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magic-missle-blog · 3 years

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Ghost division

approx 5k words

The teacher stood in front of her class, looking over the rows of teenagers. The red sun shone through the glass illuminating the brightly coloured room and the wooden desks. The youngsters were mostly green skinned mammalian Drek, like herself, although she did have two reptilian Gath, shorter and stockier than the Drek, they sat on specially made chairs to accommodate there long tails, Their parents had recently moved to this colony, the new mines and the wealth therein drew sentients from all over the galaxy. Most were dressed in a similar fashion, dark blue trousers and skin tight teeshirts with a Varity of symbols of cartoon characters. She inwardly shuddered at the fashion sense of the young,

:readmore:

Off to the side was a older Drek, he was an elder, over 70 years old and even though his once blue hair was now all grey, and his back had a slight stoop, he stood proud and his eyes were bright. He had on a dark green military uniform, a couple of shades darker than his skin. The rank badge on his chest showed he was a captain, the dagger with wings on his sleeve showed he was in the war fleet.

“Class” the teacher began “We have a special guest with us today. As you know tomorrow is 'Alliance day', the most important holiday we have, and it’s a very special one. Tomorrow marks fifty years since the alliance between Drek and Gath, fifty years since the foundation of the united galactic council, fifty years since the Canidations were defeated and peace was restored to the galaxy.”

She took a breath. “Please give a warm welcome to captain Furon.”

The teacher clapped her 6 fingered hands together and sat down behind desk.

Captain Furon walked smartly to stand in front of the class. He precisely placed a bottle of water down next to some paperwork on the crowded wooden desk. All eyes were on his uniform and side arm.

He looked at the teacher. “Thank you for the most gracious introduction.” He said with a smile.

“I want to tell you about the battle for this colony; it was the turning point in the great war, but ...before I begin, who can tell me how the alliance started?”

A forest of hands rose in the air. Furon pointed to one of the Gath students. The student stood up and said in a hissing voice. “Sixty or so years ago a race called the Canidations tried to conquer the galaxy, they invaded and destroyed many worlds. The Canidations attacked both the Gath and Drek our empires bordered one another. We stood together, and fought off attack after attack, eventually driving the Canidations back into their space. After the war ended, our peoples joined in the alliance and started the galactic council, over the years we invited four other species into The Alliance.”

The reptilian sat back down.

As the student spoke Furon nodded along. Once the Gath had returned to his seat, the captain said “That’s the official bare bones history, but it’s not the full truth.”

Captain Furon looked around the class. “It started with the Canidations, that right enough, but what you don’t realise is just how powerful they were. They had more ships, more weapons than any other species, several times over. In their home system there was a gas giant with many moons, these moons were the size of small planets and the Canidations built factories. Giant factories that could mass produce warships in great numbers. Their fleet had tens of thousands of fighters, thousands of cruisers and hundreds of capital ships. The Canidations were a strong warrior race, with a high birth rate. The soon outstripped the resources on their home worlds and wanted more.” his voice turns cold “They were a plague. They couldn’t be reasoned with or bargained with, they believed they were the only true form of intelligent life, everything else was simply an animal to be destroyed.”

He looks lost in memories for a moment, the room is silent, hanging on his every word, For the first time the students actually grasped that standing before them was a warrior, a man who had lived through the horror of the great war .A man who had stood toe to toe with the Arachnidiod Canidations, who had spat in there ruby coloured multifaceted eyes.

Furon continued “In ten years the Canidations invaded and slaughtered five species and with every conquest their blood-lust grew and grew, they gave no quarter, gave no mercy. The wounded, civilians, even children were all fair targets to them.

The seemed unstoppable, we knew it was coming of course. The Drek and Gath were next in line, as the Canidations territory expanded it was a matter of time until they were at our door. We tried to build up our fleets, improve our weapons and fortify out colonies but it was futile.”

He reached for the bottle of water on the teacher desk and took along slow sip, then continued.

“Around 7 years after the war started the Canidations attacked a Gath border post, a few months later they attacked one of our convoys. Normally only a fool starts a war on two fronts, but the Canidations were so powerful and so arrogant they didn’t care. Then they made a mistake. They opened up another front. They attacked The Terrain Empire.”

The class murmured and looked around. This was new information. The Terrans don’t have an empire, they are generally vagabonds or mercs, and they are rare. The population only a few hundred thousand individuals across know space, in fact, no one in the class had ever seen one.

Furon continued “The Terrans, or Humans and they were sometimes known, were a relatively young race. They only had interstellar travel for a few decades, but they quickly built up a small empire. As a young race no one really considered them a threat, including the Canidations, but they were wrong. You see humans had one great strength, adaptability. The Canidations became warriors, but Humans were born for war. In the 5000 years of recorded human history there was not one single day when some part of the planet was not at war. They could see as well as we could what was coming so they built up their fleets and dusted off ancient tactics renewed and improved for a new age. When the Canidations first attacked the Terran Empire, they terrans would lose three ships for every one Canidation vessel killed, but with every battle, every loss the humans learned. They studied the enemy, they adapted. After six months it was one to one, and after a further six it took five Canidation warships to kill a Terran vessel. The humans tech advanced at an unmatched pace. They created new and unique weapons and defences, but it was not enough. Even with losses of 5 to one the Canidations were so many that those loses was a victory, however it slowed the advance into Terran space, and forced then to pull resources from Gath and Drek space to fight the Terrans, giving us much needed breathing room. The advance slowed, but it did not stop,”

Furon took a breath

“I want to tell you about a battle, a very important battle that took place here, in orbit of this colony towards the end of the war. This was the most important battle in the history of the Drek, because it paved the way for the alliance.”

“Back then this colony had around ten million people, and it was an important supply and repair centre for the fleet. At first it was far inside Drek space but as the Canidations pushed onwards this world soon became a target. We tried to evacuate the civilian population but we didn’t have the ships or resources, our fleets were spread so thin as Canidation attacks hit all over the empire. Around seven million people were left when the Canidation death fleet arrived. I was a young officer stationed in the bridge of the Warship 'Firestorm', part of small defence force, all that high command could spare. Our orders were to defend the colony at all costs.”

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

Ensign Furon looked up from his screen. The green and black display flashed in warning. “Captain....sensors have just picked up a large Canidation fleet heading this way. We have 30 minutes until they reach the system.”

The captain looked around his small bridge. The red emergency lights shrouded his crew in an eerie glow, various consoles beeped for attention, chair creaked as people shifted. His crew were at battle stations, ready to fight and die if needed. The Firestorm was destroyer class Warship, Small and fast yet it packed a punch. He was proud of his ship and knew it inside and out. “How large?”

Furon checked his screen, “six capital ships, thirty cruisers, five carriers....we're outnumbered six to one.”

The captain checked the status of the other ships in his fleet. A ragged assortment of cruisers and destroyers most damaged to some extent from the constant warfare, they were only here as this was the closest repair station to the front. There were various other civilian ships in orbit and a large ring of defensive satellites. The civilians he could discount as they were unarmed, but the satellites might be able to help...and then there was the repair station itself, upgraded with the latest weapons..... Captain Brekka shook his head, in his heart of hearts he knew it wasn’t enough, the firepower the Canidation fleet had would cut through the colonies defences like a hot knife through butter.

“Comms open a general distress call”

“Channel opens Captain”

The captain

“This is captain Brekka of the Drek warship Firestorm. We have incoming hostile craft; we are in orbit of Baldur colony. If anyone can help. Please come. We have transport full of children, please assist.”

The Comms office waited a few moments, “nothing captain, no reply”

The first officer, a tall Drek with long lanky limbs replied “all ships are battle ready and moving into formation, plasma cannons are charging. The colony rail guns are active and defensive satellites fully powered. We'll squash those fucking bugs like a spider under our boots'”

The captain smiled a rare smile. He appreciated Firsts attempt to raid the crew’s spirits but everyone knew they didn’t stand a chance.

“Furon. Status of the evacuation ships”

Furon checked his screen. “Three are fully loaded and taking off, the remaining ten will be airborne within twenty minutes. There have been delays, people are crowding on. Its chaos down there.” The main view screen showed various scenes of the plant below. Parents trying to push their children onto the waiting transports, civilian craft fleeing. People fighting each other and trying to flee.

“Cutting it close...” the captain said. He pressed a button on his command console, opening a channel to his fleet. “Prepare to break orbit, defend the transports at all costs.”

The bridge crew looked at the captain. The first office spoke up. “But captain...the planet....there are seven million people...”

The captain, his face drawn, heart heavy, looked at the sensor display. He knew what was going to happen. Those capital ships would smash the space dock as the cruisers destroyed the satellites and ground cannons. Once the defences were down they would bombard the colony with fusion bombs. A few might survive in outlying settlements, or if they managed to get to the bunkers....but by this time tomorrow most would be dead. “There’s nothing we can do for them, but if we defend the transports at least the children will survive.”

Minutes seemed like hours. Furon checked and rechecked the status of the Canidation fleet as they drew closer. The tension was unbearable. A trickle of sweat crawled like a spider down his spine.

CLICK CLACK.

CLICK CLACK

Someone was clicking a pen.

CLICK CLACK

CLICK ...

The first office strode across the bridge and plucked the pen from the officer at fire control. With a grunt the pen was crushed in the firsts strong hand.

Blue eyes glued to the screen, Furon was the first to see the Canidations dropped out of hyperspace just shy of the planets gravity well and began their approach at sub light.

Heavy cruisers bristling with weapons, smaller but faster destroyers, behind that the capital ships. Monsters made of titanium and horror, each one ten times the size of his own vessel. Last but certainly not least the carriers with their cargo of small deadly fighters.

“Five minutes until weapons range” Furon said. The captain sat in his chair, still as a rock watching the sensor display on the main screen. The transports had all reached orbit and were slowly moving out of the gravity well where they could safely activate hyper drive, but they were slow, far too slow.

“Captain” Furon said with alarm “Enemy fleet is breaking formation.”

On the screen the carriers offloaded their cargo of small sleek fighters. Fast and deadly shaped like locusts, they were moving around the Drek fleet to try to flank the transports, as the main body of cruisers attacked head on. The capital ships headed straight for the colony, where their large guns and mass drivers would rain death on the helpless people below.

The captain knew the colony was doomed; all he could do was try to save the transports. Save as many people as he could. He knew his duty, but hated himself for abandoning the colony.

The captain pressed a button on his command console “Sword, Wildcat, intercept those fighters, the rest of you, battle formation, buy those transports as much time as you can....it’s been an honour serving with you.” He cut the channel, nothing else needed to be said. He looked around the bridge crew, emotion plain on the green faces, anger, hatred, but no fear. They faced death but they wouldn’t go down easy and with luck their sacrifice would save thousands of Drek on those transports. The captain couldn’t have been prouder.

“Two minutes until weapons range” Furon said

The incoming ships slowly grew in size as they drew closer.

“Weapon range in 90 seconds, the first transport is 3 minutes from the minimum safe FTL jump point, the last transport is 10 minutes away. Fighters will intercept transports in 3 minutes” Furon said.

So, Captain Drek thought, it’s not all in vein, a few transports will be safe and we’ll buy the rest as much time as we can.

“Weapons range in one minute....wait...captain....I’m picking up something on Comms, its an audio . it sounds like a...a howl?” when the captain nodded furon opened the channel. An eerie moan, filled the bridge. Words, almost two low to catch were mixed in the scary sound, “we are the ghost division, we are your death...”

Furon had turned a sickly pale blue colour. He cut of the channel, and turned to the captain, he was about to speak when his station beeped. “Captain, its a distress call its...it’s from the Canidation capital ships... they want aid....the call has cut off”. Furon said confused.

The screen zoomed into capital ships closing in on the planet, but where the there should have been six monstrous death machine, only four could be seen. Two expanding clouds of debris still glowing, were the remains of the others. As they watched a bright red explosion blossomed from the main hull of another ship, it quickly consumed the huge vessel. As it died a bright yellow explosion from the rear of the ship, the fusion plant loosing containment no doubt, finished it off.

On the main screen an explosion destroyed an enemy destroyer, and then another destroyed a cruiser. Within a few second ten Canidation ships were no more than glowing space dust.

The line of incoming ships dissolved into chaos. They fired weapons all around. The Drek couldn’t see anything though, the Canidations seemed to have gone mad, firing at empty space.

The first office looked up “the cruisers and fighters are breaking off they’re heading to the capital ships...what the fuck is happening?”

The bridge was a jumble of activity. Sensor reports were coming in, the Comms system was going crazy as the other ships in the fleet reported the same thing, asking for orders.

Furon shouted over the noise on the bridge “something is attacking them, I’m reading...fuck I don’t know what I’m reading. I’ve never seen anything like this. Weird gravity spikes, then ships appearing then vanishing. If I didn’t know better I’d say the sensors were damaged.”

The screen showed the Canidation fleet in full retreat. Black ships around the size of destroyers appeared out of no where, fired a barrage of projectile and energy weapons then vanished again. It didn’t matter where the Canidations turned or how the dodged, a ship always appeared, fired and vanished. It made it impossible to target them, or get an accurate count of numbers. When the new sleek warhips were sure of a direct hit they would fire a large torpedo, the weapon didn’t seem to have any guidance, but it packed a punch. Any cruiser it hit was killed, and even the monstrous capital ships were destroyed. With one missile. Brekka had no idea what the warhead was, but it was immensely powerful. It seemed to vapourise anything it hit rather than exploding like a normal missiles

The Comms office piped up “incoming hail”

“On screen” Brekka said

The screen changed from the confusion of battle to a video call.

A tall dark skinned human in a dark grey uniform appeared on screen.

“I’m captain Conroy of the Terran warship Lucifer; we received your distress call. Your transports will be safe now, want to help us mop up the rest of these bastards?” he asked with a grin.

Brekka let out a Drek war cry and said to the crew.

“You heard the good captain. Give them Hell”

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

“The battle lasted less than 30 minutes. We didn’t lose a single ship, neither did the humans. Only one Canidation ship survived, and that was because the humans let it go. ‘Teach them to fear the wrath of Earth’ Captain Conroy told us. We offered the humans shore leave but they declined, they had a mission. To spread fear among the Canidations, to hit hard without mercy and vanish like ghosts. That battle was a major victory, it inspired our people, and it showed that non Drek could help, would be willing to help so in turn we could help others. Due to the humans example the Firestorm was the first Drek ship on the scene when a small flotilla of Canidations attacked a Gath supply line, we helped save a half dozen Gath ships. The Gath returned the favour and soon we were fighting side by side. It was from these small actions the alliance was born. If it wasn’t for the Terran ghost division, the alliance would never have happened.”

Hands rose as Furon finished history. “What happened to the humans? How could they make their ships invisible, what kind of weapons did they use?” a jumble of voices asked various questions.

Furon smiled and raised his hands for silence.

“We don’t know what stealth tech the human ships used, we think they could manipulate artificial gravity in some way to bend light and sensor beams around the ships but we can’t replicate it yet. As for the weapons, well they used tungsten projectiles fired from rail guns and plasma based energy weapons for the most part...but those torpedoes... they were something else. We managed to recover a few that missed their targets. From what we gather they used some kind of exotic matter with negative mass to generate an antigravity wave, That wave was unstoppable, and any matter caught in it was destroyed and changed into energy. This caused a chain reaction, if effectively turned the ships own armour into an energy blast. “

Furon took another drink.

“As for what happened to them....they spread fear among the Canidations. For months Ghost division stuck Canidation ships. Burned colonies, wherever that eerie sound would play Canidations died by the hundreds and thousands. They spreads So much fear that the Canidations halted their advance into Gath and Drek space and committed almost everything to the destruction of Earth. The humans fought hard and made the Canidation bleed for every inch but eventually the humans were pushed back into their home system. tens of Thousands of Canidation ships dropped out of FTL into the Sol system, almost the entire Canidation fleet, almost every and solider so they could watch humanity die.

The terrans had pulled everything back into Earth orbit, every ship, and every colonist. Everything other than ghost division

It must have been an amazing sight, the two biggest fleets the galaxy has ever seen...ready to fight to the death.”

Furon looked around the class

“But the humans...they were vindictive bastards, and clever. From what we gather they built one last torpedo. It must have been huge, at least a mile long, and filled with millions of tonnes of exotic matter. They fired it directly into their own sun causing it to go supernova. The Gravity wave of the dying star made FTL impossible. The entire Canidation fleet was wiped out in one go, millions of Canidations, dead In a heartbeat, I sometimes wonder what when through their mind before they were blasted into ash. Then the alliance struck. Our ships, the combined might of the Gath and Drek empires attacked. We hunted down and wiped out every last Canidation ship, but when we arrived in the home system, we found it had already been killed. The ghost division had been there first...no Canidations survived the human’s wrath. The home world had been cracked open like an egg. Every planet and moon that had even a hint of canidation presence was sterilized.”

The Gath that had spoken earlier said with awe “the humans destroyed their own home world rather than let it fall...they must have been mighty warriors.”

Furon smiled

“Oh they were re than mighty warriors. They were inventors, thinker ands dreamers. After the supernova had passed and it was safe, mercy vessels from the alliance went into the remains of the sol system... we knew it was hopeless but we owed it to the terrans to look for survivors. We found the smashed remains of the two inner planets, and the irradiated husk of the fourth planet. We found a diamond thousands of miles wide, all that remained of the planet after the atmosphere had been blown away. But of earth there was nothing, no debris, no wreckage, nothing.”

“ Just before the supernova wave reached earth, our long range scopes picked up something odd, a massive energy spike. We think the humans somehow created an artificial wormhole, they used the power from the supernova to rip open time and space. They shifted their entire planet, their moon and the whole fleet and left the Canidations to die. They used their own planet as bait and their star as the biggest bomb the galaxy has ever seen. You might say its impossible, but Humans could dream the impossible and make it possible...I don’t know if it s true or not, but they might still out there somewhere and could come back one day., and if they do i hope to all the gods that they come in peace.

#humans are weird #humans are space orcs #humanity fuck yeah #hfy #ghostdivison #ghost division

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daydream-hobii · 5 years

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Shadows & Wolfsbane | Chapter 15

Genre: Poly!AU; Werewolf!AU; Shapeshifter!AU; Fluff; Angst

Pairing: BTS x Female!Reader; Alpha!Reader, Beta!Seokjin, Alpha!Yoongi, Alpha!Hoseok, Alpha!Namjoon, Omega!Jimin, Beta!Taehyung, Beta!Jungkook

Summary: Y/N is the youngest Alpha in her compound, owning a whole village. She was born by two Omegas, and originally wanted to be killed, but things were changing in her universe. At the end of the year, each Alpha can pick up to 30 new warriors, wolves that have been training, and the youngest always starts. Y/N never really chooses, asks for the ones who were unwanted such as the old or disabled. This time, she picks the strongest seven players among the warriors, and the other Alphas aren’t too happy, but she chose them for other reasons…. Hopefully, they’ll help her with the predicament she’s found herself in….

Warning: Mentions of Abuse, Sexual Assault, Depression, Anxiety; Suggestions of Smut; Read with caution <3 MENTIONS OF TORTURE, BLOOD, DEATH, AND OTHER VARIOUS TOPICS, READ WITH CAUTION!!!

Word Count: 2,014

// Previous // Next //

Author’s Note: Welcome to Chapter 15! Please let me know what you think of this chapter, I love getting feedback! I hope you enjoyed it!!! ^_^

I stood with Jungkook, wearing the darkest clothes we could find to hide in the night. We had to leave earlier than our sunset, since we were on the opposite side of the world. Really, it’s our afternoon, and their early morning.

Jungkook and I were with about ten other people, two being Dex and Sooki. People complained about Sooki going, since she’s the leader of this group and if she got hurt, it’d be bad, but she knew that she wanted to go to make sure everything ran smoothly.

Watching Dex pull magic from the air was fascinating, even more so when there was a physical cut in the world in front of us, opening to view the woods that I would explore in my free time. It looked exactly like a portal, and it was so odd. Jungkook and I looked at each other before he gripped my hand.

We were the first two to walk through. It was eerily quiet in this forest, and when I smelled the air, it was crisp. Once everyone was through, I watched Dex close up the portal. I raised an eyebrow, since I knew Sooki and him would be staying here for when we return.

“In case anything happens to all of us,” Dex replied, giving a soft smile. “So they can’t get back to our base.”

“Smart,” Jungkook said, staring towards our community…. “Let’s go get them back.”

There was a slight growl in his voice as he shifted, his blue green eyes a beacon in the night. Some other people shifted to their wolf forms, while the humans gripped there weapons. There were a couple hybrids with us as well, and they used their heightened senses to help navigate. I decided to stay a human out of habit, and I wanted to be able to move swifter. Being the biggest wolf in a pack is difficult in times like these.

We snuck through the woods, reaching my village. Even in human form, our scents were heightened, so when I smelled the blood and despair that was within it, my heart dropped. I twisted to the other people that were with us, my heart filling with sadness.

“I want you to go into my village and take as many people as you can,” I whispered, making them furrow their brows.

“We’re to help you in the dungeons, nothing else,” One said.

“Please,” I begged, making Jungkook whine. “Kookie and I can handle it, I’ve been down there before…. My pack… they don’t deserve this.”

“How do you know they’ll come with us willingly?” A woman asked, eyeing me.

“Tell them… Bellum venturus est,” I said, nodding. “They’ll know.”

“War is coming, huh?” Another said, nodding. “Good choice.”

I nodded my head, telling them to be safe. We opened the large door, letting them go through while Jungkook and I went the other way. We snuck through the town, dodging past the wolves. With so many wolves around, we probably smelt like everyone else. If they saw us, however, they’d know it was us.

Jungkook and I made our way to the middle of town, which was heavily guarded with wolves. I bit my lip, taking a step forward before Jungkook placed his mouth on my sleeve, pulling me back. I looked to see some council members going inside, some wolves following them. A feeling of hatred ran through me, but now was not the time.

We saw an opening, sprinting towards it and ducking away inside. We snuck through the halls quickly, Jungkook shifting back once we made it to the door that lead to the dungeons. Once we entered, I thought I was going to be sick.

We walked down the stairs that lead deep into the ground. There were screams and groans of agony in this place, liquids painted along the walls. I smelt the air and could smell the six boys - they were here, but it was difficult to pinpoint where.

“You smell them, right?” I asked Jungkook, who nodded.

“It’s difficult… but they’re here,” Jungkook replied, biting his lip. “So are guards.”

“We can talk because it’s so loud down here,” I said. “We just have to sneak around. Who smells the closest?”

Jungkook took a deep smell of the air, closing his eyes. He’s known them much longer, he had there scents down better than I did. He shot his eyes open, taking a left and walking fast, making me hustle to keep up.

“Jimin,” He said, making another left in this maze.

We walked through the hallways, sneaking around and listening for guards. When we reached a room, Jimin’s scent was strong. Jungkook wasted no time in opening the door, and when I heard him gasp, I entered behind him.

Jimin was laying in a bed, legs pulled to his chest and facing the wall. He was fully clothed, but they were dirty and ripped. Bruises ran up his arms, and he looked hungry and dehydrated. When he heard Jungkook gasp, he turned his head, a slight fear in his eyes before he relaxed, standing up and hugging him. His face was just as bad as his arms. Bruises covered him, a black eye dotting around his left one, lip cut open, cheeks red. His eyes were squinting at the light from the hallway, where torches hang on the walls.

“You came back,” He whispered, gripping Jungkook. He reached for me, making me join them in a hug, tears threatening to spill down my cheeks.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, hiding my face in his shoulder.

“We can talk later,” Jungkook interrupted, pulling away and gently pecking Jimin’s lips. “We need to find the others…. Can you walk?”

“I can,” Jimin replied, gulping. “I didn’t get the worst of it.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, holding his hand.

“They had us together for a while…. We all got… beaten up. Attacked by wolves. Tae and I got the least of it…. The others aren’t in good shape,” He said, tears spilling over.

“We need to go get them, now,” I said, turning towards the door.

“I can smell Jin,” Jungkook said, Jimin nodding. I followed the two boys, pulling them both back just before they went around a corner.

There were guards in front of a door, some screaming coming from the room. The two boys growled, while I felt my fangs grow, eyes turning to their natural color. I shifted, barely fitting in the hallway. When I rounded the corner, I didn’t give the guards time to react. I lunged, pinning them both to the ground and putting my teeth around their necks and squeezing tight.

Their blood was like acid rolling down my throat. I’ve killed before, but never another wolf. When I shifted back, blood covered my mouth, a sense of horror rolling through me. I tried to push it down as I wiped my mouth, the two boys running over. Jimin gripped my hand, giving me a soft smile as I shook myself out of it. There was no time for shock.

We opened the door to see a man standing over Jin, who was on the ground, covered in blood. The man’s hands were on the wall as he kicked him mercilessly, Jin covering his face as he started to lose consciousness from the pain. Jungkook howled in anger, making the guard turn in surprise. He gripped his shoulders, throwing him off the eldest boy. Again, the shock of us being there was too strong, so before he could defend himself, Jungkook twisted his neck, breaking it and watching him collapse.

I was over Jin in an instant, holding his cheeks in my hands as he sagged in relief, limbs stretching out from his fetal position. He looked ten times worse than Jimin, both eyes almost swollen shut, blood rolling down his head and nose. He had cuts and bruises all over his body, and from the looks of it, a couple broken fingers and possibly a broken wrist.

“About time you got here,” He mumbled, shutting his eyes briefly.

“Jin, oh my God,” I whispered, a tear slipping down my hot cheek. Jungkook knelt down, brushing his sweat soaked hair from his forehead.

“I’m alright,” He mumbled, opening his eyes. “Help me up.”

Before we could say no, he started to stand. Jungkook helped him as I took a step back, holding Jimin’s hand as he looked at Seokjin up and down, tears welling up. Jin sighed in relief, gently cradling his wrist as he pecked Jungkook’s lips, moving and doing the same to Jimin and I.

“Let’s go get the others, shall we?” He said, slowly walking out.

“We’re not going to talk about this?” Jimin asked, wide eyed.

“Jin, you’re hurt, you can’t do this,” I begged, staring at him.

“The others don’t have time for me to be taken to a safe place,” Jin said, before flashing a small smile. “I’m okay, promise.”

Seokjin had a point, the others didn’t have time…. Jungkook and I made Jimin help Seokjin as we took the lead, Jungkook sniffing the air. Taehyung was the next closest, but he was much deeper into the maze of dungeons. We dodged corners and took out guards on our way, and when we arrived, it was quiet… too quiet.

Looking around, it was much darker than the other hallways. There weren’t many guards or screams, but many moans and groans of pain. There was a blood smell, but not nearly as strong. All of us walked down the halls, pausing in front of a room. There were groans of agony coming from inside, I was the only one who opened it fast, while the other hesitated.

It was Taehyung and he was hanging by his wrists from the ceiling, feet barely touching the ground. Jungkook and I quickly ran over, Jungkook lifting him up as I found the lever to put the chains down. He slumped to the ground, bringing his arms down and wincing in pain. They were both dislocated, so I walked over, gulping and holding his shoulder.

“Hold on, Tae,” I whispered, moving his shoulder back into place. He yelped in pain, eyes opening wide, before I did the same to his other one. This seemed to wake him up a bit.

