#it literally did not give edward any room for humor

[cto10121]

We could have had it allllllll

#😭 #pattinson just did not take the role seriously #ben barnes at least understood the assignment #twilight #twilight renaissance #pattinson wanting to play him all dark and broody 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩 #so it was pattinson’s fault for not giving us troll!edward #ironically pattinson is a troll irl #it would have cost him NOTHING #the script was also a big problem tho #it literally did not give edward any room for humor #except for shit like ‘you can google it’ #that shit ties with the spider monkey #cristina has an unpopular opinion

[vintagedaydreams]

True Love Never Runs Smoothly Part Six (Carlisle)

Part Six for the Carlisle version!

Yes, I know that I usually update Marcus’ story first, but Carlisle’s just came so much easier this time around. So! Treat for those who are following this story arc!

This chapter was not beta’d, nor was it proof read. #Wedielikemenhere

Without further ado – or delay – the Carlisle update.

@kettnerjanea @jelly-fishy-babie @the-graceful-ace @amwolowicz @batsdothings @waxingmoonstone @littlebabybatthings @mauvette268 @sagittarius-flowerchild @katsav17 @batsuperflashmartianwonderman @imyourapocalypse @bethanymccauley @bepo-is-sorry @raindancer2004 @ashiemochi @artaxerxesthegreat @bloodsweatandsnapple

  You were not in a good place. Okay, physically, you were in a beautiful room in an ancient castle in Italy, but mentally and emotionally? You were just this side of traumatized.

Realistically, you knew that vampires drank from humans. And realistically, you knew that not all vampires enjoyed your company, (the last few weeks in Forks had been testament enough to that), but to have a vampire attack you and try to drain you while in said beautiful and ancient castle in Italy?

Not cool.

Very scary.

All you wanted to do was go home. Go home and seriously forget that anything remotely supernatural existed. Your life would be so much easier. So much…quieter.

That’s what you wanted. Quieter. Easier.

And that’s why you were leaving. Today. Screw any diplomatic anything. You were out.

You were changing back into the clothes you wore here, since you didn’t want to take anything that wasn’t yours and never packed anything for this sudden trip, when a knock resounded through the room.

You froze, not sure if you wanted to scream or cry.

Couldn’t they just leave you alone?

“Come in,” you finally sighed, tugging your shirt on and plopping down on the bed.

The door opened and Aro glided in. Literally glided in. How the man wasn’t gay was still a mystery to you. He was the most feminine vampire you’d met so far – including Rosalie.

“Cara mia!” came the delighted exclamation, as if he hadn’t seen you in years. “How are you doing?”

You crossed your arms, more as a comfort gesture than any hostility.

“Fine, all things considering,” you said after a moment.

Aro’s happy smile faded and he nodded, gesturing to the bed next to you for permission to sit.

As much as you would have liked to decline, it was his castle after all. So you grudgingly nodded.

“It is the ‘all things considering’ that I’d like to talk to you about,” the flamboyant monarch said after he had seated himself with more pomp and circumstance than you were sure was necessary. You were just a human after all.

When you didn’t say anything further – honestly, you were a little scared about what he was going to say next – he continued on.

“My brothers and I have been talking and we do not feel that an Innocent such as yourself should be made to suffer from the side effects of a Neglected Bond.”

Your stomach twisted uncomfortably.

“And….what does that mean?” you whispered after a few minutes of Aro just sitting there, staring at you.

“It means that we have come up with two solutions to your…predicament. You are free to choose whichever solution you desire, though I am sure that with your spirit and your independence, you are not going to like either one. However, in a situation like this, with these players and these circumstances, these were the only two solutions that my brothers and I could come to any sort of agreement on.”

You waited with baited breath and Aro seemed to gather his thoughts.

Which you knew was bullshit. The man was a three thousand year old vampire – he didn’t need to stop and gather shit. He knew exactly what he wanted to say and how he was going to say it.

Dramatic asshole.

“What are the choices?” you finally ground out, tired of waiting and breaking the silence first.

“First,” Aro started, all business and any earlier levity gone, “you must promise to chose and abide by one of these choices. It is not only out of duty as Rulers, but also out of concern, that we have set these decisions. We are giving you freedom to choose, which is something that very few beings get. You have the ability to choose whichever path you feel is better for you, but you will have to obey the stipulations that come with each choice to the letter. Any variance that we are alerted to, and we will choose your fate. Do you understand?”

You gulped, not used to being on the receiving end of this kind of attention from such a powerful being.

“Y-yes,” you swallowed, heart kicking up a few notches as your imagination started to run wild. Everything from being turned by the end of the day, to dying as a human, filled your mind.

“Now, cara mia,” Aro soothed, voice honey sweet and more affectionate now, “know that we have your best interests in mind. Neither choice was meant to hurt or inconvenience you, but rather to help you. A Neglected Bond is not a pleasant thing to go through. And while you should – hopefully – feel less of the symptoms since you are human, there will be some side effects all the same and those may affect you more drastically since you are human.”

You gave a shaky nod, eyes wide and heart hammering.

“The first choice,” Aro started, manner again businesslike, “is to stay here in Volterra. My brothers and I have been around for collectively, around nine thousand years, give or take a few centuries. We have gathered a lot of information and ‘tricks of the trade’ so to speak, and have a few ways around some of the more nasty effects of the Bond. We also have members of our Guard that can help as well, making us a rather indispensable resource for those Neglected.”

You weren’t sure what your face was doing, but it must have been telling enough, for Aro gave a small chuckle that was devoid of humor.

“I didn’t think that would be the route you wanted to take.”

You couldn’t help the blush that spread across your cheeks.

“It’s not that I’m not grateful,” you started hastily, not wanting to offend the vampire that had been ridiculously good to you since you came here. You just didn’t want to stay here any longer! Nothing with them, but this place…it just reminded you too much of all this Bond catastrophe.

At least at home, you could try and pretend your life was normal. Much easier to go back to what you were doing before, than try to carve some normalcy out of an ancient vampire castle.

“Rest assured, Young One,” Aro said with a friendly pat to your hand, “I am not offended. I understand your reasoning. Like I said, I did not think that you would want to stay here. However, I am almost certain you will not find the decision so easy to make once you hear of the second option.

Your other choice is to return home, but to have daily contact with the Cullens – Carlisle more frequent that the rest.”

Now you knew what your face was doing – it had to match the rage and betrayal that was rushing hot and heavy under your skin.

“Of all the dirty, underhanded tricks!” you snarled. “You know how they have treated me, how he has treated me and now one of your stipulations is that I am in constant contact with them?! How is that not going to harm me?! How is that having my best interests at heart?!”

A loud, deep growl sounded out from the vampire in front of you and all of your rage fled in the face of pitch black eyes and bared fangs.

“It is because we have your best interests at heart that we are making you choose between these two paths, Y/N,” Aro growled loudly, sounding more predatory and…monstrous, that you had ever heard any vampire sound. Even the one that had attacked you in the corridor.

It looked as if his control was hanging by a thread and you felt a fission of fear run through you.

“It does not please me to think of you back in Forks, with the coven that is responsible for your current condition. However, Marcus seems to think that you would do well, flourish even, back at home where you have some comfort and confidence.”

The way his voice snapped towards the end made you think that if it were up to Aro, you wouldn’t have a choice and you would be staying in Volterra. Permanently.

Which almost sounded like a better idea.

“You will need to decide soon, cara mia,” Aro’s voice broke through your thoughts, once again sounding soothing and affectionate.

You looked up and were met with ruby red eyes.

“The Cullen Coven is heading back to Forks later tonight – after dark. If you are wanting to return to Forks, it must be with them. Otherwise, if you are staying here, we can make sure you have ample time to say your goodbyes to Bella and young Edward.”

You worried your lip between your teeth – Aro was right. The choice was not quite so easy once you were aware of both choices!

And they really weren’t giving you a lot of time to make a decision either. No rush. You just had a few hours to decide your future and how exactly you wanted to negate some of the nastier affects of the Bond.

You frowned.

“Aro? You’ve explained to me how staying here in Volterra would help with the Bond’s affects, but how would me going with the Cullens and seeing Carlisle almost every day help if he’s the reason behind the Bond being affected like this?”

“Even though my dear friend is the cause of this, his very presence will help stabilize the Bond. While the Bond can read intent, it takes awhile and for the most part, at least at the beginning, close proximity to your Intended can and will relieve the symptoms. Simply being around someone from Carlisle’s venom every day and the vampire himself at least every couple, should satisfy the Bond for now.”

“For now?” you echoed warily. “Then what happens?”

Aro hummed, a small smile lighting his face. “That is for another time.”

At your indignant protest, he held up a cold, marble hand and said firmly, “There is a very strong chance that Later will never happen in this situation. Rest assured, we will be monitoring everything and should it get to the point where we need to step in for your safety and health, we will. But it’s best to not even get into that until the time comes. Unnecessary worry solves nothing, Y/N.”

You gave a slight glare, but let it go. If the man didn’t want to tell you, there was nothing you could say or do that would make him tell you. Though, you didn’t think that knowing all the facts about something that was affecting you negatively right now was ‘unnecessary worrying’. More like ‘smart battle tactics’.

Damn dramatic vampires, always having to keep you in the dark about something.

Would it kill them to actually be forthcoming about something before it became an issue?

Probably.

But no matter. Right now, you had a decision to make. Stay here in Volterra, never see your home or work or friends again and have some vampire voodoo make it to where your Neglected Bond was manageable or go back home to your house, work and friends but have to stay in constant contact with the group of vampires that pretty much made your life a living Hell for the last few weeks.

Both of these choices sucked.

“Why can’t I just go live in England by myself for the rest of my life?” you muttered on a sigh, running a hand through your hair.

It would make your life so much easier – consequences of a Neglected Bond be damned.

“Caius will be pleased to know that you are not a fan of either my choice or Marcus’,” Aro commented lightly from beside you and you gave him a Look.

“Good for Caius,” you deadpanned, feeling a well of frustration bubbled up inside of you. Vampires did remember that human brains couldn’t compute and think things as quickly as vampire brains could, right? Like, humans were much slower at everything. Including decision making. (The fact that you were naturally a procrastinator didn’t matter right now.)

Aro suddenly stood, making you startle and look up at him.

“I will leave you to it, Y/N. A guard is stationed outside your door – simply notify them when you have come to a decision and they were notify the proper people.”

“Thanks,” you said automatically, mind already racing through the pros and cons of each decision, feeling the deadline moving steadily closer.

Damn vampires!

-----

So, never again were you going to make life altering decisions about your mental and emotional health on so limited a time frame.

Your bottom lip was bleeding from you chewing through it and you were pretty sure your hair could win a country music award with how much it was all over the place from you pulling at it and running your hands through it.

But you did it.

You had come to a conclusion.

It wasn’t easy and you hoped to never have such a sucky choice again in your life, but you did it.

You would be going home to Forks with Edward, Bella and the Betrayers Six.

As much as being in Volterra would probably be better for you in the long run, right now you needed familiarity. Stability. And your own bed.

The rest would sort itself out.

Besides, you were supposed to be in contact with someone who shared Carlisle’s venom every day. Edward would fill that void just fine.

And then every couple of days, Carlisle could…stand on the back porch or something.

As long as he was close, that should satisfy the Bond. Probably. Maybe. Perhaps. You really needed some more information on this.

Especially if it was going to dictate your foreseeable future.

With a gusty sigh, you straightened your spine and headed to the door to alert your guard you were going home.

Hopefully, you could find Edward and Bella before having to see the rest of the Cullens.

After alerting your guard as to your plans, you were instructed to stay in your room until someone could come fetch you.

Fetch you? Out of everyone in this castle, you were not the one acting like a child!

But you agreed and took a seat on your bed again.

This was actually helping you to realize you made the right decision. If you stayed in Volterra, you wouldn’t be able to stay in your room 24/7. You’d go insane!

A knock sounded at the door and then Edward entered.

“Eddie!” you exclaimed in legitimate relief and joy, hopping off the bed and running to hug him.

A normal person!

Well, as close to normal as any vampire could get at this point.

A low chuckle echoed through the room and you couldn’t help your entire body relax. It just felt so good to be with someone familiar!

“Make sure you don’t touch Aro on the way to the plane,” Edward said with a huff of laughter. “You’ll end up hurting his feelings at your anxiousness to get away.”

You pulled back enough to see Edward’s face, your mouth opening to deny that you were that anxious to get away – Aro had been so good to you, the last thing you wanted to do was hurt his feelings! – but Edward gave you a crooked grin, beating you to it with a soft, “Teasing, Y/N. Aro knows you are just happy to get home.”

You scrunched your nose up at Edward; he would tease you right now.

But it worked and you felt yourself feeling more like yourself than you had in weeks.

You could do this. It was going to suck, especially at first, but you could it.

“Everyone is ready and waiting by the jet,” Edward said quietly as he ushered you out the door and down the hallway. “I thought we would arrive last and then we could leave as soon as we get there without having to wait for anybody.”

You nodded in thanks, squeezing his arm in gratitude.

“Bella is already there?”

“Yes,” Edward confirmed, “she’s holding her own against them. I think she was honestly excited for me to leave and get you – she’s been dying to have some ‘quality time’ with everyone. I guess the last time she yelled at them wasn’t enough for her.”

You gave a snort of amusement, so thankful to have the support of both Edward and Bella. They really were going to be your rocks through this.

It didn’t take long for you and Edward to come up on the jet. The rest of the Cullen Coven were standing fairly close together, though you noticed Jasper and Alice a bit farther away from the group.

Bella stood farthest away, facing the golden eyed vampires with her hands on her hips.

You seriously loved that woman.

“She’s taken,” Edward murmured to you with a grin and you rolled your eyes and shot back, “You’re a lucky bastard.”

Edward’s chuckle was drowned out by the starting of the jet’s engines. The Cullens slowly began migrating to the ramp leading up to the jet, giving Bella a wide berth to your great amusement.

To your surprise, though you weren’t sure why it surprised you, Aro was there to see you off.

“My brothers would have loved to be here as well,” he assured you and you fought not to roll your eyes. You could just bet. “However, they are needed for a sudden, unexpected trial. I did want to see you off before I go and join them; do be careful and remember what we discussed, alright?”

You gave a small smile, not really enjoying the reminder of the whole ‘listen to our rules or we’ll decide your fate’ thing, but…it was nice to know that you had a group of people watching out for you.

You untangled your arm from Edward’s and walked the few steps forward to give Aro a hug. He really had been amazing to you since your arrival days ago.

“Thank you,” you murmured into his chest as his arms came up to wrap around you as well.

“Of course, Cara Mia,” he returned, giving you a last gentle squeeze before you took a step back. “You are an honorary Vampire and one of us now,” he continued with a smirk. “Please, do come visit us soon – no matter the outcome of your Bond.”

You gave a soft laugh, seriously touched that he seemed to give two figs about you.

“You can count on it, Aro. Thank you.”

The King bowed his head and then called to the small number of guards in the area before making his leave.

Edward came back up to you and gently steered you towards the plane where the ‘family’ of vampires who had made your life Hell for weeks, hated your guts for something completely out of your control, and then suddenly tried to get in your good graces after a scolding from vampire royalty, were waiting.

What an amazingly awkward plane ride this was going to be.

#Carlisle x Reader #Reader Insert #Volturi Rock #Edward is not a douche #Twilight Imagine #Twilight Reader Insert #Carlisle Imagine

[itseivwhore]

Hey! May I please get some headcanons for how Edward, Shay, and Arno would react to their S/O being worried about a college application and whether or not it'll be accepted? I applied on Thursday, and Im honestly so scared... thank you in advance

Heyo @prctectedlegacy (why the cazzo can't I find you in the usernames when I try to tag you???I just hope you will see these,once published) !Thank you for requesting this ;) Listen here,it's normal to feel scared/stressed/preoccupied/anxious about something so important like this,but try to think for the best,mh?For example: I cry. HAHAHAHAHAH,my dark humor and obvious sarcasm apart...for real,teake it easy buddy. But I would love to know if they'll accept you!So let me know,will you?

Also,I noticed that I became,literally from all of sudden,the CEO of comforting people with my headcanons. Like uh yes,feel free to confess your preoccupations to me: come get some you fuckers,I'm here to make you happy with my weak writing skill.

Now let's start,shall we?

~~~~~

|°Edward°| :

He has been with you through everything,and with him,you passed and overwhelmed any kind of fear you had in the past: encouraging you when others put you down,rooting for you when others didn't believe in you,pushing you do to your best in and for everything all the time,being by your side with everything you had to face.

Edward was always here,with his strong determination and with his endless support for you.

Unless these times when he was drunk:in that case you would have found him passed out,either on the couch or on the bathroom's floor,blabbering things under his breath...but that's a negligible detail.

Getting in that college would have been a big step in your life,the one you always have wanted.But,for as much as you were excited and happy about it,needless to say that you were also,and obviously,scared.

You firstly tried to hide your preoccupation away from Edward,not wanting to ruin his costant,almost natural,'chill' nature,letting him playing his guitar in peace.

But nothing passed unseen under these deep blue eyes of his: nothing.

Finally deciding to open up your mind and sharing your thoughts with him,after he came back home from a pub where he played with his small,cheap band.

When Edward listened to you freely speaking about your worries,he gave you such a big smile and a relieved sigh.The bastard knew that something was off with the way you were behaving,but he didn't dare to touch that 'weak' spot,deciding instead to wait for you to take your time.

So there you were,sitting together outside the balcony of his apartment,in the middle of the night: you softly speaking as he carefully listened to everything,blue eyes fixed in your ones.

Comforting you in all the ways he knew,pulling and squeezing you in an endless and tight hug,not letting you go until you have calmed down.

He might haven't been a master with gentle words and philosophical speeches...so silence was all what he could give you.But,after some moments where he intensly observed you,he found his way with words:

"Why don't you go and take something to drink,mh?" as he gave you a sly wink and a lopside smirk.

"Let's drink to forget our sorrows" he exclaimed before taking a long sip from the bottle you brought him,actually managing to make you laugh.

Jokes apart,after drinking that beer,he became more serious,wrapping an arm around your waist,pulling you in his lap as he whispered to you truly and purely comforting words,genuinely soothing you down once for all.

Maybe it was his low,deep voice,speaking so firmly and decisively;or maybe it was the way he was lively convincing you that you will get in that 'goddamned college' -his own words.

Spending the other days together.

Slow/rough sex for making the stress go away.

Edward playing his guitar in the living room most of the time for you,with you sitting on the couch while you had his cat in your lap:listening to him playing something slow and nice always helped you to relax.

"You will get in that college.If you don't?That doesn't exist,darlin' "

Yes,he does have his own way with words,when he wants.

~~~~~

|°Shay°| :

Shay was a man of few words,he was a man of action.And,most of all,he knew you way too well:so you possibly and literally can't hide anything from him.

"I have eyes and ears everywhere,little dove,remember this" he said with a serious voice once he started to talk about that almost crucial subject,but the sly smile he had on his lips just betrayed (see what I did there?I'm not sorry) his deep tone.

So you two had a long,long talk,him letting you speak freely as much as you wanted and needed,for only starting to talk and to exprime his thoughts just after you finished.

You didn't had idea of how he could have been so convincing,firm and ardent and triumphant while trying to make you reason:trying to let you understand that you WILL get accepted in that college.

Giving you a severe,yet gentle expression,telling you that you didn't had to be preoccupied of anything.

For as much as Shay was hopeful,he also was very,very stubborn and consequently he made you become a bit stubborn too: you,scared and convinced that everything was going to be a distaster;him,angry and almost desperate to change your mind,wiping off those bad thoughts you had.

He even called Haytham,one day.You heard him talking to the older man one afternoon,and you immediately found Shay in the living room,approaching you as he handed you the phone.

Needless to say that Mr Kenway said the exact same things that your boyfriend told you all the time the other days.Haytham loosing himself in a long,philosophical and almost paternal speech.

