Tumgik
#listen to tmo you guys
mapsareforbraindeads · 10 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
what if i cried. how about that.
46 notes · View notes
tmos-time · 14 days
Note
Swear to god dude every time i see you reblog do you know this band it'll say shit like "do you guys know The Gooblyflus Forks" and all the votes go "no what the fuck are you saying" but then you reblog going OH MY GODDD GUYS GO LISTEN RIGHT NOW THEIR SONG SLEEPING IN THE FLORESCENTS IS AMAZING and it never fails to confuse and amuse me. not insulting i am just genuinely amazed by how you know so many of the artists mentioned and it always being the ones with 99.98 percent of people going "what the fuck is this it sounds made up". Never change
LMAO, i am simply unhinged and use discover weekly as my main source for finding nicher and nicher songs like an echo chamber <3 and then proceed to have a penchant for only reblogging the polls for bands that are niche as fuck with VERY good songs lmao, i have an image to maintain as a weird short king with a 98% on obscurify o7
anyways. for the occasion of answering this ask on homestuck day and picking something thematic (you have to pretend i added an image of that godawful screaming baseball with a megaphone in front of it)
go listen to snaggletooth pumpkin by zaki!!!!!
16 notes · View notes
angelic-holland · 4 years
Text
TMO Epilogue
Tumblr media
“Love, that is the only thing that can occupy and fill eternity. In the infinite, the inexhaustible is requisite.” - Victor Hugo
Warnings: fluff and mild angst
Word Count: 3.1k
Summary: You and Tom attempt to navigate your shocking revelation. 
A/N: wowie! thank you all for the love and interest in this series! I’ll be posting the alternate epilogue soon but I hope you all enjoy this one <3
The Birth
“Good job, love, keep pushing, oh my god, okay, I think I see the head,” Tom says, pulling away from your hand.
You let out a shrill cry, pushing with all of your strength, “you think?”
You start to panic, feeling overwhelmed as your body feels like it’s getting torn up from the inside out.
“That’s it love! You got it! He’s, oh my god, he’s here,” Tom shouts, looking up at you with wide eyes as you finally push your baby out, small cries filling your guest bedroom. 
“Oh my god,” you sigh, your head falling back onto the pillow and your eyes closing shut as Tom cuts the umbilical cord, swaddling your child in a blanket as he continues to cry.
“He looks just like you,” Tom says as your knees fall shut and Tom brings the baby over to you.
You force your eyes back open, smiling as Tom sits next to you, holding your kid in his arms.
“Tom, oh god we don’t even have a name for him yet,” you whine as you take him into your arms, a part of you, 50% of your DNA, a beautiful child that is yours, yet you haven’t even come up with a name for him yet. Your mind starts to race with intruding thoughts, that you’re going to be a bad mother. That going through with the pregnancy was a horrible idea. Even your mother probably had a name for you before she gave birth to you.
“It’s okay, he won’t even remember today, what do you think we should name him?” Tom asks, slowly wiping your forehead with a towel. 
“Trevor,” you reply. The name comes out of nowhere, you aren’t even sure you said it until Tom repeats the name twice.
“The name we came up with when we first met,” Tom smiles, “it’s perfect.”
“Hi Trevor, I’m your mommy, and this is your daddy, and we love you so much my sweet boy,” you smile, feeling tears well in your eyes.
You finally felt like you things were falling into place, even though you had worries, that you might fall into the same rut your mother fell into, that Tom is 10 times the man your father is, and he would be there for you in a way your father never was. 
Looking down at Trevor with Tom’s arm around your shoulder, you feel like your life is just beginning. 
***
9 Months Old
Tom and you are sitting on opposite ends of the living room, you with Trevor’s soft blue blanket, Tom holding onto Trevor as his legs begin to kick up.
You’ve been waiting for this day for a month or so, Trevor’s first steps. 
“Come on Trev, you got this,” you praise, watching as Trevor gets solid footing on one foot, his hands reaching out in front of him to pick himself up.
“Should I let go? I don’t want him to fall on his face,” Tom worries, his eyebrows turning in.
You nod, “doing so great sweetie,” you praise Trevor, “come to mommy!” 
Tom let’s go of Trevor, letting him begin to walk on his own.
“Mom-ma!” Trevor shouts, feet padding along the carpet, hands reaching out toward you.
The space is small and Trevor gets to you in no time, both of you falling into a fit of giggles as he crawls into your lap, tugging at your shirt.
“Do you want to try walking over to daddy now?” you laugh, helping Trevor stand up again.
“Dadda!” Trevor shouts, clapping his hands together as he begins to walk toward Tom.
You both watch in glee as Trevor continues to walk across the room toward Tom, clapping happily when he got to him and Tom snugly wrapped his arms around him, pulling him into his chest.
“Next step, swimming,” Tom chuckles, both of you grinning as Trevor gets up and starts moving around the living room again. 
“If the ocean tide doesn’t wash us all away by then,” you murmur, knowing Tom nor Trevor can hear you. You say it in a joking tone, but you can’t help but feel the smallest part of yourself wonder how life would be different if it was actually Tom that you killed. 
***
3 Years Old
“What are we supposed to do, Tom? We’re wanted by the FBI,” you say with a low voice, trying not to wake up Trevor. 
He’s sleeping soundly with his blanket curled in his fist, the first day on his big kid bed, one that’s still low on the ground but with only a bed rail instead of four sides like his old crib.
“You’re the one who tried to kill me!” Tom shouts as you shut Trevor’s door quietly, scolding Tom for being so loud.
“Why do you think I tried to, Tom?!” You shout back, stalking down the hallway toward your bedroom.
“I don’t know,” Tom groans, his hand running across his face in frustration as you sit on the bed and he follows.
“I knew something was wrong the moment we got back to Idaho. It wasn’t confirmed until I booked a room at the hotel across from my place and I saw the agents setting up shop in my house.”
“So you should have told me! We could have run away together!” 
“Why are we talking about this now?” You grumble, turning away from him.
“Because this is the first time we have had a chance to talk, to really talk since Trevor was born. And every time, every single time I attempt to talk to you about it, you ignore me, you change the subject.”
“Why do you think I change the subject Tom?” you cry, feeling his arms wrap around you from behind, pulling you tight into his chest as you sob.
“Shhh, it’s okay, we don’t have to-,”
“You tried to kill me first. You think I- you think I didn’t stay up night after night trying to come up with some way to keep you safe, make sure you didn’t suffer that didn’t end with me killing you?”
“I never meant to hurt you, y/n, to try to kill you. That day, you have to understand, it was the worst day of my life.”
“It wasn’t by chance, you know, loving you,” you reply, turning your head to kiss Tom’s cheek, “it was both the best and worst decision I’ve ever made.”
“What do you mean?”Tom asks, furrowing his eyebrows as you turn in his lap, resting your head against his chest so you can feel the rise and fall of his heartbeat. 
“Do you think I-, when I met you, I knew I shouldn’t have done anything. I know I shouldn’t have let myself get caught up in any feelings. I fucking knew this but I chose to fall for you anyway,” 
“Why would you chose to fall for me of all people?” Tom asks, feeling himself fumble with the idea of all the reasons why you should love someone else.
“You- you treated me not like I was some fragile broken girl, not like I needed to be fixed or put in place. You treated me, you still treat me with respect and dignity and that’s all I’ve ever asked for.”
“That’s just being a decent human…” Tom trails off.
“Shhh, ‘m not finished!” You kiss his nose as he falls back against the bed and takes you with him, “and the way you talked to Harry, about Harry, I know we’re both bad people and have done horrible, inexcusable things no matter the reasons we try to dig up, but the way you talked to him, I was sure that you’re not just a decent human, you’re an amazing one.”
“You don’t need to boost my ego, it’s just, I thought that we had things figured out, in the lake on the way back from Boston. I thought that no matter what happened when we got back from there, we would be together.”
“The FBI, I knew they were onto us after the fire… But when I talked to Jake one day, in this small coffee shop bakery thing, this guy was looking at us, I knew he knew exactly who we were. I was honestly surprised we lasted so long before they tracked us down completely. Before they found our places and were going to arrest us.”
“So why didn’t you tell me?” Tom pleads, cupping your cheeks and rubbing his nose against yours, a small gesture he does to calm himself down from time to time. 
“For my entire life I was never able to trust anyone. I was always alone in this world. Alone when my parents treated me as a burden, alone when I got caught up with Jake and that mess. When I met you, for the first time in my life I wasn’t alone.”
“Y/N, why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because! For the first time I wasn’t alone. Do you know how fucking terrifying that was for me? My entire life I went thinking I was always going to be alone, that I’d never be able to find someone who loved me, who I could love back. And you come along and change my entire mindset.”
“I did that?”
You swallow thickly and nod, “you did that. God, Tom, I love you so much I was terrified by it.”
“I love you,” Tom replies, “I love you, I love you.”
You smile softly at Tom’s repetition, knowing it makes him feel safe, makes him feel whole, and in return, it makes you feel safe.
“But you aren’t terrified by it anymore?” Tom asks, brushing a strand of hair from your eyes.
“No, it’s… It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me… Other than Trevor,” you pick your head up to listen to the gentle snores of your child as Tom grins.
“When do you think it’s too early to teach him how to swim?” Tom chuckles, holding you tight to his chest as you begin to fall asleep.
“The water right outside our back door probably means we should teach him now,” you mumble sleepily.
“Now?” Tom says, the skin of his knuckles brushing up and down your back, “I think it’s a little late for that.”
“Shhh,” you squeeze your eyes shut, “we need to get him swim trunks.”
“How about Scooby doo ones?”
***
6 Years Old
The best part about going into hiding as a fugitive, nobody was looking for a mom with a child. Trevor was the best thing that has ever happened to you. He looked so much like Tom when he was born, it was insane. He had his eyes, his nose, his uniquely large ears. When he was born, in the bathtub of the house you bought, Tom cradled him in his arms and neither of you really thought of names before that moment. The moment when you rested your head on Tom’s shoulder and he held your child in his arms for the first time. The name came to you easily, as you remembered the first few days you and Tom spent together. You remembered Tom’s smooth midwestern accent, his alias. 
“Trevor,” you whisper, one hand cupping the back of your baby’s head as he cooed.
“Trevor, Trevor Samuel Johnston, has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” Tom says later that night as you fall asleep to the sound of ocean waves.
“Sounds perfect.” 