He was definitely the least scratched up from the other two. He did have some scratches and bruises, a large bite mark on his thigh, no doubt from a wolf. It seemed to have stopped bleeding, but looked infected. Both his eyes were okay, there were no bruises, which was wonderful.

Taehyung had a big smile, pulling me into hug and kissing my neck, sighing in relief. He winced in pain from the stress of his arms, but I made sure to gently hug him back. Jungkook hugged him from behind, tears fresh in his eyes for the first time.

“You’re okay,” Jungkook choked out, making Taehyung pull away from me and hug Jungkook.

“Of course I am,” Taehyung whispered, pecking his lips.

I helped Taehyung up, making him ring out his neck and wake up his legs. His shoulders were sore, for obvious reasons, but he seemed the healthiest of the bunch.

“We need to find Namjoon, Hoseok, and Yoongi,” Seokjin said, making Taehyung go pale.

“Namjoon is close to me,” He said, frowning. “They didn’t torture me, but they put us close so…” He paused, biting his lip as he got teary eyed.

“What, Tae?” Seokjin asked, placing a hand on his cheek.

“So that I could listen to him scream…. They figured out that was the worst torture possible for me…” He whispered, a tear dropping down his face, dripping off his chin.

The last three boys we needed, my Alphas…. It wasn’t spoken between all of us, but we were all thinking the same thing. They were all going to be the worst of the ones taken… they would all possibly be unconscious, or worse, dead, because they’re Alphas…. We need to get to them, fast.

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spongeekat · 5 years

Text

Parachute Please (Superfamily + Spideypool ; ABO)

A one shot I wrote 2 years ago I wanna add here!

Summary;

Peter unexpectedly goes into heat after an Avengers mission, which could have been fine, but the ride back is 2 hours and he's stuck on a plane with his closest friends and family.

At least there's one person he can call at times like these for relief. And in comes Wade.

It had been a really off day.

When Steve’s curious eyes traced the outline of Peter’s mask, looking at him with a searching expression, he realized he must have muttered the concern outloud. The 19 year old pulled his own gaze up to meet his Pop’s, able to see the question on his lips before he’d even asked.

“Is everything okay?”

The answer to that wasn’t simple. Physically, Peter had only sustained minor injuries and bruises during the mission’s main confrontation, and while he’d been thrown back against a building, his back had been braced enough to protect him from any serious damage. Yet throughout the entire fight, he’d found himself unable to put the same strength into his kicks as normal; rather than pulling every punch, he was exerting his full force to take down the bigger robots. Mentally, he also felt he’d been suffering from an affliction, finding it harder to focus or maintain a steady thought stream. He’d run almost entirely on instinct the entire day, and it left him feeling more drained than normal.

“Yeah.” Peter finally managed to reply in a tired, high-strung voice, not sure any other explanation was worth worrying over. “I just wanna get back and sleep.” He shrugged the soreness out of his shoulders as he crawled onto the aircraft after Tony, Steve in tow.

“A cold?” Peter’s other Dad asked, his mechanicalized voice sounding from the speaker outside of his suit.

“Probably.” While he didn’t get sick very often, that seemed to be the most likely offender of his deteriorating state.

“I’ll check you out when we get back.” Bruce promised from the seat he had resided in throughout the mission, serving as an overhead eye and possible back up plan as per usual. “It’s getting closer to flu season.”

“Seriously, I’m fine.” Peter felt irritation spiking in his chest, dragging the mask off of his face that was making him feel much too overheated, his nose growing hot. Seeing the way Bruce retreated, pink flooded his cheeks and his own attitude fell. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to sound annoyed. I’m tired.”

The crime-fighting super teen rested back against the hard metal side of the aircraft, forcing his eyes to shut. The force of it taking off rattled his head, but at least trying to sleep was better than fidgeting in his seat and waiting for the two hour ride to be over. It was hard, getting his adrenaline-flooded body to relax enough that he wasn’t constantly shifting and uncomfortable. Eventually he succeeded, his mind drifting out of focus enough that he was in a dazed-like state that felt eerily close to being asleep.

It wasn’t until 15 to 30 minutes later- Peter was guessing, based on how absolutely not rested he felt- that he started to drift back awake. Well, he was jolted back to reality mostly. A hand on his shoulder shocked him, pulling his eyes open to look back up into the worried face of Captain America, the helmet no longer in place. It was hard to focus for a moment, golden brown eyes searching distractedly. He felt uncomfortable more so now than when he’d fallen asleep, though this went deeper than just his skin, making his bones feel like they were throbbing. And gods, his stomach was clenching hard, as if he’d throw up any second. Beyond that, he soon realized that every set of eyes in the aircraft were locked onto his pathetically exhausted frame, making him shift awkwardly under their gaze.

“I’m sorry, I--” Peter began to spoke, though he stopped as soon as he heard his own voice. It didn’t sound like him, being much too breathy and feeling higher in pitch. Only then did the connection start to form in his mind that it may not have been a cold affecting his behavior so negatively.

“...your heat.”

Peter managed to tune into the voice speaking to him in a calming tone, though the word only made him shudder. As if on cue, a hot flash rushed over the brunette’s skin, making him shiver from the crawling sensation of his skin.

“I-It’s not due for another 3 weeks.” Peter spoke in a panicked tone, still uncomfortable with the way his voice had changed. He sat upright with wide eyes, suddenly hyper-aware of his current situation. The cramps were growing increasingly upsetting by the second, and while the temperature of his body was certainly higher than normal, he knew he’d have at least another 20 minutes until it reached his peak. His suit felt uncomfortable on his clammy skin and- Oh gods- it was sticking to his thighs.

“Calm down, Peter, it’s okay. Sometimes things are out of sync.” Steve reassured his son, carefully resting a hand atop his hair. He worked to keep the omega’s focus on him, so he wouldn’t notice the blatant, wide-eyed stares from the other Alphas locked in the aircraft with them. He looked up at Tony, who was disengaging his suit pieces to offer assistance to the both of them. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you home.”

The comfort had little effect on Peter’s current mental status. His focus was almost entirely centered around the painful swelling in his abdomen that was creating a hollow sensation throughout his stomach, only for that tunnel to be filled with fire a second later. He’d suffered through heats for years, so of course each symptom wasn’t new to him, but he’d never had one hit during an extremely inconvenient time… such as being surrounded by his closest friends and family, the majority of which were alphas. He could very much sense each one’s prickling skin in the room. Even he had started to smell the pheromones pouring out of his neck, a sick mix of need and utter distress filling the small space.

“Suppressants?” The voice of the beta Bruce sounded far off in his mind, a quiet shuffling mute against the blood rushing in his ears as the man grew closer. A hand rested on his pulse point on his neck, making Peter’s eyes shut in a desperate attempt to cave in on himself while he still had the mental capacity to do so. He hated this. Absolutely hated the feeling of losing control of his thoughts and reactions as he fell into a deeper stage of heat.

“They do jack shit.” Tony answered as he seemed to have finally freed himself of the suit, taking the space just beside his shaking son. He wasn’t as skilled at comforting the smaller teen, usually taking a complete leave during these times to avoid any awkward moments between the two. Obviously, there was no walking out now and leaving him locked in his bedroom to figure this out alone. “His metabolism is too high on a normal basis, and even more so during these points. They burn off quicker than they work, and have the same health consequences.”

Peter wasn’t sure why, or when the whimpers had started to fall off his lips, though he raised a weakening hand to his mouth to cover them. The pain had started to escalate, and Peter felt as if he was being torn in two by a loneliness that could only be sated physically. The hand currently stroking his hair moved down to rub circles on the back of his neck, forcing Peter to relax into Steve’s body in a way he couldn’t fight against. Another wave of heat splashed over his skin, and he could feel the disgusting pool gathering underneath his legs. Slick had already ruined one of his suits. Having to deal with it a second time made his stomach churn.

“Do we have parachutes on this helicopter?” This time, it was Scott speaking. Peter followed their gazes up the other insect in the room, taken aback by his looks. His eyes were reddening on the edges, looking as if he was sitting on the edge of going batshit. The look terrified Peter, but the hormones hitting him that just screamed Take was what made another round of sheer arousal rush over him. He curled tighter into Steve’s side, forcing his mind back under his control as long as he could keep it. “Seriously, I can’t stay in here for another 2 hours. I’ll jump out if I have to.”

“You’re not the only one.” Natasha was currently bent over herself, her head trapped between her hands to force herself not to look. It was clear, by the way her hands gripped, she was fighting her own natural instincts to jump the terrified teenager just feet from her.

Clint was pressed against the furthest wall from the suffering Peter, rubbing his face. “Seriously, kid, cool it with the panic. Heat I can handle. Both are gonna end you up in a bad situation.”

“It is not young Peter’s doing.” Thor defended, looking as if he was barely keeping himself at bay, holding his lips. He was the only one outright staring, unable to tear his gaze away. “It is a natural part of Earthling’s lives.”

Meanwhile, Peter felt that he was actually about to melt into a puddle any second. His heats had been bad before, but at the current moment in time, he felt this was worse than any heat he’d been through. Maybe that was what he thought every time. Maybe it was due to the overwhelming pheromones reacting to his and practically choking him. 5 Alphas. Natasha, Scott, Clint, Steve, and whatever the hell Thor’s Asgardian equivalent was. He was swimming in a pool dominance, and it was quickly suffocating him.

“Pop.” Peter’s voice came out as barely more than a whisper, yet he managed to catch his attention. He was shaking, despite the comforting arm around his shoulders, and at this point, so embarrassed, he wouldn’t have minded passing out altogether. Luck wasn’t about to be on his side, however. It had already gotten this far in its twisted game. “Please.”

The word came out as a frustrated whimper, effectively rattling each of the Alphas already doing their best to contain themselves. Steve’s arm tightened protectively over Peter when he felt the stirring of the others in the aircraft, keeping his eyes locked down on the omega clinging to him. “What do you need?”

“Don’t let go.” Peter grimaced, drawing his arms around himself tightly. His fingernails dug into his sides, and Steve could see just how much he was struggling to keep ahold of himself. “I don’t wanna do anything...w-weird.”

Of course Steve wouldn’t let go. Parent Alphas were always extremely protective over their Omega children in heat. It took an hour, at times, to get Steve to stop waiting outside Peter’s door when his heat first hit. He tightened his arm as if to reaffirm that he wouldn’t leave him, despite the embarrassment clear on his face. Peter’s Want pheromones weren’t skipping over him, and while he recognized it was a natural part of life and he wasn’t able to control his lustful behavior… it was still uncomfortable to see his son moments away from begging for relief.

“We should get him out of the suit.” Tony said, reaching down as he started to tug at his own shirt. “To at least try to bring the fever down. He can wear this.”

“Wait, here.” Clint stood, walking over as he tugged off his t-shirt and dropped it on Steve’s lap. “Alpha scent. Might at least make it more bearable to wear anything at all.”

Steve nodded with an appreciative smile, helping Peter to sit up despite him truly not wanting to. The zipper tugging down instantly relieved some of the pressure on Peter’s body, though, as the spandex started to get pulled off his chest, the scent of the slick became stronger. The humiliated teen held hands over his face, pausing the process of him undressing as he gripped at Tony’s wrist. “I can’t.” he whined, hating the way it sounded on his voice.

“No one cares, Peter.” Tony said to try to settle his distress, sighing thickly. “They’ll close their eyes. We want to get you comfortable before this gets any worse. It’s at least another hour until we get back and you can take care of it.”

This somehow only served to upset Peter’s emotions further, though he pulled his arms through the suit compliantly, much to his parent’s relief. Steve managed to tug Clint’s shirt on over Peter’s small frame, his body twitching in reaction as an overwhelming Alpha scent filtered through his nose. Having so much Alpha scent surrounding him served to lessen the cramps in his stomach momentarily, though he felt another round of fire spreading through his bones as his body was tricked into believing he’d earned his attention. Tony did what he could to quickly pull off the suit, dumping it near the cockpit of the helicopter, as Steve settled Peter back in his arms, and things seemed to calm.

At least for a bit.

Peter had never been in the high of his heat in a room filled with people before. Even the first time, Tony had only stayed around as long as necessary to explain the dozen tools he'd bought him to make it through, then scurried off with a rant to Steve about puberty and mating, and how he definitely wouldn't let any Alpha get near Peter until he was 30. It was a nightmare only few Omegas had to deal with, and Peter was now added to that list.

His head was pounding, and each movement seemed to set fire to his skin. He wasn't sure when he'd automatically tried to pull from Steve's grip In search of a more comfortable spot, but he became hyper aware of hard arms holding him in a hug in place. He was panting, barely able to take a breath, his heart feeling like it was going to rip out of his chest. And fuck the curling of his stomach felt like it'd rip him right in two. He mashed his thighs together as his head pressed back desperately on Steve's shoulder, the trembling growing worse. He felt himself growing near hysterical, needing anything to alleviate the pressure yet fill the emptiness inside of him he could never quite reach. His breathing escalated to soft groans of discomfort, arms struggling to move on their own, though Steve kept them in place.

One of the Avengers had had quite enough of the display to handle.

“I'm about five seconds away from jumping off of the goddamn plane.” Natasha snapped, leaping to her feet and striding toward them in less than a second. “Move, Tony.”

“I'm not letting you touch my 19 year old son.”

“First off, don't even imply that I'd think of that.” A hand found the side of the older man’s head, knocking him effectively out of his seat with a desperation he couldn't combat. The woman settled next to the quivering teenager, ignoring the protective look she received from Steve. “Look, just… this is for both of us.”

Peter's entire body tensed when soft hands found his arms, pulling him to shift directions. He very nearly tugged away when he realized, through the dizzying confusion, who exactly was pulling him away from his Dad, but a low growl in his ear made him freeze up altogether and submit.

“Just relax, kid.” Natasha said smoothly in his ear. He tried to protest, tried to warn her that he really couldn't trust himself, that he needed relief, but a sweet scent filled his nose and knocked him downright delirious.

Slender fingers carded through thick hair as the boys face was pressed into the Alpha's neck, her arms encircling his shaking shoulders in an attempt to calm down his hormones. She felt her own body able to relax when the panic and anxiety reverted back to a pure need , And while that was just as difficult to resist as an unmarked Alpha, she knew she would survive so long as she had her hands lightly stroking comfort into his clammy skin.

Steve could feel his own skin prickling as sharp eyes watched the two protectively, his instincts telling him to be weary though his logic was forcing himself to keep calm. He finally relinquished his seat, standing and giving it away to Natasha as he paced the aircraft with a hand gripping tightly onto his own hair. He could stay calm and handle this. Peter was relaxing, which was good for all of them, and they only had to survive another hour.

Not long after Peter was pushing Natasha off and she was scrambling back when another wave of heat hit the teen, and he covered his lips to suppress sounds of need behind his flushed cheeks.

“Can’t you drop me off?” Peter mumbled miserably, sinking in on himself as he trembled from the heat flash, and the others on the aircraft were careful to give him his space as the small area started to smell entirely of desperate omega. “I’ll call someone to come get me. Or Tony can stay. But I seriously can’t just sit here with so much....” He gestured to the group sitting opposite of him, not even bothering to look at them. Slick covered his thighs, and he was too afraid by then to stand up, humiliation sinking deep into his core.

“Look, Peter, there’s always the front.” Tony offered, jutting a thumb towards the empty cockpit. “It’s enough privacy to get you through the ride, and we’ll get you home as soon as we can.”

“I-I can’t do that.” Peter flushed brightly at the suggestion, gritting his teeth from the sensation that threatened to swallow his conscious mind whole. “I can make it home.”

“Can you?” Tony challenged. While he hadn’t been through heat himself, he had heard many stories about those who had, and he couldn’t even imagine suffering through without even the use of blockers.

The answer he wanted to say was ‘yes,’ but his mind was squeaking out a “No” a second later. He shook his head, finally giving in to his bodily desires as he gripped hard onto the wall and used it to stand on unsteady legs. Steve held out his arms to catch and assist him, even as Peter protested, and he had a hand supporting him from his waist a second later.

“My phone.” Peter requested desperately, his body going into overdrive. “Wade’s voice. I need to call Wade.”

“Wade?” Tony frowned as he did as he was asked, grabbing Peter’s bag to dig through for the device. “Who?”

There was a small gasp from in the cockpit, and Tony looked back to see an incredulous Clint staring at them.

“Wade Wilson.” Peter whimpered in exasperation and impatience, reaching for his phone. “Deadpool. I don't need a lecture, just call him. I need his voice.”

Tony stared at him. Steve stared at him. Everyone was in slight shock, and only then did Peter's heat muddled brain realize he had just confessed to associating with the Alpha his family definitely didn't approve of.

“What?” Tony demanded, snapping Peter's phone down in an instant with a glare. “I'm going to fucking kill him.”

“Dad, not now.” Peter grimaced, clutching his stomach as his legs continued to threaten to give out. If he hadn't had powers, they might have a while ago.

“You're seeing Wade?” Bruce blanched.

“No, Oh my god. He just helps me during heat and--” Peter made an annoyed sound as he bit his lip, trying a hand to grab his phone again. “Please. ”

The tone of his desperation drug Tony from his initial annoyance, and he heaved a sigh as he walked towards the cockpit while searching for Wade's number. Steve helped Peter into the front area, setting him down gently on the seat. “We’re not done discussing this.” Tony grumbled as he held the phone to his ear, causing Steve to nod his silent agreement. “Because what the hell were you thinking, trusting yourself with him, of all people--?”

“Glad you decided to call, honey. Was starting to think you’d gotten tired of me.”

The sound of Wade's voice on the receiver made Peter's eyes snap up to Tony, his breath catching in his chest. Tony threw another suspicious look at the boy he’d make sure to thoroughly scold in a week, though for now his only focus was doing what he could to help with the symptoms. “Yeah, great to talk to you, too.” Tony grumbled in return, running a hand through his hair.

There was a pause on the line, and Peter looked like he would crawl out of his skin any second with anticipation.

“Didn’t think I’d be getting a call from the Man of Iron himself.” Wade sounded overjoyed, though confused, through the phone. “Not that this isn’t a huge fucking honor that I’m totally gonna write about in my diary later, but why’d you call me through Peter’s cell?”

“I was asked to call you for him, as he’s busy right now.” Tony gave a sharp look at his son, not wanting to relinquish the phone to him. Was he being a good parent by keeping him from the murderous man twice his age? Or a better parent by giving him the phone and granting him at least one comfort? He couldn’t decide. “Apparently you have more history than we know about. And you are definitely coming to the tower later to talk about it.”

Another silence, though Peter could practically sense Wade’s anxiety from where he sat.

“Sounds like a date.” Wade returned with a nervous, but playful, laughter. “I totally don’t mind talking, again, huge honor, but where is the little Peter-Pie?”

If Peter wasn’t currently squirming and ready to claw his own skin off, he would have been embarrassed by the nickname being used to his parents. Instead, he just stared helplessly as Steve snatched the phone away when a round of curses were layered on Tony’s lips. “Deadpool-- Er Wade, Peter is having a difficult time, and he was asking us to call you, as you seem to be the only thing that can calm him down. While this is wildly inappropriate and Tony’s promise will be kept for a discussion, please just help him survive the hour until we get to New York.”

“Got it, Cap’n.”

“Alright. We’ll be in the back, Peter. I’m sorry you’ve had to go through this.” Steve sighed as he ran another hand through the shaking boy’s hair, and with that, the two finally made their way back into the main area of the aircraft.

Peter’s fingers practically smashed the phone when he finally had it relinquished into his grip. He drew it up against his ear, desperate to hear the Alpha’s voice that his body was aching for. “Wade?”

”There he is.” Peter could practically hear Wade’s smile, and the fact both relaxed him and made a shiver run up his spine. ”That was weird. I didn’t expect you to tell them we were dating or something. I thought you had made it pretty clear I was just a helping hand.”

“That’s exactly what I told them.” Peter breathed out quietly as he closed his eyes, biting his lip to combat the warmth snaking its fingers to wrap around his stomach.

”Not trying to get me killed now, are you, sweetum--?”

Peter opened his eyes again at the sudden cut off, swallowing hard as he waited for him to finish his sentence. Even if the utter desire in his body couldn’t be comforted, his voice helped to alleviate some of the pressure, and give him a distraction. “What?”

”Petey, are you in heat?”

The question made his stomach churn, and he then realized he’d been breathing rather heavily into the receiver, which he backed away from his face. His flushed cheeks felt all the darker, leaving his voice to come out all the more weakly. “...no.”

”Shit. Where are you?”

“On a plane. Heading back from a mission.” Peter ran a hand over his forehead dampened by sweat, burning under his touch. “It’s not important. Just keep talking.” He whined, dropping his head back against the cold window that helped to cool his fever in the slightest.

”Are you getting off on my voice? Naughty boy.” The smirk curling in Wade’s tone would almost be enough to make Peter hang up altogether if he didn’t need this desperately.

“Sh-Shut up. No. Wade, I’ve been through enough, just-- nng.” Peter clamped a hand over his mouth when the sound fell from his lips, arm having lightly brushed the painful hard on tucked into his boxers. “I just need something.” He whispered pitifully, the shakiness growing worse. “I need you. You’re too far away.”

”Okay. Hold tight. I’m on the street right now, and the fact that you called me just to hear my fucking voice because you were horny is turning meon.” There was the sound of scuffling, and Peter processed the sound of running from the other end. The fact would make him laugh, if he wasn’t holding onto his every word like lifelines. A door shut on the other end, and it sounded as if Wade had practically slammed into a wall. Where he was, Peter didn’t know, nor cared. ”Sorry for making you wait.” A zipper dug out on the other end of the line, and Peter’s breath hitched. ”Did you hear that?”

Peter nodded numbly, before realizing he couldn’t be seen, and his faltering voice sounded a second later. “Yeah.”

”I bet you’re covered in slick right now. I love when you’re in heat and your thighs are just dripping--”

“Wade!” Peter turned a head back over his shoulder, though he couldn’t see anything past the curve of the wall to see if anyone was close enough to overhear their conversation. “I-I’m here with my Dads.”

”I’m not on speaker phone. They’re not going to hear.” Wade’s voice was teasing, and Peter could only swallow in response. ”Besides, this is all for you. I’m here just to make you feel good.”

“You can’t say things like that.” Peter groaned out, digging the heel of his palm between his eyebrows to calm his pounding head. “I need you so bad. I’m gonna go crazy. There’s so many Alphas here, and I can’t use blockers… and…”

”There’s one Alpha.” Wade’s voice lowered, and the way he purred had Peter tensing a moment later in natural submission. ”And that’s me, baby boy. I’m the only one you need to focus on. The second you step off that helicopter, I’m taking you to your room and taking care of you. But for now I can’t physically be there, so listen to my voice and try to relax, okay?”

“I-I...okay.”

”Okay.” Wade repeated. ”Close your eyes. Spread your legs. It’ll probably feel way better when you do that. Not so tight, yeah? That’s right. Are you sitting down? Press your feet on the edge of the chair and pull your knees apart. I wish I could see you right now. I’m sure you look so sexy.”

Peter drew his legs apart with effort, air rushing between his thighs to combat the heat that had been blooming between them. Sitting there he felt vulnerable, but Wade was right. The curve of his stomach at least helped to calm the cramps, and his thighs weren't sticking together uncomfortably. The scent of slick rushed to his nose as he grimaced, fighting the temptation to rip his boxers off altogether and slip fingers down to the source.

Peter was panting into the phone by then, his eyes closed as he was instructed. He tried to focus entirely on Wade's voice, though the quivering of his abdomen was hard to ignore.

“That's a good omega.” A pause. “I can practically hear you in pain, honey. There's no way you're going to last this another hour. No one's watching. Why don't you just touch yourself?”

Peter's eyes were open again in an instant when he felt his hand twitching to comply with his suggestion . “They're still only a few feet away.” he tumbled on his words, looking at the glass to try to search for their reflection. “I just wish you were here to--”

”Touch yourself.”

Peter barely had enough self control to suppress himself this long, and that resolve completely dissolved with the growl of an Alpha. It was easy to obey the order, his fingers finally pushing aside the top of his boxers in order to grasp his aching erection, the simple pleasure of doing so making him want to scream. His slender fingers quietly worked their way up his shaft, his body tensing and shivering as soft sounds danced over the microphone.

“Wade…”

”Gonna make you feel real good.” Wade hummed, and from what Peter could hear, was possibly stroking his own hard on wherever it was he had hidden. ”I'm gonna lay you out on the bed for me, and make sure you're comfortable. Rub the tenseness out of your body, starting with your toes, and I know you're going to be begging for me to touch you, but I want you to be completely relaxed before I spend the next 5 days with you in bed.”

Peter shivered as he picked up the pace with his hand. Wade chuckled on the other end, and shifted to make whatever wall he was leaning on creak.

“Sounds that good? I can't wait to taste you. I love how fucking sweet you are, Petey. I could do it for hours. Would you like that? Make you cum with my tongue until you’re just begging for my knot, but I’ll hold your hips down until I’m satisfied.”

“God.” Peter’s head dug back into the seat, his body locking up in satisfaction. He was so horny, so very deliciously lost in his need for pleasure, that even the way Wade spoke made vibrations echo up his spine. “I-I can’t--”

”And when I can’t take just listening anymore, I’m gonna pull those thighs right onto my shoulders and take you. Sugar, you’re always so tight. Gonna make it nice and slow at first, the way you like. But by the end of the night, all of New York is gonna hear you screaming for me.” And then Wade was panting, and Peter could hear the steady rhythm of beating off, and the thought that it was all for and because of Peter practically had his orgasm rushing over him on the spot. ”Come for me, baby boy. I want to hear you say my name.”

“Alpha..” Peter shot a hand up to cradle his mouth as if he was wounded, his back arching as a hard work of his hips sent his mind into haywire.

”Come for me.”

The electricity shot up from his toes, and came coursing through his body a second later. His hips jerked forward towards his hand, and he really didn’t have much thought or time to hide the sobbing of pure relief that came tumbling off his lips. His stomach quivered in appreciation, and he merely collapsed into the chair, breathing labored and his heart pounding in struggled exhaustion.

”I would love to see the look on your parents face right now.”

Peter blinked blearily up at the windshield, flashes of blue overtaking his visit. He suddenly became keenly aware of where he was, slowly edging back down into reality as the high wore away. And then he was blushing, because even if the cramps had worn off temporarily, there was absolutely no way he hadn’t finished discreetly when Wade had been expertly jerking around with his mind.

“I think there’s a really high chance you definitely don’t want to.” Peter mumbled as he carefully cleaned his hand off on his already dirtied boxers, grabbing the phone again. He started feeling able to breathe once more, and the feeling of no nullified pressure and pain greatly outweighed the embarrassment he’d feel later when facing the other Avengers. He knew he’d at least have half an hour until his heat picked back up, and he could likely last the last half hour until they returned to the tower and he could escape to his bedroom. “You might just wanna sneak in at night, and avoid their blow ups.”

”There is absolutely no way in this hell that I’m not gonna be waiting in your bedroom when you get back.” Wade chuckled, and Peter could hear him zipping up as a toilet flushed. ”Prepare that sweet Spider ass, Petey.”

“That’s your job.” Peter breathed back in return, a small grin slipping over his lips as he looked down at his lap. “Gonna try to sleep before it hits again. And I’m definitely showering first when I get back, before we do anything.”

