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#ofc women have a range. everybody has a range
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Nearly all of the men I've come to like have had these characteristics: Tall, broad-shouldered, athletic/muscular, dark-haired, have a manly look but with a hint of boyishness, goodness and innocence, ranging from the type 2 and 4 skin tones, thick eyebrows and have blue, green or hazel eyes. They also happen to be chill and kind. I have a type 🤷🏽‍♀️😆
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wiypt-writes · 3 years
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Leave No One Behind
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Ch2- The Red Sea Diving Resort: Part 1 Co written with @icanfeelastormbrewing​
Episode Summary: Ari and his team arrive at their Resort and begin making plans for the first mission. Episode Warnings: Bad Language words. Allusions to death and serious injury.
Episode Pairings:  Ari Levinson x OFC Hannah Horowitz
Leave No One Behind Masterlist // Main Masterlist
Chapter 1
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 “What the fuck is he wearing Cracker?” Max asked Hannah as he nodded over her shoulder. Frowning, she turned to see Ari had walked in, briefcase in hand, dressed in a dark brown velvet suit and a white and gold striped shirt with a large, open necked collar.
Hannah snorted “He looks like John Travolta.”
“Walking like him too…” Sammy mumbled.
“Night fever, night fever…we know how to do it…” Jake sang softly, and the rest of the group all started to chuckle, hastily turning away as Ari walked towards the table and dropped the briefcase down on it.
Ari greeted Ethan with a nod of his head and looked around the room. His team was already gathered standing around the oval metal table, chatting idly.
Max and Jake were sniggering about something and Ari could clearly see Sammy was trying to keep a straight face, hands in his trousers pockets and looking at his feet while bouncing on them. Did he want to know? Probably not.
And then he noticed Hannah. She was chatting with Rachel who was admiring the brown leather knee high boots she was wearing. Ari heard Rachel comment something about her loving chunky heels as Hannah twisted her left foot so that Rachel could have a better look at the boots.
But Ari wasn’t interested in the boots, well, ok he was, but his gaze then travelled upwards, following her black tights clad legs and thighs, until his eyes mid-thigh met the hem of the skirt of her maroon pleated chord pinafore. Luckily for him, when his eyes continued past up her waist and the long sleeved polka dot blouse she was wearing, and he could take in the delicate features of her face, she was still engaged in some sort of fashion conversation with Rachel.
She was stunning, but what was new there? He had to admit to himself he had felt his chest fill with warmth when he had been running through the fake passports Ethan had given him the previous evening. He had opened hers first, sitting on his bed in the privacy of his hotel room, tumbler of Scotch in hand. His eyes scanning Hannah's passport photo over and over again.  Those big round blue eyes looking directly at him. 
Firefly, he had muttered running his thumb over the photo before gulping his drink.
Thus, Ari knew which would be the one on top at the deck of passports he was now pulling from his briefcase. He was going over the questions he would be asking each one of them in his head when he heard Max asking him something.
“You got chills Ari?”
“What?” Ari frowned, his head turning to Max and in the corner of his eye he noticed that Hannah turned to watch, biting her lip as behind her Sammy laughed and hastily started coughing to cover it up.
“Are they multiplying?” Jake chipped in.
“Are you losing control?” Max continued
“Coz the power, you’re supplying…it’s electrifying!” the two men sang together as Ari looked at the pair of them rolling his eyes, a smirk playing on his face. Behind him Ethan groaned.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up…” Ari’s mouth curled into a crooked smile. “I’m Guy Thomas…he wears this shit…its fashion. And besides, Max, you’ve no room to talk!”
Hannah snorted and turned to look at Max, taking his outfit in in more detail. Because they were all in Zurich at the NATCOR HQ under the guise of a simple Mossad business meeting, Ari had instructed the team to come dressed as they felt their Alter Egos would dress for work. Sammy and Jake were both dressed in suits and ties, Max was in a suit with an open collar pinstriped shirt.
“He has a point…” Hannah conceded “You’re like the Kenickie to his Danny…”
“Grease was based in the 50s.” Max narrowed his eyes at her.
“Yeah, which is when that shirt was in fashion.” Jake said, slapping Max on the shoulder. Hannah and Ari snorted before they were cut off by an angry noise from behind them.
“Save the outfit discussions for later.” Ethan snapped “You lot are going to get yourselves killed for fucks sake.”
“Ethan, Ethan…” Ari turned to him, his voice soothing “Just, calm down…we’ve not even started the meeting yet.”
“Exactly, and we’re already behind schedule so if you don’t mind…” He nodded his head in the direction of the table and everyone, suitably chastised, took a seat.
Ethan and Ari ran the group through the plans regarding the next few months and how the deployment was going to work. They were to fly out on the 4th January, from Zurich, where Ari and Rachel would meet with the Sudanese Government and get the paper work and everything signed for the lease on the diving resort. Whilst they were there Max, Hannah, Jake and Sammy were to pair off and head to 2 different places to pick up 2 different cars which would be ready and waiting with supplies from 2 in country contacts. Once the explanations were finished, Ari then picked up the false passports.
“So you’ve all had enough time to read over your covers.” Ari said, flipping through the pile of passports, selecting one “Remember, the point of being undercover is you keep it simple. So you should have memorised the basics, your name, date of birth, parents names, address, hometown that type of thing. Everything else you can make up on the spot but nothing too elaborate. Don’t take it too far from the actual truth because whatever you tell one person you need to remember to tell another.”
He paused and cleared his throat. “Ok, let’s see how you fare under questioning.” he looked at Hannah “Firefly, you first… Name?”
“Rosa-Maria Gomez” Hannah repeated back, without so much as batting an eyelid, her Spanish accent flawless.
“Where are you from?”
“Valencia.”
“What did you do?”
“Bar manager at a local hotel.”
“Which hotel?”
“Sidi Saler”
“How long for?”
“Just over 10 years. Travelled for a year or so after University, settled back home when I was 19. Never looked back.”
There wasn’t so much as a hint of hesitation when she spoke. Ari smiled at her and tossed the fake passport down in front of her. “Good job.”  he said and with a faint smile she reached for the passport.
Next he put Rachel through her paces, picking her up on the slight hesitation she had over her address and then Jake’s mistake over his elementary school name. He then turned to Sammy.
“Sammy…name. Where are you from? “
“I'm Liam Anderson. Australia.” Sammy said, picking up his passport
“First girlfriend.”  
“Mary”
“Tell me about her.” Ari said, stopping at the head of the table.
“Mary Rose. Took my virginity and broke my heart.”
At that, Ari saw Hannah, who was sat at the far end of the table next to Sammy shift slightly. Despite himself he glanced at her and she caught his eye before she looked down at the table. Ari turned back to Sammy who was still speaking.
“We met at the University of Queensland in Brisbane.  I was 19. Later died in a car accident.”
“It's good.  Good work, Sammy.” Ari turned to Max “You're up.”
There was a pause as Max stared straight ahead before he glanced at the passport.
“I still think this is a stupid name for someone from Malta.” Max protested “Why Malta?”
Rachel gave a little chuckle as Ari looked at him, rolling his eyes as his hands fell to his hips.
“Max, when you learn a second language, that's where you can be from. Till then you're from Malta. No one knows what people from Malta speak.”
“What do people speak in Malta?”  Rachel asked.
“Maltese” Hannah supplied and sniggers rang round the table.
“See, no one knows, that's the point.” Ari said with a smile before he looked pointedly at Max “Name”
“Hello, everybody, my name's Irving Wilmington.” Max said in a ridiculously, fake European accent which made everyone start to laugh “And I'm from Malta-“
“You think this is funny?” Ethan’s angry voice cut across the laughter and everyone looked up at the man as he strode around the table. “Just for the record, there's not one person in this group that I would have chosen for this type of mission. You're all too reckless.” Hannah looked at Max who raised his eyebrows as if to say, he has a point…which to be fair, he kinda did.
“I've gone against every instinct I know.” Ethan continued as Ari looked down at the floor “broken every risk management rule I believe in, including sending two women to a Muslim country.” Ethan said, looking directly at Hannah then Rachel “So let's be very clear.  This mission has no backup.  There's no exfil plan for you.  You're going in without guns, or any other weapon.  If this goes wrong, you'll all be hanging from cranes in Khartoum.”
With that Ethan left the room and there was a moment of silence.
“Can’t wait…” Jake said, leaning back in his chair.
*****
Of course, nothing every runs completely smoothly. Jake was stopped by the Sudanese Immigration, simply to be released once he had paid the ‘bribe’ the officials wanted. Ari spotted him joining the others in the queue for cabs as he and Rachel departed in the car to the Tourism Board.
Then, they met with their contact in the Sudanese Government, Colonel Madibbo and embarked on the anticipated haggling over the price. The man looked Ari in the face and told him that the lease was five hundred thousand, to which Ari replied simply that they had agreed Two-Fifty. After a little bit of negotiation, Ari moved up to three-fifty, informing the Colonel it was their best offer, but then loaded told the man that could write it down as two-fifty and then take the rest and do something beneficial for the people of Sudan.
“You may not speak Arabic, Mr. Thomas. But you do speak the local language.” Madibbo laughed, and Ari simply glanced at Rachel before smiling back, fully understanding that the “local language” meant he’d given the man a bung, and that the extra hundred thou was going straight into the  Colonel’s own back pocket.
Bent bastard.
A few hours later everything was sorted, they’d been given everything they needed and Ari and Rachel walked out of the building, climbed in the arranged car and were dropped off on the main high-street where they headed to the inconspicuous Café that had been allocated as a meeting spot. Remaining in character, Ari and Rachel, or Guy and Angela, greeted their team loudly, as if it was the first time they had seen each other for a while, and then they all settled down at a table outside on the packed market square, and Ari briefed them as if he was briefing resort staff. They all listened, picked up on his cues and after a quick coffee each they all stood up to leave.
As they were leaving the Café, Max tossed one of the jeep’s keys at Ari, who caught them with a swift movement of his hand.  Once they reached the spot where the vehicles were parked Ari opened the driver's door to one of them and turned to see his team had stopped and were looking at the trucks as if deciding who was going to ride in each one of the trucks.
"Ride with me?" Max turned to ask Hannah waving the other set of keys in the air.
"Yup. I call shotgun!" she said as a reply as she walked round to open the passenger side door.
"Right, I'll be on the back seat." Jake quipped as she pulled the seat forward and gestured for him to get in the back.
Ari shook his head, hands on his hips, as he looked at Sam and Rachel through his shades before opening the back door of their jeep for Sam to jump in, tossing his backpack on the floor of the car as Rachel went to the side of the passenger seat.
"Guess the three musketeers have decided for all of us." Ari said as he jumped up in the truck, a trace of bitterness in his voice which wasn't undetected by Sammy.
"Oh my. The great Ari Levinson scorned by part of his team." Sam said, amused and Rachel chuckled.
"You're hilarious Sammy." Ari deadpanned as he fixed the rear view mirror for the third time in the last couple of minutes before he set off.