You bought this place after you found out the FBI was tracking you and Tom. Inconspicuous, creaking blue shutters and an eggshell colored exterior, a porch with a rocking chair. It was tucked away amongst other houses that all looked the same but slightly unique in the small village in the Marshall Islands. Nobody questioned the three of you, one small happy family starting their life here.
Tom is out grocery shopping while Trevor does his morning newspaper run, ending back up at your house. 
You press the cool glass of the pressed flower into your palm as you wait for Trevor to come riding back down the cobblestone path. 
“Mom! What kinda flower is that?” Trevor shouts, waving at you as he tosses his bike to the side. 
He holds out his hands and you let him cup the flower in his hand for a moment. He took in the dark purple that curled along the curve of each petal, the pinkish red as it neared the core, turning to a light greenish yellow.
“It’s called a black hollyhock.”
“What’s it mean?”
“It’s about taking a situation in which you feel powerless, and letting the energy of the flower transform you.”
“It’s pretty,” he smiles, handing it back to you.
“Come on in, let’s get you something to cool down, how was the newspaper run today?” you press the cool glass into your palm, flipping it over a few times.
“It was good, can I have an ice pop?” He asks excitedly as you run your hands through his curly brown hair.
That was something you missed about Tom, ever since that night he kept his head shaved. He was gorgeous either way, but you understood why he needed to keep his head shaved.
It helped him feel safe, your names were still on the FBI’s most wanted list, any second they could show up at your doorstep, arresting both you and Tom. 
So if Tom wanted to shave his hair, hell, you’d let him shave it.
“Of course, what kind?” you ask, following Trevor into the house.
“Blue raspberry! Duh! Our favorite!” Trevor laughs, holding his arms up when you reach the kitchen counter. 
You lift him up, nodding, “our favorite.”
His legs swing out in front of him as you search the freezer for two ice pops, tearing both of them open for the two of you.
“Cheers!” Trevor laughs, tapping his ice pop against yours.
“Cheers,” you laugh along, finding comfort in the blue food dye that stains both of your lips as you wait for Tom to come home.
***
8 Years Old
“What’s all this?” You giggle, squeezing Tom’s hand as he pushes open the sliding back door of your house.
“A date,” Tom says, picking up the picnic basket from the porch after he dragged you outside.
“But Trevor-,”
“Trevor is asleep, plus, I got the baby monitor out of the attic and if anything happens, if he wakes up,” he shakes the picnic basket, indicating that the other part of the baby monitor is inside of it.
“Date night,” you grin.
“Been wanting to do this for years,” Tom chuckles, guiding you down to your private beachfront, “so, I’ve got sparkling cider,” he says, pulling out a big beach towel, the one you always lay on while Tom and Trevor swim.
You take a seat next to Tom, shrugging off your cover up and tightening your bikini top. 
“My favorite,” you smile, and it’s genuine. You didn’t keep alcohol in the house, it was a small argument and an issue after Trevor was first born, but you knew what Tom needed. He needed a place where he didn’t have to think of alcohol and the thing that took his family away from him. You could give him that, god, if there was one thing you could give Tom, it would be a safe space.
Tom pours both of you a glass, letting you rest your head on his shoulder.
“What’s this?” you ask, peeking at the fruit tucked away next to the baby monitor.
“Papaya,” Tom smiles, “your high school, uh, was it English?”
“History teacher.”
“History teacher said this place has the best papayas, ‘fraid we’ve been running around like crazy trying to start a life here for us, to make us as inconspicuous as possible, that we never got the chance to have the one thing that made you buy this home in the first place.”
“Thank you,” you mumble as Tom starts to cut open the papaya.
He feeds you the first piece, raising an eyebrow as your eyes crinkle and your face scrunches up.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Tom asks, sitting up and bringing you with him.
“Mrs. Meade was so wrong about papaya being good,” you shake your head, placing the fruit down.
“No way,” Tom grabs a piece, wanting to try it for himself.
When he swallows his piece he coughs, clutching his chest as you rub his back.
“Told ya.”
“Mhm,” Tom groans, pulling you up.
“Where’re we going?” You ask, turning back to the baby monitor, “Trevor is-,”
“Trevor is fine,” Tom assures you, squeezing your hand three times.
“One second,” you say, breaking away from him and grabbing your glass, finishing off the sparkling cider.
“What’s that for?” Tom asks, pulling off his T-shirt and throwing it back on the towel.
“Papaya was incredibly disappointing,” you laugh, handing him his glass so he can wash away the taste as well.
You don’t shiver as you step into the water, it’s warm and inviting as Tom follows you out.
“I’ll never get over how great this ocean is,” you laugh, splashing around at the very clear water as Tom pulls you into his arms.
“It is pretty great huh?” Tom rubs his nose against yours, letting you rest your forehead against his shoulder as he holds you tightly to him, drifting further out to sea.
“How’d you know?” You murmur, “how’d you always know?”
“I know you better than you know yourself,” Tom replies, he knows what you’re talking about, neither of you need to voice it, “you’re the one person I know more than myself. You let me know you more than I know myself. Thank you.”
“Thank you.” 
You’re grateful for him, for always being one step ahead of you, for choosing to be by your side after everything that’s happened. 
Tom pulls you in for a papaya and sparkling cider flavored kiss, something you haven’t stopped thinking about since the cold lake in Utah almost nine years ago. You’re grateful that the rather repugnant fruit taste is almost disappeared from your taste buds.
“I love you,” he murmurs, keeping his lips against yours.
“I love you,” you reply, holding him tight in the warm water, the moonlight rippling off the waves.
“I love you,” Tom repeats, pulling you tight into his arms like he wishes he did that night almost nine years ago. Both of you wonder what your life would be like if he kept you safe all that time ago instead of pushing you away. But looking back on it, with one happy, healthy boy and the love of your life you wouldn’t have changed any of the moments leading up to get you to where you are right now. 
***
Taglist:  @gioandreolli   @honeymoonparker @itsjusttor @averyfosterthoughts @worldoftom @angelhaz11 @rebekkah4766  @murdermornings
74 notes · View notes
improbablecarny · 5 years
Text
The Best Good Parts of The Scarecrow
As according to me
After The Metal Opera concluded, Avantasia went more-or-less dormant for a while. But the story was far from over: 2008 blessed us with a new album, a new story, and a new direction. With a cleaner sound, a number of pop-aligned ballads, and a somewhat more serious tone, The Scarecrow marks the beginning of a new Avantasia era... the era of putting spooky skeletons on everything. Okay, okay, it’s the start of The Wicked Trilogy, baby!
Tumblr media
Storyline: A Faustian tale about a very troubled musician, his desire to be loved, and the terrible lengths he’d go to achieve that.
Quick Notes:
As said before, The Wicked Trilogy sounds VERY different from The Metal Opera, so don’t be too surprised here.
The narrative style also takes an extreme departure from TMO: there are a LOT of characters who are only representations of concepts, thoughts, and emotions, working in vaguery and intuition. The Scarecrow is a little easier to follow than the next two in the trilogy, but you’ll see what I mean.
This is the first Avantasia album featuring both Jorn Lande and Amanda Somerville, who are series regulars in both touring and studio work - for a good reason, as you will soon hear.
This is the first Avantasia album with accompanying music videos, which are present in the below playlist.
As I’ve said before, I’ll say again: The Scarecrow is available on the official Avantasia YouTube channel, so listen up!
Twisted Mind
KHAAAAAAAN
This is the second Avantasia song I’d ever heard. I got really into it because “hey that sounds like the guy from Kamelot”...
The little pre-chorus “aaaaAAAAhhhh”s
Misprizing! Chastising! Subhuman, fragmentizing!
Sensation! Abbheration! Repulsive, TANTALIZING!
The Scarecrow
I haven’t said ICONIC in a while, so here’s one for the title track. Because it is Fucking Iconic.
The intro made me want to learn how to play the violin so I bought one off of eBay for $50 that is definitely a non-functional bootleg/prop. You can call that one a Hotz Fact ™.
WHEN THE LAMB’S BEEN TORN TO PIECES, I’LL BE CRASHING FROM THE SKY
“HE’S GOT TREASURE IN HIS EYES / THAT HE’S GONNA TURN TOOOO CLAAAAAAAY”
I’M A STRANGER, I’M A CHANGER, AND I’M DANGER, MAYBEEEEE
The Tobi/Jorn back-and-forth that continues from there
Jorn just giving ‘er after that
CONTRIIIITE TEAAAAAARS
“One day she’ll wonder why she had to let you disappear... OH DEAR—“
The whole outro
Shelter from the Rain
Kiske’s back!
This song is so clear and refreshing, it always makes me feel some kind of way.
Bob Catley returns for a cool little thing in the middle of the song.
Carry Me Over
Okay, I confess: I don’t have much to say about this one. It’s a good song, but it’s a pretty standard one and doesn’t go anywhere necessarily surprising. Still, give it a listen!
What Kind of Love
Get your tissues, we’ve got ourselves a Celine Dion breakup (er... kind of) ballad!
Featuring Amanda Somerville! Gotta love her!
The strings intro...mwah
Amanda’s like entire thing in the beginning
That Phil Collins-ass drum drop-in before the outro
Another Angel Down
“You’ve got the aura to enchant them in a symphony...and I’VE GOT THE POWAAAAAH”
“I’m breeding winners over theeere”
“IT’S TIME TO TAKE YOUR SHARE”
If you hadn’t already figured it out Jorn kicks ass here
The weird subtle distortions on Tobi’s voice in the second verse
WE ROCK THE BALL
The Toy Master
This is the first in a handful of “Sinister Theatrical Evil Guy” songs that  pop up on Avantasia albums. It is a WEIRDLY specific trope but it’s great
This one is ft. Alice Cooper, of all people
Creepy-ass ominous opening
“If only I had a heart it would break”
NO MORE STRUGGLE OF THE CLASSES
NO MORE STRUGGLE OF THE MASSES
Devil in the Belfry
The noodley guitar intro
CHUG-CHUGGAWUGCHUGCHUGGAWUGCHUG
I like the rhythm
“The curtain has fallen BEHOLD THE MESSIAH”
Guitars getting wild and crazy
Cry Just a Little
Less tragic than the previously mentioned fake violin fiasco, this song may be what gets me to try picking up my guitar again (it is a REAL guitar and not in fact a weird fake)
Great catchy soulful ballad ft. Bob Catley
“Oh cry... a LITTLE FOR MEEEE”
Something about a 6/8 time signature really does it for me
I Don’t Believe in Your Love
Notable for being the only Avantasia song allowed to say “fuck”
Oliver Hartmann, ladies and gents! You knew him as the Pope in TMO, now he is Darkness...or, uh, “Fornication”?... and he kills it
“Don’t give a damn for rooooseeees, oh no no no!”