And Shay was glad when he actually managed to change your mind,even if a little,relieved when he saw you starting to see and think about things in a different way.

So,when he noticed that you were calmer,he started to spoil you.

Bringing you out for a date in such a nice restaurant,spending the whole evening together.

Sex,a lot of sex,all around the house,comfort sex to relieve you and to make you relaxed.Worshipping you all the time,always.

Giving you his four-leaf clover that he kept wrapped in an old and ruined bag,placing it in your hand,closing them around it.

"I hope it'll bring me luck" raising your almost teary eyes on his warm brown ones,him just giving you a snarky smile.

"You make your own luck"

"And if you won't get in,I will hunt these bastards down" he might have said with a light tone and a vague gesture with his hand,making you amused,but...oh he was able to do that.

~~~~~

|°Arno°| :

Oh no...

You were convinced,more than anything,that Arno Dorian was a man who was able to read in your mind:he only needed an intense,deep stare at your eyes for finding out what was bothering you so much.

And when he finally understood what was wrong,he immediately...well.

If this man was anything,anxious was one of them.Quickly becoming anxious and preoccupied too,his thick eyebrows furrowed with worry as he sat beside you,taking your little hand in his big ones,bringing them up to his mouth,leaving a chaste kiss on the back of them.

"We can be anxious together,amour"

He tried to joke with a low voice,a bitter smile on his lips,hope starting to grow within himself as he saw the corner of your lips rising up slightly.

He had always known how much getting in that college was important for you.

The young man knew that so well:listening to you talking with passion about it,sharing with him your secrets and dreams;dreams and goals that he liked and shared a lot.

He loved seeing you so determinated and gritty about that: Arno knew that,if you wanted something,you HAD to get it,in all the ways you were capable of.And he was more than willing to help you.

But seeing all that passion,will and hope being overwhelmed by anxiety,worries and pessimism?

It was a big problem for Arno,too: he was so emphatic,and seeing you being so preoccupied just put him down.

The last thing he wanted for you was to be upset.So he tried his best to make you feel in a better mood,rising your spirit up by telling you that he truly and firmly believed in you and in your skills.

He truly did.Nothing fascinated Arno more than seeing how your eyes light up with that ardent glimpse whenever you talked about the things you were passionate about.

Cheering you up by preparing a hot bath,candles lit up all around the dark room as steam raised from the bathtub.

Cuddling together way more than before.Lots,tons of cuddles for you.

Distracting you by walking hand in hand in the city,in the middle of the night,enjoying the quiet and paceful atmosphere as you both silently talked about anything.

Forehead kisses. Oui.

Him reading out loud some of his favourite poems,his hands wandering in your ones,playing with your fingers as he continued to read for you,calming you down a lot.

"A croissant?"

That man makes love,he doesn't just fuck.

Arno was totally and utterly devoted towards you: a romantic man if you wish,a man who always gave you endless support and a man who would give his heart and soul to see,and make,you happy.

~~~~~

Ta daaa. Hope you liked them buddy ;) <3

(Also,a little note: I just hope I got their personality right?Especially with Shay,since I rarely have written something about him ;/)

Addio.

#thanks for the request! #request #replies #assassin's creed #assassin's creed headcanons #assassin's creed imagines #assassin's creed modern #assassin's creed modern au #assassin's creed modern headcanons #ac modern #ac modern au #edward kenway #edward kenway modern #edward kenway headcanons #edward kenway imagine #edward kenway x reader #shay cormac #shay patrick cormac #shay cormac modern #shay cormac headcanons #shay cormac imagine #shay cormac x reader #arno dorian #arno dorian modern #arno dorian headcanons #arno dorian imagine #arno dorian x reader #my writing #my post

[mermaid-nebula]

Kiss From a Rose

Chapter 1: Kiss From a Rose

Summary: I loved writing the last story so much that I had to tell it from Wilford's perspective!

Word Count: 2,404

Wilford runs around his recording room with great excitement. He had a project in mind that he was really proud of, and he couldn't wait to start on it. He fiddles with the wires that connect to his cameras and recording set up. He hears a soft, yet annoyed sigh from behind him.

“Wil, can we make this quick? I’m pretty busy today.” A deep voice resonates from behind him. He smiles to himself. Ah Dark, the ever impatient one out of this dynamic duo that they are.

“Awwww Darky you’re always in your office nowadays. You need to get out and spend some time with us!”

Dark looks at him, “Us? You give my relationship with the others too much credit. I am not friends with them.” he says, scoffing a bit.

“You’re friends with me.” Wilford replies softly, as if it's a secret they share between themselves.

“That’s different. Just...let’s get this over with.” The other man huffs and begins to massage his temples. Wilford's noticed he's been doing that lately, even more so than usual. He looks at him worriedly, wondering if he's the source of his pain this time rather than his aching body. Dark catches him staring and exhales a bit, "What?"

“You’ve just been acting a bit odd lately, old friend. Almost as if you’re trying to avoid me.” Wilford pauses and takes in how absurd that idea sounded out loud. He laughs at the thought before continuing, "But that’s silly! I haven’t done anything wrong to cause your lack of company. Have I?" He looks at him, a bit concerned.

“No Wil, you haven’t done anything to upset me. If you had, I would have discussed the problem with you by now like an adult.” he responds. “But enough of the heart to heart right now, I’ve got a splitting headache so we’ll have to wrap whatever my part in this project up very soon.”

He tilts his head and goes over to him. He doesn't know why, but he brings his hands to Dark's head and begins massaging him before he can stop himself. He giggles to himself when Dark tenses up, obviously surprised by what was happening. He moves his hands slowly, through his hair. More like playing with it now, but it was soft! What was he supposed to do, NOT play with his hair as soon as his fingers touch his scalp? And he made sure Dark could get out of his grip if he wanted too. He watches Dark's face closely; he seemed a bit confused by this turn of events. They were very close to each other, and he uses his healing powers to try and ease the pain lingering in Dark's skull.

The other man slowly relaxes into it, and Wilford stares at him, taking in his details. Being this close to him was a rarity, so he savors the closeness and enjoys the relaxed look that was only seen on a blue moon. He enjoys being the one that can bring his guard down. He looks pretty when he's smiling a bit, his lips curving up slightly or being caught between his teeth in hesitation. They look really soft. He shakes his head slightly, snapping out of his traitorous thoughts, and pulling his hands away from him. He goes back to fiddling with his cameras, giggling slightly to try and keep the creeping guilt at bay.

He had a boyfriend. A very good boyfriend. He shouldn't think of his friend in such a...lustful way.

“Feel a little better? If it starts hurting again you should go see Doc”

“Awww is dear little Darky not feeling good?”

Speaking of said boyfriend. Wilford turns to see Anti in the doorway, both him and Dark glaring at each other like they're ready to fight.

“Doll! You’re here!” he beams, trying to hide the guilt that claws its way up his throat. It's not that he isn't excited to see him, he loves him, but it's just been getting harder to love him and while Wilford was famous for breaking unfaithful relationships apart, he desperately wanted to be a good partner.

When Anti smirks and saunters over to him, he'll definitely be the first to admit that it was hot as fuck. And when he begins to pull away from a kiss they share, it's Wilford who pulls him back into another, rougher, kiss as if to show him that he's promising to be better at this relationship. That what he feels for the glitch isn't fake, even though his heart feels like he's cheating and his brain thinks about his bestfriend who was currently exiting the room.

"I could do this all day, but you seem distracted Candy Man." Anti points out when they pull away. Wilford sighs and tries to think about what he's gonna say, right before hearing Dark scream from the hallway.

He runs out so see the man sprawled out on the floor in agony, clutching his head. He crawls over next to him and tries to calm him down.

"Dark? Darky what's wrong?!" He asks. Dark doesn't reply. Instead he shakes violently, aura glitching and saliva dripping from his mouth. It was horrifying to see him like this, but he tries keeping calm. He's seen plenty of seizures or seizure-like symptoms before in his time in the army, so he takes a deep breath. He lays Dark on his side, facing him, and places his head on his thigh to keep him from hitting it against the floor.

Dark then passes out not long after, and he screams for Edward with tears in his eyes.

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

Wilford hated infirmaries. Too many unpleasant memories from his time at war always come flooding back whenever he's in one.

He remembers more about his past than what he lets on.

Even now, sitting in a chair next to his sleeping friend whom he's horribly smitten with, flashes of the beaten and broken soldiers from his troop haunts his mind. The screaming and crying never really leave his mind, but he does his best to shake it off while he listens to Edward.

"There's literally nothing wrong with him."

"Obviously there is! He collapsed a week ago now, h-he's not okay!!!" He was practically yelling in panic. It didn't make any sense, and he normally loves when things don't make sense, but his friend is unwell right now. Edward rubs his back to calm him down, but he just tells the doctor to leave him alone.

He sighs and lays his head down on the side of the hospital bed Dark laid upon and he rests his hand on top of the others. Just as he has for the past 7 days. He yawns, too loud in his ears for the small, quiet room. He jumps a bit when he feels a hand on his back.

"Why don't you come to bed? You haven't slept well all week" Anti's voice cuts through the stillness. He shakes his head.

"I'm not tired." He lies. He was exhausted.

It never took this long for anyone to wake up, but Dark would, wouldn't he? He did last time, in the manor all those years ago. Anti frowns at his answer.

"I mean, you don't have to fucking lie to me if you wanted to me to leave you alone."

Wilford sighs. That sentence hits him in more ways than one. He stands up slowly and takes his boyfriend's hands in his, pressing a kiss to his cheek before forcing a smile.

"Hey, more room in my bed for you tonight then Mr. Wiggly." He chuckles out. Anti frowns, clearly not amused.

"Something's gonna have to give soon Candy Man. 6 months together, either we cut our losses now or we try harder. I think I already know your answer though."

"I'm sorry. I know I've been lacking. And I know you don't like him, but he's my best friend. I'll be up in an hour okay? I will try harder. I promise."

"Fine." Anti huffs out, before leaving Wilford alone again.

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

He made good on his promise to come to bed an hour later, though Anti didn't have any plans on letting him sleep, keeping him busy for at least another hour after Wilford came back, tackling him to his own bed.

But now that things have gone quiet and Anti's breathing turned into soft snoring, Wilford can't even feel tired anymore. He studies the demon next to him, sleeping soundly. He was unfairly pretty, but his personality was what won Wilford over. Yes, he can be brash, but he was witty and humorous, with a firecracker personality to match. He can definitely see why Dark hates him so much, they were complete opposites from each other. Yet, he and Wilford were the perfect fit. They loved knives. They loved murder. They're an unstoppable force to be reckoned with when they're together. All the possible mischief they have and could get into.

Wilford smiles to himself and wraps his arms around the other man, forgetting about Dark for once and just existing with his awesome boyfriend, nuzzling his face into his unruly died hair. The shorter man grunts, annoyed from being stirred awake. Wilford presses a kiss to his head.

"Fuckin sap" is all he can hear before Anti falls back to sleep.

Wilford smiles and cuddles him until he drifts off to sleep.

He promised to try, and so he will.

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

It's crazy how much shit can go down in so little time, but then again Wilford's never grasped the concept. The past two weeks that Dark's been in his mysterious coma felt like he's lived in another lifetime for a thousand years.

The manor was empty now. Well, near empty. Bing and the Doc were still here, but the others had left earlier in the day. And to say that it's because of him was a huge understatement.

After his and Anti's "rendezvous", Wilford had woken up to a note on Anti's pillow.

I'm leaving you.

I know you said you'd try, but that's another fucking lie. I know when someone's gone soft and weak for somebody, and I know that it ain't for me. How could you just waste my time like that? Doesn't matter, glad I figured it out about two months into this trainwreck. To tell you the truth, you were only for fun. You never actually meant anything to me, and I never want you to be. Have fun being a lonely old man and a waste of good air.

-A

He stares at the piece of paper in his hand then crumples it in anger. He had promised he's try and Anti didn't even give him a chance to! He just left him when he needed him the most. Now he's alone. Alone and angry. He ate breakfast angry, went to meetings angry, and went to bed angry all week long. Up until the point where the others were considering having another ego take Dark's place until he woke up, and Google just so happened to be nominated.

And well, that didn't end good.

It wasn't Wilford's fault! The idea of being a head of the egos had gone to the robot's head.

It was annoying, and Wilford just...had enough of it.

He didn't mean to break him, just punch him. Yet he forgot that Google prides himself in not having anything human related. That includes pain receptors or embarrassment. Which made him cocky and even more unbearable.

"Gotta try harder than that Candy Man " He says, smirking.

That was the straw that broke the camel's back, and when he came back to his right mind, Google was in pieces and the others cowered from him.

Nowadays, he's usually sitting with Dark in the basement. His hand always holding the other's tightly, so he won't slip away.

"Out of everyone, I need you right now. Just to talk to. Even if you're gonna be disappointed in what I've done now, just knowing you're okay would help. I...fuck -Damien please come back to me." He brings his friend's cold hand to his face, nuzzling it.

"I can't do this without you. Or, I can but...I don't want to. I just...I feel-I don't know!"

He huffs, agitated.

Dark groans in his sleep and Wilford looks at him. His face was twisted in a familiar way that he recognized as him having a nightmare. He wonders how many he's been having since he collapsed.

Wilford's never been one for singing, it just wasn't his favorite thing to do, but he would sing to Damien sometimes when they were kids and Mark would invite them all over for sleepovers. The poor boy almost always had nightmares when sleeping in an unfamiliar place, and William only could think of singing to him at the time. He wonders if it still would work. He clears his throat a bit and hums a melody to warm up a bit.

There used to be a greying tower alone on the sea You became the light on the dark side of me Love remained a drug that's the high and not the pill But did you know that when it snows My eyes become large and the light that you shine can be seen?

He holds his hand and gently brushes a stray lock of hair out of Dark's face, which was slowly starting to relax.

Baby, I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey Ooh, the more I get of you, the stranger it feels, yeah And now that your rose is in bloom A light hits the gloom on the grey

He sighs softly, and presses a feather light kiss to the other man's knuckles. The next lyrics almost seem to personal in a painfully accurate way.

There is so much a man can tell you, so much he can say You remain my power, my pleasure, my pain

He shakes his head, and chuckles to himself at how silly this feels, but it was actually comforting him to sing to the sleeping man next to him. He stares at him, heart aching.

Now that your rose is in bloom A light hits the gloom on the grey

And thus, begins the night of many, where a sad man sings his heart out to an unresponsive audience.

#darkstache #darkstache fanfiction #Darkiplier's Extraordinary Playlist. #Kiss From a Rose

[justfuckingcommittoit]

Well... this is complicated??

Part Two

I laid my head in Jasper’s lap as I continued half reading The Betrayal while Alice and Skylar were sprawled across the floor with their textbooks. This is how we normally started our weeks, except with less tension throughout the house. It's even gotten to the point where you wouldn't need vampire hearing to hear Emmett and Rosalie bickering about Bella. It wasn't long before Emmett brought his now solo party upstairs to us.

"So, how long do you think Edward will survive Tanya?" Emmett laughs as he enters the room and jumps onto the end of Jasper’s bed, the bounce making me lose grip of my book as it narrowly avoids hitting me in the face.

"Give me 3 to 4 business days to get back to you." Alice replied, barely looking up from her work. Jasper humored Emmett on a bet when Rosalie joined us in the room.

"If he was smart he would stay there. This isn't going to end well no matter what Alice’s visions tell us right now." She stayed in the doorway, her arms crossed.

“Come on, babe!" Emmett exclaimed, "Don't you want another human in the house? It will be like having a third puppy." He laughed.

"Yeah are we that bad?" I asked Rosalie as she glared at her husband’s statement.

“No. But the fact that Jasper can control himself around you and Edward can barely control himself around her tells me all I need to know." She stated as she coldly walked out of the room. Skylar and I looked up at Emmett with a confused look, but Alice answered for him.

“Edward almost lost control today in Biology. I have no doubt that he’d have taken out that entire classroom if you two weren’t in there with him.”

"Wow." Skylar sighed, "I love unknowingly saving my class from vampire tendencies." she mumbled. "Do you really think he's going to stay in Alaska?"

"I mean he literally doesn't have to." I interject. "Have him come back and just tell the schools he's transferring schools."

"And what school would he go to genius?" Emmett asked. "The next school near us is a 40 minute drive."

"Have him stay home? Seriously, no one will know. It's not like you're missing anything." I stated.

Skylar nodded in agreement. "Why do you guys even go to high school anyways?"

"The younger we start out the longer we can stay."

"Okay, but why not just go through college then go get a job. All of you could easily pass as older than you are and you could actually have an independent life instead of living through high school over and over." Emmett stared at Skylar, clearly never coming up with that solution on her own. Jasper tried not to laugh as Emmett got up and left the room.

It was Wednesday when Bella finally caught up to us. Until now, she would glance at us whenever we were around, whether that be in class or the school parking lot with the rest of the Cullen’s. Skylar and I had to finish up our art projects due tomorrow so we skipped out on our usual homework session at the Cullen’s. Bella pulled up next door as we were taking our backpacks' out of the backseat of my car.

"Um hey." Bella said as she jogged over, her hands shoved in her jacket pockets. "Do you guys know where Edward is by any chance? I mean, he was there my first day and then he just sort of disappeared. I guess I'm just wondering if he's alright?" she stumbled over her words a bit.

"He's in Alaska, Bella." Skylar replied, shutting her car door and walked around towards her.

"Alaska?" Bella asked, obviously confused. It's clear that she didn't ask the Cullen’s anything herself. That or they just full up avoided her this whole time.

"He's visiting a friend." Skylar replied, only confusing Bella more.

"Who died." I added. "They um, used to date."

"Such a tragedy. She was like part of the family."

"Then why is Edward the only one gone?"

"She went a bit crazy at the end there." Skylar gave me a look then hopped right into digging ourselves into an even deeper hole.

"Yeah. It was really conflicting for him. That's why he was acting so weird the day he met you, he found out the night before and was still trying to process it all. You know how it is." She finished and Bella briefly nodded, trying to put something together in her head. "So Bella, we haven't heard much about you. Where did you move from?" From there we got to learn a bit more about our new neighbor. We exchanged numbers and then quickly went inside to inform the rest of the bullshit story we just made up to get Bella to stop asking questions.

Edward finally returned to Forks later that week, just in time for Esme’s Sunday brunch with us. Esme and Carlisle really enjoyed taking up cooking ever since we started coming over to the house late Freshman year. We have since established Esme’s Sunday brunch for her to try new recipes for us. The rest of the Cullen’s were mostly in and out of the house on these days, but today Edward joined us at the table, even if he wasn't going to eat anything. He returned early in the morning, finally annoyed with Tanya’s antics or something like that. I wasn't really paying attention to that part of the conversation.

"So you're just going to talk to her like you didn't gag at her when you first saw her?" Skylar asked, trying to hold back laughter. Esme smiled at us as she put down plates of strawberry crepes in front of us. Edward playfully nudged her as Alice seemed to float through the living area to grab something.

"You better talk to her soon, I want to be her friend!" Skylar chuckled at her girlfriend's eagerness to befriend Bella. She didn't think it was fair since Skylar and I have been texting with Bella on and off throughout Edward’s absence.

Shortly after finishing our meals, Bella called. She made point to call at some point during the weekends since we somewhat tricked her into helping us with biology since Edward never did. I answered the phone and put in on speaker with Skylar since Edward left the room to go find some board games they had laying around somewhere. We barely got past hellos before Edward walked back downstairs naming off the games he had found. I quickly took Bella off speaker as she asked if that was Edward that she had heard. Edward and I seemed to freeze in our spots as we made eye contact. Skylar quickly grabbed the phone from me.

"No. That was our pastor. We're at Church. Um break is over so we have to go..sing..now?" I looked at her confused.