"Maybe you should keep an eye on Jake." he spoke again a minute later, turning to look at Sam as if trying to make sure he understood what he was implying. Sam examined him for a few moments before speaking
"Yeah, maybe. And maybe you should keep an eye on the road and stop looking through the mirror." Sam deadpanned turning his head slowly to the side window.
***** A few hours later, they had a quick pit stop to stretch legs and changed drivers. Ari was keen to make as good time as possible so it was only for a few moments, Max taking a well needed pee at the side of the truck, groaning in relief. Hannah shook her head, before she climbed in the back of the jeep. They set off again, and their gentle chatter struck up once more.
"So..." Jake said, turning to glance over his shoulder at Hannah, one eye sort of remaining on the road. "I've been dying to ask. Your nicknames..." "What about them?" She asked, turning her head to face him from where she had been looking out of the window. "Why does Ari call you Firefly when the rest of the team seems to call you Cracker?"
Max snorted and looked at Hannah who was grinning. "Ok so the cracker thing came from a mission." She said, thinking fondly back "it was the first one we all actually ran together...me, Max, Sammy, Ari...Andy..." she trailed off for a moment before she continued "we were sat round the fire one night and Andy had a pack of those little savoury fish cracker things. We started playing a game as to how many each of us could fit in our mouths. Max insisted he would win...but who in fact did win Maxwell?" "You..." Max sighed "by 2 crackers" "So Andy started calling me crackers which became cracker and it stuck..." she shrugged. "Well, with everyone but Ari that is..." "Yeah, so explain the Firefly thing..." Jake pushed. "The first time I met Ari was when he came over one evening with Sammy. It was just before Sammy moved out." Hannah said "I was 17 and we were sat out in the garden at the back. It wasn't a huge garden, communal like, shared with 3 other houses but I loved it because there was a colony of lightning bugs, or fireflies that frequented it. It was a few months later Sammy was being an ass-hat about something and I flipped out at him and threw a mug at his head. It missed and smashed against the wall but Ari found it hilarious. Told I was just like those little fireflies I admired so much. Such an ordinary, unassuming thing on the outside with a hell of a surprise packed away underneath..." Jake paused and then started laughing "Now that's a back handed compliment if ever I did hear one." Hannah grinned "I know. When I asked him what he meant by ordinary you should have seen his face. He was all flustered and stammering and worried he'd offended me. Lasted all of 2 minutes until I cracked up laughing and told him I understood." "Well, fireflies are pretty awesome..." Jake smiled "A symbol of light in the dark, hope, warmth" "Yup, all things Ari said to me when he was back pedalling over the whole ordinary thing" Hannah smiled with a shrug "either way, it stuck."
My little firefly…
“Tell him what you call Ari.” Max said and Hannah snorted.
“El Lobo hambriento” She replied after a moment’s pause “Or Lobo for short.”
“And that means…” Jake looked at her again for a second.
“Spanish for the hungry wolf…” Hannah said “It came from when he used to eat my Mama out of house and home whenever he came round with Sammy. And over time it got shortened to Lobo…just wolf…”
Jake laughed “Well, he is kinda hairy…but you know, that should be my nickname given that I am actually a Wolf.”
“By name…” Max teased “You look like more of a poodle.”
Hannah laughed and leaned forward, so that her head poked between the front to seats in the car “You can be Loop.” “Loop?” Jake frowned.
“Short for Lupin…Latin for Wolf, or there or thereabouts anyway. Or it could just mean you’re a total fruit loop, take your pick…”
Jake gave a huge guffaw of laughter and looked at her “Does that make you Little Red Riding Hood?”
Hannah snorted as Max shook his head, looking out at the window “That’s the shittest chat up line I’ve ever heard” he spoke, turning back to Jake.
“Can’t blame a man for trying” Jake winked.
After a total of six hours and a couple more stops to stretch and freshen up, if that was even possible in the middle of the desert, they arrived in the resort. But they couldn't properly see it until they got out of the trucks, the windows being partly covered by dust as they had taken shortcuts over sand dunes to save quite a few hours more off the travel time should they have opted to use the main roads. 
When they finally got out of the car they took some clumsy steps on the sand after being into the confined space of car for that many hours. Jake lit a cigarette and as he looked at Ari he couldn't help but make a howling noise to Hannah who started laughing immediately. As if on cue, Max started howling too and the three of them were caught in a fit of hysteric laughter,  Max bending his body for balance and Hannah leaning on Jake's arm.
Ari, Sam and Rachel stood there watching the three of them, dumbfounded. Ari shared a glance with Sam before he shot his sister a look and she pulled herself together still trying holding back laughter. Ari sighed before he took a few more steps towards the main entrance of the resort and the rest of the team followed suit.
They all stopped still, looking at the ram-shackled building in front of them, the words Red Sea Diving Resort were descripted in fading red paint above the large, archway shaped door. Hannah removed her shades, looking at it, and she let out a loud breath from where she stood at the end of the line they seemed to have formed, next to Max.
“It sure doesn't look like the brochure.”  she said, and everyone turned to look at her, Max giving a small huff of laughter. After a second or so, Ari moved to the trucks to retrieve their luggage and the rest of them followed suit before they headed towards the entrance. Ari wrestled with the wooden trellised screen doors before he gave one a harsh push and it fell forward off its hinges, crashing to the floor sending up a cloud of dust and sand. He turned to look at them all, giving a shrug before he headed inside. They all followed and Hannah cast her eyes around as they hit the main room. All the window screens were shut, leaving it quite dark despite the bright late afternoon sunshine outside. Chairs and tables were piled haphazardly around the edges of the main room of the resort, various other pieces of furniture dotted around.
“It needs a little TLC.” Ari said, turning to the team.
“Nice.” Rachel chuckled.  
“Oh, yeah?” Sammy snorted, pushing the shaded lenses on his glasses up as he looked around with a laugh. “What a dump.”
Hannah watched as Jake moved to open one of the sets of doors which led out onto the beach and instantly the place was flooded with light. She glanced at Max who smiled and they followed him out onto the beach.
“This is paradise!” Jake sighed. Max looked at him, incredulously, but Hannah had to admit, outside it was beautiful. A secluded cove of The Red Sea right was in front of them, the sun bouncing off the blue water, waves softly lapping at the shore.
Max pushed his glasses back up his nose and headed away to his right, Hannah following as they walked round the side of the resort and up a small boardwalk which led to a small pier of sorts.
“Well, hello, gorgeous…” she heard Max say. Hannah turned to see him examining a spear gun which was leaned up against the glass windows in front of him. She rolled her eyes.
“Your obsession with sniping weapons is worrying.” she arched an eyebrow.
He turned to face her with a grin before he tucked his shades into his shirt and picked up the fishing spear, holding it like a gun, checking down the sight target. The two of them stepped further round and Hannah frowned as Max stopped under a wooden shelter of sorts and the pair of them spotted the large, silver fish hanging from the structure. It had been beheaded, the head laying on a grill, and Max turned to look at her.
“This fish is fresh.” he frowned.
“Don’t eat it…” Hannah said instantly, teasing him about his obsession with food.
“Don’t eat…it’s fucking raw.” he rolled his eyes at her.
“Never had sushi?” she shot back.
“Don’t care for it much…” he mused before they both exchanged a glance, the seriousness of the fact that the fish, was indeed newly caught sinking in as Max turned to call back to the resort.
“Hey, yo, this fish is fresh!”
Ari who had been walking along the shore, heard Max’s call, along with Rachel’s which informed everyone she had found a newspaper from this week .He stopped and glanced back into the resort before he opened the door into one of the bedroom huts. Taking a glance round he threw open the wooden window screens, turning his face away as the sand and dust from outside blew into his face. It was then a familiar smell hit his nose and he glanced down to his left and saw that there were cigarette butts in an ashtray. One was still smoking slightly.
And then, someone jumped up from behind a pile of furniture in the corner of the room and shot out of the door. Ari turned and sprinted after him, yelling for him to stop and calling to the team. They all joined him, sprinting around the corner where Ari stopped at the sight of a group of what they could only assume were locals.
“Hello.  My name...” Ari began, before he whipped off his sunglasses, figuring they might trust him more if they could see him eye to eye “My name's Guy Thomas.  I'm the new owner of this hotel.”
The locals didn’t speak, and Hannah noticed that the woman at the front, adorned in bright yellow local dress was glancing at Max nervously.
“Max, lower that thing…” she said softly, as he had the spear gun raised.
Ari turned to face him and nodded, gesturing with his hands “Come on.”  
“Sorry.” Max said gently, as he slowly lowered his weapon.
“Abu Hamid.” the man at the front of the group spoke to them.
“Hello.” Ari greeted him kindly.
“What the hell's going on?” Sammy spoke gently through his smile.  
“I think we just met the local staff.” Ari said softly, looking round at everyone.
Part 2
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mrs-daddyissues · 3 years
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considerably
~ C H A P T E R  5 ~
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~ Masterlist ~
Pairing: Alfred Pennyworth x OFC
Series Summary: Sarabi Nichols is Bruce Wayne’s life long friend that aids in creating weaponry and making outfits. When she was younger she had a thing for Bruce but now her taste has aged. Considerably. Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce’s guardian and butler is more her style now. Despite this knew found liking, Sarabi feels trapped. She can’t talk to Bruce about it and clearly can’t mention it to Alfred. The only person she has is her best friend, Claudia. Sarabi has to fight the things she feels for the older man because he could never feel the same way back, right?
{Normal} Playlist
{Slowed+Reverb} Playlist
Warnings: Discussion about sex, smutty thoughts, swearing
Word Count: 2444
Author’s Note:
I have nothing to say right now, so just enjoy!
After cleaning her sheets and placing them in the washing machine, Sarabi made her way to the cave. Her previous encounter with Alfred had left something buzzing around in her body. She didn’t know if it was lust, fear, excitement or something entirely different. Sarabi’s thoughts of Alfred were clouding her judgement and she had to tell herself that it wasn’t a good idea to chase after him. He was a loyal and faithful man but he wasn’t the right person for Sarabi, right?
Sarabi pushed all thoughts of Alfred in any other way but her coworker and friend out of her brain and trapped them in a cell. They pushed against the bars of her psyche but she didn’t let them pass. Those thoughts would only get in the way and make things worse. She didn’t have time for feelings.
Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, as soon as Sarabi stepped foot in the cave and saw Alfred, she couldn’t help but picture how utterly delectable he looked in real life and her dream. All those naughty images from her dream came flooding back as Alfred looked on with kind eyes.
“Miss Nichols, how are you feeling?” Alfred asked politely while he made himself a cup of tea.
‘Turned on,’ was the truest thing Sarabi could say to address the elephant in the room, or rather the elephant in her mind, but she knew that would be a bit blunt. She breathed out a shaky breath to ease the tension and desire coursing through her veins.
“Not too bad, Alfred,” Sarabi answered, trying desperately to push all those sensual thoughts and pictures swirling in her mind away. 
As soon as she spoke, Alfred snapped his head up and his eyes burned into her. Sarabi’s body also burned even hotter as his gaze lightly dusted her body. His eyes were not invasive but rather just curious about her current attire. She usually wore simple clothing like shorts and a shirt, considering what her job entailed. ‘Maybe Italy has just changed her,’ Alfred thought to himself as he peeled his eyes from Sarabi.