“Of... AGONY and ECSTASY!”
If you need an angry breakup song, this is a good one
“BUT IT’S ALL EVIL!”
Olli’s additions over the outro... very good.
Lost in Space
This is the first Avantasia song I ever listened to, via the music video. It is straight up a pop song, and I was looking for metal, and yet the Energy managed to ensnare me from the get-go... it was destiny...
And that’s the Scarecrow - but it’s only the first act! Stay tuned for the drama, the heartbreak, the strings and the stings all yet to come!
(Doing the cast list I realized there are apparently two different versions of some character names, so I’m including them both.)
Cast List:
Tobias Sammet as The Scarecrow Jorn Lande as Mephistopheles Michael Kiske as Mentor/Human-Upper Roy Khan as Psychiatrist Amanda Somerville as Unrequited Love Bob Catley as Conscience/Good Spirit Inside Oliver Hartmann as Darkness/Fornication Alice Cooper as Dealer/Tycoon
6 notes · View notes
jeaneybean · 5 years
Text
Vlad the werewolf is way stronger than our entire party
probably combined, motherfucker leaps and shit with two humans attached to him.
Phase into town, with Wolf-Wolf (who has an actual name, but noone remembers it) pawing at his nose a bit, unable to keep the trail of Fyodora since we’d entered into a highly populated area. After Oz makes a quip about the church on the hill and if this were one of his mother’s romance books she’d be up there as they entered town, Nitahn heads up to the church with Vera and Oz in tow. Magnolia and Jake head to check the inns and park the wagon.
At the church Vera gets the heebie jeebies, and once she does a detect evil it turns out the church isn’t on holy ground. The head priest (who follows Brewstar the god of brewing and bad poetry) is evil, the altar to the kessia family is tainted. Fun stuff. While Nitahn and Vera fail at keeping the priest answered (and oz makes fun of them) They learn he hasn’t seen Fyodora or Vlad, though he agrees to show them around town (Read: Go bar hopping)
As they do that, Mags and Jake ask at the taverns to see if anyone’s seen the pair. With two places saying no Jake decides to gather attention by doing a performance, and while he’s doing that Magnolia asks the gathered people if they’ve seen Fyodora or Vlad. She gets a hit, and the pair of them head towards where they’d last been spotted.
Vera and Nitahn accompany Butch the priest into the bar while Oz sits outside with Wolf-Wolf. The priest drinks and gets more sexist as he drinks, and Vera inquires around if anyone’d seen the pair. She gets no hits, but outside Wolf-Wolf perks up and Oz spots Fyodora and Vlad. He sends a message to Vera, who grabs Nitahn and is like ‘we gotta go now’. They leave the bar and Wolf-Wolf runs up to Fyodora and Vlad is like ‘FUCK’ before bolting with Fyodora down a side street.
Vera leads the charge in with her first 20 of the session and choses to try and intimidate Vlad, telling him that if he puts a hand on Fyodora she’ll take it off. He responds by shifting into wolf form and grabbing onto Fyodora’s dress with his teeth. Nitahn goes to grapple with him and Oz casts haste on the party and Fyodora. Vera pulls out her sword and swings, critically striking Vlad in the face with her silvered blade. (Second 20 of the session). This pisses him off, but he tries to get away from Nitahn instead of strike back. Vera goes to the head of the wolf and tells Nitahn to pin him, then tells Vlad he’s got a chance to talk it out like humans or he can die like an animal.
Nitahn can’t maintian the grapple, and Vlad tries to get past Vera. A poor choice, because Vera attacks and crits again (A 20, confirming that with another 20, and failing to confirm triple threat. But still.), striking him hard in the side. Nitahn’s punching him and tries to get his good eye with his silver rings and rejoins the grapple. Oz casts oozing slime on Fyodora and has her smack him in the face a bit.
Vlad is now pretty pissed at Vera, and lashes out at her, attacking her and also tripping her badly (He crit his trip attempt, vera crit failed her save) and sends her sprawling ass over teakettle onto the ground. He jumps up onto the  nearby roof, dragging both Fyodora (who he’s still got a mouth on) and Nitahn (who’s still involved in the grapple) up with him. He bolts. Vera tries to climb up onto the roof, fails, tries again, crit fails. Oz tries to climb a bit, then gives up and starts running after, with Vera coming after him on her turn.
Oz hits the people on the roof with two spells: the first one stuns all three of them and also strikes vlad prone (and also deafens Fyodora) and this alerts Jake and Magnolia to their presence. The second spell he uses is glitterdust and he blinds both Vlad and Fyodora. Vlad starts bitching at them in Rusk, and Vera tears right back into him with her horribly accented Rusk. Vlad yells at her for getting into things she didn’t understand and only wanting to fight, Vera’s like FUCK YOU I GAVE YOU TWO OUTS TO TALK and they argue for a bit before Oz is like ‘hey, the spell-’ and as soon as the glitterdust wears off he’s off, dragging Fyodora at his full movement speed since he’s not encumbered by nitahn anymore. 
Jake has Mayhem chase after them via air and runs off, with a short discussion sending Magnolia and Oz back into town for the cart while Vera and Nitahn head off with jake into the woods. It’s team Impulse vs Team competent thought (with Vera providing the switch character, as currently she is livid regarding the werewolf sass) and Team Impulse uses Wolf Wolf to track Vlad’s huge blood trail. At one point Vlad steals clothes and Vera remarks that at least he’ll put on some fucking pants. They track through the night with Vera’s torchlight and Jake’s low light vision leading the way.
Meanwhile, Oz and Magnolia have bonding time (where their players went out of the room and had storytime with one another) and slept while continuing to follow the road southeast, the direction we’d been heading. (And towards the Werewolf territory)
Int he early morning Team Impulse follows the trail after an area that looks like there’s been a struggle and finds that Vlad had caught a deer and tied Fyodora’s dress to it and had slipped them up. They kill the wounded animal and have breakfast before bringing Wolf-Wolf back to the struggle area and track Vlad’s blood from there.
As Magnolia and Oz keep driving the cart they start seeing/hearing things in the woods. They urge the donkies on faster, and the donkies are getting really upset. Veli’s pretty upset as well, and when wolf-like shapes and red eyes get pretty close Oz casts haste on the Donkies and Magnolia spurs them on, heading down a lesser used road. Oz tells Magnolia that those weren’t wolves, they were worgs. Worgs are intelligent. They’re likely being corraled.
As team Impulse approaches dark on their second day int he woods (Without sleep/rest, because humans are pirsuit predators and they’re also idiots) Nitahn starts hearing things. He hears his donkies. Vera and Jake hear nothing, but after a bit Jake hears the noise too. Vera goes over to where Nitahn is and hears jack shit (While scoring some really high listen checks). She tries to remind him of the time that they fought the mimic and there was suddenly the skeleton, this might be a magical thing.
Jake yells out for Magnolia, and Nitahn calls out to Oz and the Donkies, with Vera calling out for the creature most likely to hear: Veli. They get no response, but as they go throught he woods a bit more they see a dark, tall creature. Through torchlight Vera sees a beautiful black horse. Jake and Nitahn? They see a beautiful black unicorn.
It seems friendly with Nitahn, but it shies away from Jake when he attempts to ride it. Jake is then like ‘we should kill it, no one’s going to beleive us’ and Vera’s like ‘it’s a fucking horse, what are you freaking out about’. The Unicorn jogs off, with nitahn and Jake persuing and Vera following.
Nitahn dashes out after the unicorn and into a road, where something large is barreling down the path. He hits the center spoke of the wagon and gets knocked down and ran over, with Oz and Magnolia being like WHAT THE FUCK DID WE HIT OH GOD and they stop the cart when they spot Vera and Jake running out after Nitahn. There’s a brief reunion and Nitahn points out the unicorn. Oz also sees the horn, Magnolia does not, but she recognizes that it’s a unicorn with a knowledge nature check. She implores it to help them because there’s a fuck ton of worgs after them. Nitahn touches the Unicorn while Vera yells at him tmo avoid water, apparently thinking it’s a kelpie and not a unicorn. (Vera does not know what a goose is. Vera knows what a kelpie is. Why.) She climbs up on the cart beside Oz.
The Worgs start howling and circling and up in the trees a voice calls out, saying that it’s pet had caught it another pure hearted maiden. There’s the world’s most steriotypical vampire in the trees, preening as he looks over the group and he kind of gets a bit knocked off his script when he realizes that it’s not the pretty blonde girl or the handsome dark elf or the strapping half orc or the roguishly cute boy the Unicorn has gravitated to. nope. It’s a big hairy guy. Vera cackles from the cart, and end scene.
VERA IS 600 EXP FROM BEAR
1 note · View note
kdenbibi · 6 years
Text
Endless Chapter 6
Warnings: none
Authors note: holy shit ya girl updated, yes its currently 2 in the morning and I have work tmo but do I give a damn? No Anyway I really hope you guys enjoy thank y’all so so so much for being as patient as you are I can’t tell you hoe much I appreciate it, anyway lemme shut up, it’s been a while since I've done this and I forgot if people actually wanted to be tagged in it anyway hmu if you do ilysm feedback is always appreciated -Admin A 
It was one of those mornings where you wake up a minute before your alarm goes off and sleep is pulled from you forever.
Okay I'm being dramatic but who can blame me, it's so early the sky was still dark, not even the birds were up yet. Thankfully, due to being a human punching bag the last few weeks the sharp pain shooting up my feet from the freezing floor did nothing more than wake me up. I felt like a zombie as I shuffled my way towards the expansive kitchen of the base, I could still easily get lost in the place, thankfully I knew exactly where the essential spots were, like the kitchen, the training room for our daily sessions, the little rooms I could hide in to avoid said sessions, all in all I had a system.
I sat on the countertop staring blankly at the fridge, my brain still in the process of waking itself up. I took the rare moment of silence to break down all that had lead me to this moment.
I remember telling Jon, at his request, everything that went down with Nightwing in detail. He went to my house that day, after school we decided it was high time to come clean with each other about our powers.
The sun had made another rare appearance but did nothing about the bitter winter air nipping at any exposed skin, we walked fast, I wanted to get out of our uncomfortable uniforms and into my Superman PJs my mother gifted me ironically after I told her about my childish crush, if you say Superman isn't even the least bit attractive you're straight lying to yourself.
