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#sorry it took me so long I caught Covid and was dying for weeks
ask-baker-alfred · 6 months
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Without further ado, here are all the staff members at the bakery. The business is officially open.
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Too Hasty//Draco Malfoy x Reader
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A/N: OKAY I’M SO SORRY I JUST LEFT THE WHOLE PLATFORM FOR LIKE A MONTH! Basically, I caught covid-19 (lmao) and have been dying for a few weeks, but today was my first day out of my uni halls and first day back in lessons so I’m back for now. Here’s a cute ass little story for you all, I will be back x
Word Count: 1,818
Set: Post War
Warnings: Literally none, just cute
Harry Potter stood in the door way of the dining room at the back of Grimmauld Place fondly, looking at the people sitting around the table. Hermione and Ron were sat together reading, him noticing her grinning slightly when Ron needed to read a passage of text out loud to understand what it was he was reading. His eyes shifted to George, Luna and Neville who were attempting to balance as many goblets on top of each other as possible, erupting into a fit of giggles when it fell, Luna casually flicking her wand before they made a large bang on the table. He also watched his fiance, Ginny coo at Teddy Tonks who was babbling away in his high chair, using the few words he knew to communicate that he was demanding more pumpkin juice. And finally, Harry smiled as Draco Malfoy attempted to spoon feed Teddy some very odd looking green paste that he’d read encourages toddlers motor skills. When their eyes met they shared a very understanding glance. Teddy giggled as the goop touched his nose, spraying some of it onto Draco, causing the blonde man to grimace slightly but smile at the small boy instead. Harry moved towards the table and began to stack the plates onto one another, moving them into the kitchen.
“Hey Harry, let me help you.” Draco said, wiping Teddy’s dribbling mouth, going to stand, starting to pick up a few of the plates. Harry smiled at him thankfully and the two of them began to wash up the dishes in the kitchen. Harry Potter liked this Draco Malfoy and was amazed at the man he had grown up to be. Since the war- and since Harry had saved him from a stint in Azkaban, Draco had devoted himself to things that brought the world good. He’d trained long and hard to become a Healer, helping to care for vunerable people who were affected by the war, he’d taken on Teddy as his own son, moving in with the Order of the Pheonix to not only care for his second cousin every day but to help his new found friends with their fight against dark magic. Everything about his new life appeared to be perfect, except one thing. As Draco and Harry finished off drying Teddy’s “Chudley Cannon’s” bowl, brought for him by Ron, the shrill sound of the door bell sounded throughout the hall. Harry jumped a little, excusing himself from the others and walked towards the door, right hand resting on his wand that was stuck out of his pocket. He flung the door open. The cool air from the evening night hit his face and a figure that had been waiting patiently away from the door turned to face him.
“Harry!” She exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air before wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him in. Y/N Y/L/N was stood in the weak evening sunlight, her skin glowing. Her features were so gentle that they seemed painted, her hair was done up, wand stuck through it. She was grinning from ear to ear, skin tanned. 
“Y/N! Come in, come in. You must tell us where you’ve been!” Harry helped her in, taking her suitcases and resting them by the staircase. Y/N entered Grimmauld Place, taking in how much it had brightened up and changed since the last time she’d visited. She wondered into the dining room, exchanging hugs and greetings with her friends, all of them exclaiming how amazing she looked and how much they’d missed her. She smiled back at them all, thanking them for their kindness. 
“Oh it’s been amazing! Paris was just beautiful I am so glad I went. I feel like I’ve finally got over-” Y/N stopped suddenly, looking over to the figure who’d just emerged from the kitchen. Draco had been hiding in the darkness of the kitchen, but now was stood awkwardly in the dining room’s light. “Draco.” She breathed, finishing her sentence. He waved a little, throwing her a tiny smile. She didn’t respond. Pretending she hadn’t seen it, she continued with her anecdote, animatedly telling the group about her world traveling, her visit to most of the wizarding Ministries of Magic and her new career editing the Daily Prophet. The group listened intensely, hanging on her every word, Hermione keeping her eye on Draco as he stared nervously at his feet, remaining at the door. Y/N also told Teddy about the creatures she’d met from other countries, taking pride in the way he glowed. The conversation came to an end.
“Will you be staying Y/N?” Ginny asked grinning, “please say you’re staying!” Y/N laughed at her best friend.
“If it’s not any trouble, I can always go to the Leaky Caul-”
“No way.” Hermione said firmly, “you must stay here.” With that, Hermione took Y/N’s hand and led her up the stairs, Ginny and Luna following behind. Hermione took them into one of the spare bedrooms, where Luna’s bed was already set up and waved her wand, creating a new blow-up style bed on the floor. Y/N thanked her gently, throwing her heavy bags down by the dresser. The girls stayed for a while, making themselves comfortable in the room. They sat in silence.
“I didn’t know Draco was living with you now.” Y/N said quietly, making sure her face remained neutral. 
“Yeah,” Hermione said, fidgiting with her sleeves, “he’s lived with us ever since his charges were dropped.” Y/N nodded quickly, going back to unpacking her bags. 
“I’m sure Y/N doesn’t want to be bored by chat of her ex fiance.” Ginny slightly snapped, pulling Hermione with her, nearing the door. “We’ll let you sleep now, goodnight girls.”
Once they left, Y/N and Luna got ready for bed, exchanging slight chat as they did so, Luna very interested in Y/N’s travels.
“You know,” said Luna quietly as they both snuggled up into the covers, “Draco really is quite different now.” Before turning over and closing her eyes dreamily. Y/N huffed a little, turning over herself.
“Let’s not be too hasty.” Y/N mumbled, huffing again before going to sleep.
XXXX
The morning came quickly for Y/N who’d spent most of the night awake. At five in the morning, she slipped out of bed, putting on her dressing gown and gently plopping down the stairs. She wandered into the kitchen quietly, trying not to disturb the sleeping house. As she went towards the kettle, a figure moved out into the light, causing her to jump slightly. 
“Draco!” She whispered, clutching her chest. He smiled at her softly, a small baby bottle in his hand, which he was shaking. 
“How are you?” Draco asked, running a pale hand through his platinum hair, letting it hang messily in front of his eyes. “I feel like yesterday was a bit of a um shock for us both.” Y/N looked awkwardly, filling the kettle up with water, tapping it with her wand.
“Yeah it was a little odd, I mean last time I saw you you were a death eater and now you’re some kind of fucking saint.” As the words left her mouth, she watched his face fall. Her hands shot up to her mouth. “I’m sorry....I-”
“I can hear Teddy crying for his bottle,” Draco whispered horsely, pushing past her as he left the kitchen, “I’ll see you later.” Y/N watched him leave, unsure of what to say. She continued to make her tea, eyes threatening to spill tears as she sat at the table. Her owl flew in through the window, dropping the Daily Prophet onto the table top. She thanked it, before settling down to read in the morning sunlight.
XXXX
When the rest of the house arose, they were rushing around getting ready for work. Knowing Draco would be staying home all day with Teddy, some of the gangs attempted to haul her to work with them, George explaining how much he’d love to have her at the shop, Ginny saying that Y/N would be more than welcome to help referee, but she politely rejected all of them. They left one after another, all looking very important and busy. As Ron shut the door behind him, the last one to leave, the house fell into a sudden silence. Y/N watched from the dining room as Draco played with Teddy, teaching him letters from a small leather bound book. His face was painted in a gentle happiness as he watched the small boy fondly, running his hands through his dark locks. She watched closely as Teddy’s eyes began to flutter close, Draco hauling him up onto the sofa and covering him in a blanket from the chest on the floor. As Draco placed a small kiss on his forehead, Y/N entered, settling on the living room floor and tidying some of Teddy’s toys away.
“Leave that,” Draco said, swatting her away, “I’ve got it.” Y/N shuffled awkwardly from him, letting him squish past to grab the toys. 
“I wanted to say sorry.” Y/N began, looking Draco in the eyes for the first time since last night, “You didn’t deserve that. I shouldn’t have spoken to you in that way.” Draco nodded, continuing to tidy up the floor. 
“I’ve not stopped thinking about you.” He slightly whispered. Y/N felt like she’d stopped breathing for a moment. “Not dated, not kissed, not,” he lowered his voice, looking over to Teddy to ensure he was asleep, “fucked anybody else.” 
“Really?” She asked. “Neither have I for the record I couldn’t.” Draco swallowed, looking down at her, where she sat on the floor. 
“I kept my promise to you.” Y/N cocked her head a little confused. He rolled up his sleeve, showing her the nearly faded dark mark that still lay in his skin. “I will counter act my evil until my mark disappears for you.” Her mouth fell open as she watched how he flinched at the sight of his arm. She leant up, Draco allowing her gentle fingers to stroke the mark. 
“For me?” She repeated. 
“You.” Draco watched her carefully as she stood from where she was standing, moving closer to him. He automatically pulled her into him, just like he always had. 
“Kiss me idiot.” She said grinning, allowing him to grab her jaw softly, pulling her into a glowing kiss. She felt her skin heat up as her pressed closer to her bringing her closer and closer. 
“Uncle Dray?” A tiny voice squeaked from the sofa. The two shot round just in time to watch Teddy looking confused at them. 
“Yes Ted?” Draco quickly said, regaining his composure. 
“Is that your new wife?” Teddy asked innocently, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. Y/N began to giggle a little, covering her mouth with her hand. Draco began to laugh to, walking over to Teddy and pulling him into a cuddle.
“Let’s not be too hasty hey Ted.” 
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emma-nation · 3 years
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The Devil In I - Bela x OC (Resident Evil Village AU) - Chapter 9
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“Step inside, see the Devil in I”
Summary: Aleena Novak is a 19 years old orphan who desired more than living in a village in the middle of nowhere. A talented artist with a big future ahead, she gets the scholarship of her dreams in United States. But everything changes when her twin brother, Auryk, steals an important artifact from Castle Dimitrescu.
In this adventure, Aleena will find way more than she expected.
“You’ll realize I’m not your Devil anymore”
Pairing: Bela Dimitrescu x f!OC
Genre: Between T and M (Trigger warning: for violence, blood, abuse and eventual smut)
Tag List: @nydeiri
Castle Dimitrescu, Lady Dimitrescu's Bedroom - Present Days
What did dying feels like? Bela couldn't remember the day she died, before she was turned. For many and many years, she wondered how it even happened. Maybe she was incurably ill. That would be the only plausible explanation on why Lady Dimitrescu decided to transform her into a vampire. Having an illness herself, she must've felt sorry for Bela being so young and already losing her life.
But that night, after being drugged by Mother Miranda, the memory from that tragic event returned to her memory stronger like never.
It was a cold night in the 1950's. Alcina threw a special dinner and invited her three favorite and most loyal servants. Three young girls. They felt honored sitting at the same table as their mistress. They were chatting and giggling but then... something started to feel strange. Starting by the fact none of the servants were around.
It began as a burning sensation in Bela's stomach. She tried to ignore it but it'd only grow stronger. She dropped the silverware she was holding. She attempted to swallow another sip of tea. By her side, she noticed one of the other two girls, the brunette one, starting to show signs of discomfort too.
"What's wrong, my dear?" Lady Dimitrescu asked when the red haired girl, the youngest of the three, started coughing.
"I can't..." she tried to answer, but the words got lost in her throat as she began to suffocate, "b-breathe..."
Bela tried to stand up and help her, but her surroundings started to spin. She held on the table for support. At this point, the brunette girl was already lying on the floor, having some kind of seizure. She looked at Lady Dimitrescu again, but she didn't seem to be worried. She seemed abnormally calm.
"W-What have you..." before she could finish the question, her lungs could no longer fill with oxygen. Her throat and her airways started to burn. She tried and tried to breathe, but it seemed impossible. The weakness started on her legs and spread to the rest of her body really quickly. In fact, she barely felt when she collapsed on the floor. When the seizures started, she was barely conscious. Her vision was already going black, but she still had time to see the Countess staring at her body, almost lifeless, as she said:
"Don't worry, daughter. Everything will be alright."
Poisoned. She was poisoned.
When Bela woke up it was already morning. She could tell by the rays of sunlight entering through the windows. She hadn't died this time, but the sensations she experienced were quite similar. Her head was aching intensely and her vision was still blurred. Whatever Miranda had injected in her blood had affected her senses very badly.
"Aleena," she finally remembered. She tried to get up but her legs were still weak. "I need to find her."
She kept moving slowly, using the walls and furniture for support. If only she could transform into flies, it would be a lot easier, but it hurt to even try.
"Fuck!" Bela cursed, frustrated. She threw herself on a couch for a moment. She needed to rest.
Her eyes analyzed her surroundings. Although Bela was in her mother's chambers, Lady Dimitrescu was nowhere to be seen.
Hours had passed since she was drugged. Anything could've happened during this time. She wondered if Aleena was still there and if she was okay. She had to be. But what if she slept for days? What if the ritual had already happened? Aleena could be dead in that exact moment and she wasn't there to protect her. That thought made her stomach feel sick. And rare were the occasions she felt sick after being turned.
"Bela!" Daniela opened the door, she seemed so confused and scared as she was. "There you are, sister! Oh my god, I was starting to think you were dead."
"You wish..." Bela moaned sarcastically. She couldn't miss the opportunity. "What the fuck happened, Dani? Where's that bitch?"
"Who? Cassandra?"
Daniela handed her a cup full of human blood. Bela drank it all in one sip. That was the only thing able to restore her body from the damage Miranda caused.
Cassandra. She remembered her middle sister being the one who told her to go to her mother's office. Traitor! She should've known when she appeared to be so supportive of her relationship with Aleena in the previous day.
"No, Mother Miranda."
"Mother Miranda was here?"
Before she could answer, the door opened with a slam. It was Cassandra, looking completely fine. She had blood around her mouth and all over her dress. In a blink of an eye, Bela lunged forward, pinning her against the wall.
"How could you?!" She yelled. "You sent me directly to a trap!"
"What are you talking about?" Cassandra argued. "Somebody caught me on a corridor and stabbed my neck with a needle, then I passed out."
"Come on, don't lie to us," Daniela shouted. "You entered my room last night and drugged me."
"And why I would even do this to both of you?"
Realizing what happened, Bela immediately let her go.
"Mother Miranda," she huffed. "She must have shapeshifted into you and attacked us all."
It was time to tell her sisters what she learned from Heisenberg. Miranda had already started to proceed with her plans and it was a matter of time before she attempted to kill them.
"This bitch is going to die!" Cassandra punched the wall. "Nobody pretends to be me and lives."
"This is the least of our problems," Bela said. "She can be anywhere right now, pretending to be someone we trust and ready to kill us all."
"Where's mom?" Daniela asked. "I couldn't find her anywhere."
Lady Dimitrescu was the last person Bela wanted to see. She lied and betrayed her, besides helping Mother Miranda to drug her.
"I don't know, I searched for her everywhere," Cassandra told. "On the bright side, there's fresh breakfast spread all around the castle."
"What do you mean, Cassandra?" Bela wanted to know.
"The servants. They're all dead."
"What about Aleena? Have you seen her?"
"No, I thought she was with you."
Bela transformed into flies and went straight to Aleena's bedroom. It was completely empty. The bed was still made as in the previous night. She went to her own bedroom next. The diary was opened on the bed, right on the pages where her father confirmed what Miranda told her in the office, Aleena was indeed the vessel.
Mrs. Volkov corpse was lying on the corridor and not so far away, there was a trail of blood, Aleena's blood. She froze in place, too terrified to even think.
"It doesn't mean anything," Daniela placed a hand on her shoulder. "Maybe she managed to escape."
"She probably did, that girl is fierce," Cassandra added, noticing how disturbed her older sister looked. "I mean, she's not one of the Lords or a servant. There's no reason for that crazy bitch to murder her."
"There is," Bela sighed deeply. "She's the vessel. Miranda was playing us like puppets. The goblet thing was already intentional, to bring Aleena to the castle where she'd be safe until she prepared the ritual."
"Oh fuck, this is bad."
"I... I'm going to the village. Maybe she's hiding in her house."
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Eastern Europe, Village - Present Days
When Bela left, she didn't even bother to check the temperature or to mount one of her horses. She transformed into flies and started to fly to the village as fast as she could. Everything that mattered was finding Aleena. She wasn't dead. She couldn't be dead. They were going to California together and they'd start a brand new life.
She stopped by her house first. The door was locked and the extra key hidden in a vase at the entrance, just where Aleena placed it before they returned to the castle.
"It doesn't mean she's not here," Bela tried to convince herself. "She must have found another way in, to not make it obvious she's hiding here."
She used the key to open the front door. The house was dark and silent. There weren't any signs of somebody's recent presence. She checked every room, the basement, the secret weapon storage... Aleena definitely wasn't there.
"Maybe she's at the pub or at one of her friends' houses," Bela concluded.
There was no way. She had to do that. She took a deep breath, gathering enough courage to enter the pub. There were only three people in there, a middle aged woman behind the counter, a blonde young male cleaning the tables and a girl, who was strangely similar to Cassandra, chatting to both of them. Bela recognized them from the pictures Aleena showed her. They were Olga, Gustav and Elena.
"Hello," she announced her presence. They all stopped to stare at her, but none of them had freaked out yet. Maybe they hadn't noticed the tattoo.
"How can we help you, darling?" The older woman asked. "Are you a foreigner?"
"I... uhh... I'm looking for Aleena Novak."
"She isn't here," it was the boy who answered this time. He had a lot of anger in his voice. "She was taken to Castle Dimitrescu a few weeks ago. We don't even know if she's still alive."
"She is," Bela told. "I've been taking care of her."
They finally understood. Their expressions all changed to pure terror and panic. The two younger adults hid behind the counter, together with the woman. The male grabbed a shotgun.
"Get the hell out of here!" He ordered. "And if Aleena escaped, don't you even dare to touch her again or I'll kill you. I'll find her and bring her home."
"Trust me, manthing. This is exactly what I'm planning to do. Mother Miranda has kidnapped her. She has been planning to sacrifice her in some kind of sick ritual tonight."
"Liar!" Cassandra's doppelgänger shouted. "Mother Miranda wouldn't do such a thing! She's always guiding and protecting us. Everything she does is for the best of all of us."
"Listen, little one," Bela exhaled deeply. She had no patience for humans. That was the reason why she avoided them. They'd usually annoy her to the point they became her prey. "I have proof. Aleena's father has left this diary, reporting everything."
"That man was insane. Most of the villagers hated him."
"But he never lied," Gustav spoke. "Adrian had some crazy theories nobody ever believed but... I've never seen him lying before. He was a man of his word."
"This is true," Olga added. "We grew up together. He was absolutely nasty, a real bastard, but not a liar. He wouldn't invent such a thing, especially when it came to protecting Aleena."
Olga locked the door and the group reunited in one of the tables, analyzing the notes Adrian Novak left.
"Fuck," Gustav cursed, while trying to speak on his phone. "Auryk must've gone after this contacts. I can't reach him."
"Do you have any ideas of where Aleena could've gone to, if she was trying to hide?" Bela asked.
"Other than our houses and the pub? Well... we had this fort in the woods when we were children. Maybe she's hiding there."
"Show me the way, little man."
But Gustav wasn't the one who was most familiar with the path to Aleena's childhood fort, it was Elena. The young woman followed them, complaining about literally everything and praising Mother Miranda.
"Mother Miranda would never do that!" Elena protested. "I'd trust her with my life."
"I was about your age when she did this to me, without my consent," Bela took off the hat she was wearing, exposing her scar. "And do you think immortality is a blessing? Try spending your life locked inside a castle, without being able to go outside most of the time."
"Why are we even trusting her, Gustav? She feeds on human blood and now we're alone with her in the middle of nowhere."
"If that makes you feel more comfortable, I've already had breakfast. Besides, I prefer drinking men's blood."
"Can we just focus on Aleena?" Gustav scolded both of them. Bela had finally found a man she respected. That boy was completely loyal and protective of her girlfriend, so he deserved some credit. "God knows why Bela is searching for her but... we have the same goal here."
"We're dating," Bela informed them of the latest news. "I love her. For real."
Both of the young humans stared at her in shock.
"It seems like we'll have a lot to catch up when I see Aleena again," the boy shook his head in disbelief. "I thought the vampire thing was just a phase."
They finally found the small wooden fortress in the middle of the woods. It was mostly destroyed, but it still could fit one adult person inside it.
"Aleena!" Gustav called. There was no answer. Still, Aleena was hurt. Maybe she was unconscious.
"Go," Bela poked Elena and ordered. "You're the shortest of us. Check if she's in there."
The girl rolled her eyes, but obeyed, ducking and entering the small fort. But there wasn't even a sign Aleena was there recently.
"Where do we search now?" Elena asked.
"I'll go to the other Lords," Bela told. "Maybe one of them is keeping her for Miranda. Thank you for your help, little humans. It was a pleasure to meet you."
Bela walked away from them. Maybe in another life, they could've been friends. The priority now was to find Aleena. She wondered if the girl went to Heisenberg seeking for protection or if Miranda had captured and taken her to that creepy cave. There wasn't much time to think, she needed to act.
She followed to Heisenberg's factory. As usual the man was swearing and torturing human beings on his basement.
"What brings you here, kid?" He asked. "Did you find the diaries?"
"Yes, but too late unfortunately," she answered. "The information we were searching for: all the women in Aleena's family have some kind of immunity against the creatures and their mutations. They healed after getting bitten by Lycans, Aleena healed when you attacked her... she's the vessel."
"We have to kill her immediately. Before Miranda puts her hands on her. If that happens, we're fucked."
"She already did. She showed up in the castle last night, drugged me and my sisters, killed the servants and now... I can't find Aleena anywhere."