”You say that now…~”

“Bye, Wade.”

”See you soon, baby boy.”

---

And though Wade showed up to Peter’s bedroom 20 minutes late with a repulsor beam wound gaping in his stomach that was quickly knitting itself together, the rest of his heat went fantastic.

#abo #spideypool #spiderman #deadpool #my fanfic #abo dynamics #omega spiderman #alpha deadpool #omega peter parker #alpha wade wilson #superfamily

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ask-the-cordium-crew · 5 years

Text

The Crystal the Cream and the Fall Maiden (A WKTC story)

warning: my grammer and puncation aren’t the best but even still i hope you enjoy the story and i’d love to hear your feed back! this story takes place during volume 6 this also gets a bit shippy involving the ship crystalcream so you’ve been warned for that as well

It was a dark late night and Celine decided to get a drink at haven at a bar this same bar was ran by Little Miss Malachite celine ordered jin and cola since too much alcohol made her pass out easily.

Her compainion was waiting for someone hiding it’s one of the only reasons she even felt safe in this place soon a woman in a hood came in and celine looked up this must have been the person her compain had been waiting for but why Celine wondered just who was this girl?

Soon enough Malachite said the name of the woman “Cinder”

Celines heart skipped a beat in fear as she looked shocked staring at the woman as she soon turned around as Malachite explained it’s rare she gets double survice from a customer soon Celines compainion showed herself much to Cinders confusion.

“Neo?”

Soon the two were fighting Celine watched on in horror she had to help she soon took of her own coat and got out some of her crystal balls thats when Miss Malachite told them that was enough and to take it outside Cinder and Neo soon went flying out the window and Celine ran out the door throwing some lien on the table.

She soon saw Cinder throw a fire ball at Neo and she easily blocked it with her umbrella Celine wasn’t just about to sit back and watch her compainion be killed off a red outline went over celine as the ground began to shake as she held two crystal balls in her hands one red one blue.

Soon Cinder was in the air as a mini tornado told Neo enough Neo seemed to have stopped.

But Celine didn’t she soon managed to sneak her way behind Cinder and she noticed the ground began to crack starting from behind her Cinder looked confused turning around Celine was crying as her eyes glowed brightly red she soon threw the grenades right in her face exploding instantly causing her to get sent into the ground.

Celine then went on to rise her hand up and cover her hand with green dust her eyes flashed green as a giant hand made from the pathment and grass grabbed onto Cinder.

Cinder soon broke free and grunted staring at Celine Neo then ran up to her ready to defend her friend Cinder soon sighed and her eye glowed.

“We both want ruby dead so lets discuss killing her together there is no point wasting your energy on me or having your... friend here do the same”

Neo hesitated but soon put her umbrella behind her back nodding her head to let Celine know to back off Celine sighed but nodded in return soon her skin went back to normal as she put her bag on her side.

Soon Cinder slowly came back to the ground and smiled a small bit “alright then lets talk”

Neo soon pointed to her mouth and Cinder groaned “Right...”

Soon they left the area and headed into haven acadmey thru a little broken entrance Cinder had discovered and they were inside the spring maidens vault in no time Cinder was spinning a knife around as she explained she knew to Neo and Celine soon enough they shook hands and agreed Celine didn’t shake her hand staying away from Cinder just looking around the place soon enough Cinder spoke up to Celine.

“Celine the seer ah yes i’ve heard of you found out who your husband worked for and managed to get away with your life impressive i must admit but then again you were once leader of your team so fighting one of your old teammates just to defend yourself dosen’t seem that hard despite how ruthless Mark can be and take it from me i’ve seen it first hand that is quite impressive.”

Celine stayed quiet for a few momemnts but then soon sighed and looked away.

“...You are a horrible woman honestly who you work for and work with are horrible people the only reason i am still here is i’ve grown to care for Neo and i wouldn’t abandon her i will not help you kill that poor girl just because you both hold a grudge.”

Cinder smirked and soon walked up and placed her hand on Celines shoulder Neo held up her umbrella just incase Cinder tried anything Cinder seemed suprised but soon let go and walked away from Celine and Neo put down her weapon when she did.

“Fine by me just don’t get in the way.”

Celine sighed and shivered Neo took notice to this and went up to her hugging her a bit they had been together for little under a year so she had grown to care for Celine over time and she did the same caring for Neo without Roman the girl was at a loss but with Celine at her side she felt like she had someone to care for her again but not a parent figure but something a bit more intimate.

Celine soon fixed her robes and went out todo some shopping she managed to steal enough Lien to buy what she needed including food money she was about to leave as she held up her hand and closed her eyes Cinder looked confused as she saw this and soon backed up looking shocked as a third eye appared in the middle of celines forhead the two seemed to have just been standing there as neos aura lightly glowed.

Celine was asking Neo what supplies they would need including food thru her seer ablties she was able to read Neos thoughts she couldn’t do this with just anyone but only with thoes she had a personal bound with and it had to be close Neo soon explained what they would need and told Celine to becareful soon enough Neos aura stopped glowing and Celine soon opened her eyes as her third eye slowly dissapered into nothing once more.

She then went off to get them all food and get both her and Neo some dust but before she left neo leaned forward lifting one of her legs in the air and lightly kissed Celine causing her to blush quite deep “n-not infront of her” she said nervously and Neo smirked as she mimicked snickering soon enough Celine left a blushing mess.

For Celine used her share of the dust to make new crystal balls soon having up to 30 Cinder was very intrigued by Celine she only thought her powers was a stunt to get peoples money but it seemed that what Salem told her was true.

It soon came to a month later Cinder was waiting in the forest for Neo to arrive soon enough an Airship landed and Neo came out and transformed back into her new outfit Celine had custom made for her and smirked Celine was in the pilots seat waiting for both of them to get aboard soon she saw the outside of the ship transform into an atlas aircraft then back.

Cinder and Neo soon got aboard as Celine closed the doors behind them both getting ready to lift off once again Cinder and Neo both smirked as they were soon flying off to atlas to kill little red Celine would only fly them there not wanting to be apart of this at all.

Only doing this for neos sake because she cared for her well and going to atlas gave her an excuse to see William again.

welp hope you all enjoyed the volume 6 story for Celine! in 3 days i’ll be posting a story about william

be sure to reblog and tell me your thoughts on the story! :D

#rwby #rwby au #rwby fandom #who killed markiplier #who killed markiplier au #markiplier fandom #who killed team cordium #who killed team cordium au #crossover au #rwby fanfiction #markiplier fanfiction #fanfiction #cinder fall #neopolitan #rwby neo #celine the seer #wkm Celine

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fal-carrington · 6 years

Text

Meant to be

Pairing: Victoria x Mc

Disclaimer: The characters belongs to PB

A/N: Hi, I'm back with a new fanfic. the lack of fanfics from Victoria and Mc disturb me deeply, so since our wife Kamilah is spending time out in the war and only God knows when she will return, I decided to start this new fanfic in a not-so-au universe. Enjoy!

Prompt: Weddings are a challenge, even more so when it comes to the two most famous women in Los Angeles. Hollywood weddings are famous for not lasting. Three and a half years of marriage were like a one-way to hell. After countless fights and no reconciliation success, Kitty and Victoria's marriage is on the verge of a terrible shipwreck. Victoria at risk of her third divorce and Kitty to lose the love of her life once and for all, but the two wrecks could be saved of the eminent disaster before the divorce papers are signed?

9h30 am, Los Angeles

“She doesn’t hear me!”

“She acts like a child!”

“I'm sick of it.”

"Are you tired of it? Try to be married to a teenager who thinks she's right all the time and who does just what she wants.”

“I think I'm right all the time? You're confusing me with you! I'm the one who keeps on apologizing!” Kitty snorted angrily, looking steadily at the blonde sitting arms and cross-legged.

“I think we had a... Progress today.” Judy, the therapist looked at both of them with a serious look over her glasses. She made a few notes on her pad and looked at the couple again, barely looking at each other. Both on distant and opposite ends on the couch. “Well ... How do you feel now that you two have expressed your feelings?

"Even more angry.” Victoria said between her teeth.

"I have no idea what I'm doing.” Kitty said.

"You never have.” Victoria countered.

“Did you see that?! She incorporates this ‘diva persona’ at all times, thinking that sarcasm will solve our problems!”

“Did you just call me diva?” Victoria looked at her angrily.

“Well, certainly, since you always behave like that. She gets mad at me without me doing anything, not even telling me the reason!”

"I don’t have to tell you. You did the shit, you have to solve it.”

“Oh, come on!”

“I believe we are evolving with our sessions.” Judy answered. “Our next step is to understand and learn to respect the differences between you two. Victoria, you have to learn to be more patient and understanding. Katherine, you in turn have to learn to deal with the situation itself and take it more seriously.”

“I'm taking it seriously! I just do not understand why we need therapy. We're just misunderstanding, I do not think it's necessary.”

"That's exactly why we need therapy." Victoria replied.

"Our time is up." Judy said glancing at the watch on her wrist. "The task I'm going to give to both of you this weekend is to take some time to sit down and talk to spend time together. I'll see you two next Friday and hope you guys took some advantage out of today's session.”

Victoria got up and left the office with Kitty behind her. The blonde reached the sidewalk in front of the office and was greeted with flashes of paparazzis, she rolled her eyes and put on her sunglasses. They both got into the car, which was launched into the streets of Los Angeles.

Kitty looked tentatively at her wife. Victoria watched the street out the window with an expression on her face that Kitty knew perfectly well and feared that expression. The blonde's lips were compressed, her jaw closed, and a furious look in her brown eyes.

The brunette girl sighed.

"So, uh... Vic?" Kitty called out.

“What?” Victoria asked without turning.

"Uh... Do you want some coffee? I'm free now and I just have to be on set from two hours.”

“I can not. I have rehearsals now. I told you twice today.”

“Oh. I forgot, I'm sorry.”

Victoria sighed and looked at her.

"Look, I'm really sorry I was late for your mother's dinner last Saturday. I did not know it would be so long on set. And besides, your cousin's cake was not even that good...”

“What? Katherine!”

“I'm telling the truth! And you should not have yelled at Teja for having defended me after our incident at the bar.”

"She was getting on top of you!"

“She was drunk!”

"Okay, Kitty, what's your point?" Victoria sighed.

"We're both wrong and we've been fighting for stupid things for some time. So can we at least give a break? And please stop fighting?”

Victoria took a deep breath, swallowing what she had to say that would probably end the moment. Kitty was trying, she had to recognize it. She looked at the blue-eyed brunette.

“Of course. It was getting tiring to fight against you.”

Kitty smiled.

"...And if you want, I can cook for you tonight."

“We're talking now. I promise I'll be home early.”

“Ok then. Sounds like a plan.”

Victoria stared at her Chanel watch. 23:30 pm and nothing from her. No calls, no messages. Yeah, she could not say she was surprised. Could she have forgotten?

Since Kitty had become one of the most important stars in Hollywood, she did not have time for almost anything. Victoria understood and respected this, she also made films, appearances, interviews and everything, but she stopped from time to time to try to spend time with her wife too.

Things had waned since their second year of marriage. Things were different and real with Kitty, unlike her other marriages. She was happy and knew that Kitty was the perfect person for her. Thirty-eight years old and she was in love with a twenty-five-year-old girl. Despite that, she wondered if Kitty was mature enough to maintain that relationship. To maintain that wedding.

Kitty was the kind of person who at the same time did not take herself seriously, she took herself seriously. But she still had a breathtaking smile that irritated Victoria every time she saw her with that smile.

Victoria sighed and extinguished the candle in front of her. It was kind of sad to think she'd wasted time expecting that only person. She never dealt very well with her feelings, her anger always ended up getting the best for her and she would probably explode eventually.

She got up and collected the dishes, keeping the rest of the dinner that was laid out on the table.

Deciding that the best thing would be to sit in the living room and wait. After a few minutes and a few glasses of wine, she finally could hear the sound of the front door of the large mansion opening.

Kitty had finally appeared. She set the keys carefully on the glass table as she looked at Victoria as if she were looking at a wild bear. Victoria looked over her glass of wine.

"A little late, is not it?"

“I had to redo some scenes...”

Victoria set her wine aside.

“Save it. Dinner's in the fridge. If you are hungry, warm.” She stood up threatening to leave the room. Kitty stepped in front of her. "Get out of the way, Kitty. She said patiently, holding her tongue to keep from exploding again.

"I know, I'm wrong this time, and I'll do my best to repay you."

"Get out of my way, Katherine.”

Kitty sighed and did so.

“I'm so sorry. Really. Please forgive me for missing the dinner.”

"I bet you do." The blonde said with an ugly face as she walked down the long corridor of the mansion in her fluttering black robe, as she walked quickly, Kitty was trying to follow her.

“Victoria... Tell me what to do. I do anything.” She stopped in front of the bedroom door. “My cell phone battery is gone. I swear, there was no way I could respond to warn you that I was going to be late. And you know how Thomas can be strict with the use of cell phones on the set!”

“You don’t need to do anything.” Victoria entered the room and headed for the bed, taking a pillow and returning to Kitty and handing it to her.

“What am I supposed to do with it?” The brunette stared at the pillow without understanding.

“Use him to sleep.”

“Victoria...”

"I do not give a damn just... No.”

"Are you really pushing me out of our room? Where should I sleep?”

Victoria shrugged.

"You do not think it's too much? I told you I'm sorry!”

"I've heard it a million times, Katherine! You always feel sorry, you feel a lot every time you do shit and come with that puppy face of regret! I'm tired of hearing the same thing every time.” Victoria, unable to stop herself, shouted. "But you know what? I do not care! If every time you act as if all the things that come out are more important than us...”

“Do not say that! I never put my responsibilities ahead of us! I never did, you are the most important thing on the world for me.”

“I understand about the movies, the interviews, the trips to film out... The only thing I do not understand is Hunt!”

“He's just a friend! How many times do I have to say?”

“I was not born yesterday. You may have been born, but I have not. I've seen the way he looks at you.”

Kitty sighed and ran her hand through her hair as she always did whenever she felt frustrated.

"Stop with that jealousy, silly. I’m only faithful to you, you are the only one that I want.”

"You don’t sleep here tonight." Victoria replied coldly, Kitty sighed and nodded in an ugly face, as if accepting her punishment. She stepped back and turned away, as she turned, Victoria undid the ugly expression on her face, replacing it with a sad expression as she watched Kitty walk away.

She sighed and lay on her bed. Victoria reached out her hand and looked closely at the wedding band.

"You know... One hour you'll have to talk to me," Kitty insisted one morning as Victoria paced back and forth, making her coffee. It smelled good, the best thing about waking up early was to smell fresh Victoria's breakfast through the house. The blonde ignored her words, continuing to prepare her pancakes.

Kitty leaned against the counter. Watching her walk away with a plate in her hands and sit down at the table.

"Uh, where are my pancakes?" She asked looking around the kitchen. Victoria held out the spatula for her. She sighed. "Oh, forget it. I'm going to eat some on the way to the set.” She grabbed her purse and threw it over her shoulder.

The worst thing about being in the middle of fight with Victoria was being blacklisted by her.

“... So clearly you two did not do what I told you both to do." Judy sighed watching the couple barely look into each other's face. "And things are obviously worse, you two are not making it any easier."

"She don’t talk to me," Kitty complained. "It's been a week, and I'm exhausted. I've tried countless ways to get her to forgive me. I bought flowers, presents, I even tried to make her croissants!”

Victoria snorted, rolling her eyes.

"And she ended up burning."

Judy sighed and touched her temples.

"You kicked me out of the room!"

"You deserved!"

"Now are you talking to me ?!"

"Okay, okay. Enough you two. You spent all our time in therapy discussing the reason for this stupid fight. I do not care. You both solve this, you two have to understand that if you continue with this, your marriage will not last for long.”

And for the first time that week, they both looked at each other. The fear was evident.

#choices you play #victoria fontaine #victoria x mc #red carpet diaries

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nubnubblr · 5 years

Text

If You Do .1

Masterlist

THEA

"I really don't want to be here," BM whined, for the 100th time since we walked in the door, five minutes ago.

"We know," Charlie rolled here eyes.

"We've literally been here five minutes," I frowned.

"That's five minutes more than I wanted to be here," he grumbled.

"Dude, seriously," Sam chimed in.

"I'm just going to complain the whole time we're here, you should just let me go home,"

"You'll get bored with complaining eventually," I shrugged.

"No, I won't,"

"It's your money, you're building, and you have to live in it. You should at least have a say in what is bought," I tired to reason.

"Just take my card and get me a comfortable lounge, I don't actually care what it looks like," he held out his credit card waving it around.

"I'm not spending your money without you being here, besides, Sam can't lift things on his own and Charlie and I can't lift things. We need your muscles,"

"You can totally lift things, you actually scare me with your manual labour ability," he frowned.

"Yeah, well, I don't want to, besides we won't fit everything in Charlie's car and she won't let you drive it, so suck it up and enjoy,"

"Yo, what's our budget here?" Sam asked.

"Should we have really brought him here?" I turned to Charlie.

"Even if we hadn't told him, he would have sensed we were coming here, he has an IKEA radar. The amount of time he spends here on his own," she shook her head.

"Like you two in Target are any better," BM frowned.

"We only buy the essentials," I glared.

"You have two fruit bowls," he raised an eyebrow.

"And an empty spice rack for more spices than you two will ever actually use," he added.

"We need two fruit bowls, you boys are over more often than not and always eat our fruit so we have to buy more fruit, thus we need more space to store said fruit. Therefor, we need two fruit bowls. As for our spice rack, it's only empty because it's new and she bakes, and I'm a chef, we need all those spices," I defended.

"Also, shut up," I added.

"You would have made your point so much better if you didn't tell him to shut up," Charlie shook her head.

"The problem with Thea is she keeps talking when she should just stop, especially when she says something stupid, she just carries on, half the time trying to explain what she meant which just makes it worse," Sam stated.

"Shut up Samantha," I frowned.

"You didn't answer my question," Sam turned to BM.

"Just get what we need, beds, lounge, stuff like that," he shrugged.

"You realised he has probably been on Tumblr and the IKEA website, and already planned out the entire space by now, right?" Charlie raised an eyebrow.

"Whatever, the bar is finished and the upstairs bathroom has been paid for,"

BM had bought a building a few months ago and had just finished renovating the ground level from an outdated restaurant into a bar. Something he had been wanting to do since before we were in high school. The building's second floor, I assume use to be used as an office space or possibly a studio apartment seeing as it had a functioning bathroom, if you could call it that. So BM, who had just put basically all of his money into buying and renovating the bar, decided that he would use the office as a living space for him, Sam and our other friend Jae, who's jobs pay little and infrequently. It's a smart plan, except BM hates shopping and they're all currently sleeping on foam mattresses on the floor of the empty space. Which brings us here, to IKEA, which happens to be one of Sam's favourite places.

"Did you just give him a limitless budget?" Charlie frowned.

"God no, the budget is about half of whatever is in my account right now,"

"Only half?"

"Mm, the other half is delegated," BM nodded.

"I guess I'll have to work on a budget," Sam nodded.

"Yeah because you have so much money normally," Charlie pulled a face at him. Sam just mimicked the face she pulled and continued walking, BM shuffled his feet next to me continuing to make it obvious that he didn't want to be here. Because he hadn't made that blatantly clear already.

"Stop sulking, we'll be out of here soon enough," I nudged him.

"No we won't, you brought Sam to IKEA, we're going to be here for hours," he huffed as his phone started ringing.

"Hey bro, what's up?"

"Yeah we're not there, I've been kidnapped and dragged to IKEA with the girls, you've got to come save me... Yeah Sam's here too, the spare key should be in the usual place, just drop your stuff off and come down... Okay, see ya,"

"Jae's on his way,"

SAM

My phone buzzed in my pocket, the other four were bickering about the consistent whining which was just redundant. 'Bianca <3' flashed across the screen, I let out a sigh and slid it back into my pocket. The ringing stopped, and it started ringing again, when it rang for a third time I gave up on ignoring it and answered it.

"Hey," I sighed.

"Hey, I tried calling, where are you?" she asked as if we hadn't spoken less than twenty minutes ago.

"I told you I was going out, we're at IKEA getting some things for the apartment," I answered absently looking through the display room.

"You should have said so, I would have come with you, I know you hate IKEA, and I have killer interior design skills," I wouldn't call an entirely orange and pink apartment with tacky miniature statues and leopard print everywhere, killer interior design skills.

"It wasn't planned, it was another one of Thea's spontaneous ideas,"

"Thea," she hummed,

"Is Charlie there too?"

"Thea's here so,"

"Well I'm not doing anything, I'll come and help, you're apartment will need a feminine touch and god knows those girls don't have it,"

"It's okay, we won't be here too long, I'll just come to see you once we're done and we'll go get something to eat or something,"

"I don't mind really, I'll just get changed and be right there,"

"B, really we won't be long,"

"Love you," she chimed before hanging up.

"Was that Beunka?" Charlie asked, saying her name in the pretentious way Bianca insists it's pronounced.

"It was," I nodded

"Checking in?"

"Something like that, yo, checkout that bed," I changed the subject. It wasn't exactly hard to figure out that the girls and Bianca didn't get along, Charlie especially didn't like Bianca and Bianca was unnecessarily jealous of Charlie, she made it a point to try and be around me every time Charlie was.

"I see you in more of a racing car sort of bed," she teased.

"Have you ever though of stand-up? I mean you're hilarious," I rolled my eyes going to actually look at the loft style bed. It was the style of bed I was looking for.

"I resent your sarcasm,"

"In that case, I believe you should resent almost all of yourself," I countered.

"You don't know me,"

"Hey is anyone else hungry?" Thea asked.

"I could eat," Charlie shrugged.

"Why don't we grab some food while we wait for Jae?" she suggested.

"Sounds like a plan, anything is better than shopping," BM continues to whine.

"Dude, shut up, no one likes a whiny bitch," Thea frowned at him.

"Some people do," Charlie shrugged making a small dig at Bianca.

"Let's get food," Thea smirked.

"Does anyone even know where the food court is?" BM asked, they all paused and turned to me.

"What? Because I've been here a billion times you think I know where everything is?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah pretty much," was the general consensus.

"This way," I lead them towards the food.

"See," Thea stated smugly.

"No one likes a dick Thea," BM smirked at here.

"Not true," she smirked back winking.

"We can't take you anywhere," he shook his head at her.

"We can't take either of them anywhere," I pointed out, honestly they were as bad as each other.

"Good thing we brought you here then, huh?" Thea rolled her eyes.

"Like you two are any better, the only difference is we're funny and you're lame," Charlie shrugged.

"You think you're funny," BM muttered.

"Better to think we're funny than look funny like someone we know," Thea looked directly at him.

"Are you sure you're not actually 4?"

"Only mentally," she shrugged.

They continued to bicker back and forth while I lead them to the food court, Charlie added a comment here and there which threw BM off guard for a few seconds, long enough for Thea to throw a comeback at him. In the end he gave up, and sulked a little which only made them ridicule him some more.

"Look, food," I stated in an attempt to save him.

"Why are you looking at me? You eat more in one meal that both of us combined, in a whole day," Thea defended herself from and attack I wasn't staging.

"I was simply pointing out we were in the food court because you wanted food, do you not remember?"

"Probably not, her memory is as bad as the men she's attracted too," Charlie took the opportunities to make fun of her.

The two had a running joke, Thea liked old men and Charlie liked children. Every time, we'll not every time but quite frequently, if Thea finds a guy attractive he turns out to be over 30 and if it's Charlie finding a guy attractive he's between 18 and 20 which in her head is a child, in reality, they're only 4-6 years younger than her.

"Yeah well at least mine have memories, will yours even retain their memories yet?"

"They have their whole life to develop memories, yours are basically dust, they grow older as rapidly as they lose their memories,"

"That's how I like my men, old and dusty, at least they don't smell like a baby,"

"That's disgusting," Charlie pulled a disgusted face, if you didn't know her you would think it was the old and dusty comment, it was actually the baby smell comment, the smell itself actually makes her sick, she boarder line throws up. It's probably a good thing she hates children because I don't think she could handle having them.

"It still confuses me that you can literally use you bare hand to pick up any kind of animal poop, you don't even flinch if they get any form of bodily fluid on you but the slight smell of a newborn and you're out of that room so quick you would think it contained a plague," BM shook his head.

"Animals are adorable, babies a gross and sticky, I'm confused as to why people choose to have them,"

"You realize you were a baby once right?" He frowned.

"I didn't choose to have me, I would have aborted me," she shrugged.

"I would have aborted you too," Thea agreed.

"Like anyone else would understand what you're saying," Charlie countered.

"I have BM,"

"Who only understands you half the time,"

"It's not my fault he's dumb," she shrugged.

"I'm not dumb," BM drowned

"Yes you are," Thea nodded.

Arguing with her was pointless, she'll just keep going until she gets bored and then she'll tell me to shut up. I swear she has the mentality of a toddler, a cranky over tired toddler.

"Just sit down," he rolled his eyes.

"You can't tell me what to do,"

"So you're just going to stand there the whole time?"

"No, I'm going to sit down, but only because I want to, not because to told me too,"

"You really showed me," I replied sarcastically.

"Shut up," she pulled a face.

"Child," I retorted.

"You realizes you're as bad as each other right?" Charlie raised an eyebrow.

"We are not," we both said at the same time.

"Thea is worse than me,"

"Yeah," she agreed.

"Can we just get food so we can get back to what we came here for?" Sam stated.

"He's getting IKEA itchy," Thea smirked.

"He's always IKEA itchy," Charlie stated.

"Where is Jae?" Sam ignored them.

"On his way, why?"

"Because he'll keep her entertained," Sam nodded to Charlie.

"One, don't refer to me as if I'm an infant, that's gross, and two he'll just join in and you know it,"

"She's right," Thea nodded.

"I'm always right," Charlie shrugged.

"You've been wrong before," I stated without thinking.

"Name one time I was wrong?" She challenged.

"Dude, she doesn't argue, comment, or make statements if she doesn't know she's right," Thea shook her head at me.

I was sure she had been wrong about something before. So I tried to think about it but I couldn't remember at this point.

"See" Charlie stated smugly after what felt like about five minutes of my inability to think of one.

"Never wrong," Thea smirked a millisecond later.

"Can we just eat?" I sighed.

"No one is stopping you," she nodded.

"What does everyone want? I asked.

"Why are you paying?" Thea teased.

"If it gets me away from you for five minutes,"

"That was mean," she frowned and pouted.

"You're annoying," I shrugged.

"I'm bored, I've been bored all week. Having nothing to do after working full time will drive a person crazy you know,"

"What's your excuse for when you were working?" I countered.

"I have to deal with you," she shrugged.

"You should try dealing with you,"

"If Charlie can deal with me I'm sure you can,"

"Charlie is as broken as you,"

"No, I'm not," she shook her head.

"Okay, she's on the same level of broken as you, just not as bad,"

"You're so mean when you're forced into going shopping," she pulled a face at me.

"Hello," Sam sighed.

We stopped bickering thinking he was talking to us but he was on the phone.

"We're in the food court, just follow the yellow line on the floor until you find the sign that says food court, yeah, okay just stay there and I'll come get you, bye," he hung up the phone and stood up.