Sarabi noticed the way he seemed reluctant to look away but chalked it up to shock at what she was wearing. She rarely wore dresses to anything but formal events like galas and balls.
Sarabi secretly hoped it was something more than shock but knew she was just tugging at the fantasies still dancing around in her mind. Alfred saw her as a coworker and friend, that was it.
The whole workday felt longer than usual. Sarabi had to continually remind herself that she was working and doing something to help Bruce. But as soon as Alfred’s mesmerising voice rang out, she involuntarily turned to look at him. She imagined what that voice would feel like whispering dirty things into her ear. Or what he would sound like whimpering under her. She was enthralled and fascinated by him or maybe just thankful to have a friend like Alfred. 
‘It’s the latter option,’ Sarabi tried telling herself but deep down she knew it was most probably the former.
Sarabi groaned loudly and Alfred stopped what he was doing. He turned his head to the right to look at Sarabi. He rotated his full body around and gave Sarabi his full attention to her.
“Miss Nichols, do you need something? Or do you want to go get some rest?” Alfred questioned kindly and sympathetically. Alfred had never seen Sarabi so tense and it confused him greatly. Sarabi was tough, one of the toughest women he knew without superpowers, so something was clearly tormenting her.
“Um, it’s alright I’ll go get a heat pack,” Sarabi replied as she went to stand up.
Alfred stopped her with a gentle hand on her forearm. The contact made Sarabi’s cheeks burn deep crimson. His hand was calloused but soft against her skin. The contact sent all of the images from her dream back to her. She pictured him grabbing her forearm, wrapping it around her back and bending her over the work table. The contact was innocent and simple but it sent Sarabi into oblivion. 
“No, Miss Nichols, I’ll go get one for. You sit down and relax,” Alfred removed his hand and stood up. He noticed her cheeks and how flushed she seemed but Alfred just ignored everything his instincts told him. ‘She was maybe just nervous to ask about the heat pack,’ was what he decided no matter how ridiculous it sounded to him.
“Thank you, Alfred,” Sarabi laid her head against the cool metal of the desk, hoping to freeze all the thoughts rattling through her brain. The visions of Alfred thrusting on top of her and the feeling of his lips against hers were still so vivid. She could picture it so easily without any inconvenience. She shoved all the snapshots back into their jail cell and locked it as tightly as she could.
No matter how tightly she tried to lock those thoughts away, they came crawling back. They escaped their confinement and snuck back into her mind. Just a look from Alfred triggered those erotic visions and they got even more heated through the day. She started imagining how his head would look between her thighs and how he would choke her. The images got more explicit as the day went on. She grasped those images and chucked them into the cell. She secured it tautly and attempted to keep it that way.
“Here you are, Miss Nichols,” Alfred called out with a heat pack in hand. Sarabi brought herself out of her thoughts and took the heat pack. 
“Thanks, Alfred,” Sarabi placed it on her stomach hoping to ease her tension but it clearly made her even hotter. ‘Great! Just what I needed!’ was all she could think.
As the heat pack grew cold, the workday came to an end. Alfred offered to heat it up again throughout the day but Sarabi refused politely. Though the heat pack was no longer warm against her stomach, her body still felt hot all over. The dream and Alfred’s presence seemed to strike a matchstick inside of Sarabi and burn her insides with desire. Sarabi had never even had sex but her sex drive was so high and absolutely outrageous. She was a virgin to any form of sexual activity. No one had ever touched her intimately save for herself on the very odd occasion. Even with having no experience, she wanted and needed it. She wanted and needed her desires to be met but she was going to deny herself of it. She hoped that refusing her sexual needs would make them disappear but that most certainly did not work. 
After working in the cave for about 5 hours, Bruce came down and said that Claudia was there to see Sarabi. She was grateful to get out of the cave because if she stayed there a second longer her ovaries might just explode. A simple glance from Alfred was enough to send Sarabi into a bout of hysteria. She stood up quickly and wandered off with Bruce. She frowned softly at Alfred and he frowned back. As soon as she stepped foot in the elevator and the doors closed, she breathed out a sigh of relief.
“That bad?” Bruce asked as they rode the elevator back up to Wayne Manor. 
“Huh?” Sarabi turned her head with a perplexed look appearing on her face.
“Your period,” Bruce expanded and Sarabi let a small smile come to her lips.
“Yeah, just a little. Wait, how do you know?” Sarabi interrogated with the utmost confusion. She didn’t actually have her period, she was just pretending, so she had no idea how Bruce would know. 
“Just a wild guess. You’re only this moody during that time of the month,” Bruce ruffled up her hair and Sarabi huffed.
“Fuck you,” Sarabi stated as Bruce let her out of the elevator first into Wayne Manor. 
“Fuck you too,” Bruce replied as he led her to her bedroom where Claudia stood admiring the collection of dresses she had. Claudia had a pink strapless one draped over her body, sizing it up.
“Sarabi, what do you think about this dress?” Claudia spun around and presented herself.
“I think it would look drop-dead gorgeous but put it back, that’s one of my favourites,” Sarabi nearly laughed as Claudia pouted and placed her dress back.
“I’ll be in my study,” Bruce announced before walking off, leaving the two girls alone.
“How’s work been?” Sarabi asked as she sat down on her newly cleaned bed.
“Pretty good, I’ve now hooked up with practically everybody I can,” Claudia declared with a smug smile. 
“That’s what you’re proud of? And also who can’t you fuck?” Sarabi breathed out heavily as Claudia grabbed out another dress to size up.
“The straight girls, gays and the one asexual dude,” Claudia answered nonchalantly. Claudia had always been open about her sexuality and sex life with Sarabi. She held nothing back. She told her who she slept with, how good they were and who she wanted to sleep with next.
“Have you had the ‘sexy time’ with anyone yet?” Claudia shimmied her shoulders to enhance her point and Sarabi rolled her eyes.
“No,” was the only answer Sarabi gave and this perked Claudia’s interest.
Whenever Claudia asked about Sarabi’s sex life, she always gave a massive spiel about how she would only have sex when the right guy came along and all that jazz. But this time she only said no.
“No? Is that the only answer I get?” Claudia sat down next to Sarabi and Sarabi realised her mistake. She wasn’t going to tell Claudia about the dream but she figured it wasn’t the worst thing she could do.
“Claudia, I’m gonna tell you something that you can’t repeat to anyone, okay?” Sarabi warned Claudia and she nodded.
“Swear on my mother’s grave,’ Claudia swore oath like a girl scout and Sarabi scoffed with an eye roll.
“Okay, I had a sex dream last night,” Sarabi informed and watched Claudia’s mouth gape.
“About whom?” Claudia teased with a wicked smile.
“Well, see that’s the thing, the person I had the dream about I’ve never been attracted to before. He’s not my usual go-to but-”
“Just tell me, I don’t give a fuck. I once spanked a 90-year-old in a pink thong for a free ticket to a 5 Seconds of Summer concert,” Claudia enlightened and Sarabi’s eyes bugged out.
“Just kidding but seriously, who is it?” Claudia shuffled closer to Sarabi knowing she would probably whisper it. 
“Alfred,” Sarabi’s confession was barely beyond a hushed whisper and Claudia swore she was hearing things. 
“Wait, what? Alfred...Pennyworth?” Claudia questioned with squinted eyes. Sarabi could see the scepticism and confusion surging through her eyes.
“Yes,” Sarabi answered slowly with a slightly shaky breath. She hadn’t admitted this to anyone and it was relieving to not keep her thoughts in the dark, hidden away.
“Oh, I see,” Claudia kept an indifferent look on her face and Sarabi suddenly felt stupid. She had just admitted that she had a sex dream about Alfred Pennyworth. She admitted that she dreamed about a British butler in his late 60s fucking her. ‘What is wrong with me?’ was all she could think.
“Oh, girl I get it! He is such a DILF like I don’t blame you for having the hots for him. His voice just screams ‘Now every woman I come into contact with has daddy issues’,” Claudia explained with a bright smile on her face. She also tried to replicate Alfred’s deep, British voice but ended up sounding nothing like him. Sarabi felt a weight lifted off her shoulders as Claudia agreed with her. 
“You do? Thank the Holy Lord Jesus Christ!” Sarabi laughed along with Claudia like two schoolgirls discussing their crushes.
“I see Europe has changed your taste in men considerably,” Claudia commented as she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. 
“Now give me the deets, please,” Claudia begged with her hands in a praying motion. Sarabi contemplated it. She felt a bit embarrassed but Claudia would never judge her for anything. Claudia would rob a bank and hide a body for her.
“Well, Alfred knocked on my bedroom door and he came wandering in. He sat down on the edge of the bed and started kissing me,” Sarabi explained as Claudia smirked mischievously. 
“Go on,” Claudia urged with a quick hand motion.
“I straddled his lap and we kissed some more. I pushed him back on the bed but he flipped us over,” Sarabi reminisced on the pleasurable dream.
“And well, the rest you can imagine,” Sarabi blushed scarlet as she disclosed the intimate details of her dream.
“I sure can,” Claudia chaffed with a playful smirk.
“I must’ve been moaning out loud because Alfred, like in real life, came running in and shook me awake. He could hear me calling his name,” Sarabi slapped a palm against her forehead. That was the most humiliating part.
“Aw! Did he think you were in trouble?” Claudia teased as she pouted her lips.
“Yes, and he also made me breakfast in bed while he got Bruce to check my temperature. He was worried I was sick,” Sarabi contently simpered and Claudia watched her eyes light up brightly.
“You like him, don’t you?” Claudia gasped while her eyes lit up happily.
“What? No! I think it’s just hormones,” Sarabi tried to rationalise what she was feeling.
“Duh! Your hormones are going loco because Daddy Pennyworth’s makin’ ‘em go that way!” Claudia spelled out and didn’t even hesitate when calling him ‘daddy’. That was Claudia, flamboyant, eccentric and carefree. She gave zero fucks about what other people would or did think.
“Oh, seriously, Claudia? Don’t call him that,” Sarabi cringed at the nickname.
“Okay fine but you need to stop hiding from yourself. You have to admit your emotions to the rest of your body. Don’t lie to yourself it hurts even more,” Claudia spoke from experience, having always covered up how she truly felt.
“I’m not hiding,” Sarabi defended herself. Sarabi wasn’t catching the hots for Alfred. Was she?
“Yes, you are. I suggest you go down to him right now and say, ‘Hey Alfred I like you and I wanna fuck you’. Okay, maybe don’t do that but you get the point. Admit it to yourself when you like someone,” Claudia spoke truthfully not wanting Sarabi to deny herself her emotions.
Sarabi shook her head and giggled at Claudia’s outspoken opinion on the situation. 
Sarabi just wished she could be that open with everybody in her life.
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<<CHAPTER 4<<  ~ ~ ~  >>CHAPTER 6>>
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Text
Leave No One Behind Ch2: The Red Sea Diving Resort
Part 1
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Co-Written with @icanfeelastormbrewing​
Episode Summary: Ari and his team arrive at their Resort and begin making plans for the first mission.