When we finally got in I wasn't surprised to see my the apartment was empty, minus cheezers our pesky cat who sprawled himself out on Jon's lap as soon as he sat down.
"Want anything to drink?" I yelled over my shoulder from the kitchen, I rummaged through our refrigerator waiting for his response. "No thank you!" He chimed in from my couch, his voice was always light, I’d noticed, it carried through the air like a breeze. 
I came back in the room with a can of coke for myself tucked under my arm and two half eaten bags of chips squished in my hands, I plopped in the recliner adjacent to him, not before ungracefully tossing the junk food in his lap of course, and sat back with a sigh.
He stared at me with those ridiculously pretty eyes, a nervous expression on his face as he waited for me to speak, his fingers were running through cheezers fur absentmindedly. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to?" I offered after taking in his expression.
"No no!- I want to tell you I do, I'm just not sure how you'll take it." I shook my head at the taller boy, popping a chip in my mouth. "You don't gotta trip chocolate chip- I don't think there’s anything you could say that would change how I see you, powers or not your still my Ramen buddy." I finished with a wink. His nervous smile broke into a real one. He cleared his throat, opened his mouth, then closed it.
He did this a few more times before I stopped him.
"How bout' I go first?" He nodded releasing a breath.
"Well, it started when I was younger, I can't pinpoint exactly where I got them, I just realized after a while the string of luck I had wasn't just luck, it was something else entirely, something watching my back at every turn."
 He nodded along, an unusually serious expression gracing his soft features."For awhile it was just that, a helping hand that lead me out of sticky situations," I shook my head taking a long drink of my soda. "Up until that night on the roof that is."  He nodded once more, his fingers rhythmically tapping along his knee.
"What do you think triggered it?" He asked sounding more stern than I'd ever heard, I eyed him before shrugging off his strange behavior. "I'm not sure really, I think its because I was scared, I mean any other time the light has come out hasn't been in a situation where I felt that unsafe." I laughed thinking of the boy wonders face as he flew across the roof. "And then at the bank well, you were there." He leaned back against my couch, cheezers lifted his head to stare at the boy in displeasure before laying back down. 
"You're mom isn't a meta?"
"Not that I know of- as long as we're not counting her inexplicable ability to know when you're lying, although that may just be a 'her' thing." He shot me a smile, but a second later his face returned to it's neutral state, his head turned slightly as if he heard something he didn't like. "So it must come from your father- I think." He offered, I gave him a half smile, my nails tapping against the smooth metal of the now nearly empty can.
"I wouldn't know." His baby blues widened. "(Y/n) I'm Sorry-I didn't know.."
"Oh it's okay! He peaced out before I could really know him, so I got lucky." His face remained uncomfortable, as if he was guilty for asking, so I reassured him. "Really I've made my peace with it, after all, can't really miss someone who was never there." Jon nodded before abruptly standing.
"I uh, I need to go to the restroom!" He said, I cocked a brow at my friend's outburst before motioning in the direction of the bathroom, I chocked it up to him simply being nervous about telling me, I walked over to the recently disturbed cat and placed him in my lap. His big brown eyes stared back at me as I scratched behind his ears. "Is it me or is that farm boy acting all kinds of weird?" The animal simply blinked before resting his little head on my arm. "Yeah, that's what I thought you'd say."
Jon's POV 
I practically ran to the bathroom, turning on the water to try and hide all the noise I could. I quickly yanked out the expensive and inconspicuous flag ‘pin’ Damain had given me, I brought the tiny microphone to my mouth knowing he could hear me. "Was that good enough?" I couldn't hide my irritation with the young Wayne, he had me spying on my best friend, her personal story she trusted me enough to share was just information for the kid to put in his computer, it made my chest sink, I felt like garbage.
"Yes, although I wouldn't be surprised if she caught on, your acting skills are awful." I could hear the smirk in his voice, the earpiece he'd given me to hear the questions he wanted to ask felt even more uncomfortable than before. "Excuse me if I'm not good at lying!"
"You aren't lying to anyone, I simply was apart of the conversation, besides, you're one step closer to being ready for the team."
I felt stared at my reflection conflicted.
I knew what I did wasn't necessarily lying but it still felt wrong, like I'd used her trust for something bad. On the other hand this opportunity- this team they were building, it was my chance to finally step outside the huge S shaped shadow my father cast- I could become a hero all of my own.
Yes, I was conflicted, and Damian's smug voice in my ear wasn't helping anything.
"-kent? Are you even listening to me?" He spoke, voice rising in impatience. "Honestly no, now do you have what you need?" There was a moment of silence on Damian's end, the sound of tapping on a keyboard could faintly be heard before he finally responded.
"Yes but-" 
"Good." I yanked the earpiece out of my head and crushed it, along with the microphone, between my fingers. I have no doubt in my mind I'd just destroyed a thousand dollars worth of equipment but that was the least of my worries, the guilt was still there, but it seemed to wash down the drain with the remains of the machine. With a deep breath I made my way back out in the living room, (Y/n) sat there, doing absolutely nothing but still looking like someone from a movie, her head snapped up as she noticed my presence. "You okay there Jonny boy?" I smiled at her nickname, taking my previous spot on the couch now much more relaxed. "Yep! Just needed a moment but now I'm ready." Her pretty brown eyes stared at me unsure. "You don't have to tell me if you're uncomfortable, I understand-"
"No! I'm okay really! I promise." Finally that smile returned to her face as she nodded, gesturing me to continue when I was ready."I'm Kryptonian! Well half Kryptonian anyway!"
(Y/n)'s POV
I stared at the bright grin etched into his face, an uneasy smile on mine as his words bounced around my skull.
Because if he was Kryptonian that meant-
Wait-
"Your dad is- you oh, oh okay that's um oh man am I allowed to know this? Is this legal? Oh, oh man, oh jeez." He suddenly rose from his seat and made his way over to me, a wide smile on his face. "Relax, (y/n), trust me okay? Everything's alright." I laughed rubbing my temples in the process. "Okay okay, so um, wow this is-" the blood drained from my face as I realized our previous conversations- the late night, sugar high induced conversations where I openly gushed over how fine Metropolis's space savior was.
"You let me sit there and talk about how hot your dad is?! To your face?! Jonathan Samuel Kent we are fighting- not really cuz’ you'd probably mop the floor with me but yes! Definitely fighting!" 
We spent that afternoon talking about everything, good and bad. He told me he was scared he'd never fill the shoes of his father, I told him I was afraid I'd never understand what I could do, it wasn't until later that evening when my mom came home from work did we realize how long we'd been talking, she offered him a ride home but he just smiled and politely declined.
I was brought back to reality by the helpful AI program we knew as Athena spoke to me, her automated voice calmly called out from one of the many speakers littered around the base. "Miss (Y/n), the time is approximately 5:34 AM, would you like me to initiate your 'get ready playlist?" I looked around the empty room, still not used to having to talk to someone without a body. "Uh no thanks Athena, I don't wanna wake anyone else up." I spoke in a whisper afraid to disturb my teammates sleep. "Robin is currently in the gym, would you like me to alert him of your presence?" 
"Oh absolutely not, no thanks A."
"Okay miss (Y/n), if you need anything don't hesitate to call me." I gave her a friendly wave off as I made my way towards my room, unsatisfied with what I found in the refrigerator.
It still felt pretty unfamiliar living somewhere without my mom, not waking up with her music blasting throughout the walls was a very foreign concept to me. Few weeks back, when Nightwing first came to my house to lay out the ground rules of what exactly was gonna go down, my mother was less than thrilled.
"So you want my daughter to move into some secret location? Not only that, but live with a bunch of other teenagers with incredible abilities and just you to supervise them?" Dick shot her a smile bright enough to blind someone if they looked directly at it.
"Misses (L/n), I get why you'd be concerned I really do, but this is all for the benefit of these kids, besides she almost an adult." He paused at the glare my mother gave him. "-but, but, yes, I would be there to supervise the team, not just me though, other hero's will come in to help train them." My mother was silent as she processed his words, she glanced at my face, taking in my hopeful expression before sighing.
"...If I say yes, I get to know where this facility is right? Just in case I need to go down there and whip some sense into somebody."
"Absolutely! And if it makes you feel better Jon's gonna be there with her." At this my mother visibly relaxed, I knew she trusted Jon so before this impromptu meeting I made sure to let Dick know about it, just in case she needed some extra convincing. "Well, I guess I can't say no, especially with her giving me those damn puppy eyes."
This time I brought myself back to reality, when I came to just in time to realize my feet had taken me somewhere that wasn't my room, to the training gym. I paused wondering why on Earth I walked there only to be met with quite the sight.
Robin, beating a training dummy like it personally hurt him, I still had yet to find out his identity, no one had actually, so no it wasn't a surprise to see his iconic mask adorning his face. He thought it was best if everyone remained anonymous, something about secret identities - but full disclosure at the time, I wasn't paying attention, I was too busy trying not to stare at the green kid a few feet away from me, i shit you not he was green, like head to toe green- that and I couldn't agree, mainly because I didn't even have a super persona yet, so when it was brought up I laughed and told the other members my name. "If you were smart you'd keep some form of anonymity, at least until we can trust each other." Robin scolded, The other four people in the room stayed silent, and I couldn't help but scoff. "You expect us to trust you when you're gonna have that mask on 24/7?" His glare turned to me, I tried not to flinch. "If you want to expose yourself fine, but I refuse to be apart of it." And with that he walked off leaving the rest of us in an awkward silence.
"Well, he's just a bundle of joy now isn't he?" I said watching his retreating figure, Jesus the kid even walked like he was pissed off.
"Real life of the party." The tall boy to my right spoke, he left quite the impression too, being that he looked like a blue iron Man, ya know suit of badass armor kinda guy. He was introduced as the blue beetle. I looked at him with a smile, relieved the rest of the team wasn't as stuck up as the bird boy.
"I can't imagine you'd wanna wear that the entire time either." 
This earned a laugh from beetle, and much to my surprise, instead of taking off a helmet it seemed to disappear, a light flash of blue with it as his face was reviled. "I'm Jaime Reyes, nice to meet you." I grabbed his hand with a wide smile. "(Y/n) (L/n), I'm sure you hear this all the time- but holy shit that's cool." He laughed again, this time the sound was clear, no longer blocked by, well whatever was on his face moments ago. It was nice, the kinda laugh that made you want to join in.