"I'll be back in a minute," he stated leaving the table.

"Where are you going? Jae knows how to follow a coloured line," I frowned.

"It's Bianca not Jae," he said before leaving.

"Did anyone else know she was coming?" Thea pulled a face.

"No," Charlie also pulled a face.

"It explains why he has to go find her," Thea stated.

"Seriously, this is not what I had in mind when you said we were going to IKEA," Charlie rolled her eyes clearly annoyed.

"I didn't invite her," Thea defended.

"Well obviously," Charlie shot back.

"Play nice you two,"

"Shut up BM," they said in unison, which eased their irritation slightly seeing as they both laughed a little.

"Dude, does she even know the difference between a bed and a lamp?" Thea questioned.

"Of course she does, a bed is what she sleeps with Sam on, a lamp is what he turns off so he doesn't have to look at her when he's doing it," Charlie nodded.

"With that logic, she might think a lounge is also a bed, and probably the floor and a shower," I commented.

"Dude I don't want to hear about their sex life," Charlie pulled a face.

"Is it morally okay for him to sleep with someone that has the mental age of a toddler?" Thea asked sounding a little too serious.

"Toddlers are smarter that her," Charlie stated.

"You two are so savage," I shook my head.

"You should hear what we say about you," Thea smirked.

"That you're eternally in love with me?"

"Not even in your dreams," she shook her head.

CHARLIE

It didn't take long for Sam to come back with Bianca. Yay. I noticed her hair first, her usually very bleached, probably severely damaged, bottle blond hair was still mostly the same, except she had ombréd pink through the bottom, which interestingly enough, was the exact hairstyle I had the last time I'd seen her. Not that I was surprised.

"Hey everyone," she plastered on a smile, I'm guessing it was fake seeing as Sams face held a slightly bored, slightly annoyed expression which he normally had when Bianca was annoyed and had tried to argue with him about what ever it was that had annoyed her. Probably my presents here. She was consistently pulling me aside and trying to warn and or threaten me to 'stay away from her man' which honestly only made me hang out with Sam more, mostly to spite her but partially to see if she would do anything because I was certain she only knew how to act threatening, or at least try. Please, my kitten holds more of a threat.

"Oh, you have a new hair style?" Thea asked slowly.

"Yeah, I just had it done. Do you like it?" She smiled smugly. That girl spends way too much money on her appearance, and it's not helping.

"I got kind of bored with it after about a week," I shrugged.

"I thought I'd seen it somewhere before," Thea nodded.

She had a habit of doing that, if I did something, or wore something, she would either do something extremely similar or just out right copy it. Honestly, she was probably insecure about how close Sam and I are, she should be more worried about the fact that Sam is only with her out of convenience.

"Let's eat," BM stated.

"Do you want something?" He turned to Bianca.

"Can I get something with no sugar, no carbs, no gluten or dairy, and is fat-free?"

"So, water?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Well she can't use up her calories this early in the day," Thea smirked.

"How many calories are you Sam?" Jae walked up behind him.

"Dude," BM frowned.

"What?"

"That's gross,"

"Thea put the idea out there, I just asked,"

"Thea shouldn't speak half the time," BM stated.

"Hey," she pulled a face.

"I hear Thea puts a lot out there," Bianca made an attempt at joining in on the usual banter, the issue there is, none of us liked her, not even Sam. Which meant it was okay for us to attack each other but it was not okay for her to do it.

This was clear by the way everyone stopped joking, BM looked over at Thea who looked both shocked and like she wanted to jump over the table, I half though she would, half knew she wouldn't at least not in such a public setting. Jae looked amused by the whole situation, but he usually was.

"That wasn't okay," BM stated slowly.

"Yeah That was kind of mean," Sam added with a small frown.

"Why? I was joking?" Bianca was completely oblivious to the mood.

"You're a joke," I shot.

"You think I'm funny?" She smiled not getting the insult.

"I think it's funny that Sam chooses to continue to put it in someone with an IQ of negative,"

"Charlie," BM shoot me a warning look.

"What? It's not my fault she doesn't understand when she's being insulted,"

"I think I would understand if someone was hitting me,"

"I said insulted not assaulted," I rolled my eyes.

"What's the difference?"

THEA

Charlie was getting more annoyed the longer their conversation continued. Sam looked uncomfortable, Bianca was literally too dumb to know she was being insulted but Sam knew, he wasn't an angry person so he wasn't going to get mad at Charlie for it, but that didn't mean he was okay with it either. Sometimes I felt bad for attaching her, in front of him anyway.

"Insulted is done verbally, assaulted is done physically," BM frowned explained trying to defuse the tension. Idiot.

"She'll figure out the difference on her own if she keeps talking," I stated.

"What?"

"There is really no point explaining it, why don't we just eat and get this over with?" Charlie rolled her eyes.

"That's a great idea ChaCha," Bianca used my nickname for Charlie, which the boys barely got away with using and they only got away with it sometimes.

"Don't call me that," Charlie stared at her seriously.

"Why?"

"Only I get to call her that," I answered, to an outsider it probably seemed childish.

"Oh relax Theo, were all friends here," she shrugged this time using Charlie's nickname for me, which made me more mad.

"One, were not all friends, and two, you can't use our nicknames for each other because we don't like you, these three don't even get to use those nicknames and we at least kind of like them," Charlie stated but again the tone and complete message of her comment completely evaded Bianca.

"We're totally friends,"

"Okay B, you know how you only let your grandmother call you Bianca?" Sam stepped in.

"I don't let her, she's just too dumb to know how it's actually pronounced,"

"My point is you don't get mad when she calls you Bianca but you get mad when everyone else does?"

"Yeah, because it's pronounced Beunka,"

"This is the same kind of thing, only they can call each other by those nicknames because they get mad if anyone else does it,"

"Why? They're nicknames it's not like it's their real names,"

"Seriously, a brick wall has a higher IQ," Charlie shook her head.

"What is an IQ,"

"Why don't we just skip eating," I stated slowly, the less time we had to spend with Bianca the better.

JACKSON

I walked through the door and set the box on the table, the TV was on so I was assuming Mark was also the home for lunch, until he walked out of the bathroom clearly just having showered.

"Sick day?" I raised an eyebrow.

"There was nothing to do and I can do nothing at home," he shrugged.

"Right, do you actually do work anymore?"

"I do boss stuff,"

"Okay boss man I have pizza, because some of us only have lunch off and can't sit at home all day,"

"You choose to work, why are you home?"

"Because I'm apparently working in the city for the next two weeks," I sighed.

"And that's bad?"

"Do you know how much of a pain it is to work in the city? With rude assholes and everyone is a rush to get to where every they're going?"

"Dude, I work in the city permanently,"

"You sit in a CEO office while your slaves do the foot work,"

"What's your point?"

"I work on the street in the weather with the people, and they're not very nice,"

"Again you choose to work, no one forced you, besides one phone call and you wouldn't have to work in the city. So, I'm not really seeing the issue, I mean you're home for lunch and you'll be home like almost two hours earlier than normal,"

"I don't like working in the city,"

"Whatever, where's the pizza?" He shrugged.

We were finally leaving IKEA, two and a half hours later. We would probably have spent more time and had more fun, or any kind of fun, if Bianca hasn't of been here. The girls were annoyed, mostly Charlie, probably because whatever Charlie pointed out for, not just Sam, but any of us, she insulted and pointed out something she thought was better - it wasn't. Then Bianca would get mad because we chose what Charlie or Thea pointed out, that gave the two a small victory but it didn't seem to minimize the irritation levels at all. You would think the tension would ease when we left the building, but it didn't.

"So where to now?" Jae asked once we'd finished loading the flat pack furniture onto the back of my Ute, the smaller items had gone into the back seat and boot of Charlies Mini Cooper.

"Well this isn't going to put itself together," Charlie nodded to the pile of boxes.

"So home?"

"Obviously," Charlie stated.

"Should we get something for lunch on the way? Like a hot chicken and some bread rolls?" Thea suggested, she was like a mother sometimes, when she wasn't a four year old anyway.

"Sam and I can get it," Bianca suggested. The girls faces changed.

"Why would you get it?" Charlie frowned.

"We don't have anything in my car, it will be easier,"

"Oh, you're not helping," Charlie shook her head.

"Sure we are," Bianca smiled.

"Sam," Charlie gave him a serious look.

"Charlie's rights, Beunka took time out to come and help with shopping when she didn't have to. You should take her to lunch to thank her," I suggested, Sam nodded understanding what I was doing.

It was bad enough having them all in IKEA, if we left Bianca in a small space with Charlie, Thea, and tools, it probably won't end well. It's worrying enough letting Thea handle tools, let alone giving them a target.

"That's a good idea, let's go to lunch,"

"We can't just leave them to do it, if there's more people not will get done quicker,"

"Like you'll be any help anyway," Thea rolled her eyes.

"No I don't think it will, besides the room isn't very big so it will just be cramped with a lot of people being in there," Sam stated ignoring Thea's comment.

"I really feel like we should help,"

"Why don't we go to that restaurant you wanted to go to, the one your friend was bragging about?"

"Really? I thought you didn't want to go?"

"But you want to, so do you want to go to lunch?" Sam pushed.

"Of course, sorry guys we'll help next time,"

"Yay," Charlie rolled her eyes sarcastically.

CHARLIE

"Do you think I could run her over and claim it was an accident?" Thea asked.

"She's too dumb to think it was on purpose, and if she did it wouldn't take much to convince her otherwise,"

"If she lived," Thea shrugged starting the car.

We followed behind BM's truck and Bianca followed behind us, for a minute I was worried that she had changed her mind about going to lunch and had decided the come and help us instead.

6 notes · View notes

callunavulgari · 5 years

Text

Scrapbook 2019 | Pt. I

Goals are: read one hundred books this year, finish five video games, write something novel-length and write something original. These last two goals CAN be combined.

MOVIES

January

(Kingsman: The Golden Circle)

Pitch Perfect 3

February

(Big Hero 6)

March

Geostorm

Captain Marvel

(Thor Ragnarok)

(Avengers: Infinity War)

(Pocahontas)

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Venom

April

(Brave)

(Flipper)

(Spirited Away)

(Breakfast at Tiffany’s)

How To Train Your Dragon 3

Crazy Rich Asians

Matilda

The Death Cure

The Mummy (2017)

(Monster’s University)

Avengers: Endgame

May

Detective Pikachu

Bohemian Rhapsody

The Rim of the World

June

(Zombieland)

Rocketman

The Secret Life of Pets 2

Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse

July

Spiderman: Far From Home

Truth or Dare

(Coraline)

BOOKS

January

Ender’s Game | Orson Scott Card [Fin]

The Poppy War | R.F. Kuang [Fin]

Turtles All The Way Down | John Green [Fin]

Challenger Deep | Neal Shusterman [Fin]

The Bear and the Nightingale | Katherine Arden [Fin]

Shards of Honor | Lois Mcmaster Bujold [Fin]

(Throne of Jade | Naomi Novak) [Fin]

The Wicked King | Holly Black [Fin]

Vengeful | V.E. Schwab

Elantris | Brandon Sanderson

February

Vengeful | V.E. Schwab [Fin]

Elantris | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

(Black Powder War | Naomi Novak) [Fin]

(The Amulet of Samarkand | Jonathon Stroud) [Fin]

Once Upon a River | Diane Setterfield

(The Golem’s Eye | Jonathon Stroud) [Fin]

(Ptolemy’s Gate | Jonathon Stroud) [Fin]

The Screaming Staircase | Jonathon Stroud

March

Once Upon a River | Diane Setterfield [Fin]

The Screaming Staircase | Jonathon Stroud [Fin]

The Girl In the Tower | Katherine Arden [Fin]

The Whispering Skull | Jonathon Stroud

(Empire of Ivory | Naomi Novak) [Fin]

The Two Towers | J.R.R Tolkien

Winter of the Witch | Katherine Arden

Saga, Vol 1 | Brian Vaughn

Saga, Vol 2 | Brian Vaughn

Saga, Vol 3 | Brian Vaughn

Saga, Vol 4 | Brian Vaughn

Saga, Vol 5 | Brian Vaughn

Saga, Vol 6 | Brian Vaughn

April

The Whispering Skull | Jonathon Stroud [Fin]

The Slow Regard of Silent Things | Patrick Rothfuss [Fin]

The Two Towers | J.R.R Tolkien [Fin]

Winter of the Witch | Katherine Arden [Fin]

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns | Julie Dao [Fin]

King of Scars | Leigh Bardugo [Fin]

The Hollow Boy | Jonathon Stroud [Fin]

Mistborn | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

The Well of Ascension | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

The Creeping Shadow | Jonathon Stroud [Fin]

The Empty Grave | Jonathon Stroud [Fin]

May

Hero of Ages | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

Everything I Never Told You | Celeste Ng [Fin]

The Kiss Quotient | Helen Hoang [Fin]

The Two Towers | J.R.R. Tolkien [Fin]

The Near Witch | Victoria Schwab [Fin]

The Trials of Apollo | Rick Riordan [Fin]

Alloy of Law | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

The Gentlemen’s Guide to Vice and Virtue | Mackenzi Lee [Fin]

Shadows of Self | Brandon Sanderson

The Dark Prophecy | Rick Riordan

Sabriel | Garth Nix [Fin]

June

Shadows of Self | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

The Dark Prophecy | Rick Riordan [Fin]

(Victory of Eagles | Naomi Novak) [Fin]

Warbreaker | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

(Tongues of Serpents | Naomi Novak) [Fin]

The Bands of Mourning | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

What If It’s Us | Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera [Fin]

A Court of Thorns and Roses | Sarah J. Maas [Fin]

Carmilla | Kim Turrisi [Fin]

The Alchemist | Paulo Coelho

The Eye of the World | Robert Jordan

The Hundred-Foot Journey | Richard C. Morais

Three Dark Crowns | Kendare Blake

Mistborn: The Secret History | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

The Eleventh Metal | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

July

The Alchemist | Paulo Coelho [Fin]

The Eye of the World | Robert Jordan

The Hundred-Foot Journey | Richard C. Morais [Fin]

Three Dark Crowns | Kendare Blake [Fin]

Saga Vol. 8 | Brian Vaughn [Fin]

Saga Vol. 9 | Brian Vaughn [Fin]

Codename Villanelle | Luke Jennings [Fin]

Borne | Jeff Vandermeer [Fin]

Crucible of Gold | Naomi Novak [Fin]

The Time Traveler’s Wife | Audrey Niffenegger [Fin]

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy | Mackenzi Lee [Fin]

The Wise and the Wicked | Rebecca Podos [Fins]

Sweetbitter | Stephanie Danler [Fin]

Blood of Tyrants | Naomi Novak [Fin]

PODCASTS

January

Adventure Zone Ep 1

EOS 10 s4 1-4

February

EOS 10 s4 4-7

March

The Penumbra Podcast

April

Adventure Zone Ep 2

May

Welcome to Night Vale Eps 30-54

The Bright Sessions -Bonus Eps-

June

Welcome to Night Vale Eps 54-59

The Penumbra Podcast (Second Citadel eps + last two Juno)

July

Welcome to Night Vale Eps 60-

The Magnus Archive Eps 1-11

TV SHOWS BY SEASON

January

Voltron s8

The Flash

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

February

Happy

The Umbrella Academy

The Flash

Black Mirror

Russian Doll

March

The 90s

The 2000s

(Sailor Moon)

Maniac

The Dragon Prince

(Inuyasha)

American Gods

April

American Gods s2

Voltron s8

World’s Weirdest Homes

Game of Thrones s8

Brooklyn 99

The Bold Type

Cupcake Wars

May

Schitt’s Creek s1-3

Game of Thrones s8

June

Schitt’s Creek s4

Good Omens

The Terror

Chernobyl

Black Mirror s4

July

Rick & Morty s3

Stranger Things s3

Schitt’s Creek s4

VIDEO GAMES

January

Pokemon Go?

(Kingdom Hearts: DDD, 54 hrs) [Fin]

Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee

Detroit: Become Human [Fin]

Kingdom Hearts 3 - Monstropolis, 20 hrs

Life is Strange, Episode 2, 4 hrs

February

Kingdom Hearts 3, 56 hrs [Fin]

Pokemon Go

Life is Strange, Episode 5, 20 hrs [Fin]

Life is Strange -Before the Storm- Episode 1 complete, 5 hrs

God of War (3 hrs)

March

God of War (35 hrs) [Fin]

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (40 hrs)

April

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (43 hrs)

(Final Fantasy XIII)

Portal 2 [Fin]

Final Fantasy 15 - Episodes Prompto, Ignis, Gladio, and Ardyn [Fin]

May

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (70 hrs)

Life Is Strange -Before the Storm- Episode 2 complete, 15 hours

June

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (120 hrs) [Fin]

Rime (1 hr)

Final Fantasy XII: Zodiac Age (1 hr)

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (2 hrs)

July

Rime (25 hrs) [Fin]

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (35 hrs)

Witcher 3 DLC: Hearts of Stone [Fin]

Witcher 3 DLC: Blood and Wine (10 hrs)

DELIGHTFUL FIC

January

What Dreams May Come by Lenore | Crimson Peake | Edith/Thomas | 5k | Ghosts are real, and there are things that tie them to this world. Sometimes it's because they want to linger, and sometimes it's because they are trapped. Sometimes ghosts need the help of the living before they can be truly free.

and prove your body wrong by paperclipbitch | The Defenders | Matt Murdock/Jessica Jones | 1k | Neither of them can read minds, but they both fake it for their day jobs.

these roads will take you into your own country by notbecauseofvictories | American Gods | Shadow/Laura, Gen | 5k | Here’s a joke for you: a Muslim, a zombie, and a leprechaun walk into a bar in Misery, Indiana. No one stares, because no one in the puckered, shitty asshole of Misery, Indiana gives a fuck. The Colts are playing.“Fucking new gods,” the leprechaun mutters, hunching his shoulders almost up to his ears. “Gridiron and Pepsi commercials.”

Small Step For Man by Toft [archived by yuletide_archivist] | Greek Myth | Artemis/Apollo | 4k | "It's all right, sister," Apollo whispers, and his arm is warm around her shoulder. She forgets, he is her twin, he is her other half; he knows her almost as well as she knows herself. "We're still the same."

learning curve by Yuu_chi | Detroit | Hank/Connor | 15k | “While sexual activity is not my default purpose, I do possess the capability,” Connor says without so much as batting an eye, unaware that he’s completely shattered Hank’s world view in one single sentence.

machine learning by kriegersan | Detroit | Hank/Connor | 31k | “This kinda shit doesn’t go away overnight. It’s only been a few months, Connor. We’re only just starting to know what this is gonna look like.” Lt. Anderson throws back his beer.“You think I don’t know that?” He sounds defensive. He tempers his voice. “I’m simply processing.”

eighteen wheels on an uphill climb by blackeyedblonde | Detroit | Hank/Connor | 73k | Hank is going to die. He’s going to die right here in Kentucky, 53 years old, halfway to broke, and tragically sober. Survived only by a nine-year-old St. Bernard and the 31-year-old twink who delivered the fatal blow.

Fuck pride (pride only hurts, it never helps) by ImogenGotDrunk | Detroit | Nines/Gavin | 40k | What Gavin cannot deal with is Connor’s replica; two inches taller, blue-eyed, and with a mouth that Gavin doesn’t know whether to punch or take between his teeth. The RK900 model has been assigned as his partner for the foreseeable future.

linguistics, semantics by pseudoanalytics | DBH | Hankcon | 49k | "So, what? Cyberlife gave you a preference for ugly, old, washed-up bastards?" Connor intentionally allows himself to appear unamused. "Absolutely not." He waits for Hank to look at him again before delivering his punchline. "I believe I developed that for myself."

Skin Deep by bughnrahk | DBH | Hankcon | 50k | Hank is 53 years old. He's never had a soul mark, doesn't have a soul mate. And he's fine with that. He cheated the system once and it cost him everything he had. Never again.When August 2038 rolls around and the number '313 248 317 - 51' appears on his arm in perfect Cyberlife Sans font, exactly where a soul mark should be, Hank wants nothing to do with it.

Watch Me, Watch You by elefseus (oscillos) | DBH | Hank/Connor | 82k | WIP | "How do you go about living when everything you've ever known changes? Can you?"

the most formidable lies by fshep | DBH | Connor/Gavin | 15k | WIP | Gavin is given an ultimatum: agree to give his mother’s coworker’s son a chance, or introduce his family to his new boyfriend, Connor, who isn’t his boyfriend at all.

February

and we'll figure it out by consumptive_sphinx | Temeraire | Lawrence/Tharkay | 1.5k | Everyone is born with their soulmate's name written on their skin, somewhere. Laurence has two names. Neither of them are in a script he can read.

Propriety and Fate by esama | Temeraire | Lawrence/Tharkay | 3.5k | It isn't as if one can go and talk about such things

Watercast by Fishwrites | Voltron | Keith/Lance | 205k WIP, Chapter 15 | Shiro has been a Galra prisoner for over a year; with his flight feathers clipped and unable to fly. Desperate to escape, he jumps overboard while being transported to the capitol on a Galran ship. Lance is a merman who saves him from drowning. Keith thinks Shiro is about to become mermaid dinner. Hunk just wants Lance to stop going to the surface all the time, dammit!

Afterlife by jaegermighty | Haunting of Hill House | Gen, Luke-centric | 6k | Leigh and Steve name their daughter Eleanore, with an 'e' on the end which is more old-fashioned, they say. Eleanore Olivia Crain. Lots of dead people in that name; Luke's not a fan. Not that anyone asked his opinion.

in memoriam by oxymoronic | Bartimaeus | Gen | 1.5k | Kitty Jones has but a little strength left in her body, and she has decided on this lazy summer's night to spend it on the question which has plagued her for half a century.

March

Second Chances by rootbeer | Teen Wolf | Sterek | 2k | "A lot of times the ‘markings’ were common, simple things you said to strangers all the time. 'Excuse me'; 'thank you'; 'hello'. Some got extremely romantic things like 'it’s you isn’t it? I’ve been waiting for you' or 'Wow you’re really pretty'. And they were always the first words their soulmate would ever say to them.Of course, having 'You are the fucking worst kind of person in the world' tattooed down your side, didn’t bode well.

have your cake and eat it too by keskasi | Naruto | Naruto/Sasuke | 7k | “What’s it like to give a blowjob?” Naruto asks.

Timing it Right by DragonBandit | The Bright Sessions | Mark/Damien | 14k | Damien's gold rises at Whitney. Mark tries to make things right.

April

and maybe you'll find a way to keep me a floating when i can't by LazyBaker | Stranger Things | 3k | Billie’s tough. Nothing but sharp edges with sharper teeth. She’s all bark and all bite.

A thousand by Ever-so-reylo (Ever_So_Reylo) | Star Wars | Reylo | 3k | “I’m going to kill you, now.” The problem is—really, the crux of all of Rey’s problems at the moment—he actually thinks he means it.

He Who Is Made Of Iron by MayContainBlueberries | The Queen’s Thief | Gen, Costis centric | Tea reminds Costis of his childhood.

May

for my wild by vixleonard | GOT | Arya/Gendry | Set post 8x04, Arya tries to find out who Arya Stark is now.

Almost Cool by blacktofade | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Shane/Ryan | 30k | While filming the Yuma Territorial Prison episode, Shane gets bitten by what he thinks is a bat. Spoiler alert: it's not.

Two Worlds Collided by blacktofade | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Shane/Ryan | 10k | There's a new guy at work and Ryan belatedly realizes they've actually already met once before.

Keeping Out the Cold by blacktofade | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | After a strange ghostly encounter, Ryan and Shane begin sharing visions via a telepathic bond. AKA: the In Your Eyes AU that no one asked for.

Bringing Things Together by blacktofade | Buzzfeed Unsolved | 7k | “Look,” Shane says over the phone. “Mistakes were made.”

Pride by astolat | Game of Thrones | Jaime/Cersei/Brienne | 22k Jaime didn’t understand why Cersei suddenly insisted on trimming his hair and shaving his beard, but he also didn’t care to fight her on it, even though he’d just as soon have kept the beard: it was bitterly cold in the small tower room with its arrow-slits. At night, even curled together under the two blankets they’d been allotted, it took the better part of an hour before their bodies could warm the bed enough to sleep.

L'aura è tua messaggera by Rosyredlipstick | PJO | Nico/Will | 9k | Or, how the Stoll Brothers accidentally got Nico di Angelo and Will Solace together.

June

Competition by astolat | GoT | Jaime/Brienne | 11k | Almost the instant Brienne was out of earshot, Bronn turned to Podrick, jerked his head towards Jaime and asked, “Has he fucked her yet?”

Skin and Scales by Ernmark (M_Moonshade) | The Penumbra Podcast | Arum/Rilla/Damien | 17k | The man glares, and this time, Damien is certain it isn’t a trick of the light: those eyes are violet as amethyst. He wears disdain like a second skin–- or, perhaps, like the scales that he is missing.“Lord Arum?”

I will become yours and you will become mine by spiderwebsitar | DBH | Reed900 | 24k | After an argument with his new partner, Gavin Reed wakes up five years in the future married to an android who won’t stop making fucking waffles.

Numerology by Hth | Schitt’s Creek | Patrick/David, Sebastien/David | 20k | Still, it's true that Patrick can have his shy side. He likes to be a gentleman – Mr. Order Whatever You Want I'm Paying and Mr. Here Let Me Fix That For You and Mr. No David Not In the Backseat I Want It to Be Special – so David can't entirely rely on Patrick's willingness to charge forward for the greater good.

someone you like by caela | She-Ra | Adora/Catra | 5k | catwithabat u think ur so hipster but u just look like a lesbian 27m she_ra @catwithabat bc… i’m a lesbian. lmao 5m

Ugly Words and Pretty Things by Ias | The Terror | Crozier/Fitzjames | 4k | There are words for a man like that.

Sands of Time by tirsynni | LoZ | Link/Ganondorf | 97k | Link awakens in the desert with no idea how he got there, to encounter his worst enemy...except it was the King of the Gerudo, not the King of Evil, he faced.

death shall be no more by Ias | The Terror | Fitzjames/Crozier | 5k | "I'd rather we leave our tents behind and sleep two to a sack like the orphans we are, than to leave one man alone with last burdens."

and then redemption by spidermooned (softlyblue) | Marvel | Spiderman & Loki | 7k | "Kid," says Tony Stark wearily, "Please gimme a reason Loki's been spotted talking to Spiderman that isn't 'I wanted to be his friend'. Please. Tell me you can do that."

so many ways to talk about longing by lymricks | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 3.6k | Steve wakes up--in a pool lounger--to Billy Hargrove looming over him. Billy pushes his sunglasses down and Steve thinks sleepily that it must be so that Steve gets the full impact of Billy’s narrow-eyed glare. “Harrington,” Billy says. “We’re fucking closed.”

sun gutters by lymricks | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 5k | Steve can feel Billy’s eyes on him. “You should get here early,” Billy says, casually. “Tomorrow. At six.”

Finders Keepers by blacktofade | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 3k | Ryan wakes with a hangover and an empty bed, and only one of them he expects.