"Girl, you had the opportunity in your hands," he clenched his fists. "If you had killed her, like you freaks do to every single human that steps into that castle, we wouldn't be in this situation."
"Shut up, Heisenberg!" Bela grabbed a piece of metallic scrap from the floor and threw in the man's direction. "I had no idea. Even if I did, she's my girlfriend and I have to save her before she's sacrificed on Miranda's ritual."
"Good luck with that. The crazy bitch is very good hiding things."
And Bela knew that. Next, she went to Moreau's, Miranda's most loyal follower. She didn't reveal any information, she simply tricked him by inventing an excuse, that stupid freak was easy to fool. But Aleena certainly wasn't there either. Using her flies, she checked the entire place. She did the same at Donna's house. While she entertained the woman and her creepy doll having a tea party with them, her flies inspected every corner of her eerie house.
She was about to follow to Miranda's cave when she ran into Cassandra, in the middle of the way.
"What are you doing, Bela?" She asked. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?
"I'm searching for Aleena. She's gotta be somewhere and the last place I must check is the cave."
"Mother is home," her sister announced. "She wants to talk to you."
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Castle Dimitrescu, Living Room - Present Days
In Bela's imagination, Lady Dimitrescu would apologize. Admit she had made a huge mistake and promise her they'd find Aleena together. That was who her adoptive mother was, she'd always do anything to make her daughters happy. But at the same time, she was also that same woman from her memory. The selfish Countess who killed three young girls to have them as her adoptive daughters. She killed, violated and turned them into monsters. What kind of mother was that?
The three sisters were sitting on the couch, waiting as their mother brought a tray with tea and some other treats. That would probably be their only food for days, as Lady Dimitrescu and Mother Miranda had killed all the servants.
Lady Dimitrescu sat on an armchair in front of them, looking at Bela mostly.
"I understand you're confused, daughters. But I'll explain everything."
"Where's Aleena?" Bela quickly asked. That was the only thing that mattered. Who cared about Mother Miranda's child who died ages ago? "What have you two done to her?"
"Bela, daughter... I understand you're upset and frustrated. However, Mother Miranda has been searching for the perfect vessel to bring her daughter back to life for many and many years. This vessel happens to be Aleena. It's her fate, her purpose."
Bela eyes were burning in pure rage. How could Alcina be so blind? Even Heisenberg, that scumbag of man, was smarter than her mother was.
"Her fate is to live her own life, to go to California and achieve her dreams. Her fate is to be with me!"
"I apologize for having to get rid of all of our servants," she clearly ignored her daughter's objections. "They wouldn't understand what's to come. Once Eva is back to life, things will change. I'd like to ask you girls to behave and treat her well, like if she's a new sister of yours. We'll be throwing a party to welcome Eva to our family and I'll need your help to organize it."
"Party?!" Bela let out a sarcastic laugh. "Are you naive or only stupid? Miranda is going to kill you before this ritual is even finished! It has been her plan all along."
"Bela!" Lady Dimitrescu's eyes narrowed and she raised her voice. "I'm your mother! You owe me some respect, little lady."
"I don't! Not when you drugged me and let Miranda kidnap my girlfriend. I want to know where she is."
"Daughter..." Alcina grabbed her by the shoulders and lowered her voice. An useless attempt to help her to calm down. "Aleena is gone. She's dead."
The world seemed to stop. As well as the clock. The voices. Everything. Not even Bela's brain was capable of working and processing the words she had just listened. Dead. Aleena was dead. Her Aleena. Her girlfriend. The woman she loved. She stopped breathing. Her stomach ached as much as in the night she was poisoned. She felt she was about to collapse and die again. Her heart was beating in a strange manner. It was out of control. She was out of control.
Bela raised her golden yellow eyes, filled with hateful tears and stared directly into Lady Dimitrescu's eyes.
"You..." she clenched her fists. "You lied to me... You betrayed me..."
"I was willing to let her live, daughter," the woman tried to excuse herself. "Until the last meeting. Mother Miranda told me the truth and asked me to give her the vessel."
"HER NAME WAS ALEENA," using her strength, Bela grabbed the heavy coffee table and threw it across the room, shocking her mother and sisters. "She had a name! She was NOT a vessel."
Very rare were the times Bela actually cried after being turned. She cried when she first woke up in excruciating pain, with that huge wound on the side of her head. She cried later, when she felt lost, without knowing who or what she was. And she was crying now. Without Aleena, she felt lost again. She had nothing left. She no longer wished to live. A life without that girl's contagious joy, optimism and bravery was meaningless.
"Bela..." Lady Dimitrescu tried to touch her, comfort her somehow, but the blonde girl slapped her hand away.
"I always did everything you asked me... I always tried to be the perfect daughter for you... AND FOR WHAT?" Bela sobbed. "The only thing I ever ask you, you denied me. You took Aleena from me. You chose Miranda over your own daughter!"
"I had no choice, daughter! She'd turn against us if I refused to give her Aleena. Who knows what she'd be capable of doing?"
"She's doing it anyways. She's going to kill us all now she's gotten what she wanted."
She started to walk away. She had to be alone. As far away as possible from that woman, from that family, from that stupid castle. That small bed & breakfast at the village seemed like a good option.
"Daughter, wait," Alcina went after her, as she entered her bedroom.
"Don't you ever call me daughter again, Lady Dimitrescu," Bela angered. "I'm not your daughter. You kidnapped, killed me and turned me into a monster. Who knows what you've done to my real parents. We're not your daughters, we're only your toys, your dolls. You're not that different from your sister, Donna, after all."
She slammed the door and locked it. The bedroom was still the same way they left in the previous night. The candles, the flowers, the discs... Aleena's perfume was still on her pillows. Bela threw herself on the bed, holding the pillow against her body as she cried uncontrollably.
This was all her fault. They should've finished reading the diaries earlier and found out the truth before Miranda's visit, but she distracted Aleena, wishing to spend as much time with her as possible before she left to California. She should've been there to protect her, she promised it. She shouldn't have trusted the woman she used to call 'mother'. She was an idiot and now, Aleena was gone. Forever.
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Castle Dimitrescu, Guest Room - Present Days
Memories. Only a few days earlier Bela was afraid memories would be everything she'd have left from Aleena and now, it really was. Without anybody noticing, she went to the guest room the girl had been staying during those weeks in the castle. She obviously wasn't there, but traits of her presence were still all around.
Her clothes were still in the closet. Some where lying on the armchair or even around the floor. Bela grabbed one of her t-shirts, one from Aleena's favorite TV show. It still had her perfume on it.
"I miss you, love," she inhaled deeply the sweet fragrance. "So much it's killing me."
Then, she took the sketch book from the desk. Aleena was the most talented artist Bela had ever met. Her sister, Daniela, was a good artist, but she wasn't so creative, so expressive and precise on her traces. Bela had many classes with Lady Dimitrescu, and though she could paint decently, it wasn't her strong suit.
The drawing was still there. The one Aleena where was drawing her face. The reason why they kissed that night in the library, when she said Bela was worth being remembered.
"And now I'm the one who have nothing to remind me of you, Aleena. Remind me of every detail of your perfect green eyes, your smooth brown hair and those sweet freckles all over your body."
Her cell phone was still inside the bedside table's drawer. Bela turned it on. Aleena had set a picture of them together as her lockscreen. She smiled. In the gallery, she found many and many pictures of all the days they spent together, since the lunch Bela threw on her birthday when she arrived.
There were videos too and as soon Bela heard Aleena's voice, she couldn't help but start crying again. Why did her mother betrayed her like that? She could've helped her to save Aleena. She could've helped them to take down Miranda. That was what a real mother was supposed to do!
"Hey," she rolled her eyes, noticing she had forgotten to lock the door again. Cassandra was standing right behind her. "I'm came here to check on you."
"Leave me alone, Cassandra," Bela angered. "You didn't even like her."
"This isn't true. Aleena wasn't my favorite person in the world, not that I have one by the way, but still... I didn't want her to die."
Bela ignored her. Cassandra didn't have maturity enough to understand how she was feeling. Sometimes she wondered if her sister was even able to feel empathy for another being. But then, she was surprised by her next move.
"I'm sorry," her middle sister touched her shoulder slightly, tenderly. "I know she made you happy. Deep down, I was rooting for you both."
She forced a small smile before pulling her sister for an embrace. It was probably the first time they exchanged such a genuine moment of affection.
"We'll make her pay," Cassandra stroked her hair. "Let's kill Bitch Miranda."
The three sisters gathered together in the library. Lady Dimitrescu couldn't be aware of their plans. Daniela revealed her sisters she once heard about a dagger their mother possessed, one that was able to kill any monsters and demons.
"Are you sure about this?" Bela asked to confirm. Daniela had a creative and delusional mind after all.
"Yes," her youngest sister said. "I stole one of her diaries once. She was reporting everything about this dagger, except for its location."
"Then I'll keep her distracted while you search for it," Cassandra suggested. "I'll pretend to help her with her party for Miranda's daughter rebirth."
"What about me?" Bela wanted to know.
"You're not okay, sister. Let us handle this. Save your strength for when we stab the bitch and end her for good."
"As long as you let me do the honors, it's fine by me."
That was it. Bela would pretend to be alright. She would pretend to forgive her mother. And when the time came, she'd get her revenge against Miranda.
But then... there was nothing left for her in this world. With Aleena gone, she lost her only chance of living a new and normal life. She lost the only thing that made her feel happy and human. And if the dagger could kill any monsters and demons, well... it would be able to kill her too.
Still holding Aleena's shirt against her body, Bela lay on the bed and fell asleep, thinking of the moment they'd be reunited again in death. However, she had a terrible nightmare. Aleena was dying in her arms and there was nothing she could do.
She got up and drank some water. It had been hours since Daniela left the room to search for the dagger. She wondered if something had gone wrong. Lady Dimitrescu would never agree with that plan. She was about to leave the bedroom when the red haired girl entered the room so excited she could barely breathe.
"Bela..." she panted, "I found her!"
"The dagger?!" Bela asked. "Where is it?"
"No! Aleena. She's alive in the dungeons!"
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Castle Dimitrescu, Dungeons - Present Days
I opened my eyes, but I couldn't see anything. The environment around me was different from everywhere I had been in the last few weeks, the air was humid but still suffocating. It also smelled terribly, like rotting flesh and blood. I tried to stand up but my leg was still badly injured. I wondered how long it'd take for the amulet to heal my body again. Maybe it only worked once. Or maybe it had to do with the fluid Cassandra injected on me before she threw me inside that nasty cell.
Speaking of Bela's sister, I was pissed. Truly pissed. It was no secret she never liked me, but I never thought she'd be able to betray her own sister like that. Telling Bela to go to their mother's office only to bring me to the dungeons was a low blow, even for her. And there was Mrs. Volkov too. I couldn't believe she was dead.
"H-Help... somebody help me..."
I tried to scream but the blood loss and the drug made me too weak. I had to find a way out. A way to regain my forces and escape that place.
It didn't take long for me to lose my conscience again. As much as I attempted to stay awake and hear any signals someone could be around, I just couldn't. I was trapped in that endless cycle of waking up for a few minutes, moan in pain and passing out again. That was it. The Mother Miranda bitch was certainly behind it. When the right moment came, she'd come and take me for the ritual. Drugged as I was, I wouldn't be able to fight it.
"Aleena!" I heard Bela's voice, approaching. Maybe it was just another hallucination. "Oh my god!"
The cell's door opened, allowing some light to enter. I was able to distinguish my girlfriend's beautiful face among all that darkness.
"It's okay, love. You'll be okay, I promise you."
I forced a small smile as she placed my head on her lap. Using a blade, she opened a small gash on her wrist and forced it into my mouth.
"Drink it," Bela ordered. "My blood is going to heal your wounds and the drug effects."
I felt my stomach twisting from the metallic taste of blood going down my throat. I definitely wasn't born to be a vampire. For a second, I thought I was going to throw up.
"Shhhh," she held me still as the nausea struck. "Just breathe. Hold it down and you'll be okay."
I did as she told. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths, the nausea was slowly going away. Bela started to caress my face and I felt as some warm tears dropped on my forehead.
"Hey, I'm just a little beaten up," I assured her. "But I'm starting to feel better."
"I... I thought you were dead. My mother told me you were dead."
Why would Lady Dimitrescu do such a thing? Of course, she needed to make sure Bela wouldn't ruin Miranda's plans. She needed to convince her to not search for me.
I was already strong enough to sit. I hugged Bela very very tightly. She was sobbing desperately. Her heart was beating so fast inside her chest, it seemed like it'd explode at any moment.
"I'm so sorry," I kissed her forehead. "I'm here and I'm not leaving you ever again. I promise."
"You're the vessel, Aleena," Bela told me. "Your body is immune to the attacks of any creatures in the village. And now Miranda wants to use you to bring her daughter back to life. She believes your body is going to accept the mutation."
She also told me about my amulet. Miranda was the one to sell it to Auryk. I immediately ripped it off from my neck.
"I knew about being the vessel. I discovered it right after you left the bedroom. My father knew it and Auryk did too, this is why he wanted to get me out of the country so badly."
Bela wasn't listening to me. She was still staring at my face in disbelief, her eyes glistening with tears from the relief of finding out I was still alive. She cupped my face between her hands and pressed her lips on mine multiple times.
"I'm going to fix this," she was still crying. "I promise you. We have a plan to kill Miranda. There's a dagger hidden here in the castle, it can kill any monsters or demons. Daniela is searching for it, while Cassandra is distracting my m-," she hesitated to say that word, "my mother."
"Okay, but Cassandra was the one to kill Mrs. Volkov to capture me. We can't trust her at all!"
Of course. The bitch had more tricks I wasn't even aware of. She could shapeshift. Now I finally knew how my father was probably killed or how Auryk obtained that amulet from her. It was also obvious who attacked the castle that morning, Miranda was willing to test my healing properties again.
"She didn't. Mother Miranda can shapeshift into any person, this is why we need to be careful. We have this safe word, to know we're the actual Dimitrescu sisters. It's 'blowfly'."
I sighed and attempted to break the tension.
"And how do you know I'm the real Aleena?" I smiled.
"Trust me, love. I know," Bela kissed me, slowly and passionate. "Otherwise, I wouldn't be doing this. Imagine how disgusting it would be to kiss that crazy bitch."
We both broke into laughs. Then, she took my hand and helped me to stand up.
"We need to get you out of here. My mother can't know I've found you. Miranda is coming to pick you up at midnight for the ritual."
Through the secret passages we made to the stables, where Bela had already left my bags and a horse prepared to take me to the village.
"Once you get there," she told me. "Just drive as far as you can. Go to the city, find your brother and fly to United States."
And then I realized.
"But Bela... what about you?"
"I'm staying here, love. I'm going to kill Miranda, together with my sisters and Heisenberg."
"And then you'll meet me there, right?!" I raised my voice, fighting hard against the tears that insisted falling down. "You'll go to California."
She was in silence for a moment, trying to find the right words, but I already knew what she wanted to say. First, she handed me my cell phone.
"You said you wanted something to remember. Now you have plenty of pictures of me in this device of yours."
"Bela... what are you saying?"
"Let's be honest, Aleena," she looked down. "It was never a possibility and you knew it. We'd have to stop at the first temperature drop we came across. We probably wouldn't even make it to the airport."
"I said I'm going to find a way! It's Summer, dammit. It's not so cold away from the mountains and once we arrive in California, it'll be even hotter."
"You know your world would never accept me, love. Look at me, I have this nasty scar, this weird tattoo, I need to drink human blood to live..."
"STOP MAKING EXCUSES TO BREAK UP WITH ME! I'LL FIND A WAY! FOR ALL OF THIS. IF THEY CAN'T ACCEPT YOU, THEN FUCK THEM! I LOVE YOU AND IT'S ALL THAT MATTERS."
"I love you too," Bela kissed my forehead. "And this is why I'm letting you go."
"Even if I go, Bela," I argued, punching her shoulder slightly, "it doesn't have to end! I'm going to call you. I'm going to write you. And I'll come here to visit you too."
"In the first few weeks, love. Then, you'll become too busy to write. Our phone calls will become shorter because you'll be too tired. You'll disappear for a few days. We'll start to fade, little by little. And finally someday, you'll meet somebody new. Somebody who can make you laugh and distract you from your tragic past. Somebody who can take you to an actual date. Somebody you can introduce to your family and friends. Somebody who actually deserves you. Who can give you a future with marriage and children. Because she isn't dead. Because she isn't... me."
"I don't want any of this! I want you and only you. This future? We can have it! Here in this fucking castle or in my old small house. I don't care if I have to serve tables for the rest of my life, as long as I have you."
"You deserve a lot more than that."
"And so do you. What are you going to do, huh? To keep playing house with the woman who killed and turned you into a vampire? Serving her every wish and pretending you love this life? Or sleep with a different servant every week to hide the fact you're completely lonely and miserable?"
"Yes, Aleena. It has been this way for six decades now and it's not going to change. I have no choice, I'm sorry."
She vanished into a swarm of flies and disappeared, leaving me completely alone in the stables. I fell on my knees again, sobbing and screaming my lungs out.
"Bela, come back here!" I cried. "I love you! Please... come back..."
I still waited for a few minutes, but as I knew and as Mrs. Volkov always warned me, when Bela made a decision nothing would change her mind. Not even her mother or her sisters. Not even me.
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Castle Dimitrescu, Bela's Room - Present Days
"I'm hungry," Cassandra complained from the couch. "Pretty please... I'm helping you with the secret mission. A scrambled egg is enough."
"Tell Lady Dimitrescu to cook," Bela remained unmoved on her bed, staring at the ceiling while wearing Aleena's jacket. The one she borrowed her when the castle was attacked. It was the only memory she'd have from the woman she loved. "She was the one to kill all the servants."
Bela was listening to an old love song from the 60's. It was the one thing she was actually capable of doing in that moment. She couldn't even manage to create different scenarios about how she could kill Miranda inside her mind, or even wander around the castle searching for the cursed knife.
She knew Aleena had safely arrived in her house at the village. She sent one of her flies to follow her and observe her for how long it was possible. The girl was completely devastated, heartbroken and it killed her to see that. She could she glimpses of the moments where she sobbed while packing her bags and taking them to her old truck. But it was the best for both of them. She'd never be safe by Bela's side. Especially while Miranda was still around.
"This music is making me nauseous," Cassandra went to the disc player and turned it off. "You should've gone with her then."
"It was the safest for her. Mother would come after me immediately and take her back to Miranda's claws."
The brunette sister went to her own bedroom and returned with a book in hands, what surprised Bela because Cassandra wasn't much of a reader.
"Check this out. I asked the Duke to get you the sequel," and she started to read, adopting the same dramatic tone as usual. "As much as I struggled not to think of him, I did not struggle to forget. I worried — late in the night, when the exhaustion of sleep deprivation broke down my defenses — that it was all slipping away. That my mind was a sieve, and I would someday not be able to remember the precise color of his eyes, the feel of his cool skin, or the texture of his voice. I could not think of them, but I must remember them. Because there was just one thing that I had to believe to be able to live — I had to know that he existed. That was all. Everything else I could endure. So long as he existed."
"Ha ha, very funny," Bela rolled her eyes. Deep down she absorbed those words. She feared someday she'd forget all those small details about Aleena too, but knowing she existed someday, and that she loved her back, was enough for her to be able to live for the rest of her immortal days. "Next time, get us something useful. Like that fucking dagger."
The door opened and Daniela walked inside, pushing a food cart.
"I brought us dinner," she announced.
"Did you kidnap a villager to cook for us?" Cassandra asked, immediately grabbing a plate.
"Of course not! I cooked it myself. If Bela can do it, I can too."
The two eldest sisters exchanged a suspicious glance, before deciding they were not so hungry after all.
"And here is the main dish..." Daniela said, lifting the lid and revealing the content inside the silver pan. "A poisonous dagger."
"You did it!" Bela exclaimed, surprised and proud.
"Yes! Let's chop that bitch to pieces."
Daniela hugged her eldest sister again. It was happening too often lately, for Bela's discomfort. But this time, she accepted the hug.
"Where's mom?" Cassandra interrupted the moment. "I haven't heard from her since I left her alone in her bedroom."
The castle was way too quiet. It wasn't the first time the servants had to be gotten rid of and they were completely by themselves. Or maybe sometimes, Lady Dimitrescu would lock herself in the Opera House to play the piano or even read a book alone in her bedroom, but that wasn't the case this time. That was a different kind of silence. A silence that indicated danger, a threat.
"Mother?!" Cassandra called, followed by her two sisters. "Where are you?"
There was no answer. They were about to reach the library when the power went out, as well as the heating system. A wave of panic instantly spread over Bela's body. She feared the cold, more than anything.
"What the hell?!" Daniela yelled. "Who's there? I'm starving and angry, so don't mess with me!"
"Shhhh," Bela silenced her. She had a feeling, a hunch about who could it be. As they approached the office, her suspicions were confirmed by the argument coming from inside the room.
"Where is she, Alcina?!" They heard Miranda yelling. "You promised me to keep her safe!"
"Mother, I swear... she was in the dungeons! There was no way she could escape. The drug was supposed to keep her down until now."
"Your daughters... they must've helped her to escape. Decades trying to find the perfect vessel and they ruined it all. They'll deal with the consequences!"
"Mother, no! Don't hurt them, I'm begging you."
In that moment, the sisters witnessed as a powerful flock of birds started to fly around the caste, shattering all the windows. As the cold air of the night in the mountains filled the entire place, the three sisters knew their ending was imminent.
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Eastern Europe, Aleena's House - Present Days
The tears blurred my vision as I followed my way back to the village. Sometimes, I'd stop for a minute, hoping Bela would change her mind and come after me. Why would she assume I was safer without her? If there was someone who could protect me, that was she.