"Do people even sing in Church?" I asked myself out loud before turning to Carlisle who was helping Esme behind the Kitchen counter, "Carlisle do people sing in Church?!"

Ok so additional to all these weeks, Violet and I have came up officially with a great conclusion. Edward Cullen sucked at making normal, or even decent, conversations with the poor girl.

It was just so funny how he tried to so hard to seem cool, when in reality, he looked like he had a stick so far up his ass, that it could ultimately reach his dead heart.

"Skylar...SKYLAR!"

I blinked out of my thoughts, a little too late. I shuffled a laugh by covering my mouth as I watch Violet fall backwards on her butt.

She stared at me. Too long for my liking. Making me shift uncomfortably.

"Uh.. how is the weather down there?"

I asked, offering a small smile only for Violet to narrow her eyes at me.

"Want me to kick your kneecaps, so we can share this experience, sister?"

Violet mumbled, venom coated her words.

I moved back a little, blowing a kiss to her.

"Nope! I'll let you savor this one by yourself!"

This was too boring.

"Wait- are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Violet stared at me as if I had lost my brain.

"We may be twins, Skylar, but I'm not Edward. Therefore, I cannot for the love of god read your dirty sinful mind."

"HEY NOW! My mind has no such thoughts!"

Violet raised an eyebrow at me.

"oh, really? Then why does Edward stare at you in such a judgmental way every time you cross his path?"

I cross my arms against my chest.

"Cuz he's an old ancient that has, surprisingly, remained virgin and can't seem to get that stick out his ass.”

Violet rolled her eyes, making herself more comfortable on the floor.

"Your a virgin as well, moron."

"I may be, but not my eyes."

"Ew! I knew it! You watch-"

"NO! God, no! I've seen some things. Yes. But accuse Emmett and Rosalie. Seriously his butt is-"

Violet threw a small snowball to me making me groan.

"Shush!"

"You asked for it. Dirty minded peasant."

Violet rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. Just tell me,"

I suddenly remembered my plan and started to grin mischievously. I secretly rolled my eyes to the main door of the Cullen’s mansion. Thankfully, that was enough for Violet to understand my goal. Our goal.

Violet let out a small "oh" before falling flatly on her back.

"Scream in pain!"

I mumbled. Hoping that they wouldn't hear me

"ah."

Violet deadpanned making me sigh.

"Do it correctly!"

"I'd but I'm not in pain!"

"Fine! I'll help you, I guess."

I innocently say, arms behind my back.

Violet’s eyes winded.

"Wait nO- AHHRHHH YOU STUPID FUCKER!"

Violet cried out. Mission? Accomplished. Hotel? Trivago.

In a matter of seconds, Rosalie, Esme, Alice, Jasper, Emmett, Edward, and Carlisle came rushing out.

"What's wrong?!"

"Why is she moving like a snail?"

"A snail? It seems more like a worm-"

"SKYLAR GONZÁLEZ! EMMETT CULLEN! JASPER CULLEN!"

Violet yelled, slowly standing up.

"Back off, beast! I am one wild Mexican fella, and I know Tae Kwan Do, and I WILL USE IT"

Violet ignored my wonderful speech, gather a bunch of snow, glaring at Jasper, Emmett, and I.

Ok, this was not the plan whatsoever. But a little run won't hurt. Wait, no. I quickly rush over to Emmett, jumping onto his back.

"GO, MOSQUITO!"

Emmett gave me a look.

I gave him one as well.

"What? Prefer sparkly depressed bitch-"

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Rosalie furrowed her eyebrows when she noticed red liquid on the hall. She was just glad it wasn't actual blood.

"Ayo Rosie Posie, my sista from another- oh, OH!that's a lot of, um, uh, blood? Did you do this? Cuz I sure as hell didn't-"

My eyes winded when Rosalie suddenly blurted over to me to cover my mouth. She stared down at me, but her glare didn't bother me that much. I was used to it. Quite hot as well.

"That's not blood, stupid! It's ketchup."

I could sense the disgust dripping from her tone. Understandable. Giving the fact that she couldn't eat shit.

I grinned whenever Rosalie finally let go.

"I know your obsessed with me~"

I happily say in a sing like voice.

Only for Rosalie to flip her finger at me.

"I'll kill you."

"And I'll sue you."

"How can-"

"I'll sue you."

I threatened, one of my fingers pointing at her.

"Plus, I will haunt you, and I will-"

"Will what?!"

I thought for a moment.

"I'll think about it."

I said, nodding to myself, before backing away slowly.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Violet and I were eating our lunch- well, extra lunch that Esme kindly made for us. Everything was going fine, until Emmett suddenly started to laugh like a madman. For my bad luck, I was sitting right next to him. And to my fucking luck, he made me drop my fucking grape.

Emmett continued to laugh before calming down a little to fake wipe a nonexistent tear. Fella couldn't even cry, smh.

"Are you ok, Sky? I can sense-"

I cut Jasper off while Violet laughed her ass off.

"Just preachy."

I deadpanned before noticing how worried the Cullen’s looked while Rosalie just seemed about ready to snap someone's head. Literally. And that head would belong to Edward Cullen.How charming.

"Uh y'all good?"

"If you guys have a massive diarrhea just-"

"It's not that. Eric invited Bella to a certain prohibited area. She's currently asking Edward if he wants to go with her. As we all know, Edward is being creepy."

"I can handle this,"

I say instantly, trying to fake Rosalie’s voice. Much to Rosalie’s dismay.

I stood up, picked Violet up by her hood, and dragged her along.

I was not about to do all this work just to leave my beloved twin to eat her food.

Hell to the fuck no.

"Hi, hello, this is Skylar, me, hola."

Bella looked at me weirdly while Edward seemed to see me as the most important goddess out there. As he fucking should.

"Oh, hey Violet! Hey Skylar."

Violet waved, beaming.

"I was just inviting Edward to La push this Sunday."

I nodded. No shit.

"Sorry, Bella. But Edward won't be able to go."

Bella looked confused.

"Why?"

Why ask questions? Women, tsk.

"He and I are going to do our nails,"

Edward immediately looked down at me.

"He is?"

"I am?"

I elbowed his stomach even though I knew it hurt me more, than it hurt him.

"He is."

Bella looked at us skeptically.

"But he didn't even know about it."

I waved my hand dismissively.

"Oh, he did. He's a sexist, y'know? Trying to get rid of that bad habit. He is just too shy to admit it, right?"

I glared. If he fucked this up, I'll never save him again.

"I-Yeah! It's true!"

"Oh.."

"No worries! Violet will go with you!"

"She will?"

"I will?"

I could literally feel an upcoming headache.

"You are, she is, in a matter of fact! Take her!"

I quickly push Violet towards Bella. I grabbed Edward’s hand, and dragged him back to our table. That's what she gets for making fun of my grape.

I let myself flop on a chair beside my girlfriend.

"I'm surrounded by idiots."

#twilight #bella swan #edward cullen #jasper cullen #rosalie cullen

[dream-girls-evil]

⭐

Oh boy someone finally took pity and is gonna let me talk about The Lovers XD

This project got...SO much bigger than intended. It started as a funny crack idea I sent to another CAOS blog about Lilith freaking out about Adam and asking Zelda to be her fake girlfriend. And then I actually started thinking about it, and it has now turned into a four-part series. And it’s going to be angsty. Crack and angst, that’s my brand.

The titles for the series, The Lovers, is a reference to the tarot card. It represents a choice to be made in one’s romantic life, one that often has serious consequences and might be irreversible. It’s going to come into play on both a literal and metaphorical level. We never saw Zelda’s third card in the Tarot episode, and with what I’m setting up, The Lovers will be fitting. But it’s also just a theme of this series--Zelda and Lilith both wanting to choose each other and not always being able to, and the consequences there are for their choices.

The titles for each part of the story, after several re-labelings, come from the song Deep End by Birdy. They are 1) Can we just pretend? 2) I wish they’d told me, 3) How do we mend? and 4) If you mean everything. The titles as well as the general vibe of the song itself should give you a really good idea of the tone and content of this fic. There’s a lot of longing and love but also regret. I actually first heard this song on a Zelith video (here), and while my story is very different than the one the video portrays, it’s themes and hopeful ending are really what inspired me to use the lyrics. I also love this song because it’s not strictly and obviously about romantic love, and neither is this fic. It’s going to be a very slow burn to their eventual relationship, because it’s really important to me that they truly bond as friends and get to know each other as people first. Right now, they each need a friend and confidante much more than a romance, and part of what I think gives them so much potential as a couple is how similar and well-suited to each other they are on those basic levels first and foremost.

Everything else below the cut!

Can we just pretend?

Oh, so much to say about this fic. I love fake dating fics, it’s just a hilarious trope with so much potential for awkward and absurd situations. Plus, I know there are several in this fandom, but they’re all AUs, and I think one of the fun parts of setting one in the CAOS universe is that Lilith and Zelda are trying to fool each other just as much as everyone else. Their motives are really layered and at odds, which is great to watch since they are both so good at acting and manipulating, so in the course of trying to play each other they find that they’ve kind of met their match and enjoy the challenge. 

For Zelda, on the surface (and what she tells Lilith), her central motivation for everything is still trying to gain power within the church, and with Blackwood still being her best route to do that, she wants to use this fake relationship to make him jealous. Really, it’s just adding another layer to the pressure she puts on him to make their relationship legitimate. But also, she has reason to want to keep him away for the moment: Leticia. Then, finally, of course, she just wants to stay close to Lilith because she’s suspicious and hopes that if they spend time together, she’ll be able to monitor and limit Lilith’s interactions with Sabrina, plus improve her chances of catching the woman in a lie. 

This part of the series takes place starting with the events of A Midwinter’s Tale and ending a little after The Epiphany, and you’re all in for a wild ride. There’s lots of shenanigans, but also a lot of softness and angst--and that’s where the layered meaning of the title comes in. It is obviously humorous because this is the question Lilith asks Zelda in the beginning--”please pretend to be my girlfriend and help me out”--but as things go on and the two of them start to actually bond, it takes on another context. A fake relationship needs a fake break up, and they both know that once that happens, things are really going to change. Zelda will pursue Blackwood, and Lilith will continue doing whatever the Dark Lord asks her to do with Sabrina. There’s not really going to be room in their lives for this real friendship that’s formed, but they want to pretend they’ll make it work. Whoops, started with crack then gut-punched you with feelings. 

Anyway, there will be bed sharing, Hilda completely misinterpreting things, a whole side plot with Vinegar Tom, awkward dinner dates, temperamental telekinesis, and hide and seek in the mortuary! Yaaay!

I wish they’d told me

So, this part is sad? Sorry. After their fake break up, they are both moving in different directions and really trying to pretend they don’t miss each other as much as they do. And while they are trying to hang on to their friendship, they choose their own plans over each other a lot. This also takes place over the remaining episodes from part 2, so there’s a lot of heavy content in general, and honestly, not much is going to change just because Zelda and Lilith are on better terms.

The thing with this section is that there will be a lot of added context to certain scenes. Blackwood’s passion play will be a direct dig at Lilith, and knowing Zelda was involved with it will make it hurt all the more. Lucifer giving Blackwood His blessing to marry Zelda will be to minimize her influence on Lilith as much as Sabrina. Lilith’s tricks with the tarot cards and her glamour of Edward will be to try and help Zelda as much as for her own ends. 

The only really big thing that changes is that without Adam and his offer of taking Lilith to Tibet, the awful dinner scene will be replaced with Lucifer taunting Lilith about what Zelda is going through, since it lines up with the honeymoon. But don’t expect Lilith to save her, unfortunately, because she’s terrified of what Lucifer would do to both of them if he found out she interfered. Plus, she is conscious that it would bring up a lot of questions if she did, like how she knew Zelda was in trouble, and she’s afraid of that, too. Which brings us to the end of part 2 where, obviously, everyone finds out who Lilith really is, and it’s much worse because they all genuinely care about her and trusted her.

On the bright side though, we will see Lilith’s relationship with Sabrina, and the Fright Club and Spellman family by extension, improve, and how that affects them both. It’s going to get very awkward for her at times listening to Sabrina and Hilda treat her like Zelda’s ex and lament their break up, but they’ll also show her a lot more care and consideration and go to her for help more, which is a very odd experience for Lilith.

How do we mend?

Part 3! Kudos to everyone who’s actually read this far, because I know it’s literally a fucking essay. Anyway, as should be obvious from the title, this largely deals with Zelda and Lilith trying to figure out their feelings for each other in the aftermath of Lucifer’s imprisonment. On the one hand, Lilith’s betrayal is a lot more personal for Zelda. On the other hand, because she knows Lilith a lot better, she realizes a lot more of the truth about Lilith’s relationship to Lucifer and exactly what she went through. So Zelda is dealing with a lot of guilt and confusion about what was real and what could have been done differently and how she actually feels about Lilith after it all. So, again, we have a lot of added context to some of her actions, like deciding to have the coven pray to Lilith.

Meanwhile, Lilith is just lonely. She’s got her crown, but she’s also lost the first people who ever really respected and cared for her, even if they didn’t really know her. She wants to talk to Zelda and explain but doesn’t feel it’s her place. Bring on the yearning. Eventually they will be brought back together though, and that’s the start of this series really diverging from canon, because Lilith’s relationships to everybody is going to change how they handle a lot of events. Plus, I just really want to do a better job with Mary’s plotline and the pagans’ portrayal than canon.

They’ve got a lot to work through and work out, and will finally have to really confront and examine their feelings for each other, especially with some of the very emotional things they go through. They’re very protective of each other, and I love it. Another interesting thing will be when Marie comes on the scene and shows interest in Zelda. I haven’t quite decided how I’m going to play that dynamic yet, but I do know that it’s not going to be one of jealousy or competition. I’m not into that. They’re all mature adults perfectly capable of respecting each other’s boundaries and choices.

If you mean everything

Finally! Part 4 is the least planned out, since it’s so far in the future and so reliant on how the pacing of part 3 works out, which I don’t know yet, and also whatever I take from part 4 of the show, which I don’t know yet. But I do really want the main focus to be on Lilith and Zelda working through their respective traumas in the context of their relationship. They’ve both been through a lot, and they need to learn how to talk about it with each other. And I think that they’ll still be having some trouble coming to terms with the intensity of their feelings, because love isn’t something that’s been abundant in either of their lives really, and it has a way of changing your priorities even if you didn’t plan on it. I do think this part will probably end up being shorter and more like an epilogue. I’m definitely not going with the pregnancy storyline, so Lucifer/Blackwood will probably end up captured at the end of part 3 unless I can think of another way to have them escape or separate them.

WOW this was literally so much, let me know if you made it through! XD

I hope it was somewhat interesting. I didn’t even try not to give any spoilers because I’m me and overshare. But I hope it got everyone excited for this story and inspired to keep bugging me about writing it, because I need it.

#caos #zelda spellman #lilith #caos fanfiction #zelith #madam spellman #caos lilith #tomorrownevercame #the lovers (tomorrownevercame) #the lovers part 1 #can we just pretend? (tomorrownevercame)

[panlight]

So I'm re-reading midnight sun and I just love so much the little Edward and Alice moments, specially when she offers to take Jasper and go with Edward to wherever he is planing to go the second time she sees him leaving. But now I'm wondering, why do you think Edward and Alice get along so well? Aside from the fact that they're both "freaks among the freaks" that he mentions early on? (part 1/??)

She stole his room when she first joined the Cullens, that must have left some bad impression on Edward at first (although she must have saw that he wouldn’t mind it that much since she did it anyways). How do you think Jasper feels about their proximity? Is there some jealousy on his partor does his empath power prevents him from ever feeling like this? And how about Rosalie, how do you think she feels seeing how much edward gets along with his other “sister”? part (3/3) Is there any resentment? If I remebmer correctly he does mention giving some of his mother’s jewels to Esme and Alice (and now to Bella too) but not Rosalie… I don’t imagine Jasper is very jealous, partly because of his empathy power and partly because he came to the house with Alice in the first place, and no doubt heard all about the future brother-sister relationship she foresaw between herself and Edward. I think the Edward/Alice bond has a lot to do with their gifts, they both sort of exist in this different world than other people. I mean Jasper can feel emotions but … there are humans who can kind of do that, too? People can be naturally empathetic and really in tune with other people’s emotions. It’s not quite the same level as literally reading people’s minds or seeing the future, you know? Edward can see Alice’s visions, so they can share that world together in a way she really can’t with anyone else and I think that’s pretty profound. I think Alice’s good cheer and humor is helpful, too.  Edward is so moody and intense, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that his favorite sister is chipper Alice and his favorite brother is goofy Emmett. He needs people like that to lighten him up from time to time. I think there is jealousy or resentment re: Rosalie though. She expressed as much in the New Moon outtake, but it was directed at Alice. When Alice has a vision of Bella and the cliff, Rosalie wonders if Alice would have raced off, wild with panic, if it had been Rosalie in danger rather than Bella. She seems upset that Bella’s replaced her as Alice’s ‘sister’ and that always seemed . .. reasonable and relatable to me? Like she’s known Alice for 50 years and they’ve known Bella for six months but it’s all “Oh you’re already my sister!!!” I know it’s supposed to make Rosalie look petty and jealous, but it seems like a reasonable human reaction to be like “what am I, chopped liver??” I could imagine something similar happening when Alice appeared and instantly clicked with her ‘brother.’ Not that Rosalie even likes Edward that much, but its the principle of the thing. And yeah not giving Rosalie any jewelry seems really petty.  She’s your family, too, Edward. Fair is fair! At least give her some big gaudy piece in a passive-aggressive way.  And then she wears it out of spite and starts a fashion trend in the high school of hideous Edwardian booches. 

[bi-bi-richie]

So, Why?

Alright!! I’m an hour away from seeing It Chapter 2 and I’m so EXCITED but I know my heart is gonna break so I wrote this fluffy fic for the soul. Wish me luck everyone!

The truth is, well, one truth, that the Losers Club is a mix of seven kids who have no visual things in common. Visually, the only people who look like they’re actually friends would be Stan and Eddie as their clothes are mostly similar in the sense that their outfits consist of mostly polos and respectable shorts. Personality-wise, the Losers Club is a mix of seven kids who all love each other dearly and couldn’t imagine their lives without each other, though one day they knew they’d have to find out. 

Yes, the group worked well together, nobody really knew why exactly but the members of the club could tell you that it’s the shared experience of being an outcast that brought them together. That’s not to say it’s the only reason they’re together as a group but it’s definitely how it started. 

Now, there were friendships that were still unbreakable and beyond a group dynamic that existed between the seven. For example, Mike and Ben’s friendship that blossomed out of their shared interest in Derry and history in general, they usually choose to be near each other during one of the group outings or hang out individually often. Everybody did that, of course, it’s just that they might be the person the other one turns to when they need to rant or just have fun. 

However, there is one relationship in the group that everybody knew was stronger than friendship ever since it came to be, yet nobody said anything, probably because nobody really knew what it was exactly. It was stronger than friendship, farther from attraction and beyond anything any of the other losers had ever seen or felt before. Maybe they didn’t classify it as anything because they didn’t have the right word for it, even though the right word was very obvious. 

“Hey, Eddie! What’re you doing after school?” 

“Oh, I’m actually busy today, I promised Richie I would study at his place, next time?”

…

“Richie, you’re going to be literally three pennies away from being broke if you buy that bag of corn nuts. You don’t even like corn nuts! Why bother buying them?”

“Eds likes them, Bev! Could you imagine infuriating the mighty Edward? I couldn’t.”

…

“You can’t sit here!”

“Why? There’s a ton of space next to you, Eddie.” 

“I’m saving it.”

“For Richie?”

“I’m saving it.”

“...”

…

“I thought we agreed that Eddie was going on my team for paintball.”

“Please, I couldn’t let this short cutie go on your team, he’d shoot my ass in a second.” 