Episode Warnings: Bad Language words. Allusions to death and serious injury.
Episode Pairings:  Ari Levinson x OFC Hannah Horowitz
Song for Episode:  Night Fever by the Bee Gees
A/N: This is a long Chapter so we have split it into two Parts. P2 will be up tomorrow. J Again, we’re not historians, nor do we know Sudan in any detail…so if anything in here is factually incorrect, we mean no offence. Take it as slight creative license.
As always we live for re-blogs and comments
Series Master List   //  Main Masterlist 
And that sweet city woman, She moves through the light, Controlling my mind and my soul
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“What the fuck is he wearing Cracker?” Max asked Hannah as he nodded over her shoulder. Frowning, she turned to see Ari had walked in, briefcase in hand, dressed in a dark brown velvet suit and a white and gold striped shirt with a large, open necked collar.
Hannah snorted “He looks like John Travolta.”
“Walking like him too…” Sammy mumbled.
“Night fever, night fever…we know how to do it…” Jake sang softly, and the rest of the group all started to chuckle, hastily turning away as Ari walked towards the table and dropped the briefcase down on it.
Ari greeted Ethan with a nod of his head and looked around the room. His team was already gathered standing around the oval metal table, chatting idly.
Max and Jake were sniggering about something and Ari could clearly see Sammy was trying to keep a straight face, hands in his trousers pockets and looking at his feet while bouncing on them. Did he want to know? Probably not.
And then he noticed Hannah. She was chatting with Rachel who was admiring the brown leather knee high boots she was wearing. Ari heard Rachel comment something about her loving chunky heels as Hannah twisted her left foot so that Rachel could have a better look at the boots.
But Ari wasn’t interested in the boots, well, ok he was, but his gaze then travelled upwards, following her black tights clad legs and thighs, until his eyes mid-thigh met the hem of the skirt of her maroon pleated chord pinafore. Luckily for him, when his eyes continued past up her waist and the long sleeved polka dot blouse she was wearing, and he could take in the delicate features of her face, she was still engaged in some sort of fashion conversation with Rachel.
She was stunning, but what was new there? He had to admit to himself he had felt his chest fill with warmth when he had been running through the fake passports Ethan had given him the previous evening. He had opened hers first, sitting on his bed in the privacy of his hotel room, tumbler of Scotch in hand. His eyes scanning Hannah's passport photo over and over again.  Those big round blue eyes looking directly at him.
Firefly, he had muttered running his thumb over the photo before gulping his drink.
Thus, Ari knew which would be the one on top at the deck of passports he was now pulling from his briefcase. He was going over the questions he would be asking each one of them in his head when he heard Max asking him something.
“You got chills Ari?”
“What?” Ari frowned, his head turning to Max and in the corner of his eye he noticed that Hannah turned to watch, biting her lip as behind her Sammy laughed and hastily started coughing to cover it up.
“Are they multiplying?” Jake chipped in.
“Are you losing control?” Max continued
“Coz the power, you’re supplying…it’s electrifying!” the two men sang together as Ari looked at the pair of them rolling his eyes, a smirk playing on his face. Behind him Ethan groaned.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up…” Ari’s mouth curled into a crooked smile. “I’m Guy Thomas…he wears this shit…its fashion. And besides, Max, you’ve no room to talk!”
Hannah snorted and turned to look at Max, taking his outfit in in more detail. Because they were all in Zurich at the NATCOR HQ under the guise of a simple Mossad business meeting, Ari had instructed the team to come dressed as they felt their Alter Egos would dress for work. Sammy and Jake were both dressed in suits and ties, Max was in a suit with an open collar pinstriped shirt.
“He has a point…” Hannah conceded “You’re like the Kenickie to his Danny…”
“Grease was based in the 50s.” Max narrowed his eyes at her.
“Yeah, which is when that shirt was in fashion.” Jake said, slapping Max on the shoulder. Hannah and Ari snorted before they were cut off by an angry noise from behind them.
“Save the outfit discussions for later.” Ethan snapped “You lot are going to get yourselves killed for fucks sake.”
“Ethan, Ethan…” Ari turned to him, his voice soothing “Just, calm down…we’ve not even started the meeting yet.”
“Exactly, and we’re already behind schedule so if you don’t mind…” He nodded his head in the direction of the table and everyone, suitably chastised, took a seat.
Ethan and Ari ran the group through the plans regarding the next few months and how the deployment was going to work. They were to fly out on the 4th January, from Zurich, where Ari and Rachel would meet with the Sudanese Government and get the paper work and everything signed for the lease on the diving resort. Whilst they were there Max, Hannah, Jake and Sammy were to pair off and head to 2 different places to pick up 2 different cars which would be ready and waiting with supplies from 2 in country contacts. Once the explanations were finished, Ari then picked up the false passports.
“So you’ve all had enough time to read over your covers.” Ari said, flipping through the pile of passports, selecting one “Remember, the point of being undercover is you keep it simple. So you should have memorised the basics, your name, date of birth, parents names, address, hometown that type of thing. Everything else you can make up on the spot but nothing too elaborate. Don’t take it too far from the actual truth because whatever you tell one person you need to remember to tell another.”
He paused and cleared his throat. “Ok, let’s see how you fare under questioning.” he looked at Hannah “Firefly, you first… Name?”
“Rosa-Maria Gomez” Hannah repeated back, without so much as batting an eyelid, her Spanish accent flawless.
“Where are you from?”
“Valencia.”
“What did you do?”
“Bar manager at a local hotel.”
“Which hotel?”
“Sidi Saler”
“How long for?”
“Just over 10 years. Travelled for a year or so after University, settled back home when I was 19. Never looked back.”
There wasn’t so much as a hint of hesitation when she spoke. Ari smiled at her and tossed the fake passport down in front of her. “Good job.”  he said and with a faint smile she reached for the passport.
Next he put Rachel through her paces, picking her up on the slight hesitation she had over her address and then Jake’s mistake over his elementary school name. He then turned to Sammy.
“Sammy…name. Where are you from? “
“I'm Liam Anderson. Australia.” Sammy said, picking up his passport
“First girlfriend.”
“Mary”
“Tell me about her.” Ari said, stopping at the head of the table.
“Mary Rose. Took my virginity and broke my heart.”
At that, Ari saw Hannah, who was sat at the far end of the table next to Sammy shift slightly. Despite himself he glanced at her and she caught his eye before she looked down at the table. Ari turned back to Sammy who was still speaking.
“We met at the University of Queensland in Brisbane.  I was 19. Later died in a car accident.”
“It's good.  Good work, Sammy.” Ari turned to Max “You're up.”
There was a pause as Max stared straight ahead before he glanced at the passport.
“I still think this is a stupid name for someone from Malta.” Max protested “Why Malta?”
Rachel gave a little chuckle as Ari looked at him, rolling his eyes as his hands fell to his hips.
“Max, when you learn a second language, that's where you can be from. Till then you're from Malta. No one knows what people from Malta speak.”
“What do people speak in Malta?”  Rachel asked.
“Maltese” Hannah supplied and sniggers rang round the table.
“See, no one knows, that's the point.” Ari said with a smile before he looked pointedly at Max “Name”
“Hello, everybody, my name's Irving Wilmington.” Max said in a ridiculously, fake European accent which made everyone start to laugh “And I'm from Malta-“
“You think this is funny?” Ethan’s angry voice cut across the laughter and everyone looked up at the man as he strode around the table. “Just for the record, there's not one person in this group that I would have chosen for this type of mission. You're all too reckless.” Hannah looked at Max who raised his eyebrows as if to say, he has a point…which to be fair, he kinda did.
“I've gone against every instinct I know.” Ethan continued as Ari looked down at the floor “broken every risk management rule I believe in, including sending two women to a Muslim country.” Ethan said, looking directly at Hannah then Rachel “So let's be very clear.  This mission has no backup.  There's no exfil plan for you.  You're going in without guns, or any other weapon.  If this goes wrong, you'll all be hanging from cranes in Khartoum.”
With that Ethan left the room and there was a moment of silence.
“Can’t wait…” Jake said, leaning back in his chair.
*****
Of course, nothing every runs completely smoothly. Jake was stopped by the Sudanese Immigration, simply to be released once he had paid the ‘bribe’ the officials wanted. Ari spotted him joining the others in the queue for cabs as he and Rachel departed in the car to the Tourism Board.
Then, they met with their contact in the Sudanese Government, Colonel Madibbo and embarked on the anticipated haggling over the price. The man looked Ari in the face and told him that the lease was five hundred thousand, to which Ari replied simply that they had agreed Two-Fifty. After a little bit of negotiation, Ari moved up to three-fifty, informing the Colonel it was their best offer, but then loaded told the man that could write it down as two-fifty and then take the rest and do something beneficial for the people of Sudan.
“You may not speak Arabic, Mr. Thomas. But you do speak the local language.” Madibbo laughed, and Ari simply glanced at Rachel before smiling back, fully understanding that the “local language” meant he’d given the man a bung, and that the extra hundred thou was going straight into the  Colonel’s own back pocket.
Bent bastard.
A few hours later everything was sorted, they’d been given everything they needed and Ari and Rachel walked out of the building, climbed in the arranged car and were dropped off on the main high-street where they headed to the inconspicuous Café that had been allocated as a meeting spot. Remaining in character, Ari and Rachel, or Guy and Angela, greeted their team loudly, as if it was the first time they had seen each other for a while, and then they all settled down at a table outside on the packed market square, and Ari briefed them as if he was briefing resort staff. They all listened, picked up on his cues and after a quick coffee each they all stood up to leave.
As they were leaving the Café, Max tossed one of the jeep’s keys at Ari, who caught them with a swift movement of his hand.  Once they reached the spot where the vehicles were parked Ari opened the driver's door to one of them and turned to see his team had stopped and were looking at the trucks as if deciding who was going to ride in each one of the trucks.
"Ride with me?" Max turned to ask Hannah waving the other set of keys in the air.
"Yup. I call shotgun!" she said as a reply as she walked round to open the passenger side door.
"Right, I'll be on the back seat." Jake quipped as she pulled the seat forward and gestured for him to get in the back.
Ari shook his head, hands on his hips, as he looked at Sam and Rachel through his shades before opening the back door of their jeep for Sam to jump in, tossing his backpack on the floor of the car as Rachel went to the side of the passenger seat.
"Guess the three musketeers have decided for all of us." Ari said as he jumped up in the truck, a trace of bitterness in his voice which wasn't undetected by Sammy.
"Oh my. The great Ari Levinson scorned by part of his team." Sam said, amused and Rachel chuckled.
"You're hilarious Sammy." Ari deadpanned as he fixed the rear view mirror for the third time in the last couple of minutes before he set off.
"Maybe you should keep an eye on Jake." he spoke again a minute later, turning to look at Sam as if trying to make sure he understood what he was implying. Sam examined him for a few moments before speaking
"Yeah, maybe. And maybe you should keep an eye on the road and stop looking through the mirror." Sam deadpanned turning his head slowly to the side window.