As soon as I arrived, I went straight to the garage, getting my old truck to come back to life. Then, I followed to my bedroom to pack my bags. There wasn't much I actually needed to take, mostly my clothes, my laptop and a few other important belongings. I didn't plan to sell the house anyways. I could come back and take the rest later, if I had to.
My books. I would definitely take at least my favorites. Most of them were gifts from my mom. I couldn't leave those precious treasures behind. As I grabbed one of them to place it inside of my luggage, a small piece of paper fell on the floor:
'Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds. It is an ever fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken. Love alters not with time's brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom'.
I recognized it. It was an excerpt of William Shakespeare's Sonnet 116. Bela should've left it there when she was alone in my bedroom. In the end, she wrote: 'Please, think of me sometimes. I love you, forever'.
Of course I would. There was no way I'd ever stop loving that girl, or even forgetting about her at all. I could never forget about the girl who threw me the sweetest birthday party or made me the best pancakes in the world. And especially, the first girl I ever loved. I pressed the note against my chest, letting out a few tears. I placed it among my belongings, those I was going to take with me to California.
I heard the front door opening and I immediately grabbed my rifle and my blades too. Something had to at least cause some harm to that bitch. I was slowly going down the stairs in an attack position, when I heard a voice.
"Leena? Are you home?" That was my twin brother, Auryk. "I'm back."
"Auryk," I finally revealed myself. My first impulse was running to his arms, before I remembered all the lies and the betrayal. "You knew it. You fucking knew it and you hid it from me!"
"I'm sorry, okay? I was trying to keep you safe from Miranda. I planned to get you out of here before it all came to surface, but that bitch was already one step ahead."
"We have to go, right now. She's coming after me. I just escaped Castle Dimitrescu."
"Leena, no..." he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I thought I was clear when I asked you to stay in the castle until I returned."
"Auryk, she drugged me and locked me in the dungeons!" I yelled. "She was going to sacrifice me in a sick ritual tonight. Which part haven't you understand yet?"
"This was the plan, Aleena. When she was vulnerable, during the ritual, the agency would take the opportunity to explode this place and all these freaks."
"WHAT?! What about the village... and the people, their houses? What about ME?! What if I got killed in this process?"
"They're going to evacuate the village in a couple of hours," he explained. "And then, they'll help them to rebuild their lives or something... I don't know for sure. But they would protect us."
"Stop them!" I ordered. I couldn't let them hurt Bela or her sisters. Or even put the villagers in danger. Some of them, such as Olga, Elena and her father would never abandon that place and its traditions. "Right now! You're not going to hurt them. You won't!"
"Aleena, what the fuck? They're monsters! They're going to kill you!"
And then, I did the first thing that came to my mind. It was stupid, unplanned and completely reckless. I knocked my brother's head with the rifle. As soon as he fell unconscious on the floor, I tied him up and locked him inside Adrian's secret storage.
"I'm sorry, Auryk. But I must save my girlfriend."
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Death
For Maribat March day 14 theme death 
Master List
Marinette stayed cuddled in Damian’s arms as she scrolled through her photos. All dated more than a year before, she looked so happy, being able to go outside and do normal things. No constantly readjusting a mask, no being careful not to touch anything, no staying as far away from other people as possible, and no fear of dying just by leaving your house. 
However, Damian felt her freeze as she reached a photo from a year and 2 months ago. It was the last photo she took with her Nona. It featured her and her Nona in front of her Nona’s motorcycle. It was the last time her Nona had visited them before Covid had gotten bad. 
She wanted to punch herself for being so stupid a year ago. When they had received the email that they would be getting a few weeks off of school in order to stay safe, no one had taken it seriously. It was like an early break in their eyes. She remembered she was one of the students that went and hugged her friends, claiming that over the break they would have sleepovers and parties. How she couldn’t have been more wrong. She couldn’t have been more stupid. 
Because a couple of weeks later she found out her Nona had passed away. Somewhere along her travels she had caught Covid and was unable to be treated in time. They held a small funeral, it was only her, her parents, and her grandpere. 
Then they found out that they would not be returning to school. The city, the country was on a lockdown. Everyone was required to wear a mask everywhere they went, people wouldn’t leave their houses unless it was absolutely necessary. 
Over summer she video chatted with all of her friends, unable to hang out with them in person. Many of them had also experienced the grief that Marinette felt. Some of their loved ones had passed away as well. Yet despite that they all thought that this would be over by the time school started. That everything would go back to normal. They were wrong. 
School would now be online and there was a small chance that they would be able to go back in person. She had to settle for continuing to see her friends and classmates over a screen. Her grades were the worse they had been in years since learning online was so much worse than in person. Sure she was never late, but it was so hard to learn online. 
This whole time it felt like she was going crazy. She never realized how bored she could get when she was so cooped up in her house. She got what many people called stir-crazy. And that wasn’t the worst part. 
Her parents business was starting to slow, they had to switch to delivery in order to make ends meet. But with the spike in cases people were taking no chances. 
But finally good news had come in the form of the Wayne family. They had offered to take in Marinette for the month of March, all of them had tested negative. Alfred, Bruce, and her parents had even been able to get the vaccine. 
Her parents thankfully noticed how she was slowly losing her mind and let her stay with them. With daily check-ins, she was even flown with the Waynes’ private jet. 
Of course that made school a little harder but she was glad to be in a new space. Plus, the manor was huge and it felt like she would never get tired of exploring it. 
However today was March 14th, exactly a year ago she had thought that this quarantine wouldn’t last that long. Now here she was a year later, still in quarantine, still unable to do anything in the outside world. 
But thankfully things were getting better, slowly but surely, vaccines were getting out and places were reopening. It just sucked that things would never, could never be the same. 
Not with so many people losing so many loved ones. Including her Nona, who she hadn’t gotten to spend enough time with. 
“Marinette, are you okay?” Damian asked, alarmed, moving her so that she was sitting up and facing him. His hand wiped her cheek and she realized she had been crying. 
“No. I just-I just hate all of this! Why did this have to happen!” She cried, burying her face into Damian’s shoulder. 
“It's okay, things are getting better. They will get better.” Damian comforted, rubbing circles into her back. 
“I wish this never happened.” She whispered, Damian almost missed it. 
“I know. I do too. I’m sure everyone does,” He pushed her back so that he could look in her eyes, “But I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t want you to cry. She would want you to live your life once this is all over.” 
A new wave of tears overcame Marinette as Damian pulled her into another hug. She couldn’t help it, she just missed her so much. 
“How about I tell you about Tim’s latest attempt to stay up on coffee? He thought that this quarantine was a good excuse but Alfred caught him in the act…” 
Marinette just snuggled into Damian, intently listening to his story. She would forever miss her Nona, but things were getting better. She just had to stay positive and hope for the future. 
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I know, I know. You read fanfiction to escape the horrible reality of our world. Well, I did it, I wrote about it. And I’m not sorry. 
Addressing the issue more, I am very lucky to say that Mr. Rona has not taken any people from me like he has so many other people. However, I thought that it was something that I wanted to address nonetheless. 
Today I consider was the first official day of quarantine. Since it was the day after we were told to stay home. 1 year ago on March 13th of 2020, my whole school got an email stating that we would be doing online school up until spring break. After spring break was over we were supposed to return. We never did. We still haven’t. 
I base Marinette’s experience off of my own, minus the death part. I celebrated with my friends, hugging them claiming we were going to have sleepovers over the break and god was younger me so stupid. I’m so ashamed because I didn’t take it seriously and none of my classmates did. The teachers did, especially my history teacher but we didn’t. In fact I had one classmate who would put on a mask, gloves, and spray down his desk as a joke on how seriously our history teacher took it. I look back and wish I had done the same. 
But here we are, 1 year later, still in quarantine. I’m so thankful that vaccines are getting out and that no one super close to me was effected, but it sucks that this has happened. So to all those reading this it’s not over yet. Please wear a mask, avoid crowded areas, when hosting gatherings make it small, if you can get the vaccine. Things are getting better but we can’t jinx it just yet. 
Sorry this had to be so dark, but since it has been officially 1 year I couldn’t help but address it. Now on a lighter not I was actually able to get this out what I consider early. Since it’s not 2 hours before the day ends. I do hope you enjoyed reading and this will get better, we just need to do our part. 
@maribatmarch-2k21
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arcturusreads · 3 years
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I Don't Think I Would Mind That At All - MerHayes
Meredith wakes up from her coma and Cormac decides to pay her a little visit
He wasn't entirely sure what was happening to him. It must have been the exhaustion from the shifts. Covid-19 was kicking the hospital's arse and whenever the paeds ward was quiet, Cormac tried to ease the load in the other departments. The staff all looked dead on their feet but somehow, they managed to pull through each day.
He missed his boys, not seeing them face-to-face for weeks on end was not something that was helping the situation but at least Abigail's sister was with them. At least they had someone that could keep an eye on them. Sighing, Cormac knocked on the hospital room door before peeking his head in.
"Alright if I come in, Grey?"
Meredith looked up from her tablet. She had forgone the hospital gown for an old Dartmouth top and grey sweats. Whilst she still looked exhausted, this was a definite improvement from seeing her in a coma. Cormac hadn't expected the relief that flooded through his body when he heard that she was awake.
He had waited for her family to go and see her first, knowing that they would be ramming down the door to talk to her. But that had taken longer than expected since the entire bloody hospital considered her family. He'd lost track of the number of times he had walked past her room in the hopes that no one else would be in there. But at last, at 7 pm, ten hours after she had woken up there was not another person on sight, she didn't seem to be talking to anyone on her tablet and no doctors were checking her stats.
"I mean, you're already halfway in this room, you may as well." She had that mischievous glint her eyes that Cormac had come to realise were almost a permanent fixture. One that he had missed seeing. Her voice still had a croak to it, a reminder that she had just battled a virus that could have killed her.
Cormac fully entered the room and stood by the foot of her bed before flicking through her chart. Meredith raised a brow at him which he ignored, much to her annoyance. The last thing she needed was someone else hovering over her. Maggie and Amelia were doing a grand job of that.
"Your stats are looking good today, Grey." He continued looking through her chart.
"They better since I'm not in a coma anymore," she muttered, annoyed that he was still looking at them. She wanted company, not another doctor.
Cormac barked out a laugh and put her chart back. His eyes softened as she looked at her and that weird feeling came over him again. His heart started to race; his stomach felt like a million butterflies had been let out of a cage. God, he really needed to get some rest. Maybe he needed to get a test, just in case.
"Told you that you would beat this damn virus, look at you now."
Meredith groaned as she adjusted herself to sit up straighter. It was still exhausting for her to move. "Oh yeah, I'm just the picture of health."
Her sarcasm made him knew that she was on the road to recovery. It hadn't been long ago that she had admitted to him that she was scared of dying. That moment of vulnerability was something that was shared between just the two of them. He had never seen Meredith Grey like that. From the moment he had met her, Meredith had been a battle-axe of a woman. She showed no fear and took no prisoners. Cormac had definitely not been expecting her to open up to him that much.
"Compared to just last night, I would say so."
"Sorry. I am thankful, you know, not to be dying but Bailey isn't letting me work until I do physio and respiratory therapy" Meredith groaned, completely unimpressed with the rules she had been given. She was needed here at the hospital, as a doctor. Not a patient. She knew that this place needed all the staff that it could get so what was the point in sending her home for 14 days.
"Grey, you've just battled a virus that has put the world on its knees. A few weeks away from work is the least you deserve"
Meredith rolled her eyes at him and Hayes couldn't help the upturning on his lips at her little action. She was a firecracker.
"Deserve? I've literally been lying in a bed for weeks! It's you guys that deserve two weeks off."
"You were ill, you were in a coma and you still need to rest. Grey, take the time off. Go home and spend time with your kids, hold them close. They would have missed their mother. And you know as well as I do that when you come back, you aren't going to be able to see them as much."
That had silenced Meredith completely. If she didn't take those two weeks for herself, then she would definitely do it for her kids. They hadn't known the full extent of what had happened to her, though she guessed that her Zo-Zo had probably managed to figure it out by now. She could have a few weeks of holding her babies close and getting to spend some time with her new nephew. It wasn't a bad deal.
"Fine," she grumbled.
"Sorry, Grey, couldn't hear you there."
"I said, fine!" She yelled at him.
Cormac threw his head back and laughed, "You know, you're far too stubborn for your own good." That weird feeling had intensified even more. Now he was worried.
"So, I've been told. Anyway, why have you decided to grace me with your presence?"
Cormac clutched his chest over his heart, "You wound me, Grey. Can't a man just care about his co-worker?"
But you don't just care about her as a co-worker, a small voice in his head said and he tried to push it away.
"Mhm," she murmured. "Of course, but I'm pretty sure you told me that you couldn't care less about me or my kids," Meredith teased him with a cheeky smile on her face.
"Well, that might have been a small lie," his voice had dipped to a whisper. "I've missed you while you've been out, Grey." That admission had shocked him, he hadn't even realised the words that had come out of his mouth.
Meredith shared at him in shock, "Oh." She stumbled over her words; she had not been expecting him to say that.
Before she had caught the virus the two of them had been spending more time together. Whiskey in his office, tequila in hers, although he always complained about her choice of drink. They had shared more about their lives during between the drinks and had gotten to know each other better.
Meredith had felt that attraction to him, felt herself wanting to spend more time with him but she hadn't said anything. She knew that Cormac hadn't been with anyone with Abigail had passed away and moving on was something that he had to do in his own time and that was if he even wanted to move on. So, she had decided to stay quiet. The last thing she had expected was to wake up from a coma and have Hayes tell her that he missed her.
"I've missed you too," she admitted to him in a voice just as quiet. "it's nice to be back in the land of the living and see you again."
The butterflies flooded his stomach all over again and Cormac finally realised that this was the way he had felt when he had first spoken to Abigail. In the back of his mind, he had known for quite a while that his feelings for Meredith Grey were no longer platonic but had tried not to think about it too much. But upon hearing that Meredith was awake and had finally tested negative for Covid-19, his feeling no longer wanted to stay locked away and he was struggling to keep them at bay.
"Maybe you wouldn't mind joining me for a drink and some food when you're finally allowed back. We could do lunch, in my office?"
This wasn't his ideal first date but given the state of the world and their jobs, it was the best that he could do. He just hoped she wouldn't laugh at his lame attempt.
"I don't think I would mind that at all."
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Authors Note: Hey! So this is a request. And it’s a Smut So perpare yourself. Sorry it took so long, between trying too write it. And Drama with life. I got too be a proud owner of a Shinny new Sickness! Lol 😂 I was in and out for a week. NOT COVID! My skull is swelling up, Long story short. The Doctor I delt with refused too take my Swollen Skull and my memory lost (which I was having ) as serious. He diagnosed it with I had a Bad reaction too a bug bite… been dealing with this issues since Feb before the bugs were out. He refused too do tests on me until there is Snow on the ground.. (I’m Dead serious! I have too wait until November/ December too have this be a taken seriously)It’s been a hassle. The stories alone about the Memory loss should be a different post cause in the. Short week I was having memory issues I got into weird situations. My head however now is better! Still slightly swollen and I’m on day 13 of headaches. Now that my personal excuse for why this is so late is explained I would like too also apologize if it’s Not what you wanted lol 😂 Smut isn’t something I’m use too writing and I struggled. So Hopefully it’s Good! And as requested It’s LONG on word it’s 12 pages long lol so Enjoy the length!
Did I Proof read?: Define proofread lol
Rating: Rating is Smut! So 18 +
Warnings?: unprotected sex, sub / Dom like behaviour (loosely) public sexual acts, adult Toys
Paring: Klaus and Y/N
Appearances by: Klaus mikelson, Kol and Elijah Mikelson
Length of imagine: 12 pages
Requested imagine:
You have had three encounter with Klaus Mikaelson, All awkward, strange and each time endings with you Begging and Hoping too Die from your embarrassment. Each time unsuccessful dying from it. But it gave your classmate Kol (who happens too be Klaus’s Brother) ammo too torment you. Kol being a classmate / friend / tormented. He was a friendenemy. You sort of got along, but he loved, LOVED teasing you! Especially after you met his other brothers.
The first encounter you had with Kol’s brother Klaus. was at a bar with Kol, a few of your friends from class. All of you were learning too be Lawyers. Studying for the Bar, extremely exhausted from your long week. You were dragged too the bar. Where you Drank. (If remembering correctly It was Kol who was shoving the shots too everyone) that’s when the Greek god creature came into the Bar an attractive man. Avenge height, possessing curled dirty-blond hair and dark blue eyes that contrasts with his pearl-white skin. he is well-built. With a delicate and yet masculine face, he dressed casually for the for bar. Wearing jeans, a shirt, and a jacket. He was at t he bar ordering a drink as you shamefully commented, “Now that is a bum I would like too Bite.”
Your friends roared with laughter noticing who you meant as Kol spoke loudly, ‘that my dear Girl Is my brother. Klaus! Come over here.”
Klaus walked over as he spoke, “Hello- what are you all. Up too?”
“being horrified.” Kol spilled your comment too he’s brother who just laughed as you gasped as Klaus Simply said thanks and walked off. You hit Kol hard on the arm for that.
After that Klaus was seen more often you didn’t interact with him much, you were polite but kept your distant cause the comments you made about his bum was still on full display in your mind.l too humiliated. It wasn’t until you were forced into a group session with Kol did you see him face too face again. This Time you stumbled right over your own foot. And he caught you quickly but he’s hand sliced all your buttons open on your blouse reveling your bright Pink bra that was a push up. You gasped quickly covering yourself as he’s other brother Elijah came in. And saw the scene. As he spoke, “I think Kol is in his room..”
“thanks-“ you hurried off trying too fix your shirt as you got upstairs. The next encounter you were sitting with Sasha a friend from school and talking about the famous Charming, extremely Hot brothers. The Mikaelson’s.
“Kol is a heartthrob.”
Sasha curled her hair tonight a rare occasion since she hated putting heat too it. But after hearing that the Mikaelsons could be at this Party tonight she spent hours perfection her looks. You spend the normal amount of time. Kol drove you crazy with comments and being a general Ass, Elijah was Far too Perfect. With the Jaw that could Cut thru metal! And with two embarrassing encounters with Klaus you had NO intention too get chummy with that family!
“Kol is just a player- probably catch something form him.” Sasha laughed as she spoke, “Klaus is hot- and Elijah you can’t say they aren’t!”
Noddig your head, the room was buzzing as you crossed your arms leaning forward on the table looking a t your friend / roommate.
“they are very attractive- But you got too admit Kol is a player.” ‘what is Elijah?”
“The marrying type.” She laughed as she poke “What about Klaus?” You rolled your shoulders again.
“Klaus is the sort of guy who is other going too break your heart unimaginably with the amount of Passsion and Zest too Life he has.. Or he is the Bad boy searching for his good girl too change his life- Or just a more Cunning player Like Kol.”
You both laughed until you heard a deep voice behind you.
“is that really what you think of me Luv?”
You didn’t need too turn- you knew your luck wasn’t great! Every time you mention Klaus out loud he was near. This just proved it! Turning too confirm you your nightmare. He was sitting alone having a Drink.he was smug about hearing your conversation So Smug that you just got up and left.
Hours later you were stumbling around their compound.the Party was loud, your friends were all over the place, everyone including yourself was very tipsy. Or on the verge of not remembering the events of the night. You were searching for a bathroom when you came across Klaus he was standing tall as he had a burnet hair women kneeling in front of him, her hair was being held up and twisted and held tightly by Klaus. He’s head was leaned backward in pure pleasure. You caught the sight better realizing he was being giving head. You heard the loud “Gulps” and moans from the girl pleasuring him. You gasped softly stepping over grabbing the door and slowly closing the door, klaus noticed you as he grinned weakly as you quickly closed the door.
The fourth time.. was the most awkward one of All. You recently graduated when Kol offered you a Job. It was odd too have a recent graduate offering jobs but he’s family owned the most respected law firm in New Orleans. And you weren’t giving many oppunities due too Kol being a Dick. He told every law firm in the city about your passions. You are a Cryptozoology, A fourth generation Cryptozoology! Your family has been in search of Bigfoot for generations basically since your ancestors stepped foot on American soil they were searching for the big Hairy creature that is Bigfoot. You studied the mystical creature for years until you turned too being a lawyer cause you were tired of living in a trailer and having barely any food. It was really a hobby. Vs a real job. Somehow Kol discovered your secret and he blacked balled you from every respectful law firm in the city. Making the offer too work with him and his’ brothers annoying. But bills. Won over self respect!
Klaus discovered you sitting at a desk one morning, you worked there for a week before he noticed you as he spoek, ‘what you doing here?”
“I was hired- by Kol and Elijah?”
He sighed heavily storming off into his office as Kol reached over pinching your arm. You yelped owe as he spoke, “how was that meeting?”
You shoved him off your desk as you fixed your paper he sat on. “He’s annoyed you didn’t tell him?’
“I tohught he would be amused about it- I mean you do make a complete ass of yourself in front of him. Must really like him.” You chuckled softly shoving Kol away as you went back too work. Getting up an hour later too hand some paper work too Klaus, you went too his Desk dropping off the papers when you felt your Phone slip out of your pocket, it hit the corner of your foot and slide on the carpet and slide right under Klaus’s desk. Great! You muttered too yourself going on your hands and knees too find your phone. You found it but couldn’t reach it so you crawled around too the Desk pushing the chair aside as you climbed under the Wooden Desk. When you heared Klaus’s booming voice. Telling he’s Assistant too not too be disturbed for an hour. You went too move but your skirt got caught on a nail under the desk and you couldn’t move. Klaus walked over too his Desk unaware of you as he instantly pulled out his cock from his trousers.