…

“Why?” Stan asked out loud one day. On this particular day, the only losers who came out to the quarry were Ben, Stan, and Mike. They (well, they meaning Eddie) planned to meet up with the other half of the club (and other half meaning Richie) later in the day but they were currently wrapping up an infuriatingly long game of Street Fighters back at the arcade where the whole group had been earlier. Truth be told, Eddie really didn’t want to leave and subtly tried to stay behind but gave in when Stan said he had something he wanted to talk about with him. So, now they’re lounging about on the warm rocks of the quarry. 

“Why what?” Eddie asked and pulled his head up from the little drawings he had been making with a stick in the dirt below his feet. 

“You’re always connected at the hip with Richie. I don’t really know any of us to spend as much time as you do together. I’ve never seen either of you two spend as much time as you do with each other with anyone else, which is weird to me because we’ve all always been on the same page as our friendships go. We’re all equally best friends to each other, and yet it feels like that’s not the case for either of you. So, why?” 

Eddie has been speechless before, mostly when his mom was scolding him or when Richie had said or done something so impossibly stupid he simply could not form the words to tell him. But, now he was speechless because he genuinely had no idea why. It had always been that way, Eddie may have met Bill first but he was truly friends with Richie before he was with anyone else. Richie was his polar opposite as far as how he was raised and how expressive he was allowed to be. Maybe that excited the younger Eddie, it was exciting to be around someone who was so unlike him and so unlike his suffocating home life. Of course, he wouldn’t have known, he was only seven years old at the time. 

Now, the real truth is that Richie and Eddie aren’t platonic and they both knew that even though they never talked about it. Afternoon cuddles, lingering cheek kisses, hand holding under tables, and, of course, the two chaste kisses they shared in the dead of night when they knew the world and their anxieties were asleep. It was clear to both of them that they weren’t just friends, and that was okay, but they weren’t ones to force labels onto anything, and that’s okay too. 

But, being presented with the question, Eddie knew that maybe it was okay to label this one thing. 

“I think I love him.”

Stan didn’t ask any more questions. 

…

“Fuck yeah!” Richie cried out as he burst through the doors of the rusting arcade with Bill and Beverly following behind him with proud smiles. “Holy shit, just wait until I find Eds! He’s going to flip!” 

Bill looked to Bev as the remark about Eddie slipped from Richie’s chapped lips. It was a knowing look, one that referred to multiple questions and conversations about their two friends and trying to truly understand why their relationship was so different from the rest. Bill suggested that it could possibly be from them being friends the longest in the group, and that’s when Beverly offered that maybe they weren’t friends at all. The night before, right after both Richie and Eddie blew the two of them off, they decided that maybe it was time to finally ask questions about it. 

“I mean, why just Eddie?” Beverly weakly offered as a bridge to connect the remark to the question. 

“Well, obviously because he’s my Eddie! Plus, I’ve been telling him about this for what feels like months at this point, he’s going to be so excited.” 

Bill pursed his lips and crossed his arms as if he was about to try and even weaker attempt of asking the same question. “I’m s-sure Stan will b-be too?” 

“Hm, sure, but not as much as Eddie.” 

Bev and Bill stop walking then and give Richie a look like he just told them that he was seriously going to shave his head and run ass naked through the streets at midnight. Richie kept walking for a few seconds more before he realized he couldn’t see Bev’s red hair bounce as she walked beside him. He slowly turned around with a confused, questioning smile that wavered when he saw the not-so-humorous look on his friend’s faces. 

“What?” Richie asked.

Bev just sighed and walked up to be closer to Richie. “Richie, we’re all friends, right? Best friends?” 

Richie shrugged, not in a careless yeah I guess way but more of a yeah of course, what kind of question is that? “That’s a fucking stupid question.”

Both his friends rolled their eyes but Bev continued. “Okay, then what’s with the constant fuss over Eddie?” 

Richie was quick to open his mouth as if he had a response already prepared for a totally different question. Maybe something closer to “did it bother you when Stan pushed you over the edge the other week after you accidentally pushed a shit ton of dirt onto his book?” to which Richie would’ve replied, “why, yes, it did bother me, he has a stick so far up his ass it caused water to fly up my nose!” But, that wasn’t the question, and Richie had no answer to this question, that’s why no noise came out of his mouth when he tried to speak. 

Instead, he let out an awkward chuckle and felt himself blush a little. “Uh, I don’t really know what you mean.” 

“S-sure you do.” Bill offered, “we all d-do.” 

Richie shook his head and finally let his smile drop. Of course he knew what they were talking about. It wasn’t like he just didn’t comprehend the kisses and the hand-holding and the cuddles. Hell, they’re probably the only thing Richie ever comprehends. 

“You spend every free moment with him, well, unless one of us drags you away from him. It’s like he’s a magnet and the only person attracted to him is you!” 

Richie kind of wants to make a joke that, yeah, he’s very attracted to him, but it’s not the time. 

“So, why?” 

Richie felt his skin prickle just a little bit, he had the urge to scratch at it but he didn’t. He looked at it though, it was on his right elbow and he stared at it with pursed lips. He knew the answer, he knew the question as well as he knew where to find everything in his messy room when nobody else could possibly know. He knew the answer like he knew his favorite candies and outfits. He knew the answer like he knew the way his truck liked to turn on the check engine light even though nothing was wrong because it was a very old truck. He knew the answer like he knew Eddie. 

“I… I love him.” 

…

The revelations… well, they weren’t really revelations. More like saying things they already knew but out loud for the first time. Now, if it were a revelation, the two might’ve avoided each other for much longer than necessary. They might’ve even gotten into a fight and pushed the other away only to show up a week or month later apologizing and confessing their undying love. 

But, it wasn’t a revelation. 

So, that night Richie still crawled into Eddie’s room at night despite being a few years to big for the window and many years too old to still be doing it. Eddie still smiled when he saw him and pulled back his comforter so Richie could wiggle in next to him and wrap his skinny but warm arms around his torso. Eddie still snuggled into his chest and chuckled at a sleepy joke Richie huffed out and things were still the same. 

“Richie?” Eddie whispered, the sleepiness heavy in his voice but the coherent thoughts not yet gone from his head. 

“Yeah, Eds?” Richie swore he felt his heart skip a beat at the softness of the smaller boy’s voice, it gave him butterflies like no other. 

“I love you.” 

And, funny enough, the world didn’t freeze and Richie didn’t freak out like some people would’ve he would if they spent three seconds around him. Instead, everything felt just right, beyond right, righter than right. Everything was perfect. 

“I love you too.” 

#reddie #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #my writing #I'm EXCITED GUYS #:')

[letterboxd]

Creative Limitations.

“The media’s already polarizing enough; I guess I’m looking for things that are not polarizing and are much more nuanced about the human condition.” —Lulu Wang, writer and director of The Farewell.

One of the highest-rated films of the year, Lulu Wang’s The Farewell stars Awkwafina as Billi, a fictionalized version of Wang herself, in the story of a family in cahoots to keep their matriarch in the dark. The film is based on “a true lie”: Billi’s paternal grandmother in China, Nai Nai (played by veteran Chinese actress Zhao Shuzhen) has cancer, and the family chooses not to let her know, instead staging an elaborate fake wedding to bring the family together.

Where other independent features often develop out of a short film, Wang took her story to This American Life, a bastion of American radio storytelling. The half-hour audio version, ‘What You Don’t Know’, is what her American film producer heard; from there, the feature film came to life. It’s a quietly powerful story that has resonated with Letterboxd members for many reasons, including the authentic, hands-off way in which it comments on “the many micro-tragedies that naturally follow any family whose members—for one reason [or] another—decide to leave the family nest and search for happiness abroad”. For others, it’s even more personal: “Seeing yourself on screen probably doesn’t get better than this.”

When The Farewell opened in US cinemas in July this year, its per-theater box office average topped that of Avengers: Endgame. The film was still showing in select theaters in October, and has just been released on streaming services, including in 4K on iTunes, with a commentary track by Wang and her director of photography, Anna Franquesa Solano. “We tried to talk a lot about process, so I think that’ll be interesting,” Wang told us. (Also, “we may or may not have been drinking”.)

In time for its streaming release, we chatted with Lulu Wang about aspects of The Farewell’s production, the useful limitations of independent filmmaking, and her favorite films, from holiday movies to best soundtracks. Interview contains plot spoilers.

Lulu Wang and DP Anna Franquesa Solano on the set of ‘The Farewell’. / Photo: Casi Moss

The Farewell is standing strong in our highest rated films of 2019, and the reviews are responding to exactly the things, I imagine, that were important to you: the non-manufactured stakes, the family realness, a sense of the specific being universal, the process of grief beginning long before a person you love dies. How does it feel that your film is being so well received? Lulu Wang: I fought really hard to tell the story in such a specific way that in some ways I think my biggest fear was that the specificity would put us into a niche, and only attract a very niche audience. So, you know, the fact that there’s so many people—Asian-Americans but also non-Asian Americans—who see themselves and their family in the story is incredible to me.

You often mention the films of Mike Leigh when talking about highly specific stories that nevertheless have a universal resonance. Can you talk about some other such films and filmmakers that do this for you? Well, Yi-Yi [directed by] Edward Yang is one of my all-time favorites. The specificity, the tenderness of it. The patience of the filmmaking. I find Yi-Yi to be that. Also the humor, there’s so much charm and so much humor in it, it feels just so real.

Kore-eda’s films speak to me in that same way. I just really appreciate the patience in filmmaking. I think so often nowadays the flashiest things get the most attention, and we’ve also trained our brains to need that, right? That kind of stimulation. And so there’s something just so beautiful about a film that takes its time and that doesn’t lean on easy tricks to get attention, but that takes time to get to the heart of something very nuanced, that isn’t so obvious, that isn’t so black and white. The media’s already polarizing enough; I guess I’m looking for things that are not polarizing and are much more nuanced about the human condition.

Through The Farewell’s run, you’ve been generous about opening up the filmmaking process—this Vanity Fair bilingual script breakdown, for example, gives a good insight into how hard you worked on the script. Could you talk us through the ‘wedding portrait sequence’, in which Billi’s cousin and his wife have a series of photographs taken while Billi and Nai Nai carry on a long conversation? It’s entertaining, but it’s also important for what it reveals about Nai Nai and Billi’s relationship, Chinese wedding culture, and the underlying lie of the whole story. You must be so proud of this sequence. I am. Yeah, I’m really proud of that sequence. The photo portrait was kind of inspired a little bit by Secrets and Lies, when he takes the portrait, and the falseness of what we present when we take portraits like that in the studio, right?

Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen) observes yet another wedding portrait set-up in ‘The Farewell’.

One of the intentions, going through it, was minimising the dialogue and trying to condense the script, and so that made me say, “Okay, what are all these moments doing?” They’re all trying to do the same thing, which is to establish the relationship between Billi and Nai Nai, so condensing it into one sequence makes sense. And then also because so much of it is dialogue-driven, how do we make this cinematic? Because at one point the wedding photography studio was separate from these conversations between Billi and Nai Nai, you know, and so this is where, in some ways, being forced to have limitations, being forced to make a shorter film, you start to think more about layering and how do you do multiple things at once.

I really appreciate the limitations of independent filmmaking. Not always; when I’m on set and I get the budget I’m complaining! But looking back on it, those limitations are how we came up with many of our visual ideas. And then also of course it was influenced by the location itself, because we were scouting wedding studios and I wasn’t aware that these studios were so large, that they have, like, different spaces built into the same building. Because if you look at a western photo studio, like in Mike Leigh, right, it’s always the same backdrop.

So that sequence was inspired because we went location scouting, and we were like “this is ridiculous! There are ten different rooms and they all have different set ups!” So then we had this idea of them basically just wandering through the whole photography studio and we’d pick four of our favorite set-ups.

And then this idea of them being silhouetted was inspired by [Woody Allen’s 1979 film] Manhattan. I wanted to capture their relationship as a romance, and I was thinking about Manhattan and their silhouette—I think they were in a planetarium—so we came up with this idea of a continuous conversation, but that was spaced out in front of different backdrops.

Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in a scene from ‘Manhattan’ (1979).

That sequence helps us learn more about who Nai Nai was before the events in The Farewell take place. At Letterboxd, we’re often compiling top ten lists, but “best grandmothers on film” is not a highly populated category, especially films where grandmas are more than just ‘kindly’. Tell us more about fleshing out Nai Nai’s life and the importance of giving respect to older female characters. I think about that in life, too, you know. We think about a lot of people in our lives as fulfilling a particular role in relation to ourselves. That’s my mother, that’s my grandmother, that’s my teacher. Remember as a kid you don’t even think your teacher goes to the grocery store! They hide in the back of the class and then pop back up in the morning! So as a filmmaker, as a storyteller, I’m always thinking about who they are, separate from the context of their relationship to you.

That’s also part of the sadness of not being with somebody or of losing somebody is you don’t necessarily get to see them in all those different contexts and then when they’re gone, there’s so much you don’t know about them and may never know about them. And as our parents get older, your relationships to your relatives change, you know, like ‘who’s the parent?’—children often have to become the caretaker. That’s where it came from, was wanting to make sure that Nai Nai was not presented as a stereotypical grandmother. That she felt like a three-dimensional woman, a woman who was once a girl, and a young woman, someone who was once in love, or maybe in a relationship out of convenience. And also that she’s not always sweet. That’s very real.

One of the motifs in The Farewell is birds appearing at significant moments. In many cultures, a bird is a portent of something big, for example, a death in the family. Where did your bird come from? The bird for me came from wanting to put [in] something magical, but not, like, literal, you know? Meaning, I wanted to insinuate spirituality and magic, but I wanted it also to be interactive with the audience, so based on what they believe and how they interpret that bird is the meaning they get out of it, without me saying “this is what it means”. Much of the movie is about belief systems and perspectives, so I think that if you believe the bird means something, then it does. But if you don’t, and you’re a much more literal, scientific person and you go, “Oh it’s just a bird, it’s just a coincidence,” then it doesn’t mean anything.

Awkwafina leans on Zhao Shuzhen’s shoulder during filming. / Photo: Casi Moss

That’s how it is in the movie and that’s how it is in life: what you believe, and where you find meaning, becomes your reality. With Nai Nai outliving her diagnosis, the people who believe the lie is what worked will continue to believe that the lie is what worked, and people who believe that prayer is what worked… In a way, we look for signs to validate the things we believe, because it’s how we get through life! We need signs, we need meaning, even if we’re the ones who are attaching that meaning.

This far down the track, what is your fondest memory of the production period? Oh gosh, so much of it. I think just being in China, being in spaces that were in my real life, with a crew. Any time that that happened it was really emotional, like shooting in my grandmother’s neighborhood. Shooting at my grandfather’s real grave. I hadn’t seen my grandfather since I left China when I was six, because he died a few years later. To now be at his grave site, gathered there with producers and the crew, scouting it and then shooting there, you know, it was an integration of two different parts of my life that I always felt were really separate, which was my family and China and my background and culture, and then the other part of me, which is being an American, being a filmmaker in America.

In many ways, I always felt that my family didn’t understand what I wanted to do, and also I couldn’t bring who I actually was into Hollywood, there wasn’t a space for that. With this film I was able to fully integrate, bringing my American producers to China for the first time, having my grandmother come to set and see me directing with all the lights and camera and crew. Having my parents be part of the table read. It just felt, really, like I was creating from a place that felt true and real and grounded to me.

Awkwafina and Zhao Shuzhen in a scene from ‘The Farewell’.

Speaking of being grounded, what’s your go-to comfort film? The one you’ll always throw on on a rainy day? Oh, I know: The Philadelphia Story. I love that story.

What’s the film you’ve probably seen the most? The Sound of Music.

Favorite song from it? Probably ‘Edelweiss’, honestly. I’ve been watching that film since I was a kid, it’s one of my parents’ favorite films. It’s such a family film for us, and every time the father sings ‘Edelweiss’ to all the kids, I get really emotional.

What’s the film—or films—that made you want to become a filmmaker Secretary. The Apartment. Annie Hall. I know that’s taboo, I shouldn’t say that, but I have to. Like, Annie Hall, you know? When I first saw it, I was really inspired by that. And The Piano. I think, with both The Piano and Secretary, it was the exploration of female desire and female voice—and obviously as a trained classical pianist since the age of four, the symbol of the piano for her, for that character, and for me, was really meaningful.

Jane Campion’s ‘The Piano’ (1993).

Alex Weston’s soundtrack for The Farewell, which leans heavily on human voices, is something you worked closely with him on. What’s your all-time favorite film soundtrack? So many, I don’t know how to choose! Well, I have a couple. In the Mood for Love. And then, because it is related, Barry [Jenkin]’s If Beale Street Could Talk is one of the most astounding soundtracks. Barry was inspired by Wong Kar-wai for Moonlight, and so yeah, thinking about In the Mood for Love reminded me that Nick Britell’s If Beale Street Could Talk soundtrack is just incredible.

Holiday season is fast approaching: what’s your favorite holiday/Christmas film? Home Alone is a classic that we all watch. Does Fiddler on the Roof count as a Christmas film?! I don’t know. That’s my mom’s favorite. And then I have a really embarrassing one, because when we got sick of Home Alone, we had to pick a new one, and somehow we landed on Jingle All the Way. For years, we watched Jingle All the Way and just laughed our heads off.

Finally, how is Children of the New World coming along? Very slowly. I’m working on the script. I’m writing it. It’s gonna take a while, probably after all of the press is done so I can fully focus.

‘The Farewell’ is available on streaming services now. Comments have been edited for clarity and length. With thanks to A24.

#lulu wang #the farewell #awkwafina #mynainai #first gen #chinese film #asian american #tzi ma #letterboxd

[ammapreker]

CELIA ST. CLEMENT 19 / theater actress

[ content warning for alcoholism ]

an inescapable need for more ∘ blurry memories ∘ waking up inexplicably bruised ∘ forgetting yesterday ∘ tangled limbs ∘ stage lights spilling across an empty stage ∘ crumbling flower petals ∘ shakespeare’s words caressing careful tongues ∘ empty wine bottles rolling against hardwood floors » a dramatic creature with a mercurial temperament / some days, her jovial moods can conjure only the bright beam she makes herself into; others, the shadows hang closer, shrouding her in darkness / her sister’s mirror image, only just noticing the spidery cracks crawling through the glass / widely considered the dark shadow to clara’s gleaming light, but perhaps it was always the other way around (or, better yet, maybe neither of them could ever have made a claim at innocence) / drowns her traumas in alcohol even before scarlet floods her palms, a symbol of her guilt that can’t be washed away / sobs harden in her throat, echoes of how could we have— silenced roughly before she speaks the final words, makes them real / life, she begins to believe, woozy with alcohol and drugs as her feet drag across a stage, has lost all sense of reality / regret seeps into her bones, flooding her senses until only two artifacts of her former life remain: the flask hidden within her pockets and the lie that keeps them safe—for now.

connections » clara st. clement [twin sister] / shiloh spencer [co-actor]

needs » the rest of the murder crew / theater actors for the shakespeare festival / former (and/or current) lovers / drinking buddies

DAWSON HUGO 35 / songwriter

piano notes spilling from a dark room ∘ whispered temptations ∘ subtle humor ∘ hidden desires ∘ script-filled notebooks ∘ creeping loneliness ∘ a toe stepped carefully over the line ∘ secrets locked behind sealed lips ∘ slipping into the darkening night » a lesson on monetizing the thoughts swirling in his mind, the temptations beating in his heart / a man who came from just above nothing and now has everything he’s ever wanted—or does he? / a former keyboardist in a band that never made it who’s risen on the back of his own penned verses / doesn’t feel pity for the bandmates whose lives he once knew as well as his own, rarely seeing them after their fall / he knows he’s gifted, talented, creative—perhaps too well / even so, he feels safer in the shadows—unremembered by crowds, sought by artists wishing to give voice to his scrawls / a dreamer who plucked his dreams and thrust them into reality before finding they’d lost their glimmer / unsatisfied, and reconciled with it (or so he thinks) / jumps from girl to girl and song to song so often, throwing himself into each before his interest wanes / finds a girl for keeps, or so he thinks until another comes his way / pleas of just this once slowly burning away every line he’s never crossed / he steps, and steps, and steps (he thought he was better than this) / he’s drunk on a girl he shouldn’t be, losing himself to the toxicity / addiction’s never felt so sweet.

connections » birdie barnes [roommate & songwriting partner] / daisy howard [girlfriend]

needs » his former bandmates who may or may not hate him for ending up with a songwriting deal even after they crashed and burned (he was the keyboardist) / a brother who never quite got over living in his shadow / exes he’s fooled around with and inevitably left due to prolonged disinterest / friends in the record industry / friends in general / singers he might have worked with in the past

FRANCESCA MANCINI 21 / croupier

[ content warning for murder, hit & run ]

a bookcase filled with whodunnits ∘ expired contacts littering the trash can ∘ waking to an early dawn ∘ fervent “i told you so”’s ∘ a tendency to over-prepare ∘ stepford smiles finally loosening their grip ∘ a desperation for salvation ∘ crippling paranoia ∘ a sudden recklessness ∘ too smart for your own good » the clever girl gone sour, gone cold, gone fearful / once, she might have convinced herself that the bright future she saw before her could remain as it was—true, pure, incapable of being tarnished by any deed she might commit / (she hadn’t known, then, what she’d be capable of) / one moment, they’d been light as air, flooded with victory; the next, a crash had left them plummeting to the ground with no safety net / they keep the secret, cover their tracks—they know how, after all / she thinks, then, of all the crimes she’s witnessed, solved; what would i have done, she’d wondered, to not get caught / perhaps she’d always known that she’d find herself on the opposing side, another criminal aching to bury her secrets / they don’t bury them deep enough; i know what you did, the letters say, promising retribution with words unspoken / all she can think: what will i do to not get caught. 

connections » ludovica mancini [sister] / audrey astor, luna graves & the rest of mystery inc. [best friends]

needs » scooby doo-inspired request / co-workers for the illegal gambling den she’s currently working undercover at (with plans to expose them) to feel less guilty / exes galore / friends outside of the scooby gang who she’s likely distanced herself from as a result of what happened / literally anything, she’s completely open!