***** A few hours later, they had a quick pit stop to stretch legs and changed drivers. Ari was keen to make as good time as possible so it was only for a few moments, Max taking a well needed pee at the side of the truck, groaning in relief. Hannah shook her head, before she climbed in the back of the jeep. They set off again, and their gentle chatter struck up once more.
"So..." Jake said, turning to glance over his shoulder at Hannah, one eye sort of remaining on the road. "I've been dying to ask. Your nicknames..." "What about them?" She asked, turning her head to face him from where she had been looking out of the window. "Why does Ari call you Firefly when the rest of the team seems to call you Cracker?"
Max snorted and looked at Hannah who was grinning. "Ok so the cracker thing came from a mission." She said, thinking fondly back "it was the first one we all actually ran together...me, Max, Sammy, Ari...Andy..." she trailed off for a moment before she continued "we were sat round the fire one night and Andy had a pack of those little savoury fish cracker things. We started playing a game as to how many each of us could fit in our mouths. Max insisted he would win...but who in fact did win Maxwell?" "You..." Max sighed "by 2 crackers" "So Andy started calling me crackers which became cracker and it stuck..." she shrugged. "Well, with everyone but Ari that is..." "Yeah, so explain the Firefly thing..." Jake pushed. "The first time I met Ari was when he came over one evening with Sammy. It was just before Sammy moved out." Hannah said "I was 17 and we were sat out in the garden at the back. It wasn't a huge garden, communal like, shared with 3 other houses but I loved it because there was a colony of lightning bugs, or fireflies that frequented it. It was a few months later Sammy was being an ass-hat about something and I flipped out at him and threw a mug at his head. It missed and smashed against the wall but Ari found it hilarious. Told I was just like those little fireflies I admired so much. Such an ordinary, unassuming thing on the outside with a hell of a surprise packed away underneath..." Jake paused and then started laughing "Now that's a back handed compliment if ever I did hear one." Hannah grinned "I know. When I asked him what he meant by ordinary you should have seen his face. He was all flustered and stammering and worried he'd offended me. Lasted all of 2 minutes until I cracked up laughing and told him I understood." "Well, fireflies are pretty awesome..." Jake smiled "A symbol of light in the dark, hope, warmth" "Yup, all things Ari said to me when he was back pedalling over the whole ordinary thing" Hannah smiled with a shrug "either way, it stuck."
My little firefly…
“Tell him what you call Ari.” Max said and Hannah snorted.
“El Lobo hambriento” She replied after a moment’s pause “Or Lobo for short.”
“And that means…” Jake looked at her again for a second.
“Spanish for the hungry wolf…” Hannah said “It came from when he used to eat my Mama out of house and home whenever he came round with Sammy. And over time it got shortened to Lobo…just wolf…”
Jake laughed “Well, he is kinda hairy…but you know, that should be my nickname given that I am actually a Wolf.”
“By name…” Max teased “You look like more of a poodle.”
Hannah laughed and leaned forward, so that her head poked between the front to seats in the car “You can be Loop.” “Loop?” Jake frowned.
“Short for Lupin…Latin for Wolf, or there or thereabouts anyway. Or it could just mean you’re a total fruit loop, take your pick…”
Jake gave a huge guffaw of laughter and looked at her “Does that make you Little Red Riding Hood?”
Hannah snorted as Max shook his head, looking out at the window “That’s the shittest chat up line I’ve ever heard” he spoke, turning back to Jake.
“Can’t blame a man for trying” Jake winked.
After a total of six hours and a couple more stops to stretch and freshen up, if that was even possible in the middle of the desert, they arrived in the resort. But they couldn't properly see it until they got out of the trucks, the windows being partly covered by dust as they had taken shortcuts over sand dunes to save quite a few hours more off the travel time should they have opted to use the main roads.
When they finally got out of the car they took some clumsy steps on the sand after being into the confined space of car for that many hours. Jake lit a cigarette and as he looked at Ari he couldn't help but make a howling noise to Hannah who started laughing immediately. As if on cue, Max started howling too and the three of them were caught in a fit of hysteric laughter,  Max bending his body for balance and Hannah leaning on Jake's arm.
Ari, Sam and Rachel stood there watching the three of them, dumbfounded. Ari shared a glance with Sam before he shot his sister a look and she pulled herself together still trying holding back laughter. Ari sighed before he took a few more steps towards the main entrance of the resort and the rest of the team followed suit.
They all stopped still, looking at the ram-shackled building in front of them, the words Red Sea Diving Resort were descripted in fading red paint above the large, archway shaped door. Hannah removed her shades, looking at it, and she let out a loud breath from where she stood at the end of the line they seemed to have formed, next to Max.
“It sure doesn't look like the brochure.”  she said, and everyone turned to look at her, Max giving a small huff of laughter. After a second or so, Ari moved to the trucks to retrieve their luggage and the rest of them followed suit before they headed towards the entrance. Ari wrestled with the wooden trellised screen doors before he gave one a harsh push and it fell forward off its hinges, crashing to the floor sending up a cloud of dust and sand. He turned to look at them all, giving a shrug before he headed inside.  They all followed and Hannah cast her eyes around as they hit the main room. All the window screens were shut, leaving it quite dark despite the bright late afternoon sunshine outside. Chairs and tables were piled haphazardly around the edges of the main room of the resort, various other pieces of furniture dotted around.
“It needs a little TLC.” Ari said, turning to the team.
“Nice.” Rachel chuckled.
“Oh, yeah?” Sammy snorted, pushing the shaded lenses on his glasses up as he looked around with a laugh. “What a dump.”
Hannah watched as Jake moved to open one of the sets of doors which led out onto the beach and instantly the place was flooded with light. She glanced at Max who smiled and they followed him out onto the beach.
“This is paradise!” Jake sighed. Max looked at him, incredulously, but Hannah had to admit, outside it was beautiful. A secluded cove of The Red Sea right was in front of them, the sun bouncing off the blue water, waves softly lapping at the shore.
Max pushed his glasses back up his nose and headed away to his right, Hannah following as they walked round the side of the resort and up a small boardwalk which led to a small pier of sorts.
“Well, hello, gorgeous…” she heard Max say. Hannah turned to see him examining a spear gun which was leaned up against the glass windows in front of him. She rolled her eyes.
“Your obsession with sniping weapons is worrying.” she arched an eyebrow.
He turned to face her with a grin before he tucked his shades into his shirt and picked up the fishing spear, holding it like a gun, checking down the sight target. The two of them stepped further round and Hannah frowned as Max stopped under a wooden shelter of sorts and the pair of them spotted the large, silver fish hanging from the structure. It had been beheaded, the head laying on a grill, and Max turned to look at her.
“This fish is fresh.” he frowned.
“Don’t eat it…” Hannah said instantly, teasing him about his obsession with food.
“Don’t eat…it’s fucking raw.” he rolled his eyes at her.
“Never had sushi?” she shot back.
“Don’t care for it much…” he mused before they both exchanged a glance, the seriousness of the fact that the fish, was indeed newly caught sinking in as Max turned to call back to the resort.
“Hey, yo, this fish is fresh!”
Ari who had been walking along the shore, heard Max’s call, along with Rachel’s which informed everyone she had found a newspaper from this week .He stopped and glanced back into the resort before he opened the door into one of the bedroom huts. Taking a glance round he threw open the wooden window screens, turning his face away as the sand and dust from outside blew into his face. It was then a familiar smell hit his nose and he glanced down to his left and saw that there were cigarette butts in an ashtray. One was still smoking slightly.
And then, someone jumped up from behind a pile of furniture in the corner of the room and shot out of the door. Ari turned and sprinted after him, yelling for him to stop and calling to the team. They all joined him, sprinting around the corner where Ari stopped at the sight of a group of what they could only assume were locals.
“Hello.  My name...” Ari began, before he whipped off his sunglasses, figuring they might trust him more if they could see him eye to eye “My name's Guy Thomas.  I'm the new owner of this hotel.”
The locals didn’t speak, and Hannah noticed that the woman at the front, adorned in bright yellow local dress was glancing at Max nervously.
“Max, lower that thing…” she said softly, as he had the spear gun raised.
Ari turned to face him and nodded, gesturing with his hands “Come on.”
“Sorry.” Max said gently, as he slowly lowered his weapon.
“Abu Hamid.” the man at the front of the group spoke to them.
“Hello.” Ari greeted him kindly.
“What the hell's going on?” Sammy spoke gently through his smile.
“I think we just met the local staff.” Ari said softly, looking round at everyone.
Part 2
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tiffgeorgina · 4 years
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do you have any favourites parts of season 2? (I agree that the plot has been.... Thin? Non-existent?) But what are the things about this season that you've enjoyed?
hello anon! a few things i’ve enjoyed are:
-the new guest stars. watkins, hill, and raphael are knocking it out of the park. we waited longer than i wanted to to see june and dulé but hey, at least they’re here now! im already kinda attached to their characters and im pretty sure all of them are gonna get fucked over so im scared fjgkjhfdg
-just seeing all these mf characters again. ive missed them so much kjhgkdfjh i could watch them watch paint dry and i’d be okay with that bc i just MISSED THEM
-CONNIE. RESURGENCE. OMFG. i saw xosha roquemore (the actress who plays her) credited for 2x05 a couple weeks back and i FREAKED. OUT. god why do i love this narc. acab except for connie because i like her and she’s pretty (seeing her in full color and 80s style was a REVELATION)
-mo coming back ugh i missed him at the jammer group. seeing him complacent and beaten down HURT. im ready to see him fuck blair up i love blair but he’s walking away in handcuffs this season if mo has anything to say about it
-blair/harris. ok they’re cute i said it (plus they’re easily getting the most screentime out of all the couples this season which is nice bc their relationship is so much less established than the others)
-mo/dawn flashbacks mo/dawn flashbacks mo/dawn flashbacks mo/dawn flashbacks mo/dawn flashbacks!!! i knew we would be seeing their backstory but i didn’t expect it to be the first thing we saw all season!!! i love mo/dawn and i love getting backstory since i was waiting to know more about their past for so long and!! it’s here!! now we know everybody at the jammer group used to work for leighman and that’s why they hate them and we know mo and dawn go back a decade and!! it’s just so satisfying to KNOW i love to see it
-the entirety of Fore! (2x04) yassir. fucking. killed. that. shit. he was the sole writing credit for that episode, and when i saw that on the imdb page i simply knew it would be god tier. and it was! admittedly a little plotless, but that’s par for the course this season, plus it was early enough in the season to get away with it i think. the twist at the end. corky’s entrance. blair/harris. blair being an idiot. blair being a high idiot. yassir x being the king of feminism. yassir lester writing andrew’s emmy reel like that. we haven’t seen season 2B yet but 2A peaked with fore!. period. try to disagree with me. you can’t.
-ofc the 80s aesthetic that we all know and love. i saw somebody describe black monday as a period piece once and it seemed kind of ill-fitting bc it’s not set in victorian era england but yk what? it’s totally fitting. this is a period piece. the 80s slap.