"If we're really saying fuck it to Grumpy's rules I'm Garfield Logan." The green boy spoke from behind me. I shot him a smile, he returned a smirk, his sharp canines peaking though the half smile. The only other girl in the room remained silent, weighing her options before she quietly spoke up."Rachel." Was all she spoke. I gave her my friendliest smile before walking over. "It's nice to meet you, I'm so glad there's another girl here." She met my eyes, a hesitant smile on her face as she agreed. "It is...nice, thanks for thinking so." Her voice was level as she spoke, I almost couldn't hear her over the two loud boys now chattering like they were best friends. 
I turned away from the shy girl to look for my friend. Noticing his unsure stare I walked over to him, away from everyone else.
"Yo, you okay over there farm boy?" Jon looked up from the floor, his eyes uncharacteristically troubled. "I'm fine!- just a bit, I don't know nervous? All of you guys are so great I mean, I guess I'm just scared I won't be able to keep up." I stared at the large 'S' on his chest, looking for the right thing to say.
"Umm?? Have you met yourself, are we talking about the same Jon Kent? We'll have to be worried about keeping up with you if anything." He gave me a bashful smile, looking down at the symbol on his chest then back to me.
"Don't give up before you've even started you dork." I said patting his shoulder and motioning for him to join the conversation, which he happily did after a small nudge.
That was weeks ago, Robin still, with his stubborn ass, kept that mask on. I wish I could say things were okay between me and the stern boy but they weren't, I get the feeling he wasn't too pleased to be here.
Whenever we would train, Dick was there to supervise, and since Robin was the most experienced out of all of us, he was in charge for most of the training- scratch that, it's more like the royal ass kicking he dished out.
I got the feeling he didn't like me very much, mainly because of the whole, almost throwing him off a roof thing, but the feeling was mutual. He just, he rubbed me the wrong way, like he genuinely believed he was above everyone else and no one could match him in anything. Not to mention the way he had to comment whenever I'd fail.
"You're stance is terrible, you're just asking to die."
"Do you enjoy your face meeting the mat (L/n)? Because you seem to do that every time we're in here."
He was just one of those people you had to try not to throw out of the nearest window whenever he opened his mouth.
"If this is your attempt at stealth you're fired."
I rolled my eyes dispite him facing the other way and walked into the gym room. "If I wanted to sneak up on you I could, don't get it twisted boy wonder." I knew I was bullshitting, he knew I was, but there was no way I was backing down from a fight with this asshole. He turned, wiping some sweat from his brow with a small towel, I could feel the squint get gave me through the rubber mask. "Why are you here?" I shrugged making my way to the closest bench and taking a loud seat. "For your information- I wanted to get an early start with my training." "Really?" He questioned leaning against the silicone dummy.
"Yes."
"In that?"
 I looked down to my PJs and gave him a shrug. "I could be in a fursuit and I'd still kick your ass." His face scrunched up in confusion before he scoffed."I have no idea what that is but don’t make me laugh, you'd be lucky to get me on the ground for a second." He turned back towards the dummy before sending a swift kick to it's neck, I flinched from the loud smack that echoed across the walls. 
Confidently, he spoke again, without even turning back.
"You got lucky once- never again."
The way he said that would have sent shivers down my back, had I not been raised a bad bitch, but alas, I was. 
I quickly stood marching over to the male. "Okay let's go-" 
My back hit the mat, the air from my lungs escaping with the force I was smacked against the floor. His smug face leaned over me. "What was that you were saying? I don't think I heard you (L/n)." I groaned before throwing myself up, glaring at the figure before me. "That was just the practice round-" his hand shot forward to, I assume toss me like a rag-doll again, but this time I was ready, I grabbed his wrist, stopping it mid swing and a force of golden light pushed us apart. He smirked from across the mat. "Without your powers you're as defenseless as a baby- you need to learn not to rely on them." I bit back my retort about his hairline being as defenseless as a baby because 1. It didn't make sense- I was just mad and 2. The son of a bitch had a point.
So I sucked up my pride and rolled my shoulders, cracking my neck with a satisfying 'pop'.
I gestured him to come forward with my hand.
"Then teach me."
62 notes · View notes
Text
04/13/2018
My first blog ever. About the sad sad life of me who you will never know. So far this month has been filled with shit, shit, and more shit. I will be talking about the shitty parts. Part 1 will primarily be boys. Starting with a boy, in which we will call him James. James was beautiful. We met via an online dating app which is prob why. We went on multiple dates. First one being at dinner. Then the second we went bowling, got milkshakes, and drove around. The third, we watched rick and morty (fuck that), and had seeeeeexxxxx. Then guess what? TAKE A WILD GUESS. He never responded. He left me on read, and there went our “relationship”. Fuck. this. Shit. There goes the romantic walks in the park. The trips to universal. There goes the feelings i will feel when listening to the playlist he made for me. All in a span of like two weeks. FUCK FEELINGS. Part 2. School. Failing, didnt get into the major i wanted, slowly depriving myself of sleep day by day. from 6 hours to 5 to 4 to 3 and now im at 2 a night. to NEVER Doing hw. Id say this semester is going great. Part 3. Drunk Sex. Happened quite alot. last week with someone i didnt want to. been with about 10 guys since ive been here. all fuckboys. all mASSive DICKheadS. [ass dicks]  Life is depressing but i find a way to stay positive.fave shows atm - end of the fucking world, the 100, bates motel, dont call me crazy. fave movies- call me by ur name, lady bird, it follows, hot summer nights, palo alto, adult world, quiet place. TIMOTHEE CHALAMET is my husband atm as well. We have a great relationship ----- i DM him and he doesnt respond ;D. anyways  singing off for the night. hope you all have a good night and will talk more tmo. PEACE 
xoxo,
fleur 
1 note · View note
hurtyourego · 7 years
Text
Literally been studying for the past like hour and a half like i should be considering my exam is tmo but i was on YT looking for a song to listen to and i see these mfing ALEX/MAGGIE VIDEOS and holy fuck YOU GUYS ARE FAST DIDN’T THE EP JUST START OR WHATEVER WTF 
0 notes
politicalfilth-blog · 7 years
Text
Grenfell Tower Fire: Residents “Predicted That A Catastrophe Like This Was Inevitable”
We Are Change
Six people have been confirmed killed in a devastating fire that ripped through a west London tower block and police expect the death toll to rise. 40 fire engines attended the fire and at least 200 firefighters tackled the blaze. The cause of the fire is not yet known. The fire is believed to have started on the fourth floor.
40 fire engines & 200 firefighters have been called to the Lancaster West Estate tower block fire #NorthKensington https://t.co/SmtWbgGpSg pic.twitter.com/H4qgGmh52Y
— London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) June 14, 2017
Up to 600 people are believed to have been inside Grenfell Tower’s 120 flats when the blaze tore through the 24-storey building in the early hours. The fire was first reported at 00:54 BST in West London.
At least 74 people have been taken to five hospitals and the London Ambulance say 20 are in critical condition. Many people are still missing after residents were left trapped on the upper floors as flames rapidly spread up the block after initially being told to stay in their homes.
Latimer Road blocks on fire ???? I hope they got out alive and are safe pic.twitter.com/OJvympXLdJ
— ???? (@sarmadbdk) June 14, 2017
People watching helplessly from the outside spoke of residents trapped and screaming for help with some forced to throw their children from windows and others jumping from the upper floors. Some were reported to have attempted to use bin bags as makeshift parachutes.
Pictures and videos were shared across social media, showing flames engulfing the block and a plume of smoke visible across the capital. Parts of the 24-storey building were still on fire at 12:46 on Wednesday.
The fire could be clearly seen from some distance away.
@BBCNews massive fire. Tower set ablaze near Latimer Road station. pic.twitter.com/djWL2JvZK3
— Reda Shetty (@reda_shetty) June 14, 2017
The Fire Brigade said that a structural engineer has checked the block and it is not in danger of collapsing.
These are Heroes, firefighters spending hours trying to help people and not giving up. #GlenfellTower pic.twitter.com/868pLhtRIN
— Mohammed Shafiq (@mshafiquk) June 14, 2017
Here is how the tower looked before:
One resident, interviewed by the BBC, said that he was just falling asleep as he smelt smoke. His family were all asleep. If he’d have gone to bed early, they may never have got out. He said there was no fire alarm to wake them. He said some of the other residents had fire alarms but he could barely hear them.
This woman says that the fire brigade had visited the block the Saturday before the fire and told residents to stay in their flats and close their doors as the doors should keep the fire out for a certain amount of time. She said what they didn’t seem to realise is that the fire went all around the building, not just in the corridors.
The tower block was built in the 1970s as part of the Lancaster West Estate project. This witness brings into question – why are people still living in these types of blocks? In the cases of fires like this, there is no way out.
A #GrenfellTower resident says a fire team visited on Saturday:"If I listened to advice by the fire brigade and management we could be dead" pic.twitter.com/esYkD8GBU5
— Victoria Derbyshire (@VictoriaLIVE) June 14, 2017
The Mayor of London released a full statement:
I'm truly devastated to see the horrific scenes of major fire at #GrenfellTower in #Kensington. Read my statement https://t.co/DTcxZS33kp pic.twitter.com/SZJuEvyrgL
— Mayor of London (@MayorofLondon) June 14, 2017
Rydon, a construction, development, maintenance and management group, operating throughout southern England, made this statement:
“Rydon completed a refurbishment of the building in the summer of 2016 which met all required building control, fire regulation and health and safety standards.”
This tweet shows that externally, rain screen cladding was fitted to the building to help modernise it.
Terrible pictures of #GlenfellTower. Thoughts with all affected. The contractors have already deleted from their web site, but it's cached. pic.twitter.com/go4SWfSyDo
— Paul Alexander Boyd (@paulalexboyd) June 14, 2017
This tweet warns of the devastating effects when external cladding catches on fire.
Cladding was placed on the exterior of the building last year. This article outlines the dangers of external… https://t.co/PKq7LCYJIy
— LightOnConspiracies (@LightOnConspira) June 14, 2017
Residents were shocked at how the fire spread so quickly.
It didn’t take long for this researcher @Evrynameisgone  to pass me a link to a blog that appeared to predict the whole event.
