spreading through his entire body.
He twitched again and gave two more strong snaps in as your nails accidentally drew half-moon traces of blood against his shoulder blades. He rode that high out with you, doing his best to prolong it for as long as he could.
You had a vice grip around him preventing him from pulling back when your orgasm hit and all he could do was let himself be completely submitted into that feeling that made his head spin.
One of his hands clutched the pillow while the other one tangled up in your hair as an abundance of low groans and the occasional curse word got lost somewhere against your shoulder.
He felt your heart hammering against his chest and you felt his skipping beats. Breathless and spent, he slowly pulled out of you when your walls finally released him, and lazily fell to your side, gently wrapping one arm around you.
“I love you.” You managed to say between deep, breathy sighs as you ran a hand through his slick hair. He nuzzled into your neck and placed a tender kiss over the discoloration he left moments prior, whispering against your skin, “I love you more.”
159 notes · View notes
raphael-angele · 2 months
Text
Exotic Pets I think PJO Characters would own
Disclaimer: This post does not encourage the purchase or distribution of exotic/endangered animals to be kept in captivity. This is completely for entertainment purposes
Percy owns a Blue Mosaic Axolotl and he named it Mandy. This is because he originally thought she was a salamander. When he took it home and showed it to Annabeth, she corrected him but the name already stuck.
Annabeth has a Canary Barn Owl named Cato. She does not own this owl per se. Cato was flying near their apartment when Annabeth decided to leave some food out for him. Since then, Cato has been keeping an eye on her and following her around from the apartment to her college campus to the grocery store.
Grover has a Kinkajou he named Jumper. Again, he does not particularly own him. Jumper just happened to jump onto his shoulder while he was taking a hike through the woods one night. Jumper was hungry so Grover gave him some food. Every now and then, Grover would go back and feed him.
Nico (besides Cerby) owns two melanistic foxes named Aspen and Amber. No one knows the true origin of these foxes, all the campers know is that they just showed up out of no where and follow Nico around. Despite what they think, Aspen and Amber are actually very friendly and they only get defensive if you intend to harm Nico (besides Percy. They hate Percy for some reason).
Jason has a Racoon Dog named Jojo. Jason found Jojo while he was out for a walk. It was raining and it looked like Jojo was injured. Thankfully, they weren't that far from camp so he took him back and gave him a warm bath and treated him. Once Jojo was fully healed, Jason tried to release him back out there but he wouldn't leave
Piper has Anna's Hummingbirds. She built a bird house one time with Leo and hung it outside of the cabin. Next thing she knows, hummingbirds are inhabiting it. Two paticular hummingbirds she sees are two Anna's hummingbirds she named Luna and Aurelia.
Reyna (besides her two dogs) has a Serval Cat she named Aenea. Reyna does not own her but she goes to feed her every now and then and lets her take shelter during storms or when she wants
Bianca has an Unkindness of Ravens. Not one, not two, an Unkindness. EDIT: She was on a quest with the hunters one time and the ravens warned her about where they were going, where they should go, etc. The ravens got attached to her, being the daughter of the dead. And she eventually got used to it, but some of the hunters still get jumpscares when they wake up and see Bianca being surrounded by dozens of ravens. Two Ravens in particular, she named Argus and Sergio. These two are in charge of looking after Nico. Yes, she can speak to them; Yes, they are also messenger birds.
Thalia has a Sugar Glider named Jason. She found him on the shelf in her cabin looking for food. She was about to help him down when he flew to the drawer beside her bed. She took him to Annabeth to figure out what he is. She gave him some food after that and thought that he reminded him of Jason.
Hazel has a Chinchilla named Amy. Amy (short for Amethyst) looks like she's purple but really, she's a mix of grey and blue, which is why she looks purple. Amy was actually a gift from Frank.
Will, scarily enough, has an Edit 2: Sunbeam Snake he named Bowie. Again, no one knows where he came from, they just walked into the Apollo Cabin and freak out when they see the snake slithering around the cabin and they just go, "Oh, don't worry, that's just Bowie". Bowie only likes being held by the Apollo kids and Nico.
Leo has a Tarantula named Felix (Fix for short). Oddly enough, Leo was never scared of spiders, if anything, he loves them. The Athena Cabin always asks for his help to get rid of spiders. He found Fix crawling on his work table, almost getting killed when he interfered. He scooped him up and sent him back into the woods. The next day, he found him again on his table. He kept putting him back till he gave up and made a little space for him
79 notes · View notes