Back Room by forthegreatergood | Good Omens | Aziraphale/Crowley | 5.6k | Aziraphale actually does have quite an extensive collection of pornography in the bookshop. Like most of the questionable things in Aziraphale’s life, it’s Crowley’s fault.

killed with kindness by veterization | Persona 5 | Akechi/Akira | 52k | Goro can't quite figure out why so many people keep acting like they're his friend.

July

On mandated uniforms and workplace entertainment by Thei | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 2k | Robin loves this job. Besides an income, it also provides her with quality entertainment. Especially when she's working with Steve, and Billy Hargrove shows up.

paper thin by sarcasticfishes | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane/Sara | 9k | Shane’s new neighbors are a morning-sex kind of couple.

your love is three times better by sarcasticfishes | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane/Sara | 14k | Ryan grimaces as he types out the words, >It’s Valentine’s Day. Don’t you want to do romance stuff?

you, through half-shut eyes by brawlite | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 8k | Two parts sugary sweet summer vibes, one part snarky instagram stories, and three parts mutual pining.

damn.nation, now available on itunes by antistar_e (kaikamahine) | Good Omens | Crowley/Aziraphale | 11k | When lowly tempt-pusher Amphora (formerly of Stairwell 7B North, before she Fell,) gets the notice that end times are nigh, she gleefully quits her job and cancels her Netflix subscription and takes her place among the legions of hell.This, it turns out, was a bad plan.

The Dragon and Her Wolves by hapakitsune | Game of Thrones | Sansa/Dany/Jon | 60k | When the truth of Jon's birthright is revealed, control of the North and Daenerys's claim to the Iron Throne are both called into question. To preserve their tenuous alliance and secure her rule, Daenerys puts aside her personal feelings to arrange a marriage of political convenience between Jon and Sansa Stark.

Bonded by softestpunk | The Witcher | Emiel/Geralt | 13k | Regis is punished for Dettlaff's assumed death, Geralt comes to the rescue, and the two of them gain something neither of them would ever have dared hope for.

Something We Were Withholding Made Us Weak by triedunture | Good Omens | Aziraphale/Crowley | 17k | "Yes, exactly. Retire." Aziraphale reaches for the last remaining tartlet brimming with summer berries. "Somewhere along the south coast, perhaps."

something happens and i'm by brawlite | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 10k | Billy loves his job as at the Hawkins Community Pool. It's even better now that Steve Harrington's a lifeguard, too.

break up with your girlfriend ('cause i'm bored) by thecopperkid | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 15k | @umissedconnections: Bambi eyes. m4m. i was rippin cigs in the sae p-lot. u made urself puke 2 make room 4 more beer. incredible? ur my hero PLS say ur into guys

I’m Gonna Keep You in Love with Me (for a While) by beethechange | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 22k | “Okay,” Shane says finally. “Okay. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re just going to—we’re going to be married. The only way out is through.”“Um,” Ryan says, because this plan strikes him as counterproductive to their shared goal of not being married.

YELLOW SQUARE by dejavu (suggcest) | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 16k | “Since being the scene of those two, grisly double homicides in the early 1950’s, the Bringle House Bed and Breakfast has sat empty, waiting for the next couple stupid enough to try to stay all four nights.”

darling it's a faded notion by varnes | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 28k | Ryan and Shane get cursed by a ghost, and now they can't be not-touching. It's ... not great.

Things That Go Bump in the Night (and 7 till 12 at weekends) by HoopyFrood | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 4k | Shane works at a Haunted House. Ryan is Ryan. Things go about as well as you'd imagine.

Everything's Weird and We're Always in Danger by beethechange | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 15k | “It won’t go away,” Ryan says miserably. “I’ve been like this since we got here, basically, and it won’t fucking—”

Muscles Better and Nerves More by beethechange | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Shane/Ryan | 26k | “I’m serious,” Ryan says. “Don’t go fucking up my body. I want that shit back in the same condition I left it.”

DELIGHTFUL FANVIDS

January

(Marvel) Avengers | True North

A Sad Man With A Box

►Dance to 2018

Collab Parts (2016-2018)

just a machine? [Detroit: Become Human] *HBD Pteryx*

【Detroit｜Become Human】Way Down We Go

She-Ra AMV | I'm Just Your Problem (Catradora)

multifandom || 2018 (the way I remember it)

Detroit: Become Human || Paralyzed

in the end | connor & hank | detroit: become human

BELIEVER - Connor ( Detroit:Become Human ) GMV

who are you? | Connor | Detroit: Become Human

Detroit Become Human - Connor ~ Blood in the Water

Connor - I'm So Sorry by Imagine Dragons [Detroit: Become Human] GMV

» whatever it takes (connor; detroit become human gmv)

Detroit: Become Human / Connor and Hank / Uptown Funk

Would You Kill?| Connor RK800 [Detroit: Become Human]

Rude Boy | Connor | Detroit: Become Human

hold on | connor & hank | detroit: become human

Interstellar | STAY

sabrina spellman *:･ﾟ✧ [look what u made me do]

Stranger Things || Blood in the Water

February

(GoT) Margaery Tyrell || The Queen

Kingdom Hearts 3 EPIC AMV/GMV - Part of the Journey is the End

My Hero Academia AMV - The Greatest Show

Endgame | The Man Who Killed The Avengers

MARVEL || Not Today

March

Marvel/DC || FRICTION

Luke & Nell || There's no without

MARVEL || Blood On ME

What is a STORY?

TUA | Swallow Us

(SW) Obi-Wan Kenobi | Whispers of the Past

Quentin & Eliot || Beautiful nothing

queliot; peaches + plums

Way Down We Go | Red Dead Redemption 2

Marvel || Together

steve x bucky || answer

part to act on [Harry Potter]

April

marvel || supercharged

(Marvel) Avengers || The Big Three -- Iron Man/Thor /Captain America

Guardians of the Galaxy

CAOS || Welcome To The Jungle

Marvel || Rise or Fall

Avengers | Sacrifice [4K]

(Marvel) Tony Stark | I love you 3000

May

(Marvel) Captain America || I Stand Alone

(GoT) Daenerys Targaryen | See What I've Become

Ser Jaime Lannister

Arya & Sandor // Thank You [+8x05]

Kingdom hearts 3 |Dearly Beloved| AMV |

June

(GoT) Cersei Lannister || The Queen Of The Seven Kingdoms

(GoT) The Dragons || They're My Children

(GoT) Melisandre || A Champion Of Light And Life

Bioshock & Infinite - Never The End (Epic and Beautiful Fanmade Video)

Bioshock Infinite : Constants and Variables : Music video/Tribute

Crowley & Aziraphale ][ Don’t Stop Me Now || Good Omens

Crowley ][ Rebel Just For Kicks || Good Omens

i'm the bad guy | villanelle.

mission accomplished • connor RK800

The Haunting of Hill House || Empty hands

Mad World ✘ The Umbrella Academy

July

(GoT) Daenerys Targaryen || The Last Dragon

Steve Harrington [Burn The House Down]

max&eleven | my blood.

Billy Hargrove [Bury a Friend]

Max Mayfield [Rebel Just For Kicks]

billy hargrove | gasoline.

Stranger Things | Heroes

✥ STEVE HARRINGTON ✧･ﾟ: * HANDCLAP {+S3}

billy hargrove | lovely.

stranger things 3 | blood in the water.

Steve Harrington; I Need A Hero

Kilgrave ][ Bad Guy

billy&steve [harringrove] || a little death (+s3)

Avengers | Sacrifice [4K]

Stranger Things || Shelter

Kilgrave ][ Rule The World || Jessica Jones

Ben & Rey | What do you see?

Billy Hargrove - RIP to my YOUTH

a thing about life.

(SW) Obi-Wan Kenobi | Whispers of the Past

The Avengers | Unreachable Star

Steve Harrington || Another One Bites the Dust

DELIGHTFUL MUSIC

January

Dark Night - Kara | Philip Sheppard

Carousel - Kara | Phillip Sheppard

They All Look the Same - Connor | Nima Fakhrara

Curse of the I-5 Corridor | Neko Case

Way Down We Go | Kaleo

Gasoline | Halsey

Sleep All Summer | Neko Case

Hold On, Hold On | Neko Case

Dreaming at Daybreak | Ann Licater

Can’t Leave | Whiskey Charmers

Voodoo Mon Amour | Diablo Swing Orchestra

Undo - Transviolet

Xuanzang - Gareth Coker

Almost - Hozier

Movement - Hozier

Dancing in a Room - EZI

Snow Dancer - Antti Martikainen

Burned Out - Dodie

Epic (pt 2) - Anais Mitchell

Mercury - Honey and the Sting

February

Spanish Sahara - Foals

Obstacles - Syd Matters

If You Still Believe - SIE Sound Team

The Expanse - Through Juniper Vale

The Woods - San Fermin

Sophie - The Altogether

Tom Thumb - Bitter Ruin

Wolves of the Revolution - The Arcadian Wild

Mitchell: Epic III - Cast of Hadestown

Hamilton soundtrack

The Spine - Transistor soundtrack

Don’t Think Twice - Utada Hikaru

Face My Fears - Utada Hikaru

Take On Me - Hidden Citizens

Moonlight Sonata - Hidden Citizens

Waves - chloe moriondo

Alligator Teeth - Mother Falcon

We All Become - Darren Korb

Ashes - Bear McCreary

Journey and Transistor soundtracks

March

The Sailor Song - Autoheart

It’s Quiet Uptown - Kelly Clarkson

Fernando - Cher

Dinner & Diatribes - Hozier

The Fly By Night - Taktsugu Muramatsu

Wake Up, Moving On - Kevin Penkin

April

Austin Wintory Radio

Resurrections - Lena Raine

Fight For You - Hidden Citizens

Mine - BazziIn the Flame - Darren Korb

Paper Boats - Darren Korb

May

Thedas Love Them - Trevor Morris

The Dawn Will Come - Trevor Morris

King - Blue October

Lemonworld - Ocean Alley

Still Feel - Half Alive

Carry On - Kygo

Longshot - Catfish and the Bottlemen

Call Off Your Ghost - Dessa

Sucker - Jonas Brother

Power Over Me - Dermot Kennedy

A Hole In the Earth - Daughter

Lunatic Fringe - red Rider

June

Ummah Oum - Kaya Project

The Fortress - Kaya Project

Good Omens Opening Title - David Arnold

A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square - Tori Amos

A Future for the Krogan - Christopher Lennertz

Ганджу - brain tumor

last piece | Lykke Li

Bite - Charlie Cunningham

Wait For Me - Hadestown

Nightmare - Halsey

Kaya Project albums!!!

Birds - Imagine Dragons

Crazy - Patsy Cline

Can’t Help Falling in Love - Elvis Presley

in waves playlist

July

in waves playlist

Rime soundtrack

2017 soundtrack

bury a friend - billie eilish

bored - billie eilish

the seed - aurora

how do you - elderbrook

quicksand - x ambassadors

what’s up danger - blackway

bad guy - billie eilish

sunflower - post malone

scared of the dark - lil wayne

elevate - dj khalil

be still, my tongue - snorri hallgrimsson

dark matter - les friction

must’ve been - chromeo

magnets - disclosure, lorde

secrets - the weeknd

feels like summer - childish gambino

the hunter’s mark - erutan

johanna in space - stephaen sondheim

POSTED FIC

January

N/A

February

children of dust and ash | Bartimaeus | Bartimaeus/Kitty(/Nathaniel) | 1,801 words | Kitty summons Bartimaeus on a chilly fall day in her thirty-eighth year.

March

sweet music playing in the dark | DBH | 1,102 words | “I noticed some time ago that you seem to have an appreciation for jazz.” Connor pauses, his fingers hesitating over an old Billie Holiday album. “I’d wondered if that meant you enjoyed dancing as well.”

April

N/A

May

Radio Ga Ga | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 1,143 words | There’s always another party in Hawkins, Indiana. It would be almost boring if it weren’t for Steve Harrington.

June

Sunlight | Marvel | Loki/Thor | 765 words | They aren’t quite out of the solar system when Loki appears at the arm of Thor’s chair, hair shorn short and a furious snarl on his face.

July

like the bough of a willow tree | Detroit Become Human | Hank/Connor | 1,214 words | There’s a human lost in his woods.

knocking on heaven's door | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 1,748 words | “Just, get in the fucking car. I’ll drive you home.” Billy looked at him, very seriously, and said, “What if I don’t want to go home?”

WIPS | UNPUBLISHED | ORIGINAL

January

like the bough of a willow tree | DBH | Hank/Connor | 1,286 words | There’s a human lost in his woods. Fae!Connor

hankcon valentine’s exchange fic | DBH | Hank/Connor | 985 words | slow dancing and kisses in the dark basically

February

N/A

March

N/A

April

Sunlight | Avengers | Loki/Thor | 746 words | They aren’t quite out of the solar system when Loki appears at the arm of Thor’s chair, hair shorn short and a furious snarl on his face.

May

N/A

June

Untitled Original | Ghost + rain | 817 words

July

Reverse BB | 5.6k

FANMIXES/GRAPHICS

January

N/A

February

N/A

March

June

in waves playlist

#heather says what #scrapbook

1 note · View note

kovacissues · 6 years

Text

There’s No Way I’m Falling (Dejan fic) Chapter 2

A/N: in this chapter you get to see more of Dejan’s thoughts! I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 2: Her Favorite Flowers

The next morning Mimi was woken up suddenly by her alarm clock. God how she hated the sound of that thing. While she was tempted to press snooze, she knew she had to get up and shower right now if she was gonna be able to get to work in time. When the warm water of the shower hit her body, she felt as if she washed away all the sins that she committed in her dreams. As she got out, she dried herself and felt fresh as she no longer thought about the endeavors of her dream.

An hour later she got to the office and was confused as she saw a huge flower bouquet on her desk. Stepping closer she saw that there was a card attached to one of the roses.

I just read your article online and I must say you did an amazing job! I am happy that we got to meet, and hopefully it will happen again soon. -Dejan

Mimi kept wondering if it was normal for this to happen, nobody else had flowers on their desk. Granted, she was the only woman so maybe that had something to do with it? She shook off the thought and checked her mail to see if her boss had sent her a new assignment.

“I think we are going to let you write more about the Liverpool players” her boss’ voice rang behind her and she looked up from the computer. “You seem to impress” he added with a grin.

“It was just luck… he was very easy to talk to” she stammered.

“well there’s a first time for everything” he said with a chuckle. Upon seeing her confused look, he added “I have never heard anyone classify Dejan Lovren as “easy to talk to””.

She honestly had no idea why that made her feel so warm inside. Her boss must have seen this as he quickly snapped her out of her trance “You’re covering their afternoon training session... make sure to take some good photos, if you can get some interviews that is amazing”. After that, he left and she took the hint and left the office.

She had never been more bored than when watching the team workout, snapping pictures now and then. One thing she had discovered was that the guys weren’t at all as ugly as she had pictured and that male journalists had no respect for a 21 year old woman.

“have you lost your mommy or daddy?” one particularly annoying man in his late 40s asked her as she was trying to get a picture of Mo Salah being his usual, adorable, self.

As she turned around to put the man in place she noticed that the players stopped dead in their tracks. “Leave her alone you freak!” a voice, she recognized all too well from her many dreams that night, shouted out from the field. “She writes better than you!” he added before sending the man a death glare.

She looked over at Dejan and mouthed “thank you” before taking a picture of him. He just flashed that smile that made her weaker in the knees than she would like to admit before going back to training. Mimi couldn’t believe the feelings she had in her stomach right then, she couldn’t actually be falling for a man she barely even knew. No, it was just because he had protected her, there wasn’t anything more to it than that.

Afterwards she steered clear of the Croat and instead interviewed Jordan Henderson instead before leaving for the office to tell her boss about her day. She needed him to know how uncomfortable it was working among men who looked at her as a child and how sweet the players were about everything.

*Dejan’s POV*

He had barely entered the training field on his third training after the world cup and vacation, when he was dragged aside by one of the people who handled their press stuff like interviews and such. “Today you will be interviewed by a young, newly graduated, journalist… do not scare her away!”

He didn’t care much for the warning, but had to admit that it was probably his own fault that they felt like doing it. His mind wandered off about how badass it was that a newly graduated “her” was going to interview him, he already had so much respect for whoever this woman was for stepping into a community filled with conservative males.

Suddenly he had arms wrapped around him from a tight hug from behind. “Hey Mo… You missed me?” he chuckled and grabbed the other man’s arms.

“Yeah the 30 minutes since I last received one of your snaps were killing me!” Mo answered before kissing Dejan’s shaved head. “Nope. Still don’t fancy the hair” he said with a pout and ran away as he knew very well he would be chased.

Dejan tackled the other man and they rolled on the ground for a while, pretending to be wrestling. They quit, however, when some of the other guys started humming to “here comes the bride”. “You’re just jealous that you have no one to love like we love each other!” Dejan ‘defended’ while laughing hysterically. “By the way, do not tell Sime Vrsaljko… He would be way too jealous for me to fix”. That addition made the entire team roar with laughter.

---

After the training he checked his phone to see how much time he had before his interview and noticed a message from Ivan Rakitic. It was a picture of a very beautiful girl, probably one of the most beautiful human beings he had ever seen. After almost drooling over the picture for a while he noticed a message underneath. “My buddy knows this girl and said she asked who you were because she is going to interview you”. His heart literally skipped a beat, that muse of a human being was gonna interview him?! How could he even get a word out to her? It might have been a bad decision, but he decided the best way was to play cocky.

He walked over to where he had been told she would be and in last minute he grabbed Mo to be his sorta wingman. Upon reaching the young journalist he noticed that she was looking at pictures of him… and smiling!? “ooh, that man is very handsome” He couldn’t help himself, he just had to say it.

The woman looked up at them and flashed them, an obviously fake, smile. That was the moment where Dejan realized cocky wasn’t the way to go with this girl.

“Hey, I am Noémie, you must be Dejan” she then said, and oh did that voice and her Spanish accent make him feel things. He couldn’t help but smile a huge smile when she acknowledged him.

“Hey Naomi, yeah that’s me. We should get this over with before my wife comes to pick me up”. Oh fuck, he realized just too late that he had said her name wrong from her trying to hide her frown. AND he had managed to mention his wife..

“Of course, do you want to do it right here or do you prefer somewhere else?” she politely said, but Dejan could tell that she was very offended by the name thing.

He guided her to a more private part of the room and sat down and gestured for her to sit opposite of him. “I prefer to sit here when talking to journalists” he said, once again absolutely beaming. He couldn’t help but smile at the absolute beauty in front of him.

After the interview was over he went to where his wife had said that she’d pick him up and saw her waiting in her car. He dropped his bag in the backseat and got in and looked at her “Sorry I am late, it’s just I had an interview”.

She glared at him back “Do you KNOW what we pay for that therapist!? It’s like you don’t even try”. Now he had wished the interview had lasted longer, because that shit was tense and he was nervous of her beauty but ANYTHING beat a fight about marriage counseling.

He just rolled his eyes and looked at the message from Rakitic while his wife drove the car to the therapist. He even decided to send Ivan a message “Dude, she was so cool.. but I fucked up big time. Can you find out what kind of flowers she likes?”. At least he could send her flowers and pretend it was because he liked the article, well he probably would but anyway.

---

The next morning he woke up all alone in his bed, he was used to that by now since he and Anita had more or less broken up. They really only lived together because of the kids and the fact that both had a wish for this to work out even though they both knew they wouldn’t. She had cheated on him and as much as he pretended everything was okay, that made him terrified of ever loving someone again.

Eventually he checked his phone and noticed that the interview was online. “Dejan is back in town” by Noémie López. Hell, even her name was beautiful. Wait what? No Dejan don’t fall for her! You don’t know her!

He read the article and was amazed by how much research she must have done to even make the thing readable, he sure as hell didn’t help her a lot. Remembering what he had asked Rakitic of the day before he called a florist and got her a bouquet of roses and tulips to send to her office. Why did he want to impress her so badly?

---

When he arrived at the afternoon training he looked up at the press stands. He knew it was stupid to believe she would be there, but a man could dream. Just then he saw her, her hair blowing in the slight wind. He noticed the entire team looking at her and he felt some sort of jealousy when she smiled towards some of the other guys. It was like she didn’t even notice him.

It all changed drastically when one of the asshole journalists decided to talk to her “have you lost your mommy or daddy?”. Dejan felt like he was burning on the inside and he didn’t even notice that everyone stopped around him.

“Leave her alone you freak!” He yelled at the man, making a fist with his hand ready to fight for her. “She writes better than you!” he then stated. At this point Jordan Henderson had to hold him back so he wouldn’t kill the man.

When he calmed down a little he looked up at her again and she mouthed a silent thank you to him, which he responded to with a huge smile that only grew bigger when she took a picture of him.

Later that night he fell asleep, trying to prove to himself that she couldn’t be as great as he pictured her to be.

#dejan lovren #football fanfiction #football fanfic #soccer fanfiction #soccer fanfic #Mo Salah #sime vrsaljko #šime vrsaljko #ivan rakitic

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frivery · 3 years

Text

Birthday dragons? Another! It is 1:30 am where I am so it is technically Virgil’s birthday! Happy 5th birthday old man!

This one is going to take place in the past, where we go over a mission from when Virgil was about Vier’s current timeline age.

POV of Virgil, warning of sensitive subjects and dark themes in this piece. [blood, gore, death, etc] This is a really LONG piece.

Seated in front of the fire with the rest of his company, Virgil waited for the Commander to give them their instructions. He had insisted on going, despite the strange looks the others were giving his bandages. On the last run one of the bandits had gotten lucky and sliced a surface-layer amount of muscle from the outside of one of his legs. Yeah, it hurt like hell and bled like a stuffed pig but it wouldn’t stop him from seeing the mission through. The entire point was to work with the other companies to take down a monster, ever sword counted. Virgil glanced up as a tall tiefling entered the clearing, she was a military woman who had been the one to put out the call for sellswords in the first place. Mallory, her name was. The shadow-eyed woman glanced around the fire, eyes calculating and harsh, before landing on him and sticking there.

“I believe I specifically stated no imperials for this job.” she said, the manner in which she said it should be light but her tone was powerful and disapproving. Virgil narrowed his eyes in response, leaning forward on his knees to square his shoulders and meet the eyes of the woman who was looking down her nose at him. He didn’t have to say anything for his company to rush to defend him.

“Yeah, you said that, but he’s not like most imperials, see? He doesn’t even work with others of his kind so we thought it wasn’t an issue.” the company leader spoke up the loudest, her lightning eyes flashing with restrained venom. Kurile, an orc that was actually rather short for her kind.... something that could not be said for Mallory who stood taller than even the alabaster knight did. “He’s a good sword, was in the army for several years before he joined up, he’s part of the crew.”

“It doesn’t matter if he’s good at fighting or not, I said no imperials.” the tiefling’s voice was aggressive and harsh, stomping down the short dominance struggle between herself and the orc with a fiery look that would rival an elemental. “I will not feed more parts to the monster, none of the companies are being allowed to bring their Imperial team mates, you are not getting a free pass to strengthen the beast.” he had thought she merely didn’t like humans, there were enough people that felt that way for it to not be odd, but her words made him doubt that now.

“Excuse me, Captain Firebrand, but what are we hunting?” he spoke up, unable to keep the inherent frustrated-challenge from his voice. Mallory looked at him like he was as stupid as a mayfly, snarling shortly as she laid a threatening hand onto her sword.... to adjust it.

“Does your company not know how to read a fucking missive?” she spat, glaring around the camp, she only continued when no one answered. “An emperor is our target.”

Virgil’s blood went cold as the ice that his home had been made from, swallowing thickly as he looked away for several moments and looked back at the Captain.

“I thought... that those were merely legends.” he said with uncertainty, she didn’t seem the superstitious type so he was feeling a little shaky in that belief now. The tiefling laughed, loud, and aggravated, and ugly as she put a hand to her chest and sneered at him. She was beyond done, and beyond pissed at their group.

“Legends? What snow-stuck rock have you been hiding under your whole life? To think that an imperial of all creatures could think that... what a dangerous notion to come to.” she was shaking her head, eyes narrowed and dangerous.

“Fine, come if you want. Know that if you fall that your corpse will then be absorbed and forced to devour your kinsmen, fool.” Mallory shoved a scroll into Kurile’s chest before turning and stalking off with the dangerous air of a pissed tiger. Virgil watched her as he went, sitting up on his stool now before turning to look uncertainly at his commander. He could feel the uncertain, grim, mood of his fellow company-men, even the Commander looked unsure of herself but she gave him a crooked grin as she crossed the camp to roughly mess up his short hair.

“Don’t worry about that nonsense, Virge, emperor’s are real but dying isn’t enough to make you become one. If it was every imperial would become a walking abomination when they died, wouldn’t they?” her tone became light at the end, the point seeming to ease some of the concerns of their companions and sooth his own worries. “Plus, you ain't planning on bitting the dust on us, are you?” Virgil looked up at his commander, before smiling sharply and shaking his head.

“Not anytime soon, Kur, you lot are stuck with me.” the Orc smiled warmly at him, winking at him before pacing away from the clearing center to read the instructions they had been given. Anticipated silence fell over the group as they waited for the briefing, everyone in the group sitting up when Kurile rolled the scroll back up and turned to address the group.

“Alright, we’ll be breaking up into two groups. We’re the bait, it’s our job to lure the beast to the waiting swords of the other companies. Gold, Tero, Light, and Weatherton, as our best swords, will join the waiting forces. Goldenight, you’re in charge, round up with the neighboring company.” the gembound infected Orc nodded, getting up from his place on the ground and gesturing with a tilt of his head for the party to follow him.

“That means that Merric, Virgil, we’ll be playing the bait and drawing the creature out.”

“With all due respect, commander, I would say I’m a better swordarm than Tero or Light. Why am I being put in the bait group?”

“I would agree with you, I might even agree if you said that they were faster runners, but what I need for the final stretch is someone who has been through hell and has the instinct to survive at all costs. Tero and Light are still relatively fresh recruits, I don’t think they have the gall for this mission.” Virgil couldn’t argue with that, they were still pretty new and young... but...

The imperial turned his gaze to Merric now, whose raised brow made it look like he was having the same thought.

“If Tero is considered a new recruit than what am I?” he ventured. Merric was the youngest of the party, both in actual age and in time he had been in the company for. If Tero was fresh then Merric was downright raw.

“I was under the impression you were in the Icewarden’s army before joining us, like Virge here. You Ice domain dragons know how to survive... plus, you are easily the fastest runner in the group so you have the best chances of outrunning the monster.”

“You aren’t going to chicken out on us already, are you new blood?” Virgil poked at the younger drake, eyes narrowed and smile sharp. Merric rolled his eyes, but shook his head good-naturedly.

“So, what’s the plan ma’am?”

“You’ll start us off, get the monster’s attention and lead it to the hewn city. There is a small, crumbled, guard-room built into the old gates, you’ll duck in while I duck out and continue leading the beast further into the ruins. Virgil, you will wait in the last building in the Hewn city, when I get there I’ll go in the door and you’ll leave through the sand-facing window and draw the monster toward the Daylight Sanctum.” the imperial nodded shortly in response, slowly hauling himself to his feet and trying to ignore the twinge in his leg.