-blair being the villain that we know he is. i wish they would quit stalling on this because it’s making all the characters seem monotonous and non-distinct, but i like those moments where blair snaps (“WE ARE DOING THIS” and “i am the only family you need now. just me”) andrew’s such an excellent actor and it’s fun to see this side of his range since he’s usually played really nice and wholesome (or at least not downright villainous) characters. he’s sending chills down my spine with some of the shit he’s doing and saying this season. andrew. emmy. nomination. now. GIVE IT TO ME NOW.
-momentary mo&blair resurgence (even if it’s fake). i miss mo&blair as father-son so fucking much anon you don’t even know. finding out that they were the ones clicking their heels in 2x06? i could’ve CRIED
-being right. ok this has a bit of lore but i have been STALKING the imdb page for black monday for MONTHS. bc they’ll add episode titles, or screencaps, or cast members all the time without telling anybody, and everything’s been accurate so far (so it’s not some troll lying on imdb we know that lol). specifically, in 2x09, there’s a character credited as dr. gabe egon. the tl already had suspicions that he had smth to do with conversion therapy bc there’s this one picture that sho released where you can see all this shit mo’s written on this board, and it DEFINITELY SAID CONVERSION THERAPY. and this episode comes around and roger is walking out this door that says “dr. gabe egon ~ therapy for the religiously erect” or whatever and i was like !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and then roger blurts out that it’s literally CT and i !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this shit is in different areas for better or for worse and even if im confused and bored at the same time being pulled along for the ride is fun as hell
-the naming scheme for the episodes. i literally had no idea what they would do for the episode titles this season since there’s no countdown to black monday, but i like how it’s shit that the characters say/write. bc then a character says the episode name and you’re like !!!!!!!!!!! jfhgdfjk. plus it kinda tells you what’s going on--i knew 2x06 would be about a ponzi scheme before blair even proposed the idea in 2x05 bc the ep is titled Arthur Ponzarelli. and i knew fore! would be the episode where blair and the harrises are golfing and blair gets hit by a golf cart since “fore” is a golf term. and i know that 2x07, “who are you supposed to be?” is the weird halloween party ep where everybody looks ridiculous and ppl are def gonna be getting into it. 2x10 is titled “i don’t like mondays” and idk what that means but i bet mo says that line in the show. and 2x09 is titled “at that time” and im so scared bc that episode has a blair flashback and WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHAT DOES IT ALL MEANNNN
-more women and more women being relevant to the plot. good. it was getting a little obnoxiously man-influenced here. cmon the majority of the cast AND the majority of the directors AND the majority of the producers AND a majority of the writers AND both the creators can’t ALL be men. like pick a struggle.
whew that list was longer than i expected it to be! thanks for the ask anon! what are y’all’s favorite parts so far?
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vampirecatboy · 4 years
Note
ok I low key wanna request all the ocs you listed but I'll just keep it to 2 lol. Kira (ofc :3c) and Aja because i just love him lol
i mean you know i would absolutely, happily spend at least six hours doing everybody, but Kira and Aja are good choices lol
Full Name: Kira Mag Raith (fun fact for the people, Mag Raith is pronounced Mag Ray, yay Irish!)
Gender and Sexuality: cis man, he’s pansexual but skews toward men because i’m gay and can’t help it lol, he’s also polyamorous
Pronouns: he/him
Ethnicity/Species: clavat, so basically half-elf, and ethnicity does work a bit differently in our campaign, but he’s white-coded, and speaks with an Irish accent of varying strength (it’s stronger when he’s upset or with his family, good luck understanding him if he’s upset and with his family)
Birthplace and Birthdate: born in Cairn, tbh i haven’t really thought about his birthday, but i get strong earth sign vibes from him, maybe Virgo? so let’s say August 31, the liminal space of days like it seriously doesn’t feel like it should be real
Guilty Pleasures: napping in sunbeams, i was going to say jk but i actually love it, so he naps in sunbeams but is a bit embarrassed about it
Phobias: what’s that vegetable cats are afraid of? cucumbers? “they have dark energy, trust me”, or humiliation. cucumbers and humiliation
What They Would Be Famous For: alleged attempted murder on television, on a more serious note he’d probably prefer not to be super famous, like celebrity-style, he’d probably prefer to be a folk hero or urban legend or a cryptid lol
What They Would Get Arrested For: he has done nothing wrong, ever. idk maybe assault or public disturbance for fighting someone in public, maybe trespassing if he sleeps in the wrong shed or barn
OC You Ship Them With: bit of Justice, but mostly Rhys
OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Rhys again, but despite everything it’s not all that likely, Rhys is a jerk but he’s not a murderer
Favorite Movie/Book Genre: fantasy or adventure, but he’s not much of a reader
Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: deus ex machina, it’s the easy way out and he doesn’t like it
Talents and/or Powers: he’s spent a lot of time perfecting his bow skills, so he’s very good at hitting long-range targets, he’s also great at keeping secrets
Why Someone Might Love Them: first off, he’s small and adorable, but mostly he’s very considerate and trustworthy, and he’s a great listener. he’s really not going to be mean unless you’re mean first
Why Someone Might Hate Them: misinterpretation of his demeanor/behavior probably, or if someone decides he’s responsible for problems they caused Rhys
How They Change: please my sweet boy i’m begging you, open up to someone please, that’s what i’m hoping for at least, he needs to learn how to really trust others
Why You Love Them: he is..... my boy....., for real though, he’s genuinely so sweet and he cares about people a lot and even though Dmitri tries to possess him from time to time, i love that he’s basically nothing like him
time for spicy boy!
Full Name: Aja, i have not given him a last name. i have no excuse.
Gender and Sexuality: cis man, he thinks he’s straight but he’s so not, i haven’t given him a concrete label but queer is applicable
Pronouns: he/him
Ethnicity/Species: ifrit (the pathfinder version of a fire genasi), plus he’s a sorcerer with a draconic bloodline, so somebody at some point fucked a dragon and he’s got some of that
Birthplace and Birthdate: oof i can’t give a town name but he lived up in the mountains? he is, however, such an Aries, let’s say his birthday is April 4
Guilty Pleasures: mackin on Dmitri he reads erotica, i’m not gonna beat around the bush, he’s always seen seducing women, so obviously the dudes he hangs around expect stories of his conquests, unfortunately he has perpetually shitty luck with bedding women so he is a big ol virgin, but no way is he telling anyone that, basically he takes the scenes from the erotica he reads, modifies them a bit, and pretends they’re his experiences (it’s worked so far, luckily all those dudes he talks to really don’t do much or any reading)
Phobias: he doesn’t like being on boats in open water, he’s a fire elemental with a red draconic bloodline, on a base, instinctual level he does not feel safe when surrounded by water (he’s alright in the rain though)
What They Would Be Famous For: allegedly sleeping with several noblewomen, maybe a princess or two (someone mentioned a queen once and well, he’s not going to deny it)
What They Would Get Arrested For: arson. no story there he just. likes fire.
OC You Ship Them With: Dmitri, naturally
OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Dmitri, but it’s not personal, there are plenty of dudes who hear about him sleeping with their wives so like, any of number of them would have no problem hiring an assassin (or a bounty hunter with a penchant for killing his targets) to go after him
Favorite Movie/Book Genre: erotica and maybe a touch of romance, a guy can dream
Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: there are some romance/smut tropes he gets sick of, anything to do with virginity and purity and virtue and deflowering a maiden, both on a personal level and also on a “virginity is a social construct used almost exclusively on women to determine their worth” level. also some of those male writers really do not know how certain parts work. as soon as he sees the word “tight” he throws the book away
Talents and/or Powers: want something burned? toasted? roasted? singed? he’s got you covered. he’s a skilled, powerful sorcerer with a preference for fire magic. also he’s obviously a great liar and a hell of a charmer
Why Someone Might Love Them: despite his reputation as a philanderer, he’s a gentleman and he’s drowning in that respect women juice, he’s not pushy, if she’s not interested, he backs off, and i mean, 20 charisma score, he’d have to really flub for someone to not love him
Why Someone Might Hate Them: ah those husbands do not like some sexy fire boy comin in and boinking their wives, supposedly very well, also he’s very showy and that can get on people’s nerves
How They Change: he has a Gay Crisis and suddenly “oh, maybe.... men too?” and i mean, Dmitri does suss out his myriad of lies about sexual conquests, and he eventually does kind of open up about his insecurities because Dmitri just kinda listens and doesn’t criticize or mock him and really only adds things like “wow, that really sucks, i’m sorry dude.” and that’s all he really needs
Why You Love Them: he’s hot, he dresses slutty, he’s a master of charm, and yet..... 73 years old and he has not seen a naked woman in real life. also the blushing mechanic i gave him, where instead of blushing, his hair kinda flares up like a ghibli character but with fire..... too cute. also he’s smart. i’m pretty sure intelligence was his highest stat after charisma, at like 16, and i love that for him
ah thank you i always spend so much time on these and i love it lol
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btsburgh · 6 years
Text
Chapter 13 (The Darkest Timeline)
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Tawni’s brain was firing off responses. Anything immediately available in her brain was dragged to the forefront like it would help her situation.
SWOT Analysis. How long have I been asleep? When is class? Go get your beanie. It’s on your head. Bradford. Bean’s on the balcony. Jungkook.
Jungkook?
Jungkook.
There was a single fanzine that looked at Jungkook. Eye contact was made and she could feel the electricity. The coursing feeling of sudden understanding that JK_Love97 knew that she was holding hands with THE Golden Maknae. As the girl tilted her head, and Jungkook looked at Tawni, there was no longer anything beyond fight or flight in her synapses.
“We have to go.” Tawni whispered, tugging on their joined hands urgently.
“Uh, duh. That’s where I’m going silly.” Jungkook said, his like 8’4” ass a little bit stronger than Tawni so when he tugged, she went along with him and towards the door.
“No, really.” Tawni urged, “We need to-“
But it was too late. Through the window, she could see the one girl raising a hand to pat her friend and pointing at the glass. Her oily fingerprint indicating directly at Jungkook on the window.
“Fuck.” Tawni made a decision.
———
Jordan locked her phone, effectively ignoring the call from Kim Seokjin, but also saving herself from getting dragged into another 95’s and their mother brand escapade. Namjoon seemed really distraught anyways and was tugging on Jordan’s hand.
“What’s up?” Jordan asked.
He looked away, another notification from Animal Crossing Pocket Camp pinging: Somebody new has moved into the park. And what a shame that Namjoon was more interested in the dispatch page than anything. Rocco was a truly interesting little horse that he was just ignoring because his band was making headlines or whatever. Dumb.
“So …” Namjoon clenched his jaw, obviously displeased with Rocco. Or I guess BTS. How can you be displeased with Rocco? I’ll attach a photo here like look he’s so cute.
Rocco
Anyways moving on
“Taehyung has been spotted in Busan. And Lobi never checked into a hotel.”
Jordan wrinkled her stress line free forehead (stress free because she’s never once worried about a anything besides America’s Next Top Model) and spoke, “Why are either of those things problems?”
Namjoon looked at her like she was actually insane, “Taehyung was in Seoul like two hours ago and Hoseok isn’t supposed to be-“
All of a sudden there was a scream.
No, more than that. A sea of screams. A symphony, cacophony of screams that erupted out of nowhere. In mass, in number, so many that Jordan’s ears almost curled at how polyphonic the sound was. So many sounds it created a perfect harmony. A three part chord.