You were stunned seeing his manhood. You joked before about biting his bum but Never did you imagine too be in a postion like this. It was itches from your face. As he opened a drawer he was silent as he reached down giving himself a squeeze slowly awaking his half stiffen Cock. You realized NOW you couldn’t just announce yourself! It would be too awkward! So you watched. Hearing A faint sound of a video playing he had lotion on his hand as he was stroking his impressive cock. Completely unaware of you. Watching him treating himself. You couldn’t help but feel the tingle between your legs watching and hearing his faint soft moans. Hearing the door open eh shifted moving closer too his Desk cursing.
“I ASKED TOO BE ALONE!”
His hand didn’t leave his cock and now it was itches from your face you had too lean your head backwards to make sure too not touch his cock with your mouth he tuck himself tightly into the desk. Trying too conceal himself.
“Sorry but I was searching for Y,N?”
You watched as Klaus squeezed his cock tighter hearing your name he groaned other in frustration or pleasure as he snapped, “SHE’S NOT HERE GO!” You couldn’t just sneak out after this. Not from the office door now! You knew Klaus had a patio, and attached too it was a fire escape you plotted your escape as he kept his assault on his cock. He’s moans got slightly louder. You fought too join in or too touch yourself. It happened suddenly he cummed but he didn’t have a tissue and it went all over your face. And into your gaping mouth that was hanging watching the heated view of his cock. He cursed softly as he shuffled up, fixing himself and going out of the room propbaby too find tissues. You took that as your chance. You ripped your skirt too escape as you climbed out fast and thru his patio.whipping your face you stood ther stunned. Standing there covered in your boss’s cum. What surprised you was how instantly you swallowed his seed. He’s delicious seed. You didn’t marvel in his taste for long before you ran down the fire escape sneaking back into the building and using a bathroom too clean up.
Something about watching a Hot guy, who happen too be your boss rub one out inches from your face and explode all over your face that made you incredibly horny. You debuted on quickly teasing yourself off in a stall but you were already been missing from your desk. And didn’t think that was wise.
Using your brain over your body which wanted too have a quick orgasms just made your heat fester all day. Kol insisted too join in at the bar after work too get drinks. You almost refused until he asked what happened too your skirt. And you realized how torn it was. And that made you say Yes too just stop him from asking questions.
The Bar was typical, Kol got distracted by a pretty girl,and everyone invited from the office was other dancing awfully or at the bar ordering more drinks you were sitting in the back at the booth. You werent’ really in the mood too be socail you wanted too get close too Steven.. your vibrating dildo that was screaming for you. From your throbbing pussy beggging for a fuck. The thought crossed your mind too have a one night stand but too many of the people in here were from work and you didn’t want them too think you were THAT Sort. So you sat unsatisfied in the corner. You were surprised seeing Klaus slip in beside you as he spoke, “well looks who’s here.”
Glancing up into his beauitful blue eyes you spoke, “hey Klaus.” “You been a very naughty girl today Y/N.” he’s voice was low as he shifted slightly looking fulling at you.
“what you mean?”
He reached up putting a fabric on the desk. Seeing it was the chunk of your skirt that was missing he spoke, “did you enjoy the show?’
“I-I Don’t know what you mean?” Grabbing your torn fabric he reached over grabbing your hand as he spoke, “I saw you, mouth open, wide expression the hunger. I saw you take most of my load in your mouth.”
Gasping you turned too him, “why didn’t you stop?”
‘why ddin’t you announce yourself too get out of that situation? I was humiliated.”
Rolling your eyes as he grinned weakly, “Only fair tit for tat..”
Looking at him surprised as he spoke, “touch yourself..”
“well aren’t you a romantic.” He grinned weakly as he leaned closer, “I want you Y/N. in every sense, I want too cum in your mouth again, your pussy, your ass , all over your chest. And all over your body. I want too fuck you until you beg too stop.”
“well aren’t you not scared of Human Resources..” he grinned weakly at that. “Tell me No and I’ll never bring this up again.”
You bite your bottom lip nodding your head, “okay. Your place?”
He grinned weakly as he shook his head, “Not yet- soon.”
That surprised I shifted looking at him “what why?”
Klaus grinned shifted reaching over cupping your face making you look deep into his blue eyes. “I want too make sure your sure about this- but for now. I deserve too watch you don’t you think?”
Looking around you were pretty isolated over here, everyone was shifting towards the front looking at the TV Screen a game was on. Other football. Or a hockey game. You weren’t sure. Even isolated it was still Public, and it wasn’t something you ever done. Hell you never thought about Doing anything in public because it’s- well the public people are around. But having Klaus caress your cheek softly making your body. Bubbly. He made you debate about it. “We.. were in public Klaus. We could get in trouble. A lot of trouble.”
“we are lawyers we know how to get out of it. I wont be fucking you today but I will make you orgasm every day. Until I do.”
Biting your tongue hard, your brain forced you too work earlier the rest of your body decided right now. Not too listen too all the red flags as too why you shouldn’t do this. Ad found yourself slip your hand down to your lap pulling your skirt up, tugging your panties too the side you looked around making sure no one was watching before you slipped your finger inside teasing you clit. Klaus watched amused. Looking into his eyes as you slide your fingers deeper inside you. Your fingers were soaked. You pushed hard sliding your fingers deep inside as you you moan weakly as Klaus’s eyes got a sparkle of amusement. You leaned against the chair as you positioned yourself too take your fingers better as you slowly teased yourself. Reaching your orgasm. Minutes later it didn’t take long too reach it, your pussy has been begging for hours for this. Pulling your hand away from yourself Klaus reached over grabbing your dripping fingers and licked them. Tasting your sweetness.
“until tomorrow Y/N.”
With that he got up and left. You sat there stunned, Did he Really just convinced you too tease yourself in Public and NOT take you to his place? Or tried too take you into the back hallway too the bathroom or in the ally? What the Hell! The high from the orgasm dissapeared as you packed up and went home. The High was GONE! And now you were annoyed he didn’t take you home. What a Tease!
The next morning you got too the office, you were still stunned at yourself for 1) catching Klaus rubbing one out in his office, while you painfully and stupidly stayed hidden under his desk 2) agreed too eventually sleep with your New boss. / your somewhat friend’s brother. 3) fingered yourself in a public bar while Klaus watched and admired you. Getting too our desk you opened your drawer too get a pen when you noticed a small red box with a red lace ribbon around it. With a small white note on the box. You grabbed It and opened the note seeing it was handwritten and from Klaus.
“put these on, and give me yours.”
What the hell? You questioned until you opened the box seeing they were Red underwear. You slide the box into your purse as you quickly went too the bathroom too do what Klaus wished. Normally you weren’t the sort of girl who followed or listened too commands like this. But Klaus made you that sort of girl-other it was his Charm, He’s intensity, he’s hot throbbing looks, but something was making you listen too him and do things that you would NEVER Do. . And after yesterday and how honrier you got after your public displays last night. You were willing.
Sneaking off too the bathroom, you pulled the red panties out you realized they were heavier then you expected. After closer expection you realized why. Vibrating panties. You chuckled softly. Surly. He wouldn’t!
You put them on. Calling his bluff No way would Klaus use this in the office. He wasn’t that stupid! Not only could you get in trouble but he would too! And Elijah would Kill him. This was just a Test. Getting out of the bathroom you went too his office seeing the big grin on his face as you tossed him the red box. He grabbed it. Opening it seeing your pink not so fancy underwear. He grinned wider seeing them as you walked out.
An hour in and Nothing. It made you smile- you called his bluff and he did Nothing! Finally you had a small upper hand on this- Odd thing going on with you and Klaus. Elijah called a staff meeting in the confence meeting. You stood up and grabbed your notebook too write notes, when you felt it. A faint tingle down below. It made you jump high. You weren’t expecting it. A few people jumped seeing your reaction as a older lady asked if you were alright. You nodded your head fast. Trying too composure yourself as you force da smile, ‘Yea- sorry spider scared me.” Walking too the conference room you felt the faint vibration every step! Sitting down you caught Klaus wicked grin seeing you enter and sit down. Klaus started the Vibration too be slightly higher. It made you jump again as you quickly covered yourself saying it was another Bug.
Thru out the meeting he kept changing the intensity from low too high. Looking right at him as someone was taking he was enjoying it as you were fighting off a orgasm. Seeing him bite his lip sent you over the edge. As you felt the pressure going faster, you bite your tounge hard and gripped the side of your leg tightly trying not too make a Peep.
The orgasm was intense. It washed over you, feeling the vibrations still going, you realized one orgasm wasn’t going too be enough for Klaus. After the meeting you were called into Klaus’ office as everyone went off for lunch as he closed the door as he grinned.
“enjoying yourself.”
You breathed deeply hitting his arm, “Klaus ican’t believe you did that!” He chucked as he walked over too his desk as he leaned against it he crossed his arms as he spoke, ‘you put them on- you had too know I was going too play with it.”
Nodding your head you stepped over as you spoke, “I thought you were bluffing!” He grinned weakly as you spoke, “give me back my underwear.” He chuckled as he spoke, “Nope” you rolled your eyes looking behind you seeing the office was empty. You reached down grabbing the panties pulling them off. You let them fall too the floor as you stepped out of them .looking at Klaus. As you bent down grabbing them tossing it too him.
“what if someone caught me!”
“lucky them- luckily they were too busy too look at you.” Rolling your eyes again for that comment he stepped over grabbing them from you as he grinned. “Is your grievances because I used the app in public or because were at work? You had too of know these weren’t normal panties”
Crossing your arms tightly looking at Klaus you reached over grabbing his arm as you spoke, “At Work! At least if its publci it’s with strangers so if I’m caught I’ll die from embarrassment but I wont have too worry about the entire office knowing!” He nodded his head as he reached up gripping your sides, “then Let’s meet up tonight after work”
You smiled weakly nodding your head weakly. “Okay.” He chuckled saying okay. As you left his office.
The end of the day appeared like it always does. You walked over too the elevator seeing Klaus in beside you. He smiled weakly as he went too fix his shoe as the Elevator was empty closing as he traced his hand on your calf. He slowly stood up tracing his hand up your leg before reaching your butt and giving it a hard squeeze. You smiled weakly as he spoke, ‘let’s get dinner.”
Disappointed that he wanted too go too a restaurant vs his place or yours. But you smiled weakly nodding your head. “Okay sure, that sounds like fun.” He grinned as he held your ass the entire ride down. He told you where too meet him as he said he would meet you there. You agreed .as you realized after he wanted your oo take your car. You probably weren’t going too his place after dinner either. But you agreed pushing that thought too the back of your mind as you separated too get too your own cars and drive too this restaurant.
You arrived there before, Klaus so you went inside too get a table. You were lead too the back of the tiny restaurant you never even heard of. It was a hardly lite Restaurant, with candles mainly being the source of light, and Jazz playing in the background. Even those it was 7 pm it was Empty. So when you got too your table you went too text Klaus until you felt a hand on your leg. It made you shriek and jump till you looked down, moving the table cloth seeing Klaus grinning like a fool.
“Fuck Klaus you scared me!”
“Sorry,”
“what you doing down there/“ he grinned as he caressed your bare legs as he spoke, “I’m having my dinner..” you laughed softly hearing that response as he grinned reaching down kissing your knee softly.
“Y/N?”
Lifting your head up seeing Elijah you gasped, “Oh Elijah hey.” You started hitting Klaus in the head trying too Single him too get out from under the table. But he grabbed your hand instead and started kissing your inner thigh. You soon realized he wasn’t going too stop. Your only hope was too scare Elijah off before he realized he’s little brother was under the table about too have his “dinner” as he called it.
Elijah was wearing his suit, it fit perfectly on his muscular body as he spoke,” what you doing here alone?”
“oh you know, I was starving and I figured I would try this restaurant out. What brings you here?”
“Same- mind if I join you.”
Elijah has always been kind too you, he was the perfect one out of the three brothers. Before you could come up with a excuse he sat down as he spoke, “how is work? Klaus isn’t giving you a hard time is he?” Feeling klaus softly nibble on your inner thigh not even teasing your pussy he was taking his time. Teasing you. As you spoke, “he’s a ass sometimes but he’s okay.” Saying that made klaus bite harder on your inner thigh as you jumped slightly shocked as Elijah asked if you were alright.
“yea sorry. Cramp. How are you? How’s working with your brothers?’
The conversation was civilized and polite nothing too deep until the waitress came and took your orders as Klaus decided that was enough teasing as he lifted your skirt up. And reach over too your bare pussy. With all the teasing before barely touching you and maybe it was the aftermath of all the times you orgasmed earlier but you were still wet. He spread your legs as he reached down softly kissing your mould before sliding his tongue around your clit. You reached down grabbing his head. As he circled his tongue around your clit.
For the last half hour of talking and waiting for your food, Elijah realized you were nervous, then he’s hearing caught the sound of slurping and hitting something wet. The sound coming from under the table. When the noise started you bitting your cheek hard trying not too make a sound. As you forced yourself too talk about anything. Elijah glanced down at the table seeing the cloth hit the floor, when the meals arrived Elijah lifted the cloth up with his foot too see what he expected he’s brother Klaus under the table. He moved his foot. Elijah was furious that 1) Klaus would be so reckless and do this in public 2) make Y/N sit here and act like nothing was happening she was probably modified 3) knowing Klaus he didn’t think of sexual assault charges that could come up. What a idiot!
Elijah went too put a stop too it until he noticed your lip quivering. Seeing you in bliss and trying too stay quite. He thought back on this afternoon when you were in the meeting acting all jumpy. Elijah heard a vibrating sound but assumed it was a phone or something in someone’s pocket. He didn’t question it because he didn’t expect anything else. But realizing you and Klaus were having a sexual escapades in the office. He was surprised he didn’t see you doing that. And seeing you now trying too eat as the sounds of her wetness got louder. Made him. Horny. Elijah leaned back in the chair enjoying the show.
Klaus had two fingers pushing inside you as he kept his tounge on your teasing you and driving you crazy. Elijah was relax and calm as he talked about Spain. You trying too pay attention but the attack of klaus firm fingers and talent tounge took all your attention. When you felt a orgasm appearing. You tried too keep your mind clear trying too ignore it. It was working until Klaus curled his fingers slightly inside you hitting your G-Spot and it hit you. It was like being slapped in the face you moaned out, feeling your body hitting that sweet heaven your legs cramped around Klaus as you forgot too muffle your moans as you gripped onto his head tightly as your head leaned backward. Elijahs cock started stiffing watching your play time. When he heard the sweet sounds of your moans he grinned weakly. Looking around Not one of the staff members reacted. Clearly Klaus was smart enough too glamor them too not notice. Giving you some privacy minus himself of course.
The gentleman Righteous part of Elijah anted too leave too give you privacy, but seeing you quivering and moaning as you realized Klaus didn’t light up once hitting your orgasm. Elijah was jealous of his brother. The more he sat watching you. The more he wanted too be Klaus between your legs. Giving you that pleasure. He wanted you wrapped around him as he slide his cock into you burying it inside you.
There was no point pretending anymore. That you weren’t being serviced. You tried too come up with something but you saw Elijah relaxing more in the chair and you could notice his hard cock.it was making a very visible appearance against his trouser. You was pulled closer too Klaus as he spread your legs apart further as he started pushing his tongue deep inside you. Making his tongue skinny as he pushed in and making his tongue as fat as it could go as he slide his tongue out. You closed your eyes enjoying every movement as you heard shifting you opened your eyes realizing Elijah was trying too get comfy with. His stiff cock causing him discomfort in his trouser. You looked right at it realizing that was the problem, biting your lip you looked up at him nodding your head. Giving him permission he started too unzip his pants as he pulled his cock out with ease. Not caring about the staff. As he started stroking. You moaned softly trying too muffle his zipper as Klaus kept teasing. Feeling his thumb teasing your clit you were completely in heaven.
Elijah was stroking his cock as he watched you go completely clam , no longer scared someone would see her. The closed sign was out, the door locked, and the staff was in the back. The room was yours. The more Elijah saw you squirming and moaning softly the more he anted too take you right on this table. It surprised him when Klaus pulled out from under the table after Y/N second orgasm as he grinned seeing his older brother.
“see something you like brother?”
Elijah quickly put himself away as he spoke, “that was reckless Klaus.”
“that Is what I wanted.”
Elijah rolled his eyes as he spoke, ‘what if someone saw?”
“lucky them- Y/N see you tomorrow.”
“What?!” You gasped out as you spoke, “you aren’t going too take me home?”
Klaus grinned weakly as he stepped over kissing her head, “No.. but if your still in need of service perhaps my brother could attend too your needs. He was after all. Pawning himself.”
Staring at Klaus you walked over grabbing your purse, “your such a ass! Goodnight.”
“Night.”
Walking off you headed out of the restaurant and home.
The next day you decided too completely forget about Klaus. If he was just going too be a massive tease. 2 can play that game. You wore a tighter skirt and a white blouse you looked presentable for work. But just the bit more appealing. Nothing overly you weren’t going too dress like a hooker at work just too get back at Klaus. He would like that far too much! Getting too the office you went straight too work as you noticed both Mikelsons brothers (minus Kol who once again wasn’t in yet) were stealing glances at you. Normally you go towards Klaus if you needed help. And you walked up with your paper going towards his office. Too only stop at the water fountain too get a cup of water. Before walking off too Elijah’s office.
“hey Elijah you got a second?”
“of course- I wanted too- can you close the door.” You nodded your head stepping forward as you closed the door behind you as you walked over too his desk sitting down as he spoke, “I want too apologize for my actions last night. It- wasn’t proper..”
Shaking your head you looked at him, “No- but it was still.. stupidly hot.- Elijah if I wanted you too stop.. I would of told you too. And. You would of respected it.”
“Still- I’m you boss I shouldn’t want too-“ he stopped himself from finish that sentence as you rolled your shoulders. “Consider I had too force myself out that door before I did something Oh so stupid.. I get it.”
He grinned weakly as he spoke, “I dind’t know you and klaus.”
“we aren’t- he’s just a tease.. he gets me all hot and heavy and just bails… he’s the biggest tease in the world.”
“that is probably the first time I’ve ever heard someone call him that..” laughing at that you reached over grabbing his hand that was on the desk. “Forget about last night- I’m sorry I-“
“you did nothing wrong.”
Shaking your head weakly you slowly stood. Up as you stepped over too stand beside him as you sat on his desk. “No but I wanted too.’
That surprised Elijah as you spoke, “I wanted you both..”
Elijah was stunned as you reached over squeezing his shoulder. “But hey- lets just forget about it.”
He was stunned as you walked out. Walking out you went straight oo your desk as you focused on your work. Biting the tip of your pen you were focused when Klaus called you into his office just before lunch you walked over too his office as he told you too close the door. You did as he sat at his desk. “How are you?”
“Fine,” “you didn’t respond too my text.”
Rolling your shoulders, “Been busy”
“you been talking too Elijah.”
Seeing him jealous you titled your head seeing his all cramp up and annoyed. “You offered him to me yesterday. Didn’t think you would care I went too him.” Walking away he got up as he walked over too the windows closing his blinds as he walked over too you pinning you against the door you were surprised at the sudden reaction. But Klaus locked the door as he spoke, “I want you.”
Looking at him you rested your head on the door as you spoke, “do you? Because you only tease me.”
He stared at you stunned at your boldness as he reached up cupping your head. Hearing chairs shuffling outside everyone was going for lunch. He reached over kissing you deeply which brought your mind back too him as he pressed himself against you.
Feeling his hands on your chest as he ripped your blouse apart. The buttons fell onto the ground but you didn’t care you kept your lips onto him as you felt your body warming up as he kissed down your neck tracing down too your chest as he cupped your breast with one hand as he went too rip your bra off. And with how strong he was. You were convinced he could do it with one hand you spoke, “wait- this was experience” he grinned as you unhooked the bra from the back. He yanked it off as he pressed his lips too your breast kissing down too your nipples before wrapping his tounge around it and taking it fulling into his mouth. You closed your eyes enjoying the sensation. You weren’t the normal girl who had overly sensitive nipples. You read about girls who could have orgasms with just by playing with their nipples. You weren’t that sort of girl. But Kalus was Very gifted with his tounge. And you could now see how it was possible.
He moved from one too another making sure the other didn’t get too lonely.when he shifted up kissing your lips again you pulled his shirt making a few buttons fall off. As he helped you. You tugged at his pants as he obliged letting you undress him fully as he helped you out of your remaining articles of clothing. Standing naked he grinned reaching over kissing you deeply as you felt him hard. He’s cock was pressing against your thigh as he slowly positioned himself too enter you. Rationally you should of worried about protection but after 4 days of just being teased.your rational state of mind was gone. Klaus reached down teasing your clit as he slide his fingers down too slide them inside you. Feeling how wet you already were he grinned biting your neck softly. You moaned softly as he pumped his fingers inside you a few times before replacing his fingers with his waiting cock. Gasping feeling his length slide inside you. It was bigger then you expected as he gripped your neck softly making you look at him as he watched your reaction too taking his cock. He pushed. A few times slowly too. Let you get use too it as you eased he slowly started thrusting fast you looked at him as he reached back kissing you.
Being pinned against the door being fucked. You couldn’t believe this was acturally happening and as if he could read your mind he kissed you deeper. Softly whispering into your ear as he groaned softly, “I can’t believe we are doing this” As he reached down twisting your nipple as he picked you up. You instantly wrapped your legs around him as he carried you too his couch as he sat down as you gripped his shoulders as you started thrusting onto his cock. Riding it. As he kept his lips on you. Your neck, your shoulder, down too your chest.