The owners of the website, Grenfell Action Group, was formed in 2010 to oppose the Kensington Academy and Leisure Centre. The About page of the site says:
“We were, and still are, committed to defending the rights of the residents of Lancaster West Estate, a sprawling, inner-city, social housing complex of nearly a thousand dwellings, mostly working class, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic. Our community is located in North Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Our blog has recorded, and continues to record, our struggle and we hope will remain as evidence for future generations of how our community has been mis-treated by RBKC and its social housing management agents the Kensington & Chelsea TMO (KCTMO).”
KCTMO stands for Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation Limited and is responsible for the management of nearly 10,000 properties on behalf of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. RBKC is the local council for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.  The Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation manage all social housing in RBKC, on the Council’s behalf.
In November 2016, residents wrote an already terrifying peace on this Grenfell Action Group website:
Here is the conclusion to the piece; they are telling the viewer they are predicting the fire.
The group describe the people responsible as follows:
“We believe that the KCTMO are an evil, unprincipled, mini-mafia who have no business to be charged with the responsibility of  looking after the every day management of large scale social housing estates and that their sordid collusion with the RBKC Council is a recipe for a future major disaster.”
Following the fire, the group posted:
Then they include ten links which show that they began complaining to the estate manager in October 2012:
“Indeed, there is barely adequate room to manoeuvre for fire engines responding to emergency calls, and any obstruction of this emergency access zone could have lethal consequences in the event of a serious fire or similar emergency in Grenfell Tower or the adjacent blocks.”
Some feel that criminal negligence is beyond established in this case, the question still remaining is how far does it extend?
New from @lukewbarratt: Refurb of #GrenfellTower involved temporary removal of fire protections between floors https://t.co/nxmHOxymBt pic.twitter.com/P5Qv886RUY
— Peter Apps (@PeteApps) June 14, 2017
This caused a reaction of disbelief and disgust in some.
Today in the UK, the public want people in authority held accountable.
Since 2010, austerity – primarily in the form of deep spending cuts with comparatively small increases in tax – has been the UK government’s dominant fiscal policy, with far fewer measures to stimulate the economy. The stated aim of austerity was to reduce the deficit in the UK.
a desperate mother throwing her baby from the building. This is life in the U.K. This is austerity. #GlenfellTower #workingclasslivesmatter
— Binty McEdwards (@shedgal83) June 14, 2017
While the event was breaking this woman tweeted that she was stuck inside, saying she didn’t know what to do.
One resident at West London tower says she's stuck inside, doesn't know what to do. Says other residents are starting to jump. Unconfirmed. pic.twitter.com/P1sZXk6M62
— /pol/ News Forever (@polNewsForever) June 14, 2017
She later tweeted that she had escaped.
I'm safe guys, please don't worry. pic.twitter.com/BnyQUILXAm
— – (@rsrzy_) June 14, 2017
  Many initial responses on social media were questioning if it was a terror-related event.
It has been a difficult time for the people of the UK, who had three terrorist attacks in quick succession in the run up to the election.
pic.twitter.com/0bHjIr8bHp
— Anonymous (@Anon_Emy) June 8, 2017
This lady explains how local Muslims raised the alarm and saved lives.
"If it wasn't for Muslim Boys coming from prayers at the Mosque & waking people up, a lot more people would've been dead!" #GrenfellTower pic.twitter.com/4UA8zHIwAX
— JammyDodger (@mrjammyjamjar3) June 14, 2017
Local people have rallied round, donating food, clothes, toys and other supplies.
Sikhs from @SwatLondon are at the location of #LondonFire providing aid. To help with donations pls get in touch with them #glenfelltower pic.twitter.com/uBYv2Rv5Sm
— Harjinder S Kukreja (@SinghLions) June 14, 2017
Let us know what you think in the comments. How do you feel about what happened?
OH YEAH since we are not corporate or government WHORES, help us out:
Patreon https://www.patreon.com/WeAreChange?a…
We gratefully accept Bitcoin too: 12HdLgeeuA87t2JU8m4tbRo247Yj5u2TVP
Donate on our site: https://wearechange.org/donate
FOLLOW WE ARE CHANGE ON SOCIAL MEDIA
SnapChat: LukeWeAreChange
Facebook: https://facebook.com/LukeWeAreChange
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lukewearechange
Instagram: http://instagram.com/lukewearechange
WE ARE CHANGE MERCHANDISE
Rep WeAreChange merch proudly: https://wearechange.org/store
The post Grenfell Tower Fire: Residents “Predicted That A Catastrophe Like This Was Inevitable” appeared first on We Are Change.
from We Are Change https://wearechange.org/grenfell-tower-fire-residents-predicted-catastrophe-like-inevitable/
0 notes
angelic-holland · 4 years
Text
Hang the Stars // TMO imagine
Tumblr media
“Because what’s worse than knowing you want something, besides knowing you can never have it?” - James Patterson
“I’ll take care of you.”
“It’s rotten work.”
“Not to me. Not if it’s you.”
- Anne Carson, Euripides
Word Count: 5.5k
Warnings: angst, mentions of murder, mentions of mob activity, fluffy fluff
Summary: Three Months and 14 days. That’s how long Harrison has loved you. That’s how long he’s known he can never have you like he wants you. Three months and 14 days is a dreadfully long time to love someone who will never love him back. 
A/N: Hi! This is a little short of the reader’s time with Ian and Harrison and the Irish mob. This can sort of work as a stand alone fic but works better after reading the first 13 chapters of Take Me Out! This is from Harrison’s perspective aka the reader is ‘her’. As always, feedback through reblogs and asks are always appreciated and encouraged if you’re part of my taglist! Let me know what you think about this little piece! 
The worst part of falling in love is the pain when you hit the ground. 
That isn’t how Harrison feels sitting in the meeting room of Ian’s brownstone when the doorbell rang. He feels calm with the slightest bit of excitement because he’s finally allowed to sit in on meetings. 
Nobody rings the doorbell here. All of Ian’s men knocked, a special knock to let Ian know that it was them.
So Harrison sat in his seat right by the head of the table where Ian usually sits while Ian draws a gun, stalking toward the front door. 
He can’t see anything, neither can any of the other men in the room, but they can hear her. 
At first, Dewey jokes that it’s a girl that Ian knocked up, here to collect child support.
Russell shuts him up with a glare, “probably just a girl scout or something.”
“It’s nine at night,” Harrison says, straining to hear what Ian was saying to whoever was standing at the door. 
There’s a shrill cry that makes all of the men at the table widen their eyes.
“Don’t touch me!” 
Then Ian’s voice is soothing and attempting to comfort the girl, whoever she may be. 
There’s a rumbling and Harrison swears it’s thunder but he can’t help the next words that slip out of his mouth, “everything okay?” 
A sob ripples through the near silent house. 
Harrison stands up, about to leave the room when Russell stops him.
“This isn’t your business.”
“It might be-,”
“Just wait, patience, boy,” Dewey sneers.
Harrison sits back down, mumbling under his breath about leaving him the fuck alone.
The men sit in silence as they hear Ian walking around the house, making a few phone calls.
“Check in on the place, that’s right, rented to Adeline Park, I want an update by tomorrow morning.”
Adeline Park. Maybe that’s the girl who showed up at the door. It has to be. 
Several minutes later, Ian steps back inside the room, trying to push the franticness out of his voice.
“Meeting dismissed, we’ll pick up tomorrow morning. Harrison, go out and get food, real food, fruits and vegetables, shit like that.”
Harrison isn’t going to question it at this point, “right away, boss.”
He stands up and buttons his suit jacket, following the rest of the men out of the house before Ian grabs his arm.
“Don’t let them get you caught up in their rumor mill, I’m taking care of an old friend,” Ian says, voice low so the last of the men exiting the house don’t hear him.
“Course, boss, I’ll be right back.” 
Harrison is nosy, it’s not something he’s exactly proud of, but with his job, it comes with the territory. 
That’s why he searches for an Adeline Park on Facebook. A dozen or so results show up. He didn’t catch a glimpse of her face, so he scrolls through each result, each profile, wondering if this was the girl who showed up on his bosses doorstep, completely throwing him for a loop.
He buys a lot of food, probably too much, but he had no idea what Ian wanted other than fruits and vegetables, he swears he almost buys out the entire store. After unloading all of the food into the cabinets and fridge, he makes his way upstairs. 
He hears Ian and her talking, Adeline, her voice is weak but anxious as Ian tries to soothe her. He almost doesn’t want to interrupt, to break into their precious moment. But Harrison is nosy, so he does anyway. 
“It is though, you take bad people and you get rid of them. You kill people who deserve to be killed.”
Harrison’s eyes widen at Ian’s words. So she isn’t just an old flame. Or perhaps she is, Ian’s circle consists mainly of mobsters and murderers. So it’s possible she is a killer and an old flame. What better person for a murderer than another murderer? 
Harrison took off his suit jacket, leaning against the door as he watches her, her hair in a messy ponytail, eyes puffy, bruises encircling her throat. He wonders who could hurt someone as beautiful as her.
“Boss.”
“Harrison, she’s going to be staying in the guest room with you for a little bit. Is that okay?”
“Course, boss, groceries are downstairs, all set away.”
“Great, sweetheart, I’ve got to make a few phone calls but if you need anything, Harrison can help you, okay?”
“He’s uh, he’s good?” 
Her voice is terrified, it’s a trembling whisper and she doesn’t want Harrison to hear but he does. 
“He’s the best,” Ian says before he stands up, giving Harrison a look before leaving him alone with the girl who clearly didn’t trust anyone.
What the fuck is Harrison supposed to do? To say? She reminds him of a scared cat, drawing in on herself as he steps forward into the room completely. 
“Hi, uh, name’s Harrison,” He says, wanting to smack himself, he drops his coat on his bed and walks toward her, sticking his hand out.
Right, because the way to look non threatening to her is to stick your hand out when the last man who did that was the one who gave her all of those bruises. 
She is hesitant as he holds his hand out, and right before he’s about to drop it, she meekly shakes his hand. 
“Y/N.”
So not Adeline.
She drops his hand almost as quickly as she shakes it.
“Well, y/n, you’re free to borrow my clothes anytime, definitely look better on you than me.”
Damn it Harrison.
The last thing this girl wants, or needs, is someone flirting with her. 
“Sorry, that was uh, stupid of me.”
She giggles and Harrison feels light headed. 
“It’s okay, uh, you been with Ian long?”
“No, a few months. We met while he was back in Ireland.” 
“So are you his uh, next in command?” She asks as Harrison begins to get ready for bed.
“Sort of, if I show I can do well under pressure. How much do you know about Ian?”
He’s curious about which part of Ian’s past she’s from. 