“Are you sure about this, ma’am? A lifeless husk might be a little above our paygrade.” the half-elf commented uncertainly, causing Kurile to sling an arm around the teen’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry so much kid, I’ve got your back. We got this.” Merric still faltered and turned his eyes to Virgil now, familiar pale ice eyes shimmering with uncertainty. It felt like looking at himself when he had first been put on the frontlines.

“You were part of the Wardens?” he asked the younger drake, to which the half-blood glanced around before nodding. “Then you aint got nothing to worry about, you aren’t some untried whelp with shaking knees, you’ve survived a war. You’ll survive this no problem. Promise, you’re gonna be just fine and when we all get paid you’ll see it was worth it.”

Merric seemed a little less iffy now, but still anxious. There was only so much others can do, that was something he’d have to take up with himself when he faced the creature.

“Alright, since I’ve got the furthest to walk to get to my way point I’m going to go to my check point. Good luck.” leaving the shadows of the Shadow domain, Virgil began his slog through the heated sands. The sun beat down mercilessly overhead, no shadows for miles, and the imperial walked for ages in silence before reaching the hewn city. Strange cursed shadows, he had been here a few times before, which is likely why he was the one being asked to walk it. Dangerous during the day... deadly at night with unholy darkness and cursed creatures. While the Hewn city was dark during the day, it was ‘deeply overcast skies’ dark so he could still make out the buildings and terrain just fine.It was much cooler here too, the sand no longer blazing hot.

Virgil kept his hand on his sword-hilt as he walked the ancient, sand-buried road. The creatures here lurked in the sunken hovels of buildings but shied away from the harsh eyes of a seeing-target. It was highly unlikely anything would attack him now, under the gaze of the strict Lightweaver, but he kept his sword hand tense and ready just in case. Reaching the last building, a large, tiled, ruin that had 1 open window and the door was half-filled with sand, Virgil ducked inside the mostly intact structure.

Nothing inside, good, he had half expected a nesting lichwolf to bite into his face as he entered. Carefully, Virgil checked every corner and broken room of the ruin before settling to wait next to the window while facing the door. Now he just had to wait for Kurile to show up and then it would be his turn to bait a hulking mass of flesh across the sand wastes. Kurile had said ‘toward’ the Daylight Sanctum not ‘to’ so he wasn’t entirely sure how long he would be chased for before he reached the main force but... he’d have to make it work. He had never seen an emperor, he had heard that they were massive, collected, and deformed bodies of the deceased and decomposed imperials but that’s all he had heard... and who knows how accurate that is?

He was starting to worry that something had gone awry when the sensation of the ground trembling alerte him to something approaching. As it neared the shaking spread to the walls and the sound of massive, thrumming, stomping footsteps came with it. Like if a mountain could move. Virgil shifted slightly, readying himself, tensing as a frazzled Kurile slid into the door gracelessly. He froze on seeing her, on seeing them, she had a bloodied Merric draped over her shoulders and her eyes were alit with primal, instinctual, fear that made his adrenaline spike in response.

“Move.” she snapped at him, breathless. Virgil nodded, jumping to his feet and vaulting through the window just in time to feel the shaking of the building turn into an all-out quake. Rolling onto the sandy ground below, he quickly started into a fear-minded sprint towards his destination. The sound of the massive thing following him until causing his own fear to increase. He could feel every footfall in the ground, in the air, in his teeth and lungs and feet, the horrifying shriek it followed him with made his heart squeeze and shiver and his feet numb. It was like the dragon-voices of dozens of dying people, like getting chased down by a nightmare the size of a mountain. Virgil still hadn’t seen the creature yet, and something in his brain told him to keep it that way... but his instincts needed to see it. To know what he was running from, to know his chances. He glanced over his shoulder-

Gods he really shouldn’t have.

Massive was a word, it didn’t properly convey what this was. So unthinkably giant that even in his dragon form he would be, maybe, the size of one of its legs. Maybe. As a human? He was the size of a claw. As one of it’s putrid claws that were warped, and decomposing off it’s greying flesh. Huge open holes were torn into random places into it’s sun-thinkin and boiled flesh, hanging limply with frayed edges down and revealing the fetid insides of torn muscles, stain bones, and bug-infested insides. There was trails of browned, stained, decomposed blood dripping down from its wounds, its noses, maws, and its uncountable amount of different-element eyes. The worst part was the gnashing of several sets of teeth, belong to three separate heads that merged into the body at weird and broken places. A disgusting, stomach-churning, sight of the deceased imperial form turned into a shambling and devouring puppet to pure elemental corruption.

If he wasn’t actively running for his life he would have emptied the contents of his stomach right there, he couldn’t prevent the dryheaving as he turned away and tried to focus on running, though. The thing’s visage was burned into his eyes, he could still feel it, still see it’s putrid form even when he wasn’t looking. His body felt numb. How could his people turn into something like that? How could any God allow such a thing to happen? To exist? Sickness, disgust, horror, settled like weights in his stomach as his breathing became more frantic ad haggard.

How could He become something like That?

“There it is!” a voice, he opened his eyes to see the collected companies in front of him. That had been his goal, but now? He knew better, this was going to be a bloodbath, an absolute slaughter, despite the dozens of companies here for this it wouldn’t be nearly enough to fell what even the Gods themselves could not. Breaking through the front-line, the other sellswords rushed around him like a river would a rock. Only when the last of the group was well past him did he allow himself to stop running... and to up-heave the entire contents of his insides unceremoniously into the sand. Screaming, shouting, yelling, hurried orders being shouted to no avail followed him. These people were all doomed, but he swallowed his horror, his disgust, the sickness sitting on his tongue, and he pulled out his long-sword to join the assault. With every wave of fighter thrown at the massive creature it was another person down. Blood red was seeping into the sand and he was part of that, the huge hole he had already had in his leg before all of this started soaking through his bandages and pants and causing him to trail blood with every movement. His eyes hurt, as did his lungs and heart, the monster took up the entirety of his mind in a confusing way.

“You!” a hissed, familiar voice before a strong hand grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back just in time to miss one of the Emperor’s infected claws taking his head off. He gave the woman a weak, shaking look. Mallory.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded in a rush.

“Helping?”

“You are doing more harm than good here, if you fall that thing grows. You need to leave, hide. What happens here is none of your concern anymore.” he wanted to be able to argue, but he couldn’t. If he could become something like that... abomination then he was a liability. He nodded slowly, downcasting his eyes to the ground and trying to swallow another wave of bile as the creature’s disgusting form stained his eyes.

“Good, when this is over... do me a favor and bury those who died if you can. They wont become anything bad but... they’ll all deserve a proper burial.” just in case she didn’t live. Virgil nodded again without words, glancing up shortly when the tall woman put a hand on his shoulder before she ran back into the fray to grab the monster’s attention. Now... he had to get away. Would it chase him down if he left even with the army attacking it? Did it want him specifically? He didn’t know where he was going but Virgil sheathed his sword and ran from the field like a coward. The sound of shrieking, of fighting, growing blessedly more distant with every step. He must be weak because he was crying, sobbing like a whelp through heaving breaths that threatened to have him sick again. His every thought consumed by the dead, the bloodbath, and the nightmare his people were capable of becoming. He hadn’t even realized where he was going until the sun turned less harsh and he ducked into the same craggy house he had been waiting in earlier that day.

Kurile was still there, eyes wide as she stared at him before fearfully looking out the window from the direction he had come.

“It’s... it’s dealing with the army.” he breathed out, to which she glanced him over and nodded. Virgil crossed the sand-floor, dropping to his knees a few feet away from his commander. He wanted to cry, to scream, to damn the Gods for letting such a thing exist, his heart feeling both hauntingly empty and disgustingly full, twisted, at the same time. His mouth tasted like sand and death. He didn’t have the strength to make a sound. The imperial... the danger looked around the room and noted the form of Merric. Bloodied, battered. He crawled over to the younger drake, fearing him dead, but as he got closer the other’s ice eyes moved to look up at him. He felt overwhelming relief to see it, hand shakening relief. The half-elf weakly raised a hand to him, Virgil grasping that offered hand without hesitation as he settled to kneel next to the battered teen and hold the cool, grimey, hand in both of his bloody ones.

“You’re gonna be alright, Kid, I promise.” he whispered, though it was more to himself than to the injured half-blood. He had never heard any stories of half-blood humans turning into such a creature... and if that was the case that they couldn’t then maybe true-humans shouldn’t be allowed to exist anymore. Half-bloods were safer, and they weren’t cursed by the Gods to become nightmares in death. His tongue tasted of sickness at the thought and he swallowed painfully to try to rid himself of the ill feeling in his body. He would be more dangerous in death than he could ever be in life.

“Where are we?” the bloody half-elf asked, voice cracked by dehydration and sand.

“Hewn city, in one of the intact buildings.” he responded, Merric blinked drowsy eyes at him before glancing around the room.

“Where’s Kurile?”

“She’s keeping an eye on the window, she’s close.” Merric nodded slowly now, seeming to be more comfortable now that he was slightly more aware. He hadn’t gotten a very good look at the damage until now, a huge bloody gash torn into the half-elf’s andomion and his leg a crunched, twisted, mangled mess that oozed blood from random leaking holes punched by cracked bone. There was no salvaging that, Merric would be losing a leg... he just hoped it wasnt going to be him doing the cutting. The idea made his already upset stomach shift and the soldier put a hand to his mouth to settle it.

“That bad?” Merric asked weakly, he couldn’t believe that the younger drake was smiling as he said that... even if it was a meak attempt at one.

“There’s certainly some... damage, but you’ll be alright.”

“We... we need to travel soon. We can’t be here after nightfall, you’re both injured, we’d be easy targets.” Kurile spoke up, drawing Virgil gaze up to the orc as she paced the sand-floor. She was right, it was already a little darker outside. Getting caught here afterdark was asking for death on the best of days... right now? They might as well just end it if that was the plan. It’d be less painful.

“I can carry him, Kurile, I’m not bleeding too bad.”

“You left a blood trail right into our door, Virgil, fuck off with the ‘not all that bad’ bullshit, I’ll-” she cut herself off, silence following as she seemed to be listening for something. A tremble in the ground, the far off-sound of stomping feet... the blood trail had led the nightmare back to them. He had thought it mindless enough to not be able to track them... and he hadn’t been thinking about any of that when he had run. Kurile looked at him, her eyes lighting up with a primal hue.

“It’s going to find us.” she whispered. Virgil swallowed thickly, looking down at Merric who was giving a cloudy, confused, look to Kurile out of the edge of his eye.

“I’ll... I’ll be back.” he said, fear tightening his throat an threatening his stomach, he quietly placed the cool hand of the half-elf back onto the sand-floor before he got to his feet. Cutting away the extra material of his pants around the wound with his sword, Virgil stepped back outside and turned his eyes to the horizon. Not quite here yet, but soon. He’d have to be quick. Pressing a hand into the wound to further agitate it, the ice-domain soldier quickly turned away from the approaching doom and sprinted through the Hewn City streets. Blood followed his footsteps, more free and flowing now that the offending pant-leg was gone and the bloody-bandages exposed. The sound of the emperor was getting closer to the city, his ribcage was seizing around his lungs, pushing Virgil to double back and duck into a small, half-collapsed, room to wait out the storm. The footsteps were thunderous, the pace of the monster brisk and searching.

Looking for him. Was it just because of the blood... or was it because of what he was? The entire shabby structure shook as the nightmare passed, following the blood further into the Hewn City, Virgil held his hands over his mouth to keep quiet as he waited for it to just get a little further away... he could hear it destroying a building in the background. Now was his chance. Virgil ducked out of his cover, half-expecting dozens of glowing eyes to await him just outside, before turning and sprinting back towards the edge of the Hewn City and ducking back inside his original hide-out. Kurile had retreated to a corner, but Merric was much the same as before... too wounded to move himself. Virgil dropped back to his knees, crossing the sandfloor and carefully picking up the half-blood to move him further away from the door. Merric didn’t seem to care, seeming exhausted.

“We’re stuck here.” Kurile muttered, staring at the doorway that was continuing to get darker. Virgil could still hear the shrieking of the creature, could feel the thrumming of its feet as it continued to search for him.

“What are the chances that the monsters that usually live here will stay away due to the nightmare?” he whispered, to which the Orc just give him a blank look.

“Give me your cape.” she instructed, Virgil didn’t question it, he shifted the injured man that was now using his lap as a pillow and removed the fabric. The commander stood, crossing the sand-floor and placed a corner of the cape to the door-way... tacking it in place with one of her knives before doing it again... and again... and again, again,until the cape was tightly pulled over the doorway. It would keep the howling winds out, mostly, and it would offer a layer between them and outside... not that it would keep any insistent predators at bay.

“You can.. use my smock too.” Merric offered, his smock being a black-smith’s apron. Thick fabric, durable.

“No, Merric, it’ll get cold as night sets in and you’ve lost too much blood for us to be taking from you. Just save your strength.” Kurile paused, before looking at him.

“You should rest now, Virgil, so you have full energy for when night sets. I’ll keep watch.” He didn’t argue, though he didn’t know if it was possible to sleep right then. The soldier leaned his head against the old, dark, sandstone and closed his eyes, trying to calm himself and rest while he had the chance.... surprisingly sleep came easy to him and it didn’t take long for him to pass into unconsciousness.

The howling woke him up, it was dark by now and the air had cooled significantly. He couldn’t see further than a foot away from him, the darkness impenetrable even when inside. He could feel the foot-falls of the monster still... but it was lighter now... further away then when he had passed out earlier. His entire leg felt sticky with dried blood, aching painfully as well. Virgil took a deep breath to prevent groaning from pain as he sat up. Kurile was to his right, only slightly on the edge of his vision, and Merric was asleep curled up against his non-injured hip. Kurile’s cape of orange had been placed over the wounded half-elf, Virgil worriedly placing a hand onto the teen’s arm to check for signs of life... he was certainly cool but he could feel a weak pulse. Alive, but getting worse. No words could be said here, the danger inherent, so the soldier closed his eyes and promised in his mind that if Merric could hold out until morning that they would do the rest.

The passage of time was strange here, the shrieking of the winds outside, the howling, the guttural screams of the Emperor were all horrifyingly sharp... and blurred together in his mind. He didn’t know how long it was, but the howling grew loud enough to wake Merric from his sleep. Observing him now, the half-elf was obviously in worlds of pain, writhing incapable of getting any comfort. It was surprising he was so quiet, really, many men in his position would cry, or scream, or beg for their mothers through hurried breath.... but the only sound from Merric was the occasional pained exhale. A blessing, anything louder and they would draw the attention of predators. Or worse.

Virgil carefully reached out and took the writhing half-blood’s hand into his, clasping both of his hands over the ice cold one that now relaxed in his grasp. He had nothing else to offer the pained teen, just his presence, and soon Merric fell back into a fitful sleep.

He wasn’t sure how long it had been, how long night had lasted, but as the darkness started to lessen so too did the heavy weight of danger. The rampaging abomination now far enough away that he could barely feel it in the sand. As the light came so too did the need to leave.

“Virgil.” Kurile’s voice drew him back to reality, he had been staring blankly at the covered door.

“You can let go now.” she whispered, voice gentle and tired.

“What?” he didn’t understand, blinking up at the orc as she stood, a look of pity o her features.

“You can let go of his hand, now. Merric’s gone.” he was stunned at her words, turning to look at the younger drake and carefully moving one of his hands to press along the pulse-point on his wrist...... cold, frigid, beatless. He felt drained, empty, hollow, he looked up dumbly at the Commander, who kneeled to gently pry his hands away from Merric’s, laying the cold hand gently onto the sand like the half-elf was asleep. “He had you to comfort him until he died, there are worse ways to go. He’s at peace now.” she said.

“I... promised him he’d be okay.” his voice cracked when he said this, but he couldn’t find the strength after all of this hell to cry. He had nothing left to give.

“I know, you gave him the hope that he’d be okay. He didn’t die afraid, it’s okay. It wasn’t your call.” she offered her hand to him, Virgil numbly taking it and letting her help him to his feet. He couldn’t help but look down at the still form of their comrade, he looked like he was sleeping now... but in a few hours his death would be apparent.

“We should bury him, atleast.” he protested weakly, but he didn’t offer resistance as Kurile pulled him to the door.

“He’s an elf, Virgil, they don’t bury their dead. He’s fine as he is, the Gods will see to him now. We have to focus on getting us out alive, that’s the important thing.” her voice was gentle, but firm. Virgil didn’t want to agree, he didn’t want to just leave Merric like this... but he nodded.

“what about the others... we don’t know if they-”

“We’ll reach that road when we get to it, just follow me, we’ll be okay.” she assured, Virgil didn’t have the energy to argue, or be upset. He just gave one last look at Merric, whispered a painful prayer to the Gods, and allowed Kurile to lead him back out into the Hewn city dusk. He knew, that if he lived to be older and wiser, that he would relive this day. That Merric would haunt him. He wondered how many others would get lucky enough in this situation to say the same.... but he didn’t feel very lucky.

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the-kings-tail-fin · 7 years

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How about a short fic where when Cal is a kid and he's being babysat by Lynda and Strip and while they're both asleep,Cal decides to give Strip a new paint job (bright pink) and when they wake up Lynda is laughing and Strip doesn't know why until he sees himself in the mirror. 😂

I’M WHEEZING. THIS ASK IS BRILLIANT, ANON, BRILLIANT. BLESS YOU.

THIS FIC WENT A LITTLE LONG. ENJOY!

Cal’s parents needed some time off from raising the sweet, but rambunctious toddler, so they decided to go out of town for a few days and drive around the countryside. They dropped Cal off with Strip and Lynda, who at the time had nothing better to do. To say that the kid kept them busy would be an understatement.

The first day was spent child-proofing the house. They couldn’t figure out how on earth Cal kept getting into the places he was. He tried to climb Strip’s trophy showcase, nearly knocking it over. He then found his way onto the kitchen table and started pretending it was a circle track. Lynda later found him inside a cabinet chowing down on something he most certainly should not have had in his mouth. If they didn’t keep tabs on him at all times, he would be gone in an instant and up to no good.

“Why can’t you just stay in one place?” Lynda asked him, cleaning up a vase he’d accidentally knocked over while zooming around the living room.

Cal responded in garbled toddler-speak. He flashed her that big, innocent smile that melted her heart. She couldn’t be annoyed with him if she wanted to.

“Cal, come ‘ere.” Strip called from the next room, hoping to get the kid’s attention away from his wife long enough for her to clean up the mess.

Cal immediately whipped into the living room to see what his uncle wanted. Seeing the big, decorated racecar was a treat in and of itself for the kid, even if he had no grasp on why.

“Look at that.” Strip gestured to the TV on the wall across from where he was parked. He had it tuned to RSN to watch the stock truck racing. “You see them? You like racin’, right? Why don’t you park over here next to me and watch this.”

Cal revved his tiny little engine and made vroom noises with his mouth at the same time. He became fixated on the TV, watching the racers go around the track. Strip watched his nephew. Cal would lean to the left every time the pack went around a turn and make noise to supplement it. Strip couldn’t help but smile. Even when the commercials came on, Cal was still in his own little world, making noise like he was out there racing.

Then a Dinoco commercial came on. Strip sighed a little, he didn’t really care to see himself on TV. All Dinoco’s commercials had either clips of him winning races or posing for something. This caught Cal’s attention. He became quiet for the first time all day. Then he reached out with his tire to tap Strip, and pointed towards the TV.

“Ship! Ship!” he repeated enthusiastically. His uncle looked down at him, confused.

“Whatever you’re trying to say, kid, it ain’t makin’ it though the language barrier.” he said, knowing Cal wouldn’t understand him.

“I think he’s tryin’ to say your name.” Lynda interpreted, coming into the room to join them.

Strip looked back down at Cal, who was staring back up at him with wide eyes. Then, the race came back on, and Cal revved his engine, resuming his previous state of pretend-racing. Strip smiled again. If this kid was to become a racer one day, he’d be good. There was no denying it.

“I’m exhausted.” Lynda said, yawning. “It’s only 7:30 and I’m ready for bed.”

“Yeah.” Strip agreed. “Hopefully he will be too, before long.”

An hour later, Lynda tucked Cal in in the guest room across the hall from their bedroom. Cal passed out almost immediately, more worn out than he let on.

“Finally, some quiet.” Strip said as Lynda joined him in their room.

“Enjoy it while it lasts.” she replied. "I’m gonna leave the door open, so we can hear if he tries to get up.”

“You mean so you can hear if he tries to get up.”

“Yeah, yeah… You know, you’d sleep through a hurricane if there was no one to wake you up.”

Not twenty minutes later, the little putter of an engine came through the doorway. Cal wedged himself right in between Strip and Lynda, wiggled around a little bit, and went right back to sleep.

The next day was a little more laid back, as Cal grew tired of exploring the house and climbing on things. Lynda kept him busy doing arts and crafts in the kitchen most of the day. At one point, Strip took him out in the back yard and let him pretend he was a racer, going in circles around the yard. Strip used chalk paint to put a 42 on Cal’s side, absolutely making the kid’s day and boosting his confidence (a little too much). Cal ended up crying, somehow stuck in a bush, and so they came back inside. Cal was content painting pictures for his parents the rest of the evening.

They were starting to get the hang of the whole babysitting thing. Again that night, Cal didn’t want to sleep alone, and joined them at some point after he was supposed to be asleep.

The sunlight came through the window the next morning, waking them up. Lynda was the first to fully awaken. She looked down at Cal, still snoozing away at her side. She saw he had bright pink splatters on his little hood and fenders, and was a bit confused at first. He hadn’t gotten any paint on him yesterday while doing crafts. She looked around the room and saw the can of paint laying open on the floor on the other side of the room. He must have gotten into it last night without her knowing about it, she concluded.

Then she looked over at her husband, and had to bite her lip to keep from busting out in laughter. Strip opened his eyes a little, waking up. Lynda couldn’t contain herself. She started laughing so hard she couldn’t breathe, let alone speak. Strip looked at her, confused. Mornings did not typically start out like this for him. Why was she laughing? He looked down at Cal, who was still sleeping like a rock. He blinked a couple times, and Lynda just pointed at him and kept laughing. He rolled forward a little bit and saw the can of paint sitting on the floor. Dread came over him, and he looked in the mirror on the other side of the room.

“Are you kidding me.” he groaned. His entire left side was slathered with messy hot pink paint, from his tires all the way up to his door handle, as high as Cal could reach. Somehow the kid had even got the side of his spoiler and the left half of his hood splattered in the stuff.

Lynda finally gathered herself for a second and took a couple deep breaths. “I can’t take it. I can’t deal with it.” she said, sounding exasperated.

“You’re laughing now, but you’re the one who’s gonna hafta clean it off.” Strip said, slightly annoyed. “How did he even manage to do this? You were supposed to keep an eye on him!”

“Don’t blame me.” she defended herself, starting to laugh again. “You somehow slept through a three year old giving you a paint job. That’s on you. But don’t worry, I think it’s washable.”

“It better be.” Strip grumbled.

Cal was awake by that point, looking around at his aunt and uncle. He slowly, sleepily rolled across the floor towards them. He only seemed to remember what he’d done the night before when he passed the can of paint. He looked at it and giggled, then looked at his uncle and giggled some more. Strip gave him a disappointed look, but Cal came over to him and snuggled up to his side.

“Ship.” Cal said with a big smile.

“Awww.” Lynda was completely under Cal’s spell. “That’s just adorable.”

Strip sighed, looking down at Cal. The kid was instantly forgiven, if but for nothing else than sheer cuteness.

Lynda laughed a little again. “Alright, come on now, Cal. We gotta go clean all this paint off before your mama and daddy come back.”

Cal squealed in excitement and followed her out the door. Strip looked at himself one more time in the mirror, and again, couldn’t help but smile a little. That kid was something else.

#strip weathers #lynda weathers #cal weathers #baby cal

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fuelyogurt6-blog · 5 years

Text

Inside the French Culinary Competition That Drives Chefs to Tears

In the rainy evening gloom, a man’s loud sobs echoed off the glass and concrete surfaces outside the Lycée Hotelier du Touquet, in northern France. If you didn’t know better, you would have thought that this faceless sufferer, hidden away in an inner courtyard, had just endured a heartrending breakup or the death of a loved one, so complete and uninhibited was his anguish. But no, this was a chef who had just learned that despite months of training, sleepless nights, hundreds of euros spent on equipment and supplies, and weekends of not seeing friends or family, he had not made the grade. He was not a MOF (pronounced in French like “moff”).

Though the title is not well known in the U.S., becoming l’Un des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France (“one of the best craftsmen in France”), shorthanded as the acronym MOF, is considered by French chefs to be one of the highest — if not the highest — honor. Begun in 1925, the MOF competition is in fact not just one competition, but encompasses dozens of contests in more than 200 professions, from taxidermy to piano tuning to graphic design to — the most well-known — those in the culinary fields: cooking (cuisine-gastronomie), patisserie, and chocolaterie. Under the aegis of the French National Education Ministry, the COET (le Comité d’organisation des expositions du travail) organizes MOF competitions every three or four years. The grueling cuisine-gastronomie competition is judged by a panel of more than 40 renowned chefs with exacting standards. Only about 200 chefs have been honored with the title since the competition’s debut.

“A chef hopes for two things: to earn three Michelin stars and to become a Meilleur Ouvrier de France,” explained the 78-year-old MOF Guy Legay, in charge of the competition’s cooking jury. The contemporary MOFs probably best known to Americans are the chocolatier Jacques Torres and Joël Robuchon, who died in August of this year.

For this year’s competition, 500 hopefuls were winnowed down to 28. Last Thursday’s 14 candidates (14 other finalists had competed the previous day) began entering the hotel school’s kitchens at 7:30 a.m., one by one, every 15 minutes. Their task was to cook three technically challenging dishes within five hours, dishes they’d had 15 days to learn, from precise instructions sent by the organizers. Four hours after beginning, they had to send a new dish to the judges every half hour, with a margin of error of three minutes. If they sent a dish between three and five minutes late, they were penalized. Later than five minutes, and the dish was not graded by the tasting jury. While cooking, they were aided by two commis, young students from the high school, with whom they had never worked before. They therefore had to instruct their helpers, while remaining calm, and cook while being constantly circled and judged by clipboard-carrying jury members.

By that afternoon, the morning’s cool laboratoires had turned into hot, tense arenas, where the smell of cooking meat, vaporizing liqueur, and burning sauces filled the air.

For chefs who earn the title, and the accompanying right to wear the blue-white-red collar on their chefs’ jacket, the rewards may be considerable. They may be more likely to nab prestigious jobs or lure more customers to their restaurants or stores. Many chefs, though, seem to launch their pursuit of the MOF title as a sort of personal Holy Grail, as a way to prove their merit to themselves above all, sometimes attempting the competition several times.

Stéphanie Le Quellec, a Michelin-starred chef and winner of 2011’s Top Chef: France, had been a finalist at the last competition, four years ago, when she was “not able to submit excellence [to the jury].” She tried her chances again this year. As a chef who is already well known, in some respects, she had more to lose than some unknown cuistot. “I worked with Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, so that makes you want to tackle the challenge yourself,” she said by way of explanation for her bid.