Klaus hands cupped your breast as he soon shifted you too lay down on the couch as he towered over you as he kissed you deeply before thrusting faster. You moaned softly as he loved hearing you moan. It made him push deeper inside you as you leaned your head backwards. ‘Fuck.” You uttered as he reached down kissing you again.
“language miss y/l/n “
Rolling your eyes hearing his smart remark he chuckled he’s voice was so Soft and musical that you smiled weakly even those. It was slightly annoying. Feeling his hands gripping your neck softly as he pulled you into a kiss again, he’s hand lasted a second on your neck before he traced his hand down your body. Reaching too your pussy As he started playing with your clit with his thumb as he plunges deeper inside you. Feeling the new element. Your body started tensing up as he reached down kissing your neck as he moaned softly. “Cum for me baby.”
Hearing his voice was deepin your body agreed too his request as you turned your head reaching your arm up biting into your arm so you didn’t moan out. Klaus grinned weakly watching your back was arched, your breath was heavy as your legs, pussy and body clinched onto him as he hit his limit seeing you in pure bless as he hit his climax. Burring his face into your chest trying too muffle his own moans as you both.
A few minutes passed without either of you moving or even talking. Klaus stood up as he spoke, “that was incredible. Shall we do it again after work?”
You nodded your head weakly smiling getting up as you notice your shirt. “Shit! Klaus my shirt! You completely destroyed It!”
“I have a spare shirt you can borrow.”
Well at lest it’s better then going partly nude in the office.
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benex78 · 3 years
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Forgive our Sins
5 years after the events of Immortality, Sara and Grissom are living back in Las Vegas when a ghost from their past reappears in their life forcing them to face some old decisions. GSR of course! Enjoy it! I hope you like it and please review it! (Sorry if there are mistakes but I'm not a native English speaker and a special thanks to my friend LuLu for reading it)
PART 1 They went through a lot together during their 16 years long relationship. She left him and the sin city, he went to Costa Rica for her, they got married, they got divorced, she went to San Diego and sailed with him. They hurt each other more than once, but their love never stopped. In the end, they gave up their carriers to stay together, got married again and now they were finally living happily together. Grissom and Sara are back in Vegas, living in a small house in the university district. While Sara works as a consultant for the crime lab, Gil is a part-time professor of entomology who tends to stick his nose in his wife’s forensic cases. 14 years have passed since the miniature killer events and Natalie Davis is still in prison. In her cell she keeps a collection of miniatures and she is now working on a new one. She interrupts her work on the miniature to write a letter. It’s a difficult one: she had tried to write this letter so many times without success, in fact there are a few ripped sheets of paper on the floor. This time is different, she manages to use the rights words and, once done, she sends the envelope to the Las Vegas Crime Lab. It’s addressed to Sara Sidle. What does she want from Sara? Does she want to make amends? Does she want to go after her again? PART 2 A car is parked outside Sara and Grissom's house and the driver is observing Sara. One day on her way to work, Sara notices him and tries to run away, but suddenly she’s caught in an incident. She is brought to the hospital where a frightened Grissom arrives. Fortunately, Sara is fine, she only has some bruises and she is soon allowed to leave the hospital to go home with her husband. Sara tells Grissom what happened and now they fear someone is chasing them. Thanks to the street CCTVs the police finds and arrests the stalker, however the man has nothing to do with the accident. Thus, he is released, but not after securing a conversation with Sara Sidle. He is a private detective and he needs to talk to Sara because his client, a woman named Kelly Ross, wants to meet her. Sara asks the detective the reason for this meeting and he responds that Mrs. Ross instructed him to reveal only in which part of Vegas she lives and, most importantly, that they have someone in common. Sara is caught off guard as she doesn’t know what to expect from this. However, she can’t help but feel curious. PART 3 On their day off Grissom drives Sara to Mrs. Ross, but he waits outside in the car. He is worried but he respects Sara’s decision to go in alone. When opening the door, Mrs. Ross welcomes Sara with a warm hug then she lets her in. Gil Grissom observes the whole scene speechless. When Sara comes back couple of hours later, she is in shock and immediately askes Grissom to take her home. He wants to know about the meeting, yet Sara begs him to give her some time to put her thoughts together. That evening in their kitchen Sara tells him a story she kept for herself for far too long. FLASHBACK:13 YEARS EARLIER The miniature killer had changed everything: the team had found about her relationship with Grissom, she had to join swing and above all she felt something inside her had broken and no one, not even Griss, could do anything to help her. She was so depressed that she decided to leave Vegas and the love of her life. She was in L.A. visiting her mom when she started to feel unwell. It took her a few days to even conceive the idea that she could be pregnant. She went to the nearest drugstore and paid for a test that she took directly in the customers toilet. She waited in there for almost an hour with the result in her hands: POSITIVE! How could it be? She didn’t want a child and Grissom neither. They talked about this at the beginning of their story and even more recently when he proposed. They (she and Griss) were the only family they wanted. How could she tell Grissom something like that? At least by phone she could avoid looking into his eyes and see his disappointment. She went back to her motel room and waited for the morning to come. She didn’t sleep all night, she kept looking at the clock on the wall. When she was sure Grissom could be home from work, she called him. He picked up almost immediately. She heard him giggling at the other side of the phone, but his joy faded at the news. Sara was so depressed; their relationship was stalling and surely, he wasn’t ready to be a father. Thus, they both agreed to end the pregnancy. Grissom offered to come to L.A. to be close to her, but Sara declined. She wanted to do it alone and he didn’t complain. She had just booked an appointment at a private clinic, when her mother got sick, so she had to postpone the whole thing. When she finally got there 3 weeks later, it was too late to proceed with the abortion. She had no another choice but to contact the social services to find a family for her unborn child.  She never told Gilbert she carried their baby and that he was put up for adoption. To him, this was a dead story. Just 10 days before Warwick’s murder she delivered a healthy baby boy who she held only briefly in her arms before giving him away. When she came back to Vegas, Grissom was so devastated he didn’t even notice her body didn’t have the usual silhouette and she kept the secret for herself. Until now. Sara’s confession is very painful, she fears Gilbert’s reaction. She fears he will hate her and never forgive her for taking his son away. However, Grissom isn’t angry. He seems quite relieved instead. Grissom reaches his hand out across the table and places it on top of Sara’s, giving it a gentle squeeze: - I don’t begrudge you honey. In the end, you did what we had decided. At the time we didn’t want a kid and you didn’t keep it. Honestly, I’m quite happy it went this way. – Sara raises her head: - Really? – Grissom admits: - Yeah, because now, 13 years later, we are talking about someone we created, someone who has our genes and who probably is still alive. Even if he is somewhere, we don’t know where and who raised him – Sara reveals: - Gil, his name is Dylan, he is here in Vegas and Mrs. Ross is his adoptive mother – Grissom is astonished: - What? He’s in Vegas right now? Did you see him? – Sara shakes her head: - No, he was at school - Grissom: - How did Mrs. Ross find you? – Sara: - I can’t explain it, but since I had decided for an open adoption, she must have assumed a detective to find me. - Grissom: - But why now? – Sara: - Because she wants to give us a second chance – Grissom: - Sorry I don’t get it – Sara: - She is dying, she has terminal cancer and her husband has died of Covid last year. She fears that once she’s dead her boy will end up living in an institute until his 18th birthday. -   Grissom’s heart starts beating fast, he can’t bear it any more. Maybe it’s his age but he wants to be a father now. However, he knows everything it’s up to his Sara: - Can we…? What do you want to do? - Sara: - Honestly… I don’t know – Grissom: - Sara, we are his parents! – Sara’s answer is firm: - No, we lost that right a long time ago Gil! – Grissom corrects himself: - You are right, but we have to do something. Don’t you want to get to know him? To see who he looks like? – Sara:  - Of course I want to, but I am also terrified. I abandoned him. For all I know he could hate me. – Gil replies: - He could love you. -   Sara gives Grissom a sad smile. Grissom tries to lift her spirit: - He could be a geek like us - Sara announces: - Gil, he is a special boy, he is not like the other kids – Grissom asks: -What do you mean? – Sara: - Mrs. Ross told me Dylan can’t hear, he has a genetic disease that made him almost deaf 5 years ago. Grissom is hurt, he can’t find the words to express his feelings. Sara notices his reaction and she gently touches his leg. Sara: - Are you ok? – Grissom nods: - I just don’t know how to feel about this: happy because I have something in common with my son or sad that I passed this pain to him It's all my...  – Sara raises Gilbert’s chin, she cuts him off this time, shaking her head: "No, it's not. and it's not right to put the blame all on you. We both made stupid decisions in our relationship that lead us to where we are now." She takes a breath and speaks again more softly. "Now, I just want to put all of that behind us and start over..." Grissom clears his throat and asks in a more serious tone: - So... what do you think? –   Sara takes both his hands in her and smiled a little: - I think we are going to speak with Kelly Ross and arrange a meeting with Dylan. Ok? – Grissom nods satisfied. Sara: - Let’s see what happens but we have to keep our hopes grounded – Grissom: - Ok… Come here – and takes Sara in his arms: - I love you, no matter what! – Sara leans towards him. She looks him in his eyes and responds with a tender kiss on his lips whispering against them "I love you too”.
PART 4 Sara spends the week working and thinking, thinking and working. Tension and expectations building up every day, more and more. In her mind Sara has imagined their meeting with Dylan at least 300 times, she has repeated all the possible things she could say to him, but every time his reaction is bad and the meeting goes wrong. Even Grissom is anxious; nonetheless he tries to distract Sara: he invites her to see one of his lessons at the university, he proposes a trip on a boat over the lake Mead and he takes her out to dinner. The Italian restaurant they go to is one of their favorites. They eat a very good lasagna and they drink a little more than they usually do, just to relax. Once at home, they go to bed. They face each other but, thinking of the day ahead, they can’t sleep. Grissom: - It’s gonna be fine – Sara: - You can’t know that – Gil caresses her hair: - No, but we have to stay positive – Sara takes Gil’s hand and brings it to her cheek: - I don’t know what to tell him – Gil’s finger brushes her lips: - The truth! If he asks, we’ll tell him the truth - Sara: - But? – Grissom: - Honey, if we want his trust, we have to be honest. We can’t lie. - Sara: - I am scared! -   Grissom: - Me too – and he slowly kisses her. She returns the kiss as they are taken by the passion of their bodies, entangled in one. Their minds are lost in the rhythm of that primordial act of desire, they know so well. They are just flesh and skin, sweat and moans. PART 5 It’s afternoon and they are sitting in a park near Dylan’s school. The sight of the boy approaching them with his mother takes their breath away. Kelly greets them from afar and points them to her son. They stand up and walk in their direction. Sara and Grissom stop when they are in front of Dylan and Kelly.  4 souls, 4 people meant to be a family finally together.  Dylan is a mini version of Grissom. He is not so tall but he’s slim. He has short curly brown hair. His eyes are blue and curios. Behind his left ear he has a hearing aid. Kelly addresses them to Dylan; she gestures in sign language and tells him: - They are the friends I was talking to you about. – Grissom takes courage and speaks first, gesturing his words: - Hi Dylan, my name is Gilbert and she is my wife Sara. We are happy to meet you. Your mother told us a lot about you. – Sara: - Hi, sorry but my sign language is a little rusty. I will try to improve. – Dylan: - Don’t worry, I can hear you (he indicates the implant to Sara). Moreover, I’ve learned to read lips. You, (he addresses to Grissom) on the other hand are very good. – Grissom: - Thanks. My mum was deaf, she taught me – Dylan nods pondering the answer. Sara tries to break the silence: - How was your day? Do you like school? – Kelly intervenes: - He is the best of his class – Dylan gives her a little buff on her right arm: - Mum please! – Kelly smiles: - He is shy, he doesn't like to brag – Grissom and Sara, grinning, exchange a look of complicity mixed with pride: - We can imagine – Dylan fixes them and he asks abruptly: - Why don’t you tell me who you really are? – Grissom and Sara almost choke: - What? – Kelly scolds him: - Dylan?! – Dylan continues: - You are my real parents, aren’t you? Sara feels responsible and wants to give him an answer: - You are right, I’m your birth mother and he is your father. – Dylan insists: - Why are you here? – Kelly: - I asked them to come – Dylan turns to his mother in shock but Kelly goes on: - I have to know that you would be safe, cared for and loved when I will be gone – Dylan: - How could you think that I would stay with someone who abandoned me? – Kelly interrupts them: - You three need to talk, you need to know each other. Dylan please, you have to listen to them – Dylan: - I don’t want to – and he runs away. Kelly touches Sara’s shoulder, she feels her pain and apologizes for Dylan’s reaction: - Give him some time.  He is a good boy… he’s very smart – Grissom sighs: - I see – Sara is ashamed: - He is right, I made a mistake. – Kelly tries to soothe her by saying: - We all make mistakes, Sara – Sara: - But he is the one who’s paying the consequences of that mistake – Grissom: - We had our reasons, dear– Sara locks her eyes on Gil: - and why does it all seem so wrong now? – Kelly: - Let me talk to him – Sara replies: - No, I want to try - Sara goes to look for Dylan; Grissom follows her but she turns and stops him: - Give me 5 minutes – Gil nods; she approaches the boy. He is sitting on a swing. Sara asks him permission with a soft voice: - Can I? – Dylan shrugs his shoulders and Sara sits in the swing next to him. The boy leaps down and faces her. Sara: - I’m so sorry for everything, Dylan. I’m sorry for your mum, for your dad, for your earing problems, and above all I'm sorry for what I did to you. – Dylan: - Why did you leave me? – Sara tries her best to formulate an answer: - It’s complicated.... I wasn’t feeling very well. Something bad had happened to me. – Dylan interrupts her: - My father? Did he hurt you? – Sara: - No, absolutely not. He has always been kind to me – she invites Grissom to join them and he moves in their direction. – I was, I still am a Crime Scene Investigator. Do you know what it is? – Dylan nods and Sara continues: - I was working on a case, and a serial killer kidnapped me and left me to die. I managed to escape, your father and other members of my team saved me – Dylan listens very carefully. – But after that, nothing was the same. I was broken and unhappy. I wasn’t myself anymore and I couldn’t stay there. I went away from your father, from this town, from my old life. I could not be a good mother for you, you deserved more. – Dylan looks at Sara and then Grissom and says: - You are married now – Sara declares: - We got back together 5 years ago. – Grissom kneels in front of Dylan: - We're not here to be your parents, you already have them – Dylan states: - My mum is great! – Grissom agrees: - It’s true. We just want to know you, Dylan! – Sara teases: - Can you give us a chance? – Dylan thinks and then asks Sara something that has always intrigued him: - Did you give me a name before.. you .. ? Sara affirms instantly: - Arthur, I named you Arthur –
LITTLE FLASHBACK OF 13 YEARS EARLIER Sara was holding her baby when a nurse entered the room to take him. The social assistant was waiting outside. The woman checked the papers she had filled in. On the birth certificate she had written her name, Gilbert’s, and a new one: ARTHUR. She gave her baby a kiss on the forehead and passed him to the nurse who left the room, closing the door to a crying Sara. Grissom turns towards Sara, surprised by her admission. Sara looks at him directly in his eyes: - It’s your father’s middle name! – Dylan chuckles, satisfied by the answer: - It’s my middle name too – Sara is grateful that the Ross in some way had kept the name she had chosen for him. Dylan remarks: - My father was a pastor, he always told me to forgive the others. I’m forgiving you! – They give him an appreciative smile before Grissom touches his head saying: - He’d be very proud – Dylan nods and walks over to an emotional Sara. He wipes a tear from her face, similarly to what Gilbert would have done. She whispers a thank you to him, then they return to the bench where Kelly was sitting, watching the whole scene.
PART 6 Grissom and Sara start seeing Dylan every day after school. Their bond gets deeper and deeper. Dylan looks more at ease with them. He loves spending time with Gil, making experiments, going fishing or sailing. They find a new balance in their lives. Every once in a while, he even spends the night with them. The guest bedroom has become his room now. Kelly’s cancer on the other hand gets worse and she ends in hospital. It’s a Wednesday morning when Sara picks up Dylan from school and brings him to the hospital to give his mother one last hug. Kelly Ross dies at 2.00 PM of that same day and Dylan cries in the arms of Gilbert.  At the funeral he stands between Sara and Grissom. He is brave but silent. Over the last year, he has lost both of his parents and found two new ones. It’s strange how life takes an unexpected turn sometimes and turns up the way it should have from the beginning.  In fact, before her death, Kelly had arranged things so that Sara and Gil could have full custody of the boy and become a family.
PART 7 Sara is in a hurry; she greets her boss and some other members of the team as she prepares to leave the office. The receptionist at the desk calls her back and gives her some correspondence. She doesn’t have time to read it, she will do it later with calm. All she wants to do now is to go home to her boys and to enjoy the evening with them. After dinner Dylan does his homework in the living room, Gil prepares his lesson and Sara tidies the kitchen up. She suddenly remembers the letters in her purse, so she takes a break to read them. An envelope without a sender attracts her attention. She rips the envelope and her jaw drops.
Dear Sara Sidle, I’m Natalie Davis, you probably remember me as the miniature killer. I’ve been thinking of you very often lately. I know, I don’t have the right to write to you after all this time, but my journey here in prison made me reflect on my actions and on what I have done to you and to the other victims. I’m so sorry Mrs Sidle, I can’t change the past and my apologies can’t relieve your pain or what you’ve lost. I was angry and I seeked vengeance for no real reason except because I couldn’t accept the daemons from my past. I should have known that that wasn’t the answer but I was too lost. I hold Mr Grissom responsible for the death of Arnie Dell and I tried to take you away from him because of his love for you. However, and now I know this, it was not his fault and you were a collateral damage in my inner war. I don’t deserve your forgiveness; I’m not searching for redemption. I’m just happy that you are alive. I also hope life has been kind to you and that Mr Grissom is still by your side.                                                                                                      Sincerely, Natalie Davis                    
Sara confronts Grissom about the letter and what to do next. They are concerned, still they decide to go to the county jail to see Natalie in person. As CSI they get a special permit to meet her in the interrogation room. The door opens and a guard escorts Natalie Davis inside. She is handcuffed and she’s wearing an orange suit. For the first time in 14 years she, Sara and Gil are in the same room. The guard moves to stand in a corner and Natalie sits at the table. Natalie is surprised by this visit: - I didn’t expect you to come. - Sara: - I didn’t expect your letter either. - They contemplate in silence for some time. Natalie clears her throat: - Anyway, thank you. Your presence here is very important to me – Sara replies: - I’m here because I wanted to look you in the eyes, to make sure your words were true and your regret sincere. Natalie: - Mrs. Sidle, I don’t know what to do to prove it to you - Sara: - You wrote you don’t deserve forgiveness… – Natalie: - No, I don’t. I’m a sinner and I need to be punished for my sins! – Sara: - Hmmm. It was not easy to understand it but now, now I’ve got it. We have different backgrounds, different stories but we have one thing in common – Natalie looks confused. Sara continues: - We are survivors, Natalie! We are women with physical and psychological scars. I could have surrendered to the difficulties that life put in front of me, as you did, but I decided to move on and I’m still doing it – Sara grabs Gilbert’s hand and squeezes it. They exchange a tender look. They both smile before Sara shakes her head and goes on: – Therefore, I forgive you! – Natalie is incredulous: - Why are you so good to me after all I’ve done? - Sara: - I’m not good, I just think this place and your sense of guilt are enough for me. We cannot live in resentment forever, and you know what? I’ve learned such an important lesson from a very mature 13 years old boy who has been through hell in such a short time. Goodbye Natalie. - Sara and Gil stand up and leave the room, Natalie and her nightmares behind. Dylan will be home soon with some of his friends. Tonight, they will go to the Luna park, they will ride the rollercoaster and then eat pizza. Their future is definitely bright.
THE END
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sleekervae · 3 years
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The Neighbour [0.4]
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Masterlist
The first thing Eva did when she came home was finish downloading the rest of Palaye Royale's discography. It was as though pushing the arrow on the saturation scale and suddenly her apartment with skeleton white walls and empty shadows was bursting with a new variety of rich colors. Songs that pulled back the whites in her eyes and forced open her ears to this new euphoria that was rattling through her brain and body like a pinball game.
The band's music drifted through the apartment for the rest of the night, tracks on a loop that was sure to make the tenants upstairs despise her. By the time she finished cooking dinner for herself she was lost in the cynical poetry of Warhol, entranced by the echoing of Remington's rasping screams that were never out of tune. And while she was supposed to be working on her latest article, Eva was instead watching the video for Lonely, the entire time feeling like her throat had been ripped out by a bare fist and forced to watch it beat out.
All in all, Dying in a Hot Tub took the crown for favorite. On a Saturday night, when she would usually be out with friends and drinking her problems away at the local bar, Eva was dancing through her apartment, pretending to sing along to the miserable and comprehensive words. A glass of cheap white wine sat on the counter, aiding in her inhibitions for having a rock concert in her living room. Pluto wasn't having any of it, retreating to his bed and ignoring her for most of the night.
Meanwhile, holed up in his own bedroom Remington scrolled through the Tumblr blog that Eva told him about: posts filled with poetry and proses that had him hooked as sure as he was doing drugs. Each post told a story, ranging from questions about her femininity, difficulties in growing up with an absent mother and a know-it-all dad, the first boy she had who humped and dumped her after prom. Remington wanted to read it all, falling deeper into the rabbit hole of Eva Kuznetsov.