“Just that he’s the Irish mob leader here, and uh, you’re not Irish.”
Her tone is almost accusatory, like Harrison isn’t supposed to be here. But she digresses, somewhat caging herself off to his response as she sets the plate down and gently touches her neck, wincing as her fingers touch the bruises.
“You shouldn’t, you know, touch that, I can get you some ice if you want, I’ll just go change and then grab an ice pack,” Harrison says, not waiting for a response before gathering up his pajamas and leaving her alone. 
Ian is talking downstairs after Harrison changed and he becomes quiet as Harrison enters the kitchen.
“Just grabbing her an ice pack,” Harrison says, grabbing one from the freezer and wrapping it in a dish towel.
“She’s got some problems, Harrison, you won’t be able to fix her.”
“I wasn’t planning on trying to-,”
“It’s okay son, I’m sure you only want to help. But I think she’ll just need time.”
“Oh, sure, of course,” Harrison nods, “but Ian, do you think she’d, I mean, do you know who hurt her?”
Ian shakes his head, “that’s what I’m trying to find out, I haven't seen her in five years. She drove here from fucking Idaho. I guess she didn’t really have anyone else to go to.” 
Harrison nods, swallowing the lump in his throat as he makes his way back upstairs. He wonders who could have hurt her so badly she drove across the country to someone she hasn’t seen in over half a decade.
“Hey, I uh, I got you an ice pack,” he says, watching her roll over in the blue sheets, her eyes red, cheeks swollen from crying.
“Thanks,” she mumbles, holding her hand out for the ice.
When he hands it to her, he swears electricity crackles under his fingertips when they touch her hand. She withdraws almost immediately.
“Stop looking at me like that,” she says, turning back toward the wall, not letting Harrison look at her properly as she rests the ice pack against her neck.
“Like what?” Harrison asks, slightly confused as he sits down in his own bed, wanting to give her as much distance as she needs.
“Like I’m a lost puppy someone just kicked to the curb. Like you’re sorry for me, like you’re some guy who sees a girl that’s broken and wants to piece me back together. I’m Humpty fucking Dumpty, you’re not putting me back together again.”
Harrison figures the best thing to do is let her vent.
“I didn’t think you’re Humpty Dumpty.”
“Right, next you’re going to tell me you would never hurt me and that you’d never do anything to put me at risk.”
“I wouldn’t hurt you,” Harrison says, laying down.
“The last person who said that, did this,” she turns and takes away the ice pack, her throat definitely swollen past it’s normal size. 
“Listen, you don’t have to tell me about him, whoever did that, but I would never do that, never touch you like that-,”
“Just- don’t make promises you don’t intend to keep.”
The realization that Y/N doesn’t trust him, doesn’t trust anyone, because the man who did that most definitely wasn’t the first person who has hurt her like that, sits on Harrison’s chest like a stack of bricks.
Taking care of her, being her keeper or her babysitter or whatever wasn’t his goal or intention after the first night, but since then, that’s all Harrison has ever done. And he doesn’t mind. He doesn’t mind one bit. 
For the first time in his life, Y/N gave Harrison what he felt was a purpose, a reason for being more than his typical self.
And isn’t that the cruelest sort of love? The love you feel for someone so broken that industrial strength glue can’t piece them together, the love that no matter how hard and how fiercely you love, they’ll never be quite able to reciprocate it?
***
There are bad nights, nights where she wakes up screaming for someone, crying out for the person who hurt her. He buries the name in his subconscious, never gaining the courage to ask her about this Tom character who invaded her peaceful sleep.
During the first two weeks she hardly got any sleep, and that keeps Harrison up as well. There are moments when she’ll stare at him and he’d stare right back, her eyes the only thing visible in the dark room. A beacon of hope for someone lost at sea. 
And then she climbs into his bed. They’re both restless on this September night, now morning if Harrison is being technical. 2am. 
“I uh, I was hoping I might sleep better if I, well, if I sleep next to you,” her voice is soft and her eyes wide as Harrison nods, patting the spot next to him. The bed is small, no doubt that they’d have to lay practically on top of each other to not fall off. So with a gentle nod from Harrison, she curls up next to him, her head on his chest and her legs practically on top of his. 
That night Harrison has slept better than he has in years.  In fact, Y/N and Harrison looked so peaceful that when Ian went to check on them the next morning, he didn’t wake them up. Finally both of them got a full nights sleep without screaming, without fear of what tomorrow may bring. Finally it seems both of them are at peace.
***
When she kisses Harrison for the first time, about a month after she arrived, he swore he was dreaming. They’ve kissed plenty of times in Harrison’s dreams, but each time he feels like he’s betraying the real Y/N.
They’re lying in bed, Harrison has an arm around her shoulder, only after she gave him explicit permission to do so. She’s cradling his face like it’s a glass vase, her eyes searching for the blooming flowers beneath his fragile exterior. Maybe poppies or brunneras. Nothing can quite match his shade of blue. 
“Can I?” She asks, her eyes focused on the short sharp breaths forming on Harrison’s lips.
He nods, waiting for the dream to end, to wake up and be reminded this isn’t real. 
Her lips brush against his and she waits for him to reciprocate before moving further. She’s warm against him, almost burning up or maybe that’s his heart? Harrison can’t tell, in fact he feels light headed and his stomach twists into a knot as he kisses her back. Her lips are so soft, and she tastes like his mint toothpaste, the one she uses now, since they’ve gotten in the habit of brushing their teeth together. 
He pulls away, only because he’s sure he’s stopped breathing, “pinch me.”
It makes her laugh, it’s melodic and Harrison closes his eyes, resting his forehead against hers, soaking up each note.
“You’re not dreaming,” she murmurs, her lips finding his again. 
“Pinch me anyway,” he mumbles against her lips, he can’t find it in him to pull away. 
She gently pinches his cheek and he waits to wake up. But he doesn’t. Tonight they don’t sleep much, random thoughts and words are shared between soft kisses, never moving further than a gentle hand on cheek, soft skin against skin. 
Neither of them mind as she traces his cheekbone, the moonlight cutting across his skin and illuminating every imperfection. 
“Thank you, for everything.”
She doesn’t need to say it. She doesn’t need to thank him. 
“Don’t thank me,” he says as she snuggles into his chest, her hair tickling his chin.
“I don’t know why you do it, why you take care of me. I’m sure you’d much rather be out with Ian and the rest of them-,”
“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” Harrison cuts her off and he watches as she turns in his arms, her eyes wandering to the window, staring up at the moon, the stars. He wonders if she feels the same way. 
“Don’t say that just because-,” 
“I’ve never lied to you,” Harrison murmurs, his arm rests against her shoulder and for a half a second he thinks she flinches, but she relaxes almost immediately.
“It’s rotten work,” she huffs, laughing low in her throat.
“What is?”
“Sometimes I feel like I’m poison, draining the life out of everyone around me. I don’t want you to be as lifeless as me. It’s rotten work being around a person like me.”
“Well, unless you’re planning on killing me…” he’s joking, for the most part. 
“No! I wouldn’t, I couldn’t,” she mumbles, the sky is forgotten as she turns back around, resting her hand on his chest, right over his heart.
“You know, it’s not rotten work, caring for you. I don’t think I could ever get tired of spending time with you.”
“Liar.”
“I’m anything but. I just wish you’d believe me.”
“I don’t deserve it.”
He wants to ask, he wants to ask why she doesn’t think she’s worth every single second he spends with her. He wants to cradle her face in his hands as gently as she cradled his. He wants to whisper, he wants to shout that she’s worth it, she’s so god damn worth it that he can’t see himself doing anything else but share the same twin size bed with her for the rest of his life. 
But by now, he can tell when she’s feeling drained, emotionally, mentally, physically.
She needs to sleep, and she isn’t going to listen to anything else that he plans on saying. So he tucks those words back into his mind and lets her sleep.  
***
Their life isn’t perfect, it’s far from it. Especially on days Y/N is so depressed she can’t get out of bed. There are days when she’s downright mean and it forces Harrison to take a step back and realize that she’s been through some stuff, she’s seen some shit, and she has every right to get upset and angry at the world. Besides, the world is a cruel place, and it sometimes feels that she is their sole target. 
He does things to try to brighten her up, whether it be getting her favorite cannoli from Mike’s Pastry or a smoothie from a local farmer’s market. Today he brought her both, because before he left, she was yelling about how useless it was to be here and how she wishes she was back in Idaho. 
“Y/N?” Harrison calls out, climbing the stairs two at a time with the food and a gift. 
He hears the shower going and calls out to her, resting his head on the bathroom door. 
She doesn’t answer and immediately his mind flies to worse case scenarios. 
To her taking her anger and depression and turning it inward on herself, so much so that she can’t come back from it.
“Y/N!” Harrison shouts, voice unsteady as he opens the door. He doesn’t want to invade her privacy, but he will just to make sure that the worst case scenario he built up isn’t coming true.
Normally there’s a shadow of the person showering on the shower curtain. But as Harrison sets everything aside he finds Y/N’s shadow curled up in the corner, the water almost drowning out her cries.
“Y/N, darling, are you okay?” Harrison asks, kneeling down at the edge of the tub, hesitant to push back the curtain.
“I can’t breath,” she gasps and no matter how much of a gentleman Harrison is, he can’t sit outside the tub and not check on her now.
“Y/N, I’m going to open the curtain, I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“I’m a monster,” she shouts as Harrison pulls back the curtain, revealing her crying form.
“What?” Harrison asks, watching her continue to shake.
“I- I’m here, I ran from my problem and he, he’s dead because of me, I’m a monster,” she sobs, the water starting to prune her skin.
Harrison has absolutely no idea what Y/N is talking about, but he knows one thing for sure, that something happened to her or because of her that has changed her forever.
“Come on Y/N, we can talk about this if you want, but you need to get out of the shower, need to get dried off,” Harrison reaches over to grab her arm but she pulls away violently, quivering at the thought of his touch.
He stands up, turning the water off, it’s scalding and he wonders how she hasn’t practically burnt her skin off yet.
He waits a moment for her to come out, grabbing a towel from the closet and standing at the edge of the tub.
“Y/N…”
“Just leave me alone! You should hate me! I don’t-,” she starts as Harrison leans down, trying to pick her up.
“Go away!” She screams, batting at his hands as he tries to, at this point drag her out of the bath if he has to.
“No, Y/N, you have to understand, please, please understand I’m not going anywhere,” Harrison pleads as he struggles with what to do now.