Then they grew louder, punctuated by the sounds of boots and shoes on pavement. And when they looked towards their certain doom, they saw an onslaught. A mass of women, just charging. And quickly. Towards them. Specifically.
“NAMJOOON!!!” The crowd screamed.
“Oh that’s probs not lit” Jordan said.
Before she knew it, Namjoon was yanking her away and they were running.
Jordan didn’t like Jordan.
———
Bria looked to Yoongi, “Yo, fam, your hands.”
He pulled his hands up, examining them closely, “I guess I do have hands.”
———
Now, it wasn’t like Kobi intended to make joining high stakes video game tournaments part of their lore, but at a certain part in your very secretive relationship with the most talented artist on the planet, you start to make dumb decisions. Maybe because their relationship being a secret is like a plot point? But also not because Kobi is perfect lmao who am I kidding.
Anyways, they HADN’T gone to fuck in a hotel. Joke’s on you. They decided to hang out and do South Korean stuff because Kate wanted to experience where Hoseok lived and all that dumb stuff. She’d been there before, but not like this.
And definitely not when they were high key gaining traction because they were like artist of they year or whatever.
So they went and did dumb stuff. Until the ended up agreeing to play in a Mario Kart tournament. They were both quite competitive and actually really good at Marip kart. Though, Kate had the upper edge because she was a fucking beast with Yoshi on the motorcylce, but Hoseok wouldn’t really own up to that one ever.
They played a few rounds, easily surpassing the newbies who thought simple drifting would get them to first place alone. How naive of their young souls. Then eventually they ended up a little further up. Nudging each other after every match because holy shit they were better than South Korea’s best. Which is insane. South Korea has got mad skills in the video game department.
But eventually it came down to the semi-finals.
And Hoseok sat down with the guy he was against and Kate sat down to play against the random chick she was against. And you knew for a fact that they were going to have to eventually play each other ofc, but we’ll Dave that for later.
———
The crowd was gone. Dissapted in a thorough stampede towards Namjoon. For which, Tawni felt only a slight pang of guilt. Firstly because she sent a hoarde of fully energized fansites against Jordan, but also because she made the decision sans Jungkook’s guidance. Not that she had time to seek it out or anything, or that the decision was bad itself, but Tawni was a pro at beating herself up over dumbass details so here she was.
They had pulled their hoods over their faces and escaped quickly into Seoul’s more forgiving city streets. In fact, there was a little drizzle right then. Just slight raindrops across the fabric of their hoods, and a dampness in the air that they breathed. It might have been spring break, but it was still pretty chilly, even a whole 24 hour flight away it was chilly. So Tawni could see her breath as she let Jungkook tug her through alleys and streets.
She knew he liked to take pictures and be some dumbass artistic bitch because he was good at literally everything for no reason, so he roamed the streets of this city on occasion with his own hood up and a fake name to give when he eventually stopped to order ice cream. But right now it was apparent that he knew these streets. He dragged her along until he saw a little late night noodle shop, and pulled her inside, snatching his phone as soon as he did.
“Kookie, I’m sorry about-“ Tawni started.
But he cut her off, “No, it was hilarious. Namjoon’s gonna kick my ass, but it’s so worth it.”
Well, at least she knew he was seriously because he lit up like a little bunny rabbit. Smiling with mischief because, yeah it was a little fucked, but also oa little fun. The thrill of getting caught. The thrill of sending a hoarse of random women after Namjoon.
Serves him right for getting mad when everybody suggested an acoustic version of Expensive Girl.
But after a couple of seconds on his phone, Tawni realized that not all was fun and games.
“Come on, we definitely shouldn’t stand around.” Tawni raged Jugnkook towards the noodle bar.
Luckily, Tawni was a master at Duolingo and Memrise, and had managed to fully finish out the food ordering portion of the apps which comes directly before the “how to speak to wise owls in Korean” but after “deciphering basic prophecies” and “colors” so she was well versed, but nowhere near fluent.
But noodle ordering - totally okay.
She ordered them two bowls in extremely broken Korean. The woman behind the counter looked to Jungkook on more than one occasion during Tawni’s epic struggle, but he seemed eight feet buried in his phone, so he was no help whatsoever.
But, after multiple interpretations of the woman thinking Tawni was ordering “gay bear noodles” instead of sesame bulgogi, they got their food and sat down.
“What’s the problem,” she asked very carefully.
Jungkook bit his lip, “So I guess Kobi aren’t at a hotel?”
“She’s really not tapping that right now? Damn.” Tawni took a bite of definitely not gay bear noodles.
“it’s hard to hook up in hotels for us. Everybody knows our face and we have to show it so they can identify us.” Jungkook explained, not even touching the noodles Tawni had walked through hell and high water to order. “But there’s also Taehyung … I guess he-“
Then they turned their heads to the sound of a sudden flashing.
———
Like Pascal, guiding his boat through a treacherous storm, they dove into safe shelter, Jordan taking Namjoon with her as they glided underneath an overpass.
They palstered themselves against cold stone walls and just took in long, labored breaths. They didn’t want to risk breathing too loudly and alerting anyone to their location. And a few seconds later, they heard the terrible sounds of clattering boots against cement.
But they grew louder, and louder, and louder. The screams of excited young Korean women filled their ears. Over took their senses until suddenly they were duller, quieter, and became distant. In a second, the hoard had passed, moving on to the green pastures of wherever it was they decided that may be. Not Namjoon certainly, since he was heaving against a brick wall next to Jordan.
“Yo that was intense. I saw my life flash before my eyes.” Namjoon exhaled.
Jordan nodded. “So since you leaned close to death have you changed your mind about that acoustic version of expensive girl?”
Namjoon glared, “I decided I don’t want to be with you anymore.”
“Understandable.” Jordan nodded, “have a nice day.”
But then her phone rang.
Jordan’s, not Namjoon’s.
Oh shit I guess the pronouns gave that away wtf. Anywys. Shit. Anyways. Jodan’s phone rings and she’s like
“Yo, what up, It’s J-Dumpster. Can I help?”
There’s low breathing on the other end of the line, breathing sh recognizes as Seokjin’s so she pulls the phone from her face and hits the speaker phone button like any middle aged soccer mom might do if her fully grown son had called her.
“Please.” Seokjin said softly. “Taehyung’s gone.”
Namjoon leaned in closer to the phone. “First of all, bitch, why didn’t you call me? Secondly, I’m sure Taehyung’ sfine. He’s probably getting ready to make chalk murals in Busan right now.”
Seokjin’s breathing became heavier, “I can’t talk. Just. He’s not safe. Send-“
The signal cut off.
Namjoon straightened himself out.
Jordan didn’t. “He’s joking, right?”
Namjoon looked steely. Like Jensen Ackles. Or Christian Bale as Batman, he looked steely cold.
“Seokjin doesn’t joke.”
———
Kate had finished her match in record time. As to be expected from the best Mario Kart player in the whole universe. She finished with no problems. Coasting through the course and even hitting those treacherous Canyon glider sections with precision and ease.
Even Hoseok finished as well. Not as well, obviously. He took one fall on Bowser’s Castle, but luckily the guy he was playing against was also a little bit clunky and ate it on one of those ghost brick things. When he won, everybody knew because he jumped into the air, popping and screaming and hollering like Hoseok does. And when he was finished, dashed back to the board to see …
“Wait, what?” Hoseok asked, turning in confusion.
He saw that Kate’s name had been advanced to the finals but not his. In fact, both his name and the guy he was playing against were marked out on the enormous inflatable velcro board they had put shit on. Why they didn’t use a white-board, I have no idea, but this is South Korea so they take their e-sports seriously.
“You’re disqualified,” A man said.
He appeared from shrouded darkness, a familiarity too him as he stood in the open light now. The overhead lighting cast shadows against his face and Hoseok squinted like … Maybe he’d seen him before. Some other time. Some other place. Some other … life.
“What?” He asked, “I didn’t … Wait, do I know you?”
“I am Byun Baekhyun. King of all gamers here in Korea.” He narrowed his eyes, “You may be a more famous idol than me in this realm, but you made the mistake of stepping foot in here. Where I have all the control.”
“What? You’re an idol?” Hoseok stepped forward, lowering his voice, “Listen, Don’t-don’t tell anybody who I am, okay? I can’t get caught out with a girl or else all 10 million girls following my twitter account will have me thrown into the ocean or something.”
Baekhyun didn’t respond for a moment, tugging the dark, thick cloak I just decided he was wearing tighter to his body. He seemed to contemplate the sentence for longer than necessary, the sounds of impatience ringing in his ears.
“Accept an unrightfully disqualification.” He whispered.
Hoseok stepped back, shifting the mask on this face as he looked around and pulling his ball cap further down. I was gonna give him a bucket hat to be In Character™ but like I decided since this is my universes, I can do whatever the fuck I want and I want no balenciaga’s or bucket hats in this universe. ACTUALLY LOVE YOURSELF HASNT COME OUT YET SO HE DOESNT EVEN HAVE THE MONEY FOR BALENCIAGAS SO ITS CANONICALLY CORRECT
Anyways
“No!” Hoseok stifled his voice, “I won fair and square. I can’t just let Kate take the title.”
“Wow, you’re a shitty boyfriend,” Baekhyun rolled his eyes, “But fine, I’ll just post on our Facebook page that you and her were here. Playing Mario Kart. Together.”
Hoseok bit his lip. “Okay, fine. I’m disqualified. Just don’t post any pictures.”
Baekhyun clapped his hands.
Just then, as if it was written that way, Kate bounded up to them. JK I don’t bound places. I dissolved into the air next to Hoseok like a badass.
“Whaddup”
“Congrats!” Hoseok shouted, “I uh … I got disqualified so you win.”
Kate turned to him with furrowed brows. “You got disqualified? For why?”
He tugged his collar, “I uh … I used cheat codes. I’m sorry.”
Kate didn’t really believe it but hey, “So yeah, I’m the best bitch at Mario kart then.”
“Well,” Baekhyun chuckled, “Not exactly. You would have to defeat the reigning champion for that.”
“Reigning Champion my ass,” Kate said, “I’ll whoop their ass, lemme at ‘em”
“A CHALLENGER!” Baekhyun exclaimed, flinging his arms open so his dark cloak spread wide like wings of blackened angel. He then slowly took his phone out of one of the folds. “Let me call him real quick tho.”
———
“Listen to this,” Yoongi held up a finger, looking very seriously.
“Fam, I’ve been listening.” Bria laughed.
“Good,” Yoongi paused for 35 seconds before slowly reaching over and pressing a key on his keyboard.
A single Eb note rang out followed by silence.
“Shit,” Bria exhaled, “That’s genius.”
———
Now you see, Tawni’s a photographer. She knows intimately how cameras work … or at least, she knows enough. Enough to get how white balance functions.
White balance is not, contrary to popular belief, the balance of power that keeps white folk as the oppressors because they were too pale to deal with the sun and had to creat their own toughness.