LIAM HANLON 31 / paralegal

[ content warning for death ]

newspaper pages tossed aside in a flurry ∘ clenched jaws ∘ pulsing migraines ∘ eyes glued to a phone screen ∘ a life passing by, unnoticed ∘ grasping to self-assurance as the world collapses into ruins ∘ burnt coffee ∘ time ticking endlessly away on a watch face ∘ brisk strides ∘ this cannot go on » a man consumed with a future that’s not his own / wants and dreams glisten upon the ladder he’s thrust himself upon, certain that the top will provide everything he wants—a name, a position, a surge of support swelling beneath him as he makes his own political strides / if he ever reaches the top; if he ever manages to pull himself from the outskirts of history into its center / currently a paralegal with dreams of a brighter future that’ll never come to fruition / driving himself mad with impatience and jealousy / stares at the ring on his fiancée’s hand and wonders if it would be better to leave, better to break up the monotony with a complete abandonment of his current life / the death of her sister dismantles any actions he might have taken; their inheritance of a two year old with only an aunt left to claim her submits them to mere fantasies never to be made real / the pressure mounts—the baby’s cries, zara’s grief, his mother’s new book—until the cracks begin to show / it’s only a matter of time before he breaks.

connections » zara şensoy [fiancée]

needs » siblings who are equally f*cked up with a mother whose parenting books delved a little too deeply into their childhoods / exes galore / friends. he’s a lot but he needs them / especially friends with children because he somehow has a baby now???

ROSCOE RYAN 21 / student

unquenchable curiosity ∘ obedient tongues ∘ 20/20 peripheral vision ∘ whispers quieting after stepping foot into a room ∘ a diary full of words unspoken ∘ burying a past with dulcet lies ∘ unrelenting pride ∘ a villain casting himself in the role of the observer, nothing more ∘ imminent betrayal » a boy born to trailer parks and unappeasable parents no, let’s rewrite the story, shall we? / a boy born beneath the glistening stars of los angeles (true) with parents unaffected by his presence (true) and consumed by the monotony of their daily lives (true) as heirs to a fortune passed down from his grandfather (lie) / the moment he steps within the bounded gates of ucla, he reinvents himself, sprinkling importance and wealth into a past bereft of both / the collections of photographs that hang upon his walls impress upon the viewer two facts / the first: the frat he’s grown in, thrived in, means everything to him / the second: his life, as he’d prefer it, began three years prior with his steps upon the college lawns / perfection blooms in every scene, every pose, even as whispers threaten to tarnish the gilded legacy he’s built / did you hear? the students gasp amongst each other, their gazes sliding across every boy decked in the letters of sigma chi / the rumors—hazing, terror, oh my god, is he—spread like wildfire / still, the kid won’t speak / still, guilt hovers above them all, awaiting a place to rest.

connections » pierce griffin [fraternity brother] / bambi wheeler [former friend & neighbor]

needs » frat boy crew (request to come!) / miscellaneous hook ups / old trailer park acquaintances he’ll pretend not to know / someone to tell him his frat almost put the blame on him for the hazing incident

SILAS GRAVES 24 / vampire bartender

last night’s glitter clinging to your skin ∘ hollow laughter ∘ cheshire grins ∘ jumping into pools fully clothed ∘ fake blood recipes ∘ coffins are rather comfy, you know ∘ locking memories away ∘ empty wine bottles cluttered around sinks ∘ gathering fog ∘ dark streets slick with rain ∘ sink your teeth in » a boy who glorifies in bringing the traits of the undead into the land of the living / is it all real, or just an act? that’s a secret sealed behind reddened lips, one he’ll take to his grave / you can only guess as rants regarding edward cullen spill between the would-be vampire and his audience, compelled—by curiosity, by magic, who can say?—to listen the dulcet tones of his voice uninhibited by the fangs curling around his teeth / believes himself untouchable, untethered—free / still, his past clings to him, pulling him backwards at every turn even as he crushes the memories that seek to undo him / he’s nothing more than this—a glitter-clad man longing to be a monster known from fables / untouchable, untethered to the reality that everyone else finds themselves bound to / that, there, is true freedom. 

connections » oskar björk [employer] / fleur zhao [being catfished by her]

needs » additional coworkers for the horror bar / exes, currents (flings and flirts) / people for him to argue with about the merits of edward cullen’s popularity amongst vampires / more people for the adoptive graves fam / friends who either embrace or ignore his weirdnesses / literally anything else

SPENCER LINDSAY 23 / con artist

ghosting™ ∘ sharp stilettos clacking on a subway car ∘ longing for a stranger’s touch ∘ swollen lips ∘ empty houses ∘ discarded half-smoked cigarettes ∘ strawberry milkshakes ∘ silent screams ∘ hope lingering just out of reach ∘ a crunch of glass underfoot ∘ never look back » a ghost, haunting the remnants of her former life / past spencer lindsay: beautiful, popular, a bright future gleaming in her eager palms / current spencer lindsay: beautiful, nameless, stolen money and jewelry sparkling against the bright gleam of a street lamp / the division: a fortune nearly lost, a mother’s desperate act, a stepfather’s final breath / her father’s fraud charges and subsequent rush out of the us barely merited a recollection outside her social circle; her mother’s murder trial, however, summoned the attention of los angeles and it held her captive / her mother loses; she disappears in the night—door left open, a broken wine glass scattered in pieces on the living room floor, a closet full of clothes she couldn’t carry with her / no investigation can cease the steady stream of rumors even now—dead, killed, gone / she waits in the wings, knowing she should never have come back, unable to keep herself away.

connections » nicholas hawthorne [ex-boyfriend] / benji wyatt [ex-boyfriend] / chloe valentine [con besties] / willa de witte [former best friend]

needs » the o.c. crew (request coming shortly) / people to steal from / the bling ring crew (request to come!) / exes from her high school days / people to hook up with while she pines away / people she f*cked over back in the day / people she’s f*cking over now / someone who knows her by one of her other aliases and who she may or may not have stolen from (oops) / people who/whose families her dad stole from back in the day who might be holding a grudge

TRISTAN BENNET 22 / runaway

crooked smiles ∘ unspoken desperation ∘ dreams warring against doubt ∘ ripping away old skins ∘ the growing ease of a lie ∘ worn sneakers ∘ festering distrust ∘ crumpled bills stuffed into pockets ∘ rush of adrenaline ∘ being watched ∘ shoes pounding against asphalt » formerly a texas boy, he’s since shed his accent, his history, his very own name—the only truth he’s maintained is his sister / they stole away in the night on the eve of the wedding their parents had forced upon her, giving up their lives as they knew them for a chance at freedom / freedom is: devouring every matt damon and ben affleck movie they can get their hands on, learning the twists of the boston accents they’ve affected; bringing their sister back from the dead as their “connection” to los angeles, forcing their memories of her into the role of hopeful young actress dreaming of the big screen; learning to force smiles upon his lips as nerves eat away at the blessed happiness that had encompassed him upon their escape / it’s terrifying in its splendor, in its ephemerality / he thinks: if they find out. he thinks: they can’t. / spends his nights waking to every footstep outside the motel door and his days jumping at each and every craigslist ad he can get his hands on / the money he’d stolen as a second thought dwindles in his palms and he’s starved for safety, for survival / he thinks: what might i do, for that. 

connections » juliet bennet [sister] / the shakespeare theatre crew [he works part-time backstage]

needs » friends are likely in short supply since he tends to keep himself ~under the radar~, but he should have some anyway / maybe a drug dealer for him to get involved with to make more $$$ / people with some fun craigslist requests for interesting threads / potential make outs now that he’s ~free~ and able to explore his sexuality (he’s a virgin, please be gentle) before he ghosts them

#throwshaderp #m: development #please kill me if i make any more.

[staliasjeronica]

Decathect - Swangs

Prompt: Fangs is in love with Sweet Pea, and has for many months now, and when he sees Sweet Pea and Josie at Cheryl’s end of summer party, he gets jealous and it shows.

Fangs sucked in his smooth lips, trying his best to hold in the tears that welled in his sad, pretty umber brown eyes. He watched sorrowfully as Sweet Pea and Josie sat beside each other on the edge of the pool at Thistlehouse, teasingly touching one another and giggling to themselves as if they were so irrevocably in love. Cheryl’s party signified the end of summer, and thus, their relationship from what Sweet Pea had told him about her conditions, but Fangs knew his best friend better than the laws of the Serpents. Sweet Pea was smitten with her, and even if they did, indeed, break up, he would still love her with every inch of his being because that’s just how Sweet Pea was. Much like Fangs himself, once he started to love someone, he doesn’t stop. He loves so deeply, so gently—he never wants to hurt anyone and he would bare whatever they had to so that the world—their world—would be a better place.

Normally, Fangs was much better at hiding his outright jealousy, because he has been hearing about the couple left and right all summer since they got together, but something about today just sent him over the edge. He couldn’t contain his feelings any longer, and being in public really 

He smelled Veronica’s familiar sweet coconut water, lily, apple, and driftwood infused scent before he averted his eyes from the couple and watched his friend sit down in front of him on the patio chair, sliding a red cup in his direction knowingly. Her familiar aura set him at ease a little bit. With a sigh, she reached forward and grabbed his hand comfortingly. “I know it hurts, but you need to tell him, Fangs. Hopefully this dreadful liquid courage might help?”

The Serpent boy laughed humorlessly under his breath, shaking his head before he took a drink. He puckered his lips at the bitter taste. “I can’t. Like, literally, I can’t—I have rehearsed what I would say to him, what I want him to know, but I just can’t fucking speak when it comes to actually telling him about my feelings. Maybe I’m just doomed to watch the people I love, love someone else.”

“I can’t imagine how scary it is for you. But, doesn’t he deserve to know that his best friend is in love with him?” Veronica soothed the skin on Fangs’ hand with her thumb, sending him a small, sympathetic smile. “And once you know how he feels about it, you can do what you need to with it. Figure it out together, or, sadly, move on.”

“I did try to tell him a few weeks ago. I got a couple of awkward, stuttering words in when I choked and instead told him that we should go fuck around in Sweetwater swimming hole.”

“Damn… Well, then why don’t you try it on me, instead?” Veronica tilted her head, concerned for the boy and his spiraling emotions. “Just to, you know, get it out of your system and practice it a little bit?”

Fangs wasn’t sure about opening up in public, especially where both Josie and Sweet Pea could see, but he did know that she was right. Letting out a small sigh, he nodded and mentally chanted “you can do this” to himself. “Whenever I look at you… Sweet Pea…” the boy cleared his throat, feeling awkward considering he was technically calling Veronica by Sweet Pea’s name.

Veronica urged with a light chuckle, “It’s alright, go on. You can do this.”

“My heart stops. It feels like the first time, but in reality, it happened so many months ago. It’s weird, and sad, I know—you could call this the tragic story of Edward Fogarty if it helps in some way,” Fangs let out a soft smile, a humorous breath of air breezing past his lips. “But, I know that if I see you today, or any day, smiling and laughing and being happy... I’d be much happier, too, even though I would cry myself to sleep over many ‘what ifs’ when you sleep beside me on the couch after a long night of killing each other on Call of Duty.”

Veronica couldn’t help the cooing, yet saddened ’aw’ that escaped her mouth.

“Because, after all this time, you’re still one of the most unforgettable people in my life. Hopefully, you still think of me as I think of you. It might not be a romantic love, but anything is better than you hating me. So, if finding out about this does makes you hate me, please, just break my heart and get it over with.”

“You need to tell him. Once he knows, it’s all up to him, and your guys’ friendship to lead the way. If he doesn’t feel the same way, then at least you can move on,” Veronica explained slowly, as if speaking any faster would cause the Serpent’s watery eyes to barrel down his cheeks. “Until then, drink with me and enjoy the last days of summer. Isn’t that Sweet Pea and Josie’s relationship’s expiration date?”

Fangs nodded lightly, wiping at his wet eyelashes and inadvertently causing the floodgates to open. “Please tell me Cheryl has something stronger in the house, just for me. I desperately need much more than this trashy party beer.”

“For us, actually,” Veronica smiled sadly. “Jughead and I had a big fight. I’ll go ask if we can break into her parent’s personal stash that they left here.”

“What’d you two fight about, if you don’t mind me asking?” It was Fangs’ turn to gently rest his hand over Veronica’s in concern.

“He’s letting the power of being Serpent king get to him. It’s getting so bad that I might have to make him choose between me or being Serpent king,” Veronica looked away—a posture Fangs knew all too well when it came to Veronica Lodge. She was trying to seep herself from crying, from showering her emotions. Much like Fangs was, earlier. “Every time I tell him to stop being such a dick, and stop treating you and Sweet Pea like his lap dogs, he just brushes it off and says that I don’t know how gangs work. Does he realize that gangs specialize in doing crime and him making it some weird rule is literally against everything a gang is?”

Fangs scoffed lightly, shaking his head. “I can’t believe he tried to kick me out behind closed doors, but then just so publicly kicks out Cheryl and Toni. I mean, yeah, they did go against the stupid new rule he created, but they stole a stupid, expensive egg from your father. He’s our enemy—he shouldn’t give a flying fuck about it.”

“I mean, I did ask him to get the egg back. My father was threatening me,” Veronica sighed. “But he won’t listen to me when I tell him to let them back in, let Toni, a native of the Serpent’s, back in. He’s being so fucking stupid right now. So, want to come with me and stop moping and get drunk with me?”

“Sounds fun. I’m in, Lodge,” Fangs grinned, downing his cup before he followed after Veronica and left the longing sorrow for his best friend and Josie by the pool behind. Tonight, he would forget all about it.

At least, he wishes he could.

Fangs let out a low moan, breathing in deeply as the boy who was equally as drunk as him shoved him into the wall. “Pick a room, any room…”

Chuckling between wet kisses, the boy quickly checked the doorknob to the left, finding it locked, and obviously in use. With a dissatisfied groan, the guy dropped Fangs and, together, with arms slung over each other’s shoulders, they hunted for an empty room to occupy.

“Fuck, you smell so good,” the guy grunted, his nose pressing into Fangs’ shoulder as they stumbled along the long hallway. “You feel good, too,” he whispered seductively, once again slamming the Serpent into the wall. “Why don’t we just do it right here? I doubt anybody’s going to come up here.”

Fangs shook his head. “No, we need privacy. My best friend has been trying to talk to me all night but I’m ignoring him, so he may come looking for me.”

“Well, then, let him burst in on me on my knees,” the guy sucked at Fangs’ neck, desperate for his touch, for his kiss, for his drunken love. Fangs was equally as needy, but for the wrong reasons. “I doubt he’d do it again.”

“There’s the bathroom,” Fangs pointed out, “let’s hope no one’s in there.”

“If there is, they’re either going to have to leave, or share,” the boy snickered.

Pushing their way into the bathroom, both were silently relieved that nobody else was in there. The guy pushed Fangs off of his body, then cocked an eyebrow seductively. “Got any protection?”

Fangs threw his head back in a laugh. “I’m a Serpent. Do you really think I wouldn’t carry around protection just in case? This tattoo is like a sex magnet.”

“Oh, shut the fuck up and drop your pants.” However, instead, the guy grinned up at Fangs and did it for him with a devious, sharp eyebrow raised. When his pants were down by his ankles, the boy smirked as he looked him over. Biting down on his lip, he growled seductively, “Fuck, Fogarty…”

Fangs wasn’t able to do anything with him when the door burst open, Sweet Pea poking his head in with a sigh of relief. “Thank God, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Glancing at the guy with Fangs, he pointed his thumb behind him. “Out.”

The guy nodded, hastily crawling his way past Sweet Pea and out of the door.

“What the fuck, Sweet Pea?” Fangs snarled, pulling up his pants before he crossed his arms angrily. “Do you see me cock blocking you and Josie?”

Sweet Pea scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Well, even if you wanted to, you couldn’t. She broke up with me earlier today. But, right now I want to know why you’ve been ignoring me all night.”

“I just want to have some fun,” Fangs glared at his best friend. “Why do you have to ruin that just to ask me why you think I’ve been ignoring you. Which, by the way, I haven’t.”

“Oh, so when I confronted you earlier to tell you about Josie and I, you immediately went to go join some stupid North Sider looking for a chugging contest?” Sweet Pea narrowed his eyes, knowing there was something his best friend was hiding. “You’ve been ignoring me, dude. Why?”

“Maybe because I don’t want to hear every fucking thing about you and Josie, when I’m fucking in love with you!” Fangs snapped, taking a couple of moments to recognize that he had just told Sweet Pea his secret. But, not that it was already out, he had to keep going, he had to get everything off of his chest. “I’ve known for awhile now, and I’ve held my tongue because I know you’re in love with her, Pea. I know you better than I know myself.”

“Fangs…”

“No, don’t fucking say anything until I’m done!” Fangs shouted, tears welling up in his eyes. “I’ve been ignoring you because it kills me to know that you’ll never feel the same way about me, and you and I both know that you knowing this will fuck up everything between us.”

“What? Why would you think that?”

“Why would it ruin things between us? Because—”

“No,” Sweet Pea cut in with a small laugh. “Why would you think that I don’t feel the same way about you?”

“Because you look at Josie like she’s your whole world,” Fangs muttered, keeping his gaze onto the floor. “I can’t replace that—I don’t want to replace that. If you do like me like that, I don’t want to be her replacement. I don’t want to be your second choice.”

“Fangs,” Sweet Pea breathed in deeply as he took a couple of steps forward to meet his best friend’s body. “I may have fallen for her, sure, but it could never compare to what I feel for my best friend. You’ll never be my second choice.”