Fuck it, if she won’t get out of the tub, he’ll join her. So that’s what Harrison does, clothes and all, sitting behind her and drawing her body against his as she sobs. She doesn’t resist him however, and that’s the most important part of this exchange. He just wants her to feel safe, like he’s the one person she can feel safe with.
“It’s okay,” he brushes back her wet hair as she cries until her breathing levels out and there aren’t anymore tears left to cry.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“This kid, Harry, he uh, he was in a coma. And Jake, Jake killed him. This innocent kid who never did anything wrong in his life. Jake killed him to get back at me, to get back at Tom.”
“Why is that your fault then, darling?” Harrison asks as he begins wringing out her hair, not a care in the world that his clothes are now completely soaked as well.
“Because, if I didn’t get involved with T-T-Tom, then Jake would have no reason to try to put him in his place like that! If I didn’t put my stupid fucking heart out like that, this wouldn’t have happened!”
Harrison doesn’t have the courage to ask if she meant the two of them.
“Is that why you came looking for Ian?”
“Tom he- he blamed me for Harry’s death. And he- I never thought he was capable of hurting me until that moment. And I couldn’t- I couldn’t stay while he was so angry like that. He would’ve killed me. But maybe I deserve that.”
“No, hey, look at me,” Harrison pleads, his heart literally aching in his chest as she stares back at him with trembling lips and tear tracks down her cheeks.
“What? How can you know who I am and not think I deserve to die?”
“Did you kill this kid with your own two hands?”
She shakes her head no, so Harrison continues.
“So you kill bad people. You didn’t kill this kid, so you need to get into that mindset. You need to see yourself how I see you.”
“I feel like I’m a rain cloud or a fucking black hole, just sucking the life out of everything.”
“You’re anything but,” Harrison tries to reassure her.
“Don’t lie to me just to make me feel better.”
“Okay, you might be a rain cloud. But more than that, you’re an entire day’s worth of weather. And what happens after a rain?”
She sniffles but doesn’t respond, so Harrison pulls out the small velvet black box he wasn’t expecting to give her until later tonight. His jeans are soaking wet and it makes it harder to grab, but when he does, his hand is shaking harder than Y/N is. 
“You know, when I was a kid and I was having a bad day, my mum used to sing this song for me,” Harrison opens the box and holds the necklace up to show her.
“What is this?” She asks, her fingers curling around the sun pendant. 
“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are grey. You’ll never know dear, how much I love you, please don’t take my sunshine away.”
***
It’s been almost four months since Y/N showed up on Ian’s doorstep. Harrison wants to celebrate the small strides she’s making by cooking her breakfast. Tomorrow they’re supposed to go stake out a hit that Harrison will be running, and Ian is letting Y/N go with him. 
“What’re you making?” Y/N asks, sleepily rubbing her eyes as she sits at the kitchen counter.
“Pancakes,” Harrison smiles, flipping one over before turning back to Y/N. 
She has tears in her eyes that she quickly tries to hide. She’s not fast enough. Harrison often catches her before she can hide her emotions from him. She isn’t sure if she appreciates this ability of his, but he’s always able to calm her down when she gets worked up. 
“Okay, if you don’t like pancakes, darling, we don’t have to have them,” Harrison quickly turns off the stove and walks around the counter, holding his arms out for her. 
He always waits for her to make the first move. To pull him into a hug, to sleep by his side, to kiss him. He would never want her to feel pressured into anything, make her feel like she’s required to reciprocate what he wants to give to her. 
She buries herself inside his arms, her body shaking with sobs. 
“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,” Harrison sings lightly, feeling her slowly bring herself back to reality and out of whatever dark space pancakes seemed to send her to. “Sing with me, darling,” he murmurs as he rubs her back, “you make me happy when skies are grey.”
Her voice is thick with tears but she continues along with him, “you’ll never know dear, how much I love you, please don’t take my sunshine away.”
“So no pancakes?” Harrison asks hesitantly as she sits back down.
“I, uh, I prefer waffles,” she sniffles, wiping the tears from her eyes. 
“Waffles it is.”
After work, Harrison buys a waffle maker and all the ingredients he needs to cook up the best waffle recipe he can find. The look in Y/N’s eyes when he sets up the waffle maker is enough to make Harrison melt into a puddle on the floor like a schoolboy whose crush notices him. 
“Please tell me you like your waffles sweet,” Harrison pulls out a can of whipped cream from the fridge, raising an eyebrow at Y/N. 
She nods eagerly, “what’s a waffle without maple syrup and whipped cream?”
Harrison chuckles as she takes the plate and can from him, loading the waffle with whipped cream. 
“God, I love you.”
Maybe he didn’t mean for those words to slip out, but they did. They’ve been stuck in his throat for three months now, ever since the first night she crawled into his bed and asked him to hold her. 
The whipped cream can cuts off, filling the kitchen with a silence that absolutely shatters Harrison’s heart.
She doesn’t need to say anything. Her face, shocked with slight confusion, mouth wide open and eyebrows pinched together, tells him everything he needs to know. 
“Why?” She can’t even look at him as she begins to cut into her food.
“What do you mean why? Why do I love you?”
She nods as she begins to eat, still not meeting his eyes.
“You showed up when I was beginning to doubt joining Ian, don’t tell him that though. And you were closed off. Mean and cranky, and I mean, you still are-,”
“Hey!” She scowls, flicking a bit of whipped cream at him.
“The face you make when you’re mad is really cute. But even when you put on the grumpiest face, I know that you care a lot, about Ian, about the people in your life.”
“About you.”
“Hmm?” Harrison has to pinch himself, wondering if he is truly hearing what he thinks he’s hearing.
“I care about you,” she says, shoveling more of the waffle into her mouth before she stands up, the chair scraping against the floor.
“You care about me?” Harrison asks, watching her nervously pick at the fingernail of her thumb, nodding as she wraps her arms around his neck.
“I know you want me to say that I- that I-, fuck I’m sorry, but I can’t. And you know if I said it right now, it would only be because of what you said, because of how you feel. And you deserve someone who can say that back because it’s true, because she has no reservations and shitty feelings and emotional shortcomings.” 
“But I’ll stay, through your shitty feelings and your emotional shortcomings.”
“Don’t know why,” she mumbles. 
“You’re worth it, Y/N, don’t you see how incredibly fucking worth it you are?”
“I’m worth it?” She asks, as if she is discovering this for the first time as well.
“You’re so fucking worth it, there aren’t enough words in the dictionary or our time on this earth to tell you how worth it you are.”
***
“Darling, what’s wrong?” Harrison asks as he brushes hair out of her eyes, kissing her forehead before sitting up to get a good look at her, watching the way her hands start to shake.
“Kiss me like you hate me.”
He’s confused, because he figured this might be the night she decides to go further with him, to share a part of herself he wasn’t sure he’s ever seen. But why would she ask him to kiss her like that? 
Aggressively? 
“What do you-,”
“I don’t want you to make love to me, I- I can’t make love to you.”
“Darling I’m not going to kiss you like I hate you, I don’t hate you, I couldn’t hate you.” 
“You should hate me,” she sobs, curling in on herself as Harrison lays down next to her, pulling her into his chest.
“No, darling, it’s okay, shhh, I couldn’t hate you, darling, you could be the wicked witch of the west and I’d still look at you like you hung the stars in the sky. Maybe that’s why you’re cranky, you’ve spent so long bringing light to everyone else, you never saved any for yourself. What’s wrong?”
“Nobody’s ever, well except- and I can’t, I just can’t,” she continues to cry, her tears soaking his shirt as he runs a hand through her hair.
“It’s okay, we don’t have to do anything, I would be perfectly content with you in my arms, just laying here,” Harrison assures her, keeping her as calm as he could even when he felt like his world simply didn’t make sense. 
“I’ve killed people, you know.”
“I know,” Harrison says, calm and even.
“Lots of people.”
“Bad people.”
She shifts around in his arms, facing him. Her breath is shaky as he wipes the tears from her face and kisses her forehead.
“You gave people light by taking bad people out of their lives.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that I’m a bad person,” she sniffles as Harrison brings his lips along her face, kissing every single inch of skin. 
“There’s such a blurred line between good and bad, right and wrong. How many people have you saved by killing murderers? By killing rapists?”
She shrugs and it shocks Harrison how she can’t see what he sees. 
“Too many to count. And tomorrow you’re getting back in the game, staking out the new hit with me. It’ll be fun but if you’re uncomfortable, we stop, got it?”
“Got it,” she nods, letting his warmth calm her down and lull her to sleep.
***
“Y/N, when was the uh, last time you had your period?” Harrison asked, wondering how long it typically took for someone to start showing. 
“What? Uh two months and uhh 20 days ago,” her eyes widened and she stopped about five feet short of the brownstone, turning to Harrison, “I’m not, it’s uh, it’s the stress.”
***
It’s been a week and a half since Y/N left Harrison on the curbside dreaming of children and a life together. It’s been a week and a half and all Harrison has been able to do is dream of her, growing old with her, a kid, as many kids as she wants. He dreams of a life where he can play catch or push them on the swing set. It’s a stupid dream, especially now that she’s gone. She promised to check in, but it’s been absolute and complete radio silence since she left.
Most days Ian doesn’t ask much of him, understanding how torn up Harrison is after she left. Today was one of those days where Harrison sits in bed drinking straight from a bottle of expensive rum and stares at his phone, at her contact photo. It’s the only photo of her that he has. He took it one day while they were drinking hot chocolate at this small bakery in the North End. She has a whipped cream mustache and is flushing as Harrison holds his phone up, snapping a cheeky picture. She protested at first but he insisted that it could be used for his lockscreen. She immediately stole a picture of him as well, head tilted back in a laugh. He wonders if it’s still her lockscreen.
As if by some twist of fate, maybe his luck is finally turning around, his phone rings. And it’s Y/N.
He’s so excited he spills the remaining bottle of rum as he tries to set it down on the counter. But that could wait. Y/N couldn’t.
“Y/N? Is that you?” Harrison says, choking back tears as her ragged voice greets him on the other end.
“Haz?” There’s a short pause and several sharp breaths before she continues.
“I need you, Harrison. I made a huge mistake.”
***
Taglist (removed anyone who hasn’t interacted w the fic sorry I don’t want to type out a bunch of urls and have nobody interact; if you want to be added back message me!):  @gioandreolli   @honeymoonparker @itsjusttor @averyfosterthoughts @worldoftom @angelhaz11 @rebekkah4766   
72 notes · View notes