White balance is actually how a camera determines color and lighting. Meaning that if a dark tone is set as white because there’s very little white in the photo, it will balance the photo out color and lighting wise to fit. However, if there’s too much white and light tone is set, it will blow out the photo and make it basically a white blur of incomprehensibility.
It’s also important to note most people set their white balance on auto which does not handle sudden change well
Meaning that when Tawni yanked the table cloth up off the very nice table in the noodle shop they were eating, the fanzine’s cameras couldn’t adjust in time, and the photos instantly became … white blurs.
Which gave them just enough to -
“Run!”
“Again??” Jungkook looked surprised, “I haven’t eaten yet.”
“Listen, I love food too, but we have got to go, bitch.” Tawni stood up from the table, still shrouded by the falling cloth.
Cameras continued to flash as Jungkook looked longingly at his bowl on noodles.
“COME ON!” Tawni shouted.
Jungkook grabbed the noodles and they bolted.
It didn’t take long for the horde of fansites to lose them as well. Which was a bummer because they’d lost Jungkook and Namjoon in one day. Which is tough because Jungkook is very large and Namjoon is very slow so they aren’t usually easy to lose.
But Tawni and Jungkook had made themselves at home in a very, very tiny alley way. The space was just thin enough for both of them to slide into side by side, the cold, damp brick of soeul buildings holding them both upright. Jungkook was scoping noodles into his mouth by the truck fulls and Tawni’s not extremely athletic so she was catching her breath.
“Sorry,” Jungkook shoveled noodles in-between muffled words, “This is a shitty first date.”
“First date?” Tawni asked, “You mean us seeing Justin Bieber was like a pregame or?”
Jungkook laughed, swallowing the last of his noodles, “As long as you don’t hate Korea because of me, then it’s fine.”
“I could never hate Korea. You’re here.” Tawni, the dumbest person ever, said.
Jungkook lit up a little, lowering his bowl, “Okay, but you’re catching it at a really good time it’s not always like this.”
“What do you mean?” Tawni cocked her head, “What’s different about it right now?”
“You’re in it …” He smiled goofily.
And I won’t even pretend they were gonna lean in and kiss bc y’all bitches know that shit ain’t happening until at least he comes back to America.
But his phone did ring. And he picked it up, eyes widening as he got zero words in. The chatter on the end of the line was rapid and demanding until it burned out, just barely letting him speak.
“Now?” He got out.
“Now!” The other person yelled.
The call ended.
“So uh … your mom?” Tawni asked.
Jungkook looked wide-eyed and bewildered. “We have to get back to the dorms. Taehyung’s missing.”
Tawni rolled her eyes, “Are you for real? I’m sure he’s rescuing puppies in Gwangju right now. Can’t we stay out a little longer? Do they really need you?”
Jungkook looked unamused, “This is my career, Tawni. Seriously, let’s go.”
———
Namdan and Tawkie arrived at almost the same time to the dorms.
Namjoon slammed the elevator buttons, breaking through to the other side and sighing as he did so.
“Gonna have to put that on the list,” Jungkook said softly.
“Yeah,” Namjoon glared at him, “I’ll put it on the fucking list.”
He reached up as the elevator started and took a pen from a holder to write on a yellow pad of paper pasted to the inside fo the dorm elevators. He scribbled:
Sorry, broke three more buttons. Please take from my next paycheck - Joonie
Jordan raised her eyebrows, “That’s …”
“Don’t.” Namjoon held up a hand.
When they got to the dorms, they found it in disarray. It hadn’t been cleaned when Jimin and Seokjin got back. In fact, there was more damage if that was possible. Jimin was sitting on the couch, staring at his phone, but when they arrived, he immediately stood up.
“Hey!” Jimin scratched his neck, “Uh, nice of you to rendez-vous. Seokjin’s not feeling well so if you could-“
“I need to talk to him.” Namjoon stated, walking over towards his room, but Jimin leapt in front of him.
“You really don’t!” Jimin said, sweat on his brow.
“Move, Jimin.” Namjoon said softly, “Or we will move you.”
Jimin swallowed. “You can’t move m-“
Jungkook promptly lifted Jimin up off the ground and slung him over his shoulder. They five of them, four willingly, and one squirming on Jungkook’s shoulder which Tawni wished she was, but wasn’t, made their way to Yoongi and Jin’s room at the end of the hall.
“No!” Jimin shouted, “You don’t want to do this!”
They passed the studios which exist in the dorms in this universe because I realized there was a major plot hole and idk how to handle that so I just decide that it’s not the way it is lmao. Then walked up to the room where Namjoon looked to the others as he reached for the doorknob.
“Fine!” Jimin yelled, clenching his jaw and adopting a serious demeanor. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Namjoon opened the door.
And on the other side was Jin. Laying face up, covered in ramen.
“What the fuck.” Jordan said, pinching her nose.
Like we’re talking, fully cooked and seasoned packets of instant ramen, but like sixty of them, because only his head, hands and feet appeared out of places in the mound of stringy noodles. His face was gaunt, pale and worn in from stress and neglect. His eyes were hollow as they stared up at the ceiling and his mouth was just repeatedly mouthing I don’t give a shit I don’t give a fuck over and over, yet no noise came out.
“Oh boy,” Namjoon looked to the others, “Let me handle this.”
He walked past the threshold and the minute his foot hit the floor beyond the door Jin halted his chant. Namjoon took another tentative step inside and Jin slowly, in the way a body might rise from the dead, tilted his head up to look at Namjoon.
Jin spoke with a high accent, one entirely made up as well. “Oh! It’s my betrothed come back from war. Lydia, how I’ve missed your face.”
“Not … Lydia.” Namjoon said slowly, shaking his head and taking more careful steps across the room towards the pile of noodlejin.
Jin followed him intently with his eyes but remained motionless as he rounded to come squat by his side. “Oh Lydia, how are the valkyries fairing these days? I hope you haven’t fought too hard, my love.”
“Still not Lyida,” Namjoon sighed, falling into a cross-legged position next to Jin and letting out a sigh, “Or a valkyrie for that matter.”
Jin didn’t respond, mouthing nonsense for just a moment until his gathered something else in his jumbled brain. “Lydia, you’re frightening me.”
Namjoon rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine. Alright, I’m Lydia. Yo, whaddup, Lydia in the house.”
Jin smiled, “Ah, Lydia. How I’ve missed your humor. Always the trickster you. However, I do have to admit that things have no been well in your absence. The Kingdom is in disarray.”
“How so?” Namjoon asked.
“We’ve lost a squire, Kim Taehyung. You may remember him. He was always a bit odd. But he’s been taken from us. I fear,” Jin looked back towards the ceiling with his hollow eyes, “For the worst.”
“The worst?” Namjoon asked, “What do you mean?”
Jin shook his head. Denying any further comment.
“Come on, Jin. Tell me.”
Jin looked to Namjoon, but kept his mouth shut, turning back to the ceiling. “It’s unspeakable.”
Namjoon let his head fall, staring down at his feet for a moment. This has only happened once before. When Hoseok got sick off of a dish Jin made, he wrapped himself in carefully deconstructed bento boxes and called himself Mr. Roboto for 36 hours until eventually Namjoon snapped him out of it.
“Jin. I need you back, buddy. I know you’re blaming yourself for whatever happened but you can’t make multiple personalities every time something goes wrong that you decide is your fault.”
Jin sighed, “Lydia … I fear I am too far gone.”
“Jin.” Namjoon looked him in the eyes. “They named somebody else World Wide Handsome.”
There was a moment of silence.
Then Jin snapped up, the mound of noodles slopping away and spilling into Namjoon’s lap as Jin sat up wearing a t-shirt and boxers. “Hold the fucking phone, bitch, what?”
Jungkook shook his head, “I don’t know how Namjoon does it.”
———
“Alright, so Taehyung’s been kidnapped.” Jin said, pointing a stick at 20 pieces of printer paper Jimin and Jungkook had taped to the wall and scribbled details of a plan on. “By some sort of high risk Korean gang. They left me a voicemail saying we can come with four bajillion won by ourselves tomorrow at noon to these coordinates.” He slapped the stick to a poorly drawn image the resembled Apple Maps and a pin where the coordinates led. “Or they’ll send a real ransom to bighit.”
“Oh,” Jimin leaned back on the couch, “That’s fine. Let the authorities handle it once they send a ransom, he’ll be fine.”
“There’s more.” Jin cleared his throat, “They’ll send his nudes to AllKPOP.”
“Shit,” Namjoon breathed, “We gotta make that drop tomorrow.”
“But we don’t have four bajillion dollars.” Jungkook noted, leaning up from the tiny armchair that he and Tawni had crammed themselves into. “And we don’t know where Kate, Hobi, Bria, or Yoongi are either.”
“Oh, well,” Jimin raised his hand, “Yoongi’s here actually.”
———
“How many fingers am I holding up?” Jin held three fingers to Yoongi’s face.
Yoongi concentrated on his fingers for a very, very long time before breaking down into laughter, “These are Jin’s hands, not Hoseok’s!”
Bria leaned forward and grabbed Jin’s hand. “You’re right! What the fuck, this buzzfeed quiz is so hard!”
“Next one!” Yoongi leaned back in his chair.
Jin nodded, “Yeah, they’re gone.”
“Gone with the wind,” Yoongi said softly, “A good novel.”
“I want to see the movie,” Bria said too, “Should we go?”
“Shit, right now?” Young looked at his bare wrist, “The movie theaters don’t open until noon here.”
“Oh, we have an hour or two,” Bria settled back in the couch to wait.
Jungkook looked between them, “It’s 10 PM, guys.”
Yoongi scrunched his eyebrows together before bringing his wrist back up and looking at it more closely, “You’re definitely wr-“
Namjoon burst out, “THERES NO WATCH ON YOUR WRIST YOONGI!!”
“Cool!!” Jin and Jungkook grabbed Namjoon and pulled him back and to the other side of the studio. They held him firmly as he thrashed, random and uncontrollable rage taking his body suddenly.
“Cool!” Jin yelled, “Stay cool!”
Namjoon took a slow deep breath. “You’re right man, we gotta figure this out.”
“Yeah, we found two. We just need one more couple and then we’re good. We can figure out how to retrieve Taehyung in the morning and-“ Just then Jungkook’s phone rang and he took the call, stepping away for a moment and plugging one ear.
“Actually,” Jimin said, “If we can find Hoseok and Kate then I think I have a plan for getting Taehyung back. But we need all hands on deck.”
“Yeah,” Jungkook nodded even though he was on a phone call so nobody could hear him, “I’ll be there in ten.”
Everybody looked at him as he turned back to address the crowd, suddenly calm. “So … I know where Kate and Hoseok are. But I have to be the one that gets them.”
“I’ll go with.” Tawni said.
Namjoon agreed, “Good idea, if he’s dressed up and with a girl nobody will suspect it’s Jungkook.”
“Hey, I’m-“
Jimin interrupted Jungkook, “And we can stay here and prepare for getting Taehyung tomorrow. But we’re gonna need lots and lots of black clothing.”
“Shit,” Yoongi laughed from the couch, “That’s crazy. I have lots of black clothing.”
Jordan nodded, “Let’s get cooking.”
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