His focus shifted from text to music when he heard a familiar sound: that sound being his own voice. The faint echo of words he was singing to crowds not months ago were suddenly swirling in the air, and when he turned to the complex, he found he had a clear view of Eva dancing away under the golden lights of her apartment. She had the screen door opened, not big enough for Pluto to squeeze through, but enough so he could hear the muffled music from his room. He knew he had pretty open access to Eva; he just didn't realize that he could see right into her space.
Which meant she could probably see into his room, too...
It was mesmerizing to watch her, spinning, jumping, her hair pirouetting around the sharp edges of her perfect jaw, all the while smiling and pretending to sing along. It was the most endearing thing Remington had seen in a long time, watching the real Eva come to life. She was uninhibited by people and impressions, dressed down in a pair of little cotton shorts and her hoodie, she was absolutely crazy and perfect.
Mischief soon got the better of Remington and he reached for his phone, eagerly selecting her number and typing. Across the way, Eva stopped dancing when the music dipped, indicating that she received a text on her phone. Brushing her winded hair out of her face, she grabbed her phone off the desk, her face going beet red when she was Remington's text:
Nice dance moves, Frances Houseman
She glanced up through the glass sliding door, mortified when she realized Remington could see her this whole time. Illuminated by the glow of the street lamp, his boyish smile seemed to shine brighter, clearly amused with this late-night entertainment. She took a deep breath and turned down the volume of the music, trying to collect herself.
How much of that did you see?
He responded not even ten seconds later:
Enough to know your hips clearly don't lie.
Shut up
And if I may ask, why are you looking through my window?
I can't help it. I'm vain enough that I get distracted by my own damn voice
Or you're just a fucking creeper
The fact that you haven't closed the curtain tells me you don't seem to mind an audience ;)
A familiar warmth spread through the pit of her stomach and Eva began to giggle uncontrollably; like a child that had been caught stealing a cookie from the jar and was so on edge she couldn't help but laugh. Stupid her for not closing the curtain.
Well I'm sorry, but the show is over now
She then went to the window to close the curtain, flipping off the smirking blonde as she shut out the rest of the world. Remington only laughed to himself, quickly texting back:
But the memories will live on in my brain
Fuck you, Leith!!
I think you should buy me a drink first, Kuznetsov
Eva just shook her head as she read his last message, downing the rest of her wine with a rose-tinted cheeks. Even with the music off, she still had Remington's soft raspy voice ringing in her head as she decided it was time to turn in. She couldn't help but start singing to herself.
"But I'm dying in a hot tub, I'm dying in a hot tub with my cat!" she lunged down and pointed both hands at Pluto. Pluto was unfazed, just staring at her with an unemotive expression. Eva's smile turned into a scowl.
"Well, fuck you too, then,"
✧✧✧
May brought the promise of vibrant flowers, bikini bodies and so many reasons for people to go out and mingle with their friends at the beaches and clubs.
Well... that was the case a year ago...
In Remington's mind, he and his friends had no need to go down to the beach and risk contracting Covid when he had a perfectly safe and clean pool and patio in his backyard. And within the last two and some weeks, he had succeeded in bringing Eva around more and more.
She got along great with everybody, which had Remington confused as to why she said she had it rough with friends. But everybody seemed to like her, and soon enough she had assimilated into their little pod. She started just with sitting outside with everyone, and when she was comfortable enough she came and hung out inside the house. Afternoons were either spent by the pool or watching TV shows and eating snacks. And the more she stayed over, the more Remington became fascinated with her.
Even Emerson and Sebastian couldn't deny that there was something about Eva that was unique; she was sparkplug of quick witticisms and lame jokes that people would laugh at just because she was so cute. She was mature way beyond her years, and yet she still had fun like a teenager trying to find themselves in high school. More than anything, the boys were curious to how close Eva and Remington were slowly becoming.
Remington liked hanging out in Eva's apartment. The environment held a different kind of vibe; like an aesthetic post you'd tag on Pinterest under a renovations gallery. But Remington was inside Eva's world, seeing the random art pieces she had hung on the walls and getting to hang with Pluto on the couch. He helped her bake when they couldn't think of anything else to do, and she always insisted he'd bring some home even when he assured her that he didn't need it. She was kind, homely, a woman with a clean soul and dirty mind who could make him laugh and didn't care when he openly belched after a soda.
Despite the pandemic, Remington was excited for his birthday. Any other time, he was at a bar or a house party with his friends, drinking until he couldn't feel his legs or ending up face-deep in a grimy toilet bowl. Even though the party wouldn't be as fun as it usually would be, Remington was looking forward to at least spend his birthday with his closest family and friends, only.
Eva wished she could have had the same optimism Remington did, but the Saturday before his birthday, she was none too pleased to find that the drain to her kitchen sink was leaking water. And apparently, it wasn't her landlord's job to come up and fix it for her.
"You want me to come take a crack at it?" Remington asked when Eva explained the situation.
Eva's phone was on speaker as she tried to navigate the utility box in the closet to turn off her water.
"Do you have experience in sink maintenance?" she asked.
"I don't," Remington admitted, "But that's what Youtube is for, right?"
Eva simpered, "As entertaining as it would be watch you destroy my sink, I respectfully decline,"
"You think too low of me, Eva," he whined.
"I just know you better than you think, Remington," she replied smartly, "I got a plumber coming by, anyway. And he can't get here 'til six for some reason so I'll be down a shower day,"
Remington's eyebrows furrowed down, "He's coming at six at night?" he asked.
"Yeah," Eva replied, seemingly clueless to the skepticism in his voice.
"What plumber makes house calls after five o'clock?" he said.
Eva stopped short, "Well, he's an independant freelancer. Makes his own hours, I guess,"
"You hired a fucking freelancer to come fix your sink?" he said incredulously.
"He's what I can afford," she replied.
"So he didn't come from an agency?"
"Nope!" Eva huffed, satisfied when she finally figured out how to turn off the water dial, "He came from Letgo,"
It was then Remington had a sinking feeling in his gut. He didn't blame Eva that she didn't want to splurge her money on a plumber, but the thought of her alone with a strange man -- who mostly carried a multitude of heavy tools -- made his hair stand on end.
"Maybe I'll come by and wait with you while he does the job," he said.
"Why?" Eva asked.
"Because you're a small girl letting a strange man into your apartment after hours," he replied.
Eva turned to her window, still having a firm view of Remington's empty, but messy bedroom, "You were a strange guy I let into my apartment," she countered.
"And now you have concrete proof that I'm not a creep, I'm just a little weirdo," he replied, "I'd just feel better being there with you, is all,"
Eva shrugged, understanding where he was coming from yet assuring herself that he was overthinking it, "I mean, if you wanna'... sure,"
"Great!" Remington grinned, "I'll be by before six,"
The early afternoon soon delved into the night, and just as he promised, Remington was at Eva's apartment ten minutes before six.
And the plumber was late.
Eva attributed it to traffic when the clock hit ten after, but then she was annoyed by twenty after. What was he possibly doing that he was twenty minutes late for a pay grab? Remington didn't say anything, though the knot in his stomach got tighter as the minutes ticked by. And when Eva assured him that he didn't need to stay, he simply shook his head and declined.
"The only way you're getting me out of this apartment is with a fucking pitchfork," he told her, smirking with pride. Eva only rolled her eyes.
It was finally quarter to seven when a battered, unlabelled black pickup truck pulled up in front of the complex. And just as Remington feared, a rather large man came falling out of the truck and started trudging his way inside. He carried no tools with him.
Both Remington and Eva had their masks on and the windows open as the plumber came inside. He was portly, older, and he wore the mask just under his nose; a particular pet peeve of Eva's. He was polite as he greeted the kids, narrowing his eyes at Remington. The whole time he was there, Remington made sure to keep Eva close to him.
"So, what seems to be the trouble?" the plumber asked, coming over to the sink but looking around slowly at the knick knacks and furniture within the apartment.
"Well, I'm not sure. It just started leaking all of the sudden," Eva shrugged.
The plumber glanced at the faucet, then took a look under the counter to the pipes. Eva began to understand why Remington was so eager to come over, now. He stayed well on his knees for longer than needed, not pulling out a flashlight to see in the dark shadows. Even Pluto seemed to sense something was off about this character, he leapt onto the top of the couch where he had a full vantage point of the typical case of plumber's crack.
The plumber finally sat back from his inspection, turning to the two kids, "I see what the problem is. I gotta' get my other tools from my truck, though," he said.
Eva and Remington glanced at each other with uncertainty, "... Okay," she drawled, "We'll, um -- we'll be here, I guess,"
"Okay," he forced himself back on his feet and exited out the door.
Not two seconds later, Remington heard the faint carry of voices in the hallways; a couple by the sounds of it. He took a look into the hall, indeed finding a pair of Eva's neighbours unlocking their door as the door to the stairwell slammed closed.
A few minutes passed, but Eva was confused when she heard the revving of an engine outside. She went to go look out her window, and sure enough, the black pickup truck was speeding away. Needless to say, she was shocked.
"What the fuck!?" she exclaimed, "He left!"
Remington came to look as well, not surprised but his fears quelled as he watched the truck disappear around the corner.
"Good," he said, "Truth be told, I'm pretty sure he wasn't here to fix the sink,"
Eva pulled her face mask off, "What, you think he wanted to rob me?" she asked.
"Or something a little more vile," Remington nodded, simultaneously pulling off his own mask, "He clearly didn't like the fact that I was here,"
Eva's face paled for a moment, now grateful she had let Remington in when he asked. How did he know, though?
"How did you know he wasn't legit?" she asked.
Remington scrunched his nose, "Well, first of all he's coming by at six -- well, seven o'clock on a weekend. Second of all, you found him on Letgo,"
Eva shrugged, "I don't trust Craigslist,"
"Because Letgo is any more reliable?" he raised his eyebrows with a petty grin, "This is the part where you say 'thank you for looking out for me, Remington',"
Eva narrowed her eyes at him, "Thanks for coming by, ya' smug shit," she glanced out the window again, "You think he's going to come back?"
"Not now that he thinks I'm here, too," Remington replied, "Like I'd leave my girlfriend alone with a strange guy at seven at night. In a fucking pandemic, too," he scoffed.
Eva looked at him quizzically, "... I'm not your girlfriend," she drawled.
"But he doesn't have to know that," he grinned back.
Eva had to admit, she was impressed. And moreover, quite grateful for Remington's persistence -- though she wouldn't tell him that.
"Aw, I have such a smart boyfriend!" she gushed sarcastically, clasping her hands together before going to fetch her Lysol spray.
Remington simply sat back down on the couch, feeling pretty damn good about himself now, "Anything for my baby!" he exclaimed happily.
"Shut up,"
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write-a-bad-romance · 4 years
Text
Theocona Hurt/Comfort Request
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Thank you for the request @delicateikemenmemes​! And thank you for notifying me about the link. It’s working now!
Disclaimer: This fic deals with Covid-19 and health workers fighting against the pandemic. I mean no harm towards real-life health workers, their families, and everybody whose lives are directly affected by Covid-19. I pray that all of us stay safe and healthy, wherever we are.
"Why not look this way, darling? I know you've been dying to see me for a week~"
"Hell no," Theo directed his eyes to the steaming mug of coffee by the desk lamp. The truth was, he'd rather die than being caught blushing at the sight of his not-boyfriend after what seemed like forever. "As if I'd been looking forward to your perverted face."
"Wah, so mean." Arthur pouted, his movements looking sluggish due to poor connection. Behind him stood rows of drab navy blue lockers and what seemed like a long-unused water dispenser. "And after all the trouble I went through to get to you."
Theo understood what he meant. He imagined the hospital staff, young and old, taking turns to use the dim, cramped room to video call home. He was lucky Arthur still managed to call him from his apartment once in a while.
 Their calls often leave no room for....friskier activities. Arthur moaned about not being able to show how much he'd been missing "Little Theo" and other obscenities the Dutchman pretended not to hear.
 Because, really, this was enough.
"So I was saying," Arthur continued, completely ignoring Theo's perpetual frown. "This bloke came in with a snakebite from a cobra. So, naturally, the boy ran around trying to administer antivenom to this poor sap."
"Listen to yourself, sounding like the epitome of an empath," Theo commented dryly.
 "Oh, the story didn't end there." Arthur waved, his hand a static blur on screen. "The lass who nursed him told me the guy had apparently gotten drunk and tried macking on his pet cobra."
 Theo involuntarily snorted a laugh despite himself. It felt good, he had to admit.
 "Aw, look, you're laughing!" The criminally handsome doctor smiled. "You look positively lush when you're laughing."
 "Shut up." Theo snapped immediately. “That’s not funny.”
Arthur's laughter rang free, a welcome sound in the desolate locker room.
"Remember the old gentleman who came to the ER saying he desperately needed a sick leave letter because he wanted to go on a holiday in Santorini?”
 "Yeah, the sod who dumped his entire life story on you, what about it?" Theo could not help but notice the distinctive dip in Arthur's tone.
"Well, he suddenly messaged me saying he quit smoking after considering my advice," Arthur flashed a reassuring grin. "That's great! His mum is high-risk after-all."
 "Uh-huh." Theo nodded, taking a swig of his coffee, hoping to calm his nerves.
"Today, you see..." Arthur trailed off, his voice trembling. "Today, there was this sweet old lady."
Don't go there, Theo warned inside his head. They would always come to this point in each of their conversations lately, without fail.
But he'd rather be there and piece Arthur together again after he collapsed.
"I think I've told you that we'd let the patient record messages before they get strapped to a ventilator, yeah? And she, um." The usually vibrant young man stuttered to find the words. "We had to retake it several times because she kept forgetting what she wanted to say. I mean, we couldn't blame her and— and then she finally said she wanted to talk to her granddaughter one last time."
Stop. Theo wanted to scream before Arthur could finish his story. Don't—
Arthur took a long, deep breath before resuming. "My mate sent it to her daughter since they're living across the country. We dinna' replay it."
No matter how Arthur changed the way he described his ordeal at the hospital every time, everything sounded the same to Theo. 
It's hard. We know it's supposed to be hard. And it still pains me every single time.
"Dr. Newcomb... Old Simon, you remember. For once, he didn't yell at us when he saw us slumping down in the hallway gutted and all." Arthur babbled, trying to erase the apparent dejection in his voice. "But hey, there's no better way to teach us 'rookies' to 'toughen up' for the job. We signed for this. We've made our bed, and now we gotta lie in it."
Theo could hardly take it any longer.
"Sometimes, Theo, I...."
"Enough," Theo shut him down. "To hell with that old fart and everybody else who keeps telling you how to do your job." he snarled.
"Woah, I didn't mean—"
"Listen up here, Arthur." He knew that wasn't the point, but Theo couldn't care less. "I can't bullshit my way and tell you everything is fine. I can't fathom one bit how all of you manage out there. You hanging on despite all that hell outside, that's just—"
"Theo," Arthur tried to soothe the Dutchman.
"No, Arthur." Theo was, in fact, at a loss for words. He knew he was rambling at the top of his boiling head. What he wouldn't do to save Arthur from the brink, and this was what he resorted to. "I know I can't tell you to suck it up and go on like a robot, but for fuck's sake."
For your sake,
"But for fuck's sake, be a little more caring to yourself." Theo managed to scale his tone down a notch. "The last thing I want is seeing you broken."
"Theo—"
"When you pull through," It's an if, not a when. "We will meet again when you win."
"Theo?" Arthur called, his glasses reflecting the light of his screen. Theo was glad he didn't have to see the tears he knew were budding in the corner of the man's eyes.
"When this is all over," he sighed. "I promise I'll come see you."
This time, it did the trick. Arthur seemed to calm down, easing back into his chair. Theo wanted to believe Arthur’s mouth was crooking into a smile.
"That's awfully sweet of you." He finally spoke. "Thank you, Theo."
Theo couldn't help but smile back, even if only for a bit. "Graag gedaan."
But the moment was cut short when Arthur suddenly looked towards the direction of the door. "Ah, bollocks. My shift is starting. See you again, old boy?"
Theo put on his signature deadpan face. His fit had drained more energy than he thought. "Sure."
"Don't you dare mess with some other bird while I'm away!" Arthur waved. "Ciao!"
"I should be the one telling you that, klootzak," He bit back weakly. "Welterusten."
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Theo took off his headphones and threw them on top of his Macbook. In the privacy of his room, the man planted his face onto his dry palms.
He wanted to curse at his own clumsiness. Out of desperation, he yelled at the man who deserved his harsh words the least. At least, not this moment.
His old self back then had been too engrossed in denial and childish comebacks to let the frivolous doctor into his heart. Theo regretted it. Regretted it all now that there was a genuine possibility of not seeing him again. 
And possibly for good.
Theo wasn't a religious man, but he prayed for his brother often, prayed for others but himself. Never himself. But as he pictured Arthur walking out in full gear made him think if he wasn't a little too selfish this time.
So, he prayed. He prayed despite the selfish masses out there who refused to listen. He prayed in the face of a wall too high to climb, amidst the rising numbers, against what seemed to be an inevitable downfall. 
He prayed for a tomorrow where he'd still find him there.
Stay safe because I want to be alive at the same time as you.
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Notes:
*1 The cobra incident is a real-life story from Asha’s (ashavazesa) friend who’s a co-assistant doctor. I wrote it into my fic with permission.
*2 The part with the recording is also taken from real life. I referenced it from this article from The Harvard Gazette website, which I highly recommend reading. It’s very eye-opening and heartwrenching.
*3 The final line is taken from lovelysuggestions with very slight changes . Big thanks to Emma & Maria for the quote.
Personal Comments:
Theocona, eh??? Well this was quite the challenge since I expected writing mainly from Theo’s perspective because I thought I wouldn’t be able tonail Arthur’s character properly. Thankfully, I got some help from @ashavazesa​ so everything went smoother than I expected.
But to be honest, this fic was... very hard to write. Yeah, I wrote the entire thing out of my own free will but even then I needed to take breaks every now and then to ground myself.
A little bit of background: I have a dear friend who currently has to work mobile from town to town. She’s not a health worker, but the fact that she’s out there meeting so many different people makes me anxious. There’s not a day I don’t think about her. In fact, most people here have no choice but to work outside.
I can ramble all day long about the depressing state my country is in right now, but I think I’d rather spend my energy on something else.
Sorry for the sudden rant. Thank you so much for reading until the end. 
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movie-guy49 · 3 years
Text
Hey everyone,
I just want to give everyone a quick update as to what's going on with the scams or what's called operation drain and run out of the 200 that were arrested the other day most have been released must have been very forthcoming and giving information some of them have been detained further pending for their interview and or their charges are going to be dropped or reduced law enforcement agencies have confirmed that there are some more smaller cell operations of this type going on here in the United States and in Canada they are now getting in with the Canadian authorities to help with the investigation up there I can't tell you that 75 of the 200 people arrested the other day were members of Tumblr so basically yes they were right under our nose and we did not know it but I knew it.
I can also tell you that information from this point forward is going to be very slim because they are wanting to Big Cheese the people that are actually masterminding all this and they're going to have to start being careful what information they let out and that's totally acceptable to me I totally understand that and they did say the other thing about passing the info. on to you guys as much as they can. They said that I have been a big help in this there's been a few other people that have come forward they've also been assisting and helping out but I still need some more help so anything y'all got if it if it means you got scammed don't worry about being embarrassed you're not going to be judged or you're not going to be treated like shit just because you fell for it.
So now if you've noticed that I changed the format of my blog it makes it look like it's in a daily or weekly episodic TV show it's still called a slice of my world but it's also episode 1-18 this is starting to become a daily or actually it should say it bi-weekly thing of me posting and I have enjoyed it don't get me wrong but the title of this is called oh how things have changed and it's basically going to be a lot of difficult reading from this point forward but stuff that once you read it you'll understand why it has been so difficult I I'm going to Chronicle the night of January 20th of last year through the morning hours of January 21st which is what I considered the moment my life changed forever.
So we begin on January 20th 2020 I had to go to work I walked 4 miles to go to work because I didn't have a vehicle anymore and we were living in a motel so I had to you know make sure one of us is working until a lot of times where I was staying even hard for me to get a ride. So I work the 3:30 to close shift which basically meant I left between anywhere from between 12:30 and 1:00 in the morning I worked at a movie theater which by the way was probably the best job I had ever had in my life I I love that place I would love to go back to another one like it. So basically I got off work about 12:30 that night and normally I would have a ride to work on Monday nights this week it wasn't possible because of something that happened at the theater the manager got behind on his paperwork on and couldn't get out on time like he normally does I had to go to the store that night because we didn't have very much food so I went to store I got about 2 or 3 nights worth of food with enough till I get to my day off from work to go to the store and get more. That was a common occurrence so by the time I got done with the store and got home about 2:30 in the morning my wife was asleep she had been sick for about a month before this which now I have directly linked into being one of the first cases of COVID-19 in the united states'.