“Really?” Fangs looked up at Sweet Pea hopefully, surprised at how close he was to his face. He shook his head, ducking underneath him to bring distance between them. “No. You two just broke up—I’m not just going to be the rebound.”

“You’re not—”

“If I’m not your rebound, then will you say all of this again in two weeks, when I’m not buzzing with alcohol and you’re not hours fresh of a breakup?” Fangs questioned with tears running down his cheeks. “Will you, or is this just some way to make sure we stay friends?”

“Where is this coming from?”

“It’s coming from everything I’ve seen the last few months, what I’ve figured out about you,” Fangs rotated his jaw. “If you’re not lying to me, we can do this again in two weeks. Say yes, or I’m leaving right now.”

Sweet Pea’s mouth slacked a couple of times, wanting to speak, but being unable to.

“I knew it. This is you just trying to keep me as your best friend in hopes that we can restart,” Fangs shook his head, disappointed. He turned around and flung the door back, seething. “Suffer your breakup alone and bitter—you’ll get a taste of how I’ve been the past few months.”

Fangs took a couple of steps out of the bathroom, and then down the hallway. But, he stopped when he heard a small, “yes,” from Sweet Pea. “I’m not trying to deceive you, Fangs. Yes, we’ll do this in two weeks and my feelings for you will still be the same.”

#Riverdale #Swangs #Sweet Pea #Fangs Fogarty #South Side Serpents

[darciacus]

Day to Day

Chapter 6: Us

Edwin

Romance/Humor

1,494 words

Summary: Winry worries about where she stands with Edward while he doesn’t

https://archiveofourown.org/works/16051460/chapters/40813154

Relationships were new to Winry. She had spent most of her life focused on one goal; perfecting her automail. She worked hard to be the best she could be and tried not to get distracted by thoughts of love or dating. She respected others who were interested in it and sometimes she felt jealous of those who got to experience it, but she had too much to worry about to dwell. She loved her work so she focused on that. By the time she even realised her feelings for Edward he was too far in on his journey, so she pushed it aside to help in the few ways she could.

But now things were different. Edward and her were in a relationship. I think it’s called dating. Or is it seeing each other? We do relationship things. So we must be in a relationship. Right? Winry was organizing her workshop. Her mind always drifted when she cleaned. It was a slow day, September had begun so the children were back in school and the adults were beginning to prepare for the harvest festival. She had a few days off before the new shipment of parts came in and she could never stay put for long. So she had decided to give her workshop an overhaul. It would probably take up most of the day and give her plenty of time tomorrow to help with Alphonse’s recovery.

He looked much healthier, able to run and move with ease. His muscle training was coming along but he wasn’t able to compete with Ed yet. They had attempted to spar a few times but Ed had called that off after winning all 3 matches. Winry chuckled at the memory, recalling how Ed had immediately let the success go to his head. “You need more training Al or you’ll never catch up to me!” He stopped showboating when she threw her wrench at him while she and Al had laughed up a storm. Other than his physical abilities, every other part of him seemed fine. The brothers had taken to studying alchemy every night after dinner and had recently been focusing on alkahestry and the country of Xing. Winry had no doubt that that was where Al was headed next especially after hearing stories of their travels. A certain talented alkahestrist and her pet panda came to mind.

Winry began cleaning off her desk, moving all her bigger tools to the side to make room for her polishing equipment. Granny always says a cluttered workroom is a cluttered mind. But before she could begin the task at hand, she heard familiar, uneven footsteps coming down the stairs.

“Hey Win, whatcha up to?” Asked Edward as he walked towards her.

“Oh nothing, just cleaning my work station,” Winry responded.

“Slow day, huh? Can I help with anything?”

Winry was taken aback. “You want to help?”

“I’ve got nothing better to do. Why not?”

“Edward, I sincerely doubt you don’t have anything important to work on. What’s Al doing?”

“He’s helping Granny put away groceries.” Edward leaned towards her. “I can’t help you out sometimes?”

“No, of course you can, I was just surprised. You’ve never offered to help out before.”

Edward furrowed his eyebrows. I’ve seriously never asked to help out. What’s wrong with me?

“You can start by sweeping the floor while I polish my tools. The broom is over there,” Winry said while pointing to the object in question.

Edward began sweeping as she began her task. A comfortable silence fell between the two as they worked. It had become commonplace for the two of them to sit and work together so Winry was used to the quiet. But she still couldn’t get rid of the nagging thoughts she had. Boyfriend? Relationships? Why do I even care about this? Eventually she couldn’t help it.

“Hey, Ed. What are we?” Winry asked, putting down her cloth and wrench.

Ed turned towards her as he finished his task. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, are we dating? Or in a relationship? What’s going on?” Winry felt strangely nervous. It felt weird to say her thoughts out loud and she had never been one to worry about her standing with Ed before. Everything feels way more difficult than it should be.

Ed paused and looked at her. He had thought about it in passing but had never felt the need to worry about it. Winry is Winry, not much else to it, he thought.

“I guess a relationship would be the best way to describe it. But I don’t think it really matters,” he said.

“Why not?” Winry questioned.

“There’s no reason to give it a name. I think it’s pretty obvious to the people who know us and for the people who don’t, it’s none of their business.” Ed scratched the back of his head and shrugged. “It is what it is.”

Winry leaned against her desk. He always makes everything so simple. Everything I was worried about always seems so much easier when I talk to him. Even if he is ridiculous sometimes. She started giggling.

“Ehh? What’s so funny?” Ed asked, chuckling a little to himself as he watched her.

“Oh, nothing,” Winry said through her laughter.

“Come on, tell me.”

“It’s just I always thought it would be you who would freak out about this stuff, not the other way around.”

Ed crossed his arms and began to frown. “Of course I wouldn’t freak out. I’m great at everything I do!”

Winry shook her head. “Suure you are. Edward Elric, love master.”

“You doubt my skills? I swept you off your feet, didn’t I?”

“Yup. And it only took you, what, a year? Not to mention all those times you wrecked my automail. I can practically feel myself swooning,” Winry said as she pretended to fan herself.

“Alright, you asked for it!” Edward lunged towards her and grabbed her waist.

“Ed!”

He reached down and grabbed her legs as she tried to twist out of his grip.

“Haha! I literally swept you off your feet!” He cried triumphantly as held Winry in his arms. She felt a little embarrassed to be picked up so easily.

“Ha-ha, very funny. Now put me down!”

“Nope, not until you admit it.”

Winry swatted his chest. “Edward! I have to clean,” she whined.

“Then you better hurry up and say it.”

“Fine. You swept me off my feet. Happy now?”

Edward smiled in the way only he can. “Very. I’m gonna pick you up every time we have an argument,” he said as he put her down.

“Try it again and you’ll get a wrench to the head.” Winry got to her feet and turned towards him.

“Damnit, Winry. Leave that weapon out of this.”

She smiled at him. She had to admit she felt a lot better now. It’s like my previous thoughts don’t even matter now.

“Thanks,” Winry said.

“Anytime, Win,” Ed responded.

She stepped forwards and stretched to kiss his cheek. Ed turned bright red and looked at the wall.

“How is it you can talk about something as sappy our relationship with no problem but can’t kiss me without avoiding me for days?” Winry teased.

“Whatever, that’s totally different,” Ed pouted.

“Edward, look at me,” Winry tugged on his sleeve.

He reluctantly turned his head to look at her. She smiled evilly as she pulled him down for a kiss. Ed flinched a bit at her actions but quickly settled into the feeling of Winry’s lips. He felt her mouth move against his and grabbed her waist to pull her closer.

After some time, Ed pulled away. Winry stared at him, dazed. He smiled at her, the care obvious in his eyes.

“I thought you were going to clean?” He asked.

“I got a bit distracted,” she answered.

“I can see that. Come on, let’s finish up quickly.” He lightly kissed her forehead.

From upstairs a shout was heard.

“YOU TWO BETTER NOT BE CANOODLING INSTEAD OF CLEANING! DON’T MAKE ME COME DOWN THERE!” Yelled Granny.

“SHUT YOUR TRAP, YOU OLD HAG!” Ed yelled back.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME, YOU BEANSPROUT?”

“WHAT THE HELL, I’M THREE TIMES YOUR SIZE NOW!”

“ENOUGH! WE’RE CLEANING, GRANNY!” Winry cut in before the argument could get any worse. She let go of Ed and turned to her desk once again.

“Wrinkly witch, I can’t believe she called me short,” Ed grumbled to himself.

“Yes, yes. It’s very upsetting. Get to work,” Winry replied.

They both went back to their previous tasks, falling back into the routine of cleaning. But not before certain promises were made for more canoodling later on in the evening.

“Hey, Ed? You’re the best boyfriend ever,” Winry said.

Edward’s eyes widened as he looked at the wall, trying hard not to blush and failing miserable. Winry laughed as she watched. So maybe he’s not so good at talking about it after all.

#fma #fmab #fma brotherhood #edwin #edward elric #Winry Rockbell #slow burn #fanfiction #fanfic #love #humor #romance #fluff #kiss #cuteness #flirting #teasing #shoutout to granny #darciacus #day to day

[theoreticallyawriter]

Chapter 12: Tracks

Read on Ao3

A week later is our field trip to the fence. We’re all wiped from training; this whole five days straight of sparring is really kicking our collective asses. Even Edward is covered in bruises. Thankfully, the week passed without some sort of terrible and nearly fatal incident. Not to say that there haven’t been injuries, we’re literally beating each other into unconsciousness, of course there are going to be injuries. However, no one has been hung over the Chasm and Tris hasn’t had to fight Peter again. Surprisingly enough, I haven’t had to fight Peter either; though I’m sure I will soon. I’ve been trying to go in early most days and sometimes even after hours, though I don’t do that second part very often at all because I do want to still be able to hang out to my friends. Though we’re never especially energetic after training, we have tried to enjoy ourselves in the Pit and try to act like the Dauntless that we’re trying to become. I must say, I’m still not entirely used to just the general atmosphere of it all; it’s so different than everything I’ve ever known, but I guess that’s just Dauntless in general.

We don’t have to be at the tracks until eight-fifteen, but most of us wake up at six anyways because that’s what we’ve gotten used to, with the exception of Tris. She’s still recovering from her fight with Peter on top of the constant grind of day to day training. She’s not doing so hot in her fights, mostly because she’s constantly sore and has absolutely no time to recover. We’re all pretty banged up, but Tris has been taking a beating pretty much since we started sparring. Almost everyone but her has managed to eke out at least one win. I don’t really think that it’s something that any of us really like, except for maybe Peter, I’m just not sure if I’ll ever really get used to the idea of striking my friends and future faction members who are supposed to be like a family to me, who are supposed to replace my actual family, and for what? What is the point of having us fight until we’re passed out on the mat? It’s not fun for anyone really; I mean, I guess that Eric and Four might think that it’s fun to watch, but it’s not like anyone’s really benefiting from this. I guess in theory the pressure of it all is just supposed to force a change in us that will make us dedicated to learning the techniques so that we aren’t constantly winding up in the infirmary, but I think the exact same pressure comes with the constant knowledge that people are going to be cut. It’s nerve wracking, knowing that I might lose out on my spot in Dauntless at the end of these first five weeks because I couldn’t win enough fights. Erudite cuts people too, but the challenges were never physical and none of that even happened until the end. I’m not even sure how we’re being scored so that I can adjust my habits to accommodate that to rack up the maximum amount of points possible to make up for my slightly subpar fighting skills.

And there’s the Erudite in me, I think. Good to know that’s still around. Not. Better make sure that nothing close to that ever comes out of my mouth.

The most terrifying part of being…that is that I don’t recognize how weird some of my thinking is until after I’ve thought it; which I find concerning to say the very least. At least when I mouth off it’s with people that I know aren’t all that important. Four’s my initiation instructor, but for all of his faults I seriously doubt that he’s going to fail me because he finds me to be mildly irritating. Eric though, I really try to stay out of his way as much as I can and when I can’t I’m polite as humanly possible. After what he did to Christina for something as benign and understandable as forfeiting a fight she couldn’t win, I don’t want to imagine how he might react if I spoke to him the way that I speak to Four. He laughed when Four mentioned I was one of his ‘problem students’ but I don’t ever want him to see for himself that I am. I am even wary about talking back to Four within an earshot of him, Four may not like Eric but I honest to god have no idea what Eric’s relationship to Four is and I don’t want to get myself in trouble with Eric by insulting Four.

Christina, Molly, Myra, and I all get ready in mostly silence. We don’t talk to Molly much, Christina especially ever since the incident, but it’s not like she makes any effort to befriend us either. I’ve already decided that I dislike Molly based on what she did to Christina and the fact that she associates with Peter, but I see no reason to be openly mean to her until the opportunity presents itself. I’m sure that she already knows I don’t like her, as the Candor are pretty in tune with other people’s emotions despite how tone deaf most of them act, and I’m sure that she’s no fonder of me, I would rather that we go on silently hating each other rather than loudly. My hateful relationship with Peter (and basically most everyone’s hateful relationship with Peter, because I know for a fact that Edward and Myra think he’s an asshole too and the other initiates tend to avoid him whenever possible) is enough tension for the dorm room, I really don’t think that his friends also need to get involved.

Today is the first day that I can wear makeup again and actually bother with my hair, because I won’t sweat it all off or get punched in the face for the first time in two weeks. Though I know that this isn’t technically a break, and I’m sure that Four will find a way to suck any traces of fun out of it, I’m still excited; it’s still the first time that I’ve left the Dauntless compound as a Dauntless (well, Dauntless-in-training) and the first time I’ve had the full sun shine on my face in two and a half weeks. There are skylights in some of the public areas like the bridge over the Chasm and the Pit, but that’s not really the same.

But as I’m getting ready, a thought occurs to me. Today is Jeanine’s birthday, and this is really the first time that I haven’t been around for that. Like I said, she’s kind of part of our family; we care about that sort of thing and every year without fail my parents do a dinner thing for her that takes hours to prepare and days to plan, but they still do it. I used to help frost the cake, because that was really the one thing that I was good at, and a few days in advance my mom or my dad and I would go out shopping for gifts. I miss her; I miss being around my family. I don’t even have my phone to send her a quick text because I left that at home and I’m sure that even if I wanted to, it would probably be frowned upon because ‘faction before blood’. It’s still bullshit, I mean I can sort of appreciate wanting people to form a bone-sunk loyalty to their factions but I don’t think that has to come at the expense of your family. I know better than anyone that freedom and family don’t cancel each other out; I’ve seen it happen with Mark and Minerva and now I’m experiencing it myself. They’re still my siblings, they’re still my parents’ children, I still love them and they still love me. We see each other every year on Visiting Day even though that’s only supposed to be a one or two time thing. It’s not like other families don’t do it; I know very specifically of a few of my parents’ friends’ children who, rather than their parents going out to see them on Visiting Day, they go back to Erudite. Despite what some would have us believe, continuing to love your family after the Choosing Ceremony is not quite the taboo that some people make it out to be. I wish that I could impress this on Al, who still sometimes cries at night. I feel so awful for him, but I know that he doesn’t want us to comfort him. He’s acknowledged that we can hear him, but I’m sure that he finds it at least mildly embarrassing. I really don’t want to meddle in his personal life like that. Close as we’re becoming, it’s not really my place.

“You go on ahead.” Christina waves me off in the direction of the dining hall when we get out into the hallway. We usually wait for each other and then Tris, Will, and Al so that we can all go to breakfast together.

Will comes out of the bathroom a minute later, seeming to have the same idea that I did with the makeup thing.

“I’m going to go check on Tris. Make sure that she’s up and whatever, it might take a while.”

“Al also said he’d catch up with us later,” Will says.

Christina disappears into the dorm and I turn to Will as we start walking. “And then there were two.”

“Gotta say, that eyeshadow really brings out the yellow in the bruise on your jaw,” Will says, gesturing to my face.

“You’re funny,” I say in a deadpan voice. “I really like how your poorly done concealer almost manages to cover up your black eye.”

Will chuckles. “Yeah, I know. If you think that you can do better, be my guest. I would seriously appreciate it.” I roll my eyes but don’t respond, mostly because I probably couldn’t do better.

He gives me a proud smirk like he’s won something. I guess in a way he has; my silence. As mean as Will and I pretend to be to each other, we really do get along exceptionally well. We kind of just click, like how I do with the others but also in a way that I don’t feel like I ever have to explain anything to him because he just gets it. We have exactly the same sense of humor, that deadpan bite that Christina took to pretty quickly but Al and Tris understand but don’t really participate in. They’re too sweet for the teasing insults, and in turn I try to avoid insulting them because I remember when Tris and I were just getting to know each other (though in a lot of ways we still are) and she thought I was serious about her not knowing anything and that it was some sort of dig at her, and how it seemed to genuinely upset her. I don’t want to do that again; Tris is my friend and I can understand how that sort of humor wouldn’t translate with people who have never encountered it before.

But Will and I just kind of feed off of each other’s energy, and yeah sometimes we sort of slip off into our own conversation totally separate from the group because we share experiences just like Christina and Al do. It’s just another example of how our birth factions never really leave us, and how we can’t just be expected to let go of it all the moment we transfer out. There are aspects of my life and parts of me that exist specifically because I was Erudite and Will, Edward, Myra, and the other Erudite transfers too I guess – though I’ve never really bothered to talk to any of them – can understand that in a way that the others can’t. Nothing against them, of course, they have their own unique and shared experiences specific to Candor, Amity, and Abnegation respectively that I could never hope to gain a full grasp on.

Will nods. “That’s one of the things I love about you, I never have to explain that I’m joking. Mostly because you’re a lot meaner to me than I am to you.”

I roll my eyes. “What a convoluted way of admitting that I’m smarter than you.”

“In your very egotistical dreams.” He gives me a light shove.

“Ooh, ‘egotistical’. Wow, you used a big word.” I laugh and shove him back.

“Oh, shut up.” He snickers. “We can’t all be walking dictionaries; and you, dear friend of mine, are not even close to the,” he clears his throat and starts talking in a voice obviously meant to mimic the high society Erudite, “proper and well-spoken lady,” his voice drops back to normal, “that you think you are. We’re all Dauntless now, and if you’ve ever heard any of them speak I’m sure that you know there’s no room for anything like that here.”

“Won’t stop me from trying,” I say. “I’m not about to reduce my vocabulary to pebbles because fucking Four has never opened a book in his life.”

“You’re so goddamn mean, you know that right?” We enter the dining hall and move through the line to get our food. “Like, I know that it’s no secret but you will literally jump on the people you don’t like for everything at every opportunity.”

I shrug as I pick up a muffin. “If I see an opening than I’m going for it. It isn’t even a thing with him specifically; Peter and Eric are just as easy to make fun of, he just happened to be the first name to pop into my head while saying that particular sentence.”

“Hey, you don’t have to justify yourself to me. It’s just an observation. Better them than me, right?”

I nudge him with my shoulder. “The difference is that I actually like you.”

“Aw.” Will touches his hand to his heart, nearly splashing his coffee on his shirt. “I’m touched. I can almost see the ice around your heart starting to melt.”

I roll my eyes. “I’m already regretting that statement.”

We sit down at the table next to each other, both of us propping our feet up on the chairs across from us in near unison.

“So,” he says, “excited for our first time outside the compound as Dauntless?”

“Excited to not be breathing the same stale air anymore. I mean it’s cool I guess, but I don’t really expect to be stuck out guarding the fence at any point.”

“Oh really?” Will tips his chair back on its hind legs and takes a sip of his coffee. “Why am I not surprised? So what do you ‘expect’ to do?”

“Leadership.” I lower my voice, “I’d actually like Eric’s job if I can find a way to swing it.”

“I’m pretty sure that he would disembowel you if he heard you say that.”

“Who’s disemboweling people?” Al appears with a tray in his hands. He sits a few seats down from me.

“Eric, if Mimi keeps openly talking about the fact that she’s gunning for his job,” Will says and Al almost spits out his orange juice in response.