Virginie Basselot, a competition judge this year, is one of only two female chefs to have won the title. She too said she was inspired by working with MOFs, and by the values of “excellence, transmission, humility” that it promotes. It is a unique competition, she noted, as there is no first, second, or third place. Theoretically at least, all or none of the candidates could win the title. (Indeed, in 2015, none of the chocolatier finalists were deemed worthy to be named a MOF.) And it is a title, with a diploma bestowed by the National Education Ministry, that chefs carry for all their lives. It is not an honor that will be stripped from them when the next competition comes up in a few years’ time. And unlike, say, earning a Michelin star or being named as one of the World’s 50 Best, it is a contest that individual chefs knowingly enter, and over which they have some control.

“You’re competing against yourself, to give the best of yourself,” Basselot said.

This year, the two most famous MOF chefs in recent years, Paul Bocuse and Robuchon, died. To honor them, two of the three dishes candidates prepared during the competition drew inspiration from them: The fish starter had to be accompanied by lobster mashed potatoes, an homage to Robuchon’s famous purée; and the main dish was a hare cooked three ways, in memory of Bocuse’s lièvre à la royale. (The dessert was a Pavlova with aspic of fresh fruit and lemon cream.)

Seventy-something Jacques Maximin, one of the four-member presiding committee, under the president, Alain Ducasse, described to two reporters for more than 40 minutes — with fiendish pleasure — the complexity of the dishes that he had imagined to test the technical skills of the MOF candidates. He starts with basic techniques and fashions them into three dishes that generally require years of experience and unerring exactitude to carry off. For example, he described how the pollack in the first dish had to be pierced in four places (indicated in a drawing that accompanied the candidates’ instructions) by herring lardons. To a non-chef, piercing a fish with another fish seems almost physically impossible, but then, Maximin pointed out, chefs must also take into account, when salting the dish, the fact that the lardons would impart their saltiness to the pollack. And the specified “pavés” (slabs) of pollack (80 grams without skin) could by no means be “slices” of fish — an error that one chef had made.

Yet in a culinary world that often values flash over technique, you can’t help but wonder, is the MOF’s level of nerdiness out of step? “I have nothing against modernity,” Maximin retorted. “But I say, ‘Wait, children, let’s start first with the basics...’ When I conceive of the themes, [it’s because] I don’t want French techniques to disappear.” He continued, “French gastronomy, with its international reputation, is built around an edifice. We constructed it over centuries. These chefs who want to become stars, first they have to prove their savoir faire.”

Point taken, yet it could be argued that, like other culinary awards and competitions today, its protestations of high standards may mask its exclusion of women and people of color. Chefs at the competition, however, when asked about the lack of diversity among candidates and winners, defended the MOF’s traditional ways. Both Basselot and Le Quellec — who was one of only two women to make it to the finals this year (among 23 original female candidates) — noted that there are few women chefs in haute-cuisine. “Often women are chef-owners and it’s not easy to say, ‘I’m going to take a week off and train,’” Basselot said. Basselot herself works for a hotel and has assistants to back her up — plus, she remarked with a smile, “I’m single.”

Le Quellec, on the other hand, has three children. Training for the competition is “fairly violent,” she said. “There’s a lot of work. I don’t know if that’s an investment that women are willing to put in. [For me] it means that during the week I don’t see my children. I don’t think the MOF committee can do much; it’s the reality of the profession.” (As for racial diversity, there was one Japanese chef among the finalists this year.)

Tall, pale Christophe Quantin is one of three vice presidents of the MOF cuisine-gastronomie section along with Maximin and another MOF, Michel Roth. When initially asked about the candidates’ diversity, the misunderstanding was such that he began commenting on the contestants’ different styles of making lemon cream. Once the subject was clarified, and he was asked if the MOF committee could encourage more gender and cultural diversity, he said, “We can’t influence that. We take the candidates that sign up voluntarily… Even if there are more and more women in the profession, they really have to have a competitive spirit [to attempt the MOF competition]. It’s not always in women’s characters to compete — in addition, it’s competing against men, which could be an additional impediment.”

Sure enough, at the end of the day, roughly 12 hours after the first candidate had begun his mise en place, Ducasse named seven men l’Un des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France for this year.

Nevertheless, a small, light breeze of change may be in the air. The COET, the body that oversees all of the MOF competitions in dozens of fields, has begun to question its own ways. “Should [candidates] spend 1,500 hours preparing for the competition? I don’t know,” Jean-Luc Chabanne, secretary general of the COET, told the magazine Lyon Capitale. “That’s what we have to work on. We also have to look at the cost of the contest for the candidates. Some say it’s 1,000 or 2,000 [euros], but sometimes it’s 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 euros” — accounting for the fact that competitors must bring their own equipment and supplies to the competition, as well as associated costs for training, travel, and, in some cases, hiring consultants to help increase their chances. “It’s not acceptable,” Chabanne said, “because it means you have to be rich to become a MOF.”

These inklings of change are small comfort to those who were not on the list of winners last week. Shortly after Ducasse read off the names at the modest ceremony, Stéphanie Le Quellec walked toward the back of the room, clutching her baby boy, her face streaked with tears. Though that baby certainly doesn’t care about it right now, perhaps by the time he grows up, the MOF competition will present a different face to the world.

Sono Motoyama is a journalist who lives in the Paris area. Editor: Erin DeJesus

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Source: https://www.eater.com/2018/11/30/18118337/mof-meilleur-ouvrier-de-france-french-chef

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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theworldsmosthatedakacr7 · 7 years

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I know I’ve been terrible about updating this story. You have no idea how sorry I am about it but I’ve had some personal problems in the last couple of months that absolutely blocked me. I just hope this new chapter won’t be a disappointment. Thank you for all of you who stayed around for this, for the nice feedbacks.

Sorry for the mistakes, it’s the middle of the night and I had no strength to reread it.

Title: The Day When He Wasn’t The Best In The World

Chapter title: A Kiss, A Slap, and An Old Truth; Iker knows best

Characters: Cristiano Ronaldo, Hayley Carrighan (OC)

Warnings: some cursing

Category: F/M, romance/friendship/humour

READ ON AO3

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

“You were right, again... Money already sent to your account,” Iker chuckled as he read Sergio's text. Of course he was right; he had a gift when it came to people, he saw through them, he knew years ago he was going to win this bet. He wasn't one to gloat but it gave him a certain type of satisfiment that he still had his game.

24 HOURS EARLIER

Hayley was watching as Ronaldo walked Sir Alex out, talking quietly. Her boss' posture seemed way more relaxed, the tension was still there what was not surprising after the events of the last two weeks but he was getting there; to calm down again. She mentally petted herself for coming up with the great idea to invite the old man over. Of course, she had to do something because the truth was, she felt terrible about what happened.

Hayley'd spent hours upon hours surfing through various news sites; all of them talking about Ronaldo's birthday party as if it was an orgy made after Sodom and Gomorrah when in reality there were more kids on that bash than adults. The whole mess happened because she insisted him keeping a party; he was 30 after all, he deserved to celebrate. Unfortunately, after losing the game against Atletico with four goals ruled out celebration, at least for the birthday boy.

Ronaldo was having a very tough time in the last couple of months. First, it turned out his on and off girlfriend -who was the second worst person on the planet according to Hayley but she wasn't the one dating the woman so she tried to mind her own business- dumped him for some wannabe rockstar. Then the team kept failing repeatedly. Last but not least there was the whole birthday fiasco. Fans, fired up by the media demanded the club to sell him, he got whistled again despite of the fact he scored a double. The club of course did nothing to defend him. All of this was taking a toll on him, she could tell easily.

He turned inside, started shutting everyone out and she hated it. They talked about a solution with Jorge, Marisa, Ricky, Miguel but there seemed to be no fix for this other than time. Dolores was worried to sick despite of Hayley's best efforts to calm her, Junior was having a hard time even though everyone tried to shield him from the shit storm, the kid could tell something was off.

So Hayley'd done what she was the best at, she'd turned into problem solving mode, and when she'd seen that the man who was like a father to her boss was only an hour away from them, she hadn't hesitated a single moment to ask for help.

“Thanks for this,” Cristiano smiled at her lightly, closed the door as he entered the house.

“You know I can't stand your brooding,” she laughed softly with a roll of her eyes. She felt warm by his smile, it was something she missed in the last couple of days.

“I thought we could... I don't know, have a drink or something. Me a water, you a glass of wine?”

“I'm done,” Ninho said proudly as he walked out of the bathroom before Hayley could have answered.

“Sure, let's put him to bed then we can talk about it.” She nodded, thinking she could surely use a nice glass of wine and despite of her boss practicaly being abstinent he had a whole set of wonderful wine. “Are you sure you washed those teeth well?” Hayley turned to the little boy beside her with a serious expression on her face. “We don't want the toothfairy think badly of you, right?”

“I promise I did. Look!” He grinned at her, flashing his teeth.

“Wonderful job, pumpkin',” she laughed, ruffling his hair.

“Let's get you to bed,” her boss picked up the kid, and tickled him what resulted in squeeling and screaming and some more squeeling before they reached the bed.

“Hayley has to tuck me in, you can't do it right,” Ninho complained as Cristiano tried to wrap him into the blanket.

“Yeah, you can't do it right, daddy, get out of the way,” she chuckled, playfully smacked him on the shoulder so she could sit to the bed.

Cristiano watched as Hayley tucked his son in, making sure the blanket was wrapped up at his feet, and there were no holes left anywhere so no monsters could reach him and he felt a tug in his heart. Since last summer something had changed, he'd started to see her differently. He couldn't put his finger on it but there was something definitely different. He'd always been fond of her because she was good to his son, and was a great friend of him too but things in him were changing slowly. He'd started to see her more as a woman than the girl he'd hired all those years ago. She'd grown into a radiant person and he'd only just seen it now.

“Good night, little one,” she blew a kiss on Ninho's forehead, walked out and closed the door behind her.

“Seriously, Hayley, thank you for what you did today,” he said again. He was truly grateful for her, and this was certainly not the first time she'd managed to pull him out of his misery.

“Like I said, I did it for selfish reasons,” she laughed softly, pulled the hair tie out of her hair with a sigh.

“I don't know what I'd do without you,” he said quietly, closing the distance between them. His lips brushed over hers lightly, she tasted like cherry coke and strawberry. Her mouth parted in a surprised little gasp and it drove him crazy. He could stay in that moment forever.

Hayley's head was spinning. This was not happening. She'd fallen through the rabbit hole and this was the twilight zone. Her boss was not kissing her. She felt rage washing through her veins like ice cold water and acted without thinking. Her hand landed hard on his cheek, the slap surely burned. He stared at her shocked as she took a step back.

“Don't you fucking dare to do that again!” Her voice was shaking with anger, her entire being was on fire, she felt like she could strangle him with her bare hands. “I might be your safety net...” She pointed at him. “...but I ain't gonna be your fucking rebound Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro.” There were many thing things she'd do for this man, length she'd go for him but she wasn't going to be a pity fuck.

“What... I... Hayley...”

“Shut up!” She raised her voice and took a breath to calm down, not wanted Ninho to hear them. “Think about yourself and what you've just done and why you've done it. I can't believe you,” she fumed as turned on her heels and stomped to her room. What had he been thinking? That she'd be a one night stand and things would go back to how they were before? That she'd just make him feel good when he was down? He was devastated about that stupid bitch, Selma and wanted to use her. He must have even thought, he'd do good to her too; the ass.

-----

Hayley hadn't slept a single minute during the night she was so upset but during the night she came to the conclusion that her boss was just a man like any other, and she couldn't hold grudge for too long anyway, especially not against him. Of course, she'd still give him a hard time just to make sure this wouldn't happen again. Her heart was too fragile for this, she had to realize it. It'd be way too easy to fall for him, to fall for the idea of them being a family; they practically lived like one anyway, minus the fact that they'd never slept together.

“Are you two having a fight now?” Ninho asked at the breakfast table. Both of them were quiet, avoiding even looking at each other what was a very odd thing for the kid.

“No, sweety, daddy just did something silly, he's gonna grovel a bit, and it's gonna be fine,” Hayley smiled sweetly at her boss, his eyes widening.

“What did you do?” The little boy asked with a frown between his brows.

“I... I...” Ronaldo cleared his throat nervously and Hayley sighed.

“He bought me diet chocolate.” She saved him again.

“You hate diet chocolate.” Ninho noted. She did, unless you have diabates do it or don't do it, there was no other way. “You should buy her real chocolate, dad!”

They looked at each other, Hayley felt her face warming a bit and it was her turn to clear her throat.

“I think I've had enough chocolate for a while,” she mumbled before taking the plates. More chocolate... More kisses... More of him... Stop it, Hayley, don't be stupid, she thought to herself, shaking her head.

-----

“What's going on, man? You're awfully quiet,” Fabio noted as they drove towards the Valdebebas.

“Nothing.” Ronaldo shrugged. What had happened last night had been a complete shock to him. He couldn't recall a single time he'd been rejected by a woman. The anger in Hayley's eyes after their kiss... For a moment he'd thought that she'd kill him. He didn't understand though. Of course, he was her boss and friend but would it have been so wrong to finally give in to what they know would happen at one point? Because he knew she felt it, too, she must have, the pull whenever they were around each other, like an electric wire.

“Come on! Don't tell me it's still about your birthday... They're gonna get over...”

“I kissed Hayley,” he blurted out with a growl. He knew Fabio wouldn't let it go. Now that he'd said it out loud, it seemed even more real, more vivid, her taste on his lips, her sigh, he wanted more.

“What?” His friend asked with an almost high pitched voice. “Head or balls?”

“Slapped me. Hard, I might add.” He mumbled. Cristiano was sulking, and he knew it was childish but he wasn't used to losing.

“God dammit,” Fabio laughed as he pulled into the parking lot.

“Not funny,” he groaned, annoyed with his friend. This wasn't a joke. How could she turn him down like that?

“We warned you she was out of your league, dude.” He shrugged, visibly amused by the whole thing as they walked into the dressing room.

“Who's out of his league?” Sergio asked, curious. A couple of the guys were already there, all of them showing great interest in the subject.

“Hayley. He kissed her,” Fabio announced, meaningfully. For a moment complete silence fell over the room.

“Head or balls?” Sergio asked finally. Cristiano narrowed his eyes as he watched his teammates practically holding their breath. What the hell was going on?

“Slap,” Fabio sighed and made a face.

“God dammit!” Sergio cursed under his breath, and low rumble of disappointment went through the group. “Can't believe he won again. Gonna send him a text. He even got the time right. Unbelievable.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Ronaldo looked around, confused and annoyed that he was being left in the dark.

“We made a bet when you hired Hayley, when you would try and if she was going to go for your head or your balls,” Marcelo explained, patting him on the shoulder.

“Nice, really, guys, very nice.”

“Of course, Iker won.” Sergio added with a grimace. The man always won these.

“You couldn't think seriously you'd have a chance. She's too smart and she knows you too well.” Pepe noted with a shrug. “And the smart thing for you to do would be to let it go. You don't want to lose her.”

They were right about one thing; that he didn't want to lose her. Things should go back to how they were before, they could do it. They could forget about the stupid kiss. If she could, he could as well, no problem and it had got nothing to do with her being out of his league or any of the crap his teammates thought. It was just the case of why ruin something good.

#fanfic #football fanfic #cristiano ronaldo #cr7 #romance #humuor #love #hurt/comfort #friendship #family #fanfiction

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netherwar-rpg-blog · 7 years

Photo

Welcome to the Wardens, Lash! Your application for a RANGER OC has been accepted with a Richard Madden FC.

The application can be found under the cut. You have 48 hours to create a roleplay account (cannot be a sideblog) for your character and we will be updating our opening date soon!

Name: Lash

Age: 24

Timezone: Eastern

Activity Level: IT’S SUMMER TIME YO

Name: Jareth Bozkurtlar

The Huntsman

Gender: Male

FC: Richard Madden

Age: 30

Class: Ranger

Nationality: Unknown, Orphan raised by a farmer on the outskirts of THE LORRIN FOREST

He is actually Siftish but he is not sure where his family lived or what they were

He was found with a Ranger amulet with his surname engraved on it

He sought out the life of a ranger after his adoptive father passed away

Appearance:

Jareth wears his kills like badge of honor. His favorite game is the giant wolves that roam the wilderness. Being rare and hard to hunt, he accepts the challenge whenever it presents itself. He has made a name for himself as The Huntsman. His apparel is made up of furs and skins. The armor he wears is crude at best; mostly vulnerable leather. He carries a sword but would much rather prefer to stalk and put an arrow through his prey.

Jareth is a much respected hunter as opposed to the many poachers and trophy seekers. He enjoys the kill and the thrill but he holds his role in the balance sacred. The circle of life is to be taken with extreme care. He kills cleanly and always offers gratitude to whatever animal he has taken for nourishment. This is a trait most overlook in favor of naming him a ruthless animal slayer. Once people see how he truly works their attitude usually changes.

Their initial aversions to the man are justly warranted. Jareth stands out more so than normal rangers due to his tragic past. He never smiles and smells like fresh earth. It is a scent few find appetizing. He has no use for modern advances and prefers the shelter of a great shade tree to the stuffiness of a closed room. He carries a hammock in his pack so that he can sleep whenever he is too tired to keep riding.

His horse is a dark brown, black maned male known as Ginseng. Jareth found him next to his dead mother while digging for Ginseng root. He was a wild foal but the two hit it off from day one. They are inseparable.

Personality:

+Dutiful, Respectful, Compassionate

-Introverted, Critical, Vengeful

History:

He is a very serious man due to his tragic past. Raised as an orphan by a poor farmer, he had a hard time developing any real connection with people. It was always nature that called to him. He looked to it for comfort and clarity until he met his wife bathing in a stream. She was an exotic woman to him; with coal black hair and an olive complexion. The sight of her put a gut wrenching feeling within him. He needed to know her. She saw him looking gat her and only met his prying eyes with a smile.

Jareth wondered if he had been snared by a Siren. Was he about to be pulled under and drowned with a kiss? He would gladly let her take him under. As he shuffled toward her if she covered herself with a cloak. A smile broke the silence between them and they spoke for hours. She loved the forest and enjoyed his many tales of hunts and adventures. Over the course of a year he finally mucked up the courage to ask her father for her hand.

Her father was a brutish, greedy old man. He wanted a match of wealth and prosperity for his daughter. Jareth could only offer the meager earnings of a fur trader. The father turned him down and laughed at his preposterous request, however, Jareth planned to run away and take his bride with him.

The plan went smoothly and the two lovers whispered their vows and took to a life on the run. It worked for a while until the anger of her father caught up with them. In his desperation he offered a reward for the return of his daughter; dead or alive.

By this time the two had conceived and had a son together. They called him Garthiel. The threats became an everyday ordeal. Jareth had to protect his family every waking second. The bounty on his wife was too great for anyone to pass up. When the Dark Union got involved he stood no chance against them. The assassins came and Jareth was unable to stop them. His son held no value so he was killed before his eyes while they held him in place.

No matter how hard he struggled he could not free himself against them. When his wife ceased screaming he went slack in their arms waiting for his own last breath but it never came. All they took was the head of his wife. The bodies lay where they fell and Jareth, left alive, in the center of the bloodshed. A hooded figure stepped out of the darkness and laughed down at him. The shadows swirled to life around him and he felt the wrath of his sins beating down upon him. When he awoke the next morning he found only the assassins bodies mangled and eaten while his wife and son were intact. A single wolf lay near them as if he were protecting the dead. The wolf follows Jareth to this day.

In the days following word spread that there was a murderer on the loose. The old man had reported Jareth had taken his daughter, raped her, forced her to bear his children and then killed them both when he attempted to save her form his evil clutches. The story was insane but people believed it. Jareth was forced to run as he always had before.

Jareth is a wanted criminal in the Carn, his wife’s ancestral lands. He doesn’t anticipate anyone recognizing him in Miwor Town but he is unaware there are those who might know just what he supposedly did. Those who believe the publicized story see Jareth as a killer, a man who would rape and murder the mother of his child after making her watch her son die. The vivid picture was painted in all the blood and gore of what actually happened but blames the wrong man. Jareth suffers from the loss and more so from the damage of his reputation. He has become even more reluctant to build relationships with others out of fear of judgments. The only reason he continues to life is the intervening of the Balance. The balance came to his aid and spared him of death for a reason. He whole heartedly believes his purpose is to join the Wardens and help bring balance back.

Reason For Joining The Wardens:

Jareth finds himself in Miwor Town after the devastation of the rift. The pain and loss in the air brings back the awful memories of his devastating losses. He has been on the run for five years but since the death of his father in Law, the interest has been lost. He wants to begin leading a somewhat normal life and cope with the events of his past. Knowing the balance is being disturbed makes him weary. He has sought out the Wardens to aid them in any way that he can. He doesn’t think anyone will recognize him as the brutal killer of the wanted posters but there are sure to be some floating around the town. The nightmare that is his past is sure to follow him into the warden’s ranks. If their leader remotely recognizes him he will be forced to flee or convince her that he is innocent of all charges. Though he disagrees with the Holy Light he is eager to help the you leader protect the people. He is also curious as to why she left her position as the Hand of Light, perhaps he can convert her to the righteous Fenarious Faith.

Desired Connections:

Jareth is a stranger but he is a wanted man, especially around Carn. His wife was a Carnish woman whose father has painted him a vile murderer. Any Warden may have seen his bounty poster or heard of the gruesome tale. I am eager for Jareth to defend his reputation to his new Leader.

Para Sample:

“You will wake the boy.” Delilah chuckled out the words as he rolled over her in their tent. Their young son lay soundly sleeping on the other side of the curtain. Jareth and Delilah’s head turned to be sure he was still peacefully sleeping. Jareth pushed himself off of her into a battle ready stance as the shadows approached the canvas. Dim candles signaled the approach of shadows. Before he could release a cry of warning he was shoved into the dirt. Men surrounded them as his wife and son cried out in fear. She fought them hard rushing for the child. They got to him first. Jareth looked up from the corner of his eye, his cheek forced against the dirt by his assailant. There were at least three of them. He could see nothing but flashes of shadow and dust. His hearing was still intact; at least if he could hear them they were still alive.

“JARETH! HELP ME! MY SON! NOOOOO!” Jareth heard the sickening sound, the sudden stop of a child’s cries. His wife collapsing to the ground in hopelessness as he sobbed into the mud, still unable to move, arms shackled in iron at his back. The dust beneath him slowly turning to mud as he lost every ounce of will to remain living. His wife was next but he couldn’t pinpoint when, she made no sound after they took their son’s life. He waited for their finale. It never came. They gloated and laughed at his sobbing. A broken man was fun to mock, especially to those who felt no love or emotion. Jareth had committed no crime aside from loving above his station. Rangers really hardly found a soul they could share a life with. His had been murdered in front of him.

The leader crouched down so that Jareth could see his boots. He knew what they had done. He felt the anger rise up inside of him and he thrust himself out of the mud to sit on his knees. “DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH HER!”

“Too late for that. She didn’t feel a thing. You are the last one she will remember.”

The man spoke in amusement, regarding the despicable act as a joke. Jareth wanted to kill him slowly. The only thing that kept him from his desire was the overwhelming fact that she was gone. The vile beast tossed her severed head in the dirt before Jareth. A wave of indescribably emotion took over and he called on the balance. He wanted justice for their despicable crimes. Suddenly out of the shadows of darkness came the low growling, unmistakable to the Ranger. He himself had no fear. He was partially dead after all the horror he had just witnessed. The men surrounded him and beat him mercilessly, dismissing the growl as nothing to be concerned with.

Screaming was all the Ranger registered before his injuries rendered him unconscious. The next morning he found the bodies of the men in mangled messes. His wife and child were untouched by the wolves. A single wolf stood near the remains of his tent watching him closely. It was huge and seemingly made of mist. Jareth knew the balance had to have showed him mercy, left him alive for a greater purpose. The wolf seemed saddened by the carnal acts that had expired on the grounds. Jareth moved his arms and found that his shackles had turned to dust. The scene was as if the balance had come down and wreaked havoc on everything that was not Jareth or his family. Ginseng nudged his shoulder and whined softly. The Ranger’s life was now in the hands of the Balance.

#ranger oc #ara #tra #accepted

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florrickandassociates · 7 years

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TGF Thoughts: 1x09-- Self Condemned

In which I ramble about memory pops and repeat myself several times. I’d say I was trying to capture the stream-of-consciousness feeling of the episode, but really, I’m just too lazy to edit this.

This episode kicks off at 9:03 am. There’s a title card announcing this fact. I’m not sure why we need to know exactly what time it is, since lines about breakfast, mid-morning snack, and lunch could’ve conveyed the passage of time better than a title card. And since the time cards just kinda disappear as the episode goes on.

Maia and Lucca are waiting for Maia to be interviewed about her parents’ scheme. It seems like Lucca is Maia’s lawyer now, which I don’t love: what happened to Yesha?! I won’t complain too much, though, because I want Maia/Lucca scenes and I want Maia to feel like part of the rest of the show. But I also want to know where Yesha disappeared to.

Lucca briefly summarizes the rules of today’s interview: Maia is here voluntarily and nothing she shares in this interview can be used against her.

“Was your first year anything like this?” Maia asks Lucca. Good question. Maia has a lot on her plate, but this is still her first job. As someone who’s still in her first year out of college, I was excited to see the Kings’ take on a character who’s going through the same things I am (even if our careers and our circumstances are very different). But we’ve barely gotten any of that. And, while it’s not necessary that the writers focus on this aspect of Maia’s life (she does have bigger things to worry about, after all!), it’s something the writers could look at to add to Maia’s development. Alicia was always dealing with the sex scandal, dealing with the conspiracy/trial drama surrounding Peter, being a mother, and adjusting to going back to work and fighting for her job in her competition with Cary. Maia may not be juggling quite as many roles as Alicia was, but even still: she plays roles other than Daughter of a Scandal. She is a new lawyer. She is someone’s girlfriend. She is Diane’s goddaughter. There is no lack of potential material for Maia, which is why I’ve been (and will continue to be) so harsh on the writers for the way they have(n’t) developed her.

(And it wouldn’t even hurt the show or take up too much time to show Maia in other roles! It would make the show more coherent to have her at work more often; it would give Diane more material if she and Maia interacted more frequently; it would make everything a lot better if we got to see more of Maia and Amy’s relationship. And, if the Rindell Fund stuff needed to be minimized to make room to show Maia doing other things, so be it. That plot is in desperate need of trimming anyway.)

Lucca responds that no, her first year wasn’t anything like this (well of course it wasn’t; she was working as a bar attorney). She has a feeling her fourth year will be, though. Foreshadowing…

“You’re weathering it well,” Lucca tells Maia. Maia thanks her, and then it’s time for her interview. Hey! Wouldn’t this line play a lot better if we could see that Maia is either putting on an act and everything’s getting to her or that Maia has a strategy for dealing with this? Again (I’m going to say this a lot in this recap), we got that kind of development for Alicia. And Alicia didn’t have a live-in significant other she could talk to about anything.

Lucca and Maia walk into an interrogation room filled with lights, cameras, and a half-dozen FBI agents. “Oh, come on!” Lucca exclaims. But it turns out they’re in a different room with only one interviewer, played by Jane Lynch. The hallway is being painted and they have to go through the interrogation room because quirkiness. Also quirky: Madeline Starkey’s office, which is stuffed with all sorts of trinkets. And, if there weren’t enough quirk already in this scene, birds sometimes fly into Starkey’s window because they think it’s the sky. Lovely. Dead birds are quirk now.