I came home and like I said she was asleep and I gave her a kiss like I usually do sometimes it wakes her up sometimes it doesn't this time it woke her up we start talking for a little bit I went outside and I did my usual ritual I go outside and smoke a little weed you know kind of relaxed a little bit for about 20-30 minutes yeah I went inside and cooked dinner now for a little background my wife had been sick for a while she had a heart attack November 8th in 2018 and then she had a stroke Easter Sunday of 2019 a stroke that she refused to go get taken care of even though I begged her and had other people beg her to go to the hospital she would not do it when she had the heart attack the doctor was not able to fix all the blockages to her heart because some of the arteries were too small so he told me privately that if she had another heart attack she wouldn't survive it I knew that I told her that about 3 months later so she knew but on this night I never had any dream or knowing that 2 hours after I got home from work she would be dead she had a massive heart attack I was just getting ready to start cooking dinner when she started really screaming about chest pain and I've never heard her go off like she did and even though I called 911 it still took the damn people 20 minutes to get out there otherwise I still think she'd be alive but then again maybe not so to try to make a long story short they would not let me ride in the ambulance with her to the hospital she was still coherent but when they did the ekg in the room where we were staying at I could tell the guy's eyes that she wasn't going to be much longer and I think the reason why they told me I couldn't ride with them was because for the same Theory I think that they didn't want my last memory of her to be of her fighting for her life and dying and I am thankful for that because I've had horrible nightmares about this whole thing and so after I made all the notifications and everything that day I went back to work two days later and I was told I could stay out as long as I needed to they were really really super awesome and amazing to me hell they were even responsible for giving me the money to get my wife buried because they donated money they put a pool in together to help me. The thing about it was is I don't know what upset me more the fact that I wish there was something more I could have done or the fact that I had to have a fucking cop show up to my door to tell me that she was gone even though I had already known it. So when I went back to work two days later it was very very hard because she used to work there too and she used to work at the podium on the weekends where she took the tickets and everything and told people where the theaters were and everything else and I wasn't there for 2 hours and I just doubled over it was just like a big flood of emotion but I made it that night but the hard part was with the weekends because those were the nights that she worked the most everybody loved my wife it worked up there and so I mean I didn't feel like I was so alone then the pandemic came I lost my job I lost my place where I was staying I had to go to my sister-in-law's house which was the biggest mistake of my life cuz I really found out what kind of people they were plus that's when I developed a curiosity for methamphetamine and then I met the bitch from hell not even 2 months later and keep in mind she was just supposed to be a companion we weren't like going to be boyfriend girlfriend cuz I still way too broke up about my wife's death that's all I wanted cuz I couldn't stand being lonely anymore just like I can't stand it now but she got me hooked on meth and I say she got me hooked because she kept bringing it around me knowing that I found something new that I really liked and I didn't ask her to bring it around I could have said no but this has to do with that 28 day period from June to July where she was drugging me putting the dope in my food in my drinks that's why I blame her.
Then after my ex got murdered at a house party I lost my sister-in-law and nephew and then my step daughter called me one day two weeks before Christmas to tell me that she lost her fiance her baby's daddy after he had a heart attack from A congenital heart defect that he had for 6 years the only bright spot of 2020 was my step daughter had a daughter of her own and that to this day that baby is my love bug
As where I'm at right now I'm going to be homeless by next weekend again unless I can come up with $250-300 dollars by Friday night it doesn't look like it's going to happen folks unless I can get some donations and get them quick I am taking donations right now if you can help I don't care if it's 5 10 15 20 $25 whatever it is it will help I don't expect nobody to give me the money all at once cuz I know a lot of people don't have that kind of money right now so just little donations will help right now I had to actually go to Walmart today and steal food God I hate myself for doing it I didn't get caught but still my conscience was getting the best of me for much of the evening I got enough food here to last me for 2 or 3 days if I end up getting to stay here but like I said it's not looking very good at this point I've tried local resources I've tried all kinds of Charities help and all they want you to do is hurry up and wait and I ain't got that kind of time and I told him that so I I'm asking for any help that anyone could give if I don't get if I can get at least $250 out of 400 I can go get me a motel room for the week and I'll get me by until I can come back here when my roommate comes back cuz then he'll have the money for the rent and everything else so I can come back here so I just need to really get by for a week I have not had any dope in nine days I'm going crazy but I need a place to live first before I can be doing that shit so I'll just have to deal with it if you want to help I'll give you my cash app I will put it at the end of this post for everybody so the last 18 months has not been fun I went to six suicide of Temps and I just been existing when before I had it all anyway so that's basically going to end this episode of a slice of my world I'm sorry if this was such a downer for a lot of people but you know I the more and more I feel like I tell my story easier everyday gets for me cuz I don't feel like I'm burying myself with all the emotion and having to keep it bottled up anyway I will talk to you y'all whenever I talk to you I may be on Hiatus for a little bit because I won't have a phone here after tomorrow unless I go someplace that has Wi-Fi and depending on my living situation I mean like I said I'm I'm hoping and praying somebody will be able to help out by donating a little bit of money to me so I can keep a place over my head somehow someway anyway y'all. I love you take care of yourself and I'll see you on the other side
Cashtag $jojo091069
PayPal
Venmo
Google pay
Message for those tags I left blank as I don't know them by heart yet
Love,. Sean
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amarabliss · 4 years
Text
Distance - Nyx Ulric/Reader
I’m sick...and I’m sad...Cause I have COVID.... so you get  a sad story with Nyx Ulric.
You saved the King and now you were paying the price...life isn’t always fair...
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“This sucks...” You took in another deep breath as you watched Nyx pace across the room, “This...”
“Sucks...I heard you.” You crossed your arms as you stood there, “But it’s necessary.”
“...so explain to me again...” He stopped and turned to you putting his hands on hips, “What exactly happened?”
You sighed turning from him, “I was escorting the King and on the way into the the auditorium a man lunged toward him. I intercepted the man. We fought, tossing a few blows at one another until...”
You trailed off putting your hand to your neck where the dark bruising was left behind, “...until he pinned me. He chocked me...that’s when I saw the scourge on his face...I managed to flip him off and when everyone rushed in I told them to stop...I needed to limit exposure.”
“So now... because of some...” He stepped toward you making you step back, “Some disease we’ve never dealt with until we moved here...I can’t touch you...”
“We have to be sure it doesn’t spread.” You crossed your arms again, “It’s important that we follow the order so we don’t spread it to anyone else.”
“Screw that...” He took another step forward.
“Nyx stop...” You raised your hands up taking another step back. He didn’t listen and you became desperate, “Nyx stop!”
He ran into the barrier sending a shimmer across the room. His hand fell against it as he stared at you through it, “Y/N...”
“I can’t...I...” You teared up stepping close to the barrier, “I’m sorry...”
“You’re my better half...” He pressed his head against the barrier, “How am I supposed to live each day with you here...”
“You’ll do your job.” You raised your hand up pressing against the barrier where his rested. You looked into his eyes and smiled, “You’ll fight and come home to see me.”
“I’m not going anywhere. Not when this could take you from me...” You frowned looking away from him, “Y/N, that’s what they say...the scourge is fatal unless some priestess...”
“Oracle...” You corrected looking at him, “And we have time. They’re reaching out to her.”
“You know as well as I do that Tenebrae is under Nif control.” He growled shaking his head.
“You always look so dashing when you’re frustrated.” You smiled at him.
“Y/N this isn’t a joke.” He glared at you.
“I’m not joking.” Your face was firm as you spoke, “Nyx, everything will be fine...”
Nyx stared at you before putting his hand against the barrier waiting until you matched yours against his, “I can’t lose you too...”
“You won’t...” You smiled at him, “I’m too stubborn for that. Go be a hero.”
Three weeks later you sat up on the bed looking over at Drautos. There was an angry rage building inside you and you were keeping it at bay, “You’re certain.”
He sighed before he nodded, “I’m sorry...The Nif control is just too tight at the moment to try and send a message to the Oracle.”
You stood up shaking your head as you stepped toward the small window that gave you a little bit of the outside world, “So...I’ll need a...lawyer? Maybe a priest?”
“I can arrange that for you.” You looked over at him and he frowned.
“Do I  look that bad?” You put a hand to your face, “They won’t let me have a mirror...afraid i might break it and do something stupid.”
“Do you want the truth?” You nodded turning to him as he sighed, “You look half dead...are you sleeping? Your eyes are dark...”
“Struggling...” You sighed remembering the nightmares. Dreams of becominga  deamon and ripping your friends and family apart.
“Let me know if I can do anything else...” He said quietly.
“There is something...” You reached up to one of your braids and began undoing it slowly.
Drautos shook his head, “There’s no need...”
“Titus I’m dying...” You smiled at him as you pulled off the bead, “My husband is out fighting a war and there’s no way of knowing if I’ll be here when he gets back...I know you’re hard on him, but I also know you’ll respect my wishes.”
You set the bead down on the coffee table. Drautos took in a deep breath before taking the sample bag from the door and picked it up, “I hope I don’t have to deliver this to him.”
“Yeah...Me too...” You swallowed before watching him leave.
“You’ve got a visitor.” You looked over to the door as the soldier exited the dimly lit room. 
Your eyes widened as you sat up quickly seeing King Regis step inside, “Your majesty...”
“At ease please...” He raised a hand as you began to lower yourself to your knees, “There is no need...not between us...”
You looked at him carefully seeing a sadness in his eyes. It had been a month since you saw him, the day of the attack, “Thank you sir.”
“No joke...I gave you a wide opportunity.” He titled his head a little.
You smirked a little, “I’m afraid this has taken my funny bone sir...not much to laugh about in this box...”
He looked you over for a moment before shifting a little bringing his cane in front of himself, “I see everything has progressed quickly...”
He was referring to the disease. It had spread from your neck down your arms quickly. The nightmares were constant. You’d practically stopped eating and light wasn’t the most friendly source anymore, “Yeah...they said the gentleman I took down was an advanced case...passed on a more advanced strain.”
“Hm...” He nodded slowly before taking in a deep breath speaking, “I wanted to come here and thank you myself.”
“That wasn’t necessary sir. I was just doing my job.” You told him burning resentment filled your chest.
“And that job is costing your life.” He didn’t frown when he said it. He just held the same stoic look he always did, “I am sorry for that. You’re much too young.”
You felt yourself tear up, “We...we all knew what we were signing up for.”
“It’s not fair what must be done...” He let out a sigh, “I do understand that.”
“Sir...if you’re here...to just look me in the eyes and feel better that you said thank you...” You looked down to your hands.
You jumped when you felt his hand land on your shoulder. You made a motion to move but when you looked at him you saw the barrier rippling around his body. What amazing control of the barrier was impressive.
It was his smile that brought you back to reality, “They told me that there isn’t much time...I came because I thought you might need someone to hold your hand...”
You swallowed and nodded slowly as a tear fell down your cheek, “Th...thank you sir...”
Without even asking he pulled you into an embrace. You had forgotten what this felt like and instantly you were breaking down in front of this man. You let out a sob as he just stood their holding you for a long time.
Eventually he spoke, “Whatever you need...ask and I shall personally see that it is done.”
You took in a deep stuffy breath pulling away from him, “Actually sir...there is one thing...”
Nyx sat in the empty bed in the place you stood days ago. He twirled the marriage bead around his fingers over and over seeing your smile. They said...in the end you didn’t smile...you weren’t you...
He took in a deep breath clutching his hand around the bead before pressing his lips against his hand. He shut his eyes as he began to shake feeling the emotions beginning to take him over.
“Nyx Ulric...” He sniffed looking up seeing the King.
“Sir...” He wiped a hand over his face standing up.
“Come with me.” Regis nodded for him to follow. Nyx was only hesitant for a moment and quickly caught up to him in the hall, “I had the privilege of knowing you wife. She served me well and made me laugh often.”
“She has....” Nyx swallowed as his eyes began to water again, “had...a strange sense of humor.”
“That she did...I owe her everything...and there was nothing I could do for her in the end.” Regis opened a door to an office were a computer sat, “But I did do the one thing I could.”
Nyx looked at him before stepping inside sitting at the computer. He looked back at Regis who simply bowed his head and shut the door. Nyx looked back to the computer shaking the mouse. The screen lit up with your face paused on it.
He teared up seeing how much the scourge had destroyed you before he reached over and pressed play. 
“Nyx...Nyx...Nyx Nyx...” You gave the camera a smile, “I know you’re angry...I’m angry too, but you know what I say about anger...”
“It’s unproductive, turn it into something...” He spoke with you feeling a tear fall down his face.
“So you have to do something with it. Cause I know you...and you’ll hold onto this for a long time. You’ll do something stupid and Titus will get mad at you and it’ll just be this cycle over and over...” You giggled shaking your head. You looked away from the camera your face falling a little, “Please don’t do that...”
“Nyx, I’m gone...I’m buried...you can’t change it, but my love for you is real. Nothing can take that away.” You smiled at him before touching you lips blowing him a kiss, “Nothing is going to make it better...but I love you...remember that.”
“Death is only a distance unmeasured by the human mind...you’ll walk across it’s vastness someday...” Your voice held so much pain, “You just have to wait...please promise me that you’ll wait as long as you can and live for both of us.”
“i love you.” Your face froze on the screen smiling at him as he cried. 
You knew he could never say no when you asked him to promise you something. So of course he would live for the both of you...because he loved you...you were his better half.
64 notes · View notes
Text
"However bad things are for most other rich democracies, it is hard not to feel sorry for Americans. Most of them did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016. Yet they are locked down with a malignant narcissist who, instead of protecting his people from Covid-19, has amplified its lethality. The country Trump promised to make great again has never in its history seemed so pitiful."
(Thank you to David Lerigny for forwarding this article)
Here is a brilliant Op-Ed From Irish Times writer, Fintan O’Toole.
April 25, 2020
THE WORLD HAS LOVED, HATED AND ENVIED THE U.S. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE PITY IT
Over more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the US until now: pity.
However bad things are for most other rich democracies, it is hard not to feel sorry for Americans. Most of them did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016. Yet they are locked down with a malignant narcissist who, instead of protecting his people from Covid-19, has amplified its lethality. The country Trump promised to make great again has never in its history seemed so pitiful.
Will American prestige ever recover from this shameful episode? The US went into the coronavirus crisis with immense advantages: precious weeks of warning about what was coming, the world’s best concentration of medical and scientific expertise, effectively limitless financial resources, a military complex with stunning logistical capacity and most of the world’s leading technology corporations. Yet it managed to make itself the global epicentre of the pandemic.
As the American writer George Packer puts it in the current edition of the Atlantic, “The United States reacted ... like Pakistan or Belarus – like a country with shoddy infrastructure and a dysfunctional government whose leaders were too corrupt or stupid to head off mass suffering.”
It is one thing to be powerless in the face of a natural disaster, quite another to watch vast power being squandered in real time – wilfully, malevolently, vindictively. It is one thing for governments to fail (as, in one degree or another, most governments did), quite another to watch a ruler and his supporters actively spread a deadly virus. Trump, his party and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News became vectors of the pestilence.
The grotesque spectacle of the president openly inciting people (some of them armed) to take to the streets to oppose the restrictions that save lives is the manifestation of a political death wish. What are supposed to be daily briefings on the crisis, demonstrative of national unity in the face of a shared challenge, have been used by Trump merely to sow confusion and division. They provide a recurring horror show in which all the neuroses that haunt the American subconscious dance naked on live TV.
If the plague is a test, its ruling political nexus ensured that the US would fail it at a terrible cost in human lives. In the process, the idea of the US as the world’s leading nation – an idea that has shaped the past century – has all but evaporated.
Other than the Trump impersonator Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, who is now looking to the US as the exemplar of anything other than what not to do? How many people in Düsseldorf or Dublin are wishing they lived in Detroit or Dallas?
It is hard to remember now but, even in 2017, when Trump took office, the conventional wisdom in the US was that the Republican Party and the broader framework of US political institutions would prevent him from doing too much damage. This was always a delusion, but the pandemic has exposed it in the most savage ways.
Abject surrender
What used to be called mainstream conservatism has not absorbed Trump – he has absorbed it. Almost the entire right-wing half of American politics has surrendered abjectly to him. It has sacrificed on the altar of wanton stupidity the most basic ideas of responsibility, care and even safety.
Thus, even at the very end of March, 15 Republican governors had failed to order people to stay at home or to close non-essential businesses. In Alabama, for example, it was not until April 3rd that governor Kay Ivey finally issued a stay-at-home order.
In Florida, the state with the highest concentration of elderly people with underlying conditions, governor Ron DeSantis, a Trump mini-me, kept the beach resorts open to students travelling from all over the US for spring break parties. Even on April 1st, when he issued restrictions, DeSantis exempted religious services and “recreational activities”.
Georgia governor Brian Kemp, when he finally issued a stay-at-home order on April 1st, explained: “We didn’t know that [the virus can be spread by people without symptoms] until the last 24 hours.”
This is not mere ignorance – it is deliberate and homicidal stupidity. There is, as the demonstrations this week in US cities have shown, plenty of political mileage in denying the reality of the pandemic. It is fuelled by Fox News and far-right internet sites, and it reaps for these politicians millions of dollars in donations, mostly (in an ugly irony) from older people who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus.
It draws on a concoction of conspiracy theories, hatred of science, paranoia about the “deep state” and religious providentialism (God will protect the good folks) that is now very deeply infused in the mindset of the American right.
Trump embodies and enacts this mindset, but he did not invent it. The US response to the coronavirus crisis has been paralysed by a contradiction that the Republicans have inserted into the heart of US democracy. On the one hand, they want to control all the levers of governmental power. On the other they have created a popular base by playing on the notion that government is innately evil and must not be trusted.
The contradiction was made manifest in two of Trump’s statements on the pandemic: on the one hand that he has “total authority”, and on the other that “I don’t take responsibility at all”. Caught between authoritarian and anarchic impulses, he is incapable of coherence.
Fertile ground
But this is not just Donald Trump. The crisis has shown definitively that Trump’s presidency is not an aberration. It has grown on soil long prepared to receive it. The monstrous blossoming of misrule has structure and purpose and strategy behind it.
There are very powerful interests who demand “freedom” in order to do as they like with the environment, society and the economy. They have infused a very large part of American culture with the belief that “freedom” is literally more important than life. My freedom to own assault weapons trumps your right not to get shot at school. Now, my freedom to go to the barber (“I Need a Haircut” read one banner this week in St Paul, Minnesota) trumps your need to avoid infection.
Usually when this kind of outlandish idiocy is displaying itself, there is the comforting thought that, if things were really serious, it would all stop. People would sober up. Instead, a large part of the US has hit the bottle even harder.
And the president, his party and their media allies keep supplying the drinks. There has been no moment of truth, no shock of realisation that the antics have to end. No one of any substance on the US right has stepped in to say: get a grip, people are dying here.
That is the mark of how deep the trouble is for the US – it is not just that Trump has treated the crisis merely as a way to feed tribal hatreds but that this behaviour has become normalised. When the freak show is live on TV every evening, and the star is boasting about his ratings, it is not really a freak show any more. For a very large and solid bloc of Americans, it is reality.
And this will get worse before it gets better. Trump has at least eight more months in power. In his inaugural address in 2017, he evoked “American carnage” and promised to make it stop. But now that the real carnage has arrived, he is revelling in it. He is in his element.
As things get worse, he will pump more hatred and falsehood, more death-wish defiance of reason and decency, into the groundwater. If a new administration succeeds him in 2021, it will have to clean up the toxic dump he leaves behind. If he is re-elected, toxicity will have become the lifeblood of American politics.
Either way, it will be a long time before the rest of the world can imagine America being great again.
You can follow Fintan O’Toole @fotoole on twitter.
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chloes-yellow-cup · 4 years
Text
Copied and stolen in full from a friend on FB.
This reporter sums the entire dire situation here.
Powerful piece from the Irish Times’ political reporter. Hard to read, impossible to put down. Should be required reading for every American. In fact, they should hand out copies at the polls before letting anyone vote.
———
Irish Times-April 25, 2020-By Fintan O’Toole
THE WORLD HAS LOVED, HATED AND ENVIED THE U.S. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE PITY IT
Over more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the US until now: pity.
However bad things are for most other rich democracies, it is hard not to feel sorry for Americans. Most of them did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016. Yet they are locked down with a malignant narcissist who, instead of protecting his people from Covid-19, has amplified its lethality. The country Trump promised to make great again has never in its history seemed so pitiful.
Will American prestige ever recover from this shameful episode? The US went into the coronavirus crisis with immense advantages: precious weeks of warning about what was coming, the world’s best concentration of medical and scientific expertise, effectively limitless financial resources, a military complex with stunning logistical capacity and most of the world’s leading technology corporations. Yet it managed to make itself the global epicentre of the pandemic.
As the American writer George Packer puts it in the current edition of the Atlantic, “The United States reacted ... like Pakistan or Belarus – like a country with shoddy infrastructure and a dysfunctional government whose leaders were too corrupt or stupid to head off mass suffering.”
It is one thing to be powerless in the face of a natural disaster, quite another to watch vast power being squandered in real time – wilfully, malevolently, vindictively. It is one thing for governments to fail (as, in one degree or another, most governments did), quite another to watch a ruler and his supporters actively spread a deadly virus. Trump, his party and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News became vectors of the pestilence.
The grotesque spectacle of the president openly inciting people (some of them armed) to take to the streets to oppose the restrictions that save lives is the manifestation of a political death wish. What are supposed to be daily briefings on the crisis, demonstrative of national unity in the face of a shared challenge, have been used by Trump merely to sow confusion and division. They provide a recurring horror show in which all the neuroses that haunt the American subconscious dance naked on live TV.
If the plague is a test, its ruling political nexus ensured that the US would fail it at a terrible cost in human lives. In the process, the idea of the US as the world’s leading nation – an idea that has shaped the past century – has all but evaporated.
Other than the Trump impersonator Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, who is now looking to the US as the exemplar of anything other than what not to do? How many people in Düsseldorf or Dublin are wishing they lived in Detroit or Dallas?
It is hard to remember now but, even in 2017, when Trump took office, the conventional wisdom in the US was that the Republican Party and the broader framework of US political institutions would prevent him from doing too much damage. This was always a delusion, but the pandemic has exposed it in the most savage ways.
Abject surrender
What used to be called mainstream conservatism has not absorbed Trump – he has absorbed it. Almost the entire right-wing half of American politics has surrendered abjectly to him. It has sacrificed on the altar of wanton stupidity the most basic ideas of responsibility, care and even safety.