“Is that why you’re so nice around him?” he says after he swallows. “Because you don’t want him to know?”

“I figure that I better make a good impression now before he’s my boss. There’s plenty of time to be mean later.”

“Can’t wait to see that,” Will says. “Dude’s going to mount your head on the wall of his office.”

I shrug. “You have such little faith in me and I am, frankly, very insulted by it.”

“That’s not true.” Will takes another bite of his food and the uses his fork to gesture at me. “I think you’ll make a great leader if you somehow manage to avoid getting disemboweled and/or decapitated by the guy who’s job you want.”

“Thanks?” I shoot him a confused look over my coffee. “If that was indeed a compliment?”

Will nods. “It was.”

“Gee,” I say flatly. “Thanks.”

“You are welcome.” He grins as he takes another bite of his potatoes.

When we’re done with breakfast we head up to the train tracks. We’re early, save for the few other initiates milling around. I’m learning quickly that there’s absolutely nothing to do in the mornings at Dauntless, it’s a good thing that I’m so dedicated to training otherwise so much of my mornings would just be spent standing around doing nothing. I sit down on a crate next to the building and let a small smile spread across my face. It’s nice to be above ground again, to look up and see the bright blue sky and breathe in the fresh air. It’s cold for September, or maybe I’ve just grown used to the heated Dauntless compound.

“Where are they?” Will puts his hands on his hips and looks around. “They should have been here by now.”

“Do you think something’s wrong?” Al says. “Should we go check on them?”

“Guys, chill. I’m sure they’re fine,” I say. “Tris has been pretty messed up since her fight with Peter. I’m sure that she’s just kind of ache-y.”

Not a minute later, Tris and Christina emerge from the compound right as the train arrives.

“What took so long?” Will shouts over the noise of the train.

“Stumpy legs over here is going full old lady on us.” Christina jabs her thumb at Tris.

Tris rolls her eyes. “Oh shut up.”

We all break into a slow run together. Four jumps into one of the last cars and I suppose that we’re all meant to get in that one too. I notice him lingering almost in the doorway, catching Myra as she slips and pulling her up. It’s a step up from the last time we jumped on, I guess now that we’re all here they really don’t want us missing the train.

Behind me, I can hear Tris already breathing heavily. It’s not exactly fun for any of us, we’re all sore after two and a half weeks of training, but she very recently got the hell beaten out of her. This must be killing her.

I jump on after Will; it’s much easier this time probably because I’m not running on a platform that’s two feet wide with a hundred or so people and in high heels. Doesn’t stop Will from giving me shit about it though.

“Ay!” He claps me on the shoulder. “Look who made it on without twisting her ankle.”

“I’m going to fight you,” I say flatly.

“You already did, remember?”

“I’ll fight you again.”

Al helps Tris on, basically leans out the door and plucks her off the ground, setting her back down once she’s safely inside the train.

“How are you feeling?” I ask her.

She gives a halfhearted groan in response and gazes warily at Peter, who is giving her a very predatory grin.

“Feeling okay there?” he says while trying not to laugh. “Or are you a little…Stiff.” He howls with laughter at his own joke and then Drew and Molly join in.

“We are all awed by your incredible wit,” Will says with zero inflection to his voice whatsoever. “Truly you must be god’s gift to sass.”

“Are you sure you don’t belong in Erudite, Peter?” Christina joins in. “I hear they don’t object to sissies.”

Without thinking about it at all I say, “Oh come on, Christina, I think it’s pretty damn obvious he’s not cut out for Erudite; I mean you can count his IQ on a single hand. Erudite does have standards after all. But comedy in general…his complete joke of an existence could probably get a chuckle out of the audience.”

Peter’s upper lip curls. “Maybe if you ran like your mouth you’d be doing better in training, Ice Queen.”

“Peter, I don’t really think that you’re in any position to talk about anyone being better when you’re so disliked across the board.”

“Am I going to have to listen to you guys bicker all the way to the fence?!” Four snaps before Peter can retort.

We don’t say another word for a while but Christina laughs under her breath, only growing worse at hiding it when she notices Peter, Molly, and Drew’s glares.

Eventually, Tris breaks the silence. She turns to us and says, “What do you think is out there? Beyond the wall, I mean.”

“Wind and solar farms,” Will says. “Actual farms.”

“No but,” she makes a gesture like she’s throwing something, “way out there. Past all of that.”

Christina wiggles her fingers. “Monsters!”

“Nothing probably,” I guess. “No civilization, no life; just a whole lot of empty space.”

“But then what would we need the guards for?” Tris says. “If it’s really just a bunch of cattle, crops, and solar panels then what’s the point of having a whole team of people watching it all the time?”

“Well we didn’t even really have most of the guards out by the wall until like five years ago, remember?” Will says. “Don’t you remember when most of Dauntless police used to patrol the factionless sector?”

Tris and I both nod. The choice was left up to the Faction Council alone and I remember my mother being less than pleased with the outcome, something about it being a waste of resources or something. She’s probably right, but I don’t mention any of that now.

“Oh right,” Will says to Tris. “You probably saw the factionless all the time, right?”

“Why do you say that?” she says, suddenly defensive.

“Because you had to pass the larger part of the factionless sector to get to school, right?” As he explains, Tris seems to soften.

Christina snorts. “What did you do, memorize a map of the city for fun?”

“Of course,” Will says, his eyes flicker over to me. “Right, Mimi?”

“Oh no.” I laugh. “You’re on your own in this one, you fucking nerd.”

He rolls his eyes. “Yeah. I forgot, you were probably swallowing entire dictionaries whole; my bad.”

“You two are both nerds.” Christina shakes her head.

Our conversation is cut short as the train comes to a stop, the breaks squealing and all of us lurching forward. Most of us manage to keep our balance, but Will, who was leaning against the wall, almost falls over and Christina tries to catch him but her smaller stature leaves her unable to right him on his feet. He caught himself with his hands behind her neck and she grins, putting her hands on his waist.

“Careful.”

“Oh,” Will dramatically closes his eyes and puts his hand to his forehead. “I’m swooning. Thank you, fair Lady Christina, for–” She lets go and he shrieks but Al catches him at the last second.

“Cool it on the theatrics maybe,” he says with a laugh as he rights Will on his feet.

“An astute point, Sir Al.”

“Shut up.”

We all get off under an awning. Out here there’s practically nothing, just a lot of field and a near forest of overgrown flora that’s been there for so long it’s little more than just another part of our environment. Ahead of us is the wall, which is even taller than the Hub. The bottom half is made of solid concrete and the top is metal and wire with gangplanks running across it. I’d imagine that the metal must have once been shiny gray and new, but five hundred years have rendered it a tired rust color. That said, it’s not anywhere close to being in disrepair. Most of the guards are around the upper part of the wall, little black dots high above us, but we’re near the gate as well where about eight surly looking Dauntless stand, all straightening as they notice us. The gate is twice the size of my house and that same rust color as the top half of the wall. I can’t imagine how it ever opens, but I know that it must every so often so that the Amity farmers and Erudite technicians can check up on the setups out there.

“Follow me,” Four says. He leads us up toward the gate, none of the guards speak as we approach; they hardly acknowledge we’re even here at all, they just stare off into space.

“If you don’t rank in the top fifteen at the end of initiation than it’s likely you will end up out here,” he says, walking backwards so that he can look at us as he talks and a not so small part of me hopes that he trips. Sue me for being a little petty. “Once you become a fence guard there are a few opportunities for advancement but not much. It’s mostly just things like going out on patrols beyond the wall or accompanying the farmers and techs that have to go out. For-”

“Wait,” Will interrupts him and Four not at all subtly rolls his eyes. “Patrols for what purpose?”

“I guess you’ll find out if this is where you wind up. As I was saying, for the most part those who guard the fence when they’re young continue to do so into the rest of their adult lives. If it comforts you, some of them insist that the job isn’t as bad as it seems; it’s steady and not all that difficult.”

“At least we won’t be driving busses or cleaning up other people’s messes like the factionless,” Christina mutters.

“Your Candor is showing,” I whisper back and she glares at me but smiles when she does.

“What rank were you?” Peter says.

I don’t expect him to give an answer, going off of the conversation I had with him my first night in Dauntless the guy seems to enjoy being cryptic and vague for no discernable reason. I’m surprised for more than one reason when he says, “I was first.”

“And you chose to do this?” Peter says incredulously. “Why didn’t you get a government job?”

Though I hate to admit it, I can actually agree with Peter on this one thing. The ways that leadership is better than training a bunch of teenage idiots are pretty obvious.

“I didn’t want one,” he says flatly.

Okay, that’s actually understandable. Politics really isn’t for everyone and I can’t possibly imagine Four doing especially well in that environment. Eric is bad enough, but the thought of Four sloughing through an ocean of paperwork and exchanging niceties with other prominent faction members, dressed to the nines and a smile plastered on his face, is almost laughable.

Me though, I would do anything to get there. I would give anything to be one of the greats and it’s why I’m so determined to do well during initiation. I can’t help but be enchanted by the idea of it all, though I haven’t got a clue what sort of version of that life Dauntless might hold for me. But more than that, I just feel like there’s something that I can offer this world. I want to help people but not as a police officer or anything, I want to make an impact that will last.

We stop up next to the gate and one of the guards gestures for us to move back. They punch in a code and activates some sort of mechanism that opens up the massive gate. Upon it rising out of the ground I can clearly see it’s thicker than I am and there’s a place where it’s worn into the ground from resting there over the centuries. Two vehicles pass through, a silver car that then immediately accelerates away from us, and a truck with an open back.

A man with a straw hat and beard gets out of the driver’s seat and begins talking to one of the guards. In the back of the truck other Amity sit on crates talking and laughing. Most of them are young, my age, maybe even this year’s initiate class. But none of them are Casey.

“Mimette?” My eldest brother, Mark, stands up and stares down at me. He jumps down from the truck bed and walks over to me. It’s been a little while since I’ve seen Mark long enough to actually speak to him. Nine years ago he left Erudite for Amity and now he’s the faction representative. He’s another part of that legacy that I just have to live up to.

“Hey, Mark.” He hugs me before I can think stop him. I’m aware that there are people watching me, and that faction before blood is kind of a big deal. But Mark is a faction representative, I don’t exactly think that anyone’s going to call him out.

“What have you been up too?” he asks when he lets go of me, but I remain in his shadow. Mark is really tall, almost a full foot taller than I am, he might be pretty intimidating if he weren’t such an easy going and positive person.

I shrug. “Initiation, uh, obviously.”

He gives my upper arm a light squeeze and I have to fight the urge to wince. “Your arms are starting to feel like Minerva’s.”

I chuckle. Minerva would have a much easier time in Dauntless than me; because she’d be pretty adept at the physical stuff, but also because she has less patience for bullshit than I do and is considerably more intimidating than I am.

“Mimette,” Mark tips his head to the side, a slightly concerned look on his face, “is everything going alright?”

I force a smile, one far more confident than the way that I feel. “Just fine.”

“Mimette?” A very, very annoying voice repeats right on my heels. “It’s that a little uppity for someone who looked like they crawled out of a ditch.”

I all but roll my eyes into the back of my head and turn around slowly to face Peter, who is smirking in a sort of way that makes me want to punch him.

“Wow,” I drawl. “’Uppity,’ how impressive, Peter. You used a big word and managed to string more than ten words together in a sentence. Keep working at it and maybe someday you’ll be off giving speeches about the meaning of life and generally enlightening mankind.”

“Mimette.” Mark puts his hands on my shoulders and smiles down at me. “Don’t.” Then he turns that smile on Peter, but it’s cold and unnatural looking. “You must be one of Mimette’s fellow initiates. I’m Mark, her older brother; and you are?”

Peter scoffs. “Suddenly need big brother to protect you?”

I move out of Mark’s grip, wishing that my cheeks didn’t flush the way that they do. “No. Don’t you have something better to do than bother me, like go kick puppies or something?”

“Now, now there’s no need to be rude.” Mark is still smiling but he looks like he could deck Peter. He takes a step closer and the shadow that he casts passes over Peter. “I don’t think that I caught your name.”

I guess that Peter finds it as unsettling as I do, because he leaves without another word.

“Mark,” calls the older man with the beard, “we’re leaving.”

Mark hugs me again quickly. “I love you, Mimette. I’ll see you on Visiting Day.”

I hug him back this time. “I love you too. If you see Casey Diarmond tell her that, uh…that I send my love.”

We part and he climbs back into the truck, where one of the younger girls begins strumming a banjo. I watch them as they drive away, and only when they’re hardly more than a blip on the horizon do I remember that I never even got the chance to mention to Mark that I changed my name.

“Who was Big Mc-Large-Huge?” Christina walks up next to me.

“My brother.” I’m still staring off into space, but out of the corner of my eye I notice Four glaring at me over Tris’ head as he talks to her. He must not have approved of the conversation, not that I actually care in any capacity.

“That’s your brother?” Christina gives me a quizzical look. We begin to walk to the train as Four waves us back.

“One of them,” I say. “I’ve got two.” As much as it shouldn’t, it feels like a bit of the weight in my chest has been lifted. It was just so nice to see Mark again, to just be reminded that no matter how far away we are our family is never really gone. Honestly it was kind of something that I needed; I still feel a little bit homesick and I do wish that I could be back in Erudite to spend time with Jeanine.

Christina looks at me, still looking a little confused. “You’re not going to get that tall, are you?”

I laugh; and for once I don’t bother to forcibly remind myself that I’m supposed to be happy here. I just laugh and let my mixed emotions stir around inside of me. I take one last look back at the fence before getting back on the train, and just like that our little day in the sun is over.

#fanfic #my writing #the anthem series #divergent

[strngrmdst-a]

PART 2: GROWING UP

How would they describe their childhood in general?

In a word: bad. 

What is their earliest memory?

Rainy day, grey sky, his mother trying to put him and Jim into a car, on their way to an appointment, or something.

How much schooling have they had?

Richard had schooling all the way up to the university level. All the schools Rich attended, including his university, were rural and mostly low-performing. He dropped out of university before he could finish his degree.

Did they enjoy school?

Richard loved school. He loved learning things, of course, but more importantly it was a safe haven from his home life. He went to university because it would allow him to get away from his father.

Where did they learn most of their skills and other abilities?

Richard has always been a gifted story writer, though the ‘telling’ part, with his stutter and nerves, didn’t really come until university. Navigating the world of crime is really something he picked up on the job, but memorization tricks, speech habits, accents, all that got started in his late teens/early twenties with acting classes. Other things like languages were mostly self-taught. Things like making himself seem harmless and non-threatening came from life experience as a short-ish kid with big eyes and a stutter.

While growing up, did they have any role models? If so, describe them.

James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson- so much so that Rich took his pen name from them. They were the first actors he really saw on screen, thanks to his father’s love of early cinema. They seemed so cool to him, and he liked that they could play hardened, violent criminals in one film and dancers and singers in the next (not that his father was eager to show him Yankee Doodle Dandy).

While growing up, how did they get along with the other members of their family?

Rich’s relationship with his immediate family was strained. Throughout his childhood he was afraid of his father, who in turn both didn’t like him and didn’t have the empathy/patience to raise children. Rich was close to his mother when he was young, but she left his life before he was a teenager. He never found out what happened to her but for a long time (still maybe to this day) really resented her for leaving.

 He and Jim, as twins, probably had the best relationship. Rich relied heavily on Jim for a lot of things, and had complete blind faith in him. This usually meant Jim talked Rich into various schemes, which didn’t always end well for one or both of them. They didn’t fight when they were young because Rich was too busy hero-worshiping. 

Rich only met extended family once or twice. To his knowledge, he has no surviving relatives outside Jim.

As a child, what did they want to be when they grew up?

Rich wanted to make films- whether acting, behind the scenes, or writing them.  

As a child, what were their favorite activities?

Rich enjoyed reading (when he could get away with it), and acting out scenes (by himself, typically from memory) he could remember from films. He spend a lot of time outside or hidden away, avoiding his father, which meant a lot of time alone. When he couldn’t act, he recited scripts and stories to himself, or tried to write them down, or both.

As a child, what kinds of personality traits did they display?

Curiosity, shyness, a want to help. Voluntary muteness, anxiety, over-dependence on his brother. Rich was a cute kid but he was being abused, and that reflected very strongly in his attitude in his primary school days. Unfortunately, many of the symptoms of abuse were either missed, ignored, or chalked up to him being ‘oversensitive’ and a ‘crybaby’ by his instructors and school staff. What wasn’t ignored was also blamed on his mother’s leaving them. Eventually, Rich learned that the more he (and Jim) misbehaved, the more likely it was to get back to their father, and the more likely he’d face even more trouble. He became mostly well-behaved, if a little too over-eager to complete tasks and a little too withdrawn. 

As a child, were they popular? Who were their friends, and what were they like?

Rich’s ‘best’ friend was Jim, but he did get along with others in class. The issue was that their parents didn’t like Rich’s family and so wouldn’t let their children interact with Rich and Jim. They did try, once. Rich and Jim were invited to a sleep over. It ended badly. 

When and with whom was their first kiss?

Rich’s first kiss was when he was about six. It was at the previously mentioned badly-ending sleep over, with another boy. It wasn’t romantic- there was a kiss in a film they were all watching, and Rich and the boy wanted to see what it was like. They didn’t actually get kicked out of the party until one of the other children started bullying Rich for it, and Jim punched him in the face. Their mother was the one who took them home. She never told their father why. It was for the best.

Are they a virgin? If not, when and with whom did they lose their virginity?

Rich lost his virginity when he was eighteen and just in university. It was with a young woman in his program who’d been flirting with him all night at a party. It was consensual, if clumsy, but she was good-humored and pretty and nice. The sex was just ‘fine’- Richard got more out of getting her off than he did in his own orgasm. 

They didn’t date but they did remain close friends until he left university, and for a few weeks after he returned home. Their relationship ended badly, with Rich cutting contact.

If they are a supernatural being (i.e. mage, werewolf, vampire), tell the story of how they became what they are or first learned of their own abilities. If they are just a normal human, describe any influences in their past that led them to do the things they do today.

magic!verse: 

When Rich was young, his twin brother died. Definitely, for sure died. It happened in front of his own eyes. And yet, the next morning, there his brother was, in their room, rolling out of his own bed and complaining about getting up early for school. Their father never really trusted the new-Jim, but their father also didn’t really like either of his sons, so home life wasn’t much changed. In school, things started happening, to animals, to school supplies, to people who annoyed them. The teachers only noticed that Jim was getting more charming and more willing to work with others. After a while, Rich thought maybe he was crazy and the entire death and resurrection was just another fantasy made up in his head.

Until Carl Powers was killed, and the not-Jim told him itself that it wasn’t his brother. It told him it was getting bored, and it was going to leave, and that if Rich didn’t grow a spine his father was going to end up killing him, too. It told him that it might kill Rich itself, just on principal. 

It didn’t kill him, but it did leave a few years later. By that time, Rich knew that he wanted to be useful to it, still. He begged it to teach him magic- and when it got bored of that, Rich did what he could to teach himself.

main!verse:

Rich was always very dependent on Jim, but there was a period of time when they had no contact at all. This was a difficult time for Rich because as much of a questionable influence as he was, Jim was still the closest Rich had to a support system. With him gone, it was just he and his father. As he aged, Rich was better able to recognize the abuse and better able to navigate it- and the ‘it’s getting better’ and ‘he’s remorseful’ cycle his father went through. He applied to university without telling his father, worked hard to get into it, and did everything he could to stay at it or with friends or classmates.

Before he could graduate, a neighbor from home managed to find Rich’s contact information and get in touch. She told him his father was dying, that all he wanted was to see his sons and make amends, and that Rich owed him that wish, at least. So Rich went home to find a dying man who refused treatment and refused to give up the vices that were literally killing him but did seem, for once, genuinely remorseful. 