Starkey explains with more specificity what Maia’s there to do, and mentions that the terms only apply if Maia is truthful. It’s a felony to lie to a federal agent, Starkey reminds her. Maia knows exactly what law that is.

“Maia, let’s talk about your parents. How did this Ponzi scheme begin?” Starkey asks first. Well that’s a broad question Maia wouldn’t necessarily know the answer to. (This is Starkey’s play—I don’t believe for a minute she’s interested in anything other than catching Maia in a lie.) Lucca answers for Maia, so Starkey rephrases. She wants Maia to share anything that comes to mind about her parents or about her Uncle Jackson. So, basically, she wants memory pops.

Meanwhile at the firm, Adrian needs Diane to help with another police brutality case. He has friends at County, so he knows when a new case pops up. And, this is an interesting one: the cop involved is Andrew Theroux, the same cop as the case from F101. If they fight this right, they can get this cop kicked off the force.

Adrian and Diane arrive at County and try to find their new client. They assume it’s a young black man who doesn’t look like he’s been involved in a physical altercation and who says he’s in there on a possession charge (but he didn’t do it).

Their real client? None other than Colin Sweeney. “Oh, Dear God,” Diane says when she sees him. Sweeney’s excited to see Diane. He asks if “Alee-see-ah” called her because she said she couldn’t take his case. Couldn’t or didn’t want to? I demand answers. (Nah, I don’t demand answers. I’m just glad this line is in here, since Sweeney’s one of those guest stars who mainly interacted with Alicia. He was always so fixated on her that her absence needs to be acknowledged for it to make even the slightest bit of sense that anyone else would be defending him.

Sweeney tells Adrian that “they’re out to get me. The same way they did with Rodney King.” EL-OH-EL. RIGHT.

Adrian and Diane (who thinks Sweeney is “the devil”) don’t like that they’re going to have to represent Sweeney, but they know this is a way to get the corrupt cop kicked off the force. The ends justify the means. (The show did as good of a job as they possibly could have—between this explanation and the Alicia reference—of bringing Sweeney onto TGF. He’s one of the guest stars that I think TGW used a little too frequently, but I’ll allow.)

Back in the FBI interview, Starkey gives Maia a date: the first criminal act took place on September 15th, 2008. I typed this date into my email inbox to see what I was up to then. Apparently, that’s the day I sent my first email to someone who’s now one of my best friends. (It was a link to the first Tina Fey as Sarah Palin sketch. How 2008.)

Anyway, Maia says, as any reasonable person asked to recall something that happened on some day nine years ago would, that that was a long time ago. “I would’ve been seventeen,” Maia says. So Maia’s 26 (possibly 27) now. “I was probably in school,” she continues.

Starkey points out it was the day Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, and that jogs Maia’s memory, which means… MEMORY POPS!

Maia remembers herself doing homework as the news played in the background. She’s at home, at the dining room table, still wearing her school uniform. (Maia went to private school, it seems, but that’s the least surprising reveal ever.) Also, sorry, but giving Maia really curly hair and a school uniform doesn’t make me believe that 30 year old Rose looks seventeen. It does, however, make it look like Maia grew up in a different era.

Maia remembers her parents panicking over the news. So far, these memory pops are nothing special, but it’s still early. They’re mostly a way of illustrating information, and that’s fine.

Starkey moves on to asking about an investor, and Maia says she remembers him being at her house on September 15th. She adds that Jax was there too. Maia has a good memory! (For some reason, all of this is making me think of the opening of Serial.)

She specifically remembers that the investor would be out eight million dollars if he pulled his money out, so her family told him to keep his money in.

She estimates that this must’ve been around 4 pm because she was still doing her homework. Girl, I was still doing my homework at 10 pm and was barely home from school by 4. Are you sure about this time frame? And if you are, what sort of school did you go to where you had so little homework you wouldn’t have been working on it much later than 4?! She also remembers that their guest was gone before dinner. This has gotten super specific.

Maia remembers that her parents discussed work over dinner. And this is where I want more from the memory pops. Maia is going through a time in her life where she’s reevaluating everything she thought she knew and questioning the perfect family she thought she had. Sure, Starkey is asking about one specific date, but wouldn’t it be cool if, for example, we saw flashes of lots of “typical Rindell family dinners” before we saw the one Maia remembers on September 15th? Did the Rindells always sit down to dinner together? Was that something they made a point of doing, something that Maia remembers fondly from her childhood? When she thinks about this particular dinner, is she only thinking about that dinner, or is she making a composite memory of lots of dinners? It is not interesting to me that Maia had dinner with her parents on September 15th, 2008. It’s not even interesting to me that Maia thinks she had dinner with her parents on that date. But it would be very interesting to me if I knew that the Rindells always sat down as a family for dinner.

Starkey has Lenore’s calendar from 2008, and it contradicts Maia’s recollection because Maia had a gyno appointment at 3 pm. Damn, her school must’ve let out early. Starkey wants to know how Maia remembers seeing Jax at 4 if this is the case. Uh? Because it was nine years ago and Maia gave you estimate times? (Lucca points this out.)

“I know that memory can be faulty. I’m just trying to get to the truth,” Starkey says. That’s a good thesis statement for what memory pops are meant to illustrate.

Maia does remember a gyno appointment, and her mom speaking with someone in the waiting room. She tells Starkey she was there. Why!? She remembers it was on that day? Why did you say yes, Maia? She says maybe she saw Jax and the investor later, which calls everything she’s said into question.

Starkey says it would’ve been impossible for Maia to be home by 4 because of the distance from the doctor’s office to Maia’s house. Maybe the appointment lasted 15 minutes. Maybe Maia got there early. Maybe she saw them at 4:30. I don’t get why Starkey is so stuck on the times adding up exactly. Or maybe she doesn’t care at all and she just wants to have reason to tell her bosses she suspects Maia’s a liar.

(Memory is malleable—note how Maia’s mental image of that day changes every time Starkey introduces a new piece of information. If Starkey said “you had fish for dinner that night, your father told me,” Maia would probably start imagining fish on the dinner plates.)

It would’ve been 5:30 by the time they got home, apparently. That’s a lot of traffic. And the housekeeper said she served dinner right at 5:30. And Jax said he was never there at all. I am not convinced by Starkey’s argument, though I also don’t trust Maia’s memories to be objective. I’m sure, in 2008, she overheard more than one discussion about the recession.

Starkey starts talking about some show she was on when she was eight, and then says that when she saw photos, she realized her memory was wrong. “The mind has a way of turning wishful thinking into actual memories,” Starkey says. That’s true. Not sure if that’s what’s going on here, but it’s true.

Lucca stops the interview. She and Maia have trouble exiting Starkey’s office because quirkiness.

Lucca, smartly, notes that Starkey is trying to catch Maia in lies. She advises Maia to only talk about specific memories. “I don’t want to hurt my dad,” Maia says. That’s obvious. She’s still—in her mind—making Jax out to be the villain, even after all the shit her father’s put her through these past few weeks. And this episode would’ve been the perfect time to find out why Maia’s so loyal to her father. “He’s her father” stopped being an adequate explanation the first time she broke the law to protect him. What produced this kind of loyalty? What kinds of values did her parents instill in her? Since she’s an only child, was she very close with her parents? Would her dad always, always find time to ask about her day, to help her with her homework, to offer to read over her essays? Would they chat about the news together?

This is connected to another problem I have with the Rindells, one I’ve touched on before. Maia’s parents are cartoon villains. Maybe if in just one scene either of them behaved like a human being, I’d have an easier time believing that Maia would care about them. Peter Florrick was always more than just Scumbag In Prison Who Cheated on Alicia. Remember Just Because Day? I think it’s in episode W1x04. It’s exactly what I would want from Maia and her parents: Alicia’s asked what she was doing on a specific date and goes to find information. She stumbles across a video from that date, and it refreshes her memory. But, before she realizes that Peter must’ve been with her the entire day, and not off breaking the law, she’s nervous. The video starts out with Peter in bed, and we don’t need to literally see inside Alicia’s mind to know that she thinks she’s found a sex tape. Now that she knows that Peter’s a cheater, she can’t help but see everything through that lens. She relaxes when she sees Zach and Grace on the camera, and then she recalls how wonderful her family was before the scandal—how good Peter was with the kids; how he surprised her “just because.” That’s a lot of information about Alicia (AND something that adds dimension to Peter) in one scene where all she does is watch a tape. How come we don’t get that much information about Maia when we get a glimpse into her mind?

(Yes, I know the point of these memory pops is to show that Maia knew all along but ignored the warning signs. My point is that I would love to see memory pops that suggest why she was willfully ignorant for so long.)

(I don’t know where to put this point so I may as well put it here: I would like this episode far, far more if it had been placed earlier in the season. Maia realizing she knew all along and is covering for her parents is a big deal, but it’s less of a big deal when she’s been suspicious of her mom for weeks, read her father’s suicide note about his “crimes”, and, oh yeah, made the choice to let her father stay in prison for the rest of his life rather than risk hurting anyone else. This is the kind of realization that would’ve added a lot of depth to Maia early on but feels too late now.)

(On a similar note, I would prefer it if Maia came to this realization through either a conversation—in private—with her lawyer or a heart-to-heart with Amy. I don’t give a shit about continuing investigations into the Rindells, and Madeline Starkey isn’t the only person in the world who could prompt Maia to question the accuracy of her memories.)

“If you lie to protect your dad, you might get him off. But you’ll end up in jail,” Lucca explains. Wait. This is still a question?! I know these legal cases take time but can we please be done with this one? Also: if this is Maia’s way of feeling guilty about her father’s suicide attempt and how she sided with Diane and the firm over her family, maaaaaaaaaaaaybe the episode could be clearer about that????

My overall feeling about the memory pops in this episode is: They’re better than standard flashbacks and they convey what they need to about Maia feeling guilty. But there was still a lot of character detail missing.

Also: I’m sure my disappointment has something to do with how little I care about Maia, even nearly at the end of the first season. There was always very little chance of me becoming as invested in Maia as I was in Alicia, so this isn’t entirely the show’s fault. But I don’t think it’s all a matter of personal preference. I won’t get into it yet again, but I think there are lots of ways that the writers could have made Maia a more interesting, three-dimensional character.

In court, there’s some sort of unfunny joke about a judge in a wheelchair who doesn’t want any help going up a ramp. I want to believe this is just to show us that the judge is the kind of person who insists on doing everything himself without asking for help, but it kind of seems like I’m supposed to find it quirky and funny that he’s in a wheelchair and can’t wheel himself up a ramp. It is neither quirky nor funny; it’s just offensive.

Case stuff happens. Sweeney says “all lives matter” and Diane shushes him. (“Shut up, Colin. I’m finally on your side.”) (Hey, speaking of people named Colin, where’s Colin Morello at this week? I don’t miss him, but where is he?) (Marissa’s not in this episode either.) (And Barbara may as well not be in this episode because they don’t give her much to do.)

My new favorite thing is lawyers on this show laughing because the law works in bizarre and wonderful ways sometimes. It happens at least twice in this episode and it happened last week too.

More birds fly into Starkey’s windows as Lucca and Maia return for more questioning. Starkey hands Maia her mother’s calendar. For some reason, Maia keeps remembering her mom leaning in close to Jax (first they’re both blurred out) when she’s at the appointments. I think this is meant to indicate that it’s slowly coming into focus for her that all her appointments were covers for her mom’s affair with Jax. But I’m not sure that makes sense. It’s not like Maia never went to the doctor, and I don’t know why she’d go straight to realizing it was a cover for an affair (Starkey hasn’t suggested that yet at this point).

Maia’s supposed to mark all the appointments she remembers on a print-out of her mom’s calendar. She remembers her mom talking to a gynecologist and so she puts a check next to that appointment. Okay but Maia, you going to the gynecologist doesn’t mean you went on that exact day.

Maia remembers lots of gyno appointments. Is there supposed to be a point to this? Or is it just to let us know that she had a boyfriend before she had a girlfriend?

Starkey then says that Lenore wasn’t at the appointments: she was sleeping with Jax. This is so aggravating to me. These things happened nine years ago. But Starkey is right: Maia shouldn’t be confirming things if they’re not true. When I buy lunch multiple times in a week, a week later, I can’t remember which day I bought a sandwich and which day I got pasta, even if I remember that I bought a sandwich one day and pasta another day. I really don’t get why Maia is confirming anything instead of second-guessing herself. (But then, maybe Maia just thinks differently than I do.)

Also just taking a second to acknowledge that Lenore Rindell is a shitty person.

Maia imagines her mother and Jax kissing in the hallway of her gynecologist’s office. She pictures herself turning away. This didn’t happen in reality (they were not carrying on an affair in her gyno’s office, I’m like 99.9999% sure)—this is Maia processing information. Get it? She sees the truth and turns away.

So now the question is: did Maia suspect anything? She sees herself turning around, like it was right in front of her. No, she says. She didn’t. Starkey wants to know if she ever suspected her parents of the Ponzi scheme, and Lucca insists on a break. Good call, Lucca.

At RBK, a guy from COPA is falling asleep on Adrian’s desk. Barbara and Adrian tell the COPA guy about their latest case. He’s interested when he hears which cop was involved. But when they tell him the victim is Sweeney… COPA guy laughs. And laughs. And laughs. And laughs. And laughs. And laughs. He rips up his notes and leaves, still laughing. He is my new hero.

Case stuff happens.

Maia looks at her contacts list in her phone. Lucca calls her in for more of the interview. Starkey offers them candy and makes up a story about her husband. Lucca calls her out on it—she googled Starkey. Seems Starkey is lying about whatever she feels like lying about. But she is good at her job, according to the interwebs.

Starkey responds by threatening Lucca. Cool.

Her next questions are about the Rindell Foundation. Maia is one of three board members. Starkey asks when the board last met. Apparently, years ago. In June 2011. And they never met again. MAIA. HOW ARE YOU ON THE BOARD OF A FOUNDATION THAT HASN’T HAD A BOARD MEETING IN SIX YEARS WITHOUT THINKING THAT’S SUSPICIOUS? (Later, we’ll see Maia say she cared about the cause, but actions speak louder than words.)

I don’t think I’m supposed to be on Maia’s side on this. I don’t think it makes her a criminal or complicit that she wasn’t more involved. But it does make her willfully ignorant, and neglectful (not in a legal sense, because I don’t know anything about the law). Maia’s led a life so full of privilege she doesn’t immediately think this is strange. And she’s so comfortable with her life, she doesn’t do anything that could cause a stir. It’s no wonder she feels guilty.

Maia explains that the foundation wasn’t her idea, but it was a good cause. I’m trying not to judge Maia for this, but I’m failing. I’m sure most eighteen year olds wouldn’t like it if their parents tried to force them into running a foundation, but it takes a certain type of privilege to hear about a foundation (even as an eighteen year old) and go, “ugh, daddy, this is a good cause but why do I have to deal with it?” instead of thinking, “This is an opportunity for me to do good for other people; let me make sure I get people involved to manage these initiatives.”

In Maia’s defense, she does remember asking how much they were sending. “It’s a lot, honey,” is all she remembers her dad telling her. “I don’t know,” she realizes. And she was okay with that.

She remembers asking again, that same night, while making pizza with her dad. “Yeah, but Dad, I mean, it’s got my name on it,” she said. Henry said Jax would open the books to her in a few weeks. We don’t get confirmation on whether or not that happened. My guess? Maia never followed up, because it would’ve been uncomfortable to follow up, and she was preoccupied with her own life.

Case stuff happens. It’s good for the RBK team.

Now we’re in a memory pop without first seeing Maia, which is a transition I do not like at all because it makes the memory pop seem like a flashback and not a memory. Henry, and a bunch of guests including Diane, are singing Happy Birthday to Maia. It’s her eighteenth birthday, Starkey explains: the day the Rindell Foundation was established.

“My parents, they, they knew I was interested in Africa,” Maia says, explaining why the foundation was gifted to her. OH YES, I CAN TELL YOU WERE INTERESTED IN AFRICA FROM THE WAY YOU REFER TO IT (IN THE PRESENT!) AS THOUGH IT’S A SINGLE COUNTRY. And from the way you totally knew what your foundation was doing (or not doing). And from all those board meetings over the years.

(I try not to judge characters and to understand them instead but oh my god, how can I not judge someone who says things like, “My parents knew I was interested in Africa.”????)

Next question: Was Amy at Maia’s birthday party? Yes, she was. Maia remembers that clearly, romantically. She pictures Amy smiling at her, looking directly at her, noticing her, standing out from the crowd.

It was the night Maia and Amy met! That’s exciting backstory! And, we get confirmation on an age difference: Amy was entering law school when Maia turned 18. I didn’t think the age gap was that big! Like, that makes Amy in these memory pops the age I am now, and the idea of dating an 18 year old now is like, LOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOL YOU’RE A CHILD. The age gap isn’t what’s strange to me—it’s not that big of a gap. It’s the gap in maturity and experience that strikes me as odd. But hey, it worked out for them, so who am I to judge?

(Good to get confirmation that Amy’s supposed to be four/five years older. That sounds about right.)

Maia’s boyfriend was there that night, but she ended up making out with Amy anyway. That escalated quickly.

Starkey also asks if Diane was there. Maia remembers her singing Happy Birthday. Of course, we don’t get to hear it, even though this is the closest we’ve ever gotten to Christine Baranski singing on the show.

Starkey wants to know if Diane offered legal advice to Maia’s parents in Maia’s presence. Lucca cuts in before I can type out, “isn’t that hearsay?”

Diane’s talking about a case she’s on, a guy who’s accused of killing a hedge fund manager who worked with Madoff. I don’t know if the timeline adds up or not, but it’s possible this is the case from W1x15, which has a case with that premise. Also, 1x15 is a really good episode and I just rewatched it last weekend. And one of the filming locations in that episode is the Rindell mansion. It’s where a corrupt hedge fund manager lived. I know that’s not intentional, but HA! (Sorry, Maia, but seeing Alicia walk through your house doesn’t do you any favors.)

(I CAN’T STOP COMPARING MAIA TO ALICIA. I HAVE BECOME THE TYPE OF FAN I CAN’T STAND.)

Maia’s torn between the pleasant memory of Amy and the unpleasant memory of Diane and her parents talking about the Madoffs. In Maia’s mind, Diane says, “I think [Madoff’s wife] didn’t know because she didn’t want to know.” Huh, I wonder where Maia got that piece of dialogue to insert into her memory.

“How could she not know?” Diane says, and it sounds like a judgment of Maia.

Since the foundation was being used as a front and Maia’s name is on the contract, Maia’s legally responsible for any of her parents’ crimes. Unless she tells Starkey about Diane’s advice, that is.

But Maia didn’t sign the documents on her birthday! She signed them on the Saturday before her birthday!

“Nice, Maia,” Lucca says after they leave the interview. “No, lucky,” Maia replies. “No, I’ve seen lucky. That was smart,” Lucca says and offers her hand for a high-five. (Can’t it be both? Maia totally would have signed the papers if it was her actual birthday. But it is smart that she’s thinking things through before talking now.)

Now it’s 1:27 pm. I don’t understand why these time stamps are happening and I especially don’t understand why the people at All Access have inserted the commercial breaks right after the time stamps instead of right before. I assume they’re meant to kick off each act that takes place on that first day?

Case stuff happens.

Another bird crashes into Starkey’s window. I thought it had to do with the way the light hit the windows, so why is this happening all throughout the day?

Starkey asks Maia if it’s correct she found out about the Ponzi scheme from the news. She says it is. “You graduated from law school in 2016, right?” Starkey asks. Maia says that’s right.

And then Starkey asks her about a celebration that took place at her parents’ house. Wait, who told her about this? From what Maia remembers, it was a small gathering. Maia, Amy, Maia’s parents, and Amy’s parents. So if Starkey knows about this gathering, does that mean someone close to her is talking to the FBI and making things look bad for Maia?

Starkey asks if Maia was living with Amy at the time. She was. (So Maia and Amy lived together in Chicago while Maia was in law school? Where did Maia go to law school? Or did Amy and Maia live in a different city and Amy just started as an ASA?)

(Amy’s parents look super uncomfortable around the Rindells—they don’t have that kind of money.)

But, Amy’s parents asked Maia about the possibility of her parents investing in the Rindell fund. Now I REALLY want to know who Starkey’s talking to, since Maia remembers that she didn’t even tell her parents about this request. Is Starkey talking to Amy? To Amy’s parents?

Case stuff happens.

“When the facts are on your side, you pound the facts. When the facts are not on your side…” cut to Adrian pounding the table in court. HEH. Nice transition.

I forgot to mention that Luke Kirby is in this episode as an ASA. He was on Rectify. You should all watch Rectify.

Jay does investigative work without Marissa. Cool.

Sweeney’s being considered for an ambassadorship. Diane, Adrian, and Barbara burst out laughing. As I said, I like this “lawyers laugh at things that are absurd” trend.

It’s not until 40 minutes into the episode that Sweeney mentions his reputation as a wife-killer. Sorry, new viewers. The show’s not being helpful with the exposition this week!

It’s a new day and Maia’s back at the FBI, fidgeting with her rosary ring. Now, the issue is that Starkey thinks Maia must have known something was going on at the fund if she didn’t ask about allowing Amy’s parents to invest.

Maia remembers a conversation with Amy (who apparently sleeps in a shirt that says BLONDE BESTIE” on it which tells me a lot about Amy) where Amy brought up the topic again.

Lucca tells Maia she understands that “rightly or wrongly, [Maia feels] guilty for your parents’ actions.” “That’s not what this is,” Maia insists. “You don’t even need to be conscious of it, Maia. Your guilt could just be coloring your memories. You could be seeing yourself as more culpable than you are. It’s your Catholic guilt. You are condemning yourself. That’s fine for the confessional, but here, it has real repercussions,” Lucca informs Maia. This is exactly what Maia needs to hear at this moment, especially that last part about the repercussions. If Maia wants to blame herself and ask herself why she was so willfully ignorant, fine. I think she probably was willfully ignorant, at least in the sense that she never questioned her parents or her own privilege. (Again, that foundation had one board meeting in six years.) But I don’t think anything she did would warrant jail time, especially given how young she was at the time. Guilt in the moral sense? Definitely. Guilt in the legal sense? That seems… like a waste of government resources. Maia doesn’t need to help the government make their case against her just because she feels bad that she had her eyes closed. It’s a lot to ask of any person, especially a young person, to turn on their family over a slight bad feeling. What could Maia have done, anyway? Gone to the government and said, “I feel like something’s off about my parents’ fund but I don’t have any specific details or specific reasons to think that”?

In the memory pop, Amy asks Maia again if she really asked her dad. “Lucca, I didn’t tell my dad,” Maia confesses in the present. “I must have somehow known about the Ponzi scheme. Otherwise, why would I have let Amy’s parents invest?” Lucca says that doesn’t mean anything (and I agree- I can imagine lots of other reasons Maia might not have wanted Amy’s parents’ money to be tied up with her parents’ fund, starting with the fact that it would just call attention to the fact that Maia’s super rich and Amy’s not). But Maia insists: she knew. (I feel bad for Maia here. She went from refusing to believe the people she loves, who actually committed crimes, could have been involved to blaming herself for everything.)

Diane and Adrian, late at night, debate strategy for the Sweeney case and drink scotch.

“Diane? You happy here?” Adrian switches the topic. “What, at your firm?” Diane asks. She is. “You wanted to retire,” Adrian explains the basis for his question. Diane laughs. “Yes. Well, life has a way of reminding you of who you are. Guess I’m not the retiring type,” she says. I bet Diane’s a lot happier here than she was at LockhartKeyboardSmash. “Are you happy here?” Diane returns the question. Adrian laughs. “Gotcha,” Diane replies.

“I like getting the better of people, and… keeping something alive. You know? Looking at there, at all those employees, realizing they might not have jobs if I don’t keep this going,” he says. “Yeah. That is a good feeling,” Diane agrees.

“Okay. Time to go home. Let’s get dinner sometime,” Adrian says so casually it’s almost like he didn’t just ask his business partner out on a date. “That’d be nice,” Diane replies. She looks startled but not unhappy with this idea. It’s not exactly a date, but, I mean…

(Remember how Will and Alicia were always supposed to get dinner in season 1?)

(I am cool with a Diane and Adrian ship. I also love McHart. As long as we don’t get a Adrian/Diane/Kurt triangle with Adrian as Will (I took you in when you were poison) and Kurt as Peter (the cheater), I’m pretty much okay with wherever the writers want to go as long as they do it well.) (Though I still don’t believe Kurt would have ever cheated on Diane.)

Adrian comes up with a way to get Sweeney’s case thrown out and, more importantly, the cop kicked off the force. It works.

At the next day of interviews—we didn’t see a single one of the day 2 interviews, just Maia panicking in the hallway—Maia remembers hearing Jax talking about an audit with both her parents, who closed the door in her face. Not sure what point in time this is supposed to take place.

She also remembers telling Amy they shouldn’t entangle their families’ finances. Maia remembers Amy asking if there’s something wrong with the fund. Did she? Does it matter if she did?

Lucca provides hypothetical reasons why Maia might not have told her dad that Amy’s parents wanted to invest. Makes sense to me. Also, proves yet again that Lucca is very good at reading a situation and saying the exact right thing. (She’s done this several times with Maia, but she did it all the time with Alicia, too.)

Sweeney isn’t going to be an ambassador, and he’s not going to help Diane with her civil suit. What a shame.

“I’ll drop by again,” Sweeney warns.

Maia tells Starkey that it just seemed like a bad idea to mix family and finances. Based on Maia saying “the truth is” in her answer, Starkey decides what she was always going to decide: Maia’s a liar and she knew about the Ponzi scheme. She’s going to recommend that they prosecute Maia. Good luck finding evidence.

Maia tears up, and the episode ends.

And this leaves me with two questions:

1) Do we have to endure another season of trial BS? This show does not need an ongoing conspiracy arc to work. In fact, the ongoing conspiracy arcs are usually the things that DON’T work.

2) Why didn’t we get to this point earlier? Not the point of Maia being prosecuted, but the point of Maia feeling guilt. I said this earlier, but I think these emotional beats would’ve been great things to hit on earlier. Now, after this episode, I have a sense of how much it affected Maia to be raised in a world where she never had to worry about anything other than herself. The stakes don’t have to be as high as an interview with the FBI and a potential prosecution to make Maia question everything, her own views included. They’re not going to send Maia to jail—at least, I’d be shocked if they did—so why do this arc? I would rather see her work through her guilt, reach out to her friends, reach out to Amy, start trying to do good, really throw herself into the firm’s fights even when she doesn’t understand them, or something like that. To me, that’s more interesting than watching the team come together to defend her.

(I expected to be harsher on this episode than I ended up being. I’m pleased that I liked it more on rewatch.)

(And sorry for all the Alicia mentions. I hate it when people insist on comparing a new character to an old character, but I just can’t stop doing it when it comes to Alicia and Maia. I’m trying to keep my comments to the storytelling—what works and what doesn’t when building a character whose notable for their connection to a big scandal—but I’m sure that what a lot of it comes down to is just that I love Alicia a lot and will take any opportunity I can to write about her.)