Thus, even at the very end of March, 15 Republican governors had failed to order people to stay at home or to close non-essential businesses. In Alabama, for example, it was not until April 3rd that governor Kay Ivey finally issued a stay-at-home order.
In Florida, the state with the highest concentration of elderly people with underlying conditions, governor Ron DeSantis, a Trump mini-me, kept the beach resorts open to students travelling from all over the US for spring break parties. Even on April 1st, when he issued restrictions, DeSantis exempted religious services and “recreational activities”.
Georgia governor Brian Kemp, when he finally issued a stay-at-home order on April 1st, explained: “We didn’t know that [the virus can be spread by people without symptoms] until the last 24 hours.”
This is not mere ignorance – it is deliberate and homicidal stupidity. There is, as the demonstrations this week in US cities have shown, plenty of political mileage in denying the reality of the pandemic. It is fuelled by Fox News and far-right internet sites, and it reaps for these politicians millions of dollars in donations, mostly (in an ugly irony) from older people who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus.
It draws on a concoction of conspiracy theories, hatred of science, paranoia about the “deep state” and religious providentialism (God will protect the good folks) that is now very deeply infused in the mindset of the American right.
Trump embodies and enacts this mindset, but he did not invent it. The US response to the coronavirus crisis has been paralysed by a contradiction that the Republicans have inserted into the heart of US democracy. On the one hand, they want to control all the levers of governmental power. On the other they have created a popular base by playing on the notion that government is innately evil and must not be trusted.
The contradiction was made manifest in two of Trump’s statements on the pandemic: on the one hand that he has “total authority”, and on the other that “I don’t take responsibility at all”. Caught between authoritarian and anarchic impulses, he is incapable of coherence.
Fertile ground
But this is not just Donald Trump. The crisis has shown definitively that Trump’s presidency is not an aberration. It has grown on soil long prepared to receive it. The monstrous blossoming of misrule has structure and purpose and strategy behind it.
There are very powerful interests who demand “freedom” in order to do as they like with the environment, society and the economy. They have infused a very large part of American culture with the belief that “freedom” is literally more important than life. My freedom to own assault weapons trumps your right not to get shot at school. Now, my freedom to go to the barber (“I Need a Haircut” read one banner this week in St Paul, Minnesota) trumps your need to avoid infection.
Usually when this kind of outlandish idiocy is displaying itself, there is the comforting thought that, if things were really serious, it would all stop. People would sober up. Instead, a large part of the US has hit the bottle even harder.
And the president, his party and their media allies keep supplying the drinks. There has been no moment of truth, no shock of realisation that the antics have to end. No one of any substance on the US right has stepped in to say: get a grip, people are dying here.
That is the mark of how deep the trouble is for the US – it is not just that Trump has treated the crisis merely as a way to feed tribal hatreds but that this behaviour has become normalised. When the freak show is live on TV every evening, and the star is boasting about his ratings, it is not really a freak show any more. For a very large and solid bloc of Americans, it is reality.
And this will get worse before it gets better. Trump has at least eight more months in power. In his inaugural address in 2017, he evoked “American carnage” and promised to make it stop. But now that the real carnage has arrived, he is revelling in it. He is in his element.
As things get worse, he will pump more hatred and falsehood, more death-wish defiance of reason and decency, into the groundwater. If a new administration succeeds him in 2021, it will have to clean up the toxic dump he leaves behind. If he is re-elected, toxicity will have become the lifeblood of American politics.
Either way, it will be a long time before the rest of the world can imagine America being great again.
14 notes · View notes
ameryth74 · 4 years
Text
From The Irish Times: very well-written yet heartbreaking. "Either way, it will be a long time before the rest of the world can imagine America being great again."
——————-
April 25, 2020
By Fintan O’Toole
THE WORLD HAS LOVED, HATED AND ENVIED THE U.S. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE PITY IT
Over more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the US until now: pity.
However bad things are for most other rich democracies, it is hard not to feel sorry for Americans. Most of them did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016. Yet they are locked down with a malignant narcissist who, instead of protecting his people from Covid-19, has amplified its lethality. The country Trump promised to make great again has never in its history seemed so pitiful.
Will American prestige ever recover from this shameful episode? The US went into the coronavirus crisis with immense advantages: precious weeks of warning about what was coming, the world’s best concentration of medical and scientific expertise, effectively limitless financial resources, a military complex with stunning logistical capacity and most of the world’s leading technology corporations. Yet it managed to make itself the global epicentre of the pandemic.
As the American writer George Packer puts it in the current edition of the Atlantic, “The United States reacted ... like Pakistan or Belarus – like a country with shoddy infrastructure and a dysfunctional government whose leaders were too corrupt or stupid to head off mass suffering.”
It is one thing to be powerless in the face of a natural disaster, quite another to watch vast power being squandered in real time – wilfully, malevolently, vindictively. It is one thing for governments to fail (as, in one degree or another, most governments did), quite another to watch a ruler and his supporters actively spread a deadly virus. Trump, his party and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News became vectors of the pestilence.
The grotesque spectacle of the president openly inciting people (some of them armed) to take to the streets to oppose the restrictions that save lives is the manifestation of a political death wish. What are supposed to be daily briefings on the crisis, demonstrative of national unity in the face of a shared challenge, have been used by Trump merely to sow confusion and division. They provide a recurring horror show in which all the neuroses that haunt the American subconscious dance naked on live TV.
If the plague is a test, its ruling political nexus ensured that the US would fail it at a terrible cost in human lives. In the process, the idea of the US as the world’s leading nation – an idea that has shaped the past century – has all but evaporated.
Other than the Trump impersonator Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, who is now looking to the US as the exemplar of anything other than what not to do? How many people in Düsseldorf or Dublin are wishing they lived in Detroit or Dallas?
It is hard to remember now but, even in 2017, when Trump took office, the conventional wisdom in the US was that the Republican Party and the broader framework of US political institutions would prevent him from doing too much damage. This was always a delusion, but the pandemic has exposed it in the most savage ways.
Abject surrender
What used to be called mainstream conservatism has not absorbed Trump – he has absorbed it. Almost the entire right-wing half of American politics has surrendered abjectly to him. It has sacrificed on the altar of wanton stupidity the most basic ideas of responsibility, care and even safety.
Thus, even at the very end of March, 15 Republican governors had failed to order people to stay at home or to close non-essential businesses. In Alabama, for example, it was not until April 3rd that governor Kay Ivey finally issued a stay-at-home order.
In Florida, the state with the highest concentration of elderly people with underlying conditions, governor Ron DeSantis, a Trump mini-me, kept the beach resorts open to students travelling from all over the US for spring break parties. Even on April 1st, when he issued restrictions, DeSantis exempted religious services and “recreational activities”.
Georgia governor Brian Kemp, when he finally issued a stay-at-home order on April 1st, explained: “We didn’t know that [the virus can be spread by people without symptoms] until the last 24 hours.”
This is not mere ignorance – it is deliberate and homicidal stupidity. There is, as the demonstrations this week in US cities have shown, plenty of political mileage in denying the reality of the pandemic. It is fuelled by Fox News and far-right internet sites, and it reaps for these politicians millions of dollars in donations, mostly (in an ugly irony) from older people who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus.
It draws on a concoction of conspiracy theories, hatred of science, paranoia about the “deep state” and religious providentialism (God will protect the good folks) that is now very deeply infused in the mindset of the American right.
Trump embodies and enacts this mindset, but he did not invent it. The US response to the coronavirus crisis has been paralysed by a contradiction that the Republicans have inserted into the heart of US democracy. On the one hand, they want to control all the levers of governmental power. On the other they have created a popular base by playing on the notion that government is innately evil and must not be trusted.
The contradiction was made manifest in two of Trump’s statements on the pandemic: on the one hand that he has “total authority”, and on the other that “I don’t take responsibility at all”. Caught between authoritarian and anarchic impulses, he is incapable of coherence.
Fertile ground
But this is not just Donald Trump. The crisis has shown definitively that Trump’s presidency is not an aberration. It has grown on soil long prepared to receive it. The monstrous blossoming of misrule has structure and purpose and strategy behind it.
There are very powerful interests who demand “freedom” in order to do as they like with the environment, society and the economy. They have infused a very large part of American culture with the belief that “freedom” is literally more important than life. My freedom to own assault weapons trumps your right not to get shot at school. Now, my freedom to go to the barber (“I Need a Haircut” read one banner this week in St Paul, Minnesota) trumps your need to avoid infection.
Usually when this kind of outlandish idiocy is displaying itself, there is the comforting thought that, if things were really serious, it would all stop. People would sober up. Instead, a large part of the US has hit the bottle even harder.
And the president, his party and their media allies keep supplying the drinks. There has been no moment of truth, no shock of realisation that the antics have to end. No one of any substance on the US right has stepped in to say: get a grip, people are dying here.
That is the mark of how deep the trouble is for the US – it is not just that Trump has treated the crisis merely as a way to feed tribal hatreds but that this behaviour has become normalised. When the freak show is live on TV every evening, and the star is boasting about his ratings, it is not really a freak show any more. For a very large and solid bloc of Americans, it is reality.
And this will get worse before it gets better. Trump has at least eight more months in power. In his inaugural address in 2017, he evoked “American carnage” and promised to make it stop. But now that the real carnage has arrived, he is revelling in it. He is in his element.
As things get worse, he will pump more hatred and falsehood, more death-wish defiance of reason and decency, into the groundwater. If a new administration succeeds him in 2021, it will have to clean up the toxic dump he leaves behind. If he is re-elected, toxicity will have become the lifeblood of American politics.
Either way, it will be a long time before the rest of the world can imagine America being great again.
12 notes · View notes
everyendeavor · 4 years
Text
Irish Times
April 25, 2020
By Fintan O’Toole
THE WORLD HAS LOVED, HATED AND ENVIED THE U.S. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE PITY IT
Over more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the US until now: pity.
However bad things are for most other rich democracies, it is hard not to feel sorry for Americans. Most of them did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016. Yet they are locked down with a malignant narcissist who, instead of protecting his people from Covid-19, has amplified its lethality. The country Trump promised to make great again has never in its history seemed so pitiful.
Will American prestige ever recover from this shameful episode? The US went into the coronavirus crisis with immense advantages: precious weeks of warning about what was coming, the world’s best concentration of medical and scientific expertise, effectively limitless financial resources, a military complex with stunning logistical capacity and most of the world’s leading technology corporations. Yet it managed to make itself the global epicentre of the pandemic.
As the American writer George Packer puts it in the current edition of the Atlantic, “The United States reacted ... like Pakistan or Belarus – like a country with shoddy infrastructure and a dysfunctional government whose leaders were too corrupt or stupid to head off mass suffering.”
It is one thing to be powerless in the face of a natural disaster, quite another to watch vast power being squandered in real time – wilfully, malevolently, vindictively. It is one thing for governments to fail (as, in one degree or another, most governments did), quite another to watch a ruler and his supporters actively spread a deadly virus. Trump, his party and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News became vectors of the pestilence.
The grotesque spectacle of the president openly inciting people (some of them armed) to take to the streets to oppose the restrictions that save lives is the manifestation of a political death wish. What are supposed to be daily briefings on the crisis, demonstrative of national unity in the face of a shared challenge, have been used by Trump merely to sow confusion and division. They provide a recurring horror show in which all the neuroses that haunt the American subconscious dance naked on live TV.
If the plague is a test, its ruling political nexus ensured that the US would fail it at a terrible cost in human lives. In the process, the idea of the US as the world’s leading nation – an idea that has shaped the past century – has all but evaporated.
Other than the Trump impersonator Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, who is now looking to the US as the exemplar of anything other than what not to do? How many people in Düsseldorf or Dublin are wishing they lived in Detroit or Dallas?
It is hard to remember now but, even in 2017, when Trump took office, the conventional wisdom in the US was that the Republican Party and the broader framework of US political institutions would prevent him from doing too much damage. This was always a delusion, but the pandemic has exposed it in the most savage ways.
Abject surrender
What used to be called mainstream conservatism has not absorbed Trump – he has absorbed it. Almost the entire right-wing half of American politics has surrendered abjectly to him. It has sacrificed on the altar of wanton stupidity the most basic ideas of responsibility, care and even safety.
Thus, even at the very end of March, 15 Republican governors had failed to order people to stay at home or to close non-essential businesses. In Alabama, for example, it was not until April 3rd that governor Kay Ivey finally issued a stay-at-home order.
In Florida, the state with the highest concentration of elderly people with underlying conditions, governor Ron DeSantis, a Trump mini-me, kept the beach resorts open to students travelling from all over the US for spring break parties. Even on April 1st, when he issued restrictions, DeSantis exempted religious services and “recreational activities”.
Georgia governor Brian Kemp, when he finally issued a stay-at-home order on April 1st, explained: “We didn’t know that [the virus can be spread by people without symptoms] until the last 24 hours.”
This is not mere ignorance – it is deliberate and homicidal stupidity. There is, as the demonstrations this week in US cities have shown, plenty of political mileage in denying the reality of the pandemic. It is fuelled by Fox News and far-right internet sites, and it reaps for these politicians millions of dollars in donations, mostly (in an ugly irony) from older people who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus.
It draws on a concoction of conspiracy theories, hatred of science, paranoia about the “deep state” and religious providentialism (God will protect the good folks) that is now very deeply infused in the mindset of the American right.
Trump embodies and enacts this mindset, but he did not invent it. The US response to the coronavirus crisis has been paralysed by a contradiction that the Republicans have inserted into the heart of US democracy. On the one hand, they want to control all the levers of governmental power. On the other they have created a popular base by playing on the notion that government is innately evil and must not be trusted.
The contradiction was made manifest in two of Trump’s statements on the pandemic: on the one hand that he has “total authority”, and on the other that “I don’t take responsibility at all”. Caught between authoritarian and anarchic impulses, he is incapable of coherence.
Fertile ground
But this is not just Donald Trump. The crisis has shown definitively that Trump’s presidency is not an aberration. It has grown on soil long prepared to receive it. The monstrous blossoming of misrule has structure and purpose and strategy behind it.
There are very powerful interests who demand “freedom” in order to do as they like with the environment, society and the economy. They have infused a very large part of American culture with the belief that “freedom” is literally more important than life. My freedom to own assault weapons trumps your right not to get shot at school. Now, my freedom to go to the barber (“I Need a Haircut” read one banner this week in St Paul, Minnesota) trumps your need to avoid infection.
Usually when this kind of outlandish idiocy is displaying itself, there is the comforting thought that, if things were really serious, it would all stop. People would sober up. Instead, a large part of the US has hit the bottle even harder.
And the president, his party and their media allies keep supplying the drinks. There has been no moment of truth, no shock of realisation that the antics have to end. No one of any substance on the US right has stepped in to say: get a grip, people are dying here.
That is the mark of how deep the trouble is for the US – it is not just that Trump has treated the crisis merely as a way to feed tribal hatreds but that this behaviour has become normalised. When the freak show is live on TV every evening, and the star is boasting about his ratings, it is not really a freak show any more. For a very large and solid bloc of Americans, it is reality.
And this will get worse before it gets better. Trump has at least eight more months in power. In his inaugural address in 2017, he evoked “American carnage” and promised to make it stop. But now that the real carnage has arrived, he is revelling in it. He is in his element.
As things get worse, he will pump more hatred and falsehood, more death-wish defiance of reason and decency, into the groundwater. If a new administration succeeds him in 2021, it will have to clean up the toxic dump he leaves behind. If he is re-elected, toxicity will have become the lifeblood of American politics.
Either way, it will be a long time before the rest of the world can imagine America being great again.
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longwindedbore · 4 years
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Trumpianism: Made America Grotesquely Incompetant
The “Trump Era”. A warning to Posterity.
What does the world see when they look at the USA now? Here’s what Ireland’s most respected mainstream political writer says. Brace yourself! 🇮🇪 ☘️ 🇮🇪
Irish Times
April 25, 2020
By Fintan O’Toole
THE WORLD HAS LOVED, HATED AND ENVIED THE U.S. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE PITY IT
Over more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the US until now: pity.
However bad things are for most other rich democracies, it is hard not to feel sorry for Americans. Most of them did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016. Yet they are locked down with a malignant narcissist who, instead of protecting his people from Covid-19, has amplified its lethality. The country Trump promised to make great again has never in its history seemed so pitiful.
Will American prestige ever recover from this shameful episode? The US went into the coronavirus crisis with immense advantages: precious weeks of warning about what was coming, the world’s best concentration of medical and scientific expertise, effectively limitless financial resources, a military complex with stunning logistical capacity and most of the world’s leading technology corporations. Yet it managed to make itself the global epicentre of the pandemic.
As the American writer George Packer puts it in the current edition of the Atlantic, “The United States reacted ... like Pakistan or Belarus – like a country with shoddy infrastructure and a dysfunctional government whose leaders were too corrupt or stupid to head off mass suffering.”
It is one thing to be powerless in the face of a natural disaster, quite another to watch vast power being squandered in real time – wilfully, malevolently, vindictively. It is one thing for governments to fail (as, in one degree or another, most governments did), quite another to watch a ruler and his supporters actively spread a deadly virus. Trump, his party and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News became vectors of the pestilence.
The grotesque spectacle of the president openly inciting people (some of them armed) to take to the streets to oppose the restrictions that save lives is the manifestation of a political death wish. What are supposed to be daily briefings on the crisis, demonstrative of national unity in the face of a shared challenge, have been used by Trump merely to sow confusion and division. They provide a recurring horror show in which all the neuroses that haunt the American subconscious dance naked on live TV.
If the plague is a test, its ruling political nexus ensured that the US would fail it at a terrible cost in human lives. In the process, the idea of the US as the world’s leading nation – an idea that has shaped the past century – has all but evaporated.
Other than the Trump impersonator Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, who is now looking to the US as the exemplar of anything other than what not to do? How many people in Düsseldorf or Dublin are wishing they lived in Detroit or Dallas?
It is hard to remember now but, even in 2017, when Trump took office, the conventional wisdom in the US was that the Republican Party and the broader framework of US political institutions would prevent him from doing too much damage. This was always a delusion, but the pandemic has exposed it in the most savage ways.
Abject surrender
What used to be called mainstream conservatism has not absorbed Trump – he has absorbed it. Almost the entire right-wing half of American politics has surrendered abjectly to him. It has sacrificed on the altar of wanton stupidity the most basic ideas of responsibility, care and even safety.
Thus, even at the very end of March, 15 Republican governors had failed to order people to stay at home or to close non-essential businesses. In Alabama, for example, it was not until April 3rd that governor Kay Ivey finally issued a stay-at-home order.
In Florida, the state with the highest concentration of elderly people with underlying conditions, governor Ron DeSantis, a Trump mini-me, kept the beach resorts open to students travelling from all over the US for spring break parties. Even on April 1st, when he issued restrictions, DeSantis exempted religious services and “recreational activities”.
Georgia governor Brian Kemp, when he finally issued a stay-at-home order on April 1st, explained: “We didn’t know that [the virus can be spread by people without symptoms] until the last 24 hours.”
This is not mere ignorance – it is deliberate and homicidal stupidity. There is, as the demonstrations this week in US cities have shown, plenty of political mileage in denying the reality of the pandemic. It is fuelled by Fox News and far-right internet sites, and it reaps for these politicians millions of dollars in donations, mostly (in an ugly irony) from older people who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus.
It draws on a concoction of conspiracy theories, hatred of science, paranoia about the “deep state” and religious providentialism (God will protect the good folks) that is now very deeply infused in the mindset of the American right.
Trump embodies and enacts this mindset, but he did not invent it. The US response to the coronavirus crisis has been paralysed by a contradiction that the Republicans have inserted into the heart of US democracy. On the one hand, they want to control all the levers of governmental power. On the other they have created a popular base by playing on the notion that government is innately evil and must not be trusted.
The contradiction was made manifest in two of Trump’s statements on the pandemic: on the one hand that he has “total authority”, and on the other that “I don’t take responsibility at all”. Caught between authoritarian and anarchic impulses, he is incapable of coherence.
Fertile ground
But this is not just Donald Trump. The crisis has shown definitively that Trump’s presidency is not an aberration. It has grown on soil long prepared to receive it. The monstrous blossoming of misrule has structure and purpose and strategy behind it.
There are very powerful interests who demand “freedom” in order to do as they like with the environment, society and the economy. They have infused a very large part of American culture with the belief that “freedom” is literally more important than life. My freedom to own assault weapons trumps your right not to get shot at school. Now, my freedom to go to the barber (“I Need a Haircut” read one banner this week in St Paul, Minnesota) trumps your need to avoid infection.
Usually when this kind of outlandish idiocy is displaying itself, there is the comforting thought that, if things were really serious, it would all stop. People would sober up. Instead, a large part of the US has hit the bottle even harder.
And the president, his party and their media allies keep supplying the drinks. There has been no moment of truth, no shock of realisation that the antics have to end. No one of any substance on the US right has stepped in to say: get a grip, people are dying here.
That is the mark of how deep the trouble is for the US – it is not just that Trump has treated the crisis merely as a way to feed tribal hatreds but that this behaviour has become normalised. When the freak show is live on TV every evening, and the star is boasting about his ratings, it is not really a freak show any more. For a very large and solid bloc of Americans, it is reality.
And this will get worse before it gets better. Trump has at least eight more months in power. In his inaugural address in 2017, he evoked “American carnage” and promised to make it stop. But now that the real carnage has arrived, he is revelling in it. He is in his element.
As things get worse, he will pump more hatred and falsehood, more death-wish defiance of reason and decency, into the groundwater. If a new administration succeeds him in 2021, it will have to clean up the toxic dump he leaves behind. If he is re-elected, toxicity will have become the lifeblood of American politics.
Either way, it will be a long time before the rest of the world can imagine America being great again.
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