Maybe it was the guilt of staying away so long, the guilt of not feeling guilty for running away, or his desperate want to have a loving connection, but Rich decided to stay. They plan was to resume his studies after his father’s passing, after matters were settled. But that never happened. After his father’s death, it came out that his vices had him in heavy debt with some bad people, who were more than willing to hold Rich to that debt. Rich starting abusing alcohol, just like his father, who was the one who made it a habit for him by insisting they drink together in his last days. Things were bad, and this was how Rich got into ‘crime’, really- though nothing compared to the things Jim did.

It was how the twins were reunited again. Jim found Rich in a shitty, falling-apart studio flat doing shitty, sloppy jobs for a third-rate gang. Honestly, Rich had assumed Jim’d disappeared or died just like their mother (or maybe never existed in the first place). He appeared like from no where and was a chance for a different life. Rich refused to lose the last of his family. Refused. He decided he’d do anything and everything to make sure he stayed in Jim’s life.

#hc #got some magic!verse in there too #tw: mention of child abuse

[owlfliescityfire-blog]

Chapter 2

(IM SO GLAD YOU ALL LIKE MY STORY. i’M DEFINITELY GOING TO CONTINUE NOW!)

Chapter 2: A Real Bitch. 

 Hey there again, You sure ask alot of questions. 

 Well. Today. I figured something out. My uncles totally figured out what Diors plan is. He thinks He's going to scare us into loving him? I don't know why he thinks it'll work. I have a million other options. So do my friends. Hell even my aunt-niece can do better. He can't force us to think he's some amazing guy, I mean yeah He's hot. But he's only from the east side of the first level of hell I mean how weak can you get? he's nothing special. Ross Lynch is cutier than him and I don't even watch Disney channel anymore. 

While I was sitting in my room this morning, with all the windows shut. Although my stomach was telling me that I needed to go downstairs and find something to suck on, I kept thinking about Dior. Maybe one of us should have just dated him. But, what would be the good in that? Hanging out with that herb. There's nothing special about him, he's basically a pile of oregano. Therefore he's a total herb. A knock on my door took me out of my thoughts. It's a good thing too I was starting to get mad. If I get too mad I get kind of like Twenty One Pilots car radio., I sit in silence. I stood up from my desk chair and answered the door, it was Angelica. "Hey" I said welcoming her into my room, "are you thinking about Dior too?" I said sitting down at my desk chair again. She shook her head, "no, I mean ...I was. Then Rickky came in and flipped my cross right side up, and I can't touch it to change it back" she replied in a muffled voice. I laughed, thats so messed up. The pranks around here go so far. Its always something with us. "What did you do to her?" I asked laughing until tears of salt fell from my eyes. I know most vampires might cry tears of blood, or regular tears. But, everyone knows that real vampires aren't alive and can't produce blood or water. So, the next obvious option would be salt. Edward, my ex when he was showing his skin to all of the people on the east side. He was just really sweaty. But because we don't sweat he was just covered in salt. And the Sun was reflecting off of his skin, giving him a diamonds like shein. Angelica Shrugged, "I think she just wanted wanted to start a prank war" she said in her muffled Voice once again. She started to play with the strings on her hoodie, I can't see her eyes but I'm sure they were traveling the room. My room is is really big, like gigantic. 

The walls are covered in dark faded brown wallpaper, I have broken china dolls and that posted you know what that is a Rosie the Riveter poster on the wall closest to the door, so that I never forget that even though I'm a girl vampire I can do anything a boy vampire can do maybe even better. My room itself, outside of the literal dark appearance is quite actually myself. I love my room. My room screams late 40s, Great Depression, famine, deadly machines and special camps. Around that time is when I got changed, so I like to keep the time period That I was changed and close to my heart. "I'm sure, looks like thats going to be fun" I replied. Angelica shook her head again replying with " I don't want to be a part of Rickky's stupid Prank War, doesn't she realize we have a bigger problem on our hands? Like Dior? Trying to end the world because no one wants to date him. I mean he's no Ross Lynch, or even Jin. He's still hot though, just not the person that any of us really want in our lives. And honestly I don't like it"   I nodded, " Dior, is getting pretty scary. I sent him a text earlier, and he replied 'I demond your love'. I don't really get it, I don't really get what he was going for" I said with my mind going in a million directions. I could see Angelica's shoulders bouncing, chuckling under her breath "heh that is kind of funny...demon humor. Sorry" I squinted my eyes at her, in total disbelief. Before I could say anything, a loud but soft voice called from downstairs. It was my Uncle Louie, telling us to come downstairs to eat lunch. So, I went downstairs with Angelica. Ricky was already downstairs with my uncles, finally preparing something that everyone wants to eat. A delicious and bloody penne pasta, with no garlic and extra clotted blood sauce. Seriously, it's delicious you should try it. While sitting around the table, we each wanted to discuss the very serious issue. Amongst the three girls, we didn't really understand how we were supposed to make Dior stop being absolutely crazy. I mean I'm not too fond of humans either, they're always changing, half of them are fake, they don't taste as good as they used to, they stop using real butter, they stop using real sugar,  they stopped smoking real cigarettes and started vaping, and they're so easily triggered. With all of that in mind, yeah it means that humans are still absolutely insufferable. But I still need them as a Life Source, I need to be able to sustain this body for at least another three hundred years before I can go to the vampire society and request an upgrade. "Maybe we can just find hima girlfriend" Rickky said taking a bite out of her angel food cake. Immediately spitting it out, only to see that while we were fixing lunch, Angelica had replaced her angel food cake with devil's food cake. "What the Heaven!" She shouted, staring daggers at Angelica who chuckled with her mouth full. Although I started to laugh, I started to remember that he only wanted to date one of us. Probably because, even for our own races we are all extremely attractive. Among demons Angelica is first class, among angels Ricky is also one of the best, and among vampires I mean there's really no competition except for maybe that bich that Edward turned into a vampire. But even then her forehead is like a landing strip, so I think I win there. I sighed, a little bit of pasta flying for my mouth. I chose to ignore it. " he only wants to date one of us, maybe one of us should just date him" I said shaking my head in disbelief. My uncle Lestat through his fist to the table, shouting at the top of his lungs. "No niece of mine, will be dating that look class flat foot leather tongue dandruff born bastard" Everyone at the table was really shocked, Uncle Lestat never says those words, even amongst vampires those are like really big cuss words. Like no one is ever allowed to say them, at the vampire Society I heard that if you say those words they have to send someone to punish you. But I heard that when I was like 104 years old, so I don't know if that's true. Uncle Louie cleared his throat, even clearing his throat sounded very soft but also loud and kind of masculine. If it was up to me, Uncle Louie would be mine and Uncle Lestat would be total trash. But you didn't hear that from me. "Perhaps, instead of letting the girls make the decisions on their own. Which got them in this big mess in the first place, Lestat and I need to be real parents and uncles and make the decision of what is going to happen from now on" he said flipping his long hair over one shoulder. "Oh no, please don't pick one of us to date him. He's a real bitch, I hate him" Angelica replied. " no, I am not going to pick one of you to date him. What I am going to do or what I have done, is invited him to lunch today so he can speak this out with you guys as a big boy, if you all want to play grown ups then act that way" he said gently resting his hand on the table. We all put our heads down, I can't believe that Uncle Louie would do something like that to us. I think we deserve so much better, and he knows that. Do you or is just going to come here, and the man that one of us date him. But he's so low level, he could never in a thousand years even dream of being with one of us. Which apparently that thousand years has already come and gone, because he had the nerve to demand that one of us be his girlfriend. I open my mouth to speak, but before the words came out a loud thumping at the door came. We all at once our heads snapped to look at the door, and one of our servants opened it. And of course behind it was a tall Pale Man, his skin looked like paper and his hair was jet black as my soul, and my eyes. Although he was nice to look at, I could feel his Aura. He was so full of himself, he just felt annoying. " hello everyone" his mid level voice spoke. 

And all at once, we sighed. "Hello Dior"

#cHAPTER 2 #i spent so much time guys #i hope you like #i know its prety godo haha #my sotry #twilight #interview with the vampire #ocs #myocs #donotsteal

[ilovereadingandilovebreathing]

The 3am Adventures of Captain Insomnia and the Barefoot Wonder

A/N: Hi, people! I don’t remember the last time I posted a fic on here, BUT I was going through my drafts and finally mustered up the wherewithal to finish something! SO, without further ado, here is the 4th (ridiculous) chapter of my Soul Eater College!AU. This one’s way less emotional and way more snarky and funny than the last one, so if that chapter wasn’t your cup of tea, maybe this one will be better. This one’s not as connected and linear as the others, but it was fun to write.  It’s literally been years, so if anyone actually reads this, bless you. Hope you enjoy! (It’s literally so ridiculous, and I’m so sorry.) 

Chapter 1     Chapter 2     Chapter 3

Summary: Soul can’t sleep, so his natural course of action is to drag Maka out of bed. Lots of snarking and flirting ensues. 

Word Count: 2,123

Genre(s): College!AU; humor, slice of life, slight romance

Characters/Pairings: Soul Evans, Maka Albarn, Liz Thompson; implied/pre-SoMa

Warnings: arguing/bickering, yelling

Maka had half a mind to hurl her shrieking cell phone across her room when it disturbed a much needed and (to that point) full night of sleep. She grumbled choice words between gritted teeth as she thrashed around, untangling herself from her warm cocoon of blankets and sliding open the device just before it went to voicemail.

“What?” 

“What are you so crabby about?” An all-too familiar gravelly tone snarked.

“Oh, I don’t know.” Maka quipped, sitting up now as she glared a hole through her door. “Maybe because it’s 3am, I was FAST ASLEEP, and I have a damn final tomorrow.”

“Oh shit, is it 3am already?”

“3:06, to be exact.”

“Sorry, Maka, I swear: the last time I looked it was 11:30.”

 “Yeah, well, we’re way past that now, aren’t we?”

When he didn’t respond, she sighed, pushing her bangs back with a huff as she conceded, “So what’s up? What possessed you to call me in the first place?”

“I....can’t sleep.”

“Seriously?” She flopped back onto her pillows with a flourish, most of her body and half of her mind screaming at her to hang up. “Soul, go take some Tylenol PM or drink some warm milk or something.”

“Lactose intolerant.” 

“Never stopped you from chugging it from my carton.”

He grunted. “And the PM stuff makes you feel like you have a hangover, without the booze or the vomiting.”

“True. What do you want me to do about it, Captain Insomnia?”

“Take a ride with me.”

“Sooooul it’s 3:12 in the morning, dammit, I have a final in 5 hours.”

“I know, I know, just...” His voice became rougher than usual, but somehow small, like a timid child. “Please? I promise I’ll have you back in less than an hour.”

“Fine.” She threw off her blessed heat for good, nearly stubbing all of her toes as she stumbled blindly to her closet. “Where....are you?” She asked as she pulled on a hoodie and yoga pants. 

“Green parking, right outside your dorm.” She could practically hear his cheeky, shark-toothed grin. 

“You’re such an ass.”

“You love it.”

“Not right now.” She opted for bare feet when she eyed the pile of shoes next to her desk, and in seconds she was down the hall and out the back stairwell, waving her best friend and his (in her opinion) tacky orange motorcycle toward her. 

“The hell are your shoes?” He quirked a brow at the bare foot she was about to sling over his bike. 

“Don’t need them.” She retorted, thrusting said foot toward his face. “We’re just going for a ride, right?” 

“Yeah, suit yourself.” He shrugged as she settled into her seat and wrapped her arms around his waist. 

After they drove for a little while, she nudged him and yelled over the wind, “Where are we headed?”

“Anywhere but my dorm!” He called back, an obvious grimace on his lips. 

“How about Waffle House?”

“You’re not wearing any shoes, Maka!”

“No one cares, it’s just Waffle House! Plus it’s Liz’s shift, so I bet we can get in anyway.”

“Alright, to the kingdom of cholesterol it is.”

~

It was 3:30 on the dot when they pulled up to the small, brightly lit eatery. 

“Looks like we’re the only ones here.” Maka noted.

“Yeah, just means we might get our heart attacks faster.” Soul chuckled, holding the door open for Maka to walk in before him.

“Hey, you crazy kids,” a familiar tone rang out as they approached the counter. “What’re you two doing up so late? Or early, depending on how you look at it.” Liz added with an eye roll.

“Soul couldn’t sleep.” Maka reported, thrusting her thumb over her shoulder at the shrugging albino. “So he dragged me out here.”

“Hey, WaHo was your idea, Maka-”

“But sneaking over to my apartment and guilting me out of bed was yours-”

“Alright you two, knock it off. You sound like an old married couple, jeez.” Liz interjected, waving them over to a nearby booth with a cursory glance at Maka’s bare feet. “I only took this shift because it’s an easy one, so don’t screw that up for me.” 

“Sorry.” Maka grumbled, and Soul grunted something unintelligible in apology.

The blonde’s features softened just a hair, and she asked, “What’ll you have?”

“Just a glass of orange juice, please.” Maka quickly replied. “It’s way too late to be eating anything.”

“I’ll go for the All-Star Special.” Soul handed Liz his menu and shot Maka a look. “I call it beating the birds to breakfast. Something about eating grease on grease in the early morning hours that gives me the warm and fuzzies.”

“You’re so weird.” Maka propped her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her fists, staring at Soul in silence for a few moments.

“What?” He suddenly looked uncomfortable, as if he could feel her probing his mind. 

“Nothing. Just thinking.”

“About?”

“What could be bothering you so much that you’d wake me up at this time of night just to get me out of my dorm and take a ride, then come to a place you have an obvious love/hate relationship with.” 

“Sounds too complex for this hour.”

“It wouldn’t be if you’d tell me what’s wrong.” She bit back, giving Liz a grateful nod as she set down a full glass of orange juice.

“Nothing is wrong.” Soul retorted, his eyes shielded from her glare by his unruly bangs. “I told you: I just can’t sleep.”

“Mkay, whatever you say.” She quipped, sipping her juice with a pointed glare.

“You’re impossible.” He sighed, opting to look out the window into the darkened wasteland of Death’s Valley.

They sat in silence until their food came, playing eye tag with one another until Liz set their food in front of them.

~

“What if you had forks for hands?” Soul suddenly asked, his final forkful of eggs halfway to his mouth.

Maka raised a brow as she sipped on her orange juice. “What?”

“Like that movie, Edward Scissorhands. What if it was forks instead of scissors.”

“You’d probably be just as screwed. You couldn’t do anything with forks for hands.” Maka giggled, mimicking trying to pick up a salt packet without proper appendages. 

“God, imagine trying to wipe-”

“Ew, Soul, shut up! Did you have to make it gross?” She scoffed. “You’re such a guy.” But Soul caught the small grin she tried to hide behind her cup.

“Hey, I see you smiling!” He grabbed at the cup just in time for her to jerk back, effectively sloshing and spilling the sweet liquid down the front of her hoodie and onto her pants.

“Ah, damn-” They cursed in unison, locking eyes but for a second before Maka slammed down the glass, causing small waves of juice to spill onto the table. They both grabbed for the napkins, too quickly on both ends, and just ended up knocking the dispenser behind the counter. 

“Uh, Liz?” Soul called. “Can you-”

“I though I told you two to behave!” Liz stomped over with a handful of paper towels, death staring the both of them as she slopped up their mess. “If you two would quit flirting and just get it all out there already...” Liz trailed off, grumbling to herself as the pair of youths sat slumped, cheeks blazing beneath her fury and assertions. 

“S-sorry Liz...” Maka managed to mumble out as the woman carefully toted an armful of soggy, yellow-orange paper towels to the nearest trash can. 

“Yeah, well, that’s what I get for telling people I work the graveyard shift.” She sighed, carefully laying their check where the table wasn’t damp. “You better leave me a good tip.” She winked and strode toward another booth, now occupied by what looked like another college student. 

“Definitely. Sorry about all of this.” Maka glared at Soul as they stood and whispered, “it’ll never happen again.”

The young man just rolled his eyes and shrugged her off as he grabbed the check and pulled out his wallet, leaving Liz a $20 tip to compensate for their antics. 

“Alright, Soul,” Maka stated as she swung her leg over his bike once more. “This little escapade is over. Take me home; I want to sleep.”

“Fine, fine, whatever.” He grumbled, revving the orange motorcycle and taking off into the night.  

~

When they were once again in front of Maka’s building, she hurriedly swung off the bike, but an unsteady hand grabbed her sleeve before she could hightail it back inside. 

“Maka-”

“Apology accepted, now let me go back to bed, Soul.” She whispered harshly, not wanting her neighbors to see her like this.  

“What? Oh yeah, sorry for spilling juice on you and all that, but, uh, no, that’s not it....I want to show you something.”

“It can’t wait until tomorrow?” Maka shivered, her teeth chattering as a slight breeze swept through the parking lot.

“I mean, I guess it could, but...” His voice dropped to a barely audible whisper, and she could detect the slightest hint of a tremble behind words. His gaze fell away from hers, and she laid her hand on his arm. 

“What?”

“I’ve been composing again.”

“Really? That’s awesome, Soul!” 

“Yeah, and I wanted to let you listen to what I have so far.”

“I’d love to, but...shouldn’t you show like, Liz or Kidd or someone? They appreciate music a lot more than I do.”

“I don’t want a real opinion.” He dodged her swipe at him with a chuckle. “Not saying your opinion isn’t real! Just...not a musical one. This one is kind of personal, is all. It’s not really like the ones I played for my recital last semester.”

“Oh” was all she could reply with before he was drawing out his IPhone and handing her the earbuds. 

He pushed play, and nothing happened.

“Soul, are you-”

“It starts out quiet. Just listen.” He mumbled, his gaze locked on his feet as sound began to seep into her ears. 

“Oh, I hear it-” A nice little tune filled her ears, and she nearly sighed in contentment as the even, almost whimsical pattern swirled around her. She smiled toward him, but he still wouldn’t look at her.

“Soul, this is-” The cheery piece suddenly slowed, faded into something with a sadder sound, more melancholy and drawn out. A cello declared its sorrowful tale as the piece picked up again, loud, dramatic, enough to prompt tears at the corners of her eyes as she listened, fixated on each pitch. The piece calmed again, but the notes were discordant, constantly stumbling over one another, seeming to smack right into one another as they tried to make sense of what they were conveying. Then, the whole sound seemed to change again, something serene, calm. She felt like she was sitting in a breezy meadow full of flowers, or a vegetated hillside. Even after the final, resounding note had long since left her headspace, Maka sat staring.

She found her hands where trembling and a couple of tears had even snaked down her cheeks as she reached up to pluck the earbuds out. Soul must have noticed, too, because when she looked up to hand the headphones back, his brows were creased in worry, his eyes wide. “Did you like it?” He finally rasped out.

“I....I loved it. I think...I feel like....I finally understand your music now.” She wiped the tear tracks away. “This is your real music, isn’t it? What you want to compose.” 

“What I would compose if I had my own way, yeah.”

“It was moving. It was heartbreaking, but so touching, too. I just...wow.”

“Not everyone likes music that changes so much, but it’s important for that piece.”

“I did. I do, I mean. It was just...like nothing I’ve ever experienced. Like I was listening to your heartbeat, or your soul or something.”

“Something like that.” He grinned shyly, shoving the IPhone into his pocket as another breeze picked up around them. “Sorry I dragged you out, but thanks for coming with me. It was nice to have someone along for the ride this time.”

“Yeah, no prob-” She stopped short when he was suddenly closer to her; his arms wrapped around her in a tight embrace.

“Thank you, Maka.” He whispered, planting the softest of kisses on the crown of her head before he released her, turning quickly toward his bike and mounting it before she could reply. “See you tomorrow.” He called back before revving up the bike once more and flying off toward his apartment.

“You’re welcome, Soul.” Maka whispered into the breeze, turning to go back to her own room as Soul’s taillights faded from sight.

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